The Reluctant Athlete: Because You Can't Lose Weight By Snapping Your Fingers

Trust me, I've tried.

I can be a very 'go big or go home' type of person so setting goals, per se, has never been a problem for me. Setting a goal of losing 125lbs is easy. In fact, it's as easy as typing it: I'm going to lose 125lbs. Bam. Goal = set.

My challenge (and the challenge for many people) is in setting up all the route markers that take me to that goal and holding myself accountable to them. What do I need to do to achieve that goal? What will I do if I fall off track of doing those things?

While the big goals are fun to set, they're not practical without the route markers or smaller goals. So the first thing I did when I recommitted to becoming healthier was sit down and set out my road map to how I was going to reach that big goal. I set three monthly goals. I also set up some weekly goals, but those change week-to-week as I determine what is a healthy change I can make that week to see improvement.

I want to see a 10 lbs loss every month, but I will be happy with 8

I know that 10 lbs is do-able, especially at my current weight - hell, it wouldn't take too much effort the first couple of months to push and strive for 12 lbs at the start - but I also know that the next three months of work are going to consume me. I want 10 lbs, I will aim for 10 lbs, I expect 10 lbs, but if the best I can do during this time of massive change in our company is 8 lbs, then I will be happy with that.

Anything less than 8? Well, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. Which we totally won't. Right, Andrea?

How do I keep myself accountable to this? I'm weighing in every week (Wednesday mornings, if you care to know) and then texting certain people. These are all people who will appropriately cheer when I go down but also send the WTF? text when I start heading the wrong direction.

I will commit to at least 4 hours of physical activity every week

Okay, this is a 'weekly' goal but those goals are more 'I ate out every lunch last week so this week, I brown bag it every day'. You know, goals that are small adjustments to get me back on track. Not long-term commitments.

If I go to every kickboxing/bootcamp session, then I've reached this goal - and I want to go to every kickboxing/bootcamp session - but it's busy season at work and there will be times when that just won't be feasible because of deadlines and such. Currently (well, up until last week), if I didn't make it to class then I didn't do anything else. This is kind of ridiculous. 

I live in a fantastic walking neighbourhood with a beach a decent distance (and down a sizable hill which is always fun to come up) from me. I have BC's Government House with its wonderful chip trails that I can walk/slowly jog around (also with plenty of inclines). I don't have to do the replacement activity that night I don't make it to the gym, but I have to do it. That's the point.

I will keep a food journal and will follow an informal WW plan

I did WW once and was very successful. Then I did WW and only stuck with it long enough to get all the intro material before I bolted because the only meeting I could commit to going to every week was a who's who of SNL characters. I just couldn't take sitting through those meetings anymore and not being allowed to laugh when certain people started talking.

I dusted off the old (no-longer-in-vogue) program booklets, made a few notes of the recipes listed in them that I liked, and have been mentally tallying up points at the end of each day. I haven't been totally amazing at keeping on top of this so far because GISHWHES! WORK! LAZY! I did honestly give myself until after GISHWHES to start actively keeping a food journal, but this week has really just been laziness (although I have actually been eating very well and keeping portions in control so yay me for eating like an adult) but that changes tomorrow. What? I forgot my snazzy journal cheap notebook at home this morning!

Accountability:

The accountability for all of these also comes in the form of a monthly blog post. I would do weekly, but I get bored when other bloggers post weekly weigh-in numbers. There's a good chance you'd get bored if I did that. I do plan to do weekly posts under The Reluctant Athlete tag, but I'll only make a point of talking about these items once a month.

Otherwise, this blog will continue to be a centre of random useless posts.

If you made it all the way through that wall of text, have a dancing baby Groot (which is kind of, sort of spoiler-y but whatever. WHY HAVEN'T YOU SEEN GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY YET?):

I Need to Write the Dictionary

I've done it. It's happened. My life is complete. My name has become a noun.

At least, it has in my department. We have a new VP and when I asked my manager how her first meeting with him went, she replied "Ugh. I totally andread right in front of him."

Ha, ha, ha, ha, wait. What?

To andrea: make a fool of yourself in front of upper management.

My foray into the world of office-buffoonery started with an ill-timed f-bomb as the elevator doors opened to reveal our C.E.O. Whoops!

Then I made screaming noises and Chewbacca sounds in front of a project manager... twice... in the same day.

