Terry Fox Run

It thankfully was a better day that started off well.

Exercise:

I got up before the sun today to meet L for a workout. It’s always tough to get up and out the door, but on the way home, I felt so great that it makes it worth it:)

We did a half hour on the treadmill that combined speed work and hills. Ugh isn’t one of those at a time enough?? I did get 4.18km out of it though. We then moved to weights and did bicep curls, squat jumps (mine were much smoother than usual), squats, hip bridges with skipping intervals regularly. I pushed myself to use more weight than usual and was more successful than I was expecting, so it was all good:)

Teaching:

My students were much better today. We started the day with the Terry Fox Run. I got to attend the assembly with my students but the run was during my prep. I was super torn as it’s such a fun event to do with the children, but I get so little prep time that I always feel like I need to take it. Thankfully the prep was super productive and the kids still had fun with the music teacher.

We wrote about the run after recess and then after lunch we had our first buddy meetup. It was cool to see how well it worked out.

My students were all much better behaved today, though I spoke to one little guy first thing this morning about interrupting and so later in the morning he waited his turn to talk to me but ended up having a slight accident. We will definitely be discussing when and how to interrupt on Monday. I just really hope I don’t hear from the parents about this!

Cooking:

I bartered with myself and decided against an afternoon snack, but I stopped and got the ingredients for Mac and cheese. I made the sauce based loosely on this Minimalist Baker recipe and used Miyokos mozzarella cheese. It was dairy free and gluten free and tasted wonderful. It made a lot so I’ll be having several meals of it over the next few days.

I had some frozen chicken noodle soup for lunch and realized that pasta doesn’t seem to freeze well for me, so I’ll just eat this pasta dish for the next several meals.

Eating:

I’ve had:

2 rice cakes with Pb & j

Larabar

Chicken noodle soup

Mac and cheese

I have decided that each day I eat an appropriate amount with no unplanned snacking or treats, I will highlight the day in my planner. After five of these days I get to have a treat (non food) and when I hit my goal weight I am going to order the Lululemon crops I want:). Hopefully this will motivate me as the holiday 87 days from now is too far away to do the trick!☹️

Knitting:

I have spent a lot of this evening knitting and have finished my first sleeve and am a quarter of the way through the second one now! I have to admit I’m enjoying the plain knitting right now as then I can listen to podcasts:)

Well I’m going back to my second sleeve.

Have fun!

AJ

Cold, colder, coldest

A day which I spent trying to get warm!

Exercise:

4 degrees came as a shock this morning after two weeks in Arizona! I got my butt out of bed and headed out for my group run. Most were walking, but Dennis and I took off for a loop of the river. I started off running with Dennis and we were going fast, but of course I had forgotten to start my Runkeeper app:( After I stopped to start it, I was running much slower. Grrrrrrrr! I made it all the way around, but I sure noticed that I’m still congested! Sorry there’s no picture today but it was raining too hard to get one:( I got soaked!!!

Coffee afterwards was loads of fun and it was nice we had a new woman join us- Joanne. I didn’t get to talk to her, but she seemed nice:)

Reading:

I finished Glazed Murder by Jessica Beck.

This is the story of Suzanne Hart who owns Donut Hearts. She has the body of one of her customers dropped on her doorstep one morning. She decides to combine her donut making with sleuthing to find the killer.

I liked how the story revolves around her friendships with Grace, Emma and George. I also liked how there was a touch of romance with the state police investigator. I also liked how there were recipes included.

I didn’t love how the recipes weren’t really connected to the story; they seemed kind of random. I also didn’t love how the murderer seemed to come out of the blue at the end. There was almost no discussion of him throughout the book and then wham in the last chapter, Suzanne and the state investigator both suddenly decide it’s him! Unh unh!

It was a cute cosy mystery, but I would recommend a Joanne Fluke book before this one.

On the reading front I am thinking that I should avoid going to the library this month and try to get some of the books read that I have around the house! My place is starting to feel a little cluttered and this could help!

