Monday, February 17, 2014

3 losses in a row

I was down 0.6lbs this week which makes 3 weeks of losses. I can't remember the last time that happened.

When I was weighing in there was a woman next to me weighing in at the same time. I heard a gasp of surprise she was down a little over 7lbs, the surprise part was she just came back from a cruise.

In the meeting she said she was down 15 lbs in 3 weeks. Another woman in the meeting said she was down 10lb in 2 weeks. No given this woman just joined and I remember my very first week of WW I was down just over 5lbs.

It's dangerous to compare yourselves to others and I always hate it when someone gets to goal and someone inevidently asks "How long", my answer to that is who cares. There are fast losers and there are slow losers at the end of the day there are losses.

Now that got me looking at my weekly tracker I'm down 2.6 lbs from when I rejoined on October 15, 2013. Yup, 4 months back at meetings and I'm down 2.6lbs. I'm down 11.8 from my very first WW weigh in and I still think of 204 as my starting weight.  Now let me be clear this is not the fault of the meeting, this is 100% my fault.

My head has not been in the game, given I'm grieving and like I said to my counsellor the minute I think I got this something throws you sideways, I'm still adjusting to being back in Calgary. My grief period was away from my friends of the past 2.5 years and while I was at site I didn't really see my Calgary based friends all that much. Not to mention adjusting to making my own meals which hasn't been so easy. Just recently have I embraced cooking again.

I started grief counselling I'm only 2 sessions in but I think that will also help me deal with the emotions of weight loss.

I've been sort of kind of following the program. My 0.6lb loss I had more days this week over 40 pts and blew my WP and daily points to oblivion so the fact I saw a loss that's just amazing.

So I had sometime to stew over this and realize I need to be far more diligent. My 42nd birthday is in June.

I want to be faster in races and quite frankly I'm tired of being fat.

I'll miss my next weigh in because I'll be in Florida but this fires me up to stay on plan and work for a solid loss when I return to weigh in on March 1st.

I know I can do this, I've done it before. This time the motivation is different. It's a slow burning fire.




Friday, February 14, 2014

Less than a week

Until I'm on my way to Orlando and the Glass Slipper Challenge.

Number 2 race this year that I'm less then prepared for, mind you I went into Tink that way so I figure if I survived that I'll survive this.

Then when I come back I train full out for the Calgary Half in June to see what it feels like to be completely prepared.

Tomorrow it's off to weigh in and not sure what I'll see. I've tracked but as to staying on plan not so great. The number on the scale this morning was very encouraging so we'll see what Saturday brings.

I took today off as I expected it to be very very quiet and Monday is Family Day so a super long weekend for me. Today was pajama day and cleaned off the pvr. The major goal for this weekend is thorough house cleaning and meal prep. Yes I only have a two day work week next week but when I get back I go straight back to work so I thought better get sorted.

I also want to pack for GSC as I'm taking the red eye flight to Toronto in the wee hours of Thursday to get to Orlando earlier than most of the other flights that don't get in till 11:00pm.

This was a weird week.

On Tuesday I got the license plate for Dad's car which I sold in December, yeah I sold it to the most wishy washy family I've ever met. It was the first thing of his I sold though.

Tuesday night I get a call from the lawyer to say the will has cleared probate now on to the final tax return and clearance certificate.

On Wednesday I had another grief counselling appointment. I love my counsellor this was only our 2nd meeting but I'm so at ease with her.

I told her I journal and have been trying meditation, I have a tough time with meditation as I tend to nod off. She was very happy with that and told me she doesn't need to tell me a lot as I'm seem to be discovering things on my own so she listens to me ramble.

We'll have one more meeting then it's off to group for 6 weeks.

I actually got a journal specifically for my parents this week. As I want to keep that separate. When my Dad passed I had a notebook where I recorded all the things I had to do or who I had to phone. At the back of the notebook I had written a few letters to Dad. Today I taped those pages in the journal and wrote a little letter to Mom. This journal is all about my parents, what I want to tell them or noting moments of memory.

That's been the weird part of this whole process is how much my mind goes to my Mom.

Speaking of Mom when I was little we used to go this bank downtown that was in a historic building that had the most amazing ceiling, later it turned into an A&B Sound. Of course spent time in there as a teenager as the CD selection was huge. They moved out a long time ago and it's been empty.

Well the other day I noticed a gym is going in there and I'm so intrigued. I'm kind of meh about Spa Lady as the bulk of their classes are aimed more at the schedule of suburban moms. I've been using the corporate gym which is super cheap but it's tiny and I'm not so keen on working out with people I work with.

This gym should be pretty big and it's right next to my church which is 2 blocks away from where I work. So depending on hours this may be my new gym.

They don't open till the summer but apparently in a few weeks they'll open an info trailer. They posted some draft floor plans on their website so the mind is whirling.

Booked the spring lawn package and decided to a little overboard only because my backyard has been neglected forever so it deserves some TLC and I figure if they can get into shape it will be easier for me to maintain.

Now you're up to speed.

Hope of all you are doing well.

Saturday, February 08, 2014

2 losses in a row

It's still blechy cold and I headed out in -20c something windchill to go to go to weigh in.

While we've had so much snow and bitterly cold I've been taking the shuttle bus to the meetings and oh do I miss the walk. I'm so looking forward to dry sidewalk.

