What the heck have I been up to...

No really..I haven't posted for a week and I have nothing to account for it.

Weigh in on Saturday was up 0.6, which I totally blame on the cold I had. After my coughing yoga class I got full fledged sick and should have bought stock in Kleenex.

I spent the weekend working on two papers. I got 87.5% on one, the second one I think is crap. I had to stay within 5 pages double spaced, 12pt font. That's like writing in Sharpie to me. I'm just praying for a B on that paper.

It rained for a solid week which did not inspire much activity.

I had a killer yoga class yesterday that I can feel today.

I also got a call from the clinic where I had my name on a waiting list for a doctor. I have a meet and greet with a doctor on June 23rd. I've never done that before. I've only had two doctors in my life. Is this like an interview? Can I lose 40lbs in 4 weeks?

I can't wait for the client event to be over. I never wanted to be in charge. It's tomorrow and I'm never going near this thing again.

Two people have quit in my office and apparently another person is changing roles, which seriously makes me question what the heck is going on. I've started a relaxed job hunt which may get more serious soon.

Alright that's all that's up with me.

Now that school has calmed down I'm ready to re-focus on weight loss related adventures.

Have a fabulous day!

Call me disruptive

Another fabulous yoga session yesterday with a wee bit of coughing thrown in. At the end during relaxation/savasana I was having a coughing fit. It was ridiculous, I couldn't stop and I felt so bad that I was disturbing these people. The wonderful instructor came up to me and made a bit of a bed of yoga blocks and a blanket so my chest was raised and that calmed the coughing.
After the session I told her I promise not to cough next week. She was so sweet, she said to let her know about this sort of thing and she could come up with modifications.

I also came to decision yesterday, if you note above I've removed the tracker for the half marathon. I will not be competing. My heart is just not in it. I don't want to walk another half marathon. I do really want to incorporate some running into my workouts. My knee issue awhile ago scared me a bit. I realized I'm not quite so indestructable that I always thought. I must listen to my body as I push it. I'm going to start with a 5K. My goal is by the end of the summer I will run a 5K race. I don't think I care for long distance races. I'm happy that I've done two half marathons and a marathon, and that's good enough for me. Who knows what the future will bring but for the moment it's not in the cards.

I'm still going to pick up my race pack as I don't get any money back. I paid for that t-shirt dang it. I will definitely still go and cheer on my friends as they run the half marathon. I will happily play race support for them.

Another lesson learned today. If it's got anything to do with Wii, pre buy it. I foolishly thought I could stroll into my Walmart today and pick up a wii fit. Stupid, stupid, stupid - they are sold out across the city. Now I must wait until the next shipment comes in. Oh well, probably for the best as I really need to work on my portion of a group project tonight.

Tracking is still going very well and I'm taking that day by day.

That's all for today then, have a groovy day!

Hugs!

Tuesday = Monday

I love long weekends, but I much prefer having the Friday off than the Monday. Why? Because Tuesday winds up being total craziness.

So far I've had an candidate think I'm ripping off her paycheque. After explaining no I'm paying you what the company wants to pay you. The company must also pay for your burdens (i.e taxes and employment insurance), a payroll fee (to accounting to process cheques) and a fee to us (so I get paid). She then apologized for taking it out on me and thanked me for my professionalism.

Then our office manager let me know her last day is Friday, so I'm now in charge of our client event on May 29th. I don't want it, I have so far been asked 101 questions from the person who organized it last year (who was kicked off this event this year because she drives everyone crazy).

My other colleague is revamping her resume and has asked for my help. I make a suggestion and she says "No, I like it that way". That's totally cool with me, but why did you ask for my help then?

I found myself totally hungry at 10:20am. I had all bran with a banana for breakfast - I'm thinking I need to add some protein. Luckily I had some raw almonds in my desk so that took the edge off without having to walk into a convenience store. I have diligently tracked the weekend and that continues today. Yesterday I walked to the mall and back plus mowed the jungle lawn. Tonight is 1.5 hours of yoga. Tomorrow I'm picking up Wii Fit.

Lunch today is a fabulous salad with sundried turkey and bit of cheese. Activia yogurt and a 2pt coffee crips round out the snacks. Supper has to be light due to yoga, so I'm thinking a toasted WW english muffin with some peanut butter. That or a quick omelette with asperagus.

