It's My Year!

NEW Blog!!

2009-04-19T08:07:00.002-06:00

Wow.. been a long time since I've updated here! Lots of changes have gone on in my world but I'm happy to say that I'm finally back on the weight loss wagon. But this blog just didn't seem to "fit" anymore so I've started a new one. I hope you'll come join me over there!

Mommy Shrinks

Healthy You Check In, Weigh In and a bunch of blathering

2008-11-18T15:29:00.003-07:00

I'm getting to be a bad blogger... sorry. There is just SO much going on in life lately that I'm finding it hard to have the chance to just sit down and reflect enough to come up with a semi-decent post.

First things first: I'm only down 0.6 lbs today. Not surprised. There was a bit too much apple crisp and lasagna in my diet as of lately.

So much is going on.. school is getting busy as I have two finals this week and a major project due. I'm very excited at the prospect of only having 5 weeks of classes left! Woohoo! I'm doing my best to maintain my 4.0 average so that does add a little extra pressure too.

My fiancee was just here visiting for the last four days. He just left about half an hour ago *sniff*. We had a great time, as always but I find it a bit harder to stay OP when he's around. We finally told my mom that we are moving in together when I'm done my practicum. She's less than thrilled (for religious reasons, not because she doesn't love him) but handled it much better than she did when I tried to talk to her about it on my own. The thing is, I'm 29 years old!!!!! But yes, I'm still scared of my mom at times. Sad eh? Regarding the wedding, we are 95% certain that the plan will be a wedding on the beach in either Mexico or the Dominican Republic in December 2009. Now it's just a matter of finding the right resort for the right price range, then preparing "save the date" packages and info to send out to our friends and families.

I also saw my lawyer this morning regarding my divorce and custody/child support issues. It was very encouraging as my lawyer is very optimistic that I will be awarded sole custody!!!!! I can't celebrate until it's a done deal of course, and it's a very long process but I can't help but feel a bit of relief already.

And my job... *sigh*. I'm been the admin assistant for my small church for the last year or so. Lets just say that I don't love it. I've decided to give my notice.. and lots of it because I know it will take them quite a while to find someone else. But the end of January I am done! I'm also going to be taking on some transcription work. This is through my mom's office and apparently there is tons of it if I find that I like it and can do it easily enough. Not that I really have the time for this right now but it would sure be great for down the road!

Anyways.. wow.. didn't plan on writing that much here but it helped me sort my thoughts at the same time. I am feeling a little overwhelmed with everything lately. Just so much going on. That's probably why I haven't done as much cooking as I should have to be a little more successful with Core. Being OP takes so much energy! Am I the only one that feels this? I am always constantly thinking of what I will eat next and planning meals and recipes... I need to try and simplify it somehow so that I can fit it in. Any suggestions? Making a weekly meal plan would help I'm sure but that seems so impossible. Well, I'll work on it this week..

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-11-11T13:34:00.002-07:00

This is just going to be a quickie as I'm not much in the mood for writing today.

After my first week on Core, I'm down 1.8lbs. I'm ok with that but know I could have done much better.. I only half heartedly stuck to plan. Not sure what is wrong with me... but today marks a new week and a new effort once again. Gee, haven't we heard this song before?

Core and lovin' it! And recipes..

2008-11-06T20:47:00.002-07:00

Today was day 3 of core and so far, I'm really liking it a lot. I'm finding that it's really not restrictive at all and there are tons of core recipes, close to core recipes and recipes that can easily be made core out there if you look a little. I have cooked good stuff every day so far (which is amazing for me LOL) so I know I'm getting a much healthier range of foods by not reaching for the easy, prepacked crap that can sometimes be appealing at the end of a long day. Bottom line is that I'll be much healthier in the end, not just skinnier.

On to some recipes.. I am awful about actually following recipes. I never do! I always tweak and change things around somewhat so sometimes it is truly a miracle that things end up tasting good! I thought I'd post the ones that work out so I can keep better track of them.

Corn and Potato Chowder

2 tbsp oil
1 onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1/2 red pepper chopped
about 5 med. potatoes
3 bay leaves
dill (I added lots cuz I love it!)
pepper (same!)
5 cups water
5 packages Chicken bovril (the original recipe called for chicken broth but I had none but if that's what you used, 1L would do + 1 cup water instead of the 5 cups water)
3 cups skim milk
1 1/2 cup corn (I used frozen)

Heat oil in dutch oven. Add onions and saute 5-10 min. Add celery, bay leaves, potatoes, red pepper and stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer until potatoes are tender. Add milk and corn. Continue to simmer 5 minutes until corn is tender. Discard bay leaves and puree in blender.

** I only pureed some of the soup and left some with little chunks.
** This recipe makes a lot as I have a lot of people in my house. You could easily half it.

Core Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup splenda (add more or less depending on how sweet you like your cornbread - this amount only gave a mild hint of sweetness in my opinion)
2/3 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 1/2 cups skim milk
2 tbsp canola oil

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Add wet ingredients into dry mixture. Pour into greased muffin tin or dish. Bake 12-15 min at 350.

** In all honesty, this recipe needs a little more tweaking.. it was a little dry so I think next time I make it, I'll add some plain FF yogurt.

That's all for now.. more recipes to come soon!

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-11-04T09:33:00.002-07:00

Bah. I'm pretty sure my 5lb loss last week was a fluke as I didn't see that number again after that. In fact, today I was back up those 5lbs. Although I do admit that I did get discouraged after seeing the number up last week after the weigh in and I gave myself full permission to eat stuff I shouldn't. That said, it also made me think... I absolutely suck at tracking my intake and counting points. I used to do awesome with the whole points system, hence my consistent losses last winter/spring. But I'm just not feeling it anymore... Don't worry, that doesn't mean I'm saying adios to WW though. I've gone core! As of today. I honestly never thought I'd do core, thinking it was way too restrictive of what you can eat but don't really feel that way anymore. So that's a plus, right? That means that my eating habits have become healthier, right? I'm really looking forward to seeing how core works for me. I have no classes today and my car is in the shop so I got groceries yesterday and will spend part of day today cooking cauliflower soup, Core Cornbread and Carrot Cake Cookies. I'll come back with recipes and reviews later..

So menu for today:
B: skim milk, pineapple, FF yogurt
L: two hard boiled eggs, tiny bit of light miracle whip (for points as I can't stomach the ff stuff), half WW pita (1pt), orange
S: Cauliflower soup and cornbread

Healthy You Check In, Weigh in and BIG NEWS!!

2008-10-28T09:38:00.002-06:00

Okay, just can't contain it.. I'll get the big news out of the way first. Check this out!!

Yep, it's official! Mike has asked me to marry him at least 5 times in the last few months but yesterday he finally did it up right with a ring and all :) I'm so so so so happy!! Unfortunately, I still have no pics of us together as he gave it to me in the car leaving the West Edmonton Mall parking lot (real romantic, I know) and the only witness was my 2 year old daughter. But hey, at least he has good taste in rings!

Anyways, after being away all weekend (we just got home late last night), I wasn't sure how the weigh in would go as I was staying at Mike's parent's house and not in control of the food, etc. BUT I'm down 5 lbs so I must have made some good choices (and I think more importantly, had good portion control and very little snacking). Only two more pounds until I'm at virgin weight!! LOL

I had originally planned to get in a great workout today as I have no classes but the desire to trek all the way down to school just for a work out has sort of dwindled. I have to unpack, do laundry and just do some overall catch up after being away the last 4 days and having a busy week of exams last week. But tomorrow, I promise, will be a good workout day.

Hope you all have a great week!!

I'm afraid I've joined the dark side...

2008-10-23T11:58:00.003-06:00

I just bought my first pair of pants from Lulu Lemon. In get this: a size 10!! I normally wear a size 16 pant! I've been wanting to buy some forever but have always felt intimidated by that store. But, after reading discussions months ago on the WW boards that there are certain styles that run big, etc, I was pretty sure I could find some that would fit me. I originally set it as my goal to buy a pair after I reached the 200 lb mark... but I just couldn't wait any longer!! It's been a stresssssssssful week with all of the exams (3 down, 1 to go tomorrow) and at least I didn't eat a bunch of bad food, right?

Update: For those inquiring minds, these are the pants I bought in black. Can I tell you how much I LOVE the fact they have pockets?!?!

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-10-21T12:32:00.002-06:00

Ahhhh it's Tuesday once again. I've been a day ahead of myself the last two days (thinking yesterday was Tuesday and that today is Wednesday). Maybe that just shows how badly I want this week over and how much I'm looking forward to the coming weekend? I have three finals and a midterm this week... well, one final is down already (had it this morning). It was done online so I already have my mark. I got 93% on the final, which makes my final mark for the class about a 96%. I think I can be happy with that :)

Anyhow.. on to this morning's weigh in. I was down 2.8 lbs so that's definitly in the right direction. Honestly though, I didn't do well with eating on the weekend at all so I'm glad I still had a loss but can't really feel super proud of myself or anything. Plus it's a portion of these same stupid 5lbs that I've lost about 5 times now in the last few months. But I am determined to make this be the final time. The day I reach "virgin" weight and weigh in under 220, I'll be thrilled! Then I'll feel like I'm making actual progress again. Seven pounds to go for that..

The one thing that I CAN feel proud about doing is getting back into the whole routine of working out. I ventured down to the gym on campus last Tuesday and have been there 4 times since then. My friend also twisted my arm into going swimming and I found that I love it! I think part of the reason that I'd been dragging my butt about going back to the gym was that I was bored with it. After accomplishing running a 5K and a 10K this summer, I was sick of running too. So, swimming may just be the new thing for me, or at least a combination of gym and swim.

Anyways, gotta keep it on the short side for now.. got a ton of homework to do. Just keeping my eye on the prize (so to speak) - I'm going up to Edmonton Friday after school to spend the weekend with my man! Hurray!

I had good intentions..

2008-10-15T14:19:00.002-06:00

And just to clarify, I'm not talking about my workout today. I did go to the gym and worked up a decent sweat. No, I'm referring to the yummy salad dinner I had planned last night. I'd been thinking of it all day... chicken breast cooked in terryaki sauce with onion, on top of lettuce with toasted almonds and feta cheese. Okay, this may sound like an odd combination to some but it really is yummy. So, I'm cooking the chicken and onions... all goes well. I put the sliced almonds under the broiler to be toasted. Children start demanding things... K needs a diaper change... T wants to listen to "princess" music... all of a sudden, what's that awful smell? Oh no! It's the almonds! I run up to the kitchen and see what was once to be my delicious, nicely toasted almonds in flames. My oven was literally on fire! Holy crap. Seriously! Children are now screaming and freaking out. I'm frozen.. what do I do? DAAAAAAAD! Yep, my dad was upstairs watching TV. He came down to the rescue and threw the flaming dish out into the grass, which fortunately was still wet from the frost we had yesterday. The house is pretty much blue with smoke which I can still smell today. But no one was hurt, nothing was terrible damaged.. except my almonds and the poor pie plate I had used. So, we continue on with dinner, sans almonds, with every window and door open, trying to air the place out. I just didn't have the heart to try and toast some more. All is well though.. I put the chicken on the lettuce, get out the feta cheese, weigh it and crumble it over top. I sneak a little pinch, as I usually do.. I love that stuff! OMG! GROSSSSS! It had gone bad and had this awful bitter, icky, gross taste. And it's now all over my otherwise yummy food. *sigh* I recover the chicken and toss the rest. So much for my planned healthy salad meal...

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-10-14T17:19:00.002-06:00

Well, there's good news and bad news this week....

Bad first: I'm up 5lbs in the last two weeks. It's no surprise. I've been drastically off track, especially the last week or so with Thanksgiving in there. No excuses, it's been a conscious decision.

Good news: I'm on track today AND (drum roll please) I actually found the gym at school today! It's pathetic but it was my first gym workout in nearly two months. I did 40 min on the elliptical and 25 on the treadmill (ran 15, walked 10). I'm thinking of going back to good ol' Couch to 5K, not starting at the beginning but part way through.

Things to help me stay on track this time:
- I have a friend lined up to work out with me tomorrow and Friday
- I have a container full of yummy, filling, healthy soup in the fridge
- I have a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies to munch on

I'm trying to use up the food we have this week, instead of blowing a bunch of money when there is still plenty here. I'm trying to make a deal with myself of no eating out (including no coffee) and no new groceries other than the stuff we go through more quickly like milk, fruit, etc. With Christmas coming soon, I need to keep myself in check a little more and not spend when I don't need to. Don't we all know that story... LOL

Anyways, here's to a good week!

Yummy Yummy Soup

2008-10-02T19:27:00.003-06:00

In my attempt to keep food interesting, I'm always on the look out for appealing and healthy recipes. When reading the blog of Sara (Trisaratops) from the Healthy You Challenge, she mentioned a delicious black bean soup that I just had to try. And I'm glad I did! I've never tried anything with black beans before, but I'm a huge fan of cilantro so that sealed it for me. And it was sooooo good. Here's the recipe. I soaked my beans overnight, didn't use or sweet potato but followed everything else pretty exactly. Oh, I also added smoked paprika as suggested in some of the great comments. Anyways, it was a hit as everyone in my house loved it (which meant no leftovers, unfortunately!). I forgot to calculate the points for my version, but I think it is roughly around 4-5 per serving. Not bad at all as it is quite filling. I served it with a warmed pita bread on the side.

What's your fave soup recipe?

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-09-30T14:23:00.003-06:00

Pretty please can I just fall over yet? I'm sooo tired and dragging my butt around today. Diet has sort of fallen to the wayside the last few days as I have two sick kids and have made several trips to the ER at Children's and the walk in clinic. Unfortunately my older daughter does not seem to be responding to her meds for tonsillitis and a UTI so back to the doctor we'll go tomorrow. It's never ending it seems!

So, for my weigh in today, I'm only down 0.4, which means that I'm 0.6 away from reaching my goal of losing 6 lbs since I recommitted a few weeks ago. Not happy about that as I know I could have done it. The only good thing is that it is enough of a loss to take me back over the 40 lbs lost mark, thank goodness. My next goal is to lose 6 lbs (now 6.6lbs) by Thanksgiving. Yikes.. that's gonna be cutting it close I think, though I know it is do-able if I completely stay OP. Then again, if I manage to catch my girls germs, I'm bound to lose a few extra lbs. LOL. I should not be wishing for that though!! I have a very busy next couple of weeks at school and cannot fall behind now.

Blah.. sorry, just feeling all whiny and complain-y today. I hope ya'll are doing better out there!

BLAH Apparently I can't add either! Still 0.8 to go until I'm back at 40 lbs lost. Ack..

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-09-23T15:04:00.003-06:00

I had to cross my fingers as I stepped on the scale today and fortunately, everything turned out okay. After my big loss last week (5lbs), I knew it would be harder to have a good loss this week, plus the fact that I was at a wedding all weekend and totally not in control of what I was able to eat as we were out in the middle of no where. I managed to stay the same so I am happy with that.

The wedding was awesome fun though, after all, I was there with my boyfriend and child-free (for the first time ever!!) so how could it not be fun?? LOL. Tons of driving though - I think it was about 17 hours on the road between Friday afternoon and Sunday night UGH. My lower back is still sore from sitting so much. But all in all, not one complaint. And the kids faired just fine without me, though Grandma is still a little tired.

And what is it about weddings that make you start planning your own? LOL Mike has asked me about 5 times now to marry him but not "officially" - meaning, no ring yet. But, we did decide that planning a wedding looks like way too much work (not to mention money) so we're thinking that heading down to somewhere tropical and getting married barefoot on the beach is much more our style. Anyone done that and have any tips? Apparently we're going ring shopping next weekend when he comes down to visit. And yes, that makes me feel very giddy :)

I'm trying really hard to get back on track food-wise today as I really want to meet my goal of losing 6 lbs by the end of the month, which means I need a loss of at least 1lb this week. I heard that the gym at school is totally state of the art and not all that crowded so I really need to find a way to check that out. My goal is to go at least once this week. Baby steps, right?

It's KEEN-wah!

2008-09-17T11:44:00.004-06:00

I felt like such a dork when I went into Planet Organic yesterday looking for Quinoa. I pronounced it exactly how it is spelled and the guy was like, "Oh, you mean Keen-wah?". Umm yah, okay.

Anyways, I've been wanting to try some quinoa for quite some time because it's so high in protein but never found a recipe, or maybe more accurately, the motivation to find an appealing recipe, to make some up. Well, last week I bought Company's Coming Low Fat Express Cookbook when they were 50% off at Superstore. By the way, these are my fave cookbooks.. I must have at least 10 around here. And this one is great! It has a ton of good recipes and includes all of the nutritional info. So, I tried making Apple Cinnamon Quinoa.

Apple Cinnamon Quinoa

1 cup skim evaporated milk
1/2 cup apple juice
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup sweetened applesauce (I used unsweetened)
2 tbsp brown sugar, packed (I used 1 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar blend)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

Combine milk and apple juice in large saucepan. Heat on medium until hot, but not boiling. Add remaining 5 ingredients. Stir. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, covered, for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until quinoa is tender.

Makes 4 servings and the way that I made it, it was about 5 points per serving. Not too bad for a complete breakfast though, right?

I found it waaaaaaay too sweet, even though I used unsweetened applesauce and less brown sugar. I think it might have been the evaporated milk? The texture itself was okay though.. it sort of reminded me of Red River Cereal (which I love). I may try making it again and just using regular skim milk instead of the evaporated milk. Or, I may just stick with my Red River Cereal ;) In the meantime though, I have at least a cup of uncooked quinoa leftover. Any good suggestions of what to do with it? Preferably something more savory...

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

2008-09-16T10:42:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I've checked in with the Healthy You Challenge but thought I'd jump back in this week. I also weighed in today since I forgot yesterday. I am actually thinking that Tuesday will be my new official WI day.. works better with my schedule right now since Mondays I get to sleep in a little and I like to weigh myself as soon as I get up and before I jump in the shower. Anyways, today's weigh in kicked butt!! I am down 5.0 lbs from last week!!!!!!!!! This leads me to think that last weeks WI (and rather large gain) was a big water gain, which would make sense seeing as it was also TOM. But anyhow, 5 lbs is 5 lbs and I'll take it!

Everything else is going good school (I got 100% on the test I was so stressed about last week!!) and relationship-wise (we had a huge talk Friday night and now things are sooooo good!!). The only thing I'm still haven't difficulty fitting in to my life so far this fall is exercise. I used to be so good about earning my APs but right now, it's either study or go work out and so far, studying is winning out. In all honesty, I think it has to right now. This program is only 5 months long and I need to make the most of it. Of course that doesn't mean I'm a total slouch.. I do try to do things like walk up the 5 flights of stairs to my classes, go for little evening walks with the kids, etc. It would be great if I could somehow fit more in though.

Anyhow, here's to another OP week!

TGIF!!

2008-09-12T21:06:00.002-06:00

I'm soooooo ready the weekend. It's not like it means I get to relax, because quite honestly, this weekend seems to be jam packed full of plans, but it means my poor brain gets to relax a wee bit. I feel absolutely overstuffed... and no, not my tummy for once - overstuffed with information. I am taking 8 classes right now!! Not sure how I am going to be able to remember everything... but I'll have to manage somehow. The majority of my classes are health/medical related but two are computer classes and even though I thought they'd be boring and a PITA, I'm loving them! I got to put a computer back together today. I got to learn how SIMPLE it actually is to replace memory, hard drives, etc. Seriously, those are life skills in today's day and age.

