Dusting off C25K

I admit my running has been on a major back burner lately and my goal to finish C25K fell by the way side.

Today I dusted it off. So far I've yet to go past week 2 well not past day one week 2. That's where I started today. My goal this week is to finish week 2.

This morning I headed out after a cup of coffee. It went fine. I just tried to focus on technique as opposed to speed.

The deets in miles: 33:48, 2.25 mi, pace 15:03, 195 calories burned.

Tracking is still on and water is great as well. I'm happy I got that Venti Starbucks cup. My water intake is doing so well.

Now I'm looking to the week ahead. So Tuesday and Wednesday I have late meeting nights that will go till 7. That means morning workouts must return at least on Wednesday. I did realize that if I'm working later I don't need to be at my desk at 6am which I usually am.

When I land on Thursday I'm heading out to dinner with some co- worker/ friends. Right now the plan is Craft Beer Market. I've already scoped out the menu and I plan to warn them in advance I'm focused on a good weigh in.

Saturday is my birthday and my Dad is coming in, not so much for my birthday but planting needs to be done. That's so my Dad and I know he'll bring a cake. Now I'm thinking about weighing in on Friday. On Friday I get my temporary crown as well - fun times.

So weigh in on Friday would have to be a drive by weigh in as I need to be at the dentist at 1 and meeting ends at 12:45. Plus I need to have lunch sometime. Weighing in on Saturday just seems simpler at least I don't need to worry about that till I get home.

So it will be an early night as I have an early flight tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Hugs!!!

A funny thing happens

When you follow the plan. I tracked all 7 days last week and someways were not exactly on plan like the fries/pie and nanaimo bar incident but I tracked it.

The WW scale showed a 4.4lb loss. As I stood there it briefly showed 179 before landing on 180.8. I did have the momentary thought that I had not has the incidents mentioned above would I have seen myself back in the 170s?

When I do look at my whole week it wasn't so bad point wise. I get 231 points per week. That's 26 per day and the 49 weekly points. I was over by 8 points last week.

Hey 4.4 is nothing to sneeze at and it inspires we to keep it up. I'm determined to get back into the 170s next week.

Tracking continues today and so far 6 cups of water and a 40min walk. I did intend to do house work when I got home but I sucked into a marathon of The Lying Game. I'm new to this show but it sucked me in on abc spark.

My mind is going more and more to Vegas but the funny/strange part is I want to stay on plan. Normally Vegas would be an excuse to go a little crazy and my crazy would be on the food side not the drinking side. The bonus is the very good friend I'm going with is vegetarian. Now it's also very possible to eat not so healthy as a vegetarian - hello mac'n cheese but the other plus is P is fitness conscious.

We're staying at Aria and they have a cool pass you can buy to access extra spa facilities. Their gym looks pretty darn funky as well.

The thing I want to buy the most when I'm there is a Nike Fuel Band. I think my Garmin FR60 is dead. On Tuesday when I turned it on it gave me a very funky error. I did email they're help people so we'll see.

So now I keep my eye on the prize and just keep tracking, moving and drinking water.

Hope you all had a fantastic Saturday.

Hugs!!!

The call of the tater tot

I was doing so well this week but hit some challenges.

On Tuesday there was Tim Horton's box in the kitchen. I made the very bad decision of opening the box where I found my all time favorite donut - the honey crueller . I ate that thing in probably 60 seconds flat and it wasn't as good as I remembered. That donut is 9 points. Later on absolutely nothing in the camp kitchen appealed to me at dinner so it wound up being fries and gravy, ah I didn't stop there then I had pie. The good part of this story is when I got to my room I changed into workout clothes and walked on the treadmill for 40 min. Running was out of the question as I had just eaten. the other good part is I tracked everything.

I could have gone to the pack lunch kitchen and grabbed something healthier but I

Yesterday was a bit of a challenge as there were lots of treats around due to meetings and good bye parties.

I had my new traditional camp breakfast of a poached egg on toast. The poached eggs were next to the tater tots. I love tater tots. When I worked in Calgary one of my favorite fast food places is Taco Time and their mexi-fries aka tater tots. Now I rarely have them out and instead sometimes have them at home but baked not fried.

On Wednesday I asked for 5 tater tots. The server lady said she'd give me 6 with a little smile. I ate 4 of them. I had to shake my head a little on the exchange. When we offer food or to share food it's not necessarily a good thing. It comes from a good place but one doesn't have to eat it.

The good news I'm still down from the last weigh in.

Today got my hair trimmed in preparation for Vegas and went grocery shopping. I do have a plan for the next 3 days at home. The plan is to stay on p,an this weekend as well.

I tried on last summer's shorts and 2 pairs fit. 2 pairs are too small.. Le sigh and yet more inspiration to keep on track. So I might need to buy new shorts but at least I know I have two pairs that will fit a few pounds from now. This is me trying to stay positive.

