The next thing to try

Come back

2011-06-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hey there! How was your last 2 years? Mine were busy! I had a baby! But that was 15 months ago. I think it's safe to try and lose that baby belly right?

Before I got pregnant I weighed 142 lbs, then I gained nearly 60 lbs. The last I looked I weighed 196 or something. Almost immediately I lost 30 lbs after I had baby. Without trying too much I got down to 155 when baby was 6 months old. However something happened in the last year and I gained weight instead of losing it. I'm currently 162 lbs I think.

Goals have changed a lot. I no longer want to wear a bikini, it's funny what stretch marks and saggy skin will do to ya. :( No matter how skinny I get, no one will ever see my tummy again. In fact, it kinda looks worst when I do get skinnier, more wrinkly saggy skin.

I don't think I need to get down to 130 lbs, but I do want to see the 140's. So for the summer my goal is to lose 12 lbs (by September).

In the short term, I want to see the 150's by the end of the month. I've got a big ball tournament/homecoming thing back home and I don't want to look fat.

It's frustrating that people who've had babies after me are already back at their prebaby weight. But it's good to motivate me.

So I'm back in the game!!

how hilarious

2010-01-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged here for just about 9 months basically, and yet I'm getting tons of visits a week?! How does that work?

Well turns out people want my recipe for cottage cheese smoothies. Ha!

If any of my old readers still read this, I'm anticipating coming back to this blog after baby's here, back when I'm trying to lose weight again (and boy will I be, my legs are lumpy in a way they've never been before...)

secrets out

2009-10-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've had a few recent requests to be added to my private blog - which is totally cool! But I thought I'd let you know that it's not exactly the same theme as what I had before. I am no longer losing weight and teaching Step and running races. In fact, I'm rather unhappy with my fitness at the moment. But I'm quite happy to be gaining weight because:

I'm pregnant.

That's what the new blog is about. So if you wanted the old hard core blog it's on hold and I totally get if hearing about baby kicks and cravings is not what you're looking for.

Secrets

2009-06-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hey dudes,
at least for a little while, I'm making my blog private. So comment with your email address if you want to keep reading (I promise I'll write more often in the private blog).

I don't care if you've never commented before so don't think you "deserve" to keep reading. I'll let you in.

Making this switch pretty soon so let me know quick!

(I actually think I'll start a new blog for the private one, so this will still be here in case somebody gets left out, they can still get a hold of me.)

w-w-w-weekend!

2009-06-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Yay Friday! Boo friday afternoon doing crappy work. Work is really really not going well. This model I'm trying to make is just NOT working. Running out of ideas. Probably need to ask for some help, but I think it's stupid questions I'll have. oh well.

Anyway, way excited for the weekend. Tonight we've got a ball social banquet thing for hubby's ball. Get some socializing in (which you now know I do not enjoy). But at least there are a few people I like. Plus food. ;)

Then tomorrow morning I teach. I was also going to maybe visit siblings. My little brother hasn't printed any of his pictures from his 4 months in Europe. I told him I'd photoshop them up for him. (since I'm caught up on all my pictures and need more to do! I love it!) Then all afternoon I've got not too much planned. Hurray. House cleaning, working out, scrapbooking. Watching tv! Doing NOTHING!

Then I'm going home early on Father's Day to play golf with my dad. Should be fun. As far as I know it's just a quick trip home to do that and then back (going with my sister).

My life seems so weird right now, no big thing on the horizon that I have to get ready for. I'm not BUSY! I love it, but I feel like I really need to use my time the best, most efficiently. I only get free days so often so I better cram everything fun in I want to do.

Anyway. I'm feeling way excited, but have to get through this stinking afternoon now!

Keeping moving

2009-06-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

So last night I was peer pressured in to going out for supper with my sister and brothers. Not that I didn't want to go. But I wasn't going to, I don't like spending money eating out. Plus I don't like being social and always want to go home and do stuff by myself. However my sis knows this about me and manages to make me feel like I need to "do things". So we went out for pizza. Fancy restaurant gourmet pizza. I had a bourbon chicken pizza. It was good. Chicken breast and onions and mushrooms in a boubon barbeque sauce on a pizza crust. They were just individual size ones and I ate just over half. Plus a coke, not diet because she didn't hear that part and I don't like to be annoying (I should have said something).

Anyway, that means I didn't get home until 8:30. I tidied the house a little but then at 9:00 I did my strength workout! Even though it felt too late. But it was also finally a bit cooler by then so it wasn't torture (no AC, 30 degrees outside for the last couple days). I'm actually filling out a log of my exercise so I know how many pounds I used and how many reps and stuff so I can see improvements. I only do this set for like 2 more weeks and then change it. I like having a plan.

Did some laundry, did some dishes and hit the sack. Started a book. Just a "guy" book. Something about a missing warhead and bad guys and good guys. An action movie set to paper. I want to read more, just 30 minutes before bed. And not just magazines (they feel shallow and they are so repeatative each month. Make me feel dumber when I read them, even though I like them).

Tonight now plans. Gonna go for a run hopefully (if it's not a thunderstorm). More general housekeeping stuff. If it is cool and raining, maybe I'll bake/cook something. I feel like I've neglected my kitchen lately.

prizes and spectacle!

2009-06-18T08:42:00.001-07:00

Check it OUT! Bootcamps! All over the country! Winning!

hurray workouts!

2009-06-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

I loved my workout yesterday. In fact, I had a great evening. I don't really know why. Hardly did anything. Made supper. I figured out some stuff for video editting on my computer. Downloaded some digital scrapbook templates (if I like this digital stuff, it would save me oodles of space and money!), did my weight workout, went for a run. Cut the grass. Watched J&K+8 (I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. but I've always watched the show, and this one had OCC guys).

Hubby got lots done too. Installed the AC in the bedroom window. Cleaned up the office. Did a bit of work in the basement. Packed up his tools (poor guy is helping a buddy mud and tape his basement tonight, then shingle another buddy's house this weekend. Meanwhile our basement sits half insulated).

Anyway, I did a beginner bodyweight workout. And I'm actually sore today! I've missed being sore! It's not too bad. But I just feel a little bit in my shoulder blades and abs. Hurray!

This afternoon I've got safety training out of the office. Hopefully it's not hard, just an online course. Nice way to kill an afternoon. Then I teach tonight. A bit of shopping, lettuce smelled funny this morning so I'm eating leftover pizza. And I have all sorts of great things for salads right now too. maybe supper, since hubby won't be home.

Tonight no exercise, just step. I'm going to tidy the house, then hopefully either clean up my scrapbook room and do a wedding page for my sis, or edit a video montage of the wedding. I'm such a dork.

ok, well. blogs to read now.

Hot summer weekend!

2009-06-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hurray! It's finally hot! it's been a cool cool summer here. Not that's it's rained. We have had the record lowest precip in over 100 years this spring. Not good for my garden. But then neither is my dog. Or more accurately my dog's friend.

So we were puppy-sitting right? Well it went alright. Except I couldn't keep the other dog out of my recently planted garden. So I'm now missing a zucchini plant (she sheared it right off, roots are still there, maybe it'll come back?) my lettuce is trampled as are my onions. And all the other plants that haven't sprouted yet (I only planted wednesday) are definately no longer in rows. It's gonna be hard weeding.

However with the heat came laziness. I didn't do any runs. it was TOO hot. And I got into all these projects so I didn't do any weights either. I did cook and eat well. (except the chips I fell into Saturday afternoon). and felt nice and productive. (I planted herb pots, went through my kitchen and bedroom for garage sale stuff, taught step, walked dogs, digitally scrapbooked, went to a tupperware party, cleaned the house.)

Friday I went to a kitchen/restaurant supply store and found heaven. It was so nice. It wasn't as big as some might be in larger cities. There was only really 2 aisles that applied to me (I'm not buying buffet table things, or industrial meat cutters etc). I bought an offset spatula, a heavy duty whisk, metal measuring cups, serving tongs, a pastry scraper, a giant metal bowl (good for making bread or huge batches of popcorn!), plus my favorite things - ice cream scoops. The kind that you squeeze the handle and it releases the ice cream (and not cheapy ones, restaurant quality ones!). I bought 3, they're for making muffins or cookies etc. Same size scoop every time. Learned that from my MIL. Plus I was going to buy them from Pampered Chef but never got back to SIL. They were like $25 or something each there. From this supply store: $6 each! hurray! Everything was really cheap. All that stuff I bought was only like $50. So pumped.

of course it's too hot to make cookies or muffins now though.

Work's rough right now. I have things to do, but it's hard to want to do it.

My internet wasn't working great last week and on the weekend I called the helpline. It's sporatic. So they're sending somebody over tonight to check it out. But assuming that won't take long, I'm planning on weight training tonight. I don't fit into my summer shorts and stuff. Plus I have a feeling I'll be in need of a bathing suit soon and last summer I spent craploads on bikinis and don't want to wear them right now. Don't want that money to be wasted! As I'm at a relatively low weight, but larger size, I know the difference is muscle. I'm happy to be in this situation too. I think muscle is easier for me to build than fat to lose. Plus if I eat in a deficit while weight training, I won't actually gain any weight, but should still be able to build muscle (therefore, fat will be less).

back to business

2009-06-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

So WI day, festivities are done. Wasn't paying any attention to food or workouts all week (I did eat a lot of veggies and protein and got a weight workout and a run in, but that's because it's ingrained in me. It was still a week off). Anyway, WI today 141.8. Same as last Thursday. So that's good news!

Interesting thing is, this is a fairly low weight for me, 5 lbs from my lowest - when at my lowest I was really happy and wearing bikinis. I looked at pictures from sis's wedding and I had double chins and back fat and thick arms. I think the difference is muscle. With step and running my weight training is way in the backseat. Running trumps weights because of the dog, she gets nuts if we don't get out. However I know my body responds much better to weights than to running. Conundrum. But I think after my week off, I'm ready for a schedule again.

Another wrench thrown in is I've got to learn a new Step routine for the end of the month. Sheesh! However this isn't busy, I WAS busy.

It's also tricky because I want to get back into scrapbooking some more. Plus my garden is in so I'll need to weed and cut grass etc. PLUS my house has become a dumping ground over the last month with all the wedding stuff I was working on. It desperately needs some upkeep and maintenance (well dusting, cleaning, vaccuuming etc. I think I need to do it each 3 times because of how bad it is now).

Oh, we're puppy sitting this weekend. And they dropped the dog off last night. And my dog and this one decided to go play in the freshly watered (and planted) garden! so they had an early bed time to their separate kennels because they were filty and we didn't have the energy to bath them. Then today it's straight outside into the dog run (gravel! haha!).

I'm quite excited to figure out what I'm going to do this weekend. My first free weekend in AGES! I teach tomorrow morning and I have a tupperware party to go to. The rest I've just gotta deal with these dogs. Plus I'm seeing the weather forecast is AMAZING! 26 and 27 degrees. Longer run definately in the plans. Plus house cleaning and scrapbooking. (I'm so excited to scrapbook now that I've got 12x8 pictures printed from Costco - $1.50!) Plus I have a feeling that I'm going to do a lot of tv watching and dog wrestling and maybe even find a dog park.

Anyway, the point of this post is I'm happy it's the weekend and i'm going to do more strength training. the end.

going golfing!

2009-06-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm heading out golfing soon with work. should be fun. I would be nervous about sucking, but I'm golfing with a coworker, his wife who doesn't really golf, and our english as a second language, asian secretary who's never swung a club before. It'll just be fun.

phew

2009-06-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

What a weekend. Well week I guess.

Wedding's over. It was fun. It was stressful. It was hard work. I'm left with a little bitter taste in my mouth now as the last things that happened on the weekend were my mom and me (and to a small part my brothers, dad and hubby) cleaning up countless things, driving all over the place to pack things up, return things, deliver things; and sis drove away on her honeymoon. Yeah I guess it makes sense a little, but she could have helped clean up more. And if not, she could have thanked us for it a little more! It didn't help that the grooms side of the family were only helpful if you told them exactly what to do. The work involved with a wedding is ridiculous and I'm left with that in my head instead of the fun on Saturday.

The fun on Saturday was also marred by my sis the bridezilla (which she admitted). We had to redo her nails (2nd time) on Saturday while getting our hair done. she was freaking out over things like her nails and her fake eyelashes, while we still didn't have a microphone for the MC, nor was there any beer for after the service when opening pictures. Plus the weather was cool and rainy so we had to change plans for the gift opening. Nothing was a big deal, but sis had her mind on the wrong priorities. (well according to me at least. I know many of you are thinking she should have been worried about how she looked since it was her wedding. But none of that made a difference, nobody saw her nails, everyone would notice if you couldn't hear the toasts.)

I think I'm only like this (as I said in my toast) because I'm the big sister. I'm used to bossing around and making sure sis does things right and really taking care of her. And even if it's her problem, I make it my problem to fix. I also had to be the mediator between sis and mom. Mom was doing all the real hard work (she has a torn ACL and really shouldn't be walking but whatevs) and sis couldn't even give us a straight answer as to when she wanted to do the midnight lunch!

Oh, let's see I was also upset because I gave my camera to my brothers to take pictures and I didn't notice a setting was off and lots of them are blown out white. Plus I don't have a lot of pictures of things I wanted (my fault, though the photographer was there all night and did a great job so I'm sure they'll have everything). And when I was looking at these pictures on my laptop I also noticed that my dress was all nasty in the back ALL DAY and made me look like I have back rolls (which I don't even, but we tightened the lace-ups poorly so it made some). At least mom reminded me that nobody was looking at me, it was all sis. But still, I look at me in my pictures and I dont' like them. Oh well, motivation right? Lose those last 5 lbs that snuck back on!

Oh well, the fun parts were really fun so I guess that's what I should try and remember and let the rest fall away.

Oh, and the slideshow was great, and so was my toast. Nothing like last minute though!

What else have I been doing? Planted my garden yesterday. Just tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, peppers, and onions. Stuff for salads and salsa. My garden is too small for anything else really.

Work golf tourney tomorrow. Nice non-working day. Hope I don't embarrass myself!

Taught Step yesterday. Sorta sucked! I missed 2 classes with the wedding and I forgot moves! need to review that. Plus got the new release I have to learn for the end of the month.

Also, cherries are in season! my favorite food! Bought 2 bags, don't expect them to last the weekend. It is now no excuse season for food. All kinds of amazing produce is available. Plus barbequing takes no time so I should be able to have healthy protein and veggies for meals, fruit for desserts. yum yum yum.

Funny how my 3 "passions" or current hobbies sort of conflict with each other though. I want to buy myself a Bosch mixer (much better than a kitchenaid! really! there's proof!) but I'd probably end up making all kinds of carb loaded treats and sweets and just way too much food in general. However I also really want a new lens so that's stealing money from that goal. And the photography and editing takes away time from my exercising which I need to do much more because of all the cooking I'm into lately! arg. Maybe I'll wait until Christmas for the Bosch.

Happy WI to me...

2009-06-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

It was 141.something before my shower this morning. Hurray! And I ate pizza last night. (part of me thinks my muscles are disappearing though, but whatever, I'll be happy with the number for now).

Dress fits, been pumping weights for the vanity muscles (biceps, back, shoulders, things that show in my strapless dress). Running short bursts. Applying gradual tanning lotion twice a day (did you know a tan can make you look like you lost 7 lbs instantly, heard that on the radio the other day. 7 seems like a weird number).

Anyway, at work here, half working, getting things set up for while I'm gone (models to run like crazy!) and half working on the slideshow. I've got part of it AWESOME. part of it not started. eek. Oh well. progress. Nothing done for my toast yet. But that will come together too.

Anyway, wanted to record my happy WI and say toodle-oo for a long weekend!

make your own cookbook - NOT A HEALTHY IDEA

2009-06-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

T-5...

2009-06-01T15:27:00.001-07:00

It's T - 5 to the wedding. I'm actually counting down until Thursday night though, that's when the festivities start. Thank goodness work wasn't bad today. (a bit boring, I think I'm faster than my computer, I hate waiting for it). I've just resigned myself to being late about the big project.

Sis's shower went well. The turnout was poor but not our fault. It was still fun. She still got lots of presents and the games were good. My gift was good too. Mom made me pass it around to all the guests since she thought I did such a good job. Maybe I'll post a page from it here. They're all my family secret recipes but I can share a couple.

Tonight I've gotta work on the slideshow. Sis has a couple song ideas she's sending me. Makes it easier. Then tomorrow night I'm busy all night, so I'll have to finish it up Wednesday (hopefully). Speech writing is on hold. Though I've been jotting down ideas here and there. I'm gonna watch my wedding video and see what sis said about me (it was 5 years ago, nobody will remember!)

Speaking of video, I bought a Flip. It's really cute. It was somewhat impulsive. But we can use it for sis's wedding. (not that she asked me to video her wedding so I had to buy it, but we're using it as a convenient excuse.) I bought the ultra which can record for 2 hours and has a bigger screen. But today I was reading reviews and wish I got a little RCA one, it records onto SD cards so you can expand etc. But this should be lots for us anyway. We're bringing the laptop. I have 2 weeks to return it too so if it doesn't work great at the wedding I can take it back. hehehe...

Yeah so that's all that's going on with me. Gonna try and hit some weights and a run tonight too. Life already seems simpler. Lists help a lot.

WI 142, I needed that.

2009-05-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm down 3lbs this week. I needed that. I had a minor break down last night. Well not even a break down. I just needed to relieve a little stress so I had a good cry. 1 minute later I feel much better.

But I have a lot on my plate right now. Sis's wedding shower tomorrow, need to buy decorations for, punch and coffee supplies etc., print out the games etc etc etc.. The present I'm making her isn't done yet, need to finish that. Need to write a toast to the bride, need to make the slideshow (for SILs wedding I was done this 4 months in advance and it took me 2 months to make, I can get it done in a few hours, but I like the time to tweak and perfect things, oh well), wanted to lose 10 lbs for the wedding ;). Work has been the biggest stressor, these stupid models I'm running and was supposed to have up and going for the weekend aren't working. Everything was due next friday, I don't even have the option to come in on the weekend or work late because I'm so busy with sis's wedding. That was the big one, because it's just so out of my hands. I'm doing everything I can but it's still not working.

I just had a little cry about all that. Then I picked myself up (again) and said I'll do what I can and it will all work out. It already is too. I found out the next friday deadline is an internal deadline and another part of the project is going to be way late so I don't need to freak out about getting stuff going over the weekend. The pictures for sis's present are done at Costco finally, I've got all the pictures for the slideshow and several song options and nobody but me will agonize over song choice. I have evenings all next week to work on the toast, plus took friday off (my sis finished writing her toast the morning of my wedding!). AND I lost 3 lbs! hurray!

My recent weight loss I think has a lot to do with work being busy so I don't eat all the food I pack. Plus staying late at work means supper is disorganized and just toast eaten at 8:30. Plus I taught twice this week, was learning new tracks so practicing at home. PLUS I've been doing weights regularly (not 3 full sets but at least something), And running more often because my dog is bananas. Perhaps I should have let some of that exercise slide with all the other things going on but I just feel like a blob then. Really yucky.

Ok, but with all that going on, I don't have time to blog! later!

been awhile but whatever

2009-05-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

I don't really know why I haven't blogged in so long. Just haven't had anything I wanted to say. But now I do.

I went to try my bridesmaid dress on for sis's wedding (less than 2 weeks!). It was tight. boo. Just in the waist (well no, it was tight everywhere but in a nice hold everything in sort of way). But they have to take it out in the waist. Now I know I have a thick waist. It doesn't pinch in nice and skinny, I'm more boy shaped. They're actually taking the hips in a bit which should make me feel better but doesn't. I left the store embarrassed and upset and mad at myself. I spent the last 3 months (since we ordered them) GAINING weight instead of losing it like I wanted to. Now it's too late to do anything significant (2 weeks?).

But I'm not one to wallow in self pity. I wanted a little pout about it and that didn't make me feel better so I'm moving on. I'm going to lift weights every day until the wedding (well every day I'm home, shower this saturday won't allow it. But I can run in the morning).

I'd say run every day as well but I'm battling an epic cold (I think you pay for it when you don't get sick for years). I had a horrible time getting to sleep last night and today I feel like my head is going to explode and my brain is leaking out my eyes and nose. Gross. So I don't think running is the best option. When I feel good I'm doing intervals. (I have to teach step tonight still). They still my have to take my dress out, but my arms will look at least right? No arm fat or bulges out the top (strapless).

Anyway, I'm also busy with work (maybe that's why I've been gone). Plus so busy with sis's everthing. Today I was asked to give a toast to the bride. Ok, I've got 10 days, no problem. I only have to make the whole slideshow (finally got the pictures yesterday from the "helpful" girl who volunteered to do the grooms side), and throw a shower for the bride, finish making her gift (cookbook of family secret recipes, I've been cooking everything and taking pictures of it. Why didn't I think of this idea months ago? Instead I've been cooking like crazy for the last 2 weeks). SO MUCH STUFF! Plus now she's trying to do little get together things, like manicures next week, making her church programs this week. I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!!

anyway, busy so gotta go.

why didn't you remind me?

2009-05-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

How well ANYTHING to do with weights works for me? In particular this Turbulence Training stuff? I dug out the old workouts and did only 2 this week, only did the interval running once. Plus a couple step classes. Scale showed me 143.something! hurray! Last week was 145.something.

Food has been mostly good, but I haven't been able to avoid the twizzlers hubby left on the cupboard. They're those super thick purple ones ya know? They're 110 calories each! Ugh! But lunches have been super good. Lots of salads and fruits and veggies. Plus I started to realize when I'm full and stop. Well at least slow down (sometimes I still need something sweet right?)

Mostly I credit it to the weight stuff. I haven't even been doing hard workouts. But I can feel it a bit on my hamstrings and back, just a few places.

Anyway, I have to buy some grad presents after work for hubby's cousin's kids. Grad party Saturday we're supposed to go to. We were thinking maybe a cooler for each of them and hot dog sticks. I really can't remember what a good present would be. I don't think they're moving out, so kitchen/house things would just be in storage.

Speaking of presents. I need an idea for a 5 year anniversary present for hubby. Anniversary in 2 weeks. I was going to get him tickets to a World Junior Hockey game that's in S'toon this year (like December, but tickets are on sale now). BUT so far you can only buy ticket packages, so that's like every single game for thousands of dollars. No thanks.

The only other idea I had was to buy him this $200 bat he wants for ball. I think it's a sort of lame present for an anniversary, but it is something he really wants. Normally I'd say let's just DO something like go on a trip or whatever, but a while ago I told him that he has to buy me a present for this anniversary (I was thinking jewelry, something sentimental I could pass down to kids or something. But I think he missed that clue, and is getting me little random things, picture frames, kitchen stuff, socks, etc. That's how he usually shops for me. Like "oh crap, I need something Randi would like, here's a green headband, she likes green. Oh and how about silicone muffin pans, she always bakes muffins." Instead of thinking of 1 good idea and hunting it down. Oh well, I think this is a classic "wife" dilemma)

Anyway, I bought him a nice watch just a year ago for his birthday, he just bought himself a table saw (the big ticket thing he wanted). He doesn't wear jewelry, has flasks and pocket watches and all that other silly engraved stuff. It doesn't have to be that expensive, just something sort of nice. Let me know what you'd do!

Weekend tomorrow! I'm expecting my new camera bag to be delivered today, (well I hope, otherwise it's tuesday with the long weekend!). Shopping tonight (for grad presents at least). Tomorrow I teach in the morning, then was going to start learning some new tracks for Step, also want to clean the house, maybe do some baking. Maybe take some pictures. It's supposed to warm up a little and I want some spring nature pictures (buds on trees, tulips etc). Hopefully run. Then the party Saturday night. Sunday sometime we're going home to my parents house so hubby can build some stuff for their backyard (getting ready for sis's wedding in 3 weeks!). I'm going to help mom with some baking and cleaning at home.

The reason for all the baking I want to do is because I want to make a scrapbook cook book for sis's shower (2 weeks!) of all the best family recipes. I've only got like 3 great pictures so far. I need buns with mom, artichoke spinach dip (I might just make this and freeze it or something), maybe lasagna, rhubarb punch (how's that going to happen? Maybe we've got frozen rhubarb or something). Plus I want to get all my pictures before next weekend (23rd) because I'm going to a scrapbook retreat that my SIL is running and that would be perfect to work on then. But I was also thinking of doing it all digital so it looks a little more professional. We'll see how many pictures I can get done.

Man I wish I thought of that earlier and worked on it sooner.

ok, should look for some work now.

been a long time been a long time been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely time

2009-05-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for 2 days! Weird. Not like me. I thought about it, but I was just too busy with work. I LOVE being busy with work. At least this work. It challenges me and I rise to meet it. Hurray!

Waiting on a review now before I can do anything else really. It's odd when you've got people in Australia that you need to help you out with stuff, there's basically a day delay in getting anything done.

