Monday, May 31, 2010

That's a sure fire way to walk away

Hello my friends, hope you're having a wonderful Monday.

Mine started in the wee hours as I had to get on the plane to Fort McMurray, had a whack of back to back meetings then a 2hr drive to camp. It wasn't that bad as I had great company. I got to camp on the early side so I went straight to the gym and got a treadmill.

Tonight was: 377 calories burned, 1hr, 7.07km, Pace 8:32- 6:34. I actually ran for the 3 minutes of it. At the half hour mark I didn't see the distance adding up the way I wanted so I decided to run for a bit to ramp it up. I ran for one minute, walked 4.0 mph for 2min and repeated that 3 times. The surprising part was I wasn't dying either especially as I had already been walking a good clip for half an hour.

That now gives me a total of 14 AP this week. No workouts tomorrow as I won't be home till later but I could technically aim for 12 to 15 more by week's end.

We'll see if I'm mega sore tomorrow.

Tonight's camp dinner wasn't so great. I had a scoop of the Sheppard's pie and broccoli. The Sheppard's pie was dry so dry the little layer of mashed potatoes looked like paper. The broccoli was under cooked as the edge of a few pieces felt like chewing branches. I still had a fair amount left on my plate when I walked away. It was getting busy so I opted not to go back and get something else. Lunch was pork souvlaki with rice from the cafeteria in Fort Mac. The pork was over done and smallish so I had to kind of guess on tracking that today. Oh well c'est la vie.

Now I can't get my room's TV to work so I'll turn my attention to that shortly after I have a shower.

Hope you had a great day.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

It stopped

First of all I need to congratulate all those that took part in the Calgary marathon today that would include the 1/2 marathon, 10K and kids run. A special shout out to D  who ran the half and C who ran the full today. Way to go ladies.

I stepped on the scale this morning and saw a lower number than yesterday and that's with dipping into flex last night...more on that later.

It stopped raining that is for awhile at least so hopefully the runners enjoyed themselves. It's been raining / snowing for 3 days so I saw my window of opportunity to go outside for walk.

373 calories burned/ 6.38K/ 59:39/ Pace 9:21-6:20

It felt like ages since I went outside. It was a bit cold a +2c and windy but refreshing.

Yesterday after I blogged I did the step aerobics again and it still kicked my patootie. WW says I earned 5  AP, Daily Plate says I burned 394 calories. Hmm not sure which way to lean on that. My best plan is to see if I can get Garmin FR60 to measure calories burned on non running/biking activities.

Then a bit later I got a monster headache. It's a tension type headache that takes me forever to shake. I don't get them often but I'm pretty miserable when I do, that just made me want to lay on the couch.

I didn't go to dinner with my friends D and H as all I could handle was silence. D very graciously offered to take me for lunch in Banff with her family today but while my head doesn't hurt as much as yesterday it's still hanging on so I opted to stay home. I'm on a plane again tomorrow and have a super busy day in Fort McMurray so I want to be 100%.

Yesterday for dinner I had spaghetti with organic tomato sauce and 1tbsp light cream cheese. They went to an italian restaurant last night so I had home italian. For the first time I made 56g of spaghetti as opposed to 85g (serving size on the box)-6pts. Right now I have an open box of Barilla spaghetti so this is not a high fibre version. 56g works out to a cup- 4pts. I had it in a soup bowl as opposed to dinner plate so I didn't notice the missing pasta. It was yummy.

Then I dipped into flex points thanks to some Oreos. That's o.k I had  a brand new amount of flex points and I didn't use up all of them (have done that before). I also didn't gobble them down, I ate slowly which is also new for me especially with Oreos.

Yesterday while in Walmart I bought a second simple digital scale and set of measuring cups to take to work. I'm really liking this WW/ Daily Plate combo as I find I can track more specifically as opposed to guessing. Last week I had veggie sushi one day and trying to track that is a bit of guessing due to the size of the individual sushi. I find there's a lot of variation just with veggie sushi. On Daily Plate I can do the serving size by grams and you can do this on WW online/etools as well. I weigh my banana without the skin before eating it so I know the exact points. If you've been reading this blog for awhile you know I'm a geek :)

I also picked up Charlaine Harris' new Sookey Stackhouse book "Dead in the Family". I was trying to wait for paperwark but I just couldn't. If you didn't know the tv show True Blood is based on these books.

The day is flying by and I have some housework to do and my class starts in June so I need to get myself sorted.

Hope you're having a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Slurpee?

That is what was falling from the sky as I walked to WI today. It's a cross between rain and snow and would sometimes lean one way or another. On the sidewalks it looked like Sprite slurpee and parts were a wee slippery. When a glob fell of a tree or powerline it hit the ground like a water balloon. It's just miserable out there. I took the bus home as I didn't want to do the penguin walk home again.

I took my umbrella with me this morning as that kept me mostly dry. By the time I got to weigh in my backpack was wet and the last 3 inches of the hem on my sweat pants were soaked. There was a film of this stuff all over my lower body. I thought - Great, wet clothes weigh more than dry clothes. Weird thought perhaps but I was very focused on this weeks weigh in. I had thought of bringing a dry pair of workout pants just in case but I like to keep my weigh in uniform the same.

At weigh in I was 175.2 that's down 2.2, I'm happy with that. My goal was to obliterate the gains over the past two weeks and I did that plus squeeked out another .6.  My scale had me weighing between 174.5 to 175.1. I couldn't help wonder if I wasn't slightly drenched would I have squeeked into the 174s.

Watch those weigh in people's math, the chick at my scale started to write down .8 as she was doing the math in her head when I said I'm down 2.2. I don't trust them without a calculator.

The goal for next week is get myself to 173. I have 5 weigh ins left in my current WW membership book and I want to be down to or lower than my lowest weight so far on my WW journey which is 168. That's a minimum of 7lbs in 5 weeks, it can be done.

Workout will be indoors today as the weather is whacky and I think I'm going to do step aerobics again as the step is currently in the middle of living room.

Tentative plan to get together with D and H when they return from Drumheller for dinner but nothing in stone yet.

Other than that I hope all of you have a wonderful Saturday and are warm and dry.

Hugs!!!

Friday, May 28, 2010

In an alternate universe I'm a size 2

This was in my mailbox today. Summer is here, well in magazine form anyway. I'm calling it weekend inspiration.

I started today like I pretty much start everyday except I had a tbsp of slivered almonds in my oat bran. Yes, I am that exciting.

I had no ideas for lunch today so I went to Koryo BBQ with my work mates. Before going I searched all over the internet for nutritional information on this place and there's nada, zip, nothing anywhere. I didn't feel like Subway again and I really just wanted lunch not a whack of research. I wound up piecing it together with Daily Plate then transferring it over to WW. I should really avoid places with no NI. There's way too much guessing.

