I am supposed to be here at the office on a rainy Saturday, doing homework and work/work, but somehow whipping up a little blog post seems more like the thing to do. So let’s be quick about it, shall we?

Alright! First topic: I loooooove this nail polish I impulsively picked up at Walmart a week or so ago. It’s sheer, it’s irridescent, it has unbelievable staying power. I am looking forward to applying it over opaque colours for a multitude of new looks with my old faves.

“Count on Me” to be the only polish you’d take to a desert island!

Next quick topic: Peonies. My neighbour brought me over a beautiful bunch from his garden. They have perfumed the whole house. I think, next to hydrangeas (for their staying power), these are my favourite flowers.

Last topic: the weather. Now, I am not saying that we caused this sudden onset of wet weather in an up-to-now very dry spring (although I do admit to doing a few mental and not-so-mental rain-dances while gardening).

But it does seem suspicious that it has rained every other day ever since we threw a whole lot of grass seed d0wn in the backyard. In fact the rain started just as JD and I were finishing up in the backyard and installing the now-unnecessary sprinkler, to get the darn seeds wet enough to germinate.

What are the chances that the weather gods would actually cooperate with us for a change? Maybe I should be buying lottery tickets. We could be on a roll here.

That’s all for now! We now return to our regularly scheduled homework.

I hate the way people drive these days.

Have you noticed the amount of aggression on the roads lately? I certainly have. I don’t remember people driving this way in my youth. Especially not women. Sure, there was the occasional “mental patient” out there (“Must be late for his psychiatric/anger management appointment” is my husband’s droll response upon experiencing one of these types of drivers, usually)….but these days….well, it’s a whole ‘nother story.

Every day tests my resolve not to give these yahoos the finger, leave a note on their car, or otherwise vent my disgust at them using the road as their personal motorway, and to hell with my (and everyone else’s safety). Clearly we did not get the memo that they own the road and to get the hell out of the way because they are coming through and MUST NOT BE IMPEDED IN ANY WAY. I must have misplaced mine….again.

Yesterday I was coming home from a lovely dinner with my mom and daughter, driving on a bridge, and I noticed in the rear view mirror that the car behind me was driving too fast and too close. I switched my attention to the line of cars ahead of me that were slowing down rapidly. Thus I had to touch my brakes to slow my own (traveling a safe speed and stopping distance) vehicle down. I fully expected to be rear-ended by Ms. (yes, it was a female) Tailgater. Because we were on a bridge, there was no where for her (or I) to go in order to avoid a collision. When I looked in the mirror again, it was apparent she had seen my brake lights – but because she was following too closely she had to STOMP on her brakes in order to avoid colliding with my car’s rear end.

What happened next certainly surprised me, but maybe I am just that naive. Ms. Tailgater proceeded to lay on the horn and gesticulate wildly (I always wanted to write that!) at ME. Like I had done something wrong. Obviously I did, I guess. I did not read the memo yet again, the one that said she was ON HER WAY SOMEWHERE IMPORTANT and MUSTN’T BE SLOWED DOWN IN HER PROGRESS TOWARDS THE DESTINATION. The one that said “IF YOU SEE ME APPROACHING IN THE REAR VIEW, JUST PULL OVER TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD I OWN. THINGS WILL GO BETTER THIS WAY FOR BOTH OF US, TRUST ME.”

I didn’t react to her. I didn’t give her the finger she-oh-so-richly deserved. You know the finger I mean. The finger that speaks volumes without saying a single word. That finger.

I did smile though.

And my smile got bigger and bigger as I noticed the huge distance she kept between our cars as we started moving again in traffic.

Do you think she learned anything? Or am I just being optimistic that her post-incident response meant she had seen the error of her  road-hogging ways?

 

My weight loss has stalled over the past few weeks, but I continue to feel thinner…no doubt about it.

So, time to whip out the tape measure!

The stats are in:

Chest – lost 1 inch

Waist – lost 4 inches

Hips – lost 2.5 inches

Upper arm – lost 1 inch

Thighs – lost 2 inches

Imagine what these numbers could have looked like, had I actually had time to exercise (other than the chores of everyday life, and walks)!

I guess what the experts say is true – it IS 80% attributable to diet, when it comes to changing your appearance for the better.

“Today I don’t feel like doing anything. I just want to lay in my bed.” Bruno Mars, The Lazy Song.

  “Everyday I don’t feel like doing anything. I just want to read the Harry Potter Series (finally!) and admire my new crackle pedicure.” Mizz D, The Lazy Week.

Stay tuned, more to come once batteries have been recharged…

July Goal accomplished.

WOOHOO!!!!!

