Alien Spouse

Action Day!

With the internet being down all weekend, you have missed out on my blogging about some truly epic napping, but after a very restful couple of days I did actually do something on Monday. It being the 4th of July I had the day off, and I woke up with the urge to do something new and exciting, like go to the climbing tower in town, and climb to the top of it.

So I did.

I did quite well on the sloped wall, and scrambled up the green route (on the left) and the blue route (that I'm at the top of on the right!), but the straight wall was a lot more challenging.

I got quite close to the top of the straight wall when a grasshopper-type insect jumped out of the hand-hold I was reaching for and landed on my face. I had no idea that a jumping insect without wings could get so high, so frankly it freaked me out a bit and I decided to come down. Well, it was a combination of the insect, not being able to work where next to put my hands or feet, and this being my third climb of the day which meant my arms were getting tired; all of which which left me feeling suddenly not very confident up there. So I came down before I got too over-whelmed, but I fully intend to go back and get to the top next time!

After that I suggested to Doc C that we go for a nice gentle hike around our favourite local lake, and that was very pleasant too.

All in all it was an action packed day, and that was well before the major thunderstorm or any of the various fireworks displays.

Friday : And Relax...

Today I got stuff done at work, as one does.

When I came home I took off my make-up, put on my exercise clothes and watched last night's "So You Think You Can Dance" with a cup of tea. Then I Zumba'd, but I'm glad none of the judges were there to watch, I'd never have made it through the initial auditions.

I also played a demo of a PS3 game called "Flower", which just involved swooping around as petal on the wind and bringing other flowers into bloom. Not exactly good botanical science, but bloody gorgeous and very relaxing. I got Doc C to give it a go after dinner and he thought it was lovely too. Not something you say often of video games; actually Doc is playing the "Watchmen" demo now, and that involves slot more violence and mayhem.

Speaking of dinner, this evening Doc grilled burgers (veggie for me, naturally) and half a lobster tail each, with a large salad. Please excuse me now whilst I curl up like a cat and luxuriously digest the tasty.

Neck Ache and New Games.

My neck is cricked, so I woke up feeling achey and horrible today.  Fortunately I'd already put together breakfast before I want to bed last night, so it just needed to go in the oven for half an hour before Doc and I could enjoy baked french toast.  It was delicious, even though we didn't have any pecans, and I will definitely be making that again.

After that I took some pain killers and went to have a long nap in the loft, which Edith joined me for.  That definitely helped but meant that Doc was super bored by the time I woke up.  I'd suggested a while ago that we take our large stack of PS2 games to Gamestop to trade in and exchange for some PS3 games, so that's what we did.  Different games are worth different amounts when you trade them in, based on how likely they are to be re-sold; this meant we got just over a dollar for the PS2 EyeToy and the four games that went with it, whilst Doc's copy of Dark Alliance fetched $19.  We exchanged them for Zumba and Red Dead Redemption (which Doc C is playing right now!), as well as a second Move Controller.  Having two controllers means we'll be able to play table tennis against each other, or I'll be able to have a shield in one hand and a sword in the other when I'm in the gladiator arena.  Hurrah!

We Just Need a Title To Create Some Buzz.

Over the summer the University campus plays host to a number of different associations and camps.

This week we have both Cheerleader Camp and the Eastern Apicultural Society Conference (a helpful e-mail explained that this would involve beekeepers, and several swarms of their charges, congregating on a lawn close to my office).  This means we have both overly excitable teenage girls and hives of bees within fairly close proximity to each other.

I don't know who is in charge of scheduling these things, but clearly they have never seen a low budget horror movie.

Saturday Night.

When last we spoke I mentioned having bought plants, and the saga continues with Doc C carefully re-potted all three of my Peace Lillies for me.  We'd bought them nice new matching pots and Doc lovingly added some manure to make them feel at home, and then we packed them all in the back of the car to drop off at my office on the way to bowling.  At the first sharp corner the largest lily took a dive, knocked over the medium lily and spilled wet manure all over the back of the car.  The Doc was not what you might call pleased about this.  There may have been some swearing.  We carried on, I was sort of reaching around the driver's seat to hold the plant up for the rest of the journey and we surveyed the situation once we got to the office.  Fortunately only the large lily had really lost any soil, but it was still an impressive amount.  We scooped up as much as we could and packed it back into the pot, so hopefully when I go into work on Wednesday all the plants will be none the worse for their little adventure.

After this skirmish with inanimate flora, we went bowling and I won the first round!  It was extremely satisfying, but I lost whatever luck/skill/knack by the next round and came last with a score of less than half of my first one.  Ah well, that's how these things happen with me, I find.  It would probably help if the bowling alley served alcohol, because I find that after two beers my snooker/pool playing improves tremendously, and I'm pretty sure my bowling would as well.

Then we moved onto watch "The Big Lebowski" which was really fun, the cinema has been bought out by new management and they are really trying to encourage people to eat by putting out tables and chairs instead of rows of seats, and having waitresses come to take orders and get you re-fills whilst you are enjoying the film.  One waitress was on rollerskates, which was particularly cool.  Somehow I'd never previously seen the whole of "The Big Lebowski", and it was really fun seeing it on a big screen surrounded by fans who were quoting their favourite parts of the script as they came up.  Usually I hate talking in cinemas, but that's usually because it indicated the people chatting aren't really watching and that lack of respect for the film itself and for other audience members really bugs me; however, when it's fans clearly loving every moment of a film they love, well, how can you be cross about that?  I find it very endearing actually!  Or that good will towards all fellow audience members might have been because the cinema was also serving White Russians, and I find those to be a tasty and enjoyable cocktail.

Whip It! (2009)

We just got back from seeing "Whip It!", which is SO much fun!  It's Drew Barrymore's directorial debut and it's about Ellen Page's Bliss Cavendar discovering a roller derby league in Austin, Texas.

You have got to give it to Drew, she can pick a project and the casting was spot on for every single role.  On the track Drew herself is a charming maniac, Juliette Lewis was particularly inspired as the bitchy "Iron Maven", and Andrew Wilson (who will always be Beef Supreme in the Alien Spouse house) is just the most patient coach ever. Off the track Cavendar's parents are played by Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern, do I even need to say how great they are?  I thought not.  Plus Alia Shawkat as Bliss' best friend Pasha is so sweetly rebellious and fun, she's so great at running good girl interference to help her friend do what she wants.

I loved Ellen Page in this, and her journey from a reluctant beauty pageant queen to a rough tough roller derby jammer via a pair of Barbie rollerboots is really enjoyable to watch and oddly touching.

Mainly it was a well constructed film about a group of strong women having a great time on their own terms and covered in great tattoos, fishnets and attitude.  What is not to love?

Oh, and the sound track was rocking!

Yeah, I kind of liked it.  I s'pose, it was alright.  (Squeee!)

Smiley Face, New Bike.

Doc announced this morning that he was going to look at bikes today, with a view to purchasing one. When he moved to London he brought his trusty bike, The Beast, with him and I remember sitting on the grass outside the National Portrait Gallery when we first started dating and seeing him come cycling up and thinking what a handsome devil he was, so I was all for him getting another bike.  For the past year or more I have been trying my best to persuade him that it would be a good investment in his health, both physical and mental, because the man needs to burn off energy some how!

There are some really good bike shops in town so Doc didn't have to travel far for his fix.  He was gone for about three hours, I didn't go because I would just have been in the way really and I wanted to watch more episodes of "Fantasy Island", then I got a text announcing Doc C was a very happy man.  The smiley face I super-imposed on this picture looks positively dour in comparison to the expression he had on his face when he got home with his new friend.

It's a Tarmac made by Specialized, with an all carbon fiber frame, so it weighs a whole 17 pounds.  That's slightly less than the cats weigh, and you definitely can't get anywhere at all on them.

Active Day.

Today being Monday we went to the gym before work, and then after work we went to have a Pilates mat class.  I am really really tired now.

I wouldn't be surprised if I just fell asleep in the middle of a sentanzzzzzzzzzzzzz................ zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz.................zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....................zzzzzzzzzzzzz...........zzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Exercise! It's Good for You! Apparently!

We went to the gym this morning before work, which wasn't as horrendous as I thought it would be.  The Doc is already going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I intend to join him for the elliptical part of his work-out.  Except not this Friday because the gym doesn't open until 11, so I won't be able to go before work.  What a disappointment.

