Wednesday morning I could feel the ab work from last nights yoga, but even with that slight discomfort I wanted to give them a good well deserve workout.  I did about 30 minutes of ab work and I can really feel it now.  It’s more than just a slight discomfort.  I can really feel it along my sides too.  I don’t mind this kind of discomfort is good though.  I know I’m actually making them work!

For breakfast I created a spiced whole wheat protein pancake batter and cooked up 3 cakes for myself.  I topped them off with a glob of almond butter and apple sauce.

There was some cottage cheese and egg whites in there to give it a good protein boost and they really kept me full past when I normally need my mid morning snack.

This lunch wasn’t too exciting (but still delicious!).  I had the rest of the left over butternut squash soup and pork n beans mixed with some greek yogurt.

Not too colorful huh??

Good thing I made another spinach, banana and PB smoothie for the afternoon!

After the refreshing smoothie I decided that we’d have more greens for dinner, plus I was in the mood for something lighter.  Our salad was full of spinach,mixed greens, roasted chicken and pear.  Along side we had some asparagus and a squash wheat roll (well I did, not Jacob).

Before I forget I also completed day 2 of week 3 push ups!  The total for the day was 100!!  To bad I wouldn’t have been able to do them all consecutively.

*****

I didn’t end up running like I sorta planned this morning.  Instead I took Joe on a walk in the freezing cold.  Really it was freezing, probably in the 20-30s.

I made the same pancake mix I had yesterday morning.  No pic since it would look the same as above.

Lunch, I’ve gotta say was just what I needed.  I smeared some mashed avocado on a couple pieces of toasted seed bread with some egg whites, spinach and tomato.  A couple of clementines to balance it out

At the moment I’ve got some Mediterranean style meatloaf in the oven.

I’ll let you know how it is!

Monday morning started out like many other Mondays… sleepy.  When I pulled myself out of bed after snoozing for a good 30 minutes I took Joe for a morning walk.  Once home oats were in order.

I had a nice bowl of oatmeal with raisins peanut butter and almond butter.  The best of both worlds!

Lunch turned into a 3 part meal.

Act 1: lovely left over butternut squash soup topped with sliced almonds.

Act 2: herb turkey, spinach and cranberry sauce sammy on a squash wheat roll

Act 3: carrot (dessert??)

I love the crunch of big ol’ carrots.

Once I got home from work I knocked out my push ups for Week 3.  They’re starting to get pretty difficult as the numbers increase but to get to the 100 I’ll just have to keep doing them 3 days a week like I’m told.

Dinner was a recipe my dad sent me – Sweet n Sour Chinese meatballs.  Mmmmm they were yummy.  Along with the meatballs we had a mixture of veggies (carrots, asparagus, broccoli and bell peppers), pineapple and wild rice (or what my dad likes to call dirty rice).

Doesn’t look dirty to me, just delicous as it was.  I made enough rice to feed at least 10 so I’ll probably be eating rice with along every meal the next couple days.

Wild rice is definately my new fav.  It’s much easier to cook since you cook it like pasta.

What’s your favorite kind of rice?

All good experiments need a starting point, the initial conditions need to be established and acknowledged against which the effects of the finished project can be compared - the all important baseline. So this is where I started…Back in February 2009 I was 27, a size 12 (but clothes were tight), I weighed 10st 8 (or 69kgs or 151pounds) – but lets not get too fixated on “weight”. In terms of my fitness levels I could run 3 miles but it was a struggle, my face would be crimson red and Id definitely be out of breath and panting by the end of it. My strength was non-existant, I couldn’t do one press-up or sit-up. I wasn’t particularly happy with my body and I was frustrated that I didn’t have more energy and better fitness levels. For me I was embarrassed, ashamed but also a little worried, surely at the age of 27 I should be able to push out a sit-up or two??!! (Also a particular LBD has hung in my wardrobe, gathering dust and I was still at the point of saying “one day I’ll fit into that”.

