back from the cold

Actually, it's pretty cold here too but it was really really cold in Montreal on the weekend. Our winter has been so mild so far that I forgot how icy the winds can be, particularly in those wind tunnels that are created in large cities by tall buildings.

Over the weekend, my eating was bad. There is no other way to say it, it was bad. We did do a lot of walking but I don't think we did enough to counter what was eaten. I won't get into an itemized list but just know that there was dim sum, there were timbits and there was smoked meat involved. Yeah, I know.

Back to "normal" today. I'm still feeling a little tired (we didn't get back to the hotel until 12:45 a.m. on Sunday - I'm usually in bed by 8:45 p.m.) and slightly remorseful about the weekend today.

Tomorrow, I'll get back onto my exercise routine (totally slept in this morning and missed the window). I will be moving lots of boxes up and down a couple of flights of stairs later on this afternoon though, so that will count for some cardio.

Bad eating and cold winds aside, the weekend was wonderful. We had a really great time, Belle and Sebastian were amazing. It was a lot of fun. Tomorrow, I start my new job so this is kind of a crazy week for me. Crazy but good, I'm looking forward to starting the new job and to getting back on track.

better!

Yikes.

Yesterday was so weird. By 9:30 a.m., I knew that I couldn't stick it out at the office any longer. I got in touch with the folks who had organized the training session and made alternative arrangements. It was very odd, I felt stuffed up, had a sore throat, was feverish and had an upset stomach.

When I got home, I pulled my jammies on, grabbed a blanket and lay on the sofa for a while. Eventually, I went back to bed and slept for the entire afternoon. When I woke up, I felt groggy but better. I didn't expect to sleep much last night but I didn't have a problem so I must have needed it.

This morning, when I woke up, I pulled on my workout clothes and sat in front of the computer. I could tell I felt well enough to ride for maybe 5 or 10 minutes and I kept trying to convince myself that I shouldn't. Eventually, the inner fit girl in me won that particular debate. I went downstairs, did my stretching, got the on the bike and started my 5 minute ride. I stuck with it though and rode for 5 miles. I feel much better now for having done that. I'm not sure what kind of bug I had yesterday but it seems to be gone now. I'm happy that I exercised and will work really hard this weekend to keep my eating under control. We're heading to Montreal on Sunday but I'm not going to let that little trip throw me off track, I'm going to do my best to make good choices when we eat out and I know that we'll be getting in a fair bit of walking so that should help too. So, happy weekend kiddos. Wish me luck!

the day after hump day

Yesterday, my guns were stuck to. I exercised before work, ate on plan all day. I ate on plan when it would have been really easy to stray in my diminished capacity (I've been sleepy all week, seems like most of the folks I work with are suffering from the same thing -- must be short week syndrome). At lunch time, I took my home made lunch to the cafeteria in the building next door and ate it with my friend. This particular cafeteria has a Tim's in it. Home to yummy donuts and cookies. I was strong though and stuck to my healthy lunch.

After work, we had to get an oil change for the car. We get them at Costco so usually, you have to wander around the store for 30 to 45 minutes while you wait. Now, last night, we were shopping for a new digital camera (my old one was on it's last leg). This took up a goodly chunk of our waiting time. When we were finished though, as we stood in line to pay, the "should we have a hot dog here" discussion began. It was a pretty short discussion though, I vetoed it. I saw no reason to a) eat fatty crap for dinner or b) spend money on crap food when we had a butt load of fresh food at home, just waiting for us to cook it.

Small victories I know, but after the weekend, and the bad choices I'd made, I felt good about it. This morning though, I'm not off to such a good start. I've had a really tough time getting going in the mornings this week. This morning, when I looked in the mirror, my right eye was so puffy, I could hardly see. Eventually that went away but I didn't exercise. I felt really nauseous and generally bad. I'm at work right now. I felt like calling in sick but I have a training session this afternoon that I can't miss, so I'm sticking around. Hopefully, as the day goes along, I'll feel better. Part of me feels really crappy about not exercising but the other part knows that it would not have been good for me. Tomorrow's another day right? I'm sure I'll feel well enough then, to get back on the bike.

wednesday wrap-up - week 7

I'll be having a crazy day today so this is just a quick one today. I'm honestly shocked to have maintained this week. I thought for sure that I'd be up some. Next week though, things will be back to "normal" and I'll be making better choices. I'm not sure what happened this week but I know that PMS is in the air so that could be what shoved me over the edge this week.

And now...here is my latest weekly wrap-up:

summary - week ending February 21

• did intentional exercise every work-day morning and continued to work some weights into the mix. So far, I have put 145.49 miles on our recumbent bike.
  
• I took my vitamins 7 out of 7 days this week - I even remembered on the weekend!
  
• met daily water intake goal 6 out of 7 days. Slowly, this is getting better!
  
• successfully avoided coffee all week, again. This means that I have been coffee-free for seven weeks now!!
  
• Once again, I've successfully avoided carbonated beverages, all week!!
  
