steelers

Where Did Half The Year Go? – Journey 8

While I’m at it, where did half the day go? I always open this window up around 8am, thinking that I’m going to go ahead and bust out these notes/comments/random thoughts right quick, only to get blasted with work things the moment both cheeks hit my chair. Oh well, I’m here now and that’s all that counts.

It’s August, y’all! As in half the year is gone. As in half of the baseball season is already over. As in it ain’t gonna be but half a minute before football season gets started. (No shit, HOF game is in 3 days. THREE!!) They say time flies when you get old and when you’re having fun. Perhaps I’m doing a bit of both these days.

Let’s get down to business. (I don’t got no time to play around, what is this? Must be a circus in town, let’s shut the shit down on these clowns. Can I get a witness?) Weekend is gone and it’s time to keep it real. The exercise weekend is really only ever one day. It’s Sunday. I make some sort of effort to not make an effort on Sundays. Does it work? No, not usually. Why not? Because there are places to go, things to see, and my house needs cleaned. And no, Saturday isn’t a rest day either. That is an actual workout day for the program. I then follow it up with teaching two hours of pole dancing because I’m a fucking maniac. Those three hours of work meant I could eat whatever I wanted on Sunday though! (Spoiler alert. I ate all the sweets.)

All that being said, I still managed to come off the weekend without having gained a zillion pounds. Any time that happens (and it’s the moon cycle flow), I’m calling it a win. So yep, the last workout of week two happened on Saturday and I’m back at that shit this morning.

Still having my Shakeology. They say it takes 21 days to build a habit, but in this case, it might be less. Now, in all truth, I almost forgot this morning until hubby reminded me. But I am pretty certain that at some point today, I would have remembered. Like when I turn around at my desk and see the big tracker that’s posted on the wall. Or, when I started to crave it. Yeah, that’s a new craving. The whole point is to knock off cravings for sweets and stuff like that, but I don’t go hard for those in the first place. But now, my body is all, hey, gimme all that superfood shit you put with the fruit. So I do and my belly is happy.

Everything else is on track. Weight is good. Mood is good and actually might be getting better. No cravings (except for the shake). Still with near excess amounts of energy, yes, even after 3+ hours of working out on Saturday. Huh, body might be getting used to getting worked again. It’s just missing the flying part to really know we’re putting in work. But hey, maybe I’ll get to that soon too. Cuz I do miss flying. Even though it costs an arm and a leg here.

It’s already mad late in the day and I still have a ton of things to do. This list never ends and I keep tacking shit on at the end like I ain’t got no damn sense at all. A couple hours to go. Git er done.

Hello, October

It’s Buctober!! Yes, after that 20 season drought, our Pittsburgh Pirates are in the playoffs for the third consecutive season. This is the year. This is the one where we go further. I’m hoping with everything I have that this is the year that we go all the way. I mean, who doesn’t want to see the Batman go out on top? AJ has put it in for us and I hope we can return the favor in this, his last season.

You know that song isn’t only about the Battlin’ Buccos (#theseguys), but it’s also all good for the gridiron gang, the Renegades, the Steelers. Even though our number one guy is holding it down on the sidelines with a bum knee, we still take the field strong tonight against the hated, dirty, filthy Ratbirds of Baltimore. May the good guys prevail.

On to non-sports related items. On Tuesday, I caught up with an old buddy and we went to work out together. Good times! The text messages the next day were pretty hilarious as we realized that we’re a little out of shape and we commiserated on our pained muscles. Yep, we’re sore, but not so sore that we won’t try it again next week. Cuz we’re silly like that. And I need to get out of the house at least once a week to see people besides the one I’m married to. 🙂

In that same vein, more or less, for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been taking two supplements (which I got for free in exchange for an honest review). One is Ashwagandha (say that five times fast) which is sort of a stress reliever/fog clearer, and the other is a joint support formula that has glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM. More for me than for you, so I remember what I want to write in my month-end review, neither produces immediate results, which is typical. I’m a chiropractic regular, so I asked my guy how long it would take before I might feel any effect from the joint combo. He said probably around two weeks and that’s where I am now. First, though, let’s talk about Ashwagandha, going forward known as Ash.

As I come to a close on the second month of my new job, I feel as though the Ash is helping. A new job is always a little stressful and this one is tie-one-on-inspiring. I promise you that three weeks ago, when I made it to 5 o’clock, walking away from my computer was the biggest relief in the world. Walking away was usually accompanied by some sort of relaxing function…like beer. Currently, 5 o’clock rolls around and I’m still happy to be done with my day, but I’m on a different mental level. I’m not feeling like I want to throw shit or punch puppies or bawl my eyes out. Just happy to have finished another day of work. I haven’t been overly upset with anything else either. And I’ve adopted a life’s too short kind of attitude. We’ll see how that all pans out. Go Ash!

