Not as bad as I thought..

Up 0.2 this morning which is way better than I was expecting. You see I had no idea how my weight would react to water retention thanks to TOM combined with weight training. The weird thing is I earned 25 Activity points this week. So no matter what I quite proud of that as it's been a long time since I encorporated that much exercise into my life.

Last night at the gym it was learning the upper body workout. She asked if me if I wanted to do machines or free weights. I chose free weights as often your working core plus whatever muscle you're working on.

I did my warm up and then off with Jenny and just like Wednesday the new girl was with us so I was the training example.

So the first exercise was using the pull down weight machine (aren't you looking forward to me learning the real names of the machines). You sit and grab a bar over your head and pull it down. However she had me sit facing away from the machine and pull the bar behind my head. Working shoulders and back. 12 reps.

Next it was on to a weight bench. Laying on my back, knees bent and feet and head on the bench. I did two different things one was holding 10lbs in each hand so the weights were length wise together, arms straight in front, lower to 90 degrees elbows bent, then push up to starting position. (the official name totally escapes me at the moment). The 2nd exercise was chest flies, so arms once again straight out, weights held end to end this time and lower your arms keeping elbow slightly bent to past 90 degrees. Oh my goodness I could feel this one pretty fast. 6 reps each.

Then we went off to the pulley machine and I had to sit on the floor for row backs, hanging on to this thing that looked like triangle with both hands, making sure to squeeze between the shoulder blades as I pulled it back. 12 reps.

Then off to another pulley machine where I did bicep curls using a straight metal bar and then tricep extensions using a rope handle attached to the machine.

I felt kind of like big girl in the gym as I sort of looked like I knew what I was doing.

Next I had to do all that again. Everything is 2 sets but she didn't want me to just pause for 60 seconds between sets but treat it like a circuit. So your also racing around the gym

Next it was off to do the core exercises that I described the other day - 2 set circuit.

Then it was off to cardio. Due to having a ton to do before I left for my Dad's. I did 15 min on the Arc trainer and then walked home (15min). Then cleaned my house (60min).

On Monday the 6th we do lower body, I'll have to copy this stuff off my card so I can actually tell you what things are called.

So it's one day upper body/core/cardio, one day lower body/core/cardio and one day core/more cardio.

I'm really looking forward to coming back home so I can get into a routine.

With next week at my Dad's and eating out of his kitchen I'm not sure what will happen weigh wise when I get back. The week is dedicated to studying for the exam I have on the 4th.

I'm really looking forward to being done with that and being able to put it out of head.

So have a fantastic week my friends, I look forward to reading up on all your adventures.

Hugs!

Temporary Amnesia and Hormones

These are the only things that explain my eating behaviour yesterday and again a reason to keep WW books at work.

For lunch I went to Tim Horton's and had the Ham and Swiss sandwich, thinking it's on the healthy menu. Alright I had a donut too. I bought a muffin for dinner as I'd be in class from 6-8:30 and probably not get home until 9pm.

Last night I wrote it all down in my tracker. OMG - the sandwich 9pts, the donut 8pts, the muffin.........10pts.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! I must create a mantra "Muffin equals cake".

I was surprised about the sandwich that's for sure.

So the change of schedule and good old TOM tossed me a curve, am I going to throw this week away. Hell no, today is back on program and the gym tonight not to mention loads of water. What will happen at Saturday WI? A learning experience.

Now I know I need a better plan for Thursdays and my crazy schedule.

I did walk home from the bus stop that's 12 blocks in the dark by myself. I felt safe this time but I can't guarantee that will be everytime. I wanted to squeeze in some APs.

Getting to the University was an experience. I had to take the train and I never take the train. It was a case of sardines. The first one was too packed to get on. The 2nd one I got on to but there's no personal space. You are touching other people.

The class is bigger than I thought and I ran into someone who works for another division but the same company and a client that I've only emailed. So that was bizarre. This woman was asking me if I was pursuing the CHRP and I said yes I'm doing the first test on Oct. 4th. She says to me " I heard it's hard". What I wanted to say to her "Shut up". I don't need to hear that, I know it's not easy but be positive damn it.

The good thing about this week - thus far I've earned 20APs and there's still gym tonight. Apart from Thursday eating has been good. Have I been 110%? No, more like 90% so now I know what I need to do for the rest of this challenge.

Saturday will be a weigh and run as I don't have time to stay for the meeting. I promise to email Angie my results before I leave and I may have time for one last post before I go.

Then it's off to the middle of nowhere for some serious study time.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week while I'm gone. I'll be back on Sat. Oct 4th - after the test to recap on everyone's happenings.

Hugs!

1st 90min with trainer...

