WW FOR LIFE

Tinkerbell Half Marathon Recap–Race Day!!!!

2012-01-30T21:10:00.001-07:00

Here is the 3rd post on my half marathon weekend.

I was in bed by 8pm. At about 10pm I sneezed and had the beginning of a runny nose. I went to the bathroom and filled the sink with hot water. I then stuck a towel over my head and breathed in the steam. The last thing I needed was a runny nose on race day. Went back to sleep with Kleenex near my pillow.

At 1am they tested the race PA system and I could hear trucks dropping off gates. The draw back to have the start line right in front of my hotel and being on the 3rd floor.

A very early breakfast at 3:30 am consisting of frosted flakes ( thanks to the hotel convenience store the day before) and coffee from the hotel room coffee maker. I got dressed and headed to the start area at 4:45am.

11300 women and 800 men racing today. I was in Corral D so a bit of a wait till we were herded into the corral.

Fireworks went off at the start - nice touch Disney. Each corral was sent off by an image of Tinkerbell flicking a wand.

I can't run and take pictures. It amazed me how many people stopped dead to take photos in the middle of the road not mention how many we're running in the shirt they gave us or cotton - a typical no no.
Loads of fairy wings and got smacked with a few when people passed close by. That wasn't a big deal it was nice to see so many in the spirit of the race.

The lower sea level gave me energy at the start. Anaheim is 100 feet above sea level where Calgary is a few thousand. That extra air is kind of awesome plus no wind chill. There was much zigging and zagging due to the high volume of runners and some pretty narrow parts especially through California Adventure and Disneyland so that took a bit of energy.

I did something pretty stupid as due to my feelings of increased energy I was doing 2 min run, 1 min walk not how I trained. That lasted till mile 6 as I then started to run out of energy. I tried 3 min walk and 2 min run for mile 7 and 8 but then i started just walking.

Here's the breakdown. Garmin said 3:15, I did pause it when I had to hit the bathrooms at mile 4, 13.42 miles (I forgot to turn it off and didn't realize till I was waiting to take the finish photo). Pace 14:34/mi, 831 calories burned. I found my pace per mile interesting.
Mile 1 13:21

Mile 2 13:23
Mile 3 13:54
Mile 4 13:15 - due to the bathroom stop I did run for a longer period to gain back time
Mile 5 13:37
Mile 6 14:06
Mile 7 14:19
Mile 8 14:06
Mile 9 15:16 - here is where I started to hurt a bit and switched to walking
Mile 10 15:14
Mile 11 14:33 - a wee 2nd wind still walking
Mile 12 15:43 - really started to hurt - kept telling myself all I had left to do was the same distance I walk to weigh in on Saturdays
Mile 13 15:26

Official results:

3:13:45 and finished 6911 out of 120000 runners, 9386 people finished the race. So it is my 2nd best time in long distance career.

The runny nose disappeared during the race but returned when I got back to the room. I swear there's some sort of scent in the room. I think that's the culprit. I’m back in Calgary now and yup runny nose is gone.

Here's my after shot. Oh boy was I hurting especially feet and knees. I was wearing compression tights and I do think I would of hurt more without them. Note the sparkle skirt survived.

The best parts of the race:

Guy with the sign that said: Worst. Parade. Ever

The 100 Red Hat ladies lining one pare of the route cheering people on

The abundance of cheerleaders in California cheering us on

The group of little girls doing a luau on the route

The 4 military personnel in desert fatigues dancing away and cheering us on.

I went straight back to my hotel room after collecting a banana and an orange. The bonus of the hotel as this was a short distance. I downed a bottle of chocolate milk. My fingers were swollen as it was getting pretty warm for the last half of the race I should have had more water and the powerade. I had one GU gel at the 1 hour mark. I breezed past the first 5 water stations as I was also carrying water, I should have used every water station.

I didn't move from my bed for an hour and a half then popped two Tylenol, took a bath and the dragged myself to California Adventure and Downtown Disney to pick up a few souvenirs. So happy I brought my Nike flip flops with me as they felt like pillows. Here I am lying in bed trying to take a picture of the medal.

I got two new Star Wars Mr Potato Heads. Mashter Yoda and Chipbacca. I really wanted the Darth Maul one but that was no where to be found. I was tempted by the boba fett one. I need them in pairs to balance out the office window. I don't really like the C3-PO one Got another mug that says "I'm wicked awesome" with some Disney villains on it plus a Tinkerbell necklace with my birthstone, Mickey earrings with my birthstone and a Mickey tea infuser - I need to start drinking more loose tea. It's so cute.

I came back to the hotel for lunch and then started to organize my packing. Need to be on the airport shuttle by 9:50am tomorrow. So I think I'll have a Mickey waffle once again for breakfast.

I've been reading Run your butt off and I've put together a new workout plan to focus on when I got home. Now the priority is goal weight. I want to work on the running starting from basics to build. I would like to come back next year and do this race again or the Disneyland Half and maybe the Princess Half in Florida so I can get the coast to coast medal :). I’m actually thinking about the Disney Wine and Dine run in November this year but that’s just a glimmer of a thought at this point. I have so many trips to the US planned already and the Disney World runs would be pricey. RunDisney puts on a good show and the bling is so worth it.

Today it’s just hard if I’m sitting for awhile and then try to move as the muscles are still pretty sore. The 3 hour plane ride home had me hobbling to customs. Sitting here and posting these is pretty interesting as well. So happy I decided to take tomorrow off and not go back to work till Wednesday.

All in all I am pleased with how I did as I have to admit I didn’t stick to the training plan 100% and winter threw in a few curves as well.

I do hope all of you had a great last few days and thank you so much for your support!!!!!

Hugs

Tinkerbell Half Marathon Recap–Day before race day

2012-01-30T20:45:00.001-07:00

This is the 2nd of 3 posts of my race recap

Being in bed by 8pm also meant I was awake early. I stayed in bed for as long as I could and got up at 6am.

My plan today is to check out the race expo again and buy stuff. Yesterday was mostly looking. I also want to check out California Adventure. Staying at a Disney hotel had some perks like a guest only gate to California Adventure and guest only monorail into to Disneyland from downtown Disney.

Went down to the hotel casual dining area for breakfast. I opted to not go with the character breakfast at the PCH grill and spend $30 for a buffet.
How cute is this?

The waffle, a bottle of OJ and a basic cafe mocha ( chocolate milk with espresso) cost me $16 with tax.
Now the expo doesn't open till 10am nor does California Adventure. Disneyland opens at 8am but I need to make sure I don't over extend myself today. So I thought it would be a relaxed exploration of California Adventure.

Right now I'm back in my hotel room writing blog drafts, painting nails and I'll head out closer to 10. I'm hoping blue is a finish line color.

It's now 2pm and I'm back in my room to relax before dinner. Learned a lesson today that if you go to a race expo and see something you like buy it. Yesterday I saw a Champion jacket that had the Tinker Bell race logo on the front and on the sleeve said Inaugural Tinker Bell Half 2012. I tried on a large and the arms felt really roomy but the chest fit well. It was $65 so I wanted to think about it. There were loads of these jackets. Today only small sizes left. I snoozed I lost. Instead I got a baseball cap, pin and a shot glass.

I did get a new fuel belt made by Ifitness. It's got a waterproof and sweat proof ouch to hold the phone plus a smaller part to hold ID and credit card/cash. This one has 2 6oz bottles plus two pouches for gel or Chapstick. Plus note the reflective bits and bib toggles. It promises to be no bounce, no ridding up and no chafing. I'm going to wear it tomorrow as when I tried it on I liked the feel way better then the fuel belt I brought with me. The girl at the booth was wearing one and was jumping - the thing didn't move. The trick wear low on the hips.

I dropped off my bags at the hotel and went to California Adventure. I found this park a little meh. Apparently big things in store for it this summer. I then moved on to Disneyland as it was early. I was hungry so I went to the Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square. I wanted a sit down restaurant. I had the Monte Cristo sandwich. Forgot to take a picture. It was huge and super good so I ate half. It came with one of the best salads I've ever had. I may need to duplicate the salad at home. It wasn't complicated - lettuce, red onion, yellow pepper, walnuts, craisins, some sort of cheese (goat?) and a beautiful sherry vinaigrette. All in it was $30, expensive but worth it.

I then headed for Tomorrowland and almost got a build it yourself light saber. I did leave with a mug and personalized key chain. It's so rare for me to find Sylvia. I then decided to get off my feet and took the monorail to downtown Disney which is closer to the hotel. Got around far more efficiently today no walking in circles.

I didn't ride any rides today maybe tomorrow. Tonight it's off to dinner with the race entourage my boss's boss, another co-worker and a former co- worker plus 9 other people I don't know.

All my race stuff is organized and all electronics charged, it will be an early night as it's an early wake up call.

Tomorrow is race day.

Tinkerbell Half Marathon Recap– Hello California

2012-01-30T20:30:00.001-07:00

This is the first of 3 posts recapping my trip to the Tinker Bell Half Marathon.

Kind of started off wrong when I got to the airport and used the automatic check in machines on the wrong part. I went to Westjet international instead of US area... Couldn't print my baggage tag so had to go stand in a different line. Totally my own fault. At least I'm prepared for my Vegas trip in June.

Then I tried to go to my gate but the corridor was locked, some sort of security procedure that I think is new. They unlocked the door about 20min before we had to board. My frequent flying totally pays off I even napped with screaming children on the plane.

It was a breathtaking view of the pacific ocean after seeing nothing but snow when we took off from Calgary. Caught the shuttle and got to Paradise Pier at about 2pm.

Cute room, love the beach ball pillows and of course there's a little note telling you if you go home with one it's $65.

I immediately went to the race expo and grabbed my race pack. The Disney properties are massive so it took me awhile to figure out where I was going. I left my BodyMedia at home and wish I had brought it. I did so much walking. This was the view walking into package pick up area.

The race expo is massive.

Thankfully GU was there. I didn't bring Gatorade with me as I thought that might not be wise even in checked baggage going to the US. Thought I could buy it once I was passed security at the airport. Nope there wasn't any. I did see some when I was zooming through LAX on my way to baggage pick up. Of course there isn't a bottle to be found in the hotel convenience store. So I picked up a couple of packs of lemon GU. I might go back for a different flavor. I also bought a sparkle skirt. Might wear it over the compression pants on race day.

I decided against wings so I have to do something.
I also explored downtown Disney (which is open to the public - no ticket required) it's essentially an outdoor mall. There's a huge Disney store which I might revisit before I go home on Monday.

I went to Sephora as I needed nail polish remover and nail polish. I didn't have time to do my toes before I left. I figure I'll be in flip flops at some point.

I went back to my room to drop off my race stuff and then never left. I had an odd food day. Eggo waffles for breakfast at home, got trail mix and a coffee crisp bar as a snack at the airport. I was landing at noon (1pm my time) and no idea how long it would take to get to Disneyland. At the race expo i also tried some danone greek yogurt. I wasn't hungry for dinner so finished off my trail mix. My feet hurt and I was tired and I was asleep by 8pm.

Coming up next day 2.....
Hugs

Snapped out of it

2012-01-26T20:53:00.001-07:00

Thank you for all your wonderful comments and your right... I'm back to thinking positive and my mantra now is give it all you got and have fun.

I'm now 90% packed and the rest goes in tomorrow. It's ridiculous how much you need for 3.5 days.

I promise to take lots of pictures and tell you all about it.

Be back on Monday.

OK Tinker Bell Half Marathon here I come.

4 sleeps soon to be 3

2012-01-25T20:18:00.001-07:00

Alright it was an odd day today.

First of all I got from my camp room down 3 big hallways to the camp kitchen when I realized I forgot my winter jacket in my room. So of course I turned around went back down those 3 long hallways to get it and then went all the way back again.

Yesterday I knocked over a glass angel ornament and a wing broke off. This morning I couldn't find my coffee cup.

I thought the universe was sending me some sort of sign. Well I found the mug and the angel is going home to have the wing repaired.

My mind is going to Sundays race more and more. Today our GM asked me how long I've been training. Now I was crouched in front of the water cooler at the time. So I think he's questioning why I don't look any different or skinnier. No, he was just asking how I trained in camp.

My head is thinking you could have trained better and I hope I finish...

Oy vey, I need to snap out of it. There is no point second guessing myself. In 2 days I get on a plane to LA and it's game on. There's no reason I won't finish and I'm just going to do what I need to do. I'm going to soak up the experience and focus on fun.

I hope you've had a great week so far

Hugs!!!

Whoops

2012-01-22T19:40:00.001-07:00

A dusting of snow today which caused me to be a bit concerned. There was just enough to hide the ice on sidewalks I saw yesterday. My plan was to head out at 1pm for today's run. As it would be about 0c.

Well I laid down on the couch after lunch and promptly fell asleep. Woke up at 4pm...what!!! That kind of blew the 10 mile plan today. So my next long run day will the actual half marathon. Hopefully pixie dust will be plenty.

Now my eye must be on the prize...7 sleeps

In other news booked my trip to Vegas in June... I will be a hottie for this trip. Operation Vegas begins when I return from Disneyland.

A blip and SCC week 3 review

2012-01-21T17:11:00.001-07:00

After a fairly emotional week I figured I'd see a gain today but it wasn't so bad up .6 so 176 on the noes. I did kind of abandon tracking as of Wednesday but today I went back and filled out my journal and updated my spreadsheet. Workouts were iffy, didn't drink enough water and had some fairly high sodium foods on Wed and Thurs. The data doesn't lie but it helps to know where I went wrong so I can learn from it.

It's ridiculous to bury my head in the sand and better to face facts. I am an emotional eater that's for sure so I think to brush off "Shrink Yourself" and take notes this time as opposed to just reading it. Life is full of blip, one needs to focus on the future.

I walked into my meeting today and everything was moved. The weigh in scales where now angled as opposed to in a line and they also moved the seats. The rows were awfully close together then normal. What I found interesting is we had a sub today. My regular leader Deb is off to Palm Springs for 3 weeks. This leader is young and I have to admit we might come off as a tough crowd. The meeting was packed today even more then last week.

So we talked about coping strategies like when is your danger hour in the day where you're more likely to snack and do you have any things coming up that you need to plan for.

I have to miss next week due to being in Anaheim so my next weigh in will be on Feb 4. Apart from the half marathon there will be lots of walking as I really want to explore the parks. Plus my plan is to hit the gym when I'm home next Wednesday. It's been a long time since I went to Zumba.

The weather never hit the -6c they promised it was closer to -10 today but that's still about a 30 degree increase in temperature from last week. I know these temperatures sound extreme but in Calgary it's a dry cold with very little humidity so along as your bundled and wind proofed you're good to go. Really one week of extreme winter is not so bad as next week should be single digits. We also get +30c in the summer so I like to say every Calgarian owns 10 jackets for every possible weather condition. Tomorrow by noon it should be Zero with maybe -5 with windchill so actually pretty good conditions for the 10 miles I need to do.

My Spring Chick Challenge goals this week (4):
Water - so important with the winter dryness - 2L a day
Track it before I eat it.
Activity - gentle as I'll be in tapering zone after tomorrow so the focus will not be on collecting a bit amount of activity points more focus on yoga and mediation. Get my head focused on the race ahead.

I will weigh in at home when I get back on Tuesday and post my week 4 review and goals for week 5 then.

Well my friends I hope you have a great Saturday, talk to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!

One week from today

2012-01-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'll be in Disneyland and a mere 48 hours from my first half marathon in 5 years....

Today I did pop down to the Disney store and got these

Ok they're designed for age 3 years and up so I'll need to do some reconfiguration to get them to work. Oddly enough I can get them on but I don't think they'd last 13.1 miles as is.

I also popped into Lululemon which was next door but nothing appealed to me. I think my run wear will be what I already own and maybe I'll find a running skirt at the expo. My plan is to wear compression bottoms anyway so the skirt would be for over them.

I haven't been to Southcentre Mall since I was probably 16 or so. It's a bit of hike from my neighbourhood but I think I'll go again maybe when it warms up. I had a very single focus so didn't really check it all out.

I'm not so sure I'll find tulle at Walmart to make a running tutu and I'm seriously out of time for that project. If I enjoy this race I get the feeling I might do more Disney Runs.

I downloaded some new tunes for the running playlist. I've really been enjoying some 80 and 90 classics..ah my youth. If you have any suggestions for good running tunes let me know.

Weigh in tomorrow and not sure how that will go. My eating got a little derailed as of Wednesday with the team dinner and then yesterday's entire corporate team social.

Today has been a fair bit of walking and keeping the points on the low end. Tomorrow will be my last weigh in for two weeks as I'll miss next week due to Disneyland. I looked for meetings in Anaheim but they all seem too far. I am happy that I have secondary motivation of going to Fitbloggin after the half marathon. So the focus needs to keep going because really I can be and plan to be at goal before September.

Tomorrow I'll write up my pack list and start collecting what I'll need so my landing on Thursday and then turning around and getting on another plane the next day.

Had to share one more pic of me from yesterday. It's been super cold lately so yesterday I had to pull out my sleeping bag jacket. Now it does sort of look like a sleeping bag. My winter dressing is function not fashion but when I wear this thing and am in a moving vehicle (car, train, plane) I can fall asleep in minutes. I did see a photo of Madonna arriving at LAX recently and it seems we have the same toque.

I do hope you all had a great Friday.

Hugs!!

What a week

2012-01-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends,

I hope your well, I can't believe it's been 4 days since I've blogged but it's been quite the week.

It was a rough week at work and by week I mean 3 days. I have never had a week like I just had and quite frankly never want to experience that again. I don't want to dwell on the negative so that's all I'm going to say about that.

Flew home early yesterday for a team dinner and then today worked in Calgary and had a "goal translation meeting" with a social get together afterwards. I can't say I'm a fan of 3 hour meetings but today went really well.

I have not run once all week not so great. I pretty much went to bed every night beyond exhausted brought on by stress. However now that is behind me and I can focus on my weekend.

The fabulous news the deep cold (-35 with wind) is warming up and it should be +1C on Sunday which is perfect for my last long run of 10 miles. It will probably feel a bit closer to -7 but after a week of below -30 it will feel like spring.

Tomorrow I need to get sorted for the trip so I'm heading to a mall on the opposite side of the city from where I live so I can get to a Disney store. I need to make my pack list and sort out whatever can be sorted out as next weekend I'll be off to Disneyland and the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. 10 sleeps!!!!!

I did do something today that has me excited. I registered for Fitbloggin 12 . This will be my first ever blog conference and I've never been to Baltimore - heck I've never been to that end of the US. I've only been to the west side i.e California and Nevada. The other thing I'm super exited about is meeting bloggers I follow and in my head sort of think of as friends...which may sound strange but we do tend to put our heart and souls on our blogs. This also serves as an added motivation when the half marathon ends. I did choose the button that says "Getting Fit for Fitbloggin" after all.

I foresee a fair bit of yoga this weekend as well as I need to center myself and strengthen the positive.

I do hope you all have had a fantastic week so far.

Hugs!!!

And Winter is back

2012-01-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

After weeks of mild temperatures winter has not quite given up.

Those cold temperatures did in fact arrive today. Right now it's -18c and with windchill it's -28c. The more fun part is when I get to work tomorrow (2hrs north of Fort McMurray) it should be -29c and with windchill -40c. Thank goodness I have a desk job but I sure feel for all the outside workers. The most I'll have to be outside is walking from the plane to the airport trailer.

Brrrr....

Well, it was sort of delusional to think Winter wasn't going to make an appearance.

Today the only time I went outside was to take out the garbage. I'll really need to have a plan for my last long run next weekend as the weather is sticking around for awhile. It might be -6 by Saturday but goodness knows a lot can happen between now and Saturday. It might just mean finding an indoor track and doing a heck of a lot of laps as I need to do 10 miles.

Heard super bad news today. My boss's boss, who was the brain child behind going to the Tinkerbell Half Marathon and a got a group of us together to go, has a 2nd degree ankle sprain. She is gutted ,to borrow a British term that seems more apropos then sad. I think she's found wings for this race. She's also a physical trainer and super fit.

Here I've been worried that I'll be to slow and plucked off the course at some point. Yeesh, I feel so bad for her. She's what I would call a serious runner. Not that I don't consider myself to be a runner even with walk breaks but she's done multiple long distance races and embraces all things fitness. She even teaches a boot camp. She doesn't need crutches which is a blessing. The other good thing is she knows how to take care of herself.

I've already done laundry and made a very traditional German lunch of rouladen, red cabbage and a dumpling and I made my lunch for work tomorrow with the left overs. Work bag is mostly packed. Dishes are washed and at about this time I try to start winding down as my alarm will be going off at 3:45am tomorrow.

I used a whack of WP yesterday so I need to be very careful for the rest of the week.

It can be a little difficult to lose weight while training for long distances. I remember training for my first half and I didn't drop a lot of pounds but my body changed. It's not a time to restrict calories as fuel is super important. Which is also why I'm looking forward to being done with this race so I can focus on losing. I am looking forward to the race don't get me wrong, I think it will most likely be the most fun race I've ever taken part in after all it's Disney. I know I'll come home with lots of stuff that says "Tinkerbell Half Marathon". I do love Disney.

I do hope you all had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Spring Chick Challenge WK3 and weigh in results

2012-01-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

I stayed exactly the same this week, which is preferable to a gain of course but a tiny bit disappointing.

This week I had 248 points (+17) and earned 25 Activity Points so I had 8 Activity Points that were left.

A few things happened this week that's not part of usual routine. On Monday with my all day meeting in Calgary I did use the majority of weekly points. I do think they should be eaten but I usually use them on Saturday which is my weigh in day.

Yesterday I earned a whopping 13 APs and I typically don't do that the day before weigh in either, usually that happens on Sunday.

A major win is I've now tracked every single day since Dec. 31st, so that's two weeks today. That's my longest stretch in some time.

My water intake wasn't fantastic this week. I think I need to add a sticker to the calendar for that. I've been adding a sticker to a calendar for every day I track (a little smiley face) and for every day I get activity (a heart). I usually get at least a litre to a litre and a half but not hitting my 2L goal.

So next week the goal is to keep tracking and get water.

It was a good meeting today. We talked about planning which is so key. Also discovered my leader will be on vacation for 3 weeks. I hope we get a good sub. I will be missing one weigh in when I leave for the race. I had debated on attending a meeting in Anaheim but I need to look into where they are in relation to where I'm staying.

Tomorrow the deep freeze is supposed to hit which complicates my life. I might not run tomorrow and do yoga instead as if it does snow and it's that cold it might be a better day to just stay home. It's been so long since it's been cold.

Next week my schedule is a little off as well. I fly home on Wednesday to attend a team event and then work all day in Calgary on Thursday.

So I should run on Monday as I won't be running on Wednesday then somewhere between Friday and Sunday get the last long training run in of 10 miles.

I had thought I'd zip up to a mall across town that has a Disney store to try to figure out how I can "Tinkerbell" my running ensemble. I did think I might make a running tutu, however not sure if that will be more of an issue and left a little too late. If it does get super cold tomorrow that will probably go out the window but then I'll have to do it next weekend. I do wonder if this cold spell is coming as all the weather reports said it start this afternoon and so far nothing but never take winter storms for granted. They can swoop in fast.

Everything for this trip needs to be completed no later then next weekend which is still a week before I leave but as I fly home on Thursday the 26th, get home around 7:15pm ish and then turn around and fly to LA the Friday on a 10am flight. I'll have to plan next weekend very carefully.

Had a lovely coffee with a friend today and picked up some GU for the race and 10 mile. Still debating on what to do as I just had Gatorade with me on Friday and felt fine.

I have having a bit of a treat day today - still tracking of course.

I hope you all enjoy your Saturday, talk to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

The Plan

2012-01-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

So on Wednesday I was perplexed on what to do for the 9 miles I had to do this week as per the half marathon training plan. Normally I do Sundays but the temperatures are supposed to drop dramatically.

Today my outside thermometer said it was 0c so I decided to do the 9 miles today. After a breakfast of Multigrain Cheerios, a glass of milk and cup of coffee and a one hour wait I headed out. I can do 5 miles on a treadmill without getting super bored.

Last week when I was in Walmart I saw the Gatorade G series. I picked up a pouch of 01 Prime and bottle of 03 Recover. I have Gatorade powder at home so I figured I was good for the "Perform" part. Today I decided to try the 01 Prime. I also wore my CW-X tights.

The exposure on this picture is terrible thank to the window in my front door.

I wasn't as self conscious in these as I thought I would be so over this ensemble I just had my Running Room jacket on. I actually felt kind of fast.

On the run itself I definitely felt more support and for lack of a better word less jiggly.