What have you missed? well I'm back on the TT bandwagon (that's the weight program I did way back in 2007 and it was what I was doing to lose most of my weight. Why didn't I go back here earlier?) It feel fairly easy at the time (only about 20 minute workouts!) but I do feel sore in my muscles the next day. And so far the scale is being fairly kind (and I've eaten pasta twice this week! crazy!). So we'll keep it up for as long as it's working. I've got a bridesmaid dress to rock in just 3 weeks!!!!!

Don't think there's much else new. I teach 3 times this week, and I am really sick of the routine, I think this saturday i'm going to learn at least a few new tracks (now that my taping is over I can do this). We'll see how it goes. The plan is now to go home Sunday and stay over until monday (did you know it's already the long weekend?). Hubby needs to help get my mom's house in shape for a gift opening (he's building some stuff). I need to just visit. Plus I like short trips when I still get to have a weekend.

Also, we can visit hubby's grandpa who moved into a nursing home, he's not doing so well any more (he is 94 or so...)

It's freezing cold here so I havne't been running lately. As in literally freezing, 0 degrees, snow today. People often go camping May long weekend! WTF? It's supposed to be a little warmer soon.

what a busy weekend

2009-05-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

So I had my whirlwind weekend - long weekend for me! It was nice, makes me realize again, just how much I love not working. But I also love money...

(that has nothing to do with my job, just work in general. Me = Type B personality.)

It was a nice weekend, but it had a cloud over it since friday morning. Hubby and I fought all weekend until Sunday afternoon (well we fought through him giving me the silent treatment, and me not being home enough to hash anything out until Sunday). Friday morning, I broke the sprinklers. Maybe. Sorta. I turned them on thursday night, even though hubby though we shouldn't (he said a week ago, I thought it would be ok by now). And then it froze and snowed over night. So he thought I froze all the lines and they'd be cracked. So I shut the water off in the house, and went to open the lines to let it drain when it thawed, but instead, the handle broke off. oops. So my friday morning was spent trying to deal with this so hubby wouldn't be super mad. But I couldn't do it myself. boo. End of speaking for 36 hours...

(hubby had been having a really bad week, and any sort of bad week for him is EXTRA BAD with his OCD. So I just pushed him over the edge.)

Anyway, I did all I could and since I get over things quickly, I moved on. I ran a million errands and cleaned the house, (and spent another $70 online on a fancy camera bag...good thing I'm finally getting paid from the gym now!). Went shopping, bought a couple cardigans and a dressy shirt for the shower. Then met mom and sis for mani pedi's!! Fun! I don't think I can stand having nail polish on my fingers though. They just feel weird. And it's chipping off already and bugging me. I got them painted a dark winey purple. It's nice, but a bit dramatic, going from no color for probably 5 years.

Pedicure I loved, I love the little razor thing peeling off all the dead skin. Sick but so satisfying. Toes I got a pretty orangey coral. I love that, very summery (even if the weather isn't yet).

We went for supper at my sister's and visited (with her MIL to be as well.) Then home and bed.

Saturday mom, sis and I went shopping for mom's mother of the bride dress. Pretty tricky, mom doesn't dress fancy EVER, is short and stout, wants a long skirt, arms covered. But all that stuff was so unflattering or else really really not like her at all. I guess they found something after I left (I had to go set up at the shower).

Shower was GREAT. We had lots of people. The games went really well and everyone had fun I think. Her gifts were good too. The stagette was LONG for me. I wanted to plan more activities for the night, but the other girls thought just 1 and then drinking and the bar and dancing would be good. Which they were right, except for me. I do not drink and bar and dance. I drank tons of diet coke, texted a few people, took a lot of pictures, tried to not look angry and annoyed at the disgusting drunk/slutty/pathetic/badly dressed/other people everywhere. Oh speaking of badly dressed, we mad sis wear a grass skirt and coconut bra on top her clothes, and leis and penis earrings and a veil. It was great.

I stayed until the end to drive sis home. And the end happened to be the bar closing, 2:00-ish, we were there since 6:00 for supper. That's, let me see... 8 hours. UGH! I was done by 10:00.

sunday I slept in, tried to not feel sad as hubby avoided me, we hashed it out eventually. We havent' had a fight in a long time and frankly that's not like us. We usually fight often and it's just little but we both feel better and get a few things worked out that have been going wrong. this one eventually was good but started out very bad. Don't need to get into it, it's over now, plus we've agreed on a few things to try to help each other out and be happier. Plus got into a few of the reasons why we both do the things we do that the other person hates. A little backstory into it which is really helpful. (nobody ever does anything on purpose to anger the other, it's important to remember that).

Anyway, then I headed in to teach step. I had to do my taping to get mailed away. so it wasn't a real class, just friends I invited. Unfortunately, I only had 3 of them show up, I needed 5. so I announced it like a real class and had 1 more lady show up, then we positioned everyone so the camera wouldnt' be able to see there weren't enough people. I didn't watch myself afterwards, and I felt nervous and sort of like I might have screwed up a little at the beginning but oh well. I'm not doing it again (I heard you don't fail unless you really screw something up and are unsafe). at least it's over.

Then Sunday night I cleaned up the house, walked the dog. I made bagel chips with my homemade bagels. They're good, but I don't know how well they'll keep...

I've got to go play bocce ball now (office noon league). Might post later...

best of things

2009-05-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well I am stuck here at work late. Probably until close to 7:00. Printing away, 1022 pages! woopie! Go environment! Why did I have to be so darn smart and write such a long thesis (don't get the wrong idea, that's 7 copies of my thesis at 1.4 spacing. Hey, I could have used 1.5 spacing, I tried for ya Mother Earth!)

But I don't mind staying. Why? I'm watching Lost online. Hurray for fast internet connections!

A friendly recipe sharing - it's good, but it's BAD

2009-05-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Prepare to be disguisted and amazed simultaneously. If you don't ever tell anyone the recipe you'll maintain credibility and look like a genious chef. If you're like me and tell the secret people will start to look at you funny and leave the room when you come in. So don't tell. ;) Oh, and come up with a clever name.

It's seriously disturbing knowing the only measurement unit I use is "1 tube". The rest are guesses.

1 tube pilsbury biscuits
1/3 cup? butter/margarine
Big handful of brown sugar (1/2 to 3/4 cup?)
bunch of cinnamon

Melt margarine, sugar and cinnamon in a frying pan (probably would work in a microwave too). Separate the biscuits, cut each one into 1/4s. Toss into the marg and sugar one at a time so they get coated and don't stick together. Then bake according to the time and temp on the biscuits. (my frying pan can go in the oven so it's all a 1 dish thing, otherwise I guess a casserole dish or something.)

Ta da!

It's my FRIDAY- FINALLY

2009-05-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

yippee!

So it's finally my friday. Yippee! counting down the hours. day off tomorrow!

The only problem is, I need to print out 500 pages before I go. And I'm trying to do it stealthy. I've decided I'm REALLY wrapping up my thesis tomorrow, as in, gotta get the printed copies bound. And we have 1 printer here at work, and it's slow. I've been throwing in 40 pages at a time during the day (I really could just say what's going on, but I think I already gave the impression that this was all done... lies!) So I might have to stay late to finish that up. boo. (I did do a bunch of printing last night, but I think I broke the printer...)

I would love to just go to Staples, but I need 7 copies of my 160 page thesis (I already have 3 copies done). and most of it is color. So that's like $500! If it was $100 I'd do it. but 5? ugh.

Yesterday I went home and ate quickly, then changed for a quick run to watch ball (only like a 15 minute run from my house). It was cold and looked like rain, so I wore my yoga pants, then a tank, a long sleeve shirt, a zip up, AND a bunnyhug, and a toque and gloves. I felt fine on the jog there. But sitting and taking pictures, and the wind picking up made me COLD! I was super freezing, the girls all huddled on the bench under a blanket and fought over which girl got to sit that inning. boo weather. I think it was -5?

So the pictures I got are all of people shivering, sort of funny.

Hubby hit his first ever home run over the fence! yay hubby! He was so excited, all winter he talked about how he was going to do it this season, and then he does it on the first game! Of course the pictures I got of it are crap because I was hurrying to get them, not paying attention to my focus or settings. They're all over exposed and blurry. Like the worst pictures ever of anything, and that's what I got. oh well. I'll take a picture some other time and pretend it was his homerun, no one will ever know...

I don't teach today. I think I'll do a weight workout. Watch Lost. clean the house for my mommy staying over friday. start my wonderful weekend!

My short week is dragging...

2009-05-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to have friday off (more later), making today my Thursday, tomorrow my Friday, but man! Looking forward to something like that is making time stop! Having nothing to work on is not helping either.

I've been eating not great for the last 2 days, eating out at lunch right? Then having all those cookies out. But that's is over today! Salad for lunch, cookies are gone. Just me for supper, planning on broccoli and toast. Random but so good.

Last night my class went really well. I was a little flustered at the beginning because another instructor came to TAKE my class. I do better when I'm the only expert ya know? But she was completely willing to follow whatever I said, not acting instructory or anything, she's really sweet. So the first few tracks were a bit uncomfortable (not bad though) then I got in the groove. I had a whole pile of friends come too which was nice! My sister, a friend I went out for lunch with and my SIL all came! nice. They're all impressed with how hard core I am. Oh yeah, I'm hard core.

So my sister, mom and I are getting pedicures and manicures on friday so I took the day off. My sister forgot about a lab meeting she HAS to go to, so we had to reschedule, so now we're doing it at 4:00 (and it's supposed to take 2.5 hours). Anyway, so I took the whole day off and now have nothing to do until 4:00. so I'm SOOOO looking forward to that. I'm so excited and making a pile of things I have to do. (get the dog a license, long run, take thesis to bindery, so much laundry, get pictures printed).

working on chugging the water today. After 2 days (and a weekend) of snacking and too much eating I'm feeling hungry constantly. Water and Crystal Light (with Fibre!!!) are my secret today.

taco tuesday

2009-05-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Not taco, but burrito. I'm going out for lunch with girlfriends in an hour at a mexican place. They basically only serve different burritos (no quesadillas or fajitas or anything else). But I'll either get a "lunch" serving or just eat half. They are huge. I'm sure they're not great for you, but the do seem healthy, beans, avocado, chicken, veggies etc. But I'm sure there's badness in there.

And work is going so slow I'm dying to leave. I'm getting munchy because I'm bored.

Went for a run last night. It was good. I really should be doing more intervals. I'm trying to increase my regular pace, it used to be sub 5:2something/km, now I focus to keep it at 5:35 or something. But I think the intervals would speed me up. I'm also trying to up the endurance though, my typical interval runs are 20 minutes, and boy do I feel it at 21 minutes!

First solo step class tonight. excited for it. a little nervous.

Then I'm going to call and email a bunch of people about sis's stagette. A little individual attention in case they didn't get the group email or facebook invite. That's probably it. laundry. clean house. usual.

monday monday

2009-05-04T13:32:00.001-07:00

Hm, it's Monday. welcome.

For some reason I always feel welcomey and weird on Mondays. You'd think it would be Wednesdays since that would sound cooler.

I've got a headache.

My weekend was fun. I didn't do much. Don't even remember friday night. It was very mellow I'm sure. I played a lot with photoshop and edited all the pictures I want to keep. It really makes a crazy difference. If I remember I'll do a before and after when I get home tonight.

Saturday I baked (as I said before). Basically all day. Also went for a long run. First long run of the year. It was only 6.5 km or so. Less than 40 minutes. But it was great. It was really windy. but nice and warm. I gotta get Daisy in shape, she was puttering out by the end. How will she do 1 hour?

The amazing thing about long runs is the instant body boost. I was instantly skinnier. No joke. I'm not sure why at all. But my whole torso leaned out post run. I think something about tensing my core and stuff. Loved it. Plus I think that my better eating is finally showing some results. Maybe I'll take measurements this week.

Granted the eating on the weekend was enough to probably push me back where I was. I should have put the cookies in the freezer instantly. Instead I ate probably a dozen. (they're for sis's shower, otherwise I wouldn't have made them at all!) Plus I needed groceries all weekend but was waiting for today, 10% off day.

I watched Into the Wild. Sort of upset me a little. I didn't know it was a true story. I get a little disturbed and bothered by "anti-establishment" movies, those and drug movies. Bother me. This was a really good movie though. I liked it a lot, but it bothered me. make sense?

Sunday went shopping for sis's stagette. bought tropical things, for the honeymoon theme. Was fun. Also a few things at Walmart. I was going to shop for clothes but never. Maybe wednesday or something. I need something to wear to the shower. I don't like any of my clothes right now. Plus I've got $100 mall gift certificate from my birthday. PLUS, I'm not feeling terrible about my body.

Last night took the camera out and watched hubby play ball. It was just a scrum (is that the right word?) not a game. Man I love my camera. I love zoom. I do need to practice with the manual focus though, I think it will be better than auto for ball (when people are moving, I have lots of clear backgrounds when they moved out of the main part). Their first game is Wednesday. Hubby and I are going to make baseball cards for everyone. (I took a few really really good pictures of one dude and I told him I'd make him a baseball card out of it, hubby wants to do them for everyone now, he'll make up stats or whatever for the back. fun).

what else?

Today I went out for lunch with my girlfriend and met her baby. Her husband just started working at my work! That means they're moving home from Edmonton! yay! They're hubby and my best "couple" friends. Well they aren't because they live in Edmonton, but they're the one couple that we can't think of one bad thing to say about them and we always want to hang out with them more.

Tomorrow I've got lunch with my other girlfriends. Then I took friday off for my mani and pedi with my mom and sis. always something to look forward to! great week!

Things I baked this weekend

2009-05-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

I made cookies.

Bagels...

and Matrimony cake (aka date cake). And I took pictures. ;)

My beautiful sis

2009-05-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

nerves

2009-05-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm nervous about my sister's shower next weekend. I think because it's mother's day and we only got word out to people yesterday that not many will show up. Ugh. I hope lots of people do, but so far we've only heard back some no's. I wish we had gotten word out weeks ago (like when I started trying to plan it!) but when you have to negotiate with 2 other people on the planning things drag a bit.

It'll be ok right?

Happy WI today. 143.8. Not super amazing. But considering I ate so late I'm happy. I didn't eat until after my step class, so it was 8:30! Steamed up some broccoli (LOVE THIS with a little cheese) and then peanut butter toast and banana. Not sure if eating this later really makes a big difference or not. My odd digestive system is also playing games. I'll spare you the details but I feel completely fine, except my bathroom visits are...unusual.

Hm, what else to talk about. This weekend I have to come up with questions for some of the shower games (anybody have any slightly embarassing ask the groom before hand questions that the bride has to match? I don't want to go so graphic as "what's his favorite position" but a little dirtier than "what's his favorite hockey team")

So just doing that, cleaning the house. Shopping for stagette (we're making her wear a coconut bra, honeymoon theme, funny) Plus buy her a present. Next weekend I took off Friday. In the morning I want to maybe book a massage or a physio session (but just sort of a preventative assessment thing, nothing hurts, but I want better posture, and my back to NEVER hurt). Then in the afternoon, my sis and my mom and I are getting manicures and pedicures! fun! (saturday's the shower and stagette)

I want to buy a new lens for my camera. I have only like 3 pictures I love from my new camera (Well dozens and dozens of my dog. but I haven't had anything to take pictures of! I've got some from my niece's birthday and some from going out for supper). But I think they'd be nicer if I had this new lens I want. (wider apeture, better pictures in darker settings). It's the cheapest lens I want too. I've got my "standard" and a "telephoto" already. I'm sure next week when hubby's ball starts then I'll get more pictures and love my telephoto. I also need a good camera bag (but they are like $100!!! I'd much rather use that $100, add $30 and then buy this lens I want...)

I don't think I can justify more camera stuff until I use my current stuff more.

I also have to stay late at work today. Not that I'm doing ANYTHING. (well I have a little bit of work to do). But I need to stay until everyone else is gone, and then print about 1000 pages. I need 7 copies of my thesis to get bound. If I do that at Staples or something, with all the color pages I've got it would be a few hundred dollars! If it was like $50 I'd pay it. But instead i'm sneaking. I don't think it would actually be a problem if I asked or something, it's just that 1000 pages is a lot to print. And a long time to tie up the printer.

So since I have to hang out here and basically wait for the printer, you could all do me a favour and post really interesting blog posts today ok? At least help me come up with questions for my stagette game.

3 lbs down the drain

2009-04-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

toilets are like drains right? I won't get too graphic, but I had a bit of tummy troubles yesterday and woke up 3 lbs lighter. Sweet right?

It really only was affecting me for about 2 hours. (right before step class! eek!) but I was completely fine through the class, thank god! I only have 1 more team teaching and then I'm on my own! cool!

So after class rushed back home. Steamed up some more broccoli (LOVE IT!) a little cheddar on top this time and a side of peanut butter toast. Then sis and mom were there and we were off to try on her dress. I took a dozen pictures of her. She looked so amazing. even her hair in a messy side pony looked stunning. My sis is gorgeous. Her waist is probably 19 inches (wasn't that Scarlette O'Hara's waist in a corset?) She just has a really odd body shape that includes a miniscule waist. Her hips are normal (size 29" jeans?) and her shoulders are fairly normal (she's a bit narrow). Anyway, so of course she looked just like Barbie bride in her dress (well with dark hair). She's also got 4.5" heels to wear for the ceremony so she's 5'11". Anyway, that was really fun. And the seamstress was super nice and helpful and practical. Because sis won't wear the huge shoes all night, she sort of needs to hem heights. So the seamstress is going to put snaps in so we can adjust the length for her later on (luckily the skirt is the whipped cream kind so it won't look bad without crisp folds or something). Plus her dress was cheap because this seamstress orders them direct from the companies and does it out of her house so no overhead. In a store it would be like $1000, she sold it to sis for $550. Nice huh?

Anyway, then we went back to my house. Just visited with my mom a bit. Talked taxes and jobs and stuff. I love talking to my mom. Then all of a sudden it was after 11:00 and we had to go to bed.

Eats today are great again. If I distract myself with water I really am not hungry for a morning snack. (just like food!). Lunch is a ham sandwich with mustard. Got grapes, carrots, a yogurt and cantaloup to fill out lunch and snacks. Forgot to thaw anything for supper. I was thinking quesadillas. Oh! Hubby's home today, I'll get him to thaw some chicken! Hurray!

Activities tonight involve walking/running the dog (It's chilly out here still, we'll see if I can tough it out for a run) and weights. And slideshow making for sis's wedding. I gotta edit some photos and download some songs (any good suggestions? What did you have? We're avoiding country though). But I'll probably just play with photoshop most of the night. Gosh it's fun. I'll try and do some pictures I can put up here. I feel bad putting up people without their consent, but I don't want to ask them for it.

asfd

2009-04-28T11:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was such a good day. I ate great. Might have had a scoop of peanut butter I didn't need at the end of the day but I'll take it.

I realized my daytime food was getting a bit ridiculous. All healthy. But quite voluminous. (big word points!) I'd eat 1 cup+ grapes, strawberries, carrots, and 1.5 cups of hamburger soup for lunch. Plus a banana and an apple and 2 mini-yogurts for snacks. I love fruit. However, that's hundreds of extra calories of fruit.

So I'm cutting back. yesterday was just a salad topped with 2 strawberries and sliced turkey, with 1 cup of grapes. Had baby carrots and 1 mini-yogurt for snack. Supper was this amazing asian pork roast I slow cooked. I hope I have that recipe somewhere (I made it a long time ago and froze it). And a plate completely full of steamed broccolli (with 2 tbsp grated jalepeno cheese on top). Dessert was a banana with peanut butter, and then that extra swipe of pb. I made rice for hubby but didn't eat any myself.

Hubby ate a whole bunch of celery yesterday for snack. Not like a whole bunch as in "a whole lot" but a whole BUNCH, as in several full stalks. He told me I need to buy more veggies. I bought 3 cucumbers yesterday and he told me he'd probably eat those today. I told him they have to last the week. I told him to fill up on veggies and fruits in his snacks instead of crackers and pop. I didn't know it would be this much food! But it's good.

Also, did the weights I wanted to. Did laundry and vaccuumed house, did dishes. still managed to watch tv. Also realized I had only 64mB available on my laptop hard drive! So I got to work cleaning that off! How funny is that? (hint - 1 burnable CD holds like 700 mB). I had too many movies and cds on there. Plus all 2 different Photoshop programs, and all the high res pictures I was editing and copying. External hard drives now store the movies only, not on the laptop at all.

Today food is quite similar. Pretty much same lunch, except a pear and banana with my salad. Save the grapes for afternoon with the yogurt. Then I've got class after work. Then going with mom and sister for her dress fitting. Then they're coming over for a visit (well mom's staying over). Since hubby's gone tonight, supper will just be me grabbing something quick (toast?) since mom and sis will have eaten already. I love toast.

Work has slowed down again for me. Just odds and ends jobs. It's so ridiculous. Oh well. Can catch up with all of you hopefully.

Welcome to Monday, the current air temperature is 4 degrees

2009-04-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Chilly. Boo. Oh well. Moving on.

I had a good weekend! Thanks for asking! It was very busy, as all weekends tend to be. I had so much fun friday night playing volleyball with my girlfriends. Turns out I miss it a little bit (in high school, I basically overdosed on volleyball, doing several hours of practice or games or training 6 days a week for about 6 months. way way way too much. But we did win provincials.) Anyway, I was burnt out and never wanted to play again. Fast forward 9 years, it was fun!

However, my body is less than thrilled. I wasn't too sore, a bit in the shoulders, but that lasted half a day. No, my body looks abused. And like a crazy weird drug addict. I burst all sort of little blood vessels in my forearms from passing. Looks like hundreds of needle marks. Which is now bruising, and giving me a sort of weird grey tan. I also skinned my hip on a dive. And bruised up both my knees (no knee pads!) Plus, I don't know what I did but I hurt my wrist and have a big lump that's slowly changing colors. I'll try and remember to take pictures. It's nasty. But it was fun.

Then Saturday I had to play on hubby's plastic bat and ball team. I just hated every minute. I'm not a bad ball player, but I think I just don't enjoy "beer league" team sports. Or maybe the fact that it wasn't my close friends. Even this ridiculous game where you have to wear a childsize purple or green ball glove and play with a wiffle ball and there was no pressure or real skill involved (girls got more homeruns than boys, if you hit the ball into random nets on the ceiling it was a homerun.) I still felt bad every time I got out, and I felt stressed out when running bases and dreaded my turn to bat. I wanted to just take pictures. Then when we lost and just were hanging out for drinks, I wanted to go home. It is so boring just drinking. They weren't even really talking. Just drinking together in silence, nodding to each other if a hot chick passed the table. Ugh.

When we finally did go back to my house, the team came over since it was only 3:00 on Saturday afternoon. So I hit the kitchen and whipped up a ton a snacks. I made 2 different hot dips, breadsticks (from scratch), thawed some chicken pot pie pockets, made tortilla roll-ups, and some guacamole for myself. Plus hubby barbequed tons of elk sausage and we fed everyone supper. It was ridiculous. But I just kept cooking because I didn't want to just sit and be bored watching the hockey game (I wanted everyone to leave so I could do laundry and watch whatever I PVR'd earlier, and play with photoshop on my laptop). So this lame visiting went on for several hours until people left around 9:00. Then it was basically straight to bed. I was pooped.

Sunday I slept in until my class then came home and did more lazing around. Did get a run in with Daisy which was nice. It was gorgeous yesterday, and now it's yucky so I'm glad I took advantage of it.

Speaking of playing with photoshop, I can now exchange faces. I'm a super-pro. I took a picture of SIL and traded her face with BIL, it was hilarious and looked really good. What ridiculous things I do to waste time huh?

Tonight I have to clean the house, change the sheets and do weights. My mom is coming over tomorrow night and staying over (we're going with Sis to get her dress fitted. aww...)

Oh, and that shower/stagette thing, things are getting cleared up. And I don't think anyone's feelings are hurt.

F

2009-04-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Ugh, so very bored at work right now. And there's a dude in my office using the modelling
computer so I can't just surf the net. (even though I don't really have anything I need to do,
waiting for edits on a report). So I'm writing this in an email thing. so sneaky.Yesterday was
another good day. I was suprisingly not hungry for afternoon snack. I think I upped the fibre
at lunch. Kept me full. I did eat something at 4:30 because I was going to the gym and working
out before class at 6:45 so I wouldn't be able to eat until 8:00. way too late.anyway, went to the
gym. I really need to work on a plan or circuit to do when I'm there. I go with my brother and
he doesn't have anything so we just wander around and try and figure out what machines do.
I made him play catch with a medicine ball though. Even though he felt stupid. hahaha. But
that's the point of going with somebody right? To not look stupid alone?

