Day 90+ Overview

Well, it's taken me longer to sit down to write this final post than I either expected or wanted. I suppose this is in line with the fact that I've posted less frequently on the KFB than I did on PCP.

Which also frustrated me and left me feeling a little disappointed in myself - although intellectually I know that continuing to post daily for 180 days straight (and taking as many photos) was more time than I was willing to commit and (I thought) I'd mentally let go of the idea. Apparently I'm better at guilt than I imagined :) I think I also posted less regularly because, as Shivani said, there seemed less to say than during the heady days of PCP when everything was new and fresh.

To be honest, I was very relieved when Patrick sent us the email about not being able to go home again for post-PCPers doing KFB. That struck home for me why I'd been feeling a bit frustrated with the KFB project - he's right, especially as I'd only just come off of the PCP, that the lack of new took a little out of the WOW of the experience for me. I mean, it was a plus that I still remembered the little tricks to make managing the diet less time intensive and what sorts of meals were more satisfying - but that also meant there was less of a challenge to try to find new foods/meals and ways to make the diet an adventure.

For me, there was also a little loss of adventure in the workouts as well - I'd never really done strength training before the PCP, so that was all new and exciting. On the other hand, I have done martial arts before, so that portion of the KFB workout wasn't so new and exciting. In fact, it made me really miss having a partner to spar with :( Until I'd started the KFB, I'd sort of let myself forget how much fun sparring can be (even if it usually kicked my butt!).

Which isn't really a negative - I'm jazzed to try to find a place to take a martial arts class again, thanks to KFB! Once my calf/achilles tendon loosens up, that is.

While a part of me wonders what the KFB experience would have been like had I had more of a break from the PCP - had I a good stretch of time to settle into a non-Patrick/Chen determined exercise and diet routine - I'm more glad I did it when I did it than not. For one thing, now I've got twice as much time of regular exercise and diet habits under my belt as I would have otherwise had - so am more confident that they'll "stick". For another, as it happened the KFB filled the time between when my Dad died and when we held his memorial. While I probably didn't have the attention and focus for KFB than I might have otherwise had, I also had KFB to keep me glued together. On KFB I was getting enough (or more than :) exercise, eating well, and sleeping well - All the sorts of things I tend to let slide in times of stress, and all the sorts of things I need to manage the stress.

So Yay KFB!

Another thing about KFB, now that I've had a week or so to move on to trying my own thing, is that I think what I really like is a mash up of KFB and PCP. Over the past couple of weeks I've been doing:

• meditating first thing in the morning,
• running (love it sooooo much more than jumping rope - and my poor jumprope is just hops away from breaking),
• and then doing PCP exercises - but instead of just hanging out between reps, I've been doing KFB stretches. Such as push-ups, followed by rabbit stretch or the cobra stretch.

So Cheers to the freedom/risk of doing my own thing!

And Yay Team Tiger! and my friend's on Team Crane (Lili! Shivani!)!

Way To Go!

Day 89 - That blasted persistent calf muscle!

I gave my calf muscle a couple of days off to rest and relax -

Finally, it felt better (and, let's face it, I was impatient) so I got back into the workout groove yesterday.

Sigh. Mistake. I spent the rest of the day limping with the super tight muscle. Sure, I should have probably not leapt back into the fray so quickly, but I think the main problem is stress and tension. See, my shoulders, back, and neck have been tight as well - and I've noticed that they are more tense in the morning than at any other time. I've also been sleeping less well and waking earlier and anxious.

So I think my mental tension is just migrating down the back of my body.

Sigh.

But I also think my main source of tension will be over this weekend, so I'm hoping to get back to my own stride next week. ....

Fingers crossed!

Day 85 - bad luck

Tight calf muscle yesterday ...

Stepped on something yesterday and embedded it deep in my

foot today. sigh.

Thank goodness for callouses, I think it'll be ok tomorrow.

Meanwhile ... I got a little greedy at the farmer's market and grocery today:

Heirloom tomatoes

peaches

eggplant (for eggplant caviar Yum!)

celery and apples for that salad ...

cilantro and avocados for salsa ...

so many yummy veggies!

Day 83 - REALLY tight calf muscle

And it's driving me crazy!

It's been tight for a few days now and is crimping my style :(

(or at least half of it :))

Day 82 - A plank challenge ...

Holy Crap -

A FIVE MINUTE plank routine.

I feel a challenge coming on ....

Day 80 - Mindfulness, A choice

This past weekend I went back up to Boston to visit with my Mom and finalize some details for my Dad's memorial. And I've realized that I've driven 500 miles or more each weekend for the past 3 weekends!

No wonder I've been having trouble with the KFB workouts on the weekends .... that's a long time to spend in the car, and draining all out of proportion for the activity. Yesterday I tacked on a 5 mile run, because the weather was finally prime for a beautiful morning run. And then I went and sat in a car for 6 hours, so I was rather stiff when I got up this morning.

