Thursday, March 27, 2008

Fit and Fat?

Maybe it's just me.....

Does anyone else feel their biggest immediately after a workout? For some reason lately, especially after intense cardio workouts, I feel my biggest. I feel all jiggly and certainly not fit. It usually wears off about and hour after my workout and then I feel fit and happy that I just kicked some butt...but aren't most people supposed to feel super fit after a rocking workout? I don't get it. Hmmm.

Last night was my Body Ball class and the instructor, who I find usually goes a little too easy on us, totally rocked it last night. The exercises were fun but definitely challenging and my legs and butt are cursing her name today, which is the way it's supposed to be!
I'm aiming for 6 workouts this week but I'll be ok if I can only punch out 5. It's going to be a busy weekend but my plan is to get in some Billy on Saturday morning first thing. I love Tae Bo. Seriously love it. I know at least Jenn knows what I am talking about. At first, I thought Billy was a little too over the top but after doing the workouts 3 days in a row for 60 mins, I honestly feel like I am seeing results. I feel lighter, my clothes are looser and my arms feel more toned. I'm going to try to get him in at least once a week but hopefully twice and I'll hit the gym on my other days.

Off topic but the weirdest thing happened to me yesterday. I picked up a box of All Bran Bites in the groceries the other night. There are supposed to be 5 pouches in a box but when I opened it up, there was 10 pouches stuffed into one box! Weird eh?

Well that's it for me today. I'm totally rocking WW and I'm loving every single minute of it. How is everyone else making out?

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Easter wrap up.....

So I think I made it through Easter relatively well. To be honest, this was probably my best Holiday as far as food goes in the past year. Usually I go into a holiday weekend with that "Oh, it;s the Holidays, It's only Easter/Halloween/Christmas/Thanksgiving once a year, may as well live it up!" attitude. This Easter, my perspective was a little different. Although I must be honest with you ladies, I did go over my 35 flex points. But for the most part, I made good choices and got in tons of exercise. I decided that since I have had such a hard time controlling my food intake on the weekends, I would focus mainly on working out. I had 4 days off from work and I managed to get in over 60 mins on 3 of those 4 days of good ol Billy Blanks and his Tae Bo crew. I got up early every morning (except Sunday) and kicked some serious butt for over an hour each morning. So last week was probably my best week as far as exercise goes. I worked out everyday from Mon-Saturday and took Sunday off. I found that it did impact my food choices throughout the day too. I kept thinking, well if I eat that ice cream and cake....that 65 mins of Billy time this morning will be for nothing!

So.....

This weekend is going to be a rough one. I have a Potluck/Fantastia party to go to on Friday night at a friends house. This should be relatively ok since I've decided to stay away from the wine that night and take my own car. BUT there will be tons of yummy food there so I might just eat a super light supper so that I can try a few things there. Or I might bring a veggie tray as my potluck dish so that I can graze on that as the night goes. My main plan though is to find a seat that is no where near the snack table.

Saturday I'm planning a Stagette party for a friend of mine who is getting married next month. Any ideas for this ladies? Basically the Theme is going to be Black & White (since those are the colors of the wedding) everyone is wearing black except of course the bride who is wearing white. I told everyone to bring a black shirt/tank/t-shirt so that we can use iron ons. I think you can get the ones that you basically can print anything on them through your printer and then they iron on the t-shirt. I'm hoping to make those up this week but I'm looking for fun/cute/sexy phrases to put on the shirts...any ideas?? Amy, Angie....I know you ladies are going through (or just went through) the whole wedding thing right now...any awesome ideas for the stagette? What was the funnest/craziest stagette you've been to?

So my plan for Saturday is to get up early and meet up with Billy yet again for another 65 mins of punching, kicking and all over Tae Bo-ing. This will probably help me stay good on Saturday night!

How are you ladies making out this week?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

A slight slip up...and St. Patty's Pics!

So last night I had a minor slip up. 2 glasses of wine, a piece of cake and about 1/2 cup of twix ice cream. Ok...there was a small plate of taco dip too. But it could have been worse and thrown in with all that was a lot of veggies from the veggie tray. But I feel awful this morning and wish I could take it all back! It wasn't even great cake! Don't you hate that? Spending points you don't have on food that's just so-so?

