Tag Archives: Toronto

Oh The Places You’ll Go

The most dangerous thing in life is our biases and preconceptions. Living as if our younger selves were fortune tellers means always holding ourselves up to a idealized standard that never really existed. I pictured myself at a very different place at 26, but now that I am here, I am not in that elusive magical cookie cutter life. I also used to think that 26 sounded old, but I still act immature so that can’t be right.

The older I get, the more I wish I had taken Dr. Seuss more seriously. The cartoons in his rhymes always suggested to me that the books were not to impart anything substantial, but looking back, Dr. Seuss was one of the first cheerleaders in most of our homes.

“If things start happening, don’t worry, don’t stew,
Just go right along, and you’ll start happening too”
-Dr. Seuss

Lately, my head has been overwhelmed with a constant effort to decipher what I think I want from what I actually want. Even that sentence confuses me. There have been a few occasions where the amount of conflicting ideas screaming over top of each other in my head make me think that I will be the next Torontonian sleeping on the subway and talking to imaginary friends. Except I plan to gracefully exit this phase at some point. Fingers crossed that crazy can just be a pit stop.

Moving to Toronto was a situation that I did not think through and was not a part of a plan in any way. It was a good idea at the time and I happily arrived to a new city feeling like I was moving forward but was really chasing my tail. It was an opportunity that the world gave me to grow up real fast but I responded by dragging my heels and wasting as much energy as possible to stay in my comfortable little rut. So, instead, I learned some life skills the hard and tedious way after they came around a few more times. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks though; throw me a treat Universe, I get it.

After reading through some of my posts, I feel like my blog is a motivational speaker that struggles with motivation. There is always a point and often a positive message that gets sidetracked or overtaken by stories or stats of how much I can deadlift (115lbs for 3×10. See how I slipped that in there!) At least I believe I can keep myself from living in a van down by the river. (If you don’t get that joke you should watch this and laugh with me)

So tonight I skipped my food prep for tomorrow and most of studying to write this, and dance around my apartment. It is hard to take life advice from Taylor Swift but she sure can make me dance. And yes, this was my life changing revelation. Just roll with it.

 

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Sunday Funday (Run Day)

My plan for the weekend was to be lazy because on Friday I did a workout of superset dropsets. If you don’t know what that means, think of going to failure. And then repeat. And repeat. Until you have 5 pound dumbbells in each hand and you’re grunting like you’re lifting a car and people aren’t even trying to pretend they aren’t staring at you.

My body responded well to taking the week off of barbell squats and pushups which was really disappointing because I was somehow convinced I knew my shoulder better than my surgeon. That was false. My asymmetries also seemed to backslide this week, likely because of a crazy week of training (others) and not finding quite enough time to train myself.

This morning I felt like staying in and just getting work done. Just some reading and some programming, and my fitness was dancing along to Christmas carols when I got up to make more tea.

But the body wants what it wants. And it decided to run.

Maybe it was the calming view of fall snowing through my window, or maybe it was the music that made me feel like outside was a magical wonderland. Either way, I needed to clear my head and I think my neighbours probably needed a break from the power ballads that Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera call Christmas carols. If they could even hear them over top of me singing/screaming along.

I bundled up and headed out into a slushy mess not resembling the untouched snow on my balcony that looked so inviting. Ah yes, the season of irregular cadences, unpredictable footing, and 100:1 chance of spontaneous injury. This was our first big snowfall in Toronto this year, and it made up for our lack of snow earlier in the season.

I headed out away from the main streets into a quiet neighbourhood nearby. I ran around a park full of families sledding which created a soundtrack of children yelling and laughing over top of my heavy breathing. As I slipped along home, my keys jingled reassuringly in my pocket and my phone bounced around in the other (lesson learned; you never know when you might get hit by a car). I zig-zagged from one sidewalk to the other depending on which looked safer or less congested with slow moving, bundled up bodies. This ended up getting a little bit frustrating but winter running is never for speed. Unless you are participating in a bobsled or luge race.

I got back home with my tear stained cheeks in a big smile and I was about to walk back inside as someone in an old school fake wooden paneled minivan honked and yelled at me. I gave him a thumbs up because I’m sure he yelled something like “Hey aren’t you the girl from the blog?!” Gee, people in Toronto are friendly. 🙂

snowrun

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