Sunny Friday!

Weigh-In: 143.1 (-0.6)

It's actually cold out, but the sun is shining so from indoors it looks like a beautiful day! Even better, it's Friday!

It's also weigh-in day, and after all my hard work this week, I am down 0.6 lbs. It's not much, and I am bummed that I am ending February at a higher weight than I was at the end of January...but I am hoping it is the start of a downward trend. I feel like I kicked-butt last week, even with my pizza & Coke indulgence yesterday. My eating was on plan, and I had 12 unused Flex Points by the end of yesterday. I spent a grand total of 360 minutes exercising, including Week 2 of Couch-to-5K. I feel like maybe I've gained a bit of momentum, and hopefully that will keep me going.

I took last night off from exercising and went to bed early. I'm feeling a lot better today. Which is good, because I won't have my usual Saturday-morning-sleep-in tomorrow. I have an appointment for a haircut, then I'm going to buy new sneakers and pick up groceries. After that I will have the afternoon & evening to myself - bring on Week 3 of C25K!

I sound like I'm in a really good mood today, don't I? Gotta love Fridays!

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Daily Record
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BF: yogurt & raspberries, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Tortellini Stew
Snacks: raw cauliflower, grapes
Supper: Takeout from Thai Hut

Who ordered more snow?

Got up this morning and it was snowing. Again. Wah! And it might snow again tonight. Wah!

Yeah, I know. I live in the Maritimes. It could keep snowing for the next couple of months. I should quit my whining already.

I am so tired today. This has been feeling like a really long week, and today I just can't seem to clear the fog from my head. All I want to do is curl up and take a nap. But I can't. So I'm taking a little break to pop into blogland. And drinking a can of Coke, which is so not on the menu plan for the day, but I can't be perfect all the time, right?

Actually, today I have been far from perfect. I brought my lunch, but then they decided to bring pizza in for everyone. I really love pizza. I don't get to have real pizza very often because Moon doesn't like it. I do consider myself fortunate that he is quite willing to eat my little pita pizza concoctions, but sometimes it's nice to have a slice of real pizza. So, I decided to have pizza for lunch, and add a little caffiene in the form of Coke. Which I also love. So, I guess it's treat day for JavaChick, and if that means a bad weigh-in tomorrow, so be it.

I did well yesterday though. I was extra hungry, so I threw a few extras in my meal plan, but I was still in a good points range. Actually, as of last night I still had 19.5 Flex Points left, and today is the last day of my Weight Watchers week, so at least I had points for the pizza and Coke today.

Also got in my C25K run. I have to tell you that if I had not stated yesterday that I was going to do that last session for the week, I might have talked myself out of it. But, I did say I was going to, so to the treadmill I went, and ended up doing 45 minutes. That's week 2 out of the way, bring on week 3.

Moon, on the other hand, has been finding convenient excuses all week to avoid a second round with the treadmill. But he said he would get in a walk tonight. I will keep you posted.

Reasons to Lose Weight = #7

Someone posted this on the Weight Watchers message boards yesterday:

Happy Weight

So, I filled it out to see what it would tell me. The result was: 113.6 lb.

My reaction? Happy weight my ass. Nothing about that number is making me happy.

I know I'm missing the point here. The idea is to present a reasonable goal weight. Honestly, that probably is reasonable. That is very likely a good weight for someone like me - 5 feet tall, medium build. If I woke up tomorrow morning weighing 114 pounds, I'd be over the moon.

No, my reaction stems from the fact that it seems so impossible.

Obviously it's not impossible. Other people do it.

Deep down, I'm not sure I believe I can do it. I don't know whether belief is necessary in order to achieve weight loss. This is something I have pondered. Believe it or no, I will keep trying. Over and over.

So, that is this week's reason to lose weight: I want to get to my happy weight. 'Cause who doesn't want to be happy?

How I did yesterday
It was another successful day. I followed my meal plan. I did have a slice of bread with my chili, but I knew I would have something, just wasn't sure what. Still within my points for the day. I drank 2L of water. I did a strength workout plus a short cardio workout.

Today
So much for the clear sidewalks and new-shoe-wearing. It was starting to snow when we left work last night and it snowed all night. Now it looks like we're getting freezing rain. So back to winter boots for me.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 143.1

BF: Toast w/PB, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Tortellini Stew
Snack: Berries & Yogurt
Supper: Pita Pizza

Planned Workout: C25K 2.3

Tuesday

Not much going on today. Wearing my new shoes. Yay! It was sunshine-y again this morning, though the forecast is saying we may get flurries. Blah. Since I don't seem to have much of anything on my mind today, we'll just jump right into:

How I did yesterday
Yesterday was good - I followed my meal plan almost to the letter. The only addition was some dip to go with my raw veggies at supper. I had around 2.25L of water throughout the day. Honestly, I wanted to eat more but I told myself I didn't need any thing else and I stayed determined.