Cooking:

I went grocery shopping and got some food into the house. I bought nothing packaged and stuck to fruits, veggies and protein. I got my food ready for the week- oatmeal for breakfast, fruit for recess, stir fry for lunch, and cinnamon Chex for after school snack. I also bought hummus and veggies for my dinners! Yay I accomplished two things- I cooked an actual dish- stir fry and I got my food ready so I’ll eat better:)

Socializing:

I was just picking up the phone to text Lyndsay when she texted to find out if I wanted to go for coffee. I am thankful for Lyndsay every day! She kicks my butt in workouts, she encourages me, she hangs out with me- she’s just a great friend! We met up at Cafe Divano and had tea:) I must have been having a great time as I didn’t even think of taking pictures!!! I just had tea, but I did buy three gf/df treats to split up and have a little each day. I know I have a sweet tooth and if I have a little something occasionally I will happily stick to a healthy eating plan. Hopefully the mini brownie, peanut butter cookie and Orchard cookie will do the trick! I split them all in half so I can have a bite each day. I’ll be trying to wean myself down to once a week, but wanted to start slowly. It’s going to be tough enough to get back to reality!

I also finally tried the almond baileys I had bought before my holiday. I didn’t find it very sweet and I’m thinking it will find a new home at my brother’s place. It just wasn’t worth the calories to me! I’m glad I tried it though so now I know and have an informed opinion.

Knitting:

I wanted to complete the Quidditch match in HPKCHC so I cleaned up the pile of yarn I’ve been creating during this past busy month. I got it all put where it belongs and only my next few projects left out.I also started the actual knitting of my year in temperature scarf.I love the idea of this scarf, but so far I’m not loving how it’s looking. I think it loses its impact because there are no clear rows. I had decided to do just one row for each day as otherwise it was going to be too long for me, but I think this is the problem:(. I would suggest to anyone doing this to do the two rows per day! I’m considering making this sweater instead.I’m having a tough time giving up on the scarf, but I bought expensive, beautiful yarn for it so I’m thinking I should make something I’ll love. Anyone’s thoughts and opinions are welcome.

I also ripped out a Cowl that had somehow gotten a hole in it and which I never wore because it curled. Now I just have to figure out what to do with 246 yards of DK yarn!!!

Well that’s the sum total of my day and I’m off to bed in the hopes of getting up early for a run:)

Have fun!

AJ

Everything Crafty

A lovely day with my mom:)

Exercise:

I slept in this morning right to the 7:40 alarm!!! Wow!! Good thing I had set it so that I wouldn’t be late. I really felt non-energetic, but I had arranged to work out so off I went! We did a speed interval workout and then a hill interval workout on the treadmill. I wasn’t as fast as I usually am, but it will do. We then hit the floor work which was interspersed with elliptical minutes. I was definitely sweating by the end and the fact it kept changing actually made it seem to go faster:) I love working out with Lyndsay as she inspires me to challenge myself! I will never be where she is, but I definitely up the weights!!!

That is the only exercise I got to today, though I realized that the running I do with Lyndsay isn’t recorded on my runkeeper app:( I do all these extra kilometres that end up not counting towards my monthly goal:( Oh well…

One of my readers ( I still can’t believe I actually have readers🤣!) asked what the story is behind my commitment to running. It’s a long story, but the short version is that I spent my childhood overweight, lethargic, continuously feeling sick, with rheumatism and bad eczema. (Who knew it was all from food allergies that I would finally get diagnosed at the age of thirty!) I started running a bit in junior high. I’d go out really early in the morning and run out Back lane so that I wouldn’t meet anyone. That was going pretty good until one day I decided to do my run on the school track. A grade ten idiot boy walked beside me and jeered at me that he could walk as fast as I ran. Now I know I should have told my brothers, or at least not listened to him, but at the time I quit and didn’t run again for about ten years.  I really wish I had stuck with it and gotten i to running earlier! When I started to lose weight,I conquered  walking and then moved into running. I joined a local running group, hoping to meet new people, and ended up taking a learn to run clinic, several trail clinics, and two half marathon clinics as well as going back to lead the learn to run clinic. I joke that running gave me exercise and a life🤣. Today I can’t imagine not running! I love the high I get from it, the sense of accomplishment, the sporty way I feel, the awesome feeling of being able to wear anything I want, the feeling I’ve done something good for myself, and ensuring that I never go back to where I was!  There you have it- my running life in a nutshell:)

Cooking:

I got my food organized for this week. The scale has been creeping up a bit after all the good people made for us last week so I’m hoping to be super careful this week. Be warned, this will probably make me grumpy or hangry as I call it. I got all my food ready today. I have some friends who hate doing this but I find it saves me so much time during the week and then I don’t come in and eat a meal while I prepare my meal! I have toast and pub for breakfast, an apple for recess, yogurt, oatmeal and blueberries for lunch, carrots and peanut butter or hummus for after school snack and then chicken pasta bake for dinner.  Thank goodness I don’t mind eating the same thing everyday:) The toughest thing is going to be breaking my sweets habit I have right now, especially as I need to bake a birthday cake this week to try it and then make it again on Sunday.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you that I tried out a new tea today. It is a Celestial Seasonings Holiday Tea I had bought at the same time as the gingerbread spice tea I’ve been enjoying the past few weeks. 

My mom was sharing it with me so you’ll get two opinions. We both noticed that the tea stayed very light even though it was left to steep for at least five minutes. My mom’s comment was that it seemed weird that it was that light and that it really didn’t taste like much. I have to agree- if you’re looking for a tea that is very unflavourful, this will be perfect. The taste isn’t off- putting in any way- there’s just not a lot of taste there:( I also spent the whole time I was drinking it trying to figure out what I was smelling from it. I never did figure it out.  Overall I was very disappointed as I was really looking forward to sugar cookie tea!

Crafting:

I spent the day with my mom. ( I’m already dreading her leaving😔🙁). She tackled my seat cover again and I got ALL of my fourteen tea mug cosies finished for Christmas. Yay🎉🎊. This is rather late for me as I am usually done my presents in the summer, but I feel much better now that they are done. My house smells strongly of the essential oils I dabbed on them (I ended up using up three vials I had been given by a student last year- citrus bliss, lemongrass and lavender) and I can only hope they’ll retain that scent until I give them at Christmas!! I have them in plastic ziploc bags but if you have other advice for keeping the smell, please let me know!

This evening I watched Never Been Kissed, yes I am a rom com addict, while I worked on my toque. I think the fourth try might be a winner!! I’m loving how the colouring is working out! I’ll take a picture when it’s finished.

Shopping:

My mom realized this afternoon that she needed bias tape for the slipcover edges so we went over to the mall. We were hoping Walmart would have the bias tape, but they didn’t:( I did get my new earbuds returned, my three gift certificates transferred into one and some tea sachets bought to include with the tea mug cosy. My gifts are always homemade Christmas items, but they can include store bought items too. Maybe I’ll also make some cookies to put with them. Hmmm I’ll have to think about this!

I’m very disappointed about the earbuds as my run tomorrow morning is going to be very long without music! If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know:)

Blogging:

I have to ask if anyone knows how to solve this problem. I accidentally followed someone whose posts are in a different language, but when I press the ellipsis, and “unfollow site”, it says that I can’t:( Anyone know how to unfollow this blog???

Well I’m desperate to get some reading done so I’m going to go enjoy the last hour of my four day weekend (every weekend should be at least three days!) cuddled in bed with my book!

Have fun!

AJ

A Little of This, A Little of That…

Since I plan to do nothing more than knit on the couch, I might as well tell you about my day:)

Exercise:

As I drove to my run this morning at a local park, the sky ahead of me was so beautiful! The sun was just coming up and I always love that yellow glow that overtakes the sky. I thought about stopping to get a picture, but I knew it wouldn’t do it justice. I did get a picture of the gorgeous pond at the park though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that still. The park is off leash for dogs until 10am so normally there’s a couple playing in the water. I guess it was just too cold this morning.

My run this morning was lovely as Sarah and Kula showed up to keep me company and Dennis also came and went on our run. He’s super fast so I think he was doing circles around us. Even with taking it slow and allowing for Kula stops (everyone wants to pat a cute puppy), it still only took us 37 minutes. I was expecting 45, so pretty good.  It was a gorgeous morning, but I was surprised by he lack of colour change on the leaves. I keep wanting to have pretty Fall running pictures for you, but I’ll just have to give you the gorgeous views from my condo!

I also got my butt off the couch later this evening for a workout. It was called the leg burner and was aptly named. Only 16 minutes long, but by 3/4 of the way through, my legs were talking. Think a lot of lunges, squats and jumping with weights! I cheated at the end and did twisted mountain climbers instead of broad jump burpees. 😂

Now I just have to come up with where to run tomorrow!

