Fitting in the Family Time

Once I finally came back from the I'm not 20 and can't drink like that anymore ledge, I had a good week. Conflicting work schedules have left me running on my own but it hasn't slowed me down. I think that's always my biggest fear when I'm responsible to myself... Myself can be pretty f*&#ing lazy.

I was hoping to work in some swimming this week but after being called into the office pretty much all week, I haven't been able to get out to the lake. It's a catch-22: work = money to play but not the time to play.

*sigh*

I think we can all agree that sometimes being a grown up sucks. Still, there's a few more weeks of outdoor swimming weather left. I know I'll make it out there for a relaxing dip!

I've been trying to incorporate more yoga into my routine mostly to help with flexibility. While I wasn't working, it was easy to wake up at 7:30, do a 30 minute session, and still have my day started by 9:00am. When I have to leave the house at 7:20 to get to the office on time, it's a bit more difficult. As a result, I've only had one session this week. I've only been doing it for three weeks but the lack of it on my third week is already making me a sad panda.

Y U No Yoga? And Y U Mix Memes?

In amongst all the working and running and yoga-ing (totally going to call that a word), I've been enjoying my summer. My stepdad's family is visiting from New York. They're originally from Northern Ireland so we enjoyed a wonderful evening of talking about the GAA, Armagh vs. Tyrone, and how we're all distantly related to each other (short story: my uncle's wife's mother is their father's cousin. Did you follow that?)

Apparently Armagh/Monaghan family trees look something like this.

This weekend, I'm heading up to Nanaimo for more family socializing. I debated bringing my running gear for all of five minutes before deciding against it. My stepmom lives in a very hilly area so my runs always turn into walks. I'll just plan on a longer walk, followed by a cuppa and a round of rummy.

My stepmom and I take our rummy games very, very seriously. There's a good chance at least one of our games will end in blood and gloating.

How dare you go out while I have two aces in my hand!

All in all, the summer has shaped up to be pretty awesome.

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!