Friday, September 28, 2007

Results day!

So today is the 1 week marker into the Christmas Challenge! How'd you do? Make sure to get your results in to me or Carolyn today so we can compile the results. We just want to know pounds lost, the actual weights don't matter in this. If you maintained or gained don't feel bad. You still have about 12 weeks to get there. So you need to get about 8% of your goal each week here on out. (example 10 lb goal, get 0.8 lbs/week). The last thing I want is for anybody to quit because they think they'll never get there! Even if you don't, wouldn't you feel better getting 75% of the way there instead of only 10%? Just keep at it!
So how did I do? Well obviously tune in Monday and you can see everyone's results, but I won't keep you in suspense. After a fairly good on track week, lots of nice exercising, only a few unnecessary eatings - I had a HUGE MAJOR LOSS! Say what? I lost 2.2 lbs! Yowsers! that doesn't happen! well turns out it does. I'm back below what I was at 2 weeks ago with that happy number. Last week's gain of almost 2 lbs is gone. I think it was mostly TOM issues as well as being sick. I know I had a lots more fluids in my head than normal. (yeah, I know, ew, whatever, you don't know me enough yet to expect that?) so I'm not at 140.2 lbs! Yabba Dabba DOOO!!! I just couldn't dip under that 140 mark though huh? Sheesh. I feel like it really is some sort of barrier there and if I could just see below it once then the door would be open for me enter the 130's. I know I'm crazy. There's no difference between 140 and 139, except 1 lb, and I lost them before.
So last night I never got in the ellipticalling I wanted to. I did about 10 minutes. Plus I walked my dog for about 20 minutes. So still some activity so I'm still meeting my goal (exercise every day this week!). I forgot how squeeky the elliptical was. It's fine when it's just me watching tv, I can sort of tune it out and turn up the volume. But my SIL was watching with me and I think it irritated her. oh well. At least I tried. Maybe I'll do it when it's not SEASON PREMIER NIGHT! I got in some good tv watching last night. that's about all. I made pork chops with cheese and pasta sauce to go with the beans and potatoes. Had a nice well balanced supper. Calories might have been a little higher than normal but nothing really unhealthy (quite lean pork, no butter on anything.) Used to be I'd smother my beans with butter, but now I just put some lemon pepper on them and they're great. Of course I followed with some more birthday cake. The whipped topping and raspberries are gone now so it's just cake. I think it's about 100 calories a slice (not exactly sure if I'm doing 1/12 of the recipe or whatever). So I can have it.
Oh, yesterday I didn't eat any afternoon snack. I ALWAYS do. But I wasn't hungry and didn't think of it. (normally I'm counting the hours until I can eat, not hungry, just craving eating) I was full from my pea soup I think. yay fibre! so I'm driving home and I'm almost falling asleep! I was just wiped! Tummy was a little grumbly but I couldn't believe the lack of energy I had! I used to be tired at the end of the day all the time driving home and just assumed I needed more sleep. Who knew it probably had to do with my food? So I learned my lesson, hungry or not, I'm eating some nuts at 3:30 today.
Some how I got running behind this morning so I was scrambling packing food and eating breakfast. Ended up with leftover potatoes and beans for lunch and a bunch of packaged stuff. half a can of peaches. Protein bar. pudding snack. Still have a granola bar and almonds and that darn apple for this afternoon. Not sure about supper. We got invited out but I think we're turning it down. Then trying to get in a movie tonight but not until 10:00 so I wanna save some calories for popcorn (I never go to the movies, I might splurge). I've gotta get groceries on my way home so maybe i'll pick up a frozen pizza or something. I know some of you wouldn't consider that when trying to save calories for later, but I think you can have anything you want to eat just trick yourself and make it healthier. For example. I'll try and get some kind of light pizza. Maybe thin crust vegetarian or something. Then I know we've got sandwich meat in the fridge for hubby, so I'd slap a pile of that on half with extra cheese, and some pineapples and more veggies on the other half. That way he gets the kind of pizza he likes. And I get to have a "treat" and it's actually really healthy! Plus I don't let myself have more than 2 slices of pizza. Sometimes you get in the habit of eating so much with certain foods. In university I'd order the best deal pizza, usually a couple gigantic ones with bread sticks and everything. And then I'd just gorge myself because there was so much food. I'd obviously be stuffed afterward but since I didn't eat like 1/4 of the food it didn't feel bad.
Somehow I've tricked myself in to a lot of good habits. Thought I'd share as we go into this weekend. For example. I just plain old don't eat chicken wings. I "don't like them". I don't think I've ever eaten one. I don't really like the texture, too many stringy tendon things. But the real reason is I looked up the calories once and for like a dozen buffalo wings, it's like 700! And it's not much food either. Same thing for non-diet pop. I really can't taste the difference between coke and pepsi and no-name etc so diet just tasted like a different brand. Well now when I try normal pop it just tastes like syrup, way too sugary. I luckily am not a crazy ice cream person. I neither like it nor dislike it so I usually don't eat it knowing the fat and calories it has. I'm not a crazy chocolate person either, once in awhile I crave it but I just eat a couple mini eggs or something. I never buy chocolate bars. they're just one of the foods I'm not allowed. and I don't miss it enough to care. I really should make chips and cookies not allowed food, but I think part of the reason it isn't is because I've never measured out a serving of chips or calculated the calories in "my" servings. Sometimes that scares me enough to "not like it". And I don't know calories etc for homemade cookies so I'm living in ignorant bliss. Luckily I don't make cookies often and try and keep chips away from my line of sight. My main problem comes in portion control of regular food. I think I would do well in the Volumetrics diet. I just need to eat a certain size of food, a plate full. or a certain amount of time. Otherwise it just feels like a snack. I've been trying to fill my plate with veggies or use smaller plates (it really works!) The time thing is tough right now. I think I have to do something like put my fork down in between bites or something. Consciously stretch the meal out. That's why I get desserts sometimes, I just don't feel like I'm done eating yet.
Anybody else have this problem? How about ways they've tricked themselves healthy? Don't forget to share your loss for the Christmas Challenge!
Have a good weekend!

post workout nutrition

Wasn't it just the other day I was talking about whether skim milk was a good thing to have after a workout? Well what does fitsugar post about? Skim milk as an afterworkout repleneshment! How about that? I had it right!

my email address

Ok I guess there was a problem with my address the last time so I'll throw it up again.
rls757(at)mail.usask.ca
I'm not exactly sure why I don't want to put it up exactly proper. I think maybe I might get more junk mail that way, don't know. if that doesn't work try this address:
rls757(at)gmail.com
So Christmas Challengers, please send in your losses for the week (or maintains or gains, but hopefully losses!)

Thursday, September 27, 2007

the normal post

Ha! normal.
So last night I went shopping after work. Spent $50 and got 3 shirts, a bunnyhug (I'm from sask so that's what we call it, a hoody), and a pair of shoes. not bad huh? And it was nice to enjoy trying things on! Granted everything was a size large but still, didn't leave me frustrated and sad. I did get a tank top in medium because they only had that in the color I wanted. There wasn't a big difference anyway, it'll just not look as good at the end of the day when my posture suffers and I don't suck it in any more.
I already talked about my awesome class and how I kicked butt at it. go me.
Hubby was gone again when I got home. Wing night. he was sleeping on the couch after work and didn't want supper so I just had half a can of pea soup (yes sodium, but YES Fibre!) and that filled me up enough that I didn't need anything else. However I had another piece of angel food cake with strawberries. I don't feel bad about eating that ever. Should I? So then after class I wasn't hungry either so I just had a small glass of milk. Then the dog and I snuggled for a bit and I went to bed. I think hubby had a bad dream at 4:30, I woke up and he was awake. So because i'm a suck I stopped trying to be cold and snuggled with him until we fell asleep. then this morning, he always gets up before me, and he was getting dressed and the dog woke me up and he told me that we had a date night saturday. I told him "what if I had plans" but I of course don't, so he has tickets to a stock car race at the new track that's nearby. Sweet gesture, I wanted to go, but more as an outing, less because i'd like it. Then instead of just getting tickets for me and him, he got 3, one for his sister (who lives with us). Well alright if you want to include her, but that's not a date night anymore. that's an outing. And it's still good because I'll spend time with hubby, but not alone time. oh well, I'll take what I can get. At least he acknowledged that I was mad and tried to fix it. points for effort.
today breakfast was cereal. I finished off my frosted miniwheats (1/2 cup?) and filled the bowl with fibre cereal (the wormy kind). Not bad. A little sweet but still really healthy. Then I wasn't hungry until noon (yay fibre) where I had the other half of my pea soup (yay fibre again). I figure the soup to be 300 calories. Also ate a cheese string, and a piece of naked angel food cake. and a fruit togo. I've been sucking on campino candies all afternoon for my throat, probably have 4 or 5 all day. i'm guessing 150 calories. might be high. I just had a kiwi for snack. I also have some left over tuna and an apple if I'm still hungry but I think I might be alright. I just don't feel like eating that apple. Had it for a long time but haven't wanted it. Scared it's gonna be too hard and hurt my teeth or something. weird.
haven't planned supper tonight. not sure what it's gonna be. left over potatoes and maybe pork chops? I've gone magazine shopping crazy lately, bought the rachel ray (but I find recipes tough to follow, they just look too hard, maybe too many ingredients but i'm turned off by something) and the martha stewart halloween one. plus a fitness. so there's tons of recipes in these that I feel like trying, maybe this weekend. plus there's my kraft what's cooking magazine that's always a jackpot.
I'm pretty excited for weigh in tomorrow. I've been doing things great all week, plus TOM is passing so there shouldn't be any unpleasant surprises. Could be the same, but likely down. First weigh in of the Christmas Challenge! Everyone remember to give your weights to Carolyn or I tomorrow!

Who are you people?

