Stress and all it's various forms

"I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now"

Edna Mode - The Incredibles

My life has felt very topsy turvy lately. I wish I had the nonchalance of Edna. Let me break it down.

Work:

Two us covering for two others who are on vacation, a wee bit crazy.

Yesterdays staff meeting resulted in being told that we're not making as much as we're supposed to and that there will be a re-organization that has been approved but things still need to be figured out before anything happens and oh yeah - no lay offs ...yet. Wow what a downer, the whole room went quiet.

What absolutely kills me is why discuss plans that aren't ready to be rolled out. All that creates is people updating their resumes.

School:

I'm getting a bit freaked out about this weekends test and making an intelligent sounding moderator questions. I'll get it done, that is not the worry.

I have a theory about stress. I consider our lives to be in spheres i.e work sphere, home sphere, school sphere. When stress is one sphere - no worries it can be handled. When stress is in two spheres - now it's getting a bit crazy. When stress is in three tiers - hide under a blanket.

Home:

I have had a hard week food wise. Unhealthy choices are easy to make even though I know better. It's like I'm in a funk. The funk needs to be shaken out.

The Wii came today so perhaps that will introduce some fun and distraction into my life for now.

The important thing to remember is this is just a blip, a blib that takes all your attention now but it will go away in time. Just roll with it.

Hugs!

Half way through

First of all I totally messed up the name of the actor in The Tudors. It's the same guy in the Hugo Boss ads when they're in the boxing ring.

Anyway I finally watched the first episode in it's entirety and I'm offically into it.

I need to shake up my food. I'm always talking about food plans but I find them really challenging. Anything that's printed or posted is not geared at an individual. I think I need to take the "Fixing Dinner" concept and apply to me. Where you figure out your weekly meal plan including leftovers from that week or pre-prepping on the weekend. I often find myself eating the same thing over and over.

I have a crazy weekend ahead school wise but I'm going to take time all this week so the weekend isn't a crazy chapter fest. Somewhere in there I will finally try to get a meal plan that works.

Really looking forward to yoga starting on Tuesday. Yet another thing I have to factor into my increasingly crazy life. Well one class ends at the beginning of June and then the other one ends at the end of June. By July I'll be twiddiling my thumbs :)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Later

Embracing The Tudors

When I saw the promos for The Tudors on the good old CBC I was intrigued but I never managed to catch this show. I do think Jonathon Rhys Davies is totally delicious. I downloaded the first season and plunked it on my ipod. I started watching it at the bus stop this morning and I was hooked from the opening montage.

The other day I picked up the book "The Other Boleyn" and I can't put it down. I'm intrigued and I've already attached all the other books on this topic by Phillipa Gregory on my amazon wish list. I didn't hear fantastic things about the movie but I'll wait until it's rentable.

Lately it seems that I'm in to historical dramas. I loved ROME, rented all the episodes last summer. I'll probably wind up doing the same for The Tudors to see it on a bigger screen.

Tonight I need to get myself sorted food wise. This weekend ran away from me. I was busy Saturday and Sunday and never got around to making work lunch so I bought today.

I'm going to make some sort of chicken/pork burger and roasted veggies. All inspired by an episode of Rachael Ray that I caught on my day off Friday. Well she had the roasted veggie part. I came up with the chicken/pork combo on my own. I failed to get this done on the weekend because I cleaned my oven - which took longer than I thought. I also broke the light in the oven while cleaning which sparked the discovery of what kind of light bulb do I need for an oven.

I figured that out and I'll road test the oven tonight.

I need to have my food sorted as so far this afternoon I've been obsessed with chocolate. Yes it's that time of the month for "Snackapalooza". My plan is to have flavourful low point things that keep me satisfied and not in search of snacks. Protein will play an important role here. Activity must also be a priority this week and instead of calling it exercise I'm calling it stress relief.

On Friday I was stressed. I found out that we were too late to submit our registration forms for the Mother's Day walk and run under the corporate challenge. Our leader (in another department) failed to tell us when the date was and didn't bother telling us that he had to beg to get his groups in. I was not happy as I felt I had let down my group. So I walked and forgot to put my heart rate monitor on ( I think I was truckin'). By the time I was done I felt better.

I really feel that exercise can shake you out of any mood that's bringing you down. Which really makes me wonder why I have such a hard time making it consistent.

Alas that is all I have for today. I hope your weekend was restfull and your week goes quickly :)

Bah!

I don't know what to think of yesterday, it was such a day of highs and lows that I'm not sure who won.

First of all got home to find my phone and internet connection completely dead. Pulled out the cell and phoned Telus. Apparently a line has been cut somewhere in my area. Great! When will that be fixed - they don't know. As of this morning still no land line. Of course I wanted to do online banking last night and instead had to do it at work today.

I also got a letter from my doctor. She's closing her practice. Crap! It's almost impossible to find a family doctor in Calgary. I arranged to get my file so I can transfer it to a new doctor (if and when I find one) and I get to pay $25 for it because I've been with this doctor for 8 years plus - my file is bigger. I get the feeling I'll be booking yearly physicals at walk in clinics and trudging my file around. I called one of my co-workers doctors but they're not accepting new patients (big surprise..not), they referred me to another clinic. I called there but they're not taking new patients either however there's a waiting list for a new doctor starting in June. Considering I don't need a physical until August that may work out.

I finally found a Wii at BestBuy online. So that was awesome, except they wanted to verify by phone (my home phone) so this morning I got to explain why it was impossible for me to verify from home phone as it's dead. Happily it's now on it's way.

Dad arrives today so he can see his eye doctor for the 6 month check up tomorrow. So yay! to a home cooked meal when I get home today.

I was supposed to moderate a question on the discussion board for my business management class next week. I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing. I haven't finished the chapters for this week let alone think of anything to ask about for next week. Some guy in my class needs to switch his week, he's the week after me so I offered to trade. I'd just like to see an example of what they're expecting before I toss myself in.

This weekend will be all about textbooks. I think I'm going to take myself to a coffee shop and read there. I find at home there are tons of distractions. A moccachino and out of the house may be a good thing.

My 2nd year anniversary of this blog was March 9th and I completely missed it. I wanted to thank all of you who have stopped by and read and/or posted. Blogging is such a weird world of establishing friendships with people you will probably never meet in person. I'm happy to know you through your words and commentary.

Until later...have a good one

In the throws of self sabotage

Why is it that one can be completely focused and then whammo it all falls apart. I was super tracking girl and for the past few days I track after the fact. I'm not planning, I'm not thinking it through. I'm just sort of waffling.

The first step is realizing where you've gone wrong so that's a good thing. I noticed the same thing happening with my co-workers in the fitness challenge. Everyone was coasting, so I changed things up again now it's back to individuals - no more groups. I think everyone has to be individually responsible for their actions so tada it begins.

I was watching the news this morning and saw a Jenny Craig commercial with Valerie Bertinelli, this was a new commercial. So I wondered what happened to Queen Latifah, wasn't she the new Jenny girl. I had thought the other day that shouldn't be seeing a new "progress" commercial with Queen L? I wonder if she's dropped out.

I signed up for a yoga class in my community hall starting May 13, $60 for 6 weeks - quite the deal me thinks.

Random thoughts done for the day...take a minute today to appreciate yourself.
Hugs!

OMG it looks so nice outside

Apparently it is 21 degrees right now, as I sit at my desk and look out the window...it's just not right I tell you.

I can't believe I haven't been here since Wednesday. All that I've been up to is work and school.

Had an awesome weekend went to Costco and Superstore with H and Mom. Bought giant containers of veggies that must be eaten at Costco. Navigated an unfamiliar Superstore that seemed twice as big as the one in my hood. Then went to the Hyatt for nachos and burgers...oh were they good.

Tonight is dinner at a restaurant called Aida's that is supposed to have awesome falafels. I love falafels.

My papa is coming in on Thursday for his eye exam so cleaning the house is on the agenda plus now my two courses are going full force so reading excessively boring textbooks are also on the agenda. Fun I tell you.

Hope all is well with you and hopefully I'll have more entertaining things to post

Finding ones way

I got my results for my first compensation test...I did crappy and I mean crappy. Thankfully it's worth 20% of the total mark. So two more tests worth 25% and one group project to go. I found other people on the discussion board who had issues. The one really good thing is I didn't console myself with a chocolate bar. Of course from now on I must be perfect.

While I'm sad the Flames lost last night, I'm proud of their efforts. No one died or lived based on the results and now I look forward to their next season. So now thanks to my complicated who to root for formula (highest number of Canadians on the team). I now find myself rooting for the Sharks (13 Canadians versus 11 on the Stars), the Penguins (11 vs. 9 on the Rangers), the Avalanche (14 vs 9 on the Red Wings) and I'm going with the Flyers (tied with the Canadiens). Yes I know, why aren't I rooting for the only Canadian team remaining. To be honest after the media coverage of the fans reaction to round 1, I fear what might happen after round 2. I realize that the majority of Montreal fans are respectful citizens who don't support that type of behaviour by any means. We're a long way from the final series so things may change.

Interesting discussion in the office today about finding what works for you in terms of weight loss. I've got one colleague doing a cleanse right now. Another of my colleague needs motivation. She needs a workout buddy to get her out the door and finds herself making the same food over and over. Our manager is doing Jenny Craig and we've seen some of the food she's brought in. Now this works perfectly for the manager. She hates to cook and likes easy. The total key to being successful is finding what works for you, that could be a whole lot of trial and error but never give up.