Update: For everyone worried about their next weigh in. 1. don't compare yourself to others, 2. this is a 14 week challenge. It breaks my heart to read about people in a panic. Everyone loses weight differently and it's a 3 month challenge. Perhaps this week isn't amazing but every .2, .5, .6, .8 counts towards becoming healthier. I'm not expecting a stellar weigh in due to retaining water and how my body reacts to crazy workouts all of a sudden. Have faith in yourself and remember you are doing this for you.
Hugs!


She kicked my patootie and most of it was fit assessment, heaven help me with the workouts.

I got to the gym a bit early so I hit a treadmill for 10min to one kill time and two have a bit of a warm up. I then go to the desk looking for Jenny. I get told that she's just wrapping up with someone so go to the bikes and pedal for a bit so my muscles don't cool down.

I was on the bike for 2min when Jenny came up to me. So first thing was a Vo2 Max test on the bike. I had to pedal keeping my rpm between 60-70 hanging on to the handle bar sensors. For 7 min I pedaled with what felt like up a mountain. I think my score was 28 which isn't fantastic, average is 31-33.

Next it was a flexibility test, sitting on the floor with legs straight out and feet against the contraption. I had to push a little wooden block while leaning forward, kind of like touching your toes type of move. My belly totally didn't help with that one. So that kind of flexibility not so good.

Next where push ups (I despise push ups), she kept telling me to go lower and I went as low as I could without not being able to come up again.

Based on this she started to design day one of my 3 day program.

Core Day:
15min Warm up on treadmill 3.5 miles, 3 incline

Crunches on a stability ball, 2 sets of 12 lifting the shoulders only, 2 sets of 12 lifting up to the waist.

Next was some contraption that I have no clue what it's called. You stand on it and put your feet on a metal bar and then lift your legs up working your lower abdominals. This was hard! 2 sets of 12 (by the first 8 I was getting tired).

Next the machine that works your obliques, you swivel from front to side. Right side - 2 sets of 30lbs, Left side - 2 sets of 30lbs.

Then it's 20min each on two different cardio machines.

So she put me on an Arc trainer first - I did 17min
Then it was a treadmill 3.3 miles - 6 incline for 20min.

Then stretching and I walked home.

I was exhausted when I got home and had cereal for supper.

I'm not sure if we're doing lower or upper body on friday.

She said to do weights first so you burn some carbs and then by the time you hit cardio you're in fat burning mode. We'll see how that works.
She wants me to do one set at a time and kind of go in a circuit twice so no resting for a min between sets it's just off to the next thing.

She looked at me and said I'm going to work you hard, I looked at her and said "Deal".

I feeling good about this, I won't get bored with the moving from thing to thing and splitting cardio between different machines. She appears to know what she's talking about.

Today I can feel my abs so I have perfect posture.

Now the next two session she'll show the rest of the workout in part 1 and part 2 kind of fashion.
It kind of sucks that I'm away next week but this will inspire me to atleast keep up yoga while I'm gone.

I'm realizing how much I have to do before leaving. I made a list this morning and I'll make a pack list today. I have no idea when I'll get home from class tonight so I'm betting all must get done after gym tomorrow and Saturday morning. My bus doesn't leave until 12:45 on Saturday so I'm planning to get all done on Friday and just be an energizer bunny.

Have a groovy day everybody!

Leona Lewis needs a new song

Or at least that was my waking thought this morning as "Bleeding Love" was the song that was playing. I did like this song when it first came out but now it makes me want to switch stations.

Yoga was excellent last night we did a lot of restorative poses so opening up the chest, stretching the back. I slept like the dead last night.

The cheesecake looks fantastic and smelled incredible so I was very happy to have to leave the house for yoga

I was recording Biggest Loser but I wound up watching most of it before and after yoga. I liked the Grey team but it makes total sense game wise as to why they were voted off. I was a bit surprised to hear Heba say that Colleen was a big threat. Of course the girl has heart and drive but technically not as much weight to lose as some of the others. Totally disappointed in the Orange team for going back on their word to the Grey team. Hmmm...I think Heba is the one to watch in terms of game play. I loved it when after the slip n' slide challenge her husband said "I get to call the dog".

A lot of those recipes looked really good that they made. I'll definitely check if they post them.

All my gym stuff is with me today so we shall see if I get a training session tonight.

Have a great day everybody.

The picture of patience

So my lovely first gym session with the trainer didn't exactly go as planned.

I got home, changed and zipped to the gym (15min fast paced walk). I got there and ready 15min before my scheduled appointment. So I sat and observed the other gym goers for 15min. Then I see this girl go by me with a clip board talking to another gym goer. Hmmm...she sounds like Jenny. This is at 6:05.

