It's Friday again, I actually survived my week, it's a miracle. Well, I don't really believe in miracles but it's a surprise I guess is a better way to put it.

This week there was a whole lot of particularly nasty shit going on at work. On Monday, and again on Thursday, coworkers of mine were fired. Nice huh? As I'm sure you can imagine, it created an atmosphere that you could cut with hedge trimmers. It was not nice. I think that my job is safe for now but who knows. These things are not based on money or merit, they seem to be completely based on personality (i.e. if someone up top doesn't like you -- or, someone from down below who happens to have the ear of said top person doesn't like you -- they can get rid of you). People as disposable commodities, charming huh? Almost as good as the term "collateral damage" to describe "accidental" military deaths of allies. Anyway, it resulted in us having a security guard sitting in our office all week. That in itself wasn't terrible, he was a really friendly and nice guy and fortunately, nothing happened to justify him being there ("better to be safe than sorry") but all the same, an extra body in our already cramped space was not ideal.

Something interesting to note is that through this difficult week I have had PMS but have exhibited almost no symptoms, except for slight fatigue (which could also be caused in part by the immense stress I've felt). I have also had none of my usual PMS cravings, salt, chocolate...that sort of thing. Weird huh? Maybe it's because I'm not eating the truly crap carbs so my body isn't asking me for them. I'm not minding it though, trust me. Last night, I felt sick from all of this, totally stressed, shaky. I got on my bike and turned on Dr Phil and just rode and rode. Eventually, the stress began to subside and I felt like eating the dinner that hubby was making. I felt a bit better at work today too, the exercise I think, helped me to put things into perspective somehow. I'm not sure exactly, endorphins maybe? Whatever it's been that has been helping me get through this, I'm thankful for it. I'm going to try to put it all out of my mind over the weekend. Tomorrow I'm spending the day with a friend of mine and I'm really looking forward to some "girl time." I think I'm going to have a great weekend! Hope you all have a great weekend too!!

I've had a horrific day and don't really feel much like posting. Despite the stress and bother of the day, I didn't binge out or overeat, quite the opposite actually. I felt nauseous and couldn't eat for the best part of the day. Anyway, the day's over and I'm out of the office and later on, when I'm more calm, I will post about it...in the meantime, I rode out my stress on my bike and feel the better for it. Hope you are all having a good day!

Hump Day again...that means it's Weigh-In Wednesday

Playing Favourites

1. What is your favourite heathy food?
I don't have one really. Everything we're eating right now is very healthy, I just love good food that is tasty and fresh.

2. What is your favourite "treat" food (secret indulgence, if you will) ?
Again, there isn't anything in particular. I absolutely love chocolate but have only had one small piece of it since I began this new plan.

3. What is your favourite way to exercise?
Walking, swimming or biking. I have a recumbent bike which I ride regularly and I also enjoy walking because it's something that I can do anywhere, anytime and I don't need any special equipment (just a good pair of shoes). Swimming has long been a favourite activity. I'm a very strong swimmer and enjoy it so it never feels like a workout when I've done it!

I can't believe that Tuesday is over already. We just got home from taking my father-in-law grocery shopping, that's quite a workout. Particularly given that our store is under construction so you have to keep doubling back to find stuff that they keep moving around the store. It's twice as much walking when we have him with us because he tends to wander off and then we get wandering around trying to find him. Fun huh? Anyway, after groceries, we went out for dinner to Swiss Chalet. What I like about SC is that I can have a good meal that is low in fat and relatively yummy and quite filling. We're both pretty pooped so I think it'll be an early night tonight. Taking an old guy shopping can really take it out of you!

Today was such a great food day. Totally under in calories and I was able to meet my high-veggie, low-meat goal. I've actually done really well with that over the past few days. It was not a great exercise day though. I've decided to make a slight change to my routine though, beginning tomorrow. I've been riding my bike in the evening and on the weekend, or at least I was until last week.

Last week things got a little off track as far as exercise goes. I like to watch Dr. Phil when I get home from work. I never thought that I would actually admit this in a public place but there you have it. I have to admit that when he was on Oprah, I hated his guts. I think that I was transferring some of the hatred I felt toward Oprah on Phil. Anyway, I like him a lot better on his own show, he's a little gentler and less mean. What I like is how the stupid people come on and try to trick him or get the better of him. He uses common sense (something my dad used on us!) and not a lot of psycho babble mumbo-jumbo. Anyway, that having been said, my hubby can't stand the guy. That's okay, we often don't agree on tv shows. Dr. Phil's on at 5 here (and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 6 p.m....etc.) so it fits in well with the bike...I get home, hop on the bike and watch Phil. What's not been working lately though is that hubby is making dinner while Dr. Phil is on and he can't stand to hear it. The bike is in the living room, the kitchen is next door so I've not wanted to disturb him (afterall, he is cooking us a delicious, low-fat dinner and I don't have to lift a finger).

