OMG OMG OMG OMG BEST SISTER EVERRRR

Okay so this is both a HORRIBLE and WONDERFUL day all at once!! There’s really only one reason it sucks, and that is because it is the last day of school – meaning the beginning of the end of any kind of extracurricular anything (that includes thinking about enjoyable things…NOT ALLOWED)…for the next two solid weeks. Two weeks EXACTLY in fact! At this moment in two weeks I will just be thinking:

Not Raro but ya know...

That’s actually Cuba…but you get the idea…haha.

Anyhow, so yes…the grueling study all day routine begins immediately (after this blog post…) so that is daunting to the 9’s…but FORTUNATELY, it was also the last day of second year classes! This is extra exciting since this is driest most hands off year of vet school and thus a big hump to get over! I’m SOOOO excited for third year! AND RAROTONGAA! Or as Joanna and I like to call it Rah Rah

SO SPEAKING OF JOANNA AND ANOTHER REASON WHY THIS DAY RULES (and Joanna Rules):

PARCEL PARCEL PARCELLLL

The pic isn’t the clearest, but I couldn’t be broadcasting addresses all over the INTERWEB so you get the idea!! I AM BEYOND PUMPED! How about you check out the INSIDE!

INSIDE THE DELICIOUS PACKAGE!

Holy hell, I can’t even get over what an amazing package this was! It is beyond words! It turns out that GranInTraining takes after her mother in the amazing package department (ie: OUR mother hardeehar) as this was a doozy! Here is an example of some of the amazingness up close:

HOMEMADE GRANOLA BARS SERIOUSLY?!

?!??!?!??!?

So each member of the package had it’s own little nutritional information card and a pretty description! TELL ME SHE SHOULDN’T DO THIS FOR A LIVING OR SOMETHING?! This is seriously one of the best things I’ve ever seen! I’m so incredibly excited to work some of all of these delicious and HEALTHY snacks into my study routine every day! I don’t know what I’d do without her!

As a wonderful addition here is everything all laid out pretty so you can see just how amazing it truly is!

Like wowowowowowowowowowow this is amazing

GRAN IN TRAINING YOU SHOULD RUN A HEALTH FOOD PACKAGE BUSINESS FROM YOUR VERY HOME! This is truly the best ever and a wonderful way to start EXAMMMSSSSSSS

On a fitness note, tried out the elliptical as my big cardio party today because my knee is acting up during running and it was actually quite a lovely time! Yahoo! Now to make it through exams…I’ve decided on more of a “exercise the day I write an exam” type plan to try and maximize studying without fallin’ off the fitness wagon, and thankfully I now have some amazing snacks to distract me from my normal large bags of candy I use to help me through!

Wish me luck peeps…*mmmmmm Peeps…..*….this is the homestretch!! (the current one anyway..ha)

-KK

ps GRAN IN TRAINING YOU ARE THE BEEEESSSTTT!!!

RESULTS PHOTO – Fitness is a lifestyle…or something like that

I can’t say I’d be too enthused to have the whole bod hanging out in any internet forum (without the chances of massive amounts of $$$ to help me pay for school or something) so I’ll just give an after to go with the head of my blog here but not just yet! First it’s time for a fitness ramble!

So trying to fit the old workouts into my crazy school schedule has been quite a challenge, I do say, but so incredibly worth it.  Of course you would never expect someone to say they regretted getting in shape, but it’s not just the “shape” part that makes it matter to me.  I have more energy and I’m happier too! That’s not to say that I don’t have terrible days where my self-esteem gets the better of me in spite of all of the work I’ve put in, but that’s gonna happen regardless. I have days where I feel like nothing in the world could stop me from being a big grouch, and when I find my way to the gym or to the living room with one of my BeachBody vids…I finish up and it’s like a big wave of relief watches over me.  I think this is because I am incredibly paranoid that once again in my life I will work really hard to get healthy…and then just one day out of the blue fall back off the wagon (the good kind of wagon).  It may sound unrealistic but I’ve done it so many times it feels like this scary little demon waiting to jump out at me!

