Matoto's Ten Day Event

For those of you who don't follow both my blogs, I am on the (volunteer) Board of Directors for a Victoria-based non-profit called Matoto Multicultural Arts Society. On Monday, we started our Ten Day Event to try and raise $10,000. We are almost done building the school in Kubian, Guinea that we started last year and now we need to fill it with chalkboards, desks and teachers. I have linked to our Ten Day Event on the left hand side (that over sized button that you can't miss) and you can read a more indepth post about it here. I am on the Team Moondance if you want to donate directly to a team, but you can also donate just to the event in general.

From myself, the members of Matoto, and from the villagers of Kubian: i nu wali. Thank you.

And So It Begins!

The work Biggest Loser starts tomorrow. We decided we didn't really want to put "Biggest Loser" (or BL) on our work calendars so we had a coffee meeting on Tuesday to think of other possibilities. You are looking at a proud participant of the OHS Committee. Nope. That's not Occupational Health and Safety, although we do have one of those, it's Operation Hot and Sexy! Really looking forward to these upcoming OHS meetings!

Here's hoping eight weeks from now, I walk away a few pounds lighter and a few bills heavier!

Hello Blog!

I had a good chat with a friend on Wednesday who's also done the whole 'get healthy/fit' thing and when talking about my knee, she casually asked "have you thought about swimming?" You know that moment when you visualize a little animated character walking over and kicking an animated brain? Just me? Okay then... well, even if I am the only person who visualizes that, I totally had that moment. Swimming. Such a simple solution minus needing a pool and having to actually wear my bathing suit.

The pool part isn't so hard--I just need to pull up my big girl panties and pay for it--but I have a love hate/relationship with bathing suits. It's not even the 'big girl tiny fabric' issue they always like to play up in magazines and books. In fact if I could walk around in my bathing suit all day, I probably would. It's an awesome cut/design which totally holds the "girls" in place and easily makes me look 10 to 15 lbs lighter than I am. My problem is getting out of a wet bathing suit. Even when I was in shape, I hated that part of swimming. I don't like the feel of pulling it off. *sigh*

Big girl panties.

Being a f*ing adult.

Right.

As soon as this weekend is over, I'm looking into a monthly membership to a pool so I can keep up cardio while my knee figures out how not to hurt all the time.

I've also joined a Bigger Loser friendly competition at work. The winner is guaranteed at least $80 (more if people miss weigh-ins and/or gain) and I know two women in the group that are awesome. The three of us together tend to be a gong show even when we're sober so if nothing else, I'll get a great ab workout while we laugh at the weigh-ins. We officially start April 1st and go for 8 weeks but we decided to have a group coffee date on Monday to sort out the details, like why can't I wear my winter jacket and ski boots for the first weigh in and then my bathing suit for the last one?

I was a little hesitant about doing this with coworkers but then I realised that being in the same building will make it that much easier to sabotage their efforts by sprinkling weight gain powder on their lunches.

Good night, folks!

Dear Knee

You kinda suck right now. Sorry, I meant you really suck. I can't run. I can't do lunges or squats. I even have problems walking some days and you don't seem to be getting better. I wear the brace as much as I can without going crazy but it limits my mobility and makes stairs a real pain in the butt. Plus it starts to itch if I wear it for too long.

I'm too young to need new body parts.

I'm Not Going to Lie to You, Marge...

...I've been a little bummed lately and that's why I haven't been posting. I keep thinking my knee is getting better and then I have to squat down for some reason at work and a sharp pain notifies me that it's either not better or that I just re-aggravated it. I'm pissy and upset and frustrated by it all. I've had to accept the fact that my 10K time goal is not doable for the TC10K in the amount of time I have left even if *snap* I was better tomorrow and could start properly training. Instead, I'm going to look for other 10Ks on the island or in the Lower Mainland in the late summer or fall so I can give my knee time to heal without feeling the added time pressure.

In the mean time, I've finally broken down and accepted that I obviously need a knee brace. It makes me feel old when I wear it but if it helps, I guess I'll keep my complaints to myself.

Apparently the World Is Flat...

...and I dropped off the edge of it.

I am still alive, I've just been pissy and upset about not being able to work out so anything I wrote for this blog just became an angry rant (which can be a very fun time but not this time). Happily, I went for a run last night. Perhaps 'slow dragging of my barely breathing carcass' would be a better description than 'run', but I did it and I didn't die. More importantly, my knee didn't give out on me.

There's hope yet!