Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

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!

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

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!!

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..

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

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!

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 :)