Anyways.. I've been a pretty good girl diet-wise the last couple days. Tonight I did have a few pieces of Domino's thin-crust pizza and one glass of regular coke but I have barely touched my flex points all week so I'm still well within my points for the week. I'm really proud of the fact that I've been really getting in my fruits/veggies and that I'm getting up early enough to make myself a decent breakfast to start my day. I have unfortunately discovered the location of the campus Starbucks and made a stop there the last two mornings. I've had serious cravings for my non-fat Chai Latte... only 3 points though for a tall (plus a serving of dairy) so not really too much damage done, other than to my wallet. I need to stop getting to school so early so I won't have time to go over there before class! LOL

On the relationship front, I did have a little talk with Mike yesterday afternoon. We've both just been so tired lately that by the time we talk at the end of the day, neither of us have a whole lot to say. I get that. I asked him if he really thought he was ready for the girls and I to move up there in February. He told me that basically he feels like he is living and breathing for February to come... that it's something he's been waiting for for such a long time and he can't wait to have us there every day. Then he asked me if that's what I wanted.... I said yes.. but I don't think I convinced him (I admit I didn't say it very convincingly). I said that it was what I wanted but that I was a little scared and that there was stuff I wanted to talk about so that we start out being all on the same page. He agreed that it was a good idea... so that's a start anyways. I'm really really really looking forward to seeing him next weekend. It should be a lot of fun and maybe even a little romantic seeing as it will be just the two of us with no kids around (for the first time ever!!).

Anyways.. guess that's it for now :)

Humph..

2008-09-10T21:01:00.002-06:00

To be honest, I'm a little grumpy tonight. I can't exactly pinpoint why but I think that perhaps it's just a little bit of everything.

I had my first quiz today at school. And quiz my butt! It was more of a full on test, marked out of 46 and worth 10% of my final grade. No easy multiple choice questions either.. full on written answers. Ugh. I thought I knew the material inside out but I completely spaced on a few of the questions. I'm hoping the results won't be too bad but I'm a little stressed about it.

And... men. *sigh* I've had a little bit of a not-super-connected feeling to him lately. It's hard.. we live over 500km apart and it's been 2.5 weeks since I've seen him. That's the longest we've gone without seeing eachother and I still won't see him until next Friday. We talk daily but the last few nights when he calls, he's dead tired from working 16 hour days and I'm dead tired from school, etc so the conversations have been filled with a lot of dead air. And that's for sure one of my top five most annoying things. No one's fault really... but for some reason I'm feeling annoyed with him tonight.

Also on the back burner of my mind is that I know he wants me to move up there once I'm done school (in February) and I think I want that as well...... but at the same time, there's a big list of things I feel like we need to talk about still before I'll be totally ready to do that. Because if I pick myself and the girls up and move there, that's it. It means that this is the man I'm spending the rest of my life with. He says there'll be a ring on my finger by next month... we'll see. The thing I think that I'm annoyed with him about is that it feels like he thinks he has me now and so he doesn't have to try anymore. Maybe it's my own fault because at the beginning of our relationship I told him I wasn't into romance.. and I never used to be but I'm finding myself longing for a bit of it right now. Bottom line: we need to talk. He has no idea how I feel and I am one of the worst for communicating so that's something I need to work on NOW. I think I'm going to go to the library and get one of those books like "1001 Questions to Ask Before You Get Married" or something. This talk needs to happen soon... hopefully the weekend when I go see him, though we'll be at the wedding and busy with that.. but soon.

Blah.. okay, I think that's probably the biggest thing that's making me grumpy tonight. I'm also extremely tired today (didn't sleep well last night) so .. well, you know how it goes.

On the weight loss front, I was OP all day (3 days in a row woohoo!). Also haven't bought any fast food, even coffee, this week which is huge for me.

I'm off to bed now.. hopefully a good night's sleep awaits me.

I'm back! Weigh in #1

2008-09-09T11:44:00.005-06:00

After a summer long hiatus about not being serious about the weight loss, I'm back, effective yesterday. This fall is bringing with it several changes... me going to school being one of the biggest! I'm in my second week now at SAIT and I'm thinking it's going to be quite a busy semester. All in all though, I'm so glad that I decided to go back to school and just wishing that I did it sooner. I'm taking the Health Information Office Assistant program and it's nice and short - only 5 months - so I think I'll just lock myself away in my room studying until I'm done. I can do that, right? I don't think my kids will mind THAT much ;)

Anyways, summer was great this year... but I am glad to be back into routine. I just found it so difficult staying on track food and exercise wise when I was away from home so much. The only trip I have planned this fall is a quick weekend trip up north to attend a wedding with my boyfriend. And I'm going sans kids! So excited about that!!

Back to weight loss - I decided that I'm going to start fresh, hence the new look of my blog. This is week one (well, started yesterday). I gained back just about 10 of the pounds that I lost but I'm not going to dwell on it.. I'm starting again, all 229 lbs of me. I'm setting new goals for this fall and looking forward to achieving them.

First of all, the new stats. I'm not proud of them in any way, shape, or form but here they are..

Weight: 229.8
Waist: 40.5
Bust: 45
Hips: 47

I'm not going to go into how much they've increased since the last time.. I think that would only discourage me and like I said, this is a fresh start!

New goals:
lose 6 lbs by September 29
lose 12 lbs by Thanksgiving
be under 200 by New Years

I look forward to reading your blogs again.. not sure how much of that I'll be able to do with the studying that I need to accomplish but I've always been a good procrastinator ;) In the process of changing my blog though, I lost my list of blogs that I love to read! If you want to be on my blog list, please please please post a comment with your addy! Thank you!

WI #32 and the big 10K!

2008-08-19T07:12:00.003-06:00

Wow.. I hadn't realized how long it's been since I updated. While not completely back on track, I'm happy to say that things are moving in the right direction and I'm down 3.2 lbs in the last few weeks. That takes me back over the 40 lbs lost mark (41 to be exact!) so I'm happy about that. I'm really looking forward to September because I think with school starting, I'll get back into my regular routine and it'll be easier to get serious about this weight loss business again. It appears that I have some big breaks between my classes so my goal is to go and workout during those times.

On another note, I did my first 10K last Sunday! It was a blistering hot day, which was quite brutal as I don't tend to run outside on really hot days so I was not used to it at all. I ran with my cousin and to be perfectly honest, neither one of us had adequately trained. We made it through running the first 5K and then ran/walked the second 5K. Honestly, I am pleased with that. However, did I mention that I never run outside on really hot days? LOL At the last water station they gave us an entire bottle of water (prior to this it had just been little cups) and I chugged it down because I was soooo thirsty. Right at the finish line I chugged another bottle of water. Well, about 15 min later in the car, I started feeling incredibly nauseous. And of course my uncle was driving us across the city to pick up take out from his fave restaurant. Ugh.. so we are on the way back towards my house and I am feeling just awful and agonizing this entire hour long drive in the car, dripping in a cold sweat (I swear I sweat more after the run than during the run itself, despite that AC in the car!) and then UH OH! I stick my head out the window of my uncle's shiny BMW and empty the contents (luckily just water) of my stomach all down the side of his car and the road (yes, we were driving down a major roadway at the time). Immediate (temporary) relief! LOL It was awful... I think I ended up with a case of heat exhaustion/stroke and had to lay pretty low for the rest of the day due to nausea/dizziness, etc. By yesterday I was feeling pretty good though, just a little muscle soreness and it feels like I bruised the bottom of my foot.

But ya know, this race made me realize that I think I'm over my initial infatuation with running. I think I was so excited at first because it was like WOW, I can actually run! Now I hate to admit, but I kind of dread it. I hope this will change once I get back on track completely but right now, my body just feels so heavy.. which really makes no sense since I have been running for the last 30lbs of my weight loss.

Anyways, I'm off for now... leaving to go see M later today and I'll be back in a week :)

WI #29

2008-07-28T20:44:00.002-06:00

Well, it's a step in the right direction.. I'm down 1lb this week. For some reason, I'm really just not in a blogging mood lately... but I want to at least write when I WI and stuff, just to keep track of everything.

On another note, I signed up for a 10K today.. it's soon - August 17! I'm excited though as my cousin is joining me in the run. I've been keeping up with my workouts in training but the last week or so, I've had some serious psiatic (sp?) pain. Not fun :( So hopefully that clears up sooner than later.

Thanks to all who still read here.. I've been reading quite a few blogs lately but am afraid that I've not been a very good commenter. I'm sorry!! Not quite sure what is up with me... hopefully I'll get more involved again soon as I find that my success dramtically increases when I blogg/comment alot. Must mean I'm more focused when I'm doing that.

Anyways, I'm leaving town again tomorrow for a week so I'll check back when I get home!

Gross

2008-07-20T18:48:00.002-06:00

I'm sitting here tonight feeling incredibly pathetic. I just feel sluggish and .. just gross. My last round of motivation lasted less than a week, and though I wasn't THAT bad on vacation, since coming home last Tuesday, I've been even less stellar. Blame it on my birthday that included celebrations spread out over 3 days. Blame it on just about anything but there's no excuse that will take away the weight I've put back on. I don't know exact numbers yet as I've been too scared to face the scale. I'm saving that task for tomorrow morning.

I miss seeing losses every week.

I miss feeling "light" instead of bloated and full.

I miss feeling good about myself. And this just might be my biggest motivator right now. After years of feeling embarassed about my body, I was finally starting to feel good about it, even a little proud. And that is disapearing :(

So tomorrow I will be back at it. And there will be more excuses and going off track just because I'm going out of town. That's been one of my big problems the last month and a half because I've going away every couple weeks. I still have two more weekends away planned in the near future but that doesn't mean WW will go out the window. I just can't let it.

I nearly forgot

2008-07-02T22:36:00.002-06:00

to post today but I promised to post daily this week so here we go.

Today started well.. had a good 90 min cardio sweat session at the Y. Then the girls and I went to the mall for lunch (again, not too bad, had a small wrap at 6ish points). Things went a little downhill after that at dinner time but all in all, I shouldn't be over my points all that much. I'll do my best to make tomorrow a low point day to even it out.

I'm feeling soooooo good right now though. I just got off the phone with M and wow... I just love him :) He's planning a surprise for my birthday on the 15th and he was driving me crazy trying to make me guess at it. I just can't wait to see him next Tuesday.. he's joining my family on vacation, which will be nice but at the same time, wishing my parents weren't going to be there so the separate bedroom rule didn't have to apply ;)

Anyhow... hope ya'll are doing well!

Healthy You Check In

2008-07-01T12:10:00.002-06:00

It's a new month and I'm so glad. June was less than stellar so I'm looking at July as a fresh start. I've been thinking about my goals both for this month and for a little longer term and have decided that:

1- My goal to be down 50 lbs by July 15 is unrealistic. That is 11.2 lbs away. I'm going to change this to August 15. Instead, I want to be below 220 (lose 5lbs) by then.

2- My goal of reaching my 2nd 10% by the end of July is unrealistic. That is 14 lbs away. Bumping that back to August 31.

3- I want to be out of the 200s by Thanksgiving. That means 25 lbs to go by October 13th.

4- Run a 10K at the end of August. Train 3X a week to prepare for this.

5- Rack up 1000 min of cardio in July.

6- No more eating after 8pm.

To go along with this fresh start, I'm playing with the idea of re-designing my blog. I'd like to add in a box that scrolls along the side for my weigh ins because that's getting awfully long. Does anyone know how to do this?

I also have a goal for this week of blogging everyday and reading through all the blogs of those who check in in the HYC today. Looking forward to checking in and saying hi to you all! It may take me a few days but it's long overdue :)

WI #25 - Owning up and moving on

2008-06-30T14:22:00.002-06:00

Wow.. it's been two weeks since I've posted. And just like 99.9% of other people who stop posting for a while, it's because I've been off track and just busy in general. It's been easier to just avoid checking in here and then actually pick myself up and continue on my journey. But today I'm here and I'm going to update all my numbers, as much as it may hurt. But being honest with myself and just putting it all up here is going to be a huge motivator, I'm sure.

Today I weighed in at 224.8lbs. I think that's up nearly 4lbs since I last weighed in 2 weeks ago, and up about 6 or so lbs since my lowest weight a few weeks before that. Ouch.

I have done okay with the exercise the last week or so, getting 3 solid workouts last week but the eating... it's been WAY WAY out of control. I ate because I was bored, because there was bad foods in the house, because I was hot, because I was in the kitchen, because the kids didn't finish, because it was my dad's birthday.... all of those horrible reasons and excuses to over eat, I used them. And it makes me sad because I've been working so hard the past 6 months and I thought that I had managed to retrain myself (or at least partially) in the way I deal with food, but evidently not so much. I've managed to leave a month weighing more than I came into it with. I've also managed to make achieving my goals of losing 50lbs by the 15th of July (my bday) and losing my 2nd 10% by the end of July very very difficult, if not totally unobtainable. Which really sucks.

I was supposed to do my measurements last Monday but did them today instead. Thank goodness they at least remained steady!!

4 weeks ago:
223.2 lbs
39" waist
45" hips
43"bust

Today:
224.8 lbs
39" waist
45" hips
43" bust

Total difference this month: 0" and +1.6 lbs
Total difference since start: 22" and 38.8 lbs

Enough with this beating up on myself though. I may have been a bust in the weight loss department this month, but I worked on a few other goals this month that are just as important.

1- I was accepted into SAIT, I've completed my registration, paid my deposit, applied for funding, and received over $2,000 in bursaries and grants.

2- I have taken necessary steps to get my divorce started. July should see a bunch more progress in this area.

Plus I've been able to spend quite a bit of time with M, which makes me very happy. My kids are in love with him and I'm pretty sure my mom is too. I've had to reign her in a little bit because she's practically ready to start planning a wedding LOL. Right now emotionally, I feel happier and more content than I've felt in a long time.

So it's not been all bad! July is a new month and even though I go on vacation to Fernie for a week, starting next Monday, I'm determined that this will be a great month for weight loss. I'm going to spend some time thinking about my goals for the next few months and post those tomorrow.

Anyways, I'm back!

WI #23 and Healthy You Check In

2008-06-16T20:55:00.002-06:00

Blaaaaah. Not feeling very motivated this week. In fact, I feel gross, bloated and FULL from all the crap I've eaten the last few days. Gross. And the scale shows it - I'm up 2.2lbs. No surprise there. Not exactly sure where my motivation went but I'm pretty sure that it goes hand in hand with no working out. And the fact that I haven't gotten in a workout in 3 weeks is pretty pitiful.

That said, I'm trying very hard not to let myself get totally down about this... tomorrow is a new day and I'm more than ready to get back on the wagon. I've got an intense workout planned for tomorrow morning and good food stocked in the fridge. I have downloaded a bunch of new tunes and I'm looking forward to getting back into routine.... for a few days anyhow. Thursday the girls and I head back up north to visit M... I've got to find a way to stay on track (or at least relatively so) while I'm up there. And to get some exercise in as well. We can always do walks and M mentioned wanting to take me golfing... not that that is extremely strenuous cardio oranything but better than nothing. Any tips? How do you stay OP while away from home????

Now I'll do my pitiful update on my June goals..

As far as June's goals go...
1- Lose 8lbs by June 30 I'm at 2.2/8
2- Get 1000 cardio minutes I'm still at 0...
3- Try again for 3 runs a week HA! None last week...

Yah.. pretty sad. But I can turn it around. I was THISCLOSE to getting some new 45lb bling last week but I'm a little further away now.. I need to stay focused in order to reach my goal of 50 lbs gone by my birthday (July 15). Crap! That's under a month!! And 7.4 lbs to go... and a long weekend and weeklong vacation in there too. Ok.. breath.. I can do this! Please kick my butt and help me stay focused!! Any tips to stay OP while I'm away???

Healthy You Check In

2008-06-09T22:25:00.002-06:00

I thought I'd get this done a little early this week :)

I am so glad to actually be healthy this week! The flu/stomach bug that attached itself to me last week was absolutely brutal and Sunday was the first day in nearly a week that I finally felt "normal" and was able to eat normal food without it sending my stomach into distress. So now that I'm finally getting my head above water this week, I'm realizing holy moly! It's already the 9th of June! This month is flying by! But the last few weeks have been great on the weight loss front but especially on the personal front. I've been able to spend lots of time with my man... which is awesome because he lives 6 hours away. He's down here this week and then I'll go back up to his place next Thursday. My girls absolutely adore him and he them so that makes everything even better. I am just trying to soak up as much time as possible with him this summer because (drumroll please!!) I got accepted into school for this fall!! I had applied to several different programs and was waitlisted on all of them but was just accepted into my first choice last week. Very excited about it!

Things on the diet and exercise front could definitely improve though... even though I've managed to pull out some decent losses, I know it won't last if I don't get back on it. It's not that my motivation is lacking, it's more just a time thing. I really need to work on this this week and find ways to exercise, even if M is here or if I am up at his place. As far as food goes, I haven't tracked either and have made decent choices, definetly small serving sizes, especially of foods that may not be the best choices.

As far as June's goals go...
1- Lose 8lbs by June 30 I'm at 4.4/8
2- Get 1000 cardio minutes I'm still at 0... may need to adjust this
3- Try again for 3 runs a week I didn't run in the last week because I was sick... this week? Hopefully at least two

Weigh in #22

2008-06-09T14:35:00.003-06:00

After missing last weeks WI, I'm happy to say that I'm down 4.4lbs in the last two weeks... very pleased actually considering I haven't tracked and haven't exercised in nearly two weeks. I'm finally feeling healthy again and look forward to earning some APs but my man decided to come for a visit for a few days (yaaaaaay!!) so of course that throws my schedule way out of wack. I'm not complaining though.

I'll write a better post tomorrow, I promise. And I'm so sorry I've been slacking on the blogging and commenting!! I read a bunch last week while I was sick but wasn't so good at leaving comments. Oh well - life happens :)

The best part of being sick...

2008-06-05T13:31:00.002-06:00

is all the crazy weight you lose!! I'm seeing numbers on the scale that I wouldn't have expected to see for at least a month. Of course once I'm finally able to hold down more fluid and actually eat something, the number will go up but I'm sure getting a kick out of seeing numbers in the two-teens. And my feet! I think I've lost weight in my feet. Is that crazy? They just look... well, more bony. LOL.. can't wait to start feeling better and being able to go workout - it's been over a week!

Healthy You Check In

2008-06-03T12:48:00.002-06:00

Not a whole lot to update this week as I was out of town from last Thursday until last night (had an amazing time with my boy though!!) and I seem to have developed a lovely flu in the last 24 hours. Not fun!! So, I missed my weekly weigh in yesterday and this morning the scale showed me down at 219 but I am so dehydrated that I'm sure that's not all that accurate. I think I'll just wait until next Monday to record an official weight. And pray that this horrible bug passes quickly!!

