Friend Making Monday

I've only taken part in this once before but I'm a fan of Miss Kenlie who created this.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Summer Fun

1. What is your favorite summer fruit? Berries of any type, love raspberries, strawberries, blueberries

2. Do you know how to swim? Sort of, I'm good at backwards and dog paddle

3. Do you prefer sun or snow? It can be sunny and snowing ya know. I do like summer but the sun tried to kill me (skin cancer) so I'm weary and careful. Not a fan of super hot weather at all.

4. What temperature do you like most inside your home? I think in Celsius so around 20.

5. Is it humid where you live? Dry as a bone.

6. What is your favorite food to put on the grill? Burgers

7. Do you prefer to wear a one-piece or two-piece swim suit? Own both but my two piece is a tankini so still covers. I have a goal to rock a bikini one day.

8. What is your favorite summer drink? Ice tea, love the Mio Ice Tea flavor.

9. Do you prefer the pool or the ocean? Pool, too many things in the ocean, like to admire that from the shore.

10. What are you looking forward to most over the summer? Reading in my lawn chair in the back yard.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions. Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday, friends!

Down but not dead - full disclosure

When one decides to write a weight loss blog it brings a lot of conflictions. Do you share everything including when you fall off the wagon, do you only post successes? I must always remember I started this blog for me so followers will come and go. 

Well I did say in my little blog into that this was the good, the bad and the ugly. 

When I posted about how I rocked the program and got 2.2 loss and then I said I hope I don't blow it. 

I never should have said that, what I should have done is gone forward full of positivity and "I will rock this attitude. 

That didn't happen. 

As I've mentioned before I work a compressed work week right now 40hrs in 4 days. This week was long. We have quarterly town halls and I get to go to 9 of them. I track the questions asked and make sure we're communication the answers consistently. 

This also means a whole lot of meeting that go until 7pm and I did not plan well this week at all. 

I got a run in on Monday, that was it. 

I stopped tracking by lunch time 3 days in a row. 

I'm disappointed and frankly ashamed that I took a great week and through it out the window. It was all my own fault. 

That brings me to today I didn't set my alarm last night so I missed the first meeting. I weighed myself on my home scale and saw a gain of 3lbs and opted to not go to the 2nd meeting. Instead I went to pick up a race pack for race I won't be doing on Sunday. 

Now that's all the down and gloom I'm going to write about now it's time to put my attention forward and consider this a blip. I have a new week ahead of me, last week is in the past. 

Now on to happy news - I won a pair of Reebok shoes

I entered a twitter contest from Reebok.ca and designed a pair of shoes on their website and I was the weekly winner. Those shoes are now on their way to my house. I think they're perfect for my soon daily trek to the C-Train station to get to work Downtown. 

I won't be running the Scotiabank Half tomorrow, I didn't train enough and I failed to plan. All these trips to Edmonton messed with my normal go to training program and I could have come up with a back up plan but I didn't. I thought about going and just walking it as I thought the Edmonton trips would be finished but I'm going to Edmonton tomorrow. 

I went to get the t-shirt I paid for and check out the expo. I have to say that's getting better from the first time I did this race years ago but I just went to pick up the t-shirt as I didn't feel like I really deserved to enjoy the expo as I wasn't racing - that's was in my head. 

Front of the shirt

The back of the shirt. 

I didn't realize Calgary has the oldest marathon in Canada and next year it turns 50. 

Hmm, that will 2 days before my 42nd birthday. 42 sticks in my head as that's how old my mom was when she had me. 

Lately I've been doing my nails, this will be week 3 when I take off last week. 

The first week it was dark blue with a turquoise accent nail, last week was purple with star sticker accent nail. This is after 6 days of wear not bad huh. I've been doing base coat, top coat and using OPI Chip Skip. I'm thinking the Chip Skip is kind of genius. 

Well this afternoon I had to zip to Walmart and I picked up this. 

I'm thinking pink nails this week with this on the accent nail. One thing I must remember when I go to Walmart is make sure there's a bar code and there wasn't on this little bottle and I got boy cashier who didn't know what this stuff was called. I said Nail Polish. 

