wednesday wrap-up - week 5

What a difference a week makes huh?

I'm not sure what kind of shit was in my head a couple of weeks ago but I'm glad that I've straightened myself out. I'm not 100% perfect but I'm 100% better. I'm also 100% in a bit of a hurry so I'll get to the good stuff!

You know you want it...here's my weekly wrap-up:

summary - week ending August 22

• Once again, I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week - I even remembered on the weekend!
  
• water continues to be a breeze. I'm meeting my daily water intake goal each day!
  
• didn't suffer too badly with cravings and when I did experience mild ones, I rode them out or ate healthy stuff instead of the bad stuff I had in mind
  
• continued to post here every work-day since my re-start
  
• I got back into the swing of recording every morsel of food on fitday
  
• I'm down another 2 pounds this week and I'm really happy about it. That is a total of 9 pounds down in 5 weeks.
  

walk the walk

So last night, after work, I walked a bit. Well, more than a bit, more than I should have in "bad sandals." I was wearing cheapie shoes and shouldn't have ventured too far but my hunny was running late so, rather than sit around like third base waiting for him to pick me up, I started walking. I got him on the phone and asked which direction he'd be coming in (because I'm never sure) and I started hoofing it. I must admit, it felt really terrific when I was doing it but later on in the evening, my left foot was a little sore. Cheap shoes and walking on concrete don't really mix. Today, again with the cheap shoes (what can I say, they are cute and it's summer!). I went out a couple of times during the day, on very short, work-related errands in similarly bad shoes. Tonight, I'm really hobbling. Tomorrow, it's back to the doc marten sandals for a couple of days. The nice thing was though, the actual walking / cardio part of the whole thing felt really good.

I didn't get on the bike this morning because I slept in a tiny bit and had to be at work a little earlier than normal. It's okay though, I figure that the walks in cheap shoes are a good substitute. Even if I can do the bike thing every other day for the first little bit, that's a lot better than I have been doing.

So, the food thing is getting easier, more like a good habit than a bad one. The exercise thing is starting, slowly I know but still, starting is better than stalling. So yeah, the week is off to a good start for me.

SE 07A

I was a little surprised just now, when I took my yogurt out of my lunch bag and noticed that the "best before" date on it was September. How is possible that it's almost the end of August, already!!??

In recent weeks, since my big re-start, I've not done too well with the intentional exercise part of things. I wanted to focus on nutrition and ease back into the moving of my butt. Given the lapses that I've suffered, it's not surprising that I'm stalled at 7 pounds down. This morning, I got my ass in gear again and rode my bike for a short ride. I had decided last night that I would get up this morning and give it a go. I woke up before the alarm, which is surprising on a Monday. When the alarm did go off, I hopped out of bed and into my workout stuff. Before my hunny had made his breakfast, I was done my ride. I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't tough. I was really sweating up a storm and I only rode 3.5 miles but still, it felt good to do it. My thighs are a little sore right now but it isn't a bad thing at all.

Over the weekend, my long weekend, I ate pretty well. We did have pizza for dinner last night but we ordered a smaller size than we normally would and there are leftovers. We're going to have the leftovers tonight with salad for dinner. Who knew!? I did go over a small amount (less than 100 calories of what I think I should be having) in calories on Saturday and Sunday but I'm okay with that. It rained a fair bit on Saturday and Sunday so I didn't get into the pool at all. Instead, I continued with my cleaning jag. The house has never looked so good, I swear. There are still some biggish things to do in the kitchen but right now, all surfaces are gleaming and every corner of the house has seen the vacuum. I even had all of the laundry done, ironed and put away by noon yesterday. My hunny worked on some carpentry projects that he'd been putting off too. We accomplished a lot over the weekend and didn't just park ourselves in front of the television with a giant bag of chips.

It's still not easy, I don't know if it ever will be. It's easier though, easier than last week was anyway.

floating

good afternoon kids.

A while ago, I booked today off. I booked off next Friday too. I figured that if I couldn't (due to work commitments) take a week of in August, at least I could shoot for a couple of long weekends.

This morning I slept in a bit and then puttered around the house, continuing with my cleaning crusade. It's been good. Slowly, I'm getting the house sorted out, parts of it are actually sparkling. It's nice.