I got in my C25K session, plus 15 minutes of additional walking for a total of 45 minutes of cardio. I don't know why, but the C25K session seemed harder last night than when I did it on Saturday. I noticed the same thing last week - it seemed like the second session was harder than the first, but then when I did the third session it was okay. We'll see if this week follows that pattern.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 143.9

BF: Toast w/PB, coffee w/cream
Snack: raw cauliflower
Lunch: Tortellini Stew
Snack: Yogurt & berries
Supper Chili

Planned workout: Strength training

Monday & Meme

I was tagged by Erin to do a Meme. I did see it on Friday, Erin, I just needed to have time to sit down and think. So that will be here today.

Just a couple of other things first....

In case you are wondering, I am wearing my new boots today! New shoes just make me so happy. The sidewalks are pretty clear at the moment, the weather is warmer, and I'm getting so tired of wearing winter boots. Plus, you know, new shoes!

The big news: Moon finally did the treadmill thing yesterday. He did 1 mile, I was so proud. Now I just have to get him to repeat the whole thing.

I'm trying so very hard not to be a nag about it, but I know that left on his own Moon will not be inclined to do it. So I've been giving gentle little reminders. Hopefully now that he has survived one session, he'll have seen that it's not so terrible.

I felt like such a mean wife though. I had told him to aim for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. He started walking and said I was likely only going to get 10 minutes out of him (that was about 7 minutes in). I kept saying: You just have to get used to it, you can slow it down a bit, just give it some time. When he got to a mile, which was around 23 1/2 minutes in, I told him that was good and he could stop if he wanted. Which he did. I don't want to be too pushy about it, I know he'll need to ease into it, but I didn't want him to give up too easily either. Yup, mean wife, that's me.

And now, Crazy 8's...

8 Things I'm Passionate About:

1. My family (including husband and cats)
2. Exercise & fitness
3. Shoes
4. Books
5. Food
6. Gardening
7. Joss Whedon TV shows
8. Hair Care products

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die:

1. Build my dream house
2. Travel! So many places to see..
3. Take a course in photography and/or painting
4. Be debt free
5. Own a piano and maybe even take lessons
6. Complete the Couch-to-5K program
7. Take Tai Chi again and learn at least the entire short form.
8. Take a Yoga Instructor's course

8 Things I Say Often:

1. I'm sorry, what?
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Also, I'm not much of a talker....

8 Books I've Read Recently:

1. The Other Boelyn Girl
2. The Six Wives Of Henry VIII
3. Persepolis
4. The Time Traveller's Wife (love, love, loved this book)
5. The Thirteenth Tale
6. Atonement
7. The Birth House
8. Love in the Time of Cholera (reading right now)

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over again:

1. Dreams - Van Halen
2. Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
3. You Make My Dreams - Hall & Oates
4. Midnight Blue - Lou Gramm
5. Don't Stop Believing - Journey
6. Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
7. Gel - Collective Soul
8. Lost Together - Blue Rodeo

8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends:

1. Sense of humour
2. Open mind
3. Non-smoker
4. Love of Books
5. Honesty
6. Postive outlook
7. Finding fun in small things
8. Adventurous spirit

8 People Who I Think Should Do The Crazy 8 Meme:
I can't pick 8 people - if you see it here and want to give it a go, please do!


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Daily Record
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Weight: 144.8 (what's up with that?)

BF: toast w/Peanut Butter, coffee w/cream
Snack: raw cauliflower
Lunch: Pita Pizza (Whole Wheat pita bread, tomato sauce, onion, bell pepper, olives, pepperoni and part-skim mozzarella; made yesterday)
Supper: Leftover Chicken Curry w/Basmati rice, raw veggies to munch

Planned Workout: C25K 2.2

Get Your Shoe Fix Here

First: incline walk + lower body weights workout = sore glutes the next day. In case you were wondering.

Second: Just because The Bag Lady asked, shoes!

The spoils of my shoe shopping yesterday:


The boots are bronze, kinda funky I know. But I like 'em:


These shoes are made in Canada and supposedly winter-proof. I'm not sure I believe that, but they are very comfy and have a nice flexible sole with a bit of a tread to it. The purse is also Canadian-made.


3. To prove to The Bag Lady that I am indeed a grown-up, another picture of me - this time in my pajamas.

I can't imagine why she would say I look like a kid. You?


