Temptations All Around

Yesterday ended up not being quite as planned. After racing home on my bike (in super fast time I might add - heehee), my husband was waiting for me to come to the states with him.

When I got home I was literally shaking I was so hungry. This can't be good. I easily could have grabbed a bunch of junk and eaten anything. But I knew I needed a quick snack and to refuel, so I ended up having 2 small La Tortilla Wraps with Almond Butter. It was exactly what the doctor ordered.

After a quick shower we were out the door. The rest of the evening was a bit of torture. My husband has been working super long hours and him & my son have the truck filled with a few bags of cookies and other treats - which of course they were eating. I did end up having 2 cookies, but when the marshmallow cookies started calling my name (and I DON'T like those) I had to throw them in the back of the truck.

We made a stop at Walmart. Holy 100 calorie packs! They had an entire isle dedicated to them - can you believe that? That's insane. I mean for an occassional treat fine, but obviously this is a huge market and people are buying tons of them.

Anyhow, next thing I know, the family has each picked up (and opened) a container of Stacked Lays chips. Now those are good! Mmmmm. I had one and then told them all that they were not to permit me to have any more at all.

My husband wanted to stop at a buffet for dinner, but thankfully it was 5 min from closing so we opted not to go. By this time it was about 9:30 and I was feeling pretty hungry so having to face a buffet was going to be a disaster.

We ended up at McDonald's. I suppose I could have chosen a salad, but I think I still made a decent choice and got a Grilled Chipotle BBQ Chicken Snack Wrap - though it's certainly not worth 6 pts, but it did the job.

So my menu from yesterday was revised as follows:

Breakfast - All Bran Chewy Bar, Mandarin Orange (3)

Lunch - President's Choice Cannelloni, nectarine, Astro BioBest Raspberry Yoghurt (7)

Snacks - All Bran Snack Bites (1) 2 sm. La Tortilla Wraps with Almond Butter (6) 2 cookies (3),

Dinner - McDonald's Grilled Chipotle BBQ Chicken Snack Wrap (6)

Total - 26 points - approx. 1400 calories

Exercise - 65 minutes biking

For the next little while I'm going to calculate calories as well as points, just to have an idea. I'm not ready to abandon the point method, but I think I do need to be careful about going too low.

Rode my bike to work again today. I will have ridden almost 100Km (aka 60 miles) in the last 4 days. And this ain't no casual riding. When I ride, I ride hard. Hills are to be conquered, speed records are to be achieved, sweat is to drip! I can certainly feeling it in my legs and butt, even my abs and upper back.

Pedal Me Crazy & Calorie to Pts. Comparison

Yesterday I skipped my long run. Just wasn't into it and couldn't motivate myself to get out the door. But I was still active. My son came along and we rode our bikes over to my friends place and I took one extra stop afterwards giving me a total of about a 20Km ride. Not that long really, but I enjoyed it. Then it was a few hours of yard work. Never ending on 10 acres I tell ya!


This week the kids are both out of school now, so no need for me to rush after work to pick them up. So .... I'm going to be a bike commuter for the next little while. It's 12 Km each way to my work and takes me about 25 min to get to work and 40 to get home.


I also plan to do my regular workouts on top of this.

Today's menu:

Breakfast - All Bran Chewy Bar, Mandarin Orange (3)
Lunch - President's Choice Cannelloni, nectarine, Astro BioBest Raspberry Yoghurt (7)
Snack - All Bran Snack Bites, 10 multigrain rice crackers, hummus (4)
Dinner (planned) - Baked Tilapia, Chinese Cabbage Salad (5)
Dessert (planned) - Chocolate Pudding cup (2)

Total 21 points

Exercise - min. 65 minutes biking, 30 min run, 30 min weights

For kicks I just counted out the calories in this menu. As for Weight Watchers it comes to 21 points. For calorie counting it comes out to approx. 1150 cal. Doesn't that seem awfully low???

The other day I splurge and had 27 points - which calculated to approx. 1600 cal.

I went back and calculated a number of days and in general they were all between 1050 and 1300 cal. per day. That's counting all the vegetables too, so I'm not excluding 0 pt foods.