I don't really like going to gyms, but I do need to get more cardio and this is the most efficient way of doing that.  I don't have to get up any earlier to fit in my work outs, plus it's free for University staff, and I get major brownie points from both Doc C and my Mum.

Actually it's not really the exercise itself I object to, it's really the showering in public that I hate.  Fortunately the women's changing rooms has individual shower cubicles, which have individual changing booths with curtains.  Problem solved!

Except, this week being spring break, they were taking the opportunity of very few people being on campus to clean the changing rooms.  Which included washing the shower curtains.  Which I didn't find out until I was already sweaty, disheveled and racing the clock to get to my office on time.  So I had no choice but to shower in an open cubicle, with no way of preserving my privacy other than strategic choice of cubicle, and, oh yeah, the water was cold.

sigh.

And people wonder why exercise isn't more popular.

It's A Big World After All.

For the most part I like Americans; in fact, to paraphrase Victor Kiam, I like them so much, I married one!  However (please, you knew that was coming), there is a tendency for some Americans to believe that the United States of America is the entire world.  I was reminded of this when I saw an TV advert for the Superbowl, which used the phrase "The World's Most Popular Sporting Event" without a whiff of irony, despite the fact only America competes in it.  I mean, really!  There are so many events which are competed in by sportsman from around the world, but the Superbowl is frankly not one of them.

It's a bit like when we went to the hardware store in November, and we started chatting to one of the guys who worked there.  I asked how the day after Thanksgiving had been for them, because over here that is when people go insane and try to do all of their Christmas shopping.  He said it had been busy, and then he very matter-of-factly said that it was "known all over the world as Black Friday", because it was such a major shopping day.  Hmmm, I hate to be rude, but I actually came from somewhere else in the world, and the only Black Friday I had ever heard of, previous to living in the US, was when the stock market crashed in the 80s.  The Black Friday shopping frenzy is not a worldwide phenomenon, no Toys-R-Us workers were trampled to death in Swindon on that day last year I can assure you.

This is also one of the things I've always found bizarre about the Roman Polanski case, because he skipped the country before his trial for sex with a minor, there is still a warrant out for his arrest in the US.  This means he can never come back (well he could, but he'd be arrested), and the way some Americans talk about that you'd think it was worse than death, in fact they nearly always use the term exile.  I always think this is most odd, because Polanski has been living and working in Paris, and has been perfectly happy with that arrangement for 30 odd years.  Paris is really quite lovely you know, even if it isn't part of the Land of the Free.

Gosh.  Rant over.  Clearly I've been holding that one in for a while now!

Idea: Range of Exercise Clothes for Intellectuals.

Sometimes I have great ideas that I am just not in a position to actually implement, the oft quoted example being the lavish mini-series of "Mame" and the sequel "Around The World With Auntie Mame" starring Megan Mullally (I'm going to keep mentioning that one, until someone steals the concept.  Unless McG is reading this. In which case: Yikes).

It's mainly casting, which would have been my dream career, but I do also develop product lines in my head sometimes.  Most recently I've been mulling over an idea I came up with when I was a teenager that I still think would be a winner.
When I was studying "Hamlet" for my Eng. Lit. A-Level I thought that work-out gear that had the quote "Oh! that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew", would be great.  I'm sure I've seen that phrase on t-shirts before, but I am thinking of a whole range of clothes specifically designed for exercise with that and other appropriate literary quotations.  You know track suits or yoga gear with lines from Dostoyevsky on, that type of thing.

The market would be intellectuals, or just people with intellectual pretensions, to wear their brains on their sleeves whilst on the elliptical machine.  Of course the range would also accommodate those people who want their tracksuits to say more than "Just Do It" whilst they are slumped on the sofa watching telly.

It would be cool, right?

Breakfast with Champions.

It's Fall Break, so the faculty and students had yesterday and today off, unfortunately office staff aren't so lucky.  So Doc C dropped me off at work this morning and went to get something to eat at our favourite breakfast place.

Whilst he was there an enormous pink SUV pulled up and two guys got out, and came to get breakfast too.  As it happened they sat at the table next to Doc, so as the two of them were chatting to each other Doc realised that one was a former professional surfer, and the other was probably a writer for a magazine.  He was tipped off by their discussing surfing with Tom Cruise.

When he told me about it, I asked him to describe the surfer and all I got was "He was huge!  He was just this really muscly guy, so I didn't laugh at the car!", so I tried another tack "Was he bald?" and The Doc said yes he was.

As it happens I can only name one former professional surfer and that is Kelly Slater; which was why I asked if the guy was bald, so I found a picture of him on-line to show Doc.  And Doc was pretty sure that was the same guy he'd been sat next to at breakfast this morning.  He thinks.  Maybe.

No clue what a surfer is doing 3000 feet up a mountain though.

And, Yes, There Was A Marching Band.

When not catering to the whims of our new overlords, after all they graciously allow us to go to work during the day to earn enough money for the better quality tuna, and I have been doing a few other things.  For example on Saturday I attended the University's Homecoming Tailgate, an event I will now attempt to explain as best as a British woman with no understanding of the appeal of organised sports can.

Essentially every year the university (and as I understand most American universities) have a specific weekend which they designate as Homecoming.  Former students come back to town from all over country, and there is a big football game.

Before games people gather early in the car parks and set up deck chairs to have a sort of picnic involving quite a lot of beer usually.  This is called tailgating.  Um, I think that is all there is to it but I feel like I must be missing something because I just do not get it.  The Homecoming Tailgate was much larger than is usual so, instead of just using the car parks, it involved a large field full of mini marquees, who all seemed to have barbecues on the go.  The marquee pitches had been assigned to different societies, clubs and departments who were giving out information about themselves along with the hot dogs.  Pretty much every single person there was wearing team t-shirts, or team colours.

I was manning the program's marquee, so I was sort of working but it was quite fascinating from an anthropological viewpoint.

Teeny Tiny Turf War!

So apparently hummingbirds are very territorial.  Our balcony is now the scene of a thumb-size territorial dispute, complete with miniature mid-air dog fights.  It's like Snoopy and the Red Barron out there.

It's really interesting to watch them, and work out their techniques and strategies.  Mainly it involves flying very fast at the other bird, with maybe some high-pitched squeaking, but they don't appear to physically fight one another, thank goodness.  If that happened we would take down the feeder immediately. 

Of course now we're starting to recognise some of the different birds, so I'm sure we'll start to take sides soon.  And actually wouldn't the Fighting Hummingbirds make a great team name?  For a netball team maybe?  Very girly, but it has a ring to it I think.

Kinetic Phase Three Week Two: Complete!

I'd call this week a B+, and it's been particularly tricky because it's so muggy here this week.  I'm exhausted without lifting a finger, let alone rolling out the exercise mat.  Anyway, this week I've cut a slight corner by adding in the trip to Asheville, but we were on the move pretty constantly all afternoon so I'd say there was some cardiovascular benefit to that.

1. Yoga
2. Kinetic - B
3. Yoga
4. Kinetic - A
5. Walking around Asheville for 5 hours
6. Yoga

The measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 37.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Bicep - 11.5 Inches (No change from last measurement)
• Waist - 33.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Hips - 40.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement) 
• Thigh - 21.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)

I got my new yoga mat(brown, with blue leaves) on Friday, but I've had to leave it unrolled in the spare room for a few days because it smelled very strongly.  I knew it was going to be stinky because quite a few of the reviews on Amazon mention it, so that wasn't too much of an unpleasant surprise.

I also bought a yoga mat bag, and that's a lovely fresh shade of green called hedgerow.  I'm seriously considering going to classes on my lunch hours, so naturally a smart bag is very important.  I also paid $6.99 for a grab bag which could contain any five items in stock, and I got some really good stuff.  I got two work out DVD's (one yoga, the other some type of yoga martial arts hybrid), a DVD reflexology tutorial, a CD of music written specifically for tai chi and a light resistance cord.  Naturally I went straight on-line to see how much this stuff would have cost usually and I would have paid about sixty dollars normally, so I definitely got a good deal there!

Kinetic Phase Three Week One: Complete!

I'm back on schedule! I like keeping to the twelve weeks cycle of Kinetic, it makes it feel like I'm working towards a goal which is clearly in sight.

