I'd Like To Raise $1000 This Year! Please Help

Some of my long -time readers may remember the breast cancer scare I had back in April of 2007.

I am one of the lucky people the lump in my breast turned out not to be cancer. Since then I've wanted to be able to do something to give back.

For the third year in a row I'll be participating in CIBC's Run for the Cure (5K charity run) on Sunday October 3rd. I would like to surpass last year's effort of $955.00 and raise at least $1000. If you wish to sponsor me and make an online donation click HERE to go to my personal fundraising page and make a donation (anyone from anywhere in the world can donate).

I'll also be out and about with sponsorship forms on me at almost all times. So if you live in my area or at a stitching get together with me and wish to donate using cash or cheque, just let me know!

Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

Weekly Meeting Topic : Bend With the Winds of Change

Yet again this week, I had to go to the Saturday meeting and it seems to be the trend this summer.  But that's okay because the meeting leader there is really cool and very creative when it comes to discussing the week's topic.

First of all I decided to get weighing in for this month out of the way since I know next weekend there will be so many temptations at my upcoming stitching weekend it'll be a surprise if I'm not slightly up afterwards.  I stepped onto my scale at home when I got up, 146.2 NOT BAD!  Down almost 1lb from Tuesday which is my "official" weigh in day on eTools and if I go to my regular meeting.  So I told the meeting leader, depending on how my weight was on the "official" scale I'd like to weigh in for the month.  In other words ignore me stepping on the scale if its not between 145 and 147lbs.  I was bang on 147!  Wooo hooo!  I was so happy for the first time since MARCH I didn't have to pay!  I've finally gotten back into my "safe zone" but I'm not stopping there, I WANT to get back to 145 and if my body will let me, perhaps a little lower?  So looking at my weigh in card, I'm down 2lbs from last month's weigh in, that's 4lbs in two months!  I'm so happy!

This weeks meeting topic was Bend With the Winds of Change in other words we are not all perfect and we need to learn to be flexible.  Instead of presenting us with the ABC's of being flexible she presented us with the "P's and F's"

• Patience - be patient with weight loss its not going to happen at once.  Also be patient with yourself, we're perfect people and you have to be patient with yourself when you have a bad week.
• Progress not perfect - Look at how far you've come, the setbacks you've overcome, make a chart of the weight you've lost the overall trend will be downwards, despite the odd bump along the way.
• Flexibility - life throws so many curve balls at you!  You have to be flexible to life's bumps and curves otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure.
• Feedback not Failure - So you've had a gain?  This is your body's feedback to what you've done during the week.  Did you track?  Did you track honestly?  Did you exercise?  What do you need to change this upcoming week to see a loss at the scale the following week?
• Forgiveness - learn to forgive yourself when you have a setback or eat something you now feel guilty about.  There are two ways you can deal with guilt, to get yourself back on program and track that item you ate or keep on binging your way to failure.

At this point the meeting leader brought up something I had said the week before when we talked about how to get yourself out of a binge and get back on program.  That "setbacks allow for comebacks" its something I had seen on the sign outside one of the churches in my community and it struck such a cord with me that I haven't forgotten it!  When she mentioned this at the meeting, one member spoke up and told us about how last Wednesday she woke up that day and started binging.  She recognized that the reason was emotional, she had lost a very close friend this past year and was experiencing a sense of guilt that she was still alive.  This triggered a binge.  She said that then she heard my voice in her head saying "setbacks allow for comebacks" she told us that this motivated her to get back on track and not let the binge go any further than that one day.  It was nice to get such an affirmation of something I said and to be publicly thanked for it.  At the end of the meeting I went up to her and gave her a hug!

Now back to the meeting topic at hand, the leader then pulled out a bendy straw and pointed out to us how the long part that goes in the glass is 80% of the straw and the part we drink from (before the bend) is 20% of the straw.  To keep this in mind and that if we eat properly, be active and follow the program 80% of the time and that the 20% is the curves life throws at us.  If we try our best to be on program 80% of the time we will be successful.  Also that if you take your daily points for 7 days that is 80% of the points available to you in a week and your extra 35 weekly points that is essentially that 20% we were previously talking about.  One strategy is to try to eat only your daily points and your weekly points for "life's surprises" for those times where we are not perfect or in control.

She also reminded us that so many members get stuck on the big picture your long term goal of reaching your goal weight.  For some members that can be a very large number and they give up right away seeing the big, scary picture!  We should focus on short term/smaller goals, 5lbs, 10% of our body weight, something that you can find obtainable.  These short term goals give us the motivation to make it to our long term goal.

As part of the group exercise for the meeting she asked each of us to share one of our accomplishments since starting Weight Watcher.  For me, it was being able to run something I could/would never do prior to my weight loss.  Now I run several times a week, and something I continue to improve on.

