Merry Christmas Bloggies :-)

I simply cannot wait to see his little "Ooooh" face Christmas morning! :-)

Christmas Cake Pops

I participated in a Christmas cookie exchange this year and since I'm a Pinterest addict and it brings out the "oh I want to make that!" in me, I figured I'd try my hand at the oh so coveted cake pops that you see all over the internet. 

 

Well one thing's for sure, while they are easy in "theory," they are oh soooooo time consuming!!! I had to make 6 dozen and two cake mixes only got me 5, so I didn't have an extra dozen for sampling.  The time consuming part is the dipping in chocolate and tapping them and letting them drip and start to dry before moving on to the next.  Thank goodness I enlisted The Husband to help me in my make shift cake pop factory because without him it would have taken wayyyyy longer than the 5 total hours it took already!  Yup.

With all of that said, Phase 2 of the process was a special kind of fun, because I had a special little helper by my side:

I want IN that bowl!

One day, I will get an entire fist in there

Much better than the broccoli Mommy

The cookie exchange was a hit, the goodies I brought home are delicious and I think the other girls took pity on me and gave me the prize for "most original cookie" simply because I spent so much time on the damn things :-D

50 lbs, Yo!

Happy to have hit the 50 lbs lost post-baby milestone!  Lately I've been in "off season" mode not exercising much or tracking diligently, but I'm happy that I'm still losing - it shows I'm on this track to stay :-) I'm not even worried about it. I will get there when I get there!  On a related note, the Santa Shuffle is this weekend and I've only run ONCE since the wine run a few weeks ago! Ah well, it's for fun and I'm just going to wing it. No Biggie!

In the meantime, I've been focusing a lot of my time and interest in getting to know my camera and learning some editing skills.  I'm a total amateur, but so far I'm truly enjoying learning more about photography and capturing my little guy growing up.  My goal is to create a digital scrap book every year for him and our family because ever since the digital photo world has taken over, I really haven't made an effort to put them to print and we all just keep getting buried further and further with more and more pictures and no printed product!  I think now is as good a time as any to just jump in and commit to transforming them in a tangeable form.  I bought a TeamBuy ticket for Album Pro last year and used it to do Cameron's first year.  The only problem is that I didn't read the fine print that the ticket was for only 24 pages and my end product was 118!  Let's just say, the price tag STUNG big time, but after all of the time and effort I put into making it and in consideration of it being our first year with our first baby, there really wasn't a price tag for that.  I still don't have wedding photos and regret that I never got those edited and done (next project!), so I wasn't going to let that happen again!

Most of you haven't seen many recent photos of our little guy who is now 15.5 months old (I know!), so I thought I would share with you a few from the last month.

Mid-October, Thanksgiving weekend at the park

Wearing one of Mommy's hats

Out for a stroll in his wagon

Helping Grampie & Daddy string up the Christmas lights

I think it's obvious where he gets his eyes :-)

Feeling excited to sit at his table like a big boy for his lunch

Silly boy :-)

Have you made a digital scrapbook or photo album before?  If so, what product did you use and did you like it?  I'm thinking about using iPhoto for the next one. Thoughts?

P.S. I am going to be reviewing a cook book in the near future, so stay tuned if you're interested!

Pre-2012 Brain Dump

I went for a run on Sunday. The first one since the Wine Run which was two weeks ago.  Just a slow "see how I'm feeling" run with the pootch.  It's amazing how easily you can put running (or any exercise) on the back burner in favour of running errands and all the other goings ons of life.  While my training plan leading me up to my first 10k definitely had me running more frequently than I ever have before, I loved the experience.  I loved the discipline that it required and I loved succeeding at following it through.  I did the best I could in my own circumstances and it did amazing things for me.  

