If productivity was defined in trash bags, this weekend, we would have been 17 bags productive.
Even though we bagged 60+ mulched trash bags full of leaves last fall, there was still another whopping 17 bags worth in our yard, along the fence line and filling the bushes. And at the end of our hard day's worth of work, we had those 17 bags neatly stacked, stuffed too full, too heavy, sticks tearing through, lined against the side of the house. Productivity at it's finest if I say so myself.
But in addition to our yard that wasn't quite ready for spring, there was a big green "problem" parked on our back patio. Yep, we had another task on our hands this weekend.
Enter the John Deere mower.
Now the mower gets defined in the previous sentence as a "problem" not because it doesn't run, not because it doesn't make mowing our yard a thousand times faster, not because it doesn't clean up leaves and sticks twice as fast as ever before, but because it's 3" too wide.
3" stood in between the mower on the back patio and the mower in the shed.
So, one thing lead to another and looking back, at the end of it all, I've discovered how much we got accomplished.
If you give a man a mower (especially one that is 3" too wide to get into the shed)...
He just might decide to widen the opening on the shed...
And until his real help arrives, he just might convince his wife to come outside and give him a hand...
But after he coerces her outside, he'll probably decides she asks too many questions and gets way too technical about details that don't matter when your just cutting a wider opening in the side of your shed...
So he'll kindly mention that the yard still has some "left-over from fall" leaves in it and it might be nice if we could get the yard cleaned up for spring...
And since she's a sucker for spring, BBQ's with friends, enjoying a glass of wine outside, and attempting to fill planters full of flowers, she agrees and goes to find the leaf mulcher, rake and trusty gardening gloves...
And when he gets a second set of hands to help with measuring, cutting, sawing, and nailing, he'll probably realize the wood around the bottom of the shed, in some spots, is rotting...
So he decides while they are fixing the shed door, he might as well repair the bottom outer walls with reinforcement boards...
And after the sides are reinforced and the opening is widened by just a few inches set on swinging hinges, the mower is pulled in...
But when he pulls the mower in, he just might decide to clean out the shed, because after all, they haven't used those silly garden-tomato-wire-things since they've lived here and let's be honest, they can't get much grass to grow, let alone tomatoes and corn and veggies from a garden...
And after he cleans out the shed and swings open the hinges he pulls the mower in but realizes the newly hinged mini-door and the original big door don't have a tight seal.
And after he's just cleaned out the shed, the last thing he needs is little critters calling this place home...
So he just might decide to replace and repair the latches on the shed...
And then once the mower is in the shed and doors are sealed, he steps back and admires a job well done...
Meanwhile, he'll probably decide that his wife, although she's working way too hard for a Saturday, will never get the entire yard cleaned up because as great as the leaf mulcher is, it just doesn't compare to using the Deere to clean up the leaves...
And there's absolutely no way on this green earth she's allowed to drive the Deere. (And he's probably right with that assumption as she'd probably drive the mower through the fence and into the tree in front yard).
And so, he'll get a second wind and help his wife finish bagging 17 bags of mulched leaves and sticks...
Then, finally, they'll stand back to admire a day's worth of hard work and accomplishment...
But while they're staring at the "clean-spring-ready" yard, they'll notice the severely bare spots throughout the yard...
So he'll decide to make a trip to the local Grass Pad for some grass seed, especially designed for growing in shady areas and fertilizer...
Then they'll realize that now the Deere is parked in the shed, there is room on the back patio for patio furniture...
And lucky for them, they'll probably find the perfect set to add to their patio...
And so the story goes. One thing lead to another and before you know it, the mower is tucked away in the newly renovated shed, the yard is cleaned, seeded and fertilized, and the newest addition to the back patio is set up and will be perfect for enjoying spring and summer evenings outside!