In terms of my diet and lifestyle I’d eat pretty much anything I wanted too - I still figured I had hollow legs was 18 and the metabolism to match.  I barely cooked at home, if you’re cooking for one what’s the point right? It’s cheaper and easier to eat out in Hanoi and pizza was a tasty, appealing and a convenient phone call away. I could watch the 4th episode of the wire and eat dinner without having to move – Result!!! I drank a bit too much alcohol, Friday and Saturday nights were expected and the nights in between, well a few beers here and there is OK surely?! I was living the ex-pat life where much of my socialising revolved around alcohol. “Fancy meeting for a drink” was normal and expected, for me at least. Exercise for me was not a way of life and certainly didn’t feature into my daily routine.

Sunday morning started out with a bowl of 10 grain hot cereal cooked with 1/2 a banana and then topped with the other 1/2 and some almond butter.

It was mighty filling and kept me going while I spent the morning cleaning the house.  I did my push up exhaustion test… all 28 of em!  I’ll continue in the 3rd column for week three.

I decided that I’d wait until the afternoon to go on my long run.  I had planned out a 9.5 mile run and the weather was perfect.  It was nice and cool but sunny.  As I got going I guess I just wasn’t feeling the run.  It could have been the monster hill in the first mile, or the constant uphill battle I felt but I turned early and cut it short by 2.5 miles.  It ended up being 6.92 miles long (67 minute) with another monster hill around mile 5.5.  Next time I will definitely plan a flat run.

Once I got home, and after some stretching of course, I worked on putting dinner together.  I prepared butternut squash soup, shallot roasted chicken and salad.  I love butternut squash soup.  All that went into it was shallot, butternut squash, apples, yukon gold potatoes, salt, curry, ginger, cinnamon and soy milk.  Once everything was all cooked I threw it in the food processor and voila yummy soup!

My after dinner treat = 2 squares of dark chocolate.

Jacob and I ended our night with some fun card games at my parents.

Happy Monday!!

What will determine a Senior or a Junior Employee?

- The past projects that the employee has done before?

- The age of the employee?

- The qualification of the employee?

NO, NO, NO….

Many may not agree with me but to me, qualification will only set as an entry point for Junior employee when they do not have any past working experience to base on or refer to as track records.

Technologically, everything is new for an engineering line. There is no advantage between a Junior employee who has just started working or a Senior employee who has been working for more than 5 years. 

What will make their differences and distingush the Senior from the Junior by being paid more for a Senior position?

The key differentiation will be the employee’s skills to resolve problems given the limitations and same set of environment that both the Junior and the senior are in.  Just imagine that if both the Junior and Senior require to read  a textbook from its first to last page inorder to be able to solve a problem, then why does an employer need to pay extra for a Senior employee?  Is it to compensate for his jobs in previous company, his age, or others? It does not make sense…..

Therefore, a Senior should possess the skill and ability to isolate and narrow down the problems more quickly without having to perform a standard finding procedure, as many of this is based on the employee’s  judgement as a result of experience. The Junior may not be able to do it without much experiences.

That is real experience and this should be the reason why an employee is appointed for the Senior position. And that is also why a Senior can contribute more to the company, regardless of how short the employee has been working before in the same or different company.

My thanksgiving bagel

I didn’t quite manage to rustle up a full Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings on Thursday so had to settle for a turkey bagel instead (check out my slightly blurry pic as proof -> )

I’ve made a start on some of the more long-running list things like starting to read Sense and Sensibility(only 9 more books to read after that) and picking the films I’m going to watch (no rom-coms unfortunately).

I had another feeling-a-teeny-tiny-bit-like-a-celebrity moment this week after the lovely folks at Day Zero tweeted a link to my blog. They’ve got loads of information about doing 101 things in 1001 days (a much more realistic goal than 250 in a year methinks!) including a great list of ideas which I may borrow a few things from for my list

I’m planning to take a few days off work to thrash through some list things so keep your eyes peeled for updates

Jo x

Thanksgiving is officially over… sad  

I really enjoyed my time with family on both Thursday and Friday.  I’d say I fully indulged on my second Thanksgiving meal more than the first.  Better only 1 day than 2, right??

