Week 12 Day 2

I started off the day in such a great way! I was motivated, working hard, accomplishing a ton of little things left and right. I felt amazing!

As usual, the kids got a little out of hand, but it was nothing too serious. I even took them outside for both recesses regardless of the fact that it was -20 C and -19 C respectively. It was nice and refreshing the first time, but by the second recess, I wish we had stayed inside.

At the end of school, we had an IT meeting which took awhile. I also learned I had to very quickly clean my room and basically throw my stuff into the hallway because they were using my room for another meeting I didn’t know about. With the results of being late and frazzled, I went out to my car to finally get it ready to come home. I let it warm up for quite awhile, and scraped and brushed it off so it didn’t quite look so much like an abandoned car in the arctic. Although my engine light is on, my car made it home and drove incredibly well. I love my car.

Tonight at the gym, I really wasn’t feeling my workout. I just wasn’t in the right mental state for a couple reasons, one being that I was home from work late again, and I also was still physically worn out from that crazy leg workout the day before. Not to mention tonight’s workout and every workout this week is now 4 sets instead of 3. My body just wasn’t feeling it today. But I did manage to finish the chest/triceps/abs workout including 12 minutes of HIIT afterwards.

I’m tired and worn out, but I’m about to go to sleep and hoping for the deepest sleep so my body can recover better for tomorrow’s back workout.

Week 11 Day 4

God knew I’d need my car this morning. He knew my husband needed it to work last night. Because for the first time ever, my husband got called into work very early and I had to drive myself. The best part was, I was up so early so he could drop me off as per normal that I had time to eat, and take my time getting ready. I can’t lie, it was actually kind of nice!

Work went well today. It was busy, but everything seemed to be good. It was after school when things got crazy.

We had our second after-school tutoring session today and it seemed like a bigger mess to me this time than it did the first time. My head was swimming with names, grades and subjects trying to match up the tutors and tutees, and trying to make sure that everyone had someone to help them. We also had a few problems arise that we now have to address, but hopefully everything will run smoothly once those problems are dealt with.

When the students left, my room was a mess. Papers and pencils were everywhere, chairs all out of place, bins of books knocked over; it looked like a tornado had come through! I had to take a few minutes to clean it before I even decided to go home without any other school work. My mind couldn’t handle it tonight.

I got home (late) and expected to go to the gym right away. However, my husband was sleeping and did not wake up easily. In fact, we did not end up going to the gym until 2:30 in the morning! I know, we’re crazy; dedicated, but crazy.

I had a leg workout today and it didn’t quite start out the way I wanted. I had worked my squats back up to 95 lbs, even though it’s still a struggle. My form just is not right. But I’m tired of fighting my form and not being able to raise my weight.

Tonight was different because my husband came over to watch and give me constructive criticism. My form is terrible. I did more squats than normal, changing my foot placement, changing the placement of the bar on my back and shoulders, and making tons of different modifications to see what would help. It was more squats than I wanted to do, and we didn’t figure out the solution to my problem. But it was nice to work with my husband again, and more squats can never hurt… right?

The rest of the workout went well though it drained every ounce of energy I had. Between leg curls (prone and seated), leg extensions, leg press, bench jumps, calf raises (both seated and standing), plus several other exercises, you can bet I was walking funny by the end and knew the pain would be coming soon. It was a tiresome workout, but a good one.

I doubt I’ll go to sleep since we’re leaving the gym at 5, but we’ll just have to see what happens. One thing I know for sure is I’m leaving the gym STARVING and will be eating before I sit down at home. I have to feed this tired, muscle growing (I hope) body.

Week 10 Day 6: A Bad-Happy Day

It was so nice to wake up and feel the relief of parent-teacher interviews being over. In a way, I felt free.

I had a chiropractor and massage appointment today, but my car is still not running. So I booked a taxi ahead of time, something I haven’t done in a very long time.

