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Prompt

As I sit here staring at my phone with writer’s block in between phone calls, I decided to give the daily prompt a shot. I had a glorious weekend, but I’m not sure that there’s much to write about there. Unsurprisingly, we spent most of the weekend watching hockey. The state tournament for the Mayor’s division was this weekend and while he wasn’t playing, we all enjoyed watching the games from the convenience of our couch. So on to today’s prompt featured below.

What are three objects you couldn’t live without?

The three objects I couldn’t live without are my iPhone, my Apple Watch, and my book. I wish I had a better answer than my phone, but the truth is that I manage my life and family’s schedule from my phone. In fact, without my phone, I’d have to brave the supermarket during the season. That’s not something you want to experience when snow birds surround you.

Like my phone, I use the Apple Watch to manage my life. Specifically, I use it to manage my thyroid function and fitness. Crucially, the watch has alerted me to a high heart rate while I’m sleeping, which is a sign my thyroid is running hot. Moreover, it signifies that I need to stop working out until my thyroid levels are back to normal. It also tracks my sleep, which is another way I monitor my thyroid. Lastly, I use the watch to keep tabs on my fitness level. If deviations from my norm show up, I know I need to check my thyroid levels.

The last object is my book. I read daily as a means to escape and engage my mind. It doesn’t matter what I’m reading because a book like Calgon will “take me away.” I started reading daily again about four years ago after meeting with one of my associate directors on development. One of my recommendations to him was to read daily as this is a habit most prominent business leaders share. Naturally, I realized that I should probably follow my own advice because if I wasn’t doing it, why should he? Sadly, we lost Paul just a couple of months after that conversation. Yet every day when I read and think about this habit, I think of him.

So tell me in the comments, what are the three objects you couldn’t live without?

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: 35 spin class, plus 15-minute cooldown courtesy of Apple Fitness+
  • Book: Book: Marcel Proust’s  Finding Lost Time. 
  • Blog: done
  • Word of the day: rebuke. I expect a bit of a rebuke for heavily featuring tech items in my three objects.
  • Today’s song is Pocket Full of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield

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First Weekend Off

It was our first weekend off since hockey ended. I thought my liver would recover nicely now that hockey season was over. As it happens, this proved to be an entirely false hypothesis. It all started Saturday afternoon in our driveway with the neighbors. The boys were watching glue dry (literally) and the wives joined them to enjoy some drinks. Before you knew it, we ended up heading to a restaurant with the guys in hard hats and high-visibility vests.

Sunday we headed to brunch with my friend Scott. He and I worked together at Progressive many moons ago. In fact, he first met me when I was pregnant with Zachary. We met at JB’s on the beach in Deerfield Beach. It’s an awesome place, but the whole rigmarole of traffic was too much. Deerfield Beach is one of those places you need to get to extremely early if you don’t like traffic. Nevertheless, the view, the food, and the company made suffering through traffic worth it. Our first weekend off of hockey was a smashing good time.

I crashed, however, as soon as we got home thanks to the mimosas. Fortunately, I woke up in time to see Kaprizov score a hat-trick and steal the game from Columbus. The kid is incredible. Speaking of hockey, we didn’t fully take the weekend off from hockey. The Mayor started lessons with Coach Joni early Saturday morning. Joni is an incredible skating coach, so I’m excited to see the process the Mayor makes under his tutelage. They’ll be working together weekly. Tonight the Mayor will play in the high school All-Star game, which should be fun.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: 45-minute spin class, plus 15-minute cooldown courtesy of Apple Fitness
  • Book: Book: Marcel Proust’s  Finding Lost Time. 
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song is Radiate by Jack Johnson
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At a Loss

I’m at a loss for words as I process the loss of one of our former hockey moms Kristine. Her son played rec with both Goalielocks and the Mayor. After rec league, my hubby coached her son and the Mayor with the Davis brothers on the Blackhawks travel mites team. Her son played hockey, so inevitably we haven’t seen or talked to them often. Even so, she and I had kept in touch through Facebook.

I guess a loss like this has the tendency to put everything else in perspective. The Mayor’s team has struggled this tournament and this season. It’s easy to get hung up with the pain of a losing season. Yet, in the macro picture of life, the losses aren’t going to be important. Hopefully, the players will take the lessons of resiliency and perseverance with them into their adult lives. Not to mention the great relationships they’ve built over the years.

The Mayor’s last game will be tomorrow. I’m trying to figure out how I can be there for this significant moment in his hockey career. To be honest, I’m not sure I’m ready to close the book on youth hockey. It’s been the dominating theme of the last decade of our lives. Where does one go from here? Are there places that exist outside the rink? These are important questions I don’t have the answer to yet. Part of me hopes, he decides to play U18 a year before going to Juniors. While U18 is technically not youth hockey anymore, it’s still minor hockey.

