Just Keep Swimming

Horrible Blogger

2010-03-12T17:18:00.002-04:00

Yep thats me. A horrible blogger. I've noticed in the few times I've tried to do this whole "blog" thing my resolution to blog follows with my resolution to lose weight, when I'm not trying at losing weight, I don't pay attention to keeping track, blogging etc.

I hit a huge goal today when I WI. I've been fighting for almost a year now to get below 200 lbs. Not always fighting as hard as I should be, but fighting. Getting down to 201 and then going back up again to 205/206, getting down and going up etc etc etc. I finally broke through the 200 mark today stepping on the scale to see 198.2 lbs!

I'm feeling very in control and program right now. I'm in the exercise groove, I'm in the healthy eating groove and I think this is the motivation I needed to keep it up. 200 was a huge mental block for me, but now seeing that getting below 200 is possible, well the skies the limit :)

In other news, after reading about the wonder that is Greek yogurt on other Halifax healthy living blogs, I broke down and bought some when I saw it at Sobeys yesterday. OMG! I'm a huge sour cream fan, like, could eat it with a spoon like yogurt, but I don't because that doesn't seem right, nor does Sour Cream have very many good nutrients or vitamins in it. Greek yogurt on the other hand, is packed full of protein, low in fat and has lots of good nutrients in it...and it tastes very much like full fat sour cream. I'm in love!

Its expensive for how much you get, so I'm sad to say that I don't think my grocery bill will ever be the same going forward. But yum!

Goulish Evening

2009-11-01T20:49:00.007-04:00

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...

2009-10-02T17:40:00.001-03:00

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

2009-08-21T08:35:00.004-03:00

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

2009-08-12T21:38:00.005-03:00

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

2009-08-10T20:29:00.002-03:00

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 :)

2009-08-05T20:35:00.002-03:00

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...

2009-04-14T22:47:00.003-03:00

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....

2009-02-12T20:44:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-02-04T22:00:00.004-04:00

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

2009-01-21T20:34:00.006-04:00

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!

2009-01-15T20:29:00.002-04:00

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

2009-01-13T18:16:00.002-04:00

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

2009-01-10T13:48:00.002-04:00

*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!

2009-01-08T21:52:00.002-04:00

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

2009-01-05T22:09:00.002-04:00

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

Look what Santa brought me for Christmas....

2008-12-30T19:25:00.003-04:00

As of Christmas Eve, G has moved from being DBF to being FH! All the more reason for me to buckle down and get back on the healthy food and fitness train.

He proposed in front of my parents, brother and brother's girlfriend and of course my mom took pictures...I'm not happy with how I look in them -despite being totally happy about the moment.

However, I REFUSE to try on wedding dresses at the size I am right now. So new year, new me!

Week One WI

2008-11-27T21:45:00.001-04:00

And I'm down 4.4lbs !!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all :)

Toronto Lovin

2008-11-25T20:20:00.003-04:00

Well not really, I actually kinda dislike Toronto with a passion, but I've had a couple of good days here so I can't complain.

G and I had a great weekend together this weekend, filled with fun and healthy food. We went to my company Christmas party on Saturday night at the Marriott, which was a ball! I drank a little to much wine, and had desert, but unlike last year I only had one slice of cake instead of everything on the desert buffet, so I feel like that was an improvement. Sunday we spent the day lazing around. Ate my homemade chili for dinner and I made a really yummy buttercup squash and apple soup made with apple cider. 2 points for 1.5 cups! Yay! Even G liked it.

Caught the early flight out to YYZ on Monday morning (3:30 am wake up..blah!) and have been training yesterday and today. Travelling for work is usually what kills me with Weightwatchers, however I'm feeling on the ball and in the groove this week.

There is a Country Style downstairs in my office building that we eat for lunch. In the past I'd grab a muffin, cookie, chocolate, big sandwich and not think about the calories or points. This week, I logged onto the Country Style website, looked at the nutritional information and figured out my points for lunch. I did the same for when I went to the Keg tonight.

As a result, this is what yesterday and today have looked like - BOO YAH!

Monday:
B - english muffin with 2TBSP peanut butter and TBSP jam; H20; small hot chocolate (8 pts)
S - H20; granny smith apple (1)
L - Greek Wrap; 1/2 container brocolli chedder soup; diet pepsi (8 pts)
D - Diet Coke; 9 inch thin crust pizza with tomato sauce and 3 oz goat cheese (Estimate 12 points)
Total: 29 points (1 flex)

Tuesday
B - english muffin with 2TBSP peanut butter and TBSP jam; H20; small hot chocolate (8 pts)
L - Greek Wrap; diet pepsi (6 pts)
D - Keg - 7 0z Filet mignon (yum!), side spinach salad with dressing on the side, 6 oz of wine - (17 pts)

31 pts (3 flex)

205.8

2008-11-20T22:27:00.003-04:00

I joined Weightwatchers at work today, and that was the number that was on the scale. I had prepared myself for much more, however it was still a shock to the system. I've been working myself toward this recommitment now for a few weeks, trying to cut back, make smarter choices etc in an effort to commit fully to things this time. I'm hoping to see a much smaller number by next weeks weigh in.

