super quick

As I've mentioned recently, my job has kept me really busy over the past month or so. The busy-ness of it all has left me distracted and I haven't had a lot of time to do things that I know are good for me and that I should be doing.

That said, I'm now off work until Tuesday. We're hitting the road, on a trip to NYC. The laundry is done, I have empty suitcases sitting on the bed that need packing. In a couple of hours we'll be heading south. I'm not sure what'll happen as far as our meals go, eating out, no matter how careful you try to be is always tricky. We will be doing a lot of walking though so that's something, right?

Anyway, when we get back next week I hope to get back to journaling here regularly again. I miss it when I don't do it.

Hope you all have a very happy weekend.

cold = hungry

Yesterday, we had our first, full day of really fall-like weather. It was one of those gorgeous, crisp days that start and end feeling "brisk" but in between, are sun-shiny with just a touch of cool in the air. For some weird reason, I was hungry, really hungry all day. A colleague of mine mentioned that she too was really hungry yesterday and we agreed that it must be down to the change in the weather. Weird huh?

Fortunately for me, I'd eaten breakfast at home, packed my sensible lunch and had no cash on me. I don't know if I mentioned this or not but recently, a Tim Horton's has opened literally next to the building I work in. Our previously full-of-healthy-and-yummy-options, mom and pop cafe has been replaced by an evil corporate fat and sugar stand. Ice Caps and donuts are everywhere. I haven't given in to Tim's temptations yet but it sucks that it's right on our door step. It also sucks that if I happen to forget my lunch, it's now a huge hassle to try and find something decent to eat.

Last night we had a tonne of errands to do in preparation for our weekend away. This included an oil change and having the tires rotated and balanced. We ended up at our favourite Vietnamese place on the way home and I enjoyed a huge and delicious bowl of soup with a side order of veggies. It was really filling and totally yummy and not a bad choice overall. At the end of the day yesterday, my caloric consumption was no more than it should have been. At least I'm keeping that part in check.

Exercise continues to be a struggle but I did manage to get a walk in yesterday and I think I'll do the same thing today, in lieu of a ride on the bike. I'm still feeling rushed and a little freaked out but knowing that I only have 2.5 more days in the office this week is making it feel a little less daunting.

rushed

For the past few (several?) weeks, I feel like I'm constantly rushing. Work is crazy, home is busy with LOG and getting the house ready for winter. We literally collapse into a heap at the end of the day. It's not a routine that I'm thrilled about, let me tell you.

I worked most of the weekend (well, Friday night and most of the day on Saturday) and spent Sunday, catching up on laundry and trying to rest. I was so exhausted that by the time we went to bed on Sunday night, I was overtired and didn't sleep well, I hate how that happens.

Last week, with the cold and the back thing (which, btw, is still giving me some trouble), I didn't do proper exercise, at all. I've not yet rode my bike this week either. I also got away from journaling my food. This is always a big mistake for me because journaling keeps me on track. I didn't go too far off my plan (I should state that it's now been over 2 months since a french fry has passed my lips) but I know that I wasn't 100% either.

This week's been better so far. I'm tracking my calories and starting to feel better. My plan is to ride tomorrow and every morning for the rest of the week, Friday afternoon we're heading out of town for a long weekend. It will be busy and not restful but it'll be fun to get away and I can always rest up in a week or so. Hopefully, by the end of October, the office will have settled down some and I'll feel less rushed, less tense. Here's hoping.

not quite the weekend

I feel a little bad about not having posted much this week. Work has been totally insane for me over the past few weeks. The first couple of weeks, I managed to post early in the morning, after my workout and before going into the office. This week though, I've not felt well and I've had the work crazy thing happening so the posting has slipped off my radar, so has journaling my food, actually, so has working out.

I haven't been on my bike since Monday morning because of my back injury. It's feeling better right now than it has all week. I just went outside for a little walk and to clear my head and feel better for it. Oh, I'm also having a diet coke so the caffeine might be helping too.

