Goulish Evening

Halloween weekend was fantastic! I think it was definitely helped along by the fact that for FH, Halloween is his Christmas. He goes nutty every October. When we finally own a house, I'm sure we'll be the crazy house with all the decorations. He's just a big kid thats all!

It's been a long and tough week with some bad news for FH on the employment front (boo to continued unemployment) so we decided on Friday to take the evening and spend some quality time together! DATE NIGHT!

We created a picnic in our living room of nibbly goodness. Far far to much cheese and bread was eaten, but it was fabulous. And in honor of the candyrific holiday ahead of us, we watched the Tim Burton version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

Our Spread...Wine of course:


Bread, cheese, appies, almonds, sarrento ham, hummus and peppers:


It was a great evening.

Last night we headed out to a friends place for a Halloween Themed murder mystery party - "Who Killed Elvis!?" As FH and I were the only couple at the party who are engaged, we got to be Frankenstein and his Bride.

Because FH is Halloween obsessed, we also went to get his makeup done professionally...


FH:



Me:


Hope everyone else had a goulish halloween!

Bad blogger...

Yep, thats me. A bad blogger. I've had a few ideas for blog posts over the past month and a half...however never got around to creating any of them. I even took pictures and everything. Since I'm currently not at home with access to these pictures, perhaps Sunday will be a "What We've done in the past 1.5 months" post. We shall see.

That being said - I popped in as today was a good morning. WI this morning and was down 3lbs! Finally almost below 200 for the first time in over a year and a half. 15 more to go to reach my Christmas Goal and finally let myself go wedding dress shopping! Hurrah.

Friday WI

Morning all.

Another Friday WI and actually a loss to report!! Hurrah! Down 3lbs this week to bring me to 203.6. Thats the lowest I've been in a while, so I'm excited to see it once again. I'm hoping to hit 201 (or even sub 200) which would bring me to 10lbs down (finally!).

I've had a fantastic week since last updating, both foodwise, exercise wise and social wise.

Last Friday, FH and I drove up to my Alma Matter for the wedding of two of our closest friends. I've known him since High School (hes actually a high school boyfriend!), met her in first year and they've been together since fourth year. They now live upstairs from us in our apartment building so we spend lots of time together. It was a beautiful wedding, obvious that they are completely totally in love with each other. The only draw back was that it was the hottest weekend of the summer so we were sweltering. Poor FH in his dress clothes :(

We had a ball though, it was nice to be back on Campus (6 years later) and to see how much the university, and the town have changed. Was great to see some old friends that I rarely ever get to see and some that I haven't seen in years!

Table 10 -- the most fun (and most talkative!) table at the wedding


Needless to say, wedding weekend = bad eating and lots of drinking. I got back on track on Monday though and tracked my food religiously for the rest of the week in
Sparkpeople. I've managed to hit my calorie goal every day this week, never going over, which for me is pretty impressive.

Exercise has been great as well. FH dragged me to the workout from hell again on Wednesday at Citadel Hill (I meant to take pictures, but forgot my camera), then we met the same friends last night for Crossfit workout at the The Tower .

Wednesday's workout was tough - its called "Tabata Something Else" and consisted of the following:
Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are sprawls, the next 8 are pushups, the next 8 are sit ups and the last 8 intervals are squats. In addition, during the 10 second rest portion of the squats, hold yourself in the squatting position for 10 seconds instead of resting.

After that workout, I really didn't want to go to the workout at the tower. I was already extremely sore. Also, I'm really trying hard to get back into exercise, but I am hesitant to workout with extremely fit people as my self esteem takes a beating. This was really important to FH though, so I stuck it out and went with him.

What a blast - I loved it! Our friends, Andrew and Sarah, who teach the Wednesday class, did some coaching with us and gave us a workout to do. They are both so motivating and inspiring. They just received their Level 1 Crossfit certification, and are extremely excited to share their knowledge with everyone. During the running part of my workout yesterday, Sarah ran with me, when I walked she talked to me about how great I was doing, pushed me to run harder and her and Andrew and FH all ran my last lap with me.

I think what I love about the Crossfit Workouts, is that even though your doing them often with other people, the focus is really on pushing yourself to exhaustion and getting your own personal best. So even though FH finished his round in 8 minutes and I finished mine in 13 minutes 22 seconds. I still finished and for me it was a personal record (having never done the workout before). Next time we do the same workout in a few weeks, I'll focus on cutting seconds off my own time.

Yesterday's workout was the following:
10 deadlifts at 80lbs
20 kettleball swings at 25lbs
400 m run on the SMU track
x 2 rounds.