So when I started my blog I didn't know if anyone was reading, I put a counter on the bottom to check. And everytime I'd show up to check I'd be excited because somebody had been here. It took awhile for me to realize that most of them were me doing the check.
But then I started getting some commentors (starting with Katieo! that's why she's my favorite!) so I knew at least somebody was checking it out. So I forgot about my little counter. Well I was just doing some stuff on my site (putting up Christmas Challenge counter for example) and noticed that I had over 3000 visitors! Holy smokes! When did that happen? I know that it's mostly the same people checking by every few days (which is super awesome!) but still, that's a lot in like 3 months. I only post once a day! (usually) Plus there's gotta be some people, (like me) who wanna look like they still could be doing some sorta work (while at work) and use google Reader so they don't even have to go to the blog (I don't think it shows up in a counter then...). So holy wowsers! I did a little experiement last night before I left work. I wrote the number down and then checked when I got in this morning. So in my overnight sleeping - 60 people have visited my blog! Holy macaroni! I always assumed it was just like 10, you know, the people who comment once in awhile. I realize I probably got more readers with the Christmas Challenge (hello you) and that's great. But there are only like 25ish of us. And some of them overlap with the commentors and some of them use google reader. So I've got oodles of lurkers! Hurray! sorta. I love that people are reading this and hopefully not just laughing at me and my problems and spelling and sad excuse for dieting. and even if you are, well you're entertained I guess right? But I would like to meet you lurkers! How can I get to know you if I don't know you're there? Guaranteed if you comment on here you your blog makes it into my Reader. Plus that's how I found a lot of my favorites, from other people's comments pages. I swear I'm a nice person and will only kick your ass if I feel the right vibes from you. So please feel free to introduce yourself! (though I guess there might not be much to comment on about this post, maybe the next one will inspire you. I'm not promising though)

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I'm the queen of the world! I mean fitness world!

An unusual time for me to post. Right before bed (at home!) on a wednesday. Well what's so important? The happy feeling I got right now! I just had my class (step and strength) and the instructor was encouraging everyone to tough it out even if it was hard. She said "some of you who have been coming to these classes for awhile, your bodies are just transforming and it's awesome." And then I had a question for her about a stretch after class and she told me that that "transformation" thing she said, she was talking about me! I told her I lost 15 lbs this summer (wow what a cool thing to say!) and she said I looked great! How COOL IS THAT?!? tres cool. It's weird, I sorta feel like this is how I've looked for a long time because the bigger me didn't feel like the real me (though I was 15 lbs bigger!) and I could sometimes trick myself that I looked the same or my clothes shrunk. So I'm sort of not feeling like I made much of a change. Until somebody says something like that to me! Cha ching! Jack pot! I just walked home from class with this ridiculous grin on my face. I was bursting. You ever get that? I was walking by myself and didn't want to look like a tool but I was really happy so every now and then this "eeeeeeeep" would burst out of me in a big grin. I do that a lot. (imagine if your best friend came up to you sort of excited about something and said guess what, I'm engaged! "eeeeep!" is the noise the two of you would make together for about 10 mintues!)
Plus I made a friend in the class. It turns out that a woman from my street (Penny - now I can't forget her name!) is taking the class too. She was right in front of me the whole time.
oh that reminds me of another thing from class. We took heart rates at the end of step (mine was 30, but she didn't tell me how many seconds, I'm assuming 10, so that's 180 bpm - CRAZY HIGH!) and the instructor said "I was working hard I've got 30! anybody else with me?" and I was! and so was another girl. Everyone else was lower (still working hard though, nothing wrong with less.) I was just pushing and doing every harder option she was showing us. Then Penny said to me, "you've obviously done this before." Because I guess I looked like I knew what I was doing. cha-ching again! I'm a pro!
This is obviously going to cut out a major chunk of what I would talk about tomorrow but I'm sure I'll figure something out. I just wanted to make sure I got all my excitement in!

I feel good - or not...

No i'm not singing for you. I just feel good. Things are good. I feel skinny today. Wearing one of my flattering outfits (just a black stretch polo and jeans with a yoga coat). Peaking at the scale was mildly pleasant. Got a lot of energy, excited for my step class tonight. Work is pretty casual and I'm able to work on my thesis.
Though just bringing up thesis makes me down. Ugh why aren't I done this thing yet? Oh yeah, because I don't work on it.
Also, had a rather mixed night last night. Gonna hold the feel good thing though, so here's a quick rundown.
Got home made hotdogs and burgers, waited for hubby to get home, snacking on some skinny chips (bad). But then he gets home and doesn't eat anyway, goes straight to work on the shed. ok so I have 1 hotdog. fine. I watch my Corner Gas while eating. fine. Then I go for a run with my dog, do the longer run but no intervals. fine. Come home, clean up a bit, watch tv a bit, ate some potatoes. fine. Hubby goes to his cousin's just to pick something up probably have 1 drink and come home. fine. So I entertain the dog myself, keep her away from SIL and her bf and make sure she goes out to pee. It's like babysitting. Constantly, can hardly read my magazine. Whatever. fine. Finally go to bed, leave the dog in, she can sleep with me until hubby gets home, she doesn't sleep. fine, in the kennel. (hubby's been gone 2.5 hours now) oh I should mention i was trying to do laundry but hubby's got ALL the baskets full with his clothes he has to put away (we do our own clothes, HE wanted it that way cause I "do it wrong") so I can't really do anything unless I carry it upstairs in my bare arms or something and leave a path of socks and undies. fine. I don't do it. Then I'm trying to sleep at 10:30 (after I put the dog in the kennel) and I hear SIL in bed - AGAIN! Sheesh! I assume they thought I was asleep. For some reason, and I'm gonna blame TOM, this made me angry. Then the phone rings and it's SIL's DAD wanting to talk to her, I stand at the end of the hallway and call her name, no answer so I just tell her dad she's asleep already. So now I'm even more ANGRY that I lied to her dad to cover for her (it's not her fault for having sex, not sure why i'm mad at her for it) but then I told my hubby about hearing them before and he was like "whatever, it was the washing machine" and since he wasn't home yet I was sure he'd come home and hear them. And then he never and that made me angry again. (?) and now it's 11:30 and he finally comes home (I've been in bed for 1.5 hours and am still not asleep so I'm angry at that too) and SIL and her bf get out of bed and go talk to him and they all hang out in the kitchen visiting and eating and I'm trying to sleep but can't and they wake the dog up and she wimpers and they just tell her to be quiet like they didn't wake her up to begin with. (ok that feeling good is going away...) and then hubby finally comes to bed at midnight and hugs me and I'm sorta cold about it and planning on giving him the silent treatment for about a week ("if he doesn't want to spend time with me then I really won't spend time with him") and he's like what and I'm like "I'm trying to sleep" and so he rolls over and falls asleep instantly. Grrr... This mornign I told him I was annoyed at him because he said he'd be probably an hour and then wasn't home all night. and just because somebody offers you a drink doesn't mean you have to have one. You're a grown up, you can say no thank you I have to go. All in all it's not a big deal if he wants to go drinking at his cousin's place all night. I don't know why I got so mad at him for it (probably because I went through some stuff with out him). also TOM probably. extra irritable. I told him before that when I pictured us being married I didn't picture making supper by myself, eating by myself, cleaning up by myself, walking the dog by myself. heck even watching tv by myself! EVERY NIGHT! what does he say, "maybe if you had friends to hang out with, or some hobbies or a life." I was so mad that day! But nothing's changed since then, I still wanna spend time with him and he still thinks that's dumb and I need a life. "hang out with your sister" he says.
ok I'm going back to that happy place. the place where I feel like you don't need a man, and I'm a happy person pretending I'm single or something. And bodywise and energy wise and everything else wise. I do feel good. Just marriage-wise I'm not great. And to even mention it to hubby makes him get mad at me. so i'm going to pretend we're just roomates until TOM passes and the shed's built and he has some time for me again and I can talk to him about this.
sorry, I know this isn't supposed to be about marriage problems. grr...
Tonight is my step class. hurray. Then tomorrow night I'll hopefully get another jog in with Daisy. A walk at least, maybe I'll try and do a yoga tape too. Oh wait. No I won't. That's what's going on thursday! Good tv night! I'll hopefully take the dog for a quick jog and then hop on the elliptical and watch tv all night. woohoo!
Today for lunch I went out to a vietnamese place. Nice and cheap. I'm not really sure how great my food choices were. I don't know much about vietnamese food. I had a spring roll which I'm sure was super bad as it was kinda greasy and deep fried. but the stir fry I had was good. Not greasy or slimy like chinese buffet or whatever. I had it on noodles and they looked like vermicelli. If it was the kind I'm hoping then that's no problem because it's made of beans and has like 15 calories per cup. But it was probably pasta based or rice noodles or something and they're much worse. Luckily I didn't eat even half of them. Mostly just the veggies and chicken. I only packed honeydew melon which I ate for morning snack (as well as some nuts before cause I was starving on the way over). And I've got a protein yogurt for afternoon snack in about 20 minutes. (man the day flies when you get there late, read blogs all morning, go for an hour 40 minute lunch, then write up your own blog all afternoon! hehe) After work I'm gonna hit the mall to pickup hubbies goal pads and then drop some stuff off at my SIL's (does that get confusing for you readers and I've got so many SILs?) Hopefully getting home, eating quick, continuing with the magazine reading husband ignoring (not that he'll notice) and then get to class. In fact hubby will probably go out for wings tonight (every wed) then thurs he's got hockey. So I go a full week without seeing him if I didn't go looking for him.
My cough has been acting up. well my cold has turned into a cough. Is that the last stage of a cold? I haven't had one in such a long time I can't remember. Sore throat, then full out everything, then runny nose, then cough then done? somethign like that. hopefully it's almost done. I don't like this cough thing. Do you ever get that feeling that you have to cough but you don't want to, just a little tickle, and then when you don't cough you feel like you're maybe choking or something? I get that a lot. like when you swallow something wrong and water isn't helping and you just keep coughing and coughing but you're out with other people so you don't want to look like an idiot and pretend you've got it but it still feels the same and you're dying! I feel like that all the time with this cough.
Sorry for the stupid post all. I promise tomorrow will be much more upbeat (it started so good too...) If nothing else I'll post about my step class.
anybody know any info on vietnamese food? It doesn't really matter, I can just feel bad about lunch or not. won't change anything.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

