Back on track

Hope everyone had a great Saturday.

Mine started with weigh in where I stayed exactly the same and I'm going to take that as a blessing as I'm fairly certain I'm PMSing right now that I also like to refer to as snackapalooza.

I decided not to go to Zumba today and instead try to squeak in my long run for the week. That was rather ambitious as I do walk to weigh in and back and add in wandering around Walmart that already counts for some distance.

I managed to do 6 miles this afternoon I was supposed to do 7 miles. According to my FitBit I did 10 miles all together and

I walked 20,000 steps today and got a badge with Fitbit! fitbit.com/user/24LLC9 #Fitstats so I'll count that as a win.

The back on track part was I had a goal to do 3 half marathons in 2013. I opted not to do the one I had signed up for in February as the winter weather i.e. ice and too much treadmill time sort of messed up my training. I learned to stick to short distances in the winter and go for longer distances in the spring/summer and fall.

Today I signed up for the Stampede Half Marathon other wise known as the Stampede Road Race, of course my city is pretty famous for it's Calgary Stampede. The race takes place on July 7th, so still about 8 weeks before the Disneyland Half and about 8 weeks after the Calgary Scotiabank Half. The other interesting thing about this race is it's capped at 1850 participants. I'm sort of used to thousands at all the other runs I've done.

This makes me super motivated to train better as depending how this goes I may just try for a full marathon again next year. Perhaps even the Dopey Disney Run which is a 5K, 10K, Half and Full in 4 days and gets you 6 medals, that would be more of a long term goal for January 2015.

I still need to get through the Dumbo in September. I did the 5K and Half on the same day at Disney Wine and Dine so one never knows.

Tomorrow is rest day but will involve housecleaning.

On Monday I think I'll head the gym for the weight class and yoga, then on Tuesday go to Zumba before the Bon Jovi concert and get a short training run in on Monday.

I start going to Edmonton on Mondays as of April 15th with super late flights back to site so Monday will no longer be run day. I need rejig my training plan.

I feeling pumped.

Happy Easter.

Hugs!!!

Wipeout

Long week this week.

I did hit the treadmill on Monday and challenged myself to stay on there while I did my camp laundry. So that meant staying on during the wash and dry cycle.

I did it.

No speed medals but I technically completed the training I was supposed to do on Sunday.

My FitBit was impressed.

The weather is definitely warming up which is a nice change. Up at site we have exactly 3 seasons - snow, mud and dust. Looks like mud is starting to kick in.

Which means I can retire by poor site Sorels, they're starting to crack but they held up well to almost 4 years of Northern Alberta winters, now my mud/dust season hiking boots must also be retired this year so I got some shopping to do.

I did buy a cute more city pair of Sorel's (pink) that if I am at site another winter will do in a pinch. The latest news on my return to the Calgary office is sometime around Christmas. I do know that could change on a dime.

Tuesday and Wednesday were 13 hour days due to late meetings so no gym time and of course I flew home on Thursday. Normally I would run/walk again on Wednesday.

I do have to say the sunsets are pretty darn spectacular the further you are away of civilization.

And you can see the mud season effect on the buses. There's still a monster amount of snow to melt up there so I expect a long mud season.

Now to my title, it was beautiful today so I headed out for a run walk feeling great. I was about 20 minutes in where I adjusted my form to be more chi-running (leaning forward) then my foot hit a crack in the sidewalk and I went dooowwwwnnnnn. I tried to gain my balance but no go. I'm not hurt but I scraped up my palms and saw that the skin was broken. So I cut my run short so I could go home and wash my hands. I then discovered the impressive bruise on elbow. My knee came out unscathed as I had felt I scraped that as well.

Tomorrow is weigh in and a return to Zumba, with another run/walk planned for Sunday.

I have extra long weekend as I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off. Did I mention I'm going to Bon Jovi?

I plan to check out some classes at the gym that I normally can't take as I'm not here.

I do hope all of you had an amazing week!

Hugs!!!

No run mojo

I was supposed to do 6 miles today.

Let's go back to yesterday where I tracked all that ate after I ate it and my treat day turned into a disaster pretty much using the bulk of my weekly points. I was guesstimating and I guessed pretty wrong. I do have a challenge with weekends. 

