The one that got away

Yesterday, as I was walking, I thought of something I wanted to post. Ordinarily, I'm not that bad at keeping a thought for a full day into the next, but for whatever reason, this one I could not. I'm talking gone. Kaput. Nada. I cannot, for anything, remember what it was I wanted to share.

Now there are many things to which I can attribute my loss of memory here, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that after my walk, I decided to run the bleachers.

WHAT was I thinking?

And, by run I mean walk!

Anyway, I had done two big laps around the parking lot where The Girl plays softball. If memory serves, it is about 0.8 miles; I usually try to walk 4 laps. Yesterday was a little hotter than I'd planned, so I decided to do 2 laps and the bleachers. A friend had done them earlier in the day so I figured surely I could too.

Facts about the bleachers:
~There are 34 steps up the bleachers.
~There are 34 steps down the bleachers.
~Despite the fact that falling down is the quickest method to descend, I recommend against it.
~There are four places to go up or down the bleachers.
~I went up (and down) four times.
~34 x 4 is 136.
~I climbed up 136 steps.
~136 is a lot.
~I came down 136 steps.
~136 is still a lot.
~I think I died on the bleachers, but I'm not sure yet.

The good news is that shockingly, I can still walk. Even more bizarre is the fact that I'm considering doing that again.

I probably won't remember it.

Running again

Not literally. That would be silly. As much as I'd absolutely LOVE to shed some excess weight, I'm not all that committed and not yet willing to put forth any sort of effort. I'd much prefer the weight to simply disappear. Sounds bizarre, but it *has* happened in the past. 15 lbs simply vanished over the course of about a year, and stayed away for another year. Sadly, they have reappeared over the last year. But I digress...

My running has more to do with sports. It seems we will learn tomorrow or Thursday if The Girl has made the middle school cheer squad. Clearly, we are hoping she does. I think she'll make a great cheerleader; she definitely has the personality for it, and the years of competitive gymnastics won't hurt either!

Additionally, conditioning and practice has begun for basketball again. Apparently, it is against regulations for the boys to practice football, so they are no longer going to football conditioning. Only high school students are allowed to practice football all year. Today was the first day of basketball practice. The Boy said it went well. After practice, a friend of his came over. The two of them went into the garage and did box jumps and then ran hill sprints before going out back to practice shooting. I am very impressed with both of them.

So, my vacation from running to practices is over. It lasted a week. It's all good, though, as I was confused as to what I was supposed to be doing with my time, and my car really missed me!

Return of Family Fun Day

It's been a significant amount of time since our last Family Fun Day. There is too much to do with The Boy and basketball and The Girl and gymnastics. Luckily, both seasons end this weekend...or is that unlucky since his playoffs coincide with her championship meet?! Regardless, they are both ending, which one would think would free up more time; however that will not be the case.

Baseball try-outs begin on Monday. If The Boy does not make the middle school team, he can still play in the city league. That will mean about a month off before the season begins, but we are really hoping he makes the middle school team.

The Girl is seriously considering moving to Prep-Op in gymnastics. What that means (to us) is more time and more money! LOL! Seriously, though, we spent some time talking it over with her coach and, if The Girl proves to us that it is what she really wants (and can handle), she will make the switch this spring, increasing her time in the gym.

Translation (if you weren't paying attention) is LESS TIME FOR MOMMY!

In the vein of keeping things together, we had a minor Family Fun Day this past Saturday. As usual, Family Fun Day in our home always seems to include some sort of exercise. This is really good for The Husband, but not so much for me! As I've mentioned several times, The Husband is a huge fan of Crossfit. In fact, he is building a Crossfit gym in our garage. (I'm actually expecting a delivery of weights and such today.)

Family Fun Day was spent at the gym. I even managed to take pictures; however, none have been uploaded as of yet! I promise to post them soon. Both The Husband and The Boy had really great workouts. The Girl had an OK workout...she complained a lot of the time. As for me? Well, surprisingly, I worked out too! I did about 4.5K on the rowing machine. It was actually quite enjoyable (but there is no need to share such information with The Husband, lest he make me repeat the exercise!!).

Hopefully, our ridiculously busy schedule will lend itself to more family fun adventures!

