I suck at blogging...but not at sticking to the plan!!

OK OK, sorry everyone...I seem to have been too tied up in life to sit down and write about my adventures these days...but a lot has happened!

First off, I am now only 11 days from the trip, and 11 days from the end of my 90 days of working out journey...and I STILL haven't missed a day.  There have been some very rough moments, especially in the past month....but I have just buckled down and forced myself to just do it no matter how much I don't want to.  I have been doing the 30 day shred on weekdays only, because frankly it gets kind of brutal listening to Jillian Michaels harp on you every morning at 6 AM!  On the weekends my workouts have ranged from tennis, to softball, to walking, swimming, etc.

In 2 weeks we'll be at my favorite place in the world.  We'll be 2 days into the trip...which in my mind is kind of bittersweet.  I mean, the countdown is almost over, which means so is the trip :(  I know that sounds crazy to most of you, but it's the way my brain works.  

This week I have a few final details to take care of, my final dress fitting being the biggest and best!  I can't believe in 2 weeks (and 2 days) I'll be walking down the aisle WEARING said dress!  So freaking wild, really...I am so stoked!  Luckily so is Adrian :)

Getting Shredded to be Wedded

LOL - ok so that was all of my wittiness for the day all spewed out in one title.

I stared Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred yesterday - I'm replacing my morning walk with this from now until the wedding - it's my last ditch attempt to get my arms included in this workout party.  I am a hurting unit today....

So Jillian Michaels is my worst enemy...wow I forgot how crazy this workout is.  It's only 20 minutes - but it's 20 minutes of hurting, sweating good times.  She starts out with a 2 or 3 minute warm up, then into the first of 3 circuits which each include 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs...then repeat that 3 times, and then a cool down.  As an example in circuit 1, you do pushups for 45 sec, then squats and presses (squat with weights, as you stand up you press your arms up until fully extended) for 45 sec, then repeat the pushups and squat/presses one more time.  Then for cardio it's 30 sec jumping jacks, 30 seconds fake jump rope, then repeat those 2.  Abs is a combo of regular and reverse crunches....sounds easy....it's not.

By the end of circuit 1 I am sweating....by the end of the video I am drenched.  It's bizarre because I feel somewhat in shape - until I do these videos....I have to keep telling myself over and over "I can do ANYTHING for 20 minutes."  I remember the last time I did these though, that Level 2 of the video seems a bit easier (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I am on Level 1, the supposed easy level...and they go up to 3...).

Also - today marks the day that is 30 DAYS TILL THE TRIP!!  I will be officially married in 34 days (actually 30 days and 2 hours from this exact minute I will be standing at the altar at Sea Breeze Point).  We are so excited - I don't know that I could get anymore excited than I am...I need a vacation badly, and Disney is calling my name loud and clear. 

Oh and in more exciting news Adrian now has officially got his date to be sworn into the Canadian Military - November 10th he gets sworn in, and Nov 24th he leaves for Memorial University in NFLD!!  I'm so very proud of him - what a great decision...It'll be a rough couple of years but we can do it and it will be SO worth it in the end!!

Hi everyone - Happy FRIDAY!

Sorry I haven't been updating regularly, I'm relatively boring really...

However I am now nearing the 2/3 point of my 90 day mission, and although I have been sort of slacking on the crunches I haven't missed a day of exercise yet!!  I do on average about 75 crunches a day.  I'm not sure why I went down from 100....motivation I guess.  Somehow I just can't be bothered. 

I try to get up and walk every morning so that if I don't get a chance to do any exercise at night then at least I have still done something.  The past week hasn't been great for any other cardio though, I've kind of sucked at it a bit.  Although my sister, Adrian and I did go for a rockin' run/walk the other night, which was great. 

OK so last night Adrian and I went to this amazing bistro called Chives.  It is in what used to be a bank, and it's an amazing place...the chef builds his menu around fresh, local ingredients.  So we get there and the guy says "I have a nice secluded table for you guys..." and takes us to "the Vault" - it's an actual vault!  It has one table, and cozy chairs, and all of their wine racks...it was so cool! 

Dinner was absolutely amazing.  Adrian had Fettuccine Carbonara with Chicken, I had an 8 oz Filet with smoked gouda smashed potatoes...YUM.  Dessert was about the most fantastical thing ever - it was like something that would appear on the food network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" - it's called the Chocolate Peanut Buster.  Flourless chocolate cake with a scoop of homemade peanut butter ice cream on top, drizzled with caramel sauce and sprinkled with salted peanuts.  OMG.  So good.  Adrian's was also great - a play on strawberry shortcake.  It was lemon brioche bread pudding with seasonal berries in a honey glaze with homemade vanilla ice cream....YUM  It was a fantastic experience...loved it.

So all in all after weeks of working out and eating semi-good last night killed it all...lol...Now time to get back to the grind and try to kick it up a notch for the last 30 days of the mission.  I am starting Jillian Michael's 30 day shred next week.  If you haven't tried it - it's one of the best workouts ever. 

Over and out - time to start the day.

The halfway mark!!!

Ohhhhh man - today is the 45 day mark which means I'm halfway through this whole crazy mission of mine!  I was on my walk this morning, and was thinking how great of an idea this challenge really was.  I am now in the habit of walking pretty much every morning, have done some crazy weekend power walks, taken up Tennis, started playing softball again, and really have just committed to something and stuck to it - which is great!  Now keep in mind that I have not lost any weight, however it's not really about that for me anymore...it's more about the fitness, and being healthy and taking care of myself. 