So at 6:15 I go to the desk and say I'm here to see Jenny. A look of a wee bit of panic is on the face of Natalie (the manager) who at this moment is training a new employee. So she explains that they're a bit behind today could I go do 15min warm up on one of the machines and come back. So I go to do that (3.5 walk on the treadmill for 15min). I go back to the desk and who I have now guessed is Jenny is doing fit tests with two new people. Hmmm....so I wait. When she steps away I ask are you Jenny? She says yes, I say I'm you're 6:15- again panic. I say this as yet another person is waiting for Jenny also.

Do I get angry? No, I look at her and say alright. How about I come back on Wed and Fri and then get an additional session on Mon Oct 6 as I'm away the week in between. A look of total relief crosses her face and thanks me for being so understanding.

I discovered that they were short a person and with so many new renewals (Last year they offered one year at $199 so now all those people are renewing their memberships) they had an abundance of people scheduled for the fit test. I'm in staffing, I understand.

I did observe that measurements and determining your body fat percentage are part of the fit test...oh joy.

So I went to Safeway picked up the ingredients I need for the cheesecake and walked home at a fast pace. In all that's 45min of cardio. Not too shabby.

I will be at the desk 15min before my scheduled appointment on Wed. just so everyone knows I'm there.

I picked up a Lean cuisine mushroom steak panini for supper and did have a few Oreos (ingredient for the cheesecake). However before anyone gets all bad cop. I had the pts (Flex) for it and I tracked in my journal before I ate them. Last week I would have eaten then written it down.

As of the scale this morning 1lb down and still on track.

Tonight 90min of yoga.

So stay tuned on for that recap of the fit test ...

Modern Technology

Update:Almost caved in and got a chocolate bar this afternoon, but then stopped myself and said you can have your afternoon snack at 4pm..tada I did it!

At 8am this morning I was at the dermatologist for my annual skin check (melanoma scare 5 years ago-ish, lucky for me caught early and now have a snazzy scar on my arm that sort of looks like a stab wound...which would probably make for a more dramatic story)

I'm all clear for another year and he froze a sunspot on my cheek which will apparently crust over and fall off (doesn't look so bad right now, I had pictured something much worse) and he took off a skin tag on my shoulder and then lasered it. This all happened in 5 minutes.

Being scrutinized while naked is embarrasing but better than being dead. I have my next year's appointment booked and I can't help but wonder where I'll be weight wise by then.

Looking forward to the first day with trainer tonight, which also means there might be mulitple posts today. I get a "fit" assessment, that should be interesting. I strongly suspect the results will be similar to the last one I did - strong lower body, wimpy upper body. So my appoinmtent is at 6:15 so I left all the gym stuff at home. I should be able to get home by 5:30 change and zip to the gym (15min walk at least) so there's my warm up.

I need to make a birthday cake this week and was going to make it for Friday (the actual birthday of the individual) but now they've requested Wednesday instead. So now I need to pick up the ingredients after gym and make it before yoga tomorrow. Oy vey, I'm going to make a cheesecake as those are pretty fast and I'm good at those.

So on to BLBE things...my excuses and challenges.

Tired - for sure I can make all sorts of plans but if I hit the couch first it's doomed.
Bored - snack attack heaven, and then I always eat then track it after the damage has been done.
I can be a bit of an all or nothing thinker myself. Blew a day there goes the week sort of thing.

So the going forward for me is:
Don't give myself a chance to sit down, either go straight to the gym or go home change and straight to the gym or if it's not gym - change and straight to whatever activity.

When I feel a snack coming on, truly evaluate if I'm hungry and drink some water. Evenings can be bad for me so if I have trouble resisting then go straight to bed.

If there's a slip, get back on the wagon the next meal not the next day.

Yesterday I put all of the challengers blogs into my bloglines so I have a one stop read and someone was saying how they divide the ice cream into half cup servings. OMG that's genius and never occured to me. I'm not sure we have the half cup Glad containers in Canada.

So Food for the day:
Breakfast
Oat bran - 1
1 tbsp Brown Sugar - 1
1/2c blueberries - 0.5
1c Milk- 2

A.M Snack
coffee (light evap milk and sugar) - 3
yogurt and 1/2c blueberries - 2.5

Lunch
Salad with 2oz turkey and 0.5 oz walnuts - 4

Dressing - dip fork into dressing then into salad so will track this afterwards. It's a light dressing so probably no much. It's truly amazing how little dressing you use doing it this way.

PM Snack
cheese and apple - 3pts

So that leaves me 7 for supper post gym (not including whatever dressing works out to but I'm betting it's less than 2). So let's say 6 for supper. Which is completely reasonable.

We'll see activity point wise this evening, not sure if that will factor in.

I do strongly believe in eating your APs and FPs, when I go back and look at past weeks I've always done better when I eat those. Now mind you that's my metabolism, everyone is different.

I'm totally thinking at the end of this challenge we should have BLBE t-shirts :)

Later!