The deets on the run:

1hr57/ 9 miles (15km roughly)/ Avg Pace 13:06min/mi/ 598 calories burned/ Avg HR 167.

I did feel a foot cramp coming on at mile 7 so I actually walked the last 2 miles. I did 1 min run and 2 min walk intervals for the first 7 miles.

I'm definitely faster outside then on the treadmill.

This is how the miles broke down.
Mile 1 13:05 min
Mile 2 12:39 min
Mile 3 12:26 min
Mile 4 12:36 min
Mile 5 12:43 min
Mile 6 12:52 min
Mile 7 13:00 min
Mile 8 13:39 min
Mile 9 15:00 min

The last mile was a bit of a gong show as I adjusted my route to finish as close to my front door so there was a lot of looking at my Garmin which always slows me down and the wind picked up a lot. I can't say I enjoy walking or running into strong winds. It was windy the whole time but got worse towards the end. I'm really hoping Anaheim is wind free on Jan 29th. I actually never looked at the Garmin it until towards the end of mile 8 and I tied my fastest pace of the 5 miles I did last Friday. I'm happy with that.

Next Sunday (or Friday) I need to do 10 miles and right now the forecast says +2 but there will be snow for the bulk of the week. I was kind of impressed with all my neighbours today as there were only a couple of houses who didn't shovel their sidewalk.

I probably won't bring the tights to Disneyland as the average temperatures in Anaheim in January can be high of 22 and low of +9. However the CW-X shorts arrived in the mail yesterday and there's also the crops. I'll definitely back both. It will probably be the crops as 5:45am is unlikely to be +22.

I earned 13 APs today. I'm only eating a few like 4 of them today as I do weigh in tomorrow so not sure how this will effect weigh in.

Last night when I got home I was snacky again. I definitely need a plan for when I land on Thursdays and get home after 7pm. Even if I have a frozen dinner is better then randomly going through the kitchen looking for dinner. I also need to have a better afternoon snack. I don't think fruit cuts it when I eat dinner so late (well late for me).

My high point day on Monday definitely caused a different week. I noticed my weight stayed steady Tue -Thurs, this morning it got lower but the same as weigh in on Saturday. Note to self keep higher point days as far from weigh in as possible which has always worked for me in the past.

I am looking forward to being done with this half marathon so I can focus on form and building up the running as opposed to what I have to do now and focus on distances.

Alright that's all I got for today, hope you had a great Friday.

Hugs!!

Should of stuck to the plan

2012-01-11T19:10:00.001-07:00

Hello my friends
The week is flying by.
Monday - all day meeting went well though I did have a little too much fun with the catering but that's why I was saving my WP points. I did not go for dinner with the group at The Keg as I figured that was just dangerous point wise.

Tuesday - woke up on my own at 3:30am, it started to snow the moment I put one foot out of the cab when I got to the airport. Of course Tuesday is later meeting day so by the time I got back to camp I was running on fumes.

Today - run day and I had a plan. After work I was going to go straight to my room and grab a PB&J sandwich from the kitchen on the way. I was going to change and go do 5 miles on the treadmill then come back to my room and have the sandwich for dinner. Well that didn't happen. I got back to camp tonight and wound up eating with a friend. My dinner was half a grilled cheese sandwich and sweet potato fries. I did go to my room, change and headed to the gym. Running on a full stomach - not a good idea. I felt off and lasted a measly 1.7 miles.

Fly home tomorrow and I need to sort out this weekend. The temperature is dropping and on Sunday it's supposed to be -17C. So I need to do 5 miles on Friday and weather is still ok. Saturday is still ok and I'm meeting a friend for coffee and a jaunt to the running room so I can get some gels. I think I felt icky after last Sunday's because I ignored fuel rules. I really should know better.

I'm wondering if I should find an inside track for the 9 miles on Sunday or run that on Saturday or just dress right and embrace -17. Have I mentioned I'm a planner....

I'll sort it out. Hope your week is going well.

Hugs!!!

Believe

2012-01-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

We're all seeing that word a lot lately especially if you're a Weight Watcher like me. Yes the ads on tv are on heavy rotation as they are for every other weight loss business- it's January. It does drive me a little batty when I see all these people trashing the ads on Twitter. Ah I see the Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem ones just as much - like I said it's January. The people trying to knock Weight Watchers while trying to sell their program also drives me a little bananas.

I've never responded well to that kind of advertising. I used to not drink anything made by Pepsi because all they ever did was trash Coca Cola, perhaps it's because I consider myself an under dog and have an extreme dislike and disdain for bullies.

I for one love Weight Watchers and does that mean you will - no idea. People need to try things to determine if they work for them. The WW program has never failed me, I have failed it in the past and that is solely my fault especially when I don't track. When I follow the program it works. I've now tracked for 9 days in a row in 2012 and I plan to keep that going.

Well personally I find every single one of the Weight Watcher ads inspiring especially the one with all the people along with Jennifer Hudson. Suzy Storm is in that one and I follow her blog and follow her on twitter. To me that's real life inspiration as is the receptionist at my WW meeting who lost 125lbs. The WW ads are all inspiring in one way or another the pre-Jennifer and post Jennifer one shows how far she's come. The one with just her in black saying "You're stronger then you think you are" is inspiring as well.

In my meeting on Saturday we talked a lot about how weight loss is 90% mental and it's the mind games we play on ourselves that can defeat us. Heck I know how that feels like when I got my 25lb charm to put on my key chain and then I started to steadily gain. I wasn't convinced I could do this that I could get to goal so that marker caused me to freak out a little. I realize that was ridiculous as I've achieved everything else I put my mind to and believed. That's why I will reach goal this year because I believe.

On the Weight Watcher's stuff you see the word Believe made up of a bunch of other words. I don't know if you've ever taken time to read those words but I'm going to share a few of them with you right now.

Believe, Hope, Smile, Dream, Confidence, Progress, Laugh, Happy, Smile, Love You, Strength, Live, Achieve, Change, Run, Healthier, Successful (that's just the B), Energy, Hope, Healthy, Lighter, Hope, Smile, Energy, Succeeding, Healthy, Love, Smile, Energy, Succeeding, Healthy, Love, Happy, Dream...Determination.

Yes there are repeated words but sometimes we need to be reminded and that takes hearing the message multiple times. Even if you don't follow Weight Watchers these words apply to anyone who wants to achieve a goal especially health related.

Determination was my word of the day today. I had 6.2 miles/10K to do on the training schedule. My neighbourhood was mega windy this morning with gusts around 60km. So I went to the gym to do it on the treadmill. After 3 run intervals I just wasn't feeling the running mojo so I walked it. The treadmill resets at one hour so I had to keep an eye on that so I could reset and continue on.

1hr25min/ 6.2 miles/ Pace 13:48min/mile/ 517 calories burned/ Avg HR 158. Really my walking pace isn't a whole lot slower then my run/walk pace.

I wore compression socks today, the compression tights will wait for the next outside run. I thought I'd be too warm in the gym. When the shorts get here I'll try those on the gym and in super nice weather. I'm not sure if the socks made me feel different I think it's hard to tell on the treadmill as it's a more cushioned terrain then going outside.

It's funny I used to only run on the treadmill but now that I've been doing it outside I prefer outside. I was hot in the gym and felt a little like a hamster with the only thing to look at was the newly renovated group exercise studio in front of me that the treadmills face. My mind started a little negotiation like O.K if you stay on here for 5miles then you can walk home for the extra 1.2. I stopped that thinking and continued on.

I just had to put one foot in front of the other and that's how I'm approaching this goal that as alluded me for so long. I will get to goal by just putting one foot in front of the other.

As I've said tomorrow is my most challenging day of the week with an all day meeting in a nice hotel and group dinner. This is my strategy: breakfast at home, I can have coffee, fruit and 0% fat yogurt (if available) at the catered breakfast as an am snack. For lunch keep in my mind the plate rule - half veggies/salad, one quarter protein and one quarter starch. Of course I don't know what's available so I'll have to eye it there. For dinner I was actually thinking of not going. I now have to fly out on Tuesday at 6am so I'll need an early night. However every restaurant has salad and I can ask them to modify it however I want.

I hope you had a great Sunday.

Hugs

Spring Chick Challenge WK2 and weigh in results

2012-01-07T14:25:00.001-07:00

It's time for a check in on the Spring Chick Challenge, if you would like to know more about it check here.

Goal wise I'm plugging along with 1/2 marathon training though this week I got 2 runs in instead of 3. My plan got a little off by having to race all over site at the end of the day on Wednesday and while not a run day it was completely exhausting and still counted as an activity. Next week I'm focused on getting 3 in, especially the midweek one which I missed last week.

Points wise I should have added a little extra info to my goal of 26pts per day and using my 49pts per week. I also have a rule of eating half my activity points if I earn more than 4 in a day.

I keep a spreadsheet to track all this so it goes something like this - in a week I get 231 PPoints (7x26+49). I like to look at this way so I know if I have a higher day it needs to be made up. This week I ate 247 PPoints and earned 31 APS. So I had 15 APS uneaten. To me that's an on plan week and it did show on the scale today as I lost 2.8lbs at weigh in. I had a couple of high days this past week like New Year's Eve and when I flew home on Thursday. My cousin sent me all this lovely chocolate covered marzipan from Germany and well let's just say it's all gone now. Thursdays are tough for me as I don't get home till around 7pm so it's a long wait to dinner. I need to focus on a better afternoon snack or a healthy plane snack. This past Thursday I had no afternoon snack and had grapes when we were waiting for the plane.

As I have 3 weeks to the 1/2 marathon I'm paying more attention to running and stretching. As my long run days are on Sunday I opted to not hit the gym today but instead I'll do yoga this afternoon. I think Iron Reps and Zumba will wait for after I'm finished with the half marathon.

When I stepped on the scale at WI at first the weigh in lady said I gained .2 and I quickly corrected her. Of course the meeting was busier then usual with an influx of new people and that's OK as we're all in this together. My leader talked about believing and achieving today. I like one part where she said the mission is not to lose weight as lost things can be found. The mission is to remove it.

After weigh in I had to pick of a few groceries and am happy to say I left with no treats. I'm not likely to go snackapalooza if there are no snacks in my house. Of course I walked to weigh in an back. BodyMedia is telling me I did 1hr15 of moderate exercise as I do go to Starbucks first and then all the walking around Walmart and Safeway. I'm basing my AP earnings on solely on the walk to wi and back as that's a fast pace not a shopping pace. So today so far I've earned 3.

On Thursday I discovered one of co-workers is also on WW. He's an engineer and goes with his sister. I guess he used to it and so did the sister and they're both rejoining this weekend. I can say this is the first time I had a WW chat with a man. What's super cool is we're often at the same meetings which have food provided so we decided we'd be WW buddies at work. On Monday is the first challenge as we'll be at an offsite in Calgary at a nice hotel where breakfast and lunch will be provided. Then later we're all meeting another group who is also having an offsite in Calgary for dinner. Last I heard it was the Saltlik, which is an awesome steak place and not exactly WW friendly. I'm saving my WP for Monday and will focus on smart choices.

Tomorrow I'll get myself updated on the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jean's "Shrink Yo'self in 2012" plus you'll hear about my compression tight adventure. Tomorrow I need to do 6.2 miles/10K.

Hope you're having a fantastic Saturday.

Hugs!!!

Run Day and tried something different

2012-01-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends,
No blogging yesterday as I was zonked when I got home. Plane was delayed by 30min due to "flow control" which means Calgary airport said don't take off until we tell you to. That morning we had mega fog and all flights that came in had to be diverted to Fort McMurray and then bused to work. Luckily fog was not an issue though we did need to de-ice.

I got home and picked up my mail from the neighbour plus cuddled with their dog (who I adore) and then tried to watch Biggest Loser but I was yawning my head off so I went to bed.

Today I had to 5 miles on the training calendar. So I headed out with a different plan then usual. I decided today to not look at my pace the entire time. I would just look at Garmin to track distance. I wanted to see if I could feel my pace and tell when I was slowing down. I have to admit this pace minimum in the Tinkerbell Half Marathon is freaking me out a little so normally I check my pace quite often.

Today's walk run:
1hr5min/ 5 miles/ pace 13:05/mi/ 447 calories burned/ Avg HR 172

So that's my fastest pace to date. I tried to focus on arm swings as your feet move as fast as your arms. The running parts are still hard but it's progress.

When I got home the CW-X progression bottoms I ordered were here. I found a store in Ontario called Running Free Canada that ships for free (for a minimum purchase). The tights were also on sale. It totally beat the Running Room which is where I was going to go. Not to mention they have way more variety. Of course with online sizing is a bit of a guess. I researched and found that amazon.com is a wicked source for info. Lots of people really like CW-X that's for sure. I also found CW-X Stabilizer shorts for super cheap on Amazon.

These are the full tights in Raspberry color. I think my Tinkerbell running outfit will be leaning towards pink. After all it is the kind of race you dress up for.

I also got a pair of 3/4 tights in black.

Now I have to admit when I took them out of the shipping package they totally made me think of regular tights like pantyhose type things. I put them on and I think they feel right not having tried any sort of compression gear before. It was exactly like putting on regular tights. The CW-X sizing chart goes by height and weigh just like pantyhose. I did go with medium based on height I should technically be a little lighter for them to fit but all my research said you absolutely don't want them too long. That makes sense for compression purposes I think.
I also am bound and determined to be losing so I didn't want to get ones too big. I'll test them out on long run Sunday. This Sunday is 6.2 miles next Sunday is 10 miles.

Yesterday I got the SPIbelt I ordered. I realized I'll need to have stuff on me during the race and I'm debating not running with a fuel belt as the water/fuel stations seem pretty extensive on this race.
Plus lately I'm finding my fuel belt feeling bulky. I've heard absolutely wonderful things about this.

As you can see it looks little above but that pouch stores some stuff. I have a thing for plaid which worked well for me as this one was on sale as I think it's discontinued.

Now I haven't completely sorted out my hydration plan so I also got the SPIbelt hand held water bottle.

I have never used a hand held bottle before but this got super good reviews too...like it's very comfortable to hold and easy to drink out of plus it also has a pouch so if I do go gels this is a good place to store one. I'll road test this on Sunday as well.

Then when I got home I finally watched Biggest Loser. Interesting splitting up the couples and I like it. No favourites yet but there's a whole season to go.

Tomorrow is weigh in and I will do my first Spring Chick Challenge full update on my week activity and food wise.

Hope you are having a fantastic Friday.

Hugs!!

Challenge craziness

2012-01-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

So not only have I signed up for two blogger challenges I'm coordinating a Biggest Loser challenge at work. Aren't I gung ho?

Late this afternoon I ran all over site putting up posters. It started in the building I work in. First I hit the second floor that I work on. I did one lap of the floor putting the posters on bathroom doors (hey everybody goes in there). The next few passes were water coolers and kitchens including fridges. Then I collected a buddy and hit the rest of site. I was in and out of 8 other building/ trailers. I checked my BodyMedis and I had 90min of moderate activity. Yeesh, I was tired. I think I earned about 5 activity points.

I got back to camp and was starving but chose healthy options and another on track WW day.

Now I'm in my pjs and going to finish watching Revenge.

Tomorrow I fly home.

Hope you all had a great Wednesday!!!

Hugs!!!

Adjustments

2012-01-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

I stayed on point today for my 26 points but it was a wee bit of a challenge.

Spending 4 days a week in camp can sometimes be a challenge. The camp kitchen is not a short order cook so sometimes you run into times (especially dinner) where you need to think on your feet.

I found myself running out of points towards the end of day and I had exactly 5 left for dinner (damn the 2pts I wasted on Hershey Kisses today). Tonight in the kitchen there's steak, fried pork chops and pasta- all well above what I had left. Tuesday is not really a WW friendly night. Last night not an issue.

I blew all my weekly points on the weekend. I made a salad for myself at lunch so that eliminated that as an option for dinner. I could grab a pre-made sandwich from the lunch kitchen but those would be over 5pts and they would have packed the bread away by dinner time so I couldn't grab toast and peanut butter. In the morning when you go in to pack your lunch you have the option to make toast.

For dinner I wound up with bowl of cereal at 5pm as we have access to cereal and milk in the office building and I had a meeting till 7pm it worked. My other plan is not to eat 2hrs before bed. By the time I get to camp it would be 7:30ish.

I slept super terrible last night I was getting re accustomed to camp noises. Like the bar fridge in my room, the trucks rolling by outside (the wing I live in is right next to a road), the sound of the card keys of other people entering their rooms. I don't hear people in other rooms but you do hear them walking down the hallway.

Tonight my plan is to be in bed by 9pm hopefully hence why didn't want to eat at 7:30pm, which means the new season of Biggest Loser will have to wait till I get home on Thursday and can watch it on the pvr. If I didn't have a meeting that ended at 7pm I could probably catch the EST time showing but alas that's not in the cards.

Even at lunch you need to get a little creative. I grabbed some lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumber, 2 hard boiled eggs (in the shell), some hot peppers and on stick of cheese. When I had lunch today I tore the lettuce into smaller pieces as they were monster size.I sliced one egg and took the yolk out of the 2nd egg; and chopped the egg white. I chopped the tomato, cucumber, peppers and cheese. I then added some light ranch dressing in the little pouch as I forgot to bring up my Fig Balsamic dressing this week. My other option would be one of those pre made sandwiches. You can doctor those to a certain extent but I'm sort of picky about luncheon meat. The PB & J have an awful lot of PB&J on them so then you get into really guesstimating the points.

Of course now I'm a wee hungry but I'm going to bed soon so I'm brewing a cup of decaf vanilla herbal tea in the mini coffee maker in my camp room. I can't keep snacks in my camp room as I find that far too dangerous and will lead to mindless snacking. There has been a prior incident with a little jar of peanut butter.

That's one thing I love about WW is that you can make adjustments to make things work.

Tonight my plan is to be in bed by 9pm hopefully, which means the new season of Biggest Loser will have to wait till I get home on Thursday and can watch it on the pvr. If I didn't have a meeting that ended at 7pm I could probably catch the EST time showing but alas that's not in the cards.

So now I'm going to drink my tea and hopefully have a good night's sleep. Tomorrow it's 5 miles on a treadmill.

Hope you had a great Tuesday.

Hugs!!!!

Spring Chick Challenge

2012-01-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Alright apparently I've been kidnapped by aliens because I signed up for yet another challenge. Yes, traditionally I'm a challenge phobe as I put a wicked amount of pressure on myself and give up. Yet I like the idea of this one as it will keep we focused through winter. I shamefully borrowed the formatting from Enz as I'm on my secondary lap top and suck at formatting on this thing. There's no buttons on the touch pad and drives me bonkers. I'll add a button for this challenge when I get home this weekend and can use my regular laptop.

Spring Chick Challenge: Starts today Jan 2 and ends March 19th.

Commit to a NSV (non scale victory) to be assessed at the start and the conclusion of the challenge.

Goal: Continue half marathon training until race day of Jan 29, then continue to run/walk 3 times a week minimum.
Current: Half marathon training that will be over at then end of this month.

Commit to a set of nutrition parameters and track via MyFitnessPal or Sparkpeople or WW.

Goal: Track and stay within WWP+ every day/week (26 per day + 49 per week)
Current: Tracking for part of the week and sort of staying within points.

Commit to a set of exercise parameters. These can be as loose or as flexible as you feel work for your personality, schedule, etc.

Goal: Run 3x a week either inside or treadmill. Do two other workouts per week that could consist of group class at the gym or yoga.
Current: Rare as my half marathon training has been rather sporadic

Commit to blogging at least twice weekly and 1 of those times must be you check in with a complete up date on your progress. All other blogs could include new insights, results of weekly challenges, or just letting others know how you are doing.

Goal: My check in day will be Saturdays as that’s my WW Weigh-In day. I’ll blog at least 4 times a week or more about what I'm doing activity and food wise and my general thoughts on life.
Current: Blogging but not so much on what I'm doing weight loss wise.

Commit to support... both giving and receiving. Check others blogs and comment as you feel motivated to do.

Goal: Following a whole bunch people doing the challenge!

Introduction

Name: Sylvia aka Cowgirlwarrior
Blog URL: www.wwforlife.blogspot.com
Email: cowgirlwarrior@gmail.com
Age: 39
Location: Calgary, AB
I've battled with my weight my entire life. I often say the last time I was at goal weight is when I was 5. I turn 40 in 6 months and I'm determined to go into my forties fit.

Weekly Goal
This week I’m focused on tracking and of course training for that half marathon. I work in a remote camp 4 days a week so my menu is based on what's offered in the camp kitchen. Tracking is key as temptation is everywhere.

Weight Info

Start: 178.2 lbs
Goal for Challenge: 163 lbs

In other news woke up on my own today about 20min before my alarm went off - shocking. OMG the landing today was nerve wrenching. There was a tremendous amount of turbulence and the plane actually bounced when we landed. It was so windy the first guy off the plane got knocked over.

Food wise today I was completely on track. Right now I'm doing my camp laundry so after I stick it in the dryer I'll roll out the yoga mat.

Hope you all had a great Monday.

Hugs!!!

Well hello 2012

2012-01-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Being the total party-er I am... I was in bed by 9pm last night. I saw no point in staying up till midnight especially as I was committed to an 8 mile run the next day.

I never had the pizza as I over did it in spinach dip so I had my Dr. Oetker 5 calorie Strawberry Mousse, two glasses of Bellini in a bottle and I was done.

This morning I was up by 8am and planned to go for my run/walk at 11am in the hope it would warm up a bit before hand. We've had gorgeous weather and pretty warm for December, heck Monday is supposed to be +9c. Today not so much.

Before heading out I took down the Christmas decorations, did laundry and took my measurements. I also joined the Sisterhood of the Skinny Jeans as I liked the sound of their challenge "Shrink Yourself in 2012" as that goes very well with Operation Butterfly. Apparently there will be fitness challenges to be honest I'm not 100% sure I'll be talking part in those especially as my focus is half marathon training until the race on Jan 31. After that sure.

The run itself went o.k. After mile 6 I had pain in my left foot that I thought was a cramp but every time I started to run it didn't feel right so I walked the rest of the way but my energy seriously started to sag after mile 7. It probably doesn't help having a rather high point evening.

7.75 miles/ 1:47:13/ Pace Avg 13.50 mi/hr/ 645 calories burned/ Max HR 165. I'm still happy with my pace though mile 6 was 14:02 and mile 7 was 14:52. Still above the course minimum of 16min/mi, so I'm happy with that. The goal for this race is to finish and run 2:1 intervals. I did that today for the first 6 miles at least. I love the Gym Boss, that thing is awesome as I don't need to stare at my watch. It just beeps and vibrates. The best thing exercise wise that I've bought well that and the Garmin.

I really need to pay attention to the food on run days as that can certainly impact performance.

Yes I was .25 of a mile short but I was freezing and wet with sweat. It was still -11 with windchill today which I normally wouldn't call cold but after you've about there for almost 2hrs you feel it. I did earn 12 AP and am going to eat half of those today as that's a pretty high number for one day.

The next run is Wednesday and it's 5 miles and that will be on a treadmill at camp. I plan all other runs on Fridays and Sundays to be outside from now on.

I plan to do yoga tomorrow and Tuesday.

I'm trying to get my head around going back to work tomorrow and getting up at 3:45am to catch the plane. So I've collected all the things I need to take with me, haven't packed it yet but that will happen before I go to bed.

Right now the only I need to do is take out the garbage and that will happen shortly as I want to do that before it gets dark.

As I was going around the neighbourhood on my walk/run my mind did turn to goals for 2012. Goal weight is the number one goal for 2012 as I've said before but I'd also like to learn to run...properly. Not like recently where I sign up for half marathon and then plan to learn to run. This time after the half marathon I want to do it properly work on it and then when I'm ready run a 5K, then a 10k, then maybe run a half marathon and maybe just maybe I'll shoot for a marathon. Right now I'm eyeing a 5K on May 27, that coincides with the Calgary Marathon. It's 6 days before my birthday and just sort of spoke to me.

I want to learn to love running like so many people do, right now I don't enjoy it but I think that has a lot to do with carrying an extra 42lbs.

I did order compression pants that should be hear next week I'm wondering if that will make a difference. I've heard it does for many so I'll see.

Alright my friends that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed yourselves last night no matter what you did.

Hugs!!!

Happy New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T16:23:00.000-07:00

Not a bad turnout at my WW meeting for New Year's Eve, I was impressed.

I was up 2.6 but I knew that would happen and that's still not as bad as when I got home from my Dad's house.

However Operation Butterfly begins today. I'm tweaking my spreadsheet right now actually. Today is the starting point.