This week's score is a B+.  Hoorah!

1. Yoga
2. Kinetic - B
3. Yoga
4. Kinetic - B
5. Yoga
6. Kinetic - A

I just completely forgot to take notes on what I'd actually done for the Kinetic routines this week.

The measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 37.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Bicep - 11.5 Inches (No change from last measurement)
• Waist - 34.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Hips - 41.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement) 
• Thigh - 21.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)

Pink-and-White Baseball

If you were to rifle through my handbag, you would find a pink-and-white baseball.

It's regulation.

Kinetic: Week Off!

I didn't intend to take this week off, but as I only managed to actually do one work out (for which I got an A+), I think that's what it was in reality. 

Doc is teaching summer school classes in the mornings, and that change to our usual routine has just thrown me completely.  I need to be getting up at about 6.30 now to fit in the work outs before work, but every morning I would tell myself I'd do it when I got home and then roll over for another hour of snoozing.  Needless to say in the evening it was far more tempting to watch "Ocean's 11" than get in my cardio vascular for the day.

Next week I need to be a lot more focussed.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Twelve: Complete.

I'll be the first to admit that the second phase of Kinetic has not gone quite as smoothly as the first, but it has gone considerably faster!  Wow!  Twelve weeks has just flown by this time.

1. Yoga
2. A+ - Two Combat, One Cardio and One Mind/Body.  I've taken the difficulty level back down to easy for the time being, until I'm sure my ankle is completely better.
3. Yoga
4. Yoga
5. A+ - Two Cardio, One Combat and One Mind/Body.  Oh, that was fun! 
6. Yoga

That was a pretty good week, I've been very careful with my ankle and it doesn't hurt anymore which is great!  As well as using supportive inserts, I've also been using a baseball to massage the soles of my feet, I've been stretching out the tendon and putting an ice pack on it after exercise.  So essentially anything I could think of that might possibly help and I think that's paying off.

As for the measurements:

• Bust - 37.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Bicep - 11.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Waist - 34.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)
• Hips - 41.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement) 
• Thigh - 21.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last measurement)

Well, Hoorah!  It seems that I'm still losing weight even though I've cut down on the number of Kinetic workouts, and added in yoga instead.  That is exactly what I was hoping for.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Eleven: Complete (If We're Counting Yoga, and I Am)

This week has mainly been about resting my ankle, so I only did one Kinetic work out and the rest of the week was yoga.

1. A -  One Combat, One Cardio and a Mind/Body.  I choose very carefully, making sure there wasn't anything that required too much running around.  I was very pleased with how the work out went, and I beat a personal best on the Mind/Body.  Hoorah!

I think it was worth taking it easy this week, I've been wearing my arch support insoles every day and my ankle feels so much better.  I also dug out my trainers for working out in, and it really did illustrate that I should have been wearing them from the start.

I'm not going to bother measuring myself this week, I'm fairly certain that I won't have lost anything and I don't want to know if I've put any on going into the twelfth week!

Kinetic Phase Two Week Ten: Not Exactly Complete.

The good news is my average score for this week is an A+, the bad news is that I only did two workouts so I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.  I think that is probably more like a C.

1. A+ - To make sure that I'm setting myself good workouts I checked back in to see what Matt had set me on Personal Trainer mode, and I was given Two Cardio, One Combat and a Mind/Body.  Excellent start to the week!
2. A+ - A short but challenging workout of Two Combat and a Mind/Body.  I beat one of my personal bests, which I was very happy about indeed!

Unfortunately the plantar fasciitis that effects my left ankle has flared up this week and it's particularly painful, so I'm taking things very slowly for the time being. 

I'm not intending to completely stop exercising, because, from what I've read, inactivity and excess weight really exacerbate the condition, so I think that I need to aim to do is strengthen that ankle with exercise and stretching.  That means I definitely need to keep going with an exercise programme albeit with modifications.  I've put arch supports in my shoes now, and I also bought an ice pack to treat the ankle when it really aches.

Unsurprisingly The Measurements for this week show no change from last week:

• Bust - 38.00 Inches (No change from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 34.5 Inches (No change from last week)
• Hips - 41.5 Inches (No change from last week) 
• Thigh - 22.00 Inches (No change from last week)

Kinetic Phase Two Week Nine: Complete.

This week's grade is a B.

1. B - Two Combat, a Cardio and my least favourite of the Mind/Body Games.  I beat my personal high score on two of the games which I'm really chuffed about.
2. Yoga - I'm going to try and alternate Kinetic with some yoga, because I feel like that would be most helpful for me.  This morning I got out the plinky-plonky new age music CD that we were given on our honeymoon spa day, and I started with a nice basic routine lasting ten minutes, I'll build up to longer practices.
3. B - Two Cardio, Two Combat and a Mind/Body.  I worked really hard for that B!  My core muscles are slightly achey from yesterday's yoga, which is exactly what I was hoping for from this combination of exercise programmes. 
4. Yoga - Twenty minute practice today.  Very nice to feel all the muscles stretch, not so nice to hear the odd creak.
5. A - Three Cardio and a Mind/Body.  Exhausting but hopefully worth it!
6. Yoga - Thirty minutes, that's probably the level I'll aim to keep it at.

The Measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 38.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 34.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 41.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week) 
• Thigh - 22.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

Whilst we were out a few weeks ago at a bowling alley I saw a couple of young boys, probably around six and eight, out with their family, both drinking Diet Dr Peppers and eating giant bags of Doritos.  At the same time I noticed another father walk up to a vending machine and his son of maybe twelve yelled his beverage preference across the room, and it was for Diet Mountain Dew.

Small boys chugging diet soft drinks?  Is it just me, or is that weird and a bit wrong? 

To put this in context I should explain that I never drink any sort of diet carbonated soft drinks (unless the waitress brings the wrong drink, and then I'll not want to make a fuss, so I'll drink it), mainly because my Mum discovered the horrors of aspartame when I was about fifteen and made sure I knew it was not a good thing.  Also they taste disgusting, to me at any rate, I find that artificial sweeteners change the flavour to such an extent that it's just not a pleasant thing to drink so I don't really see the point.

Add to that a dentist who convinced me at an impressionable age that I had "soft teeth" (since then other dentists have scoffed at this idea) and went on and on about how much sugar a normal soft drink has in it, so I simply don't drink soft drinks very often.  On average I would estimate I have a Dr Peppers or a Coke about once or twice a month.

So whilst I do understand that not everyone has soft drink avoidance drummed into them, I still thought it was so strange to see these young boys drinking a diet soft drink.  It seemed to be such a odd signal to be sending to them.  Their bodies haven't even finished growing, and they are already being told it's too big.

When we came here to house hunt I remember watching a very large woman piling up her plate high with biscuits and gravy, and a couple of doughnuts too.  It was a mountain of food with absolutely no nutritional value, but loads of calories.  She washed it all down with a Diet Coke.  I almost felt like saying "You know it's not magic, right?  It doesn't reduce the calories of the rest of your stomach contents", but I decided against it.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Eight: Complete.

This week's grade is a solid B, which is fine because I'm still getting used to the new set up of things.  I got one A+ this week, so I know it is possible...

1. B - Two Combat, a Cardio and a Mind/Body.  I was in a bit of a rush, and the nice thing about setting my own workouts is that I really can taylor them for the available time slot.  The Cardio games tend to be 10 minutes each where was the Combat's are a much more intense 5 to 6 minutes, so this morning's work out was was designed to fit neatly into forty minutes but still give me a nice amount of exercise.
2. A+ - Two Cardio, Two Combat and a Mind/Body.  I had more time this morning so I added more Cardio and now I feel very sweaty.
3. B - Three Combat, One Cardio and a Mind/Body.  Have I mentioned how much more running around there is to do on the bigger TV?  I worked SO hard for that B!
4. B - Two Cardio, a Combat and a Mind/Body.  I foolishly choose two games that made me run around ike crazy, and now I need a nap.

The Measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 38.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 34.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 41.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week) 
• Thigh - 22.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

It's nice to see the measurements start dropping again, it's so weird to see the numbers change each week because it feels so gradual.  It's very good that I have the statistics noted down, otherwise I'm not sure I would have believed it myself.

