Late night

No workout today as I was up until 3:30 working on an assignment.
I still need to finish it...so I'm outta here :)
Just had my granola blueberries and yogurt.
Now for coffee and some more statistics. Bleargh.

I love rice pudding

This weekend I basically did homework, with a small break to build tonnes of little gingerbread houses and trains with my neices, and ate rediculous amounts of rice pudding at family supper. And we got sent home with the leftover pudding. Oh. Yeah.

Mmmm. :)

Today is my MSc bi-annual progress meeting. I'm hoping it will go well. I've worn my pirate boots and a skirt for luck :)

This morning I was up and did my leg and ab workout as well as 30 minutes hard biking - tried to keep it between 80 and 90 rpm the whole time. A delicious breakfast of yogurt, blueberries and granola and I'm here with my coffee ready for my day. After my big presentation meeting today I have another huge assignment due tomorrow, so it's gonna be a LONG night.
But things are coming along...it's the last official week of classes. THAT is a very cool thing.
It means it all has to end soon.
For realz :)

Have a great day!

Workout tunes today: Beck - The Information

apple bottom booty

Mmmmm...I had organic yogurt with fresh blueberries, some honey and granola for breakfast.
YUMMY.
This morning I crawled from bed to come in and do some upper body and ab work and then 30 minutes on the exercise bike. I did some HIT intervals, but mostly concentrated on pedalling faster. My butt was really stiff from the new lunges I tried yesterday so it just wouldn't let me do more.
I *will* attain an apple bottom booty if it takes me all winter :)

6 days of classes left. I have my MSc 6 month meeting monday and a major thing due then too so I have to be good and work this weekend, but I'm hoping we can get out a bit on the weekend. There is a good DJ playing in town saturday night. And, every year I get together with my little nieces and girly in-laws and we decorate gingerbread houses and then have supper. It is supposed to be this weekend and I can't wait. I hope it still happens. It'll be so weird doing it without Mum there...but it has been a year of firsts. It will be strange. New memories are a good thing too :)
I must be off.
Have a great weekend :)

Last swim of the year

They shut down the pool for repairs tomorrow. It'll be closed until January some time.
Pity. I'll miss it. Especially now that the snow is here.
This morning I tried a few new leg things with my leg exercises before I did my swim. 2 sets of one legged lunges with my other foot back on a bench. Tricky and wobbly...I'm hoping it will help my balance. I thik I need to work on my form a bit. After 2 months of leg weight exercises to strengthen my knee I'm hoping they will add more strength and range of motion as well. I'll have to be careful with them. My legs were quite stiff around the knee today while swimming...I think that is what may have done it. I hope I can build up slowly and hopefully it will help.
I've learned that each person where I work gets a yearly $100 health benefit starting January - the rebate is eligible for anything fitness related (equipment, classes and the like) so I may use it to get a fitness assessment and a few personal trainer appointments to have someone look over my program and sort of get a better idea of "where I'm at". I'd like some advice on what I could do to even things out a bit and still strengthen my knee. I freely admit I'm winging things with the help of the internet, the odd book and Oxygen magazine so a really educated help could really benefit me. I've put it off because of the cost, but this has changed my mind. It'll give me a new challenge for the new year.
Another day is here. Only 7 days of classes left for the semester.


Boo diggety.

Coming along...

Yesterday was a real accomplishment. I finished and submitted 3 major things. It felt so good. It's so tempting to just relax all evening and do nothing, but I did some work last night and still spent some time with J. The end really is coming...and I'm not crashing and burning. And I"m happy to report my weekend of relaxation and burboun milkshakes has left me the same weight I was when I left. I think I'm finally getting the hang of how to live normally...whatever normal is!
Yay :)
I wore a skirt yesterday and felt very girly all day - gave me confidence for my speech I had to do. I do need to get some tights before I wear a skirt again in this weather though...chilly!

