Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Apparently I'm a model


New hair went over very well in the office today. I'll attempt to post a pic, at the moment my digital camera and my computer don't like to talk.

It's very Aveda, our fantastic receptionist told me I was a model. I had to laugh...hmm yeah only about 7 inches too short and not a size 2. The cut only cost me $25 which made me happy, I bought product (of course).
Never fails really, the stylist will use something that I think I must own. At least this time I already owned one thing she used.

Had a super crazy day, it felt like trying to juggle plates (not that I've ever done that before but seemed like a good analogy).

My walking buddy is sick, but I'll use this opportunity to clean my house. I have a mountain of dishes to do. I should take this opportunity instead of leaving it to a time of massive rushing around.

Apart from that not much to talk about today.

Today was a 22pt day which I blew at lunch, not with bad things even I just misjudged points. I'll go over today but the vacuuming should earn an AP or so.

Todays Plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2 - I'm very good with this and measure it very carefully :)
Milk - 2
Coffee- 2
Banana - 1
Chili - 6
Whole Wheat Bun - 2
Butter - 2
Subtotal: 18/22

O.k so not too bad 4pts for dinner, might make that 6 just because I can :)

To Success

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Day 6/10 -New Hair Tonight!

I'm excited, I have an appointment at the Aveda Concept Salon that I've walked by a hundred times. I chose the student option because well it's Aveda, there not going to hire an idiot. Now I just have to control myself in regards to products. I love how all their stuff smells but also realize it's expensive.

I have shortish hair right now well it's almost to my shoulders and driving me crazy just because I have a lot of hair so now it's just a blob with no volume.

A little NSV from yesterday, my bus stopped at a gas station about 3 stops from the one I normally get off on so I got off the bus and walked home. It wasn't super far but considering it was after work and I was tired...I was proud of myself.

The only other excitement was I changed all the songs on my mp3 player. Plus I'm in the process of putting together a second blog dedicated to my love of products.

The Plan
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Apple - 1
Homemade Taco Salad - 5
Salsa - 0
1 tbspLight Sour Cream - 1
Yogurt - 2
Subtotal:16/24

Not sure about supper yet, I really need to come up with meal plans.

I'm not doing great with the water this week, I just barely squeeked by with 6 cups yesterday. Today I will do better!

To Success!

Monday, May 29, 2006

Day 5/10 - Down .2

Well Hello Everyone,
The Relay went really well despite all the rain and mud. It was sort of like a rain gear fashion show and a tent exposition. There were people who were prepared for monsoons and people who don't realize that all tents are not waterproof.

My team raised just over $2000 dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society so I'm incredibly proud of us.

Friday's relay plus co -workers birthday plus another co-workers moving day resulted in some whacked out points. Can't help but wonder if I would have a better loss than .2. Oh well it's done.

Saturday was also a bit high (normally I plan it that way). I had thought about lowering the points to compensate for Friday. My friend was in town and we went to Cheesecake Cafe for dinner. I haven't been there in quite a few years but I fondly remember the Cheesequake cake. I ordered a piece and the funny thing was...it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered. I don't think that's the restaurant's fault. I think it's more my taste pallet has changed. I realize now that I would have preferred a zesty salad or something with more fruit...how weird is that.

Did get out for a good walk yesterday, so my activity was decent this weekend.

Saw X-Men 3 on Saturday, lots of action and special effects but almost too many characters. It almost seemed like a vehicle to show off the special talents of all the mutants.
I still liked it and they left room for a fourth movie.

Today: Points Target 26
Toast-1
Peanut Butter/chocolate -2
Milk-2
2 Cookies-2
Apple - 1
Homemade Taco Salad:
3oz Taco beef - 3
1oz Light Cheese - 1
2 cups Spring Greens - 0
2 Roma tomatoes - 0
2 Green onions - 0
2tbsp Salsa - 0
1tbsp light sour cream - 0
Fruit cup - 1
2 pieces Squirrelly Bread - 3
2 pieces light Kraft cheese - 2
Light Ice Cream - 4
Total: 24/26

2 APs and 1.5L Water


To Success!

Friday, May 26, 2006

Day 2/10 - Relay Tonight!


I found this on
Princess of Nothing and thought I'd try it too.

