Down 1.4 and can't find dress pants

Big surprise at WI with that down 1.4, I was completely mentally prepared for a stayed the same. So I'm 2.2 away from 35lbs down. Which would be next sticker at meetings...I want that sticker!!!

Frustrating day spent trying on what seemed to be thousands of dress pants that were all wrong. Thought I found a style that worked...none in my size. Funny thing is lots in sizes bigger than I need, that never happened when I was those sizes then only size 2 would be available. Found other style that could work, it had cuffs on the legs which don't work for my short self but were long enough that I could cut those out and re hem. But alas this style had butt flaps also knowns as back pocket flaps, completely wrong on anyone pretty much. After my 10th store I started to see everything I didn't like looking back at me in that mirror so I called it quits and went home. I'm considering going back for a second round tomorrow.

The stores were all ugly with that picked over summer/spring stuff and a wee bit of fall stuff in. I even went to Winners, I hate Winners. I hate scavenger hunt shopping, my years in retail have made me impatient. I know what I want so just let me buy it. Are pants with a flat front and straight legs and not low low rise too much to ask? I was also on the hunt for tops to go with all the skirts I own that I rarely wear. Most of the skirts are slightly too big but I can get away with it. Could I find any of the colours I needed...of course not. By the time I got to the last store which had a bit of promise I no longer felt like trying things on.

You know that feeling you get when you're trying to grow out your hair and your in that shaggy phase? I feel shaggy, between sizes and half way to where I want to be. It's taken me forever to get to where I am and I am not going to let it take forever for me to get to goal...that's a promise.

The dress pant adventure continues...perhaps an update tomorrow :)

Just not feelin it today

Ya know when you have tons to do and you just don't want to...that's my day today. It could be that it's supposed to be over 30 degrees here today or that the majority of the companies in the downtown core have flex days today (of course not mine). Of course it is Friday and I'm ready for the weekend. Tomorrow will be the first time in 5 weeks that I can actually stay for my meeting. I'm so happy about that, it's just not the same running in, stepping on a scale and then running out again. Not sure what the scale will say, eating has been alright, activity has been alright, not stellar on either front. I'm not worried about it because Saturday is the start of a new week.

I've decided that the chart thing I've got going on is alright but what I really need is a workout schedule. I have a training schedule sort of worked out for the Honolulu marathon. Training officially starts on Monday so I need to get in gear. The friend I'm training with works nights occasionally and is volunteering for the Folk Fest so I'll have to do a fair bit on my own. I'll keep my sticker reward program but give myself a sticker everyday I complete the prescheduled workout. I have to suck it up dealing with the weather too. When it's going to be too hot, I have to get up earlier and take advantage of the cooler weather.

The half marathon I did in Vancouver was by the skin of my teeth, I had a good time but I was seriously dehydrated afterwards and my training was wishy washy. I'm looking at a goal time of 6.5 hours in Honolulu, that's a looonnnnggg time to be walking. I need to focus not just on walking but strength and flexibility training this time. I did nada for Vancouver.

Hmm...so my weekend will be getting a schedule together and loading some fast paced tunes on to my MP3 player to get myself going.

Have a great weekend everybody!

A bit of an NSV

I discovered yesterday that I now fit into a smaller pair of pantyhose...that doesn't have me hiking up the legs because I'm 5'4. It's funny really, I have to give a presentation today so I'm decked out in a suit and heels...I never wear heels so I'm treading carefully and it makes me walk slower. My colleagues are giving me wolf whistles, which makes me think...do I dress like a schlepp normally?

One said that I looked totally different, exuding confidence. Not that I'm meek any other time but today I'm channeling Agent Scully.
This colleague is a more mature woman who wears suits every day. I told her that I would love to wear more suits but the frustration with losing weight it they eventually won't fit (I'm on a role now so they definitely won't fit in 3 mths time) So I'd rather wait until I hit goal weight to amass a wardrobe of suits, now I just try to get by with some basics for occasions that require them.

Saw the last minute of Canada's Next Top Model last night (the rest is taped). I'm a bit disappointed that Andrea won. I haven't watched a complete episode in awhile but she always seems a bit off and her weight scares me. Did we ever discover if she was eating properly? I know that was a discussion a few weeks ago.

So You Think You Can Dance rocked last night, it was so nice to see the dancers with new partners and on their own. Can't wait for tonight, I'm thinking Martha and Ryan might get the boot because neither of them had any get up and go. I think Ivan might squeek through but the skate shoes were cheesy. Dmitry looked good with his shirt buttoned up, it's not that he doesn't have an amazing chest but I am getting a little tired of seeing it. After last night I think Travis might be in the running to win. Right now I think the top contenders are Benji, Heidi, Allison and Travis. The jazz dance and the contemporary routines perplexed me. I just don't get it, it's beautiful to watch but always seems all over the place to me.

Scale looked good today so I must not let nervousness about the presentation get to me and result in snack attacks.

Have a great day everybody!

Apparently I'm fabulous

So yesterday I changed into my walking gear a little early so I could apply sunscreen before heading out. Two of co-workers commented on how I looked skinnier (got to love the stitching on technical shirts). Then later my friend and I headed over to Running Room to park our bags and we ran into a friend from our half marathon training group. She immediately commented on my losing more weight since she saw me last.

It's so weird how that happens, it doesn't seem like the scale is moving but your body shows changes. Today again I got the you look skinnier comment because I was wearing a new skirt that fits instead of all the stuff that's slightly too big and therefore baggy.

I'm taking this momentum and running with it. I've now come up with rewards for weight loss goals which I've never tried before. This is what I've come up with so far and is subject to change depending on what I covet more.

160- a pair of birkenstocks (the cute kind with 3 bands and bling buckles)
150- Ipod Nano
140-Professional colour and highlights

140 would be my WW target but I think BMI wise my personal goal will be about 10-15 pds lower than that...we'll see when we get there of course. 30lbs already seems far away.

Tonight I'm having dinner with a friend I haven't seen for a while. I have what I want to order already planned out. Today at lunch my two colleagues had to buy, I went with them but was very good and stuck to the sandwich I had brought with me....yeah me!

Apart from that not too much to report today.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Miracle of miracles

I was down 1lb at WI and I was wearing my regular WI clothes so technically down 2 from last week.
This week has already started off well with 45min of step aerobics on Saturday, an attempt at Billy's Boot Camp Tae Bo then gave up on that and did regular strength training on Sunday. I hadn't done Tae Bo in awhile so I think I need to go back to my Flex and Cardio DVDs and work up to boot camp.

Tonight is an 8km walk (hopefully but it's supposed to be super hot). I already talked to my walking buddy that tonight will be about distance not speed.
I've been on plan for the past two days as well. Only water hasn't been great and it never is when I'm at home. I think it's because I don't have a water cooler at home and brita is just not the same.

I'm also in charge of putting my friend and my marathon training plan into works. We're training on our own since Running Room was a bit of a disappointment. My German order is seriously kicked in, I've already printed off maps of the Calgary Marathon so we have a route for a test marathon towards the end of the training. I've got info on nutrition and anything else you can think of. Oh yeah in case you missed the tracker above the marathon is in Honolulu. I better be at goal after training for that. This is hard core so we don't hurt ourselves.

Apart from that not much to report except I fixed my furnace with the help of my Dad. I can now add changing a thermocouple to my list of rare skills :)

Just plain lazy

I haven't even updated my stats from last week. Now I might as well wait until tomorrow's WI. So my summer derailment continues. OP continues to be a struggle, not horribly bad which I take as a victory. Water is also a struggle, with WI tomorrow I need to get in gear.
I had to get a coffee, I'm yawning like crazy. Enough about me, let's get on to reality t.v.

I'm so excited about next weeks So you think you can dance...it's going to be 2hrs long and now the vote is for individual dancers. They dance two routines with a new partner and then a solo routine. Should show us all their talents in a new light.

Canada's Next Top Model is coming to a close and I find myself supporting Sisi, I despised her at the beginning but now like how she's a bit quirky. I can't stand Andrea, I'm not sure why. Alanna just doesn't strike me as a top model...like I would know of course.

Big Brother 7
Caught it for the 1st time yesterday and I don't know. It's the all star edition so I'm a bit tired of these people. We'll see about that one.

Treasure Hunters
Haven't watched that in a few weeks, but a commercial said that they could vote members off of their own team....interesting.

#1 Single (Life Network?)
I feel for Lisa Loeb but I like this one so far, it's not a game just one person's adventure in being single.

The Hills (MTV)
Will someone just kick Heidi in the patootey. This girl has no work ethic whatsoever and is so incredibly annoying. It will get interesting now that Lauren is back with Jason.

Yes I am a TV Junkie, I call it my family :)

Wish me skinny vibes for the WI bright and early tomorrow.

Summer derailment?

I've been reading alot about people having a hard time staying on plan, god knows I'm in the same boat.
It's funny you'd think Summer makes us all seek activity more by being outside and zipping about but instead I think your haunted by visions of alcohol on patios with nachos and don't forget all the ice cream goodies that are heavily promoted at this time. Winter is supposed to be difficult with the desire to hibernate and the lack of choice of fresh produce. I find summer difficult, often it's too hot to want to go out and work out or that pint is way too appealing. Sundaes always look too good. Oy vey I say.

So at WI I was up a pound, well really two but since I had to leave right after WI I wasn't wearing my weigh in uniform. I'm o.k with the gain since I knew a portion of it was water retention. I've been better but not perfect with being OP since then. Little bits of activity hear and there. Finally tried my Namaste Yoga dvd and I really like it. It's only half an hour each episode with warm up and then 12 min dynamic flow and then cool down/relaxation. I love the 12 min part because you do a move over and over again so by the last time you don't quite feel like a dork.

