It's not about weight loss, until it is...

Joy here...One year ago at this time I was the fittest I had ever been.  We were nearing the end of 12 months based in Malaysia, and without winter and Seasonal Affective Disorder, I was able to workout consistently year round.  I felt great physically and mentally (and I say so here).

I didn't look too bad either (here I am spring 2014).

We lived in an apartment with floor to ceiling windows over looking the jungle; we were able to see our friends every week; I had access to an amazing gym and trainer around the corner from where I lived; I had a membership at another posh gym for those times when I needed a swim or a treadmill; I did great bike rides at least once a week; a tropical fruit stand was at the end of our road every day; the grocery store knew me by name and would order anything and everything I might want (including gluten free items); and, well, I was happy.

Fast forward 12 months.

We're now just coming out of what seems like the longest winter I've ever experienced. I've not been consistent with my workouts, and I've drank much more, much more regularly throughout the winter than I should have.  I have no access to a gym or trainer, and am hanging onto my running coach by the skin of my teeth.  I'm sure he thinks I'm a loser, because I miss more workouts than I actually hit.

I've said may times on this blog before that I do sport not about weight loss.  For me, sport is about feeling good, being sharp mentally, and overcoming challenges.  Sport is so much more about the mental side than the physical for me.

Looking a little different now, spring 2015.

Or at least that's always been the case.

Now I find myself, for the first time in my life, thinking about the physical more seriously, and thinking about weight loss.

You see, in the nearly 12 months since we've been back in Canada, I've gained about 12Ibs and lost pretty much all my muscle tone.

It's snuck up on me bit by bit, and as I grapple with trying to be consistent with my workouts, I also find myself having to try and lose weight too.

I truly see why the weight loss industry represents a multi-billion dollar business.  It's hard to lose weight, and you feel like crap about yourself, which makes you a perfect target for savvy marketing.

But I reminded myself that I'm supposed to be focusing on the mental side, not the physical side, right?

So mentally, my challenge right now is to overcome negativity and this hole that I've dug myself into and just move forward.  There's no magic to it, and there's no point in beating myself up over backsliding.

As Ottawa's Race Weekend descends upon us this coming weekend, and I'm going to be running a smooshy and out-of-shape 5kms, I just remind myself that you gotta start somewhere.

Here I am with my Mile2Marathon training crew in Ottawa.
Can you spot me?

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

~ Confucius

Over and out,

Joy

Tiptoe through the Tulips

Joy here...Each May the snow has finally melted and it seems as though spring may have arrived in Ottawa, and to celebrate this annual event that no one ever really believes will come Ottawa puts on the Canadian Tulip Festival.

I'm not even kidding.  The great Canadian tulip festival.

It's happening right now.  So happening.

So, of course, being the good little Ottawan (Ottawinian?) that I am (cough, cough...sarcasm), I went out for my run and ran towards the tulips.

And, you know what?  They were actually pretty beautiful.

It is very easy for me to be down on this town.  It's small and parochial.  Its winter makes me want to kill myself and others.  I miss my friends and family.  I miss the vibe and energy of a big city.  And, well, I could keep on going and going with my oft-repeated list of the things about Ottawa that just don't really float my proverbial boat (and you can read my post about Ottawa as a celebration of mediocrity), but what I should say is that when a whole town comes out to enjoy tulips, brings their kids out to look at flowers, drives into the city from the 'burbs on a family outing to celebrate gardens, and generally gets together over the banishment of winter, even my cold and shrivelled anti-Ottawa heart has to find something pretty special in that.

As much as I wished I could diss all those people milling about the spring buds just barely beginning to open and promise so much more than cold winter, I just couldn't find it in myself to do so.

So as I ran, feeling every bit as out of shape as I am these days, I took a moment to stop and smell the tulips. To stop and enjoy the moment, and while my life isn't exactly where I'd like it to be just yet, it's moving in the right direction, and knowing that, I can give myself permission to take a breather amidst the flowers and allow myself a moment to enjoy the present.

The present with tulips.

The present with running.

The present with sunshine.