Final update on May goals:
1- At the beginning of April I set the goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. I did it, actually 10.8/10
2- Run 5K on Mother's Day without stopping. Did it!
3- Lose 5 lbs by May 21 (that's the day I'm going to see M) I ended up at 5.8/5!!
4- Lose 8 lbs by June 2. Since I don't have an official weight this week, I'm not 100% positive how this went.. but seeing as I was at 7.8/8 last week, I'm going to call it a success.
5- Get 1200 minutes of cardio this month. 877 UGH not so good! I've missed several workouts this month but I can say that although my minutes aren't quite up to par, the intensity of my workouts has definitely improved.
6- Run 3 times a week. Only twice last week.. seems to be a bad pattern

New Goals for June:
1- Lose 8lbs by June 30
2- Get 1000 cardio minutes
3- Try again for 3 runs a week

That's all I can think of for now... hope you all have a great week!

Healthy You Check In

2008-05-27T11:41:00.004-06:00

Like my new bling? I'm really quite fond of it myself :)

Things seem to be going quite well on both the exercise and eating fronts lately and finally I had a loss that shows it (3.8lbs). What can I say? Love does a body good! ;)

Now that I'm down 40 lbs, the compliments have been rolling in from people around me and while they are of course lovely to hear, I still find myself doubting what they are saying. Yes, I do feel MUCH better than I did 40 lbs heavier. But when I look in the mirror, I really don't see the difference. Ugh! I had read in other blogs about people feeling this way but I never thought it would happen to me. I mean yes, I feel that my thighs and butt are way more firm and I've really just noticed the last few weeks how my tummy feels smaller. But I look in the mirror and what I see is still very unappealing. And it doesn't seem to look any different than it did 5 months ago. But it must!! I don't know why our minds do this to us but it's making me understand (just a little bit) how the mind of an anorexic works. If I went by how I saw myself in the mirror, do you think I'd ever think I was thin enough or firm enough? I really don't know. My clothes tell me I'm smaller, my measurements tell me I'm smaller, my scale tells me I'm lighter... so why don't I see it? I think maybe it's time to do another full length pic of myself to compare to my first one. I've been dreading doing that but I think it's time.

On another note, here's the last update on my May goals:
1- At the beginning of April I set the goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. I did it, actually 10.8/10
2- Run 5K on Mother's Day without stopping. Did it!
3- Lose 5 lbs by May 21 (that's the day I'm going to see M) I ended up at 5.8/5!!
4- Lose 8 lbs by June 2. 7.8/8
5- Get 1200 minutes of cardio this month. 817 so far.. not quite sure if I'm going to reach this one. I'm out of town starting Thursday and only have one workout left before I go.
6- Run 3 times a week. Only twice last week.. missed Thursday's run because I was out of town

Weigh in #20 & Measurements

2008-05-26T16:05:00.003-06:00

Wow.. it's hard to believe that 20 weeks have gone by already and that I've stuck to it the majority of that time. Well, I finally saw a decent loss this week. In fact, it's quite an awesome loss if I do say so myself LOL. I'm down 3.8 lbs, which takes me over the 40lbs gone mark. Can't wait for my new bling tomorrow! The thing is, I barely tracked my food intake this last week. But I know that I didn't over-do it and I really did watch what I ate. And I also can recognize that I really didn't do much boredom eating and snacking, which is what usually kills me. It was a busy week! This week is another busy one as I'm getting ready to take the girls up north to M's house. We are leaving on Thursday and not coming back until next Monday. This means I probably won't be super great at tracking my food again but it should also mean that once again I'm too busy for the boredom munchies. Hopefully I can report a good loss again next week!

It's also been 4 weeks since my last measurements so here we go...

4 weeks ago:
231 lbs
41" waist
45.5" hips
44.25" bust

Today:
223.2 lbs
39" waist (woohoooooooooo!!!!!)
45" hips
43"bust

Total difference this month: 3.75" and 7.8lbs
Total difference since the start: 22" and 40.4lbs

The craziest thing is that 12 of those inches have come off my waist. That is a crazy thought!! I can only imagine how much healthier my body now is compared to 4.5 short months ago. I'm SO glad I made the decision to start upon this journey and made THIS the year to make the change.

Shiny happy people...

2008-05-23T13:44:00.000-06:00

Can you tell I'm a happy girl today? LOL Just LOOK! A little closer.... SEE what M gave me yesterday????? Well, that, amongst many other things would explain the happy (yes, that's crazy goofy happy, not psycho scary freaky) look on my face. (Have you ever noticed how hard it is to take a pic of yourself where you have a half normal looking expression on your face?!? but that's a whole other post LOL). I am not normally a jewellery person, but I may have to make an exception because it seems as though M has every intention of spoiling me. I'm a very lucky girl!!!!

I got back last night from my trip up to Edmonton to see M and the whole thing was just... well, bliss. There was so much makin' out that I felt like a teenager LOL. But I rationalize that by saying that the last time I dated anyone, I WAS a teenager! It was just awesome to spend time with him and just to have him hold me. Oh oh oh oh and a certain "L" word was used. He's been alluding to feeling that word for a while now but I've always hushed him and told him not to say it. I've told him that it's too soon for that, he's crazy, he's blind, etc etc. But he said it and I didn't stop him. Actually, it felt really nice to hear it. Really. Nice. I feel like I'm walking on clouds... I feel like I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

And, to top off my happy news, I totally met my goal of losing 5 lbs by yesterday. In fact, I lost closer to 6. Hopefully it all stays off (and then some) until my official WI on Monday!

Healthy You Check In

2008-05-20T11:18:00.001-06:00

After a less than stellar eating weekend and a minimal loss yesterday, I am seriously kicking up the activity so that I can have a hope of reaching my goal of losing 5lbs by this Thursday. After my WI yesterday, I still had 1lb to go but I did a kick arse 7km run yesterday morning plus a 30 min. brisk walk last night, and pretty much 2 hours of cardio this morning (I ran to the Y, worked out on the elliptical and w/weights and than walked home - all uphill of course). At the moment I'm feeling a little beat but once I eat I should hopefully feel better.

So.. I'm really excited. I get to see M tomorrow night!!!!! I'm driving up to Edmonton after I get the girls to bed (yep, solo) and not coming home until Thursday night. And no, it's not an overnight date LOL! My cousin happens to live quite conveniently close to M's parent's house and that's where I'll be staying. I guess technically it's only our second date but really, it's much beyond that seeing as we spend hours on the phone daily (only a slight exaggeration). If you missed it before, here's how M and I met. So this afternoon I need to go shopping to find something to wear. I did find a pair of capris on the weekend but I'd really like to find a cute skirt if I can.

Actually that talk about shopping leads me to a NSV I had this weekend. First of all, I bought 2 pairs of workout capris in get this, a size large!!!! I seriously don't ever remember buying a size large before. Granted, they run a little big but STILL, a large! Not a XXL or 2X or whatever. WOOHOO! And even cooler, my mom wore a pair and they fit her. I am finally back to the same size (well, pretty much) as my mom. Holy crap! I'm finding that I am on the borderline of being able to shop in many regular stores instead of just the plus stores, for bottoms anyways. I thought I would be thrilled about that but honestly, it's a little overwhelming. Way too many stores to look in and way too many choices. I need some serious shopping time WITHOUT 2 screaming kids in tow.

Anyhow, on to my weekly update on my monthly goals..

1- At the beginning of April I set the goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. I did it, actually 10.8/10
2- Run 5K on Mother's Day without stopping. Did it!
3- Lose 5 lbs by May 21 (that's the day I'm going to see M) I'm at 4.0/5
4- Lose 8 lbs by June 2. That's one month from today and that's on an offical WI day. 4.0/8
5- Get 1200 minutes of cardio this month. 702 so far..
6- Run 3 times a week. Only twice last week, plus one day of other cardio... umm cuz I got lazy

I can't wait to check in with all of you later today!!

Weigh In #19

2008-05-19T13:11:00.000-06:00

I reaaaaallllly didn't want to weigh in today. I'll admit it, I've been a bad girl the last few days and have indulged in some foods that I shouldn't have. Actually, for most of last week I found it really difficult to keep my eating under control. It wasn't all "bad" foods, just too much in general. And I didn't get in an extra run this weekend like I'd been planning either. By the time I had the chance to do it on Saturday, it was 33 degrees (Celsius) and waaaaaaay to hot.

So I think I'm down 0.2. Way better than a gain! My scale was being just plain cruel to me though as when I first weighed myself prior to my shower, it was telling me 222.6, three times in a row! I KNEW there was no way that was accurate. By the time I was done my shower and did my hair, I had somehow magically "gained" and was back up at 227. LOL Same floor, same spot, same foot position. I'm going with the higher number, just to be safe. As much as I'd LOVE to claim the lower number as that would take me over the awesome 40lb mark, I'd just be setting myself up for disapointment for the rest of the week when the scale is more normal.

As far as activity goes, I've had a hard time just DOING IT. My mom literally had to push me out the door this morning to go for my run (and I'm SO thankful she did). I knew I just had to get going and would be good once I did. It was the most beautiful weather for running so while pushing baby K in the jogging stroller, we ran for a total of 6.94 km! My pace is slow and steady .. we ran for 56 minutes. I feel so much better now!

A little bummed..

2008-05-14T20:51:00.001-06:00

Today has been a little crappy. I had been hoping to enter into a dental assisting program in August but just found out the program is completely full with a mile long waiting list. The student advisor said I should still apply and get on the list and I may get in during the February intake. So why didn't I find this out earlier? The course calendar said that registration for the program didn't begin until three months prior to the program start date (which has not yet passed). The program is already full because these are the people that have been on the waitlist for last February's intake. OMG!!!! So... I'm feeling very discouraged. I'm so sick of waiting... I just want to get on with life!

Oh, and my 83 year old Grandma got into a car accident last night. Nothing serious (thank god!!) but it was her fault and now dealing with all of that is pretty stressful. In all honesty, she probably shouldn't be driving anyways...

So.. food-wise I didn't do so hot. Too much snacky type stuff, not enough healthy meal type stuff. But tomorrow is a new day.. I'll start it out with a workout at the Y, get my pedicure and make sure I eat better.

Healthy You Check In

2008-05-13T09:56:00.000-06:00

As I sit here typing this, I'm still sweaty and recovering this morning's run but all I could think about while I was running was getting back and posting here that

I ran 6K this morning!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I'm a little proud of myself. I may not be very fast (it took me about 46 minutes) but I did it. It was just such a beautiful morning outside that I decided not to make my typical trip to the Y, where I've been struggling to stay motivated to run on the gerbil wheel most of us call the treadmill. The 6K really flew by this morning so I've decided that it may be a good idea to mix up my routine and perhaps run outside 2X per week and workout at the Y with other cardio and weights 2X per week. We'll see how that goes.

Anyways, for my run today and for my 5K run on Sunday, I'm awarding myself this shiny new bling:

(Thank you Diana for the awesome new buttons you made!!)

And, due to my loss of 2.2 lbs this week, I get more new bling:

My mantra this month has been "Motivated in May" and it seems to be working!!

1- At the beginning of April I set the goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. I did it!! Actually I lost 10.8 lbs!
2- Run 5K on Mother's Day without stopping. Done!!
3- Lose 5 lbs by May 21 (that's the day I'm going to see M) I'm at 3.8/5
4- Lose 8 lbs by June 2. That's one month from today and that's on an offical WI day. 3.8/8
5- Get 1200 minutes of cardio this month. 427 so far..
6- Run 3 times a week. Done!!

I look forward to checking in with everyone today!!

Mother's Day Run Update and WI #18

2008-05-12T13:20:00.000-06:00

I meant to get on here last night to give my little update about the run but I couldn't find my USB cable to get the pics from my camera. Anyways, first things first. The run was incredible!!!!! Even though I had had an awful sleep the night before (I was waking up every 10-15 minutes, afraid I would sleep in), I woke up and was totally pumped! Baby K and I headed downtown by 8am and my mom and T were going to find their way to a spot along the race route to cheer us on. Baby K and I were a team... she rode along in the jogging stroller and loved every second of it.

I would say that the waiting before the race began was the worst/best part. There were over 13,000 of us down there and becaue I had a stroller, I had to be at the back of the pack (although I did manage to get my way in front of all the people walking). As we waited.... and waited... I felt like such an idiot. The whole realization of what I was doing was overwhelming. I was going to run a REAL 5K! Me?!?! I wasn't worried about the run itself as I've run 5K several times now the last few weeks but the emotions and the excitement of actually being there and doing it was almost too much for me to handle. While the crowd around me was laughing and happy, I was making my feable attempts at holding back the tears. Yes, I was going to do it. I made a goal and I was now prepared to kick it's ass. Part of me also felt a little sad that I was doing it alone (well, except for baby K). I had been trying to get some of my family members to do it with me, but to no avail. Everyone just thought I was crazy. *sigh* Maybe next year.

Anyways.. here we are, inching our way to the start line.. the gun had already gone off at this point and we are almost there!

Here's what I saw when I looked straight up! We were lucky to have perfect running weather!

And looking straight down... hehe notice the bottle - it kept her occupied the entire run!

The run itself was great. The first 10 minutes or so kinda sucked, as the first 10 minutes of any run sucks (for me anyways) and I was trying to get out of the crowds and get by people so I was running faster than my regular pace. But I got into my groove eventually and the run literally flew by! When I was approaching the finish line, I could not believe we were already done!

Here we are right after.

And me and my girls once we finally met up again.

And the best news is that I'm not sore today!! No actually, I have more good news. I'm down 2.2lbs!! Which means that I reached my goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. So for now, I'm definitely sticking with the Wendie plan. It seems to be working!

Counting down to the big 5K

2008-05-10T16:58:00.000-06:00

And I'm so excited!! I went and picked up my race package this morning at the Fitness Fair, which is making it seem so very real. I never in my life would have imagined myself actually doing something like this!!! Even back a few months ago when I first thought of the idea of running this race, I was saying rather jokingly. But I am ready and very excited!!

And just about exciting as all that, I got new running shoes!! The Tech Shop had a bunch of stuff there and I managed to find a great pair of Mizuno runners for more than half price. Never could I imagine paying over $150 for shoes but $80 seemed reasonable, especially since I use them so much now. Hurray!

Anyways, so far the Wendie plan seems to be going well. I ate a few more points yesterday than I was supposed to but I'm okay with that. I may be over by a few today too... but I'll try not to be. The most important thing that I see happening with me doing this is that I am actually tracking EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth. The good, the bad and the really bad. And that my friends, is a victory in and of itself because up until now, I was only semi-tracking... meaning if I ate a bunch of bad stuff, I didn't even bother to try and track it. And peeking at the scale shows me that it's paying off. I'm not sure if my WI last Monday was a fluke or what but by the next day, I was back up 2lbs.. and for the last couple days I've been back down to what I WI at on Monday, and even a little lower. I'm hoping to show a loss of at least 1lb (hopefully 1.4 so I can meet my goal!!) by Monday.

Anywho, I hope all you mommy's out there get truly spoiled tomorrow!! Enjoy your day and give your family some extra hugs (unless they forget all about Mother's Day - then you can tell them off LOL). I just feel so grateful right now for my health, my family, my new man, my new shoes... ahhhh life is good :)

Going to try Wendi...

2008-05-07T20:06:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned a few days ago, I thought I might try to mix things up a bit with the Wendie plan.The plan says that you can will shake up your weight loss by not consuming the same amount of points each day but instead following something like this: low, high, low, very high, very low, high and medium high. So, my week will look like this:

Monday: 30 points
Tuesday: 34 points
Wednesday: 29
Thursday: 44
Friday: 28
Saturday: 34
Sunday: 32

Basically you just take your daily points allowance and multiply it by 7, then add your 35 flex points. For me it was 28X7+35=231. I'll see how this goes.. I may have to play with those numbers a little bit to figure out what works best. Basically, I'm just hoping this does something!! I feel like I've been stuck around 230-231lbs forever (well maybe a month anyways). Yes, I did WI with a loss on Monday down to 229.4 but was back up yesterday and today (yes, I weigh myself daily). And there is no reason for me to be up this week at all as I've been 100% OP. So when I get all these kind and glowing comments about how great I'm doing, I don't really feel like it. I feel like a fraud! But in all actuality, I shouldn't just be focused on the scale and the numbers but should spend more time acknowledging the improved health and fitness that I'm experiencing.

On that note, I'm my abs are SORE today! After my workout yesterday I did about 100 different kinds of crunches on the ball. At the time I felt fine and even wondered if I was doing something wrong because I just wasn't feeling it but today, I'm hurting. But it's a good hurt :)

Healthy You Check In

2008-05-06T11:52:00.000-06:00

Today is going to be a quickie check in as I'm rushing off to go along with T's preschool class on a field trip.

I had a great workout this morning... I ran 5k in 35:10. My previous quickest time was 35:38 so I'm thinking that was pretty good. With the Mother's Day run less than a week away, my ultimate time goal for it would be anything under 35 min but I've been told that it's not a race you can run very fast at...too many people. So my goal will just be (and has always been) to run the full course - no walking.

Anyways, here's a recap of my May goals. (Woohoo! Motivated in May - my mantra for the month)

1- At the beginning of April I set the goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. Right now I am at 8.6/10.
2- Run 5K on Mother's Day without stopping.
3- Lose 5 lbs by May 21 (that's the day I'm going to see M) I'm at 1.6/5
4- Lose 8 lbs by June 2. That's one month from today and that's on an offical WI day. 1.6/8
5- Get 1200 minutes of cardio this month. 210 so far..
6- Run 3 times a week. Done!!

That's all for now.. I'm planning on checking out everyone's blogs this evening! Can't wait to see how you all are doing!

Weigh In #17

2008-05-05T14:44:00.000-06:00

Very very pleased today...I weighed in with a loss of 1.6lbs! That takes me below the 230 mark!!!! I have no idea when the last time was that I weighed in the 220s.. probably at least 8.5 years ago. So yes, I'm a happy girl today.

My weekend was busy but good.. I made decent food choices but didn't track everything. Today is a new week though and my goal is to make it through, tracking everything. I was thinking today about flex points.. and how I allow myself indulgences (without tracking most times) because "I know I have the FP for them". Mentally for me, FPs seem to be this big buffer that somehow swallow up the extra points that I eat. It's like an excuse for extra treats. I do think though, if FPs are used properly, they are great. But I'm not able to do that. So, I'm going to divide them up and use some daily. Maybe like the Wendi plan? I'm not very familiar with the Wendi method but I'll do some reading up on it and get it figured out. I just think that if they are divied up like that, I won't be able to use them as an excuse. Plus, this works in with my JOLT plan of mixing things up and staying motivated.

My workout today was cut a little short. I biked for 15 and ran for 35 - almost didn't make it though because towards the end, these awful cramps started up... and I had to run to the washroom. Sorry if thats TMI! After that, I felt terrible and decided not to do my 35 on the elliptical and went home instead. Not sure if a bit of a virus is passing through or what... but I hope it's gone soon.

Anyhow, that's all for now.. I'm enjoying blogging from my bed this afternoon as we recently installed a wireless router. I've decided that a bit of a restful afternoon is in order for me today!

I think it's back..

2008-05-02T13:49:00.000-06:00

Don't want to jinx myself or anything but both yesterday and today I am feeling great! It really was just an "all of a sudden" thing, which leads me to believe that my lack of mojo was related to hormones. But it's strange because I still haven't gotten TOM (and no, it's completely impossible for me to be pregnant!!!). It seems as though my cycles are getting more and more irregular because I could swear that I should have had it by now. Which leads me to my first goal: keep track of monthly cycle.