ok team

I feel like I should learn some new cheers. Or a cheer. I just feel like starting with "Ready, and OK...." then I've got nothing.
So I had a wonderful WONDERFUL workout last night. I, being so ambitious (something to do with being able to use my nose again), decided to go for a jog with my puppy who is so freaking adorable when she realizes we're going for a jog. She was being cute but then I changed into my workout clothes and she perked up a little and watched me intently, then I went to get her leash and she was tail wagging like crazy! Then I was putting my runners on and she was pawing at the front window and wimpering with her tail going nuts just dying to get out there! Needless to say we started out at a full out sprint! Not my idea! We haven't jogged in 2 weeks! Felt great! I just did a short one, because - duh - I've got my fitness class in 1/2 an hour! oops! I was sort of scared that I may have over done it but it was fine. I cooled down then walked to class with SIL (my sister is too sick this week). It was a little tough at first to get pumped up, but 1 minute and I was there again. It was better too because I knew the moves from last week so I could get in to it a little more. I really like this muay tai stuff still. punching with elbows and knees. I think I mentioned that last week. You can just get really in to it. Not to toot my own horn (well that's exactly why actually) I think I'm one of the best in the class. There's 1 other girl who's pretty good. But a lot of people are pretty "can't break a nail" or at least that's the way they punch. like my SIL. But that's ok, they're at least trying and sweating. It's funny though to think of most of these people actually punching somebody. I could do it. Except I'm scared to get punched back. The weights this time were good too. I'm not sure if maybe I slacked off more or if I'm already back in the groove but I'm not sore at all today. Last week lasted 4 days! I can tell I worked out but everything feels good. I sorta wish I pushed it harder. todays lesson: When you work out your muscles (lift weights, squat etc) they only grow bigger (and stronger) when you damage the tissue (aka feel sore though you can sometimes stretch this out or whatever). Then your body repairs these tiny tears with new muscle tissue to be stronger and bigger. If you didn't work hard enough (lift heavy enough) you still get a good workout because you're using your muscles and they burn serious calories, but you don't gain strength unless it's hard and sore. That's why I'm concerned that I'm not sore. Did I not damage my muscle tissue? If that happens after just 1 week am I wasting my time going to this class (well no). I'll have to remember that next week and grab heavier weights and tough it out a little longer with them. The thing is, I really made myself tired and was hurting during the class but it was over when class was over. Well at least I feel good and am working hard right?
Supper wasn't too bad, had my burger (but I put cheese on it - processed oops) and peas instead of a salad. But then I had to have more cake (angel food with fruit, so best kind of cake but still cake). I'm not too upset as my supper was kinda small for what I usually do. I still think I eat way more calories than anybody else out there. So instead of trying to copy any of you (and I'm sure what you're doing is good for you too) or some 1400 calorie diet, I'm just going to reduce what I was eating (which I never really measured) and fill up with healthy choices. It's much more sustainable that way. For me. for example last night I probably would have made a potato or noodle side instead of the peas (or in addition) but I left it out. yay me. Oh I should mention that when I got home from my workout before bed I had a glass of milk. I read somewhere that chocolate milk is the perfect post workout meal but I'm not so sure about post workout meals and thought that the chocolate is just cause they don't like milk maybe so I just had normal skim milk. I didn't have it at supper so it's not like an extra food either.
so I measured my wrist at home and it's actually putting me in the upper range of medium frame. So if I go with the lower weight for large frame and higher weight for medium frame (aka 132-134 ish) then I will be right on after this Christmas Challenge!
Even though the scale hasnt' been changing I'm feeling ok. I'm kicking butt on the exercise and eating quite healthy. I could tighten that up a little bit and plan some lighter meals (I just want to use up what's in my freezer!). Tonight it's hotdogs as we've got hotdog buns drying up on the cupboard. I'll have a veggie dog and a regular dog. Better plan something healthy for the rest of the week.
Lunch today is a salad with tuna. Because it filled my whole lunch kit the rest of my eats are packaged foods cause they're smaller. a couple different protein bars (again, trying to up the protein after my heavy workouts) a pudding and fruit-to-go's. Also some plums that are getting nasty and wrinkly. may not eat those.
Corner Gas was on last night and I missed it (taped it though, season premier) so I think tonight I'm going to jog the dog again (I missed it) and then hop on the elliptical and watch tv. I figure i'm going to watch tv anyway, why not multi-task! Besides Corer Gas is one of my workout shows. So is Grey's Anatomy so you can expect the same thing on Thursday (it helps to pick never miss shows as your workout shows, you all should try it, even if you don't have any equipment in front of the tv. Just do pushups or squats during commercials, you'll feel better about watching tv that way!)
So this post was much less rambly than yesterday (though still pretty long!). Ah well, we can't change who we are right?

Monday, September 24, 2007

oh yeah...

Again, I forgot that somebody needed my email address to send me your weights. It's rls(at)mail(dot)usask(dot)ca. When it comes weigh in time (officially this friday for the challenge) you can email me or Carolyn or just post them in the comments on either of our blogs. And if you have a regular weigh in day that's not friday you can either use your day and just let us know on friday or you can do an extra weigh in just for this on fridays. Basically we only want to know on friday though alright?
Also, Swizzlepop had a link that I really liked, a frame size measurer or something that takes your wrist size and basically tells you if you really are "just big boned". I didn't put in an accurate measurement yet, I've always thought I was big boned, just because my shoulders are so much wider than other girl's. Anyway, my rough estimate here at work (I used paper and wrapped it around my wrist and then estimated the length. who had a tape at work?) and it was well into the large frame size. So I may have been right! If so, the minimum ideal weight for me would not be 130 (my goal) but 134. So we'll see how things are looking when I get down to there and we can re-evaluate. So close!

Forgot to mention...

I forgot to say that I'm wearing some jeans I haven't worn in ages! Who knows when last. They're 9's but sorta tight on the legs. I like my legs alot more now so it's not bugging me as much. Plus I'm wearing a thin sweater thing that I wore last winter but hated how I looked, it was one of the things that made me realize how out of hand it was getting. Feeling pretty good.

full week of the challenge...

My new nickname for things (mostly my dog but sometimes some of you!) is to put the adjective with "ato" on the end. Like my dog is a "cute-ato" and some of my commentors are "sweet-atoes". I don't know why, I like it though! Must come from my love of potatoes.
Speaking of potatoes. My weekend! I don't even remember friday. Oh wait, yeah I do. I had a fight with my hubby. Oh well. we might have learned something. I was sick and lonely and asked him to come home right after work (stating the above). So he does gladly enough, then proceeds to work outside and in the garage for an hour before coming in and working in the basement and office for another hour. He was going to take me out for supper. Instead I sat on the couch and waited for 2 hours. This always happens. So I made a fuss about it. I normally don't do that but I was sick so I did. I told him that I needed to see him and talk to him for 1 night a week. He could go on working or playing or whatever he wanted to do away from me for 6 nights. Just give me 1. and he made a big fuss about why do you need that and I'm working not just playing, (he's building a shed in the backyard and putting up shelves or whatever in the garage) and we don't like doing the same things so what would we do 1 night a week. Yeah, that's what our marriage is like. Roommates who share a bed. (and that's all we do in it too...)
Ok that's going to take me in a whole 'nother direction than what I wanted to talk about! Basically we worked some stuff out, I had a nice cry and probably nothing will change. But anyway. Back on track!
Saturday I went to my mom's house (1.5 hours away) with my dog. Hubby was at work. didn't get there as early as I wanted because I was looking for a new dog chain post thing but couldn't find one. So I did a crash potato pick (see I came back around to it!). Picked all the potatoes in an hour. Some carrots as well. Didn't eat lunch and had to get to SIL's for a scrapbook party. I had a granola bar and a could cookies at SIL's, then after the party I had some chips and salsa. Not greatest options, but probably a reasonable replacement calorie wise for lunch. Then I drove home and had a 12" turkey sub from Subway, with only mustard (hubby got it for me so it was white bread and had cheese and I forgot to pick it out) but lots of veggies. not terrible. oh well. Then hubby went out for SIL's 21st bday at a bar and I stayed home and my sister and her friend came over with her puppies. These tiny little princess dog things that weigh 3 and 4 lbs each and have hair that looks like mine, (not fur). She had it in ponytails to keep it off their eyes, but they're boys. Daisy loved them! She loves other puppies! But she wanted to play with them and the only thing these dogs do is cuddle. (more like cats really). So Daisy would bark and play growl at them until they were annoyed enough they'd bark at her and snap and Daisy would jump and run away. I couldn't stop laughing. It was so cute. Daisy would bark and bark and then get more confused in her barks, like "Come on! Please? don't you like me?" adorable. So we just hung out and watched Music and Lyrics which was alright. I ate these weird "healthy" potato chips sister brought over. Higher fibre, lower fat and sodium and whatever. I never looked at calories though. But I didn't eat a whole bag either. Few handfulls. and some diet cokes. Oh forgot that before they came over I shredded the carrots I picked at mom's and froze them. That's what we do with carrots. Then you use them to make carrot cake and carrot bran muffins. yum. I'll post a recipe for them when I make them. Best bran muffins ever.
Sunday I did a bit more of that sort of thing. I blanched and froze some broccoli that was going to go bad this week, and some snow peas, celery, onions, green peppers. Froze them all together so I've got like a stir-fry mix ready to go. Then did something with the potatoes that I stabbed (they don't keep). I washed and baked some of them and made stuffed potatoes (with a little cream cheese and butter and cheddar) and froze those, froze some just stuffing that didn't fit, basically mashed potatoes, and made some into tater tots with dill and olive oil and froze those. I love harvest for stocking freezers and canning. It all feels free when it's from a garden. Or even if you buy it but freeze and can yourself you still save a ton of money. Plus you've got easy packages for supper you can just thaw out or whatever. sa-wheat.
Hubby and I (made up) and went shopping for an hour sunday. He's buying hockey goal pads. $400 for his rec hockey that's already $500 for league fees. He said it could be his Christmas present. Well we did that last year already with a chest protector and hunting coat (why does he need to buy all this stuff in October November? Can't he plan ahead and ask for it for Christmas the year before? I had good ideas for Christmas presents for him and now I have to save them. His birthday is Jan 4 so sometimes he might not get birthday presents either! $400 is a lot) So we were in the sport store forever that when we left the mall was closing. Hubby wanted to get New York Fries and I sorta tried to talk him out of it, half of me wanted him to get it and then I could pick but the other half knew I shouldn't so didn't want him to get them either. Well I averted the fry disaster. But then we went to Walmart which was still open and I grabbed a burger while waiting in line. But only a hamburger with lettuce and tomato so that's not as bad as it could have been. Even a cheeseburger is 300 calories though, and hubby had 2! Then we went home and I was still hungry so I had the left over pizza in the fridge. I didn't even like that kind! It didn't satisfy me or hit and cravings or anything. Just a mindless eating what's available. oops. Then hubby made himself some popcorn (he makes it with tons of butter and then all these spices - ew) So I had a cottage cheese smoothie. That filled me up much better. And when I was full I passed it on to him instead of forcing it down. So really I didn't do too bad. Seems like just describing that, hubby ate like crap! That's why he's packing on the pounds and i'm dropping them! (which is sad, I was just thinking last night, looking at old scrapbooks, that hubby was so handsome when we got married, and he looked so good just 10 lbs ago. It's all in his puffy cheeks. What a terrible thing to think, I'd hate if he thought that about me. oh well, it's honest. and he probably did! I still love him, just think he was better looking thinner.)
Well today didn't start out any better than the weekend. I didn't plan lunch too much ahead so I just grabbed leftover spaghetti and meatballs from last week. Tried to make it small and almost everything else was fruit. Also a protein and yogurt and cheese string. Up the protein for my weights tonight. Actually I just did it because it fills me up better than just fruit. Oh shoot. speaking of which. I forgot about the birthday cake I made for my SIL. but it's only angelfood cake and raspberries (lots of fibre!) and whipped topping. not too bad. but another thing I ate on Sunday. Boo Sunday food! Well today is back on track. supper is going to be hamburgers and salad. I don't really like homemade hamburgers so I'll probably just have half and my salad. Then I've got my kickboxing/weight class again tonight! yay! So I'm going to try and eat less before so I can have a post workout snack. I'm not really hungry afterwards but I've heard that getting something after a workout is important for your muscles to rebuild. I dunno. I do a lot of stuff "I've heard" that I don't understand. If anybody does understand clue me in!
So I'm so glad this challenge is on and i'm starting to feel better! My own mini challenge this week is going to be to get exercise of some kind in every single day (assuming I feel healthy all week). It can be just walking the dog (which I've been neglecting) or my classes, or elliptical now that tv is back, or all out HIIT which I hope to do at least once this week. EVEN THE WEEKEND! How 'bout it fellow challengers? Are you with me? If so post in the comments and post about it on your blogs!
oh yeah, speaking of blogs. Can everyone please click their name on my sidebar thing and make sure it takes you to your page? I know some of them don't work cause I don't have them! Also everybody click on somebody else's page and get to know your fellow challengers! It would be great if everyone could post a comment on just 1 other challenger's blog. Don't make me assign buddies now! you're big girls let's meet each other!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Welcome to the Christmas Challenge!