Now move on today where I probably wasn't fueled so well for 6 miles. I lasted 4.62 miles. My Gym boss died after the 2nd run interval and I really didn't want to look at my watch constantly so I winged it. Well winging caused my chins to be angry so I switched to walking.

I'm happy I went out as it took a whole lot of mental effort, I went out a few hours after breakfast as I was waiting for the weather to warm up a little, now that was probably a mistake as well as at mile 4 my stomach was grumbling like crazy.

So when I got back I planned out my day in advance and I did the same thing for tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll plan out Tuesday.

There has been a lack of plans lately and that needs to change. Particularly my planning on the weekends, as have 3 days a week that are fairly unstructured I need to add structure. My work week is almost easier as I have a pretty set routine.

As of April 1, I'll need to go to Edmonton once a week, then fly back to site then fly home. This is just for the next few months and planning will be super important.

I know I can do this, I will do this.

Hugs!!

I am an efficient napper

I'm still loving my FitBit and wear it daily including every night to measure sleep.

I have noticed an interesting trend, I'm definitely a tosser and a turner based on the data it can range from close to 10 times to over 20 times a night.

However when I nap I'm super steady.

Only 2 interruptions during yesterdays nap. I tend to nap at least once over the weekend.

Only woke up once during the nap but super tossed and turned with 23 interruptions

Then here it was 3 times vs 21 times overnight.

Apart from napping I did go to weigh in today and suspected I'd see a gain. I was up 1 lb, it could have been worse.  It was a wild week with unexpected late meetings and then working in Calgary for a day where it just reminded me that I'm to be back in the corporate head in roughly 6 - 8 months with still no clue as to what the job will be. So when I got home on Thursday I wanted chocolate. I bring Hershey kisses to work at site as it encourages people to come talk to scary HR. I never dig into the bags at home until this Thursday. I managed to make some series damage in little foil packets.

I also didn't earn quite as many activity points last week. My WW source says Activelink is coming to Canada and I'm still intrigued even though I have the FitBit. I really like the determining your base line and aiming for over that.

The good news it's a new week and I have 6 miles on the training schedule tomorrow. The weather should be o.k, with windchill near -10c.

The meeting was as per usual with the my ridiculous leader. We talked about drinks so she took us through a painful exercise listing what we drank during breakfast, lunch, dinner and social. The painful part was there didn't seem to be any point in the exercise.

She then asked who had plans for Easter, who was going to friends and then I was shocked to hear her say "Who doesn't celebrate Easter". A few people put up their hands when she realized she shouldn't have asked that. I was floored as that was hugely inappropriate.

Towards the end of the meeting she said she would have done the topic differently but had to do it this way. I do hope Weight Watchers Int'l starts the training of the franchisee leaders soon. There was a line at weigh in with only one scale open as she was chatting with one woman at one of the scales.

There's another plus to coming back to Calgary is I'd have more choice of meetings but for now the Saturday morning one just works best for me.

As I left the meeting to go over to Walmart I walked past this

 Note the bunny ears and cotton tail on the Volkswagen....too cute 

Sometimes you need convenience - Smart Ones

Hello,

Earlier this week I was contacted to see if I'd be interested in writing a little bit about Weight Watchers Smart Ones. I quite like Smart Ones so I said sure and in full disclosure they did offer to pay me for this.

If you're not familiar with Smart Ones, here is a link to their Facebook page Eat Your Best Canada

As I travel a lot having something convenient, fast and tasty to prepare makes my life a wee easier especially as the points are right on the box so no calculator needed.  For example when I fly out on Mondays I need to pack my lunch so I quite often take this one:

I love Fettucini Alfredo and pre Weight Watchers it was probably one of my favourite choices at a restaurant (at up to 30 Points Plus per serving) so I was pretty happy to find a version that was far lower in points. This is also an option for me when I fly home and need to put together a quick dinner. If I make it at home I'll add some steamed broccoli as there's a good amount of sauce. This one is by far my favourite Smart Ones.

Today I decided to try something I've never tried before....Smart Ones morning

On my way to weigh in I swing by Tim Horton's and pretty much order this for the exact same amount of points. So having it handy in my freeze was appealing and two come in the box.