We talked about it tonight though and he's decided that he can handle Dr. Phil for the 20-30 minutes that I'm on the bike. If he can't, he'll just put dinner off for 30 minutes and go upstairs and do something else. This will make things so much better for me. This way, I'll get home, hop on the bike and get it done. I've tried doing the morning thing but it's just not working for me at the moment. Once the weather breaks and it warms up a bit, it'll be easier for me face the bike at 5 a.m. In the meantime, I'm going to keep this up.

This week's Progress Prompt:

Did you take any PE (physical education) class when you were in school? Did you enjoy it? Were you athletically inclined? Have you ever participated in a team sport? In an individual sport? What sports have you tried, and what sport would you like to try/learn? Do you enjoy/are you easily inspired from watching sports?

I took Phys. Ed until the last year of High School. I was not the greatest athelete in the world though and always hated the gymnastics or track components of gym class. I just could not bounce around or make my body flexible enough for gymnastics and have always found running to be difficult. I always tried whatever we were doing though, even if I couldn't do it gracefully! I enjoyed part of it, volleyball, baseball, bowling, golf, tennis, basketball, team sports really and dance.

I have always loved swimming and am one badge away from having my bronze cross. I used to ice skate a lot but haven't done so in years, I'd like to relearn how to do that. I'd also like to learn to curl. I've found out that there is a women's group here in town that offers introductory / no committment required sessions in the fall. When I was a girl I played softball on a team but only for a couple of summers.

I can't say that I enjoy watching sports and have never been inspired by them. I find that professional sports annoy me - I can't stop thinking about how much money is involved. Personally, I'm more inspired by regular people like me, who go out every day and move their body.

Wowee...it's been seven weeks since I started this blog, began this new healthy lifestyle. Seven weeks ago, one day at a time was a huge struggle for me. It's still not a breeze but it's not as tough as it was. It's definitely become a habit, the stopping and thinking and calculating. I know that some folks make more of it than it needs to be.

I've recently seen a commercial for "slim fast" that depicts a woman in bed with her lover and while he's going to town, she's calculating how many calories she's burning and what she can eat later (the crux of it being: don't eat healthy and plan your meals, drink our crappy shakes!). I don't do that, I don't make this thing that complicated. We only buy healthy food now, so there aren't any temptations in the house. If we overeat at a given meal, it's generally healthy and low in fat so it's not as bad as past over-indulgences (pizza nights or chip & dip fests, that kind of thing).

Yesterday, we had a huge mess in our driveway after the freezing rain storm. It took us a couple of hours to get the car and driveway cleaned up. When it was done, neither of us were pooped. Actually, we were both quite invigorated, rosey cheeked and happy. If this had happened in December, we'd have taken twice as long (cuz we'd have been taking breaks every 15 minutes) and we'd have done a half-assed job. I really like how I'm feeling, how I don't get winded from walking across the mall anymore. Before Christmas, I couldn't say that. Before we began this, I was so out of shape that I would get wiped out from walking from one end of the mall to the other. Sad huh? Happily, this isn't happening anymore. If I have any regrets about this, it's that I didn't start this sooner. I had no idea it would feel so good!

Well, we've been hit with a big storm but we're going to be brave and venture outside. I still haven't started in on that book I mentioned earlier but I have been mucking about a bit and have changed my page. I think that it's a little easier to read than it was before. As you can see, our bird feeder is frozen.  Fortunately, the birds are able to get through the ice to good stuff! Instead of my bike, I think we're going to try to take a walk outside and see what's happening. If it's too slippery I may end up back on the bike, we'll see!

Today was basically a lazy day. I got some chores done around the house and did some work with my new weights. Foodwise, it was an okay day. I was having some crunchy-salty cravings this afternoon though. I ended up munching on some of the Skinny Chips I'd bought earlier in the week. The potato sticks were much better than the corn chips IMHO anyway. I think I'd be further ahead with the goldfish crackers next time. For one thing, they are a lot cheaper and I enjoy them a lot more. There is something sickly satisfying about biting their little heads off!!

Anyway, I'm just puttering around on the computer this evening. It's freezing rain and really nasty out there right now so we're just hunkering down in our computer room for the night. Hopefully it won't be too bad outside tomorrow. The freezing rain is supposed to keep up for a while which makes me nervous. I have an irrational fear of the power going out whenever freezing rain hits (or is promised by the fine folks at Environment Canada). I guess it comes of living through a week without electricity and heat back in '98 when we got hit by the ice storm. I tell ya ladies, sitting on a cold toilet seat is tres unpleasant. Anyway, hope you all have a nice Saturday night!

The First Ever Supa-Cool Fitness/Diet Blogger Workout CD Swap!

I'm just poking away at a play list for the CD swap. If you haven't signed up yet, you should. Alison is collecting names from folks until Monday!! I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I know I'm having fun putting mine together anyway!!

