Sunday cookoff

Well I was up early this morning preparing some meals for the week. Some are just sides, like plain old brown rice, some are breakfasts like steel cut oats. I want to document this more for myself going forward to get some ideas for easy things to make, and also to remind myself that I always do much better when I prepare for the week on Sundays :)

1. Brown rice and steel cut oats. I will be eating each of these in very small quantitites.



2. Mini Quich cups with red pepper, mushroom, spinach, onion, cheddar cheese a bit of centre cut bacon..... 2 cups = 1.5 w.w. points






3. roasted sweet potato and chicken, with bacon, rosemary and onions and garlic. Serves 4 at 6 points per serving

Changing things up again

I am continuing on my never ending quest to find out what works for me. I feel like my eating "problems" stem from not finding the right balance of foods for my body. I have been thinking a lot about one of my fellow bloggers (and friend) CD Blueberry, who has been on a mission over the last few years to figure out some things going on in her life. She has recently stopped eating gluten, along with other things, but for me, gluten and carbs are the biggies. I tend to eat a lot of white pasta, and wraps and constantly crave sugar etc. I also have a co-worker who is following the South Beach diet and has lost about 80lbs since the beginning of the year. Now I have no desire to stop following weight watchers but I have decided to incorporate some of the South Beach diet into my weight watchers plan. i.e. lower the carb intake. I have started to read a book outling this diet and am ready to incorporate phase 1 into my life - So for the next two weeks I am on a very limited diet - no fruit or fruit juices, and no carbs, of any kind. This is supposed to get rid of cravings to sugar and carbs. I will still follow the point totals of weight watchers and continue to track etc, I will just be choosing my foods differently. I guess it can't hurt and the book says you will lose up to 16lbs, mostly off your tummy in the first two weeks (and then it slows to 2lbs per week) I am not looking for a quick fix here, I am just looking to unlock the key to this weight loss puzzle.

So, today I went grocery shopping and bought all of my food for the week - things like chicken, shrimp, and steak, as well as Canadian bacon. I can have eggs and lots of fresh veggies and fish and low fat cuts of meat. I am excited to see how this plays out. I cannot imagine not craving donuts and baked goods and chips and chocolate, but I will give it a try.

As a final note I just wanted to make note of my calorie burn last week and attempt to do a little bit better this week:

Sunday: 5k on treadmill 49 mins = 640 calories burned
Monday: cardio day 1hr 10 mins = 661 calories burned
Wednesday: kickboxing 1 hr 20 mins = 695 calories burned
Wednesday night: hill walking on treadmill 45 mins =323
Note: on Wednesday my total calorie burn for the day was 3066!
Onward and Downward

Mini Challenge - "STOP- step away from the scale"

This week I am going to refrain from weighing myself. Honestly I step on the scale first thing every morning and perhaps even plan out my day based on what the scale says. So I am challenging myself to stay away from the scale until I have a weigh in at the gym later this week.

I am having a lazy day today, my back is feeling fantastic and pain free today, but my knee is still bothering me. I bought some gluten free bread this morning and this afternoon will be making chicken in tomato sauce for my meals for the week, as well as cutting up some veggies and fruit (kiwi and strawberries) to have for snacks.

Here is hoping for a good week, and I hope to say buh bye to the 240's once and for all.

Bummed back, bummed knee and bummed out!

"Pain is weakness leaving the body"

This has been a difficult week to say the least. My back was aggrevated all week with a disc problem(you know when it feels like your hip on one side is up under your arm pit when you walk!) add to that the ongoing problems with my knee and I have to say this has been a very long week.

I had my second osteopath session this week and the accupuncture relieved some more inflamation in my knee and back. I am never quite sure if she is actually doing any chiropractic work as she moves her hands gently up and down my spine and back, but I'm not sure if she is adjusting anything.... I always imagined that you would hear bones popping and feel things moving when having chiropractic work done. I have also been doing a lot of stretching with my trainer, which has helped tremendously.

Another thing I am looking at is limiting Gluten in my diet. I did this for most of last week and must say, I feel a lot better. Both the bloated feeling is gone and I feel stronger, so I am going to see if I can do this for another week and see if I see some more changes. I am still incorporating the clean eating method into my diet and also a bit more of the concept of food combining to see if I can shake up my body.

I am hoping to get back into doing some swimming next week. I am unable to run at the moment, so I am hoping by doing non weight bearing exercise my knee will continue to heal.

Fingers crossed that my knee heals soon, the CN tower stair climb is fast approching and while I haven't quite determined if he is joking or not, my trainer seems to think I am going to be climbing the tower not once, but twice, as in climb to the top, elevator down and climb back up to the top - as in 300 floors!!!! while this scares the crap out of me, I love a challenge :)

Another day done!

Well I slept in this morning..... ok so I hit the snooze button every 15 mins from 5:30 when the alarm went off until 6:45 when i finally rolled out of bed. The good news is I went to the gym. Normally I would have talked myself out of it but today I went. I did 10 mins on the stationary bike, 10 minutes (20 floors) on the stair master and then swam lengths for about 20 mins. Not the most challenging workout, but the positive was in the going, rather that what I did once I got there. I also managed to go grocery shopping on my way home, have brekkie, make lunch and get ready for work and out the door before 9:00. Mind you I looked like hell today, but whatever!

