And on the 7th day

After another killer boot camp, which saw us repeat much of last night's class...different group, different location, so Trainer Josh in unapologetic!  After all, I signed up for this, right?  And I will totally rock it by the end.  I know I will. 

By the end of the hour though I wanted some serious protein.  I was thinking some sort of seafood and salad, and really wanted some baby mozzarella to go with the tomatoes I just bought.  Sadly Sobey's didn't have any, so I changed it up to salmon and goat cheese.  I am a good cooker.  'nuf said.

On the plate:
salad greens, pepper (red, orange, yellow and green) strips, carrots and red cabbage.  Top with salmon coated with Epicure Salmon and Fish rub, cooked in a hot pan and to medium perfection, I may add.  Crumble herbed goat cheese, and top with a dressing of Epicure Sweet & Spicy mustard, Epicure balsamic vinegar, evoo and some more of the fish rub, and voila.  I am that good!!

Oh, and look what else I've found.  Yay!

Later,

Monday blues

I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many caring friends and family, who have all offered words (and shoulders) of support when I have needed it most.  I thank each and every one of you.

After taking Coco to the vet (they have to officially pronounce her) and making the final arrangements (no ashes for me, but I am getting a paw print in plaster), I came home and tried to get some sleep.  I didn't get much any after finding Coco, and was starting to feel my late night (also didn't make my 10:30 cut-off either).  No good...I cried, tossed and turned and cuddled with George (Giorgio), and maybe dozed off for a few minutes.  Finally I got up, picked up H-woman and went off for some much needed noodles at Vietnam Fortune.  Third time for me in two weeks...what will people think?!  We had a good talk, got caught up with each other, and after I dropped her off, the food coma was enough to help me finally fall asleep.  However, I had the alarm set so I could go to boot camp.  Yes, I went...I knew that sweating and throwing weights around would be good for me.  Otherwise, it's sit at home and try to figure out which food group (fat, salt, sugar, chocolate) would best cover up the hurt. 

We ran up the big hill (the legs were NOT pleased after Saturday's hike) and around to the stairs, before returning to the mats for the killer circuit.  This one is fun.  Two groups, reps of 15, two different sets of exercises that basically figure 8 each other in the middle.  I was in group B.  We all start together, push-ups and squat press.  Group A moved to the bands where they did seated row and curls.  We lunge walked to a marker, then ran to our next station of dips, incline push-ups and step-ups.  Group A moved on to their next marker, where they did lunges, then ran up the Bitchy path.  We moved to the jump ropes (50 reps) and then met up with Group A at the middle and squats.  Return the way you came, repeating everything.  Quick drink of water and we swap routes.  Finish that, and it's one giant loop of everything, but double the reps!  I was BEAT by the end, and I think Trainer Josh picked up on that, as I only had to do one lap of the path (others had to run twice) and he finished me early for much needed water.  Finish up the class with v-sit shoulder press to cheek-to-cheeks to toe touches.  Repeat three times.  Then drop legs and hold banana  (arms & weights out to the side...OW) - repeat 3 times, narrow grip push-ups to slow count down and 4 second hold - repeat 4 times, to sit-ups and negatives.  I was sore and exhausted, but so happy I went.

S. and I stayed after class, regaling Trainer Josh with tales of our hike on Saturday, before parting ways.  I came home, not hungry but knowing I had to get some more calories in me so I mixed some spinach in with some black lentil curry I had in the cupboard and dinner was born.  Took all of 5 minutes to heat up, and it was just satisfying enough to get me through till tomorrow.  Some fresh cherries for "dessert" and a glass of milk and I'm done for the day.

Again, thank you all for your kind words and actions.  Means a lot to George and I.  Hug your children, furry or not.

Later,

Sweet dreams, my love.

Today I am sad.  Heartbroken.  Devastated.  Words cannot adequately describe.  Today I lost my precious little fur-girl, Miss Coco Chanel, or Princess Coco-Puff, as she was more commonly referred to.  She passed in her sleep, in what I can only hope was peaceful and painless.  Don't even know what was wrong, other than she just wasn't herself the last week.  We had an appointment with Dr. Sean next week, but I was going to take her in this morning, as she really didn't act well last night.  Hindsight, huh?   

 She would give me that look across the pillow when I woke up in the morning, to a gentle "ppprrraattt" and she could purr with the best of them.  She loved to tell me stories of her day when I came home from work, most starting with an emphatic "do you know what your other fur-child did to me today?!"

 She may not have been classy, but she was my Phat baby girl!

 Her favourite way to sleep!  On whatever was tossed on the bed by her not-so-neat Mama.

 But she also knew how to sit like a lady, working it for the camera.

 She loved to cuddle with her Mama.

 And her brother, Giorgio Armani (come on, they're Tuxedos...they had to have classy names!).

 This is how I found them most days.

 Of course, anything that could be used as a pillow would be.  Loved it when she slept with her tongue hanging out.  Such a hard life...

 Dressed up for Christmas...the cataract started last year, but she never acted like it bothered her.

Instead choosing to be a goofball.  She always made me smile, and today she's making me cry.

