The Easter Bunny

Good long weekend. Too bad it's over. :( Training, babysitting my sister's pooch, training some more. Sigh.

Anyway, tonight I remembered a funny story from when we were kids. It goes something like this...

My sister and I entered an Easter colouring contest at the neighbourhood pharmacy in Edmonton. I helped her colour it. She's 3.5 years younger than me. We entered in her name. We won. I don't know if that qualifies as cheating, but if it does I guess we're guilty and it's one of the handful of times I could think that I've cheated at something. I take solace in the fact that I had an accomplice. It's also one of the handful of times I've actually won something! We won an enormous stuffed bunny. We had that thing for years and years. It just sat in the basement - even when we were teenagers. I don't know what you're supposed to do with a giant stuffed bunny, but the dog seemed to like dominating it. And I won't go into any more details. I don't know what my folks did with that thing when they moved. ??

I'm quickly going to mention chocolate so that I can tag it as a post label since it's Easter and all. Yum. Chocolate. I ate a bunch of it this weekend.

Hungry

I'm hungry. All the time these days. I know I've been working out a LOT, but it's more than that. Maybe it's the weather or something. It's cold. So I feel like I need to eat all the time. And nothing satisfies me. And the only reason why I'm not actually giving in to the hunger and eating more than normal is because I'm lazy. I've got celery in the fridge waiting to be washed and cut so I can eat it with my hummus for snacks and I'm too lazy to wash and cut the freakin' stuff! So then I just don't bother eating. When that happens I just sleep instead. Cuz I'm also tired. I defrosted some of that tuna casserole that I made last week and ate it for dinner because I'm even too tired and lazy to make anything. Or do the dishes. You should see the kitchen. Ugh. :(

I hope I ate enough. Seriously. I'm heading out shortly to my rescheduled xc-ski lessons. And since they are later than my originally scheduled lessons, and it's colder when it's later, and it's the first lesson... I'm not sure how much skiing we're actually going to do. On the first lesson they like to teach you how to wax and talk and stuff - and they do more talking if it's cold so you don't have to be outside in the cold too long. Because you're not going to move a lot on the first lesson - they will start easy drills and make you learn your balance and weight transfer. And I just finished waxing my skis. I already know how to do that too. So why the hell am I in beginner skate lessons again? I already know what we're going to do. If I were the instructor I could write the lesson plan. But the thing is - I need to start from the beginning. So anyway, I hope I ate enough - in case I get to be more active than I think. And I hope I didn't eat too much in case we aren't too active. It's torture, I tell you!

K, I think it's time for some chocolate.

Move on down Nutcracker

Now that Christmas is over I need to push that post down...

...and bore you with my past few days' activities. I actually kept up with the biking. It was hard to get back into it after being sick, but I pushed myself to get into it. I tried something different...

(this is what I look like lately except I've been watching the 2006 Tour of Flanders - I don't have a computrainer)

I'm not supposed to do intervals til near the end of January according to my own periodized plan (and I double checked to see what the professional scheduled for me last year and it was the same). But I'm really itching to drop some poundage and I needed something to shock my legs and my body and my brain. So not only did I do intervals, but I did "Pukervals". And no, I'm not referring to overconsumption of special Christmas drinks in the last few days. And I'm quite sure I didn't make that word up myself. I think someone else who trains told me it once upon a time. The afternoon of Christmas Eve I decided to do intervals that are suggested by Chris Carmichael in one of the articles he wrote in Bicycling mag recently. It's a quick workout - only an hour. And you do 2 sets of intervals: 2 mins as hard as you can (the pukerval part), 2 mins recovery - 5 times, then do it all over again after a 6 min recovery spin. Since it was my first interval ride of the season and thus far I have only stepped into zone 3 briefly in a couple of rides (and this ride would mean maxing out) I tried not to push too hard, so I only felt like puking on one of the intervals (HR>190) but I pushed it hard enough to really need the 2 minutes to recover my breathing and my heart rate (only back into zone 3 ~150). I may be pushing it too soon, but I don't care. After doing that ride I felt awesome and I really realized how I will never improve and never shed poundage if I don't push myself like I did that afternoon. So I'm thinking of changing my program a little based on how I felt Monday. I'm going to start adding in pukervals about once per week (maybe twice - only because I can't seem to resist) and increase to twice per week for sure by end of January.

I spent Christmas Eve dinner with one of my close friends and her family having something called raclette. It was fun and delicious! Then we all played Taboo and couldn't stop laughing. There were far too many swear words coming out of people's mouths in the presence of Grandma. Poor Grandma was a good sport about it. Maybe grandparents are getting used to profanities these days.

Christmas Day was spent having more laughs with my sister, her hubby and the dog. With silly fleece pants and my brother-in-law wearing a new hoodie like a goofball and maybe a little too much hot chocolate, maple syrup, and Ferraro Rochers - we got the giggles. I got some really great presents - including (but not limited to) a bunch of stuff for the bike! :)

Then on to dinner with another close friend of mine and her family. I was starting to get tired by that point and instead of having a nap when I stopped home to finish making sweet potato casserole to take to dinner and change, I decided to do a 45 min recovery ride. (I'm hopelessly addicted) After eating far too much food, doing a book-stealing exchange, and being entertained by her second cousins' fiddling and step dancing, I was ready for a long sleep.

Which brings me to today where the only real accomplishment I've made is to wax my skis. I was hoping to get out skiing today (and teach myself how to skate ski). However, the conditions were only so-so after the rain we got on the weekend and the teaching facility will not be grooming til tomorrow (and I didn't want to hit the park for fear that there would be far too many people who might get annoyed with me not knowing what I'm doing). So tomorrow I plan to either 1) ski with my friends in the park (classic) or 2) go to the complex where they teach and learn to skate ski. I'm going to decide what I feel like doing when I wake up. Hopefully I wake up earlier than I did today.

Going Squirrely

This week is a bit too busy. I'm tired and I've been binging out on chocolate a lot. I saw the best quote today: "I want it all and I want it covered in chocolate". Oh yeah. Can that be my mantra?

And a chocolate joke that could describe my week: "Do not disturb... chocolate fantasy in progress".

And this one could describe my life: "Chocolate: it isn't just for breakfast anymore". Ha!

Tomorrow is Friday, and TGIF is a bit of an understatement at this point. I need to reboot. I was doing so well. I hope Jessica doesn't want to weigh me in on Saturday.

OK. I have to go now - I'm working an event tonight.

Nutella in a tea bag?

I may have found a replacement for Nutella - with no calories, no fat...

I've already tried the Yogi tea Cocoa Spice and it does taste like chocolate, but you have to add a little honey or stevia.

Anything to get a chocolate fix without the consequences.

Hi my name is Rebecca, and I am a chocoholic.