I AM: a long distance athlete, at least it seems that way with all this marathon training stuff
I WANT: to learn how to knit
I WISH: we could always see the best in each other
I HATE: people who stop dead in front of escalators or who stand in front of the back door of the bus and look surprised when people want to get off.
I MISS: all my friends who now live all over the country
I FEAR: bugs
I WONDER: if I'll ever get married and have kids
I REGRET: not taking the time to smell the flowers
I AM NOT: as outgoing as everyone thinks I am
I DANCE: all the time in my living room
I SING: all the time in my house or my office :)
I CRY: at every single animal movie...Damn you Eight Below.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: as nice as I should be
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: birthday cakes
I WRITE: on my blog, it's my diary
I CONFUSE: boredom with hunger
I NEED: to learn to love myself unconditionally
I SHOULD: be drinking more water and workout more
I START: many things and ideas, but never finish
I FINISH: whatever needs to be finished


So I finished OP yesterday and even talked myself out of going to Walmart to pick up snacks for the Relay tonight. They technically feed us supper, midnight snack and breakfast. Last year I didn't find much of it appetizing, I'll probably avoid breakfast because I have WI directly after the relay.

I brought a couple of fruit bars, a cadbury thin and few cookies that are made with whole wheat flour and nuts. I'll have my water bottle with me so I should be good to go. I also brought with me anything I piece of clothing I have that is water proof or repellant. It will be raining the whole time. I lugged my lawn chair on the bus just in case the rain lets up.

Today:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Blueberry Juice - 4
Vietnamese ? - unknown. Get's here in 30minutes so I'll calculate then

Later

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Day 1/10 Part 2 - A Tent Has Been Found!

Whew, I was getting nervous about this Relay for Life this weekend. Rain has been forecasted for two weeks, but never happens. Rain is of course forecasted for Friday to Saturday (Relay is 7pm to 7am). A very sweet older gentleman who I see every morning at my bus stop, informed me that it would rain.

I got an email this morning from our captain saying a tent has been found...so YIPPEE!

Well I completed my first 10 days of the 100 day challenge.
Here's my breakdown
Days OP:5/10 - Terrible!
Days with AP:7/10 - Better
Days with all H20:4/10 - Terrible!
Days with all fruit and veg:7/10

I definitely need to work on the OP and the Water, that's my challenge for the next 10 days. The days I wasn't OP weren't horribly bad with the exception of last Saturday. There was H20 every day just not my goal.

Even though my ESBM mexican lasagna is delicious the microwaving of low fat cheese is not so appetizing so I've given up on it. I will be buying lunch today instead.

Todays Plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Apple - 1
Chili - 7
Banana - 1 or 2 -depends on size
Subtotal:19/27 - 8pts left.

I will be getting a bit of a walk in today, tonight I really need to get my relay gear together to bring with me to work tomorrow.

To Success!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Day 10/10 part 1 - Is it bad to hope for rain?


Last night it did look like showers were pending, there was even very impressive gusts of wind but no real rain fell which is good I guess. My lawn seriously needs more water and I'd rather have mother nature do it for free.

I had planned to go for a walk when I got home yesterday. I walked in the door but on my walking gear and then had an internal dialogue about if I should do it....Luckily the part that wanted to walk won out.

It was the perfect temperature, a bit windy but not too bad. I did an old route that I used to do all the time. I never really knew the distance because pedometers aren't exactly reliable. So yesterday I used my Garmin, it took forever to get a signal thanks to the thunderous looking clouds.

My good old route turns out to be 6k, I was very pleased and I kept a decent pace for walking on my own. Normally my walking buddy keeps me in check or we keep each other in check. According to the Garmin 410 calories were burned so I count that as 4AP. I think the general rule is 100cal per AP anyway. Plus I stayed OP as well so I was very pleased with my day.

Discovered interesting things about my neighbourhood. One block to the south: a split level house sold for $600000. Three blocks to the north, all the cars parked on a residential street that runs parallel with a major road had their windshields cracked with what appears to be a baseball bat. I just thought that was weird. Plus whoever did the breaking of the windshields should be tarred and feathered and have to pay for all those replacement windshields.

Today is a 22pt day which is always a challenge for me, so far so good on that as well. I would like to finish the first 10 day stretch on a good note.

Today:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Apple - 1
Coffee - 2
Taco Salad - 10
1/2 Ham Steak - 2
Sauerkraut - 0
Jello - 2
Subtotal:22/22

So that leaves me 4pts for supper, I thought the taco salad would be less but when I added up all the ingredients in it...a bit more than I expected. Oh well, 4pts is doable. Done...like dinner so to speak :)

My activity will be a lot of running around, I have to stop off at two places after work and that involves a fair bit of walking. I'm going to do strength training when I get home. Did the running around to MEC where I bought a thermarest and thermarest pillow, plus various sacks in which to cart it around. Didn't buy a tent, however rain is still forecasted for Friday and Saturday so unless my illustrious Relay for Life team leaders come up with plan...I might still get one.

