Last week in the apartment

My head just did a 360. I cannot believe that I am only in this apartment for 1 more week!!!
We've started on the kitchen now. Packing up all the tools we won't be using for the next few days. My bathroom is almost completely done. I'll be living out of a suitcase and makeup bag for the next week. I can't bear to take down my computer yet though. My baby has to stick around until the end!

I'm so very excited to be out of this place. I will have a place to dance that doesn't have a dining room table in it, we'll have an entire workout set in the basement, so no more complaining I can't do my workouts at home due to lack of equipment. We'll have a yard to work on, and I'm sure the novelty of that will fade quickly, but it will be nice to be able to get outside and actually sit out there without people walking by and looking at you. (We are on the bottom floor of our place right now, and face the parking lot.) I can poke holes in the walls for pictures. I can paint if I so choose. I know that with a larger place, comes more cleaning, and far more responsibility, but it's worth it!

I can't tell you how fast this week is going to go by. I'm already thinking Saturday when we get home from visiting people we'll be packing up the rest of our crap. Sunday morning will be an early one getting all those last minute things put together. It came much faster than I thought. When we first signed or papers, I was sure it was going to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get here. And now it is and I'm not ready yet. I suppose blogging in my free time doesn't really help that cause though. Enough 'chit-chat' I'm off to the land of boxes and useless things.

Unsick and lifting

I was very sick last week with a cold, and as a result I ate poorly, I missed all my workouts and was generally really lazy in everything. It's fine to not workout for a week since I could hardly lift myself out of bed, but eating is another issue. I pretty well let myself go and didn't watch what I ate at all. I actually felt worse having to write everything down in my fitbook. I didn't realize how badly I ate until I checked back today and looked. Yikes! Needless to say, I went to the grocery store tonight and bought healthy stuff. Things to snack on, more fruit, and better things for breakfast, rather than going to Tim Horton's every morning. I also plan to make red pepper hummus this weekend. (Thanks for the recipe Jess!)

I got my butt in gear today and dragged it to the gym. I don't normally workout tuesday, and I'll have to go tomorrow too just to get back on schedule. It felt great to be there. I missed it even after a week. I actually pushed my weights up on the second set of most exercises, just to see if I could do it. Success... except I'm going to be sore tomorrow. Tonight I'll do some intervals on the exercise bike to get those out of the way.

I'm glad to say I have someone now who looks at my diet and will make suggestions to me. It's hard to know what's good and bad when it all says 'healthy'. There are things that I've eaten that aren't really the best, but I was under the impression they were extremely healthy. Nice to have a watchdog! I like being accountable to someone other than myself. Pushes me to make changes and stick with them.

Avoiding packing? Check!

Even though this is the only weekend we have to pack, our heads aren't in it. 3 boxes done yesterday was enough. Haven't even started packing boxes today, but managed to get through purging a lot of papers that aren't needed any longer. That's something I guess. The less we have to pack, the better!

Instead of packing this morning, my boyfriend and I headed out of the city about an hour to a place called Elbow Falls. I had forgotten it was the long weekend, and we found lots of people had the same idea as us. We did the trip on our motorcycle, which is always a blast. We wandered around the falls for a while, which isn't a big place, and sat down for a picnic. We took a picnic blanket we got for christmas from my sister and used it to find a place to sit by the rivers edge. It was a well spent afternoon.

Here are some pictures of the falls.

Angels & Demons - Reviews

After my episode attempting to dance last night, we thought a movie would be a better option than me injuring myself. I finished reading "Angels & Demons" while on vacation. It was the one book I needed to finish since the movie was coming out right aways. I think reading the book put the movie at a huge disadvantage, like most books do.

I won't do any spoilers, don't worry, although it makes it hard to explain what I'm talking about. The took out some characters that I thought were key. I think they kept the plot the same, and changed how everything happened. There were scenes that I was confused what was going on, until the plot part came in. Then I realized what scene from the book it was. In all honesty, it was VERY loosely based on the book. They kept the main story line, changed the course of actions for audience entertainment value. When the book says the hassassin was one sort of race, and he turned out another, I found that odd. The book was very clear in describing what the guy looked like, and they changed him entirely.