It was a great meeting. My leader talked about mindful eating. She said that lots of people at the scale were saying they were bad. So we talked about having a better attitude. Is it bad to enjoy your family and an event? Heck no, she also said it's not what you do for a day that effects your weight loss journey it's what you do for the week, the month, the year. We also talked about the conscious decision to eat vs. the mindless. If you're planning on having a few glasses of champagne that's fine, it's the mindless eating like when I get my hands on a bag of Oreos which isn't so great.

My 8 mile run planned for today didn't quite turn out. I realized Saturday is probably not the best day to have a long run day planned. I walk to weigh in and back plus I had to go to the post office so that was about an hour of walking this morning. My go to breakfast on Saturdays is a Skinny Caramel Macchiato and the reduced fat turkey bacon/ egg white english muffin at Starbucks. That's a way heavier breakfast I'd have before a run.

I tried resting for a few hours and then heading out. When I first head out I realized I wasn't dressed appropriately. Forecast said it was -3, but it was windy in my neighbourhood so it was closer to -12c. I went back added a layer and then headed out. I was just wearing a running baseball cap and after one block my ears were freezing. At that point I decided to do the 8 miles tomorrow. That actually works better for me anyway.

I still managed to earn 5APs today. Sundays were the long distance days when I trained for the other half marathons and marathon so why break with tradition.

I opted to get a frozen pizza from the grocery store instead of take-out tonight. One reason being it will be lower points as I got McCain's Ultra Thin Capicolla pizza (I like the real ingredients) and a can of pineapple tidbits so I'm going to make my own Hawaiian pizza. It's 4pts for 1/4 of the pizza so even two slices at 8pts is pretty darn good. Plus I figure the delivery people will be pretty busy tonight, heck I even saved money.

I want to wish you all a wonderful 2012. We are going to accomplish some pretty great things my friends.

Hugs!!!

Operation Butterfly 2012 starts tomorrow

2011-12-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

As I weigh in tomorrow I figure it's a good place to start. My goal is to get to goal by my birthday which is June 3 or more specifically on my June 2 meeting day.

It's do able. The only thing standing in my way is me. Well me the game is on.

I went to Holt Renfrew today and used my friends/ family deal. I got a gorgeous pair of Sorel winter boots. They are called Joan of Arctic and they're a beautiful grey tone.

I walked by the sale racks of clothes that don't fit now, like the J Brand skinny jeans. That is why I bought boots. Plus how Canadian of me to be in a ritzy department store and leave with winter boots. I want to be able to rock a pair of skinny jeans and a bikini when I go to Vegas to celebrate my birthday.

Today I also went to the Diabetic Depot and got sugar free Almond Roca and English Toffee for my at work and at home lattes.

I have 8 miles to do tomorrow as per the half marathon training plan. I figure I'll order pizza for dinner (multigrain thin crust). I bought a bottle of pre mixed Bellinis as my New Years Eve beverage. Now tomorrow will be a higher point day for the first day of my operation but that's what weekly points are for. I had originally thought to make dinner but I'm also earning a whack of APs tomorrow as well. I'm going to have a lovely evening with movies.

It's time to finally shed the cocoon and spread my wings.

The operation itself is simple all I need to do is follow the WW plan. That means consistent tracking, following the healthy guidelines and consistent work outs.

Not rocket science. It's achievable and more importantly I BELIEVE I can do it.

Hugs!!!

4 days left of vacation

2011-12-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed about how fast time flies. My two weeks off are now down to 4 days well 3 as this one is almost over. I'm looking forward to seeing my lovely co-workers but I'm not going to miss sleeping until whenever I want.

Today was a run day so I decided to do that outside. I tried another one of neighbourhood routes which has me just going around near by blocks. The goal was 4.5 miles or 7.24 km. This route involves going around 7 blocks.

Today was:
1:01:28/4.5 miles/ pace 13.4 mi/hr/ 404 calories burned.

I decided to do 2:1 intervals today and that's 2 min walk/ 1 min run. I'm thinking for a long distance that might be more realistic for me. I'm not going to look back and do the shoulda, coulda, woulda about my grand plans for learning to love running.

I will deal with the cards I have. What I am proud of is I kept the intervals up the Garmin. I did keep an eye on the Garmin to make sure my pace didn't go below 16mi/hr the course minimum at the Tinker Bell Half Marathon.

What I found interesting is my pace outside it pretty darn similar to the treadmill workout of Tuesday. On the treadmill I was trying to do 2:2 and wound up doing that 4 times and walking the rest.

Next run is the long one on Saturday which is 8 miles or 12.8km. I pretty much am planning to do the same route today just twice. I think now that the distances are longer my long run day will move to Saturday as opposed to Sunday. With having to get on a plane in the early hours of Mondays it will be nice to have a rest day in between.

One of my friends texted me around lunch time to see if I wanted to go for an early dinner I had thought she meant around 4 so I said sure but now the plan is more 6:30 to 7. I still want to visit with her but that had me getting snacky.

Yesterday I picked up the package my cousin in Germany sent me. It was filled with chocolate covered marzipan and became yesterday's dinner. He also sent me a whack of 4-ply Taschentucher (Kleenex). I love this stuff it's a Kleenex or a napkin but doesn't scratch your nose.

Today I was doing better with the chocolate until I had this long wait between lunch and dinner. Good thing I ran today. I need to come up with a rule. If I workout I can have one, not 3 just one.

Tomorrow I need to finish my parcel to my cousin so I can take it the post office on Saturday after weigh in. I need some stuff from downtown for that. I also want to swing by Diabetic Depot which has a massive selection of sugar free syrup (like 40 flavours). I want to get some to take to site so I can make sugar free lattes with my mini Keurig and Keurig milk foamer. I'm eyeing the amaretto and Kahlua flavours. I was on their website and boy they carry a lot of stuff so it might be worth a perusal.

I'm not sure I'll be able to drop the Christmas weight gain by Saturday's meeting however I will have at least half of those 5lbs off. Then it's full steam ahead to goal.

I hope all of you had a great day and I'll type to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!!!!

A love letter

2011-12-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

To all of you.

I read your blogs (I'm an awful commentator but working on it) and lately we're all starting to think back over 2011. A lot of us are thinking about what we achieved weight loss wise.

What breaks my heart is reading about disappointment and reading your hurt. I wish I could say something or do something to show you your value. Yes I don't know you but I read your blogs and I don't know about you but my blog is me.

You are a valuable soul, you have a purpose and you are worth it.

When I think about my weight loss efforts over the last year it's not like I'm exactly proud but a number will not define me. I need to dust myself off and get back up. I know for myself I am my own enemy. It's my own head that gets in the way of success so how do I overcome that? I need to keep at it. I didn't put the weight on overnight so it will take effort to get off. That effort will come when I initiate it. I need to believe I can do it as that's the first step.

I believe we can all reach our goals. It might not be easy but it it's doable. But anything worth doing takes some effort.

I think to my WW leader who said she hears so many people say they're trying to lose weight. Why try, just do it. That hit me like a ton of bricks. It's not rocket science it's keeping at it. How do you do it? Find your inspiration and what works for you by trial and error.

I know Weight Watchers works for me. I just need to be consistent. I can't tell you what will work for you but there is so much inspiration out there. You inspire me every day.

A quote that has always stayed with me that I think I picked up in a WW meeting.

You get what you put in.

I know I need to put more in and I know 2012 will be great but even before 2012 I'm tracking and getting consistent workouts in. I thought why wait until Jan 1, why not get a week running start.

I figured out what my next goal reward is when I hit 166 it's the Xbox 360 Kinect for sure.

It's good riddance day today and on facebook I posted that I am saying good bye and good riddance to negative influences and self doubt.

We will be successful!!!!!!

I believe in you.

Hugs!!!

Operation Butterfly 2012 and hello again treadmill

2011-12-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

While at my Dad's I watched an awful lot daytime TV and the plethora of talk shows (so so so many are out there).

One I sort of liked was The Chew, Clinton Kelly (best known for What Not to Wear) is the host and then there's chefs Mario Batali, Michael Symon (both are Iron Chefs) and Carla Hall (who I remember seeing on Top Chef but she didn't win) and Dr.Oz's daughter Daphne (who apparently wrote a book called The Dorm Room diet).

It's a cute show and I enjoy Clinton as host as there's good banter between all of them. Of course with all those chefs it's pretty food focused. The other day the theme was New Year's and they were asking each other about resolutions. Carla said she had an operation not a resolution and when asked to explain said operations are longer term not as short lived as a resolution.

I liked that. Of course I have had operations in the past and they've been successful to a point. I still like it thought so I'm going to resurrect an operation...Operation Butterfly is back in action. I had a good run with this last time and it entails tracking food and tracking exercise. Super simple, and this time I'll see it through.

So today I'm at one with my 3 month tracker and I went to the gym this morning.

Here are the deets:
The walk to the gym: 17:09min/ 1.08 miles, pace 15:50, HR 141 and 92 calories burned.
The treadmill: 1:00hr/ 4.41 miles, pace 13.38, HR 155 and 331 calories burned.
The walk home: 21:02min/ 1.08 miles, pace 19.30, HR142 and 111 calories burned.

The facts above show I was tired on the way home as that was also after stretching at the gym, the treadmill part consisted of some running. I was doing intervals of 2:2 but after about 3 rotations my tummy didn't feels so good so I walked. I tried to run again later but then stuck to walking. A pace of 13:38 isn't so shabby walking.

I also dusted off my BodyMedia as that stayed home when I went to Dad's so I'm wearing that and tracked on the activity manager of that system as well. I really enjoy the new feature that allows the HR information from Garmin sync with BodyMedia so it analyzes that information with the rest of the info it tracks.

I also stumbled upon a new show that starts Jan 16 called The Revolution, with folks like Tim Gunn (love him a fashion master and mentor from Project Runway) Harvey Pasternak (A Canadian trainer who trained Halle Barry for Catwoman) and Ty Pennington hosts. What intrigues me about this one is it's produced by the same folks from Biggest Loser and each week you'll see a woman's 5 month weight loss journey will be shown in 5 days. It might make the PVR rotation to check it out.

Speaking of Biggest Loser it returns on Jan. 3.

Tomorrow is technically a rest day probably good as my right knee and left hip have not been a fan of running. I'm going to swing by The Running Room and check out compression shorts/ capris. I also need to pick up a parcel from my cousin.

Alright I hope you all had a fabulous Tuesday.

Hugs!!

Time to get back at it

2011-12-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

Christmas at my house is rather anti climatic, probably due to it just being Dad and me. It was quiet and nice but by noon yesterday I was done with Christmas for this year.

My week at Dad's was quiet with lots of food and now it's time to get back on track.

I stepped on a scale for the first time today since I weighed in last...yup up about 5lbs, I have some work to do. I'm not surprised as I pretty much did nothing for the entire week and food was not so WW friendly. I knew that going in so I'm at peace with it.

However after Dad went home yesterday I did head out for a run. It's been two weeks since I've done anything run related. Not exactly the best strategy with a half marathon in a month but I was an idiot to try this again in winter.

According to the training schedule it was 7 miles yesterday. I headed out with the plan to go for as long as I could as two weeks of not running plus all that food I figured it would be completely unrealistic to go for 7 miles.

Instead it was 3.29 miles, pace 14:34 (there was a lot of walking with sporadic running), 47:52 min and 301 calories burned.

So from now on I need focus on the training 100% no excuses. I'm going to give it my all and do my best.

Next run day is tomorrow and my goal is 5 miles at the gym. Yesterday I went outside and it was pretty good but some of the roads are still skating rinks.

I had thought to do some boxing day shopping today. My friend who works at Holt Renfrew (think of it as the Canadian version of Barney's) gave me some friend and family coupons so half off if I buy a certain amount of goods. It also works on sale items. My challenge is I don't generally shop at Holt Renfrew and right now I'm just eyeing a really cute yet functional pair of Sorel winter boots which are regular price anyway. I'll probably look at shoes and purses. However after working retail for multiple moons I'm not so into spending time with gobs of people in a mall and the buses are running Sunday schedule today as well.

Instead I'll spend today doing yoga, give myself a facial and do my nails. Tomorrow I'll hit the gym in the morning and then do a little shopping.

If you brave the mall today I wish you luck and I do hope you all enjoyed your holidays.

Hugs!!!

Merry Eve of Christmas Eve

2011-12-23T13:55:00.002-07:00

Hello my friends,

Ok I had the urge to blog. I have to share pictures of the cats who I refer to collectively as my angels. I talk to them like they know what I'm saying which is ridiculous as they are not even house cats and still feral.

This is feeding time, my favourite time as they treat me like a rock star and rush the bowl. Clockwise from the top: Maxi, Mama Meow, Dusty, Spook and Fred. I brought them a few cans of Fancy Feast as a treat and Oh boy do they enjoy that.

Here is Dusty scaring me by climbing a very skinny tree to get a better look at the bird feeder.

Then there's Spook the intrepid hunter who likes to sit right in the middle of the bird feed. He's not a successful hunter.

Alright my other musings can wait.

I want to wish all of you a Wonderful Christmas.

Hugs!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Finally made it

2011-12-20T13:38:00.001-07:00

On Monday I finally made it to Dad's and became reacquainted with the 5 stray/farm cats.

They all look healthy and seem to remember me as they don't all run when I open the door. Fred still likes to be petted and Dusty now likes to sit in the food bowl...no idea on that one.

I have a lot of time to think at Dad's and I've been thinking of New Year's. This year I'm having a solo party. I have no interest in going out. I just want a really nice WW friendly evening. I have also been thinking about how weight loss is still on the to do list for 2012.

While not at goal I should still be pleased that I didn't backslide too badly (7lbs up from my lowest weight to date in May) but I did waffle a lot and bounced around the 170s for months (since 5min after hitting my lowest weight in May). When I get home next week I need to be focused. Dad does get me skim milk when I visit as he drinks 2% but I'm still following his routine so I'll have some damage to undo before my next weigh in on New Year's Eve.

I need to focus on the half marathon at the end of Jan especially as I'll miss a week of training due to being at Dad's. There's too much snow and way too slick up here to do any running outside.

When I get home it's no excuses time. I think the universe is on board as I've been asked to be on the Health and Wellness committee at work a few days ago plus this Biggest Loser challenge landing on my lap.

My goal is to be at goal by my birthday in June or before. The goal is healthy and cementing healthy habits. Enough is enough.

So I won't be blogging much this week but I'll be back after Christmas.

I do hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Holiday Season.

Hugs!!!!

Change of plans again

2011-12-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and looked outside - snow. This wasn't good as I knew it would mean a one more delay in going to Dad's. I got 2cm so far so he will get and has 3 inches (7.6cm) so far, which means the road will be super slippery by Dad's place not to mention plowing with the snow blower will be required for him to get the car to the gate. It's Sunday so highly unlikely his main roads will be plowed by the county and probably not so fun in Calgary either as there are patches of ice under that new snow. Bizarre that it was plus 8-10c yesterday. It's -3c now and is supposed to go to 0 later so that's good. Then of course it will be -10 tonight. It's the vicious cycle of freezing, melting, freezing and melting.

The plan now is we try again tomorrow morning.

I need to get creative with the pantry as I didn't grocery shop thinking I'd be away now. There's no point in shopping today as I'll hopefully be away tomorrow. Got to love Winter.

Not sure what to do today. I could probably vacuum and finally try the new yoga mat from Lululemon.

I updated my "reward" list as after treating myself to two of the things on the list as Christmas presents to myself it kind of wrecked it. I think it's best for me if I think of rewards when they occur. Still on the list for goal is a Tiffany key as I think that will serve as an anchor to remember how far I've come and to not go back.

When I entered my current weigh in my WW app it informed me I was at a 10% loss (again as I have my key chain already). That did get me thinking perhaps I'm gearing up for the Biggest Loser new season and the competition at camp but I gave myself percentage goals. Which also has me rethinking goal weight. I bounce around from 140 to 130 as I've never been either one of those weights I'm heading into unknown territory. I do know I want a buffer in the healthy bmi range and not be right at the point between normal and overweight. So based on percentages a 30% loss from my current WW starting weight is 137.

Oh well I have random photos for you today that I've been meaning to upload.

The sunrise on my way to weigh in last Saturday

The full moon as I was landing at work on Monday

A portion of my beautiful home city at night as I landed back home on Wednesday

Alright my friends I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Hugs!!!!

Plans go haywire

2011-12-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

I did it, I actually tracked for all 7 days and had 6 WP left. Only earned a handful of AP but what was the result.....down 3.8lbs... Finally.

Funny what happens when I actually follow the plan.

Went to Walmart and got the cats a special treat. A can of Fancy Feast for each of them as a special Christmas dinner.

Then I came home and packed. Got to the Greyhound station just before 2pm. I go to the desk and ask for one way ticket to Olds, AB. The guy then tells me the only bus leaves at Midnight. What????? When did that happen? He tells me November 14th. There have been 3 buses a day before. I think a lot of schedules changed as I was walking in a guy asked me if I was going to Manitoba.

The Greyhound guy said it looks like they're focusing their trips on Red Deer and Edmonton in Alberta.

Then I kept trying my Dad's cell as he was picking me up from Olds. Of course he didn't turn it on till 4pm when the bus was supposed to arrive. So now he's coming to fetch me tomorrow.

I can drive but I'm not crazy about it so don't have a car. Add in the fact I spend less then half a week at home it just doesn't make sense right now. I know one day I will have to hook myself up with wheels.

I truly feel for people who live in small centers. Every Christmas that bus would be full dropping people off in small towns. Why would they change their schedule right before Christmas as well. A lot of these people are seniors or low income.

It's really too bad they stopped the passenger train service so many years ago in Western Canada.

Oh well I'm a day behind but I'll see the cats tomorrow.

Hope you had a great Saturday and a good week.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This can't be rushed

2011-12-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm talking about the whipped shortbread cookies I tried to bake tonight after I flew home. I was planning on taking them to work as I took some to site I figured it was only fair to bring some to my Calgary co-workers.

My first mistake - nuking the butter a little too long to soften it

My second mistake - rinsing the double hulled cookie sheets under cold water to cool them down so I could try a second batch - I more or else steamed cookies due to the water trapped in the sheet.

I officially give up.

The batch I made on the weekend was made with love and time and that's the only way it will work. I will make my Calgary co-workers cookies in the new year.

It can't be rushed sort of like weight loss. It always annoys me when someone asks how long it took for someone to lose x amount of pounds. Does it really matter? I think it's more about losing and keeping it lost. Everyone has their own demons to conquer to tame the scale.

I ran into a co-worker Tuesday night in camp. I was coming out of the gym after playing Badminton and he was coming out of one of the exercise rooms that was showing the exercise DVD Insanity. He tells me he knows someone who lost 90lbs in 3 months doing the DVD. My first thought - didn't believe it for a nano second.

It's about learning the right behaviours and unlearning the wrong behaviours. It's about changing your attitude, your mind and habits. It's about lifestyle - I know that's beaten to death but it's true.

Tracked day 4//7.

Tomorrow's challenge will be working in the corporate office, many distractions but my focus is strong.

Hope you had a good Wednesday.

Hugs!!

Tracked 3/7

2011-12-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

I have now completed 3 days of tracking and I have tomorrow pre-tracked including what I'm going to make for dinner when I get home. Shocker!!!

I also need to bake cookies when I get home. It might be a late night.

Played badminton last night for the first time in weeks and I was sweating. Sensei (my co-worker who "coaches me") had me running all over the place and then we played a game against two others. This freaked me out as the 3 guys are really good. I got a few good shots in. Today my arm was a wee bit sore.

Tonight was long meeting night and we had Christmas Dinner at camp. It was delightful. I did use 7 WP but I also drank water like a fish. I never get the traditional Christmas dinner so I had to partake. I did leave food on my plate though and did not eat till stuffed.

Now the plan is to not have any airplane snacks on the flight home tomorrow.

I hope your week is going well so far.

Hugs!!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Okay

2011-12-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well the run never happened. Factoring in it's a 12 block walk to the gym I had thought to do a workout dvd. Then I remembered I had to bake cookies, well I didn't have to but I had decided a while ago that even though I now fly to work I'd bring my whipped shortbread cookies to work. Then there was laundry, straightening up, sorting out my work bag and work snacks. Not to forget take out the garbage and recycling and by the time that was all done I was now in wind down mode to be up at 3:45am tomorrow.

The whole running schedule has not gone smoothly and the next two weeks don't help. I'm still committed to this race at the end of Jan. Now I'm just hoping not to be taken off the course because I'm going to slow.

I picked up a 4 pack of mini containers of hummus that I'm going to take to work and eat with snap peas as my afternoon snack. I actually have the next 3 days semi tracked in my 3 month tracker already. I even logged into the website of the people who run the camp I stay in to see what was posted on the menu. I even have a plan for when I fly home on Wednesday.

Yes, I've been kidnapped by aliens apparently.

I'm completely dedicated to getting back on track starting with a fabulous weigh in on Saturday. For me to successful I know tracking is key. For months now I track for a few days and then it falls apart. My primary goal this week is to track the full week. 2 days down, 5 to go. Activity is not a mega priority for me this week I really need to get my tracking mojo back on track.

I went digging and found all my old WW stuff before Points Plus and decided to toss it all. I need to focus on the current plan 100%. I also perused through weigh in books and re-confirmed my feelings of enough. Enough goofing off, enough treating WW like my favourite charity, enough of having no faith in myself - just enough.

Even today I almost decided on a treat that wasn't in my plan today and I stopped myself with saying enough.

Tomorrow I play badminton and I haven't in multiple weeks so I'm looking forward to that.

Alright my friends I hope you had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!

Quick Run Update part 1

2011-12-11T08:05:00.001-07:00

There's snow ⛄ on top of ice, that is a wee too treacherous for me.

My neighbours are lovely but they won't be shoveling any time soon as in any time before 3-4 pm.

This means it will be 6 miles on the treadmill today. Maybe not the most fun but I'd rather be safe and do this in the morning.

I'm telling you this so I have to go do it. Gym opens at 10am.

I will be back later with a proper update now it's off to make breakfast.

I also learned how to turn the emoticon doohickeys on my iPhone. 👟 there's supposed to be a running shoe here. Not sure if blogger will display it. Oh well.

Later

Hugs!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Power Start

2011-12-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

As I was waiting in line to buy more coupons at WW, I was pulled aside to be given a new weight tracker. I thought this was awesome as I feel the need for a new start. I was up .4 today I definitely need a slap in the head.

Then in the meeting we got our introduction to the New Points Plus which really isn't all that new. My leader said it was 80% the same.

I do like how they're breaking up the introduction to the program into 3 steps. I think it was a hard shift to go from the old plan to the new one just because the old one was so ingrained. I know I've had a hard time for the last while. It's not the plans fault as it's totally my fault.

Today's meeting was quite inspiring. We met Diane our new Head Receptionist who's lost 132lbs. She brought her "old jeans" and she could fit in one leg now. There was one quite funny moment. Our leader asked her what she eats for breakfast. Diane said oatmeal and cheezies, this made the whole room say "what!", what she actually said was chia seeds.

So today we talked about Power Start and that included "my smart spaces". Work is the most challenging for me just being faced with temptation everyday from walls of baked goods to french fries daily. It can be hard but I know I have had successful weeks before and I can do it again.

The big thing that hit me this meeting was when my leader grabbed a chair and then motioned like she was going to step on it. She told us she hears a lot of us at the scale say "I'm trying to lose weight". She said quite plainly there is no trying you - you just do it. You follow the plan or you don't. It's your choice.

After all one of my favourite quotes is from Yoda - Do or do not, there is no try

Shazaam. She hit the nail on the head. I've been waffling for months, sort of on plan but not. The weigh ins prove it. Enough.

If I don't make weight loss a priority nothing is going to change.

So game on.

I walked past the gym today and see the big exercise room is being renovated which means most of the classes have been cancelled. Sort of intrigued about what's happening to it.

My Walmart renovations are finally completed. I found a pack of 4 small containers of hummus and I picked up a big bag of snap peas. That will be my snack for this week. I have 3 days at site and then one day in Calgary.. and then I'm on Christmas vacation until Jan. 2.

One week at my Dad's and then one week at home. Dad's will be focused on thinking, being zen and revisiting Shrink Yourself and The End of Overeating. The week at home will be gym every day.

The work Biggest Loser challenge is a go for Jan. 27 but I can do a lot between now and then.

6 miles on tap for tomorrow. I want to do this outside and hopefully the weather holds. Snow is forecasted but I'm hoping that hits in the afternoon. Worst case scenario it's a treadmill.

