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.