Rest, Relax, Recharge

So today turned out to be a bit of a write-off. Well, depending on your definition of a write-off. I slept awful last night, including waking up at 6:30 a.m. Apparently, my body clock still hates me.

Today was supposed to be my “hard” gym day. 60 min on the treadmill with upper body weights + abs. To start, my butt is beyond sore from doing squats yesterday. Not only am I waddling everywhere, but using the washroom is teary-eyed painful (ladies, please tell me you know what I’m talking about). Also, severe glute pain makes me nervous about my old-lady hips. The two are sometimes connected for me, and squats have blown out my hips in the past.

On top of the pain, my body is just non responsive. I feel like I somehow gained 200 pounds overnight. Moving just seems like such a chore. I’ve also napped three times today, and feel another one coming on…

Yup, sounds like a little exhaustion to me. If I was a smart person, I would have taken this first week at my new job off from all exercise. Of course, these are usually things I only learn after the fact. I had no way of predicting this past week would be so mentally and physically draining on me.

So now I’m doing the lag work. Trying to fix the damage that was done. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) some may-jah stuff happened in my personal life today. My emotions are a little rocky at the moment. I need some time to reflect and become used to the idea before I let the world know.

 

So how’s that for a start to a blog? In all honesty though, I don’t really feel like the day has bean a real write-off. In fact, allowing my body to rest and repair is probably the most useful thing I’ve done all week!! I didn’t get dressed until 5pm, at which point I just put a nicer set of pyjamas on :P

Breakfast was made in a complete haze. I actually destroyed my first attempt at french toasted waffles because I forgot to spray the pan :\

Second attempt was much better :) With fake syrup whisked with Naturally More almond butter for dipping. Yum.

I awoke from nap #1 hungry again. I dug into my bar stash and pulled out a Glo Bar Angela gave me when we met.

I love how crispy these are :)

I watched two documentaries on marathons today! First, Spirit of the Marathon which is apparently up for free on Hulu, but I can’t get that in Canada so I just watched it on YouTube. I thought it was okay. The race itself was a little too dramatized and the nerd in me wanted to hear more about the training part of it (which in my mind, seems harder than the race itself). Twitter to the rescue, I got directed towards a PBS Nova documentary called Marathon Challenge (which is available on the PBS website or Veoh for non-Americans). This one is about a handful of non-athletes defying the odds to run a marathon. I enjoyed this one a lot more. They dove more into the science and struggles of the training regimen.

I think there was another nap in there too? At some point I had lunch.
 
Everything bagel with Fontaine Santé tofu spread, carrots, green pepper and hummus. Nomnomnom. Not enough protein, but mega tasty.

Made up the lack of protein later in the day with some quark!!

 

Why is it orange you ask? I added some leftover baby food carrots and a crumbled carrot cake protein square. Oh yes.

It actually kinda reminded me of pumpkin. It got me thinking about all the other baby food purees out there and how they could be added to yogurt and oats. Will have to take a gander next time I’m at the grocery store!

Supper was more protein + orange. Tuna salad + butternut squash fries.
  
In the tuna salad is onions, pickles, mustard, laughing cow cheese. Put on toast with some spinach and sprouts. The key to non-soggy b-nut squash fries is to squeeze out all the juice with paper towel before baking them, and flipping them every 5 minutes once they’re in the oven. Well, I guess they’ll always be kinda soggy, but it at least helps the cause :)

 

I also did a lot of unpictured snacking today. But posting these pics, I realize that even though I had a lot of food today, I think the worst of it was just a small handful of M&Ms. It was otherwise fresh and healthy stuff. I just don’t have the energy to not snack today. I feel too blaaaah to tell if it’s real hunger or not. So I’m just going with it.  It’s just one of those days.