I ordered the Namaste Yoga dvds for accesstv.org the other day. I don't when it's actually on tv but the snipets I've seen are well done. The moves are explained really well and the scenery is all these different locations in Victoria...I think.

Tomorrow I will recap my first 10 days and see how I did.

To Success

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Day 9/10 - Showers?


Hello All,
Apparently showers are in the forecast for this week. I'm really hoping not on Friday to Saturday. I'm taking part in the Relay for Life for the Canadian Cancer Society and I don't own a tent so it will be a slight disaster if it's raining, oh well I could go buy a tent or maybe MEC rents them...must investigate.

Showers would be good because it's been so dry here, my plan is to head out tonight for a walk, do a monster load of dishes and a load of laundry...in that order.

Not too much else to report really.

Perhaps tomorrow will be more interesting

The plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Small Banana - 1
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Gala Apple - 1
ESBM Mexican Lasagna - 6
Side Salad - 0
Calorie Wise Italian Dressing - 0
Subtotal:17/24
7pts for Supper...not sure about that, might have asperagus and a ham steak (3), then maybe some jello or light pudding as dessert (2).

Water: 1/3L

Workout:60min Walk

To Success!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Day 8/10 - Down 2.2!


Apparently I've found the key to weightloss...it's cheesecake. Well that's what I told my wi lady when I discovered I was down 2.2lb (She also advised me to keep it down). So that was two pieces of cheesecake last week, but also some healthier choices a whack of fruits and veggies plus some kick ass aps (including a 10k walk on Friday with the first half up hill).

Then I celebrated on Saturday with a 58pt day...not so proud of that but it was these stupid mini cupcakes that I probably shouldn't have purchased in the first place. All of a sudden I realized they where all gone...I live alone and no pets...yup it was just me.

I rebounded on Sunday I had a 22pt day down to the last pt. I had an abundance of flavourful veggies.

Today it is 26pts and I'm doing well with that too.

Got some activity in each day, 1hr mowing lawn on Sunday
(that is one heck of a workout especially when the grass is really long -my backyard was jungle lawn), shorter walk on Saturday and today. I'm toying with idea of going for a longer one later today.

I'm not going to regale you with all that I've eaten over the past 3 days. However, I do highly suggest that you all try the No Way Jose Mexican Lasagna in the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry cookbook. Made that today and it's awesome!!!!!! I love mexican food and this was absolute perfection to me. Comes in at 6pts per serving, had that with some spring mix salad and a bit of calorie wise Italian dressing...Delicious and still 6pts.

My walking buddy is away for a week so I must go it alone with the exercise routine. In fact, I'm going to use this week for a bit of experimenting to get the right mix of cardio, weights and pilates/yoga.

Plus in my endeavour to become more organized and thinking it was going to rain at some point this weekend (which it didn't). Got a binder and some protective pages so I can go through my slew of Shape magazines and just keep what I want instead of the whole dang magazine. We'll just see how long it takes me to do that :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Back to regular posting tomorrow

Friday, May 19, 2006

5/10 - Devil on the shoulder won


The good: Drank all my water and got some decent AP
The bad: See picture. My favourite pub in the whole wide world (well Calgary and that's shared equally with The Joyce -both locations). I haven't had one bad or iffy experience at Fionn McCools. The service is good, the food is fantastic, the location is stellar. This pub is located very close to the pathway system and my local Running Room.

So my day was going well, I stuck to everything I had planned for the day. My walk with my friend was a go. Ha, I thought today will be good!

First I change into my walking clothes and discover my lovely Mec Rapid Dry shirt is completely see - through. Not that I was wearing anything scandalous underneath, just a rather ugly sports bra - which is why I wasn't happy. I also needed go pick up some lycopene (super antioxidant) and had tried 4 stores and couldn't find any this week. My friend was running late so I went off to find new shirt and vitamins.

Found new shirt easily enough at Sears, then went to Shoppers to get the supplement. They don't have it and I've purchased it there before. Thinking quickly I head to GNC (They must have it). I race in look at the clerk and say "Lycopene?". Their reply "What does it do?". I'm thinking - Hello! You're a freakin every supplement under the sun store. I say "It's an antioxidant". Clerk proceeds to search the store. I look up and see a little sign that says Lycopene. It's in the Men's health section, which I don't get -it's good for everyone not just men (They market it for prostate health) . Whatever, I go to buy it and clerk proceeds to try to convince me to buy a gold card (which will give me a discount on their ridiculously priced product). I decide to check their prices on Greens products, more expensive. I told him to forget it. Drives me crazy when a store offers to sell you a discount card and sells their stuff at a higher price than their competitors. I declined the offer.

