My New Frenemie

I am ashamed to say I did not make it to my Weight Watchers meeting this week. Wednesday, my usual meeting I had a valid excuse. This morning's meeting... I just didn't want to go out in the cold! It was about -26C with a windchill of -30C. I'd really rather not go out when it's that cold or put my car through being started at really cold temperatures. So I have no weigh in update to share with you.







Today I started week 4 day 1 of C25K. It was a tough run!!! I had intervals of 3 minute and 5 minute runs. My last 5 minute interval I had to step off of the treadmill twice for about 15 seconds just to give my calves a break.



Which leads me to introducing you to my friend/enemy... My brand new foam roller. During my last massage my therapist recommended I get one to work on the knots/adhesions in my calves. She also suggested a full hous on my legs which I won't particularly enjoy... That will happen on Wednesday. I'm also doing a 6 week boot camp with a trainer at my gym and she suggested foam rolling as well. So I gave in on Thursday and bought one.

I feel so awkward on this thing, my trainer walked me through rolling my calves. If you're curious about foam rolling, this is a great video I found on. YouTube that clearly shows and explains how you can use the foam roller on all of those major muscle areas.

After my run I spent a good 20 minutes going through all the techniques in the video, I sure don't look as good as she does I'm sure I look downright awkward. If you've done foam rolling, you'll know it hurts like heck... But I can already tell it's helping.


- thanks for reading!

Delayed Weigh In... Week 3 Complete

I'm really having to search for my motivation this week to stay on program!!! I'll be missing my Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow night. Every February for the last four years (this is my 5th) I've been the coordinator at work for a Dominican Experience trip for some of the students. Tomorrow after school were having a retreat for the kids followed by a parent meeting. It's going to be a loooooong day, I'll be at the school for at least 14 hours! Needless to say I won't be making my meeting or able to weigh in.

I'm very lucky though I don't go to a meeting in the city, my area has two meetings a week. I'll have to get up early *sigh* and go Saturday morning. Which won't be a bad thing since this will allow me to enjoy Christmas lunch out with the secretaries tomorrow, and we'll be ordering in some sort of dinner in as well. So I'll have a few days to let my body recover form more calories than usual and of course all the salt that goes into restaurant prepared foods which I'm sire will lead to some water retention for a day or two.



Today I finally completed Week 3 of my C25K program! It should of been done on Saturday, but we spent the day with friends ... Like all day till midnight! Then Sunday morning they invited us out for breakfast. So I didn't do any exercise all weekend!



Now you might think it strange that I couldn't exercise on Sunday, it was just breakfast right? Well, quite a few years ago I was diagnosed with exercise induced anaphylaxis. Yes, you read that right... I'm allergic to exercise! What food it is we don't know but it's caused by ingesting something that you will develop an allergic reaction to if you exercise within 3-4 hours of eating that food. We haven't found out what food it is, but I do know its happened after I've eaten at restaurants. If I exercise after eating out I will start by breaking out in hives, always starting in my scalp. Very quickly I'm covered from head to toes and can start developing welts. Then I start having trouble breathing and I start passing out, coming to and passing out again.

Scary isn't it? I've ended up in the ER twice because of this (before diagnosis) one time I passed out alone, on a dirt road with no phone on me, I had left it at home because my battery was dead.

Now I never go out running after I eat out. I never go out without my phone and epipen. I should have a runners ID but I don't. That I'll purchase on the spring. I have set routes that are in populated areas, I always tell Todd which one I'm taking and how long I should be.

I've not had a bad reaction in a king time now, I've had hives a few times ... But I don't like taking chances!

- thanks for reading!

Weekly Weigh In

It's Wednesday, my Weight Watchers meeting day.

I wasn't too sure how I was going to do this week. I had some tough situations, with dinner out Friday-Sunday! I also lost out on two days where I could get my workout in due to a migraine that started Friday night and has kept rebounding, until today...knock on wood.



I'm really impressed with myself this week, through exercise, best food choices and listening to my hunger signals during my meals out I've managed to loose 1lb this week! This means I'm almost at the same weight before my disastrous mid-November weigh in. Very proud that in the last two weeks I've managed to loose 3.2 pounds!









At today's meeting I picked up these nifty bowls from WW with lids. The inside of each bowl are marked with measurement lines. They were on sale, and figured they are another tool I can use towards my success.

This week's meeting was about snacks to go. Not a new topic, as it turns out this was the topic during one of January's meetings. This is a habit I'm already into so no great epiphanies for me tonight. Even some of my friends know I always carry snacks, if they're desperate. If I know I'm going to be out for awhile or the day I will pack snacks like veggie sticks, easy to eat fruit like apples or bananas and Mini Babybel Light.






