New Years Resolutions 2013

Well it's been a while. I meant to do this right away after new years, but to be honest, I couldn't decide on what my resolutions were.

Most everything has to do with health. After quitting wheat last year and having the awesome results, I'm sort of addicted to big lifestyle changes.

I've tossed and turned over trying to go vegan vs cutting out certain foods. I've also tossed and turned over exercise - should I set a small goal or a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal, as my boss would say).

My conclusion is, to do both!

So here are my 2013 New Years Resolutions!

1. Making Vegan choices when available. This includes almond milk instead of regular milk, vegan cheese, no meat meals if possible, if there is a vegan alternate of a makeup product - get that instead, etc.
2. Cutting out red meat as much as possible. Yes there are times I crave a good steak, but honestly with the family history of cancer now and my above decision to make as many vegan choices as possible, this one just needs to go. I still love chicken, but I will try and limit it. Maybe twice a week max? Maybe as a "treat" when we go out for date night? 
3. A long juicing detox? Yeah I don't think that's for me, but I have started using my juicer daily and would like to continue using it, even if it is just as a breakfast, or even a juice to go along with a meal. I love the benefit of all these nutrients I am getting - and let's be honest, I never get this much veggies in my diet otherwise!
4. Get into the habit of not only working out daily, or at the very least once every 2 days (including weekends), but to have a more active lifestyle. I would love to try Archery, Salsa, Swimming more, Going paint-balling more in the summer, etc. Just generally doing things that are fun, that make me get up and move!
5. My BHAG for exercise is to, by the end of the year, be fit enough to do the Queen Gorgo's workout challenge. For those who do not know, this is a female version of the 300 workout. This will take a lot of working up to, for me. And of course, in the end the challenge is to have the best time at doing this. I'll record my time and maybe post at the end of the year to see how well I've done. 
6. Money. Oooo this one is always hard. I want to have a steadfast amount of money that is saved every month. 
7. Vacation at least once this year, in a different country.
8. Save up for a decent down payment on a house. This ties in with number 6. The market out here is booming, and I want to catch it on the way up!
9. Become closer with the friends and family I want to be closer to. 
10. Make more friends.
11. Try more creative activities. As mentioned above, a salsa class, maybe painting, pottery, whatever strikes my fancy! 

Generally, as everyone  does, I want a better life. My husband and I moved up to Grande Prairie, AB and now is the opportunity for me to accomplish the things I have wanted to. To be a true success story with my health, and to learn those important life skills not everyone gets the opportunity to learn!

So what's your new years resolutions?!

Active Weekends make for Attractive Weekdays

After my last post, Sedentary Lifestyle, I decided to do something about my lack of activity. So the weekend was filled with just that.

Friday night while my husband was half asleep I talked him into going for a run/jog with me in the morning... of course he wasn't aware he acquiesced to this until the morning of. He was none too happy about the idea of running right out of bed - but the bribe of Tim Hortons prevailed!

I wanted to do the Couch 2 5K run, but was annoyed by timing it, wanting to listen to my music, and running. I have an app on my phone that vibrates every time I have to switch it up, however I had it in my hoody pocket so I would barely feel it. I found out later that there are podcasts with music and timing built in. I have downloaded them and will try again on the weekend (yes I know I should run multiple times each week, but our lifestyles - right now- do not make that easy, so once a week will get me started).

Also finding podcasts brought me to a whole list of new discussions, podcasts, and Itunes University studies that I have downloaded and waiting for a moment to listen to.

Saturday afternoon my two young teen nieces came by, so the rest of the day involved crafts and Just Dance 3. We played about 2 hours of it, and I like to think I kept up pretty well with the young veterans of the game that my nieces are. I even beat them a few times! By Google's calculations one hour of Just Dance 3 burns about 370 calories, about the same as running. So I figure in all of Saturday I burned about 851 calories!

We then played board games until the wee hours of the morning, which honestly was just perfect!

Sunday I woke up sore, ate badly because mom made her amazing buttermilk pancakes, then hot dogs for lunch - so yeah, I wasn't exactly Ms. Healthy Eating. I didn't plan on doing any real exercise, despite promising the girls laser tag the night before, because of said soreness. Well after nearly 3 hours of RISK, in which I dominated for the first time, we switched it up, again, to Just Dance 3. Another 2.5 hours of that for me (and wow! 3 hours for the girls!) and I was beat! But again, that's approximately 925 calories for the day!