This morning I got out of bed to work out. I did my arms and back and abs and then was going to bike but suddenly thought...meh. So I hopped onto an arc trainer and did a crosstrain program for 30 minutes. It was fun. A nice change.
I listened to this funky Thunderball album to work out to...Scorpio rising. Real retro funk. Good for a cold groggy morning :)



And now, here we go again. Another day...have a great one :)

But baby it's cold outside

This morning I dragged my ass out of bed to come in to the gym. I have to give a speech today (eep) on a poster so instead of swimming, I did my legwork and then biked for 30 minutes so I could read over my speech a few times in the morning. A good workout, and I feel a bit better about the talk. It's a timed thing - otherwise I wouldn't be so concerned. I'm fine doing a PowerPoint thing, but just talking by a poster is rough...and I only have 5 minutes max. I even wore a skirt to boost my confidence...and MAN it's cold out. Winter has arrived with a vengeance. I picked a day where it is -28 C and -37 with the wind to wear a skirt. In the future...let's jsut say I'll be checking the weather first. Not my best laid plan. Yeah, I'll leave it at that :) Brrrr....

My new gym bag ROCKS. it holds everything and has side pouches for stuff so it's not just all piled in a big sack. It's so nice...

AND after 17 revisions (sheesh), my biannual project report is done today as well. I'm slowly whittling things down. Now it's only 3 assignments left, another speech after today's speech and an exam. I just may survive after all...if I don't freeze first :)

Try and stay warm my good peeps :)

There and back again

I slept in this morning. It was necessary. I had a nice weekend away with J in Edmonton...we stayed in a Polynesian theme room - so much fun. We spent most of saturday night out having fun, so I had less than enough sleep, so today I slept in so I have a chance of surviving the week. It was so nice to get away for a bit and relax. I got to go shopping and get some new clothes that fit and a few skirts so I can wear my new boots and feel a little more adult. It made my day to know I am a size 7 now. 6 at Esprit. Weird...I had to put things back because they were too *big*. Awhah?

Tomorrow it's back to workouts. I replaced my gym bag too so I won't be stuck toting 2 or 3 random totes with me to the gym. And today is healthy food again. I didn't go nuts over the weekend, but I did have a bourbon caramel milkshake (heavenly...) and a piece of nectarine pie and a new kind of yummy beer and champagne. Nothing I can't come back from - just new things on the menu I can't get back home and had to try. :)

So, it is back into the thick of things. Still lots left to do, but I'm starting to feel like it may end soon. 2 weeks until classes are up. 3.5 until I'm done my exams and assignments. Then...I have so many things *I* want to do to catch up on...

"I did nothing and it was everything I hoped it would be"

A favourite movie of mine is a Office Space. And lately the above line from the movie has taunted me. I cannot wait to just chill...this weekend is some US time with J. I have gotten work done so I can stop for a day, so we're hiding from everyone and getting away from work and everything. I can't wait. Saturday is absolutely no work or else day. Cool. There may even be pie involved :)

This morning, being my day off I slept in a few hours, came in to work out and I've done a few things at work so I can go home and stay there until sunday. I'm going to meet J for lunch and we'll take it from there.

Have a great weekend! I know I will.

Snow!

Last night wasn't quite so late (12:30) so I crawled out of bed to come in for legwork and aswim. It's been slowing big fluffly flakes all night and it's gorgeous. I love swimming in the winter...the pool is so humid and awrm :)
Today is another crazy day!

Rest Day

Well, last night I was up until 2 working on data analysis and a report, so I slept in and cut the workout today. I needed that extra hour and bit of sleep desperately, as it is another long haul of work tonight to finish up even more work. I do feel well rested, considering I've only had about 5 hours of sleep. I've had a healthy breakfast of protein drink as well as some FiberOne cereal mixed with a bit of All Bran and some 1% milk. I'm sipping a large mug of tea and getting set for a long exciting day here in the lab.
I have lots to do, but I'm doing it. And this weekend I get a whole day off....once I make it there :)
Yay!
Have a great day everybody :)

Up and at them

This morning after yet another long night of homework I was up and out the door to do my upper body and back work and then have a nice 25 minutes swim. They have decided to repair the pool all of December so I'll have to give up my splashy splashy time for a month. Pity... I love it. I'll going to see if the other small pool on campus is open tuesdays or thursdays...it's such a stress reliever.
I have a healthy lunch and am heading in to the home stretch work wise. This is the week of doom...sleep will be cast aside in the writing of a large report, a poster and 2 assignments...but I think I'll get thru it. We shall see. This weekend I am taking all saturday off to spend with J as a reward. I can't wait!
I have a healthy salad and tuna for lunch, so it's a start...here we go!
Have a great day!