I was physically exhausted at the end. Yes I had to walk the majority of the run, but you know what, I finished! I'm proud that I stuck to it and didn't give up again. Seeing the results on the scale this morning definitely made it all worthwhile.

We're off to PEI this weekend to visit the future inlaws. Hopefully we'll get back on Sunday -- but we are taking the ferry back, so if Hurricane Bill hits us early....who knows.

Have a great weekend all :)

The pain, the pain

Well its Wednesday, and you know what that means? Powerplay class on Citadel Hill! Or as I like to call it -- the workout from the depths of hell. If you recall, last week FH and I headed to a crossfit class that our friends teach on Citadel Hill (Powerplay). Since my on call shift at work tonight was cut, we decided to give it a try again this week.

OH MY GOSH! THE PAIN!

Today's workout was the following:
3 runs up/down Citadel Hill
Ladders: 1 pushup - bear climb across the field, 2 burpees, bear climb back, 3 pushup etc etc until you got to 10
2 runs up/down Citadel Hill
Ladder - repeat going down (starting at 10 and going to 1) and exchanging bear climbs for crab walks
1 run up/down Citadel Hill

I'm supremely out of shape and this was a crazy workout, but the nice thing about it is that you can tailor it to your level, as long as you're pushing yourself. So some people only did half the hill, others walked between the ladder exercises instead of bear climbing, or they did ladder's up to 5 instead of 10, whatever you could do. Me, I did my laps around the field instead of up the hill, and I walked between some of the ladder exercises. But I still finished! Which I was quite proud of. I almost cried a few times as my shin splints were horrific and I had a hamstring cramp at the very beginning, so it was an uncomfortable workout. But I did it. FH did the whole thing - including the runs up the hill. NOT fun! He's zonked now and hasn't moved off the couch since he got home. I don't blame him, he flew to Toronto yesterday to do a fitness test for the Pearson Airport Fire Department (fingers crossed that it works out, it would be great if he could get a job, and as a firefighter!), then he throws this into the mix...crazy man!

He's looking kinda like our cats right now :

See, they do like each other!

Dinner tonight was a new experiment for us. Since FH is still unemployed, we're on a very strict budget and I'm trying my darndest to keep the grocery budget in check and as low as possible. This is difficult for us as we are total foodies, and tend to often overbuy and have to throw food out. The fridge currently looks emptier than it ever has.

Anywho, in an effort to economize, I'm trying to use as much food from my cupboards and freezer as I can. Tonights effort -- Spicy Black Bean Burgers

This is what they looked like before going under the broiler:

And what they looked like on my dinner plate this evening...Yum Yum!

These were fantastic. FH (who can be picky about meatless dishes) marked it as a make again. Its definitely going in my recipe file.

Bean Cakes:
1. Saute 2 diced green onions, diced small red pepper, 3 cloves minced garlic in TBSP olive oil. Add a small can of diced green chilis, cumin, coriander/cilantro, chili powder to taste and cook another minute.

2. Transfer contents to a large bowl, add one 19 oz can black beans (drained and rinsed) and mash with a potato masher. Mix in 1.5 cups shredded sweet potato, salt and pepper to taste, 1 egg and 1/2c plain bread crumbs.

3. Make into small balls and put on a greased cookie sheet, flatten with a fork. Bake under the broiler for 8 minutes on one side, flip and broil another 3 minutes.

For a salad dressing and dip for the burgers I mixed lite sour cream with some lime juice, cumin, chili powder and a pinch of sugar.

We made 6 burgers, approximately 200 calories each.

Yummy :)

Sparkpeople

I'm a long time Weightwatcher. 10 years long. I started this journey in 1999 with my mama and have been at it off and on since then. But you know what, I'm tired of points. I'm tired of wondering if a banana or a piece of cheese will put me over my points for the day so instead going for something less points and more processed. I'm bored of it really.

Last Tuesday I tried something new and started tracking my calories instead (which yes, I know is essentially the same thing, but its enough of a difference to keep me interested). I signed up for
Sparkpeopleand counted religiously Tuesday thru Friday. I was off the wagon on the weekend (so sue me!) which was filled with a Bachelorette party and dinner out here: Fiasco
Dinner was fabulous, but so not easy to count..so I decided to eat better on Sunday and get back to tracking today.

WI on Friday and was up 1.2, but I'm ok with that, because I know I've been making better choices and exercising more, but its going to likely take some time to see the movement on the scale as a result. I think what I'm liking best is the fact that I not only get a calorie count of my day, but I can also track different nutrients, so now I'm able to see how much fibre, protein, carbs, calcium, fat and iron I'm getting. Its pretty neat!

