New Years Eve- a look ahead...

"you have to heal your mind and your heart before you can heal your body."

So here we are again, New Years Eve, a time that we can wipe the slate clean and get a fresh, new start. In the last few days I have been thinking about what I accomplished in 2010. Now on the surface I wasn't feeling like I accomplished much in 2010, mainly because my weight is pretty much the same now as it was at the beginning of the year. I was thinking that I failed but then started to really think about the year. In 2010, I climbed to the top of the CN tower in Toronto, which is the 2nd highest freestanding building in the *world* (over 1,700 steps and 140 flights), I also competed in, and completed a try a tri (mini triathlon). Not only was it a cold and rainy day, but I faced my fear of being judged in front of a group of people and swam 375m, followed by a 10k bike ride and finished it up with a 2.5k run. Thinking about completing the tri took me back about 10 years, watching my friends compete in a triathlon and I remember a friend asking me if I would ever do one. I didn't even think about it, I just answered absolutely not, I would never, ever in a million years be able to do one.... and 10 years later there I was- crossing the finish line. On top of this, I have faithfully attended every training session at the gym, 3x a week every week for a year. I have lifted 180lbs, I have biked a full marathon (26.2miles) on a stationary bike, and I have kick boxed my ass off.

I started off this post with a quote "you have to heal your mind and your heart before you can heal your body.". I have long believed that in order for me to change my life, and become the person that I feel is the real me, I needed to heal my mind and my heart. The best part about this year, is that I feel like I have done this. For the first time in my life I feel like I am *enough*. I am pretty enough,interesting enough, strong enough, good enough, funny enough. I no longer live my life feeling inferior to everyone around me. I have lived my entire life remaining tight in a bud, and I feel like in the last year I have given myself permission to blossom.

In closing, I think it is fair to say that 2010 has been a huge sucess for me, I feel like I am moving into the final phase, changing my body on the outside into a size that enables me to reach my fitness goals in 2011, oh and do I have some goals for 2011. I am going to complete a full triathlon, and I am going to get myself into tip top kickboxing fighting shape. The best thing for me is that I think I have inspired my older sister. She plans on quitting smoking, she joined a fitness center and is going to start a running program. We have decided to do a 5k together in October (CIBC run for a cure). Yup, 2011 is going to be a fantastic year!

Happy New year everyone!!!

Fantastic workout

Just wanted to document my workout today. I have been wearing my bodybugg to calculate my calories burned. Today I went in early and did about 15 mins run/jog intervals and another 5 uphill walking, then 30 minutes on the bike, Then I had my training session so did another 10 minutes of walking to warm up again. In this timeframe I burned about 300 calories. Then I started my boxing session, which I must say is getting more demanding each week (in a good way) A lot of hard punching combos and foot work (high cardio) in between. After that I did some Polish boxing (running on the spot and punching upward- kills the shoulders) and finished off with a few sets of crunches (my trainer punches me hard in the abs to make sure I am crunching properly, if I don't it hurts). Today when I was done, I was exhausted.... every ounce of energy was left in that workout. I am proud that I didn't give up. I didn't give in to the burn..... My calories burned for the 1 hr boxing - 900. So for the two hours I burned 1200 calories, which is just under the calorie allotment of food that I have per day.

I am feeling pretty good about this :)

Resistance training

First day of my vacation today, and I still had to wake up at 6:00 to train at the gym. I totally didn't mind since I am more of a morning person anyway. Todays training was something new, something different and was extrememly challenging. I spent the last hour googling to find out the name of what I was doing and I had to wear a resistance training belt, which had resistance bands (I believe there were about 4 or 5) that attache to the belt. My trainer asked me if I would wear the belt, which I thought was nice of him, I said I would as long as it fit and I didn't look like a pig in a fit....lol

Now I was basically running while my trainer pull the opposite direction, thus causing the resistance. My goodness, this was brutal. My chest felt like it was going to explode and my legs were burning, but my God, I did it. Here is picture to demonstate what it looks like:



Now at one point when I felt absolutely done, and was bent over gasping for air, my trainer turned my body so that I was facing the mirror, then layed on the ground in front of me (so that I could see my reflection) and pulled on the cords, which cinched in the belt around my waist. My waist looked TINY. He reminded me that this is what is underneath the fat, this is the real me. I swear, I worked a little bit harder from that point on. :)

So I also did some lunge stretches and some sit ups to round out the hour, plus 10 minute running to warm up (half mile). After my training session, I hit the stationary bike and did a 10 minute (4 mile) interval on the bike, then jumped off and hit the mat and did some leg stretching, followed by plank position. Then back to the bike etc. So I did 30 minutes on the bike and about 15 minutes on the mat. In all I worked out for just under 2 hrs and burned 800 caloris. And the best part is.... I am going to do it all over again tomorrow.

quote of the day..