I quickly changed shirts and raced back to Eau claire to meet my friend. She had adventures with public transit and wasn't there yet. We meet up go for about a 5k walk, it was very warm but not horribly bad. She brought supper with her, I didn't. So at the end of the walk I told her I didn't feel like subway. She suggests Fionn's because their sandwiches might be good option. We head to Fionn's, get a table on the pation. Ordered a grilled chicken sandwith and fries (Can I say I wasn't feeling like lettuce?) and a Grasshoper. It was lovely. Table next to us orders dessert more specifically the lava cake (My friend's favourite). So we order dessert.

Obviously we both were feeling defiant because she brought supper and wound up eating pub food.

Twice this week I've had cheesecake. I rarely eat cheesecake, not sure why I'm obsessed with it lately. The good thing about this turn of events is that it will make me doubly focused today. Weigh in is tomorrow, I don't think I sabotaged myself as long as I don't do anything stupid today.

Part of my long weekend will be to make an activity plan and plunk it in a calendar. I've been very all over the place with my plan and need to make it more concrete. I'd like to be at goal by August, which means I have to get my butt in gear!

The plan:
Toast -1
Nutella-2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Egg Salad Sandwich - 7
Popcorn - 3
Subway - 6
Fruit cup - 1
Total: 24/23

Water:2/3L

Exercise:Another walk planned for tonight, thundershowers are also forecasted so if that happens I'll do something else.

To Success!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Day 4/10 - I was good!


Holy guacomole it was hot yesterday, 30 degrees! Just moving a foot outside felt like work. I bought a flat sheet at Walmart yesterday and slept great last night so I'm adjusting.

When I went to the mall I also resisted ice cream, iced drinks, milk shakes and numerous other cool and refreshing looking treats. The mantra in my head...do you want to blow your points on this? It's rare when the mantra works.

Thanks to the heat my activity hasn't been stellar but I have been keeping track of the eating so hopefully this means good things for Saturday. Stepped on the scale this morning to see and mind you my scale and WW's scale do not line up...it was 174 on my scale which would be close to 172 at WW so that made me happy. Now all I have to do is not sabotage myself.

America's Next Top Model rocked last night! I was so happy to see Jade get booted. I feel bad for Joanie but it was nice to see that the final two looked liked they'd be happy for each other. Can't wait for the Canadian one to start on May 31st. Mr. Jay is in it, apparently he's from Toronto. Trish Helfer hosts it and she's really good in Battlestar Galactica so we'll see. I'm also horribly addicted to Project:Runway (You're either in or your out) and Project: Catwalk (I'm sorry but you must leave the catwalk). I hope they make a Canadian version of that one too.

The Plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Strawberries - 1
Yogurt - 2
ESBM Quiche - 3
3 chocolate covered espresso beans - 1 (they're dark chocolate and really small)
Grilled Chicken Sandwich - 8
Fries (ate half) - 5
Cheesecake (small piece) - 6
Beer - 3
Sub-Total: 36/27

So that's 13pts left if I stick to the 27 (HA!), I could probably shave a few of those off. I'll keep it at 27 for now since I did low yesterday and tomorrow would be another low day...got to love the math behind weight loss.

Ha, didn't shave anything off added a few...see above.

Water:3/3L - I'm finding crystal light to be my saving grace in the evenings. I love the ice tea and that it counts as water.
I have a walk planned with my friend tonight. It's supposed to be slightly cooler so we'll see. Alternate plan is a patio. So I'm stating my intentions now: 1 beer followed by lots of water (Followed through on that one).

To Success!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Day 3/10 - Must be angelic from now on


First of all - Dinner with boy went alright. Thing is as of right this minute I have zero attraction to him. He's a super nice guy so I'll give it a second attempt at least.

Dinner was hard at The Keg. I picked mushroom chicken florentine, probably not the best pick but it seemed to come with the most vegetables. Chose the rice because it was wild grain. The other options were giant baked potatoe or garlic mashed potatoes.

Caved at dessert because I had been craving cheesecake since my friend H and I had salads at Brewsters and saw someone else eating what looked like the most amazing cheesecake in the world. It was disappointing which didn't make me feel any better about it that's for sure.