Monday again already?

It's monday again!
Well I got a lot done this weekend and still got to head out for cute little Zoe's birthday on saturday. It was a nice break with family. I did work the rest of the weekend though and missed a friends birthday party and a friend's show at a local coffee shop...wish I wasn't so busy. J went without me...sounded like a good time was had by all. I ate well all weekend, even with a carnival theme birthday party (complete with corn dogs and candy corn...not easy let me tell you !). Kept my splurges under wraps for the most part.
This morning I got up and in to the gym for my lower body weights, ab work and 30 minutes of HIT biking. I forgot to turn Robit on again until cardio, so I only know I burned 312 calories from then on, but that's a good sign...I know the cardio went good today. I caught up on my sleep over the weekend so I didn't feel too tired and was really able to push myself today.

I have to say - I got some IsoWhey vanilla whey protein drink from my local Sangsters for this month and I like it. One scoop + 1 cup of water. It's really good, and it's 31g of protein with very little added carbs or fat or sugar, and it has added proteases to help you digest the protein. (so you don't...um...fart so much from digesting lots of protein all at once). I've been taking it as a protein supplement after I workout, as I know I don't get enough protein in my diet and I figure I can't build muscle if I don't have something for my body to build with. I did a lot of research, and, as a scientist, I'm very impressed with the quality and production of it. It's a bit more than some of the protein shakes, but it's quality sourced, purely produced protein that tastes good...and that's all I need.

Gotta run. Lots to do today.
Bye!

It's friday everybody!

This morning I was up and out the door and in at the gym. Because it's friday and I won't be able to get in to workout on saturday and worked out at home on thursday I did both arms and legs on weights today...crazy. I did 2 reps of everything instead of 3, but managed to fit it all in with 30 minutes of biking...I was almost late for work, but I did it. The biking was hard today - my HIT intervals were pretty sucky...but I kept my heart rate up near 85% the whole time which is, in the end, the whole point. I think the faster more furious weights wore my legs out a bit. I know I was sweating when I was done my lunges, which isn't usually the case. I wore my robot, but only remembered to turn it on about halfway through so I have 300 calories off that...so I'm estimating about 450 all told...ish...but really. Not so into the numbers.
This morning, feeling optimistic, I stepped on the scale and the needle was ever so slightly below 125. Coolio. Hopefully this trend sticks, and we shall see. I've been eating well, so it would be nice if life rewarded me. I managed to make it through PMS without snacking so I feel like I've earned that :)
And so, I'm diving into another day. I get to play with a few new lab toys today - a fluorescent microscope and extract DNA from some colon carcinoma for analysis next week, so I get to use my brain a bit. I like that. I have a weekend full of (surprise) homework and my little niece's 2nd birthday to go to (and a gift to buy for her yet...heh). Lots to do, but no reason to panic yet. So far so good. I even managed to make some healthy apple oat muffins yesterday in a lame attempt to not do homework.
Life is good.
Later taters...

A day of remembrance

Because it is remembrance day, I took the time today to watch the local ceremony and remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives and work to keep Canada safe and at peace. J (I'm so proud of him) is the head of the crew that puts it on the air on the local channel for a few years now, so he was there at 5:30 AM and worked hard all morning to make the ceremony look good and be accessible to everyone. It went very well. Congrats love! You did good today.
After, with much cat howling, I dug out my old Dance Fusion Workout and did it - wow I'm in pretty decent shape. I did the whole thing with no issues...I recall it being pretty tough to get through. There was a bit of burning in my thighs when I did the squats but other than that - no prob :) Know why? Because I have muscles in my legs! I wore my little yoga shorts that I usually save for under my bellydance skirts to workout and I saw them in there. Cool! Not quite the same workout as if I'd been at work, but a good 1 hour all over workout. The difference in muscle tone in my body from now compared to the summer is really encouraging. I have trouble believing it is me sometimes. :)
Today is (sigh) work on my project at home. My cat is being rather annoying and so I'm trying to give him some attention and still get things done. Having a deaf cat howling at you can be rather annoying, but he's so damn cute...I'll figure it out. He just misses me and now that I'm home for the whole day he wants to sit in my lap...where my laptop is. Yeah. Confusing, but I'll figure it out. My husband has to work again this evening so I'll see him a bit and try and get a lot done.