I was able to easily recruit my 2 aunts to join the push up challenge.  Both of them have done the most consecutive push ups in the initial test so far (25 and 26).  Very impressive!  This means they’ll skip along to week 3 and join everyone else on Monday.

I didn’t have the chance to get as much exercise in as I’d like but each day I’ve managed to do something active.  On Thanksgiving day I ran 6 miles (57 minutes), Friday I got my push ups done in the AM and Saturday morning had a nice 2 – 2.5 mile hike with family.

The next few weeks I’ll be recipe experimenting.  My aunts do a lot of hiking and want a savory bar to eat instead of sweet.  Hopefully I can come up with something nutritious and delicious.

We’ll be heading back home soon today.  Tomorrow I’ve got a long 9.5 – 10 mile run planned plus the push up exhaustion test.  This test will really show how far everyone has come along so far in their push up journey.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

I got everything done that I had planned.  The grocery store was way too busy, the cranberry sauce turned out perfect and I enjoyed some more turkey.  Here’s a shot of a bit I’m sharing with my buddy Elaine.

Today started out a bit different from normal.  Well… not the walk with Joe in the morning, but my breakfast was totally switched up.  I made an omelet topped with pesto and had a large banana along side.  I didn’t feel as satisfied as I do with my oatmeal… I’ll probably be back to that tomorrow.

My mid morning snack was even more enjoyable than it has been the last few days.  I had half a cranberry, cream cheese, herb turkey and spinach sandwich.

The cranberry sauce went perfectly with the cream cheese.  After work I threw together some pork n beans with roasted acorn squash.  Currently Jacob is working on installing a new bathroom counter top, sink and faucet.  Once he finishes that the rest of the evening will be spent relaxing watching some Damages.  Oh how I enjoy that show.  It totally sucks you in and you can’t stop watching.

Day 2 of push ups was sooo much better than Monday.  I actually did 1 more than the required max!  That’s the first time I’ve been able to do that.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving.  I’m going to go enjoy a piece of pumpkin pie right now!

I caught this commercial out of the blue on the television last night…  http://www.values.com/tv_spots/106-Basketball I thought it was great and it reminded me of the original post of this blog.  It also makes a great point – as my friend Matt Brown says, it’s not enough to just enroll our kids in sport and hope they get the right message and learn the right lessons.  You have to promote those things like the coach does in this commercial.

I think it’s also really good at portraying the reality that not everyone is going to feel the same way about making the right decision.  Shortly after seeing the commercial, I got this e-mail from a friend of mine…

“I have been playing ball hockey since this time last year in the same league.  My team was not so good.  That didn’t really matter to me as every game was fun and exciting and a great workout for me.  Some of the guys on my team could not check their anger, however.  I found this to be the cause of most of our losses.  And our losses were many.  As soon as anger crept in the wheels would fall off the wagon.  We did manage to have a team meeting where it was decided that anger was the issue.  The next game there was only six guys plus me in goal.  We kept the atmosphere light before the game and we laughed and joked and had no expectations of winning or game plans or anything.  And it was a fantastic game.  Only one sub for the entire game while the other team had 15 guys.  After the first period it was 4-3 for them.  We ended up losing 11-6.  Which I thought was pretty good considering the guys were like pylons near the end and I was peppered with probably 60 shots.  But no one got angry, and we had a great time, perhaps the best game of the season.”

“So, I felt a little let down when the captain told me I wouldn’t be asked back this season.  I didn’t think it was a skill problem or a goaltending problem.  Oh well, I sent the whole team a thank-you email about how great it was to play with the team and invited the others that were cut to join me.  I received one email back from one of the guys, thanking me for the time I put in.  And then today one of the better players said he will play on my team.  So that is encouraging.  What was really great though was that I got the link to your page the day I was canned from the team.  I read the story about the player that told the ref to reverse his call as the shot was out of bounds.  A similar thing happened in ball hockey just a few days before when only myself and the player on the other team saw the ball go in.  The ref asked me if it was in and I had to say yes.  That might have been when they decided to get rid of me from the team.  It was that story about the volleyball player that actually made me say “Yes, I will start my own team”.”