Back slides happen. The defining moment is what you do next - continue to slide or get up and keep go forward. I'm going forward.

Enjoy your Friday.

Hugs

So tired

Slept terribly last night so by the time my day was done I was so tired.

So this will be a short & sweet post.

Tracking still on, scale still being friendly and water bang on again.

Just going to watch the Dancing with the Stars finale & then it's sleepy time.

Hope you enjoyed your Tuesday.

Hugs!!

So far so good

Day 3 of re-committing myself to Weight Watchers. The scale is heading in the right direction. Water intake has been stellar. Tracking is focused.

Tonight I got in 1hr of activity and it went like this according to my Polar HR monitor.

Badminton: 44:37min, 324 cal burned, HR 129-145
Rowing Machine: 27:10min, 306 cal burned, HR 165-179

My new co- worker is a former Canadian badminton champion so I'm learning loads. Tonight I learned the term " badminton butt" apparently due to all the lunging tones the patootie. I despise lunges so I'm not so great at that part but I'm improving.

The rowing machine was a spur of the moment decision. I left badminton and was going to go back to my camp room but then decided to double back and squeak in more workout time.

I was shooting for 5000 meters. I did do that back in the day of using a trainer. I petered out with 1200 meters to go. I forgot what a full body workout the rower is. So I discovered a new goal of hitting 5000 meters.

First thing when I got to work today I pulled out my WW 10% key chain with my 25lb charm and clapping hands and put right in front of me on my document holder. Now I've put 10lbs back on so the battle is on.

I'm now watching American Ninja Warrior that I found by accident. These people are crazy fit and maybe a wee crazy I.E parcour, climbing walls and etc. It's also inspiring.

Alright I have a question for those who blog using an iPad, What app do you use? I don't mind the blogger plus app I use now but the inserting pictures isn't so great. Do you guys have any suggestions.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Monday!

Hugs!!!

Step one

I'm a daily weigh in person. Every morning I weigh myself in my pjs and write it in the corner of my tracker. In the past it's kept me focused. I look at it as data.

Today I was 3lbs down from yesterday's WW WI, now my pjs are lighter then my WI uniform so it would actually be down 2 lbs from yesterday's PJ weigh in.

Tracking does wonders as does drinking 9 cups of water. I still got snacky after supper but I tracked every bite.

Today I had absolutely no run mojo. Instead I finished "Weight Loss Boss" and watched the the last two parts of "Weight of the Nation" on HBO.

Major things learned from both those things is I'll need to focus on eating right for the rest of my life. There will be no "cure". The world will conspire against you i.e. aggressive food advertising.

However it's not about will power necessarily it's about controlling my environment.

I'm glad I took today to just chill and refocus my thoughts. Beating ourselves up for falling off the wagon serves no purpose. Shake it off and realign.

I also wanted to creat a tracking strategy today. I've been recording The Revolution on my pvr. I adore Tim Gunn and Harvey Pasternak (Canadian boy). Harvey has been showing a program called 20 days to summer or was it swimsuits. At any rate he's been showing exercises and a food program. His philosophy is to have 5 meals a day part of his other 5factor program.

One thing he said in the last episode made me think. Take your waking hours and divide by 5 that's how often you should eat so breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2 snacks.

I used that theory today with my tracking. I know from past experience that when I schedule my meals and sort out the points it's easier for me.

I've done that today and so far so good. I am flying to work tomorrow even though it's Victoria Day. I'm using that day later on to tag on to vacation. I'll be in bed early so after dinner snacking shouldn't be an issue. At camp this isn't hard for me as I'm far from the kitchen.

I also realized I'll be able to weigh in before Vegas. I had thought I'd be missing a WI but my flight gets home in time to make a meeting. Even though that's still a few weeks away I like that I'll have an anchor before heading off for 4 days of fun. I already know I'll pay extra for gym access. Aria has some pretty cool stuff in their spa area.

Next weekend I'm looking forward to see the new renovations in my local gym.

I hope all of you had a lovely Sunday.

Hugs!!!!!

Run away train

Oy vey, I did weigh myself this morning in my pajamas and I thought ok I'll see no change. Well when I stepped on the scale at the meeting it was a different story - up 1.2. I was shocked.

That shock was a good thing as it rattled some cobwebs out of my brain.

I've been delusional, complacent and lazy lately. Sort of tracking but not giving it my all.

My operation enough was replaced by Operation Whatever. Why- I'm not entirely sure. I could be more wigged out about turning 40 then I realize. The 1.2 could be TOM related but still my weight is heading in the wrong direction and the only thing responsible for that is me.

