Shedding It

I spent 40 minutes shovelling snow this morning and was nearly late for practice, so that was exciting but not in a good way. My daughter was supposed to have used the car since the snowstorm but had not, and it took me longer than expected to break through the layers of ice and snow. This evening I went out for dinner with horsey friends and saw a couple of people I haven’t seen in ages. It was nice to catch up. I rarely go out for dinner, so this was a real treat. Throughout the day, I have been watching the news out of Qatar and Afghanistan and it is truly exciting. It is the tiniest of first steps in a process that could take years and probably won’t lead to a peace of the kind we would hope for. Still, this first step has many people in Afghanistan celebrating. This picture is from Jalalabad today:

My day started at 5 am, and technically ended at about 8:45 pm when I finally got home, only to discover that both my house keys and the emergency key were inside the house. Spoiler alert - my daughter abandoned her evening plans to come and rescue me. In some ways, today felt like a firecracker day: lots of exciting were happening, my whole team was buzzing with a variety of urgent tasks, others that were important, and a few that were both. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t keep up with the demands and by 7 pm everyone was exhausted. I chased most folks home and stayed to clean up my desk and deal with messages I hadn’t touched all day. I finally escape around 8:45, only to discover that both my house keys and the spare were locked up inside the hous. My daughter eventually rescued me but I have done nothing productive since getting inside. Hence my comment about feeling like a damp squib. I am falling asleep over my keyboard, so it is time for bed. A display of squibs, likely f

I don’t cross-country ski often enough. I also hate taking public transit. Sometimes, in the winter, these two things come together in a way that makes me very happy. I have an excuse to ski to work. Today’s route was along sidewalks that were actually quite well groomed compared to previous years, especially as we were in the middle of a heavy snowfall. I have waxless skis that work well in lousy conditions, so they were perfect today. I may be slow, but I am still faster than public transit.

Until recently, I hadn’t thought I did this. Turns out, it has become a problem. The obvious solution is to have less stress in my life, but that is unlikely to happen in any hurry. So, what can I do to break the cycle of M&Ms snacking at work, and constant nibbbling when I get home? Here’s one list, all sensible but... EAT PROPER MEALS SPREAD YOUR MEALS OVER THE DAY  PLAN WHEN YOU EAT DRINK WATER, LOTS OF IT! REPLACE CANDY FOR FRUIT ASK YOURSELF: AM I ACTUALLY HUNGRY OR JUST BORED? DISTRACT YOURSELF MEASURE WHAT YOU EAT PUT YOUR SNACKS OUT OF REACH DON’T COMPLETELY DENY YOURSELF ANYTHINg Here’s another:  https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/13-tips-to-stop-mindless-eating#section1 I would add my own recommendations: Get enough sleep Go for a walk or or some other exercise you enjoy Have something you really enjoy, then pack it away before you get tempted to have too much more.

Following yesterday’s post about my friend Bess winning a bag, Bess commented to tell me that she had simply written about winning a bag. I didn't write about how some days she “wanted to barf at the idea of the gym.” And how happy she was today, that she “didn’t have to go the damn gym.” I get that. I refuse to do most of the fitness things that are “good for me” and stick with things that I love, in chunks that are manageable for my time/fitness level/attention span. I’m a bit surprised that Bess sometimes struggles, because she is the fittest, most enthusiastic gym rat I know. Sometimes you do have to hard things or things you don’t enjoy: physiotherapy, that really boring training that is essential to some specific goal (distance work or technical drills or whatever that is crucial to success in your sport of choice). Fit Is a Feminist Issue talks about this from time to time. Here is one post I particularly liked about just doing things even if you aren’t very good at them

Now that the holidays are over, I am getting back into my usual routine. Tonight was dance class. I love the repetitive routine of ballet, knowing that every class will start with plies, move through tendues to then other exercises, and finally end with grand battments at the barre. Then we will move to the centre and do a series of exercises that will include ports de bras, some sort of steps and jumps, movements across the floor, and turns. Though the exact exercises will vary each week, those movements and the repeated corrections help us to build strength, flexibility, and - hopefully - some grace and musicality. I have been dancing for a long time now. I started when my daughter was six and she is now 22. I took about three years off after injuring my foot a few years ago, but otherwise have been going weekly for almost 15 years. I have gone from rank beginner to the most advance class offered at my school, tried lyrical and modern, sometimes spent several years at the same leve

