1 Man, 1 Woman and 1 Mountain Dog

This weekend I dragged Flash on a hike.  I have never been on a hike, neither had Flash.  So I did some research, picked out a hike I thought would be fun.  A coworker of mine asked what I was doing on the weekend and when I told him about hiking he suggested the Canmore Nordic Centre.  So, I put my planning aside and decided to try it.  I don't know why he suggested it because it's for bikers and it's not scenic.  It's basically wide trails through the woods.  I started to fear that the day was going to be a write off.  Flash is not on outdoors person, he's a city person.  He's also impatient so he definitely wasn't impressed that we got early and came out here to waste our time.  

We went for lunch in Banff and then I suggested we try to find the trail I had originally picked out, Grotto Creek Trail.  Reluctantly Flash agreed.

 

The majority of the hike was through a dry river bed that cut into the mountain and ended at a small cave.  We brought Slone, and even though she was a trooper, the trail was a bit advanced for her and we ended up carrying her for parts of the way there and the entire way back.

It was fun, and beautiful.  Flash griped a lot but I think he enjoyed himself toward the end.  The next day he even commented about how he would do it again.  It's something I wouldn't have done had I not been doing this project.  It was a good adventure.

One Good Gym Deserves Another

This is my gym:

I work in a building complex within Tower Two, a ten storey building that houses a different business on each floor.  The other day as I'm walking in from lunch I notice that the blinds are open to office space in the main floor that they are renovating.  Previously, it was offices, so I thought they were either updating the space, or renovating it for new clients.  What I saw through the window was not desks, it was exercise bikes.

My first thought was, "You have got to be freaking kidding me."

Two weeks after I purchase a gym membership the building decides to install a gym!?  I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I don't know the details.  They gym could be a private facility that you have to buy a membership for.  It could be owned by one of the existing business in my building for their employees only.  All I saw were exercise bikes so maybe it'll suck.  But if my buidling is putting in a gym that is free to use by all of the building employees, I'm gonna snap.

Get Your Shit Together

Finding things on a web is rarely done directly.  I almost always find things by clicking on a link posted by another blogger.  In this case there was a write up on Design Sponge about online organization tools, that I found through the Working Girl blog.

I tried, with little success, to find something to organize my life both digital and real everyday a while ago.  I found a lot of straight up to do lists, which are fine but not all encompasing enough.  As I looked through the list a few jumped out at me:

Wunderlist

Teamly

TeuxDeux

Evernote

The Wunderlist is more or less a basic list program.  The second one is geared toward teams, hence the name Teamly.  The third is also a list program, but it's got such a clean, simple, clever look to it.  The forth is Evernote.  I'm going to download this on my home computer and give it a try.  It looks promising.  It offers a bunch of options, that are currently a little beyond my technical understanding, of clipping.  Which I understand to mean that you can use this program to clip things off the internet and put them into the program.  You can also take pictures with your phone that will go right into the program too.  My understanding is you can store and organize lots of different types of things in it.  So I haven't tried it yet, but it has potential.

A side effect of looking at all the programs is that I now want a new phone.  I have a super old and small blackberry with time on my contract.  Buying a brand new phone in Canada will cost you an obscene amount of money.  All the clever little apps for programs, like these lists make me want an iPhone.  Or at least something that I can do these apps on.  Damn you technology; damn you and your brilliant marketing of fast paced ever changing can't live without you or you'll fall behind everything devices.

Procrastacise

I sucked it up and went to the gym on Monday.  My little gym is very busy at 5:00pm, which I guess is to be expected.  I did some cardio because I hadn’t organized what I would do.  I plugged my iPod in and watched a bit of a movie while I ran.

It was a quick trip.  Gyms are intimidating, they are even more so when packed with people.  It was so busy that I debated morning workouts.

I was dizzy after the gym.  At first I thought maybe it had something to do with trying to watch TV while I ran, but treadmills with TVs are pretty common now so I doubt that was it.  It was most likely because I don’t drink any enough water in my day to day life. 

Suddenly you need to start drinking more water and eating better and getting more sleep.  I think that’s what has me procrastinating on getting this new phase of the project figured out; because it requires a total life change.  You need to drink enough water or you’ll pass out.  You need enough sleep or you’ll be too tired to go to the gym.  You need to eat better because it’s pretty stupid to put all that effort into working out and then ruin it by stuffing your face with fast food.

My show, Extreme Makeover - Weight Loss Edition is done for the season.  It didn’t ramp up to a big finish; in fact, I didn’t even realize it was the last episode of the season until the following week when it wasn’t on.  I need to find some sources of inspiration/motivation.  I plan to start working on my inspiration board today.  I have yet to find a fitness blog that I really like.  Fit Sugar is one I check out sometimes, but it’s better for searching for a certain topic than following along as a blog. 

Melissa subscribes to Women’s Health, which is great.  For some reason we always get our magazine late, like well after it has come out on shelves.  I’m not sure when her subscription is done, hopefully not right away.  Another magazine I like is Oxygen.  Melissa doesn’t like it because the girls on the front are women who are known in the fitness world and while not gross like women bodybuilders, they are far more jacked than the celebrities on the front of Women’s Health.  Mel says it’s too hard core ha.  Anyway, I like it but it’s like $7 a magazine.  Pretty sure that price has jumped a fair bit in the past couple years.  I pay $5.99 for InStyle which is a thick magazine.  I dunno, seems a bit excessive.  The magazines are good, but they come once a month, and I’m sure I’ll need more than a monthly dose of motivation.