So yes... it is May! I wanted badly to post yesterday but ran out of time. The good news is that I got my horrendous work project finished and submitted it.... at 12:36 am last night! If it's at all possible this month, I'm going to try not to take on too many contracts. I need to catch up on some other things this month like registering for school, finding out about financial assistance, seeing a lawyer... etc. Oh, and I'm going to visit my man in a little less than 3 weeks from now! YAY!

There are several goals that I will fail to meet this month if I do not stay on track... thus I have officially decided that the key word for the month of may is MOTIVATION. I am going to put effort into finding new things to motivate myself and I am going to stay motivated all month long. There, I wrote it down. That means it must come to pass (haha! if only it were that simple).

Now on to those goals...
1- At the beginning of April I set the goal of losing 10 lbs by Mother's Day. Right now I am at 7/10.
2- Run 5K on Mother's Day without stopping.
3- Lose 5 lbs by May 21 (that's the day I'm going to see M)
4- Lose 8 lbs by June 2. That's one month from today and that's on an offical WI day.
5- Get 1200 minutes of cardio this month.
6- Run 3 times a week.

There we go. It's all out there for everyone to see... now it's time to get my butt in action!

(Sidenote: Thank you to those who commented the last few days..I don't think I would have re-found my motivation without your help!!!)

Trying to find my motivation

2008-04-30T20:00:00.000-06:00

I'm feeling a little better today compard to yesterday. Yesterday was just... bad. But talking to my man last night really helped (he's so great!). He told me not to be so hard on myself and to just take a little break if that's what I feel like I need to do, try and get in some extra naps and just relax a little bit. I need to listen to my body... and today I did just that.

T and I had some one on one mommy/daughter planned this morning and we snuggled on the couch together and watched Alice in Wonderland. I fell asleep about 15 minutes into it for a good hour or so. Then she'd be asking to go to Swiss Chalet for a few weeks now so I took her there for lunch. They have some great healthy choices there, one of which I ordered... but I did eat a few of her french fries and a couple bites of her sundae. I took her to school and did an hour or so of work and then had another glorious nap. It felt so good to just lay in my bed! The kids are both in bed already and I think that even though I have a bunch of work to do, I will go to bed early and get in a good nights sleep. Tomorrow is a new day and the work will still be here.

As far as my motivation... well, it's still not back 100%. Cammy commented that I need a JOLT to get me going again, and that is probably very true. I've accomplished the feat of running the (what I thought) illusive 5K.. and now the high is gone. How sad is that? I was reading back through some of my older blog entries and I was just oozing motivation and drive. I really hope I can get it back. So anyhow, how do I JOLT myself? And please, don't just tell me to take a new aerobics class or something because that's really not my thing.

Here's what I did today to try and start the JOLT process:

- Cleaned out my closet. I took out everything that is now too big. I have a large laundry basket stacked high and overflowing and it feels great! Now to figure out what to do with it all... if anyone is in need of some transition clothes in 18/20/22, seriously let me know!
- Bought two new tops, both in size 1X!! I've never bought that size... ever!
- Downloaded a bunch of new tunes to liven up my stale playlist

Here are some ideas I've been playing with to continue the process:

- Make some appointments with a trainer.. maybe once a week?
- Considering switching to Core
- Considering doing some sort of a cleanse
- ??????

This is where I need the help of ya'll :) Any ideas for me?

Healthy You Check In

2008-04-29T09:47:00.000-06:00

Do you ever just feel down.. for no good reason really? That's me right now. I just want to curl up in my bed and sleep for a few days and then maybe I'd feel better. Nothing particularly bad is going on right now... just the usual stresses of kids (with an extra dose of 4 year old drama added in there right now - she's driving me NUTS!!), work, etc. I also feeling like I'm getting sick and have an on again off again sore throat. I just feel crappy. So, I'm not sure if this is making it harder for me to get back on track food-wise or if I am feeling crappy because I haven't been doing so hot with my program. But overall, I wish I could just snap out of it! I made great plans to get back on program yesterday as I wrote about but it didn't last past late afternoon. I just wanted to eat everything in sight!! This morning I almost didn't go work out either. I haven't missed a workout in forever so you know this is bad. But I went... didn't run today though, just did 35 min on the elliptical. I'm so scared that I'm not going to be able to get back on program! I wish I could JUST DO IT but it's not feeling quite that simple.

Blah.

Anyhow, sorry for the whining and complaining. I'm hoping to have the chance later on today to read a bunch of your blogs and find some motivation.

Here's the update on my goals for April:

Hit 10% goal by April 7 DONE!
Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11) 7.0/10 I'm 1lb further from this than last week
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Not doing C25K anymore but I ran 5K 4 times last week!
Do 1100 minutes of cardio Finished that today - I'm at 1105

Weigh In #16

2008-04-28T12:33:00.001-06:00

It was no suprise to me that I had a gain today. The last week was pure craving hell, then was the birthday party Friday night, leftover cake.. yadda yadda. But whatever.. I'm not too upset about it and I'm prepared to move on and have great results next time. I just got home from the grocery store where I purchased tons of good food and I've planned my meals for the next few days (and I never do that). One of my goals for this week is to eat more salad and other veggies so those are definetly in the plans.

On another note, I earned 39 APs last week and I've been consistently running 5K in my last three workouts (followed by 35 minutes on the elliptical). I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be able to run the entire 5K course on the Mother's Day run coming up. And if I can do it in less than 36 minutes, I'll be thrilled.

Anyways, it's measurement day for me here.. it's always fun to see how much my body has changed in the last 4 weeks.

4 weeks ago
238 lbs
43.5" waist
46" hips
45" bust

today
231 lbs
41" waist
45.5" hips
44.25" bust

Total difference this month: 4.25"
Total difference since start: 18.25"

I have now officially lost 10" from my waist!!! Amazing!!

What's on your Ipod?

2008-04-26T22:15:00.000-06:00

Stealing this from Hanlie.. but it looks like so much fun!

The rules are simple: Hit the shuffle on your iPod (or in my case my MP3’s random selection), then answer each question by hitting next. No cheating!

Q: What does next year have in store for you?
A: Fighter - Christina Aguilera I hope not!

Q: What does your love life look like next year?
A: Saturday Night - Whigfield

Q: What do you say when life gets hard?
A: This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race - Fall Out Boy

Q: Song that reminds you of good times?
A: Tell Me What Your Sippin On - Britney Spears Ha, that's works

Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning?
A: Move Your Body - Eiffel65

Q: What song will you dance to at your wedding (or silver wedding anniversary?)
A: Sweetest Girl - Wyclief Jean

Q: Song that reminds you of your first kiss?
A: Rehab - Amy Winehouse (sooo laughing out loud right now!)

Q: Your favourite saying?
A: Stronger - Kanye West

Q: Favourite place?
A: Give it To Me - Justin Timberlake

Q: Most missed memory?
A: Umbrella - Rihanna

Q: What song describes your best friend?
A: Break the Ice - Britney Spears

Q: What song decribes your ex?
A: See You Again - Mylie Cyrus (sheesh, I hope not!!)

Q: Where would you go on an important date?
A: It's Not Over - Chris Daughtry

Q: Drug of choice?
A: Back to Black - Amy Winehouse

Q: What song describes yourself?
A: Never Too Late - Three Days Grace

Q: What is the thing you like doing most?
A: She's So Sorry - Hedley

Q: The song that best describes the President?
A: Shut Up and Drive - Rihanna

Q: Where will you be in 10 years?
A: Over You- Chris Daughtry

Q: Your love life right now?
A: Pocket Full of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield

Q: What is your state of mind like at the moment?
A: Slow Motion - Third Eye Blind (yeah, that's about right - it's so past my bedtime!!)

Q: How will you die?
A: Garden Grove - Sublime

Give me sugar!!!

2008-04-23T20:29:00.000-06:00

I'm craving sugar and sweets reallllly badly this week. It's not been good at all. I'm thinking TOM is to blame... and honestly, I hope it just shows up sooner than later so I can get out of this phase! The good thing is that the only sweet foods that I have in the house are rice krispie squares (2 points each) and Fiber One bars (2 points each). Oh, and pudding. So, my points have been under control for the most part and I'm getting all of my fruits and veggies in but sheeeeeesh! I feel like I could just eat and eat. Go away munchies!!!

On another note, it's my mom's birthday on Friday and I am planning the party. Does anyone have some low point dessert recipes that are delicious? I also want to make a dip for the fruit... I know there is a yummy low-cal one made with I think yogurt and....... something else. Cool whip maybe? Does this ring a bell with anyone? I can use all the help I can get because if there aren't decent low point options, I have a feeling that with the sweet tooth I have this week that I could really blow it. Thank you!!

Healthy You Check In

2008-04-22T10:34:00.000-06:00

Woo! I love Tuesdays and giving a little update and taking the time to check in on all of you!

Not a whole heck of a lot to report here.. I had a loss this week, (-1.0lb) but it wasn't quite as much as I was hoping for. I was feeling extremely munchy yesterday and I have a feeling that TOM is around the corner. I really should keep better track of when it's expected to arrive but I've never been good at that. I really can't wait until next Monday when I should finally be out of the 230s!

When I posted the other day about M being overweight, I've gotten a few comments about being in a relationship with an overweight man. I agree with what Hanlie said in that when she was with a fat guy, she got fat too... and this happened to me also with my ex (who was not super fat but overweight and out of shape). I have never been thin but I was in awesome shape when I first met my ex. I still weighed approx. 200lbs but I had just finished a summer working as a landscaper so I was buff! LOL I think I put on at least 20-30 lbs that first year (and so did he!).. and well, it just went from there. I would never want that to happen again! I've worked too hard and still have a long ways to go and can't get back into those old habits. But that said, I've always been attracted to bigger guys.. probably because they made me feel small and safe and secure. M is probably bigger than I would normally be attracted to... but his personality is awesome. Anyways... can you tell this whole issue has been spinning around in my head the last few days?

Here's an update on my goals:

Hit 10% goal by April 7 DONE!
Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11) 8.0/10
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Not doing C25K anymore.. I ran twice last week and then my knee was sore so I did BOSU instead
Do 1100 minutes of cardio I'm at 850 right now so I should make it!

I can't wait until next week to do measurements!! Have a good week everyone!!

Weigh in #15

2008-04-21T13:32:00.000-06:00

It's that time again... and I'm down 1.0 lbs today. I was hoping to be below 230 today (seems like I've been in the 230s forever!!) but I'll have to settle for 230.0. Oh well... I did pretty well last week but made a few choices over the weekend that could have been better. But a loss is a loss and I'm good with that.

Happily the knee pain that I was complaining about last week seems to be okay at the moment. It was sore at times during my run this morning but there is no long lasting pain afterwards so hopefully it's okay. My elbow.. that's another story. I have a feeling it's tendonitis or maybe carpel tunnel because it mostly hurts when I move my fingers or when I try and straighten my arm all the way. And it is on the arm of the hand that I use my mouse with... not that I'm a doctor and know anything. I think I'll make a Dr appointment to have it checked out in the next few days if it doesn't ease up. I'm just glad it doesn't interfere with running!!

Anyways, that's all for today. Check out the post below for details on the big date!!

Date Update

2008-04-20T21:13:00.000-06:00

I know you guys have all been on pins and needles waiting for this update LOL :)

Well, we got an enormous amount of snow (yes, SNOW) the last few days so I was extremely worried about the drive I had to make Saturday morning to meet M. I started out.. got about 30 minutes away and then decided NO WAY can I make this drive. I was passing car after car in the ditch and while I felt like I could probably make it to Drumheller, I was more worried about the drive home later that night. So, I called M and he offered to come all the way to Calgary (cuz he's sweet like that). We met at the mall and we had lunch and just hung out... I had the little ones with me (because remember, we were originally supposed to go to the Dinosaur museum). Things were very comfortable, just like they had been on the phone. After a while, we brought the little ones back home so my mom could babysit. Yep, he even met both of my parents already. We went to a late afternoon movie and dinner afterwards. Honestly, it was a great day... and I think that things worked out for the best with the changing of plans. There was some really nice hand holding, cuddling at the movie and quite a few little kisses snuck in there. It was really... well, nice.

So how do I feel now? Well, this is something that I feel really badly even to admit. He was a little heavier in person than in the pics that I had seen of him. That's really not the end of the world because obviously I have weight to lose as well. His style was well... lacking, but again, not a huge deal because he knows he has no style LOL and it's nothing a few shopping trips couldn't fix. And really, how often is it that you find someone who's personality so completely meshes with yours? We have so many things in common that it's almost freaky. Our beliefs and values are very much alligned.

In the truck just before he dropped me off at home, he asked me if I was his girlfriend. I kind of giggled when he asked because it sounded a little junior high school-ish but sweet at the same time. I said yes.

I used to be so attracted to the "bad" boy. M is definitely so not. He is so "good" that I've found myself questioning if he is for real. I'm feeling a little bit of an internal struggle within myself.... actually I dumped my first boyfriend (who was also a "good" boy) because he was too nice. Why would I possibly want to be with someone who was not nice? I don't know... and I realize that I'm jumping a little ahead of myself and should just be taking this one thing at a time and seeing what happens. M has made it very clear that what he's looking for is for a good woman to marry, basically just to love and look after. He wants a couple kids, the minivan, the camping family vacations, the picket fence... you get the picture. That's what I want too... at some point.

(I wrote all of the above last night and am finishing this Monday morning)

To be truthful, I really don't know how I feel at the moment. Nice is good... but I want more than that. I'm feeling a little shallow because what if he had been 50 lbs thinner? Would I feel differently then? I just don't know. And, I guess I don't really need to know right now. We'll see what happens.

My aching legs.. sorry, I'm whining

2008-04-17T20:37:00.000-06:00

I had this brilliant idea a few days ago that I should start doing exercises in the kitchen while I am waiting for the microwave, toaster, kids to eat, etc. Mostly I've been doing squats, with the odd set of pushups or plank in there. And today, it caught up to me! My legs are killing me!! But in a good way, of course.

What's not hurting in a good way is my knee and my elbow. My knee started hurting at the tail-end of my run on Tuesday. I thought it would be okay by today so I started my run... and 90 seconds into it, I stopped. I am really scared that I will hurt it really badly and it will force me to stop running for a long period of time. So, I upped the incline and walked for my 20 minutes that I had before my BOSU class. Really hoping it's fine again by Monday!

Speaking of my BOSU class - what fun!! For those of you that don't know what it is, you use once of these:

It really works your core and is fun and bouncy at the same time (LOL). I think I will try and add this class into my Thursday workout routine.

Anyways, BIG DATE countdown... just TWO more sleeps!!!!! *insert giddy laugh here* So far it looks like I'll be safe regarding the snow and driving... I'm making cookies for my boy tomorrow... hopefully I can keep my fingers out of the cookie dough!

Rebellion

2008-04-16T19:11:00.000-06:00

For whatever reason, I feel a little rebellious today. I've been working hard all week both diet and exercise-wise and this morning when I weighed myself, I was the same as I was on Monday. WTH? Okay, the logical part of my brain knows this is silly - it's only been two days afterall. And this is not my usual pattern, especially if I have been eating well, which I have. Actually, I didn't even eat all of my points the last two days.... maybe that is the problem? So we had a lot of running around to do.. the kids check ups at the Drs... picking up our Easter portraits... getting T ready for school and swimming... so, we ate lunch at the mall. This mall doesn't have a Subway, so I gave in and ate a gyro from my favourite greek place (Opa! for all you locals). I was okay with that... figured I'd eat a light dinner and everything would be fine. But by dinner time, I was exhausted and not in the mood to cook. And of course the family wasn't either.. dad brought in Chinese and my brother ordered pizza! Thanks alot guys. So for dinner I ate two dumplings and a few pieces of ginger beef and half a slice on pizza. I can already feel my stomach complaining. Yuck. But whatever... it's one day and I really didn't overdo it. But I can't help but think that if the scale would have shown a loss this morning that I would have made better choices. Now how does that make any sense?? All I can say now is bring on the water!!!

Healthy You Check In

2008-04-15T10:28:00.000-06:00

I think I have spring fever! Warmer temperatures (though I heard we are supposed to get snow this coming weekend BOOOO) and a little bit of love in the air are making me feel super energized and happy. I just really really really hope that we don't get too much snow or at least that the rain/snow doesn't make the road conditions too dangerous for me to go on my date on Saturday! It's a 1.5 hour drive to where we are meeting so will you all do me a favour and keep your fingers crossed that the weather report will change??? Thanks :)

Well, I just got home from another 31 minute run. 31 minutes you may ask? Yes, 31 minutes LOL. You are allowed max 30 minutes on the cardio machines at the Y and I sort of squeak in the 5 minute cool down as well and the first minute of the cool down is still at a running speed (albeit a much slower pace). So yes, 31 minutes running followed by 35 minutes on the elliptical. My knee was hurting for the first 10 or so minutes of my run (maybe I need new shoes?) but seemed to go away. And I improved my distance today - 2.62 miles (up from 2.54 yesterday). All in all, a great workout and a whopping 10 AP.

Now here's a question for all of you other WWers out there. How important is it to eat your APs? I rarely do. And if I eat any of them, it's only about 1-2. Being that a typical workout for me is now 10 APs, should I be eating more? Or should I just wait and see how my losses go? As you can see over on the right hand column where my losses and APs are, there really is no correlation between the two numbers. What to do, what to do...

Regarding my goals for this month:

Hit 10% goal by April 7 DONE!
Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11) 7.0/10
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Not doing C25K anymore.. but I got 4 runs in last week and will get at least 3 this week
Do 1100 minutes of cardio I'm at 629 right now and seeing as its the 15th today, I'm right on track (even a bit ahead woohoo)

Now, last but not least, I was tagged by Natasha!

Rules of the game:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs
5. leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged

So here's my seven random things:

I used to be disgustingly flexible. I could do the splits all three ways and hold my leg straight up and and literally kiss my shin.
I almost died when I had my first daughter. Of course I didn't know this until two weeks later and the doctor so kindly informed me. I knew my blood pressure had spiked but I didn't actually realize how serious it was.
I first got married when I was 20. Yah, ummm bad choice.
I used to have an ebay store. I sold mostly new and used kids and women's clothing. When the Canadian dollar started matching the US dollar, I closed up shop. It just wasn't worth it anymore.
I was in French immersion in both junior high and high school. Oui, je parle francais. (but not very well anymore)
I once met some real satanists. We went to their house on the Sunshine Coast. They had all kinds of weird art on the walls of human sacrifices and other disgusting images. It was incredibly scary and I just wanted the heck out of there.
I once stayed at a hippy commune near Nelson, BC. It was actually sort of cool and everyone was very kind... but all of their vegetarian, organic food was not my cup of tea.

So there ya go! As you can tell, I've been on quite a few adventures in my life LOL. But haven't we all?

I am going to tag....

Erin
Hanlie
Selma
Heather
Manuela
Briy
Patti

If some of you have already been tagged, sorry! Pass it along! :)

Weigh in #14

2008-04-14T12:39:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm certainly not as excited this WI as I was last time but considering my huge loss last week (5.6lbs), it's only realistic to expect a smaller loss. This week I am down 1.4 lbs. I was hoping to be out of the 230s... but then again, yesterday had some bad eating choices so I should just be happy at 231 for this week. But next week, I'd better be out of the 230s!!

