To Do List

Is it REALLY Friday?

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Since I finished work on Tuesday this week I feel like I’ve been thrown off my game.

When I was working, I had a blackberry calendar to tell me what meetings to go to and what time my Dr’s appointments were. On top of that I have an “agenda” or “diary” that I write my meetings in (location etc), when bills are due, if Lilly has a play date or we have some event to attend.

Now, I still have my agenda book but haven’t even opened my work purse since Tuesday to take a look at my agenda book! Yes, I said work purse. When I am not going to work I use my MEC shoulder bag like this one, only mine’s older and black. Or I just put my wallet in Lilly’s little back pack from MEC instead of carrying two bags.

Anyway – I feel lost. Maybe I have baby/pregnancy brain.

I know that tomorrow is Saturday November 10th because it’s my wedding anniversary – 5 YEARS! Mentally, that date has been in my head for a long time.

Today is only day 3 of the start of my maternity leave. I am off early due to many reason; one main one being that we had Lilly at 36 weeks 2 days and that’s less than a week away.  I wasn’t sure when I wanted to be done work, you can read more about that here but I know that my body needed the rest – however long that is.

What my week’s looked like so far:

Monday/Tuesday – Full day’s at work = exhausted at night.

Wednesday: Dr. appointment, napped mid day for 1.5 hours, late lunch, a little organizing in the baby’s room and a load of laundry done! And flu shot for Lilly.

Thursday: 45 minute nap at 9 am, prenatal massage (felt so good), made butternut squash soup for dinner and relaxed.

Friday: My husband is away for the day so it’s just me. Me and Maclean (our dog). Me, Maclean and the house. I’m bored and realized at noon that it’s Friday.

I have a list of things I could be doing:

  • finish organizing the baby’s room
  • make and wrap Christmas presents
  • clean Lilly’s toys (get rid of a bunch she doesn’t use)
  • laundry – that’s a given
  • walk Maclean – she’d love that but I can’t manage very long walks these days
  • clean the dishes (blah)

There’s more but I don’t want to bother you.

It took me a while to actually realize that today is Friday. I think I need to start crossing the days off on our family calendar or get out my agenda book and have it beside my laptop so I don’t forget what day it is, when the bills need to be paid and where I am supposed to be.

For now, I rest. I’ll blog a little, get bored with facebook, call a friend this afternoon that I’ve been meaning to call for a while and think of what we are going to do this weekend.

P.S. I don’t miss my blackberry 🙂

Have you ever wake up and forgotten what day it was?

Do you ever find yourself home alone (imagine that) unsure what to do or where to start?

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You can find Piper’s Run here:

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Twitter: @PipersRun

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pipersrun/

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Blog posts to come:

  • Wedding Anniversary
  • Butternut Squash Soup
  • Sweat Pink Laces giveaway!!!!!
  • 36 week update next week.
  • Oh – and a GUEST post from Molly next week!

A little Tuesday #motivation

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Motivation Monday Tuesday

 

Missed posting yesterday – whoops!

Thought I would send this one at cha today.

Happy Tuesday.

(Source-found on Pinterest)

Blueberry Oat Muffins {vegan}

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 1 Comment

I’ve been wanting to make Blueberry Oat Muffins the last few days and I finally decided last-minute to make some (last night). So, I used my friend called “Google” and searched for vegan blueberry oat muffins. I couldn’t make normal muffins (with eggs, milk etc) as my husband is a vegan. I came across this blog called Making Good Choices….new to me.

There are SO MANY blogs out there, sometimes I wonder how we come across some of them. Oh, right search engines like my buddy Google. For those bloggers out there – have you looked at your “search engine terms”: what people type into a search engine to arrive at your blog??? A few of my favourites from this blog:

  • a person eating healthy food (does Jr. Mints count ?)
  • diapered by my wife (hummm…)
  • gym bag lunch
  • exercise motivation (that’s more on track)
I guess I’ve used most of those words on my blog at some point … they might have not been used together. Back to the Blueberry Oat Muffins from Making Good Choices.
 
While my husband bathed Lilly last night, I managed to gather all the ingredients and start making the muffins. I had full intentions of putting Lilly to bed and just putting the muffins on hold. The oven was still pre-heating, so I had time. Next thing I know, Sai has put Lilly down for the night and I’ve put the muffins in the oven! Good timing, I guess!
 
Oh, and I made these without knowing if I had all the ingredients – we managed.
 