** You can't tell from your side of the internet, but I'm wearing my innocent face right now **

That's it for Saturday, folks!

Deer On Parade

Weigh In: 143.7 lb (+0.5)

As predicted, I'm up this week, half a pound. I am okay though, not freaking out about it or anything. For some reason, the past few weeks have just not been good as far as the scale goes. All I can do is keep at it.

Maybe I am just too tired to care. It's been a long week. I think I hit a wall this afternoon. I was sitting at my desk and I just couldn't think anymore. Just sat there and spaced out. TGIF.

So what do you do at the end of an exhausting week in the dreary month of February when you feel like you want to give yourself a little boost? If you are me and you happen to know there is a 70% off sale going on at your favorite shoe store, you go shoe shopping on your lunch hour!

My shoe sale radar is in excellent working order. It occurred to me earlier in the week that it was about time for the late winter shoe sale, so I took a stroll by the store and sure enough the tables and racks were out and the 70% off signs were up. I didn't have time that day, but I went today. A good dent had been put in the stock, but I did find some things. Happy JavaChick!

Then when we got home after work, we saw eight deer around the perimeter of our yard. They can't get right in our yard. We have a fence up to keep the cats in, and also to keep the deer out of my gardens so my poor plants don't turn into deer salad bar.

By the time we got in the house and got the cats fed (cats must be fed before anything else happens or else they will follow me frantically around the house as if they are starving and on the verge of collapse), the herd had started to disperse. I managed to get a few pictures through the living room window.









I just finished doing 45 minutes on the treadmill (slow walk with inclines) and 30 minutes of weights. Now I think I'm ready to have a shower and crawl into bed. Not a bad day at all.

Fabulous Feline Fun

I'm tired people. It's been a long week at work, lots of busy-ness. I like being busy at work - the time goes much faster when you have lots to do and you feel you are accomplishing something. I don't like it when everything is a panic, which is what it has felt like for the past couple of days. Wears me out.

It occurs to me that we haven't had a visit from the Fabulous Felines lately, and I'm sure the hope of seeing the Felines is what keeps you all coming back here. It's okay, you can admit it. They are way cuter that I am.

My longing for spring led me to chose the following theme. Did you know that cats make wonderful garden ornaments? They do! I would explain why but I'm too tired to come up with the reasons. They just do. So, without further ado:

One of these things is not like the others

One of these things just doesn't belong

Can you tell which thing is not like the others


by the time I finish my song!

I hope you have all watched Sesame Street at some point, otherwise you wouldn't have been singing along with me.

So, tomorrow is weigh-in day. I know it will be bad. Again. Oh well. I'll get this thing figured out eventually.

Right now I'm too tired though, so that's it for tonight.

Reasons to Lose Weight = #6

Queenie is a Meanie.

Okay, not really. (Sorry Queenie, I just couldn't resist the rhyme.) But, she is putting me through a painful exercise. Yesterday she challenged the members at Our Wicked Weighs to post a before picture of our abs. Now, mostly I just think this sounds like cruel and unusual punishment...But, then I thought it could help in the motivation department. Maybe.

I work out regularly. I've got the exercise habit, I know I feel better when I'm being active, so that part of the equation is working for me. I like to do a variety of activities. I know I have muscles, somewhere, buried under the...ah...insulation. And it's not like the "insulation" is doing anything for me. It certainly did nothing to keep me warm this winter. After all this hard work, it would be nice if I could actually see those muscles that I've been working.

Since I'm doing the exercise, it seems that food must be the issue. Not that I haven't been trying to eat properly. But here I still am, so obviously I'm haven't been trying hard enough.

I do want to say this: I know there are others out there who have much more weight to lose than I do. Sometimes I feel like I'm complaining way too much over my extra 25 pounds. So, to all of those people out there who are working on losing a larger number of pounds, I salute you! This is hard work and it's not fun.

Does it seem like I'm putting this off? Rambling about anything and everything in order to fill up space? That's because I am. But, I guess if the other ladies over there at Our Wicked Weighs can do it, so can I.

If a picture says a thousand words, then here is this week's Reason To Lose Weight:


Yes, I am that blindingly white.

In Other News
I had posted yesterday that the Boil Water Order had been lifted. When I got in the car on Monday night after work, Moon had just heard them say on the radio that it was over. Yay! But this morning, listening to the radio, they said the order was still on. Went and checked the City of Saint John website and sure enough: The Boil Order had been lifted...Then Reinstated later the same day. Unfortunately we didn't hear about the reinstatement until this morning. After I've been brushing my teeth and washing veggies in water straight from the tap since Monday night. Ugh.