Feel like I'm missing out

Last night was a long night. I finally crawled into bed and got to sleep and blinked and my husband got home late from celebrating shooting/wrap party of the 100th episode of his local music show. A huge accomplishment. I'm so proud of him...I tried to celebrate with him and share his joy, but I was so tired. I couldn't be there...because I was working. Again. Being too busy to enjoy your partner's successes sucks. Like a super sonic hoover.

At any rate, enough moping. This AM I got up and went in to work out. Being tired and vaguely grumpy I thought I'd try something different than the bike so I did a 40 minute crosstrain program on the arc trainer. And after a few minutes I loved it. No knee issues, and by the end of it I was feeling better. I did come core work and broke out the ball and medicine ball and did a bunch of ab stuff. I have healthy meals packed and it may take a lot of caffeine, but I'll survive the day I think.

If you are looking for some good workout tunes an like dance music - may I suggest the Sound of Trance podcasts. they're usually 1+ hours of mixed seamless trance and dance music. Nothing shreaky, but a constant beat that keeps you going. I find they're my workout track a lot. It's what I listened to today. Kept me going when I wanted to stop and curl up in the corner and nap.

New favourite snack when working late? 1/2 c 1% cottage cheese with 1/2 c cantaloupe. Mmm...brain food. :)

Have a good day guys. I will keep my chin up and nose to the grindstone and whatever euphamism I can think of to get thru today.

Cheers.

starting into the madness

Things may get very reduced post wise here in the next while. I am not kidding when I say I am entering into a phase of life where I will never have been this busy before. I still want to log my workouts to keep accountable, but unfortunately that may be all I have time for most days. Once the semester is over there may be more here...until then, bear with me. Not too interesting to read I'm afraid.

This morning I got up to a yard of snow - good thing I raked sunday! I made the bus and got in to work to do my upper body weight workout and then had a nice 25 minutes swim. I have a nice healthy lunch and supper packed, and hopefully, like last night, I can go home relatively early and work from home using my new netbook friend. We shall see.
There's a rumour of a transit strike and I really hope this isn't the case, as it would really screw up my daily schedule if it did...but people do what they must. With any luck it won't happen...we'll see.
Have a great day :)

too many leaves

This weekend was great. I got a lot of work done on saturday on my project and still got to sleep in that morning and have healthy pumpkin pancakes before I left...mmmm :). Sunday I raked the yard ALL day (yech) but the yard is done now for the winter. Given my ridiculous allergies to leaf mold I have to keep up on it in the fall or I'm really sick in the spring. As it is I am a bit squeaky from 8 hours of raking, but it's done for another year. J was busy winterizing the cars and doing other stuff...we were a team :) After all that hard work we had our last big BBQ of the season with some tin foiled veg and pork tenderloin and relaxed. It's nice to get everything done and still have time left over to relax at the end of the day. Time for that has been very precious lately.

I've prepped healthy meals for another insane week. I'll likely be here at work for 16-18 hours a day all week (joy) but I'm prepared for it. I finally broke down and bought a cheap little netbook so I can do some of my lab nalysis work from home. My Mac laptop is incompatible with a lot of the lab software I use and now I can do things wherever I am AND I can log into my work PC from home using my netbook and work from there so that programs too fast or heavy for my little netbook can be run on my work PC. I love the future! :) I'll actually get to be at home more during the data analysis process of my MSc - Im really looking forward to that. It was definitely worth the 330$ for that. I've been spending so much time here at work in the evenings because I couldn't do what I needed to at home on my Mac. Now, even tho the little netbook robot is not powerful by any means, it will do what I need to do and be a handy portable thing for notes and such afterwards...I'm quite happy with the solution. I really didn't want to buy another full computer because I couldn't justify the cost of it when I already had one...now I'm all set. It's neat to be able to only get what you need. And I must admit that logging in from home to my work PC is just freaking cool :)
I had a great workout this morning too - legs and abs and then I HIT bike cardio for 30 minutes. I forgot my robot so I have no idea what I burned calorie wise, but my legs are quite fatigued, so I know I did well for myself. Long day ahead, but we'll take it one day at a time and get it done :)

Have a great day!

