Girls on the Run – Week Two

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Mama Cormier

The phone rang at 6:30 this morning. It was my friend L reminding me that I had to be at school by 7:30 for soccer tryouts. It’s never good when the coach is late. After a quick shower, I grabbed a protein bar and hurried out of the house by 7:15.

I pulled into the parking lot by 7:29 and could see that about 20 of the girls and two of the assistant coaches were already waiting on the soccer field. I grabbed my 3 bags from the car and dragged myself into the building to drop off my stuff and fetch the bag of soccer balls from the gym. When I finally got back outside we discovered that most of the balls needed to be inflated. Luckily many of the girls brought their own balls so the drills were already underway.

I never did find time to eat my protein bar. My first meal of the day happened at lunch. I thought that I could find a minute to read over the activity sheet for tonight’s Girls on the Run meeting but I made the mistake of trying to read it in the staff room. What I did read looked rather straight forward and the story attached to it inspired me to share it with my library classes in the afternoon.

When 3:00 came around I looked over the activity sheet again and went into panic mode because I was suppose to make a special box for one of the activities. Luckily Coach C had it under control and she decided that both teams could use the same box and do that particular activity together. Thank Goodness!

The day was colder than it had been the day before but not nearly as bad as the week before. We worked on negative traits that we wanted to change and focused on the positive things that we do and want to continue. It tied nicely into the story whose message was not to listen to negative or pessimistic comments when trying to pursue a goal or dream.

I think Coach P and I make a good team. During the run we encourage the girls and I even ran/walked a loop of the track today. After the girls left for the day the four coaches sat around and discussed the activities and how well the girls participated. I feel good about the program but I’m not sure it’s getting me ready for that 5 km walk/run.

It was a long day today. After Girls on the Run, Coach P and I had a parent council meeting and I didn’t get home till 9:00. At around 6:00 I finally ate that protein bar and I made supper when I got home. Way too late to eat but I knew that if I didn’t eat something I would graze for the rest of the night. It will be interesting to see if the scale has me up again, at the same weight or down somewhat. When I eat irregularly, like I did today, my body goes into starvation mode and I usually gain weight.

When Food Became my Enemy

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Mama Cormier

How dramatic! I’ve always loved food. Both my parents were great cooks. I remember when they started a catering business from our kitchen. It was the first time I had shrimp. I was hooked. I loved watching them prepare food for the fancy parties they catered and of course I was allowed to sample. Yum! Good thing I was a pretty active little girl. I always played outside, walked to school and rode my bike around the neighbourhood. I was a little on the pudgy side but not what I would consider fat.

When I was nine I contracted hepatitis A and was bed ridden for months. I missed a lot of school and couldn’t play with my friends but the worst part was the fat reduced diet I was put on. That was shear hell for someone who loved whipped cream, ice cream, cake and the crispy skin from the chicken. For some reason the chicken skin really stood out for me. I don’t know how much weight I lost but from photos I could see a noticeable change.

That was the beginning of my yo-yo dieting life. It didn’t help that my mother was made to feel guilty and responsible for my weight status by our family doctor. At the age of 11 when I weighed 120 pounds I remember how our female doctor reamed me out and tried to shame me into losing weight. At the time I was close to 5 feet tall and still growing. I did lose 10 pounds but I couldn’t maintain it. The fact that I grew 5 more inches and entered puberty might have had something to do with it.

To be continued………..

One of my favourite meals, even today. Chicken with a little bit of

crispy skin and lots of vegetables. Hmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!

Walking again.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Mama Cormier

I finally got back on the horse so to speak. After days of inactivity I got out for two long walks today. My husband and I got out early for a morning walk with the dog. We were hoping to miss the rain but just at the half way mark it started to spit and then it came down pretty steadily when we were still 500m from home. Oh well, I can hear my mother or somebody’s mother saying how I’m not made out of sugar and how a little rain won’t hurt you. After drying off the dog and changing my shirt I wrote another post this morning and my significant other calculated how far we had actually walked.

