Canada / life

an open letter to canada

• by kerri

Dear Canada,

We need to have a little talk.  It’s October 5th. It’s apparently 31*C outside.  And while I enjoy this, it’s not particularly suitable when I wore my [new] hoodie and [new] jeans to school today.  [Note: in Saskatchewan, they call hoodies BUNNYHUGS.  I love this.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and cuddly.  Because what is badass about a freaking bunnyhug?]  And then it became 31*.  Last week it was like fifteen.

Next week it will be snowing, or hailing.  I swear.  Canada, you’re a little indecisive about this whole weather thing.

Or perhaps you’ll revert to actual seasonally appropriate temperatures and I can wear my new jeans and new hoodie and fuzzy socks and not feel ridiculous about it.

How does that sound?  We got a deal, Canada?

Love,

Kerri

friends / kinesiology / life

playing in leaves : a case study

• by kerri

So not only do I have a pretty dang sweet job [where I get to play with lego and plan gym games], I also do super-fun stuff at school [kinesiology — the program where you play in the gym, talk about food and watch a fair amount of YouTube.  Oh yeah, and help learn how to teach people to change themselves so that they can in turn do the same for others.  Nothing better.]

And really, it’s not every day where your prof ends class telling you “Go play in leaves!”

. . . I take these things literally.  And tell my friends that my homework is to play in leaves.

And they believe me.  Okay, it wasn’t ACTUAL homework, but I determined I’m going to someday become a grad student and write a thesis entitled “Playing in leaves: social, emotional and physiological benefits”.  That’s legit, right?  I guess up here in the frozen north, I’d have to have a second study about the effects of playing in snow, too.

Methods:

In preparation for said thesis, I asked Donald and Mike to rank how they were feeling prior to playing in leaves on a scale of one to ten, ten being the happiest ever.  Mike declined to answer and Donald gave a seven, which decreased to five once we saw a Lost Cat sign, then increased back to seven once the role of exercise in the cat’s lostness was discussed and it was determined that the lost cat was getting a lot of exercise.

Evidently, I do very scientific studies.  The initial scale test was performed while seeking out leaves but before arriving at the study site, which the participants than prepared:

leaves!

Yes, we did walk there with a rake.  Awesomeness ensued, including Donald skipping.  Happiness scale should have been repeated for validity.

Discussion:

pushed in leaves :]

Donald then said “Give me your camera”, which I surrendered to him, then he pushed me in the leaves.

After leaves were dragged across the park and put into a pile, participants fell/jumped into the leaves.  One participant also lost his sunglasses, which were not found.  This did not alter happiness that playing in leaves had created.

The scale test was repeated after playing in leaves, and both participants answered 10 out of 10.

lovelies! <3

After which the participants meandered home singing the Bananas in Pyjamas theme song in accents.  Because nothing says happy like singing theme songs to ’90s kids shows in accents, walking home with a rake and making London Fogs.

Conclusion:

While further research needs to be conducted, validity of this study is greater than that of the Wakefield “study”.  Participants not only ranked happiness higher upon questioning, but also appeared more happy.  Based on primary research, it can be determined that playing in leaves can have positive effect socially, emotionally and physiologically.  Further studies will be modified to include more rakes, more participants and more leaves.

being a student

dude, it’s called kleenex – tales of a university germ factory.

• by kerri

So in one of my classes, there’s a guy that my friend and I refer to as Awkward Guy for a reason or five.  I mean, it’s hilarious whenever somebody addresses the prof like “Uh . . .Professor . . . I just have a question about the reading?”  Because really, I call ’em by their name, or I just say hi.  None of this professor business, but to each their own.

That was only the start of the class, though.  Soon after the lecture began, he started sniffling.

Then sniffling louder.  And grosser.