 I didn’t think I got them, but today I couldn’t be bothered going to ride Fancy. I sent my daughter instead, since I will be stealing her riding time on Thursday for a lesson. And evening plans for a yoga video collapsed in favour of a long bath. Those events, and a post from my friend Bess got me thinking about keeping up motivation after a couple of months. Today Bess won a gym bag at her local gym after completing a challenge of doing 21 workouts in February. Bess regularly rants about the New Years Resolutioners who show up at her gym at the beginning of January - they don’t know how to use equipment properly, they get in the way, and they are usually gone by this time of the year. I need to get myself moving if I am to achieve 220 workouts in 2020. I can do it. After all, I’m not that far behind my activity goals. I am right on top of getting rid of things every single day. I am working on letting go of stresses and anxieties. And I have blogged for 54 out of 55 days so far t

The trip back from the Bahamas was uncomfortable - rain, wind and high waves meant that neither my daughter nor I got much sleep. This morning, the waves were too high to get into the port safely. We had already been instructed to leave our rooms, so spent an entire day hanging out in a lounge while the pilot tried two more times, while also making contingency plans to go to Fort Lauderdale or even back to the Bahamas. Finally, on the third try, he made it in - it was a bit scary as we rolled quite far and a lot of dishes got broken. I had considered walking around the ship to get some steps in, but my girl wasn’t feeling well so I spent the day seated with her. I did use the time reasonably productively to knit a mitten, catch up on social media, and study German. My takeaway from today is that sometimes there really are blessings in disguise. I had not been happy that the only flight to Ottawa departed at 10 pm, but when our 8:30 am landing didn’t happen until 4:30 (and we had to

Today we left the Bahamas and are now back on our ship heading to Florida. It is cloudy and somewhat rainy, so a good time to go home. Common sense about having to pack wet clothes overrode the temptation for one last swim. Instead, today was more stairs plus some knitting, a nap, and working on my German classes. There is nothing quiet like knitting extra-thick wool mitts (traditional Newfoundland design) in the tropical sun.  My daughter was curled up in a window seat looking out at the Freeport harbour, and looked so pensive that I couldn’t resist taking her picture.

Today was unintentionally quiet. Our morning dolphin tour got cancelled so we scheduled for a sailboat ride and snorkelling on the reef after lunch but the driver never showed up. So the morning was devoted to watching my daughter nap, and part of the afternoon was spent working on my German lessons while she napped some more. Just as I was about to fall asleep myself, she woke up and wanted to go to the beach. I had a pleasant 1600M swim (I think I have mastered my swim watch for outdoor swimming, though lap swimming in a pool remains a work in progress). It was a good day for fish spotting. I identified the blue striped grunts I have seen several times (one stuck with me for quite a while today), saw several banded butterfly fish, some small brownish fish that were likely Spanish grunts, a larger fish that may have been a white margate. Or possibly a surgeonfish, and a very large, long thin fish that I like to think was a barracuda but may have been a shark sucker. I can feel the

Today was brilliant. Sunny, warm, and beautiful turquoise water. I went swimming twice, for a 1700M total - not great, but not shabby since I was also fighting waves and trying to take pictures of fish. For the record, a waterproof phone case is an awesome invention. You don’t need to worry about leaving your phone on the shore while you swim, and occasionally you get a good picture. I tried out my new polarized goggles and I love them as much as love the phone case. I also put in a reasonable amount of walking distance as we puttered around the resort.

Delayed blog as I was unable to post yesterday (wifi on the ship was terrible). The morning was devoted to a sales pitch for a time share. I resisted (it wasn’t hard, really). It may be a great idea for other people, but traveling is one of those things where I am able to travel light and go with the flow - camping, adventure tourism, and moving from place to place to suck up as much of the culture as I can is much more my style than staying for a week at a resort. Then we headed to Palm Beach to catch our cruise ship. Today’s purposeful movement was stairs. My phone says I did 15 flights, but I know there were at least 20 because I didn’t have my phone with me all the time. Our cabin was on deck 7, but we spent a lot of time checking out the amenities on the 9th and 10th decks. I don’t have a photo of the actual ship, but here is a picture of Palm Beach from Deck 10 (second or third time up there).

