Ch…ch…ch…changes…

Hello Lovelies!!

So we meet again! Twice in one day?!? What is the world coming to?? Well, in case you have been living under a rock, there is a massive world wide pandemic currently going on called Coronavirus or Covid-19 (C19)Thankfully, I have not been affected by it yet in a “getting it” way. It has, however, affected me in other ways…

You may remember from one of my previous posts that I was thinking about joining the 3D National Championships taking place at the end of March in Chilliwack. Well, in mid-February, I did get my BCAA membership and I did sign up to shoot in the championship. I was VERY excited about it. And then C19 hit. Unfortunately, the championships have been cancelled as the government does not want any gatherings larger than 50 people to commence in an effort to snub out this virus. Along with the championships being cancelled, there has been multiple local archery cancelled. Thankfully I was able to get one last shoot in last weekend at Ridgedale, before it got really crazy. So far, all shoots are cancelled until about mid-April. Hopefully, it doesn’t go any further than that.
In other archery news, there is most likely something happening soon. This would be the same secret plans that were in motion as mentioned in that post I already linked to. I am pretty sure that it has come to fruition, however it is only unofficially official at the moment. It probably won’t be official until after C19 is done with.
And then in even more archery-ish news (but also relating to hunting and fishing), I have some pretty exciting news. However, I am not going to share what it is, until it has been announced on social media. Once it has been posted, I will make a post sharing that news. I am uber excited for that news 😀 . I only found out this news this morning, so it is still fresh excitement in my mind.

In none archery related news, there has been something that has happened personally. It is kind of a mixture of bad and good news depending on which angle you look at it from. Last weekend, after almost 10 years, I decided to end things romantically with J. Without going into too many details, it was a long time in the making. With everything that is going on in my life currently, it was just the time to do it. It definitely not a decision that I took lightly and I still sometimes think as to whether I should have done it or not. I know that in the long run, it will be for the better. But for now, I’m still feeling conflicted. This may mostly be because we are still living together. At the moment, it is the right decision to keep living together as J is still on EI from completing his HEO training and is currently waiting to be dispatched to go up north to work on one of the pipelines. Once he gets dispatched, I’ll be working on packing my stuff up and then I will most likely be moving into my friend Nikki’s with her as she has a second bedroom that I can rent from her. Renting from her will be cheaper than getting my own place currently, as it would be incredibly tight for me to afford my own place with my current wages. Once I get into a law firm, and am making more money than what I’m currently making, I will be able to get my own place. It’ll be interesting to live with one of my friends. I’ve mostly lived with boyfriends since high school, except for that year that I was in my parents basement.
I’ve decided that I just want to stay single for a little bit. I haven’t really been single for about 15 years. Seeing as there wasn’t too big of a time between when I broke up with Fellner and when I started going out with J. I am kind of excited for this prospect of not having to check with anyone before doing anything. Like, if it wasn’t for it being cancelled, this coming weekend I would have been heading up to Penticton with 4 of my guy archery friends on Saturday, staying in a hotel with them, and then doing a shoot on Sunday. I wouldn’t have even thought about going up to this shoot if I was still with J, as I know that he would strongly be against the fact that I would be going up with a bunch of guys and staying in a hotel with them. Now, I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t have to worry about wanting to head off to Edmonton, or having to wait to say “bye” before heading off into the bush to check trail cameras/hunt, or go to Rockin’ River Fest. I can just go home, change and hop in my car and go. I don’t have to coordinate with someone else. I think I am going to like this new freedom. Yeah, it may get lonely but I have a lot of friends that I can message and see if they want to hang out or what ever.
So we have covered: archery in multiple senses, my other secret news, and my new singleness… Yeah I think that is about it for now. The only other thing going on right now, is that I’m quickly coming to the close of my fifth semester for LAA and in May, my sixth and final semester is coming up. That is exciting! I cannot wait to get into a law firm.
Alright, that is all for now. Stay healthy and safe out there everyone, especially with C19 still going around. Wash your hands!!

Until next time…xo

It Has Been Almost a Month…

Hello Lovelies!!

Told you that I wasn’t very good at doing daily updates for my blog. Although I did think about it, as well as thought about only doing weekly updates. Needless to say, as you can see, that didn’t work out in my favor either. Considering in two days, it will be a month since I have started on this intermittent fasting journey. So I will give a general update as to what has been happening with it.

