Don't let boredom make you eat ..

I'm baaaaaack! Back from my 10 day vacation in the T-dot!

But I have to admit ... I had a hard time staying on the path of being fit and fierce at 40 ... while on vacation. When I'm in my regular routine, I'm good! My goal on my trip, though, was to spend time with my family (who I see once a year if I'm lucky) and to not over schedule myself ... which I do at home. But don't let this happen to you ... don't let boredom make you eat! Let me tell you ... sitting around with nothing pressing to do makes me want to snack on something every 10 minutes ... and I'm not even watching TV! Thank goodness my sister (who I stayed with) just recently cleaned out her cupboards of most of her junk. Yes I said MOST ... not ALL. That's right ... I found the big bag of chocolate chips in the back ... hiding behind the oatmeal. (I threw a few in my oatmeal porridge one morning). I stumbled on the dark chocolate bar in the fridge underneath the bag of mini carrots (I'll have three carrots and 1 square of chocolate please!). And don't forget the jar of Kraft peanut butter. (I grew up on that stuff ... maybe if I have an apple with it, it won't be so bad.) I won't beat myself up too much though. I've worked out every other day I was there and ... hell ... I'm on vacation ... bring on the boredom! Because I know when I get back and Paul Anthony Neil (trainer with three names ... look out!) gets a hold of me ... I'm going to wish I never uttered the words "chocolate" ...

IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL JACKSON ...

The news shocked me, my family, and my friends. Michael Jackson, dead of a heart attack at 50. We'll all remember where we were and what we we were doing when we heard the sad news. We'll talk about our favorite MJ songs, albums .. and moments. In memory of Michael Jackson, I have two stand out moments I want to share with you.

The first, was when me and 3 of my friends (Laurel, Amber, and Marc) entered our annual air guitar competition in grade 9. I had a jheri curl ... so I wanted to do Michael Jackson's Beat It from the Thriller album (my all time fave!!!). I guess I had a slight advantage since I was the only black person in the school ... and then there was the jheri curl in my hair .... ha! We won hands down. We were the Air Guitar Champions that year. Did I mention we had a mini dance routine that included me doing the moon walk?

My second Michael Jackson moment happens regularly in the gym. My personal spin cycle workout is a THRILLER when Michael Jackson is playing in my ears. THE WAY HE MAKES ME FEEL on that last 20 minutes of my cardio is awesome. Even though Michael has done some OFF THE WALL things in the last few years of his life, I JUST CAN STOP LOVING YOU ... er, him. It's sad to know HE'S OUT OF MY LIFE. But by far these lyrics make me WANNA BE STARTIN' SOMETHIN' and gives me my second wind on the treadmill:

Lift Your Head Up High
And Scream Out To The World
I Know I Am Someone
And Let The Truth Unfurl
No One Can Hurt You Now
Because You Know What's True
Yes, I Believe In Me
So You Believe In You
Help Me Sing It ...

Rest in peace MJ ...

I WANT TO BE A SKINNY BITCH

I've been on a relaxing vacation visiting family in Ontario. And whenever I spend time else where it's always fun to people watch. I especially like checking out bodies ... of women! For example,I saw this woman in the airport who was probably about my age or even older ... she had beautiful ripped arms, sculpted shoulders and a small waist, and her bum was so tiny ... it was the size of my two fists put together! She had a great body and knew it. Wearing her sleeveless t-shirt and tight jeans. You go girl! I admit it ... I was jealous. Secretly I was thinking (as I sucked my stomach in) ... "bitch" ... in a nice way of course. You know what I mean? :)

I think that experience led me to this book called Skinny Bitch. I picked it up while here on vacation and read it pretty much cover to cover in less than 24 hours. Wow. What an eye opener! It talks about all the crap people are eating these days ... which is not such a big surprise. But it also gets real about meat and dairy. Let's just say if you're squeamish about stuff like that, don't read the book unless you are prepared to become a vegan. It gets pretty graphic. But it got me thinking. Thinking about how meat is affecting my organs. (I think I mentioned the "issues" I'm having with my liver and adrenals etc.) I'm actually thinking about experimenting with vegetarianism. I might try it for a week or two. What do you think? Who's with me?

Healthy Mall Food???

