Ending with a Bang

This has been one crazy week, let me tell ya! It kind of started off as a bummer, but ended well. I've been so busy at work between endless meetings, catching up on paperwork for an inspection we have tomorrow and dealing with client issues. One of the kids on my caseload who I just started seeing at the beginning of April (since he used to see one of the clinicians who was laid off) is starting to spiral downwards. He's running away from the residence, stealing cars, and doing drugs among other things. His discharge date is coming up soon and it's actually not uncommon that some of our kids who were otherwise doing well start acting out close to the time they are due to leave. Many are scared to return home and disappoint their families, and some have just come to feel safe at the residence and don't want to leave. So, some think that if they act out, we will keep them longer. Seems counterintuitive, but it's the way some of these kids work. The hardest part is that as a clinician, I want to "save" these kids from making big mistakes, but the reality is, I can give them the tools, and they have to choose to use them or not. Even knowing this doesn't make it easy, though.

Then, some of the nights after I came home from work, I spent time working on my school paper. I managed to hand in a draft to my advisor on Wednesday and she told me that there's a good chance I will not defend by May 31 as planned which means I will have to ask for yet another extension. I just want to get this thing done and it's taking forever even though I've been working my ass off! Because of the work and school craziness, I didn't get a single lunchtime workout in and by Friday, my body was craving some exercise and I felt the "bummedness" that comes from missed workouts. So, I turned things around on Friday and got in a great UBWO and HIIT run when normally I don't workout on Fridays. Then, Saturday we went out and celebrated my mom's birthday which was fun and today, we went to my in-laws' cottage and helped clean it up for the Summer. I went for a jog through the woods with my two sisters in law and now, here on Sunday night, I'm in much better spirits. I'm hoping this week will be a little more tame!

OK, so I can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs over the next couple of days. It feels like it has been weeks! Hope you are all doing well!

Procrastination Website

So, from everyone's comments it seems like lots of us have procrastination issues. I liked the point some of you made about not wanting your kids to pick up the procrastination habit. Mine are still young enough that I haven't seen it in them yet, but I certainly don't want them to end up learning that from me.

Janel was asking if my professor has a website and actually he does. The link to Dr. Tim Pychyl's procrastination website is: http://http-server.carleton.ca/~tpychyl/ He has a lot of great references to books and research articles about procrastination, so check it out.

Have a great day everyone!

Procrastination at its Best

I hate the fact that I'm such a procrastinator! Instead of writing this post, I should be working on my prospectus. I've been working on it since 9:00am this morning (it's 11:15 now) but I finally just had to take a break and even though breaks are good, once I start blogging, I often end up doing so for much longer than I should. I think I've posted about this before, but a professor at my university does research on procrastination and one reason why people do it is fear of failure. Rather than tackle something tough head-on, we sometimes avoid doing it because we are afraid we won't do it well enough. I know I feel that way about this damned prospectus and I just want this defense to go better than the one last November. I have been working my ass off on this since January, so I've got to believe that that will pay off for me in the long run. Sometimes the self-doubt creeps in, though. So, rather than procrastinating by being a couch potato, I'm procrastinating by being a "mouse" potato by blogging!

Yesterday was fun. Some friends from out of town who we haven't seen for about 3 years came up and we went to a birthday party for their 4-year old son. After lunch and presents (and yes, I did have cake and it was damned good!) we brought the kids to Gym Jam so they could use up all that sugar-induced energy. I followed the kids through the play structures and let me tell you, THAT was a great workout! I must have been in there with them for an hour going through the tunnels, climbing cargo nets, and going down the slides. Kind of like training for a tri-fitness event or something!!! By the time I was done, I was hot and sweaty and I must say it was one of the funnest workouts I've had in a long time. I think I might have pulled a muscle in my groin, though. I could feel it yesterday after I tried to swing my legs around to get positioned on the slide (hey, it's big in those tunnels, but not that big!) and I'm still feeling it a bit today. Nothing too serious, just a side effect of playing too hard!