So today I tracked everything and I do realize I have an issue with after dinner snacking. Water has been food with 9 cups. Activity was 40min walk.

Tomorrow I run and that has also been ignored for the past few weeks.

Enough!!!!

I got home and started watching The Weight of the Nation on HBO. It's a 4 part documentary on the obesity epidemic in the US. The statistics are staggering but the message was hopeful in part 2 which focused on what people can do about it. A series of small changes can create dramatic results. There were two women who've been successful and the key was small achievable goals. It's a really interesting doc with leading experts in obesity.

A light bulb went off when i heard the 2 ladies. They talked about mastering one thing at a time. For example they started with tracking, then added water and so on.

Taking on a lot is always a downfall for me particularly with weight loss. Track a whack of things and things slide. Create a complicated plan and it all falls apart. This is probably why I'm terrible at challenges. I have great enthusiasm at the start & then I fall apart.

What made me successful at the start of WW was taking things in stride and keeping it simple. Back then you didn't start tracking activity till week 4 because the purpose was supposed to get you used to tracking.

This week I have one goal which is to track and stick to my points. That doesn't mean everything else slides it just means I need to get back into the basics and that starts with tracking. I drink water out of habit and exercise will still be a part of the week as well as that's a bit of a habit but I'm also conscious of Fitbloggin in September and Disney Wine and Dine half in November.

I know what to do. Heck I can talk the talk. I now must walk the walk one step at a time. I want to post successes!

I also need to blog more often. That definitely helps the accountability. No more head in the sand.

I know WW works when you follow it, my issue lately is so so following it and getting so so results.

I will do this. I know I can do this if I put in the work.

Well I hope you enjoyed your Saturday.

Hugs!!!!

Lawn mower drama

So last Saturday my lovely neighbours helped me buy a new lawn mower. They helped me get the thing home. Well on Sunday I attempted to mow and the thing would not start. Of course the customer service dept. was only available Mon-Fri.

I paid just under $400 smackeroos for this cordless electric mower so I was a wee disappointed.

Today I decided to try again but nothing so I phone the customer service people and she walks me threw some trouble shooting. She told me that there's one piece on the handle that sometimes gets bumped in shipping that prevents the mower from starting so if I bend it back a little with pliers it should work.

I then hunted for pliers and couldn't find any I suspect my Dad took them home with him so I try with gardening shears (yeah I know but I had the girl on the phone). I thought I had bent it a bit but the mower still wounldn't start. She gave me the number of the repair place.

I phone the repair place and the guy tells me that he's seen one of these mowers recently with the same problem and the culprit was that metal piece.

Well then I decided to bob down to Walmart buy a new pair of pliers and try this again. Sure enough, I bent that piece of metal a bit and shazaam working mower.

Wow it's so different from my gas one. My gas one is ancient and it's always an exercise to get it started and then a lovey plume of smoke comes out. This was so light and way more quiet.

Now apart from the lawnmower olympics the week went fast.

I attempted setting my alarm early to go to the gym but everytime I did that I had crappy sleep and just got up when I normally do.

I'm thinking I could adjust my schedule a little so I'm not setting the alarm for 4am to hit the gym. Also very soon the treadmill 4 doors down from my camp room will be operational and way more convenient.

I decided to weigh in tomorrow morning as my day was sucked up by lawn mowers. I had intended to go to the gym afterwards but the gym is closed. They're taking advantage of the Victoria Day long weekend to finish some renos so it will be up to me to figure something out.

Speaking of workouts in my quest to find camp room friendly workouts I'm going to give Harvey Pasternak's workout a try. It seems pretty straightforward and not a huge time investment.

I need to super charge my efforts as Vegas is 4 weeks away...

Hope your week went well.

Hugs!!

One day at a time

I downloaded David Kirchhoff's (CEO of Weight Watchers) book "Weight Loss Boss" and have had my nose attached to it for most of yesterday.

I can totally relate to what he says and you don't need to be following Weight Watchers to read this. If you've ever read his blog www.manmeetsscale.com and liked what he said there you will definitely like the book. Now I'm only half way through at this point but it's given me some good reminders. The biggest one is treat weight loss as a priority. The reason this resonated with me is I haven't been doing that. You know how it goes - you get what you put in.

I'll write more when I'm finished the book. He's a data junky like me but it's written in a very engaging way and again it's not about Weight Watchers of course he mentions it as he does work there. He comes from a place of he's faced the same challenges in losing weight. The other part that resonated with me is it took him awhile which is the same for me.

I always get a little bugged when someone asks how long it's taken someone to lose weight. The reason it bugs we is 1) Everyone is different and everyone's circumstances are different, and 2) It's not just about losing but keeping it off and 3) it's dangerous territory to start comparing yourself to others. In my meeting when someone hits goal I'm more interested in what they've learned and to celebrate their success. Well that's my thing anyway.