That being said, I did something today that I haven't done in many years on Weightwatchers. I made a HUGE pot of chili - white kidney beans, black beans, 3 kinds of peppers, corn, lean ground beef. My usual. Except my usual normally means throwing everything in the pot and gestimating the points per serving.

Not this time. Today I weighed and measured everything that went into the pot. I wrote down the nutritional information for all the ingrediants and I figured out the point values for each item, added it up and divided it out = 5.5 points per cup serving.

G is working nights this week which means leaving at 7 and I'm home at 7:30, so we're not seeing each other this week. But - he made dinner tonight. I gave him the recipe and wrote it out step by step (G is wonderful, but cooking is not his forte!) It was so nice to come home to a yummy meal. And what a good boyfriend he was, he measured out everything in the recipe and I ended up with a 5 point baked rigtoni dinner. Yay!

snow..blech!

2008-11-19T21:36:00.002-04:00

Its snowing out. It was supposed to go from snow to rain before this evening. NOPE! Its snowing hard, and the plows didn't come out until 8:30. Which made my drive home from the airport at 7:00 really fun.

I was smart and got my snow tires put on last week -- however they only put on 2 of 4 because the other 2 weren't good anymore. I haven't bought new ones yet, so driving with 2 snow tires on the back and 2 summers on the front (in a front wheel drive) was an experience. I was doing well until the hill right before Lower Sackville when I went off the road (almost).

Big thank you to the random guy from IMP (who I didn't get the name of!) who was the first driver after 20 minutes of me being stuck who stopped to help. He pushed me on my way again and followed me part way with his blinkers on just in case. Yay for good samaritans!

yummy new sammie

2008-11-17T20:55:00.002-04:00

I'm back :) Trip to YYC was great, and a day shorter than it was supposed to be, which was even better. AND I got upgraded to business class on the flight home, which was completely awesome!

Because things were cut short, I didn't get to the pool for the one night that I was there. By the time my boss and I got finished training, and headed back to the hotel, and checked in and ate dinner, the pool was closed. Boo :( But I think I managed to eat ok, ordered salad instead of a regular side with my meal, water to drink with dinner instead of wine. So I'm happy with how it went.

G and I had a laid back weekend. We got together with our upstairs neighbors and played Cranium on Friday night -- SOO much fun, I definitely want this game for Christmas. On Saturday I slept until 12:30 (ops!) and we had another couple over to watch the UFC fights (oh joys...catch the sarcasim?)

I tried a new idea for dinner on Saturday night, since we decided to eat at home instead of going out. When I was in Calgary, I had a reallly yummy quesidilla at Joey Tomatos, so I tried to replicate it at home - it was fantastic.

Spinach tortilla, with a small amount of pesto, goat cheese, BBQ chicken and roasted red peppers. Grilled on the stove until the cheese melts and gets all smooshy. YUM!

Dinners are planned for the week:
Tonight- WW crockpot sour cream salsa chicken
Tuesday: Crockpot black bean and smoked sausage
Wednesday: Baked Ziti
Thursday: Kickin Chicken and Rice
Friday -- who knows!

I start WW at work on Thursday and will be recommiting completley to writing down what I eat. I've been gearing up now for the past few days, but come Thursday I really need to buckle down and do this. 5 lbs by Christmas, thats my goal!

till next time

Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

2008-11-11T18:50:00.002-04:00

Another gorgous day here in Nova Scotia. A little chilly, but sunshiny and bright, which I love. Particularly when I get home before it gets dark. My body likes me much better when I get some sunlight in my day.

Todays eats:
B: 2 slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and lite double fruit jam
L: wholegrain pita with chicken mole/rice mix, 10z of lite chedder cheese and TBSP lite sour cream
D: greek chicken kebabs, roasted balsamic veggies with feta, whole grain pita with tzatiki. Yum!

I'm excited because I've joined WW at work starting Thursday with 14 of my co workers. Unfortunately I can't start until next week, as I'm away this week. But hopefully its the support system I need.

I'm headed to Calgary tomorrow until Friday to do some Respect in the Workplace training. Travelling is always my toughest time eating and exercising wise. But I have my swim suit packed (the hotel has a pool and my ankle is still a little stiff) and I've got some all bran bars and fruit source bars for if I get stuck in the airport. So we shall see how it goes.

christmas is coming...

2008-11-06T20:24:00.003-04:00

Ok so, I knew it was coming when I saw the eggnog in the grocery stores, and then when they were followed by decorations and wrapping paper I started to pay a little more attention.

But now, its definitely obvious that Christmas is on its way, because today at the grocery store I saw Chapman's Peppermint Stick Ice Cream...mmmm.

missing camera...

2008-11-04T21:53:00.001-04:00

How annoyed am I that G lost our Digital SLR camera coming home from Toronto on Sunday....pretty damn annoyed. I'm not annoyed at him, I'm just annoyed that it happened.
We can't afford to replace the camera right now, and the chances of finding it are likely slim to none.

We've called YHZ Lost and Found, we've called Air Canada in Halifax and we've left message with Lost and Found at Pearson. But really, whose going to turn in a 800.00 camera and extra lense?

*grumble*

boo hiss!