I'm hoping that my 60 mins Tae Bo sweat fest yesterday morning will help out. Today I think I'm taking a day off from working out. I've worked out the past 6 days in a row and Billy has a way of making your arms kill the next morning. Why do I still feel guilty for not working out though? Maybe I'll get in a walk outside. I should get some form of exercise in since I indulged a little too much last night.

Today is another Easter dinner. Did great at the one yesterday. Filled up on veggies and just had a small sliver of Graham Cracker Pie. I'm going in with a plan today to stay away from the potato scallop and just have salad and ham with 1/2 cup of chocolate frozen yogurt for dessert, only 2 points and sooo yummy!

I can't wait for a normal weekend again!

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful Easter!
Here are a few pics from St. Patty's Day that I've been meaning to post!

Me and 2 friends of mine. I think my antenna got caught in my friend's hair! I couldn't move my head!
I can't figure out why this is so small...isn't blogger odd sometimes? This is my showing off some major pipes!
I'm kind of thinking Scott is going to disown me after posting this picture but I think it's cute...minus my face being all squished up!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

So far so good!

Just a quick check in on this wonderful Easter weekend to hold myself accountable.

I must say that I am rocking my new and improved plan. I am measuring every little thing that goes into my mouth. I'm writing everything down, and when we took my little 2 year old niece to Tim's last night, I even said no to chocolate glazed timbits that were fresh out of the oven!

Today and Tomorrow might pose a slight problem, but I am up for the challenge! Today and tomorrow I'm running into Easter dinners left right and center. But I can do this! Thursday night Scott and I went out to a fancy Indian restaurant and our meal was absolutely delicious. I had the butter chicken with rice and Naan bread. It was amazing but unfortunately the meal ate up almost all of my flex points. I had 2 left over at the end of the night (which included cheesecake, just in case your wondering how I blew through 33 flex points on butter chicken!) Yup only 2 flex points left over for the whole Easter weekend, which includes two Easter Dinners and a Birthday celebration fully equipped with ice cream cake!! Uh oh....... How am I going to get through this?

Well.....I could get up early every morning and earn me some activity points! So that is exactly what I am doing. Yesterday I got up early and did 60 mins of Tae Bo. Although I didn't have to use any activity points at all so that was great. Today I may run into some slight trouble as we have an Easter Dinner at 1:00 and a joint Birthday party for Scott, myself, and my BIL's girlfriend. Ice cream cake (major weakness for me) will surely make an appearance. So off I go to meet up with good ol Billy Blanks.

How is everyone making out?

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Back to old faithful

So I've been on a roller coaster of eating SFL meal plan during the week and then reverting to my old ways on the weekend. The old ways that lead to weight gain, bloating and all over badness. These old ways include wine, pizza, chocolate, garlic fingers, cookies. You name it. I ate it last weekend.

So obviously it's time to switch things ups. I can't stay on this roller coaster long. Lose 5 lbs during the week on my super clean SFL meal plan, gain 5 lbs on the weekend eating garbage that I don't need or want. Not a good cycle. I need consistency. What to do? Hmm...... Didn't I lose almost 70 lbs on Weight Watchers? Didn't I rock the plan for a very very long time? Didn't I feel successful and confident? Didn't I lose weight while still eating the foods that I love? Didn't I, didn't I didn't I?

Yes, I did.

So here we go again ladies. We are back....with a vengeance.

This is how I'm going to make Weight Watchers rock my world while I lose these last 10 lbs!!

