Clarification

Well I was sort of laughing to myself after I posted my awesome day and finished it with going home to eat hotdogs. I realize these aren't healthy. Trust me. However as far as hotdogs go, I got the healthiest ones possible. 100 calories each, 4 g of fat, (can't remember the saturated part, but no transfat). I ate 2 hotdogs. I adore hotdogs, barbequed on the first warm night of the year. Not changing that for a second. In fact, with my asparagus and just ketchup and bun for a topping, it was one of my lower calorie meals. I know Sheri's right, calories count (though I think she contradicted herself a little bit, saying it's overall calories that count, not what foods you eat, but then saying that I shouldn't eat so much saturated fat and that Atkins doesn't work [another edit, Atkins DOES work, you will lose serious weight, but it's just not a good long term solution since you gain it back] yet I should eat beans and chicken breast. Well beans are actually high calories, and chicken breast is higher than my hotdogs too so I think the foods matter not just calories.) Yes so calories count, I understand this. And like I said, my hotdog meal was low cal. And it isn't something done regularly, trust me.

As for the turkey bacon. I actually don't like bacon. So I never eat it. Exception is tomato bacon sandwiches. And I had a whole batch of bacon left over from the weekend. Dry as a bone, doesn't even bend, it shatters. And I ate 4 slices on my sandwich for a total of 120 calories, 9 grams of fat. Anyway, my calories and nutritional info for the day (from fitday.com) is right where I like it to be. Seriously, the only fat I had was from the hotdogs and bacon and the peanut butter in my morning smoothie. I personally am aiming to eat 30% fat, 30% protien and 40% carbs.

Anyway, I appreciate the ass kicking attempt, however I am dodging it this time, because I really don't think I'm doing so bad anyway. ;)

I could probably have an ass kick for my so called workout last night. I biked at home right. With my dog. Not really realizing that she'd have to RUN the whole time next to me on my bike and probably would tucker out after about 15 minutes. I did a lot of gliding. Plus my focus was on keeping her out of my tires (she got one tire kiss early on and was great after that) not on sweating. I think next time I'll have to take her for a warm up then drop her off at home and go for my workout. It was kind of pitiful. But at least I did get on my bike as opposed to a stationary finally. Realized it needs a tune up (I can't shift into anything lower than 3, well I don't really know how the numbers work, I can do the high med and low still so I don't know what gears I don't have.)

The glasses shopping after work sort of screwed me up. That was prime workout time! Weather was nice. Not into anything else yet. The rest of my night was crap. Spent some time on the phone trying to help my uncle. (make sure you are VERY clear when telling family what you do. I AM a civil engineer, but I cannot help you size the beam for your house. Not that kind of civil engineer. Give me some mine waste to deal with.) Oh, I also watched Lost finally from last week. SO good. But I'm all confused again and lost. I need to get all the seasons to remember more about Sayeed. But it still so good. is it not on this week or something?

Today's eats: toast with natural peanut butter and double fruit jam, banana, cheese, spinach salad, 2 hard boiled eggs, poppyseed dressing, grapes, apple, cheese. SIL and fiance are cooking steak with all the fixings tonight (cheese toast, baked potatoes, hopefully they think of a veggie). No toast for me, but a small baked potato, limited (fat free) sour cream. Or maybe I'll go the salsa route with that. Workout will be a TT and a run. Might rain tonight but I'll run anyways. Do some sprint intervals to get it over with quick. Again, some berries for dessert, maybe post run with a glass of milk.

Today's gonna be another day with no cheats because I remembered what I'm doing this weekend. First friday we're going to a ball fundraising supper for hubby's slow pitch. I should be able to not pig out there no problem. But who knows what they'll serve, and I know I'll have dessert. (cheat 1). Then on saturday we're going back home for a wildlife supper (for the wildlife federation (aka hunting club?) ) where there's all sorts of dishes made from the different animals people have hunted the past year. Plus of course, salads and dessert. I like to try a little bit of everything at this thing. However dessert is just ice cream and I can live without that. (cheat 2). So that leaves me 1 more cheat for during the day saturday or sunday, since I'll be at home it might mean less than ideal fruit and veggie consumption. This will be my first big test so hopefully I'll eat apples and carrots between meals with some almonds for the protein. I can totally do this. And I'm feeling pretty confident because I've got this great plan in advance! (as opposed to the "eat healthy" I usually go in with.)

oh there are girl guide cookies here at work. not having 1. if somebody brings them in my office I'll take it and then when they leave chuck it. piece of cake.

Well it wasn't as planned, but it still followed the plan

My day 1 in the kick ass summer challenge was good. I'm giving myself full points, though really I probably shouldn't. But I am.

My lunch and supper as planned were totally gonna be awesome. Workout also. Turns out none of these went as scheduled. For lunch, a dude in the office brought enough Sri Lankan food for the whole place to try. (it was a chicken curry and a rice stir fry). So I didn't eat my tomato bacon sandwich I packed. However, it was an even trade in terms of my food guide (starch, protein, veggies). Wash.

Supper was gonna be hotdogs (sans bun for moi) and mixed veggies. But SIL made chicken fajitas instead. So I ate one (veggies, meat, I did have a tortilla, so that's probably a starchy carb huh? But aren't they cool on the Atkins thing? At least compared to bread?) Then for dessert I ate my berries as planned and it was great.

Did my TT workout, but not the run. I forgot that I was invited to a Mary Kay footspa night (whoopie) so I had to leave right after eating. I did get a quick walk in after I got home with Daisy (dark out, not a big fan of night runs, plus it was 9:30 and that's pyjama time. not get sweaty time).

Today is going good so far. Breakfast was a protein smoothie (chocolate protein powder, 2 frozen mini bananas (what I had!), a scoop of natural peanut butter, water and ice. Really suprisingly good. I'm not usually a fan of runny smoothies but this was good!) Snack had a cheese string and a pear. Lunch here was a tomato turkeybacon sandwich and grapes. (already 3 fruit in!) afternoon snack will be carrots and yogurt. Maybe an apple too, we'll see. Then after work I'm going to help my friend pick out glasses so no gym. However it's bike or swim day and it's super nice out, so I think I'll have a bike ride at home tonight. Maybe a run also since I've got nothing else going on really and I missed yesterday's. Supper will be those hotdogs and a salad. Since I'm only on 1 starchy carb so far I can have a bun with my hotdog tonight. Thinking ahead folks. Again if I'm feeling like I need it, berries for dessert. That will give me 5 fruit and 3 veggies for the day, 2 starches, probably 4 dairy (assuming I have milk with supper). And NO CHEATS! yay!

I measured the belly button this morning and it was an unpleasant 30.5. I'd love to see 29 there from this challenge. I think I'm on the path don't you?

What's puffed wheat cake?

I thought everybody knew! It's basically like rice krispie cake (you know what that is right?) but instead of rice krispies it's puffed wheat (in the grocery isle [or aisle?]) and instead of marshmallows and butter, it's corn syrup, butter, brown sugar and cocoa. Tres good. I'm sure you could google a recipe (if not let me know and I'll find mine).

Let me tell you about my weekend!

Wow do I have stuff to say today! Jumping in to it:

Friday and Saturday were sorta blah. Bed early both nights. Did a bit around the house saturday. Went to a candle party. Ate like crap. Just a lot of carbs. Don't know why exactly. I think I was playing the start monday game. bad me.

Sunday I was going to run a 5k fun run with a friend, but she called and said her back was out basically and she was fighting a cold she wasn't gonna do it. I said fine. Not sure if I would still or not. Decided not, as it sort of interrupted my day anyway. So I went for a nice slow long run as I'm supposed to do on weekends. Me and Daisy had a great time, windy on the way out, but nice on the way back. Did mapmyrun and it showed 8.8 km! Wow! go me! That's the furthest I need to do for training for a 10k I'd say. (I was hearing a story on the weekend of a bigger lady who was complaining about running at a clinic saying how there's no way she could run a half marathon without million dollar shoes and all these gels and stuff, because when she TRIED IT in her first training thing, she got all these blisters. Well duh, you aren't supposed to RUN THE WHOLE DISTANCE IN TRAINING! that's absurd. Especially when you just start!

Anyway, I did a huge awesome run and I felt great! Tired at the end, a few smaller blisters, nothing I can't handle. However it completely wiped me out for the rest of the day. Seriously, I was exhausted! and my muscles sort of hurt, but just in a tired way. I had a sunburn too which probably contributed to feeling like crap, and then got a headache. But I seriously sucked for the rest of the day.

Well except for this cool part. I found a dog! Daisy was going nuts at something outside the fence so I went to see, and I thought it was a wolf! It was a HUGE husky dog. HUGE! It was probably dumb of me but I went to catch it. (dumb especially because it looked like a wolf...) But I just whistled and it came and I hooked a leash on it and put in the backyard. I then went running up and down the street looking for somebody looking for their dog. Nope, nobody around. Dog was very nice, mellow. Knew some tricks like sit and shake a paw (which weighed probably 25 pounds). Wasn't even falling for Daisy's bait and fighting. So I took both dogs for a walk down the street again thinking somebody would recognize him. Nope. Walked for like 45 minutes all around the neighbourhood. Then sat on our front lawn with him for awhile. Still nobody. So I put him in the back with Daisy and waited. Walked him again in an hour and somebody said it looked like the Larson dog so I called the Larson's in the phone book (after I called the vet and animal control which were closed on sunday). Nobody home. Waited again. Eventually got ahold of the guy who came and picked up his dog. Such a nice good puppy. HUGE, did I say that? Very pretty. The exact kinda dog hubby wanted, but we just don't have the space for him. Apparently the guy has a shop and some land near our house and just lets the dog go, he usually just hangs out on the property but not this time. And since I put him on a leash he couldn't go back home. (not that he was trying to go anywhere when I let him lead me on our walks). I didn't think it was a good idea to just let this huge dog go. He could have been hit by a car, or scared some little kids (again, looks like a wolf). Who knows. Anyway, that was my big adventure after my giant run sunday.

Then we ordered chinese food and watched Walk Hard. Hubby played with his new minibike and I did laundry. Then BED. I was pooped! Didn't do my TT workout like I was supposed to. But today is day 1.