On the way back from Koryo we swung by Sunterra Market. One co-worker wanted to get a cookie, I thought I'd get strawberries. No strawberries...so I fell victim to the cookie. The same cookie I talked about yesterday that I succesfully avoided. I thought I can eat half, I was so lying to myself. I ate the damn cookie. Of course there's no nutritional information on Sunterra either so I looked up the baddest cookie that Starbucks had and used that NI. The Sunterra cookies are just as big as the Starbucks version. That made this cookie 10pts. Nothing quite like seeing the points on something and realizing "Wowsers, I'm never having that again".

Dinner was low in points and then I went downstairs to get my step. I bought this step aerobic step a bizillion years ago. Never made it past the basic platform. Today I made it one level higher just for fun. I found my equally ancient Kathy Smith Step Aerobics dvd that I originally owned in VHS. I put on the heart rate monitor and began. Also truly realized that I own a plethora of workout dvds and gobs of books about workouts, not to mention the above magazine subscriptions. In some alternate universe I must be a size 2.

Kathy kicked my patootie. I got to the intermediate level and was wiped so resulted in 35min. Holy, it's been a long time since I've done this and I think I'll be sore tomorrow. I sadly discovered that Garmin FR60 does not measure calories burned in general mode, just time and heart rate. So I used the activity listing on WW.ca, 35min of step aerobic is 5 AP. I believe it, sweat was flying off me a few minutes in and I'm just as drenched today as I was yesterday. Definitely a more high intensity workout.

I added up my points and APs on my lovely spreadsheet to get ready for tomorrow. This week I had 20 APs that went uneaten. I ate 4 AP plus all my points and flex. We shall see what the scale says tomorrow.

Today just proved to me that varying activity is a good thing, it shakes you out of your comfort zone.

Now I'm in WI mode, no food or drink from now on.

Hope you had a great Friday.

Hugs!!!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Getting in the zone

When I left for work it wasn't raining, then it rained all day and on the bus ride home it started to snow. It was truly remarkable as we literally turned a corner and the snow started to fall.

Good thing I brought the gym bag to work.

I had decided to go to Subway for lunch today. I have a love hate relationship with Subway. When I worked in a mall I ate there a lot and not so healthy (I miss you meatball sub). Now of course I stick to the 6 under 6 selection. Today it was ham on whole wheat with cheese, veggies and mustard. I find getting it toasted avoids what I truly dislike which is soggy Subway. I was sitting with 3 co-workers. They all went to Taco Bell. I was kind of proud of myself that I stuck to my plan and wasn't swayed by looking at their fries supreme. I'm not going to kid myself their supreme fries did look really good.

I'm doing well plan wise this week. I'm actually looking forward to weigh in.

I hit the treadmill after work and my goal was stay on that thing until 400 calories were burned. My Garmin FR60 doesn't show calories on the display while doing the exercise unlike my Garmin 305. So I had to sort of guess how long it would take to get to 400 calories, I figured 7.5K ish should do it.

I started listening to my ipod while watching the tv with no sound. I started with Rachel Ray and it was alright but then I wanted something more visual. I then switched to food network. Bad idea as that only made we think of food. I turned it off and just looked straight ahead. I do appreciate that the treadmills face a window but staring at one spot takes a little adjustment. At one point I totally forgot about that and I was just in the zone focusing on the lyrics of the songs. I could feel the sweat running down the back of my neck so I knew I was doing something. When my attention started to wander I just chanted 174. I want to see at least 174 at the scale on Saturday as I want to eliminate both gains over the last two week and get back on track.

Today's workout was:
427 Calories burned/ 8.17K/ 1:12:38/ Pace 8:53
Heart rate: Avg 136, Max 159 (FR60 doesn't do the percentage like 305).

I was not all that prepared today as I forgot a water bottle and had no post workout snack. So I swung by Sunterra to grab a bottle of water and some cut up strawberries. I had a feeling it would be a long wait for the bus. I had to walk by their bakery counter (chock full of tempting delights)  and the cookies (many, many cookies)  to get to the water and strawberries. They have this peanut butter chocolate chip cookie that's so good. These cookies are massive. I resisted. I walked in got what I wanted and walked out.

Tonight I got an email from the friend I'm going to Vegas with. We're celebrating his birthday and I have been told the plan for the actual birth day while in Vegas. He wants us both to dress in all white, go for dinner and then see Donnie and Marie.

I avoid white like the plague. Forever and a day I always thought it made me look bigger and I'd only dress in dark clothes to become invisible. Now I embrace colour more but not so much white. I need to make the next 2 mths and 3 weeks count. I did see a rather cute one shoulder white dress in the window of the bay. It did have a a little colour on it so it probably doesn't pass muster for P's birthday extravaganza in Vegas :)

I'm not sure what my activity will be tomorrow. It will still be raining but I'm thinking of digging out my Kathy Smith Step Aerobics dvd instead of the treadmill. It's been ages since I've done it and I think I need to diversify a bit in activity to not get bored.

I hope you all had a fabulous Thursday.

Hugs!!!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The downlow on the BL

Yesterday I talked about priorities and today I managed not to workout, it happens. I had a hair appointment after work and it started to rain on my way home. My workout tonight was going to be mowing the lawn. I was going to put on the heart rate monitor too. I don't mow in the rain so that's post poned.

I came home had dinner (I was starving I tell you) and now I will sit and type. The original forecast said it would rain later and right not it looks like it will start any minute. I have been perfectly on plan today. I weighed myself when I got home (I do this) and saw a very promising number.



photo courtesy of nbc.com

Alright now onto Biggest Loser.

I never in a million years would have picked Michael to win. As I've said on this blog before I was not all that into this season. I'm not sure why they need to drag out the finale and I miss seeing the snippets of the final 3 at home.

The people who impressed me the most were Sherry, Melissa, Darryl, Maria, Stephanie. I think they had the biggest impression changes I did think Sherry's arm looked odd as if they were airbrushed. It's quite remarkable how some looked super toned and some had loose skin.

Kudos to Cherita who did that all on her own having spent 5 min on the ranch.

The past winners shot was interesting, I'd like to see a more comprehensive "where are they now". During the marathon show when Sione starts running with Daris, I thought Sione had put quite a bit back on. Eric who famously said "Biggest Loser let him down" in his A&E special seems to have been brought back into the fold with the Biggest Loser ranch. He did look more like he did when he won.

Shay did spectacular losing 50lbs in 6 months, I know a lot of people were expecting more but keep in mind she has multiple children and probably a job. I wish Subway had just given her the money.

I have to admit the "Biggest Loser" enterprise is a bit annoying between the product placments during the show and then the extra promos of the ranch, protein powder, exercise equipment. All it takes is one inspiring person like Abby and I'm sucked right back in. I do love to see the transformations though.

Completely not weight related, I loved Sam's hair, he was rockin' a 1950/Adam Beach sort of look.