Have now added City of Saint John RSS feed to my feeds in Outlook so I will see these things when they happen instead of relying on the radio. We only listen to the radio on the way too and from work which is a relatively short drive.

Numbers on the gorram scale seem to be moving in the wrong direction this week. Not a happy camper.

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Daily Record
----------------------
Weight: 143.6 lb

BF: Grain Shop High Fibre Crisp w/milk, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Tortellini Stew
Snack: Yogurt & berries
Supper: Chili, possibly cornmeal muffins to go with if I feel like making them

Planned Workout: C25K 1.3

You want me to what?

So those crazy people over at Our Wicked Weighs have issued a challenge to their members to post a picture of their abs. The idea being that the picture would serve as a before picture, and motivate us to whip those abs into shape...Sounds a little crazy to me. Do ya'll really want to see a picture of my abs? I didn't think so.

Talk about motivation though...If you knew you were going to have to post pictures of your midriff, would you be inspired to work out and eat properly? Maybe they're on to something...

Boil Water Order was lifted late yesterday afternoon. Life is back to normal in that respect. It was a sunny day, which was nice after all the rain. Very busy at work though, felt like a long day.

Still have not managed to get Moon walking on that treadmill. There's always a "reason" why he can't do it today. I guess I could be selfish and look at it from the viewpoint that I don't have to share my exercise equipment and space. I'm the only one who uses it and it's always there waiting whenever I have the time and inclination.

My selfishness runs in a different direction though - I wish my Moon would take better care of himself because I want him to live a long and healthy life. I don't want to think about being without him.

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Daily Record
-------------------------
Weight: 143.2 lb

BF: Grain Shop High Fibre Crisp w/milk, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Lima Bean Tomato Soup
Snack: yogurt & berries
Supper: chicken fingers & fries, raw veggies
Snack: grapes

Workout: Self Bikini Ready workout (sculpting)

Water, water, everywhere

Rainy, dreary day here. Rainfall warning, in fact. Expect flood conditions. There's water everywhere. Rivers running down the sides of the roads. There was quite the puddle in our garage when we left for work this morning (yes, I am writing this on my lunch break at work).

There has been a Boil Water order in effect since last Thursday. Pain in the butt, I tell you. Tap water is okay for washing dishes and bathing, but not for drinking. Which I take to also mean: not good for brushing your teeth or washing fruits & veggies. Inconvenient.

On the other hand, how spoiled am I? At least I'm not hiking down to the creek (if there were one) and filling buckets to tote back to the house. It could be worse.

Other than that, not much to say. It's Monday again. Those weekends just fly by so darned quickly. There was definite overuse of Flex Points on Friday & Saturday, but yesterday was good and I have every intention of behaving myself for the rest of the week. It's time to get out of the 140's dammit. I never should have been here in the first place.

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Daily Record
--------------------------
Weight: 142.8 lb

BF: 1/2 cup each: strawberries, raspberries, vanilla yogurt; coffee w/cream
Snack: 12 almonds
Lunch: Tortellini Stew
Supper: Chicken Fajitas (left over)
Snack: Grapes

Workout: C25K 1.2 (week 1, workout 2), plus some extra walking to round it out to 45 minutes most likely.

How I Eat My Veggies

I've said it before, I'll probably say it again: I'm not a lover of veggies. I wish I was. I really do try. I gave my parents a hard time all while I was growing up as they tried to get me to eat my vegetables. I still haven't learned to love them.

Me not liking vegetables doesn't mean I don't eat them. Oddly enough, I have what I call "vegetarian leanings". I'm not much of a meat lover either, and I try very hard to not think about where meat comes from in order to eat it. I also know that vegetables are good for you, they are essential if you want to be healthy. So, I work hard at finding ways to eat them. It's not all bad - there are a few vegetables that I genuinely like. I enjoy raw veggies, I enjoy salads. In the winter though, it's nice to have warm food!

I have this little mini-chopper that is one of my favourite kitchen gadgets. I can quickly chop veggies into a fine dice and throw them in many different dishes. I am a big fan of "one-pot" type meals, or anything that I can put veggies in and disguise flavours. My poor hubby seldom gets a "meat and potatoes" meal because I don't like them. Fortunately, he likes most of the same things I do, so it works out pretty well. Pasta sauces, soups, chili, casseroles, stir-fries - these are are my go-to meals because I can add lots of veggies to them.

I love tomatoes and tomato sauce. I love bell peppers. Those tend to form the basis for a lot of my meals. I make soups and freeze them for my lunches at work so I know that I'll be getting vegetables at lunch time too.

I was feeling like I wanted something new - you can only repeat the same soups so many times - and inspiration hit.