Day 1 of what? the awesome kick ass summer challenge of course! So today I counted out my fruits and veggies when making my lunch. Unfortunately I think my strawberries might be bad so I'll berries for dessert after supper to make 3. Since breakfast and lunch are starchy carbs (just granola and then a sandwich) supper will be protein and veggies. I'm so feeling good about this. I'll have to measure my waist tonight to have a good starting point reference to drop an inch. Plus tonight will be TT and a short run. Weather's finally nice again. I made puffed wheat cake yesterday but I won't have any today. I thawed some frozen blueberries and raspberries so I'll have those for dessert and that should conquer day 1 completely on plan. I feel skinnier just thinking about it!

Why don't I use my best resource?

You guys! This one is in particular for moms.
Ok you know how I'm baby obsessed lately? (Don't worry, we're still definately not trying until this fall, however...) I totally want a baby. First I really really want to be pregnant. i'm so excited for that. I know you're all rolling your eyes, like what does she know, looking forward to stretch marks and barfing. Whatever, I am. And then I'm pretty excited to have the baby. the first feeding, first bath etc. But I'm really really not looking forward to having a toddler and potty training. Or having a kid in school. Frankly I find kids older that 3 annoying. When I was visiting SIL and baby Sam in the hospital somebody else came to visit and brought a present which was clothes for a 5 year old. Very practical, since they don't get as many presents at that age and clothes are more expensive. However, it freaked me right out. I was all gooey about having a baby but then when I saw that I got sorta mad. Like they're already telling me how fast this baby is gonna grow up.

So basically my question is, do you eventually want the 5 year old? by the time your kid is 5, that's what you're wanting anyway? And when you get pregnant and have a baby, were you only wanting "a baby" and not a kid? Just my thoughts right now. Any insight is appreciated.

F*$@ing KICK ASS!!!!

I don't like swearing but I'm gonna anyway! FARK YEAH! (I tried.) I have just joined CAROLYN'S KICK ASS FOR SUMMER CHALLENGE! (that's not what she called it but me). If you want to join totally do because it's awesome and all the cool people are doing it (I'm not even kidding, there are some seriously cool people in this).

So what is this challenge. Good question, you tell me. You make your own goal, slightly challenging, for what you want outta the next 8 week (until summer) and then celebrate by wearing a bikini for the next 8 weeks (well that's what i'll be doing). My goal:

structurize the food - I know I get lots of fruit in, but how much veggies? How much dairy? I want to have my own daily guidelines to hit. EVEN ON WEEKENDS!

stick to my workout schedule - I made one, I've got races coming up, yet I skip workouts. I want to stick to it exactly. If I miss a workout, I make it up. Yes this might mean 2 in one day, deal.

lose 1 inch from belly - this hopefully will take care of itself by looking after the first two. But it means I'll have to watch the cheats on the eats a little more closely. And who knows, maybe restrict calories! (horrors! I've never really done this, yeah I lost 20 lbs but I just switched to healthy foods, I'm still eating as much as ever)

So do you like it? I do. I'm excited for it. i'm gonna print out a calendar for at home and have to check stuff off daily. So cute.

What are my nutrition guidelines gonna be? Hmmm...
EVERY DAY (INCLUDING WEEKENDS!):
3 fruits
3 veggies
protein at every eating (snack or meal)
2 dairy
less than or equal to (symbols mess with blogger!) 2 starchy carbs/day (aka toast and sandwich but then no rice or noodles etc)

WEEKLY:
less than or equal to 3 cheats/bad foods per week (eating cookies, chips, overeating in a restaurant, not following above etc counts as 1)

I think that's alright. I was having quite a bit of trouble coming up with things having never really followed guidelines. What do you think? I don't need to worry about water or multivitamins or restricting processed foods because that's all second nature to me.

And just a reminder here's my workout schedule:

Monday - TT, Run
Tuesday - Swim
Wednesday - TT, Run
Thursday - Bike
Friday - Off
Saturday - Long Run
Sunday - TT

I'm actually not too fussy about the days, if I switch them that's ok, but every week needs:
3 TT
1 Swim
1 Bike
1 Long Run
2 Short Runs/Bikes

Completely doable! YAY!!!

So yesterday I did a TT workout and I'm feeling it today. I only had half an hour to do it in and I managed. I was a little sweaty when leaving for puppy grad but that's ok. Definately sore today. There's 2 different workouts that you alternate, A and B. Workout A hurts me so much more than workout B. That's why I like it more. (masochist)

SIL cookes some fish up for supper yesterday, so I didn't have my bacon sandwiches I'd planned. But we had fish and potatoes and beans and salad. Just as healthy, probably a bit more food but still healthy. I took it easy on the potatoes don't worry.

So I know what you're all dying to hear about: Puppy grad! Well we got there slightly late, but no big deal since we had to wait anyway. And for some reason Daisy was not being good, I think she could tell something was different, there were balloons and ribbons up and stuff. And more dogs than she's used to. In class with just her classmates she's great, but new dogs, not so much. So she wasn't really settling down and being good. Oh plus, for her treats I had a baggie of chicken breast cut up and I put some leftover ham chunks in there too. Well I think something went bad in there because the bag stunk like rotten milk. Oops. I knew the ham was still good (not old) so we used that for her rewards but she wasn't quite as excited about it as usual. So when it was our turn we went in this ring thing and this guy called out the commands for us to do. Since Daisy wasn't settled down she didn't do as good as she normally does at home. In fact I thought she did horribly. She hardly paid attention to me and our healing was attrocious (I almost tripped on her! and you saw how good we were before). Anyway, after the healing, the rest of the exercises went well. Anyway of course she passed (everybody was going to no matter what), but I was still disappointed that that's the one we got on video. Oh well. But guess what? She got the highest mark in the class! Actually it's more like I did, since what we were judged on was how clear our commands were and if the leash was loose and stuff. (well some were for her, it was teamwork). We got a 97%! (the lowest mark was a 94 just so you know.) And 2 of the points off were from our healing which I know we can do better. so yay!

Hubby and I were quite the proud little parents after that. And hubby's so outgoing and never comes to class he decides to show off all of Daisy's other tricks while we're there. (play dead, roll over, shake etc. Not in the curriculum). Even one of the "judges" thought she was good. Oh yeah and I ate 2 giant cookies. It was weird, Daisy didn't want to do her "other" tricks there but she does them so good at home. I thought she was embarassed about the other dogs.

Wait a minute, did she just say she ate 2 delicious giant cookies?

Yes I did. Oops. No forget oops. I wanted cookies and so I ate them. As part of my new plan that's allowed. I get 3 cheats a week right? So that means I have to be a little better this weekend. Piece of cake. I'll be busy anyway.

I already like my new food plan. Hopefully it helps take the guilt out of food. (sort of like how flex points are supposed to work I think right?) I'm so not going to deprive myself of things like birthday cake, or cookies at a grad party, or munchies during a movie. But I can only do that 3 times/week. yay.

This weekend i've got the 5k fun run on sunday. yay. just a mellow thing (costs $15 though, sheesh). Weather should at least be positive for it, but not much more. I've also got a candle party to go to Saturday (might be another cheat time, we'll see). But other than that, i'm planning on doing some scrapbooking, sewing and house cleaning this weekend. Did I tell you all about SIL's wedding scrapbook? Well those 3 sisters and I make a scrapbook for the girl getting married with pictures of her and her hubby from when they were babies up until recent. I wasn't sure if it was something sisters did and I was invited last time because I was in the wedding party (last wedding was mine so I didn't make it obviously). But it turns out I am definately a part of it. in fact might be solo doing it. The one SIL (is taking over the baby shower too by the way) says she's too busy in the next couple months, so she'll get me pictures. And other SIL just had a baby so I know is too busy. So I'll be doing it mostly. Which is ok with me, I don't work well with others mostly. But it does mean I've gotta get working on it!

Plus I'm gonna do some decorating and make favours and stuff for the baby shower. I totally am gonna make a diaper cake (thanks Jen) and I want to do some other stuff so I'm gonna get started (I've only got 3 weekends). Also I want to sew a cute little dress up by then so everyone can see how awesome I am (for the baby, though I could sew myself a dress for it too and we could match...).

Ok, I also heard from that girl who's doing tri's this summer too about this store that sells tri stuff. So I'm gonna head there after work. (or maybe at noon...I could take a long lunch, top bosses aren't here today...) I guess they've got bathing suits. Might be expensive but I can at least get a pair of wicking socks. and maybe another metal water bottle. (funny how I posted about that awhile ago, and now it's all over the place how plastic bottles aren't even being sold and stuff, I'm so ahead of the game.)

Ok but that's all for now. Might have more later, feeling very chatty today.

Are you sure it's thursday? Can you double check?

I swear it's friday. SOOO bored.

I sometimes get sorta full, but it's all watery so I still want to eat, anybody else? Like today for lunch I ate a salad with strawberries and chicken breast and poppyseed dressing. Then I ate an apple/pear (whatever they're called). Earlier I had eaten grapes, and carrots and a cheese string (I was starving this morning). So my stomach is nice and full, on top of it I'm chugging the water as per usual. But I sure wish I had some toast. Or chips, or crackers or cookie. Something bready and doughy and dry. But of course I didn't bring anythign like this. I never do, but I always crave it. that's what I always crave for dessert too. Last night it didn't work very well because I over ate on other things trying not to eat this.

I try to not eat carbs as much (those last few pounds people!) except first thing in the morning. I'm not strict about this but you know.

Anyway, so tonight I'm forgoing swimming and just doing my TT at home. Then we've got puppy grad! Hubby's charging the video camera already and asked me to get him some more tapes on my way home. We're such dorks.

I am so freaking hungry today. I was contemplating going out for lunch because I didn't think my food would hold me over all day. Here's what i'm eating:
2 toasts with pb and sugar free jam
a couple spoonfuls of yogurt to finish container
1.5 cups grapes
1.5 cups carrots
3 cups salad with mixed greens, strawberries, and chicken breast
1.5 cups strawberries
cheese string
apple/pear
3/4 cup sugar free yogurt
orange

Supper's gonna be bacon and tomato sandwiches (with turkey bacon and cheese slices. mmm). But I think I'm gonna need more. I'll definately be eating some almonds as well today. And frankly whatever I can find in my office! I'm soooo munchy right now!

