Meetings, Food and Exercise Oh My,

Well, we're down to 339 days and in some ways I feel like I'm making progress and in others I feel like I'm treading water. I've not been into a Weight Watchers Meeting since late March!!! I had every intention to go on Saturday, but I couldn't drag my sorry ass out of bed in time to get there! My meeting starts at 9:45 am I usually like to head out at about 9 so I have plenty of time to line up and weigh in. It's means getting up at 8am... I'm not a morning person so I need that extra time to get moving. So I decided I'm going to switch back to Wednesday night meetings, 6:45 pm totally do-able!

Today I was reminded that it is Administrative Assistants(Secretary) Day. I am a Library Technician but I get lumped in with the Office Girls since I work in the Office an hour each morning. We are being treated to a lovely lunch out on Wednesday. So guess what I won't be doing that evening? Yup, I guess I'll be trying to get into WW on Saturday morning again. I know the meetings can make you more successful at weight loss... I haven't weighed in in weeks now and I suspect I'm up, my body feels like it is.



Mini Broccoli Omelettes from Skinnytaste

Food still isn't quite there yet, but still improving. There have been a few more better choices, less BLTs (bites, licks, tastes). Strangely, today was what I call a "hungry day". No matter what I ate, I just wasn't satisfied and still felt hungry! I actually arrived at home with an empty lunch bag! I usually have a piece of fruit or some vegetables still to eat. I even ate the pack of almonds I had stashed in my purse. On my way home I had to pick up a few ingredients for the recipe I wanted to try for breakfast this week (see yesterday's post for link). I did well in the grocery store. Damn it, Costco finally got me this time! I broke down and got that vanilla soft serve in a cup! I was hungry and unsatisfied, until I had that sweet, sweet soft serve. Oh my it was bliss, I enjoyed every spoonful! Suddenly that sense of being hungry was finally gone! I had eaten protein at breakfast, and snacks so I don't know what was wrong with me!!!

On the up side, Saturday I started week 2 of my C25K program, for this week besides the 5 minute warm up/cool down, the program has me running for 90 seconds and walking for 2 minutes. This increases the total run time from 8 minutes to 9, I've also tried to increase my walking speed to 3.7 and running to 5.5. Tonight I did day 2 and I'm still managing nicely with the program!


Not only did I run today, I took advantage of the sunny, warm day and hit the path behind the building I work in and managed to get in a 32 minute walk! In terms of exercise I'm happy with my progress.


- thanks for reading!

Long Live Skinnytaste!

Have you heard of the website/blog called Skinnytaste? In the last year I've become a huge fan of the website. Its full of fantastic, waist friendly recipes. The author not only slims down the recipes, but she also gives you all of the nutritional information, and the Weight Watchers Points Plus values. Not only are these recipes are skinny, but they're tasty too.



This weekend I made two of our household favourites. The first was for a brunch I attended on Saturday, I took yogurt and a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Skinnytaste that are a hit no matter where I take them.



For tonight's dinner I made Baked Broccoli Mac and Cheese. I love dishes like this because there is enough for tomorrow's dinner! It's nice to come home and not have to think about what I'm going to make. We also love pasta in this house!

Some of our other favourite recepies for the site are:
Baked Ziti
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

After I pick up a few ingredients I'm going to try these Broccoli and Cheese Mini Egg Omelettes

- thanks for reading!

Better Day

343 Days to go and I've had a much better day than any other this week so far. I felt more upbeat, not so tired and a little more motivated.

Eating was much better today, not perfect... But getting back to where it should be. Today I came home from work and did what I should, I got on the treadmill! I completed week 1 of the C25K program! It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, the runs were not that hard or too long. I'm looking forward to starting week two where the runs get a little longer.



We had some fun at work today, it's been spirit week and today was hip hop day. Here's my friend Tracey and I all dressed up for the day!


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Frustrating Cycle

Not another great day for me. I woke up just feeling like shit this morning. There's no other way to put it. I wok exhausted, on the verge of a migraine and a little nauseous.

Lets review what I do when I'm having a little pity party... Oh yeah I eat way more than I should, and things I shouldn't eat, and I sleep. My cravings were riding me hard today and its really hard to ignore that devil on my shoulder when I don't feel well. I managed okay until late after own when I managed to get my hands on some cookies. Yup I ate five.

I came home from work and I slept for an hour and a half.



We tackled a different section of recreational
tonight, see still some snow on the ground!!!

That nap led to no planned dinner, so when Todd and I got home at 7:30 from our hour long walk. There was nothing ready to be cooked or eaten. For me that lead to a disorganized meal of crackers, tea, a toasted banana sandwich, and a pop-tart. Let me assure you pop-tarts are not worth the 5 points each.