Alright my friends, thank you for sticking with me. We will see this journey through together.

Hugs!!

Discovered new things

2011-12-06T17:00:00.001-07:00

Mainly I tried my Keurig milk frother today and I am officially in love. In like 60 seconds I had hot frothy milk that I added to some dark roast coffee and tada cafe au lait in the middle of nowhere.

I spent 2 years working in a coffee place through high school and trust me I can make killer foam. This thing did an awesome job.

I need one of these babies for home. Next week I just need to bring some sugar free caramel syrup and I'm a happy clam.

In other news I flung my blackberry across my camp room last night. Completely by accident. It's my alarm clock and I keep it under the 2nd pillow. Now last night I went to bed at 9 and woke up at 11 so I check my email (yes I know I have a problem). I guess I put the thing on my comforter as I couldn't find it and then Shazaam I heard it hit the floor. I am getting a new one on Thursday but it survived. I'm sure my camp neighbours cursed me though.

The other interesting thing today was a major org change announcement. Not sure how it will effect me but I'm sure it will mean some sort of change.

Today is late meeting day so it's a rest day. I'm going to catch the last hour of Biggest Loser then watch the first half when I get home tomorrow.

Hope you had a great Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Back to running

2011-12-05T20:39:00.001-07:00

I would admit that my training plan so far has been sporadic. I've done a pretty good job at keeping up with the mileage goals but I could do better.

Today I got the confirmation of the logistics i.e. Hotel and park pass. So I missed Sunday's run due to weather. I ran today.

51:54min
4.02 miles
465 calories burned
Average pace 12:54/mi
HR 168 -191

It felt good. I did 2:2 intervals and this was being up at 3:45am plus being a total cookie monster as well.

Now I fly home on Wednesday so that means packing a gym bag and hauling my computer on Thursday but sometimes you just have to do what you gotta do.

Hope you had a good Monday.

Hugs!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Winter Wonderland

2011-12-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

We got a pretty good dump of snow yesterday.

You can see the bunny tracks across the lawn and you can't even tell my neighbour's driveway is under there.

Oh well it's a good day to straighten up and do laundry. I did brave the outdoors to go to Mac's as I needed milk and coffee cream.

I thought today I'd share photos of my favourite Christmas decorations. I actually set them up last Sunday but for some reason the photos wouldn't load.

This is my favourite. It's an advent candle you can't quite see the little propeller thing on the top but as the candles burn it turns. That's a little angel choir around the base.

Tonight I'll light the second candle as of course today is the 2nd Advent.

This is tea light holder with a choir of angels. Yes I have a thing for angels.
I like this because it as the mirror behind and it reflects the light.

This is my Christmas stocking, I can't remember how long I've had this. I was probably about 6 or so when my Mom made it. I would never describe her as crafty but she tried and I can't replace it. Every year I buy a new ornament. Now this year I decided against putting up my Christmas tree as I intend to buy a new one but I'll wait till boxing day for that. I hung the ornament on my stocking instead so it still has it's Christmas debut.

This year's ornament is...you guessed it an angel :)

I hope you all enjoy your Sunday.

Hugs!!!

All dressed up, no place to go - but it's o.k

2011-12-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

I did find a dress yesterday and in record time. I went to The Bay as I knew they had an entire floor of dresses, grabbed 4 that caught my eye and tried them on. The first one I picked was the one. Ralph Lauren seems to be my go to holiday dress as the one I bought last year was Ralph Lauren as well. This one is black, classic and can be used for other events. It's funny last year I wound up with the dress I spotted first as well.

I also got all my Apple stuff yesterday. Love the new Ipod, it's perfect as it clips on and I can see what's playing plus it has FM radio. I got the Ipad sorted out today and I'm going to enjoy this.

I had a quick trip to Walmart and wound up getting a second Keurig Mini, this one is for home. I really like it and it was the same price at Walmart that I bought the red one for. This one is black. Now I need to bring some pods home to use. Whipped into Ardene's for some bling for tonight and it was all 70% off so that was a whopping $10 for earring, necklace and blingy barrette.

Then I prepped for the Christmas party, and then spent 2.5 hours trying to get a cab. We got about 6cm of snow plus throw in Christmas party season and it was impossible. So I took the dress and bling off, put on my pjs then washed off the make up and made myself some dinner and got a movie off of video on demand. You know what it was nice. Good thing I went with a classic dress so I can wear it another time.

As the hours went on I had a feeling this Christmas party was not meant to be for me and now I don't need to worry about having a hard time getting home either.

I did weigh in on Friday and I re-found the 2lbs I lost the last time I weighed in. Alas it's my own fault however this week water retention was more to blame but I wasn't perfect either.

Today is 6 months to my 40th birthday. Come hell or high water I will get to goal by my birthday in June. That is huge fire under my patootie.

So I bought two 3 month trackers as they were on sale due to the new ones coming out with the Points Plus 2012, though the receptionist assured me they weren't all that different. The old ones were 5 bucks and the new one will be 11 CDN. They had loads of boxes in the meeting room of the new stuff coming in. I tried to take a peek but all the boxes were sealed. I needed new coupons as well but they go on sale next week so I'll wait till Saturday.

When I weighed in she recalculated my points and I'm now 26 per day as opposed to 29, now the way she explained it was that I had the option of dropping to 26. I did stay for the meeting but they didn't say much about the new plan as it launches next week. I'm sure all my Weight Watcher peeps will start writing about it as we all start attending meetings next week. Of course mine isn't till Saturday.

I had planned to do an outside run tomorrow but with all the fresh snow that might not be the best idea.

Well I hope you all had a great Saturday, type to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

What am I getting myself in to...

2011-12-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

I have an iffy relationship with challenges, sometimes they motivate me but more often than not if I'm not doing well I get discouraged and fizzle, heck a lot of them have been documented on this blog.

At work we're planning a Biggest Loser competition for January. Originally our rec coordinators who work for the people who manage the camp came up with this idea. They also wanted to have a charitable part of it.

Now months ago they tried another fitness competition that ran for 8 weeks and the prize was an Ipod. They tracked weight and took measurements. About 15 people took part who live in one camp and I'm not sure that all 15 people finished the challenge.

I attempted to be a part of the Ipod challenge but it was smack in the summer and I was away for a lot of it so that didn't work so well so I did drop out. Plus I wasn't so motivated by an Ipod I already owned either. \

This time there will be registration fee and it will run for 3 months with half the money going to charity and half the money going to the winner.

The charity we've chosen is to make a little girl's wishes come true through the Make a Wish Foundation.

Registration will be $50 bucks up front (trust me these people make good money and there are a lot big boys). So the good part is even if they drop out the money stays. The driving factor here is to make this little girl's wish come true. Her doctor won't let her travel and her wish is to go to Disneyland or Disney world. The request is to update "an entertainment room". Heck I was talking to my co-worker who came up with the charity and told him we need to also pimp this room out in Disney. If she can't go to Disney we will bring Disney to her. Wowzers I lit a fire that day as that got a team in place to see this thing through.

Now somehow I became the lead organizer, which is a little odd as I have a love/hate relationship with challenges as I said above but when I saw their original proposal I saw holes and that just can't happen. We need to make this girl's wish happen and at the same time help the workforce get healthier.

So I got them to just track percentage of weight loss as opposed to weight and measurements. I want this to be big so no matter what camp you stay in you have a way to participate and if we want a lot of people taking part the tracking needs to be straightforward. We'll do bi-weekly weigh ins as everyone has a different shift schedule and make sure to have at least two if not weigh in locations to accommodate those shifts.

One of the rec coordinators is designing the poster right now and then I want to plaster it everywhere soon. We won't start the challenge until Jan 27 to make sure everyone is back from holidays. I'm building the spreadsheet to track the data. This mission to have all this nailed down before December 15. My goal is to get a lot of people signed up (is 200 out of 3000 unreasonable?)

I think we have a good plan so now we wait and maybe by being involved in the creation of something big it might cure me of the my challenge iffiness.

Now that doesn't mean my own efforts are on hold until the challenge starts. I'm weighing in today and then it's errands and more errands. Tomorrow I will definitely go to the gym before Christmas party prep.

Enjoy your Friday.

Hugs!!

A long but short week...

2011-12-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

Arrived home tonight to find the Uggs on my door step which was a relief as I thought for sure I'd find a a little sticker from UPS.

Oh they are exactly what I wanted. They're comfortable, classic and funky.

I also got the purse I ordered from Shoedazzle, I was planning to use this for the Christmas party on Saturday and was a wee worried when it didn't show up last week but tada it's here.

Yes that's a skull, I just thought it was seasonal fancy but edgy. I apparently have a thing about edgy/ funky lately.

Perhaps it's the winter setting in and it getting darker by the minute every day until Dec. 21 when it starts to get lighter a minute a day.

My Apple stuff shipped in 4 different packages. 2 have arrived and 2 on their way. I'm super happy I arranged to have those delivered to my friend at the office as opposed to missing 4 deliveries.

I decided to take the laptop I had in my camp room home. One I haven't been using it lately and two the Ipad should be here soon and I'll probably carry that back and forth instead.

I was in bed early every day this week as it just felt right. This also meant I never hit the gym this week.

I'm going to weigh in tomorrow at lunch. No matter what the scales says I need to go. Apparently next week we find out more about how they're tweaking the program. I'm intrigued and kind of happy I need a change.

My worst enemy is complacency, I know the program works yet I'm dragging my feet in getting focused. I get focused for a moment but I need to sustain it.

Friday I have to pop into the dentist to pick up my new splint, then I want to head over to Sport Check and see if they have a good backpack. My Lululemon backpack that I take to site and back is not so comfortable with a computer in it. I think it will make a good gym back pack with the added feature of being able to slap a yoga mat on the back of it. It's served me well for a year but it needs a break.

Then I will go weigh in. Then I need to head downtown and find a dress for Saturday. I'm meeting friends for dinner on Friday so that's my upped the weigh in a day. This allows me to plan Saturday as follows - gym and then party prep.

Alright I will get more focused and get this blog back to focusing on success rather then woulda, coulda, shoulda.

I hope you all had a great few days.

Hugs!!

Fairly Productive

2011-11-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

Crazy day today weather wise. The wind was insane. They actually shut the downtown core down as windows were blowing out and construction debris was flying around.

I could hear it howling outside and was praying the 3 trees in front yard stayed put. I was pretty lucky, just some little branches and pine cones flying around. My fence, shingles, trees and roof are all intact. Some in the city were not so lucky. I also had my power all day which is pretty awesome. Winds were around 91 km and go higher to 50 stories and it was 150 km hence the windows blowing out.

I spent the day dedicated to housework. I vacuumed floors and furniture, I mopped floors and I used my fancy dryer to clean my down comforter and pillows too. I also did all the sofa cushions. I did a whack of laundry including bed sheets and towels.

I decided not to set up my Christmas tree as it's in a sad state. Instead I set up the rest of the decorations I adore like advent candles, my stocking and the wreath on the door. I took pictures but they won't load today so I'll post those later.

I finally bought a pair of Uggs. I have mixed feelings about these as I do see them a lot but if I could find the right pair I'd do it as they sort of fit the bill for "casual" winter boot. I have my Sorels for serious winter.

How cool are these? I like that they're a little different yet classic.

So my workout today was housework.

Tomorrow of course I fly to work and I need to do laundry there too. However before I left on Wednesday I got it all organized.

I hope all of you had a nice and safe Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Whoops

2011-11-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

I slept right through WI, dang it. I was plagued with a chinook headache for most of the day yesterday so took some Advil and went to bed early failing to turn on the alarm for my Saturday morning WW meeting. I even missed the second one. I guess I needed the sleep as I have felt pretty ragged lately. I even had a nap yesterday as well.

The dentist visit went fine and my dentist was very proud of me and my gums (which is a huge kudos from her). She's Polish and says whatever pops into her head. I adore her. One issue a broken tooth at the very back and on the back of the tooth that I didn't even notice. I do remember thinking something felt a little funny at one point when I was flossing but really it doesn't feel super noticeable. I'll need a crown there but I can put that off till the new year. I knew it was a good idea to up my coverage on major restorations for next year's benefits.

I got measured for a new splint and that's the part I despise the most as they take casts of your teeth. I was a wee freaked when the tech couldn't get the bottom mold out as the cast stuff was pretty stuck to my teeth. I go back on Friday to pick up the new splint. They also measured my bite with this gel stuff that I've never seen before. That felt icky too. Heck I can handle the freezing needles better then all that gummy stuff in my mouth.

I did brave Walmart afterwards and it wasn't busy at all so that was a blessing.

Today I hit the gym for 3.5 miles and then I picked up the Keurig which finally arrived. I'll take the Keurig to work and I'm impressed with how light it is. Of course it has to come with a short chord so I'll be packing an extension cord as well.

I think I'm more accustomed to the new Garmin. Today I remembered to turn the food pod off for my walk to the gym (the foot pod was on the runners in my bag) so I used satellite. Then when I got to the gym turned the satellite off and the foot pod on. I do love how it automatically loads all the details to my computer. I'm a data geek.

Apparently my go to walking speed is 3.7 mph according to the satellite details.

On the treadmill it was:
49.38 min, 3.5 miles, Avg pace 14.12, 277 calories burned, avg HR 149

On the walk to the gym:
16:33min, 1.01 miles, avg pace 16:20, 75 calories burned, avg HR 127

Took the bus home as I was lugging a coffee maker and I'm tired. I always have to remind myself I'm training in miles vs kilometers. 3.5 isn't shabby. I was hoping to clean today but that might get pushed to tomorrow. Right now my thinking is to make tomorrow just a pure home day. I got some spaghetti squash and I want to make that so I can bring leftovers for lunch on Monday. Do the house cleaning and set up the Christmas decorations. I'm debating on putting up my tree now we'll see what the energy is like.

Sort of impressed with Apple, I got a shipping notification already for the Ipod. It seems like they ship everything separate. The Ipad has the same shipping window but it's in the process of being engraved. I'm getting those shipped to someone at work in the Calgary office. The mail department will sign for the package and bring it to her and then I'll pick it up from her.

I bought a new yoga mat that I'm planning to test out today. It's the first one I've every bought from Lululemon and it's the Align Mat. I like the fact that it has lines on the mat itself so you can check your aligned. My other mats (as I have one in camp room) are all Gaiam. My old mat that's at home may start coming to Iron Reps as padding on the bench. I didn't go to Iron Reps today just stuck to the treadmill as my running schedule has been off the rails I wanted to make sure to run today.

Alright that's my Saturday, I do hope yours is fantastic.

Hugs!!!

Black Friday...

2011-11-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

I honestly didn't really become aware of "Black Friday" until last year when I saw the line up at the Apple store on the news. In my defense it's historically been more of an American thing as of course it follows their Thanksgiving. The Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, hardly the time to kick off Christmas shopping.

Well this year I purposely got up early on my day off so I could go online, no way on earth was I going to line up at the mall. You see the only "Black Friday" sale I was interested in was the one at Apple. The primary reason Apple products never go on sale. Yes, you can buy Apple products at other places on sale on Black Friday but the deal was slightly better at Apple online by a buck. Hey a buck is a buck.

So after much internal deliberation I bought two things on my goal list on the left. My reasoning - they were on sale...so I bought:

With the engraving of "Conceive - Believe - Achieve" on the back and the second thing I bought with much deliberations is:

This will have Hardwork - Dedication engraved on the back. I realize Hardwork is not one word but I like how it looked better. It's Merry Christmas to me and I need to earn these now by achieving those goals on the left. You'll recognize that statement from Dolvett on the Biggest Loser but it does serve as an awfully good mantra. (I got the black Ipad and the green cover).

I sat staring at the shopping cart for about 15 minutes thinking "should I or shouldn't I" the ultimate deciding factor it's on sale and you get the engraving only on the Apple site (I think).

I did get an email from Zinio about sales on online versions of magazines so I did get a few deals there.

I was going to go to Walmart after the dentist today but now I'm wondering if that's wise as I did sort of forget about Black Friday when I created that plan.

Now I have to get sorted to go to the dentist. Will very likely be back later.

Hugs!!

A little random

2011-11-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

For two weeks in a row I've flown to work for 3 days then come home and worked in the corporate office. It messes me up.

Mondays I'm always exhausted as I can never sleep well the night before I fly out. This Sunday night maybe an hours worth of sleep tops. So I'm in bed early to compensate. I seriously think I need to implement the Advil pm plan. I've tried melatonin, meditation and two alarm clocks (perhaps there's subconscious fear of missing the plane) but nothing else works.

Tuesdays are late meeting day and by the time I get back to camp it's gym rush hour. I really need to make more of an effort to make this a yoga night or something zen.

Wednesday I'm on a flight home that gets me home an hour later then my regular Thursday flight. This week that flight was delayed by half an hour so I didn't get home till 8. Now Wednesday is an excellent workout day if I was in camp.

Thursday I'm now coming home in rush hour and darkness. I'm zonked so the plan is early to bed.

Next week I don't need to work in Calgary but for two weeks after that I do need to be in Calgary on Thursdays.

Tomorrow I go to the dentist, I've been lax on that front but hey I have a dental plan so might as well use it. I hate the dentist or more accurately am scared of the dentist.

Today was meetingpalooza, which is the whole reason I was working in Calgary today. I did run a few errands after work as I needed to get to Aveda and Kiehl's.

I really need a new Christmas tree as my current one has branches barely hanging on and lights are out smack in the middle of the tree. My dentist is next to Walmart so I will finally grocery shop on a Friday. Tada, which leaves enough time to prep and cook.

This Sunday is the first advent so it's my tradition to set up all the Christmas decorations which also means that either Friday or Saturday needs to be housecleaning day so everything is sorted. I'm taking two weeks off at Christmas so there'll be one week at Dad's and one week home.

Right now I'm catching up on Biggest Loser and then I think it's to bed.

I wanted to wish all my American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Hugs

Well tried to do 5 miles

2011-11-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

Today began with a giant cup of coffee and some Multigrain cheerios.

This has got to be one my favourite mugs, I actually have two and should probably bring the other one to work with me. It's the linguist in me that adores this mug.

The mission today was to head to the gym and put in 5 miles on the treadmill, now the walk to the gym and back is about 3km/ 2miles as well. I tried a few running intervals but wasn't feeling it so stuck to 4.0 walking. I have discovered walking to the gym in snow boots is tiring, not as fun as my runners.

I also tried out the new Garmin 405CX, it arrived on Friday and after 5pm delivered by a guy in a Budget truck. Alas Christmas is here as Canada Post is branching out their delivery.

I learned one thing the first mile in. The pace display was doing some strange things and then I realized the satellite was battling the foot pod as the distance was not lining up with the treadmill. So the satellite thought I was standing still and of course the foot pod knew otherwise. I turned off the GPS and all was well but it was still about 1.5 miles off of the treadmill.

I also switched the strap of the Garmin to the Velcro version as opposed to the one it came installed with. Nice that they give you the option. I felt it was more comfortable.

I also put my Body Media back on today. I've had it off for the past week and a bit but now that I'm back on the wagon it goes back on as well. The newest download also links to the Garmin heart rate monitor so that's kind of awesome.

The problem with my cheap gym's treadmills is they allow you to workout for one hour and then it automatically launches into cool down. The treadmills in the camp gyms don't do that nor did they when I had a membership to the corporate gym downtown. So I got as far as 4.3 miles and but then figured with the walk there and back I made my mileage. Next time I know to maybe break it in half if I'm doing over 4 miles so I can reset the treadmill to keep going.

I then had to swing by Canada post to pick up my Chapters order which was an additional charger for my Kobo Vox so I can keep one at work. One of the drawbacks of the new Kobo is you can't charge it through your computer. Oh well I still like it.

I then had to quickly pop into Walmart and found these:

Yes, it's Blue Diamond Bold. Could it be that they are finally available in Canada. Note the English/ French, that means it's meant for Canada. I do hope Wasabi/ Soy is coming. This was the only flavour I saw.

It seems with the dessert gum Canada only got 3 flavours at least we got Orange Crush and Apple Pie which are in my opinion the best ones.

Then it was home to sweeping a wee bit of snow of my sidewalk as it wasn't enough to bring out the snow removal people, took out my garbage, did the laundry and washed dishes.

So now in wind down mode as the alarm will be going off at 3:45am as I fly to work tomorrow.

I'm bringing the advent calendar. Now I'm just waiting for Sears to ship that Keurig coffee maker which should be next weekend.

Alright that's all I got, hope you enjoyed your Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Finally heading in the right direction

2011-11-19T12:48:00.001-07:00

I'm currently waiting for my WW meeting to start so why not blog.

Let's see Thursday I worked in the city and ate out for most of the day. Lunch was at Cora's and dinner at Lounge Burger. Luckily M and I like the same stuff so at dinner we split a burger. I was not a great on plan day.

Friday was the first cold cold day roughly -20c with windchill. I never went outside. I cleaned off the pvr but also listened to my body carefully and only ate when hungry. Due to the higher amount if food the day before I wasn't hungry till mid afternoon. I did stay hydrated all day.

I went back to following my night before WW habits and had food and beverage cut off by 6pm.

Weighed in today and down 2.2. The leader was singing my praises and I stopped her. I told her yes it's a good week but I have damage to undue.

She then asked me if it was my head that got in the way and I said definitely. I have to admit I was a little freaked out by the scrutiny. I'm used to weighing in and then sitting down with very minimal chit chat with the weigh in person. However it was kind if nice for her to address me by name and tell me to remember I'm worth it and deserve it.

Meeting is starting be back later....

Ok I'm back. In the meeting we had a big discussion about Starbucks and their holiday drinks. Grande egg Nog latte is 11 points. She said something that will stick with me when tempted by Christmas treats. Ask yourself is it worth it? Is it worth the points, is it a risk and will it help you get to goal?

So now it's a new WW week and dang it I want to see another loss.

Hope you enjoy your Saturday

Hugs!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Things that happen when I'm a bit bored

2011-11-15T19:38:00.001-07:00

I shop online.

I bought this last night. The reasoning it's gps plus can be used on a treadmill with a foot pod.

I also have a wee addiction to shoedazzle.com.

There was also that Keurig....

Now I'm not always this way but as I'm trying to think like an athlete I need tools. The Garmin pictured above is the 405cx. This is not my first Garmin in fact it's my 3rd. The first two were satellite only. The first was satellite no heart rate monitor. The most awkward thing to wear ever. The 2nd a souped up version that was also less clunky but not exactly comfortable. The 3rd no satellite as I found myself indoors more and the satellite was a little useless. It's getting a wee outdated now.

As I was thinking about the miles getting longer and the winter getting colder there will be a combo of outside and inside plus the new one has way more features. Yes, this how I justify to myself.

This morning started with me dropping my blackberry on my head. I use it as my alarm at work. So it went off this morning and I looked at the email and then responded to the email holding the blackberry over my head as I was still lying down. Then bam I dropped it on my head. No harm done just felt like a moron.

Apart from that the day went fast.

Tonight was a celebratory dinner to mark a milestone at work & then I started watching Biggest Loser.

That's all I got.

Hope you had a fabulous Tuesday!

Hugs!!!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dragged myself to the gym

2011-11-14T19:18:00.001-07:00

Despite roughly 3 hours of sleep last night and being up at 3:45am plus not being able to sleep on the plane... I actually put in 4 miles on the treadmill.

It wasn't pretty ran for about 10 min of it. This is what it was:

57:34 min
4 miles
418 cal burned
9:07 - 14:36 miles/hour pace

Not a speed demon but all I wanted was to get the miles in.

I fly home Wednesday due to meetings in Calgary so next run day will probably be Friday.

Oh and the scale is moving in the right direction.

Winter has definitely arrived at work.

This is probably the closest-ish town. Those temperatures don't include windchill so it could be a wee colder.

Hope you all had a great weekend and Monday.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This stops now

2011-11-12T19:52:00.001-07:00

I went to weigh in today knowing I'd probably see a gain. My behaviour last week was hardly going to get me a loss. Let's see I didn't need to have pie on Wednesday, I never measured the walnuts I was snacking on throughout the day and the dark chocolate Lindt Lindors that I brought up with the intention of having one per day as a treat. I blew through the bag in 4 days.

I saw a .8 gain today which puts me at 179.2. I am thoroughly disappointed in myself. I know better and I can do better and it's about time I start walking the walk and just not talking the talk. I totally meant every word of finding new focus but the bad habits I redeveloped over the last few weeks just steam rolled right through that.

I watched Biggest Loser when I got home on Thursday and there was a point in the show when the doctor showed up with a brain specialist and talked about the effects of unhealthy behaviour on your brain. For example the increase in dopamine (pleasure) in the brain when an obese person smells/ senses food yet when they eat it decreases so they keep eating to try to to get it back.