So I checked out my calorie needs again, since I was tracking in fitday for awhile and averaging 1825 calories a day I was like, oh duh, that's why I'm not losing. But I used this equation I found at Mizfit:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x your weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x your height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

And it gave me 1444 as BMR, then I selected moderately active (which is sooo subjective really right?) which means multiply by 1.4. So that gives me 2021 calories/day. So being at 1825 that gives me about a 200 calorie deficit/day. Which is basically what I wanted, I only wanted it 200-300 deficit. But I think the problem is on a typical day my calories are 1825. But my bad weekends or cheat days or whatever are much higher, so they basically cancel out the deficit.

So here's my thinking, I either need to eat less every day and give myself about 1600 calories/day, or else I have to eat just as strictly and everything during the weekends and no more cheat days/meals. Both are super killer for me. I know I'm gonna have cheats and bad days on weekends and stuff even if that's not in the plan. I think it's not reasonable to expect to be 100%. But it's also gonna be tough for me to eat less during the week. I already feel like I'm doing very well, and am sort of suprised it's soo high in calories. It's almost all fruit!

I think I'll have to make my servings of my meals a bit smaller. Breakfast smaller, lunch when it's leftovers smaller. I don't really know. I'm having a big hard time even thinking what I could do because I want to eat a lot of protein and stuff but they're higher calories. Boo. I hate being all super analyzing. How about I just start working out way harder, build up my muscle a little and rev that metabolism again? Meanwhile, trying to eat the fruits and veggies on the weekend. Yes I like that.

so kind

You are all very sweet with your compliments. I guess I am really grateful I photograph and video well and look small and young in them. In reality though, I'm wearing size medium/large shirts and 29 pants (or size 8 generally) not the 2 it looked like (I love you!). As for the young thing, I know that's totally my hair, long hair has always made me look younger. In high school every time I cut my hair a little shorter people were always telling me how good I looked and older (which is what you want in high school). If you were here in person and saw the wrinkles I've already got you'd think I was 35.

I'm actually getting kinda sick of my hair. I am gonna go at least part of the summer with the long hair because it goes with my dream summer - that is the frolicking on the beach in a bikini with long hair. About August I think I will be over it and cut it off and grow up. We'll see.

So yesterday was biking in the gym. It was great. A really hard interval workout. REALLY hard. I could only do 5 intervals of crazy hard (heart rate estimate was greater than 93% of max) of 1 minute with 2 minutes recovery. Add the warm up and cool down it was only about 20 ish minutes on the bike, but I was completely dead. I managed to grab a treadmill for about 7 minutes (since I didn't sign up for it) that I did a quick pace (11.5 km/hr) just to get used to the transition and past the dead leg feeling from after a bike. Then home.

Well first zellers. I was still hunting bathing suits down. Walmart only has sort of fashion ones with buckles and stuff. The sporty ones are 1 piece. Zellers actually had some nice, decent sporty type tankini suits, but the store I was at had no sizes. Only 12s and up or XL and up. I might check a different Zellers that's close to work so I can actually try some on and see how they are.

When I got home it was already 7 and hubby didn't make supper. Because he never makes supper. If he was hungry he would have ate some crackers or chips and still not made supper. Not really caring that I'd be hungry. Boo. Anyway, I did have an idea what I wanted to make. We had leftover ham in the fridge so I chopped that up, chopped up a few potatoes, added a can of cream of celery soup (could have been other flavour too). Threw in some onion, green pepper, sour cream and cottage cheese. Mixed in some shredded cheddar. Cooked for an hour. Yes I wasn't gonna eat supper until about 8:30. It was really good. I sort of think it's horrible for you. A lot of creamy things. But they were all low fat if not fat free. I also ate a whole pile of steamed carrots. mmm.

But what did I do for an hour while it was cooking? Well mostly watched American Idol. but then I remembered I was gonna work out so I did my TT workout! yay! I actually don't feel sore at all today so that's kind of disappointing. I guess I need to up the weights on a lot of things. But I'm still really really happy with my exercise as a whole yesterday.

I also talked to my SIL about throwing the shower for her sister who just had her baby. I said I wanted to do it, since I'm in the same town it makes more sense than having it at home, plus she threw me a wedding shower years ago so I feel like I owe her. Anyway, we decided to have it on the sunday of the long weekend in May. I think that means we'll get a smaller turn-out, a lot of people will be heading to cabins or lakes or just trips somewhere (first long weekend of the season people!). Which is good, because I doubt my house will fit that many. And if it's not nice out it will get crowded in the kitchen and living room. But I'm sort of nervous about throwing this shower! It's gonna be a lot of people in my house who've never seen it and I'll sort of want to make it look nice and feel like I need to redecorate and paint and stuff before then. Which I won't. It'll be hard to just have it super cleaned by then. So nervous about the house, but excited about the food and decorations! I'm gonna totally go nuts with it. It'll be like Martha Stewart threw this baby shower! SIL was saying on the phone that we'll decide if we want to just buy trays at Costco and split the cost, or whatever once we've got numbers. I'm leaning away from that. I understand she doesn't have a lot of time to cook and cut up stuff but I do. Plus I'm always all about doing it yourself because it's cheaper. But we'll see. I also want to do a bunch of scrapbooking sort of decorating stuff for it. So excited. Do need to think of some good shower games and stuff. The only one we've got for sure is a bottle drinking contest. There's also the one where you guess the chocolate bar mushed in the diaper and guess the flavour of baby food. But I'm not crazy about those. We'll see. Anybody have any suggestions for awesome games that YOU like at a shower let me know. So many people don't like shower games so it's kinda tough.

Alrighty, back to dropping pounds. Food for today:
Kashi go lean crunch with strawberry and milk
grapes
leftover potato and ham thingy
strawberries
yogurt
cheese
carrots
apple

(doubt I'll eat it all but we'll see)

Supper was gonna be a chicken caesar salad. Feel like I need to eat some more salads lately. Plus it's something you can just pig out on and eat for like 15 minutes straight and it's ok. I'm also gonna try and brush my teeth right after eating so I get rid of the feel like I need to have something else.

I'm also gonna try and run with Daisy, but it's so flipping cold here I might not. High of only 0 today. A walk at least. I could also do a quick bike ride on my real bike since it's out and I haven't hopped on yet.

Tonights plans also include cleaning the kitchen and getting started with shower ideas. I've got a bunch of scrapbook magazines I'm gonna look through and stuff. Actually I've got a whole bunch of magazines that I bought lately that I haven't read so it might just be a reading night. But definately clean kitchen first.

Well if you've never seen my face...

You've probably never seen me walk before either. Daisy and I are super awesome at the heal exercise which is demonstrated in the video below, taken by my husband who came to class for the first time. (if you don't have sound don't worry, all you miss is a whiney dog, not mine, the lady giving us instructions, and then at the end saying how wonderful we are).

We're so good. Can you tell on that first turn that I didn't know which way left was? Seriously, I have a hard time doing left and right quickly. It was the thing I was most nervous about on my driver's test, that I would turn the wrong way.

Anyway, last night was the last puppy school class. Thursday is the "test" and graduation (the test is the same test as obedience shows or whatever, but it's only a practice fun one for us, no failing). We can bring people and hubby's gonna bring the video camera and tape us (this was just our picture camera). We're such proud parents.

Speaking of parents, we visited SIL and Sammy before class. they got to go home already. So I brought the chicken dish I had made last week and froze, and I found frozen meatballs so I made baked spaghetti and meatballs (super quick and easy, though thanks everyone for your suggestions!) They seemed sort of suprised to get anything so I think that's cool. Grandma (aka my MIL) was also there last night and she said it was even better than her, she didn't bring anything, and seemed impressed too. Yay!

Unfortunately I did crap all for working out yesterday. Seriously what's going on with me? Well today I'm going to the gym after work, doing biking and a small run. Then when I get home I have nothing on the go so I'll do my TT workout too. I mean it takes less than 1/2 an hour to do the weight part. And if I do intervals at the gym before I'll be set.

Supper yesterday was 1 meatball (wouldn't fit) and a protein bar. Then once I got home I had a bowl of smartpop and then a bowl of miniwheats. I don't really think I ate that much yesterday and I wasn't hungry at all. Breakfast was granola which keeps me full, no morning snack, hummus and pita for lunch, some canteloup. Strawberries and cheese for afternoon snack which I sort of had to remind myself to eat (I usually get shakey and eat while cooking if I don't have afternoon snack). Then the supper. oh, and a baggy of carrots.

Today is peanut butter and sugar free jam toast, apple, grapes, strawberries, carrots, hummus and pita, cheese string, tiny yogurt. Assuming I eat everything I brought. Supper I was gonna make some kind of hashbrown, ham, cheese bake thing with the leftover ham we've got (which I totally could have made for SIL but I thought of it too late).

Anyway, that's probably it for me. Gotta do some work, plus I'm ordering pictures from Walmart. I got tons more baby pictures and gave half of mine to SIL last night. (another thing she was so impressed with, I am totally awesome).

Highlights:

The highlight of my weekend (also, here's a recent picture of me):

The highlight of hubby's weekend (also, after playing with this belonging to his friend, his most recent purchase on ebay):

babies and bad weather and no sleep = off track

So I decided that babies are cute and I want one. We are exactly at the point that we always talked about when we'd have a baby. (married about 5 years, finished my thesis, have a house, good income etc). It was always far away though. Like when people asked we could always say, "oh in a couple years" or "maybe a year from now we'd start thinking about it". Well all that is right now! Eeek! So hubby and I were talking that after the basement is finished, hopefully this summer, and we get the yard all landscaped up, my defense is done (hopefully right away...). Oh, and my SIL has to move out. I refuse to by trying to have a baby (aka sex all the time right) with a roommate. But it's gonna look pretty funny. SIL was living with her sister and then (like the very weekend) she moved out and they got pregnant (9 months ago...). She'll move out from with us and wham we'll be pregnant too, funny.

