Losing It! An Urban Mom's Weight Loss Blog

Gettin' Sweaty With the Lawn

Summer is here, and our lawnmower just broke. Well, actually, it's been on its last legswheels for several seasons now, but we've been cobbling it back together by hook or by crook (and even -- in my desperation -- by duct tape) for the last two or three summers.

She was a gallant fighter...been in the family for two generations...a loyal servant...

As you can see, her injuries were, finally fatal.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to mow the lawn when the handles are all bendy at the bottom? Pretty tough, I'll tell ya.

Anyway. We have decided to put the old girl to rest, and upgrade (downgrade?) to a new one of these:

By all accounts, they cut quite well and -- biggest selling feature -- they use that best and most renewable of all  energy sources: good ol' human muscle power.

I know, I know, the shine will wear off and we will be tired of generating all the power required to mow our large-ish suburban lawn, but we will always be able to sit back in smugness and assure ourselves that:

a) we are doing a good thing for the planet and our children who will inherit it by using not an ounce of oil, gas, coal or other dirty power to mow the admittedly environmentally unfriendly lawn and,

b) we are getting some exercise doing it!

Wish us luck. 

Wii Too Much Fun!

Yes.

I did it.

I stood in line in the freezing cold rain on Saturday morning for no less than two hours.

Just to get my hands on one of these:

You got it! Sucker for gadgets, right here! It's a funny story, actually, how I came to be standing in line for a video game accessory. See, my little sister has one of these babies, and judging by her enthusiastic praise, I wanted one. Truthfully, I was curious about the Yoga (being an enthusiastic yogini myself) and I wanted to know if I could beat her Wii Fit age of 47 (she's actually 35...but don't tell her I told you!).

So there you have it. A little bit of "my toy" syndrome, a little bit of curiosity, and a little bit of sibling competition, and I wanted that Wii Fit.

I mentioned it to the Hubster, and he was opposed. They cost $89, and he couldn't see any real reason to get one. Until he saw the Toys 'R Us flyer, with the ad for the new "Wii Ski" game. Each Toys 'R Us store was guaranteed a minimum of 20 Wii Fits, and I was duly dispatched to stand in line for ours.

It wasn't all that bad actually; there was a sense of solidarity and camaraderie amongst the first 20 people that Saturday morning. We speculated on how many Wii Fits the store would receive, how they would disburse them fairly, and whether any poor souls were lined up at the mall entrance. We laughed at ourselves for standing out in the rain and cold, but in a conspiratorial "I'm going to get one and the other poor souls who don't know that you have to be here EARLY...hours early are not" kind of way.

In the end, I was the ninth person to get a Wii Fit at that store that morning, and am I ever glad I did.

Honestly. This thing is so much more fun that just the Wii...and that's saying a lot, because the Wii on it's own is pretty damn fun. To give you some idea, the kids and I fight over it regularly, and I've logged over 1 hour of activities on it each day. And they're not just dumb video game activities, either. I am seriously stiff now - especially in my quads, glutes and abs - from the strength training activities, which (in my humble opinion) is where this little board shines.

The best features of this baby?

The Miis. You gotta love this. When you first step on the board, it puts you through a body test, and your Mii is then sized accordingly. I, with my BMI at 27 (embarrassingly overweight), had to witness my Mii grow 3 sizes into this plump little number:

While my kids (whose Miis, at BMIs of 14, look like beanpoles) laughed themselves to tears. And oh yeah, by the way, my Wii Fit age was 47 - just like my sister's!

Trainers: you get to choose between a male or female virtual trainer who coaches you through the Yoga and Strength Training exercises. Who did I choose? The buff guy, of course!



Hubba hubba!

Strength Training: as I said, I think this is the Wii Fit's forte. It really helps you target the muscle groups you're working on in each exercise, with some really cool bio-feedback from the board. For example, when you're doing the lunges, a bar appears on the screen representing the weight you're placing on the leg you're working on: you have to keep your weight within a narrow range, and it really makes you work so much more! And a similar feedback mechanism is at work on all the exercises - doing situps? The board knows when your feet touch back down. Plank? You've got to keep your centre of balance centred in the middle of the board...left to right, front to back. I am honestly more sore now than I usually was after working with a personal trainer at the gym. Really.

Aerobics/Balance Games: You have not lived until you've ski jumped or hoola hooped or (funnest!) taken a step class on the Wii Fit.