The part that hit home for me was you can rewire your brain in a matter of weeks or months with healthy behaviour but falling back into bad food behaviours can get you back to the before in a matter of days.

So this week I need to go back to basics. I do bring chocolate up for the boys and normally it's Hershey kisses with almonds. I like those and when I'm stressed it's so easy to grab them so from now on I'm bringing the plain Hershey kisses which I don't care for and can resist. Some of you are probably thinking why bring it at all but it's my thing to make people feel comfortable.

Tracking needs to be daily. I'm going to up my rewards a little. If I track every day and stick to my daily points, and see a loss at the end of this week I'll get a manicure and pedicure.

I need to shake myself up and I tell you seeing 179 brought me smack back to reality. Sometimes we need that slap in the face.

So now it's focus on the positive and the can do sort of like how a team loses one day but plays again the next day. They can't play like they're going to lose and neither can I. I've got to turn it around that includes thinking positive messages.

I did notice in the weeks "weekly" a blurb that says "next month in your meeting, you'll learn about some changes in the Points Plus plan"...hmm I'm intrigued.

I can do this, we can do this so let's just do it.

Hugs!!

Breaking bad behaviour can be hard

2011-11-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends,

I have spent the entire day in pajamas as it just felt like that kind of day. This last week was a little crazy due to late meetings so today I focused on regaining energy as I was tired when I got home last night.

It snowed all day at site yesterday and I realized I should have worn the entire winter jacket just not the inside fleece part and it's time to wear snow boots. I think about 4cm fell and it was windy so it kept blowing in your face of course I had no hood or toque either.

This is what it looked like as we were waiting to fly out.

Brrr.....and a whack of fingerprints on the window.

It was super pretty once we got above the low level clouds. The sunsets and sunrises up north are gorgeous.

I love landing in Calgary at night, the lights of the city go on forever. Yes that line down the middle is traffic for some reason there was a lot it last night which is a bit odd considering it was almost 7pm.

So WW wise I abandoned tracking half way through Wednesday. Hey, at least I tracked for 4 days that's a bit of a record lately. I did toss the remaining Halloween candy when I got to work on Tuesday but I also didn't factor in that Tuesday would be a long day. Up at 3:45am and finishing the day at 7pm. This happens I just need to be better prepared for it. The snackfest behaviour continued with no rhyme or reason.

Yesterday I was chatting with one of site friends and a very common topic lately is that people feel like they need to get more focused on healthy, funny as I've been reading that a lot on the blogs lately, and of course writing about it myself. I was saying it's like me need some sort of health challenge. Our EHS group did one a while back and one girl did exceptionally well and looks absolutely phenomenal. She started talking about Weight Watchers, which I thought was ironic, and then I told her that was my plan of choice; and I had thought that when I get to goal I'd like to lead a meeting at site kind of like a WW at Work. I asked her if she thought people would actually be interested in that up there. She said yes and also for a lot of men. Keep in mind women are greatly outnumbered up there. Now I have a lot of work to do to get to goal and I'm not even sure that would be allowed but...hmm..maybe I discovered another layer of motivation there.

Tomorrow is weigh in and this week the goal is to track everyday.

I hope everyone had a great Friday.

Hugs!

Well thank you

2011-11-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to Julie for nominating me for this. I have to admit this is the second time I've received this and I'm still incredibly honored.

Now I need to tell you 7 things about myself and nominate 15 people.

Let's start with the 7 things:

1. I can't eat anything with bones, yet I'm a meat eater. It's got something to do when my Dad had chickens and I named them all.

2. I hate my laugh yet everyone else seems to like it. When people tell me they like it I think they're crazy. I'm recognized by my laugh which makes me think I'm Elmo.

3. I'm a pretty good baker which of course is awful as baking is not exactly helpful for weight loss

4. My friends think I should be app. I think it's for my straight shooting positive focused advice. Like when they worry I calm them down. Maybe I'm a people whisperer

5. I'm a total science fiction geek.

6. I work in HR yet I'm a completely logical thinker. Career testing told me I should be an engineer. In a past job they did personality testing on us to see if it could be used as predictive testing for future hires. There was on part where it showed a scale with emotional on one end and logical on the other. When I looked at it I thought I had no dot on the line then I realized it was smack on top of logical.

7. I'm an introvert. Now if you met me in person you might not think so. However when I'm in situation where I don't know people I'm a total introvert however around people I know or super comfortable I'm outgoing. Did I mention I'm a gemini.

Now for the nominations - now I'm pretty positive quite a few of these lovely people have received this award before but oh well it's good to share the love and in no particular order I present:
1. Enz
2. Losing weight after 45 is a bitch
3. Slender Swan to be
4. Running my mouth
5. It's not a diet
6. Weight Watchers Blog
7. H-Woman
8. Angie All The Way
9. Mousaroo
10. Future Fit Girl
11. Live, Smile, Run
12. Monica Wants It
13. Fat Girl vs World
14. Embracing Balance
15.RunnerGirl48

Hopefully you'll enjoy reading their blogs as much as I do.

Hugs!!!

I miss this

2011-11-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

You know how I was saying the other day how sometimes it's really easy to stick to your points and sometimes it's hard. Last night was crazy. Nothing would satisfy me so after I surveyed the damage and tracked it (using a healthy dose of weekly points) I tried to figure out what triggered it. I was really hungry after the gym yesterday and had to grocery shop so I went to MacDonald's and had a cheeseburger and fries, now I had the points for it. I had no plan for dinner and thinking about that MacDonald's meal made me think I should go lighter well that kicked off a snackapalooza. Maybe it was the salt of MacDonald's or not having a plan later. Now my plan is to be better sorted next week and do grocery shopping on Friday so the fact that the gym opens at 11am on Sunday I could eat beforehand which I didn't do this week.

I then realized my snackapalooza was probably TOM related as today felt very similar...oy vey. It's like my rational self went out the window food wise.

Well today is not as bad but still not fantastic however I did earn 11 activity points today and 8 the day before.

I can't remember the last time I went to an Iron Reps class at the gym. I've been to the Monday one once before during the summer and remember the instructor saying it would be busy in the fall. I made sure to be there early.

Holy there must have been 60 people in the room, when I go on a Friday or Saturday at lunch time it's no where near as busy. It's at 9:30am, so I'm guessing a lot of stay at home moms, retired folk and maybe shift workers or people who have negotiated work hours to allow the class?

It was a good class, Iron Reps is a weight training class that focuses on one body part per 5min song. So there's a back track, chest track, triceps track, bicep track, shoulder track, squat track, lunges track and ab track. I played it safe as I haven't gone for a long time and stuck to moderate weights. I still worked it to fatigue so it wasn't easy. I enjoy all the tracks with the exception of the lunges. This part confuses the heck out of me. Lunge forward, centre and back. I'm not so coordinated with the lunges so it's a challenge.

I stayed for the yoga class right after. Now I'm a little leery of fitness instructors who lead yoga classes because I wonder how much they actually know about the philosophy behind the poses. This class was taught by a bonafide yoga instructor who also teaches at a studio downtown. She was great.

I loved this, It's been ages since I kept a regular yoga practice, which is awful because when I do it regularly I truly feel the benefits then life gets in the way. I need to change that and get back into it.

This class felt really good. We did an alternate breathing exercise at the beginning where you breath in the right nostril then out the left then in the left and out the right. Interesting as I found exhaling both nostrils were even on the intake breath my left was stronger then my right. It was a really good centering exercise. She recommended doing it when you feel overwhelmed or a bit stressed out as it helps you focus.

What I realized during this class is that I miss going to an actual yoga class with a real live instructor. Since I started flying in and out to work I couldn't do the one in my local community hall anymore. The gym does offer another class on Friday but it's taught by one of the group fitness instructors and it's right before Iron Reps, I think it's better to do yoga after Iron Reps. I have tried this class before and felt the dvds I have at home were better.

I think I should find a class to do on the weekends ideally Friday or Saturday due to bus schedules. Perhaps I'll check out some classes and find a studio I gel with. Plus I do have a yoga mat in my camp room and at home. I need to break out the Namaste yoga dvds again, maybe look into Kate Potter's retreats. I've been once before and really liked it.

So it's an early night for me as I head back to work tomorrow. I was happy to see the gym is open on Friday there will be no classes but it's a run day so that's alright.

I hope you all enjoyed your Monday.

Hugs!!

Hello Treadmill

2011-11-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I tracked everything and finished with 29 pts which is my base. It's funny how some days it's so easy to stick to those points and some days not so much. I stepped on the scale this morning and just back into the 176s.

At weigh in yesterday I was asking my leader if any changes to the plan were coming as it's typically in December that this will happen. I've seen some stuff on the internet saying the weekly points might change as in change based on your weight just like your base points. She couldn't say anything but apparently the Canadian leaders have a pow wow of some sort coming up where this type of stuff is revealed. If there are changes coming the US will see them a couple of weeks ahead of us.

The plan today was to head to the gym and begin half marathon training. I opted for 2min/2min intervals and did 3 miles in 40min. The way I laid out my training plan originally it should start on Wednesday but starting a wee early won't be bad thing. It's 3 miles for this week. Next Sunday it's 4 miles. As I go I'll work on my intervals.

Then I went to Walmart and Safeway. Recently at my Walmart there seems to be a German section with an entire array of mustards (6 different kinds - what can I say my people love mustard), Tschibo coffee, red cabbage and etc. I love Tschibo coffee and it was very reasonably priced as well so I bought a lot of it for my Dad and myself as normally it's kind of expensive. The other thing I found was this.

In English that's Plum Butter and the ingredients are plums, sugar and citric acid. It's 1 ProPoint for a tablespoon and it's so yummy. It's completely smooth so goes on toast... well like butter. The other thing I like is it's not super sweet and tastes like plums.

I was waiting in line at Safeway when my eyes caught something new. Now every time I go to the US or know someone who's going to the US I request this:

Now just put "Juicy Fruit" where it says Wrigley's and shazaam they're now in Canada. I saw the Apple Pie, Orange Crush and Strawberry Shortcake version at the checkout I was in. Now I'm not sure if all the flavours are available in Canada but the Apple Pie one tastes exactly like the real thing. I also enjoy the Orange Crush, Key Lime Pie and Mint Chocolate Ice Cream. I wasn't fond of the Strawberry Shortcake version.

Right now all my packs are at work and pretty darn handy when the I get snacky especially if it's for something sweet. Now if only Blue Diamond will launch the Wasabi Soy Almonds in Canada I'd be delirious.

Another thing I'm starting to try to curb after dinner snacking is to have a cup of decaf tea. I really like Celestial Seasoning's Candy Lane Tea, it's green tea that tastes like a very mild candy cane.

I keep a pack at home and one at work. I'm going to make sure to put some in my camp room as it's a nice little wind down to the day.

I'm taking tomorrow off so my plan is to go to Iron Reps at the gym and stay for yoga, more on that tomorrow.

I hope you all enjoyed your Sunday - Hugs!

Dear Self

2011-11-05T12:21:00.000-06:00

Dear Self,

I feel compelled to write to you today as I think you need to hear/read what I have to say. You've become complacent. It's not that you don't know this yourself but I'm here to ask you why.

You haven't been focused lately and more recently you seem to have given up. Remember all those Halloween candy wrappers you've tossed into your desk garbage for the last two weeks. Quite frankly you know better so what gives?

The thing is you can do this, heck you've done it before after all remember the first time you walked into the doors of the Weight Watchers meeting and seeing 204 on the scale. You battled, you were focused and you haven't gone back to that number. You came close oh you know that but you battled again and succeeded and have never gone back.

You are strong, you are more then capable of achieving this goal. You should believe in yourself.

It seems this 170 area is a challenge for you, you've been floating in the 170s for weeks. Today you weighed in and was at 178.4, you were 178 last week. I don't want you to get hung up on the number.

You also told your leader today that you lost your mojo and need to find it. You also told her you would not be ruled by the number on the scale it's data and a start.

She told you that focusing on the number may not fire up your mojo maybe you need another goal. She then told you about another member at another meeting who decided she wanted to go to San Francisco so she calculated the distance from Calgary to San Francisco and when she cycles those kilometers off at the gym she's going to go.

That's great but not really you're thing. You do have the half marathon but the goal for that is more upright, uninjured and enjoy it. It's a little unrealistic to think you're going to hit goal in 3 months as well.

During the meeting she talked about choosing to focus on a better you. She used the example of do you want Hawaii or beer.

That caused a little light bulb to go off in your head. You have something else...Vegas in June for your birthday. I know you've been to Vegas multiple times but think about all those times you've gone and you felt uncomfortable at the pool. You usually run around all day in shorts and t-shirts and had to tug those shorts down as they start to ride up due to your thighs being a too close. By the end of the day you're rumpled and kind of a schlep. You see pictures when you get back and feel frumpy. All the pictures you took were of stuff and not of yourself.

This time is going to be different isn't it? Let's look at this shoedazzle.com collection you've been accumulating and that picture of the Herve Leger dress on your vision board. I know you want to succeed.

This time you want to rock a bikini at the pool and you want to get dressed up for the night time. During the day you'll wear cute shorts and t-shirts and never have to worry about your shorts riding up at the inner thigh. You'll want to buy clothes at the outlet mall and not think oh no I want to be a smaller size first. You will be at goal this time so if you want that dress - you'll get it.

So when those cookies tempt you at site you need ask yourself - this or Vegas? You need ask yourself are you living your best life?

Yes you can work some crazy hours but that doesn't mean that you can't eat right and if you can't get a treadmill one night all is not lost.

You can do this, you will do this. When you go back to work on Tuesday you're going to toss the leftover candy. I mean really is the candy going to get you Vegas?

I believe in you.

Me

And it begins...winter that is

2011-11-04T18:46:00.000-06:00

When I woke up today at around 7am, I looked out the window and saw a bit of snow outside. Then it started to snow again and all heck broke loose. Travel advisories, reports of accidents and one my co-workers texted me to say she had been on her bus for an hour and had traveled a few blocks.

I really wanted to head downtown today as I wanted the new Kobo Vox. This is now my 3rd Kobo. I'm geeked that I can access facebook and twitter on it. I got a little worried when I was setting it up after I got home as it would error when I tried to log into my Kobo account. I called their help centre and found out the site was down so that's why I was having issues. I tried it again 15min later and shazzam works great. It's an android tablet so you can also download apps, magazines and newspapers. It's way cheaper then an Ipad, doesn't mean I'm over coveting an Ipad but this will hold me over.

I headed it out at 9am, my bus was about 20min late but I got downtown in about 45min so not bad at all.

Lately at work I've been noticing an awful lot of people with their own coffee makers at their desks. At site we have the choice of one type of coffee. With the weather getting colder and the sky staying darker I too want my own coffee maker so I researched the single pod varieties and I was drawn to Keurig.

So I searched online and found this one on sale at Sears so I got it shipped to my closest Sears store and it should arrive around Nov. 21.

Today when I was downtown I popped into The Bay as I needed eye make-up remover and I've recently fallen in love with the Clinique version and then I remembered they had an entire single cup coffee maker section. They were selling this one for the same price as Sears but had none in stock. I did leave with the automatic frother as I miss lattes.

I also got a pack of hot chocolate cups and a Timothy's holiday sampler plus the k-cup which allows you to use your own coffee.

I'll never leave my office. Merry Christmas to me :)

Getting home was pretty easy but I also wasn't leaving in rush hour.
My only concern is tomorrow morning might be a bit of treacherous walk to weigh in as the snow was slush and it will be -10C overnight.

Oh well I'll walk carefully. I did pull out the Sorel boots today as I wasn't taking any chances. Mess with Ms. Winter and you'll lose. Tomorrow I'm completely back on the Weight Watcher wagon. Starting with the weigh in. As I have Monday off I also want to spend sometime this weekend figuring out meal planning and freezing some stuff so when I get home and on weekends it's not me snacking around the kitchen because I can't decide what to make for dinner.

Goofing off is done.

Hope you had a safe and fun Friday.

Hugs!!!

Alternative Universe?

2011-11-03T20:27:00.000-06:00

I think I might have been kidnapped by aliens and been given a lobotomy as I seem to have thrown all my healthy habits out the window.

I did not workout once this week, mind you my average day at work was 13 hours so by the time I got back to my bed at camp I was knackered. I'm sorry I could not get myself out of bed an hour earlier to go to the gym.

I have not tracked at all, I sort of half heartily tracked via e-tools but didn't maintain it.

I drank some water, no wear near the 2L I should be drinking.

All in all not the behaviours of a person who wants to lose weight.

You know what it just makes me want to get my act together even more. I'm not liking what I see - the jeans feeling a wee snug and not feeling powerful like when I finish a treadmill workout or zen like when I finish a yoga session.

I need to make healthy habits a major focus. Oh and I've been talking around that for weeks now but the chips are down. Half marathon training starts this weekend.

It's time to take a hard look in the mirror and say "Snap out of it!!!!!!".

Giving up is not an option.

Hugs!!!

Yard conqueror

2011-10-30T19:54:00.001-06:00

My workout today consisted of cleaning eavestroughs and leaf wrangling. I say wrangling as when I got to that part the wind was crazy. It would be totally calm one minute then gust like crazy. It wasn't very productive so I mowed them.

The eavestroughs were a workout lugging the ladder around my house and lots of climbing. I also unclogged one of my down spouts. Plus had to tighten the screws one of the brackets. Yes my Daddy raised me to be independent.

I consulted my training plan and it doesn't start till the 9th. That doesn't mean I can't start now. I had thought about going for a run today but I knew if I did that the motivation to clean eavestroughs would be difficult to cultivate. It had to be done today as snow is flying soon like flurries tomorrow.

I keep forgetting that I have an extra long weekend next weekend as I booked Monday off due to next Friday being a holiday.

Food wise so far is a battle as I always find weekends to be a bit of a challenge if I don't have a plan but I'm making a dent and getting my groove back. The battle is won one day at a time.

Cancelled the organic food delivery as their new delivery day does not work for me.

A little sad to not being home tomorrow to hand out candy. I'm hauling another stash to work tomorrow. Last week I brought up 6 bags. Tomorrow it's 7. I must take a picture of my office treat bowl. Last week it was down to practically nothing by Thursday. All these boys definitely like treats.

Alarm is set for the wee hours as I am back on a plane to work tomorrow.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This is war

2011-10-29T17:11:00.000-06:00

Not in the way that I want to blow anything up or anything but I need to think like I'm going into battle.

My motivation is still flimsy, good days and bad days, bad days are winning. You can tell that by my lack of blogging lately.

The thing that bugs me is that it's completely ridiculous and within my control. I finally came to the conclusion that it's stress induced, that is irrelevant as I am in control of how I feel and if I let someone or something get to me that's my problem as I let it get to me. Then of course being a emotional eater it's an excuse to have not so great food behaviour. I've often dealt with stress just fine kind of acting like a duck - just letting it roll off. Lately it's been harder so I need to keep my eye on the ball and give no notice to distractions.

The battle that I need to prepare for is half marathon training officially begins next week. All my grand plans up to now have fizzled and flopped of sort of pre pre training. Now I need to get serious.

Last night I opted to go out for drinks with friends and I did think I'd just have one as weigh in is tomorrow. Then I decided to have another and another and decided weigh in was not happening today and I also knew we'd have a sub leader.

Those type of excuses also end today as new leader starts next week and based on what I say last week I think she'll be a positive influence. I'll say it again the WW plan works when you follow it, when I don't follow it I obviously don't see results.

In another news I've revamped my skin care for the coming winter. I could feel my skin drying out over the last few weeks. It's not a cheap venture as I have to get duplicates of everything so I can have one set at home and one set in my camp room. I'm going back to a Origin's Perfect World moisturizer, White Tea Skin Guardian and trying Plantscription eye treatment. I went to Sephora today and picked up Clinique's new Turnaround Night Cream. I also left with a magnetic nail polish that's super cool.

I had been trying cheaper brands but I found they just didn't measure up so it's back to what I know.

I'm focusing on proper cleansing as opposed to cleansing wipes and speed vs. quality. Again you get what you put in.

Did a whack of walking today as when I got home from Sephora I then decided to go to Walmart and pick up a few things. Wow, I will go back to my routine of going to Walmart after weigh in as 2pm is an absolute zoo.

Alright, I will be accountable to all of you my blogger friends. Excuses begone, this is war.

Hugs!!

Where did the last 2 days go?

2011-10-25T20:23:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it's already Tuesday night. It's been a fast week so far.

Monday it was super foggy when the plane got close to our landing strip. I'm talking Harry Potter ominous foggy to the extent I didn't think we could land. If we couldn't land that would mean a 2hr bus ride from Fort McMurray.

Miraculously we landed but moments later the fog got worse. Other planes that day not so lucky. One that left 15min after mine took 6 hours to get to work due to delays, waiting for buses and that 2 hour ride.

Monday was long. Up at 3:45am and got to my camp room at 7:30pm. I had to stay up s little to watch Castle. I've more recently found that show and it's funny. I think I now have a crush on Nathan Fillion.

Today late meeting resulting in getting to my room at 7:30pm again. It was a good day. I absolutely adore the group I support.

I hauled up Halloween candy this week and my treat bowl. Heck I'm working on Halloween so I'll hand it our at work. It's very popular. I had a very full bowl Monday morning and there is a significant dent today. I will be restocking for Monday.

This morning it was actually snowing. Oy vey it looks like I'll be winterized next week just to be careful.

Tomorrow should not be a late day so I can actually go to the gym. My hamstrings have been uber tight. So I must focus on the post run stretching.

Alright that's all I got. Hope you all had a great last few days.

Hugs

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I think I might like this leader

2011-10-23T15:51:00.001-06:00

I did not go to the gym on Friday, instead I more or less had a pajama day and caught up on Days of our Lives. I didn't feel any ill effects from being out with the boys the night before I just really wanted to chill.

Saturday I went to weigh in and was down .6. I did not have a stellar week by any sense of the imagination so a -.6 was o.k with me. I definitely get what I put in and last week I didn't put in much.

The new leader is super super outgoing and at first I didn't know if I was into that. Through the meeting I really wished I had a notebook with me as she must have said multiple things that I wanted to note down. I used to bring one with me so I think I need to do that again. She's outgoing but also seems really invested in helping us. She told us she just doesn't want us to lose the weight but also not find it again (been there did that) She even told us about a day she has last week where emotional eating reared it's head and she said life happens. No kidding but the other thing is it's one day. You can recover. I think I'll like her. She's on vacation next week but then will be back the following week. She did mention there are 9 weigh ins till Christmas and that was sort of a kick in the pants.

I had a bit a crazy point day yesterday so a bit of an auspicious start to the week. I was very snacky all day even though I had a good protein breakfast with the reduced fat turkey bacon egg sandwich from Starbucks and my grande non fat caramel macchiato - this is my go to WW breakfast that I eat at the meeting. What messed me up is I knew I was going out to dinner so I was trying for a really low point lunch but thought Greek yogurt alone could sustain me so of course that didn't so the snacking began. Dinner was high points (half a cheeseburger, fries, wine, beer, martini, ice cream) that's for sure but you know what it's okay. I tracked it all and know that the rest of my week needs to be more focused kind of like the 80/20 rule.

I did go to the gym yesterday for a run/walk and tried doing 2min run/ 1 min walk intervals. I have one week till I officially start half marathon training and coming to the realization that C25K must go on the back burner. I have to workout for myself what interval will work for 13.1 miles or 21km. The C25K days are low on mileage. The workout went pretty well I had to take a longer walk break midway and wound up running for 15min in total.

Today I went again and ran for 16min total. I started with the 2/1 ratio but then switched it to 2/2. I was super hot in the gym today. The air conditioning is not so great and it was pretty busy. Tomorrow at site I will run again my mission to increase the intervals and run for longer periods by adding intervals. The half marathon training will focus on distance so it will be an experiment to test out what intervals I can maintain for a long distance. I will also attempt adjusting intervals as I go. My Sunday runs for now on should be outside unless there's one heck of a good reason to do it inside i.e. - 30C. I really can't imagine doing 10 miles on a treadmill.

While I was waiting for the meeting to start on Saturday I did give myself a challenge to stay on plan for 30 days. So that's staying within my points (including weekly) and tracking every day. Last week I tracked for 3 days and then gave up. I've been wobbling for far too long but I don't want to get into a should of, could of mindset. What's done is done I'm on to the present and future.

I also realized I need to give myself some rewards to work for. Previously I was thinking I didn't deserve any reward until I got back to 168 (lowest weight to date on WW) but while sitting there on Saturday I realized I was doing myself a disservice. I need to suck it up and I love techie stuff.