Now may I please direct you to Carolyn's blog for this week's installment. My turn next friday. And please be patient with Carolyn, she's very busy at work (at her government job?) and it actually on the road today, so (horrors!) has to post when she gets...HOME! I can't imagine. Carry on reading for my regular randomness (and not just for friday)
So as it's friday and as it's Christmas Challenge official weigh in day as well, I weighed in. Booo! hiss! 142.4. Can you gain 1.8 lbs in a week? you betcha. Did I? looks like it. However, a few things to consider: last friday's could have been a fluke. TOM is approaching. I'm sick. I kicked serious weight lifting butt and maybe gained muscle. I also ate like sh*t and probably did gain 1.8 lbs of fat. oh well. As I mentioned to somebody already today: If this gain is a "false" reading (aka, water, TOM, sick etc) then it should fall off pretty quickly and set me off to a running start in the challenge. we'll see. I took measurements this morning, and while I'm not posting them (forgot them at home) I remember some of it. Generally I lost .25 to 1/2 inch in my hips and belly button and bust (under boobs) but gained .25 to 1/2 inch in my chest (over boobs) and thigh and neck. Could I have swollen glands making my neck bigger? maybe. Could the leg and chest gain be due to the fact that these are the muscles that were the sorest after my workouts monday and wednesday? maybe. It may all be explainable. (I know that's probably not a word, but it's never bothered you before!)
I am wearing some jeans that would never have fit back in May and even with a fitted shirt, everything looked very nice. I'm at a happy size/weight. Though I do want to lose those last 10 lbs, I think I'd be ok if my overall, long term weight was between this and that last 10. Somewhere around 135. I guess one size down from here would be nice. Somewhere solidly in the mediums, no more larges.
So plan for the weekend? eat less. Exercise more. if I can. I did just run to the mall over lunch, I walked around which got my breathing up a bit and irritated my throat. So I ate another fibre bar (on top of my lunch) and bought an orange juice. Normally I stay away from OJ as it's pure sugar and doesn't fill you up much. Plus one bottle of minute maid is like 250 calories. But as a treat when i'm sick I guess it's ok. I'm sipping. Plus I bought little candies to suck on. that was unnecessary. I've got medicine type ones, I didn't need sugar type ones. oh well. Limit them to 5 (100 calories) should be ok. I don't normally feel so bad, but my dayquill is wearing off so it's all feeling yucky at once. bad time to shop.
I really hope that gain is muscle, that should increase my metabolism and thus decrease my weight. as long as I can get my eating under control. It's not terrible, good choices, but I'm like having seconds of everything. or desserts for every meal. Or orange juice and chocolate pudding for no meal. grr...At least i'm not a big ice cream person or that would have definately been a 4 lb gain. Why can't carrots make throats feel better?
ok. sorta big weekend that i'm probably skipping out on. Friend's 30th bday tonight, supper and bowling, probably won't be going. saturday I'm heading to my folk's house to pick potatoes - by myself, boring! but I guess some bonus exercise in a way. then SIL's having a scrapbook party. fun. then home. and other SIL is having her 21st bday party (not that big of a deal here, drinking age is 19) in a bar. Again, hubby thinks we're going, but I doubt I'll make it. Especially with my no drinking rule that's being reinforced. Sick with drunks our late = bad. (sick with hangover= worse). Sunday there's nothing planned so hopefully it will involve people making me soup and flipping channels for me. ahhh...
This really sucks, I wanna be out there doing sprint intervals to get a loss! Boo!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

can I have a chocolate pudding to make my throat feel better without feeling guilty? Do I just wanna eat and am using my throat as an excuse? Impossible to tell at this point.
Check out my new favorite doctor blog: Dr Ding Particularly this post about positive thinking (basically). She puts exactly my opinions down in a way that makes sense and seems smart. Instead of my usual "well, it's cause, it like really works ya know?" And I swear to God, I sound like that a lot. (of course I come of all clever and intellectual to folks right?)

still sick but no sleep

So I went home yesterday around 2 from work. Stopped to get some yogurt to make me feel better. Then I was trying to sleep. But the thing is, I felt guilty. I was only sorta sick. But I didn't have anything to do at work (well my thesis) and my mind was just fuzzy so I'd stare at the page for 1/2 an hour not even blinking and not write a thing. So I went home. I was basically acting like I was falling asleep at work. but I got home to go to sleep and couldn't. I watched Oprah and then Gone with the Wind (good sicky movie). And I ate. I ate everything I could think of to make my throat feel better and more. I wasn't hungry. My throat probably would have been satisfied drinking water. But I pigged out on yogurt. and more yogurt. not the worst thing but I ate a lot. At least it wasn't ice cream. Then I still made supper and ate it. Quite healthy but still. (asian chicken and slaw, recipe from Kraft). Then as I wasn't feeling any worse or any better (it was just this irritating tickle in my throat and the fuzzy brain) I still went to my fitness class. Wednesday's are advanced step for 1 hr and then some upper body weights. It was good. Once I got moving I felt fine. (hammies were still sore from Monday!) The class wasn't too tough (thank you HIIT!) but it was probably because I was trying to learn the steps. Once i've got them (same every week) I'll be able to add jumps etc. Then home and shower and bed. But again - I couldn't sleep! TMI AHEAD! (wish somebody would have warned me!) I heard SIL and her boyfriend in bed - yeah. Sorta funny but I just can't look at them now! Then hubby came home and brought me a get well package with lotion tissues and soup in a mug and a magazine and a candle and "happy" buttons and a bunch of cute stuff like that. What a sweetie. (why he couldn't have been home and making me soup all night is another story!) So after that he wanted to read in bed (he's a night owl, I'm not) so I couldn't fall asleep with the light on in my sick state so when he finally went to sleep I still couldn't fall asleep because I just couldn't get comfy and my throat hurt! I even took night time medicine! So this morning I was super tired and felt a little sick still so I called in and said I was sleeping in and would be in at noon. But again, I couldn't fall back to sleep so I read my magazine and ate breakfast - and heard my SIL going at it again! Sheesh! This time was a little more noisy, I think they either thought I was asleep or didn't know I stayed home. And I didn't know if it was better for me to walk around and make noise like nothing was happening, or if I should just be quiet and pretend I was sleeping. Soooo awkward! (besides which - if I'm not doing that in my own house, sure annoying that she is!) So I finally just came to work at 10:00. but again, there's nothing for me to be really doing here so I'm working on my thesis with a fuzzy brain again. blah.
Tonight if it's not raining I want to walk my dog. she's been acting crazy lately and it's because we haven't really walked her in a week. If I'm feeling better maybe a jog, I want to listen to my new tunes on my mp3 player. Food's a little better today. well sorta. Breakfast I decided to eat twice. First was a bowl of miniwheats (carbs and sugar!) and then was 2 peanut butter and honey toasts (carbs and sugar!) But lunch is leftover chicken and salad with a cup-a-soup and maybe a protein bar or some plums. If I don't eat them now, they're snack this afternoon.
Hopefully I can either just get good and sick and get it over with (and not eat for a day or 2, or else limit pigging out to a day or two) or it just goes away all together. but I don't like this sorta sick thing. I'd love to go home again today but I'd feel like i'm just playing hooky. I can totally do my job (if I had anything to do!) and I just watch movies and have fun at home = guilty. I really hope that I start smartening up soon! Christmas challenge starts tomorrow! (need to know goals today!) I sorta feel like since it's half my challenge (and half Carolyn's) that I shouldn't totally suck at it. Especially since I now have the reputation as some sort of ass-kicking exercise and diet nazi! (thanks katieo! lol). If i'm expected to get on everyone's asses about eating donuts and skipping the gym (which I gladly will!) it wouldn't look to good if I ate nothing but sugar cereal for 6 meals a day! Besides which I'm pretty sure I'm at least a pound heavier than my supposed starting weight from last week which means i've got even more than 10 lbs to go in 14 weeks. Not terrible, except for the fact that I've been stalled right here with no losses for several weeks! eek! It is completely helping though I've got to say, this little bit of pressure I'm feeling. so don't apologize folks! I need you relying on me, hopefully my own conscience will not let me be a hypocrite and slack on my own eating and exercising. I just need to get over this itty bitty cold that's got me! It's like some kind of devil sitting on my (other) shoulder telling me to make the cold go away I need lots of energy in the form of sugary drinks and candy. Hopefully I can flick that little guy away pronto!
ok challengers, last call! get your goals in to us today (or sign up if you haven't)! We've got a huge group already girlies, lots of support and love all around. for the challenge we only require a weight lost by Christmas (10 lbs!). but for your own personal knowledge you may want to take measurements and a before picture. I don't care if you don't like getting your picture taken or think you're too fat. It's a BEFORE! talk to people who've lost a lot of weight. They all wish they took before pictures to help see how far they've come! If you don't take a before, you're before will always be your current I think. ( oh I'm so deep huh? I told you fuzzy brain sickness!)