Check the Workout Log Calendar page for details. I lost another 2 inches (5.5 in total since end of May), and am 7 lbs down since end of May also. Seven pounds lost over 2 months may seem like a snail’s pace to some (OK, to me too) but when I put it in context with my schedule, the amount of eating out we did last month, the various July celebrations that involved food (MBA acceptances, birthdays etc.), it’s actually amazing that I didn’t gain weight.

This is an especially sweet victory for me, as July WUZ HECTIC…sigh. Most of my free moments were spent at the golf course or the driving range, helping JD prepare for his Playing Ability Test on the 28th (which he sadly, did not pass…but we are trying again this month!). Usually, when my life goes to the proverbial “hell in a handbasket” (meaning I have little or no time to think/plan/prepare, only to react), all of my goals/dreams tend to be unceremoniously dumped and I revert to pure survival mode…whatever gets me through the day.

But, this month was different. Although I stopped my Couch to 5K Training  (which proved to be too much on top of walking 9-18 holes of golf most evenings, with the ensuing Golfer’s Rash due to the extreme heat),  I managed to do 31 times 10 minute strength training workouts as per my goal. People, I cannot stress enough how major this is for me. It means I can take the CrazyTown exit on my road through this life and still work towards my goals, successfully!

To what do I attribute my success? Extreme willpower? Supreme focus? Superlative time management skills?

No, no and especially NO.

Two words. Blogging and logging.

First, I put it out there, to the universe, so to speak. I blogged about my goal for July.

Then I made sure to update my calendar page daily with my accomplishments. Yep, I stopped just short of giving myself digital gold stars (I would if I knew how, believe me)…but I entered in all of what I did in the July Calendar and that inspired me to just DO MORE so I could fill that sucker up.

And it kept me accountable. I could review it to see what days I missed in my strength workouts and then I could double or triple them on a less crazily overbooked day to catch up.

I also logged my food and exercise at MyFitnessPal.com, a fabulous site for those in the mood to improve their health and fitness by writing it all down. What… you mean the more I move, the more I can eat? Well, sign me up!!!!! Accountability PLUS incentive – what more do I need?

So here we are at August 1 and I am still residing in CrazyTown as JD has signed up for another couple of qualifying tournaments this month (fingers firmly crossed for him!). This time instead of 36 holes in one day, he is playing 18 on the 16th and another 18 on the 30th, in order to get those qualifying scores. Another month of living la vida golf loca.

However, still basking in my July goal success, I am not going to let that deter me from setting August goals.

Goal #1 – Purging/organizing at Chez Mizz D. I am setting a goal of 10 hours this month. 2.5 hours per week. Doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? But it’s 10 more hours than what I am currently doing, so that is, indeed, A LOT.

Goal #2 – Continue with Strength Training. I did just over 5 hours of this activity in July (310 minutes to be exact) and need to keep that up. So another 5+ hours is my goal, at a minimum.

Two goals. One crazy month. It can be done. It shall be done.

Who’s with me? Who else wants to put their August goals out there?

Yesterday I had an almost perfect day. It went like this:

Got up (too early since Friday night was late, but that’s OK…see Nap, later). Headed out to Cora’s Restaurant for breakfast with JD’s (and now mine) Auntie Lorna, down from Exeter, and to meet her old friend and neighbour Aya, who she is staying with. (I had my usual delicious Bobby Button breakfast with only tomatoes, spinach and cheese in the omelet. Ate half, took the other half home to enjoy later,  for lunch.)

It was a wonderful visit and always, when I am in the presence of vibrant older women, I just soak it all up…I find it so inspiring to see healthy and engaged elders enjoying life, still thriving despite life’s inevitable blows, both minor and major. Both ladies have been widows for quite some time and both expressed to me their total surprise that they were able to function so well without their  “decision makers” in their lives any more.  It certainly seemed to me that they were functioning well – their agenda for the rest of Saturday made my head spin. Oh, to have that much energy to pack so many things to do into a day when I am in my seventies!

After bidding the ladies adieu, I went back home to put my breakfast leftovers in the fridge and to get ready to walk down to the Village centre to my pedicure appointment, with the lovely Tracy of Tips n’ Toes by Tracy. By some miracle (told you I was having a near-perfect day, didn’t I?), I had some extra time to stop off at the Library on the way to Tracy.

The library has been one of my happy places since I was a young child. My definition of a perfect summer Saturday when I was about 10 years old was jumping on my bike to meet up with my book lovin’  friends to head off to the library together, then stopping at the Tea Room in downtown Preston to share a plate of fries and some cherry Cokes before hitting  Stedman’s store to lust after gaze upon the latest Barbie dolls and their sparkly mostly-pink or purple “fashions”. Then happily riding home again, my bike’s basket full of lovely books, to enjoy with a cool drink under a shady tree.