Today will be tough because it's 22pts, this I have a hard time with. I've got my day planned including dinner. I can easily work with this plan. Got probably 2.5l of water in yesterday. One litre alone was Crystal Light Iced Tea because it was 30 degrees here yesterday and it's supposed to be that again today. I'm not a fan of super hot weather, I'm not complaining though a couple years ago we had 40cm of snow at this time.

So here's to the plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Strawberries - 1
ESBM Quiche - 3
Fruit Cup - 1
My tentatively planned dinner:
Perogies (Baked) - 3
Green Beans - 0
2x Turkey Bites - 2
Light Sour Cream - 1
Pudding - 2
Hershey Stick - 1
Subtotal: 23/22

Water: 3/3L Whoo hoo
Exercise: Walk outside if it's not too hot, if that doesn't happen it will be a workout dvd with the fan going full blast...Yes I'm a wimp - Walked home from the mall plus around dt. Not hard core but off my butt. 45 minutes in total.

ANTM side note:
Jade must not win. That girl irritates me to the core.

I can do this!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Day 2/10


See below for my confession of only attaining one goal yesterday. I stayed within my points...yippee. My water sucked, I don't think I drank a whole litre. My exercise plan went out the window thanks to not managing my time all that well and not getting home until 8pm.

However today is a new day. I'm going out to dinner tonight with the boy from eharmony so points might be a challenge since it's the Keg. The good thing is I have mega activity planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so I should be able to offset dinner tonight.

Today's Goals : Day 2/10 part 1
Oatmeal-2
Brown Sugar - 1
Milk- 2
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Strawberries - 1
ESBM Quiche - 3
Mushroom Chicken Florentine with Rice pilaf (ate 3/4 of the chicken and half the rice) - 12?
Cheesecake with cherries - 8 (probably wishful thinking)
total: 32/24

So that leaves 12 pts for dinner which I should be able to work with. Obviously didn't do so great with the 12pts.
Activity will be walking to the Keg and back and then home from the bus. Probably close to 40min in total.

Water goal - 3L so far 2/3 - this is a must today thanks to the suspected high of 30 freakin degrees.


To success!

Monday, May 15, 2006

UP .2 and starting the 100 days over


Weigh in wasn't quite so disappointing as I thought it would be. I was up .2 which technically means a loss because this was the week of water retention thanks to TOM and I usually gain up to 2lbs at this time. I'm quite happy with those results. Couldn't stay for the meeting because my Dad was in town and we had gardening centres and grocery shopping on the to do list. Walmart had the best price and decent selection for gardening. Went to superstore for the grocery shopping and I have never seen so many holes on the shelves. It looked like they weren't stocked...just another indication of the short labout market in Calgary.

My weekend fell apart OP wise but that's o.k that was then and this is now. Went for Mother's day brunch with my friend and her Mom. It was really nice, my mom passed away 4 years ago so it's not an occasion that I've celebrated for awhile

I lost count of how many days I actually did the 100 day challenge last time. Huge Kudos to Michelle for sticking with it and being a total inspiration.

I know I need to start over with a clean slate and break down the 100 days into smaller goals. I'm going to tackle 10 days at a time. So 10 sets of 10. Here's to August 22nd. I want to be at goal by then...added incentive WW Alberta and Sask raised their prices.

So here's my plan.

The Fuel:
Use the Wendy Plan for the 22pts target range. (I find shaking up the points works for me)
Sat:37, Sun:22, Mon:26, Tue:24, Wed:22, Thu:27, Fri:23

Minimum 2L of water per day

No eating 2hrs before bedtime

The Workouts

  • Cardio: 3-4 days per week (Walking fast or exercise dvd) 45-60min each workout
  • Strength/Pilates Training: 2 days per week each -doesn't have to happen on the same day (Core Secrets DVD or G-Force Book by Gunnar Peterson and Winsor Pilates)
  • Stretch: 1 Yoga workout per week (I've never really embraced yoga but I have quite a few dvds so I have to like one of them...right?)

Posting the good, the bad and the ugly from my points tracker. Nothing like being accountable to the world wide internet.

Today's Goals: Day 1/10 part 1
So far 14/26pts
Toast and Chocolate PB -3
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Grapes - 1
ESBM Quiche - 3
Strawberries - 1
Yogurt - 2
Home made chef salad-7
Strawberries and light ice cream - 5
Total:26pts

Update:

Well my plan didn't go so well but I still stuck to my total points for the day. The lesson learned yesterday don't eat supper at 8pm when you had lunch at noon. I had a meeting after work that went longer then I expected which resulted in the late dinner and no exercise apart from walking home from the bus stop.
Planned workout: Nada

I still consider it a success because I stayed OP. Oh well baby steps...