One of the restaurants uptown has a Tortellini soup that I like. I decided to try and make my own. I could have gone looking for a recipe, but I know what I like, so I decided to wing it. I went a little overboard on the tortellini, it came out really thick, more like a stew. I just had a bowl and it was very tasty, so I decided I'd better write down the recipe. I think I'll be making this again.

Tortellini Stew

Finely dice:
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 carrot
1 small zucchini
1 red bell pepper

Heat a large pot over medium-low heat. Add a little olive oil to the pot and saute the vegetables. Add salt, pepper and crushed red chilies to taste.

When vegetables are softened, add:
1 large can of diced tomatoes
6 cups of vegetable broth
1 small can of tomato paste

Add dried oregano and basil to taste. Bring to a boil.

Add;
1 package of frozen, chopped spinach (thawed)
2 250 g packages of President's Choice Pesto Tortellini

Simmer until tortellini are cooked.

So I had a bowl, Moon had a bowl, and I put 7 lunch-size containers in the freezer. Not bad for one pot of soup.


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Daily Record
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BF: Red River Cereal, coffee/w cream
Snack: 2 squares dark chocolate
Supper: Chicken Fajitas

Workout: Burn & Firm Pilates DVD with light weights (45 mins) + 15 mins with heavier weights

C25K, Take 2

My attempt to start the Couch to 5K workout last week was interrupted by that whole getting sick thing. I never got past the first session. So, today I started over again. This is the description of the workout for the first week:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

I interpreted that as 5 mins walking, 20 minutes of alternating between walking and running, which totals 25 minutes. I then did an easy walk for 20 minutes to give me 45 minutes of cardio for the day, and followed it up with a 30 minute Pilates DVD.

I feel good about my workout for the day. Eating was not as good, not the healthiest choices for the most part. But tomorrow is a new day and I will do better.

  

Started reading Persepolis last night. I was hooked from the very first page. It's a fascinating piece of work so far.

All in all, it's been a good Saturday. Grocery shopping done, workout done, an interesting book to read. Right now I'm relaxing on the couch, a feline snoozing on my lap. What more could I ask?

Weighing In

Weight: 143.2 (-0.3 lb)

Weigh-In day again, and for the second week in a row I'm not really happy with what I'm seeing. But. I know I'm better off than today's weigh-in would seem to indicate.

Normally I post a daily summary (during the week anyway) including my weight for the day, and my meal plans. When I was doing my morning workouts, I also posted those, but since I switched to evening workouts I haven't been including that. I will try to start posting my planned workouts as well. I'm getting off-track here.

This week I wasn't posting those summaries because I was feeling under the weather and not really in the weight-loss mind set. But I was still stepping on the scale most mornings. And this is what I was seeing:
Mon - 142.7 lb
Tues - 142.2 lb
Wed - forgot
Thurs - 142.1 lb

Those numbers are more in line with what I had been seeing up to the previous week when I had that unexpected gain. I was feeling pretty good about the scale, even if the rest of me was not feeling great. Then this morning I am suddenly 143.2. Yeah, I was kind of irritated. But I also know that Moon and I went out to dinner last night, and I ate what I wanted to eat and didn't worry about dieting. That's a choice I consciously made and I am okay with that. Having seen the lower numbers all week, I can be fairly certain that today was just a temporary blip, and next week I will be down where I should be again (you know, assuming I do the right stuff for food and exercise).

This is why I am a fan of the daily weigh-in.

On the WeightWatchers.ca forums, I often see posters "confessing" or "admitting" that they weigh in every day, or that they "peeked" at the scale on a day that was not their weigh-in day. They say this as if they had misbehaved somehow. I think that's such a shame.

I know that many weight-loss programs, Weight Watchers included, recommend weekly weigh-ins. And that makes sense to me. It takes time to lose body fat. I do think it's good to have one official weigh-in day to track your progress over time. I also know that daily weigh-ins are not good for some people.

For me it works. I know that daily fluctuations can happen for a variety of reasons. I usually don't let that get to me. I find the daily weigh-in keeps me focussed and it makes the official weigh-in easier to take because I have some idea of what the result is going to be.

To those who weigh-in even less often than once a week, or who eschew the scale altogether - good for you. I've tried it and it does not work for me at all. For me, the pounds do not come off easily; I have to work hard at it. It's all very well to say that one should not "obsess about the numbers" but that is what it's about. I am trying to get that number to be within the healthy range for my height. Plain and simple. If I'm not seeing the numbers, if I'm not getting that constant reminder, I start to relax which sadly can lead to the numbers creeping up instead of down.

So, that's why I do the daily-weigh in thing. It works for me.