1.8 miles or 2.9 km

I was a little worried when I started out because my right knee hurt and I had a pain in my upper left thigh. It would have been so easy to use those aches and pains as excuses for not going. I feel pretty good about that. About a quarter of the way into the walk the pains went away and at the half way point I did something I haven’t done in over 10 years. I ran about 50 metres without stopping.

NEW GOAL – Run a little further every day!

This afternoon I thought we were getting in the car to go shopping but Kevin convinced me that everything we needed was just up the street. So we walked some more. This time we walked about

1 mile or 1.6 km

Grand total for the day – 2.8 miles or 4.5 km

It feels great to move again.

Food and Me – Part 2

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Mama Cormier

In my family food was very important. My dad always said that all one ever needed in life to be happy was “family and good food”. For me food symbolized Love. You ate all your food because it was prepared with love and to not eat it was wasteful and hurtful.

I remember a time when my middle sister did not want to eat her cheese sandwich. My parents were always worried about her weight and not because she was too heavy. Quite the opposite. They always thought she was too thin. They tried all kinds of approaches to get her to eat more. I vividly remember one evening when she wasn’t allowed to leave the dinner table until the sandwich was consumed. I’m not sure why I sat with her but I do remember trying to coax her to eat that sandwich. She absolutely refused. In the end I think she won out but the battle was far from over. My parents were so desperate that they sent her away to a farm for a week to fatten her up ( on the advice of our family doctor ). Nothing seemed to help. I think this constant battle convinced me that I needed to eat anything put in front of me in order to be the “good daughter”.

Don’t get me wrong, my middle sister was dearly loved by my parents and at times I was jealous of the constant attention they gave her. She was always the “cute one and the needy one”. I found other ways to get attention. Early on I was given lots of responsibility; one of the downsides of being the oldest child. I learned to cook when I was 8 years old and fondly remember my very first cookbook. It was the Carnation Milk Cookbook for Kids. I’m not sure if that was the exact title but I think I made every recipe in that book. It was my go to book. Years later my sister and I figured out that she was probably lactose intolerant and that’s why she wouldn’t eat that cheese sandwich. Nobody knew about those things back then. My poor sister had to suffer through all my milk laden recipes. Years later when my sister hit her teens she seemed to overcome her intolerance for milk products and started to enjoy cheeses and whipped cream. She however remained the “skinny sister” and even today my younger sister and I call her the “skinny one”.

I can’t believe I found a picture of my favourite cookbook as a child. I did get the title wrong, as you can see. WOW!

Courtesy of: http://www.vintagecookbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/kcb18x.jpg

Food and Me – Part 1

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Mama Cormier

Waste Not Want Not

As long as I can remember, food has played an important part of my life. My parents grew up during WWII when food was scarce and to waste food was unthinkable. Apparently at the age of one my mother was told that I was too thin. A plump baby was the sign of prosperity and good health. We were always expected to eat everything on our plates. Not wanting to disappoint my mom and dad I always cleaned my plate.

Only twice in my life can I remember not eating what was put in front of me. We owned a reference book on mushrooms and of course most of them were considered poisonous and inedible. The message from the book that stood out for me, even at the young age of 8, was that unless you were an expert on mushrooms you should NEVER pick wild mushrooms for consumption. Our house backed onto a huge abandoned field and one day my mother went back there and picked mushrooms and made a huge pot of mushroom soup. Normally I loved mushroom soup but I refused to eat it, convinced that it would be the death of me. Needless to say, it didn’t kill anybody but I wasn’t going to take that chance.

The second time I refused it eat a meal happened on our first visit back to Germany. My sisters and I (ages 11,9 and 5) stayed with our maternal grandmother while our parents spent a few days with my father’s brother and sister. Oma thought she would surprise us with a meal that my mother used to LOVE as a child. We were grossed out when she put bowls of hot sweet milk with elbow macaroni in front of us. None of us could eat it. Later that day the drained and slightly sweet macaroni appeared at dinner with a ground beef sauce. My grandmother wasted nothing. I’m sure she used the milk in something we ate while we were there. I remember how sad my Oma was when we wouldn’t eat her “special treat”. Talk about feeling QUILTY!!!!