Yesterday morning I was scanning the UK headlines on the Guardian news website (I'm usually a BBC news girl, but I fancied a change of pace) and I noticed a news blog post about Fern Britton's (UK TV Presenter) weight loss; which she has been attributing to eating better and doing more exercise, but it now turns out was primarily due to the fitting of a gastric band.  What this article was actually about was the media backlash against Britton following this revelation, mainly because she's been advocating regular exercise and eating healthily to the point of fronting a major advertising campaign for Ryvita.

Apparently there have been several articles vilifying Britton for lying about how she achieved the weight loss, and thereby deceiving her fans; which oddly mirrors a similar recent US incident involving Star Jones (I think she is also a TV presenter).

By way of contrast, and however much I enjoyed "Sex and the City", one aspect that really frustrated me about the TV series and the film was that through out Carrie has been portrayed as being the possessor of a enviable figure, apparently without putting in any thought or effort to it's maintenance.  Carrie is quite clearly depicted as not having a regular exercise regime (we see all three of the other women jogging or working out, Carrie sometimes joins them but this is clearly not part of her routine); but she is played by Sarah Jessica Parker, a woman who candidly states that she actually works extremely hard to maintain her rock hard abs.  How many fans of the show realise that is the case though?

Reading the article about Fern this morning, I couldn't help but wonder (did you see what I did there?), which fabrication was worse?  Fern's or Carrie's?

At least Fern may have inspired a few people to join a gym, or to have salad for dinner, and isn't that a positive thing when all is said and done?

Golf: No, We Are Not Intending To Take It Up.

As I may have mentioned we really like our new home, and we enjoy our view looking out over the golf course, but this also brings us to our only slight problem.  It's something we perhaps should have foreseen, but it honestly didn't occur to me as a potential source of aggravation.

The issue is that now we live on a golf course people keep telling us that we have to start playing golf, and we do not want to.

Neither of us are remotely interested in playing golf, it does not strike me as the type of game that I will be any good at, and, whilst Doc can hit the ball if forced to, he doesn't really like it either.  Still Doc's family in particular have decided golf will be our new hobby, with his Dad actually saying this week that "Golf is a good game for married couples". Which I'm sure it can be, just not this married couple.

I have a very real concern that at Christmas we will find ourselves unwrapping matching argyle sweaters and quite possibly golf club cosies, with a comedy British theme to them. 

I think I fear the matching jumpers most of all.  shiver.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Seven: Umm...

Quite honestly this week I've been enjoying luxuriating in all this space and quiet in an aesthetically pleasing environment.  I did switch on Kinetic to check that I had enough space and light, but that has really been it.

Ok, I know I am being most remiss about my work out schedule this month, but we have just moved house and it takes a bit of time to get everything organised properly. 

And I also knew writing about this on my blog would make me feel guilty; so, knowing me, that will probably be the impetus get back into the routine next week.  I don't want to have to write another post explaining myself next Sunday, two in a row is quite enough.

I have finished reading the nutrition bookthough, and it was very interesting (Jayne at Barfoot Kitchen Witch posted something similar today.  It's a good-food-prepared-lovingly conspiracy!)  I didn't know what to expect from it when I bought it, but rather delightfully it preaches almost exactly the type of diet I've been trying to follow for years, which I based on the sensible advice of my Mother combined with additional bits of information gathered from here and there.  It's nice to have that synthesised into an actual medically sound argument though.  It sort of bolsters my belief in my own nutritional common sense.

Essentially it all boils down to:  I could stand to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables, and no I don't really need that biscuit.

Crusaid's Walk for Life - Sunday 1st June.

Cruisaid's Walk for Life is being held on Sunday June 1st this year, there are full details on the website.

It's a 10k sponsored walk through London raising money for, and awareness about, a great AIDS charity.  I really enjoyed the Walk for Life last year, and if I were in London this year I'd do it again. 

Should you happen to be in London on Sunday 1st June, I'd highly recommend it as a way to productively spend the day.  You can sign up in advance or register on the day, but in advance means you have a bit of time to get some sponsorship money together.  I'll warn you now that your legs may well ache a bit afterward, but it's a good ache really!

This year you can even combine the fun with some celeb spotting, I hear Danni Minogue, Four Poofs and a Piano and Alan Cumming will be there...

Kinetic Phase Two Week Six: Yes, About That...

I knew I probably would find this week difficult to fit exercise into, what with the whole moving house thing, but as it turned out I didn't do any!  The living room was filled with boxes all week, and I packed all of my exercise clothes on Tuesday, so it was pretty much over and done with then.

No doubt Matt would have a few things to say about commitment, and having to put in a sustained effort to get results, but I've decided not to beat myself up about it.  We've had a very busy week, and I haven't had the time or the resources.

I did however buy a set of scales for the bathroom, which is unheard of for me.  I have never owned scales before, but as I have a specific weight loss goal I think they are necessary.  That doesn't mean I'll be adding my weight to each week's Kinetic round-up, it's just an additional tool in my personal weight loss project.

At the same time we bought a blender (Black and Decker, 20% off at Lowes!), to make smoothies with.  Sometimes I just do not want salad, and a smoothie would be a nice change of pace.  When I say smoothie I mean a drink made with fresh fruit and some vegetables (like spinach or avocado) with yoghurt and/or tofu.  I'm not planning on adding ice cream and calling it health-food, or anything daft like that.

I also bought another book on nutrition, so stand by for my discovering some fantastic new food that will change my life forever.  Actually I doubt that will happen, but I like the author's approach so far, and I may drop the odd tip-bit in here if I find out about some nutritional gold mine.

So in summary, a bad week for exercise, but a good week for overall intentions for my future health.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Five: Complete

1. A+ - It was SO nice to do some exercise after the road trip.  I had Two Cardio and Three Combat games, so it was straight back in at the deep end.  Lovely!  I felt really lethargic, so it was just brilliant to be stretching, punching, kicking, ducking and jumping. 
2. A+
3. A+
4. E
5. A+

I thought this might happen, I've been in such a rush this week to try and fit the work-outs in that I didn't make notes about what I did on which days.

I know exactly where the E came from though!  I couldn't work-out on Friday, and the next time I logged in Matt had a few things to say about that.  So, if I miss a whole week I simply get asked if I want to start again, or continue from where I last played; but if I miss one day I get a sorrowful little speech about how I need to commit to the program to achieve anything?  Hmmm!  That seems a little bit silly to me, especially after a full 17 weeks of commitment on my part.

What with one thing and another I've decided to stop using the personal trainer mode, because it's not giving me enough flexibility with the days and I think a program of six work-outs a week is too much (my knees are killing me!).  Instead I'm going to use the routine builder to set up my own work-outs every other day, and start doing yoga again on the days in-between.  I really want to get back into doing yoga regularly, and I also think that would be a better balance of cardio and toning for me.

The measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 38.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 42.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 22.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

I'm pleased to see I'm back to losing quarter inches after last week's road-trip plateau.  I'll still be measuring myself every week now that Kinetic is being scaled back to three or four times a week, and if the inch loss stops or, worse, starts to become inch gain then I'll go back to personal trainer mode.  Whatever it takes to lose those twenty pounds!

Kinetic Phase Two Week Four: Skipped

I loaded up Kinetic, and went into the personal training section and all Matt said was "I noticed you've missed a few days.  Would you like to continue from here, or start again?"

Um, continue please. 

Still I now have a nasty row of Es on my score sheet, and my performance graph is hilarious!

Let's see how the week off has effected the measurements, shall we?

• Bust - 38.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 35.25 Inches (No change from last week)
• Hips - 42.25 Inches (No change from last week)
• Thigh - 22.5 Inches (No change from last week)

Well staying the same is better than having put some back on, so I am delighted with that, especially considering how hard it is to eat healthy food whilst on a road trip.

Despite the fact I'm back on home turf this next week is going to be hard.  I'm making up the hours I missed at work by going in for the mornings as well.  This means I'm going to have to make a real effort to fit a workout in to the day, admittedly that's exactly what I'll have to do when I finally find a full time job, but it's still a bit of daunting prospect.