And I dribbled coffee down the front of my shirt saying hello to our C.F.O. before accidentally throwing a knife at him.

Those are just the first three incidents. I have - not on purpose despite my joking about it - pretty much said or done something stupid or silly in front of every upper manager in my office. It became a running joke at our weekly status meetings. "And what have you done to embarrass yourself this week, Andrea?"

Even some of upper management are in on the joke.

And now, my name has become a noun. I feel oddly proud about this.

Now, to go and andrea in front of the new VP...

Hey, I have a reputation to maintain!

(No, this post was not sponsored by Supernatural. I'm just catching up on Season 9 so...)

Question: Ever made a fool of yourself at work?

Happy Roman New Year!

If you never did get around to making New Year's Resolutions and are feeling a bit bummed about that, never fear! Today is the Roman New Year so make those resolutions now! (Perhaps "procrastinate less" should be on that list.)

I think I'm hilarious the first 20 minutes after I wake up.

Without even remembering that today is the Roman New Year, I made a reference at work on Friday about Caesar crossing the Rubicon with an armed legion to start a civil war. It was a replacement for the oft used "is the Pope Catholic?" yes response, but the amount of time I then spent explaining what it meant to cross the Rubicon with armed legions and Caesar's reasons for wanting to start a civil war made it abundantly clear that next time I'll just say 'yes'.

Over all, February was a fantastic month. I attended the Victoria Film Festival for the sixth year in a row (and highly recommend both Good Vibrations and The Stag - I swear it's just a coincidence that they're both Irish films), made it to the gym enough times to average out my less-than-stellar-January-attendance, bought a Venus Fly Trap and promptly named it Aphrodite, failed at making macarons, watched the extended Lord of the Rings and knitted a scarf so I could say it was productive time well spent, and made another big deadline at work. My coworkers celebrated making the deadline by making me a Darth Vadar cake. For all their blank stares after the Caesar-and-the-Rubicon email, sometimes my coworkers totally get me.

The only downside to the month was the death of Harold Ramis. I had such a crush on Egon when I was growing up because he was smart and awkward and nerdy, someone I could totally identify with. He was and always will be my favourite Ghostbuster. 

Source (original artist)
Found via Epbot

I'm excited to see what March will bring!

Question: Any indie or small film recommendations?

So That's That Then?

It's incredible to think that another year has come to an end. Oh, to be a kid again when time seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to pass. Now, another year is over faster than I can drink a keg of Pinot Noir. How did that happen?

Cersei needs to start the first AA in Westeros.

On the whole 2013 was a decent year. There wasn't a whole lot of great amazing moments that will make up the highlight reel of my life when the time comes, but it wasn't a bad year.

The highlight of the year was travelling to Germany and Switzerland to see my friends and visit the old familiar places that I love (as well as visit a few new ones)!

Hanging out in Thun, one of my Swiss "homes", during a rare break in the rain.

And it pissed with rain the entire time I was there. In fact, it even snowed one night. Snow!! In May!! As I said to my Swiss friends "I didn't get to see the mountains I love so much because of the clouds so, obviously, I'll just have to come back." They were all very amenable to the idea. Sadly, my back account just laughed and walked away with a credit card statement.

Stumbling home from the pub in wet cold St. Gallen.

A close second for highlight of the year was finding Chikara Kickboxing and Bootcamp through my friend (and devil-on-my-shoulder), Katie. I can find kickboxing at many gyms, what I can't find is such a welcoming, friendly and supportive group of women. Also, I've found that I really like kicking and punching things. Like, if I didn't know me, I'd be worried about how much enjoyment I get out of it. As it is, I know me. I know that the idea of hurting someone (outside of my or someone else's life being in danger) doesn't sit well with my conscience. Kicking them when they're holding a pad? Well, they're just asking for it.

If Dean Winchester punches you, you deserve it... probably.

I credit the kickboxing for why I actually want to set down some resolutions this year. The past few years, I haven't bothered with resolutions. What's the point in writing down a couple of goals when I know that by the end of January, I will have stopped one half and not bothered starting the other? Generally, that just seems like a waste of paper and I quite like trees.

But this year, I want to set goals not to start new things but to build on what I'm already doing, to hold myself accountable to the changes I've already made. It might like seem like a small difference from writing resolutions to start something new, but mentally it's a whole different ball game. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Obviously then, it would stand to reason that if I'm talking about resolutions that I would share them. And I will. Tomorrow. Right now, however, it's time to celebrate the coming of the new year!