We also had that ball tourney (indoor with plastic bat and ball) this weekend that went all night long. I didn't even have to play it turns out so that's nice. It's one thing for me to play ball and be athletic (I'm a good runner etc) but to play ball where you can't even run fast because there's a wall right behind 1st base and it's more about drinking pre-game than stretching, it's just not for me. But we found out about Sam on friday so to keep myself awake for the game at 1:00 I made muffins and casseroles for the happy family.

We had a pile of people staying over for the tourney because the weather was complete crap (we got a little blizzard friday night, then the rest of the weekend was sort of freezing rain). I hate when people stay over in the living room because I like to get up right away when I wake up but I don't like disturbing other people. Boo.

So with people staying over and going back and forth to the city to visit the baby (yeah we visted twice already, and again tonight!) eating wasn't awesome. Very carby, starchy. Not really fruity carbs like usual. But muffins and pancakes carby. I also had a whopper jr and poutine (it was sort of planned remember) and barbequed hotdogs and baked cheese dip. AND I didn't get any workouts in. Not fri, sat or sun. So last week was sort of a bust strengthwise. Definately gotta kick it up this week.

I tried bikini shopping sunday. I found a two-piece skimpy thing I really liked, but it was $70 so I thought I'd wait a bit. It looks like a triangle string bikini, but it's actually moulded cups with lots of support and they're cup sizes not just one size fits all. I really liked it. But again, I really gotta kick it up a notch with the workouts and food. I found a couple sporty ones for the tri but they looked like crap (a lot of under arm bulge type things, ew), not nice enough for the $60 they were. I think I want a sporty tankini and a sexy little bikini this summer. So the hunt continues. and so does the exercise and diet right? ;)

Today is the last puppy lesson, then thursday is graduation. Hubby said he'd come today, and we'll go visit Sam before class (since his parents will be there we'll visit them too). I'll bring casseroles and I'm gonna try and make some kind of cake or appetizer thing for SIL since she'll be having lots of visitors at home, but really can't entertain (c-section after 20 hours of labour, she can't climb stairs or lift anything heavier than the baby (less than 8 lbs!)) But I also need to do a TT today so gonna be super busy between getting home at 5 and 6:30, when we'll have to go to get an hour of visiting before puppy school). Eek!

Hey lovely ladies, any good ideas for a casserole type thing that doesn't need ground beef? Lasagna and chili are out. Something that freezes?

Meet my new niece Sam

Samantha was born friday at 8:00 to my SIL. Pretty cute huh?

(also those are my new glasses that I never got around to posting a picture off. Also pretty cute huh?)

weekend

So I could have somewhat of a regular post today on top of my sad posts below. sure. why not.

I talked about the plastic bat and ball tourney this weekend right? Well they lost last night so the game is gonna start at 1:00 IN THE FREAKIN' MORNING! boo. And apparently people are gonna be coming over for supper as I'm supposed to buy hotdog and hamburgers for the barbeque (before the blizzard...). so there will be no opportunity for a nap, nor likely for a workout. Even though today is a scheduled off day, I have a feeling I won't be getting a long run in this weekend. And I also missed a TT thing earlier this week. So I was gonna do that tonight. We'll see. Still might happen. Plus the dog could probably use a good long walk/run before being cooped up again with the weather. We'll see. i'm not going to count any of this fake ball as exercise since it's such a tiny (indoor) diamond. I'll be steering clear of the booze, but can't guarantee much else. (I've been DYING to go on a huge crazy feed. It's not even about the what. Last week it was cookies, this week it's poutine. It's about the quantity. I just wanna eat a gallon of something. Something carby. Maybe I'll do that this weekend and get it out of my system. I'm all for cheat meals. And who knows, it just might shake things up enough to start a loss rolling!)

Oh yeah, WI was another standard 138-139. It's stuck. And my scale's not broken. I look good first thing in the morning and standing up. How often is that when you wear a bikini? i need a chair sitting and supper time bikini body before I'm ready.

I literally was crying about Katieo. It's not even TOM. I am really happy for her that she got what she wanted. But when I think about what she's meant to me and watch that damn video I get choked up. I'm in my rational afterward thoughts now and realize I'm crazy. (not to be nuts for her, but it's not like she died for crying out loud, and she said she'd still check in on us!)

I already ate my afternoon snack and I'm hungry. I've got an orange that I'll cut into now. But I'm grocery shopping after work so I might grab some nuts or trail mix too. Sounds like it's just hotdogs for supper. (I LOVE HOTDOGS!) Maybe make some kind of salad too.

Anyway, need to eat.

stupid weather

Stupid weather is gonna have a WINTER BLIZZARD this weekend. Maybe through to tuesday. Awesome. So much for my runs and bikes.

Reasons I love Katieo

1. She was the first person to ever comment on my blog. We all know how imporant those first comments are. Who knows if I would have stuck around and kept this up with out her.

2. She finds all the coolest videos and links and shares them. Also, I would never have found half of my other blogs and readers if not through Sister Skinny.

3. She's so normal. She has kids to deal with and real life issues getting in the way of her weight loss, including bad weather like me.

4. She did it anyway. She got down to her goal in what I'd call record time. I know she just bought her size 6 jeans, but I'm pretty sure she was talking about being able to wear them for awhile now.

5. She posted just about every day. For somebody who gets as bored as me at work, she's been very reliable for a good read. Plus see #4.

6. She would post good food ideas. From leaving veggies out all day to munch on, to introducing me to the Kashi brand for the first time, tres helpful.

7. She wasn't a runner, but she became a runner. Her comment to me when I was thinking about doing a race "they're so fun" really helped me decide for sure. Now she's doing a half marathon in August and I won't get to hear all about it...

8. She put cute pictures in almost every post. I realize the effort this takes as is evident by the complete lack of pictures almost ever.

9. Her blog became FAMOUS, as you can see in that video on her blog, it was on the whatever morning show, also in some magazine or something (I'm too lazy to find the link). But even famous, she was still so normal, humble, and NICE!

10. She almost always replied to comments.

11. She would frequently comment on my blog, and in the most encouraging and positive manner. She was my "you can do it" girl. and if I asked a question in my blog she would definately answer it.

12. She told me I was funny.

13. Lindsay Lohan went to her gym.

14. Her kids are adorable.

15. She is adorable.

16. She's like the cool friend you've got that is really too cool to be hanging out with you but doesn't realize she's that cool and thinks you're silly for saying stuff like that.

17. She knows how important strength training is.

18. She did cute/clever things like wrap up the scale at Christmas, hide chocolate bars, get workouts in by playing with her kids.

19. She made that freakin' adorable video that will be her last post. Just try and not get teary while watching it. I'm so proud of her for reaching her goal but I'm so freakin sad that she'll be gone.

20. Her advice and words have meant so much to me that i've had a lump in my throat for the last hour and a half thinking about saying good-bye.

I'll miss you.

:(

Seen this?

Too sad, can't post, give me a minute.

A long run

So yesterday at the gym I did a long slow run, about 7k. Well I tried. I have such a problem going slow. A nice slow comfortable pace was 10.0 km/hr but I couldn't let myself go like that, I had to throw in a couple 10.5s and 11s and ended up settling at 10.3. A 10 km/hr pace would give me exactly 30 minutes for a 5k and 1 hr for a 10k, and I just can't handle those numbers. Why i don't know. No matter what I run it will be a personal best as it's my first race! whatever.

I also had to interrupt myself and have a bathroom break. Odd I know considering it wasn't that long, but I thought it would be better to be comfortable on a long slow run. So my distance and time are guessed since the machine reset on me.

Then it was pizza time. which was good. But I ate a bit too much. They were individual pizza's, about 7 or 8 inch. I got burbon chicken which was yummy. But I ate all but 1 piece and I should have just had half of it. oh well. it's over. I'm sure I've splurged on worse things before. For example, the tim hortons muffin I ate yesterday...

Today is a swim day. Gonna try and do some kind of training thing instead of just swim for 30 minutes. I think, since the distance is pretty short, that I'll focus on technique and speed rather than endurance. And tips on how to do this would be appreciated as it's been about 13 years since I've taken speed swimming and that was the last time I was critiqued on my technique as well. (though I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor so I could teach you not to drown...how do you swim fast and properly?)

And seriously folks. SERIOUSLY! somebody give me a couple websites that sell bathing suits to canada. TELL ME! I'm just not finding time to get to the stores (not that I know where to shop in the city either, sportschek?) and how much more comfortable is bathing suit shopping on line. right? so ANSWER ME!

that's all for now. sort of dull today.

great workout

I am sort of boring always posting about how freakin' awesome I am I know. Sorry, I can't help it.

Yesterday being bike day, was great. I almost didn't go because of some jerk driver who cut me off so I missed my exit, but I drove around and went anyway (I was gonna bike at home since I can, but I thought something would make me blow it off so I hit the gym). The bike was boring as usual. I just am always bored biking. Watching the clock. So I did intervals. One minute hard resistance and fast, and then 2 minutes just fast-ish. Did this for about 25 minutes (was on a spin bike with no clock or display or anything). then got straight onto a treadmill. Felt a bit of a bonk, at the very beginning. (when your legs feel all messed up after a bike and you can't really run) but I pushed through it. After 5 minutes it was ok. Did 15 minutes of running with some intervals, I need to get better at mental math cause I really couldn't figure out what my 5k time would be. After 5 minutes it was setting up for a 30 minute 5k which is not really very good for me at all. But I think it got better, but like I said, bad at mental math. Plus this was after a bike so I gotta take that into consideration, and an interval bike at that. Anyway, did 15 minutes and then was gonna cool down and walk but I decided that I would just jog it easy. So I jogged another 7 minutes at 10.5km/hr with a small push at the end. It was pretty good. By the end I couldn't even tell that I had just done a big bike as well.

It ended up being about 3/4 of my bike distance (i'm guessing) and a little bit more the run distance. So that's really helping my confidence. Looks like I'll be able to finish this tri without dying! That's the first goal! Now I just gotta work on the speed of everything. And find a bathing suit. Ugh. Maybe shopping this weekend.