It looked like this out of the box. Cooking instructions were easy as all I had to do was take it out of the plastic, wrap it in a paper towel and microwave for 1:15 minutes then let it sit for 30 seconds flip it over and microwave for 25 seconds and tada:

I added the tomatoes for a little colour.

Taste wise it was pretty good, certainly different then a freshly toasted English muffin but it did come out of the freezer. I would keep this on hand even for a quick dinner as sometimes I have a breakfast food for dinner.

I'm certainly impressed with all the different options available in Smart Ones so check them out on Facebook just click the link  Eat Your Best Canada. 

Do you use Weight Watchers Smart Ones and if you do which one is your favourite?

Hugs!!

Can't believe it's almost been a week

Since I last posted. No excuse really other then being busy at work and trying to squeeze in workouts.

Let me back up to Saturday, there were no evident changes in the meeting since it was purchased by Weight Watchers Int'l. I suspect they will come.

Had a great weigh in as I was down 1.8 lb. So that meant not only did I get rid of the damage of my co-workers goodbye party which caused me to avoid weigh in the week before but I also beat my last recorded weigh in from 2 weeks ago.

Then I went to the gym and did the 5 miles for my training plan, it was brutal as the treadmill resets every half an hour but I did it.

On Monday I got contacted to see if I wanted to do a review of Smart Ones by a marketing agency and I accepted the task. That will be tomorrow's post so stay tuned.

Of course Monday was also the Biggest Loser finale.


Now I know Gina wasn't the most popular contestant but I couldn't help but cheer her on. I really like to see the people over the age of 30 and 40 succeed (inspiration) and she definitely came around.



Not surprised Danni won but wowsers by just 1 pound was a shocker of a moment. She was a beast and I say that with the utmost respect. She got out of her own way and succeeded. Original source of the photos was realitynation.com.

What I'd love to see from this franchise is another where are they now specials.

Tuesday I hit the treadmill again and it was a rough run as I have late meetings on Tuesdays. I stuck it out for 30 min which follows the minimum of my training plan. On Monday I had an unexpected late meeting and got back to my room just in time for the Biggest Loser finale.

Flew home on Wednesday and thought we might not take off as a winter storm warning blew in. It was crazy it was the first time in the almost 5 years I've been flying for work that they told us to the hold hand rail on the way into the airplane. However we made it and it was gorgeous in Calgary with +12 and sunny.

Today I headed into the Calgary office as I had meetings, the weather sure shifted as it was snowing with cold wind. Today was also the day I had the coffee date with the guy from Jr. High. This is the one the psychic thought was the immature person in my life.

The coffee was o.k, we talked for the whole hour and had some laughs. I could tell when we first me he sort of sized me up. He told all about his past relationships which I wasn't expecting as I was thinking this was coffee with a friend. Not sure what will come of it if anything but it was a pleasant chat.

Had plans to leave the office by 4:15, that turned out to be an hour later and when I got to my home station I thought I might as well do some grocery shopping tonight as tomorrow the wind chills are double digits.

All in all a good week, I do hope all of you had a good week.

Hugs!!!

Kind of like week 1

I decided to get out of my own way this week and just follow the WW program like I was new.

I tracked all 7 days, I earned 36 AP this week. Water could have been better. Now I wait to see how it goes at WI tomorrow.

Curious to see if there any changes yet with my meeting now being owned by Weight Watchers Int'l and not a franchisee.

Actually followed my half marathon plan this week as well. Funny what happens when you just focus. Though on non run days I did yoga, I really need to get more diligent with strength training. My plan for tomorrow is to run at the gym as we have a lovely cold snap then go to iron reps. I'll skip Zumba for the run this week. I think I'll do the zumba dvd on Sunday.

The positive self talk is a work in progress, I did a better job this week of cutting off the negativity.

Work wise it was a good week too. I went in for a meeting today even though it was my day off and I could of phoned in. Since I was there anyway I also helped out a new co-worker. Plus it really worked out because I could pick up my team winter jacket. Now the winter jacket is a long and lean style so it fits now but not enough for a big sweater or hoody. Hopefully we are in the tail end of winter so this jacket will be an interesting NSV measure.