I’m not a serious step counter, but I do track on my phone which is close enough for me. Today I came very close to 10,000 (over 7 km). My daughter, who was with me the whole time got even more. I also got in a half hour swim at the hotel pool. I would have stayed longer if the water wasn’t so warm, if there hadn’t been a buoy line cutting the pool in half, and if I hadn’t been so hungry. Besides swimming, what did I do? I started out the day at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton Florida, admiring sea turtles, fish and butterflies. It was a nice little centre, with walking trails, an aquarium, a sea turtle rehabilitation and research centre, and a butterfly garden. A young turtle is getting its deep water physiotherapy in the aquarium in preparation for being released back into the wild. A zebra longwing, the Florida state butterfly My daughter doing the traditional arabesque while sightseeing. Apparently it’s a dancer thing. Then I went to Flamingo Gardens, whic

This post is borrowed (with permission) from Nancy Farmer, as swimmer and artist from Somerset in the UK. You can see some of her art Here , but she is also active on Wordpress and Facebook. I did not include any of the pictures of Roger.  This morning I have mostly been drawing naked people. Well, ok just one naked person six times. This is Roger. A fellow artist complained that she kept going off the edge of the paper, I said she just needed to take a bit of care and plan where to place the drawing on the paper at the start. To which she said, slightly aghast 'oh I don't like to plan!' ...see, this is a problem, you can't be fabulously spontaneous without careful planning first, otherwise there is a danger that you will - maybe metaphorically - fall of the edge of your paper. Don't look at me as if 'Plan' is a four-letter word  ;-)””. This may be the most brilliant thing I have read all week. Planning is absolutely essential toalmost ever

Swim practice turned into something of a discussion about cold. One of the women in my club is experimenting with cold showers (I think for her running). She is struggling as she has a hard time with her breathing, even when she is just getting one arm wet. I don’t have this problem at all, aside from disliking cold showers. On the other hand, I struggle to slip into the water. My body is too stiff to sit on the side of the pool and start by betting my feet wet (they get cold really fast). That annoying person who leaps in at the beginning of practice and starts right into the set? That’s me. To be honest, it’s not just because it’s how I like to get wet. It also gets me through at least half a length before anyone else is ready, and I am so slow that I need every advantage I can get! My other cold thing today was a trip to the local pond to test out my bone skates. I spent an hour experimenting, with three friends. It was definitely a different kind of mindful movement.

I avoid stepping on the scales. I also have a tendency to stress eat. It has been a stressful week. Imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scales this morning. They claimed I have lost two pounds. What does this show? It may show that muscle weighs more than fat (I haven’t been getting much exercise this month). It may show that eating chocolate is good for you (I feel like I have been living on M&Ms) this week). Maybe it shows that cutting carbs is a good way to lose weight (I didn’t bother baking bread this week). Or maybe it simply shows that if we eat reasonably sensibly all the time and get some exercise, then normal fluctuations in our weight are part of life. I’m going to go with this one. I’ll admit that it fits with my biases. I’m a big fan of  “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. I also follow Dr. Yoni Freedhof a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, founder of the Bariatric Medical Institute, and author of “The Diet Fix: Why Most Diets Fail and H

It was so cold tonight that my riding lesson got cancelled again, but I still had to drive out to the barn with my daughter to put an extra blanket on Fancy. Fancy seemed pretty happy to see us. It was a fun drive with my daughter, who is full of excitement about her upcoming trip to Florida and the Bahamas. She hasn’t gone anywhere internationally since we went to Cuba years ago. It’s funny what kids focus on - she has figured out all the options for Wifi while on the cruise part of her trip, but had no idea about what plugs and voltage are used in the USA. When I got home, I managed to sell my son’s old snowboard boots, so that’s something out of my house. I may have a line on someone to buy the actual snowboard too. And now I’m wondering if his helmet is still in the basement an I can advertise it as well. I didn’t get time to work on my own snowy project - the bone skates - tonight, but I figured out the lacings so can cut them out tomorrow and I set up a Facebook event f