And, you know what?  That present is pretty darn good, and so as I turned around after frolicking amongst the flowers and headed home for the latter part of my run, I was feeling pretty darn good. These tulips have been gone all winter, but the festival is on, and they're putting on a good show now, and that's all that matters.

Making friends with spring!

Over and out,

Joy

Run stats:
Ran for a total of 38mins for a distance of 6.93kms at a pace of 5:29min/km.

Ever-Elusive Efficient Time Management

Joy here...I've long grappled with feeling like there simply aren't enough hours in the day to get the things done that I need doing.  I have found myself not being able to schedule my workouts in around work, socializing, life, house-work etc., but I've equally found myself unable to fit in errands to get my garden ready in the spring, or find the time to search out, call, meet with, and organize masonry work that needs to be done on our house, or regular maintenance things like that that happen to pop up.

So this week, I turned to a friend in the car, "This inability of mine to fit everything in seems to be a constant problem," I said. "So I know that the problem is mine."  I was being deep and self-reflective, not blaming the world for not being organized according to my timetable, but recognizing I am complicit in how my life unfolds. "I just need," I said, "to figure out how to schedule myself better."  I was feeling already better at discovering that this problem is one of my own making, and the solution merely better time management.

With better time management, I figured, I'd be able to fit in all the obligations that currently seem to overwhelm me.  I'd be able to build a business, lead a team, organize my house, be in shape, socialize with my friends, maintain relationships with my family, balance our overseas obligations, set up healthy meal plans and grocery lists, and continue to write and manage my other "for fun" projects.

Clearly, it was just about being more organized.

As a Type A personality, I can do organized.  Heck, I'm pretty organized as it is, and I can certainly get better.

"Or," this friend said to me, "maybe you could just do less."

My brain officially exploded.

So while I contemplate that option, I hit at least 3 of my planned workouts this week, and I still pretty much think organization might be the key, but Ima gonna think hard on this whole "do less" idea.

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats:
workout #1: Ran for 27:53 for a distance of 5km and a pace of 5:35min/km.
workout #2: Ran for 45:00 for a distance of 8.11km and a pace of 5:33min/km.
workout #3: Did 4 X 1km repeats at 4:45min/km

Have fun, Dammit!

Joy here...Okay, so I barely went cross-country skiing this winter; I've not hit all my run workouts in weeks; I've fallen off the strength training wagon; I barely ride my bike, and I think I've gained weight over the course of this never-ending winter.

But nobody likes a whinger.

whinge

(h)winj/

BRITISHinformal

verb

1. 1.

   complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating way.

   "stop whingeing and get on with it!"

noun

1. 1.

   an act of complaining.

Me last month with the snow bike!

And the truth of the matter is that when I put on that cycling helmet, hop up on a bike, and feel the wind on my face as I pedal my little heart out, I forget everything; every worry, every whinge, and every excuse is whisked away.

That, I think, is why all little children learn to love bike riding.
I was never a bike rider as a kid...so I get to fall in love with it now as an adult, enjoying every moment of it in the fullness of my present self.  I don't take it for granted, and I'm always surprised by just how much I love riding my bike.

We bought a "snow bike" this winter...a big, fat bike with tires that would put a monster truck to shame, and then yesterday the weather was actually nice enough for me to dust off my awesome road bike and head for a ride around the canal for the first time in 8 months!!!

Me after my successful first 1.5 hr bike ride this spring!

So a friend of mine and I got ourselves all set, and headed out onto one of Ottawa's many bike paths.  Neither she nor I feel particularly fit after a long winter with too much booze and not enough sport, but that's not the point.

The point is getting out there under a blue sky in the blustering wind chatting with a friend and moving your body.  You don't have to look at your computer and calculate speed or wattage, you just have to just enjoy yourself.  That's not such a tall order, is it?

And that's exactly what we did.  And in my humble opinion (or IMHO in text-speak), enjoyment on a sunny spring day is as good a start as any I can imagine as I count down to my next race in just under 5 weeks from now.

I may not be fast by then.  I may not be fit by then.  But I will go and I will run, and I will have fun.

Dammit.

Because afterall that is what this is all about!

Over and out,
Joy

Ride Stats:  Went for a 35km bike path ride; it took around 90mins.

Finding My Motivation Ninja!

