KimberlyMichelle » habitual

the secret water weapon

Kim — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:08:18 +0000

With only a few short weeks left before I run that “race thing” … I’ve decided I need to start super hydrating myself. And since it’s really hard for me to drink lots of water on a normal basis, I’ve turned to drinking the one kind of water that is really really easy for me to drink: penta water.

If you’re a super water drinker, you might not relate to anything I’m saying here and simply think I’m crazy. But, I’ve always had a really really tough time gulping down the stuff. I have to put some sort of flavoring in my water to make it go down… or else I get really sick to my stomach. Ironic, huh? And thanks to the advent of things like True Lemon, I can say that my water intake has truly increased over the years.

But after running, I want pure water… not flavored water. And since my body hates regular water, this usually means I don’t drink more than 8 oz of it after a run. Which is dumb, and makes me feel worse and makes recovery worse too. Evil evil water.

So this is where my secret weapon comes in. I was introduced to the stuff by the lovely A.J. Langer (a lady many of us know as Rayanne) at a FMS support group way back in the day in Santa Monica. She wasn’t being paid to endorse it or push it at all, but just shared personally about how wonderful it was to help her hydrate and how it was the only water she’d ever been able to drink easily. So I bit on her personal recommendation (we were the only women in the room under 40, so I felt a kindred spirit) and went to buy some.

I tried it. And I thought it was voodoo magic. And then I told my mom. And she tried it. And she thought it was creepy. And the next thing you know, she’s special ordering crates of it from the local grocery store and I’m picking up bottles whenever I see it on sale. It’s the water I can guzzle with ease, and other than all of the scientific reasons for it being better water, I just know that I can drink it with ease and not get sick so I like it more than Coca-Cola.

So from now until race time, I’ll be guzzling a few extra bottles of this stuff when I know I need more water… and I’m packing some True Lemon for the trip too. There’s no way this girl is ending up dehydrated after trekking 13.1 miles on concrete…

#WEverb11 #1: one word

Kim — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:09:00 +0000

Choose one word.

Encapsulate the year 2011 in one word. Explain why. Imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2012 for you?

2011: Latent

As I look around the house tonight, I see a lot of things that are “unfinished.” I feel like this year was full of living in the moment, but there was no major task or accomplishment that left its full mark. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a wonderful year full of many amazing things… but I’m coming to the end of the year feeling like I’ve left something, or many things, just there. And there’s guilt around that. A lot of it… which swirls around and gets you tangled back into a place where you can’t tackle those loose ends. And so they remain. I’ve started taking steps to stop the excuses and just push forward, in small ways and hopefully in bigger ways later on. Setting this whole #WEverb11 thing up was one of those challenges. Do or do not… there is no try.

2012: Whimsical

I want to throw a bit more caution to the wind next year. I want to blame age for my ridiculous caution these days, because I’m not really sure what else is behind it. But it’s limiting and frustrating and causes nothing but stress. I want to fill my world with more whimsy and fun. Just let go and run in the wind and try yet another something new. I want to spend more nights just staring up at the stars with Miss L, or giggling with Mr. M on the couch. I want to take a drive up to Tahoe with no plans and not know where we’re going. I want to buy the random frozen food item at Costco and throw it in the cart on a hot summer day. Or try to make a dress from scratch with no pattern at my hand or a pie without a recipe. Just let go every now and then and smirk to myself that I’m crazy and I know it. That sounds like a fun year to me.

[A look back to #reverb10’s “one word” prompt]

#weverb11.com

2 weeks in… 10 weeks to go… (1/2 marathon training)

Kim — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:48:04 +0000

Hello Week 3 of training! Nice to see you, now that I’m a bit more prepared to handle the early morning wake-up calls (thank you to everyone with the smart clothing advice re: gloves, headband, etc,) and have progress under my belt!

Here’s how the runs went down during Weeks 1 & 2:

So I’ve pretty much “run” more than I have ever have in my entire life in the past few weeks. Seriously. I ran a lot playing basketball… but never went for a jog or a run. So when I say, “I’m not really a runner” I’m not lying one tiny bit.

I worked up into a “Run .5 miles, walk .25 miles” for the Sunday run and that worked out pretty well as my endurance is strengthening. But I think I’m going to cross train and bike on Wednesdays, since those 3 runs in a row were a bit much on my back by Friday.

