10K – the day after

Ooof. Legs. Muscles. Ouch! Okay, I whine a bit. I'm actually a lot less sore than I thought I'd be! A 30 minute walk at lunchtime and LOTS of water should help with that.

Cold/flu-wise I'm feeling pretty fly! The headache is just on the fringes and I can breathe pretty good. Just a small throat tickle, too. Even still, I'm going to take it easy this week. Only when I'm healthy and hale will I go back to Curves.

UPDATE
Our group has a small mention in the newspaper's 10K wrap-up today. Kick-ass!

10K - We did it!

This morning was the 10K and, despite common sense, my husband's gentle remonstrations, and my still stuffy head, I walked the whole thing. Yes, I was going to go to a certain point on the course and wait for the rest of our team to loop around and come back but a little voice in my head kept saying "do it!"

And so I did. All 10K. And boy did I feel like crap afterwards. Massive headache. But oh, how sweet it was to cross the finish line! We worked hard for this day and it felt great to see all our efforts rewarded.

I've just gotten up from a long nap and I feel much better with a couple of Tylenol in me. Tomorrow it's back to work which seems more daunting than walking a 10K.

Twelfth Weigh-in

When I woke up this morning, I didn't feel like utter crap and I weighed 183 lbs on my home scale to boot. Wow. That's a whole lotta weight. I never want to get this sick again.

So, I had a big hearty breakfast - the biggest I've had in a week - drank lots of water, put on my heaviest clothes and prepared for official weigh-in. I decided I really didn't want to use my no-weigh-in pass and figgered I could make up in food and fluids what my body shouldn't have lost this week.

It was a good try, but ultimately my official weigh-in shows me at 187.4 lbs with a total loss of 2.6 lbs for this week. Man, I knew I shoulda eaten that rasher of bacon!

I kid, I kid. But I as I told the meeting leader, the flu might've gotten me over the 15 lb mark (did I mention, I got a star!) but I'll take it any way I can get it. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to cross all bodily limbs I have available to wish away bad scale mojo for next week after my body has had a chance to recover.

Still sick :(

I'm still sick. This is a doozy of a whatever-it-is. I haven't been eating very regularly and it's been a struggle to get my healthy checks in. I'm trying my best though. At least I'm not eating all manner of bad stuff for me. I think the worst that I've eaten is some good ol' KD and a Kinder egg. It's strange how the cravings come out of the woodwork when you're sick.

I might use my "get out of weigh-in" pass this week. I imagine I've lost water weight because of this bug. It'll even out to be sure, but I don't want a huge loss this week accompanied by a huge gain the next. I'll see how I feel on Saturday. I may not be up to going to weigh-in anyways.

And lastly, the other thing on my mind is the 10k walk this Sunday. Wouldn't you figger it, me, the person who started this whole thing and managed to get five other people involved might be too weak to participate. Not to mention all these weeks of hard work training for it and I might not get the satisfaction of crossing the finish line. Bah :(

I hate sick

Blah. So I'm home sick from work today. I got up to email my boss that I wouldn't be in only to find my wonderful husband had already done so. In the meantime, one of my cats has taken up residence on my pillow and the other cat is lying all over my blanket on the floor. It's nice to know I have such "help" from my feline companions.

I think I'll do fine being on plan as I don't feel like eating much. Even comfort food isn't terrifically appealing. Soup and juice is fine by me.

I'm giving the cats a dirty look right now. They're ignoring me. One of them even yawned and snuggled in deeper. Sigh. I hate sick.

Exercycle Update

I finally got the confirmation email, my exercycle is officially in-town and ready to be picked up! Too bad I'm sick :(

The Day After

I like seeing new places, but I must admit...I love home so much better. Soft mattress, soft pillow and soft kitties to curl up with.

Today has been good as far as being perfectly on plan. It's amazing how easy it was to slip into it again. I think a few days of eating "out" food has helped me realize just how good homemade can be in terms of taste and health. I've had my milk, I've had my fruits, and I've had my water without fear of knowing where my next bathroom break was going to be. I also did my first 3-mile workout this morning to try and work off that awful Tim Hortons breakfast sandwich.

On plan and feeling good about it? Heck yeah! Starting to come down with a cold? Heck yeah.

Some friends came with us on our mini-trip and one of them brought a cold with her. Because friends share, she gave it to my husband and I. This will be interesting to see how I do "on plan" with a cold. Blech. Pass me the kleenex and the low-fat high-fibre chicken soup >_<

10 Things I Learned While I Was Away

1. It's easy to drink water but hard to find clean restrooms.
2. A "bad" food choice can still be on plan if eaten in moderation.
3. Salmon from a fancy restaurant doesn't necessarily taste as good as homemade.
4. Almonds and fruit leather are lifesaver snacks.
5. I missed my skim milk, my oils, and yes, even my fruits and veggies more than I thought.
6. When you recognize you're full, it's easier to say no to desserts.
7. Hotels with complimentary gyms rock. P.S., treadmills are fun.
8. Tim Hortons' breakfast sandwiches are greasy and yucky.
9. Each food choice throughout the day is an opportunity to start fresh.
10. I can go away for a few days and not blow-it completely.