To Success!

Friday, May 12, 2006

Weigh In Tomorrow



And I am afraid.

Missed last week due to Vancouver and eating wasn't exactly fantastic there but there was lots of walking. The food at yesterdays shindig was heavy on the meat side with virtually no veggies on the buffet. My plan for today was to be very good. However, left overs from last night were offered as lunch today. I did make sure that half my plate was fruit. My dinner plan will either be veggie soup or oatmeal and lots of water. It's also the week before TOM which usually results in a gain for me so I really do think the odds are stacked against me this week.

I know that if I have a gain this week, I can lose it next week. The challenge for me is to keep my brain focused on the goal at hand and not have a "oh well let's just eat anything since the news won't be good" moment.

I have access to a vehicle tomorrow so I'm heading to Superstore to stock up on healthy and nutritious options. I always find that Superstores produce always looks like it fell off the back of a truck.

I think I'm going to make the quiche from the ESBM cookbook this weekend. It's only 3pts per serving so that with a side salad could be an excellent option for lunch next week.

Not a huge amount of stuff to discuss today.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Dangerous Musings


My day was a bit crazy today and didn't get an opportunity to take lunch until after 1pm. Normally I'm a no later than noon type of gal. I work in the downtown core and the thing is after 1pm most lunch places have sold out of most of their decent remotely healthy food and just have leftover stuff. I decided to go to McDonald's in search of the oriental chicken salad. When I get there there's a massive line. I get in the line and start to read the menu. I rehearse my order in my head...diet coke and the salad...over and over again. I get to the order take person and I hear myself say...McChicken Meal please....what the?

Well I ate it and enjoyed it and know I won't be doing it again for a very long time.

I found it interesting that a lot of my favourite bloggers wrote about being in the right headspace today. Apparently my headspace was not quite aligned.

However, my friend and I did go for a 6k walk last night and then I took a different bus home that resulted in another 20min walk to get home so decent activity.

Tonight there will be no mega activity but I will have to be on my feet. My company is having a client appreciation night, now the trick will be to be diligent when the food comes out. I'm really hoping that today will just be a shock my metabolism day.

Got a great reminder from Lme (Check out the link to Fat-Ish on the right). There's a great book called Smart Girls Do Dumbells (See picture above). There's loads of workouts and it all involves free weights. I own this book. I should seriously dust that off and use it as part of "THE PLAN". My goal is to reveal "THE PLAN" on Monday or maybe sometime this weekend.

I should go drink more water....Later

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Not quite so sore today


I don't hurt that much today...what a relief! I did try this strange aromatherapy muscle soreness reliever stuff that I got in my info pack from the marathon. I think it said something like 034. It's a little towelette with essential oils. If that's what helped, I'm going to have to hunt some of this stuff down.

I have no groceries in my house and I'm not going until Saturday so I'm having to be creative in regards to food. Luckily I practically collect cereal so breakfast is good. Lumch is being bought this week so dinner is a bit of a scavenger hunt.

I am heading out for a short walk tonight to shake out some of the muscles. This morning was the first time I put on my snazzy runners since the race. I thought my feet might rebel but it was all good. Yes, thankfully my suitcase was returned to me last night or else I wouldn't have any runners.

Had my yearly physical yesterday and my Doctor was actually impressed with all my walking marathon plans so that was nice. I told her I want to hit my goal weight by December (well the WW goal before that), I'm not sure what my personal goal will be. The range for my height is extreme but I'm thinking maybe 125-130. I won't be ruled by the number but more how I feel.

So now I must get my plan together. Cardio is fine with all the walking and I got a bike last fall so I'm going to see if I remember how to ride. I seriously need to get into weight training to tone and better prepare for a marathon. My friend and I were discussing that as we waited to board the plane back to Calgary. She talked about a personal trainer, she prefers the army style ala Jillian Micheals from Biggest Loser. I'm not so sure about that simply due to the cost. I don't want to join a gym just to get a trainer. I'm very much a research everything myself sorta girl. I own loads of books and dvds on the subject. I need to sit down and come up with a plan. When I have a plan I have no problem following it, it's just narrowing down the options and coming up with a good reward plan and make my goals reasonable.

I think this blog will help me too. I will state my plan and report in. I've tried that on the weight watcher message boards but it doesn't quite work for me. I think I prefer the diary style of the blog and plus I'm not limited as to how much I want to say :) I want to have this plan in play by next week.