For those moments that catch me by surprise I always have a little something in my purse that doesn't spoil or need refrigeration. I always have a snack sized bag with 2 points worth of raw almonds. I also carry these Simply protein bars, I keep them in a snack sized ziplock. I eat half of the bar, 2 points and if I'm still hungry 15 minutes later I'll eat the other half for a total of 4 points.

So be prepared for those unplanned moments so you don't spoil your hard won success with a trip to the nearest fast food joint or coffee shop.


- thanks for reading!

Making A Loosing List

This blog entry is long overdue, and I promised it to you in my last post! At first I wanted to sit down and think about it before posting it here.

We were challenged at last weeks Weight Watchers meeting to make a loosing list. This is your list of reason(s) to loose weight and reach your goal. This topic really left me thinking instead of participating in the meeting (I'm one of those people at the meeting who always has something to say/share).

Why do I want to loose weight?

There are the obvious reasons:

-fit in my size 8 pants again (currently back up to a size 12)
-fit my winter jackets again... I need to go buy a new, bigger one because I've put on enough weight since last winter that they don't fit properly over my hips
-feel sexy again
-be able to run a 1/2 marathon (again)
-to feel and look good
-to feel strong

The personal reason:

When I first lost my weight 63 lbs my Mum was my biggest supporter. I lost her suddenly in June. She never said it, but it know how proud of me she was. That I was more acceptable weight and healthy. So I'm doing this for my Mum, I miss her.



- thanks for reading!

Wednesday Weigh In

It's Wednesday, my meeting/weigh in day at my local Weight Watchers meeting. It was a really good deep meeting/topic and I want to save that for my next post, it's left me with some thinking to do which I want to share with you.



The scale was much, much kinder to me this week... Which means all of my hard work paid off this past week! I exercised 6 out of 7 days and tracked honestly. I'm very happy with my 2.2lb loss, which means I just need to loose another 1.4lbs to undo all the damage I did earlier this month. It's going to be a challenge, I'm going out to eat three days in a row! I'll just have to make the best choices I can.



I'm still continuing with C25K, I'm now onto week 2, day 2 and here are the stats on my latest run.



- thanks for reading!

Setting Goals

I seem to be starting to set goals for myself lately. I know that goals are a good thing. They help you focus, make you look ahead and *hopefully* follow through.



I've already told you about one goal I've set, and that's to complete the C25K program. Today I completed week one of eight, not only did I complete it, I killed it. Today my mind and body seemed to be in sync and I decided to push my time on the treadmill to an hour if I could. So once the 20 minutes of intervals was up I just kept going until I hit 5K then after a few minutes of just walking I wanted to try to run 5 continuous minutes, which I did!



You'll see from my Nike+ graph it didn't seem to chart all my run cycles, there should of been many more run peaks on it! At least it proves that I was on the treadmill for 60 minutes and did 6.5km.



I've now set myself another goal that is longer term than the next eight weeks, but it's related to this one. I've taken a HUGE step and I've registered for the 2014 Ottawa Race Weekend 10K on May 24th. My foot is holding up really well since my last cortisone injection, it has been almost 8 weeks now and my last one didn't hold out much more than 6 weeks before I started having troubles again. I feel good taking this step, and the race tends to sell out by January (it's already 50% sold out). I've done this event twice in the last, and I'm looking forward to being part of those popular event again. I also know that the 10k is so popular that if I have to stop running again, I can easily sell my bib.







Here I am (much slimmer) after the two times I've done this race In the past.

- thanks for reading!

The Negotiator

I will spend all day talking myself in and out of the exercise I'm planning on doing after work most days. I negotiate with myself.

You're exhausted ... Go home and sleep.

You've been so busy! ... Go home and relax.

Not feeling to good... Go home and sleep/veg.

Feel like a migraine is coming on, better get home just incase it gets too bad to drive.

You're almost finished that cross stitch project... Go home and stitch!

I could just go on and on! I'll also often tell myself I can get on the treadmill later that night. Sometimes I do many times I don't. I don't know about you, but once I'm relaxed for the night I don't like to get up and get going again.



So after negotiating with myself ALL DAY today, as exhausted as I went here I am, pouty face and all about to go into the gym! Yay me!


- thanks for reading!

Oh my!

Today was bad news day, weigh in day after almost two weeks of food debauchery. I knew the results would be not what I wanted.



As you can see, I've gained over 3lbs. I let two weeks of being beyond busy that I decided to go off-program, I ate what I wanted and as much as I wanted. It never ceases to amaze me HOW quickly and easily weight goes back on versus coming off.







