"Have the Audacity to be Remarkable"

Bowl symbolizing my love of cooking good food. GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test) study books symbolizing my goal of entering an MBA program this year. Vision Board symbolizing my health and fitness goals.

Post title taken from an article in Oxygen Magazine, and most recently clipped and taped onto my this year's Vision Board (obscured by my nifty new yellow melamine mixing bowl).

I staged a little photo shoot this morning, after I assembled my Vision Board, to become the picture for my first post of 2011.

Like I said in my previous post, I am a helluva starter. Today already I have cleaned up (and out) my spice cupboard in the kitchen. A little end cabinet that was piled to overflowing with some very old (probably older than my kids!) spices and duplicates of spices (half-empty baggies of ground cinnamon anyone?). Now it is tidy and organized (savoury on top shelf, sweet on lower) and I dumped a lot of stuff that was ancient or contained MSG or too chemical-ly for my liking (like artificial whatever extracts).

Then I made the above Board, out of an old bulletin board that we were not really using. I think this may become a new tradition for me, to create a vision board at the beginning of every new year. It was fun to do, though I hated cutting into my Oxygen magazines to do so. But it was a necessary action.

Then I cleaned the upstairs bathroom and, as usual, I had a revelation. (For some reason, I have my best thoughts when cleaning bathrooms....you'd think that would inspire me to clean more often but....you'd be wrong, unfortunately.)

My revelation was this:

Lately I've been thinking back on the days when I worked part-time and worked out almost every day and I've been saying I to myself that I had more control of my life and time then and would rue that I didn't have that much time and control in the present day.

But this morning's revelation was that I didn't have more control then. This was just a little bit of Mizz D mythology I was telling myself. If anything, I had less. I was at home, broke, with no car, a non-supportive spouse, and toddler and a baby to look after.

I was just making the best of the situation I was in at the time.

As I could do at any time of my life. Including NOW.

This is HUGE. A paradigm-shift of my thinking.

So:

I am going to become audacious this year. Take the limits off of myself and see where I end up. If I could figure out how to get fit back then, I have no excuses for the present day anymore.

No excuses.

Keep me honest please. If you read anything in this blog in the coming year that sounds like an excuse, call me on it!

Thanks,

Mizz D

As the Year Ends...

Christmas Decorations finally hung on Dec 25th. (Yes, those are leftover Halloween decorations you see in the background. I just put away an Easter thingie too, to make room for Christmas. Sigh. I'd like to say its because we celebrate those holidays every day of the year but I think we all know what the truth is!)

...I get reflective at this time of year. Also at the change of seasons, and especially as September draws closer (like an old firehorse who still charges at the sound of the firebell, I get an itch to start school or something...anything...every September).

OK, so I am naturally introspective and reflective....navel gazing, I think it's called at its most negative.

One of my cousins just started reading this blog and her comments about my...ahem...adventures caused me to go through some of my postings to find out what the heck she was talking about. Um, oh yeah....I did do or say those things...

Anyway, what I learned from my review is that I am a helluva starter of things but not so great at finishing (see Photo of the Day, Getting in Shape etc.). (I take some small comfort in the realization that I am not alone in this.)

Christmas Tree - assembled on the 25th, now destined to stay up till Valentine's Day

However, hope springs eternal (for me anyways) and I am ready to start 2011 afresh and with a new strategy.

I even have a mantra for this year and it is:

Peace & Strength

Peace - to ensure I do the things that bring me peace of mind and body, things that I love, that put me in the Zen Zone and make me feel in control of my life (in no particular order of importance):

1. 
   
   Exercise - yes, I am one of the strange and few that actually enjoy exercise.


2. 
   
   Cooking - I love to cook healthy foods.


3. 
   
   Doing good work - at work or at home, I love the satisfaction it brings to me.


4. 
   
   Spending time with family and friends.

Strength - taking care to build and maintain physical and mental strength to get me through the challenges and demands of my life in the year ahead AND to help me attain my goals for this year:

Short Term:

1. Start Graduate School, specifically an MBA program. Which means I have to prepare for, write and get a score of at least 550 on the GMAT exam. And assemble an application! Deadline: May 1, 2011 for a September start.
2. Move house! JD and I would like to be moved over by late spring/early summer 2011. This means decluttering, organizing, packing.

