Friday, May 30, 2008

WI

forgot to post my WI. I weighed wed or something and was at 136.8. Today was 137.2. Both are numbers I'm happy with, down from last week I believe. And that's not bad on the week before TOM! Hopefully next week is a big loss (what usually happens to me at that point in the cycle, or at least used to, when I used to lose weight!).

Feeling good, looking good. that's what matters! have a good weekend! Wish me luck Sunday!

What a lovely suprise!

Marie has generously made an exception to sucking - I mean cheating - no wait not participating fully in the blog meme things that go around, and has tagged me! What a surprise! ;)

Actually her post about 5 things that sucked about being bigger (I know she doesn't like the f word) inspired me and I basically made her tag me. So here I go, reasons it sucks to be overweight:

1. wearing too much clothes for the weather. On hot days, still feeling like you need to wear sleeves to cover your arms. I remember that I didn't wear a tank top from the time I was like 8 until I was 16. I remember buying my first one and feeling so self conscious when I wore it. (and I wasn't that big either, but my fat does stick to the arms). I also was one of the people who wore a shirt in the pool. You would never catch me wearing even a t-shirt without a bunnyhug or sweater of some kind. Even just last year. (heck even now on "fat days"). I think along with this one goes, wearing inappropriate clothes. As in, you're young, hip, but you dress like a grandma.

2. unflattering pictures. Last summer we had family pictures taken with my parents and siblings. Really nice pictures. Except for my big fat belly and my double chins. I hate those pictures, yet things like that don't happen often. I'm gonna look at that picture for years and years. And I see my chub, not the happy family. Also bad when other people take pictures of you and that's how they get to see you all the time. Or they post it on facebook. Thanks.

3. Closet issues. I had mornings where I'd be close to tears just getting dressed for work. Nothing looked nice. I was late for weddings because I couldn't find something flattering to wear. The feelings from closet issues were probably the worst feelings I can remember.

4. Not being able to talk about food. if somebody was talking about going out, I couldn't help pick a place unless it was a salad bar. If I was eating with other people I picked food that wouldn't look like "typical fat girl shoving a burger down her throat". This is still with me. I think it made me a closet eater. I remember being in high school and sneaking in the kitchen and shoving like 5 cookies in my mouth and eating them as fast as I could, then walking out with just one.

5. Inner thigh chafing (ITC) This and other rash sorta things were a huge motivator. (following miss mouse here) skirts are out, skin to skin sweat and rash. jeans are out, wearing through the inner thigh. Shorts NO WAY, some how this made just the actual rubbing so much more painful. EXERCISE was out of the question because of the extra sweat and rubbing. I remember walking around like I rode a horse all day because my thighs hurt so bad. I wasn't able to pinpoint when that stopped, but I don't miss it at all!



Just something else I want to talk about, kinda related:

When I see little kids who are overweight I get sad. My 8 year old neice is overweight. I think when you're 8 it's not your fault. Her dad I think is not a great help and is probably setting her up for eating disorders, but he used to call her fat when she was like 3. When you're 3 it's cute to have pudge and you can get teased about your belly button sticking out. But teased, like when getting tickled, not called fat by your dad. Anyway, I was baby sitting her and her little 5 year old brother (who's a stick, it's always the girls with the raw deal). And I was telling them about water for some reason. How important it is to drink water. And how pop and juice are like treats and are only a sometimes food for me since they're not healthy and can make you fat if you have too much, trying to emphasize the health not the fat. And how water is good for you to drink because your body needs it and it won't make you fat. Anyways, 8yo instantly says "from now on I'm only drinking water then!" and it made me sad. She's too young to feel like that.

BUT I remember feeling like that even younger than her. And I wasn't even as chubby as she is. First, I matured faster than most kids in my class. And a lot of them were really skinny, scrawny, boney kids. Even as a kid I had muscles. So I was taller and bigger than them all the time. I don't remember when the first time was, but I remember hating dance because we'd have to wear leotards and I wasn't cute and skinny like the other kids (looking back, I was much cuter with dimples and so on but whatevs.) I quit and took piano.

The thing with my neice is that she somehow doesn't know things about sometimes food and healthy food. I mean her mom is overweight and is now dropping some of it with curves. And I guess it's hard to say no to your kids. Plus you don't want to give them a complex by putting them on a diet. But really at that age, you ask before you get a glass of juice, your parents fill your plate. I know these kids are spoiled already with toys, but they're also spoiled with the eating snacks before supper and then not eating supper and being able to leave food on their plate. I know this is a touchy one too because you don't have to clean your plate all the time if you're not hungry. But if you don't ever eat your veggies but eat chips all afternoon, that's an issue. I just felt so shocked when they didn't really understand that juice and pop were bad for you. The fact that something you eat could be bad for you didn't seem like it had registered before. It's another situation where it's like "when I raise my kids we're gonna do it right!". Same with how they're not gonna watch 48 hours of tv or computer screen/week. (just heard that study). I'm such a good parent for having no kids.

recap and workouts

The recap first. That way you at least have to skim through it if you're just looking for workout info. (not that you would, you don't know what I mean yet...)

So yesterday after work I went to the bike tune-up for the MS bike tour. It was weird. I was there alone, didn't know anybody else. Didn't want to eat burgers and chips, so had some watermelon and sat by myself. There were only about 20 people there. They were all visiting and talking and I was alone. I pretended to be busy on my cell phone texting or something. Then I left when my bike was done being tuned up. It is now awesome. I used to be not able to shift at all (had 3 gears and that's it) but now I've got them all, AND the brakes work great, freshly greased everything. JUST in time for my tri, hehe, it's supposed to be so I can train for the bike tour 66 km event in Sept. But come on, that's a long time from now.

Anyway, got home, waited for hubby to get home and gave him his watch. He really liked it. It made him feel a little bit guilty because he just got me flowers (the other present was silky playboy sleep pants for himself, in which case, my other present for him became the 3 bras I just bought). But he did really like it and I think got over his guilt because I reminded him that he bought me a diamond necklace at Christmas which was unbalanced so it really doesn't matter. Then we went to subway for a romantic sandwich. I got the turkey breast, no cheese, honey oat bread (most fibre!) all veggies, honey mustard sauce. Go me, but I ate the full 12 inch. boo me. BUT, I turned down the cookies and just had a diet coke. So I will sacrifice this as 1 of my cheats. 2 left for the weekend. Likely to be used after my Tri.

Then home. I tried out my bike a little bit with the dog. She keeps up so well and love running fast. But I think I pushed her too hard because she was panting for a ridiculous long time when we got home. We were only biking 15 minutes and she panted probably for 25 minutes. Ooops.

All of SILs stuff was in a pile in the living room so it would be easier for them to pack it in the truck on Sunday. Seeing her shampoo out of the shower sort of made me feel sad. Like on the Friends when Rachel has to move out (because Monica wanted her to) but Monica was still sad that she was leaving, "it's the end of an ERA!". 10 months isn't quite an era but I was sort of sad-ish. But then I felt bad because I was kicking her out basically so she probably didn't want to hear how I was sad. ("well then you shouldn't have made us leave!")

Friends came over because we were borrowing an 8 mm video camera to back up our wedding videos and wanted to do theirs too. But the season finale of LOST was on and I was taping and couldn't do both. Unfortunately after they left I checked the tapes and there was nothing on them, either it got erased, these are the wrong tapes, or something else went wrong, because they were both blank. Now I have to feel guilty and tell them, instead of them seeing for themselves. Oh well. Meant I could go to bed earlier.

Tonight going bowling with hubby's work. Then trying to go to my sister's casino night fundraiser for the Easter Seal's 24 hour relay. Fun on both counts.

Tomorrow probably doing a trip to the farmer's market, then to the dog groomer and maybe some garage sales. Pick up my race package and then chill at home, maybe finally plant my tomatoes etc. Light jog with the dog. Saturday night is early to bed. RACE DAY SUNDAY! Other than that, not too many plans. I want to go out for brunch afterwards as a celebration. So maybe a big brunch buffet thing, or maybe just a Boston Cream donut and an Iced Cap from tim hortons. If hubby comes which ever he prefers, if it's just me, just the donut, I'm not going to a buffet alone, how sad. Then help SIL move maybe. Reclaim my spare bedroom at home.

Sometime before sunday I want to do some mental training (we used to do this for provincial volleyball in high school) for my Tri. Just visualization. I'm a bit nervous about it because I sort of haven't thought about it much. Need to go through the race and plan my attack.

