Officially into 2008

I say officially because I actually had to write it down today.
Due to a massive headache I wound up missing the resolution run, not quite how I had planned to ring in 2008. I lied down at 3pm woke up at 7:30pm, ate a bit of supper and was back in bed by 10pm (at least I celebrated New Year at New York time and watched the ball drop.

I had a perfectly OP day yesterday and did laundry practically all day so that was my activity for the day - going up and down stairs.

Tonight I have a dvd workout planned (Jillian Micheal's Kick boxing) as I have to bake a cake for the birthday in the office on Friday. Tomorrow I'll make the ganache and peanut butter mousse filling and put the whole thing together. The remainder of this week will be dedicated to keeping food in control and doing at home workouts.

Next week after the first influx of New Year resolution people I'll had back to the gym for some work on the treadmill. The weather is super nice today (+6) but there's a wicked chinook wind that literally stops you in your tracks, we're still blessed in comparison to the eastern side of the country.

Have a great day everybody!

Resolutions or Goals?

I don't like to make New Year resolutions as they typically don't go any further than Jan 2. However I find myself waiting to turn the calendar before I put any concrete plans into action. There is something about the new year attitude.

I do have goals for next year and I will post them here so I can look back next year and see how far I got.

The Goals:

• To be at goal weight of 140 pounds so I can stop paying at Weight Watchers. I'm not sure if that's my personal goal but I'll find out when I get there.
• Run the HSBC Half Marathon in July 2008.
• To finish my Human Resources Managment Certificate.
• To write the first knowledge test for my CHIRP designation.

Alright so it's now official.

Here's to 2008 and I hope you all achieve what you want to achieve.

To quote Yoda : Do or do not, there is no try.

To quote Edna Mode (The Incredibles): I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now.

Play safe tonight my friends.

As the clocks ticks

Ah the cusp of a new year and the soon to be onslaught of diet propaganda and "New year, New you" being chanted on every channel both tv and radio, in the window of every bookstore and drugstore. Are you ready?

Things I've learned in the past year and things I know I must do:

Diets don't work for me, no magical program named after an exotic location that tells me what I can and can not eat will make me part with my money. Just watched an interesting doc called Diet Confidential - whoo eee do these people make a bizillion dollars off of us with just the marketing of these books.

It's simply calories in and calories out. Weight watchers does work for me providing I follow the program. What I need to work on is consistency and stop treating Weight watchers like my favourite charity by just forking over money every week, I need to work for that money and I mean food and exercise wise.

My head has to be in it or game off.

I must face forward, no looking back.

I must believe with my whole heart that I can do this.

2007 was a wonky year for me, I'm considering it served as the foundation of the amazing accomplishments I shall achieve in 2008.

Who's in?

Back in town

Hello All,
It was a beautiful drive back to Calgary today, the mountains were covered in snow and at 9am the moon was still in the sky as the sun rose.

I stepped on the scale when I got home and was surprised to see the number I saw, I was expecting much worse. I enjoyed my 2.5 days at Dad's. It was very calming and relaxing, watching the daily soap opera of the squirrel trying to shoo the birds away from the bird feeder, but the birds return when he has his back turned.

I always re-discover the CBC at his house as he has 4 channels. For those of you who aren't familiar with the CBC it's the good old Canadian Broadcasting Corporation typically known for it's news, documentaries and quality children's programming and of course......Hockey Night in Canada. Every Canadian can hum the theme to Hockey Night in Canada. However the CBC is breaking from tradition with shows like Little Mosque on the Prairie which is quite good. They have some really good dramas as well and it looks like there are some interesting shows coming like MVP-the secret lives of hockey wives.

It was a bit of sensory overload returning to my digital cable, the sad this even with 200 channels there can be nothing on.

Before I left I bought a cheap DVD player for my basement so I can do workouts downstairs. I plan to return to the gym next week....just in time for all the new year resolution people.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Happy Happy Holidays to All

Thus far my weekend has been weird food wise, after my confession of evil purchases on Saturday the rest of day consisted of cookies which strangely worked out point wise, nutritionally in the pits of course.

Yesterday I made coyote pancake mix, with 4g of fibre in this maybe I calculated 3 pancakes at 4 pts. Later on I saw National Treasure with Nick Cage, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't all that great either. It was fun. Then went out for lunch at an Irish pub where I had a chicken quesadilla and bread pudding. I payed for it later with a wicked bought of heart burn. Lesson learned.

At noon I'm off to the Greyhound station (den of humanity) to take the bus to Olds, Alberta with stops in Airdrie, Crossfield, Carstairs and Didsbury. This is true rural country as some of these stops are on the side of the road by the gas station. I'm so looking forward to 3 days of quiet with no city noises and no street lights. The stars are so visible it feels like you can touch them.


I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope all your wishes come true in the New Year.

Take care,
Sylvia

Down 1.6

Bringing me 0.6 away from the 170s, I'm happy with that it's been awhile since I've seen a solid over 1 pound loss. The back of mind is saying it could have been better had I not had dinner at Arby's on Thursday or consumed a beer, two spring rolls and two samosas at the game on top of the 4 pts of snacks I had before leaving for the game. I could have had dinner pre-game and not partaken in the free drinks and not gone over my weekly points, oh well c'est la vie. The game was good, even though we lost in overtime. The Flames played well overall.

I'm also impressed with my loss as this past week has been the dreaded week before TOM, which ususally has me inhaling anything I get my hands on.

After weigh in I popped over to Walmart and got 3 cute Christmas tins. I'll bake my colleagues some cookies to put in the tins and bring them to work on Christmas Eve. Walmart was civilized I hopped on to a self serve tin right away, popped into Safeway after that and no line ups there either. It pays to go early. I did take my eye of the ball in Safeway though, I didn't really need groceries as I'm leaving on Monday but I picked up Ben & Jerry's, almond tarts and egg nog. Got home had one tart, one glass of nog and some ice cream and realized what the hell am I doing so it all went into the garbage. Id rather be out the money I paid for it then start a backwards slide. So I have 6pts left for the day and will probably be making some 0pt soup.

After I get back from my Dad's it will be back to the gym or running outside. I've committed myself to taking part in the July half marathon again this summer and this time I'm going to run most if not all. Training needs to start soon so I can build up my distance. Depending on the condition of my Dad's 100ft dirt driveway, I'm going to do intervals while I'm there and drink copious amounts of water. The good thing about Dad's house is that he buys very little processed food.

I doubt I'll post tomorrow but I may be back on Monday for a quick Merry Christmas.

Don't let any treats wreck your moods this Christmas, it's Christmas afterall. Surround yourself with those you love and know that your blessed.

Peace!

Party like it's Friday

Whoo, I'm so happy to see Friday. I've had one crazy week and am feeling a bit more sorted now. I'm 99% sure I'll see a loss on Saturday...whoo hoo.


I do have a challenge this evening though, I've been offered a ticket to the Flames game tonight in the box seat section. This is a pretty cushy thing as you have you're own bar and food in each box. I have 9pts for supper that I'll save for the hockey game, I'll snack on 0pt veggies until then. I will consume lots of water and be up late so there shouldn't be too much damage. Now the Flames have just finished a 6 game winning streak and Dallas lost to Vancouver yesterday, it will be interesting I'm sure. Game doesn't start until 8, I hope I can stay awake. Coffee may be in order.

I need to come up with a gift for my 3 collegues, each of them have given me something and I'm thinking of baking them cookies and putting them into a Christmas tin. One gave me a computer mouse pad calender, the other a cute box that has note paper in it and the other a bag of Lindor chocolates. Maybe I'll but together a little gift basket or something. I'll pop into Walmart after weigh in tomorrow and figure it out.

I wish you all safe travels if you're off this weekend. I'll be back tomorrow to report my weigh in.

Have a great night!

The plan works

Well I have tracked for 5 days in a row now, on my way to 6. I have dipped into flex but still have 10 unused and I don't plan to use them over the next two days.

On Saturday when I stepped on my home scale I was 184 (182.2 at WI), yesterday I was 180, today was 181 thanks to some after 8pm snacking but I'm cool with that. I usually do better if I have some fluctuation with my daily points. I am treating this like my first week of weight watchers and the proof is in the numbers. When you follow the plan, the plan works. Right now I'm on track to be back in the 170s on Saturday.

I will definitly post Saturday morning with my official weigh in.

Did you all catch the season finale of Biggest Loser? Why does everyone look so tan in the end?
Wowsers did the final 4 look good.
I was quite happy with Bill winning, sure it would have been nice for Julie to win but I genuinly liked Bill. The people who got sent home earlier did really well too. I'm still not crazy about Amy, there's just something about her that bugs me. What about when Jerry took off his shirt, I think I actually said "put it back on" outloud.