Clean dog and pull-ups

It's hot today. Not killer hot, but hot. It's 87* with a heat index of 92*. I decided this would be a good day to bathe The Dog...she stinks!

The first step in bathing the dog is finding the doggie shampoo. Except I can't. I have NO CLUE where it is. This might be in part due to the fact that we have not bathed her since we moved here, so, of course I have no idea where it is. I resort to the next best thing...shampoo. It's The Husband's shampoo, and I know he won't mind. (Actually, it's hotel shampoo, so no one will mind!)

After I bathed the dog, I kinda felt like being out in the garage some more. No idea why. So, I decided to sweep out the garage. It's mostly clean because of the gym and all (which reminds me...I never posted phase 2 of the gym. I'll get to that soon.) The loft is about half done. The pull-up bar is there. I looked at it and decided to give it a try.

Guess what! I pulled myself up! It wasn't a "chest to bar" pull up or anything like that...more like a "I think my nose is even with the bar" pull-up, but I did it...no jump or anything. Then, a bit later, feeling pretty full of myself, I decided to give it another go. This time, I got my chin up there. Keep in mind, I'm not the smallest gal in the world, so I'm pretty darned impressed that I sort of did two whole pull-ups...unassisted!

Go me!

In the zone

No, I did not drop off the face of the earth. And, truth be told, I have so much to write about but almost NO time to write!!

Among the many changes in our lives right now, The Husband thought a new diet would be a great idea. He has been interested in the Zone diet for some time now. His interest peaked a bit when he began Crossfit. That was a few years ago. Now, he's headed off to a genuine Crossfit certification course. I don't know how it is going to play out, but somehow I foresee a great amount of physical pain in my future. Just giving a heads-up is all!

So, in order for one to be "Forging Elite Fitness," one must eat a certain way. Enter the Zone diet...or any paleo diet for that matter. Now I'm not big on exercise or any of that silliness, but The Husband is. I know "paleo" means ancient, though, and I have no interest in eating ancient food! Still, the result of this diet is that body fat will simply melt away...

Apparently, the cavemen and all weren't able to pop on down to Panera for some nice, hearty, crusty bread. Truth be known, they didn't eat bread. I'm thinking it is why they are no longer...survival of the fittest and all. I'm thinking the ones who thought up bread are the ones who are still here because bread? That's good stuff! But I digress...

So, the Zone diet is made up of these blocks. You have to eat a certain number of blocks every day. I'm supposed to eat 11 blocks/day. The Husband is supposed to eat 25! This is not like weight watchers' points, though. This is a TON of food. A complete block is made up of one block of fat (1.5 g), one block of carbs (9 g), and one block of protein (7 g). The Husband is supposed to eat 5 complete blocks at each meal. OK - sounds simple enough.

The first night, all went well. We had an amazing grilled chicken salad. The Husband had 5 oz chicken, I had 3, and the kids each had 2. The grilled chicken was on a bed of 2 c lettuce, 1/4 cucumber, 1/4 bell pepper, and, for The Husband, 1/2 c black beans (1/4 c for me). We added avocado to the salad for the fat. (To be honest, I'm not 100% that was exactly what the measurements were, but they were VERY close to that.)

Breakfast was an ordeal. We decided on eggs, but in order to be sure everyone got the right amount of eggs, they had to be cooked separately. No more sleeping in till 6:15!! Up bright and early to cook breakfast. THEN, I can get showered, dressed, and leave for work. It took some cooperation, but we pulled it off. (The Husband cooked breakfast the second morning...oatmeal!)

Dinner the second night was, in a word, HYSTERICAL. We decided to have grilled chicken again. We were trying our hand at inventing our own meal. We had broccoli, so we decided to make it. Do you know how much broccoli is in ONE block of carbs? Do ya? Go ahead and guess. I'll wait.
...
...
...
Three. Yep. Three cups of cooked broccoli is ONE block of carbs. Remember how many blocks we're eating? There is not enough broccoli in this state for us to eat only broccoli as our carb; we added green beans as well. (We could eat "unfavorable carbs," such as pasta, potatoes, etc, but The Husband won't have it.) I filled The Husband's plate. He had to eat 3 cups cooked broccoli, 3 cups green beans, 5 oz chicken breast, 1 cup of pineapple, and 60 peanuts. I nearly died laughing when I saw the three cups of broccoli on his plate...till I realized we were all supposed to eat that much! I had cooked a full bag and a half of broccoli (it measured 12 c frozen) and it was not NEARLY enough! I think we ended up eating 2 cups each. Still - it was a TON of broccoli! I should have taken pictures but I didn't think of it till just now.