Here it is, Friday again. So hard to believe. Earlier in the week I was making all kinds of plans for things that I thought I would do this weekend. At the moment we're sitting on the cusp of a big storm. Tomorrow and Sunday we're supposed to get hammered with a mixture of snow and freezing rain. Ever since the big ice storm of 1998 I'm totally terrified of freezing rain and ice so I've decided to hibernate and veg around the house this weekend instead, fun huh? I'll not totally veg though. I plan to work out a fair bit. That's been my way of avoiding the temptations of no routine on the weekends. Whenever I get craving something stupid, I get my butt busy doing something physical. We also stopped off at the store after work and stocked up on lots of healthy snacks for the weekend, extra yogurt, fruit & veggies in addition to the skinny chips and organic microwave popcorn I got earlier in the week.

Dinner tonight was outstanding. We eat a lot of asian-style food and tried a new noodle tonight (well, different brand anyway). We got some Rooster Brand Longkou Vermicelli and it was so good and it's insanely low in calories, has basically no fat at all and is insanely filling. It's only 85 calories for a 50 g portion. That might not sound like a lot but you would not believe how those noodles expand. We are still working on our "more veggies less meat" thing too and tonight was a great meal for that. We each had about 3 oz of lean pork and probably 5 cups of veggies, rapini, bok choy, sprouts, sweet peppers, onion, garlic, zucchini, celery...yum!

I'm really looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend. I may even get some reading done. I just picked up Good In Bed and may dig into that tomorrow. I've been feeling so good lately I'm sure whatever I get upto will be fun!

My posts have been very short this week. I'm not sure why that is. It's not like I'm flat out on the heating pad again or anything...I just haven't had a lot of time to write this week I suppose. Four day weeks are like that I find...you're so busy trying to cram 5 days work into 4 days in the office that the time just zooms by. We're almost at Friday again, too neat!

Earlier this month, I made a vow to try to eat more veggies and less protein this month. So far it's going okay. I mean, I'm still working on it, but slowly, I'm getting closer to exactly what I want to be eating. The eating thing this week has been going pretty okay so far. Today's been smooth and I'm not yet sure what we're having for dinner tonight but I'm fairly certain that we'll be eating at home so it should be something very very on plan, nutritious and delicious!!

Exercise wise, I haven't been on the bike as much as I was on the weekend but that's okay. I've been walking more so it's balancing itself out. Overall, my week has been good. Work's not been too stressful, I've kept on plan despite many many temptations to stray (the office is slowly deteriorating into goodie-land again - quite close to pre-Christmas preportions too!). I'm really pleased with my progress if I do say so myself!!

Oh wow, totally perfect food day today. It's so much easier to do when you avoid restaurants!! That 70's Show is starting so I'm gonna run now. I think I'll do my bike ride while I watch. I'll post more tomorrow. Have a good night all!!

Oooh, by the way! Thanks Trish, for the tip on the Skinny Chips. I got the corn chip, sour cream and onion and the lime & chili potato sticks. I had one of the sticks yesterday when hubby had some, they were nice. I'm saving the corn chips for the weekend when I get a salt craving!

Happy Tuesday everyone!! Yikes, what a day. I had lunch and dinner out today. At lunchtime, my colleague and I were taken out by one of our clients. He took us to a really really lovely greek restaurant that I really like a lot. I wasn't sure what to have so I ended up ordering an "Island Salad" which is basically a greek salad with seafood on it, tinned crab and cod I think. It was delicious and when I got back to the office and figured it out, it wasn't bad as far as calories go. I ordered the dressing on the side and didn't eat any of the feta (which fortunately was on the side of the plate) or the olives. If I had know that it had come with cheese, I would have told them to forget it. I love feta and it was a massive chunk. I was quite proud of myself for not having any. I also said no to wine and had water with my meal.

Dinner was more of a challenge. We took my father-in-law for groceries and he usually likes to go out after. I was not feeling like it (having had lunch out and all) and he didn't feel like going to our regular "safe" spot, Swiss Chalet, so we ended up at Kelsey's. It was all you can eat fajitas night so we had that for supper. The tortillas are the worst part of that deal so we avoided them and the sour cream and enjoyed the meat and veggies. Again, upon calculation and based on what we had, it wasn't a super high fat dinner. It easily could have been but we really watched it. I'm pretty pleased with us actually.

But now, it's late and I'm bone tired from all the shopping and schelping around so I'm going to skip my bike ride tonight and call it day!

Today's Progress Prompt
What are your food triggers? How/why do they trigger your cravings? What do you do with them when you're on a weight loss program...do you modify their recipes or eliminate them from your food plan altogether?

My hormones are the only thing that I cannot control which will trigger cravings for me. My hormones make me go mad for chocolate. Chocolate has always been a huge trigger for me. What I have basically done this time 'round is to eliminate it completely from my every day diet. Last month, during TOM, I gave in to my chocolate craving in a rational, reasonable, controlled way. I had a very small amount of good chocolate and I was fine. Something in my brain has changed this time and I no longer crave the greasy, fatty stuff that I once did. I think it's because I've changed my lifestyle so that I will be more healthy. I'm not focused on a dress size, my goal is improved total health and increased longevity!