Tonight I was planning to walk with a friend but she forgot her gear and I planned to go home and embrace step aerobics.

I'm off to a Stampede breakfast this morning, there's an abundance of free pancakes in my fair city for the next week. I ate breakfast at home as usual this morning so I wouldn't be tempted by flapjacks, I might have one and consider it my morning snack. We'll see, hopefully there'll will be a giant line and I won't even want to line up. Tomorrow will be a Stampede lunch so probably and abundance of burgers, hot dogs and beans. My god, one could eat for free for the 10 days of Stampede and probably gain 20lbs by the end of it :)

The tracking of triggers is going well and the chart is on the fridge and bigger this time.

Now some shout outs

Jill - Hug for you anytime
Michelle- You just plain rock
Sonya- You're awesome

Giant hug to all the bloggers as we continue this journey to being better selves.

Tough couple of days

I just don't get it, I can be doing really well plan wise and then boom especially with TOM it all goes out the window. Two days in a row have had not called for snacking. Yesterday was really bad, however I'm not going to let it get me down. I will keep going forward. I will most likely see a gain at WI due to TOM anyway but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up on the week.

I started a journal recording my thoughts food wise, it's filled with affirmations. The purpose is to see if I can find common triggers and then create a game plans. I'm dead serious about getting to goal this time around so I will find a way.

I'm thinking maybe I should rejoin a gym, the workout plans have been off kilter due to the heat and I suppose I could get up early and do it then...but an air conditioned gym sounds good :)
I'm not going to jump into anything, this time I really want to make sure I join a gym that has the classes I like, enough treadmills and good weight room with helpful staff. In the meantime workout dvds and the fan on high will work.

So after Saturday, the chart goes back on the fridge and a written commitment to give my new and improved plan a good test period.

I can do this!

Canada Day....The Aftermath

Alright not really an aftermath, I was very good in actuality and kept contained. I did go a little crazy point wise Friday night but that's in the past. The fact I kept it together over the weekend with 3 days of 24 hour access to a fridge was miraculous. Activity was minimal mostly due to the weather. I'm not a summer person. Spring, Fall and even Winter but not Summer between the heat and mosquitos not my favourite time of year.

I have been faced with killer snack attacks thanks to impending TOM. Last night I had to go brush my teeth to stop myself from seeking out a snack. After work today I have to go to Safeway to purchase ingredients for tomorrow's work pot luck...I must be strong!

Did get a bit of yard work done this weekend but mostly just relaxed and now I feel like I need a vacation. Oh well half day on Friday thanks to the Calgary Stampede Parade. The entire downtown core shuts down at 7am for all the vicious lawn chair people. Never cross a vicious lawn chair person, they don't care if you need to cross the street to get to work, they will sit there with their line of lawn chairs allowing no one to pass (Which did give the opportunity to memorize the extensive plus 15 system which takes you over and above the vicious lawn chair people). So I'm taking advantage of the 1/2 day option and sleeping in on Friday. I'm already planning to make my own stampede breakfast with the fantastic Coyote Pancake mix (7g of fibre in this baby).

Stampede week is just ridiculous, no work gets done most people party hard and have 3hr lunches. For 10 days a pretty cosmpolitan city turns into a "Gosh Darn Yee Haw Horse Town". Hay bales on the street and everyone (I mean everyone dressed western) Having a desk job and not being an out and about sales person, I typically hear about the wild parties and never expect any phone call to be returned. Companies compete for who can hold the best breakfast. Thankfully I'm very close to Premier Ralphs Calgary office, they throw a great breakfast (which I'm probably helping to pay for :))
I think I'm going to skip the exhibition itself, I'm a native Calgarian and have gone to this thing so many times and have a general rule of once every two years. I do get to attend a clients Stampede BBQ.
On the grounds I do recommend the Ag Exhibit were you can get up close to all the animals. The Round Up centre has all the people selling their wares so if it slices, dices and washes your car it will be sold there. The Midway is excellent for ride seekers with biker carny guys tossed in. The Coca Cola stage offers up some wicked bands for just the price of general admission so if you're there anyway it's technically free. Nashville North does the same for the country artists. Of course the mini donuts, corn dogs and etc shall lure you from the midway...also a good reason not to go.

Word to the wise if you come and enjoy...stay hydrated, the grounds and the city get super hot during Stampede and a few Bacardi Silvers (Drink of the devil is how I refer to them now) or any other libation can hit your system hard. So play safe.

So the next three days will be the calm before the storm of the Yee Haw and Y'all Come Back Now.

Alright I secretly enjoy Stampede and it's shananigans...don't tell anyone :)

Happy Day Before Canada Day!

Hello All,
Not tons new to report, got messed up with the meeting times and couldn't WI in yesterday night. I so thought it was at 7:30 not 6:30. Oh well I just have to surrender two coupons next Saturday. I am really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I don't think the whole province has been sleeping well with all the heat but it's cooler today.

My long weekend plans involve a whole lot of yard work related activities, however I do need to seek out work clothes that fit. So maybe I'll go shopping on Saturday and leave the yard work for the other two days.

Even though I didn't WI yesterday I still behaved myself and didn't go crazy with snack or bad choices so I'm quite pleased with myself on that one. I also plan on getting a fair amount of activity this weekend. The chart and sticker routine is returning for next week, this week I tried to just use my journal to set activity goals and didn't work as well. I need a more visual, in your face reminder.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend, I'll probably pop by on the weekend.

To Success

Busy, busy day

Oy vey! Hey, I rhymed...I'm so talented :)

Pizza was fabulous last night and I ordered the marinara so no cheese...major kudos to me! Tonight I'm thinking beans on toast for dinner. I don't want to make anything complicated tonight.
So I'll be weighing in tomorrow night as opposed to early am. I have a full day of interviews and if I'm tired it won't be good so I'll be good and not eat anything after lunch tomorrow to simulate my weighing in before I've eaten anything.

I got this from Anne and decided to do it myself.

1) How old do you wish you were? I like where I'm at now
2) Where were you when 9/11 happened? Day off at home, just turned on the TV when the second plane hit
3) What do you do when vending machines steal your money? Haven't used one in a long time, probably hit it
4) Do you consider yourself kind? Yes I do
5) If you had to get a tattoo, where and what would it be? Probably a small maple leaf on my shoulder
6) If you could be fluent in any other language what would it be? Japanese
7) Do you know your neighbors? Yup
8)What do you consider a vacation? Any time focused on just me
.9) Do you follow your horoscope? Not very often
10) Would you move for the person you loved? Yes
11) Are you touchy feely? Not overly, but give hugs when they're needed
12) Do you believe that opposites attract? Yes I do
13) Dream job? Write and research for Lonely Planet
14) Favorite channel(s) A&E, TLC, MTV, Food Network
15) Favorite place to go on a weekend? Stay home
16) Shower or Bath? Bath, old house don't have a shower
17) Do you paint your nails? Yup
18) Do you trust people easily? No
19) What are your phobias? Bugs, especially spiders
20) Do you want kids? Sometimes
21) Do you keep a handwritten journal? Off and on, now it's my blog
22) Where would you rather be right now? On a cruise
23) What makes you feel warm and safe? My Dad
24) Heavy or light sleep? Sleep like the dead
25) Are you paranoid? No
26) Are you impatient? Sometimes, can't we all?
27) Who can you relate to? People trying to lose weight
28 ) How do you feel about interracial couples? Produce incredibly beautiful children
29) Have you been burned by love? Don't think I ever truely been in love yet
30) Whats your life motto? If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger
31) What's your main ring tone on your cell? Theme song for Fraggle Rock
32) What were you doing at midnight last night? Sleeping
34) Who's bed did you sleep in last night? My fabulous bed from Ikea
35) What color shirt are you wearing? Cream with brown and pink stripes
36) Most recent movie you watched? Over The Hedge
37) Name five things you have on you at all times. Bank card, food journal, pen, kleenex, bus pass
38.) What color are your bed sheets? Dark blue
39) How much cash do you have on you right now? $30 and some change
40) What is your favorite part of chicken? Breast
41) What's your favorite town/city? Calgary
42) I can't wait till...I get married...how pathetic
43) Who got you to join myspace? No one...yet
44) What did you have for dinner last night? Marinara pizza at Pulcinella's
45) How tall are you barefoot? 5'4"
46) Have you ever smoked crack? No
47) Do you own a gun? No, and I never will
48) What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Milk then coffee
49) What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex? Do I have one, if so someone tell me!
50) Do you have A.D.D.? No
51) What time did you wake up today 5:30am
52) Current worry? Am I success
53) Current hate? Impatient people and people who act stupid on purpose
54) Favorite place to be? At home or with my friends
55) Where would you like to travel? Australia, Japan, Ireland, East coast of Canada
56) Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs? Maybe married with kiddies or the ruler of the universe
57) Last thing you ate? A chocolate covered pretzel
58) What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever song is in my head
59) Last person that made you laugh? My co-worker
60) Worst injury you've ever had? twisted ankle
61) Does someone have a crush on you? Doubt it
62) What is your favorite candy? Gummi berries

To Success!

It's damn hot!

Last night we did a just over 5km walk and then schlepped to co-op (further walk) and purchased Heinz beans on sale for 2 for $1. Then I schlepped those to the bus stop (weight training) and took the bus that requires a longer walk home (boot camp). All in a sweltering heat, I've never been so happy to see shade.