Socializing:

Just coffee after our run, though I did hang out in Starbucks for an extra fifteen minutes after all my running buddies left to take advantage of the free wifi.  It was just a quiet day today for me:)

Eating:

I got all my food ready for the week- cinnamon raisin bread with peanut butter for breakfast, blueberries and yogurt for recess, turkey soup to which I added the ground pork I needed to cook up for lunch, cheese and cucumber for dinner:) Hopefully this will help me have a healthy week as the scale hasn’t been my friend since Thanksgiving and I’m not about to let it get out of control.

The one thing I did do for the first time in the kitchen today was to cook bacon in the oven.  I hate cooking bacon because I am level wi the stove so all those splatters are getting my face and neck- not fun!  I put a cooling rack over a tinfoil lined baking sheet and laid out the bacon slices. I cooked them at 350 for about ten minutes and they came out great. Definitely the easiest and cleanest way I’ve ever made bacon before and I’ll definitely be doing it again! I put the bacon in my soup as I don’t actually care for bacon, so I’m hoping I won’t notice it too much in there!

Reading:

I made myself read a chapter of the Shadow of the Wind after every twelve rows I knitted today. I’m almost halfway and the story line is picking up and becoming more interesting. Yipppee!

Lol I realized I do this a lot- work on many things at once, doing a little of each. It can’t be multiples of the same type though- like there is never two knitting projects at once, lol. I like to accomplish and I feel as though this technique allows me to accomplish as much as possible without getting bored or a project. The only thing I haven’t worked on today that I should have was my photo project. I’ll have to start doing five or ten labels each day and I’ll be done in no time:)

Knitting:

This got the majority of my attention today. I was knitting away on the cushion cover and was over halfway when I realized that it seemed quite large. I of course hadn’t heckled gauge because it was just a cushion cover 😜, but I quickly determined it was going to be a long and low cushion cover instead of a square.

Pattern:

I used the pattern smushion from Ravelry for its stitch counts, etc but didn’t follow the pattern as my mom was right, it wouldn’t have shown up.  I knit 94 stitches for about 44 rows, then bound off 47 of them for the back. I knit another 3″ and then made four button holes in the next row. My button holes were only 2 stitches wide as the four called for, seemed extremely large! I knit another inchc after the button holes and then casted off. I mattress stitches the bottom together and voila I had a cushion cover. I just need to hit Walmart tomorrow for a cushion insert and four buttons because of course I don’t have four the same:(

I have entered this project into the Muggle Studies class on the Harry Potter House Cup group because it definitely was made with irritating yarn!  I sneezed repeatedly from dust while taking the sweater apart and then since the wool wasn’t smooth, it was continuously getting caught on itself, grrrrr!😬

I have just started a doll blanket out of the same yarn for my secretary’s granddaughter, but hopefully I’ll be done that before bed. I think tomorrow I’ll be casting on the 98-33 handwarmers that Abbey of Three Cats and a Girl is making. I need a pair for work because my room is cold!

Well I’m off to finish the doll blanket. Sorry I didn’t have an exciting day to tell you about, but I did get some rest and relaxation which will hopefully stand me in good stead for the week!

Have fun!

AJ

Calm and Peaceful, or …

A day spent doing the quiet things I love:)

Exercise:

I have to admit I wanted to avoid the craziness associated with Terry Fox runs (I will do that with my students in a few weeks), so myself and one running buddy headed out to Osprey Village in Pitt Meadows. I always think this area seems so idyllic when I drive into the village and I want to explore, but I have yet to get out there for anything other than a run:(

My running buddy suggested 20 minutes out and then turn which sounded fine to me. I wasn’t racing along, but it was a nice morning for a run ( though it seemed slightly smokey out there). We ran along the shoreline trail and then the dyke which is beside the airport so it was interesting to watch the small planes land and takeoff. I find it tough sometimes with this running buddy as he is super fast so his “slowing down” to run with me is still too fast and when he stays with me, I feel like he’s hardly moving and not getting everything out of his run that he should.  People have told me countless times that I’m not holding back someone who slows down to run with me, but unfortunately my brain refuses to acknowledge this so far:(