Day one of BLBE

That's Biggest Loser: Blog Edition (BLBE) in case you didn't know. The challenge is now closed with something like 70 participants. Whoo hoo, this will be good. I think at the end of this we owe something to Angie for tracking all that so put your thinking caps on. If you didn't make the cut off don't feel bad, just follow along just as millions do with the tv show Biggest Loser. The only person who will be successful at this is the person who decides they will be succesful at this.

If you decide to fail or succeed, you will. I don't want to see this girl ever again.

I had to get creative to get a body shot, this is me standing on my bed so you could get a somewhat version of my before self.

Alright yesterday I woke up and weighed myself on my bathroom scale before heading to weigh in. 188.4...yuck. That's 2.4 gain over last week and I know why. For the last 3 days I had not really been paying attention to what I was doing as I knew starting Sunday there would be no more excuses. I did have the breif thought of maybe I can lose 3lbs on the way to Starbucks before going to my meeting. Of course that didn't happen but I did lose .2 as my official weigh in was 188.2. As I stood on that scale (it's about a 20min walk to weigh in) I looked at my leader and said "It's been an interesting week" and she asked "Did you enjoy it?" and I looked her and said yes and today starts new day.

This week will be crazy I have 3 meetings with my trainer at the gym on Mon, Wed and Fri. All at 6pm which is about half an hour later than I would normally start a workout. Tuesday will be 1.5 hours of yoga. Thursday I have class from 6-8:30 so no workouts that day. On Saturday and Sunday I will fit in some kind of activity, not necessarily the gym but something to complement what I'm doing. Yesterday I walked for about 3hrs and I saw a loss on the scale this morning already. Today I'm cleaning my house and doing yoga.

The meeting with the trainer will determine my starting upper body, lower body and core workouts. Jenny definitely seems popular. As I was waiting to sign up on Friday there were a few people looking for her. OMG the sign up was funny. I was talking to a different girl and within 5 minutes I knew her life story.

So I have lunches, dinners and snacks planned for next week. I'm paying attention to my protein as I don't get enough of that. Workouts are planned for next week. On Saturday the 27th I'm gone for 6 days without a computer (middle of the country and no internet). I can still make weigh in on the 27th but I won't be able to make the Oct.4 weigh in as I'm writing a test from 9am to 11am. However my home scale is awfully on target with the weigh in scale as you can tell from the start of this entry so that will be my back up plan. My Dad is cooking for those 6 days so that will also be interesting. The good thing is there are no snacks at Dad's house. It's home cooked protein and veggies. I'm bringing my extra yoga mat to just leave there so I don't need to cart back and forth. If I could just pick up a wi fi signal out there I'd report in via Itouch.

Now absolutely I will share all that I learn in this journey with all of you. I'm not thinking of this as a competition as I'm hoping all of us at the end of this feel like Biggest Losers.

Life happens so plans can change but what I promise of all of you is that if I need to make a change to a planned workout I will also tell you my make up plan. I now consider myself completely accountable to all of you BLBE folks.

We should get t-shirts :)

Hugs to all and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

The Challenge Begins!!!!!

See logo on the right?, it's a growing community of people tired of spinning their wheels and ready to go in whole hog. Click on it and it will take you to the challenge home blog where you too can join. Challenge finishes on Dec. 27, 2008. So that's 14 weeks starting Saturday. I think I'm going to set my goal at 30lbs from whatever I weigh in at on Saturday.

Huge giant shout out to Angie for taking care of all this, she's a superstar!

I've made my decision to re-join Spa Lady, a gym is a gym and there all the same as long as you go...right? I'm excited about having someone else design my routine. If I could remember the girls name I'd drop in tonight and sign up. Perhaps, I'll call and see if they can tell me who called me...I shall look into that. Update: I'm going to see Jenny after work and re-sign up, what better motivation then the Biggest Loser : Blog Edition challenge.

Oy vey this week has been tough, snackapalooza thanks to TOM has been a challenge. Yesterday was weird because I didn't get dinner until 9pm. Weigh in should be interesting.

My success in this challenge will be directly determined by food and exercise. Now I'm getting exercise sorted now it's food's turn. I definitely need to take advantage of the weekends to sort out my weeks. So this evening I'll plan my grocery list carefully.

Now I'm away for a week not next week but the week after. My main purpose for that week is to prepare for the National Knowledge Exam. I'm going to my Dad's which means no control over food but apparently I'm assisting with loading fire wood on to his truck and then off of his truck. That's definitely exercise.

Alright so that's all I got for today, have a groovy day.

Later!

Here we go again....

Angie (bless her heart) is heading up the Biggest Loser: Blog Edition and I just sent an email saying I'm in. If you are interested go here and read the whole post before signing up. This is serious my friends.