All in all? Worth every one of the 120 cold, wet minutes I stood outside the store! Wii too much fun, actually. Go get one. Now.

OUCH! Or How I Got Hit in Banff

So. I'm at Sunshine Village on Sunday, skiing with the Hubster as we have every Sunday for the past ten weeks. Our daughters have been in the Mountain Freeriders program there, having a blast and becoming far better skiers than we could ever have taught them to be. There has been fresh snow, and Bye Bye Bowl is full of it - the wind blows uphill there, and sifts in more snow than what actually falls from the sky, so it really is the place to be if you're looking fresh tracks. Which we are.

It is also steep, expert terrain. But that's cool, I can handle it. In fact, I had handled it - and quite well - several times already. Hubster and I ride up the lift with a pair of young (in their early 20s) guys; one snowboarder and one skier. Hubby and I are raving about how good the snow is over in the bowl, and they obviously listen, because they follow us off the lift and over to the bowl.

Making fast, floating turns, I whip my way down the mountain. Swish, swish, swish, swish. Judging the moment to be right, I cut my last turn short and point my skis straight downhill; Sunshine is full of gullies and flats, and getting out of Bye-Bye bowl requires a burst of speed that only a straight shot can provide. And so I accelerate: piling on the speed and flying like a bat out of hell towards the uphill of the cat track when

WHAM!

He hits me. Right behind me, the guy on the board had been riding my heels the whole way down, spooking me badly enough that I checked up earlier on in the run and nearer to the top. I thought I had shaken him, but either he was in out of his depth and wanted to take my track, or else he was riding the white stuff oblivious of me. Either way, the downhill skier/rider has the right of way (for the obvious reason: no eyes in the backs of heads) and I was definitely downhill.

For what seems like several seconds all I see is white as I slide down, down, down under the blanket of  fresh snow. Then I think, "I have to stop". I turn over, dig in my toes and hands and slowly come to a stop. A hundred yards below me, he apologies. Profusely. Asks if I'm okay. I think I am. Possibly not, but nevertheless I reassure him I am fine. Still, he waits, to be sure. I stand up. My goggles fall off; they're no longer buckled to my helmet. My helmet is askew. Thank GOD I wear a helmet. My mitts are full of snow. My torso is full of snow. My pants are full of snow. I dust myself off and scan uphill for my skis.

Oh. There they are. Way up there. One pole is still strapped to my left hand, the other is unstrapped but seems to be still clutched in my right hand. Slowly, deliberately, like the climbers you see in movies about ascending Everest, I climb up to my skis. Step. Kick. Bury your toe in the snow so you don't slip and lose all the ground you've gained. Panting, I realize I've had the wind knocked out of me. My head is ringing, and I feel very, very groggy. I reach one ski, pick it up, climb a few more steps, and place it down beside its mate. Precariously, I balance on one foot and one pole, using the other pole to clear the packed-on snow from the sole of my boot before stomping my foot into the binding - hopefully without sending it careering off downhill to the bottom of the gully.

SNAP!

Success. One ski on. SNAP! Two skis on. The guy who hit me is still there, waiting to be sure I'm okay. Give him credit: he apologized, he waited to be sure I was okay and could get myself back out of there. Hey, skiing is a sport with a pretty high level of inherent risk, especially when you go about it aggressively, as I was. I accept that it's only a matter of time before all skiers will be in a collision, and I'm just grateful I got out of mine as lightly as I did. It happens. I wave him on, he leaves, I wait for him to clear the cat track. I take a deep breath and tell myself what I told my daughters when they were learning to ride their two-wheelers:

You will fall. It's guaranteed. But you will have to pick yourself back up and get right back on again. It's the only way to get over the fear of falling.

And it is. So I do. And I will live to ski (fast) another weekend.

Check out what's new at Kath's personal blog, This Is Kat.

ouch?

Okay, I know I'm late posting this, but I had to let you know that I did do my workout after all. How was it at home? Meh. Not quite the same as at the gym, most likely because the cardio aspect is lacking. The Hubster and I have toyed on and off with the idea of getting some kind of cardio machine at home, except we can't agree on which kind. I vote treadmill, he wants an elliptical. So...we have nothing, and I wasn't in the mood to run up and down the stairs 20 times, so the workout lacked cardio.

But! The rest got done, and well enough to make me sore! for yoga class on Friday!