Kinetic Phase Two Week Three: Complete

My score for this week was an A+, and that breaks down as follows:

1. A - Five Combat games.  That was it.  That is an awful lot of punching, kicking, ducking and weaving.  I got the highest possible score for three of those and I totally am wiped out now.
2. A+ - Two Cardio, a Cardio, a Mind/Body and some Abs toning.  I got three best possible scores, but the apparently easiest of the Cardio games is deceptive.  Unlike all the other games it requires 100% accuracy, there is no room for error or opportunity to make up lost points.  And I always miss three targets!  It's so annoying to be only three targets off a perfect score!  I'm pleased to report that my lower back seems a lot less twingey, so I think I can start adding toning again in on every other workout and take it from there.
3. A+ - Three Cardio and Two Combat.  I got two best possibles and broke my high score on one game.  Not bad considering I had to pause one game to answer the door and get my Lush stuff, I was just in time to yell thank you to the rapidly departing Fedex man.  Fedex requiring a signature is utter nonsense!
4. A+ - Two Cardio, Two Combat and Two Mind/Body.  That was tiring, but it was worth it for four best possibles.  Plus the Doc came back from voting in the middle of one of the Cardio games, so I paused it.  And I still got over 9000 on that one...
5. A+ - Two Combat and Two Mind/Body, I got the highest possible scores on all four.  Annoyingly now my back is feeling a lot better, but my knees have started feeling really weird.  They've been aching generally just from the increased exercise over the past couple of months, but they've really been complaining this week.  As I don't have medical insurance yet I'm not risking the toning this week, it relies too much on my legs behaving themselves.
6. A+ - Two Cardio, and Two Mind/Body.  I got the best possible score for three out of the four and was only a couple of points of that for the fourth.  Next time...

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 38.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 11.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week.  That's unexpected!)
• Waist - 35.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 42.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 22.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

Next week Matt is not going to be happy with me, because we are going to Boston so I'm having to miss five out of my six work outs.  I expect I'll get a virtual talking to, don't you?  Actually I've decided to take the whole week off from Kinetic, may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb.

Kinetic Week Eleven: Complete

This week my overall score was an A, which breaks down as follows:

1. A+ - Yay!  Lovely start to the week!  Two Cardio, One Combat, Two Mind/Body and some upper body toning.  For some reason the difficulty levels have been moved down, so the Cardio and Mind/Body are on Easy and the Combat is on medium.  I have no idea why, particularly seeing as last week I did really well, but I'm sure Anna has her reasons.  Plus this did mean I got almost a perfect score on the first game.
2. A - One Cardio, Two Combat, One Mind/Body and some Abs toning.  I didn't beat any high scores, but it was quite a long routine so I'm glad I maintained a good score through out.
3. A - One Cardio, One Combat and One Mind/Body.  I beat my personal best on the Combat by quite a satisfying margin.  Skipped the toning routine, due to time constraints caused by not getting out of bed on time.
4. A+ - Three Cardio and One Mind/Body.  I beat two of my personal bests, but skipped toning because we were going out for brunch and I really wanted french toast with fromage frais and fruit.  Hmm, perhaps that's not the best reason to skip toning...
5. A - Two Combat, One Mind/Body and some leg toning.  I beat one personal best, but even better I wasn't happy with one of the games so I played it again (an option I only noticed last week) and got a much better score.  Very satisfying, and more cardio is always good!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.00 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 23.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

I am really pleased the quarter-inches are still coming off; to be honest, because we've been out for a couple of meals this week, I was expecting to record no changes.  I don't know what happened to the hips maybe they're compensating for the biceps?

I think I'm right in saying this is the first week I've got an A for every single work out, and there are now five of them so I am really pleased with that!  It's definitely a boost before next week's final push to complete the whole twelve week programme.

Ring and Stone

When I was doing side planks as part of my work out yesterday I noticed something shiny on the carpet next to my exercise mat.  I thought it was a bit of broken glass, so I picked it up straight away, because I work out in bare feet and I didn't want to tread on it.

Then I saw that it was actually a stone from something, and promptly dropped it again.  Fortunately it fell on the mat, so I found it easily.

Then I looked at my hand, and realised that it was actually the tiny diamond from one of my favourite rings that I wear every day.

It was so lucky that it fell out whilst I was doing floor exercises.  If it had fallen out anywhere else, and at any other time, I would probably have lost it.  As it is, I've stuck it to the inside of a snack-size ziploc bag, using a little bit of gaffer tape so that I don't lose it again before I can get to a jewellers to have it reset.

Kinetic Week Ten: Complete

This week my overall score was an A, which breaks down as follows:

1. A - 1 Combat, 2 Cardio and a Mind/Body.  This was my first day at work, and I didn't leave myself quite enough time for a toning routine, but I'm pleased with what I did do. 
2. A+ - Yay!  Two Combat, One Cardio and One Mind/Body.  Of those I beat three of my personal bests!  Admittedly I, once again, didn't leave myself enough time for the toning routine, I need to give myself an extra half hour for that, and somehow an extra-half hour in bed always seems more attractive than crunches and push-ups.  I just have to work on my time management and self motivation.
3. A+ - Yay again!  Two Cardio (both breaking my personal bests for those games) and a mind/body (I'm getting a bit sick of this particular game I've played it five workouts in a row now!).  I also had time to do abs toning, and completed the plank section again.  Arms therefore feel like jelly again.
4. B - Two Combat, One Cardio and a Mind/Body (a different one today, hoorah!).  No personal bests were broken today.  I also did the upper body toning routine, and my arms are now considering looking into how they would go about becoming legally emancipated from me.
5. A+ - Yay a third time!  Two Cardio, a Mind/Body and some leg toning.  I am particularly proud of my performance on the second Cardio game which was Cascade.  I had a previous high score of 9000, Anna set me a target of 9500 and my final score was actually 9911.  It was the first time I ever achieved, let alone beat, one of Anna's target scores and I annihilated it.  Hoorah!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 23.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

The numbers are moving down again, which I'm putting down to eating well this week and the walk to work adding an extra 20 minutes of gentle cardio into my daily routine.  It all helps.

We are sub-leasing our apartment, and the man we are leasing from has a lot of magazine subscriptions.  There is hardly a week that goes by without some glossy or other turning up, so we read them, usually because they are titles we are unlikely to buy for ourselves and that's always interesting.  Doc C teases me that my favourites are "Men's Fitness" (which is so tacky, but has great headlines such as "I throw the damn thing as hard as I can", and I swear that is a direct quote from an article on a baseball pitcher) and "Outside", which I do find much more interesting than "Vogue" for the simple reason they have tips on how to do crunches and/or planks, and until I've mastered those I'm simply not going to fit into Vogue-esque couture.  This month's "Outside" was fairly dull to be honest (I should have guessed from the picture of Paul Walker on the cover.  Yawn.), but it did mention two fitness facilities that are in North Carolina.

The one I'm most interested in is at Meredith College in Raleigh, it's called the Human Performance Laboratory.  It's one of those places where they test your body's fat content, metabolic rate and how your body responds to various types of exercise.  I'd love to do the General Health Package, which tests your Resting Metabolic Rate and Hydrostatic Body Composition.  That costs $85.00, so it's definitely within my price range.

Also, Mum, there is an interesting one for you too.  Based in Blowing Rock is a Reebok sponsored running camp called Zap Fitness, which was designed to train Olympic hopefuls.  It's open to the public, welcoming amateurs of all levels and has daily rates for visitors.  They teach proper running form for hills and flats, and they also offer post-run yoga classes or massage therapy.  You can join morning runs of between three to ten miles through Moses H. Cone Memorial Park (which is really gorgeous).

All this, and would you believe I've started flossing regularly too?

Kinetic Week Nine: Complete

Three quarters of the way now, this week my overall score was a B, which breaks down as follows:

1. B - Three combat games, and a mind/body game.  For some reason the difficulty levels have been dropped on the cardio and mind/body games but are still on the hard setting for combat.  Have they not noticed that I am really not very good at the combat games?  I'd have said cardio was my best zone personally, maybe the results say different.  I did break one of my previous high scores but on a game that I had previously been really bad at.  I forgot to swap back to Anna at the beginning of the session, but I did at the end of the days work out.  I like how the trainer you are "leaving" pops up to reassure you that they don't mind you swapping, and that the other trainer is really good.  Those avatars are so sweet.
2. A - Two cardio, one combat, one mind/body and some abs toning, with a few push-ups just for fun.  I am really pleased to have got an A, after a week and a bit of Bs.
3. B - 1 Cardio, 1 Combat and 1 Mind/Body.  It was my very least favourite of the combat games, and I did extraordinarily badly at it.  However I rocked the other two games, so that's not so bad.
4. B - 1 Cardio, 2 Combat, 1 Mind/Body and some abs toning.  My proudest achievement of the day was completing the plank section of the toning, my arms are killing me but it was particularly pleasing to finally manage that.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.5 Inches (No change from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 36.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.75 Inches (No change from last week)
• Thigh - 24.00 Inches (No change from last week)

I think we can put the static nature of the measurements this week down to Spring Break Madness, I've been so busy trying to keep the Doc entertained (he gets bored very easily) that I skipped toning twice this week, because it doubles the length of the work out and I really only had time to fit in some cardio.  I also have to admit I fell off the salad waggon a bit.  No problem though, at least my waist ignored the trend and shed a bit more, plus no quarter inches were actually added anywhere!