This afternoon, I spent some quality time floating in the pool. It was cloudy here all morning and I didn't know if it would warm up enough for swimming but it cleared up around mid-day. yay.

Also, I can report that yesterday was another 100% perfectly on plan day. Today is shaping up much the same way. The busy hands thing seems to be working for me. Once the house is all clean, I'll probably dig out my crocheting. I think my problem in the evenings is from just plain old boredom. We hunker down for an hour or so of TV and I start thinking about snacking. I think I'll try to get back into some crafty projects (I have a bunch of Christmas ornaments half done - I started them for gifts a while ago) to keep myself busy. Again, it's the habit thing. If watching TV has gotten me into a habit of mindless eating, I need to make different habits of either cleaning or working on something.

Slowly, it'll work for me. I know it will, it has before. Right now I'm just taking one day at a time and making baby steps. I feel good about things right now though, which is the main thing, right?

it's getting better

Writing out my frustrations yesterday really helped me. Admittedly, I'm still having some cravings but I'm talking myself out them.

Yesterday ended up as it began, perfectly on plan. After dinner, inspired partly by an old episode of "how clean is your house" and partly by a need to keep my hands busy, I started cleaning the house. I actually started before dinner, ate, and then continued after our meal.

I figure that if I clean something whenever I feel like snacking, it won't take me too long to get my house really really clean. Mentally, I have made a little list of rather gross projects which I have been avoiding. It should take me a little while to get through that list, in addition to my regular cleaning. All of this should keep me too busy to snack. Last night, for example, I scoured the oven top, scrubbed the master bath floor and washed the kitchen floor. I also did some dusting and hoovering. If I have to substitute one habit with another, I guess it's better to make it a good habit, right? Also, I figured that the more cleaning I did last night, more time I would have over the weekend to be out in the pool. Smart huh?

So, today, so far I'm 100% on plan again. As I type this, my office mates are enjoying a Greek take-away and I'm sitting at my desk, eating a banana. I don't mind though, I feel much better about things today than I did yesterday. The weekend will still be a struggle but I don't feel quite as overwhelmed today as I did before.

wednesday wrap-up - week 4

The past week has been really challenging for me. Unfortunately, I'm losing the challenges. I don't know why but I have felt constant hunger for a week now. This actually started on Friday when we had the thing with LOG. He's fine (well, he's not dead or in a coma) so why can't I snap out of this.

My head is all over the place and my stomach is screaming at me, "feed me!!" all the time. I can start out the day okay but the evenings are where things start to fall apart. Daytime is always easier because I bring my food for the day with me from home. It's all measured out. It's "good" food. Fresh, healthy things. For whatever reason, all I can think about is cake and candy and chips. Well, when I'm at home anyway. I've been snacking a lot in the evenings. I'm not happy about it when I'm doing it, I know I should stop and yet, I don't. It's like I don't want to and I guess I don't or I wouldn't do it. What's wrong with my head? I need to figure that out and deal with this. I hate this.

I know that there is not a magic bullet or an easy solution to this but sometimes, like right now, I really wish that there was. Anyway, it's a new week. Let's take a look at last week... here's my weekly wrap-up:

summary - week ending August 15

• I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week - I even remembered on the weekend! At least I did something good for myself this week!!
  
• once again, this one was not a problem - I met my daily water intake goal all week!
  
• gave into all kinds of stupid little cravings this week, including chocolate and dorito cravings
  
• continued to post here every work-day since my re-start
  
• fitday tracking has been hit and miss. Some days I've recorded everything and others I've missed completely.
  
• Don't ask me how but I maintained this week. Maybe it was being sick that helped out. I really need to get my butt in gear.
  

quick apology

I wanted to write a nice post here at lunchtime today but I ended up working straight through. this isn't good but sometimes it's necessary.

I wanted to write a nice post here after dinner tonight but I'm not feeling well. I seem to have picked up some kind of weird tummy bug. It's not pleasant.

So I would like to apologize for a blah-y post about nothing in particular. Tomorrow is my weigh in and hopefully, I'll have more to report then.

ugh

LOG gave us a scare over the weekend. On Friday afternoon, we had a call from the long term care facility (where he receives long term care) that he had had a stroke, or so they thought, and did we want him to go to hospital. We told them no, that we'd rather wait until he saw a doctor where he was. As it turns out, he had a big time UTI and once they got some anti-biotics into him, he rallied 'round. He was basically pretty out of it for several days. We saw him Saturday afternoon and he was up and eating lunch in the dining room and being a joker and somewhat his normal self.