This weekend I'm working too, tonight until at least 8 p.m. Tomorrow morning I'm back at 7 a.m. and then I could be done at 2 p.m. or 1 a.m., depending on how my back is. After this weekend, things should settle down a bit, I'm hoping. My plan is to start up with my workouts again on Sunday (to make up for missing the past couple of days). I'm not sure what the scales will say when I weigh-in because we've been eating at weird times and grabbing strange meals. In any event, I think my cold is on the way out, my back is feeling better and I should be back to posting more regularly starting again on Monday.

still here

This is going to be really quick. I didn't post on Friday because I was soooo busy at work that I didn't have a chance. The weekend was a bit of a blur, I took some work home with me and did that on Saturday while my hunny worked. Sunday, we did very little (and it was nice). Yesterday, I was sick. I had that cold in my back thing again. I woke up feeling stiff and stuffy. I figured that if I rode, I'd loosen up and feel better. I rode and felt a bit better at first. Once I got upstairs though, I felt terrible and couldn't make it into work. Anyway, I'm at work right now, sitting on the heating pad, trying to get stuff done through an ibuprofen haze. I can't talk about being on plan at the moment because I haven't journalled my food since Saturday but I don't think it's been too bad. I just can't concentrate on it right now.

So, that's what's new with me. Hopefully, I'll have more coherent thoughts to share later in the week. bye for now

three things

This will have to be a quickie because it's one of those days again:

1. Red Lobster

Last night, we went, with LOG to Red Lobster for dinner. I actually got through an entire meal without eating one of those "cheddar bay" rolls. I tried to ask the server not to bring them but I was out-voted. When they first came to the table, they smelled amazing but I resisted. By avoiding the rolls, I had room (both in my stomach and on my calorie chart) for more seafood. yay!


2. Biggest Loser

Forgot to mention this yesterday but I checked out the season premiere on Tuesday night. Last year, I totally enjoyed the series. This shocked the hell out of me because I don't watch any other "reality" shows. I think I got sucked in because it was something that I could relate to. I also found myself thinking "yanno, if I could get on that, I could be the Biggest Loser." Yikes. Anyway, so far, the only person I thought I liked at all has been sent home. The rest of them seem kind of whiney and I was a little disappointed to see that all of the women basically weigh around the same and that there wasn't anyone my age on it. I guess if you're older and heavier, they don't want to risk it (but they'll have older and heavier men on it - go figure). Last year, when it was on, I was off the wagon more than I was on it and I remember actually snacking while watching it sometimes. Thank goodness I'm back on track now. I'll be losing right along with other "losers."

3. Special K

Are they showing these new Special K ads featuring Carson Kressley in the states? I've only seen them on Canadian channels so far. If you haven't seen them, it's Carson talking about how Special K should be part of your healthy maintenance regime, once you've reached your goal weight. Good message I suppose, but I find him really annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love him on Queer Eye, seriously. In the ads though, he's wearing a short sleeved red t-shirt over a white long sleeved one, and they are tucked into his pants and he has a noticeable "paunch." Now, I would love to have a little tummy like that (instead of head-to-toe flab) but he doesn't exactly scream "super fit" to me. Except for the tummy, he's very slim. I just don't think he looks toned at all. If you're trying to sell health in a box and are telling the world that you're working out regularly, you might want to actually do that. Just my two cents, I've found the whole series to be rather irritating.

humpity-do-dah-day

So it's Wednesday and I'm distracted. I'm swamped at work (but today I am stopping for lunch) and that's on my mind but also, we're seriously thinking about getting a dog so I'm excited and making plans for that.

I had another good workout this morning and have now officially put more miles on the bike this week than I did last week. By the end of this week, I should hit the 500 mile mark for the year to date. I'd hoped to be hitting that by my birthday (way back in May) so I'm a little late with it but, better late than never. Also, I'm still journaling my food. It's a little tedious at times but it keeps me honest. This way, when I mess up and go off plan, I can see it in front of my face and, when I have a really good day, I can see that too.

