Pooped

Yesterday I did 2.5 hours of raking and putting the dead grass and 9000 pine cones into garbag bags (I have 3 ginormous pine trees on my lawn) that would be 4 gigantic garbage bags. Today it hurts everytime I need to bend down. I am sore. I also fertilized and watered said lawn.

I counted the raking as "hoeing" as that's the closest activity I could find on ww.ca. When I rake it's serious back and forth trying to get every last piece of dead grass and pine cone off my lawn. I am a power raker but I'm the power the rake is not. However at one point I did have the thought to hire someone to do this next year.

This morning I went for a mega walk at it was lovely, cool breeze and I saw one other person the whole time I was out there.

364 calories burned/ 1hr1min/ 6.26K/ Pace 9:47-6:56
Heart rate: avg: 72%, max 82%

Then I mowed the lawn and it took 4 tries to get that baby started. I also pulled the patio set out of the shed. Last year it never made it out of the shed. Well that was the summer that never was due to working all the way through it. One of these days I'm going to wear my heart rate monitor when I mow both back and front. I'm curious as to what the calories burned are doing that.

Now I'm working on laundry, still to do is wash dishes and pack for tomorrow's trip to Fort Mac.

I was thinking of my co-workers on my walk this morning. Getting up in the wee hours of Monday is part of my routine as I fly so often but it's not theirs. I expect to see some tired people tomorrow. I also started to think of fuel tomorrow. There's bound to be catering for lunch and I'm positive some kind of team dinner. On the plane they usually have 3 types of bread i.e. banana bread, lemon poppy seed, apple. It's more like cake. I don't know if we'll have time to grab breakfast so I'll be armed with a granola bar and apple slices.

I should get up a wee earlier tomorrow as when I normally go to site makeup is very minimal. I have to get ready tomorrow like I'm going to work in the office. It will definitely be early to bed tonight.

It's our company policy to have a safety moment before each meeting and I was asked to do one for Monday. I'm going to do one about Sun Safety, I figure it's timely with nice weather finally hitting Alberta. I still need to write that up plus read through the pre meeting read.

I won't be blogging tomorrow as I'm not taking my computer to Fort Mac but I'll be back Tuesday night probably.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and Monday in the meantime.

Hugs!!!

Every bite

"Every bite leads you a step closer to goal or a step further away from it"

This was the saying of the day at my WW meeting and it reflected my mood as I was up 1lb today. I was not happy. I knew I'd see a gain today but that wasn't the reason I wasn't happy. My home WW scale had me up .3 and the meeting up a pound.

I ate half a point less than I ate last week. I earned exactly the same amount of activity as last week. Last week I lost 2.6.

The gain was caused by having some pretty high point days on Wednesday and Thursday which is way too close to weigh in day. On Friday I tried to mitigate the damage by eating a little lower (20pts as opposed to 23) and earned 5AP. I tried to save my week in one day, not the smartest thing to do as that never works.

I failed to plan this week which of course means I planned to fail. However a pound is a pound, yes I'm disappointed in myself because this is my first gain in 8 weeks. Am I derailed and am I going to drown my sorrows in ice cream? Hell no, the lesson is learned.

I know my water was iffy this week. I was tired and not making an effort to think things through. Well that's done. This is a new week so I'm resetting my head to focus on the positive.

My major hurdle this week is being in offsite meetings on Monday and Tuesday but I'm still in control of my choices. These meetings lead into dinner and that always involves alcohol but knowing that in advance helps me prep my head. That pound plus a little more will be off by next Saturday. Booyah!

I walked to weigh in and home with a whack of groceries. I'm just having a wee rest as I have a bit of headache. I'll have lunch and then head out to tackle the front lawn. That will be my primary source of AP today.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Hugs!!

Change in plans

Last night the tired got the better of me and I think the long space of time between lunch and dinner. I had an altercation with some mini peanut butter cups and ice cream. I didn't take the time to evaluate that I was tired and not hungry...not smart.

I slept in until 6:30am today and yes for me that's sleeping in.

I got up had breakfast which was Oatbran with one tblsp of brown sugar, but today I also added a wee bit of cinnamon and it took to a whole new level.

Then I headed out for a mega walk (definitely inspired by last night):

560 calories burned/ 1hr30/9.62K/ Pace 9:22- 6:21
Heart Rate: avg 76%, max 84%

It was super nice this morning, there was a wee breeze but kind of quiet so I did the route I had in my head. Then I got home and started thinking maybe I should just take today as a rest day.

I'll be right across the street from the grocery store tomorrow after weigh in. The front lawn can wait until tomorrow. I realized my freezer is kind of full so adding new meals might not be necessary.

Today I will focus on water and staying OP to face the scale tomorrow.

Enjoy your Friday!

Hugs!!!

Long day

I started work at 6:30am and finished at 6pm today, I'm knackered but I did manage to take tomorrow off.

I'm so looking forward to sleeping in but I do have things I need to accomplish this weekend.

Tomorrow the first thing on the list is grocery shopping plus I need to pick up a few things for the yard work I have planned.

I need rake, fertilize and water my lawn plus prep the flower beds. My goal for tomorrow is the front lawn and then Saturday for the back lawn. I also want to paint my railing.

At some point this summer I need to paint my fence but not this weekend.

Sunday I need to do some cooking, it's that time again to make a few things and freeze in individual containers. I'm still not sure what to make but I need to decide that before going grocery shopping tomorrow.

Next weekend my Dad is coming with the geraniums. That's a standing tradition and I forgot about the Calgary marathon. Way back when I had thought about doing the half marathon. I have since realized I don't like racing. I get no joy from it so I cancelled. I get why many people do but for me I'm more happy on my solo efforts. I'm seeing progress with those solo efforts. However I have friends taking part in that weekends racing festivities and I just realized I can only meet for lunch after the race.

I love my friends but I had booked this weekend with my dad ages ago and he is my number one priority hands down.  If these friends are reading this...sorry!

I have to comment on a comment from Enz yesterday about BL. I wouldn't mind if Ashley won but I'm finding the whole pink domination thing getting old. A romance between Michael and Ashley? Mind you I never saw the Sam and whatshername one coming either. Michael did help Ashley with that build the structure challenge. This is now something I need to watch for.

I think I'll head to bed early and do my menu planning tomorrow.

Hope you had a smashing Thursday.

Hugs!!

Sometimes it takes a few kilometers

I watched BL (Biggest Loser) last night and I have to say not to upset Sunshine got booted. If I was forced to choose a favourite to win I'd probably go with Daris. It's been over the last few episodes that I felt he took the lead. Since this season began I've had a hard time really caring who won. For the longest time I thought Daris was kind of boring but that workout with Bob last week impressed me. The one where he kept making Daris do the exercise over everytime he gave up. We'll see what a month at home does next week. I'm finding the show is going overboard with product placement as well.

This morning I tried something a little different for breakfast. Two weeks ago in my WW meeting we talked about oatmeal and my leader mentioned it's important to up the protein as normal straight up oatmeal doesn't have much. I normally eat oatbran for breakfast, it sort of reminds me of cream of wheat and it's 1pt per serving. I'll have that with a glass of milk and then by 9:30am I'm starving. I eat breakfast at around 4:45am.

Today I decided to have Activia yogurt in addition to my oatbran. I wasn't hungry until noon. Mind you I was in a meeting all morning so I was distracted but my stomach never grumbled either. I'm going to try that tomorrow too.

For lunch my co-worker was buying so we went for Indian buffet. It was yummy and I think I chose fairly well given that everything seemed to have a sauce but I'm totally guesstimating on the points.

I've been trying to be really on top of  work stuff as I want to take Friday off. I have a wicked amount of yard work to do and the weather is supposed to be nice.  Next week I'm also in an offsite session in Fort McMurray on Monday and Tuesday, so I won't be sitting in front of my computer for three work days. This resulted in me leaving work a little later.

I knew I needed a workout today to get those Activity Points up and to offset the Indian buffet so I got home and immediately changed. I decided to explore more of my closer to home route. At first it felt like I was dragging myself through it and it took until about the 3K mark for me to get into it. When I was getting to the end of my route I started thinking of ways to make it longer.

Today's results:
445 calories burned/ 1hr11/ 7.65K/ Pace 9:34-5:54
Heart rate: avg 69%, max 75%

I definitely wasn't going 100% probably closer to 80%, I was tired but I'm happy I didn't let that stop me.

Tomorrow will also be late day and the afternoon is looking to be especially long. I have 16.5 AP so far this week so that's 1650 calories burned. I do want to earn a few more tomorrow. I'll get a workout in on Friday no matter if I have the day off or not. My goal is no less than 2000 calories burned for the week.

I hope your Wednesday was fantasic, talk to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

Not one single cookie!

I didn't have one single cookie during my site visit this week. I think this is the first time that's ever happened.

After I have the oatmeal for breakfast I go to the "to go" kitchen and pack my lunch for the day. I have to walk by a wall of pastry and cookies. I totally ignored it and grabbed the turkey on whole wheat sandwich, some raw cauliflower and celery and an apple.

This morning when I again packed my lunch in the camp kitchen I grabbed what I thought was the turkey on whole wheat sandwich (it was ham), some chickpea salad and an orange. The sandwiches weren't labelled so I had to guess. This time walking past a table with all the cookies, pastries and muffins.This afternoon when the long days started to get to me I did not go to the vending machine and buy a chocolate bar instead I chewed a piece of gum.

On the plane home I did not get chips, cheezies or a chocolate bar as a snack. I got a fruit bar and bottle of water. Shazaam!!!

Monday after work I went straight to the camp gym and stayed on the treadmill for an hour. I would change the speed every song and found that kept we pretty focused as I tend to bore myself on the treadmill for long periods. My coworker friend stopped by to say she wasn't working out and going to dinner instead. I still had 25min to complete on that treadmill so I said see ya tomorrow and I went for dinner on my own after my workout. 6.8K/ 360 calories burned/ 1hr 10min/ Pace 9:17-8:12.

Tonight when I got home I discovered my milk was bad and I had the thought that I could buy breakfast tomorrow. Then I thought well that's stupid so I headed down to Mac's and got a 1L of milk so I could have breakfast at home tomorrow. I did not fall prey to the Oreos that were in my line of site the moment I walked in. I was tired and feeling a wee off as it was quite a turbulent flight today.

Anytime I started to waiver I just chanted "170" in my head. The game plan to stay focused tomorrow.

Hope you had a fabulous Monday and Tuesday, I'm going to finish watching BL and head to bed.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Handy Girl

I fixed my fence today and I'm quite proud of myself as I did it all on my own. I'm quite happy I was raised to be practical with this sort of stuff.

I'm all packed for my weekly trip and I'm now contemplating what to make for dinner.

Yesterday I was getting a wee bored so I took myself for a walk and I went a different route. I stuck close to home going around one block and then adding more. This is what I often refer to as my extra loops. It was nice to change the scenery a bit. Most of the blocks are about 1km.

369 calories burned/ 59:47/ 6.42K/ Pace 9:18-6:18
Heart rate: Avg 75%, Max 6%

I haven't headed out yet today as I wanted to get all the little chores done and now I'm looking at the sky to see what it's deciding to do. Earlier the weather reports said chance of thunderstorms but so far nothing so I'll see if that's passed. It sort of looks like the sun is trying to make an appearance. I had debated taking the day off from exercise and just be focused on food. I also realized I'm never guaranteed a treadmill at site so I should earn some AP today.

I usually spend weekends all on my own. I don't get lonely but I can get bored so activity is proving to be an excellent way to counter that.

The 10% key chain is now attached to my house keys and will serve as an anchor to keep my thoughts focused on getting to my next mini goal which is 170.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and I hope everyone had a great Sunday.

Hugs!!!

One more tick

One more tick on my goal list, I got my 10% keychain today at WW. Well my 2nd 10% keychain as I've been to this spot before. I'm down 20.4 today and that's the exact weigh I was down when I got my first keychain. Of course the new one is far prettier than the previous version but we'll see how long the shine lasts.

My leader asked me to share my journey. I wasn't crazy about that. All I said was this is my 3rd time trying WW (started with meetings, tried online, went back to meetings), I've got to this point before but this time I'm not stopping.

There is a part of me that's rather disappointed in myself for not following the journey through the first time. Which is why I wasn't so crazy about sharing "my journey". I know that lessons had to be learned for me to truly get it and to truly focus on it. Heck even now that focus can fluctuate but I haven't given up. I'm not afraid of goal and I've learned to focus on mini victories (which might not quite be so apparent in this blog entry) as opposed to the enormity of the final goal.

In my head the true success starts to happen when I break 168lbs. That's the lowest I have ever been while trying to lose weight and that was in my first atttempt at WW. I was there for exaclty one week then I drifted into the 170s and stayed there for a long time. I then stopped going to meetings and tried online. I then drifted within 8lbs of my original start weight of 204lbs before recommitting myself to this journey on Jan 2. Being lower than 168lbs starts a whole new world for me.

Of course I'm proud of being down 20.4, I had a loss of 2.6 today. That's pretty smashing for me who likes to average 1lb per week. The next repeat goal is the 25lb charm, last time it was fridge magnet which I still have. So I guess I can consider that as new as I've never had a charm for the keychain before.

This is how the week broke down.

Total points available: 196 (23 per day plus the 35 Flex)
Points eaten: 210.5
Total APs earned: 21
APs not eaten: 6.5

I wore the Reebok Easytones to work and back yesterday. On the way home I had my computer backpack and some supplies from Walmart to fix the fence. I walked home from Walmart and I was exhausted by the time I got home. I think was partially due to the shoes and the weight of what I was carrying. I definitely feel more bouncy when I wear these.

I picked up the dog when I got home and we went for a 5.6k walk. I switched to my normal runners for this. The dog did effect my pace bringing it to an average of 12:06 thanks to the stopping at every bush for the first while. Later on though she kept me at a pretty good pace. I just did what I normally call my extra loops on my mega walks with one new one. That burned 331 calories.

The dog just went home and I think I'll do laundry. Tomorrow I need to grocery shopping, fix the fence and go for a mega walk. She never left my side today which through a wrench into some of the things I wanted to do.

Today we went for a short walk, I let her decide when we'd turn back and I wore the easytones again.

My focus this week is to keep the momentum going and focus on that 25lbs down.

Hope you had a fabulous Saturday!!

Hugs!!

Walk it out

I don't know where my day went today. It started with a meeting then went to another 3 hour meeting, then had another meeting in the afternoon and shazaam it was time to go home.

At the 3 hour meeting they had muffins from Sunterra. I resisted for a long time but my stomach was growling so I had a muffin. The plus side I wasn't hungry at lunch at all. In the last meeting of the day I got tired and I really had to focus.

When I got home I realized I wasn't freezing in my tights and skirt so the weather was good enough to go for a walk. It was nice I needed that moment to get into the zone.

306 calories burned/ 51:13/ 5.25K/ Pace 9:45-6:45
Heart rate: 72% avg, Max 81%

Not my best time but that's o.k the purpose wasn't to be fast it was just to get some activity and put my focus on something else.

I've been on edge for the past few days and I'm not sure why. I think my brain just thinks to much some times. I analyze, over analyze and then analyze some more. I need to just chill sometimes.

I wore the Reebok Easytones around the house after I got home from my walk. I'll wear them to work and back tomorrow and perhaps when I take the dog for a walk. They definitely feel different then a normal pair of runners.

Short and sweet tonight my friends, I'm zonked.

Hope your Thursday was awesome.

Hugs!!!

December in May

This morning I had to dig out my snow boots and winter jacket as it was -9C when I left for work. There was a dusting of snow all over my lawn and sidewalk. I had a feeling the sidewalk would melt but it's the wind that makes you miserable. If there wasn't wind it's probably closer to -1C.

Don't you just love spring? At one point I was on the main floor of my building and I looked out the window and you would have totally thought we were in the dead of winter.

The mega winds from the other day (80-100K) managed to damage a small portion of my fence. It's totally fixable but I'm not even attempting it until Saturday when it's rumored to be +10C.

I finally tabuluated the damage I did  to myself on Wednesday. I'm seeing a dangerous trend over the past few weeks and that's a ginormous amount of points midweek. So far it has hindered a loss but I'm thinking at some point my luck will run out. With the snow being on the icy side or blowing in your face I did not go for a walk tonight. Tomorrow I need to come home and straighten up as I get the neighbours dog on Friday. Yes, I straighten up for the dog. The dog and I will go for a walk on Friday no matter what the weather condition. I have 14 APs so far this week.

I finished watching BL tonight and I'm happy Sam went home. Now we're down to individual competitors. I thought it was sweet how BL has yet another love story.

Of course I could bring the gym bag tomorrow, hit the treadmill and then come home and straighten up. I'll work on talking myself into that. I'm in meeting after meeting tomorrow so I good jolt of cardio might not be a bad thing.

Got the Reebok Easytones today and I can't wait to try them. I just wore them around my living room and their super comfy.

That's all I got for tonight, hope your Wednesday was fantastic.

Hugs!!

Back to travelling

My first trip back to site wasn’t as traumatic as I thought, the trauma coming from catching a plane so early on a Monday. I had no issues getting up on Monday, actually slept fine on Sunday. Stepped on the scale when I got up at 3:30am and saw 177, very promising as the goal for Saturday is no more than 176. Who knew what I would have seen if I had a few more hours of sleep.


Controlled my eating very well on Monday and I brought a small food scale with me this time. They have precut slices of cheese, well more like rectangle logs of cheese and I’ve had no clue what the measurement would be. I’ve tried the “is it similar in size to my thumb”. I brought the scale to weigh it to know exactly how many points it would be. It turns out too many (its full fat cheese after all) so that got pitched in the garbage. I grabbed a turkey on whole wheat for lunch (no condiments) and I added some mustard, a little relish and a smidgen of plum sauce. Had an oatmeal cookie as dessert (small and thin).

I had received a notification that the bus schedule from site to camp had changed which turns out was not the case so I didn’t get to camp until just before 6pm. My stomach was grumbling and I was tired so I went for dinner first to get some energy. I had the veggie lasagna, as opposed to the hot dog or pizza.

I hit the gym after dinner and managed to grab the last treadmill. The busiest time is probably 6-7pm but if I waited any longer I would have been asleep on the treadmill. It was an especially busy time in the women’s gym and there is one treadmill so I stayed on it for 45min. That resulted in 4.96K, 264 calories burned, 45:23 and pace average of 9:41. There building a new gym and I can’t wait as I’ve heard there are multiple treadmills so there shouldn’t be anyone staring at you until you get off. There are a few more treadmills in the co-ed cardio gym but they were all being used by the boys.

I treated myself to yet another Garmin, this one being the FR60. I don’t smoke, rarely drink and have no dependants, my vice is electronic gadgets. I wanted something more reliable than Nike+ on the treadmill plus something that I can also use just as a heart rate monitor. My other Garmin uses satellite connections so super awesome outside, useless if you’re not technically moving like on a treadmill. What I loved about the Garmin FR60 is I didn’t need to calibrate it and I feel the pace is way more accurate plus I could use it in an aerobics class and just get calories burned. The Nike+ will still be in my life and I think I might just keep it in my work bag for times I’m walking further home or on errands to track it. The great thing about the Nike+ is its light and small.

The moment those Reebok Easytones get to me, they will be my travel to work shoe. I had an email waiting from the neighbour that the package is here but I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Trip home resulted in a one hour delay in Fort McMurray. We were stuck in the plane so thankfully my coworker/friend had his iphone so we played Monopoly – he won and Trivial Pursuit – I won. It also resulted in some not so healthy snacks due to being trapped, hungry and tired. I was doing pretty well today until that but it's o.k. Still 3 days to weigh in. Water has been fabulous over the past two days.

I’m zonked now but still feel a little too wound up to go to bed so I’ll start watching BL and see how far I get.

Hope your last few days were fabulous.

Hugs!!!!

I've come to the conclusion

That I'm not a big fan of big malls.

I got to Chinook about 10min before the opened so I sat down and waited. The aroma in the air was the Cinnzeo and Saucy Pretzel Company. I resisted.

I zipped into Sears and the women's clothing department looked like a bomb went off. It was super messy which immediately turned me off of shopping. I did find a pair of black pants and got 40% off. Then it was off to Payless to exchange a pair of shoes. The salesclerk there was awesome.

I then moved my way to Old Navy, found nothing but super casual clothes there. Also checked out Reitmans and again super casual clothes. I decided to eat something there so I wasn't starving when I got home so I just had a Baby burger at A&W (5pts) and a bottle of water.

I don't do well in giant malls as I find the choices overwhelming. I'm more comfortable looking for work clothes downtown and when their finished renos it will be fantastic.

I went for a walk first thing this morning as I knew I'd be tired after Chinook. Here are the details:

311 calories burned/ 51:31/ 5.26K/ Pace 9:48-6:39
Heart rate: Avg 78%, Max 84%.

Yesterday I was looking through Shaw on Demand and found the series Spartacus. I watched a few episodes last night and will watch a couple tonight. It's going to be early to bed as I have to get on the plane tomorrow morning.

Not sure if I'll be blogging tomorrow as I need to get back into the routine of camp. If not, have a fabulous Monday. I hope you all had a great day today too.

Hugs!!!

That was a wee disappointing

I got up an hour before I had to head to weigh in today as opposed to my usual 2hrs. I got on my scale and got 5 different numbers (I always do 3 to ensure it's not doing something wonky).

I had no idea what the WW scale would say. On my way to weigh in two people tried to kill me. One driver turning left while I was in the middle of the crosswalk and had the walk light. Then another who was exiting a parking lot and almost failed to see me on the sidewalk in his path. I just glared at them and shook my head.

At weigh in I was down 1.4lbs, I'm not sure how that happened.

My base points are 196 that's the daily 23 plus 35 flex.
I earned 24 AP this week.
I ate 234 pts this week that's 38pts over the base points and over 14pts if I added my AP to my base.

Wednesday and Thursday were rather horrible days so I have no idea how I managed a loss.

I flipped back through my tracker and the one thing I noticed is I ate more protein this week then I normally would. Hey I'm not complaining, just a wee confused.

That's 2.2lbs to my 10%, that is my goal for next week. I quite like the new leader Tony, he's positive but straightforward. The discussion today was interesting and I found the cycle of environment, behaviour, capabilties and belief interesting. It's true that most of us can get past the first two but have difficulty accepting we're capable and believe we can hit a certain goal.  I decided to change my end goal to 140 as opposed to 145. 145 would get me to a BMI of 24.9 that's just a smidgen to close to the healthy bmi of 25.

I had decided today that I was going to go to DQ and get a small blizzard. They have the buster bar blizzard this month. One of my all time favourite things is the Peanut Buster Parfait and at 17pts I rarely have it. I've considered the buster bar to be similar and this in a blizzard would be awesome. A small is 14pts. I had it budgeted into my day.

I went for my mega walk and added DQ to the route. I get there and there's no evidence they have the buster bar blizzard. I ask the 12 year old at the till and he says that's next month. I said not according to the commercial and the website saying it starts May 1. I settled for a banana cream pie blizzard (a past favourite).

The moment they handed it to me I could see it was fairly liquid and 10 min after leaving it was soupy. It's changed some how as the flavour wasn't the same. The whole experience was a wee disappointing. The stupid thing is I probably could have had the Peanut Buster Parfait for the 3 extra points.  I've earned a total of 8 APs today.

This was the mega walk:

572 calories burned/ 1:33/ 9.73K/ Pace 9:36 - 5:19
Heart rate: Avg 74%, Max 88%

Plus 2APs for the walk to weigh in and back.

Tomorrow I want to head to Chinook Mall. I need some spring work clothes and one of the new pairs of pants I bought are too big. I thought they were a wee loose in the change room but as I wear them through the day I can tell that they're too big. I'm not a huge fan of this mall as it can get crazy busy so I'm getting there the moment they open at 11 and hope to be out again by 1pm before they get crazy busy. One of the groups I support gave me a $100 gift card for Sears (super nice of them).

Hope you had a wonderful Saturday.

Hugs!!

Just do it

Today was supposed to be my catch up day. I've been in meetings for a few days in a row and all the little stuff starts to collect into giant annoying stuff. I made a good dent in today which I'm happy with.

The major discussions today were all about the weather yesterday more specifically about snow. It's amazing how that brings people together.

Got a nice walk in at lunch by accident as a few of us had errands to do so we did them together.

Stayed on track all day today which would make that one of the few this week. I just finished tracking yesterday and today. Yesterday due to the crazy weather I didn't make it to Starbucks for my grande non-fat caramel macchiato (4pts) instead I went to Second Cup and thought I got something comparable. I got a medium skim milk butter pecan latte. I just entered it into the point calculator. It's 8pts. Whaaaatttt! How can two non fat flavoured lattes have such a different point range. All of the Second Cup flavoured lattes are higher in points than Starbucks. I don't drink sugar free flavouring so it's not like one was splenda and one wasn't.

I knew I needed a bit of a last chance workout so my mission was to go for a walk when I got home. I got home, changed and headed out. This what I did:

469 calories burned/ 1:19/ 7.92K/ Pace 10:00-5:49. It felt like I was going slow the entire time and not once did I feel in the zone. I just kept telling myself "just do it". I did wind up with a feeling of accomplishment when I got home as I pushed through my sucky attitude.

I did sign up for the Weight Watchers Walk-It Challenge on June 23rd at participating Canadian Running Room locations. It's 5K and it's free. You can buy a t-shirt for $10. I opted to not do that.  My two co-workers who are doing WW online are doing it as well so it should be fun.

Weigh in looms tomorrow so I'll see if I kept my tentative hold on the 170s.

Hope your Friday was fun.

Hugs!!!

Whoever discovered waterproof mascara is a genius

Some wild weather in Calgary this morning. We got snow last night and I being a conscientious home owner thought I should shovel the sidewalk. It was like shovelling slush. This was super wet snow and it was still falling...well more like pelting.

I went to my bus stop with the oh so positive hope that it would show up. My side of the street wasn't so bad snow wise but the sidewalk by my bus stop had 4cm of slush and it was often difficult to figure out where the sidewalk began. I waited for 15min and no bus. I then decided to walk to the more busy road and catch a bus there.

This involved walking about 5 blocks, 4 of them with the snow/ice blasting me directly in the face. It wasn't pleasant and it was blowing so hard I couldn't even see properly as it was pelting me in the eye. At one point I was walking with my bag in front of my face to try to block some snow. The wind was so strong it actually made me falter. I must have looked drunk or like a zombie or like a drunken zombie. However my mascara was intact. I can't speak for the rest of my makeup.

The minute this stuff hit you it melted into water so I was a drowned rat on the bus. I had a day full of interviews today and shockingly all 5 people made it. This was a miracle as 2 were flying and 3 were driving fair distances.

I finally hit the gym after work and I wasn't getting off that treadmill until I burned off 400 calories. I'm starting to think of weigh in. This week has been rough food wise but I know it's a blip. Whenever I first enter a new point range I sort of freak out.

Tonight's results:

404 calories burned/ 1:12/ 6.83K/ Pace 10:34 (which is bunk). I was truckin' on that treadmill...damn you nike +.

On the way home the majority of the snow had melted (amazing) but now I can hear the ice chunks falling off the trees and hitting my roof and front steps. It's a wee freaky I must say.

I think it may be decent enough to walk outside tomorrow. I need to lug my computer home tomorrow so I will attempt an outside walk so I don't need lug the gym bag and the computer. I've decided that next week I start encorporating strength training and this weekend I will come up with a plan. I know I must ease back into that. I still have all the workouts written down from when I was seeing the trainer so I'll flip back to the beginning.

I hope your Thursday was fantastic and dry.

Hugs!!!

It's raining, no wait it's snowing, no wait it's raining..no it's snowing

I left for work this morning thinking the forecast was rain for today. I get to work and co-worker tells me that they forecasted 10cm of snow.

I go down to reception and one receptionist tells me someone told her 20cm and then the other receptionist says that someone told her it's 30cm.

For most of the day everytime I looked out the window it looked like a blizzard, but no snow was staying on the ground it was melting. I worked late today and decided to forego the gym as I didn't know what traffic would be like with the wacky weather. When I left it looked like rain and of course I left the umbrella in the gym bag. The gym bag is remaining in my office as the plan is to go tomorrow. By the time I got home it was no full fledged snow. I'm curious to see what will be out there tomorrow morning.

I just zipped through my bloglines and I notice a recurring theme. Quite a few of us are having some issues staying on track lately. I'm feeling it too. Yesterday it was the cookies today wasn't so bad but I didn't feel at my best. I don't think stormy weather and cramps are helping. I'm looking forward to the ww meeting this week. I already know that the topic is managing your environment but I think I need that right now.

Am I the only one who was not so sad to see O'Neal go home yesterday on Biggest Loser? I'm not enjoying the two intact teams helping each other when so many people are without a partner now. Of course they're going to help each other but I think it's important that they experience this on their own as well. Now I want one of the grey team to go home. I still don't particularly care who wins and I hope next season has someone to connect with.

I caved and ordered a pair of the Reebok Easytones, I researched further and found some encouraging comments of people who've tried it. I went with Reebok as I like that they still look like a normal runner and don't look like moon boots. I will report back once I have a chance to try them out. I will approach this as a scientific experiment. I figure I'd use them on shorter distances and use my tried and true Mizunos for my longer distances. Divide my walks into cardio and toning which would mean walking more often. I should have them either by the end of this week or beginning of next.

I'm heading back to site on Monday, it feels like a ages since I've been there. The two fantastic chefs have moved on to other positions and I heard the food quality has dipped. One of my co-workers told me it's been hot dogs and pizza for dinner every night. Hmmm..I might be packing two sandwiches to avoid that. We shall see.

Hope your Wednesday went well and always remember a new day starts tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

Cookie Monster...coookkkieesss

That was me today and I don't know what came over me. My co-worker had cookies in her office and I tried one this morning. They were small chocolate chip cookies and they were soft and gooey. I had 5 throughout the day. I also polished off the chocolates I bought from another coworker (fundraiser) I had only been eating one everyone once in awhile as their 1pt each and quite content to leave the box alone. There were 6 left in the box. My patience evaporated today. I'm not normally a big fan of cookies either. Oreos yes, homemade yes, cookie dough yes (I avoid oreos and don't bake cookies unless they're immediately going elsewhere) but other store bought not that much until I met these ones. It goes without saying that should any be there tomorrow I'm not touching them. I thought I had dogged the hormone fueled  snackapalooza food fest last week but oh no it still reared it's ugly head.

Had a salad for lunch from Sunterra market (chickpeas served as protein) and dinner was yet another salad type of thing (tomato, turkey bite, red onion, fig balsamic dressing).

Once the sugar fixation begins it's definitely difficult to wrangle it in. I am happy that I kept it together at lunch and dinner. Now I'm sitting with my 1L water bottle and watching Biggest Loser.

I did stop off on the mall on my home and walked home. I was truckin' and even had a neighbour comment on my fast pace. Tomorrow rain is forecasted so I'm packing the gym bag and the nike +.

The plan is not written off because of goofey moments in a day. Heck I'm not giving up today as I can definitely finish strong.

Hope cookie monster didn't invade your Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

Crise de coeur!

OMG mild heart attack (crise de coeur in french)  when I went to go type this as my laptop keyboard wasn't responding. I restarted and it still the keyboard wouldn't work. I then shut the whole thing down and waited. At the same time I was plotting a journey to the nearest Staples for repair if needed. Thank goodness everything was fine when I booted it up.

Oy vey so on to what I was originally going to talk about. I did head out for a mega walk yesterday as I was cut short by the weather the day before.

Here's what I did on Sunday:
431 calories burned/ 1:11/ 7.27K/ Pace 9:50- 4:06
Heart rate: Avg 72%, Max 81%

It felt like I was dragging myself through this but I was focused on getting it done.

After supper the sneezing fits began again so I grabbed the buckley's tablets and headed to bed early. Woke up on my own at 5am and decided that was too early to get up so I stayed in bed till 7:30. That about as late as I can do "sleeping in".

Headed out for another mega walk today and decided to do my 8K route in reverse. It's so odd doing my route backwards as all the inclines and declines are in different stops and there are entirely different views.

Today's walk:
484 calories burned/ 1:18/ 8.22K/ Pace 9:33 - 5:58
Heart rate: Avg 69% Max 77%

At some points I felt totally in the zone where it doesn't even feel like I'm paying attention to where I am I'm just going. There were times it felt like I was dragging myself through today as well.

Got home and tried the new KD Smart where the noodles are made with cauliflower and whole wheat. It was alright I found the noodles to be a bit gummy and think I prefer the all whole wheat version. Thus far I've been sneeze free.

I think I've seen the Reebok Easytone commercial 200 times this weekend and what kills me is all those legs and butts featured most likely belong to 16 year old models and not to anyone who has needed to get in shape. These shoes are popping up everywhere, began with MBT and now Reebok, Skechers and Payless have their own version as well.

I don't know if this is a fad or has benefits. I tried researching earlier today and I can't find anything on the scientific proof behind these shoes. Two of my co-workers bought the Skechers versions and they use it on their "leisurely" walks i.e. shopping- their words not mine. I can't see anyone getting any benefits from these unless they use them consistently and for a certain period of time. I'd like to know if anyone has actually seen success with these things and for how long they used them plus average workout/walk time. When I go for a walk is a minimum 45min to an hour and it's not leisurely so I'm not sure if these things would be an added benefit or annoying.

I get why the whole easy concept would be appeal to people but I think that's massively misleading. I believe getting fit takes work, discipline and dedication. I would love it to be easy but then I would feel totally irritated if it didn't work. Goodness knows the health/ weight loss world is filled with gimmicks.

Have any of you tried them or heard of people trying them?

Tomorrow I have to stop into Walmart on the way home and thought I'd pick up a few groceries as well so not sure if I'll go for a mega walk or just walk home from the mall.

I think that's all I have for today, I hope your Monday is going well.

Hugs!!!

Snow can change your plans

Yes I said snow...more on that  later.

Yesterday when I headed out for my mega walk I noticed rather dark ominous clouds and a whole lot of wind. I remember hearing there was a chance of thunderstorms but I thought just keep going as I might get done before it started to rain.

I was wrong. I was probably at the 3K mark when something started to fall from the sky. It seemed to start of as wee snow flakes then it turned into big droplets of rain. I wasn't really dressed for that and keeping in mind that I didn't want to make myself more sick if I actually was sick. I decided to cut it short and head home. I still had 1.6K to go to get home and I was soaked when I got there.

Here are the details:
278 calories burned/ 44:17/ 4.6K/ Pace 9:37-6:27
Heart rate: Avg 74%, Max 82%

I changed into dry clothes and then noticed the snow and it was coming down fast. This morning there is snow all over my front and back yard.

My dad got 8 inches of snow which means he's snowed in. He called to say he's not coming in today and probably not tomorrow as 8 inches means plowing and that could take days. I was expecting that when last night just as my snow started he already had 3 inches. So I'll call and cancel his appointment tomorrow, we'll have to wait it out and see what the weather does to rebook as more snow is forecasted later in the week. Now I have Monday off for no particular reason but that's o.k. I feel better than yesterday and haven't sneezed at all (mind you I'm on the cold meds) but an extra day of rest is probably not a bad idea. Plus I have a whack of reading to do for the new class I just started.

I did redo the points quiz yesterday using the WW booklet and I do indeed drop a point. In a way not having the temptation of dad's food today ( i.e. his  potato salad - which I love, love, love) might not be a bad thing. I always find losing a point a bit of an adjustment so it will be good to get in the groove.

I don't know if I'll be heading out today or not. Weather network says it could go to +7 here in Calgary and it does I might attempt another mega walk, if not today definitely tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Hugs!!!

A new decade

Down 0.8 today which has put me into the 170s...barely by a whopping 0.2. When I was standing on the scale at weigh in I half thought it was because I forgot my watch that sent me into the 170s. In all seriousness I remember weighing once and the scale kept flipping between two numbers and the weigh in person told me to take my watch off. The scale stopped on the lower number. My watch is not a monster watch either.

Mind you on the home scale I was lower at 178.6. I re-did the points formula on e-tools to figure out if I'm heading into a new daily point range using my WW weigh in weight and it said no change. I'm going to track down book one and double check that as I wonder.

I'm was happy with 0.8 as this week had 3 days where I was out of comfort zone and access to foods I could control.

The topic today was success on weekends and we met our new leader Tony, one of two male WW leaders in the city. I liked him he seems alright. He did say something that made me think. He told us how he would take the weekends off the plan and then be using the rest of the week to make up for it. He also said there are 120 days in a year's worth of weekends. That's 1/3 of the year.

I generally use Saturday as my treat day. I still track it but this is the day I could have something I wouldn't normally have. I always plan to be 100% on plan the next day but I can't say that's 100% successful.

This past weekend I did well I also earned a monster amount of activity points on Saturday. Where this week went pear shaped was my 45 pt day on Wednesday. I did go over in pts by 6 and that's above the daily pts + flex points + activity pts. I think what saved me this week was the walk I took yesterday which netted me 20 APs for the week.

I'm not going to plan any treats today, I will be going for a mega walk later and I walked to and from weigh in so there will be a good amount of activity pts. Knowing that Dad is coming tomorrow might change my eating behaviour a bit as he likes to bring the food (doesn't think I can cook) so I want to keep the FP relatively intact just in case I need to use them tomorrow.

So the plan is further embed myself into the 170s.

Might be back later with the results of the walk. Woke up today feeling fine and then an hour later I started sneezing. I started to feel a wee stuffed up so I picked up cold medication. I did spend two days with people feeling under the weather so I want to nip this in the bud.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Hugs!!!

Why not?

Back in the office for a full day today after my many days out of the office this week. Got a fair bit done but there will be a few things I'll need to take care of this weekend from home so I'm sorted for Tuesday.

Eating was better today, water not as good as I would have liked. I kept forgetting as I was so focused on what I was doing.

On the way home from work I finally picked up the package waiting for me at the post office, dropped off a perscription and stopped in at Safeway in search of WW hot dog buns. They didn't have any so I left with the skinny ones that look more like some kind of flat bread taco shell. Also picked up a box of KD Smart. I walked home from the mall.

I got home had the leftover whole wheat KD I had in the fridge.

Called Dad to ask why he wanted to come in on Saturday when his appointment is on Monday. My dad loves his house and even though my house is his old house he gets bored here. At his house he has the geraniums (other wise known as my siblings - I'm an only child) and his little projects. Then he told me he was going to ask me if it was o.k if he came in on Sunday. So this means I can actual sit through the whole WW meeting tomorrow and not do a drop in weigh in. People always ask me if he'll move back to Calgary one day and I think that will only happen if it absolutely has to. He loves his house.

Then I got a little case of the munchies. I had virtually no protein today and I can feel it. So I was sitting on the couch watching the pvr realizing this would be an up hill battle tonight when it all of a sudden hit me. Why don't I go for a walk. It was 7pm the sun was shining the weather a little cooler so I changed my clothes and headed out.

488 calories burned/ 1:17/ 8.03K/ Pace 9:40 - 6:31
Heart rate: Avg 84%, Max 91%

That is my highest heart rate yet. I was in the zone and I could have kept going but thought soon it will be dark so I should wrap it up. This is after a full day of work. This just shows to embrace the opportunity when it arises.

Hope your Friday went well.

Hugs!!!

How quickly plans change

The second day of the conference was way better than the first and I'm relieved as it would have been disappointing if there wasn't at least aha moment.

My favourite speaker by far was Marcus Buckingham. I'm remember seeing him on Oprah a while ago but it's super cool to see him in person.

After it was finished I went back to the Hyatt with my co-worker and we used their gym for a workout before heading to dinner. OMG they have a nice gym with 4 treadmills and these wet face clothes that seem to be seeped in eucalyptus or something but very refreshing. Got a quick 30min workout on the treadmill in.

I got home phoned my Dad to see what happened at the eye doctor to find out he's been referred to a specialist in Calgary and has an appointment on Monday. There's no way I'm going to site and not going with him to the specialist so I'll have to cancel that trip tomorrow and I'll take Monday off. Of course Dad said not to worry and just go to site. Yeah that's not going to happen. I'd be useless anyway as I'd just be wondering what was going on. Have I told you my Dad is 87. He's super independant (as am I) but when a specialist of any kind is involved I go to get the full story as Dad tends to leave out important pieces of information when relaying stuff back to me. So he's coming to stay with me from Saturday to Monday.

This morning I filled in all of yesterday's food in my tracker and realized that it was a bit worse than I had originally thought. I was much better today but not sure what the scale will say on Saturday. I had 3 days this week where I was out of my normal comfort zone.

Well I hope you all had a great Thursday.

Hugs!!!

I call that seriously unprepared

I too am looking forward to the make-over episode of BL and wonder what they'll do to Daris and Mike's hair. I'm kind of happy Victoria was booted as I didn't think she truly embraced the experience of the ranch.

Day one of conference went alright. Opening session was entertaining but completely unrelated to anything I do. Second session seemed like a waste of time as there was no new information.

The after lunch session was quite frankly disgusting. The presenter was totally unprepared. He was 3min into it when he realized he had the wrong power point. It seemed like he just sort of made stuff up as he went. It wasn't cohesive and people were walking out. What! I can't believe that you're about to present to about 80 people and you didn't double check your stuff. That's ridiculous.

End session was better - thank goodness. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. I have to report back with all I learned to my team and so far I don't have a whole lot to share.

At Loungeburger I had the veggie burger and it was pretty good, it kind of fell apart when you ate it but there were real vegetables in there. We ordered the chocolate fondue for dessert split among the three of us. The waitress came and told us it normally comes with cream puffs but they were out and is it o.k that it's only fruit. The 3 of us enthusiastically said "no problem". Tomorrow we're going to The Palomino for dinner. I haven't been there in ages. I love to take out of town folks to places that are unique. Palomino is definitely unique.

Today food was not perfect but could have been worse. I was super full by the time I got home and that just felt awful. Nothing a shot of alka seltzer won't fix. My weak point of the day was a disappointing lunch - wound up eating primarily raw vegetables which made the dessert section very appealing. I had one square of carrot cake maybe an inch and half in a wide but then I saw baklava and I had to have one. Honestly I thought I did pretty good watching other plates go by.

Tomorrow I'm bringing my gym bag and working out with my co-worker S at the hotel gym after the conference wraps up. She's on WW too and I think we kept each other in pretty good check today. She's staying in a really nice hotel so I'm sort of looking forward to a change of scenery plus the opportunity to check out their gym and an opportunity to break in the new Mizunos (pictured) . I wasn't thrilled that they were pink as all my other pairs have been blue but it's not a deal breaker and perhaps I'm do for a change.

Alright my friends hope your Wednesday was fabulous.

Hugs!!

Caused a wee fuss

I wore a skirt to work today and to be completely honest in the almost 2 years I've worked there they've never seen me in a skirt. Well I did go to the interview in a skirt but the whole group didn't see me.

I got loads of complements today which was super nice. I plan to wear them more often as the ones I have in my closet finally fit once again. Plus with the warmer weather it's a nice option. The only drawback is I can't go without nylons as I am uber pale (and prefer it that way). I do feel I could blind people if I don't have any sort of colour and I can't be bothered with continually applying self tan. I plan to the all over body spray tan before Vegas.

At lunch I exchanged my Adidas and I wanted a pair of my Mizuno Wave Alchemy's. I thought I had this down as I knew exactly what I wanted. Well I walk back to the shoe wall and my shoe is gone. The helper dude tells me they packed them up to ship to a different store. The shipment hadn't gone out yet so he rescued a pair for me. Can you imagine if I had waited a day but thank goodness for their solid customer service. That's a shout out to the Sport Check in downtown Calgary (it is a pretty nice store) .  I whipped into the Bay in search of more nylons and got completely overwhelmed by the options. I decided to got to Walmart instead as I won't get lost in all the options.

When I got home I immediately changed and headed out for a mini - mega walk.

The new runners will now be my indoor pair and my old indoor pair are now my outdoor pair. I took them for a spin.

There was super strong wind tonight and at one point I had a long stretch facing straight into it. When I finally out of it I actually felt tired from pushing myself through it.

317 calories burned/51:46/5.17K/ Pace 10:00- 6:28
Heart rate: 76% avg, 83% max

I don't know if I was just slow today or if it was the wind but I found my 5K route to just right tonight. I have been tired today and I blame that on my long day yesterday.

Tomorrow I head into a two day conference. I'm looking forward to it and my Fort McMurray co-workers and I are going here for dinner. Not exactly point friendly but one can make better choices and keep focused on the day. I think I met get the veggie burger and swap out the cheddar bun for whole wheat. I will have fries as there pretty fabulous here. I still have a decent amount of flex points left if necessary. One of my co-workers is also doing WW in Fort McMurray so she and I will keep each other focused as I have no clue what the options will be for food. They do offer breakfast each day but I'll be having breakfast at home and I just hope they have some fresh fruit that I can use as a snack.

Watching BL as I type this and I still don't have a favourite player.

I hope you all had a fabulous Tuesday.

Hugs!!!

And home again

It's been a long day but an alright day. I went into to work my normal time this morning which is very early. I did some printing then it was off to find a cab to the airport.

Had a super friendly security dude on my way to Edmonton which was refreshing as I often find they're grumpy. Found my co-worker with little issue and we were off to Sherwood Park. Found our office there and got set up for a day of meetings. Co-worker and I had a good day and got along really well. At one point we thought co-worker would miss his plane to Fort Mac but we made it in time. Had another friendly security person on my way home - bizarre. 

The closest food option for lunch was a vietnamese restaurant. I rarely eat Vietnamese so I guessed on how to track it by breaking down the components. I was hungry-ish on the way home as my plane wasn't leaving until 7pm so I bought an outrageoulsy over priced bag of Crispy Mini tortillas and snacked on those. I was rather proud of myself as there a bizillion chocolate bars to choose from and I went with the Crispy minis.

Now I'm just winding down and heading to bed.

I have to get myself sorted tomorrow for really not being around on Wed and Thurs due to the conference I'm going to.

I am planning a mega walk for when I get home as there was no activity tonight due getting home late.

Hope you all had a fabulous Monday.

Hugs!!

Nature's Sprinkler

I headed out for a walk right after breakfast today. I had planned that today would be all about the housework as I've been negligent over the past couple of weeks. I knew if I didn't make exercise a priority and do it first thing I'd feel too tired to do it later.

Here are the details from  yesterday and today:
Saturday: 552 calories burned/ 1:29/ 8.06K/ Pace 9:58-5:00
Today: 361 calories burned/ 57min/ 6.01K/ Pace 9:32 - 5:40
Heart rate 79% avg/ 87% max - this was similar both days.

I was about half way around the route I planned when I felt water falling on my head, I thought it was a sprinkler as the sun was shining. I looked around and there water droplet marks all over the road and sidewalk all along my route. I always find that bizarre when it's sunny and raining. It was pretty light and ended shortly after.

Then I buckled down and did 2 loads of laundry, dusted, hoovered (including the furniture), washed all the floors, washed the dishes and folded the laundry. Now all there is left to do is put the laundry away and maybe dry the dishes.

Now I'm debating if I really need to bring hand cream to my one day in Edmonton so I can avoid taking anything "liquid". I'm leaving the computer at work and just working off the blackberry for the day as well.

I've written 178 on all the pages of my 3 month journal for this week as I'm 100% focused on attaining that or better on Saturday. Snackapalooza week is approaching and that focus must be sharp.

Water has gone very well today and yesterday and I've got the rest of my day planned out food wise with no deviations.

I bought some instant oatmeal to take with me to site and I wound up going with the 100% oatmeal in the single packs so there's no flavouring whatsoever or added sugar. I figure I can add my own flavouring  if necessary. I tested it out in the microwave today and it was great consistency wise.

While grocery shopping yesterday I found a new single serving snack food called Smartfood. I've never seen it before. First ingredient was brown rice and there's 5g of fibre per serving. A review is coming as it's on my food list for today.

I've decided to return my Adidas cross trainers as they feel funny on my arch. I found a pair of Champion runners at Payless that will work just fine for non- running/walking options plus they feel way more comfortable than the Adidas. I'm going to exchange them towards a pair of my go to runner Mizuno Wave Alchemy as it's starting to look like I need a new pair.

I'm taking a Labour Relations course through the University of Athabasca and the whole process was confusing me as there didn't seem to be a start and end date of the class. Yesterday I discovered that I have 6 months to complete the class and can do it sooner as well. I've never had that before but then again I've never taken a class through an "open" University either. We'll see how this goes but I'm shooting for 13 weeks to completion.

So totally random today but that's just the way I write :)

Hope your Sunday is going well and I'll type to you later.

Hugs!!!

Whew!

In reference to yesterday's post, yes I know I need to dress the body I have it's just the finding what looks best exhausts me and it's far more routed in my self esteem than anything else. I do love fashion magazines and shows like Project Runway and the whole purpose of the Fashionist Fund is to add motivation to the goal and re-invent myself.

Now on to other things.

I seriously had no idea what the weigh in scale would say today. I stepped on and off my home scale a dozen times before I left to get some idea. My home scale showed a gain no matter how many times I stepped on. Fine, I accept that as I didn't have the greatest week for the following reasons:

• didn't drink enough water - I barely got 4 cups a day in
• while activity started well (Sat - Mon) I did absolutely nothing Tue - Fri
• food decisions weren't fantastic and I could have handled that better

I did my normal routine of going to Starbucks on the way to weigh in but today I packed a snack instead of buying something, eating half of it and throwing the rest out. I took one piece of bread and made a peanut butter sandwich. I grabbed a Toffee Nut latte at Starbucs and headed over to WW.

I was actually down .4, while I stood there I actually saw 179 flash by but it didn't stay. I'm happy, it's a loss and I'll take it. I know where I went wrong this week and that can be fixed.

We had a sub leader named Barb, she was quite fun and pretty funny. She told us she thinks Tony will be a permanent leader. I've never had a male leader before. Should be interesting.

I am facing a challenging week ahead as I need to be in Edmonton all day Monday and then I'm in a conference all day Wed and Thurs. All this means is planning is key. I bought a gigantic bag of snap peas that will make a handy snack, I also bought a few more frozen veggies as not to waste too many fresh veggies.

I'm heading out for a mega walk shortly before it gets too warm outside it's supposed to be 19C today.

Alright my friends I might be back later to post the mega walk results but if not have a super fabulous Saturday.

Hugs!!!

Mission accomplished

I've written a few times about how all my pants are too big. It was getting a little ridiculous. I tried wearing a belt - the belt is too big. While that is showing my success it's also making me anxious. I despise clothes shopping.

I only buy clothes out of necessity, I can not roam around a mall going in and out of clothing stores. I also avoid trying stuff on whenever possible. I am the person who when I find what fits buys one in every colour. It's rare for me to get excited about clothing. It occasionally happens, but far more likely about something casual like a hoody. You should know by now my love of hoodies.

For years I've looked at clothes as "this is my in between clothes". They're for the inbetween of losing weight and goal weight. Now in all those years I've never hit goal but in my head I think I'll enjoy shopping for clothes more when I get there.

Today at lunch I was roaming around with my work buddies and I saw the Bay was having a sale. I decided to go back after work in search of new dress pants.

I did score replacement pairs and a size smaller than the old pairs. However I'm still a long way from goal and it was still annoying to look at myself in the mirror seeing if they camfoulaged or made me look bigger. Of course shopping at the Bay is painful it itself. The store downtown is old and unorganised. I'm also cheap, I refuse to pay a lot for something will not fit me soon (this is the plan anyway). I did stumble across a pair of Ralph Lauren pants at $138 and immediately put them back, maybe when I'm at a size I'm happy to stay at I can then justify investing into more quality.

Strangely I can spend hours in a book store or a drug/cosmetics store.

A few weeks ago I was watching Cityline and they were showing the Converse store in Toronto. I saw a pair of plaid sneakers that I immediately coveted. I searched high and low online and could not find anything. I have my work shoes and then I have my running shoes. I need inbetween shoes. Then I saw the Payless Shoes commercial. I popped into today and picked up the shoes in the picture. Their cute and very appropriate plus plaid. They were on sale for under $20. I'm guessing at minimum 1/3 the price of the Converse version.

Now weigh in loomes tomorrow. I've had a hard time this week and I think it has to do with being really busy. I'm not sure what I'll see tomorrow. I tapped out at 12 APs this week and they were all earned at the beginning of the week. Water consumption has been terrible this week despite good intentions. I seriously doubt I'll see the 170s this week. I'm not throwing in the towel or anything just preparing myself for the WW scale tomorrow.

Alright, that's all I got. Type to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

That's just weird

Yesterday I left my gym bag at home as I saw that we should have +8C by the time I got home. Well when I got home there was also mega wind so no workout for me.

I had lunch bought for me yesterday and we went to Wendy's. I had the Jr. Hamburger meal and I did eat all my fries. What I didn't realize is I totally miscounted my day and that left me with 1pt for dinner. So I had a bowl of cut up tomatos with one tbl spoon of Fig Balsamic dressing. It was yummy.

Then about an hour later I went prowling for food. I was not satisfied so I had one Girl Guide cookie, one piece of Velveeta thin, some Liberte Moka yogurt and it was totally ridiculous. Last night I wrote in my paper journal as opposed to the blog as I had to sort out what happened. What I should have done is write in the journal before I started prowling not after to catch that behaviour before it's in action.

This morning I weighed myself and I'm at my lowest weight this week...what? I totally expected to see a higher number than the day before. I got home tonight and weighed myself still lower than yesterday.

I got lunch paid for again today but today I made a smarter choice. I got the pasta with tomato basil sauce at Sunterra Market and ate half of it. I ate slowly and paid attention to how I was feeling. I just had some perogies for dinner with one of turkey burgers that were in the freezer and I'm sated plus on plan.

I had to pick up a package after work so I wound up taking a different bus. Wowsers are they making progress on West LRT (light rail transit). Many of the stops have been moved by 3 blocks or more due to the construction. It's craziness, this thing is supposed to be done in 2012 and at the rate their going it might be sooner. This also resulted in a longish walk home from that bus stop so I'm counting that as my activity tonight.

That's all I got for now.

Hugs!!!

Hamburger and sushi

That's what I had for lunch today but more on that later.

It was like walking into Evian mist when I left this morning. There was a wet fog clinging in the air and it was quite refreshing until I hit the street where my bus stop was. A fine sheen of ice was forming on that sidewalk so I got to walk like a penguin one more time.

I decided to swing by Cleo’s at lunch time to see if I could find some new dress pants. Alas it didn’t go well as it looked like all they had were odds and ends. The whole store was definitely leaning towards more casual dressing i.e. cargo pants and shorts. I found nothing there which is disappointing. I hate shopping for dress pants. I like to find one style that works then buy one in each staple colour i.e. black, grey and brown. This will take more effort now and better left for a day off then the quick turnaround of lunch hour.

I was in TD Square which has a great sushi place called Zushi, so I grabbed a tray of veggie sushi. I had veggie sushi for lunch yesterday as well but from a different place. I had virtual no protein yesterday until supper and I could totally feel it when I was on the treadmill. So I swung into McDonald’s and grabbed a plain hamburger. What I should have asked for was a hamburger but I didn’t see it on the menu so I described it as a “plain” hamburger. They gave me a plain burger alright no ketchup, no onions and no pickles. Thank goodness I had a ketchup packet in my desk. Lunch was pretty good I must say.

I didn’t bring my gym bag today as I wanted to swing by Sport Check for a pair of cross trainers after work. I want a pair to use in the non-walking/running situations like step aerobics, zumba (which I want to try) and anything else that requires jumping...like punk rope which I have yet to try. Since my runners are specifically designed to deal with over-pronating I definitely don’t want to jump in them as that can wreck the shoe. I left with a pair of Adidas Nirvana (?), at least this what I think they're called. They're freakishly light which I guess is a cross trainer thing.

I got home made dinner and tried something new. I steamed some green beans and added a tablespoon of melted Epicure Red Pepper Jelly (1pt) , it wasn't bad. I had that with a stuffed chicken breast and some watermelon.

I've decided to sit on the couch and watch other people workout tonight i.e. Biggest Loser. There as awfully cold wind out there and my dad told me that we're forecasted to get 2-4cm of snow. The gym bag is going to work tomorrow.

Hugs!!

Duh

Despite good intentions I had an altercation with Ben&Jerry. More specifically the Ben&Jerry's cookie dough ice cream in my freezer. I had put it out of my head but last night I went prowling for a snack as I didn't have dinner after the epicure party. I managed to finish off the container in a blink of the eye.

That was a duh moment.

All is not lost, I just have 2 flex points for the rest of the week and I have not eaten any activity points this week either. I had 9 aps as of yesterday.

Today I planned carefully to bring it back to plan and that's been going well. I hit the treadmill in the company gym after work. For the longest time I thought the treadmills were off and then I realized these treadmills measure speed by per kilometre. Every other treadmill I've encountered measures per mile.

That was a duh moment.

The Nike+ definitely seems to have issues measuring pace on the treadmill. Here are the details from todays workout:

316 calories burned, 5.3K, 56:22, pace 10:37 I was going at very good pace and was sweating to prove it, yet it says I'm slower than when I'm outside.

I also realized the treadmills in the company gym are very quiet, all I could hear was my feet hitting the tread. I do think I need to make a treadmill playlist as I need fast tunes on that thing to avoid being very bored.

I had a silly realization yesterday. There are Trader Joe's in Nevada. The blog world is always talking about it and I rarely go to the U.S but when I go to Vegas I could swing by TJ. It's just a thought.

Once the weather gets a little better (it's snowing) I'm going to pick up a new WW scale. Once again today came up with 3 different numbers this morning.

Alright a wee bit random but that was my day.

Hugs!!

One of these things is not like the other

It was a wee bit of bizarre day today.

Not so much at first as I was just doing some household chores waiting for the temperature outside to warm up a bit. It was -10C when I got up and I could have headed out for a walk in that but I thought I'd wait a bit and do laundry first.

I headed out just before 10am and this is the result:

321 calories burned/ 50:24/ 5.27K/ Pace 9:34-5:23
Heart rate: Avg 72% Max 79%

I thought the heart rate results were odd as it felt like I was going a super decent pace. I was wearing it a little lower on the chest than I normally do as it felt more comfortable so not sure if that messed up the results. It was also a wee chilly outside so not sure if that's a factor.

I hit orange on the Nike+ tracking. I don't use the Nike+ as often as I do the garmin but I think I'll use both more now. I kind of like seeing my progress on the Nike+

This afternoon was the Epicure party at my neighbours house. Shockingly I found more stuff to try even though I bought a whack of stuff from H-Woman just before Christmas.

I felt odd at this party as I was surrounded by suburbia. I'm an anomaly in my neighbourhood as I'm single, no kids and under 65. Lately it seems my neighbourhood is all people with kids or seniors. 

Every woman there had kids and knew each other via the kids i.e. school, soccer, girl guides. I did recognize one woman from WW meeting (I always sit behind her). I knew a couple of them as they live near by. I've never hung out with any of these people it would more be a hello on the street.

The conversations typically focused on husbands or kids. I didn't say much. A couple of them commented on seeing me walking by. I'm hard to miss in my very purple Adidas climacool hoody.

The party was well organized as there were loads of dips to try. I kept myself in check and didn't go crazy on the sampling - it was very tempting. I had 8pts left for the day before I went plus the 3 activity pts. I'm not sure how to count anything. There were numerous mentions of low fat yogurt and such but without knowing for sure what's in it I have to guess. Dinner (if I'm hungry) will most likely be vegetables. I was a wee above 180 on the scale so 170s this week is entirely doable.

This morning I also made a veggie chili that clocks in at 3pts per serving and gobs of fibre. It was completely off the top of my head and consists of kidney beans, black beans, corn, peppers (red, yellow, orange), onion and the spices - chili, chipotle chili, paprika, oregano, salt, pepper. I just let the whole thing simmer when I went for a walk. It's portioned out and in the freezer.

I'm debating on packing the gym bag for tomorrow as snow is forecasted (5cm from tonight to tomorrow afternoon). A part of me just wants to suck it up and go outside when I get home. I like the being in the zone with the tunes and no sounds of whirring machines. However I also know the majority of my neighbours suck at clearing their sidewalks.

I should just pack the gym bag then no matter what I'm getting some sort of exercise. I'll go do that know so it's right next to the door before I leave tomorrow.

I hope you're enjoying your Sunday.

Hugs!!

Another sticker!

Got another 5lb sticker today (some of the stickers look a little ratty as they used to be on the weigh in book - in Alberta we still use the paper weigh in book and not in this one but I decided I like them better on this book). That's down 15.2 since rejoining WW with my 2lb loss and down 23 from my original start weight. That's 4.8lbs from the new 10%. That's $300 in my Fashionista Fund (I "pay" myself $20 per pound).

When I stepped on the home scale I saw 179.8 mind you I was in my pyjamas. This week the home scale was all over the map. Everytime I stepped on a different number so I had no clue what I'd see at weigh in.

The topic today was making activity a goal. It was a bit odd to think I won't see Clare next week. Still no clue as to who the new leader is and I might be a drive by weigh in next week as my Dad thinks he's coming in to town.

As far as activity goes I've been doing pretty well for the past few weeks at making it consistent and I'm enjoying my spreadsheet. I keep adding pages to the spreadsheet I started to track points to see if there were any trends with weight loss.  I'm home all week again due to work keeping me in Calgary so that will make it easier to accomodate that as my schedule stays relatively the same. I am starting to think that I need to branch out from just walking. While walking is fabulous exercise I do need to start adding strenght and flexibility. My original goal was to start making actvity consistent so I might not add anything this week but come up with a plan for next week.

This is how my week broke down:

Total pts per week: 203 (daily pts multiplied by 7 plus the 35 flexpoints (I believe they exist to be eaten))
Total pts eaten this week: 221.5
Total activity pts this week: 24
That left 5.5 activity pts that I didn't eat.

Since I've been tracking all this stuff it's been my most successful week with a 2lb loss. This past week was pretty emotional as well so I'm quite happy with this weeks results. I still need to track a few more weeks to see if there's a pattern but so far it does look like eating the activity pts is working for me. I just need to figure out if it's better to eat all or some.

Speaking of activity I did walk to weigh in today earning 1pt. I took a cab home as my grocery shopping was a bit more due to being home all week. Plus I needed to pick up a new toaster oven and my other one died at Easter. I decided to go with a Black&Decker one priced at $69. I strongly believe you get what you pay for but I didn't want the most expensive one. I get to the cashier and it rings up as $48. I love suprise sales.

When I got home I did a proper walk:

511 calories burned/ 8.07K/ 1hr16min/ Pace 9:32-4:43
Heart rate: 77% avg, 85% max

I took the Nike+ with me as well and I've learned to turn that one on first and then the garmin, that makes the results much closer. Nike + said 493 calories burned, 8.01K, 1hr16min, Pace 9:36

Tomorrow I need to go for a walk earlier as my neighbour is having an Epicure party Sunday afternoon and I said I'd go.  The focus this week is on getting back into the 170s next week and I'll settle for 179.

I hope your enjoying your Saturday.

Hugs!!

Back to regular scheduled programming

Despite yesterday's snow storm with 94K winds and a rather slippery walk to the bus stop today was a pretty good day.

It flew by for me as I was pretty busy at work and super focused on the points after yesterday's snack fest.

The wind is a wee chilly for me to go for a walk so I think I'll just chill today or maybe checkout a workout video..that's a maybe. All the snow is gone from my lawn which is good.

Weighed myself when I got home from work and saw a super decent number which will serve as motivation to not do anything stupid tonight.

Right now I'm watching my new favourite cooking show "Bitchin Kitchen" It's hilarious, the host has spunk, the recipes are super easy (not necessarily healthy) but we're only 2 episodes in. It's like a cooking show mixed with a sitcom. It's Canadian, my goodness we're a cheeky country - aren't we?

That's all I got

Hugs!

Kind of sad

My Mom

October 11, 1930 - April 8, 2002

Today is the day that my mom passed away 8 years ago. Yes that seems like a long time ago but it still made me a little sad today.

For most of the day I was pretty busy so I could keep it in check. My lovely friend/coworker gave me a lovely plant. She reads this blog which is how she knew, other than that I didn't really talk about at work.

It was another co-workers birthday which made it a bit odd. Happy occasion overshadowed by sad occasion.

On the way home is when it got a little rough as I was now by myself. I always buy flowers on this day. After that was done I got a little teary eyed. The weather matched my mood as it started to rain and then turned into snow.

I know she's in a much better place now. In a sense I lost her before she actually died as she suffered from dementia. The mother I knew was gone a few years before the corporal being ended.  I know she wouldn't want me to be sad but sometimes one just can't help it.

The picture is from before she was ill so in this picture she's the mom I prefer to remember. Not the greatest picture as I had to take a picture of the picture to get on here.

No walking today thanks to the high winds and crazy snow. Eating has been so-so. Dinner was pretty much snacking as I wasn't in the mood to cook.

Tomorrow will be a better day, in the meantime please cherish all those you love.

Hugs!!

Last day of "vacation"

I've done a lot of work this "vacation". I think I've logged into the system every day and been checking the Blackberry frequently. I now completely understand why it's referred to as crackberry.

I swear now that when I take my next vacation to visit Dad in July I will not be working during it. I knew I was busy but wowsers I'm super busy.

Yesterday I decided to do a reverse loop walk. I did the same route I did on Monday but in reverse. It was interesting. There are a myriad of inclines/declines in my hood and doing the route in reverse caused a bit of a surprise for the muscles as it felt different.

Here are the deets for yesterday:
476 calories burned/ 1hr12min/7.65K/Pace 9:25-5:29
Heart Rate: 74% Avg, 83% Max

It wound up being a touch longer than the day before which is interesting. I'm was exhausted when I came back not so much because of the walk. I think it was not really taking a break.

Today I have a dentist appointment at 1pm so I headed out for a shorter walk at 9am. I'll also be walking to my dentist which is a little further than my WW meeting location and probably on the way back. I might swing into Walmart to pick up a couple of things to get me through to the weekend. I'll be wearing the Nike + to track mostly distance but I'm counting this walk as activity as well.

Here are the deets for this morning:
318 calories burned/ 50:36/ 5.14K/Pace 9:50-5:53
Heart Rate: 78% Avg, 86% Max

I got an email saying my 4pm bus from site to camp is no longer and now the earliest bus is 5:20pm. That makes for a super super long day and will complicate my workout. The camp holds over 800 people with 3 treadmills. I'll need to be prepared with a back up plan if a treadmill is not available. The good news is their in process of building another complex in camp that will have a huge gym. Once that's open (which should be soon) I shouldn't have a problem accessing equipment.

There is another gym on site that I could technically go to at 4pm and then catch the bus back to camp. I've never been to that gym. There is also the option to workout at lunch, I typically hate doing this just because I don't want to put myself together to go back to work. I much prefer doing it after work.

I'll also be moving to a new work location at site that will not be allowing me to stop off at the kitchen first. I'll have to pack breakfast and lunch. Lately we've often been late arriving at site so packing a pack of instant oatmeal may not be a terrible idea.

What can I say - I'm a planner.

Hugs!

The plan came together

With my back to back doctor appointments anyway. First up was the annual skin check at 7:30am. My regular dermatologist wasn't there and I had to see someone else. Fantastic, standing practically naked with a stranger. The exam went pretty quickly and this guy (who looks like he's 20) didn't do as thorough check as my normal doctor. I'm not too worried about that as I'm pretty good at screening myself. However I did make my appointment for next year.

I was pretty early for my next appointment and the mall was closed so I just found a place to sit before I headed up the office. Homeless dude decided to chat me up and then asked my name. At which point I said - that's none of your business. It was a fast and friendly chat and he moved on to others.

Then it was off to the regular doctor for the oh so fabulous pap smear. Yes, I thought I'd get all the super self conscious tests out of the way in one day. However I did find out I could be a candidate to only get this test done once every 3 years as I've never had an irregular result. We'll see how this test turns out and then I'll discuss when I go in for the regular physical in August. I don't know about every 3 years, I think I'd be more comfortable with once every two years. It just seems like a more reasonably time frame should anything happen.

I came straight home as my stomach was grumbling but I didn't want to have a snack downtown. The only things open were all the coffee places and I didn't need a muffin/cake. I came home and had an activia yogurt.

Last night I had a weird snack attack after dinner. It involed a few mini Reese's peanut butter cups, the leftover Kit Kat bar I got on the plane two weeks ago and a handfull of Lay's potato chips. I had the flexpoints for it but that was after I consumed it. I'm putting it down to a wee bit of boredom as I was channel flipping the whole time.

This makes me mega focused today, hence the no snacking at coffee shops. I did step on the scale this morning to survey the damage and I was still down a bit. Today I'm focused on staying within the normal daily points and I will get a walk in today as well but not more than 5K (3 Ap). I have no plans on eating any APs today so I also don't want to earn a whack and have my metabolism wig out.

I'll head out for the walk after lunch.

That's all I got so far.

Hugs!

And the week begins

I got to work at about a quarter after 6am (I'm a morning person) with the plan to be in early and out early. Well that didn't quite workout as the office was locked and the people who have the key don't open until 7:30am. So I hung out for awhile waiting for the next co-worker to get there and then helped her rearrange her keyboard and mouse.

Finally went to get a key, it didn't work. Went to get a 2nd key, still didn't work. We got a master key to open the doors for people so not everyone had to run down 2 floors.

I started working and then a guy showed up with yet another key, still didn't work. I worked until noon, got quite a bit done but didn't really want to stay the whole day. I'll knock the hours I worked today off of another day as I'm technically on vacation. When I left I left post it notes on either side of the door asking to please not lock it.

Then I headed to Shopper's Drug Mart for some odds and ends. I forgot how smoking busy the downtown mall gets at lunch. It was a gong show. I debated buying lunch downtown or going home. I settled on going home as I didn't trust myself with the food court today.

Plus I have to go downtown tomorrow for the doctor appointments and I'll go with a plan.

Got home whipped up a quick grilled cheese sandwich with a tomato salad on the side (tomato plus one tablespoon Fig Balsamic dressing).

I did buy PopChips while at Shopper's so I opened that baby and finished off my onion dip. Not exactly in the plan for today but doable.

I'm just waiting for my ipod to charge up a bit and then I'm heading out for a walk as the sun is shining. Might be a longer walk than I planned thanks to the PopChips.

Hugs!!!

My biggest fans have four legs

I was dedicating today to mostly housework. Easter has never been a big thing in my house and I have no family in the city.

I got laundry done and I'm now talking myself into vacuuming.

I had resigned myself to go into work tomorrow as there's stuff I need to do that won't wait till Thursday and the remote log in wasn't helping me out yesterday. However I did bring my work computer home due to the move in buildings. I'll try that first and see if I can get it done from home if not I'll go in tomorrow. I put in a load of hours that I don't get paid for anyway so going in on my "vacation" is not a big deal. Though if that happens I'm closing the door to my new temp office, going through the list until I'm done and then leaving.

I thought about zipping into the Running Room tomorrow if I do go downtown. There newest magazine has a jacket that interests me. I have a couple of "running" jackets but none of them have pockets and that irritates me as I like to keep the ipod in a pocket.

The mega walk was a comedy of errors today. First I forgot to turn the timer on until I was 3 minutes- ish in to the walk. Then I had to stop 3 times because dogs love me. The first moppet was smack in front of me so I had to stop and say hello. The 2nd dog was following me. He ran from his owner to come racing after me and then I stopped the tail started to wag and he sat down next to me. I had to walk him back to the owner who then explained he was their parents dog which I guess explains why the dog wasn't listening to their calls at all.

The 3rd dog is my neighbour's and she and I get along really well. She saw me and my neighbour just let go of the leash and she ran to me at top speed. This time I stopped the garmin to pet her for a bit. I find most dogs really like me. I've run into a few who are indifferent but definitely in the minority.

Here are the details of the walk:
433 calories burned/ 1hr9min/ 7.12K/ Pace 9:50-5:35
Heart rate: 79% avg, 85% max

Definitely slower today I felt a twinge in my left foot that I was being easy on and I kind of wanted to go a wee easy today due to the 9K from yesterday so I was shooting for 4 APS (400 calories burned).

Had a bit of an NSV today. I decided to try on a pair of Adidas capris I had bought last year. I bought them without trying them on and found they were a bit tight. Today I tried them on and they fit really well, even the waist might be a wee loose. I own quite the wardrobe in technical fabric workout wear thanks to the half marathon/ marathon a few years back. When I started to fall of the wagon everything was getting a wee tight but it's all fitting way better. Soon I might need smaller options especially in the bottoms.

I had the best poached eggs and toast for lunch today. I don't know if it was the Omega 3 eggs I bought or that I miraculously cooked them perfectly.

Dinner will be the Prime stuffed chicken - broccoli and cheese version with steamed cauliflower. I'm on litre number 2 of water and can definitely get in 3 today.

I hope your enjoying your Easter.

Hugs!!!

Changes in the air

I went to weigh in today completely expecting a gain. Not a big gain but I did the math. My max points for the week (including flexpoints) is 203. I finished the week at 224, that's 21pts over for the week. I earned 18.5 Activity points for the week.

This morning on my home WW scale it said 184.1 this morning. I then stepped on again but this time using the body fat% features and now it says 183. I step again without the fancy features and it's 183. Now when I use the features I make sure to be standing evenly on the metal strips. This is where I stood on the try after I did the fancy features. Then I stepped on it like I normally would when just doing a straight up weight reading and it was 184.1.

I got to the meeting and stood on the scale....down 1lb so 183. That was a pleasant surprise. I'm tracking all these details on a spreadsheet. It's starting to look like my 0.2 week (last week) might have been due to not eating enough Activity Points.

We all lose differently so this is all about figuring out how my body works.

Clare announced she's leaving WW as a leader. I swear I had heard her say that to someone at the scale a few weeks ago but then she didn't say anything. Today was to be her last meeting but they asked her to stay until next week. That means a new leader is coming in.

I've been through a few leaders in my long history with WW but I think Clare has done the longest stint. She's been working for WW for 20yrs so I don't blame her for wanting to step away. She doesn't know who we're getting. The leader makes or breaks the meeting. I know there's one sub we sometimes get who's style doesn't fit my group at all. The other day we had Laura who would totally fit and used to be a participant in my meeting. I know she has young kids so Saturday mornings might not be her thing. Then I thought I can always weigh in on Saturday mornings but that doesn't mean I can't sit in on another meeting should I not care for the new leader. We will see what happens.

I realized there was another factor in letting stress get to me. Next week is the anniversary of my mother's passing. I always get a little out of sorts at the start of April. It will be 8 years ago on Thursday. I will watch the emotional eating carefully this week.

Went for a mega walk again today but this time I remembered the heart rate monitor. I've been using the Garmin without it but today I remembered to put it on.

The Details:
601 calories burned/ 1hr33min/ 9.75km/ Pace 9:34 - 5:26
Heart rate: Average 81%, Max 88%

According to some quick research I think that puts me in my aerobic target zone. I'm going to add page to my point tracking spreadsheet and track my times. I think 9:34 is my fastest since I started going for regular walks.

I'd really really really like to get into the 170s this week. I think I can pull off a 4lb loss this week. I'm home till Wednesday and return to work on Thursday. So that gives me plenty of workout time between now and Wednesday.

I have my yearly physical the day after I come home from Vegas (in August) well sort of the day I get back. Flight lands at midnight and the appointment is at 10am. Well isn't that inspiration to not go food crazy in Vegas as I'll have to get on his scale.

Alright my friends, I hope your enjoying your Saturday.

Hugs!

Spring is in the air

Well a good night's rest definitely helps to improve ones attitude. Feeling more myself today and just focusing on today.

I had pretty bad eating habits over the last few days. I'm definitely an emotional eater not sure that will ever go away but just need to be managed.

Today I'm not really paying any attention to points. Well I am but I'm listening to my body for hunger signals instead of planning out my day according to points.

I don't know what weigh in will bring tomorrow but I'm focused on it as a lesson.

Had my usual oatbran breakfast and then I headed out for a mega walk.

Today's totals:

543 calories burned/ 1hr28min/8.98km/Pace 9:47-6:03

It was half sunny/ half windy so really a brilliant day for a walk. I saw loads of people doing yard work and I think it's wee too soon in my neck of the woods. We still had pretty cold temperatures last week and I wouldn't be suprised if it still snows. I'll start raking in a couple of weeks.

Been on and off watching a marathon of Manhunt on Cosmo. It's a modelling competition for male models. I think it was done a few years back. It's kind of funny to see the men just as vain as we can be.

I hope you're enjoying your day.

Hugs!!!!

Take a moment to breathe

I am so looking forward to my extended long weekend (tomorrow to Wednesday). This past week has gotten to me and I don't know if it's hormone related, being tired or a combination.

I'm letting little things bother me and I'm forgetting to look at the big picture. I need a moment to breathe.

This week I will focus on activity including yoga and more importantly take time for positive reflexion.

I'm shaking off the negative vibes that have been following me.

On that note, I wish you all a very Happy Easter.

Hugs!!!