2007 Allison

There was a time, around the start of this blog, were I was that person. 

Hey Everybody, let’s go for a 20K run at six am on Saturday!

You know what would be fun?  Back to back 2 hour spin classes after work.

BodyPump and yoga?  Fuck yeah!

Yup, that person.  But that was a long time ago.  Now, I’m lucky if I can get myself up, find clean clothes, and feed myself something half-way nutritious, all while feeding, clothing and generally wrangling a toddler (not to mention a husband).

What the hell happened to that person?  I keep hearing/reading about these moms with multiple children, full time jobs and large athletic aspirations: marathons, iron mans, Olympic teams.  My husband even got me a book, “Run like a Mother”, with tips for how to juggle everything.  Tips like, get up while everyone is still sleeping to get your run in.  Just reading the book makes me tired.

I really wish that I could get a visit from 2007 self and go for a run with her.  She was really good at pumping me up back then.  She could even get me to run every day in Ottawa in the winter.  The only time we would skip was it if it was colder than -35^oC. 

MINUS 35^oC! What the hell?!

I wonder what she would think of me now.  She would probably say,

It’s ok if you can just run 5K – at least you got out to run!

She was a pretty positive and optimistic person. 

Now, it’s like the knowledge that at one time I could run so much longer and so much faster is stopping me from putting on the shoes.  My 2013 self is kind of a bitch.  She says helpful things like,

Why do you even bother?  You will probably walk most of the time.  You know, running will just ruin your knees and you will have to get surgery in your fifties.  And by the way, you are a mom now and having a muffin top is just a part of that.  No one is looking at your anyway because you are old.

Like I said, she’s a total bitch.  Luckily, I’m getting sick of her and her self-defeatist bullshit.  Today I’ve been telling myself that if I just put on the shoes I can run back through time and be 2007 Allison, even if it’s just for 5K and even if I walk most of the time.  

10 km Resolution Update

I heard somewhere that most resolutions take 6 weeks to be abandoned. I would theorize that this is because these resolutions try to tackle too large a change at once. Enter my anti-resolution. 6 weeks in and I have gone running exactly 4 times. This may seem discouraging for anyone else, but because I planned to take it slow my last run at 2 km puts me exactly where I planned to be. As well I have taken guilt out of the equation because I juggle a lot of priorities and making any progress in the exercise department is cause for celebration.

True confession: Through the magical powers of nursing a large-ish baby through the first four months of life, I have managed to get back into one of my skinnier pairs of jeans. However, with the focus being on health and wellness (skinny jeans are positive side-effect) there is still lots of room for improvement!

More than enough elbow room on Elbow Lake

With a rather blustery day behind us filled with warm temperatures, I caught myself dreaming of the colder days earlier in the week. Some kind ATV'er plowed a rink and a track on our local lake, Elbow Lake. We first went skating on Saturday and were the first to enjoy the new track. By Tuesday, I had been four times and could feel certain skating muscles you don't normally feel. I could tell the dogs were also tired of running around as they took to laying in the snow as opposed to running beside me. The weather is supposed to turn cold once once again and I, for one, cannot wait!

For fun, apparently, you can burn 475 ice skating for one hour.

Take it on Faith

My goal for 2013 is quite the opposite. In fact, I’m looking to fit into even bigger jeans, the kind with an elastic waist pouch that expands with a growing belly, then, hopefully, mom jeans. This is the year I’m going to breed (hopefully) my own batch of homebrew and finally bring home a baby. How can I say this after nearly four years of trying? Because Mother Nature can’t be that much of a jerk, right?

We learned that science failed us two weeks before Christmas after bad touching our wallet. Somehow we made it through the holiday season (drunkest Christmas ever) and have resolved ourselves to try, try again. While it’s been extremely difficult, we haven’t lost our faith that this will happen, that we are deserving people.

 

Take it on faith, my love

Baby just one time,
Bet your life on mine
Take it on faith, my love…
-Matt Mays 

In that spirit, I’m working towards slimming down a bit before throwing my body out of whack once again. The good news is I discovered a weight loss program that worked. I simply cut out alcohol for two+ months and pounds magically disappeared. So now every week, I have my own countdown to liquor day (night) and have been even more productive the other six nights. How have I been spending those six nights and very busy days? Glad you asked.

A New Way to Resolve

It's resolution time of year and predictably I find myself with a list of self improvements and goals for 2013. In theory I think resolutions are dumb because they are often too vague or overreaching and therefore get abandoned before the first flip of the calendar. However, I do like to use each New Year as a time for some reflection and motivation to accomplish those things that have been languishing on the to-do list for too long.

This year I did things a little differently. I started with my resolution to "be better with money." I sat down and brainstormed a bunch of specific things about our family finances that were bugging me and ended up with a list of about ten points. Each mini-resolution then became a monthly task, making the entire process a series of doable steps. For example, my January item is to make up a monthly budget. Meeting it will come later, but first things first, start with a budget. I realize this approach is Project Management 101 and how I get things done in my day job, but for some reason it never occurred to me to apply these principles to my personal life, too.

My 2013 exercise resolution is simple: To run 10 km. I did this once when I was 18 and unlike those who feel the pull to run half then full marathons (you know who you are!), I was quite satisfied with this distance. Since this is a new year's resolution I'm giving myself the whole year to be able to do it. I figure if I start with 1 km in January and add a kilometer every month, I should be on track to run my goal distance by November. It may not seem ambitious, but that's OK. I'm more interested in achievable.

As I look out upon the snow storm that just descended on Calgary, I'm already finding excuses not to leave the warm cozy of my house. Hopefully by reviving OSJ and making my declaration public I will be shamed into doing it. And maybe motivate some others along the way... 