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I'm sick

I'm sick, going home from work to sleep. no blog today sorry. Be back tomorrow (hopefully). Get me your info for the challenge!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Yay fitness classes!

So as I have no children and am kinda out of school myself (part time grad student who spends no time on grad studies but pays half tuition - woohoo) fall has come to have far less meaning that it once did. I used to love/hate it. Obviously no more summer freedom and beaches and barbeques, and now it was getting colder and darker. But you got to see your friends again, and buy new school supplies and get back in routine. Well I have at least part of that still. The routine bit. And what is my routine? Back to a) fall tv :P and b) Fitness Classes! Yay! This year I'm going to both my regular monday night everythign class, but a wednesday night everything class as well. I had the monday last night (duh, it was monday).

So it was a combat/weight class. And we had some super cool combat routine things. Like muay tai where you punch with your forearms and elbows. Weird but cool. My sister and SIL came too so that was nice, normally I'm all alone. (like I will be wed) However the class was huge and there were tons of newbies who may not continue. The first class you can try for free. I hope they don't. it was crowded. It was a pretty good class, not as hard as usual because she had to show the moves and explain stuff and whatever. I hope that it gets sorted out quick because there was 1 more cardio track and we skipped lunges because of time. I was sweating like ridiculous but the cardio part wasn't killer huffing and puffing wise. It was nice to push in the squats and stuff again. (she does a full song worth of each muscle, a full 3.5 minute song of squats in different speeds and foot positions, a full 3.5 minutes of tricepts, etc it's great). So the body parts that are killing me today are my hamstrings, they get neglected at home, and my tricepts, I kept the weight way high. Plus some general feeling all the muscles of the body. Things like brushing hair and putting shoes on remind me of what we worked out. I'm excited to go wednesday already because last year I basically did just the 1 strength thing per week which really isn't effective. Now I've got 2 for sure and hopefully can fit my own in on friday or saturdays.

Eating's been alright. I thought I'd be starving today because I ate all my lunch in 2.5 seconds so I also ate afternoon snack. But i've still got a kiwi and tiny plum left and haven't eaten them and it's past snack time. Just timing I guess. I had left over chicken. I never have just meat for lunch, always with the side. So this was more chicken than usual, but it was just plain chicken breast, (marinated in fat free dressing). really good. I think it's important to get enough protein when your muscles are sore, sore muscles are rebuilding and you need protein for that.

oh guess what? I bought myself a lunch kit purse. On sale for $5 from the grocery store. Super cute. looks like this (but with black handles) I was worried all my food wouldn't fit but it did! yay!
what else is new? I'm fighting off a cold. Just felt it coming on this morning. Gonna try and hit the sack early (even earlier than 10:00 which is my usual) tonight. Don't have any plans except dishes and general kitchen cleaning.
Dont' think I'll see a loss this week. I know it's only tuesday but I just don't feel skinnier, despite the biking on the weekend, I think I gained. Stupid set point. I've heard other people having this problem right now too. anybody have any "cures" ? Hopefully after I get through this, my next set point won't be until goal! Which I'll be hitting by Christmas because I'm participating in the Christmas Challenge! Are you?

Calling you out!

Excuse me?
Candace, Bridget, Shannon, and Sherijung? And I've decided Katieo too, (even if you don't feel like it now, you have 98 days to feel like it!). I believe you expressed interest in a Christmas Challenge (put on by Carolyn and yours truly) yet didn't post a comment on that posting! So I'm calling you out! no hiding from me! You're in! The deal is it's your own challenge. I personally want to get to goal by Christmas (10.6 lbs). But yours can be whatever weight you want. If it's just 5 lbs down or 20, whatever. Pick something attainable but yet challenging (hello it's a challenge) and give it to me in the comments! (Dizzy you too, I don't have your goal). Gimme starting weight and goal weight please. Weigh ins will be friday (though if you want to use another day that's probably fine, but we'll be taking them on fridays) and results will be shown on Mondays. So I guess officially it starts friday! Please get me your info ASAP so Carolyn and I can start making up fun little things and get ridiculously out of proportionaly excited for this.
ps- anybody else who wants to join is more than welcome! Just let me know your starting weight and your goal weight!

Monday, September 17, 2007

my man strikes again

Working your butt off but hitting a plateau? Don't have time for strength training but wondering why you're not losing? ta da! Again Alwyn Cosgrove gives us the answer!

Why do you care about when Christmas is?

Here's why:
Christmas Challenge 2007!
Make and meet a goal by Christmas!
My personal goal is to be AT goal by Christmas. You can have the same or something else. This is something Carolyn and I are doing - and of course whoever else wants to join! We don't know the details (I've never made a challenge before!) but basically it's going to be to get to your own personal goal (whether it's goal goal or just a Christmas goal - so no excuses you can do it). So we'll all weigh in weekly and post stats on our sites (maybe not everyone's, but just highlight certain amazingments). If you're interested in joining please comment saying so. Also any ideas you've got for the challenge. It'll just be an extra bit of accountability for us, to have somebody ride your ass when you need it (um, please also comment if you don't want me to do that, I can be a total b*tch sometimes) and somebody to notice and congratulate you for taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Also, it's a challenge so it will be challenging and we want you to do your best to make your goal, but this is not a requirement! If you miss your goal by 3 lbs or whatever, just tweak your goal a bit and make a New Year's challenge. No negativity here. But talking about not making goal is sorta negative so I'm done that, of course we're all going to make our goals!
So I'm really excited for this and I hope at least some of you are too. Think - being able to go to Christmas parties wearing something cute. Taking family pictures on Christmas morning and not being embarrassed about your weight. Having a plan for eating through the holidays not only not gaining, but losing weight. It is going to be sweet.* So since Carolyn and I both weigh in on fridays I think we decided that is going to be the kick off. You can weigh in whenever you want but friday's would make it easier (we'll do the post friday I think).
(Again, sorry if I'm speaking for you Carolyn, these are just my ideas).
OK everybody! Sign up now!!! (name and goal please, weights on friday)

*sweetened with Sucralose.

da dada da dum

dadadadada dum! (anybody else know that song?)
so I have so much to say. I'll split it into 2 posts. Draw out the suspense.
First of all my weekend. I rode 62 km on a bike saturday! YAY ME! There were many many stops and rests etc. It took 5.5 hours with really only 3 hours of biking or so. But it felt like more than that on my butt! ouchy! Next year I've got to build up some calluses or something. The actual riding wasn't too bad. I was quite impressed with my ability. I think it was my pain tolerance actually. I could easily climb hills without downshifting just because I decided to and would bust it out. The people I rode with, not saying they aren't in shape, but aren't in shape to push it. (thank you HIIT) If we weren't trying to stick together I wonder how I would have done. Not that it's a race. with all those stops, and activities at every stop (nature hike, golf challenge, kayaking) But we were like the 2nd team to go out and pretty much the last team back. oh well. We did try and ride together and would wait for everyone at each rest stop so we were only as fast as our slowest rider (may have been my hubby). Some of the other people had serious bikes with shoe clips and road tires. I was riding my sportchek clearance bike. (hubby was riding my sister's bike as he doesn't even have one!) So I'm pretty proud of us. I also raised the most money on our team and got a pair of socks and a gift certificate out of it.
Just about everybody had some sort of bell or horn on their bike. I caught a little kid's squeeky toy thing they were throwing out at the beginning and hubby caught a tambourine. So as we were finishing the route we all started making noise and hooting and hollering. And since most people were done already there were tons of people around the finish who all started cheering for us as we were getting closer. It was so exciting. I was glad I had my dark shades on as I started tearing up. I don't know why, all sorts of people had done this and we were taking rests and stops whenever we needed. were going quite leisurely for the last half especially. but to even finish a route like that (one guy on our team never) and keep going to the end when you didn't have to, I guess it was sort of a big deal. They handed out trophies and flowers at the end to everyone so that felt really cool.
We didn't eat the healthiest but I didn't worry about it as we did a lot of exercise. Burgers on the way up. No fries for me, just a few bites of honey's poutine (which was probably worse!). Saturday I had a bunch of muffins and bananas before biking. Then they had snacks like granola bars (the sugary ones) at every stop. I managed to bring and eat a protein bar (like the only protein I got!) Lunch was buns, I had 2 big buns and some veggies and dip. I regretted it as we had to hop on the bikes right after and it wasn't sitting very good. Supper was burgers and salads which were fine. and cake. I ate a lot of cake. oh well. Plus then the only snack food we had that night was Doritos. So I ate that. and cookies that one guy's mom made. Yum. You know me and cookies. So after supper and a nap and a shower I was feeling 100% again, other people weren't so they started in on the beer, then they were feeling 110%. In total I had 4 drinks saturday night. But I was already dehdrated and who knows what else from the ride so it hit me. I had a blast dancing at the bar after too. Every song, even if just at our table I would hop around. (there was a swing type band where you wanted to do jazz hands for every song) It was a lot of fun. After the bar closed we had a fire back at the camp and then when most people went to bed, 3 of us decided to go on a stumble. Now at this park they make you put all your coolers and food in vehicles overnight so you don't attract bears, plus, it's rutting season for elk so you have to avoid them too. And we decide to go on a stumble to the beach to look at the beautiful stars. (which were beautiful). And we decide to go with no flashlight. and we only sort of know the way, as in we know there's an over grown path through the forest. It was soo spooky, but we were in the giggly spooky laughing way, like when you're 13 and then some boys jump out and scare you and you scream and then run away giggling even more. I was holding the other girl's hand and we made the boy walk infront of us. It was soooo fun! We made it to the beach and back in one piece and then went to bed. Sunday we just woke up, I had more muffins for breakfast as I'm not a big bacon eater and plus I didn't want to mooch off everyone else (since nobody told me what to bring or what to pay for or anything). Then we stopped for ice cream after taking down the tents etc. and I got a danish at the bakery as i'm a sucker for donut-like things. Again, we didnt' bring enough water and I hate buying it at 2 bucks a bottle so I didn't drink enough the next day either. So my rings are tight and everything is bloated and I probably gained a whole bunch of weight (well I know I did, I cheated and stepped on the scale. but I don't pay much attention to the number unless it's friday, it was like 8 lbs heavier, so I know it wasn't all fat) With the booze and dehydration and the chips and salt, I know there's a lot of retention going on. So hopefully a few good days full of water and light on food will have me back down to my normal number for friday, if not even less. Because i've got something else going on....but that's the next post....

