Mother's Day and my Mother's Visit

Whew! A break in the action to update! After a whirlwind week showing my mom and her friend Gigi around Provence, I finally have a chance to step back, breathe, process, and (as far as the scale is concerned) asses the damage. But, this post is not about the scale. This post is about how amazing it was to have my mom (and Gigi) here, even if they did leave JUST before Mother's Day, so I couldn't celebrate it with them.

Having my own apartment, especially in a foreign country, has really reinforced one part of my personality: I love being a host. I like having people over for dinner and I like having people come visit. Honestly, my disorganized self even likes the pre-visitor cleaning frenzy and all the other parts of the having people over ritual. Currently, I'm enjoying the aftermath of post-departure cleaning and general fatigue. That said, I had a blast showing Mom and Gigi around Provence. I hope they had a lovely and unforgettable time. :)

Instead of showing you all millions of photos of our trip, in honor of Mother's Day, here are all of the photos of me with my momma from our week together.

Waiting at the train station after meeting up at the Marseille airport

Whew! Made it to Avignon!

Checking out the city of Camon with some friends (unpictured)

Eating a fabulous lunch with old friends

Taking a boat tour of the Calanques in Cassis

PS-- I just found out that I'll be in Cincinnati all summer working at my old job and living with my mom: an exact replica (almost) of our first summer losing weight together, when I lost a majority of mine and she dropped 30 pounds! I hope living in the same house and trying out new recipes together will help us both motivate each other AND let us really take advantage of what looks like my last summer living at home. So, hopefully these fabulous photos will not only document our week together, but also serve as photos on our continuing WL journey!

In short, Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. I'm lucky to have amazing women in my life (that means you too, Gma) and am lucky that they're both still around for me to celebrate how much I love them. Both of them have worked so hard, set so many examples (both good and bad ;) haha) and formed me into the woman I am today. Love you both and, Mom, I'm so glad I got to see you!

A Beach in February

Sorry the blog updates have been so sporadic. I am alive and kicking over here, though I feel guilty about my inability to really bring myself to dedicatedly track and keep a workout schedule. If I'm quite honest, I'm feeling incredibly apathetic right now and it's hard to bring myself to do much of anything at all, which is doubly bad considering I'm currently living in one of the prettiest regions of France (evidence to follow). I've been sick for the past two weeks with a cold that won't go away and two very big parts of my personal life are doing somersaults and acrobatics they're that high up in the air, and, as a result, I'm just feeling very... apathetic about things. I feel stuck in a corner and I can't really do anything to get out, and, as someone who's usually so proactive and always has a plan, this waiting game is really playing with me mentally.

Furthermore, the half marathon has been canned as my running buddy doesn't feel up to the distance, but, if I'm completely honest with myself and you all, I hadn't been giving my training the 100% that I should be giving it, so it's my fault as well. Still, I'm disappointed in the situation and I'm disappointed most of all with myself for my half-hearted efforts at everything right now. That said, I am going to go out for at least a three-mile run this afternoon (since it'd be criminal not to with the sun shining, no wind, and a 60º day) and at least have accomplished that much. I think we're making crêpes tonight as a rain-checked celebration of the French holiday Chandeleur that happened on Feb 5th, so it'll be a caloric wash. That said, it's essentially France's Groundhog Day and there's a saying that goes: "À la Chandeleur, l'hiver cesse ou reprend vigueur" meaning, that depending on that day's weather winter either ceases or is reinvigorated. I'm pretty optimistic since we missed the holiday because we were on the beach nearby (again, see below). Bye, bye, Winter?

Anyway, now that I've whined to you all, here are some photos to prove why I feel bad about doing so and for wanting to stay in bed all day and watch crap TV. This is what you find if you leave Avignon and take an hour train ride (25€ round trip) to the French seaside town of Cassis. We went this past Saturday to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Pear, Black Currant, and Apricot

Moules-Frites for lunch

I can't believe we're eating outside like this in FEBRUARY! This Ohioan isn't used to this!

The beach. It's like a postcard.

We hiked over to the Calanques, one of the reasons this town well-known in France

Edit: Didn't run... I am, apparently, in fact, a criminal. Instead I stayed in bed, and am now doing a load of laundry before going on a walk with Amy.

Week 4, Day 1

I can't believe it's only Tuesday... somehow Monday managed to feel like a whole week in itself. Anyways, the weekend was good, if not very productive in the working out category, but after a 5-day workout week, I needed some time to stay home in pajamas.

Yesterday's workout wasn't stellar due to me forgetting what time Spinning actually started, but today promises to be better. This'll be Day 1 of Week 4 of the C25K podcast, so we'll see how that goes. After the run last week on the real track at the gym, I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I know that I ran a lot slower up there, but it didn't seem to hurt my knees quite so badly or leave me quite so starved for oxygen each time I'd go from the 6.1-6.2 runs to a 4.1 walk break. Today I stumbled upon this article on the C25K site, and it really got my excited for my run today/this week/the next 5 weeks because I KNOW I can do this. It's not pretty and it's not easy, but I know I am capable of doing this.

I remember back in the day when there were certain Pilates moves I couldn't do because my thighs were too big and I was too inflexible... I can do those now, and I remember that the day I realized that, I felt like I'd really made a difference in my daily routine. I also remember the day I decided to try Spinning. Old me would have never tried Spinning regardless of whether or not I would have been able to complete the class because I would have been too embarrassed in a class with that many "in-shape" people. Now, Spinning is still really hard and is always a challenge, but I've been going twice a week and I know that every week I can push myself just a little bit harder and keep up with the rest of the class. I'm sure if I stick to it, running this 5k will be the same, only with a tangible goal at the end.

Speaking of exercise, I had an early morning appt. with the doctor today to go over my blood test results. As anticipated, my cholesterol is higher at 226. Instead of medicine (and because my diet and exercise are already good), she's having me start taking fish oil every day for 6 months and then come back and see her/retest to see if that helped. My good cholesterol is apparently 61, which is good and is what is keeping my heart attack risk at an acceptable 3.7 (where 4.5 is the high number for the acceptable range). She said this is thanks to my exercise habits and to "not stop exercising no matter what" and that I'm "doing really great" and have healthy habits. For someone who's always been overweight and rather out of shape, this kudos for my exercise routine and my diet really felt good. It's good to know that even if I have this hereditary high cholesterol, I'm still on the right track.

She also has me going to physical therapy for my knee next week... it's been kind of bothering me, so I want to check it out before anything bad happens.

Want some motivation for your week? I also stumbled upon this on the C25K site. I know it's especially pertinent for me with finals approaching, my busy schedule, and the crummy weather outside:



Anyways, have a great Tuesday! More later, I'm sure :)