On a side topic, I know I'm not the first person to point out that Alanis Morissette's huge hit "Ironic" (that video is really odd, is there an underlying subtext that is completely eluding me?) is mainly in fact ironic because none of the examples she uses actually are ironic.  They are mainly unfortunate.  Ed Byrne used to do a great stand up routine about this song, he is very funny. 

Actually let's embed a lovely YouTube screen right underneath the jump here, so you can fully appreciate both of these points:

Kinetic Week Eight: Complete

As a change of pace I decided I'd give Anna a holiday, and swapped over to the other virtual trainer, Matt, for a week.  Overall grade for the week was my fourth B in a row, which breaks down as follows:

1. B - One fun thing about switching trainers is that Matt has a slightly different repertoire of encouraging banter from Anna, my favourite so far is "One minute to go!  You can do anything in a minute!". Unfortunately it turns out the arm toning is no less painful with Matt talking you through it.  According to Matt's final summary if I put in another 5% work rate I'll be achieving a perfect performance.  I have no idea what that means, but it sounds very encouraging.
2. B - Yesterday I was slightly distracted by trying to work out who Matt sounded like, and I realised today that it's John Barrowman.  It's not actually Mr Barrowman providing the voice talent, I checked the credits, but it does sound very much like I'm being trained by Captain Jack Harness for a particularly important Torchwood mission.  Fun!  Today I also worked out what my ankles did not like in the leg toning routine; in both the squats and the plies sections of the routine it's suggested that you to pop your ankles up so you are up on your toes.  That obviously was putting strain on the left ankle tendon last time, so I avoided all ankle popping this time.
3. B - Two cardio games, a mind/body game and stomach toning routine.  I'm still not able to do one armed planks, but rather than skipping that part of the routine I used that time to throw in some tricep push ups with foot floats instead.  I thought I may as well do something to strengthen my arms, so that eventually I will be able to do the whole of planks section.
4. B - Two cardio, one combat, one mind/body and I skipped the toning because I got up early this morning to fit in the workout before breakfast and I'm really not co-ordinated enough yet to do the precise movements needed for toning.  Frankly if I tried doing one-legged standing dead-lifts right now, there would be lots of wobbling about, followed by falling over.

I'm quite happy with the results for this week. It's very motivating to see that I've adjusted to the difficulty setting, and I'm maintaining a good standard.  Hopefully next week there will be a couple of A's on the board as well.

I liked Matt as a trainer, he's very encouraging and supportive, you know, for an avatar. The only slightly disconcerting thing is Anna says "Good effort!" when you've reached for a target but missed it, Matt says the same phrase occasionally as general encouragement which always throws me because I start thinking about whether I hit the last target or not.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.5 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Waist - 36.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 43.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

Week 8 is two thirds of the way through the twelve week programme, so there's only one month left of this particular cycle.  After this I may just start it up all over again, or I could use the routine builder to set my own routines to my own time table requirements.  I'm not sure yet, I quite like having everything pre-planned and ready to go, but it can sometimes be tricky to fit in a workout on the specified day.

Kinetic Week Seven: Complete

This week's overall grade is a B, which breaks down as follows:

1. B - Very pleased with that, I broke two previous high scores but didn't quite hit the target scores Anna wanted.  Anna has very high standards these days.  Arm toning again made my arms feel like jelly, it's those backwards tricep push-ups with the foot floats that really kill.
2. A - Hoorah!  This was a real triumph because the game didn't load properly which was making the music skip.  That may not sound like a huge problem but it was distracting, and I took my eye of the virtual ball once or twice to squint at my score so I could reassure myself it was only the music that was in difficulties.  The thing is that once you've started a routine, you cannot stop.  It can't be done, Anna will fail you if you try that, so I soldiered on and see how I was rewarded!
3. B - The music was back in sync, so today was actually fun.  I let myself down a bit on the kick-boxing again, I need to work on hitting precisely,with some force and not flail so much.  I was really pleased with how I handled the other two games though.
4. A+ - W00t!  Extremely pleased with that!  I think all three games were personal bests, which is always gratifying.  I think the key is that each game is designed to make you respond within a particular range of movements, and I'm finally beginning to understand what it is that the combat zone games want me to do.  Specifically: "Kick that! Duck! You need to Punch like you mean it!"

   (I'm slightly perplexed by Anna's scoring this week, I mean I got an overall mark of B last week for an A+, two Bs and a D.  How is it that I've got the same overall mark this week for an A+, an A and two Bs?)

If you are my beloved eagle-eyed mother you will have spotted that I stopped adding in toning routines after Monday's killer arm routine.  That is because I'd have been doing stomach toning after that and I simply refuse to do stomach crunches when I already have period pains.  For one thing if my lower back is already aching, how do I tell when I should stop doing core strength exercises because it's straining my back?  Plus my yoga book warns ladies not to overextend their joints at this time of the month, so all things considered, I think I'm allowed to skip one week of toning.  They'll be back in the mix next week.  Deep joy!

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 40.75 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12.25 Inches (No change from last week)
• Waist - 37.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 44.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)

It's interesting that my bicep measurement is the same as last week, I suppose that's because I've only done one round of toning this week.  That would make sense, because I'd imagine the cardio vascular workouts are dealing with general weight loss(or in the case inch loss) but I don't imagine a lot of fat is stored on the arms so it must be that the previous inch loss there was due to the bicep muscles becoming more toned.  Very interesting.

Kinetic Week Six: Complete

1. D - Most disheartening. Two combat zone games and one of the chill-out games, plus arm toning.  The combat games were ridiculous, the orbs were coming at me really fast and I had no time to register what colour they were (The colours are different for targets and enemy orbs), let alone hit them or get out of the way.  It made me really wish there was a "Give Me a Freaking Break!" button.
2. A+ - Which I think conclusively demonstrates that I am far better at the Cardio Zone games then I am at the Combat Zone games.  It seems odd that Anna has no means of registering this and catering to my strengths
3. B - Just to throw my theory out of the water, this B was based on two combat zone games.  One of which I beat my previous personal best record for.  I also did leg toning, but I was very cautious, as the last time I did this set, I got a few twinges of complaint from my dodgy ankle afterwards.  I really do not want to make that flare up again, it's painful and stops me doing any form of exercise that might require me to bend my ankle in anyway.  sigh.
4. B - A nice work out with one from each level, I beat my previous high score on the cardio game and did what felt like two thousand crunches.

I won't lie, I didn't like the hard level at all at the beginning of the week but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  It's definitely a lot more work, but that's a good thing.

Of course Anna still finds it all very easy and I am reminded of Jessica Rabbit's famous line from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Jessica slinked around in her fabulous red dress, flipped her titian Veronica Lake peekaboo haircut and said "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." I have to say sometimes I wish I could remind Anna that she's not really fit.  She was just drawn that way.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 41.00 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12.25 Inches (Down by 0.35 Inches from last week)
• Waist - 37.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 44.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.5 Inches (Down by 0.3 Inches from last week)

So there is steady progress still, exactly what I was hoping for!  I may well actually fit into those black and white check capris I bought in the H&M sale this summer at this rate.

Kinetic Week Five: Complete

Yes, I'm now at week five otherwise known as The Week Anna Tried To Kill Me.  She's bumped up the difficulty rating again, so now I'm on the hardest level.  sigh.  Not only that, but this week I had four work outs instead of three. 