I do find it funny that Biggest Loser has more marriages then The Bachelor/Bachelorette

Yes, I will be watching Season 10.

I had an awesome supper tonight that was a bacon tomato sandwith using Villagio Whole Wheat Bread (3), 3 slices back bacon (1), roma tomato, 1 tsp Hellman's Light Olive Mayo (0.5) and 1 tsp Philadelphia Garden Vegetable cream cheese (0.5).

Tomorrow the gym bag is going to work due to rain straight through till Sunday.

Hope you had a phenomenal Wednesday.

Hugs!!!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

It's about priorities

I left work on time today (I normally leave a little late) and headed straight for Walmart as I needed to pick up a few things and then I wanted to do my mega walk.  My goal was to be home in front of the tv in time to watch the Biggest Loser finale.

Well everything took a little longer and by the time I was heading out for the mega walk I realized if I wanted to do the route I wanted to I wouldn't be home in time. Then I thought "Duh" I was recording it on the pvr, I wasn't going to miss anything . The mega walk was the priority. I prefer watching shows on the pvr because I can then skip through all the commercials anyway.  I just finished watching it but I'm not going to talk about it today as some of you might not have seen it yet. I have time shifting on my digital cable so I technically watched in eastern standard time. I will say I was surprised.

I did walk home from Walmart (2.4K ish) and I grabbed my Nike+ from my bag and was in the process of putting it on my Reebok easytone before I trekked home then I realized the doohickey that attaches the sensor to my shoe was broken. That sucked as now I couldn't use it. I foresee a trip to the running room tomorrow to get a new holder and probably a spare.

Got home and did my 6 loop route but I had to adjust it thanks the city ripping out a fire hydrant.
366 calories burned/ 1:00:00/ 6.38k/ Pace 9:25-6:52/ HR Avg 75%/ HR Max 81% so add that to my walk home from Walmart I earned 5AP today.

While watching BL there was a promo for Jillian's new show. I'm looking forward to it and have a feeling I'll need a box of kleenex. One week with families who not only have weight issues but I'm guessing self esteem issues will no doubt have the breakthroughs that make me teary eyed.

On the tracking front I've noticed one interesting thing between WW and Daily Plate. Daily Plate has assigned me 1248 calories per day to achieve a 2lb loss per week. On WW I currently get 23pts so if you figure that one point is roughly 50 calories works out to 1150. Add 5 flex points (35/7) and it's 1400. Every time I entered calories burned into Daily Plate it increases my calories to eat what I've burned. On WW it's an option to eat your APs or not. This week I'm concentrating on the points more than the Daily Plate. How I go forward will depend on the results at Saturdays weigh in.

I had my day planned out today and found it worked well as an anchor. Every time my thoughts strayed to going off the plan of the day I was brought right back into focus by looking at it. Now all I need to do is repeat that tomorrow.

Hope you had an amazing Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Tracking Diva

I'm pretty good at tracking all my food but I could be a lot better, especially the bite, licks and tastes that sometime/frequently sneak through. I have moments where I'm not completely honest with my WW tracker which is ridiculous because I'm only fooling myself. 

As I told you yesterday I'm tracking on Daily Plate - Livestrong (found a whack of WW people on there) as well to see exactly how it all breaks down. Well I also subscribe to e-tools, I have since I rejoined WW. I never really tracked there as I do enjoy my 3 month paper journal but I use it for NI and the recipe builder mostly. Well today I logged in there and added everything for this week.  I decided to do this duplicate effort as I like the e-tools for planning and the paper journal for final recording (without stuff scratched off). Plus I thought I'm paying for this anyway so why not make use of the whole thing. The paper journal is important to me as I'm not always in front of a computer and it feels more tangible to me.

On day 3 of my WW/ Daily Plate tracking I have to say I like it. Daily Plate shows you the complete NI for food item so when WW doesn't have it I can get the info from there.

Then I have my spreadsheet but I don't track daily stuff on that it's more the week in review or weight, % of body fat and etc.

Yes, I'm pretty much treating myself as a science experiment. I like the data, no that's not true. I love the data. Especially when weight loss can be so cruel i.e. work hard and no result on the scale sort of stuff. I can truly see my behaviour and if it helped or hindered.

I headed out for my mega walk this morning and I saw quite a few people roaming about in workout gear.

441 calories burned/ 1:11/ 7.62K/ Pace 9:19-5:52
Heart rate: 72% avg, 84% max

I tried the radish hash browns for lunch. I had that with scrambled eggs (one egg/ 3 egg whites), red onion and red pepper. The hash browns do lose the spiciness of the raw radish but it didn't quite remind of potatoe hash browns. I'm not sure if I'll make them again but I'm glad I tried it.

I should go outside and clean out my flower beds but I'm not feeling it today.

Side note: I've been watching the Bulging Bride/ Last 10lb boot camp marathon on slice on and off throughout the day. I find the Bulging Bride one a little funny as it seems the fiance always eats something forbidden in front of the bride and she gets snarky.

The Bachelorette starts tonight and I'm looking forward to it - yes I am geek and totally proud of it.

To all my Canadian friends enjoy your Victoria Day. No matter where you are I hope you have a fabulous Monday.

Hugs!!!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Rest Day

I opted to take it easy activity wise today as my plan is to workout Mon - Fri this week. I did go for a mega walk yesterday which resulted in:

474 calories burned/ 1:16/8.17K/Pace 9:21-5:31
Heart rate: Avg 74%, Max 83%

Towards the tail end of that walk I could feel that my left ankle wasn't very happy so I thought a rest today may just be what it needed. Especially because I was staying home so it truly had a rest.

I accomplished laundry and then sort of worked my way through the pvr. I did make hamburgers as a protein source for this week. Safeway had no ground turkey when I went on Saturday so I got extra lean ground beef instead. It's been awhile since I brought that home.,

In my hamburgers went onion, garlic, Dijon mustard, cattle boyz BBQ sauce, a smidgen of chipotle chili powder, egg white  and some S&P, I then put them on a broil pan in the oven so it could still drain off some fat and then on paper towel when they were done. I ran the recipe through recipe builder to double check the points. They work out to just under 3pts but I'm counting them as 4pts each. I had one with a WW hamburger bun for lunch with steamed asparagus on the side - it was yummy.

What I love about making hamburgers is that I can use it as a hamburger or a mini meatloaf, or cut it up and add it to spaghetti sauce as a "meatball". I like the versatile.

In the meeting yesterday we talked a lot about protein as breakfast was the topic. I do remember towards the tail end of high school and pretty much all through University not being a fan of breakfast but at some point I realized that wasn't terribly smart. I now can't start my day without breakfast. To be honest I don't really pay attention to protein on nutrition labels and was pleasantly surprised to see my oat bran has 7g.

I decided to simultaneously track on Livestrong this week to see what the breakdown of my eating is. I'm still tracking points in my tracker and then I go there and plunk it in. I'm especially curious about my protein levels as I'm not particular good at getting that in.