Ok so I wanted to talk about workouts. I think everybody is starting to hop on the HIIT bandwagon, which is awesome because that's what's gonna work baby! (HIIT - high intensity interval training). It's not easy, but it's short. From what I've read, if you can do more than 20 minutes of HIIT, you're not doing it right. You should be wanting to barf at the end. I've been doing it, slightly incorrect for almost a year now. I would just throw sprint intervals in my running. Jog at a slow-ish pace for 2 minutes, then run as fast as I could for 1 minute. then back to jogging. Not right. The fast part was, but the slow part, not so much. (well according to TT, which I just learned on the message boards). The rest period, should be at like a level 3 out of 10, where 1 is nothing and 10 is running from a bear. I was informed that I should be walking for the rest period. That way I'll be able to push it harder for the fast part. Interesting. I have yet to try it. the creator of the program said that even if he was training Lance Armstrong, for the rest part, he'd be walking at 3.5 miles/hr. And I am not fitter than Lance.

So I know I've been side tracked with my Tri and longer distance running. But I am still doing TT. I like it. I think I should be pushing it more. And I will be when my races are done. My main goal is still fat loss. Though the secondary goal of health and fitness is still there. And since I am a blunt person I'm gonna just say this, not to offend people, but I may. So sorry. But just my thoughts. A lot of people who are running marathons and half marathons and triathlongs and other long distance running things, who are also trying to lose weight, are still overweight. I remember thinking that if I trained to run a marathon, there'd be no way I would still have this belly. But that's not true. Long distance running does not make you thin. To win a marathon or race you'll be thin. But to just complete it, even more than one, you probably won't be obese, but you can still be overweight. There are even studies out there right now that show that long slow cardio (aka marathons, or even walking) can make you retain fat in your lower body. I don't know if I think it will make you fatter, but just because you run, doesn't mean you'll look like a runner.

Just my thoughts.

What should you do? The HIIT stuff, DEFINATELY some weight training stuff. You wanna do stuff that your body isn't used to. And really, if you can run for 40 minutes straight, your body is used to running right? Like if you were just starting to run, it would be much harder on your body, feel more difficult, and you'd drop pounds. But once you're used to it, your body has adapted to it, become efficient in the running motion, you're stalled.

So for myself personally, after June 8th, I'm going to focus more on the hard stuff, less on the time. I'll still do my 1 long run/week for my Cananda day race. But I'm gonna start walking on my rest intervals. Doing sprinting and walking will probably not help my endurance or my whatever threshold to make me run a 10K faster. But it will help me drop some pounds, which as described above, was priority #1.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

haha, a bunny hug is a hoodie. Saskatchewan is the only place in the world where it's called a bunny hug. But I only think of it as such.

I got a watch from spare parts. It was $190 after tax. Kinda expensive but I thought for a change I don't need to cheap out and buy something at walmart. I'll keep walmart for myself. Sorta nice to get him the "brand name" type watch he can show off a little bit. Hopefully he likes it. Though now I wish I stopped at Costco and checked there first, they always have amazing deals on big ticket things.

embarrassed

So I'm embarrassed here at work right now. Well only a little bit. Happy too. Hubby sent me flowers for our anniversary! I sort of hate that though, weird I know. I'd sooner he brought them home at the end of the day to the house. I am soooo not a public person that this is embarrassing! When we were watching this improv play of hubby's from a few years ago he told me he was going to propose during the play but chickened out. I told him it's a good thing too. Some people might think that's great and love the attention and spectacle of it, but I would have hated it. HATED IT!

I am sort of used to the flowers thing at work. He's a sweetie who usually does this on my birthday and anniversary. but i'm sort of embarrassed. They are beautiful though, and he even asked them to put some lilies in because he remembered that they were my favorite. aww...

no camera so no picture, maybe tomorrow.

On another note. It's our 4 year anniversary! ok that's the same note. But I did not get hubby anything! Boo me! He got me these flowers and apparently something from ebay, just something little apparently.

I think I'm going to get him a watch. He just bought himself a cheap watch at walmart a week ago but hasn't worn it yet so we can return it. I'm gonna buy him a nice silver watch, but probably less than $100. Anybody know where to go? I'm gonna go at noon I think. what are the expensive trendy watches worth? Seriously, answer me about this!

hehe, just got distracted by my flowers. (no longer embarrassed, rubbing it in to all of you now, they smell good too!)

yesterday was another perfect day. it was almost not perfect, because I was SOOO close to eating something not perfect. I went shopping after work so I was hungry by supper. I can't even remember what I just about ate any more. Something definately not worth it. I did eat a leftover crescent roll and a small plate with roast beef and potatoes. I purposely made supper very small since I wanted to eat something post workout. I did, I had a chocolate protein drink with peanut butter and banana blended in. mmm.

So I was shopping yesterday. Very weird experience, in this store, which is basically a teen store I guess, I was a L or XL. Not a big deal. I tried on some size 8 pants, but they were weird skinny leg capris and they didn't fit over my calf. Sort of hilarious. I bought a tube top, 2 tanks (for under low cut shirts or bunny hugs, what I live in) and a bunny hug. Then I bought 3 bras on sale. I hate buying bras, but it's because I don't realize that bras don't last forever. They stretch out and should be thrown out. Once they don't fit like new anymore I gotta get rid of them. I thought my size had changed (again! lost all my weight in my boobs!) but it was just my bras were stretched out. So I bought 3 new ones and I'm gonna throw out some tonight.

Then last night I did my TT workout and then interval run. I just used my garmin and did my regular routine. It was soooo cool. Except the heart rate monitor just fits on the tightest size. Even then it sometimes slips. Don't know what to do about that. Plus I think I had poor contact for the first half of my run because it was showing really low HRs (like 30% instead of the 70% it was showing during weights and during the second half, when I was sweatier I think). Anyway, I put it on the computer and looked at it a million ways. I need to do more runs because I checked it out every way you could and wanted more. My average pace for 26 minutes was 5:09/km. Which would be amazing if I could do for my 10k, but probably not as I was doing sprint intervals.

Today I'm getting my bike tuned up and then probably just a easy-ish bike ride for a workout. No date since hubby's kinda busy, we'll do something next week. Tomorrow we've got bowling with his work. Saturday busy running errands and sunday's my race. Friday I'll take off completely. Saturday, do a light run, then it's race time! eek!

probably more later, work is driving me nuts.

wanna be inspired?

Watch this. Seriously! It's an awesome story of a 40 lb weight loss to end up looking freaking amazing! Really makes me want to hit the gym right now!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

MY GARMIN 305 IS AWESOME!

It's got all these built in workouts that I can do, and just reading them is teaching me so much! Like it's got fartlek workouts, negative split workouts, tempo, intervals etc etc. SOOO excited! Gonna have so much fun with it! If anybody's running motivation is waning, you wanna get one of these! I think I'm gonna run every day until I try every single thing! They've got bike workouts too which I'm gonna check out now!

on a more positive note

and more selfish (though I guess that last one could be considered selfish too huh?)

I scaled today and it said 136.8. That 6 is a gooooood number! My new "be extraordinary" plan is already paying off and we're only into day 3!

yesterdays food was pretty good. I ate off a small plate at supper which helped I think. I had the smallest steak I cooked, a scoop of grilled veggies and a scoop of potatoes. I had a small bowl of salad and a one crescent roll (which was the bad thing, but it's 100 calories and it's over). I had a huge plate of watermelon as dessert. I was sort of feeling munchy all evening so I had another crystal light. My saviour lately.

As I said before I did no exercise yesterday. I think that's ok. Tonight I'm doing a TT and intervals with my new Garmin which should be awesome.

Today the fam has ball so supper is just leftovers. I think I'll have roast beef leftovers. Breakfast was 2 peanut butter toasts with a spot of honey. Snack (am) was bunch of grapes and a couple spoonfuls of yogurt for the protein, but not all of it because I'm not that hungry (yet) might have it in an hour. Lunch is a salad with tuna and leftover grilled veggies. I've got full fat greek dressing, so about 90 calories worth, I'll try and use only half and then add more to taste. Also have watermelon, strawberries, an apple and some lean ham slices for the rest of the day.

I'm seriously gonna eat a whole watermelon all by myself in 6 days!

But once again, set up to be perfect!

Downs

So I'm going to explore some downs that I'm going through right now. I don't yet know how I feel about it, but I'm sure through writing it out I'll be able to figure out my feelings.