(And oh, the day I was finally allowed to borrow from the Adult section, at 12 years of age! Heaven! A precocious and prodigious reader,  I had exhausted all the books of interest in the tiny childrens’ department within no time, so I often had to re-borrow old favourites on my Saturday sojourns. )

Anywho, where was I? Oh yes, at the Village Library, in the present day! I picked out a well-balanced diet of books. 😉

Consisting of: an autobiography of David Suzuki, a short story compilation by Alice Munro, and a couple of trashy “beach-read” type paperbacks, just for the pure escapist pleasure of them…

This side trip left me with 5 minutes to cross the Village square to get to the salon where Tracy works. A pleasant hour or so of pampering and chatting ensued and I left the salon with pretty toes and soft feet again. The annual Music Festival was happening in the Village Park so that became part of my route back home.

After meeting and chatting there with some of my downtown acquaintances from my days’ on the Village’s Business Improvement Association Board of Managers, I was quite happy (ever the introvert) to get home again for some quiet time.  Did my strength training workout per the July challenge, had a quick shower, then my lunch –  and decided a nap was definitely in order!

Is there anything more luxurious, more satisfying than taking an afternoon nap? I never used to be able to nap when I was younger. Too nervous, too keyed up, too full of Dutch Protestant work ethic, to consider stopping everything to lay down in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY?!?!?! It took a lot of hard work (I’m actually being serious here!) to get over this and get to the point where I could take a nap, sans guilt, but I am happy to say it is a skill I successfully mastered. (Disclaimer: being severely anemic for a few years helped immensely.)

I am so pro-nap these days, I feel I could start a club. Maybe I will. The Red Nap Society. Red Nappers Matter. We’ll wear our red and purple hats strategically placed over our eyes to keep out the daylight as we doze. 🙂

Replenished by the nap, upon waking my domestic goddess roared to life, and I quickly found inspiration for what I wanted to create in the kitchen:

However, I lacked the necessary papaya, lime and fresh cilantro so some adjustments were in order. I decided to make a similar dish, based on what I could find in my kitchen, with a bit of an Indonesian flair.

First, I made a batch of quinoa in my rice cooker. Cooked it in chicken broth on the brown rice setting and it turned out perfectly! 1.5 cups quinoa + 2 cups chicken broth = fluffy, yummy, perfect protein, whole-grain comfort.

Then I scoured the sadly neglected vegetable drawer in my fridge to see what I could chop up for a stir-fry to accompany the quinoa. Hmmm…a couple of only slightly withered looking red bell peppers, some carrots and a red onion. I had some very tasty tiny French green beans (thank you Costco!) in the freezer – all of these ingredients would give me the basis for a colourful and healthy veggie addition to the grain portion of the meal.

As I was defrosting the pork loin roast in the microwave, I happily chopped up the veggies and dumped them, with a tablespoon of  grapeseed oil, into my heated wok. I added a teaspoon of curry powder (Lalah’s, the best IMHO) to the sautéing vegetables – a trick I learned from the Caribbean chef at Rambell’s Waterside Dining in Ayr, sadly no longer in existence.

Once the veggies were almost done, I covered them and turned the heat off, to let them finish by steaming themselves to tender-crisp perfection (I hoped!) while I worked on the meat in another pan.  To the heated olive oil in the pan, I added the now chopped-into-chunks pork loin, chopped garlic, sambal badjak and ketjap manis – didn’t keep track of the amounts  but just added “to taste”.  The meat didn’t turn out as dark as in the photo in the magazine (food stylist trickery??) but it the taste was there, believe me.

Here is the finished dish:

Feels good to be cooking again…tastes even better!

My near-perfect day ended with connecting with JD at our rental property (and future home) after his shift at the Golf Course, and heading back down to the Music Festival to hear some great bands.

Why can’t every Saturday be like this?

Just thought I’d share with you a few casual shots of me doing my thing around the house. Here’s me in my usual cleaning outfit – I think I was in the seldom-used TV room, if I recall correctly, sweeping dirt under the carpets as per my routine:

And here’s me again, deciding what delicious man-pleasing entrée to make for supper….really! Oh yes!

You know, I wasn’t sure I’d look good in that shade of yellow, but I think I can actually rock it.

What, you don’t believe me???

That’s OK. I don’t believe me either.

Seriously though, I am feeling a little goddess-y lately, in the domestic sense. I’ve started knitting again.

And I fully intend to actually cook something this weekend!

It hasn’t been a good summer so far for cooking. Between working long hours and spending long hours at the golf course (not a bad gig, really) helping watching JD practice for his big tournament later this month, there hasn’t been a lotta face time logged in at Chez D’s Kitchen.

But that is about to change. A cooking post to follow sometime this weekend! I promise.