I have to remind myself (with the help of lovely people like my sis) that yeah, I haven’t always stayed in perfect shape after a big workout “binge”…but I’ve always improved a bit overall each time, and there’s always room for more improvement where that came from! I’ve been on and off the wagon many a time, but I always keep one more thing on there each time haha. This time I’m gonna try to just stay there so I don’t have to climb back up.  But if I fall again, there is still hope! I really do believe that health and fitness is a lifestyle and you have to work towards changing it for the better!  Preach preach preach, I know, but it’s all true and since I need to be reminded sometimes I thought maybe someone else would like to be as well!

So speaking of fitness I have a couple things I want to share! One is my new favourite fitness oriented website! It’s called Map My Run and allows you to “map runs” anywhere you want using Google Maps so that you can see the distances and all that! You can even look up other runs people have mapped to save yourself the trouble of figuring out where to go! It totally rules! You can also just use the site to log your workouts of any kind (not just runnin) if you like keeping track of such things! Fun fun fun!

Other fun fitness love that doesn’t even feel like work to me AT ALL!:

Our bicyclettes FINALLY out for their first run!

There was a day actually WORTH being outside for a while so it was time to drag the old two wheeled machines out and it was SO LOVELY!!! Here is Will lookin’ superfly on the coast!:

Super-fly William

How super fantastic is that?

Alright now the moment you’ve all been waiting for! I will repost the pic of my intense bicep flex along with the new and improved. Keep in mind the pics are of different quality sadly…the newer one is a bit blurrier! But hopefully you can get the idea…so here it is:

BEFORE

Starting point of gettin' back in shape!

And this would be the latest AFTER:

A bit of success! (I think)

So yeah, that is not p90x results…that’s just general exercise through BeachBody vids of many types and running, gym going, spin classes, hot yoga…whatever I came up with! Fitness Fitness Fitness! IS FUN!

Last thing is, I’m gonna hook you up with a snapshot of the Victoria’s Secret and Wal-Mart Bathing suits I got myself for my trip! LOVE VS BATHING SUITS! Reward for healthiness and finishing this year of Vet School! (Two weeks to go, hopefully I make it!) Can you guess which one is Wal-Mart?!?! Haha. Hurraahhhh!!! Bathing suit weather here I come!!!

Whoooooo hoooooo!!!!

ALRIGHT SHUTUP AND GET BACK TO STUDYING TIME! Hopefully I will post again soon!

Here’s to health and fitness for one and all! Anyone can do it!

Love love love

-KK

The name of this blog is making less sense…

The more I think about blogging…and the more I read my sister’s blog…the more I want to be a little more general with my writins. Also, the more I go immense amounts of time without writing…the more sense it seems to make to not have such a narrow topic haha.  MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE. Ha.

Also, it seems that the answer to the question “p90x Lean + Vet School = Fail?” is YES. Except NOT AT ALL.

I may not have kept up with p90x, but I have definitely managed to fit a workout a day in (for the most part) since this Insanity (PUN INTENDED) began.  It had nothing to do with p90x specifically that I didn’t keep to it, more to do with my own desire to mix things up and keep them interesting – an important part of everyone’s fitness plan! If you find that finding a great workout that you love doing is what keeps it interestin’ for you then so be it! That ain’t it for me!

Anyhow moving right along, I’m going to make this a general post and follow it up with a fitness/results post!

First of all, here are some things that I am a fan of pretty much in totally endless infinite never ending REDUNDANT amounts ha..the pic is a little blurry and Web is not cooperating:

Carrots, Spinach, Webster, and Frozen Berries

I have already consumed a bag exactly the same as that carrot bag today and am trying to avoid eating another! Not because I don’t want to eat more carrots, because I have other delicious veggies to snack on! Like the spinach next to it for example!  I have taken to eating two cups of those frozen berries every morning during class to help ease the pain of class and also because it’s just a wonderfully delicious and nutritious snack! I have to be careful who I smile at for a while after wards however, as I am quite unsightly with my blue teeth! Webster looks rather purr-turbed here (ugh these puns are a major fail-zone) ha but sadly this was the only pic that came out clear!