So for those who don't remember, my hubby is a bit overweight. Actually, he's only 5'5 and weighs about 180 lbs. Depending on the calculator you use, he might be obese. I don't think he looks obese, just looks a little "tubby". He's got the beer belly that looks kind pregnant. No man boobs or anything yet. But of course all the weight being in his belly is the most unhealthy right? He's gone through spurts where he feels fat and decides to lose weight. Of course it came of very easily for about 2 weeks but then he quit and went back to eating the way he used to and not working out and now it's all back.

The other day we were talking about SILs wedding and how I want to buy a dress for it. I said I wanted to lose another 5-10lbs by then and get a super hot dress. Hubby sort of was like "what? you want to lose ANOTHER 10 lbs? I'm planning on going out and buying another suit in a size up to hide my chub!" and I was like "No come on! The wedding is far enough away that you could easily lose enough weight to fit into your old suit." (not that I wanted him to not buy a new suit, but not to resign himself to being overweight).

Then the other day I was backing up the wedding videos and commented about how young looking and skinny hubby was back then. (he looks really different, especially for just 4 years) I didn't mean to be saying "because you look so fat now" but I guess that's how he heard it. Looking back I realized I should have been more sensitive about it, knowing how I was when I had all the extra weight on.

I am continually asking hubby if he wants to come with Daisy and I on a walk or run or just lift weights or something. the answer's always no, I don't push it because I know he works hard on his feet for 10 hours every day and just wants to relax. It's fine, but I like to offer.

So yesterday I got my Garmin in the mail (didn't get a chance to use it, it had to charge 3 hours! I read the manual and did no exercise). and was talking about it a bit, ("did you know it can time my intervals for me? Or map out my run and I can put markers everywhere? or I can set a pace and run against a virtual competetor?" etc) Just excited about my new toy. No biggie. Then when we were going to bed I told him about the race I signed up for on the weekend (forgot to until then) that's on July 1st. I meant to tell him so we could talk about what we were doing for the weekend before. But we didnt' get to it. Instead he called me arrogant.

He's learned a thing or two about fighting nicely over the years so he explained that the words he was using were not quite what he meant and it would sound worse and meaner than he intended. But here's what he said:

That I was getting sort of arrogant with this whole running thing.

I just about flipped out because for years and years (since we started dating, 10 years) he's been telling me to get a hobby and be more independant from him and when I finally do and get something that takes up my time and I like and am good at, he doesn't want me doing it.

Not what he meant. He was glad I liked running and found a hobby. But my attitude about it he thought was arrogant. Like I'm doing all this amazing stuff and he has nothing to compete with.

I said, why do you need to compete with me? Plus who said it was amazing? Hubby plays slow pitch and hockey and I run. But he said that I come across that all his hobbies aren't worth anything and I criticize him and tease him about stuff but my hobbies are great and I'm a pro. (we were watching a home movie of an improv play he'd done years ago and I made some comments about how the play was sooo long (4 hours!) because it was improv and the actors were just having fun, not telling a story or moving along. They knew where they had to be at the beginning and the end, but in between it was really drawn out. Whatever. I didn't criticize him exactly, but I suppose the whole group he was with. I still think he was really funny and did well, but I guess it was the medium. So I suppose that's like him thinking I'm great but thinking triathlons are dumb. ok, I would be able to handle it I know, but I keep forgetting hubby has always had self esteem issues growing up (he was in musicals and is 5'5, 'nuf said?). Almost all of his actions are calculated to make himself look good for somebody, either me, his boss, his friends whatever. I keep forgetting he doesn't handle criticism that well. (though I feel like we've been together long enough I shouldn't have to censor myself around him to save his feelings!)

So I guess if he was feeling sensitive about me criticizing him about his plays (though that's not what I was doing) and then go on to talk about my hobbies, as well as saying how he used to be so skinny and I lost all this weight through my hobby, it would be intimidating. (he also used that word). So I guess I understand his point of view. And I know I can always find a fault with everything. And I know I always think my way is the best (you guys haven't noticed have you?) ;)

BUT that being said, I do think my way is good here! I didn't mean anything about his plays, he does them I don't even try, therefore I can't say anything anyway right? He should listen to me about that. I don't like slowpitch or hockey, so I don't play, it's not because they're not valid sports and hobbies. But I'm not interested.

I am interested in fitness. I can't see a down side to it. It gives you more energy, keeps you healthy, makes you look good, makes you feel good. The same with eating healthy. I'm interested in all aspects of health since getting a high cholesterol diagnosis a year ago. I don't drink out of plastic bottles any more. I don't wash my clothes with bad chemicals any more. I use recycled paper towels. I've got a retirement savings plan and am trying to build a nest egg. I'm trying to just be good ya know? Of course I want everybody to do that, because I think it's the right thing. And in this case there is a right and wrong in my eyes.

So I do think hubby is wrong, walking around with a BMI of 30. I think he's wrong with his pop a day habit, and with all the beer he drinks. The same way I think he's wrong about driving home from the bar, even though he's only had a few, and how he wastes paper towels when he should use a rag. I think he's wrong when he throws money away in a VLT.

I know you can't be "good" all the time. And I can see how living with me would get irritating, with such a high standard to live up to of "good". I try not to nag about everything "bad" he does. I really am not much of a nagger (he'd agree). But I do think it would be good for him to lose weight.

I said something when we were talking yesterday about him being "overweight" is unhealthy. And he said "I'm not overweight" and I explained the whole BMI thing and how yes for his height, he does weigh too much. He brought up that maybe that's a good number for some pencil pusher behind a desk all day but for a guy with a physical job there's going to be more muscle. Well sure, but that's why there's a range of healthy weights, not just one.

that's sort of where it ended. I don't think he's going to try and lose weight. Even though it would be so easy for him I'm jealous. He'd have to cut back on pop and eat more fruit or veggies instead of chips. It would MELT off him. Like those success stories you read about people who stopped eating at McDonalds every day and lost 100 lbs. Well no kidding.

And if I'm being honest, I don't find him as attractive as he used to be. I am distracted a bit by his belly.

But guys are so funny huh? They'll stand in front of a mirror, suck their gut in and think how great they look.

Oh I should also say, his entire family and friends he hasn't seen in awhile all comment on how he's put on some pounds. It's not just me. but somehow I don't really think it's sunk into his head yet. He's happy just buying larger sized clothes and sucking it in in front of the mirror.

I guess I don't know what this post is about exactly. I want hubby to want to lose weight. I think it would be something awesome and healthy and even fun we could do together, cooking and exercising. We'd feel good about ourselves and look better and be healthier. Instead I'm doing all this alone, making it a little bit harder (we still have a fully stocked chip and cookie cupboard at all times folks). Plus, the fact that i'm doing this and he's not, is making him feel insecure and I think is starting to make him want me to stop. It's easy to be fat together huh? Harder to be overweight when your partner is skinny.

I know I can't make him want to lose weight. And if I did, he'd be doing it in a weird, "gotta do this or my wife will leave me" or because "she wants me to look good" sort of way. But I still want him to want to.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

doable

So I just realized that 26 days from now is just about the time of the first big deal thing that I wanna be skinny for this summer. (well aside from the shower a few weekends ago, and my triathlon this weekend I wanted to be skinny for) It's the annual event where I see all these people I grew up with and feel this nasty competative thing and basically always freak about how I'm gonna look. I'm so shallow. I'm talking about Hogfest. (the slowpitch drunk fest in hubby's home town, which is 4 minutes from my home town). And there's no reason whatsoever that I can't lose like 5 lbs by then. It's like 1 lb a week. That's so doable when you're in weight loss mode. Even more is totally doable too! Sweet, a little extra motivation for the next month! Time to start looking at calories again. make sure we're in deficit!

donut alert

There are donuts in the main room at work. Remind me not to leave my office again. I AM NOT HAVING ONE! Gotta remember to avert my eyes on bathroom trips.

1 day success, 26 days to go.

Carolyn and I are having a contest. We're both going to tie with 27/27 though. It's a "stay on track for 27 days - seriously now!" contest. As part of her kick ass summer challenge, halfway point, and both of us not being where we want. So we gonna do this. and be awesome. or "be extraordinary" for you Grey's fans.

Right, so yesterday, 100% on plan. go me! Eats: leftover omlete for breakfast, salad with tuna for lunch, apple, grapes, almonds, yogurt for snacks. roast beef and asparagus for supper. watermelon for evening snack. woohoo! Oddly enough, like no starchy carbs all day. very weird for me. Usually breakfast is for sure one. Hmm.

Then I also did some running intervals. Found a new path. The intervals weren't as strict as they should have been, but that's what you get with a dog. I had to walk a couple times because she was being so bad, barking at other dogs. Plus she had to go to the bathroom a million times! But I did about 1/2 an hour of intervals. go me.