Because I booked my ride ahead of time, and had not fallen back asleep after my husband left for work, I noticed I actually had a bit of time to play with! Something I haven’t had in months! So I did a couple loads of laundry and took the time to call my French grandparents, my father, and my mom, stepfather, and brothers. I feel like I accomplished so much in that short amount of time.

I went to my appointments and got surprising comments from my massage therapist (chiro I think was a hair worse than normal). During the massage, the only tight place she encountered was actually in my arms, as surprising as that was. But she was not overly concerned about that.

After the massage, she asked me if I had been doing the stretch routine we had designed over the summer, and I told her that I had to be honest, and that I haven’t been as much as I should. She then asked if I had been working my legs hard, to which I told her yes especially after PR’ing my leg press this week. She looked at me strange and mentioned how this is the least tight I have been since starting my massages several months ago.

Together, we figured that my body was in fact being overstretched, even though I was almost religiously doing a 15 minute stretch routine everyday. Sometimes my body would regress rather than progress, and since I’ve given it a break, it’s actually progressed more. As strange as it sounds, that’s honestly what has been happening, and so she encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing while making sure to listen to my body. She was sincerely impressed.

I came home (another taxi ride) and shortly after received a phone call. Those neighbours that called about my dogs before to both our landlady and Animal Patrol? Well apparently they called our landlady again, but this time saying we slam our doors all hours of the night. Um, I’m a Christian school teacher who doesn’t drink, doesn’t party, quite honestly doesn’t have many friends in the area whom I go out and do things with ever, and realistically, the only thing I do is go to the gym. But slamming my door? And all hours of the night? I honestly don’t know what I ever did to these neighbours. I know this building is 50+ years old, and there have been several times where I’ve run to open our front door when it was only people knocking on our neighbour’s door. You can honestly even hear every time they run up and down the stairs. One time, we could hear the tv through the wall at 3 in the morning. I don’t call on them because I get it. I don’t expect perfection when the building is this old. But I am wondering if this is the same thing they’re calling me on. And my biggest thing is why they never even say hello let alone ask me about it.

At our school, when a parent has a problem, the principal directs them directly to us before she’ll step in. Why can’t a landlord do the same? I have never heard boo from either of my neighbours, except once to find out if we knew anything about the car being broken into, and once about the first flood we had. Not even when we’ve seen parties on their deck at early hours of the morning. I don’t understand…

This little incidence kind of shut down my progress with the house cleaning for awhile. And so when my husband got home, the only thing I wanted to do was to sit and cuddle with him for a bit. It was actually nice because I haven’t felt this free from school work in so long to completely dedicate my attention to him, rather than only half-listening to him while I’m working.

We went to the gym, and I’m telling you, I didn’t even have my regular coffee before the gym, but I smashed every back record I have! My single arm dumbbell rows went up by 5 lbs a side, my t-bar row went up by 10 lbs (husband encouraged me), and my reverse lat pulldown went up by 5 lbs. I was loving it!! And I even found my side planks significantly easier than normal. Oh how happy I was! Although I was burning from the inside, hoping that was the fat burning off! 😉

I went to bed fairly satisfied last night, just somehow need to tackle this neighbour issue and maybe consider moving…

Week 9 Day 5: The Crash

So I slept maybe 1/2 hour last night. And the results: I’m much closer to being done, but I’m still not done! This is taking so much longer than I ever planned, but regardless, off to work I go.

I actually went to work earlier this morning so that I could stop and get a coffee on the way. I knew I was going to need it badly today. Throughout the day, I managed to get more grading done (still not done) and my classes went well.

After school, we had a staff meeting that was very informative, and our Home and School group provided us with supper which was incredibly nice! But I could tell my body was getting antsy and my eyes were starting to hurt from being focussed and open so long.

I was almost scared for my 2 minute drive home. I knew my brain was probably not at the functioning it should be. But I made it home safely, and took a nap. The problem was, I took a longer nap than normal, thinking it would help. But instead my body started to release it’s tension, and it turned into a 12 hour sleep. My body literally crashed, with good reason. I must have gone through at least 6-12 dreams, the result of my brain on overdrive for 3 days in a sleepless row. My body has certainly had enough.