I'm already seeing a difference in my body, it may be slight, or just the way I'm feeling changing my posture, but I'm starting to get where I want to be!

The next few days are going to be really hard as mom is going in for surgery to remove what is left (after chemo and radiation) of her tumor. We are hoping and praying, and ask that anyone with religious affiliations pray to their respective gods or deities, that she comes out fine and can be "hooked back up" the way she was intended to run!

Sedentary Lifestyle

I have something to admit, I've been struggling.

The shakes are fine and easy, but I find myself wanting junk food more and more - and yet, I let myself have it every once in a while. But my big struggle is with exercise.

I've talked about this a couple times, and must keep talking about it until I truly hold myself accountable, until i find that thing that makes it click for me.

Let's face facts, I need to exercise. I sit for (on average) 7 out of the 7.5 hours at my day job, when I come home, what do I do? I sit and watch TV, or play video games. Then I sleep for 8 hours. In total I'm up and moving, what, maybe a total of 3 hours throughout the day. THAT IS RIDICULOUS! (also probably not exact math).

The fact is that I'm not supposed to be sitting that long. (as a person, not an employee, as an employee I have to), historically women have been up doing stuff, birthing children, raising said children, plowing fields, or doing whatever else they can - but not leading the kind of life I am now.

And sitting for the majority of your day isn't healthy either! Check out some of the bad things that are linked to it at Women's Magazine.

Now obviously I can't quit my job and start a life as a flagger or construction worker... well I could but that isn't what I want in my career, nor is what I spent the money to become. (nothing against female flaggers or constructions workers, you go girls!) So I need to get up and do something for the remaining 4 hours of day. Yeah, that sounds hard.

Here are somethings that I have planned in my life to get me up and moving:

1. Evening run after work (yeah I keep talking about it, I honestly mean to do the CouchTo5K [C25K]) 
2. Painting/Art - when I paint I tend to stand or am rolling around on an exercise ball. The point is that while I'm doing something I love, I'm still moving.
3. Exercise programs or classes - there are plenty that are offered at my local community centres. There's a bit of a wait as the winter classes are finishing and spring classes have yet to start, but getting registered and preparing to have that part of a weekly routine is good for me.
4. Kinect - I have some video games that must be played standing up, hell Andrew even has a hunting one that involves running in place and ducking while holding a Kinect Gun, not to mention the Just Dance 3 - which works up a damn good sweat!
5. Fun dates. We try and do this every week, whether it be just us or a group of friends. It's laser tag, bowling, (maybe paintball...we'll see), and adventure amusements that are offered locally.

So what do you do to get yourself moving after work?

Smoke Free 365!

Yesterday was my one year anniversary for quitting smoking! Yay! I have been smoke free for 366 days!

It seems, simultaneously, that I never smoked, and that I just quit!

Quitting is easy now. I say it as an active verb because it always will be. Sure it seems easy now, but when you get a couple drinks in you - smoke smells a hell of a lot better, especially after a long, hard day. So it is always something to work. It's now almost first nature, but there are time the craving comes up and pounces - now it is easier to combat.

When I first quit smoking was the hardest, everyone will say that. I felt like my chest was caving in - that no breath I took could be big enough, had that burn. I was shaky, anxious, bitchy, cry-ey...all kinds of moods.

The first time I quit smoking there was a five minute spam where I literally went through a huge range of emotions. I was fine, laughing with my husband (then boyfriend), then I got angry, stormed off to the bedroom, punched the wall cause I missed the light switch, then proceeded to go into the bathroom to bawl  eyes out! Don't worry there was no damage to the wall, I can't really punch.  But I was moody.

This time when I quit smoking I did it for me. It was time. You will never be able to quit until you are ready. I was finally ready on October 17. The day my husband (then boyfriend) came back from his annual hunting trip. I planned it over the weekend to be a surprise to him. (Andrew hates smoking!) He knew what he was in for, though, because he'd been through me quitting smoking at least 2 times. I was moody and very hard to deal with. But this time I was ready. It made all the difference.

I have quit before using spitz and I have quit before using prescription medication. Sure the cravings were less when I used the medication, but when I weaned myself off the meds - they came back. I hadn't built myself up. When I quit, cold turkey, no help - the cravings went away faster and they went away stronger. I suddenly didn't want to smoke. I didn't like the smell.