Yesterday I did drink crystal light or "green tea" calorie free juice all day. Only like 1 bottle of water, the rest juice. That would add up I suppose to 50 calories or something I guess. Not sure why, just wasn't feeling the water. I think it did help me from munching so that's good.

Less than a week until SIL moves out! yay! We're trying to buy her a deep freeze right now as a wedding present before she buys her own (early wedding present). Somehow I'm in charge of this. She moves out on sunday, the day of my tri, so I doubt I'll be helping move much. Which I don't mind! But still feel kinda guilty about. So I was thinking of making her a house warming present. I was gonna get a big basket and make her "meals for a week" by putting in things like a loaf of bread, some cans of soup, cheese slices, ketchup etc. Basically things for grilled cheese and soup. It'll still be cheap, but really handy I think. That way they don't need to instantly buy a million things. I was gonna do things like ketchup and peanut butter and sugar and sort of pantry items and condiments that they might forget to buy, but I don't really know what she'll use. She doesn't bake or anything. So I figure grilled cheese is good. Is that too weird of a present? I think it's cute.

Today's way to stay on awesome track has to do with what else I did yesterday. Buy groceries! I bought strawberries and watermelon as well as apples and bagged salad stuff, I also love how Extra Foods now has these bright pink 50% off stickers for produce and stuff that's nearly at it's best before date. Maybe you think it's gross but I ALWAYS buy this stuff. I can usually eat it before it's "expiry" date, and usually those dates are conservative. No I don't eat rotten food! I also bought some steaks and some short ribs and BBQ sauce and cereal. All very exciting healthy foods. I was also thinking of cooking up a small turkey. Since this is the last week we'll be cooking for 4 people sorta makes sense. We'll see though.

So lunch today is a ham sandwich (with this low fat stone baked ham stuff, very good) with mustard lettuce and tomatoes. Yogurt, watermelon, strawberries, cheese string and an apple are snacks. Supper tonight is steaks. Maybe make some potatoes to go with it, I'll limit my carb intake though. Maybe some grilled zuccini for me instead. Then probably a salad. Sounds nice huh? And lots of watermelon for dessert! I might be wrong, but I basically gave myself a free pass on the watermelon, eat as much of it, any time I want. You get so full anyway with it.

OH, also this thursday is my anniversary! 4 years with hubby. We may or may not do anything. There's a free bike tune up and bbq for the MS bike tour (happening in Sept) that I want to go to, free bike tune up just days before my tri? Perfect! (yes I'll go for a bike afterward to make sure I'm still used to it). Our anniversary thing if we do go out will be to Moxie's. Our "date" (the only thing we ever do and haven't done for over a year) is to go there, get the spinach artichoke dip appetizer, eat or don't eat supper, go to McNally Robinson (book store next door) and hang out for an hour or so, they let you read the books in the store with all these chairs everywhere. Then go back to Moxie's and have white chocolate brownie for dessert. It's a really great night and we never ever do it, however it's totally food centered. It is a fine once in awhile thing, a definate treat. However i'm trying to be PERFECT for the next 26 days. I think I may need to sacrifice. Maybe we'll plan a different sort of date, go to a movie or something. Child's popcorn and diet coke is much less damaging than a white chocolate brownie.

HEY guess what else? My Garmin showed up! I haven't picked it up because the post office was closed, but tonight I am playing with my heart rate and speed! yay!

Anyway, I hear Angie has posted her new detailed food plan so I need to go read that now!

Monday, May 26, 2008

The big things I forgot to say!



So in my big post on boring recap I forgot the important deets!




1) Hubby ordered pizza last night. I had NONE! I made myself a yummy omlete with egg whites, ham and veggies. I did use more cheese than I normally would have to make me feel like it was a treat still. But no pizza!!!




2) I went out for lunch and supper on Saturday. sorta. Lunch I picked up a roast beef sandwich at the grocery store with a fruit and yogurt parfait. I did also buy some cookies for all us girls. But I bought low cal, high fibre, raisin bran cookies (blue menu from PC). Total victory. Supper was a chipoltle chicken salad, which I only ate about half as mentioned earlier.




3) I bought a BIKINI! It looks like this style but it's white and blue with tropical flowers and stuff. Couldn't find a picture. From La Vie En Rose. They have really cool bathing suits because they're really supportive and push-up and underwire and stuff but don't look dumb. I look decent when I suck the gut in. GOTTA LOSE THOSE BELLY INCHES!

Anyway, those were my major victories this weekend. Well and managing to fit my long run in saturday even though I was sort of busy all the time. And Sunday night when I was bored trying to figure out what to do (start a new book, have a bath, fake tan, watch tv) I decided to do my TT workout. That's major. So I guess I was sort of hugely awesome this weekend. I had bad things, (like eating 4 or 5 of those healthy cookies) and eating a protein smoothie as some kind of weird added meal on sunday. But mostly awesome!

oh haha very funny guys

Ok I totally take back all that I love you crap. Drunk or pregnant? really? ;)

How was your weekend? Mine feels like a waste. But it was alright. I just wasn't very productive like I try to be on weekends. Oh well. Relaxing is good too.

Friday, well I don't even remember friday. just hung out I think. Bed early. Hubby had to work saturday and I got up early with him and hung out and read for a few hours. Then I went for my long run with Daisy. Well unfortunately, even though it was only 9 in the morning it was already hot. boo. It was a good run though. Didn't feel tired or anything. I got a weird pain in the arch of my foot near the end but it didn't last long. Had a cold shower and then headed into the city. I went to a greenhouse that I had a gift certificate for, bought raspberry bushes and some lilies as well as my tomatoes and peppers and stuff. Then I went to the Saskatchewan Marathon race expo that was going on. It wasn't as awesome as I'd hoped it would be. Good displays, but not as great of sales as I wanted. I did sign up for the HBC Run for Canada on July 1st. It's the race that benefits the olympic athletes. 10k. Registration was on sale for $40, plus I got a leftover shirt from 2006 (technical running shirt, wicking and all that) for registering that day. PLUS I still get the 2008 shirt for the race and I'll get a Beijing inspired medal when I finish. Yay! The only thing is, that tuesday (Canada Day) is after Hogfest which hubby is all excited about (small town slowpitch and drunk fest) and I think he's taking the monday off work and making a long weekend out of it. But I've got to race early on tuesday. I might be going alone to that one.

Speaking of races, this weekend is my big TRI!!! I posted on some message boards looking for race packages and info because I've got nothing so far, don't know when it starts and what the route is or anything. Makes me nervous. Oh, and nobody got back to me about what they thought my training should be like for this week. Anybody?

Saturday afternoon was bridesmaid dress shopping with SILs (I'm not a bridesmaid, but it was nice of them to invite me anyway). I can't wait for my sister to get married and I can actually be in a wedding party again.

Supper out at Tony Romas, I got the chipoltle chicken salad, only ate half of it because it was too spicy for me. Oh well, it's good for the waistline! Then just hung out at home, I was tired and went to bed fairly early.

Sunday, since SIL and BIL and family were there sleeping in the living room, I couldn't wake up when I wanted. So I read magazines in bed for a few hours. got up at 10. The rest of the day was totally lazy. We got a new DVD recorder/VCR so I was backing up our honeymoon and wedding tapes (our 4 year anniversary is this thursday!) Planted some flowers and raspberries. Just watched tv and read all day. Unproductive but oh well. I did get my TT workout in, though not the intervals. Do them tonight.

I hope somebody else had a more exciting weekend to report than I did!

Friday, May 23, 2008

have I mentioned how much I love you guys?

Seriously. I really appreciate all the friendships I've made through this crazy blogging thing. I know sometimes I'm a totally lame friend in return, either criticizing or just not taking the time to comment after reading your blogs. And I'm sorry. I'll try harder. But the cool thing is, you guys are sweet enough friends to comment here anyway.

I think it's sort of ridiculous how close I feel to some of you, even though we're stretched across this continent. I was always the person to generalize and think that people from Toronto and I from Saskatchewan, wouldn't get along. And that I would have NOTHING in common with somebody from the states, except maybe north dakota since that's just a few hours away. I was sure that anybody with an accent was nothing like me. Yet I can't believe how similar so many of us are. (I have a hard time meeting people here that I like, yet just about every single blogger is awesome. Weird? or maybe just in the fact that we're all bloggers we're already a certain slice of society and by having that in common means that we've got several other things in common. Sort of like how studies piss me off, like the one where they say flossing reduces heart disease. Or maybe people who floss are people who take care of their health overall and eat less trans fat and exercise. Maybe the reduced heart disease has nothing to do with flossing per say, but that these people are generally health conscious. That annoys me so much! That was soo unrelated!)