Happy 2014 Everyone!

I Shook Hands with an Astronaut This Weekend

In my head, I have written about 5 blog posts which  have not actually seen the light of a computer screen. In my head, I am an awesome blogger. As soon as Mac or Google or some small start-up company develops that thought to text blogging patching for my smart phone, I am going to be amazing!

After all that, this isn't really a full post either because I have dishes that need to be washed, clothes that need to be put away, a carpet that needs to be vacuumed and an apocalypse that has to be watched. What? My new obsession is Supernatural. Two seasons in one week... hence all the housework I need to do.

I did, however, for the total of no readers of this blog who aren't my friends IRL want to let you know that I met Chris Hadfield yesterday. 

Luckily, I got all of this out of my system before I actually got to him.

If you have no idea who I'm talking about, I am leaving this video here for your viewing pleasure.

He was in Victoria signing his book so I lined up with my friends at a ridiculously early time for a Saturday and waited four hours for the signing to start.

Worth.

Every.

Minute.

Cmdr. Hadfield shook hands with every person who came to get their book signed, asked everyone how they were doing, and seemed genuinely interested in our answers.

That's my book he's about to sign.

To fully drive home how excited this made me, I stopped in to see some friends on the way home and it took them 3 minutes to understand that I was saying "I shook hands with an astronaut!" Granted, English is not the first language of any of these friends but I think the inability to understand completely lies with my excitement level. It's 24 hours later and I'm still getting shaky just typing this.

I feel like a six year old at Christmas!

The Happy Dance of Life

[Source]

The sign above pretty much sums up my view of life. It is rarely the events of a day that determine if it is bad or good, but my attitude towards them. Obviously, some bad days are just bad days regardless of your attitude - my cousin's death is a bad day no matter how bloody cheerful I was prior to getting the news - but someone else's attitude in a meeting? That will only ruin my day if I let it.

I am, generally, a very positive person. I find that it makes life more enjoyable.

It also means that when life starts coming up roses, and you're already a happy person, it's really hard not to walk around doing this all day long:

Oh dancing Nathan Fillion, how I love thee!

What has been so fantastic? Just every day life, to be honest.

I know I said I wouldn't talk much about work on here, but work has been great. I grow to love my job a little bit more every day.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this happened last Friday:

If you don't know who Eddie Izzard is (what's wrong with you?) then you need to watch this:

Oh, November 29th! You can't come fast enough.

I joined my brother's Yahoo Fantasy Premier League this year. I did it for various reasons but I honestly expected to spend my time at the bottom of the pool (I even named myself GunningforLast FC), stumbling through my picks and hoping that I (re)learn something about a league I love but haven't actively followed in about 10 years. It's early weeks yet, but I've done better than I expected.

That, my friends, is me sitting in 5th place. And that little asterisk in Week 7? That's indicating I was the points leader for the week. Week 6? I was 1 point behind the point leader. I'm feeling pretty darn pleased with myself right now.

Hopefully, I'm still sitting so pretty after this weekend.

On the flip side of feeling 'woo-hoo', Ireland is officially out of World Cup 2014 in Brazil and I can't even blame this guy:

Thierry Henry's handball, seen by everyone in the world except the ref, allowed
France to win against Ireland and knock us out of a spot in South Africa 2010.
Still bitter.

While I'm disappointed about Ireland, both Germany and Switzerland have qualified which means I still have teams to cheer for and will not have to wear a France jersey (because sometimes I have issues keeping my mouth shut) so...

Despite messing up my left tricep and bicep three weeks ago, I continue to love kickboxing and bootcamp. I was seriously bummed when I couldn't make class due to a cold-flu-breathing-issue last week. Unfortunately, I was so excited about getting back at it this week and kicking butt in kickboxing, that I left the gym after class in a haze of euphoria and failed to see the Pothole of Doom so I'm out until next week or whenever my knee scab heals and I can bend my leg again.

*sigh*

The Pothole was totally that goalie.

Finding a gym that has a built in support system (the other girls) and a trainer that holds you accountable has made all the difference in keeping me going back.

That and finding an activity that taps into my hidden desire to kick people's asses.

I guess that's what it really comes down to: I'm happy because I get to punch and kick things and no one gets mad at me.

I'm sounding really well adjusted right now.