Tomorrow I'm going to try to squeek in a run as the hotel treadmill is defective - top speed is 4 miles. 

My goals this week:

Track every day and plan out the day ahead. 

Min 9 cups of water per day

It's back to basics week. I'm down but not beaten. 

Hugs!!!

Week blew by

The other good thing about coming back to Calgary and working a normal work week is I'll blog more.

This week went by fast and it was busy.

My boss came up to site on Wednesday with my replacement and I have to admit it had my emotions all over the place. One when my boss comes to site it's a little like hurricane. Then it really hit me that I won't see some of these people again, we have people from all over Canada and sure I might see the Calgary based folk. I won't see the Edmonton, Saskatoon or East Coast folks.

Then I had to change my flight as I need to be in Edmonton for two more Mondays after this Victoria Day long weekend. Then I had to call to cancel my normal flights after June 21st. That actually made me a little sad.

Friday I had to head downtown to get my hair cut and realized that my next appointment in 6 weeks can be on any day as I'll be based in Calgary.

Then I headed out for 4 mile walk around the neighbourhood as I need to get my training into full gear for the  Dopey run end of August.

Went to weigh in on Saturday morning, up 1.2 yup those wiggy emotions. However there are 35 days till I come back to Calgary so game on.

Saturday afternoon had a coffee with M and saw little baby B again, she's 3 months now and utterly adorable.

Today I went to Star Trek with an old work friend, awesome movie by the way and I see myself seeing it again at some point.

Then I came home to take out the garbage and put the sprinkler on. It's been threatening to rain all weekend but it's just spitting and the lawn needs water.

In between moving the sprinkler I started cutting down some rogue trees in my back yard. I have to admit my back yard is neglected. While I've been working up North it hasn't been my priority as I haven't even taken the patio set out of the shed.

Well I'll be home this summer so it's time to take control of the backyard. Hopefully the weather is nice next weekend as I'd like to get most of cleaned up so I can put the patio set out.

Well now your up to date on my life.

Tomorrow I head to work so it's time to turn off the sprinkler and start the wind down process must be to bed early.

I really hope all of you are doing well.

Hugs!!!

Now just don't mess up

I still find Mother's Day a little rough despite my mom passing away 11 years ago. I do want to wish all the Moms out there a wonderful Mother's Day.

This is one of my favourite pictures, I still remember this day. I didn't know she was looking behind me when the picture was taken.

Today I focused on chores to keep my mind busy. I did my laundry, washed dishes, finally raked the lawn, plucked out the dandelions (can't believe they're already around), fertilized the lawn and now I'm watering it.

I have soaker hose type of sprinkler so I call this sprinkler Olympics as moving it takes effort. It's 50ft long.

This was all before noon today. I can already feel where I'll be sore tomorrow.

Yesterday was weigh in and I lost 2.2 lbs and I nice solid launch into the 180s, gee funny things happen when I follow the plan. I tracked all 7 days and used 39/49 of WP. I was super happy about this as I haven't had a 2lb loss in awhile.

It all comes down to how much effort I put in. Now my focus is don't mess it up this week. Keep the momentum going and focus on my goals. It was quite nice moving 11 glass beads from my pounds to go jar to my pounds lost jar. I use 1 bead per .2lb. I added two paperclips to my paperclip chain.

Now my routine is to stop off at Starbucks on my way to weigh in. Yesterday was warm so I was wearing a hoody and put my Gold Starbucks card in the pocket. I had it in my pocket with my iPhone now I did have the momentary thought of hmm maybe I should but that in the zippered pouch on my backpack. Well about a block before Starbucks I realized the card was not in my pocket and I probably knocked it out when I was changing songs on my iPhone. Well I continued to Starbucks and weigh in and thought I'll retrace my steps when I go home.

Well luckily I found the card on the sidewalk about a block away from house. Of course I got a new card at Starbucks thinking if I had lost it I could transfer the balance. I've lost the gold card before and it takes awhile to get the new one in the mail.