2008-11-03T20:31:00.005-04:00

I'm feeling bloated and gross. We travelled this weekend. G volunteered for the Ontario Race Medical Team doing emergency response for Moseport Racetrack throughout the summer. We headed up to Toronto for the night on Saturday night (the perks to working for an airline!) to attend the end of the year banquet. It was great, however it means lots of eating out, and lack of hydration due to being on the airplane.

Adding to my feelings of bloating, is the fact that I haven't been able to work out since Thursday because of this:

This is what it looked like on Thursday when I sprained it.

4 days later its still swollen and sore and looking like this:

I show you both feet for comparison sake in terms of swelling. Please excuse my disgusting toes, I haven't had a chance to get a pedicure in a long time (its on the to do list I promise!)So yeah. Needless to say working out has not been top of the priority list. In fact, I managed to do this damage working out (go figure!)

I was just finishing my workout at the gym, and I steped down off a step and BOOM! Down I went. I have really bad ankles and do this at least twice a year, but it doesn't make it suck any less. In fact, this was my good ankle, which makes it seem worse! Luckily, it does give me an excuse to have G wait on me hand and foot...hehehe! Isn't he a good boyfriend!

Funny story about G and me. Our first date, ended up with a picture very similar to the above. We met online, and the first weekend we spent together (we were long distance) we ended the weekend at Peggy's Cove (unplanned) before I was going to drove him back to the PEI ferry. We're walking along the rocks (me in flip flops, I told you, it was an unplanned trip!) G says to me "Wow, someone could really hurt themselves on these rocks" yep, you guessed it, down I went! I twisted my bad ankle (the one that I've broken twice already and sprained AT LEAST 15 times) so we spent the next 9 hours at the hospital waiting for x-rays just in case.

Great first date eh? Wait, it gets better. We head home around 11:00. We hadn't eaten since 9:00 that morning so we stopped at Subway for G to grab a sandwich and head home. All is well, until about 7:00 am when G wakes up and complains about his stomach being upset. Minutes later, off to the bathroom he runs. Yep, food poisoning. We ended up back at Emergency to hook him up to an IV because he was so dehydrated. The admitting nurse was the same one who had been there the night before when we came in for my ankle. Talk about a memorable first date!

Our date this weekend at the banquet was less than remarkable in terms of good stories. But we had a good time, and I got to do some dancing with my man, which I love. When we returned we started unpacking the suitcases and Sully decided to help us out. So I leave you with a picture of our cute unpacking helper...

feelin groovy!

2008-10-28T19:11:00.003-03:00

I'm feeling great, the past two days have been so on its not even funny. I'm eating well, I'm feeling good things are great. And according to the scale I'm down 1.4 pounds since I weighed in at the highest number I've ever seen a week ago! Yay!

We travelled to PEI this weekend to visit G's parents and to see our friends Ken and Shaunna and their little girl, our "neice" Jessie.

PEI is generally a real test for me in terms of healthy eating. G's mom owns two freezers, one of which is full to the brim with different kinds of sweets/squares and homemade carrot cakes. Shes also the type of person who feels the need to have desert with every meal, and doesn't have a great concept of portion control. I can't begin to count the number of times we've had this conversation

"Monica, don't you want more of INSERT FOOD HERE"
"no thanks G's mom, I'm pretty full"
"are you sure, you haven't eaten enough to be full"
"yes I'm sure, I'm fine"
"Oh come on, you've barely eaten anything, just have a little more"

And normally the result of this conversation? I give in and eat more. Blah! This weekend went well though. We flew over Saturday morning and back Sunday. The only big Challenge was we had Thanksgiving dinner while there (since we couldn't get back over Thanksgiving), but I took small portions and no seconds. I was pretty proud of myself. Willpower, you will be mine!

Food for today:
B: (5)
1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, 2 TBSP brown sugar splenda, cinnamon
cup of coffee, 1/2 lite hot chocolate

L: (9)
2 cups baby spinach, 3 oz roasted chicken, 2 TBSP crumbled feta, 7 rosemary croutons, Renee's lite greek dressing
vanilla Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt

S: (2)
lime coconut shortbread
lemon shortbread

D: (13)
4 small soft tacos, 2 TBSP lite sour cream, 2 TBSP shredded cheese, 1/4 cup refried black beans

29/26 -- 3 flex used

Have a good one everyone, G and I are off to the Gym.

One day down...

2008-10-22T19:52:00.004-03:00

many more to go. Today was great though. I was totally in the healthy lifestyle mindset. I say healthy lifestyle and not diet, becuase well, really thats what I'm shooting for right?

Todays menu went like this:
Breakfast: 1 cup corn bran with 1/4 cup frozen blueberries
Lunch:

Last nights BBQ productivity, made for this little bit of lunch fabulousness

Baby spinach, red onion, herbed feta crumbles, BBQ green chicken (3.5 oz), 7 rosemary garlic croutons (for crunch!) and Renee's greek dressing. Plus a Stoneyfield farm organic yogurt and my daily diet coke (must break that habit!)

Snack: apple slices with almond butter and a lite babybell cheese

Dinner: 3/4 cup of beef stew sprinkled with TBSP shredded extra old chedder, and a whole wheat roll

After Dinner: 1 cup frozen red grapes

I went to the gym today and did 20 minutes on the bike and 20 on the Precor, not a lot, but a start. Heres hoping tomorrow goes as well!

random thoughts this morning...