I'm on track today, and I completed Week 1 Day 2 of the C25K program. Running today was hard... What I really wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a few hours. I stuck with it though, I know if I keep following through with my intentions eventually I do turn it into a routine I hate to miss.


- thanks for reading!

Recommitting

Hey there, it's been quite awhile but I think it's time for me to come back. I think documenting this journey will help, so will your support.

Since September I've been working toward recommitting myself to weight loss, Weight Watchers and being active. It's been a slow journey, I've managed to loose 4lbs in 2 and a half months. Not Biggest Looser numbers, but I try to remind myself that it's movement in the right direction.

Why has it been a slow journey this time? I've been of the mindset not to be as strict with myself this time around. Also I'm letting life get in the way too much, when I'm getting off track it's not for an hour or a moment, I'll let it go on for a few days or a week. I need to remind myself that I don't want to give up what I've worked so hard to achieve.

I've just had a week of not counting/eating what I want (or exercising). Though I've enjoyed having treats without the guilt or worry, I'll be seeing those results at the scale tomorrow when I go to my WW meeting. I'm ready to re-recommit myself, to become a little more strict with myself, like I was when I first lost 63 lbs. I have since put back on 30 lbs. I know stopping here, drawing that line in the sand is a victory in itself... But I also promised myself, I'd never go back to the way I was. Here I am half way there.

What am I doing to make this re-recommit happen? I've started tracking using my WW app again, tomorrow morning, I'm going to start tracking everything, honestly. After a week of chaos last week (no time, with so much on my plate), I started exercising again today. I can't let one week beyond my control ruin two and a half months of work. Just a bump in the road.



So here I am, today somewhere in the mid 170's just before my workout.






My old running shoes recently died on me.



I've treated myself to a new pair of running shoes, for years now I've worn the Brooks Dyad, these are the latest model, the Dyad 7. I like that they've moved away from a white runner.

In mid-October I started running again, but doing my own thing outdoors on my favourite trail or in my Village. The colder weather (we've had some snow on the ground) has finally sent me indoors. I've been inspired to start the C25K Program (couch to 5km) to keep me motivated to run on the treadmill to give me a program to focus on, that will keep me going for the next 8 weeks (which should do me into January).






So here' today's program and my Nike+ stats! I am not a fast runner and I don't pretend to be.

It's a start.



- thanks for reading!

Oh My I'm Bad

Wow this week has been hard and so may temptations I just didn't pass up.







I have been good and walked every day except Saturday because I just didn't feel well (I've been having a migraine more on than off for the last three weeks) and Sunday because it was raining. A loop of my friend's neighbourhood takes just over 15 minutes. Most days I've done two loops, it's just been so hot and humid, and I'm not used to that. My hands would swell with the heat and humidity while out walking.






But today I did three!

There has been too many temptations that I just don't allow myself at home...



There has been Sonic's Summer of Shakes... Peanut Butter and Fudge, need I say more?



Cracker Barrel's Biscuits and Gravy... I lived in the south as a teen so I am familiar with this tasty delicacy.



Another breakfast indulgence, the IHOP and pancakes with cinnamon bun filling.... Oh my heaven!!!









Also we couldn't resist having lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp! I was a very good girl and had this fantastic salad... Just imagine chicken instead of shrimp (I don't eat seafood). Dessert was just too tempting!

There has been walking as we've gone to see the historical areas of Charleston (twice) and some shopping. Probably not enough to counteract the mega calorie indulgences I've had.



I'm travelling back home tomorrow and hopefully to a more balanced diet, but I am hitting the road Thursday on a 17 hour drive to the East Coast (Cape Breton) to visit another friend. I'm looking forward to packing apples, bananas and a bag of baby carrots to snack on during the drive. It's definitely a challenge being in an environment where lots of fruits and veggies are not the norm.

I've been going with the flow and not freaking out over my diet. I've done the best I can when I can this last week except for the sweets/treats I just can't get at home or won't usually allow myself to have.


- thanks for reading!

Summer Adventures

After today I am offically on my SUMMER HOLIDAYS!  This year it seemed like it took a long time to get here and I'm so ready to be off of work for three and a half weeks!!!

My first adventure starts after work today.  I'm driving down to Syracuse, NY where I'll be flying out early tomorrow morning to spend a week with my best friend Claire in the Charleston, SC area!  I'm looking forward to checking out the LNS Keepm 'em in Stitches.  When I return a week Wednesday, I'm landing early enough in the day that I'm going to have time to go check out Stitcher's Garden near Syracuse before I drive back home.