Tomorrow will most likely be a mega walk and I need to tame some branches in my yard.

Hope you had a fantastic Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

This is a set back not defeat

Despite my best efforts over the past 3 days I could not overcome my stupid behaviour of the beginning of the week as I was up 0.6. However  had I not put my best efforts in for the past 3 days it would have been a far worse gain. I do feel like I'm retaining water so that could be a part of it as well.

I used to take a notebook to my WW meetings to write down recipes or inspiring sayings, I haven't brought it with me in a long time. Today I brought it to record my feelings after the scale, not to be negative put to highlight what I did right and have a new goal for the week.

I learned a lot this week I do have to say. In my meeting we've often said it doesn't stop when you get to goal. The planning, the tracking, the being aware and being accountable will never stop. I know this is so true for myself. One woman in the meeting today said you can't do that forever, I have to disagree. I think it depends on the person. Some people can naturally eye portions and have will power. I know I will have to be conscious to build it into everyday habits. I am ruled by my emotions and I don't think that will ever go away but it can be managed. I need to remember to focus on bite by bite.

There was no reason I couldn't have handled myself better at the offsite. It was my decision to not have the best behaviours and not pack workout clothes so now I face the consequences but this is not defeat it's a lesson learned. I am bound and determined to be back at 20lbs down (plus a bit more) by next Saturday.

I hit the grocery store right after weigh in and got a cart full of healthy and flavourful options. I'm home all week this week so I can control all my options.

I'm reset and focused...period.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Hugs!!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Plugged through!

I had a mega to do list to get through today and I did it. It took awhile and at one point I didn't think I'd get done but I did . Of course as I was packing up to leave work when I thought of two things to add to a list for Tuesday.

Day 3 in a row of staying on plan. I'm hoping that's good enough to knock out the gain from last week but I also realized I'm fighting TOM this week but I've had no snackapalooza cravings. That's probably due to my damage control mode from my trip earlier this week. It looks like I'll be going back to Fort Mac for some meetings on Thursday but back the same day.

When I got home from work I was knackered so I just put my head on the sofa pillow for a minute and I woke up 30min later. I checked in with my Dad who is now not coming in this weekend due to the pathetic weather (high of +8 tomorrow). I then decided to shake off the tired and head out for my "last chance workout" and went for a walk.

Tonight:
553 calories burned/ 1hr30/ 9.46K/ Pace 9:37-5:28
Heart rate: Avg 72%, Max 82%

I didn't feel fast but that was o.k it usually takes me about 5K before I'm really in the zone. I was enjoying the cooler weather with hardly anyone around.

Thank you to my Epicure goddesses for their suggestions, I followed the Epicure recipe by accident so it definitely lookes like I need to play with this a bit. I've made the error of adding to much chipotle chili pepper before. A while back I made some pretty potent turkey burgers. They were good but a bit beyond my spice comfort level.

I think this weekend is going to be dedicated to some cooking. I feel like making some stuff like the radish hash browns I saw here today. I caught the tail end of Rachel Ray today and thought the chicken kabobs looked rather yummy. I also feel like making some other protein dishes to add to veggies throughout the week. I think it will be a rather creative grocery shop tomorrow. I also want to make rice crispie squares and I have no clue where that came from.

I am seriously looking forward to sleeping in on Sunday and Monday, I won't be tomorrow of course because I have my weigh in habits.

I hope you all had a fabulous Friday and if you're going away this weekend play safe.

Hugs!!!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

My self talk is a bully

Long day today as it all went pear shaped first thing in the morning. I had meeting after meeting after meeting scheduled today. The first one started an hour late thanks to one participant missing the flight from Edmonton to Calgary. He was stuck in security when they boarded the plane. I asked him how far ahead of departure time did he arrive at the airport. He said 45 minutes. At this point I must have looked at him like he was an idiot. I suggested that next time he should be at the airport 90min before the flight. Those first thing in the morning flights are full of business travellers especially between Calgary and Edmonton.

Of course every other meeting now started late as well. I started to wonder if lunch would even happen today but I had a 15min window at one point. I ran down to Jugo Juice and got a Jr. Jugo and one of the new salads. This was the half chickpea and have bulgur salad. When I got home I looked up the NI again just to see if maybe I missed it yesterday. Sure enough it was on their website. The chickpea salad was really good as it had a bit of a kick to it and the bulgur wasn't so bad either. The chickpea salad is 3pts and the bulgur is 2pts. Not too bad.

I left work late thanks to the domino effect of the meetings being pushed back. The wind was wicked after I left the office on my way to the bus stop and I thought a walk may not happen tonight. I got knocked off balance waiting for the walk light.

I got home and decided to make the ground turkey in my fridge into taco turkey. I decided to try the Epicure taco seasoning instead of the 25% less sodium Taco Time seasoning mix. I was disappointed. The Epicure version tasted too much like turkey not enough taco and I added 2 tbsp of the seasoning. I lost interest in that idea and had 2 pieces of Be Still bread with pure raspberry jam instead.

I then looked out the window and thought the wind didn't look so bad so my bully of a self talk told me to change, get the heart rate monitor and put on my runners.

Last night I did the 6 loop version of my neighbourhood walk. Tonight I did the 7 loop version which resulted in:

439 calories burned/ 1hr10/ 7.45K/ Pace 9:25-6:27
Heart rate: Avg 75%, Max 82%

I didn't feel like I was going very fast and I literally had to have mini celebration thoughts as I completed each loop to make myself keep going. The wind would gust up every so often and make it more challenging. I think that's why my heart rate was a wee higher even though I was a wee slower.

I think it might be a ghost town at work tomorrow as I heard quite a few people saying they were talking tomorrow off to make an extra extra long weekend. I have too much to do tomorrow, though if I put my nose down I might be able to liberate myself a little early.  I was totally OP today so one more day to go until weigh in.

Hope you had a fabulous Thursday.

Hugs!!!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Focused

Oy vey, I added up the points for the last two days in Fort McMurray, that is some scary stuff so now I'm in full fledged damage control mode.

Today I focused on staying on track food wise:

B: Oatmeal, 1 tbsp brown sugar, glass of milk
S: Large Tim's coffee - 2 milk, 2 sugar
L: Veggie sushi and edamame
D: Chickpea salad (chickpeas, red onion, celery, a smidgen of olive oil, red wine vinegar, s&p) and tomato salad (2 roma tomatoes, green onion, 1 tbsp Fig Balsamic dressing)
Strawberries cut very thinly with a sprinkling of sugar.
Of course drank a good amount of water.

Finished off with a total of 20pts - yes I'm 3pts under my day but that's not a bad thing after the last two days.

