20 Random Things about me ....

I was kind of inspired by Barry's post and thought I'd share my perspective....


1. I love to dance but I rarely get the chance to.

2. I had the choice to pursue modeling or dance. I chose modeling. Look where THAT got me.

3. I’m a natural brunette but I haven’t actually seen me with dark hair in so long I can’t remember what I look like. I’ll try to find a picture I can post.

4. I love to train with weights. Strength is super important to me.

5. I’d rather walk 5 miles than do the treadmill for 30 minutes.

6. I’m a HUGE flirt … almost as much as my hubby.

7. I believe in lifting people up, not tearing them down and have little patience for people who do.

8. My taste in music ranges from opera to Tiesto to Timberland to Kid Rock and everything in between except for country and gangsta rap. Love Eminem though.

9. I am a compulsive helper. I just can’t help myself… J

10. I hate being indoors in good weather.

11. I’m a little OCD.

12. Gardening is my favourite hobby.

13. I miss my parents.

14. I flew in the cockpit of a Dash-8 during landing in Atlantic City on a perfect flying night … it was unbelievable! I left my girlfriend in her assigned seat.

15. I’ve driven a VIA train – met a baggage handler on the way north … stopped in the middle of nowhere so we got out of the train and walked to the front … the engineer went to the same high school as my siblings around the same time. Sudbury was a very small town 45 years ago. He let me “drive” the train – we were in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty cool.

16. I’ve had my driver’s license for 20+ years and yet I don’t drive. Probably a good thing.

17. I've had a threesome ... just not with my husband ... yet.

18. I'm a compulsive, visual eater with a horrible sweettooth.

19. I closed Rock 'n Roll Heaven with one of my best friends about 20 years ago.  We had our own table in the red light district.  Yes, we were regulars ... even had a fling with one of the bouncers.

20. I've never been outside of Canada and the U.S.

Self Fulfilling Prophesies

In today's "lesson for life" was about visualizing where you want to be, how you want to look, what you want to accomplish.

If we keep focussing on where we are, on the negative part of where we are, feeling fat, wanting a different partner, wanting a different job, then we'll never accomplish what we want.

I had an epiphany this morning during my workout.  I realized I had been so focussed, and basically wallowing, in the fact that I've had some setbacks.  And I realized that I really needed to focus on where I was going, where I was going to to be. 

So.  I got dressed for work (in a pair of pants I'm no longer allowed to wear 'cause they're just far too big), had my headphones on, listening to Tiesto's "You are my Diamond" .. one of my absolute FAVOURITE songs, bordered on dancing in GO train, kept the headphones on during my walk up to work, kept a bounce in my step and my head held high and a smiile on my face.

Sandy's got her sexy back :)

It's a constant battle

It occurred to me this morning that I haven't written much about fitness lately.  Probably because I've been struggling with consistency so much.  It's been really tough since I was on such a roll, doing so well and making such great progress.  And the past few months I've had such a hard time getting back into it.

And then I saw a picture of me from yesterday.  Yes, the camera adds 10 pounds ... although I hope it's actually 20 'cause OMG I couldn't believe my eyes!  I must make a habit of getting photos done every couple of weeks to keep everything in check.

I've got 10 weeks left of this challenge but only 5 weeks to a wedding I'm going to.  I have the dress.  I desperately need to lose some of the tummy.  Spanx only does so much.

Perhaps the workouts have become a little mundane.  So I changed this up a little and instead of doing cardio Sun/Tues/Thurs and weights Mon/Wed/Fri, I switched it up.  Even my ab workout, which I confess has been the same exercises more or less only I change the order in which I do them.  I have to sit down and come up with some new ones that will challenge me more.

So while the grass is being watered, I'm going to be training Barry (weights that is).  While dinner is cooking, we'll be showering.  While I'm blogging and updating my journals and ironing, I'll be doing laundry.

It never ends.

Barry and I have actually set a goal together ... to do the CN Tower climb next Spring.  1776 steps.  I'm gonna need a year to build up my stamina.  I'll push Barry with the weights and ab training and he'll push me for my cardio.  What a team :)

And to anyone who is struggling with any kind of challenge ... keep it up.  It gets tough sometimes but it's worth it.  Life is worth it....

"If you never even try to do something great, you have already lost."  unknown

Until next time.

My vacation week.

Wow, where do I begin???

