Sunday, October 18, 2009

i'm ba-a-a-a-ack!!

Yay!

So many things have happened since my last post and I will most likely not remember them all, but well you can't miss what you don't know!

Wow - I just realized it's been well over a month since my last post. I'm sorry to have left you without my pearls of wisdom and energizing humour for so long!

But ok where to start..

Booty Camp

I successfully completed the 4-week Booty Camp session! I lost a few pounds, lost a couple inches, and gained some muscles I never knew I had. I signed up for another 4 weeks and am now entering week 3 of it! I missed a day, but I think I'm going to make up for it this week by doing 3 sessions. I am not sure I will continue on past this next 4 weeks but it was good while it lasted! Kept me motivated and active when I was having trouble doing it on my own.

MarathonS!

On September 27 I successfully completed the Scotiabank Marathon - 5k :D It always seem so misleading to say I did a marathon. I did it in 42:26 minutes. Yes, I run really really slow, but I don't care! I ran the entire way and didn't stop at all! I thank Shyn entirely for this one! If it hadn't been for him I would have stopped at the 1km mark. He put up with my whining for 42 minutes and kept encouraging me. My favourite line he gave me was, "Just think - all that time you spent grinding on WoW has trained you for this! Just keep pushing through!" Ok, that was highly paraphrased, but it made me laugh. Though of course only the people who play WoW will appreciate that, but I think most of you do :D

IRREGARDLESS, I ran the 5k and it was glorious!

Riding this high, Mike calls me at work a few days later and says, "Hey, I have a GREAT idea, let's do another 5k!" I foolishly agree and this brings me to today.

On October 18, 2009 I ran my second 5k! In the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon! Despite not having run since the last 5k, I ran it in 40:00. Dammit. I thought I ran it in under 40. At least I improved my time.. by 2.5 minutes. Boo. Oh well! I did walk a few times for a few seconds here and there, though. Mike stayed with me the whole way and played alphabet games with me to keep me distracted!

Now Sharon posted on my Facebook that she is running one in the spring! Should I or shouldn't I? I hate it up until the last km. Then I start to feel more enthusiastic about the whole thing. We'll see!

Boxing Gym

Since I need constant variety, my next new challenge may be joining a boxing gym. I had originally thought that I wanted to do Judo or Karate or something, but then I realized I don't like to touch people. Therefore, sparring activities are not for me. Then I had a brilliant idea that I could join a boxing gym! I just want to punch a bag. Build some muscle, work on my cardio. I found one in the southeast end of the city that I am going to look into once my Booty Camp is over. I can pay $500 for a year's membership and I can go to all the boxing classes I want. These classes are 2 hours in length and offered every day and involves cardio and work with the punching bags. Maybe I won't sign up for a whole year yet, but I will definitely check out a few classes!

I know some of you might be thinking that if I'm willing to spend all that money maybe I should join a gym instead. It would be about the same amount of money. $40ish/mo for a gym=$480/year. But the question is, Will I go to the gym? I do hate it quite a bit and can see myself quitting after a month or so. Stupid gyms. We'll see if I even like the boxing class and go from there I suppose.

Dodgeball

This is so fun! And way more work than I had originally anticipated! Unfortunately, the first two games we won by forfeit when the other teams didn't show up :/ Then in our third match when a team did show up, we lost! :( But tomorrow we will kick ass, I'm sure of it! I think they're the 7th place team and so we should be able to win win win! :) Either way, it's a lot of fun. We have 5 more games, I believe.

Then my new plan is to rent a school gym for January and play various sports. If that doesn't pan out, then maybe indoor volleyball. Or maybe a new sport?? I have recently had my eye on basketball and learning how to play that. This is partly why I want to rent the gym - so we can play bastketball and see how good or bad it is!

Food

All I have to say is that I love food and am finding it hard to cut back and bad foods are creeping back into my diet. I don't like it! I am hoping that writing this blog again will keep me motivated and in a better mindset about my health and wellbeing in general! I was falling off the wagon so often and for longer and longer that I was worrying that I wouldn't be able to find the wagon again! But I always do. Food is so delicious, though. Mm.

Lessons Learned:

  1. I get bored of things after about 2 months and have to change it up. This is why I don't believe the saying that it takes 3 weeks or whatever to build a habit. Oh, maybe it's 3 months to build a habit? Hm. Well, whatever :P
  2. My body is stronger than I think. It's the mind that's weak! This was another of Shyn's motivational speeches when I was complaining that I needed to stop.
  3. October is very cold :(
  4. So apparently I haven't learned much in my month-long hiatus. C'est la vie!



10 comments:

  1. If you actually learned lesson #2, then you wouldn't have wrote lesson #1. Things can get boring, but that's when you have to take it up a notch, or try variations.