I'm heading to Safeway on the way home to get something for lunch for the next two days. My buying lunch for the past 3 has to stop. I need some better dinner options as well, yesterday was cereal. It's going to be a very precise bigger grocery shop this weekend. I find myself slipping into a laissez faire kind of attitude and I need some options. So Friday night will be dedicated to meal planning my friends.

Alright so that's it for today - go forth and find what works for you - when you do it will be like magic :)

Going to miss BL

My ritual for Tuesday night has been Biggest Loser for so long now that I feel a little disppointed that it's done. Before long a new season will emerge and the Australian one is still running on Slice TV so I'll get a bit of a fix.

Yesterday my mission was to wash dishes (which I did) and I watched the new Gossip Girl, normally I pvr it and watch it on the weekend but I couldn't resist.

Food has been hard this week. My plan for lunch fell through as it didn't turn out and I have this massive negative reaction to Subway. Which just goes on to prove it's almost impossible to eat healthy in a food court. Workouts have been hard as I had really enjoyed getting outside and now the sidewalks are treacherous. I should vacuum my basement tonight so I can workout there.

I already have access to the class that starts on Monday and I can tell already that I'm going to have to be mega organized.

Tonight my beloved Calgary Flames play San Jose in game 7, these 8pm starts are killing me as going to bed at 11pm is a wee too late for a work night. Sometimes it's just easier not to watch and then the moment the news comes on the radio in the morning I'll know who won. We'll see it's so hard to walk away from a good game.

Go Flames Go

Determination won out

I live in a weird city, two days ago it was +22, today -21 with 20cm of snow. Yeah, that's what I woke up to. In the last 24 hours I've shovelled my sidewalk 3 times and it's felt like lifting weights. This snow is seriously slurpee ish. This more snow than we got all winter, at least everything should be green when it melts. Plus it's only forecasted to snow for another 3 days..pushaw..we can take it.

So as I gazed out my living room window this morning, knowing that it has been snowing since late morning Friday and the windchill was -21, I seriously considered skipping my WW meeting. That thought faded quickly as I told myself that snow was not going to stop me. I've gone to weigh in colder weather so I sucked it up, bundled up and headed out the door. I was down a pound (home scale said down half a pound) and I think the trudging through snow burned off some calories on the way there. It's about a 12 block walk and there were snow drifts everywhere, some people had shovelled already but some parts were half a foot of snow.

I was impressed by the turnout at the meeting, I didn't stop for my Tim Horton coffee before hand as I normally do as I thought I didn't have time. Of course I get there and realize Duh! I so had time but I wasn't going out again. The blowing snow felt like ice particles.

When I left the meeting I contemplated getting groceries but I was hungry, tired and the snow was blowing worse so I trudged home again. I have to go tomorrow as there's a birthday in the office on Monday and she's requested the incredibly decadent white chocolate strawberry cheesecake. (I've posted the picture of this cake before).

I've been studying for my first test in my compensation class. The test is on the first 4 chapters of the text. When I read these chapters the first go around I think half the info flew out of head. So I finshed Ch 4 and went back and re-read 1-3. Tomorrow I'll re-read 4 and then attempt the test 40 questions in 30 minutes.

I finally got my 4 month wall dry erase calender updated. I used this all through University (many years ago) to track work and classes well it's being dusted off to track this class, the next class that starts on the 28th and workouts.

The fitness challenge of the Spring Challenge is to come up with 10 motivational phrases and post them around your house. I'll work on this after the test and definitely share them with all of you.

Here are some our Challenge creator came up with:

1. Each day is a new day. It doesn't matter how hard you worked yesterday or how hard you didn't work... you have to pick it back up and keep going.
2. Don't get overwhelmed by the amount of weight you need to lose. Take it one day at a time, one pound at a time.
3. Fit Feels Good!
4. I can do this!
5. Remember who is the most important person in your Life!
6. You are worth the effort!
7. It is never to late to take charge of your life!
8. Believe in yourself!
9. Never give up on the thought of a 'thin you'!
10. You are important enough to 'fit it in'!

Believe my friends!

Snow globe day

The lovely forecast for my city is snow, snow and more snow. Right now as I look out the window it seems like I'm in a snow globe. I don't mind snow really, plus it will make everything green when it's done. If you're not in it then it's quite pretty actually.

So I got this crock pot via airmiles and it came yesterday. This weekend I'm going to try it. I'm not sure what to start with. I'm dying to make a roast but maybe I'll start with chili. As it sat in my office yesterday it got plenty of oohs and ahhs. I've wanted one forever and thought I never use my airmiles for flights (always get them on sale) so I'll use them for stuff.

I for sure would rather be at home tinkering with this thing than contemplating the trip home. It's dead quiet today too. My guess is a lot of people stayed home today.

Wednesay and Thursday I went for 6k walks as the weather was gorgeous. Tonight I'll dust off a hip hop abs and shimmy in my living room. Weigh in is tomorrow and I'm fairly positive I'll see a loss. I'm so used to certain consistencies. As I mentioned before my new scale reads differently than the old one. The old one was always about a 1.5 lbs above the one at weigh in. Last week the weigh in scale was 0.4 above my new scale. Mind you last weekend my Dad drove me to weigh in and I normally walk so not all behaviours were the same.

I'm such a ritual weigh in person. Get up at the same time every Saturday, wear the same thing, leave the same time. I'm trying to keep all the variables the same.

I have so much studying to do this weekend as I have my first test in my compensation class no later than Monday. Apparently it's 40 mulitiple questions to be answered in 30minutes..eek!

A friend of mine was to meet me for lunch today but she cancelled. Not due to the weather, she just bought a nintendo Wii this morning and wanted to stay home an play it. I'm so intrigued by this thing. Everyone I know who has one absolutely loves it. I'm intrigued about the Wii Fitness I've been hearing about. I need to learn more about it though.

Bah, I despise slow days where it seems to take triple the energy to get anything constructive done.

Have a groovy day!

Whoo hoo!

I'm so happy Bernie won the at home challenge and a woman won the Biggest Loser title. I was cheering in my living room. I always loved Bernie's attitude and sense of humour. I was a bit concerned when Roger weighed in but way to go Ali.

Amanda and I have the same starting weight, I wish they said how tall they were. She looked fabulous at her 145. This gave me a wee glimpse of what I may look like at goal. Very inspirational I must say.

My company is taking part in the corporate challenge for the first time ever and we've been encouraged to take part in the Mother's Day walk and run. Well our sister company laid down a challenge that they had more people taking part. That got my knicker's in a twist so I rallyed my group and got one more than sister company. I only had to bribe one person. My group signed up for the 5K walk. We're focusing on fun not crazy training.

I remember when the corporate challenge had fun events like chair racing, now it seems like a mini olympics. It's all in good fun any way.

Alright that's all I have for today, have a groovy day.

So excited!

For the season finale of Biggest Loser tonight....I know I want a girl to win, but I'm kind of rooting for Kelly over Ali. I'm a sucker for the underdog. I'm a little concerned over how much more weight Ali and Mark can lose - they both looked pretty svelte last week. I'm truly impressed that Ali lost most of her weight at home - proving my friends that it can be done. What I'm truly looking forward to is all the transformations. It's so amazing to see their before and afters.

I have to swing by Safeway on the way home to get more coffee for my Dad and thought about picking up a lean cuisine for supper so I can start watching BL at 6pm on time shifting. There's game 4 tonight starting at 8pm - Go Flames Go!

On the tv front, thanks to the live feed comment people I now only watch the wednesday Big Brother as I can't be bothered when I already know who's on the final chopping block.

So eating last night was a bit of a disaster, so far this week I have one disaster day, one normal day, one disaster day...the rest of the week must be OP. I want to see a loss on Saturday. Yesterday I went to Safeway to get the Van Houtte discount coffee for my dad and picked up the El molino chips (whole grain with mega fibre) - this inspired nachos for supper with too much cheese. Melted cheese is a weakness - I admit it.

Workouts must resume tomorrow plus I need to vacuum the basement, egads isn't funny how things just add up. Plus I have my first test for my compensation class this weekend and need to review the material. I can write it on Sunday so that gives me some time.

My business managment class starts on the 28th. I need to become a scheduling master between 2 online classes, full time work and exercising. I know it can be done.

Alright folks, looking forward to reading all your thoughts on BL tomorrow.

Have a groovy day!!!!

4 Seasons - One day

First of all let me make clear I don't think I need to lose 81lbs...0% body fat is not the goal at all and besides I like my curves.

I skipped the gym on Sunday in favour of walking outside. It was a beautiful day at +23. Today I've already seen a bit of snow and apparently rain is on it's way. Spring always brings bizarre weather.

I had a major accomplishment this weekend, I managed to hook up the dvd player to my downstairs tv. I failed to notice in the first attempt that I needed the cord from the vcr to hook up the box. Tada now I have workout space in my basement.

I'm super excited about the Biggest Loser finale, the transformations are always so amazing. I was in a bookstore at lunch and checked out the new book of success stories. If you've followed the show, I don't think it's telling you anything new.

Alright that's it for today...Happy Monday!