Tonight it's off to dinner at a place called Pucinella which apparently has amazing thin crust pizza with minimal toppings....just the way I like it.

Food wise was good today, I find it's easier to stay on track when it's super hot unless there's cerveza involved of course :)

To Success!

Activity Craziness!

Being my super powerful self I woke up on the early side of Sunday (8am ish) and went for a 7km walk. Then later on I did 90min of yard work which included mowing the front and back lawn...whoo hoo to me. Food was really good until about 8pm, slight unnecessary snacking occured but I'm not letting that bother me. I had also earned 9APs that day.

I was set up really well for today until I realized I forgot about a lunch get together, no worries there. The lunch I brought needed to be nuked and that doesn't really work when you're going to the park so I bought a sandwich of roughly the same points. Got sidelined by home made cinnamon buns brought in by an old co-worker who now lives in Edmonton. No biggy there either I had 9pts for supper so now I do a lower point supper and drink lots of water. My walking buddy and I are heading out after work and she pushes me to go faster so some good APs coming my way. I'm seriously thinking about getting up earlier and going for a walk when it's cooler. Of course that would mean earlier bed time so that I don't fall asleep at my desk :) That I'll work on.

Tomorrow night I'm going out for dinner so getting up earlier and going for a walk would be a good idea. We'll see, I knew the dinner was coming so I'll also adjust my points accordingly.

Food Today: Goal 24pts
Coyote Pancakes with blueberries - 3pts (this mix has 7g of fibre)
Milk - 2
1 TBSP Light Aunt Jemima Syrop - 1
Apple - 1
Egg Salad on Whole Wheat - 6 (It's got very little filling)
2 x Cinnamon Rolls - 8 (Same size as the pillsbury caramel rolls)
Subtotal - 21pts Remaining points- 3
I'll earn a minimum of 4 APs tonight so I'll aim for a 4pt supper (can be done at Subway or at home).
Activity:
Cardio - Walk with buddy estimating 8km.

To Success!

Positive Outlook equals down 1.6!

Whoo hoo! I was very happy at the scale today. Also very happy because now my bathroom sink drains properly thanks to Wonder Dad, who at 83 is still very active and most people might guess he's in his 60s. I really really hope I age like him.

I'm so close to flinging myself into the 160's and with my workout plan in place this week and the WW Mexican Potatoe Casserole planned for work lunch I think I can do it. The only wrinkle in my plan is that my WW meeting is closed on Canada Day so that means going to work really early on Thursday so I can go to the 7am meeting Downtown. I'm willing to do that so I can keep my WI routine relatively intact.

My positive statement of the day...I feel powerful, not in a rule the world sort of way (That is my dream job) but more I know I'll get to goal. Though I don't like the effect on my bank account I love how all my dress pants are too big and that I've gone down in shoe size. I also love how I look at the nutritional information without even thinking about it.

I adore all of my fellow bloggers who are incorporating healthy options into their lives. We should really have a convention or something :)

Hope everyone has a fantastic Saturday.

To Success!

(Food tracking and exercise goals return tomorrow)

It's all about the outlook

One day before weigh in and this morning the scale was very promising. Yes, I weigh myself every morning however I'm not obsessed about the number. I look at it in a very analytical way more to determine how my activities should be adjusted for the rest of the week.

At any rate, if I keep it together today I should see a favourable result tomorrow morning. The thing I was trying to do this week was add extra bits of activity in to my everyday routine. For example go to the far food court for lunch, walk an extra block to get to the office, take the bus home that requires me walk faster and do some living room dancing in the evenings. As I've stated before I'm going to put a more formalized workout program in place next week, one that does no rely on other people either.

I loved Philippa's blog today and you can check it out here. She is such an inspiration and what she says today really hit home. It's so easy for us to get discouraged and disappointed with this tough journey we're on. It made me think that as people it's so easy to get dragged down by the negative. I need to make a conscious effort to be more positive with myself. Like when the scale isn't going where I want it to, I should look at my start measurements and weight and realize how far I've come. I know sometimes easier said then done.

Also a major kudos to Anne for her organizing the post card exchange. I got my two very positive post cards from Janel and Lisa. It totally made my day.

I'm going to make a conscious effort to say something positive each day about this journey either here on the blog or in my journal at home.

We call all so do this with a littler perserverance and little faith.

To Success!!!!!!!

Stupid TV Guide

So here I was trying to figure out what to tape and what not to tape and the TV Guide was wrong. Big Brother was on at 9pm not 8pm so no conflict. Sometime I wonder what I'm paying for if they give you wrong info.

Wicked thunderstorm tonight with hail, luckily in my hood it was short and only itty bitty hail so no damage. Some neighbourhoods got golf balls.

I'm in the process of coming up with a bit more of a formal workout plan, not simply aiming for 6 out of 7 days sort of thing. I want to have a more consistent plan. Plus preconceived options for if the weather sucks or if it's nice. I would like to take advantage of outside since summer is here afterall.

Plus better for my chart and sticker reward system. I'll have more particular goals.

Hugs to all

Rain, rain go away

Just now it looked like a typhoon hit my fair city. I looked up from my desk out the two feet of window and saw rain coming down sideways. I think it's rained every day for the last two weeks. It sure puts kinks into my walking program. Snow I can handle, rain not so much. Since it's still a bus ride home again, I'd prefer not to do that soaking wet and miserable. Tonight I must find an alternative workout.

After work I do need to go in search of a suit. I hate suits, not the look of them just trying to find one especially when one is trying to lose weight. I don't want an expensive one that won't fit in 3 mths. Every suit jacket I try on is too long in the sleeves and I don't have time for alterations. I need it for a client lunch on Thursday. I don't do the work lunch thing very often so I can generally avoid getting a suit. I saw a great suit jacket at Walmart on sale for $14...there were no bottoms to go with it and it was a sort of greyish black so it looked stupid with a real black. I passed. Normally those type of deals never happen to me. My good friend who is now in Toronto has this uncanny ability to find amazing clothes for stupid prices. I'm talking about a $10 suit. She can work miracles. It helps that she has an awesome sense of style which I don't. I'm working on it but still have trouble finding what works for me.
I wish What Not to Wear would come to Calgary so I can nominate myself and then they can give me the $5000 to get a new wardrobe.

Alas, Suzy Shier and Reitmans will have to do for now.

On the food front I've been fairly well behaved. My stomach has been growling consistently since 2pm so I definitely need a snack. Have no idea what to make for supper tonight so I'm hoping inspiration hits me....perhaps an egg white omelette made with my funky magic bullet blender. So far I've made scrambled eggs and a fruit smoothie... not at the same time. This thing is neat, the only problem is the recipe book that came with it has a lot of not so point friendly options.

On the T.V front I'm torn Canada's Next Top Model goes up against Big Brother All Stars. Sure I can tape one and watch the other but Wednesday is a training night I'd have to make sure I get home in time. Of course the Global and CBS has Big Brother on at the same time. MTV starts The Hills on Wednesday too atleast that repeats later.....yes I am a reality tv junkie and I'm o.k with that....for reality I watch the news.

I've babbled enough for today....Success to all!

Can of worms...

Oy vey, that is pretty much how I would sum up my day.
First let me recap Friday. Well it was a fairly busy day work wise and a bit of sadness. Our receptionist is from Romania and she's super home sick right now and we're all not sure how to make it better....however ideas are in the works.
My boss took us all our for drinks and appetizers at Moxie's which was great, however I was of course concerned about WI the next morning. So I had a normal size bellini, a few nachos and couple of pieces of med bread and one triangle of cheese toast (Carb Fest). That was my dinner, then I left early. It was too hard to stay and watch the moxie size bellinis and the ordering of even more food, so I went home and drank lots and lots and lots of water.

I was down 1lb this morning, and my WI lady actually commented on me looking fit and not giggly...hey I'll take it. She also congratulated me on total lost so far. That was really nice since I've been feeling relatively useless plan wise lately.

My Dad was in town today to help we with a few "simple" maintenance things. The first project to deal with a very slow drain in the bathroom sink...result a new sink because the 50 year old one has had it's day. Then it was pretty much the whole day dedicated to getting the new sink to talk to the old pipes. Still not sure if it's good to go, there was caulking involved so I'll test it on Monday once everything has had a chance to dry.

So yay I get to brush my teeth in the kitchen. The other projects were put on hold...one of those being my furnace. At least it's supposed to be warm this week. The week of rain and blah weather we just went through caused me to dress in layers while inside the house.

Food wise not so great today but not a complete disaster and I don't really care today. I'm considering today a bit of a free day. I did have decent activity today and tomorrow it will be the olympics of lawn mowing and all sorts of thing related to that. Plus I need to grab groceries so I'll be inspired tomorrow to seek out veggies and goodness.

My week of stickers started really well then fizzled out. I'm not giving up on that project. A new chart goes up tomorrow and I begin again. I really need to schedule activity so I have a plan when I get home and don't get distracted. I'm also going to review all my data (I should have been an accountant-I'm a bit fond of spreadsheets :) )

Right now I'm listening to Natasha Bedingfield's "If you're gonna...". So far I really really like 3 songs- that one, Unwritten and Single....just had to share.

Later

Thunderstorms and musings

Totally lost track of yesterday. I've been busy, busy, busy...which I love because it's better than being bored out of your tree.

Points were good yesterday, target was 22, I ate 26 but then got off my couch and went for 6.6km walk which earned me 4AP...Yeah me. So I earned 3 stickers on my chart...yippee!

