Thoughts and Fabulous Friday

Thoughts for a Thursday

Thursday escaped me. It was hubby's birthday and I was in planning and executing mode all day. The best way I could imagine spending my birthday is by taking in a variety of events and places that I would really enjoy.  So once the little one was settled with his Nana, I took my sweetie on a surprise journey. He wouldn't wear the sleep mask I provided but he did agree to close his eyes.

First stop was the movies. He has been begging me to see Tangled in 3D. Well it is his birthday, so to Tangled we went. It was very funny and the best part of the movie was hearing all the little ones laughing and talking to the screen. Can't wait until my little one is old enough to enjoy it.

Step two was dinner. The wait list was so long for our favorite sushi place that we ordered take out instead and ate it in the car. Then off to the next surprise. Tim has mentioned that he would love to see stand up comedy so off we went. Really good show and we laughed our butts off.

Last stop on the birthday agenda was the casino. My man loves to play and he was so happy when he opened his eyes to see all the tables and slots. He even walked away with extra money!

What would be your best birthday excursion?

The bad part of yesterday was learning that my Resolution Run partner has been afflicted with pink eye. Eeeep! Noooo! The only thing getting me though the thought of doing the 5K in -13 degree weather was the company of a good friend. Feel better Pauline! Any other good friends out there want to join me instead? Truth be told I'll be speed walking the sucker. Anyone?


Fabulous Friday

Considering that I will be decked out in my favorite winter running gear, I wanted to share this item.

When the weather gets colder my poor little (ahem!) tush gets cold. This boy short from Eddie Bauer helps keep my cheeks warm. 

Back in early December I attended an artisan's craft fair in Calgary. I fell in love with this hat from Lillie and Cohoe call Victor. (I'll add a pic of me in it tomorrow.) It is the best hat EVER because I can wear my hair in a ponytail and still look stylish!

The first blog I started to follow is called Mon Petit Amour. It is a wonderful resource as a new mom and it is Canadian which is a real bonus.

Favorite book of the year is Getting the Pretty Back by Molly Ringwald.

This book is a wonderful jump start to getting yourself back after becoming a new mom. I was inspired to write my blog because of her book.

Last but not least my favorite website of the year has been Ravelry. What a wonderful resource for knitters and crocheters. Have ball of wool you don't know what to do with? Look up the wool and then refer to the number patterns or projects that suit it. Love, love, love this website!

That's it for this Friday's round up. Have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve and I wish you all the best for 2011!

Reveal time!

Good Morning!

Did I ever feel like a princess yesterday. I had a wonderful time with Kelli from Soul Reflection. If anyone has ever toyed with the idea of hiring a consultant I say take the plunge! Think of it as an investment that will save you time and money because I will never shop the same again. I know what works for my body and how to dress it.

The things I learned:

1. Even when I lose weight my body type will remain true. Whew! What a relief! FYI - I am an hourglass shape.
2. The necklines that work best for me, where my sweaters and tops should end, where my jackets should fall.
3. That I knew some of the styles that looked good on me, but needed the expertise from Kelli to fill in the missing pieces.
4. I had clothes in my closet that I wasn't wearing, that I should be.
5. The colours that work best for me.

The biggest surprise? That deep hunter green and roasted pumpkin look good on me. But to save these colours for accessories up around my face.

The no brainer? - Almost all of my sweaters are too short, I am in desperate need of a pair of boots, belts, a blazer, pants/jeans, and better everyday shoes.

The coolest thing? - I am in love with Kelli's colour selection system. They look like painter chip fans that you can get at Benjamin Moore, except that all the colours are fabric swatches. It was amazing to see all of the colour possibilities which Kelli narrowed down by placing each one against my face. Once she had a smaller pile, she went through those selections again and kept only the very best. I ended up with about 15 colours that work for me. The best part?? I can custom order my own set of colour swatches that contain just the colours that Kelli selected. I saw the one Kelli has for herself and it's amazing! Imagine, you're out shopping and you see a top that you love. Is it the right colour for you? Well, pull out your colour swatches and see if it matches. Can you see the possibilities?? Never buying the wrong coloured clothes again! Whoo hoo!

I am ordering one. They are an extra cost but I'm thinking of the money I'll save by not buying the wrong thing. I also see a shopping trip in my future and I look forward to working with Kelli again.