2008-10-22T09:55:00.005-03:00

Our house computer is possessed. The CD tray has been opening and closing all night long on its own. It is currently doing so every few seconds as I type this....creepy!

My cats are also crazy - evidenced by waking up at 4:45 am this morning to a howling, hissing, yowling ball of yellow and black fur rolling back and forth down the hallway for the next 20 minutes

I love Corn Bran I could go into all the love I have for this crunchy goodness of low point cereal. However that would take forever and I need to get to work. Lets just say I bought two "Extra Large Trial Packs" for 1.00 each at Superstore last week, and I'm a happy woman.

what's this...two in one day?

2008-10-21T22:57:00.007-03:00

Shocking I know.

As I said previously, G is working night shift tonight - which runs from 8:00 pm - 3:00 am, leaving me all by myself. Normally this means one of two things:
1. If my depression is not in check I crawl into bed, lonely and lacking motivation to do anything but eat ice cream and watch crappy tv
2. I am really really productive.

Tonight was a night of productivity. In my attempt to continue down the road of healthy eating I made these:

I marinated chicken in lemon juice, oregano, dill, balsamic vinagar, olive oil, honey and garlic. I kebob'd the chicken and BBQ till done. I'm pretty proud as they look really yummy - and I normally burn everything I BBQ (please pretend you don't see the burn marks on the chicken in the above picture!) I have one kebob packed in my lunch for tomorrow with a large salad. The rest should last until Friday for lunches (provided G doesn't find them first!)

As mentioned, I've packed myself a healthy lunch for tomorrow, full of fruits and veggies goodness! I didnt' realize how long it had been since I'd packed a lunch, until I opened up my lunch box --- EWWWWW! I forgot about a banana that I'd left in there, lets just say it fermented and leave it at that.

I also threw all the ingrediants in the slowcooker for "Stew Good to Be True" to cook tomorrow. All I have to do is turn it on tomorrow morning before leaving and it should be smelling yummy by the time I get home. I love my slow cooker.

The kitchen is clean and I've been so productive, I figured I deserved a small treat:

A small pour of dads homemade strawberry fruit wine (in my MASSIVE wine glasses)!

That being said, I think I'm off to bed with my wine and the last few chapters of my new Faye Kellerman book.

To that end, I leave you with a picture of the handsome man who keeps me company when G is working nights:

hehehe, what did you expect? Please excuse G's sneakers. Sully has a foot and shoe obsession (he is so my cat!)

I'm home!!

2008-10-21T19:34:00.002-03:00

Yay! As much as I love the travel I get to do for my job (I enjoy it so much more than sitting at a desk doing administrative tasks...which is what happened all summer when our training schedule slowed down!) I really enjoy coming home as well.

Flew in from Montreal today and landed in Halifax this afternoon. I was supposed to work until 7:00 answering the phones for one of our union vacation bids, however the last bid came in at 6:15 so I was able to leave early. Which was great, because it meant I actually got to see G this evening before he left for work! Yay! He works nights and leaves at 7:00, when I work until 7:00 we never see each other (except when sleeping of course). Today I was home by 6:45 and we got some time together. Only 20 minutes, but it was 20 good minutes ;)

The other great part about coming home was that G was a great boyfriend and had put some stuff in the slowcooker, which meant that supper was ready and waiting for me when I got in the door. What a nice thing to come home to.

He was to cute - I had mentioned a few things he could toss in the slow cooker - chicken, corn, salsa. Thats fine, but he took it upon himself to spice things up a bit. He was so proud of himself.

So dinner tonight:
chicken
salsa
corn
can of black beans
brown and wild rice blend
spiced with lime juice and a 1/2 bottle of Keiths

I sprinkled it with PC Southwestern shredded cheese and a TBSP of lite sour cream. YUMMY! Definitely a make again. Since G doesn't cook much, when he does and it turns out well he gets all puffed up like a peacock about it. I tend to stroke the ego a little bit as well (mainly in the hopes that this keeps him in the kitchen more often!)

I'm a bad blogger!

2008-10-19T13:57:00.003-03:00

I guess I haven't quite gotten in the groove of writing every day/every second day. But the fact that I'm still writing I consider an accomplishment. Normally by now my personality flaw of starting things and never finishing them has interjected. But not this time!

Thank you as well, to the loverly ladies that commented on my last post. I was feeling pretty craptacular, and reading your posts upped my mood considerably. Thank you so much. Knowing I have some people reading as well, I think will help keep me accountable.

Its been a bit of a crazy week. 4 day work week always equals not enough time to get everything done, but then I also facilitated all day for Tuesday and Wednesday which means 2 less days to get things done. I'm a little behind on well, everything at work. I'm working on the programming for two new training programs for 2009, however what I want to have done by now and what I actually have done is not even comparable.

I'm teaching a one day course in Calgary tomorrow so I'm currently finishing up some laundry and doing some packing. I leave for YYC at 4:40, teach tomorrow, fly out tomorrow night to Montreal, overnight in Montreal and fly home to Halifax on Tuesday morning. Busy Busy! G is working nights this week to, which means more busy once I'm home.