In othe news -- last weeks crossfit workout left me in pain until Saturday -- CRAZY! However that must mean it was doing something good, so I'm hopefully going back this week, provided I don't have to work my oncall shift at Job #2.

I'm doing this, and it feels good!

I'm Baaaaack :)

Alright so I'm back. As much as I wasn't the most interesting blogger in the world, blogging did help me to stay on track, and unfortunately as a result of being gone since April, I haven't been on track either.

I got lucky, I've pretty much maintained my weight, however maintaining does not equal weightloss, which is what I desparately need to do. Went to a wedding with FH last weekend to see my girlfriends from University (some of who I haven't seen in years). After viewing everyones pictures....well, it was shocking to say the least. Why is it you leave the house thinking you look like a hot mama, and then you get pictures back and realize that hot mama was not so much the case?

Its been a rough past few months as well, which hasn't helped things. FH has been unemployed since March, which means financially things are tight tight tight, and relationship wise things are a little hard. Its difficult to be the one who is working when you know your partner really really wants to be and isnt' having any luck getting work. FH has been putting out resume after resume and has had one interview in the 5 months he's been searching. So frustrating.

So, since we have no control over the work situation, nor over the money situation (well at least the amount of money) we realized we do have control over our health and fitness situation. We've started planning meals (bonus, it also helps bring down the grocery bill!) and eating out less, and we've also really started to get serious about exercise. Tonight for example I did my first Cross Fit Workout.

OMG.

It was painful. I only stopped working out an hour ago and my glutes and hip flexors are already screaming at me! We went up to Citadel Hill where a friend of ours does a weekly class. We drew exercises out of a bag of exercises and ended up doing the following:

50 x 4 flutter kicks (4 kicks = 1 rep)
40 push ups
30 squats
20 x 2 walking lunches (2 lunges = 1 rep)
10 rocking abs
run up to the top of Citadel Hill and down.

I'm going to be in pain tomorrow! But its good to be back.

Failure...

Thats what I've been feeling like for the past two months (no updates as a result).

I feel like I'm failing at my career, failing at weightloss, failing the BLBE and Team Angie, failing at becoming a "grown up" and failing at my relationship (this one scares me the most).

Everything was going on such an up and up after Christmas, and since February....biggest downward spiral ever.

That is all.

stress is good for something....

because I'm down 3 lbs this week. I'm not sure I should be happy about it, as its likely because I haven't been eating as much as I should be. Normally when life throws me curve balls, I overeat, this time around, not so much.

We've had a bit of a run of bad luck in our house over the past week. I'm not going to get into it here, however moneywise things are going to be really tight for the next little bit. I'm worried, however, I'm trying to keep positive that things will work themselves out. Since I had my "bad luck comes in threes" I went a bought a lotto ticket just in case some higher power wanted to make my good thing a lotto win!

Had some good news about one of the cars though. G's car was only 250.00 to fix, which was much better than expected. Mine went to the dealership and they told me that I needed a new fuel pump and quoted me 1050.00! OUCH! So because I couldn't afford that, I paid the diagnositic, and got it towed it to our mechanic in Lake Fletcher. He called yesterday -- 100.00 in parts and labor later, he replaced our fuel filter and all was well -- over a grand my ass!!

Needless to say there will be a call to O'Regans to tell them of their shoddy diagnostics.

Its been a busy week, however I'm off to bed. I've been sick with a cold for a week now -- getting really tired of all the sneezing and nose blowing I've got happening, so its time for another early night.

It could be worse...

Thats what I just keep telling myself. On Monday afternoon, I dropped G's car off to him in Dartmouth. As I was driving across the bridge the check engine light started blinking at me and then the car started having trouble accelerating, and was doing a lot of jolting when I stopped and was idelling at the lights. GREAT! So we called our mechanic and planned to drop the car off this evening to him to look at tomorrow. Meanwhile - G has been driving my car to Dartmouth everyday, and I've been carpooling out to the airport.