Today I'm planning for 22pts again, I need to go to Walmart but if it doesn't rain I should mow my lawn. Either will earn me some sort of activity point because I'll walk home from Walmart. I also want to do yoga tonight. However I will stop to watch Canada's Next Top Model...I love it.

Watched the finale of Project Catwalk and I'm so happy Kirstie won. I like her from the start.

Was supposed to have my quarterly performance review today but supervisor is sick...oh well it shall be rescheduled. They should just tell me I'm fabulous and be done with it.

Wicked thunderstorms last night that sounded like electric currents cracking, so didn't get too much sleep. I need it to get warm out so my house will warm up a bit.

Not loads to report right now, might be back later.

The Points:
Toast - 1
Blueberry Cream Cheese -1
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Vermicelli and veggies - 4 (tossed the meat that came with because it was disgusting)
Yogurt - 1
Apple - 1
Yogurt - 1
Subtotal: 13/22 so 9 pts remaining that's huge pour moi. Must plan dinner carefully, I really should go to Walmart so I can go to Safeway and carefully plan tomorrow. I'm going to a Partylite thing and have been assigned sous chef status. The menu that's been explained to me so far is not points friendly. So I want to fill up on low point things so at least I can try a few things at the festivities. Must give that some thought.

The musing part: When a bus is full and the driver asks everyone to move as far back as they can so people can get on...why do morons squeeze themselves into the back door part when they know that in a few stops a bunch of people will be getting off. The best part is when other people are filing past them to get to the back of the bus and they pretend not to notice all the people trying to squeeze past them....Common sense is dead people.


To Success!!!!!!

Still going

I was up .8 at WI, which I'm fine with it's the week before TOM so I typically have a gain then.
However my goal for this coming Saturday is to be down 3. I've done it before and after 2 weeks of gains I know it's doable.

My Sunday was perfectly OP, not one slip - stuck to my 22pts alloted for the day, drank my water (7 cups not the 3L I normally plan for but the WW minimum), did some strength training. Now I just need to do it again.

I've put a chart/grid on fridge with the days of the week on the vertical and my goals on the horizontal. So there's OP, Water, Cardio, Strength and Yoga. Then I have how many out of 7 days I want to achieve. I'm aiming for 6/7 for OP (one day to cheat which has worked for me in the past), 7/7 for Water, 4/7 for Cardio, 2/7 for Strength and 2/7 for Yoga. Every day I achieve any of these goals I get a sticker. What can I say I have a thing for stickers. Then at the end of the week I will total up and see if I made my goal and then I'll reward myself in someway ie. new OPI nail polish or a lipstick or something preferably not food related. O.K maybe a cupcake on a Saturday. But damn Crave in Kensington, if you're not there right when they open they can be sold out and closed by 2pm. I fail to see my they say there hours are until 6pm.

Saturday I earned one sticker for getting activity, but my friend (who follows WW online) was in town and we had foodapalooza including a cupcake from Crave (There were only two to choose from and these are expensive cupcakes) . It was good and now it's done. I also bought my first cherries of the season. I love cherries.

Sunday I earned 3 stickers...whoo hooo.
The most stickers I could earn in one day is 4 and that's only if I combine two workouts ie Strength and Yoga.
It's on my fridge as a very visual reminder. I discovered that where I go wrong the most is after 8pm. Even last night I noticed the abundance of food commercials on at that time....it could just be me...there might be that many all the time.

My walking buddy heads out of town soon so I will have to suck it up and head out alone. We're walking tonight and then on Tuesday I plan to mow the lawn which takes an hour and I consider to be exercise. After that if the weather is nice I'll walk, if not I'll Taebo, or something else on the multitude of exercise DVDs I own.

I can't wait to try my Magic Bullet blender that I got from my friend Unfortunately all I can think of to make is dessert related, so that's why I haven't tried it yet. There are healthy recipes in the book provided, I just wasn't in the mood.

Today I will try yet another flavour of Cliff Bar in my search for one I like. 1/2 a bar (2.5pts) is my pre-exercise carb snack (as advised by the sports nutritionist) so far I've tried the oatmeal one and I thought it was disgusting. Today I have the black cherry almond one (my friend says it's good). At home waiting to be tried are about 7 other flavours. Considering I only eat half at a time, I think I'm pretty well stocked up. I also have gatorade with me so there'll be no dehydrating for me.

Isn't funny how we can be so disgruntled and ready to give up and then all of sudden you get a burst of gung ho. I need to learn how to stay gung ho.

I want to finally hit goal and stop giving WW so much money.

I was watching X-Weighted on Sunday, you can find it on the Life channel and more about it here on their site. It's really interesting to see the challenges they face that we can all probably relate to, it follows them for 6 months.

Alright enough rambling for today.

The Plan:
Toast - 1
Raspberry Cream Cheese - 1
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Silhouette Yogurt - 1
Apple - 1
Beef Rouladen - 4
No yolk noodles - 4
Veggies - 0
1/2 Cliff Bar - 2.5 (pending if I like it)
20oz Gatorade - Didn't drink much (one gulp) so took it off,
Earned 7APs in total and then my friend craved Nachos. So we went to Brewsters. She ordered nachos and I ordered a thin crust veggie pizza. I ate half the pizza and a couple of her nachos but then ordered a chocolate sundae. We were sharing but I ate most of it. She did have a piece of my pizza. So the end result was a little ugly even with activity points I went over. I'm probably totally underestimating the pizza too. Sigh
1/2 Veggie Pizza - 8
Handful of Nachos - 5
2/3 Chocolate Sundae - 8
Totals: 39.5/33 (26 plus all of the activity points)
Tomorrow must be a low point day!

To Success!!!!

Return to Sanity...

So I regrouped after a lovely walk in the rain last night, was on my way to meet friends for dinner, they didn't show...discoverd later that apparently emails were sent because one was sick...I didn't get any of them. Having seen absolutely no responses from me to these emails, one would think they'd call me...apparently common sense is dead.

So after an extended walk in the rain and returning to find that my furnace is not doing what it's supposed to...I had a great OP day. Who knew that when the world seemed against me I would not reach for the container of ice cream. I stepped on the scale this morning and I was 2.5lbs down from the day before...weird but I like it. The week before TOM is always a little whacky.

The furnace part sort of freaks me out finance wise, it's an old furnace but the last time it was serviced they said that it was a solid make. I'm going to consult with Dad before I call a repair guy. I have already sourced a repair guy that has financing options in case a new furnace is required...they are not cheap! I blame house taxes and working salary plus commission. When those commissions get taken away due to a fall off (I'm a recruiter) it totally sucks! Oh well it will sort itself out in the end.

Decent into madness....

Why is it that every once in awhile you just fall off the wagon completely?
I've noticed a lot of bloggers are going through this right now and so am I. Is it PMS, is it the full moon coming, is it just that when you've doing this for so long you might need a break - maybe all three?
Whatever it is it's hit me full force this week. I dread writing in my tracker, but have learned from the past it's better to record the ugly simply to learn from it.
Had a pretty good day point wise but then went out for dinner, every plan I had in place for this didn't happen. The thing is I'm going out for dinner tomorrow night too, so again I've planned a low point day to compensate. Weigh in is going to be bloody awful, a part of me doesn't even want to go. I know it's better to face the music and think of it as day 1.
I'm just feeling weak this week....blah. I know I'm pmsing because everyone irritated me today. I should go break out the midol to restore myself to my regular happy self.

My food plan was a disaster so I'm not even going there today.

I'll get my act together.

Crazy Busy...Oy Vey

Sometimes it seriously scares me how fast time flies...more the fact that you never get it back. Here's all I've been up to.
Saturday: My Birthday...34 ah no 29 forever! I was up 1lb at WI, couldn't quite figure that one out, however my tracking has not been brilliant and the water was nowhere near where it should have been
My Dad came in bringing me a whack of gardenias, peonies, petunias and something I can't identify, so we planted and went to stupidstore. Later when out to dinner with my friend and we saw Over The Hedge...this is a very funny movie, many times did we laugh out loud and the animation is fantastic. Food was all downhill, I tracked it and it was sooooo not pretty.
Thought that 3 of my friends had forgotton my birthday...2 did...1 has redeemed themselves.

Sunday: Dedicated to returning books to the library and laundry and going through every single Shape magazine that I've kept for two pages of information. Went through all of them and just kept the at home workout info, I have the binder and page protectors ready. Was great point wise until very end of the day and the uncontrollable desire to make a sundae. Light ice cream but I think the double chocolate sauce probably made up the difference.

Monday:Crazy day all day, never slowed down. My head was spinning for most of it. Did a great 9k walk with a decent hill after work. Also had my office birthday cake....which I totally forgot to track until the end of the day...sending me over again...

I must be diligent for the rest of the week, I'm already fighting the snack attack fixation of the week before TOM. I'm going out to dinner twice this week...Wednesday and Thursday. This will be the Weightwatcher Olympics for me. I will plan ahead and document whether or not I succeed.

Met with the Sports Nutritionist on Friday, wow I'm surprised I didn't hurt myself during the half marathon because I wasn't doing anything you were supposed to. I was surprised to learn that one should consume 30g of Carbs per hour of high endurance exercise if it exceeds 90min to 120min (so the 3 gummi berries during my 1/2 marathon was probably not enough). The 30g can be a combination of gatorade type beverage and energy bar. She recommended Cliff bars so now I'm in search of a flavour I like.
You should also really start carb loading and hydrating 3 days before the event

Recovery meal within 2 hours of your endurance exercise should consist of double the serving of carbs you normally have so 2 cups of pasta vs. 1 cup. Her only concern with following WW was making sure we eat enough. So she said following the plan on all other days is fine but to pay attention to carbs on high endurance days. I'm only probably doing one really high endurance day a week so it should work.