Whoa, slow down

So I was up 0.8 today, I'm okay with that - it could have been up 2lbs due to crazy PMS snackapalooza week. So 0.8 is actually a victory.

I tried out all the features on the new WW scale sitting in my bathroom. Today I programmed myself in so my weight, bmi, pounds of fat and percentage of fat are now in the little computer chip. Holy, did I almost have a heart attack when 81.1 flashed on the thing. I thought (for a moment) that this was my percentage of fat - OMG I'm blubber! No, this was pounds of fat...so out of the 181.2 of total weight apparently 81.1 is fat. That's a bit freaky, I need to do more research on what all these numbers mean and take in consideration it's the platform in my bathroom telling me all this. The weird thing is at weigh in I weighed 181.6. I'm not sure where the mysterious extra 0.4 came from, but the weeks ahead will show some comparable data.

My dad finally made it into the city today, which is good because according to the weather network next weekend will be snow.

I tried on clothes today, I hate trying on clothes. Before I went I watched an episode of Tim Gunn's style guide. (We Canadians finally have access to this.)I realized that no matter what size we are, we're never happy are we? As I stood in the dressing room looking at myself and thinking "Oh got a work on this, this ,this and this", for a moment I tried to think back to my starting weight and remember what I felt like trying on clothes then...I couldn't.

What I did realize is that my fire is lit, I'm more hell bent on this quest than ever before so what I see now is only for now.

So my friend's daughter's school is having a fundraiser via magazine subscriptions. You get a really good deal on magazines and the school gets a percentage. So I got Shape, Fitness, Yoga Journal and Runnner's World...how funny am I?

Oh!!!! I got the Dyson on Friday, lugged the thing home on the bus and tried it that night. OMG this thing is amazing. Is it possible to fall in love with a vacuum cleaner. It was disgusting how much gunk came out of the carpet. Probably 6 times what my normal vacuum would have done. I want to vacuum again tomorrow...yes I'm pathetic...but clean :)

Alright my friends that's all I can think of today.

Tomorrow I'll report on the gym visit with the books on strength training and whatever else pops into my head between now and then.

Have a groovy weekend!!!

Wicked Weather

It took me an extra 45min to get to work today due to wicked snow. The snowflakes were coming down in clumps and it's super wet snow so it stuck to you. My bus crawled downtown, but hey everyone got to where they needed to be safe and sound.

I'm quite proud of myself today, last night when I got home I figured out my new fancy WW scale and finally I just said...GO! It was great, I had a great pace going and good tunes in my ear. According to my Forerunner 201 I burned 455 calories and according to my Mio I burned 630 calories. Hmm....

The new scale measures to the .1, you have to stand perfectly for it to read. If you've got too much weight on the right or left it tells you. I very curious to see what the differance is between this one and the one's at weigh in. My other scale was about 1-1.5 pds heavier.

I had a pretty decadent lunch today, with all the snow globe snow I had serious craving for Taco Time. I can fit it into my day it just means a super low point supper. Yesterday with the pot luck I wasn't hungry until 8:30pm so just had a bit of chocolate milk after my walk.

So now it's water, water for me.

Have a groovy day everybody!

Whoo Hooo!

This is what I yelled in my living room last night when the two remaining women on Biggest Loser beat the two boys. OMG, I don't know what they did in a week to lose over 10lbs each. So now America votes between Roger and Mark for the final spot in the final 3.

Now if America wants a woman to win I think they should vote Mark in as he's pretty much lost most of the weight. If they vote Roger back in...well it should be interesting. I think Ali is pretty close to being done so I'm now cheering on Kelly. I've always been partial to the black team :)

The yelling at work was not related to the weigh in :) More two people who know better acting like 2 year olds. We shall wait and see what happens with this.

Potluck today! I've been seeing the food roll in and I'm very happy I had a low point breakfast. I have planned this potluck into my day.

I got my new WW scale today, I'm so excited to take it home tonight. My old one will now live at work for the Fitness Challenge workouts. The new one measure body fat and hydration. I'm intrigued as to what it will say.

These are the musings for this morning, I may be back later.

Have a great day!

Biggest Loser Tonight!

Alright so I forgot to make my potluck contribution yesterday and absolutely have to do it this evening. Which probably means straight when I get home so it has time to cool so I can cut it.

I'm not sure who I want to win Biggest Loser. I'm not crazy about Ali and I'm tired of boys winning. However, Kelly's blah attitude isn't winning me over either. I had really hoped Bernie would win, maybe he'll win the home version. The interesting thing will be which two fall below the line tonight, as America will vote which one makes the final 3.

Snackapalooza has kicked in today but thus far I have resisted and will continue to resist. I just keep chanting 179 in my head as that's what I'd like to see on the scale on Saturday.

Apart from that not much to report today.

Serious drama in the office today resulting in yelling, it was tense there for awhile but all is calm now.

Talk to y'all tomorrow :)

Should have listened

I was talking to H around lunch time and she said you should go out for a walk, I was planning on going for a walk tonight. Now there's some bizarre snow/rain happening. Oh well there's still 2hrs before I'm done so plenty of time for the weather to co-operate.

If for some reason outside is not an option, then I'll do a dvd.

I need to make my pot luck contribution this evening as I do want to go to the gym on Tuesday. I was torn about Tuesday due to Biggest Loser so I'm dvring the 6pm one so I can watch it before bed.

For pot luck I'm making magic bars the Eagle Brand recipe. It takes no time at all and everyone likes it. The pot luck is on Wednesday, I will definitely plan a lower pt breakfast and supper to accomodate that.

The first weigh in for my group fitness challenge is tomorrow and already people are telling me excuses. I keep telling them to not worry about it. If you're up then you'll be inspired to do better next time. I actually had a suggestion to do weekly weigh ins, now I do this anyway with WW so I'm not opposed. I did find it interesting that one said she thinks it will keep her more accountable. I would have to agree.

I'm eagerly awaiting the results my meetings Spring Challenge 2nd week results. It's week 3 and I'm half way to my goal of losing 8lbs, I might have to create a new one...knock on wood.

This weekend was a bit off food wise and I've used up all my flex points so for the rest of week activity will be a focus. I have 9pts for supper just within my base points so I won't have a problem sticking to that whatsoever.

I'm being very diligent tracking and so far no snackapalooza attacks, mind you the week is young.

The trick is take it day by day.

Have a groovy day!

Journey back to the gym

I went to the gym today. I actually walked there and back. According my Mio I did an hour and a half worth of exercise today (I burned 160cal just from house to the gym). At the gym I did bit of lower body weights to figure out what bugged my knee and what didn't. I considered other weight machines but they all confused me a bit.

I've been reading this new book called New Rules of Lifting for Women and in it the author mentions that weight machines are not necessarily the best way to go as they don't reflect natural movement. Don't quote me but for example doing a free weight exercise will use more muscles then doing a move on a weight machine. I would have to say I agree.

I was watching some of the women use these machines and honestly after my dabble back into it (it's been a long time that I've used these machines) I think I get a more thorough weight workout with my Jari Love - Ripped dvds. So on Tuesday when I head back to the gym I'll take my Biggest Loser workout book that uses mostly free weights with me and give that a go. If I'm doing weight training at home it will be back to Jari.

I also lasted 10min on the devil spawn machine (elliptical trainer). I have friends who say this machine replicates natural movement, I totally disagree - I don't move like that naturally. The trainer dude on X-Weighted doesn't like it either. Plus it bugged my knee, so I moved on the hamster wheel (treadmill) and did an additional 20min on that at a good clip of 3.8 and that didn't bug my knee at all.

I tried the calories burned function on my Mio and according to that in the 1hr and 30min which included walking to and from, elliptical, weights and treadmill I burned 800 calories. I had a pretty good heart rate going and I checked it often to make sure the Mio was reading correctly. Now I'm not sure how accurate that thing is. Mio claims it's accurate.

My plan for this week is to do just cardio tomorrow, go for a walk and dig out my garmin. Then Tues and Thurs will be gym. Wed just cardio. Friday off as I find if I workout the day before weigh in the results are goofy.

This is also the week before TOM which I lovingly refer to as Snackapalooza week. I will keep careful eye on that. I've managed to lose during this week before and the trick is to keep up the water.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Down 0.8

When I first saw the down 0.8 for a brief moment I was disappointed. Then I realized that's 4lbs in 2 weeks - am I an idiot? That's awesome! That's just under a 1lb. I have absolutely no reason to complain.

There were quite a few people in the challenge who had gains this week. Mostly due to increased exercise. So they'll most likely see losses next week.

Hmm, but it made we think to be careful with my plans to increase exercise this week. I must pay special attention to nutrition and fluid. Oh and I think I figured out what's wrong with my knee. Looks like I'll have to focus on building muscle around the knee, working on quads and hips. Avoiding full squats and excessive stairs. Before I go the gym tomorrow I'll do some research with the weight training books I have and flag specific exercises to do.

By the way...the Dyson is mine. I started to have some reservations yesterday as I found some negative feedback on this vacuum, however most had positive and many said the positive outweighed the negative. I'm thankful I don't have berber carpets -apparently Dyson is a bit too strong for those.

For the 2nd week in a row my Dad has not come to the city because he has a shwack of snow. I'd much prefer him to be safe so we'll try again next weekend.

For my work fitness challenge I'm adding another level to it starting Monday. I'm getting them all to write down what they eat. No tracking calories, just write it down. Happily they seem excited about this. I been watching some of them over the week and I've noticed a definitive need for snacks at about 3pm, so it will be interesting to see if they notice this themselves.

Alright then, I think that's all for today.

Have a great weekend!

I hope I win

Alright so in reference to that Dyson vacuum cleaner obsession on Ebay. I'm bidding on one. The canister version as I think the attachments are better. I have a stand up Bissel right now and I think I prefer canister types for ease of use with attachments. Plus it's lighter, some of those things are heavy. Oh please it's a Dyson, I haven't read one bad review...not one. I have researched my friends.

So I've calculated the absolutely maximum I would pay for this thing including shipping (the shipping was super decent) and now I wait. I should know about 11pm my time.

I find it funny that Ebay refers to winning, is it winning? It really comes down to how much you'll pay. It's dangerous to get caught up in the bidding as there is a really good chance you'll spend too much. So now as I check in occasionally to see if I'm still the leader. I know that if it's meant to be it will be mine, if not then there will be another.

The funky scale shipped today so I should have that in my hot little hands soon.

All the interviews I had scheduled for today have rescheduled for Monday. So I'm trying to focus on what I need to do. Ads must be written, systems must be updated...yet I find myself counting down to lunch. Oy vey, it's going to be a long day.

Food wise I was perfection yesterday, so now it will be repeated. There are donuts at 2pm, I have already vowed no donuts for me. I have a date with a scale tomorrow.

Alright so I might be back much later with a declaration about the vacuum.

Is it sad that I'm excited about a vacuum cleaner?

It works!!!!!!!

After painfully deleting and reinstalling Itunes....again and then plugging the damn thing into a usb port at the back of my desktop as opposed to the front...it works. Plus it's completely up to date and it now has the 314 songs I had in Itunes plus Chap 1 & 2 of Oprah & Eckhardt in video. I still have 14G of memory to play with. I can synch my email to it...this is craziness.

This this itouch thing is funky. I dabbled a bit on itunes and it entered my consciousness that one can dowload tv shows and movies. Never will a Greyhound bus trip to Olds, AB be boring again.

I did contain myself and not purchase anything yet....I do now need a holder for it so I'll look into that.

I stayed on track food wise and have my day planned well today. It's just two days until weigh in, I can keep it together.

I have a new ebay obsession...Dyson vacuum cleaner. I really, really, really want one of these. Their stupid expensive but I've heard nothing but good things and I could probably leave it to someone when I'm 90. Oh yeah, I just got my bonus too. I'm not going to rush into anything as there are things my house needs far more than a new vacuum cleaner... but I'll keep my eye out.

Okay I did purchase one thing not off of ebay but from home depot...a new WW scale. This thing is funky, it measures hydration, body fat and weight and it will keep track for me. The one I have now is just weight - this old one will come to work for our challenge. Being a tracking obsessed person, I love to have new thing to track. Hey, it's how I amuse myself.

Alright...back to work.

Later

Bah Ipod!

I got an Ipod Touch off of ebay. I bought it used but it has a warranty saving roughly $120 off of a new one.

Well it arrived yesterday and it's pretty.

I get home and immediately (well after Biggest Loser) hook it up to my computer. Of course I must get rid of current itunes and download again for it to recognize the new one.

So I do that, then get confused about deleting so I don't...stupid stupid... then I have to download itunes again. Ok, plug in ipod all seems good. Itunes suggest upgrades, ok I do upgrades. Itunes says it will take 2hrs, I say o.k I'm going to bed.

This morning I go check on ipod. Screen says "error Ipod 1604" then it goes away. Itunes says upgrades complete but restore is highlighted. I hit restore. It does it's thing and then says the same error. Crapola, I google error 1604 and a bizillion mentions of this error occur. So I try one of the suggested fixes, doesn't work. At this point I'm out of time and must go to work.

So tonight I will see if I can fix it, if not it's going back. I'm so disappointed. I get excited about this new toy and shazam it doesn't work. I don't know who to blame the ebay dude or Apple.

Another mystery of the universe. How could I be so good with staying on plan last week and this week is a challenge. All is not lost according to WW with flex points I get 203 for the week. Well if I stick to my 24 for today, Thur and Fri I'll clock in at 201.

I do not want to see a gain on Saturday. I will be strong. I worked far too hard last week to blow it this week.

Hey, nsv of some sort...stress of Ipod didn't result in any type of snacking whatsoever.

Whoo hoo!

Blah days lead to mindless musings

I have cold symptoms....crap. I've been in denial for a few days. Felt a little off, with a je ne sais quoi coldish kind of feeling. Yesterday the sneezing started. So I grabbed the extra strength Cold FX, oh yes not the normal kind this one has silver on the package so it must be the superhero of Cold FX. It's stupid expensive so it better work. I like the fact that you don't need to take it 3 times per day. I tried it when I had the superhuman flu a few months ago, it did nada. Mind you no cold/flu medication helped at all. This time around I think it's just coldish. So I took the 3 capsules yesterday morning and 3 at 6pm (that what they say to do first day). I could tell I had cold symptoms but it wasn't full on cold.

Last night, I decided to take Nyquil to ensure a good nights rest...whoa nelly. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling totally loopy. Obviously I wasn't sick enough to take that but happily when I woke up this morning no loopiness remained. I took 2 Cold FX capsules this morning and so far so good. I feel off but not sick.

I have a feeling it's going to be quiet today which always leads to blahness in the office.

As I read through the blogs I've seen quite a few people mention "I can make you thin" on TLC. I watched a few episodes and I'm not crazy about Paul McKenna's interaction with the audience but he does have interesting things to say. The 2nd of his golden rules is - eat what you want, I should have followed that last night. The theory is if you deny yourself something you are far more likely to binge later. Well I had a run in with that last night.

Thanks to Jugo Juice (my arm wasn't twisted I went under no duress) and my favourite Banana Buzz. I was without points for supper, I knew I'd be dipping into flex and wanted to keep it low points. All the way home I wanted something spicy, more specifically the veggie samosas sitting in my freezer which would be 6pts. I didn't want to use that many so I thought I'd have veggie soup (2pts), while that was heating up the noshing started. I had these mini baguettes type things that are 9 for 3pts. I intended to have two...oh no, had the soup, then ryvita with light veggies cream cheese and so on. The stupid thing is if I had the samosas I wouldn't have been on a quest for the flavour I was missing. I wound up using a whole lot more flexpoints then 6 that's for sure. So this means perfectly on track for the next 4 days.

The strange thing is when I weighed myself this morning I was a pound down from the day before....bizarre.

I have 7pts for dinner tonight so I may be having those samosas after all.

Have a groovy day!

What the heck?

So yesterday morning I open my curtains and see a whole lot of snow. Not as much snow as many of you east coasters have experienced but unexpected snow. We've been pretty lucky for the past few weeks with plus temperatures. This morning it was -18 with the windchill, it's not for long but it's making an interesting Monday.

I've decided to take it easy on my knee for a week so I did not go the gym this weekend. I'm feeling a difference already so I think it's just a muscle issue of some kind. We shall see.

There's a blah vibe in the office today, I know I didn't want to get up today. Weather definitely impacts my eating. I used more flex this weekend then I did last weekend. I still have 23 for the week but have planned a stick to points day today. I have 8pts for supper and no clue what to do with that. I'll give it a think.

Alright not a whole lot to report today-Happy Monday!

Down 3.2!

Well this challenge is just what I needed. Down 3.2, whoo hoo! With 5 flexpoints remaining.
Next week I'm hoping for down 1.8 :)

I'm very proud of my diligence this week, but you know what I denied myself nothing. I just thought it out. So now I need to repeat it.

Thanks to Sarah for sharing your info on the knee thing, I'm hoping mine works it way out as well. I can stand on it with no issues so I think it's either a nerve or pulled muscle thing. Not much can be done about that other than rest and let it work itself out. I'll keep an eye on it and just nurse it for awhile. I can walk so it's all good.

Off topic a little...
Do you ever wonder if a friendship is getting a little toxic? I've been thinking about this for a few days. On Thursday I went to see my esthitician and one of friends goes to her as well and I actually found about this esthitician through this friend. Well the esthitician is telling me about how my friend really values my friendship and that she thinks very highly of me. I was bit surprised by that. This friend and I don't talk a lot, we've known each other for a long time, and we always can pick up where we left off no matter how much time has past.
Lately it seems this friend just likes to argue with me or say sort of condescending things. This morning at the meeting I was telling her that it seems like I'm doing a whole lot of tracking with the meeting challenge, the work challenge and my tracker. Then she says to me is this the same work challenge that you've all started over 6 times? It was just the way she said it, sort of judgemental. I said no this is a new challenge. This is the same friend who told me I should restart Weight Watchers and re-do my 10%. When I told her that I didn't want to do that, she kept mentioning it. Then I realized she was saying this because she was judging my progress. It's to the point now where I don't want to tell her things because I think she's going to criticize. I don't know, this is the same girl who once told me her degree was better than mine...I never thought it was a competition.
I dunno, it just makes me go "huh?". I'm sure she has issues with me as well, perhaps she believes I'm lazy. I know if anything were to go wrong, she'd be there in a heartbeat. It just makes me think was the esthitican making that "she thinks highly of you" up?

Back to weight loss...
My personal goal for the Spring challenge is to return to the gym 3 times this week. The lifestyle challenge is to drink 4oz of water before every meal and snack. The fitness challenge is 10 sit-ups 3x this week.

Here'a challenge to all you weight loss focused bloggers for this week. I challenge you to think positively of yourself. No negative self -talk. Are you game?

Later!

I have a good feeling....

Oy vey I haven't posted since Tuesday.

Not a lot has happened. I got the rough copy of my group project paper in. I've been diligently tracking. Stepped on the scale and I was 182.5 this morning...whoo. That compared to 186 on Saturday morning. This has a lot to do with water loss probably, as I pretty much went to week one so it feels like the very first week of weight watchers.

I'm committed to adding workouts consistently this weekend. Now that I've successfully tracked for a week and am confident I can do that, I need to move my booty.

I'm having a knee issue, hurts when I go up stairs. It doesn't feel wrong when running or walking, just at a certain angle. It's not crazy pain, just a jolt. I really want to get into strength training to keep all these muscles in check.

Sleep has been funky this week. Tuesday night woke up at 2am and laid there what felt like forever. You can't get up, I just willed myself to sleep. Wednesday no issues, slept like baby. Yesterday went to bed at 9pm, and woke up at 11:45pm. Was awake until 2am, then finally fell asleep. Alarm went off at 5:30am. I'm a bit tired today.

Have avoided two temptations today. I did factor in a latte this morning but I didn't fall for a muffin - they looked really good. A coworker just asked if I wanted to buy lunch with them and I declined and am sticking with my salad. I really want to keep it together, maybe I can squeak out a 182 tomorrow morning at home, which could result in a maybe 180 at WI.

Alright that's all for now.
Have a fantastic weekend!

Challenge, challenge everywhere

I am not only taking part in my meeting's Spring Challenge but also a work Fitness Challenge. It had started a few weeks ago with the focus being on healthy behaviours ie. water, exercise etc.

Everyone was to record their progress on a sheet on the wall and we'd do prizes as we went along. Well it wasn't working, people were dropping off. Someone requested we do it for the whole week as opposed to M-F. I realized we needed a competition.

Well I changed it up. I broke us up into two groups, made everyone weigh in this morning. Created a very simple tracking sheet and declared game on. We will compete against each other. The team with the highest percentage of weight loss (ala Biggest Loser) combined with total points earned for getting in goals (water, exercise & fruits and veggies this week) will win. The team that loses will take the winning team out for something yet to be decided.

We drew names for teams and it wound up being upstairs vs. downstairs (2 floor office). The upstair girls have named themselves Phat Girls Slim. The downstairs crew (my team) have no imagination. We will consult the 15 year old daughter of one team mate for a team name.

On my personal tracking front I have now tracked for 4 days straight. I was uninspired by the food in my house and needing 3 veggies servings so I stopped off at Safeway and got salad ingredients plus some sundried tomatoe turkey. As I was walking to the cash, what appears in the corner of my eye but new ice cream flavours from Beyer. Sara Lee Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream made it's way into my basket. I went home had a salad and grabbed the smallest bowl I own and had some ice cream. Later on I had a bit more and then I checked the NI. 4pt per half cup. So I think I had 10pts of ice cream and I had the flexpoints for it and still have 24 of them to last me until Friday.

I'm not upset about the ice cream, I see the value of not using all those flexpoints on the weekend.

Today I brought a yummy salad for lunch and am planning spaghetti for dinner with a sugar free rice pudding cup for dessert. All within my 24pts.

Tonight I need to put something together for my group project, a rough copy. I want to start cleaning my house before my Dad arrives this weekend. I'm debating on weighing in Thursday evening instead of Saturday morning as when Dad is in town it's off to Superstore first thing in the morning.

I really, really want to watch the Biggest Loser at 6pm mst, so I've printed off all my research for the paper and will write by hand and type tomorrow. Sad I know but I find this show motivates me to focus.

I think that's all for today...

Later

Always have a back-up plan

For the first time in a long time I didn't treat Saturday like my free for all day. I'm a big supporter of having a treat day as I think it helps you stay sane when evil treats are everywhere. My problem is that I typically track after the free for all and can be quite surprised how many points I used up. Typically anhillating the 35 flex points.

Yesterday I made a conscious decision to stick to points and use a couple of flex points. They wouldn't give them to us if we weren't supposed to use them. Due to my free for all week and my tendency of gaining small amounts I wanted to reel it in. Next Saturday I'll have a treat meal but not a treat day. This week I wanted to re-introduce my body to appropriate calories. I had great food yesterday, all within my points plus 2 flex points. I have 33 flex points left, I'm trying to remember when that last happened.

I also updated my tracker, I debated on that but you know what it's better to throw it all out there.

I've already seen the effect of my efforts on the scale. Yesterday before I went to weigh in I was 186 on my home scale, which but me at 184.8 at weigh in. This morning I was 184 on my home scale. The 186 had a lot to do with eating out twice in one day on Friday. I'm working towards a good solid loss on Saturday. I want to make my spring challenge goal of 8lbs in 10 weeks.

Water is on track for the weekend, which is usually not the case. I have no issues drinking water at work but at home it's always a challenge. I drank 2L yesterday, and I have first litre done so far today and 1L sitting beside me right now.

I have a killer tension like headache today that doesn't seem to want to go away, I might not do the running thing today and do yoga instead. I'll see how it goes but there will still be activity no matter what.

I have my food for today completely planned out and now I need to do the second half of my paper due tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday everyone!

Coincidence?

Week 1 - Day 1

So you know how I was saying I was going back to week 1 well I'm going in head first.

Yesterday I had a lovely day being the official make-up artist of my friend H and her mom. Those bazillion years spent doing make-overs at The Body Shop are still in my head as I tell H "No purple for you". I still love seeing the expression of someone when you revamp their look and highlight the beauty they didn't know they had. This day also resulted in eating out for lunch and for supper. H and Mom treated me to supper which I thought was super awesome of them. I had the most amazing dessert at Earl's called Coconut Cream Pie. The Earl's Tin Palace is a test restaurant but we greatly encouraged them to launch it all Earl's as it is worth every darn point.

Alas at weigh in I knew those two meals would result in a gain, oh well it's my easter dinner so I'll suck it up. As I sat waiting for the meeting to start I overheard the left group (a group of highly entertaining friends that sit together on the left side of the room who I unabashedly eavesdrop on) discussing a new Spring Challenge. The creator has made a form to filled out weekly and you check off things like the 8 healthy guidelines, activity, water, tracking, a weekly group challenge (5 push ups a day for this week) and a personal challenge. It's a point based system and everyone picks a weight goal to be attained in the next 10 weeks. Each person puts $10 in the pot and there will be 3 prizes at the end. There are 24 people taking part all who are in my meeting. It was meant to be my friends, I jumped and joined. Now I don't have a printer so I'll fill out my stuff from the weekend when I get to work on Monday. I'll post more details on the challenge when I have form in front of me. Apparently the creator got the inspiration from the ww.ca boards.

Today I wrote a rough copy of part one of the assignment due on Monday. This was the hardest part so I'm comfortable with attacking part two tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will head out for my first run/walk in ages. Thanks to Fatimah for the running partner offer, unfortunately I don't live anywhere near you however your support means a lot.

I'm doing yoga before I go to bed tonight. I purchased lovely colours of dry erase markers to put the 4 month calender I once used for school to now see my activity at a glance.

My personal goal for this week is to have some sort of activity every day so that's either a pre-planned workout or getting off the bus a few stops early.

I will beat last year's time at the HSBC half marathon in July.

A very Happy Easter to everyone!

Hugs

What the heck?

This week has been a disaster food wise, despite my original best intentions of tracking, I've fallen off the wagon. I know this is not a disaster and all it needs is my getting off my patootie and focussing.

I'm feeling unsure about this pending half marathon. You see the past races I've taken part in have been walking. I usually trained with others. This time I'm on my own. My previous training partners are all runners now. I'm not 100% sure I'm designed to be a runner. I haven't given it enough of a go to totally decide that yet but I'm starting to think that a half marathon might be a bit ambitious. You see, I hated this race last year. I felt slow and useless - mind you I didn't prepare as I should have either.

As I waited for my dentist appointment this morning I noticed a run training program in the paper. They are recommending a goal of 5K in 8 weeks for people who are venturing off the couch. This is definitely the area I am coming from after not resuming any workouts since my 6 weeks flu, so that's about 2 months and a bit of doing nothing outside of my normal walking about for necessity.

Enough is enough, I've said this so many times on this blog and now is the time to walk the talk. If I seriously want to attain my goals I need to focus. I have a 3 day weekend ahead of me to get my patootie in gear.

The half marathon is still 3 months and change away. A lot can happen in 3 months.

What I need to do is go back to basics so once again I am returning to week 1.

I have excuses, this part of the country has been lucky weather wise with +9 forecasted for the weekend. My gym membership is good until September. I'm about to buy new coupons for WW, so no more charity I'm going to make this moolah work for me.

Week 1 officially begins this Saturday, however pre-season begins now.

Here I go.....

The beat goes on to an Irish tune

Up 0.6 on Saturday, not too bad as that was water retention week. My jaw has fully recovered from the temp crown procedure. I don't feel it at all. I'm just happy the soreness is away so I can once again use those muscles on Thursday.

I had the root canal on that tooth quites some time ago and remember almost falling asleep during the procedure. So far so good with dental procedures in general.

On Saturday I got my hair cut and it's way different. Way way way shorter than previously and when I left the salon the stylist had put two handfuls of mousse in. I hated it. I hate q-tip hair, so I promptly put my toque on and headed home. After rinsing out all the goup I liked it. It's very sassy. I'll try to post a before and after pic.

It was Shamrock shake day in the office in honour of ST. Patrick's day. I haven't had one of these in ages. It was good. I will probably have tomatoes for supper.

Week 2 of office challenge begins today. The goal to get 15min of exercise everyday. Why 15min? To make it a habit. Fitting in 15min per day doesn't seem quite as daunting as 60min to people who have never really had a workout schedule before.

Watched a new show on the weekend. Meet the Newlyweds - it's cute and there wasn't anything else on. I pvr'd "I can make you thin", I watched the last 10min. The host doesn't seem all that engaging and the audience looked bored. I'll wait until I watch the whole thing.

That's all I have for today.

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

My kingdom for a crown

The long dreaded crown dentist appointment happened yesterday. I had happily put it out of my mind until it arrived. My biggest beef is the cost of course, my insurance will cover half, and I'm always a bit nervose about a procedue I've never experienced before.

Today my jaw feels like it's gone a few rounds with a prize fighter and I've been advised to chew on the non-temp crown side. I now have to get a little creative with food. Biting into stuff doesn't appeal to me due to sore jaw. I had Carnation instant breakfast this morning. I'm attempting a not horrendously chunky chili for lunch and itty bitty bites. Thankfully my dentist has put a rush on the permanent crown. My original appointment was the 27th for that but she's moved it up to the 20th.

I don't think I've ever eaten this slow before. On the way home from the dentist I swung by DG for a milkshake as I was still frozen and had pre-planned that. I walk in and all I can smell is hamburgers....cruel how that happens. Next Saturday after the permanent crown I am so getting a burger.

It will be interesting to see how my quasy liquid diet will be effect weigh in on Saturday.

I've read more in the 4 Day Win book by Martha Beck, I really like this book. There are parts that make you laugh out loud. It's really interesting to learn more about the thought patterns behind dealing with weight loss as opposed to just the eat this and do that advice you typically see.

Watched Survivor last night and thought for a heartbeat that Ozzie might be kicked off. Now there's been two injuries. I did find it interesting in the closing credits that the other votes were for Eric..what does that mean?

I have a school focused and food planning weekend ahead and a hair appointment on Saturday.

Hoping for a loss on Saturay.

Happy Friday everybody!

To be continued?

I can't believe Biggest Loser gave us a "to be continued" to find out who gets knocked off. That's so Australian Biggest Loser with their whacky editing. I'm torn as to who I want gone. I really wanted Ali knocked off. I've never really liked her and I'm not sure why. I've always liked Brittany but find her a bit tiresome lately.

After BL I caught Big Brother and thought it was a brilliant move of Ryan to nominate James. I lke James but I didn't like how Josh thought he was running the house.

On the way home yesterday I picked up some frozen entrees for work lunch to see if I can get out of my lunch rut. Normally on Sunday I'll make some sort of meal and divide it into 4 containers for Mon, Tue, Thurs and Fri. I always buy lunch on Wed. The problem with that is I get bored after Tuesday. I tried sandwiches but after taking a sandwich every day of my elementary, junior and high school career I have an issue with packed sandwiches. I love them freshly made but not carted around. So to get out of my rut I'll do the frozen entree for lunch and keep sandwiches as an option for dinner.

The work fitness challenge of 2l of water everyday is going well. I'm quite proud of everyone for being so gung ho. I got 2l on Mon and 3l yesterday. Next week we'll continue with water and add 30min of exercise. The plan is to keep adding healthy behaviours.

I've been reading a really interesting book by Martha Beck called the 4 Day Win. She has suggested that if you can do something for 4 days it can become consistent. I really like her writing style is funny/witty not cartoony. The focus of the book is weightloss but looks at modifiying behaviours as opposed to all will power. I'm only a few chapters in but I'll keep you posted.

Later!

The Recap

It's been awhile and time has flown. I really have no idea where it went. So allow me to recap from Friday.

Friday was the last day in our office for one of my co-workers who is transferring to another office. So I made the strawberry white chocolate cheesecake - it looks pretty good doesn't it? The entire thing was eaten. On top of that her lunch of choice was McDonalds. I got a kid's meal with apple slices. My colleagues had Big Macs and large fries......and cheesecake.

Saturday - I went on a quest for clothes. Started at one mall and found nothing, then went downtown and found a few tops. All my dress pants still fit fine and soon skirts can be added so I didn't look for bottoms.

Sunday - Did laundry, hemmed pants, grocery shopped and read my textbook - I felt uber productive.

Monday - Fitness challenge started at work. The challenge this week is 2L of water every day. I met my friend after work and we went for dinner to celebrate her belated birthday. We went to Thompsons at the Hyatt. They have the best nachos I've seen in a long time.

Today - Everyone is telling me how much they had to pee due to the first day of the challenge. I have a low point day plus lots of water planned for today thanks to the nachos and lemon sorbet parfait dessert. Oh yeah there's a birthday in the office and I made the birthday girl a strawberry flan cake with a shortbread crust. Thankfully the next birthday is in April.

Have a great day!

Cereal for supper - 3 days in a row

What can I say? I like Shreddies and have had zero interest in cooking when I get home from work. I am in a food funk. I have half heartedly tried to menu plan in the past and I realize now it's a priority.

So far this week I've tracked everything, it all hasn't been pretty but it's written down. Exercise has been no existent...again I need to plan it.

I'm in a clothes rut so a shopping expendition must happen and soon.

I've been avoiding any mention of Project Runway as Canada is a few weeks behind. Of course the avoidance could only work for so long.

I was sad to see Bernie sent home on Biggest Loser. I liked him. I want Kelly bumped next, get a back bone woman.

I wound up watching Big Brother last night and why I've not liked this season at all, I love the twist of them playing individually.

I am once again behind in chapters for my course.

So this weekend is all about planning. Planning food, exercise and homework. I need to get it together and get a rhythm going..ya know?

Wheels are starting to turn in my head...victory is near.

Later!

Anti climatic

Right after work yesterday I headed down to the polls to vote, then had cereal for supper (didn't feel like cooking) and zipped over to my computer to log in for Oprah's webcast. It started well and it was interesting but then it froze. I have to admit I wasn't suprised. When you have over half a million people logging into the same website at the same time there's bound to be problems. So what was supposed to be 90min wound up being 30min for me. I might download the podcast and just listen to it. My only issue with the first 30min is that it seemed Oprah did most of the talking and I would have preferred the author do more talking.

The 10 pound challenge is getting interesting at work. We have two cheesecakes this week. One for a birthday and one for a last day before transferrring to another division. One of the participants is completely against having any because we're on a diet and telling everyone that they shouldn't have any. I really don't like the diet word. I will have a piece of cheesecake, not a big piece, not a restaurant sized piece because I believe in everything in moderation. I will also plan my day accordingly. It's up to the the individual to decide what they can and can't have.

I'm making a white chocolate strawberrry cheesecake out of Bon Appetit magazine. Which I have to start tonight.

There's no point going through life misreable by denying yourself things, think it through, track it and account for it.

Have a great day!

Monday monday

Oy vey it was hard to roll out of bed this morning. I slept like a log and was very content to stay where I was. Alas a paycheque had to be earned.

When I got to work I knew immediately it was going to be one of those days. Not one person had a smile on their face when I walked in the door. So far I've had two people complain to me about their everyday frustrations. I let them vent and then go do my thing.

Yesterday I signed up for the Oprah webinar on Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. I've been reading it and find it really interesting. It's not a breezy read that's for sure, it's pretty profound. So this webinar is for 10 weeks, I'll report in on what I think. It starts tonight and I have to admit I'm looking forward to it.

It's also voting day in Alberta as we go to the polls to elect a new Premier. I have to admit I'm not overly fond of anyone and quite miffed that many didn't seem to campaign at all. I recognized that it's important to vote so I've made my decision to the best of my ability and will vote on the way home.

Food wise yesterday was good until 8pm and then I got hit by the snack monster. I'm not a big evening snacker usually and I think this was triggered by my lack luster supper. I was missing something and went after it. Today is tracked to the letter and I have some textbook reading to do so that will keep me busy.

Workouts will start tomorrow and I think I'll ease into it with some hip hop ala Shaun T and yoga.

If you're in Alberta, don't forget to vote. It's a priviledge not a right.

Russian Roulette with the scale

Alright, I admit it. I've been playing fast and loose with the scale. Two weeks of wee gains and failing to but on the breaks results in a 1.2 lb gain. Oh yeah, I knew eating lunch out every day was not a good idea. I knew I should drink more water, go for walks and heck even track in my journal.

The silly thing is I was waiting for a fresh start. I know, I know...a fresh start can start anytime - in the next minute, hour, day, week or month. Being knocked over by the super flu that kept me feeling not so great for 3 weeks didn't help. I never quite got back on the wagon, last week I was feeling better the coughing was far far less but I still didn't re-focus. I was actually dreading going to weigh in this morning and contemplated not going at all. Then I thought well that's just stupid. Go face your demons and get your butt back on the wagon. As my leader said in today's meeting - you don't want to make Weight Watchers your favourite charity.

I have 9 weeks left in my current weigh in book and I'm going to make these 9 weeks count.

So today I started the wendi plan and focusing on the basics. Now I'm ready. I want those 5lb stickers and the key for my keychain. I want goal.

I'm focusing on the positive here. No bashing, feeling bad or even for a moment doubting that this can be done.

Thank you so much for your comments about my cake, it is suprisingly easy not to be distracted by the cake or the icing. I never had a single slice of any of the cakes that I made for that class. They were projects to me and after assembling all that needed to be assembled I didn't want to touch it.

To the week ahead, celebrating the moments that make up the journey to a healthier me.

Later!

I graduated from cake decorating!

So this what all the complaining has been about. I think it turned out alright. I got my final Wilton certificate last night. There are plans for one more course in May - Gum paste and fondant. I think I'm going to miss all the hulabaloo about Thursdays. I do get to make a Canadian Flag cake for Wednesday so cake will still be part of my week. I suggested that the 5 people of the class get together for dinner.

I'm quite happy that a new month is on the horizon. I want a clear page of a calendar.

This weekend I plan to create a menu plan and ensure I bring lunch every single day next week.
I'm going to figure out to hook up that dvd player to the tv downstairs via a vcr.
I'm going to plan workouts for the week.

Enough with the winging it, it is time to put the plan back in action.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Oy vey, is it only Wednesday?

I feel wiped, exhausted and checked out. Yesterday I was in a course all day and it's been a long time since I had to sit in a lecture style environment. It was interesting but felt long. Got home and made 38 calyx green things for the bottom of all those fondant roses. Finished the 10 roses I still needed. Made 30 leaves and baked the two cakes I need.

Tonight is pack up all those roses and leaves. Fill and frost the cakes, cover with fondant and then make 40 tiny flower cut outs. I'm seriously tired of this cake. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow I tell you.

Two of my colleagues are getting their Canadian citizenship so I'm going to make a Canadian Flag cake for the staff meeting on Wednesday.

The 10lb challenge has resurfaced at work. I offered a few suggestions. We don't do it for money and (when we know who all is participating) I'll get stickers to represent each of us. We'll have weekly goals ie. water, fruits and veg, no chocolate, activity. Then at the end of the month the person with the most stickers wins a non food related little prize. I want us to focus on healthy behaviours not just pounds.

It's been a crazy week food wise. Between the paper due on Monday and this cake for class I haven't had a whole lot of time to plan my menu. I haven't stepped on a scale since Saturday.

Alas I'm looking forward to finishing this cake and having a bit more time to focus on school and me.

Whew!

This morning I dropped by the bank and asked them to check my debit card, and told them about my experience at Safeway. There was nothing wrong, no messages and no flag on the account. The lovely teller suggested replacing the card which I did as a precaution. I think I'll also change my pin monthly. I wasn't super worried as I kept checking my account online for any mistakes and never found any. Plus the bank never phoned or sent a message via online banking so I think the whole thing was Safeway's issue.

On Sunday I continued with my paper and finished it and then emailed it to work so I could look it over with a fresh pair of eyes before submitting.

I also made 28 fondant roses, I just sat and half listened to the oscars as I did this. I still have 10 to do but I'll do those tomorrow night. I'll bake the cakes tomorrow as well. Then Wednesday will just be assembly. I'm out all day Tuesday for a course. Out to dinner tonight. I'm seriously looking forward to not having to make icing for awhile.

Have a groovy day

The haze is lifting

At today's meeting Sheila got to goal. She's lost 114 pounds in 2 years and 3 months. Now I mention the length of time because of course someone in the meeting asked that and it immediatley irritated me. I strongly believe that it doesn't matter how long it takes and you shouldn't compare yourself to someone else. Of course I remember the day she started Weight Watchers and I don't like to think about how many years I've been going and I'm still 40lbs from goal. I don't feel badly or think I'm a failure in any way. It's more the cost of all those meetings. I wouldn't miss them for the world. Losing weight is as much an emotional battle as a pound battle. We all just take it a day at time.

I was up 0.2 and once again I'm okay with that. I tracked one day last week, went out to dinner the night before weigh in. I went to winefest but didn't last long as I couldn't stop coughing. I'm thinking the ice cream at dessert and the wine tasting didn't go so well. I cut out early, waited forever for a bus but was in bed at a decent hour. Never coughed when I got home and slept through the night.

I did purchase a new 3 month tracker as I'm serious about a fresh start. Picked up healthy groceries today. Had a bit of heart palpatations at Safeway. I used my debit card and the girl told me it says refer to Branch. My first thought oh f#@$ not again! I immediately though my card had been skimmed again. I was mad on the way home thinking I've been so careful. Well I got home and no call from the bank and I can access my online banking and there's nothing suspect. Now I'm wondering if it was an issue with the bank. On Monday I'll go to my bank and try it a bank machine so if there's an issue I can just pop in and take care of it. If there is an issue I'm going cash only from now on. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the online banking until then.

So today I'm trying to write a rough copy of my paper and I'm half done and now on here. I'll try to finish it but if insipiration leaves me I'll be back at tomorrow morning.

Alas, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The picture of organization

Wowsers was Rocky Mtn Soap packed last night. I picked up the skin care line for 50% off and a couple of other things for 20% off and got a free hand cream. Zipped home, wiped down all the icing making essentials with vinegar as royal icing completely discombobulates when even the tiniest amount of grease touches it. While icing was mixing, I wrote a post it note for all 8 types I needed (varying consistencies and colours). Portioned out the quantities and then mixed colours and changed consistencies (with a wee bit of water) and boom done in 45 minutes.



Then I had to write my job analysis questionnaire. I had done speedy google research earlier and then remembered the textbook from the last class had an example. Now I just need to hunt down people to interview. Got everything done and didn't have to stay up all hours to do it.



Well Saturday will mark the completion of week 6 of my previously discussed 26 week Metamorphosis and things aren't going quite as I planned. I've done a heck of a job of maintaining. So maybe this will be the 32 week metamorphosis, mind you 20 weeks is a long time. I finally feel like I'm coughing less so I think workouts can resume starting with walking and yoga. No running just yet.



Tracking wise has sucked completely and with winefest on Friday this week is going a wee downhill. I'm totally prepared for a fresh start on Saturday for the new and improved 20 week metamorphosis.

Hugs!

Catching up

My apologies about not being on here for awhile. Life just happened.
Saturday-My Dad came in for a visit, fixed the leak in my basement that plumber dude said would take about $300 and I would have to get my water turned off by the city. Well it took one wrench and 4 minutes to fix. Yeah Dad!!!!!
I went to weigh in for the first time in two weeks. So I had one week off sick, didn't track a thing. The following week I ate out for lunch practically everyday and also tracked nothing. Add in the week before TOM and I wouldn't be surprised to see again. Well I stepped on the scale and it danced between .0, .2, .4 and .6 finally landing on a number to give me a loss of .2. Heck I'll take it.

Sunday - Ran around with a friend and saw 27 Dresses (so cute) and watched Knight Rider when I got home. I like it.

Monday-Read 4 chapters in my textbook as I was seriously behind. I have a paper due this coming Monday.

My week is shaping up to be busy. Tonight I'm meeting another friend at Rocky Mtn Soap Company for their skin care launch, then I go home and make icing.
Tomorrow it's cake decorating again but just flowers no cake and I need to have part of the paper ready because I need to interview my co-workers.
Friday is official audit day at work so I get to accompany the auditor. Friday night is dinner with friend and then winefest.
Sat - Sun - Finish paper and make 38 fondant roses.
Egad I'm looking forward to a relatively uneventful last week of February.

Still coughing so finding workouts a challenge with that and time wise.

Oh well, it will all come together.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Playing with Fondant

So my first foray into working with fondant went well. The class was super fast paced as there is a lot of ground to cover. Putting fondant on a square cake is a bit complicated dealing with corners.

I was inspired by Valentine's day. The bow got squished by my cake carrier but you can still get the jest of it. The cake underneath is chocolate with marshmellow filling. The pre bought fondant tastes awful. Our instructor made a marshmellow fondant that she flavoured with chocolate and rum extract. We each got to try a little and that was good. I'll look into that for the final cake.

In other news not much going on, weighing in for the first time in two weeks tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

Half way through cake decorating class I got a mega coughing fit which lasted until I got home. Had super uneven sleep and was wide awake at 3:30am. Of course about 15min before the alarm went off I was falling asleep again. Though this morning I find I'm coughing less and with not so much umpff.

Only watched half of Survivor last night.

I'm totally pumped to clean my house tonight, the chaos is getting to me.

So I hope everyone has a great long weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

If you're wondering what this picture is about, get yourself over to Snackie's site and discover Snackie's Self Love Day. I have never had a boyfriend on Valentine's day, well I lie once but he wasn't a Valentine's day kind of guy. This also tells you that my dating time frame caps out a year. I have no ill feelings about this day. I think it's nice that people get flowers and tokens of affections. When I used to work for The Body Shop this was killer day in sales but also made you a little jaded about some men's attitude towards Valentine's day.

I have always been an independant person, it helps being an only child. I'm totally cool with being single as I like to say I'd rather be alone then be lonely in a relationship. I have a hopeful attitude towards love and I'm a hopeless romantic combined with being a realist. If I find the man of my dreams that's great but I'm o.k if that doesn't happen. Let's just say I'm a roll with it type of person, make the best of the circumstances your in. I have no issues with buying myself flowers, but I do that when I want flowers not necessarily to mark a date.

The rules of this day is to post what you love about yourself and to encourage others to post what they love about you. I love that I'm independant and that I'm pretty damn funny. I love that I can turn someone's day around and have them smiling.

On to other news, the coughing seems to be getting less. I wandered over to Rocky Mountain Soap Factory and picked up their cold/flu body butter and bed/room spray. The body butter acts like a Vick's vapo rub sort of thing but is essential oils. Well I sprayed my bed and room with the spray, put the body butter on and coughed more last night than the day before. I did notice the coughing was less intense so I don't know what's going on.

I had to prepare 3 cakes last night. Two for a birthday on Friday and finish off the cake for my class tonight. Well I kind of messed up on the first cake as I didn't really wait for the chocolate to get to room temperature before I folded in the whip cream so it's not so perfect. The 2nd one I was more patient. I was making two because we have about 17 staff and one cake feeds 10, but then I realized that the two cakes from class will probably come to work. I think that's enough cake, I'm enforcing calorie control on people.

My pvr is recording like crazy as I've been either busy or exhausted. I haven't watched Biggest Loser all the way through. I was watching the 6pm version when at 7 my pvr started to record two other shows. Well there's only so much one can do when that happens. I was taping the 9pm version. I did watch the 2nd episode of big brother last night but taped the first. The thing that's a bit irritating about later seasons of these type of shows is that everyone sort of copies previous people's game plans. The couple thing is an interesting twist but we shall see.

I'm beyond excited about Knight Rider and proudly declaring my geek status.

I had totally forgotton that Family Day is on Monday, normally this was an Alberta only holiday but I think other provinces are adopting it. I so need to catch up on some textbook reading as I'm falling behind. Some of the people in my class are driving me a wee bananas. You see I'm a recruiter and have been for 5 years. I'm taking Recruitmen and Selection, so there's a lot of people in this class that seem to have a very in the perfect world attitude towards this subject or are totally oblivious to labour regulations. It shall be interesting.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day everbody and be sure to treat yourself.

And the coughing continues

I hate all cough medicine, cough tablets, anything that tastes yucky. So I've been going the natural root i.e. Honey.

I'm just irritated now as I conducted my first interview since being away and had to excuse myself for a moment as I coughed in a frenzy. I know it will go away and I cough less each day but I'm ready for it to be over damn it.

Interesting tv night my friends. The beginning of big brother and Bob appears to walk out of the weigh in on Biggest Loser. I'm intrigued I tell you.

My delightful cake decorating buddy loaned me a pack of fondant so I can colour it for Thursday and I'll just replace the pack. That's so awesome so I can get a bit of head start.

Apart from that I just keep thinking of all I must do between now and the end of the week.

Have a great day everybody!

Back among the living

Back at work today after a week of feeling totally blah. This must be some sort of super flu as still today I'm coughing and sniffling. At least today I have consistent energy and feel like an engaged member of society.

My 3.5 days at home last week had a repitive patter of wake up, eat something, nap and repeat. When up I would turn on daytime tv and get pretty bored by it's offering. On the View they yell at each other. Regis irritates me. Rachel Ray I can take in doses. I don't even bother with Maury or the others. Oprah gets pvr'd everyday anyway. Dr Phil is no fun anymore.

My favourite soap - Days of Our Lives is painful to watch two days running, - nothing happens.

I couldn't read as every time I coughed (which was a lot) I'd lose my place.

This is not a whoa is me post, we need better daytime tv.

Didn't got to weigh in this week because I felt off and the coughing was still crazy. I didn't actually feel more better than worse until Sunday. It sorta sucks about the weigh in as I knew I'd be down. I didn't track a thing while sick, I just ate when I was hungry. Novel idea really, I was eating normally by Thursday and the loss stayed but now I'm back in the office so we'll see what this Saturday brings.

Of course I didn't go to cake decorating on Thurdsay but thankfully my decorating buddy picked up the lesson book and this week I get to make a cake with fondant. Golly! I feel like I went from kindergarten to High School. I'm a bit nervous as I don't have any fondant to play with and won't until I walk into Michael's cake in tow on Thurdsay.

So Friday will be cake a palooza at work. The class cakes will be here and it's my decorating buddies birthday. I'm making her a frozen mousse cake so that will come to work on Wednesday and live in the freezer until Friday. For a minute I thought I had a paper due this weekend too, but thankfully that's the week after. Plus my Dad's dropping in on Saturday so I've got a lot to do between now and Friday. No rest for the wicked they say.

Tonight I want to practise some of the decorating techniques they covered last Thursday. Tomorrow I need to frost the cake decorating cake (which I baked yesterday) and make the birthday cake. Wednesday haul the birthday cake to work and put together everything I need for Thursday, Thursday cake decorating and Friday clean house.

Oy vey, I think it will be early to bed tonight.

Not Dead

Just knocked sideways by the flu, felt kind of off on the weekend, it went downhill on Monday, home sick on Tuesday, went to work on Wednesday and they sent me home, home today to get to just rest and hydrate.

Flu med thoughts today.
I pvr'd Biggest Loser and watched it yesterday. Wow I can't believe that Kelly and Brittany were eating so low calories. That just goes to show you need to eat to fuel your metabolism.

I stepped on the scale this morning and of course it's showing a loss but that's flu related and not real.

Feeling more human today, hope everyone is doing well.

Week 4 begins and a battle of will this morning

Day 1 Week 4

When I went to bed on Friday I was truly dreading weigh in. I wasn't in control this week, I let my environment dictate my food intake and exercise was the lowest thing on the priority list for me. There were many factors the major one being I was just plain tired. It started with the -50 windchill and steam rolled from there. I know I can't use weather as an excuse but there are some interesting thoughts on how winter can effect us. I was watching the weather network and they had this guy (can't remember his exact title) who has some sort of physical/psychological background and he said that cold temperatures can shut down our bodies. We sort of go into hibernation mode. I don't know what he was basing his stats on but he said most people have a difficult time losing weight over winter.

Now I know that's not necessarily true, plenty of people lose weight over winter. I do think it takes a bit of added mental toughness to drag yourself out into the cold.

This morning I had a mega battle of the mind in terms of do I go to weigh in or not. I was so happy with my loss last week that it was breaking my heart to see a gain. I made a deal with myself that if my home scale said 182 then I'd go. Well when I woke up I was 183. So I waited about half an hour and weighed myself again I was 182.5. So I went and I'm glad I did.
Now once again the differance between my scale and WW scale totally confuses me. Last week there was virtually no differance between them. This week as I said mine said 182.5 and WW said 181.8. So that's a gain of 0.2. Whew! I'm o.k with that. Completely self inflicted and a price I'm willing to pay.

This of course means that this week there will be no excuses. I'm still going forward with the wendi plan and have written all the point targets in my tracker. Here are the goals for this week.
5 days of exercise
Solid water intake (2-3L per day)
Tracking every bite, lick and taste and staying to my points.

I'm feeling positive about the week ahead. I realize my first month of metamorphosis won't result in amazing results number wise but as we all know weight loss is more than the numbers it's the thought pattern behind behaviours.

I know with my whole heart that I want to succeed at this and that is what I have to remember. There's nothing wrong with taking a step backwards, it's about remembering to take a step forward.

Hugs to all and to all a fantastic week ahead.

A metamorphosis does have difficult moments

Day 7 Week 3

Thank you for the comments on my cake. Despite the trials and tribulations of putting it together I'm kind of proud of it.

Well I'm happy to see a new month and heading into week 4 of my metamorphosis. This last week has been rough between the crazy winter storm and a complete disaster at managing my time it's been a right off.

Food wise has been awful over the last few days. I'm not so sure how weigh in will go tomorrow. As I said I'm looking forward to new week and a fresh start. Sometimes it's so hard to keep in mind this is personal journey and that comparing yourself to others is not wise. I'm always happy to celebrate other people's accomplishments and at the same time don't want to know as it makes me question myself. A friend of mine told me the other day that she's so happy to be in the 170s again and while being overjoyed for her it made me feel a little blah. I realize that is totally stupid and that I will get to my goal. Sometimes it's just hard to think of how far you still have to go.

I noticed that a lot of people are using stickers on their calendars for goals. January didn't see a whole lot of stickers for me so I'm happy to be starting a new month.

My goal for February is to get 20 activity stickers on my calendar and to get a better time management system in place.

I had an interesting discussion with a co-worker about finding time to exercise. It really has to be a priority and I've never quite made it that step. So that's my goal to make exercise a priority this month. They say it takes 4 weeks to make or break a habit.

Bring it on!

Here it is....the cake

So now you all know what I've been going on about. The picture on the left is the cake from last night.
Fondant starts next week.

I'll post a normal post a bit later.

Enjoy this for now.