Week 7 Day 3

It was nice to wake up back in my own bed. But I was still tired from the weekend’s activities. Nevertheless, I had picked up my food from the gym last night so I at least didn’t have to cook anything. It did hit me that this was my last week to have Fresh Fit Foods supply my meals! I’ll have to look at meal ideas later…

The day went alright. We had a presenter come in and show us replicas of Roman armour and related it to the Armour of God. It was an excellent presentation done by a man named Dick Stenbakken. You should really look him up. He created all of the pieces himself, and they’re amazing.

Of course, today the kids had so many questions about so many things, and I feel as if we did very little curriculum work. But when their questions are for good reasons, I really don’t mind.

I took a nap when I came home. I was just too tired. But my husband and I did make ourselves get up and go to the gym. Tonight was a mix of three circuits focussing on my shoulders, triceps and abs. I finished the workout with 25 minutes of steady state cardio. And when I came home, I very quickly headed back to bed.

Week 4 Day 7

It was so nice to be able to sleep in today! Especially after the events in the middle of the night.

I have moved 20+ times. I’m more accustomed to living in small towns or out in the country. However, since moving to the large city and living in buildings where crimes were committed, I feel a little “less safe”. I am very thankful to have dogs for this reason. They are a first warning, a first defence for any strangers trying to break in to my house. And when my dogs bark at around 1:30 in the morning? You better believe I think something is going on. My husband was in such a deep sleep he was answering my questions, but not really being awake. So I had to go downstairs to see what was going on. The problem was, I didn’t see anything. So either someone had been outside (it was a weekend night, so quite easy for someone drunk to be walking around) or something.

Now, the problem is I like to watch shows like CSI or Murdoch Mysteries. So many scenarios started playing in my head and I totally freaked myself out. I couldn’t sleep. I watched the clock until after 4 in the morning, praying the whole time that we would be safe from everything. And it is surely by God’s good grace that I was able to fall asleep sometime after 4. I am so thankful for a God that is willing to protect me and give me peace, even over such things as my own made-up fears.

After I spent a long time sleeping in, I got up and ate, did some more cleaning, In the afternoon, I started getting ready for the big show that evening. I was going to the Muscle Beach Fall Classic and going to see Dennis Wolf! How exciting!

So when evening came, my husband and I got ready, and headed out. We spent a little bit of time going to few booths they had there: Cellucor, My Muscle Meals, Bio X, Mutant, Muscle Beach, Xaocai, and a couple others. I waited until intermission to purchase these new protein cookies hand made and produced at some protein cafe that I hadn’t heard of before. Man, they were good! And to think they were made with cottage cheese… Normally I can’t stand cottage cheese with anything sweet, but you couldn’t even tell it was in there. It was so good!

After intermission, I was so happy! It was time for Mr. Dennis Wolf to grace the stage! Ah! I cannot tell you my excitement! He is probably my favourite male bodybuilder. I love his attitude, his dedication, and just everything. And after watching him in the movie Generation Iron, then watching him online compete at Olympia and seeing his awesome attitude of dancing in the confetti blast on stage, and actually being able to see him in person and get my picture with him? It was amazing!

He posed to the first song completely on stage. They gave him a break, then he posed to a second song while walking up and down the middle aisles of our venue. My husband was second away from the aisle, and I was third. How massive he was in person! And then getting my picture with him; he’s just pure muscle. That man is huge. It was such a good night!

Following that, my husband and I stopped at Boston Pizza for a quick bite to eat. No, after being so motivated by all the competitors on stage and knowing that is my goal, to be on that stage, it was not the greatest choice of places. But I was still able to make a good choice by getting a salad with chicken. You just gotta learn how to make the best of every situation!

I’m looking forward to my workouts this week and pushing as hard as I can. My 21 days of meals from Fresh Fit Foods starts tomorrow, and I’m just pumped for making the best of every minute. Motivation levels are higher than ever, here I go!