In other news, I am going on a Veterinary Volunteering EXTRAVAGANZA for the month of may at the Esther Honey Foundation (CHECK THEM OUT THEY TOTALLY RULE!!!) which doubles as an amazing vacation…which is part of the reason my workout motivation was so intensely spiked! Thought you all might like to see how the preparations are going:

Supplies for Raro!

As you can see, not much in the way of organization has occurred…but at least we got out to get some things! We got the toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, shampoo, sunscreen type things…and a snorkel of course!  We’ve also been begging businesses and companies for donations of medical supplies to the cause and some of those things are starting to work out now as well! Hurrah for generosity and being almost done for the year! Donate Donate Donate to Esther Honey!

ONLY ONE DAY OF CLASSES LEFT FOR SECOND YEAR VET SCHOOL! I cannot believe it actually! Too bad exams are grueling as hell ha…but we’re off to Rarotonga two days after they end so I suppose all’s well that ends well!

LOVE TO ALL…FITNESS POST TO COME! Stay tuned for my first RESULTS BASED PHOTO!

-KK

A HUNDRED YEARS LATER – I know the weight (HA kidding..wait) must’ve killed you..

So yes, as difficult as I expected to find time to do this! Haha. HOWEVER, I don’t consider that a failure since…although I did fail at keeping up with the blog…I have STILL been stickin’ to the diet and exercise and ALL IS WELL!  p90x though? Not exactly…

So basically what it came down to for me was….I love being healthy, I love getting in shape, and I love goals and motivation and all that…but I also like VARIETY and have a mad Turbo Jam love that caused me to stray a bit from the original “Do this perfectly laid out workout plan” idea…and switch more to a “Burn calories every day!” type theme. That’s actually a bit of a STEAL from my sister who reassured me that’s what I should focus on when I was getting bored with p90x and missing TurboJam!

So I know it’s not as simple as that…not just “burn a couple cals” ha, but I think the key is more to start trying different fun ways of working out and it starts a whole big slippery slope of awesomeness! First you just wanna find all kinds of other awesome ones…you even get excited to redo some of the ones you really like and when you find enough you like, you miss ones you haven’t done in a while! Then the best part is, you start to wonder…I bet there is a way I could do this that would work EXTRA well…then you start reading…and you start thinking more about it…and all of a sudden you’re a fountain of exercise knowledge! And you make up your own sort of tentative plans in the back of your mind! Like “I’m gonna make sure I do strength training three times this week!” or “I’m gonna do abs three times this week!” etc etc…And even my very lovely boyfriend notices that once I get my workout in, or if I know when that day I’m going to get it in, I even seem in a better mood! Orrrrr maybe he notices what a terrible mood I’m in when I don’t fit in a workout….but whatever..haha Kidding.  But anywho, the important thing is…I have definitely learned something…

It is ALWAYS POSSIBLE to find a way to fit exercise into your life!

Seriously! During midterms when I was in classes all day and had a couple huge tests every week (at least) for several weeks straight…it was UNBELIEVEABLY tough..but I’d get up before class if necessary…I’d think ahead if I knew it was going to be a really tough week to get them done, but MAN did I ever feel like I’d accomplished something once I’d succeeded! Thus far I don’t think I have missed more than 1 day week since I began, maximum two! And that’s fitting in anywhere from 40 – 140 minutes of exercise in!

So wow…ramble ramble ramble-a-thon or what?! I have to write more often so I can talk more about the day to day and such!  I guess I don’t have many pics to put up with this one as it’s sort of spur of the moment….but here is a candle that spent most of our weeks studying with us….

Will loves Candles 😐

And our favorite way to pass the time during studying….playing with, observing, and obviously taking pics of…..

Best friends forevah

You should also know that Webster’s (the white one) fourth birthday just passed. I am not happy about this, I would like him to still be 1.