The goals and rewards:
170 - manicure/pedicure
165- new Ipod Nano
160 - manicure/pedicure
155 - Xbox 360 with Kinnect
150- manicure/ pedicure
145- Ipad2
130-140- Tiffany Key

Now the reason I kind of skipped over 135 is for the longest time I considered 140 my goal weigh and then I changed it to 130. I have no idea what I'll feel like at 140 so maybe that will be my goal weight and part of me wants that so I can stop paying and get to goal, do maintenance and then maybe shoot for 130 if that's right for my body. When I get to 145 is probably when I can best judge how much further I need to go.

My workout plan for the week is:
Monday - Run/Walk - goal run 18min
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - Run/Walk goal run 20min
Thursday - yoga
Friday- Run/Walk goal 22 min and Iron Reps
Saturday - Zumba and Iron Reps
Sunday - Run/Walk - goal run 24min

Every 2min increase in running is adding another interval.

Bring on the week.

Hugs!!!

Crazy week

2011-10-20T22:28:00.000-06:00

Oy vey it was a bit of a crazy week and probably not the best week to declare "I'm focused" as I wasn't.

What I am looking forward to is pretty much from tomorrow till Christmas I should be able to focus on momentum. I honestly believe momentum in regards to healthy habits is huge. I lost my momentum weeks ago and it's been an uphill battle ever since.

Monday was a right off, Tuesday was a right off, Wednesday was a right off and today was a right off. Right off in terms of crazy schedule and late days plus just a wacky week.

All that changes tomorrow. Tomorrow I can go to the gym and I am in control of my food. No catering or team dinners so way more controllable.

Now life will happen, there will be situations outside of my control but at least for now I can build momentum, get the train back on the tracks in a way.

So I do hope you all had a great week and be prepared for me to bring it.

Hugs!!!

Last hurrah now down to business

2011-10-16T17:10:00.000-06:00

I went to weigh in yesterday, paid the membership fee as it was a better deal then surrendering coupons. Weighed in at 176.6, a 3.8lb gain. Yup that's what I expected. When I got home from Kingston it was closer to 178 so some better habits returned. It just shows I must stay diligent.

I was surprised to learn we're getting a new leader next week. I guess my old leader Tony quit two weeks ago - apparently due to all the travel he does for his day job.

Now I have seen a few leaders. I'm hoping this new person is fun.

Then it was off to the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Fest, I thought it was better this year but it seemed food wise there was a whole lot of lamb and seafood - neither being my favourite. However I certainly found stuff to eat :)

I did find some cool beverages like a Bellini in a bottle - yummy, also enjoyed this cider that was numbered I think 12 was Strawberry Lime - very yummy, Maple Vodka - yummy and probably good with pancakes and I also liked the Canadian Club pre mixed with ginger ale or cola in cans.

Loved that the aisles were wider but by 8pm it was pretty crowded. Fantastic people watching at this thing and that's probably one of the highlights of going.

I just factored in that I used all my WP and hit my daily target so now the mission is really on to track properly as I have no wiggle room for the rest of the week.

I tried something new for breakfast. I've read a lot about steel cut oats on the blogs but have never really paid attention until I passed these yesterday.

Of course they take longer to make then my instant oatmeal. I started a little late as I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee today and I was running behind so I had toast with some nutella as I just couldn't wait for the oats to finish. Just before leaving she texted that she wasn't feeling well. So I went to the gym and did another week 3 of C25K as I haven't run since Sunday. When I got home I had the steel cut oats for lunch. I like them.

The challenge will be the prep time as I live alone, hauling out the slow cooker for one portion seems a little overboard so I'll just keep it in mind for my Corrie watching fest on Sundays.

The run went alright. When I hit the second set of 3 min it was hard and I had to stop midway through. I just walked for a few more minutes and tried again and got it completed. So I guess I ran for a whole 1.5 min extra.

I work in Calgary during the day tomorrow and fly to camp at 5pm so my plan is to get there and then change and hit the gym and run again. After all that I'll go find dinner.

Hope you all had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Bit of a bummer

2011-10-14T17:23:00.002-06:00

I got my spud.ca order today - yippee. In the container was a note saying they're changing the delivery to my neighbourhood to Wednesday - not so good.

I've already emailed them about it but their little note was a bit misleading. It starts with "we are adding another delivery day to our schedule along with a new website launch". At this point I'm thinking cool but further down they state "This means the date of your delivery will change from Friday to Wednesday" - crappola. It's one thing to ask a neighbour to keep milk for you, it's a whole other enchilada asking them to store a Rubbermaid container full of groceries.

As I don't land in Calgary until 7pm ish on Thursdays, Wednesdays are just not an option. So providing they say I can't keep Friday I'll have to put more of an effort into scheduling my days off and make sure a grocery run takes place on Fridays.

On other news I got my hair cut today and as the stylist talked about my hair I had a strange epiphany about my weight loss journey.

Apparently my hair lacks protein (probably all of me lacks protein must re-look at that) but I am trying to grow it out to my collar bone. I'm now just at the shoulder. Stylist Tim said I'm at the difficult part right now in growing out hair as it hits your shoulder. Oh yes even though I straighten I now have little flips at the end by the end of the day. The epiphany part is when he says it takes patience to grow out your hair. Meanwhile I'm thinking so does weight loss.

Tomorrow I return to weigh in, my last weigh in was Sept. 24th. According to my home scale I've probably gained 5lbs in 3 weeks. Not proud of myself on that and when that happens I go into avoidance mode. I'm not going to do that though, I'm going to face the scale tomorrow and like I said a blog ago. I need to get serious but what's important is that I also remember patience.

While I love the weight loss reality shows I sometimes think they mess with my head. A 12lb loss in a week is completely unrealistic. In reality losing 1-2lbs a week is completely healthy but every once in awhile you just want this to go faster.

When I have a true heart to heart to myself I just haven't been consistent with my efforts. It's consistency that will get me to goal.

That will change.

Hope you had a great Friday.

Hugs!!!

17 hours

2011-10-11T20:48:00.001-06:00

That's how long I've been up so far today.

Up at 4am, in cab by 4:40pm, plane leaves 6:10am, got to work and swooped straight into meetings. I checked my email for the first time at noon.

Then it was meeting after meeting. I got to camp by 7:30pm. Had dinner and I am know laying on my bed and typing to you.

I had my first glass of water 5 min ago.

Today was just crazy. Tomorrow looks busy too but no late meetings so I can run.

Heck I have yet to track anything. Quite impressed that I stayed coherent and relatively intelligent as I was running on fumes by 4:30pm.

I did bring the coolest thing I found in Kingston with me. It's a collapsible laundry hamper. I found it in the Queen's university bookstore. It's perfect for my camp room. I put my backpack next to it for scale. It has handles so I can carry it to the laundry room. Collapsed it's the size of a small dinner plate. I love it.

Hope you all had a fabulous Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dusting off the running shoes

2011-10-10T16:35:00.001-06:00

I did head out today and it wasn't until I was 5 minutes in that I decided what to do.

The 5 min warm up took me to the mailbox and then I decided to try day 3 of C25K again. I had just started this week when I got the cold.

Every other time I've attempted C25K I stop at week 2 so I didn't want to restart at week 2 unless I absolutely had to.

It was rough but I did it. This was the first run for my new Mizuno shoes and my first run outside in a long time.

Week 3 was two sets of 90 sec run/ 90 sec walk and 3 min run/ 3 min walk with a 5 min warm up and cool down.

I will look at my watch every 30 seconds so today I used landmarks. I could look at my watch only when I reached a certain point.

The stats where:
28:31 min
2.17 miles
Pace 13:10- 9:56 mi

I go back to work tomorrow and my backpack isn't packed just yet but everything I need to take with me is next to it.

Tonight I'm going to try something different to deal with not being able to sleep the night before I fly out.

When I was in Kingston I met one of the other participants who travels a lot. She told me to take one pm advil or Tylenol. I found the advil and I tried it once last week and all seemed good so I'm trying it again tonight.

Have a great evening.

Hugs!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

112 days

2011-10-10T11:07:00.000-06:00

Until my half marathon in other words 16 weeks and 16 weigh ins. It would actually be 111 days until the last weigh in before I leave for the half marathon. 111 what a good day for a re-start/ recommitment and a new day one huh?

I still had a food holiday yesterday so today marks a recommitment to the plan, essentially I've had 3 weeks ish off plan. I stepped on my scale this morning and boy do I have work to do. I'm hoping some of what I saw is due to water retention as TOM is looming. A little wishful thinking never hurt - right?

I have renewed focus on water today as well as that has been sorely lacking in the last little while.

I'm just finishing off making some turkey chili and then an hour after lunch I'm heading outside for a run. I need to reboost the running as well and think I need to go with 4 days as opposed to 3. I'm trying to plan that out with my weekly travel. The best way to swing it would be run Friday, Saturday, Sunday (my days off) and Wednesday (my days at camp). Now that would be running 3 days in a row which probably isn't ideal but as long as I listen to my body it should work. That makes Monday and Tuesday cross training days. Thursday will be a rest day as that's the day I fly out and flight delays can happen.

I need to put my serious athlete hat on.

When I came home from my Dad's place I tried taking some action shots with my iphone. Not too easy and they often turned out a little blurry or I missed the shot completely but I wanted to share this pic.

Those are the Rocky Mountains and you can see they have snow. I just thought it was pretty.

I'll come back later and update run stats for today.

Hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving or Columbus day Monday.

Hugs!!

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canadians

2011-10-09T19:06:00.001-06:00

A bit of an untraditional thanksgiving this year mainly veggie samosas and too much pie.

Today I wanted to blog about what I'm thankful for and in no particular order.

I'm thankful for the roof over my head, the food in my fridge, the city I live in, my friends and family, my job, the company I work for, the country I live in, the air I breath, for being able to walk and run and for all of you sharing your journeys to being healthier.

Hugs!!!

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Back to a routine and building a plan

2011-10-07T21:00:00.001-06:00

I head home tomorrow and on Sunday morning I'll be reunited with my Bodymedia and will start tracking again.

I've been away and off plan for two weeks. Next week will be a boot camp inspired return as I need to come to my senses.

My eye must be on the prize from now on. It's far too easy to lapse into bad habits.

Right now I'm visualizing a skinnier me crossing the finish line on January 31st at Disneyland.

I'm thinking about using spud.ca again. It's a home delivery organic grocery service. The prices are super similar to my grocery store and winter is coming. They deliver to my area on Fridays. I'm kind of liking the idea. Lately I've been leaving the grocery shopping to Saturday and add in weigh in plus the gym it gets complicated.

Plus I want to eat cleaner.

I also must return to running. I left at just beginning week 3 so I'll let my body tell me where I need to start from.

As the gym is closed this weekend I'll have to go outside and I haven't done that in awhile.

It's not a restart but more of a boost.

Hope you had a great Friday

Hugs!!!!

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Your time is limited..

2011-10-06T18:55:00.000-06:00

so don't waste it living someone else's life - Steve Jobs

I find I now find out breaking news via twitter, I'm not sure if that's sad or a sign of the times. Of course Steve Jobs passing away is on every news story around the world. By the way I was on my iPhone when I read the news.

I don't question the genius of Apple or Steve Jobs, after all I own an ipod shuffle, ipod nano (the version before this one), ipod touch, iPhone 3 and an iPhone 4 (the phones were not due to a burning desire to own the newest, I had to change providers due to working remotely) and I desperately covet an IPad 2 (right now hoping to win one via work) and the new iPod nano (it's a reward on my weight loss goals which I'll post on another day). Though I've always drawn the line at a Mac computers as I actually prefer PC.

The quote above has been mentioned multiple times and what I find interesting are the words "someone else's life". I interpret that as more not realizing your potential. I don't think I'm living someone else's life but I do feel I don't reach my potential and in away I'm coasting.

I lead a relatively quiet life. I'm shy when I'm uncomfortable and not fond of crowds.Once I'm comfortable I get out going - maybe it's a Gemini thing. Perhaps it's due to being an only child as I've always been pretty good at occupying myself - rousing games of monopoly with stuffed animals comes to mind and no I didn't always win. My last two boyfriends were found online, I've been single for awhile as I'm not ready to jump back into that world. I might try it again, we'll see. I do work with 95% men but that's dangerous territory as not many wear their wedding rings. I go to an all female gym so that rules that out (it's cheap and makes sense only being able to use it 3 days a week).

Add in the complications of working in far Northern Alberta for 4 days a week. I have zip idea of what's going on in Calgary as we only get Edmonton news up there. (The whole flying to work for 4 days every week was a source of many questions while I was in Kingston). The working away also has interesting impacts on the social network at work. There are two of us a site and our Calgary based team socialize together a lot so they have a separate culture from the two of us at site. I do find I make the majority of my friends at work. The people at site live all over Canada.

While waiting for my luggage at the Calgary airport when I flew back from Kingston I saw a poster for an exhibit of movie costumes at the Glenbow museum that I would have liked to see. It ended 2 days beforehand.

While in Kingston, I got a daily copy of the Globe and Mail (Canada's national newspaper) and I read it everyday. I haven't been that on top of world events in awhile as twitter is not known for a whack of detail and in all honesty it's following Anderson Cooper that gives me the details on that.

If I win this IPad I'd subscribe to Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald as I need to keep informed not just on news but what's going on in my own city. I could subscribe online right now of course and I still might do that but my work internet is archaic (they're working on it) and lunch time would be a great time to catch up on world events. You know I might do that this weekend.

I'm not completely sheltered as the weekend after next is the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Fest and I'm going to that with friends as it's an awesome way to sort of taste test local restaurants. I do find working away for the most of the week I do go out for dinner more often due to lack of groceries.

I need to shake myself up a bit, as in get out of my comfort zone in regards to weigh loss and general life. I need to get out more. I will definitely go to Fitbloggin 2012 and on a least one of my 3 days off a week I should do something like go to the museum or the zoo or a festival that's going on - heck even a movie wouldn't be so bad.

When I return home this weekend my gym will be closed on Sunday and Monday and I really need to do housework after barely being home for 2 weeks. I'll have to scope out if there's anything going on over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

I think the moral of my post today is I need to stop getting in my own way.

Hope your week is going well thus far.

Hugs!!!!

Too much time to think

2011-10-04T21:25:00.001-06:00

There isn't a ton to blog about when I'm at my Dad's house in the middle of the country. The major highlight this week has been the installation of Telus Satellite TV before that it was 3 channels and only 2 came in clearly.

The other highlights of my day are feeding the wild/ domesticated cats that live outside. I'm strangely attached to this motley crew. Fred (the oldest male and my favourite) has discovered he likes to be scratched behind the ear. The others won't let you touch them. The rest of the time is spent reading or sleeping so it's kind of like being on retreat.

The other exciting part was now that we have satellite tv out here we now have time shifting so I could watch Biggest Loser at 6pm.

I apologize in advance if I give any spoilers away.

I'm not a NFL fan, heck I just barely understand CFL. I prefer my sports to have simple scoring like hockey, puck goes in net you get a point or soccer - ball goes in net you score a point.

What I did find inspiring was the 50 year old retired football (incredibly fit player inspiring the blue team and Jennifer who on crutches still loses 16lbs, what about the 60 year old losing even more. Now those loses are completely unrealistic in the real world where you don't have 6 hours in the gym but still it goes to show that no matter what your circumstances are you can be successful in getting healthier. I saw a bit of the red team trainer on Rachael Ray and I think he said something along the lines of "there's no excuse unless you're making an excuse".

It makes me think of the last 3 weeks. I had a cold that led to a week in Kingston and then a week at my Dad's. I go home on this weekend and I'm looking forward to truly being in control of my environment. I could have exercised more control in Kingston and I do the best I can at Dad's (He's 88 I"m not going to disrupt his lifestyle to suit mine).

I do find the black team to be pretty inspiring. I'm not 40 for another 8 months and I strongly believe age is just a number that doesn't mean I'm not going to fight ageing every step of the way. A primary way of doing that is of course focusing on your health.

I won't get home in time to go to weigh in so I'll be paying the registration fee on the 14th and then I'll have 16 weeks till my half marathon.

When I get home I have to be game on. I've been coasting for far too long. I still completely believe in Weightwatchers and I am successful when following the plan. The trouble happens when I so so follow the plan or completely abandon the plan as I've done for the past 3 weeks.

The trick is not to give up.

Hugs!!!

The constant traveller

2011-10-01T19:52:00.001-06:00

Today I was off to Dad's house. When I got home last night I tried to stay up for a bit as I was trying to acclimate back to mountain standard time.

Woke up at 6am which was alright as I had to do laundry to repack for Dad's. I also needed to zip into Walmart to pick up somethings to bring with me.

I did want to finish laundry before heading out so I caught up on Biggest Loser. So far I'm leaning towards Jennifer on the black team. Mainly because she's never married and no kids which I totally relate to. Is it just me or do you think the blue team will be picked off? I hope not as I think it's important we all know it's never too late to take care of yourself.

My Walmart is still under renovations so it's a bit of a scavenger hunt. Today I see they moved the candy aisle and directly behind it is now the dental stuff, fitting I suppose. I had breakfast at MacDonald's as there is no point in groceries as I'm gone for another week.

I was looking at the monopoly game board and a little old lady handed me another one. Not sure why.

I did not manage my time well as I missed weigh in. I did step on my home scale and I did some damage in Kingston.

I was walking home when another little old lady flagged me down and asked me if I was Shelley. Nope but she liked my black owl lulu hoody.

Then it was off to the Greyhound station. Always interesting people there. A girl having a scuffle with all her stuff in a locker and a guy using garbage bags as luggage yet also had a laptop with him that he carried in the box it came in - not a new box.

On the bus there was a total moron. The guy smelled like whiskey and sat in the very first row. These to Chinese ladies sit behind him. They were talking and then he turns around and says "are you going to talk the whole way?". The ladies apologized and moved, I can't say that's how I would have responded. Then he proceeds to talk to the driver for an hour. Moron.

Read a new mag I found in the shop by my gate in Toronto. It's called Off the Couch, from the same people who publish Oxygen. It's got some inspiring stories.

Now at Dad's and the cats came to say hi. Fred recognized me and purred. He let me pet him, just a reminder these are the " wild cats" my Dad started feeding so they're now his cats. Mama Meow no longer appears pregnant so not sure what happened there as we're holding at 5 cats. 2 of them avoid us (Spook and Max) 2 semi friendly (Mama and Dusty) if you have food and of course Fred.

Hope all of you had a great Saturday.

Hugs

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Quick note

2011-09-30T13:01:00.001-06:00

Hello my friends,

Right now i'm waiting for the flight to Toronto and then it's a 2 hour wait for the flight to Calgary.

I think I've managed to eat myself through Kingston as this course fed you 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.

I had massive sleeping issues for the bulk of the week but got decent shut eye the last 2 days.

The biggest amount of activity was today. I walked along the lake for a bit before the wind tried to knock me over. Walked up and down Princess street ( street of stores). I have a hard time buying things in Ontario when at home all I have to pay is the 5% government sales tax rather then closer to 12% in Kingston as they have provincial tax as well.

Met great people on this trip and even though I sought sleep over festive drinking I still had a great time. The course was pretty fantastic too.

When I get home it will be unpack and pack for Dad's house.

Then after all that it will be get completely focused on the half marathon and getting to goal weight.

I hope you all had a great week. I'll be back soon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 2 no 3 no 2

2011-09-26T20:31:00.001-06:00

All day I thought it was Tuesday, probably because yesterday messed me up as I normally catch up on Coronation Street instead of traveling to the other side of the country.

The first full day if the class was cool and further bonding with the other participants. This is a labour relations course and it's fascinating to see how different the public sector is from the private sector. I had to argue a point on behalf of the union (something I've never done before) and I won :)

Explored a wee bit of Kingston at the end of the day. Wound up stimulating the economy by buying another Lululemon Define jacket. This one is black with a subtle print. I realized my scuba hoody is a too warm for here and the return trip.

Went back to the same restaurant as last night and it's actually called Casa. Pasta two nights in a row, not good but the food is fantastic.

Slept terribly again as I woke up at 3am. Then thought well it's 1am at home so fall back asleep already.

Gym was sacrificed for sleep as my cold resurfaced probably due to all the sniffly people on the plane.

Passed another participant on the way back to the hotel and they asked me if I was going out again. I said no I was heading to bed then they said but this is our last night. We have 4 days to go but this was our last free night as the days get pretty long now. What I thought was funny was that I will probably never see the bulk of these people again..unless I take another course which I totally want to do. Hello Boss want to send me to another one? I'll work on that when I get home.

Hope your Monday was fabulous

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hello Ontario

2011-09-25T19:12:00.001-06:00

Slept badly last night as I wasn't tired. I went to bed at 10pm and then woke up every hour. Apparently I just do this with any early flight.

At the Calgary airport I had a breakfast wrap from Jugo Juice. I did really want a breakfast sandwich from Tim Hortons but once past security in concourse A Tim's only has muffins, bagels and lunch sandwiches. So jolted for Jugo as it was a whole wheat wrap with a better source of protein.

When I landed in Toronto I had 30min to make it to the Kingston gate. The flight to Kingston had pretzels. This what I don't get. On the 3.5 hour flight from Calgary you have to buy food on the plane. Yet the 39min flight to Kingston you get pretzels.

Air Canada managed to break a foot on the bottom of my suitcase so this bag will officially be retired after I get home.

The cab driver pointed out 2 prisons on the way to the hotel, including a federal one where "the super bad stay" - his words.

Kingston is super pretty though and totally reminds me of Halifax.

Had the opening session of the course and have already met some neat people. Afterwards 5 of us went in search of dinner.

First went to Chez Piggy, a landmark apparently. First the tried to squeeze 5 of us on to a tiny table. Then we moved to an inside table and had the strangest server. She took one person's drink order then wandered off. So we went somewhere else. We went to Olivea which was awesome. I had the carbonara, maybe nor the best choice but I was a longtime between meals.

Got back to the hotel and found the gym. Two treadmills and a bike- not great but oh well.

Now going to bed but I have workout clothes laid out for tomorrow and alarm is set for 5:30am but if I make up early I'll go earlier. Not sure how busy it will be. Breakfast goes till 8:30 tomorrow so I'm hoping people sleep in.

Hope you all had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A 4 day cold?

2011-09-24T15:41:00.000-06:00

So Monday afternoon I start to feel a little off, Tuesday I wake up with a sore throat, Wednesday the sneezing starts, Thursday the sniffles and a bit a runny nose, Friday a few more sniffles and today almost nothing.

Maybe the copious amounts of Vitamin C and the focus on rest has worked.

Of course the copious amounts of rest has wreaked havoc on my training plan plus I haven't exactly been paying attention to food.

Thursday when we landed K and I headed to the Regal Beagle and shared a platter that had nothing but things that appeared to be deep fried. When I don't feel well my healthy habits go out the window and I go with what I feel like having rather than what I should be having.

Thursday night I tossed and turned and at about 1:30am I took some Buckley's Night Cold/Flu caplets and then slept till 9:30. Then it was off to the mall as I have no clue what to pack for this week course I'm going on.

At site I wear jeans, t-shirt and hoody, when I work in Calgary it's business casual i.e. dress pants, cardigan.

I have no casual non work clothes. I walked through multiple clothing stores and came home with a red cardigan. I despise clothes shopping. I'm hoping I like it better when I'm at goal. The strange part is back in the day when I worked in a clothing store it was a totally different story. I think as I became more conscious of my size I lost interest. Of course that doesn't pertain to shoes or for some reason workout clothes. So I'm packing business casual with a little super casual.

Friday night I had dinner with M at James Joyce and I had a beautiful steak salad, by leaving on Sunday and then only being home for one day and then gone another week there is no point in getting groceries.

I honestly thought I'd see a gain at weigh in today but there was no point in avoiding it. It's better to face the demons. I didn't set my alarm last night because I knew I'd still wake up in time for the 2nd meeting but I wanted to continue with getting rest to really make sure this cold goes away.

I stayed exactly the same at weigh in, that's 3 weeks in a row. Today probably a blessing but I am packing workout clothes, especially as I don't know what the food situation will be at this training. My plan is to hit the hotel gym in the morning.

I think I'll leave the BodyMedia at home for the week and just use WW points while I'm in Kingston.

I do need to take the computer to my Dad's house the week after as I have to log into a work webinar while I'm there. The more I think about the less I want to lug it on the plane especially going through airport security. Heck I'll have a blackberry and an Iphone with me.