Looking back on my Workout Log (see left sidebar for link) for June, I see a lotta pink (daily steps), a fair smattering of blue (brisk walks), sprinkling of purple (C25K training), and one lonely little green entry (strength training).

Oh Data, it’s such a marvelous thing! It allows you to make objective decisions based on the facts, just the facts, ma’am. And the fact is, I need to make strength training as much of a daily/weekly habit as snapping on my pedometer and going for a walk!

So, here is the July Challenge pour moi:

At least 10 minutes of strength training per day for every day in July. Simple yet effective, non?

I have three DVDs  (Tamilee Webb’s Tight on Time Hot Spots, & Tight on Time Body Blast, and Spark People’s  Fit, Firm and Fired Up in 10 Minutes a Day) to choose from, that offer just that – 10 minute workouts with weights, each workout focusing on different area of the body…and even one whole body 10 minute blaster. A month of these 10 minute workouts will lay the foundation for bigger and better sessions come August!

Happy Canada Day everyone!!!!

(especially my Canada Day baby…Mizz J. Happy Birthday dear daughter!)

An Open Letter to my Fellow Gym Members who need Ear-Splitting Levels of Music to Work Out:

Isn’t it great that we belong to a 24 hour gym? One that lets us in to work out even when there is no one there to supervise? Yeah, I think it’s great too. Keeps costs down, and hey, we’re all adults, right? Meaning we are responsible users of the gym and won’t abuse the privilege of being able to be there at any time we want. Right?

So how come when I go in during unsupervised hours, often the gym’s sound system is cranked to brain-puddling levels? So loud, that I have to dial up my iPod to the max just to hear my workout music, AND I CAN STILL HEAR the gym’s sound system playing thrash-metal over top of it.  I don’t think it’s particularly fair that I have to choose to between getting fit and keeping my hearing, do you?

Forget it. Don’t bother to answer. It was a rhetorical question, dumba**.  There is no good reason/excuse to damage everyone’s hearing, including your own.

Speaking of iPods/MP3 players…why don’t you get one and crank it till your ears bleed. That’s right…YOUR EARS…and no one else’s.

So, the next time I go to the gym and I feel like my head is going to explode as soon as I walk in the door, I am heading straight to the sound system and pulling the plug. Please try to keep your ‘Roid Rage in check.

This has been a public service announcement for/by sane people everywhere.

 

…I am seeing benefits of my renewed dedication to my health.

I have a significant increase in physical and mental energy.

My legs are firming up and regaining their shape, from the running and the walking I am doing.

I have been successful at integrating running workouts into my schedule. Just completed week 3 of a Couch – to – 5 K plan.

My weight training workouts  – well, I am not so successful there.  This is because it is not as easy and mindless as jumping onto the treadmill, tapping on my iPod to get the workout playing, and taking off from there.  I have to concentrate on proper form, and at this stage for me, it means referring to the print-outs of the exercises I carry in my gym bag. Plus it takes longer than my treadmill workouts. According to the Body Sculpting Bible, I am supposed to be resting for 90 seconds in between sets. So, I perform a set then…la di da di da ho hum la di da…I set up for, and read up on the next exercise. I wait for the time to pass… and fret just a bit about how my lunch hour is running long and I need to get back to work…and by that time my pretty little pink Gym Boss rings and away I go again.

So, when I feel pressed for time, I ditch the weights and jump onto the treadmill. For that mindless, feel-good workout. Yes, I do realize the stupidity of this. I am a big believer of strength training so this bugs me, that I can’t get into a regular routine with weights. I have to come up with a different solution – a faster workout to get me into the habit of lifting weights again as I am now in the habit of running again.

I have a lot of weight training DVDs that offer 10-20 minute workouts of particular muscle groups (legs and glutes, arms & chest, etc.). But I’m not really too jazzed about bringing my DVD player to the gym – I feel that would be like bringing my own personal trainer onto the gym trainers’ turf.  It just doesn’t seem too “nice” – rather rude, in fact. Like bringing a bagged lunch to a restaurant and eating it there. So I will have to be doing this at home or in my office since I am not willing to shell out for personal training at this time.  (Not that I have any thing against personal trainers – after all, it was through my former personal trainer that JD and I became re-acquainted!)

I will switch to DVD for now, and come back to the “Bible” once I am more re-acquainted with the exercises and the strength training is firmly established in my routine. There’s nothing like an exercise video to get the job done and do the thinking for you. 😉

My first strength-training goal – to be able to do a set of  12 full, on-the-toes, manly-man-type push-ups. Not going to happen soon, but it will happen! You read it here first. 🙂

Next week: I’ll be taking my measurements again after my weigh-in. (I plan to do this every 4 weeks – another measure of progress, perhaps even a better one than the scale.)