You know, I really don't struggle with cravings. I am strictly a creature of convenience and the times I get into trouble with eating for the most part are when I don't eat a proper meal, then get stuck or desperately hungry and just eat whatever is quick or whatever is right there. And unfortunately, because I live with my parents and two younger brothers, there is frequently a fair bit of not so good food sitting out on the counter. Yesterday it was a box of deliciously delectible chocolate fudge brownies from M&Ms. OMG so good! But I'm paying for it today.. my mouth gets all sore when I eat foods like that with a lot of sugar in them. I have a big sore on the inside of my cheek today.

But anyways, the weekend wasn't all that bad. The weather (as you other Albertans know) was absolutely beautiful!! On Saturday morning, I threw baby K in the jogging stroller and headed out for a run around the neighbourhood. My entire route was about 5.24 km and I ran about 4km of that. I walked twice - once threw a really muddy section and again up a huge hill. All in all, very happy with that. My neighbourhood is very hill so it's next to impossible to find a route that wouldn't have at least one huge hill in it. I'm really trying to work on cutting the walking time out of my runs because I want to run the Mother's Day 5K from start to finish with no walking. So today I ran 31 minutes straight on the treadmill. I've always been curious to see exactly what distance that would equal and today, at my slow speed, it was 2.54 miles (or 4.09 km). So next, I'll be working on really increasing my speed.

I guess I've sort of quit doing the C25K program. Technically I'd be in week 7 today, which is 25 minute runs... but considering that I'm already doing what week 9 requires (at least time-wise), I think I'll just stop and do my own thing. But what a great program!! I never could have done it without the guidance the program provides and without the awesome C25K podcasts. If you haven't started it yet and you think you could never do it, try it. I really think you'll surprise yourself.

On the dating front... things are still very good. Only five more sleeps until our big date :) I never thought it was possible to have as much in common with a person... and to miss a person that I've never met. Is that crazy? Still need to figure out what I'm going to wear!!! I'm so so so so excited!!!

Thanks... and Alphabet Meme

2008-04-10T19:06:00.000-06:00

First I just want to thank you guys.. the compliments and kind words you've all given me have made me feel simply amazing. I want to hug each and every one of you!!

I don't have much to report today.. I was supposed to do week 6, day 2 of C25K today.. but didn't feel like stopping after 10 minutes.. so I just ran and ran.. for get this, 38 minutes!! I followed that up with a 35 min elliptical stint and earned a whopping 10 APs today overall. I think that's a record! I felt so good that I went and got a pedicure LOL. It's all about the rewards!!!

Food has not been the healthiest today. I skipped lunch (I was talking to my man and just sort of forgot about eating... not sure what it is but he just has this way of making everything else in the world disapear..) and ended up eating a cheese bun in the late afternoon (ugh, 6 points) followed by 1.5 slices of pizza for dinner. By no means am I over in points for the day but the fat content has probably been a little high. I plan on having a snack in a little bit of some fruit/veggies.

Anywho, Cammy tagged anyone who hasn't yet done the alphabet meme to do it so here it goes!

A is for age: 28.. for a few more months
B is for booze of choice: Blah, nothing.. I haven't had a drink in years
C is for career: Career? What career?
D is for your dog’s name: our black lab Tyson that my parents have had since I was 18
E is for essential items you use/love everyday: my laptop!!
F is for favorite song(s) at the moment: Put Your Arms Around Me, Natasha Bedingfield
G is for favorite games: I'm addicted to Literati on yahoo games
H is for hometown: Calgary, born and raised
I is for instruments you play: nadda
J is for jam or jelly you like: pomegranate/blood orange.. it's SO good!
K is for kids: T, age 4 and K, age 18 months
L is for last kiss: K before she went to sleep :)
M is for most admired trait: yikes I don't know.. that I'm hardworking?
N is for name of your crush: Well, we'll just him M ;)
O is for overnight hospital stays: twice, after the births of both of my girls
P is for phobias: Snakes and lizards!! Oh, and mice (but only if they are in the house)
Q is for quotes you like: Can't think of anything right now
R is for biggest regret: Honestly, I have none
S is for sweets of your choice: Cookies!
T is for time you wake up: usually around 6:30am
U is for underwear: Jocky String bikinis
V is for vegetables you love: Asparagus
W is for worst habit: Procrastination
X is for x-rays you’ve had: wrist, ankle
Y is for yummy food you make: I make lots of good stuff!
Z is for zodiac sign: I'm a Cancer

So, I'll follow suit and tag anyone who reads this that hasn't yet done it yet. Have fun!

Good God ... That was really me

2008-04-09T20:27:00.001-06:00

I never really had a "before" picture. I avoided cameras like the plague, as many of us do. But I was just working on a project for my church putting all the photos of the staff members on the website and was given this disc with pics of all of us that were taken last fall.... When I saw the one of me, my jaw dropped. I really didn't think I looked THAT bad at the time. I didn't see myself as that huge blob of a person. Gross. So, for motivation and to remind myself continuously that I never want to look like that again, here it goes up on my blog for all to see. (Look to the right in case you didn't notice). Part of me wants to do a little experiment and put on those exact same clothes and take a full body shot of myself to see the difference. But the other part of me is petrified that it won't be enough of a difference and that it will depress me. Anyways... thank goodness I have that other pic (my good hair pic LOL) to use instead of that other one!!!! And thank goodness that I am in charge of this project so that I can control which pic is being used!!! LOL.

New Hair

2008-04-09T14:01:00.000-06:00

Alrighty... I played with my hair today and now I like it!! It's all very layered, which is definetly more flattering and now that I see it in pics, I think that the color is OK afterall.

Just a drive by posting for now.. gotta run and get baby K to her 18 month immunizations (fun time ahead!).

Healthy You Check In

2008-04-08T16:04:00.000-06:00

Well, I never would have guessed that I'd get such a pretty new badge so quickly, but my awesome loss that I recorded yesterday bumped me over the 30 lb mark! Ahem, yes, that's 31.2 lbs to be exact. And something I didn't even realize until today was that yesterday was my 3 month anniversary being on Weight Watchers. What a fantastic loss to celebrate with!

My reward for achieving my 10% was to have my hair done... I wanted the works - cut and highlights and it was long overdue as I haven't had my hair cut in over a year. I was looking forward to taking some new progress pics and looking all hot with my new hair but it turns out that I hate it. Ok, maybe hate is a strong word... but it's definetly going to take some getting used to. The highlights are WAY lighter than I had expected.. I was hoping for a warm, caramelly shade but he used bleach! I am just not used to seeing my hair this light and to be honest, I'm really not even sure that it goes with my skin tone. The haircut itself is pretty good I think... but of course I don't like how he styled it. Tomorrow I will play with it and see if I can get it more to my liking. THEN I'll take some pics.

Anyways, as far as diet goes the past week, I've done really well. I've been on program the majority of the time and have honestly had a tough time eating all of my points. Last week it was because of the butterflies in my tummy... this week it may be partially that and partially because I've been kind of busy and just not thinking about food very much. I find myself getting to mealtime and really having to think about eating.. just not much of an appetite. What a huge shift!!

Exercise has been going well too. I did week 6, day 1 of C25K today followed by 35 minutes on the elliptical. Really, my cardio has been going well... but I've been avoiding the strength training for some reason. I mean, I know how to do plenty of toning exercises and how to use the weights for some reason, I've felt intimated to do so. I've also been so focused on just burning the calories that I haven't wanted to slow down and do the strength training instead (because I wouldn't have enough time to get in my current cardio regime and strength training on the same day and I really hate circuit training!). But, I would love to tone my arms up in time for summer... so I've been thinking about signing up for a few sessions with a trainer to get me working on a good strength training program.

Regarding my goals for this month:

Hit 10% goal by April 7 DONE!
Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11) 5.6/10
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Last week I only got two because Monday was my final fitness test at the Y
Do 1100 minutes of cardio I'm at 338 right now

So overall, a great week! I can't wait to catch up on everyone's blogs and see how you all are doing this week!

Weigh in #13

2008-04-07T12:42:00.001-06:00

I thought the number 13 wasn't supposed to be very lucky but this week, it seems the scale likes me. I am down 5.6 lbs!!!!!!!! I saw the numbers jump down when I peeked a few days ago but honestly, didn't expect them to stick. Not only did I pass my 10% but I am also down more than 31 lbs total now. Wow. Just wow. I think I'll probably spend the rest of the day doing a bit of a happy dance! But not only because of the weight loss... my boy just called me from work... said he couldn't stop thinking of me. It was just a quick call but made my day because it made me totally realize just how mutual the feelings are. It's all sort of crazy but really nice at the same time.

Okay, okay.. I suppose I owe it to you all now to give you a little more info about him now. I've been asked to write a mini post about the whole thing so here it goes. First of all, let's call him M. A few weeks ago, on a complete whim, I signed up for one of those match making sites. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular.. not even sure if I actually wanted to date anyone (I haven't since I separated nearly two years ago). But I thought I'd see what was out there. So I wrote my profile, not trying to impress anyone. Just putting it all out there - the real me. I sifted through the matches I was sent.. deleting most of them based on physical appearance. LOL, yep, call me shallow or superficial but if you can't actually see yourself with the guy, what's the point? So there was this one guy whose pic appealed to me. He lives about 5 or so hours from here, which I figured was a good thing because then there is less pressure to actually meet (remember, I wasn't really serious about this). I sent him questions and his responses intrigued me. We communicated back and forth and nearly everything matched. I gave him my email addy and we spent three days writing huge emails 3-4 times a day. Finally, we talked on the phone. And the next night, and the next night. And several more times since then. We've decided to meet up on Saturday the 19th. So yes, it's crazy, I've never met him but really have a huge crush on him already. But before you get all worried about me, I'm taking it very slow... and whether anything comes of it or not, it's been very fun to have feelings like this again and to feel like someone is into you. And hey, the fact that he has a really great smile, makes really good money, loves kids (and wants more), is very financially responsible (he owns a house, rents it out and is buying another - all this with no debt), has a really great family from the sounds of it - help too. Wish me luck!!!

Oh, and if any of you were readers from the very beginning of my blog where I posted about going to the psychic, I recently re-read the stuff she wrote down for me and so much of it has come true. It's scary really how accurate she's been. And one intriguing thing that she wrote that I happened to forget was that I would find love in March/April. So, one never knows.... :)

Quick post

2008-04-06T20:46:00.001-06:00

I don't have a whole lot to report tonight... the weekend has been pretty good. I didn't get in a workout due to sick kids but I've been good with the food. I can't wait to see my scale in the morning!!

Anyways, I saw this cool link on Erin's page... it calculated that my life expectency was 87. Not too shabby! Try it and let me know what it says!

Bad about checking in..

2008-04-04T20:39:00.000-06:00

Finally I have a few minutes to sit here and write! I appologize that I havent't been commenting as much as I would like on your blogs this week... This week has flew by and I can't honestly believe that it's already Friday. I had a had a work project that I had slacked off on a bit and I have been paying for it the last couple of days. The whole excitement of my little love interest (LOL) has had me rather distracted. So yah.. ummm, that's going well ;) It's been so long since I've been in this situation and I've pretty much had butterflies all week. However, that has been extremely helpful with the whole weight loss situation! I have barely had an appetite and I find myself feeling full about halfway through my meals. An early peek at the scales this week show that I am on my way to a very good loss this week.. I know it's not official because it's not Monday yet but we're looking at a number very close to 5 lbs already! Crazy but I'll take it.

In a way though, this leads me to another problem. Well, not really a problem but an issue nonetheless. The clothes that I bought just a few weeks ago are already getting baggy! I'm always glad to have this problem or issue or whatever but it could get rather pricey. I'm not all that concerned about my jeans yet, I just wash them after each wear to shrink them back but I don't know what to do about a spring coat. I have a nice sweater (zips up so like a coat) that was too snug to wear in the fall and it hangs off me now and looks awful. All my sweatshirts do that same thing. So, I need a spring coat. But really, it will likely only fit this spring so I don't want to spend a lot on it. I guess I'll go check out some consignment shops this weekend... any other suggestions? What do you do for your interim wardrobe?

Healthy You Check In

2008-04-01T10:59:00.000-06:00

I've been waiting a few weeks now to finally be able to wear this badge! And I wear it very proudly!

Well, a new month is always a great time to review what worked and what didn't work from the last month and make new goals for the coming 4 weeks sooooo...

These were my goals for March:

Hit my 10% goal by March 15 (4 lbs to go!!)
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week
Do 1000 minutes of cardio in the month of March

Unfortunately, I still haven't hit my 10% but I am only 0.8 away from it now. I'm bound and determined that it shall occur by next Monday!! I did well with the C25K workouts (I sometimes got in 4) and did my first workout of week 5 today. I also didn't quite hit my cardio target... I ended up at at 910/1000 however I won't beat myself up too badly because I really didn't get started on it (because I was still working FT) until almost midway through the month.

New Goals :

Hit 10% goal by April 7
Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11)
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week
Do 1100 minutes of cardio

I also need to continue to fight the battle of staying OP on weekends. I always find this tough but in order to meet my big goal of losing 50 lbs by my birthday (July 15), I can't afford to have many weeks with loses of less than a pound. Thank goodness there are no big eating holidays until Thanksgiving!!! LOL

I also have another little thing that's motivating me right now... on a whim, I decided to sign up for one of those online matchmaking sites a few weeks ago... keep in mind that even though I'm only 28, I haven't dated in about 8.5 years!! Anyways, there's really only been one match that has stood out to me and well, I think I have a little bit of a crush going on. So if I'm sickeningly happy and cheerful, blame it on that LOL. That's all I'm ready to say here in blogland so far, but I'll keep you all updated if anything comes of it :)

Weigh In #12

2008-03-31T10:45:00.000-06:00

Well, it's slightly smaller than I would have liked but can I really complain with a loss of 2.4 lbs? I'm finally over the 25lb mark and I'm so painfully close to the 10% mark. I've been trying to lose these last few pounds for 3 weeks now! But I feel like I'm over the hump and will blow by that 10% mark next week very easily. Quite honestly it's a little depressing to think that I only lost 3.2 lbs in the last 4 weeks but my measurements have changed quite a bit.

Difference since March 3
Bust: -2
Waist: -4
Hips: -1.5
Total: 7" gone!!

Difference since Oct. 07
Bust: -3.5
Waist: -7.5 (!!!)
Hips: -3.5
Total: That's 14.5 inches gone!!

Doesn't that put it all back into perspective?? And the good news is that my shape is becoming less of the awful block shape. Who knows, by the time I'm at goal, I may have a bit of an hourglass figure going on afterall! LOL

I also had my final fitness test from the Y challenge this morning. While I don't have all of my results on hand, I improved dramatically on everything and I was pleased with my results, especially of my laps around the track. They count in half laps and I had 22 last time and 29 this time and the main thing was that I ran the entire ten minutes.

Anyways, adios March... here's to a great April!

I'm going to run a 5K!

2008-03-29T20:15:00.000-06:00

My experience on Thursday made me realize that it's not just a pipedream... it is something I could actually do! With a little help from google, I found the Mother's Day Run and really, could there possibly be a better day to do this on? To celebrate being a mom and setting a good and healthy example to my girls, to celebrate being a strong woman, to inspire and be inspired... I've decided that I really want to make this an annual tradition in my family. I've even talked my parents into joining in! I'm so excited about this!!! Any other Calgarians going to enter this race???

So, I'm officially in training. I dragged myself to the Y this afternoon... I was so tired that my eyes were just burning and wanting to nap but I knew I'd feel better once I got going. I'm on the third session of week 4 and on my first two intervals, I honestly thought I wouldn't make it. I was thinking wow, this sucks... it all really was a fluke! I can't actually run! But then, I got over the hump and felt better, running a total of 20 min on the treadmill and then did 20 laps of the track without stopping. Yep, that's 2K right there (in about 15 min though.. I'm not very fast). But there was no stopping and that's the important part.

Anyways, food-wise this weekend has not been ideal. I'm so bad about not tracking on weekends! But choices have not been too bad all in all so I'm not stressing about it.

Oh and NSV!! I bought some new workout capris from Walmart.. just some cheapies to get me through for a while because my others ones are sort of falling down as I run and they were size XL from the regular section! And get this, they are kind of loose! But they'll be great for sleeping in once they get too loose for running in. Hurray!

Me? In Good Shape???

2008-03-27T10:27:00.000-06:00

I just got home from the Y and I can't quite decide if I want to have a silly grin plastered on my face or sob uncontrollably. So, I've been alternating between the two. I had the best workout that I've ever had in my life. I did week 4 session 2 of C25K and really played with the incline and the speed that I was running at. I really pushed myself and ran an extra 9 minutes (for a total of 25!), the last 3 minutes being at a speed of 6 mph instead of my normal range of 4.5-4.8.

After the treadmill, I typically go on the elliptical but today I still felt like running (something must have been in the air??). All of the treadmills were in use, so I decided to tackle the track. Let me just say that I hate the track. You run past every cardio machine in the place so everyone gets a good view of you as you go by. But, I decided I would just get over it and give it a shot because I have my final fitness test for the Y Challenge next Monday, which involves running/walking the track for 10 minutes. Let me also add that I have NEVER ran more than two and a half laps in a row. My original goal today was to run 5 laps. Well, I smashed that and kept going, 6, 7, 8, 9.... 10 laps! I slowed and walked for two and then ran five more. By the end of the 5th lap, I was already fighting back the tears, in complete disbelief at what I had accomplished. Then, as I was doing a cool down lap, a lady jogged by me and said "You are in really good shape!". HUH?!? What?!? Me? 240 pound me in good shape?? I must have had a look of disbelief on my face as I mumbled "Thanks" and she said "No, really. I've been watching you today and you've inspired me."

Wow. I'm still in awe that someone would say that to me. That someone would notice! I have spent so much of my life being the fat girl... thinking that everyone must think awful and untrue things about me and being intimidated away from the weight room... I am absolutely amazed what my body has acheived in a few short weeks of the C25K program.

So today, my 6 word sentence absolutely remains true:

I am stronger than I thought.

I hate thinking of titles!

2008-03-26T20:15:00.000-06:00

I can never think of anything witty or funny... I like the idea of using a line from a song like Krissie does but I don't want to a copy-cat. And I'm overthinking this because titles really aren't that important are they? LOL On to other things...

Several blog friends have been doing the six word thingie (a 6 word sentence that sums up your life so far is what it is supposed to be I believe).Cammy posted hers yesterday("I learned in time to live") and I just love it! So after some thought, I came up with mine:

I am stronger than I thought.

That sums me up in so many different areas of my life both now and in the past. I've done things that I never imagined possible and survived through some bad stuff... and I'm stronger for it all.

Today has been a rest day exercise-wise and overall, it's been a great day. I took the girls to Coffee and Scream this morning, where we met with my cousin and her girls. Then we came home for lunch and naps and walked to the park this afternoon to play. It was really nice to have a whole day with them to do stuff seeing as T had no school due to Spring Break.

Food-wise... well, I'm over in points today by a few. I just couldn't resist eating the rest of the yogurt covered raisins from Easter. But I tracked them all and this is the first of any flex points I've used this week so it's all good. Sooooooooo yummy!

