OMG, exercise totally isn’t that bad!

by Lizz on May 17, 2012

Disclaimer: I never thought I’d be one of those people who looks forward to working out. I’ve read it a thousand times about how people grow to enjoy it. I thought it was BS. It’s not.

So here I am, into week 3 of my #iwillrockthis challenge. I’m trying, sticking to my no-sugar/no-soda diet, and I may have hit a plateau of sorts… I did *awesome* in week 1, losing almost 10 lbs, and then only about 3 in week 2. I can’t see a difference, or feel a difference in how my clothes fit, but I *can* feel it in some other ways; when I put my hands on my hips, it feels a little different, for example. (A bonus slash drawback to my height that that I can gain 13 lbs and it doesn’t show. But it doesn’t show when I lose it either. Sigh.)

I’m not getting frustrated, though! Just working harder.

My duathlon is on Sunday, so I’ve been doing a lot more run/walking and biking in preparation. I’ve found that the soundtrack I train to makes a huge difference in my motivation and willingness to get out there and “just do it.”

My friend Ann Marie’s advice to me (she runs half marathons, so I listen to her about these things) “Turn all of the shoulds into musts.” And what do you know? It totally works! It’s not “I should probably go run.” It’s “I must go run. Now.”

But the playlist doesn’t hurt! :)

Here are some of the tunes that are keeping me moving, and why:

  • Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga: This is absolutely because of #operationglory last summer at Blogher. If you don’t know, it’s the flash mob I participated in, a choreographed dance to this song. I simply cannot sit still when I hear it, and that feeling hasn’t faded in the almost 12 months since the big event.
  • Girlfriend (Remix) by Avril Lavigne feat. Lil Mama: I’m a little embarassed about this one, but complete honesty, right? :) I’m sure I would have loved this song in high school, if Avril hadn’t been in diapers or something when I was in high school… it talks about liking a boy, and thinking that she would be better for him. Remembering that version of me pushes me forward. I’m doing this for her. Plus, super fun to sing/dance along to!
  • Bei Mier bis du Schon by Janis Seigel: One of my favorite tunes from when taught Lindy Hop, the slow buildup of this song is an excellent way to start off! Chills every time I hear this one.
  • 500 Miles by the Proclaimers: Makes me pretend that’s exactly how far I’m capable of going!
  • Dontcha Wish Your Girlfriend was Hot Like Me by the Pussycat Dolls: Because I aspire to be the “me” they’re talking about
  • You Better Run by Pat Benetar: Duh.

So there are some of my favorites! What do you listen to when you’re working out?

I think I’m pretty much ready for Sunday… I just found out the other night that there’s no music allowed on the course, so I’m a little concerned about doing it without my tunes, but in talking to other runners/cyclists, no music is the norm, and the energy of the other participants and people along the way helps fill in the “quiet.”

I also need to hope for no flat tires…. I got one last night, and Jamie had to come rescue me, because it was dark and I couldn’t see anything… I’ve only watched a tire get changed once, so I’m gonna go ahead and hope that it’s a non-issue! :)

I’m really interested to see what my weigh-in is next week… I’m certainly working out more this week than I ever have, so I’m really curious to see if it shows on the scale come Tuesday.

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Thursday #214

by Lizz on May 17, 2012

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Week 19: Office Supplies

by Lizz on May 17, 2012

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Thursday #213

by Lizz on May 11, 2012

Is it just me or does he look like he just got SERIOUSLY busted?

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Listen to Your Mother, or, the Mommy Wars Can Suck It

by Lizz on May 11, 2012

I’m tired of hearing about “The Mommy Wars.” I’m tired of this battle between women that perpetuated on a regular basis by the media (cough cough TIME cough cough) to gain page views and sell magazines. I’m not going to participate, because I think it’s garbage.

Also, there’s no such thing.

I am incredibly blessed to be a part of several communities of women that prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that women can be and are compassionate, loving, supportive human beings, even to each other. I am a part of a fabulous group of women bloggers who are local to me; the support and lifting up I’ve experienced within that group gives me chills. More recently, the #iwillrockthis group, talking each other up, giving support to each other as we all work towards our healthier selves. In short, women are awesome!

Last night, I got to witness yet another amazing community; the cast of Listen to Your Mother, San Francisco.

The show’s concept is simple enough; their tagline is “Giving Mother’s Day a Microphone” A cast of 12 women (OK, in our case it was 11 women and 1 guy) read pieces they’re written about… gasp!… motherhood. The good parts, the bad parts, the funny parts, the sad parts. I haven’t sent my son off to college, lost my mother, dealt with a broken bone, gotten whuppings from my mom’s friends, breastfed or had lesbian grandmas, but still, there’s a common thread in every story, that speaks directly to my heart, as both a person, and definitely as a mom.

It didn’t matter if you were an AP Mama, a corporate badass mom, a stay-at-home-mommy or an empty nester… we were all just mothers, sharing words, tears and laughter. For that hour and a half, it was magic.