"I have plenty of fear. You just have to be able to go in the face of that fear. Don't let the fear paralyze you. If I didn't have fear I wouldn't be human."

Kyle Garlet (from cancer survivor to heart transplant recipient to Ironman)

Expecting a huge gain and progress pic

I have had a horrific week weigh watchers wise. The new program is up on the weight watchers sight and since I do not yet have the new material, I gave myself permission to not track, and eat everything in my path. I am also switching over to winter clothes today so I am expecting a gain in the 8 to 10 lb range. Now I did not eat 35,000 extra calories this week, but I did eat lots of salty, snacky food as well as carbs, carbs and more carbs combined with basically no water this week. Anyway, I feel like shit and cannot wait to start the new points plus this week.

(UPDATE: I gained 8.4lbs..... holy crap-a-roonie batman...... )

In order to make myself feel a bit better, and at the request of a friend for progress pics, I took a few new photos this morning in my gym wear. I actually like the way my body looks. My body is starting to feel really strong and looking at these pictures I can see that my body is starting to LOOK strong. My stomach is looking flatter and I can see that I am turning into the athlete that I sooooo desire to be. Here are the pictures:




oh, and here once again is my "before" photo

Happy Birthday Daddy- o

Today my Dad turns 74! He spent the day putting up his Christmas tree and was up on a ladder hanging christmas lights on his eavestroughs in minus 14 degree weather! Born in a tiny Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and raised from the age of 11 in the Dutch speaking island of Curacao (he went to a tutor and spoke fluent Dutch, and Papimento, the local dialect, within a few months). He learned to race bicyles there and found the love of exercise. Lifting weights and road racing, he was a fit, strong athlete.... until he got hit by a car and broke both collarbones!

After his racing dreams ended, he moved to England at 19 where he picked up a wife and had a daughter (my Mom and sister) and then on to the great white North- Canada. He went back to school to learn a trade, worked long hours to provide for us but still had time to make us an ice rink in the back yard every winter, and put in a pool for the summer. In his early 40's he learned how to skate and then joined a mens hockey league, where he learned to love the game. He watched the love of his life die from cancer, and found love again with a much younger woman, has recently taken up golf, and smoking cigars and loves to do pilates right along with the infomercials, when they are on t.v.

Happy 74th birthday Dad. You have always been and continue to be my hero :)

(btw. yeah in the picture above, I would be the kid with the cubby tummy- lol)

Saturday weigh in

After Meeting Update-
Start weight - 250 lbs
Current weight - 233.8
Weekly loss- 3.4
Loss to date- 16.2

After missing a few weigh ins, I went yesterday and was happy with the results. Down 3.4lb for a total lost since August of 16.2. This averages 1.2 lbs per week. NEXT STOP THE 220'S

This week marks the real beginning of the Christmas season for me. Yesterday my 9 yr old niece called and asked if she could come stay over and do some Christmas baking. Well I ended up doing the baking and she did the tasting- lol. I made thumbprint cookies, peacan puffs (these are pure heaven), date squares (bombed), and a huge pot of chili. This morning I woke up and made a banana bread and mini quiche. Now of course I tried a couple of cookies and squares. I packed up the entire banana bread and most of the cookies for my sister and her family and will take the balance to work tomorrow.

I spopped by my older sisters house yesterday and she told me she is losing some weight and going to the gym every day. I asked if she had quit smoking(she is a heavy smoker) and she said that is next on her list, we talked about it and she agreed that having a goal for next year that would make her not want to smoke would help. Soooooo, she has tenatively agreed to do a 5k run next October. The CIBC run for a cure (for breast cancer). Yay, this makes me so excited and happy. I am going to start working on my younger sister now to train for the 5k. I would love nothing more than to do this, the 3 or us together.

Onward and downward

My Ass 1 ... Burgers and doughnuts 0

The battle of me vs junk has been intense for many years, with more often than not, junk winning. Today two huge gingerbread houses were delivered to work, and were sitting on the counter top on the other side of my workstation (where I could smell all of that gingery yumminess.) Then someone had the audacity to place a huge box of Timbits ( mini doughnuts for those who have never been graced with Tim Hortons sinfulness) on the same counter. I managed to survive without touching any of that (even when left alone in the office for over an hour knowing that they were sitting on the counter.

I almost caved on my drive home though, when the most delightful smell of home cooked burger wafted into my car. There is a stretch of truck stops along this particular road and I KNOW they make the tastiest, most lovely home made burgers and oh the onion rings are to die for. My car inexplicably started to change lanes slowly getting nearer to the entrance to the restaurant from where the amazing smells originated. Somehow I managed to ask myself (this was said out loud) that a burger and rings was not going to get me to my goal now was it. What did I REALLY want - a burger and fries right now.... or to compete in a sprint triathlon next summer. I was no longer under the spell of the burger and rings...

MY ASS 1 Burgers and doughnuts 0
(the never ending battle rages on)