Thanks Torin for agreeing to let me post that.

Not that it makes any difference to you but I’m typing this on my new laptop ooooooo. It is purple ooooooooooo. Much as I will miss the 20 minutes or so of faffing about while my old laptop turned on and got up and running I’m excited about my new toy. It is quite dinky so I can blog from anywhere – I’m going mobile!

Another silly cat picture (sadly my laptop didn't come with a kitten)

I’ve had another hectic week (why did I enrol on a course at the start of this? That really would’ve been a much better end of the year thing!) but I managed to accidentally do one thing and (once again!) not quite do another. The best thing this week was definitely having my guest post published, I’ve had loads of visitors here and felt a bit like a teeny tiny minor celebrity!

One thing I have done is lower my expectations slightly about doing list things. Initially I had great plans for getting people involved in loads of things, waiting until I had the perfect drawing/idea/thing before counting it as done but I’ve realised that this means I’ll never get anything done (not that I’m exactly speeding through things at the mo) hence my slightly rubbish sketch (find out more here on Tuesday…)

Anyways I’m off to bed as it is past my bedtime, sweet dreams list fans

Jo x

Joe and I started Friday off the day with a misty 25 minute walk.  I treated myself to oat bran with pumpkin and almond butter for breakfast.

I’m a big fan of  oat bran.  It reminds me of cream of wheat but it doesn’t take as much attention to make.  I can finish getting ready while my breakfast cooks up in the kitchen.

I only worked a half day today since I had plans to see New Moon with some friends.  We split appetizers for lunch.  After the movie I had  a bunch of errands to run before I got home around 5:30.  I ended up picking up a pizza for dinner, which I really don’t like to do.  If I’m going to enjoy pizza I like to make my own from scratch, but I just didn’t have the time.  Jacob’s parents were going to be over at 7pm for cider, dessert and a movie.

Jacob made the cider (apple juice, spices, orange zest + juice and mead).  It made the whole house smell wonderful.  Here it is simmering away on the stove.

I baked up some Carrot Cupcakes with Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting Thursday night, but wasn’t able to make the frosting until when I got home.  The recipe made 12 regular size and 12 mini cupcakes.  The cake part was more muffin like, but once I added the frosting it was definitely a dessert.  They were very tasty.

Before our guests were over I made sure to complete my push ups for day 3 of week 1.  I’ve added a total count for the week below the results for week 1.

I’ll probably get my long run for the week in on Saturday depending on the weather, but it may just turn into a relaxing day with the hubby.  We’ll see…

If you want to be successful, you should emulate successful people.  One of the main reasons why I started this blog was to present athletes that are very much worth emulating because they’re not just champions at their chosen sports, they’re also great people.  As I mentioned in the Origins section of this blog, living in Calgary has afforded me the opportunity to see first hand that many of the most successful athletes are that way at least in part because of values and/or attitudes about sport and about life.  This entry is about one very successful athlete who is also someone I would want my kids to emulate, let alone the athletes that I coach…

When I think about great sportsmanship and great champions, I think of a guy by the name of Gregor Staehli.  Gregor is a skeleton slider from Switzerland and to begin with, he is the most successful athlete in the history of the sport I competed in.  I think it’s important to mention his success as it may have played a role in terms of the attitude he has about competition.  He won his first World Championship medal in 1990 and won his first World Championships in 1994.  The year after winning bronze at the Torino Olympics, Gregor won his second World Championship gold medal on his home track in St. Moritz, Switzerland in what I assumed would be his last race.  However, after taking the 07/08 season off, Gregor returned to the World Cup circuit and claimed his third World title earlier this year.  In all, he has won a total of 8 World Championship medals as well as two Olympic medals.  I won’t try to guess how many World Cups he’s won over the years but you can assume it’s a lot.  Probably the single most impressive statistic about Gregor is the fact that if you averaged every one of his World Cup races over his entire career including his rookie year, he averaged a 4^th place finish!