Walked past Jugo Juice at one point and see that they now sell salads. Well two in one salads I guess. The container is divided in two with two different salads I saw the chickpea salad/ bulgur salad. No NI on the package. I checked their website - nothing. I emailed asking for it so we'll see if they respond.

I got home from work and rain drops were falling so I didn't change into workout clothes plus I left my Ipod nano at work. I can't workout without music especially my mega walks as I need the tunes to keep my pace going. Then I thought I should dig out the Ipod touch. It was totally dead so I charged it. Then thought to update the playlists and found out I needed a software update, that took awhile I tell you.

I got all that sorted looked outside and saw blue skies so I headed out for a mega walk. The Ipod touch looked like a pack of cigarettes in the built in pocket of my exercise pants.

Tonight's workout:

357 calories burned/ 6.25K/ 58min17/ pace 9:20- 6:31
Heart rate: avg 73%, max 81%

This is 6 blocks (looping around the entire block). I did the exact same route on Sunday. Today I was 3min faster burned 7 less calories. I do see that I'm getting more fit but it's slightly irritating that I have to work harder to get the same calories burned.

On my walk I ran into the Hell's angels of Vespas. I saw one guy zipping down the road on one wearing a full scale black motorcycle helmet with horns. Oh yeah you're bad - zipping along at 30km/hr. I turned the corner and saw a group of people huddled around a whack of vespas. They must have had about 12 in total  dating from the 1960s to now. It was interesting.

Got home just as the clouds looked to be rolling in.

The plan to repeat my focused behaviour tomorrow.

Hope you had a fabulous Wednesday.

Hugs!!!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Selective amnesia

This is what I had on my two days in Fort McMurray as I didn't really follow any WW guideline the entire time. Well maybe one, I was pretty good with drinking water. My eating behaviour was awful as food was presented to us at every turn. We got goody bags filled with candy, I had a few swedish berries on Monday. Monday night all the candy went into the garbage. I didn't bring any workout clothes thinking we'd all be exhausted due to being out Monday night.

Oh we went out Monday night, I was in bed by 10:30pm not terrible. Went down to the lobby to get a coffee at 6:30 this morning an one of co-workers was coming back from a run. They go back to the hotel at midnight. I gave my myself a mental talking to today.

2mths, 3 weeks and 4 days to Vegas. I'm doubtful I'll be at goal but I can definitely be down to my lowest weight yet and that would be beating 168. This means I need to get serious now, no excuses at all.

I'm a bit afraid to step on the scale tomorrow morning for my traditional daily weigh in. It's important though as I need to acknowledge the damage done. I do know I need to get my act together over the next 3 days with no excuses.

Got home and was greeted my neighbour and the dog. Apparently the dog senses when I'm home on Tuesdays, how adorable is that. I had my act together tonight to take out the garbage and I think I got bitten by a mosquite. They're back - dang it.

I hope you had a great couple of days.

Hugs!!!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Pooped

Yesterday I did 2.5 hours of raking and putting the dead grass and 9000 pine cones into garbag bags (I have 3 ginormous pine trees on my lawn) that would be 4 gigantic garbage bags. Today it hurts everytime I need to bend down. I am sore. I also fertilized and watered said lawn.

I counted the raking as "hoeing" as that's the closest activity I could find on ww.ca. When I rake it's serious back and forth trying to get every last piece of dead grass and pine cone off my lawn. I am a power raker but I'm the power the rake is not. However at one point I did have the thought to hire someone to do this next year.

This morning I went for a mega walk at it was lovely, cool breeze and I saw one other person the whole time I was out there.

364 calories burned/ 1hr1min/ 6.26K/ Pace 9:47-6:56
Heart rate: avg: 72%, max 82%

Then I mowed the lawn and it took 4 tries to get that baby started. I also pulled the patio set out of the shed. Last year it never made it out of the shed. Well that was the summer that never was due to working all the way through it. One of these days I'm going to wear my heart rate monitor when I mow both back and front. I'm curious as to what the calories burned are doing that.

Now I'm working on laundry, still to do is wash dishes and pack for tomorrow's trip to Fort Mac.

I was thinking of my co-workers on my walk this morning. Getting up in the wee hours of Monday is part of my routine as I fly so often but it's not theirs. I expect to see some tired people tomorrow. I also started to think of fuel tomorrow. There's bound to be catering for lunch and I'm positive some kind of team dinner. On the plane they usually have 3 types of bread i.e. banana bread, lemon poppy seed, apple. It's more like cake. I don't know if we'll have time to grab breakfast so I'll be armed with a granola bar and apple slices.

I should get up a wee earlier tomorrow as when I normally go to site makeup is very minimal. I have to get ready tomorrow like I'm going to work in the office. It will definitely be early to bed tonight.

It's our company policy to have a safety moment before each meeting and I was asked to do one for Monday. I'm going to do one about Sun Safety, I figure it's timely with nice weather finally hitting Alberta. I still need to write that up plus read through the pre meeting read.

I won't be blogging tomorrow as I'm not taking my computer to Fort Mac but I'll be back Tuesday night probably.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and Monday in the meantime.

Hugs!!!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Every bite

"Every bite leads you a step closer to goal or a step further away from it"

This was the saying of the day at my WW meeting and it reflected my mood as I was up 1lb today. I was not happy. I knew I'd see a gain today but that wasn't the reason I wasn't happy. My home WW scale had me up .3 and the meeting up a pound.

I ate half a point less than I ate last week. I earned exactly the same amount of activity as last week. Last week I lost 2.6.

The gain was caused by having some pretty high point days on Wednesday and Thursday which is way too close to weigh in day. On Friday I tried to mitigate the damage by eating a little lower (20pts as opposed to 23) and earned 5AP. I tried to save my week in one day, not the smartest thing to do as that never works.

I failed to plan this week which of course means I planned to fail. However a pound is a pound, yes I'm disappointed in myself because this is my first gain in 8 weeks. Am I derailed and am I going to drown my sorrows in ice cream? Hell no, the lesson is learned.

I know my water was iffy this week. I was tired and not making an effort to think things through. Well that's done. This is a new week so I'm resetting my head to focus on the positive.

My major hurdle this week is being in offsite meetings on Monday and Tuesday but I'm still in control of my choices. These meetings lead into dinner and that always involves alcohol but knowing that in advance helps me prep my head. That pound plus a little more will be off by next Saturday. Booyah!

I walked to weigh in and home with a whack of groceries. I'm just having a wee rest as I have a bit of headache. I'll have lunch and then head out to tackle the front lawn. That will be my primary source of AP today.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Hugs!!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Change in plans

Last night the tired got the better of me and I think the long space of time between lunch and dinner. I had an altercation with some mini peanut butter cups and ice cream. I didn't take the time to evaluate that I was tired and not hungry...not smart.

I slept in until 6:30am today and yes for me that's sleeping in.

I got up had breakfast which was Oatbran with one tblsp of brown sugar, but today I also added a wee bit of cinnamon and it took to a whole new level.