Lastly, I wanted to post the recipe for my spinach and feta omelet. I make this a few times a week, usually after a workout and have finally gotten the points down to a very reasonable amount. And it is really really delicious!! Even if you think you don't like spinach, you'll like this omelet!

Spinach and Feta Omelet

100 grams Omega 3 Break Free Eggs (or two large eggs if you prefer)
60 grams fresh spinach (could also use the frozen stuff, thawed)
4-5 small mushrooms (depends if you like mushrooms or not)
35 grams fat free ham, cut up into small pieces
30 grams feta cheese (I really like feta.. you could half this if you want to reduce points)
pinch oregano
1 tsp. oil
couple tablespoons water

Sautee sliced mushrooms in oil over medium heat in frying pan. Once they have started to cook, add in ham, spinach and water.
Cover so the spinach can steam and reduce heat a little bit. After a couple of minutes, remove the lid so excess water can evaporate.
Mix oregano into eggs and then add mixture into the frying pan. Sprinkle feta on top.
Let cook for about two minutes, then place in preheated oven under broiler. Remove when egg is fully cooked and top is slightly browned.

Total points: 5.5 (or 7.5 if you use real eggs)

Variations: Sometimes (when I have it on hand), I throw in some shredded frozen potato a bit before the mushrooms. This is really delicious and bulks up the omelet even more. I think 2/3 cup of the potato adds 1.5-2 points.

Healthy You Check In

2008-03-25T11:49:00.000-06:00

There's nothing like a bright and sunny day to make me feel motivated and energetic! Our brief dusting of snow that we got yesterday morning is all gone and the sun is shining brightly. I'm thankful for this extra burst of energy today because it was my first day of doing C25K Week 4 (run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 3 min and repeat). There were a few moments where I didn't think I could quite do it but I managed... and then decided to run for an extra 4 minutes at the end to make my total an even 20 minutes. Then I went on to do 35 min on the elliptical..... Yes, my legs still feel like jello. But it was worth it cuz *I* actually ran for a total of 20 minutes today and I'm super proud of that. Tomorrow will be a rest day, which is good because I'm sure I'll be sore.

Well, I had a late start to my day so I'm going to cut this short so I can get some work done...

Today's menu: (I'll edit this later with any changes)
Breakfast: 1/4 grapefruit, 1 Fiber One Bar (They were on sale at Safeway yesterday and they are YUMMY!) - 3.5 points
Lunch: Spinach and Feta Omelet (I'll post the recipe for this tomorrow), 1/2 grapefruit - 5 points
Snack: Apple, crackers and cheese 5 points
Supper: Chicken quesadilla with salsa and sour cream 7 points
Snack: London Fog, 1 point popcorn, grapefruit - 4 points

Weigh in #11

2008-03-24T11:11:00.000-06:00

Blah... well, I knew it would happen but that doesn't make me any happier about it. Yep, I gained this week. I'm up 1.2lbs. I don't need to wonder why it happened (too many slices of pizza, too many chocolate easter eggs, creamy scalloped potatoes, angel food cake with whipped cream and lets not forget the chocolate covered raisins, sick kids, the cold I'm just not kicking and not drinking enough water... it's a miracle 1.2 that I'm up quite honestly). I'm owning it and moving forward. In fact, I've been feeling a little down about my weight loss for the last two weeks and just not super motivated so maybe this gain is the motivation I need to get going again?

So, maybe it's time for the No Cheat Challenge again? Anyone else in? I'm going to plan out my menus and post them in my blog and also make sure that I track every morsel that enters my mouth (that's a biggy for me). It really was amazing to feel how just a couple days off track made me feel so crappy. I felt bloated and really fat... I didn't even want to wear my new jeans that actually fit and instead wore the baggy, falling off pair that look like crap on me now.

Anyways, I'm off to a good start for the week.. I just got home from the Y and did my last day of week 3 in the C25K. I'll start week 4 tomorrow! I got in a good 70 minutes of cardio so that should help me sweat out some of that dang Easter chocolate ;).

Today's Menu: (edited)

Breakfast: Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal, 4oz strawberries, 1/3 cup skim (2.5 points)
Lunch: Smart Ones Santa Fe Rice and Beans, grapefruit (7 points)
Snack: Thinsations 100 cal pack, Fiber One Bar (5 points)
Supper: Chicken Kabob, spinach & strawberry salad, potato wedges (7.5 points)
Snacks: London Fog (2)

24/29 (Edited: It's almost 8pm now and I feel stuffed cuz my spinach salad was huge but I'll probably add a little something in there to use up a few more points)

Happy Spring!

2008-03-20T16:23:00.000-06:00

At long last, it is finally spring... and hopefully spring really will come now cuz I'm sick of snow! We are forcasted to have pleasant here this Easter weekend and I hope that is the case for you as well.

Seriously now, I feel like I'm in trouble. I cannot stop eating today... not sure why, I just want to munch! And with a big family Easter dinner coming up, I cannot afford to use all my flex points just yet. I was going to have salmon (with yummy feta and oregano) for dinner but there is no way I can spare 9 points for a 7oz piece! But maybe if I cut it in half....

Anyways, exercise-wise I'm doing good. I earned another 8 APs today - session 2 of Week 3 C25K + a some extra jogging, followed by 35 min on the elliptical. Maybe that's why I'm so freaking hungry today?? It could also be the week before TOM so that could also be a contributing factor. Regardless, it sucks and I just wish it would stop. Any tips on how to get rid of the munchies????

Healthy You Check In

2008-03-18T10:35:00.000-06:00

So what do you think? Can YOU see a difference?

For some reason this morning, I am very excited about spring. It's not even that it was so warm outside this morning, but the sun was shining and it just made me happy. The only thing is I have the nagging reminder that March 20 - the first day of spring - would also be my 8th anniversary. I guess technically it still is because we aren't divorced yet? But the upside to that is that I am probably the healthiest I've been since I got married both physically and emotionally. I feel like I'm climbing out of the dark hole I fell into on March 20, 2000 and I'm peeking out into the bright sunlight and it feels great!

Anyways, even though I didn't lose anything this week, I'm okay with that. My physical endurance has improved in leaps and bounds and that is just as important.

These are the goals I set out to achieve at the beginning of this month:

Hit my 10% goal by March 15 (4 lbs to go!!) Didn't happen but I'm sure it will this week
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Didn't quite happen last week.. I tried! K wouldn't have nothing to do with babysitting at the Y and they came and got me = end of workout
Do 1000 minutes of cardio in the month of March Well, I'm halfway as of today!

Weigh In #10 & need some running advice

2008-03-17T15:35:00.000-06:00

Well, on a week when I was nearly positive I would gain, I'm happy to report that I maintained. Of course I would have preferred to have a loss and reach my goals, but I'm proud of the NSVs that I've had in the last week.

Remember how I wrote last week that running for 10 min must have been a fluke? Well, it wasn't cuz I did it again today and honestly felt like I could have kept going but someone was waiting for the machine. Today really was a great workout.. I did C25K week 2 day 3, ran ten more minutes, then did the ellipitcal for 30. I have plans to start week 3 of C25K tomorrow (I know, no rest day but I'm trying to get back on schedule). But now I'm thinking that since I'm already getting comfortable running 10 min, should I:

1- skip ahead in C25K a few weeks
2- forget C25K and just do my own running thing
3- continue where I am but add some extra running in at the end

Any advice?

Weekend Schmeekend

2008-03-16T20:07:00.000-06:00

Well, I've pretty much sucked this weekend. Didn't count pounts, didn't get to work out (I tried yesterday but baby K wouldn't stop crying in babysitting at the Y so they came and got me after 10 min.), ate a few too many easter cookies and a bunch of pasta tonight. Oh, and a slice of Grandma's famous lemon merigue pie this afternoon. Ugh. So now tonight I feel gross. My stomach actually hurts. I wonder if it's truly from the bad food though or if it is more of a mental thing? It doesn't really matter... all I know is that I'm thrilled that tomorrow is Monday and first thing in the morning I'll be sweating it out at the Y and back on track with eating.

The unfortunate thing is that weigh in is also tomorrow... and it's also the day I had as my goal to reach my 10%. Since I'm 99.9% sure that isn't going to happen and I'm mentally preparing myself for a gain, my thoughts have turned to WHY I chose to go off program and to eat like this this weekend. Because yes, it was a choice. Sometime Friday afternoon my thoughts sort of went like this: "I'm so close to losing 25 pounds... hmmm that's pretty good. I've done so well, and I'm sick of Subway, I deserve to have Greek tonight." And then on Saturday it was more like "I ate a decent breakfast and lunch... Dad's making bbq'd hamburgers... it would be so much easier just to eat that than make something else...". Today was more like "I've been screwing up all weekend, I might as well enjoy... Yes, pass me some of that lemon meringue pie!" Blah, well, you get the picture.

I'm also wondering if even just a tiny part of me is battling the ol' self saboutaging attitude. After all, 24 lbs is good, right? I might as well slow down and take my time with this weight loss, right?

NONONONONO! 24 pounds is good, but it's not GOOD ENOUGH. I'm not settling. I'm going all the way baby!

Major NSV!!!

2008-03-13T10:46:00.000-06:00

I don't know if you all had to do this, but I remember back in grade 10 phys ed class, we had to run for ten minutes. I could NEVER do it and always ended up walking. This was even when I was super into martial arts and should have been fit. Well, today I did my Couch to 5K session. I'm in week two, day two so that means that I alternated running for 90 seconds and walking for two minutes six times. After I did my final run and five minute cool down walk, a strange feeling came over me. I wanted to run. More. I entered 5 more minutes into the timer on the treadmill thinking that I would just see how long I could actually run and then walk the rest. The C25K podcast had ended and the good music on my mp3 player had started up. The next thing I knew, the five minutes had ended.... and I, Ms. I DON'T run, was STILL running. I frantically pushed at the buttons on the treadmill to increase my time by a few more minutes so that my groove didn't get interupted. A few minutes later, I'm STILL good and STILL running! So again, I increase the minutes. Well, when it was all said and done, I ran for TEN freaking minutes!!!!!! And this was after my C25K session. Seriously now, I have no idea what came over me and I'm already doubting that I'll ever be able to do it again (now really, how silly is it of me to even think that??) but man, it felt good. I. Ran. I'm going to be a runner. One of those people that I've always looked at in awe as they run the entire 30 minutes on the treadmill. That will be me.

Reasons to Lose Weight

2008-03-12T20:50:00.000-06:00

I don't have much to say tonight so I thought I'd try and come up with my list.

1- My kids. I'm the only parent they have so I NEED to be around for them.
2- To get my confidence back
3- To not turn 30 and still be fat
4- To be a yummy mummy LOL
5- So at some point I'll feel like I'm hot enough to date
6- To shop wherever I want instead of being limited to about 2 stores in the mall
7- To have more energy
8- To not be the fat one in the family
9- So I can set a healthy example for my kids
10- So I can fit comfortably in airplane seats
11- So I can take my kids swimming (they love it) without feeling so embarassed
12- So I can fit into the sexy black dress hanging in my closet from when I was 19 and felt like I was all that LOL
13- To be skinnier than my mom (haha)
14- So that if I ever see my ex again, he'll be kicking himself for what he lost
15- So I can be more agile and flexible like I was when I was younger

Hmmm that's all I can think of for now. If you haven't made your list yet, do it!!

Weight In #9 - Early Healthy You Check In

2008-03-10T20:21:00.000-06:00

Better early then late, right?

First things first, I'm a happy girl today!! I weighed in -2.0 lbs today, which takes me officially out of the 240s!!!!!!! The only time I remember being in the 230s in the last 8 or so years was a very brief visit in Fall of 2006 at my 6 weeks post partum check up after baby K was born. I'm one of the weird people who tend to gain weight when breastfeeding, not lose so it was a very brief visit indeed. I'm also so close to the -25lbs mark that I can taste it... and for me, that's another milestone in itself. Whenever I've tried to lose weight before, I've never lost 25 lbs. I got to about 23-24 lbs once, but never 25. And I will do it this time, probably within the next few days. I'm also SOCLOSE to my 10% goal (2 lbs to go!). My original plan was to hit it by the 15th, but seeing as that's not my official WI day, it can wait until next Monday. I plan to take some progress pics to celebrate the occasion.

As you can all read, the title of my blog is "This is my Year". I know for a fact that it is. The most amazing thing has happened within me this time around - I don't feel like quitting or giving up. When I screw up (and trust me, I do often), I'm never ready to throw in the towel. I'm just not quitting. I don't feel like quitting. I don't even think about quitting. It's just not an option. Even though I wasn't able to work out much in February (or yet this month really), I'm not giving up. And maybe this doesn't seem like much to some of you but this is ME - Holly - the ultimate quitter. In the past, any minor thing would be an excuse not to eat right or not to exercise. Not anymore. I cannot even begin to explain how good it feels to be successful. To stick to my goals. To believe in myself. To finally know and accept that yes, I can do it. And if I can do it, anyone can.

Well, the other reason I'm a happy girl is because finally my election job has come to an end! We finished packing up the office today. Life can get back to normal now. Although, I think in a sense, I will miss the job. I feel slightly lost in regards to my employment because I've got to figure out what I want to do next. Do I look for a job? Do I continue with my work at home stuff? And it's also a little bit of wait and see because I sent in my application last week for nursing at MRC and I could potentially end up going to school full time in the fall. But first things first, I've got to catch up with some things that I've let slide for the last month or so and get re-organized. And maybe squeeze in a pedicure somewhere too :)

As far as my March goals go...

Hit my 10% goal by March 15 (4 lbs to go!!) I'm on my way! 2 lbs left
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Even though I've got a bad cold, I put baby K in the stroller and squeezed in two sessions this weekend. I start week 2 tomorrow morning.
Do 1000 minutes of cardio in the month of March Well, I'm at 215 minutes. But work is done now so I'll have more time for the Y.

Today's menu:
Breakfast: 3.5 points
WC Oatmeal, 1/3 cup skim, 1/2 banana, 2.5 oz strawberries 0 points for all those strawberries too!

Lunch: 7 points
Mr. Sub small ham sub w/lots of veggies, small bag Baked Lays

Dinner: 10 points
4oz steak, 40z baby potatoes and 5 spears asparagus roasted in 2tsp olive oil
2 tbsp light sour cream

Dessert: 3.5 points
grapefruit, fat free vanilla pudding w/2tsp slivered almonds

Snacks: 4.5 points
London Fog (1 cup skim)
Annie's hunny bunnies

28.5/29

Happy Friday Everyone!

2008-03-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

I'm doing my best to feel happy tonight... not being completely successful because on my desk sits a pile of work that I brought home with me. Oh well, trying not to let it get me down... it was a beautiful day today! I picked the girls up from the dayhome a few minutes early and we went for a walk before dinner. They were tired and I ended up carrying little K most of the way but it was still nice to get our for a bit.

We have a busy weekend planned, as usual. I'd really love to squeeze in at least one trip to the Y but not sure if it will happen or not.

Here's today's menu:

Breakfast: 3.5 points
The usual: oatmeal, 1/3 cup skim milk, 1/2 banana

Lunch: 6 points
Eating Right Potato Leek soup (from Safeway - really yummy!)
3 slices Wasa Fiber Rye crackers (3=1 point!!)
2 wedges Laughing Cow light
6 mini dill pickles
1 turkey pepperoni stick

Stupid snack at work: 4 points
Stupid stupid cookies that were just sitting there while I was bored

Snack while cooking dinner: 2 points
2 tbsp red pepper hummus w/2 oz carrots and 2oz cucumber and 1 orange

Dinner: 8 points
PC Blue Menu cheese cannelloni
1 whole wheat pita brushed with 1 tsp olive oil, sprinkled w/ 8 grams parmesan

Dessert: 2.5 points
The usual fat free vanilla pudding w/tsp slivered almonds

Snack: 4.5 points
London Fog (sipping it right now actually)
Annnie's Organic Hunny bunnies yum yum ;) these were supposed to be for the kids but I don't want to share!

30.5/30 (but I had 2 activity points so it's all good)

So, I really made an effort to at least get one oil serving in. But when I ate my pita, I realized that I really do not like the taste of olive oil. I would have much preferred a tiny bit of butter on it instead of the oil!!

Overall though, not too bad... again a little low on dairy and high in sodium (especially my lunch) but I did drink a ton of water this afternoon. I'm also a little proud of myself how I've curbed that crazy hungry feeling I usually have when I first get home and I'm making the girl's food first (I usually don't get to eat my dinner until K is in bed so around 7!). I get the veggies and the hummus ready first and just munch on it while I'm feeding them. That way I'm not tempted to snitch bites of their stuff.

Anyhow... till next time!

Blaaaaah

2008-03-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's how I feel tonight. I've got a bit of a cold so my throat hurts and I've got some of that yummy phlegm action going on (sorry, TMI) and work was extremely monotonous today so that is probably the source of my blah-ness tonight. Oh, and I have this bad (?) habit of weighing myself every morning before my shower and I was up about a pound over what I weighed in at on Monday. I don't understand why either because I've been within my points each day. I've been trying to blame it on water retention and not think about it anymore but it's been knawing at me all day. I really want to meet my 10% goal by the 15th and gaining anything this week, or actually not having a semi-decent loss would probably prevent me from doing that. But I am extremely on track today... no extra bites anywhere in between and I will try my hardest to stay that way.

Here's today's menu... I haven't posted my menus in about a week and need to get back into doing it.

Breakfast: 3.5 points
Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal w/1/3 cup skim and 1/2 banana

Lunch: 7 points
Mr. Sub small ham sub w/lots of veggies
small bag baked lays

Snack while cooking girls dinner: 1 point
2 oz baby carrots and 2 oz cucumber with 2tbsp hummus

Supper: 8 points
1/2 serving Eating Right (from Safeway) Black Bean Soup (kinda yucky hence I only ate half of it)
Chicken Quesadilla (1 multigrain flatout wrap, 2 oz chicken breast with taco seasoning, 30g 2% shredded cheese, sprinkle of green onions) - sooooo good!!
2 tbsp salsa and 2 tbsp light sour cream

Dessert: 2.5 points
fat free chocolate pudding w/tbsp slivered almonds

Snacks: 4.5
London Fog (1 cup skim, 2 tbsp sugar free Starbucks vanilla syrup, Tazo earl grey tea)
1 pouch Annie's Organic Hunny Bunnies

Not sure what else... that's only 23/30

I'm so not good about my oils! Lacking a little on dairy too. But as Carolyn would say ... Meh. ;)

Healthy You Check In - I Lost my Daughter!!!!!

2008-03-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the weight equivalent to her anyways. She weighs 22 lbs and I have lost a hair over that now. Wow. As I packed her out to the car this morning, I couldn't help but feel amazed that I used to pack that much more weight all over my body. No wonder I feel lighter now when I run. I can't imagine how it will feel at my goal weight without this big stomach of mine in the way. Very free, I would imagine.