Obviously he’s been tremendously successful in his career and Gregor had been sliding and winning for many years before I met him so I can’t say if his attitude developed over time or if it had always been the same but I do know this: when you’ve won that often and for that many years, what value does competition still hold for you?  What makes you keep training to get better?  Clearly the answer has nothing to do with winning yet another medal or trophy.  The answer, I believe, is the challenge.  And this is a very key concept – when you realize that the great joy of sport is in the challenge, then the better the competitors are, the greater the challenge, and the greater the reward if you are able to ultimately succeed.

“…when you realize that the great joy of sport is in the challenge, then the better the competitors are, the greater the challenge, and the greater the reward if you are able to ultimately succeed.”

Another way of expressing it is like this – if there was no challenge, if it was easy, there would be no reward.  How exciting would it be for a guy with Gregor’s resume to beat you because you had a bad day?  For him, is that something worth writing home about?  No.  When Gregor Staehli wished you luck, he truly wanted you to have your best race.  Then, if you did and he beat you, that meant something.  As a consequence, I can tell you first hand that it created a great atmosphere to both compete in and achieve your best in.  Competing against Gregor was an honor and pleasure, and on the few occasions that I was able to beat him, he was always very sincere in his congratulations.  I’d even say that after my first win at the World level, what made that experience even greater than it already was, was the support and sincere happiness that some of my competitors had for my success and Gregor was a big part of that.

“When Gregor Staehli wished you luck, he truly wanted you to have your best race.  Then, if you did and he beat you, that meant something.”

As the current World Champion and because of his success at the Whistler World Cup last year in which he won a silver medal, Gregor has to be considered a medal favourite for the Vancouver / Whistler Games coming up in February.  Of Course I’ll be hoping for some Canadian sliders to be on the podium but if Gregor found his way up there too, I’d be just as pleased for him as he was for me when I had my moment.

Tuesday I did something I’ve never done before.  I decided to get my run in on my lunch break since I couldn’t make myself get up and run in the pouring rain.  It turned out to be such a beautiful sun filled 3.6 mile run (33 minutes).  I ran a bit faster than normal and I could definitely feel the difference when running.

I think I got my love for running from my mom.  I bet my first few runs were probably with her before heading off to school in the morning.  She is such an inspiration and  motivates me to push myself just as hard as she does.

She is also training for the 1/2 marathon this January.  This week we are scheduled to get a 8.5 mile run in but when I got an email from her this afternoon I was shocked and delighted.  Here is part of her email… “I waited for it to warm up and ran for 90 min. from 11:30 – 1:00.  Mapmyrun says it was 9.37 mi. to Dollar’s Corner and back… “

I guess I need to get my butt in gear and step it up a notch!

Tuesday wasn’t only a change up in exercise.  I also decided to stray from my beloved oatmeal for a day.  I made myself an open face egg white sandwich with homemade walnut-arugula pesto and meunster cheese.  It was melty goodness!

I finished the day up with a pork, apple and white bean salad and some left over cranberry apple dessert which by the way was a bit too tart.

****

On Wednesday I went back to my normal oatmeal routine after walking Joe in the morning.  I made a quick lunch: toasted seed bread sandwich with hummus, spinach and muenster cheese.  Once I got home from work I pumped out my push ups for Day 2.  I was still feeling stiff from Day 1 but am glad was able to finish my 5 sets.  Only 1 more day in week 1 and then just 5 weeks more to go!

I threw together a quick quesadilla for dinner.

Flat out wrap, colby jack cheese, spinach, pork, red onion with plain yogurt to dip in.

My mom came over to watch Twilight with me and we had some cranberry apple crisp.  She agreed that it was a bit too tart so I’ll definitely have to re-work it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another rainy day so I may try another lunch break run.  Hope I can motivate myself to get in at least a 9 mile run this weekend.