Friday, September 14, 2007

ok so I'm an idiot - again

I seem to remember something like this happening before. Being all annoyed about a rut and stuck on a number and over analyzing (my favorite) and excusing (my least favorite) that number. Come up with a plan for next week, and wake up with a loss. Well family, I've had a loss. Now don't I look like a tool? Well at least it's a skinny tool!
YIPPEE! scale said 140.6. New all time low! How it got there I'll never know as I have been pretty bad on the eating front (volume not content) and only exercised once this week (WTF?). But this time I'm not going to analyze it, I'm just going to take it and be happy. So yay! It's a 1.4 lb loss from monday. I think. Wow that was extreme. Whatever.
So this is setting me up great. i'm still planning on doing my new kick ass plan when I get home from this biking thing so that's only 10.6 lbs to go. Carolyn mentioned how she's thinking of setting up a challenge of getting to goal by Christmas (14 weeks!) If anybody has around 10-20 lbs they'd like to lose then it's an achievable goal right? (Sorry Carolyn if I put words in your mouth, I'll totally organize this challenge if you want.) So if anybody wants to join a Christmas Challenge and get to goal by or before Christmas, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can come up with. If you'd just like to get to a mini-goal by then too that's great. Let me know how many pounds you want to lose by Christmas in your comment. Official challenger or not, it's interesting to see our goals!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

my commentors are so cute

I have no idea how to spell commentors (commenters?) if it's even a word so I put it in the way where it's got this double meanning, get it? Co(m)mentors?
You guys are awesome. I don't know what's up with me, though perhaps it's just part of the cycle (check out crabby's post, i'm not the only one).
I'm not sure if you guys read each other's comments but if not I want you to hear what katieo said:

" I just have to trust that it's working, and stop checking so frequently."

DINGDINGDINGDING! You are correct! As for the pigging out and
impatience. We've ALL been there. What you do right now with those
expectations and whether or not you can CHILL out and ride through this - imo, that's the difference between success and *trying.* You're naturally
positive, so naturally THIS is where it counts!! When the scale's NOT
moving, when you DON'T feel like working out, When you're tempted to be
impatient and get discouraged. Just ride it out, it WON'T last forever. I
think the goals are great. When I feel a little laggy I sometimes come up
with a couple little mini-goals to scoot up the gratification. You're
awesome Randi, You KNOW you're awesome, you'll totally reach goal, and
probably well before Christmas too. Slow and steady wins the race girl.


Why did I love that comment? Probably because she called me awesome. Or maybe because she told me that I'm right and made a nice dingy noise. Or maybe because SHE's right and SHE'S awesome? I don't want to just "try" I want to succeed. Regardless of what the name of this blog is. That's just my point though. When I started it, I wanted to lose weight, but I'd "tried" a million things before. I thought I was just going to "try" this too. But it turned out it worked. Works. I'm working. A work in progress. I do have to get out of the attitude of ho hum this doesn't work any more. Because honestly I haven't been working any more. If I just stick to what works and forget the scale and forget the minutia, it will work. in it's own time. So I want to say a great big GIANT thank you to Katieo for that little pick me up. You have been there right from the beginning of this path of mine and always manage to say something that brightens my day. I wish we knew each other in real life, I think you would be a great friend.
Ok wipe your tears freaktards and get back to work! Or I'll get back to work. Well not work but just not sending out rainbows and unicorn tears any more. Wanna hear a new theory I had? Why I'm having all these issues with pigging out? Set point. What's set point? it's where your body wants to be. (not wants to be because it's healthiest and prettiest and best, but wants to be because that's the lowest it's really been comfortable at before and it doesn't like change) My used to be standard weight was 140-ish. Was around 140-ish for probably 7 years, with very little fluctuation. Maybe 5 lbs here and there. Well right now I'm knocking on the door of the 130's, every time I get close, I lose all will power and bounce back up. (or bounce back up even though I'm doing everything fine!) So what can I do about it? Well if you want to be experimental about it, you can try drinking olive oil or sugar water to somehow trick your body but giving it calories without flavour. I really don't understand this but it's a diet I heard on Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy podcast. It's called the Shangri-La diet. But I'm not buying. So what do I do instead? I don't know. So far the plan is to wait it out. But i'm going to be a little more patient with it, since I think I know what it is. Besides I'm about to roll over into my new fall schedule.
What is my fall schedule? Well next monday I've got my fitness classes starting! Yay! Monday and Wednesday for 1.5 hours each a combo of strength and cardio taught by this awesome chicky. She's got like a cheerleader body but she's got teenage kids. She's really cool. And my sister may be joining me in my class sometimes so even more fun. Plus, it's getting dark out earlier so I want to get to bed earlier. good. less evening temptation. I've also got fall tv coming up, which means, less outdoor exercise, but more elliptical! I basically have 1 show every day I watch while ellipsing. so 1/2 to an hour a day. and time flies! So this week is sort of a wash (with the weather as well) and I've got my big bike ride on Saturday. So I'll just keep an eye on the eating, do my best, and just get a hint of activity before the bike ride, and I'll totally start kicking butt again monday! (now I'm not saying, the new diet starts monday, or something like that because I hate when people do that. I'm just saying I'm not going to worry about it and just do as I am until monday when things will naturally pick up and hopefully provide motivation)
Basically it's just today that's left anyway as we leave tomorrow for the lake where the biking's at and stay until sunday.
This post is too long so I'll just quickly summarize food:
breakfast - new fibre cereal, measured out serving, with skim milk, ~270 calories. banana eatten 1 hour later.
lunch - leftover chicken breast and green beans, yogurt, melon, carrots
snack - apple (which was eatten shortly after lunch, so afternoon hunger hits I'll be digging in the nut bag)
It was my first attempt at bringing 1 less food than normal. And it's not that I'm that hungry at lunch, it's just that I'm used to eating for that amount of time I think. Gradually wean myself from that.
supper - SIL is home all day so her choice. Might just be soup and sandwiches though if she doesn't do anything. It's cold out, soup would be nice.

Why I'm awesome #291 - last night I bought a programmable thermostat and installed it all by myself. Did wiring, electricity stuff, used a drill, hammer, level, wall anchors, screwdrivers, pliers. and all in the dark as I turned the power off so I wouldn't electrocute myself. but it all worked! yay me!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

poll question!

I'm not clever enough to figure out a fancy way to do this so just let me know in comments:
What do you prefer for yourself (more flattering):
profile
head on
some angle
butt shot ?

I always used to prefer the head on, but when I started losing weight I'm liking the profile more and more. you?

fu-ood

breakfast - big one! scrambled egg whites, 2 wasa breads, feta cheese, tomatoes
snack - another big one! cottage cheese smoothie, black bean brownie
lunch - guess what? big one! more cottage cheese smoothie (drinking it took from 11 until noon.) homemade beef veggie soup, carrots and hummus. ok not big but I'm super full.
snack - will be yogurt and a kiwi
supper - pre-planned! and I'm home alone for supper. marinated chicken breasts. and as I'm home alone, couscous, and corn. yay. dessert a banana, glass of milk.
yesterday I pigged out a little again after supper. I said a smoothie for dessert. But after quesadillas I needed something sweet. So I ate a few chocolate eggs (yes left over from easter, but they're wrapped), I wasn't hitting the spot so I had a graham cracker, then some salt water taffy. then some more taffy. jeez. and no exercise. but it was a scheduled off day. though looking at the weather I should have biked yesterday as it's not likely going to happen tonight. rain rain rain.
anyway, tonight is supposed to be a bike ride and my last TT strength session. I feel like it's a high calorie day but that's mostly because I'm so stuffed from my smoothie. It is super filling. lots of fibre and protein in it so hopefully I stay full all day. avoid the unnecessary snacking.
Feels like I'm off plan. I feel like I should be depriving a little more. Don't know...I know my calories are semi-high but they've always been higher. My problem is portions. I do eat completely healthy things (except for sweet craving last night). I know I could never do a core ww plan, (as that's sort of what I do, just with bread and a few other things) because I just eat toooo much! Is it better to eat the same regular foods but only say 3/4 of what you'd normally eat, or just eliminate certain foods and eat the same quantity? I've done the later so far. But I think I need to do the former. I'm going to eat supper's from small plates for the rest of the week. And I'm also going to make my lunch and then take 1 thing away. (for example, get rid of a yogurt, or an apple, approximately 100 calories.) I've got my emergency nut mix in case I'm too starving and didn't bring enough or something. But I always bring enough and always eat everything I've brought. 2 new goals for the next 2 days. try it at least.
Part of the reason I'm in this slump (well feel like I am) is because I'm used to the newer skinnier me. I've already forgotten the 15 lb heavier me from the beginning of summer! This current body is no longer thought of as the new skinny one. It's the regular chubby one. I don't think I've gotten new love handles, perhaps my upper waist is actually skinnier, but I notice them a lot more now! It feels like my muffin top is bigger than before (wearing pants or even just undies!). Maybe it's like I thought before. Fat gets fluffier as you lose weight. fat's not as dense. It's also more skin playing a role, need to let the skin bounce back tighter. Anybody's thoughts?
oh - sherijung - how much splenda? Really don't know, I just pour a little bit. It's gotta be more than 3 packets though. This does make like just about 3 cups, so that's only like 1 tbsp (or tsp or something) per cup. that's what gives it the cheese cake taste, as opposed to just cheese.

Cottage Cheese Smoothie

This is (so far) the only way I can stomach cottage cheese. Tastes like liquid cheese cake or something.

