Planning a wedding can, if you let it, become a pretty overwhelming and all-encompassing endeavor. That’s why I’m making sure to have lots of hobby-type undertakings to keep me appropriately distracted from what could, potentially, turn me into a crazed lunatic needing surgical removal from her blackberry. Actually, I don’t own a blackberry. But you get the point.
 
In addition to training for a 10K Run in (yikes) 6 weeks time, I’ve decided to try my decidedly un-green hand at growing things. I stopped buying plants and trying to keep them quite some time ago because I somehow always managed to kill even the hardiest of species. Every once in a while I’ll lament: “we have no plants in our house.” To which LX always replies:  “we have no dead plants in our house.” Whatever. Smartass.
 
I (we) have a gorgeous rooftop patio on which, last summer, I decided I wanted to cultivate herbs and flowers of various sorts. As it happens, the only thing I managed to cultivate was a deep appreciation for a glass or two of Merlot after work as I watched the sun set.

This year I’m determined that the floral bouquet that surrounds me on my rooftop oasis has its origins someplace other than the ubiquitous bottle of red that seems to find its way up there.
 
It’s with this mindset that I found myself at Canadian Tire (where else?) last week, pondering the many hundreds of tiny envelopes of seeds on offer. Bombarded by explosions of colour and the promise of floral refinement & grace the likes of which I’d never seen, I was (surprisingly) able to narrow my selection to two varieties of flowers along with three types of herbs. Naturally, I took the easiest route available with the Even An Idiot Can Make These Grow Starter Kits… but I’m reserving judgment until I actually see life spring forth.
 
And, hey, Floyd is happy, healthy & thriving… and he’s MUCH more upkeep than a plant. So how challenging can a bit of foliage really be?
 
 

(or: Why Resting on your Laurels only merits Big Fat Laurels)
 
This past week I began training for a 10km race. No, really. I did. And, while this has nothing to do per se with weddings, it has to do with me and my personal fitness level and well-being. And, since I’m getting married & this is my blog, it has to do with weddings (not a bad reach, eh?)
 

Run for the Cure 2009: the Sequel. It wasn’t official. It wasn’t fast. But it did garner my PR thus far: 5km in 35 minutes. And, YES, I’m damn proud.

 
My ‘career’ (and I couldn’t use that word more loosely) began 2 years ago when I decided for some ungodly reason that I was going to run a 5K. I chose the CIBC Run for the Cure and then set about trying to run. Easier said than done for a zaftig girl who couldn’t run for longer than 30 seconds without getting winded & nearly crippling herself. Enter: the Couch to 5k. This program changed my life. For real. I’ve said that countless times in the past (most often in jest) but when I say it now, I couldn’t be more earnest. I’m really not sure what prompted the notion to try running. Whatever the impetus was, though, I’m grateful for it. And Robert Ullrey gets a huge virtual High Five for putting together & posting the free podcast (that still lives on my iPod to this day, actually) I used to make it through without serious injury or hospitalization.
 
I went from sucking serious wind after 30 seconds of running to completing a full 5km run all in one go. I ran slowly (still do) but make no mistakes, I RAN the full distance. No walksies.
 
That was in October of 2008. What did I do during the off-season of that year (winter 2008/09), after such a remarkable breakthrough, you may ask? Nothing. Nada. Yep. I sat on my arse and watched it expand. I also, effectively, put myself back at ground zero. All that sweating and panting to be able to run 5km and I sat on my laurels and let it all go to seed. So when the running season of 2009 rolled around (and I thought I’d be right where I left off), I was rudely thumped back to reality when I could barely make it through a St. Paddy’s Day 5km Run (there were walksies.)
 

~ I Run Because I Can
 
It’s an adage I’ve seen on T-shirts and read countless times in Runner’s World Magazine. At first it didn’t mean much to me, beyond a bit of wanky power-of-positive-thinking self- aggrandizement. But, then last March, I took part in the Achilles St. Patty’s Day 5km run and had the full scope of that statement demonstrated for me in living colour.
 
The Achilles Run is an annual event that raises funds for physically challenged runners. Now, I’d known about deaf or blind runners running with guides in order to stay on course. But I had NO idea the tenacity and spirit that was embodied in some of the other athletes who benefited from this organization. As per their website, they welcome runners with “…cerebral palsy, paraplegia, arthritis, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, amputation, cystic fibrosis, or those who suffer from stroke, cancer, traumatic head injury, and many others.” Pretty much quashes any “oh, but I’m too old, fat, (insert excuse here)” whining any of us can come up with, doesn’t it?
 