Firstly, I got LOTS of stuff done in the gardens.  In fact, other than applying bone meal and mulch and annual flowers (in baskets and window boxes), I'm done.  The gardens are ready.  I've NEVER been this ready, this early.  yes, our weather has been AMAZING but no, I haven't done an expansion other than the 2 foot street I stealthily did while Barry was out.  That's helped out immensely.

Barry and I had Monday and Tuesday together which was great.  2 1/2 hours in Home Depot on Monday and installing lattice on Tuesday.  Then we spent all of Saturday installing lattice along the foundation of our house out back.  It looks so good!  I can't wait to see the honeysuckles in bloom on that lattice.

I took care of some doctors appointments ... thankfully those are over.

I was able to just sit and relax on Friday afternoon. 

Sunday I spent a few hours at the salon, getting all gorgeous'd up and ready to go back to the insanity.  But first I went to my girlfriend's wedding shower.  Now, I hate showers.  Mostly baby showers.  Bridal isn't usually too bad but I wasn't crazy about going but since she's such a good friend, of course I went.  And I actually had a pretty good time, met some great women so I won't feel completely alone at the wedding.  Except for Barry of course.  He and I will be the greeters for the wedding.

So here I am, writing my post and kinda watching tv and doing laundry all at the same time.  I had such high hopes for today and tomorrow.  They were calling for rain.  I don't remember the last time we actually had rain.  I think it's going to be one VERY hot, dry summer.  Which is good and bad.

Speaking of dry summers ... we already have one rain barrel on the north side of our house.  We bought a second one for the back of the house.  The one on the north side is pretty much hidden so it's one of those basic green rainbarrels which is fine.  But for the back of the house, it had to look good since you'd see it as soon as you walked down the slope and while sitting on the deck.  I found one at Home Depot.  It kinda reminds me of a stone urn.  Very stylish.

So Friday night we had gone back to Home Depot to pick another 4x8' sheet of lattice because we decided it would look better to run the lattice across the entire width of the house, rather than just most of it.  So here we are with a large roll of lattice, which Barry loads into the Matrix.  Then the puts the rainbarrel inside the rolled up lattice.  Then we put 11 fence post caps which are actually solar lights ... very cool ... along with 4 2x2x 8' pieces of wood.  All the while, 2 guys in a big American pickup are watching as we're loading this relatively small import (which of course if built here in Ontario, yay).  They were more than a little surprised and I must admit that Barry and I felt more than just a little smug.

Now I have to plan out my week for workouts and meals and get to it.  And then it's beddy-by time in about 90 minutes.  I don't know where the time goes.  So much else has happened but I'll leave that for another day ...

ta, ta for now!

Busy day today

So I'm on vacation but I don't think I've really chilled too much.  Not that I'm complaining.  Today was odd tho'.

I went for a follow mammogram (had to go every 6 months 'cause they found a cyst a year ago) and had good news ... I'm back to an annual checkup of both breasts.  YAY!

Then I went to my surgeon who stripped a vein in my leg in January ... which I've managed to rip to shreds ... my family doc gave me an antibiotic cream which was helping but I think I got a little heavy-handed ... the surgeon hadn't seen anything like it either (it got back 'cause I scratched the living bepeepers out of my left and it got infected) so he gave me a steriod cream (to be used VERY sparingly over the next 2 weeks only) and referred me to a dermatologist.  Hopefully I don't have to go to THAT appointment.

Then I did some stuff and on the way home I crossed one street on the green light and proceeded to hang a right and start walking across the other street on a red light with an SUV coming towards me ... he laid on the horn and yelled at me to which I yelled back "sorry!" and then almost went into a panic attacked but I shut it down.

I think it was too much coffee, not near enough water, lots and lots of walking and no food.  I drank lots of water, walked home, got some food, more water and then watered my lawn and gardens and then my HVAC maintenance guy came over and checked everything out so we're good to go for the summer.  He was shocked to hear how little we pay in gas every month ... most people with a 20 year old furnace pay about double what we do ... so I was very happy.

Speaking of gardening ... update is here.

Be back soon....

I'm on Vacation!

 Or should I say "Staycation".  Multipurpose time off.  Time to get lots of rest and get back to being "me" again.  I'm not sure where "I" went, but I seem to be coming back.  For those who aren't much into gardening, I won't bore you on this site.  For those who are interested, you can link here to my latest gardening post.  I'll do this any time I update my gardening blog.

