Foiled and Unfoiled

I mentioned I'm at a conference. I optimistically brought my workout clothes AND my swimsuit hoping to squeeze in two workouts. 

Yesterday, after workshops, dinner and more workshops we returned to the hotel around 8:30 p.m.  I was very tired after beginning my morning early, and very much wanted to skip the workout.  However, I did not want to have hauled my workout clothes all the way here for no reason.  With dedication that has been rather fleeting in my life lately, I put on my running clothes and headed down to what was really a pretty swank hotel gym. 

I got there at 8:46 p.m.  The kid working the desk told me as soon as I walked in, "You know, we're like, closing at 9, right?" 

No, sir, I did not.  I would not have put these clothes on if I had known you were closing in fourteen minutes.  I was irritated and turned to leave.  But then I thought, "I already have the clothes on, and some minutes have got to be better than no minutes," especially after I sat in airports, on planes, buses and in meetings all day.

So to make the most of my 14 minutes I did intervals on the treadmill .  I started off with a two minute warm-up, ended with a two-minute walking cool down, and spent the remaining 10 alternating between my typical jog-run and all-out sprints.  Even though it was only 10 minutes and one mile, I was sweating good by the time it was over.  Nothing gets your heart-rate jumping like intervals and a workout always feels good no matter how short.

Today, however, I did not expect to have any time to work out.  Leaving the hotel behind at 7:30 this morning meant I would not work out before checking out (I am SO not a morning person.)  The rest of the day was to be spent in meetings and at the airport.  While I was going to have plenty of time at the airport, I couldn't exactly run sprints in the concourse with my heavy carry-on bag. 

That was until my flight got delayed and delayed until I missed my connecting flight and the airline put me up in the airport Holiday Inn for the night.  After waiting several hours at the airport, I'm now checked in and have access to both a pool AND a gym for the night.  So I'm going to get to workout after all!  I think I'm going to swim laps tonight, since my workout clothes from last night are a little grody and the pool looks like a pretty good size. 

Lemme get off here so I can get to swimmin'!

The Pendalum

Today I have already swung on both sides of the self confidence pendulum and it's only lunch time.

I started the day before the sun came up (or should I say before the rain started). Coming to upstate NY, where it is supposed to snow on Friday, I had to again pull a winter coat out of the closet. The first one I put on, (yes, I have more than one, but the extras are really old. Like high school and college old) I decided was too big. I put on another and headed out the door. I got drenched waiting for the airport shuttle, and by the time I was rushing through the airport, I was beginning to feel like a toddler wearing her Dad's jacket. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good in my smallness and proud of how far I've come.

Two hours later, I'm wedged into a seat on a puddle jumper and suddenly feeling like I've never lost any weight. Disgusted and uncomfortable, I'm suddenly mentally bashing the
same body I was so proud of earlier this morning. I think I got a little spoiled on my recent international flights, which, while not roomy, do at least allow you room to breathe

Anyway, it just struck me as odd, the wide variety of thoughts that run through my head. Of course I would prefer to be entirely self confident and in control of these thoughts, but I'm not sure that will ever happen. At least when having these negative thoughts, I can be assured the pendalumn will always swing back in the other direction. That's how pendulums work.

This subject makes me think of the awesome Superchick song, One and Lonely. Here's a sample lyric. It's a great song.
It's not that I don't know beauty is only skin deep
Just the skin I'm in, not the girl within
But one imperfection takes away my grin


*This blog was all typed on my phone while I wait for the fun to begin here in NY. Please excuse any horrible errors and applaud me for my dedication to you, my wonderful blog readers.

Absence Makes the Heart Fonder?

It's been a few days since I've posted.  What can I say, I guess I'm out of the habit? I just don't have a lot to share about diet and exercise right now. Possibly, because I seem to be making a very determined effort to live a positively unhealthy life right now.  

Last week was one thing. I was tired, and tired is always a bad trigger for me to dive back into old habits.  I let the "I just want to eat what I want to eat" attitude run its course through the weekend and resolved to be better this week. However, Monday came, and I was inexplicably sad.  I'm not sure if it was the weather, or tiredness or thoughts of a friend whose dad had a heart attack the night before. At any rate, I continued to make poor decisions to eat out and snack.  Today I was a bit better, but not much.

I've also been less than diligent in my workouts since I returned from Europe.  Today I actually made it to the gym. It felt unbelievably good, and reminded me why I really do love to workout (I had forgotten this in the last couple of weeks).  I did nine miles on the stationary bike in 35 minutes, which is pretty good for me, and lifted weights.  I love being in the weight room. It makes me feel strong and alive.  

Tomorrow I'm flying to upstate NY for a two-day conference*. I've got my running clothes and even a swim suit packed. I hope to get in at least one solid workout over the two days I'm gone, but two would be better.  

I hope I don't sound mopey.  I'm not.  I've been fully conscious as I have made the decisions to eat poorly and not work out. I have chosen this, I have not been the victim.  However, I do want to start making better decisions and hope that I can get back into my normal routine of making meals, counting calories, recording everything I eat and working out five to six times a week soon.

In the meantime, I officially registered for my triathlon and took my bike (er, my sister's bike that she's letting me borrow) to the shop to get road tires put on.  I'm nervous, but excited about this adventure on May 21!