Before we left, the meeting leader gave each of us our very own bendy straw to remind us "be flexible and not to blow it".  My bendy straw is now tapped to my fridge!

My Unremarkable Chickpeas

It was prettyful, it was colourful, it was not tasty!

Chickpeas aka: Grabanzo Beans, I've realized I don't mind them!  I quite like them as the main ingredient in hummus (especially roasted red pepper hummus).  Earlier this summer my firend got a chickpea salad from the grocery store deli, delish.  So I decided this week (remember trying new foods) to come up with my own chickpea creation to have little delightful zingy bites in my salad!

1/2c serving = 2 points

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) rinsed & drained
Eyeballed amount of Kraft Caloriewise Zesty Italian Dressing (great stuff its 5cal per tbsp!)
Sprinkling of dehydrated onion (too lazy to cut up red one I've got)
A little minced garlic
Chopped green, red & yellow peppers
Chopped carrots

Put it all in a container shake, shake, shake baby!  Put in the fridge.

Well there were no delightful zingy bites in my lunchtime salad today.  So I'm wondering what can I do to liven this up?  I'd be interested in ideas or recepies!  Chickpeas are an uncharted territory for me!

Should I put in REAL FRESH onion?
Olives might be tasty!
A little lemon or lime juice?
More dressing?  Or perhaps the ones at the bottom will be super tasty tomorrow?

Weigh In Day & New Foods For Me

Its Tuesday, which means just one thing in my little world... its WEIGH IN DAY!  I hopped on my little digital scale at home... unfortuantely it dosen't say what's in the one picutred here... I'd be one happy camper.  Fortunately the scale showed no loss and no gain either!  After being way from home for 4 days then eating out two extra meals since coming back home I'd say I've done pretty well and I'm darned proud of this!  I have managed to loose 1.5 lbs during the two weeks I've been off of work.  I am proud of myself.  Now if I can work my butt off I'd like to hit my "safe zone" and weight in at WW beofre my next big social event : the Knowledge and Needles open house on August 21st!  There are always too many tempting foods at the open house!  I'm planning on making a big, fresh, fruit salad this year.

When I did my grocieries this week, following through on the snacking theme from the WW meeting two weeks ago I picked up some new to me foods:

Fiber1 100 Calorie Peanut Butter & Chocoalte Bars - 1 point each.  In two words, they suck.  At first I thought they tasted of stale Rice Crispies then I realized they're made mainly from Puffed Wheat which I just can't stand.  I'd rather have a regular Fiber1 Oats & Chocoalte granola bar more satisfying and they come in at a not bad 2 points.

Babybel Light - 1 point each, a yummy little cheesy snack.  I've had to guard these from Todd who is a cheese fiend!

Almond Butter - 2pts for 1 tablespoon, pretty much the same stats as Peanut Butter.  This stuff is not bad, but I have to get used to the no salt thing.  It may be the same stats as PB but its way healthier and the ingredient list is all natural where PB has sugar, salt and a few other things.  I won't be giving up my Kraft PB but this is a nice change.

Weekly Meeting Topic : Stopping the Eat-A-Thon Marathon

Many of us who are overweight or have been overweight aren't this way because we eat three square meals a day.  It is because we more than just that, some of us food was an all day occasion, for some it is done in secret.  We all have reasons why we overeat, and its up to us to figure out what our own reasons are, it is believed that if we don't find out our reasons our weight loss may not be as successful or long term.

There are three categories our overeating can fall into:

1. Food triggers
2. Emotional triggers
3. Environmental triggers

Food triggers which we also refer to as "red light foods" this is usually a particular food or type of food that once you start eating you just can't stop.  I think we all have this trigger, for me I know I can't eat just one bite of chocolate... I have to eat the whole chocolate bar and I will obsess about it until its gone.  The best way to deal with a food trigger is to recognize what that food is and keep it out of the house.  My trigger food chocolate, I tend to have it outside of the home, and share a chocolate bar with someone else so that I've eaten my portion and its gone.

Emotional triggers are exactly what it sounds like.  We eat when we celebrate, happy, sad, mad, angry, tired, bored, stressed out.  Emotional eating is also a very common problem for most of us!  The best we can do is recognize the signs that we are eating to satisfy an emotion and to try to stop.  Not easy is it?

Environmental triggers personally I think this could also include boredom or stress.  There is also only so much of our environment we can control what food is in it.  However, there are places like work, parties, celebrations, and people gifting us with threats.  Its easy to control your home what foods are available and not available.  For me I find the workplace can be a challenge, there are often goodies on offer in the staff room, the main office, and other areas.  Some days I can walk right on by and not touch it.  Some days I can be satisfied with a taste, and other days I have a huge honkin' piece and I feel guilty right away knowing that wasn't a desired behaviour!