Unfortunately, the man and his wife will probably wake up the next morning and realize they pulled every muscle in their back, arms, hands and legs and spend the next several days complaining of how sore they are, all because the man got a mower.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Healthy Apps and Scratchy Legs
When it comes to working out, motivation is E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
If I don't have some sort of motivation, I usually find seven-hundred and fifty three "good" excuses to avoid it. Last year, motivation was easy to come by. It was a big, fluffy-but-fitted, strapless, white dress and a daily countdown to June 12th. Every workout was neatly X'ed on the calendar on the fridge. The "X'ing" thing was a visual reminder that I needed to workout and it was also self satisfaction to finish a workout and put on X on the date and then look back and see a whole week with lots of X's on it.
Post-white dress motivation has been a bit more tricky, so needless to say, the calendar has more spaces between X's than I'd like to admit. Up until lately, Jillian Michaels has been my trainer/motivator of choice. We have a love/hate relationship. But recently, I just have not been motivated to pop in the DVD and give her my time, attention or 100% effort. Some people suffer from yo-yo dieting, I think I am a candidate for yo-yo workouts :)
There is one workout that I has remained somewhat constant in my schedule...and that is my yoga classes. Now this could have something to do with the fact that my classes are pre-paid and have to be used up within a certain amount of days/months, but it's also because I really, really love it. It's good for the soul and good for the body. When I was first introduced to yoga, I thought, "this can't be that hard. It's just a bunch of stretching and balance stuff." Well, turns out, yoga makes me sweat. It's actually much harder than it looks. It pushes all of your core muscles, requires good balance and makes you more flexible. Not to mention the fact it helps you calm your mind and find your internal sense of being. It's intense and relaxing, all at the same time, if that's even possible.
In addition to my normal yoga workout though, my recent motivation has stemmed from 2 new apps on my phone. Let me introduce you to motivation #1 and #2.
Motivation #1: My Fitness Pal
It's an online/electronic calorie counter and food and exercise journal. It's super easy. You type in what you ate and it calculates the calories. For example, you type in wine. It gives you literally a thousand variations to select from to ensure you're calorie counter is as accurate as possible.. merlot, cab, shiraz, pinot noir, etc, etc etc. Then based on which variation you had and the amount you consumed, you select it and add it to your meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack). You can also keep track of how much water you drink and my favorite is how much you exercise. So you can enter walking- 5.0mph and 40 minutes and it automatically calculates that you've burned 331 calories. Simply amazing. Better yet, it then gives you a 331 calorie "allowance" in addition to your daily calorie intake. I also find it interesting/shocking to see how many calories different foods actually have. Like, for example, a glass of wine. 5 oz glass of merlot = 123 calories. And to add insult to injury, I'm pretty sure my glasses are not poured at the 5oz level :)
Bottom line, I am motivated by this easy to download little app on my Droid. (You can also sign up on their website...it's free...if you don't have the app on your phone). It's super easy and convenient for me at the end of the day or throughout the day, to recall what I ate, drank and every minute I worked out and enter it in. It will make you think twice about sneaking that second glass of wine... or if you're like me, it will encourage you to get moving so you can add a few "extra" calories to your daily allowance so you can enjoy that second glass of wine, guilt-free!
Motivation #2: Map My Fitness
It's a combination of my spring fever and my lack of enthusiasm for Jillian Michaels that has been pushing me out of the house to get some exercise. (with the exception of today and yesterday due to the rain and freezing cold, "it could still be winter" reminder from mother nature). One of the 753 excuses that I have about running/walking outside is I never know how far I've ran/walked. (Disclaimer, I think I'm slightly behind the times on this one because I'm pretty sure you can buy something that straps to your arm or leg and tells you how far you've gone. However, due to my yo-yo workouts, I hesitate to purchase anything related to working out for fear I'll stop using it in 3-6 months). So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered this fine little app. (Also on my Droid and also free). So scratch the 753 excuses. We're down to 752.
I just started using this little gem about a week ago, so I'm not completely familiar with it; however, I do know you basically push start on your phone, put your phone in your pocket and start running. It maps out the route that you take, how many minutes you've worked out for, your average and current speed and your average and current pace. Best of all, it also tells you exactly how far you've jogged or walked. And it stores all your data so you can, hopefully over time, get faster. And one more better, it provides you all of the necessary information you need to input into Fitness Pal (motivation #1 above) to calculate the calories burned.