My Fitness Journey

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Mama Cormier

Over the long weekend I went out walking everyday with my husband and our dog. We would be out for at least 45 minutes each morning. Sometimes I would take the dog out for a second walk later in the day. On the first day back to school I woke up extra early (5:50) so that I could join my husband and our dog for an early morning walk. It was still dark when I woke up and the sun was just coming up and the moon was still in the sky when we headed out the door. It felt great but later in the day I kept yawning and I still had to do Girls on the Run.

The next day my husband let me sleep and I didn’t get up early enough to go for a walk. That evening a group of us from school went downtown for a clothing sale and then dinner. It was dark when I got home. I didn’t get out for my walk. I have to get to bed earlier.

Thursday I slept in again. We did have Girls on the Run after school but most of the activities didn’t allow me to run with the girls. I did make a pledge to the group that I would walk at least 20 minutes every day. When I got home I did take the dog for a 20 minute walk before dinner. I think I will invest again in a pedometer and aim for 10 000 steps a day. Can anyone recommend a pedometer that won’t break everytime it falls to the floor or one that will stay securely attached to my pants? I’ve broken more pedometers……..!!!

I haven’t got up early since Tuesday to do my walk. Friday was the worst day yet. The dog didn’t want to go any further than the park at the bottom of our street. Oh well, Saturday is a new day.

First Week with Girls on the Run

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Mama Cormier

Day 1 – The day was bitter cold. We started outside but after handing out the girls’ t-shirts we quickly went inside for the introductions and getting to know you activities. The girls really enjoyed the activities. Now I should explain at this moment in time that I had some difficulty understanding the directions for the warm-up activities. At our training session we were assured that we could simply take the instructions from the equipment box and simply follow the very detailed directions for each step of the way. Coach P had a better handle on what needed to be done and she led the girls in the warm-up back outside in the nasty cold weather. In the last 20 minutes we all headed out for our walk/run around the school property. All in all it was a pretty good start to the program. I’d better read the instructions a couple of times before day 2.

Day 2 – A much nicer day. I did read the instructions ahead of time but I’ve discovered that I interpret the instructions differently than my assistant, Coach P. The warm-up activities and the run were a lot of fun today. There were 10 stages to the run. Three pylons were set up around the course with directions for 10 different activities between runs. The girls ran for 2 minutes and when the whistle was blown they headed toward or back to the nearest pylon. When all the girls arrived at the pylon they could follow the directions and as soon as they completed it they would start running again. At the end of the run each girl was given an empty choker and a star bead because they were all “stars” today. After each run the girls will be given beads to celebrate how far they run each day.

Welcome to Carol’s World

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Mama Cormier

I’m about to enter a new phase in my life and I need to figure out which direction I want to go. The problem is I want to do it all. I’m a mother, wife, teacher, coach, artist, and librarian. I love teaching, crafting, reading, gardening, walking the dog, baking and painting. I want to travel more and explore the world with my husband. I also want to stay healthy and I’m trying to move more and eat better.

I hope to divide this blog into categories that address my interests and my journey into retirement. I’m still teaching and coaching and would also like to include some of the upcoming highlights of my experiences in education. This week, for example, I’m about to embark on a new program at school called Girls on the Run. I’m one of 4 coaches and we will be working with 32 girls, ages 8 to 11. At the end of 10 weeks of training, all of us will be walking/running a 5 km race. I know I can walk that far so my personal goal is to try and run for at least half of it. I’ve added a link for Girls on the Run if you want to know more about this organization.

Girls on the Run in the GTA

I know that this blog will evolve and change over the next few months and years as my journey into retirement evolves. I look forward to sharing my experiences and maybe even hearing from some of my fellow bloggers.