• did not have any evening snacks 7 out of 7 days - had a couple of afternoon ones on the weekend but no evening snacks!
  
• continued to post here every work-day since my re-start
  
• tracked every morsel of food I've eaten, at fitday - good and bad. Honesty is not always fun!
  
• I maintained this week. This puts me at 21 pounds lost in seven weeks. I'm relieved to have not gained this week but really want to get back into losing this week.
  

...and our daily photo today is a bowl of pretty oranges!!!

overdosed

As I feared and yet, did not prevent, the weekend was an exercise in bad food choices. I am beginning to hate the weekends, seriously. For a moment, I considered moving my weigh-in day to Friday from Wednesday so that if I did slack off on the weekends, I'd have the whole working week to get it together. Needless to say, I didn't do that. I'm sticking with Wednesdays. I kept jumping on the scale over the weekend and didn't see any evidence of a gain but then, it wasn't going down either. I am not looking forward to tomorrow.

Now, don't think I went bananas and just pigged out, I really didn't do that. What I did do though, was eat too many fatty foods. I stayed at the high end of calorie allowance all weekend and, on Saturday, went over. I often say that it could have been worse and yes, it could have been but, it could have been better. Much better.

This weekend will be a struggle too because we are going out of town. Fortunately, it's only an overnight trip but it's to Montreal. Home of smoked meat and gorgeous bagels. It'll be a struggle to avoid overindulgence.

On an up note, I'm back on track so far today. 100% low fat food all day so far. It's so much easier for me when I'm at work and I can only eat what I bring with me. Being at home for three days, with easy access to the kitchen or restaurant meals makes it so difficult. Oh well, onwards and upwards, right?

artichoke you glad it's friday?

It feels like I've been fighting a cold for weeks now. Part of thinks that I might be allergic to something in my office. It's located in the basement of an old building and I'm not the only one who feels like this. Fortunately, in less than two weeks, I'll be moving to a new office, on the second floor. The air quality is definitely better up there (I've worked in the room I'm moving to before).

Each night this week, after we finish eating dinner, I can literally feel my body winding down. My back gets sore and I can't find a comfortable spot anywhere but in my bed. This morning when I woke up, my back was still really stiff, I was hobbling around a fair bit, sneezing and coughing. I looks pretty pathetic. I exercised despite this. I think I sweated some of the germs out and I definitely felt better afterwards.

LOG has had a cold all week so we haven't seen him since Monday. Last night, he was still feeling really crappy, I hope he doesn't have the flu. He just doesn't need that on top of everything that he's got going on recently. I can empathize with him though, if what I've been fighting is the same bug that he has, it's persistent. My hunny told me that maybe I should stop fighting it and just give in, get sick. The problem is that I can't do that. There's just so much stuff going on at work these days that I cannot have a sick day. Sometimes I feel okay, other times, my head feels all tingly and full and it feels like I'm outside of myself somehow. Weird huh? ...and right now, I'm fading. All I can think about is a nap. This isn't good. I have a two hour training session this afternoon. Staying awake through that may be a stretch. Who schedules training for the Friday afternoon of a long weekend?? Yikes. Oh well, if it's a valuable session I suppose it'll worth it.

I'm looking forward to nicer weather and wide open windows and fresh strawberries and the end of cold season. I can't imagine how much crappier I'd feel if I wasn't eating healthy stuff and getting the exercise in. I'm sure I'd be a giant mess.

gingery

Here is a picture of some ginger root. It is known to be full of gingery goodness:



I'm thinking about emailing the folks at Produce Town and telling them about the photos I took. As a direct result of my photos, two of my coworkers have started shopping at Produce Town. That must be worthy of a free bunch of bananas for yours truly, shouldn't it?

We stopped by there last night on our way home. We intended to get some more oranges and we ended up finding a fabulous deal on grape tomatoes. We also grabbed up some more carrots, some lemon juice, lovely skinless/boneless chicken breasts (we discovered last night that they have a gorgeous meat department too), olives and fair trade coffee. I just finished off some grape tomatoes with my lunch. They are so juicy and sweet, they taste like summer.

I know that it's easier to stay on track when I'm in the routine of a working week. I'm not sure why I can so easily get excited at the prospect of a healthy snack through the week, and my brain sends me chocolate and chip messages on the weekends. My wiring must be faulty I suppose. I'll have to figure out a way to sort that. I want to have a "clean eating" weekend this weekend. It's a three day weekend for us so I really don't want to get off track for three whole days. I can't have it. I am so excited to have lost 21 pounds, I can't stop thinking about the next 9. Sad huh?? I just cannot wait to have lost 30 pounds. Originally, according to the goals I'd set for myself, that would have taken 15 weeks. I'm already four weeks ahead that schedule (I had thought 2 pounds a week, 20 pounds would take me 10 weeks to lose). What I really want is for my pants to fall off of me when I pull them on in the morning (it's getting close but not quite). Hopefully, by easter, I'll be at least one pant size smaller. I'd love that, seriously. Ooh...that outta help keep me on the straight and narrow this weekend!!