The victory this week is I tracked every single day, I can't remember the last time I did that. It was a crazy week as apart from planning workouts my food planning not so great.

I hit the treadmill twice during the week and tomorrow I will go to the gym for another go in preparation for the Glass Slipper Challenge.

I was rewarded with a -0.8 loss at WI, and a new daily point value of 27. Heading into the right direction.

I finally watched the season finale of Biggest Loser and I think enough has been said about Rachel's win. Can I say way to go Tumi, she looked fierce and did it at home.

I'm so excited about the Olympics, I love the Olympics. It inspires me, introduces me to or reminds me of sports I'm not so familiar with i.e. Biathlon and Curling.

Reignites love for sports like Figure Skating and Aerial skiing

More then that I'm constantly in awe of these athletes who have spent the last 4 years with their eyes on Olympic games. Every training and every competition in between with focus on these games.

In University I did a degree in Russian so it's kind of neat to see how much I remember as I watched the Opening Ceremonies today. Happily the Alphabet and ability to count down from 10 is still intact.

On Friday my work had a little mini Olympics as we do sponsor the Canadian Olympic team.


 Curling anyone?
 A race track but instead of cars there were bobsleds

 We even had our own opening ceremonies complete with Olympic (paper) flame.
 There was Wii U station and I had no idea there was a pair's figure skating game.

 I got the airbrushed temporary tatoo

Today I was running around in the Adidas Canadian Olympic pants which are now my favourite lounge pant and a Canadian Olympic team jacket and t-shirt from the Hudson's Bay.

I did win that prize pack from the Hudson's Bay on Twitter and scored a lot of Olympic Gear, they've now set up in the lobby of my building twice.

This time I couldn't resist this fella, going back to my floor a woman in the elevator actually pet him. He's very popular as everyone wants to hug him.

I was pvring the opening ceremonies on Friday but when I got home I found out I had no phone or internet or tv and I looked at backyard and saw that the phone line was laying in my yard. It detached from my house, how I have no idea how that happened but I phoned Telus and they said they'd send out a tech today.

The tech called while I was at WW and actually came early to fix it. I lock my gates so he had to use a ladder to climb over but everything worked when I got home. Of course I discovered it didn't tape the Opening Ceremonies but my Telus Optik had it on On Demand so I could watch it today.

Coming up this week I have another grief counselling appointment on Tuesday and then I'm taking Friday off for a super long weekend, not for any particular reason but I'll start prepping for Florida.

Today I did start to meal prep in order to bring my lunch to work next week and have dinner options post gym. Tomorrow I tackle breakfast as I'm going to make some egg frittata muffins for a more protein focused breakfast as I'm getting bored with oatmeal.

Now I have my eye on the goal as after Glass Slipper Challenge the next half is in June and at home. I want to be very focused on being strong and trained as from now on my eyes are on Dopey in Jan 2015.

Also starting to think about destination for Christmas 2014 probably because it's still winter.

Hugs.



Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Brrrrr......I hope some of the groundhogs were right

Me, this morning as I was heading out into -34c (with windchill), for my American friends that's -29F.

While being blatantly patriotic I have to say those mittens are awesome. They're from Hudson's Bay and part of the proceeds goes to the Canadian Olympic Team but what I really love is they are super warm.

Where has the week gone? I can't really account for too much other then trying to keep warm.

Two of the Canadian groundhogs say early spring, but at the rate we're going it's rather unlikely.

I did figure out a way to track my training as I've set the goal for so many back to back races. I wrote out all the training plans and colour coded them. So this is an example of a week in June. It would be the 1st week of Wine & Dine training, the 3rd week of Dopey training and the 12th week of Dumbo Double Dare training. They do mesh pretty well. I realize to especially prepare for Dopey I need to build in strength and flexibility which will hopefully also help my shin issues.

I did order a pair of plaid compression socks which will hopefully be here before I leave for Glass Slipper Challenge, I'm thinking more for recovery as I haven't trained with them on.

I was a little worried about hotel accommodations for Dumbo. I contacted my go travel group Wishing Well Travel and got quotes for Disneyland properties well it took a few days for a response and by the time they go back to me there were no spaces left so they booked me into the Anaheim Marriott. Now my go to girl was on a little vacation and while I definitely think she deserves time off I was surprised no one was covering.

I wasn't crazy about the Anaheim Marriott as it's 3 blocks from the park and I prefer to be super close to the start/ finish.  Well thanks to some great friends in the facebook group I checked with Get Travel and shazaam I've got Paradise Pier. Apparently Get Travel has the in with Disneyland races.

Though registration for Wine & Dine is not yet open, I'm tempted to lock down travel details for that trip too.

On the weight loss front I'm tracking steady for 4 days. I was going through my weigh in book and realized I need to be more serious about this as it's been so so and when I'm so so I see so so results.

I started a new spreadsheet where I track daily weights and sort of a historical record of tracking. I'm calling it Project Me.

The gym bag is now regularly coming to work and even better I'm putting the work out clothes on and going into the gym, as opposed to just leaving the bag under my desk. Which I have done.

It's Ninja time, be focused and determined.



Still no word on the job I applied for though they say there might be decision this week.

Tomorrow it's back to the treadmill and I'm loving the new Garmin.

Hugs.