Now I have a love/hate relationship with challenges. While I love the opportunity to meet new people with a common goal, I can also become frustrated and blah about the challenge. Now I realize this is not the road to success and I really need to suck it up and go with it.

I got a call from Spa Lady last night asking if I knew my membership had run out. Yes I knew, I wasn't so sure I wanted to sign up again. I was bored with it and lost my mojo. The girl that I was talking to had spunk and tenacity, she was telling that if I sign up for the 3 yr plan (a long amount of time in my opinion) you get 3 meeting with a trainer at the start and then every month you go back to that same trainer and they design a new routing so you keep it interesting.

So I was thinking about it. It's close to home and pretty convenient location, price wise no one compares (3yrs is cheaper than one year at a normal gym) and no kids. If I could get this girl as a trainer I'm seriously thinking about it.

I also need to be 100% committed to this, no willy nilly excuses, no wimping out. I must except that my "workout at home " plan has not being going well as I get caught up in different things.
My major problem with Spa Lady in the past was coming up with workouts on my own.

I'll keep you posted.

Have a great day everybody!

The Season of Biggest Loser begins...

I watched a bit of BL last night as I had to zip off to yoga, it is safely on my dvr. I've already read a recap so I know who went home but I'll definetly sit down and watch the whole thing properly.

I loved the bit where Bob was talking about him having husbands and wives and Jillian having parents and kids and that it was his mission to make sure he didn't see people from his team back with their kids in the future.

Keeping in mind I haven't watched the whole episode, I do wonder what people expect will happen when they hit the ranch. We've watched this thing for a long time, expect to feel tortured.

As I read my blogs this morning I was really struck by two today. First this post at All & Sundry , big thanks to Fat Bridesmaid who mentioned this post. I also really liked Angie's post today.

For pete's sake we have the Canadian version of so many other shows why not Biggest Loser. Its not like there aren't other international versions of this show. Plus you do this over winter and snow shoeing could be an interesting challenge, while also showing workouts happen all year round. I'm quite liking the idea of a Biggest Loser : Blog Edition but not a competition, no prizes just the goal to be at your goal.

Yoga was good last night, many more people than last time and I got a little territorial about my traditional spot..note to self get there earlier next time. We did mostly standing poses which aren't my favourite. This time round she had the lights dimmed and was giving verbal cues which was fine until I discovered I was way off on one nicknamed "happy baby" and I think the words "hell no" were whispered as I tried to get into that pose.

When I got home from yoga all hell broke lose food wise. I definitely need a post yoga snack. I didn't even think about it and started noshing on Fibre One tortilla chips, then sugar free rice pudding, then a couple of crackers. Whoa nelly! I was having a really good day up until then..dang it.

So today I'm being cautious, still 3 days to weigh in.

I've resolved myself to thinking I should weed the flower beds, you see it's going to be 26 degrees today which is crazy and I was certain my responsibility to the flower beds was done with falls arrival but no, they mock me everyday when I get home.

Have a groovy day!!

I heart Blair and Chuck

Watched Gossip Girl last night and all I can say is who cares about Dan and Serena..Go Chuck and Blair, they are by far the most interesting pairings on that show.

I discovered this morning that I rose in the productivity rankings at work...funny what a month will do. I'm 6k below the person above me and 6K doesn't take much. The person above me is planning to put their notice in on Monday so we shall see what happens with that.

Yoga is tonight and I'm so looking forward to it. I do have a challenge that perhaps all you lurkers and posters can help me out with. One should really not eat anything heavy before yoga and the preference is to do it on an empty stomach. The thing is I get home by 5:30, Yoga starts at 7:30 and I don't get home until 9:15pm ish. That's way too late for me to eat so I need light dinner in between that's outside of cereal. (Which will probably be tonight's dinner)

I have successfully tracked for 3 days so far, this is a major accomplishment lately. Points are doing well and I'm seeing a loss on the scale at the moment. 4 days to weigh in.

I'm trying to see myself in the conditions of my success, big picture thinking sorta thing.

So I have to tell you about this radio promotion that a local station is doing. Two Strangers and a Wedding...yup just like that. Over 6 weeks a bride and groom will be chosen but never meet face to face until the walk up the aisle. They'll have every professional service available i.e matchmaker, backcheck, psychologist. Of course they don't absolutely have to get married but it's kinda crazy. The feedback they've been getting has been along the lines of "What!" , "You're crazy", "This isn't right". I started thinking about how most of the couples I know met. I would say 99% of the time totally random. So I'm intrigued as to what will happen when they match people up based on the inner qualities not the physical qualities. However I won't be signing up :)

Have a groovy day!!!

Hmmm...

So Monday was off to an interesting start in terms of everyone is in a bad mood. Not towards each other just over all.