For the most part, it has been fairly easy to keep to the 16/8 schedule. Once I rearranged my breaks at work to help accommodate my new eating schedule, it was easy. There has only been really one day that I went outside the parameters of the 16/8. That was because J and I had gone out for breakfast and it was still early. He didn’t quite understand what I was doing, even though I explained it to him. On the weekends, I would make breakfast for him at around 8:30 and then I would eat after 11:30 as per my schedule. For the most part, it worked out for me. Lately, I have been wanting a snack later in the evening after my 7:30 deadline for eating has ended. It can be a bit frustrating, but I haven’t given in to temptation, no matter how much I wanted to.

I haven’t really had any negative effects from doing it. Although, I did have a couple migraines near the beginning, however, those could be have also been from the changing weather (which is when I usually get my migraines) during that time. Other than that, I haven’t noticed any other negative effects.

I still need to check my weight again, which will most likely be tomorrow if I can get near the scale at work. Yes, I use the scale at work to weigh myself, as I don’t own a personal one. It is an industrial scale (as we have to weigh the dirty laundry that we send into the wash so that we are not over/under the weight limits for the washers/dryers), but works pretty well for weighing myself also. From the last time that I weighed myself about halfway through, I hadn’t seen any difference in weight (bearing in mind I’m fully clothed and have extra weight from my steel-toed shoes). My beginning weight in this journey was 233lbs. It was still sitting there at the halfway point for the month. However, I have noticed that my work pants are not as tight as when I started doing this.

Last week, at work, it was about 10am and my plant supervisor (K ) had made a comment to me about eating. I can’t remember exactly what he said to me, however, I remember that I had replied back saying that I hadn’t eaten anything yet. He got mad at me for that, wanting to know why and that it wasn’t good for my metabolism. I told him that I was intermittent fasting and then he asked me what my window was, told him that it was 11:30-7:30, which was why I changed my breaks around a bit. Then he said that his window was 11-7, so not only did he know what I was talking about, he is also currently doing it also. He mentioned that he had fallen off the wagon for a little bit but was starting again. Thankfully, I haven’t fallen off the wagon yet. Although, I have been tempted to quit at times. But I keep powering through.

I think I will continue this trend onto another month. Although, I should probably do my measurements to see if/where I am losing my inches from.

Until next time… xo

Days 2, 3, and 4

Hello lovelies!!

I was going to update each day, but I figured it would be easier just to combine a few days together. Seeing as it is reading this week at school, it is slightly easier to update at the moment as I’m not distracted by doing school work instead. Anyways, here is my updates…

Day 2

As I get up at 4am for work, I was a little bit hungry that morning, having not eaten since 7:30 the night before. Today was definitely a difficult day. I’m used to eating my lunch at 9:30, so having to wait another two hours was a little hard for me. I was very tempted to eat my lunch at 9:30, but I held out and waited until 11:30. Day 3 I will have to change things up…

Day 3

Well I changed things up today. I was still hungry at 4am, however, I stopped at 7-11 and bought a new bottle of water instead of making tea in the morning. The mug that I use for my tea works too well, and stays really hot for a long time so I don’t end up drinking as much as I should be through the day. So with the bottle of water I was able to fill it up a few times throughout the day and that kept my water level up, as opposed to avoiding my tea because it is still burning my mouth 4 hours after I made it. As for changing things up, I have switched around my breaks. I don’t really have  set time that I have to take my breaks. So instead of taking a 30 minute break at 9:30 for lunch, I now take 15 minutes at 9:30 and use my 30 minutes at 11:30. This way I have more time to eat during my last break. I wasn’t as hungry during my first two breaks today as I was on Day 1 and 2. I am slowly training my body of this new eating schedule.

Day 4

Continued on with my new schedule for breaks today. Although I did screw it up a bit as I was too busy to take my 15 minute break at 9:30, as I had 3 trucks come in for my to unload plus I had to take mats into the Mat Room. In the end I ended up having a 45 minute break at 11:30 because of that. I didn’t really feel hungry at my normal eating times. Except, as the clock ticked closer to 11:30, I really started chomping at the bit to have something to eat.