Food Plan:
Oatmeal - 2
1/2c Blueberries - 0
2tsp brown sugar - 1
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Silhouette Yogurt - 1
H.M Cabbage Roll - 5
2 Roma tomatoes -0
2 Green onions - 0
3/4c Organic Tomatoe Soup (as sauce) - 1
Apple-1
Subtotal:15/24

That's 9 pts for dinner but I want to go lower to make up the disaster of the past few days. I want to try my new Namaste Yoga Dvds can be found on Access and seem really easy to follow. As well as walking home from the mall.

To Success!

Blogger is driving me crazy, I've tried twice to post a picture of Hammy from Over the Hedge and it says it's "Done" but nada shows up...argh

Overcome by the desire to nap

Wow, yesterday just flew by then got hit with a massive wave of tiredness at 3ish. It just took the oomph right out of me. I tried to blog but just didn't have the energy to think...ya know?

No amount of caffeine helped, well I only had a light ice tea from Snapple (very refreshing by the way and 90 cal). Went to the Shopper's Drug Mart event and bought stuff I probably didn't need but will use eventually. Went home and cleaned my house. Such an exciting life I lead...hey?

I can't complain really, not exciting also means nothing is going horribly wrong.

Tonight I have to prep flower beds because my green thumbed father is bringing me a whack of plants tomorrow. Tomorrow is also my birthday, I turn 34...most people think I'm in my 20s so thank God for my parents looking young and my addiction to sunscreen.

I don't really have any plans for tomorrow but I'm going to try to go see Over The Hedge...the commercials make me laugh and I think Steve Carrell as the squirrel is hysterical . Plus I've declared the month of June as a time of celebration for my birthday so lots of time for me to connect with all my friends :) I was thinking about stopping off at Crave to pick up a couple of cupcakes as my birthday cake so to speak. I will be faithfully weighing in tomorrow at 8:30am so no cupcake could be consumed until after that. Hey I'll earn APs planting at any rate.

So yesterday looked like this:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Apple - 1
Home made Taco Salad - 6
3 Chocoalat covered pretzels - 2
Coffee - 2
Oven Fries - 3
2 Turkey Bites - 2
Snapple Ice Tea - 2
Total : 23/27

Today so far:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Coffee - 2
Milk - 2
Subtotal: 7/23

I'm only working a half day today because I'm off to the sports nutritionist this afternoon and since it's the day before my b-day, I thought why not just take the afternoon off...to go prep flower beds...yeesh :)

I shall share any bits of wisdom I learn today

To Sucess!

Apparently I'm a model

New hair went over very well in the office today. I'll attempt to post a pic, at the moment my digital camera and my computer don't like to talk.

It's very Aveda, our fantastic receptionist told me I was a model. I had to laugh...hmm yeah only about 7 inches too short and not a size 2. The cut only cost me $25 which made me happy, I bought product (of course).
Never fails really, the stylist will use something that I think I must own. At least this time I already owned one thing she used.

Had a super crazy day, it felt like trying to juggle plates (not that I've ever done that before but seemed like a good analogy).

My walking buddy is sick, but I'll use this opportunity to clean my house. I have a mountain of dishes to do. I should take this opportunity instead of leaving it to a time of massive rushing around.

Apart from that not much to talk about today.

Today was a 22pt day which I blew at lunch, not with bad things even I just misjudged points. I'll go over today but the vacuuming should earn an AP or so.

Todays Plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2 - I'm very good with this and measure it very carefully :)
Milk - 2
Coffee- 2
Banana - 1
Chili - 6
Whole Wheat Bun - 2
Butter - 2
Subtotal: 18/22

O.k so not too bad 4pts for dinner, might make that 6 just because I can :)

To Success

Day 6/10 -New Hair Tonight!

I'm excited, I have an appointment at the Aveda Concept Salon that I've walked by a hundred times. I chose the student option because well it's Aveda, there not going to hire an idiot. Now I just have to control myself in regards to products. I love how all their stuff smells but also realize it's expensive.

I have shortish hair right now well it's almost to my shoulders and driving me crazy just because I have a lot of hair so now it's just a blob with no volume.

A little NSV from yesterday, my bus stopped at a gas station about 3 stops from the one I normally get off on so I got off the bus and walked home. It wasn't super far but considering it was after work and I was tired...I was proud of myself.

The only other excitement was I changed all the songs on my mp3 player. Plus I'm in the process of putting together a second blog dedicated to my love of products.

The Plan
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Apple - 1
Homemade Taco Salad - 5
Salsa - 0
1 tbspLight Sour Cream - 1
Yogurt - 2
Subtotal:16/24

Not sure about supper yet, I really need to come up with meal plans.

I'm not doing great with the water this week, I just barely squeeked by with 6 cups yesterday. Today I will do better!

To Success!

Day 5/10 - Down .2

Well Hello Everyone,
The Relay went really well despite all the rain and mud. It was sort of like a rain gear fashion show and a tent exposition. There were people who were prepared for monsoons and people who don't realize that all tents are not waterproof.

My team raised just over $2000 dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society so I'm incredibly proud of us.

Friday's relay plus co -workers birthday plus another co-workers moving day resulted in some whacked out points. Can't help but wonder if I would have a better loss than .2. Oh well it's done.

Saturday was also a bit high (normally I plan it that way). I had thought about lowering the points to compensate for Friday. My friend was in town and we went to Cheesecake Cafe for dinner. I haven't been there in quite a few years but I fondly remember the Cheesequake cake. I ordered a piece and the funny thing was...it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered. I don't think that's the restaurant's fault. I think it's more my taste pallet has changed. I realize now that I would have preferred a zesty salad or something with more fruit...how weird is that.

Did get out for a good walk yesterday, so my activity was decent this weekend.

Saw X-Men 3 on Saturday, lots of action and special effects but almost too many characters. It almost seemed like a vehicle to show off the special talents of all the mutants.
I still liked it and they left room for a fourth movie.

Today: Points Target 26
Toast-1
Peanut Butter/chocolate -2
Milk-2
2 Cookies-2
Apple - 1
Homemade Taco Salad:
3oz Taco beef - 3
1oz Light Cheese - 1
2 cups Spring Greens - 0
2 Roma tomatoes - 0
2 Green onions - 0
2tbsp Salsa - 0
1tbsp light sour cream - 0
Fruit cup - 1
2 pieces Squirrelly Bread - 3
2 pieces light Kraft cheese - 2
Light Ice Cream - 4
Total: 24/26

2 APs and 1.5L Water


To Success!

Day 2/10 - Relay Tonight!

I found this on
Princess of Nothing and thought I'd try it too.

I AM: a long distance athlete, at least it seems that way with all this marathon training stuff
I WANT: to learn how to knit
I WISH: we could always see the best in each other
I HATE: people who stop dead in front of escalators or who stand in front of the back door of the bus and look surprised when people want to get off.
I MISS: all my friends who now live all over the country
I FEAR: bugs
I WONDER: if I'll ever get married and have kids
I REGRET: not taking the time to smell the flowers
I AM NOT: as outgoing as everyone thinks I am
I DANCE: all the time in my living room
I SING: all the time in my house or my office :)
I CRY: at every single animal movie...Damn you Eight Below.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: as nice as I should be
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: birthday cakes
I WRITE: on my blog, it's my diary
I CONFUSE: boredom with hunger
I NEED: to learn to love myself unconditionally
I SHOULD: be drinking more water and workout more
I START: many things and ideas, but never finish
I FINISH: whatever needs to be finished

So I finished OP yesterday and even talked myself out of going to Walmart to pick up snacks for the Relay tonight. They technically feed us supper, midnight snack and breakfast. Last year I didn't find much of it appetizing, I'll probably avoid breakfast because I have WI directly after the relay.

I brought a couple of fruit bars, a cadbury thin and few cookies that are made with whole wheat flour and nuts. I'll have my water bottle with me so I should be good to go. I also brought with me anything I piece of clothing I have that is water proof or repellant. It will be raining the whole time. I lugged my lawn chair on the bus just in case the rain lets up.

Today:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Blueberry Juice - 4
Vietnamese ? - unknown. Get's here in 30minutes so I'll calculate then

Later

Day 1/10 Part 2 - A Tent Has Been Found!

Whew, I was getting nervous about this Relay for Life this weekend. Rain has been forecasted for two weeks, but never happens. Rain is of course forecasted for Friday to Saturday (Relay is 7pm to 7am). A very sweet older gentleman who I see every morning at my bus stop, informed me that it would rain.

I got an email this morning from our captain saying a tent has been found...so YIPPEE!

Well I completed my first 10 days of the 100 day challenge.
Here's my breakdown
Days OP:5/10 - Terrible!
Days with AP:7/10 - Better
Days with all H20:4/10 - Terrible!
Days with all fruit and veg:7/10

I definitely need to work on the OP and the Water, that's my challenge for the next 10 days. The days I wasn't OP weren't horribly bad with the exception of last Saturday. There was H20 every day just not my goal.

Even though my ESBM mexican lasagna is delicious the microwaving of low fat cheese is not so appetizing so I've given up on it. I will be buying lunch today instead.

Todays Plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Apple - 1
Chili - 7
Banana - 1 or 2 -depends on size
Subtotal:19/27 - 8pts left.

I will be getting a bit of a walk in today, tonight I really need to get my relay gear together to bring with me to work tomorrow.

To Success!

Day 10/10 part 1 - Is it bad to hope for rain?