I Be Up In The Gym Just Working On My Fitness

I bought a gym membership.  It wasn’t as good a deal as I thought.  I thought that if I signed up before the end of July I would get my first two months free, ie: he first two months of my year-long membership.  Nope, I get two free additional months ON TOP of my year membership.  At the end of the day I’m still paying for a full one year membership.  And, instead of not getting any charges for the first two months I had to pay my first and last month’s dues on the spot, as well as buy my fob key (gym is 24 hours), which was $50.  AND the girl was all distracted and in a huff because of some people who had bought an online deal for something and has misread the location and made a scene so she rushed through my stuff… But whatever, I wanted to work out there and now I can.

I drove home to Manitoba for the long weekend.  I packed my suitcase full of work I was going to do for my project.  I brought workout clothes and exercise dvds.  I was going to take advantage of having a real kitchen, not my tiny claustrophobic apartment one, and try out some new recipes.  Maybe all of this was a tad ambitious, but I didn’t work out once.  I went for one short walk.  I cooked absolutely nothing and spent the majority of the weekend sleeping and feeling completely exhausted.

So now the month has started and I’m not organized.  Are you shocked?  No?  I was going to work out after work today when I realized, shit, I don’t have a gym bag.  So I was going to use any old bag when I realized, shit, I don’t have a lock, where will I put my stuff?  Where do people put their stuff in this gym?  Can I just use a cubbie, or do I have to rent one?  I don’t remember there being that many so surely there aren’t enough for everyone to rent their own… right? 
Now I’m getting paranoid about gym etiquette.

On the Hunt... For Blogs

With J on holidays this week and a temp here part days to more or less cover my lunch break, I have been very bored.  I’ve been taking advantage of my time sitting at J’s desk to do some internet research.  At the front, people walk beside/behind me 50 times a day, everything I’m working on is highly visible and working on non-work stuff is frowned upon.

I’ve been searching for new blogs.  This, my friends, is extremely hard.  I can find lots of interesting and worthwhile blogs, but I’m looking for certain types.  I want bloggers who are also on a personal development quest, someone interested in writer/being a writer, is humorous, relatable and posts on a somewhat regular basis.

Turns out this is hard because:

The ways that I have discovered to find blogs so far leaves much to be desired.  It’s like the internet doesn’t want me to find them.

Blogs are categorized in very general and often misleading ways.

Anything categorized under personal development usually has an obnoxiously upbeat, preachy, rainbows and sunshine quotes, and impersonal third person advice.

Fitness is a lot of the same stuff too.  The tricky part is finding someone who is at a similar place in their fitness journey.  Sometimes you’ll find a blog by an established trainer giving tips, or workout suggestions.  I really want to find someone who is finding ways to workout, stay motivated and have fun with it.  A lot of “exercise” blogs are just personal blogs with a bit of exercise thrown in.

Cooking blogs.  No real complaints, except that there are too many delicious and temping sites that are 90% baking.  So it’s all sweets, and cookies, and pies.  Amazing, but I’m looking for more lunch and dinner ideas.





Heavenly Cake Roll - Smitten Kitchen

Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

So I have this show I watch, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.  It's pretty amazing.  This one guy, Chris Powell, chooses people based on their applications to work with him.  It's a year long process.  For the first three months he moves in with this person.   MOVES IN TO THEIR HOUSE!  That alone just blows me away.  Every day he wakes them up bright and early, is their personal trianer day in and day out.  Cooks meals with them.  Talk about accountability.  Imagine how hard you'd work out if someone was there with you every day.

These people are significantly overwieight.  A lot of them are over 400 lbs.  On average, in the first three months these people lose about 100 lbs.  I mean, how unbelievable is that?  If they hit that three month goal, which has always been 100-110 lbs for everyone so far, they get a reward.  Rewards are things like, a nanny for the next three months, or a new car, or season tickets to the Braves, etc.

For the next three months they are on their own.  They won't see Chris again until the six month weigh in.  Usually people will not hit their weight loss goals during this period.  They discover how challenging it is to do it alone.  At the 6 month weigh in they usually do an extreme physical challenge to show how far they've come, how much better shape they are in.  They get a weight loss goal for the next three months.  If the person is more on less on track so far, if they hit the weight loss goal for the next three months they will qualify for skin removal surgery at the nine month mark.  Not everyone loses enough weight to qualify for skin removal surgery. 

The final three months are the push to the finally when you show off how much weight you lost total.  The results are pretty amazing.  The first few episodes in particular were epic.  They looked like different people.  The ones in the middle have been less dramatic, still huge successes, just not as big a wow factor as others.  I'm hoping for some impessive final episodes.

On the one hand I think, it's good to show that it's hard, that not everyone succeeds.  It's good to show people that this is about hard work, and takes a huge level of committment.  But I also think, if you've kind of given up on yourself and have a self-defeating attitude about exercise, does showing that you can fail could be defeating.  Actually, I just like ending the episode on a really high note.