Today I roasted a spaghetti squash but differently then I've done before. I roasted the whole squash, no cutting just stabbing it so it could vent when cooking. I put in on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, in a 375 degree oven for 120 min. When it's cool, cut it open scoop out the seeds and run a fork through it to release the strands of spaghetti squash.

I will never make it another way again. This was so ridiculously easy and I did all the cutting and scooping on the aluminum foil so clean up was a snap. Why couldn't I have found this way sooner.

Still working my way through Feel the Fear and do it Anyway.

Other than that it's all good.

I do hope all of you had a super fabulous week.

Hugs!!!

Fear Truths

The spring time change is probably my least favourite as you lose an hour, however I'm feeling fine now. We'll see how it goes at 3:30 am tomorrow.

I woke up at 4 am today and just tossed and turned so I switched on a light and started reading Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway by Dr. Susan Jeffers. I read for about 30 min then went back to sleep and judging by my FitBit my second sleep was a lot more productive then the first time.

As I fell back asleep I thought about the Fear Truths listed in the book.

1. The fear will never go away as I continue to grow
2. The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it
3. The only way to feel better about myself is to go out...and do it.
4. Not only am I going to experience fear whenever I'm on unfamiliar territory, but so is everyone else
5. Pushing through fear is less frightening than living the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness

Now it's going to take me awhile to work my way through this book but I tracked yesterday and I tracked today. In the spirit of #3 today I headed out for a 4 mile run/walk. My last run/walk was January 28th, every time I've headed out since it's just been walking. There's nothing wrong with just walking but today I decided to reintroduce 1 min of running with 1:30 of walking. It felt great, a little treacherous as there where some icy patches so to evade it broke into something that looked like hopscotch.

I'm going to message my Facebook friend to meet up for coffee next time in the Calgary office.

I'm going to run again tomorrow, then on Tuesday use that awesome crossfit app that Coffee Cake and Cardio introduced me to called WOD Genius and then on Wednesday run again.

So with that I leave you for now and hope you have a fantastic week ahead.

Hugs!!!

Blocked chakra and fear?

It's never a good thing when I don't blog in a week. Not to say I had anything particularly interesting to say but again I blog for me like an online diary and when I don't I know I'm crawling into my shell.

This was my first week in a few that I did my regular work schedule of a full 4 days at site. I was busy as the two weeks before not being at site set me a little behind.

I talk to my boss every Monday as we have a regular standing touch base meeting. She was telling me about an upcoming appointment with a psychic. I've been to psychic's before and acknowledge there are those who don't buy into and do believe in this but I won't pass judgement as we are entitled to our own beliefs.

Well a few days later she told me about the appointment and had good things to say about this person so this conversation got me thinking. I asked for their contact info and booked an appointment of my own and booked it for Friday.

The rest of the week flew by and I was utterly exhausted every night so no workouts just straight back to my room at the end.

Thursday when we flew home we were going to dinner as a goodbye get together for one of our work friends who's leaving us. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings close to the airport. I don't do bones but luckily Thursday is boneless wings night. I realized this would so not WW friendly but at that moment I opted to throw caution to the wind and just enjoy myself.

Well we all got a boot of Steam Whistle beer that's a litre (roughly 2 pints) of beer and ate a bunch of wings. We were narrowly kicked out by the manager as our outgoing co-worker had 2.5 boots and was enjoying himself a little loudly. All in all it was quite fun and so many laughs. Now I knew that I'd be skipping WI as there was no way I'd undo the damage by Saturday morning. Agree or disagree but it felt like the right decision.

So we now land on Friday and my appointment with the psychic.

It was interesting, she nailed my insecurities about my upcoming job change, picked up on the guy I went to junior high with who's been asking me for coffee on Facebook and said something that struck home.

She said stop feeling fear and just go with it about the job, about the love life and about my goals.

For the longest time I've been feeling a block and she helped me label it - it's fear.

Fear of succeeding at weight loss
Fear of failing at weight loss
Fear of falling in love
Fear of being alone forever
Fear of failure
Fear of success
Fear of not succeeding

She asked me if I was currently interested in anyone and I couldn't answer. Based on what I do I always I feel I need to keep a little distance and I just keep that going outside of work as well.  I then explained that I've always been a little clueless. I translate a guy flirting with me as being nice not interested. She told me my heart chakra was blocked. I know a little about chakra, as it's similar to Chi or Prana.