I did track all of yesterday and breakfast is recorded for today so far. Later I'm attempting my green smoothie in the vitamix.

Today's priority is cleaning the house as I've let that slide. My house is definitely a reflection of my emotional state.

I also need to mow at least the front lawn with the new lawn mower I bought yesterday. My old mower barely made it through last year. The old one is a gas mower and every time I started it a big cloud of smoke would rumble out of it.

The new one is a cordless electric model made by Greenworks. I haven't used an electric mower in ages at that was with negotiating the cord out of your way. So I'm intrigued by this one and it got good reviews.

My fabulous neighbor helped me out yesterday. I'm not fond of driving so don't have a car. I had no idea if a lawn mower would fit in a cab. Canadian Tire was hopping yesterday and quite a few people were eyeing mowers. I also a lot of people buying flowers. There's a rule of thumb in these parts - plant nothing until after the May long weekend as we usually get a killing frost between now and then. I don't like planting anything until June just to play it safe.

Hope your enjoying your weekend.

Hugs!!

Motivation

That was the topic at my WW meeting today. I hadn't originally planned to weigh in today and was aiming for tomorrow but I then decided to go today at noon. I just wanted to face the scale and take responsibility.

Up 1.8 and not surprised. Last week I was hardly behaving like anyone following a plan. Workouts apart from badminton on Monday non existent. I did set my alarm for 4 am on Tuesday but after waking up at midnight then tossing and turning I chose more sleep over the treadmill. Eating wasn't horrendous but could have better.

I think it's a sign that today's topic was motivation.

This is what was written on the whiteboard.

What motivates me?
Why do I want to lose weight?
Do I want it badly enough?
Why is it important to me?
How do I reframe?

I've been a chubby kid most of my life and I'm tired of it. Vanity is definitely a component but so is health. I want to age gracefully and be active.

Lately I've definitely been complacent. So the badly enough comes into play.

My roller coaster behavior has to stop - now. I'm turning this ship around.

The only thing in my way has been me it's time to use that energy on succeeding.

And that starts immediately.

Snow Day

It was a pretty busy week I must say.

On Monday I spent the day sharing an office with a co- worker who was sick. Knowing I had to deliver a speech to 300 people on Thursday I was hoping I didn't catch it.

By Wednesday I wasn't feeling 100 percent and thought I had the beginnings of a cold. However nothing really materialized symptom wise I did feel tired.

I was so nervous on Thursday probably the cause of the tired. . My presentation was about an occupational fatality. Heavy stuff for sure. I wanted to deliver this with empathy and not like a statistic. Well I almost got through it but when I closed the sadness of the event hit me again so I started to tear up. I barely got my last line out.

Then I spent 20min dabbing tears at my table. What totally blew me away was the response I got. So many people came up to me to tell me how moved they were and how awesome I did. so many told me they cried with me. One of the things I hate most is crying in front of other people but so many told me that's what made it hit home for people.

That continued into the 2nd day. Even the head poobah of my group and the group I support ( who happened to be the guest speaker) said I did an amazing job. What I'm proud of is I did what I set out to do I told the story of a person not a statistic.

I generally like to fly under the radar at not draw attention to myself and now 300 people know me but it was for a worthy cause.

I was pretty exhausted for the rest of the week. I had a headache pretty much all Thursday and of course had no meds on me.

Friday was exhausting as well. I'm an introvert so while incredibly touching all the attention was exhausting.

I decided that I would not set an alarm today and just focus on recharging. I woke up looked out the window and declared a snow day. It's so bizarre yesterday was +14C.

I didn't go to weigh in focusing on sleep but I did weigh in on my scale. Up 3.8, yeah did I mention this 2 day conference had a lot of food and the food was really good. Plus the emotional toll didn't help either.

Now that's all done and no more distractions until Vegas in 6 weeks. The tracker is front and center on my coffee table as today is the start of a new week.

The goals this week are back to basics: tracking, water, exercise. I'm watching the season finale of Biggest Loser for inspiration. Kim looks incredible. I was hoping she'd win. I do hope next season gets not so dramatic & obnoxious contestants.

All right my friends the war is not over and I still believe. We can do this.

Hugs

Some times status quo is alright

My 3 days in the Kananaskis was pretty good. It's the first time I've stayed at the Delta Kananaskis and I didn't realize how big the complex was nestled in the woods. You're pretty isolated that's for sure.

The funny part was there were 2 other groups from my company there. One group works with me at site so it felt like we took over the hotel.

I have to admit coaching a team of directors was daunting but they're not so different from any other team. I did feel honored when our nominated team lead wanted to run things past me as I was leaving.