Also this weekend I am playing in a plastic bat and ball tourney. It's in the rink I think, with hubby's slow pitch team, fun fundraiser night or something. I'm not looking forward to it. It's not so bad because it's obviously not about real abilities with plastic stuff, and I don't think I'll be scared of the ball. But it's an all night tourney and people will be staying over and I'm getting cranky just thinking about the lack of sleep. Boo. I'm such a boring person. But I like to go to bed at almost the same time on weekends as weeknights (and that time is 10:00). But we've got one game thursday that I'm missing because of puppy school, then a game friday at midnight. I think I'm gonna have a nap of friday and wake up for the game. I know it's so old lady of me. I normally wouldn't be playing (because hubby knows I don't like this sort of thing much) but they needed another girl. I'm still holding out to not have to play on their slow pitch team. It's not enough exercise to count as training but there's not enough time to get a workout too. It eats a whole night up and it's not something I'm good at or like (probably because I'm not good...). And I'm scared to death of the ball. What a wussy I know.

My butt is still sore from Monday's TT. My pants feel loose, though it might just be time for a wash...

I just ate a Tim Horton's muffin (which had more fat and calories than the boston cream I really wanted. oops). Somebody brought them in the office while I was in the main room and didn't have time to prepare myself and my willpower. My stomach isn't really happy with the amount of carbs I've just ingested. It wasn't even that good. So morning snack will now just be some strawberries. and water. lots of water.

Replaced the batteries in the scale this morning. Still at 138 lbs. Hoping for a loss by friday as hopefully there's some water retention in these poor muscles.

Supper today won't be great. Going out for pizza to a fancy restaurant/lounge with my sister and friends. So it will at least by fancy pants pizza, not greaseball pizza. Maybe I can get a thin crust veggie or mediteranean or something. Stick to 2 slices and diet coke. I'll get by.

Gonna try and get a run in today somewhere before going to the restaurant, but that will mean I go stinky and gross and maybe late. So if I miss today I'll run on friday instead. No biggie. Especially with the bonus run yesterday (only a bike day)

an 8th thing

I know that thing was 7 but I was reading Tash's and I thought of another one that fits. When I was a kid, like 4-ish, I would stick tiny lego's (the round ones if anybody is familiar) and tiny flowers from our Esso play station up my nose and shoot them out. And it was super fun. Thinking back I'm like, wow, fun! But I won't do it now because once I accidentally inhaled one time and got it stuck up my nose and we had to go to the hospital to get it out. ha!

my butt

Dudes, my butt hurts. It is so great. It has been a LONG time since I have felt muscle soreness like this. And you know I've been working out. This Turbulence Training is sweet. I got home and made supper and only had an hour before I had to be out the door for puppy school. PLENTY of time for my full workout. oh yeah. There's this thing where you've got your heals on a stability ball and your back on the ground, and your body a plank (butt in the air) and you curl your legs in. I was nearly crying. LORDY that hurt. I thought it was killing my hamstrings since I didn't feel much in the butt while I was doing it, but hammys are good today and ass is screaming.

That hour workout included my intervals with the dog, I have a hard time reading a clock (or my MP3 player in this case) so I wasn't too certain on the fast/slow times. Also, I realized I am not the sprinter I was last summer. Good thing to work on though.

Puppy school was good. especially with her new pinch collar. I sort of feel really bad, but she doesn't seem unhappy to put it on or anything. And she causes most of the pinches, like when she lunges at something when we're walking. She gives a little cry and I wanna take it off, but then she walks beside me perfectly. Let's hope she's a fast learner and we don't need to use it much. But it made our run last night sooooo much better. Plus puppy school she probably got to have more fun since I wasn't scolding her the whole time, she got her pinch and then stopped doing it.

My calves are also sore I just realized. Nice.

Today was supposed to be swim but it's gonna be bike because bathing suit is in the wash. I learned something from that new friend of mine about the tri, even this beginner one of mine expects you to run in your bathing suit. She said a lot of girls wore sports bras under their suits. Not gonna work for me I don't think. So I'm shopping for sports bra like bathing suits now. I found a great one on sale at Speedo but they don't ship to Canada. boo! So now I've gotta venture into sports stores and stuff and their prices. Grr...But anybody have any advice on a good bathing suit to get? Particularly focusing on the lift and support? I also think I prefer 2 piece (tankini is best, but we'll see) since I don't wanna deal with any riding up and feel like I'm running in a leotard or something dumb.

ok, lunch time. Sorta getting sick of my asian salad. Something new for tomorrow I think...

tagged again

Though this one is a new thing I dont think I did yet. Plus I love to think I'm so interesting that you can't get enough of the little trivia of my life.

7 things from Jen. Here are the rules of the game...1) Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.4) Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I can do this crazy weird eye thing that freaks my hubby out. Basically I can make my eyes move independant of one another so I look like an alien or something. It's awesome.

2. I hate working. I am a type B personality if there ever was one. My job is fine, but if there was ever an opportunity to stay at home I'll take it. I have no sense of doing what's best for the company or anything like that (hubby is opposite).

3. I don't like people. While I'll usually defend a total stranger if they cut me off driving or were rude to me shopping or something, I'll do just about everything I can to avoid hanging out with good friends.

4. along the same lines, I don't have many good friends. My sister is my best friend and she's about the only person who I feel completely comfortable being myself. Like if anybody else came over they would be company, she's just Kerry. But I don't really mind only having her, see #3.

5. I had a bunch of accidents as a little kid. I had blood poisoning when I was around 5 from a sliver I wouldn't let my mom take out of the bottom of my foot. I remember the surgery for it because I kept trying to look but mom was holding my head away. I did see something but it just looked like a can of vegetable soup. I also burned my hand on the barbeque when I was around 4 because I was using it as a railing (it was by the stairs up to our house), only this time it was on. When I was around 2 my mom accidentally dislocated my shoulder/elbow (we can't remember which) because we were walking down the street and I decided to sit right there in the middle of the road. So she tugged on my arm to get me to come, but then couldn't understand why I was screaming so much. Lucky for us the doctor lived across the back alley and would make house calls. Since I was little there's been basically nothing wrong with me.

6. I think I can do anything. When shopping if something is over priced, I try and figure out how I can make it, from clothes to furniture. I make cards not because I like stamping and stuff, but because I couldn't imagine spending money on a card. Currently I'm trying to figure out how to make homemade pilsbury dough like crescents and country biscuits so I can make recipes that need it, but won't have trans fats.

7. We've had a computer for longer than I can remember. Probably since I was 4 (that would be 1986 folks). I remember dictating a story to dad who typed it up called the magic mittens, but I couldn't read yet. We've still got the print out.

Cool. Aren't I interesting? I would like to tag the following interesting people if they're interested...

Carolyn (does she even blog any more?)
Lindz (who does appear to blog more)
Tash (who probably needs an excuse to not study)
Cara (who is just interesting)
Jenn (also interesting, but might not want to as she's steering away from personal)
Amanda (who I don't really know that much about now that I think of it)
Jennifer (to round out all the Jen girls)

and anybody else who wants to play. (does anybody do this if they weren't named specifically though? you should, meant to tag you...)

I have a friend!

YAY! I have a friend who is also doing triathlons this summer! woohoo! She's more like a close aquiantance, a close friend of a close friend. But still we've emailed back and forth a dozen times this morning and it! YAY! She's also really really cool and funny and reminds me of me.

(I asked her if I'd look like an idiot with a mountain bike, not a road bike, and she answered, "most people have mountain bikes, but look like an idiot? probably." I fell in love. It's like talking to myself!)

you want comments?

post a picture of yourself in a bikini! haha!

You are all TOO kind. Though I looked again this morning before starting this post, I don't look THAT stumpy, just my legs. I'm ok with my body. But I do have short legs so you don't need to flatter me that it's the camera angle (you're so sweet katieo.) I've accepted my leg shortness and having to hem all my pants. There was one point in my life (or a couple) that I liked my legs, they had leaned out, so I'm just waiting for that point again. Correction, I'm just working toward that point. Waiting, what like it's gonna do it by itself?

So I am completely pooped lately! just exhausted! I'm getting tons of sleep so I'm probably just working out more and it's hitting me harder. Actually I'm pretty sure that's it. I had my longish run on Saturday morning and for the rest of the day I had no energy. I was talking to my friend who's ran a half marathon and she was talking about how sore I might be after my races, it never even occured to me that I'd be sore. I get sore from heavy weights and that's about it. But after saturday's run I get that it will be a different sore, I wouldn't even say sore, I'd just say tired. Tired limbs, tired mind. Hungover feeling, but not in any kind of bad way. Well sore feet I suppose.

Sunday's bike ride turned into sunday's run. SIL borrowed my bike and I wanted to bring my dog (and she is soo not ready for running with a bike). So I had a nice short/slow run for about 25 minutes. In the HEAT! 23 degrees yesterday! woohoo! Unfortunately the warmth comes with big wind in Sask. Funny how you forget these things until they're upon you.

I don't think I talked about friday with my friend's over for Chinese. Well we had several dishes but I'm not a big chinese person, I like it, but about as much as I like meatballs or something. So I had a plate full, a bit of everything. (not chicken balls, I don't even like these at all, and no soup, other people like it so much I thought I'd let them have more) and then I was done. I even packed up the leftovers and sent them home with the other people (even though we paid, I guess that's kind of silly but I knew it wouldn't get eaten at my house, plus it makes me look so generous.)

A bit of visiting, these are my university friends so hubby sometimes feels leftout. but it's not like we talk about calculus or engineering or anything, just an inferiority thing he's got I think. Anyway we talked about houses a lot. In SK where I am house prices have more than doubled since we bought 2 years ago. One of the girls also bought in the middle of the boom, but the other couple, with the baby, did not buy and now they won't be able to afford it for a long time. It was hard to talk about how lucky we are and how ridiculous prices have gotten and whatever when it's sooooo good for us, but soooo bad for them.

