Review: Orange Cadbury Thins

I spied a new Cadbury Thins flavour at Walmart the other day – orange! Being the sort to like orange-flavoured chocolate, I bought one to try later. Yum! It's like a Terry's Chocolate Orange...but in a safer quantity. If you like this kind of chocolate, keep your eyes peeled. No pun intended of course ;)

Losing my insulation

As I've been losing my padding, I've noticed that I feel colder more often. This is a good thing. I hate the heat. I'd rather be cold because I can always put on a sweater. It's a beautiful sunny day today and it's supposed to get up to 25C. We don't have AC in the office, but I'm cold! Normally I'd be sweating by now. I like being cooler!

Hehe, I wonder if anyone would notice if I turned on my space heater?

How many steps have you taken today?

Registering for walking events has a lot of perks. Health and accomplishment aside, you usually get free swag as part of your registration package. The Hbc Run For Canada package was particularly good as it had a free pedometer in it. I finally got around to delving the depths of the goodie bag and found a nifty little ParticipACTION business card. On the card is a guide that helps you determine how active you are based on the number of steps you take in a day. Reprinted here for your info and just in case I lose the card!

< 5,000	= sedentary
5,000–7,499	= low active
>= 10,000	= active
> 12,500	= highly active

Source: Catrine Tudor-Locke, Arizona State University.
Affiliate Scholar, Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute.

We had the courage

My walking team and I did an 8k walk today. Though it was an easy walk, we still came in dead last. Turns out the majority of participants were runners with a scant few walkers. In fact, there was maybe 2 other walkers aside from us.

At the start of the race, everyone but us took off running. The first leg of the 8k was along a busy road, closed off especially for the event. So here we were walking in last place, with the runners blocks ahead of us in the first few seconds. It wouldn't have been so bad except we were holding up a long line of cars. Needless to say, we were mortified.

We did a bit of running and tried to walk as fast as we could, but there was no way we could do the walk any faster. So, we plowed on and tried hard not to notice the police escort slowly crawling along behind us. That worked for a bit until the good constable decided to start cheering us on through her loudspeaker. We'd get to a kilometre marker and she'd say something like "way to go team!" When we finally got off the main road and onto residential streets, she started randomly playing us rock music by holding her loudspeaker microphone up to her radio.

After the 4k mark, embarrassment at being last and having our own personal police escort cheering us on so the whole neighbourhood could hear slowly waned to resignation. We were going to do this thing, pride be darned. Along the way the volunteers were still patiently waiting for us and enthusiastically cheered us on. When we got to the end, it was to loud applause from the remaining people and a participation medal for each of us for our efforts.

Though the medal was great, it was the kudos from the volunteers that made it worthwhile. Though we apologized for holding them up, they waived it off and said that at least we got out there and were better than everyone else who stayed home on their couches that morning. You know what? They're right. We did so much more than someone who stayed home.

A fellow walker's t-shirt summed up the whole experience:

The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." - John Bingham

Who cares we came in last. We had the courage to start and keep going.

Twenty-fifth Weigh-in

Ah, so nice to see the scale moving in the right direction! I lost 1.6 lbs this week which is fabulous. Though I haven't quite lost what I gained last week, it's still moving downwards which is what counts. I'm also even more convinced that my "gain" last week was due to my choice of clothing - jeans. I had been wearing my light-as-air capris for a number of previous weigh-ins. Who was I kidding by wearing extra light clothes to fool the scale?

But this week, I wore the same as last week so I'm more confident in my weigh-in results. I've also vowed to continue to wear the same thing in subsequent weigh-ins. Consistency!

Dentist appointments rock (sometimes)

My husband and I went to our dentist's this morning to have our teeth cleaned. Dr. B., our dentist, is awesome and we've been going there for years. A new hygienist went over my file and asked me if anything big had happened with my health since last time I was in. You bet your bottom dollar that I told her about my weight loss! She was excited for me, and kept asking me questions all through the cleaning. What I ate, what I did for exercise, if I was hungry all the time, and so on.

When Dr. B. came in to check my teeth mid-clean, he said "What's going on here? You're looking very trim!" Trim indeed! I'm finally living up to my namesake! He went on to ask me if I had meant to lose the weight (because he's always afraid to ask in case someone lost weight due to sickness) and then enthusiastically congratulated me and said I looked very good. I told him I had cut my hair and gotten new glasses, too. After our appointments, my husband told me that Dr. B. had also mentioned it to him – that I was like a totally different person! Woot! :) :) :)

Hehe, now why can't that get me out of the three fillings I need??

Training at lunch

I went for another training walk on my lunchtime. This time I decided to be smart and bring my workout clothes – pants, shirt and shoes. I felt all smart until I went to change and realized I completely forgot socks! Whoops!

I just about didn't go out because of that, but went anyways. Fortunately, MEC is near to my work so I swung by there during the first leg of my walk and picked up a pair of my favourite technical socks.* The clerk was awesome – she unwrapped my socks, snipped the little plastic restraint and let me use one of their benches to put them on.

Aside from the hiccup at the beginning, the walk went very well and I'm excited about doing it again on my lunchtime. It's a great way to get some fresh air and exercise mid-day.

* Technical socks are awesome. They're made with wicking fabric so your sweat will wick away and your feet will be drier. Walking/running technical socks also have cushy bottoms so they help reduce impact. If you like to walk or run, do yourself a favour and try a pair!