Get Fit Chicks!

So, I’ve discovered if I stick close to my toddler’s diet, I feel pretty good…hmmm…I wonder why!

Well, in all likelihood it’s because I don’t want to feed her junk. Which is good and makes sense. But then I wonder, why, if I won’t feed my baby junk, would I think that junk is a good thing to feed myself?

After that light bulb went on, I thought maybe I should try following J’s diet. So, for the past few weeks that’s what I’ve been doing and I feel a lot better!

J and I have been having breakfast together since she was born and since I started back at work, most mornings we eat oatmeal cooked in milk with all kinds of yummy things in it – raisins, cinnamon, other dried fruit. We also typically have dinner together because, well, I’m home by then and Alex is off to work.

Which meant the biggest challenge for me would be lunch.

Because I HATE lunch.

Most days J gets a sandwich or some leftovers, a few little containers of fruit and I try to give her at least one vegetable – usually peas, beans or avocado. She usually has a homemade mini muffin or a home made (piece of) granola bar and a yogurt or some applesauce for her snacks and she always has a juice box with a mixture of about 1/5-1/4 juice and the rest water and one that is plain water. Those are accessible to her all day and get refilled with plain water by the sitter when they’re empty. J gets milk to drink at lunch.

I didn’t know where to start with my lunches. It’s my least favourite meal of the day and sandwiches, the lunch staple, are at the bottom of the list (I also don’t eat mayonnaise which makes sandwiches a little more difficult). Most days I take my whole lunch – usually leftovers or maybe salad (bean and quinoa or coleslaw are my favourite these days). Then there is usually a container of cut up veggies (usually I eat them plain, but sometimes I take some hummus), an apple and some other fruit and usually a yogurt or a hard boiled egg and a mini muffin. It seems like a lot when I write it down and often I bring at least a piece of fruit home. If I skip the egg or yogurt, I find my afternoons are super sluggish. If I only take part of a lunch it I pick up the “main” part of the lunch somewhere. And lunch places on campus are somewhat scarce. Healthy lunch places are pretty much non existent.

But amazingly (well, not really amazing but anyway), eating this way I feel better. I just need to make my lunches more interesting.

Any suggestions?

Today my friend and I biked Mount Washington bottom to top and it was a TOUGH ride. I grew up skiing Mt. Washington almost every day in the winter with my Dad but never stopped to think what it would be like to do that hill in anything other than a car. Over the last two weekends we’ve biked local mountains in Vancouver – first Seymour and then Cypress so since I’m on the island this weekend it seemed fitting to do Washington. It was WAY higher. First of all the distance – 17kms instead of 12-13 that we had done previously with an elevation gain of 1175m. The hills were long and steep. The one good thing was that there was more recovery time between the steeps than there are on the Vancouver Mountains – at one point there was a bit of a downhill followed by a flat which was great. But that was followed immediately by a steep uphill that seemed to go on forever.

I did the 17k in an hour and 29 minutes averaging 11.4kms/hour on the ascent. Not bad for me – I’m getting better at climbing. The great thing is as soon as we got to the top I felt great – the pain (and there WAS pain) of the uphill was forgotten and it just felt great to be there. There was a group of mountain bikers at the top who told us we were crazy for biking up, we agreed that good possibly be true. But it felt great.

The descent was cold. There are still patches of snow at the top of the mountain and flying down got a bit chilly. But other than that it was a great ride with some beautiful views along the way. Well worth doing. Can’t wait to do it again next time I’m home and see if I can beat that time.

Now I’m off to make a big salad for dinner – greens, red pepper, tomato, avocado, strawberries, mango, lentils. Yum!

Tomorrow is a run day.

Happy Birthday to Getfitchicks blogger Shannon – hope you’re having a fantastic day!

I went on my bike ride yesterday and it was great! Beautiful weather and a beautiful route. We went out along the water and up to Point Holmes in the Comox Valley, then it was out to Kye Bay (a beautiful beach) back out, along to Airforce beach then over to the Powell River ferry terminal. Then we turned back and did the route in reverse. Just under 45kms overall, not too bad and such beautiful views.

