Monday, September 30, 2013

2013 - Week 39 Recap

So it's probably not much of a surprise, but I'm a creature of habit...I like my routine, I like to know what's going on, I like having a schedule.  Last week I got thrown a bit of a wrench...looks like the morning bootcamps I've been going to for the past five years are going to be cancelled for the winter.  Not enough attendance and hard to find trainers to come out and teach at 5:30 a.m.  While I totally and completely understand why the classes are being cancelled, I'm the kind of person that reacts better to having someone tell me what to do.  Tell me to run hill after hill?  I'm there.  Ask me to do 50 pushups?  Cool.  Put me in a gym on my own?  I'm a befuddled mess.  So now that the PISE classes are no longer a go and morning bootcamp is out, I'm kind of in limbo as far as what the winter workout routine will be...long runs on weekends will still be key but other than that...well I guess the world is my oyster!  And maybe this is an opportunity to try something new, right?  I'm going to put this out there because...well, maybe if I put it out in the ether it might just happen....but I've been toying with the idea of trying crossfit.  OK, there, I said it!  A lot of folks at PISE are into it and a lot of our workouts were crossfit-esque and I loooved it...anyways, maybe one day I'll get up my nerve to enter a box and try it out.

WORKOUTS:

Sunday:  Strength circuit

Monday: bootcamp
First bootcamp in almost three months!  Felt great to be back...we did some hills and a circuit, and overall I was pretty pleased that my cardio hadn't suffered too much.   Overall I felt pretty good  but my hip felt a little achy afterwards.  I had an appointment with my old physio, and she totally showed me some cool tricks to help keep my hip loose.  As she was working on me, she felt that something was stopping me from activating my left glute...she says the glute muscle is there but it's not firing for some reason and my movement is restricted.  It was amazingly cool...she released some of the fascia in my stomach (I do hold a lot of tension there) and immediately I could move so much better and was able to activate my glutes!  I was actually stunned, it was crazy how much it helped.  She seriously is amazing.

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: treadmill run

Thursday: rest

Friday:  bootcamp
Hurray!  Two bootcamps this week.  Definitely took it easy and didn't push hard...can't believe how much I missed it, so a little bit sad that October will be the last month until likely some time in early 2014. 

Saturday: 6K run outside
Farthest I've ran in months!  Glute felt great but Mr. Left Hammy was feeling a bit tight so I walked a bit at the end to make sure I didn't overdo things.  I was actually chuckling a bit on the run as I was thinking that two years ago, I was running 32K and not thinking that much of it...now I can barely do 6K.  Darn injuries!

FOOD:
Overall, pretty good.  I found I was super hungry this week and a bit crave-y, so had to get that under control.


RECIPES:
Chickpea burgers from Chloe's Kitchen

Sunday, September 22, 2013

2013 - Week 38 Recap

Back in the saddle!  I've been cleared by new physio guy to start increasing my distances by half a kilometre each run until I'm back at the usual distances that we do.  I also got the green light to head back to bootcamp, so I'm going tomorrow to an early morning class out at Esquimalt Lagoon.  Will for sure take it super easy and let my body get used to things again...not gonna lie, it's going to be hard to get up at 5am again, but do love starting off my day with a workout.

The amazing thing I've noticed is that ever since I've been working with my old physio again, I'm feeling less sore all over.  I still have a couple of niggles I need to work on, but I used to absolutely ache all over, particularly my legs.  I think getting my body in alignment and being super diligent with my stretching and rollering has been key...every night I spend at least half an hour with my best friends the foam roller, lacrosse ball and the rolling stick.

Oh!  And some other exciting news...so I've mentioned a few times that I've been really enjoying working with weights, right?  Well, I decided to sign up for a beginner lifting class at PISE called Raise the Bar...