Week 4 Day 6

You know, there is one thing about losing weight that can be difficult, and that’s watching your image in a mirror. Quite often, I feel like I see no results. I even second guess when I can feel results in how my clothing fits. But when someone only sees you once in awhile, they have the ability to notice the greater changes that you can’t. And I had a moment like that today!

Part of the circuit last night was a hefty leg section. It was a mix of lunges and squats. I don’t know about you, but those two exercises take a lot out of me. Partly because legs are the biggest muscles in your body, partly because I have a slight (or more than slight) flexibility issue in my calves/hamstrings/hips that make it even more difficult for me to keep my form. Either way, when I’m done lunges and especially squats, I’m done. So this morning, when I woke up, my legs were SORE. But up I got and went to my appointments.

I had a massage this morning. Not one of those nice ones, one of those ones that targets every knot in my body. Ugh. At some points I had to make sure I was not clenching my teeth and clenching my fists. But I know it does a working body good, so it is necessary.

Following the massage, I had my weekly chiropractor appointment. When I walked in and laid face down on the table, her first comment was “Oooo look at that waist!”. What a way to lift up my day! Changes that I don’t notice seeing myself day-to-day, but since she sees me only once a week, she notices the changes much better. Yay! That must mean progress is being made 🙂

The rest of the day I spent running around, getting some groceries, cleaning some of the house, doing much needed laundry, and then getting to the gym in the evening. I was so pumped and excited to do my workout. Gotta make more progress! I was able to complete my workout and get in my 12 minutes of HIIT on the stairs. I felt tired but so good by the end.

My motivation levels are good!

Week 4 Day 3

Two words come to mind when describing today: exhaustion and stress. It was so hard to get out of bed this morning. My body aches, my mind needs more rest, I’m nothing short of totally exhausted.

The school day went fine, and I had to stay after work for another 2+ hours for a meeting about a tutoring program that we’re trying to start up at the school. This alone was not necessarily stressful, but extremely tiring when you’re already exhausted.

After the meeting was over, I didn’t even go home. Our dogs were out of food, our skinny pig would be out of food soon, and my husband needed some “sick foods” replenished. So I went to the mall. What should have been a half hour trip turned into an hour and twenty minutes or so.

First, there was a homeless (or maybe not so homeless) man standing outside the grocery store. He was asking people for food or change. Now, I’m all for providing people with food because I know it will go to good use. I’m usually a little more cautious with money in fear of feeding an alcohol or drug addiction. He didn’t specifically ask me, but I heard him asking others as they went by. As I’m sure God would have it, I went inside, kicked myself, and walked back out, asking if I could buy him a sandwich or something he liked. He looked so surprised and happy and told me his preference of cheese and mayo (simple) and that he would really enjoy some milk. I’m not sure about you, but it has been my experience that if someone has dropped to the level of begging for food, that person has passed the level of humiliation. It is not easy to be someone who is at the point of standing by the grocery store door begging for food. And so, with this in mind, I went in and found a loaf of bread, a package of cheese slices, a jar of mayo and a jug of milk. He didn’t mention any meat so I was unsure as to whether he even ate meat (knowing a lot of vegetarians myself). But I got the bulk items so that this man could not just have food once but several times. And I did not pick the cheapest items because I know the blessings the LORD has given me. What pride if I shared some of my gifts with someone in need. Am I rich? Far from it. In fact my husband and I are in the middle of trying to balance our budget and get rid of some of our debt. By many financial standards, we are just getting by. But by someone, like a homeless man’s standard, we are doing well. And so I wanted to give this man not just quantity but also quality and selected items that were a little better than others while still trying to think simplicity to ensure he liked what I gave. When it came to the milk selection, however, I went organic. Not necessarily for the health option, but also because it was the only milk that came in a jug instead of a carton, and not knowing how far he had to go, a jug seemed like the better carrying option.