Oh I'm having a terrific day. I just got home from a lunch date with a girlfriend. We decided to meet mid-morning at this newish place that just serves breakfast and lunch. I had been there before, the weekend it opened and had a less than spectacular experience but I was willing to chalk that up to "just opened" jitters. They serve crepes and eggs and lots of really yummy stuff. The chain is based in Quebec so it's very "french" (obviously). The first time I was there I had eggs but I had admired the fruit plates I had seen. This morning I had ordered a fruit plate with dry brown toast and a side order of low-fat yogurt. It was beautiful. It had strawberries, pineapple, 3 kinds of melon, banana, grapes, apple, kiwi, orange, grapefruit, nectarine and even a slice of star fruit. I couldn't finish it, it was that big.

After lunch, I had to go to the grocery store to pick up some whole wheat pasta. On the reccommendation of Bev from the Weigh-Better board, I picked up some Skinny chips (Skinny potato sticks - Lime Chili flavour and Skinny corn chips - sour cream and onion flavour). I'll let you know how they are. I was impressed with the fat and calorie content. They aren't overly salted too which is a plus in my book. I'm a sucker for crunchy salty snacks so these will be handy to have in the house. I also got some organic microwave popcorn and some Goldfish crackers. I haven't had Goldfish in ages and they are a good once-in-a-while snack too.

I'm feeling really great today, better than I have in a while. I think that the effects of our change in diet and the exercise is finally kicking in to full gear. I'm really feeling that I'm getting a challenging workout from my bike and from the weights I just bought. I really notice a difference in my walk. I feel stronger and I'm walking much straighter than I have in a while. My pace has sped up too. Overall I'm just feeling great! Oh, also, it's Monday so I measured myself today and I've lost another 3.5 inches, so that is now a total of 17" in my bust, waist and hips! Yay me!

I did do a little arm work with the 2 lb weights tonight. Boy, are my arms out of shape!! I also rode the bike a bit more, another 2.05 miles. That brought my daily total up to 7 miles. I'm really pleased with that...and I feel great! Yay!!

It's still cold here today but I'm keeping warm inside. I did another 20 minute program this morning and this time I was able to ride 4.95 miles (up .25 miles from yesterday's attempt). I've been feeling that I wanted to add some hand weights to my ride. I feel like I'm neglecting my arms while I ride. I try to stretch them a bit but it's not really doing anything. This afternoon we went out and got a nice set of hand weights, the vinyl covered ones. The set we got had 3 pairs of weights, a 2 lb set, a 3 lb set and a 5 lb set. Should be good for a start. After my morning ride, I felt incredibily energized and just generally good! I'm going to do a second program this evening, this time with the weights. Should make a difference I'm sure!!

It was totally freezing here today. It was so sunny though that it was really deceiving. I was outside this morning for a little bit, putting seed into my bird feeder, and thought about going for a walk. When I saw how iced over our sidewalk was and how narrow the street was though, I changed my mind. Hopefully tomorrow it will warm up a bit and I'll get a walk in.

Despite the weather though, I did get a fair bit of exercise in though: I did a lot of housework today, up and down the stairs, carrying heavy stuff up and down, that kind of thing. After I got my cleaning done, I was a little wiped out and felt like having a nap. Instead of doing that though, I went downstairs, turned the TV on and got on my bike. We have a recumbent bike. We've had it since November I guess. We bought a bike last May and really liked it. Unfortunately, it broke and the store couldn't get it fixed so they gave us an "upgraded" bike as a replacement. At first, I didn't like it as much as I did the first one but I'm really digging it now. I've only really been seriously riding it since Christmas. I was so out shape in January that I've just been pedalling it 15 to 30 minutes a day, on about 6 resistance. It's been good for me, I've felt better for doing it. I notice a big difference when I'm going up and down the stairs here at home for example. Anyway, today, for the first time, I tried one of the "life cycle" programs on it and I was able to do the whole thing. It was a 20 minute program and it was a lot more challenging than what I had been doing, even though the resistance was lower. I could really feel my thigh muscles as I was getting near the end of it. I feel really good now and don't think I need a nap anymore!!

Had a good eating day too. I've been trying to build up my fruit and veg intake and cut back on my protein and today was a good day for that. We had a really delicious supper tonight, a stir fry with cellophane noodles instead of rice. They were really really yummy, so was the broccoli. When I was a kid, you couldn't pay me to eat broccoli and now, I could eat it twice day (and often do!). The best thing about today was that it was a Saturday and I wasn't tempted to have a "treat"...like a piece of chocolate or some microwave popcorn. The weekends are slowly getting easier for me!

We got talking about weight loss this afternoon at work. As I've mentioned before, a number of my coworkers are also "shrinking" and a couple of us were sharing ideas and tips and telling another person in the office about what we'd been doing. She wants to lose weight too but doesn't feel like she can. I sent her a bunch of URLs, like for fitday and for some blogs, so that she could read about what other, ordinary folks are doing about getting in shape, and getting healthy.