The end is nigh

I managed to get to bed on time last night, so I woke up today feeling pretty fierce. I realised last night that although I have a ridiculous amount of things due in the next month with 16-18 hour days 6 days a week coming up along with preparing for my semi-annual committee MSc meeting and the report that goes with it, I also will be done these 2 classesand their insanity in one month (except the final).
Only one month. That is doable.
I can keep it together day by day until then...the eternity of the semester is actually starting to wind down. Finally...
Whew!
This morning I reversed some things...I keep fighting over weights and equipment in the mornings, so I did my upper body weights first before my 30 minutes cardio, which is when noone is using them and doing their cardio. I really pushed myself...I have that wonderful achiness that comes from really using your muscles. I read somewhere that it's beneficial for muscle building to do lifting before cardio...of course there is a lot of conflicting info out there, so I'm just doing what is more convenient, and this is definitely it. I biked fast today...faster than normal, but seeing as I really pushed myself yesterday on my legs (20 lunges each side, dead lifts and a few new things...owie my butt) I just didn't actually have it in my legs to do more than 4 of the HIT intervals while I biked. After my legs yelled at me to cut that HIT sh*t out I just biked faster overall and kept my heart rate up at 83-85% range. In my cardio I burned 326 calories according to Robot. I forgot to turn him on until cardio, so I don't know what weights burn...curious.
I am wearing a favourite old pair of dress pants today and they are getting baggy - the waist could definitely come in a few inches. I used to feel super slim in them because they used to fit perfectly. I have definitely firmed up/shrunk up since school started. I do believe that over the holidays I will do some shopping for a few pairs of pants. I'm a bit annoyed as I finally gave in in the fall to buy some new pants...and now *they* are baggy. I have a new pair of boots so I think I'll experiment with some tights and skirts this winter...I'd like that.
"I feel pretty, oh so pretty..."

This weekend I get to play with my new leaf sucker and rake up the yard. We got a reprieve from the snow and it's supposed to be warm and dry all weekend...after I get caught up on school stuff I'll be attacking the yard one last time. Wish me luck...

Swimming is so nice on a chilly day

This morning I managed to roll out of my cozy duvet and come in for leg work and my swim. I can start to see some muscles in my legs now, which is cool. I wish I could uncover them from under the bits of wiggle, but that will come. I am unsure how much to do without giving myself larger legs or thighs...I'm just going for overall muscle strength at the start...I highly doubt I'll bulk up to She-ra status overnight so I'll have a bit of warning of when to let off a bit if I bulk up too much :) For now I am happy with how I feel...which is pretty damn good.
I was amused that my gym bag spectacularly exploded today...the main seam on top came apart when I pulled it from my locker. I could still carry it to work, barely. Considering it is the one I got in the 90s in university when I started down the whole fitness road I guess I should be pleased it lasted so long! Not sure if I should shell out for a posh one with a special shoe storage thingy or just another general purpose bag. I'll have to check out my options on the weekend...neat.

Yesterday was nice...I got to go home and make some muffins and spend the evening relaxing with my husband. We were both rather tired so we watched a new miniseries based on a comic series he used to follow (the Walking Dead). It has lots of zombies in it...and I'm terrified of zombies. I am ashamed to admit that for most of it I was curled up tensely under a blanket or next to J peeking under his arm...not girly, but genuinely tense. Seeing the fog by mistake when I was 4 and having an intense nightmare repeatedly as a child (which I can still vividly remember) has given me quite the built-in fear of zombies. And yet, this comic series intrigues me. I really wanted to watch it because the comics were so good and in the end I'm glad I did. Not for the scares, but because it deals with people...real people and how they handle loss. How they band together and deal with incredible horrors. It's not a humorous show by any means, but inspiring and chilling at the same time. It only has 6 parts so I think I can make it thru the rest of it...I'm hoping I don't have any bad dreams from it...I'm trying to put my big girl sparkle panties on and deal with this by facing up to it. We'll see.
It was odd for J -he saw me obviously uncomfortable at times and asked if I wanted to stop watching...for him this doesn't frighten him because it just seems absurd. To him the idea of an alien showing up one day, not communicating with us, vastly superior and thinking of us as local fauna...or perhaps a mosquito like annoyance to deal with or ignore frightens him far more.