We formed groups for discussion on scientific reasoning for the parting of the Red Sea and Moses and whatnot.  I turned to the guy behind me who had just converted me to Sharpie Pens, and one of us made some sort of comment about Awkward Guy’s sniffling.  Then our group did our work, we tried to convince some guy to just try to separate faith and science for twenty minutes.  ” . . . but, I’m a Christian . . .” Some girl: “Yeah, so am I, but that doesn’t mean I can’t think about it differently for this discussion.”  I mean, I’m a Christian, but I’m not all literal about the Bible and stuff as much as many people in this class are.  And I mean, your beliefs are your beliefs and that’s cool, but for the purpose of academia, entertain some opposing thoughts for a moment or twenty.

Group work ended.  The class quieted down, and we could hear Awkward Guy sniffling again.  Seriously, we just had twenty minutes of group work, plenty of time to escape to find some kleenex.

Then he got louder.  And louder.  And louder.  And then of course the sound got grosser and grosser and grosser . . .

Sharpie Pen Guy mumbles “Dude. Blow your nose already”, though I think I’m the only one who heard him. Dear First Years of the world, please learn that you are not in high school anymore, and you can get up and wander around and/or go to the bathroom and/or leave at any time you feel inclined to.  Especially so you don’t gross the rest of us out.

I spent the rest of the class exchanging glances with Sharpie Pen Guy whenever Awkward Guy loudly snorts back the slime being created by the response of his immune-system affected overreactive mucosal membranes.  I try to focus on lecture over the fact that Awkward Guy has just wiped his snot on his sleeve.  Sharpie Pen guy mumbles that the snorting is making him feel as if he’s going to throw up.  I nod and mumble in agreement “Yeah, same here, man”.  I have no idea how I would have survived class without Sharpie Pen Guy to commiserate with.

Finally, finally we’re freed . . .  and I try not to touch the doorknob on my way out, but immediately go wash my hands, shaking my head that the same people who are working hard at earning a university education often can’t figure out how to not spread germs through a couple simple arts–kleenex and soap [soap . . . that’s another story for another day].

And this is why everybody in university gets sick and spreads germs like an elementary school.

badassmatics / dare you to move / race report

Imagine 5K – race report

• by kerri

The Imagine race last year was my first “real” race [you know, with those tear-off things on your bib number that you can’t pin onto your shirt], and I was so stoked to be back again this year.  The race is in a fairly small town, which makes it have this awesome atmosphere, where people are sitting on their lawns and cheering and cute children are giving out freezies to runners and walkers en route!

—–

We arrived a bit late, which was just chaos as Danielle and I still needed to register.  We weaved our way through to the reg table, paid our fees, and jetted over to the start line [not the nice calm start I’d been anticipating!] at the back of the pack.  We did our share of passing people throughout the first few kilometers, all but a few were people with jogging strollers and/or small children.  So I’m unsure if our passing counts for anything. Also, I think we passed a couple runners which always makes me laugh–ohai, you just got passed by a walker, you know.

The first kilometer always sucks for my legs, no matter what I do.  And I know you’re not supposed to do new things during races, but really.  So I decided to suck back a gel [after Danielle and I traded, cause I wanted her strawberry kiwi and she wanted my grape pomegranate [mostly cause I think she thought it was berry].  Dude, that stuff rocks.  Hello glycogen.  Legs felt good after that [Well really, what was I expecting. Four graham crackers isn’t exactly ample pre-race nutrition].  I now get what the hype is about.

I think I missed knowing it was kilometer two completely, which leads me to believe that perhaps CarbBoom! is full of drugs.  I remember looking at my Garmin at 2.55 kms and telling Danielle we were over halfway there in about 26 minutes.  Not super fast, but steady.  I’d like to mention here, that we kept up such a pace that it was fast enough for my liking, but thanks to aggressive pre-medicating, despite how I sounded while talking, I felt good and didn’t need my inhaler at all during the race.

 

I loved the third kilometer.

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Danielle looking awesome at 3K.

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I was indeed actually walking, but I was also posing.  I don’t typically look like this when I walk.  Typically.

Also, K 3 contained the best sign of the entire race:

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At which point, an old dude who was racing ran up, grabbed the sign, and ran off with it [and then returned it].  Apparently that hadn’t happened in the race yet, so the people with the sign were all stoked that someone had tried to steal their sign.  Best sign and best old dude ever.  And then I cheered for the people who made the sign.