I tried my best to prepare though, yesterday I spent a crazy day in the kitchen, I made a huge batch of chili and a batch of cauliflower soup to freeze for later. I planned to make squash soup, b ut that will have to be done on Wednesday once I'm home again.

Now the big challenge will be eating well on the road. Most of my weight gain this year has been as a result of lots of room service and eating in restraunts when I travelled. I've checked though, and my hotel has a gym so I'm hoping to at least get some exercise in!

scary comparison...

2008-10-07T21:09:00.007-03:00

I had a huge shock today. You know, when you know that your heavy, and that you've gained weight and you know its a lot of weight. But at the same time, you still don't think you look as bad as you do? Yep, a picture a friend posted today kinda sent that whole theory crashing down as fast as the stock market has been...

I went to the wedding of a high school friend on labour day weekend. I bought a new outfit, and although I knew I was looking heavier than I wanted to, I still thought I was looking fabulous....not so much.

This is the picture she posted that caused me to totally go -- "whose that heavy girl....oh wait, thats me" (I am on the far left in the pink and brown flowered shirt)

I saw this picture, and I broke down in tears. I can't believe I've let myself get to this point. Particularly when 1.5 years ago I looked like this....

It was quite the wake up call, and really hit me....hard. I'm hoping this is what it will take so that I can stick with it and get back to where I was....hoping.
I can't believe I just posted that picture either for the world to see. I guess accountability at its finest.

In other news, I hit the gymbo today for the 2nd day in a row. 20 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes on the Precor later and I was feeling good. Not as good as I would have been had I not eaten all the candy I ate at work today. But hey, work in progress right?

I stopped by Chapters on the way home and picked up the second book in the Twlight Series (SOOO ADDICTED!) Is it wrong that I want to curl up in bed and start/finish reading this all tonight? I hope not, because that might be what I end up doing. G is working nights, which means little sleep for moi, and if I have a good book as well....well I just might be screwed in the sleep department tonight! I also picked up "The Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook". I've heard some really good things about this book on the WW board and other blogs. As I know most of my eating is emotionally driven, I'm hoping it will help to shed some light on why I do the things I do, and help me get some control over things.

Till next time
xo Mon

on a roll

2008-10-01T21:17:00.002-03:00

Another day OP. 3 days in and I feel like I'm on a roll

Today went down like this:

Breakfast (5):
1 PC honey and oatmeal bagel
2 TBSP peanut butter and 1 tsp lite bosenberry jam

Snack (2)
2 Tootsie rolls

Lunch (10)
1 whole wheat pita
chicken and black bean taco filling
2 TBSP shredded nacho cheese
1 cup grapes

Dinner (7)
1 cup Melancauli baby soup
3 slices bagette
1/2 cup chocolate chapmans yogurt

Snacks: (7)
1/2 small package of gummi bears
2 girl guide mint cookies
1/2 cup red berry yoptimal yogurt
1/2 cup raspberries

I had a CRAZY sugar craving this afternoon, quite normal for me. What wasn't normal was that instead of going for the cinnamon bun, or the large bag of swedish berries or massive amounts of chocolate, I instead picked up a small bag of gummi bears and shared half with a friend (2 points instead of 4) and calculated the points for the girl guide cookies. I was quite proud of myself.

Tried something new for dinner tonight. Curried cauliflower soup with swiss cheese and whole grain rice in it. It was sooo yummy. I felt kind of bad, as I forgot that G doesn't really like thick and non brothy soups....ops!! as this was pureed and thick! He had a bowl, and ate it (but made a face) but then went back for another bowl, so I was quite proud of him :)

I'm feeling good about being back on track. First weigh in on Saturday and then I'm off to the cottage to see mom and dad for the weekend - that will be a challenge, but I think I'm up to it.

Feeling groovy...

2008-09-30T21:42:00.002-03:00

So I sucked it up and went back to WW on Saturday. Steped on the scale and saw a VERY VERY scary number...a number that I have never seen in my life actually.

I am now 6 pounds heavier than I was when I joined WW in 1999, and approaching 200lbs. If thats not enough to scare a person into recommitting, I don't know what is.

Today was a good day, made it to the gym, ate within my points.

Heres how it all went down

Daily Target - 25 points

Breakfast (4)
1 cup oatmeal with cinnamon, TBSP brown sugar splenda, 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce and TBSP raisins

Lunch (8)
1/2 portion of lemon ricotta chicken pasta
1 cup salad greens with boathouse farms honey dijon dressing
1 cup grapes

Dinner (10)
2 chicken and blackbean mole soft tacos
8 guiltless gourmet chips and salsa
TBSP lite sour cream
TBSP shredded nacho cheese

Snacks (5)
Oatmeal and cinnamon All Bran Bar
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup vanilla yoptimal yogurt

Exercise: 20 minutes stationary bike
H20: 2L

Hopefully I can keep this up until weigh in on Saturday and see some progress :)

Grocery Day....again

2008-09-22T22:56:00.004-03:00

Wow, it seems like all we do it groceries. But not really, its just because I haven't posted in a week.