How do you motivate yourself to exercise? Having a goal to work towards (like this 1/2 marathon and push up challenge) motivates me to work hard so that I can complete what I’ve set out to do.  Results also help motivate.

One of the accidental suprise hits from this silly challenge of mine has been my graphs (and when I say ‘hit’ I mean more than one person has mentioned them to me) so especially for Andy, Tom and any other maths fans out there here is a graph and maths special edition.

For the rest of you, apologies in advance for boring you…

The first graph appeared a few weeks ago and was followed by a follow-up the following week (yes, I know I used the word ‘follow’ three times there but I can live with that). The major problem with the early graphs however was that they made me look like I was ridiculously behind schedule. Now, I’m not getting through list things as fast as I probably should do but the graphs made it look worse than it theoretically was.

To get to the weekly ‘target’ figure I originally divided the total number of list things by the number of weeks in a year;

After being horrified by the enormous gap between ‘number of things I should have done by now’ and ‘things I’ve actually got round to doing’ on my first graph I realised that I wasn’t being quite as lazy as it originally appeared. Some of the list things are year-long things that I won’t be able to judge as done (or not done) until the end of the challenge. Also, there are some things that I’m not planning to do yet (there’s no way I’m sleeping in a tent in the middle of winter for instance!)

To counteract the ‘not yet’ factor of some of the list things I had to adjust the weekly target to ignore things I’m postponing plus the year-long challenges;

[Yikes! Two equations!]

After all that maths (well, I had to use my Maths A level qualification for something I suppose…) I’m proud to unveil the latest graph (drum roll please…)

If  ’spend your free time doing maths, writing out pseudo-mathematical equations and creating graphs’ was on the list the graph might look a little healthier, now the maths is out of the way I have to actually do some list things!

Jo x

Naples Half Marathon Training

(Runner’s World SmartCoach training plan)
Week 6

Miles:  2
Assigned Pace: 11:25

I tried something new today (seems to be a theme this month!) and took my running clothes to work for my 2-miler. I didn’t get outside until after 2:00, but the weather was perfect – sunny and cool. (It’s drizzling now so I’m glad I got out when I did.) I was supposed to run the 2 miles in 11:25… but with all the stopping I had to do for traffic lights, it’s hard to say how close I was. Ah well, you do what you can with the time you have.

I decided to go a day without dairy and so far I can already feel a difference – I don’t feel (or look) as bloated as I usually do by this time of the day. I tried Silk soymilk in my cereal this morning and I thought it was quite tasty. I will definitely be making that switch without thinking twice.

Work was busy again but not as much as yesterday. I’m happy to be up on sales over this time last year (I wasn’t working there at the time but it still feels good) and try to get out as many orders as I can. For those who don’t know, I work in e-commerce for a small women’s athletic retailer; I fulfill and handle all the customer service for our online orders. It’s fun and challenging at the same time. I have talked to many great people, and others who are not-so-great, but that’s how it goes with customer service work!

Today turned out to be a very delicious day.  I was able to get out of bed early enough to get a 15 minute ab workout in (Tamilee rocks!) and then had my favorite banana almond butter oatmeal for breakfast.

For lunch I had left over whole wheat sweet potato mozzarella ravioli I made last night.  The filling was to die for, but I think I need to tweak the dough and make it a bit more thin next time.   Once I work it out I’ll post the recipe for you.

I combined the ravioli with some red onion, artichoke chicken sausage and white beans I cooked up a few days ago.  My lunch was so filling I didn’t feel like I needed my afternoon snack until it was almost time to leave work.

I took the time to whip up a smoothie to use up some extra spinach in the fridge.

I mixed 1/3 cup plain yogurt, 1/3 cup water, 1/6 cup unsweetened cranberry juice, 1 cup frozen diced pineapple, 2 cups chopped fresh spinach and 1 TBSP hemp protein powder in a blender and let it whirl until it was smooth and creamy.  

I call it the green monster and the monster satisfied stomach monster.