Now that I've got that negative stuff off my chest - on to the positive!

The KungFu push ups are, I'm surprised to find, not as impossibly hard as I thought they'd be - yay me! NOTE: I have no desire whatsoever to see what I look like doing them. Though I think they might be more descriptively called "grasshopper" push-ups ....

I've discovered another way that mindfulness can be a boon. I was mentally griping/whining/complaining to myself (I've noticed that I've been doing that alot lately ... STRESS!) on Friday about going to Boston this past weekend: I didn't really want to go, I'd been doing alot of driving, I hadn't finished unpacking from my vacation, I had piles of chores I'd left backed up, and I really didn't want to spend my time that way.

But then I became mindful about how negative my thinking was, and it occurred to me that with that sort of a mindset, I was just about guaranteeing that I'd have a miserable weekend. So I set about mindfully changing my mindset.

• I reminded myself that it was my choice to go up to Boston
• I reminded myself that it was a great opportunity to spend time with Mom
  
• I reminded myself I would get to spend time with my Brother
• I reminded myself that one of the side effects of letting chores pile up is: I won't be doing chores this weekend (I suck at doing fun stuff first - which generally means I tend to have little time for the fun stuff)
• I saw the driving as an opportunity to listen to an audio book and chat with friend

And it worked! I was relaxed and had a great weekend (well, aside from the excess traffic on the way home).

Now it's time to do laundry. And prep food for the week...

Day 75 - The Crash

I was not (apparently) mentally prepared for the crash back to earth after returning from vacation. I thought I was, but the deep-dark-demented-me that lurks within was apparently unwilling to relinquish a life of indolence and leisure ...

Which means I stayed up too late not so much doing fun stuff as NOT doing useful stuff like preparing my food or getting sleep so I could get up and workout.
BUMP, Bump, bump.

AND I've been waking after not enough sleep, anxious about work. I should have spent more of my vacation clearing my head and less of it goofing off like a teenager :(

This morning I had enough. I woke after 6 hours of sleep (not enough) and this time I got up. I did not workout. I DID, however, spend a good chunk of time meditating and attempting to clear my head (like 90 minutes). It's impressive how big a monster something small can become when you refuse to look at it straight on and it sidles up into your periphery vision.


So I'm feeling better centered now and am ready to go to bed early this evening and KICK ASS tomorrow!

Day 73 - Back in the Loop

Having had no internet access for a week, I was a bit out of the loop regarding workouts and diets. - and after a long day of travel yesterday (to arrive home to 94 degree humid weather), I just couldn't muster the motivation to check my workouts, much less DO them.

This morning was different.

Kung Fu pushups ... I know it's not a great idea to start with a negative attitude as it colors the result in a bad way but my initial, gut thought was: NO WAY JOSE!

Oi!

Day 72 - My last day of freedom

Thought I’d share a couple of photos taken on my last day:

Here is the road to my oasis of calm:

The road goes over the hill – if you’re driving a 4-wheel drive vehicle or ATV. Ours is the last house on the road before hitting State Forest land, so anytime a vehicle comes driving past, unless loaded with mountain bikes, it’s only a matter of minutes before it comes driving right back down.

Here is my oasis of calm:

And here is how I feel when I’m here, nothing but clover:

Day 71

Another extraordinary morning. Had a great workout today, largely because it was (thank goodness) cool all day, which kept my energy levels up.

Must confess that my KFB diet has hit the mother of all road bumps …

Day 70 - A cool Change

Every morning here is different:

And every one extraordinary.

Day 69 - Perfect Blue

Some days just open up beautifully. This morning I again got up early and did my KFB workout. Unexpectedly, I feel more self-conscious about my KFB workout when I’m doing it out in the middle of nowhere. I guess it just seems more out of place than in the hustle and bustle of my everyday world.

That, and my neighbors are more likely to be interested in what I’m doing. Small town America – gotta love it J

After meeting with a driller, I drove up to Burlington (the biggest city in Vermont, it is still MUCH smaller than where I live outside of Philadelphia) and it was a gorgeous day:

Day 68 - Observing

Today meditating went well – and I found myself more open and observant as I took a morning stroll and noticed this tiny, delicate mushroom in the road:

It’s quiet here – not dead silence: there’s more bird calls, the whisper of wind through the grass and leaves, and (unfortunately) the traffic from the valley below carries all too well. But it’s lovely, and I don’t miss the perpetual sound of music, media, etc. of my everyday life. Not at all.

