Winter Survival

Oy vey it's cold out there -24 with windchill and that's celsius people.
The survival guide to winter has kicked in. I'm wearing the toque with ear flaps (From Roots with a smart Canadian flag in the middle of my forehead with matching mitts). The Columbia 3 in 1 jacket is with me today and a scarf. When it's that cold outside I don't care what I look like. I have to exchange a table cloth at Walmart and I'm waiting till Thursday for a balmy -12.

The office 10lb challenge has morphed into a fitness challenge running until March 15. All 6 participants were pretty happy with that especially after the cookie exchange. I wanted to take the focus off of pounds on to healthy behaviour so we shall see how that goes.

I went to weigh in on Saturday with long johns under my sweat pants, changed out of the long johns stood on the scale, changed back into the long johns when I was done. Was down 0.4, which was a surprise.

Had my company Christmas party on Saturday night, it was fun but today I saw the pictures. Isn't it weird how we imagine we look one way and then you see you're picture. There was a lot of that today among the women. Unhappiness with their body image, yet we forget what we've come through to get here. One of my colleagues was in the blues all day because of this and then she looked herself in the mirror and said remember at size 22 she would have killed to be a 10, she's a 10 now. It's like the fat girl never quite leaves your head.

Next year, I'll be getting my 5 year award at the Christmas party and I realized in that moment that I want to be at goal and go up there in a killer dress.

On Sunday I saw Enchanted, it was adorable and I love Disney so to see this take on the classic princess tale was really good. My friend thought it was quite cheesy, but I thought that's the point you have to take it like a fairy tale.

On the eharmony front, Firefighter dude has not been in contact for a few days, which is fine I'm very "C'est la vie" about this. What happens, happens. In the meantime a few other guys have initiated conversation so the wheel keeps moving.

OMG did you see Desperate Housewives yesterday? Who do you think doesn't survive?

Later!

Onwards

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I was one busy baker, got my cookie exchange cookies done, the birthday cheesecake is done and tonight I'll frost the last cake for cake decorating class for Wednesday. Whew, with all this baking done maybe I can work out...that was a sarcasm.

I picked up an advent pyramid at the German deli, it's not quite like the picture but it gives you the general idea, mine has a choir that around the tree. I need to have my house in order Christmas wise by this weekend for the first advent. Also my Christmas party is this Saturday so I need to figure out what the heck I'm wearing.

I was out and about with a friend on Saturday and we drove past my gym, I pointed it out as the gym I walk by. Last week was not a good week for me between the snackapalooza of TOM and the having a million things to do. I'm looking forward to a simpler time and being able to focus on my well being. I did track on Saturday and Sunday but with being out all day Saturday and wicked busy on Sunday workouts didn't happen. I did make those mini quiche type things that I saw on someone's blog (I'm sorry I forget who) there made in a muffin pan and are 1pt each or 2 for 3pt. I'm making a conscious effort to have more protein in the morning because I find that keeps me energized longer. I had that for breakfast this morning and I wasn't crazy hungry by 11:30am.

Tonight I'm starting my sticker/calendar challenge. My goal is to have a sticker for activity for every day between now and Christmas (and beyond but trying to make measurable goals).

Activity includes cardio, strength and stretching. I seriously need to get back to yoga, I can feel the differance of not having done it regularly.

On the eharmony front I'm now conversing with 3 guys. Two in "open communication", one is firefighter and one is an It guy. I'll keep you posted.

We have a balmy -23 fahrenheit (with windchill today) so all activiy is inside today. I'm going to do a dvd tonight and I'm thinking either the biggest loser workout or hip hop. I shall report back tomorrow.

Have a groovy Monday!

Random musings and a quiz

Happy belated Thanksgiving to my American blog friends!

Why do I have such issues with tracking lately. I start out great and then by today there are empty pages in my tracker. My dedication is on vacation. It's not like I'm crazy eating but I know to be truly succesful I need to track. I was sitting at home last night having a little self pep talk and came to the realization that if for some reason I can't get to the gym that doesn't mean I can't work out. There was a time a long, long, long time ago that I'd get home and go straight to the basement, work out and then have dinner. I really have no excuses. The other thing that's really important to remember is that one doesn't need to wait to get back on the wagon, it can happen right now.