So for now, I've pulled Jillian out of the DVD player in the living room, and put her back in the case. Now that spring is in the air and I've got new motivation downloaded on my phone, I can't resist getting outside and taking in the fresh air. But that leads me to the second half of this post. One of the 752reasons excuses I identified above...
Meet reason #539: Itchy. Scratchy. Legs. Before you get completely weirded out, I googled this so-called condition, and it seems relatively common. Seriously, it is. The symptoms are pretty basic... when I run, my legs get scratchy. I literally laughed out loud when I read the diagnosis and treatment. Turns out, the most likely reason your legs itch when you run is due to "long periods of inactivity". Great. I'm guilty as charged.
Technically, (based on what I read) the skin is not itching, rather it's inside the actual limbs. Apparently there are millions of tiny capillaries inside our muscles which expand rapidly due to the demand for more blood that is brought on by exercise. When you're in good shape, the capillaries remain open, allowing for maximum blood passage, but when you're not so active, they tend to collapse, only allowing for minimal blood passage. So, the rapid expansion of these vessels causes adjacent nerves to send impulses back to the brain which are interpreted as an itch. Take it for what it's worth, it's just what I read on Google. But I guess there's only one way to find out. Run more. Seems simple enough.
Who knows how long these tactics will actually work as my daily workout motivation. But for now, I'm going to milk them for all their worth and squeeze every last drop of motivation out of them. So cheers to getting motivated, and even harder, staying motivated!
If I don't have some sort of motivation, I usually find seven-hundred and fifty three "good" excuses to avoid it. Last year, motivation was easy to come by. It was a big, fluffy-but-fitted, strapless, white dress and a daily countdown to June 12th. Every workout was neatly X'ed on the calendar on the fridge. The "X'ing" thing was a visual reminder that I needed to workout and it was also self satisfaction to finish a workout and put on X on the date and then look back and see a whole week with lots of X's on it.
Post-white dress motivation has been a bit more tricky, so needless to say, the calendar has more spaces between X's than I'd like to admit. Up until lately, Jillian Michaels has been my trainer/motivator of choice. We have a love/hate relationship. But recently, I just have not been motivated to pop in the DVD and give her my time, attention or 100% effort. Some people suffer from yo-yo dieting, I think I am a candidate for yo-yo workouts :)
There is one workout that I has remained somewhat constant in my schedule...and that is my yoga classes. Now this could have something to do with the fact that my classes are pre-paid and have to be used up within a certain amount of days/months, but it's also because I really, really love it. It's good for the soul and good for the body. When I was first introduced to yoga, I thought, "this can't be that hard. It's just a bunch of stretching and balance stuff." Well, turns out, yoga makes me sweat. It's actually much harder than it looks. It pushes all of your core muscles, requires good balance and makes you more flexible. Not to mention the fact it helps you calm your mind and find your internal sense of being. It's intense and relaxing, all at the same time, if that's even possible.
In addition to my normal yoga workout though, my recent motivation has stemmed from 2 new apps on my phone. Let me introduce you to motivation #1 and #2.
Motivation #1: My Fitness Pal
It's an online/electronic calorie counter and food and exercise journal. It's super easy. You type in what you ate and it calculates the calories. For example, you type in wine. It gives you literally a thousand variations to select from to ensure you're calorie counter is as accurate as possible.. merlot, cab, shiraz, pinot noir, etc, etc etc. Then based on which variation you had and the amount you consumed, you select it and add it to your meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack). You can also keep track of how much water you drink and my favorite is how much you exercise. So you can enter walking- 5.0mph and 40 minutes and it automatically calculates that you've burned 331 calories. Simply amazing. Better yet, it then gives you a 331 calorie "allowance" in addition to your daily calorie intake. I also find it interesting/shocking to see how many calories different foods actually have. Like, for example, a glass of wine. 5 oz glass of merlot = 123 calories. And to add insult to injury, I'm pretty sure my glasses are not poured at the 5oz level :)
Bottom line, I am motivated by this easy to download little app on my Droid. (You can also sign up on their website...it's free...if you don't have the app on your phone). It's super easy and convenient for me at the end of the day or throughout the day, to recall what I ate, drank and every minute I worked out and enter it in. It will make you think twice about sneaking that second glass of wine... or if you're like me, it will encourage you to get moving so you can add a few "extra" calories to your daily allowance so you can enjoy that second glass of wine, guilt-free!