1/2 to 1 cup of cottage cheese
1-ish cup of frozen fruit
3 tablespoons (or more) of splenda
ice

Blend until smooth!
You can also add milk or yogurt if you want to drink it, otherwise it's pretty thick. (or let the ice melt). Also you can put whatever you like for fruit in. Banana, strawberries etc. I use a frozen mixed fruit I got at Costco and sometimes add a banana. I also want to try it with my chocolate protein powder. It's a great breakfast or snack. The key is in the cottage cheese and splenda. I don't really know how much of anything I put in, just adjust until it tastes good. I made it for my family and they insisted on tons and tons of milk and tons of strawberries so you could hardly taste the cheesecakeyness. I personally prefer no milk, only adding it if my blender gets stuck.
This makes about 300 calories worth (depending on milk fat % and exact quantities, this includes banana which is like half the calories almost but no protein powder) and it makes easily 2 servings (150 each) or a large snack you can sip for like an hour. it's got 34 g of protein and 50 g of carbs and with 1% cc and skim milk 4 g of fat.
It tastes like it's so bad for you but it's not, it's just fruit and cottage cheese. very healthy. If anybody else has a cottage cheese recipe, or a smoothie recipe or a go to recipe for something that seems bad but isn't please share!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Countdown...

So thanks to Anne I know that there is only 3 months, 20 days until Christmas. And like her, I have that day as a goal to be at goal. (well obviously I'd like it earlier, mid November would be ideal but being realistic).
And you know what I have been doing alright. But I haven't been doing the things that used to really work. Why have a switched it up? Because I thought it was a cake walk. But I realized it's not. Even if I think I don't do anything differently I must. What am I talking about? Irregular weigh-ins. And not recording weight. Also, no weekly goals. And of course, being happy with any loss and realizing this is a marathon not a sprint! So starting..............NOW I'm back at it. Please help me out if you see me slipping from these. So the goals I want FOREVER that you need to keep me to are:

Friday morning weigh ins. Just worked the best for me.

Blog every day (that I work, not holidays and weekends)

Post weekly goals every monday

Exercise minimum 3 days a week

Eat 5 mini-meals

Monthly measurements (end of month)

Track food - this is a new one for me. i'll just put it in here, i may not check calories etc every time.

I know there's more but that's all I can think of right now. There's not much in there that will actually help me lose weight, just keep track of what I'm doing, much more structured. i'll see when I go off track.
And here's why I need that. I'm slipping. for the first time EVER! I never understood the f*ck it attitude and pigging out. I never got it. The well I already feel off the wagon, I'll start again tomorrow and pig out tonight. Well I had that last night! I just wanted to eat. Well I always want to eat. (I used to say that it's my favorite thing to do). But I'd eaten supper, and dessert, but there was so much good food in my house that I just wanted to try it all. So I ate probably 2 suppers worth last night. My stomach was actually uncomfortable but my mouth liked the taste of the poppy seed loaf and wanted more so I had another slice. I actually felt the little angel and devil on my shoulder. I never hear the devil! So something's going on. therefore I need an intervention. Hence - goals!
Again, as I am a positive person and don't get upset and can find the good in everything, I'm listening to the fitcast right now (podcast, just google it) and it's a guy talking about the Cheat to Lose diet and this pig out could totally help kick start my losses again. Let's hope!
So weekly goals:
- No seconds at any meal. You know what you're planning on eating, stop letting your mouth dictate your stomach!
- Plan out suppers in advance. (I'll do this tonight for the rest of the week)
- Get on the bike at least once (big ride is this weekend!)
- Only weigh in on friday! this couple times a day is messing with my emotions!
- Stay on track on the weekend! I can eat more - as I'll be burning calories and will need the energy. But eat healthy, fresh, unprocessed foods.
- eat cottage cheese 3 times!

I'm definately out of practice for this! I can't think of any goals! I'm going too easy. Hopefully I'll have better ones next week.
here's my food today:
breakfast - chocolate protein and plain yogurt, granola bar (unhealthy one, chocolate chip, this was a dessert for breakfast. that's why there's no seconds allowed this week, I didn't need this extra!)
snack - protein bar
lunch - beef veggie soup from MIL, I think it's fairly healthy. Lots of veggies, broth soup. But I brought a lot, cantaloup, yogurt
snack - black bean brownie, kiwi
supper - beef quesadillas (left over steak) I'll try and load in the onions and peppers, maybe have myself a mostly veggie one with less cheese.
dessert - (I know I'm going to have it!) cottage cheese smoothie! get a goal in with it!

ok, well I feel like this will be alright. I don't think I'm doing badly, I just feel like it should be melting off faster, seeing more changes in my clothes or whatever. I did an informal measurement this morning because I felt like I was getting fatter (the mirror and my eyes told me so) but things haven't increased and there was a slight decrease in a few areas. So I know what I have to do and it's working. My girlie issues seem to be coming out or something ("I feel fat"). I just have to trust that it's working, and stop checking so frequently. Really once a week is PLENTY! Anybody else feel like this ever? How'd you get over it?

Monday, September 10, 2007

I know I promised but....

So I broke a few promises it turns out. My little experiment was a failure. Well not a failure. but not quite what I wanted. I know I promised I'd be ok if I didn't make my goal and I am ok. But I had hoped for a little more than I got. I weighed in this morning and it was 142.0. So I only lost like 0.6 lbs. And it was a hard core week. But then again, was it? I did run every day of the week. But not at all on the weekend (broken promise 2). I also said all my snacks would be fruit or yogurt, but I had 2 bad days during the week, with cookies and banana bread (promise 3). Plus saturday and sunday, while generally healthy and not calorie fests, involved more banana bread and more cookies and honey with my pb toast and then jam a different time. I was already treating with the pb toast compared to wasa bread or whatever. So I would say it was more of a typical week except for like 1 or 2 extra runs. and I don't know what I thought no bread during the week was going to do. I think when I eat bread I eat more calories as I put pb and jam or honey and a banana. just too starchy and calorie-y. what else did I do? that's basically all. I did get lots of sleep. but I always do. So I guess a 0.6 loss in a week or weekend (the scale's been so random it's hard to say) is pretty good.
anyway. the weekend was alright. I didn't get every fun thing I wanted to do done. But I did revel in my aloneness. I rented movies friday and cut the grass and picked up poop and snuggled with Daisy. I watched Breach which isn't a chick flick but is my kind of movie and not hubby's kind of movie so I wouldn't really watch it except alone. It was really good. monday I went to the farmer's market early in the morning. I bought myself some flowers, made up my own bouquet for $2.50. and bought some buns from this old lady with a moustache for my potluck later one, and bought a lemon verbena plant because mine is dying. Pretty cool. I wanted to buy potatoes and beans and stuff but it was so expensive. I know I could support local growers and organic and blah blah blah, but instead when I was done there I went to Sobeys for Dollar days and bought the rest of the groceries I needed. So I got home around noon and watched a few Entourages. Read some books and magazines and made some fancy orange juice punch and rosemary potatoes for the potluck with I had at 6:00. I also harvested my garden. I took some pictures so I'll try and put them up. I have a garden the size of most people's cucumber patch. My 3 cucumber plants took over half of my garden. I planted lots of stuff but quite a bit just died as I forgot to water during a key growth stage or something. I had 2 tomato plants grow and got about 15 good size tomatoes off it. 1 hot pepper plant and it had 24 peppers on it (holy crap) and 3 mini bell pepper plants that gave my 1 small pepper and 4 the size of raspberries. I had a lot of onions planted that looked great in July but some how they all shrunk or disappeared or the dog ate them because I found one in the lawn the dog was chewing on that was normal sized, but all that I picked were barely bigger than what I planted! I also had a bunch of garlic. And too many cucumbers. Just a few carrots. I felt so cool having produced my own food. Not tons but enough for a few meals. Sunday I made salsa out of it. Well I used canned tomatoes as most of mine were still green. All of my onions. half of my peppers. I was nervous about it. And I was nervous about canning since I'd never done it before and was scared of botulism or whatever. Anyway it turned out really well and even tasted good and all but 1 jar sealed. I also went to a buddy's on Sunday to watch the Rider game which turned out TERRIBLE! the one game I watch of our 1st place team who were on a 6 game win streak or something. We lose. Badly. Very badly. we never even had the ball. Disappointing. Then sunday night hubby got home and we just a great night alone together (as SIL didn't get home until later). It was very family feeling. We walked the dog together which always makes me feel family like. So cute. Anyway, he brought home a ton of leftovers from hunting and was craving nachos (and wanted to try my salsa) so he made some with cheese and chips and everything and I had a few. So there's promise #4 - no cheese, that I broke. So no wonder I didn't lose 2 lbs! Plus I had some poppyseed loaf and more cookies. oh well. I did eat quite good for the past week and I much prefer one splurge day to the same food spread out over a week.
Anyway. I've got a meeting now so I may post later if I remember anything else.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Official day

So it's the official weigh in friday for me. And I got a 141.8. I don't feel bad about it though. I feel like that's an authentic number. As in, before when I'd see 141.0 it was a bit of a suprise and I didn't really feel like I was there. Then the next day when I'd see 142.6 I was dissapointed because it looked like nearly a 3 lb gain, but it was probably a more realistic number. If that is the case. Then I acutally had a loss. So in my continuing habit of always being happy and looking on the bright side, that's what I'm going with! yay! a loss!
Though it isn't looking good for a big number monday morning. I mean a small number. I think if I can just be down at all from 141 I'll be happy. I haven't really done a lot different this week. No bread for breakfast is starting to bug me, thank goodness tomorrow is weekend when it's allowed. I don't know why I make up these strange rules. I just think I eat too many calories when I eat bread for breaky. I always do 2 slices w/ pb and a banana. Compared to wasa bread with the same it's too much. I had eggs one day and this morning was yogurt with protein powder. I just have to be more creative to think of things besides the old standard. The other thing that's slightly different is a run every day. though I was almost doing that, it wasn't official. It was too cold this morning for me (chicken) but I promise I'll do a quick run tonight. even if it's raining. (which it didn't yesterday)
Running yesterday I did intervals. And i changed it up, i did 1.5 sprint and 1.5 recovery (compared to 1 and 2 before) it was great. I did 5 intervals instead of my usual 4 as well. It was great. I had gotten quite used to the 1 minute and 2 minutes recovery was really long. So this was a nice challenge again. Yet nothign I couldn't handle. I hope this means I'm actually in kick ass shape (my cardiovascular fitness and endurance and whatever else) I may not quite look it, but I feel like I am an athlete. I love being able to go faster or longer or higher than other people with out wimping out. Hence my love of the armwrestle?
anyway. I've been doing some snacking that wasn't great on both the past 2 nights. I had my cookie incident first, then last night with my strawberry snack I had some banana choclate chip bread. I'm the idiot who made it and I hate when things go bad. And when i'm home alone, who did I expect to eat it. I suppose it might be slightly healthier than straight out cake. But frankly I just don't need the sugar!
Food today was much better, like I said, protein yogurt for breaky, and a banana. lunch was left over lean cuisine from last night (I checked it out and it's really low calorie, like 230 for half a bag. I ate more than half last night so we'll say 200 for lunch. Sodium was 35% of RDI though. ouch) Plus of course a yogurt, cantaloup and veggies and hummus. Probably a 450 cal lunch. That's aiming high I think. I've still got a pear for snack if I think I need it, plus my emergency mixed nuts for the drive home. But remember we're doing office drinks (we only do this like 6 times a year max) so I needed to save some cal's for that. Supper today I don't know. Tonight is my home alone night so I'm planning on eating snacks and watching movies as well as working out. Maybe I'll just have toast. And I think some soup as it's so chilly. That should be low cal so I can have my cheeca crisps or (a few) chips and salsa. no cheese though! I'm craving some salt. hopefully it will be out of my system by monday though!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm super excited for mine. besides working out I'm going to clean up the yard, get rid of my dead flowers etc. seed some more grass in the bare areas. clean up puppy poop. Going to the farmer's market tomorrow morning. that should be awesome. gonna read some books and hopefully scrapbook a few pages. yay! I hope you all do something fun too!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

workin'