Tom Hanks was great however. He did his role very well. Ewan Mcgregor was also good. Played the part to a tee. All in all, from a movie standpoint, it was very well done, and kept me completely entertained. It had intense parts where you were on the edge of your seat waiting for that next scene to happen.
From a book standpoint, thoroughly disappointed. The movie seemed to refer to a few things that happened in "The Da Vinci Code", which actually didn't happen until AFTER "Angels & Demons" according to the books. Angels & Demons is the pre-quel to The Da Vinci Code.

I do recommend seeing it, whether you've read the book or not. It was a good movie. :)

Frustrated with sickness

Since last Thursday, I have been feeling under the weather. I took a few days from work this week to get better. Resting is usually a good idea. Unfortunately, it hasn't improved my cold at all. I'm still sick! I'm at the point of frustration now. I haven't been to the gym in over a week, which is very frustrating to me. I don't like taking unplanned weeks off from weight training, as it throws off my schedule.

TonightI finally got around to moving some filled boxes into the spare room as a storage area until we move. I can now see the space around my pole in order to dance. I took a few spins last night, and felt a little better to exercise. Being me, I decided to drag out my crash mat and try some inverts since I felt slightly better. I attempted one invert and got a splitting headache. I crashed on the mat and scolded myself. Why would flipping myself upside down be a good idea, when I can barely breathe out of my nose? So much for dancing tonight...

I won't have much time for exercise this weekend anyways, but I'm planning to do a little bit if I can. Perhaps a jog today with my boyfriend to get rid of some stress and get outside. We are supposed to have wonderful weather for the weekend... finally! I'm very tired of snow one day, sun the next. It's May!! Enough with the cold weather!! This weekend is Canada's long weekend in May. Most people will get Monday off this weekend as a stat holiday. Rather than spend this weekend camping with the rest of Canada (seems to be what most people do this weekend), I will be packing. This is the only weekend we are both here for the entire duration of it. The next two prior to our move are away with family. I'm not complaining we are using this weekend to pack, I'm actually glad we have the entire 3 days to do this. We're certainly taking time to enjoy the weekend outside of cardboard and packing tape. Motorcycle ride one day, bbq with family another, going to a movie or two at night.

I'm starting to feel the stress of moving. I look around and see that even though our spare room is already full of packed boxes, we haven't even scratched the surface yet. Moving is a big deal, and I am insistant that since we will not be moving again for a long time, we purge all things we haven't used/didn't know we had/thought we'd use it more from our belongings. There will be many, many garbage bags taken from the apartment so we don't have to drag the stuff with us to our house.

Let May long begin... with this box beside my feet. Happy weekend everyone!

Motorcycle Course Results

It's been one hell of a few days. I've been sick, I've missed my workouts and my eating habits are all out the window. Hopefully one more day of rest will improve things and I'll be back to normal again.

This past weekend was my motorcycle course. Friday night was the classroom portion, Saturday and Sunday were practical, ie actually riding. Friday was good. Learned a lot of useful information and it's actually made me more aware as a vehicle driver to look out for motorbikes more carefully. We watched a few videos that sure wake you up in a hurry. Saturday and Sunday were fun, but I just didn't have the confidence on the bikes. I'm really hard on myself, so when I don't get a skill right aways, I get discouraged. I had a rough day Saturday amongst all the fun. I didn't feel like I was getting anything right, so that was hard. Sunday morning I felt much better and I was able to do the things I couldn't Saturday. My instructor had some concerns so I didn't get to go on the road-ride (we take the bikes out on the road). I was ok with that. She said I need more confidence, and needed to trust the bike more.

The end results: I need to take the Sunday class over again to get more comfortable and get some more confidence. Then I'll be able to take my test, which is on the road now, rather than on the lot like last year. I had a fun weekend all in all, just a little disappointing I couldn't pull it together.

Movie review: Sunday night my boyfriend and I met another couple at "Star Trek". Fantastic show! I didn't watch the tv series very often, and I've never seen any of the original movies, but I enjoyed this show thoroughly. It was funny, it was intense, and it had a good plot. The special effects were pretty good too.

Biker Chick

This weekend will be a fun filled one.
Earlier this week I went and got my learner's license for motorcycles. I sat in front of a computer for all of 10 minutes at the Registry and completed my test. W00t! Step one complete!