Now, having said that, yesterday was not a great day. I went way over on my calories and knew it when I was doing it and regretted it immediately after. This happened because we had pizza for dinner last night. My hunny usually cooks but he was exhausted, I was exhausted too so my defenses were lowered and we ordered in. It was a big mistake, I know this, but it happened and I now know that I could care less about having pizza again anytime soon. It just made me feel heavy and yucky afterwards. Who knew huh?? Happily, today is better day. I had a headache last night but it wasn't nearly as bad as the previous night and the rash thing is, I think, bug bites. That gross I know but they are going away and aren't terribly itchy. Yikes...what a week!!

weirdness

At this particular moment in time, I feel okay. Last night, I had the worst headache I had ever experienced in my entire life. I felt, seriously, like the top of my head was coming off. When it first started, I thought that I may be a little dehydrated (even though I'd spent my day running back and forth to the loo because of the amount of water I consume while I work) after dinner. A glass of water helped a bit but I still had to take some tylenol. I know that this is just a symptom of the stress-related cold thing I've had this week. I was coughing a bit too last night, which was making the headache all the worse, and my ears were plugged. It was odd. I also seem to have developed a weird kind of rash. It almost looks like bug bites (I know that's gross) because it's sort of in one spot (well in a cluster) on my tummy. It's as if one the many spiders which have been finding their way into the house now that September has arrived, was in bed with me on Sunday night and had buffet on my tummy. I'm kind of a mess right now, and I'm mentally exhausted because of work.

It should be said though, that the cold and the work pace have been helping me with my motivation. The past two mornings, I've been up before the sun and have ridden my bike. I feel like I'm almost ready to start mixing up the interval programs again (like I used to, all those many months ago) and I think I want to dig out my WATP DVD's. After a week now, the exercise is feeling more like a routine and less like a punishment. I hate to think how crappy I'd be feeling if I wasn't doing this. Also, I snuck a peek at the scale again this morning and noticed another little drop. I know it's just that "early in the restart big drop" thing happening but I'm really pleased about it. I still have a ways to go before I'm into virgin fat but I'll get there soon. I have a mini-goal that I'd like to hit by the end of the year but I don't want to say too much about it, for fear that I'll jinx myself (I have a tendency to do that sometimes). Headache hangover, yucky rash and all, I'm feeling pretty good right now and that's the main thing.

monday, monday

How was your weekend? I managed to get through mine without too much trauma and/or damage. I actually felt kind of yucky all weekend. The neck stiffness thing got really bad on Friday night and all day on Saturday. I know it was some kind of cold thing because I was coughing and blowing my nose and I developed some kind of weird soreness inside my right nostril. The nostril pain is going away, the neck stiffness is starting to dissipate a bit so I think I'm on the mend. Doing little else than laundry this weekend definitely helped.

Friday night, after work and after visiting LOG, we picked up some groceries to get us through the weekend. We spent about $28 on "snacks" but the snacks were all of the fresh fruit and veg variety. It's definitely easier to avoid temptation if you don't haul crap into the house, isn't it? Saturday was the first weekend, on-plan day, I'd had in I don't know how long. Yesterday, I snacked a bit too much. I definitely went over as far as calories go but I didn't pig out on really fatty stuff so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Part of the reason I did it was simply boredom. My hunny and LOG went out of town for the day. I was supposed to go with them but stayed behind with my cold. I just kept nibbling on stuff that I didn't really need or want and couldn't stop myself. Not good.

On Saturday night, we ordered Chinese take-out. My hunny let me pick the items because he wanted to be surprised when the food arrived. I'm happy to report that I didn't order nearly as much as we used to, that most of the items were veg related and that we had enough left over for dinner last night. You have to understand that in the past, we'd just devour everything in the bag, as soon as it got into the house so having enough leftovers for an entire meal is a huge accomplishment. It sounds really ridiculous typing it, but it's true.

Here is my latest weekly wrap-up:
summary - week ending September 11

• did "intentional exercise" 3 out of 4 work days last week. A not bad re-start, if I do say so myself.
  