The hotel had a tiny gym that opened at 6am, breakfast was served at 7am. I never got there. My old boss's boss is also a trainer and she was there and held boot camps at 5:30am. Yeah first day dinner went to 11pm. I never made it. I did try to be mindful with all the buffet meals and focused on veggies. They had beautiful pathways but due to bears we were told not to go alone. That sucked as I would have loved to run outside.

I went to WI yesterday at noon as I wanted to test out the Friday meeting. I do really like this leader. I stayed exactly the same which for this week I'm happy with as I was at that training for 3 days.

There was a bit of drama in the meeting when one woman started having some outbursts. No one knew her. When I was waiting to weigh in she had an altercation with the front desk girls. Then the leader was talking about a boot camp she went to and this lady starts saying we don't need exercise classes if people stopped driving and walked. Then the leader was telling us how she had chips and dip for supper. Now this was more an example of how everyone has their moments of off plan behavior. This woman bursts out " you're killing me" and then goes on a rant that we talk about food. Ah ok food is the reason we're all there. Then she rants that instead of talking about clementines we should talk about more local fruit. Well the whole meeting came to the defense of the leader.

It's funny at the training when the coaches were together we talked about having a minimum of 3 women on a team forms a coalition.

Eventually she left. I get that she's very environmentally conscious and there's nothing wrong with that it's just how she went about it that was a little rude.

Well next week I need to go to Saturday's meeting due to having to go to another conference. After that there are no schedule differences till I leave for Vegas.

Today I went to Zumba and it was fun ad always. With that and the walk there and back I burned 727 calories .. Booyah.

Tomorrow it's C25K.

Hope you all had a good week.

Hugs!!

Dear Me - Enough

Dear Me,

This is your logical self talking today. I am proud of you for going to weigh in even though we both knew you'd see a gain. What you weren't bargaining for was a 3lb gain, of course I wasn't surprised. Let's face it you're playing fast and loose with the program for sometime know. You had fries for dinner 3 times last week. Had you listened to me instead of going with the flow of some your dinner mates I could have created a healthier dinners.

On Tuesday you programmed your alarm to go run, it went off and you couldn't get out of bed.

I need to ask you how badly do you want this. Let's look at your weight tracker.

You're bouncing and you've done this before. I don't mean to come down hard on you but you need a shake up. You used to be good at following the program and you saw results...remember 168. Right now WW is you're favourite charity. You let your emotions rule too much.

You've created good plans but then you cover them with dust bunnies and put your head under the covers. You called your plan Operation Enough well enough is enough.

Barb weighed you in today and asked you how long you've doing this. You faltered on your answer as it's been a long battle. You did tell her you've been bouncing around the same 5lbs which is very true. This isn't a plateau you're suffering it's complacency. She kindly gave you a new copy of the materials and told you to go back to step one which was my plan for you anyway so I'm glad I had back up.

It's not all bad I mean you're good at healthy breakfasts and lunches. You're downfall is snacks and supper and consistent workouts, and tracking- oh and meal planning. You need to listen to me more often, just stop and think. You need to make a commitment to yourself. The only person who can make this happen is you. So when you plan a workout - do it.

Today you tracked everything, had 3L of water today and had 40min walk, that's a good first step. Now you need to take a second step and just keep going.

I know you can do this and I believe in you. So go back to basics, forget what you know and re-learn.

Hugs,
Me

What the heck

That title is directed to me logging into blogger today and finding it totally different. Not sure how I like this.

Alright it was a busy week but I like busy. Played some awesome badminton on Monday and then got into a debate about HR monitors. One of my coworkers thought it was impossible to burn 500 calories in 90 min of badminton. Which is exactly what my Polar heart rate monitor said.

Tuesday attempted to get up for a run, instead I reset the alarm. Tuesday was a long day due to meetings till 8pm so sleep was my priority and I didn't even try to get up Wed am.

C25K got the back burner this week which I'm completely ashamed about. However in the mail this week I got a few reminders to rejig the running focus.

I adore the IFitness water bottle belt I got at the Tinkerbell Half Marathon but the runs are short right now so I don't really need to cart water bottles. I adore the fit on these and they're not kidding when they say it doesn't bounce of course the trick is to wear it on the hips.

Tada, the double pouch version. It keeps everything dry so phone can go in one pocket and kleenex in the other. 

Now I also picked up an Amphipod arm band holder for my phone. I wanted another option as opposed to always a belt.

It's taken me awhile to find an arm holder I like. My major issue is I don't want to take my IPhone out of it's case to put into the holder as that's just a production. Tada, the phone fits in this one with the case. Thanks to Lululemon Addict who posted about this or I never would have found it.

The other thing I found last week is MIO is finally in Canada. What I love about this is it's liquid so it mixes in the water a heck of a lot better and I actually don't like super flavoured so I like the control. I control how much I squirt into the water. I have them at home and at work. Now there's only 4 flavours available in Canada hopefully we get the others soon.