I don't think we'll be eating broccoli for the rest of the month.

Tonight we are trying another menu of our own, but there is no broccoli on it. We're going with turkey burgers, a large salad, and some fruit. Today, we're having some bread, too! I found these amazing little sandwich thins...they're from Arnold, which, to date, is the only bread we've found that does NOT contain High Fructose Corn Syrup!! Woohoo! These thins are only 100 cal each and have the same nutritional value as a whole slice of bread.

So if you notice I've been offline for a bit, smile knowing I'm wading through a sea of veggies - most likely broccoli - and I'll be back when I can find the computer!

Random Thoughts

The Girl has a death wish. We bought her an mp3 player for her birthday. Today, she was practicing gymnastics in the living room...with the headphones on! We caught her wearing it to sleep once too! She has speakers...*sigh* She's on her way to being a Darwin candidate!

I have a pedometer. Does anyone know if those things are even remotely close to anything resembling reality? Sometimes I think so, but other times...not so much. I went walking again yesterday and added another loop to my walk. According to the pedometer, I took 3605 steps, which translated to 1.7 miles. That does not sound unreasonable...in fact, it means my estimated 1.5 - 2 mi walk was almost exactly 1.5 mi, and I'm OK with that. Is it supposed to be worn on the hip or on the shoe?

On my walk, the snow was melting off the trees. It was so pretty! The ground was definitely still slick in places, but overall, the walk was quite pleasant. Of course, that might have been due to the fact that I had neither The Dog nor the children!

A pet peeve of mine is headphones for mp3 players and iPods. They don't fit in my ears. Maybe I'm a spaz, but I cannot make them stay in my ears for more than a few seconds. It's a good thing it has been cold because I would not be able to listen to my iPod if I was not wearing ear warmers!

Blog music is funny. I have music here (obviously), but it is music that *I* like...not necessarily music YOU like. Somedays, if I have work to do, I will open a browser and pull up my blog just so I have music. (I'm a dork.) When I go to other blogs, the first thing I do is find their music and, usually, turn it off.

What's your opinion of bloggy music? What is one of your pet peeves? What was your most "Darwin" moment?

Still going

Yeah - I know. Bizarre. All the same, I went walking again Monday. Did the same 1.5 - 2 mi route we did Sunday. I will really have to get in the car or on my bike to clock it and see exactly how far it is. It felt good, though.

Funny - one would think that by telling all of you, I'd be motivated to keep it up. We'll see. It didn't work with the bike. I only made it to about 186 miles on that sucker. Good news is that it is only January, so technically, I have a month and a half to ride the other 814 miles! Bahahaha!

Actually, I have not given up on the bike. I've given up on the 1000 miles, but not the bike. I like my bike. Maybe when the weather gets nicer...

Exercise!

So, for whatever reason, I allowed The Husband to talk me into working out on Saturday. Usually, he'll mention it and I'll look at him, and that will end the discussion. Saturday, though, something came over me and I decided 'what the hell...Sure.'

He told me to run about a quarter mile, do 5 sets of 10 dumbbell rows, 10 push-ups, and 10 squats. Then, I ran another quarter mile. I was supposed to have done 15 squats each set but I spaced and only did 10 (which, now, looking back, was a GOOD thing!).

Have I mentioned Saturday was cold? I mean really cold? I don't run - and it hurt like hell to do it, but I did...until I nearly died, at which point I started walking.

Shockingly, I was *not* nearly as sore Sunday morning as I was expecting. We did go for a nice 1.5 - 2 mile walk Sunday afternoon, though, to make sure my muscles didn't decide to cramp up and stop working completely!

Breakin' the rules!