Any of these triggers depending on the factors in your life at that time can start a binge.  The best we can do is recognize the signs that we are or have lost control and get back on program right away.  Not in an hour, and not tomorrow morning, but right away.  There are numerous tactics to stop a binge or a potential binge the main one is being distraction.  Call a friend, visit the message board at the WW website, pull out a book, work on your favourite hobby (for me that's stitching), get out of the house and go somewhere there is no food.  Another tactic is to see support, if there is a WW meeting, go to the nearest one, talk to a friend who understands or is sympathetic, read success stories on the WW website.  Finally if you do have to eat, make sure its healthy, filling foods.

My leader finished off with a line I thought was very appropriate "Eating in private always shows up in public".

Do you have any great coping tools you can share when you feel the desire to start a binge?

On Vacation...

Going on vacation doesn't mean we should completely go on vacation from everything, not just getting away from the house, but from eating properly or exercising.  I find being away just makes me that much more *aware* of my eating and exercise schedule.

First of all it makes me realize how much of a schedule my stomach is on!  I'm never really hungry when I get up but during my normal week I eat anyhow because I know my body needs fuel to get started for the day.  From there my body is just on one huge schedule!  Sack at 9:30, lunch at 11, snack at 2, dinner around 7pm ish depending on the day.  In there there's either a trip to the gym, my Taekwon-Do classes or down into the bowels of my basement to pay homage to the treadmill gods.  Boy when life goes off the beaten track do I miss these routines! 

At first its getting my body used to eating at different times, takes a few days and I find I have to suffer a few hunger pangs and travel with healthy snacks (I at least keep a Fiber1 bar in my bag, sometimes an apple too).  Then there's the exercise challenge!  If you're travelling its figuring out where to fit it in, and what exactly that activity will it be... since I'm away from home.

Before going on vacation you have to decide what do you want to do during that time, and you have three choices:

1. Loose weight while on vacation
2. Stay the same while on vacation
3. Gain weight while on vacation (if this is your choice... set a limit so that you don't go hog wild!)

I think during the last two weeks I've done fairly well this year!  I started off my holidays with a few days at home and a wedding to go to.  I made sure I exercised the day before, of and following the wedding so that I was able to enjoy the fantastic food and that evil four letter word: cake without too much guilt.  Monday of that first week on vacation I went to visit my friend Sheila in premier cottage country here in Ontario, Georgian Bay.  I got myself up early enough to pray to the treadmill god, eat a healthy, and filling breakfast (my favourite smoothie with some protein powder added in for staying power), I packed a bagged lunch for the road trip (5.5 hours by car) to avoid temptations like Tim Horton's, Wendy's or McDonald's which litter many exits and rest stops along the 401 and 400 highways.  A little forethought and preparation and I was able to avoid eating "unnecessary" fast food points on the road.

Something that's easy to get worked up over when staying at someone else's home is "oh my God what is she/he going to feed me?", "will it be points friendly?", "can I eat that?"  Slowly over the last two years I've learnt to deal with this anxiety.  My early coping mechanism was to bringing along some of my favourite low point breakfast foods (Yogurt, Fiber1 Crunchy Original Cereal, Weight Watchers Bagels and light cream cheese) which when I first started the program was a huge help to me!  I was still learning how to eat and how much to eat and these foods were my safety net.  As time has gone by everyone who knows me is aware that I am an active Weight Watchers member and like to do my best to eat as well as I can.  I never ask for anyone to cook in a special manner just for me, that I can cope with whatever is on the table and there will be some things I may have just a taste of and other I will heap on my plate (aka veggies!).  This has worked very well for me and takes the pressure off of the host, though I have always appreciated it when they've gone the extra mile to cook healthy while I'm there!

When I am away and its a new area I'm going to I check to see if my gym has a branch in that area.  LOL so far I've not been that lucky.  I try to do my best to work out as many days in a row as possible before going away (and upon return).  When I pack my bag, my running shoes, a couple of sets of workout clothes and iPod are always packed!  They may not make it out of the bag, but if they're there I do think about getting out for a walk or a run and I often make the extra effort to do so!  Walking is always free (if you can persuade ... best done with a friend), and something is better than nothing.

During my 4 days at Sheila's I have to say meals were quite friendly and delicious and being at the "cottage" well for them its their home, one must enjoy the summer evening with a beer!  I have to say I did something I hadn't done in a long time I had on average one beer each evening, we somehow had chips and ice cream every day too!  Between being conscience of my portion sizes and getting out for a 30 minute/5K run each morning before it got too hot, only resulted in a 0.5lbs gain from Monday-Saturday morning.  I was quite pleased with that, considering the treats I enjoyed!

I had two days at home before I headed out on the road again.  From Friday-Monday morning I made an effort to eat very healthy, low point foods and to stay within my daily points target (20).  I also ran each day.  This time I was heading 5.5 hrs in the opposite direction to Quebec City with my Mum for a 4 day, 3 night trip.  This time I knew I'd be eating out every meal. 

