Operation Tubetop

If you want to see pictures of food and random things I did this past week, beachy crafts, etc. please check out Instagram @tmspatz. Also, please feel free to join me for the next 4 weeks! I am not a nutritionist, a personal trainer or even an Instagram star so this is not a certified diet thingy. This is just something I custom made for me so don't sue me. Please check out this blog post  here  so that you understand what the challenge is all about! This recap will include what I ate, what workouts I did and what "Tone it Up" lifestyle things I did. Also, the end of the post will include how many centimeters and kilos I have (if any) lost this past week. Enjoy! (None of these pictures belong to me... because I don't take random pictures of girls in bikinis. All of these pictures belong to Tone It Up). Well hey there! Another week down! As I did last week, this is a compilation of my exercise and food and what beachy lifestyle thingy I did or created. Last w

Hello Saturday! Hello long weekend! I actually slept a solid 8 hours which feels absolutely amazing! The Husband and the Kid are still asleep and I love this quiet hour to myself. Soon the Kid will be up, running around and humming so I like to use this time wisely: looking at pictures on Pinterest. It was an absolutely crazy week of work. By yesterday afternoon, we were all zombies and wanted to cry in relief that we had made it to the weekend. After work I met my friend D.K. at our local and had some wine and caught up. Around 6 I headed home, did my hair (part of the Tova be Toning it Up Challenge), made some dinner and then cut out flyers for today's book launch. Not my book launch because I just got ANOTHER rejection from a literary agent but that's o.k...one day it will happen. The Husband and I watched Burn Notice and then I headed out into the freezing windy night for a run. I was going to run 30 minutes but I was feeling so great that I added another 5 minutes to the

Hello Wednesday! I hope everybody is doing alright! I am firmly into week 2 of the Tova Be Toning it Up Challenge. How do I feel? Alright but a little sore. Monday and Tuesday I ran and did some Tone it Up exercises. Tonight I will get another run in and on Thursday morning I will go to Hot Yoga. I think the biggest hurdle is my inner voice. That bitch is strong "You don't have to run today, you ran yesterday." or "Have that chocolate, come on  now, you will burn it off with the run you won't do today. Muahahaha." It is very persuasive and it is incredible to know just how so much depends on your mental mindset. There are different tools I use to motivate myself and I think one of them is fear. The fear of giving up. And pressure. The fear of having posted so much about this challenge and then not completing it. I also have to look at exercise like it is a luxury. Because it kind of is. I know, weird. But I have to realize how lucky I am to be able to fi

So you probably saw my week recap earlier. What I realized I forgot to mention is that my calorie intake is on average 1,200 a day. Some days more, some days less. I am 5'1 and pretty small so I should always aim for that amount except on special occasions, of course. For the first time ever, I am not trying to diet. I am just trying to make better choices that include less cheese. I can't go too low or else my body would likely say "Yeah, eff you. Here, break a bone you ungrateful bitch." So while it may look like not a lot of food, it is actually just the perfect amount. Again, I am not a nutritionist and would never recommend anybody to follow exactly what I doing. But definitely follow along and join online. But the diet is totally catered to me so don't take my advice and then hurt yourself and then try and sue me. Please don't sue me. I only have shoes. I had a Skype date earlier and in a little while I will head to the Film Casino for a meeting what

I did it! The first week is done! And I stuck to it! If you want to see pictures of food and random things I did this past week, beachy crafts, etc. please check out Instagram @tmspatz. Also, please feel free to join me for the next 4 weeks! I am not a nutritionist, a personal trainer or even an Instagram star so this is not a certified diet thingy. This is just something I custom made for me so don't sue me. Please check out this blog post here  so that you understand what the challenge is all about! This recap will include what I ate, what workouts I did and what "Tone it Up" lifestyle things I did. Also, at the end of the post will include how many centimeters and kilos I have (if any) lost this past week. Enjoy! (None of these pictures belong to me... because I don't take random pictures of girls in bikinis. All of these pictures belong to Tone It Up). Monday  Monday morning! Easter Monday morning! It is the first day of the 5 week Tova Be Toning it Up Ch

I am officially on day 5 of my Tova Be Toning It Up Challenge. I am doing well but I would be lying if I didn't say it has been hard. This morning I did some exercises and tonight, around 9:00, I will go for another 5k run. I went last night and it was actually a fabulous run despite the Arctic wind. By the end I am usually so kaput that I don't even notice that I have lost fingers to frost bite. I usually do notice that I can't breathe though. The Kid had a long therapy session yesterday. His consultant lives in Budapest and comes once a month to check his progress with the tutors. She is great and he seemed happy and a little smug. It is genetic. The next month will focus on more learned playing as well as trying out a computer app. He shows no interest in online stuff which is obviously not genetic. I luvs the Interwebs. We are hoping this helps him communicate a little bit better. The idea is to take pictures of things around the apartment and then using the app, he

I decided to post this picture here for no other reason other than to cheer us all up. It is awful outside today so here is something beachy! You are welcome. Anyway. Hello Wednesday! I am glad that it is a short week! I hope everybody had a fantastic Easter! As I wrote the other day, I am doing this Tova Be Toning Up 5 Week Challenge . Today is day 3 and even though it is snowing (snowing... in April... snowing!!!) I actually went for a run. Oh the smugness is strong today, my friends. I headed out around 6:30 and even though it was freezing, it ended up being a pretty good run. I got home and the Kid was still asleep (in our bed) so I took a quick shower and then made myself a protein shake.. which I am writing about in my week recap that I will post on Sunday. The Kid finally got out of bed around 8 and without missing a beat, wrapped himself in a blanket and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. He was half asleep and adorable and truly acting like Old Man Spatz which has been h

In case you are visiting Operation Tubetop for the first time, I just want to quickly introduce myself! My name is Tova Marr, I am a Canadian living in Vienna, Austria and I have been writing this blog for over 5 years. Originally this was supposed to be a blog about me losing weight and looking fabulous and I was well on my way. But life got in the way. And then life got hard. Our beautiful son was diagnosed with autism just over 3 years ago. He was kicked out of 2 kindergartens, he lost all of his words, we moved to a new place and life was just so damn difficult. For a good 2 and a half years, we all struggled. I felt lost, so did the Husband and I turned to more food for comfort. But once the sadness lifted, the anger set in and it became clear there was just not enough support for autism in Vienna, Austria. I started a Facebook page called Autism in Vienna, started organizing events, and then just late last year, officially became a not-for-profit organization with a couple of fri