It helped that I no longer had smoking around me. My sister in law (who I used to commute to work with) moved to Alberta, and I was at a new job where the only other person there was a non-smoker. I literally had no interactions with smokers aside from pedestrians. I avoided some people in my life for the first month because they were smokers. My best friend and my mother in law - both smokers I loved smoking with, both people I had to avoid.

Once I could easily go around those people it was easy! I didn't want a smoke, I didn't like the idea of it, and my body enjoyed breathing easier. I found myself putting on weight, but it wasn't an overt amount (i had previously put on a ton of weight, so the little bit extra from quitting didn't change much).

Now I have no cravings, except for those rare times - and those go away as soon as the thought is formed.

So yay for me and my anniversary!

Now I can concentrate, this year, on being healthier in a different way. Any suggestions?

The long awaited blog post

I've almost been married a month. It seems crazy. It also seems crazy that I haven't written a blog entry in nearly that long. I should have right away - with the high and memories so crisp and clear. Well they still are, but I am riding less of a wedding day high and have settled into married life (which to tell you the truth is much like normal life).

I still haven't gotten all of the pictures from the Wedding. I am currently making up a scrap book and can't decide if I should just post all of the pictures or Scan in the scrapbook pages so you can see everything in my creative wonder with little notes as to what was going on and who's who.

For those of you who are too impatient to wait for me to artistically display my wedding, well here is the photo bucket album with a partial amount of photos. Deirdre & Andrew's Wedding <- go there.

We still haven't even written our thank you cards. We're waiting for some of the (bound to be amazing) photos from Dad before we make a decision on which one we will use for the front of the thank you cards. We haven't forgotten though! So be patient!

So wedded life is good. it is normal. We just got our Marriage Certificate back and I will slowly but surely start changing over my name. I am still working on my signature. I had a hard time the first few days. My signature ended up looking like DRanuff, then moved to DPanuff now its finally getting down to DPuuuf... I'm still not used to a short last name... my hand just wants to keep signing away. I imagine by next month I'll have the new signature down.

Aside from recovering from the wedding life has been normal.

Well there have been some exceptions with my health. I went for a blood test last Saturday and it turns out I have a low thyroid count. So this whole time I've been moody, had a lower then normal sex drive and gaining weight and unable to loose no matter how hard I try (ok I only lost a bit, not as much as I thought I should have, being totally honest) and of course the messed up periods...was all because I have a messed up thyroid. Apparently this commonly happens in women after a pregnancy or miscarriage. Another side effect is depression - which makes sense as lately I have been quite depressed, but I would also tie that in with the weight gain.

So on Monday I see my regular doctor to start medication. My sister in law has the same problem and I am a bit worried as she said medication is expensive, and if I have low iron, the shots can be painful. The expensive part worries me more as neither Andrew or myself have any health coverage aside from what is standard in Canada.

So wedding, health, anything else new?

We rearranged our living room, made a mini shrine to the wedding on a wall and I did some planting on the deck to get some summer around us. I haven't painted, though I have been wanting to. Currently my painting room is storage for everything we moved out of the living room - So it is not a very comfortable place to let myself go.  I've also had a lack of initiative to do anything.

There is one thing I have initiative to do, however, and that is go camping! I have decided that Andrew and I definitely need to get our camp on this year. I wanted to go to Osoyoos, but the campsite there is already all booked up. There are a couple others, but my heart is now set on Green Lake. I haven't been there since I was a kid and I am going to attempt to get mom and aunts and cousin's together to relive the giant camping trip I remember as a kid. Granted it will be a bit off as half of the people (ie: half sister, dad, uncles) have divorced or disbanded, but I still think it would be great - some of us cousins are still close enough to pull it together. It also wont be as large, for me, as I don't have a camper or dad's budget ^.^ Eventually I hope we'll be able to have the kind of awesome camping trips I had in my childhood, but that takes hard work to get there.

Oh we have had some happy news though! Seems our wedding has spawned a slew of others. Andrew's little brother Joey and his g/f Alyshia are engaged! They don't have a date yet, but are looking for next year. My own older sister, Angie, is getting married to her b/f Randy. I am very happy for Angie, but personal issues from before pull me back a little. I worry that he will hurt her, but I hope that this commitment strengthens their relationship and solidifies it, and that he will never hurt her again. She deserves happiness - more then anyone I know. Rumor also has it that Andrew's cousin will start planning a wedding again, though she is going to deliver her 2nd baby, a boy this time, this year. I think it would be great! And give us an excuse to travel!

Well that's it for now. Will try to not let my times away be so far.