Two Steps Forward...

I was doing so well. Knitting away, not ordering any new yarn, then BAM! Lots of yarn is on its way. So. How about a preview?

Georgia Peach on McClellan by Three Irish Girls. It's a limited edition and I'm a sucker for limited edition. Not to mention, it's totally gorgeous. I bought enough to make a lightweight, 3/4 sleeve cardigan.
Morgaine on Kells by Three Irish Girls. Love it. Had to have it. It's going to be a long sleeve pullover.
Knitosophy Discover by Dream in Color. I love quotes. I have a whole notebook full of them. One of my favorites is this one by Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." This colorway was inspried by that quote. Yarn inspired by one of my favorite quotes. There was never any hope.

Turkey day is around the corner!

And I need to lose 10 pounds. Still. Or at the very least, stop gaining weight and buy new pants. Regardless, neither of these goals will be accomplished when I do things like eat two donuts for breakfast. That is exactly what I did today.

So I have a plan (you knew that was coming, right?)

We are going to switch to light soy milk and low-fat & fat-free when possible. The bigger change shouldn't be too difficult (I hope). Before dinner, I'm going to eat a nearly vegan diet by avoiding most animal products and simple sugars. I am also making a conscious effort to eat more fiber. Hopefully this helps!

In a random note, I am apparently semi-vegetarian, meaning that I eat meat in less than half of my meals. I've always been this way. Who knew it had a label?

Creative Adventures

Yesterday I purchased:

Green Tights

Green Dress

Green Fabric

Ivy Garland

Halloween Makeup

Red Hair Paint

What could I possibly have planned? My first ever attempt to make a halloween costume!

Starry Starry Night

I think this might be the most gorgeous yarn EVER. It was a limited edition Three Irish Girls yarn and I'm glad I got one! It's called Starry Starry Night based on Van Gogh's painting.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I was doing really great with Jillian's 30 Day Shred workout. It was still kicking my ass, but I didn't feel like I was about to expire either. Then we adopted our new puppy, Piper. Prepping for her, and going to pick her up nixed two workouts. However, on Friday, I was determined to workout again. I just didn't count on Piper being an early riser. I also didn't count on the fact that having her around would sometimes require me to move a lightning speed to stop her from doing things she isn't supposed to. Hence why wear slippers on our tile was never a problem until now. I discovered the hard way (literally) that slippers are quite slippery when on tile and that tile is very, very hard. I took a pretty hard fall at 6am Friday morning that killed the rest of my day.

Now, I remember falling as a kid, but I don't recall that it caused back & ab pain hours later. I also don't recall it making me nauseous for half a day. I must be getting old. Needless to say, I didn't workout on Friday or at all this weekend.

Today is the day I will get back in the groove! Next summer will be here before I know it and I'm determined to make it to the top of Half Dome!

Half Dome - June 2010

"Half Dome is the ultimate Yosemite day hike - the one you can't die without doing, and the one you're most likely to die while doing."

I am going to hike to the top of Half Dome next summer. This is significant for a number of reasons. The first being that it will force me to get into shape. The second is that I have never been to Yosemite. I have lived within 2-3 hours of Yosemite for most of my life and have never gone. That's going to change.

I have started training yesterday. I don't have a lot of upper body strength and I know that I will need it to haul myself up those cables. So I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. I also need to lose 10 pounds. I tried it yesterday for the first time and it absolutely kicked my ass. I can already tell that this will be great training for Half Dome. There were lots of squats, lunges, and arm exercises with weights. I also want to start hiking on Saturdays for practice.

Yoga & Knitting

What could yoga & knitting have in common? Yeah, I don't know either. They are, however, two of the ways I chose to spend my free time lately. I recently finished my top-secret knitting projects. I can't post about them yet, but will as soon as I get the green light. They are awesome! I have also finished my sister's hat, which is shown here on my head.

On to yoga. I love yoga, but I also love to be lazy and eat junk. Lately, I've been really lazy and eating a lot of junk. Which has to stop because pretty soon my pants won't fit. I've decided that for numerous reasons, my pants being one of them, I need to integrate a daily yoga practice into my life. First thing in the morning seems ideal until I remember the previously mentioned laziness. So it happens as soon as I get home from work. I'm two days in, so far so good.

And hey! I can touch my toes with my feet together and my knees locked! I haven't been able to do that for a while, and Chris immediately squashed my excitement by showing me that he has always been able to touch his toes. He better watch it or I'll trick him into practicing yoga with me and tie him up in a pretzel.