Then I headed out for a mega walk (definitely inspired by last night):

560 calories burned/ 1hr30/9.62K/ Pace 9:22- 6:21
Heart Rate: avg 76%, max 84%

It was super nice this morning, there was a wee breeze but kind of quiet so I did the route I had in my head. Then I got home and started thinking maybe I should just take today as a rest day.

I'll be right across the street from the grocery store tomorrow after weigh in. The front lawn can wait until tomorrow. I realized my freezer is kind of full so adding new meals might not be necessary.

Today I will focus on water and staying OP to face the scale tomorrow.

Enjoy your Friday!

Hugs!!!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Long day

I started work at 6:30am and finished at 6pm today, I'm knackered but I did manage to take tomorrow off.

I'm so looking forward to sleeping in but I do have things I need to accomplish this weekend.

Tomorrow the first thing on the list is grocery shopping plus I need to pick up a few things for the yard work I have planned.

I need rake, fertilize and water my lawn plus prep the flower beds. My goal for tomorrow is the front lawn and then Saturday for the back lawn. I also want to paint my railing.

At some point this summer I need to paint my fence but not this weekend.

Sunday I need to do some cooking, it's that time again to make a few things and freeze in individual containers. I'm still not sure what to make but I need to decide that before going grocery shopping tomorrow.

Next weekend my Dad is coming with the geraniums. That's a standing tradition and I forgot about the Calgary marathon. Way back when I had thought about doing the half marathon. I have since realized I don't like racing. I get no joy from it so I cancelled. I get why many people do but for me I'm more happy on my solo efforts. I'm seeing progress with those solo efforts. However I have friends taking part in that weekends racing festivities and I just realized I can only meet for lunch after the race.

I love my friends but I had booked this weekend with my dad ages ago and he is my number one priority hands down.  If these friends are reading this...sorry!

I have to comment on a comment from Enz yesterday about BL. I wouldn't mind if Ashley won but I'm finding the whole pink domination thing getting old. A romance between Michael and Ashley? Mind you I never saw the Sam and whatshername one coming either. Michael did help Ashley with that build the structure challenge. This is now something I need to watch for.

I think I'll head to bed early and do my menu planning tomorrow.

Hope you had a smashing Thursday.

Hugs!!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Sometimes it takes a few kilometers

I watched BL (Biggest Loser) last night and I have to say not to upset Sunshine got booted. If I was forced to choose a favourite to win I'd probably go with Daris. It's been over the last few episodes that I felt he took the lead. Since this season began I've had a hard time really caring who won. For the longest time I thought Daris was kind of boring but that workout with Bob last week impressed me. The one where he kept making Daris do the exercise over everytime he gave up. We'll see what a month at home does next week. I'm finding the show is going overboard with product placement as well.

This morning I tried something a little different for breakfast. Two weeks ago in my WW meeting we talked about oatmeal and my leader mentioned it's important to up the protein as normal straight up oatmeal doesn't have much. I normally eat oatbran for breakfast, it sort of reminds me of cream of wheat and it's 1pt per serving. I'll have that with a glass of milk and then by 9:30am I'm starving. I eat breakfast at around 4:45am.

Today I decided to have Activia yogurt in addition to my oatbran. I wasn't hungry until noon. Mind you I was in a meeting all morning so I was distracted but my stomach never grumbled either. I'm going to try that tomorrow too.

For lunch my co-worker was buying so we went for Indian buffet. It was yummy and I think I chose fairly well given that everything seemed to have a sauce but I'm totally guesstimating on the points.

I've been trying to be really on top of  work stuff as I want to take Friday off. I have a wicked amount of yard work to do and the weather is supposed to be nice.  Next week I'm also in an offsite session in Fort McMurray on Monday and Tuesday, so I won't be sitting in front of my computer for three work days. This resulted in me leaving work a little later.

I knew I needed a workout today to get those Activity Points up and to offset the Indian buffet so I got home and immediately changed. I decided to explore more of my closer to home route. At first it felt like I was dragging myself through it and it took until about the 3K mark for me to get into it. When I was getting to the end of my route I started thinking of ways to make it longer.

Today's results:
445 calories burned/ 1hr11/ 7.65K/ Pace 9:34-5:54
Heart rate: avg 69%, max 75%

I definitely wasn't going 100% probably closer to 80%, I was tired but I'm happy I didn't let that stop me.

Tomorrow will also be late day and the afternoon is looking to be especially long. I have 16.5 AP so far this week so that's 1650 calories burned. I do want to earn a few more tomorrow. I'll get a workout in on Friday no matter if I have the day off or not. My goal is no less than 2000 calories burned for the week.

I hope your Wednesday was fantasic, talk to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Not one single cookie!

I didn't have one single cookie during my site visit this week. I think this is the first time that's ever happened.

After I have the oatmeal for breakfast I go to the "to go" kitchen and pack my lunch for the day. I have to walk by a wall of pastry and cookies. I totally ignored it and grabbed the turkey on whole wheat sandwich, some raw cauliflower and celery and an apple.

This morning when I again packed my lunch in the camp kitchen I grabbed what I thought was the turkey on whole wheat sandwich (it was ham), some chickpea salad and an orange. The sandwiches weren't labelled so I had to guess. This time walking past a table with all the cookies, pastries and muffins.This afternoon when the long days started to get to me I did not go to the vending machine and buy a chocolate bar instead I chewed a piece of gum.

On the plane home I did not get chips, cheezies or a chocolate bar as a snack. I got a fruit bar and bottle of water. Shazaam!!!

Monday after work I went straight to the camp gym and stayed on the treadmill for an hour. I would change the speed every song and found that kept we pretty focused as I tend to bore myself on the treadmill for long periods. My coworker friend stopped by to say she wasn't working out and going to dinner instead. I still had 25min to complete on that treadmill so I said see ya tomorrow and I went for dinner on my own after my workout. 6.8K/ 360 calories burned/ 1hr 10min/ Pace 9:17-8:12.

Tonight when I got home I discovered my milk was bad and I had the thought that I could buy breakfast tomorrow. Then I thought well that's stupid so I headed down to Mac's and got a 1L of milk so I could have breakfast at home tomorrow. I did not fall prey to the Oreos that were in my line of site the moment I walked in. I was tired and feeling a wee off as it was quite a turbulent flight today.

Anytime I started to waiver I just chanted "170" in my head. The game plan to stay focused tomorrow.

Hope you had a fabulous Monday and Tuesday, I'm going to finish watching BL and head to bed.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Handy Girl

I fixed my fence today and I'm quite proud of myself as I did it all on my own. I'm quite happy I was raised to be practical with this sort of stuff.

I'm all packed for my weekly trip and I'm now contemplating what to make for dinner.