Eleventh Weigh-in

I weighed in today because I'm going away for the weekend. I was a bit nervous as I didn't have the whole week to lose weight before a weigh-in. However, I'm glad I went. I've lost another pound. This means I'm at a nice even 190 lbs and I can taste the "one-eighties."

Altogether, I've lost 14 lbs which means there's only 60 lbs left until my ideal weight. 60 sounds sooo much nicer than when I first started and had 74 lbs to lose!

Wish me luck this weekend. There's going to be temptation up the yingyang. I'm going to remember just how much I've accomplished and hang onto it for dear life. I will not let greasy unregulated food take away what I've earned!

TinyTrim: 1, Office Luncheon: 0

To celebrate the visit of a coworker from one of our national offices, the boss planned a luncheon for everyone to get together and socialize. Fortunately, most of the office loves organic bunny food. This means the boss tends to order free-range wraps and desserts. Even still, I was somewhat worried. Bunny food can taste really good and if you eat too much of it, it can still attach itself to your bum with its pesticide-free teeth.

However, I need not have worried. As expected, the food was as bunny as could be. Although there were fair-trade sandwiches, I helped myself to one serving of baby carrots, a small amount of dip, and 1 serving of grapes. Together with my water, it was all I ate. Even the organic chocolate brownie my coworker was eating didn't tempt me. All I could think of was "blurk" and how sickly rich it would be.

I'm starting to get a little hungry now but it's to be expected. I'll nosh on a light babybel soon to add some protein to my stomach. So take that luncheon! You have no power over me!

I want to ride my exercycle exercycle exercycle

Way back when in the days of skinnyness, I used to have an old clunker of an exercise bike that I picked up from Goodwill for $10. It clunked, it squeaked and you had to tighten the belt every few minutes. Regardless, I pedaled the summer away on it and had a good ol' time with it no matter what my bum might've said at the time.

Recalling these good memories, I've been researching bikes at Sears. I eventually picked out a mid-range Free Spirit exercycle. Although not top of the line when it comes to exercise bikes, this one has all the features I want: very quiet, built-in HRM, and computer-controlled tension. After trying it out in-store I came to a grudging realization: my old exercise bike was an instrument of torture. It's funny how memories can be so rosy and ignorant of the Geneva Convention at the same time.

I've been hemming and hawing over this new bike for a while now. I even resisted purchasing it when it went on sale a month ago or so. When it went on sale again this weekend and for even less than last month's sale, I knew it was a sign.

If the delivery gods are kind, it'll be ready for pickup this Thursday. And, as Queen so aptly put it, "Fat bottomed girls they'll be riding today!"

The two-and-a-half-month itch

I've been really struggling for the last few days. Bored, tired and a "who cares?" attitude towards food and exercise. Not good.

Today, I'm promising myself to just keep doing what I've been doing. Plod along and keep the chin up. This is temporary and it will pass. Remember that day I said to always remember? Yeah, that day. So remember it already!

Tenth Weigh-in

Just a tiddle today I'm afraid. Oh well, at least .4 lbs lost is better than gained!

If it isn't hunger...

If it isn't hunger, food won't fix it. I had to repeat that a lot today. It's a phrase my Weight Watchers leader taught us at a recent meeting. When stressed, angry, bored, sad or whatever, eating won't fix it. She didn't mention anything specifically about deadlines and clients, but I figgered repeating it HAD to work.

Repeating this mantra eventually worked but not before I ate myself sick on too many almonds. As a result, I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling stressed, yucky, and guilty. My leader was right. While three times the helping of almonds might've seemed good at the time, it certainly didn't fix anything.

I repented this evening as best as I could. Drank my water, ate my veggies. And, after journaling my food for the day (yes, even those almonds), it wasn't so bad after all. I didn't win the battle, but I didn't lose the war either. Yay for small victories.

What have I done?

I took a long look at my naked self in the mirror last night. I noticed all the usual lumps and rolls and, for the first time, stretch marks. Stretch marks. I've never been pregnant and yet there they are. For the first time since gaining all this weight, I had a very sobering thought...

What have I done?

Despite all the warning signs over the years, I let pound by pound creep on. And the result is this. I made myself into this.

As depressing as all this sounds, another more encouraging thought followed on the heels of the last...This is not how I want to be.