So we played and talked baby a little bit. Baby's name is Arden. She's adorable. But not really a good baby. How can you be a bad baby at only 4 months old? by being crabby ALL THE TIME! You know how people ask "is she a good baby" to the mom? Well what's the mom gonna say except yes. But the answer for this one, should be no. She wasn't crying when they fed her and for about 1/2 an hour when they first got here. But she's just crabby. and a funny crier too, sort of like a grown up cry, like at a funeral or something, big tears and open eyes that look like you just were so mean or something. Apparently this is her regular, it's not like she was being bad just for us either. I told hubby that I wanted to see how my new neice or nephew was (due in about a week!) and if they were crabby all the time too, we could wait to have kids.

So today is supposed to be another really nice day, though it looked like it was gonna rain earlier. But the plan for tonight is to do a TT workout (just did one last night!) and then go for a quick run, intervals. Then it's puppy school time. Supper is already planned, salmon with stuffed potatoes (which I made and froze awhile ago) and steamed veggies. Eating was good on the weekend, except for the dozen cookies I ate! Hubby wanted me to make cookies for him to take to work so I did. But he took all but one pan which was still cooling, he didn't like them very much (new recipe, they were only ok) and nobody else was home, and now we have no cookies left. Oops. I should have thrown them out when I realized they were only ok. not eat them all! Well at least they're gone now.

gonna list the food today:
granola with milk
mango
cheese string
strawberries
salad with spinach, lettuce, chicken, oranges and egg with thai dressing
homemade protein bar
apple
veggies and dip
salmon, potato, tons of veggies.
yogurt for dessert

Seems like a lot of food hey? Probably won't eat the apple now that I look at it. It's ALL good healthy food, and that's what my weeks always are like, but it's just a lot isn't it? I'll try it in fitday...2123 calories....wow. A lot in the old granola it appears, almost 800 with it and the milk. I'm not sure if that's accurate as it was homemade and I made it as healthy as I could. It's too late to uneat it anyway. Also the protein bar is guessed at calories too. Well frankly there are a lot of guesses in there for nutrition. Something nice is I've got 106 grams of protein, that's nice and high how I like it. A stinking lot of fat, all in that granola, that's why I think it's not accurate, in my whole 9 cups of granola there was only about 1/3 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of honey. A few nuts I guess and they have fat, but 38 grams of fat? don't think so.

Anyway, maybe I'll try and track in fitday all this week. Just to see how things are going. I'll also try and get a better number for that granola.

edit - new granola numbers: 475 calories, not 760. Fat now 22, not 38. Brings total calories to 1838, a much better number. But is this really cheating? Am I being inaccurate and just twisting numbers so they make me feel better?

Weekend pictures

Oh and not just weekend pictures, but weekend bikini pictures! EEek!

I sure look stout.
particularly my legs, they look normal if you do a scroll down but they just end too soon. Like, is that her knee already? Yes folks, it is.
I'm a little teapot. Short and stout.

Anyway, we're a work in progress right? Just thought I'd put those up.

Had a GREAT run today with my dog. Turns out it was only 4 miles, thought it would be longer, but that's alright. It's more than my triathlon and I felt like I could have kept going for my 10K. It was a nice comfortable pace outdoors in the sun with my dog. Who stopped pulling eventually, I think that's what made it enjoyable. Anyway, average pace was 10.7 km/hr so that's just slightly faster than what my minimum pace on the treadmill for recovery intervals is (10.5). So for an attempt at a long slow run I sort of failed, but I feel really good about it. Not very long and not very slow, but it still felt slow so I could have gone much further. Oh, except for this:

Not the greatest picture of it but at least it shows there's something there. That's my blisters on the arch of my foot. Can you say ouch? The white dead skin closer to the ball of my foot doesn't hurt that much, it's the red raw part (that's shiny in this picture so doesn't look that red) below it that really really hurts. It's a blister on thin skin. On the part of your foot that is really sensitive to being tickled. Have your eyes started watering yet thinking of my pain? Good. It hurts. Anytime I run longer than 27 minutes or so this starts hurting. I forgot to put on my blister stick thing and my special running socks. Hopefully they will help next time.

Anyway, just a brief weekend update for y'all. I'm gonna try and dig my bike out now and get it tuned up and maybe go for a ride. That's right, a second workout. Chow!

forgot something

Hubby had a bunch of cavities filled yesterday at the dentist and asked me to bring him home Burger King. sure, if he wants a treat when he's feeling bad whatever. But I ordered NOTHING for myself! woot! I'm awesome!

However I got home and proceeded to have sugar toast for supper (toast with margarine, sugar and cinnamon on it. mmmm. Especially for somebody who adores toast). I also had a protein bar, but it was barely better than Burger King anyway. oops.

warm tea = gross

Wait until it gets cold though, and it's not bad. Not as good as my lipton packets though. Plus I dunno if I didn't let it steep enough because it was pretty mild flavoured. I'll try again this afternoon with cool water.

So yesterday I was kick ass incarnated - again. I went to the gym and hopped on a bike. I did HARD intervals for 20 minutes and a cool down then went straight to the treadmill and did a brisk (pace averged 11 km/hr) 15 minute run. pretty cool. Stretched it out nicely as well. oh and all without the aid of my mp3 player which I forgot. so double points.

In the gym there was a boot camp or some kind of personal group training going on. It was cool. They had 4 treadmills booked off, and a bunch of mats and weights and were divided in 2. 1st group was on the treadmills which were already running and determined speeds and inclines (so you walk on the side and then start while it's already going) for about a minute, the other group was doing squats or squat jumps with push presses or other cool stuff like that for a minute, then they'd switch. It was so cool, cause they were running fast. Then at the end, everyone had to run 400 m as fast as they could, (so like 1.5 minutes-ish). And 4 people would go and the others would cheer them on. When the last group finished I wanted to cheer for them too, sprinting for over a minute is hardcore!

but then I saw another personal trainer who kinda sucked. She was making her client do about a million sit ups and variations, timing her on each thing, but was looking around in between, even called over another client and was talking to her, once in awhile looking back and saying "ok other side now, good work, keep it up". But seriously, if that's what you get with a personal trainer, I'd be so pissed. you could time yourself and pick up a program from any magazine. Especially what she was doing, all those abs, I personally think is a waste of time. Planks, sure they're the best, but crunch variations for 10 minutes, no thanks. You won't get a 6-pack with fat on your belly.

Anyway, those were my gym adventures yesterday. I'm super tired today, even though I felt alright yesterday and got to bed at a decent time, I think those intervals killed me. Yes!

tonight I've got some friends coming over for Chinese food (from a restaurant one of our university friends opened, he's a full time engineer but his passion is cooking. How cool is that?) So I get to play with a baby! yay! Plus we're going to be talking running and planning training and what races we'll do and stuff. Suweet!

Also this weekend is supposed to be amazing! yay! I already can't remember what I planned, but I'm going to bike on saturday to hubby's work (since he has to work saturday) and have lunch with him or something (probably 45 minutes one way). That means get my bike out finally yay! 15 degrees will be worth it.

Then sunday I'll go for my long run, because it's supposed to be 21 degrees! yay! I won't even have to wear long sleeves! I think I'm supposed to do TT on the weekend as well. Aside from that, plans will be to do all the phoning, mailing and stuff I never do during the week. (just cancel subscriptions, return dress with a hole, do some professional registration stuff). Plus get some pictures developed so I can scrapbook a bit, also want to put a couple picture frames up. House is pretty clean already so just the fine details to do, scrub floor, dust. wash windows. I'll also check outside for some chores to do as it will be so nice. I think the backyard could use a poop patrol.

anybody have advice on how to get a dog to stop digging in the lawn? We didn't have this problem last year as the grass is new. And she does it when we're not home so we can't catch her in the act. I forgot to ask at puppy school.

speaking of puppy school, it went well. I do need to get a pinch collar for her. She doesn't understand that me tugging on her collar is supposed to be uncomfortable or hurt and get her attention. I should have known that since she pretty much hangs herself when we go for a walk. She'd only slow down and stop pulling when she's wheezing so bad she can't breath. But last night we learned lay down and stay, which she already knows at home. But with other dogs around it's a bit trickier. Plus once she gets her treat she thinks it's over but she's supposed to stay until I give the release command. So just a couple things to work on.

Anyway, I'm so looking forward to this work week being done. Basically everything I did all week turned out to be a waste and I have to redo it since I had some things wrong with the model. So now I've got another few days of boring click click work. Plus we're already over budget on the project and I don't have anything else to work on while the model's running that I can bill to. sheesh. But today's friday right? yay

Oh and guess what else

I'm so excited about even though it only proves how lame I am. I'm gonna try drinking REAL tea, teabag tea. It's Mandarin Green Tea or something, but all I know is it's a tea bag and not a powder to be poured into a water bottle like I usually drink my green tea. So we'll see if I like it. (thing is I dont' like hot drinks, not even hot chocolate so it's more like warm tea, and I added stevia. and it's in a water bottle not a tea cup or mug. but it's still a dramatic difference for me.)

I kick butt at being awesome!

I just thought you should know, I'm the best at being awesome. It's a gift.

Why today am I awesome? I dunno. I just am. Lots of reasons.

I know we're only 1 day and 4 games into the playoffs but I'm leading our office hockey pool by a long shot due to amazing goalie picks for the second year in a row (Fleury, shut out = 7 pts!).

I'm also awesome at working out as I did my day one of turbulence training beginner last night. It was pretty good. Felt nice to be doing a solid plan again. But I think after this week I'll move up to intermediate. I already doubled the length of time for the side planks since it was basically nothing. But the swiss ball hamstring roll things (can't remember what they're called) KILLED my hamstrings. I think it should be working the butt more so next time I'll do some glute activation work before. For the intervals, I tried jump rope as it was cold and yucky out. But it's hard for me to find different intensities in the jump rope, I went fast for the work part, but it didn't feel much harder. Oh well, I got 15 minutes of jump rope in at least. Today is a gym day and I'll be rocking the bike.

I need to map out a plan since I've got 3 different programs i'm trying to do that need need 3 days a week each, and a day off. We'll keep the swim and bike days on tuesday and thursday. Fridays will be days off. So Monday, Wed, Saturday and Sunday are left for running (10k training). Let's try this:

Monday - TT, Run, (then puppy school)
Tuesday - Swim,
Wednesday - TT, Run
Thursday - Bike, (then puppy school)
Friday - Off
Saturday - Long Run
Sunday - TT

Possibly switching saturday and sunday based on weather and plans. I know it makes me do TT 2 days in a row, however the Sunday one will be early in the day and the monday late. Not the best but that's how it works for me I think.