The overall mark for the week was C which breaks down as follows:

1. B - I swear the arm toning routine went on for longer than normal.  I started to think maybe it was stuck on a loop at one point.  My upper arms feel like jelly.
2. D - An absolute killer.  Not only are the games now at their hardest setting, but Anna set me the three games that I do worst at.  It was not pretty.  To add insult to injury, in the abs toning session she suddenly threw in one-armed planks!  I can barely do a two armed plank!  I think she's trying to kill me, or at the very least break my nose.
3. B - I worked damned hard to get that B, so it's extra satisfying.  The leg toning work out was great, but I picked the wrong song, which considering it was an extended re-mix was a big mistake, so then the chorus got stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
4. B - Two cardio based games and an abs toning session.  I did badly on the first game, but then broke my previous high score on the second.  In the toning routine Anna tried again to persuade me to do one armed planks, but until I can hold a two armed plank for more than ten seconds I don't think that's going to happen.

And the measurements for this week are:

• Bust - 41.25 Inches (Down by 0.25 Inches from last week)
• Bicep - 12.7 Inches (Down by 0.3 Inches from last week)
• Waist - 37.5 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Hips - 44.5 Inches (Down by 0.5 Inches from last week)
• Thigh - 24.8 Inches (Down by 0.2 Inches from last week)

I'm fairly certain I was measuring in exactly the same places that I did last week, so I'm quite pleased with that!  Particularly because it is certainly possible to suck in a tummy, but I've yet to learn which muscles I need to flex to do that to my thighs, so it must be that they are actually smaller.

Despite my choosing the wrong song on Friday for my third work out toning session, in general I do like the music kinetic uses.  Every game has a choice of two different songs or no music at all.  This means that each time you are about to begin a game you choose which song you want, and that can be really helpful in keeping you motivated.  I do wish that the beginning warm up and the final stretch routines had more choice of music, because you do those every time so you quickly get tired of those songs.

This element of choice is also extended to being able to choose a different virtual room for the warm up, toning and stretching routines, so visually it's a nice change of pace.  Even better the game knows whether it's day or night and changes the sky accordingly.  That means if you choose to stretch in the garden you can a beautiful blue sky or stars according to when you are exercising.  It's a very nice touch.

I also know that Anna is aware of what day of the week it is, because the game uses a calendar to schedule.  I would love it if you could use the calendar further, it would be great to have cheat codes that enabled you to to dress Anna in a Santa costume for Christmas, for example, or even just get Anna to say "Happy Whatever day!  Well done for turning up today, you must be really motivated." on the appropriate holidays.  I'm sure some people would find that annoying, but I think it would at least acknowledge that there are some days when people need a little bit more encouragement to break out the exercise mat.

Kinetic Week Four: Complete

Week four got off to an excellent start with an A.  I had three games and an abs toning routine to do, so I'm really pleased to be maintaining that score.  Mid-week had a kick boxing game, followed by a yoga-ish game and a legs toning routine.  I'm surprised I got an A for this, because I felt like I was just flailing around in the kick boxing game, maybe that's what you are supposed to do?

End of the week I did another set of three games with more abs toning.  I was really pleased to get an A for today's workout, because that meant this was the first week that I got As for all three of the workouts.  Of course now I know it's a possibility what I really want are three A+ marks...

At the end of each week Anna checks her virtual clipboard and gives you your weekly grade with a pep talk.  It turns out she also pops up to review the end of the first month, she said I clearly had a lot of determination and that would stand me in good stead over the next two months of the programme.  It's oddly satisfying to have a computer generated person tell you she's pleased with your progress.

One thing I'm going to start doing every week is measure myself, rather than weighing.  The Doc is certain I've got less of a tummy and more of a curve round my waist, but I don't have the numbers to back that up!   

Here are the first lot of vital statistics:

• Bust - 41.5 Inches
• Bicep - 13 Inches
• Waist - 38 Inches
• Hips - 45 Inches
• Thigh - 25 Inches

I'll re-measure every Sunday to keep track of how this is going.  The weight loss goal is twenty pounds, which I'm hoping translates to a dress size or two.

Short-Shorts. I'm Serious, These Things are SHORT.

One thing I couldn't help but notice about the young ladies of our little town, is that they favour short-shorts.  The really tiny kind, sometimes with writing on the back.

The girls at the University wear them all the time.  On campus in the summer you couldn't throw a stone without it ricocheting off someone's short-short clad derriere.  I understood then the need for short-shorts because it was hot.  I will admit that I even bought a pair myself, although mine were very sensible ones bought in the M&S sale for about 50p, they are strictly to be worn only when I'm doing yoga and no-one can see me.  That is the only situation I can imagine myself wearing them, and it's only because I found it difficult to hold the tree pose without being able to anchor my foot properly on the skin of my leg.

So I do get that short-shorts are occasionally necessary, and appropriate.

On Monday night, ironically as we were on our way back from the Gloria Steinem talk, there were legions of girls everywhere in these tiny things.  I think that there had probably been a sporting event, or a training session for one of the girl's teams.  Fair enough, the shorts are needed when you're playing sports, but this was after the game and they were walking along one of the main roads in town. 

Please note that I'm not being prudish, the girls all had great legs and were all rocking that look, but bearing in mind the University had been shut down three days earlier due to heavy ice, I think it's fair to say there was a bit of a chill in the air.  How were these girls not cold?  Isn't that where tracksuits come into play?  I don't get it, I was freezing in jeans, a jumper, a coat and a scarf, and I was in a car. They were strolling along in minuscule shorts and t-shirts.

I think it must be like the flip-flops in winter thing.  Maybe I'll never understand either of these behaviours, but it's certainly interesting to observe.

The List of Future Purchases

With the prospect of me being gainfully employed at some point in the foreseeable future, the Doc and I have started a list of things we want to buy.  It's mainly joint purchases for our prospective new home, like cutlery, bedside lamps and copper-bottomed saucepans. 

However we're also adding in items we want individually, so the Doc has put an external hard drive, a bicycle and an indoor bicycle training stand.

I have put hiking boots and exercise clothes.  After a great deal of thought I also added glasses, because I've had my current pair for over ten years and the lens prescription is totally wrong now.

I can't believe that my first thought was "Ooh, I know!  I really want hiking boots!".  Who am I, and what have I done with myself?

Superbowl.

Today is Superbowl Sunday.

I care not one jot who wins, as I believe I may have said before, but the Doc is from Massachusetts so I'm vaguely supportive of the New England Patriots.

On the other hand, New York is a city I very much like, so if the Giants win I wouldn't be distraught.

Go Team Whichever!

Kinetic Week Three: Complete

That sneaky avatar person trainer of mine! 

At the beginning of week three, without my being asked or being able to do anything about it, Anna has upped the difficulty level.  That probably contributed to my getting a B for the first session of the week, but I still think this is really good because obviously it's because I keep getting good marks and breaking my previous high scores.  It does mean I'll have to work harder to maintain a high weekly average.  Which is the whole point, I know.

I'd say it's definitely one of the pluses of using a completely unbiased and unemotional computer programme to assign work out targets for the week.  Anna simply calculates data based on my age, weight, the number of targets I successfully hit and my response times.  She doesn't consider any other factors, especially not my mood on a workout day.  I can't say I don't feel like it, there isn't a button for that and if I skip a workout I'd get failing grade for the day I miss.  I hate getting failed, so I have no alternative but to get on with it.

Mid-week I added in toning routine for the legs, I worked really hard at all of the games (probably because I knew I had to work off that doughnut...) and I got an A+.  I didn't know it was even possible to get an A+, so that was excellent.

My final work out of the week didn't live up to the mid-week high, and I got a second B.  This time I added in a toning routine for arms.

Surprisingly the overall score for this week was an A, made up of an A+ and two Bs.  I'm not sure how Anna works out the scores, because that sounds more like a B to me, but hey she's the trainer who am I to argue?

One interesting thing that I read this week was a report on the BBC website about the rise in anti-obesity drugs.  Apparently the number of prescriptions for anti-obesity drugs has gone up in the UK by eight times the amount prescribed seven years ago.  What I found even more amazing was that only 40% of men and 28% of women were taking part in 30 minutes of physical activity each week.  Perhaps, instead of bottles of pills, the NHS should be giving everyone a PS2 and a copy of Kinetic.  Anna wouldn't stand for any of that nonsense.

Kinetic Week Two: Complete

My overall mark for Week Two is an A, again that's made up of two As and a B.