Well then I had class. It was good. Really good. I like teaching with the girl on Tues and Thurs.
Not so much on Sun. I wouldn't like to take a class from her either. We got our new solo
teaching schedule. I've only got Tuesday every week, then alternating Saturday mornings
and Thursday evenings. Which is fine. Should be like an extra $150ish per month. Pretty
fun. (however they don't take off taxes, so have to remember that)

Got home and there was a party going on! Hubby's playing the plastic bat and ball thing
this weekend and it started last night. The team was over. So I made myself and quick
protein smoothie for supper and then hung out and watched hockey. I NEEDED to do
laundry and clean the kitchen. Oh well. Oh! Just heard back about the report. So this
afternoon I can do a few edits and add a section. (that'll take an hour...) I wish the nonwork
things I like doing looked more like work...Tonight going to sis's for supper, then to play
volleyball with my girls group! yay! Then just visiting and appetizers and drinks. I usually
do well in social eating and drinking. don't want to look like a pig.

Then tomorrow morning going wedding shopping with my sister and to the farmers market.
Should be fun. Then afternoon have to sub on hubby's plastic bat and ball team. Hopefully
that's all done with by supper so I don't have to entertain all evening. I like just 1 night a
weekend being social. (if that!)

Sunday teaching and catching up on all the stuff I was supposed to get done on the weekend!

(haha, I hit send in the email. I meant publish! good thing I didn't have an address in there!)

what do you do with fresh mozzarella?

2009-04-23T10:59:00.001-07:00

I bought some fresh mozzarella because I heard people love it. but I don't know what to do with it? thoughts?

Yesterday was a good day. Except for the excess cheese I put in my omlete for supper (not worth it, couldn't taste it much). I got in a hard interval run in the wind, PLUS did a strength workout with my heavy weights. yay! Plus plus did some laundry and cleaned the kitchen. All while watching SNL from the PVR. That's how to be productive.

Had a bad sleep, Daisy was hogging the bed. Stupid dog.

Tonight (since Lost wasn't new right?) I'm not watching Lost with my brothers, rather going straight to the gym and doing some weights before I teach. Should be fun. Got lots of time to kill too so it should be a good workout.

Then home, where hubby has friends out to play in a plastic bat and ball tournament (it's indoors with a wiffle ball and bat, basically a boozer, but even crappy people are really good in this). I have to play Saturday since they don't have enough people. But it is SO not my scene. Oh well. Plus since most of the people are from the city we'll be hosting them all weekend. Ugh. No scrapbooking or laundry or self tanning or yard work for me. Well maybe when they're not around.

Got a good lunch of salad with egg and sliced turkey breast and strawberries on spinach. mmm. plus standard bowl of strawberries and bowl of grapes, yogurt and apple for snack.

win win win

2009-04-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

WIN STUFF!!

The dude from the Last 10lb Bootcamp has a website and e-book. I love him, and I love that show. The results they always get are awesome. I could totally use this as my own thingy, but generously (or foolishly) am sharing with all of you the change to win. Check Amy's blog for info.

wwwwwwwwednesday

2009-04-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

So I taught Step yesterday. It was the first time ever that I went through the whole thing with no mistakes. PERFECT! (usually my mistakes were never critical anyway, the class doesn't know it's supposed to be knees not extensions right?) And I didn't even think about anything. I just did it. And it went super well. And I said fun things and was encouranging. Even pumping myself up to totally kill myself on the 1st 5 tracks. Seriously, I was dead after them! And 3 are warm up!

So my SIL called when I got home and said "I'm just going to say one word to you: OUCH!" apparently she was still brutally sore from when she came to Step on Sunday morning. Sweet! Apparently she could barely walk monday and tuesday still hurt too much to work out. Mwahahaha! And she told me that my other SIL who came, tried to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night Sunday and her legs gave out when she tried to stand. Hilarious!

Makes me feel better about flubbing a bit when teaching (of course when you want to do well right?) Plus since they are both tiny little people and weigh less than me and wear smaller clothes than me and sometimes make me feel bad about my body so I definately needed that.

I BBQed steak when I got home, so we didn't eat until 8:00. Then I just hung out on the couch for the rest of the night (well, walked the dog, but we didn't run). I think I'm turning into a couch potato. Stupid dish. We've got PVR but we're constantly filling it and I just feel like I need to clean off some of the shows sometimes. Even though I don't need to be watching tv at all. And I'm hardly enjoying it while I am. Need to address this. It used to be I wasn't interested in what was on (we only had 3 channels) so I could leave the room and not be distracted and pulled back into it. Now, we can skip commercials and only have to watch shows we like. It's the devil! It will be better when the basement is done, and my treadmill is in front of the tv, and I can scrapbook in the same room (I only need to listen, I currently photoshop and watch tv at the same time). But I suppose I could do my weights and watch tv and I don't. Naughty naughty. Well at least I've identified it. Maybe every time I watch a dog show (Dogtown, Dog Whisperer, End of my Leash) I have to do weights? We'll try it.

Hubby's been doing really great. He's been sticking to veggies for his snacks and even acknowledged it was a mistake to drink a pop (normally he's a few a day and then a couple beers). I sure hope he sees big changes on the scale early to keep him motivated to continue. We're having people over this weekend and instead of the bacon wrapped smokies appetizer (that is amazing, but couldn't be worse for you) he asked for a veggie tray. I'm in shock.

Shall I vent here?

2009-04-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went for a meeting with the other bridesmaid (Nic) and the groom's cousin (Ang)to work on planning a shower/stagette for my sister. My sis had mentioned before that Ang sort of had her nose bent out of shape because she thinks she's entitled to be a groomsman or something. (because in high school, more than 12 years ago for her, groom had mentioned that he thought it was ok to have a girl groomsman if they were close or something). Anyway, they are no longer thatclose so she is not in wedding party. But to make up for it, so she's not a total bag, we thought we'd offer to let her host a shower at her house. She didn't have to do any work, but just use her house. But she seemed like she wanted to do work too. Ok fine.

So finally we meet up yesterday. Ang's basement had flooded seriously and they were sort of in house repairs so we said we could have it at Nic's house, no problem. (which got Nic excited to host). But then Ang said that her boyfriend's mother, I repeat, boyfriend's mother, a stranger to all, said we could have it at her house so she said sure.

what?

We're going to have a shower/stagette for my sister at a stranger's house. Talk about uncomfortable. Especially when we have fine options (granted Nic and I both live 20 minutes outside of the city so people would have to drive).

But the way she said it and then moved on to other (infuriating topics) left little room for discussion. I tried being very vague and tiptoeing around it "but then she'd have to clean her house and rearrange things etc. That's not fair..." but she's like "oh her house is always clean, and the next day is mother's day so I'll over anyway to clean up". I should have said right then that I was uncomfortable with that idea.

The other infuriating idea she had, the one we spent a full 1.5 hours discussing, was how to keep the groom's mother, ang's aunt, away from the stagette. Because Ang was SURE that sis would not want her there, she'd ruin the evening. So we had to brainstorm about how to keep her away. Ok... well isn't it expected that the MIL and Mof bride (MOB) are there? All the one's I've been too. Wouldn't it be weird if MOB is there but MIL is not? I know sis wants MOB there.

Plus Ang was coming up with LIES that we'd tell MIL to keep her away. Like tell her that there is no stagette, we're just going home, or that we're just having a sleepover and then go out to a bar anyway. Yeah, and then Sis has to maintain that lie for her entire life. that'll be fun.

I asked Sis after I left the meeting and she was like "of course MIL should be there, yes she can be annoying, but it's not like it's just going to be the 2 of us or anything. It's better her there than anything awkward". Agreed. So now I have to come back to Ang and say, "yeah, sis doesn't care and would sooner have her come." Again. I had my suspicions when we were talking, and I should have just said it. (instead I said things like "well won't it be weird if... and are you sure she thinks this?...)

The thing I've learned is that some people do not catch on to the unspoken word. I love leaving the dotdotdot at the end of a sentence assuming the other people will catch it and nobody's feelings will be hurt and everyone is happy. But I've learned that sometimes I have to be honest and not nice.

Nic and I are pretty much resigned to have it at random person's house. But only the shower. Then it will be just like a more formal shower. Then we have to figure out the evening things. So far it's just go to a bar wearing matching t-shirts (GAG!) but they didn't really like my scavenger hunt idea, or just a lounge or a kareoke night or something. It's a bar and dancing. Oh well. I'll sit with the mom's and aunts.

I am going to try and get away from the matching shirts. We're not going to have a good guest list until people actually show up. Maybe we can just wear the same color. or have tiaras or something stupid. But I hate ugly huge t-shirts. especially in a bar. Can't we look classy?

Can't we do something fun or interesting?

People: send me your good stagette/shower ideas! Something to make my plans more fun. Or funny. The way things are headed it's going to end up with nasty scavenger hunt (like crotch shots and get condoms from strangers) (oh yeah, my scavenger hunt idea was not like that, it was fun, and with clues and stuff).

Is there a fun theme idea we can go with? (we might be doing a honeymoon thing which is fun, make it a luau. Grass skirt? Tropical drinks? Gifts are fun that way too.)

weekend blah, new week rah!

2009-04-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Says it all. Weekend was nothing to write home about. (but apparently enough to write a blog about?) too much inlaws in one dose. Left me annoyed. Also left me feeling bad. I dunno what caused it, but Sunday night I was bummed. I was not looking forward to work today, (did not finish the report last friday so thought I'd be in hot water), was sad because none of my clothes fit, sad because hubby was annoyed at me. Just bummed. It's all better today and I feel better about everything. Strange for a Monday morning huh?

Highlights: supper out with SILs, fun. Got some good usage out of my camera. LOVE IT! really did well at supper, barely trying any of the appetizer (basically one pita bread piece with artichoke dip), eating only half of my sandwich (some sort of chicken and brie with fig and pear sandwhich, SO good!). No dessert. Then we went to see He's Just Not That Into You in the cheap theatre (couldn't have cared less. The movie pissed me off because if people are really like that then they deserve exactly the unhappiness they get. Wow, maybe I'm still cranky?)

Unfortunately when I got home, I ate half of hubby's cheeseburger from McD's and the other half of my sandwich. Random.

Saturday cleaned house for MIL's visit. Went in to SIL's for her daughter's 1st birthday party. We got a dud present. Bought her a foamy stuffed princess chair, she's already got a blue one. Oh well. Was bored at the party. Took a billion pictures. I don't visit enough for neice to know me or for me to know anything about her, like oh that means she's tired, yes of course she can have a snack, don't let her touch the cat. so I just took pictures of her with everyone else. I'm fine with it though.

Sunday MIL and FIL stayed over so we made them breakfast. This can be nothing besides bacon and eggs or FIL flips. I made belgium waffles one time and he was like "oh, don't you have any bacon?" so we had to fry some up anyway. whatever. Then I had to ditch to teach class. I come back, and MIL had rewashed my refridgerator (that I washed since we got a new one). Apparently I don't do a good enough job. Not like she said anything mean like that, she thought she was doing me a favour. But still right?

Then followed them around shopping for the afternoon. Then out for supper (buffet! boo!) where I didn't do that great. (only 1 plate, but chinese food, and dessert).

So that was the blah weekend.

The rah week is this: I was complaining to hubby about how I'm not losing any weight because I keep letting myself off the hook and not really trying and blahdiddyblah. And he was floored because he was like "but you're exercising all the time!" and I explained how you can't out exercise a bad diet, and how tons of people lose weight without working out (which isn't the best, but can be done). And so it sort of inspired HIM and was asking me all these questions about it, and we figured out his rough calorie intake, that's keeping him maintaining (2600 cal, on a good day, I don't know much about guy's numbers, but hubby is only 5'5 and we weighed the same at our wedding). So I explained that if he just cut back to 2200 or something, a day, he'd lose weight. As in, ditch the pop and 1 babybel cheese. Trade snacks of crackers with carrots. Then keep everything else the same.

So we're both going to work on it together now until sis's wedding (6 weeks?) I've got the PVR filled with X-weighted and 10lb bootcamp and biggest loser so I've got lots of inspiration when I need it. Plus since hubby's on bored I can cook only healthy foods, and hide most of our snacks downstairs (no not hidden, but with us working on finishing the basement, it's an obstacle course to get to them. should be discouraging!) PLUS the weather's nice so I can run. I like to run. (if only the wind would die down for 30 minutes every night!)

So lofty goals but supported with big plans. Spells success right?

busy

2009-04-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

So I spent the last hour in traffic trying to buy myself the new lens I want (GULP $400 later, add that to the $500 camera, plus I'd like a $60+ bag...) But I got it and now I'm so happy! I just want to ditch work and go play. But unfortunately I've got a big report to finish up. And it's not going smoothly. Grr..

Tonight, out for supper with SILs. Do my best with the health but I'm sure portions will be oversized. I'll stick to some chicken or salad. No drinks. Then tomorrow is my neice's 1st birthday. Probably have some birthday cake, but I think supper is going to be a roast or something. MIL and FIL will be in town staying at our place.

Oh, and tomorrow I'm buying AC/DC tickets. Sweet.

Sunday I think I solved my weight training dilema. I teach a class at 11:15, at 10:00 is a sculpt class. So I'm going to go to that. hurray!

(even though yesterday when I was exhausted and still had to clean the house and get to bed at a reasonable hour, I got my weights out and did a 20 minute full body circuit. yay me! I just dreaded coming on here again with another excuse for why I didn't do it.)

I weighed in today, I can't remember, 145.0 maybe? I didn't tell ya last week because it was a gain from before (146 something), but now it's a loss so I wish I did write it down. Frustrating little game I've got here.

Anyway, hours until the weekend, report to write.

the blues

2009-04-16T10:40:00.001-07:00

I've got the blues, but I'm not sad. So maybe the blahs. I'm actually pretty happy, so maybe it's the hmms.

I'm distracted and bored. When I read a book I can't stop reading it. I'm serious. I'll stay up all night, not make supper, eat out of a box, or not eat. Bring it to work, read it at stop lights in the car. Seriously. it's a problem.

Turns out I had nearly the same problem with reading all the posts from Pioneer Woman. (Honest to God, when did I tell you about that? well I've read every post now. Only have to keep up with the new ones).

So that was my little distraction last week or the week before.

Then I got my camera. Now my distraction is playing with it, googling photography, finding lenses on ebay. Hopefully once I buy the zoom lens I want I can move on with the obsession part.

For nearly the last 2 years, my obsession has been weight loss. Exercise, low cal recipes, different theories and strategies. But I am full up with that one now. I am tired of it. And I have a hard time spreading myself out into doing just SOME of something instead of all.

I am not an All or Nothing person WRT food and dieting. but in my "hobbies" I guess I am.

Before I lost weight I was all about the scrapbooking.

Hubby on the other hand is a little bit of everything person. A little bit of absolutely everything. He has a collection of collections. He's a little into sports (hockey, slow pitch, curling, golf, football at least), a little into video games (owning nearly every system, yet still rarely playing), a little into cars, a little into woodworking. etc etc.

I need to slide that way a little bit. When I exercise, that's about all I do. I make supper, clean up, exercise for an hour and wander around until bedtime. I need to be able to organize myself enough that I can do exercise and then still take pictures after. I know I have enough time, but my interest is generally so focussed.

In case you didn't catch on, I didn't exercise yesterday.

I've got step tonight. And I'm thinking about going to the gym early and doing weights there. We'll see when I get off work.

Ugh, this post bores me. It feels like "blah blah blah" Bullshit bullshit bullshit (but say it in the funny voice Kristen Bell had in Forgetting Sarah Marshall). I hate bullshit.

2009-04-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, dudes, long time no quality coming from me. I don't know what's up. It's not like I'm working
too hard. (though I probably should be...)

Anyway, classes have been going good. I was a little worried about yesterday since I taught 5
tracks I hadn't taught in a long time, and hadn't practiced. But I know them turns out. Not like I
was perfect or anything, but good.Anyway, went for another fun jog monday. I like the ones
where I tell myself I don't have to do intervals. (I know they're the best for fitness and for fat
loss etc, but they're also best for sucking). It was just a quick one. Then hubby and I headed
into town for him to play catch with some buddies. Which I thought would be a good opportunity
to play with my camera. Unfortunately the sun still sets early 'round these parts, plus it was
going to storm so we only hung out in the park for a little while, then went back to friend's
house. I still go pictures of their adorable dog. A 7 month old Boxer puppy. So funny looking.
Very gangly, reminded me of a salamander as odd as that sounds.Anyway, that was monday,
got in a quick jog, then got home a little late.Then last night. I taught class and then tried to
clean the house (and not pig out, though I was insatiable, is that a word? does it mean what
I think?) But hubby's friends came over to help him wire up the basement, and their wife
came. So they only got there at 9:00 and I was trying to clean up and going to put my pjs
on and stuff. But they show up. Ok. So we visit and wash tv, but I had stuff to do and then
go to bed! Grr! (they're the friends who come over uninvited, but aren't actually good enough
friends that we can just wear our pjs and tell it's time to leave. boo) So they stayed (to be fair
the guys were working) until 11:30! (ps I go to bed at 10:00 EVERY night).So I was annoyed
and cranky and then couldn't really sleep right away. THEN hubby's alarm went off at 6:00,
he had the day off though! Tonight there's a home selling party thing of a friend I'm blowing
off. I definately don't need to buy anything (unless there's a camera lens party! I decided I
need a zoom lens. NEEDED) Plus I have to clean up my stinking house! MIL is here this
weekend and it's my only night to clean. Plus I really want to do some weights! I keep saying
that and I hate when people say things and don't do them. Plus I hate that I complain about
my weight but STILL don't do what I need to do. Ugh.

not feeling like posting

2009-04-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

I just don't feel like recapping my night. Not going to. (nothing good or bad really happened, just not in the mood for it).
sorry.

Good food advice

2009-04-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Stole this from here:
5 nutrition tips

1. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store.
The perimeter is where you find your produce, your fish and meat, eggs and dairy, etc. It is not where you find twinkies, chips, or donuts. Make quick ventures into the middle aisles to get other items like salsa, tuna, oats and flax. Sticking to the perimeter will also allow you to avoid buying stuff you don’t need just because it is on sale or is making some ridiculous health claim, you usually don’t get suckered by produce.

2. Buy things that don’t come in a box or plastic wrapper.
This could also be increased to only buy food that you can find or make in nature. If something comes in a box, has more than 5 ingredients, or has any ingredients you can’t pronounce, it probably isn’t good for you. Stick to real whole foods that you could hunt, gather, pluck or grow, and avoid the man made food products.

3. If a food makes a heath claim, it probably sucks.
A lot of food items make health claims like no trans fat, low cholesterol, low sodium, blah blah blah. In most cases if a food has to make a health claim for you to buy it, it probably sucks. Adding 20mg of omega-3’s to milk (like Horizon did, a crappy organic monopoly) is useless, but it allows them to make a claim based on legitimate research. If you are eating real, whole, unprocessed foods then you shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not your butter contains plant sterols (which are controversial and have very little real evidence behind them).

4. Don’t live off coupons.
I know times are tough and people are looking for any way they can trim their budget, but cutting back on the items that nourish you and maintain your existence is probably not the best option. Neither is living off Ramen and Mac and Cheese. If you have room in your budget for that plasma flat screen, the HD cable package and Netflix, I think you need to reevaluate where you are spending your money. Our diet is related to our health in more ways than one, spending more time with your family and friends around the dinner table will more than make up for your loss of HBO.

5. Learn what real whole grains are.
Most people know the term whole grains, and they think they know what it is referring too. Unfortunately, the food industry has some other ideas, and fools people into purchasing crappy foods that are listed as being great sources of “whole grains”. For something to be really whole grain, it should be entirely whole grain, not just containing a small portion of whole grains. Real whole grain options are old-fashioned or steel-cut oats, amaranth, quinoa, wild rice and sprouted organic whole grain products (like Ezekiel).

I think I do pretty good on these except maybe 5. I think it's a good point to remember that because it says whole grains only means that it includes some of that, it might have some bleached flour as well.

Easter Monday

2009-04-13T10:11:00.001-07:00

So it's Easter Monday. I have to work. (well I didn't take holidays). I think I do need to take holidays soon. I'm getting a bit worn out from work. Just looking forward to leaving at the end of the day ya know?

Anyway, how was your weekend? Mine was alright. Somewhat wasteful. I did enjoy it at the time. But I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Friday especially. I watched about 5 movies, took a nap. that's about it. We even had a couple friends over that night and I just stayed in my sweat pants and just watched tv with them. Bad hostessing. But I was wiped on friday for some reason.

Saturday we got up reasonably early because we had shopping plans. And even that didn't go productively. But it wasn't bad. We just had to return something to Rona, but we decided to look around at the "stuff" we need for the basement (right now working on a shower, but still need to figure out flooring). I'm having a hard time with the basement, going piece by piece. I wish I knew what the whole thing would cost and could scrimp here and splurge there, but I don't know so I'm trying to scrimp everywhere. I'm having a hard time with everything, like deciding where to put light fixtures and light switches and does this room need a dimmer just because they're fun, but should it have another switch as well over by the stairs and we can always put a lamp there if it's too dark and even though the light is centered in the room, it looks off centered because of the beam so should we move it anyway?

I think it would be easier if I had a whole plan of everything at once. But hubby doesn't work that way and he's doing the work.

Anyway, so we wandered around looking at house stuff and I thought that we were going to do carpet because, well, it's a basement and that's what you do. But I then realized that the carpets I liked were MORE expensive than laminate (and even some hardwood, but then you need a false floor thing and then it's too short). And I was never fussy about "ew laminate" because I think you can hardly tell and it looks really nice. But can you really do laminate in a basement? Won't we have to get area rugs then? Won't it be too dusty and dirty all the time? Too hard and cold? Maybe I should be less fussy about the carpet I like?

Anyway, so that was saturday. That wasn't even on the shopping we were supposed to do. It was extra bonus. Eventually get home. And I finally go for a run.

Hurray! It was a great run. I did no intervals. Tried to keep a decent pace and go a decent distance. I guess that's a tempo run then right? I dunno. I felt great the whole way, not tired in the legs or in the endurance or bored. It was too much for Daisy. I was practically dragging her at the end. She put on some pounds this winter and hasn't been taking Step 3 times a week. Oh well, we'll get her back there.

Saturday night was more tv and more internet and some scrapbooking. Sunday, after I taught class, nothing else either. This week has to be about cleaning the house now for MIL (DEEP cleaning). That's fine. I don't mind cleaning. I think I also want to make some muffins or some scones or some other interesting impressive snack. Maybe bagels again. A coffee cake? Anybody have any ideas? Something brunch like. I don't think there's going to be much visiting here on the weekend as it's my little niece's birthday party so everything will be over there. But they're sleeping here!

what else...Oh Daisy ate my lens cap for my camera already. I was really upset. Not so much with her because she just eats anything. I know that. But with myself for leaving it somewhere that she could get and eat. 2 bright sides to this though. It was just a lens cap, just enough to be a reminder to take better care of my things. AND I get to buy a new one, so I'm shopping ebay for lens caps and maybe some UV and Polarizing filters while I'm at it, maybe a cheap zoom lens if I see it. So fun. Now I just need occassions and opportunities to take pictures! I need some subjects!

Ok, that's all I got. I also need to get serious about strength training (I know what works for my body!). I ate chocolate this weekend. And perogies. And banana bread. And I wore my capris from last summer and they don't fit great. They're tight even on the calves. All week, cleaning and weights.

sunset pictures and my dog.

2009-04-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Here's my dog. and the sunset from our nice little photoshoot the other day. Too bad I had to leave her color and long leash on or I was scared she'd run away. I think I might not have to worry about it since she rarely hit the end of her leash.

Here's my pretty dog. The sky is washed out but that had to happen to get Daisy not a silhouette. Pretty huh?
This if the view outside my back door. Nice sky, skyline isn't that great but whatever.
This one is from our honeymoon. That's hubby and I. I just photoshopped it up a bit. Added some contrast and brightened the colors. Beauty huh?

something real

2009-04-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

So a real post. How do these work again?

My camera has been interfering with my workout. Well only yesterday. I got home late (my dad took me out for supper) and then the sun was setting so I loaded my camera and my dog and went to find pretty pictures. I got some good ones. Then I played with them in photoshop to make them even prettier! It was great. But took all night. Thank goodness it's the weekend so I have more time.

My dog is already annoyed with me taking her picture. She'll be sleeping in the middle of the floor and I'm clicking away. She'll open her eyes, basically roll her eyes at me, then get up and go put herself in her kennel. It's adorable. Hubby suggested I go buy myself some flowers today so I have something to take pictures of. Good idea.

