write a sentence or two about my day

had gr8 fun in rain 2day after ages….

HB has not started his workout yet. Before I get frustrated, I have to remind myself that exercise is like calling up a therapist: the hardest part is picking up the phone, or starting it. This morning he told me that he can feel/see a difference since he cut back on the breakfast potatoes. I can’t say I’m not suspicious that it might be a gag to get out of exercise… Hmm!

On the other hand, we’re having serious talks about expanding our family! I think we might be ready to “try” for a dog. AHHH!!!!!!! I am so freaking excited! I’m hoping, wishing, and begging for a rescued greyhound. I love being a cat mom, but I can’t wait to try my hand at being a dog mom too! (What can I say… Some women crave babies, I crave a dog.)

1. Peanut butter on apples, yum!
2. HB, for talking me into resting today
3. My Tues a.m. ST instructor, who chose to teach even when feeling ill
4. I have a great neighbor!
5. My pretty little flowers blooming in the yard

What have you done today to better yourself/your life?
I shoved my pride to the backseat and rested. I am also choosing to fight my temptations to select unhealthy choices to lose weight.

What more could you have done today to better yourself/your life?
I feel like I could have tried harder in this morning’s class. At the same time, I was feeling so fatigued that I wonder if I could have worked that much harder.

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself/your life?
I will EAT.

Happy Monday everyone!!! I hope you all had a fun, healthy and active Easter weekend.

I on the other hand, did not have a healthy and active Easter weekend, but it definitely was fun.

We started off the day on Saturday by sleeping in til 9-ish. I don’t like getting up any later than 8, but I’ve been needing it lately, and I will not argue with this body! Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post, I am useless if I sleep less than 7.5 hours or more than 8.5 hours, and that night I slept beyond 9, which means no walk with HB. lol I can’t believe HB was able to drag me out of bed and out to breakfast! That man’s got skills. The rest of the day was just utter gluttony: lots of tv dvds and laying around with our cats. I know it sounds terrible, but it’s sooo good, and I think everyone should have one of those days every once in awhile.

Sunday was slightly more eventful; we had brunch at the Four Seasons… And Kevin Smith walked by us! Such a cool sighting, as HB is a huge Kevin Smith fan. One word about buffets: WEAR A FITTED DRESS/SHIRT! I wore a slinky-ish white dress with markings resembling a wedding cake or easter egg and I swear, the saving grace from me completely pigging out was that dress; it held me in, somewhat limiting the capacity of this tummy. It didn’t stop me from clearing more food than HB (a common occurrence, I admit to my embarrassment), but at least I didn’t walk out of the place with stomach stretching pains.

Cool thing happened as we waited for our car outside… Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy walked by me! Jennifer looked AMAZING and so very beautiful with her flowered dress and her long hair curled down her back. It’s amazing that she’s a gorgeous girl on tv, but in person she is that much more stunning. As for her figure, she didn’t look stick skinny… She looked really really good and probably no bigger than me.

After we got home it was MORE laying around! The only time I think I got up it was to eat some Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Ok, enough of the weekend updates… Onto workouts, my favorite!

One year ago today: I was freaking out at the scale! I was 13 pounds heavier and not yet had a clue on nutrition. Exercise was also the LAST thing I wanted to do…

1. I made it through 9 miles!
2. I don’t have that many errands to do today
3. Today is Dodgers Opening Game!
4. Orlando Hudson, he rocks!!!!!!!!!!!
5. Gorgeous day at the beach!

What have you done today to better yourself/your life?
I was mentally taxed at mile 8, but I pushed on.

What more could you have done today to better yourself/your life?
I could have stayed in the cold bath longer, but I just wasn’t feeling like it and my wants had a stronger pull than my needs today.

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself/your life?
I will go to the gym!

My DH, whom I lovingly refer to as HB, announced that he is READY TO START WORKING OUT.

...What!!!...

He admits that he’s gained a lot of weight and wants to lose some, first by going on the bike in the mornings before work, and second by cutting out the hashed browns he gets with his breakfast every morning.

In truth, I noticed his weight gain, but just like love knows no color, for me love knows no size. He is still handsome to me as ever and whereas I would LOVE it if he prioritized on his health a little more, I’m just happy that he wants to take better care of himself. This is like icing on the cake to me!

Oh oh oh and one more INCREDIBLE HB said to me: “Maybe sometime you can show me some yoga moves?”

I just about dropped dead from 60-million-dollar-lottery-winner-type shock and true happiness. Manly man doing yoga – SEXY-FIED!!!