I’ve also added RunKeeper to my bag of “tools” to track things outside of the Hal Higdon app. I’m pretty sure I’ll sign up for the “Elite” version when I start on my long Sunday runs… so that Mr. M knows where to find me when I collapse on the sidewalk somewhere.

But for now… I’m doing this thing. I have to incorporate a lot more stretching and neck/back adjustments during the day, but so far I’m proving that I can tackle this challenge before me. Even in the cold!

Tomorrow, my 3.5 mile Tues/Thursday runs start… oh boy!

the plan of how to run

Kim — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:13:08 +0000

Remember how I crazily signed up to run a 1/2 Marathon a few months ago? Well, that event is coming up shortly… and to be precise… it’s 12 weeks away. So that means that my meandering training needs to transition into REAL training. And I can’t sleep in anymore even though the temptation of warm sheets far exceeds the enticement of frozen sweat on a morning run.

People… I have to do this. Now. Or forever hold my place as the girl who really can’t run even after imposing a challenge on herself to do so… In the immortal words of Hugh Jackman in his one-man Broadway show, I need to, “Give it a go” and see what happens.

So here are the components of said “plan” that I’ve begun this week:

1) I downloaded Hal Higdon’s 1/2 Marathon app for my iPhone.

2) I posted a copy of that same 12-week schedule on my wall at work and told Mr. M about the details of my weekly plan, so that he’s on board with what’s going on (and not wondering where in the heck I am at 6:00am on a Tuesday morning).

3) I mapped out 3/3.5/4/4.5/5/6 mile runs in my neighborhood.

4) I brought in shoes/clothes/washcloth & soap to run at lunchtime on Wednesdays at work… so that I can save myself from an early morning rise that day.

5) I’m monitoring my water intake during the day a bit more closely with a daily checklist on my whiteboard at work. And I’m keeping more fruit in the house to consume after runs (hello orange slices!) and make sure that I have enough fuel to keep up with this schedule.

So, I completed my 3 mid-week runs and now just have my big 4 mile run on Sunday. (Oh… and in case anyone is completely impressed by my abilities… when I say “run” I mean walk/run pacing…)

Any other fun tips you super awesome runners would like to throw in there? Maybe one about how you manage to run outside when it’s below freezing??? (Seriously rethinking the idea of an end-of-January race as “ideal”)

doing the same things… but sometimes with new things thrown in

Kim — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:21:40 +0000

Most days, we go through similar routines. We opt for familiarity, but then try to throw something new in the mix to make that day unique and memorable. Like a new spot for brunch on Sunday. Or perhaps taking a different way home so we happen upon new discoveries.

Last Sunday was fairly typical in the repertoire of weekends. We went to the zoo.

We saw the the flamingos…

… and our good buddy the tortoise (or rather “TURRTLE!” to Miss L).

And Miss L gave daddy the sad doe eyes when we asked, “Up Up Up!” and so he obviously obliged.

After visiting all of our favorite friends (RIP dear Ginger), it was such a pretty day that we went across the street to Funderland to see if Miss L would be interested in any of the rides they had to offer.

We tried out the car buggy ride with Grandma L…

… and it was a huge hit! So much so… that she ran from the ride yelling, “Octa!” and signing ‘octopus’ and away from us to the center of the park. We thought she was a little too excited, but then when we turned, we saw what she had seen: the octopus ride.

So we bought a ticket, and I helped buckle her inside.

And even though she was a little younger than the other kids riding it, we thought it might work out ok!

See? All smiiles! Until…

… oops. The shouts of “ALL DONE!! ALL DONE” echoed through the park, and while the crying stopped immediately with the end of the ride, I’m not sure she has quite forgiven her beloved octopus.

Thank goodness for the familiarity of freshly fallen leaves to stomp in the park!