And it's true. This is not how I want to be. This is not how my body wants to be. And last night I finally realized it. It's given me a new determination to work hard and when those last few pounds come off I can look at myself in the mirror and say, look at what I've done!

20 Under 200

Starbucks has finally gotten around to releasing info on their "Under 200" campaign. It wasn't what I thought it would be but it's certainly a step in the right direction!

20 Delicious Beverages Under 200 Calories (500k PDF)

I think it's funny that they include plain ol' coffee and tea. Marketing must've been stretching to find things to include. Either that or they think people are dumb and need to be told the obvious.

My catty comments aside, I think this guide will certainly come in handy!

7 inches I never want to see again

After that false start last week, I finally got weighed and measured at Curves last night. I'm happy to report that the lady who took my measurements was extremely nice. Beyond nice! I had to restrain myself from begging her on bended knee to transfer to our location. (Like the other nice lady from last week, she was only filling in until they find someone more permanent.)

At the end of my workout she gave me a printout of how I did for the last month. I waited till I got to the car to look at it. I was afraid I might start dancing or crying depending on the outcome. Fortunately, I need not have worried.

Since starting Curves, I've lost:

• 7.25 inches
• 8.50 pounds
• 1.8% body fat

7.2 of those pounds was body fat. Wow. I literally have lost 7 sticks of butter!

I can't be more pleased. Between Weight Watchers and Curves I'm feeling really great and it's starting to show!

Talking the Talk, Plotting the Walk

I've recently found some great tools for walking and running. They enable you to plot routes in your own city using Google Maps as the base. As you plot, it calculates the total distance in kilometres or miles. Once you're done, you can save your route and email the URL to fellow-walkers.

There's a number of flavours of these Google plotting web sites, but these are the ones I like the best:

• Gmaps Pedometer – simple and to the point, Gmaps lets you plot your route, see the distance and get a URL to the map for emailing or to come back to later.
• WalkJogRun – this site lets you see other user's routes in your area. It's great if you've run out of ideas and want some inspiration. You can filter by distance as well. To view a route, zoom into your area, single click on a marker and then click "View" on the popup bubble.

For both sites, be sure to click on the "Hybrid" button near the top of the map. You'll see satellite imagery as well as the street network. It's dead useful for plotting walks along unmarked paths.

Time Bomb

There's so much I've been wanting to write about this past week that I'm going to use my blogger wand and turn back time. So, if you've been reading along, you might notice a few "new" posts that are a few days old.

Ahhh...MUCH better!

The last few times I went to Curves, the harpy woman who gave me so much grief earlier in the week was nowhere to be found. Instead, there's been a really great lady who would work on the machines with us, adjust the music volume, the fans, and was just generally friendly and great.

Unfortunately, I heard her talking with some of the other members and she's just filling in. Apparently, my Curves is short-staffed at the moment and they've been getting employees from other Curves around town to fill in. I'm hoping this means the sourpuss woman was just filling in, too.

At any rate, I gave myself a goal of getting 12 workouts in within a month's time period. I actually met that goal on Thursday night but today was the first day I could follow through on my reward. I ordered a pair of Gym Capris and an Aqua-coloured Synergy shirt from See Jane Run.

I can hardly wait!

Ninth Weigh-in

I gotta say, I'm surprised at this week's weigh-in results! 2 lbs down! I've been awfully busy this week and had an unfortunate run-in with what I thought was a points-friendly sandwich at Tim Hortons. Combined with my burger and generally eating more than I usually do (but still under total points for the week), I didn't think my loss would be much, if any.

I mentioned it to the nice lady who weighed me in this morning and she said that sometimes our bodies start feeling deprived and feeding it more helps lose weight faster. Well don't that beat all! I'm going to try and match how many points I ate last week for this upcoming week and see how I do.

Two months and a reward

It's been just over a week since my two-month anniversary of starting Weight Watchers. I decided to celebrate by getting a manicure at our local Aveda salon. I also booked my husband in for a facial because he needs pampering, too! He's been such an angel and is as much a part of my success as Weight Watchers.

So, tonight, I dropped him off for his facial while I went to Curves. I finished my workout and came back to Aveda for my turn at pampering. We both enjoyed it immensely. His face looks very good and my hands are all pretty with their pink sparkle polish.

Yes, I think I could get used to rewards like this! ^_^

Something Windy This Way Comes

The last few days haven't been the best days for me in terms of quality eating. However, I've been trying my best to make good choices and practicing portion control. I would, of course, be speaking of the DQ burger from earlier this week and now, unfortunately, a Tim Horton's sandwich that I thought would be reasonably points-friendly.