Over time he’s told me many times about how proud he is of me on how I was able to embark and stick to this new healthy, active life I’ve been on in the past 9 months. He’s actually bragged about my little victories to other people! But nothing means more to me than inspiring my own man to squeeze in time in his 14 hour work day to do a little something for himself. Every time he makes a smart healthy decision, he adds time to his lifeline and I want him around for a very very VERY long time.

So Monday starts his new workout program. I’ll be logging his minutes on the bike in the SP family tracker, which means I get to earn an extra point for every day he works out! I’m not going to worry about the fruit/veggie servings though… He is as anti-veggie as they come, and the last thing I want to do is shove an asparagus spear down his throat. Actually, I’m not going to do a thing to modify his diet unless he himself wants to make the change. You know men and weight loss… So DIFFERENT than any woman’s experience. They can say “I want to lose weight,” and by the time they finish that sentence, they’ve lost 6 pounds. Ugh.

Wish us luck!!!!!

In other (less interesting) news, I am SO TIRED!!! and therefore skipping yoga. Last night was date night which means we get home way past our bedtime. I love date nights with HB, but they seriously kill me in the sleep department. I’m one of those strange people who must must MUST sleep between 7.5-8.5 hours a night or I can not function like a R2D2 with a fried motherboard. Any more than 8.5 hours and I am very lazy and sleepy. Less than 7.5 hours means I get sick to my stomach, I start walking into walls and I can’t comprehend things the first time. It’s rather pathetic.

I’d love our date night to be on the weekend instead of during the week, but going out on a Friday/Saturday is crazy! The weeknight scene is so much more fun here in Los Angeles. Plus, call us weird, but we love going to bed at 9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday and waking up early on a weekend morning. Strange, right??!!

Anyway, even though I was fighting my eyelids this morning, I went out for a run anyway. A short run is always the perfect test to see how tired you really are: if when you come home you find that you’re STILL tired, then you are most definitely tired. So after I type this out, I will crash for a good nap with my cuddly little kitties so that I can stay awake through dinner later. Ahhh.

Workout Updates:

THURSDAY

8:30 am – 9:30 am: Strength Training Class
VERY hard, but the most amazing workout – the (very buff) instructor never fails in the kick-your-booty department. While grabbing a towel in the middle of the class, I noticed that I was soaked head to toe in sweat – I couldn’t get more wet, even if I jumped into a pool! (Thank goodness for my cute outfit!) I am also getting a lot better on the Bosu ball. I no longer fall off it when I do jumping stuff on it!

9:30 am – 10:00 am: Yoga Flexibility
This is really no more than a stretching class after the ST class that precedes it. I didn’t feel like staying for this, but I’m glad I did. This is probably the reason why I am not very sore today.

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Bike, Treadclimber
I got to watch the Dodgers… lose. BOOOO!!!! I knew I should have stuck to Oprah!

4:30 pm – 5:45 pm: Yoga Flexibility
Being that it was the holiday, there was barely anyone in the class at all – I loved all the extra room! The instructor used to be my least favorite, but I’m starting to like her now. I can’t believe how easily I can reach my feet and floors during bends!!!

TODAY

9:30 am – 10:15 am: Run
I wrote about it here

1. A really fun date night
2. No rain during my run!
3. Chocolate milk – mmm
4. SparkPeople :)
5. Cloudy days make good snuggling days

What have you done today to better yourself/your life?
I went running even though I was tired from my night out!

What more could you have done today to better yourself/your life?
I probably should have refrained from the (very fun) speed session…

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself/your life?
I just might try my best to coerce HB for a walk tomorrow… Wish me luck!

Something weird happened to me in yoga today.

After the class, one of the seniors in the class came over and started telling me about all the things I did wrong. I know she’s experienced in yoga and I can appreciate extra pointers, but I didn’t exactly know how to react when she said that in every class she sees me, she likes to watch everything I do. (That IS a little creepy, right???)

Next, she advised that I attend an instructional class on Sunday.

“Ohh Sunday,” I said. “I take the weekends off so I can spend it with my DH, so I wouldn’t be able to make it.”

She made some kind of sushing noise and some remark that started with “When you’re my age…” and ended with something negative about how I like to spend my weekends.

Obviously she doesn’t understand my situation, I think, so I tried to explain that DH is away 14+ hours a day and really, the only time I can spend with him is on the weekends. Therefore, I work hard during the week so I can free that time.

I don’t remember what the woman said, but it was more negative stuff about how I wanted to spend time with my DH.

Stunned, I wished her a good day and walked away, thankful to add some distance between us. I hate that I keep thinking about the woman even hours later, but I keep reminding myself that it means nothing… She means nothing. Based on her conversations with others that I happen to overhear, she’s a bit of a coot, so I can’t take any offense.