Yesterday was grocery day again. Lots of healthy food, as G and I had a long talk on the weekend about how unhealthy/unfit we've become. We are talking about weddings in the future, and neither of us wants to look back on our engagement/wedding pictures and regret how we look. So back on track we go (seems like this is a revolving door syndrome, but hopefully this time it sticks for more than a few days).

As it was the first day of fall today, I thought it fitting that I reset my weight tracker to reflect the exact amount I have to lose (seems like such a huge number right now, very scary). I always view September as more of a clean slate/new start than even the new year. I don't know why it is, but it feels like I should be recommitting right now. I weighed in this morning and saw number that I've never seen in my life, even before I joined weight watchers back in 1999. Thats enough to scare me.

This week is going to be a real challenge for the two of us as a couple being healthy. We went out for an after dinner walk on Sunday which was nice, but won't happen again until next week. I work 8 am - 8 pm all week and G is working nights, 8 pm - 3 am. So really, we won't be seeing each other except between the hours of 3 and 6...when we are both sleeping!

As a result I have meals set and am planning to be a slow cooking fool this week (I hate cooking when I get home at 8). That means G can eat before he leaves and set some aside for me. Since this is a schedule that will be happening every second week until December, slow cooking leaves leftovers for freezing during busy weeks as well! Yay.

Supper plans for the week:
Tuesday: Braised beef and rosemary pasta sauce over rotini
Large Green salad with goat cheese

Wednesday: Black Beans and smoked sausage
steamed brocolli
crusty rolls

Thursday: BBQ pulled beef sandwiches on focaccia rolls
corn on the cob
Large green salad

Friday - Leftovers!

I leave you with Grocery pictures for the week :)

Non Produce: black beans, Knor boxed soup - Red and Orange, chili powder, canned tomatoes, lite chez whiz (for G) Source Exotic yogurt (for G), Yoptimal Yogurt (for me), egg whites, lite jam, lite chedder cheese, tzatiki, oatmeal, lara bars, green tea, crystal lite, fat free pudding mix, skim milk

Fresh stuff: head of brocolli, jalapano peppers, red peppers, bananas, corn, organic baby spinach, organic baby greens, red delicious apples, green peppers, crusty rolls and foccacia rolls, baby bagette, mini bagels, raspberries

Hope everyones having a healthy start to the week :) And a wonderful first day of fall

Grocery Day!

2008-09-08T22:23:00.007-03:00

Alright, I'm going to let you in on a little secret, one that shows my true geekness to the blog world with just 4 words....I love grocery shopping.

Seriously I do. I could grocery shop everyday and be totally content. Which was really bad when I worked at a Goodlife Gym located inside an Atlantic Superstore -- I used to shop every day on my way home from work...so much money out the window from lack of planning on those trips!

My favorite thing to do is to go late at night or early in the morning when noone else is in the store, pop in my IPOD and grab a cart and wander around the store, looking at new foods and thinking up new cooking ideas. It truely is a calming experience for me (crazy I know)

That being said, I hate shopping with a list, I'd rather just pick things up that look good and that I'd like to try. However this kills our grocery budget, because I end up either
a) getting things we already have
b) getting to much andwe end up throwing tons of food out, which is one of G's biggest pet peeve.

Since we've been trying to keep our grocery budget down to 80-100.00 every week, I've started to shop with a list as a result. Which sucks! But is saving us tons of money, so I guess I can't complain TOO much. And I still pick up the occasional fun food that catches my fancy - so not all fun is gone.

We got back from PEI today and our fridge was empty. G was working the night shift, which meant I was left alone to grocery shop to my hearts content!

Here is our loot:

Produce etc: organic baby romaine, bananas, red and green pepper, green onions, celery, red onion, vine tomatos, high bush blueberries, onions, shallots, avacado, shelled edamame, golden delicious and red delicous apples, green seedless grapes, and one huge thing of peanut butter

Everything else: skim milk, reduced sodium chicken broth, goat cheese, lite sour cream, tomato paste, can of diced tomatoes, can of corn, can of black beans, can of frozen oj (for recipes), lemon juice, lite cream (for butter chicken), yoptimal yogurt, egg whites, fresh mint, whole wheat pitas, whole grain cinnamon raisin PC Bagels, Dempsters Honey Wheat Bread (on sale, so I bought some for the freezer), Litehouse Honey Dijon Yogurt dressing (a new find that looked interesting)

mmmm, I can't wait to start cooking. Tonight I'm making a chunky chicken salad with cranberries and orange and pecans. Dinners for this week include imitation butter chicken, bruchetta pasta, and greek chicken skewers.

Yay for healthy eating!

Throwing the plans out the window.

2008-09-05T13:43:00.002-03:00

Lazy start to the day, I'm working from home today and am still in my PJs at 1:45 in the afternoon (how much do I love the flexiability my job offers me)

Usually working from home = fantastic eating, as I find it really easy to eat healthy food when I'm home. It helps that I can actually cook things, or BBQ and not just rely on my packed lunch when what I'm craving changes. I had great plans for today to eat healthy (salad mainly) because G (aka the boy) and I are headed to PEI tomorrow to visit his parents, and thats ALWAYS a recipe for disaster. I love his parents, but their idea of healthy eating is only having 1/2 pound of bacon for breakfast instead of a pound, or only having 4 different types of squares for desert instead of 10. However, I digress.