1. Measure everything. Even the extra grape that rolled onto the counter while measuring.
2. Journal EVERYTHING, even the extra grape that rolled onto the counter while measuring.
3. Count ever SINGLE point (ok I think the grape has been counted but what about that extra little lick of PB you took when you were spreading it on your toast?)
4. Plan my weekends. Plan every single flex point BEFORE Friday afternoon. Doesn't mean it's not going to change a little but if I plan it out before the weekend, I'll be less likely to stray.
5. Post Menus online. I won't only be accountable to myself but to all you ladies too! I'm a lot less likely to lie to you guys than I am to myself!
6. Exercise on the weekends. No more taking Friday-Sunday off. If I get up Saturday and get some activity in, not only will it give me more energy but I might think twice about that Mars bar Saturday night!
7. Stay away from the wine. It's not the end of the world. One or two glasses of wine is enough on occasion. No need to be downing a bottle.....or more. I have two occasions coming up that may involve wine:
a) Bachelorette Party and I'm the maid of honor. I'm not going to kid anyone, I'm going to have more than a glass or two of wine. BUT I will allocate my flex points to the wine in my weekend plan. (See #4) I'll just have to give up the chocolate that weekend!
b) Birthday dinner with the girls. Limit myself to one glass of wine with dinner. NO MORE!
8. Cut out the processed junk. This is going to be hard one. I do love my All Bran Bites. 100 calorie packs, granola bars. Mmmmmm. Who's got a yummy substitute?
9. No more muffins, even 1 point yummy WW ones. These things have a habit of sneaking into my tummy 2 or 3 at a time. 3 one point muffins do not equal 3 points Carolyn, you know this. Stop kidding yourself.
10. Eat the majority of my points during the day. If I've learned anything from SFL it should be to eat way more protein and to make lunch my biggest meal. Before on WW, I was saving 10-12 points just for supper and nighttime snack. Not good for the metabolism.


I start back to WW on Friday morning March 21st. I can so do this. I know I can. My goal is to see 149 lbs when I hit the beach in Dominican. I've got 6 weeks. I'll find out this Friday how many lbs I have to go to hit my goal. I've got a super cute bikini hanging in my closet for motivation!

Here we go.....!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Sorry!

I know I've pulled a bit of a disappearing act, but do you ever have those weeks when life just seems so unbelievably busy? Where does the time go?



Here is my last 2 weeks in a nutshell



1. I discovered that 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt and 1/2 cup of 1% cottage cheese is delicious! For those of you who think you hate cottage cheese, try this! It's so good for you too. Top with 1/2 sliced banana or other fruit and you've got yourself one yummy little treat.



2. Hubby is home!! His flight form Halifax to Saint John was cancelled but he hopped on a last minute flight to Fredericton (about 1.5 hours from me) so I drove up to get him in torrential downpour and made it JUST in time to see him walking through the gate at the airport. It was love at first sight all over again!



3. Hubby and I decided to go to Dominican in May. We leave from Halifax on May 3rd! SOO excited and in honor of said trip, I went out the other night and bought my very first bikini! Hello, milestone!! Very cute halter style. I'm planning on picking up another one before the trip. So fun!



4. Went to a St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday. I ate way too much food, drank way too much wine and ended up blowing my meal plan out of the water from Saturday at 7:00pm-Sunday at 10:00pm. Bad idea. How did I forget all about that bikini I just bought. Brightside? I won a prize for having the best St. Patty's Day getup! Will post some pictures tonight.



5. Welcome back to Christina! She took some time off from blogging but now she is back! Love this girl!

6. I can't wait to read up on all of your blogs! I've probably missed so much. I have been sneaking in every now and again but haven't been the faithful & devoted reader that I should be. Thanks girlies for checking in on me. I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged.

7. My weight has been on a bit of a roller coaster, lose a few pounds, hit the weekend and gain a few pounds. You all know the cycle. Damn cycle. But I'm working on a plan for this weekend. Since we have 2 Easter Dinner's to go to I've got to plan out my meals and portions so that I can make it through this weekend without throwing it all out the window.

Rule #1 - No wine......NO WINE.
Rule #2 - Measure out my meat (4oz) and fill the rest of the plate with veggies
Rule #3 - Split my dessert with Scott. One of the desserts is going to be a birthday cake for myself, Scott and another family member as our Birthdays are all close together. Mmmm Ice cream cake!
Rule #4 - Salad, Salad, Salad! I'll be making sure there will be salad served at each dinner and if there isn't, we'll bring one ourselves!

How is everyone else planning out the long Easter weekend? It's rough eh??

Friday, March 7, 2008

Moms....How DO you DO IT?

Wowsa! I love my little 2 year old niece like nobody's business but after 5 days of single parenting, I'm wiped! This has been the busiest 2 weeks of my entire life!