I was totally inspired when I started reading blogs and learned about successful "losers" who were doing it without diet pills or WLS. I hope she feels the same way I did. Personally, it took me a few months of reading to get my bum in gear and get started. I know that this person feels defeated over past attempts that didn't go the way she wanted them to. I'm hoping that she'll be as amazed and impressed as I was with my fellow bloggers.

We also discussed a "support group" of sorts in the building we work in. There are certainly enough of us doing this thing that it could work. I'll keep you posted!

I saw this on Yahoo this morning and found it to be interesting and inspirational:

Myth Vs. Fact: Weight Loss Resolutions

by Anne Fletcher, M.S., R.D.
Myth: A resolution to lose weight is an empty gesture; hardly anyone succeeds.

Fact: Sure, many people fail to keep their resolutions, but there are also plenty of folks who resolve to win the weight battle - and then do it.

Consider this: For my book, Thin for Life, I located more than 200 success stories fairly quickly just by word-of-mouth, posting fliers in public places, asking newspapers to query readers and asking weight-loss programs for their "graduates."

On average, the men and women I spoke with had lost 64 pounds and kept it off nearly 11 years.

Since then, the National Weight Control Registry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has recruited about 3,000 people who have lost weight and kept it off. They all had to start somewhere, with a resolution of sorts.

Myth: Only 5% of all dieters keep the weight off - the rest gain it back.

Fact: Dismal statistics such as this come from academic studies of obesity, which tend to attract people with the toughest weight problems. There hasn't been much research of people who've lost weight independently, or with the help of a commercial weight-loss program.

So, what are the real odds of success?

In one recent study, Maureen McGuire, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, surveyed a representative sample of 500 people across the United States. In phone interviews, she asked each of them if they'd lost weight, how much and how long they'd kept it off. Her estimate:

"Over 20% of overweight persons have achieved successful weight loss maintenance."

Those are far better odds than are commonly reported. On average, her respondents who lost weight and kept it off had shed approximately 42 pounds and kept it off for an average of about seven years.

Myth: Dieters who habitually lose weight and gain it back should just give up making resolutions to lose weight.

Fact: Most of the people I located with weight-loss success stories told me they had tried to lose weight three to five times - or more - before they succeeded. Nine of 10 people from the Weight Control Registry who are successfully maintaining weight loss reported that they had tried to lose weight previously.

Even people who've been overweight for a long time can take heart: Seven of 10 long-term success stories in my survey - as well as in the registry - had been overweight as children or teenagers.

The moral of this story: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Myth: Forget crash dieting as a way to keep a weight loss resolution; it will only make you fatter.

Fact: "Diet" is not a dirty word for everyone. On the contrary, cutting way back can be a springboard to success for some people.

According to Rena Wing, Ph.D., and co-founder of the Weight Control Registry, two-thirds of those who were asked to explain the difference between their successful weight loss attempt and previous efforts said: "This diet was stricter."

I've surveyed hundreds of slimmed-down people who've lost weight once and for all, and here's my conclusion: You have to find what's right for you.

While some lost weight with diets, others used more of a reduce-your-portions, step-up-your-exercise "undieting" strategy. If you go on a strict diet, the key is to view it only as a tool to get the weight off, not as a long-term solution. Eventually, you have to leave the diet mentality behind and shift to strategies you can use for the rest of your life - healthy eating and regular exercise.

Myth: The problem with following through on a weight loss resolution is that it's so painful.

Fact: Maintaining weight loss doesn't doom you to a lifetime of eating celery sticks and going to bed hungry. Ninety percent of the weight-loss masters I interviewed who've maintained their weight loss surveyed said they don't feel like they're on a diet. The vast majority said they enjoy food.

Most eat three meals a day, often with snacks in between.

The No. 1 way they handle food cravings is by giving in to them - but in a reasonable way.

These weight-control masters aren't downing hot fudge sundaes every night - they're continually vigilant about portion sizes. They also eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and less fat.

But over and over, they make it clear that any sacrifices are well worth the payback. They never want to go back to being overweight.

Anne Fletcher, M.S., R.D., is the author of Thin for Life (Houghton Mifflin, 1994), Eating Thin for Life (Houghton Mifflin, 1997), and Thin for Life Daybook (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).

Well I threw out some of the "junk" I'd been hanging onto. It was unopened and seemed sort of wasteful but I really didn't need a bag of multi-coloured mini-marshmallows or sour cream & onion ruffles in my pantry. They are on the curb with the garbage. If either item contained any nutritional value, I'd have given them to the foodbank but they don't, so I didn't.

Foodwise, had an excellent day!! Kept on program totally, really was a low fat day. I'm trying to keep my protein down too because my cholesterol intake is a little higher than I'd like it to be. They say that a healthy intake is 300 mg but I'd like to have mine around 200 mg and I've been around 225 mg. If I can closely control the fat and cholesterol, the rest of it takes care of itself.