So plan for the day was lots of low cal stuff in order to save some calories for the weekend, however that plan got thrown out the window this morning when I woke up to find that when G was in the freezer last night, he didn't close it all the way! Everything thawed, or was partly thawed. So I'm eating some of the thawed meat and stuff today.

On the menu:
Breakfast/Lunch: cinnamon raisin bagel with TBSP peanut butter

Supper: two chicken burgers with one pita bun
red pepper slices and tzatziki

I work at my second job tonight, so my evening snack will be: yogurt and some blueberries

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

and I'm back in the game!

2008-09-04T21:06:00.010-03:00

Today was a fantastic day! I dragged my butt out of bed (and in turn dragged the boy's butt out of bed) at 5:30 this morning and we hit the gym for some cardio. It was just 30 minutes, but it was a start.

I'm trying out the C25K program and this morning was supposed to be my first training day. However 12 minutes into my 25 minute program I started getting the usual, shooting pain in my shins. Me thinks its time for some new sneaks. I've had my Saucanys for over a year now (ops!) So next paycheck I'm going to take myself down to either the Running Room or Aerobics First and try out some new ones. Thats my favorite part of both stores, they let you try out the sneaks and if they don't work for you, you can bring them back and try out some other ones until you find the right shoe. Sweet!

That being said, C25k is on hold until the new shoes are bought, in the meantime I will be doing strength training and non running cardio -- but hey, its something right?

Eating today was awesome, totally on track, and I tracked all my food at http://www.sparkpeople.com/. I do WW (loosely!) however I wanted to start taking a closer look at WHAT I am actually putting in my mouth, how many carbs, protein, iron etc. I love that spark will track that for you...for free at that! Anyways, I tracked it all, 10 glasses of water and 1500 calories, which is right in my range. Yay!

Todays food (with food porn for your pleasure!) sorry the pictures aren't great. The lighting at work wasn't great today!

Breakfast

1/2 cup oatmeal with cinnamon, 20 raisins, 2tsp brown sugar splenda and 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

large glass of H20 with Crystal Lite

Cup of coffee with 1/2 package lite hot chocolate

and of course my multivitamin, flaxseed oil and fish oil capsules!

Morning snack

1 medium apple with 2 tsp almond butter

Lunch

pita bun with 4 oz chicken breast cooked in salsa, 1 oz lite chedder cheese and 2tsp southwest sauce

1 cup black beans, corn and salsa

Sorry this doesn't look as appetizing as it tasted! Notice the little airline sized utensils...can't tell I work at the airlines! I'm trying to use up the leftovers from our last conference, catered by airline catering!

Afternoon Snack

cup of sliced red peppers

2 TBSP tzatziki

500 ml water (one of 5 today)

I don't have a picture of supper - but it was a herbed chicken burger on a thin pita bun with southwest sauce, 1/2 baked potato (no skin because the boy forgot to wash them before putting them in the oven) and 2 TBSP lite sour cream

Finally, I leave you with my non scale victory for the day....

These were sitting beside my desk all day long (treats for the guys I share the offices with) and I didn't touch them at all! (please excuse my facilitator binders in the background)

Lazy Labour Day

2008-09-01T21:24:00.004-03:00

I had a lazy, lazy day today. The gym wasn't open, the boy was working all day (no holidays in emergency services!) and I just didn't feel like doing ANYTHING.

I spent the day in my pjs with the cats watching 90210 reruns on TV. Part of me feels bad because there was SO much that could have been done around the house, the other part of me says, its a rare occurance that I actually spent ALL day alone and doing nothing, so I don't feel QUITE so bad.

And I did cook for dinner (even though I really didn't want to cook tonight, a rare occurance for me!) It was only pasta and sauce, but hey, a hot dinner was on the table for the evening, so noone can complain!

I leave you with a picture of the kitties being lazy (as per usual) they did nothing all day as well! :)

Stella - after a hard day of napping on the bedroom chair

Sullivan -- All he needs is a remote and a beer :)

Yoga Fiend....and other things

2008-08-14T19:17:00.002-03:00

So apparently I need to get better about this blogging thing. More than once every two weeks would probably be preferable. However, I don't actually have anyone who reads this, so really, the only person it matters to is myself....unless your out there in cyberspace reading without telling me, and if thats the case...then wow :)

I really started to get into the groove of being more healthy this week. I've notice that my body is starting to show OBVIOUS signs of this 50lb weight gain. Achy knees, painful hips, extremely tight muscles and a searing pain in my (R) shoulder blade that just won't go away. I wake up feeling like I'm 70 and that just isn't cool when one is 27. So what did I do? I went to Yoga.

Now, I've never been the type of person who would ever consider yoga. I'm just not into the whole "breathe through the pain, center your being, think about the breath and clear your mind" stuff. That might be because I have a mind that is constantly on the go, and the way I center my being and relax is to have a nap...but anyways. I went to my first yoga class at the gym on Tuesday. It hurt, it hurt a lot. I have no flexibility, my spine hates to sit up straight, my hip flexors don't want me to sit cross legged or on my knees. I walked away thinking I would never do it again.