Ya'll know how I love a challenge. Well I've added one more challenge to my journey to fierce fitness! I'm in Toronto visiting my siblings. My goal is to stick to my program as close as possible while on vacation. And I started off with a bang. I already found the gym I was going to go to before I left Calgary. So all I had to do is find a bus route and get there ... which I did. And a bonus: the gym was in a mall! So I had a great leg workout and was feeling good! I realized I had to eat a meal soon after and didn't think I'd get home soon enough after my workout. So I decided to venture into the dreaded food court. Maybe if I was lucky I could find something that was close to a so-so healthy meal. Maybe some stirfry? Or I could get one of those lame-o salads from Subway with the iceberg lettuce (might as well just be drinking water), the flavourless tomatoes, and the limp cucumbers (I'm not a fan of limp anything ... especially cucumbers ... heeheehee!) with a bland chicken breast. But at least it would be something halfway healthy. Then I saw it. The bright colors and rows of bananas caught my eye first ... a shake bar called Freshly Squeezed. Now this was no ordinary shake bar. You know why? Because I got soy protein powder AND soy milk!! (I don't do cow dairy). Oh happy day! I bought one right away! So the hunt was on for something a little more substantial since I decided to hang out at the mall for a while. I came up to this really long line up that twisted around a corner ... hmmm, I thought, this must be a good place to eat. Whoa ... maybe not ... you see the line up from hell was to Tim Hortons or what I like to call the Carb Cafe. Keep looking Cara. Funny thing, the place right next to the Carb Cafe had no line up ... no one was even looking at the food there. It was called Crispy Greens. It was salad heaven!!! My eyes lit up at the possibilities!! Spinach! Mixed Greens! Romaine! Oooo ... the toppings! They even had chick peas! I was so excited. I think the lady serving me thought I was weird. She tossed some spicy chicken on top and I was clean eating in a mall food court! Who knew!

IT'S FUNNY ... BECAUSE IT'S TRUE.

Remember me? Well last week was a bitch ... and so was I. Here's a joke for you ... Why do they call PMS "PMS"? Because Mad Cow disease was taken. Ha! I thought it was funny when someone (a man) told me that joke ... because it's true! In my case anyway. Well PMS is no longer a joke in my world. It sucks the life out of me. My energy, my happiness, and my desire to socialize. If you are familiar with the Harry Potter series, there are these beasts called dementors. They guard the prison that holds evil wizards and witches. The dementors suck the happiness and soul out of a person and make them feel like they will never be happy again. That's what PMS is to me. It's a big deal when you get to be 40-ish. I've talked to other women around my age and we share the same horror stories ... very irritable, everything our significant others do drives us nuts, there's never enough bread or chocolate in the world, you puff up like the marshmallow and you want to cry every 15 minutes for no apparent reason. And it's like we can't control it! So imagine trying to stay focused on working out and eating clean when all you want to do is be left alone in a dark room with a pizza, a jar of peanut butter, and 5 of those family-sized fruit and nut bars.

It was a struggle this week. Yes I cheated (I had some chocolate and a butter tart). But I didn't go over board. But believe it or not ... working out saved me. In fact, on Monday I remember saying out loud in my final hour of work "I can't wait until I'm done so I can go to the gym." It's really the only thing that makes me feel better when I feel like crap. Even though it's sometimes hard getting to the gym or on that treadmill.

You just never know ...

When I was in grade school I tried almost every sport (minus the winter outdoor sports ... I don't like cold ... I was born in Canada but I still have Caribbean blood in me!) When you grow up in a small town and you're into sports you usually make every team. One sport I did a tiny bit of was gymnastics. I learned how to do a cartwheel at a very early age from a family friend who was into gymnastics, and I was a pretty good athlete. One day in high school ... grade 12 I think ... I was practicing gymnastics in the gym with some other students. A girl in grade 10 was having a tough time doing a cartwheel. So I helped her out. Gave her a few tips that worked for me. She thanked me and I went along my way. Fast forward about 3 or 4 years. I happen to be attending a NAIT graduation for a friend of mine in Edmonton. As we watched all the graduates enter the auditorium this one young woman in her cap and gown says "Hi Cara!" ... I said "Hi ...?" I had no idea who she was. She saw the look on my face and realized she had to identify herself. I'm sure you can guess where this is going. She said "My name is Lori (I think that was her name anyway). You taught me how to do a cartwheel in high school!" Wow! I was shocked she remembered ... and a little embarrassed that I forgot. Obviously I made an impact on her that day in the Parkland Composite high gym. It just goes to show, you just never know who you're going to inspire. The reason I bring this up is because I got the best response to one of my blogs today. When I read it I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It's from a Facebook friend named Julie who I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with last weekend. Her note was in response to my NO EXCUSES blog entry. Read what she wrote: 

"ok - so I was putting off my cardio, thinking of taking a rest day - then started thinking about what you wrote...decided to do at least 20 minutes...ended up 45 minute best cardio of the week!! Thanks for the inspiration Cara!!"

