Gym Time!

I LOVE going to the gym! When my kids were small, it was due in very large part to getting a little kid-free time. But now with all my kids in school all day, that is no longer a motivation. I've always really liked knowing that my body was strong and capable. And since I climb far fewer trees these days than I once did, a gym is the easiest way to accomplish that. I've seen how quickly a body can betray, and so while mine is still working well, I intend to work it!

A few months ago, I let my membership at a local rec center lapse. It's the gym I've used for years, but it was no longer meeting my needs. I intended to just focus on my half marathon training on the roads and trails and combine that with push-ups and other things I could do here at home.

But then a swanky new gym opened in the downtown of my cute and adorable little town. It took over the old hardware store and is that perfect combination of raw old brick walls, distressed but gleaming old wood floor, and lots of  dark metal. It's opening happened to coincide with my decision to get back into weight lifting again. (I don't think I've really focused on lifting since before I had my daughter. She's six now.)

I love my swanky new gym! It's a 24 hour facility and doesn't always have staff there, so the other day I used my key card to get in only to discover the whole building dark and empty! This, btw, is one of my definitions of heaven. A whole gym, completely tricked out, and all to myself!!

I then spent the next 10 minutes mentally writing a book involving the murder of a woman who is all alone in a swanky new 24 gym. All this while lacing up my sneakers, picking out my treadmill, programming it, queuing up my running playlist on my iPod, and just settling in.

Heaven, y'all.

On the TV screen in front of my treadmill they were showing some sort of championship basketball game for high schools. Basketball is the one sport I don't mind watching. And it was a NJ high school playing against an Indiana high school in a very close game.

I was all alone, so I cheered loudly at every basket the NJ team made. I booed out loud at missed or lousy calls against the NJ team all while running with my ear buds in.

It was after one particularly hard-won basket, I threw my arms up in the air and yelled "YES!" for the NJ team, and noticed an older gentleman had come up the stairs at some point and was exactly in my blind spot.

See?? Total potential for a murder mystery! I have no idea how long he'd been there, but he was clearly amused at my enthusiasm for high school basketball.

I finished up my miles on the treadmill and then moved over to do my first arm work out with the weights in a reeeeaaaaally long time. So long, in fact, that when I attempted to put my previous lifting weight on the barbell for chest presses, I was....um....overly optimistic.  So much so, that I could not lift the bar back up and had to slither out from under it, off the bench, and on to the floor.

A friend of mine once commented that I reminded him a little of Lucille Ball from "I Love Lucy". At the time I bristled a little at the comparison. But as I've thought of some of the stories I've told him from my life over the years, it's fairly apt. Anyway, as I was slithering out from the bar none too gracefully, that's all I could think of.

The guy at the gym was nice enough to pretend he didn't see me make a fool of myself that time. I managed to finish up my workout without any further shenanigans, thank goodness.

I'm happy to report that my subsequent visits to the gym have yielded no such stories and have simply been boring.

Not so good for anecdotes, but much better for my ego.

Healthy?

Belly dance, anyone?

I'm giving you a chance to turn back now. This is one of those "personal realizations about health and body image" blog posts. They can be super tedious to read, so I give you fair warning.

Right after Christmas, I had to go to a health screening for our insurance company. My numbers were not great. Weight, I was expecting to be commented on and with good reason. But my other numbers, which are usually fabulous (seriously, I have sexy blood pressure numbers, people!), were not bad, but also not so good. More like in that warning section. The RNP doing the screening pointed out that it was a rotten thing to make everyone do the blood work during the holidays when people are generally eating, drinking, and being merry perhaps more than they might otherwise be.

That being considered, a few days later when we were sharing our resolutions and goals for the new year with one another as a family, I mentioned that my goal was to be healthier. Every single one of my boys said, "Really? But you're super healthy. Why do you need to do that?"

And for a brief moment I saw myself through their eyes. They have a Mom who takes belly dance, ballet, spinning, runs and does hateful those tabata or boot camp workouts all throughout the week. I ran 5 miles Thanksgiving morning. I trained for and ran 1.5 half marathons last year. I'm taking my kids to hike two whole states worth of the Appalachian trail this spring. They have a Mom who tries to feed them healthy food and tries to encourage good eating habits in them.

Yeah, I need to lose weight. I should eat less sugar. And I'll work on both of those things this year just like I said I would.

But I am so grateful to my children for being a better mirror than the one I look in by myself.

Seven Things Sunday!