The whole "is he okay or are we planning a funeral" thing loomed heavy over us on Friday night and Saturday morning. On Friday night, in a stressed out situation, we went to the Chinese buffet to drown our sorrows. In the end, we didn't actually eat too badly. We both became full rather quickly and I didn't even have fruit for dessert. Looking at our plates, we realized that we both ate less (and had primarily non-fried stuff) than we had when we ordered in a couple of weeks ago. So now we know that we can go to a buffet, once in a while, and not overindulge. I'm glad about this because I really like the variety that a buffet offers. I now can be one of those folks who just has a little bit of what she wants and is happy with that.

Having said that, I did have a couple of things over the weekend that I probably shouldn't have: doritos and chocolates. I guess it was partly worry about LOG and TOM really fucking me up on Friday. I just stopped caring for an hour or so and ate some crispy crunches and nacho flavoured doritos. I also messed my back up yesterday so I've been moving really slowly. I think it's partly stress about LOG and partly being overtired. Last week was really busy for us and I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I should have. That was a mistake.

This week I'm going to take better care of myself. Eating today has been 100% on plan so far and tonight I plan to do some big time stretching to try to sort my back out. I'm going to get into the pool too. If I'm going to get ahead of it, I need to keep moving.

So that was my weekend. Not super good but not horrible either. Chocolate and doritos aside, anytime that I can get through the weekend without having to call a funeral home is okay in my books.

oh wow, it's Friday!!

Despite being a little tired from TOM and two late nights in a row, I've a couple of decently productive days at work. Things on my "to do" list aren't necessarily getting attention but I have been working on a massive clean-up/organize project that I've been wanting to get at for ages. I've been sorting through tonnes of old papers, tossing some, shredding others, putting the rest of it neatly into binders. It's looking good, much better than it did. Also, if I happen to get hit by a bus or win the lotto, someone would now be able to sit at my desk and actually find anything that they needed to.

on snacking

So last night, we had dinner very early. It was really yummy and satisfying but, I think because we ate quite early and we had eaten quite late the previous two nights, I was hungry by 6:30 p.m. Not the kind of hungry where you are actually bored, but actually super growling tummy hungry. I grabbed a granola bar, because the ones we get will actually, usually, fill me quite well. That was good for about 15 minutes. Eventually, after three cups of water, I broke down and microwaved some popcorn. Fortunately, that satisfied me. It is at times like that, when I'm really glad that we don't keep cookies or ice cream in the house anymore. I'd have been right into it last night ~shiver~

This weekend I should be better able to control myself. We've got a few things planned which will keep us busy. Also, TOM is almost over so the snacking thing usually subsides when it's gone. The past few days have been a bit of a struggle but I'm feeling much better about things now.

back on track today

Boy it's been a couple of busy days for us. We got our new van last night. Both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings were spent out and about, running around and getting the new vehicle stuff sorted out. I'm pretty exhausted actually, what with two late nights and TOM really really kicking my butt.

Fortunately, I've been able to stay totally 100% on plan with my eating since going back to work on Tuesday. Yesterday actually, I was way way under in what I ate, probably because I was so tired, I just ate enough to get rid of the hungry feeling and then moved on. I'm hoping that I can do that when I'm not tired. Eat a small amount of something "good" when I'm hungry and maybe eat more frequently throughout the day but ultimately end up eating less overall. We'll see.

So there's not much to report beyond that. happy thursday kiddos.

wednesday wrap-up - week 3

So the long weekend didn't go quite as well as the previous weekend had. I still recorded everything I ate but to be honest, there were a couple of less than stellar choices that I had to record. We had some pizza at one point and there was some mindless snacking in between floating around the pool on Saturday and Sunday. I was really really jonesing for some chocolate and rather than eat a giant bag of Mars bars, I had chocolate pop tarts instead. They didn't really do it for me but they were surely better than diving, headfirst into a big honking bulk-barn bag of chocolate bars.