Joy here...I've written before about being a leader not a follower, and what I mean by that is a comment about motivation.  One might be motivated by the challenge of being passed by a faster bike rider or a faster runner out there, or one might be motivated by staying ahead of someone else.  And by that impersonal, third-person "one," what I really mean to say is that the very personal, first-person "I" struggle with trying to discover what motivates me best.

Because in discovering that motivation, I may well be motivated.

Maybe.

I hope.

As you can guess, I struggle with motivation.  February was a tough month when it comes to workouts, and while March has been better, it's not been a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark success.

But one thing that I've learned that helps with motivation issues is that it's not like I can just sit and wait until motivation magically lands in my lap.  Instead, I have to get out there and run and ride and workout and in so doing, slowly but surely I will build in the motivation to keep doing that.

So even though it's spring and the temperatures are still freezing, I'm going to get out there on our new snow bike and go for a ride.  And tomorrow I'm going to hit my run workout.

And slowly but surely when the weather starts to warm up, I will find that with the arrival of spring and new buds on the green shoots, there will be new buds and green shoots of motivation taking root in my heart.  And then, my friends, I may just emerge out of this winter.

Joy the motivation ninja!

Over and out,

Joy

Keep Moving Forward

Joy here...So I've been a terrible blogger and a terrible sportiste (um, what's the word for sport-doing-person?).  But I'm about to change all of that.

Even though spring is being its bi-polar self, swinging from -10C one day to +10C the next, I'm feeling like the unending cold of February and the attendant funk seems to be lifting.  I'm starting to feel guilty about not getting out there and doing sport throughout February, but March is a new month, a chance to start over, looking forward, not backwards.

Which got me thinking about a great quotation from Martin Luther King Jr.  He once said:

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

And that makes a whole lotta sense to me right now...you have to keep moving forward...

I spent much of 2014 on planes, in cars, and generally travelling back and forth.  I spent more time in other places than in my own home throughout 2014, but hung onto some fitness by the skin of my teeth, but now with the start of 2015, I've been focused on some aspects of business development that have kept me rooted in Ottawa for much longer periods of time than any in recent memory.  This stasis has kept me static...I've been busy and buried under tasks which have taken precedence over sport.  Never a good thing.

But I really do feel like I "have to keep moving forward," forward in life, and since I truly, deeply, honestly believe that sport affects life and success in sport gives dividends in life, if I am not moving forward in sport, there's a good chance that no matter how busy I am and how much I think I'm getting done in the rest of life, I won't really be moving forward.

Soooooo...I just signed up for my first running race of 2015, a 5km race at the end of May...here's to moving forward!

That's me...moving forward!

Just keep moving forward,

Joy

Ups and Downs, and then some more Downs...

Joy here...Okay, so my last post was in October when we got back from a whirlwind trip to Malaysia and I did a 5km running race right upon our return to Ottawa.  Then there's been a bit of radio silence.  My mom used to say:  "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all."  And, well, I guess that sums up the past 5 months or so.  They were/are 5 months of one of the toughest winters I can remember in a loooooooong time.

We had another whirlwind trip to Malaysia planned, but because we were a little behind on our business milestones, we ended up taking no time off and, instead, had our computer programmers move into our Malaysian apartment to work around the clock with us for 6 days.

Working around the clock...not much of a Christmas break!

Then we came back to Canada to find ourselves in the midst of what felt like a very long and hard winter.

Panoramic view of the interior Dome and running track (with me in my pink parka!)

But now it's March and I'm slowly clawing myself out of the winter doldrums.  I've probably gained a bunch of weight (I'm too afraid to step on the scale to confirm it one way or the other), but I've been hitting my Saturday morning workouts at the interior Dome in Ottawa, and I've even done a few little runs outside.  I've gone for one cross country ski and one ice skate this winter; heck, I even went for a ride on a "snow bike."

Me, The Man, and "Fatty," our new snow bike!

I find when in this situation, it's best to think of life in terms of its ups and downs.  There will always be ups and downs, and so long as I keep that perspective and enjoy the ups and survive the downs, it'll all even out in the end.

So here's to evening out...Hey, did someone say let's have an evening out????

Joy