Well I feel much better about work. I got in a crap load of time on my thesis. As well as sorta figuring out that model from yesterday. Now tomorrow I just have to write up a little memo and it's all good. Plus I found out that tomorrow we'll be doing an office outting at 4:00 to the bar for drinks and nasty food. I'm not worried. I'll have 1 drink and minimal food. I don't tend to eat bar food very much, especially in front of other people. a) I don't like it much and b) I remember how completely horrible most of it is for you. I'll try and remember that when I'm planning food for tomorrow as well. No afternoon snack.
Well last night did my strength training. Had a minor run in with some cookies but I'm over it. Just have to hide them. Outta sight outta mind. supper was pretty light anyway, 1 salmon filet and 1/2 plate of peas. mmm peas. And of course milk and a banana. If I have bananas i'll eat 3 a day. Not the greatest fruit to have, quite starchy. But hey, still a fruit, it's got vitamins etc. Ready for my run tonight. Well that's not quite true. I'm not looking forward to it. I just wanna veg. But I'll do it anyway. It's sorta yucky outside. making me feel blah. like popcorn and movies. But I also enjoy the few runs I've had in the rain. (one I was balling my face off and everytime I'd feel a new sob coming on I'd run even faster. that's a long story but one of the greatest runs i've ever had, all in pouring rain) So I'll put a few good tunes on and do some HIIT. Then, I'll get up and do a quick regular jog tomorrow morning. Just 15 minutes or something. I hate being rushed in the morning and heaven forbid I wake up earlier! hehe.
I have been going to bed before 10:00 for the last couple nights and loving it. I love waking up halfway ready to get up. That's like 8.5 hours a night. I know that my body will gladly accept 9 or 10 hours, that's what it was when I was a student and didn't have class until 9:30. HEAVEN!
anyway. scale's so far not cooperating with my little plan. i know it's only been a couple days but still. Showing me that 142.something instead of even a 141 something. Long way to 140. I'll keep trucking.
Other news...pretty much ready to step it up in TT. I've been doing beginner bodyweight exercises and I think I need to move on to intermediate. Some of these things are just too easy. Lunges and squats for example, with no weights I'm just breezing through them. Need to up the ante. But then again, I've got my bike ride at the end of next week. Dont' want to be sore going in to it. And then the week after my classes start and that will be my weight training. It's 1/2 hour tae boxing and 1 hr weights on monday, then 1 hour step and 1/2 hour weights on wednesday. I may through in a second weight thing on friday or saturday. But when you do full body you have to have a day off in between for recovery. so only if it fits in my schedule. I would really like to though as she does high reps lower weights in her class and I'd like to mix it up with some heavy weigts and low reps (as I hear that's important). I also think it's back to elliptical for the winter. It's better than nothing right. I do it while I watch tv. So just about every night for at least 1/2 hour. I still have my cardio from my class and a pile of DVDs. Again, I need to get a jump rope for some intervals on weekends. Anybody know where you can find a decent jump rope for cheap? nothing fancy. just an adult sized one. I could steal one from a school maybe. hehe.
Hubby keeps talking about wanting to lose some weight and since I have he feels bad about himself. I'm trying not to tell him to drop a few pounds but rather if he wants to do something about it I can help him. because you can't make somebody want to lose weight and that's where it all comes down to. I don't want him resenting me by pushing him to work out. It'll come off like I think he needs to lose. he's already got an active job (on his feet, in a lumber yard, helping load customers etc) but his eating is sh*t. He hasn't realized he's not 19 any more and can't eat chips and chocolate bars for lunch. some days he won't eat anything for supper if he's working in the garage or something. Then when he comes in at 10:00 he'll just munch on cheese and Doritos. Not healthy. Again if you all remember, one of the major pushes for me to lose weight was health issues as I had high cholesterol at 25. I already ate healthier than he did before that. He also has family history of that so he's got just as much reason as I do. anybody else have any issues about trying to help a spouse but not be mean about it? he REALLY likes his unhealthy eating! He'll pass on something even if it tastes good because it's "diet" food. (free samples of WW cereal at Costco, he gave his to me. I asked if he didn't like it he said, "naw, it's WW. It's for you not me." and for the record it was really good). Let me know if any of you have any great ideas for helping me/him out!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

I'm not being awesome at work...

so I might as well be an awesome blogger. I feel bad about something at work, not my fault, but I could have let somebody know in advance that there was a crap load of work for them due at the end of the month. I didn't realize it but maybe I should have and told him about it. I just feel guilty about it so I'm keeping quite in my office for a bit. Plus i'm frustrated by this model I'm running, I don't quite understand something but I don't want to ask today as I'm sitting quiet in my office like I said. Oh well I can ask in the morning and just kill 1/2 an hour now doing this.
So I AM awesome because I got up this am and did my run already. I went last night too. Hurray! I could have given up but I never. Here's the story:
Daisy was running really well beside me about 8 minutes in, so I didn't even notice I dropped the leash. oops. So I try and step on it to get her to stop, but I did step on it and the collar broke away from her neck (probably a good thing I guess or I would have chocked her) so she's running down the street and i've got her leash and broken collar in my hands. Luckily I figured out recently that she loves to chase me and play tag so I called her and ran the other way. she got back to me and I just looped her collar around her neck and used the clip on the leash to hold it shut. I was gonna call it a day and go home there, but decided to keep running and hope Daisy didn't get free again. Well success. Made it home together. Then did the same thing this morning as I didn't have time to buy a collar yet! yay me! Plus breakfast was wasa bread, feta and tomato. I know I said no cheese, but I did not mean feta, because when I wrote no bread, this is exactly what I was picturing. I meant no cheese and nacho's which is what I can feel a craving coming on for. It's my home alone snack of choice. Luckily I've realized this and am trying to outwit it with other low cal tempting snacks. stay tuned.
Anyway, hubby left last night. Sad/happy. I went shopping for girly food and bought hummus. yay! I know I can eat it when he's home but it's a special treat for me. so lunch today included hummus and veggies and a spinach salad with a hard boiled egg I did up last night. I was so productive. After my run I washed and cut up veggies and then boiled eggs and did laundry (all my workout clothes so they were a bit damp this morning for the run, oops). Felt great.
supper tonight might be a bit of salmon. Try and cook it up with some dill and lemon which is my favorite. Maybe some more hummus because I really liked it (it's roasted red pepper hummus). i'm also going to do my TT workout tonight. And hopefully come up with a list of awesome things I'm going to do while hubby's away. Plans already for saturday night with some girls doing a potluck and then chick flicks (another girl's hubby is outta town too). Then I think I'm going to watch the game Sunday afternoon so I have to have all my fun alone time things done during the week. Luckily I won't get hooked into tv as the only thing I'm even sorta watching lately is BB and I keep missing it so that's fine. I can watch online at noon too.
I don't know if anybody else is doing any HIIT, and after readign that article I posted I realized I'm not doing it exactly. I do 30 minutes of it, and apparently that should kill me if I'm doing it right. oops. I did just regular jogging last night and I completely noticed a difference since I started though. I am fast! and I like going faster! Super exciting thing to realize. Now I just wish I had trained for biking as well. We ride in less than 2 weeks and I've gone on 1 ride all summer. Luckily I figured out that it can take no longer than 4 hours. Plus lots of our friends are in terrible shape for it so I think I'm good. I'm IN SHAPE, just not for biking necessarily, just my butt will be hurting hopefully. there's lots of breaks all the time too so that should help. It'll be like 1 hour then a break 4 times. Piece of cake. I don't really care how fast I go anyway. In case anybody forgot I'm doing the MS bike Tour which is a 64 km bike ride. Anybody bike regularly? How fast do you go on just a leisurely pace? I hope it's like 20k/hr. I can totally handle it then.
Anyway almost killed all the time...hmmm. what else can I blab about?
The scale hasn't showed me that happy number again yet but I do feel leaner than before. I did a super killer ab workout with my TT the other day and it seriously hurt for 2 days. That always makes a person feel tight in the midsection hey? Also, I'm starting to like my legs a little more. I do bulk up fairly easily, but I also found I was giving myself that excuse when my legs were big. saying it was muscle. Well yeah they were really muscular, but they were covered in a couple inches of fat. That's what made them look bulky, otherwise they'd just look muscular. (that's what I was talking about before Meg) anyway, they're still bigger, but they are starting to have a nicer shape, not so much lumpy areas of fat, rather just a little trouble zone in the upper inner and then a small layer of fat to get rid of. Like if I pull my fat and skin around I can make it look like I've got nice legs! It will happen! I'm already pretty happy about how I look with most clothes on. Just need to work on the naked part!
Has anybody else noticed that whether or not you're actually smaller (scale or measurement wise) once you start working out and eating right, you feel like you look better? You're wearing the same clothes but when you used to never take your coat off over this shirt you will now? even though you probably look exactly the same? I do that. I think it has to do with posture. Also, if my abs are burning, I have the impression they look alright, the fat on top doesn't bother me as much. anybody else?
ok well that's enough time killing. gotta go buy a new collar for my Daisy, maybe a pink one. then get cooking some fish. Fish and veggies and hummus and a banana. Probably that. mmm...