So my eating's been only alright. I sort of just did normal things instead of being conscious about it. But my after supper snacking has been off so that's good. I'm almost getting sick of strawberries. So in a way that's good. I've been eating a lot of fruit. Last night with my dad I had a chicken quesadilla, not the best, not the worst. Ate 3/4 of it. Today at lunch the boss is ordering in pizza. I can definately handle that. I brought some fruit and yogurt for afternoon, so I'm sure I can have 2 pieces and call 'er quits. Not sure what's going on for supper. I'm going to my brother's house, last week they cooked for me, might just be cereal tonight. I teach at 6:45 on thursdays, so I go there after work and we all watch Lost together. It is so nice to have somebody else to watch Lost with. (they caught up last summer with the DVDs). It's the kind of show you need to say "OMG DID YOU SEE THAT! What do you think that means? How can they not remember this if it's the past? why didn't Sun go back too?" etc etc.

Speaking of class. I taught on Sunday and a girl fell and hurt her wrist (I had to get an ice pack from the front desk while the other instructor taught, then came back all flustered, JUST in time to teach my songs, ugh, there were mistakes). And then I taught on Tuesday and ANOTHER girl fell! Both times I wasn't instructing but still. That's weird, I've been taking step for years and never saw anybody fall. Hopefully it doesn't happen again today!

So thank goodness it's a long weekend. And also hurray for us not having plans. I feel sort of bad but I'm looking forward to NOT going home. It's always fine when we're there. but it just seems chaotic, with all the people and the driving back and forth (our parents are 5 minutes apart so we have to do everything twice) and the kids and the packing. I just like to be at home where I can be productive or be in charge of the remote or just leave the dishes and not have to be a good guest.

So what are my plans? I want to take pictures, I want to scrapbook, go for a run (we're supposed to hit 18 degrees saturday!), maybe 2 runs. Do some cooking/baking/preparing. Maybe hot crossed buns? though they're supposed to be done by now. Then Sunday I have to teach a class (who's going to come to a class Easter Sunday morning?) and then the rest of the day will be spent cleaning. Spring cleaning. MIL cleaning. They're coming and staying at our house the weekend after Easter. So I need to clean up my scrapbook room/spare bedroom, plus do a big dust and scrub on the whole house since my MIL is the exact sort of horrible MIL who will comment if there is toothpaste splatter on the bathroom mirror ("I guess you've been too busy to do house work lately with your new job"). Plus she complains about Daisy shedding or jumping on the couch. Well it's Daisy's house more than yours! Hm. I'm making up things she's going to say and then getting mad at her. That can't be healthy.

Ok, well gonna catch up on a few blogs. I feel behind, I haven't been commenting but I've been reading. I also plan on reading every last post of Pioneer Woman so I am no longer distracted constantly. I appologize to those of you whom I've infected as well.

I suck at blogging.

2009-04-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

Since I found Pioneer Woman, that and trying to work. Well and not having anything interesting to say. Sorry dudes (if you care). Nothing new to report. Looking forward to the weekend. Over and out.

quick

2009-04-07T12:19:00.001-07:00

I got my camera last night. So after 20 minutes of sprint intervals (ok, fast run) I played with it for a few hours. Unfortunately I had no subjects but a dog sitting in the dark and my hubby playing (working) in the basement in the dust. So I tried out settings and took bad pictures. But I had so much fun.

Today I'm leaving work early to drop off a pile of junk at the university (FINALLY winding up my thesis junk) then I have a dentist appointment. THEN I teach Step. Then it's home and more camera-ing. I'm planning on sunset pictures today. hurray! If I get any good ones I'll show you.

anyway, nothing new to say, trying to do some work before I leave in an hour.

Obsessed?

2009-04-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm obsessed. seriously. Anybody else familiar with the Pioneer Woman? I couldn't do any work last week because of her. And my weekend was filled with her in so many ways (I made a modified version of this, it was super good, but very very bad.) I'm catching up on every post. Period. She's been doing this since 06 so I've got a lot of work ahead of me. But I can't seem to do anything except read it. Trouble.

So my weekend was great. Full of nothing. First weekend like that in a long time. But it also doesn't seem like nothing. Friday night was a wine tasting at my sister's. I drank POM juice and mango juice. Ate some cheese and grapes. Very mild though. But it went from 7:00 until 2:00!!! Wowza! Lots of visiting.

Then saturday was nothing most of the day, made cookies that were gross. walked the dog. read PW. Evening came, hubby and I hit up Nickelback! yay! We had floor seats, which means we had no seats. standing. Which is alright. Except when you have to stand for the 2 openers as well and all the waiting between sets. My feet and back killed. And I wore sensible shoes. I felt sorry for the girls in their spike heel boots. But only a little, because it meant they could see better too, I was on my tippytoes a lot. (openers were Saving Abel and Seether, both really good). But Nickelback was great. I knew every song which was nice, they didn't do any "new" stuff unreleased or anything.

What capped off the night was our parking. We were geniuses and didn't park in the parking lot, but rather a block over on a side street. So we could walk to our car, and drive instantly. I've been stuck in that darn parking lot for hours before.

Then Sunday I got up and went to teach class. It was alright. During the first track (the other girl taught) somebody tripped on her step and fell, hurting her wrist. Badly. She was crying in an emergency sort of way. So since I wasn't teaching, I went out with her and her husband and got ice for them and sort of felt silly because I didn't know what to do. Should I make her go to the doctor? Should I leave? What? Eventually they sort of thanked me and I took it as my cue to leave. Oh! just in time to teach track 2! I was a bit flustered at first and screwed up a little, but I got better as it went. I did a few tracks, then she did, then I did the cool down. I love the cool down and abs and stretching.

Anyway, I got groceries after that to save myself going today. Then home. Where I sat in front of the tv with my laptop for basically the rest of the day. I guess I also made banana bread and the PW pasta carbonara. (which is my lunch today, heaven!) I guess if you're going to do pasta, do it right huh? I didn't do the raw eggs like it says, since it grosses me out, I used cream, because I bought it to make pasta last week and didn't. It worked out well. But so much bacon and grease and butter! yum.

I can avoid my guilt by saying I rarely eat pasta, and this is so "hearty" I don't need a big serving. Plus I'm generally not scared of fat since it keeps me so full. (but bacon grease...still a bit scary).

Anyway, last night hubby and I sat down and watched a movie together (aside from all the movies we watched in the same room on and off all weekend). It was nice. Hubby's sort of waiting on the basement for a bit because we need an electrician, probably won't get one before Easter so we've got a week to hang out together. Nice.

Anyway, no class tonight, gonna run with the dog. Snow really disappeared a lot last week and my tulips are starting to peak out of the ground, that means it's time to run.

Hmmm

2009-04-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Now, what was it I came on here early to say? hm...

Oh yeah, I remember. WI 144.2! So that's um, 2.6 lbs in a week!!! yabba dabba doo!!!

To what do I credit my great loss? Well I have been doing alright on the eating. Exercising has been great (I got in a HIIT and heavy weights this week, on top of all the Step). But I don't think that's it. I think it's hormonal. I went off the pill this week. (so that might have something to do with my dream huh?) I'm not pregnant though (fo shor). And that might be the last time I talk about any of that! (well probably not, but it is a bit weird to know other people know we're starting to try, like what if it doesn't happen right away, or it does and then you all know. I guess it won't be weird on here as it's like a diary and I don't know any of you. but that's why we're not telling real people. haha, you're pretend!) I will clarify that we're not starting to TRY, but just see what happens for a little while, until Sis's wedding at least.

Anyway, yes, with the loss of those fake hormones, I feel great. I'm still worried about what TOM will be like, but we'll face that when we get there. I'm attributing things to it that are probably unrelated, like my sleeping has been better, falling asleep right away, waking up ready to go, the weight that peeled off this week. I dunno, I'll take it.

So I taught a step class yesterday. I was a bit nervous about it because I didn't have a chance to practice all week. I was going to wednesday night, but we had an insurance lady come visit and was over an hour late! (she called, but still, totally lost the evening). But the class went alright. More practice wouldn't have helped much. I did screw a couple things up, but the class all was beginners and had never stepped before and didn't know what it meant when I'd call out what was coming, they didn't know what the things were anyway! Tough one. Oh well. Now I've got a couple days off and I teach Sunday morning.

Tonight I'm going to a Girl's Night Out get together (that "splurge group" I'm part of, that doesn't splurge on anything, but takes turns planning a hosting whatever they want). It's at my sister's this month, and she's doing a wine tasting. I don't like wine, which is fine. I just like the visiting and cheese. She said she'd have punch or something for me. I wish I had my new camera to goof around with (supposed to be here tuesday!).

Tomorrow night is Nickelback concert! All day I've got no plans though. So just regular house cleaning, working out, tv watching. Maybe some scrapbooking. I actually need to print some pictures to do the pages I want (I haven't done anything about my races last year! Good thing I blog so I can look up my times!) Maybe shopping, but that wasn't much fun last time. I'll wait until I'm down a bit more maybe. Or maybe I'll go. We'll see. (I've got a gift card for the mall for my birthday).

Anyway, that's about it for now. Have a good weekend everyone! I plan on it!

baby talk

2009-04-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is unrelated to working out or food or weight.

I had a dream last night. First, I never have dreams. EVER. (yes I know I probably have dreams because everyone dreams, but they must be of like a counter top or something boring, plus I never remember them). Anyway, I dreamed that I was pregnant and had twins and we didn't know they were twins and they were early, and we left the hospital and forgot to name them and I was struggling with feeding and holding twins and hubby wasn't helping, he was visiting with his family who came to see us and the babies, and then I realized that I forgot to call my mom and tell her I had the babies. Isn't that weird? (granted all dreams are weird, but still).

I heard before that baby dreams are almost always true. Like if a mom dreams she's pregnant with a girl, then she has a girl. I wonder if it's true about twins. But maybe you have to be pregnant for your baby dreams to be real. I'm not pregnant, but it is now on the table. Weird.

I hope I have twins.

I didn't get my Rebel

2009-04-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

But I did order it online. I left work early because I was so darn excited to get it. I stopped at Walmart to buy a memory card (I even did my price checking for those!). Then went to Costco. Got the slip of paper you need to bring to the till, then wandered around the store for like 5 minutes. Didn't need anything. Get to the till, pay for it, they send a manager for my camera. She shows up - no camera. They had sold the last one to a girl in the checkout before me. SICK! If I wouldn't have walked around the store, or went to Walmart after or something I would have it. But they did only have the display model for that girl, so at least I'll get a new one in a box. They're getting more in store, but it will take weeks. I was bummed and contemplating getting the second cheapest one in town (for an extra $30) when I remembered that I could buy it online! So I ordered it last night, with only a $10 shipping fee, and it will be at my house in 3-5 days! sweet!

not as sweet as having it already would be. But still.

So instead I let myself buy supper as a treat. I had a turkey breast sub with no cheese, lots of veggies. Oh, and 2 cookies. And then goody rings when I got home. DOH! at least it ended there. And when I laced up my sneakers and went out for some HIIT running! YAY! It sucked! I only did 30 seconds hard and 2 minutes light. MAN my conditioning has gone down hill. I wore my Garmin with HRM, my HR was right where it was supposed to be, soaring through the roof. But my speeds were much slower than usual. (aka, I was working harder but going slower). Oh well, at least I got it started in March. If I can keep that up twice a week I'll only get better. Nothing burns fat like intervals. I know this, I should do it.

I was going to do some weights when I got home too. But just wasn't feeling it. Cleaned the house, then spent some time on the computer (downloading songs, looking at Garmin results). Plus caught up on biggest loser. SPOILER!!! I felt bad for that new girl. I wish she stayed and Ron went home. He bugs me.

Ok, well, tonight I've got a pork stir fry ready for supper. Then I have to practice my tracks and pre class ramble (I've got the first 3 tracks tomorrow!). Plus hopefully do some weights, but we've got an insurance lady coming at 7:30. So annoying these 6 month visits. You've got our money, leave us alone! I already feel over insured!

(did you know that if you just put away the money you'd pay for some insurances, then you'd make more money than if they paid you out for an accident or something. Oh, Canada only. And only for things like accident insurance where they pay you if you stay in a hospital or get stitches. I hate that stuff, then you're hoping for it to happen, and hoping you have to stay home from work, so you can MAKE MONEY when something bad happens. It shouldn't be a good thing)

Anyway, I hate insurance. It goes with the union thing. Too many wrong attitudes involved (for the most part, obviously there are good things about both)

rant over. back to work.

I think I found my camera

2009-03-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

So I think i'm going to buy the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS. It's definately not the fanciest out there. I was leaning towards the Nikon D60 (which is a step up from the D40 I believe), but I can only find it at Future Shop and I hate Future Shop (so unhelpful there!). Then the comparative Canon was the XSi, but that's hundreds of dollars more than the XS and for my uses I doubt I'll see the difference. Plus I found the XS at Costco for less than $500 where all other cameras at other places are $600. That's what finally tipped the scales in it's favour. The pros and cons between the Canon and Nikon go back and forth (one has this, the other has that, which is more important to me? I dunno yet!) I've heard good things about both so I'm happy with my decision. Why did I tell you all that? I dunno!

So I'm really excited about it and probably going to buy it after work and then waste the rest of the week playing. woop woop!

Last night I practiced Step. It is so much more boring to practice it in my living room than to teach or take the actual class. I just can't push it as hard. I can't squat as low or jump as high. Definately need the other people as motivation. I only have a few tracks that i'm not 100% on, so hopefully this will be my last week I'll need to practice.

But that's all I did last night. Daisy and I went for a quick walk, I helped hubby measure stuff out in the basement. Watched tv. Oh I guess I also cut up a ton of carrots and celery and strawberries so they're ready for lunches and snacks. Strawberries were on sale when you buy 2 of the big clamshells, so I've got so many strawberries right now it's ridiculous. Especially considering hubby doesn't really eat them. But I love them! We're going crazy on the in season produce. Me on the strawberries, he on the asparagus (I only like the very tip, not a bit of the stalk, so I don't eat them, I figure that's too wasteful to somebody who really likes them. Plus hubby doesn't like a lot of veggies so I figure he can have all he wants of what he does like). I can't wait for peaches and plums to be cheaper. I love spring/summer food!!

Well that's all I want to say now I think. I want to spend the rest of my goofing off time at work googling my camera. So excited.

What a weekend!

2009-03-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

So I had a great weekend. What did I do? What didn't I do!

Friday, stopped at the mall to try and buy an orange headband (we're supposed to wear black and orange for Step, but I had nothing!) I found a bright orange elastic kind. Which basically doesn't work in my hair, but it was the only thing I could find! I had to hairspray it in place! So went home, walked the dog. Practiced my tracks. Hung out. Played with Photoshop until midnight.

Saturday, got up early thanks to my dog who didn't realize it was the weekend. Oh well. at least it's light out now. Makes it so much easier to get up. So watch some tv, play on the computer, get dressed for Step and go.

The class went terrific. it was packed. Normally there's like 10-15 people in a class, we had 30!! We used every step in the whole place. Plus had to turn away at least 1 person. PACKED, HOT, STINKY! yay! My tracks went well. I was a bit nervous because there were so many people, but it was fine. My friend said I was the best one, most motivating, but of course she's my friend so she's gonna say that. I think I also had the best tracks, one was the hardest on you for cardio, but easy enough moves, the other was a cool down "dancey" track so it was fun and had a goofy arms and stuff. Anyway, I loved it. But I hope I don't have to teach 30 people again.

Then after we got free protein shakes at the gym. Nice. Then I had to kill 2 hours before my facial appointment (so I didn't have to drive home and waste gas). so I went to a different mall, again looking for orange headbands or just whatever. But I was still feeling fat so I didn't have fun looking at clothes and stuff. Again, found nothing orange. Lulu didn't have anything orange at all, everything's this new peachy color that I don't think I like. (and I was looking forward to using my 15% instructor discount!!) Anyway, did buy a cute platter for like $2 at this liquidation center. But the line for that was so long I was almost late for my facial! But got there just in time. It was just a mini 30 minute facial that I got free for Christmas. Very relaxing. Don't think my skin's any different at all, I've got pretty good skin.

So went home after that. Walked the dog. Cleaned the house. Dusted EVERYTHING. vaccuumed, made pea soup, cleaned the bathroom top to bottom, caught up on Lost, paid the bills, researched digital cameras, scanned all my sister's pictures as a kid for her wedding slideshow, did 7 loads of laundry. cleaned the kitchen. Played with the dog. Went to bed before 10:00.

Sunday, woke up early again, (thanks Daisy). Sunday was the fun day. All the work was done, so I just scrapbooked and watched tv all day. Well I also went into the city to get Daisy's nails trimmed. (I just can't do it, she's too squirmy and I'm too scared of hurting her, she doesn't mind it at Petsmart because she likes new people and places and car rides). So lots of nothing. Finished up the laundry. Hubby got home at 10:00 just as I was going to bed. (he was ice fishing all weekend, that's why I got so much done!)

Now I've got nothing going on until Thursday when I teach. So I'll be doing some practicing since I'll have to do 4 tracks, (then 5 on Sunday). But hopefully I can go for a run outside too. It's finally melting here! Ridiculous!

Oh, and thanks to the end of TOM, I lost a pound in 3 days. Sweet.

Giveaway

2009-03-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

I think a back support thing would be pretty sweet. If you do too, check it out:
Everygymsnightmare.

UGH

2009-03-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

So I had a nasty WI. No suprise, buffets all weekend, TOM, my renewed dedication (that always leads to a gain don't you find? Just to test how dedicated you really are). 146.8. Super ugh. Moving on.

I'm seeing it in the mirror and in my clothes now too. you know how you just gain so gradually then look in the mirror months later and do a double take? That's me now.

However I've really reduced my lunches. I cut out like 3 different "snacks" that I'd normally eat every day. (like a cup of grapes or an apple, healthy yes, but I don't need so many servings of it). I'm scared of getting hungry so I eat. Now I'm trying to wait until I AM hungry and then eat one of the things, rather than as a preventative measure. Plus I'm trying to distract myself from cravings with green tea or gum or something. It feels like it's working, I think I'm eating less.

Tomorrow is my first Step class! yay! I have to go buy an orange headband after work. We have to wear black and orange. That's gonna look stunning with my hair. oy! I've got at least 2 friends coming so that's fun. (the step thing last night was good too, though I felt like a cow, found out my grey pants are NOT flattering.)

Oh, I can ask here! I'm thinking of getting a digital SLR with part of my tax refund (note - we each get a chunk of money, half goes to RRSP, the rest to savings for baby or holidays or new car etc). Anybody know where to get a reasonably priced starter SLR? Any recommendations for brands? or lenses to get? I'm so excited about it. Mostly because I've downloaded all these free actions (automatic fixes and cool things so you only have to push 1 button instead of doing a million things) for Photoshop Elements. And I want some nicer pictures to do these cool edits too! A bad picture doesn't look better using it. Good pictures will look better. So any advice would be great! I'm trying to be pretty cheap about it though since, well, I'm cheap!

good day?

2009-03-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

I think yesterday was good. It felt good. I didn't screw up as far as I can recall. Yes I can think of 2 things I didn't need but had anyway (a glass of orange juice after class when hubby and friend were having a beer, peanut butter on my banana that I had instead of berries for dessert - I think they went bad). So I'm calling that a win.

I'm a winner.

Today, I forgot that I had a step tutorial at the gym. So I have to go home get my clothes and come back for that. ok. won't be as good of a workout as I would have had at home I don't think. But good teaching practice nonetheless. I have elk hamburger thawed out and a recipe ready to go, (from Kraft, a taco bake thing). I think my salad mix has gone bad so I had a sandwich for lunch, lame dry bread and one crust piece. Oh well. Still filling. And fulfills the carb cravings.

Hubby's going ice fishing this weekend so I'll be home alone again. Time to come up with another great to do list. I love accomplishing stuff!

I give great advice

2009-03-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

I am so clever - when telling other people what to do. Check out all the advice I've been doling out lately:

"I think we all know what we need to do to lose weight, and when we don't lose weight, I think we can always find the reason when we're honest with ourselves. (definitely thinking of myself here!) The answer is consistency and honesty. Stick to your plan, eat the fruits and veggies, not the cake and breadsticks, exercise most days of the week, don't reward yourself for exercising with food. Ok I realized this is about me now, not you..."

"How much working out are you currently doing? 2 45 minute core sessions seems totally too much to me (or was this your full body strength stuff?). I also read somewhere that people totally over train their abs (doing things like crunches as opposed to planks). So lots of people have 6-packs underneath 3 inches of fat, yet still have back problems. (that might have been a study written about me…)"

First was a comment on a blog, second was an email reply to a friend who wanted my thoughts on ab workouts (I feel like such a pro!). However in both cases I realized I was actually talking to myself with my great advice. (the subconscious is amazing huh?)

So here's what I know:

I've been talking the talk, not walking the walk.
I ate cupcakes last night.
I half assed my workout.
I have 10 lbs to lose and a bridesmaid dress to fit in.

So here's what I've done:

This morning I ate 1 egg and 1/2 cup egg whites scrambled with chopped red bell pepper.
Brought a banana to round out my breakfast, waited until 10:00 to eat it.

Well that's all because it's only 10:30 now. But I plan on doing more! I left out the cranberry muffin I usually through in my lunch just in case I feel like eating carbs (and of course I do if they're there!). Packed only fruits, veggies, hard boiled egg and 1 yogurt. Have a step class tonight. (I never half ass it in a class.) Did not plan supper. However, right now I'll plan it....tomato soup and ham sandwiches. NOT a free-for-all of random food. I can have berries for dessert. Let's just do 1 great day and see how I feel (I'm guessing I'll feel good!!!)

Other ideas I have:

when I'm mindlessly watching tv in the evening, dig out the weights and do lunges. I can still watch tv but accomplish something!
walk the dog as soon as I get home from work. It's still light out, and we'll both feel better.
Do a freezer inventory so I can start planning real meals again (do this weekend)
Weekly measurements, not just WIs.

My plans for workouts for the week are to Step every day. We launch Saturday. Then my first solo class is next thursday. Last night I did the full class right through, I did pretty good, a couple mistakes and mis-cues. But I was pretty suprised at how well I knew it all. That's good news!

For my birthday I got gift cards to the mall and moolah to spend so I'm excited. However I don't want to have to go up a size or anything, plus I want to have fun shopping. So the sooner I get back to my old self the better.

I'm also going to pay attention to the comments I'm leaving and the advice I give other people since I do know what I'm talking about, just have to do it!

i hate subject lines(.com)

2009-03-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

that feels like a dot com doesn't it?

ok well it's tuesday. welcome. i'm eating my veggies and fruits. food de jeur:
b - pb and honey toast. (really have to start making better breakfasts, wake up earlier!)
s - 20 almonds, 100 cal pack fruitsnacks (again, mistake)
l - salad with tuna, cantaloup, veggies and dip (so easy to see where to improve in retrospect isn't it?)
s - yogurt, grapes
dinner - nothing thawed out yet. Maybe do a leftover meal. We had ham last night. Or maybe soup and sandwiches?

I had a realization today, as I was finishing my fruit snacks. there went 100 calories. I don't have a ton to lose, but the difference is going to be in like 2 or 3 100 calorie bursts every day. So knock the honey off the toast, knock the fruitsnacks out. replace the dip with hummus (or nothing). instant calorie deficit. Don't even notice it right?

It's sort of the same as money management. If you want to save money or whatever, watch what you spend. no you can't change your mortgage or car payment really, but you could not buy lunch out, not buy that new shirt, buy things in bulk not individual packages. Small things that add up. The money thing is so intuitive for me. I realize every time I spend a dime that this is a splurge, yet, I can grab a handful of dinosours after supper and not even notice. I need to be more conscious.

Plus thinking of losing weight as only finding 100 calories a couple times a day makes it much more manageable. (oh, and don't tell me to count calories because I refuse. Nothing could conflict with my personality more).

Pants were darn tight this morning. They were fresh out of the wash, and I know I had a big bad weekend (plus TOM is imminent). Not fun at all.

Hubby and Daisy are home sick today. I hate being sick. I'm knocking wood and eating vitamins like crazy because winter's over and I haven't gotten sick yet.

So tonight I am practicing step right though. What a good idea the other instructor had. Instead of going track by track. Because in between each track I have to check out the book, regroup. Won't be able to do that when teaching. So that will be one heck of a workout tonight. Might do it twice through.

Oh, weight class was nice and tough yesterday. Pushed it hard because it's my last one for a long while. PLUS, after class I was talking to a girl about when I start teaching and some other people overheard and want to come take my class now! (there's a 3 week break for Easter or something now, classes start again End of April). So wednesday I'm bringing a couple drop in passes for them. Eek!

I think I'm gonna be busy with work soon (aside from very desparately bored). So that should help distract me from food (which is currently the highlight of my day).

Oh, I also want to mention that I'm thinking of making my blog private. Those with private blogs let me know your thoughts on that, regret it ever? I like having lurkers and random people, but I'm starting to get paranoid that somebody I know in real life might be reading and I like just writing things I might not say.

oh that's not good

2009-03-23T11:37:00.001-07:00

So I had a good weekend. It was a birthday filled weekend. Hurray! Love it.