Anyway, I'm off for the weekend now. I just want you all to know that I love you all very much. (I'm not even TOMing! weird!)

OOOHH how bored can you get?

Woah is me! I am so bored! Boo! Nothing really to do at work. Well I have to make a PO for this stuff I've never done before and there's no example to copy or anything. And whenever something is hard I like to quit. ;)
Besides it would only take me like 5 minutes anyway. I should just get it done and then I can leave early and not feel bad.
I went to SILs for lunch. Grabbed a pita and bought her chinese food. I've taken to getting no cheese on my subs and pitas. I always get chicken or something so I've got protein. But I just don't need the fat in full fat cheese. Plus I don't even miss it. Anyway visited her, held Sammy, but didn't eat for the full hour. haha. Neither did she. I was gonna be all awesome and either just hold the baby while she ate, or load the dishwasher and vaccuum or something. But nope, we just sat and visited and I help her baby while she slept. Oh well. Sometimes we talk good (grammar school's really kicking in huh?) but other times it's awkward and we have nothing to say. I disagree with her about a lot of things and she drives me crazy about lots of stuff. But probably the least out of all of her family and we can talk about the rest of them and she's cool with it and agrees with me mostly.
Any running/triathlon experts wanna share their thoughts on training the week before a race? I've got a sprint tri next weekend (june 1st) and a 10k june 8th. Both aren't crazy distances so I don't think I need to taper and all that stuff. But should I do a long run this weekend (9k?). Should I do my regular training during the week? I think the only thing I'm gonna change is not do strength training thurs, fri or sat. Don't wanna be sore accidentally.

Hey, just found these pictures from my tri the other weekend on the web. Look at those manly legs out of the shorts. Very strong at least right? I look fast-ish huh? I think next time I'm gonna have to wave, I look dumb.



This is the picture that the other lady was in so they made me run the finish again. They must scrapbook too.



How'd you like the navy black combo? I think I'm gonna have to wear my red short shorts for my next one, might look better in pictures, plus I'd at least be easier to find in all the other dark clothed racers.

phew it's friday

Well thank goodness it was a short work week. I am sick of work. When can I have babies and sit at home all day?

So what do I need to catch you up on. There was no post yesterday due to a work seminar thing (all about grammar and proofreading, which I care nothing about as evidenced in my blog, though actually I'm quite good at this when I do care).

So wed. night I did my bike ride and run combo. It was tres windy so the bike ride was nice and hard (I don't know how to simulate how hard the ride was during the race, I literally don't know how I pushed my legs that much! the wind was close!) I did about 7 or 8 kms. Then came home and picked up my dog. We then went on a 4ish km run to watch hubby and SIL play slow pitch. The run was hard at first, but about half way through it I felt fine, not like I had biked at all. So I think the reason the run was hard at my other mini tri was because the total length of the run was how much time I need to get over the bonk or something.

Anyway, Daisy and I were sitting on the bench watching the team in the field. She wanted this nasty mouth guard thing that was on the ground so I kicked it outside the chainlink fence. So she sort of goes to dig for it under the fence. and then starts SCREAMING! just high pitched yipping and yelling and barking like she was being tortured! Just about the whole in field comes to try and help, even guys were leaping over the fence on other diamonds to see what they could do. Turns out she got her claw caught under the chainlink on one of the pokey ends. When she pulled her paw back, it just pushed the fence down into the ground pinning her paw. So I tried to help her get it out, but she kept biting my hands (HARD!) because she was so freaked out and scared. Eventually we got it out, felt like 10 minutes but was probably just 1 if that. She was instantly fine, no limp or anything. She sat quietly next to me for the rest of the game though. But my hands were killing me! She was biting so hard I had an instantaneous bruise on my fingers and some small little puncture marks on my fingers. She was basically biting on my knuckes, so there was no blood, but she nearly broke bones, and all my joints felt like they were sprained. She sort of messed up my wedding ring too. Moved one of the claws that holds the diamond, plus chipped up the gold a little bit. I'm gonna check out how much it costs to fix.

Anyway, yesterday I DID go for my swim. YAY! I did the race distance and it was still a piece of cake so that's good. Had to adjust the goggles once but that's no big deal. I also tried what I think I'll do race day for breakfast and post swim food and seemed to work alright. Of course I ate more breakfast (protein shake) on the way to the seminar afterwards. Then last night I did my TT workout and the actual intervals I'm supposed to do. (1 and 1s, pretty tough, but done quickly). Yesterday was a great workout day. And then I stayed up watching grey's and shoving my face. Well not exactly. I hate pork tenderloin for supper. nice and healthy recipe with double veggies, half the rice. But for snack during grey's (completely planned, every week, not a craving and temptation thing.) I made a bag of smart pop and ate the whole thing. Plus ate probably 15 dino sours. With my diet coke. It used to be that just the diet coke felt like a treat enough that I wouldn't have the food. At least all my shows are over for the summer so I can get out of that habit. (anybody know if LOST is really over for the summer? season finale seemed weird).

Today I've got leftover carrots and pork tenderloin for lunch. Supper will likely be burgers or hotdogs at hubby's work, (they're having a grand opening). Tonight should be low key, hubby has to work saturday. My saturday I'm quite excited for. The Saskatchewan Marathon is on Sunday, (which I'm not in or anything) but there are booths and stuff set up saturday which I want to check out. Plus I was invited bridesmaid dress shopping with my SILs (which was very nice I thought, since i'm not in the wedding party, but they wanted my opinion anyway, well MIL and bridesmaid SILs did, the bride SIL didn't ask me to be there but whatever). I may or may not come, depending on the race festivites. Also a birthday party kegger for a friend of mine starting at noon. I might just say hi if I'm nearby anyway. Sat. night SIL and BIL are staying over with their kids. Not sure what that will mean. Hopefully we can just rent a movie or something. I'm so awkward at entertaining them. (this is the BIL who makes inappropriate comments and gave me birthday money to buy something naughty and then was asking me about it, remember?)

Don't really have a lot to do at work today, so I might try and skip out early. Might also take a long lunch and go to see my neice. I did bring my leftovers, but I was thinking SIL might like it if I brought subs over for lunch and visited her with the baby over noon. She still hasn't seen the specialist about her c-section so she still can't lift anything but the baby. Can't drive, can't even lift the baby's car seat. It's been 5 weeks and it's 2 more until she sees her doc. I wouldn't be able to handle it. This is after 7 weeks of bed rest. I get fat just thinking about it. (hmm, that's sorta mean sounding, but seriously, that's gonna be like 3 and a half months of doing nothing but sitting!)

Anyway, I'm gonna give her a call soon and see if she feels up for lunch. It will at least break my day up!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

frame size

So I was reading Mrs. F's blog and she talked about frame size. She'd always thought she was medium growing up, but since having lost weight, realized she's a small (through this elbow measuring thing here). Similar to my story, I always thought I had big bones. a) nice excuse for being bigger, b) I was bigger than all kids growing up, even when it wasn't fat. I looked like a year older than kids until about grade 8 or something. Early maturer. Plus I was always really solid and sturdy. I got muscles baby. I was never skinny. Never in my life would I be called skinny. You know how some 9 year old just have super skinny legs and arms and stuff. Looks like they're almost annorexic, but they're just skinny with no muscles or anything. I was the opposite. I always thought it was my bones that were bigger, but it was the muscles on my bones it turns out.

I'm small framed.

Seriously! (at least according to that elbow thing, but I think I may have small elbows but large ribs and shoulders. I have very broad shoulders folks, I don't fit in shirts!)

This also relates to another article I recently read in my Women's Health Slim Down Secrets or something like that magazine. It was at the beginning when you figure out your ideal weight or something. Unfortunately I don't remember the details, but it took your height and some kind of measurement that you could add or subract based on (it might have been if you could overlap your fingers around your wrist, subtract so many pounds, if you couldn't touch your fingers then add a couple pounds.) Anyway I can compeletly overlap my fingers. My wrists are small compared to my hands. So anyway, from that thing I also had small bones and my ideal weight could be as low as like 110 lbs or something! Which is absurd! I have never pictured myself as somebody who could actually be small! Sort of exciting. I always thought I was a short Amazon woman. Guess not.

Let's do some calculations. If I'm 30% body fat (which is what my cheapy handheld electronic thing says, though it may be totally inaccurate, I certainly don't feel that fat, but maybe i'm like a well marbled steak or something.) Anyway, at 137 lbs, that's 41 lbs of fat, 96 lbs of lean body. If I wanted to be 17% body fat, that would mean I'd weigh 116 lbs (assuming same lean mass). Wowsa. Something to think about.