• I took my vitamins 6 out of 7 days this week (I totally forgot about it yesterday for some odd reason)
  
• exceeded daily water intake goal 7 out of 7 days
  
• stepped back on the scales again this morning to discover that I'd lost 2.5 pounds this week. It's really nothing to shout about because I'm no where near virgin fat at the moment but, still, it's better than the alternative

happy friday

We had an usually late night last night and I'm really feeling it at the moment. Yesterday, in the morning, my hunny msg'd me that he had a bad migraine. I wasn't surprised at this, he'd had a bit of a headache in the morning and the weather was a little weird here. I told him to pack in work, get home, take drugs and get some sleep. He followed my advice and when I called him at 4 p.m. to see how he was doing, he felt much better.

Now, last night we were meeting a furnace guy at the house (nothing serious, just new house/new furnace stuff that we needed to deal with before the cold weather sets in). He was to be here at 5:30 p.m. so I raced home, stopping quickly to grab some yogurt for lunches. Of course, he was late arriving. By the time he left, it was almost 6:30 p.m. and we were trying to decide what to do about dinner. We didn't really enough "dinner food" in the house to make a proper meal with, I refused to order any kind of greasy delivery food so the debate began. My hunny had grabbed something to eat after his nap so he wasn't famished. Me, on the other hand, had worked through my lunch (I ate it, I just didn't take a break) and had not even had time to grab my snack in the afternoon. I was so hungry. Finally, a little after 7, we decided to venture out and try to find something that would be tasty and not greasy or too expensive. After a couple of false-starts, we ended up at Costco and bought salad stuff. When we eventually got back home and had eaten, it was almost 9 p.m.

While I'm not thrilled about having eaten so late, I am happy with my choices and eating was 100% on plan again yesterday. We didn't get into bed until around 10 and we're up at 4:30 a.m. I knew that this morning was going to be a struggle but I had decided before going to bed that I was going to exercise in the morning. Getting up turned out to not be as difficult as I'd thought it would be but I did feel really sluggish and groggy. I think I've been fighting some kind of a cold this week which is one of the reasons I've really pushed myself to exercise this week, I'm trying to keep it at bay. This morning though, I have these big black circles under my eyes and my neck is really stiff. On my right side, it feels really tight. When I'm standing, I can feel it all the way down to my shoulder blade, it's weird. My ride was really brutal this morning too. I've been really feeling it when I'm riding. Even last night, as I lay in bed, I felt a little soreness and stiffness in my muscles. It's a good feeling and I don't mind it at all but this morning, I really had to push myself to get through the interval program.

So, I'm feeling a little battered and stiff. Really though, I'm pretty pleased with what I've managed to accomplish so far this week. I've had 3 perfectly on plan eating days and expect today to be the same. I've also exercised the past three days in a row which is something I haven't managed in a while. Aches and pains aside, being back on track is feeling good.

journaling

Fitday is once again my friend. I had stopped journaling a while ago. With my recent restart (late July? early August? ...I've restarted so many times I can't keep track) I told myself that I could just watch what I ate and that I knew how to do that without journaling my meals. Yeah, okay...I do know what to eat, what's too much, what's balanced. Sad thing is, without the graphs and pie-charts, I don't do it. I need to see the numbers in front of me. Those numbers, total calories, percentages of carbs, fat, protein...they keep me honest. For the past two days (and today, so far - that's three - whoohoo), journaling has kept me on track.

Last night, I didn't have to make a decision about dinner as LOG wasn't feeling up to going out. While I was not happy to hear that he didn't feel so good, I was relieved to know that we'd be having dinner at home. Dinner at home is so much safer, easier, more controlled. Not to mention that I think we've been eating out entirely too much lately. The dinner has been put off until Friday now (tomorrow night we have to meet the furnace guy at the house right after work). I'm hoping that by Friday, I'll be able to come up with some fun / healthy idea for where we can dine. In the culinary wasteland that is the town I live in, this is not an easy thing to do.