I have 8pts left for supper.

After reading H-Woman's blog which led me to a posting on Shirl's blog, I'm intrigued by Calorie King, or more specifically paying attention to calories as opposed to points. I've often had better success when I've eaten over my points allowance but that's a tricky game. I may look into that more closesly.

It's supposed to rain solidly for the next week, next nice day is Sunday. So the Wii Fit may come in handy.

Alright off to eat my salad. Have a groovy day!

Stayed the same...whew!

I was overjoyed to see that I stayed exactly the same at weigh in. Quite frankly for the past two weeks my tracking sucked, thank goodness for exercise is all I can say.

I have two weeks left in this Spring Challenge and I've got 4.8 pounds to lose to hit my goal. I completely believe I can do that in two weeks. My plan is to go back to basics. Week one so to speak. I'm tracking every bite. lick and sip. The focus is more on core type of foods but following flex. The goal for Saturday is to get into the 170s. I need about 2.6lbs for that to happen and I know I can do it.

I was watching X-Weighted the other day and a little light bulb went off in my head. I've completely forgotton the girls name but she's the one who competed in roller derby. She had been chubby all her life and at the 3 month check point she hit a weight that she hadn't been since high school and that she was heading into unchartered territory from now on.

In my entire WW history I once briefly crossed into the 160's . It was 168 and then it all went to south and I've been climbing my way back. I too have been chubby all my life so every time I cross into a new number i.e. 170, 160 it's like I have a mini freak out. No more I embrace the unknown. The only thing that has held me back is me. Me, myself and I are now on the same page. Let the games begin.

My leader even mentioned once again....Don't make WW your favourite charity.

I've set myself a little summer goal, starting now...lose 30lbs by September 1. The tracker is updated and off I go.

Have a fabulous long weekend to all the Canadians, play safe.

Hugs!

It's Friday, it's 30 degrees and I'm stuck inside

It's hot out there, that's 30 degrees celsius by the way. I am not fond of hot weather, and when the UV index is high (at an 8 today) that just freaks me out. Yesterday I saw some pink people running around.

After my skin cancer scare about 5 years ago I've been relatively diligent about protecting myself. I even keep a bottle of sunscreen in my desk. I do like summer but not crazy hot. If it stayed at 20 degrees I'd be very happy.

I need to be the picture of time management this coming weekend and week. The long weekend will have a chunk of time dedicated to school as I have 3 projects due on the 25th. My Dad is coming in that weekend with plants, alas I don't want to leave everything for the 25th. I had hoped to go see Iron Man but I don't think that's in the cards between textbooks and prepping flower beds.

Our restructuring plan was rolled out at work and I'm relatively unaffected, whew! It will interesting to see how this all rolls out in the future.

I was totally shocked that Whitney won ANTM, not that I didn't think she could do it but the look on her face while waiting for the results looked like she thought she had lost.

I'm kind of looking forward to the slew of summer reality show coming.

Tomorrow I face my fears and go to WI. I didn't tell you all but I skipped last week to study. I have not been so good with the tracking but I'm hell bent on going tomorrow. It's time to face the scale and get my act together.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun long weekend

I'm a yogini?

Yoga class was great yesterday. I actually knew most of the poses with the exception of dolphin (not sure how I feel about dolphin) and I've reaffirmed my general dislike for plank.

I was happy to see other non-skinny people there. It's a thing I have, I hate to workout with skinny people and be singled out as the bigger girl. Average age was mid 40 so I think I was one of the youngest people there.

It's bizarre I hadn't been in that community hall since girl guides so that's about the age of 12. It's a nice hall, the floors were wood and the wooden ceiling braces were exposed. I brought two mats with me which worked out perfect.

The instructor is super nice, so far every yoga teacher I've encountered has this softness of spirit thing going on or perhaps a better way of phrasing that is a peacefull ambiance.

I ran into my next door neighbour (who has a dog I adore). They're a really nice family, I don't run into them often just when shovelling snow or mowing the lawn. She has been going to these classes since they started in the community. On the walk home she told me that I must have done yoga before and she could tell I've practiced it. Which I thought was funny because I haven't consistently practiced yoga in a long time. I must have good muscle memory. I'm definitely pumped about doing more and encorporating it into my daily routine.

