What balance means to me.

A lot of people out there have goals to have what they call a "balanced lifestyle". I am among those people. There are always those moments that I stop and realize that one aspect of my life has taken over my mind and the majority of my thoughts. This is a moment when I realize I have tipped into imbalance. So what does balance mean for me:

-Working (5 days a week, ~40 hours a week. Any more or less feels off).
-Sleep (7-8 hours a night is almost a necessity to me)
-Exercise.
-Time with friends/family
-Me time :)

Something that is not listed there is cooking/eating. Mostly because me time generally means watching TV and cooking my meals for the day. When I dont get me time, that when I start eating out 4-5 times a week and not bringing my meals to work. When that starts happening I realize that something is out of balance and my time is not being well managed.

Exercise is a pretty big part of my life...obviously. Running is one of the best things thats ever happened to me, but now that Ive started really getting into yoga and body pump, Ive become really happy with my exercise routine. Before August, I would run 3-5 times a week and do not much else. I was healthy but I wasn't really getting any healthier or stronger (workout rut much). Now my strength is getting better by the week. My flexibility and balance is definitely getting better and guess what, running is going great! I managed 8 miles yesterday (in about 1:24) but they felt great. Even in the last 2 miles I felt strong and steady.

Friends and family are obviously important to everyone but sometimes I feel like this part of my life sometimes get pushed aside for work/exercise or other things. Its the absolute most important part of my life so I need to start making more solid commitments to see people (including my parents in Dartmouth, who I haven't been to see since I moved to Halifax, and my best friend who I have to take the bus to see).

Thats what balance means to me. My life is never completely balanced...ever! There are always days/weeks/months where I feel like I am dedicating too much of myself to one of those aspects. For the next few months it may be work and exercise due to marathon training (and hoping to step up my responsibilities at work) but in the end, it will all balance itself out :)

Time for body pump and work, and maybe grocery shopping after work. Another busy but wonderful day!

Days off!

...well really, day off. But yesterday I only worked for 3 hours (although it was from 7-10am which was kind of hard) so I kind of consider it a day off. Today was also lovely for the reason that I was not working.  That being said, neither of these days were that relaxing.

Yesterday was spent at work in the morning. Then a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some food! Still going strong on the no eating out for a month  and its going really great (been 2 weeks today). Although we are spending about $100 a week for groceries (for 2 people). I dont think its too much, its just a lot to spend at once (rather then the $10 bucks spent on a lunch or $20 spent on a supper). The rest of the afternoon was spent making sushi and yummy nacho dip. I also made it out for a fast but tough 3 mile run and an awesome yoga at 108 for Liz's TGIF class (one of my favourite in the city).

Last night I went to a work friends house for a games night. I was hoping to make it downtown afterwards to hang out with my sister but I think I ate something weird and was left with some serious stomach cramps. Not cool...and not something I usually have to deal with. My hypothesis is that I had too much dairy (one dip I ate, had sour cream, cream cheese and cheddar cheese) because I really dont eat too much of it so I dont think my stomach reacted all that great.

Today was another busy day with the OptiMYz health expo, yoga and some eating (although my stomach is still feeling a little off). Tonights plan is to get my butt down to Lower Deck with my friend Mel. Im planning on taking it pretty easy on the beers because Im going to do 8 miles in the morning. 8 miles will be the longest Ive run since my epic 15 miler in October (Novermber?) and it only goes uphill from here! So excited to be training for a marathon, even in the early stages, it scares the shit out of me (but it also gets my butt moving off my couch and out the door to run).

Ill leave you with a picture from earlier today. Myles (the Bluenose Marathon mascot) and me and some of my lovely lulu ladies.

See you in 4 months, Myles.

Marathon Training

So its happening. I have my training plan written out. I guess its pretty a pretty tentative schedule, considering my long runs could be anywhere from friday-monday depending on my work schedule. BUT this is it, on May 22nd Im running a freaking MARATHON. That amazes me, and I havent barely started training for it but I know I can do it. This schedule here only calls for 4 really long runs (more than a half marathon) so I think I might bump that up by one and do another 14-16 miler in February (on the 27th probably) depending on how Im feeling.

So the plan is, 3-4 runs a week (3 min, 5 max), 2 yogas and 2 Body pumps. And one rest day. That may seem like a lot but I have the option of choosing very relaxing yoga classes that will aid in my recovery after long runs. For example, 108 Yoga in Halifax ( 108yoga.ca) has a Nourish class Sunday evenings that are half Yin yoga and half yoga nidra (aka half hour of savasana!) which is amazing after long run days.

This workout schedule is being combined with a very improved diet! I recently moved in with my sister in Halifax and we made the goal of not eating out for the whole month of January. Its now January 12th and Im still going strong! Not that I think eating out was so so terrible but I was just doing it way too much and not always making the best choices when eating out. Now I know when I do go back to eating out from time to time, Ill enjoy it so much more, and think of it as a treat, rather then a necessity.

Something that makes it a lot easier to make this switch is that I freaking love to cook! I got a new vegetarian cookbook for Christmas and so far I think Ive made 5 or so recipes. And they've all been great! Ill try posting my favorites on here from time to time.

One of the other things Im working on right now is trying to remind myself (fairly often) that running a marathon (and being healthy) is not my only goal in life. Ive been majorly slacking on some of the other goals in my life and I need to refocus and find a way to balance all my passions!

Otherwise, Im loving life right now. Busy, but manageable and balanced.

Revamping goals

So one week, 6 days of working out, 7 days of making one healthier choice, and 6 days of blogging.