So we are officially over half-way through our long weekend and it has been dreamy. Yesterday morning, there was that horrific trip to the grocery that sells EVERYTHING. While getting groceries, we picked up one of these - except I'm not sure it's this exact one and we did not pay NEARLY that much! We put it together, which was a major pain in the ass task in and of itself, and neither The Boy nor The Girl has stopped playing since. The Boy even chose to shoot hoops over watching the flashy box! Now THAT is a feat! While the kids played ball, we did the yard work. Then, we stopped and had ice cream. It was such a great evening! I shot a bazillion photos and could not help but share this one of The Girl.

We ended up grilling for dinner, which was also great. It was an extremely nice and relaxing day.

Today, we slept in and then went on the bikes. We drove out to the park and went on an 11.5 mile ride. I rode the first half with The Boy; The Husband rode with The Girl. The Girl complained every bit of the way and I thought The Husband's head was going to explode! I rode back with her - and she was so much better for me. The Husband was already irritated with her when we began and I'd had my ride with The Boy to cool off, so it was a good switch. The ride back was good too, except The Boy rode up under me on a hill and I crashed. Small bruise on the leg, but it's all good. After the ride, we came home for lunch and went out for ice cream again. I figured I'd burned off a whole hell of a lot of calories and I needed to get them back before my body missed them! We're grilling again tonight, which will be great.

One more day off...hope it's a good one!

Break out the bubbly...it's time to celebrate!

I have officially broken the 100 mile mark! I have 101 miles on my bike, which means I have a mere 899 miles to go. I'm pretty excited about this momentous occasion. As much as I think The Husband is a total lunatic for this challenge, I'm glad he set it down and I'm thrilled that, so far, I'm actually making an attempt to meet it. My first official ride was March 9th. I cannot ride daily (and let's be honest, I've taken a few days off just because!) but all the same, in order to reach my goal of 1000 miles in a year, I must average just over 83 miles/month. In just over a month, I have ridden 101 miles. I believe I've ridden about 20 days, so my average is about 5 miles per day that I ride.

The best part of all this? I FEEL better! I am in better shape and the rides keep getting easier. That was the goal of the entire endeavor, but still - it's fun to realize and notice. I have not lost any weight but I am in better shape and I am more toned.

So - raise that glass and toast to me. If we celebrate enough, I'll have an excuse not to ride tomorrow! :)

Family Fun Night

If you hadn't noticed, there have not been many Family Fun Day posts lately. The weather has not been conducive to family fun over the past several weekends. This weekend is no exception...rain is expected today. With that in mind, we had our family fun last night.

The Girl got a new bike last weekend. It is the same as The Boy's bike. His is blue; hers is metallic purple. So last night was our first "big ride" together. We rode about 7 miles and the kids did extremely well. We knew The Boy would do well - he and The Husband went on an 11 mile trip shortly after getting his bike about a month ago. We had our doubts about The Girl, though. Like I said, she did an amazing job and not once did she get off her bike to push!

Off for a quick ride/run with The Husband this morning. The week of vacation is coming to an end and I'm so sad about that. I really enjoyed my week home, even if the kids drove me batty when they were home together. We are *definitely* going to have to set some serious ground rules for the summer or I am going straight to the loony bin!

Ahhh - vacation...NOT

The Boy and The Girl are now officially on spring break. Unlucky for them, they had to come to work with me on Friday. They were not bad...they watched a few movies. I, unfortunately, did not get a whole lot done either, for I, too, was sucked in by the flashy box. They watched Cheaper By the Dozen and High School Musical 2, neither of which I'd actually seen. Like I said, not an overly productive day for me (although several other people stopped in for a bit to watch!). SO...I'm home all week this week with the kids. In an attempt to be sure I have (1) productive time, (2) time to myself, and (3) some semblance of a vacation, I signed the kids up for part-day spring break activity camps. At first, they were both to go to a fitness camp at the local health club. I was excited by the prospect of 4 hrs/day alone in my own home.

On Thursday, The Boy came home with a football camp flyer. As you well know, The Boy loves football. We had been looking for the football camp flyer to come home for some time but when we never saw it, we figured the football camp had been cancelled. It wasn't. After much internal turmoil as to what to do (the camp times overlap and while The Boy *could* do both, he would miss out on a significant portion of the football camp) I found out I could, indeed, get a full refund from the fitness camp. He is now going to football camp. He was so relieved and happy that he actually became teary-eyed!