Last night it did look like showers were pending, there was even very impressive gusts of wind but no real rain fell which is good I guess. My lawn seriously needs more water and I'd rather have mother nature do it for free.

I had planned to go for a walk when I got home yesterday. I walked in the door but on my walking gear and then had an internal dialogue about if I should do it....Luckily the part that wanted to walk won out.

It was the perfect temperature, a bit windy but not too bad. I did an old route that I used to do all the time. I never really knew the distance because pedometers aren't exactly reliable. So yesterday I used my Garmin, it took forever to get a signal thanks to the thunderous looking clouds.

My good old route turns out to be 6k, I was very pleased and I kept a decent pace for walking on my own. Normally my walking buddy keeps me in check or we keep each other in check. According to the Garmin 410 calories were burned so I count that as 4AP. I think the general rule is 100cal per AP anyway. Plus I stayed OP as well so I was very pleased with my day.

Discovered interesting things about my neighbourhood. One block to the south: a split level house sold for $600000. Three blocks to the north, all the cars parked on a residential street that runs parallel with a major road had their windshields cracked with what appears to be a baseball bat. I just thought that was weird. Plus whoever did the breaking of the windshields should be tarred and feathered and have to pay for all those replacement windshields.

Today is a 22pt day which is always a challenge for me, so far so good on that as well. I would like to finish the first 10 day stretch on a good note.

Today:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Apple - 1
Coffee - 2
Taco Salad - 10
1/2 Ham Steak - 2
Sauerkraut - 0
Jello - 2
Subtotal:22/22

So that leaves me 4pts for supper, I thought the taco salad would be less but when I added up all the ingredients in it...a bit more than I expected. Oh well, 4pts is doable. Done...like dinner so to speak :)

My activity will be a lot of running around, I have to stop off at two places after work and that involves a fair bit of walking. I'm going to do strength training when I get home. Did the running around to MEC where I bought a thermarest and thermarest pillow, plus various sacks in which to cart it around. Didn't buy a tent, however rain is still forecasted for Friday and Saturday so unless my illustrious Relay for Life team leaders come up with plan...I might still get one.

I ordered the Namaste Yoga dvds for accesstv.org the other day. I don't when it's actually on tv but the snipets I've seen are well done. The moves are explained really well and the scenery is all these different locations in Victoria...I think.

Tomorrow I will recap my first 10 days and see how I did.

To Success

Day 9/10 - Showers?

Hello All,
Apparently showers are in the forecast for this week. I'm really hoping not on Friday to Saturday. I'm taking part in the Relay for Life for the Canadian Cancer Society and I don't own a tent so it will be a slight disaster if it's raining, oh well I could go buy a tent or maybe MEC rents them...must investigate.

Showers would be good because it's been so dry here, my plan is to head out tonight for a walk, do a monster load of dishes and a load of laundry...in that order.

Not too much else to report really.

Perhaps tomorrow will be more interesting

The plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Small Banana - 1
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Gala Apple - 1
ESBM Mexican Lasagna - 6
Side Salad - 0
Calorie Wise Italian Dressing - 0
Subtotal:17/24
7pts for Supper...not sure about that, might have asperagus and a ham steak (3), then maybe some jello or light pudding as dessert (2).

Water: 1/3L

Workout:60min Walk

To Success!

Day 8/10 - Down 2.2!

Apparently I've found the key to weightloss...it's cheesecake. Well that's what I told my wi lady when I discovered I was down 2.2lb (She also advised me to keep it down). So that was two pieces of cheesecake last week, but also some healthier choices a whack of fruits and veggies plus some kick ass aps (including a 10k walk on Friday with the first half up hill).

Then I celebrated on Saturday with a 58pt day...not so proud of that but it was these stupid mini cupcakes that I probably shouldn't have purchased in the first place. All of a sudden I realized they where all gone...I live alone and no pets...yup it was just me.

I rebounded on Sunday I had a 22pt day down to the last pt. I had an abundance of flavourful veggies.

Today it is 26pts and I'm doing well with that too.

Got some activity in each day, 1hr mowing lawn on Sunday
(that is one heck of a workout especially when the grass is really long -my backyard was jungle lawn), shorter walk on Saturday and today. I'm toying with idea of going for a longer one later today.

I'm not going to regale you with all that I've eaten over the past 3 days. However, I do highly suggest that you all try the No Way Jose Mexican Lasagna in the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry cookbook. Made that today and it's awesome!!!!!! I love mexican food and this was absolute perfection to me. Comes in at 6pts per serving, had that with some spring mix salad and a bit of calorie wise Italian dressing...Delicious and still 6pts.

My walking buddy is away for a week so I must go it alone with the exercise routine. In fact, I'm going to use this week for a bit of experimenting to get the right mix of cardio, weights and pilates/yoga.

Plus in my endeavour to become more organized and thinking it was going to rain at some point this weekend (which it didn't). Got a binder and some protective pages so I can go through my slew of Shape magazines and just keep what I want instead of the whole dang magazine. We'll just see how long it takes me to do that :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Back to regular posting tomorrow

5/10 - Devil on the shoulder won

The good: Drank all my water and got some decent AP
The bad: See picture. My favourite pub in the whole wide world (well Calgary and that's shared equally with The Joyce -both locations). I haven't had one bad or iffy experience at Fionn McCools. The service is good, the food is fantastic, the location is stellar. This pub is located very close to the pathway system and my local Running Room.

So my day was going well, I stuck to everything I had planned for the day. My walk with my friend was a go. Ha, I thought today will be good!

First I change into my walking clothes and discover my lovely Mec Rapid Dry shirt is completely see - through. Not that I was wearing anything scandalous underneath, just a rather ugly sports bra - which is why I wasn't happy. I also needed go pick up some lycopene (super antioxidant) and had tried 4 stores and couldn't find any this week. My friend was running late so I went off to find new shirt and vitamins.

Found new shirt easily enough at Sears, then went to Shoppers to get the supplement. They don't have it and I've purchased it there before. Thinking quickly I head to GNC (They must have it). I race in look at the clerk and say "Lycopene?". Their reply "What does it do?". I'm thinking - Hello! You're a freakin every supplement under the sun store. I say "It's an antioxidant". Clerk proceeds to search the store. I look up and see a little sign that says Lycopene. It's in the Men's health section, which I don't get -it's good for everyone not just men (They market it for prostate health) . Whatever, I go to buy it and clerk proceeds to try to convince me to buy a gold card (which will give me a discount on their ridiculously priced product). I decide to check their prices on Greens products, more expensive. I told him to forget it. Drives me crazy when a store offers to sell you a discount card and sells their stuff at a higher price than their competitors. I declined the offer.

I quickly changed shirts and raced back to Eau claire to meet my friend. She had adventures with public transit and wasn't there yet. We meet up go for about a 5k walk, it was very warm but not horribly bad. She brought supper with her, I didn't. So at the end of the walk I told her I didn't feel like subway. She suggests Fionn's because their sandwiches might be good option. We head to Fionn's, get a table on the pation. Ordered a grilled chicken sandwith and fries (Can I say I wasn't feeling like lettuce?) and a Grasshoper. It was lovely. Table next to us orders dessert more specifically the lava cake (My friend's favourite). So we order dessert.

Obviously we both were feeling defiant because she brought supper and wound up eating pub food.

Twice this week I've had cheesecake. I rarely eat cheesecake, not sure why I'm obsessed with it lately. The good thing about this turn of events is that it will make me doubly focused today. Weigh in is tomorrow, I don't think I sabotaged myself as long as I don't do anything stupid today.

Part of my long weekend will be to make an activity plan and plunk it in a calendar. I've been very all over the place with my plan and need to make it more concrete. I'd like to be at goal by August, which means I have to get my butt in gear!

The plan:
Toast -1
Nutella-2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Egg Salad Sandwich - 7
Popcorn - 3
Subway - 6
Fruit cup - 1
Total: 24/23

Water:2/3L

Exercise:Another walk planned for tonight, thundershowers are also forecasted so if that happens I'll do something else.

To Success!

Day 4/10 - I was good!

Holy guacomole it was hot yesterday, 30 degrees! Just moving a foot outside felt like work. I bought a flat sheet at Walmart yesterday and slept great last night so I'm adjusting.

When I went to the mall I also resisted ice cream, iced drinks, milk shakes and numerous other cool and refreshing looking treats. The mantra in my head...do you want to blow your points on this? It's rare when the mantra works.

Thanks to the heat my activity hasn't been stellar but I have been keeping track of the eating so hopefully this means good things for Saturday. Stepped on the scale this morning to see and mind you my scale and WW's scale do not line up...it was 174 on my scale which would be close to 172 at WW so that made me happy. Now all I have to do is not sabotage myself.

America's Next Top Model rocked last night! I was so happy to see Jade get booted. I feel bad for Joanie but it was nice to see that the final two looked liked they'd be happy for each other. Can't wait for the Canadian one to start on May 31st. Mr. Jay is in it, apparently he's from Toronto. Trish Helfer hosts it and she's really good in Battlestar Galactica so we'll see. I'm also horribly addicted to Project:Runway (You're either in or your out) and Project: Catwalk (I'm sorry but you must leave the catwalk). I hope they make a Canadian version of that one too.

The Plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Strawberries - 1
Yogurt - 2
ESBM Quiche - 3
3 chocolate covered espresso beans - 1 (they're dark chocolate and really small)
Grilled Chicken Sandwich - 8
Fries (ate half) - 5
Cheesecake (small piece) - 6
Beer - 3
Sub-Total: 36/27

So that's 13pts left if I stick to the 27 (HA!), I could probably shave a few of those off. I'll keep it at 27 for now since I did low yesterday and tomorrow would be another low day...got to love the math behind weight loss.