Yesterday I was getting a wee bored so I took myself for a walk and I went a different route. I stuck close to home going around one block and then adding more. This is what I often refer to as my extra loops. It was nice to change the scenery a bit. Most of the blocks are about 1km.

369 calories burned/ 59:47/ 6.42K/ Pace 9:18-6:18
Heart rate: Avg 75%, Max 6%

I haven't headed out yet today as I wanted to get all the little chores done and now I'm looking at the sky to see what it's deciding to do. Earlier the weather reports said chance of thunderstorms but so far nothing so I'll see if that's passed. It sort of looks like the sun is trying to make an appearance. I had debated taking the day off from exercise and just be focused on food. I also realized I'm never guaranteed a treadmill at site so I should earn some AP today.

I usually spend weekends all on my own. I don't get lonely but I can get bored so activity is proving to be an excellent way to counter that.

The 10% key chain is now attached to my house keys and will serve as an anchor to keep my thoughts focused on getting to my next mini goal which is 170.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and I hope everyone had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Saturday, May 08, 2010

One more tick

One more tick on my goal list, I got my 10% keychain today at WW. Well my 2nd 10% keychain as I've been to this spot before. I'm down 20.4 today and that's the exact weigh I was down when I got my first keychain. Of course the new one is far prettier than the previous version but we'll see how long the shine lasts.

My leader asked me to share my journey. I wasn't crazy about that. All I said was this is my 3rd time trying WW (started with meetings, tried online, went back to meetings), I've got to this point before but this time I'm not stopping.

There is a part of me that's rather disappointed in myself for not following the journey through the first time. Which is why I wasn't so crazy about sharing "my journey". I know that lessons had to be learned for me to truly get it and to truly focus on it. Heck even now that focus can fluctuate but I haven't given up. I'm not afraid of goal and I've learned to focus on mini victories (which might not quite be so apparent in this blog entry) as opposed to the enormity of the final goal.

In my head the true success starts to happen when I break 168lbs. That's the lowest I have ever been while trying to lose weight and that was in my first atttempt at WW. I was there for exaclty one week then I drifted into the 170s and stayed there for a long time. I then stopped going to meetings and tried online. I then drifted within 8lbs of my original start weight of 204lbs before recommitting myself to this journey on Jan 2. Being lower than 168lbs starts a whole new world for me.

Of course I'm proud of being down 20.4, I had a loss of 2.6 today. That's pretty smashing for me who likes to average 1lb per week. The next repeat goal is the 25lb charm, last time it was fridge magnet which I still have. So I guess I can consider that as new as I've never had a charm for the keychain before.

This is how the week broke down.

Total points available: 196 (23 per day plus the 35 Flex)
Points eaten: 210.5
Total APs earned: 21
APs not eaten: 6.5

I wore the Reebok Easytones to work and back yesterday. On the way home I had my computer backpack and some supplies from Walmart to fix the fence. I walked home from Walmart and I was exhausted by the time I got home. I think was partially due to the shoes and the weight of what I was carrying. I definitely feel more bouncy when I wear these.

I picked up the dog when I got home and we went for a 5.6k walk. I switched to my normal runners for this. The dog did effect my pace bringing it to an average of 12:06 thanks to the stopping at every bush for the first while. Later on though she kept me at a pretty good pace. I just did what I normally call my extra loops on my mega walks with one new one. That burned 331 calories.

The dog just went home and I think I'll do laundry. Tomorrow I need to grocery shopping, fix the fence and go for a mega walk. She never left my side today which through a wrench into some of the things I wanted to do.

Today we went for a short walk, I let her decide when we'd turn back and I wore the easytones again.

My focus this week is to keep the momentum going and focus on that 25lbs down.

Hope you had a fabulous Saturday!!

Hugs!!

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Walk it out

I don't know where my day went today. It started with a meeting then went to another 3 hour meeting, then had another meeting in the afternoon and shazaam it was time to go home.

At the 3 hour meeting they had muffins from Sunterra. I resisted for a long time but my stomach was growling so I had a muffin. The plus side I wasn't hungry at lunch at all. In the last meeting of the day I got tired and I really had to focus.

When I got home I realized I wasn't freezing in my tights and skirt so the weather was good enough to go for a walk. It was nice I needed that moment to get into the zone.

306 calories burned/ 51:13/ 5.25K/ Pace 9:45-6:45
Heart rate: 72% avg, Max 81%

Not my best time but that's o.k the purpose wasn't to be fast it was just to get some activity and put my focus on something else.

I've been on edge for the past few days and I'm not sure why. I think my brain just thinks to much some times. I analyze, over analyze and then analyze some more. I need to just chill sometimes.

I wore the Reebok Easytones around the house after I got home from my walk. I'll wear them to work and back tomorrow and perhaps when I take the dog for a walk. They definitely feel different then a normal pair of runners.

Short and sweet tonight my friends, I'm zonked.

Hope your Thursday was awesome.

Hugs!!!

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

December in May

This morning I had to dig out my snow boots and winter jacket as it was -9C when I left for work. There was a dusting of snow all over my lawn and sidewalk. I had a feeling the sidewalk would melt but it's the wind that makes you miserable. If there wasn't wind it's probably closer to -1C.

Don't you just love spring? At one point I was on the main floor of my building and I looked out the window and you would have totally thought we were in the dead of winter.

The mega winds from the other day (80-100K) managed to damage a small portion of my fence. It's totally fixable but I'm not even attempting it until Saturday when it's rumored to be +10C.

I finally tabuluated the damage I did  to myself on Wednesday. I'm seeing a dangerous trend over the past few weeks and that's a ginormous amount of points midweek. So far it has hindered a loss but I'm thinking at some point my luck will run out. With the snow being on the icy side or blowing in your face I did not go for a walk tonight. Tomorrow I need to come home and straighten up as I get the neighbours dog on Friday. Yes, I straighten up for the dog. The dog and I will go for a walk on Friday no matter what the weather condition. I have 14 APs so far this week.

I finished watching BL tonight and I'm happy Sam went home. Now we're down to individual competitors. I thought it was sweet how BL has yet another love story.

Of course I could bring the gym bag tomorrow, hit the treadmill and then come home and straighten up. I'll work on talking myself into that. I'm in meeting after meeting tomorrow so I good jolt of cardio might not be a bad thing.

Got the Reebok Easytones today and I can't wait to try them. I just wore them around my living room and their super comfy.

That's all I got for tonight, hope your Wednesday was fantastic.

Hugs!!

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Back to travelling

My first trip back to site wasn’t as traumatic as I thought, the trauma coming from catching a plane so early on a Monday. I had no issues getting up on Monday, actually slept fine on Sunday. Stepped on the scale when I got up at 3:30am and saw 177, very promising as the goal for Saturday is no more than 176. Who knew what I would have seen if I had a few more hours of sleep.