I was amazed by Kae's results on The Biggest Loser, that girl lost 88lbs and still has a month before the final episode. Dedication pays off.

Caught the Australian Biggest Loser yesterday it was the second episode and they just got put into teams and had their first workouts and challenges but no weigh in. I thought that was weird.

I brought Lesson 2 cake to work yesterday and it was gone in an hour, apparently I work with piranhas.

Neighbour at the bus stop seemed disppointed that I wasn't carting a cake to work today, yesterday every person who got on the bus was eyeing that cake.

I'm starting to want to decorate for Christmas, which is pretty early for me. I have this burning desire to make it more traditional German inspired than ever before...what's up with that?

I need to do a lot of baking this weekend and all of it is going somewhere else.

Here's a tag I found on other blogs and thought I'd take part:

I give you money and send you into the grocery store to pick up 5 items. You can only pick one thing from the following departments.. what is it?

1. Produce: Tomatoes
2. Bakery: Dutch crunch bread
3. Meat: Ground beef
4. Frozen: Dr. Oetker Mama Mia pizza
5. Dairy: Milk

Let's say we're heading out for a weekend getaway. You're only allowed to bring 3 articles of clothing with you. So, what's in your bag?

1. Jeans
2. Yoga t-shirt
3. My Roots Canada hoodie

If I was to listen in on your conversations throughout the day, what 5 phrases or words would I be most likely to hear?
1. O.K
2. Really
3. What
4. Uh huh
5. Whatever

So, what 3 things do you find yourself doing every single day, and if you didn't get to do, you probably wouldn't be in the best mood?
1. listen to music
2. have a period of time where I don't have to talk to anyone
3. sleep

We're talking a 3 hour block with nobody around. What 5 activities might we find you doing?
1. Reading
2. Catching up with what's on the DVR
3. Walking
4. Cooking
5. Eating

We are going to the zoo. But, it looks like it could start storming, so it'll have to be a quick visit. What 3 exhibits do we have to get to?
1. Tigers
2. Africa exhibit
3. Gorillas

You just scored tickets to the taping of any show that comes on t.v. of your choice. You can pick between 4, so what are you deciding between?
1. Rachel Ray (just for the snack of the day and the spinning seats)
2. Jimmy Kimmel
3. The Biggest Loser finale episode
4. This hour has 22 minutes


You're hungry for ice cream. I'll give you a triple dipper ice cream cone. What 3 flavors can I pile on for ya?
1. Amaretto
2. Vanilla
3. Chocolate

Somebody stole your purse/wallet…in order to get it back, you have to name 5 things you know are inside to claim it. So, what's in there?

1. Motorola razor cell phone
2. German travel pack of Kleenex (They're 4 ply)
3. WW tracker/calculator
4. MP3 player
5. Rocky Mountain soap factory coconut lip balm

You are at a job fair, and asked what areas you are interested in pursuing a career in. Let's pretend you have every talent and ability to be whatever you wanted, so what 4 careers would be fun for you?
1. Psychic
2. Choreographer
3. Vet
4. The person who creates the names for lipsticks

If you could go back and talk to the old you, when you were in high school, and inform yourself of 4 things, what would you say?
1. Don't worry about what other people think
2. You're cooler than you think
3. Studying is not a bad skill to have
4. You turned out good

You try it.

The Big Debate

After two weeks of zero tracking, half hearted exercise and generally not being concerned with food intake I was at a cross roads on Saturday morning. I knew I'd see a gain and I debated not going. Maybe just take a week and get my act together and go next week. I had this debate with myself and then realized...just go. I wasn't hiding anything from anyone by not going. I needed to face up to my behaviour and suck it up. So yeah I saw a gain and that's o.k. I know what I need to do and it will be done. While the rest of Saturday didn't turn out so great, I was dead on OP on Sunday and I'm on my way today.

I think it's important to own up to the food demons. At a recent meeting we talked about closet eating. This has never been a issue for me as I live alone but it was an interesting discussion. We decided there's no such thing as bad food. If you call it bad then you feel guilty or that you've done something wrong. It's not a disaster if you have a sundae, even better if you planned for it. One person brought up an interesting story. Her mom has been on weight watchers since she can remember and when once asked if she was on weight watchers she said no, I'm a weight watcher. This is not a diet it's learning to take care of yourself for the rest of your life as any effort to incorporate a healthy lifestyle is.