I also meant to blog that I've returned back to "onederland" with my weight loss! Yayyyy!!!!  In fact, I'm within 10 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight and 25lbs back to my goal of 170lbs.  Overall I feel back to "me" again!  I can honestly say that should there ever be any future babies, I will no doubt, without question be keeping close tabs on my calorie intake and counting my way through. I can also say, however, that this journey getting "back" to my goal weight is bringing with it something I don't think I had before.  I don't know if it's a natural new perspective with being a mother,  the new distraction and  natural re-prioritizing of being a Mom, or maybe it's because my husband and I are on the same page getting ourselves in a healthy place, but I feel so much more at peace with listening to my body now.  My appetite is completely in control and I listen to my body.  I indulge and of course have my moments where food choices could be better, but expecting perfection from yourself is setting yourself up for failure.  I'm ok with not being on par with my calorie deficit as long as I'm under my maintenance and so far it's working.  It's of course a slower weight loss process which can be painstaking when you don't see "significant" losses regularly, but since my mind is focused on being a Mom, I hardly even notice the time passing.  In fact, it's when you have a baby growing and developing before your very eyes that you realize how quickly time passes.  I'm very close to hitting 50 lbs lost and this is why.

I let go of any guilt that goes along with going "off the wagon" because that's only a slippery slope.  Guilt does nothing but perpetuate rebellion against staying on track.  I feel like I've been through enough to honour myself and give myself grace when needed.  I'm not perfect and trying to be is a losing battle. The truth is that you can be successful losing weight if you are reasonable, realistic and allow yourself the grace you deserve.  Not confusing that with excuses is the tricky part ;-)

It is no secret that my journey to health has taken me to a place that has me yearning to achieve more with my running shoes.  My biggest goal I wish to achieve is running a half marathon.  I had been brave enough to agree to register to run the Bluenose Half Marathon right before I found out we were expecting our little guy and who knows if I would have been able to keep up with the training, but I was brave enough to want to go for it "out loud."  I still do want to go for it, but that's another story for another day...

I'm not sure what 2012 will bring in the running department, but I'm excited to be doing the Santa Shuffle in a few weeks (remember when I did it the year before last and didn't even know I was pregnant then?) and I'm also signed up to do the Resolution Run on New Years Eve.  All I know is that I want to be either signed up for an event or in training for one in 2012!  I love how it feels being a part of the running community and getting out there and being active.  I've proven to myself that I can handle the 10k distance if I listen to my body and have tons of room for improvement, so I want to at least keep my running fitness "in 10k shape" through 2012.  I've already gotten my sights set on quite a few events, but of course will always have to be mindful of my physical limitations and play it by ear as I go along. 

Truth be told, I can't quite put into words how it feels to have injuries that sometimes hold you back from being able to do what you know your mind wants to do.  And I will just leave it at that for now because that's another story for yet another day too.  I promise that some day when the time is right, I will shed more light on that area a bit more because I have LOADS I want to say on various topics related to it, but for now, it's best I leave it out of the blog for the most part [insert legal disclaimer here]. 

I do not write about this often for various reasons, but one of them is that this blog is a positive place for me - a place I created to harness all of the positive things I have proven I can do for myself.

And that's what she said...

Muir Murray 10k Wine Run: Race Recap

Today, I got out there and I did my first "10k" race fun run at the Muir Murray Estate Winery in Wolfville.  It was only a fun run and a chance to run and drink wine, but to me, it was all business and I trained for 10 weeks following this plan to get my base training into 10k running shape.  Because it was a "fun run" I wasn't intimidated to get started and to go for it.  Sometimes that's the hardest part ;-)

I car pooled with Conny & Jessica and we arrived right at 9:00 and scored a great parking spot right at the winery.  It.was.cold. We had to heard into the distillery to get our race bibs and I was starting to worry about how flipping cold the wind was. I didn't feel like I was prepared for the cold run.  I had no ear warmers or hat, no gloves or anything that everyone else seemed to be wearing around me.  Uh oh. Dudes, it was COLD.

So we decided to head on inside and wait in the longer line for the "warm bathroom" while we waited for the time to pass:

I'm not frightened, I swear!

Then we decided we'd head to the car to get our Garmins and whatever we needed (and stay warm) and since we scored such a great spot, it was literally a hop, skip and a jump from the start line.  There were still lots of people getting their bibs, so we were pretty sure the 10:00 start time was just a "guide" as to when we'd start, but sure enough as we're sitting in the car, off goes the gun to start the race! lol  It was no big deal because the race wasn't timed, but it was our cue to get going and get our run on!