OK, back to work. That is, after I check a few more of your blogs :)

Huh?

Okay, being the reality tv addict that I am, I have to ask how the hell Chris (and Paris, actually) ended up in the bottom 3 of American Idol last night? They had two of the best performances of the show! Chris and Taylor are actually my two faves right now, but I have a feeling the top two are going to end up being Chris and Catherine. She's great too, so if I'm right, that wouldn't be too bad. And for you Amazing Race fans out there, you gotta love the hippies!! Or at least, I do. Thank goodness it was a non-elimination round last night. America's Next Top Model is my other Wednesday night tv pick so I got in a really good reality tv fix!

Yesterday I spent half of the day moving into my new digs at work. Now that those who were laid off are gone, several offices at our administration building opened up, so we clinicians were invited to move in which is great because it means I'm closer to the kids' files which I often need to refer to for info. Also, this building has working heat and air conditioning while at the other building, you never knew on a given day whether you would show up to a freezing cold or stifling hot office! Also, I now have a computer that has the internet!!!! Seems like a trivial thing, but our agency was seriously in the dark ages until recently and my old office had no internet access. All good stuff.

Even though I was busy moving, I managed to get in a great UBWO and 20 minute HIIT run. It was time to renew my membership yesterday and the guy at the gym said I could save some money by paying on a monthly basis. I guess you give them permission to debit your bank account or credit card monthly and that keeps going until you give them 30 days written notice that you no longer want your membership. Do any of you do your gym memberships this way? For me, I didn't like that idea, so I just renewed for a straight 3 months. It almost seems like having to give 30 days notice means that they would get a free month out of me somehow. Maybe it's just me, but I stuck with what I know.

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of you. I hope you have a wonderful day filled with family, fun, and maybe even a little bit of turkey and chocolate! Our Easter has started off a little rough. Last night, we went out for dinner and poker at my sister in law's house and later in the evening, Kyle got really sick. We thought maybe he was just overtired, but he has continued to be sick throughout the night and this morning. He's still sleeping and it's been a challenge to keep Emily out of the Easter eggs until he gets up. He would be so disappointed if he missed out on the egg hunt. We were going to go to church this morning but with two sleep deprived parents and one sick kid, I don't think so. We're also supposed to have Easter Brunch at my brother in law's place and then supper at my mom's, but we may end up having to split the two and have Scot and Emily go to one and then me and Emily to the other. So, not the best start to the day, but we'll make the best we can out of it. The most important thing is that Kyle gets better.

The upside of things is that I won $20 in poker last night (yeah!) and that I chopped one minute of time off of my 4K run yesterday and completed it in 25 minutes. Maybe the fact that it started raining towards the end gave me the extra push to hurry up :)

Okay, here goes nothing.

Today (and this past week actually) I've been getting comments at work that I am looking slimmer. Some of my clothes have been fitting better, but the numbers on the scale have not really been changing so I've had a hard time really believing that my body is improving. I know, I know, the clothes fitting better should be my true test of change, but I can't seem to get past the dreaded "scale" syndrome. So, I decided to take some pics to see what's going on. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a little change has happened over the last month. It's not super drastic, but for one month, I think it's pretty good. So (gulp!) here are some before and after pics. The before pics are from March 2 and the after pics are from today. This is the first time I am posting full body shots, which I have to say is intimidating. But, this will help keep me accountable.


I'm still a work in progress (particularly in the legs. Ugh!) but at least I'm getting somewhere. I've learned that for me, running brings better results than any other cardio I have tried so far, so I'm going to keep on with that. Hmm... Do I really want to push "Publish Post" on this? I'm not sure, so I'll just do it before I think my way out of it...

Rockin' and Rollin'

So far today:

Meal 1: -2/3 cup oatmeal with a few raisins and some skim milk
-5 egg whites
Meal 2: -apple with a small handful of cashews
Meal 3: -whole wheat pita bread with chicken, hummus, lettuce
-1 cup skim milk
-1 banana
Meal 4: -5 egg whites with melted low fat cheddar cheese
-1 whole wheat english muffin
-red and green pepper slices
Meal 5: yet to come; probably some plain nonfat yogurt with vanilla extract and some low fat granola pieces

I admit that I did also have 1 homemade chocolate chip cookie, but I stopped after that. Water intake has been good, but I should be aiming for a little more everyday.