Now, for the joints. Maybe you know, maybe you don’t, that I have a small partial tear in the labrum of my left hip. The tear itself doesn’t really cause any pain, but the muscles that tighten up around it trying to do their protection dance are real jerks. And, let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger and yet I keep putting my body through the paces of a younger person. In return, my body does most of this shit but lets me know it isn’t happy by groaning and creaking and sometimes crunching.

The crunching usually happens in the knees whenever I’m going down into or coming up from a squatting position. Has it stopped completely in the last two weeks? No. Has it gotten a little less loud? Yes. Joint point!

My feet. They’re a train wreck. My toes tend to raise up off the ground and I look ridiculous when I walk. Combining stretching, my gua sha tools, and the joint combo looks as though it may make things a little better. My toes almost lay flat on the floor when I put my foot down now. By the end of the bottle, maybe they’ll be normal and I’ll stop putting holes in my fucking sneakers because of my mangle-toes.

Back to those hips. They don’t lie. They also don’t really like me. But, they’re warming up to me as I keep feeding them the joint combo. Notice I said warming up and not opening up because, even though I put in work on them for the month of September, there was only a tiny bit of progress. But hey, I guess I can’t expect magic in 30 days after 30 plus years of abuse.

So, we’ll see what comes of another 2 weeks of this horse pill regimen. Because if I can keep choking these things down, I can do anything! Like stand on my hands. I WILL accomplish this…before I turn 45, lol. Giving myself a little buffer.

Have a great night, folks. Get behind my boys tonight. All of them! #blackandyellow

Ha! Hoo Ha!

Ah yes, the kung fu. This song was number one on the charts somehow when I turned 21. I am NOT that old.

So, hey, September already. Summer is pretty much gone and snowboarding is right around the corner. Someone wanna explain where all that time went? Please?!?!

With August came a new job. First month down and it’s been interesting to say the least. First time working in a true startup. I have so many ideas but I really have to try to dole them out a little at a time. I can be overwhelming. 😀

Now I’m mostly into the swing of things and I’m taking multi-tasking to a whole new level. It’s kinda crazy but fun. And keeping on that multi-tasking idea, I’ve gotten back on my yoga mat. I’ve been pretty disconnected but I’m working my way back. I’m spending this month focusing on the sacral chakra, where creativity and emotions lie. I’m hoping that opening that bad boy up will help with my writing processes along with some other issues that need to be addressed. I’m ready. After doing nothing all of August thanks to injury, it’s time. Cardio with Shaun T every day, yoga every day, handstands every day, or at least attempts at them. Hopefully I’ll come away with something that makes it all click a little better on Saturday’s handstand workshop.

While it’s only September, and the beginning of it at that, can I tell you that I’m getting excited for Christmas? I know, I know. It’s way too early to even be thinking about Christmas and usually, I wouldn’t be. However, since we moved, I now have an absolute shit-ton of space which means I can put up both the tree AND the village this year. Bradford Exchange is not helping my problems by showing me stuff like this:

In case you didn’t know, I just love me some collectibles. And if your decision is to hate on the Steelers, that’s your business, please just move it along. I won’t be using this space to defend myself or whom I support. Anywho, it’s a big Christmas year this year! I still don’t want to deal with presents (and we mostly don’t), but I’mma decorate the shit outta this house.

Other notes of interest, to me at least, include that I should have some more fun photos at the beginning of next month. I swear that one day, I will get better at being in front of the camera. I need to learn to relax out there (I should probably just have a beer first) and try to enjoy myself…and stop looking at the photographer. Photogs around the world likely just can’t stand working with people like me, lol. Totally uncomfortable, face-making, no pose having, only look good when I’m guffawing with a totally open mouth people. That’s me.

You’d think that I’d have more to talk about, but no. So with that, I wish you a great day. It’s hump day after all, Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike. Peace!

Sailing, Slipping, and Steelers

Last we met our hero, she was braving the Florida humidity and dining in God’s waiting room. Now, she rides upon the largest cruise ship in the world, braving 8-13 foot swells and 40-50 knot winds. Being of superhero lineage, her stomach is bothered not by the rocking of the ship, although she is prone to the swaying back and forth like a drunk when the ship, she doeth rock.