Happy Valentines Day!

I hadn't planned a Valentine's post, but it seems like a lot of people are talking about it (there's a "duh" moment - why wouldn't they be?), and I don't exactly have much to say on the diet and exercise front since I have spent the past couple of days curled up on the couch in my PJ's so...My Valentine Story.

Twelve years ago today, I was walking out of the college cafeteria with my mid-morning coffee and there was Moon waiting for me, rose in hand. Now, I'm really very slow when it comes to these things. My first thought was "How sweet, what a thoughtful guy he is." This thought was quickly followed by "Holy Cow! He's asking me out! What do I do? What do I do?"

I was completely shocked. We had met there at school, the previous fall when the new school year began. We saw each other every day in the computer lab, in the cafeteria, in the halls. It was a small school, hard to miss each other really. I was busy concentrating on school work and learning and all that self-improvement. I was extremely shy and I was very good at not being noticed. Or so I had thought.

Speechless and totally freaked out I babbled something about having to get back to class (okay, I think I actually said: "I have to go sit down now"...so sad, really) and then I ran off leaving poor Moon certain that he had blown his chance.

But here we are, twelve years later, all happily married. We had our sixth wedding anniversary last New Year's Eve (we really make the holidays our own don't we?) and this is our seventh Valentine's Day as an old married couple. I have seven long-stemmed red roses in a vase at home, from Moon, one for each year we've been married he said. Tonight we're going out to dinner at our favourite restaurant. I am more than content.

I hope you all have a fantastic February 14th!

Unscheduled Break

I seem to have come down with a bit of a flu or something. So no Couch To 5K runs this week. I'll probably end up starting over on the weekend. Haven't been exercising, but also haven't had much appetite. Not worrying about it. Starting to feel better I think, things should be back to normal soon.

Back to our regularly scheduled weight loss blog

Well. Sorta.

Funny how that goes. You start to feel like you are getting back into the swing of things; it's under control now, I'm ready to kick butt...And then you hit the brick wall. Does that happen to you?

OK, it's probably not that big of a deal. May be nothing in fact. Just a minor set-back.

I had my day all planned. I knew what I was eating, I planned on doing the next Couch to 5K workout. It was going to be a good day.

I did go to bed last night feeling completely worn out and exhausted. Woke up feeling kind of achey. As the day went on, developed unhappy tummy. Moon is feeling the same way.

I did stick to my meal plan, but I don't think I feel like doing any running. I am thinking I may just take the day off from exercise. I hate to do that early in the week, as I usually get more and more tired as the week goes on. But, maybe it's better to take a break and hope that I will be feeling better by tomorrow. So that's my plan. Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow!

View from my window this morning

I was sitting on my couch with my morning coffee, looked out the window, and this is what I saw...

I zoomed as close as my camera would go...

Don't know if you can see them, but there are three deer at the tree line. There was a fourth in the woods, but he didn't come out.

I do live in the city, but we were fortunate to buy a house right at the edge of the subdivision. If I look in one direction, I see houses; off to the other side I see trees. We see a lot of deer, but I don't get tired of it. I suppose in a lot of ways they are a nuisance, but I enjoy seeing them.

I can't believe it's Sunday night already. Busy weekend. Got quite a bit done, though as usual not everything I would have liked to accomplish. We did get out today to buy Moon a pair of snickers (after brunch). Oops. sneakers. Freudian slip there? Got some house cleaning done, some laundry. Finally got the new TV stand in place, did some rearranging in the basement.

Eating was not perfect, I will admit, but could have been worse. Yesterday I started the Couch to 5K running program (we'll see how that goes). Then I did 30 minutes with weights. Today I did my Ellen Barret Fat Burning Fusion DVD.

Tired now, looking forward bedtime.

Friday Fun Post

Weigh-in: 143.5 lb (+1.2)

Weigh-in day again, and I am up 1.2 lb. Not a surprise, since I do the daily weigh-in thing I generally have an idea of what's coming.

I want to thank the ladies who left encouraging comments for me yesterday. This is so frustrating, but I am going to keep at it.

I decided I needed a little change of pace here on the blog today though. Something a little more cheery. It seems like everyone is sick of winter, myself included.
With that in mind, I dug up some favourite photos from my garden last year, and of course a picture of my Fabulous Felines just because I can't help myself; I love looking at them!

Holly Blossoms

Lily of the Valley

Catmint
      

My beautiful boys
       

I didn't want to...

But I did.

Exercise that is.

I really wasn't feeling it last night. I wasn't feeling great yesterday, and last night the idea of staying on the couch was very attractive. But I convinced myself to do an easy walk on the treadmill (45 mins), then 10 minutes with weights. Maybe not much of a workout but better than no exercise, right?