For all of Friday night I will be in a classroom learning about motorbikes. Then the fun part starts Saturday. I will learn to actually ride one, doing skills and such for 2 whole days. At the end of it all, on Sunday, I should be able to do my on-lot site test and have my license! So exciting!! I don't have my own motorcycle, and there's no way I'd be allowed to drive my boyfriends, but who knows, maybe I'll buy one of my own this year or next. I love riding as a passenger, so I can't imagine how it's going to feel actually driving one. This weekend could go two ways: I'll love it, or I'll hate it.

I'll post the results Monday!

I feel weak... that's not right

Yesterday was Workout B. All new exercises. I know there is less than I think, but all I can say is lunges lunges lunges.
Here is a rundown of the Workout B:

• Widegrip deadlift from box
• Bulgarian Split Squat
• Reverse Lunge
• Underhand Lat Pulldown
• Dumbbell Prone Cuban Snatch
• Swiss Ball Crunch
• Reverse Crunch
• Lateral Flexion
• Prone Cobra
• 15 minutes Interval training 1min hard/2min recovery

I've never done interval training so this will be interesting. It's nice because I can at least do those at home and get my boyfriend to come with me. It's nice to be able to workout together that way. We've both got our Fitbooks and have started new programs. (Thanks Angela for the wonderful books! http://www.getfitbook.com/)

From completing stage 1, I thought my muscles were getting pretty strong. I had to put myself down to 5# weights for the Prone Cuban Snatch. I nearly cried! I couldn't believe that my shoulders (specifically the rotator cuffs) are that weak. Instead of feeling really badly, I took it as an opportunity to set some goals. I will definately be pushing myself harder on those to build up some strength. That particular exercise will greatly propel me towards my goal of being less prone to injury/pain in my wrists from using the computer every day. (small victory!)

My butt and hamstrings are screaming at me today. Not only did I do a lot of leg exercises, but I pushed myself pretty hard on my intervals (last night was on the exercise bike). This is all very, very good news for me. I love the feeling the next day when you feel like you really pushed yourself and it paid off. I may not say that tomorrow when I have to drag my sore butt to the gym again, but it's all worth it in the end.

Craziness ensues

Since being back from vacation everything was still slow and relaxing.

This morning I got up and realized that we have now bought a house and need to get prepared. That means a ton of financial stuff (which is my least favorite thing so I won't go there) and packing.

My problem is that I don't know where to start. Since moving to the this city two years ago, I've moved 3 times. That means that once a year, I get to purge my belongings of unwanted clutter. Everyone that is a home-owner that I know keeps telling me they hate moving because they have to move all the stuff they have accumulated. I use the word 'stuff' because that's what it is. Stuff that you probably haven't seen since it went into the box and hav no idea it's still around.

I know already that we have that stuff in our apartment like that. I really, really don't want to move it with us into our house. I have this sneaking suspicion that that stuff will somehow make it's way into our basement and never see the light of day again.

I know that packing shouldn't be too difficult. I'm just in the purging mode. I don't want to keep anything that really isn't needed. That's the part that's causing me so much stress.
I need to manage my time to a particular part of each room and work on that.
Ack craziness!

Stage 2 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women

Today I started Stage 2. This will last for 4 - 5 weeks working out 2 - 3 days a week. My week vacation was a nice week off to rest and get ready for a new set of exercises.
For workout A I'm doing the following:

• Front squat/push press - combination of a squat into a heel raise basically
• Step ups (oh yeah... again)
• Dumbbell 1 point Row - this kills my butt from balancing on one foot.
• Static lunge with rear foot elevated
• Push ups
• The Plank - holding for 60 seconds
• Cable horizontal Wood chop - definately felt this one in my obliques

So I do 2 sets of 10 reps with 75 seconds rest in between. In stage 1, I had 60 seconds between each set. I was thinking 75 seconds would be a long time. That was proved wrong today. 75 seconds for rest is just right, and between some, not enough. I am definately going to like Workout A. I felt like I got a good workout today. I can see that I will have to be upping my weight everytime if I can to push myself a little harder.

I've gotten a little inspiration from a fellow blogger. She just completed her first fitness competition (and placed!). Although I am not pushing myself that far or have that goal, I have follwed her blog through the whole process of preparing for the competition and have a new will to push myself to my limits. Seeing the transformation of someone is very inspiring to see. I know now to get the results I'm looking for, I need to really push myself.