However, all the birthday celebrations were eating. And eating lots:
friday night out for supper - filet minion with lemon potatoes, salad, veggies, daquiry (sp?), shared cheesecake with my sister. My stomach hurt after that one. but it was the best steak I'd ever eaten. ever.

saturday - small eats all day. had to go to hair cut early, granola bar for breakfast. No lunch. but i was making cupcakes and ate 1 and licked way too much icing (felt sick, not full from it.) I have to remember to put up the picture of the cupcakes. I made mini hamburgers out of my cupcakes. google cupcake hamburgers and you'll see. So cute. then I also made those chicken pockets from hungry girl email a few weeks ago. They were good. I'm not a big fan of the crunchy part of the wrapper but the rest is really good. and nutritionals are good too (recipe below). ate 2 of those.

Then saturday night hubby and I went out for supper and a movie (Duplicity, I loved it, hubby couldn't follow it). We had spinach dip appetizer, then I just had soup and salad for supper. but was still really really full. Then we got free dessert because it was my birthday. but I had like 1 bite of the lava cake and that's it (and it was really good tasting though!).

Then at our movie, we had a coupon for free popcorn and drinks. So I had a diet coke, and about 1 inch of popcorn and we brought the rest home. So full.

THEN Sunday morning, my siblings took me out for the most amazing fancy breakfast buffet brunch ever. It's like $25 a plate. But it's got anything and everything you could think of to eat. shrimp and oysters, a whole bakery section with croissants and muffins and everything. Made to order eggs and omlets, waffles with dozens of different toppings. Then a whole cake/pie/pudding/dessert area. I loaded up the first plate with fruit and whipped cream and eggs benedict. the second plate was dessert with lemon meringue pie, bread pudding, belgium waffle. I don't even remember. It was way too carby and sugary and way too much food. But the money part of my brain over took the fat loss part of my brain and made sure I got my money's worth.

So that was all way way way too much food. my stomach hurt all weekend. And today the office has cake for me this afternoon. ugh.

other than the cake todays eating will be good. I've got all veggies and fruit and a yogurt and a cranberry muffin. Getting groceries after work, though we don't need much, just some fruit to restock the crispers. Then a weight class tonight.

As far as exercise goes, for the next session of classes I pay for, I don't think i'm going to do it. I'll be teaching 2 or 3 times a week, and the classes I take are on the other nights, so that would mean the only night I'd be home during the week is friday. So step will be lots of working out, plus there's outside running soon (soon right?). PLUS before or after step classes I can use the gym to do my weight workouts, PLUS PLUS I have weights at home!

Lots of other things to talk about: got my hair dyed, much more "fake" red than I wanted (like too much burgandy, not enough orange). But I do still like it. It's just a bit dramatic. And I've seen people with this color hair that looks terrible so I'm paraniod that that's me. I'll take a picture for you guys. We made some decisions about the basement when we went to the home show. fun. We're thinking of doing some nice laminate in the basement. (not the whole part, anybody see this before? It just seems like you shouldn't be able to, but there's no reason). oh, that recipe (from hungry girl):

Chicken Pot Pockets
Ingredients:
12 large square egg roll wrappers (found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket with the other Asian items)
One 10.75-oz. can 98% fat-free cream of celery condensed soup
2 cups frozen bite-sized mixed veggies (like diced carrots, peas, corn, etc.)
2 oz. cooked skinless lean chicken breast, finely chopped
1 tsp. cornstarch
Optional: salt and black pepper, to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small dish, mix cornstarch thoroughly with 1 tsp. cold water. In a large bowl, combine cornstarch mixture with soup, and mix thoroughly. Add veggies and chicken, mix well, and then season to taste with salt and pepper, if you like. This is your filling. Set aside.
On a large dry surface, lay out three egg roll wrappers. Set out a small dish of water, dip your finger into it, and then run your finger along all of the wrapper edges -- repeat this as needed while preparing your pockets, as it will help keep them sealed. Starting about 1/2 inch from the bottom, place 2 - 3 tbsp. of filling along the bottom half of each wrapper, leaving a 1/2-inch border on both sides. Fold the top half of each wrapper over, so that the top edge meets the bottom -- the mixture should be completely encased with a 1/2-inch border on three sides. Dab each border with water, and fold each inward about 1/4 inch to lightly seal all sides. Press firmly along the borders wit h the prongs of a fork to seal completely.
Line a large baking pan with foil and/or spray with nonstick spray. Using a large spatula, carefully transfer the pockets to the baking pan. Repeat the entire process 3 more times, so that you have 12 pockets on the baking sheet. If needed, prepare and use an additional baking sheet.Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Then dig in!MAKES 12 SERVINGS (mine made much more than this)

PER SERVING (1 pocket): 88 calories, 1g fat, 242mg sodium, 16g carbs, 1g fiber, 1.5g sugars, 4g protein -- POINTS� value 2*

I'm really a STEP teacher!

2009-03-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

How cool is this?? I got the April schedule for teaching at the gym. For April we're team teaching (which is teach half the class with another newbie teaching the other half). And I'm doing tuesday and thursdays AND every second saturday. PERFECT! So excited about it. I like the girls I'm teaching with too. I think we'll compliment each other, similar styles (though they do make me look a bit like a giant).

I think we're NOT having birthday cake for my birthday at the office. I think. No sign of it and it's 3:00 already. Just can't wait for the day to be done for the happy birthday weekend to start. I'm having a pre-birthday coke zero. fizziness keeps my belly full. yum.

they might be moving!

2009-03-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am terrible at secrets but am trying to keep this one (I'm only telling whoever wants to know on the internet, that's ok).

That best friend and her hubby might be moving back as early as May! My boss just let me know they made him an offer to start working here May 4th. I can't believe she hasn't even said anything about POSSIBLY moving back here. She's a VERY good secret keeper!

Tomorrow is my birthday! (feel free to send warm wishes in advance)

2009-03-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Ha! I think I'm funny, but I definately can see why some people might not like me. (hope you do though!)

Tonight the birthday festivities start with supper with my sister and her fiance (who's birthdays it today) and a bunch of friends. I'm looking forward to it, but I still don't want it to take too long, I have a long list of things I want to do, but we'll get to that.

Saturday I booked myself a hair appointment. I'm dying it RED !!! yay! Red, but a normal hair color red, not a fake red. (so sort of orange right?) I'm positive it will look great, I had red hair as a kid and my mom has red red hair (and I basically look just like my mom) so I'm sure the coloring will look good. I don't know if I want to do just a solid dye (which is what I was sort of leaning towards) or if I want to do it with highlights and/or lowlights too or only with highlights and lowlights or what. I've never had my hair colored in a salon (well once I got blond highlights all over my head, which I liked at the time, but now I think a solid color is bolder or something, i dunno). I only ever did the at home dye's (which I always loved afterward, I love change I think). and never that dramatic (well once I went pretty dark brown and ADORED it, dark hair is easier to do, it never looks as messy as blond or brown).

Anyway, so that's gonna take up my saturday morning. The rest of the things I want to do saturday (or friday, time permitting):
make guacamole
make angel food cake
make chicken pockets (bought the ingredients!)
practice my new step tracks (practice to perfection! I'll be teaching my instructor!)
clean the bathtub walls (bothering me lately)
scrapbook or scan photos for sister's slideshow
exercise my poor puppy (more on her later)

I'm also going to do lunch or brunch with my sister either saturday or sunday.

Saturday night hubby and I are doing supper and a movie (for free with gift cards!) Not sure if I want to see Duplicity or I Love You, Man. Since it's my choice I thought I should choose something that hubby wouldn't choose (who normally does the picking) so I'm leaning towards Duplicity. Anyone seen it?

Then Sunday morning maybe brunch, then the Homestyles show. (basically a tradeshow about houses and decorating and renovations and stuff). I love all tradeshows, and we're finishing our basement as we speak right? Perfect. Get some ideas, get some prices, ask some questions. So looking forward to this.

Then I've got Step practice at 4. That's all the plans for the whole day. so maybe more scrapbooking or shopping or something. yay!

So yesterday I had the Step intro class. it was good. I didn't know what to do with myself. 2 instructors were doing the demo, so I just participated, but at the front so people could follow me. Sorta felt weird. I'm good at leading and instructing and stuff, but not when there are other "authority figures" or bosses or people who know more than me there. Intimidating. Anyway, I think it was good.

Then when I got home, hubby had given my dog a bath (we went for a quick jog after work and then she didn't want to come inside). so she was soaking wet still when I got home, I tried to brush her fur out a bit, but she ran away from me! That is NOT ok. So I track her down and brush her. It was really wet on her hind end so I thought I'd blow dry it a bit. She's a bit scared of the blow dryer, and of the vaccuum and of baths, but I thought it would be ok if I was holding her and petting her (basically there's no reason to be scared so I thought I'd show her that). She was having none of it. She was absolutely terrified, ran away (even when I was holding her fur so I'm sure it hurt really bad.) It was really sad. I felt so bad afterwards for putting her through all that. But just like a dog, she forgave me right away and we snuggled. Hubby and I think she might have been abused or something (we got her from the pound when she was already 5 months old. Something about bathtime and blow drying scarred her).

Oh, WI 146.4. So I think that's up. or a STS. But next week, boy get ready! (gonna have to keep remembering that when I'm eating out 3 meals this weekend).

I am HUNGRY!

2009-03-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Day 1 on a diet. I'm hungry. I don't know if it's day 1, nor do I know if it's a diet. But Day 1 (lately) of being serious? Hungry. But only because it's moments away from lunch.

This morning was the PC blue menu fibre cereal (cant' remember the name) with strawberries and a banana. Even gross cereal is good with strawberries and bananas. (not that this is gross). Then snack was 15 almonds and 1/3 cup of craisins. But I ate this too early, hence the hunger.

Lunch will be leftover veggie stirfry with Udon noodles (I think that's the noodles I used, I just found this package in the cupboard). No meat. However I think the noodles have protein. I also have grapes, strawberries, carrots and celery with dill dip (I have no problem with the dip as the fat in it (though not much, 1% sour cream?) helps keep me full. Plus plus, for afternoon snack I packed a roast beef sandwich (only 200 calories) and or a yogurt and apple. Since I'm so hungry now I'm sure I'll eat everything. But that's alright.

Supper will probably be peanut butter toast. I'm basically just running home, changing, eating, letting the dog out, then coming back in to the city for a step "tutorial" or workshop or something. Basically put on at the gym for beginners to learn what the moves are and to not feel intimidated at the first real class. An acquaintance is going so I thought I'd go too (not required).

So that's going to be the only workout. Probably wont' be tough either. Oh well. That's life. Soon it will be warm enough for outside runs right? (I say that every day)

Other than that, bored at work, excited for the weekend (which is my birthday too!) I have lots of plans of going out with various people to eat and watch movies and stuff. But I want to also cook myself some treats (guacamole, this chicken pocket recipe from hungry girl today, you get that one?, angel food cake. etc. Stuff I like but that's not horrible for you).

Anyway, hope the microwave is free now!!!

10 weeks?

2009-03-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

10 weeks until my sister's wedding. 10 weeks, 10 lbs? 1 lb a week? that's high for what I've been capable in the past, however it's not a ridiculous rate, it's a safe steady rate that they say to aim for right?

I think looking at it as 1 lb/week is much easier and more realistic than trying to lose 10 lbs. (though I pulled that number out of the air sort of. I'd be happy with 6 probably.) So that's what I need to do.

How? gonna track my food on here. Sorry, I know it's boring, don't bother reading, (I don't read yours! haha!) I think it helps me though.

So yesterday I didn't workout. We went out for supper (I had the thai chicken salad. Healthy with the veggies, but probably not as healthy as it should be, who knows how much oil is in the dressing, and there were lots of noodles with the salad. delish though. I love thai salads) We visited a nice long time, despite the restaurant probably wanting us to leave as it was st. patrick's day and they were busy.

by the time I got home it was 8:45 and I just felt lazy. So I just watched tv and changed the laundry and read my book. Tonight I've got Step class and I also have to learn the step routines for the weekend. Busy busy.

Yeah, not much to say, I feel really good and focused now that I played with my loss spreadsheets and saw some trends and stuff and realize there's a nice short time limit on things, plus I feel on top of the food game with all the great stuff that's in grocery stores now. If only the weather would smarten up so I could run outside (I guess this weekend it's supposed to melt some more? I'm so jealous of everywhere else in the country I say with highs of +10, we're at a high of -10 still)

Food:
B - scrambled egg whites, broccoli, feta and cheddar cheese, red pepper, 1 toast w/becel
S - banana, 12 almonds, handful of craisins
L - salad with strawberries and mandarin dressing, 3 slices roast beef (90 cal worth), 2 cups of carrots and broccoli with 2 tbsp dill dip, 1.5 cups green grapes
S - 3/4 cup yogurt (90cal), 1/2 cup cantaloup, apple (if required)
D - stir fry veggies? (sausage will be cooked for hubby, but I don't like it), banana

a good day

2009-03-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

So after my weekend of blah, I had a good monday. My lunch packed was terrific, tons of fruits and veggies. yum. I've got a bit of the munchies and might eat a bit more than I usually do. but it was fruit mostly so I'm ok. Nice little cleanse.

Then I went to get groceries. Bought so much fresh stuff. yum yum yum. Spring salad mix, strawberries, bok choy, broccoli sprouts, carrots, baby tomatoes, asparagus, bananas, cantaloup. oh delish. That's pretty much it besides some paper towel, milk, cheese, roast beef for sandwiches. Really good. Hopefully I can eat that all this week and then buy it again on monday. I have to start thinking of grocery trips as enough for just the week. That means I need to make a stir-fry or something with the bok choy THIS WEEK. (anybody do anything else with bok choy?)

So came home, grilled up some chicken breast. Also asparagus, and broccoli steamed. Plate full of broccoli, 3 asparagus spears (I only like the tips so I try not to eat that much since hubby LOVES it). a bit of shredded cheese on the veggies. Half a chicken breast. Yummy. Completely stuffed. then a glass of milk, and a handful of mini-eggs (ok, so not perfect. I saw them on the cupboard and couldn't resist). By then it was time for me to go to my exercise class.

REALLY hard on the legs for some reason. I don't know why lunges are so hard for me. I can barely do them. I guess I need to work on them. Anyway, good class all around. tough. Then I came home, walked my dog for 15 minutes. Poor thing has some sort of depression, I'm sure it's about the weather. She just mopes around, looking outside. She hasn't been getting as much exercise as she should be. my fault. Anyway, she perked right up with the walk. Then I went downstairs and hit the treadmill, just for 10 minutes. Nice and fast, like 3 good songs. I realized haven't ran since I took the Step training. Hopefully the snow will all melt soon and it will warm up and I can run outside. Then I get Daisy exercised and myself in one. Anyway, so I managed to do my class and do some running AND walk the dog. (and make a healthy supper and clean up and run a load of laundry. AND help hubby take a sliver out of his heel.) Great time. I'm super woman.

today is shaping up to be good as well. This morning I ate a bit much than I'd like. But I only packed so much so it's just a timing thing. Just hungry this morning for some reason. Then after work today I'm going out with some girl friends. Not for St. Patrick's Day (have a good one!) but because it's my birthday Saturday! I'm turning old (27). Feels old sometimes. Anyway, we're going out for drinks. But I'm not drinking. I'm not really sure what's gonna happen. I'm not sure if we're really eating or just appetizers. (i hope eating, appetizers have like no healthy options). Anyway, we shouldn't be too late, one of the girls has to be home by 8:00 I think. So when I get home I have to practice step. I'm teaching 2 new ones this week and then it's time for the launch and it's really on! Plus my instructor for the class I go to on Wednesdays is coming to our practice so I'll be teaching her, so I want to be really ready and awesome.

Anyway, I guess I better do some real work now. It's so dull. I don't like writing journal papers, in case you were wondering.

I had a bad weekend

2009-03-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Oh boy did I eat. Did not do any exercise (well until Sunday afternoon when I did Step practice with the other instructors, I feel like exercise on the weekend should be solo exercise for some reason.)

Friday night we ate burger king on the way home. (those burger shots? Quite cute, not tasty. Don't bother). Sunday we ate McDonald's for lunch. (I felt crappy for the rest of the day, why don't I remember that before I order?) Saturday wasn't bad. I did eat a couple pieces of carrot birthday cake and have a midnight snack of a ham sandwich. But if it were just saturday that was bad I don't think I'd care. it was the fast food.

Mom loved her presents. But funnily enough, she gave her house a big cleaning the day before we got there so there wasn't a ton of cleaning to do. We dusted and did laundry which was helpful, plus cleaned out her cold room (which is a crawl space and she can't really get in there with her knees. nor does it get looked at often, we took jam out of there that she made in 1992. No it doesn't keep that long.)

I feel like I gained a million pounds. And I stretched out my stomach so my appetite is never satisfied now. I think I often mistake thirst for hunger at home and on weekends. I think I'm going to try and make myself take a big glass of water before I eat anything at home. I drink a full water bottle every 1.5 hours at work, then maybe 1 glass the rest of the day. not great.

I think I'm going to start doubling up my workouts a bit. I'm not really liking how out of breath I sound when teaching Step. I don't think it looks good to hear huffing and puffing through the sound system. Tonight I've got weight class. I think I'm going to try and run as well tonight. Just a 20 minute treadmill run. It's been neglected lately. Weather isn't great today, freezing rain warning, so too slippery to run outside, plus a bit chilly. Soon though.

So I overheard my boss talking on the phone to one of my best friend's husbands (office walls are really thin). They moved to Edmonton a few years ago but he's not that happy with his job and they want to move home to be closer to family (now that they have a little baby!). But I was emailing my friend on the weekend and she never mentioned anything like that so I think it's supposed to be a secret. It's interesting because this guy is great and smart and I get along awesome with him, and he was a summer student here before and everyone liked him. He'd be great here, the only problem is, we weren't really looking to hire anybody right now. I sure hope they find a job for him. Then my friend would move home! She's probably my closest girlfriend besides my sister. Unlike anybody else, she doesn't have 1 thing that I find annoying (I'm a horrible person huh?). Even though I never see her, and we don't even talk that often, when we do we can talk about anything. She's giving me all the dirt on having a baby right now. PLUS, her husband is one of the few male friends (or husband of my friends) that my hubby actually likes. They're our best couple friends. And I really like him. (Some of my friend's husbands I'm not big fans of, again, I'm not nice)

Anyway, that's what's new with me. back to focussing on the old food intake. groceries after work. Fresh produce always helps.

be warned...

2009-03-13T12:08:00.001-07:00

I must be the last person on earth to see the blog Bakerella right? Seriously, I can't see me doing any more work today. (tutorials on cake pops! awesome!) Might not be good for the old weight loss...

I love weekends

2009-03-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

But who doesn't?

So the scale betrayed me. Punished me for talking about my sneakpeak. Yesterday I was 144 something, today 146 something. Aw well. Moving on.

Yesterday I was feeling sort of lazy. I did my step tracks a few times, but didn't really give 'er on them. Focused on learning rather than working out. Which is alright. Then took a break. Just was feeling tired. By 8:30 I remembered I was supposed to do heavy weights so I got them out and did a squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows, hip raises, shoulder presses and chest presses. Nice and out of breathe from that. Then more relaxing and doing nothing. Watched some curling and Holmes on Homes. I love him. I love his attitude. Just do it right.

Planned a bit for going home. Got the tax stuff together. Got some random things together for going home. Made some lists. I'm going to try and get off work early today. Get home, pack quick and then we're back into the city (hubby has to drop off something he's selling on Kijiji), then to the grocery store to buy fruits and veggies for mom. And balloons and cake fixings (we're gonna make one, but need the whipped cream and candles!). She thought we didn't know it was a big birthday, just a regular one. (it's her 50th). hehehe.

So grab the groceries and get home. Then I have a big pile of stuff we're gonna do, clean basically every room in the house (at least dust and vacuum each), plus laundry, bathrooms, scrub kitchen, outside tidying. Clean out the guest bathroom, it doesn't need to have all that stuff in there, it's still from when we all used to live at home! But that'll all be on Saturday, friday will be the relaxing and celebrating.

Anyway, I'm very munchy feeling today. Eat lunch a little early I think.

sneakpeakin'

2009-03-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

So I sneakpeaked at the scale and it shows me down at least 1 lb (I didn't sit still long enough to pay attention. plus I can never remember last week). So I'm pleased. I noticed it last night when getting changed for step class. I could wear my tummy grazing shirt and not hate it.

I've discovered the secret to weight loss (EUREKA!) is to give everything 3 weeks. Don't expect results before 3 weeks, but keep doing good things consistantly for 3 weeks and you'll see it. It's been about 3 weeks since I started exercising EVERY day (with learning step it's been fun actually). Plus I've been gradually getting back to the foods I know I should live on. I had to wean the granola bars and stuff away. But my lunches this week have been AWESOME. Homemade soup, salad, yogurt, grapes, apples, eggs, tuna. And less than I used to "need". I packed lunch this morning and was like "is that it?" then "counted" out 2 snacks, lunch and lunch "dessert" (I need the soup AND some fruit). Plus had the bonus of extra carrots to add to any snack or meal. It was just so little. And I know I'll bring leftovers home. Hurray!

Watch, I'll have a gain tomorrow. oh well, my belly's flatter. I feel better about my body. That's what counts. I'll do measurements tomorrow too.

My sister's wedding is in 2.5 months. That's like NO time. But at least the scale started moving.

Tonight I'm going to practice step a few times, plus I'm going to do some heavy weights. They've been neglected. And I decided this yesterday. What makes me feel like I'm getting real changes in my body (whether or not I am, it FEELS like I am)? heavy weights. So I'm doing it. (heavy as in 50 lb range for squats and chest press etc. Heavy so I can't do more than 12 reps.)

Today is supposed to be the last cold day, then finally melty for the weekend. I'm going home (for my mom's birthday) but maybe Daisy and I can go for an outside run there. Otherwise mom's got her treadmill and a good set of weights. (plus I might be too busy) and I might bring my step!

But now it's work time. oh well, at least I've got new podcasts today!

one exception

2009-03-11T10:57:00.001-07:00

There is one bright shiney thing going on (not that I'm depressed or anything, there's just nothing to write about. Still happy!). What's that beacon of light in an otherwise tedious life?

I get 15% off at lululemon.

I so kick ass.

oh, it's wednesday.

2009-03-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm so lame and boring lately.

I'm trying to eat good. Lots of fruit. Maybe too much fruit. Stupid serving sizes.

I'm exercising lots. lots and lots and lots. Yesterday was oodles of Step. I learned the first two tracks. (so rehearsed them like 4 times each or something) THEN I did the whole thing. Even abs and stretching. It was like a solid 1.5 hours.

Then a few of hubby's friends (who were all at a ball meeting earlier) all came over. (good thing I was not stepping at the time, eek!). Just hung out for a few minutes. Watched some Who's Line is it Anyway. haha. I love Colin.

Then bed. That's my life.

ridiculous

2009-03-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

Watch I Have a Bad Case of Diarrhea and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

going out for lunch

2009-03-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

I forgot that I was supposed to go out for lunch today. So I packed a huge awesome lunch. Oh well, it should keep for tomorrow.

We're going out for Indian food. I've never gone out for Indian, only had it at potlucks or been to an Indian buffet.

Anyway, yesterday was weight class. Sweat was dripping off my elbows. Always good. I'm not a big fan of the 1 hour class though I realized. (Step class I take is 1.5 hours) It's at 8:00 and I don't get anything done after supper until class, then when it's done at 9:00, I don't do anything before bed either. So it might as well last from 7:00 until 10:00. Oh well.

We found out that we're launching the Step class at the gym on Mar 28 (if anybody wants to come out...). Plus we're doing a VIP class the weekend before. PLUS this weekend at the Step instructor practice I've got a couple girlfriends coming. I'm pumped. On the weekend I taught the last 3 tracks, and I definately have 1 more. Plus by this weekend we have to learn 2 different ones (I get the easy beginning ones now, yay!) so I should have 6 of the 10 tracks by Sunday (maybe more?! they're all easier than the one I did first)

We've got a good plan for mom now. I bought a spa package that was on an internet auction yesteday (convenient). it's for a group spa party, so any number of people, any services totalling $500 (I got it for $250). So my sis and I will pay for our portions and split the stuff mom wants to do. I think spas are more fun with more people. Plus our trip home doing random chores and stuff is getting worked out. I'm actually pumped about it (pumped to clean house? Weird?)

Anyway, gotta start the car to go for lunch. Still -a billion here!!!

Oh no!

2009-03-09T14:47:00.001-07:00

It's my mom's birthday this thursday. Completely remembered that, so it's not oh no. BUT, guess how old she's turning? 50!!! only figured that out this morning! (cause I heard the radio say that Barbie turns 50 this year, and mom told me she and Barbie are the same age - thank you radio!)