This week is going to be a bit different. I'm flying back on Sunday and then back home on Monday as I'm heading to the Kananaskis for 3 days, it's work thing that I'm really looking forward to. It will be a really nice hotel for 3 days so I must stay focused.

I'm heading to weigh in tomorrow and I'm so looking forward to it. Not sure what the scale will say as I wasn't paying super attention to the plan this week. I've also come to the conclusion it's not good when I miss a meeting. The meeting refocuses me.

Now when I get back from Kananaskis I want to start trying Friday noon meetings. That will depend on Saturday and if they've found us a regular leader yet. The Friday leader has subbed before and I really like her.

I had my annual skin check today and thankfully my dermatologist removed a skin tag that was annoying. Due to the fact that I've had melanoma it has to go to the lab to be tested just in case.

He also gave me a prescription for the weird breakout type thing happening around my left eye. He said it's a form of dermatitis typical in your 30s. I did tell him I'm crossing into 40 in about 6 weeks.

After weigh in tomorrow I need to go shopping. This 3 day event is business casual and most of clothes due to working at site aren't really business.

I hope all of you had a great week.

Hugs!!!

Funky town

For the past 4 months I've been in a funk and despite good intentions I seem to slide backwards.

A lot of it was due to stress and being an emotional eater that's just the perfect storm, however the light is at the end of the tunnel.

This week was pretty stressful but things are changing in a good way. At work I've felt like a hamster on the spinning treadmill thing. Not miserable but not super happy either. That resulted in some bad food decisions and sleep issues which just makes me tired with no get up and go to workout. Apart from badminton on Monday there have been no workouts this week.

However my Thursday meeting that I was worried about went well so that was a relief.

Yesterday I was in Fort McMurray for a 7 hour meeting that was exhausting. The night in a hotel room so different noises and the meeting didn't start till noon and didn't get home till 9pm. By the time I got home and picked up my mail from neighbour I just went to bed. Of course I neglected to program my alarm and slept right through weigh in. So I was disappointed with that even though I pretty much knew I'd have a gain. I still wanted to face the scale.

A big success of the week were those Starbucks cups my water intake was pretty good. The little journal got filled out a few times and the tracker up till Tuesday. I admit that I let myself sink into the funk this week.

On Monday my job does change a little with a bigger client group and getting involved with some interesting projects. I feel like this is an opportunity to spread my wings, while a wee scary it's also a whack of excitement.

I will turn this around.

Hugs!!!

C25K week 2 begins - RFS Week 2

Happy Easter!

Let me start with yesterday's weigh in, I was up 1lb. I knew that was coming with no tracking.

I also know it could have been worse but my 3 workouts helped that I believe.

For this week I armed myself with a few things to get me back on track.

A new tracker with my own sticker. Intention is what I need as in be purposeful and take control.

I have no issues getting all my water in at home as I usually fill my Sigg 1L then pour it into a glass with straw. Every Saturday morning I go to Starbucks before weigh in and I've been eyeing this cup. After WI this week I went back and they had two left on the shelf so I bought one for home and one for work. One fill is a little over 3 cups. I've refilled it 3 times today.

A mini journal, I'm definitely an emotional eater and I want to start writing before I nibble. I could use my tracker but I don't keep that front and center on my desk. So I thought this can sit in eye shot and it's fun. Plus I keep a paper journal on top of the blog and to haul my normal journal back and forth to camp is can take up space needed for something else. I don't want to leave a journal in my camp room. So this little guy will travel back and forth with me to note when I feel snacky and to figure out why plus act as journal when I need to get something out.

Today I started week 2 of C25K and did run 1 today. It wasn't a pretty run. I had breakfast beforehand and wonder if I ran too soon. When I get up at camp in the morning to go to the gym I just have a swig of G2 and then go workout. I have breakfast afterwards. I also had my Iphone in the pocket of Addidas hoody. The pocket is more like a kangaroo pocket and the phone bouncing was not fun. However I did it. My time is longer as I was half a block away from house when cool down ended so I just kept the garmin on.

36:47min, 2.56 miles, Avg pace 14.21, Max pace 9.55 (which is faster then I do on the treadmill), calories burned 207. Now on Friday when I went to the gym and did C25K wk 1 day 3 I forgot to wear the HR monitor but it still estimated my calories burned at 233. Today I wore the HR monitor so I know the estimating is off.

Now my week is a little different this week. On Friday I need to be in Fort McMurray for a meeting. Instead of flying home on Thurs only to be up early and back to the airport on Friday morning I'm going to take the 2hr bus ride from site to Fort Mac and stay overnight in a hotel. The good part about that is I get to sleep in as the meeting doesn't start till noon. The 2hr bus ride isn't so bad as I usually fall asleep on coaches. Now the challenge will be eating in a restaurant the day before weigh in. I don't land in Calgary till 8pm on Friday. However I am up to the challenge.