I may follow this up with a drive out to the East Coast to visit Tracey at her cottage in Cape Breton.  It'll all depend on what the budget looks like after this first trip!   Hopefully I'll find a little time to blog here and there from my ipad on my Summer 2013 Adventures!

I did weigh in this am for a pre-vacation weight, I am up again for the third week in a row.  Last week I weighed in on Friday I was up one pound, 178 lbs and this morning I'm up 0.4 to 178.4.  Its only been a few days so I'm not really concerned about the number, I just wanted to get in and weighed WEEKLY and hopefully it'll help me keep Weight Watchers in mind while I'm travelling.

I really need to stop "pretending" at doing Weight Watchers and really commit to the program.  I've been steadily gaining almost a pound a week for the last month and that's just not good.  To think that at one point I had lost 64 lbs from my start weight and now, I"m to a point where I've only managed to keep 29 of those lbs off.  Its just plain STUPID.  I have steadily gained weight since February of of 2011.  Why I can't do this, I don't understand what's wrong in my head.

Positive notes... I've weighed in weekly for the last 3 weeks (but still haven't had time to stay for a meeting).  I've done well going to the gym each week, and this week when I can't make it to the gym (and I'm not suffering from a migraine... they've been VERY bad) I'm getting out for a good 35 minute power walk.

I can do this.

I'm In Control

I think I'm ready to come back now, I've done a few blog entries over at my stitching blog.  I've been thinking about blogging here for almost a week now.

Mum and I in Quebec City

Its been a month now since my Mum has been gone.  I took a week off of work right after it happened, I wasn't sure how I was going to be, or if my Dad would need my help.  I did help him when dealing with the funeral home, but he seemed content to take care of everything else on his own.  My friends and everyone I know have really come out in full force to support me during these difficult weeks.  It was good for me to get back to work, I'm glad I didn't take longer off... a welcome distraction.  We had private family scattering of her ashes, it wasn't as sad or upsetting as I thought it was, I felt at peace over that.  I've had the emotional day here and there, and I've started going through her crafting supplies (mainly quilting and beading) as I'm the only child who inherited the love of crafting.  I do miss my Mum.

How has this impacted my efforts to loose weight... well its been a rollercoaster ride for sure!  At first I was good, I went to Weight Watchers the first two weeks after Mum had passed.

The first week after her passing, I had a good week a 3 pound loss.

The second week, a one pound gain.

Then there was a two week gap, my excuses?  The end of the school year was insanely busy!  I also felt like I had been eating non-stop for over a week!  There were meals out, and treats galore which were hard for me to resist/say no to.  Instead of going to my meeting I was lured by the temptation of a day out with my friends Tracey and Christin.  I also didn't want to face negativity at the scale like I did at the beginning of June.  This past Saturday I didn't go to my meeting (on Saturday) for a good reason, I needed to get in to see my Sports Medicine Doctor as my Sinus Tarsi Syndrome has flared up again in my left foot.  That appointment and the meeting conflicted, I couldn't do both.

Before hair

Hair - after, being goofy at work us librarians can be quite sexy with a laser/scanner gun!

I took advantage of the day and got my haircut.  That was quite emotional for me, it was something my Mum and I have frequently done together over the years we would go see my hairdresser together and go out for lunch afterwards.  I broke down when Azra asked me where my Mum was.  Boy that was hard, I almost tear up sharing this with you.  My visit to Azra was followed with lunch out with Christin and her parents.  When they heard my Mum had passed they had let me know that when I was ready, they wanted to drive up (they live 2 hours away) and take me out for lunch.  Such a nice thing to do, it made for a really nice day.  Christin's Mom also gave me these miniature roses.

While Azra cut my hair (I have followed her around since 1997 and she always speaks frankly to me I love her to pieces), she talked a little sense into me.  Reminding me that I had to take care of myself and that I needed to be in control of my life.  That we don't have much if we don't have our health.  This has resonated with me this week.  I'm getting better and making the right choices, stopping when I'm full and I'm starting to track again, and doing my best to track my foods honestly.  I'm also trying to move more.  I never made it into the gym this week (I have made more of an effort to go this month) but I've gotten out for a couple of walks which I know is better than nothing.

I also have no excuse to not make it to a meeting or at least weigh in.  I'm spoiled in this area there are so many meetings I could go to if not my own.  Also less than a 5 minute drive from my work there's a Weight Watchers Center!  Today I was resolved to go in this morning during my break (I'm visiting friends this weekend so I can't go to my meeting).  I couldn't stay for the meeting but at least I made it to the scale.  Despite two weeks of destructive behavior, no tracking and bad food choices the result wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

After a two-week hiatus only a 1.2 lb gain.  The up side? I have put back on ALL of the 3 lbs I lost.