Either way, the whole point of that whole tangent of a story is not simply to boast about something I did, but rather to encourage you to pass on some good will. I don’t know the man’s story. I don’t know if he was really homeless, but the fact is that I’m not supposed to be the judge, God is. And so I can only do what seems to be the right thing. If I was hungry enough to beg for food, I can only imagine how thankful I’d be for someone to share with me. It’s definitely something to consider the next time.

So after that little time block of a detour, I went back into the grocery store to find the things my husband needed. I had a list, so it wasn’t really that bad. What was bad were the line-ups. It was like several busses had come and dropped everyone off. Plus they had like 3 promotions going on at the same time so the transactions took twice as long.

Finally, I got the stuff to my car. By this time, I’m starving, I can tell my blood pressure is low, and I’m not feeling good at all. So I made a bad choice. I bought a small package of candy and a small chocolate bar. Was it quick carbs to elevate my sugar levels? Yes. But were there better things I could have chosen? Absolutely. This was a weak moment. I moment that caused me to over my macros for the day. A moment I would go back and change. It didn’t even taste as good as I thought. This was a food fail.

I went to the second store, finished buying the things I needed, but tried to carry everything without a cart (14 kg dog food bag, skinny pig food, bag of hay, dog bones). Needless to say, this did not work so well. I ended up leaving the stuff and getting a cart. Lines were long again, and eventually I made it to the car.

But this particular mall has a parking lot challenge. It seems to contain many impatient people. I almost got hit a few times. For example, as I was leaving and slowly backing out of my spot, a car flew behind me, barely squeezing between my car and the car parked behind me. There was no thought of waiting until I had finished pulling out. Those kinds of things.

When I finally got home, I was so happy. So exhausted, tired, and just worn out. It felt so nice to be home. I was going to make today a rest day, but my husband really wanted to go to the sauna. So while he sat in the sauna, I did 25 minutes of steady state cardio on the elliptical.

To be honest, I feel really bad about the food. I know better than that. But I guess this is a reminder, a lesson to remember. There are better choices and I made a bad one. But this is a reminder to prepare even for the worst situations. And should the event arise where things take longer than expected, I can make a better choice.

Off to bed and a better day tomorrow!

Just Enough: The Follow-Up

So today is a new day, but I thought I better fill you in. 

It turned out that by leaving the key in the ignition, although it was pulled out half way, still drained the battery enough that the car couldn’t start itself. We had a lot boy come with a portable battery that was nice enough to boost us. The car worked fine after that.

And so again, I emphasize realizing that what God gives us is just enough. We have just enough food for the day, often times plenty. We have just enough money to pay the bills. Everything He gives us is just enough.

I think of the Biblical story of the woman and the oil. She had barely any left and would soon go hungry if not hungry already. She was told (through the power of Christ) to gather all the jars from the neighbours and pour the oil into each of them.

Now, stop there.

Would we go gather buckets and jars from our neighbours if we had but a few teaspoons of oil left in our own jar? Would it even begin to make sense to pour this little bit of precious oil we had left into these larger containers only to likely waste what we had left?

But the key is she did it. Think about and ask yourself, “What would I do?”

So not only does she gather all of these jars and buckets, most likely with her neighbours wondering and teasing her about what she’s doing, but she goes ahead and takes a chance on the only remaining oil she has. 

And guess what!

The oil keeps flowing. 

The oil keeps flowing and flowing until every single jar and bucket she borrowed was filled with oil! How incredible! How incredible God is!

You see, He gives us just enough. When we’re on the break, when we think we’re out of time, when we don’t know what else in the world to do, God gives us enough; God is enough.

You know, sometimes I get so anxious when making a decision. Especially one that involves a large amount of money or huge life decisions. And sometimes that entails a deadline. And so quite often I pray and I pray and I pray for God to show me the right decision and sometimes that deadline gets closer and closer and it seems like I never get an answer.

Maybe you can relate to that.

But looking on those times, whatever decision was made, God gave me enough. Enough to get through the bad decisions I made, enough to celebrate that good ones. 