Oh and one more exciting thing! Will and I have been making WINE to save money and hassle and just because it’s a generally awesome plan! I took a pic of one of the stages so I’ll hook you up with that! It’s going to be Valpolicella and it should be done in a week or so! HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!??! Endlessly exciting, I know.

Siphoning to the Carboy! Yahoooo!

How is THAT for party times? Party times to come anyway…hurrah!!!

I think that should be all for now! Going to see She’s Out of my League or something like that tonight and PUMPED! Hopefully talk to all my faithful followers (1) soon!

KK

Ooops! So I guess Vet School + p90x + BLOG is the real fail…

I’m back I’m back! I know all of my WORTHY readers…er…READER have/has really missed me on my few day hiatus but that’s just how it goes haha.  I had magical intentions of daily posts, but fitting in the routine and the schoolin’ is definitely enough daily committment. I will keep trying to update as regularly as possible though!

So I guess that makes this…day….10!  Wish I could say so much has happened since I last wrote but it’s pretty much been the same olllll’…which I guess might not be familiar to you if you don’t know me.  But basically it’s a lovely assortment daily of eating, procrastinating, and studying…and now with a little p90x.

I am proud AND SHOCKED to say that I haven’t missed a day yet…although if you know anything about p90x that doesn’t sound right since I should have missed a day for my “rest day” on Sunday.  However, this week at school is a bit of a doozy (exam time is upon us yahoo) so I decided to start my week right over on Sunday and have a rest day between a couple of exams so that I could have the study time. Wish I could say this worked out exactly as planned, but it turns out that scheduled rest day is EXACTLY where it belongs, because the first (and I’m serious…the very first) actual move I did in my premature workout I pulled an abdominal muscle.  Haha. I was kind of impressed really…it was like they had it planned to a T haha.  The old “injury” is doing fine…and it hasn’t stopped me. I’ve just tried to be gentle with that muscle but I don’t think it has impacted my workout too much! I still haven’t missed a day though!  Here is a nice post workout neck shot:

And it has been much worse...

That picture is rather large, but hopefully can do some justice to the sweat-a-thon that is p90x.  Haha.  If I was willing to put my face on here the effect would probably be more dramatic haha.  So yes, since my last post which was day 4 – Yoga X.  I broke out the Legs and Back along with Ab Ripper X after class Friday, which was a pretty decent workout.  I was worried about Saturday as Valentine’s preps were going on and I just find weekend workouts really tough for some reason (you’d think they’d be easier since you have more time…but anywhoooo)…but got the old Kenpo X in at some point…don’t even know when haha.  I really enjoyed Kenpo! I saw a girls results who switched Cardio X with Kenpo X as it’s a different type of workout but still quite cardio oriented…when I have more time I may consider that.  Sadly the 15 minute difference (Cardio X is only 45 mins) is quite important to me during exams but without any pending I might do that!  We shall seee I suppose.

So it was starting over on Valentine’s Day with Core Synergistics that pulled the old abdominal….but as I said, that’s going fine now! I don’t regret starting it over even though it might have confused things a bit, because otherwise I might have had to take a day off this week and I REALLY don’t wanna do that! At this point I’m even looking forward to the workouts!

So I’m on Week 2 now…I would be lying if I said I wasn’t kind of sad that I didn’t lose one pound over this week of intensity.  I also had been working out rather intensely for the week before I started p90x so after two weeks I feel I should have showed at least one pound of loss…maybe I can chalk it up to some muscle gain…but I dunno. I will stick with it for longer and hope I hit some sort of hill and see some results.  I know I am jumping the gun looking for results but it’s damn hard when you’re kicking your butt for it not to want some evidence!! Haha.

I should also mention that myself and my lovely lovely boyfriend started making wine on Monday night! We’re very excited about it! We also had a perfect and lovely Valentine’s Day filled with sleigh rides, flowers, love, and delicious, delicious food.  You can have a look if you like!