Hope you all have a great week, I'll blog when I can.

Hugs!!!

I did it- Week one C25K complete

Happy Good Friday,

I actually finished the first week of C25K and this is coming from someone who has attempted this program in the past and pretty much bailed before completing the 3rd day.

It's been quite a week.

Didn't sleep at all Sunday night. So Monday was me dragging myself through the day. I did play my Monday night Badminton. I really enjoy that and it's a good calorie burn as we have each other running all over the place. Everyone is a wee competitive too so that adds a bit more fun.

Tuesday I woke up on my own at 2am and could not go back to sleep. At 3:20ish I thought this is ridiculous so I went to the gym and did C25K day two. I didn't put my running shoes on until I was past all the bedrooms in my camp dorm to limit noise.

Wednesday I was going to do yoga in my room but the lack of sleep was bothering me. Everyone was telling me I looked tired. So I pretty much went to bed early. All this no sleep business also resulted in no blogging over the week.

Thursday I intended to get up at 4am and go to the gym for C25K day 3, yeah didn't happen. So it absolutely had to happen today and luckily my gym was open from 9-5. This time I turned my Iphone around so I wasn't looking at the active.com app and instead just focused on the audio cues.

It was funny during the jog parts I felt like I was going slow, which I was at 5.1 on the treadmill but I'm doing that on purpose to build a stronger running base. I can build on speed when the 9 weeks are finished. I have a habit of going too fast too soon and just not building up enough endurance.

On Thursday I did receive an email from my Tinkerbell running friends about entering for the Nike Women's Half in San Francisco in October. It's a lottery entry so no guarantees but that's is the same weekend my cousins are supposed to be in San Fran so kind of kismet I think. Plus the bling is a Tiffany necklace..nice.

In other news my work is going to changing a bit in a week. My client groups size gets a whole lot bigger and I'm super excited. I still keep my old group but I get groups that I supported in my old role as a recruiter before I became an HR Advisor. I'll be busy that's for sure but I love being busy.

So much change lately my own business unit changed as well as my immediate team... It's safe to say change is everywhere.

Now change can be scary but I think it can be good as well as it shakes you up a little.

Speaking of change I have been on the hunt for skin care for awhile now. A few months ago I broke out next to my nose, mouth and around my eye only on the left hand side of my face. I thought it was allergies maybe but that made no sense as it was on one side of my face. Then I realized it's probably stress. Well I've been trying a whack of different products with no real results, then I watched this infomercial for Murad about hormonal ageing. I thought why not let's give it a shot so I ordered the 30 day supply of their Regenerist line. I'm going to be 40 soon after all. Though thankfully a few weeks ago some of co-workers didn't believe me and I almost had to show them my driver's license, I'm quite blessed that people still guess that I'm in my 20's - Thanks Mom and Dad. Well shazaam everything cleared up in a few weeks after using the Murad products. Yesterday I got the 90 day supply because I want to use what's remaining of the 30 day as travel size for my upcoming trips. I'm officially hooked and happy that I can order it only through baileydirect.ca at a better price then I get anywhere else. It's not cheap but this is the only skin I have.

My missing tracker was in fact at my desk I discovered on Monday, however over the week I didn't use it. Food wise wasn't too bad but I also know I'm not a fantastic estimator. To be successful I need to track.

However I am very much looking forward to weigh in tomorrow so I can get my head back in the game.  I'm thinking a new tracker as well to inspire me. I love fresh notebooks of any kind. I also love purple and I saw the new concord grape define jacket on lululemon's website. My size was sold out, so I got one size smaller, that is motivation my friends.

2 months and one week to Vegas.....

Week 2 of C25K starts Sunday.

Hugs!!!

Day one C25K

Happy April!

Today was the return to C25K, now my last run was two weeks ago I wanted to start back at the beginning. Got off too a goofy start as I locked my phone which caused the app to pause but I figured that out fast.

This was my first run outside in a long time too. My first few running bursts felt a little rough but I found my groove and I was surprised when it was done. The bonus of not looking at the phone and just listening to the verbal cues.

It was about 8c and a wee windy but I felt good.

It was 29:51min, 3.38km, avg pace 8:50/km, 117 calories burned. My warm up was a little long due to the phone locking. I'm looking forward to run 2 on Tuesday.

I've been tracking on my phone for the last few days and I went to write it in my tracker and I can't find it. I must have left it at work. Even though I have the WW app I still like to write it down.

Normal schedule next week so even better for no excuses.

Hope you enjoyed your Sunday.