I think it might help me stay on track if I felt not like I was almost there, just 5 lbs or so, but if I was only in the middle. I might not let myself cheat as much. I dunno, it probably should make me feel depressed or something. But I'm excited that I could get that small (though I'm not particularly worried about the number on the scale of course, but less than 20% body fat would be sweet, that's athlete range I think). I think I sort of set limitations on myself based on the "big boned" thing. I still don't really understand it. I know I've got wide shoulders, but that could be muscle I suppose right? I do have small hips. hmmm...

Anyway, other things. Yesterday's eating was no good again. Not horrible. But I was hungry when I got home from work and since the stupid mini muffins were on the cupboard I pollished off about 4 of them while cooking. Not to mention chips and dip (?!?) and cranberry juice and dino-sours. PLUS I ate a burrito (which is what I made for supper) and then had a cupcake for dessert. I need to get this food out of my line of sight. Anyway, I did my new TT workout. I'm doing the original TT thing now. I like this one, so far at least. I missed deadlifts. I do need some more heavier dumbells. Like a set of 20lbs, I've got 5s and 10s. I even did the intervals (though I don't know if they were the ones I was supposed to do, I just did a set of 30s sprints with 90s recovery around this big block I run) it took about 20 minutes I think. I was ready to puke by the end so that means it was good. ;)

Tonight I'm gonna do a bike ride and then a run. That's all I've got on the go tonight. No TT. Tomorrow morning is the swim. (GOTTA DO IT!) I'm feeling a little better about this tri coming up. 11 days! Especially since I've got a brick planned and a swim. I just have to remember to pace myself. While it is a race, it's not against the other people. This is my first sprint tri, the goal is to finish with a smile, not to beat anybody. Ok not true, my goal is also to come in in the top half. Though I don't know what the competition will be like and that might be too high of expectation. It's a goal.

Anyway, today's food should be good. Got chicken slow cooking right now so there will be no waiting around hungry, just gotta stir fry up some veggies as well and I'm set.

Anyway, back to work. Short week for me since tomorrow is a seminar. Only 2 days left of working then! one of them is today!


Edit - how to do the elbow thing. Put your arm up at 90 degrees, like so you can see your elbow in a mirror. Take a measuring tape and measure the width of your elbow, (the bone part) (use your fingers if you can't see the tape or something.) if it's less than 2 2/8 inches you're small. if it's 2 and 3/8 to 2 and 5/8 you're medium, and if it's 2 and 6/8 or larger you have a large frame. Mine was less than 2".

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

oh just things

So I hope everyone's weekends were great. Mine was pretty dandy. Didn't seem like a long weekend, I'm already dying for next weekend! I hate when I'm busy on weekends.

So friday night and all day saturday were spent cleaning my house top to bottom. It was ridiculous how long it took me to just make my house look like a normal person's place. I have GOT to start up the weekly scrubs again. I was doing things like washing baseboards and cleaning the fridge and washing the carpet. Took a lot of effort. But the house looks good now and it did for the shower too.

Except of course my MIL had to find the like 2 things that had gotten dirty since I cleaned and made little comments. "Oh, I would not be able to handle having white cupboards" as she's scrubbing below the sink (which gets dirty when you wash dishes which is what she was doing so no duh it's dirty again) and then "what exploded in here?" in the fridge where there were drips of maybe iced tea or something on the side of the fridge. I swear I washed it! grrrr....

anyway, I barely was ready in time for the shower sunday. SIL was NO help. I was cutting up fruit and setting up tables and chairs and stuff. She said she'd help me clean and help co-host the shower. But I did everything. Thank god she's moving out. It's getting annoying. The only thing she did was leave all day saturday so I could clean (which she could have helped do). She made a box mix of brownies when I asked her to bake something. Sunday morning when we were going to decorate and finish cutting veggies etc, she has a shower and proceeds to do her hair, iron her clothes and who knows what in her room for over 2 hours. I was in the shower when people showed up. (luckily just family, but still!)

Anyway, the shower was great. We got all sorts of compliments on our snacks, as in "the best spread I've ever seen" sort of compliments. We had soooo much good food, fruit and cream cheese dip, veggies and dip, turkey, salami, and ham and buns, 2 cheeses, chips and onion dip, cake with carmel sauce, muffins, brownies, cookies, carrot cake, cupcakes, hot bacon dip, tarts. It was awesome. I also got some compliments on my house but if somebody's never been to your place they're gonna say that anyway. "lovely home" sorta stuff. The best part was SIL (who the shower was for) gave me a big hug afterwards and thanked me and had tears in her eyes. Aww... Oh, plus my homemade baby clothes were a big hit and impressed everyone, of course! ;)

I even got a phone call monday from the other grandma of my neice (not MIL, other one) thanking me for opening my home and doing everything. nice.

So I spent $100 on groceries and we ate maybe a quarter, so I didn't make anybody pay me for anything, even the prizes for the games and stuff. Not to mention that we bought a new tv stand and gate for the backyard and spent probably a solid 30 hours over the last month getting ready. I guess this means it's more of a "gift" or favour this way. This SIL threw me a bridal shower years ago so I sort of owed her anyway (though I must say, mine was way more kick ass!)

Right so it was sort of nice it being at my house, because it was in-laws right? So instead of doing all sorts of small talk and visiting and stuff, I got to re stock the food or fill the punch or something. that was handy. However exhausting.

oh yeah, I did get a hair cut, but the dude (yes a guy) was dumb and didn't do what I wanted. It's still ok, but not what I asked for. Pic's later maybe.

And I wore the polka dot skirt with yellow shirt. Comfort prevailed (plus I was already way over dressed compared to everyone else. I mean they were underdressed compared to me)

I was doing pretty good exercise and diet wise. I did go for a long run saturday morning (8.8 km in 50 minutes, setting me up easily for a 57 minute 10k, though I was feeling crappy for the first half of the run, into the wind, plus I didn't eat much for breakfast and that was hours ago.) Not to mention not sitting all sat and sunday. I did not do my TT workout, nor did I get back on track monday. I did work my garden by hand with the garden claw (we dont' have a rototiller) so that was a good workout, I've got a huge blister that ripped open in the middle of my right palm now. So gross and hurt so bad.

Sunday afternoon until bedtime Monday was a disaster eating-wise. I ate so many leftover cakes and treats it was ridiculous. They're not even that good so I'm done eating them now. I did eat some healthy stuff, lots of fruit and slices turkey and buns and veggies and dip. Brought some of the healthy stuff for lunch today.

Oh, and again I sucked, I was gonna wake up early and go swimming today but decided I'd do it thursday instead. Well thursday I've got a work conference, but I think it doesn't start until 9, so maybe I'll just swim and then go straight to it instead of coming in to work before. I HAVE to swim this week. My tri is less than 2 weeks! (I feel like I may have peaked too early as I really haven't done anything since my last tri! but I guess that was just a week, and I've run and biked since then...)

Anyway, today gotta get a TT weight thing in. I'm switching to the next plan. Hopefully my poor blistered palm can handle it. May also do some more gardening, plant my vegetable garden, we'll see.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

hair cut

So I think I'm gonna get a hair cut before this weekend. Since I started this blog over a year ago, I've probably got only 3 hair cuts. I hate spending that much money. Plus I've decided that this is the last summer that I'm gonna have long hair so I don't want to chop it off yet. (though I sort of want to, but I'm never gonna grow it like this again so I want to get all I can out of it!)

Anyway, I'm getting quite sick of having no style to my hair. Right now it's either ponytails or headbands. And the ends are just blah. Anyway, I was on facebook and a friend of a friend (I go on to spy you know) has hair that I like. Keeping in mind that my hair is sort of dark blond and reddish and I'm not really wanting to get highlights or color it. Anyway, I like the longer, blonder girl's hair:




Basically it's the same as my hair now, only some short short layers. (I've got the bangs and the length and it can be girly or straight). What do you think? Would it be completely weird if I brought in a picture of this girl I don't know to the hair dresser? Know any celebrities who have hair similar to this? Where do you find hair cut ideas?


I'm making it thursday

So I decided to use thursday or friday, whatever suits my fancy as my WI day. Basically that means which ever is lower. And last week thursday was my new low of 137. And this week thursday's paying off again 136.4. We are in weight loss mode people!

Hurray!