Today it’s the mountain day! We’re going to take the bikes and bike to the top of mount Washington – ACK! It’s a longer mountain the Seymour or Cypress with more elevation gain so it should be pretty interesting. Fingers crossed that it goes ok!

Enjoy the sun everyone.

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day on the island! So beautiful in fact that I am about to sign off the computer and head outside to enjoy it. I arrived on the island with my bike so today will be all about heading out for a ride and then maybe a short run later (really short because I am planning a long run for tomorrow or Sunday I think).

I had been debating what to do this weekend because I wanted to do something active but also wanted to spend my birthday with family (which is a tradition!) So in the end I decided on a combination of the two – bring the bike home and spend time here enjoying it. Tomorrow Warren and I are going to tackle a ride up Mount Washington (continuing on the theme of a mountain a weekend) and today just a great ride around town. I’d LOVE to get into a kayak this weekend if time permits, and if the weather hold but so far it’s looking good.

This is a short update – I’m off to get started! Details on how it all goes later. Enjoy the sun everyone!

My yoga instructor was a bit late for yoga today. Only two of us showed up and the other woman decided she’d go for lunch instead of sticking around for the class. So I had the instructor all to myself!

And I think I’m going to feel it tomorrow. We did a lot of abdominal work – something I need since I really don’t think that part of my body has recovered completely yet from the c-section I had almost two years ago! I have muscle tone there again, but my tummy is lopsided and certainly a little worse for the wear from the incision.

I was a bit apprehensive about having the instructor all to myself. I’ve only ever had a private yoga class once before and it was because no one else showed up and happened to be a day that our instructor was away so I ended up with a sub. It was okay, but I decided I preferred a group setting.

But after today’s class, I would love love love to do private yoga more often – I still really like the group setting because sometimes I feel like I push myself harder because there are others in the room, but today I really felt like the instructor pushed me harder than she normally would.

And that was totally great!

She got me to hold things longer and because it was just me, I knew she watching and when I started to shake or grimace, she’d make me hold just that little bit longer. And I could do it. I didn’t give in to gravity; I had to prove to her that if she pushed me, I could do it!

Since there’s no way I could afford to take private yoga classes regularly, I’m just to have to hope I can tell myself that I did this time, so the next time I should have no problem holding the plank 15 seconds longer or staying in a high lunge for a few more seconds without dropping my knee.

And I feel awesome too! My day had been kind of blah, but that was exactly what I needed to make it way better!

Calling all bike tourists! I am debating a 2 week bike trip this summer, and if that doesn’t come off at the very least a few long weekends with my bike on the road. This is a first for me so I need some advice from seasoned bike tourists. How much would you pack for a 2 week trip? I want to go as minimal as possible but I don’t want to forget any essentials either.

Some things on my list:

* 2 pairs bike tights
* 2 jersey’s (one short sleeve, on long)
* long sleeve smart wool shirt
* wind breaker
* rain coat
* 1 pair non-bike shorts
* 1 tank top
* sleeping bag/thermarest
* tent
* sandles
* bike shoes
* bike gloves
* toiletries

And I’m thinking that’s about it. Thoughts?!?

It wasn’t the most beautiful weekend in Vancouver – a few clouds, a bit of rain but the sun DID manage to peak out a few times – even still I got a couple of great bike rides in! Saturday morning I was up early and Warren and I decided to head out for a ride around the city – first off to Stanley Park to circle the park (on the road, not the seawall – had to make sure we got the hill in!) and then over to Jericho, along the beach and up the hill to UBC. Then it was back down and home – about 2 1/2 hours out total. It was a great morning and a pretty great ride. The rest of my day was spent celebrating the lovely Caroline’s upcoming wedding with a wedding shower and then some dancing later on! Good times!