The run was at the winery, so as you can imagine it was rustic:

The first pit stop was at the 2.5 kms mark (half way for the 5k runners) and you had the chance to drink some of their white wine (and water too), but I only stopped for a split second to take a picture and I was on my way.  I couldn't imagine being able to drink wine and run! lol

I said it was rustic!

The wind was so cold at times it took your breath away

Once you got accustomed to the freezing cold wind & cow poop, it's all good

The second (and last) pit stop - no way I was waiting in line during my "race"

I found my stride fairly early in the run right where I wanted to be.  I had always taken walking breaks in my training runs, but today I felt like I didn't "need" them.  My goal was to finish 10k in 1:15 which is an average pace of 7:30/km, so I felt good keeping my pace in the 7:20 range for the most part.  But I have to say, I don't think I saved very much time by not stopping (I stopped very briefly only a few times to take a drink).  I think throughout the duration of the run, my overall pace averaged out and if I kept to a 10:1 plan or give myself 1 minute walking breaks intermittently, I think I would have been able to run faster at some parts.  But instead, I kept my pace pretty steady the whole time which was fine too because it was a pretty comfortable pace.  By the last 2 kms, I was definitely losing a bit of steam and I wonder if doing the 10:1's would have made a difference there.

Our one lonely spectator

I really do love my Garmin. I love being able to pace myself and to see what distance is yet to come.  There were no distance markers on this race (at least none that I could see), so unless you had a GPS, you had no idea!  If there is only one thing I would give feedback to them about this, it would be to stick up some distance markers because it's nice to see as you're going by, especially when spectators are lacking ;-)

I knew that I was getting close, but was expecting another 5 minutes of running ahead of me when I approached the spirit crushing rocky hill at the end that was near the start line.  I knew there was still supposed to be another 0.7 left to go, but there was our speedy gonzalas Conny standing there taking my photo (and the spirit crushing hill that slowed me down BIG time):

This was the "easy" part of the hill

We of course took a sweaty/foggy "I'm finished" self-photo:

Yes I stick my iphone in my sports bra and it makes the camera steamy

Not far behind was Jess! That girl is awesome!

First 10k Everrr!

 And sure enough, the Garmin doesn't lie, it was quite short of 10k and we finished in around 9.29kms

Must be a gift from the spirit crushing hill

Next up was to go and grab your swag bag and into the winery for boozin'.

We decided to forgo the boozin and gave our drink tickets to a friend of Conny's in favour of going to get a hot meal and it was off to Paddy's Pub!

Love the swag!

There was of course a t-shirt too, but I love the wine glass etched with the Muir Murray logo and snack tray that holds your glass! #genius

All in all, it truly was a "fun" run and I'm glad I did it.  It was so relaxed that truly anyone could have participated and enjoyed themselves.  You could run if you wanted to or walk and mingle at the rest stops as much as you pleased.  In all honesty, I would have truly appreciated the route to be the full 10k because well, it's a "10k!", but I guess I'll just have to make up for it in another "real" race :-)

Bitten

I'm surprised how going back to work has worked to my advantage in ways that I didn't see coming.  For instance, while lots of people manage to run and train with jogging strollers, I really don't think I'd be able to pull off my training schedule for my first 10k if I wasn't back to work and fitting in the weekday training runs during my lunch hour.  I truly need to have that time to focus on my form, my breathing and not worry about pushing a stroller and keeping Cameron contented all at the same time.  Right now I'm really just building up my base training and it feels wonderful that I'm doing it. Maybe when I feel like my base training is more solid, I'll invest in a jogging stroller, but for now, this is working out great! I do my Saturday LSD (long slow distance) run during his morning nap so I don't even miss any extra time with him.

I am loving it so much so that I can honestly say that I don't think I have EVER committed to any form of exercise or exercise program for this long before EVER and the reason why it is sticking is because...

I.freaking.LOVE.IT.

I have been bitten by the running bug so hard that I actually look FORWARD to my next run and am all bubbling and beaming inside just thinking about it. It didn't happen right away, but sometime in the first few weeks and now that I have five weeks of consistent training under my belt, I feel like I don't ever want to stop.

