Finished Objects

In my last post, I mentioned that I have been doing a lot of knitting in my absence on my blog. So I thought I would update everyone on what I have actually accomplished in that time. I sometimes even amaze myself.

First up, the Sweet Pea Shawl that I did as a TEST/Sample knitting for hire. I don’t recall the yarn right now (I will look it up and post it later), but I can tell you that I loved it. I would definitely work with it again.

I also completed this One-Shoulder Tunic as a TEST/Sample knitting for hire project. This yarn is a new yarn that will be out soon, it is Atlante made for Naturally, and I believe it will be sold by Fiber Trends. I love this yarn too. It is so much fun doing TEST/Sample knits because I get to work with so many different yarns that I may not get to otherwise.

I also started two new projects, which I don’t have pictures of just yet. I started another Kitty Pi to match my newly redecorated basement, and I also started the Eye of Partridge Shawl. I will take some pictures of both of these and post them in the next few days.

I also still have my Central Park Hoodie on the needles, which hasn’t seen any progress since I have been trying to get these other projects completed. And I am almost finished with the MotherLode Socks, which seem to be taking forever. Hopefully, I will completed these socks before I start another pair.

Peacocks - Toe-up Socks

I know it has been a really long time since I last posted. Life has been busy this summer and I have been working on writing the pattern for these.

I hope you enjoy this pattern. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Here are a few more pictures.

One day late..

I had every intention to post my weigh in yesterday, but I spent most of the afternoon instant messaging a friend and didn’t have much time for blogging. Therefore, you are getting this post one day late. The good news is, although minute, there was weight lost this past week of one pound, which I feel pretty good about, considering I didn’t workout for 5 days while I was out of town. As I mentioned in my last post, I was careful about what I ate all weekend and I did move quite a bit running after the twins, who will be turning 2 at the end of May.

In addition, according to my body fat analyzer, I have lost two and a half pounds of fat since last week. So even though the scale only shows a one pound lost I actually lost 2½ pounds of fat and gained a 1½ of muscle. See the body does have muscle memory, and it is remembering very quickly.

I haven’t noticed it as much in my arms, but I have noticed that my legs are getting much stronger. I mentioned before that I have been doing some mini exercises at the office, one of those exercises has been wall squats. Before I left for the weekend, I could do the wall squat for one minute and I was struggling the last few seconds. If you have ever tried wall squats they are not as easy as they appear. When I did the wall squat on Tuesday I noticed that after one minute I felt I could go a little longer so I went a total of 1 minute 15 seconds, which still wasn’t quite long enough. Yesterday I did nearly 1 minute 40 seconds without a problem. Today, I will try to max out to see just how long I can actually go.

Also, since I have been wearing the heart monitor I have also noticed some improvements in my cardiovascular fitness as well. My heart rate is recovering even more quickly and doesn’t go up quite as high. I do still want to push myself to work harder but I want to give my heart a chance to get stronger before I overdue it. There are a few fitness tests over at MSN.com I would like to do this weekend to see exactly where I am. Then after a few more weeks I can take them again to see how much I have improved.

Weekend Adventures

I am back from Maryland! Now, I need a vacation from my vacation. The weekend was very busy and there wasn’t much time for relaxing. On Friday, I started the weekend by meeting up with a friend from high school who I had not seen in more than 20 years. We enjoyed a meal together and were able to catch up on where our lives have taken us over the last 20 years. Unfortunately we only had a few hours together but it was so good to catch up in person rather than just through email. The two hours we spent chatting was the most relaxation I got all weekend.

My mom and I had planned to go to the Sheep and Wool Festival both Saturday and Sunday, but of course my sister through a wrench into those plans. She moved into a new house a few months ago and planned a house warming party for that day. Which meant that my mom had to cart my niece back and forth to her play rehearsal, which also meant that we couldn’t get up bright and early Saturday morning to head to the festival.

In an attempt to visit with my grandmother, we decided to attend the house warming party and then go to the festival in the afternoon. There was so much commotion at my sister’s house with all the kids, my grandmother and I barely got a chance to talk. So, we met up with her for dinner Sunday evening.

While we waiting for the play practice to end on Saturday, my mom and I went to the computer store to shop for a new laptop, and I talked her into buying an iPod, and wireless keyboard. Then we went back to the computer store on Sunday to purchase a wireless router and a new monitor for her desktop computer. We then spent most of the day Sunday installing new computer components and getting her laptop and iPod set up.

We only made it to the festival late Saturday afternoon, and we missed the Ravelry meet-up, which I was totally bummed about. But, I did get to spend a lot of quality time with my mom, nieces and nephew, and my grandmother, so not all was lost. Except for the fact that I didn’t workout the entire weekend while I was there. I did watch my diet so I am hoping the worse that could happen is that I haven’t lost any weight. We will see when I do the official weigh in tomorrow. I am not looking forward to it.