Here are a few stats I came up with on my walk this morning.  Let's say I have walked most days (I skipped a few but for those that I skipped I went on the crazy weekend walks) for approximately 4 km.  This means I have walked approximately 180 km in the past 45 days, and done approximately 3500 crunches!!  WOOT!  This is in addition to all of the additional sports and activities that I've been doing....swimming, sports, etc...

So the trip starts in 45 days....and I am pretty much beside myself with excitement.  The tux is ordered, stuff is paid for, I've started planning the at home reception, it's all pretty much ready to go!  I have to get my dress altered next week, and really I think that's the final detail.  Crazy how fast time flies...

I love my life...

OK, so it's not perfect all the time, but it's pretty darn good.  I try not to let things bug me too much, because honestly I have a pretty great life.  I am shocked and happy that in under 2 months I will be married to the best guy ever, too...it's quite awesome!  I am so excited for the whole wedding trip, really...16 days in my favorite place in the world, with a bunch of my favorite people in the world?  Very cool if you ask me! 

And now the bad news....getting older I forget that there are certain things I HAVE to do, like stretch before exercise.  And last weekend I forgot this rule, and of course my old softball injury came right back at me (as it does every summer) and I managed to pull my quad.  A pulled quad is weird, it doesn't hurt that bad until you try to sprint or move quickly at all (as you do on a regular basis during both softball and tennis...).  But when you so either of those things (which I did) it hurts a LOT.  Not a little bit, I repeat a LOT!  Like, I want to collapse on the ground and roll around dramatically kind of pain (I refrained from this, as I like to appear kind of tough...). 

Now back to the good stuff before I start lamenting on the other bad things about approaching my mid-thirties...we have visitors coming up this week!  Adrian's son Landon is coming up for the weekend, and we are going on the "Harbour Hopper Tour" - which is a huge boat on wheels that goes both on the road in in the water on a cool tour of the city.  My mom is also coming to see us on Saturday, and then my sister and her kids are coming up next week...should be fairly exciting! 

The working out is going well, although I am looking forward to a day where I can get up and NOT think about what I am going to do to fulfill a crazy workout mission!  I do really love Tennis though...Adrian has been playing with me a lot, so it's good practice, good exercise, and lots of fun!  We're getting a lot of great weather this summer, which makes it easy to get outside and enjoy things like tennis and walking!  Now hopefully my leg holds up and i survive the rest of the summer...

Anyways, my afternoon cup of tea is done and it's time to get back to whatever I was doing before this post! 

Happy Thursday everyone...try to find something about your life that you truly appreciate today.  It's a great thing to do every once in a while!

Hello World!

Hey everyone!

I'm still on track, although I did miss my crunches twice this week, I have still done some form of exercise every day - so I consider this a success.  We played tennis today in the blistering heat - it was pretty awesome!  I feel like I am taking very naturally to tennis, which is very cool.  I have dabbled with actual serving since we tried it in my first lesson, and I'm not too shabby!

Adrian also has me on this new kick of not eating after 8 PM, which I know is healthy, but I hate it so much.  It's the worst rule ever!  I am a cereal addict, and love having a bowl of cereal with my TV shows at night (I know, it's a bad habit, you don't have to tell me), so it's been a rough week in that way.

I am frustrated today, as I tweaked my quad today playing tennis...I pulled my quad 3 years ago during a Softball game, and it's been weak ever since.  I do NOT like having a weak spot.  It sucks.  All it takes is pushing off the wrong way and it brings the pain right back...the best part of this is I have to play softball tomorrow, so hopefully I make it through!

Life in general is coming along nicely.  The wedding plans are pretty much done, and the trip is in only 55 more days, which is so soon!!  I can't believe we'll be married in less than 2 months - it's just so cool!  I just read about Carrie Underwood's wedding in people magazine, and I want my hair to look like hers...although I'm pretty sure hers is significantly longer then mine...sigh.  I'm sure my hairdresser will work some kind of miracles...

Anyways - time to do laundry and try to keep from melting in this friggin heat!

GLU (General Life Update) Time

Still going strong, and I'm now officially 1/3 in!  60 days till the big trip!!  WOOT!

So this weekend - let's see....what did I do?  Well thanks for asking!  We went to see a fan-freaking-tastic movie, Inception.  We LOVED it!  I'll review it later.  

AND I got lots of good exercise!!!

I went on my usual 12.5 km walk on Saturday - and wow, what a difference the new sneakers make!  My feet hardly hurt at all, whereas normally it feels like they've been beaten the whole time...the new sneakers offered now only added support, but felt like I was walking on pillows!  It was blisteringly hot though, like 31 degrees...whew!  Good thing I was packing water or I would have collapsed...

Then Sunday rolled around, and it was time for SOFTBALL!!  YAY!  It was a really awesome time.  We all had fun, and I think we'll have good turnout for the rest of the summer.  We had around 20 or so people there for the first practice, and a few others who have promised to join. All in all, loved it!  It felt really good to get back out and play a bit - although I am sore today!  So is half of the office - lol...

Now I'm off to play some tennis with my sister, and break in this new awesome pink tennis racquet...and get practiced up for Lesson #2 on Wednesday :)  Can't wait!

More updates to come, including my review of Inception...