What does that mean for me? Um...no vacation! The Boy's camp is 11 - 2:30 and The Girl's (she is still doing the fitness one) is 1-5. At best, I get about an hour to myself. And you know what? I wouldn't change it. To see how happy they both are about their prospective camps is worth my giving up "me time" any day.

The big FIVE-OH!

As of this evening, I have 50 miles on my bike! That's pretty exciting considering I've been keeping track since March 9th! Actually, I've ridden 10 times including tonight. For the most part, I average 3.5 - 4 miles/day but I do not ride Wednesdays (The Girl has gymnastics) and I try to ride a bit longer on the weekends when I can. Tonight, I rode 7 miles. My longest ride so far was Sunday - The Husband and I rode just over 9 miles.

Only 950 miles to go.................(and my "prize" for hitting 1000 miles? The Husband says new tires! LOL!)

The North American Sperm Tree

So the tree in my front yard...it's a Bradford Pear. They are very popular trees as they grow quickly, bloom early, and are quite pretty. The problem? They STINK! OMG, they smell SO badly. What do they smell like? SPERM! Blech! I am not even kidding (and at this point I'm thinking to myself "I sure hope my dad is not reading this..."). I first made this observation last year. Where I worked, there was a long line of these pretty trees. I was walking past them to my car trying not to be asphyxiated by the odor when it occurred to me. The stench was overwhelming.

Yesterday, The Husband and I went for our ride (4.25 mi!). As I said, the trees are in full bloom and I told him what I thought. When I asked him if he agreed, he yelled "I do NOW! Thanks a lot!" LOL!

11 Miles

Saturday, The Husband bought me a cycling computer for my bike. He told me Saturday morning he was going to buy it. He issued a challenge: put 1000 miles on the bike in a year. 1000 miles. On the bike. In one year. Are you freaking kidding me?! Shall we do the math?

1000 miles/52 weeks = ass pain (or funeral...unless I beat him with the bike, in which case there still will be a funeral - just not mine)

In reality, it comes to 19.23 miles/week or 2.75 miles/day. That wouldn't be bad in a perfect world where one could actually ride daily. But life? It's so not perfect. Not even close. Today I did not have time to ride. I left for work at 7am and by the time I got home (gymnastics/baseball & dinner out), it was 8:30pm.

As of this moment, I have 11 miles on the bike. The good news is I have only 989 miles to go! And, if you see me in the garage spinning that front tire, do not tell anyone. It'll be OUR secret!

Murphy's Law

This morning, The Husband woke me up at the ungodly hour of bright and early at 7am. I was so pissed happy to be starting my day at that time. It was, of course, rainy and dreary out. I managed to drag my ass jump out of bed and make coffee. The Husband was telling me how we were going to go out for a ride/run (he jogs while I ride along on my bike). I looked outside and told him he was crazy.

The rain let up so we decided to take advantage of the break. Off we went! The Girl, who is still sick, was still asleep. The Boy was up and playing on the PS2. We left a walkie-talkie with him and we went on our way.

The ride was very pleasant, to be honest. The sun had started to peep out and, aside from the occasional puddles and hills, it was not a bad ride. The goal was to go out for 45 minutes and while we *could* have done that all inside our neighborhood, we decided to venture out onto a trail for a bit. As we were leaving the neighborhood, I asked The Husband if he was sure it would be OK to cross the street. He assured me all would be well.

We finished our ride, which, as I said, turned out to be rather pleasant. When I went into the house, I noticed all the doors in the hallway were closed. I went to The Boy and asked him why. He said the bathroom was flooded. Sure enough, I walked in and there was water EVERYWHERE! The Boy said it was getting ready to overflow so he went to get the plunger and tried it once but the water kept coming so he dropped the plunger, shut the door and ran! He said he had called us on the walkie-talkie but apparently, we had gone just out of range. The Boy helped me clean up the mess and all was well. I told The Boy how proud I was of him that he (1) did not panic and (2) made sure to close all the doors.

Next time we go for a morning outing, we'll make sure the kids know NOT to go pottie while we're gone!