Olympic Lifting is an extremely technical, demanding and rewarding form of strength training. Raise the Bar is your introduction to Olympic Lifting that starts with mastering 4 major lifts (Front Squats, Deadlifts, Bent-Over Row and Overhead Press) before transitioning into Olympic Lifting instruction. Working within a small group is essential for each participant to receive the personalized feedback required for safe progression through more advanced lifting techniques.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  I'm super excited, but admittedly, I'm a little nervous...I signed up on my own, so won't know anyone in class...but I think because it's a small group, it will be fine.   So why did I sign up for this?  I've been wanting to do some barbell work for awhile because I actually have one at home that's sitting at home begging me to use it.  Every time I pick up the dumbbells, I swear it whimpers a bit and lets out a lonely sigh...sob...lift me, nice lady?  Never one to want to see good equipment go to waste, I jumped at the chance when I saw this class particularly because it goes through some fundamental lifts like the deadlift, which is a fantastic all around exercise that strengthens the whole body...I really want to make sure I learn the right technique to avoid injury and going to a small class with lots of personal instruction is perfect.  Plus I really like PISE so want to continue to take some classes there and support the trainers and the great facility that they have there.  Six sessions starting in November...the only bad part is that the class starts late at 8pm (this is around the time that I'm donning my pyjamas), but it's sorta good because then there will be less people around to witness my pathetic lifting technique.  Heh.

yikes...what have I gotten myself into?!

WORKOUTS:

Sunday: strength

Monday: 30 mins treadmill run

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: 30 mins treadmill run

Thurs: rest

Friday: 30 mins treadmill run

Saturday: 5.5K run, 10 minute circuit


FOOD:
Pretty good overall.  I was on a bit of a slide back on my week of vacation, but I was on vacation, man!  Anyways, I strayed a bit that week but have been back on the clean eating train.

RECIPES:
Whole wheat pasta with lentils and leek from Gourmet Nutrition, Cumin Lime Quinoa salad and Tofu Quiche with Sundried Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Basil from Oh She Glows (the tofu quiche was fabulous, by the way!).



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Eating Clean: Final Thoughts

I can't believe it's been six months since we changed how we ate and started to eat clean!  Man, time flies...I know, I say this over and over again, but it just blows my mind.  Like seriously, it's going to be Christmas soon.  Gack.

So yeah...it's been six months since we've changed how we ate and yep, we're still following the plan.   After seeing Hubs' awesome results on his cholesterol levels, we are basically doing more of the same...cut way back on our meat and refined sugars, we eat tons of fish, veggies and fruits, whole grains and beans galore and cut way, way back on salt...I still, however, cannot get the man to drink water.  Bah

What have we noticed six months in?  Well, a lot with Hubs.  He doesn't get the afternoon crazy drop off like he used to get after eating lunch, and he's noticed a big difference in our runs and when he was playing hockey.  He used to get easily gassed at hockey, but the first night he came home and said he felt fantastic and could keep up with the young bucks no problem.  He was also getting these weird hives after his workouts, bad enough that he had to take antihistamines every time we'd run but he stopped taking them soon after we changed our diet. 

With me, the biggest change has been the sodium.  The hardest thing for me for sure, as I'm a total salt fiend...honestly, the saltier the better...like I was the kind of girl that would stick my finger in the bag of Doritos so I could get all the salty seasoning at the bottom of the bag.  This is crazy...but I actually find a lot of foods too salty now.

Gasp.

I know!  This is crazy!  I actually kind of can't believe that I used to eat some of the stuff I did and don't know how I did it.  I rarely season my food now, and cook with very little salt...I also buy all low sodium or no salt added foods.  If I go to a restaurant to eat a meal, I'm almost always dying of thirst after.  Take today for instance...I went out at lunch to get a soup and sandwich and ordered a cream of cauliflower soup.  As I tucked into my lunch, I thought man, this soup is salty...I actually didn't really enjoy it but finished it off anyways (there are starving kids in Africa you know!) and felt sick all afternoon and have been guzzling water constantly since then.  Blah.  Same thing happened a few weeks ago when I opened up a bag of those Quaker rice chips...I had a few and thought holy crap this is salty and actually ended up throwing them out.  I actually don't like how salty things make me feel now. 