"Hello, my name is Angela and this is actually me speaking - for realzies."

All the cool runners know this.

Exercise was never part of the deal that I ever fully embraced or accepted for any significant consistent period of time and I've always done it begrudgingly.  I hated nearly every minute of it in the past and I think it stems from how difficult it is to exercise when you are morbidly obese.  Sure, it's difficult to exercise in general in the sense that it causes you "discomfort" but doing it carrying about 150 lbs of excess weight is another thing all together.  I watch those Biggest Loser contestants giving it every single thing they have and listen to them groan and screech and cry at how hard they are pushing and while I've never had anyone pushing me to that extent, it makes me cringe because I feel like I remember what it was like trying to run one telephone pole to the next when I was 270lbs.  I don't even have to think hard to remember how it felt and how far that telephone poll seemed in front of me.

Not.anymore.

I have run at times in the past and have loved the entire racing experience, but there was never a point in time that I "trained" and followed through with a program to prepare me like I am now. Before I just tried to make sure I could keep up for 5k.  I am respecting my body, not pushing it beyond the "gradual build" plan because the truth is, my body is damaged goods and I need to be extra careful. I have a pretty extensive list of previous injuries that involve every major joint there is in the body and are enough to scare you off from even trying (ACL/meniscus tear & repair, dislocated/broken hip, broken foot in multiple places and a bum shoulder).  The way I see it is I'm going to get arthritis as a result of these injuries some day eventually and exercise is GOOD for your joints too and I'd rather enjoy my life and get myself in good physical shape and enjoy the process and enjoy my chosen form of physical activity and truly BE a physically active Mommy for my son. I want him to see and remember me crossing many finish lines as he grows up :-)

P.S.  I feel all giddy because Heather Armstrong is now friends with me on Daily Mile - DOOCE and I are now BFF, right? I mean she only has 24 friends on Daily Mile and yet has a million and a half twitter followers yet I'm only 1 of 24 elite people who get to follow her runs on Daily Mile - now THAT, my friends says it all right there, doesn't it?! lol

Milestones

I feel like there's so much to update you on. Maybe it's because I haven't been updating the blog as often as I used to. Rest assured that it is NOT indicative of falling off course or anything close to that.  In fact, it's quite the opposite. Things are going remarkably well!!

My First 10k Race:

I am sticking to my 10k training plan getting ready to run my first 10k on November 5th.  I almost think that I have been sticking to my training plan and not faltering because I haven't been blogging about it!  There is definitely an accountability push to blogging, but there's also an intimidation factor to it also. It can sometimes backfire for me. I have been known to get a "stage fright" when I put myself out there to climb mountains I am afraid to set foot on so I waited until I felt comfortable in my new back to work/day care routine to share. This time I'm doing it and I'm far enough into my training that I feel confident to say that nothing is going to stop me from crossing that 10k finish line. Barring an injury of course, but we won't speak of that sort of stuff, now will we?

I was VERY intimidated to start. In fact I hadn't run in weeks before starting my program and was afraid I'd have to start from scratch which I quickly discovered was not the case. I know that I chose the right program for me.  To lessen the intimidation factor of running my first 10k while fitting in training as I have returned to work, I have decided to follow a "gradual build - to finish" program. It's as easy as a 10k training program can get, I would imagine. I run 4 times a week, 3 of which are during the work week and if you look at the plan, you can see that they are relatively short distances (3-5k) that I am able to fit into my lunch hour!  There really wasn't another way for me to make it work.  I'm a working mama now and after a day's work, picking up my son from day care, getting him fed, bathed and into bed, it's nearing 7:30 before the opportunity even arises to fit it in. By then, it's turning dark and I'm tired!  So I'm very happy that I'm able to work my training runs during my lunch hour.  The benefits to this are very worth it:

• Endorphins are a great way to get through the second half of the work day
• It feels great knowing I've gotten it out of the way and done!
• I get to run in the city where there's many different routes/streets to explore - Halifax is green & scenic with arcs of trees overhead on every side street.
• It's time for me and only me to do something for myself. As a Mom, it becomes second nature to do anything and everything for your child that they need and in the early months/year(s), it can become easy to toss yourself aside because it's very easy to toss your own needs/goals aside.  Now that I'm back to work, having a lunch hour to myself has an entirely different meaning and purpose. As something I took for granted before, it's now an hour I get to myself where I can't "do dishes, laundry..fill in the blank" - it's time for me to work toward training my body and getting better each day. What a boost.
• It's at at time of day that motivation is high and I'm actually "excited" to do it. Even more exciting is that each and every time I have been getting faster and doing better.  Big boost!

I still have to update the exact stats from the one I have on my fridge with the one I have on google docs, but I have made it available for you to view and/or comment.  I think it's a good idea because I want people to see that you don't have to be anything close to a speed demon or 130lbs to be able to run and train for something like a 10k.  Crossing that finish line is what you make it out to be.  You can do it for yourself and be proud of yourself.  Anyone else's acheivements have no bearing on yours.  Your circumstances are different from mine and are different from people who run 10k's in their sleep.  It's important to see that you can do it if you want to.  I'm not a fast runner, but I'll cross the finish line running.

Post Partum Weight Loss:

Check it!

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

FORTY POUNDS, YO! 

(as of the time of this post, but this ticker will change because it is linked to my account on My Fitness Pal).

I cannot say enough good things about My Fitness Pal. It has everything I would ever want from a weight loss site. Still can't believe it's FREE and has an amazing iPhone app where you can actually scan barcodes from your food packages to track your food!  Friend me if you are a member or decide to sign up! We can encourage each other all the way :-)

My goal is to be at 195 by race day which will only be 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight and 25 lbs to get be back to my goal. Totally doable! I weighed-in at 204lbs last weekend, so it's totally doable methinks. Either way, I have to say, focusing my efforts on running and this race has taken my mind off of the scale. I feel like I'm just going with the flow of life, eating approximately 1500 calories a day (a very sustainable number for me), following my running program and living my life to the fullest with my little family that I love.

P.S. The Husband is getting teeny tiny! He's close to 50 lbs lost now! I wish he would let me share his photo with you. Maybe I can talk him into letting me share one, we shall see!


Working Mama:

I am happy to say that on our third week into our new routine of Cameron going to day care, he is looooving it! He no longer cries or whines and reaches for me when I drop him off in the morning. Instead he crawls down off of my lap, starts playing with this little friends and waves "bye bye Mama" to me as I leave for the day. This couldn't make a working Mama happier than to know that he's enjoying his days at day care.

Along with this little development has come a new phase in the sleeping routine where he has decided to cut ME off from rocking him to sleep anymore! I never thought it would happen this way, but it's the way I always dreamed it would happen. It makes me sad in many ways, especially since I no longer have all day with him and it was kind of nice to be able to give him extra snuggles as he drifted off peacefully to sleep, but this is all a part of growing up, right?! *sniffs*

My baby still isn't completely ready to completely take off on two feet and still a little tentative about walking. He gets the biggest thrill of standing up on his own, but he's not quite ready to take flight yet!

Take all the time you need, my sweet little boy ;-) Thank you for not growing up tooooooo fast for Mama!

Big Day Downtown - The Video!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was a Halifax blogger selected by the Downtown Halifax Business Commission in their "Big Day Downtown" campaign.  The rules were simple: here's a $100 prepaid Visa card and have fun downtown and "try something new" and blog about it.

Yes please!

 So since my buddy Lynn was also selected to participate again this year, we thought we could use the opportunity to have a fun day together.  For me it was the perfect way for me to spend one of my last days off before returning back to work full time while Cameron was in his first transition week at day care.

Once we started brain storming ideas of things to do, I quickly realized that this assignment was going to be an easy one for me because I never really get much opportunity to really go and enjoy downtown much at all and there was plenty that I had never experienced before.  I will let the video speak for itself and you can head on over to Lynn's blog for some more beautiful photos from our adventures :-)



(Don't you love where my face freezes frame? Hot I tell you)

Cheers!