I fully intended to do some movement tonight. My body is starting to feel the need. Instead, I worked late, then took a taxi home. I worked on my German lessons, my online course on the Tudors, and then had some satisfying time in my basement workshop chopping bones with an axe. It was nothing gruesome, just a new pair of bone skates, like these 12th C examples from the Museum of London. Hitting things with an axe turns out to be very therapeutic. It reminded me of this Post  from Fit is a Feminist Issue. Sometimes, fitness can be about taking care of your brain and your mental health, not just your body. Sometimes, doing that can be just as exhausting as a tough session at the gym. We need to make time for both. I wrote that last sentence three times trying to find a way to do it without using “need” or “should” or “must”. We already have busy, stressful lives; we don’t need more instructions that point out our (self-perceived) failures. How about: it is okay to give ourselv

It’s 9:25 pm. I just got home from work. I bought pizza for my staff because everyone was working late. Again. I need to be out the door tomorrow morning no later than 7:30 am. Part of me wants to do yoga. Most of me just wants to crawl into bed, use the foam roller to stretch out the tight muscles, and try to sleep. The roller won’t do a thing for my neck and jaw (yay work-related tension). On the good side, I am so determined to do something towards my shedding goals that I threw out a cloth napkin and some scraps of fabric that I had been saving for a future (but undetermined) project. In the process, I did discover a nice piece of white fabric that should be the right size to line the top of a little outfit my daughter bought for our upcoming holiday. Image is from an article on managing workplace stress at  Minutes.co .

On the weekend, I made myself a pair of skating poles, using bones left over from a ham that were shaped to points and then pressure fitted onto a pair of sticks. The design is based on descriptions from a Viking-age find in The Netherlands. I was very excited at the prospect of getting out to do some medieval skating for the the first time in years. Then I discovered my bone skates had gone missing. I spent most of Sunday cleaning the house while searching for the skates. I got rid of many things - mostly junk but also a small camping stool. And I now have a clean workbench again. In the end, I couldn’t find the skates. However, tonight as I did a second search in a steamer trunk where I store certain project materials, I discovered a pair of bones so I can make a new pair. That will be tomorrow’s project.

I am a reasonably regular church-goer. I know that isn’t a popular thing anymore, but I like that hour of calm, time for reflection, and occasionally a thought that sticks with me through the week. A few weeks ago, we had a guest preacher, who is a well-known Anglican theologian. She said some things that really resonated - resonated enough that I took notes during the sermon and two weeks later am finally writing them to share. The Anglican faith is built on a balance of scripture, tradition and reason. I like that a lot. In an age of fundamentalist activism, reason matters. The world is good, people are good. Our faith has a positive emphasis, rather than focusing on sin. Our baptismal vows (I don’t remember them although I was baptized as a teen) are that we serve Christ by by serving people, safeguard creation, seek truth an justice, and we are called to transform society. Ah - so we are social justice warriors; I’m good with that. Finally, she quoted Erasmus (my favourite

This has been an “interesting” week in terms of my physical fitness. I had a massage on Thursday to try and work out the soreness in my right leg that has made it painful to touch since August. My therapist says it is getting better but it doesn’t feel that way. Friday I saw the chiropractor and had a better adjustment than I have managed in a while, though my whole right side was very tight. This morning I went swimming for the first time in two weeks. The right knee kept coming close to collapsing as I got ready, and it was sore for part of the swim. In the water, I was definitely using my strong right side more than the left, even though I consciously tried to even things out. The rest of the day was spent on road trips - first to Ogdensburg to pick up a parcel and do some shopping, then to Long Sault to collect a gift of embroidery threads and books, a stop at the grocery store on the way home, out to the barn right after supper (it has been very cold and we were worried that poo

I had fully intended to do yoga tonight, but somehow I managed to spend the whole evening working on my German lessons in Duolingo, and teaching my daughter to make pizza from scratch. I never measure when making my sourdough, so I had to get her comfortable with the concepts of “a bit”, “enough” and “until it feels right”. Then she had to learn the fine art of improvising - the mozzarella had disappeared, and I had just used the last of the sauce for pasta. She settled for old cheddar and some of the sauce scooped out of the pan without too much ground beef (a bit was okay because we were short on pepperoni too). I’m quite pleased with her. After years of avoiding time in the kitchen, this year she is finally making an effort to learn. Yesterday she did up a stir fry, unprompted, and without seeking any assistance.