It turns out I don't need to go to Edmonton tomorrow as the meeting was cancelled. I do now have to get up at 3:30 am tomorrow to catch my usual early flight to work. I haven't done that in awhile. That's all about preparation. My clothes for tomorrow are all ready folded next to my bed for tomorrow and the alarm is set. Now I just need to pack my lunch, put my breakfast on the kitchen counter (I just have a WW chocolate smoothie as I can't eat at 3:30 am)

I really want a nap but that can't happen or my sleep tonight will be awful and I need to be in bed early.

The good news about taking my normal flight is I have no excuses about running when I get to camp.

I do wonder if I'll see an offer letter this week letting me know what day I return to a home office based role.

Well enough of my rambling, I do hope you all enjoy your Sunday.

Hugs!!!

I did it

I bought 100 bottles of Mio on Ebay, what can I say the US has way more flavors then Canada and this saves me weight in my suitcase when I travel. My current favourite is Peach Tea. They don't expire and will probably share with my friends. It was actually cheaper even with shipping then what a bottle costs in Canada. The funny part was a few more flavors launched in Canada as well. We now have lemonade, blackberry cherry and two of the electrolyte versions.

I've actually tracked every single day, I finally tracked despite my crazy schedule with the 3 hour road trip to Edmonton on Sundays and all the meals out until I return to site Monday night - that is a major victory for me. During the meeting on Monday I tracked using the app on my phone as it was very discrete.

I've also been doing well with water thanks to the Plant Nanny app.

I was focusing on back to basics by really focusing on tracking. Activity wasn't great as I've been so tired. I know that's due to the craziness at work plus finding out I was going back to the home office 6 months sooner then the original plan so a wee bit of stress about that. I was focusing on quality sleep and in bed early all week.

Downloaded the Cool Impossible by Eric Orton to see if I can learn somethings to improve my running.

I found my new favorite Keurig coffee. It tastes and smells like coconut...yum

My home scale is showing the 180s but we'll wait and see what tomorrow's weigh in says. The anchors I put into effect last weekend have been working as well.

I've had some slips but still have 10 WP left and caught myself, for example I didn't plan my lunch well on Sunday so by the time we got to Red Deer I was a hungry. I bought a bag of Doritos, we always stop at the gas station with the Tim Hortons. I stayed mindful and ate half the bag, tracked it and tossed the rest when I got to the hotel.

At breakfast the next day which is the hotel diner, I realized you get half an eggs benedict -one egg. So I got that but asked for the sauce on the side and had it with a side of sliced tomatoes. I think I'll keep doing that while I need to go to Edmonton.

This is my typical view in Edmonton, it's the back of the Labatt's beer plant and train tracks. I do prefer the track side as they call it as the trains go by periodically and they give you earplugs in your room. The other side faces Gateway and there's traffic constantly including fairly frequent sirens.

It's looking like the Scotiabank Half on the 29th is a no go due to work as I may need to be in Edmonton all day Sunday. It's still up in the air.

Today I'm focusing on keeping sodium down and finishing off the week strong.

I've started to pack up my camp room slowly and preparing for my return to the Calgary home office. I still don't have an official start date but I did see the request go in for somewhere for me to sit in the building as it's pretty full. Now that said mid-June but who's to say if that's mid or end.

My back to work wardrobe shopping will have to include some Western wear as I'll be there in time for Stampede. Though I am keeping that wardrobe building plan till after FitBloggin as there is a Nordstrom Rack very close to the hotel and I'm focused on losing as much as I can before I start buying clothes.

Nothing quite like clothes shopping to kick up one's motivation.

It's funny to look at all the stuff I've accumulated up as site I do have doubles of everything so all I had to do was carry a backpack back and forth.

Now when I first went up there I was lighter as well. I didn't realize I had 6 pairs of jeans but as I dug around the abundant amount of storage we have in our rooms sure enough stuffed towards the back of a shelf were 3 pairs I haven't worn in a long time. I took those home.

I wore one of the those pairs today as I thought I'd see if they fit. They fit but are a little snug so I wore them to go grocery shop. Yes I finally grocery shopped on a Friday so I can plan my meals for my 3 days off. I'm also trying to enjoy my Fridays off before I need to start working them again. Mind you there's been loads of time I've had to go in on Fridays.

