I was intending to get another post up before today but the season got away from me. Plus, I've been putting most of my energy into recalling 25 things I love about the holidays which seems like a much better use of my time than discussing whether or not I've made strides in my goal.

I'm in Nanaimo waiting for the youngest member of the family to get out of bed before we begin the festivities. In a matter of hours, I will be back in Victoria for dinner with my mom. If you celebrate, a very Merry Christmas to you. If you don't celebrate, happy Sunday!

Back is Back To Good! And FMM

Just checking in for Friend Makin' Monday and to pass on that I have been pain-free in my back for about three days. I haven't even had the occasional soreness-in-that-area which makes me super excited! Dance is back on the agenda for 2012!! With Christmas going ons and what-not, I don't have too much to share. I've been pretty good this holiday season save for Saturday night when my free pouring host kept refilling my glass while I was too busy chatting to notice. I swear I wasn't sticking my wine glass out in front of him on purpose.

If you're new to Friend Makin' Monday, you can find the guidelines here.

FMM: Have you ever?

1. …traveled outside of your home country? If so, where? USA, Mexico, Ireland (lived there), UK (all four countries), France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany (lived there), Switzerland (lived there), Austria, Italy, Cuba, Tanzania (lived there)

2. …performed on stage in front of at least 1,000 people? If so, share some details! Not for over than many people, no. But I do love being on stage.

3. …watched an episode of Jersey Shore? Yes

4. …baked a cake from scratch? If so, what’s your specialty? I prefer baking cakes from scratch, but my specialty is actually pies, not cakes. I've never not had pie crust turn out perfectly, even when I was 14 and didn't have everything so I improvised with whole wheat flour and a metal baking tin. It wasn't until I was older and tasted some less-than-stellar homemade pie crusts that I realised how lucky I am that that was the baking super power I inherited from my mom.

5. …worked in a grocery store? No.

6. …dated someone who was your best friend first? Best friend no, but a few of them were friends first. 7. …made a difference in someone’s life during Christmas? I volunteered at the Food Bank a few times growing up and I adopted a family with two co-workers one year.

8. …been on TV? Yes. It's an episode of COPS my mom won't ever forget ;) Kidding! But I have been on TV.

9. …had cosmetic surgery? No.

10. …learned a second language? If so, what else do you speak? I used to have decent travel French and Spanish and I'm working on getting them back. I achieved fairly high levels of fluency in German and Swahili when I lived in Germany and Tanzania respectively. When I put my mind to it, I can pick up languages fairly quickly. It's the keeping them up so I maintain that level that causes me problems.

Getting Antsy

I've hit that point with my back where I'm pretty much back to normal but every once and a while, I move a certain way and the spot twinges a little. Nothing serious, nothing last, but just enough to remind me that I recently injured it enough to require the heating pad. It's that annoying part of injury recovery: I feel like I should be able to do everything I did before the injury, but I'm terrified I'm going to aggravate it like I did last Sunday.

What's a girl to do?

Well, if you're me, you debate about making a low impact workout plan for this week and then decide 'to heck with it; I'll plan next week because I've got coffee dates with friends from Switzerland this week!' So, instead, you take the longest route possible from Fernwood to Cook St Village and back again. Granted, I broke the walk up with a two hour coffee stop, but that's not the point!

I've been really good about making sure I get out for a walk every day even when my back is sore. I can only think of five days since I hurt it where I didn't get at least 20 minutes in so I'm pretty happy with myself about that. It would have been so easy just to say 'injured, sitting on the couch, thanks' but I didn't. (I may have treated myself to some 'injured, need chocolate, thanks' on one or two occasions, but that's also not the point!)

While I'm still not really to jump back into high impact exercise at the moment, I'm definitely ready to ramp up the intensity of some low to medium impact exercises.

But next week, when I don't have coffee plans with friends from Switzerland.

Time to Celebrate... with Raw Food?

After all my complaining about my back on Monday, it's pretty much recovered. It's still sore but it's sore on the level of where it was before I picked up the bag of garbage so I'm back to being able to shave my legs and feed my cats. I had a fear when I aggravated it that I'd be back to the start in healing but it appears that was not the case. So while I'm not about to go out and dance the samba, I'm very happy that the return to the heating pad was just a blip in the radar!

Still, I'm not going ice skating at lunch today with Lisa and the crew because of my back so it's still boo-urns over all.

In case it hasn't been obviously clear when reading this blog (and if it isn't, you're probably just skimming), I'm a geek. That is part of the reason why I read the Discover magazine blogs. Every once and awhile, the blogs cover topics which clearly have implications for this blog (and any healthy living/weight loss/running/non-science blog out there) such as with today's post, Why Calorie Counts Are Wrong.

Okay, okay. So I 'Fox News'd' the title a bit, but I thought it was an interesting article about how cooking foods often releases nutrients in them that would otherwise be indigestible thereby increasing the calorie count of that food. I'm filing it under "food for thought".

And just to emphasis that I'm a geek: I read that article, wrote down the book title, and then checked to see if my local library had it. ::pushes up nerd glasses:: Because that's the sort of thing one reads over the holiday season.

FML and FMM

We're going to start with a pity party. I went to pick up a rather full garbage bag yesterday, aggravated the injury in my back and woke up in pain every time I moved in bed last night. I scared my cat, Tosio, twice because I involuntarily yelled out from the pain. She was less than impressed! Back injuries really suck. SUCK!

(This would be the part where you throw the ticker tape.)

Much of today's plan includes the couch, the heat pad, pain killers, a couple of crappy movies, and an oh-woe-is-me attitude. Because oh, woe is me. I have cat food all over my kitchen floor because I couldn't bend over to put in in the dish. Oh the upside, I also feel absolutely no obligation to clean it up. I can't bend over and my cats will find it all eventually. It's kind of liberating.

Actually, maybe this whole back thing isn't so bad after all!

On the upside, I've put all my posts about Ireland on a handy dandy travel page over here. There will be a travel guide type post coming shortly but for now, it's all about me.

I haven't taken part in Friend Makin' Monday in a while. If you've done this before, you know the guidelines. If you haven't, you can find them here.

FMM: I am...

1. I am good at… crafting, dancing, cooking, and finding the positive.

2. I am happy when… I'm doing any of the above, or I'm hanging out with my friends, or I'm enjoying a cup of tea. I'm generally a positive, happy person.

3. I am working on… finding a job and a couple of cross-stitch patterns (it's my first time creating a pattern; here's hoping it works).

4. I am interested in… learning as much as I can about a variety of topics from history to science to sports to politics. I crave knowledge.

5. I am always… up for a laugh.

6. I am enjoying… a cup of tea... and getting ready for Christmas.

7. I am in… pain. I'm also in Victoria, BC.

8. I am reading… Ship of Fools by Fintan O'Toole and History of Ireland  by Malachy McCourt (Frank's younger [and funnier]) brother.

9. I am concerned about… a lot, but right now, mostly about my inability to bend over.

10. I am looking forward to… being pain free and Christmas with my family.