Strong in so many manners, our hero does have her kryptonite. For her, the only thing to take her down is a set of wet stairs and a wave hitting the ship. In naught but the most graceful manner possible, she releases her footing and places her spine ever so gently at a 90 degree angle with the edge of the stair while she selects another stair edge, lower by 3, to use the edge to massage her left glute. Well, she thinks, while I’m down here I might as well just slide down to the bottom! Huzzah! But, in true fashion, she is up quick as a bunny. A bunny with a wet cottontail. Fortunately, it’s been too windy and rainy for our hero to publicly don any bikini tops and show off her thin, red line of a bruise from the Battle of Wet Stair.

Ok, ok, enough. It takes too much thinking to write that badly. And I am on vacation, after all. So yeah, I fell down some stairs. It sucked. I’m alive and surprisingly not in any pain as long as I don’t touch the bruised spot. Whatevs. To do some of the things that I do (fabric, trapeze, pole, snowboarding), I am seriously clumsy.

This ship is huge. It’s ridiculous. I don’t really feel like we’ll get to really enjoy it for another couple days when the weather will clear up. I’ll report back then. Pretty crazy how easy it is to blow money here. Or for my mom, how easy it is to win some. First day of bingo, she wins $400. Unreal. I, on the other hand, have not won at bingo in probably 10 years, possibly more. Penny slots are more my style.

Ohh, so our first stop was supposed to be Nassau, but because of the high winds and rough seas, they closed the port. We weren’t planning on getting off there, but it was certainly confusing to not be anywhere near where you’re supposed to be when you wake up in the morning. Sounds like it was a great party night.

There are Steelers fans and Pittsburgh folk on the ship. I wore a Steelers shirt today and was saluted with a yell of “Steelers!” several times with one guy following it up with “Super Bowl!”. I said let’s not rush anything. There was a family from the South Hills that stopped me to chat while we were getting ice cream. There were lots of Manning jerseys on Sunday too. And lots of sad faces on Monday.

It’s formal night. I have to go get cleaned up. I will probably take some pictures at some point.

Making Progress

Another week has flown on by. As much as I dislike admitting it, time really does start to go faster the older you get. With nearly three quarters of 2013 gone (ok, more like 7/12), I can only wonder where the heck the year went. I do feel as though I’ve learned some things so far this year, though, and that there’s still more to take in before the year closes.

Something I never would have thought was possible seems to be happening. I’m staying fit simply by doing yoga three times a week. Or, at least, that’s all I’m doing in the gym. I laid off the cardio machines (and my hip thanks me), and I stay away from the weights. We’ll see if it continues to work out this way as I’m only basing this on about a month’s worth of yoga. But here’s hoping.

I’m also learning that it isn’t necessary for me to go balls to the wall 100% of the time and everything doesn’t have to be all or nothing. So maybe it’s taken nearly 40 years, but I’m finally getting to a point of being ok with just doing what I can. Can’t expect others to accept me as I am if I can’t accept myself. I’m a work in progress.

Meditating has positive consequences. Maybe not the first time, maybe not even the second or third, but if you stick to it and really give it the attention it needs, it works.

Sidebar: As I write this, I am sitting in my back yard, enjoying the sounds of the wind in the trees and taking in all the green. Unfortunately, one of our back neighbors is also at home. He is in a band. He plays the guitar– which I can handle. He is also singing. I am fairly certain that he does not sing in the band as he is more than a little off key. If he is singing in the band, well, it’s not a great wonder that they’re still playing locally.

With the guidance of my yoga instructor, Lexi, I’ve been working on unblocking/clearing my heart chakra as I’ve mentioned. Yesterday, I tried a different method that she mentioned and not only did I feel an emotional weight lift, there was a physical aspect as well. Later in the day after my meditation, I started to feel slightly congested, or moreso as though I was at the end of congestion. It was really neat to me to have this happen – the physical unblocking – although at the time I did wonder if I was just getting sick. The body is a really wild tool that we possess.

In non-body related news, I’m very much looking forward to this weekend. We’re taking a staycation down in Denver tomorrow night, complete with dinner out (likely at Edge because we love that place), a hotel stay, and Pirates baseball on Sunday afternoon. I’ll be that annoying girl with the huge Jolly Roger raising it as the Buccos take out the Rockies, hopefully in a sweep. Let the games begin…baseball AND football. Black and yellow till I die!

steelers

Where Did Half The Year Go? – Journey 8

Hello, October

Ha! Hoo Ha!

Sailing, Slipping, and Steelers

Making Progress

You Missed

Nothing To See Here

Too Damn Slow

Ghosts (of Days Gone By)

Raunchy Activated