I was thinking about what a Biggest Loser Canada would like that, instead of working out at the beach would they have to shovel snow?

Have a groovy day everybody!

Step by step

Alright I stayed totally on plan as I went to Walmart after work yesterday. The whole time I was in there I was chanting 7pts in my head to keep me focused on the task at hand and not distracted by the Christmas yummies. Got home, made dinner, watched the finale of Project Runway Canada, fell asleep in the last 5 min so missed who won. Had to call my friend in Vancouver, started to munch on things while I was on the phone....damn it.

(I pvr'd a later episode of PR Canada so I know who won and I'm super happy about it.)

I went over for daily points but I tracked it all and used flex points for my munching. I still consider that to be OP as I strongly believe in using the flex points. I just need to stop and think before mindless noshing. Tonight I have 10pts for supper so I think I'll have a pasta dinner.

I'm so looking forward to the Biggest Loser finale. I have no guesses as to who wins. I love the transformations and how different everyone looks.

I had wicked work stress today but I have no desire to bury my frustrations in food. I'm still focused kids and taking it day by day.

Hugs!

Things are looking up

Whew, the money has been reimbursed and I am so relieved that I can now pay some bills.

Once again everybody - be careful with your debit and credit cards this is the season where fraud increased.

On to other news.

Weigh in saw a disappointing 1.2 gain, totally self inflicted probably due to stress about the debit card thing. I realize that my lack of losses have been due to not having my head in the game. Well I'm happy to say I've tracked two days and so far so good for day 3 and stayed OP for each day. I've already seen a 1.5 pound loss on the scale. My goal is treat this week like Week 1 on program.

One of my friends was at the meeting and she suggested I rejoin, officially start over with WW-earn my 10% again. At first I couldn't understand why she was suggesting this to me. I then realized she knows I've been on WW for awhile , having a hard time lately and thinks I should be at goal by now, she even mentioned how long I've been a member of weight watchers. I told her I didn't want to do that as I think of that as failure. I want to get it right with the membership I have now. She didn't drop it and brought it up again later. I once again said I'm not interested. I know she means well but I didn't want advice on getting on program - ya know? If I was asking for it that would be one thing, but lately I've been focusing on getting my head back in the game with me, myself and I. I'm going to be the only consistent thing in getting healthy and staying healthy. While I love the love and support of all my weight loss buddies, I wasn't asking for advice. She asked me about workouts and I fully admit that I haven't been to the gym in awhile and she said something along the lines about how she had wondered about that with my quite frequently mentioning tv shows I've seen.

I didn't bother to mention that I PVR most of the shows and watch them on Sundays while I do laundry. I didn't want to get defensive as once again I know she meant well.

My issue is half assed following the program and seeing half assed results

The thing is I'm not concerned with how long I've been on this journey. I've needed the time to face my challenges and deal with them one by one. There are plenty of people in my meeting who have joined mulitple times and I'm proud of them for picking themselves up and re-committing.

She did succeed in firing up a competitive streak in me, so now it's game on. Even if we had never had that conversation it would still be game on. My plan is incorporate more core but not officially flip over, just encorporate more core foods and track them like flex. As I said above so far down 1.5. I'd like to see myself back into the 170's by Saturday.

Happy to see the 2008 changes with WW. The 3 month tracker is a smaller size - yippee, so is the slider. I despised the square version as I found it really awkward.

Here's to taking it one day at a time.

Hugs!

Whew...It's Friday

Update on debit issue: Now the bank has taken $700 bucks from me of my own money due to those bastards depositing an empty envelope that said they were depositing $700. Of course the part of the bank that took the $700 doesn't know that I signed all the papers to say it wasn't me. Lovely bank dude who I was talking to when I finally got access to my online banking has sent a request for the money to be refunded. So these scum of the earth people who did this have now cost me $1000. God knows how many other people they did this too. I'm so angry that they'll probably get away with this too. I so hope karma kicks them in the ass.

Original post:

I don't know what was up this week but it seemed so very long, I found myself falling asleep to Biggest Loser Australia on the couch by 8:30 last night. I figured I'd be tired after being wicked stressed due to the debit issue yesterday. I still can't access online banking but I stopped by a bank machine to check that my paycheque went in. Thankfully it did. I called the bank last night about not being able to check online and they said it can take 24 hrs to re-establish access so if I don't have access by 5pm call my branch, thankfully my branch is open until 6pm tonight.

I started off well with the tracking this week, I didn't track all of Wednesday and didn't track yesterday. I'm going to go back and fill those in.

I'm kind of excited about the meeting tomorrow, we get a sneak pick at the 2008 program. I haven't been able to buy a 3 month tracker for weeks so I'm betting a new version of that is coming out. I wonder if they go back to the not so square like version.

I was on the bus thinking that last year at this time I had completed a marathon and was in Honolulu hobbling my way to Starbucks. Craziness I tell you.

I'm not sure this Resolution run will happen, my run training has been non existent but I will compete in the half marathon in July in 2008.

My plan is finish all my Christmas shopping on Saturday and anything to do with Christmas so I can be focused on the gym next week and establish a routine before all the new year resolution people get swinging.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Damn you debit skimmers

Well my dear friends,
I had one very sleepless night last night as scary events unfolded. I headed to my local convenience store after work yesterday to pick up milk. I tried to pay with debit but the screen said "card use limited refer to branch". I'm thinking "oh oh". I go home try to log into my online banking...nada. Have a voicemail from the bank saying please go to a branch as soon as you can with two pieces of i.d.

Yup, I am a victim of debit fraud. Some bastard got my info deposited an empty envelope saying it contained $700 and took out $1000. I'm out $350. Luckily the Bank flagged it right away and shut everything down. I went into the bank at 10am this morning and I was the second person that day with this issue. They gave me a new bank card, I signed a few things and my money should be back in my account by early next week.

The odds of these people being caught, unlikely due to there ever increasing technology.

I have no clue where it happened, I have some thoughts but hopefully they'll let me know.


So please, please, please be careful this holiday season.

Here's a link to some handy info that you should know.

Here'a link to some handy info on avoiding being a victim.

Later

Blood sugar levels are tricky

I tracked for the 3rd day in a row...yippee. My day did go a bit wonky towards the end. After work I decided to attempt Christmas shopping. I have two friends that want books so I headed off list in hand to see what I could find. First I went to McNally Robinson (it's a gorgeous store) and I found nada. Couldn't find any of the books they wanted. I then tried Coles, they had the authors but not the books so I guess Amazon is the way to go.

I debated having dinner in the mall but knew that my choices were limited. So I decided to go home as I was super hungry. I was so hungry by the time I got home I had cereal for supper. Of course I didn't have my afternoon snack so my blood sugar levels were pretty low. I'm very happy that I avoided the temptations of the mall. Unfortunately I didn't stick to cereal when I got home there was some additional snacking but I tracked it all.

Tomorrow we have our Christmas potluck so I'm planning low breakfast (oat bran) and low supper (veggie soup) and be cautious at the potluck. I'm not going to avoid anything but I'll pick very small servings of things I know are high and fill up most my plate with low. I'm bringing the request I get every Christmas potluck...really decadent scalloped potatoes.

Must head to Walmart tonight to pick up some odds and ends for my Christmas list.

Well that's all for me today.

Later

Enough is enough

Well I've tracked my eating for two days, it hasn't necessarily been on plan but I wrote it all down. I was up 0.2 at weigh in, probably due to the long johns I was wearing and I had no interest in changing out of them and back into them. What truly hit me on Saturday was how I thought wishful thinking would make me see a loss on the scale. I've made very little progress in what is now adding up to months. I have no one to blame but myself as I haven't been paying attention as I should be.

I think I needed a break from the tracking and the always focusing on weight loss, the problem is a break can turn into a lifetime if you're not careful.

So once again I'm going back to week one. Starting with the tracking and encorporating more exercise. My priority is to get the tracking on target. There have been far too many slides into bad behaviours.

This morning I came in early to help a colleague with a project. She had mentioned that we could go for breakfast which would have been a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich (I forget the exact points but I think it clocks in at about 11). Instead I got up half an hour earlier and had oatmeal for breakfast. I'm far too easily swayed into unscheduled eating like buying lunch when I've brought.

I need to stay diligent.

What brought all this on? I don't even want to think about how many times I've started over, but you know what? It doesn't matter, the point is not giving up and picking yourself up. I don't care if I have to start over a bizillion times at least I'm not settling.


I want goal by June....enough said.

My beloved water bottle is trying to kill me?

This morning when I woke up to the news the first thing I heard was that Mountain Equipment Co-op (for my American friends that's the Canadian version of REI) has removed all Nalgene water bottles from their shelves. For the full scoop check out the article in The Globe and Mail. It will be interesting to hear the results of the official study into this.