Before I cooked up dinner I completed my Day 1 of the push up challenge.  It was very very hard.  I felt instantly sore when I finished that last set but I was able to do it which made me feel good.  I’m sure I’ll be even more sore tomorrow but if I’m going to complete the 100 push ups I’ll have to put in the work.

Dinner was cornmeal pancakes with tex-mex peppers and turkey.  I don’t have a picture for you now or the recipe, but I will work on getting those up this week.  I even took the time to throw an apple cranberry crisp in the oven.

Looks good huh??

We haven’t tried it yet but I’ll let you know how it is and I will work on getting the recipe up if it is as good as I suspect.

Hope your Day 1 of push ups went well.  Let me know how you did!!  I’ll add it here to the tracking page for week one.

Monday is a rest day, as always.

I have decided to take on a major challenge – I am going to go vegetarian for 30 days! The challenge will start on November 27 (aka the day after Thanksgiving). We have a lot of food in the house (read: meat) and I hate wasting food, so I will do my part to help consume it before the next grocery run, which should be right after Turkey Day anyway. For the challenge I will be giving up meat only; after that, I might add on. We’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, any recommendations for good veggie recipes/blogs/sites are most welcome! I got Alicia Silverstone’s new book, The Kind Diet, and it is very interesting. (Link goes to the associated website – full of recipes, blogs, and discussion forums.) I’m not opposed to vegan recipes, either, just for the record. I really want to branch out, expand my horizons, open my mind and palate to new foods, and most importantly, improve my health. I’m healthy in terms of not getting sick with the flu, etc very often – but is that really healthy? I don’t think so. I would give myself a grade of C in the health department because I know I don’t eat well, and that’s a huge part of being healthy (IMHO).

I also do not wish to contribute to the nightmare that is the meat industry anymore. If you’ve never read about the environmental impact of raising livestock for food, you should. It might surprise you. It’s unbelievable how much of the planet’s problems are because of the sheer overuse of energy to fill our bellies with steak and other meat.

Food for thought:

We kill animals (coyotes, etc) to protect another animal (cows) that we are going to kill… and eating that animal’s meat is killing us AND our planet!

The irony is not lost on me.

In the spirit of transitioning to a new healthier lifestyle, tonight I tried Silk soymilk (the plain flavored with DHA/calcium) and it was good! I couldn’t really tell the difference between it and regular milk. One healthy change – done! (I want to minimize, if not eliminate, my dairy intake. I suspect dairy causes a lot of issues I have been dealing with – this will be a good experiment to see if I can reduce some symptoms.) And it was painless! I had a huge salad with dinner (with avocados, mushrooms, tomato, carrots, and cucumbers) and minimized my chili intake from a whole can to half a can. Baby steps…

Novemeber’s Challange is doing an hour of some physical activity a day… or seven hours a week.

It’s going fairly well. Perhaps I’m not quite as motivated as I should be but that’s neither here nor there because I’m doing more then I would be if I weren’t doing the challenge…. does that make sense?

first day of the maximorder.

challenge… to create this

Ooops, I didn’t get round to writing last week’s update so this is a special double edition – twice the list fun for your money!

It’s been a fortnight of almosts; I almost managed to give blood but they didn’t have any spare appointments (honestly! That’s not just an excuse!), I almost wore a poppy for Remembrance Sunday but it fell off my coat last Saturday night and I almost wore another pair of shoes but the near-constant rain meant they weren’t a practical choice.

To make sure I manage to complete more things and don’t get stuck with almosts I’ve been working through my list to work out which things I can get on with and which ones are meant for later in the year.

I have managed to tick off a few things from the list, watch out for more updates coming this week (don’t forget you can subscribe so you don’t miss anything) and I’ve added an ‘about me‘ page to my blog so you can find out, er, about me.

It’s been a bit quiet around here over the last week or so as I’ve been super busy and feeling a bit under the weather so no graph this week (sorry graph fans). Instead, take a look at this cool pic I made at wordle.cnet that shows the most common words I’ve used here recently, dominated by my recent flurry of National Trust posts …

Jo x

The challenge is officially on. I did my initial test to see where I stand for the 100 Push Up Challenge and completed 15 straight leg (aka man) push ups. I’ll be starting Week 1 Day 1  on Monday in the 3rd column.