I am struggling with this whole process of losing weight and it just seems to be getting harder. I'm trying to get some perspective, to be realistic in my expectations. I sat down with my day planner today and looked at my weigh-ins for the month of January. Starting from Jan 4, and going to Jan 25 (Fridays being my official weigh-in day), I lost 1.6 lbs. Not a whole lot for all of this whining and complaining...uh, I mean hard work...is it? It's still a loss, so I'm telling myself that is good.

If I could lose a pound a month for the rest of the year, that would be a little more that 12 pounds gone. I won't pretend that rate of loss thrills me, it seems painfully slow. On top of that, it still doesn't put me inside the ideal weight range for my height. But I would be moving in the right direction.

What scares me is knowing from past experience that losses seem to slow down even more over time. So if I only managed 1.6 pounds in January, where am I going to be a couple of months from now?

I feel like this is a bit of a downer post today. That wasn't my intention. Believe it or not, I am actually trying to convince myself this is not a lost cause; that I can do it, it will just take time. Better to accept right off the bat that it is going to take a while to get to my goal than to expect to be all trim and svelte by the time summer rolls around.

I am trying to believe. I really am. But it's nowhere near easy.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 143.7

BF: 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2 cup yogurt, coffee w/cream
Lunch: WW Pita Pizza
Supper: ????

Reasons To Lose Weight - #5

A doctor told me to.

I will preface this by saying that I don't visit the doctor very often. In general I'm pretty healthy. Or at least I think of myself as being healthy. I do have asthma and allergies, but they don't trouble me all that much. My asthma kicks in during cold, damp weather or when I stay overnight at my parents' house (sadly - I think it must be because it is such an old house, something must trigger my allergies). So I usually only go to the doctor for something specific.

A couple of years ago now I had called to make an appointment and found out that a new doctor had taken over the practice. When I went in for my appointment with the new doctor, the receptionist weighed me before I went in to see the doctor. This was something new.

I had been wondering about my weight for a while. At the time I was around 136 lb and I had been stuck there for a long time (like, years). I was working out at least 5 times a week. I tried to eat a healthy diet most of the time. I counted calories. The weight wasn't budging. I'd been at this weight for a few years, and I'd started to wonder if this was just where my body wanted to be. I won't say I was happy with that weight. I knew it was outside the healthy weight range for my height. But I was also frustrated with trying to lose weight and I didn't know what else to do. So I wondered if I should just accept it. I hadn't lost any weight, but I also hadn't gained, so maybe I was OK at this weight.

So I went in to see the doctor and we discussed the reason I'd come in; then before I left, I asked him about my weight. He looked at my file, then looked at a chart on the wall and told me to lose weight. He said I should be within 120 - 123 lbs. I presented my defense - I work out, I try to eat healthy but my weight stays the same. He didn't budge. I had to lose weight. He told me to exercise and not eat fast food and I would lose weight. That was the extent of his advice. I found it quite frustrating to be honest.

I also found it interesting that I was the one to bring it up. Obviously he didn't look at me and immediately think: this girl needs to lose weight.

But still, there it was. And around that time it seemed that everywhere I turned I was seeing articles that said being overweight by even 10 pounds was a health risk. So apparently I had to suck it up and keep trying to lose the weight.

Nothing changed for quite a while. Which is not to say that I didn't try, because I did. But I didn't get anywhere.

I'd hate to go back to the doctor's office and step on that scale now. I'm not sure what has happened over the past year that suddenly caused me to gain, but here I am. I have to tell you, 136 pounds is looking pretty good to me right now.

It seems to be getting harder. I'm not sure if it's age-related. But now I am even farther away from where I am supposed to be, where I would like to be. I'll keep trying though.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 142.6

BF: Grain Shop High Fibre Crisp Cereal w/milk, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Tomato Lima Bean Soup
Snack: Yogurt w/strawberries & raspberries
Supper: WW Pita Pizza & salad

Pancake Tuesday

I am not religious at all, so I hope I won't offend anyone by using Shrove Tuesday as an excuse to eat pancakes for supper. I love pancakes. Possibly because any holiday/vacation or otherwise special breakfast when I was growing up usually involved my Dad making pancakes for breakfast (My Mom is a wonderful cook, but not a morning person, so breakfasts were more often Dad's thing).

Yesterday The Bag Lady posted a list of favourite things...For me, pancakes would have to go on that list and they would be connected to other favourite things - holidays, sleeping in, family, camping at Kejimkujik National Park. My family has gone camping at Keji every summer for as long as I can remember. Going to Keji almost feels like going home. And the traditional camping breakfast is....you guessed it: Pancakes! With bacon of course.