Part two of my princess day was my appointment at Coca Blitz. Thank goodness for Julie-Ann the owner. She sat me down, had a look at my hair and said, "That hair colour is doing you no favours, it's pretty mousy." I love honest professionals! So I splurged for a soy based colour that will gently rinse out of my hair and not leave roots. If you have naturally curly hair you have got to go to Julie-Ann. She knows what she is doing and I finally have a new hair stylist! 403-264-2111.


So, this was me on Monday.

This is me today!

What do you think? Mission accomplished?



It's Makeover Time!

I am soooooo excited! Today I am meeting with Kelli Harker from Soul Reflection image consultation. Yay! Finally, somebody who knows what they're talking about will help me toss the clothes that have no business being in my closet (or on my body). They say the average person wears 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. Well I think I'm wearing 5% of my clothes 100% of the time. My poor closet is a mismash of pre-maternity, maternity, office, and performing clothes.

Once upon a time, when I used to sing professionally, I had a reason to dress up in slinky clothes and sparkly jewellry. This was me then.

Now, this is me on an average day.

Yup, sporting the perpetual ponytail, t-shirt and jeans. Sigh!


I am hoping that Kelli can help me find a middle ground between haus frau and femme fatale. After that I am off to the hairdressers for a consultalion, cut, highlights, and style. I am hoping that Kelli can suggest a style that might work for the new me.

I'll post the reveal photos tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

Monday's Motivation

Good Morning All!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and didn't do too much damage to the credit card yesterday. Christmas here was wonderful and I am so happy to have my mom visiting. Last week I joked about how much weight I might lose with a stomach flu. Not smart! I should know better by now not to tempt fate. My Christmas dinner was applesauce with brown rice crispies. Yum! I am finally feeling better, but now my hubby is praying to the porcelain gods. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that the baby doesn't catch it!

My motivation this week is simple. I had better walk every day this week because I am signed up for the Running Room's Resolution Run on Friday. I have always liked the saying, "Start as you mean to go on", and what better way to start the New Year? So my friend Pauline and I will be tackling 5K on New Year's Eve, dressed up in our warmest gear.

What would you do on New Year's Eve to start the year as you mean to go?

Thoughts for a Thursday

I was watching my little man in his jolly jumper this morning when it dawned on me that my five month old gets more daily physical activity than I do. Seriously, you should see him bouncing like a crazy man, sometimes he even does a double bounce, for up to 45 minutes, three times a day.

This is a sobering thought. My five month works out more than I do. Did I mention that I wanted to lose weight to keep up with my son? Yeah, well, he's already outdoing me and he doesn't even crawl yet! But, if there was such a thing as a jolly jumper for grown ups, I'd be in like Flynn.

I was curious to see how many calories a full grown adult would burn using a jolly jumper. Of course this doesn't exist so the closest thing I could find was a trampoline. I used this website, entered my weight, selected my activity and came up with 317 calories for one hour.  Burn that amount three times a day and we're talking some pretty good results. Hmm.... I wonder if it's too late to add a mini trampoline to my Christmas wish list.

Mid Week Check In

Wednesday has arrived. Middle of the week, the home stretch to the weekend, hump day. Wednesday is my day to check in and talk about my week. The good, bad and ugly.

So far I have had zero walks. Yup a great big goose egg. However, I have a social event tonight that I can walk to. Yay! Also, I had the chance to weigh myself today. Low and behold I am 190.4 lbs with a cardigan and jeans on. Huh! I was sure I was closer to 200. Yes I know I wrote 190, but who doesn't low ball their weight by 10 pounds.

Thanks to Sylvia and Carole for their water suggestions. Coincidentally all I could drink yesterday was water because I was inflicted with a mild case of food poisoning. Ugh! Maybe that helped with today's weight! This reminds me of the film "The Devil Wears Prada" where the first assistant comments that she is one stomach flu away from her goal weight.

A positive thought is that I am 11 pounds away from the weight I was before I got pregnant! Hmmmm... I wonder how much weight a person can lose from a stomach flu? Kidding!!!

My Personal Health To Do List

On my journey to becoming fit and fabulous I realized that there are a variety of  personal health habits that I should adopt. Number one on my list is drink more water.

Sigh...

Why oh why is it so hard to accomplish this task? There have been times that I have diligently gotten my two litres per day for months at a time. These days I struggle drinking one glass per day. When I was working it was easy to put three water bottles on my desk to monitor my daily consumption. I was there eight hours of the day and by the end of the day they'd be gone. Easy peasy! Now I am lucky to remember where I put my darn glass and that I even had a glass to start with.

