Walk two. Ninety-four minutes. It didn’t seem to tire the dog out. I think I managed to go about five kilometres. My hips started to hurt. There were incipient blisters on the bottoms of my feet, but they didn’t fully develop. I don’t think I tired the dog out, and yet I was exhausted afterward. She’s seven and a half pounds; you’d think she’d be the one who was done. There was music this time, but the earbud never wants to stay in my right ear.
I probably shouldn’t have had a cocktail after the walk; that, and dinner, led to watching the Oscars horizontally, which meant sleeping through them and waking up at midnight, wide awake and feeling slightly queasy. Stupid vodka—one isn’t enough and three gets me a bit on the hammered side. I didn’t mean to that; I had chores to do Sunday night.
And then Monday wasn’t much fun, either. Stupid vodka. (Gives bottle a dirty look.)
The dirty look that should be directed to myself, of course.
Stupid diet. Er, lifestyle improvement. I was going along quite well, and suddenly, it’s almost the end of February and I’m up three pounds. What, am I scared to lose weight?
And just because the other human half of the household brings in unhealthy food doesn’t mean I am supposed to eat it. Stupid temptation. Stupid vodka. Stupid me.
Not very happy with myself today, obviously.
But I walked.
Next week: six kilometres?
Sixty-nine days until The Big Walk. We (the dog and I) went for our first Sunday 'training walk'. We managed 3.3 km (approximately, and per Google Maps) and I feel okay. My feet are tired, though. The dog should be well-behaved tonight, though! A tired dog is a happy dog?
And it feels like spring is around the corner. I went out in the back and played with rocks and dirt and raking stuff, still trying to ineptly alter the landscape to suit myself. I'm itching to do a spring clean outside, but it's getting dark now.
It's getting dark now. Only now! The days are really, truly getting longer!
I fell off my better eating plan with a big thump this weekend. Enough that I made myself sick. I must remember how awful I felt when I want to do that again. Up two pounds. But I'm not giving up. I've been feeling so much better about myself, and more energetic, even losing only eight pounds, which is barely a dent in my mass.
Now if only I could make a dent in my to-do list. The weekend is slipping away, and we've played a lot of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii.
Oh, well--it's fun. (And it's impossible to snack or smoke while Wii-ing, so there you go.)
And I can cross "walk" off the list.
I seem to have promised that I would sign up for a 10K walk this late April. Oops. I measured out what 10K from my house is on Google Maps so I would have an idea of what I need to start "training" for. It's rather... daunting.
The dog and I will have to do more than our usual leisurely amble around the block to get me ready for this. (But since I'm actively trying to lose weight, I figured it would give me an excuse to do some serious walking between now and then, and work on increasing the distance.)
And spring is coming. I think. It was not dark when I got home from the office today. Not dark. So we can walk in the evenings, soon.
Good luck, Clover. We're going to need it.
I love imagining my dream house.
It has to have a pool (I'll settle for a boring outdoor rectangle) and a hot tub.
Oh, yes, the library. Built-in bookshelves on all walls, except for where the fireplace is. It can be a gas fireplace, that's fine. A window, a lamp and a chair to go in my library.
A big back garden. Surrounded by trees would be lovely, thanks. (Right now, we back onto a regional park, which is very, very nice. Just walk out of the yard and into the woods...)
I would love a front porch with a rocking chair and I'd sit there in the summer and read books and occasionally rise to freshen my gin and water my potted flowering plants.
A full basement for all the stuff that clutters up the place. I'd have it sorted, labeled and stored properly.
Four bedrooms, or three and a den: master with walk-in closet and nice, light, roomy bathroom. Guest room that we can keep nice at all times. (Maybe we'd actually have company!) A bedroom to use as my study/writing room. And another bedroom or den that can be my husband's sole domain that I would not ever decorate or "tidy". He can leave Coke cans on the coffee table and Popular Mechanics all over the place and have projects in various states of completion and I wouldn't touch anything.
An upstairs and a downstairs. A formal living room and a family room (for TV and stuff) off the kitchen. Neither room has to be huge.
At least two full baths. A powder room on the main and in the basement would be lovely as well.
A fenced portion of the yard so I can open the door and just let the dog out to pee and sniff things to her heart's content.
A rural setting--I like quiet, privacy, woods and dark skies at night.
A fire pit in the backyard! Or an outdoor fireplace. Sitting out in the summer nights with a fire going, conversation, a beverage... bliss!
Better head out and pick up those lottery tickets.
If you consistently overeat, reports Patti Neighmond of NPR.org, you'll trigger changes in your stomach, according to Sasha Stiles, an obesity expert at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. The neurological tissue at the top of the stomach, which signals the brain that the stomach is full, starts to malfunction. "When you overeat time and time again, this electrical conduit pathway gets tired and it doesn't tell your brain that you're full any more," Dr. Stiles said. If you drink lots of icy beverages with your food, the mixed messages to your body only worsen, she adds. "When you drink cold liquids, your stomach will start contracting and it will massage the food that will again quickly leave [the] stomach ..." Your stomach will be empty and you will be hungrier sooner.
-- Globe & Mail Social Studies
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!
Oh, yeah.
Sorry, neighbours--I had to turn the TV up nice and loud.
Because, you know. Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!
My rock wall did not do well over the winter. It has to be fixed, and that’s going to be tricky. I know what did it—the very cold weather we had must have caused expansion and contraction whilst the snow and freezing temperatures gave us our white Christmas. So now I’m niggled by the need to stick rocks against the bare patches and hope it holds.
I have to fix the rock wall so I can continue to put garden debris behind it, so I can start the spring clean up and continue with the slope levelling project and finish creating the second ‘garden area’ behind the rock wall. It’s silly, I know, but I really like playing with rocks and dirt and making changes in the small landscape behind the house. When the slope’s much more level and I don’t feel there’s any more need to keep moving large amounts of rocks and dirt around, I will dig up the current flower bed in the middle of the patio, and move stuff to behind the rock wall and under the trees. I’ve decided the flower bed is ugly and the palms that were taking over also suffered in the winter, so I sawed ‘em off. Now I want to dig everything up, move it, lay a thick sheet of newspapers down as a barrier, and put stones in its place, all level.
I’m thinking it will be more calming to have a bed of stones that match the other beds of stone on either side of the patio, and I can put potted plants there, and change and rearrange, add and subtract as I see fit. Also—less weeding.
The only thing are the wild strawberries in there. They are scattered other places, too, so I shouldn’t completely destroy them all.
Funny how you (well, I) get an idea in my head, then it just grows and grows until I do it. Of course, it would be nice if the other projects were finished first. Oh, well. Such is a garden, a yard—not everything gets done at once, and there’s always something to do.
It’s too cold out to go outside and play all day during the weekends, though, and it’s not light enough when I get home from work.
Still—spring is coming.