Woohoo! I feel so much better having it written out. Now I will be PREPARED.

Speaking of prepared, add another "race" to the agenda. Ok this is a fun run and I don't know if they really qualify as a race but to me it does. And it will be the first one I actually do, (though not the first one signed up for. Am I being too ambitious? why did I sign up for so many, what if I don't like them. Oh shut up, I'll be fine). It's on April 27th, just over 2 weeks away. And it's just a 5k fun run. I can run 5k in my sleep so no worries there. But my friend (with the baby) just emailed and asked if I wanted to do this. cool. After I asked her to run a 10k with me in June. So maybe we'll also do another 5k later in the summer and then maybe the CIBC Run for a Cure in Sept or Oct. I love having somebody want to do stuff like this with me! yay! I wouldn't mind doing them alone, it's just the before and after parts of the race, getting nervous for the start, then when it's over having somebody to high five. you know. Hubby was already sort of annoyed that I expect him to come watch my tri. what a jerk huh? ;)

I feel so good about the running and the races and stuff, now if the weather would just cooperate so I could train. Honestly. Plus I'm looking forward to being busy. I could be busy now I suppose, my house always needs cleaning, laundry, dishes etc. But last night I was bored. I made some little protein bar things (2/3 cup ground flax seed, 4 scoops chocolate protein powder, 1/3 cup water, 4 tbsp of peanut butter, mix, form balls, wrap in plastic, refrigerate.) did my TT workout. even got home later because of a stop at Dollarama. Wasted the whole night watching Idol gives back. (I *heart* Brad Pitt). If the weather was better I'd have gone for a run.

I should do some scrapbooking, but can you believe my problem is lack of PICTURES? I keep buying supplies though. dumb. I'll have to develop some of the bull riding ones.

Anyway, back to work. And listening to Never Not Funny (now I'm even paying for it, sheesh, I've gotta cancel my paypal account, I'm buying all kinds of strange things now) Anyway, tomorrow's friday! And wish us luck in puppy school!

I'm a dork

So yeah, yesterday got the TT. And if anybody is interested in getting it as well it's $40 and you can just click on the thingy over on the left. No pressure or anything, just if you wanted to get it anyway. Which you maybe will as I continue to post about my monumental results.

Not that I've started the training yet. ha. No, I read the thingy, but there's so many bonuses that came with it that I'm trying to read too. Plus it came with 3 months membership to the online thing so I'm trying to find all the stuff I want to download from there before 3 months are up (you know there's only 2 months and 29 days or so!)

I will do the first workout of the beginner tonight. I'll do a week of it and then maybe do intermediate, hard to say where I should be at. Basically it's pretty simple, about 6 exercises, 3 times. then intervals for 20 minutes. things like pushups, step ups, planks. good old exercising.

I sort of forgot that last summer I credited all my sucess with turbulence training body weight workout which I got ahold of for free. And the last time I saw good results was about when I stopped doing that... hmmm....

Right. But what I did do yesterday was swim. yay me. I did about 1100 meters, 25 ish minutes. I always forget to look at the clock when I get in the pool. I was practicing swimming with my turns at the end, did alright. that certainly tires you our more than without them. My tri is in a pool but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough with those to do them full time. I'll keep practicing and see how it goes. It occassionally caused my goggles to fill with water but they're sorta cheap goggles.

Then the night was sort of lost. Don't know what I did, a couple little things here and there, and all of a sudden it's past my bed time! I hate that! I did a little prep for lunch and supper today though. That's why I'm enjoying a salad with mandarin oranges and chicken breast, and ate veggies and dip earlier.

There's no specific nutrition plan with TT but a guide I haven't read yet. I'm gonna now-ish. I think it's basically what I'm doing, eat more fruits and veggies, cut out processed foods. Eat protein with every meal. pre and post workout snacks. I'll let you know if there's anything extra.

Anybody in a CBC.ca hockey pool? I am. with work. but if you want me to join your pool let me know! hehe. I actually don't know anything about hockey, but I know a deal when I see one and look at picking players like finding sales. I won the first round last year but then ended up in the middle of the pack. (fyi I'm picking Pittsburg and San Jose mostly, a couple Montreal for my Canadian quota. Based entirely on a random comment I heard on the radio)

so that's pretty much it. until tomorrow, adieu!

ok I can't help it

I bought Turbulence Training. I couldn't help it. I know I set my priorities on the racing. but come on. Guaranteed results.

I've barely downloaded the thing (it's an e-book so you get it right away, plus access to message boards and stuff, somewhere else for me to hide out while at work) but basically it's 45 minutes of strength training (squats, pushups etc) and intervals, 3 times a week. I'll keep you informed and of course take before and after pictures. ;)

I also just checked out the message boards and they're discussion about doing this with marathons and triathlons and stuff and it's all good. In fact, helps the results for the most part. so yay!

my monday

So monday was good. Didn't go to the gym because there was literally no parking space. Lame excuse but I think there was some talk or something going on on campus so all the meters were full and I was looking far away too folks. Plus the sun was shining and I wasn't feeling the bike and gym (need some tunes on the mp3 player, recommendations?) so I went home and took Daisy for a nice long run. But it turned out to be not a long run when I did mapmyrun but I don't really trust it because they didn't even have all the streets in my town on the map and stuff. I did some intervals and some puddle jumping and really got my heart rate up so that's the point and it was good.

Thenwe had puppy school. Daisy (the 2nd smallest dog there, she's a terrier-cross) decided to pick a fight with the biggest scariest dog there (that the instructors are all fussing over a little bit, as in making sure that the owner always has the leash and corrects at the first sign of sniffing or anything because I guess this dog had a rough start and is known to be aggressive and stuff.). Anyway so Daisy thought she was tough shit and proceeded to bark and call on several other dogs so I didn't have the best class, trying to keep her out of trouble. Plus the corrections we give (just a sharp tug on the leash) don't phase her at all. Some of the bigger scarier dogs have pinch collars.

I'd like to note that nobody is abusing their dogs. It's sort of like spanking your kid. You only do it as hard as you need to to get your point across. If you have a sensitive little dog, just a sharp word works, but if you've got Daisy, you give her whips and tugs and kick her legs out from under her and pinch her and she doesn't even stop what she's doing. I need to find somethign that works.

So we're supposed to give little corrections when they're not being good. pulling on the leash or barking for example. Well it isn't working at all for Daisy, she is not affected at all by me nearly lifting her off the floor by her leash. She doesn't care. So since she's small and not really dangerous, just bad, I'm now supposed to pinch her scruff or chin or lip or ear or whatever, just like her mom would have done. So we didn't do very well at the "come" exercise we were supposed to be doing since we were trying to figure all this other stuff out.

Oh, and she decided to pee in the middle of class, again.

Hubby got a ride with me to visit a friend so I had to pick him up afterwards, and of course he had just started a beer so I had to wait. We didn't get home until 11 and I was cranky because it was passed my bedtime (10:01 I get bitchy). It was tough to drag myself out of bed this morning (at 7:00, I know, probably twice as much sleep as the rest of you, but I need it!)

Today there is going to be cake for a birthday boy at work. It will likely replace my afternoon snack. Since I can't really get out of having a piece served to me, I came up with a new strategy. Just pick at it. (I'm not a big cake person really, cookies and donuts yes, but just cake no.) So I'll pick at it and eat a few bites. Then when everyone else is done (we take a break around the board room table and eat it) I'll just throw mine away. Problem solved. I'll get some cake, but not 700 calories worth.

Swimming today since the weather changed. running again tomorrow, biking thursday. Friday nothing since I never do anything friday I might as well accept it. Saturday hopefully get the real bike out on the road. I'll try and do a weight workout tonight and on the weekend.

As I mentioned in my previous post. I gotta set up some priorities. Am I trying to lose weight? Or trying to be an athlete? I know they're sort of similar, but different in how you get there. I am sucking ass on my strength work and that used to be all I cared about. I love being strong. Hmm...

I think I'm going to focus on the running and triathleting until mid-june when my tri and the fun run are over. Then June I'll switch gears and get into Turbulence Training or something again. The eating is gonna have to tighten up for now though. I still want to be losing weight with the "athlete" thing.

Anybody interested?

I've been watching over the fence at the turbulence training crowd for awhile now. I'm thisclose to signing up and getting started. Not sure how it would affect my races this summer though. I gotta straighten out my priorities I think. Anyway, check this out:

http://turbulencetraining.blogspot.com/

scroll down for some great before and afters. I'd also like to point your attention to the MONEY BACK GUARANTEE:

"And don't forget...Turbulence Training has a 100% money-back 8-week guarantee. If you aren't satisfied with the program or your results, just let us know within 8 weeks and you'll get all of your money back."

Results in 8 weeks...so tempting...

Woohoo

So I had a great weekend. Not at all what I wanted to get done but still great. I did spend all day saturday shopping. Spent $80 at Suzy Shier but I got 3 tank tops, a t-shirt, a beach bag, jean capris and a coat. oh plus a free shopping card that gives me 10% off for a year and lots of coupons. Pretty good! I left early on saturday morning and bought all that stuff first stop, I was feeling really good and things were looking and fitting good too. The rest of the day wasn't so great. That's all I bought besides lunch (wrap) and stuff at the dollar store. Oh and Walmart necessities.

Then it was a supper of nuts at home. I forgot the afternoon snack and was shaking starving (blood sugar thing) so I just shoved trail mix in my mouth until I felt better. It was probably like 1 cup (I was grabbing small handfuls since I knew it was so high cal, but it just wasn't fixing it!) Then when they finally kicked in, I wasn't hungry any more so I didn't eat supper. We went out with friends to a lounge and I had a wrap at about 9:30. The rest of the night was diet coke.