I had a Toasted Chicken Club at Timmies last night while we were out shopping. I was starving (not eating regularly during the day, doh!) so I thought it would be okay. Well, don't it figure that I find out later just how many points one of those sandwiches are. I could've had something much tastier for all those points!

And, to add insult to injury, I'm rather gassy today. I haven't had much gas since starting on the plan so I'm blaming Timmies.

Review: WATP Get Up and Get Started (1 mile walk)

Instead of going to Curves tonight, I tried the first workout from my new Walk Away the Pounds DVD set - Get Up and Get Started. I was very pleased to see that this video is of much higher calibre than the 30 Minute Walk DVD I recently bought.

The audio is superb and the workout is much more polished. Leslie Sansone is also toned down but she's still enthusiastic in a non-annoying way. The set looks modern as does all of her back-up walkers. She even included a token guy in the mix - an older fellow who looks rather out of place.

The music is less 80s (thank goodness) and made me want to move my legs more. Even still, it can't surpass the Turbo Jam style of music for groovy-ness.

The 1-mile walk itself is pretty low-key until the addition of weights a little ways in. The weights that Leslie uses are her own branded weighted ball thingies. (I don't have these so I just substituted my hand weights and it worked out just fine.) After you start lifting the weights for the upper-body movements, you really start to feel it in your muscles. It's harder than it looks.

However, even with the addition of the weights, I didn't find this workout to be very intense. I barely broke a sweat and was easily able to follow along. For those new to exercise, however, I think it'd be a great starting point. I'm going to try the 2-mile walk next as that looks to have a faster pace to it.

It’s here, it’s finally here!!

Oh, I'm so excited!! Guess what FINALLY came in the mail today? Yep, that's right, my WATP DVD set from Amazon. Can you believe that I ordered it on February 19th? They're usually pretty good, but man was that a painful wait!

After going sock shopping (for the husband) and hopefully shoe shopping (I need new shoes) tonight, I'm going to try one of the workouts. I can't wait!

*dancing with glee*

10k Training and a craving managed successfully

Last night my husband and I went for our longest training walk yet – almost 7k along the beach. Afterwards, I felt really great and like I could've gone another 3k.

After our walk, I had a craving for something flamebroiled so we went to Dairy Queen. I ordered a grillburger to go (no cheese or bacon thank you very much!) At home, I put one half of it in the fridge and had the other half with a big salad.

Whoo! It felt really great to do such a long walk and also manage a craving with portion control. I can have my burger and eat it, too!

Curves Update – Sorta

Last night was my weigh-in and measurement day at Curves. I was really looking forward to it because I knew there'd be changes. It was just my luck that I'd get one of the sour puss employees of the sort that made me not want to go to Curves the last time I joined.

I "interrupted" her sweeping when I asked to be measured. It wasn't like I was rude or anything, I was standing at the counter waiting until she saw me. After I asked, she messed around with sweeping some more and then finally took me over to the measurement station. She took my measurements and was rather sloppy at it. She input my weight wrong into the log book (143.6 lbs; umm, hello? look at me!) so I had to correct her.

Once that was done, I went to get changed for my workout, anticipating the printout when I was done. To my dismay, she followed me in five minutes later and started loudly going on how my bust and waist measurements went up 5 inches and that wasn't good at all. She then pointedly asked if I was on my period and when I said I was just finishing she huffed and was like all "that would explain it" and made like it was my fault how she'd have to change my weigh-in date to next week. Only then did she finally realize that maybe she ought to tell me how my weight had gone down and that I was doing well.

That didn't last long though, and she went right back at harping on those 5 inches. Bah. I bit my tongue and nicely agreed with her even though I wanted to say that she didn't measure me as carefully as the nice lady did when I first joined!

So, I'll have to wait until next week to get my results. Bah. I do hope she isn't the new employee. The ones I have met have been absolutely fabulous. Nice girls who don't follow you around the circuit with the broom or get in your way while you're changing stations ¬_¬

I'm a dumbass with a thinner face

My husband took a good look at me just now and said "Your face has definitely gotten thinner."

So, like the dumbass that I am, I puffed out my cheeks in response to a luverly compliment. Heh. I kinda find it hard to accept compliments without goofing off *^_^*

Frankfurter Spectacular!

Oh, and because it's April Fools today, a bit of levity is in order. I'm sure there's plenty who've seen this site, but for those who haven't, check out Candyboot's Weight Watchers Recipe Cards from 1974. It's a collection of actual recipe cards from 1974 with commentary. It's absolutely hilarious. I laughed my self sick. Thank goodness the recipes are so much better nowadays!

Legs! Muscles!

For the last few days, I've been feeling a strangeness in my legs. Like there's more in there than fat and bone. Almost suspiciously like...muscles! I've been finding it easier doing certain stretches and exercises lately and muscles would certainly explain it. Who would've thought?