I have a few of these bottles and use it every day but luckily I recently purchased a metal SIGG bottle (see picture) at Roots, so that's my preferred drinking container from now on. I'll need to find a second one for home as I hate carting back and forth.

On to other news:

Had a lovely dinner out celebrating my friend A's birthday last night. I've never been to this restaurant before and I thought it was alright. I was a bit disappointed as I paid a few dollars extra for the Village salad (cucumbers instead of lettuce in a greek salad). It came with 3 pieces of cucumber, 3 pieces of tomatoe and one olive and few strips of green pepper. It wasn't worth the extra $2 by any means.

The continuing adventure of online dating continues.

Firefighter guy dropped off the face of the earth before we either spoke or met in person.

Sales guy and I have moved on to regular email and are going to schedule a coffee.

Forest fighter guy is useless at conversation.

New guy today that we shall call European guy sent the first set of questions.

I find this whole endeavour kind of interesting from an analytical perspective. We shall see what happens.

On the weather front a Chinook is coming (warm air mass that can take us from -20 to +10), thank goodness for that.

Christmas shopping wise, ideas are starting to come to me but alot of these things need to be ordered so I hoping timelines work well.

I'm ready to be more focused WW plan wise, I've had enough of goofing around and half - assed following the plan. I'm going back to basics with a determined focus on working out.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Onslaught of reality

Interesting things are going on in tv land due to the writer's strike. A new Biggest Loser will debut in January, so that we will only be a few weeks without. Those of us in Canada also have the first season of Biggest Loser Australia running on slice.

While Project Runway Canada is about to wrap up, we'll finally get to see the new season of Project Runway (Heidi version). I'm trying to avoid mention of the recaps so I can watch it on slice without knowing anything in advance. I'm looking forward to compairing American and Canadian designers.

In regards to Biggest Loser, I'm not really rooting for anyone. I didn't have a favourite this whole season besides the trainers.

Big Brother will be launching in January and it normally runs in the summer. Plus there will be a new season of Survivor.

Lucky for me I am a reality tv buff.

I was a bit disappointed that Heather got knocked off ANTW, I really don't have a favourite for this show. I heard somewhere that Bianca was a fan favourite, I just can't root for her. I find her attitude irritating. I don't find Jena all that model like. Saleisha and Chantal just seem so bland to me. Perhaps tonight will cause me to pick a favourite.

I totally adore Gossip Girl, it's like a sped up soap opera with ridiculously expensive clothes.

On the weight loss front I've been lousy at tracking again this weekend, I guess I needed a break. Eating has been very in control as I keep an eye on the scale. With it being super cold my desire to go the gym has disappeared as when you leave it's even colder. Of course I could be working out at home too. I think sub-consciously I'm waiting for January and a new calendar, which is stupid I know. I hope they have new trackers in at the meeting on Saturday, that can work in the meantime as a clean slate.

I hope all those besieged by winter are warm and safe.

Later

Winter Survival

Oy vey it's cold out there -24 with windchill and that's celsius people.
The survival guide to winter has kicked in. I'm wearing the toque with ear flaps (From Roots with a smart Canadian flag in the middle of my forehead with matching mitts). The Columbia 3 in 1 jacket is with me today and a scarf. When it's that cold outside I don't care what I look like. I have to exchange a table cloth at Walmart and I'm waiting till Thursday for a balmy -12.

The office 10lb challenge has morphed into a fitness challenge running until March 15. All 6 participants were pretty happy with that especially after the cookie exchange. I wanted to take the focus off of pounds on to healthy behaviour so we shall see how that goes.

I went to weigh in on Saturday with long johns under my sweat pants, changed out of the long johns stood on the scale, changed back into the long johns when I was done. Was down 0.4, which was a surprise.

Had my company Christmas party on Saturday night, it was fun but today I saw the pictures. Isn't it weird how we imagine we look one way and then you see you're picture. There was a lot of that today among the women. Unhappiness with their body image, yet we forget what we've come through to get here. One of my colleagues was in the blues all day because of this and then she looked herself in the mirror and said remember at size 22 she would have killed to be a 10, she's a 10 now. It's like the fat girl never quite leaves your head.

Next year, I'll be getting my 5 year award at the Christmas party and I realized in that moment that I want to be at goal and go up there in a killer dress.

On Sunday I saw Enchanted, it was adorable and I love Disney so to see this take on the classic princess tale was really good. My friend thought it was quite cheesy, but I thought that's the point you have to take it like a fairy tale.

On the eharmony front, Firefighter dude has not been in contact for a few days, which is fine I'm very "C'est la vie" about this. What happens, happens. In the meantime a few other guys have initiated conversation so the wheel keeps moving.

OMG did you see Desperate Housewives yesterday? Who do you think doesn't survive?

Later!

Onwards

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I was one busy baker, got my cookie exchange cookies done, the birthday cheesecake is done and tonight I'll frost the last cake for cake decorating class for Wednesday. Whew, with all this baking done maybe I can work out...that was a sarcasm.

I picked up an advent pyramid at the German deli, it's not quite like the picture but it gives you the general idea, mine has a choir that around the tree. I need to have my house in order Christmas wise by this weekend for the first advent. Also my Christmas party is this Saturday so I need to figure out what the heck I'm wearing.

I was out and about with a friend on Saturday and we drove past my gym, I pointed it out as the gym I walk by. Last week was not a good week for me between the snackapalooza of TOM and the having a million things to do. I'm looking forward to a simpler time and being able to focus on my well being. I did track on Saturday and Sunday but with being out all day Saturday and wicked busy on Sunday workouts didn't happen. I did make those mini quiche type things that I saw on someone's blog (I'm sorry I forget who) there made in a muffin pan and are 1pt each or 2 for 3pt. I'm making a conscious effort to have more protein in the morning because I find that keeps me energized longer. I had that for breakfast this morning and I wasn't crazy hungry by 11:30am.

Tonight I'm starting my sticker/calendar challenge. My goal is to have a sticker for activity for every day between now and Christmas (and beyond but trying to make measurable goals).

Activity includes cardio, strength and stretching. I seriously need to get back to yoga, I can feel the differance of not having done it regularly.

On the eharmony front I'm now conversing with 3 guys. Two in "open communication", one is firefighter and one is an It guy. I'll keep you posted.

We have a balmy -23 fahrenheit (with windchill today) so all activiy is inside today. I'm going to do a dvd tonight and I'm thinking either the biggest loser workout or hip hop. I shall report back tomorrow.

Have a groovy Monday!

Random musings and a quiz

Happy belated Thanksgiving to my American blog friends!

Why do I have such issues with tracking lately. I start out great and then by today there are empty pages in my tracker. My dedication is on vacation. It's not like I'm crazy eating but I know to be truly succesful I need to track. I was sitting at home last night having a little self pep talk and came to the realization that if for some reason I can't get to the gym that doesn't mean I can't work out. There was a time a long, long, long time ago that I'd get home and go straight to the basement, work out and then have dinner. I really have no excuses. The other thing that's really important to remember is that one doesn't need to wait to get back on the wagon, it can happen right now.

I was amazed by Kae's results on The Biggest Loser, that girl lost 88lbs and still has a month before the final episode. Dedication pays off.

Caught the Australian Biggest Loser yesterday it was the second episode and they just got put into teams and had their first workouts and challenges but no weigh in. I thought that was weird.

I brought Lesson 2 cake to work yesterday and it was gone in an hour, apparently I work with piranhas.

Neighbour at the bus stop seemed disppointed that I wasn't carting a cake to work today, yesterday every person who got on the bus was eyeing that cake.

I'm starting to want to decorate for Christmas, which is pretty early for me. I have this burning desire to make it more traditional German inspired than ever before...what's up with that?

I need to do a lot of baking this weekend and all of it is going somewhere else.

Here's a tag I found on other blogs and thought I'd take part:

I give you money and send you into the grocery store to pick up 5 items. You can only pick one thing from the following departments.. what is it?

1. Produce: Tomatoes
2. Bakery: Dutch crunch bread
3. Meat: Ground beef
4. Frozen: Dr. Oetker Mama Mia pizza
5. Dairy: Milk

Let's say we're heading out for a weekend getaway. You're only allowed to bring 3 articles of clothing with you. So, what's in your bag?