Can’t wait to see where the rest of you will be starting!

Let me know how many push ups you did on your initial test by Saturday and I’ll get the chart up.

After I let my upper body rest for a bit I finished fixing dinner which was one of my favorites.

Curry Chicken lettuce wraps with garlic roasted broccoli yum!

Well time to rest up for my 8 mile run with mom tomorrow.

And it will go down in history as the first spot that I edited to end up on-air… and I wouldn’t have it any other way. These last couple of months have definitely been a tour de post-production force. I didn’t expect to be editing anything on my own for a while, but I’m so thankful for all the recent opportunities that have been presented to me. I now present to you – The Challenge. Here’s to still knowing how to calculate combination and permutations.

I’m very happy to report that this week went WAY better than last week. It turned out that a big part of why I was feeling so sluggish last week wasn’t laziness (or mono, as I briefly feared), but BAD VISION! Long story short, it turns out that I was allergic to my contact material and needed a higher prescription. I feel like a new woman! Lesson of the day: get those eyes checked, kids.

Here is what my week looked like:

• Monday: off
• Tuesday: 8 miles easy (avg. pace 8:56)
• Wednesday: Jillian Workout (strength)
• Thursday: Cruise interval workout (7×1000m, 3×200m), 10 miles total
• Friday: Yoga and abs
• Saturday: 4 miles easy (avg. pace 10:04)
• Sunday: 18 mile long run (avg. pace 8:50)

All in all, I felt pretty good this week. I had some very strange hamstring soreness starting on Saturday morning that hasn’t gone away. It did seem to loosen up after a few miles on both Saturday and Sunday, so I’m not that concerned. Other than that, I have no soreness from the 18-miler on Sunday.

My long run on Sunday took me in a U-shape around the bottom of Manhattan. I was planning on a loop, but encountered a huge crowd around the 10 mile mark, so doubled back the way I came. I waved hello to Lady Liberty, encountered not one but TWO rollerbladers with ski poles, and saw a girl on a scooter with a sequined mini skirt and patterned tights. I wore my fuel belt (proud, Felicia?) but it was pretty warm, so I finished all the Gatorade/water combo with a few miles to go. I got THIRSTY! My last four miles, I mixed it up by alternating fast (7:40) with slow (9:20) miles, which made the end go by pretty quick. I took an ice bath after, which was PAINFUL, but it def made me feel better (and more hard-core)

Goals from Last Week

1. Hit 45 miles. I hit 40. I can’t remember the last time I got up this high, and I did STICK TO THE PLAN (minus my one “optional” easy run, so we’ll score it as a win.
2. Strength and Flexibility: Check and check. I got my Jillian workout in, as well as some serious stretching, foam rolling, and abs.
3. Find a buddy: We’re still working on this one, but I made some steps in the right direction. I may join a track club, but I want a current race time first. Hopefully I’ll kill it at the Philly half next weekend and have a time I’m not embarrassed to admit!

Goals for This Week

1. Run 6 times: I don’t have another really long run for two weeks, which means I can really beef up my weekday running. My goal is to get six runs in, so that my mileage doesn’t drop too drastically this week.
2. Foam Roll: This lingering hamstring soreness is freaking me out, so I need to make an effort to foam roll and stretch. I’ve gotten lucky so far with no IT band issues, and I want to stay injury free.

I guess the fact that I haven’t written anything since October 23 makes it fairly obvious that I am not on track.  Big time.

I say big time because I am struggling to focus on losing weight.  It’s such a mind game.  I was given a great piece of advice on Tuesday night at my Weight Watchers meeting.

“Being overweight is hard, losing weight is hard.  Choose your hard.”

Choose your hard.  Makes you think.

So, it’s back to one day at a time.  One hour at a time, if I need to.  Making choices – which hard?