1. Lilyanna had her first French lesson this week. It's with a private tutor originally from Haiti and a couple of other preschool age kids. Her first question, "How do you say 'tiger' in French?" Now that she knows 'le tigre' we've been hearing about it a lot! She's really excited for this week's lesson. Hopefully when we spend our 36 hours in Paris this summer before flying home from Europe, I will get our point across to our waiters, etc. and after butchering their lovely language, I will stick my 5 year old in front of me to charmingly discuss tigers, colors, and body parts. It will hopefully diffuse their annoyance at me.

2. I have managed to lose the weight I put on over the holidays. The weight that I was specifically working hard to NOT gain over the holidays. Good grief. Imagine if I hadn't been trying!

3. I have a little girl turning 5 this week. To say she is excited is a drastic understatement. Oh, and we still haven't gotten a party planned for her. She changes her mind about what she wants about every 30 seconds. I'm apparently over party planning. When the boys were little, I was crazy about planning birthday parties. I spent weeks hand designing invitations, gathering ideas around the theme, picking out the perfect cake to decorate. Now, I can barely summon the desire to ask Lilyanna what she wants. So sad. I'll get it all together for her, but I lack the obsessive enthusiasm for the project that I once had. Sometimes it's tough being the youngest.

4. My oven quit working this week. It's been a rough few months for our kitchen. We had to replace the refrigerator. I managed to fix the dishwasher (I'm still preening over the fact that I fixed a major appliance!). Our neighbor got the food waste disposal working again, but it's on borrowed time. The water filtration system is in poor shape and needs a new tank. Todd and our neighbor ended up having to replace the kitchen faucet, and now the oven. It reminds me of a couple of years ago, when it was a bad time to be a pet in the Smith household. (They all died.) Now it's apparently a bad time to be an appliance in the Smith kitchen. The oven, btw, will require professional help. I managed to get it all taken apart and isolate the problem, but fixing the problem is beyond my pay grade.

5. I've joined a scripture reading group with some friends from church. Basically, we just email or text one another when we've finished whatever we're studying that day, sharing a favorite passage, or personal insight. It's been interesting to see their perspectives on different scriptures and I'm enjoying a little extra accountability.

6. A certain husband of mine who shall remain nameless is turning 40 very soon. He doesn't want a big party, my little introvert. And he doesn't want us to spend any money, since all extra dollars this year are going into our travels and apparently repairing every single thing in our kitchen (and my van). This means we've had to be extra sneaky and creative with what we're doing for his birthday. In the off chance he's actually reading this, I will simply say that details are to follow.

7. It is Kindergarten sign up this week! Hard to believe the day has already come in some ways, but in others, she's been ready for school for about 3 years now. ;)

Resolution Wrap-Up

Spiritual: My goal was to read the entire Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price this year.  The good new is that I kept with it. I read every day, but didn't always read enough each day.  So, I'm 100 pages behind which means this goal will take approximately 12 months and 2 weeks to achieve.  I'm okay with that.

Physical:  Ugh.  This one was the worst.  Between my injury in the spring when I did something nasty to my posterior tibial tendon and getting walking pneumonia at the end of August, running was no bueno this year.  That being said.  I would like to try again.  But, I'll start small this time.  Maybe just try to run 38 miles before my 38th birthday in a little less than 3 months.  I'll have to run between 3-5 miles per week, but I think that's manageable.  And if my body can handle that, I'll make a new goal for the spring.

One thing I found was that I am terrible at training while on vacation.  We travel for at least 4 weeks in the summer and between all the driving and the wacko schedule and staying in new places, I'm terrible at sticking to a fitness routine.  Although, I did discover some really fun fitness apps for my phone that I used a lot while travelling.  I could listen to scriptures in my room in the morning and spend 20 minutes doing the fitness apps for sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, planks, and squats.  My phone became my trainer.  It worked really well on vacation, even if my normal routine didn't.

Financial: We were doing really well with financial goals until last month.  And now we need some pretty major (major=expensive) service done on our van, a new refrigerator, and going over our financial's we realized that we needed to make a larger tithing payment than we'd originally budgeted for thanks to some stock sold earlier in the year that I didn't factor in.  So, we paid the tithing, but are in some cases literally holding things together with duct tape until everything else is sorted.  Just like last January, we're planning on spending money for the two family birthdays we have coming up, and signing up for the next round of classes at the rec center, but food will come as much as possible from our own cupboards and pantries, so we will have a much smaller grocery bill this month.