With the Alberta election done and over with (BOOOOO PCs!!!), I can finally relax just a bit. I was at work until 11 last night so we aren't starting until noon today. This means that for the first time in 3.5 weeks, I was able to get to the Y this morning. It felt so good! I have decided to restart Couch to 5K from week one again as I was only just beginning week 2 when I stopped. But doing it this morning was not nearly as hard as it was last time around so that was good. However, even though it FELT easier and I was not as tired, I did notice that my heart rate was up higher than before. Maybe having the beginnings of a cold coming on had something to do with that though? Not sure. The other thing I noticed was that my boobs were bouncing WAY too much. It actually hurt and I resorted to running with my hands clasped under my chest. I wore the same bra as last month so what gives?? Maybe it's too big and doesn't provide the same amount of support? So that leads me to ask: What's your favourite sports bra? I'm about a 40(?) or 42 D so not something I can just find at any old store.

Anyhow, here's some new goals for a new month:

Hit my 10% goal by March 15 (4 lbs to go!!)
Get in 3 C25K workouts each week
Do 1000 minutes of cardio in the month of March

WI #8

2008-03-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe I've been at this 8 weeks. It's actually gone really fast. Anyhow, just a super quick post to say that I lost 3.8lbs this week!!!!!!!! To reach my 10% goal by March 15, I need to lose 4lbs in a little under two weeks. Totally doable!

Shopping still sucks

2008-03-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

My body shape is a block. Do clothing designers really think that all women have that oh-so-desired hourglass shape? Well, I don't. I have no waist. I have no hips. I'm just straight from the bust down. This makes finding pants that don't bag out in my hips really tough. Jeans either fit me in the waist but look all baggy around my thighs/hips or fit in the thighs and are tight on the waist. I know, I know, every woman has a complaint about how their body fits into clothing but I went shopping this afternoon to try and find some pants to wear to work that I wouldn't have to worry about falling off of me and couldn't find anything. I did end up buying a pair of jeans (which I can't wear to work) but I'm still not completely thrilled with them. The good news is however that they are size 18, not 20!! (Non Scale victory, right???) And honestly, they are a touch big but I couldn't do up the 16s. So, I guess I should just focus on that instead of my shopping frustrations. Maybe once I get skinny I'll be confident enough to wear dresses all the time and won't need to worry about stupid pants.

I did some unofficial measurements today as well... I've been tracking them in sparkpeople because I can't find a spot on WW online to do it. Is there one there? Anyways, I'm down 0.5" around my neck (never would have thought of measuring my neck but what the hey..), 1" around my bust, 1" at my waist and 0.5" at my hips for a total of -3" since 4 weeks ago. I'm only down 8lbs since then but hey, it's progress. I don't have my official starting measurements (didn't take any) but back in October, I weighed 262 (I was 263.6 when I started Jan. 7) and I am down 4" on my waist, 2" on my hips, 1.5" on my neck and 1.5" on my bust for a total of 9" since then. Ok, now I feel better.
I also just did volume one from the new pilates dvd box set that I bought the other day. It started off with a 20 min walking pilates session and then 20 minutes of pilates exercises on the floor. Since it was my first time doing pilates, I really didn't know what to expect. I will say that I much preferred the walking pilates to the Walk Away the Pounds dvds that I have. I definetly felt the burn in my thighs and I think it's because she instructs you to keep your knees bent a little in certain movements to simulate walking uphill. The pilates part of the dvd was good too. They move quite quickly so I think it will take a few more times of doing the exercises for me to totally keep up. Lots of good ab stuff and I have a feeling I'll be sore tomorrow.

On the food front this weekend, I think I've done OK. I haven't tracked because quite honestly, I haven't had the chance. I worked a really long day yesterday, at the office until 7:30 pm and then at home getting some church stuff ready. Today, I've been trying to catch up on some errands but we did take the kids out for a walk this afternoon. It was so fun to be able to run and chase T and then run ahead and have her chase me. I felt so light and free and just wanted to run more! If it weren't for my too-big jeans that kept practically falling off, I would have. It got me thinking that once work slows down in the next week or so, I'll throw K in the jogging stroller and after we drop off T at preschool, I'll re-start me Couch to 5k sessions outside. Our neighbourhood is very hilly so that should add some extra challenge. I can't wait to get working out again... plus that should jump up my weight loss again. Not that 8lbs in a month is all that bad. I just really want to get out of the 240s and reach my 10%. Speaking of that, weigh in is tomorrow. My main goal is to hit the 20 lbs loss mark. I'm pretty sure I have (I cheated and weighed myself Friday and I was there) but one never knows for sure.

Anyhow, tomorrow will be a super long day for me seeing it is election day! If you are in Alberta, make sure you get out and vote!!! I have to be in the office all day and then pick up the kids from the babysitters, feed them, put K to bed and then head back to work so I can be there to enter in the results when the counts from the polls start coming in. We'll have media representation in our office and everything so it should really be quite exciting.

Man I've babbled alot tonight! Take care everyone!

Quick check in

2008-02-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ugh... so busy this week. I'm sorry I'm not keeping up with everyone's blogs lately and that I haven't posted much. Life should slow down by next week!

As far as eating goes, I'm doing pretty good and staying on track but haven't counted points completely. I took the kids to Swiss Chalet last night and made a healthy choice (grilled chicken breast with veggies and a little rice) but today for lunch I grabbed Quiznos, thinking they would have low fat options and trust me, after looking up the points for what I had, I won't be going back there anytime soon. I had a sandwich with ham and turkey, swiss and some sauce (thought it sounded light) and I think it was about 15 points!!! AHHHHH! I don't know for sure though because I requested it without the bacon and can't find the NI for that on their website. In any case, umm yah, I'll stick with Subway and Mr. Sub.

Oh - I also bought some pilates dvd's today when I was on a quick birthday present run for a party T got invited to tomorrow. It is a box set of 2 Stott's Pilates dvds plus a waterbottle and I got it for $5 so I figured why not! I've never done pilates before but have heard many good things... anyone done these dvds before? Will I be sore? LOL I bet I will... hoping to try them out tomorrow so I'll let ya know.

Anyways, I'm off to bed... another busy day tomorrow and yes, I work again too. Fun times!

Healthy You Check In - No Cheat Challenge Week 2!

2008-02-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I'm a little late checking in tonight, it's just that kind of a day. Working day and night is starting to really suck. I haven't even had time to deposit some checks and just realized tonight that I'd better pay some bills before they are overdue. I'm normally so good with that stuff! Ah well... "two more weeks, two more weeks" has become my mantra.

Other than overall business, it's been a good day today and a good week. A little incident at work today really reminded me about how much I really like to be in control (not controlling, just on top of things). If I have some uncertainties, I feel scattered, stressed and sometimes even a little panicky but the last few months, I've been able to recognize this and have been able to do what I need to do to feel back on top of things before it gets out of hand. I think this is related to my weight loss journey. I don't like the feeling that I get when I'm out of control with food. I have a feeling that this is why I've been able to get right back on track instead of remaining in the depths of an endless binge session, upset, depressed and unhappy. Hurray! My mom also commented to me tonight that this time around on my weight loss journey, I seem different. She was wondering what had finally "clicked" with me and what has made me so persistent and focused on my goals. It was neat to me that she noticed this and actually felt like a huge compliment so that made me feel good.

Anyhow, today's menu:

Breakfast: 4 points
Quaker reduced sugar oatmeal w/1/3 cup skim, 1/2 banana
1/4 whole wheat english muffin, 1/4 tsp butter (kids leftovers)

Lunch: 8.5 points
Ham and Cheese "quesadilla" w/1 multigrain flatout wrap, 2 slices ham, 1/3 cup 2% cheese
Eating Right potato leek soup (new cup of soups thingies from Safeway - really yummy!)
Maxwell House French Vanilla Capp w/2tsp nonfat creamer

Snack: 2.5 points
1 orange
Maxwell House French Vanilla Capp w/nonfat creamer

Dinner: 6 points
Smart Ones Santa Fe Rice and Beans

Dessert: 2.5 points
fat free vanilla pudding w/2 tsp toasted slivered almonds

Snack: 2 points
London Fog (1 cup skim)

25.5 / 30 but I'll have another little snack while I'm watching Biggest Loser... not sure what yet.

Hope you are all doing well... join me in another week of the No-Cheat Challenge!!

No Cheat Challenge Day 7 and Weigh in!

2008-02-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so much for the great comments that I receive! Ok, I just really needed to say that.

You all have convinced me not to change my WI day. Having my WI Monday morning was something that I chose to do, just to keep me more accountable on the weekends. And changing it would not really be helping myself but rather enabling myself.

So, today has been better... much better. I weighed in at exactly 245, which was down 1.6 lbs. Not bad considering my cookie disaster yesterday. I'm totally back in control with the eating stuff today and I feel much better about myself. I really can't wait to crack my 20 lbs mark! Hopefully next week for sure.

Today's Menu (so far)

Breakfast: 4 points
Reduced sugar oatmeal, 1/3 cup skim, half banana, half grapefruit

Lunch: 6 points
Smart Ones Florentine Lasagna

Dinner: 9 points
3 flatbread crackers w/1 tsp hummus (while I was making dinner)
M&M's bbq chicken kabob, 4 spears asparagus, 1/2 tsp oil, 4 oz baby potatoes, 2 tbsp light sour cream
1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Dessert: 2.5 points
fat free vanilla pudding cup w/2 tsp slivered almonds

Snack: 2 points
London Fog (one cup skim)

That's only 23.5/30 but I'm sure I'll have a little something else too.

Anyone else care to join in for another round of the No Cheat Challenge starting tomorrow? Though I did slip up yesterday, it's an improvement! In the past I've stopped tracking most Friday nights and haven't started again until Monday. This weekend I only stopped tracking Sunday afternoon/evening. I can do it!!

No Cheat Challenge Day 6

2008-02-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

Not good. I counted up until this afternoon.. we even went to Wendy's for lunch and I did OK (taco salad without the dressing and chips so it was 8 points)... then stuff happened and the points when down the drain. Not sure exactly why I binged... I need to think about this some more. I do fine when I'm out of the house but if I am home, I'm finding it really hard. I think I was partially feeling a little frustrated... kid's are a little under the weather and were really whiny this afternoon so I couldn't really get anything done and I couldn't really have a rest (what I really wanted) because baby K kept getting into stuff (when will this phase end?!?!). So I ate. Reaalllly realllly yummy gourmet cookies left over from Christmas. But oh so bad and laden with buttery goodness. Yah. Um I ate the whole box. Which was relatively small but still approximately 20ish points. Then a piece of pizza (which wasn't even good).

I weigh in tomorrow morning so I am really keeping my fingers crossed that this won't totally cancel out what I may have lost this week.

I'm also thinking that maybe I should change my WI day to Friday instead of Monday so that I have the whole week to make up for any crap I may eat on weekends. Any thoughts?

No Cheat Challenge Day 5

2008-02-23T20:54:00.001-07:00

Okay... I have a confession. Last night, just before bed, I scarfed down the last three one-bite brownies that were sitting in the kitchen. Not sure why I did it.. I wasn't hungry and I was on my way to bed for pete's sake! I was too scared to check out the nutritional info on those and quickly threw the empty bag into the garbage. When I woke up this morning and decided that I should actually enter my sins into my points tracker, the trash had already been emptied. Rather convenient! But stilll, it's technically not a cheat because I have 31 flex points left still but I still felt bad about it. For a little while anyways.

Anyways, today has been good. I've tracked all day and that in itself is a record for a Saturday.

Here's today's menu:

Breakfast: 3.5 points
Reduced sugar oatmeal with 1/3 cup skim
3 oz grapes

Snack: 4 points
2 flatbread crackers with 1 wedge light laughing cow
1/2 grapefruit
Calorie wise Maxwell House french vanilla capp

Lunch: 7 points
Mr. Sub small ham sub with lots of veggies
sm. bag baked lays

Dinner: 7 points
Yummy omelette with shredded potato, tomato, ham, mushrooms (I'm getting this recipe perfected!)

Dessert: 3.5 points
1/2 banana
fat free chocolate pudding cup w/ 2 tsp slivered almonds

Snack: 3 points
London Fog (1 cup skim)
1 point popcorn
apple

29/30

No Cheat Challenge Day 4

2008-02-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today was OK. I was home this afternoon and found myself feeling more snacky than I have been... but probably because I was a little bored. I also retook the points quiz and now I get 30 points per day instead of 31. I'm over that by a few today but this is the first of any of my flex points I've used this week so it's fine. The good thing is that typically weekends (starting Friday nights) have been when I've slipped up and stopped counting points. That will not happen this week!!

Breakfast: 3.5 points
Quaker reduced sugar oatmeal w/ 1/3 cup skim and half a banana

Lunch: 7 points
Smart Ones Santa Fe Rice and Beans (one of my faves)
half of a whole wheat pita

Snack: 3.5 points
Grimm's Turkey pepperoni stick
1 package of Annie's organic Hunny Bunnies

Dinner: 10 points (and the worst part is that I really didn't enjoy any of it! But my dad cooked and was trying to be "health conscious" and make something I could eat)
3.5 oz bbq'd steak
4 1/4 baby potatoes
2 oz green beans
1 tsp butter (split between my gr. beans and potatoes)
8 baby dill pickles
1/2 slice garlic bread (shouldn't have had this but it looked so good!)
1/2 grapefruit

Dessert: 3 points
fat free chocolate pudding cup w/1 tbsp toasted slivered almonds (my new favourite!)

Snack: 6 points
whole wheat english muffin with 2 tbsp jam
London Fog (1 cup skim)
1 tbsp slivered almonds

33/30

No oils today and I'm a little short on dairy but overall, far better than the last many Fridays! I hope you all are doing well. Weekends are always the hardest times for staying OP, aren't they? The only thing that may make it easier for me this weekend is that I have to work tomorrow so I'm not home to snack. Stay strong!!

Work and kids and ARG

2008-02-22T13:29:00.001-07:00

So, I've been working full time for the past 2 weeks and am scheduled to do so for another two weeks. And to be honest, I've really enjoyed it. Even though work has been crazy busy and comes with it's own issues, it's still quieter and easier than trying to work at home around two screaming kids, always trying to find a spare second to get to the computer to just "finish something up". So I've been tossing around the idea of looking for a more permanent full time position and quitting the contract work that I've been doing at home for the last year and a half. But today, I am reminded WHY I had chosen to work from home in the first place.

FINDING RELIABLE, CONSISTENT CHILDCARE IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!

Sorry for "shouting", I just feel incredibly frustrated right now. For the second time in less than a week, my babysitter has called me at work asking me to pick up the kids at lunch time because something has come up. Then yesterday, she sprung it on me that she will be away March 4-8 and how I should call the day home agency to find a back up sitter. The problem is, there is only one other lady from the agency that can take them and going to her means an extra 30 minutes of driving in the morning. And this is not a problem with only my agency - this is a problem with all childcare in my area. There just isn't enough! So, instead of selecting a caregiver who is the most loving, caring and best suited for our needs, I essentially get no choice and am just stuck with whatever is available, whether I like the person or not.

Ok, sorry, rant over ;)

No Cheat Challenge Day 3

2008-02-21T22:26:00.001-07:00

Another good day here! I'm finding it a little tough to eat all my points the last few days but it's probably because I haven't been exercising but rather sitting on my butt working at my desk all day. Work has been so busy that the time just flies by and I hardly remember to eat lunch. Oh well, easy not to snack that way I guess. Anyhow, here's today's menu:

Breakfast: 3 points
Quaker High Fibre Berry Medley Oatmeal
1/3 cup skim milk
1/2 grapefruit

Mid-morning snack: 2 points
1 sm bag baked Lays (yesterdays lunch leftovers)

Lunch: 6 points
Smart Ones Veggie Lasagna

Supper: 7 points
M&M's BBQ chicken kabob
2 oz cooked baby carrots and 4 oz baby potatoes roasted in 1 tsp canola and greek seasoning
4 Grissol Garden Herb Baguettes
1/2 grapefruit

Snack (trying to use up points): 9 points
yogurt cup with 1 tsp wheat germ
London Fog (1 cup skim)
1 whole wheat english muffin w/ 1 tbsp light cream cheese and 1tbsp jam
1 apple

27/31 and I'm headed to bed now so that's it for the day.

It's bad not to eat all of my points, isn't it? But I just can't right now!

Hope you all had another good non-cheating day!!

No Cheat Challenge Day 2

2008-02-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

Another day OP is nearly over. Carolyn's omelette yesterday made me want one so that's what I had for dinner... a little high in points but oh so yummy! Also, I hadn't eaten much all day so I had points to spare. I used real eggs instead of any of those substitutions and there really is no comparison with the taste. I'd rather have eggs less frequently and actually enjoy the taste than eat those "fake" ones.

Here is today's menu:

Breakfast: 5.5 points
Quaker reduced sugar oatmeal
1 banana
1/3 cup skim milk
3/4 of a little cup thingy of yogurt (baby K wouldn't finish)

Lunch: 5 points
Subway 6" ham sub w/lots of veggies

Afternoon snack: 1.5 points
Maxwell House French Vanilla Capp w/2 tsp fat free creamer

Dinner: 10.5 points
Yummy omelette with shredded potato, ham, cheese, mushrooms and tomato
large grapefruit

Snack: 6 points
10 Grissol Garden Herb Crispy Bagettes
2 wedges Laughing Cow Light
London Fog (oh so yummy 1 cup skim, 2 tbsp Starbucks sugar free vanilla syrup, earl grey tea)

This takes me to 28.5/31 points so maybe some carrots and hummus are in my future.

I hope you are all on program with me today and are feeling good!

No Cheat Challenge Day One!

2008-02-19T21:24:00.001-07:00

I'm proud to say that there was no cheating around here today. Even though it was my brother's birthday and there was pizza, cake, brownies and cookies all around, I did not succumb! I was really not even tempted partially because of this challenge, and partially because I know I did badly on the weekend and need to work hard to see a loss this week.

Here's today's menu:

Breakfast: 2.5 points
2oz frozen mixed berries
1/3 cup skim milk
1 package Quaker Oats high fibre berry medley

Morning snack: 1.5 points
Starbucks Skinny vanilla latte (only drank half)

Lunch: 7 points
Mr. Sub 6" Ham sub w/cheese, honey mustard, pickles, cucumber and lettuce
1 sm. bag Baked Lays
diet coke

Supper: 9.5 points
1/2 serving chicken stew (baby's leftovers)
Smart Ones Santa Fe Rice and Beans
1 whole wheat pita

Dessert: 3.5 points
fat free chocolate pudding cup
3/4 tsp toasted slivered almonds
1 grapefruit

Snack: 3 points
London Fog (1 cup skim milk, earl grey tea, 2 tbsp sugar free Starbucks vanilla syrup)
2 oz baby carrots
1.5 tbsp hummus

27/31 points

It's almost 10 pm and I think I'm done for the night. I might add a yogurt cup in though because I'm short on dairy today. All in all a good day!

Healthy You Challenge Update and NO CHEATING!

2008-02-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

My schedule is a little bit wacky right now so I figured I'd do the update a little early. I also did my weigh in yesterday morning, instead of my usual Monday morning because I was away overnight and didn't get back until late this afternoon. Sooooo....

The Good News: I'm down 2.2 lbs! Honestly, I have no idea how I pulled that off but I'm thrilled none the less. That puts me down 17 lbs total and that makes me feel really good. I haven't been at the weight that I'm currently in well over a year. That means that the weight I put on in 2007 is gone!!