I have to say that so many restaurants have somewhat healthy choices on their menu (and we never really know unless they publish their nutritional information which so many don't) that for each meal I ate without hesitation or guilt.  The one lesson I did learn since we did stop into McDonald's for lunch on the way to Quebec City is that if you think you're saving points by having a Quarter Pounder with Cheese instead of a Big Mac... go ahead and have the Big Mac there is only a 1 point difference.  Why didn't I order a salad you ask?  Well I've often discovered that having a salad in a fast food joint unless you eat it very naked is often just as many and sometimes more points than if you had the burger... and well I felt like having the burger (should of had the Big Mac)!

Exercise wasn't a big deal on this trip, I knew we'd be walking a lot, especially since Viex Quebec is built on a hill.  There's a lot of hills and stairs to tackle!  Also there was a fitness room in the hotel.  That I have to say was a very loose term to call what was there a fitness room.  The treadmill was "slipping" so I couldn't run, the elliptical was impossible for me to get going, the weight machine I didn't dare figure out, so I used the stationary bike.  I don't "earn" as many points as I do for running for 30 minutes but it was something!

What will the results of this 2nd week of vacation be?  I don't know!  I'm back home today and I've not worked out (way too tired, and the "fitness" room at the hotel was closed this AM due to a leak in the room that had soaked the carpet).  I'll weigh in on Tuesday to find out, in the meantime I'll be getting in my daily exercise and eating right!

I did weigh in on Monday before I left for this second road trip and from my previous weigh in after returning from Georgian bay I'm down 2lbs!  I hope my efforts and cautious food choices will pay off and those 2lbs will stay away!

Hopefully this has given you some ideas/food for thought for your next vacation!

Weekly Meeting Topic : Safe Snacking

I was a visitor at a different meeting in my area on Saturday, as my meetings are on Tuesdays and well... I was out of town!  This weeks topic was about Safe Snacking!

Snacking is definitely a downfall for many of us... we didn't get fat from not eating!  I was never a huge snacker but I must admit I never snacked on the right foods.  So as a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers if we are going to snack (and I do) we have to snack smartly!  I can't believe that there are people out there who go from meal to meal without eating in between.  My body is on such a natural clock during the work week that I have to eat every few hours because I'm starving!  I tend to eat breakfast at about 6:50, snack at 9:30, lunch at 11, snack at 2, dinner between 6-8PM.  So that's my eating day (when I'm working).  If I eat dinner very early (5PM ish) then there will be another snack around 10PM.

So yes, I'm a snacker!  But I do snack smart, my morning snack is often an apple or fruit, if I'm still hungry some yogurt.  My afternoon snack is either a Fiber1 Bar or more fruit.  I have to say fruit is often my go-to snack, I always eat vegetables with lunch and dinner, so I tend not to want it for my snacks.  Some of my other favourite snacks are yogurt with Fiber1 Curnchy Original Cereal in it, nuts and raisins, Simple Pleasure brand cookies, apple and peanut butter.  So there it is, if you need to snack here are my favourite choices!  Make sure you're snacking because you're hungry, not because you're bored!  I always ask myself : is it my stomach that's hungry or my brain?

I weighed myself before I went away for my first half of my holidays and I was up 0.5lbs for the previous week.  That's okay with me because it was a busy week, I didn't work out over a few days, and well there was wedding CAKE and an excellent dinner that I enjoyed and didn't worry about not eating.  I weighed in at my meeting on Saturday morning and the end result for the month of July is I'm down 2lbs in total!  I'm very happy with that as my goal was to weigh less at the end of the month as I did at the beginning of the month.  I will continue this goal for the month of August, to weigh less at the end of the month than I did at the beginning.

I wanted to share with you the AWESOME dinner I made last night!  It was incredibly points friendly!

Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast - 3pts
Cob of local corn with a little margarine -2pts
Roasted peppers and onions - 1pts
Point total :6pts

The chicken was marinated in a herb and garlic marinade all day and barbecued, the corn had the silk removed, husk left on, soaked in water and grilled on the BBQ as well. 

Roasted peppers and onions
1 each red, orange and yellow peppers cut into 1-1.5inch pieces
1 red onion cut into 1 inch wedges
1 tbsp of olive onion (I think I could of used less)
1tsp fresh thyme (I used dried)
1/2 tsp of sea salt
1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper

Pre-heat oven 425F

Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray, mix all the above ingredients together in a large bowl.  Place on cookie sheet without pieces overlapping.  Cook in oven 10 minutes, turn/stir put back in for 10 more minutes. If peppers are fragrant with brown spots, its ready, if not stir and put back in for 5-10 mins more.

Enjoy!