My son got laid off from his job today. The company he had been working for laid off 500 people. He’ll get enough severance to cover his share of rent for a couple of months, and he says he has some savings. He is confident he will be able to find something fairly soon. I hope so.

I managed mindful movement 24 days out of 31 in January. Some days I did two things, for a total of 28 sessions. As my ballet teacher would say “I don’t hate that”. I got rid of at least one thing every day. One achievement on that front is a renewed determination to get rid of clothes. I don’t have huge amounts of clothes, but I tend to wear things forever. This week, I had to dress like a grown-up three days in a row for meetings with senior officials. I have another such meeting tomorrow. I am finally acknowledging that some of the things I have been holding onto don’t fit very well or are just too elderly for office wear. So out they go. This great image comes from  The Textilepeoples , a site for textile professionals that has. Whole section on sustainability.

I was at the office until 10 pm. I need to be in early again tomorrow. We ordered in pizza (at least it was vegetarian and we planned for only two slices each?). I gave up on trying to do yoga tonight as it is just too late. I am going focus on relaxing and getting a decent night’s sleep.

We had nineteen students in class tonight. One high-school aged man was missing, but we had another man (likely around 40), plus  one who is probably well into his 60s, and sixteen women ranging in age from 17 to 60s. There was a cancer survivor, a goth girl with lots of tattoos, a woman who looks like she does weight training (amazing arms!), some who are true beginners, others who have danced as children or may still be dancing in an arts high school, and a range of body shapes and different styles of dancewear.  It is hard work; it is social; it’s great for the brain as we learn new steps and combinations; it may be my favourite 90 minutes of the week. I only wish I could find an internet photo that begins to show the variety I see in my class. This picture from juliansherman.net came the closest.

I remembered to blog every day but one, so that’s good. I managed dry January except for one drink at an office party before I thought about what I was doing. That was pretty easy for me, so also fairly good. I missed 7 out of 31 days in my efforts at mindful movement. I could have done a bit more if I had walked to work more often, but it is the dead of winter - it was sometimes too cold, and sometimes the sidewalks weren’t clear. All in all, it wasn’t a bad effort, but I think I can improve. I did really well at getting rid of things. I had hoped to get rid of even more, but at least 31 things left my house (one a day). Almost nothing came in. Yay! Despite a crazy work load I did take a little time for me. I finished one course, and am near to finishing two more. I still have one I haven’t even started (we’re starting week four) so I had best get with the program. I got back in the pool an into the ballet studio. I rode my horse. I didn’t do quite as well as I would have li

I went out of town for an event with my Medieval historical club today. It was a nice break. I got to see friends, tried gilding with gold leaf, and ate far too much good food. I also ended my dry January challenge with a very disappointing Okanagan pear cider. It toasted like slightly alcoholic Sprite with only the faintest hint of pear. The moral of the story is: if you are going to drink, make sure it is tasty. I disposed of one book and a couple of Christmas gifts, but acquires two new things so it was - at best - on getting things out of my house.

Or maybe picking it up again?  My beloved old knapsack but the dust this week so I tossed it and grabbed another from my closet. Apparently, it used to be the one I used for cross-country skiing. And apparently it has been a decade since I bought a cross-country ski pass. I love cross-country skiing. It is so easy (not easy to do well, perhaps, but easy to get to  easy to get to trails or the local park). Sadly, I didn’t get enough use to justify the season’s pass so I started pay-as-you-go. Then that dwindled to going to the local park, then just to work on particularly snowy days, and now, almost never. I haven’t yet decided whether I want to get back into going regularly into skiing regularly (available time is an issue) or admit that I am not going to ski anymore and just get rid of the equipment. I will probably keep them. After all, I haven’t yet reconciled myself to getting rid of the downhill skis. I do that even less, and I still dream of getting back on the hill some d