I know intellectually how good water is for your health and how it contributes to weight loss. Physically I just cannot get the stuff down. According to a recent magazine article I read, the ideal amount of water a person should drink is 15 mL (1/2 oz) per pound of body weight. I'm not sure exactly how much I weigh, but a ballpark guess would be about 190lbs. Therefore I should be drinking 2.85 litres of water per day.

Yikes!

How do you manage to get your water everyday? Any tips?

Monday's Motivation

Last week I picked up the January issue of O Magazine. One article on the cover is, "Weight Loss Made Simple - The Only Tip You'll Ever Need". Sounded pretty good to me so I bought it, brought it home and flipped to page 126. The article is all about motivation and finding one really good reason to exercise to stay motivated.

Step number one is to pick a reason to exercise from a list of ten possible reasons. I chose #2 - I want to lose weight and keep it off. I also like #3 - I want to look better. That one is a no brainer. Who doesn't want to look better?

Step number two is to scrap the excuses. My biggest excuse is the time factor. I have a five month old. He is my boss and I am his lowly personal assistant. Not really, but some days it sure feels that way. I'm lucky to get one thing accomplished per day. My other excuse is it's damn cold outside and I hate treadmills. I know, picky picky! My last excuse is I don't like working out alone, it's too easy to blow off exercising.

Step 3 is to set your goals.

1) What is my exercise goal? - Starting small would be getting out on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday for a thirty minute brisk walk. The goal after that is to join a Learn to Run program with the Running Room in January.

2) What's the most positive outcome of achieving this goal?  - Feeling healthy and fit again. Being able to keep up with my son once he starts to get mobile.

3) What's the main obstacle getting in the way? - Timing my walks to coincide with my son's nap schedule.

4) How can I overcome this obstacle? - For now, my mum is visiting so I can head out by myself. For later, I have babysitting set up for when I need it.

5) How should I achieve my goal? (Focus on the where & when) - I will walk around my neighborhood at 12:30 when my little one naps.

There! Now let's see if I can pull this off.

Show & Tell Saturday

I miss show and tell days from elementary school, so every Saturday I'll be sharing pics or stories of my latest crafty project. Being creative makes me feel fabulous so I try to indulge whenever I have the chance.

I used to work in a craft store in my early twenties. Every two weeks I probably gave more than half of my paycheck back to my employers. You name it I dabbled in it. Stamping - yup, sewing - you bet, silk and dried flower arranging - oh yeah. Cross stitch, jewellery making, ceramic painting - the list goes on and on. When I moved on to another job I declared myself a craftaholic and admitted that I had a problem. You know the drill, "Hello, my name is Katrein and I am a recovering craftaholic."

I have purged my crafting stash many times and now I TRY to limit myself to knitting, baby sewing projects, and home decor. Thanks to the lovely ladies in my local knitting group, I have just recently purged all of my cross stitch stash. Having a baby gave me the motivation to focus. Actually, my free time is so limited that all I have time for is knitting, wogging, and reading. So goodbye to everything else. Next Saturday I will be able to post what I am currently knitting. Unfortunately all of my current projects are Christmas gifts so I am stealth knitting whenever I have the chance.

Speaking of which, I had better get back to it. Have a great weekend!

39 and Counting

Today I turned thirty nine.


Wow.

The idea of turning forty doesn't bug me, but thirty-nine has given me the heebie jeebies. I feel like my mind has imposed a 364 day countdown to get my act together.

I have heard and read how much harder it is to stay in shape once you turn forty. Gulp! I'm not even in shape to begin with. Well, I was on my way to getting in shape, then I got pregnant. Now, I know that was no reason for me to stop exercising, but if you went through the same night nausea I did, you would have stopped too. So back came the weight and away went my fitness level. Actually, I feel like I'm starting from less than square one. Does square negative 20 exist?


Before I got pregnant I was "wogging" (walk and jog intervals) 10 k's. Now I am lucky if I can do 2 km. I lie in bed reading running magazines, dreaming of the day I get my strength and endurance back. Yeah well, I also used to dream about the miraculous transformation I would make over summer vacation and start the new school year thinner and more fabulous. Yup, it never happened.


So, knowing what a dreamer I am, I needed a goal. Seattle Marathon 2011 here I come. Yup, I am training for a marathon. If that doesn't get me into shape, I don't know what will. I also know that I need to be accountable to someone or something.


So here is my online journey of all the things I will be doing to get fit and feel fabulous on my way to forty. I hope you will join me.



Katrein