Mostly the regular routine of the day… and then a few welcome (or unwelcome) surprises thrown in. That’s how we do a weekend. What about you?

our dvr network settings for fall 2011

Kim — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:53:28 +0000

Our (not-so) little DVR will be busy again soon with all the new fall shows popping up… here’s what network TV we’ll be taping on the hard drive…

Monday = HIMYM, Rachel Bilson’s Back on the CW (aka. Hart of Dixie), Castle

Tuesday = Glee, Zooey’s show (aka. New Girl)

Wednesday = Christina Applegate’s new show (aka. Up All Night) & the best comedy on TV (aka. Modern Family)

Thursday = Big Bang Theory & Vampire Diaries

Friday = Chuck (Grimm is a maybe… it looks scary, but I might be required to do the obligatory “watch friend from school who is on the show” thing a few times)

Saturday = ??? (Thank God for Football? And Netflix?)

Sunday = Once Upon a Time, The Amazing Race (maybe… only if it’s good), and football will be watched & not recorded!

I have to admit that the summer shows do a really good job of bridging the season gap, so I barely even realized I was missing so many things. I’d like to thank TNT and USA for their wonderful programming this summer…

So, anything you think we’re missing out on??

keeping the fishies in the sea: sustainable eating

Kim — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:00:00 +0000

The last book I read to Miss L each night right now is “Bedtime Kiss for Little Fish.” It’s a very simple board book that we read through, and it usually ends reading time with a smile because it features her favorite animal, the octopus. She loves obviously inherited the love of sea life from me (and her Dad), as she loves aquariums both big and small.

Fussy Octopus

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[image: Debra Ziss, 2008]

Now, I don’t talk a lot about what food philosophies we practice, because, well… we don’t really live by any tried and true rules when it comes to food other than eating food that is good. But there’s one rule that I try really hard to implement, especially because it’s so tough when I indulge in my favorite food (aka. sushi): only eat sustainable fish.

This food rule is pretty simple and easy to understand. We want biodiversity in our oceans. We don’t want to overfish any populations. And we don’t want consumer demand to outweigh environmental choices when it’s so simple to just stop buying fish on the “AVOID” lists. And the thought of ruining our oceans anymore makes me sad enough to skip the indulgence in the fatty goodness that is toro. Oh wait, the price of toro helps with that too… but nevertheless…

I know I’ve pointed it out before, but the Monterey Bay Aquarium provides regional seafood pocket guides for the entire country, along with a universal sushi guide, that you can download and print out… or you can download the app to your iphone/Android device (I cheat and use mobile.seafoodwatch.org when I’m shopping/eating).

I’m so not perfect at this in any way shape or form at this, just someone who is trying to be more conscious and aware, but a recent report from Greenpeace shared how supermarkets rank in sustainable fish practices. I was happy to see that our neighborhood market (Nugget) got a high ranking, and super happy to see that another local market has the best rating in California/USA (Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op). And would you have thought that Target and Safeway beat out Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s? Sometimes the big supermarkets aren’t the evil minions of the world!

OK, so where was this all going? Basically I just wanted you to know that this is a really easy food rule to practice and implement if you want to do it. Eliminate the “AVOID” fishies from your diet and mind (just pretend they don’t exist!!! I do it with watermelon and honeydew all the time due to my allergies!) and help spread the word to friends/markets/chefs/fishmongers to forget about them too! Don’t buy them, don’t order them at a restaurant, and see if you can help them disappear from the menu and the seafood counters in your area!

I want Miss L to have an ocean that’s better than ours…

high school reading club

Kim — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:39:45 +0000

Each summer, my high school would send the summer reading list along with the final report card of the year. You were only required to read one (or two) books, but then there was a list of “suggested” titles for your enjoyment (and 1 point of extra credit on your fall term grade for any 15-page essays submitted from the list… it maxed out at 5 possible points).

I always read a lot during my summers, due to a combination of interest and boredom, and I always did the extra credit essays to help out my grade. And, inevitably, the only term I’d ever get an actual A (94-100) in was the fall term. I’d never get past that dreaded GPA-sinking A- in the winter or spring, no matter how hard I tried. I think I actually got 94’s for at least 3 terms… so close, but just not good enough.

This afternoon, they published this year’s summer reading list on the school’s facebook page “by popular demand.” I guess some alumnae need to fill up their kindles with nostalgia for “encouraged” reading…

When I began high school in 1994, our freshman required reading was A Separate Peace… which was obviously designed to scare the daylights out of all the incoming boarding students. I’m happy to see it’s just an interesting read now… and not forced into classroom discussions during the first week of school!