After weigh in I popped into Walmart for some last minute trip stuff. I had to pick up a few exercise bottoms as I didn't bring home the ones I have at camp. They had some cute workout clothes and tanks and shirts for under $20 bucks.

Now I need finish laundry, pack, colour my hair, do a self mani - pedi so it will probably be pizza for dinner for simplicity sake. Panago has a new lite veggie that I might try.

The course is intense with many long days but I might try to blog with the Iphone a few times.

I do hope all of you enjoyed your Saturday and if I don't have time to check in a great upcoming week.

Hugs!!!

Feeling blechy

2011-09-21T20:08:00.001-06:00

Yesterday afternoon I started to feel off. I had a few sneezes and just felt like a cold or something was coming on.

I was also a bit freaked by the threat of an Air Canada strike as I've been really looking forward to this course I'm going to on Sunday.

I got to bed early last night and woke up with a sore throat...crap.

So I took an advil, gargled with Listerene and avoided milk. So far so good the sore throat is no longer sore. The sneezing is getting more frequent.

I made an executive decision to have another early night. Today was to be a run day but with the prospect of flying to Ontario on Sunday has me more focused on feeling better. I've done the being sick and in a hotel room before and don't want to do it again.

Hopefully this is only a 48 hour thing. I still have a run planned for Friday.

Hope all of you are feeling well.

Hugs!!!

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I should compete on amazing race

2011-09-19T18:30:00.001-06:00

What a morning. Yesterday I set my alarm but I didn't turn it on. I woke up at 5:30am and freaked out. I was supposed to be up at 3:45. Had two missed texts from my cab driver. Of course I keep my phone on silent.

I jumped out of bed and frantically got ready while calling the cab company.

I managed to get my lunch in my bag and then hopped in to the cab. Got to the airport but they closed boarding. I did ask the cab driver to wait 5 min which was good as I just wound up going home. Called our flight people to see if I could get on another. I did call them on the way just in case.

So I came home had breakfast and also put my light timer on (didn't get to that the first time). I also would have left without my tracker, though I am tracking on the WW app and the book. Got on the 10:30 flight. I got to my desk by 1:00pm. Just over $100 in cab fare for those 3 trips.

I've been flying out on Mondays for almost 2.5 years and this was the first time I missed the plane.

I discovered later that my original flight hadn't even boarded yet when I got there this morning.

Had to tweak my food plan for the day a bit. For example I had nutella on my toast instead of PB.

Still on plan though.

I don't do well when I'm rushed. I'm such a planner so my whole day was off and I was tired. My extra sleep evaporated in the craziness of this morning. I am kind of proud that it didn't result in a chocolate feat.

Hope you had a more peaceful Monday.

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Week 3

2011-09-18T15:50:00.000-06:00

Every other time I've attempted the Couch to 5K plan I usually give up around week 2. I don't think I've ever done week 3 before. Well I did today.

I went to the gym as it was easier to time it on the treadmill as today was 90 sec run/ 90 sec walk and 3 min run/3min walk do it twice. Yes I went to the gym for 19 min of a workout well with cool down 25 min. It was good I picked a bad treadmill as all I look at was a wall that had a sign. I should have gone two over so at least I could look into the big workout room.

The 3 min parts were a little rough but I did it..twice. I'm kind of proud of myself. Now I get to do it again on Wednesday.

Not much else going on today, just in the process of laundry then it will be get work bag sorted as I once again I fly out Monday morning and my alarm will be going off at 4am.

I hope of all you had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!

I'm the boss

2011-09-17T19:01:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends,

At today's WW meeting I picked up the weekly flyer and saw that the theme was "you're the boss of you". That came at the right time for me. My tracking derailed a little starting on Wednesday. I did go back today and filled everything in and whoa it's a miracle I stayed the same today.

I was back at the first meeting of the day today which is definitely the one I prefer. More people go to that one so there's always a good dialogue. Today we just reviewed last week's meeting with the sub but it was good a reminder. Like always count alcohol to what the book or online tracker says, don't use NI as the sugars in alcohol don't necessarily show up in the NI and of course whether it's lower in calories or not it's not exactly a power food.

I really like the quote at today's meeting.

"It doesn't matter what you can do, what matters is what you will do" and we talked again about "Want Power vs Will Power".

The whole I'm the boss was a good reminder as I was dipping a little too much into the candy bowl on my desk this week. Ridiculously so on Wednesday and Thursday combined with other not thought out decisions and that's directly linked with my stressful work situation. However, I did have a choice and the power was mine.

My leader encouraged us to eat the weekly points and to make sure we do eat some of the activity points. If you earn 2 maybe not but if you earn 8 maybe you want to eat at least half.

That got me thinking, so when I came home I looked up the wendi plan again and decided to try that this week. If you're unfamiliar with the wendi plan check it out. It's no different then the regular WW plan it's just how you distribute the points.

I'm not doing it to try to break a plateau as my lack of progress is completely engineered by myself but more to have a structured way to use my Weekly Points. So today was my high point day and I'll follow it for the week and see what happens.

My tracking calories on the BodyMedia is secondary to WW. I do track both but I pay more attention to points vs the calories as there is definitely good calories vs bad calories-of course the WW don't factor in calories on the ProPoints plan.

I spent half the day in the gym today. I did 8 sets of run 90 seconds, walk 2 min or the final day of week 2 of C25K. It felt really good so I am going to move on to week 3 tomorrow...eek.

Then I went to Zumba for an hour. I really have no idea what I'm doing in this class but it's fun. Our instructor has this wicked Romanian accent and sometimes I have no idea what she's saying. Today she's telling us that at some point we'll have to swish and buh buh...okay..????

The good thing is probably 90% of the class has no idea what they're doing either so you fit right in. It was still a good workout and I find it ridiculously fun.

I also went to the 60min Iron Reps class, I went a little down in weights this week as last week I was losing form last week which is never good. It was still rough as my muscles were exhausted.

After Iron Reps I zipped through Safeway for a few groceries. I really need to get my act together with only 3 days at home a week. Any food shopping should happen on Friday.

Oh and there was also the 40min of additional walking just going to weigh in and then back home after grocery shopping.

According to BodyMedia 177 minutes of activity, 140 mins Moderate and 37 mins Vigourous.

By the time I got home at 2pm I was done. I went to Walmart in between WI and the gym and picked up Inside Fitness magazine. It has some really interesting articles and even though it seems really aimed at body builders they have good general nutrition/ workout info as well. Plus I liked that it was Canadian.

Hope you all had a great Saturday.

Hugs!!

Still here, just busy

2011-09-16T16:12:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends,

Didn't meant to disappear for a few days but time just flew.

On Tuesday I didn't do yoga according to my training schedule instead I played badminton. I haven't played in a few weeks so I met up with my Sensei (co-worker who convinced me to play and sort of coaches me). We played one game and he smoked me but I do see improvement in my skill. I got a few birdies past him.

Wednesday I was a wee bit stressed. That's actually been going on for a week as I'm dealing with an issue at work. It was supposed to be run night but when I got back to camp I was tired and feeling crampy so I went for dinner and when I got to my room I laid down on my bed and stayed there. I watched the season premiere of Survivor and the season finale of Big Brother (So happy Rachel won). Also polished off the remaining peanut butter I had in my room.

Then I regained sanity and threw out the rice cakes I have in my room to go with the peanut butter as well. I don't really need to keep snacks in my room as I eat dinner before hand. I'll keep the snack size healthy popcorn.

Thursday was fly home day and I had another co-worker with me who lives in Fort McMurray so we went for dinner at the Keg. The only thing I like at the Keg is the filet mignon. I did leave food on the plate as I didn't quite finish the filet and had a quarter of the garlic mashed potatoes.

Food wise this week has not been angelic however tracking has been stellar so I'll get this right.

Today I had to pop into the Calgary office to deal with this issue a bit and I wanted to be in earlier then later. I was there by 11 and left by 12:45. I then headed down to Eau Claire Running Room as I needed Body Glide. Due to the abundance of food I had over the last few days today I was really listening to my body. When I woke up I wasn't hungry so I didn't have breakfast. By the time I got to Eau Claire I was hungry so I stopped in at Good Earth who in the past had the most incredible Mac n' Cheese. I ordered a small version and got a microwaved heated mac n cheese that reminded me of a frozen meal.

Boo Good Earth, that was the most pathetic thing I've seen.

I then went in search of Body Glide, well first I picked up this. The picture doesn't do it justice as it's kind of a bright pink. Now I'm not really a pink kind of girl. I like the colour but I don't own a lot of it. I own another fuel belt that's black with 4 smaller bottles and in my past racing experience I always felt like I was wearing an inner tube. There was a purple one but it had neon green on the back and that didn't appeal to me at all. So pink it is.

I had been looking at this for awhile as this one is one size fit all so I figure a good idea if I'm shrinking, it's really light and the bottles are a little bigger so that's good too. I also picked pink sort of for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. I don't usually plan outfits for races other then what's suitable for the conditions but I'm going girly girl for this one.

The other advantage to this colour is it will aid in visibility when I'm out and about because I have to really start running outside and not just on treadmills so it will be useful outside of just being girly girl.

My original mission was the Body Glide so I get to that section and discover they now make a "Women's" version. I didn't see any difference from the original and the Women's expect for the pink lid and the $2 more expensive. An employee came around then and noticed me staring at the packages and confirmed my suspicions. Yup, no difference. So I grabbed two smaller packs of the original so I can have one travel version.

I then went to the Core a.k.a downtown mall and came up empty. I had wanted a paperback German/English dictionary as the only one I have is hardcover. So if I'm going to take it to camp with me I'd like something lighter. Nope I'll have to get that online probably.

At that point I hit two more stores looking for something and came up empty so I went home. Now I'm zonked.
Today is also a run day but the whole having to go into work threw me off. So my plan now is after weigh in to go to the gym earlier then normal get my run in, and then do iron reps. I'll do a longer run to make up for Wednesday. Not ideal I know and I can't get in the habit of messing with my plan.

So now you're up to date and we shall see what happens at weigh in tomorrow.

Hope you had a great week,

Hugs!!!

O.K maybe I should start with beginner

2011-09-12T18:59:00.000-06:00

According to my Bodymedia I slept for 4 hours and 26 minutes last night and boy am I feeling it. I just need to resign myself that I don't sleep well the night before I fly out.

On the training schedule today was pilates. I brought DVDs with me and these were Mari Windsor. I think it's the newest version as it came with stuff like a body bar. I've used it once so far so not so familiar with that contraption.

I hooked up the HDMI cable to my computer and the TV in my room and popped in the DVD. Well it took awhile to get that going just to get the DVD to play.

I picked the Quick Start for Weight loss to start with (catchy title huh?) Wowsers, first I had to stop it to figure out what the heck they were doing with the bar. Then I had to get up because the DVD stopped. Then I had to move stuff around my room so I didn't whack anything with my arm.

I didn't finish the DVD, I think I got about 20min done but I'm tired. Now sadly I'm watching Bachelor Pad.

Next week I'll bring a more beginner Pilates DVD and work my way up.

The pie auction was a massive success and my pies went for $60 and $65. A Costco pumpkin pie went for $125. It was hysterical people from the same team where trying to outbid each other. All in all we made about $77 per pie or just over $2500 for the United Way.

The one part I didn't factor is that while the pies were out of my house all 33 pies were all over the building literally every kitchen had 2-3 pies.

My dinner pretty much wound up being pie. The homemade blueberry one that was in my kitchen was totally worth it.

So when I went to camp I just grabbed some veggies to snack on, I did get into the peanut butter in my room after the whole pilates disaster. So not the best plan perhaps and maybe I should have just embraced eating some WP points today. It's all tracked and really not a terrible day.

I've left my yoga mat rolled up on the chair in my room as yoga is on tap for tomorrow.

Hope you all had a great Monday.

Hugs!!!

Positive Self Talk well maybe more tough love

2011-09-11T19:26:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I failed to mention that while I missed Zumba I did go to Iron Reps. Every 3 months or so they change it up. It's still one body part per song i.e back, triceps, biceps, lunges, squats but the songs will change and the exercises will change. Quite often they won't necessarily start with the whole new routine but sub it in overtime. On Saturday we did the whole new class as the Saturday instructor Robyn is a bit of an Iron Reps queen. I don't if it was because I liked the songs better but I enjoyed this one more. It was tough though.

Today was run 1 of Week 2 of C25K. I decided to go to the gym and do it on the treadmill as it was a wee bit too warm for me this morning. I started a little experiment last week and did my run portions slower. Normally on the treadmill I was doing about 5.6. I often found that I was getting tired early so lately I've dropped it to 5.2 and find that much better so I kept with that today.

At one point I thought I don't know if I can actually get to the 30min as I look at the clock every 30 seconds during the run portions. I shook it off and told myself to have faith and just focused on the lyrics of the song I was listening to. I also told myself it will take work to get to goal so I shouldn't expect it to be easy and if those people on Biggest Loser can run so can I. All in all it went well. I'm also being very conscious about stretching afterwards. I don't always do that...I know not good.

Due to my super long day or typical Monday of being up by just before 4am I have yoga on the training plan. Due to my late meeting on Tuesday I have Pilates and then Wednesday will be the next run day.

I went to the gym the moment they opened today as I had to bake pies. We're having a pie auction at work tomorrow and I was on the hook for two pies. I made Caramel Apple and Chocolate Peanut Butter. I cheated a bit with the Caramel Apple and used Pillsbury dough. It leaked a little and the crust is a little cracked but it looks homemade and I have no doubt will taste great. At first I thought there was way too much filling for the pie but put it all in there. Then I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter one. I found the same thing that some components seem to be way too much. Maybe it's because I was using aluminum pie plates and not glass or ceramic. Oh well there now in Rubbermaid containers in the fridge which I'll take with me on the plane tomorrow. I'm hoping they don't get banged up too badly in overhead.

I did have my day perfectly planned out but when I'm at home I find evenings to be tough. I got snacky and of course TOM is pending any day now so that's probably why. I tracked it all and used WP. So far this weekend I've used 22 WP and earned 15 AP.

I'm setting a little goal to not use any WP on Mon to Wed. I won't use any on Friday as it's the day before weigh in. Thursday is the day I fly home and also a super long day so I'll leave it as option.

My Sunday routine is mostly done as my clothes are laid out for tomorrow, my lunch is sorted for tomorrow, my work bag is packed and I've blown dry my hair so it's a quick straighten in the morning.

Now I wind down and hopefully sleep better then last week.

Take care of yourselves,

Hugs!!

Serendipity

2011-09-10T16:25:00.000-06:00

It's funny how plans can change.

Yesterday I went downtown to meet my friends and I got to the office and they were all gone. I had emailed earlier in the week that I'd meet them there and they said they should be able to go at 5pm. Well it was 4:45pm when I got there. A quick text message revealed they had left early and where already at the restaurant. I was momentarily annoyed and then started thinking if they've been their awhile the drinking and appies have started.

For the bulk of the day I wasn't looking forward to this get together. I love the people but these nights typically start as a drink after work and then it turns into a pub crawl. The food plan is usually "let's share appetizers" and it's a vicious circle with regret the next day. I did have a plan. I had already scooped out the menu and knew what I'd have. If I was going to have drink it would be one and then only water and I planned to leave early. The thing is I've had this plan before and it never quite pans out as you lose track of time and get lost in the moment. I just wasn't feeling it.

I'm really focusing on my commitment and that means managing my environment.

So as I sat in the lobby of the building I realized I didn't really want to go to this thing last night. So I texted an apology that I wasn't coming and went home. When I got home I had a text from another friend asking if I was up for a movie.

That appealed to me far more. I had dinner at home, we went to the late showing, I had no movie snacks at all.

We saw Crazy Stupid Love and both really enjoyed it. Of course getting home at midnight made me super tired.

This morning I had set the alarm to go to my normal meeting but I was so tired so I opted to go the second meeting. My original plan was to go weigh in, leave and get breakfast and then go to Zumba. Before I left I looked up the meeting topic and saw the theme was back to basics. I walked there I started thinking I should stay for the meeting. That would mean missing Zumba and waiting another half an hour till breakfast. I decided to stay.

Weigh in was up .8, but I'm o.k with that as earlier in the week I was higher and again it's just data today. This gaining a bit each week is ending now.

There was a sub- leader as Tony was elsewhere. She had spunk and she gave us a quiz on the ProPoints Plan , out of 12 questions I got 11 right. The only one I got wrong was about water. My answer was you should have 6 glasses a day, of course the caveat was it doesn't necessarily need to be water - 3 of the 6 should be plain water. There where 4 of us that tied for the top score so there was a tie-breaker. Which is lower in points a Tim Horton's Multigrain Raspberry Muffin or an Apple Fritter. I knew I should have gone with the donut but I was momentarily fooled by the word Multigrain. All muffin is cake. Oh well the prize was a sticker. For the record the muffin was 11 points and the apple fritter was 8 points.

It just goes to show how easy we can fool ourselves whether it's by the name of a product or not measuring things we use all the time and the amount starts to increase over time.

I need to not over complicate things. Just keep it simple like track, stay hydrated and workout. I do completely believe in the WW plan it's worked for me in the past still 31.2lbs down from my original start weight so I just need to have faith.

It's kind of funny I have these things called Angel Cards, I use them to pick an inspirational message to focus on. I haven't looked at them in awhile. The other night I pulled Trust, Faith, Transformation and Love. I don't know why I picked 4 but these words are good anchors.
Trust - myself and the process, weight loss is work and takes time. I'm not going to lose it all overnight.
Faith - I can do this, I know the tools and I can do this
Transformation - It's time to focus on new behaviors and let go of past negative influences
Love - I need to remember I do this for me, to show myself respect and love.

That's all I got for today. I hope you all had a great Saturday.

Hugs!!!

Decisions

2011-09-09T09:24:00.001-06:00

I've been thinking about my blog post yesterday and the part that said I would weigh in today as opposed to my regular meeting on Saturday morning.

The only reason that I thought about doing it today ( which started on Tuesday) was because I was going out with friends tonight.

Yesterday I also talked about going in with a plan tonight.

So now I'm thinking why would I weigh in today, maybe I should do it at my normal meeting.

A part of me just wants to get it over with so I can clear my mind.

I'll have to make a final decision within 2 hours and a bit.

When it all comes down to it the importance is that I go this week.

Today or tomorrow isn't really the issue.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Float no more...training starts now

2011-09-08T21:38:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit of a fan of Big Brother and while I've missed a few seasons I've been following the current one. I realized today I've become the worst possible thing in the game. I'm a floater.

On the weight loss front lately anyways. Oh I've been tracking my calories but not getting the deficit I need between calories burned and consumed. Sometimes it hurts to plunk in the calorie info as I did tonight. I blew off last week's weigh in because I didn't want to see a gain. The equivalent of putting my head in the sand.

Tonight after landing I went with my friend K to a near by pub for a beer, nachos and deep fried pickles. Hence the hurt while plunking in the info but it's better to face it, learn from it, get over it and move on.

Yup..these are not the actions of someone who wants to take getting healthy seriously.

When I'm good I'm good, when I go bad it's so so bad and sometimes it feels like digging myself out of a ditch to get it back together. It's been plaguing me for awhile now and enough is enough. I don't like how I feel and I'm determined to finish the half marathon strong. Come hell or high water I will be a hottie for that trip to Vegas for my birthday. Heck I want to be a hottie at the Christmas party.

The floating ends now.

I'm going out tomorrow as well but will behave better as I'll have a plan (novel concept huh?). I'm still going to weigh in tomorrow at noon and I'll embrace whatever number shows up there.

I have a souped up training plan for the half marathon in January.

Tada...

This is from tomorrow till January 29th all laid out. Technically it started today but I got 6 hours of sleep last night and 3.5 hours the night before so after I type this I'm off to bed. I plan to hit the yoga mat tomorrow morning to compensate for missing it today. I have two copies of the plan this one for home and one for my camp room at work. I love stickers so one gets plunked on this when it's completed. Simple and straightforward.

Here's September, so it's the C25K plan with a whole lot of yoga, a little Pilates and smidgen of Iron Reps and Zumba. I'm starting the C25K plan at week 2 as I can already do 2 min walking 1 min running. I have to admit as I typed up these calendars I got nervous but I can do it damn it. The yoga is not just for a stretching component but I need to center myself and yoga helps me do that.

The 8 weeks of C25K plan transitions into the 12 weeks of half marathon training seamlessly. There's a few challenges in the way. At the end of September I head to Kingston, Ontario for a week as I'm on a course but note that's in the plan above. The following week I got to Dad's for a week. Plus in December there'll be one week at Dad's as well. Life does happen.

Luckily I have a travel yoga mat and portable dvd player. I'll deal with the running at Dad's depending on weather or maybe I'll buy a treadmill and install it at his house. That would take a whole lot convincing... it's just a thought.

I also got my Chapter's order today

I liked Shrink Yourself so much I bought it in paper so I can write notes, and as I had a gift certificate I decided to research a more primal diet. Not so far from WW as the new plan does highlight protein as does these plans. I wanted a bit more guidance of what to eat. After reading Gary Taubes book "Why we get fat". The science and my own personal experience is starting to gel. I want to earn all my 10% key chain doohickeys plus I still believe in the program so WW meetings are an absolute necessity not just for the doohickeys but also for the support.

The number I see on that scale tomorrow will not derail me, depress me or stop me. It's just data.

I hope you all had a great Thursday.

Hugs!!!

Walking Dead

2011-09-07T18:17:00.001-06:00

I think I would have made a good zombie today. I slept poorly last night and was wide awake at 3:15am. My alarm is set for 3:45am. By 3:20 I came to the realization that I might as well get up.

Had a breakfast of a WW bagel with peanut butter. In retrospect I should have nuked an egg and some turkey bacon and made a more substantial breakfast.

I brought leftover Knorr cream of veggie soup with added cauliflower for lunch. You know how I was saying I should focus more on protein. Epic fail on that as I was a snacking fool all afternoon. That was probably also influenced by oncoming TOM and tired.

By 4pm I was super knackered. Gym went out the window in favor of dinner then getting in my pjs.

On a more positive note I took a more detailed look into my training plan and have decided to go with the Hal Higgdon half marathon training. It's similar to what I've done with Running Room before. It's a 12 week plan. That leaves me with 9 weeks. After being so inspired by Enz. I'm going to revisit C25K. I have all the plans printed off now I incorporate into a grand scheme.

Let's face it all my grand plans so far have been iffy. I need to get serious and consult wiser sources then me.

I'm so tired I don't want to turn on my computer to sync my bodymedia. Heck I'm posting this with my phone.

High likelihood I'll be going to drinks on Friday with a few friends which now has me planning to weigh in on Friday at the noon meeting. I can't avoid the scale anymore either the music must be faced.

Besides it only gets better from here. Bring it!

Hope you all had a great Wednesday.

Hugs!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Not exaclty according to plan

2011-09-06T16:57:00.000-06:00

I woke up at 1am this morning and had a hard time getting back to sleep. So I grab my iPhone and start to update my twitter follows and if they have blogs add them to my blog roll. Yeah, not sure that was a great idea. I did however I eventually did fall back asleep and woke up at 10am. Noooooo this now messes up my day.

The reason I felt this wasn't a great idea was I need to be in bed early tonight due to flying out tomorrow. Late sleeping will probably not help that. That also negated my going to Zumba as I had a mega to do list and want to have wind down time so I can be in bed early. Not to mention it's completely thrown off my food plan for the day as I was having breakfast at 10:30am. It probably didn't help that I had a nap yesterday. I didn't plan on it, I laid down with a book and shazaam woke up an hour later. There will be absolutely no napping today.

Alas, I've weeded the flower beds, watered the flower beds and am now on load 3 of laundry. So that involved some manual labour and stairs multiple times with a few more rounds to go.

The other night I attempted to kill the wasps who created a nest in the ground just outside my gate. I went out when it getting dark as it's best to do this either early morning or evening and realized today that I aimed the Raid nowhere near the nest. Duh. Now I know exactly where those buggers are so on Friday I'll get more Raid and launch another strike.

I got a message from my cousin in Germany on Facebook suggesting I go to San Francisco next year to cheer them on in dragon boat racing. I'd so love to do that. 2012 Vacation is now looking like a bunch of mini vacations and many trips to the US. Well many for me.

Disneyland in January, Vegas in June or July and San Francisco in September, now I also intend to go to Fitbloggin next year as I heard/read so many good things about this year so make that 4 trips to the US. I normally go maybe once every 2-3 years. The good thing is with have 3 days off a week that actually doesn't take up a lot of vacation time as by the end of this year I'll have zero vacation carry over and back to the basics next year. I look at that list and is that not inspiration to get to goal - fabulous shopping in all these places too.