So, today I intend to eat my pancakes and enjoy them. I can worry about the scale tomorrow.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 142.9

BF: 1/2 grapefruit, oatmeal w/brown sugar & milk, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Lima Bean Tomato Soup
Snack: Yogurt w/strawberries & raspberries
Supper: Pancakes! And probably sausage to keep poor Moon from fainting away due to lack of meat.

Would you like chocolate with that?

Don't feel much like talking today. Not much on my mind besides work I guess. Busy day, which is good, but now tired.

Serious chocolate cravings going on. Seriously. This morning, thought about adding chocolate chips to my oatmeal. Went with milk and a little brown sugar instead. Lunch time - had vague notions of something chocolate, possibly with caramel. Ate my soup instead. Sadly, caved this afternoon. Decided to have a Mochaccino; I try not to have coffee in the afternoons, but those cravings just weren't going away. Got to the coffee shop and saw Caramel Chocolate Fudge Brownies...Hmm...Spoke to those vague lunch time cravings I'd had...So, I had regular coffee and the brownie. Which was ok. Not fabulous. Homemade brownies are always better and I should know this by now.

Hopefully that has ended that craving for now and I will be good for the rest of the week.

It could happen.

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Daily Record
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BF: Oatmeal (Steel cut, leftover from yesterday) w/milk and brown sugar. Coffee w/cream.
Lunch: Lima Bean Tomato Soup w/cottage cheese
Snack: Caramel Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Supper: Chicken Spezzatino

A Day Off

I gave myself the day off yesterday. That might sound funny, since I work a Mon - Friday, 9-5 job. Well, theoretically anyway. But sometimes you just have to give yourself permission to do nothing.

Now, let me state for the record, that I have seriously lazy sit-around-on-the-couch tendencies. I can easily fritter away an evening, a weekend, maybe even a vacation reading novels, watching some tv, flipping through magazines, and just generally whiling away the hours. But most of the time, there's stuff I need to do, so I try to divide my time between pursuit of laziness and getting things done.

Yesterday, for some reason I just felt exhausted. I went to bed at my usual week day time on Friday night. I slept in - well, after I did the usual morning routine of having George poke me awake at 6:30 am so I can drag myself out of bed, give the cats morning treats, stumble down to the basement and open the window so they can get out into their enclosure for a morning breath of fresh air. After that, seeing no reason to be awake at 6:30 on a Saturday morning, I went back to bed and slept soundly until 9:30. I woke up to find Fred back on his pillow by my head and George sleeping on my legs.

Spoiled? My cats? Can't imagine why you'd think so.

Anyway, I just felt like I was dragging myself around and everything was an effort. I brought in some wood, started a fire in the stove, came back upstairs and my heart was pounding like I'd just been out for a run or something. I had this list in my head of the million things I wanted to do yesterday and I felt so overwhelmed. So, I finally decided to give myself the day off. I would not do anything that I really didn't want to do.

I did not turn on my computer. I did not do any job-related work. I did not clean the house. I did make myself a pot of soup to freeze for lunches this week, because it didn't take long and I knew it would make today easier for me. I did change the sheets on the bed, because I knew I'd be happier going to bed last night with clean sheets. By late afternoon I was starting to feel a bit better and I did a workout, because I wanted to do it. I did a sculpting DVD, then I got on the treadmill. I only intended to walk for 30 minutes or so, but once I got going I started feeling good and I was enjoying the CD in my stereo, so I ended up doing an hour walk. At that point I decided I should stop, or I might be sorry later.

Was in bed by 11 last night and had a good sleep. Woke up at 9 am this morning (well, after a repeat of the usual morning routing with the cats). My house is still a mess, I still feel like I'm behind on some work, but I feel a million times better than I did at this time yesterday.

This seems to be a lesson that I have to relearn every now and then - sometimes you just have to cut yourself some slack.

Fabulous Feline Friday

Weight: 142.3 (-0.6)

Yes, it's weigh-in day. I had a strong urge to ignore it this week, but I can't do that. So instead I decided to invite The Fabulous Felines along to keep me company. They always cheer me up and perhaps they will serve as a useful distraction ~ who wants to look at my weekly weigh-in numbers when they could gaze upon my beautiful boys?

But wait...if you were paying attention, you may have noticed that I actually managed a little bit of a loss this week. Unexpected, but I'll take it!

Since I already had this post drafted, I figured I'd go with it anyway. Who doesn't like looking at cute cat pictures?

In a bit of a rush this morning, so that's it for now. Maybe more later.