I love my spot, but I think I’ll just start staking out another spot. FAR FAR FAR away from the woman.

In other positive news, I had the most DELIGHTFUL run in the most PERFECT temperature today! I made sure I went sloooow (I swear snail or two passed me) but compensated the experience with a new route that had fresh smelling flowers lining the streets.

1. My older neighbor with his chocolate lab – running into them on every run always make me smile
2. Amazing weather! Mr. Rain decided to postpone his visit until tomorrow night. Yeah!
3. When it came to me vs the scale, I won that battle!
4. I made most of my nutritional goals today!
5. A pain-free run!

What have you done today to better yourself/your life?
I came through on yesterday’s promise that I’d run slow today. I also didn’t let that weird yogi get to me too bad.

What more could you have done today to better yourself/your life?
Today was a test in letting things go. I scored about 70% on that test. I also lazed out on doing errands today. Ehhh. Procrastinating at its best.

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself/your life?
I need to work on staying in the moment!

Today was a good day. :):):)

It started when I woke up at 4:30 in the darn morning. I don’t think HB’s been sleeping well and I find myself waking anywhere between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. every weekday. Like, totally and deeply unpleasant! This could explain why I feel my face is going to fall into my bowl of oatmeal every morning… Or that I consider it a complete miracle if I am able to survive dinner. I wish I could do something about this, but that very thing would be to somehow relieve HB’s stress… Umm NOT going to happen! Which means I need to find a way to keep me up during the day.

((THANK GOODNESS FOR CAFFEINE!))

10:00 am – 11:00 am: Super Sculpt class
I LOVE THIS CLASS! Thanks to her accent, I can’t understand a word the instructor says, but thankfully I can understand hand motions. I am also getting stronger: I’m graduated from 7 lb to 8 lb weights for the arms! It seems crazy that when I first started, 5 lbs would make me break a sweat. Victory!

3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: 27 min Bike, 27 min Treadclimber
Another victory: I graduated from level 7 to level 8, and I have the quads to prove it! I actually don’t like the bike, but it helps me with running so much and I actually LOVE cycling away to Oprah. For example, today’s episode, they featured the longevity secrets of centurians in Sardinia, Italy: 2 glasses of dark wine a day, pecorino cheese on whole grain bread and goat milk… MY KIND OF DIET!!! I bounced on the Treadclimber to the beginning of a rerun of Ellen. Not as eventful, but it’s always fun to see an Asian girl eat fire, a Canadian do flips on a pogo stick and a normal-looking woman tear through phone books.

4:45 pm – 5:30 pm: Core Training class
I take this class because I adore the instructor – she’s the only one who can make my abs sore for days! Therefore, I can’t deny the disappointment I felt when a sub came in. I really really enjoy pushing my limits in the class but being that she’s mainly a Pilates instructor, we did that. Not to say that Pilates wasn’t taxing, but she didn’t keep our heart rates up, so my body felt a little stiff. The class felt too easy… Oh well. There’s always next week, right?

5:45 pm – 7:00 pm: Yoga Flexibility
My Tuesday/Thursday instructor is normally emotionalless/personalityless/smileless/robotic, so I was shocked when she cracked jokes today. Made me wonder if it was a full moon? Anyway, the great news is that I’m seeing MASSIVE improvements on my 7th week of yoga! I see a difference every week, but lately my flexibility’s been improving drastically. Today was one of the better times I’ve had in Yoga Flexibility. Woohoo!!!

1. My progressions in yoga
2. The happiness that fills my heart
3. My passion in living an active life
4. Financial stability
5. The amazing relationship I have with HB

What have you done today to better yourself/your life?
When I saw that it rained earlier, the first thing I wanted was a BIG dinner, one with lots of carbs! This was especially the case since HB has a work dinner tonight, so it seems that a part of me wanted to fill the emptiness in the house this evening with food, however, I screeched that thinking to a half real fast. I had to eat dinner, so I got something small, and after eating it – what do you know? I was full! If I get hungry again, I’ll eat a cup of pineapple, but other than that, I won’t fill the void with food. It’s tough confronting the emotional eating demons, but I’m winning the fight!

What more could you have done today to better yourself/your life?
I made a big lunch and forced myself to eat it all. I should have stopped when I felt full.

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself/your life?
I need to remember that tomorrow’s run is an EASY run. In other words, I need to run SLOW.

Today’s pondering: Some women crave babies, I crave a dog.

I have to admit, I daydream about owning a furry little creature on 4 cute paws. During my runs, I fantasize about hearing the sound of pants next to me as I pound the pavement. Each day I run past the ginormous dog park in my neighborhood, I imagine swapping stories with my neighbor that starts with “You’ll never believe what Fido did last night…” punctuated with an eyeroll. In bed at night, I confirm that even with 2 people and 2 cats, there surely is enough room for a dog.