Now, because I'm a sick fuck and really want to mock stupid/vain people, I'm off to watch "Are you hot?"! 'night all!!

Today was an amazing day. For the first time since I hurt my back, I was able to stay on my bike for a full 30 minutes!! I was pretty pooped by the end of it but it felt really good to be back at it. We also had a delicious, low-fat dinner. We picked up some tinned baby clams last week and had tomato and clam pasta (whole wheat penne). It was yummy and very low in calories. I was really surprised how low it was when I sat down and figured it out. It made a nice change from all the asian food we've been eating (not that I don't like it but it is nice to have a change once in a while). Yay us!! Well, I hate to cut this short but I must dash, That 70's Show is starting!!

It's Sabotage - not really, it's just the Wednesday Weigh-In

1. Do you keep anything in your home that is off program? If so, what is it? If not, how have you kept that up?
Yes. At the moment we have a bag of sour cream & onion ruffles at the back of our pantry as well as a small stash of Chocolate. The chips we bought at Christmas time and never ate them. They're probably on the verge of being stale at this point. I was going to give them away to someone but everyone I know is trying to eat better / healthier. I was going to throw them out when I threw out all of the leftover Christmas goodies and other "crap" we had in the house when we started this but I didn't. I've kept them in the cupboard as a test I guess. I'm planning a good "sort" this weekend so I'll probably pitch them out then. The chocolate is also left over from Christmas. I have a few pieces left from a box of Godivas I got for Christmas and there are two Lindt chocolates also from Christmas. They are my PMS "medication." I've just gone through my first period since starting this and the chocolate was a necessity. I did not overinduge though. I counted the calories and my hormones were grateful for the treat!

2. Do you have people around you that sabotage your efforts? If not, do you have offline encouragement?

Not really. My hubby is also doing this with me so that is a huge help. I can't imagine how difficult this would be without his support. Also, most of the women I work with are doing WW right now so they're a great source of support too. I have told all of my friends and my family about what we are doing and they have all been wonderful and helpful. Most people we know are in the same boat and are wanting to be healthier!

3. Where are you most easily sabotaged? For instance... at work, at home?

So far I haven't been sabotaged. Home on the weekends is hardest. Eating out is also tough at times but it's getting easier. I guess I'm just so happy with myself that I haven't let anything slip me up. This is the first time in my life ever that I have stuck to something like for this long (it's over 5 weeks now). I'm not letting anything slip me up this time. I've worked too hard and come too far to allow that to happen!!

Yikes, what a day. I'm so glad that it's over. This evening has been lovely but I nearly blew a gasket at work today. I had a really busy morning. It was a good busy though, got lots done. I worked straight through, head down and didn't have my mid-morning snack. Ordinarily I have an apple at around 10:30 a.m. or so. I had a meeting booked for the time I usually have my lunch (not my choice!) so I figured I'd eat my lunch when the meeting broke. Because I didn't get my apple, I was like extra hungry....and then a whole bunch of people showed up to the meeting with their lunches. The rest of us just sat there, with low blood sugar and grumbling tummies, smelling their food. It totally sucked. The meeting ended up being a huge waste of my time. I hate going to meetings which don't have agendas. I like to know what I'm getting into. We were supposed to be getting training in a new piece of software. What it ended up being was a demo of the software (which, as it happens, is easier to use than the Amazon.com online ordering form - yeah, it's that simple!). By the time I got out of the meeting, I was really grumpy. Eventually I got to eat my lunch but by the time I finished eating it was around 2:30 p.m. This meant that when I would ordinarily be eating my afternoon snack (a banana), I wasn't hungry. I really like to keep to my schedule as much as possible. I mean, sometimes things come up that are actually important and they knock you off your routine. What pissed me off was that I got all out of whack for no good reason. I still feel a bit fragile with this stuff at times and I worry about going off plan. Fortunately, I didn't go nuts and snack after work / before dinner and at the end of the day I was down a few calories. For dinner we had a really yummy (albeit hot) curry. Mostly veg with tofu and some leftover ham on brown basmati rice. We added some different veggies to it too, some cauliflower and chinese eggplant, just for variety.

My goal for tomorrow is to not get stressed about things I have no control over. Let's see how it goes!!

Another day behind me, one day closer to my goal...I'm really tired tonight. By late afternoon, my back was really bugging me. It's so much better than it was though. I can actually walk completely upright again. For a week I was leaning slightly over to one side when I walked.

Had a good day foodwise. Activity wise, I'm still not doing as much as I should be because of my back. It took everything that I had to get through the day at work without laying down on the floor under my desk. I'm looking for some good, back-strengthing exercises so that this won't happen again, or at least if it does, it won't take so long to get over it. This is the longest I have ever had this last for. I'm not sure if that means anything or not.