Sunday rolled around and it was time for another hill climb – this time we tackled Cypress Mountain (last week it was Seymour). Cypress is about the same distance as Seymour (maybe a tiny bit longer even) but the elevation gain isn’t quite as high. It’s still a tough climb but overall I found it easier than Seymour was last week. There are some big switchbacks on the road which allowed for some recovery time and to gain some speed for the next big hill! The top of Cypress is flat going into the parking lot which is nice as well. The worst part of the ride though? The descent!! It was drizzling on us all the way up – not a hard rain but enough to have us good and soaked by the time we got up there. Then we had to go down. Fast. It was sooooo cold! My hands and feet were FREEZING by the end! Couldn’t wait to get in the car and crank the heat. Last week it took me an hour and 10 minutes to ride Seymour, this week was an hour and 2 minutes on Cypress. Now I have some benchmarks I have to beat! I’ll be over on the island for the weekend though so perhaps I’ll try out Mount Washington for this weeks challenge? Stay tuned!

Tuesday I had a meeting with my trainer (Devin) about setting some new goals and a new program now that the marathon is behind me. I LOVE new goals – they’re so energizing! So of course I came in with a list…at the top of it was another marathon – Victoria in October. I enjoyed the last marathon so much that I’m looking forward to doing another – honestly can’t wait! Along with that I have some other running goals (a few trail runs of various distances coming up over the next few months) and some cycling goals (to be faster and a better climber). And last I have climbing goals! whoohoo.

So Devin took all of that and is putting together a new program that will involve strength (especially for the next month or so before we taper a bit for running), some cycling drills (both indoor on the trainer and outside), a running program and a climbing program to follow. I can’t wait to see how it’s going to look – especially the climbing program! For now it’s business as usual but starting next week I’ll hopefully get it started.

My wedding is only a few weeks away. All my work leading up to the big day will hopefully pay off. I will admit, it is such a struggle to keep up with the workouts. Lots of little tasks come up for the wedding that need to be done and often can not be pushed off to a later time. It makes it hard to fit in the time to work out. I’m really glad that I pre-scheduled time to workout with Devin, my trainer, ahead of time because that keeps me going to the gym. But I also realize that all the work I’ve been doing in the months leading up to the wedding could vanish if I don’t stay on top of things. No pressure, right?

Devin did another fitness assessment of me and in four months I have:

• lost 8 pounds
• lost about 2.19% body fat
• lost centimeters around my arms, waist, hips and legs

This is the reason I like tracking. I get to see the results. Can I tell I’ve lost weight and body fat? Yes. I have a pair of work pants that drag on the ground when I walk because I’ve lost so much around my waist and hips, but to see the actual numbers is very satisfying. I can see where I’ve made progress and specifically how much progress I’ve made.

Now in the few weeks left before the wedding I have to find a way to eat healthy and keep up with at least a few workouts a week.  I gained 10 pounds in a month in the past, and if I’m not careful I could do it again and lose all the work I’ve put in for the big day.

Any other brides out there? How are you doing with being healthy before the big day?

I am LOVING fresh salads right now. I should qualify this by first admitting that I used to HATE salads. I like veggies – cut veggies, cooked veggies, those are all fine. But salads? BORING!!! Then my friend made this amazing salad last weekend and I was instantly hooked! My problem? I just wasn’t putting enough in my salads, they were lame. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber and I was done. Not anymore!

Saturday I made a great salad with mixed organic greens, tomato, carrots, sprouts, strawberry, blueberries, cold smoked salmon and goat cheese. YUM! Then yesterday I made another one with mixed greens, tomato, carrots, sprouts, yellow and orange pepper, cucumber, blueberries, strawberries, mango, lentils, avocado and tofu. Even more Yummy! sooo good.

I had leftovers from last night and could hardly wait for dinner tonight to eat it. Not sure what will go in tomorrow’s salad but probably whatever I can find in the fridge. Maybe some nectarines, mango, greens, goat cheese and avocado? With some sprouts, carrots and cucumber? Tossing everything in there is half the fun, and with fruit in it you don’t need dressing.

Can’t wait for the next creation.