I did try out all of the games I hadn't played before, which has already proved to have been a good move and helped me maintain a good score.  Unfortunately I somehow missed practising one new game, "Side Winder", which naturally was next to turn up in the rotation and turned out to be a kick-boxing game, where you have to punch or kick orbs away from a central target that you are defending.  I'm not great at the kick-boxing based games, so I dropped a few points there.

The Doc's wise words about computer games always using patterns has helped a lot.  In particular I am much better at "Ricochet", which involves hitting blue targets whilst ducking and twisting to avoid red orbs which are bouncing around the screen.  Avoiding one of the orbs is fairly simple if you concentrate but two or three is much harder.  Now that I've worked out the pattern that the two orbs stick to that bit is a lot less frustrating, but three orbs is still very confusing. 

This week I was intending to add in toning exercises, but I didn't which is a bit pathetic.  It was honestly because I really don't feel that doing sit ups when I have PMT is going to be helpful.  I have to add toning in next week.  As well as my adding in the toning routines, next week the number of games I'm given to complete each day will increase, so this will definitely start to get more challenging.

Overall I'm still really enjoying this programme of exercise, this week I've broken my previous high scores on a couple of games which is very satisfying.

Kinetic Week One: Complete

As an added incentive to my keeping up with all of the twelve weeks of Kinetic, I'm going to post a progress report on Alien Spouse at the end of each week.

At the end of week one I am pleased to report that I actually managed to complete a full week of the Kinetic workout programme, and my average grade for this week was an A.  Now all I have to do is maintain that for another eleven weeks, and I might actually start to get somewhere!

However I should also point out, that average was made up of two A's and a B, so it's not a perfect score and I've still got plenty to work on.  I think the B was mainly due to my being introduced to a new game.  As with any new activity, it usually takes a few attempts before I get the hang of a game, so that's actually not a bad first effort.  What I really should do is go through all of the games, so that I'm prepared for them when they come up in the programme.

I also haven't added in any of the toning routines yet, the plan is to add those in next week.  It's the toning exercises that really make me ache the next day, so I decided to hold off for the first week to re-introduce my body to regular exercise to my week and try to enjoy it. 

Next week should be more of a challenge, but I think it will still be fun.

This is My Blog, Sometimes I Will Need to Vent!

I have to be honest, and say that I hate living next to students.  Really, I don't think hate is too strong a word here. 

I know I have complained about this before, but the absence of our rowdy neighbours over Christmas did not make the heart grow fonder, it just made me fully appreciate when they came back exactly how annoying it is to be surrounded by people living away from home for the first time and with no concept of volume control. 

This morning the kid downstairs clearly had an early class, I know this because I was woken up by them turning their stereo on just loud enough for the bass line to make the springs in my bed vibrate.  That meant that my first thought of the day was to condemn their taste in music as utterly appalling again.  They seriously appear to own only two songs, both of which are awful and have no discernible rhythm.  From what I can gather it's some sort of hybrid of country music and hip-hop, which is wrong on so many many levels.  It's the music I imagine they play in the long lift ride to hell.

Now?  Well downstairs is quiet, they must be at college.  However, the boys next door are home and apparently practising their wrestling moves in the kitchen and just randomly yelling again.

Every single day there is someone making a lot of noise for no apparent reason other than, hey, they can really crank it!  Their parents aren't here to tell them to turn it down!  That is so cool, Dude!  It's just so repetitive and inconsiderate, but it's hard to complain about it when I feel like this is really a student housing  development which is where they are supposed to be behaving like that, and frankly I should be living somewhere else.

The Doc recently had an e-mail from the guy we are sub-letting from and he said that we can stay here for an extra couple of months if we want to.  That would mean moving out at the end of July instead of the end of May.  The local housing market is geared around everyone moving in August, which is clearly only really convenient for the estate agents, so I know that staying here for an extra two months would really make more sense logistically but at the same time I just want to move away from here to somewhere quiet that I can feel relaxed in, and appreciate the bloody sereneness of the sodding mountains!  Damn it!

Themed Cupcakes

Of course I took pictures of the Valentine's cupcakes that are already on display in our local supermarket (how are they supposed to last for a whole month?  What kind of preservatives do these things have in them?), but just because they are already out there that doesn't mean Alien Spouse has to show them.  It's not time for Valentines stuff yet, and I will not pander to this long lead up time nonsense.

Fortunately there is also something going on to do with American Football, the Doc tells me it's the elimination round for the Super Bowl.  Well, naturally, I care not one bit who wins the Super Bowl, but it does apparently mean that American Football themed cupcakes are now available, these are sprayed in team colours with a chocolate football on top for decoration.  Wow.  I have so many questions.  What do you think luminous tastes of?  And why do the footballs on the blue cakes have much better detailing on them?

Dear Mrs Kinetic, Please excuse Jen from games today as she has a head cold.

Today I was supposed to be doing my second Kinetic work-out of the week, but I have this stupid cold.  I know the old wives tale about feeding a cold and starving a fever isn't true, but I wasn't sure whether you should exercise when you're ill, but not really about to keel over.

This being the twenty-first century I naturally turned to Google, the modern version of the classic Victorian household reference book "Enquire Within Upon Everything" and I was met by a straight fifty/fifty divide from advice givers.  There were several who advocated exercise to help build sweat up and thus flush out the cold germs from your body, whereas others said categorically do not do any exercise that significantly raises your pulse, because doing so whilst ill can put a strain on your heart.

So I asked the Doc, and he said as I'm clearly at the worst part of the cold (and it is worse today, a lot more sneezing and watery eyes too) that it's probably a good idea to rest for a few days and just let my body fight off the virus.

Which is sort of like having a note from your Mum to give to the games teacher.

Back to Kinetic

Today the Doc went into his office to do some preparation for next term, and he took his gym stuff with him.  Which meant he would be out for a while, so I got out my yoga mat and popped Kinetic into the PS2.

To be honest I haven't done a Kinetic work-out since Boxing Day, mainly because the trip to Baltimore coincided with New Year's Eve but also, I have to admit, because the Doc has been at home.  He is very supportive of my trying to establish an exercise routine, so he definitely would never tease me about it, but I still really hate anyone seeing me exercising because I always go bright red.  I'm naturally very pale, so when I say "I go bright red" I mean that quite literally, and it is a very dramatic change in my normal colouring.  My face becomes a bright blotchy red, with white rings around my eyes and mouth and a lovely sweaty sheen.  I expect it looks like I'm about to keel over with a heart attack, but that's just what happens when I get my heart rate up for more than ten minutes and it's normal for me.

I clearly remember my first sports lesson at high school because it was netball, and I'd previously enjoyed playing that at primary school, actually being good enough to play on the primary school's netball team.  So I threw myself into the game with enthusiasm, meaning I was really running around and jumping about for the whole lesson, but after the game was over all the other girls were just staring at me and one actually asked if I was ok because my face was such a peculiar colour.  Very embarrassing, add that to the infamous lacrosse lesson when, to the general hilarity of all, my tracksuit bottoms fell down as I reached for the ball and you might get an inkling of why organised sports have not been my thing for many a year.

Of course for me that is one of the seriously good benefits of exercising at home and being instructed by an avatar.  My virtual personal trainer, Anna, has never once given me a funny look at the end of the workout and asked why my face has gone that colour.

American Football Triumph for Alien Spouse University

I watched my first American football match last night.  To be accurate it's not that I haven't seen American football before, it's just I've never felt compelled to watch a game in it's entirety.  Last night was the Big Game for our university team, so I was interested to see it but I still refused the Doc's many efforts to explain the rules to me, it is far more fun to watch without a clue of what's going on.  He eventually managed to tell me a couple of the rules, he's tenacious like that about passing on information.

We were at the home of some friends of ours, who had arranged a small Christmas party before the big game was announced.  So it became a Christmas-slash-American Football party.

By the way, I am always going to refer to it as "American Football" because I refuse to call actual football "soccer".  I was teased about it last night, someone said "You see this is real football, not that soccer stuff", I opened my eyes as wide as possible, and replied "Oh I see.  But they seem to carry the ball more than anything else, shouldn't it be called handball really?".  At which point it was generally agreed  that football isn't actually the most accurately descriptive name for the game.

Last night was an excellent introduction to the sport, whatever it's called, because Alien Spouse University beat the other team into the ground, and then jumped on them a bit.