Needless to say, it was a very busy weekend and I am so happy to be home. It always takes me a few days to re-adjust to my normal life after all the ciaos that I encounter while visiting my mom. Steve and I have lots of shows to catch up on this week so I am looking forward to some relaxing evenings this week. And this weekend I will be having my knitting friends over for our Saturday Club, and that will definitely be relaxing.

I don’t have the cable to my camera here at work today, otherwise I would post pictures of my 2 year old niece and nephew in the sweaters I finished for them a month ago. So, look for them tomorrow.

Weigh in Wednesday

I have stuck to my exercise program this week and I have managed my diet well and it has paid off with a two-pound weight loss. I am actually amazed with a two-pound loss because with every prior attempt to take off this weight I have been lucky to lose ½ - 1 pound in a week. I do have to admit that the increased intensity of my workouts have been contributing factor, not to mention the fact that have been working out twice a day. The past few days, I have slacked off on the 2x workout each day, but I have managed to get up a little earlier so I can squeeze in nearly an hour of exercise first thing in the morning. Plus, I am still keeping up with my mini-workouts at the office.

In addition to keeping up the intensity of my workouts, I have also managed to drink at least 64 oz of water almost every day. This has been difficult task for me in the past. I always seem to get busy and forget to drink, especially on the weekends. Sunday and yesterday, were the only two days that I flaked and didn’t get at least 64 oz drank. I think this is also a contributing factor in my weight loss.

This weekend, I am headed to the Maryland to visit my mom and attend the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I know it is going to take a bit of planning on my part to make sure I don’t sabotage my diet while at the festival, because I am sure there will be loads of bad things to eat. If I go prepared, I can know I can remain in control and not overindulge. I hope I can also keep up with my workout program while I am there. It seems when I go home for a visit, I fall in to a routine of not working out and eating way too much.

I will try to get in one more post this week with project updates, but if not I hope everyone has a great weekend, and maybe I will see you at the festival.

Fitness Friday

I now proclaim Friday blog posts as Fitness Friday. I will devote my Friday posts to my fitness goals and accomplishments, and you can watch for Weigh In Wednesday starting next week.

Therefore, for the first Fitness Friday I will share with you what I have been doing this week. My plan has been to get in two workouts each day, one in the morning and one in the evening after work. You might ask why two workouts a day, and the reason is because sometimes I find it difficult to devote enough time to do a longer workout either in the morning or at night. This way I will get at least 60 minutes of exercise in each day, 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night. It sounds like a hassle, and it is, but it will all be worth it if I can accomplish my goal to lose 30 lbs.

My main goal this week has been to increase the intensity of my workouts. For the past two years, when I have worked out it has been very casually, and most of the time I barely broke a sweat. I know this is a contributing factor for my weight gain, and if I want to take it off I am going to have to step it up a notch, or two.

This week, I started doing The Firm Workouts again and boy are they killers. So far getting up early to workout has been great. It has been somewhat difficult to keep the intensity up when I have just rolled out of bed, but I have pushed myself to make it work. Although, I did sleep in on Wednesday, which meant I needed to push myself for a longer workout when I got home from work.

With the weighted work of The Firm in the morning, I have decided my evening activity would be more aerobic than weight training, so I have been jog/walking on the treadmill for at least 30 minutes every night. I am not much of a runner, and have been trying to get use to it, but it is a lot harder than it looks. I have started out slow and I am hoping that in a few weeks I will see some improvement in my stamina, because right now it sucks.

In addition, I have also started wearing a heart monitor to make sure I am working at my peak. Or over my peak, Whoops! It is rather interesting to see how quickly your heart rate goes up and comes back down with exertion. I am hoping to get a new heart rate monitor that will also provide an estimated calorie count too.

Plus, my fitness activities don’t end there. I also do random exercises throughout the day at work. Such as, wall squats, push-ups on the desk, triceps dips off the edge of the desk and seated crunches. Not only do they help to get my blood pumping in the afternoon when I could really go for a nap, but they also help to strengthen my muscles.

I am documenting my workout progress as well as my heart rate average during the workouts; and I hope over time I will see improvements which will keep me motivated to maintain my course towards fitness and weight loss.

In addition to documenting my workouts, I have also been documenting my calorie intake to make sure I am not eating too much or too little, and to make sure I am getting all the Daily Recommended Values of vitamins and minerals. I have found in the past, by restricting calories too much it is more difficult to maintain a diet for long periods of time. When I tried to limit my calories to less than 1400 a day I could do it for a day maybe two, but then I would be so hungry that I would binge on the most fattening snack food I could find. This time is going to be different and more controlled. My goal is to eat between 1700-1800 calories a day. At that level I would still have a 500 calorie deficit per day, plus with my workouts, which should provide close to another 500 calories, that would be a 1000 calorie deficit per day, which amounts to 7000 calories per week, or 2 lbs of weight loss, at least in theory.

As of today, I have not seen the scale budge, but I am hoping that will all change come next week when I start Weigh In Wednesday. Stay tuned for the results.

Spring Cleaning

There is just something about the spring thaw that makes me want to clean! Like most people, most of the time I don’t like to clean; I do it out of obligation. However, for some reason, in the springtime, I do like to clean; and clean is what I did for most of the weekend.