You see, sometimes we don’t mean to, but we are very good at being impatient with God and when He doesn’t answer us, we are very quick to answer our own problems. This attracts failure. But I do believe that sometimes God wants us to seek His wisdom and build up to some of our own decisions, being made in the best light of His love and His word as possible. But regardless of how a decision is made, whatever mistakes we find ourselves in, God will ALWAYS be enough and He will give us just enough to continue on.

I love that about my God, my Father, my LORD and my Saviour. Look for the moments when God gives just enough.

Date Night… It Has Been Awhile

Tonight I set the time aside, finally. My husband and I sometimes go out, but it’s always a spur of the moment thing and never a planned date. I’ve kind of missed that part of the pre-marriage state where we would sometimes have planned dates. Just because we’re married doesn’t mean we still can’t do that! Keep the marriage fun, keep it alive, go on those old-school dates!

Tonight we decided to do that. We both took showers and got ready this afternoon, picked out different clothes than I would wear normally. I put on his favourite pair of jeans that I own (still fit me for now… getting those fit girl jean problems), and a nice shirt, did my hair nice, make-up done right.

We headed to the mall. The best part about this whole thing was that we were not stressed, had no time restraints, just us and the night! So our first stop in the mall was to get his hair cut, something he’s been talking about for awhile. His hair got cut, he was looking all spiffy, and we began the shopping. Now the funny thing is, out of the ENTIRE mall, the only thing we (or I should say I) ended up buying was a tub of discontinued Syntha-6 protein (Caramel Latte, totally the best) and a chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar. Ha! Can’t escape the good tasting healthy lifestyle!

After some shopping, we went to Famoso. Famoso is not on the healthy lifestyle menu, but it was the first official date night, and a cheat meal every once in awhile is ok. The more you stress about food, the worse your body does it, so we decided to just have some fun!

If you’ve never been to a Famoso before, it is a classic Italian pizzeria! That thin crust with Italian toppings cooked in a fire oven. It’s delicious and amazing. You literally can order your food and get it in 5 minutes. So my husband ordered a Quattro Formaggi pizza and I got the BBQ Chicken (get in that protein). The pizza was delicious as always, and you can get cheaper movie tickets with your pizza (we wanted to go to a movie after). Not the waiter who alone was doing an excellent job serving us, but the manager came over a few times to check on our food and to make sure it was ok and cooked well. On his last trip to our table, he told us that he would give us each a scoop of gelato on him. There wasn’t even a single mistake with our order or anything. I’m not quite sure what singled us out, but this guy was definitely going above and beyond his call of duty. And so I indulged a little more than usual and had one scoop of salted caramel gelato. It was delish!

After sincerely thanking the manager, we left and walked some more of the mall. Stopping in my favourite places: Chapters, pet stores, supplement stores. Then we went to the theatre, got tickets to see the new Captain America, and went and sat waiting for the movie for an hour and half. We definitely were there too early, but got awesome seats considering the theatre was pretty much sold out. So in the end, I could probably say it was worth it to wait so long.

The movie was very good, very well written and put together. If you like the superhero type of movies, then this movie is highly recommended for you! We both left happy and satisfied with the movie. If you do go see it, don’t leave when the credits start. There is a substantial after-movie scene that happens with a huge tip towards what I’m assuming will be the next Captain America movie. Quite a few people got up and left when the credits started and missed it, so I’m warning you now. Don’t miss it!

Now we’ve driven home on mostly empty streets. We’re home, safe and sound. It was such a nice evening, just a way to relax and enjoy ourselves before getting ready to head back into a work week. Date night was such a good idea. If you haven’t been on a date in awhile, take a look at your schedule and set aside a night. You deserve it, your husband/wife deserves it. Instead of being a burden on your time, it will actually make you happier and more efficient at life. Try it out! And if you can, take your date to the extreme. Dress up. Have flowers. Have him open the door for you. Do all of those little things that may not happen everyday. Take a time to just love spending time with each other, and watch your love continue to grow.