best of 2011: butt kicking

best of butt kicking workout:

* there is no comparison- jillian michael's.

no, this is not an infomercial for jillian.

no, i've never watched the biggest loser.

but jillian michaels of biggest loser fame also hawks lots of dvds.

ignore the cheesiness (there is plenty),

because jillian is effective. 

for reals.

i did the above dvd in august

and it kicked my butt.

(for the record, it also kicked matt's athletically inclined butt. 

yes, my sweet husband got suckered into doing a workout dvd with me; 

that's how much he loves me.)

then i promptly took a hiatus for a couple of months.

i'm now in the process of getting ripped instead of shredded -

both words that i really think are kind of ridiculous to use when talking about exercise, 

but hey- i'm willing to put up with the lingo when the workout works.

"don't phone it in"

"make the most of it"

"this is you time, baby"

that's right, i've memorized her catchphrases.

 

here i am yesterday, post workout.

no, not a flattering photo (at all, in fact i am wondering why i am posting it)

but a post-workout photo,

red as a tomato & sweaty as can be.

(p.s. my pushups are getting way better)

dear monday

dear person who stole my husband's car sometime between yesterday afternoon and this morning, 

seriously?!
a. it's an old car! as in 1992 old. as in the year i graduated high school old.
b. you stole it from a church parking lot!? what? really?
c. you owe me a car, plus our good car seat, which was inexplicably in matt's car instead of mine. oh, and some really great cd's. (the more i write this, the more i go from being amused to being mad.)

dear jillian michaels,

all i know is that your dvd is. killing. me. we've worked our way up over the month to the highest level, but i have to say: level three? in theory at least, it seems like the more i do it, the easier it should get, but level three feels like level 800 and my legs are jello tonight. on a positive note, thanks for kicking my butt in a good way.

dear ants,
i am so freaking over you making our kitchen, bedrooms, diningroom, entryway & really- any location that you fancy- your playground. could you at least pick another house to frolic in?

dear children,
i love you. but this whole neverending bedtime routine where you come out for every excuse under the sun? it has to end. really. i'm a better mommy when i get some time with jillian (see above) every night, and you are better children when you actually go to sleep on time. no you don't need more water, to go pee again, to say good night one more time, to get more books, to brush your teeth again, to wash your hands because you forgot earlier, another hug or the light on. go. to. sleep.

dear children (part two),
also, i really do love you from here to the deep blue sky, but every time i do aforementioned jillian dvd & rock those jumping jacks (among other pounding high impact moves) i am reminded of your birth, and how you both left an indelible mark on my body. thanks for making me feel like an 85 year old. let's just say little m isn't the only one who has accidents around here. (and i'll beat you all to the punch- yes, i've done kegels)

dear leaky sippy cup,
i do not like you and the way you ruined my phone after like 30 seconds of contact. i won't complain about having an iphone, but i kind of miss my old phone. really, i hated sippy cups already- remembering to bring them places & making sure they don't leak all over creation? one of those mom tasks i'm not really that great at.

dear us weekly,
it's bad enough that i read celebrity trash. but let me refresh your memory- the contestants on the bachelor, jersey shore & those teenage mom shows are not celebrities. so please, stop pretending they are by slapping them on the cover.

speaking of celebrities?
dear heidi klum,
you are officially invited to my celebrity sleepover. i think i might be dropping drew barrymore from the lineup and i think you'd fit right in.

love,
me

getting back on the wagon

october felt like the month of sickness in our house- i went from a cold to a flu to a cold, and all of them knocked me out big time. it was as if a plague cloud settled over our house and just kept sprinkling new maladies down on me. in the midst of all of that sickness, i fell off my workout wagon and haven't exercised since. yep, it is now the end of november, and i still haven't worked out in a month and a half. i can tell from how i feel to the way my clothes are fitting, but i still have no motivation to start up again! does anyone else have that initial reluctance to get back in the swing of exercising? this month has been one where in some ways i feel like i've said yes to too many things, and have been juggling more than i really should, and so to add exercise back into the routine is daunting and overwhelming. thanks in great part to genetics, even when i work out pretty religiously my body type is not long and lean, so as soon as i take a break from exercise i almost immediately turn into a blob. fun times. if i had a stronger sense of self i would post a very unflattering photo that was in the pictures i just uploaded from my camera to prove my point, but i think i'll just keep that image to myself.

so gentle readers, i come to you with a two part question:
one, do you have any motivation for me? cause i'm having a rough time mustering it myself. i know that most of it is getting past the initial few days of working out again, and that's the part where i'm dragging my feet. i should've been motivated when m said to me, "mom, you haven't exercised in a long time. why don't you exercise anymore?" rad. good thing i'm modeling physical fitness to my kids. i guess at least they recognize that it's more normal for me to exercise than not.

two, any good dvd's i should attempt? you may remember i am a jillian michaels fan (at least i am a fan of her routines.) i kind of like intense, knock it out workouts, mostly because of limited time. (but not so intense that i die.)

my tummy fat thanks you in advance.

and on that note of sloth and complete inactivity, have a happy thanksgiving week of feasting!


ps yes i notice that i'm 6 posts behind...i've got some catching up to do! see you here a little more often in the next ten days!

love & other stuff

earlier this summer i got tagged by two of my friends in the post-yourself-with-your-spouse-for-seven-days challenge that was going around on facebook.