For the first time ever, I not only cleaned the inside of the windows, but also the outside. Sure, I have cleaned the windows before, but usually just the inside because it is always too difficult to get to the outside of the windows. One of these days, we are going to get new windows, the kind that can tilt in, which are so much easier to clean. Anyway, Steve pulled out the ladder and helped. If I had to guess, I do not think those windows have ever been cleaned from the outside. Nevertheless, the pay off was worth the effort. Every window in our house now sparkles.

On top of that, I also began the process of scrubbing the kitchen floor. I say began, because after working on it for 2½ hours yesterday I didn’t have the energy to finish it. This was after spending 3 hours cleaning the windows and other parts of the house, so do not think I am lazy.

I typically mop the floor it on a regular basis, but it always looks so dingy. You see, we have a type of linoleum that has some texture and the dirt gets down in those groves and it just does not come up with the mop, no matter how hard I scrub, and I do scrub. In fact, I typically scrub so hard that the sponge on the mop falls off after just a few uses. I have yet to find a mop that can withstand my mopping style. With all the sponges, I buy, I have even thought of buying stock in the mop company. So, if you know of a good mop please let me know

Anyway, I was determined to get this floor clean so armed with a scrub brush and a spray bottle of dishwashing liquid and water I set out to see what the floor really looked like. I was truly amazed at the dirt that came out of those little groves in the linoleum. Now all I want to do is finish the project so I can enjoy the new floor.

You might be wondering why I was using dishwashing liquid to clean the floor, so let me tell you, even if you were not wondering. A few years back one of our cats got sick with kidney disease and after doing a lot of research, I found that many of the cleaning products that we had been using around the house were harmful to pets. I think of all the times I mopped the floor and the cats would go walking through only to pick up chemicals on their feet, which they would proceed to lick and ingest. I do not know how harmful the chemicals were, but I was determined to go more natural with my cleaning products. I have since switched to using mostly vinegar and water, and just this weekend decided to try dishwashing liquid. I am amazed at how well it worked and I also thought of the money I would save by using these products instead of buying the more expensive cleaners, that can also be harmful to pets.

 

Fun packages in the mail

I have been meaning to tell you about the fun little package I got in the mail last week from Lynne. I seems I won her random drawing on her blog. And this is what I got. 

 I have no clue what I will make with it, any suggestions.

Goals need to be set

Over the past 2½ years, I have packed on the pounds, in fact over 20 pounds. I could go as far as to say that this weight gain isn’t all my fault because I was in a car accident 2½ years ago and I suffered from whiplash, which resulted in me not being able to workout for an extended period. For at least 2 months after the accident I could barely move let alone exercise, and since then I have had a difficult time staying consistent with my diet and exercise.

Technically only 15 months of the past 2½ years can be blamed on the accident, because it took that long for me to be feeling well enough to maintain a consistent exercise program. The problem lies in the fact that after 15 months of doing very little exercise, due to pain, I had adapted to a life style without exercise and staying fit wasn’t as high on my priority list as it once was.

Prior to the accident I religiously exercised 3-5 days a week, sometimes enduring back-to-back classes. In fact, I taught kickboxing and aerobic classes for nearly 14 years and was probably in the best shape of my life. Therefore, after the accident, the thought of not working out was difficult for me to get past. Even with the pain I was in I still wanted to get up and move, which probably played a part in why recovery took so long. Instead of taking a break and letting my body heal I pushed myself to do more than my body was ready for. In hindsight, I wish I had taken my own advice and let my body rest. Nonetheless, the die-hard exerciser in me wouldn’t let that happen.

Now, 2½ years later, I am still paying the price of my stubbornness, but now I finally feel like that can all change. Since the beginning of this year, I have been maintaining a consistent exercise program. By far, I am not working out with the intensity that I once had, but the fact that I am being consistent is the key to being successful with my weight loss, and I am already starting to see the fruits of my labor with the loss of 7 lbs.

In an effort to be more accountable for my actions, I am going to follow the lead of my friend Amby who recently posted a similar tracker on her blog. I am hoping the public knowledge of my weight loss or gain will encourage me to stick to my program and force me to be more diligent in my efforts to take off the weight I have put on. Therefore, here is my current status:

Weight: 153 lbs, down 7 lbs since the beginning of the year
Goal: 125 lbs, or at least the ability to fit in a size 6 again
Deadline: October 2008

Ravelry Fundraiser 2008

Ravelry has brought so much to so many knitters. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think knitting, finding new patterns and meeting new people could be so easy and fun. Jess and Casey have brought Ravelry to all of us; and to many of us it is the best thing that could have every happened to the knitting world. So why not give back to them and help them to buy additional equipment to keep Ravelry growing.

Check out the 10 Lousy Bucks group/forum to find out the details on making a donation, and when you make a donation in the next few weeks you will receive a chance to win some fabulous prizes. So take a moment and give back to Ravelry.