Having said that, I know that the too much snacking and pizza lapse were both hormonally induced. My period finally started (properly) yesterday and I'm feeling better in some ways, worse in others. Obviously, I'm a little crampy and crabby but I'm glad that the crap cravings have ceased. I'm not too happy with myself but I'm not going to beat myself either. I'm working really hard at removing guilt from all of this. Feeling bad about doing "bad" things is just going to make me feel worse. If I get to feeling really shitty, I have a better shot at justifying more crap. It's a bad cycle, isn't it?

Anyway, it's a new week. Let's take a look at last week... here's my weekly wrap-up:

summary - week ending August 8

• I finally got around to doing my weeding, I also got a little bit of walking in last week. It's not the same as regular daily exercise but it's something.
  
• I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week - I even remembered on the weekend!
  
• once again, this one was not a problem - I met my daily water intake goal all week!
  
• with pizza came some diet root beer so I wasn't exactly carbonation free this week, close but not quite.
  
• I gave into my chocolate cravings and indulged in some pop tarts on the weekend. not smart!
  
• continued to post here every work-day since my re-start
  
• tracked every morsel of food I've eaten, at fitday - good and bad.
  
• Fortunately, I maintained this week. When my period is out of the way, I'm hoping that I'll get back to losing again. I'm stuck at 7 pounds down in three weeks
  

what a day

It's getting really close to being past my bedtime. Sorry for the short post but work was quite busy today. I worked through lunch and then, after work, we went out to look for a new vehicle (ours is on it's last legs) and ended up buying one.

Yikes, what a long day!! TOM finally started properly today and I feel a little worse for wear. Eating over the weekend wasn't 100% on plan but it could have been much worse. I'm not sure what tomorrow's weigh-in will show, we'll just have to wait 'til tomorrow to see.

better than I thought I would

Yesterday was a good day. The weather was much nicer than it had been all day and I actually felt like I was productive at work. On Tuesday and Wednesday, when it was so hot, I had a difficult time concentrating, particularly in the afternoon when the air conditioning ceased to be effective.

At lunch yesterday (when I would normally post here), I sat outside with a friend, on a bench under a tree and enjoyed the breeze. All invigorated from a productive day and a pleasant lunch hour, on the ride home from work, I sort of decided that I would tackle some long overdue yard work before dinner. This morning, looking back on it, I'm very glad that I did because now, this morning, I don't have to worry about. I'm not sure what I was thinking though.

I started out on the shady side of the house, pulling weeds from the crack between where the driveway meets the house. That didn't go too badly so I moved around to the front of the house. I was getting pretty hot and feeling a little light headed around the time I was 1/2 done the front of the house. I took a little break, sat down in the shade in the backyard and decided to just suck it up and finish what I'd started. Somewhere between the lawn chair and the front of the house, I decided that I should prune this overgrown tree too. By the time I got that done and bagged everything up for the composting centre, I was literally loopy from the heat. My hands were shaking and I was really dizzy. Luckily, there was a gatorade in the back of the fridge so I sat down in the living room and slowly sipped on that.

I realize now that I was only working for about 45 minutes. My ass was kicked in an unbelievably harsh way. After a little while, I felt a bit better so I decided to go in the pool to cool down. What a difference that made, I felt a million times better. I got my appetite back, we had a late dinner and I felt pretty good. The heat must have caught up with me though because about 45 minutes after dinner, I was sick as a dog. Again I felt really weak and dizzy and ended up going to bed sort of early-ish.

For the first time in several days, I slept like the dead last night. When I woke up this morning, I felt so much better. I actually feel pretty normal and the front and side yards look terrific. There is still some weeding to do in the back but it's mostly shaded out there and if it doesn't get done, no one but us will know. Because of the weather lately, the weeds in the front of the house were growing like crazy and the place was looking pretty trashy. At least now, while not perfectly groomed and landscaped, it no longer looks like we're totally white trash anymore.

As far as the fitness stuff goes this weekend, I'm not too worried. We have several of our meals already planned out and have scheduled another trip to the produce market. We also have several activities planned which don't involve food so I'm not too worried about mindless snacking. I feel like we're back into a routine now with our healthy eating, in another couple of weeks it'll be like we've always been doing this. I'm feeling really positive about it all right now so that's something very good.

present!