I also am trying to incorporate the clean(er) eating concepts this week, so today I had:
- 8:00 - 1 cup steel cut oats with blueberries and raising, along with a hard boiled egg for breakfast; timmies large double double
-10:00 - slice of pumpernikel bread with hummus and a slice of lean ham
-11:00 - timmies large double milk, no sugar
-12:00 - slice of pumernickel with hummus and ham, plus 1/2 cup butternut squash soup
-2:00 - quarter of the leftover soup
-4:00 - quarter of the leftover soup
-6:00 - wrap with hard boiled egg slices
-6:00 - slice of pumpernikel bread with hummus and a slice of lean ham
-6:00 - cup of tea with 2% milk and 1 tsp sugar.
-8:00 - fat free soy milk with blueberries and 1/2 scoop of protein powder

It actually looks like a lot of food, but the portion sizes are quite small. It's definitely not perfect, but I am grasping the concept still. I feel like I am getting my metabolic furnace revved up at breakfast and keeping it burning like crazy all day long.... we'll see if the scale is kind next Tuesday.

Getting Real about food choices

I have been lying to myself about my food and calorie intake for some time now... I have been living in fear of stepping on that scale at the gym because I know my weight was out of control( as much as 7lbs heavier than my last weigh in). The fear of embarrassment, and also of letting my trainer down has made me do all kinds of crazy things over the last week.

I had a bit of a meltdown on the weekend and decided to take snippets of my weekly food choices, the cravings that I have etc and see i I could figure out why even when I feel like all I have eaten was cucumber, tomatoes and carrots my weight has gone up by 7lbs in a week........ what I figured out, when i decided to be honest with myself, is that while I was eating lots of veggies, I was also eating crap, throughout the week..... some examples:

-bagel with cream cheese from Tims' 730 cals (had this 3 times last week)
- large double cream, double sugar coffee from Tims' - 360 cals
- whopper with cheese and large fries - 1300 calories
- big mac and large fries - 1100 calories
- drinks and dinner at Moxies - well I had fish and chips, ate about 10 fries and 1.5 piece of fish, and oh yeah splint 2 appies with my other two friends..... lets round it off to a nice even number - lets say 3000000000!!!!!!

****yup, I did not write any food intake down, - I tend to only write down when I am eating good things*****

I decided to write out healthy, low calorie alternatives to most of this stuff and have managed to significantly lower my caloric intake on Monday and Today and voila, my weight is magically down below what it was the last time I weighed in at 245. My goal is to get below and out of the 240, I have friggin been here since the beginning of the summer. My body is still shrinking but even I am aware that I cannot shrink my body down to a size 8 and still weight 245 pounds- hahaha.

I worked out yesterday morning with my trainer and then went back last night for another 1/2 hr hill walking session on the treadmill, and then did the same thing this morning. I plan on working out tomorrow morning with my trainer and then going again tomorrow night..... I need to make this a priority again....

Socializing and trying a new tactic

I have learned that I tend to have an all or nothing type personality. in the case of eating out I either don't go at all, or else I go out and just order whatever I want, and eat everything on my plate.

I was out with a couple of friends last night and decided to try a new approach, the three of us ordered and shared an appetizer sampler. There were lots of different things but I just really nibbled on the food and ate only until I was satisfied (that included the carrot sticks on the tray) I did have a drink with it, and then we ordered a dessert trio, and I had one tiny bit of each one and that was it. Now I realize that this might not be the best choice on the menu, but I feel like it was a breakthrough for me, that I could go out, have fun, have something to drink and eat, and no go home feeling like I've "blown" it.

I am off to the States tomorrow afternoon for a few days of girl bonding and shopping, so I will get to practice this concept a little bit more.

I went to the gym this morning at my trainers urging. It was funny because he asked what time I was coming and I say 7:00. So when i was coming down the escalator at 7:00, I could see him, before he could see me, and he was watching for me, and then broke out into a huge grin when he saw that I actually came.... it was funny, and made me glad that I came. So I did the treadmill for 40 mins walking st 3.5 mph, and was on the "HiLL" setting, so the incline was changing from 2 to 9. I completed 2 miles of this and while it wasn't the same as running, boy, did I work up a sweat.

Reverse Tri

Just wanted to write down the results of my first tri workout.... we did the triathlon events in reverse so i didn't have to swim first then run through the gym in a wet bathing suit- lol.

run on the treadmill - 1 mile took 14.5 minutes
bike at level 5 (then down to 4) 5 km took about 15 minutes
swim - didn't really do any major swimming, just some arm and leg exercise to work on my stroke.

Not bad for a first try (a tri- lol)

Today, I slept in so no gym for me, and I have weigh in tomorrow, so I have to be really good to just break even from last weeks weight- Arrrrrgh, darn lasagna and beer!