As I stood in mountain pose for awhile I did come to the conclusion that I need to embrace a more cleaning eating attitude and better prepare on the weekend for the week ahead. I'm happy it's a long weekend coming up as this will give me more time to be sorted. I'm not going whole hog and tossing food out that I have now but I'll think hard on what I replace it with that's for sure.

I've noticed a lot of talk on the blogs about how some started out focused on weightloss and gone off track. I too sometimes feel I'm off track but really getting healthy encorporates everything in your life. Sometimes it's just not the time to talk about food or exercise and one must get out what's going on around that.

The beauty of the blog is that it's an open forum. It's your blog, you can talk about whatever you want. Some will comment and some will not. I don't consider this to be a popularity contest.

It's an avenue to sorting things out with aid of others. I constantly come up with plans I'm going to do and then don't but the important thing is I keep coming back with new plans. The trick is to not give up. A new one is on the horizon.

We got talking about boot camp today and a little research showed they're pricey. Why can't I do my own boot camp? Map out a workout plan and post something disgustingly motivational on the wall so that when I don't feel like it I do it anyway. There's loads of info out there ( I own a lot of it).

I'm kind of excited actually, I feel a bit renewed.

Hugs!!!

I have surfaced

After a weekend of having my nose in books and reading 7 chapters, 5 of them twice. I surfaced on Saturday for a dental cleaning and groceries. I surfaced on Sunday for a jaunt to the mall to pick up my new Hush Puppy shoes.

Yesterday was work and go home and write the compensation test. Now all I need to do is wait for the result, but life does not stop my friends. I have two assignments due on the 25th so work must be done.

Tonight I go to my first yoga class at the community hall. I haven't done yoga in ages. How is it you can make something a routine and then you get derailed for a minute and it takes forever to get back on track.

Speaking of off track, my food has been totally awful for the past few days. Combination of stress over the test and being out of it has been bad. Now I all I want is vegetables. I feel fat. You know when you just feel like it's not right, that is how I feel.

I know I'm the only one who can change it so it's time to create some new habits and shake myself out of this rut.

The journey goes on....

Stress and all it's various forms

"I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now"

Edna Mode - The Incredibles

My life has felt very topsy turvy lately. I wish I had the nonchalance of Edna. Let me break it down.

Work:

Two us covering for two others who are on vacation, a wee bit crazy.

Yesterdays staff meeting resulted in being told that we're not making as much as we're supposed to and that there will be a re-organization that has been approved but things still need to be figured out before anything happens and oh yeah - no lay offs ...yet. Wow what a downer, the whole room went quiet.

What absolutely kills me is why discuss plans that aren't ready to be rolled out. All that creates is people updating their resumes.

School:

I'm getting a bit freaked out about this weekends test and making an intelligent sounding moderator questions. I'll get it done, that is not the worry.

I have a theory about stress. I consider our lives to be in spheres i.e work sphere, home sphere, school sphere. When stress is one sphere - no worries it can be handled. When stress is in two spheres - now it's getting a bit crazy. When stress is in three tiers - hide under a blanket.

Home:

I have had a hard week food wise. Unhealthy choices are easy to make even though I know better. It's like I'm in a funk. The funk needs to be shaken out.

The Wii came today so perhaps that will introduce some fun and distraction into my life for now.

The important thing to remember is this is just a blip, a blib that takes all your attention now but it will go away in time. Just roll with it.

Hugs!

Half way through

First of all I totally messed up the name of the actor in The Tudors. It's the same guy in the Hugo Boss ads when they're in the boxing ring.

Anyway I finally watched the first episode in it's entirety and I'm offically into it.

I need to shake up my food. I'm always talking about food plans but I find them really challenging. Anything that's printed or posted is not geared at an individual. I think I need to take the "Fixing Dinner" concept and apply to me. Where you figure out your weekly meal plan including leftovers from that week or pre-prepping on the weekend. I often find myself eating the same thing over and over.

I have a crazy weekend ahead school wise but I'm going to take time all this week so the weekend isn't a crazy chapter fest. Somewhere in there I will finally try to get a meal plan that works.