I'm alive but really badly beaten from a stupid thing I did in the heat after work tonight...will write about it more tomorrow.

happy loooong weekend kids!!

mmmmmmm

You can almost breathe outside right now. It's been overcast all day today and the humidex is only 28 (down from 43 yesterday!). I just walked back to the office from a training session and by the time I got back to my desk I was all sweaty. It's a gross feeling, the heavy air and moisture. At least I didn't feel like passing out. The hot hot heat we'd been experiencing made me dizzy sometimes.

Dinner last night ended up being Chinese takeaway. We didn't get anything that was deep fried but it was still a little heavy. It was delicious, but I ate a little more than I should have. My appetite was crazy because we ended up eating so late. Here's what we had:



I'm glad that we took this route though. My hunny really wanted to go to a local buffet but I knew that given the day I'd had, and how late it was getting, it would be bad. I'd be tempted into "just one piece" of general tao's delicious chicken and then it'd be over. Oh and they have brownies there too. No, it was much safer to stay home and eat curried veggies and chicken lo mein. I think that it was a good compromise. If it hadn't have been so damned hot last night, I probably would have gone for a bowl of soup at my favourite noodle soup joint but I really didn't want to venture back outside once I got home.

Now today, back on track, 100%. Hopefully the weather is going to get better and it'll not be too hot to be outside. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more moderate weather and eagerly counting the hours until the weekend starts.

wednesday wrap-up - week 2

Wherever you are, I hope that you're not caught up in the heat wave that we are experiencing here. It's just gross outside. To make matters worse, my office is like a sauna. We have a couple of portable a/c units but they really just take part of the humidity out of the air. On a normal summer day, our office is quite cool but today, and yesterday, they just cannot keep up. At one point, I had to go visit some colleagues down the hall to catch my breath (they have a similar unit but they are in a much smaller office so it's more comfortable).

Tonight, my hunny was running late so he picked me up an hour later than normal from work. We still haven't had dinner (just got home about 20 minutes ago) and we're having that discussion. Have you had this one? The "hey it's too hot to cook and we've had salad for 6 nights in a row so let's go out..." discussion. At the moment, shock horror, I don't even feel like eating. In a half-hour or so, I will but right now, I don't want to think about it. We're also at the mercy of a friend right now who is dropping something off here.

To sum up, I'm tired. I did not sleep well last night and the heat today has just wrung me out. I also think that my period is just about ready to start. I'm glad about that but I'm also feeling a little fragile just at the moment. Oh well, "suck it up buttercup," right?

Anyway, what you've all been waiting for, here's my weekly wrap-up:

summary - week ending August 1

• again with the fucking hot stuff, the only intentional exercise I have done (7 out of 7 days!) is in our new pool. While in the pool, I've done some resistance work. Last week, I'd hoped that this week would be better, that the humidity would break...uh yeah, that didn't happen! This weekend though, no matter what, I have major weeding and yard work to do and I'm going to do it, even if I have to be outside at 5:30 a.m. weeding with a flashlight.
  
• I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week - I even remembered on the weekend!
  
• met daily water intake goal all week! The heat sure helps to motivate me to keep my liquids up.
  
• Except for one diet orange soda on Sunday, I avoided carbonated beverages all week!!
  
• When I splurged on a "treat" on Friday night, I indulged in whole grain granola bars and not chips or chocolate.
  
• continued to post here every work-day since my re-start
  
• tracked every morsel of food I've eaten, at fitday - good and bad.
  
• I am officially down 3 pounds from my last weigh-in. That's 7 pounds in two weeks for those of you keeping track
  

steamy stuff

This morning I had a meeting in the building next door. I took my guest over there because they have a public area (I couldn't find a meeting room in our building) and it's air conditioned. When I walked out of the building after the meeting, my glasses fogged up. It's insanely hot here right now, and I think my period is actually starting (last week was just sort of a false-alarm). I would really like it to start and be done with it before the long weekend starts.

Things continue to go well on the food front. I'm really pleased with myself actually, and with my hunny too. We have not been inside a restaurant since July 21. That's a massive feat for us as we usually eat out at least twice a week. I'm really proud of how he's adapted to his changed menu. I bought him a little notebook and he's recording everything he eats. I figure that this will be useful for his meeting with the nutritionist. He's lost 8 pounds already too so I'm sure that his sugar numbers will be improved when he goes back to see his GP later this month.

Anyway, this is just a quickie because I really should get back to work. Hope you're all keeping cool wherever you are!