Last year I started off with a financial fast.  We didn't do it for more than a few months, but it did make me more mindful about what I was buying when and more importantly, why I was buying it.  At the beginning of each month, I would make a list of the things we needed to purchase that were outside of our typical budget and it definitely kept me more focused on our goals.  I will definitely carry that over.

Organizing:  The challenge was great for me.  I confess that I didn't follow everything to the letter, and I didn't finish all the mini-challenges within, BUT it was great to take some projects by the horns, so to speak and get rid of a lot of clutter.  There is still A LOT of room for improvement, so I'll be doing it again this year.  I'll also be doing another month of winnowing, where I donate, throw away, or sell at least one item every day for the month of January. That's something I've been much better about doing this whole year.  And while I still feel like I'm drowning in toys, clothes, papers, etc. I also feel like I have a better handle on it.  

Books I Read this Month:
The Holy Bible (well, I finished it this month, anyway.)
Miranda's Big Mistake
The Nature of Jade
Awaken
Boundless
Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince
The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Unspoken (WARNING: If I had not had the 2nd book in the series already in my possession, I would have thrown this one across the room at the end.  WORST ENDING EVER! But very compelling story and the sequel left me more satisfied, though anxious for the 3rd to hurry up and come out already.)
Untold
Blackmoore
Sweet Tea Revenge
Also, I was able to read a friend's manuscript and it was fantastic! I'm so excited for it to be published! 

Keeping Myself Honest 4

Spiritual: I am completely up to date on my scripture reading. Mostly because I have started listening to scriptures while I run. Do you know what doesn't help you run faster? Leviticus. Or Numbers. Or Jacob, Chapter 5.  However, I'm not really going for speed. I'm going for not dying before the end of the race, which I think is a worthy goal.

Physical: I ran 34.75 miles this month. It should have been closer to 40, but I started out the month sick and then had a couple of days where I had to short myself a mile because there just wasn't time.  My proudest moment was when I ran 2.5 miles in 28 minutes a few weeks ago. I know that for a real runner, that isn't at all impressive. I also recognize that I have run much faster than that in years past. But for me right now with this body, that was awesome!

Financial:  We've done pretty well! There were some things that we needed to purchase, but we did a much better job of keeping our spending in check.  Next month will be more of a fast because   the last trimester of dance tuition is due. Also, I'm going away for an overnight of alone time on my birthday weekend, and buying a new vacuum. I'm all done with the vacuum that has literally been held together with duct tape for so long. I hate having to re-duct tape the hose each week, too. I found someone in the neighborhood who can use our old vacuum, so as soon as I get my new one, I will pass the old on to her.

Organizing: The challenge is going okay. I went through much of Lilyanna's toys and dolls and dress ups the other day and got all of those organized. And I'm still doing great at winnowing things. I've been donating and selling left and right. It makes me feel lighter.  Stuff really can weigh you down.

Books I Read in February:
Postcards from the Dead
Time after Time
Virals
Seizure
Heaven is Here
True Colours
Drop Dead Healthy
Why Can't I Be You

Keeping Myself Honest 3

Spiritual: I am completely up to date on my scripture reading. I did get a bit behind when I was away helping to care for my sister, but it wasn't too difficult to catch up. I brought my scriptures in my carry on bag for my flights, but I apparently lack the attention span on an airplane. Incidentally, there is nothing like horrific turbulence on a flight to remind me of how incredibly powerless I really am. I found myself humming the Indigo Girls song "Up on the Airplane". Specifically the line "Up on airplane/nearer my God to thee/I start making a deal/inspired by gravity."

Physical: I got all 4 runs in for the week and went to belly dancing. Didn't make it to boot camp. Lilyanna had a high fever the night before and little did I know it but was kicking off the rash of strep and head colds to beset our family for the rest of the week.  I will confess on the running thing, I didn't get all my miles in.  On Monday, I tried, but discovered that the treadmill I was on was broken, so while I was feeling AWESOME at how fast I was running my requisite miles, I finally looked over at the woman next to  me to compare her mph and discovered that while our footfalls were exactly the same, her setting was way lower than mine. I finally got off and asked the gym trainer what was up, and he confirmed that indeed they have problems with that treadmill.  Still, for a couple of miles I was the BEST runner! ;)

Financial:  We did okay at this for the month of January. My unexpected travel was in there, but all told, we did okay. We kept things simple for the birthdays we had this month, and definitely spent less.  While we have a few things to stock up on this month, we are going to be more mindful of our spending and do another financial fast in March.