I’ve been working on HB hard on this subject, with little major hints like “Wouldn’t this walk be sooo much nicer with a dog?” I even poked at his guilt buttons, hoping to trigger his manly-protective instincts with suggestions like “I was just so scared when I [insert a solitary activity] the other day! If only I had a dog to intimidate the bad guys…” I even tried the guilt angle by saying things like “You work so much and I get so lonely during the day” (TOTAL lie, but I will do whatever it takes!)

Yes, I know that I’ll be the one picking up after the dog, taking him outside, bringing him inside, exercising him, training him, feeding him, disciplining him, washing him, etc. Yes I know HB will be the fun dad who comes home, wrestles the dog and then goes home. Yes I know that even though I’ll be doing 99% of the work, the dog will still consider HB the super alpha. None of that stuff bothers me, I accept it!

And really having a dog can’t be that much different than having a baby. They’re both cute, their poo need to be picked up after, they need babysitters, and need to be fed. The difference is, a dog won’t beg you for the car keys or run up your cell phone bill. Whereas a child grows and starts giving you headaches with dating-type issues, you can always silence a dog’s wishes for a late-night rendezvous with your neighbor’s dalmatian with a snip-snip type of trip to the vet. :D

(Of course, I’m speaking in pure ignorance here. I strangely have zero desire to populate this world with clones of me, even though a family does sound nice. As long as there’s a dog’s involved.)

That is my confession of the day. Moving on.

1. I have the ability to run 8+ miles!
2. A warm, beautiful day
3. Vietnamese food. Mmm!
4. HB’s wonderfulness :)
5. Chocolate milk. YUM!

What have you done today to better yourself?
I’m eating clean and staying active! I obeyed by tired body from the long and stayed away from the gym.

What more could you have done today to better yourself?
I could have been more productive… But my brain was just zapped.

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself?
I will stop being afraid of failure!

It’s a strange experience to run into my aerobics instructors in the locker room, naked. Nakedness doesn’t seem to be an issue at the gym, as ladies prance from shower to locker to vanity in their bday outfits quite liberally, and it’s one thing to see strangers naked, but someone who instructs you to wave your arms and legs in the name of burning calories? Awkward!

Anyway, I am so ready for March to be over! For some reason, this month seemed to just drag.

1. An unproductive shopping trip = money saved WOTWOT
2. Gorgeous weather, spring is near!
3. A relaxing run
4. The friendliness of everyone at the gym
5. Beauty, for it does not discriminate age, race, size, education, disability, etc.

What have you done today to better yourself?
I’ve had various close calls with vehicles on a run, but I never ever ever expected to almost get run over by a police car! He stopped at a stop sign, but failed to watch for pedestrians (me). It scared me because I trusted him to wait for me and I was really this close to a ride to the nearby hospital. I was angry for about a minute or two until I reminded myself that by some miracle, I’m still running, which means I escaped without incident. Instead of being angry, it should be a cause for celebration! I’m still a bit miffed about it at this moment, but I keep reminding myself of a hidden blessing I received in that I still have all my bones intact.

What more could you have done today to better yourself?
I need to work on asking people how they are.

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself?
I will ask others how they are and listen.

There were a TON of people at the gym this mid-morning – weird! It wasn’t until I was setting up for my first class when I remembered that it was spring break for some schools. Certainly made sense with some of the new faces.

I got a little annoyed with my stretch and flexibility yoga class. We had a sub, which is fine, as the past subs have been so awesome. Today, however, I got irritated when I found out that the sub had us go into regular strength poses that are staples in a regular class. We only stretched-stretched for about ten minutes. Bummer!

1. Gorgeous weather!
2. Beautiful, sparkling gym
3. Good Oprah episode entertained me while I cycled away
4. Sushi, mmm!
5. DH is makin money!

What have you done today to better yourself?
I went to the gym and tried to forget the huge (but delicious) dinner I had last night. Along with the dessert. Hmph.

What more could you have done today to better yourself?
Weeeeeeell, I could have been more patient with the parking situation (i.e. cussing at parked cars) and the yoga sub

What will you do tomorrow to better yourself?
I will have a relaxing run! Noooo speeding, so pushing. Just run and admire the beautiful weather.

It’s just so weird about how people leave things behind in my areas.

The house cleaners almost always leave behind AJAX, a vacuuming implement (how do you leave behind a huge part of the vacuum?!), rags, chemicals, etc.

And this morning, I find rags in the backseat of my car left by the people at the car wash.

Talk about “oh sh!t” moments!