Week 6, Day 1 and I was a very bad girl yesterday....

You know, sometimes it just feels like the harder I try, the further behind I get.  I know it's not really true, but it just seems this winter that every time I got on a roll, something happened ... got sick (twice) and then the back injury.  I'm very happy to report, however, that I feel MUCH much better.  I had already booked a massage  before I got hurt.  It's for this Tuesday.  YAY!  I think my legs need it more than my back tho.

Monday, March 22nd was the first anniversary of the beginning of my transformation.  I had worked with a personal trainer before that and had gotten some momentum but then Christmas and illness hit.  March 22nd was the first day of my first Body for Life challenge.  I haven't actually entered the challenge ... I just do it on my own.  It keeps me on track and it keeps me grounded and focussed.

I asked Barry today if I was still making progress.  Sometimes we don't see ourselves as we actually are.  We get so used to seeing a certain image, sometimes it's really hard to break that.  I mean, I know that I've definitely made progress in the past year ... I've lost about 2 1/2 dress sizes.  But lately I'm frustrated between being sick and then being injured.  But at least I get right back at it as soon as I can.  I hate not working out.  I don't feel right.  This is by far the longest I've ever stayed consistent.  Maybe there's hope for me after all.  But Barry did say that my attitude is MUCH better, my style is back, so much is better from an emotional perspective.  And there have definitely been changes in my body.  My face is much slimmer, there's a lot less to my back and my butt is lifted and more defined.  That was always my biggest challenge ... I mean, I had the legs and the chest but never the butt.  Now I do ... or at least I'm well on my way.

So my goal for this time next year ... shopping for a bikini.  I've been wanting to do this for several years and although nobody will see me in it unless they're in my backyard, I'll know that I'll have the body for it.   I've never been on the right track for long enough to even think that a bikini might ACTUALLY be in my future.  Now I fully believe it will be.  It might take another year, but it will be.

I was a very bad girl yesterday.  You may or may  not know this about me....I'm an obsessed gardener.  Our backyard (40' x 50') used to be all grass except for a 10 x 20 shed and utility area.  I started with a 10x20' garden....just to try and see if I liked it.  Now that 40x50' backyard has a 14x16' deck, 3 paths and the rest of it is garden.  Pictures will be coming once there are flowers to make it look pretty.  The north side of our house was all grass, on a slope, that grew like a weed and never dried.  It's now home to hostas, monkshood, ferns and violets, among other things. 

Our neighbour to the south of us put in a garage.  Perfect opportunity for me to make another garden.  It's 6 feet wide and about 50 feet long (give or take).  Our front yard consisted of a garden directly in front of our house that was (yes, was) about 7 feet deep. 

And gardens that ran from the front of the house to the sidewalk ... one is 4 feet wide and one was 2 feet wide.

Here comes the bad girl.  As far as Barry was concerned, I was done expanding the gardens.  I mean, you have to have SOME lawn, don't you?  I personally don't think so but I digress.  So Barry left yesterday morning to meet a friend about a 90 minute or so drive from here.  He was going to be gone until roughly 8 p.m.  The day was chilly (6C) but quite bright.  So after I cleaned and tidied up the inside of the house, I was off to tack my latest expansion.  I had mentioned it before, but Barry wasn't too keen on it.  We have to keep SOME grass, he said.  Yeah, right.  So I grabbed my shovel, tested to see how my back was doing, and proceeded to expand the garden beside the driveway by 2 feet in width to balance the north side, as well as come 2 feet closer to the sidewalk in the front section.  After all, I need a path from the south side of the house to the north side and I had been traipsing along that section of lawn that is now "garden".  So I dug up the lawn, moved the edging, knocked the soil off the sod and moved the solar lights so they looked like they were in the "right" spot.  Of course when he got home last night it was 8:20 and already dark so he didn't notice.  It wasn't until we were talking about the yard waste bags when he brought up the fact that at least I wasn't putting sod in the bags.  I told him to look outsisde.

I must say, he's been a very good sport about it.  And I promise I won't expand any further.  Now it's vines.  We're going to attach a 4x8' "lattice" to the back of the house and grow a honeysuckle up it.  

I suspect there's going to be a LOT of vines in our yard.  I mean, when you can't use up any more real estate, you might as well go up.    I'm going to try my hands a peas this year.  Grow them up along the fence.  And we've got a beautiful red climbing rose in the back which will likely take up the entire back fence.  Barry and I are going to build an arbour in front of our back gate next year ... we've talked about it for the past couple of years and of course we'll mimick the pergola.  And the roses will grow up and over the arbour. 

Damn, I just LOVE summer and gardening.  It's supposed to get up to around 20C by the weekend.  WOO HOO!  These are old pictures tho'.  I'll post in the spring and summer when we actually have plants that are blooming .....

Today has been much quieter and less active.  Just normal household stuff.  Plus Barry took me to our local nursery.  I just HAD to buy a pot of red and yellow tulips (not blooming yet) and daffodils (neither are they), as well as bulbs/roots of 4 hostas, a red daylily, a red astilbe and a yellow and purple bearded iris.  I have yellow and I have purple ... now I have a combo.  It's been a good day.  Actually made a decent breakfast and a  nice dinner ... even had a glass of wine ... despite the cloudy, rainy weather, it's been a good day.

I hope you all have a great week.  Stay tuned for Wednesday's post ... time for a celebration!