Ally the horse in her element

A snowy path

Candlelight

Colours

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

-KK

Day the Fourth

Success!! I got up at 6:30 as planned and did the Yoga X video bright and early!  This is a summary of my morning:

Complete with Yoga mat, hydration, and feedin’ tha cats.  One minor problem when I was switching from plank into runners pose – one of my cats decided to run under me at the exact moment. Let’s just say my foot had a passenger on its trip to between my arms…

Anyhow, this video was funny. It was quite long (an hour and a half) but even though it was long, I just didn’t feel like I’d gotten a good enough workout. That being said, I think the fact that most of the moves that I did had to be shameful facsimiles of the real ones due to my lack of skillz could be the culprit.  I definitely got some good work done, but needless to say the exercises should be much more effective once I’ve mastered them and have a bit more strength. I think I will invest in a yoga block however…

So one more day down! I feel that is a victory in itself but I’m not even a week into the program yet so I’m not quite jumping for joy. It’s midterm season next week too so that’ll be a real test.

I’ve also been getting quite enraged at the Wii fit lately. I guess blaming the Wii fit for my personal failures isn’t really all that “fair”, but I’m perfectly comfortable with that.  I was having a really hard time deciding how much my clothing weighed according to various outfits so I decided to standardize and always do the “Fit Tests” in my underwear. However, not really to my surprise, my newly accurate clothing weight caused a general increase in my weight graph and I’m none too happy about it. I guess nothing has changed except my disillusionment but I must have been using it as comfort, because I am definitely no longer comfortable. Ha. But moving right along…

One more rant! And this one is about the crows that are my new best friends in the morning (you know…the type of best friend I mean…the type that you want to terrify by shooting a shotgun into the air when they least expect it, we’ve all got one!):

This picture is incredibly deceiving.  The actual amount of crows on this tree CAWWING from about 6-8 am every day approaches the hundreds. And the amount of trees surrounding my general living area should be noted as extreme as well. Needless to say, the sound coming from them is extraordinary, but as an animal lover I can dig down deep and choose fascination as my primary reaction (easy the first time, but progressively more challenging ha).  It is their other way of showing their presence that I find a tad more difficult to come to terms with:

Nice

Oh very nice

And my personal favorite...

Like, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!??!

That is DISGUSTING! I don’t even know what it is! It looks like bird BARF or something! It was hard enough to get used to this brown bird dung (used to the much more appetizing white and grey stuff from the seagulls and the pigeons)…but this?? Ugh. Like I said, the sound…I can see it as a beautiful display of nature. But if this keeps up there will one day be more than bird barf out there…either that or my cats will soon have to be outdoor cats with a license to kill.

Alright, I better shutup now. Almost time for more class…was a decent morning in class today but as per usual I’m looking forward to the day end…doing a CPR wetlab tonight! Should be pretty sweet! Tata for now all…

-KK

Days 1-3 of the LEAN MEAN CHALLENGE

I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea where the Lean Mean Challenge came from – I just made it up. Not overly proud of it either but I’m gonna leave it.

So I am actually starting this blog on Day 3 of the p90x Lean program.  Also, I’m not going to be following the diet that comes with the program.  I’m going to do the whole “eat less crap and more good stuff” method and we shall see what happens! My sister is doing a really cool nutrition program right now called Simply for Life which I think would go well with it so I’m taking some pointers from her, and using what I learned from a brief stint on Weight Watchers back in the day as well…so I guess I’m not totally winging it.  However, fruit roll ups and candy will definitely not be eliminated entirely from my diet – that is for certain.

Also I guess it would be good to report my weight as of now as a BEFORE type of thing.  That is in fact me in my blog header pic as a before, but I will not be posting full out before pics unless I get some good afters to post. Hey, I gotta offset the first impression REALLY quickly…until then I will protect your eyes.  So yes my starting weight is around 139 POUNDS. I’m a Canadian and ALL FOR the metric system *Yay Canada!* but I just like weight in pounds better…counterintuitive I guess since kilos sound way lower…BUT I DIGRESS.