I'm very pleased with myself for having stuck with this plan for 5 weeks. That's a big deal for me. The things that I find myself feeling really good about are usually ridiculously small victories. Like the other day for example, someone was offering these beautiful chocolate chip / macadamia nut cookies around the office and I said no. It was right under my nose, so close I could smell it, and I politely smiled and said "no thank you." That's a huge deal for me. Office junk, it's the hardest to resist I find. Today, it happened again...this lovely older fellow who comes in to our office regularly popped in and gave us all these little chocolate valentine hearts. I smiled and said thanks as he put it on my desk. After he left, I gave it to the woman I share my office with. She's a petite little thing and a die-hard chocoholic. She was happy to have it too!

The little bitty personal victories are big deals to me. I guess, what it boils down to is that each day is nothing more than a series of small challenges that we have to manage our way through. Boy, when you break it down like that it can either seem endlessly huge, or really easy to do...or a little bit of both maybe? What it boils down to this week is that I've lost another 3 inches. That's 13.5 inches in total in 5 weeks! Not bad huh?? Yay me!!

Today's Progress Prompt
People are encouraged to drink at least 8 glasses of water every day for optimum health. For people who are on weight loss programs, especially those who prefer to drink soda or coffee, incorporating water intake can be difficult or painful during the transition to a healthy lifestyle. How do you get all eight glasses into you? Share a favorite tip or trick. Since starting drinking water regularly, have you noticed any significant changes in your body or mood?

I have always been a fan of water. I do drink one cup of coffee (black), in the morning, and will often have a diet soda with my dinner in the evening. All day, every day, I drink water. I probably drink way more than 8 glasses, I don't really keep track. What I do though, and this may work for some folks, is drink my water very cold, practically frozen. I put a bottle of water in the freezer for a couple of hours before I drink it. This way, when I do get around to drinking it, I have to smash in the sides of the bottle to break up the ice. This keeps the water colder longer and it also allows me to have some icy chunks to munch on (I love crunching ice!).

Well I didn't get to post last night. We were doing some upgrades to our PC so it was off line yesterday for a bit. Obviously, it's back up and running tonight.

I'm starting to get into the swing of weekends, finally. The first few weekends on this plan, I found it really tough to stick with the program. This weekend was a breeze though. Keeping busy is the secret I find. We even ate dinner out last night and I stayed on plan. Now that hubby is into Fitday too, he's really paying close attention to his food. He cooks most of our meals and was really into eyeballing portions. In a non-nagging way, I started pointing out the actual caloric content of some of his portions and it was a real eye-opener for him. He's also joined me in my label-reading and that's been a small shock to him I think. I know that it was to me when I first began reading them.

I was totally pooped last night. Yesterday was the first day since I hurt my back that I did any real physical activity. I did a lot of housework and was up and down the stairs more times than I care to count. I also got back on my bike last night for a little bit. Not a long time, just about 10 minutes or so. I could feel my hip and my back twinging a bit so I stopped what I was doing before I started to hurt. It was not a good exercising type of hurt, it was a bad, "hey, you hurt me last week, what the hell do you think you're doing?" type of hurt.

Today I'm taking a break from the bike again but I've been walking a bit more than I have in over a week. It's really slow to mend this time and it was extremely frustrating. Makes me really appreciate how lucky I am to not suffer with any kind of chronic physical pain.

One final note, tonight marks the end of our fifth week. Five weeks, who'd a thunk it?

ooh, my back is definitely on the mend. I'm still slightly (only slightly) twingey today. I spent a little time with the heating pad this afternoon (and likely will again before bed tonight) but I'm so on the right track. Hopefully by the end of the end of the weekend I'll be able to get back into my exercise program again. I can not believe how much I'm missing it right now. It's been a week since I hurt my back, it's been a long week!

I stayed on plan with my food today. I had lunch at home instead of at the office so that was a bit different. I had a "lean cuisine" thing for lunch which was very good. We had baked chicken with zucchini and rice for dinner tonight. I also had a can of diet cream soda. It was very sweet but good. I didn't find an aftertaste with it that I do with some diet pop. I noticed that it had Splenda in it so that must be the difference. When we were at the grocery store the other night I noticed that the box of Splenda was $6.49. That seemed a bit steep to me. Fortunately, I drink black coffee so I don't need to be buying sweetner. I wonder what it's like for baking with. My baking is generally low in sugar and fat so the bit of brown sugar and apple sauce I use isn't disgusting.

Hubby is getting into the fitday thing now. I think it totally makes a huge difference when you sit down at the end of the day and look at everything you ate, in black and white. It really makes me think about what I'm eating. It's changing the way he's looking at his meals too. Speaking of that, I should mosey off and let him have a few minutes with the computer.

Happy Friday everyone!!

I'm starting to feel a little better. I think I must have a cold or something in my back because I've never had this thing last so long before. I felt not too bad at work today, just had a couple of painful twinges, mostly when bending over to tie my boots up and tonight I had a few because I was "over doing" it. You know how that goes...you feel a bit better and start doing dishes and getting the recycling together...and then, whammo...you're feeling bad again.