I get a phone call from G tonight asking me to get our neighbors to drive me down to meet him...at the corner of Bayside and Lacewood. Apparently while crusin down Bayside my car just stopped working....Double Great! So CAA towed us back to the apartment and we put some gas in it (it was empty almost) however it still won't start. So to the dealer it goes tomorrow. Sucks more that it has to go to the dealer, unfortunately the mechanic is in Lake Fletcher, and I can't really get a tow there....sooo... This also means that G has to now find a way to work tomorrow, or take the bus. Which is doable, just a pain in the ass because we live in Clayton Park and he works on the other side of the harbour...blargh!

yep -- this sucks big time. I do realize that these things happen, particularly when we drive 9 and 11 year old cars...however at the same time! F'in wonderful. Top this off with the fact that I've been a hormonal wreck for the past 2 weeks (and have NO idea why) and I'm a bit of an emotional basket case this evening.

Weightloss has been frustrating as well. I've been eating fairly well, hitting up the gym..but the scale keeps going up. I really...I'm losing motivation quickly. Blah.

Ok so...yeah, apparently its been a bad day. I'm off to bed before anything else goes wrong!

But, I will leave you with good things before I go :)

Went to PEI this weekend and got to spend a ton of time with our friends K & S from Montreal. I flew them and their daughter (our "niece") home so that K could get ordained as a minister in his childhood church. At the same time, our niece got baptised. So I leave you with a picture of G and I and her cuteness from the service, isn't she gorgous! (I on the other hand.....well, anyways..)




oh ok.....shes cute, so heres one more :)

Bang On

Its been just that, a bang on week. Weightwatchers wise the weekend was a little rough. I went out for dinner at Il Mercato with a girlfriend who I haven't seen in a long time. Dinner was HEAVENLY! Il Mercato is easily one of my favorite restraunts in the city. Friday they lived up to what I expect from them. I had a fabulous lasagna made with garlic roast chicken, butternut squash, sage and marscapone. It was amazing, and just the right size portion to have some desert (which is what they do best!)

I've been bang on with exercise and the gym though -- Saturday FH and I tried something new:


This is G, Me and my Daddy looking cute while we go out snowshoeing!

Mom and Dad have had snowshoes for two seasons now. For Christmas, they bought myself and G, and my brother and his girlfriend our own. This was our first time trying them out and it was SO much fun. We did a good hour trek through a cross country trail near my parents house in Windsor. Approximately 4km. I can't wait to do it again. Hopefully G and I are going to go out this Saturday (if the snow sticks around) and try them out on the trails at Uniacke Museum Park.

Weigh in tomorrow - we shall see how this week really went then! Until the results come in, I'll leave you with some more pictures of our fun in the snow.

G looks so cute all bundled up for the snow :)

I can't remember what happened here, but apparently it was funny!

Great and Po'd all at the same time!

I didn't even think this was possible, however apparently it is! I'm angry, yet happy all at the same time (for two different reasons mind you!)

First emotion: Happy

Why so happy you ask? Because I was down 4.4lbs at my WW weigh in today! Boo yah! I can't wait to report my loss to Angie for BLBE! What a great start to the challenge.

Second Emotion: Angry

Why? Because of some idiot at the gym who decided that stealing my brand new North Face Trial runners would be a good idea. Now I do take responsibility for this, as I forgot my sneakers at the gym in the change room overnight (24h). However I'm pretty PO'd that someone has such sticky fingers that they would lift them in 24h. I could understand if they'd been sitting in the change room for a week or so, but 24 hours, you've got to be kidding me! I got these sneakers for free from a friend of G's and I loved them, however I don't have enough cash right now to replace them, and really , they aren't something I would have thought to spend my money on in the first place. But now that I know how much I love them, I really miss them :(

I hate selfish people....

But I love that I'm now 4.4 lbs lighter and hopefully next week with hit onederland again!

Exercise is my friend

Really it is. I'm sore, my butt feels numb, and I'm having trouble walking up and down stairs, but boys do I feel good about my committment to exercise this week! DBF and I woke up at 5:30 (ungodly hour that it is!) on Monday and hit a spin class. He is training cardio in order to do the beep test as part of his physical for the HRM Fire Department (still waiting to hear if he passed the board interview, *fingers crossed*) and thought it would be a good workout. I agreed, but boys do I hate spin class!

But we did it. 40 minutes later, and I hated every minute of it. But I have promised to go back once a week with him to keep us both doing something "different".

Started bootcamp this morning as well -- another wake up at 5:30 (soooo not a morning person!) But it was great. Scary seeing the measurements before we started the workout -- but as the instructor said, its a good starting point because I am SURE to see good results if I stick to it. Unlike for example, people with alot less to lose.

I really like the instructor for this camp - shes down 100lbs herself, and I find that really motivating. During this morning's workout she was talking and making jokes throughout which made the time pass really quickly, and she did alot of the exercises with us, which I really like. I feel like I "clicked" with her alot more than I did with my last bootcamp instructor.

