Day 29: Fail to plan, plan to fail

I was a wimp today. I woke up, weighed myself on my scale, looked out the window and went back to bed.

I was up just over 2lbs and there was a whack of snow outside.  I know I should have sucked it up and gone to weigh in. Even though I'm positive the majority of the time I do have my moments where I just want a minute to wallow.

I know exactly where I went wrong this week and the time of the month added an extra snag. I also now that I need to wake-up and focus if I want to make my goals. It's all the little decisions that add up. Last night at dinner I had a reuben and fries - I could have had a salad. At this point I look forward only. I had my minute to wallow and now it's back to focused.

I headed out a few hours later with the intention of going to Iron Reps but I wanted to stop at Walmart first. OMG it took me 10min longer to walk to the mall as I was trudging through snow the entire time. At many points I couldn't tell if I was walking on a sidewalk, road or someone's lawn. It was core exercise and a half. By the time I got the mall I was wiped. I decided to grocery shop after Walmart and head home. The snow keeps falling and my safety mechanism kicked in to say go home.

All in I spent 40min trudging through snow by the time I got home I was sweaty and tired. I'm counting that as exercise.

Now my focus is on tracking, water and a workout dvd later on.

Hope you have a fabulous Saturday!

Hugs!!

Day 27 - 28 - Where did it go?

So grand plans to go to Iron Reps when we got off the plane yesterday got derailed or should I say deplaned. We left 40min late due to Calgary Airport flow control. Then when we approached Calgary we circled for 30min as planes had to land before us.

We landed at 7:05pm  which made getting to K's house, changing and heading to the gym impossible. So we went for sushi instead.

Today was full of activity starting with a massage. Well I took a bus I normally don't take and completely misjudged how long it would take me to get to that bus stop so I wound up at the massage place a wee too early. I popped over to Cafe Beano for a coffee to kill sometime. I thought I was in a Friend's epsisode as everyone seemed to know each other.

Went to the massage place which I've never been to before and walked into a doctor's office (they share the space with a chiropractor). Met the message therapist at Fruition Therapeutics, she was really nice and I got a Tui Na massage based on ancient Chinese medicine. She had asked me if I had an areas of concern and I didn't really. When she got started I realized I had knots I wasn't aware of. She was putting pressure on my lower butt area that I could feel down to my ankles (My IT band gets a little angry), my shoulders were bad as well (where I carry most of my stress) and my right forearm was pretty bad as well (mouse use and keyboarding). She also an acupuncturist so we talked a bit about that and I think I'm going to give it a try as a few areas especially the shoulders could benefit from that. After the message I felt a little odd like my body was readjusting like it felt aligned for the first time in a long time. I need to go back more regularly.

Then I met up with K and we hit Community Natural Foods where I picked up extra virgin coconut oil, a whack of Crofter`s Superfruit Jam, Almond Milk, Ezekiel english muffins and baked Kettle chips (I didn't know they came in baked). Then  (I finally got around to that) we zipped over to MEC for bike shorts and a bike seat pad for the evil spin bikes at site. I can`t wait to try them out.

Then we wandered over to Lululemon where I managed not to buy anything. She then left for her massage at the same place I did this morning. I went to Frillylilly, after reading about it on Jamie's blog I decided to give it a try. I liked the place and the person I was dealing with so I'd go back there again.

Went back to Fruition to meet up with K and then we slowly made our way to Regal Beagle to meet our two friends with a quick stop at Higher Ground for a london fog.

Now I'm tired and I can still feel the after effects of the massage. The funny part was both K and I had planned a stop at the gym but then realized after that massage that was a pretty bad idea as we'd probably fall of the treadmill.

It's off to weigh in (not looking forward to that at all as it`s been a rough week) and Iron Reps (really hoping I`m not so sore as last time)  tomorrow. The snow is falling like crazy and we have a heavy snow fall warning for tomorrow and it could be 25cm by tomorrow night. I'm curious as to what I'll see tomorrow morning.

Hope your last few days were fabulous.

My homework this weekend get a plan together as this flying by the seat of my pants has to stop on the weight loss front.

Hugs!!!

Day 26 - foodapalooza

Yesterday there was no workout as by the time I got back to my room I was zonked. It was a very long day that's for sure.

Tonight I got on the spin bike and biked for 30min. When I got in the room the class was going on, by class I mean a spinning workout on the tv and there were 5 guys in there pedalling away. K and I hoped on bikes in the back. I put my ipod on and did low resistance for one song and high resistance for another song and repeat. I did this for 30min. That definitely worked up a good sweat.
8
I battled the snack monster all day today as my hormones have kicked off foodapalooza week.

I can't say I've given the ProPoints my best go yet. This week was was difficult to all day meetings and weird week again. Next week my life will go back to regular scheduling programming.

The plan to go to the Iron Reps class when we land tomorrow is still on. I have massage booked for Friday which will be awesome. I also plan to pick up some bike shorts as those spin bikes are pretty uncomfortable.

Not sure if I'll be blogging tomorrow it will depend on the energy level as that class doesn't end till 8pm.

Hope your Wednesday was awesome!!!!!

Day 24 & 25 - Good times

Got home last night and had to pack for site, and then straight to bed.

Yesterdays meeting was good with good food and a chance to bond with people. Stayed till 8:30pm which was longer then I intended.

Now I've been up for 14 hours and there's a few more to go as I have meetings till 7pm.

While waiting for the plane a plan was hatched to go for dinner on Friday. Which got me thinking about weighing in at noon on Friday as opposed to Saturday morning. Giving me the opportunity to better coordinate that weight class on Saturday. I'm not decided at this point.

I do plan on hitting the gym tonight for a minimum of 30min.

Talk to you later.....hugs

Day 23 - I can feel every muscle in my body

In fact I'd say my entire body is sore with the exception of neck and above and ankles down, everything in the middle I can feel every muscle.

That Iron Reps class kicked my patootie. It's like you workout on one body part per song. For example there's a back track, a tricep track and etc. So there are a lot of reps and at the start you feel fine but by the time you get to the end of a track you're taxed. We did everthing squats, lunges, deadlifts, skull crushers, bicep curls and many many more. My friend K and I are going to do it again on Thursday.

What I love about this class is that it finally gives me an all encompassing strength training option. When I have my game on I'm really good about the cardio but I'm clueless about strength training. So now it will Iron Reps on Thursdays and Saturdays, and cardio/yoga in between. We have some added motivation as she's going to Florida at the end of Feb and two week later I head to Vegas.

I did download a new app yesteday called Target Weight and I entered May 12th as the day I want to hit goal. It's the date of next physical and 109 days away. I'm a daily weigher so I like that I can track it on this.

Thursday is the day we fly home so it's a bit of a massively coordinated effort that needs to happen to attend the class. I'll be handing over a gym bag filled with what I need for Thursday to K tomorrow so when get home we can stop off at her house and then head to the gym. If the plane is late, we get the cab to wait as we grab our stuff and change at the gym. This also means that I'll need to pack lunch and dinner at site as you can't do this class with low blood sugar as it's go-go-go. The class starts at 7:30 ish, this means dinner will be eaten on the plane at 5pm.

I finally watched Heavy yesterday, I'm a bit behind. I hope they do a follow up episode at the end of the season to see where everyone is now. I really like how they pair people up so there's some extra support there. I also watched I Used To Be Fat on the pvr yesterday. I really liked how Mackenzie said she's realized she has to love herself first.

My activity today will going outside for a mega walk as the weather is so nice and yes in the middle of winter I can call +2 nice. The beautiful thing is the weather is getting better at site too so when I go back on Tuesday it will not be -20. The walk will be good for the muscles as well.

My other focus today is to clean the house.

My big challenge for this week will be tomorrow as I yet again have an all day meeting at the Hyatt. This time I'm going to eat breakfast at home and not take part in the breakfast served at the event. For lunch and dinner I need to keep the mantra of "I am in control" in my head.  There's always water at the tables.

I hope you have a great Sunday and I might be back later with the report on today's mega walk.

Hugs!!!!

Day 22- I got what I expected

It was drive by weigh in today as I went to the 2nd meeting today as opposed to the one I usually go to. My alarm went off and then I thought just 5 more minutes which turned into an hour and a half. I prefer the first meeting because there's more interaction so I didn't stay for the meeting.

I was up 1.4 which I was expecting due to my behaviour over the week and Friday was not going to rescue the whole week.

My walk yesterday was: 59min17, 6.9km, 363 cal burned, HR 168-148, pace 8.37/km - 7.44/km

I hooked up with my work mates yesterday afternoon for a bit of a good bye my uber boss as he's moving to a new role. I stuck to one drink and then switched to water. It was looking like the bulk of the group was going to continue the night on so I left when the guest of honour left and asked my friend K if she wanted to grab dinner. So we went Juan's for some traditional mexican food (nothing deep fried) maybe not the smartest idea before weigh in but it was filled with veggies and very good. I knew that today would be my restart day.

I'm not going to feel defeated over my gain, in fact it was a wake-up call. I haven't completely embraced the new program and sort of been flying by the seat of my pants.

So today marks a new week and the focus will be keeping it to basics like tracking, exercise and water. I never went through the books on the new program last weekend so that will be a priority this weekend so I can get more familiar with the new points. This week showed me I need to keep my eye on the ball and be diligent and focused. The only thing that can mess me up is me, it's my decision and no one else's.

Today's workout will be one hour of Iron Reps, I expect to be challenged in this class.

I hope you enjoy your Saterday...hugs

Day 20 and 21 - Good to be home

Yesterday I managed not to steal anyone's lunch and track my own brown paper bag throughout the process.

K and I stuck to the plan of not going out for dinner when we landed however that was mostly due to a late flight. At 4:30pm we were told that the plane would be delayed due to Calgary Airport flow control. Instead of departing at 5pm we'd be departing at 6pm. We played monopoly on my iphone as entertainment for everyone else waiting for the plane as they enjoyed our banter of how I had gobs of money and she was going broke.

We landed at a little past 7pm, we both napped on the plane as it seemed the whole plane was exhausted. We hopped into a cab and K got dropped off first, I got home a bit later as there was odd traffic due to flashing red lights and a lot of people having to remember how a 4 way stop works. I immediately went next door and collected my mail plus gave their dog a doggy masssage.

By the time I had dinner I was ready for bed.

So far this week I haven't hit one of my goals. It was a weird week maybe influenced by loads of late meetings, long days and perhaps the full moon. Tracking went south since Monday, water has been so-so, activity nada. This busy schedule is bound to happen again and I failed to plan this week which needs to change. I might need to think about getting up earlier and taking a later bus back to the office to get in a workout when I know it's going to be late or suck it up and work out later.

Weigh in is on Saturday but I still have today. I had thought about going to the gym but now I think I'm going to go outside for a mega walk. I left -21C yesterday to arrive in Calgary and +2C. Might as well enjoy it and take advantage of it because when I go back to site on Tuesday it definitely won't be +2. So shortly I'm going to head out and then hit the mat for some yoga.

Later this afternoon I have to head downtown for a "safety meeting" otherwise known as the Calgary based people zipping out a little early for an afterwork beverage. I need to go Running Room anyway plus pay my friend T for the Vegas hotel.

I might be back later, no promises. I will of course report in tomorrow about weigh in - the good or the bad. Tomorrow I'm going to try the Iron Reps class at the gym...I'm a little scared.

I hope you had a great Thursday and I hope your Friday is stellar.

Hugs!!!!

Day 19 - I stole someone's lunch

Well not on purpose at any rate. At site we pack our lunch in the to go kitchen. There's a selection of lunch items like sandwiches, soup, veggies and fruit. Everyone grabs a brown paper bag and pack what they want.

At some point I grabbed someone else's bag. You have to put your bag down quite often to grab items. So someone else got my turkey on whole wheat, kiwi and apple. I got two egg salad sandwiches and then what I added thinking it was my bag - which was carrots, celery and a banana. I ate one of the sandwiches and still had a kiwi and apple that I brought from home.

So far this week I'm not doing so great with WW. Two days in a row of late meetings have messed me up.

However my buddy K and I have already agreed on not stopping for supper tomorrow so we get home earlier and can workout.

Hope you all have been doing well...hugs!!

Day 18 - whoops

Despite my intentions of having breakfast when I got to work it never happened.

I made my oatmeal but then got stuck in meetings till 11:30. Cold and congealed oatmeal is not pretty. I attempted reheating for lunch but it still looked awful. Luckily my friend K brought enough lunch for me.

No workouts tonight as I'm zonked. I have been up for 18 hours. I'll see how long I last watching Biggest Loser tonight. My pvr is recording it as well so I won't miss anything. I did drink 2l of water today.

Hope your Tuesday was awesome....hugs!

Day 16 and 17 - where does the time go

Hi all,
The past two days flew by. Sunday was pretty much a relax day with one trip out to have coffee with K. The rest of the day was prepping for my meeting and clearing off the pvr.

Today I ran a meeting with 28 guys and one other woman besides myself. I think it went well. Dinner was at Murietta's afterwards.

I suspected there would be a fixed menu for 30 people. What I wasn't expecting was a 6 course menu. I don't know how to track today so I'm writing it off and focusing on staying super on plan for the rest of the week.

Got home and took out the garbage, packed my site bag and now it's to bed for me.

Hope your Sunday and Monday were super fantastic.....hugs!!!

Day 15 - Down 0.6

I weighed myself at home before I left for weigh in and saw 171.3, got to weigh in and saw 172.8. At home I have WW scale and they used to be bang on the same. It might be the placement of my home scale. I'll wait and see what happens next Saturday. I got the weigh in person I like the least and she asked me if I was following the new plan. When I said yes she said she wasn't convinced. I found that odd as this woman works for WW and shouldn't she be pumping the new plan?

That's down 2lbs in 2 weeks, hardly stellar results in my head but a loss at any rate.

I had time to have a good think while I waited for the meeting to start. It was twice as busy as last week so it took awhile for it to start.

I came to the realization that I shouldn't be surprised by my results so far. Two weeks in a row I've had super high point days on the weekend and then played catch up for the rest of the week with activity because I was in the hole for points. Which results in eating all my activity points before I've actually earned them. I do earn them by the end of the week but that's no way to work the program. Having popcorn the day before weigh in probably not the smartest move either. I am happy that I've tracked every moment so that's 3 weeks of tracking each day which is huge as I'd often miss a few days a week before. I've had a good focus on water and activity. Technically I met my goals so far of tracking , water and activity, now I need to focus on the on plan part.

So this week I'm focusing on the basic staying within my daily points and weekly points. I put on my positive attitude bought fruits, veggies and lean protein to eat today, tomorrow and to pack my lunch for Tuesday. Monday will be my most challenging day as I eat all 3 meals out so I'm saving the WP points for that day as a safety net. I've got two months to Vegas and I will be at my lowest weight to date.

There was no rest today as when I got home from groceries I had time to eat lunch and then had to go downtown to get my hair cut and pick up my shoes.

I got these online and picked them up in the store so I didn't have to pay shipping. On the top are my new plaid converse. The sales girl opened the box to check the sizes and looked at me and said "These are sick". Which took me a few seconds to realize that was a good thing.

The bottow are my new plaid birkenstocks..yes I have a thing for plaid. At site I have a pair of mary jane birks so I needed a pair for home.

I also got my hair cut at Aveda and finally articulated that I needed something that does not need a hair dryer as I don't use one at site due to the loudness and disturbing people on night shift (walls are thin).

I got something that seemed to be very inspired by Edna.

And turned out like this (kind of crappy picture taken with the camera in my computer).

I also think it's slightly Vulcan inspired but I like it. It's easy to duplicate with a straightener and it's sort of funky. I've always like Edna Mode at any rate. The funny part it will be darker tomorrow as it's time to colour.

Activity today was 30min of walking in the stupid cold weather and I will be bonding with my yoga mat tonight.

Hope your Saturday was awesome.

Hugs!!

Day 14 - popcorn for lunch

I can't believe I pretty much ran all over the place today in freezing weather.

I went to the meeting, met my friend for coffee then booted it to Chinook Mall.

The King's Speech was excellent and that's kudos to the actors as the story had a chance of being a bit of a snore. It was truly brilliant and when King George VI stood in front of that microphone I felt nervous for him. I never had a chance to stop for lunch so it turned out being half a bag of a small movie popcorn and 18 maltesers plus a bottle of water. So in other words 0 nutritional value.

I zipped straight out of Chinook as I didn't want to spend money and I wanted to beat rush hour traffic. Hopped in a cab with a crazy cab driver. Of course if I had known he was crazy I wouldn't have hopped in. On the ride I learned he's dirt poor, hates his job,  hates Alberta and hates Calgary. I didn't mention that I'm a native Calgarian. I did suggest maybe he should change jobs and move. Hmm...when I take Checker I usually don't get drivers who rant. This was Mayfair.

By the time I got home I was zonked. So no workout tonight but I still made my goal of 5 days this week. Tracking is complete and I'm now on food cut off till weigh in. Still sipping water though.  I think it will an early night and perhaps I'll curl up with a book.

Tomorrow the plan is new humidfier, a bit of grocery shopping for the next two days. I'm craving a stir fry with loads of veggies. Oh and a trip to the gym or perhaps a workout dvd.

Hope your Friday was stellar.

Hugs!!

Day 13- Home again and no crazy Japanese foodapalooza

Home safe and sound again.

It's looking like a regular pattern of stopping for sushi when we get off the plane as groceries are sparse when you work on the other side of the province 4 days a week.

I gave miso another try today and liked it this time. Makes we wonder if the first miso I ever tried was perhaps a bad batch. I had my veggie sushi and edamame and was perfectly on plan.

Then we had the ice cream but all in all not so bad. The ice cream is like preformed shapes with some kind of centre. Today we shared hazelnut ice cream shaped like a pear and an amaretto ice cream ball with cherry liqueur in the centre.

K and I vowed nothing deep fried this time and we stuck to it.

Tomorrow I have a meeting from 8-10, then meet a friend for coffee and then meet a friend for a movie so it will be a busy day. I'm trying to figure out a trip to the gym in there somewhere I might just take my gym clothes to the movies so I can stop off on my way home.

Saturday is a hair appointment at Aveda, which couldn't come at better time as I feel shaggy.

Alright I'm zonked and off to bed. No workout tonight but if I get tomorrow in that's 6/7 days this week. I've tracked every single day too.

Hugs!!!

Day 12 - Diggin the fruit

I think my favourite part of the new WW plan is fruit is free. I don't eat gobs of fruit but now knowing it counts as zero I'm far more open to it. For example today I had a small banana, a kiwi and a graperfruit.

Fruit availability at site is often hit or mess, there have been times where the only option was apples (3 different types mind you) and oranges. You can tell the food provider is being a bit creative. The most recent addition a baked potato bar (I have not tried this yet). Tonight for dinner I had vegetable moussaka.  I had never tried moussaka before and maybe not the wisest choice this evening as the chicken stir fry might have been better.

However I hit the treadmill for 65min tonight and normally I just manually change the speed and incline on a whim. Today I tried the hills option. I enjoyed that as it made it seem to go a bit faster. Next time I think I'll try random and truly keep myself guessing.

Fly home tomorrow so not sure what my night will look like. I'm not sure if I'll be stopping off for dinner after I get off the plane. If I do it won't be a repeat of last week.

Once again my attempt to do yoga in my camp room was slight thwarted. The portable dvd player's cord doesn't mesh with the tv. They both have the same connector. Most likely an easy fix but not till I get back to Calgary.

A bonus is coming toward the end of February and I'm half debating on getting a 2nd smaller laptop we'll see as Vegas will just be a few weeks later.

Alright time fo bed, hope your Wednesday was super fabulous.

Hugs!!!!

Day 11- still in the groove

I was in a bit of a funk today that I found difficult to shake. It's a combination of a few things and I came to the realization I'm on my own. Which quite frankly annoyed me. So a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do = suck it up.

I kept to no dessert at dinner and I've tracked everything. Water was a bit more of a challenge today but the 2L are completed. After dinner I rowed for 30min, well it was probably a wee less than 30 as I had to fiddle with my iphone but I'm thinking the walk there and back to my room makes up the difference.

Now I'm watching Biggest Loser as I wait for the washer to finish. I find it interesting that the "unknown" trainers are still unknown so I wonder when they'll be 100% revealed. Makes for an interesting season though.

Hope your Tuesday was awesome.

Hugs!!!

Day 10 - back in the groove

I had a good day yesterday tracking, workout and water wise and I repeated that today.

Today's workout was 35 minutes on the spin bikes and I had a sweat going probably 5min in, I would consider that a high effort workout. The bike I was on was super uncomfortable as well but I stayed on the damn thing. The day was long so no yoga tonight as I didn't eat dinner till almost 8pm and a full stomach and yoga don't really mix.

It will probably be my workout tomorrow as I have meetings till 7pm.

I'm finding the water intake way easier at work lately as by 4pm I had 2L done.  So I just need to keep that going.

All my calendars are updated with stickers and each paper clip chain gained one paper clip today to represent the 1.4 loss. I'm aiming for a bigger loss this week so this game is on!!!

I'm going to watch Village on a Diet now and then to bed.

Hope you had a great Monday...Hugs!!!!

Day 9 - Damage control

The 10min theater festival was a lot of fun yesterday. Skits ranged from hilarious to insightful and I would definitely go again. It got me thinking that I rarely if ever go to the theater and my city has so much to offer. Definitely something to keep in mind with all my 3 day weekends. Next weekend theirs a fitness expo that might be neat to check out.

The damage control kicks in when it came to food. I had a salad (with bacon) for dinner but then had the triple decker banana cake (so so good). We went to the play but then afterwards went to James Joyce pub had a beverage some nachos and deep fried pickles (never tried these before but boy were they good).

Sufficite to say it was not a point friendly day by any sense of the imagination. However every thing is tracked and I'm holding myself accountable. This means the focus must be like iron for the rest of the week. This means stick to my daily points, exercise and drink my water. No exceptions. I can do it.

Today I had to pick up a perscription at Walmart which meant I could go to the gym as they are near each other. It was a blistery cold day so if I didn't absolutely have to go out I would have been tempted to stay in a warm house. I got delayed by my laundry so I headed out a bit later than I had planned originally.

I was planning to race from Walmart to the gym so I could get a decent workout in before they closed. I was thwarted by the lunch hour of the pharmacy so had to wait longer than I anticipated.

I had forgotten that the gym closes at 3pm today so I did 20min of rowing, 20min of bike and 20min of treadmill. I had wanted to do 40min of treadmill but I pretty much wrapped up with enough time to get bundled up and head out. I will be doing yoga again a little later. That's still 1hr40 of activity today so nothing to sneeze at. Note to self on Sundays plan an earlier workout.

While at Walmart I also picked up a portable dvd player so I can hook it up to my tv in my camp room, that will solve the yoga dvd problem plus I can take other workout dvds with me and take the portable dvd player to one of the workout rooms too.

Alright my friends I hope your Sunday was nice and I'll talk to you later.

Hugs!!!

Day 8 - weigh in results and thoughts on the week

I was down 1.4lbs today and I have to admit a little disappointed with that but then I remembered my japanaese foodapalooza on Thursday which probaby wasn't so wise so close to weigh in. I'm shaking that out of my head as a loss is a loss.

The goal for this week is to limit the treats mind you it should be a wee easier as the hormones are back in check. So that means if there's a cookie next week it's because I was at the end of the day and had pts to spare.

Today is my treat day and all must be tracked. I got a parcel from my cousin in Germany with a shwack of individual packages of kleenex. It's not kleenex it's Taschentucher. These are 4ply and stand up to way more than a traditional tissue. I was out and there must have been about 40 packs in there acting as protective packaging. I also got all the Stieg Larson books in German. That will be a test for me. Of course Mozart Kugeln, my all time favourite chocolate.

Exercise is done as I met K at the gym for 60min of zumba. I don't think she's a fan but I'm proud of her for trying it. I also walked to weigh in as there wasn't any snow the wind was a little viscious. Between the meeting and the gym I hit walmart and picked up a book from the library. After zumba I grabbed a few groceries and the parcel. Took a cab home because I was exhausted and the weather was starting to turn.

Tonight we're supposed to go to a 10 Minunte Play Festival with M. Each group of actors gets a theme or object and then must write a 10min play. They have 24hours so they go there subjects last night. I'm hoping the weather doesn't get stupid. There will be dinner beforehand but the great thing is K is also focused on being a healthier self so it's nice to have an ally.

I'll also be doing my yoga practice today as dinner is not till 6pm.

I'll be back tomorrow and I hope your Saturday is fabulous.

Day 7 - tomorrow is weigh in

Hello my friends,
Hope you all had a great day. I had to go into work today for a meeting on my day off, which wasn't so bad as K and I wound up going to Cora's for lunch. I had a crepe panini that came with half the plate filled with fresh fruit. When I was still based in Calgary I'd walk by it everyday and it looked so fun.

Then I did a spot of shopping picked up a few mags and what I originally went in for was a new pack of Pur foundation. I left with the new People with the half their size feature, a collector issue of Oxygen titled Fat Loss - the complete guide for women and a bit of fluff with OK magazine. Hey, it's supposed to snow gobs and there's a blowing snow warning so it might be a bus to weigh in tomorrow.

When I got home today the weather was still pretty decent so I headed out for a walk as I probably won't go outside too much this weekend.

1hr17min, 8.99km, 454 calories burned, pace was 8.35-7.59/km (can't go too fast when people don't shovel their sidewalks) and heart rate was 144-159.

Then I came home and made a smoothie for supper. I had no bananas so it was peanut butter, frozen berries and almond milk.

Then I did 40min of yoga to stretch everything and how I missed it.

Here's a pic of the sky when I got home I thought it looked quite pretty.

I took pictures of all my anchors i.e. the calendars with stickers. The next two are from my office and camp room taken earlier in the week.

This is my work one, and you will see the chain of paper clips on the left. I had bought stickers at the end of November to track activiy while I was at site...well that never happened so instead I use these for the exercise, tracking, water. On Wednesday you would have seen 2/3 of a snowman as I hit two targets (no exercise due to the hockey game).

This one is in my camp room and has the 3 sticker system and yes another chain of paper clips representing how far I've come. The frog is for exercise, the heart for tracking and the little tini star for water. On each chain the first 8 paperclips are the same colour as that indicates the 8lbs I didn't regain after I rejoined WW in Jan 2010, then after that is one paper clip for every pound lost. The goal is 64 paper clips as that's from my first weigh in ever (204lbs) to goal (140lbs).

This is in my kitchen and is the up to date one as I did that before taking a photo.
So you'll see I didn't earn 3 stickers on every day. You can't really see them in this photo but a Christmas ornament (with a smiley face) is for exercise, snowflake for tracking and star for water.

However I did:
Hit my exercise goal of a minimum of 30min 5 days a week
Hit my tracking goal of tracking everything and I mean everything.

The only goal I didn't hit was I didn't get all my water in today as I ran out of time. I'm now on all food and liquid cut off till weigh in.

I'm cool with that. I don't think I've ever had 2L of water for 6 days in a row and it's been a really long time since I tracked consistently. The consistent exercise hasn't happened (with the exception of last week) for a bit.

So now we see what the scale says. Right now I'm catching up on the BL premier as I haven't seen it yet.

Be back tomorrow perhaps even from the meeting with this weeks results.

Hugs!!!

Day 6 - A wee tired and happy to be home

I have slept like the dead for the past two days which is awesome. I'm very much looking forward to some zzzz shortly.

I was wrong yesterday, so far this week I've had 4 days of exercise 30min or over. Tonight it didn't happen as after we got off the plane we went for dinner.

The one drawback to working in the other part of the province for 4 days a week is that you have very few groceries at home. We went for sushi tonight but there was some deep fried goodness consumed.

Tomorrow I will head to the gym and it will be a very careful food day as weigh in looms on Saturday.

I hit my water goal today for 6 days in a row, that's some kind of record for me for sure.

So it's a quick post as I'm tired. I hope you all had a great Thursday...Hugs!!!!!

Day 5 - I think I like it

This morning the hot cereal option was red river cereal. I've tried this once and didn't really care for it but this morning I decided to give it another try. I like it. The first time I had tried it was cold so maybe that was the difference.

Lunch was a salad with eggs, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes.

The rest of the day didn't go quite so well (meeting munchies and hockey game munchies) and I dipped into weekly points again. I'm working with the opinion they are there to be used.

Once I again I tracked diligently and drank all my water. So today I earned two stickers but the goal is minimum 30min of exercise 5 days a week and right now I have 3 days down and I've diligently tracked and drank my water for all 5.

I've missed yoga this week as I discovered I bought a dvd burner for my netbook not a dvd player and right this moment my yoga mat is rolled out and waiting for me when I get home tomorrow.

Workout wise today was a rest day. I fly home tomorrow so I'll make sure to plan a good day including a back up snack for the plane incase there are any delays and I'm a long way from dinner.

I haven't watched the new BL episode yet as it's on the pvr at home but I'm looking forward to it based on some of the blogger comments. 

Hope you all had a fabulous Wednesday and I'll be back when I'm home tomorrow.

Hugs!!!!

Day 4 - Battle of the hormones

At bit of a rough night last night.

My camp room shares a bathroom with another camp room so in away I have a roomate. We never see each other but can certainly hear another.

Last night at 10pm she blow dried her hair and at 12:45am flushed the toilet, so I didn't get a super good rest last night. For the remainder of the week I get the bathroom to myself so tonight should be good.

Today I fought the hormone fueled foodapalooza and cramps started and I knew I was in for a rough day. Sometimes it sucks being a girl.

Breakfast was oatmeal with brown sugar, a little bit of yogurt and skim milk. Lunch was a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with tomatoes and cucumbers and an apple. I didn't resist the cookies today and had two small oatmeal and raisin cookies.

I did bring a food scale to site with me, so I weighed the cookies to track them properly. I also deconstructed the turkey sandwich to weigh all the components. I took the cheese off and tossed that. It was good that I did that as one slice of bread weighed 46g which is 3pts per slice.

At one point I was totally craving chocolate but I did resist and instead had a cup of tea. Stash Chocolate Mint Oolong Tea to be exact. While it didn't strike me as super chocolaty it sort of tasted like a mild chocolate mint. It's oolong tea, peppermint, chocolate flavour, cocoa powder and carob powder which is responsible for the flavour. Still 0pts so way better than hitting the vending machine for chocolate.

Dinner was a lentil stuffed green pepper, a small piece of garlic toast, broccoli, corn and jello. I fell victim to a mini tart filled with cherry pie filling.

However K and I did 57min of pilates after dinner and finished around 9:30pm. We were both tired but pushed through it. I suck at pilates but did my best.

So I did dip into the weekly points but I still consider that on plan as they are there to be used. I have about 31 of those left for the week and I've earned 19 activity points. I drank all of my water today which makes that 4 days in a row for that - super stellar for me.

Tomorrow I'll concentrate on sticking to the 29pts, it might be a rest day workout wise as the World Junior Hockey Final is on and Canada faces Russia. We'll see a workout could be squeezed in.

Hope your Tuesday was awesome!

Hugs!!

Day 3 - Devil vs Angel on my shoulder

Interesting start to the day. I had a tough time sleeping last night and there was much tossing and turning. I wound up getting up on my own at 3:10am about 10min before my alarm.

Was waiting for the plane when they announce we won't be landing at site due to weather, instead we're landing in Fort Mac and get to take the bus for 2 hours. The good thing longer nap, the bad thing I was now 3 hours away from having oatmeal. I had a glass of milk before I left the house. On the plane the go to morning snack are the breads i.e. banana and this morning they had cranberry. I love cranberry loaf -I resisted by telling myself it's cake.

At about 9:45am I sat down at my desk and made my oatmeal. I stuck to one cup of coffee thought the machine was calling my name throughout the day  (I can't drink it black so there's always points involved). I stuck to my preplanned breakfast and lunch.

Dinner was skinless chicken breast, veggies, rice and jello. My after workout snack was an orange as opposed to my traditional cookies at site but to get the orange I had to walk past the cookies and I did without any hesitation.

I really needed to do laundry so I managed to score a machine (I keep a wardrobe at site). There are 3 in my wing and one is always out of service. Then I went to dinner, came back had a wee rest and then hit the gym.

I looks like the camp gym gets busy in January as well as all the equipment was taken by people I've never seen in there before. The stair climber and the rower were available. I opted for rowing and rowed for 30min. The display wasn't working so I just counted rows to keep me in the game (600 rows). I had a good sweat going on.

I attempted yoga but the dvd drive wouldn't play the dvd and then I tried to do something off of myyogaonline.com but couldn't remember my password. By that time it was time for a shower. I'm realizing watching a workout on the tiny screen of my netbook is not fun at all. If only they'd give us dvd players in our rooms to go with our lovely flat screen tvs.

I have anchors to keep me focused everywhere. I put up the calendar in my room and earned another 3 stickers today (on plan, water and exercise). I have 21 mini paperclips in a chain to represent the pounds lost so far since I rejoined WW at 196.2. I even put stickers on the calendar at my desk but in that case it's one sticker for hitting all 3 goals (the stickers are kind of big). Of course I have another calendar and chain of paperclips in my kitchen at home. I'll post pictures when I get home.

Also managed to get the tv off of HD, for the past few week I couldn't figure it out and was only able to watch a handful of channels. Thanks to K for the heads up and I can now see local channels. I'm watching Village on a Diet right now. So more local inspiration would nice from Taylor, BC.

Alright my friends I'm going to focus on the show, talk to you tomorrow.

Hugs!!!

Day 2- little miss efficient

I am in the zone to return to work tomorrow so today was all about getting sorted.

I did laundry, I put away laundry, I took down all the Christmas decorations, I took out the garbage and recycling, I washed dishes and I packed my work bag. While I'm not exactly looking forward to getting up at 3:30am tomorrow I am excited about returning to formalized routine. It will be an early night tonight that's for sure.

I also did 30 min of step aerobics and still to come is 40 min of yoga when I finish posting this.

I was even going to plan out tomorrow in my WW online tracker when I discovered a wrinkle in my road to efficiency today. The catering company who provides and prepares the food at site normally has menus with NI posted for each day. I logged in today so I could plan my dinner tomorrow only to discover there are no menus posted as they're creating their "winter" menus for Jan 16 so in the meantime it's anybody's guess what will be available. Dang it, if I was following the old WW plan as I can remember point values on the new plan not so good at that yet. Thank goodness for the app on my phone, the phone will have to go to dinner with me. One day I'll know the pointsplus as well as I knew the old ones.

Tomorrow's workout will depend on what equipment is available in the camp gym. It will be cardio related and I'll take my skipping rope with me as a back up plan (I have one in my camp room). I will continue my yoga practice in my camp room as well, I just need to hook up the dvd reader to my netbook.

I'm a tracking fool (thanks to the app and the internet) and have today completely mapped out as well. 1L of water is done, now one to go. It's funny I used to be a hard core paper tracker and now I've embraced the online tracking. I'm such a tech geek.

I watched "I used to be fat" on MTV the other day and I liked how they counted down the days to the goal day. In this episode the girl counted down from 111 days. I'm thinking about doing that till Vegas as a another form of focus for the short term anyway.

I hope you all had a great Sunday,  I'm off to my yoga matt.

Hugs!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's Eve however you wanted. Mine was low key but my friend K and I made an awesome dinner, watched movies and played a board game. It was great. This morning she made an amazing omelette and smoothie then we watched a little tv and it was time for me to head home.

As I mentioned yesterday I will post some goals for 2011 today. Yesterday I got the new Yoga Journal and there was an interesting article in how me approach goals and then how we deal with set backs. The article spoke about coming from a place of self-compassion as opposed to feeling defeated or negative. They mean self-compassion as a positive motivation behind making a change and making it an act of self- care instead of anger and rejection.

Which made me think of something I said to one of my friends earlier this week. I said I felt like I was in a cocoon and I want to focus on being a butterfly. After reading the article I thought about how I posted that I was a wee disappointed with my weight loss for the year. I then thought back to 2009 when I previously hit my lowest weight so far of 168 and then life happened and I stopped doing the program and then decided to try WW online. When I rejoined the meetings on Jan 2, 2010 I was 8lbs away from the very first day I joined WW at 204lbs. You know what 21.4lbs down for 2010 is pretty darn good for me.

I can't say that 2010 was terrible in any way. I got the promotion I wanted and I made some awesome new friends. It did feel a bit odd having not done any classes or courses and now being at site 4 days a week would make that a bit of a challenge. Of course there were goals that were not met but that brings me to this year's goals.

1. Get to goal weight - entirely doable 34.8lbs can be lost in 2011, I kind of have a goal of by birthday in June but that's not in stone, somewhere in 2011 will suffice as a measurement of the goal. I got a little wigged out after watching a Dr. Oz show about turning 40. I turn 39 on my next birthday.

2. Read one book a month that teaches me something new and it can be weight loss related, business related or just expand one's mind related - entirely doable as I'm often waiting for planes and quite often by the time I get back to my camp room sometimes it's just nice to pick up a book. Right now I'm reading "How to see yourself as you really are" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I've got plenty of books to revisit or that have been collecting dust on my bookshelves.

3. Intentional exercise for a minimum of 30min 5 days a week - entirely doable as I've really enjoyed doing a regular yoga practice this week and want to continue. I've also been to the gym consistently this week and enjoyed that as well. Today it will be yoga

4. Follow the basics of the WW plan - entirely doable - I tracked every day this week, now I just need to be better at the water.

I've also thought of a few things to stay away from like group challenges. I quite frankly suck at those and then wind up feeling like a failure. I go in to them with good intentions and certainly recognize that others find them incredibly useful. They don't motivate me, my motivation has to be internal not external. While I enjoy The Biggest Loser I can't treat my weight loss like a contest and it's not good for me to compare myself to others. Instead I will keep it simple with stickers on a calendar to measure completion of exercise, tracking and water (2L a day). I got a few packs of stickers at the dollar store yesterday and I have a calendar for work and for home. I've never stopped using the chain of coloured paper clips to visually see my progress (one paperclip per pound). I have one on my fridge, one hanging on my clip board at the office and I'm adding one to my camp room (pretty much in all locations that I could have food or think about skipping exercise). They will act as my anchor in the WW tools for living.

I will reward myself for smaller victories by breaking down the 34.8lbs. My first goal is 168lbs, I almost made it last year and got to 168.2. I think my reward for that will be a manicure and pedicure.

I do have a bit of oomph to my motivation as I'm heading to Vegas in 10 weeks or so. This would be an excellent shopping opportunity so to lose enough that I need new clothes = bonus.

Most importantly any set backs will be noted and then move on. No dwelling, no feelings of defeat or failure.

I'm working on my internal butterfly or maybe as Katy Perry sings my firework.

Hope you enjoy your first day of 2011.

Hugs!!!

Last weigh in if 2010

I'm up 1.4 for a total loss of 21.4 lbs for 2010. I'm posting from the meeting as I'm waiting for it to start. The topic is goals - of course.

The weigh in this week is not exactly bad as when I weighed myself when I got back from Dad's it was closer to a 4lb gain.

I'll admit I'm a wee disappointed with myself with the grand total but on the other hand realizing I some weight-loss mojo around august and it took a long time to get it back.

After posting this morning I went back and read my blogs from last year at this time the one posted on NYE and New Year's day. Of course then was the build up to rejoining WW. I had lofty goals last year like cardio 3 days a week and strength 2 days a week and so on. The goals will be framed a little differently this year.

This morning I got the new Yoga Journal and there is a very interesting article about goals and how to approach them. So I'll post goals tomorrow as this has caused a few aha moments for me.

I'll be making dinner with my fabulous friend K tonight. No matter where you are this evening I hope you have fun and stay safe.

Hugs!!!!!

What a great night

So I got my wires crossed and we went somewhere completely different for dinner last night. However first the plan was to meet at The Ship and Anchor for a cocktail. At first I was just going to take the bus to K's house and we'd go over together. The bus I tried to catch was going out of service so plan B, I took a cab and picked up K. It was cold last night.

It turned out being just her and me but it was nice to just chill for a minute. I had a pint of guiness as I find beer makes me feel fuller.

We then headed to dinner at Brava Bistro, which just happens to be next to my old high school. The food was fabulous. We started with a cheese plate that four of us shared. I then had their Lebanese Chopped Salad that was absolutely amazing. What I enjoyed about this restaurant is the servings weren't huge it was just the right size.

I'm definitely the biggest girl out of the four of us and I noticed that I alone grabbed a piece (well two pieces) of the dark rye bread at the table that was a bit of a note to self. My plan of eating lower throughout the day may not have been the best plan as I was pretty darn hungry by the time I headed out.

We were missing our 5th member and quite frankly getting a bit worried but alas he arrived after accidentally having a super long nap. Which immediately made me think why didn't I have a nap.

We did have dessert and I had the creme brulee it was also delicious and very shallow so not super overwhelming. I had their Hard Lemonade but then stuck to just water. 

This morning my home scale showed the exact same weight it did yesterday morning so now we'll see what the WW scales have to say at 11:45 today.

I can say I'm rather happy I don't have a morning weigh in today as the radio said it's -30 with windchill out there and should be getting warmer throughout the day so by the time the New Year's party people head out it might be -13. 

I will be back with the results of today's weigh in and my reflections on my 2010 and plans for 2011.

In the meantime, stay warm and hugs!

One day until weigh in - post Christmas Foodapalooza

I've made a concentrated effort on getting my head back in the game this week. I'd say I had a rough start to the week with Christmas leftovers (egg nog, chocolate, cookies) but as the week progressed it got better. I'm not expecting a loss tomorrow and that's o.k. This week was about stopping the holiday food train and activity wise I've been awesome.

The scale hadn't budged much until this morning which is good I'm headed in the right direction again.

Today it was 25 minutes on the stair climbler and 45min on the treadmill. I walked to and from the gym again in fresh snow for 40min in total and then I hit the mat for 57min of yoga. I do the Namaste TV dvds created by Kate Potter. Back in the day I'd catch snippits of the tv show and then got the dvds. As it's been awhile since I had a consistent yoga practice I'm starting with the season one dvds. Normally I do the warm up and main body of two episdodes and the savasana of the 2nd episode. Today I did 3 episodes back to back. She did a retreat in Calgary a few months back but my schedule conflicted. I might make one of 2011 goals to go to one of her retreats again. I've been once before and it was great I was a total yoga newbie and didn't feel out of place at all.

Tonight there's a friend's birthday dinner at first I was really iffy on it as I weigh in tomorrow. I then remembered I weigh in a noon tomorrow so my plan is to make wise choices and drink a lot of water. I'm focusing on a lower point day to give me some wiggle room. We're going here for dinner.
It looks like New Year's plans are back on but still being determined.

Breakfast this morning was toast with Wild Blueberry and Raspberry with champagne jam from the Prince Edward Island Preserves Company. I got a box of 3 different types as my secret santa present this year. It works out to 1pt per teaspoon and it's fabulous. It felt a little decadent to have champagne for breakfast. I had a glass of skim milk with that.

My post workout snack was skim milk with one tablespoon of Nesquick (1/3 reduced sugar) chocolate syrup.

Lunch was a smoothie this time with spinach, almond milk, banana and some of Europe's Best Anti-oxidant berry mix that I picked up today. It's got strawberries, blackberries, cherries and blueberries. Now if I get peckish before dinner it will be a tomato salad.

Alright my friends hope you had a great New Year's Eve Eve.

Hugs!!

Trying something new at the gym

First of all, huge thanks to Eve for letting me know where I read that time capsule idea. It was Lyn who posted it so please check it out if you haven't already.

This morning I made myself my smoothie (spinach, banana, frozen blueberries and one tablespoon of PB), lately it's been my after gym drink but today I had it for breakfast.

I then headed out into the -20 snowy day and walked to the gym. When I got to the sidewalk I realized I forgot my bus tickets as I thought I might take the bus home. I headed out again and realized I forgot my watch and then I finally got on my way.

I decided last night to not do my traditional treadmill. Today I did 20min on the rower, 20 min on the bike and 20min on the elliptical (which is huge for me as I despise the elliptical) and then walked home for a total of 40min of walking. It went really well. The 20min was perfect as it kept me interested. I did 40min of yoga last night and I'll do that again today.

I do love walking but if I rely only on the treadmill for winter I'll get bored out of my skull as sometimes it feels like a hamster wheel.

Later on I met my fabulous friend C for coffee. I adore her and I'm so ridiculously proud of her. I met her when she just started University and was working for me at The Body Shop. Now she's pursuing her PhD and I'm so pleased she likes to stay in touch with me (as I could easily be ancient history in her world) as I always enjoy our visits.

Food wise was pretty good yesterday day until I got the munchies in the evening. My weakness as these Tamarind Almonds I bought at Costco. This morning I tossed them.

At the beginning of the week I updated all the food I added to e-tools so they had all the nutritional info to be translated into pointsplus.

All week I've been tracking on e-tools as I'm finding it easier as I'm having to look everything up as I get used to the new point system and this way I'm saving it in to my favourites at the same time. I'm using the activity tracker as well. I'll post my week in review and fess up to the battle I've had this week in getting on plan. I have been getting a lot of activity though.

A bit of a challenge for tomorrow as my friend's birthday is taking place at 8pm at a wine bistro. I have weigh in the next day so I might just stick to water/ soda water and focus on enjoying the company as opposed to jeopardizing weigh in with any munchies or alcohol. We're all messaging back and forth and I told them my focus is on getting to goal this year so that means changing my habits not there's.

It's looking like I'll be on my own this New Year's Eve which is completely o.k with me. I've lost the interest in going out and dealing with drunk people and no cabs. I far prefer just hanging with friends at home sort of thing. I think it might be a good night to write my time capsule post for my thoughts on the past and coming year.

I hope you enjoyed your Wednesday!

Hugs!!

Shaking off Christmas

Yesterday's food was better than the day before but hardly on plan - damn you chocolate. I did get in an hour walk though.

This morning my friend K messaged me that she was on her way to the gym and should she pick me up. I was already planning on going but at that exact moment I was still in my pajamas. I got dressed in record time and grabbed stuff. Earlier I had checked the gym's website and saw there was a yoga class at 10:45 so I took my mat with me. We get there and there's a sign at the desk saying no classes from Dec 27 -31. Funny the website didn't say that. Bah!

I walked on the treadmill varying my incline for 60min and then I walked home (17min) as K left to meet her friend for shopping. Yoga will happen at home then later this afternoon.

It's been a bit like trying to stop a runaway train with getting the eating on track. I've blown through all my weekly points and I'm in the hole but activity gets me out of the hole. By weigh in on Friday I will be sorted. The good thing is I've tracked everything so that's a bit of a victory. I'm kind of looking forward to Friday's meeting as it's not my normal leader but she's subbed before and she's funny.

Yesterday while reading my blog reader someone posted a great idea on their blog of writing a time capsule. She posted hers which was a letter to herself for a year from now. I forgot where I found it so if you read this blog or know which blog I'm talking about please post a comment and so I can give credit for the idea and can post a link to the person. I love this idea and I will do this too plus post it.

I might leave that for another day this week.

I hope you're having a great Tuesday.

Hugs!!

Enough - Time to get focused

I had a lot of fun yesterday as my friend K and I braved the malls. The only things either of us bought were not on sale. I had to go to the Apple store to pick up a new pair of headphones and a protective film for my phone. I also picked up an adorable purple plaid case. The good part was paid for with a gift card I got.

Then K and I headed down to Costco, where there are no sales. She picked up a super nice new tv that was cheaper there then all the sales at electronic stores. Shows it just works to shop around a bit.

OMG eating was totally not on the plan (lunch at Joey's and pizza for dinner) and in a way was a good bye to the holidays. I tracked it all though as there's no point in acting like it never happened. For the rest of the week till weigh in on Friday the focus is on activity (cardio focuses) and staying on track.

The 31st will pretty much be a year since I rejoined WW on Jan 2,2010. Right this minute I'd finish the year with a minimum of 20lbs lost for the year. I can't help but feel a little disappointed with myself. This past year when I was on - I was on and when I was off - I was in a different time zone. I should be proud that I had progress this year, maybe not goal but it's still progress.

While at Dad's I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - my workplace offers courses in it but I can't coordinate myself to go to a 3 day workshop so I bought the book. I did find it interesting and one thing that particular struck me was Circle of Influence vs Circle of Concern. In other words focus on the things I can control as opposed to getting stressed about the things I can't control. I need to focus on taking a proactive mindset as opposed to self defeat.

I realize to make goal I need to reshift my thinking a bit and I need to focus more on me. Now this will seem a bit odd as I'm an only child, single with no kids. You'd think there'd be a whole lot of focus on me anyway. What I'm referring to is focus on healthy me. Make getting healthy a priority. I'm really good at making work a priority so now I need manage my time a bit better so I get the workouts in and I focus on eating well. I know it's easy to say but I had a few aha moments when I thought about what took my focus away. The focusing on healthy also means including my brain. I didn't really challenge myself last year and I want to expand my learning. I don't mean formal classes as that would propably be a bit difficult being at site 4 days a week but that doesn't mean I can't pick up a book. There's loads of time to read while waiting for planes.

This has nothing to do with New Year's Resolutions but more my anniversary on WW. I do think a new year is a kind of restart in a sense.

Any day now the onslaught of weight loss commercials will begin. Heck the new season of Biggest Loser starts on Jan 4. I'm intrigued about the addition of two trainers. Village on a Diet starts on Jan 3 about the town of Taylor BC and there goal to lose weight as a collective. A&E will have a show called Heavy starting mid Jan and even MTV has joined the ranks with I Used To Be Fat starting Dec 30. It's sad but true - weight loss is a multi billion dollar industry.

After my walk the other day I also hit the yoga mat for 44min. No workouts yesterday but I do consider walking around the mall and avoiding the throngs of people a wee workout. Today the weather is again nice so I think I'll go for a walk outside.

I hope you enjoyed your Boxing Day yesterday and have a great Monday. I might be back later to report back on the workout details.

Christmas in my neighbourhood

I always find Christmas rather anti-climatic. Mine is pretty much over at this point and now it's on to regular life. I did have the option of going to a friend's sister house later on but I've decided to just be a home body today.

Dad went home this morning with 4 bags of cat food that I got the cats (the wild cats that live on Dad's property who are now effectively our cats) or who I now collectively call "my babies".

The two kittens who I met in the summer are now full grown. Spook and Fred might be bigger but their personalities are pretty much intact. Fred was friendly as ever and purring away. He's the only one that will let you pet him. Spook was his distant self as per usual. Mama Meow (the mom) was her dignified self. The two new kittens are pretty funny. There's Dusty and Max. My Dad took pitty on Dusty as I guess he was on the scrawny side so he's allowed to eat inside the house (just inside the door) on occasion after all he's competing against 4 adult cats and one kitten for food. One day I thought he was going to make a run for the living room so I picked him up. There was a pathetic meow and the four sets of mini claws were imbedded in my hand. Not as friendly as the other two. Papa Meow is still around and takes off the moment he sees you. I quite often saw him eating with the family.

My Dad feeds this menagerie and will complain they're eating him out of house and home, hence the four large bags of cat food that I sent him home with. It was pretty funny on the day we left as we set some food out and covered it with the "cat house" (an upside down orange box with a hole cut as a door). At first we just had the box on the porch with no food under it. OMG endless entertainment for the cats. They were in it, on top of it and even playing a version of hide and go seek. One kitten was inside and the other one was on top of the box poking his paw in the holes as the one inside poked him back.

I'd had to share the cat tale but on my week at my Dad's I did do a lot of thinking which will turn into mulitple blog posts I'm sure but I want to collect my thoughts before I start typing.

After Dad left I was feeling a little blah and getting a little too comfortable with a box of Ferrero Rocher so I decided to take myself for a walk as the weather was nice (0 degrees). It wasn't a speedy walk as I had to look at where I was going for hidden ice but I did have my iphone with me so I took some pictures of things that got my attention.

I thought this was kind of cool, made out of pine cones and branches on the foot of the lawn.



These neighbours go all out. Their whole lawn is covered in decorations but I particulary liked the polar bears and igloo on the right. They also do amazing halloween decorations.

I love it when people decorate their outside trees, it's so pretty and a hint of surprise.

These blow up decorations are all over my neighbourhood but normally it's Santa and dancing penguins sort of thing. I don't think I've ever seen one of the nativity before.

Now I leave you for today with the wreath I have on my door. Until tomorrow...Hugs!!!! Oh yeah, the walk was 1:09/ 7.63km/ 384 calories burned.

 



Merry Christmas and a wee bored

I love my Dad, but I miss the comforts of my house. Mostly my DVDs, books, pvr and video on demand.

For a week I've slept, ate, read and watched the cats. Oh and watched a lot of local tv. We're not a chatty family.

Heading home tomorrow and wondering what my cell bill will be like as I've played with my iPhone a lot. Like downloading an app to help me blog.

WW Canada launched an app for pointsplus, it's free on iTunes but you need to have etools or be online member to make use of it. It talks directly to my etools. It's kind of cool and has some neat features. I'll write more when I have my laptop and an Internet connection.

I also wanted to wish all of you a wonderful, safe and healthy Christmas.

Hugs!!!!

Down 2.4

Not too bad after my first week on PointsPlus and that was 99% food as workouts were difficult.

Alright I'm heading out and I'll be back in a week. Kind of happy next weigh in isn't until Dec. 31 as it will give me a week after Dad's to really really focus and see what I can end 2010 with.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas.

Hugs!!

Crazy week and my version of the amazing race

Today is pretty much a pit stop for me. Yesterday my flight which was supposed to leave at 5pm left at 6:30pm thanks to flow control in Calgary. Did I mention we were waiting since 4:30pm? We got there and people waiting for the Edmonton flight told us our flight was delayed till 7pm. Kind of lucky we could take of half an hour early. My got to cab guy wasn't there even thougth I texted beforehand and he texted back "ok". I can't blame him really flight delays are complicated and when we landed he wasn't available but luckily there was an abundance of cabs last night. Quite a few people had there own amazing race experience as they had connecting flights at the International Airport and had to boot it.

Got home at 8:15pm ish ran next door to pick up my mail and pet the dog. Today, well this afternoon I'll be on a greyhound bus to my Dad's house. It's about 6:45am right now and I've done a load of laundry, baked the whipped shortbread cookies and set aside what I need to pack for Dad's.

I need a nap.

Weigh in today is at 11:45am which sort of throws off my routine but I don't want to miss this week.

Workout was pilates on Monday and then I had stupid long days on Tuesday and Wednesday (meeting that went till 8pm) and then head home on Thursday. I did track diligently and the scale I have in the camp room said I was down about 3lbs. I weighed myself when I got home yesterday but thus far today I have not stepped on the scale.

I need to stop off at Walmart before I head out of town and I'm going to do that before weigh in as I pretty much need to weigh and run and then head to the bus station.

Speaking of Amazing Race I (and 2 others) won the bettting pool at work. The three of us picked Nat and Kat. I won $65 well really $45 as the entry was $20.

It's been a crazy week trying to wrap everything up as I'm off for the two weeks and it was down to the wire yesterday but I got what I wanted done. Now it's out of my hands.

No blogging for the next week as I'll have no internet access but I'll be back in the big city for a week before I need to fly out again.

I will stop by again before I head out to update my weight tracker and report on what happened this week.

Hugs!!!

Being prepared

I made sure to bring my 3 month tracker and my pointsplus calculator to camp with me this week and it's been handy so far.

I can preplan my food based on pointsplus but when you actually look at it later in the day you might not want it. For example today there was soft chicken tacos for 6 ppt, yet when I got it it was not so appealing to me. I wound up with a may lower lunch than originally planned.

After work it was 50min of pilates. Oh boy do I need to work on my flexibility. I got a foot cramp and my IT band was not happy. This was never an issue when I did yoga regularly. I need to get my practice going again.

Dinner was pretty low pps too so I compensated by having pudding and jello at dinner. I had to hit the minimum points for the day afterall.

Stepped on the scale this morning and it was lower than yesterday so I'm heading in the right direction.

Tomorrow is a total gong show as I have a bizillion meetings and some former co-workers are coming for a visit. It will a really late day tomorrow so food must be completely on point. K and I are planning to workout tomorrow but it probably won't be until 8:30pm by the time we get to the gym.

I'm getting the feeling I have too much to do with 3 days left in my week before I'm off for two weeks.

Hope you all had a super fabulous Monday.

Hugs!!!

Trying to be little miss organized

I'm rushed for time and it just sort of hit me today. I head to work tomorrow will be back home on Thursday and then on Friday I'm on the bus to my dad's for a week.

I'm taking care of all the household chores today plus a whack of laundry as Dad will be coming back with me so I'm washing bed sheets.

Yesterday I took care of the Christmas shopping. I do online or gift cards. It's easy and everyone gets something they like.

I'm trying to sort out my weigh ins as the holidays aren't helping. I'll weigh in on Friday at 11:30am as I don't need to be at the bus station till 1pm. It will be a weigh in and run. The following Saturday is Christmas Day so no weigh in. I'll have to miss that week as there are no weigh in options at Dad's. Having a week off between the weigh ins might not be so bad as I'll be at home so I can hit the gym do mitigate any damage done at Dad's. Then I'll have to weigh at 11:30am on New Year's eve as my normal meeting falls on New Year's day. Then finally it will return to the regular Saturday. The thing that bugs me is the next few meetings will talk more about PointsPlus. I'll have to rely on you bloggers with recaps of your meetings to stay on top of things.

Diligently tracking today and boy is this bringing back memories of first joining WW. I have to look everything up before I eat it. It's a little time consuming but in the end hopefully worth it.

Stepped on the scale this morning and it was lower than yesterday so now I just keep that going. I'm so happy I have a scale in my camp room so I can stay consistent.

Hope your Sunday was great.

Hugs!!

Day one on PointsPlus

I took Carol's advice and arrived at my meeting early. I'm usually early but paid extra attention today.  I paid the registration fee as opposed to surrendering 3 coupons after first making sure the coupons didn't expire. I immediatley got the calculator, dining out companion, complete food companion and 3 month tracker as well. WW made some money off of me today. I figured it would be busy so why wait.

Oh boy was it busy. There were more people there than usual and the lining up to get the new book and then lining up to weigh in did take a bit longer. I was up as expected by 6.6lbs. So that's just over 2lbs per week, too bad it didn't go in the other direction. I don't feel bad as I explained yesterday I was expecting this.

I got the weigh in person I like the least. Today she was super frazzled and immediately appeared stressed. What drives me a little nuts about her is that she sucks at math and always makes a mistake yet right next to her is a calculator. I also don't like how she judges. She is always condenscending when you have a gain. I could be .2 or my 6.6 makes no difference and that drives me bananas. The whole point of WW is to find support and encouragement.

I sat down and the woman across from me was frazzled. She explained she doesn't like change. The woman behind her was excited about now getting 29 pts as opposed to 18pts. Many didn't quite understand that you get more points because point values have changed. When our leader said fruit counted as zero the woman next to me said "that's trouble". My immediate thought was "Really? Did you gain your weight on fruit? Have you binged on fruit?" My guess would be no. Of course everyone deals with change differently. I've already told you all that I'm excited.

I enjoy the new 3 month tracker as it as a bit more room to write. Apparently there will be an Iphone App but not until January or February. I did find a new app today from Calgary Transit that allows you to look up your stop number and find out when the next bus is coming. Yeah CT - you've entered the current century.

I'm game on now as I embrace this new program and I've tracked my whole day. I walked loads today and earned 6AP. I guess the 100 calories burned doesn't equal 1AP anymore so I'll be using the E-Tool tracker to tabulate that for now.

Saw Burlesque tonight with my friend K. I loved it and already downloaded the soundtrack off of Itunes. Good workout music me thinks. She and I might hit the gym tomorrow. I noticed I didn't cough or sneeze while walking today so that's a good sign.

Alright my friends I hope you all had a fabulous Saturday.

Hugs!!!

A Restart - again

I strongly believe in restarts where you stop looking at the past or thinking of the would of, could of and should of. A restart to me is a chance to start fresh, start the count at the beginning and shake the cobwebs out of my brain.

I updated my weigh ins to start tomorrow (plus that list was getting awfully long). I've missed two weigh ins and probably gained 7lbs. I'm not kidding. It was a combination of stress, emotional eating and throwing caution to the wind that put me here. My change in schedule and the change in jobs had a lot to do with it. It's nothing like the schedule I had before where the challenge really is squeeking in workouts. Add in the cookies and chocolate of the season and it's a recipe for disaster. Which means I need to really really focus on the food and water. I talked a bit about that yesterday.

Not feeling well for the past week didn't help either. Today I decided to really take the day off. It's the first Friday on my 4 day on/ 3 day off schedule that I've had acually off. I focused on rest and shaking off this cold. I've stayed in pajamas all day.

I hear you get a new weigh in book with the new PointsPlus program so that's adding to the restart. This new progam could not come at a better time. I needed something fresh and love WW.

I'm really really looking forward to tomorrow's meeting.

I hope all of you aren't fighting a cold and had a fabulous Friday.

Hugs!!!

Moving on

I got up this morning and made two batches of my famous whipped shortbread cookies and then packed them up in cookie tins to take to work.

One tin went to my new group and one went to my old group. I was meeting up with the old group to go to a casual Christmas get together and secret santa exchange. I got to see their new floor. I'm kind of happy I never had to move to my spot as it kind of sucks. I'll take my office with no windows at site over that.

It was super fabulous to see them all. They're a big group of fantastic people. I do miss them. Where I am now is way more quiet and I miss the craziness. It sort of hit me today that we're all moving on. They will go on without me and I will go on without them. It felt strange.

I scored a set of 3 jars of jam from PEI (Prince Edward Island) at the secret santa. Can't wait to try those.

I've lost my ability to talk, well I can talk but sound awful. I feel fine but obviously I need to take it easy. I think the cold fx I was taking stopped the worst of it but it's not completely done. Tomorrow I'll head over to Walmart in search of something to addres this cold to kill it for good.

I'm sort of dreading weighing in on Saturday but I'm ready to face the music.

I read a good quote in Elle Canada today from Sherri Ziffer Lester - Hollywood life coach:

"Transform New Year's resolutions in to New Year's reflections. Find a quiet space and ask: what do I want for my life".

A part of me is disappointed that I didn't hit goal this year but I need to realize this is not a race or a competition it's my life.

Hope you had a great Thursday.

Hugs!!

"

Steep learning curve

Sorry for the silence. I've been working serious long days averaging around 13 hours and by the time I get back to my camp room I'm zonked and my only focus is bed.

Add in feeling under the weather since Monday and it's a recipe for just being tired. I didn't feel right on Monday and then the sore throat started yesterday. So far just minor other symptoms so I'm hoping to nip it in the bud.

Of course the one thing I didn't bring with me was cold meds. I'll bring those next week and have them on hand just in case.

So thanks to feeling icky workouts were non existent. Eating has been o.k. You eat some interesting combination of food at site. Yesterday's dinner was a chicken quesadilla (skinny) with cabbage/ carrot veggie side. I've never combined cabbage with mexican before.

I definitley haven't undone the damage I did over the past few weeks but I'm facing the scale on Saturday as I'm excited about the new plan.

I did attempt it on E-Tools but when Oatmeal came in as 4pts I took a bit of a step back. I need to go to the meeting as opposed to guessing my way into this plan. I'm happy that skim milk finally counts lower than the other milks.

For the past two days I've made a bit of a chef salad for lunch by grabbing lettuce or spinach, tomato, cucumber, egg and a bit of cheese and then chopping it all up.

I'm realizing I need to follow the plate rule at site. Half veggies, 1/4 protein, 1/4 grain/starch. Even when you ask for a little bit you tend to get a big spoonful. I need to learn that leaving food on the plate is not a bad thing and I don't need to treat myself as a garbage disposal. That completely goes against how I was raised. However in this situation I am not the person putting the food on the plate it's the person dishing it out.

Now the next few weeks get a little goofy with one more week at work and then two weeks off. I can't remember the last time I took two weeks in a row off - how sad is that. One week at Dad's and the one week home. I'll obviously be making weigh loss a New Year's goal once again but that's o.k. The week off at home will help me get really really organized.

Tomorrow is my old group's Christmas get together and I'm looking forward to that.

Till tomorrow...

Hugs!!!

Now that's better

I spent the majority of the day yesterday cleaning my house and then I prepped for the Christmas Party.

I got loads of compliments at the party and a lot of people didn't recognize me at first glance. That did fantastic things for my self esteem I tell ya. I didn't take any pictures but others did so if I come across one I'll definitely post. Got home just after midnight and slept till 8am today.

Today I once again walked to the mall and back as I needed milk and I wanted to buy a scale to take to site. The scale fits into my computer bag where the lap top would normally go which is awesome because I like to keep it carry on only so I can zip off the plane into the warm bus and not have to wait outside for the luggage.

Had oatmeal with walnuts and brown sugar for breakfast. Lunch was two poached eggs and plain toast.

Not sure what to do for supper.

I'm curious how the new WW plan impacts the pre-packaged WW food as it has the old points on the pack. I really do hope Canadian e-tools is updated tomorrow so I can see if the frozen WW lasagna is still 6pts or if it's jumped up.

After I got home from the mall I dug out a path from my back door to my back gate as the snow was pretty deep. I took out all my recycling which was collecing and that took 4 trips back and forth. I then vaccumed and put up all my Christmas decorations including the tree. The decorating process involved multiple trips up and down stairs with boxes.

I know I spend 40% of week somewhere else but I will be home for a week between Christmas and New Years so I can still enjoy it.

Still yet to do is pack up my computer bag with some more odds and ends for my camp office/room.

At site I've been doing the same program as my friend K which is crossfit workouts combined with Mari Windor pilates. I've done crossfit before when I trained with trainer. I didn't find it did a lot for me all by itself as I definitely to add in Cardio as well. I've had really good success for the past few months just with walking.

I'm thrilled to find out that fruit is now 0pts as I'll make a conscious effort to make that my snack and not the cookies and pastries in the camp kitchen.

A wee random today but that's all I got. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

Hugs!!!

Eeyore has left the building

I've been doing a lot of self reflection since I posted yesterday. I had a few light bulbs.

• I've been on vacation (from the plan that is) for the past two weeks not just last week. Obviously the lesson has not completely gelled and I can easily slip into bad behaviours if I'm not careful. So the blessing part is realizing that now and not a few weeks or months from now.
• The damage can be undone. I didn't become overweight overnight and I'm not going to hit goal overnight. I need to learn the lessons at my speed. I've proven to myself that I can be successful so there's no reason why I can't continue to be as long as I believe in myself.
• The PointsPlus plan launches in Canada on Monday. Now I won't be weighing in till Saturday (or thinking about Friday as I'm now off that day). However I realized it should launch on e-tools so I could start following the new plan on Monday for a fresh start.
• There are other indications when I'm feeling off. I look around my house and it's a mess. This is reflective of my lazy behaviour with the plan as well. So when I finish this post I'm going to clean and then prep for tonight's Christmas party.

It doesn't help me if I'm not honest with myself and own up to my behaviour.

So for today and tomorrow I will follow the old WW plan and just focus on meal by meal and workout by workout. I got some stickers to take to site to put on my calendar there to track activity. I'm bringing up the rest of my desk stuff this week which included my chain of coloured paperclips that represent one pound lost per paperclip. Positive reinforcement sort of thing.

I can do this and I will do this.

Hugs!!!

Bit of a back slide

Yesterday I stepped on the scale after not stepping on it since I left for site and the number that looked back at me shocked me and not in a good way.

I then thought back to my week plan wise and realized I totally sabotaged myself. Mind you I was adapting to a completely foreign environment.

My water intake was crap, the food was irratic like eating a healthy breakfast but then being so busy that when I had the opportunity to eat again my diligence wasn't exactly there.

I did do a few killer workouts but not enough to mitigate the damage.

I now don't want to go to weigh in tomorrow. I don't want to register this week's behaviour. I'd rather refocus myself and weigh in with the launch of the new program. I'm disappointed with myself.

Yes I know going to weigh in would still be fine and yada yada yada. I'm had the angle/ devil talk with myself over and over.

This weight loss thing is a personal battle that you can share with others. I'm sharing that I'm embarrased to weigh in tomorrow. I don't want the number I saw to be written in my weigh in book. I am not giving up and I'm not walking away I just want a hall pass. I said I'd share the good, the bad and the ugly of my journey. Today I'm looking at the ugly but that's o.k. Sometime you have to face down the ugly.

On the good new front I found a dress for the Christmas party today and it's fabulous to the extent that 4 sales people ran over to tell me how fabulous I looked. One woman told me I had quite the hour glass figure. That was a major boost to the ego that's for sure.

Bare with me guys, this funk will pass and I'll be back to my "I can do anything I put my mind on" philosophy.

Hugs!!!

What day is it?

Hello my friends,
I have been swamped the last 3 days and had a hard time remembering what day it was today. This week has been nothing but meetings.

My two days at site have flown by and I realize now how much I need to learn for my new job and how I must really pass the old one on to someone else.

Today was a day full of meetings. I never had a lunch hour it was more scavenge for leftovers from the catering provided at each meeting as due to the crazy schedule I was practically late for all of them.

I'm adjusting to sharing a bathroom with another person. Last night they went to the bathroom at 3:30am and the bathroom is about 4.5 feet from my bed. I was dog tired as my friend K and I did a serious workout.

I was 20min of Crossfit and then 20 min of pilates. I was sore today. Tonight due to not eating dinner till 8pm we just did pilates. K will be a good influence on me as she's pretty focused.

Tomorrow I head home but do need to work for most of the morning on Friday so I won't get to experience 3 days off this week.

I look forward to catching up on your blogs when I get home.

Hugs!!!!