Motivation #2: Map My Fitness
It's a combination of my spring fever and my lack of enthusiasm for Jillian Michaels that has been pushing me out of the house to get some exercise. (with the exception of today and yesterday due to the rain and freezing cold, "it could still be winter" reminder from mother nature). One of the 753 excuses that I have about running/walking outside is I never know how far I've ran/walked. (Disclaimer, I think I'm slightly behind the times on this one because I'm pretty sure you can buy something that straps to your arm or leg and tells you how far you've gone. However, due to my yo-yo workouts, I hesitate to purchase anything related to working out for fear I'll stop using it in 3-6 months). So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered this fine little app. (Also on my Droid and also free). So scratch the 753 excuses. We're down to 752.
I just started using this little gem about a week ago, so I'm not completely familiar with it; however, I do know you basically push start on your phone, put your phone in your pocket and start running. It maps out the route that you take, how many minutes you've worked out for, your average and current speed and your average and current pace. Best of all, it also tells you exactly how far you've jogged or walked. And it stores all your data so you can, hopefully over time, get faster. And one more better, it provides you all of the necessary information you need to input into Fitness Pal (motivation #1 above) to calculate the calories burned.
So for now, I've pulled Jillian out of the DVD player in the living room, and put her back in the case. Now that spring is in the air and I've got new motivation downloaded on my phone, I can't resist getting outside and taking in the fresh air. But that leads me to the second half of this post. One of the 752
Meet reason #539: Itchy. Scratchy. Legs. Before you get completely weirded out, I googled this so-called condition, and it seems relatively common. Seriously, it is. The symptoms are pretty basic... when I run, my legs get scratchy. I literally laughed out loud when I read the diagnosis and treatment. Turns out, the most likely reason your legs itch when you run is due to "long periods of inactivity". Great. I'm guilty as charged.
Technically, (based on what I read) the skin is not itching, rather it's inside the actual limbs. Apparently there are millions of tiny capillaries inside our muscles which expand rapidly due to the demand for more blood that is brought on by exercise. When you're in good shape, the capillaries remain open, allowing for maximum blood passage, but when you're not so active, they tend to collapse, only allowing for minimal blood passage. So, the rapid expansion of these vessels causes adjacent nerves to send impulses back to the brain which are interpreted as an itch. Take it for what it's worth, it's just what I read on Google. But I guess there's only one way to find out. Run more. Seems simple enough.
Who knows how long these tactics will actually work as my daily workout motivation. But for now, I'm going to milk them for all their worth and squeeze every last drop of motivation out of them. So cheers to getting motivated, and even harder, staying motivated!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
February..What?
It's a good thing, dear friends, that "blogging twice a week" wasn't at the top of my New Years "I WILL" list. Because, if it was, I would have earned myself a big fat F. I'm not really sure what happened?? Apparently, I went into some sort of hibernation mode from "Our Not-So-Shabby Life", relatively speaking of course. I could give you the list of all the standard excuses, such as 1) "things at work are super-crazy busy", 2) "February is a short month", or 3) "life in general is busy", but all of those excuses sound a little lame. Because at the end of being busy, we should at least have something to show for our efforts. And as it turns out, we do. February was a fun and accomplished month. I just didn't get around to blogging about any of it. But, without further adue (however that word is actually spelled), here I am blogging world, back in action!
Turns out, February has always been one of my favorite months.
