Browse Category: go beak go

Hula Practice

Kumquat and I visited hula practice today and it was great to see everyone again.  I also had a great time watching their routines for the Aloha Festival that’s coming up in August.  Makes me want to perform again but all the dances look really hard this time around.  Kumquat enjoyed it so much that she was drooling.  😉

Kumquat LOVED watching the uli uli routine and seemed mesmerized.  I wonder if the rhythms sound familiar to her since I was pregnant with her at the time I was dancing with them.  This is a photo of me at Ho’ike last October when I was 15 weeks pregnant.

I still remember watching the little girls perform last year and was so excited to have my own little girl that may one day be able to join them.  Judging from how she responded today, it looks like hula may suits her just fine. 😛

Burning Fuel

A couple weeks ago Jes took me to the Nike Store and bought me a Nike FuelBand.  It’s basically a fancy pedometer that syncs with the Nike+ site or an app on your iPhone and shows you visually when you were most active.  Jes and Jason have had one for a month now and it seems to do what it’s supposed to: motivate you to move.  They can actually compare points and see how each other is doing.

My daily goal is 3000 Fuel Points per day and so far I’ve met that goal about 3 times per week.  To give you an idea of what the points mean, here are a few samples:

Run 3 miles: ~1500
Walk 1 mile: ~ 500
Walk the dog: 300-500 points

This is a picture of what a typical day for me looks like.  I manage to meet my goal just by doing everyday things.  It starts at midnight and you can see little peaks in the early morning, which is when I get up to feed and change the baby.  At about 9:30 am, I walked the dog and then I walked to brunch with a friend around 10:30 am.  At 1:00 pm, I pushed the stroller to the Ferry Plaza and back (about 2.5 mi).  In the afternoon, I walked the dog again and then at 8:00 pm I fell sleep until 11:00 pm.  Neato, huh?  On my stay-at-home days (only leaving the house to walk the dog x2), I still earn about 2100, which tells me that being home with the baby still counts for something.

By they way, I’m now running up to 3 miles.  It’s a slow 3 miles and I’m pretty beat afterward but I’m making progress.

Another 2 miles

This morning after feeding, changing, and putting Kumquat back to sleep, I had time to go out for a run.  It used to be a ritual for me to get up early on Saturdays, walk the dog, and then run along Embarcadero before the crowds cluttered the walkway.  The weather was perfect this morning and I managed to run another very slow 2 miles.  Along the way, I got a photo of the Bay Bridge and the clearing fog.  I never seem to get tired of this view.  I appreciate it even more now that I don’t get out as often as I used to.  Next week I’m going to shoot for 3 miles.  Hopefully I’ll be back in good enough condition to run a 15K this November.  Who’s going to join me?!

That felt great!

This afternoon, I dusted off the running shoes.  My last run was on November 27th back when I was 20 weeks pregnant and finally decided to hang up my shoes for the next few months.  At that point, my ligaments were too loose and sore and I just couldn’t catch my breath.  Now I’m 4 weeks postpartum and today I finished my first two miles in 25:22.  Yeah, it’s pretty sad but after doing some reading on how to start running again, most will say to wait until 6 weeks and to take it super slow.  I couldn’t wait another two weeks so I went outside, planned to run one mile, and ended up running two.  Overall, it felt great to be outside and moving at a quicker pace than a brisk walk.  It was the lightest I’d felt in many months and breathing was so easy!  Boy have I taken breathing for granted all these years.  Now it’s time to take some ibuprofen and see what the damage will be tonight and tomorrow.

Go Team Go

This year, our team from the hospital played in the annual wheelchair basketball tournament once again.  It’s our 4th year participating but I didn’t get to play this time around for obvious reasons.  I did, however, stop by to cheer for the team and to see my friends.

It was nice to be out and Kumquat did rather well on her extended outing today.  She slept in the stroller for a bit, got passed around to the girls, and even napped in my infant carrier without a lot of fuss.  She even sat through Bay Bridge traffic on the way home like a trooper.

By the end of the tournament, I heard that our team went to the semi-finals again and one of our guys received the Best Sportsmanship award.  Yay!

Sunshine and Fresh Air

This past week in SF was unusually warm and sunny.  On Friday, my mom and I took a walk with Kumquat in the stroller to Gott’s, which is where we met up with Jes for lunch.  On the walk over and back, I enjoyed just being in the sun without my hoodie on for once.  It almost felt like being in LA again.  We also walked at a pretty brisk pace, which felt pretty good too.  When can I start running again?!