I'm trying to ignore them.

Alright so I cleaned off the dvr this weekend in preparation for new tv week. I had taped this Wayne Dyer presentation off of PBS. I'm intrigued so I ordered the book.

Here's a few of my thoughts on some new shows.
Fringe - I liked it, I also liked X-Files. I think it's more x-file like than alias. I've added it to my series recording.

Privileged - I really like the lead actress, I think she'll be a hit. Can't stand the eldest grand daughter, not sure about this one. I will watch again.

90210 - I'm done, best of luck 90210.

I am beyond excited about Biggest Loser starting tomorrow, and Heroes starts this week too.

I realized I can't watch audition shows. I can only watch when it gets down to the top whatever. I watched a smidgen of the SYTYCD Canada auditions and I'm not into it. Emanuelle Sandhu tried out and I can't stand this guy. He's a Canadian figure skater and I'm disliked him from day one, completely due to the fact that he's full of himself. Not just confident but prima donna. I'm sincerely hoping he doesn't make it to the top 20.

Wasn't very productive this weekend but that's o.k. Sometimes you need to actually take the weekend off.

Hugs to all

Why I should rule the world

Or really anyone with common sense.

I had my quarterly review today and it wasn't fun. I work in a sales culture, so it doesn't matter what kind of effort you put in, or the fact they hired stupidly and too many in one area, or that business is very very very very slow due to market conditions ...you are still expected to make the crazy targets they set out for you (that they randomly pick out of their head as they're not based on any kind of historical data). If my clients don't order due to hiring freezes or they don't want to pay fees and instead higher salaries, this is somehow my fault.

So I'm not making enough money, I'm making them money but not enough. Aaagh, I hate my job but all this does is inspire me to look for a different one. So that hunt begins again.

I dvr'd SYTYCD Canada and caught the last few minutes as it was showing, it looks good.

I'm beyond happy it's Friday, I need time to think.

Have a groovy weekend!

7 Years

As everyone probably knows today is the 7th anniversary of 9/11.
No one will ever forget where they were that day, or the silence that followed.
I remember I didn't laugh for the longest time and when I did I felt bad for a moment and then realized to be human is to pick up the pieces and rebuild.

So I hope today you take a moment to realize how blessed you truly are and to appreciate what you have.

I am blessed to be a Canadian and so proud of all those Canadians who opened their homes, schools and churches for all those passengers on all those planes that were grounded that day 7 years ago.

To all those who lost someone on that day, know that a billion thoughts are with you today.

Mindless drivel resumes tomorrow.

Mindless observations

First of all send heart filled vibes to my friend H, she said good bye to her beloved Kitty on Monday. Kitty will be dearly missed.

To the car that turned left when they weren't supposed to and narrowly missed being hit by my bus please think...bus vs car. The bus will win.

To the car who doesn't know the rules of 4-way stops who narrowly missed being hit by my bus about 15min later this morning...refresh your knowledge and think...bus vs car. The bus will win.

The minute I got home last night I changed clothes and headed to the basement to do Kathy Smith's Step Workout. This is a classic my friends, and a go to workout if I don't know what to do. Oy vey, I was schwitzing 15min into it. That's the thing about physical fitness it's so easy to lose if you don't keep it up. I then did 30min of Yoga and I slept soundly last night. Hmm...there might be something to this.

Tonight I'm going outside for a 5K walk. I realized that I can't expect myself to jump in where I left off as I've given myself quite the sabbatical. So back to basics is it. Right now the plan is to create conistency.

Got my Landsend order yesterday and love the Dory Jacket (pictured), its not poofy and quite smart looking. Reported to be good in from -9 to -15C (with a light layer). This my fall/winter jacket. As a Calgarian I really need to own 10 jackets as the temperature swings are ridiculous. Take this morning it was 4 degrees, by the time I go home it could be 16 degrees. My lovely Roots jacket is starting to feel a bit chilly in the morning and a bit warm by the afternoon. I also ordered the aviator winter hat. I think ear flaps are absolute necessity in winter and I think I need to stop dressing like a sherpa with my winter head gear. I got all in black so I now I just need a funky scarf and I'm set.

I discovered yesterday that I have to take 8 vacation days before the end of the year or I lose them. We can only carry over 5, I'll have 13 vacation days by the end of the year. I'm thinking I should take the week off before my big test on October 4th. Then maybe take the 3 days before Christmas off. Yeah I know...poor me :) I was kind of hoping to have a new job by then so they just have to pay them out.

I got the new Entertainment Weekly yesterday and my plan to program my dvr begins.

Have a great day everybody,

Tech Geek

So after work yesterday I went to the library to renew my card. As I was waiting for a person I looked up at their info screen and saw that they have free wi fi. I knew this in the back of my head but as I don't have a lap top it hasn't really mattered to me. All of a sudden I realized this was my opportunity to use my itouch for web browsing, to kind of test it out.