I feel no guilt over my gain, it's the result of my actions. To see a different result I need to change my actions.

Until tomorrow my friends

Obsessions of the week

I'm one day and a few hours away from finding out if I get this baby off of ebay. Yes it's a 101 piece cake decorating kit (on the right). I'm obsessed with colouring icing and pastry bag tips. Everyone I know will wind up with a cake I swear. Of course I only want it if I can get my price.

My other obsession next picture on the left. My Harvey's red messenger bag shipped today and will be in my hot little hands by Wednesday. Dare I mention I also want a large tote in SUV blue and a mini messenger in black and maybe a clutch in pink. All of a sudden I'm purse obsessed. I think it's because there's no size issues with a purse. There is a reason for any size any occasion. Of course I'm not going to run out and buy all those bags but so far any reward plan I've instigated for weight loss hasn't worked. It's like the prize wasn't all that great. I realize the overall prize is health and fitness but sometimes when the will is not strong I need something more material.

I pulled out Jillian Michael's book last night as I realized I need to start with the basics, primarily motivation, dedication and endurance. I think part of my resistance to being sorted the last few weeks is dealing with the changing season. I find my energy depletes when I face going to the gym in the dark. I can get over it as I do every winter. It's just that first few weeks of adjusting. I was talking to my friend H the other day and we both noticed the desire to eat more has kicked in. I think that's a response to winter as well. Like a hibernation phase. Now we've been lucky, we have yet to see true snow and the coldest it's been is -7 celsius, it can get a whole lot worse than that my friends.

So the plan this weekend (how many times have I said that) is to come up with a plan for workouts.

Have a great weekend everybody

Oy vey to icing

So the cake for tonight's lesson took me until 10pm to finish.

I got home and baked the cake (yeah to working oven) and then waited it for it cool. In the meantime I made the buttercream icing, I have a kitchen aid mixer, I think it's just the standard one but it gave that thing a workout. If you don't know mixers, Kitchen Aid is the bees knees. I don't think it helped that I dumped all the ingredients in at once. (I was in a hurry). For the rest of the evening I changed the consistency depending on what I needed it for, changed the colour depending on what I needed it for. Oy vey I was wearing icing. At one point I thought I can make it to hip hop and then I tried to fold a parchment pastry bag. I don't like them, I think I'll pick up a box of the plastic bag one tonight.

After all that I just laid down on the couch and watched Biggest Loser, I was falling asleep for the last half hour so I missed the end but I heard Amy got booted. I have to say I'm kind of happy about that. I just thought she had the worst attitude, it could have been the editing.

It looks like the next two Ugly Betty's will be new, did anyone else think that last weeks episode seemed like a season finale.

What else is new...oh I have a wee crush on the new guy at work. My crazy office mates are totally into it. He's going over his benefits with our office admin (who sets across the hall from me) and I hear her saying "Well as a single man". I didn't dare look at her until he left and low and behold she's totally grinning at me and starting to laugh. Potatoe chips almost came out of her nose. We discoverd he's 6 yrs younger than I am. I tell you the people I work with need lives. I doubt anything will come of it but it's fun to just leave it as a work crush.

O.k I'm off to cake decorating, I'll report back tomorrow.

Totally distracted

How does one go from generally not having all that much to do into not having a moment to spare? This will be a fast and furious post my friends.

Alright this is what I've been up to. Met up with my friend S and her adorable son B on the weekend. That little boy will so break hearts one day. If she's reading this we should do that again soon.

Was down 0.8 at weigh in, and a bit shocked since I hadn't tracked since Monday.

The bottom element of my oven is hopefully being repaired by the super amazing Dad today. Thus far I have received no call to say it doesn't work. So that means the minute I get home I have to bake a cake and make a whack of icing for Wednesday cake decorating lesson#2. Which means I'll probably miss hip hop. If I'm knee deep

I can't remember the last time I went to the gym, that will be fixed shortly.

I haven't touched my textbook and have an assignment due this weekend, yet the last assignment still doesn't have a grade posted.

Whoo hoo I got 100% on that assignment and that's worth 25% of the mark!!!! I'm gunnin' for an A baby!