1. Jeans
2. Yoga t-shirt
3. My Roots Canada hoodie

If I was to listen in on your conversations throughout the day, what 5 phrases or words would I be most likely to hear?
1. O.K
2. Really
3. What
4. Uh huh
5. Whatever

So, what 3 things do you find yourself doing every single day, and if you didn't get to do, you probably wouldn't be in the best mood?
1. listen to music
2. have a period of time where I don't have to talk to anyone
3. sleep

We're talking a 3 hour block with nobody around. What 5 activities might we find you doing?
1. Reading
2. Catching up with what's on the DVR
3. Walking
4. Cooking
5. Eating

We are going to the zoo. But, it looks like it could start storming, so it'll have to be a quick visit. What 3 exhibits do we have to get to?
1. Tigers
2. Africa exhibit
3. Gorillas

You just scored tickets to the taping of any show that comes on t.v. of your choice. You can pick between 4, so what are you deciding between?
1. Rachel Ray (just for the snack of the day and the spinning seats)
2. Jimmy Kimmel
3. The Biggest Loser finale episode
4. This hour has 22 minutes


You're hungry for ice cream. I'll give you a triple dipper ice cream cone. What 3 flavors can I pile on for ya?
1. Amaretto
2. Vanilla
3. Chocolate

Somebody stole your purse/wallet…in order to get it back, you have to name 5 things you know are inside to claim it. So, what's in there?

1. Motorola razor cell phone
2. German travel pack of Kleenex (They're 4 ply)
3. WW tracker/calculator
4. MP3 player
5. Rocky Mountain soap factory coconut lip balm

You are at a job fair, and asked what areas you are interested in pursuing a career in. Let's pretend you have every talent and ability to be whatever you wanted, so what 4 careers would be fun for you?
1. Psychic
2. Choreographer
3. Vet
4. The person who creates the names for lipsticks

If you could go back and talk to the old you, when you were in high school, and inform yourself of 4 things, what would you say?
1. Don't worry about what other people think
2. You're cooler than you think
3. Studying is not a bad skill to have
4. You turned out good

You try it.

The Big Debate

After two weeks of zero tracking, half hearted exercise and generally not being concerned with food intake I was at a cross roads on Saturday morning. I knew I'd see a gain and I debated not going. Maybe just take a week and get my act together and go next week. I had this debate with myself and then realized...just go. I wasn't hiding anything from anyone by not going. I needed to face up to my behaviour and suck it up. So yeah I saw a gain and that's o.k. I know what I need to do and it will be done. While the rest of Saturday didn't turn out so great, I was dead on OP on Sunday and I'm on my way today.

I think it's important to own up to the food demons. At a recent meeting we talked about closet eating. This has never been a issue for me as I live alone but it was an interesting discussion. We decided there's no such thing as bad food. If you call it bad then you feel guilty or that you've done something wrong. It's not a disaster if you have a sundae, even better if you planned for it. One person brought up an interesting story. Her mom has been on weight watchers since she can remember and when once asked if she was on weight watchers she said no, I'm a weight watcher. This is not a diet it's learning to take care of yourself for the rest of your life as any effort to incorporate a healthy lifestyle is.

I feel no guilt over my gain, it's the result of my actions. To see a different result I need to change my actions.

Until tomorrow my friends

Obsessions of the week

I'm one day and a few hours away from finding out if I get this baby off of ebay. Yes it's a 101 piece cake decorating kit (on the right). I'm obsessed with colouring icing and pastry bag tips. Everyone I know will wind up with a cake I swear. Of course I only want it if I can get my price.

My other obsession next picture on the left. My Harvey's red messenger bag shipped today and will be in my hot little hands by Wednesday. Dare I mention I also want a large tote in SUV blue and a mini messenger in black and maybe a clutch in pink. All of a sudden I'm purse obsessed. I think it's because there's no size issues with a purse. There is a reason for any size any occasion. Of course I'm not going to run out and buy all those bags but so far any reward plan I've instigated for weight loss hasn't worked. It's like the prize wasn't all that great. I realize the overall prize is health and fitness but sometimes when the will is not strong I need something more material.

I pulled out Jillian Michael's book last night as I realized I need to start with the basics, primarily motivation, dedication and endurance. I think part of my resistance to being sorted the last few weeks is dealing with the changing season. I find my energy depletes when I face going to the gym in the dark. I can get over it as I do every winter. It's just that first few weeks of adjusting. I was talking to my friend H the other day and we both noticed the desire to eat more has kicked in. I think that's a response to winter as well. Like a hibernation phase. Now we've been lucky, we have yet to see true snow and the coldest it's been is -7 celsius, it can get a whole lot worse than that my friends.

So the plan this weekend (how many times have I said that) is to come up with a plan for workouts.

Have a great weekend everybody

Oy vey to icing

So the cake for tonight's lesson took me until 10pm to finish.

I got home and baked the cake (yeah to working oven) and then waited it for it cool. In the meantime I made the buttercream icing, I have a kitchen aid mixer, I think it's just the standard one but it gave that thing a workout. If you don't know mixers, Kitchen Aid is the bees knees. I don't think it helped that I dumped all the ingredients in at once. (I was in a hurry). For the rest of the evening I changed the consistency depending on what I needed it for, changed the colour depending on what I needed it for. Oy vey I was wearing icing. At one point I thought I can make it to hip hop and then I tried to fold a parchment pastry bag. I don't like them, I think I'll pick up a box of the plastic bag one tonight.

After all that I just laid down on the couch and watched Biggest Loser, I was falling asleep for the last half hour so I missed the end but I heard Amy got booted. I have to say I'm kind of happy about that. I just thought she had the worst attitude, it could have been the editing.

It looks like the next two Ugly Betty's will be new, did anyone else think that last weeks episode seemed like a season finale.

What else is new...oh I have a wee crush on the new guy at work. My crazy office mates are totally into it. He's going over his benefits with our office admin (who sets across the hall from me) and I hear her saying "Well as a single man". I didn't dare look at her until he left and low and behold she's totally grinning at me and starting to laugh. Potatoe chips almost came out of her nose. We discoverd he's 6 yrs younger than I am. I tell you the people I work with need lives. I doubt anything will come of it but it's fun to just leave it as a work crush.

O.k I'm off to cake decorating, I'll report back tomorrow.

Totally distracted

How does one go from generally not having all that much to do into not having a moment to spare? This will be a fast and furious post my friends.

Alright this is what I've been up to. Met up with my friend S and her adorable son B on the weekend. That little boy will so break hearts one day. If she's reading this we should do that again soon.

Was down 0.8 at weigh in, and a bit shocked since I hadn't tracked since Monday.

The bottom element of my oven is hopefully being repaired by the super amazing Dad today. Thus far I have received no call to say it doesn't work. So that means the minute I get home I have to bake a cake and make a whack of icing for Wednesday cake decorating lesson#2. Which means I'll probably miss hip hop. If I'm knee deep

I can't remember the last time I went to the gym, that will be fixed shortly.

I haven't touched my textbook and have an assignment due this weekend, yet the last assignment still doesn't have a grade posted.

Whoo hoo I got 100% on that assignment and that's worth 25% of the mark!!!! I'm gunnin' for an A baby!

I'm obsessed with ebay. I don't bid on very much (4 items in 4 years) but dang it when I bid on something I want to win. So take that dude who's bidding against me, but you don't realize that I put in a maximum bid and won't go above so you just cost yourself extra moolah by trying to beat me...whahahahahaha.

My two co-workers have decided they need to be my stylist so we're planning a shopping adventure shortly. Little do they know that I know how distracted they get in clothing stores.

Alright wish me a working oven and I promise to go back to posting more often.

Damn that's hot!

That was the opening line of the song we hip hopped to last night. It's a Keshia Cole/Missy Elliott tune that's been in my head all day. It was a sweatin' workout last night I tell ya. It looks like my buddies will not be continuing on into the second term either. I did get my Hip Hop Abs 2 and Dance party dvds today so that made we really happy.

So far this week my tracking has been awful, just awful. I'm not sure why, it's like I'm so distracted with everything else in my life. The eating hasn't been terrible thank goodness.

It's the first cake decorating lesson tonight, I'm so excited. I'll report in later.

Ciao

Down 1.4

Whew! Finally a downward spin, which probably means my gain from the week before was completely water related. Friday was the last day for one our salespeople so I baked a bailey's cheesecake and another co-worker brought a bottle of bailey's. At 2pm we were eating cheesecake (small pieces) and drinking bailey's. Of course after that I was drinking water like it was going out of style. I picked up YOU-Younger at the bookstore, I caught the last half of Oprah and I was intrigued. I have the other You books and while they are kind of cartoony there's definitely good tid bits of information. I'll be 36 on my next birthday which I have to admit is freaking me out a little. It's strange, hitting 30 and 35 didn't phase me. The third book is aimed at the 40+ crowd but I'm thinking why wait.

I stepped on the scale this morning and I was down a pound from yesterday. I did do something different yesterday, I just ate when I was hungry. I didn't follow a traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner. I just ate when I felt hungry. My water intake was awful yesterday but since it's snowing and windy out there right now I'll probably stay inside all day and clean house, do homework and such which is a great opportunity to drink water.