Looks like my friend might not be walking tonight, her foot is hurting and she thinks the source is her runners. If she cancels I'll head home and stop and pick up some fresh fruit and veg and then walk home which will still give me a light walk.

To the plan!

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I'm back!


First a clarification, I did not run the half marathon I'm a walker ( I walk fast) so I walked most of it, jogged on the downhills a bit just to embrace gravity. I'm hurting today. It rained through the whole race so I don't think I've ever been that soaked. Final time 3:08:03, however I did beat runners and passed them on the up hill. My Net time was 3:03:08 not sure what the difference is since this was my first event. My sports bra chafed me, didn't discover that until in the shower...can I just say....OW!

I loved Vancouver, I will definitely be going back next year to beat my time. Not too much to report about the whole thing apart from Westjet lost my bag on the way home however it's been found and they'll be bringing it to me today. Not sure how that happened it's not like Vancouver to Calgary is excessively far nor complicated to fly to. Spent loads of money at Starbucks since they are EVERYWHERE! Had lunch at the Vancouver Art Gallery - I highly recommend it. Missed out on Sangria at Havana's which is supposed to be to die for. Had the best nachos at the Beatty St. Pub. The best beer at the Yaletown Brewing Co. Amazing cheesecake at Fet's . I pretty much ate and walked.

I think there airporter system is stupid. We get on a yellow airport that then drops you off to wait for a second airporter to take us to the airport. In Calgary you get on the airporter and it takes you to the airport and we're technically bigger land wise. Their transit system rocks though. I didn't have time to really explore so next time I'll go for longer.

Didn't track at all over the weekend (helps that I didn't pack my tracker) but when I got home and got on the scale it didn't show much damage. We walked everywhere on top of the half marathon. Took the aquabus to Granville Island and then walked back. I kept running in to people from Alberta. Joked about buying a rundown house and putting up tents since that would be easiest way to own a house there. Saw the tiniest apartment/condo I've ever seen 330 sq. feet. It was cute and a great excuse to buy things from Ikea. In a place like Vancouver, why stay indoors. I would be outside all the time.

Today I'm walking a bit like I'm 90. It's getting better I just look really silly getting up after sitting for awhile.

Big thanks to Michelle for the WW cookbook, it was in my mailbox on my return...it's awesome!

Thanks so much to all for their good luck wishes, that's so nice of you.

Back to normal blog information tomorrow

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Off to Vancouver


I'm so excited I leave for my half marathon bright and early tomorow. Race is on Sunday and I'll be back to the blog on Tuesday.

My goal for the half maraton is under 3hrs.

I don't think I'll be weighing in this week. I have to miss my normal meeting and I'm in Vancouver for such a short time anyway I don't want to be sitting in a WW meeting. However this is not license to go crazy with the eating. I will still stay OP while away and faithfully report to my meeting next Saturday. The only really stupid part is the weather is supposed to be nicer here in Alberta. Ah doesn't matter a little rain never hurt anybody :)

I'm loving the sense of team on the blogs today, this is such a supportive outlet. We will all succeed at our goals I have complete faith.

So Skinny Vibes to all and I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Seems to be a trend


As I read all my favourite blogs this morning and noticed a trend among us...the desire to eat everything in sight yesterday. I went through this as well last night.

Went to the library, bank, Walmart and Safeway yesterday after work. Talked myself out of every fast food place I came across. Major victory for me.

Any food items purchased were healthy options for lunch for the next few days and supper last night. I bought low fat cream of mushroom soup for supper because I've been craving it since smelling a co-workers lunch of chicken and mushroom pot pie. I'm grateful I was only craving the mushroom part and not the pie.

Also bought some light baby bel cheese - I love this 1pt each, sundried tomatoe turkey breast and broccoli slaw. So I get home start making the soup but need to jazz it up a bit so I threw in dehydrated red onion, thai garlic chili sauce and Mrs Dash Southwestern spice. I could have stopped at the Mrs Dash because it was spicy! While that was heating up, I was munching on a baby bell and some turkey, then I went for the low fat cheddar and finally the soup. I was lucky that my food fest consisted of relatively healthy stuff. Then I did the ultimate thing to stop my feeding frenzy...I figured out the timer on my camera and took a front and back picture of myself in my undies. I should print it up and stick it on the fridge. I can't even imagine what my reaction would have been had I done that 30lbs ago.

I find Jessi's before and after pictures to be incredibly inspirational so I thought I should do this for myself.

On another note: I am so pleased with myself that I finally figured how to put things in my sidebar...this was a major challenge pour moi.