Sunday I was planning on doing so much work but I forgot we had tickets to see Bull Riding and Motocross jumping (yes same show!). I was pretty fun. I was such a ninny at the beginning. Reminded myself of some mother, "oh heavens!" "oh my goodness" "I can't watch this" lots of gasping. The motocross guys were crazy, I couldn't believe they didn't die. Bull riding was also awesome. But only like 1/3 of the guys made their 8 seconds. Very disappointing. Weird cause it's not something I thought I'd like much, more hubby's sort of thing, but I definately want to go back next year.

Did manage to make homemade pizza for supper and cut up some fruit and veggies for the week. I also cooked about 6 chicken breasts up and sliced them for salads and froze them. So I'm totally set.

Today's lunch was out to Kelsey's with work. I had the chicken sonoma valley salad. Good and I checked it out online and the nutritional info is pretty good, 600-ish calories. And just water.

I am getting super excited and ambitious with my running though. Triathlon is almost an after thought. when we were out with friends saturday Erin and I were talking about how she wants to lose weight and how I found "training" easier than working out so I'm trying to get her to sign up for a 5k fun run with me. Spent part of the morning looking up races. Then I got the idea to email my friend who's got a baby who was talking about wanting to train for a 10k this summer (she's done a half marathon before but doesn't have time to commit with the baby). So I asked her if she was still interested and we could do it together and found a whole bunch more race options. Only problem is, I think both the 5 and 10k that they both want to do are at the same race (bridge city boogie!) so I'd have to chose one over the other, not both. And I doubt I could get Erin to do the 10k since she's pretty nervous about 5. (even though there's a free training guide that starts today with just 3 runs/week for the 10k).

I was looking at times from last year and I would totally do fine in both races as I am now, right in the middle of the pack, before training. So that's encouraging. Just have to figure out something for the darn blisters. Hopefully my feet toughen up from training though.

oh the other thing, my tri is june 1st, the boogie is on june 8th. so my training for both races is gonna be affected I think. oh well. all the more reason to get focused now!

Speaking of, heading to the gym after work! Focus on the bike with hopefully a 10 minute cool down run (depending on machine availability). Then puppy school tonight. If I get home with enough time I'll try and take Daisy for a run as well. Tomorrow is finally supposed to be in the double digits so outdoor run with the dog are a must tomorrow.

so glad I got out yesterday.

So glad I went for a run yesterday. Today it is blizzarding, no joke. boo.

So I rushed home after the dentist (straight A's folks, all good) and we decided hubby didn't need to go to the hospital. He is rather dramatic at times, but honestly, how are you supposed to know when you need stitches? I just thought about the purpose of stitches, to hold the "flesh" together so it heals properly/quickly right? Well this was a deep-ish cut, but it was holding itself together just fine, until he pulls it open to show me how deep it is. He's always, "checking" and poking and stuff so maybe we should have got stitches anyway. But we loaded it up with antiseptic and stuff and if he takes it easy at work he'll be fine. Thanks for your concern.

So instead of rushing to the emergency I rushed out the door with my dog and went for a run. didn't look at a clock or anything so I don't know how long it was but 30 minutes-ish. good enough for me. It was a tough run for some reason. daisy was pulling more than I like, and I think we started a bit faster than usual. Intervals were attempted but were sloppy I think. Oh well, I was huffing and puffing when it was over which is the point right?

Made steaks, with canned beans and coleslaw so a very healthy supper. Even though I could have had my starchy carbs since it was right after my run, I didn't throw any rice or noodles or whatever in. Just didn't need it. Though I guess the beans are quite starchy aren't they. Followed with a banana with about 1/3 of the peanut butter I usually put on.

Then I made some homemade granola. Which is DELICIOUS! Not really the greatest health wise, but better than boxed stuff I'm sure. I actually used my muesli in it because I thought it was too floury as is. So I mixed it (basically oats, flax, wheat bran, whole wheat flour, raisins, dried fruits, nuts) with some more oats and raisins and some Fibre1 cereal. Then added about 1/4 cup of canola oil, and like 1/2-ish cup of melted honey, probably more. mixed it all up then baked on a cookie sheet for 1/2 an hour. crumbled and voila! except I went to puppy school while it was cooking and hubby took it out for the voila.

Daisy was really really good in puppy school, we were doing heel and focus (basically looks at you when walking). And since we had treats she was a pro at this. We sometimes do this at home. She also turned off a lot better when it was discussion time and we're just supposed to make them relax and not walk around. Apparently my totally queen of the henhouse, outgoing dog, is a bit of a sissy around other dogs. She'll pull and pull to go sniff somebody, but then cower when she gets near them. Very odd. Makes me sorta sad. I can't imagine what i'm gonna be like as a mother.

Anyway, got home and went to bed. Sorta dull evening. This morning I got up early to hard boil some eggs for my salad today (as leftovers are gone). Ate my granola (starches for breakfast). snack was a small container of yogurt (100 calories-ish?). lunch will be salad with strawberries, broccoli, red onion, ham and eggs with mandarin orange dressing (1 tbsp). and a pear or apple. Afternoon snack will be the other fruit and a cheese string. I don't know about supper yet. I don't feel like cooking. But it's gonna be tricky to find some kind of fast food/takeout that doesn't involve starch. Maybe I'll do a quick set of weights before we eat and then get subs.

We're putting together our new barbeque tonight and then tomorrow I wanna shop all day. I need a new spring/fall coat and I wanna start looking at bathing suits. Also just clothes that aren't sweaters for every day. See what the sales bring. I think we're getting together for a low key thing with another couple couples saturday night. I'll probably make some kind of dip or appetizer cause I like to be like that. Then sunday will be NOTHING! yay! (by nothing I mean, clean my whole house, try and scrapbook and sew, do 4 loads of laundry, bake and watch movies. yay!)

Gonna try and do some kind of workout at home both days, hopefully this snow is gone so I can run or bike or it will be a lot of weights.

so about those hip flexors

So yesterday's plans got a little changed up (more below). But I ended up doing a small strength training thing last night instead of the run. Not really any program, just playing around with my new barbell. I loaded it up to 50 lbs and checked out all the things I could do. Which involved squats. So I did my glute activation exercise (basically shoulder bridges, but using the butt not the legs, had to focus but definately a difference) before, did some stretches and then squatted it out. Also did some deadlifts and chest presses, shoulder presses. Managed to pump out a few bicept curls but I think that weight was pushing it a little bit (that's 25 lbs per arm, I could only do 6 with probably poor form). Then I stretched it out and called it a day. oh, did some planks too, forgot.

Anyway, my sciatica (self diagnosed again) was bothering me afterwards, and I noticed this last time I did the hip flexor stretches too. Sort of interesting, I wonder if it has to get worse before it gets better, or if it's unrelated. Anyway, I also slept kind of funny, on my side on my hip and I noticed my hip was sore this morning when I woke up. And now, just sitting here at my desk, I'm having weird pain in my hip flexor of that same leg. Sort of like a sore muscle pain. Not too bad, but definately irritating. I hope this means that I stretched it out nice and good and not bad and bad. Just something to note.

Anyway, my dad came through town last night and we went out for supper to the bar instead of having steaks (weren't enough for everyone). I had a salad which was basically a tossed, but with turkey, cheese and bacon on it. Probably too much cheese to be completely healthy, but other than that, pretty good. But the visiting occured when my jog would have happened. Then I wasn't feeling like it in the dark at 8:30 (late for me folks) so I did my weights instead.

Tonight I was going to swim, but I forgot that I had a dentist appointment at 3:30 so I probably wouldn't be going to the gym afterwards, so the plan is today to jog with Daisy. and just skip the swimming this week (tues and thurs are only options). But hubby cut himself at work and said that maybe we'd have to go to the hospital after work to get him stitches (I told him it's retarded to wait until after work we should go now, but sometimes he's dumb). So we'll see about that I guess.

I'm finally getting the TOM munchies. It's been a pretty good week and I was wondering if something was wrong (ha). But today I cannot feel satisfied at all. Luckily I only bring limited food to work and I know what's going on. Breakfast was a peanut butter banana and some yogurt. Snack was a big bag of grapes and 11 almonds. Lunch will be leftover turkey chili and an orange. I've got some coleslaw (with vineger dressing) and a cheese string for the afternoon. Steaks are supper today. They'll be extra marinated. mmm. (hopefully I don't burn them which is about the only way I know how to cook steak, I get it from my mother).

So I sort of realized something. Why the hell haven't I lost more than 1 lb since September? That's dumb, obviously I'm doing maintenance, not losing. I just watched this little video (which you should too, very smart, good basics, seen here). And while it's very good, it made me sort of upset, because there are 6 keys to nutrition (and nutrition is the #1 key to fat loss) and I'm doing just about all of the nutrition things right.
1. 5-6 meals a day
2. eat more fruits and veggies
3. cut out processed foods and added sugar
4. eat protein with every meal
5. no more calorie drinks
6. starch timing.

The only one I don't do is the starch timing. I sometimes don't eat protein with every meal but I'm trying, for example, threw the almonds on with the grapes for snack for a little protein (not much I guess though). So I'll up that. But I decided I'm gonna try this starch timing thing. It won't be too different from what I do now.

Basically only eat your carby starchy food for breakfast or after a workout. I usually eat leftovers for lunch, and today when it's chili, it's fine. But if it's leftover spaghetti then it's a no. and no to sandwiches. Suppers are usually gonna be ok, because I've stopped HAVING to make a potato or rice or whatever with my meals, so just the meat and veggies for nonworkout days. But otherwise, I eat supper after workouts so I can have starches then.

I'm hoping things will also change a bit now that I've changed my strength workouts. While that class was alright, we did a million reps with low weights, which is not how I build muscle (it's how you tone or something else that I hate and doesn't help you lose fat, maybe if you already look good but want more toned muscles or something). I know that last summer when I started doing heavier weights and lower reps after this class that I really started losing weight. Also I'm going to do more sprint intervals in all my training. I know it's good for fatloss but I think it also is good for your overall conditioning and should help with the tri training.

I'm glad I just outlined that little plan. Makes me feel better. Instead of "well I'm gonna do basically the same thing but hope for something different to happen". It's not even like i'm crazy bad on weekends or took weeks off from the gym. I don't have any excuses and can't see why there wasn't a loss in any given week, except for the fact that it's just not enough.

so here's more.