I didn’t get a walk in, but I did get a workout completed this evening:) It was called a round robin and it didn’t have any times attached to it, so I decided to do each exercise for one minute. This wasn’t s problem, except for the pop jacks where I did 22 and actually felt sick to my stomach at the end of the minute.  I was super sweaty by the end and it was nice to feel that way! Just feel bad for the guy who lives below me. I keep meaning g to ask him if there’s a time he’s out so I could e we use without worrying about disturbing him.  Maybe the worry burns extra calories 😂

Eating:

I have stuck to my plan today ( I actually inserted the two marshmallows as my afternoon snack so I don’t have to feel terribly guilty though it’s definitely not a healthy 100 calories 🤣

Instead of baking, as I am drawn to do on these rainy days, I tried a new crockpot oats recipe this morning, well actually maybe that’s last night as I put it together before bed and actually woke up around 12:30 to turn them on:)   I ended up using both oats and quinoa as I didn’t have quite enough oats, but that is the only change I made. The recipe I used can be found here:

https://crockpotladies.com/recipe/crock-pot-banana-bread-oatmeal/

I was surprised and a little disappointed that I didn’t smell the oatmeal when I woke up this morning as in the past I have. I noticed when I lifted the lid that the oats had stuck to the crockpot even though I buttered it. The oats tasted good and the spice mixture was yummy. I have to say that I ended up adding brown sugar to it as it wasn’t as sweet as I like. Using bananas that are super ripe may help with this problem too. If you don’t like a sweet oatmeal breakfast, I would recommend this recipe for you, but I think I’ll keep looking.

Knitting:

I have to admit that I have spent almost all day knitting today. I have seen real progress on the exquisite afghan and I think I have less than fifty rows to go!  This is the point at which my brain says, “let’s just get it done!” I’ll have to remind myself not to stay up all night knitting as I have a six am workout tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to share a completed picture tomorrow!

So I have spent the day doing hobbies that I enjoy and while the peace has been lovely and necessary, since last week was busy and this coming week looks to be even busier, part of me keeps thinking I’m living like a little old lady and I need to get out more!  I find it tough as my hobbies do tend to be ones that are enjoyed individually so it makes it hard to use them to be social or meet people:( I am active, but definitely not athletic so playing a sport that requires any type of hand and eye coordination would just lead to me annoying all the people I’d be with!  I’m just not sure how I’m going to solve this problem!  Or perhaps I have spent too much time alone this weekend and I should quit thinking!

But for right now, I’m going back to my knitting.

Have fun!

AJ

A Totally Fabulous Saturday!

It’s been a great day from start to finish!

Exercise:

I woke up this morning at 5:48am (why, I don’t know?), but it got me out the door by 6:20 to face the crunch. I felt like I was doing well and I was ahead of my expectations until I got to the final (5th) part and suddenly I got my worst time yet:(

When I compared last week to this week, ( no runkeeper I don’t need to pay for the premium to do this!) I noticed that I started off slower, so I really think I need to concentrate on gaining some time on the first few sections so that I have more than six minutes for the last. I identified some spots (on my run down) where I think I could run up next week and I’m wondering if it would be faster to walk up the hill than to do the stairs? It might kill my timing if it’s not faster, but I think I’ll try next week.

I also got workout #2 in this afternoon which was a warm up, and then ten exercises, such as DB press with a squat jump forward and back, push-up with leg raise, plank with side leg raise, side lunges, forward lunge to deadlift.it wassupposed to be two 30 second sets through, but I decided to challenge myself and do one minute sets. Then there was a minute of jacks, a burnout of mountain climbers, etc and abs. It wasn’t a deadly workout but I felt like I worked everything:)

I even got out for a walk this evening as well, so I am totally happy with my fitness for the day!

Socializing:

I went to antique fair with two work colleagues/friends this morning. There were probably over a hundred vendors and unfortunately most of them were overpriced. My frugal nature likes garage sales much more! I did manage to find a big glass jar to add to my collection for holding my various flours and I got a Harry Potter lego cook for my classroom. Not the most exciting finds, but as I said, stuff was too expensive and some vendors weren’t willing to barter:( It was a successful morning in the sense of quality time with my friends though!

My mom actually made the purchase of the day when she found two table lamps for my classroom in a second hand store on the Island for $15! Yay Mom!!!!