So...if a diehard saltaholic like me can change, anyone can make a change for the better.  Eating clean might seem hard at first, but it's so worth it for your health and both Hubs and I are totally on the clean eating wagon.  Yes...it's way more fun to have a monster mud pie or a burger and fries...and it's not like you can't do that stuff occasionally.  Hubs and I still eat out and have our one cheat meal a week (not a full day of debaucherous eating like we did before) and we're still diehard foodies, but we're finding that we actually crave healthy food now.  The other benefit to eating clean is that I used to be an avid food logger and calorie counter.  I'm not against those things because they're great tools for losing weight, but I've found that if I concentrate on eating healthy foods most of the time (we all need to live a little!) and incorporate strength training into my workouts, I'm able to maintain a weight that I'm comfortable at fairly easily after a lifetime of struggling with my weight.

Eat healthy, lift something heavy and run a little...who woulda thunk. 


Friday, September 13, 2013

Catching Up

Oh hi!

Yes, I'm alive.  I know, I know...it's been almost three weeks since I've posted anything but it's been crazy busy, honestly!  We were on vaycay for a bit and then things haven't really slowed down until now and I'm finally getting some time to breathe. 

So what's up, you ask?  Let's see...let's start with my broken ass problem.  OK, I'm going to tempt the exercise gods but I think...I think...that I'm finally on track and I'm on the mend.  I'd just been having so many issues with the butt and hamstring strains, but the thing that was really bugging me was the constant niggles and issues that were happening with my back and neck.  My back had been doing so well for so long and then it seemed like all of a sudden the wheels fell off the bus.   Anyways...I've been back to see my "old" physio a few times...I really like my new guy but she just has so much more history with me (I think I've been seeing her for about five years) and knows me like the back of her hand.  Plus the fact that I just plain old love her and think she's the most fabulous thing since sliced bread but I digress.  She's a big believer in cranio-sacral therapy...I know some people may think it's a bunch of voodoo hokum, but this stuff works!  At least for me.  It was all light touches that I could barely feel, but voila...no neck pain or hip pain today!  Well, I do have some residual achiness because she also brought out the needles (gah) and I have a few good sized bruises from some really tight spots she released. 

I asked her if I should (for the next while anyways) do some more regular visits with her to keep on top of things once I'm all healed up...I was thinking about checking in once every two months to make sure I'm not getting tight in certain areas and opening myself up to injuries again...it's truly been frustrating to not be able to move my body like I want to.  Because she knows my past history, she didn't feel all the craziness that's been happening was actually due to the workouts I was doing (hurray!) but that my bloody rotten desk job was the cause and being hypermobile doesn't help either.  Things were probably starting to show up but I was probably ignoring the signs and pushed things too long (hence why I want to start going for maintenance check ins).  She said that all the clients she has that have the multitude of issues and injuries that I do have desk jobs...as the cliche goes, it's all connected and tightness in one spot affects another and another and then blammo!  You have a broken ass.  Well hear me now...I'm lucky enough to have a standing desk at work but haven't been using it fully...I now vow to start working my way up to standing at least half the day and working on my posture because yes, I'm a serial sloucher and desk slumper.  Hmmmm...I feel a 2014 goal coming on!  I'm tired of having all these recurring issues and I'm committed to do whatever it takes to get things stay injury and issue-free.

As far as workouts go (no, I won't make you suffer through three weeks of detailed recaps...ha!), I've still been keeping at 'er and doing short runs (now up to 4K), strength work and circuits at home so I won't lose too much fitness.  Sadly, the ladies I was training with at PISE aren't able to continue on for various reasons so I'm a little sad about that, but we did get a book of kickass workouts that I've been using, which has been awesome.  I think if things start looking pretty good, I might start back one day at my other bootcamp and slowly add days until I'm back at it three days a week...I've been missing my good buddy D a lot.

Anyways, there you go.  I'm still alive and kicking, and hoping things are back on track now so I won't be such a stranger.