First WI of the BLBE on Thursday at lunch. I have a really good feeling about it! But we shall see how it goes.

Keep up the good work everyone!

In the groove

*yay* its the weekend! And a lazy day at that. But I'm not using it as an excuse to eat badly.

Yesterday was an awesome day for exercise. I made it to pilates at work, and hit the gym with my friend J for a 45 minute workout. Eating was alright, I went well over points, but at least everything was written down.

Today we're having friends over for dinner and I'm making Fromage a tois from Eat Shrink and Be Merry. The big challenge is going to be having to watch the alcohol, as that can really add up in points. But I'm hoping to keep things on the tame end. G and & are supposed to drive down to my parents place on Sunday and go snowshoeing with them, so can't be too hungover!!

Food yesterday: Not great, but hey, it was tracked
B - tall caramel apple cider n/whip - 4.5
starbucks no fat cinnamon bun - 8 (this is an estimate, I couldnt' find the nutritional information for this anywhere!)

L - lean cuisine panini -6

S - WW one point peanut butter bar - 1
snack bag 94% fat free kettle korn - 2
fiber one bar - 2

D - tomato soup made with skim milk -2
2 slices bodywise bread - 2
peanut butter - 4
5 unsalted soda crackers - 1

S - 1/2 cup frozen yogurt - 2
4 slices terry's chocolate orange -3

Points 37.5
H20 - 4L

Team Angie - Whoot Whoot!

So the teams have been divided for the BLBE and I'm on Team Angie! I've been taking some time this evening going through some of the blogs to start getting to know who people are and drop some comments -- but boys does it ever take time. I can see this being a process that I spread out over the next few days before the official start day of Sunday.

I weighed in at WW at work today for the first time since December 19. Up 5lbs to 207.2. So that is my adjusted starting weight for this challenge.

Goals:
1. 185 lbs by end of challenge -- a loss of 22.2lbs. Its been tough going weight wise for the past couple of years (and this is evidenced by the gain of 50lbs since FH and I have met), so this to me seems like a lofty goal. However, I have done this before. 22 lbs in 16 weeks is healthy and doable. And I CAN do it!

2. Gym 4x a week.
I'm actually quite excited about this one. I've been out of the gym routine for quite sometime now, however my upstairs neighbor (and close friend) has just cancelled her Goodlife membership and joined Nubody's with me. We went for the first time tonight together, and was it ever nice to have someone to talk to while on the cardio machines. It makes the time go so much quicker.

We have both signed up for 6am twice week bootcamp starting next week for the next 7 weeks and I'm really excited about that. The girl who is teaching the bootcamp has lost over 100lbs which I think is totally awesome! (And very inspirational)

FH and I have committed to personal training sessions and to once a week spinning classes together, that should be interesting! I can't picture FH in a spin class.

All of this will hopefully help me get to my goal of 185 and then I get my reward!

Going looking for wedding dresses in NYC!!!! I can't wait :)

Go Team Angie!

And so it begins.....Day 1

So I made a committment and joined a challenge running from now until April - the Biggest Loser Blog Edition (BLBE) is something that I thought about the last time it was going on, but couldnt' quite get myself into the mindset. This time, I have no choice, I have to do this, for my health, for my happiness and for my wedding pictures (hehe, wedding pictures!)

So I've committed and I am raring to go. I weighed in this morning at 209.5lbs. After seeing that scary number, I jumped in with both feet (and then some) today and things seem to be going swimmingly so far.

G and I drug ourselves out of bed and hit the gym for 5:45 this morning. Being as I am NOT a morning person and believe that noone should have to get out of bed until at least 9:00am, this is a big accomplishment for me. Did 25 minutes of cardio and another 20 of light weights (trying to get back into the swing of things before I set up a full program).

I packed myself a healthy lunch to take to work yesterday evening so today went well food wise as well.

Today's Menu:
B: Weightwatchers english muffin, 1/4c southwest egg beaters, 1 slice lite cheese (4)
L: 2c baby spinach, 3.5 oz chicken breast, 7 rosemary croutons, 1/4 c of feta cheese and 2tbsp greek dressing (7), 1 c brocolli parmesan gardenay soup (1)
S: 1/2c blueberries, 1/2c cherry yogurt (1)
D: 1c blackbean and smoked sausage (9), slice french bread (3)
S: Turtle chocolate (3)

Total 28pts
Water: 3L

Off to pack up lunch for tomorrow and hit the sack -- early gym again tomorrow. Challenge goals will be posted tomorrow