I am looking forward to being able to plan out a whole week and blog a bit more frequently as my hours won't be quite so crazy. I was planning to go to Zumba tomorrow but I seriously need to rake my lawn so I think that will be my activity tomorrow.

I walked to Walmart and back and that's about 40min in total. I'm still going to do some yoga.

I'll be back tomorrow to report on weigh in.

She read my mind

I went to weigh in today and I do believe my new leader is Nikki who was also a leader with UK WW.

That makes me super happy as the last leader did nothing for me. I was debating changing to a different meeting and found myself dreading going. I really like Nikki, she's funny and sparks good dialogue.

She talked about anchors today and that got me thinking about all the tools I used in the past that helped me be successful.

We also talked about how no one can make you follow the steps to weight loss. You can receive the tools but it's your choice to use them.

I bought a new 3 month tracker intending to start fresh. I got home and decided to finish my old one off. There are 2 weeks left in it.

I then flipped back through the pages and clearly saw how tracking drops off by Wednesday. Another thing we talked about is when you don't track everything or cheat a bit the only person you're cheating is you. Going back to the it's up to you to use the tools.

I got my paper clip chain, each paper clip represents one pound lost. I remembered how long it use to be. Where I had it now was behind the door to the basement. I moved it to my bedroom where I have to walk past it everyday.

My glass jars of beads - one for pounds to go the other for pounds lost was behind my perfume bottles. I rearranged things so those jars are front and centre.

I dug out my WW 10% key chain with the 25lb charm. Right now it was in my backpack. I put it in the ziplock I keep my tracker in as everyday that will be smack in front of me reminding me I can do this. I will do this.

Talked to an old friend and told then I'll be back to working in Calgary full time. She said you'll have to make all your own food. Yes and I'm looking forward to it. Grocery shopping and meal planning for 3 days wasn't easy for me nor was being at the mercy of what the camp chefs chose to offer.

I think back to the post I wrote yesterday as I was so focused on the past.

Today I'm focused on the future. I also had a 100% OP day. Day 1 done.

Bring on Day 2.

A sense of ennui

I say ennui because it's not full out boredom or sadness, it's more a weariness I've been feeling for awhile actually a long while. I recognize it and how I need to get out of it. I can see my way out of it just the journey has been hard. It almost inspired another letter to myself but I've done that twice.

I'm on the cusp of some new things that do show me a rope to dig myself out of my self imposed hole.

The big part is the new job, the other big part is in one month I turn 41. I distinctly remember thinking before I turned 40 that I was going to get this weight loss thing done by the time I turned 41...yeah that didn't happen. I also remember thinking that at 30...

I'm still single with no kids, a handful of friends and I still need to lose weight.  I find my sense of self so tied to my weight. Yet I know I'm capable of completing this challenge that's dogged me for my entire life.

I don't want to go down the road of why have I wasted so much time with the weight loss and that so many could have lost what I need to lose by now. Of course they could also have regained and lost and regained at lost so perhaps I should be thankful that I haven't done that.

However it's 2 years since I was at my lowest weight and that was a few months into my fly in fly out schedule maybe the camp life, crazy hours, what can be a fairly stressful job add in not having 100% control over my food helped the slow creep back up.

Yet I still have faith that I can do this so that let's me know I still can and I still will.

Today I had to head into head office to attend a meeting. This trip felt different as I know I'll be back in that building in 2 months. I did have an office in that building for a brief period before. It was before I went into my current job and before the floors were renovated.

Today I walked through the company gym. It's way bigger then the old one and a bit of a deal at $10 per pay period ($20/mth). One thing I noticed walking through the gym was that everyone who was working out was super fit. I had thought to join when I returned to the building but then I started thinking of my Spa Lady membership that I kept while as site as it was pretty cheap at $22/ mth.

Yes the gym on the 3rd floor is handy but so far I've only used the Spa Lady one sporadically as one I only have access Fri - Sun but it would be on way home every day when I'm back working downtown. It's open later, has more classes and doesn't make me feel intimidated (which is what I felt when I walked through the work gym today).

Tomorrow I go to weigh in happy that it's a new week as it feels like a clean page and a firm grip on a rope to brighter thoughts.

Hugs!!!