Eating:

I’ve had a much better day in terms of eating than I have had lately. I got to have my cinnamon bun after my run this morning. I should have taken a snack with me, but managed to just have chicken when I came in the door, though I was starving. I added fruit salad with a dollop of yogurt and some veggies and dip, cucumber and cheese for dinner. I was so stuffed after this dinner that I went for a walk.  I am definitely happier when I can snack than when I have to eat a meal! I wanted to bake this morning, but made fruit salad instead to contribute to my healthy week! Oh I forgot, I also had two marshmallows. Not bad, one little slip from the plan.

Reading:

I finished the book Homecoming by Shannon Stacey tonight for the second time😀. I realized pretty early on that I had already read it but decided to reread it anyways.  This is the third instalment in her Boys of Fall series (seems the perfect time to read it) and tells the story of Jen Cooper and Sam Leavitt. They grew up together but didn’t have much interaction until one hot night when Sam had been back in town briefly for a football fundraiser. When Sam comes back to coach during an emergency, they get together more seriously.

Yet again, I enjoyed the friendship group in this book. They are close without being joined at the hip.  I also enjoyed the quietness of the problem, both characters stayed true to their natures and there wasn’t any high drama!

I think that anyone who likes sports romances or small town romances will enjoy this entire trilogy!

Knitting:

I’ve had lots of time for knitting today, but little jobs have gotten in the way so I will probably only get one pattern repeat done, even though I thought I’d get at least two. Oh well, tomorrow is another day and I’ll have even more time then. I was super happy this morning though when I found my yarn at the Port Meadows Michaels store. I quick bought the three extra balls I needed😀. I’m not sure that the new balls are the same dye lit as I can’t even find a dye kit on these labels, so I think I will start intermixing them right away so that if there’s a difference in colour, it will be throughout the second half of the afghan.  I’m off to knit to my heart’s content!

Have fun!

AJ

Friyay!

In a rush to get things done today!

Exercise:

For the first time since I started getting up an hour early to run, I was feeling tired and didn’t really want to get up this morning. I did anyway! A few weeks ago a friend had told me she ran loops of Newport Village, so I decided to try that out this morning. The first problem with this was that I had t go across major roads with traffic lights to get there. Secondly, no matter which direction you run the loop, two sides are always uphill! Thirdly, after two loops, I was bored! I cut back through the village and went across at the light and back down to my usual trail. It was an odd run with no real plan or direction, but at least I got thirty minutes done. I got back to my phone telling me I had done 7km with an average of 4:14 per km. I don’t think so! I had to erase it, all that hard work gone:(. The best I can think is that when Spotify went to commercial, it screwed up the runkeeper as it was good until 3km in and then suddenly I was Superwoman and doing kilometres in 1:29! I wish! Well no actually I don’t, as I like to look at the scenery as I run🤣

Does anyone know of a good run tracking program? I hate to lose all my data, but I really want a reliable program and this is two days in a row that I’ve had troubles:(

I walked to and from work and got a quick 20 minute circuit done when I got home late tonight. I was supposed to do three sets -45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, but instead I did two- one minute sets. It was a pretty good circuit of using a bench to do step ups, dips, squats, hip bridges, push-ups, knee tucks, froggers, and plank jacks.  I wasn’t very sweaty though:( I hope this will help with getting me moving in the right direction!

Teaching:

Well my class and I made it through our first week of officially being a class. Only one little boy ended up in the hall for rolling around on the carpet and I only had to give one lecture on following directions quickly; not bad for a Friday! I have learned a lot about my students this week as each day they have brought a different object in and we have talked and written about it. Tuesday was something from summer, Wednesday about their family, Thursday a hobby and today their favourite book. It was pretty cool and it was neat to see what they brought. I love the boys who were looking at a Pacific Yachting magazine. My parents would love them!  I’ve identified my little guy who doesn’t want to do any writing unless he knows how to spell it:(. We’ve also spent the week graphing our names, family size, hair colour and eye colour. The children are getting really good at creating graphs. Each day we have written about what we noticed about the graph as a class, and it was neat to see them move from, “it looks like stairs” to ” blue eyes only needs one more to be tied with brown eyes”. I love teaching grade one for the amount of growth you see in the children, though I think writing about it is helping me to see the growth more too:). This afternoon we did our co-operative art piece that will stay up all year. I demonstrated how to decorate the star and my students started clapping for me. Lol, they really are good for the ego:)

Life and Eating:

I’m going out tomorrow and I’m the one driving so I knew I needed gas so I headed to Costco after work. I managed to get gas, a rotisserie chicken, some cucumbers and grape tomatoes. I’m not happy with the scale right now and so want to use the next three days to really crack down and get back on track before I get any further off track! You all might be seeing lots of pictures of my food for the next three days as I figure that will keep me accountable. I had to stop by Walmart as well so grabbed some yogurt, fruits and more veggies so I should be good to go!