I've been choosing cashews instead of almonds because where I live, almonds (especially natural ones) are so darned expensive ranging between $9 and $11 per pound! Today, they were on sale for $4.99/lb so I stalked up-Yay! The guy at the grocery store told me that almonds have become quite the commodity because of their health benefits which is why they have gone up in price. It's so stupid how eating healthy costs an arm and a leg while filling up your grocery cart with Kraft Dinner (which I do love by the way, but don't eat often), Chef Boyardee and those Mr. Noodle thingies is comparatively cheaper. How does this promote a healthier society when some people cannot afford to buy the foods that their bodies need to stay well? Sure, there are many who choose the "bad" foods even though they can afford the good stuff, but there are also those who genuinely have to stick to a strict budget which means buying canned, processed (and hence cheaper) foods over the fresh, natural ones. There's just something wrong with that system in my opinion.

I did my run around the block this afternoon which works out to be about 4K. I managed to do it in 26 minutes which I was pretty proud of. I'm going to keep track of my times here so that I can chart my improvement between now and the 10K. So, tomorrow I have to do it in 25 min. or less!

I had a meeting with my advisor at school today and found out I still have some work to do on my prospectus. I knew I'd still have some changes to make on my paper, but for some reason, I just felt bummed about it today and like the school madness would never end. So that run felt extra good and I'm doing better now. I'm still amazed at the de-stressing powers of exercise!

I Did It!

I just officially signed up for that 10K run on May 27!!

I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Even though I'm not expecting to win it, this sort of thing brings out the competitive spirit in me and I want to run a good race. So, now is the time that I should start those daily outdoor morning runs I've been talking about doing. I will keep on with my HIIT training on the treadmill and my weights too, but I know adding the outdoor runs in will be better training for the run. I'm hoping my husband can make it out with the kids to take some before and after pics on the day of so I can post the proof for all of you to see! Now, I've also got to start thinking about what tunes to load onto my Ipod so I can be extra pumped during my run. Any recommendations?

Maybe this will kick start me back into a better eating pattern too. The past couple of days have admittedly not been great in that department. But hey, tomorrow is Monday so I'm starting fresh. New goal, new motivation and I'm gonna kick some ass!

Do You Remember?

Do you remember the days when something as simple as a caterpillar was fun and exciting? When we didn't need big screen tv's or events that cost an arm and a leg to keep us entertained? We found the first caterpillar of the year the other day and Emily just loved it! After it uncurled from being scared and started crawling, she started giggling and saying "Sssss" like she thought it was a snake! And she wanted to keep holding it. She absolutely loves any living creature. I swear she's going to be a vet one day!


Do you remember the days when exercise was not something tedious or something we had to work hard to schedule into our lives, but was something we just did without thinking twice about because it was FUN? Sometimes I think kids have it more right than we adults do. I'm so glad the nice weather has started up so I can spend more time with the kids outside!


I never did get into the gym last week after those two days of training at work, and boy did I miss it! I did get some cardio in by going for some jogs around my neighbourhood though. My friend Jen came by on Sunday and we went jogging together and she has asked if I would run a 10K with her at the end of May. I think I might go for it. Not that I have any illusions of winning, but my goal would be to get through by jogging the whole way without stopping to walk. I still have to fill out the registration form and part of me is procrastinating on doing it. I think it's because I've never run a marathon before so I'm still a little reluctant. I've heard it's quite a rush when you finish your first marathon and I would love to experience that feeling.

So, I made it back into the gym today (finally!) and had a great UBWO. Even though I got no weight training in last week, it didn't affect me today and I was able to lift as heavy as usual. Feels better to be back in the groove!

Off I go to read all of your blogs and then make supper for the family.....