Blueberry Oat Muffins (vegan)Ingredients:
(Source: Making Good Choices)
  • 1 ripened banana
  • 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (I used white sugar as we had nothing else in stock)
  • 4 tbsp flax meal (placed in 8 tbsp of water, let sit for 5 minutes)  *the equivalent of vegan eggs*
  • 2 cups spelt flour or whole wheat (I used whole wheat with grains cause that’s what we had)
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1 cup applesauce (I might have used less as I had to use some of Lilly’s small individual applesauce)
  • 1/3 cup milk of your choice (I used coconut milk)
  • 1.5 cups frozen blueberries (I used fresh – well as fresh as they can get this time of year)
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

Optional: 3 tbsp chia seeds in 6 tbsp water, let sit for 5 minutes (I skipped this step as we don’t have chia seeds)

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large mixing bowl add the flour, oats, cinnamon, sugar and mix.
  • Next, add flax meal, banana, milk, chia seeds and applesauce to the bowl. Mix well.
  • Add  baking soda and powder. Mix then add blueberries. Fold in to batter.
  • Spray a muffin pan and spoon batter into pans. Top with a sprinkle of sugar and oats.
  • Bake for 25 minutes.

Makes about 14 medium-sized muffins. (It make so many muffin’s)

These were so delicious. Amazing, hot right out of the oven. My husband and I had a small one right away. This morning my daughter gobbled up 2 small muffins; Sai and I each had one. I believe these are now my favourite muffins to make and eat. The combination of oats, banana and blueberries – just delish!

For another great (and easy) recipe – check out my post on No Bake Energy Bites. I’ve made these numerous times since the posting.

Happy eating…oh I mean Go Get Active 🙂

Have you searched for recipe’s online and came across an amazing recipe?

Share it with us here.

Working Out and Goal Setting

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 10 Comments

Since January 9th I have been setting weekly workout goals!

Crazy – sure, getting results – oh yeah!

Each Sunday I sit down and write a plan for the week. When will I try to run, when will I work out at home and when will I rest. Most weeks have been really good and I have managed to stick to my weekly workout plan. Some weeks were terrible – mainly due to being sick and trying to manage everything on my own.

I like using the S.M.A.R.T. goal setting guidelines:

Specific: Significant, Stretching, Simple. (What do I want to accomplish? Why?)

Each week I set simple goals for working out; and which day I am going to run v.s. working out at home.

Measurable: Meaningful, Motivational and Manageable. (How much, how many ?)

I aim for 5 days working out and 2 days of rest but realize each week may vary from the last and making my workout’s manageable is the way to keep me successful. If I only work out 3 or 4 days … at least I worked out.

Attainable: Appropriate, Action-focused, achievable. (How can the goal be accomplished?)

Being a single parent (only for 1 more week!!!), I have to be realistic about what I can do in a week.

If I am on the road with work all week, then it’s going to be more challenging to work out.

Sometimes I readjust my goals if I had a hard day and it was supposed to be a rest day, then I switch it up and work out and take my rest day the following day.

Relevant: Results oriented, Realistic. (Does this seem worthwhile?)

When I work out, I like to work out hard. Sure I like walking  and leisurely activities, but for me, I need a high intensity workout. This is when I get results; I like sweating and feeling exhausted after my workout. Also, I can’t go for a run when my daughter is home napping but I can do a DVD workout when she naps.

Time Bound: Time bound, time specific, Trackable.  (When; today, tomorrow, next month)

I don’t have a lot of time since I work full-time and have a toddler so I am very specific when I work out – I am time bound and I make working out a priority each week. I write my goals down so each week I can track what I have done and what I need to do.

Some people add in “E” and “R” for SMARTER goals:

Evaluate: Engaging, Ethical, Enjoyable.

Reevaluate: Reward, Revisit, Recordable.

This is week 10’s goals:

Monday – run at lunch ( I have no meetings that day)

Tuesday – run at lunch (again, no meetings that day)

Wednesday – Workout DVD at night.

Thursday – Rest Day (Grocery shopping night)

Friday – Soccer session at work 🙂 I love when a sport I’ve played my whole life crosses the path with my daily job. Life is Good.

Saturday – Rest Day – Sai will be home and Lilly and I plan to celebrate that!

I’ve also set two specific goals around running in this post here, but to highlight them:

Goal #1: Spring – focus on 5k’s and aim for personal best of under 29:16.
Goal #2: Fall – focus on 10k’s and aim for personal best of under 60 minutes.
This SMART or SMARTER tool is not just for working out – you can apply this to your every day life.
Like right now, Lilly is a sleep and I need to take the compost out, fold laundry, put another load on, clean up the kitchen, work out and shower and then maybe sit for a bit and relax. No SMART goals set but at least I have a list created 🙂
Some exciting new’s for Piper’s Run: It has been nominated for a Fitterati Award: Best Healthy Living Blog from Fitness Magazine! If you like this blog, please vote for Piper’s Run at this Fitness Magazine link. Thanks!

What are your workout/fitness goals ?

When do you set them – once a year, once a month, once a week?

Have you tried setting S.M.A.R.T. goals ?