So basically, I'm still off my exercise plan but the eating was excellent today. Food completely under control and I even got hubby set up on fitday. He's been doing this with me but hasn't been keeping track of his eating. It's so much easier when you have someone to do this with!

Anyway, I'm off to the heating pad again, good night all!!

Wednesday Weigh-In (just one day late)

I think that I go to bed too early to do these things on the day that they get posted!! (either that or I'm just a slacker!!)

Keeping Motivated

1. What sort of things do you do to keep yourself motivated while loosing weight?
I have found that visualization is working for me right now. I keep thinking about what I'm going to look like down the road and that keeps me going. I have also found that exercise is a huge part of the motivation for me. I can't justify an eating binge that will undo all the good / hard work I've put in to exercising.

2. With your progress so far, have you seen any changes in yourself?
Oh definitely. I've noticed a difference in the way some of my clothes are fitting me, in particular my sweaters and tops. I've been measuring myself every week and (so far!) every week I've lost a little bit. I also notice that my feet and ankles don't get swollen anymore and I've had to move the buckle dealy on my sandals because they were falling off of my feet. That may sound funny but it's true!

3. Who, if anyone, is your health idol or even mentor?
I don't have just one. I find that my inspiration comes from the women I've been meeting through these blogs and chat forums. I'm getting more support and encouragement from them than I have from any professional health person!

I had a totally perfect food day, beyond perfect. We went out for dinner and everything, I even had some pretzels tonight for a snack!! Something about recovering from a back injury really kills your appetite. Tonight when we went for dinner, I had a Santa Fe grilled chicken salad at Swiss Chalet. It was so yummy, lovely greens with balsamic dressing and a chicken breast on top. It's actually under 300 calories and has less than 10 g of fat and it was really filling and tasty. My back is still giving me some trouble so I'm still not able to exercise. I'm really pleased with myself about the food thing though. It would be so easy for me to slip back in old habits with this happening but I'm sticking to it! Yay me!!

I checked for these on Monday but didn't see them up. They're up now though....this week's Progress Prompt is:

List your three favorite kitchen appliances/tools/gadgets. Why are they vital/critical to your weight loss program?

My favourites would be my Kitchen Aid mixer, Oster Rice Cooker and my breadmaker. They all help me with my program. The mixer, I inherited from my mother-in-law. I got it a couple of years ago and can't imagine life without it now. I often bake muffins to have for breakfast and the mixer makes baking (and yes, I bake from scratch!) so easy!! The rice cooker is a fairly new acquisition and we're using it almost daily. We eat a lot of brown rice and it is so quick in the cooker and the cooker is incredibily easy to clean up. The bread maker is also relatively new. Neither hubby nor I are eating much bread these days but when we do, it's whole wheat, home made, no preservatives bread. We know exactly what is in it and that it's not processed and containing lots of words that have "z" in them. So yeah, these all help out with our eating program! They're definitely helping us to make easier meals and subsequently, we're eating out a lot less.

I had a great day foodwise today. Totally back on routine and on plan again today after struggling the past few days. I'm still on the mend but feeling much better than I have done in days. Things should get back to normal tomorrow (hopefully). Sorry for the lacklustre posts but it's not been easy to sit in front of the machine recently. Hopefully regularly scheduled programming will resume in a day or two.

It's my "measuring monday" again and despite the fact that I've been out of commission as far as exercising goes, and I had the Nibs & Pretzels episode yesterday, I'm down another 2 inches since I began this 4 weeks ago. That's a total of 10.5 inches lost to date. Wow, four weeks. It feels like it's just flown by and it's been a small lifetime all at once. I've found the past couple of days, since I've not been feeling well, to be a bit of a struggle. I think it's due to the inactivity and the boredom. I'm doing pretty good though. Partly because there isn't really any "junk" in the house anymore but mostly because I don't want to undo all the good stuff I've been doing for myself over the past four weeks!

I'm still feeling crummy, still basically immobile. I kept on track with my food despite a weekend munchie attack which involved some pretzels and nibs. Fortunately, we had a late breakfast and no lunch (and early dinner) so I wasn't too badly off of my plan. At the end of the day I was okay although today was another day of basically no exercise. I really want to feel better tomorrow, keeping my fingers crossed!!

In the past, when I would get really stressed out, or if I slept the wrong way in a drafty room, my back would seize up. Today, for no apparent reason (although I suspect that I may have twisted something the wrong way yesterday while taking the vaccuum downstairs, it's done it again. I've been in bed, flat on my back all day. I dragged myself out to dinner with my father-in-law and I'm in agony now so I'm heading back to the heating pad. I know that in a day or so I'll be better but in the meantime, I'm not exercising (grrrr). I have been eating okay though. Although, if I had anything remotely fattening in the house, there was a moment this afternoon, in a fit of frustration, that I would have totally consumed it. Thankfully, that wasn't a bridge I had to cross. I'm off to bed, I'll keep you posted!