What should we get her? Our plan is a spa thingy. (plus a yogurt maker that she wanted and we actually found!) Good one? But we were going to do that when it was just a normal birthday. not a big one.

(she definately doesn't want a party!)

I think what we're going to do (we = siblings) is go home and cook and clean for her. My mom is crazy busy right now because it's tax season. My parents have their own business of doing taxes. (they are SO busy Jan - May, fairly slow in the summer.) AND my mom basically can't walk right now. She had some serious knee problems (add to serious back problems, kidney stones, arthritis, who knows what else), then a few weeks ago she fell off the roof (yeah) and hurt her good knee. So she sits at her desk with an ice pack and her knee elevated. Plus they're so busy she really doesn't have time to do any physiotherapy until after tax season.

I sure hope I don't have anything wrong with me when I'm old. Do you think staying at a healthy weight and doing strength training will help that? I'm hoping so. I'm sure Step is actually going to be bad for my knees and joints, but it should be good for my heart health (which is the other huge hereditary disease in my family, oh, and diabetes, and cancer, and mental illness.) I think I've mentioned before that my whole attitude is I don't want to regret anything later in life. Not the way other people mean it (like regret not taking that job in Paris or whatever). I mean, I don't want to regret not eating a multivitamin every day when I was in my 20s because it would have prevented me having cancer at 50. Know what I mean? I don't want to regret being out of shape because it's so much easier to be lean when you have time to workout and no kids. Make sense? If getting enough calcium now will prevent a huge headache later on? then I want to do it now. As nasty as it sounds, I don't want to end up like my mom when I'm old. (Only her broken body, my mom's great).

So hopefully we siblings can go home and cook her a bunch of healthy meals (she's also trying to lose weight before sis's wedding), do random things that need doing, like dust something, change spare bedroom sheets, take the car for an oil change. Whatever. I think she'll like that. Maybe we'll bring city groceries home too (better selection of fresh foods).

march shouldn't be this cold

2009-03-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's like -30 here. -40 something with the windchill. Is my calendar wrong?

I changed my profile picture back to my awesome muscles. I don't currently look like that. But I will again soon.

I feel good. I feel like I'm losing weight. We'll see. I didn't have a great eating weekend, (read: really bad) but I've got a STS from friday. good sign.

So what's really bad? Saturday I went to an appetizer potluck meeting for my new instructor job. All these fitness professionals, yoga instructors, etc etc. About 15 of us were there. 1 person brought a fruit tray. EVERYONE else brought cookies, cake, or some kind of cream cheese thing. Wow. Guess it's a good thing we all workout! It was my supper. I had 3 cookies, 2 pieces of coffee cake stuff, a chocolate eclair, some crackers and goat cheese and some pineapple. I think. It was a lot of really really good food. But I put everything I wanted on my little plate and ate it and that's it. I was more full than I think I should have been. (I had an early lunch and then nothing until this at 5:00). Then I had a glass of like mango juice or something then 29 glasses of water (so thirsty for some reason).

That's all I ate until 11:00 at night when I found the suprise spread dip at one of the birthday parties and ate probably all of it (the sour cream, cream cheese, tomato, onion, cheese layered one?). Oh, and I had a non-diet pop. It messed me up! It was probably my first full can of sugar pop in years and years. I felt super bizarre after it. Didn't like it. Sort of drunk feeling. drunk and sick.

As far as the parties. Went well. I was a bit rushed a chaotic as I was late getting to the city and had to pick up photo collages I printed, then drop them off at the parties before I my meeting in case I didn't make it back to them in time. Then go to my meeting (oh yeah, I was late because I made appetizer snacks for each of these parties, I had spicy tortilla roll-ups, guacamole, and lazy cinnamon buns). So after my meeting, went to suprise party 1. The birthday girl was running behind and were going to be later than we thought, so suprise happened at like 8:00. The other party people were ahead of schedule and were showing up before they expected, also 8:00. So we missed the 1 suprise. But the one we saw was good. She had no idea. and was so confused at first! And was sort of sad earlier about what her hubby was actually doing for her birthday (not much) so it was great. (it was also very boring, lots of old people she works with, her parents and her daughter, so a very tame party).

Compare that to the other party (where we missed the suprise part) where they bought 2 kegs and the house was completely busting at the seams, half the party took place in hallways. Which I also found boring, because I hate parties like that. I like visiting, not drinking. It got better once I found the food and the people I know. We left 10 minutes later than I wanted to. So I got to witness some keg stands that ended with beer coming out of the birthday boy's nose.

The poor guy (my Sis's fiance). He has a reputation of being immature and getting too drunk too fast and just being a partier. and I always sort of thought that was just him. But at his party I saw that his friends won't let him change even if he wanted to. He wasn't going to do a keg stand. But it was his birthday so they made him. So they lifted him up and then held him there for a good minute. I saw him tapping his friend's leg as in "put me down now!" but they ignored him. Then when they did put him down, it was because the beer was coming out his nose and he as choking (it's unclear whether he puked or not.) Ugh. It just left me disgusted (not with the puke) but just with the drunkeness. Whenever I see that sort of behaviour, it just makes me want to drink less and less. (I already barely drink, but it started as a weight loss thing, then because I didn't really like the taste of much and so I can drive. Now it's becoming sort of a moral issue, look what this stuff does to you, it's poison, just doesn't make sense).

Anyway. So Sunday we did some shopping and running around in the city. I bought some jeans, not trouser jeans since they looked like crap on my chubby thighs and short legs, but just jean jeans. Then went and did a practice for Step teaching. The other tracks I learned went well, but that first one I learned was such a tricky thing! There's a move that's impossible to describe. Plus one of the other instructors sort of messed me up when I was trying (she had a point but still) I was saying (off, back, off, across, off, back, knee. because the timing worked nicely to say that, but it technically was off, back, up, off, across, etc etc. Just much more talking, and not how I practiced it). Oh well, it's getting better. and like I said, the rest were good.

Anyway, that's pretty much my weekend. I was upset yesterday because I got so much I wanted to done (yes I caulked! I made all these appetizers and picked up the collages and got frames for them and did laundry and dishes and worked out etc etc etc.) plus I made hamburger soup and healthy apple crisp (more baked apples) and was just sitting down to eat when hubby started yelling at me for the kitchen being messy and how I have just 1 room to take care of so can't I keep it clean? I was FURIOUS!!!! (he was mostly mad because he stubbed his toe on the dishwasher door which was open because I was going to put one more dish - my supper plate!, in it and then start it.) But once I'm mad I don't do well at remembering my side of things. I just cry in frustration. I couldn't get out all the things I'd done and I wasn't done for the night anyway, just eating. So I was too upset then to eat, lost my appetite. So no supper. Later in the evening I had some apple crisp. (oh, and hubby apologized, in his mind he was just asking me to keep the kitchen a bit tidier so didn't understand why I was still mad.) I'm still mad actually.

Sometimes I think he gets a bad rap on here though. I only talk about the fights on here. And granted he's got some big bad problems (short fuse, over reactor, dirty fighter etc) he's also got great qualities that I know, but sometimes you just need to vent about your man and everything that's wrong with him! ;)

Starving now, lunch time. hamburger soup here I come.

TGIF

2009-03-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

Yay friday!

Man I have to have some babies and go on maternity leave. Working for a living sucks.

Last night I was very good. I was late at Costco with my brother, didn't get home until 7:00 almost. But hubby had started the chicken breasts (just grilled, I already marinated them). Then I steamed up some cauliflower and broccoli AND some green beans. I ate a plate of the C&B with a little cheddar shredded on top (SO good) as an appetizer. Then ate a small chicken breast and half a plate full of green beans as supper. Yum. Then instead of finding something for dessert, I got on the phone and called my mom for an hour. Nice distraction. We hadn't visited in a long time so it was nice to catch up. I think my mom really likes venting to me. We're very similar (much moreso than anyone else in our family) and we can both vent about my siblings and their issues (brothers are fighting nonstop, sister is slacking in the wedding planning and we're going to have to pick it up, etc). So we talked a really long time, (might have been close to 2 hours). And then after I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit, I didn't really feel like working out too hard that late. So I just did the 2 tracks I'm trying to learn for step and watched Lost in bed. I'm weeks behind still. But I'll probably catch up this weekend.

WI 145.8. Not great. But I forgot to post last week and it was 146 something. So down something. But hopefully my new plan of alternating days of low carbish will help. I feel like I'm doing something better every day so we'll see.

Weekend plans? not so much. Well a bit. Tonight, nothing. Probably some lost and some step. I also want to make hamburger soup. that's enough for 1 night.

Saturday list: caulk sinks, do insurance for massages, clean house. STEP right through a couple times.

I've also got a staff meeting for my new Gym. It's an appetizer potluck, not sure what I'll bring yet. All delicious appetizers are fairly bad for you. Plus I've got 2 suprise 30th birthdays on Saturday that I'll bring appetizers for. So I need something that's good but can stay in my car for hours and still be good. hmmm...

So right after my meeting, I'm heading to SILs for her suprise party. Stay for 2 hours, then go to future BIL for his suprise party. Sheesh.

Sunday, more cleaning and chores etc. I also want to go shopping. Mom's birthday, I've got coupons for a few places, plus Ricki's is having a 20% off sale. I think I need some trouser jeans or something halfway dressy halfway causual. Then at 4:00 I've got my Step practice at the gym. (where the instructors teach the other instructors.) looking forward to that.

Ok so that's all. Got a lot of nonwork things I have to pack in at lunch, including checking up on your blogs!

Reasons to lose weight

2009-03-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

these have got to be reasons #205 and up:

New chafing - I am now experiencing armpit chaffing. Ew. (this has to do with me doing more arm movements with the step, instructors gotta do it!) It's weird and painful and affecting my movements and stuff (only while working out). But I've gotta be comfortable when teaching right? That means less arm fat.

skin, chins, etc - It's strange, but I think my face and skin and coloring look better when I'm about 6 lbs lighter. I'm sure this is all in my head. I dunno. I see double chins now, my skin seems sort of pasty (could just be winter). But I just think I'm overall healthier less than 140 lbs and it shows up in everything (including my attitude).

clothes - I know this has always been on my list. But I have all these tshirts and tanks that I used to wear. Now I still wear them (they're like my only clothes!) But I wear bunnyhugs and sweaters and any kind of zip up on top of them. Not for warmth...

Gotta change.

nuts

2009-03-05T09:31:00.001-08:00

How many people out there eat nuts regularly? Peanuts, almonds etc? How much/many do you eat? I'm having a hard time being satisfied with a serving (like 12 almonds!) even though it's plenty of calories. It's just so dense that I feel like I should eat something else that will trick me (popcorn?). But you just can't argue with the nutrition of nuts. So many health benefits.

So yesterday when I got home, Daisy's boyfriend had come for a visit. He's a HUGE husky named Duke that sometimes escapes from his owner's property and wonders our street. He looks like a wolf and it's sort of scary to see him just wandering around. But the first time I saw him I just said "sit" and he did. So I knew he was alright. anyway, he got away from his owner again, so we played with him (and Daisy) in the backyard for a few minutes, then put Daisy on her leash and tried to take him home (he didn't have a collar on so couldn't hook him up too). Well Daisy and I had to run to keep up with this monster walking. and he was leading at first, but if I went a different way he'd come follow. I got him to where I knew roughly where his home was and he was trotting way in front of us so we turned around. Then all of a sudden Daisy turned backwards and sat down. I was like what they hell? Turn around and there's Duke barrelling towards us full speed. Ok, so he didn't want to go home yet! It was sort of hilarious how different DAisy was around him, very much the smaller, more hyper dog, when I'm used to seeing her as the dominant big dog.

Hubby said watching the two of them made him think Daisy was saying "hey do you like bones? I love bones oh no you don't? No I don't like them either. how about playing fetch we can play fetch if you want oh ok how about tug of war yeah that's fun, oh, you're strong, hey look at me jumping! if I jump up on this side of you I can almost see your eyes you have such pretty eyes so do you want to run around now?" And the whole time Duke was just moving in slow motion, peeing on stuff. He just puts his paw on Daisy and squashes her, like "that's enough". He almost squashes me when I ask him to shake a paw!

Anyway, his owner came looking for him and so we tried to get him to go home. Tricky. Smart dog, stays just out of reach. Anyway, that took up my supper making time yesterday. So I ate scrambled eggs and toast. Hubby was going out for wings after a meeting.

Then I practiced my new step track. I now have 2 down solid, and almost a third. It's so much work to just learn those, seems crazy that I'll have to do a full 10 tracks in a month!

Then it was time to go to step class. Instructor didn't ask if I wanted to practice teach so I didn't bring it up. I think I would have said yes though. Oh well. I'll get a practice on sunday.

So class was good. I can't believe how sore my back, butt and hamstrings are. (the new track I learned has a lot of ham curls).

So after that, when I finally got home it was basically bed time. I had so much I wanted to do though. I did edit some pictures into collages for the 2 suprise 30th birthday's I've got this weekend. Just a bunch of embarrassing pictures. I'm a pro at photoshop now. Love it. Then it was lights out!

Today I'm trying to cut the starch again. I had a protein shake with tons of berries for breakfast. Keeping me fairly full. Did have a couple tablespoons of peanuts (hubby took the almonds to work! boo!) earlier. Then lunch is gonna be salad with tuna. Snacks are grapes, melon, yogurt, apples, kiwi. very fruity. I'm thawing out chicken breast for supper. With some huge amount of veggies. maybe green beans. Yum. Going to Costco on the way home. Picking up spinach for sure. Who knows what else. whatever looks good!

Workout tonight is step. Gonna try and learn #3 and 4. I'll almost be half done then! Not too shabby. Maybe a 10 minute jog as well, just to keep it up.

hot and cold

2009-03-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

Well I was so busy last friday and even monday and tuesday, now today, nothing to do. Well that's not true, it's just I've got this one project I've had for months and am so sick of and want it to be over! Oh well, better just get it done.

So my muscles are sore! I think it's mostly from monday's strength class. I hadn't done it since first week of Feb. But yesterday I also did a ton of exercise! I went for a RUN OUTSIDE! Just 15 minutes. It was only like -5 or something. But it also is tough to run in snow. I wore my Garmin and it was interesting to see how much faster I'd run on shovelled sidewalks or on the street compared to softer snow (snow that was quite packed before, but because it's sort of melty, all the snow gets softer.) Anyway I was pleased with myself for getting a run in. I was way fast too (when not in snow). I'll have to upload my garmin to see my average but I was in the 12 km/hr range for periods! (that's sometimes my fast interval pace!)

Anyway, so then I cooked up some tacos made with elk meat. I'm not actually a big fan of the elk flavour so spicing them up was a good idea. My no starchy carb thing was sort of broken with 2 hard taco shells. I could have just had taco salad except for some reason I hate it. But if you put the same stuff in a shell it's good. I'm crazy.

I couldn't just be done however, I had a few gummy worms. They're almost gone thank goodness.

I wanted to say about the carb thing. It's definately not like I'm not having any carbs! Didn't you see my food yesterday? It was all fruit! (fruit's all carb!). I just meant, very specifically, no potatoes, no rice, no bread, no cereal, no granola bars etc. Pretty much everythign I have is already whole wheat or something. Not the stupid cereal bars and junk that I've become addicted to lately though. Oh well. Making progress.

I just wanted to focus on the meat and fruits and veggies.

Anyway, after supper, watched a little tv, then learned a couple step tracks. I was right, every other track is going much easier. Except the stretching track. It would be nice if I could just stretch how I wanted to stretch, what I wanted to stretch, but not for my video. Oh well. The other tough thing will be talking while doing crunches. I have to focus to not hold my breath as it is. My voice is gonna get all funny for sure. (It's a Group Step class, the 2nd last track is abs or other strength, and the last track is stretching.)

Anyway, so I ran through a few tracks for like an hour. I thought my legs were sore before?! I love it!

I wrote a big list of things I have to do this week and didn't look at it last night. Thought I'd remember most of it. I was busy all night, then this mornign looked at my list, the things I did had to get done, but weren't even on my list. I can't cross anythign out. Well I could add the thigns I did and then cross them out.

tonight I've got step class (taking not teaching). When I get home I'm gonna see if I know a track well enough that I could practice teach it tonight (my instructor offered) but I'm not sure if I do yet. I think I'm still way too nervous about that. It's alright practicing on the weekends in front of the other instructors who are just learning too, but a real class, might be too tricky. We'll see.

Anyway, it's now lunch time. Gonna go enjoy a salad.

Gonna try a new way of thinking

2009-03-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

My new way of thinking is that I might possibly lose weight at any given time. I don't need to wait for a hard core week of training, or the weather to get nice for running outside, or for the grocery stores to stock more fruit because then I'll all of a sudden eat less. No, it could happen this week.

Today I'm hungry. So far, it's only 11:30, so it's just lunch pang coming early. Morning snack was only baby carrots so that also affects the tummy. Sometimes they make me more hungry, sometimes more full. Gonna wait out 30 minutes and then eat my salad with chicken, plus some berries and some melon. Yum fruit. Grapes can be afternoon snack with yogurts. I packed lots and lots of food today, but all fruit and veggies, well and yogurt. Also have an apple and 2 kiwis in there. So I will not go hungry. But I'm going to try and not just eat because it's there. Though if I do, it's only fruit today. No biggie. I packed like this for a long time, but I've been adding in fibre bars and stuff. And if I've got them, they are the first to get eaten. Not any more.

Part of my thinking is baby time steps. For example, today (aside from breakfast, didn't think of it in time) I'm not going to eat any starchy carbs. No rice, bread, potatoes etc. Just for today. Then maybe on Thursday. I don't have to give them up forever, but lets make a nice consistent day of it. Work my way up to 90% good.

Yesterday went grocery shoppign with my sis. Took a really long time. Oh well. Didn't get home until 7:00, by the time I unpacked it was almost time for weight class! So I just had a quick peanut butter toast. Not great of course. But that was before I came up with my new attitude. Then class was good. Nice and tough. I get annoyed with myself when something's too hard though. I think it should be easier for me. Everything was easy-ish, except squats. But my legs are the only thing that are sore now so that just shows you it has to be hard to be effective. It just made me want to do squats more on my own and build up my strength. But unfortunately right now it doesn't fit in the schedule! Step is priority right now.

After class, walked my dog. That's another thing takes up time. Since it's not nice enough to run with her outside, she gets walks that don't count as my exercise. So sometime she gets robbed of her exercise if mine takes priority. then I feel guilty. Yet another thing to add to my to do list. (the snow will be gone soon right? I can run outside soon?)

Anyway, that's all that happened. Oh yeah, and hubby was over it. We had a bit of a chat, we've been sort of prickly with each other for the last 2 weeks. I'm always ready to get over it (I am DEFINATELY the typical guy in our relationship) whereas hubby needs to be mad for a little while. So we always make up when he's ready and he's just been busy and not ready lately. But he pointed out that he doesn't WANT to be mad at me, especially with all the outside relationship stuff going on. (we found out his cousin is getting a divorce, because her husband cheated on her, they've got 4 year old twins and a 6 month old baby, and he feels no remorse. Poor girl.) So yeah, when there is nothing really the matter, it's best to be happy.

weekend recap

2009-03-02T10:16:00.001-08:00

How dull is that title? very.

So the weekend. What happened? Friday we had the girl's night out (as it is now called). Which only involved an exchange of books/movies/cds. Mostly books. It was cool. I got Outliers and the Sex and the City dvds (yes I'm a SATC virgin, starting season 1 episode 1). I felt like a dork with my books but they were well received. I still haven't tracked down my favorite book (it's called Fall on Your Knees, it was an Oprah book, canadian author) maybe MIL has it. I also decided that maybe it's not my favorite book any more and am excited to get the Count back and read it again.

So there were some snacks there. she put fruit in wine glasses and drizzled a tiny bit of chocolate on top. Very pretty and healthy and yummy. Plus there was like a veggie pizza (cold veggies, with like cream cheese spread? what's that called?) plus mojitos and cosmos and I stuck to cranberry juice and soda. Go me. It's nice to have the driving excuse (I live out of town so I always have to drive). Not that it really matters, nobody cared.

Saturday was pretty mellow. Played with photoshop for some pictures for suprise 30th birthday parties I've got this weekend (2 parties, same day). Watched some curling on tv. Some house cleaning. It seemed like such a waste of a day. Oh well. Went in to the city for Step practice at 3:30. I was totally fine at home practicing, but in the room with the microphone, just not as good. I think I look like an idiot because I'm the only girl who hasn't even learned her 1 track yet. Next week we've got to have 2 ready to go, which I think will be better, because every other track is easier than mine.

Then Sunday was helping my sister move. She and her fiance are moving in together and found a rental place near the river (aka older house). It was unfortunately filthy. When she looked at the place the first time, somebody was home so she couldn't look in the one bedroom (fishy) and it turns out that that was the smoking room or something. It completely reeked of smoke. Smoke stains on the ceiling. All the walls and doors in the whole place were sort of gross. The landlord had very relaxed standards for getting damage deposit back. I think they swept and that's it. So after hauling a bunch of sis's stuff over. She and I got some buckets and soap and floor to ceiling scrubbed. My shoulder's a bit tight from it. It's a lot better already. But she was really nervous at the time like she made a big mistake with this place. But I think all places look bad when there's no furniture or anything in them. You don't realize how walls look (scuff marks, handprints, slightly off touch up paint etc) even in your own house because you don't look at walls, you look at stuff. It's better now. Except that the people living in the basement smoke pot and it makes the entrance stink. But the landlord knows and is trying to kick them out for it.

Anyway, so that was my sunday. Time sort of got away from me and before I knew it is was 7:00 and hubby was calling my cell frantically (which I never answer because it's on vibrate and I don't hear it) because he had to leave for hockey and needed the SUV. Oops. So I race home and he doesn't speak to me just throws his stuff in and leaves. I haven't talked to him since because he got home when I was asleep and was gone while I was getting dressed this morning. Hubby holds a grudge like a woman. (if that offends you then we have nothing in common and you shouldn't be reading this blog). Hopefully he can get over this, I did appologize and didn't know he needed the SUV. But I think he's mostly mad I don't answer my phone (he was calling for like an hour).

Anyway, I'll think about that later.

I need to come up with a schedule for myself and my workouts. Seriously. I've got a 10K race I want to get in shape for (plus running really helps me lose weight), I've got step tracks I have to learn, AND I've got 2 exercise classes I'm paying for. I figure 2 days a week for each (minimum). Maybe 3 for the step for a little while.

Monday - strength class
Tuesday - Step and Run?
Wednesday - step class (not my practicing, just a class I take)
Thursday - Step
Friday - Run
Saturday - Run and Step?
Sunday - Step (we've got organized practice here.)

If any day has to go it will probably be Friday. Hard for me to exercise then for some reason.

I also realized sis's wedding is now in only 3 months. I am probably heavier than new years. Big boo. 10 lbs. definately can be done. Just need to be reminded of it. Need a big renewal thing now. Sort of like a reminder all the time when I'm cooking or packing food or eating. That's where I screw up, candy, too much pb, just too much food. I'm thinking back to when I was successful at the losing thing and I was much more strict. and felt better. I think I'm scared of being hungry right now. Which is ridiculous because when I'm busy (friday was busy work day, sunday was busy moving) I hardly eat at all and am not even hungry. A lot of it is boredom and just being used to eating that much that often. Let's be serious. It always helps when I've got a workout planned because I can stop the snacking after supper that gets me in trouble sometimes. and I used to NEVER eat after supper! Let's go back to that. That and being busy should help.

Sometimes it's nice to be busy

2009-02-27T10:03:00.000-08:00

Like today, being busy is sure chasing away my work boredom.

Last night I did the first 4 tracks of Step twice. My track was sooo much harder than these. Now we've got a practice scheduled tomorrow at 3:30 where we'll each work on our tracks some more. Boo to #8. The other ones are more fun! oh well. I'll eventually teach them all!

Tonight we've got a girl's night club team meeting thing. We're trading favorite books/cds/movies at a girl's house and having appetizers and drinks. Just low key. But still fun. I lost my very favorite book so I'm bringing 2 back-ups. But they're fairly heavy books (not physically). I've got the Count of Monte Cristo which I stole from high school years and years ago. (well nobody had signed it out but me for 15 years!). It's super super super good. But a bit complicated. You have to pay attention, and I had to take notes to keep the characters straight (they change names when they grow up from their given name to their title. confused me). And i'm bringing Gone with the Wind, which is a really big book as well. Both classics, old, long books. I'm sure somebody is going to bring a Shopaholic book. That's a funny trade. (I'm also bringing Spanglish, because it's a good, cute, lighter, chick flick movie that is less intimidating).

Anyway, very busy at work today. Trying to get reports out by the end of the day. Plus somebody else wanted my help to get their report done by the end of the day. That's 3 reports! Too much!