OMG I sat there for half an hour just playing with it. I went to youtube, amazon.ca and downloaded my email and sent myself an email. While typing on it is a pain (one letter at a time and you have to use your finger vs. anything else as it's heat activated and I'm sure I've shared the frustrations of changing songs in winter as it doesn't work with gloves). I never really looked at this thing as a mini computer but really it is.

Had to giggle while watching Gossip Girl last night, outside of the story line I found it super funny when Chuck (Ed Westwick) comments to Marcus (Patrick Heusinger) about being British. Of course Ed is a British actor playing an American and Patrick is an American actor playing a Brit.
I'm adoring Blair this season. Leighton Meister has the best facial expressions.

Soon I realize I'll have to break out the coil notebook to track what to program my dvr for as new seasons begin. Thank goodness for timeshifting so I have some options. It's a very methodical process I must say.

Beyond excited that So You Think You Can Dance Canada starts on Thursday.

Alright that's it for now...ciao!

The Body is a mysterious thing

Down 1.5 lbs this morning, bizarre I must say. We shall see how the week pans out as the only weigh in that truly matters is the one on Saturday.

I made a turkey lasagna for work lunch with loads of veggies and it looks divine. Of course I can't eat any of it today. I'm going back to the bring lunch for 4 days and buy one day as it keeps the variety. Strangely I think I could eat lasagna all the time, I am a pasta fiend.

So I watched this strange show on the W network called Supersize vs. Superskinny. The premise is one very underweight and one very overweight person live together for a week. The Supersize eats one week of the food the Superskinny person eats and vice versa. The first show I watched the superskinny was eating the amount of calories for a 4 year old. I think it was something like 900 calories (don't quote me). The supersize at over 3000 calories a day. They each got to see how extreme each others diet was. They were medically supervised and when the week was up they were each given a food plan and reunited 3 months later. Of course the superskinny is trying to gain weight and the supersize is trying to lose weight.

The best part of this show is that it also has this incredibly funny woman named Anna Richardson who tries out all those crazy diets and trends that magazines and media toss at us. Like the apple diet, which she tried in this episode after talking to a model and asking what crazy things they did to prepare their bodies for a show. It's a British show on Channel 4 there check
out their link. I seriously laughed out load, Anna is super funny. If you don't get W Network you can also check it out on you tube.

Alright off to do laundry, hugs to all.

Confessions

I skipped WI this morning. For the past week I've eaten whatever the heck I wanted and didn't care about the consequences. Why? Mainly due to wicked stress that I had been avoiding for a long time.

This morning I woke up, took my measurements, did the full scale routine with my home scale (weight, bmi, body fat, body fat%, body water%) I'll be at WI next Saturday.

I just needed a break, an official one not just lousy tracking and continuously trying to get back on track. So I took a week off and now I'm back. I've tracked everything today and I've given myself lower point target for the next two days just to shock my metabolism.

I started a journal again to track the emotions behind the eating, this where I've written all those measurements from this morning. They're definitely linked, for me anyway.

It's a goofy time. My friend H is going through a rough time, her beloved cat is not well. She's a great cat, loads of personality and 20 years old. If Kitty could talk, the tales she would tell. I feel for H, I was traumatized when my dog died. Toby went the world to me, and even thought it's been a long time (1994) but it can still make me tear up.

Work is bizarre, there are 6 non management staff and all are hoping not to be there by Christmas.

I guess this all just life, you have to take the wonky with the good.

So I'm starting over for hopefully the last time. Isn't that the good thing though, we can start over. The only thing stopping you is yourself.

Watched two movies over the last two nights because there's been nada on tv. I can't wait for the new season, I tend to dvr shows and then watch them on the weekend.

So I watched Be Kind Rewind, with Mos Def and Jack Black. It was super slow at the start but definitely picked up. Heart warming movie really. I got this one on Shaw on Demand.

Tonight I watched The Bank Job, I love Jason Stratham and volunteer to have his children. The movie was good too. Based on a true story taking place in London in the 1970s. More of an intelligent, cheeky action film. I pay-per viewed this one.

The stupid thing I could have dropped by Blockbuster this morning but didn't want to.

I orderd the first season of Mad Men from Amazon, and that should be here soon. Thank goodness. Most of the new shows don't start for another few weeks. I saw a commercial for a show called Glam God hosted by Vivicia A. Fox, a stylist competion and then in October Stylista starts should be interesting to see how they differ and I hope I can pick up some tips. I think I need a bit of a transformation.

Hugs!

Some people

Watched the new season of ANTM last night, thought the whole future top model thing was a bit silly.