And this evening, after another blistering rainstorm, there was a lovely rainbow:

Day 67 - Helluva View

Old habits – waking early – don’t disappear because I’m on vacation. But I didn’t wake as early as I usually do. I did my stretches and meditation on the deck – but was a weeeee bit distracted by the view:

I missed most of the rest of my KFB workout, mostly because I decided to run up the hill and was enjoying it so much that I ran clear over and down the other side. By the time I got home, I was beat. Still, a lovely workout.

Day 66 - At last it's cool!

Vermont has also been undergoing a bit of a heat wave, according to my neighbors. On the plus side, a heat wave in Vermont is still a bit cooler than a heat wave in New Jersey (high 80’s and only occasionally in the 90’s). Today I did intervals up the hill instead of jumping rope.

I thought it would be easier to meditate while on vacation – fewer things to obsess over. So far, no dice. But it is prettier:

Although there was a rainstorm to end all rainstorm this afternoon. You could barely see 50 feet away:

Day 65 - The day AFTER my first day of vacation

Friday was a real busy, running-around-with-my-head-cut-off kind of day at work - busy in addition to the expected madness of trying to get things done before taking off for a week - so I didn't leave work until late :(

But now, for the next 8 days it's all about ME, baby!

Yesterday I did not get my KFB workout in, as I didn't get to bed early enough to get up and do it before driving north, and (frankly) it was so hot that I probably wouldn't have done it anyway. UGGGGhh.

You have no idea how fondly I'm looking back to those days of jumping rope in the snow in January and February. I'm a cold-weather baby, and my body is super efficient at creating heat. Which is marvelous for being outside in the winter - and is miserable in the weather we've been suffering under for the past month or so.

Whine. Whine.

Last night it took me almost 2 hours to fall asleep and I lay immobile, damp and sticky, with my arms and legs splayed hoping to fall asleep. But a joy of being on vacation is a flexible schedule, so I slept in and then got up to do my KFB. Which felt great - except for the fact that I'd run out about 3 miles before doing it and by the time I ran back, it was HOT HOT HOT. (I was also facing the sun, which makes a bigger difference than you'd think)

I sense a theme here. I'll try not to whine any more. I know that it's not just us that are suffering:

Heat wave - and I gather they are experiencing heat waves in Europe and elsewhere as well.

Drink lots of liquids everyone!

I'll have intermittent access to the internet for the next week - I mean to be better about blogging, but may end up posting them all at once!

See you on the other side!

Day 63 - And the time goes by!

Okaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy

So I had that long weekend that I spent mostly working. After, I was bummed, but figured it was over and I was back to "normal" amounts of stress and running around madly.

I was wrong. I just blinked and a week has gone by with no posts! As one of my colleagues said (likewise swamped and sinking fast) Wow, it never rains, but it pours!

On the plus side - we got shortlisted for the proposal I was working on and I'm going on vacation in 2 days (yay!)

On the minus side - KFB has been a bit short-sheeted and I'm looking forward to getting back into the game with, really, nothing else on my mind for a week or so!

Day 55 - The Sauna

Well this morning it was cooler when I got up and stepped out doors. Only 78F. 56% humidity, but still ...

It's like living in a sauna. Working out ... well, I've been doing that at the gym.

I'll 'fess up to not being as tough as I'd like to be and went there purely for the lovely A/C. Still hot and sticky, but I'm sure I didn't dehydrate myself nearly so badly.

Also - now I'm drawn almost exclusively to raw foods. And my gazpacho. And my new favorite salad:

Apples & Celery tossed in a dressing of yogurt and lemon juice with a sprinkling of walnuts and freshly ground black pepper.

Sweet. Tart. Spicy. Cold.

Easy, filling, and refreshing. The recipe calls for the skins, but I'm more allergic to the skins than anything else, so I peeled mine.

Day 54 - Heat, Stress, Holliday

For those in the States, we've just come off a holiday weekend. In my case - a very non-KFB weekend.

Sigh. I'm disappointed, but am proud of myself for cutting myself some slack.

One - 2, 6-hour drives
Two - Hotter than HELL (OMG not comfortable. This morning it was 86 at five am)
Three - Spent most of the long weekend and yesterday working on a proposal. When I wasn't, I was driving or doing chores for my Mom
Four - Stressed and anxious about the proposal (and about the lost holiday) I didn't sleep well.

Today is the first day in about a week where I feel normal amounts of stress. Yay! So I feel better prepared to get back in the game.

Thank goodness I'm going on vacation in 9 days!

Day 48 - At last, a cool down - and a KFB diet meltdown

For the first time in nearly 2 weeks I was able to sleep with the windows open.

For the first time in nearly 2 weeks I've had a comfortable street run (yay!!!! - That's AWESOME for my mental health)

On the minus side ... a friend of mine at work (and her mother) were having a meatball contest. And everyone went all out: sauce, bread ... cannolis ... . Let just say I was a good friend and a not-so-good KFBer :)