    Boxing gym, judo dojo, whatever... is so much better than the gym. At those places, you can get fit and learn to kick ass too. The "gym" is overrated. If you just want to be fit, you don't really need to workout at a gym.

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  2. i agree with Mr. Plow! GYMS, are for the MOST part filled with superficial freaks that like to flex in the mirror, only very few actually "get fit" there. That is definitely not your route, keep trying out new things join that boxing gym! They say most professional athletes have played at least 3-4 other sports competitively before going pro. The message in that is you will never get really good or find a true liking to one specific sport until you've been immersed in several others! Also, the crossover of all the different types of motor functions that youre picking up will really help you. You're on the right track Connie don't be afraid to try anything out. I think you should try an individual sport next...

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  3. lol oh mr. plow..

    ok good to know that the gym is overrated :) because i really do hate it :P

    what's an individual sport? like tennis? what did you have in mind? :) i may try tennis again when it gets warmer and i can play outdoors..

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  4. any racket sport, tennis, badminton, squash, ping pong. Out of those i suggest squash! Easiest to pick up and the best cardio workout. The most frustrating would be tennis.As for winter time, maybe skiing or snowboarding, actually i remember seeing in a research paper a while back on the amount of calories expended per unit time, and skiing/snowboarding was like 10X more than any other sport!! it was really surprising..

    The reason I say pick up an individual sport is because I think you need to start building your own motivational/coping mechanisms which will help you in your 'getting bored after 2 months' thing. But it's important that you pick up an individual sport that is relatively easy, not because your body can't handle it but your mind has built up it's own set of associations towards refining fine motor skills over the years and you need carve those out insert new ones. Especially with the racket sports, try not to just go out and try to whack the ball/birdie around you'll most likely get really discouraged and never try it again thinking that it's just not for you. Find lessons, that's why i say squash, lots a people want to play, easily accessible and a lot of washed up semi-pro's who will give away lessons for cheap! It'll probably be your hardest task but just make sure to have a fun team sport like dodgeball or volleyball (or maybe even basketball) to fall back on.

    Ever thought about skating lessons? Good for balance, coordination. skating programs are usually pretty cheap.

    Hmm, what about fencing? Archery? Maybe you should get your unrestricted firearms license!! :P

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  5. ok i know i'm trying to be less of a sissy.. but re: squash.. the idea of being trapped in a plastic box with a hard bouncy whippy ball flying around at top speed scares the bejeezus out of me :P

    and yes, we should go skiing this winter.. i just wish it were cheaper :( charles wants to go when he comes down!!

    i can skate! not great though i suppose :P

    archery! where can i do archery! but are archery or firearms very active? :P

    and ok.. i will look into indiv sports.. isn't boxing an indiv sport?

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  6. You may be the first to give Laila Ali's first loss!

    And in this corner weighing in at ?? lbs... she's known as the pulverizing, colostomizing, monster... Cooooooooooooooonnie... "THE SHE-HUUULK".... KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMM-AH!

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  7. ahahhahaha.. colostomizing!! lol..

    who knows.. maybe i _will_ love it!! :)

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  8. I think you should keep up with the running. A 40 minute 5k time is a great start, but I KNOW you have so much more in you! If you work hard you will see steady and signficant improvement. Imagine how great it will feel when you're running 5k in 20 minutes and feeling like you haven't broken a sweat!

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  9. I'll admit that I paid for the gym for several years before actually using it, but I love my gym membership now and wouldn't trade it for anything ... for me it's more than a place to feel like a pseudo-bodybuilder ... the gym is also where I met the guys that come out for beach volley, paintball, and basketball ... the gym can be a good place to meet new people ... like 'activity partners' :D

    Personally I'm not very sociable at the gym these days ... I like to go with my earphones and workout on my own and in silence ... I used to get bored running for long periods of time too ... I tried watching TV and talking to people ... didn't find it helped much ... for me time flies when I'm listening to music and running to the beat, or when I let my mind wander and I forget I'm even running (I personally like that it takes my mind off other stresses in life), or time even flies when I'm actually watching the clock and making mini goals (like, I will go at an easy pace for 2 minutes, then sprint for a minute, then back to an easy pace ... maybe I'll plan like 'in 30 seconds, I will switch to high incline for 5 minutes' etc ... as I plan my mini goals, 30 minutes + cooldown can go by before you know it).

    In any case, if the gym ain't your thing, I'd be more than happy to join you for other activities. I tried archery once ... I wasn't good at it, but I'd like to give it another try. And I am so totally down for basketball even though I play it twice a week already ... we should put together co-ed basketball ... recreational basketball! My other bball runs are too competitive and I'm tired of getting injured by elbows to the face and such - lol.

    Great job on all your accomplishments thus far! Especially the marathons!

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