I orginally planned for 26pts today (based on the fact it's my last training night before the big race and there will be APs) . I haven't fully adopted the Wendi plan for my current range simply because I totally missed the fact that I moved into a new points range. So with everything I've planned I have 9pts for dinner. That's alot for dinner for me but I think I'm going to aim for closer to 6pts.

I tried eating a bit more protein today to offset the ravenous behaviour and so far so good. I had to remind myself to have a pm snack at 3pm instead of having a grumbling stomach at 2pm.

See ya tomorrow

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Cake Football


My goal of 22pts didn't exactly happen last night. My friend and I went for our power walk and we were both dying of hunger as we did so ( I need to come up with a better afternoon snack). So we went for vietnamese and I had the noodle bowl with veggies. Only ate half of it. Not super bad in actuality. Went home had my fat free pudding so I was still OP if I included my APs which wasn't my original intention.

Today our HR lady comes to me to tell me that a fantastic lady who's been helping us out is having her birthday today. She asked me and my colleague if either us could grab a cake. I had the clearest schedule so I said I'll go. Got half a block outside and was hit with mega winds to the extent that you couldn't take a step forward. Thinking on my feet I went back into a building and took the Plus 15 (sequence of walkways that attach to buildings) to the main mall. Went to the Bay to their bakery. It's the Bay's birthday today so they were handing out cupcakes and popcorn. I resisted on the first pass but then had to spend 15 minutes looking at cakes and cookies as I waited for them to find a box. So on the trip back to the second floor I grabbed a cupcake, however took one tiny bite realized this isn't worth it and tossed it. Then I competed in cake football as I tried to carry this box without tipping it through throngs of people entering the Plus 15 level on their way to lunch. Cake and I arrived back in my office in one piece. I had to have earned a few APs on that mission.

I then went to eat my lunch and realized I've completely lost interest in my chickpea salad. I then head over to the local convenience store. They were out of my favourite sandwich and hot dogs. So I was denied. Grabbed a piece of banana bread instead. Maybe not the best choice but better than any they had to offer.

Have to hit the library and go to the bank tonight. Was originally supposed to meet the boy from Eharmony for drinks but realized this would have to be fast because I have a bizillion things to do before this weekend. He gratiously let me off the hook under the condition that I let him buy me dinner next Tuesday...well of course I said yes.

So today I vow to stick to my 22pts including the birthday cake. It might be oatmeal for supper.

Go forth and drink water

Monday, May 01, 2006

Should know better


Despite the original good objectives of last week I was up 1lb at WI. It's my own fault, went out to the pub Fionn McCool's Friday night were I partook in half a plate of Irish Nachos and 1/2 a plate of Sweet Potatoe Fries and a pint of Trad Ale. Broke every cardinal rule of the day before weigh in - salt and alcohol. Drank a litre of water when I got home and stayed up for an extra 3 hours. I think if I hadn't I'd probably be up a lot more.

On Saturday I spent a lovely couple of hours hanging out on the patio of the James Joyce Pub, the weather was gorgeous and so were the appetizers Irish Nachos again and Vietnamese Spring Rolls, the Cheeseburger (only ate 5 fries) and the Guiness

Sunday was spent thinking "Stupid, stupid, stupid". Did better points wise and just did house work.

Realized this morning that I never dropped my points when I went under 175lbs. So I must re-evaluate that. So Today the goal is 22pts, 3L of water and I have a 10k walk planned. I'm not eating any APs to help mitigate the damage of the weekend.

I'm still not sure if I should weigh in mega early on Thursday (7am) or in Vancouver on Friday at noon. I have such a weigh in ritual. I wear exactly the same thing, I don't eat before because I normally weigh in on Saturdays at 8:30am.
Ya see on Friday we're leaving for the airport at 6:30am so we'll definitely be eating breakfast but then one could just drink water have a cut off of like 10am and then WI. I'm such a geek that I try to keep all the variables the same. I'll probably just get up on Thursday, check my bathroom scale and decide then. The other thing I'm considering is I have coupons that can only be used in Alberta and Sask, so if I weigh in in Vancouver I have to fork over extra cash. My friend who's going as well is lifetime so she can weigh in wherever she wants and not have to pay for it. Yeah I know it's only $15 but I also have to pay the airport improvement fee that Vancouver Airport bings you with before you can get on your flight home.

Of course I have the third option of just skipping this week's weigh in and handing over two coupons at my regular meeting. No matter what I'll still sit in on the meeting in Vancouver.

Decisions, decisions. I'm lucky that this is the only crisis I'm facing at the moment.