I'm also quite proud of myself that I'm not stress eating, I've been stressed at work for the last week and I haven't resulted to calming myself with food. That's new for me, I've consciously decided that I am in control.

Because I'm at home all day today I will be paying close attention to my motivations for grabbing something to eat especially because I have access to a fridge all day.

I hope everyone has great remainder of their weekend.

Happy Belated Halloween

Seriously, where does the time go. The last time I was here was Monday, it's now Thursday and it's been a blur I tell ya.

On tuesday Hip Hop was a fun, only 6 people were there as opposed to almost 12. We continued the routine for "The way I Are". This included a knee move that the healing bruise on my knee didn't appreciate very much. I also discovered how icy a part of the sidewalk on the way there is, I'll have to keep a look out for that. On the running front I've had tremendous scheduling issues. Monday I was exhausted, Tuesday hip hop, Wednesday halloweeners, Tonight I have to bake a cheesecake and Friday going out to dinner.

My tracking has been awful lately, this morning I opened my tracker and realized I hadn't tracked since Monday. I sat there trying to remember what the heck I had eaten. I suppose the week of Halloween isn't the ideal week to declare starting over.

I got 32 trick and treaters last night, which I think is a couple more than last year but it was warmer this year.

Best costume of the night - A kid dressed up as a Bescherelle, if you've studied french in Canada you'll know what that is. It's the bible of french verbs and according to the kid's friend I was the only person on their route that knew what that was. I knew those 12 years of french would come in handy.

Cutest of the night - Probably 3 yrs old, dressed like a dragon.

Absolutely no one came after 8:30pm. I was snacking on the bowl - I know-bad, bad, bad and more bad. However I was waiting for the kids I was watching TLC and they had show called something like "They eat 33000 calories a day". I'm not kidding on the calorie part. They were interviewing a man who was removed from his house (by taking down a wall and using a forklift) to the hospital when he weighed 600lbs. At the interview he weighed 900lbs. He was laying down wearing only underwear. I can tell you I spit out that candy bar pretty quickly.

I'm going to do some sort of dvd workout tonight while I bake the cheesecake.

Alright, well I hope everyone is well and have a groovy day.

The thought behind raking leaves

I finally raked my front lawn on the weekend, I have a fairly big lot due to living in an old neighbourhood so raking is divided and quite frankly front lawn is priority over back. I'm one of those weird people that approach these tasks with a plan. I rake the leaves towards sidewalks so it's easier to pick up. I had great halloween leaf bags, if I get home when it's still light out I'll snap a picture for y'all. I was grooving to my mp3 as I raked and two neighbours complimented my leaf bags. Of course I had to stop, take out an ear phone and say "Sorry?". One hour and 45min of raking, boy did I feel it this morning.

Before I did that I walked to the mall and back with my halloween costume. I'm going to be the dental hygenist from hell. The idea came to me as I was at the dentist on Saturday and my super funny dental hygenist was saying something along the lines of why do people hate us. That gave me the idea. She gave me some masks, gloves and an old x-ray of hers. I bought scrubs at Walmart and a couple travel sized toothpaste and such that I'm going to velco to myself. Our receptionist thinks she has glittery devil horns and I will weild floss and a toothbrush at my colleagues.

So my weightloss meltdown of yesterday does seem TOM related. We had our two week weigh in for the office challenge and I was exactly the same as the start. I do have a complicated week running wise. Can't tonight, Tuesday is hip hop, Wednesday halloween. I'm going to switch in some dvd exercises in as they can take place even it's dark or cold out. Halloween is just a no go as I'm handing out candy and the little guys pretty much start at 5:30pm.

I discovered that saving shows on the dvr and watching them on the weekend is an awesome plan as it doesn't matter how many channels you have there's nothing on the tube on the weekend. Therefore having loads of time to workout.

Signing up for cake decorating tonight, I'm so excited.

Have a groovy day everybody!

Starting from the beginning...again

I knew I would see a gain at WI, I could just feel it. It could because of TOM and retaining water or it could just be me realizing that I haven't been giving my A game.
So when I walked up to the scale I asked my meeting leader for a new weight tracker. I had two spots left in the old one but I wanted an official fresh start. I also bought a new 3mth tracker and I'm going back to basics.

I've had enough of my lethargic attitude to getting serious about getting healthy. I want to be safely at goal by my birthday June 3. I know I could do it sooner but I mean at goal and finished maintenance.

I'm not beating myself over what may seem like failure. Failure is not falling down and getting up, failure is falling down and staying down.

I am up to good things like starting to run and embracing healthy cooking. I know I have the support of all of you who are trying do this as well. I have no doubt we can do this. The lessons need to be learned and it doesn't matter how long it takes but more that it sticks with you and you make a lifestyle change not follow a diet.

Here is to the first step of a journey and there's no looking back.

Have a fantastic day my friends and let's look forward to our victories this week.

So tired....

Went to the seminar last night, it started at 6pm and there were 4 speakers so it didn't end until around 10pm. When we got out we realized that the rain/snow had started and it was coming down fast and furious. I had a cotton jacket on, luckily I had my mitts. The game plan was to get a cab but considering it was also a hockey home game night and the first real snow there wasn't a cab to be found. The weather was truly ugly, not super cold but visibility was so so and roads were starting to get slick. One company said 20min - no cab. Next company said 1hr. I saw cab after cab go by but none turned into where I was. Then grabbed the public transit train downtown figuring I might be able to flag one down by a hotel or the restaurant strip. I was covered in snow as I attempted to flag one down but some jerk hopped into it. Luckily a bus that I can take came by so I grabbed that and walked the 3 blocks home. I got home at 11:30pm. Today I'm zonked with a late hip hop night on Tuesday and even later night last night. Positive thing I didn't have to shell out any moolah for a cab, boy was I happy to see my house.

This morning there was just a bit of snow on the lawns and parked cars, nothing on sidewalk. Right now it's a balmy 4C celsius so anything remaining will melt.

I think I'll be going to bed early tonight. I should run tonight and the weather looks way nicer, I think I will. I'll go straight home, change into workout clothes and head out for 30min...unless I find myself falling asleep on the bus home. I can use a Friday run as my back up plan.

Have a groovy day everybody!

2nd Run and Hip Hop Conundrum

When I got home from work I immediately put on my running gear and headed out the door. Unfortunately how I planned my route resulted in my first minute of running to be uphill after that I picked more flat terrain. The goal was to do the 1 minute of running 6 times. 1st and 2nd time went o.k, 3rd time didn't make a minute, 4th time almost made a minute. The 5th and 6th time I made the minute and I added a 7th to make up the other two. It was hard, I just kept telling myself, you can do this and push through it. People tell me it gets easier, I hope their right.

On the hip hop front I found out you can now register for term 2 but I have an issue. The first term cost $170, the second longer term costs $280. That's $450 for 1 hr of cardio once a week. I think I'll retire when this term is over. I paid less than $200 for a one year gym membership and add in Christmas looming and I just can't justify it. I'll just continue on with my Hip Hop abs dvd when I feel the need to get my groove on. I also think that just plain dancing in your living room for an hour is an awesome workout.

Tonight I have a seminar after work so today will be a rest day. Tomorrow my schedule is up in the air. I'm going to start the Wilton cake decorating level one on Nov.7th and two of my co-workers are going to do it too. So the plan is to register for that. Someone we used to work with is getting married in September and has asked my co-baker in the office to make the cake and I volunteered to assist her. So now we're going to perfect our skills and develop our skills with fondant. Of course none of us want to keep our creations so the office will benefit. Maybe we should do a bake sale on those days.

Thursday should technically be my the 3rd running night of the week, the other factor is we're expecting some bad weather and the four letter word "snow" has been mentioned. I've trained in the worst of winter and that doesn't worry me, it's if my neighbours shovel their sidewalks. I'm holding Friday as my sub running day.

I've been recording shows like crazy this week on the dvr. I don't know what I did without this thing. Not having to worry about tape length or the network moving the show is total bliss. I did record Biggest Loser but caught the last half hour after hip hop. I totally can't believe Neil tossed the weigh in to secure Blue team members. I so think that's not the way to play this game. I was impressed with how Jez held his head high and left with integrity. It will be interesting to see what happens next week.

Have a great day!

Full moon on Thursday

The vibe is weird today, everyone I've talked to is feeling out of sorts then I realized full moon on Thursday. I always find personalities get a little funky with the new moon coming and the stranger than usual people do turn up. We'll see how the week progresses.

Second run scheduled for tonight. I'm following the training recommended for the 5K walk/run program in Running for Mortals. So tonight will be walk 3min and run 1min for 24 minutes. You do that for about 3 weeks and then start increasing time. I want to do this so I stick with it. On my own I can start a project, go full speed ahead and then give up. So slow and steady will be my mantra to build up my running prowess for December 31st.