I think the reason thursdays end up lower than friday is because Wednesday I eat lighter because everyone's got ball so it's just quick and then leave, and thursday I've got Lost and I like to eat later and maybe have popcorn or something too, definately a diet coke. But I guess that's going to be changing up anyway since it's season finale of Lost. (what a big rip off, seems like the season was only 3 episodes long or something).

Anyway, yesterday I did my TT workout, I upped the weight on the bar by 10 lbs. I should have done this a long time ago. I did only 2 sets instead of 3 of everything. But I could feel it hurting by the last move. I probably could go up another 10 even but we'll save that for next week with the new program.

If I had to do a review of the TT I guess I'd say it's not working, but that's not fair. It's because I am not doing it properly. I am not having the off days, I'm not doing the exact intervals prescribed. Plus I'm not increasing the weight every time and definately not using enough weight for all exercises. I think after my tri's I'll start doing it properly for a few weeks and see how it goes. Just going in too many directions right now.

I know that last summer I used a TT program and had amazing results, so I probably am just a little familiar with the routines and exercises and need to up the challenge a bit. If you're only starting to get into using strength exercises and intervals then I definately recommend it.

Anyway, so I did the workout, with some intervals, not exactly as prescribed because I'm also trying to count it as a run workout. I can't wait to get my Garmin, my pace was all over the place last night.

For supper, since I got home late (groceries), SIL had left out perogies and a smokie that she cooked. Well that doesn't quite spell health to me. I had bought a bag of stir-fry veggies that was at 50% off because the best before date is soon. So I cooked up half of those (like 4+ cups! brocolli, snap peas, shredded carrots and cabbage and maybe some kind of sprouts or something, just "stir fry" food.) and mixed this bottled sauce I have (like chinese 5 spice or something) with half water and added it (it was way too strong and sweet). Then I cut up the smokie into it and ate half of it for supper. So good. For dessert I had half a muffin, then before bed I had the other half. I don't think that's bad at all. (well obviously there are places for improvement, like smokie, not good. processed sauce not good, having to have dessert not good etc, but this is realistic at least)

Anyway, I didn't really do much for getting ready for the shower last night. Hubby had the day off and put our new tv stand up and moved the old one. he also cleaned the office a little bit. He's got a bit of work left for himself (he's in charge of the office and outside and dusting). I have to do a heck of a lot of tidying (why are sleeping bags behind the couch? what am I gonna do with my exercise ball? etc) that's gonna be the hardest part. then bathroom scrubbing, floor scrubbing, carpet shampooing, random scrubbing. Like we have white baseboards, and they sort of look like crap because of dust and stuff so I want to shine those up. Lots of little stuff, it'll be a busy saturday basically. Tonight I may do baseboards and bathroom before tv time starts.

I tried shopping last night on my way home. I didn't really find anything I liked much. Some styles are just not flattering, no matter how skinny you are. Like there were these white sundress things, very cute on hanger, looked like a nightie. I didn't really know exactly what I was looking for anyway so that didn't help. Usually I have a good idea, like a shirt to match these pants or something. This could have been anything. I'll just wait for it to happen organically like it always does.

Anyway, not a lot to say. Leftover stir fry for lunch. bought grapes and apples and carrots and hummus so that's basically the rest of the day. supper may finally have those sausages with pasta.

oh yeah, workout today, well it was supposed to be swimming before work. I had a debate with myself last night going to bed. I basically knew I wasn't gonna do it. Boo me. I found out that the pool that morning swim is, I'd never been to before (still a university pool) and I didn't know where it was or how nice it was or anything, plus I would have to pack my make-up and shower stuff and work clothes and leave super early to be at work in time. Just gave myself too many excuses. I HAVE to go next week, since there's only 2 weeks until my big tri which means max of 2 swims and I don't know if I'll make it the week of it. I'll make up for it with a quick bike ride today and some more weight stuff during tv. (I know that doesn't make up for it at all and I still suck but i've basically let myself off the hook for it already and don't really regret not going. whacha gonna do)

anyway, that's all for now. feeling good.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

do you set yourself up

for success or for failure?

That goal setting interview I listened to a few days ago is still a bit in my brain. And I was reading some blogs about the challenges we're facing (at least here in canada) with the long weekend. And just the wording of some of them let me know that they wouldn't be successful. Why?

They said things like "this is gonna be the hardest time to stay on track but i'll try anyway" or something like that. So they're already anticipating that they won't be able to do it. Blah blah positive thinking I know. But seriously. If you don't even believe you'll be able to do it, of course you won't.

Personal example: All last summer I assumed i'd have a loss on friday. I usually did to varying degrees. I was gonna be mad if I didn't, not suprised if I did. Lately, it's been the other way, and I haven't been losing at all.

So I know I'm facing some challenges with getting my exercise and eating all on track this week when I'm busy with shower stuff. And there's no question in my mind that the house will be clean. I definately will clean the bathroom and mop the floor and have the veggies cut up. But I question whether or not I'll workout. I'll "try" to do both, but which do you think is more likely to happen? mm-hmm.

So that interview I listened to talked about that a bit, like you have to believe in yourself. But what do you do when you don't believe in yourself? You can't just make your subconscious do something. Well they said if you can't BELIEVE, then just don't DISBELIEVE. Basically I took that to mean, look at things and instead of "I'll try", say "You know, it just might happen..." If you know what I mean. Go in with that slightly different attitude if you can see it. The kind that you'd have secretly when you enter a contest or race or something and even though you act all cool to your friends, you think you've really got a chance and wouldn't that be cool and so on.

So that's how I'm gonna try looking at this weekend. And I encourage you, if you think this weekend will be hard or something, to suspend disbelief, maybe it was your blog I read that inspired this hmmm?

other things

So a regular post:

Yesterday I got my bike in. I have no idea how good it was. Every time I became conscious of it I'd start peddling harder and going fast. I'd try and do super fast for the chorus of songs and slower for the verses. But I have no idea how I got so fricken tired during the race. I was pushing as fast as I could and as hard as I could but could still sing along to my tunes. oh well, at least I got another practice in.

The eats weren't the sausage I was gonna do, but instead SIL had made a frozen pizza. Whatever, I had 1 slice, (thin crust, probably all dressed but it was skimpy) and cooked up 2 cups of brocolli and cauliflower for myself. I also had a cranberry muffin because I suck.

I then made these cookies out of a cake mix that turned out only alright. I mixed them forever and they never did what they were supposed to, so I just dropped them all runny on to the cookie sheet and it worked ok. I ate a small one of those to make sure they were ok, and because I suck.

I also did the fashion show below last night so make sure you vote please. So far the black pencil skirt with polka dot shirt and the brown multi-dress with straps are in the lead. The high waisted skirt I have to suck my gut in, but maybe I should just get some spanx or something. Or just a do it yourselfer with duct tape? haha (seriously, it would work). I may or may not go with what you guys like. we'll see. Comfort may end up playing a factor. Or I might go shopping.

Tonight is TT workout (with added shoulder and arm movements I think) and then a run. Hubby's got ball so might run and then watch that. I also have a bunch of house cleaning to do so I might not stay for the whole game or anything. I think I'm done "making" things for the shower. I did my cookies and muffins, made a bunch of cute paper flowers to put on things as decoration (like on the game sheet and on serving dishes or something), plus my flower pots are planted. Even my tulips look like they might bloom for the weekend! How cool! So all that's left should be cleaning like a mofo and then cutting up veggies etc on saturday.

MAJOR news: SIL is moving out! Since her bf was living with us for the last 2 months (he's usually gone 3 weeks home 1, so he was sort of living with us the whole time, but he's been home for 2 months now) SIL offered to pay more for rent for both of them (duh, it's room and board including EVERYTHING, even food and phone etc) and she was only paying $250 a month. Which is ridiculous, we know. but we thought she was only gonna be living with us for a month or something back in August. So when she asked us what we wanted for the both of them, we said $400. Still, very cheap rent including food! but it looks like almost double, she was nice about it like "whatever you want is fine, but you can't think he eats $200 worth of food." no he doesn't, but it's food and laundry stuff and water and bills and a freaking roof over your head, and driveway parking spot and my inconvenience of giving up my craft room and spare bedroom and not being able to self tan and walk around naked.

So this was only the beginning of May, now May 14th, she's found a place to rent and is moving out June 1st. I was thrilled when she started looking, that was the whole point to increasing rent, we want her to have a plan and at least look, she moved in August 1st for what was going to be 1 maybe 2 months. But it was too convenient living with me so she never even looked. But when she found a place so quick it made me feel really guilty. Rent in the city is absurd and hard to find so it might be a dump. But with out my little push she was planning on staying until her wedding in Oct I think. Not cool. But she doesn't need to get out like NOW. Oh well, I think a few months from now it will all be in the past and we'll all be happier for it too.