I am lucky enough to  count three of the performers among my friends; Nichole, Sherri and Melissa are members of my local blogging group, and incredible women, though each in their very own ways. My heart is bursting with pride for them, and I am honored to have been in the audience last night to support them (and take pictures, of course! :) )

I had a wonderful time, and again, I thank all of the cast members for sharing themselves with all of us. Every single one of you touched me. And thank you.

Here’s to hoping I make it to the stage in 2013!

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#iwillrockthis Week 1 Recap

by Lizz on May 8, 2012

So. I survived my first week of Wendy’s I Will Rock This weight loss challenge!

What have I been doing differently? A few things:

  • Eliminated (within a reasonable limit) all sugars. No bread, cereal, pasta etc. This is one of the hardest for a sugar addict like me, but I also know it’s worth it in the long run. I got through TWO birthday parties with only 1 finger-swipe of frosting and 1 dark chocolate covered strawberry (berries are lower in sugar than a lot of fruits, so I good choice for a splurge! Also, delicious!) I eat a lot of Cobb-type salads with chicken, cukes, blue cheese, bacon…
  • Moving more. Jamie and I started Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred last Wednesday, but I’m already kind of bored and annoyed with it. I’d love to hear suggestions of other videos we could use; bonus points if they’re on Netflix or Hulu! So we did that on Wed and Thurs, took Friday off, worked out Saturday. On Sunday, we went to the Alameda Antiques Faire, which involves several miles of walking, and I wore terrible shoes and ended up with awful blisters on the bottoms of my feet, so no workout on Sunday either. I made up for it yesterday, though, with a 12 mile bike ride after work! My duathalon is only 2 weeks away, so it was about time I got on my bike!
  • Better sleep. Because I eliminated Diet Coke about 2 weeks ago, I only drink water with the occasional iced tea during the day. Coffee in the morning, because I don’t want to subject my friends and family to me without it, but then it’s just water. I’m finding it easier to go to bed by 10pm, and the sleep I’m getting is much better.

So really, that’s all I’m doing. Want the number for week 1? It’s not double digits, but it’s close enough that I’m THRILLED! (Sorry, no specifics! You’ll have to come back in July for those!)

This bridge is about 5.5 miles from my house, and I rode my bike there! AND BACK!

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This is serious business, folks!

by Lizz on May 5, 2012

My (early) Mother’s Day present is a Mommy & Me photoshoot with the fabulous Maria Grace of Momentary Bliss.

The shoot is this afternoon, and I’m completely accessory-challenged, so I need your help!

Max is wearing a blue polo and jeans, and here’s what I’m wearing:

Dress is just barely above the knee, I'm wearing flat sandals (black)

Below are my accessory options, please help me choose!

I know I have some accessory-genius friends out there! What should I wear? I’m running out to Max’s art class (so excited!) at the moment, but will check back soon! Thank you lovelies! XOXO

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Thursday #212

by Lizz on May 3, 2012

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Week 18: Symmetry

by Lizz on May 3, 2012

I see symmetry everywhere in the world… except when I’m looking for it! Is it just me?

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Get to Work! Max’s Construction Birthday Party

by Lizz on May 2, 2012

So despite my best efforts, Max insisted on turning 4 a couple of weeks ago. His actual birthday, being on Tuesday, was a low-key family/local grandparent event at Chili’s (birthday boy’s request) and ice cream at Baskin Robbins.

It was a very Thomas birthday; his entire birthday gift list involved an ever-changing rotation of about a dozen specific train cars.

His party? Dump truck themed, but the gifts? All Thomas the Train ALL. THE. TIME.

I think we managed to get (or requested, so other people got for him) almost his entire list… he came away from this birthday with about 9 new train cars, and we’re rapidly approaching more train than tracks!

I was kind of disappointed that he had to go to day care on his birthday, so we spread his gifts out over the course of the day; we got a selection of Thomas and Cars2 cars, so he got one when he woke up, one in the car on the way to day car, was supposed to get one at lunchtime (She forgot. Sigh.), one when I picked him up, and when we got home, before we went to dinner.

Spreading them out really made the whole day special, since he’s on his own at day care (it’s just him and his daycare provider; no other kids at the moment), and I really wanted him to have a special day, after all of the weeks he had spent counting down!

At the end of the night, because we’re the dorks that we are, we had a mini family photo shoot, complete with free Toys R Us birthday balloon and my crazy fleece monkey pants!

So that was it for the actual day… the party, on the other hand, was a whole ‘nother thing!

He asked for a “dump truck party” several months ago; maybe around Christmas. Here are a bunch of photos… if you want more info, read below!

INVITATIONS:Not much to them, really… one of the shots from his birthday shoot, with the text overlaid. We actually just sent them out via email (I know, I know) to save on paper and postage.