Sweet dreams, my love.  I see her cuddled on Dad's lap in heaven, telling him her tales of woe and purring her brains out.

She was loved.

Spruce up my butt and tree in my face...

Told the ladies on the yesterday's hike that this would be my blog title, and I don't lie!  But more on that later.

I did it...I managed to do all 5 boot camps this week.  Five down, with only (omg) 25 to go.  Means to an end...means to an end.  We ran Douglas Fir, did a lap of the Bitchy trail, had some tabata good times (although I seriously don't know how I managed to hold my weights above my head), 1-legged squats and Trainer Josh's new favourite, lunge hop.  Lunge 10 times (either each leg or plie (??)), then hop (forward, not in one spot) 10 times, lunge 8, hop 10, lunge 6, hop 10 and basically continue till you reach zero lunges or the edge of the field, which ever comes first.  My legs were screaming at me by the end of the class.  Which ended just as the skies opened up over Calgary and did some serious damage!  I could barely see driving through downtown Calgary, the hail made it look as if a tree exploded at my house, and sadly, someone died when they were swept off their feet by the torrents of water and got trapped under a vehicle.  It was a nasty one.

But on to lighter things!  Yesterday was spent hiking the Forget-me-not Ridge in K-country.  This was a close one, just outside Calgary, south west of Bragg Creek.  That was actually the easy part of the day.  After some careful stream crossings (we built our own bridge at one point with rocks and logs that we found), we hiked along...and along...and along.  I was thinking "this is too easy", as were the others.  That's when we realized we passed the turn point, about a km behind us.  After turning back, and finding the caron (??) - a pile of stones that I joked was either a really bad inukshuk or covering up a deceased hiker - we turned up and started a climb.  A hard, pretty straight up climb.  With almost an 800m climb to the ridge, we were all puffing pretty good.  In fact, I was arguing with my heart monitor, as it seemed way too low for how I was feeling!  Had to stop for lunch in fact, as I just could not go any further without some food in me.

 Lunch for me was carrots, snap peas, hummus, a ww bagel with lite cream cheese and some trail mix.  Love J's "cougar" gaters!

 The view is well worth the climb.  This is still the foothills to the north east...

 And now to the west.

 At the top of the ridge (what a climb!) we found this.  The biggest, baddest Inukshuk in the land!!!!

 I'm 5'10", so you can figure out how tall it was.

 If you squink, you can see the white dot off in the distance...that's downtown Calgary!!!!

 Stavros, Inukshuk builder!  He says he hikes up a couple of times a year to build on it and make any repairs.

At this point, our 4-hour planned hike took a definate turn.  We didn't want to go back the way we came, as it was pretty steep and one member of our team is recovering from a stress fracture, so had to be careful with how she hiked.  And we thought there was a loop trail, as many of the hike books indicated different distances for this particular ridge.  S. had talked to a pair of ladies who had a map, before we caught up, who said "just follow the trail around the ridge, and you'll get back down to the bottom".  Our lesson today, kids???  Never, ever, ever leave the trail...ever!

We walked along the ridge, looking for this elusive other trail.  Of course, the top was so wind-swept, there really wasn't a trail to follow anyway.  Then we came upon this weird area that felt boggy to walk on, but it wasn't wet.  Very odd to hike upon.  Finally we thought we have to start making our way down, or admit defeat and turn back.  Down it was, through this very dead, dense section of forest that would challenge anything Harry Potter could come across!  Kind of creepy, and we made sure to make LOTS of noise to keep any curious critters at bay.

We started WAAAAAYYYYY up there...

And had to go WAAAAYYYYYY down there!  We continued our descent, finally following what appeared to be an old creek bed, that most likely is a very pretty waterfall during spring run off!  In August however, it was a rocky, bumby, tree-filled obstacle course.  Hence the spruce up my butt - I was walking over a small one when it "popped" out from behind me, causing S. to laugh hysterically.  And many, many tree branches in the face...sometimes it sucks to be tall!  On and on we went.  While we were pretty calm, and tried to laugh a lot, which was easy as J. would whoop or yell or call out at odd intervals, I admit to getting frustrated with how long this was taking.  At least the bears and cougars were entertained, I'm sure!  At one point, the ravine was bearing down on us from either side, and I was thinking (especially after Friday's storm) that a flash-flood would suck!  I swore to the ladies if we ever got out of here, I was kissing the ground!  BUT then we noticed the rocks started getting smaller, and the trees kind of opened up a bit and then there it was....the blessed caron we turned at, oh, so long ago!!!!  I threw my poles and backpack to the ground and planted a big wet one on it!!!  I didn't care what had been on it before (it is in the middle of nature, after all)...I have never been so happy to see a pile of rocks before in my life!

We were way up there...

So our 4-hour hike ended up as yet another adventure, taking 9 (yes, NINE) hours and 5 minutes to hike 19.88km.  Once again, Mr. Garmin died just short of 6 hours, so next time I'm trying him without the heart-rate monitor.  I think that combined with trying to pick up signals in the mountains just drains the old boy.  Just like me!  My legs were seizing up on me the last bit back to the car, so I decided then and there that I was taking Sunday off.  Twelve hours after pulling into the COP lot to meet the ladies, I pulled out to head for home.  Barely made dinner (wasn't even that hungry) of avocado, spinach and carrots tossed with sweet Thai chili sauce, and crashed at 10:23.  Slept pretty soundly too, till about 9 this morning.  Glorious!