Being at work has really helped with my eating schedule for this few days. The real test will be coming up, being the weekend. Hopefully I am able to keep to my schedule as well this weekend as I have been doing this past week. I have already noticed that my work pants are a little bit looser than what they normally are. It most likely is me just loosing water weight, but even with it being water weight, I will take it as a good sign.

Until next time…xo

New Journey plus Day 1

As I have mentioned in previous posts (or may not have on this blog yet), I am absolutely horrible at keeping up posts. This is another example of that. Although with this new journey that I am starting, in order to help keep me accountable, I will, hopefully, be posting every day. Anyways, on with the journey…

So with my goals in archery and school, I want to also try to get myself into better shape. Ever since the accident with my foot, I have not been as active as what I used to be. With that I have gained some weight and I am sick of it. It is time for me to make a change. Between work, school and archery, I do not have a lot of spare time. I’m going to start on diet to begin with and then insert more activities as I can. There are plans, kind of, with two of my friends to maybe start doing a pole dancing class in March. Not sure if that is still going to happen or not, but it was in discussions. I want to also start going to Zumba classes again to help get my endurance up. This will also help out with archery, especially for shoots that are at Ridgedale or Sagittarius as they both involve climbing large mountains.

For the diet aspect, I am going to start off by doing a 16/8 intermittent fasting. I have done a little bit of research on it and it seems like it will be one of the easier ways for me to start my diet. I already kind of limit how/when I eat, this will just make it more of a routine. With a 16/8 fasting, the basis is that you don’t eat for 16 hours and then eat what you like for 8 hours. When it comes to the eating hours, I will still watch what I’m eating so that I’m not just eating junk. Through the rest of the day you can drink as much water, tea, or coffee as you like. I, of course, won’t be drinking coffee as it is gross.

With my schedule at work, it was kind of weird to find a good time to start my fast that would coincide well with my breaks. I decided that for my hours, I am going to go with 7:30pm to stop eating and 11:30am to start eating. 11:30 puts me just at my last coffee break, so that will give me 15 minutes to just get my first meal in.

Day 1 – Feb 18

On the 17th, I stopped eating at 7:30pm so that I could get a start on my 16 hours. In the morning, I made myself some tea, minus sugar. The rules that I read said that I could put sugar in my tea, however, I want to try an cut it out also. My tea was slightly tolerable. I might add a little bit of sugar tomorrow just to take the edge off just a bit, however, I won’t add nearly as much as the spoon and a half that I usually add. Ween myself off of it slowly. So with my timing, today I shouldn’t have eaten until 11:30. Well, I did not make it that long. Work today was extremely busy and I am trying to do the job of three people as a single person, which does not work. I ended up eating at 10:30, instead of 11:30. I normally take my lunch break at 9:30, but I was so busy today and behind schedule that I didn’t get to lunch until 10:30, and by that time I needed to have some sort of food. So I was bad on my first day and ate an hour early. This evening however, I stopped eating at 7:30 again, so hopefully I can last until 11:30 to have something to eat. I also figured out that I need to drink more throughout the day. I definitely  did not have enough to drink today to compensate for the lack of eating. Onwards to day 2!

Goals Sooner Than Later...

Hello everyone!!

So, like with any other blog I have ever had, I am having a hard time keeping it up to date. Needless to say, there is a lack of accountability. In a way... Even though I haven't been updating as much as I said that I would originally would be doing, goals are still being worked towards. 

School is going awesomely. Just a few weeks away from doing finals for this semester. For my mid-terms, I got A's on both of them and currently sitting at comfortable A's in both classes. 

As for archery, I haven't been going to the range and practicing like I should be. Even though the practice hasn't been there, I have been going to locals shoots. 
This past weekend I went to the Semiahmoo shoot at Chilliwack Heritage Park. On Saturday, I placed 3rd and I did not place on Sunday. Although I would have finished 4th, if there was a ribbon for that. I also picked up some information about the upcoming 3D Indoor Nationals that Semiahmoo is hosting in 2020. I am seriously 

thinking about joining this year. Needless to say it will be a lot earlier than what I anticipated, however due to certain events that happened today (which I will hopefully be able to write another blog about in a few days about) I am really excited to participate in this. If I were to participate in this tournament, I would want to go into the Known 50 category. This is mostly because I am still not entirely confident in my ability to guesstimate ranges. The only thing that I would have to do before this I register for this shoot, is get my BCAA membership. As a BCAA member, I would then be eligible for medals. I like medals. 