Goal for tomorrow is to prepare food and meals for the week! And hopefully see a friend who had a baby over the holidays. Should be fun, so long as she doesn’t ask me to hold it ;) Think I’ll take one more rest day from exercise tomorrow, and start Monday fresh and early with my favourite spin class :) Hope y’all had a wonderful Saturday!!

 

Question of the Day: What is your favourite documentary?? I don’t know if it’s the journalist in me, but I love documentaries. Maybe even more than real movies. Grizzly Man is one that will always stand out in my memory. You should check it out!

Not Ready To Leave

Good news! I don’t work until Tuesday evening, so I decided to stay an extra night at my mom’s :) I’m currently cuddled up watching movies with the fam. No wonder I want to move home – they treat me too well! ;)

Chris wasn’t feeling well this morning so I was solo for spin class today at the giant-sized Nubodys Dieppe. It’s one of those “Super Clubs” and it’s gorgeous!! It’s in a heavily wooded area and has a “resort” feel to it. I wish I’d taken pictures. But no worries, it’s the gym I’m doing my personal training course at in a couple weeks – so I’ll be back!

As for the spin class, it was challenging, I loved it. The instructor was quite knowledgeable and explained what and why we needed to do everything really well. She also had us do some tough seated hill climbs, and then standing climbs while we pulled back and hovered over our seat. Holy moly, my legs are pretty accustomed to spin, but they’re already sore!

Came home starving as per usual and filled my belly with more smoked meat.

Toasted on rye bread with mustard, relish, swiss cheese and grapes on the side. Believe it or not my family has actually eaten most of the giant hunk of smoked meat my mom bought at Costco. We eat like pros ;)

It’s also become a bit of a running joke that my nana, mother and I eat our cookies one half at a time.


I guess we like to nibble on our sweets rather than eat them all at once. Others keep finding bits and pieces of cookies and wondering what happened to the rest of them :P

Also being nibbled – another Costco-sized item – mixed nuts.

Way too salty for my tastebuds, but that hasn’t stopped me from digging out the brazil nuts ;)

It was a goooorgeous day here. Around +3 C (37 F) and clear skies. So my mom Mark, Jane, Chris and I all head out for a walk.

 

We walked down to Centennial Park, one of Moncton’s green areas. The trails weren’t that great because the snow was either melting or freezing over into ice.

 

Is it wrong the ducks made me think of Julia Child and de-boning a duck? I can hardly believe I was a vegetarian for eight years ;)

I must also say that I enjoyed running on this same trail more when I was home this summer. I miss the warm weather already!

We were out for around 50 minutes. It was great to get the fresh air – it’s been a while for me! I’ve been hibernating indoors recently.

I was hungry again when we got home, so I dug into one of the Glo Bars Angela gave me.

Angela said this is a new flavour with no name yet. It had peanut butter, apricots, cranberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds and some mystery seed I couldn’t put my finger on. Hemp maybe?

The bar was ooey-gooey and absolutely lovely. I liked the huge chunks of dried fruit and almonds. Felt more like a treat than some of the other boring bars I eat.

Dinner tonight was yet another fabulous meal. I was in charge of the salad:

Mixed greens, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, green pepper, bacon bits, parmesan. 

My mom’s dish was the real masterpiece though…

She pretty much made it up!! Instead of making a turkey pot pie, she made the filling (with xmas dinner leftovers), then topped it with biscuits. 
  
Sosososo good! I liked the filling much better with biscuit than I do with pie crust.

 

So I am going home for real tomorrow. I have yet to hear a confirmation on my new job, but I tentatively start next Monday. What a whirlwind that’s going to be! At least it will make this next busy week at Starbucks easier to get through. I’ll have to stock up on cheap coffee while I can ;)

I’ll also be working on the typical “year in review” and “goals for the new year” posts when I get home. I just don’t want to put the time into it while I’m here with the fam.

 

Question of the Day: Looking back over the past year, what’s the one thing that stands out in your memory the most? Mine is graduating from university in the spring!!! I’d say that’s a big milestone, no? :)