First we have last weekend with the flooding and the driving the car into a snowbank. Then on Monday my brother and SIL take off for Cuba and leave me with their sweet little 2 year old who I absolutely adore. All this with Scott out of town for work for 2 whole weeks! I'm beyond exhausted really. How do single Moms get by? Seriously? I know you get used to it and it's different when it's your own child, but Wow. I'll be looking forward to a solid 8-9 hours of sleep tonight! That being said....I swear I'm having separation anxiety! I miss her already! Her grandparents are taking her tonight so I won't see her and about 10 mins after I dropped her off at Daycare this morning, I wanted to rush back for one more kiss! Sigh.....

On top of all that, I'm hosting a Bridal Shower for my friend tomorrow afternoon and I haven't even had time to go and pick up all the stuff! With Grace (my niece) around, I haven't even had time to think about the Shower until today. I ran out at lunch and grabbed a bunch of decorations and balloons and bridal showery things but I still have to make a batch of sugar cookies, make a few dips, pack everything up, decorate and clean. Does it ever end?

BUT my light is at the end of the tunnel.........................

Scott comes home tomorrow night!!!!

I can't even express how excited I am to see him. Although Ontario is calling for a huge storm so I'm hoping he isn't delayed. We both took Monday off from work so we had a few days together uninterrupted!

On my weight loss front, I'm still doing well. Holding steady at 7 lbs lost in the last 2 weeks. I haven't been super strict this week but have still been doing really well and I feel pretty fantastic! Having Grace around has made it kind of hard to be super strict on the food front. But my clothes are feeling much looser and I've been getting to the gym everyday this week at lunch so really....when I think about it, I'm rocking it! I definitely could have used the single parent thing as an excuse to skip the gym but I went 4 times so far this week!

That's it for me today. Hopefully I'll be back into some major bloggin next week when things settle down! How is everyone making out?

Monday, March 3, 2008

Still hanging on.....kind of.

Ahh Mondays. A great day to start all over again, wouldn't you say?

I actually didn't do too bad this weekend. I did have a few treats but I mainly stuck to things I was allowed to have, I just had more of them than usual. Considering the weekend I had, I'm quite proud of myself (more on the weekend in a bit) Friday night I did have a 1/2 glass of red wine and a 100 calorie Aero bar. Nothing has ever tasted so good, I assure you. Saturday was pretty good all day, and Saturday night I made a banana and yogurt smoothie as a treat. I really didn't need it but that little treat kept me from going crazy over the weekend. I also had a little bag of All Bran Bites too. Not something I should have had but it's better than a whole chocolate bar right? I needed something to do while I'm shop vaccing my flooded basement right?

...........

Which brings me to my "strength of character" weekend as I am now calling it.
Friday night was great. A friend came over and we watched a chick flick and did some scrapbooking. Then came Saturday, and with it? A blizzard that dropped over 30 cms of snow. Ugh. So I decide to make one last ditch effort to go to the store to stock up on girly movies and possbly another 100 calorie Aero bar. I only made it about 30 feet before I plowed into a snowbank at the end of my driveway. And that's exactly where my car stayed (not by choice, the thing wouldn't budge) Fine. I'm snowed in. Not a bad thing right? I'll catch up on some landry, put the dishwasher on, clean up and just relax. Called the plow guy and set him up for Sunday. All good. Put on a little Nanny Diaries action and I'm starting to let go of the stress of backing my car into a snowbank. Pause the movie for a yogurt and Banana smoothie, The blender is downstairs in the landry room. Run downstairs, crack open the door and *Spalsh* I'm standing in a swimming pool that once was my landry room. My little mat that used to be in front of my washer to keep my feet warm when doing landry is now floating around my landry room and could possibly be used as a floatation device. The water was gushing out of the back of my washing machine. After a good 10 mins of frantic running around and screaming I got the water shut off and was left with a good 4 hours of quality shop vac time. Sigh. I can't believe I'm glad to be back at work!

Scott come homes this Saturday! Woohoo! Can't wait to see him. He has been working so much down there and he is exhausted and ready to come home. This week should be busy though since I am picking up my 2 year old niece today and she is moving in with me until Friday while her Mom & Dad are in Cuba! I'll be so busy I won't even have time to miss Scott!

Foodwise the weekend was ok not stellar. I was drawn to chocolate chips for some reason but I managed to keep it under control. If I was doing WW I definitely would have been way under 35 flex points so I'm happy!

Happy Monday everyone!