motivation

the first day of my new job is over. it went well and i had a good time. everyone seems nice and the office is new and nice with excellent facilities, including a big gym, which is perfect for me. my condo gym has good cardio equipment and dumbbells but a terrible weight machine system. you know the kind that has every device in one... a lot of people keep them in their garages. bleh. so now i will be able to shape my muscles and get RIPPED. but not this week. everything is still new.

yesterday i went grocery shopping and bought so many fresh fruits and veggies, including an avocado. these fruits are so wonderful for keeping me full - a little goes a long way. i can eat lunch including 1/4 avocado and not be hungry again until 4pm. amazing.

tonight is date night and i still have some time before my boyfriend comes over. the responsible side of me says, "go for a swim" and the other lazy side says, "catch up on your blog reading!" what should i do? maybe a bit of both? neither? scrub the toilet instead?

last day of freedom

this is a real time post! i am sitting in my own den - it's so lovely and quiet with just me and my cat and not a thousand other family members. ;) family time was very nice, but i'm happy to get back to my regular life. i still feel out of the loop so here is a list:

1) posting in advance is easy! all you have to do is type up your post as usual, and then adjust the date and time in the "post options." i can see the post options link right below the words i am typing right now.... to the left of the labels for the post. this description is only for blogger users - not sure about wordpress or typepad or the other hosting sites.

2) new job tomorrow! excitement =D

3) winnipeg trip over! winnipeg was cold at first, but warmed up by the end of the trip. my cousin's hockey team in the US won the weekend tournament - that was a lot of fun. they player's are treated like movie stars - booths and free bottle service in the dance clubs. it really blew my mind because here in toronto you really have to be a somebody to get that kind of service. something i have never experienced despite my obvious somebodyness! hmph.

4) i didn't do too much shopping if you can believe it - i only got clothes in winnipeg from rickis (they don't have that store in toronto, although they do in the GTA). i got some of the regular food staples (25 calorie hot chocolate for my commute coffee, kashi fruit bars, peanut butter cookie larabars!)...

EDIT: i saved this post this morning and now it's nighttime. i have been rushing around trying to get everything organized and ready for tomorrow. how exciting! i'll continue on.

5) food on the trip: not great but not terrible. last night after i came home my bf and i ordered pizza and NOT the healthy kind. thankfully tomorrow begins my "routine" and i already have an awesome lunch packed: hummus veggie wrap, apple and yogurt, and a kashi bar if i get hungry.

6) exercise on the trip was not great either, but not-not existent. double negative means i did yoga three or four times and went swimming once. but the swimming was in the hotel pool which wasn't big enough for laps (and freezing) so i did maybe 20-minutes of bouncing and diving around before deciding enough was enough. i did go swimming today and maybe will tomorrow before work, we shall see.

7) wish me luck. =D

coming home today

today i'm flying home. i love flying. it's so much fun for me. i especially love the liftoff and the touchdown. i should probably take on more risky hobbies. a friend of mine said that if you are caught in a weird air pocket mid-flight, created by other planes passing by really fast and taking up airspace, your plane can drop out of the sky for 3-4 seconds. well, not out of the sky, but off of it's scheduled track for a moment. she said it feels like minutes even though it's just a few seconds. has that ever happened to you? i think i'd like to avoid that!

this week is pretty exciting. it's march break for my boyfriend, who is a teacher, and i start my NEW JOB on wednesday! i am really looking forward to it. i have the right combination of anticipation and nerves. i've been out of work/working part-time at the law office for so long that i forget what it's like to have a regular routine. i LOVE routines. but some things are going to have to change of course. i've already started to think about it. i start pretty early, at 8:00am, and have a 1/2 hour commute, so i can't workout in the morning anymore unless i go to bed really early which will never happen, so i'm going to have to schedule exercise for after work. i think there is a gym in my office - that would be convenient!

i'm also going to have to post a) in the evenings or b) pre-plan my posts the night before which probably won't happen. and i'm going to have to cut down on blog reading since i'll only be doing it in the evenings. i've already cut a bunch of blogs out of my google reader. not any personal blogs, mostly food blogs i found were a chore to read. the really good food blogs (kath eats, eat live run, carrots n' cake) are absolutely amazing and i can't give those up. love them!

go team go

posting in advance is sort of fun. i'm much more positive about the future than regular day-to-day stuff. today is friday and i'm going to michigan! wait a minute.... i'm not going there. i'm going to north dakota! for weeks i thought i was going to michigan and now something has clicked and i realized it's north dakota. i must be losing my mind. wow! anyway, knock another state off the "to-go-to" list.

we are driving down (about two hours) because one of my cousins is a big hockey star on the n. dakota team and we are going to watch him in playoffs. unfortunately there is no trader joes in north dakota. but there is a target. and my aunt loves target too - probably not as much as me but close to it, so i'll have a partner in crime to wander the store for hours and hours with glee.

i'm bringing my bathing suit, because there is a pool at our hotel. my mom and sister have been before and i've been told - bring your swimsuit. my mom and aunt are really happy that i love swimming - this way they don't have to get in the pool with my younger cousins. i'm bringing my nerdy silicone swim cap, just in case i can get in a workout or two. happy friday!

p.s. friday the 13th!

blogger meetup

good morning. it's thursday and hopefully not -22°C like the forecast predicts. i'm exaggerating - that's the low. apparently this weekend it's supposed to reach above freezing temperatures. take that people who vacation in the tropics! ha! good thing i bought that down jacket.

today is going to be a great day because tonight i'm meeting up with fellow bloggers! mandy and vanessa. i'm excited!

posting in advance

biOnic has inspired me to write a few posts in advance. (i hope it works, by the way.)

today have gone to winnipeg with my mom and sister. just the girls. all the boys have to stay at home... well, my dad and cat anyway. i wonder how oliver is adjusting to living with my dad. i'm sure he's having an easier time than my dad - oliver likes to cuddle NOT on the lap, but curled up into your neck like a baby while you support his bum with your arms. and then he head butts so hard. that is how he shows love. here he is wearing a hat.

doesn't he look dapper? anyhoo, my exercise plan this week is to do yoga, possibly some swimming. i am bringing my mp3 player and my yoga mat - that should be all i need. i really like hatha #2 and power yoga #3 so i'll probably stick to those two. i am familiar enough with the poses and routines that i don't need to bring the pdf guides.

my bum is on fire

but that's only because i'm sitting on a heating pad. right now. seriously, it's quite hot. by the end of the day yesterday my bum pain had faded quite substantially and i could walk without writhing in pain, but this morning i can hardly move again. it's very frustrating. even though the symptoms are the same as sciatica, it's not that because i had x-rays on my spine done last summer. i think it's just the performis muscle pressing against the nerve - the same one that is affected by sciatica. i guess i might as well have sciatica if the symptoms are the same. i just found this video on youtube and it's telling me it's all sciatica. i am probably genetically disposed to have this condition.

anyway, i don't want to go on and on about it. it's a shame that i avoided running ALL THESE MONTHS and then it's back for NO REASON AT ALL so i'm basically back where i started again.

i am going swimming again in a few minutes. yesterday it hurt at the beginning and then seemed to make the pain go away, so hopefully that will happen again.

tonight i am going to the LEAFS GAME! i can't wait. i have a long list of things to do today. i have to be ready to leave tomorrow before the game tonight. i am a horrible packer... it's too stressful. i always bring too much and think i'm forgetting something because usually i do forget something!