Really looking forward to yoga starting on Tuesday. Yet another thing I have to factor into my increasingly crazy life. Well one class ends at the beginning of June and then the other one ends at the end of June. By July I'll be twiddiling my thumbs :)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Later

Embracing The Tudors

When I saw the promos for The Tudors on the good old CBC I was intrigued but I never managed to catch this show. I do think Jonathon Rhys Davies is totally delicious. I downloaded the first season and plunked it on my ipod. I started watching it at the bus stop this morning and I was hooked from the opening montage.

The other day I picked up the book "The Other Boleyn" and I can't put it down. I'm intrigued and I've already attached all the other books on this topic by Phillipa Gregory on my amazon wish list. I didn't hear fantastic things about the movie but I'll wait until it's rentable.

Lately it seems that I'm in to historical dramas. I loved ROME, rented all the episodes last summer. I'll probably wind up doing the same for The Tudors to see it on a bigger screen.

Tonight I need to get myself sorted food wise. This weekend ran away from me. I was busy Saturday and Sunday and never got around to making work lunch so I bought today.

I'm going to make some sort of chicken/pork burger and roasted veggies. All inspired by an episode of Rachael Ray that I caught on my day off Friday. Well she had the roasted veggie part. I came up with the chicken/pork combo on my own. I failed to get this done on the weekend because I cleaned my oven - which took longer than I thought. I also broke the light in the oven while cleaning which sparked the discovery of what kind of light bulb do I need for an oven.

I figured that out and I'll road test the oven tonight.

I need to have my food sorted as so far this afternoon I've been obsessed with chocolate. Yes it's that time of the month for "Snackapalooza". My plan is to have flavourful low point things that keep me satisfied and not in search of snacks. Protein will play an important role here. Activity must also be a priority this week and instead of calling it exercise I'm calling it stress relief.

On Friday I was stressed. I found out that we were too late to submit our registration forms for the Mother's Day walk and run under the corporate challenge. Our leader (in another department) failed to tell us when the date was and didn't bother telling us that he had to beg to get his groups in. I was not happy as I felt I had let down my group. So I walked and forgot to put my heart rate monitor on ( I think I was truckin'). By the time I was done I felt better.

I really feel that exercise can shake you out of any mood that's bringing you down. Which really makes me wonder why I have such a hard time making it consistent.

Alas that is all I have for today. I hope your weekend was restfull and your week goes quickly :)

Bah!

I don't know what to think of yesterday, it was such a day of highs and lows that I'm not sure who won.

First of all got home to find my phone and internet connection completely dead. Pulled out the cell and phoned Telus. Apparently a line has been cut somewhere in my area. Great! When will that be fixed - they don't know. As of this morning still no land line. Of course I wanted to do online banking last night and instead had to do it at work today.

I also got a letter from my doctor. She's closing her practice. Crap! It's almost impossible to find a family doctor in Calgary. I arranged to get my file so I can transfer it to a new doctor (if and when I find one) and I get to pay $25 for it because I've been with this doctor for 8 years plus - my file is bigger. I get the feeling I'll be booking yearly physicals at walk in clinics and trudging my file around. I called one of my co-workers doctors but they're not accepting new patients (big surprise..not), they referred me to another clinic. I called there but they're not taking new patients either however there's a waiting list for a new doctor starting in June. Considering I don't need a physical until August that may work out.

I finally found a Wii at BestBuy online. So that was awesome, except they wanted to verify by phone (my home phone) so this morning I got to explain why it was impossible for me to verify from home phone as it's dead. Happily it's now on it's way.

Dad arrives today so he can see his eye doctor for the 6 month check up tomorrow. So yay! to a home cooked meal when I get home today.

I was supposed to moderate a question on the discussion board for my business management class next week. I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing. I haven't finished the chapters for this week let alone think of anything to ask about for next week. Some guy in my class needs to switch his week, he's the week after me so I offered to trade. I'd just like to see an example of what they're expecting before I toss myself in.

This weekend will be all about textbooks. I think I'm going to take myself to a coffee shop and read there. I find at home there are tons of distractions. A moccachino and out of the house may be a good thing.

My 2nd year anniversary of this blog was March 9th and I completely missed it. I wanted to thank all of you who have stopped by and read and/or posted. Blogging is such a weird world of establishing friendships with people you will probably never meet in person. I'm happy to know you through your words and commentary.

Until later...have a good one