Author: Jolene Cooper

So it’s the last hurrah, the curtain call, the final straw, the end of the road.

My fitness assessment was this past Thursday at 8:30am.
Yep, that’s right 8:30am. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting me yet, saying that I’m not a morning person is the understatement of the century.
So the fact that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

Allow me to summarize for you.
1. I lost a kg. So I didn’t break the bank there, but losing was better than gaining in my case, so I was content.
2. I gained 2 inches on my sit-and-reach. This one I’m amazed at, since I’ve only been to yoga once in the last 3 months and I’m usually pretty stiff in the mornings, so I wonder how good my sit and reach would’ve been at noon.
3. Blood pressure: still normal. (Yay!)
4. BMI: decreased by 0.3, still in the excellent category. And while I disagree with the reliability and usefulness of BMI, (it’s the kin student in me…) it’s a pretty standard measurement during fitness assessments.
5. I’ve started supplementing vitamin D for winter.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve become more aware of my fitness and eating habits, and even though I often know what I should do or eat, sometimes I don’t; and I’ll probably continue to do that. The way I see it, I’m trading physical and nutritional health for mental health. Sometimes you need that chocolate bar to make you happy, and as long as that’s not a daily occurrence, I don’t see the harm in it.
One thing I’ve noticed from blogging on a weekly basis, is how reliant I am on the weather. If it’s cold and/or raining all week, I’ll reduce my exercise levels. That’s something I still need to work on. I’ll start planning ahead for January so I can combat the holiday slump as I like to call it.
I’ve got one last bootcamp class, but I’m not certain it helped prepare me for the holidays. It mostly just made me want to be lazier so to avoid muscular pain.

The bad news: I didn’t get any taller. Harrumph!

Happy holidays everyone! 

Beware of the chocolate covered anything and the mint-flavoured whosie-whats-its.

OK, I’ve got good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?

Too bad, you’re getting the bad news first.

We’ve just received word that our 6 month fitness assessment follow up will be held this week. I think I speak for everyone when I say, I’d like a little extra time.  Maybe it’s because I’m still getting over a cold, or maybe it’s because it’s cold and dreary outside, but I don’t feel any fitter. (It’s a word. it’s not my fault if your dictionary isn’t up to date) Maybe if we started this challenge in the winter and finished in the summer, I’d be expecting better results.  As our department is gearing up for the follow-up assessments, I thought I would highlight some of the good and bad and ups and downs of the last 6 months.

The Bad:
• I’ve been sick for the better part of November, and a large chunk of October as well.
• It’s been 15 days since my last run.
• With the cold, rainy weather, I’m finding it really hard to eat enough fruits and vegetables. 
• I haven’t done yoga since beach yoga ended in August

 
The Good:
• I’m eating breakfast regularly now
• I went to a FREE yoga class last night
• Our dodgeball team ALMOST won our game last night. This would’ve been an amazing feat, as we haven’t won a game all season.
• I haven’t been to the chiropractor in 10 weeks, and haven’t really felt the need to. Sure there have been days where my shoulder and neck muscles are tight but I’ve been able to manage it through heat and manual therapy.
• Lunch crunch Bootcamp hasn’t killed me yet.

I’ll keep you in the loop next week after my follow-up fitness assessment has been done.

Cross your fingers for progress!

I’d say I’m about 80% of my old self. I’ve still got some recovering to do from being sick last week.
I took a week off from running, (which took way more strength than actually running, by the way) and finally made it out for a decent run last night.
While I really am not a fan of running in the dark, and had a few coughing fits throughout the run, it could have gone much worse.

So let me revisit my post from 2 weeks ago.
There are two reasons why I haven’t been running as much as I’d like to:

1. It’s cold outside
2. There’s other stuff I’d rather be doing

So #1 might be why I was sick last week, but I followed most of the ‘running in the cold’ tips. Except that one that says dress like it’s 20 degrees warmer than it is. I’ll tell you, I’m dressed like it’s 5 degrees out, and I’m barely warm when I’m running. I’d be outright freezing if I dressed like it was 25 degrees outside. So I am rejecting that tip.

So now it’s time to tackle #2.  (Do I get bonus points for quadruple alliteration?)

Let’s face it. There’s always going to be something that is more appealing than running in the cold, wet darkness. So to try and get some exercise during daylight hours, I’ve signed up for a lunchtime bootcamp class on campus. It starts today so I don’t have an update on it yet, but it’ll be nice to get an additional workout during the day, in case I don’t always make it out for a run after work. It’s all part of my pre-emptive holiday health plan.  It’s also pretty convenient how this bootcamp runs during the Amazing Race Health Challenge, and is 4 weeks before our department’s follow-up fitness assessments.
Hmmm… That’s a lovely coincidence…

So sorry to have missed my regular post yesterday.

It’s Thrive Week, the Wellness Fair kicked off today, and I’m at home sick.  Talk about irony!

As I finish my 6th glass of orange juice and 3rd bowl of soup in the last 24 hours, I think back on my actions in the last few weeks and all the precautions I took to avoid getting sick again.  I’m coming up with nothing; no explanation of why I am sick for the second time in 6 weeks.  So I hope the rest of you have better luck than me.

Stay healthy and check out all the great Thrive Week events all around campus this week.