Ha, didn't shave anything off added a few...see above.

Water:3/3L - I'm finding crystal light to be my saving grace in the evenings. I love the ice tea and that it counts as water.
I have a walk planned with my friend tonight. It's supposed to be slightly cooler so we'll see. Alternate plan is a patio. So I'm stating my intentions now: 1 beer followed by lots of water (Followed through on that one).

To Success!

Day 3/10 - Must be angelic from now on

First of all - Dinner with boy went alright. Thing is as of right this minute I have zero attraction to him. He's a super nice guy so I'll give it a second attempt at least.

Dinner was hard at The Keg. I picked mushroom chicken florentine, probably not the best pick but it seemed to come with the most vegetables. Chose the rice because it was wild grain. The other options were giant baked potatoe or garlic mashed potatoes.

Caved at dessert because I had been craving cheesecake since my friend H and I had salads at Brewsters and saw someone else eating what looked like the most amazing cheesecake in the world. It was disappointing which didn't make me feel any better about it that's for sure.

Today will be tough because it's 22pts, this I have a hard time with. I've got my day planned including dinner. I can easily work with this plan. Got probably 2.5l of water in yesterday. One litre alone was Crystal Light Iced Tea because it was 30 degrees here yesterday and it's supposed to be that again today. I'm not a fan of super hot weather, I'm not complaining though a couple years ago we had 40cm of snow at this time.

So here's to the plan:
Toast - 1
Nutella - 2
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Strawberries - 1
ESBM Quiche - 3
Fruit Cup - 1
My tentatively planned dinner:
Perogies (Baked) - 3
Green Beans - 0
2x Turkey Bites - 2
Light Sour Cream - 1
Pudding - 2
Hershey Stick - 1
Subtotal: 23/22

Water: 3/3L Whoo hoo
Exercise: Walk outside if it's not too hot, if that doesn't happen it will be a workout dvd with the fan going full blast...Yes I'm a wimp - Walked home from the mall plus around dt. Not hard core but off my butt. 45 minutes in total.

ANTM side note:
Jade must not win. That girl irritates me to the core.

I can do this!

Day 2/10

See below for my confession of only attaining one goal yesterday. I stayed within my points...yippee. My water sucked, I don't think I drank a whole litre. My exercise plan went out the window thanks to not managing my time all that well and not getting home until 8pm.

However today is a new day. I'm going out to dinner tonight with the boy from eharmony so points might be a challenge since it's the Keg. The good thing is I have mega activity planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so I should be able to offset dinner tonight.

Today's Goals : Day 2/10 part 1
Oatmeal-2
Brown Sugar - 1
Milk- 2
Coffee - 2
Yogurt - 2
Strawberries - 1
ESBM Quiche - 3
Mushroom Chicken Florentine with Rice pilaf (ate 3/4 of the chicken and half the rice) - 12?
Cheesecake with cherries - 8 (probably wishful thinking)
total: 32/24

So that leaves 12 pts for dinner which I should be able to work with. Obviously didn't do so great with the 12pts.
Activity will be walking to the Keg and back and then home from the bus. Probably close to 40min in total.

Water goal - 3L so far 2/3 - this is a must today thanks to the suspected high of 30 freakin degrees.

To success!

UP .2 and starting the 100 days over

Weigh in wasn't quite so disappointing as I thought it would be. I was up .2 which technically means a loss because this was the week of water retention thanks to TOM and I usually gain up to 2lbs at this time. I'm quite happy with those results. Couldn't stay for the meeting because my Dad was in town and we had gardening centres and grocery shopping on the to do list. Walmart had the best price and decent selection for gardening. Went to superstore for the grocery shopping and I have never seen so many holes on the shelves. It looked like they weren't stocked...just another indication of the short labout market in Calgary.

My weekend fell apart OP wise but that's o.k that was then and this is now. Went for Mother's day brunch with my friend and her Mom. It was really nice, my mom passed away 4 years ago so it's not an occasion that I've celebrated for awhile

I lost count of how many days I actually did the 100 day challenge last time. Huge Kudos to Michelle for sticking with it and being a total inspiration.

I know I need to start over with a clean slate and break down the 100 days into smaller goals. I'm going to tackle 10 days at a time. So 10 sets of 10. Here's to August 22nd. I want to be at goal by then...added incentive WW Alberta and Sask raised their prices.

So here's my plan.

The Fuel:
Use the Wendy Plan for the 22pts target range. (I find shaking up the points works for me)
Sat:37, Sun:22, Mon:26, Tue:24, Wed:22, Thu:27, Fri:23

Minimum 2L of water per day

No eating 2hrs before bedtime

The Workouts

• Cardio: 3-4 days per week (Walking fast or exercise dvd) 45-60min each workout
• Strength/Pilates Training: 2 days per week each -doesn't have to happen on the same day (Core Secrets DVD or G-Force Book by Gunnar Peterson and Winsor Pilates)
• Stretch: 1 Yoga workout per week (I've never really embraced yoga but I have quite a few dvds so I have to like one of them...right?)

Posting the good, the bad and the ugly from my points tracker. Nothing like being accountable to the world wide internet.

Today's Goals: Day 1/10 part 1
So far 14/26pts
Toast and Chocolate PB -3
Milk - 2
Coffee - 2
Grapes - 1
ESBM Quiche - 3
Strawberries - 1
Yogurt - 2
Home made chef salad-7
Strawberries and light ice cream - 5
Total:26pts

Update:

Well my plan didn't go so well but I still stuck to my total points for the day. The lesson learned yesterday don't eat supper at 8pm when you had lunch at noon. I had a meeting after work that went longer then I expected which resulted in the late dinner and no exercise apart from walking home from the bus stop.
Planned workout: Nada

I still consider it a success because I stayed OP. Oh well baby steps...


To Success!

Weigh In Tomorrow

And I am afraid.

Missed last week due to Vancouver and eating wasn't exactly fantastic there but there was lots of walking. The food at yesterdays shindig was heavy on the meat side with virtually no veggies on the buffet. My plan for today was to be very good. However, left overs from last night were offered as lunch today. I did make sure that half my plate was fruit. My dinner plan will either be veggie soup or oatmeal and lots of water. It's also the week before TOM which usually results in a gain for me so I really do think the odds are stacked against me this week.

I know that if I have a gain this week, I can lose it next week. The challenge for me is to keep my brain focused on the goal at hand and not have a "oh well let's just eat anything since the news won't be good" moment.

I have access to a vehicle tomorrow so I'm heading to Superstore to stock up on healthy and nutritious options. I always find that Superstores produce always looks like it fell off the back of a truck.

I think I'm going to make the quiche from the ESBM cookbook this weekend. It's only 3pts per serving so that with a side salad could be an excellent option for lunch next week.

Not a huge amount of stuff to discuss today.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dangerous Musings

My day was a bit crazy today and didn't get an opportunity to take lunch until after 1pm. Normally I'm a no later than noon type of gal. I work in the downtown core and the thing is after 1pm most lunch places have sold out of most of their decent remotely healthy food and just have leftover stuff. I decided to go to McDonald's in search of the oriental chicken salad. When I get there there's a massive line. I get in the line and start to read the menu. I rehearse my order in my head...diet coke and the salad...over and over again. I get to the order take person and I hear myself say...McChicken Meal please....what the?

Well I ate it and enjoyed it and know I won't be doing it again for a very long time.

I found it interesting that a lot of my favourite bloggers wrote about being in the right headspace today. Apparently my headspace was not quite aligned.

However, my friend and I did go for a 6k walk last night and then I took a different bus home that resulted in another 20min walk to get home so decent activity.

Tonight there will be no mega activity but I will have to be on my feet. My company is having a client appreciation night, now the trick will be to be diligent when the food comes out. I'm really hoping that today will just be a shock my metabolism day.

Got a great reminder from Lme (Check out the link to Fat-Ish on the right). There's a great book called Smart Girls Do Dumbells (See picture above). There's loads of workouts and it all involves free weights. I own this book. I should seriously dust that off and use it as part of "THE PLAN". My goal is to reveal "THE PLAN" on Monday or maybe sometime this weekend.

I should go drink more water....Later

Not quite so sore today

I don't hurt that much today...what a relief! I did try this strange aromatherapy muscle soreness reliever stuff that I got in my info pack from the marathon. I think it said something like 034. It's a little towelette with essential oils. If that's what helped, I'm going to have to hunt some of this stuff down.

I have no groceries in my house and I'm not going until Saturday so I'm having to be creative in regards to food. Luckily I practically collect cereal so breakfast is good. Lumch is being bought this week so dinner is a bit of a scavenger hunt.

I am heading out for a short walk tonight to shake out some of the muscles. This morning was the first time I put on my snazzy runners since the race. I thought my feet might rebel but it was all good. Yes, thankfully my suitcase was returned to me last night or else I wouldn't have any runners.

Had my yearly physical yesterday and my Doctor was actually impressed with all my walking marathon plans so that was nice. I told her I want to hit my goal weight by December (well the WW goal before that), I'm not sure what my personal goal will be. The range for my height is extreme but I'm thinking maybe 125-130. I won't be ruled by the number but more how I feel.