On another note, did any of you catch Viva Laughlin? I saw a bit of the first episode watched about 20min and thought it was stupid. Well it's been cancelled after 2 episodes to be replaced by Amazing Race on Nov. 5th. Yippee...I love Amazing Race.

Also for all you Canadians out there who like Biggest Loser, Slice will be airing Biggest Loser Australia starting Nov. 15th. Rumour has Bob and Gillian are the trainers.

Alright that's about all I've got to say today...I shall report on hip hop tomorrow and how the floor work went....oy vey.

Down 0.8

Finally heading in the right direction and I was a bit surprised as last week was not filled with good behaviour, it wasn't as bad as the week before but there's definitely room for improvement.

I also dusted off my running shoes on Sunday and headed out for my first learn to run attempt in a long time. I did a 5 min walk warm up and then ran 1 min and walked 5min for 47min around my 5.08K neighbourhood route. At first I thought I was going to keel over but by then end I recovered quickly. I kept an eye on my Garmin to keep my times dead on. On Tuesday I might attempt 1 min run/ 3 min walk but for a shorter time frame in accordance with "Running for Mortals" instead of 5/1 ratio of Sunday. I was just pleased I got my butt off the coach and out the door. While the weather remains stable I will be running outside and put off the gym until I need the treadmill. Tonight will be yoga and maybe hip hop abs. Tuesday will be interesting as I plan to walk/run for about 30min and then I have hip hop later that night, I'm really hoping to have really good sleep Tuesday night. Wednesday I have a seminar right after work. Thursday I'll run again. On Friday I'll do some other type of exercise. I will report back here with updates so I have some accountability.

On Saturday I found a winter coat, I'll try to post a picture tonight. I got my painted potter back too so I'll try to post that as well. My weekend was pretty much dedicated to getting back on track with school and I got 92% on the assignment that drove me bonkers so I'm quite pleased with that.

Alright off to read all your blogs...have a groovy day!

Act like a duck

Pottery painting was a load of fun yesterday. Only 5 of us wound up going but a good time was had by all. I painted a square rice bowl with stripes of very light pink, purple, orange and blue. I painted the inside green and then speckeled the outside with yellow. I then used puffy paint to draw stick figures doing yoga poses. I will post a picture when I get back which should be early next week.

I wound up stopping a DQ for dinner and controlled myself but still had a hamburger (no fries just a simple hamburger) and surprise I was down .5 this morning. The body is a very weird thing. I'm seriously looking forward to starting a new week tomorrow and I will be buying a new 3mth tracker to celebrate that. I'm wiping the slate clean and focussing forward...act like a duck and just let it roll off.

I have a serious amount of school work to do on the weekend. I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow and I'll also be hunting down a proper dressy winter coat. It was a bit chilly this morning and I realized fleece will only get me so far.

I got my Cuisnart Griddler today from the airmiles I redeemed, I'm trying to think of what I can make with it tonight...

I have no idea what I'll see on the scale tomorrow, but I do know this - working out will be a priority next week as will be tracking...everything. This week was better but still not what I want to see.

I signed up for the Resolution Run on Dec. 31st, it's 8K and I want to run it. So that's about 11 weeks to get in gear. I'm quite pleased with myself that I just signed up and ran with it. Now I'm really hoping it won't be stupid cold.

Random thoughts today...next week food plans I need me some accountability. This weekend, hopefully, talking blog. Send me positive techology vibes.

Have a groovy Friday!

B-Girl...apparently

As hip hop ended last night our very fly instructor said we were now all B-Girls and Bboys (well one boy, normally there's three in a field of all woman).

We had a solid 60min of dancing and we never stopped moving, which now has me thinking I should keep going with semester 2. It was fun, I got seriously lost a couple of times but for the most part everyone got it. Next week we hit the floor, when he said that my mouth dropped open in a "Excuse me" kind of way. Yup, he told us not wear watches and to wear baggy clothes. Let the freak out begin. What that truly encourages me to do is be a workout fiend from now on. I look at myself in that mirror and am not crazy about what I see. I see the slacking off I've been doing...and boyo that stops now.

I read on someone's blog today (I'm sorry I can't remember who as I flew through them this morning) about how we know what happens when we follow healthy guidelines and we see the success. The question is why do we slide? Is it because we're tired of keeping watch, is it because it feeds some emotion? I suppose the mystery will never be solved but rather we should focus on what we're doing right and make that consistent.

Have a groovy day everybody!

7203 - That's crazy

This blog has been looked at 7203 times, that blows me away. It always makes you wonder about who stops by. Do they think you're an idiot, that you're insightful, that you're boring, that you're witty or a bit of all mixed together.

I'm a total lurker myself, not that I intentionally lurk it's just sometimes I don't have anything to say or someone else has summed it up beautifully. I usually read all my blogs via bloglines so sometimes it's just not having the time to go to the blog and comment. I do read your blogs every day and feel your pain when things aren't going well and celebrate your victories when things go right.

I still have the talking blog in the back of my head, I had a technology issue that I'm still trying to figure out. On that note, isn't scheduling hard? Like trying to schedule an hour to hit the gym or workout when it feels like a bazillion things are on your plate. You'd probably make yourself a priority if you made the effort but it's still hard. Speaking of...I forgot I had to bake a cake tonight so no gym as I won't have time before hip hop.

I don't think I'll continue with hip hop once this class is finished. While it is fun, it's not a consistent workout and the late hours are totally killing me. By the time 9pm rolls around I want to be in pjs but instead I'm trucking to class. I'm not totally decided on that as I don't know the times for next semester but it's a thought.

Alright not a ton to talk about today but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Ciao

Up 2.2 - Victim of Holliweek

Alas I can't say I was surprised at WI, I certainly wasn't alone. I heard many conversations about gains at the meeting on Saturday.

I know what happened, I tracked but after the fact and not consulting where I was in my day's points. I was bad and then fessed up. However that's in the past and I'm not going to dwell on it. This is a new week and a new focus and I'll take it day by day.

I added up all my points for the week including flex and diviyed them up for the week. I knew Saturday and Sunday would be higher but I'm still going to finish within my points by the end of the week damn it. I will have a loss on Saturday - enough said.

Tonight I must go vote and tried to coordinate with the gym but it's a logistical nightmare. Tada...today my amazon order came and I had ordered Jillian Michael's workout dvds and the newest Biggest Loser book - Fitness Programs. I have no excuse not to do a workout at home tonight. It will also be 20 degrees today so it's a good day to head out for a walk run but I really want to try the dvds. We'll see what wins when I get home.

I'm also going to the gym on Tuesday which is Hip Hop night. I can't count on Hip Hop being a good workout as the intensity of what we do always changes and there's enough hours in between to recover from a gym workout and head to hip hop.

The 10lb challenge started at work today and all 6 of us stepped on the scale and took measurements. I will bring the scale back on the 15th and 30th of each month until Dec. 14th. People can check their progress if they want or wait until the end.

One of our group didn't want anyone to know her starting weight. I feel for her, I wanted to keep this little project very positive and very inspiring so she wrote it down on a piece of paper for now. She did take part in the measurement part. The other 5 shared weights and measurements. On December 14th if you lost 10lb you pay nothing, if you lost 8 you pay $2 and so on. Awesome idea from my friend A, and this way you don't feel like you've lost anything buy not losing 10lbs but it will still motivate to not hand over any money.

I really want to focus on the positive and not get dragged down by negative self talk.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Challenge on top of Challenge

My office mates and I have started a 10lb by Christmas challenge on top of the one I'm doing with my blog friends. We're all feeling lethargic and can feel the winter lull coming. We officially start on Monday and I'm bringing my scale and a measuring tape on Monday. So far we have 5 people and we thought about opening it up to the whole staff but I think I'd rather keep it among us. I find the bigger things get the more complicated they get and you lose the inspiration and get more competitive.

I'm feeling a general feeling of blah lately. Not depression more "whatever" kind of mood. Motivation is so-so, house work is adding up, the paper I need to write has yet to be started. It's just like feeling greyish fuzzy if that makes any sense, sort of out of focus. I know I can shake it and that's my plan this weekend. I just want to be sorted. Get the paper finished, clean my house, rake the leaves and have a food plan and exercise plan for next week. I need order.

The other thing that sort of irritated me today was when someone reveals that they lost a lot of weight, someone inevitably asks - How long did it take?. I find the question irritating, probably because I've been on this weighloss journey for a long time and feel like I'm moving at snails pace. I also feel for the person on the other end of that question. Who cares how long it took? The fact that should be celebrated is that they accomplished it. This attitude is probably also due to my feeling of denouement but still I don't think I'd ask that.

Went home with a splitting headache yesterday so I didn't go to the gym. It was also my Mom's birthday, she passed away almost 5 years ago but it still sorts of hits you. I suppose that's contributing to my general blahness.