I’d been feeling pretty sorry for myself and the slowness with which I crossed the finish line (really, what did I expect, I barely ran at ALL for months), but when I was passed by a runner with no feet (yes, you read correctly: No Feet) I knew that there really was no excuse I could come up with that would hold any amount of water. Granted, that epiphany didn’t quite hit me immediately. It took a few more runs followed by some pretty whiny, self-indulgent self-pitying because my thinner and more fit girlfriends were finishing with far better times than I. Well, of COURSE they were! They’re in better shape and they trained harder. Duh!
 
Then I figured out the Zen of Running. No great spiritual realization hit. I simply (and finally) figured out & eliminated the stressor that seemed to follow me on every single run: Time. If I ran at a pace even 2 seconds slower on Monday than I had on Saturday, I beat myself up over it… for days. Where’s the enjoyment in that? Well, exactly – there wasn’t any. So I started running and leaving my watch at home. And guess what? I started to LOVE running. Do I still care about times? Well, sure – who doesn’t want to improve upon something they enjoy. I just don’t obsess over it anymore. Battles are meant to be chosen carefully. You pick one all willy nilly and you will have your ass handed to you. I spent the majority of my life excelling in the art of couch potato-ing. So I know that, in order for me to succeed at running in any capacity, it needs to be done in tiny, wee baby steps. I can only win one battle at a time. And that’s fine by me.
 
Right now – I can run 5km and not die. That, in and of itself, is pretty impressive considering my starting ground. I have a respectable number of 5km finishes under my belt and I’m proud of each and every one. Now the prize I’m eyeing is crossing a 10km finish line. I don’t expect it to be fast. I don’t expect it to be easy. But I do expect to do it with a metric tonne of pride.
 

While I’m not trying to drop a size or two to fit into my wedding dress (a course of action, incidentally, I could not advocate LESS… especially since I’ve already been down that self-inflicted road as a bridesmaid), I have to admit that you’d be hard pressed to find one bride-to-be who wouldn’t like to /isn’t trying to change some physical feature prior to her day in the spotlight.
 
And it occurred to me that I spend just as much time trolling the net for recipes, workout info, weight loss advice, hair care enlightenment etc. as I do wedding planning and other various wedding-related lore. So I think it’s only fair that I expand my ramblings to include the wonderful worlds of health, nutrition, fitness, beauty – whatever it is that it takes to make a girl look & feel all purty-like.
 
Anyone who’s met me knows that it’s no secret that I like to eat. A lot. Seriously. Because of this, I’ve had to learn all sorts of tasty, exciting and  smart things with which to feed myself. And, for those times that I couldn’t care less about the caloric or fat content of a family-sized serving of Pad Thai noodles (delivered hot and steaming from Springrolls… yummm), I’ve had to learn how to counter those lapses. Because I’d be lying if I said they didn’t happen. I’d likely be struck by lightening as well – but who’s judging, right?
 

Do yourself a favour & buy the damn dress in a size that already FITS you.

Enter Sparkpeople. I shudder to think of the man-hours that went into creating this behemoth of a site. But I’m eternally thankful to the folks who logged the time to do so. It makes my life so much easier to manage. Ok, it may not pay my bills or help me find spiritual enlightenment, but it helps to manage the girth of my arse. And that’s no small feat.
 
Sparkpeople is an online community that provides anything you could possibly need to stay motivated in working toward your own personal health & fitness goals. In addition to a virtual library of feature articles & videos (including online workouts: I, personally, am a fan of the New YOU Bootcamp) on nutrition, fitness, health and general well-being, Sparkpeople features a slew of forums/teams categorized by interest, geographical location, age, gender, you name it… there’s someone else out there you’ll click with for one reason or another. You can also find recipes, track your daily calorie consumption, sweat a few of them off and log that info as well. Need a new exercise idea to keep you motivated and/or interested (because – let’s face it – if boredom wasn’t such a huge factor, none of us would ever be out of shape)? There are plenty to be found. You can even set up our own personal Spark blog to ramble on about your struggles and accomplishments.
 
With its detailed (and I do mean detailed) Nutrition, Fitness, Weight & Measurement Trackers, you can keep a firm handle on your love handles (or lack thereof, as the case may be.) You can enter everything manually or you can enter a few parameters and let the site do all the work (ok, not the work, but at least most of the planning) for you.
 
Oh, and did I mention the best part? FREE. That’s right, kids. Free! No fees of any sort are involved in using this bad boy. That’s why it’s so deserving of this mention. Go. Check it out. You may be a bit overwhelmed at first (it is massive) but you won’t be sorry.