I guess it doesn't hurt that it's also my birthday month. And on a side note, we had the best little birthday bash a girl could ask for. Nothing too crazy... but just the best group of friends getting together for good conversations, some blue margaritas, homemade martinis, a make-shift game of craps on the kitchen table, 90's music playing from the TV, and lots of laughing. I love birthdays. Just another good reason to get together, especially in the heart of hibernation. And birthdays give us the opportunity to reflect. Reflect on life. What we accomplished in the last year, favorite memories, tough times we survived and moments we'll never forget. It's also the perfect opportunity to look ahead. Get a sneak peak of the pages to come and determine what's on our wish list for the next year in life. My list, my next chapter, one of the last few years of my twenties, well, my list is big. I've got my sights set high.
I also consider February to be winter's one last "hoorah" before it's officially spring. And now that it's 2 days into March, I'm officially diagnosing myself with Spring Fever. I'm itching to bust out my spring wardrobe, BBQ hamburgers for dinner (although we occasionally do this in the winter, but it's just not the same when you have to tip toe on the patio through the snow in the cold to get the burgers off the grill), try out my green thumb and plant some flower pots outside (actually we need to do a whole lot of landscaping outside), meet friends for happy hours on Friday afternoons on the patio of our favorite spots, and just open the windows and let the sun shine in!
Aaahhh...spring. It's just so, refreshing. Energizing.
Makes me wanna do something great. Something productive. Something like... clean out my closet. Go for a run. Sit on the porch steps (although that's not that productive, it qualifies as refreshing). Redecorate (I've already started a few small projects and got a couple ideas under my belt, but more to come when I actually kick my Martha Stewart rear in to high). Move the furniture and clean out those little dust bunnies hiding underneath...the ones I saw the other day under our bed were atrocious. Scary like "you're afraid to reach under the bed and rescue that missing shoe or sock because a dust bunny might latch onto your sleeve." But cleaning isn't really all that fun. So for now, I think I'll save those dust bunnies for a rainy "spring" day and meanwhile, I'll be savoring these moderately warm days and anticipating the even warmer ones that are sure to come.
Turns out, February has always been one of my favorite months.
I guess it doesn't hurt that it's also my birthday month. And on a side note, we had the best little birthday bash a girl could ask for. Nothing too crazy... but just the best group of friends getting together for good conversations, some blue margaritas, homemade martinis, a make-shift game of craps on the kitchen table, 90's music playing from the TV, and lots of laughing. I love birthdays. Just another good reason to get together, especially in the heart of hibernation. And birthdays give us the opportunity to reflect. Reflect on life. What we accomplished in the last year, favorite memories, tough times we survived and moments we'll never forget. It's also the perfect opportunity to look ahead. Get a sneak peak of the pages to come and determine what's on our wish list for the next year in life. My list, my next chapter, one of the last few years of my twenties, well, my list is big. I've got my sights set high.
I also consider February to be winter's one last "hoorah" before it's officially spring. And now that it's 2 days into March, I'm officially diagnosing myself with Spring Fever. I'm itching to bust out my spring wardrobe, BBQ hamburgers for dinner (although we occasionally do this in the winter, but it's just not the same when you have to tip toe on the patio through the snow in the cold to get the burgers off the grill), try out my green thumb and plant some flower pots outside (actually we need to do a whole lot of landscaping outside), meet friends for happy hours on Friday afternoons on the patio of our favorite spots, and just open the windows and let the sun shine in!
Aaahhh...spring. It's just so, refreshing. Energizing.
Makes me wanna do something great. Something productive. Something like... clean out my closet. Go for a run. Sit on the porch steps (although that's not that productive, it qualifies as refreshing). Redecorate (I've already started a few small projects and got a couple ideas under my belt, but more to come when I actually kick my Martha Stewart rear in to high). Move the furniture and clean out those little dust bunnies hiding underneath...the ones I saw the other day under our bed were atrocious. Scary like "you're afraid to reach under the bed and rescue that missing shoe or sock because a dust bunny might latch onto your sleeve." But cleaning isn't really all that fun. So for now, I think I'll save those dust bunnies for a rainy "spring" day and meanwhile, I'll be savoring these moderately warm days and anticipating the even warmer ones that are sure to come.
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