Day 1 of the LEAN program (ie: don’t turn my body into a scary ripped man body program) is called Core Synergistics….X (of course ha).  It was a big smorgasbord (you’ll excuse my lack of crazy foreign letter symbols) of new cool moves and although didn’t give me that “OH MY GOD I CAN’T FINISH IT” feeling that I get from some really intense cardio workouts, I was sweating buckets by the end and feeling really good!  (By the way, I am an accidental master of run on sentences, I apologize.)   At this point I wasn’t sure if I was just trying out a workout or planning on doing the actual program, but this was definitely a good start!

Day 2 is called CARDIO……X.  It was a bit shorter than the first day (45 mins while day one was 1 hour) but was still pretty good. It wasn’t like the cardio that I’m used to…you know, Turbo Jam never stop moving type stuff, but judging by my sweat and soreness later on I think it was a pretty good calorie burner!  It’s definitely the type of stuff that the more you do it, the easier it is to figure out how to push yourself so I think it will get HARDER instead of easier…which is good! Both of these first two I fit in after long days at school, but as long as I got right to it after class it was DOABLE. However, I don’t have any midterms this week so not makin’ any conclusions just yet…

DAY 3 is two videos…Shoulders and Arms…..X and Ab Ripper…..X.  If you haven’t figured it out yet…the ellipsis doesn’t exactly BELONG there, I just think it makes it more intense. Ha. Or not.  ANYWAY, today I did something new…and something I haven’t had the motivation to do since my pre-Cuba-trip enthusiasm a couple of years ago…I got up to work out BEFORE class.  Again, maybe something that doesn’t stand out to many as much of anything…but I have come to very much appreciate sleeping in until seven before several hours of school…so getting up at 10 to 6 today was a definite accomplishment.  Not only that, but I woke up like every hour of the night anticipating getting up to work out…don’t know what that was about, but I don’t see it lasting haha.  I’m hoping this morning thing will be able to become routine…but I may be getting ahead of myself. Har dee harrrrr.

Annnnnnywho, I’ve got lots more I should probably say…but it’s too early to show my true rambling capability colours to everyone so I think that’ll be all.  I’ll hopefully throw in some Vet School blogtasticness as well here and there, so you can start getting excited about that possibility………now!

Plan for tomorrow: wake up at 6:45 to do Yoga….X.  Alright I’ll stop.

Yeah, I love animals.

-KK

And so here it begins…

…..*daunting music please* the detailing of the battle between fitness and becoming a Veterinarian.  I guess I should be honest and say it’s not really a question of which will win as much as  it is about whether or not it will be possible to add this type of workout program to the “Wise and Wonderful” (thank you James Herriott) world of Veterinary School.

For anyone who knows either the p90x fitness program OR what vet school is like, they would know how much goes into one or the other, so admittedly I’m rather concerned about the combination.  I am also quite certain that there is probably many a vet student (or med student, or law student, etc etc etc) who have taken on this task and are probably having a good laugh at my trepidation, but I assure you that for me this will be no small task.

Anyone who has used their spare time in these programs to watch entire seasons of Gossip Girl, True Blood, The Office, 24 (and the list goes on and on and on and on…); or to clean their house in true OCD style; or to endlessly Facebook creep every friend of theirs alphabetically, then by age, then by height; or simply to just take excessive amounts of naps to hide from the world of studying…..YOU are the ones who will know how daunting this task truly is…and it is for all of you that I am doing this.

Oh and I guess also so maybe some rich soul will read my blog and take pity on me, and decide to pay for all of my RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE schooling (that could be YOU! Yes YOU! Free Veterinary care FOREVER)

But that is neither here nor there…. (YOU!!)

So off I go, if you’d like to come on this journey with me – TUNE IN! Or like, type in or whatever…I guess.  This is where we find out if it’s true that  “You can even fit this in to your busy lifestyle!”  -Every Workout Infomercial in the World…Ever

If I can do it, you can do it (seriously).  Unfortunately that also means that if I can’t do it, NEITHER CAN YOU. Sorry.

Wait patiently (for just a few minutes) for my first progress report!

– KK