Let's hear it for padded bike shorts!

A few weeks ago, after our horrible, ridiculously long wonderfully pleasant first ride, I purchased some cute, baggy padded bike shorts because my ass was killing me they are so stylish. I had not had the chance to try them out yet and it was beautiful out, so The Husband and I went for a bike ride today around the neighborhood (about 3 1/2 miles or so).

Oh. My. Lord! What an amazing difference they made. I can sit down without any pain or discomfort! What a novel idea! Hell - I'm still wearing the shorts! I may wear them everywhere from now on!

Family Fun Day...Act II

Today was our second real family fun day. The first family fun day was not nearly that fun...until it was over! Today was FAR more enjoyable. We loaded up the bikes and cook-out stuff and headed to the park. We got lost along the way, but we made it. Once we got settled and unloaded we did a bit of exploring. There was a cool welcome center that housed a snake exhibit. The Boy and The Girl LOVED this. It was pretty cool. We then headed up to the truck where one of The Husband's friends met us. The Husband and his friend took off on a 4.5 mile technical mountain bike path while The Kids and I tooled around the park. We went to the playground for a while and just hung out. Finally, we returned to the truck. The Boy was almost finished with book 7 of the Harry Potter series and he was begging me to let him finish (he was mid-way through the final chapter). So...we sat there and read. I could only imagine what The Husband would think...he drove us all the way to this park on a beautiful day, and we sat there and read! It was NOT a strenuous day for me...and don't think THAT did not go unappreciated!!

The Husband's friend returned alone...he'd broken his bike. Not long after that, The Husband returned. We cooked out and had a blast. Then, The Kids decided to feed the geese (there were 5 of them). They did that for a while and then it was time to pack up and go home.

Reprieve

It seems I am in luck. Unfortunately for The Husband (but oh, so happily for me), someone else bought The Bronco before The Husband had a chance. After I did my dance of superiority (you know...the one where you dance nekkid on top of every table and/or countertop in the house), I saw how depressed The Husband was. Shockingly, my dancing did not cheer him up. Go figure! I decided to remind The Husband of his prior passion...bicycles. The Husband bought a used road bike a few months back and has enjoyed riding it but wanted to be able to ride with the entire family. We went shopping today and to our surprise found not one, but TWO mountain bikes to buy. Mine is brand spanking new and The Husband's is used but still really nice. Both bikes were rather inexpensive, which thrilled me to no end.

After lunch today, we went on a family bike ride. We drove out to the park and went on a trail. With hills. Lots of hills. I hate hills. I hate trails. I hate bikes. My thighs hate bikes. At one point on the hill I looked to see if my bike would, in fact, fit up The Husband's ass, since that is where I wanted to shove it. (It didn't fit.) I managed the entire trail (walking the bike some...ok...a lot of the hilly way) but it was kind of fun. The Kids had a blast, too, which is always nice.

View from the top

This is the view from the top of the mountain. It loses so much in translation! Perhaps if I had a better camera...

We went on our hike yesterday. The Husband chose a route that was about 8 miles. Luckily, our entire trek was closer to 6 miles. As we started off, we decided to stick to one particular route. It was very well marked and we put our map away (THANK GOODNESS!) It turns out the route we hiked was a 3 mile path directly UP the mountain. OH. MY. GOD. I nearly died...three times! The hike was, at times, enjoyable; however, most of the uphill part totally sucked! There are not words to describe how much the vertical sections sucked! Alas, after about two hours, we made it to the top. Imagine my horror to learn, once we reached the apex, that there was, in fact, a ROAD up the mountain...we could have DRIVEN to the top!! In fact, there were several other people AT the top enjoying their picnic lunches (from assorted fast food places). We were roughing it. We had camping food! The Husband told me again and again how we were enjoying our view and meal so much better because of all we'd done to 'earn' it all. Yeah, sure...whatever you say, Dear! LOL!

The trip down the mountain was a little shorter...probably because I adopted the 'tuck and roll' philosophy! All kidding aside, it really was a neat hike. Seriously - it was a great experience and as soon as I am able to walk again, I'll consider another outdoor activity...with the family. I hear kite flying is huge this time of year! LOL!