File under NSV:

Now that I'm officially (hey, it is day three after all) back on plan, I can start reporting on fun little NSVs again. Yesterday morning at work, we had a big departmental meeting. There is usually food at these things and I was pleasantly surprised to walk into the room and not see a table full of coffee and muffins. About half-way through the meeting, the food arrived and everyone took a break to go "help themselves." Lucky for me, they had bottled water (yay). I grabbed one for myself and my buddy and totally ignored the yummy looking muffins and thick slices of loaf (looked like spice / fruit or something -- it smelled very good) and those little packets of whipped butter. Feeling quite proud of myself, sipping on my water, I watched a presentation. After the folks presenting it were done, they handed out chocolate bars to everyone. Why do people do this??? Mine was a kitkat. I love kitkats. When the meeting was over, I gave mine back to the presenter and grabbed a second bottle of water. Saying "no" to a muffin or a chocolate bar shouldn't be a big deal. Yesterday though, it was and I'm glad I did it. I'm really looking forward to the day when it's not a big deal anymore.

good

My day has been quite productive so far and it's still only early. I'm quite proud of the fact that I did not hit the snooze bar too many times and that I dragged my sorry ass out of bed and into the basement for some sweatin'. I missed a few days, what with the weekend and other things that I allowed myself to be distracted by so today felt like starting over again, not unlike last week.

Right now though, sitting here sipping my black coffee while my breakfast settles in my tummy, I feel good. Yesterday was a 100% perfectly on-plan eating day (yay!). It was difficult but I managed it. Today is shaping up the same way. I've had breakfast, made my lunch, so there is only dinner to worry about. And I do worry about it as tonight is our night out with LOG. It's my turn to pick so I have to come up with a spot that has ample parking (near the door), is LOG accessible and where I can find something "healthy" to eat. It's a tall order and will most likely result in us going to the blandest of the bland, Swiss Chalet.

I'm not sure what happened to us over the weekend that allowed us to behave so badly. Coming out on the other side though, I feel like I've experienced a huge attitude adjustment which, quite frankly, is long overdue. I'm not complaining though, just glad that it finally happened. Something had to give.

happy new year

The first day of school always feels more like new years to me than January 1 ever good. New year today, new start. At this moment, I'm feeling inspired and confident.

The weekend did not go as I'd hoped but it did go as I had feared. I'm not even going to get into it right now. Let's just say that it was sad, bad and behind me, forever. Last night, my hunny and I shook hands and agreed that "that was that" as far as the weekend went. Beginning, again, today, there will be no junk food coming into this house. Starting tonight, we will walk together after dinner, each evening. We will eat healthier foods and be more active and the result will be that we are more fit and trim.

We're both sick of putting this off and dicking around. No foolin', this time, this restart is for real, pounds will be lost, asses will be kicked!

not that it matters

It feels really irrelevant, given what's happening down south, to report in here today but... I did exercise this morning. My body didn't really want to do it, it wanted to stay in bed.

When I finished my stretching and got on the bike, I thought, well, I'll just ride until the commercial comes on (I was watching a repeat of Law & Order). Once the commercial was over I thought, okay, I'll just ride until the next commercial... by that time the next commercial started, the show was over and I had only 3 minutes left on the 20 minute program. I figured, what the heck, I've come this far, just do the whole thing and I did. I've pedalled almost 14 miles this week and I think that's pretty good, considering last week I did nothing at all.

So, my self-challenge for the long weekend is to not snack on bad stuff. My plan is to get some stuff done around the house as my hunny has to work. If I keep myself busy enough, distracted enough, I'll not be tempted into "grazing." Goodness knows I struggle with it every weekend. It's been a long time since I've managed to get through an entire weekend without a slip, I'm going to work really hard to make this one be a success.

I slept in

Goodness, day three did not start like I'd intended. My plan was to get up and exercise. Somehow, we slept through the alarm. I guess we were up too late last night, watching the news about Katrina. We didn't sleep so late that we were late for work or anything, I just didn't have enough time to get my usual morning stuff done and ride the bike. I'm planning to either do it tonight or Saturday to make it up.

I stepped on the scale again this morning and it's not budging. I guess it's good that it's not going up but it's not going down either. I'm not really surprised though, two days of exercise is not going to result in a sudden 5 pound loss, is it?