Unusual Week

I had a bit of a crazy week.

Monday was badminton and loads of fun. Some of us are discovering we have some killer instincts even Badminton Sensei says we might be ready to face off against the crazy good people in a few weeks.

Flew home on Wednesday due to meetings in Calgary on Thursday. It was eluded that I might get a new responsibility. I say eluded as absolutely nothing has been directly said but just inferred. That's happening a lot lately. There's so many changes going on but no communication. It's very cloak and dagger and making me feel very in limbo.

Had to go into work on Friday for a 5hr meeting. I'm going to be coaching some senior leaders in an offsite at the end of April. This meeting was to prepare us coaches. One facilitator was awesome and I think is a superb coach. The other one was meh. It was an interesting exercise though as there was a portion where you had to be a coach, the coached and an observer. When I was the coachee I wasn't sure what to use as my thing to be coached on so I just sort of winged it of course I volunteered to go first as I just wanted to get it over with.  What I did realize is I'm totally freaked about a meeting I need to facilitate on Tuesday.

It was funny when I was the coach my coachee started with one thing that she thought was bothering her but over the course of the conversation it was something different. I've very much looking forward to this opportunity to be a coach as I think I'll learn a lot about myself in the process.

You see the topic is not my strong suit, it's not rocket science either but my co-worker has done it for the past few years and done a tremendously good job so I really really don't want to mess it up. I know I'm making it out to be far worse than it really is but that's what I do. I wish I didn't.

I could feel a headache coming on Friday afternoon. I went to bed early yesterday.

I woke up with the same headache so I got up took some Advil and went back to bed. I could tell it was a tension headache and those always take forever to go away for me. I didn't wake up till 10:30am so I completely missed both WW meetings today. I also missed Zumba.

I went grocery shopping as I couldn't do that on Friday and then I had plans to do to housework but I had absolutely no get up and go.

Goal wise was all over the place. Took my vitamins for 4 days, got 2L of water in for 5 days, exercise was 2 days.

So my first week of the RFS challenge is a bit of a write off. However tomorrow is a new day and a new month. There's something about April that's just so positive perhaps it's because it's starting to really feel like spring.

Tomorrow I re-start my C25K with run 1 and the goal this week is to get 3 runs in. I'm still technically on track for that goal as there's 9 weeks left of the challenge and it's a 9 week program. That also means absolutely no excuses from here on out.

Happy April!

Hugs!!

RFS Challenge Begins

Well technically it begins tomorrow but I'll be using my WW weigh ins to judge my weight goal and this week I was down 1.8 so I'm starting this challenge at 177.8.

Now my ultimate goal is 20lbs down so that's 2lbs a week. To do that I need to be focused and I'm talking military like focus. Which I'll get to in a minute.

Activity wise this weekend it was all about the dogs. Yesterday I took the dogs for an hour walk plus the 40min walk minus dogs to WI and back.

Today I took the dogs for another hour walk. They went home at noon and while I'm going to miss those little guys and I only had them for two days.

I did get a bit of additional walking in as after the dogs left I went to MEC to get a different back pack.

One of my co-workers had this one and I liked it immediately. The other one I bought wasn't quite right so it will have another use. What I liked about this one is has laptop pocket at the back and the main compartment is pretty roomy. It will road tested tomorrow. I did ask him if it was o.k if I went out and got the same one. There were only 2 left in the store so pretty popular I think.

I then booted it on foot from MEC to the mall as I wanted to go to Shopper's Drug Mart.

Last week I also got my new luggage. With all the travelling I'm doing this year I decided to upgrade my packing style. The luggage is Revolution Elite from Heys.ca.  I love the green and the 10 year warranty.

I also got packing cubes, a luggage scale and shoe bags from Heys.ca.

Now on to the challenge. My goal for this week is to hit 200% of the goal I laid out so that means. Tracking, vitamins and minimum 2L of water, that also means activity 6 days a week. 

I'll doing day one again of the C25K on Tuesday as I didn't get day 2 in this week. 

I have badminton tomorrow, C25K on Tuesday, I need to do an early morning workout on Wednesday as I fly home that day due to meetings in Calgary so that might be C25K day two just due to scheduling. Thursday I have to work in Calgary and have an after work shindig I need to go to. Friday I also need to go into work even though it's my day off for a 9-2 meeting but I'll pack my gym bag and workout after the meeting and do C25K day 3, if the weather is nice I might just come home and do that as I can leave at 2pm. 

So Thursday and Friday will be challenges this week. Thursday because it's night out but the good thing about working on Friday is that it can't be late. Friday is a catered lunch. I'll need to stay focused and do some mental rehearsing for those two days. 

Alright time for me to wind down as I need to be up at 3:30 am. 

Hope you had a great weekend.

Hugs!!