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| My bling from the Meredith Hagan Inspiration Run |
- So I think I've figured out a way to blog more frequently. I still have a strong presence on social media. It's mostly on Instagram and Twitter. I post to Instagram about 4x per day. Always a #coffeetime photo, a workout photo, sometimes an outfit photo and a #winetime or #watertime photo. And narratives about what I'm doing throughout the day. Why don't I just cut and paste them into daily blog posts? I'm finding it hard to keep up with all my forms of social media. Maybe this could be of interest to some, or none. Either way, it's a nice life narrative for me to have. So I will give it a try.
- Now to catch you up on the past month. I've been working with a trainer for the past 4 weeks. Best decision I ever made. I mentioned a couple posts back about how I wanted to fight next year in The Fight to End Cancer. I have a sponsor and have filled out the charity fighter application. Now I wait. In the meantime I've started pre-boxing training. Although I have decent leg muscles, I am weak as a kitten everywhere else. Especially my upper body and core. So I'm working with Tony at 5 Star Fitness through Clinio. He's a retired firefighter and a boxer. He's super fit and he kicks my ass every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 6am.
- Besides working with Tony, I also work out on my own every Sunday morning at my own gym. I still run 3x per week but at lower mileage and I do Yoga 2x per week. The goal right now is to get stronger so that I can get through the initial boxer boot camp I have to do once I start boxing training. I've 5 months left till then. I'm going to build up as much muscle as I can in the meantime.
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| My daddy and me... |
- On the 7th of June I ran the Inspiration Run with my gal Tanya. This is my 3rd year (not consecutive) running this event. I ran the 5.6K my first year of running, 10K two summers ago with my running clinic and 5.6K this year. It's a tricky run as it's a trail race. And there are some pretty uneven areas of terrain. It's a fun run though and an amazing event. It's for the Meredith Hagan Foundation and it has some of the best swag and bling out there. And you get wine or beer at the finish line. Nuff said and my motivation right there!
- I spent Father's day with my father-in-law as well as my dad. When I got to my dad's house for dinner, he couldn't raise his arms past his waist. It was painful for him to do anything with his arms. I took him to the doctor the following week and he was diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica. He was prescribed prednisone and within a couple days, he could move normally again. This was scary for me because it was the first time I've seen him struggle so much. And he's lost a lot of weight. So keeping up with doctor's appointments and seeing him regularly for grocery shopping and getting him connected with Meals on Wheels has been busy. It doesn't help that I live so far away. But things are falling into place and I feel less anxious than I have. My oldest brother has also been a huge help. We've teamed up and are caring for my father together.
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| Not too bad for what I need done. My budget was 10K! |
- This past week I was on vacation from work. It was a busy week with my dad, and family stuff. But I also booked a plastic surgery consult. I had been wanting to do this for months and I researched surgeons on line from Durham region to Kitchener. I ended up booking my consult with Dr. Patterson at the Hamilton Plastic Surgery Centre. We chatted about the procedure I wanted done (upper arm lift) and he asked me if there was another area that bothered me. I've some chunky outer thighs so I showed him. He said that if I wanted he could give me some liposuction there to slim them down. It was a pretty positive experience for me because he told me that areas that I felt needed tightening could easily be toned up with all the work I am doing at the gym and will get even tighter once I start boxing training. He told me I was blessed with very good skin elasticity. I thank my birth mother for that.
- My recovery time after the surgery (which can happen on an out-patient basis in his office) is two weeks. And I can run after two weeks. He said no lifting at the gym for 3 weeks. I can totally handle that. I left with the info floating through my head and came home to discuss with my husband. I budgeted $10K for my arm lift. The arm lift and lipo came to under that amount In order for me to book the surgery I'd have to give a $1000 down payment. He also had the date I wanted available. So the next day after much deliberation and thought, I paid my down payment and booked the surgery. I'm getting my arm lift and liposuction done on September 22nd. I'm very excited, This will be the last summer that I hide my arms.
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| Me and my boy at the Chicopee Tube Park in Kitchener. I'm relaxing in a Muskoka chair while I watch him trampoline. |
- My first week of summer vacation is done! Back to work this week. Last week, we did lots of fun family stuff. Mini golf, bowling, bike riding and zip lining. Talk about a rush. I have never zip lined in my life. I never would have in the past and probably couldn't. I think there's a 275 pound weight limit. Anyway, I was always nervous about doing stuff like that. But I'm glad I did. It was an awesome experience and I'll definitely do it again.
- Julien was very scared to do it the first time. So he went down the mini zip line, then joined me on the longer and steeper one. I was proud of him because I could see he was really nervous. He ended up loving it too. We're going to Montreal at the beginning of August. We'll zip line there too.
- On Monday I was supposed to be back to work. Sunday I started feeling sick. My throat was sore and I lacked energy. By the time night rolled around, my tonsils got so swollen and my lymph-nodes so big that it hurt to swallow my own saliva. I went to urgent care early Monday morning and thought I may have had strep throat, Turned out I had an episode of tonsillitis. I was given a prescription and sent home. It's Wednesday now and I almost feel 100% normal again.
- Something I did do while I was sick? I ate a Popsicle. I haven't had one of those babies for years. Four years to be exact. A couple things I took note of; I didn't die when sugar touched my lips and I didn't get an uncontrollable urge to eat all the sugar. It soothed my throat. Which was what I wanted. I felt a bit rebellious eating it. But everything is back to status quo again. Although I felt like a pile of poop for a couple of days, I only dropped one workout day. And it was probably good to rest. I rested on Monday. Prior to that it was the previous Saturday (June 27th) when I last took a rest day.
- So if I do what I say I'm going to do, you should hear from me again tomorrow. Real gripping stuff I promise. I won't be offended at all if you skip over my blog due to my narcissism (selfies) and dull day to day existence. You have been warned :-)
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| In a hospital gown looking all glam... Eating the contraband Popsicle. It wasn't meant to be, 1/4 of it fell... |