Tonight I'm going straight home to get a rough copy done on my paper and a bit of tidying up is on the agenda. Saturday I'm off the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine fest in the late afternoon. Sunday we're supposed to be 17 degrees so I'm raking the lawn and planting tulips.

Here's to the ability to always start a fresh. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

Thursday desperately wanting to be Friday

I realize it's a short week this week but this morning I woke up, realized it was Thursday and hit the snooze button. My motivation to get up is non-existent, I think a lot of it has to do with adjusting to darkness again as the days get shorter.

The seminar/talk I went to last night was about a life balance. The speaker had an awesome sense of humour and used to be a personal trainer. She didn't say anything new but I still enjoyed it. There having a nutritionist at there next talk. I'm going to try to get an invite to that one.

I've retired my lululemon bag for now and flipped back to my MEC backpack for the gym, it's far easier to carry all the stuff I need for the day in something that can be carried on two shoulders as opposed to being slung on one. This is especially wise if it were to snow on the way home, better traction when body weight is equally distributed. It hasn't snowed here yet which is good because I still need a winter coat. I have my sporty Columbia one but I need a dressier "not look like I'm headed for the hills" type of coat. I do love this backpack and it's myriad of pockets and places to attach things, though I'm not a so sure on what attaches to some spots.

I watched the Oprah with Jessica Seinfeld last night. It was quite interesting about the veggie purees hidden in food. The cookbook is called Deceptively Delicious and she does things like beet puree in chocolate cake or chicken nuggets made with broccoli puree and flax seed. While I don't need to hide vegetables from myself I think it's a neat way to get more in my diet. She also had chocolate chip cookies with whole chickpeas in them. They taste tested with a bunch of 1st and 2nd graders and everything went over really well.

I also watched Big Shots on the pvr last night. I don't know about this show. While I absolutely adore Michael Vartan (formerly of Alias), the show feels like a male version of Sex in the City. It's seems like Dylan McDermott plays the Samantha like character and Michael plays the Charlotte like character. I might give it another try but so far I'm not a fan.

Can I say how much I love the PVR, you can zip through commericals super fast.

Hitting the gym today and then I must go home and bake.

Have a great Thursday everybody!

Shake your tail feather

Hip hop was once again loads of fun, there was this one arm movement combined with a lurch type turn into a variation of climbing into a clown car that I didn't quite get. This time we were grooving to a song by Jay Z that I've never heard. This class is definitely improving my ability to search Itunes.

Again I was up until midnight as I just couldn't sleep and tonight I must attend a seminar right after work, I would really like to go straight home and into PJs.

Foodwise I've been very good today and I was doing great yesterday until after hip hop. I always get home hungry and wired. I need to think of some instant grab and point friendly post workout snack that also won't keep me up.

My plan is to hit the gym tomorrow and Friday. I also need to lug home a bag of apples somehow and create a baked good to bring back on Friday. Our office administrator brought in apples from her back yard so now there's a bake-off challenge. Luckily I'm not a big fan of apple based desserts :)

Have a great day everybody!

A plan has got to come together

I hope all the Canadians had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that our American neighbors had a great Columbus day.

Saturday weigh in resulted in a 0.2 gain, but hey I'm totally o.k with that I was imagining much worse I can tell you.

I got the opportunity to have turkey dinner on Saturday at my friends house. She made a turkey roll that consisted of white and dark meat, skinless and no bone. I just ate about 2oz of white meat. She also had corn, mashed potatoes with light sour cream, stove top stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoe fries and buns. I didn't go crazy but it was definitely a high point day. The rest of the weekend wasn't so great either but I'm focused for the remainder of the week. Tracker is safely right next to me and I'm ticking things off of my pre-planned menu as I go by.

I went to M&Ms on the weekend a bought bacon wrapped turkey (5pts per serving). I'm going to try one for dinner tonight. I had also purchased tirimasu to bring to Saturday's dinner which I safely left there. I have to dig up my old points list for M&M, they've got some great, easy protein options that I should be investigating.

I have hip hop again tonight and I wonder what we'll be doing. We had a sub last time and I have no clue about the stuff we were doing. I'm hoping that's not the case tonight. It's always fun even if you don't get it but I find I have a much better sense of accomplishment if I actually get some of the moves.

I need to get in the habit of doing yoga again, I can feel my body tightening...does that make sense?

Oh yeah, I joined eharmony for a month. I was intrigued by there heavy advertising of the new Canadian site. So far 4 guys have begun "communication", one dropped out. There are 26 profiles in "my matches" but I'm not in the mood to initiate conversation so I'm just hanging back. I'll keep y'all posted.

Have a groovy day everybody!

Self Sabotage

Hello All,
Well hip hop on Tuesday night was confusing, we had a sub instructor who sort of created as we went and I didn't get much of it. It was still fun, just confusing.
Wednesday I was dog tired since once again sleeping after hip hop is not so easy. Tonight Shaw is coming to figure out my mysterious digital cable issues (ie. I can get channel 24 not 25, I can get channel 32 not 33). Hopefully that can be resolved, while I do get loads of fascinating channels I don't know what I'd do without food network.

What has been happening is a whole lot of self sabotage. I've been conveniently keeping my tracker out of sight and caving to snacks. I don't know what's wrong with my dedication. I know only I can fix it but it's frustrating. All is not lost and I know I don't want to wind up where I was at the start but it's just getting my motivation back. I'll definitely be hitting the gym tomorrow and perhaps tonight depending on when the Shaw tech comes (5-9pm window). This weekend I'll take some time to re-evaluate my food plan and make sure I'm getting enough protein. I know I get seriously snacky without it.

I'm not throwing in the towel whatsoever, I can do this, I will do this and nothing will stop me...

Enough said :)

Snackapalooza part XXXXXVVVVIIII

Oy vey I hate this time of month, the water retention, the cramps and above all the desire to eat everything in sight. That was yesterday, the eating part. I couldn't stop snacking. Rational brain was saying "You don't need this", emotional brain was saying "Shut up, I'm having it anyway".

I did hit the gym after work and actually ran on the treadmill for the first time ever. I did a 5min walk warm up than ran 1 min, walked 2 and so on for 25 minutes. Then I walked at a fast pace for 40min and 5min cool down and then I walked home from the gym so add another 15min to that. I must remember to bring a baseball cap to the gym though, on the way home I looked rough!

Stayed the same at weigh in which is good because I'd usually see a gain at this time.

I'm really looking forward to hip hop tonight but this class is totally wrecking my sleep patterns. I get home at around 10:30pm, have a glass of chocolate milk (recovery drink for 60min of jumping around). Then I'm up and totally awake and it's not the chocolate milk. This results in me being totally tired on Wednesday. I don't see what I can do, I'll just have to get use to it.

Alright that's all I can think of for now, have a super duper day!

My Friday

Since I requested tomorrow off today feels like Friday for me. I'm trying to make sure I have everything wrapped up for my co-workers to cover for me.

I wrote a rough copy of the paper that's due on Friday so that I could walk away for a day and go back and edit. It's due by 10pm on Friday, what kind of due date is that?

I figured out I could make a weigh in on Saturday so I didn't go this morning. Staying on plan has been so hard this week and I think mainly due to a crazy schedule and the weird hot/cold weather we're having. I'm looking forward to a clearer schedule next week to truly focus on workouts. The dreaded word snow has been mentioned in forecasts but no two forecasts are the same so fingers are crossed that it doesn't happen.

For those who've been asking the PVR is going to cost me $344 but that's it I don't have to pay any subscription fee for it. I do have to pay for the cable. However, that's still cheaper than buying the PVR from any of the electronic stores. For the first month Shaw will give me all the channels on digital so I can try them out. I'm fairly certain I'll stay with the basic service but who knows what will happen. I'm seriously looking forward to seeing a clear ABC, since a local channel was launched it interrupts the picture and sound so you get a blend of the two channels.

Alright I shall most likely be MIA for the next few days as my Dad's in town, I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Hip Hoppin

OMG hip hop was so much fun last night and it went way better than last time. Our routine was to a tune called Icebox (Trackzilla remix), I'm so downloading it so I can retain some of the moves in my head. Everybody got the choreography this time, some smoother than others. I'm working on the smooth and stylin part but I remembered all the moves...yeah!!!!!

The cupcakes made it to work with no incident, they look good and hopefully get rave reviews at lunch time.



I watched Reaper last night and really liked it. I'm drawn to all the geeky shows this season. I thought the characters were likeable...even the Devil which is weird to say.



I watched Chuck yesterday and have read on a few blogs that they were so so about it. I really like it. I'll definitely check it out again. I really like the concept of nerd herd.

Bionic Woman starts tonight, I'm interested to see if there are any changes from the rough cut version I saw in Vegas.