I haven't seen my cousins in years so this also gives me a year to brush up my German. It's wicked rusty as I never really use it. My Dad and I have always spoken English as when I was little my parents didn't want me to have an "accent" so English was the language of the house. They used German to talk about me. I did take it in high school and never realized I had such a huge advantage by knowing a lot through osmosis. I did go on to have a Bachelor's degree in German and Russian. Of course I use neither in my current career but that degree did get me the CHRP designation so it was good for something. My cousins are on a dragon boat team so I would suspect I'd be hanging out with them and their team. I already have a textbook ready to pack to take with me tomorrow. Even 30min a day of review would not be impossible.

Tomorrow is a run day so I'll be hitting the treadmill at camp and maybe a little Badminton. We'll see about the badminton as fly out day is always a tiring day.

I hope you all had a great Tuesday and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!

Back to normal

2011-09-05T19:58:00.000-06:00

Now I'm wondering if I was feeling an allergy thing. I'm not super allergic to anything except a wee sensitive to cats and I did see my friends cat (and he was shedding) the other day but I was feeling off before that or maybe it was just a seasonal thing. I think the mega amount of sleep I've been getting as fixed everything as today I felt totally fine. I've also been really good about taking my vitamins.

It took awhile to get out the door today, I wanted to add a new playlist on my iPod specifically for running on the treadmill so it's not the same old songs I've been listening to. My pace is totally influenced by the tunes especially if I'm slowing down they pep me up. Then I had to update my iTunes. Well I didn't have to but I hit the button so at that point I was committed.

I went to the gym and I'm loving running in my Lululemon scoop tank. I find it gives enough support and I don't overheat. I'm would like to pick up more but I keep talking myself out of it as I want to get smaller and they're not exactly cheap. The only pro is I'd have some to take to site but then the gym I go to in Calgary is all women. Would I feel as comfortable wearing it in front of a whack of guys? There's girls at site that do and it's a respectful environment it would just be my own insecurities. Hmm..I'll hold off for a bit longer.

Instead of bringing straight up water today I decided to start mixing in some Gatorade. I'm trying to also figure out appropriate fuel for the half marathon (yes 4 and bit months from now but I'm a planner). I've used Gatorade in the past so I figure it's a good place to start. When I was at MEC on Friday I picked up a 500ml Nalgene bottle. I love my aluminum bottles but I'm iffy about mixing stuff in them and like to keep it straight H2O. The 500ml is pretty easy to cart around and has a small opening so easier to drink out of at the gym. I have the Gatorade powder in fruit punch and mixed one scoop per instructions with 500ml of water. Well I had a few intervals to go and I took a swig and launched into a coughing fit due to the strength of the taste. Well that kind of killed my intervals as I hit pause on the treadmill and composed myself.

I added more water to my bottle on my way out and it was way better - lesson learned. I realized Walmart could wait for the weekend but I did needed a few things to take to work so I popped into Safeway again.

When I got home I synced the bodymedia to my phone and realized I had hit all my activity targets for the day with the walk to and from the gym plus the treadmill.

I also noticed today that if I don't have protein in my meals I get snacky. I had zucchini fries for dinner inspired by the recipe in the new Kraft What's Cooking magazine. I still used the extra crunch Shake'n Bake but used egg white as opposed to a whole egg baked for 20min at 400 and voila!. They were really good and super easy. About half an hour later I was into the Liberte coconut yogurt (the lighter version which), 2 Reese's Peanut Butter cups and a bit of cheese. Calorie wise still within my goal but completely random.

I still have tomorrow off so I'm going to pay attention to that and see if it makes a difference.

The scale is heading steadily down which is good and I really want to be lower then my last WW weigh in on Saturday so eye must be on the prize.

Not sure what I'll do activity wise tomorrow. I made no dent in the housework so far so that's a must tomorrow there's also a Zumba class at the gym at noon. I haven't been to Zumba in a few weeks. That would make housework the morning's priority and laundry is at the top of the list. Of course I could just do what absolutely needs to be done and leave the rest for when I come home at the end of the week.. I am really good at procrastination.

I do need to focus on ramping down in the late afternoon early evening tomorrow as it will be an early flight on Wednesday. My Dad thinks I'm nuts for taking Monday and Tuesday off so that I fly up Wednesday and back on Thursday. I did remind him that for about a year and half ago I did that every week as I worked 2 days at site and 3 days in Calgary. Speaking of my Dad apparently he's sick of 3 channels and getting Telus optik installed at the beginning of October. I'll be going to visit him on Sat Oct 1 so two days before I need to come home it will be installed. Just enough time to teach him how to navigate it. It's been a long time since he had satellite TV.

I hope you all had a great Monday.

Hugs!!

Maybe a 24hr sort of thing

2011-09-04T18:13:00.001-06:00

Felt better today wonder if it was all the rest and taking that Emergen-C stuff before bed.

Did take it easy today just to be sure.

Went to Safeway and got some groceries.

Tomorrow the gym is open so I plan to be there close to when they open at 9am. Then I need to zip into Walmart for a couple things.

I've opted not to cook up a storm this weekend and instead use my next two days off to focus on housework and some yard work. I'm not feeling cooking inspired so that's why I changed my plans.

Tuesday activities are TBD at this point.

Still tracking strong.

I do have a hard time hitting my bodymedia activity goals. I don't hit them often enough so I need to sort out what I need to do to get those.

Hope you had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Definitely fighting something

2011-09-03T18:46:00.000-06:00

Slept pretty well last night backed up my bodymedia as I had far less "lying down" spots where I toss and turn. I think I needed it too.

Slept in and woke up around 9:30, weighed myself on my scale and saw the effects of last nights dinner reflected in the number. Not phased about it, it's just food. Wasn't feeling 100% as I definitely feel like I'm coming down with something as this has been going on for days. . It's mini symptoms right now like sneezing, coughing. I decided not to go to my meeting today opting to stay in pjs.

I had a glass of milk so I could take my vitamins. I don't like taking them with water as I can then taste it. I stayed up for a bit and went back to bed around 11am. I woke up again at 2pm.

I stayed in my PJs till 4pm then decided I should go for a walk. I just did 30min around the neighbourhood.

I think the rest helped as I felt better. Still tracked all my points/ calories today.

I'm happy that I do have another 3 days off so I can hopefully head off whatever I'm feeling.

I do intend to grocery shop tomorrow and depending on how I feel go to the gym.

Right now just listening to my body but also putting mind over matter.

Hope you enjoyed your Saturday.

Hugs!!!

Good friends

2011-09-02T22:44:00.001-06:00

Positivity still reigns even though it was an off plan day.

Had a glass of milk for breakfast as I slept in. Then it was off to meet my friend P at Bumpy's.

I must of walked past this place a bizillion times without realizing it was there. Had the best latte I've ever had. Plus an apple streudal muffin. Afterwards we walked over to Jelly Modern Donut as I've never been.

The good part is I walked a lot today. The bad part I didn't get a run in. When I got home there was a thunderstorm. I was so tired I had a nap.

Later it was dinner at Loungeburger with M...yeah just got home.

Now feeling iffy about weigh in tomorrow. There will definitely be a gain just due to dinner. Yes, yes that shouldn't stop me. I think I'll leave it to alarm clock roulette. I've been zonked all week which makes me think I'm fighting something. I've been around a few sick people lately.

I'll still track my data and tomorrow will definitely be a run day.

From now on I'm in training mode.

Hope you had a great Friday.

Hugs!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Something about a new month

2011-09-01T23:32:00.000-06:00

The first day of fall isn't until September 23rd but I definitely feel fall in the air.

Fall is probably my absolutely favourite season. It's the fall clothes, the fall weather, the fall colours on the trees and my favourite holiday Halloween. I love fall. Lately with the sun setting earlier and rising later plus a wee chill in the air in the morning it definitely feels like fall.

There is also something about a new month that brings a sense of optimism and fresh start.

I'm gung ho to get back on track and realize that my little rut can be overcome. Heck I've done it before and I can do it again. Life happens, what matters is that you dust yourself off and keep going.

The Bodymedia has me thinking a little differently as well. One I'm pretty active in my normal life. I'm also finding the counting calories interesting. For example one Hershey's Kiss doesn't really register as a point in WW. There are roughly 23 calories in a Hershey's kiss. So when your goal is specific number of calories 23 makes a difference. Have I mentioned that I can be a bit of a perfectionist?

I still like the points as it makes it simple to track your day but this is an interesting exercise.

My half hour early flight wound up getting us home right in time for traffic so time was actually won. Wound up going to a pub for dinner with K and her friend T. It was a nice night with a trip to Chapters and Starbucks.

After that I used my recent collection of gift cards on a new Lululemon hoody and a few books from Chapters. I didn't have gift card when I was in the store earlier. Rebooted my KOBO as it was having a few issues but that was super easy and fast.

Tomorrow I meet my friend P for lunch and it will put me very close to MEC and I think I need a new fleece jacket this fall. I also need to run tomorrow so that will happen.

I am determined to let a positive mind set rule.

Hope you had a good day,

Hugs!!!

Remember what I was saying about possessed

2011-08-31T18:51:00.000-06:00

O.K I can not get my act together.

Mind you yesterday was a really long day. I kind of felt like I spent the whole day waiting to exhale. However today was no better.

I more or less ate what I wanted today and waited till the end of the day to track it- not smart.

I feel a tension headache coming so I vetoed the gym in favour of warding that off. I think it's going to be an early night and I really think rest is what I need.

It's definitely my rebellious self that's been ruling my decisions over the past few days. To be frank I'm annoyed with myself. I know better dang it.

I was going through my blog roll yesterday and Cara at Cara's Weightloss Journal mentioned a book by Gary Taubes called "Why we get fat". I was intrigued so I fired up the Kobo and downloaded it. I just started to read it but I also checked out the link she gave for "How Stuff Works" on the Discovery Channel website that showed how a fat cell works. This is fascinating stuff I must say.

Tomorrow I fly home half an hour early due to a flight change and then I have 5 days in a row off. I had already planned to use this time to do some cooking and freezing so that I have meals ready especially to bring for lunch on Mondays and then stuff for my 3 days at home. The other good news is the gym is open all week including Monday which was a surprise as it is Labour Day.

I can get this train back on track. I will get this train back on track.

I do hope you all are having a good week.

Hugs!!!!

Possessed but good recovery

2011-08-29T19:50:00.001-06:00

I was doing rather well yesterday points wise until yesterday evening. I had one heck of a snackapalooza. My dinner was a grilled cheese sandwich and I guess not quite satisfying enough as I then plowed through about 10 tortilla chips, a individual bag of popcorn and 5 - yes 5 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I don't know what came over me. At the end of it all I ate 2001 calories and burned 2036. In other words 46 points. Now I did have weekly points to cover that but we'll see how that goes. No point in focusing on the past best to move forward.

Today I was determined to be more diligent. I was.

I went back to step one of running returning to 1 min run and 2 min walk. It went really well. I wound up in the coed gym. I don't mind it it's just super warm in there. Before heading to the gym I put in a load of laundry. After the gym I came back to my wing to put in the dryer and then I went for dinner. So loads of walking as well. I realized that might be going wrong in trying to reduce the walk part. Maybe I should slowly increase the run part for now.

I tried to sync my bodymedia with my room computer but something didn't work so I'll try again tomorrow.

I got a little chafing from the strap for the first time today but I think that was due to wearing it a little tight at one point.

I hope you all had a great day.

Hugs!!!

3 days off goes fast

2011-08-28T15:10:00.000-06:00

As I work a compressed work week (40hrs in 4 days) I always get 3 day weekends. Now that I've been doing that for awhile I find they fly by just as fast as the two day weekends. I really can't account for much though which also happened on the 2 day weekends.

Been watching storm coverage on hurricane Irene. I hope all of you effected are safe. I do consider myself to be insanely blessed to not live an area that's not impacted by too many natural disasters. Even 72cm of snow overnight didn't bring us down. Knock on wood though.

On Saturday I went to weigh in. I weighed in at the 2nd meeting of the day as I've had so much sleep issues this week a few extra hours were much needed. I didn't stay for the meeting I just did a drive by. I was 172 which is a .4 gain from my last WW weigh in. When it's a 2lb loss from when I returned from my Dad's house so I'm happy with that. I then popped into Walmart and picked up a few things mostly for site like face wipes, sports bras and unsweetened applesauce.

Today I was debating on to run or not. I despise running outside in hot weather. Household chores were nagging me and the gym didn't open till 10am so instead tomorrow will be run day. I'm trying to sort out my training schedule as this week will be more back to normal with the exception of a meeting on Tuesdays that will go later. I want to create a consistent plan. I do want to avoid running two days in a row at least for now. I figure if I run on Mon and Wed on the treadmill at site and then do a longer run on Friday that will work. Then the days in between become cross training and Tuesday can be a yoga day. If I got to Iron Reps on Saturday it's a 1hr workout as opposed to 45min on Friday. That means Sundays must now be either a workout dvd or not the treadmill at the gym. My gym has no classes on Sundays.

I do own the WW app and love it, I use that primarily as my Points calculator. For most of last week I tracked in the book and not on the app. I do like to track on the app as well as it lets me double check what I've written down but. As I've said before I'm a data geek. I also like the paper and pen thing so I did pick up a new 3-mth tracker on Saturday. I'm wearing the Bodymedia consistently.

Last night I ordered an extra arm band and USB cable so when I wash it I have one to wear while it dries and I can keep a USB cable in my camp room so I can load info and charge. I've tracked diligently on Bodymedia for since I got it.

Today has been laundry, watering the lawn and general housework. I've already laid out my clothes for tomorrow and have my work stuff sorted.

I need to wage war on some wasps that have moved into my yard so I'm hoping to do that around 8pm ish as it's best early morning or evening. I have avoided naps yesterday and today to ensure good sleep. Tomorrow as always I have an early wake up.

Tomorrow I need to do laundry at camp but I have a play to do the washing while that's going on go to the gym, come back but in dryer then go for dinner and by the time that's all done it's folding and to bed.

Not a thrilling weekend but sometimes that's o.k too.

Hope you enjoyed yours,

Hugs!!

Long Week but my geek is on

2011-08-26T19:38:00.000-06:00

This was a busy week hence no blogging. I did give a quick report on Tuesday.
Our Minute to Win It United Way event was hysterical and the stories continued all day Wednesday.

I flew home on Wednesday and worked in Calgary all day Thursday. I'm so not used to a corporate environment anymore. I'm quite used to rolling out of bed, putting on minimal make-up, getting dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and put together then heading to the camp kitchen for breakfast.

Thursday was thinking what to have for breakfast, putting together a more appropriate outfit and of course doing a more full make-up look.

Had a great evening at my boss's boss house and playing with her two Westies. They are so adorable.

Today was off to Aveda for a trim. My mission is to grow out my hair a little longer. It's getting there. This is a post gym picture so not as perfect as when I left Aveda. I think two more inches will be just right.

I then headed off to Running Room to get a new pair of Mizuno Wave Alchemy's as my outside pair needs replacing. I'm now on to version 11, can't believe I've worn these shoes since version 5.

I'm really enjoying the Bodymedia and have been wearing it for 5.5 days now. Here's today so far. I haven't hit all of my activity targets this week as my schedule has been crazy with super long days. Next week will be back to my normal schedule.

I'm really happy I got the Bluetooth version as I love syncing it through the day to see where I'm at.

The Japanese food from Thursday night didn't do me any favours on the weight loss front. Which is slightly annoying as I was doing so well this week.

Today I went to Iron Reps and had planned to do Zumba but I felt off during Iron Reps like a little light headed so I opted to head home afterwards.

The only thing that won't sync to the phone is sleep, that only works when I actually plug the device into my computer. My sleep quality has been 86% since Monday and averaging 7 hours per night of actual sleep.

I have been tired this week and after running around downtown this morning which included a stop at Clinique to get more Repairwear laser focus serum (fighting ageing every step of the way). I tried using L'Oreal's Youth Code but don't like the serum as much as this one. I do like the day/night cream though. I did have a nice 90min nap when I got home and then had to talk myself into getting up and going to the gym. I think I could have stayed in bed.

I did decide to continue using my 3 month WW tracker as it's way easier to carry around and actually does have enough room to track my snack senses. I had to pack up in a hurry on Wednesday to make the plane and forgot it at work. I think I'll pick up a new one tomorrow as for the past few days I've just tracked on Bodymedia. I'm curious to see how the calories line up with points.

I hope you all had a great week.

Hugs!!!

Long day but too funny

2011-08-23T20:29:00.001-06:00

So tonight we had our Minute to Win It event for United Way.

I was running on 2 hours of sleep (could not fall asleep last night) and up at 3:45am.

I just got back to my room and I'm exhausted.

People had so much fun doing the games and I had so much fun watching them and cheering them on.

On the weight loss front have tracked and stayed on an for 3 days in a row.

Hope your Tuesday was spectacular.

Hugs!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

An internal workout

2011-08-22T14:08:00.001-06:00

My week at my Dad's house was great. I did go in with lofty exercise plans but my strategy changed.

I've been reading "Shrink Yourself" by Roger Gould M.D. Now I started this book before I left on vacation but my usual reading time is right before bed so I rarely get very far before I'm out like a light.

As I waited for the bus to Olds at the Greyhound Station last Saturday I got really into it. I do have to say this is the best book on emotional eating I've read to date.

The book gives a great overview of emotional eating and how it's phantom hunger not physical hunger and what I really appreciated it's got nothing to do with motivation or will power. It's deep in the psyche. I really like the part where he goes into "your inner critic" otherwise known as self doubt. It's the naysayer in your head who whispers things like you won't succeed. this your self doubt talking.

It goes into a lot of detail that I can't really sum it all up for you. I read it twice while at my Dad's and I'm going to read it a 3rd time. Every-time I go through it I can see more into myself.

Later on the book is broken into session as he's a psychiatrist after all. "Conquering the feeling of phobia" is a session that I particularly liked as this part is really getting into defining your triggers.

All in all it's not just about what makes you eat the tub of ice cream but going deeper into how you learned this behaviour and really seeing your triggers.

I've blogged about going deep before after reading Jillian Michael's Unlimited but what I tend to do is get inspired by a book or a lecture and then immediately I go into I must do this now and of course it eventually fizzles.

So I instead I spent the entire week focused on delving into my psyche and why I self sabotage and seem to have this mega mental block at 170 pounds.

One part of the book was a definite aha moment when he talks about goals to lose weight. I've often thought, said, written that getting to goal will help my self esteem and my sense of self worth. That's total and utter bull %$# after I read this part. Weight alone is not 100% responsible for self esteem and it's totally unrealistic for me to think so. He gives a list of whack of "goals" people have and when it gets right down to it. The only realistic goal is to lose weight to be healthier.

The other part that hit home is when he talks about what keeps you fat. That's another part of the psyche that can be due to fear...remember my hang up with 170lbs.

When I got home I went through pictures to see the physical evidence of when I really started gaining and I can pin point it to when my parents separated when I was 13. I don't remember being all that upset that they separated as for peace in the family I thought it was a great idea. What did happen though is my Mom became my primary caregiver and I finally realized she was an emotional eater. Before then I wasn't a fat kid, I was not lean and skinny but not obese either. I can definitely see that both parents where iffy on nutrition. I do totally believe my Mom was doing what she thought best but a soup bowl of whip cream is not an appropriate snack.

My Mom had abandonment issues. She really grew up during WW2 so that has a whole whack of issues from huge amounts of stress, malnutrition and she lost her brother who was her closest sibling. This now explains to me why when I would home sick from school she would take me shopping. Not to buy stuff for me but for company. The ice cream and the pastries where something she did with me.

I don't remember caring about sizes or weight through Junior High, I do remember buying a pair of size 18 white jeans for a Bermuda day. My Dad was with me and I remember him saying something about my weight. I being a typical teenager didn't respond that well to that. He has certainly been critical in the past but again I know he was doing the best he knew how. Lessons he tried to teach me where "Don't trust anyone" and "Don't get your expectations high". I'm sure you can see how that was a bit of a hurdle. Back when I was 13--16 I definitely felt like I wasn't good enough and that I was a disappointment.

Flash forward a few years to just before starting high school. That summer I got up every day and did Charlene Prickett's workout on TV and then went bike riding with my friend. When I returned to school I got all these compliments.

When my Dad was diagnosed with colon cancer was the next event. I think I gained 20lbs during that period from eating hospital cafeteria food and staying by his bedside. My Dad is my rock.

Living with just my Mom from the age of 13 I turned into the parent. I had resentment of being the parent and making sure the laundry was done and doing all the cleaning but then I had guilt about the resentment as well. I loved my Mother but I definitely don't think motherhood came naturally to her. Go forward a few years and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's that added a whole new level of stress. I think that was the only time in my life I wished I had siblings but that wouldn't guarantee I had to carry the burden myself.

I also went through all my yearbooks. If you ever need a pick me up I suggest you do this. I read all these great comments about me.

I also took notes while I read "Shrink Yourself" and I'll share them with you:

Analyze my motives for losing weight
Harriet - the naysayer in my head that highlights my self doubt
Fear of failure, avoiding challenges, abandoning dreams.
Wanting to stay under the radar, while also wanting to rise above it
Food distracts from anxiety for a moment, isolate stressors
Because I'm fat, I hide.
My feeling triggers: depressed, jealous, bored, lonely, guilty
My self doubts: powerless, inferior
My rewards for a food binge: secure, delay in dealing with self doubt, intensity of feelings
Exercises as an alternative to food: relaxation, have fun, be more active, keep perspective

The good news is I'm not 13 anymore and over the years I've learned that I'm strong, smart and funny. I'm quite happy that I'm 30lbs down from my original start weight with Weight Watchers. Walking in those doors for the first time was the best thing I could have done.

When I got back this weekend I started tracking in a notebook as I needed more room then the WW trackers. I'm adding a component to track when I do have the little naysayer in my head encouraging a snack but also to track when I'm physically hungry for a snack. It's a pause to determine my motivations.

When I got back the Body Media was here. I got it charged up yesterday and started wearing it by 2pm. I did get the Bluetooth version so it can sync with my iPhone. It's worn on your left arm and so far there's been times I forgot it was there or thought it was bra strap that had slid down.

The data was cool especially the sleep tracking. The food tracking part is the same as any other where you have to enter it. The database isn't bad and it's easy to add new items. I still tracking points as well because I want to compare. I set the daily calories at 1400 and then I need to burn 2400 to get 2lbs off a week. You can customize your goals. The burning of calories is not just workouts. You wear this thing all the time so these are total calories burned throughout the whole day and that includes sleeping. There is a goal for vigorous and moderate activity. I discovered my brisk walk was 6 min of moderate and 53 min of vigorous.

I did originally plan to go to Iron Reps today but I had headache that started yesterday so instead I opted for a mega walk around the neighbourhood.
59 minutes, 4.27 miles, Pace 13:50-12:57, 7508 steps. I was happy to see that my Garmin works with just the food pod as I'm now wearing the Body Media for calories burned. I also switched to miles as I'm going to train for this half marathon in miles rather then KM. It's a mental thing. I am a little relieved that my walk pace is fast enough for the half marathon minimum pace.

I leave you with cat pictures of my brothers and sisters at Dad's house.

On the left Mama Meow the matriarch, in the middle Dusty (otherwise known as Motion Sensor as if you're even near the sliding door he appears with a pitiful meow that inevitably earns him treats) and on the right the whole gang from the left Dusty, Max, Mamma Meow, Spook and Fred. Fred still remembers me and purrs when he sees me. He even rolled over and showed me his belly. Just a reminder these are wild cats that my Father decided to start feeding when there were just two kittens (Fred and Spook). I have told him they're now his cats as they come to the door like clock work at feeding times. Sometimes all of them sometimes not. They do a good job at mouse catching on the 8 acre property. I call them my babies and I'm sure they call me "the easy one, just look cute and she'll give us treats".

Tomorrow I'm back to work and this week looks like it's going to be a little crazy. I have a 16 hour day tomorrow, fly home on a later flight on Wednesday and work all day with dinner and boss's boss house on Thursday. I might have to resort for walking around the building every so often as that's pretty much the only way I'll get in any activity for the next 3 days.

Alright my friends, I strongly recommend the book if you have trouble with emotional eating.

I hope you all had a great week.

Hugs!!

Back to the city

2011-08-20T16:17:00.001-06:00

Back home after a week in the country and I read Shrink Yourself twice.

I spent the week going through the book and really doing some soul searching on my self derailment on this weight loss thing.

The post is still being built in my head so I'll be back tomorrow.

Hope you all had a great week.

Hugs!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone