The funeral home - surprisingly way better than I thought

I have to say this was the step I think I was dreading most. I've never walked into one before and all I had going through my head was my Dad telling me don't let them talk you into the most expensive of anything. Then it was images from movies.

I was super calm though and when we walked into the selection room. I was picturing full caskets but when I walked in they just displayed the corners.

I spotted my Dad's in a heart beat, he wanted simple, simple, simple. The urn was also an immediate pick it's silver and I thought of the word strong when I saw it and that was my Dad.

It's a crazy amount of stuff you can choose though. I saw one casket that looked like it was solid metal. It was and the Funeral Director told me it cost $5000.

I did get one thing that Dad might think was frivolous. They have a pendant where they can put a scan of the fingerprint. The minute I saw it I knew I was going to get one.

I left calm and in fact found that process not as remotely horrible as I thought, however it helped knowing his wishes and not having any other family. I can just imagine how it can get far more complicated.

I'm hoping to have the ashes by Friday so I can take them with me when I head out to Dad's house on the weekend. I went through my cell phone looking for a contact and saw all his numbers so I deleted them. I kept the land line but renamed it "The Land" which is what we called the property before my Dad built the house. While a relatively calm day I know this is going to be a long process. I'm trying to make sure I'm flipping into a be strong facade and just let myself feel.

I now need a new ICE (In Case of Emergency) number in my phone not sure what to do about that.

I booked the rental too and asked for a Ford Escape. I was to go for a week visit in the 3rd week of July and I was planning on renting a car and going up to surprise him. We had talked about me buying a vehicle this year and the original plan was in the winter which it might still be. I'm also pondering getting a Ford Escape so it's an opportunity for a week test drive. My Dad had a Chevy Aveo standard transmission. While I learned how to drive a standard it's been awhile and in the city you're shifting every 5 minutes. I am going to have to figure it out or get a friend to drive it to Calgary and I go back to the days of practicing in the early mornings in empty parking lots.

The decisions are truly endless but I'm not yet feeling overwhelmed and I know I have huge support around me should I get overwhelmed.

In a moment dedicated to what I normally blog about the attempt to be fit and the races.

This came today

I don't really get the Vinylmation at Disney but when I saw this I had to have it and I intend to put it on my new desk at work. As I will soon have to stop off at the gym after work not just go 4 doors down from my camp room I think the determined look on his face is a good motivator.

Speaking of camp room. Tomorrow is my last trip to site as I'm going up to pack. It's kind of weird as it's not like when I normally fly. I don't need to bring anything with me as the purpose is to permanently leave site. I did finally get a Calgary office number today which is cute as I would normally be starting in Calgary this coming Monday.

Thank you for being patient with me as I work through this process, normal scheduling will return.

Another Day

Day 3 - and I don't know what stage of grief I'm in. I downloaded a few books from Kobo and it does say they don't necessarily follow a pattern. 

I did do some normal stuff today like take out the garbage/recycling, do the laundry and wash dishes. Peppered with teary moments. 

I also scanned through the bank history of Dad's account, which he added me to years ago, just to make sure I caught everything that needs to be closed off. 

Early in the morning there was a phone call from the Government of Alberta but they asked if it was my Dad's doctor office and then realized they phoned the wrong number. I knew it was the medical examiner. 

They did phone back later to tell me that the funeral home had picked up the body yesterday. She also told me they're calling the cause of death high blood pressure of course she used a more technical name for it plus she said not unusual as he was 90. He was on blood pressure medication. 

Tomorrow I go to the funeral home so I'm expecting a rough day. I'm taking a cab for that as I'd rather not attempt to drive. Thursday I'm taking a super quick trip up to site to pack my camp room and I scheduled that so I could just zip in and out without running into to many people. I continue to receive amazing messages of support but I know this can make people awkward and to be honest I wouldn't even be going if this wasn't supposed to by last week up there anyway. Plus I need the suitcase currently sitting in my camp room for next week. I'm on the uber early flight so I'll chill in my room until it's time to fly out which I'd have to leave by 1:30 pm anyway. 

On Friday I'm thinking about meeting my team for lunch or after work just to re-enter the world of the living. 

I'm making a list of supplies I need to take with me when I go back probably Sunday morning. I'm planning to rent an SUV for the week so I can haul the cleaning and odds and ends out plus take back anything I need to. 

I haven't run at all as I don't have the get up and go.I don't feel comfortable running at the acreage only because it's bear season and super isolated. I just want to get Dad taken care of, clean his house and then return to a more regular routine for awhile. I did get this though to go on my Pandora bracelet, while not Pandora I still think it's neat. I will get back at it soon as while I cancelled my trip to Portland for FitBloggin I'm still going to the Dumbo Challenge at Disneyland at the end of August. 

In fact the mention of high blood pressure today brought back my last physical where my doctor said mine was a little high so that's enough of a push to get back at it. I may run tomorrow to work out the emotions of the day. 

I've received a few flowers over the past few days and wanted to share them with you as they are beautiful. 

These are from my co-workers in HR, aren't pink roses amazing. 

These ones are from site, wowsers is all I can say. The roses are massive. 

This is from my boss, I laughed out loud when I received it as it's a tree. When my Mom passed I got loads of flowers but I admire the originality of this just no idea where to put it. 

I ordered pizza tonight as my desire to cook is nada plus this gives me something to reheat tomorrow and probably after I land on Thursday. I got a salad with it...plus cheesy bread o.k that was an emotional decision. 

Thank you for being patient while I work through this process. 

Thank you for your support

I have to say thank you for all your comments and messages.

It's all a little surreal still and I accept that. After my Mom passed 11 years ago I often say to people that the process of grieving is different for everyone. There is no right way or wrong way. It's an independent and personal journey.

Last night I slept on the couch in my Dad's house. I knew he hadn't been feeling well and let's just say I found the evidence in the two bedrooms. He did tell me he was using the room I usually stay in as he hadn't cleaned the sheets in his bedroom. The couch wasn't so bad it brought back memories of when we had a few cousins from Germany visiting and I got the couch then too.

When the Victim Services ladies were talking to me I told them how I had read the book "Facing a Death in the Family" on Saturday from cover to cover. As I told you I had a bad feeling all day Saturday.  I had originally bought the book when my Mom was ill but I never read it as my Dad took care of all the details after her death. I just had to close one bank account. I told them I had a notebook and was making lists. One of them asked me if I when I have a list and I do something not on the list do I then add it to the list. I said of course then I know how much I accomplished. She did too, a moment of levity from yesterday.

I was looking over my FitBit data and on Saturday I had a record of 65 awake times.

 Now this next part may seem weird to some of you but I take comfort in it. At one point I woke up around 1 am and saw a bright spot of light in my window. My curtains were just a little open. At first I thought it was a street light but there is no street light there. I now know that was around the time of death. I believe it was my Dad's spirit coming to say goodbye. When I got home today I went to that window to see if there was anything else that could cause that and there's nothing. Call me crazy if you wish.

I decided to come back early this morning as I wanted some space to sort through all that needs to be done and that's just easier in the city. My Dad had given me a copy of the will but it was not signed so one call was to the lawyer to see if they had a signed copy on file. Thank goodness they did. One thing I learned from the book is that it looks like a nightmare if there is no will. I don't have a will but you can bet once I have everything flipped to my name I'm doing that asap.

Now normally when I stayed at Dad's we'd only travel on the weekend. So I knew that this morning I would run into Calgary rush hour. Hey after driving for the first time in years why not go all in. I was trying to just hit the early start but again I made a few wrong turns. I bought a Garmin Nuvi a few months ago on the Shopping Channel as I knew it would come in handy. I was not familiar at all with route Garmin was suggesting but I've also never gone to the airport from my Dad's house. I drove on the Trans Canada highway, Coventry Hill Blv which I've never done today and lived to tell about it. When I did my license it was around my neighbourhood. Actually despite a couple wrong turns it was pretty uneventful. I even spotted 3 deers along the way and would chant "just stay there" as I didn't want them to run across the road and I hit or wind up in a ditch avoiding it. I passed a few road kills.

Called the funeral home and have a meeting on Wednesday, I'll bring loads of kleenex for that one. They were asking what sort of service I wanted. My Dad didn't want a service as he would say it's just a bunch of people saying nice things about that they never said when you were alive. I have to agree with him, that is something that's for the living not the deceased.

I had to cancel all my FitBloggin travel plans and found out that Air Canada will indeed refund your money in this scenario. Just need to send them a death certificate and the original itinerary.

That's one lesson right off the bat have many copies of the death certificate. Of course at this point the body has not been released. However the funeral people said they'd contact the medical examiner's office to let them know that they're involved.

Then it was dealing with the Canadian government. I called the Old Age Security and Canadian Pension Plan people to inform them. Super nice people and one reminded me of the GST credit but of course that was a different phone number. I called 4 1-800 numbers today. Got one guy who told me to send the death certificate and SIN number to the local tax office and reminded me I have to do the final income tax but that's not something I need to do now.

One of them needed my Dad's bank account number so I had to log into my bank to find it, and I notice he had written two cheques in early June, turns out to two life insurance policies that I didn't know about. Funny how things happen. Well I think I knew about one of them but the original policy was under a different name.

One of the amazing things my Dad did was add my name to the property titles and all his bank accounts a long time ago. Very smart move.

There's still a long list to take care of but I can't do anything without the death certificate and to be honest I just wanted to do what I thought was crucial today while I had a calm moment to deal with it.

I'm planning to spend the week up there next week to clean the house and go through all the stuff in a not hurried pace. My company is cool with me not coming back till July 2. I have a list of supplies to get but I think it will be cathartic.

Out of curiosity I stepped on the scale when I got home. Down 4lbs in jeans, yup that's stress and I have to say WW is not a huge focus for me at the moment. Though I still intend to go to weigh in this weekend to maintain regular routine.

In fact this is turning into one giant learning moment, not just about what needs to be done when someone passes but just what to do to not leave a burden on those left behind.

Once again thank you so much for your kind words, they mean so much to me.

Goodbye Daddy

I don't even know why I'm blogging today. I just had the need to get this day down.

My father died today, Father's Day will never mean the same thing to me again. He passed in the early hours of the morning.

I talked to him everyday. On Tuesday he was telling me he didn't feel well. I said you should go to the doctor but my father was stubborn and doesn't trust doctors. I talked to him on Wed -he seemed better, Thurs he said the same and Fri he said to stop bothering him and wanted to back to bed. I thought he was describing food poisoning. The way he was on Friday really worried me. I waited on Saturday hoping I'd hear he's feeling better.

I had a progressively bad feeling. On Saturday he never answered the phone. So today I rented a car for the first time in my life, drove for the first time in 4 years to get to my Dad's house. I couldn't get into the house it was locked down like Fort Knox. For the first time in my life I dialed 911. The fire department, EMS and RCMP came. They found him on the floor in his room. I couldn't go into the house. I wanted to remember him the way I last saw him. I did have to ID the body and he looked liked he was napping like he always did in his recliner. They asked me questions, they took his medications, he would now be in the Medical Examiner's office in Calgary.

His house is a mess that I can't deal with right now.

He was 90 years old. I know he's at peace now and no more aches and pains. He always told me never get old. He died where wanted to. No matter how many times I brought up moving in with me or closer to home it was put off or maybe next year. I got a visit from Victim Services the most huggable women you've ever met. One of them said something profound. He died where he wanted. Had I swooped in and made him go to the doctor he would have been miserable. They're right.

One of his good friends called so I told her the news. A neighbor dropped by to make sure all was ok after the slew of emergency vehicles outside the gate.

Tonight I spend the night at his house. Then I start the incredible paper process when someone passes.

And I begin the grieving process. Tonight it's just tears and memories

I do it for the bling - you got my number runDisney

Hello my friends,

I took the day off today and got down what I had originally planned which was get the flower beds ready and get the patio set out of the shed.

This week I packed up my office for my return to the home office in Calgary. When I went to site I had 4 boxes and I'm coming back with 5 boxes, mind you there's a mini keurig and steel toed boots so it's probably only 4 boxes of actual office stuff.

The Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend went on sale on Tuesday, I knew when it opened but I still wasn't 100% sure I would attempt to go. The thing I was most interested in was the Glass Slipper Challenge, now I'm doing the Disneyland version at the end of August - the Dumbo Challenges. It's a 10k on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday.



The Princess Half was going on sale at 10 am my time and I had a pretty busy day so I remembered at around 1:30 pm. I thought if it's still available I'll do it. Well the Glass Slipper Challenge was only 88% full when I logged on so I'm going. It sold out in 6 hours. I also signed up for the race retreat which gives you a more private area to eat, stretch, private bag check and port a potties.

Then I saw this

The pink Coast to Coast medal....I got the regular Coast to Coast medal in November when I went to Disney World for the Wine and Dine Half and I did the Inaugural Tinkerbell Half  the previous January.

Well I have to have it in pink...hello. Right that minute I signed up for the 2014 Tinkerbell Half. That means a half in January and February. I have never done halfs that close together before.

Which might actually be my problem as I do one get home stop training then I sign up for another one and have to start training from the start.

So I got a little crafty and put this binder together

It holds the Jeff Galloway training plans for Dumbo, the Tinkerbell Half and the Princess Half found on rundisney.com. I didn't see a training plan for the Glass Slipper Challenge but maybe that's coming.

This is purely the run portion of training, I need to get a whole lot better at cross training and I do think my move back to Calgary will help with that as I will have access to the Iron Reps class at SpaLady more often.

I've also found my Hal Higdon and John Bingam training books. I definitely like the Jeff Galloway Run/Walk method so I'll stick to that for running. The pieces I need to add are strength training (Iron Reps) and flexibility (Yoga).

This means I also need to get over my lazy attitude about training in winter. Before I bring on the tech long johns it will mean continuing training after Dumbo to keep building and not fall off the wagon.

Hope you are all enjoying your Thursday.

Hugs!!!

Long time no type

No longer having a lap top in my camp room does curtail my blogging as I find it far easier to type on a keyboard that plunk away on my iPad.

This is what happened this week:

This is what I saw out the window as I flew to work on Monday, it made me think of the ocean not a layer of clouds in the sky. I thought it was cool how flat they were.

On Monday it was my birthday, now last year they totally decorated my office and I thought I was safe this year as my office locks and I had no meetings...I was wrong and this what I saw when I walked in.

Throughout the day more balloons and were added. The funny part was when I got to work and saw this I think I said "OMG" out loud as the meeting room next door said "Sylvia's here".

The work week flew by and I started packing. I have two weeks left at site and my replacement starts on Monday. Mixed emotions on this one. I am happy to be coming home but I'll miss these people and as we fly in from all over Canada I'll never see some of them again.

Now I've been stressed about this move as I didn't know where I was shipping my stuff. The person I'm taking over from is on vacation plus I'm still busy with my current job so I can't even think about the new job.  A location has been found and I'm sharing with the co-worker that just went back to Calgary this week.

I'll need be packed up this week so the boxes can get to Calgary in time, the warehouse told me they can sit in Fort McMurray for a week.

I did have to start thinking about going back to home office so I ordered the July bus pass and was super impressed as I ordered it online on Thursday and I arrived in my mailbox at home on Friday. Now I need to remember to keep the receipts and passes as months pass as I can get a tax write off.

I'll have two days of new job and then it's off to FitBloggin, I have loads of cards left over from last time so these will be used again. Even though my twitter avatar has changed hopefully they'll still work. I will write a FitBloggin post soon with what I learned from my first one last year and what I hope to accomplish this year. Stay tuned for that.

When I get back from FitBloggin it will be Canada Day the next day so booyah an extra day off then a mere 3 days later Stampede begins. Most of Calgary and especially the downtown core goes all Western during Stampede. Windows are painted with cowboy type scenes, hay bales on the street, free pancake breakfasts everywhere (there is even an app to help find them)  and almost everyone is dressed Western. So I got me some boots, my first pair as an adult. The thing I learned you shop for Cowboy boots like you do for running shoes. It's all about the fit, room in the toe, snug at the arch and a slight lift in the heel. I went with classic brown though I really liked the black version of these too.

I also picked up a few more Western shirts, this makes 5 in total in my wardrobe so I should be good to go to cover 6 work days of Stampede. Now I just need a denim skirt and some accessories. They has some pretty impressive blingy belts and Lammle's Western Wear but the one I like was $100, I figured I can get cheaper elsewhere.

Before I went Western wear shopping I did go to weigh in. I was down 1.6lb and boy that was a surprise. It was a rough week, a rather awful run on Monday then super late days Tuesday and Wednesday. I did do a last chance workout on Friday of 3 miles.

Today was supposed to be 6.5 miles. By 5 miles I was pooped. I had my hydration pack with me for the first two miles then I realized it was leaking so I dropped it off at home and kept going. I need to figure out my hydration as runs will be getting longer. I'm thinking of using my mailbox as fuel station. I'm not fond of wearing a belt and even the sloshing of the hydration pack plus added weight was a wee annoying.

The other thing I promised myself as I went through the neighborhood was I will not do race then stop training as after Wine and Dine I pretty much stopped and then I find myself having to rebuild. Speaking of continuing so I have the Stampede Road race on July 9th and yes I will do this one as opposed to just picking up the t-shirt. Then it's the Dumbo challenge at Disneyland which leads me to....should I attempt to sign up for the Glass Slipper challenge at Disney World that goes on sale on Tuesday?

Now that I've done a run at Disney World, I better understand the logistics and the timing of flying across the continent. Though I have not done the 10k and Half back to back yet....well I have till Tuesday to decide.

I hope all of you had a great week. I'm off to bed soon as I have an early flight to work.

Hugs!!!

Back to Basics

I think I've used that title a few times but you know what I'll keep using it if it gets me back on track.

This past week has been a little nuts. I had 3 super long days in a row which didn't help and I didn't plan well or at all really. Adding an extra 5hrs to a day needs to be planned.

It was a week that our little two floor office building was covered in sweets. We had communication sessions, good bye parties including mine and every where you went there were cookies, nanaimo bars (my absolute favorite and brownies.

Long days with a little added stress as I know have 3 weeks till I return to the home office and start coming home every night. It was the last week for my co-worker as they're replacing us with one person. Next week I'm on my own but I was on my own when co-worker was on vacation for 3 weeks so that's no biggy.

Then my replacement and I have 2 weeks together.

I need to go back to basics this week and take it day by day. In the meeting today we were talking about emotional and mindless eating. I've certainly done both. Stress is the one that really gets to me and of course I've been a wee stressed lately.

I talked about how I used to write down the times I ate on my tracker to see how long my breakfast kept me full and where my danger zones were. It also made me really think before I ate anything for example I don't need a snack one hour after breakfast.  Mid-afternoon is mine. Well the leader suggested everyone do that this week so now I feel obligated to do my best and track really really well.

I did a little grocery shopping. My birthday is on Monday so I got myself a little treat to have tomorrow as I'll be flying back to work on Monday.

Then I had to conquer jungle lawn. The drawback of only being home for 3 days is gives me a very short mowing window and with all the rain Calgary has been getting super tough. However today it wasn't raining. It rained on Friday and will rain tomorrow so this was my chance. Well it took 2 hours but it's now done. I really do like my electric cordless mower but I had to recharge the battery between the front and back lawn.

Friday I cleaned my house from top to bottom. Tomorrow not sure but I think it would be a good rest day.

Next Friday I want to go get some cowboy boots. I've got a coupon that needs to be used by June 9th. I'm a native Calgarian and the last time I had boots I was 5. As I will be in the Calgary office for the Stampede this year I will have to dress western during Stampede week. I have a couple of Stampede events to go to too. A charity event for a children's charity, the company party and a Dixie Chicks concert.

I'm thinking these might the ones but not sure if to get black or brown. I'm aiming for classic and invest in a good pair as Stampede comes every year.

My company hosts a breakfast during Stampede and I heard you could volunteer. All 140 spots were taken in one week. Oh well not went to be.

So my back to basics week comes with simple goals.

Track every day
Drink a minimum of 6 cups of water a day
Have 4 days of planned activity

Hope all of you are having great Saturday.

Hugs!!

Friend Making Monday

I've only taken part in this once before but I'm a fan of Miss Kenlie who created this.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Summer Fun

1. What is your favorite summer fruit? Berries of any type, love raspberries, strawberries, blueberries

2. Do you know how to swim? Sort of, I'm good at backwards and dog paddle

3. Do you prefer sun or snow? It can be sunny and snowing ya know. I do like summer but the sun tried to kill me (skin cancer) so I'm weary and careful. Not a fan of super hot weather at all.

4. What temperature do you like most inside your home? I think in Celsius so around 20.

5. Is it humid where you live? Dry as a bone.

6. What is your favorite food to put on the grill? Burgers

7. Do you prefer to wear a one-piece or two-piece swim suit? Own both but my two piece is a tankini so still covers. I have a goal to rock a bikini one day.

8. What is your favorite summer drink? Ice tea, love the Mio Ice Tea flavor.

9. Do you prefer the pool or the ocean? Pool, too many things in the ocean, like to admire that from the shore.

10. What are you looking forward to most over the summer? Reading in my lawn chair in the back yard.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions. Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday, friends!

Down but not dead - full disclosure

When one decides to write a weight loss blog it brings a lot of conflictions. Do you share everything including when you fall off the wagon, do you only post successes? I must always remember I started this blog for me so followers will come and go. 

Well I did say in my little blog into that this was the good, the bad and the ugly. 

When I posted about how I rocked the program and got 2.2 loss and then I said I hope I don't blow it. 

I never should have said that, what I should have done is gone forward full of positivity and "I will rock this attitude. 

That didn't happen. 

As I've mentioned before I work a compressed work week right now 40hrs in 4 days. This week was long. We have quarterly town halls and I get to go to 9 of them. I track the questions asked and make sure we're communication the answers consistently. 

This also means a whole lot of meeting that go until 7pm and I did not plan well this week at all. 

I got a run in on Monday, that was it. 

I stopped tracking by lunch time 3 days in a row. 

I'm disappointed and frankly ashamed that I took a great week and through it out the window. It was all my own fault. 

That brings me to today I didn't set my alarm last night so I missed the first meeting. I weighed myself on my home scale and saw a gain of 3lbs and opted to not go to the 2nd meeting. Instead I went to pick up a race pack for race I won't be doing on Sunday. 

Now that's all the down and gloom I'm going to write about now it's time to put my attention forward and consider this a blip. I have a new week ahead of me, last week is in the past. 

Now on to happy news - I won a pair of Reebok shoes

I entered a twitter contest from Reebok.ca and designed a pair of shoes on their website and I was the weekly winner. Those shoes are now on their way to my house. I think they're perfect for my soon daily trek to the C-Train station to get to work Downtown. 

I won't be running the Scotiabank Half tomorrow, I didn't train enough and I failed to plan. All these trips to Edmonton messed with my normal go to training program and I could have come up with a back up plan but I didn't. I thought about going and just walking it as I thought the Edmonton trips would be finished but I'm going to Edmonton tomorrow. 

I went to get the t-shirt I paid for and check out the expo. I have to say that's getting better from the first time I did this race years ago but I just went to pick up the t-shirt as I didn't feel like I really deserved to enjoy the expo as I wasn't racing - that's was in my head. 

Front of the shirt

The back of the shirt. 

I didn't realize Calgary has the oldest marathon in Canada and next year it turns 50. 

Hmm, that will 2 days before my 42nd birthday. 42 sticks in my head as that's how old my mom was when she had me. 

Lately I've been doing my nails, this will be week 3 when I take off last week. 

The first week it was dark blue with a turquoise accent nail, last week was purple with star sticker accent nail. This is after 6 days of wear not bad huh. I've been doing base coat, top coat and using OPI Chip Skip. I'm thinking the Chip Skip is kind of genius. 

Well this afternoon I had to zip to Walmart and I picked up this. 

I'm thinking pink nails this week with this on the accent nail. One thing I must remember when I go to Walmart is make sure there's a bar code and there wasn't on this little bottle and I got boy cashier who didn't know what this stuff was called. I said Nail Polish. 

Tomorrow I'm going to try to squeek in a run as the hotel treadmill is defective - top speed is 4 miles. 

My goals this week:

Track every day and plan out the day ahead. 

Min 9 cups of water per day

It's back to basics week. I'm down but not beaten. 

Hugs!!!

Week blew by

The other good thing about coming back to Calgary and working a normal work week is I'll blog more.

This week went by fast and it was busy.

My boss came up to site on Wednesday with my replacement and I have to admit it had my emotions all over the place. One when my boss comes to site it's a little like hurricane. Then it really hit me that I won't see some of these people again, we have people from all over Canada and sure I might see the Calgary based folk. I won't see the Edmonton, Saskatoon or East Coast folks.

Then I had to change my flight as I need to be in Edmonton for two more Mondays after this Victoria Day long weekend. Then I had to call to cancel my normal flights after June 21st. That actually made me a little sad.

Friday I had to head downtown to get my hair cut and realized that my next appointment in 6 weeks can be on any day as I'll be based in Calgary.

Then I headed out for 4 mile walk around the neighbourhood as I need to get my training into full gear for the  Dopey run end of August.

Went to weigh in on Saturday morning, up 1.2 yup those wiggy emotions. However there are 35 days till I come back to Calgary so game on.

Saturday afternoon had a coffee with M and saw little baby B again, she's 3 months now and utterly adorable.

Today I went to Star Trek with an old work friend, awesome movie by the way and I see myself seeing it again at some point.

Then I came home to take out the garbage and put the sprinkler on. It's been threatening to rain all weekend but it's just spitting and the lawn needs water.

In between moving the sprinkler I started cutting down some rogue trees in my back yard. I have to admit my back yard is neglected. While I've been working up North it hasn't been my priority as I haven't even taken the patio set out of the shed.

Well I'll be home this summer so it's time to take control of the backyard. Hopefully the weather is nice next weekend as I'd like to get most of cleaned up so I can put the patio set out.

Well now your up to date on my life.

Tomorrow I head to work so it's time to turn off the sprinkler and start the wind down process must be to bed early.

I really hope all of you are doing well.

Hugs!!!

Now just don't mess up

I still find Mother's Day a little rough despite my mom passing away 11 years ago. I do want to wish all the Moms out there a wonderful Mother's Day.

This is one of my favourite pictures, I still remember this day. I didn't know she was looking behind me when the picture was taken.

Today I focused on chores to keep my mind busy. I did my laundry, washed dishes, finally raked the lawn, plucked out the dandelions (can't believe they're already around), fertilized the lawn and now I'm watering it.

I have soaker hose type of sprinkler so I call this sprinkler Olympics as moving it takes effort. It's 50ft long.

This was all before noon today. I can already feel where I'll be sore tomorrow.

Yesterday was weigh in and I lost 2.2 lbs and I nice solid launch into the 180s, gee funny things happen when I follow the plan. I tracked all 7 days and used 39/49 of WP. I was super happy about this as I haven't had a 2lb loss in awhile.

It all comes down to how much effort I put in. Now my focus is don't mess it up this week. Keep the momentum going and focus on my goals. It was quite nice moving 11 glass beads from my pounds to go jar to my pounds lost jar. I use 1 bead per .2lb. I added two paperclips to my paperclip chain.

Now my routine is to stop off at Starbucks on my way to weigh in. Yesterday was warm so I was wearing a hoody and put my Gold Starbucks card in the pocket. I had it in my pocket with my iPhone now I did have the momentary thought of hmm maybe I should but that in the zippered pouch on my backpack. Well about a block before Starbucks I realized the card was not in my pocket and I probably knocked it out when I was changing songs on my iPhone. Well I continued to Starbucks and weigh in and thought I'll retrace my steps when I go home.

Well luckily I found the card on the sidewalk about a block away from house. Of course I got a new card at Starbucks thinking if I had lost it I could transfer the balance. I've lost the gold card before and it takes awhile to get the new one in the mail.

It turns out I don't need to go to Edmonton tomorrow as the meeting was cancelled. I do now have to get up at 3:30 am tomorrow to catch my usual early flight to work. I haven't done that in awhile. That's all about preparation. My clothes for tomorrow are all ready folded next to my bed for tomorrow and the alarm is set. Now I just need to pack my lunch, put my breakfast on the kitchen counter (I just have a WW chocolate smoothie as I can't eat at 3:30 am)

I really want a nap but that can't happen or my sleep tonight will be awful and I need to be in bed early.

The good news about taking my normal flight is I have no excuses about running when I get to camp.

I do wonder if I'll see an offer letter this week letting me know what day I return to a home office based role.

Well enough of my rambling, I do hope you all enjoy your Sunday.

Hugs!!!

I did it

I bought 100 bottles of Mio on Ebay, what can I say the US has way more flavors then Canada and this saves me weight in my suitcase when I travel. My current favourite is Peach Tea. They don't expire and will probably share with my friends. It was actually cheaper even with shipping then what a bottle costs in Canada. The funny part was a few more flavors launched in Canada as well. We now have lemonade, blackberry cherry and two of the electrolyte versions.

I've actually tracked every single day, I finally tracked despite my crazy schedule with the 3 hour road trip to Edmonton on Sundays and all the meals out until I return to site Monday night - that is a major victory for me. During the meeting on Monday I tracked using the app on my phone as it was very discrete.

I've also been doing well with water thanks to the Plant Nanny app.

I was focusing on back to basics by really focusing on tracking. Activity wasn't great as I've been so tired. I know that's due to the craziness at work plus finding out I was going back to the home office 6 months sooner then the original plan so a wee bit of stress about that. I was focusing on quality sleep and in bed early all week.

Downloaded the Cool Impossible by Eric Orton to see if I can learn somethings to improve my running.

I found my new favorite Keurig coffee. It tastes and smells like coconut...yum

My home scale is showing the 180s but we'll wait and see what tomorrow's weigh in says. The anchors I put into effect last weekend have been working as well.

I've had some slips but still have 10 WP left and caught myself, for example I didn't plan my lunch well on Sunday so by the time we got to Red Deer I was a hungry. I bought a bag of Doritos, we always stop at the gas station with the Tim Hortons. I stayed mindful and ate half the bag, tracked it and tossed the rest when I got to the hotel.

At breakfast the next day which is the hotel diner, I realized you get half an eggs benedict -one egg. So I got that but asked for the sauce on the side and had it with a side of sliced tomatoes. I think I'll keep doing that while I need to go to Edmonton.

This is my typical view in Edmonton, it's the back of the Labatt's beer plant and train tracks. I do prefer the track side as they call it as the trains go by periodically and they give you earplugs in your room. The other side faces Gateway and there's traffic constantly including fairly frequent sirens.

It's looking like the Scotiabank Half on the 29th is a no go due to work as I may need to be in Edmonton all day Sunday. It's still up in the air.

Today I'm focusing on keeping sodium down and finishing off the week strong.

I've started to pack up my camp room slowly and preparing for my return to the Calgary home office. I still don't have an official start date but I did see the request go in for somewhere for me to sit in the building as it's pretty full. Now that said mid-June but who's to say if that's mid or end.

My back to work wardrobe shopping will have to include some Western wear as I'll be there in time for Stampede. Though I am keeping that wardrobe building plan till after FitBloggin as there is a Nordstrom Rack very close to the hotel and I'm focused on losing as much as I can before I start buying clothes.

Nothing quite like clothes shopping to kick up one's motivation.

It's funny to look at all the stuff I've accumulated up as site I do have doubles of everything so all I had to do was carry a backpack back and forth.

Now when I first went up there I was lighter as well. I didn't realize I had 6 pairs of jeans but as I dug around the abundant amount of storage we have in our rooms sure enough stuffed towards the back of a shelf were 3 pairs I haven't worn in a long time. I took those home.

I wore one of the those pairs today as I thought I'd see if they fit. They fit but are a little snug so I wore them to go grocery shop. Yes I finally grocery shopped on a Friday so I can plan my meals for my 3 days off. I'm also trying to enjoy my Fridays off before I need to start working them again. Mind you there's been loads of time I've had to go in on Fridays.

I am looking forward to being able to plan out a whole week and blog a bit more frequently as my hours won't be quite so crazy. I was planning to go to Zumba tomorrow but I seriously need to rake my lawn so I think that will be my activity tomorrow.

I walked to Walmart and back and that's about 40min in total. I'm still going to do some yoga.

I'll be back tomorrow to report on weigh in.

She read my mind

I went to weigh in today and I do believe my new leader is Nikki who was also a leader with UK WW.

That makes me super happy as the last leader did nothing for me. I was debating changing to a different meeting and found myself dreading going. I really like Nikki, she's funny and sparks good dialogue.

She talked about anchors today and that got me thinking about all the tools I used in the past that helped me be successful.

We also talked about how no one can make you follow the steps to weight loss. You can receive the tools but it's your choice to use them.

I bought a new 3 month tracker intending to start fresh. I got home and decided to finish my old one off. There are 2 weeks left in it.

I then flipped back through the pages and clearly saw how tracking drops off by Wednesday. Another thing we talked about is when you don't track everything or cheat a bit the only person you're cheating is you. Going back to the it's up to you to use the tools.

I got my paper clip chain, each paper clip represents one pound lost. I remembered how long it use to be. Where I had it now was behind the door to the basement. I moved it to my bedroom where I have to walk past it everyday.

My glass jars of beads - one for pounds to go the other for pounds lost was behind my perfume bottles. I rearranged things so those jars are front and centre.

I dug out my WW 10% key chain with the 25lb charm. Right now it was in my backpack. I put it in the ziplock I keep my tracker in as everyday that will be smack in front of me reminding me I can do this. I will do this.

Talked to an old friend and told then I'll be back to working in Calgary full time. She said you'll have to make all your own food. Yes and I'm looking forward to it. Grocery shopping and meal planning for 3 days wasn't easy for me nor was being at the mercy of what the camp chefs chose to offer.

I think back to the post I wrote yesterday as I was so focused on the past.

Today I'm focused on the future. I also had a 100% OP day. Day 1 done.

Bring on Day 2.

A sense of ennui

I say ennui because it's not full out boredom or sadness, it's more a weariness I've been feeling for awhile actually a long while. I recognize it and how I need to get out of it. I can see my way out of it just the journey has been hard. It almost inspired another letter to myself but I've done that twice.

I'm on the cusp of some new things that do show me a rope to dig myself out of my self imposed hole.

The big part is the new job, the other big part is in one month I turn 41. I distinctly remember thinking before I turned 40 that I was going to get this weight loss thing done by the time I turned 41...yeah that didn't happen. I also remember thinking that at 30...

I'm still single with no kids, a handful of friends and I still need to lose weight.  I find my sense of self so tied to my weight. Yet I know I'm capable of completing this challenge that's dogged me for my entire life.

I don't want to go down the road of why have I wasted so much time with the weight loss and that so many could have lost what I need to lose by now. Of course they could also have regained and lost and regained at lost so perhaps I should be thankful that I haven't done that.

However it's 2 years since I was at my lowest weight and that was a few months into my fly in fly out schedule maybe the camp life, crazy hours, what can be a fairly stressful job add in not having 100% control over my food helped the slow creep back up.

Yet I still have faith that I can do this so that let's me know I still can and I still will.

Today I had to head into head office to attend a meeting. This trip felt different as I know I'll be back in that building in 2 months. I did have an office in that building for a brief period before. It was before I went into my current job and before the floors were renovated.

Today I walked through the company gym. It's way bigger then the old one and a bit of a deal at $10 per pay period ($20/mth). One thing I noticed walking through the gym was that everyone who was working out was super fit. I had thought to join when I returned to the building but then I started thinking of my Spa Lady membership that I kept while as site as it was pretty cheap at $22/ mth.

Yes the gym on the 3rd floor is handy but so far I've only used the Spa Lady one sporadically as one I only have access Fri - Sun but it would be on way home every day when I'm back working downtown. It's open later, has more classes and doesn't make me feel intimidated (which is what I felt when I walked through the work gym today).

Tomorrow I go to weigh in happy that it's a new week as it feels like a clean page and a firm grip on a rope to brighter thoughts.

Hugs!!!

Well that's a huge weight off my shoulders

Yet another crazy week.

This going to Edmonton every Monday is a challenge, dinner out Sunday after a 3hr drive, breakfast out Monday, catered lunch and then dinner out again before flying back to site.

What I need to do is make sure when my WW week starts on Saturday to keep that day totally OP and then have WP in my back pocket for these trips.

I didn't master that last week. I did pack workout clothes only to find the hotel treadmill was a junker. I have been keeping up with the squat challenge still need to do my 100 after I finish this blog.

I haven't been very focused on WW lately and a lot of that has to do with job stress. They're going down to one HR person at site. So my co-worker and I will go back to Calgary. I knew the plan for him, my replacement was hired a few months ago but other then going back to Calgary there was no plan for me.

My current boss who perhaps needs some sensitivity training had asked where I wanted to go in the past, I told her and then she suggested something that had nothing to do with what I just said.

My uber boss (her boss) told me this was all about development. Yet my boss has told me "I was being shopped" meaning my future return to Calgary was mentioned among the HR team at my company. When she told me that all I could think of was what if no one "buys" me.  I was told I was coming back between September and December then it was after Christmas.

I did share with my boss that all this was freaking me out - she said not to worry there were a lot of mat leaves coming up....my development is dependent on a mat leave?????

Well yesterday I was chatting with her on the phone and she told me that a role has turned up and how she thinks it's really good for me. Now based on my history with her at first I was skeptical but she sounded genuinely excited. She wouldn't tell me what the role was just that the leader wanted to take me for coffee today. Now I was popping into the home office today to assist my boss with a project. Of course all night I was wondering what this role could be and who the leader was. She told me I knew them and my experience in my current role would be a benefit and it would get me more face time with Calgary folks as I've been hidden at site for years.

Well I met the leader today and it wasn't anyone I had suspected. The role let's me stay in my current org so my uber boss doesn't change but it's all about projects. I'm seriously intrigued. I would get to manage projects, make decisions and help out all the people I know now. Now it's more helping other HR folks as opposed to a client group but lately I have been feeling I could use a change. What I loved about being a recruiter was that I was busy all the time, in my current role it's very much off and on, and I'm thinking this role would be more like when I was recruiter - in theory every job opening was a project.

Now the deal is not 100% set but it would give me even more career options down the road like project management (I'm told a PMP would be supported) or into a specialized discipline in HR as opposed to generalist.

Going back to Calgary has some definite advantages.

• Not having to get up at 3:30am on Mondays
• Being able to have 100% control over my food as I'd be back to preparing everything myself. 
• Being home every night
• Not getting on a plane twice a week that I swear does something to you
• Being able to go the gym and participate in classes
• Having more WW meeting to choose from when I can't make Saturday
• Getting more exposure at work
• Being able to pick stuff up after work and not having to leave everything to the weekend. 
• Not having to leave everything to the weekend i.e house cleaning and errands. 
• Getting the 15 paid days off a year and actually get paid for 11 stats. 
• Seeing my Calgary co workers more
• Don't have to pay people to shovel my sidewalk
• I can actually do a 12 week workout dvd program without disturbing the people the who live below me in camp and have enough energy after work to do it. 

Now there are also cons

• 25% dock in pay as I lose my site assignment uplifts, mind you their taxable so perhaps that's no all bad (trying to be positive). I don't have any control over being sent back to Calgary.
• Paying for all my food as now I only need to feed myself for 3 days, mind you a week is easier to plan
• I will miss my current client group but it's not like I won't be able to still see what happens. 
• Having access to the food court again and so so many options.
• Being able to go to Starbucks every day (if it's planned into my day not a total con)
• Working Fridays again, mind you working an 8hr day as opposed to a 10, 11, 12, 13hr day. 

It's not like I can stay at site, but hey if I pursue Project Mgmt you never know.

I do want to focus on all the positives as the move could now be sped up dramatically and I could be back in the Calgary office by June.

This does take a huge weight off my mind so now I put all my focus on weight loss as I don't need to worry about what happens to me which can bring out some emotional eating.

So game on as I'll need to refresh my corporate wardrobe, my t-shirt and jeans won't do in the head office.

Hugs!!

A week that made your head spin

I was in Edmonton on Monday, sitting in a boardroom all by myself as I waited for my colleagues to come out of another meeting. A friend sent me a text saying she was happy I wasn't running the Boston Marathon. Now I had not seen any news so I thought the text a little odd and I responded with something along the lines of "You have to fast to run that one". Of course this made we wonder what was happening so I hopped on to google to find out what happened.

My first though went to Dani  as I've been following her excitement as she trained for this event. After a quick check on Facebook I learned she was o.k and so was her family who was watching.

My next thought was what hell spawn would do this at an event that has no political nor religious element. Who would purposely maim and kill at a peaceful event that unites people from around the world in the pursuit of a dream. More then 2000 Canadians were signed up for that race. This touched people all over the world.

Of course events happened fast with the apprehension of the 2nd suspect, however no punishment will give people their loved ones back nor repair the damage so many people experienced.

What it did show we was how strong the human spirit is. All over the world people gathered to pray for Boston. Even today in my city 4000km from Boston had a run in support of the people hurt that day. 1000 people showed up. I would have to but I didn't find out about it until I was sitting waiting for my weigh in to start.

I know have a crazy goal to run Boston one day, the city needs to know we are still behind them.

So here's where I get a little random to recap my week.

Now I lost 1lb at weigh in so I was pretty happy with that. I also learned my ridiculous leader retired, suddenly and never came back to the meeting to say good bye. Can't say I'm upset about that as I never really got anything from her however I'm sure others connected with her. I really do like our sub Nicky, who was supposed to get my meeting originally. She's requested to keep it and I hope she does.

The weigh in lady told me I earned a 5lb star, I told her I'm not taking any stars until I'm back to and surpass 168 as when I hit that point I kind of freaked out and started to back peddle. She asked me if I wasn't going to reward myself at all and I told her I had my own stickers for now. She then followed me and asked if I was afraid of being attractive. That threw me a little and I honestly told her there was a time I was but I believe I'm over that now. I told her I've been fat my entire life so I didn't know the person I was turning into to. My security blanket was disappearing so that freaked me out. My will to succeed at a goal that has alluded me trumps the security blanket.

On Friday I went to Cirque de Soleil Amaluna, it was lovely but I did get reprimanded by the camera police before the show started so could only snap one quick pic of the stage. I was in the 2nd row so pretty close.

At the intermission I posted "Cirque de Soleil - the land of zero body fat" on Facebook.

Tomorrow I'm off to Edmonton again, I had been worried about the 3hr drive with my boss as I had no idea what we would talk about for that long and I still don't know what my next job is however I still have the current one to focus on for at lease another 7 months. She did mention 3 areas to look into or learn more about. So I'll do that.

The week at work was crazy busy and flew by as it had loads of last minute report requests in the middle of a crazy time. Luckily all the HR cycles are now finished so I can concentrate on all the little things that have been pilling up.

I am striking distance of getting back to the 180s. Persistence, patience, purpose and intent will pay off.

I hope all of you are well.

Hugs!!!

Fly by week while hunting demons

This week flew by.

I took the above photo on my phone as we were landing at work. When I looked out the window I could see a rainbow circling the shadow of the plane in the clouds. It didn't show up well but do you ever feel like your chasing a rainbow?

Super late meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

Monday was mostly spent doing an aspect of my old job by helping out with interviews. I did love my old job and while I do love my current job there are things I miss about the old job. The biggest thing is I was a rock star at my old job and this one I feel like it's two steps forward and one step back.

I knew the Tuesday meeting would be emotionally charged so I was worried about it but in the end it went really well. Now I get to repeat it with the next shift this coming Tuesday.

On Wednesday I just wanted to get a decent nights rest.

On Thursday I flew home.

On Wednesday I started working on this monster spreadsheet that's part of an important project. Nothing quite like staring at little tiny boxes for hours upon hours. The tiny boxes continued all afternoon on Thursday.

I never made it to the gym once. Instead I read. I have been working my way through Jillian Michael's Unlimited, even reading a chapter then going back to read it again. I'm working on why I continually sabotage myself and why in other aspects of my life I achieve my goals so why can't I do that with getting to goal weight. I know this is not a quick answer but rather work through each demon as it surfaces.

I continue to be fascinated by cross fit and need to fit that into my routine even if it's on my own due to my crazy travel situation.

Tracking got a wee abandoned by Wednesday.

That week is finished on to a new one.

I am very much looking forward to weigh in tomorrow because Weight Watchers International officially takes over from the dinosaur franchisees. The dinosaur franchisees didn't take part in the 5K Walk, didn't stock pedometers and I'm guessing didn't stock a few other things. Didn't take part in the monthly pass option. I'm really looking forward to more consistency with other provinces and states across North America.

I seriously need to do my taxes.

Now you're up to date on my world. How has your week been?

Hugs

An evening with Jillian...yeah that Jillian

Yesterday I went to Jillian Michaels' Maximize Your Life

When I first heard about it I thought it was going to be a US only thing but I was super happy to see Calgary on the list of locations so I bought a ticket right away.

I got there early and debated on buying any of the sway. There were t-shirts, a hoody, sweatpants, her workout DVDS and books, plus they were selling BodyMedia - I saw a lot of people buying that.

The cutest part was while we were waiting for it to start her daughter came out of the wings and was dancing away and then waved to all of us. So cute.

It opened with a video that flashed images of things like chicken farms, workouts, genetically modified something or other.

Then she came out and I always forget she's 5'2. She asked how many of us where there because we felt lost. I had to stick my hand up for that one and so did many others. The first thing I wrote down was when she said "Destiny is a choice not a chance". She talked a lot about how you do things for your why. I'll get to more on that in a minute.

She talked about her trick to successful weight loss - Calories In and Calories Out.

What I enjoyed about her was she was very down to earth and she broke her session into 3 sections:

Calories In
Calories Out
Self

On the calories in she talked about focusing on quality vs quantity, told us to check out her website to look at a list 10 additives to avoid, look up the Clean 15 (veggies and fruit with thicker skins and not as likely to be effected by pesticides). Encouraged us to find an extra $20 bucks to focus on organic dairy and meats.

What I like about her is she doesn't talk about being perfect in fact she said the 80/20 rule is just fine. 80% Health and 20% treats or have a treat every 5th meal which is something she also says in her Slim For Life book.

On calories out she explained the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which are the calories we burn just breathing based on height, weight and sex (mine is 1601.26). Active Meta Rate (AMR) your BMR adding in how active you are in your regular day as I have a desk job it's 1.2 and multiple that by 1601.26 and it's 1921.5.

She said we should be focusing on 85% intensity, to calculate your maximum heart rate take 220 - your age. So mine is 180 and 85% would be 153. The best workouts use body weights not machines and do the work for the why and HIIT (high intensity interval training)  training is excellent and with this you would go above the 85%.

I also liked that she didn't tell us to sign up for anything and you could get the info free off of her website of look it up online.

Then we had an intermission and she closed off the evening with Self.

At this point we talked more about the why. Why do we stop ourselves from achieving things? Earlier on she showed us what she calls the Responsibility Sandwich and it was sandwich of words like shame, regret, fear, judgement. I'm sure we've all felt some of those I know I certainly have. Shame that I haven't succeeded at getting to goal yet, regret that I didn't do something sooner, fear of not succeeding and feeling judged based on my appearance.

She brought a member of the audience on stage who had volunteered to do this. They talked about what was holding her back from accomplishing what she wanted to. At one point the audience member said she wanted to be happy and Jillian asked her to define happy. She actually talked about that a lot about how we don't dive beneath the surface of why we do things. She even used the example of how on the Biggest Loser ranch when she asks the contestants why are they there and they say "to be healthy". What is that she said, what does being healthy look like to you, what does happy look like for you, what does successful look like for you?

I didn't take any notes during this section as I was just purely soaking it in.

The biggest part that I took from this though was the power of belief. You are worth it, imagine it and believe it. Be present in your life.

I think I'll revisit her "Limitless" book.

Hugs!!!

Inspiration in the strangest places

My day and a half work week flew by and I must say Bon Jovi was awesome. The made an announcement that Richie Sambora would not be performing and at that point the crowd booed but then they said they were donating $100K to the Calgary Homeless Society, then the crowd cheered and clapped.

Thankfully they played some old tunes which I am far more familiar with and at the encore they played Wanted Dead or Alive and Jon said - You Sing, then the Saddledome sang the entire first verse. It gave me chills.

I had an aha moment when they played "It's my life".

It's my life, it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive

I found that particularly profound and in relation to my weight loss journey or lack there of lately.

I almost signed up for the Dopey Challenge, that's a 5K, 10K, Half Marathon and Marathon in 4 days. I stopped myself as that's a much better goal for 2015. Let me get through the 3 Halfs I have in 2013 first.

Today I went to get my hair cut and I also bought a new journal. A journal that's easy to take with me when I fly out. The one I have now is a little big. This is probably my 20th journal as I never finish them. I decided I need a fresh head and therefore a new journal.

I also saw this

Do you watch Game of Thrones? While I started out a Winterfell fan the spirit of Daenerys Targaryen became my favorite. 

The Calgary Comic Expo is coming soon so it's my city's answer to Comic Con, I've debating on what to wear. I'm not a costume person but I knew I needed something. 

A $10 T-Shirt to the rescue, I think I'll modify it a little as it's a men's shirt.

I'm going to shake the cobwebs out of head and get this fitness train rolling.

Hugs!!

They had me at Pepper Jack

I was wandering down the frozen food aisle and my eyes fell on these

The other week I saw someone at work heating one of these up and asked how they were. They said they were good but what I didn't realize was it has Pepper Jack cheese.

Back in the day McDonald's used to have this Western Bagel Omelette that was my absolute favorite and I think it was the cheese.

So I picked up a box thinking it would be handy as dinner when I fly home as I often have breakfast for dinner usually that's cereal or take with me and make for breakfast on the days I fly up.  Well Friday morning I decided to have one.

This was what it looked like straight out of the box. They're 5 PP so not bad and better then the Smart Ones I reviewed last week.

They're about 200mg higher in sodium then the Smart Ones but I liked the 12g of protein. Again this prepackaged frozen food.

Looked like this out of the microwave and the taste.....


OMG this was so good, I'd even rank it higher then a fresh Egg McMuffin or Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich. It had a touch of spice which I love. I'm officially a fan of these now, not for everyday but like I said in a pinch or when I'm tired and more likely to do something stupid like order pizza. I need to get some Pepper Jack cheese so I can just make this at home.

Today I got the other kind that doesn't have ham and has veggies in the egg and still has Pepper Jack still 5PP and 200mg less sodium.

My Easter was super low key and I kept Sunday a rest day and started watching Homeland. We just got season 1 on TV here in Canada and I had 4 episodes on the PVR. I really like it.

Today I had to run to the grocery store again as I missed a few things, I found this today.

I love, love, love, love coconut. Now in Canada we don't have Chobani (though perhaps soon) so the selection of flavored Greek yogurt isn't quite so profound. This is my new favorite by far for 2 PP. Liberte has a great coconut one too and in a lower fat version but not easy to find and not 2PP.

I went to the loonie (dollar) store in search of stickers as I put a heart sticker on my tracking page if I had activity and a smiley face if I tracked and then I put the same stickers on my calendar so I have a snap shot of how I'm doing.

Well I saw these stickers which would be perfect for my FitBloggin name badge.

Last year I thought I was one of 3 Canadians at FitBloggin and it turns out there were more of us so this way I will be easily recognized. Just hoping I can find cowboy inspired stickers to tie with  @cowgirlwarrior

Today I walked to the mall and back which is just over 2 miles and then later I headed out for another walk just under 3 miles.

My right side is feeling better after my fall the other day, both palms have healed nicely and now just dealing with a little muscle ache. I was far more sore the next day.

My run/walk will resume on Wednesday when I go back to camp.

Tomorrow is Zumba and Bon Jovi so I should rack up some serious steps with all the dancing.

Hope you enjoyed your Easter and are off to a great week.

Hugs!!