Adore Marjorie and wish this girl gets more backbone. So so so happy that Shoshauna (sp?) got kicked out. Her behaviour while Isis was doing her photoshoot was awful. I don't care what her personal feelings are towards transgendered individuals, she should have been professional if she wants to be a top model.

I'm really looking forward to the make-over episode. McKey's red hair has got to go.

Work is a strange place to be today, much drama and upsetness. Sent resume off to a new position yesterday. The desire to leave is getting stronger I must say.

Getting hair cut tonight and I'm quite excited as I'm completely over what I have now.

Later kids!

I don't like it

Alright so after surviving Walmart and purchasing a ridiculously expensive kettle that looks cool (choice was very limited and I wanted one now) plus things like ketchup (2 bottles were left on the shelf) and mascara I headed home feeling exhausted and icky (TOM). Walmart was super busy and every shelf looked bare, it was truly bizarre. So by the time I got home I turned on the tv and lo and behold the new 90210 was on.

The kettle is chrome, cordless and can take 2L. I can't find a picture anywhere or else I would post it so you could see it shiny newness.

I watched 90210 on and off the first time it was on and it's my go to zip code if I need an American zip code to sign up for something. I can't say I was ever a fan but the lead girl Annie is played by a Canadian so I was intrigued.

It's a stupid stupid show in my opinion. The dialogue is blah and very unbelievable, the acting is so-so but the adults are better than then the teenagers to some extent with the exception of Joe at the Peach Pit (why did they bring this guy back?). Now it is only the first episode and 2hrs was way too long, I wandered away to do other things multiple times. I might watch it one more time just to see.

I'm kind of intrigued by Privileged which starts next Tuesday on the CW. I adore Gossip Girls, the dialogue is witty and peppered with pop culture (which I love-Go Blair!).

I'm a demanding tv viewer, I don't want to see real life for that I watch the news (so no hospital or cop shows for me). I want to be entertained by something different and decadent. My other favourites include Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle isn't so bad, Torchwood, Battlestar Gallactica.

Biggest Loser is the closest I get to real life (which might be pushing it a little) and ANTM in terms of real people are the characters.

I treat the new season with limited patience. If it intrigues me I'll watch it once, if I love it then it's saved to series recording on the dvr. If it's so so I'll watch a second episode. If it's blah I'll never watch it again.

Yes I am a finicky TV fan, and I'm not ashamed of it. But God bless whoever invented the DVR.

So hurray to the new tv season as it quickly approaches :)

Frost in more ways than one

That is what I woke up to today. A balmy +2 and frost on the grass and windshields of cars. Going up to 17 though but it did make me find my mittens this morning.

Got an email from my recruiter this morning and the company I interviewed with on Thursday is not interested in going forward with me at this time. It's alright, I wasn't feeling super warm fuzzies about the position anyway. It's always a bit disappointing of course as now I'm at square one once again.

The weekend was alright. Great visit with Dad on Saturday and managed to spend money in 3 different grocery stores.

On Sunday Dad went home and found snow on his property and the rest of the day was just kind of blah. It was grey and rained all day. I was bored but couldn't get motivated to do much. So I baked cookies for the office which I forgot today so they'll come to work tomorrow.

Monday I actually cracked open the NKE prep manual and read the first section about the first of 8 required professional capabilities. My plan is to finish reading all 8 RPC by Sunday and then next week go back and make notes. Then for the next two weeks work on the sample questions. The test is October 4th. I've already mentioned to work that I might take Oct 3 off.

Monday night I had dinner with C and her boyfriend K. K is a new entity to us as she met him in Toronto. Nice guy, definitely likes C so I am pleased with this match up.

Bit of a foodapalooza over the weekend so today is definitely go back to basics kind of day.

Speaking of match ups, I can't get into eharmony at all lately it's like I just don't care at the moment. I have other concerns than finding a boyfriend at the moment. It expires on Oct 20 and I would have cancelled before hand but I missed the deadline and it just re-subscribed - Irritating I must say.

It seems like frost has invaded my life lately as in I've got a case of the blahs. Blah towards weight loss, blah towards current job, blah towards finding a new job and blah towards love life. I mean really the blah business needs to end and I know that. So this weekend I also dug out my WW tracker and dated all the pages, and started to track once again. I need to check daily for job updates and not hope that things land in my lap. In the meantime I really need to put more effort into what I do now. Once I have all that sorted then I'll focus on the love life. I might be seeing a psychic soon (coordinated with a few friends) so maybe that will shed some insight...

Things to look forward to: Fall, I love fall from the clothes to the weather. I start school on the 25th so the grey matter will be engaged. After Oct 4th (as all waking moments will be geared to this test) maybe I'll look into a 5K running clinic to get out and meet new people.

Life goes on my friends so might as well make the best of it.

Hugs!