(That's the logo in the bottom right corner)

DECORATIONS: I made a logo for “Max Porter Construction” that we used all over the place; I made stickers (using full-sheet labels and a circle punch) with the logo, and we stuck them all over the place… on the hard hats, the paper cups, turned them into cupcake decorations, gave them to those who wanted them… 3 sheets of labels full of 2″ round stickers goes a looooong way! LOL We used orange, grey and yellow streamers, and put our 500′ roll of CAUTION tape to good use, and we have astonishingly little of it left!

Signage: The front door had a “Welcome to Max Porter Construction World Headquarters! Let’s Get to Work!”, our bedroom, which we’d set aside for breastfeeding mamas/napping infants, had a “Break Room” sign on it. The bathroom was labeled “Port-a-Potty” with a reminder to wash hands. I also created signs for each of the activity stations, and all of the food.

FOOD:The food was standard snacky fare, but we made sure everything had a theme-related name.

  • Wrecking Balls: Meatballs in Teriyaki Sauce
  • Lil’ Bricks: Li’l Smokies Sausages in BBQ sauce
  • Paint Chips & Dip: Ruffles and Onion Dip, served from a plastic paint tray liner and paint tub
  • Tiles & Grout: Hummus and Wheat Thins
  • The Lumberyard: A tray of carrots and celery sticks
  • Keystones: Apple and orange wedges
  • Nuts & Bolts: Bowl of Chex Mix
  • Random bowl of Reeses Pieces because they matched the color scheme
  • Random bowl of chocolate rocks, those little chocolates that look kinda like pea gravel

For the cake, we had Funfetti cupcakes (Max’s request) and I made a chocolate cake which we decorated with a backhoe and more chocolate rocks. For ice cream, we pre-scooped orange sherbet into sugar cones, which were then topped with a graham cracker. Freeze it all together and voila! It’s a safety cone full of ice cream! (Note: letting the ice cream soften and then trying to use a Ziploc bag to pipe the ice cream mush into cones results in a massive, sticky mess. I don’t recommend it!)

ACTIVITIES: I had planned a bunch of specific activities, but ended up letting the kids play with everything however they chose. It was easier for me, and I know they all had a blast!

  • Excavation Station: Basically a tub full of dry rice, with some buried plastic coins and digging implements. We originally had the rice in a shallower under-the-bed depth container, and it was a disaster, so we swapped it to a deeper one and put it on the ground instead of on a table. Worked out great!
  • Build Something: Sheets of styrofoam + golf tees + toy hammers = Preschooler GOLD! Max banged tees into the foam for almost an hour solid, in the morning before the party. My 2.5 year old niece spent almost that long too! Huge success and oddly satisfying to do!
  • Hardhats & Aprons: I’m always a fan of getting kids creating something, so I got these plastic hardhats and had a pile of stickers for them to decorate them with. Letters and happy faces and Disney characters… I cleaned out Max’s sticker stash and he didn’t even notice! I also premade little bows for those who wanted them (mostly the girls) because I found this really cute ribbon that looks like measuring tape. The aprons are plain canvas, from Home Depot for about 70¢ each. We then got the t-shirt transfer paper for dark fabric, and ironed the logo onto them, to cover the HD logo.
  • Chuck the Truck: I’ll get into the story behind him in a minute, but the plan was for the kids to throw these foam hardhats (stress balls) into the squares in the back, in order to get a prize (a construction-themed rubber ducky or a Dollar Store dump truck toy) A lot of them *did* throw the hats into the squares, but with no rhyme or reason, or prizes. Everyone got prizes, everyone played. Win-win.
  • Obstacle Course: We had (again) planned the course out, but it wasn’t really run as expected. No biggie! We had a sawhorse to go under, cones to slalom around, a collection of cardboard boxes to stack and a “road hazard” to jump over. (Read: construction tape strung between 2 cones) The kids pretty much did all of the obstacles, just not in order. Again, they had a blast!

Now the story behind Chuck: Chuck is what started this whole party! Max loves the show and the characters, so he asked for a “dump truck party” I took it upon myself to expand that into “construction.” Around Christmas, Jamie and I were at Fry’s, and spotted this gigantic Chuck the Truck floor display… we knew we’d be moving soon, and that if it was meant to me, it would happen, so we didn’t think anything else of. Fast-forward to the week after we moved. Jamie was at Fry’s again, and asked his buddy who works there if they were going to be taking down the Chuck display soon (couldn’t believe it was still there!) and his answer was, “Actually! It’s coming down today! Did you want it?” So Jamie and I hauled ourselves (and our borrowed pick up truck) to Fry’s to bring home this gigantic (Seriously. It FILLEd the back of a Toyota Tundra!) cardboard dump truck. We kept it HIDDEN from Max from late February until the morning of his party, under a tarp, in the backyard. Impressive, no? :)

So anyway, that’s the story of Max’s Construction birthday party! If you have any questions about anything, please leave me a comment!

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