What was your favorite high school “required reading” book??

FRESHMEN

*The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, by John Steinbeck
The Girl with the Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
My Antonia, by Willa Cather
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger

SOPHOMORES

*Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
*Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
Silas Marner, by George Eliot
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
1984, by George Orwell
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
Beowulf
Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Possession, by A.S. Byatt
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

JUNIORS

*The Grapes of Wrath, by John Stenibeck
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
My Antonia, by Willa Cather
White Noise, by Don De Lillo
All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
Best American Essays(Any year)
A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

SENIORS

*One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Iliad, by Homer
The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass
Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
When the Emperor was Divine, by Julie Otsuka
Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
Beloved, by Toni Morrison

everyone gets a tiny print for every occasion

Kim — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:15:00 +0000

I like to visit my mailbox each day. It’s a little retreat to one of the “slow paced” things in life… and the surprises that might be hidden inside. And I like to send those gifts of love in the mail whenever I can!

So when I stumbled upon the “Super Sender” greeting card club at TinyPrints, I really thought it was too good to be true. You get 3 free cards when you sign up, and then each additional card you send is only $1.99 ($2.61 total when you mail it with a stamp to your recipient). Oh, and you can schedule the exact day you want it to arrive, add pictures galore, personalize almost every detail of the card, and it’s on super thick cardstock that would rival the quality of most store-bought cards that are double the price?

Yeah… you can see why I thought this was a total hoax.

For the year, the “membership” cost will be $17… but that includes 3 free cards as well. So, essentially it’ll cost less than $10 to send out cards at $1.99 each, so I break even with the subscription after 5 cards! (Other companies have cards too… but they cost $3.99 each with shipping).

And let me tell you… in just 3 months, I’ve already sent 7 cards! It’s addicting… but oh so worth it!

For Mother’s Day:

For Easter:

For Birthdays:

Oh… and there are plenty of formats that don’t even need pictures (like the one above), but you can still personalize the names and greetings on the cards.

Let’s just say that this has revolutionized my love/hate relationship with the post office, stamps and the insane price of cards that you find in the stores with the crowns or the bulls-eye.

If you’re a mom and need to send out photos and greetings from kids, you need to visit TinyPrints. If you’re the friend who never forgets a birthday, you need to visit TinyPrints. If you just want to be awesome and make someone smile the next time they visit their mailbox, you need to visit TinyPrints.

[This is a non-compensated endorsement. Nothing but loads of enthusiasm created this post]

Why AAA is a pregnant lady’s best friend

Kim — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:29:54 +0000

When you are pregnant, your life turns into an account of events that are either highly cliche or completely bizzare. It’s just how it works out. You can end up hungry as a bear, sick as a dog, dead tired or full of energy, with either perfect or messed up skin while you gain next-to-nothing or a ton. And since you’re going through something so common as pregnancy, whatever happens during this period of time will forever be linked to “when you were pregnant.”
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And for that, I shall tell you, when you are pregnant — you should have AAA Emergency Road Service (or something like it) because if something is likely to happen to your car, it’s probably really likely to happen while you’re pregnant. Now trust me, this is no ad for AAA or kick-back endorsement, but simply a call to make sure that you aren’t stranded on the side of the highway in week 36 with a busted tire/engine/etc. You see, in just the past 4 months, my car has had a punctured tire, the fan belt broke in the middle of the highway, and I’ve locked my keys in my car (at the Dr’s office no less). Now normally any of these things would be annoying, but just imagine having to deal with them during the crazy hormones with a squished bladder and a budget that’s being eaten up by all the silly stuff you need to buy. The simplicity of pulling out a card, calling for service, and knowing that I won’t be charged a penny for my troubles has made all of these incidents so minor that I’m sure I’ll forget about them in the future. If I didn’t have that card… I’m certain people would have been dialing 911 on their cell phones as they pointed out the crazy lady that was crying and tearing her hair out in front of a broken down yellow car.
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And you know… having that car protection when you’re transporting a little one isn’t a bad idea either. So thanks AAA for keeping my nerves calm during otherwise crazy car incidents. You’ve definitely minimized my headaches/breakdowns for the better!
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