Knitting:

I caved and printed many of the Purl Soho free patterns today. I don’t know if it’s the lighting or if their projects are all just amazing, but I find them very attractive and want to do them!  I’m going to organize them into plastic sheet protectors this weekend, so they’ll be ready to go when I’m done the afghan. I also printed the pattern that I think I will use for the New Hampshire slippers.   I just need to get this “Exquisite” afghan done! I had decided that I needed to buy three more balls of the yarn (which was the reason for the trip to Walmart where my mom bought it), but they didn’t have any:(. I guess I will check the two other local Walmart, but after that, I don’t know what I’m going to do:(

Well on that note, I’m going to finish my last eight rows of this pattern repeat and hit me bed with a book as it’s been a long day!

Have fun!

AJ

Sorry,Just Another Day

It seemed like just another day…

Exercise:

I worked out this morning as I was trying to make myself go to run clinic tonight. I did the dirty thirty workout. It wasn’t perfect as I didn’t want to be stomping around at 6:20 in the morning, so I went low impact but tried to go deep into the moves. It was at least something! I was sweating, but not like I usually am after a workout:(

I walked to and from work which I’ve decided has to count for my walk, even though it’s only 27 minutes total.

I did get my butt out the door to run clinic at the Port Moody Runner’s Den tonight. It was tough as I was nervous! I used to be a loyal clinic attendee but somehow I got away from it. I’ve decided that I need to get back to it!! I went with the ten minute group as that was the one a friend was leading. It was a challenge, but I managed to maintain a spot in the middle of the group.  We did intervals of 90 seconds hard/60 seconds rest, 60 seconds hard/ 30 seconds rest, 30 seconds hard/2.5 min rest and we did the set four times. It was a good challenge, but I didn’t feel hopeless and I think it will really help my running to be forced to try new things! Adding 7km to my monthly total was nice too!

Teaching:

Well the honeymoon period is waning. I had a little boy who made it to his third warning for putting his hands on others and had to step out into the hall and I had to re-organize the carpet seating to split up some problematic groups of children. It’s only the second day!! I can’t be that mean of a teacher though as I got four hugs and a picture today:) We are making progress in knowing the routines, though I really need to get on memorizing the “special order” as right now, I have the worst time figuring out if they’re in the correct order 😂 We have definitely been planning too much as I always forget how young they are when they come into my classroom in September. They really are just kindergarteners still! We’ll get there though:)

Knitting:

I’ve managed to get four rows of my afghan done tonight. It’s great that I am knitting this right now as it is cooler at night now and the afghan is keeping me warm as I knit on it:)

Healthy Living:

I have to admit that I’ve been slacking on the careful eating and consequently I’ve been ranging from 98-101 pounds. Tonight though my friend noticed and commented on the fact that I had lost weight. That has definitely given me the impetus to be more careful, I didn’t even have a snack when I came home:) I better come up with some healthy meals from my cupboards and I need to remember how little I actually need to eat to survive!

I often think that people avoid commenting on weight loss as they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing or making the person feel bad, but sometimes it’s just what the person needs. I’ve worked hard and nobody says anything. I didn’t lose the weight for anyone but myself, but it is nice to have it noticed on occasion, that I look better than I used to!

I’ll have to work on having more exciting days do that my blog is more interesting:) 🤣

Have fun!

AJ

Motivation

Well my holiday cost me two pounds and a lot of muscle tone. It could have been much worse ( I think running all but two days really helped), but it was enough motivation to get me back on a healthy lifestyle:)

I did my usual run around the Burrard Inlet to Rocky Point Park tonight. It was weird because at times I had the feeling I was kind of running sideways, like some dogs do🤔. My times weren’t too bad though so I was happy!