So now I must get my plan together. Cardio is fine with all the walking and I got a bike last fall so I'm going to see if I remember how to ride. I seriously need to get into weight training to tone and better prepare for a marathon. My friend and I were discussing that as we waited to board the plane back to Calgary. She talked about a personal trainer, she prefers the army style ala Jillian Micheals from Biggest Loser. I'm not so sure about that simply due to the cost. I don't want to join a gym just to get a trainer. I'm very much a research everything myself sorta girl. I own loads of books and dvds on the subject. I need to sit down and come up with a plan. When I have a plan I have no problem following it, it's just narrowing down the options and coming up with a good reward plan and make my goals reasonable.

I think this blog will help me too. I will state my plan and report in. I've tried that on the weight watcher message boards but it doesn't quite work for me. I think I prefer the diary style of the blog and plus I'm not limited as to how much I want to say :) I want to have this plan in play by next week.

Looks like my friend might not be walking tonight, her foot is hurting and she thinks the source is her runners. If she cancels I'll head home and stop and pick up some fresh fruit and veg and then walk home which will still give me a light walk.

To the plan!

I'm back!

First a clarification, I did not run the half marathon I'm a walker ( I walk fast) so I walked most of it, jogged on the downhills a bit just to embrace gravity. I'm hurting today. It rained through the whole race so I don't think I've ever been that soaked. Final time 3:08:03, however I did beat runners and passed them on the up hill. My Net time was 3:03:08 not sure what the difference is since this was my first event. My sports bra chafed me, didn't discover that until in the shower...can I just say....OW!

I loved Vancouver, I will definitely be going back next year to beat my time. Not too much to report about the whole thing apart from Westjet lost my bag on the way home however it's been found and they'll be bringing it to me today. Not sure how that happened it's not like Vancouver to Calgary is excessively far nor complicated to fly to. Spent loads of money at Starbucks since they are EVERYWHERE! Had lunch at the Vancouver Art Gallery - I highly recommend it. Missed out on Sangria at Havana's which is supposed to be to die for. Had the best nachos at the Beatty St. Pub. The best beer at the Yaletown Brewing Co. Amazing cheesecake at Fet's . I pretty much ate and walked.

I think there airporter system is stupid. We get on a yellow airport that then drops you off to wait for a second airporter to take us to the airport. In Calgary you get on the airporter and it takes you to the airport and we're technically bigger land wise. Their transit system rocks though. I didn't have time to really explore so next time I'll go for longer.

Didn't track at all over the weekend (helps that I didn't pack my tracker) but when I got home and got on the scale it didn't show much damage. We walked everywhere on top of the half marathon. Took the aquabus to Granville Island and then walked back. I kept running in to people from Alberta. Joked about buying a rundown house and putting up tents since that would be easiest way to own a house there. Saw the tiniest apartment/condo I've ever seen 330 sq. feet. It was cute and a great excuse to buy things from Ikea. In a place like Vancouver, why stay indoors. I would be outside all the time.

Today I'm walking a bit like I'm 90. It's getting better I just look really silly getting up after sitting for awhile.

Big thanks to Michelle for the WW cookbook, it was in my mailbox on my return...it's awesome!

Thanks so much to all for their good luck wishes, that's so nice of you.

Back to normal blog information tomorrow

Off to Vancouver

I'm so excited I leave for my half marathon bright and early tomorow. Race is on Sunday and I'll be back to the blog on Tuesday.

My goal for the half maraton is under 3hrs.

I don't think I'll be weighing in this week. I have to miss my normal meeting and I'm in Vancouver for such a short time anyway I don't want to be sitting in a WW meeting. However this is not license to go crazy with the eating. I will still stay OP while away and faithfully report to my meeting next Saturday. The only really stupid part is the weather is supposed to be nicer here in Alberta. Ah doesn't matter a little rain never hurt anybody :)

I'm loving the sense of team on the blogs today, this is such a supportive outlet. We will all succeed at our goals I have complete faith.

So Skinny Vibes to all and I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Seems to be a trend

As I read all my favourite blogs this morning and noticed a trend among us...the desire to eat everything in sight yesterday. I went through this as well last night.

Went to the library, bank, Walmart and Safeway yesterday after work. Talked myself out of every fast food place I came across. Major victory for me.

Any food items purchased were healthy options for lunch for the next few days and supper last night. I bought low fat cream of mushroom soup for supper because I've been craving it since smelling a co-workers lunch of chicken and mushroom pot pie. I'm grateful I was only craving the mushroom part and not the pie.

Also bought some light baby bel cheese - I love this 1pt each, sundried tomatoe turkey breast and broccoli slaw. So I get home start making the soup but need to jazz it up a bit so I threw in dehydrated red onion, thai garlic chili sauce and Mrs Dash Southwestern spice. I could have stopped at the Mrs Dash because it was spicy! While that was heating up, I was munching on a baby bell and some turkey, then I went for the low fat cheddar and finally the soup. I was lucky that my food fest consisted of relatively healthy stuff. Then I did the ultimate thing to stop my feeding frenzy...I figured out the timer on my camera and took a front and back picture of myself in my undies. I should print it up and stick it on the fridge. I can't even imagine what my reaction would have been had I done that 30lbs ago.

I find Jessi's before and after pictures to be incredibly inspirational so I thought I should do this for myself.

On another note: I am so pleased with myself that I finally figured how to put things in my sidebar...this was a major challenge pour moi.

I orginally planned for 26pts today (based on the fact it's my last training night before the big race and there will be APs) . I haven't fully adopted the Wendi plan for my current range simply because I totally missed the fact that I moved into a new points range. So with everything I've planned I have 9pts for dinner. That's alot for dinner for me but I think I'm going to aim for closer to 6pts.

I tried eating a bit more protein today to offset the ravenous behaviour and so far so good. I had to remind myself to have a pm snack at 3pm instead of having a grumbling stomach at 2pm.

See ya tomorrow

Cake Football

My goal of 22pts didn't exactly happen last night. My friend and I went for our power walk and we were both dying of hunger as we did so ( I need to come up with a better afternoon snack). So we went for vietnamese and I had the noodle bowl with veggies. Only ate half of it. Not super bad in actuality. Went home had my fat free pudding so I was still OP if I included my APs which wasn't my original intention.

Today our HR lady comes to me to tell me that a fantastic lady who's been helping us out is having her birthday today. She asked me and my colleague if either us could grab a cake. I had the clearest schedule so I said I'll go. Got half a block outside and was hit with mega winds to the extent that you couldn't take a step forward. Thinking on my feet I went back into a building and took the Plus 15 (sequence of walkways that attach to buildings) to the main mall. Went to the Bay to their bakery. It's the Bay's birthday today so they were handing out cupcakes and popcorn. I resisted on the first pass but then had to spend 15 minutes looking at cakes and cookies as I waited for them to find a box. So on the trip back to the second floor I grabbed a cupcake, however took one tiny bite realized this isn't worth it and tossed it. Then I competed in cake football as I tried to carry this box without tipping it through throngs of people entering the Plus 15 level on their way to lunch. Cake and I arrived back in my office in one piece. I had to have earned a few APs on that mission.

I then went to eat my lunch and realized I've completely lost interest in my chickpea salad. I then head over to the local convenience store. They were out of my favourite sandwich and hot dogs. So I was denied. Grabbed a piece of banana bread instead. Maybe not the best choice but better than any they had to offer.

Have to hit the library and go to the bank tonight. Was originally supposed to meet the boy from Eharmony for drinks but realized this would have to be fast because I have a bizillion things to do before this weekend. He gratiously let me off the hook under the condition that I let him buy me dinner next Tuesday...well of course I said yes.

So today I vow to stick to my 22pts including the birthday cake. It might be oatmeal for supper.

Go forth and drink water

Should know better

Despite the original good objectives of last week I was up 1lb at WI. It's my own fault, went out to the pub Fionn McCool's Friday night were I partook in half a plate of Irish Nachos and 1/2 a plate of Sweet Potatoe Fries and a pint of Trad Ale. Broke every cardinal rule of the day before weigh in - salt and alcohol. Drank a litre of water when I got home and stayed up for an extra 3 hours. I think if I hadn't I'd probably be up a lot more.

On Saturday I spent a lovely couple of hours hanging out on the patio of the James Joyce Pub, the weather was gorgeous and so were the appetizers Irish Nachos again and Vietnamese Spring Rolls, the Cheeseburger (only ate 5 fries) and the Guiness

Sunday was spent thinking "Stupid, stupid, stupid". Did better points wise and just did house work.

Realized this morning that I never dropped my points when I went under 175lbs. So I must re-evaluate that. So Today the goal is 22pts, 3L of water and I have a 10k walk planned. I'm not eating any APs to help mitigate the damage of the weekend.

I'm still not sure if I should weigh in mega early on Thursday (7am) or in Vancouver on Friday at noon. I have such a weigh in ritual. I wear exactly the same thing, I don't eat before because I normally weigh in on Saturdays at 8:30am.
Ya see on Friday we're leaving for the airport at 6:30am so we'll definitely be eating breakfast but then one could just drink water have a cut off of like 10am and then WI. I'm such a geek that I try to keep all the variables the same. I'll probably just get up on Thursday, check my bathroom scale and decide then. The other thing I'm considering is I have coupons that can only be used in Alberta and Sask, so if I weigh in in Vancouver I have to fork over extra cash. My friend who's going as well is lifetime so she can weigh in wherever she wants and not have to pay for it. Yeah I know it's only $15 but I also have to pay the airport improvement fee that Vancouver Airport bings you with before you can get on your flight home.

Of course I have the third option of just skipping this week's weigh in and handing over two coupons at my regular meeting. No matter what I'll still sit in on the meeting in Vancouver.

Decisions, decisions. I'm lucky that this is the only crisis I'm facing at the moment.