I'm kind of getting emotional reading it again  (ok so I'm PMSing too). You know, when someone suggested I write a blog I was thinking ... why would anyone care about what I have to say? Well ... at least one person does so I'm going to keep writing ... Thanks for all you support peeps!

NO EXCUSES!

I remember going to this step class a couple of years ago at the Talisman centre. A saturday morning class filled with some pretty dedicated people. The instructor was awesome! Very energetic and motivating. In fact, as we were doing our thing, she would weave motivational messages into her instructions .... praising us for making the choice to be there that day. One thing she used to say that really stuck with me though was "No excuses!" Meaning, there are no excuses for not taking care of your health and fitness. I went home and wrote that on a sticky note and put it on my bathroom mirror so I would see it everyday.

What I'm about to tell you about myself now is NOT an excuse. I just want you to know so that you understand that we all have challenges and what may seem easy for me ... is not always. Anyway, my energy levels have been super low for the last little while ... low, as in, almost falling asleep driving home on the Deerfoot. My naturopathic doctor says it has to do with my organs not working efficiently ... blah, blah, blah. I'm getting "treatment" but it's not something that changes overnight. Plus my working hours are not exactly helping the situation. (I get up at 3am, Monday to Friday) The reason I'm sharing this is so you know how difficult it can be to get to the gym and train hard ... especially near the end of the week. But I do it ... except this Thursday and Friday. I got home from work so wiped-out tired ... I had to sleep ... right away ... promising myself that I'd make up for it the next day. But Friday came and I was fighting to keep my eyes open while driving home. Not good. So I came home and crashed for a couple hours ... still felt groggy when I got up. Like I said ... this is not an excuse to not work out or eat clean food. My body was telling me something and I was listening. So I rested, kept up the good eating (although I'm sure my trainer would say I should be eating more) and I'm heading to the gym in the morning.  Some things are not always going to go as planned, and sometimes your body is going to tell you to rest but as far as I'm concerned there's no excuse for not exercising regularly. Not enough time? Whatever! Doing something for 20 minutes even 10 minutes is better than doing nothing at all. Can't afford a gym membership? Who says you have to join a gym? You must have a pair of shoes that you can wear to walk around the block a few times. How about adding a few situps or pushups in your living room.

Another inspiring co-worker who had been struggling with those last 10 pounds has figured it out. She couldn't get to her regular gym one day because of an appointment she had across town. So she did some research, found a gym close to where her appointment was, and dropped in there for a workout before her appointment. She totally gets it!

So quit whining about how you want to live a healthier lifestyle but you just can find the time or money or whatever excuse you have. Find something that's going to motivate you or inspire you and go for it. And by the way, no one said it was going to be easy. Even though I love working out and love how it makes me feel, I have my own challenges getting my butt in gear some days too. And other days (especially when I'm PMS'ing) all I want to eat is chocolate cake and pizza! But I also know I'll feel like poop if I eat that. 

You just have to figure out what works for YOU ... and get your ASS off the couch! Ha!

Looking for inspiration ...

Nothing exciting jumped out at me to write about on my new blog. However, just like working out, I NEED to be consistent with my entries, even if I think I can't do it. I've been looking for some inspiration. Sometimes when you try too hard you don't realize that it's right under your nose. For example, I had the great opportunity to be on the judging panel for the IDFA Calgary Classic bodybuilding and figure competition (www.idfa.ca). In the figure category there was a woman who won hands down. Not only did she have a nice lean body. But she had great presence and confidence on stage, a gorgeous face, and a beautiful smile. I automatically assumed she was the type who was always fit and always confident with herself. But maybe not. You see, about 2 years ago she weighed 200 lbs. So it's pretty inspiring to hear her story and see her on stage looking fiercely fit. And guess what she does for a living? She's a chef!  I'm also inspired by my co-worker who dropped 40 pounds and is getting ready for her first figure competition. I'm inspired by my sister who decided enough is enough, cleared all the junk out of her kitchen and started eating clean and exercising regularly.

So how am I doing in my journey? Well believe it or not, my last session with my trainer (before I'm on my own with his program) was probably my strongest. Which was pretty surprising since I was living on fumes. After a super busy week and less than 4 hours sleep the night before (I have to be at work at 5AM) I was on the verge of calling Paul Anthony and rescheduling so I could go home and sleep. But I didn't. I went as scheduled and I seemed to have mustered up the energy to pound out a strong workout! Hey! I think I just inspired myself! Ooo ... That feels gooooooood!