Cut the grass, cleaned up some the storm damage, met the ladies (who did go run 35km today...they are my heroes!) for coffee, visit with Mom and a load of laundry.  I do have a rather sick little kitty cat here, so she and I are hopefully going to see Dr. Sean tomorrow (fingers crossed all is well), so I am using an unplanned emergency day.

Later,

What was I thinking?

It's only day 4, and I'm seriously wondering what was I thinking?!  I could barely lift my arms above my head, and I have another class tomorrow.  But I will only get stronger...right?   Right?!?

I have also enlisted the knowledge of Trainer Josh (and Survivor Bootcamp) to guide my nutrition as well.  I'm just stuck and I need a nudge...okay, a solid kick in the ass...in the right direction.  Biggest change up will be no carbs after 3pm.  Bring on the fresh vegs.  It's time to get a little creative!

In keeping with that, here is dinner tonight.  I feel like Jaime, with my big-assed bowl full of salad!  Into my bowl went spinach, fennel, carrots, mushrooms, red pepper, cucumber, tomato, mango and curried chicken strips (hence the mango), all topped with a dressing of 0% Greek yogurt, lime juice, canola oil, cumin, salt and Garam Masala.



Now I have a happy tummy, am sipping some water, catching up on blogs and getting ready to head for bed.  That's my other challenge...getting enough sleep.  I have been good the last two nights, with lights out at 10:30pm.  Sleep hasn't been too bad (darn night sweats) so I am hopeful that this will just become normal, and I won't perk up as usual at 10.  Joys of being a night owl.

Friday all ready.  Wow...  Going hiking on Saturday, and getting in a nice long run on Sunday.  I hope to meet my great-nephew, but he may not be released from the hospital yet.  Poor little dude did not have a great birth day (collapsed a lung!) and is now not feeling well and is in NICU.  Happy thoughts, please, everyone.

Oops...past my bedtime.

Later,

Boot camp

After last night's "train the trainer" night, and tonight's super-duper butt kicking, I thought it would be appropriate to march straight home and sign up for this fun 5 TIMES A WEEK!  Yes, in the next 6 weeks, I will attempt to go to boot camp 30 (THIRTY) times. 

My arms hurt already.

Help me...

whimper,

Tough training

After a lovely lay-in (9am), I got up , did a load of laundry (which involves down & up three flights of stairs per wash and then dry and then unload), caught up on blogs, thought about cutting the grass, took Mom on some errands, hauled the recycling to a bin, swore at the a*holes who think the sofa they dumped by my bin will miraculously disappear, ate a snack, forgot caffeine and remembered far too late (massive headache), but nothing a Starbucks grande iced non-fat latte couldn't cure (okay, I did need to take an Advil too), played with my new phone some more, picked up a docking station for said phone for work and went to boot camp.

There were 3 of us tonight...I was scured for a bit there, as it was me, Josh and a new trainer, Brian.  Um...do I back away slowly and not make eye contact??  Then maybe they won't see me!  But thankfully two more victims campers showed up and we were off to the races.  While the new guy set up (he was running the class tonight, with Josh observing) we ran the big-a%$^d hill and down the stairs.  We met back up in a nice shady area (still warm today...but not as bad as yesterday) and Brian put us through our paces.  Loads of cardio as we ran, ran backwards, sprinted, side shuffled, crab walked and then did some new moves, like basketball jumps (jump up, pretending to throw the ball) and karate kicks.  Add to that monkey jumps (squat down with hands on ground, jump up to arms in the air), tuck jumps (yes, tuck legs way up while jumping...I did lunges), jumping jacks, curls, shoulder presses, lat raises and plenty of core, and you have another great boot camp.  Even Josh, after some ribbing by us, joined in and did a bit of a workout.  It was nice to see him sweat too.  While Brian was good, I still heart trainer Josh, and will only follow him.  Not sure where Brian will end up, but as long as he doesn't bump out my Josh.  I am a creature of habit.

Came home and finished up the rest of the raw veggies of yesterday, made a small Greek salad with cherry tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber, some the oregano we received in last week's veggie basket from the farm, the last of my olives from the Greek Gals (must return to Farmer's market) and some feta cheese, and a piece of salmon I picked up in the frozen section of Walmart.  It was in a baggie that you poach, with spices already in it.  It was Mediterranean and quick nice.  I'm doing my very best to not have any carbs or starches as dinner, as a way to spur my weight loss in the right direction.  Not no carbs totally, as you do need them, but more so at breakfast and lunch, than later in the day.  I also started a calorie counter app on my phone (I am totally getting into this smart phone thing) called FatSecret, which shows a -761 calorie deficit for the day.  A step in the right direction.  Oh, and just so you know I am not starving myself...2077 calories in, 2838 calories out.

Okay...it's 10:08 and time for me to head to bed.  I have managed to average 7 hours a sleep a night, which for me is huge, and I want to keep that up.

Later,