Anyways, hopefully I can update with some good news in a few days about my meeting I had this morning. *fingers crossed*

Until next time... 

End of a Chapter

Greetings!

Today is a little bitter sweet for me. And I didn’t even really realize it until I looked at my memories on my Facebook page. Here is a little back story…

About a year and half ago, I had some extra money so I decided that I wanted to buy a motorcycle. So after doing some research on what type of motorcycle I wanted, the boyfriend and I went to one of the local motorcycle shops to see what they had in stock. After sitting on  a few different ones, I ended up falling in love with a 2018 Honda CRF250 Rally. She was a limited-edition black/grey colour scheme and just happened to be serial number 00001 for that edition. A rare find to say the least. Talked to the salesman a little bit, then ended up leaving to think about it without putting any money down. While we were driving home, the salesman called me up with a lower offer for the bike and said that if I did want it that he would have to take a deposit on it as it probably wouldn’t last long, being a limited-edition and number 00001. I end up giving him my credit card number over the phone so that he could take a deposit. The next day, I borrow my dads truck (as I have yet to get my motorcycle license, I don’t even have the learners for it at this point), so that we can go pick it up. So, on a rainy March day, I become the proud owner of this:

This is Girlie. Yes, that is what I named my motorcycle. Needless to say, it is a lot more creative than what I have named my car; which is Car. Anyways, so I ended up passing my written exam and then the boyfriend starts to teach me how to ride. Kind of. Although he has taught me all about archery, I cannot learn how to ride a motorcycle from him. He has been riding dirt bikes/motorcycles since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, so it is already second nature to him. Not so much for me. I don’t even know how to drive a standard vehicle, so the whole “having to shift gears” thing is completely foreign to me. After a few lessons from him, I am not enjoying riding at all, and I don’t want to really take the bike out at all. I apologize to the boyfriend, and tell him that I want to take lessons through one of the local driving schools instead. He doesn’t think that I should, but as it is my money, I’m going to do what I want with it. Fast forward to June and I have had my three days worth of lessons and they do the skills test as part of the schooling. So on day three on training, I have now completed my skills test and am able to ride motorcycle without having a supervisor, however I still cannot ride after dark. Needless to say, that rule got broken one evening when the boyfriend and I decided to go on a ride for ice cream. We left our house at about 8pm (summer time so sun doesn’t set until about 10pm), and did not make it home until almost midnight. I was able to make a just over 2 hour ride (round trip, minus the ice cream break) into a 4 hour ride. Anyways, August hits and a few days before my road test I have one last lesson to see if I have picked up any bad habits (which I haven’t). The day of my test arrives and I go to the school to pick up my loaner motorcycle (although I have Girlie insured, I am more comfortable taking the test on the schools bikes as opposed to my own) for an hour long pre-ride before heading to the DMV for my test. Part way through my test I am convinced that I have failed. I don’t recall what it is that I did that I made me think that, but I just knew for sure that I failed. Once we get back to the DMV, my tester asks me how I think I did, and I tell him that I think I failed and explain why I think that. He hands me my paperwork and except for not shoulder checking at one spot, I passed with flying colours. So, on August 23, 2018, this picture was taken:

Did you catch that date? Let me put it again, just in case you missed it. August 23, 2018. If you read that in the next hour and half, that would be today. As of today, I officially have had my motorcycle license for an entire year.
Now you’re probably wondering what this all has to do with the title of this post. I mentioned that a chapter has ended in my life. Get to the point, Lisa!
At approximately 2:30pm, I said good-bye to Girlie. I sold her to a very nice gentleman in Vancouver who promises to take very good care of her. In the year and a half that I had owned Girlie, I only put 814km on her. I had only gone on two rides this year. One with the boyfriend and one of my friends/coworkers, and a group ride I did on International Women Ride Day. I realized that I don’t enjoy riding. I am completely content on riding on the back. Driving in general is starting to lose its appeal. That is a strong statement coming from me, considering I have been known to just hop in my car and go. Heck, I almost drove to Calgary one weekend just to go visit one of my best friends. I could afford to it. Didn’t really have any clothes with me for the weather though. Seeing as my last ride was early May, it just didn’t make any sense to keep holding on to her. As much as I hate to see her go, not because I miss riding her (because I don’t) but because I no longer can say that I have her.
So in a ironic twist, I sold my motorcycle on the one year anniversary of getting my motorcycle license. Thanks Facebook for that memory.
Until next time… xo

Welcome

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my new blog!