View from my back window: NOT MOTIVATING!

Zen Moments of Road Rage.

Yesterday it was slow at work so we decided to call it a week a few hours early and left the office at 3 o'clock. This meant that I had plenty of time to get to the 4p yoga class. I wasn't strung out or stressed - in fact I had been having a pretty chilled out day at work.

I made a pit stop at the fabric store and picked up some supplies to make a Christmas gift for someone, and then off to yoga I went.

The class wasn't packed, the temperature was perfect, and the instructor was fabulous. I felt great when I walked out the door and into the rain. I will admit that I was pretty hungry but not to the point of starvation.

I got in my car and started to pull out of the parking lot. When I got to the stop sign there were 2 cars that had obviously been in a VERY MINOR fender bender pulled to the side blocking the traffic. The people from the car's were in the Wendy's parking lot - not one of them was smart enough to actually pull their car into the parking lot with them to let traffic go by at 5p on a Friday.

The car in front of me was obviously baffled at exactly how he/she was supposed to use the steering wheel to maneuver around the parked cars. I mean there were only 3 lanes and we had a green light - it's pretty complicated I know.

Then came the guy who pulled into the middle of the intersection and just sat there through our green light instead of pulling around the parked cars. We sat at the intersection like this for 3 full rotations of the light cycle before..... I finally lost it.

All of the calming breaths. All of the downward dog sighs. All of the inner peace in shavasana. Gone. I laid on my horn. I didn't just press it once. I put my fist to my horn and kept it there until all the cars moved. Then I rolled down my window and shouted at the people in the parking lot.

Probably not my most yoga-inspired moment - but it felt just as good as the class I had just finished! 

- Brianne

The Moaner.

I am still rockin' my hot yoga 5 days a week and lovin' it. I had a brief lapse in class attendance due to conflicting social engagements but I have returned with a vengeance - and although I won't hit my 20 class quota this month I am still going to give myself a little bit of LuLu for beating last month's record 16 classes. I think that's fair.

I've been trying to work on blocking out the other people in the room - with marginal success. I have stopped looking around the room so much and try only to look at myself or at nothing - but there is still one thing that can make my blood boil -

* The sign on the door says "This is a SILENT room" - so when people come barging in the room having a full-on conversation while everyone is lying in shavasana it makes me want to hit them. This might be the kickboxer in me coming out, but seriously most time I have to force myself not to sit straight up and glare at them like they were stealing my cookies.

The other day the woman in front of me kept flicking her toes together while we were in shavasana - I call her the fidgiter. After a few moments though I was able to drown out the sound of her toes flicking together by my head - gross. I made sure to get a good look at her and her mat so that I can stay away next time.

I really think that yoga has been helping me relax, among many other things. I feel better and I don't stress as much and I sleep great. But last night I was schooled by the woman 2 mats over on yoga-enjoyment. I call her the moaner.

It started during salutations with an "ahhhhhhhhhh" on the exhale. A bit much, but not entirely absurd. By the time the warrior series was over, her exhales had become more like "oooooohhhhhhh" - still a little weird, but maybe she was getting in some good stretches.  The weirdest parts came during pigeon and final shavasana... the moans that ensued would rival any climax scene from your favorite porn film. The humming of the "mmmMMMmmm" had me laughing so hard on the inside I had to bolt out of the room after class so I could full on laugh.

I love my hot yoga. But apparently not as much as The Moaner.

- Brianne

The Billy Miner Pie - Brianne

Last night we had dinner with Carrice and Toby at The Keg.  We had gift certificates that were burning holes in our pockets so we spared no expense.

It isn't often that I will order dessert at a restaurant.  Usually I am so damn full from the ridiculous portion sizes that most restaurants have - but the portion sizes at The Keg are actually pretty realistic. You don't get a lot of meat, but you get some fan-freaking-tastic meat.

After I devoured my garden salad (vegetables first) and then my Filet Mignon topped with crusted blue cheese - there was still room for dessert. In hind sight there were probably at least 800 calories in this monstrosity - and I ate the whole damn thing save for 3 bites at the end.

No guilt. No regrets.

One small step for Brianne....

One giant step for my waistline! 

This morning I slipped into a pair of Levi's jeans that haven't fit in a long while. They aren't quite my skinny jeans, but they are a huge step in the right direction! Next I will conquer the Silver jeans, and then finally the Guess jeans that haven't fit in 3 years. That's right "skinny clothing drawer" - I'm coming for you!

What surprises me is that 1) we had a pizza and poutine dinner on Friday night 2) I drank an entire Growler to myself on Saturday and baked up some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and 3) last night we scarfed down halloween candies while watching the Sunday night HBO lineup. 

How is this even possible? I am going to give full credit to Hot Yoga. And since it's been working so well for me, I am also going to take up my yoga studio's "30 Day Challenge" for the month of November. Last month's sticker count was only a whopping 17 - I can do better than that.

The Moksha Yoga studio is challenging its members to come to all 30 days worth of hot yoga classes for this month and I am going to giv'r shit. My goal is to do 25 at least - and for reaching this goal I am buying myself whatever I want from Lu Lu Lemon. Wish me luck!

New Rule

New Rule: don't complain about your car smelling like B.O unless you're fully prepared to bring your yoga mat inside the house every day after hot yoga and wash it. 

Yesterday I was on my way to a trade show and I could fully smell the B.O wafting from my yoga mat and I had a sudden and urgent thought: what if the B.O sticks to my clothes and hair just like that episode of Seinfeld! 

Evan refuses to drive in the car now because of the smell.