(look at those babies!)

i didn't do it until now because
a. i'm not really good at keeping up with 7 days of posting anything (ahem, see this blog)
b. i have many friends who aren't married or together with someone, and for some this is a choice; but for others? not so much. they are amazing human beings who haven't found their person yet but want to. so i felt conflicted about posting pda photos for a week straight.

that said, i do think it's good to celebrate healthy relationships, and i don't say enough how thankful i am for matt. so i'm going to write on here, just once, instead. with lots of pictures.

first, real talk: this year is our 14th wedding anniversary and wow! has life thrown us curveballs we never could have expected, as life tends to do. then there is the usual marriage stuff: we are really different humans. if you give us the same task it is likely that we will approach it in opposite ways. we fight, we correct each other, we apologize, we laugh, we learn new things about each other, we cry, we yell too loudly (ok that's just me), we fail each other, we retell the same stories & listen to the same stories, we forget why we were so mad at each other, we remember why we fell in love in the first place, we say things regret, we stay silent, we need time alone, we need time together, we dance, we have drinks in the backyard and talk late into the night, we cook, we micromanage, we mess up, we celebrate, we do errands and go on trips and go to work and parent and clean the house and get gas and fold laundry and feed the chickens and get the girls to school and get them back home again and....live a whole life together. there are things that drive me crazy about my husband, and i'm guessing the list of things i do that annoy him is at least twice that long.

BUT. it's good. it's so so good.
together figuring it all out is GOOD.

some things i love about being married to matt:

his faith practice informs everything in his life & our relationship - from the people he spends time with, to how quickly he admits that he is wrong, to the way he appreciates beauty, to the time he takes to be still, pray & listen. it also makes him incredibly others-focused....which honestly can be frustrating when i'm wanting to hunker down and not care about anyone else but myself! i'm inspired to work towards the common good and not just what benefits me. he is humble and willing to learn from others. i learn from his rhythm of self-care that fuels him to then care for others. i also learn from the way he listens before acting or speaking. he creates sacred space - at funerals, baptisms and weddings, at the bedside of someone dying, sitting with someone in grief - and he holds and honors those moments that are often rushed through, even in our christian faith tradition.

he's authentic & has integrity, and he's the same person behind closed doors that he is in the public sphere.

he's a crazy good dad. thoughtful, gentle, patient, and creative. he's made vocational & financial sacrifices to prioritize time with our children, which can be challenging when we live in such a city where the cost of living is astronomical. he has real conversations with our kids about what they are thinking about, and who they are becoming. he loves our girls in their uniqueness, and he celebrates who they are. he sits and listens to them. he plays with them. we co-parent not in theory but in reality; he juggles a ton of work and life to be present for our family. he makes me such a better mom & balances me out (and hopefully i do the same for him.)

 

matt's a really hard worker. he's seriously so efficient. i mean we both suffer from the inability to create realistic to-do lists, but somehow he knocks out SO MUCH work in a day.

paint two rooms, clean the entire backyard, wash all the floors, do 5 loads of laundry and then run over to help a friend on a house project on a saturday afternoon? no problem.

unlike me, he doesn't make a big deal about how much work he's doing. he doesn't need credit (um- i totally need credit and lots of compliments along the way), and he freely offers to help others.

 

it takes me an hour to wash the amount of dishes he can do in 15 minutes (which is one reason in our old-no-dishwasher-house, he is our dishwasher & does 90% of the dishes!) 

he celebrates and learns about things i care about. so for example, not only has he learned all about bono, but he knows a ton about art. he reads about it, looks at it, thinks about it, talks to our kids about it, talks to other artists, writes about it, asks me questions about it.

 

he makes life so fun. 

 

 

ruby has inherited this gift, and this facial expression is exactly matt in 6 year old girl form:

he works out with me! he's always up to support me whether it's running, walking, yoga, hiit, tabata, weights...he'll do whatever i'm doing (yep, i'm talking about you jillian michaels dvds) or he'll make sure i have time to go solo. i remember years ago when we were dating, how he would run the lake with me, and slow down to my pace (about 3 minutes a mile slower than his) without saying a word.

(i'm not kidding this day we almost died thanks to the humidity)

he poses for pictures with me. even though it is so far from his favorite thing! i keep telling him he'll be glad when we are 80.

he takes alone time to recharge, which really makes our relationship so much better. (it took me awhile to figure that one out but it's true.)

he loves and invests in other people's kids, not just our own. 

also: that he can eat at chez panisse and a taco truck in the same day, his gardening skills which somehow make me look like a gardener too even though all i can handle are succulents, his love of punk rock and hip hop, that he turns our backyard into an obstacle course whenever kids come over, his kitchen skills, his archaic flip phone, that he watches tv with me every tuesday night so i can get my fix, that he buys me 73 little presents for every holiday because i love gifts, that he makes me better cocktails than i can buy anywhere in oakland, that he almost always drives because i'd rather not

and that he's always and forever coming up with ideas on how to make the world a wholer, more beautiful and grace-filled place to live for everyone no matter who they are.

so there you go. 

we're married and 

i like my husband most of the time and love him all of the time.