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Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: 45-minute spin class, plus 15-minute cool down courtesy of Apple Fitness
  • Book: Book: Marcel Proust’s Finding Lost Time. I had to visit a forum to remind myself of all the main characters as it’s been a while since I’ve read Proust.
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Stop and Stare by One Republic
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Good News

We got good news today after Goalielocks’ appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. The doctor noted his shoulder is quite unstable. Moreover, he didn’t think Goalielocks tore anything. At this point, the doctor stated he does not need surgery to fix the shoulder. Thank god! He will be in a sling for the next four to six weeks and will see the doctor again in two weeks. His left shoulder appears to have a labrum tear, which isn’t good news. Nevertheless, the doctor felt both shoulders could be treated with physical therapy with no need for surgery at this time.

It was weird to be so far away while he saw the doctor. Goalielocks has always been interested in medicine and did clinicals during high school. Consequently, I knew he’d be fine interfacing with the doctor without his parents present. In fact, I’m confident that he did a better job articulating his injury than I’ve ever been able to do. He opted not to take ibuprofen or Tylenol for pain, so he could better understand which movements caused the most pain. This way he could give very detailed information to the doctor.

I guess it’s easy to forget that while pain sucks, it does provide vital information to our brains. Speaking of pain, my left knee does not like the spin bike so much. In fact, I find it quite rebellious when I hit the pinnacle of hills. Fortunately, the discomfort in my knee tends to go away once the ride and walking cooldown are over. I’m going to try my knee brace tomorrow and see if that helps. I plan to start running next week, so I’m curious to see how the knee likes the treadmill.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Spin Class through JRNY app
  • Book: The Seven Husbands Of Eleanor Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Blog: done
  • Word of the day: flammiferous which means producing or bright with flame. You’ll thank me the next time you play Scrabble.
  • Today’s song: Feeling Good performed by Michael Buble
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Spin City

It’s spin city for me now. After two weeks off from working out, due to shingles, I’m finally back at it. This time, however, I started off on my spin bike instead of the treadmill. I figured at this junction the lighter impact would probably be more forgiving on my overtaxed system. The spinning may be a lighter impact, but it’s not a light workout.

I started my spin city journey off yesterday with a fitness assessment that kicked my ass. Afterward, I did a forty-minute class that also kicked my butt. We got a free year of classes with the JRNY app when we purchased the bike. The app is pretty cool. It has a wide variety of workouts for the bike ranging from ten minutes to seventy-five. Today I did a thirty-five minute class during lunch and that was perfect.

The one major drawback to spinning is the damn seat. The bike seat is a menace to asses everywhere. Unfortunately, the seat of the Ic4 is no exception. Consequently, after finishing my ride this afternoon, I ordered a padded seat cover for the bike. Sadly, Amazon won’t be delivering the cushion until Thursday. So until that point, my poor ass will have to suffer with the bike seat.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Super Bowl yesterday. It was one hell of a game and thankfully the right team won. Sorry Philly, but the majority of your fans are insufferable. Honestly, I would have liked for KC to have scored a touchdown on the last drive, but I get why they did it. Hats off to the receiver that had the selflessness and discipline to stop short of the goal line. If I were KC, I wouldn’t have wanted to give Philly’s offense another chance.

I enjoyed the halftime show. I thought Rihanna and the dancers were phenomenal. The floating platforms were pretty cool too. Rihanna has so many great songs. Obviously, there’s been some criticism today, but you can’t please everyone. And everyone doesn’t have to like everything. we’re actually allowed to have different tastes, which you wouldn’t know by reading social media today. Lastly, I have to give her mad props for the world’s best pregnancy announcement and for kicking ass while pregnant. Pregnancy kicks your butt, but it didn’t slow Rihanna down yesterday.

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Back At It

After skipping the 5:30 am class on Wednesday, due to a sinus headache and running on CST, I was back at it this morning!  I know, I know those of you that know me are in a state of shock that I’ve made it to not 1, but 3 5:30 am classes in the last week.  The truth of the matter is I feel much better during the day when I log an early workout.  I think more clearly, I have more energy and the endorphin rush lasts most of the day. #winning

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Tomorrow I’ll be back at Burn for a 30/30 class, which is a combination of spin and a circuit class.  Honestly, for me it is the perfect balance of cardio and strength training.  Moreover, the 30 minute spin session is much easier on the tendinitis.  Since I re-joined Burn in October, I couldn’t be happier with the results.  I’ve been taking Barre, Yoga, Aerial Yoga, Circuit Burn, Power Burn and Spin classes at the gym.  I’ve been a cardio queen for much of my adult life, but thanks to my awesome instructors at Burn I’ve gotten a lot stronger. I couldn’t have imagined being able to do one-legged planks and crunches on the TRX when I started.  Now I can do them with relative ease – thanks Adam!