Then I woke up the next morning. HELLO decreased body pain and loose muscles. So I went back again on Wednesday night. Class is growing on me slowly, the feeling of my body the next morning has grown on me completely. I might just end up a yoga convert.

In other news, I've actually tracked my food/points religiously since Monday. It feels good, eating lots of healthy food, writing things down, experimenting with new ideas. I weigh in at WW on Saturday morning for the first time in weeks. Expecting to see a gain (because of said weeks away), however it will be good to get a starting point again. Heres hoping I can keep this up at the cottage this weekend with G.

G is working nights tonight, so I'm by myself for dinner and decided to invent a new sandwich.

Pita Bun
2 oz of BBQ chicken breast
1 oz goat cheese
TBSP red pepper jelly
lettuce

Yum yum! I put the goat cheese on the bun and stuck it in the oven for a few minutes which melted the cheese into creamy goodness. I think it paired well with the red pepper jelly....mmm red pepper jelly. I think I might have to take this for lunch tomorrow as well!

feeling good!

2008-07-10T21:42:00.002-03:00

I've had three days of eating "healthy". I decided to take a break, not from healthy living, but from obsessing over Weightwatchers. I'm still going to weigh in every Saturday until the fall as I've pre paid for the summer pass, however I found (and I've found in the past) that when I get really into weightwatchers I find myself starting to obsess over what is going in my mouth.

I start thinking about food 24/7, as I eat I wonder when I will be eating next and what I will be eating next. It throws me off if I have planned 8 points for supper and then am really hungry for the day, eat more and end up with 4 points left for supper.

Instead the past 3 days I have been focused on healthy eating, and eating every few hours, and I think I've done really quite well with it. I haven't felt guilty, I haven't been hungry and I'm feeling great. (Despite the fact that I laid down at 5:00 today and slept till 9:00!! Ops!) So much for getting to the gym tonight!

Todays menu so far:

8:30 - 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup fresh berries
1/2 cup fiber one

10:30 - 1 apple
2 TBSP almond butter

12:00 - weight watchers bagel with TBSP of becel spread
1 cup southwest corn and chipolte soup
1/2 cup fresh berries
diet grapefruit soda

2:00 - peppermint tea
chocolate chip allbran bar

5:00 - 2 oz of BBQ chicken breast

9:30 - 1 PC Burger first bun
TBSP lite cream cheese
TBSP red pepper jelly
3 oz BBQ chicken breast
baby spinach
TBSP guacamole

2 L of H20 drank.

Vacation!

2008-06-30T11:15:00.002-03:00

I'm on vacation today, and its a wonderful feeling, despite the fact that its been raining all weekend. I go back to work for part of the day on Wednesday, and then I'm off again Thursday/Friday. We're going to try to get up to Montreal for a day to drop off baby gifts to our friends S & K, hopefully the weather improves before then.

Needless to say, this week will be a challenge. I always find it harder to stick to healthy eating when its vacation time or when I'm travelling. Probably part of the reason why I gained so much this year. With all the travelling I did for my job, it seemed like I was always "treating"myself when I ate in restraunts or was sitting at the airport.

Anyways, todays plan for food. G is taking his CPAT test for the fire department on Wednesday, so has requested pasta for dinner tonight and tomorrow, I'll have to work around that.

B - strawberries (1) , shillohette yogurt (1 cup) (2) , 1/3 cup kashi go lean crunch (2) , 1/2 banana (1)

L - tomato soup made with skim milk (2)
apple (1)
1 0z extra old chedder cheese (3)

D - bruchetta chicken pasta (tomatoes, 3 oz chicken, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinagar) 5
1 cup whole wheat pasta (4)
large green salad with peppers, red onion and goat cheese (1)
balsamic vinagar and olive oil (1)

Post Gym Snack - protein shake made with milk (2) and 1/2 banana (1) and frozen strawberries (1)

Gym plan: 1 hour bootcamp

"And I will call him Squishy...and he will be my little friend"

2008-06-30T10:38:00.002-03:00

Right now this line from Finding Nemo rings true, as thats what I realized my body has become over the past year....squishy. Well, more than squishy actually, quite jiggly in fact.
Its time to do something (once again). So I've decided to start this blog to track my progress in moving my body from jiggle, to squish to toned.

So a little back story to fill you in on things. My name is Mon, I'm a 27 year old Canadian who is trying, for the 11 thousandth time, to get to a weight goal of 145lbs.

I've been heavy my entire life, at least since puberty. I was always the "fat chick". In my final year of high school I lost 50lbs through Weight Watchers. After going to University I gained back 15-20 pounds and spent the next 6 years gaining and losting those 20 pounds, a constant yo yo, but generally hovering around 155-165 pounds. I was ok with that.

Then last year I was diagnosed with depression and put on anti depressants. The disease and the meds assisted in my gaining 40 pounds over this past year, which brings me back to my all time high of 190lbs. Where I said I would never be again.

So here I go, for one last and final time...trying to shed these extra pounds and get to a healthy weight of 145-150lbs. How? Through healthy eating (Weight Watchers), and a lot of gym time.

Welcome to my journey.