I'll tell ya, doing the flow sequence was a new lesson in pain...those inner thigh muscles I just discovered after my first personal training session? They were a-screamin'!

Agley

You know, like the Robert Burns poem? The best laid plans of mice and men gang oft agley...

Well, my plans to get my workout in yesterday morning gang very definitely agley. First off, the Hubster's car had to go into the dealer for repairs, so he had to take my van to work; but he doesn't leave 'til 1pm so no bigs, really, still plenty of time to get to the gym, right? Under normal circumstances, yes. But yesterday was no normal day. I got a call from the Doctor's office asking to speak to my youngest daughter:

"Ahh...she's four-and-a-half, are you sure you want to talk to her?"

They didn't, actually. So they spoke to me. Test results back. Infection. Doctor wants to see her. Bring her here NOW!

I didn't exactly freak out. See, I already knew she had had an infection. Yes, two hads. As in, had, but no longer has. She was in the office two weeks ago Saturday, with a raging fever. Antibiotics were prescribed and taken. Now, 10 days later, I'm getting a call advising me that she has an infection? But anyway, in we went. It's all good.

Okay, home now. It's only 11:00 now. Still enough time (just) to go to the gym.

Ah, yeah. You know I have two kids, right?

I get home from the Doctor's office (it's close to home, so we walked) and there is no sign of the Hubster. Turns out he took a call from the school asking him to please come over and pick up his sick daughter.

Sigh. There go any plans I may have had to hit the gym.

But do not despair! All is not lost! 99% of my workout can be done at home. I have not one but two fit balls! And barbells, and tubing, and a coffee table that works admirably as a bench. I can do this!!!

But I didn't actually do it though. A bunch of things got in my way. Kids. Dishes. Laundry. Phone calls. Before I knew it, it was 9:30 and I couldn't keep my eyes open, never mind change into workout clothes and find my fit ball & tubing.

So tonight, I have to do this workout. 'Cause tomorrow is Yoga, then the weekend is full, and then it'll be time to meet with Shaun (my trainer) again, and I won't have done ANYTHING!

Okay? So this time tomorrow, I should be posting about how sore I am from this afternoon's workout. Right? Yes.

See you then. 

Have Trainer, Will Ache

Ouch! How sore is my butt right now? No wait...don't answer that question...

So, you may have guessed by now (oh, so clever you are) that I had my first session with my awesome personal trainer, Shaun, yesterday.

Today, I cannot stand up from a chair without pushing up with my arms. Like we all did way back when we were about 9.3 months pregnant? One, two, three...HOIST! Yeah. Like that.

Okay, clearly that is not me, nor did I use those barbells (I used 10lbs), but I did do that exercise!

I think the reason might be due in part to the 6,000 vertical feet of skiing I logged at Sunshine Village on Sunday. Then into the gym for a tough workout on Monday and, well...let's just say the one-legged squats in the Smith machine were a wee bit more challenging than they had any right to be.

But that doesn't really explain the full picture of my pain today. I am stiff, sore and tender in the following places:

• triceps (don't be touchin' my elbows!)
• deltoids (even putting on a shirt this morning was painful!)
• glutes (owie! sitting, standing, walking and - worst of all - climbing stairs!)
• quads (words do not exist to explain what has happened to my quads)
• some inner-thigh muscle that I cannot name and in fact did not know existed until it started to hurt this morning!

That about sums up the worst of the lot.

But ya know? I think it's a good thing. I'll be back in the gym for more Wednesday or Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it. Shaun (a girl, fyi) has a way of motivating that is friendly but not slack, either. She's nothing like that nasty lady on The Biggest Loser, but she still manages to make me do just. One. More. Rep. Right when I thought my trembling muscles would give way, I somehow managed to dig deep and find one more. A rep that I wouldn't have bothered to reach for on my own was there for the taking with Shaun at my side.

I think I'll keep her!

Her and her fit balls, and strange things that look like a fit-ball amputated in half that you have to do push-ups on (left), and bars, and tubing, and weights and whatnot. We'll see what we can accomplish together.

And by the way, check out the Discovery Health Programming Highlights (at right). I happened to catch this particular show "Fat Men Can't Hunt" on the weekend and it was freakin' hilarious. The best is this old, toothless Namibian hunter who says, of one of the British women, "she is too fat. We will send her out in the desert to track. That will thin her out." And they did! Listen to me: YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS SHOW!

Catch more Kath over here.