*Unfortunately, I will not likely be able to blog while I'm gone. I promise to be better next week.

Seemingly Ridiculous

I've written my second guest blog!

I wrote it for my friend Stephanie, who graciously allowed us to stay with her last week in England, about our experience there with her.  She is on a three-year journey to serve teenage children of U.S. military forces on an Air Force base in England, about an hour north of London.

Check it out.

Next week we should be back to our regularly scheduled blog posts about healthy eating, exciting exercise and the ups and downs of weight loss.

Top Three Moments

Top Three Moments
While I had a great time seeing the sights in Europe, the best moments weren't big monuments or tourist attractions, but simple moments with friends.  It was hard to narrow this list down to just three.

3)Shopping at Primark
Primark is a chain clothing store that we found in England. We stumbled into the one in Oxford after Stephanie said she heard they had good deals.  Man, did they ever.  Amie and I both went a little crazy, because everything was so beautiful and so cheap.  Of course, it was all priced in pounds, which means it is not as cheap as it looks (1 pound is approximately $1.60.)  We all split up, and Amie and I would pass each other with a crazy gleam in our eye and shout out where we had found the amazing things we were holding.  Stephanie and Daniel figured out rather quickly that it was best to just wait for us outside the dressing rooms, because we were both in and out of there quite a bit.  I ended up being restrained, though and only bought two scarves and my fabulous British-looking polka dot sunglasses (1 pound). (One of the scarves and the fabulous sunglasses can be seen in the picture at left).



2)The Eiffel Tower at Night
We had been to see the Eiffel Tower during the day, but Amie promised us that it was worth the Metro trip back to see it lit up and "twinkling" (it is lit up with yellowish lights and every hour on the hour it "twinkles.").  It was just a great adventure. We raced out of a restaurant to get there before the hour struck, only to realize it was four minutes to the hour, and we were on the other side of Paris.  We still made haste to the tower, though, and had a lot of laughs while we were waiting around for the twinkles.  I would have to say, they were worth the wait. (However, Amie wanted to wait another hour to see them twinkle again, and Daniel and I had to say no to that.)

1)Samuel Pepys Pub with Stephanie, Amie and Daniel
This was definitely the best evening of the whole trip.  The four of us headed over to the Samuel Pepys Pub, which is directly across the street from Stephanie's house.  It's hard to say what made it such a great time, except that it was a few hours spent in the company of wonderful friends with great, honest conversation. Each night thereafter the three of us travelers would recount our top event from the trip thus far, and this was always number one for me.

Top Three Stick Figure Signs

In both England and Paris, there was a proliferation of stick figure signs. They must have either a large volume of illiterates or foreigners to make it necessary to avoid written language in these messages. The only problem is the message they were trying to get across through the use of these signs was not always clear, which, in a way, defeated their very purpose.  In another way though, it gave us lots of amusement.

Anyway, each time we saw a new one, we would point it out and try to guess what it was saying.  Without further adieu, here are my Top Three Stick Figure Signs.

3) Real meaning: "Danger of Electrocution."

What we thought it meant: "Do the Electric Slide Here, Boogie Woogie Woogie!"

2) Real meaning: "Emergency Exit"
What we thought it meant: "Run Fast Through the Wall!"

This is mainly concerning the red square on the left.
1) Real meaning: "Press for Fire Alarm"
What we thought it meant: "Press button for instant flames!"

I don't know if you find this funny. I got a lot of laughs out of it, personally.

Top Three Harry Potter Sites

Top Three Harry Potter Sites

Stephanie knows nothing about Harry Potter. Daniel and I happen to like Harry Potter a whole lot, but Amie is almost over-the top in her HP love.  Being in England brought us into close proximity to all of the filming locations for the Harry Potter movies.  We visited a few and here are the best::

3) Christ Church College in Oxford provided interior locations for the castle corridors during the first two movies. Also, its still-used dining hall provided inspiration for Hogwarts' own Great Hall (and Winthrop's own McBryde Hall, coincidentally).  It definitely felt like we were in Hogwarts!

Here we climb the stairs to the great hall, just like the first years did in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

2) Divinity School at the Bodleian Library

If you take the tour at the Bodleian Library, your first stop is the former Divinity School lecture hall. It was here that students for hundreds of years defended themselves during exams.  It's also here that scenes were filmed for Hogwarts' infirmary and the dance class taught by McGonagall before the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The ceilings were magnificent. Stephanie got me gazing.

1) The Bodleian Library

Okay, so I already told most of what I know about the Bodleian Library in Monday's post, but it was also used as a backdrop for the Hogwarts library in several Harry Potter movies.  In the first movie, Harry enters the restricted section of the library and stood exactly where we were standing. Alas, no pictures were allowed for the protection of the 500-year-old books.

PS We also went to the millennium bridge, a walking bridge that is destroyed by Death Eaters in the sixth movie and to Platform 9 and 3/4 in King's Cross station, which is where Harry boards the Hogwarts Express each year.  While the bridge was cool, it doesn't really stand out as Harry landmark. Platform 9 and 3/4 would've been pretty exciting if it hadn't been a fake brick wall wedged somewhere off to the side of platform 8.  Here are pics of those.