Have a good weekend! It's finally here!

chugging along

2009-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

So I'm just chugging along at life it feels like right now. Sort of in the blahs. I think it's partly because it's -43 degrees outside with the windchill (no I'm not exaggerating! Seems like it though huh?). And partly because the work I'm doing at work, just feels so much like WORK! boo. I'm just dying for the weekend to get here. I hate that. I hate feeling like I'm just killing time during 5/7 of my life.

Oh well, TOM might also be affecting this nasty mood. Big fat boo to that.

In other news, I successfully avoided cookies yesterday. There were none in the house so that helped. I threw them out. I did eat chocolate covered raisins though. I really have to get this food out of my sight. I had a tuna sandwich for supper since hubby was gone. Didn't plan anything. I always over eat when it's like that. No clear end of meal. But then went to step class. It was good. I started with the step high, then had to lower it. I didn't feel as awesome as I think I should have. I was really comfortable with the moves. I think I sort of felt like people were watching me a bit, those who knew I had the training. Sort of had stage fright. When it was done though the girl behind me said "thank goodness you were at class today, I just followed you the whole time" since it's sort of tricky sometimes when the instructor faces you (she's being your mirror image and when she says right leg, she uses her left, to not screw you up, but people don't always know that). So that was nice. Plus the instructor said that once I'm ready I can practice teach a couple of my tracks in her class. Which is pretty cool. I'll maybe aim for 2 weeks from now.

Which means I have to revisit those tracks! Been taking a breather since Sunday. I bought a step yesterday from Superstore (thanks for the heads up Angie!). so tonight I'm gonna do the video. Maybe I'll just do the first 4 tracks twice so I can learn them better. I'm really interested to see if each track is going to be as hard for me or if I really did just get a tricky one on the weekend.

I've got a friend who wants me to be her personal step trainer. While I know that would get really old really fast, she could be a really helpful little guinea pig at first. we'll see.

Going out for lunch at work today. Montana's steakhouse. I'll check online but not sure they'll have nutritional info. Probably stick to some sort of salad or sandwich with salad (no fries is the rule today!)

Lent post

2009-02-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

So today is Ash Wednesday I guess, from the word on the internet. A lot of talk about giving something up for Lent. Interesting stuff.

I would like to point out something. I think most people doing this are just doing it the same as any other "challenge" online, like the BLBE, or the 100 rep challenge or something. Which is totally fine. Giving up sweets or vowing to exercise every day or something. All great stuff.

If you are doing it for "religious" reasons, those don't really count. It's not about getting healthier, it's about "depriving" yourself of something. It should be a sacrifice. While not eating cookies for Lent may feel like a sacrifice and deprivation, I'd be doing it to lose weight, not for a religious experience. Do you see the difference? Giving up something for Lent would be like a child giving up his allowance, or not eating out or not going shopping. (though there could be other reasons for doing each of those as well.)

I am not doing anything special for Lent. My Catholic guilt kicks in when I think of that though, like I should try going to church or something. But instead I'll just try and be a better person all the time or something. ;)

Mother Hugger, I've got a problem...

2009-02-25T07:25:00.001-08:00

My name is Randi and I'm addicted to cookies.

In the last 3 days, I've eaten probably 18 cookies. (3600 calories ish?) These were delicious soft homemade or bakery cookies. Not Oreos or anything. Those are gross. These were amazing.

I have always loved cookies. We used to get a cookie every day when watching Mr. Dress-up. (morning snack, 1 peanut butter cookie).

Cookie was my first word.

I had a brief break from cookies when I went to school. Kindergarden to probably grade 6 or something. The time when you still had to ask Mom if you could have a treat ya know?

Then in high school I remember sneaking cookies. Everyone was watching tv in the living room, I'd go in the kitchen, open the cookie jar and quickly eat 2 cookies. I ate them as fast as I could and never really tasted them probably. But I loved cookies. If everyone was having 1 cookie, I would always take at least 2.

This was never really a chronic problem because we didn't always have homemade cookies. Plus I had 3 siblings and 2 parents who also loved cookies so when somebody did make cookies they'd only last a few days. I think that's part of the reason for the fast and furious eating. Wanted to make sure I got as many as I wanted before somebody else ate them.

Well occassionally that cookie monster (me) will come out again. I rarely make cookies, and try and get rid of them quickly when I do (take them to work). I know that if I'm aware that there are delicious cookies sitting in my kitchen, that's all I'll think about. And I'll give my permission to have some, because cookies are a treat and I love them so much.

But instead of allowing myself 1 cookie, I allow myself 1 day of cookies, knowing I'll get rid of them tomorrow. But what often happens, there's none left tomorrow to get rid of.

This is actually really unhealthy behaviour. Sort of binge eating behaviour isn't it? (when watching Oprah, I never had any of the eating disorder things, there was no "reason" I was overweight aside from too big of serving sizes. But turns out there is a bit of something there...)

As far as I know it's only cookies. They are my trigger. I think I really need to break up with cookies. As in NEVER eat them. And if I do eat them. It's one, because that's the only one in my house, because I got it for a gift, or I made them at somebody else's house and only brought one home. And if I need to make cookies for something (baking exchange etc) I'm making ginger snaps which I don't like. Oh and also, I am never allowed to buy cookies again at a bakery or whatever. Just not an option.

For some reason when it's a cookie it seems so different from a donut. Seems like a "serving" is 3 whereas I'd never eat 3 donuts in a row. Plus, the calories and fat in 1 cookie, really aren't that far off of a donut (well some kinds).

Does anybody else behave like this ever? What are your trigger foods? Is it like an alcoholic and you just can never have it again?

oh to be lazy

2009-02-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

I was so lazy yesterday. It was nice. (I have to tell myself it was nice because I feel sort of guilty).

I left work a few minutes early and went to a PEDICURE! sweet. I booked it knowing my feet could use a little love after the stepping. It was really great. I wish she did more calf massage because they really could use it. My big toes have not been this caulous free since I was a baby. I have always had nasty big toe bumps. Gone now!

So went home a bit late, cooked up some chicken breasts I had marinating (lemon pepper, too peppery though). I also cooked up probably 2+ cups of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and shredded just a bit of cheese on top. It was so good. I had a full plate of that while waiting for the chicken to cook. Yum.

Then for the rest of the night, just sat on the couch, watched oscars, surfed the net, snuggled with my dog. it was nice. I wasn't feeling terrible and could have gone to weight class, (granted it would hurt today! my butt and calves are still sore when I use them) but I got home so late and my nails were still tacky, didn't want to sock and shoe them.

Tonight, hopefully I'm more productive. I've got to get my tire checked, it's definately leaking, but don't know if I need a new tire, or just something else. Have to book this today, hopefully can get in after work. Plus I've got a box of stuff that needs to go to BIL that he forgot with hubby when they went fishing. Also, I'd like to have a little jog tonight, and I have some mailing/tax stuff to do. Not to mention dishes and laundry and house cleaning and all the little things my life revolves around.

Want to workout at home?

2009-02-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

Check this page out for some great at home workouts. No equiptment! I bet they work you harder than an elliptical too.

Group STEP hurt my calves

2009-02-23T08:37:00.001-08:00

oh baby am I sore. I can barely even put my heels down my calves are so tight. yes folks, I had group Step training this weekend.

How did it go down? alright. I didn't go to bed early enough on friday. Hubby was gone ice fishing and it was friday and I got hypnotized by the tv and stayed up until 11:00 or so. Then had to be up at 5:45. That's a LOT less sleep than I'm used to. So pack up a ton of junk and head into town to the gym.

First thing we did was TAKE the actual step class. So a nice 1 hr workout bright and early. Good stuff. Then we did a bunch of talking stuff. Learned about the program, learned about some management stuff, learned about the brand. Blah diddy blah blah. Very basic stuff. Took up a lot of the day. (yes we had lots of lunch and bathroom breaks etc.) We also each were assigned a track that we'd have to learn over night and then teach in the morning. I got the hardest one. Seriously, it was the hardest workout one (last one before abs and stretching), AND it had a pretty complicated move in it. So all the practice time we had during the day I spent trying to learn the moves. Then at home (we had a dvd of the class), I tried to learn the order of the moves. I spent 2.5 hours at least at home, doing the same track over and over and over again. Don't think I got it all the way through once. Boo. I was getting really frustrated so I just went to bed.

First thing the next morning we each taught our tracks. I got a bit screwed up but really not that bad. I got screwed up when trying to tell them what was coming, I'd miss a beat and be off. But the second half was really good. Then we spent the rest of the morning learning what makes a good instructor, how you can get people into class, how you can use your voice and body language to make people know what they're supposed to be doing (mine was a tough track, so put on the serious face, talk a bit louder, drill sergeant like, compared to the warm up. get it?) We also did a tough workout circuit that was just 7 stations with common moves (jog on and off, or double squat, across the top etc) and worked on the specific strong arm movements that go with each (since new instructors suck at arms), but just did one after the other (rotating stations) for a minute each for 30 minutes. it was really really hard. I LOVED IT! I think I was in better shape than a lot of the people so that made me feel good. Everyone was dripping sweat when that was done. That was designed as a workout for instructors to do prior to starting teaching. Supposed to do it every 2 weeks for 3 months on top of learning the routines etc. She was really cool about telling us how in shape we had to be. Not skinny or do the hardest options for each moves the whole time. Just had to be able to get through the whole thing and be able to talk the whole time and probably do the hard options 80% of the time. Plus the way she made it sound, just practicing the routines and throwing that workout in periodically would be enough to get us in shape. Easy peasy.

So after we had a break after that workout, then we had to teach one last time. This time, focusing on the attitude and connection we make. So we had to say at least one person's name, say something personal (I love these ones, these kill my legs etc etc), and give some kind of motivation (we're halfway, just 4 more hard ones etc etc). Plus we had to keep in mind the "spirit" of our track. So I shouldn't be all smiley and skippy for mine, and the warm up person shouldn't be like "now go go go go!!!" etc. Which is fine, I can do that part fine. But then my routine went to heck. I missed the transition and couldn't figure out another move to get us to the other side, so we did the whole track on the right. Oops. But she said she didn't care a bit about the steps and routine and we could just make them to marches the whole time as long as we did the other things.

So I felt totally stupid at the end since my track was last, that was the last thing we did, and I totally messed it up. Oh well. I still think I'll be a good instructor. But the same as when I taught labs at school, I do much much better when I fully prepare. I knew I wasn't prepared saturday night when I went to bed, but I did all I could. A couple weeks of practice and I'll be fine.

So instructing ended at 1:00. I had a really low tire so went to walmart to buy a tire gauge and fill it up, plus bought a whole schwak of junk food. Bought cookie dough, peanut butter cups, chocolate covered raisins, gummy worms. Then went home, sat on the couch and ate and watched tv. That was my lunch and supper. and it was great. I worked out a TON over the weekend, plus I was feeling very raw and emotional and tired and just done. So it was needed. Plus it had a nice side effect. Like on old tv shows where the dad catches the kid smoking so makes him smoke a whole pack in one sitting. I ODed on candy and junk. I was craving water and fruit. I ate as much junk as I wanted, no restrictions. And I ate far less than I thought I would. Far less than I probably would have if I felt guilty about each bite. Strange. but nice. (only problem is now I've got all this junk food at home I have to get out of site so I don't just mindlessly eat!)

So what happens with the instructor thing now is we've got to learn the routines, practice practice practice. Probably with the other instructors at my gym. Once we're all set, then we have a launch when the class is first offered and put on the schedule. So that probably won't be until April. So we'll have all March to get ourselves ready. As far as certification, in the next 3 months, we have to tape a video of us teaching the class and send it in. They then approve or disapprove us. I think as long as I can get through the class teaching I won't have a problem. They mostly have issues with safety things, like not stepping in the correct spot, not showing options etc. I was fine with all that, just didn't know what I was teaching!

Anyway, today I have a pedicure scheduled. Take care of my banged up feet. Hopefully a decent calf massage too. They are so sore! My butt too. Feels good though. I thought it would be worse actually, the way I felt yesterday. This just feels like the first time I took a weight class after a summer off or something. So not PAIN, just SORE. I'm not sure if I'm going to go to my weight class tonight though. We'll see how I feel when it's time. No pressure this week.

Anyway, that was my weekend. Didn't feel like a weekend. Now I'm back at work. boo. I think this week is gonna suck.

Oh, by the way, I'm in love with hugh jackman and absolutely loved the razzle dazzle oscars. you?

2009-02-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

I watched the Last 10lb bootcamp last night. It had a guy on it. Interesting. Hubby said, "he's not even that big or anything" but I explained, yeah "last 10 lbs" right? I think hubby was comparing to himself and his friends, who are all bigger. that must not feel nice to the old ego. But this dude did obviously have a beer belly to lose. Anyway, it showed the food he should try and eat every day. SO LITTLE! And this is a dude! Definately less than what I eat. Interesting. I don't remember what the calories were though. But all his meals and snacks were tiny. Poor guy. AND full of veggies, like lentil soup and wilted spinach. Guys don't eat like that do they? ;) Heck, I can't eat like that!

Just interesting to me. I know I eat relatively lots. But I don't really want to change that, if my metabolism is keeping me steady with all this i'll take it. Well as in I'll cut down a little, to lose weight, but not to that sort of degree!

Speaking of, my WI this morning, 145.4. that's an exact STS. I thought it was a loss. oh well. I told myself as I stepped on the scale "there are changes happening, you're happy with how you look, this number won't change that." And it didn't. Except I wish it was a loss. oh well.

Yeah, so I'm feeling better about my belly now. Posture makes a big difference, and posture improves with core work. So now when I walk my dog I brace my abs like I'm about to get punched. It's different from just having abs "engaged", this actually hurts after a few minutes. Not sure if it's really that, but it makes me feel like I'm working so I'm keeping it up. Also, ran on the treadmill again last night. Should have put better socks on and my blister coating stuff. I got a painful blister on the arch of my foot. Horrible place to get a blister, but that's where I get them now. Hopefully it won't still be affecting me tomorrow during Step! But I did different sort of intervals. Milder ones, using small inclines, and just ran a longer time. Finally running is feeling easier, and I don't feel out of shape doing easy speeds. But the endurance isn't really back yet. I ran just about 4 miles in just over 30 minutes. Pretty pleased with that. Needed one walking break as the treadmill was moving and I had to put it back, plus that's when my blister showed up. I should have stopped and changed socks or just stopped all together right then, but I was stubborn and went through it. Oh well, I iced it before bed and it doesn't hurt now (granted I'm sitting...).

So that was the good.

The bad is my eats. I over ate my trailmix yesterday. I wasn't hungry for supper so I cooked hubby some souvlaki but was going to just have some eggs myself (actually at first wasn't going to eat right away, but my mind kicked in and said supper time). so scrambled up some eggs with my leftover veggies from supper yesterday. Then I shredded too much cheese into it, and had it with some fancy mashed potatoes I thawed out (as in with creamcheese, they're delicious). So my "light" supper wasn't so great. THEN I had 2 handfulls of chocolate covered raisins, and about 3 gummy worms (stupid hubby packing for his fishing trip, he was in charge of snacks). But thankfully I stopped myself and had half a diet coke since I knew I just needed yummy tastes.

Tonight I've got tons to do, might try and leave work early. But I also have to finish something for work today. I've got to pick up my luggage from the repair shop (new zipper), buy some fruit since I'm out (packed CANNED for lunch) and will definately need it tomorrow, and I've got an eyebrow wax at 5:45. Combine that with getting off work at 4:45 and needing a half hour drive to get home for the waxing, pretty tight. oh, and grocery store and luggage place aren't near each other at all. Yep, gotta go early.

Tonight I'm planning on going to bed early, not working out. Packing food for tomorrow, maybe watching Lost. Step training class starts at 7:00 am tomorrow, again need that half hour drive, PLUS they're really sticky about being on time I hear. ew. Oh yeah, class will go form 7:00am to 6:00pm without stopping for lunch. I sure hope there are little 10 minute breaks for water and bathroom!

And ACTION

2009-02-19T07:55:00.001-08:00

So yesterday was great. good good day. Granted I ate every morsel of food I packed myself for lunch, but then I packed it to eat so that's not bad. Today I cannot do the same thing. I restocked my emergency foods (aka baggie of almonds, craisins and dried fruit, YUM)

Supper yesterday was a salmon filet in dill sauce (captain highliner, needed some instant food since I didn't thaw anything, but it was healthy, only 129 calories or something). Sweet potato fries (sprayed with cooking spray and that's all), steamed frozen cauliflower and broccoli, and green peas. It was a plate FULL, but it was sooo much veggies it didn't matter. Dessert was a glass of milk. Go me!

Then I did a TT workout involving planks, lunges, push-ups etc. THEN I ran on the treadmill for 15 minutes of intervals. THEN I took the dog for a 15 minute walk. super successful exercise and eating day. Watched a little Jon and Kate Plus 8, read a little Women's Health. Bed.

Let's hope for a repeat today!

Hubby's going ice fishing this weekend, so if he has any interest in spending time with me I'll take it since I won't see him for a few days. Not likely because he's got a late hockey game and then is leaving at like 6:00am tomorrow so he'll want to nap. In which case, I hit the treadmill!

So little to say for today. Just hoping to make it another good one. I downloaded a bunch of comedy cds over night so I'm gonna have entertainment while I work, so how could that not be a good day right?

I can't believe the time

2009-02-18T07:19:00.000-08:00

As in the time of year, as in, second half of February already. I was supposed to be down 10 lbs right away...

This weekend already is the Step training. I was supposed to look like a step teacher by now...

I'm still way up from Christmas. Haven't lost ANYTHING since then. It's simple math right? I'm not in calorie deficit. I don't feel like I'm eating significantly different from when I was 8 lbs lighter. Where is it coming from?

1. I think my lunches have gradually become bigger and bigger. Not that I try and eat processed foods, but if I did, a granola bar alone would be a morning snack. Now I need a granola bar and 1 cup of grapes. And the granola bars are higher calorie currently because they're oatmeal to go bars (200 calories) to try and get the extra fibre, or some sort of protein bar. In trying to eat for fuel and up the protein and fibre, and avoid just junk (100 calorie packs) I'm also eating more calories. I think the aim is right, but I shouldn't be making changes by choosing other processed foods with extra benefits. How about a dish of carrots and a hard boiled egg? More benefits, fewer calories.

2. Suppers haven't been awesome. I froze a pile of good stuff and when I remember to make a real meal it's good. But I often don't, and then eat "desserts" of bananas, muffins, candies or whatever.

3. Breakfasts. I think I'm enjoying my cereals too much. Buying "good" cereals that I want to over eat. When it was rasin bran, I couldn't eat too much of it. I also used to eat more fruit with breakfast and more smoothies.

I'm gonna say something that some people will disagree with now. I don't want a lifestyle change. I have a good lifestyle now. I try to avoid processed foods and preservatives in most things, (hello, homemade bagels!), I eat tons of fruits and veggies, whole grains. "bad" treats are rare (chips, cookies etc). Obviously I'm not perfect, but I think the way I'm eating is a good life long habit.

I want a diet.

I want to do a calorie restriction for a short period of time, then go back to my lifestyle. I don't think that's bad. I do think it's bad to be in a calorie deficit for years. Messes you up. I do think it's bad to be on some extreme diet or fad diet. I don't mean that. I think it's ok to deprive yourself of treats and eat different foods that you won't do long term. I only have 10 lbs to lose, that can be done in a couple months if I diet to do it. My lifestyle is fine, it's healthy. It's not making me lose weight (not making me gain either).

So that's my new attitude. I'm going to do the rest of february strictly and see what happens. Plan my splurges and treats again. I'm in maintenance mode now, but I don't want to maintain. So that's the plan.

In other news...

Went to a Mary Kay party with my sister last night. Ugh. I have no brand loyalty. I don't always agree with what they say (especially about mineral powder last night, but I bit my tongue). Oh, the big one was about moisturizing. I had "normal" skin, and she told me to not moisturize on my forehead and nose because without the special "oily skin moisturizer" then it would make me shiny and oily in the t-zone. Ok makes sense. Except that my forehead and nose felt really tight and dry with nothing on them. And I believe that's why I get oily, because I actually have dry skin. So to try and moisturize itself, my face produces oil. Like overwashing will dry my skin out and then give me breakouts. It makes perfect sense to me. But she didn't want me to put anything on my nose or forehead. wrong.

Anyway, it wasn't all bad. She had some nice techniques for putting on color that were different and gave a different look. We played with some fun colors and looked way beautiful when we left.

Gotta do some shopping after work today. We're out of shampoo. weird. I also want to buy some caulking for around the sinks. Plus used up the brown sugar and sandwich bags on the weekend. odds and ends. Then hitting the treadmill for a good one AND some heavy weights. When I was losing weight, I was hitting the heavy weights. Go with what works.

Also gonna try and plan some stuff for the weekend. My training saturday starts at 7:30 am and goes STRAIGHT until 6:00. No lunch break. we're supposed to bring food and snacks. (how am I going to go to the bathroom once and hour like I do at work?) So I gotta figure out what kind of food I can bring that will pull me through a whole day with no fridge or microwave. Maybe I gotta make something, go shopping etc. Ideas?

An extra day makes all the difference

2009-02-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

I love long weekends. yay!

So friday hubby and I celebrated v-day. We watched Wanted at home (Angelina Jolie, assassin movie.) It was so-so. I bought myself yellow tulips. V-day is very silly I think. Hubby got off so easy.

Saturday hubby had to work. I had errands. I mailed a thank-you to my boss for the trip to Calgary. Went to his work to check out bathroom things (toilet, sink, etc etc). Then went into the city to get my hair cut (just a trim, but I loved it anyway, hair dressers just know how to do good hair. It's back to looking boring when I do it). Dropped off a suitcase to get the zipper fixed. Then went to my brother's to watch Lost together. I got a bagel at Timmy's for lunch and bought donuts for hubby's work. Brothers and I had one first though. Ok, I had 2. Donuts are my kryptonite, I should know better.

Then went to Walmart and grocery store with bro. Just grabbed a few things. Then back to hubby's work to look at more stuff and drop off donuts. Then we went out for a romantic supper at the bar (sarcasm?). I had chicken quasadillas that came with fries. Too much greasy food. bad bad bad. Saturday night I don't even remember what we did. Just watch tv and clean house I think.

Sunday I made homemade bagels. How cool is that? They're a bit lumpy and weird looking, but taste good. But since I'm not a big fan of all those carbs at once. I think I'm going to cut them up and make bagel chips out of them. I just love the homemadeness. I also made 2 different batches of low fat super healthy banana muffins (diff recipes). Like with egg whites, whole wheat flour, double the bananas, splenda and applesauce. They dont' get healthier. And these were still good tasting!

ALSO made puffed wheat squares. Just wanted to get rid of that big bag of puffed wheat. But they came in handy when we went to friend's house for supper, brought those for dessert. Then the guys went to hockey and me and the wife just hung out with the dogs. Watched tv. She's the friend that sometimes is super annoying and very messed up (drinking too much to deal with her parents divorce, throws tantrums like a child, very very jealous of her husband doing anything, does the whole binge then crazy diet thing, just messed up in many ways, then doesn't really listen to advice and help). I probably wouldn't hang out with her too much except that her hubby is one of my hubby's closest friends.

So I'd already had a very productive weekend, but it just didn't feel like enough. the house was still a disaster, I hadn't worked out, hadn't done any real different or interesting things (well the bagels were good). but I had another day!!!

So monday I cleaned my house top to bottom, really really cleaned the kitchen. Hands and knees scrubbing baseboards etc. Lots of laundry. vaccumming. Strange odds and ends, put more garage sale stuff outside, put the ladder away, moved the barbeque. Plus I ran on the treadmill and did a yoga video. Made some homemade veggie soup and cooked up tons of chicken breast and froze a bunch pre sliced for salads etc. Then after supper I was gonna try the 30 day shred. I got about halfway through the first level thing then hubby needed help in the basement. Boo. For the rest of the night we hashed out exactly what the plan would be for the basement (which I thought we should do months ago before he built ANYTHING, and we could have it all on paper with proper dimensions, but he doesn't work that way. So he had to rip a wall down and move it over and all kinds of running up and down stairs to see how wide hallways should be and how big toilets are and stuff.) I think I'm pretty happy with the final plan. I get an extra hall closet out of the deal now. But did that basically until bedtime.

Oh, forgot to mention that I thawed a bunch of stuff out of the freezer as it was too full, including a tub of cookies for hubby to take to work. But I ate them ALL yesterday. again, I should have known better. At least the puffed wheat is gone to his work.

Lunch today is a nice detox. Everything is a fruit or veggie or yogurt or chicken slices. I had one banana muffin. Going to sis's house for supper and then a Mary Kay party thing. I like those things alright, but I just wish there wasn't the pressure to buy. Like tupperware parties, if I need something I'll get it then, but instead I find some cheap thing I don't really need just so I get something. boo.