But she's moving out in 2 weeks! HOLY COW!!! That means I get my room back! yay! It also means that I need to steal her pictures and stuff a whole bunch in the next two weeks. I'm making a slide show for her wedding and need to scan a million pictures, plus making a suprise scrapbook album and need those pictures also. Also, hubby is the MC of their wedding and needs to come up with some stories and stuff. We also have to start planning for Daisy a bit better, like if we went somewhere for the weekend, she's be home to watch Daisy if we wanted to leave her. Now we've gotta find somebody or something. Just exciting. I'm also gonna try and be super nice to SIL for the next couple weeks so she's not mad at me, if she is. Like she's gonna need stuff for the apartment (pots and pans, dishes etc) but they're getting married this fall so there's not much point buying nice new stuff that they'll probably get as wedding presents. So maybe we can do garage sales, plus I'll go through my stuff and she can have my doubles and stuff. ALSO, maybe I'll make a cute mini album as a present, with pictures and stuff from her year living with us. I think that would be cute. VERY busy 2 weeks.

Plus they're moving out the day of my tri. VERY BUSY.

Oh, and guess what else? I bought a garmin 305. AGH! $250 including shipping from ebay. What's a Garmin 305? It's a running/biking GPS with a heart rate monitor. I'm all geeked out now. (or in 7-10 days from now). It will tell me distance, speed, allow me to set up intervals based on heart rate, or distance or time, beep warnings if I start going too fast or too slow or whatever. Soo cool. Should help keep me motivated to keep running all summer.

FASHION SHOW!!!

First the cute little baby clothes I made.

A yellow sleeper thing made before we knew it was a girl:


An adorable blue dress with a back zipper, and crotch snaps for diaper changes:


Now for me. I apologize for the angled pictures, but that's the only way I could get the tripod to sit. I also apologize for my nasty expression and weird way of standing.

Option 1: brown multi-dress in strapless no tie



Option 2: brown multidress in single shoulder strap

Option 3: brown multi dress in strapless front tie



Option 4: brown multi dress with straps



Option 5: jean capris with white shirt that's too big



Option 6: Jean capris with white shirt that sorta fits.

Option 7: jean capris with yellow top that makes me look thick waisted

Option 8: dress with orange flowers

Option 9: pink dress I sewed



Option 10: white pants with yellow top (also have same top in black and white)

I think these pants make my butt look good
However they are sorta too big


Option 11: yellow top with jean skirt

Option 12: yellow top with polka dot skirt




Option 13: black top with polka dot skirt



Option 14: polka dot top with black high waisted skirt

Option 15: polka dot shirt with grey pencil skirt I sewed (that doesn't fit great)

Option 16: polka dot shirt with plain black skirt

Option 17: polka dot shirt with jean skirt


So there's a lot to choose from huh? Also, if you guys have an idea of how to switch it up (polka dot shirt with capris or skirt with different shirt etc) let me know and I can do another fashion show tonight. I've got basically every color cotton tank top/t-shirt as well as just black pants or white capris (I think too big-ish). I've worn that dress with flowers over black pants before and it's nice, but kinda formal looking and dark. I really like the polka dot things, either skirt or shirt, but really have no idea what to wear them with. help?

It was fun trying on all this stuff, I was suprised that a lot of it is too big now! SHOPPING TIME!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

bathing suit


So I finally got that bathing suit I ordered from ebay. It's a speedo, size 10. And it's too big. Which is nice I guess, better than too small. But it means I wasted my money so that sucks. I could return it I think but then I'd be out shipping anyway. I could probably get away with wearing it, the bottoms are sorta the right size, but the top is not tight the way a bathing suit should be, you know, it's stretchy material that's loose? Anyway, I don't know what to do with it, I guess I could try selling it on ebay. Or to any of you lovely ladies who want a size 10 bathing suit (with all the tags and stuff on still, I even wore underwear trying it on!) I should have known better than buy a 10. But it was a bathing suit and a speedo at that! I thought they always fit tight!

Powerful stuff!

Heard of Dax Moy? He's a British guy who's a fitness expert but also a life coach or whatever. Anyway, here's a really powerful interview that's only open for a few days about goal setting and more importantly goal achieving. I know that it gave me a few things to think about. And I know I'm gonna be peeling some onions on my goals over the next few days...

wake up

Hello Randi?! Guess what's going on in 5 days? I know you know, you've been getting ready for it for months. That's right, the baby shower. It's great that you've got this plan for the baking and the cleaning and getting the house ready and stuff. But did you forget the other thing? The thing you'd be obsessed about for the last 2 months if you weren't hosting it? Yeah, the belly and the clothes and the looking smoking hot. mm-hmm.

Well I don't think it's completely too late. Besides, you're looking pretty good already. ;) I think this week you need to focus on a bit of targeted strength training, 5 days should do it since you're so genetically gifted in the muscle department. (seriously, I can watch my bicepts grow before my eyes). Also need to watch those servings and calorie deficit thing. Last night wasn't great (I had seconds of supper, and I NEVER DO THIS!!!) but you're set for today. You should be busy enough at night with other shower stuff and working out that you won't be snacking.

OK, enough 3rd person talk.

I do need to figure out what I want to wear to this shower. I'm thinking skirt or dress since it's supposed to be a nice spring day. I've got my amazing multi-style dress that I could wear, in a number of styles. I wore the black one to Phantom, I've also got teal and brown. Brown is my favorite. It's also super comfy, but it feels like pyjamas. There is no form to it at all, so if my posture is bad or I'm bloated or anything, it's right there visible.

I have a few nice skirts, I bought these skirts on sale a year ago, one is white with black polka dots and the other is black with white polka dots. They fit great now, maybe big, but they just sit lower then. But I always have a problem figuring out what to wear with skirts. And do you tuck shirts in and stuff? I've also got my black, high waisted pencil skirt from Christmas that I could wear with a white with black polka dot shirt (looks really cute and like a 40's secretary. We'll see. If I'm feeling ambitious and find some time tonight I might do a fashion show for you all.

Even though I'm fairly happy with my shape and my shrinking, my body type in general sometimes gets me down, I'll never have the tiny waist hour-glass, I'm wide waisted, surf board shape. Well that's not quite right. I'm swimmer shaped. Nice wide shoulders and good taper, but then no skinniest part and back out. It's cool, I can deal. But it means some clothes don't look flattering ya know? And with the people showing up, I wanna "impress" them. PLUS, since I'm hosting, I'll be center of attention for games and stuff and want to not have to worry about sucking my gut in all the time. Hence, an emergency lean for the next 5 days and definately need to find the right outfit. The best thing is that all my clothes fit, I don't have to worry about busting out of a top or making muffin tops on my skirts. I don't really think I have time to go shopping for an outfit so I gotta do the best with what I have.

Anyway, today's lunch was a pb sandwich, apple and honeydew. morning snack was just some lemon yogurt. I'm trying to revisit my old friend fibre since I was reading some stuff last night and it reminded me that it keeps you feeling full and less likely to wanna eat all the time. breakfast was oatmeal with vanilla soymilk, gotta drink that stuff up! Afternoon has another apple for me, along with a cheese string and carrots. Supper I hope I'll be making and it's gonna be a pasta with sausage and veggies. Probably just a pesto instead of sauce. I've got all these spicy italian sausages that I bought and froze individually without the casings on because I had all these recipes that needed it, now I can't remember what any of them were for. I think it should work with a pasta.

Tonight's workout is just a bike ride. Gonna leave the dog at home for this one, since no suprise, the bike was the hardest for me. (lack of training will do that huh?). gonna do a serious train though I don't really know what that means. Maybe some kind of intervals.

yesterday I did my TT workout and did the run intervals as well. I think after this week I'm going to move on past the intermediate TT and onto whatever the next one is called. I'm getting a little too comfortable with the exercises I think. Nothing is just killing me at the end any more. I could change the weight for stuff but I've got my barbell at 50lbs and though I could squat heavier, it's hard to lift it on to my shoulders, and lunges are tricky with the balance and stuff. (I do the same weight for all exercises, might not be the best, but that's too much changing with my set up.)

Anyway, I guess I better get back to work. I'm still busy here, as evidenced by the 460 blogs unread in my google reader. I am still peaking in at some of you, though only commenting when something really hits me. So sorry, i'm sure I'll be back to normal soon. Plus, I should get rid of some of the blogs in there anyway. Way too many to read regularly.