Fast forward to 4.6 K.  After someone tells us they like our cat ears [thank you Tara], I look at my Garmin, and realize “If I had been paying attention to the TIME on this thing, not just the distance, we could have cranked up the pace earlier and I’d have PR’ed.  That sucked. We kicked up the pace, then decided to try running.  Running never works for me.  I didn’t last long and told Danielle that I had to walk.  Kept the pace cranked.

Passed the finish line.

No idea if there was a clock.  Stopped the Garmin in the chute at 5.09K and 54+ minutes, as I forgot about it.  I went back and found that i crossed the finish at 53:43.  44 seconds faster and I would have had a PR.  Seriously, it sort of sucks when the only one you’re racing is yourself and you are THAT close.  Or at least i’m consistent in 5Ks? Anyway, yeah, frustrated I wasn’t paying more attention to the Garmin earlier.

——-

Post Race

We got our medals and progressed through the chute.  I stretched it out a bit while Danielle went to the bathroom, then we found chocolate milk [seriously a staple of my post-workout/race nutrition] and various other things in the food tent.  After about ten or fifteen minutes we met up with Caren and James, ate some food, and then went to the Land of Amazing

DSCF9461.JPGFREE MASSAGE LAND.

That was awesome.  I am officially addicted to massages.  I signed my life away and told them that if I died it wasn’t their fault, and then chilled out on the table while the physiotherapy student made my legs feel like amazing.  Then because Danielle wasn’t done yet and the masseuse man looked bored, I got him to massage my shoulders.

I’m now two years in at this race, and it’s by far my favourite.  It’s run like a RACE.  With Gatorade and water and massages and food and CHOCOLATE MILK.  Oh my goodness.

So while I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to, I made it.  I had a ridiculous awesome time, and I can’t wait till next year!

dare you to move / kinesiology / life

promotion, adherence + goals : “go out there and do good things”

• by kerri

Sometimes, my applied health courses challenge me on a personal level.  They make me dig deeper and push harder.  They make me analyze myself and where I’m screwing up and where I’m doing well.  And where to change it.  I think [those of us who think about kinesiology, anyway] that we constantly think about how everything we learn in school can be applied in the people around us.  All the time. At least I do.  [But I’m the nerd who just watched a TED Talk at 8:00 at night because I didn’t have any kinesiology today and needed to feel like I was learning].

They make me grow.  To have school challenge you that much on a personal, not just academic, level is so awesome.

My Physical Activity: Promotion and Adherence [hereafter known as Promotion and Adherence, because that’s long enough as it is] prof is just awesome.  I may have to buy his book on Amazon to continue having him creating order in my life after this class is over.  I leave class, and all I want to do is go work out.  Seriously, the promotion and adherence thing works.  Changing the way you think works.  Change the way you think about everything, and things happen.

Things happen when you set goals and follow through with them.  Barriers are meant to be overcome.  Not just overcome . . . knock ’em down.

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When you want what your goals are set for, it becomes cyclical.  Set goals, meet goals, happy with outcome, set more goals, meet more goals.  This diagram applies far beyond exercise.

Start small and GROW.  Be motivated.

“If you have time to spend six hours on Facebook a day, you have time to work out for 45 minutes.”  No, not just twenty as per Health Canada guidelines.  45.  Because 20 is just being lazy about trying not to be lazy and is bare minimum.

“Who hasn’t eaten in about three hours?  Who’s hungry?”  And throws out snacks to whoever puts their hands up.

“Go out there and do good things!”

. . . those are things Jay says every day.  To motivate, to encourage in the battle we all fight against Resistance.

There is a depth here.  A meaning that extends not just to others, but to yourself.  You can’t ask for the change you wish to see in others, without having a concrete handle on what it is you’re asking for within yourself. Within what you’re doing in this life.

Change your thinking.  Then change the standard of thinking.

Go out there and do good things.