I know that when I ate well and exercised regularly and was at my goal weight I felt AWESOME all the time. I had energy, I was abler to ignore my inner devil most days and I wasn't coming home from work and sleeping for a few hours, like I have been for months now.

I need to work harder to break this cycle! I know the key to my success is getting out of this eat-sleep cycle!


- thanks for reading!

345 Days to Go, A Wasted Day?

I really need to stop letting how I feel dictate how I behave.

It's been a dull, dreary day actually so far it's been a dull dreary year! If its not cold and snowing its cloudy and wet! I think the nice day we had yesterday was spring and it's over now!



Being a dull and grey day just had me dragging my ass all day. I was tired, no spring to my step which had me giving I pinto my cravings before 9:30am! I had two cookies, jelly beans, and not just one of my low point snacks at home but three!



Not only did I give into my sugar cravings but instead of getting n the treadmill when I got home from work, I went to bed instead. I had a good two and a half hour nap (the advantages of not having kids).

To redeem myself I did hop on the treadmill at 9:30pm, doing week 1 day 2 of my C25K program. Some of you might think I'm crazy, but I'm a night owl! It was a good run, it felt good... A lot of my "good" runs are often late into the evening. From time to time I'll run in the morning but I feel so slow, I can't breathe and I just don't seem to move right.


- thanks for reading!

346 Days To Go, My Kryptonite

Boy, it's been a long day! I ended up having to work through the day with no lunch break, as there was no coverage. I'm okay with that when it needs to be done.

On the way home I stopped into Costco for a few odds and ends we needed. Oh my, it was soooo tempting! It was finally a beautiful, sunny day, the thermometer in my car was reading 15c!!! Just this past Friday we had an unheard of Snow Day in April! Why was Costco so tempting? I seem to have this psychological association between a warm, sunny day and... SOFT SERVE, my Kryptonite! There's nothing like a vanilla cone OR a "diabetic coma in a cup", aka caramel sundae on a warm sunny day. Honestly Costco's soft serve is THE best.

NSV (non-scale victory) for this girl I walked out sans ice cream! It was tempting!



Before I cared about my diet and weight, on a nice warm day I'd often hit the DQ drive in just down the street from work. I could tell you that at that a medium dipped cone was $1.83. That I could drive a stick shift AND eat a Blizzard at the same time.

Have I given up my Kryptonite? Never, but it's just less frequent, smaller sizes, often in a cup (gotta save a few points), and NEVER while driving. I've pretty much stopped all drive-thru activities except to grab the odd steeped tea at Timmies.

Bonus NSV for today, Todd called me at work and he actually suggested we go for a walk after work! He NEVER wants to go walking/running with me I almost always go alone! So I got dinner ready to the point I just had to go in the oven we drove to one of the nearby recreational trails and walked for a good hour! That was a nice end to my day.
- thanks for reading!

Boy, That Hurt

I'm currently fighting the urge to go stuff my face, being hurt does that to you.

A little background: I'm a 3rd Degree Black Belt in ITF Taekwon-Do, I've been involved in TKD since 1997, and up until my injury I was also an instructor at the TKD school I attended.

Its amazing how small things can hurt you pretty deeply sometimes.  This morning I'm cruising Facebook to discover that this weekend there had been Black Belt testing at my Taekwon-Do school.  Boy that hurt, to find out via social media that such an important event had gone on.  That some of my classmates and also students were celebrating such a big milestone in their Taekwon-Do journey.

It seems silly but a couple of hours later I'm still really hurt, that I didn't warrant an FYI, a heads up, or an e-mail that testing was going on... I would of liked to have been there.

Teaching at our annual outdoor training day

Now I admit, I've not stepped foot into the dojang as a student or an instructor since late summer when all of of this pain with my foot came to a head and I just couldn't be active in that way anymore.  In November, my school hosted a tournament and I was asked to be involved and kept in the loop.  I was there, I helped with set-up, admissions, and participated as a center Judge in the rings during the tournament.  I've not really heard a peep since, its amazing how quickly you get forgotten sometimes.

I think what makes this hurt stronger is that back in February I received a call from my Sabum, the owner of the school.  He wasn't calling to see how I was doing.  Nope, I help manage the school's Facebook page and he had a few concerns about the look and moderating membership.  At the end of the conversation he asked me "Have you forgotten how to put on a dobok?"  This whole phone conversation bothered me a little, that there was no contact in over three months, only when something was needed.  That after months all you can do is ask me if I've forgotten how to put my uniform on?!!

So with that phone call and now finding out through Facebook that I missed an important event really hurt my feelings.  Its also solidifying the fact that I don't want to go back... yet.  Now that my foot seems to be doing okay (I'm testing it in slow measures, and TKD can be really hard on your feet), my first goals are to start running and to get those extra pounds back off, then go back to TKD.

Right now I'm really not regretting my decision not to rush back.  At this moment as things stand,  I don't know if I want to go back.