I'm obsessed with ebay. I don't bid on very much (4 items in 4 years) but dang it when I bid on something I want to win. So take that dude who's bidding against me, but you don't realize that I put in a maximum bid and won't go above so you just cost yourself extra moolah by trying to beat me...whahahahahaha.

My two co-workers have decided they need to be my stylist so we're planning a shopping adventure shortly. Little do they know that I know how distracted they get in clothing stores.

Alright wish me a working oven and I promise to go back to posting more often.

Damn that's hot!

That was the opening line of the song we hip hopped to last night. It's a Keshia Cole/Missy Elliott tune that's been in my head all day. It was a sweatin' workout last night I tell ya. It looks like my buddies will not be continuing on into the second term either. I did get my Hip Hop Abs 2 and Dance party dvds today so that made we really happy.

So far this week my tracking has been awful, just awful. I'm not sure why, it's like I'm so distracted with everything else in my life. The eating hasn't been terrible thank goodness.

It's the first cake decorating lesson tonight, I'm so excited. I'll report in later.

Ciao

Down 1.4

Whew! Finally a downward spin, which probably means my gain from the week before was completely water related. Friday was the last day for one our salespeople so I baked a bailey's cheesecake and another co-worker brought a bottle of bailey's. At 2pm we were eating cheesecake (small pieces) and drinking bailey's. Of course after that I was drinking water like it was going out of style. I picked up YOU-Younger at the bookstore, I caught the last half of Oprah and I was intrigued. I have the other You books and while they are kind of cartoony there's definitely good tid bits of information. I'll be 36 on my next birthday which I have to admit is freaking me out a little. It's strange, hitting 30 and 35 didn't phase me. The third book is aimed at the 40+ crowd but I'm thinking why wait.

I stepped on the scale this morning and I was down a pound from yesterday. I did do something different yesterday, I just ate when I was hungry. I didn't follow a traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner. I just ate when I felt hungry. My water intake was awful yesterday but since it's snowing and windy out there right now I'll probably stay inside all day and clean house, do homework and such which is a great opportunity to drink water.

I'm also quite proud of myself that I'm not stress eating, I've been stressed at work for the last week and I haven't resulted to calming myself with food. That's new for me, I've consciously decided that I am in control.

Because I'm at home all day today I will be paying close attention to my motivations for grabbing something to eat especially because I have access to a fridge all day.

I hope everyone has great remainder of their weekend.

Happy Belated Halloween

Seriously, where does the time go. The last time I was here was Monday, it's now Thursday and it's been a blur I tell ya.

On tuesday Hip Hop was a fun, only 6 people were there as opposed to almost 12. We continued the routine for "The way I Are". This included a knee move that the healing bruise on my knee didn't appreciate very much. I also discovered how icy a part of the sidewalk on the way there is, I'll have to keep a look out for that. On the running front I've had tremendous scheduling issues. Monday I was exhausted, Tuesday hip hop, Wednesday halloweeners, Tonight I have to bake a cheesecake and Friday going out to dinner.

My tracking has been awful lately, this morning I opened my tracker and realized I hadn't tracked since Monday. I sat there trying to remember what the heck I had eaten. I suppose the week of Halloween isn't the ideal week to declare starting over.

I got 32 trick and treaters last night, which I think is a couple more than last year but it was warmer this year.

Best costume of the night - A kid dressed up as a Bescherelle, if you've studied french in Canada you'll know what that is. It's the bible of french verbs and according to the kid's friend I was the only person on their route that knew what that was. I knew those 12 years of french would come in handy.

Cutest of the night - Probably 3 yrs old, dressed like a dragon.

Absolutely no one came after 8:30pm. I was snacking on the bowl - I know-bad, bad, bad and more bad. However I was waiting for the kids I was watching TLC and they had show called something like "They eat 33000 calories a day". I'm not kidding on the calorie part. They were interviewing a man who was removed from his house (by taking down a wall and using a forklift) to the hospital when he weighed 600lbs. At the interview he weighed 900lbs. He was laying down wearing only underwear. I can tell you I spit out that candy bar pretty quickly.

I'm going to do some sort of dvd workout tonight while I bake the cheesecake.

Alright, well I hope everyone is well and have a groovy day.