Something about this commitment has really triggered a change in my head. For some reason a few weeks ago there were days where I had absolutely no activity and that is just not okay for my body. I can do an hour and a half of yoga a day, or body pump, or go for a run, or do JM 30 day shred. These are things I can, and will do every day.

My other big challenge is the food thing. I was talking about it with a girl I volunteer with tonight. She is also a runner and she is also not a tiny girl. She just started weight watchers again so we were talking about our eating habits for a bit. Its interesting because I know food is what gets me to this point (aka slightly overweight, I know Im not at an unhealthy weight but Ive got a lot of excess body fat that an active girl like me shouldn't have) but I cant pinpoint one bad habit that causes me to gain weight and feel like crap.

So...food journal? I feel like this is something Ive tried a few times...but never committed myself fully to.

Here it goes. For this next week, I will sweat once a day (continuing from last week) and will write down my food intake EVERY day. I think this will be super hard. But if it helps me identify my weak points, I think its worth it.

Okay, its getting late, and Ive got a body pump class to get to in the morning so my sleep needs to be decent. The ashtanga class today was killer and Im definitely going back soon!

Body Pump

So I can;t really say enough about body pump. An hour of music, fun and working out. And by working out I mean taking my muscles to their absolute extreme. I've never been able to commit to doing weight training at the gym, long term, because I really don't know squat about it (pun definitely intended) and BP gives me all the rep/weigh info I need and keeps me focused. There is no way I would even be able to do a half hour of weights at the gym and BP gets me doing an hour!

If its not already obvious, I went to BP today and loved it. My instructor was awesome and I was just feeling great. I was fueled by some awesome sushi (way better than my last attempt) and ready for some muscle burn.

My eats today were pretty decent (although I might be sushi-ed out).
Breakfast: Oatmeal with a banana, coconut, AB, and a tiny drizzle of caramel sauce. Tea with milk.
Lunch: California roll and an avocado roll. 2 clementines.
Supper: 4 homeade rolls of sushi (about 1 c of rice total, 1/2 avocado, 2 pieces of crab and 1/4 cucumber).

Tomorrow is my day off and Im planning on heading to the ashtanga shala in halifax and getting my all levels on! Ashtanga is a more difficult practice (to me) because there are less breaks and a lot more flow. Because of a yoga challenge at work I will be going to Ashtanga once a week for a month and Im so excited about it. There are a lot of challenging and new to me classes there and Im pretty excited about it!

Anyways, Im off to make some energy bars...instead of making strait up cookies. My healthy choice of the day! (and they're vegan too).

The weekend curse.

Oh so close.

So I missed a day of blogging and missed a day of sweating. And they weren't the same day. Yesterday I was feeling a little under the weather due to lots of lovely beverages on Saturday night. So I didn't make it to the blogging but I did still manage to get some yoga in, thanks to my staff meeting. Yup, our staff meetings include some sweet yoga!

And today was sweat free (besides the minimal sweating I did at work moving clothes and boxes). I guess its kind of a cop out but Im definitely coming down with a cold and I can tell that my body needs the rest (eep, only about 3 1/2 hours of sleep was had last night) and something like moksha or a run, just wouldn't be healthy.

Although I did try and make some healthier choices throughout the day. Lunch (medium veggie sub from quiznos) came without the combo option (aka no chips and pop) and I turned down a cookie from a lovely lulu.

Best part of the day: my keys were found! Pretty sure I manifested the shit out of that one.

Something funny and maybe a little weird happened yesterday. I know I don't talk about my vegetarianism a whole lot but it is something that I am mega proud of and work on every day. On Sunday, brunch was oh so necessary so me and Mel went to Moustache for some eggs and toast. Anyways I ordered the eggs florentine which was supposed to come with spinach and no meat. A mistake was made and I got the one with the ham, and I considered just picking it off and eating what was left, but after looking at my plate for a few minutes, I had to make the switch with the waiter. I honestly felt sick to my stomach at the thought of it. I know I still eat fish, but meat just turns my stomach now.

Anyways, so weird because its only been 9 months, but a huge accomplishment.

It really happened

Yep, home made sushi. Not only do I have tons of supplies left and can make it again very soon, but it actually wasn't too hard to make AND it tasted pretty great. Comparable to Sobeys/Superstore sushi, but not up there with real restaurant sushi. I look forward to perfecting my technique though!

Anyways, today was filled with a poop load of people at work and a poop load of people at the mall I had to go to afterwards. The day was filled with small victories. At the mall I managed to not buy anything to snack on and didn't have too too many nachos before supper (a pretty irresistible snack to me, usually). Here are my eats so far: (p.s. I had about a roll and a half of sushi last night, post blogging)
Breakfast: Tim Horton's egg and cheese breakfast sandwhich on an everything bagel and a large tea with milk.
Snacks: Rice Krispie Treat and about a handful of jube jubes.
Lunch: 6 pieces of my homemade california roll and 2 clementines.
Snack: Little piece of cheese before workout (post mall).
Supper: 2 egg omelet with 1/2 tomato and some gr. onions and swiss cheese. Side of french fries. Filling, but not too tasty.

Next thing planned on being consumed tonight: several Kieth's when Im at Lower Deck with my friend Melanie. We pretty much go every Friday or Saturday night and have a few drinks and watch amazing live music. Maybe not the healthiest habit but it's something I love love love doing and look forward to it all week!

The exercise of the day was another day of 30 day shred, level 2 today. Im starting to realize that this is something I can extend past this week aka sweating once a day. Although I had a very busy day at work theres no reason I can't include some sort of exercise either before or after work every day. And those 20 minute videos' are great to include when I can't go otherwise.

Feeling great, ready for a great night.