Organizing: The challenge is going okay. I'm sort of picking and choosing the tasks I do for the month rather than going in the assigned order. In reorganizing drawers and cabinets in the kitchen I discovered that somehow we have accumulated FIVE potato peelers. Five! I don't even have an explanation for how that might have happened.

Books I Read in January:
Born to Run
Eat and Run
The Raven Boys
The Scorpio Races

Keeping Myself Honest 2

A report on my resolutions more for my own benefit than anything else. 

There is a bit of a caveat this week. It's not my story to tell, so I'm not providing details, but a very close family member of mine who lives far away nearly died this week. I spent two full days this week fretting about a situation completely and utterly beyond my control and did pretty much nothing on those days. I mean, I went through the motions. I homeschooled, and taught piano and made dinner and drove kids where they needed to go. But every other minute was spent either worrying or praying or trying to find out what was going on.  My goals and self-betterment, while important, paled mightily in comparison to the life of someone I love. I'm not excusing myself, but giving myself a bit of wiggle room.  Due to the incident, I will be travelling west this week to help care for this person and her family and am trying to prepare everything for my family for while I'm gone. So, other than scripture reading, everything else is going to be catch as catch can.

Spiritual: I accomplished my reading goal everyday, though I found that if I don't get the bulk of the reading done in the morning before Lilyanna wakes up, it mostly gets left until the evening when I'm definitely not absorbing as much.

Physical: Running went great this week! I am following a training schedule for a couch to half marathon, but discovered that I could skip to week 4. This is especially good news, because it means I might actually be ready in time for the big half marathon this spring in Columbus.  We'll see! Belly dancing was super fun, and I totally skipped my hellish boot camp class since it was in the midst of the days of fret.

Financial:  Financial fasting was okay. I spent unexpected money for travel, though the bulk of my plane ticket was given in a most welcome but unexpected offering of frequent flier miles from my father in law.  The whole situation made me reflect on something I read in a book by the Economides family. They mentioned that one of  their standards for an emergency fund is "How much would it cost to fly the entire family to a funeral of a loved one on short notice?" Tickets are absurdly expensive if you don't have the traditional two weeks lead time.  The price for us, right now, would have been so prohibitive that there's no way we all would have been able to go should things have gone as badly as they could have gone. Fortunately, we didn't have to make an awful choice like that, but it makes me all the more determined to make sure that we pad our emergency fund better.

Organizing: I'm still doing a good job at getting rid of things, but the challenge was a bit of a disaster. My counters are improved, but in no way good. Losing two days didn't help, but honestly, I didn't make it enough of a priority at the beginning of the week. I was using a cram mentality, which isn't going to work for me with organizing. It needs to be a more methodical process.

Keeping myself honest

A report on my resolutions more for my own benefit than anything else.

Spiritual: I did great with scripture reading! And my days flowed better as I made reading scriptures a priority.

Physical: I did my horrific bootcamp class on Thursday, and ran on Friday. I only ran a mile and walked a half mile, but still for day one, not bad. My schedule for running is going to be M/T/F. I would love to do every other day in an ideal world, but schedules do not allow for ideal.

Financial: Financial fasting wasn't so great this week BUT money was spent on the things we knew ahead of time we were going to need. I had to renew my membership at the rec center and sign up for my classes. I also had to order some homeschool books and supplies for my kids, although I had an amazon giftcard that paid for most of that.  We did a great job at meal planning with ingredients we already had on hand. Last night I went to the grocery store and kept myself from picking out anything that I didn't need. (Except there was a great price on GF chicken nuggets, so I did pick up a box of those.)

Organizing: I've been doing a good job at getting rid of things, but the challenge I'm doing doesn't start until tomorrow anyway, so I'm good. ;)

Resolutions 2013: Fitness

Several years ago, some friends and I walked a half marathon. I don't use the word walk as in a leisurely stroll either. It's entirely possible we walked it faster than I will be able to run it.

But since I haven't been able to take all my favorite spinning/weights/yoga classes this year, I feel like a bump on a log. (I'm still doing a horrific boot camp class, belly dancing class, and a little bit of walking/weights once or twice a week, but without running or spinning I don't feel right.)

Sadly, spinning just doesn't fit into my schedule with the kids' schooling at home/vision therapy/preschool, etc. SO I'm going to sign myself up for a half marathon.

Possibly because I'm a little bit crazy. Also, because I like proving to myself that I can do these things.  I am by nature a lazy person. I have to get myself mixed up in crazy goals to actually motivate me in to doing the things that are good for me.

Anybody want to join me?