My first week back to seriously working out was ok.  Not great.  It's a 3-pronged approach ... workouts, nutrition and encouraging other people.  Apparently I've been slacking something fierce on the third part.  The workouts have been great, the nutrition ok but my encouragement of others ... I apologize ... it's hard to enocurage others when you're stressed out and feeling like you need encouragement yourself.  And I HATE to complain.  So I tend to stay silent ... and absent.  But I have noticed that the more I encourage others, the better I feel.  So one of my goals this week is to get back to where I was....  good news tho' ... I lost .8 pounds this week!  I feel better.  My abs are tightening up again ... it's amazing how fast it comes back.

And last but certainly not least, I want to thank Jennifer at I know, right? for a great award.  Thanks Jen, you know you're awesome!  And I promise I will post specifically about this award shortly.

It's still my intent to reorganize and refresh my blogs.  I expect to have time this week.  Although I must admit it's hard to keep me indoors when the sun's out.

I believe I'm going to have to sit on our deck this afternoon (hopefully with Barry) and have a cold beverage and toast the great weather.  I just might have to do that each day this week.  Isn't that what people do when on vacation???

I've missed you all.  I'm sorry I've been away so much.

recommitment

I'm not sure what the problem has been over the several weeks.  Between illness, injury and illness, and my job, I've been rather out of sorts.

I've been struggling with my Body for Life program.  I've "fallen off the wagon" so to speak.  And I've noticed the fat coming back on.  And my body hurting more.

So I made a decision.  At the end of my 7th week, about 3 or 4 of which I hadn't really followed BFL, I decided to set the clock back as it were.  Sunday, April 11th was Day 1 of my next "Challenge".

So wish me luck.  I'm still trying to catch up to everything but at least I'm being more careful about what I'm eating and exercising faithfully.

Oh yeah, Barry started working out finally.  I knew if I just kept my mouth shut and didn't bug him about it, he'd finally realize that middle age is actually catching up to us, no matter how hard we try to deny it.  So I've now become his personal trainer.  This is gonna be fun .....

Progress is being made!

I am so excited!  My sister, who has decided to go through with bariatric surgery (the sleeve) since they have to remove her gall bladder anyway, finally has an appointment with the surgeon!  2 weeks tomorrow!  Then hopefully only 2-3 weeks later she'll be on her way.  She started this process in November.  So 6 months later, all should be done.

There's a lot to go through.  She had an initial consult in Toronto (she lives north about 3 1/2 hours), then was able to teleconference with the nutritionist, the psychologist, went for a nuclear scan (won't be travellling over the border any time soon) and got great news ... her heart is actually better than thought (YAY!) and got a new cardiologist who is actually in town rather than having to travel  3 1/2 hours.

So I'd really appreciate your good energy and best wishes for my sis ... I've lost most of my family ... I need her around for a long time.

And just remember ... take care of yourself.   Get control of your weight and your fitness as young as possible ... believe me, the older you get, the harder it is.  I never thought it was that big of a difference, but man ... it makes a HUGE difference.  And have fun doing it ... it makes it a LOT easier!

I Believe

One of my co-workers/friends sent this today, and I fell in love with it and wanted to share it.
I hope you get as much out of it as I have.

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born
A Death Certificate shows that we died
Pictures show that we lived !
Have a seat . Relax . . .
And read this slowly, it's lovely...

 I Believe...

That we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I Believe....

That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

 I Believe...

That true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.

 I Believe...

That you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

 I Believe....

That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

 I Believe....

That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

 I Believe...

That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

 I Believe...

That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

 I Believe....

That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I Believe....

That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

 I Believe...

That sometimes when I'm angry, I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

 I Believe....

That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

 I Believe....

That it isn't always enough, to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.

 I Believe...

That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

 I Believe....

That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but, we are responsible for who we become.

 I Believe...

That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life, Forever.


I Believe....

Two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I Believe...

That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I Believe....

That even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I Believe...

That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe...

That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.




The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything they have.

Just a quick post ...

Hi everyone,

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  Between life being extremely busy the past 10 days, then catching a little intestinal bug, I haven't felt much like writing.

For those who haven't ready about Auntie Barry, I encourage you to check it out here

As for my "fans" LOL, I'm still alive and slowly coming back to normal.  Whatever that is.

I'll post again on the weekend if not before.  I hope you're all having a great weekend!
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