Those two pounds were also motivation for some healthy grocery shopping and meal prep. My fruit salad is ready for the week. This week it is cantaloupe, watermelon, pear, plum, Apple, banana and a mandarin orange. My veggies are cut up and ready to be munched on. I also splurged and got the individual packages of guacamole to eat with my veggies as I figure portion control is going to be very important as I get my stomach shrunk back down to its regular size.

The two pounds also motivated the Pylo Circuit workout this evening and a walk. Not bad for my first day back from holidays!

My walk was only half of the usual because I had a bee that just wouldn’t stop following me. That was enough motivation to come home!

I had meant to stop in at Matteo’s Gelato so I could enjoy a treat since I was going to  be in the area, but I was so focused on wanting to see the eclipse today that before I knew it, I was out of Port Coquitlamand up getting my groceries. I guess the eclipse provided good motivation today too:)

I spent a lot of today looking at slipper patterns on Ravelry. 46 pages of them in fact. I’ve narrowed it down to the fact I want a pair I can wear over socks, they need to have an interesting stitch pattern and they need to have one button that is just for pretty! I spent all this time looking as slippers are what I want to make out of my New Hampshire wool, but then I realized I had my turtleneck on the go still and my parent’s afghan to make. Wanting to get started on my slippers motivated me to get the back of my nubby knit turtleneck done. Hopefully it will continue to motivate me!!!

Reading a wordpress blog I follow also motivated me to join KAL fanatics on Ravelry. Lately I’ve heard so much about these KAL’s that I’m intrigued. Hopefully this board is a good place to start. If there’s a better place, please tell me.

My sweater has also motivated me to stay up until an appropriate West Coast bedtime. It’s good I had the motivation as I’ve been wanting to sleep for a while now! I think I’ll give in:)

Have fun!

AJ

Success!

So on my first day of holiday when I can do anything I want, like sleep in, what do I do? I wake up at 6am to write my list of all the things I should do today. Then of course I have to hop right out of bed to start on the list. Perhaps I take my love of accomplishing things too far?

I did not do anything really exciting today, but I did get all but three things done on my list, so I must count the day as a success.

Success #1: I was a two digit 99 pounds this morning which made me much happier!

Success #2: I stuck to my healthy eating plan all day except for a few raspberries. I’m not going to beat myself up over raspberries!

Success #3: I did all three of my planned exercise times. I had a lovely thirty minute run along the inlet trail and around Rocky Point Park this morning. As much as I enjoyed running in new areas, it’s also nice to do the usual and I did a 6:48km at one point. I wonder what hill I was going down? Lol🤣 I did the dynamic strength weight routine this afternoon and then walked the inlet trail this evening. As I write this, I realize I probably should have walked somewhere else to change it up, but oh well.

Success #4: I got out to Ankars Farms and bought some raspberries and have already started on freezing them. I went for blueberries, but the raspberries were just too yummy to resist! I’ll go back when I’m done the raspberries for some blueberries. I got strawberries from this farm in Port Coquitlam earlier in the summer and had been super happy with them. So good!!!!😋

Success #5: I got all my laundry done and put away and my sheets changed. I love the smell of laundry but for some reason it can linger in the dryer forever. Today it didn’t! Yay!

Success #6: Dealt with my accumulated holiday mail and made the phone calls and texts I needed to without procrastinating. I’ve been told that I need to replace my toilet because some have cracked and usually I would put off texting my cousin to see if he could come do this because I hate asking people to do things and I always feel like I’m disturbing people, but today I got right on it and he’s coming next week. I did learn that all toilets look the same to me so I told him I’d leave it in his capable hands:)

Success #7: I got another day of my 2014 LA holiday album labelled. Can you tell I’m really behind on making my photo albums. Yes I do them the old fashioned way by printing the pictures and writing sticky labels for them. I need to get this album done as you see it’s a domino effect. If I get the LA album done, I can print off the pictures from my phone for the Montreal album which will give me room to take pictures when I’m in Boston. Lol why is nothing ever simple?

Success #8: I did some research for my Boston trip. I am looking into knitting shops and gluten free/ dairy free food options and as usual, because I hate computer work, I’ve been putting this off, but I’m meeting with my travel buddy on Wednesday so know I need to get on this. All I know so far is that I may not be eating much in Boston:(

So with all of these small success, I think I did ok today. I should probably have just enjoyed the couch since it’s my only day at home today, but the list was calling to me!

Have fun!

AJ