The Bad News: I've eaten like crap for the last two days. Yesterday was a potluck for lunch and then finger foods for dinner (consisting mainly of crackers and cream cheese). This morning was a buffet (I filled my plate with fruit and then had 1.5 pieces of french toast and one small serving of hashbrowns), lunch was chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate and dinner was pizza... with a bunch of sweet snacks in between. Not good. BUT, that's what happens when you're staying away from home and come home disorganized and not feeling like cooking... then having to run out to take your kid to the walk in clinic because she's fevered and crying in pain (she has a UTI). I found myself back into that awful mindset of "oh well, today's shot anyways, I'll eat like crap and start again tomorrow". However, I WILL be back OP tomorrow, that is a promise!

Actually, I'm inspired to throw out a challenge to all of you who have been having trouble staying on program or on track, especially on the weekends (like me!!).

I challenge you all to spend the next 7 days (Tuesday the 19th through Tuesday the 26th) completely ON PROGRAM.

If you are on Weight Watchers, this means not going over your points for the week. It also means counting points every day (I've been in the habit of slacking on this, especially on weekends). If you are following some other program, this means sticking to it - NO CHEATING! I know for me, I need some extra motivation and accountability so I will post every day and let you all know my point total for the day (or my menu).

Anyone care to join me?

This is tough!

2008-02-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

I'm having such a hard time staying on track the last couple of days. But this has been my weekend habit the last several weeks - not counting points, not eating super bad but definetly not completely on program. I think the other reason that I'm having a harder time is that I haven't been able to get to the gym in a week and a half. I've worked out twice at home but it's just not the same for me. Going to the gym just sets the tone for my day (I usually go in the morning) and I eat better, feel better, etc. Looks like I will just have to try my best as my schedule will be super busy like it has been for about 2 1/2 more weeks (until the election is over!). I'm really trying to just chill out about it all though and not beat myself up too much. I was having some huge losses last month, as is more typical in the beginning stages of WW plus I was working out like crazy so it's obvious that I won't achieve the same results right now as I did then. I've resigned myself to feeling "okay" about this, just as long as I keep losing, even if it is just a tiny loss. It's not forever as as soon as my job is finished in the first week of March, I will be back at the gym and (hopefully!) getting some good numbers again.

That said, I did make some positive steps yesterday and prepared a big batch of Lynn's Chicken Stew and some vegetable barley soup and froze it all into meal sized portions. We're also heading out to Kananaskis tomorrow and I should burn some calories pulling the kids around in the sled and hiking around there. I'm also bringing my gym clothes in case I have the opportunity to hit the hotel's gym. I'm really looking forward to going out there and just relaxing a bit and enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery.

I also decided that I would WI tomorrow morning before I leave seeing as I would miss my WI Monday morning. Really hoping to see a loss but I'm not all that optimistic about that happening.

Anyways, I've got a ton of packing to do tonight still. I hope all of you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

It all started with the chocolates

2008-02-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

Stupid stupid Valentines chocolates. My mom really should have known better than to give me some. She was trying to be sweet though... and it was only one of those tiny boxes of Lindt with three chocolates in it. I put them up on top of the fridge... 5 minutes passed.... I ate one.... another few minutes.... I had another.... as soon as I was done chewing, I went and had the last one. Ashamed of myself and what I'd just consumed, I chewed so quickly that I barely tasted it. Then, as I was contemplating what to make for dinner, the chocolate euphoria took over and before I knew what I had done, I'd picked up the phone and ordered from Mr. Greeks - a gyro, with fries and extra taziki sauce. I ate it all.... every last crumb. I DESERVE it, I rationalized. It will be my splurge of the week. I promise I'll stay on track for the rest of the week, I kept telling myself. And now, as I sit here feeling gross, overstuffed and completely disgusted with myself, I wonder what it is exactly that I deserved? Why have I gotten accustomed to using food as a way to reward myself? And why would I want to eat such an unhealthy meal that would saboutage the hard work that I've done? Why would I want to fill myself so full that I sit here feeling ill? And how do I manage to trick myself into believing that eating a meal like that will somehow make me feel better/happy/content?

Healthy You Check In and when should I weigh in next?

2008-02-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry - I'm a day late with this!

I sat down last night to write out my post ... I started out sort of complaining... something about not getting to work out yet again. Then I looked at the clock - 8:17 pm. I jumped up and put in my Walk Away the Pounds dvd and did a 3 mile workout. I felt so much better afterwards! No, it was not a hard workout like when I go to the gym, but I felt better and it did get my blood pumping. I think what made me feel so good was not just the exercise, but the fact that I got over myself and just pushed through the feeling tired and DID IT. I've had this thing about exercising when other people (I live with my mom, dad and two brothers + me and the girls - yep, a crowded house!) are home. For some reason I've felt ashamed of it?!? Typing that out makes me see that it makes no sense. But last night, I got over it and exercised anyway. You know, I think that is a NSV! I plan on doing it again tonight after I'm done on the computer.

Anyways, overall last week I did OK. The eating could have been better over the weekend but I'm not beating myself up over it. I still had a loss. I didn't get in as much exercise as I would have liked either with my new schedule and all, but I'm working on improving that this week.

As far as my weight loss goals go, I think I'm doing pretty well. My goal was to reach my 10% loss by March 15. I only have 12ish lbs to go so hopefully I'll make it. I also have a new birthday goal. By the time I turn 29 on July 15th, I want to weigh no more than 214 lbs. That's a total loss of 50 lbs, or about 35 lbs from now. Do-able? Only time will tell!

I'm pretty excited about this weekend because on Sunday night, we're going to stay at the Delta Kananaskis Hotel!! Our church always goes out there on the Sunday afternoon of the Family Day weekend and we've decided to make an overnight trip of it this year. I'm a little worried about the eating I'll do out there but it's only one day and there has to be some healthy choices available.

So here's my question:
My normal WI is Monday mornings. I'm leaving Sunday and won't be back until Monday evening. Should I WI Sunday morning instead? Wait until Tuesday morning? Or do it Monday afternoon?

Weigh in #5

2008-02-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Ay yi yi I've been horrible at updating lately! Today was my WI day and I was down 1.2 lbs. Not great but it put me under the 250 mark, which is what I'm the most pleased about. I've gotten into the really bad habit of not tracking over the weekend and I know that's why my loss is not as high as I would have liked. I also only managed 18 APs last week. That's disapointing to me but as I've started my new job, I'm still trying to figure out when I can get to the gym. I thought that since my office is across the street from the Y that scooting over there on my lunch break would be a cinch. But alas, we really get no lunch break. I mean, I'm sure I could run out and say I'll be back in an hour but I would feel really bad doing that as I already have to leave early every day to pick up my kids. The office hours are 9-6 but I leave every day at 4:45 in order to pick up the kids by 5. I drop them off at the babysitters at 8:45 so there's really no option of going to the gym before work either. So, there the Y sits (I can see it out my window when I sit at my desk), taunting me... making me feel guilty for not somehow getting over there.... and worse yet, today is the first official day of the fitness challenge thingy that I signed up for there and we're supposed to work out 4 days a week. UGH. Really my only option is to muster up some energy and head over there after I get the kids to bed. Quite honestly though, by 8pm tonight I was ready for bed, not ready for a workout. What to do... what to do....

A whole bunch of self-realization...

2008-02-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

The last two days have been sort of weird for me food-wise. I haven't felt hungry. I haven't felt the need to snack. I haven't felt the urge to rip apart the kitchen looking for something sweet. I've had to struggle to eat all of my points, or at least not have a huge amount leftover. This is so completely opposite to how I was feeling last week that I am wondering what the heck is wrong with me!

But it's making me think of how they say that it takes 3 weeks to make a habit... well, in more than three weeks I haven't had a chocolate bar. I Haven't had any desserts other than the weekend of my daughter's birthday last month. I haven't had anything deep fried. I haven't had any fast food (except my little Burger King slip up 2 weeks ago and all I ordered was a grilled chicken sandwich OOOOOH BAAAAD). And you know what, I don't want any of that stuff. And it makes me feel incredibly strong, powerful and determined to feel that way.

Now I'm not a complete dreamer. I realize that it's not like I'm never going to want or NEED some chocolate. But it would appear as though the bad habits that I had of eating those types of things on a regular basis seem to be broken. And yeah... well, that feels powerful. It feels like I have control over the food instead of me being controlled by the food. At some points in my life, I thought that would be impossible.

Here's another thing I've noticed. When I'm eating badly and not exercising, I feel really badly about myself. I'm embarassed of my body. I avoid mirrors. I don't even try dressing up because I feel like I'll look like crap in everything anyways. My self talk is very negative. But since I've had a little success in this journey and know that I'm making better choices and taking positive steps in my life, I feel amazing! I'm always trying to look my best, I'm making eye contact when I talk with people, I'm smiling more, I'm walking with confidence... I feel beautiful. And outwardly, I'm sure I don't look that much different because at my weight, 13ish lbs isn't really that noticeable. But that part doesn't even matter. My self esteem is getting better! And I realize now that all it took was making some good choices and feeling a sense of accomplishment, feeling proud of me! And it's been oooooh so verrrrry long since I've been able to feel proud of myself.

The last 10 or so years of my life, I've been through a lot. A lot of people would say that I had so much promise, then threw it all away for a guy. I compromised my whole self, all of my values and everything that I had held as important. Like all bad decisions, you have to deal with the consequences. Trust me, there are a lot of difficult consequences to throwing away your education to get married at the age of 20 to a much older, yet extremely immature, alcoholic, drug-addicted man who cannot hold a job. And having two of his children. Don't get me wrong - I don't regret any of it for a milisecond. My girls are my world and I've learned so much and I am blessed with a very supportive family. But what I'm trying to get at is that making bad choices and compromising yourself and living in an abusive place can leave you feeling like a pile of crap. You blame yourself for your situation but don't know what to do about it. You feel ashamed and embarassed. You feel like you have no value and everything is your fault. And my point is that I don't feel like that anymore!!!! This has not happened overnight. I have made many positive steps in the last year and half since my separation. But up until the last few weeks, I still felt embarassed about myself because of my weight. And now that's starting to go too. I just can't imagine how great I'm going to feel when (NOT if) I reach my weight goal if I feel this good already. I think I will want to shout from the roof tops! It will be such a freedom.

You now know that I can really ramble. Sorry about that. I'll get to something more food related now. One point muffins!!! I've had a container of nonfat plain yogurt in my fridge for a while now so I've been looking for a way to use it up. I came across a recipe from the Beantown Baker and adapted it a little bit to suit the ingredients that I had. Here's what I came up with:

One Point Berry Muffins

1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
3 tbsp applesauce
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup splenda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup mixed frozen berries

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls, then mix together. Add the frozen berries last and stir gently. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Makes 12 muffins.

They are really good! I was really impressed because there is basically no fat or oil of any kind in the recipe. I've never made any like this before. The dough is weird though... it's actually doughy, not kind of pourable like other recipes I've made. Don't worry - they are supposed to be like that.

Healthy You Check In

2008-02-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

I said yesterday that I'd do a catch up post so here it goes.

The last week has been extremely busy for me. The end of the month always is as this is when my deadlines for one of my jobs always comes and I seem to need that pressure to actually get to work (in other words, I'm a procrastinator perhaps?). Top that off with a weird virus that hung around for a few days that left me headachy, exhausted and my body all achy and I didn't manage to accomplish much outside of looking after the kids and finishing my work. This means that I chose to ignore the points system for the weekend. I did make good choices for my meals though, but a few extra snacks snuck in there and then there's always a few bites here and there of the kid's leftovers. It also means that I did not cook ahead and plan meals (as was one of my goals from last week). Nor did I accumulate 32 APs (only 23). I'm okay with all of that though because at my WI yesterday, I was still down 3.4 lbs!

Now that I've told you all of the things that I didn't accomplish, I'll tell you what I DID do.

I took the YMCA's Fitness Challenge on Saturday. I was weighed, had my measurements taken, took a flexibility test, did pushups (19) and situps (33), did a chair sit on the wall (only lasted 29 seconds ACK), ran up down the stairs (19 times in 2 min) and completed 11 3/4 laps in 10 minutes. I will be tested again in 6 weeks!
I did some form of physical activity everyday last week except Sunday for a minumum of 20 minutes (and yes, walking my daughter to and from school counts, right?)
I more than achieved my goal of exercising for at least 1000 minutes in January. In fact, I didn't even start until January 7 and still made 1030 minutes!
I achieved my goal of being at 250 by Feb. 4th. In fact, I weighed in at exactly 250.0!
I've booked myself a pedicure for this afternoon to reward myself for my efforts!

February is going to be a bit of a different month for me. As my fellow Albertans will know, an election was called yesterday for March 3. I am working for Elections Alberta in the Calgary North West district and that job will start either tomorrow or Thursday. This is going to be weird for me because 1- I'm used to working from home on my own schedule 2- I haven't worked out of the home in ummmm 2.5 years 3- I'm going to have to wear "real" clothes LOL 4- My kids will be going to the dayhome full time and I feel like I'll hardly ever see them. But, on the flip side, I'm also looking forward to it. I won't be doing my contract work this month, which means I shouldn't have to spend all my evenings plugging away at the computer. I'm burnt out on that stuff and really looking forward to a break from it. I was really worried about how I was going to fit the gym in while working full time but I think we've just secured an office space right across the street from the Y!!! There really is no excuses not to go on my lunch break or something and get at least a 30 min cardio workout in.

So my goals for this week are:

Relax a little and spend quality time in the evenings with the kids.
Get out of the 250s for good!!
Get in all my fruits/veggies (did pretty good on this last week actually)

Longer term goals:

Acheive my 10 percent loss by March 15th - only 12.4 lbs to go!
Exercise for 1000 minutes during the month of February

Weigh In (4 weeks OP!!)

2008-02-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

Once again I kind of slacked off over the weekend. I've been feeling pretty sick (major headache going on 3 days now and total body ache) and although I ate relatively healthy meals, I did have extra bites of the kids' leftovers and a few extra snacks. I also did not track points on Saturday and Sunday. Which is not good. Which I'm going to work harder at and be sure not to do next weekend.
But the important thing is that I still lost 3.4 lbs! And I've been on program for 4 weeks! And I've lost 13.6 lbs in total! Ooooh AND I'm considering myself successful on the first goal I made (to be at 250 by today and I'm bang on! My exact WI was 250.0!!) For these things, I'm proud of myself.

Anyhow, just a quick post today. My head is hurting so badly right now that I can hardly see the screen. I'll do a better update tomorrow, I promise.

Owie!

2008-01-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've never been the type to follow rules. I always have to try things for myself and THEN decide. Perhaps I've still got a bit of my teenage rebellion left in me. Well, let me just tell you that the rule given by the Couch to 5K program to do the program every other day should definitely be followed. See, I ran on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was feeling great! No soreness to speak of. So I thought I'd run again today. And even up the speed to 4.8 because yesterday I felt like 4.5 was too slow. Can I just tell you all now that I'm a moron? As soon as I started running on the first interval, I could feel the pain in my lower shins everytime my foot met the treadmill. By the fourth interval (halfway), the pain was way worse and I realized HELLO My body is trying to tell me something! So I listened to it and just walked the rest of the my 30 minutes, mind you I couldn't let all be lost, I increased the incline of the treadmill substantially and still got a really good workout in. To be honest, I felt like puking afterwards. I decided to heck with the elliptical and did a good 15 minutes of stretching before I packed it in.

This is a common cycle with me everytime I get on one of my exercise kicks. I've always been one to go all out or just stay home. Even when I did martial arts as a teenager, I trained a minimum of 2.5 hours per day, at least 6 days a week. I remember crying my eyes out when my parents wouldn't let me attend my class. I need to remember not to go overboard! By the way, here's a good article to read if you feel like you might be exercising too much.

My plan is to take it easy tomorrow. I won't be able to go to the Y tomorrow anyways because T has school. I have an appointment for a fitness test on Saturday. Check out this cool fitness challenge that the YMCA is offering! I'll of course update you all with my results.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal, 1 tbsp sliced almonds, 2 oz blackberries, 1/3 cup skim milk, 1 carrot cake cookie = 4.5
Lunch: PC Blue Menu Cheese Cannelloni, 3/4 grapefruit = 5
Post gym snack: Starbucks Grande Skinny Caramel Latte, half whole wheat pita, Clover Leaf lemon pepper tuna= 6
Dinner: 3.5oz ground beef, 2 tbsp low fat sour cream, salsa, lettuce, 1/3 cup 2% shredded cheese, cucumber, 8 Quaker Minis sea salt and lime rice cakes = 5.5
Snack: Grapefruit, Kashi bar, Source Dessert Selections yogurt, French Vanilla w/nonfat creamer = 5.5

26.5/31 but I'm sure I'll add a few more things in there to use up my points...

I need new jeans!

2008-01-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that after only a 10 lb loss, my jeans won't stay up and I have a serious case of baggy butt. Even harder to believe because last fall, when I was the same weight that I am now, these particular jeans were tight! I guess that means that I'm toning up baby! Need more proof? I've started wearing my belt on the 4th hole, as compared to wearing it on the 1st for the last many months! I wish that I would have taken my measurements when I started but I didn't unfortunately. However, I think I will take my measurements on my next WI day and compare them to the measurements I took early last fall (when I was approx the same weight as now). I think it would be interesting to see the difference.

I had a very productive day today work-wise and it feels great. I also did my third day of week one on the Couch to 5K program. I didn't think I'd be doing this so soon but I even upped the speed on the treadmill when I ran. The past two times I'd walk at 3.5 and then run at 4.5. Today 4.5 just felt too slow and I upped it to 4.8. Then I worked it for another 30 min. on the elliptical. And I have so much energy tonight! If it wasn't so darn cold out, I'd go out for a walk. Someday I will have a treadmill of my very own... wouldn't that be nice?

I just wanted to say thanks to the people who commented about my recipe that I posted yesterday. I really had no idea that it was high in sodium. I mean, I do know that canned soups are high but I had NO idea about the salsa! I just checked and the salsa I have in my fridge has 480 mg of sodium per 1/4 cup. YUCK! That motivates me all the more to make up a batch of my own. I love the fresh stuff with lots of cilantro.

I've decided that I'd like to try and post my menu for each day. This might help me plan a little more in advance and I know I always like to read what everyone else is eating. So here's today:

Before gym snack: Source Dessert Selections Yogurt, 1 carrot cake cookie = 2
After gym breakfast: Quaker oatmeal, 1/4 oz slivered almonds, 2 oz blackberries, 1/4 cup skim milk = 3.5
Lunch: 1 cup Gardennay Potato and Leek soup, 1 whole wheat english muffin toasted, 1 can Clover Leaf lemon pepper tuna = 6
Snack: Rice krispie square, 1 mug Maxwell House French Vanilla Low Cal Cap with 2 tsp nonfat creamer= 3.5
Snack while preparing dinner: Quaker Mini rice cakes= 2.5
Dinner: leftover crockpot salsa chicken, 3.5 oz cooked cauliflower, 15g kraft 2% shredded cheese = 8
Snack: 3/4 grapefruit, Source yogurt, carrot cake cookie = 3

29.5/31

I may have some more fruit before bed to use up my points. Overall not too bad... I'm really liking my oatmeal loaded up with extra stuff. So yummy and low on points.