Long Term:

1. Only 1 goal but it's a biggie. LIFESTYLE CHANGE. For the betterment of my health (mental, physical and emotional) and energy levels, I will be focusing on building muscle and stamina through pumping iron and cardio activities. Hopefully, significant weight loss will be a side effect.
   

Let's see where all this takes me.

Peace and strength to you all in 2011!

Now It's My Turn!

Three noon hour walks accomplished!

I can walk down to the Big Grocery Store way down the street, shop a bit, and get back to work in just about an hour, if I walk with real purpose. Adds about 7000 steps to my pedometer, which means I have reached over 12,000 steps on each of my walking days - WOO HOO!!!!

Today I bought some ingredients for making a cauliflower and potato soup this weekend in my slow cooker. Two big and beautiful heads. Also bought some celery, carrots, a kabocha squash, brown arborio type rice, kefir (more about that later)...somehow it escaped my mind that I would have to haul this all on my shoulder on my way back to work. Funny how my selections did not seem very heavy individually when I placed them in my buggy....but man did they add up. I almost bought a 2 kg bag of dried black beans too. For some reason, THAT I could figure out would be too heavy to carry, with all the rest of my loot.

I did manage to bring my haul to my office, though, with only one casualty (besides cutting off the blood supply to my arms). My kefir popped!

Introducing my new addiction:

Kefir is a fermented milk product that is kind of like drinking bubbly yogurt. I love it poured over cereal. Yum Yum.

When you buy kefir the inner seal on the container should be bulging. This is the sign of good kefir. A bad sign for all other foods...but GOOD for kefir. Trust me!

But because of the buildup of gases causing the bulging aluminum inner seal, the container is under pressure. Expecting kefir to duke it out with a bunch of heavy fall veggies in a bag and emerge unscathed is asking for it, I found out. Luckily I only lost a little of the kefir and the bag didn't get soiled, just the packaging on some of the veggies, so all was still good!

And I didn't get any kefir on my new source of inspiration, Tosca Reno - the lovely lady telling me that it's NOW MY TURN on the cover of the magazine. Which is apropos, because I only got turned on to kefir from reading Tosca's book: The Eat Clean Diet Recharged!

Tosca is Canadian, my age (and a fitness model/cover girl!), and just flat out gorgeous and gorgeously healthy and strong-looking. She is also of Dutch background, like me, and has the same educational background: a B. Sc. and a B. Ed.! When I look at her, I see the Me I could be.

I've never bought Oxygen Magazine before, but I have 3 of Tosca's books and am really feeling inspired to Eat Clean and dust off my dumbbells! Sometimes everything just clicks and the next thing you know, you are on a whole new path. I feel that is happening to me now.

When I saw the lovely Tosca beaming and pointing at me at the checkout magazine rack, I knew I had to bring her home for even more inspiration. I think I will make me a new vision board with Ms. Reno front and centre....

Who Needs the Gym....

...When you have a house and yard to look after? See above for this year's mountain range of leaves, raked the curb for the annual pickup by the City. See also bags of cut up branches peeking out from behind the light pole. Just a few this round, adding to the total of about a dozen so far this fall....

However, I do not have leaves to rake and shrubberies (is that a word? Sounds vaguely Monty Python-ish somehow) to cut up every day. Which is too bad really, because I find yard work strangely soothing. Years ago, a good friend gave me a decorative plaque that reads "Find peace in the garden", and I do!

Now that the wedding is behind me, and we are not quite ready to move over to JD's place, I am thinking of taking one another project, specifically Project Me, and about time too! My goal is to be in ready shape, by Spring 2011, to start seriously training for another half-marathon. Which means it's time to get more active and lose me some poundage. Yeah, the poundage I was supposed to lose for the wedding....yep, those pounds are still hanging around and they found a couple of friends too since then....fast food, eating late, and being inactive have taken their inevitable toll on me.

I was eyeing up the gym next door to my work last week as I was percolating the whole Project Me thing, thinking I should rejoin. My husband (I still thrill to use that word!) suggested I start out more simply, by taking walks at lunch. A cheaper option, needs no special equipment, gets me into the fresh air, will clear my mind etc etc. All good things. So I will start there and see where it takes me.

My goal for this week is to get out for a noon hour walk at least 3 times this week. I'm strappin' on the pedometer once again and will aim for 10K steps on those days.