Alright that's all for now, have a great day everybody!

I did it

So this morning I hopped onto shaw's website and ordered digital cable and a pvr. They're coming on Saturday between 1-3pm to install it...yikes I had no idea it would go that fast. They originally said Thursday but I'm busy. I guess all those commericials with the mimes are true, they value people.

I'm excited! How sad is that? Now I need to vacuum behind the tv.

The cupcakes look really good too. I made them last night. The cake part is dark chocolate with a wee bit of espresso flavour and the icing is mascarpone cheese, whip cream, starbucks coffee cream liquor and icing sugar. Now the trick is to get them to work in one piece tomorrow.

Hip hop is tonight and I'm so hoping I'm slightly more coordinated than last time. At least this time I know what to expect.

Alright not a ton to say today but I hope everyone had a great day!

Crazing morning and week 1 results

I was down .6 on Saturday which was nice after a few weeks of gains. This week is a little crazy scheduling wise I need to make cupcakes for Wednesday and my Dad is coming in on Thursday night. So tonight I need to bake the cupcakes, tomorrow I need to frost so I can lug them into work. I'm making a tiramasu cupcake, the tiramisu part comes into the frosting. I also need to clean my house at some point as that didn't happen this weekend. I'm not sure when I'll get to the gym this week but if that can't happen then workouts at home will happen. I do have the second class of hip hop on Tuesday. I'm going to weigh in Thurday bright and early as I don't think I can make my regular meeting. On top of all that I have a paper due on Friday that I'd really like to have done by Thursday. I haven't had such a busy week in a long time.

To top it off this morning I forgot to turn on my alarm, woke up at the time I normally leave for the bus stop. I got ready in 6 minutes. I have no moisturizer on my face, I'm surprised I put my clothes on the right way. So for the whole day I've felt a little out of sorts.

My vcr is going into overload trying to program all the new shows. I'm seriously considering flipping to digital and getting a dvr. Rumour has it Tivo is available in Canada but hard to find. Good old Shaw digital cable offers one so I might look in to that. The digital cable is only $2 bucks more than normal. The dvr costs $325, so that takes some thought.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Date with a treadmill

In a brilliant move I picked up a towel at the dollar store on my way to the gym as opposed to paying double at Walmart...yay me! I did forget one more vital piece of equipment on my trek back to the gym yesterday....my ipod shuffle. The picture is one of the new colours but mine is blue.

The treadmill was totally monotonous without my mp3 player. I looked at the readout, then the wall clock and back and worth until I could take no more. I lasted 30min at a quick walk. I want to start running on the treadmill but yesterday I wasn't feeling it. Tried a couple of the bikes and then just called it a day. The elliptical wasn't calling my name either.

I'm going back tonight and I've got the trusty Ipod with me.

Watched Survivor last night, it was alright. I couldn't get over the girl from New York who commented that being there was nothing like NY. Ah...duh...what where you expecting a deli around the corner. She couldn't handle how positive people were being...oy vey is all I can say. Aaron the surfer dude is nice eye candy but apart from that we'll see how long I watch this. I do like that it's in China, that's a nice change.

Finally getting together with H on the weekend, we haven't seen each other in months so it's a get together at Starbucks with textbooks.

I definitely need to put my patio set away this weekend, there was frost on the ground this morning and I might as well do it now rather than when there's snow.

This weekend I'm also going to make another recipe from ESBM or WW to add to the rotation of Smackeroni and Chili.

The other thing I realized after the gym yesterday is I need to plan my dinners carefully on gym nights or else by the time I get home I'm ravenous and far more likely to snack.

I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Lulu is with me

I brought my brand spankin new gym bag with me today. The fabulous blue body/bright green accents lululemon bag, thanks to A for giving me that gift certificate because there would be no way on earth I'd shell out $74 bucks for a vinyl gym bag. The thing is when I went into that store I had a hard time justifiying buying a $55 tank top so the bag it was.

I've got my workout clothes, shoes, lock and after workout pants. I brought a water bottle but forgot a towel. Not sure if they provide so I'm debating on dropping into Walmart on the way to pick one up. I'm so looking forward to establishing a routine again.

Watched the full episode of gossip girl yesterday and actually liked it. I despised OC and it's from the same people so time will tell. Also got America's Next Top Model and like how they changed things up a little with the cruise. They definitely have some personalities this round so it should be interesting.

Not much else to report today, hope everyone is doing well.

Need to be fly

Attended my first hip hop class last night and I had no idea what I was doing. I swear I was the worst person there but you know what...I had fun. My theory is it was one heck of a 60min cardio workout and I can only get better from here. The challenge is the class is at 9:15pm so by the time I got home at 10:30pm and I was energized. Normally, on work night, I'm ready for bed by 10pm. So I watched the last few minutes of Biggest Loser (taped the rest) and attempted to go to sleep, nada I just lay there. I tried to just do savasana and focus on breathing and relaxing. At any rate I'm kind of tired today and am planning an early night. I'm going to go home do yoga and go to bed. I'll have to tape the season premiere of America's Next Top Model. In all seriousness I think I'll be asleep by 8pm.

I joined Carolyn's Christmas Challenge pledging to lose 10lbs in 14 weeks. Ideally I'd like to lose more but I'm learning my lesson in making reasonable goals. The 100 day challenge was a total disaster for me, I definitely need shorter goals so I'll break the 14 weeks in to 7 sets of 2.

On Thursday my plan is to go to the gym and to just do my own thing in terms of cardio. Friday there are no classes in the time I can get there so again I'll focus on cardio. I might attend a class after weigh in on Saturday.

My goal for next week is to check my books and design a weight routine to encorporate next week.

Apart from that not much to report. It looks like the new tv season truly start going next week. I then must decide what's worth taping because work outs will come first.

Have a fabulous day everbody!

Day by Day

Well I did see a gain at weigh in on Saturday, 2lbs which when I think about it isn't so bad. I definitely had renewed enthusiasm afterwards, however that didn't help me with my Saturday. I spent the day with a friend who's going through a divorces. She, her daughter and I went for lunch to just chill. Here was the conundrum I picked McDonald's because it was my treat but I wanted to keep my cost low due to coming back from Vegas. Sure I could have chosen healthier options but instead I got what my friend was having. The day kind of went downhill from there but I didn't wallow.

On Sunday I mapped out my day and got in a 5km brisk walk. Today was also mapped out and I'm totally OP so far.

I need to pick up some gym shoes on the way home so tonight's workout will be yoga. Tomorrow it's dance class...I'm so excited about this. Wednesday will be the gym but I'm not sure when. I don't get there in time for the 5:15 classes but there are other classes at 6:30. I just need to get a game plan together.

Apart from that kind of a crappy day at work however I did not console myself with food...that's a total victory.

So this evening as I yoga I will focus on the positivity in my life and remember that all challenges can be over come.

Peace!

Getting back on track

This picture is me doing my pre-meltdown Brittany Spears impression at FAO Schwartz in Ceasar Forum Shops.

Don't you love how a cold can totally knock you sideways, the inability to breathe properly, the lack of interest in preparing food or the inability to exercise as walking up one flight of stairs makes you breathless. Of coure I say that with a massive amount of sarcasm in my voice.





I missed WI last week due to Vegas and I'm heading in tomorrow without having tracked one darn thing this week. I can't say I was bad but there was more juice than water that's for sure. I'm positive I'll see a gain but I'm o.k with that because there were circumstances around it.





I am looking forward to properly breathing again so I can use my brand new spankin' gym membership that I got the day before leaving for Vegas. I'm incredibly thankful for a new season of Biggest Loser. I find that show so inspiring.





Tonight when I get home I'm writing up my grocery list as I haven't been grocery shopping in 2 weeks, it was getting really interesting in terms of food options. My plan is to pick 3 recipes from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, make them on Sunday, divide into individual portions, label and freeze so I have some options of lunches/dinners that will last awhile. I also want to have 3 breakfast options determined so I can have some flexibility there. I have the groceries for that but I think I need to post it on my fridge with the points values so I can see it at a glance. I have a habit of eating the same thing day in day out in terms of breakfast and lunch.





I was watching X-Weighted last night and for those who didn't know that episode was shot in Calgary. She lost just under 50lbs in 6 months (over winter) by simply watching what she ate and exercising. Paul the host/trainer told her that when eating to think about what that particular food does for her. It's not complicated is it? We all know that but somehow it's so easy to make it complicated. As I watched that show I realized there is absolutely no reason why I couldn't be at goal within the next 6 months. All I need to do is focus on calories in and calories out.

So Saturday morning before going to weigh in I'm going to take my measurements and start a new quest for goal. A brand new page in my tracker is ready as is my activity journal. The past is forgotton and the future is beckoning. Bring it on!