She gave me a mantra:
I'm active, attractive and in demand under grace in the perfect way

I told her my fear is probably tied to self esteem and then she said I had great self esteem. I supposed I do project that but don't necessarily feel it.

Afterward I remembered I had a book.

I've had this forever and based on folded corner never got past page 27. I think it's time to revisit.

This week my goal is to focus on positive actions and energy.

Hugs

Ch..ch..changes

I went to WI today only to discover ridiculous leader was back apparently she was off for a month.

At the start of the meeting she said "You might have heard the franchise has been sold"

I immediately picked up my phone and looked for Weightwatchers Alberta under news. There I found the Q4 results for Weightwatchers Int'l and it looks like they bought the franchisee for Alberta and Saskatchewan in January.

This makes me incredibly happy as I have always thought this franchisee was stuck in the dark ages. For example you can't get the monthly pass in SK or AB, nor the pedometer and goodness knows what else they haven't provided. Not to mention there's not a single Sunday meeting in a city that has over 1 million people.

This also means if Activelink is launched in Canada we in Alberta and Saskatchewan can actually buy it as I would have bet on the franchisee not carrying it. They never seem to embrace anything technical i.e. the pedometer.

The weigh in itself is what I expected a gain of 2.4 since my last WI two weeks ago. My fault and I'll fix it.

I got a new weigh in book and made a vow to myself to treat WW with priority no different then going to work.

Ridiculous leader was better today and the meeting room was packed. At one point she said "We aren't athletes so can't eat like them" I just shook my head at this. Of course we're athletes. We are athletes of life and no we can't eat what an elite athlete is but we can certainly look at food as fuel instead of a method to deposit our emotions - that's my M.O.

After WW I went to the gym and did a 15 warm up on the bike then 45 min of Zumba, and add in the 40 min walk there and back it was a good AP day.

We've got winter storm warnings for tomorrow so we'll see what happens and if I can make it to Tai Chi, I'm already planning plan B of workout dvds just in case.

Now I'm even more geeked to go to meetings to see when/if we see any changes with now belonging to the mother ship.

I think we're the horizon of something great.

Le sigh

My heavy week of travel did not go well. Workout clothes were packed and never left the suitcase. Tracking never happened after Monday morning. There were a ton of meals out.

This whole not knowing what my next role is seriously bugging me as I spent two days with my replacement. I was at an HR training and now some other Advisors so they were asking when I was coming back to Calgary and shared my confusion about not knowing where I'd go. Plus this week I had to terminate someone and then go into 2 days of training that requires participation. I'm shy and don't like to sound stupid so the training situation stressed me out a little.

So my food decisions were off, and my coffee intake was up. I stepped on the scale when I got home and the number shocked me. It showed me I need structure and accountability.

I went for 4 miles around the neighbourhood to shake off the negativity and focus on positivity and planning next week.

I did start re-reading Shrink Yourself and going through it slower this time around.

I do really like this book as it delves more into why you do the things you do, like go completely off plan do to feeling stressed.

Today I watched Biggest Loser and a few contestants resonated with me. Strangely enough it was Gina, I don't have total melt downs like she does and she strikes me as high maintenance but when she was in that coffin saying I don't want to die and I have a second chance that hit home.

I still have a second chance, or third or forth or fifth or so on. It makes me think how the majority of my WW meeting has people who rejoined for a 2nd or 3rd time.

That's the essence of the human spirit - perseverance.

I ordered the Aria scale and it arrived today.

It syncs with FitBit and the app. It also measures body fat which I haven't tracked in quite some time.

Funnily enough this week I start a new tracker and I think I'll ask for a new weigh in book tomorrow. A clean start.

The Progress not Perfection challenge restarted, that's the tracking challenge run by the fabulous @IrishEyes1982 and you can see it on twitter under #PNPtrackstar. You don't need to be on WW to join either.

So I'm dusting myself off and going back to basics. I control what I do and I want to be healthy.

Hugs!!!