Controlled my eating very well on Monday and I brought a small food scale with me this time. They have precut slices of cheese, well more like rectangle logs of cheese and I’ve had no clue what the measurement would be. I’ve tried the “is it similar in size to my thumb”. I brought the scale to weigh it to know exactly how many points it would be. It turns out too many (its full fat cheese after all) so that got pitched in the garbage. I grabbed a turkey on whole wheat for lunch (no condiments) and I added some mustard, a little relish and a smidgen of plum sauce. Had an oatmeal cookie as dessert (small and thin).

I had received a notification that the bus schedule from site to camp had changed which turns out was not the case so I didn’t get to camp until just before 6pm. My stomach was grumbling and I was tired so I went for dinner first to get some energy. I had the veggie lasagna, as opposed to the hot dog or pizza.

I hit the gym after dinner and managed to grab the last treadmill. The busiest time is probably 6-7pm but if I waited any longer I would have been asleep on the treadmill. It was an especially busy time in the women’s gym and there is one treadmill so I stayed on it for 45min. That resulted in 4.96K, 264 calories burned, 45:23 and pace average of 9:41. There building a new gym and I can’t wait as I’ve heard there are multiple treadmills so there shouldn’t be anyone staring at you until you get off. There are a few more treadmills in the co-ed cardio gym but they were all being used by the boys.

I treated myself to yet another Garmin, this one being the FR60. I don’t smoke, rarely drink and have no dependants, my vice is electronic gadgets. I wanted something more reliable than Nike+ on the treadmill plus something that I can also use just as a heart rate monitor. My other Garmin uses satellite connections so super awesome outside, useless if you’re not technically moving like on a treadmill. What I loved about the Garmin FR60 is I didn’t need to calibrate it and I feel the pace is way more accurate plus I could use it in an aerobics class and just get calories burned. The Nike+ will still be in my life and I think I might just keep it in my work bag for times I’m walking further home or on errands to track it. The great thing about the Nike+ is its light and small.

The moment those Reebok Easytones get to me, they will be my travel to work shoe. I had an email waiting from the neighbour that the package is here but I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Trip home resulted in a one hour delay in Fort McMurray. We were stuck in the plane so thankfully my coworker/friend had his iphone so we played Monopoly – he won and Trivial Pursuit – I won. It also resulted in some not so healthy snacks due to being trapped, hungry and tired. I was doing pretty well today until that but it's o.k. Still 3 days to weigh in. Water has been fabulous over the past two days.

I’m zonked now but still feel a little too wound up to go to bed so I’ll start watching BL and see how far I get.

Hope your last few days were fabulous.

Hugs!!!!

Sunday, May 02, 2010

I've come to the conclusion

That I'm not a big fan of big malls.

I got to Chinook about 10min before the opened so I sat down and waited. The aroma in the air was the Cinnzeo and Saucy Pretzel Company. I resisted.

I zipped into Sears and the women's clothing department looked like a bomb went off. It was super messy which immediately turned me off of shopping. I did find a pair of black pants and got 40% off. Then it was off to Payless to exchange a pair of shoes. The salesclerk there was awesome.

I then moved my way to Old Navy, found nothing but super casual clothes there. Also checked out Reitmans and again super casual clothes. I decided to eat something there so I wasn't starving when I got home so I just had a Baby burger at A&W (5pts) and a bottle of water.

I don't do well in giant malls as I find the choices overwhelming. I'm more comfortable looking for work clothes downtown and when their finished renos it will be fantastic.

I went for a walk first thing this morning as I knew I'd be tired after Chinook. Here are the details:

311 calories burned/ 51:31/ 5.26K/ Pace 9:48-6:39
Heart rate: Avg 78%, Max 84%.

Yesterday I was looking through Shaw on Demand and found the series Spartacus. I watched a few episodes last night and will watch a couple tonight. It's going to be early to bed as I have to get on the plane tomorrow morning.

Not sure if I'll be blogging tomorrow as I need to get back into the routine of camp. If not, have a fabulous Monday. I hope you all had a great day today too.

Hugs!!!

Saturday, May 01, 2010

That was a wee disappointing

I got up an hour before I had to head to weigh in today as opposed to my usual 2hrs. I got on my scale and got 5 different numbers (I always do 3 to ensure it's not doing something wonky).

I had no idea what the WW scale would say. On my way to weigh in two people tried to kill me. One driver turning left while I was in the middle of the crosswalk and had the walk light. Then another who was exiting a parking lot and almost failed to see me on the sidewalk in his path. I just glared at them and shook my head.

At weigh in I was down 1.4lbs, I'm not sure how that happened.

My base points are 196 that's the daily 23 plus 35 flex.
I earned 24 AP this week.
I ate 234 pts this week that's 38pts over the base points and over 14pts if I added my AP to my base.

Wednesday and Thursday were rather horrible days so I have no idea how I managed a loss.

I flipped back through my tracker and the one thing I noticed is I ate more protein this week then I normally would. Hey I'm not complaining, just a wee confused.

That's 2.2lbs to my 10%, that is my goal for next week. I quite like the new leader Tony, he's positive but straightforward. The discussion today was interesting and I found the cycle of environment, behaviour, capabilties and belief interesting. It's true that most of us can get past the first two but have difficulty accepting we're capable and believe we can hit a certain goal.  I decided to change my end goal to 140 as opposed to 145. 145 would get me to a BMI of 24.9 that's just a smidgen to close to the healthy bmi of 25.

I had decided today that I was going to go to DQ and get a small blizzard. They have the buster bar blizzard this month. One of my all time favourite things is the Peanut Buster Parfait and at 17pts I rarely have it. I've considered the buster bar to be similar and this in a blizzard would be awesome. A small is 14pts. I had it budgeted into my day.

I went for my mega walk and added DQ to the route. I get there and there's no evidence they have the buster bar blizzard. I ask the 12 year old at the till and he says that's next month. I said not according to the commercial and the website saying it starts May 1. I settled for a banana cream pie blizzard (a past favourite).

The moment they handed it to me I could see it was fairly liquid and 10 min after leaving it was soupy. It's changed some how as the flavour wasn't the same. The whole experience was a wee disappointing. The stupid thing is I probably could have had the Peanut Buster Parfait for the 3 extra points.  I've earned a total of 8 APs today.

This was the mega walk:

572 calories burned/ 1:33/ 9.73K/ Pace 9:36 - 5:19
Heart rate: Avg 74%, Max 88%

Plus 2APs for the walk to weigh in and back.

Tomorrow I want to head to Chinook Mall. I need some spring work clothes and one of the new pairs of pants I bought are too big. I thought they were a wee loose in the change room but as I wear them through the day I can tell that they're too big. I'm not a huge fan of this mall as it can get crazy busy so I'm getting there the moment they open at 11 and hope to be out again by 1pm before they get crazy busy. One of the groups I support gave me a $100 gift card for Sears (super nice of them).

Hope you had a wonderful Saturday.

Hugs!!