I have had two different blogs before, however I am going to give it another go and hopefully this one I can actually keep up with. My other two blogs were mostly just generic blogs about anything and everything. Whereas this one I am going to try to keep strictly pertaining to 1) my pursuit of becoming a professional archer and 2) my current schooling to become a Legal Administrative Assistant. If you are at all interested in reading either of my other two blogs, they are here and here. I also, technically, have a third blog. However, I haven't made any posts for it at all. I was going to attempt to have a photography blog/business; it just never took off though. It was going to mainly focused on event photography, such as galas or sporting events. With school though, I just haven't had the time to do it at all. I did do some photos of my boyfriend and his friend riding their dirt bikes, and I think I might have taken some photos of one of the races that my boyfriend was in (he races his dirt bike on single track). Other than that though, I haven't really done anything with it.

Alright, that was a bit long and drawn out. Now that you know the horrible history that I have trying to keep a blog, let me tell you a bit about what I hope to achieve with this one.

So with having my other blogs, I believe that my number one problem was that I didn't actually share my blog with anyone. Aside from people randomly finding it on Google or through the "next" button on BlogSpot, no one knew about my blogs. This time I want to change that. I plan on sharing the fact that I have a blog on Facebook. And I might, possibly, share the link to it on my Instagram account also. This way I can attempt to be held accountable for my actions (or lack of action) in regards to the purpose of this blog. With that being said… Here is the purpose of this blog!

I have two huge aspects in my life currently, aside from family and work. Those two things are school and archery (in case the title of the blog wasn’t clue enough). Within those two aspects, I have a few goals in each.

For school – I am currently attending Capilano University part-time online to get a certificate as a Legal Administrative Assistant. My fourth semester will be starting shortly, which means I only have 3 semesters left (half way done). My goals for school at the moment are:

• Continue to be on the Academic Merit Honor List
  
• Graduate with Distinction
• Get my Bachelor of Legal Studies in Paralegal (a few years off)

I have already been on the Merit list for my 2nd semester and I have not yet found out if I have made it for the 3rd semester, although with the grades that I got, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be on it. As for Graduate with Distinction, I am currently on the road to doing that. The main focus would be to not get any grades under a C+. Although, seeing as I am currently sitting at a 4.06 GPA (highest is 4.33), I don’t think it’ll be that difficult to accomplish. My GPA would be higher if it wasn’t for a course in the first semester that pulled it down – got a C+ in that class, all my other classes so far have been A’s and A+’s. As for my Bachelor, it’ll be a few years before I can start looking towards that goal. I need to get a few years in a law firm first before I go back for this. Although I’m not too sure how it would work to continue to work and go to school full-time to pursue my Bachelor. At least I’ll have a head start with my certificate in LAA.

For archery – I have been doing archery for about 7 years now. My boyfriend first got me into it, and I have surpassed him in skill now. He no longer participates in local archery shoots as he gets really bad target panic and cannot seem to shake it at all. So on the weekends, I’ll do archery and he’ll go dirt biking. My goals for archery are:

• Participate in the 3D Provincials
• Participate in the 3D Nationals
• Get onto Team BC
• Participate in the 3D Worlds
• Start shooting the IBO tournaments in the USA

Essentially, I want to try and go pro with my archery. I really love the sport and with the right headspace, I believe that I can go far. My main focus for now will be fitting in additional archery practices (aside from local shoots) with my school schedule. So the majority of these goals won’t be achieved until after I graduate from CapU. School is my number one priority, however I can continue to practice and get better at archery so that once I graduate, my archery goals will be easier to achieve.

So that is my main reason for my blog. Accountability. Along with posting about my schooling and archery, I will also post other things that are happening in my life. Such as hunting, fishing, general fun with the girls, etc. Need to make sure that I keep that work/life balance.

Until next time… xo