Yes we're both bizarre and quite made for each other. And we had a lovely zombie filled evening.

Today is another day. Have a good one everyone...

Super eyes!

image
This morning I had an eye exam so I could get new specs as I haven't had them checked in about 4 years. So, I just worked out at home. I used our elliptical...and stopped after 20 minutes because my knee was getting stiff. Ah well...guess it's official that ellipticals and me must part ways. Sad. I love that thing...I did my ball DVD instead for the rest of the workout and feel goooooood! Just a bit stiff in the knee, so I should be OK.

I survived yesterday and all it's insanity and discovered I got 83 on my stats midterm, so I'm feeling pretty good overall with all of my work and school right now. SO much more to do yet, but it's good to know I'm hovering along.

I'm more pumped because according to the optometrist my eyes have improved again and now, even though I'm used to "perfect" vision and will likely get glasses again, I can apply to have the restriction off my licence. THAT is cool...I've always been right on the edge and it frustrated me because *I* knew I could see fine to drive without my glasses, but there was no way I'd risk it insurance wise... Now I can feel justified in just driving with regular sunglasses - no need for prescription ones. Cool! Hopefully that's a simple thing to have changed...just for my own peace of mind.
Life can be nice when it wants to :)

Beware the couch. It beckons...


I managed to get in a workout this morning after being up until 12 last night doing homework. I did upper body weights and then had a nice 25 minutes swim. Today is insane. I need the energy boost. Seeing as I woke up today at the usual time I figured I couldn't be THAT tired...
I have a stats assignment due in an hour, which we just got some extra tips for this morning (yeah, that's the day it's due...you can tell my prof really doesn't have our course high up on her priority list) and I think I did it right but I'm not sure...what with not having all the info until this morning...*sigh*. And I have a mock ethics review after lunch which I think I'm ready for that is worth 1/4 of my grade......so we shall see. I really don't have enough time to devote to my classes like I'd like, so I feel all rushed and unprepared compared to the normal super overprepared me, but what can ya do? Things have to be done and I have not yet invented a time machine, so I'm doing my best. There's a physical limit to how late I can stay up some days, so I just do as much as I can.
I just want today to be over with so I can go home...and then get groceries... and vaccuum...and then...THEN I will sit on the comfy couch with teh kittehs.
Oh yes.
There will be much sitting.
And likely falling asleeping, but hey. S'allright :)

Older and wiser?

This weekend was really nice. I didn't go too crazy overboard being my birthday and all. I just relaxed. Saturday I slept in. J took me out for toast and eggs and bacon and coffee and then we relaxed and read a book. I drank some wine. Ate a cookie or two. We went out for Thai food for supper and watched something on TV. Not terribly exciting right?
WRONG.
I relaxed. I napped. I did NO work. I just spent time with my husband for a whole day. It was great...I ate a bit too much, as my appetite has really shrunk, but I don't think I'll have done any serious damage over a day or so. I suppose now that I'm 37 I feel like I should feel older. Smarter. Wiser.

Nope :)

I have learned over the weekend that I like eating clean though. I like light healthy food. Anything fried or oily just makes me feel off. It was a birthday dinner for my brother in law last night and he had manicotti with cheesy bread and some kind of mayo coated salad and then iced cream. I didn't over eat and I still felt yech. Goes to show how eating well changes you. I crave healthy foods in smaller portions. Wierd. I'm actually rewiring my brain and body. THAT is cool...

This morning I was up and out the door to do my HIT biking for cardio and then leg work and some ab work. I've made it to work with protein shake granola and yogurt for breakfast, and a great salad with chicken and egg for lunch. I have 2 massive things due tomorrow and I"m freaking out a bit, but I will stay up until they are done and life will indeed go on. So it goes...

Have a great day everyone. I will try to too.