I wrote about the glamorous mom life that many of us lead.  As a hockey mom, I don’t have the luxury of being able to go everyday or every weekend.  For example, last weekend we were in Chicago, so I planned my workouts accordingly. This way I was able to maximize my time in the gym before heading north.  This week isn’t much different with games on both days.  Consequently, Sunday will be my rest day as it is also a travel day.  Meanwhile Saturday morning I plan on enjoying circuit burn before heading to the Mayor’s hockey game.  Since I was up early this morning and plan on getting up early tomorrow, I’m off to bed.

Tonight’s song performed by Santana – Ft. Rob Thomas is “Smooth.”

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Monday, Monday

Monday, Monday it wasn’t all I hoped it would be.. Okay I’m totally exaggerating, but it totally sucked getting up earlier than the past two weeks.  Moreover, not only did it suck for me, but it really sucked waking up the boys.  After all, outside of Sunday morning for the Mayor, they haven’t seen a 6:00 hour wake up call for weeks.  It was everything I expected to be and more – i.e. it was brutal for everyone.

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I’m not a morning person, which is why my 5:30 am fitness class aspirations are such a big commitment.  This morning I hit the snooze at least three times before finally rolling out of my nice, warm bed to wake up the kids.  They fought the wake up, but acquiesced only to fall asleep again the couch.  Consequently, you can imagine the forlorn looks on their faces when I woke them up again.

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Fortunately, both the boys and myself made it to the bus top/work despite the general awfulness that can accompany an early morning especially a Monday morning.  Unfortunately, with the return to normalcy and kids in school, we also enjoyed (not so  much) a return to normal South Florida winter traffic.  I would just like to say F you to the snow bird driving 50 in the left lane.  You’re a dick.

Now that I got that out, boy oh boy do I feel better, work was great.  The team and I had a productive day and no tears were shed.  Put one in the win column for me!  I’m not letting Monday (or an annoying snow bird) get in my way!  After work I headed to spin class.  I promised my podiatrist I’d stay in the saddle.  Nevertheless, I think some promises are meant to be broken.  I didn’t go into 3rd and I had to lower my resistance in 2nd, but I pushed it to my limit. If I felt any pain at all, I went back into the saddle.  I left the studio with wet hair, super sweaty and having burnt 387 calories.  Another notch in the win column for me!

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After spin, I was able to wrap up yet another productive shopping spree on Amazon.  Thanks to Amazon Prime all my goodies, hand warmers included, should arrive before we are northward bound.  #Winning.  As you can see, my Monday wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was pretty fantastic.   Honestly, if that alarm had gone off just a little later, it would have been darn near perfect!

Tonight’s song is in honor of everyone’s least favorite day of the week.  As you reminisce about the Monday that was enjoy The Mama & the Papas “Monday, Monday.”

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Spin Class

I must confess until tonight I’ve never taken a spin class.  I know, I know, its hard to imagine, but I’ve always gotten my cardio fix from Zumba or running.  Well tonight the stars aligned.  My circuit burn teacher was subbing tonight and barre was cancelled, so the 30/30 (spin plus weights) class it was tonight.

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The class title says it all, but for clarity its about 35 minutes spin followed by weight training.  It’s the perfect balance of cardio plus weight training.  Undoubtedly, it was also the perfect introduction to spin for the uninitiated (myself included.)  Admittedly, I was a bit nervous before class.

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I definitely learned a couple of key things today about spin.  First, running shoes aren’t the best fit for the spin bikes.  It is much better to have a narrower shoe (see below) that fits into the pedal straps.  Secondly, bring a towel.  Even after only 30 minutes, I was sweating buckets. Truthfully, it didn’t take too long for the sweat to be dripping.   A headband is also a must!

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Thirdly, the seat isn’t super comfortable.  However,  this discomfort supposedly abates after taking a series of classes it gets better.   Honestly,  I didn’t find it horribly uncomfortable, but again I didn’t do a full 60 minutes of spin.  Moreover, make sure you hydrate wisely.   I brought two bottles of water, but I also took electrolyte tabs before class.  You could also add Nuun tablets (electrolyte tabs) to your water bottle.  This will make sure you replace the minerals you lost as you sweat.

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Additionally, as with any other workout, you gotta respect your body.  I have tendon/ligament issues in both of my ankles.  Consequently, there were times when my ankles didn’t tolerate 2nd or 3rd position.   When this happened, I simply went back to sitting to take pressure off my ankles.  Lastly, I really enjoyed the class and variety is the spice of life.  If you only do the same workouts over and over, they lose their efficacy.  When you introduce variety it keeps your body guessing leading to a more effective workout.

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Tomorrow it will be back to running and yoga for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed my interlude with spin.  Tonight’s song performed by Shakira is “Whenever, Wherever.”

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