Don't you guys love money?

2009-02-13T07:47:00.001-08:00

I adore tax time and thinking retirement savings and RRSPs and compound interest. I'm a big nerd in case you guys still haven't figured that out. Of course all of this is only fun and wonderful if you've planned ahead and done good things with your money. (yes I still love RRSPs even though the bottom fell out for most people lately, we had so little in there that it didn't set us back very far. Plus we have a big big pile of money that's eventually going to be invested in RRSPs but we haven't done it yet, because it's also our basement building fund. So thank goodness the basement wasn't finished last year because we'd have lost so much of it, but the way things worked out, we had it earning 3% interest (still not great of course, but better than -30%!)

My parents do taxes and financial planning for farmers. Dad has his own business. They raised me to just think certain things are stupid and really unthinkable. (not paying cash for furniture or electronics or something? STUPID! Don't care if there's no interest for 6 months or something. They bump up the price then! Buying a new vehicle? Why not just flush dollar bills down the toilet?) So I was raised like that, just having smart money sense as an instinct. Then I go and become a grown-up and realize, the majority of people, do NOT see this as the default. In fact that's why my parents taught us this! Growing up I'd just hear them complaining about how stupid some client was by doing whatever. So obviously tons of people do these stupid things! (in fact, probably most of you! so I do appologize for calling you stupid...)

I know I'm very lucky and I make good money. I have no student loans thanks to my parents (they paid for my undergrad tuition, let us have their hand-me down vehicle, and bought a condo for us kids to live in at minimal rent. My summer job paid for my books, groceries, clothes, gas etc.). We were lucky enough to buy our house a few years ago (well lucky or advised by our finacial advisor to not wait) when things were still inexpensive, where I live, real estate pricing has doubled in the last 2 years. So I know some things were just stacked in my favour to begin with. But I think that part of this was our own making (we had to be able to afford the house in the right timing, I was smart enough to get through school to find a good paying job etc etc).

Anyway, I've realized it's all about how you were raised. I was super lucky to have my parents be so smart at money. BIL to be (sis's fiance) was raised by a women who is a complete idiot when it comes to money. his dad died, leaving them insurance money I'm sure which is all gone now. His mom retired last year but is going to have to go back to work because she's blowing all her money already. Poor sis is guaranteed to have to look after her when she's older because she wont' be able to support herself (and is the kind of person who expects people to look after her...)

Hubby's parents did instill a wonderful work ethic in hubby, and he knows the value of a hard earned dollar. But they also are the kind of people who are bailing their daughters out all the time, loaning them money free and clean, pay back when you can (we took out an official loan from my parents when we bought our car, paid them the same interest we would have paid a bank, but they were more flexible about paying it off faster if we wanted etc). They have no plans to retire, probably work until they physically can't any more. Heck, they're late 50s and are still paying off debts, let alone saving for retirement!

My dad had a plan to retire early (which with the market fall out is no longer happening, but you can't forsee this coming 10 years in advance! well maybe somebody could...). He also had savings for the kids education, set up so each kid would get the equivalent of 4 years university tuition (taking into account rising tuition, inflation etc). I feel really lucky that any stupid little question I have about money, they'll explain it to me. (sometimes I still feel dumb about things other people know though, like last night, I asked them about mortgages and pay cheques and bank account balances, like percentages and what to keep it at, but they don't have regular pay cheques, self employeed, and they live in a small town where you pay cash for your house, no mortage. hm.)

Just today I opened up my tax free savings account, invested the full $5000. (not that I have that kind of money hanging around, we're basically paycheque to paycheque, but that's by design, we save or invest what's left. I moved the money from our basement fund, we'll still get the same interest, but tax free.) I also upped the amount deducted from my paycheque each month. They don't take it right off to an RRSP (small company, it's the boss's wife who rights the cheques.) but I have them take off $500 extra each month for taxes. I know it's not the best way to do things, because the government is getting money for 12 months that I could invest and make interest on, but since hubby is much more nervous about money and doesn't want to put too much away where we can't touch it (he has no retirement plans, think of his parents. I want to retire at 50!) and since early in our marriage I made the mistake of letting him pay the bills and deal with the day to day of the accounts (always make the saver in charge of this! not the spender!) this is the only thing I really have control over (my pay cheque). So this way, I'm guaranteed a huge refund come tax time, and we can put some of that into short term savings (baby fund, etc) and then buy RRSPs with the rest.

I'm sure everyone knows all about compound interest and so on, but I just want to remind you guys how important it is to start young. I don't remember the exact numbers, but if you start putting away like $1000 a year when you're 18, but stop when you're 30 (12 years), you'll have more money (assuming the same interest rate) when you're 65 than somebody who starts when they're 30 and puts in $1000 every year until 65 (35 years!). It's crazy. I think it's definately worth it to live poor for a few years and start saving when you're young (and probably used to living poor if you were a student or anything). It's really really hard to go back to living on less. I say just about impossible.

Hm, strange post. But I do love me some money talk! I think it's really interesting and exciting. Basically everyone makes enough to be rich. If you've ever bought yourself a coffee a timmy's or starbucks you have enough to invest to be rich. Not saying you shouldn't treat yourself to a coffee, but realize you're setting that as a priority over being rich. (straight out of my book I'm reading, Automatic Millionaire). Like if you spend $5 every day eating out or on smokes or fancy lattes or something, you could basically be costing yourself a million dollars. no joke.

Anyway, long weekend here this weekend! Sask gets a family day monday. so woohoo! We have no v-day plans. hubby has to work. I told him we have to watch a movie together this weekend. Sit down with popcorn and hold hands. that's the whole extent of it. we might do it tonight instead or tomorrow.

I've also got big plans of a huge chore list. Things like cleaning out the tupperware cupboard, washing the shower curtain, getting a hair cut, taking a suitcase in to get the zipper fixed, picking out toilets and shower stalls for the basement. Big plans.

Oh, and it's friday, so WI, 145.4. Down from 2 weeks ago. I didn't weigh last week we were off on holiday. actually I did weigh, I just didn't write it down, don't think I liked the number. But that means I had a good loss this week and it included the holiday last weekend so that's good.

I treadmilled last night. Just a 20 minute interval workout. Faster intervals. But the dog was being so cute and trying to get on the treadmill with me I cut 'er short and took her outside for a walk. And then a run. It was cold and icy, but I had good tunes in my ears and just felt like running a bit. I forgot how much nicer it was to run outside. Excited for it to warm up.

oh oh oh oh oh oooooooh

2009-02-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's thursday. That's what I get for having a social life I guess. That and a tv. Don't get anything done between the two of them.

So yesterday I went to the gym again to workout. This time I brought my little brother. We did this crazy stepper machine that's more like an elliptical, but with ridiculous incline. I liked it. I worked (compared to an elliptical, my HR actually went up!). I did 15 minutes. Ugh. But we wanted to do some weight things (what's the point in having a partner if you're not going to use him as a human shield to not be nervous in the weight area?) So we hit the weight floor. And mostly wandered around again. (I didn't have a chance to look a workout to do from my New Rules of Lifting for Women yet). My brother recently lost a ton of weight, just from having to cook for himself and buy his own groceries (when he moved away from home). I think now he wants to build some muscle. But he has no experience with that at all. He was the heavy kid all through school so never really into sports or anything. More the video game nerd. So he doesn't know stuff the way I know stuff (though he was very helpful at computer problems.)

So I tried to explain how the free weight things were better than machines. Yet I was too chicken to go do squats or anything. Did leg presses instead. And even though he's a guy, my bro couldn't really do much heavier weights than me. I'm not sure if he felt bad about that or not. I AM crazy strong as we all know. ;) We did some cable exercises. Not too much. I had a deadline.

Unfortunately the lunch I packed wasn't enough and I ate my sandwich in the afternoon. So I needed another supper option. Sis made perogies and smokies. I had like 4 perogies with low fat sour cream, and like a 3" sausage. And corn. Much bigger than a pb sandwich. But probably not a terrible meal.

I ate less at the little party than planned I think. Only a few veggies and hummus, a bit of goat cheese and crackers. But I did have a brownie. It was really good. I'm glad I had it, even though it wasn't in the plan. Some things are just worth it.

anyway, the ladies group got ironed out a bit. We might be calling it a "team" instead. My sister wanted to know who's idea the whole thing was, and on the drive over she asked "so who's the team captain?". I love the team name. Then I can just say I'm going to a "team meeting". Very discreet but cool sounding. Not instantly associated with a knitting bee or anything like "ladies group" is.

My month is July, we decided that whoever's the host for the month, plans the activities. It could be pole dancing or video games or baking cookies. Anything you want. My sister's going to do a wine tasting in March. Not sure what I'm going to do yet. It's friday night (usually, unless it doesn't work out for somebody's activity). I originally thought I'd teach Step and comp everyone into the gym or something. But the end of July seems like it should be a more summery thing. I have time to think on it still.

That's about it! Tonight I feel like I have catching up to do. Housework, mailing a thank you card, downloading the new episode of Lost (catching up on the last week one!). A treadmill interval workout. I also have to pay for my step training still (nobody was there yesterday to take my cheque!). I just emailed the girl about some questions about teaching another class as well. Not sure if I can really handle all this, especially since I'm planning on getting myself knocked up in the semi-near future! ;)

Oh, and lunch today is also not going to be as planned. I forgot my dad was in town and going to take me out for lunch. Yay! I'll avoid the fries and greasy sandwiches and try and stick to a salad or something light like that.

deviating from the plan

2009-02-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

Well if I can't remember to thaw out food the night before, then supper will never be what I set out in my weekly plan! grr! Last night I forgot to thaw out some chicken, and hubby was home before me and made cream of celery soup (just a can). So that was supper, with a bun and a banana. Not too bad. But not the plan. I remembered to thaw something today, but I won't be home to eat it, (yes that's part of the plan). Hubby's having elk smokies. I'm having a pb&j sandwich.

Went to the gym yesterday for the first time (my new gym). It was nice, but I felt a bit lost. I'd like a workout buddy. I sort of wandered a bit. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill (each cardio machine has a tv you can hook up your earphones to, plus they have virtual trainers and can make you do any number of different workouts like intervals, or races or whatever. Plus you can plug in a USB drive to save your data. Just seems fun, but overwhelming). 10 minutes on the elliptical (I had the wrong shoes for running and could feel a blister coming so had to switch). Then tried to use the weights. I don't really like weight machines, but wasn't feeling confident enough to do much at the free weights. I did some leg presses and assisted chinups, then did some arm exercises at the free weights. I think I need to come in with a plan.

Luckily I have tons of plans at home that I really think are good. I've got the New Rules of Lifting for Women that I still haven't done, plus I've got months and months of Turbulence Training workouts.

So what's new today... my sister found herself and new rental place for her and her fiance to move in together. Exciting. It's near my friend's house who is hosting our first "ladies group" meeting so we'll drive by it tonight. AFter workout I'm hitting the gym again, then going to my sister's to eat my sandwich and give her her shoes. Then going to the ladies group. (anybody have a different name for it, I hate that one. It's not really a splurge group or anything since we're not spending money, just getting together for different things. A book club without books.) Since all I've got is a sandwich for supper, I'm going to plan to eat a bit at the meeting. She said veggies and hummus so I'm counting on that!

Stupid TV is preventing me from getting as much done as I used to in the evenings. I watched a Baby Story, Ellen and Project Runway Canada last night. Normally I don't even get these shows. I've got my PVR taping like 4 hours a day. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon and I save these up for weekends. I'd like to just have some of these shows on while I clean house or scrapbook. They're shows you don't necessarily need to sit and watch and pay attention to. Plus I have to figure out what shows I even like and when the new episodes are on and stuff. I taped Biggest Loser so I'm excited to watch that for the first time EVER since it's so popular on here.

Anyway, salad time. I remembered dressing today! (yesterday I had a can of pears in light syrup in my desk drawer and put some of that - not all the liquid! - on my salad and it was awesome.)

that cereal...

2009-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

That cereal is called President's Choice On Track Plus Protein I believe. The word PROTEIN is hugely prominant. I think the taste was really good too. It's like corn flakes, rice krispies, cheerios or something all mixed together, many different little flakes and textures. yum.

I love President's Choice

2009-02-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

I went to buy groceries yesterday. President's Choice is now pushing the healthy. woohoo! (I already loved it because of the cheaposity, plus it was pretty good at making "trendy" type food. Good knockoffs I guess I mean). So I bought some new cereal. Cereal with like 15 g of PROTEIN! No need to shell out for Kashi anymore! I also bought a bunch of fruit. Including kiwi's. I heard they were among the healthiest foods ever. As much fibre in one small kiwi as a large apple, more vitamin C than an orange, more potassium than a banana. All sorts of awesome things. Also got a big tub of spring mix salad. I hope it's good because I used it to pack a salad for lunch (along with some sliced strawberries, and sliced turkey sandwich meat) and forgot the dressing!

I even got random things like a can of beans in tomato sauce, but it's soybeans! good times.

Had myself a salad for supper and a bun and a banana. I'm not sticking perfect to my plan apparently. I'm ok with switching out one fruit for another because I didn't know what I was going to buy at groceries. but I'm going to try and do well with the rest.

Intervals on the treadmill yesterday, did the full 30 minutes. When I'm running outside, I don't care if it's 20 minutes or 30 minutes, it feels the same. But on the treadmill when you're staring at that number, it just feels like failure if I don't go at least 30. Then hubby wasn't ready for me to help him so I didn't do that chore like I'd planned. oh well, a little behind schedule.

Tonight I'm hoping to get to the gym. I don't really know if I have to pay, or if I have a membership yet (I get a free one when I start teaching, probably March). I emailed and asked so we'll see.

I also got an offer to take the training for teaching the power class (weight lifting sculpt class). I sort of want to. But I'm not sure how it would work with this job. Would they pay for half the training? Would I be guaranteed to be able to teach it enough hours to pay for itself? Do I want to teach so many hours? I'm hoping the girl I "interviewed" with will be at the gym tonight so I can talk to her about it. She seemed really nice and down to earth about things.

You know the Spring shoes everyone bought last week? I bought 10 pair (between my sis and I). well the first couple got delivered yesterday. They're sending them individually! doesn't that seem silly? It was free shipping for me, but it's gotta make more sense for them to send 1 big package than 10 little ones! weird.

Anyway, realized I've got a pile of work to do with actual deadlines so gotta get organized and get at it!

new plan

2009-02-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

for this week.

Monday
food - cereal breakfast, no CTC (cinnamon toast crunch!), lunch - pita afternoon snack - banana, carrots and snap peas. Yogurt if needed. supper - not decided. maybe I'll have the salad I packed for lunch (girlfriend called for lunch)

workout - treadmill. Just 20 minutes hard intervals.

chores - groceries, help hubby organize the basement and plan walls. Laundry

Tuesday
food - cereal breakfast (NO CTC!), lunch - salad, grapes. snack - yogurts, grapes, apple, carrots. supper - chicken breast and veggies. no carb.

workout - go to the gym! take a class? Spin? check schedule

chores - pay "tuition" for step teaching. Decide if I'm doing Sculpt teaching as well. more laundry.

Wednesday
food - breakfast smoothie. lunch - leftover chicken. apple. snack - yogurt, fruit and veggies. supper - packed sandwich. evening snack - minimal crackers and cheese. veggies and hummus x lots. no brownie. (at a girlfriend's house, I know the menu).

workout - gym workout. class if schedule provides.

chores - go to girl's meeting. Organize a "splurge club" or "ladies group" with friends for the year.

Thursday
food - breakfast cereal. Lunch - salad. grapes. snack - yogurt, veggies. supper - kabobs. frozen veggies.

workout - 30 minutes treadmill intervals.

chores - kitchen and living room cleaning while watching tv?

Friday
food - breakfast toast. Lunch - leftovers. apple. snack - yogurt, veggies, grapes. supper - undetermined.

workout - try the gym.

chores - laundry, wash bathroom shower curtain. probably veg in front of tv.

Weekend - chores. send off thesis. Send off EIT stuff. Send off insurance forms. Book hair appointment, facial, massage, physio etc. Vacuum, general house cleaning.

I think that's all I've got for now.

A big update

2009-02-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

Such a busy long weekend for me to recap! Get ready for a long one!

Thursday night my brothers came over and helped adjust the satellite dish. And yes folks, we got tv. Hurray! So didn't do the cleaning and packing, until 9:00 when they left. Too busy playing with the PVR! And watching shows I didn't have access to! Like 30 Rock. It IS funny! I had no idea.

Anyway, so hubby still didn't let me know what he anticipated for the weekend. So I tried not to overpack. And I succeeded. I underpacked. Oh well. I can wear the same thing 2 days in a row. House got completly cleaned too. Our plane didn't leave until noon on friday. So friday mornign was changing linens and one last clean and pack.

Got a friend to drop us off at the airport. Waiting for a plane (especially before a trip) always feels soooo long. Plus with the whole liquids thing I get freaked out and extra extra thirsty but feel like I can't get anything since I can't bring it through security (and I'm too dumb to realize I can buy something on the other side). I have mini panic attacks about the thirsty thing. Dumb.

Anyway, the flight was nice and short, just an hour. Then we took a cab downtown to our hotel ($36, not too bad) and got to check in early. We just hung out in the room for 2 hours before our massage. Hubby is like that, just wants to wait and flip channels. BORING. but I dealt with it. read some magazines. explored the hotel without him. I should have brought my laptop, they did have a business center with computers and internet that we could use for free, but I still felt naked without google. How was I supposed to find anything?! I didn't even write down what airline our flights were on, because it was in my email. I either need to bring my laptop from now on, or get a blackberry or iTouch. I'm so dependant.

So massage was good. It was my girl's first day at the spa (she'd done it before, but just new there) and I think was nervous in front of the other girl. So her bedside manner and pre-massage stuff was a little weird, but once we got into it it was fine. Hubby had a sore back they were trying to workout, I just relaxed. the best part was the face massage. It was more like just a couple pressure points, but it worked so well. Who knew how tense your eyebrows are?

Anyway, so we got showered and changed after and went to the Keg to use our gift certificate (present from SIL for all the work we did at her wedding). So we had goat cheese appetizer, and I had a big margarita (we were walking) and then the steaks. very good. Even better because it was free!

So on our walk back we stopped at a Mac's and picked up some snacks for breakfast and the room and just went back and didn't really do much. I don't even remember a discussion about are we going to go out or what.

Saturday morning I got up early and just watched tv. A lot of house flip shows. Good stuff. Gave us ideas (we could SO do that, if only we knew what the housing market was going to be like. We're in a very strange place right here, house prices were shooting up, then the US housing problems came and everyone here felt like, well shouldn't we be having a problem too? but prices still are going up...) Anyway, figured out the c-train thing and headed to the game early (hubby wanted to see everything).

That was really fun. I dont' like hockey, and Calgary sucked. but the doing new things and eating hotdogs and nachos for $20 and seeing all the jerseys and little kids be excited. it was like going to the fair. The last 5 minutes of the game were exciting since we were only down 1. We got to see 2 fights (which I hated, I think it's so stupid), realized we knew one of the players (sorta, through a friend) and had lots of chances to win stuff (they were giving away player's jerseys that day). It was cool. Plus I took lots of pictures.

Then on the way home we stopped at a mall (TD center or something) and just wandered around a bit. Bought some books. I got a really good one and I'm going to be a millionaire because of it (and the book was only $7). Automatic Millionaire (by the guy who wrote Smart Women Finish Rich and all those books). I just have to convince hubby to let me be in charge of our money, not him. If only I could get him to read...

I think that's all the shopping we did there. We were feeling fairly low class to be at this mall. Everyone was walking around in suits and pencil skirts and stuff.

That's when everything broke bad. Hubby and I had a big fight. It was coming for awhile. Started about where to eat. He wanted chinese and then basically made me figure it out (which is what it felt like at least), I didn't really care where we ate so we just set out walking somewhere and then somehow everything was bad and I was crying on the street and he was mad because I wanted everythign planned and he liked to just not do anything (I kept asking, so what are we going to do tonight and he didn't say anything, because he didn't want to do anything. Which would be ok, but I wanted him to say, "stay in the room and veg" because then I could plan accordingly.) Anyway, we had our big fight but we out in the streets downtown and I didn't bring my room key so I had to stick with him anyway. So once we were into the silent treatment aftermath part of our fight, we found the Spaghetti Factory and ate there. I completely lost my appetite though so I had the side salad and then 1 bite of my lasagna. (good thing we had a fridge in the room). It was a very awkward supper. I texted through it, (we had issues with our puppysitters, they all fell through so we had to arrange to have new ones and substitute ones and part times ones, ugh).

We did make up and I think somethings are worked out that needed to be. (we were also fighting about the basement how I don't like anything he does etc.) all our fights were topics of course, and the issue was communication. We need to talk more BEFORE things happen so we can be on the same page for them. If I knew he wanted to hang out in the room all weekend I wouldn't be upset when that's what we did and he wouldn't be upset because I kept asking him what the plan was. If we agreed how we were going to lay out the basement and what finishes and blah blah blah we were going to use before we did it, then we'd both know what the other person was thinking and wanting etc. So hopefully we can remember that and put it into practice.

Anyway, so we had 3 hours of really big suck on our trip. oh well, we fight every trip we ever go on.

So then Sunday morning, I got up early, went to the gym. Was going to go for breakfast but I thought I'd feel like an idiot by myself, so I ate half my leftover lasagna in the room. Read my book, watched tv. waited for hubby to feel motivated enough to get out of bed so we could check out. We left our bags with the hotel and took the c-train to the chinook center mall (THANKS LAINEY!!!) where we felt much more comfortable instantly. We are such suburbanites. This place had a Zellers. We could breathe again. haha.

So hubby went off to sportchek and bought 10 jerseys which were on sale for buddies on his hockey team. I went off to Sephora and Shoppers and bought tons of makeup (and got free stuff, if you need any Elizabeth Arden stuff, go hit up shoppers for a free gift!). I didn't look closely at Sephora and now I'm kicking myself. I bought a primer but didn't realize the seal had been broken and wasn't full. Do you think I can return this to the online store or something? hmm...

Anyway, I also went to Lululemon and found a shirt on SALE. Seriously. I bought a tank for $24. It's a size 6, which gives me a bit of armpit bulge, but it can be a midpoint goal shirt for me. (last october I'd fit a 6). That and I found a black sweater/shrug/something also for cheap at just like Siren's or something like that. And that's all I bought.

So we head back to the hotel, pick up our bags, were going to take the train closer to the airport so the cab would be cheaper, but realized we didn't really have time for that. Manage to rearrange all our luggage (yes really 10 hockey jerseys) so we fit on the plane. Almost miss it while grabbing a bagel for supper (missed the first boarding call and all we heard was the final boarding call for our flight, eek!). Finally get home around 9:00 last night. I missed Daisy tons and I also wanted to see if my PVR worked (and it did somewhat, also broke a bit. Same thing this morning, some channels aren't coming in, not sure what the problem is). Anyway, I also organized all my make-up. I have too much. Especially considering I only wear a mineral powder, eyeliner, and mascara every day. I've got blushes and eyeshadows and all kinds of pencils and lipsticks and so on that I never use. I've already sorted out the stuff, I really never use and that's in a give away bag. (colors that look bad on me, stuff I just don't wear ever). Then I sorted out unopened packages that I'll put in the garage sale this spring. Again, bad colors or something. Then I sorted my every day things into one container in the bathroom, made a travel set of everything for going home. Put another travel/miniature set in the purse. Then put some special occassion stuff in another container and put that in the bathroom (in the back of the drawer). All the other special occassion, fun for a makeover or something (like all these random colors of eyeshadow) I put in a train case in my bedroom.

Anybody have an opinion on this? I wear basically the same couple colors of eyeshadow (when I wear it) sort of plum colors, some pinkish browns. Varying the intensity dependant on the occassion. I've also got greens, greys, brown browns, tans, shimmery pales, etc etc. I never wear this stuff, but totally could. But I guess I just dress for my eyes, colors that look good with green, and neutral/natural looking (like I can do smokey eye, but not in like metallic or green, but my neutrally shade). When do I wear the interesting colors. I wear these ones because I think they make me look prettiest. Should I change it up and match my outfits more or something?

Anyway, so that was my weekend. Eating wasn't good. But I watched a few Bulging Brides and stuff like that. One in particular basically had my starting stats. (granted she ate horribly currently and never worked out), in 6 weeks she lost 10 lbs and 2 inches off everywhere. (exactly what I want to do.) And she could do it in 6 weeks. I can eat like that and workout like that. I dunno, it sort of fired me up. Plus I've got a new goal lululemon top, my step training right away and really seeing the countdown to sis's wedding looming. Plus I'm super unhappy with how I look right now. I'm going backwards. So ready to be serious now.