I did some searching around and according to most sites they say that I should consume about 1650 cal. to lose 1 lb per week. I know from experience that if I eat that (approx. 27 pts/day) I will have gains on the scale. It also shows that if I eat "only" 1300 cal. a day, I should be able to lose 10 lbs in the next 6 weeks. I can guarantee that's impossible. And ... many sites I've read recommend me not going below 1300 cal EVER.


Are these sites insane? Am I insane? Am I ruining my metabolism for life? Have I already???

Back in the right direction

As of this morning I'm going back in the right direction. Which is great since today is weigh-in day!! I'm down 1 lb for this week.


All week I had seen the scale climbing a bit every day and I was sure I was in for a gain this week again. But this morning it dropped back down again and even before I got on the scale I felt a teensy bit skinnier than I have all week. I even have a pair of shorts on today that are a little loser than they were 2 weeks ago - wahoo!


So bad news ... I still have 2 lbs to lose by July 9th and I had wanted to be there by now. Good news .... it's only 2 lbs, not 3 or 4. I REALLY want to get there before we leave.


Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning & reorganizing our travel trailer. I'm giving it a really good clean-out like it hasn't seen in years. And going through every cupboard and closet and getting rid of anything I don't need. It feels so great when things are in order. Today I have done much the same. I also went on a 26 Km bike ride. If I'm not exhausted tonight I'll do a little run as well.

Last night I had a great salad - green leaf lettuce, cilantro, tomato, red pepper, red onion dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. I'm not a huge fan of most bottled dressings and this was just perfect. Our Italian friends dress their salads like this - though IMO they use wayyyy too much olive oil. I just put a very thin drizzle on a large salad and it was perfect. It was so good I had it again today at lunch, along with a veggie burger. Mmm Mmmm Mmmmmmmm!

Any idea what this is?

I was at work today and suddenly noticed this....

Any idea what it is????

It's a bruise on my bicep. We were doing a ton of heavy bicep curls last night and I think that may have been what caused it. Could be push-ups too, but I don't think so based on where it is on my arm. I got something like this once before on a different part of my arm. It doesn't hurt at all, and it didn't while working out either. I don't think it's any harm - kind of a war wound for working out hard.

Bad Scale - you're in detention!

BAD SCALE

Well, I did it! I did not step on that scale last night or this morning. Why? Because it's pissing me off and I think it's lying. :) HAHAHAHA

But seriously, I don't understand why my weight jumped up and has stayed up for about a week now. I can't find a logical explanation and I'm sick of getting on that scale hoping that it has come to it's senses.

I am a twice daily weigher, and I'm OK with that. I know that when it begins to frustrate me the scale needs to be disciplined and it gets put in detention.

I'm just starting to stress because I set myself a completely reasonable goal, which is 2 weeks away, and I don't feel confident that I'm going to reach it. I get oh so close to reaching that magic number and then BOOM it disappears like a flashing light. I was wondering last night if I'm not getting there because I don't truly believe I can. But if that's true ... how do I make myself believe?

PRIVATE SESSION

Last night I showed up for the last session of bootcamp. I won't be able to attend the summer sessions, so that's it for a while. Anyhow, I showed up and .... I was the only one there! Normally there is about 10 people in this class. I know that 1 person had a previous committment, and 2 others had to switch to the later class - but as for the rest of them I have no idea.

I SOOOOO wanted the instructor to just call it quits. One word and I would have left. But, nope, she just trundled on with what she had planned. It was a bit awkward at first, but then it ended up being pretty good. This is the substitute instructor who I didn't like when I first met her. But we ended up having some really good conversations. She is a personal trainer, working mostly out of her home or at clients homes, and she sometimes does a bit of work with the city recreation programs.

My friend is working on becoming a personal trainer (and I have to admit the idea intrigues me, but not yet), so it was nice that she shared a bunch of info on that with me. We got talking diet planning and I tried to pry her for some suggestions as to why I'm not losing weight but she basically just offered sympathy ... oh well, can't blame her, she's not even close to being paid to help me with that. It did leave me wondering if I should try to save up some money and go talk to a dietician or something. Although I have no idea to who or where I would seek out someone.

DATE WITH DREAMLAND

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. No school for either of my kids, no work for me, no early morning committments. I'm really hoping to catch up on some of the sleep I have been missing. I shouldn't be complaining because I'm getting about 7-8 hours most nights, but I really find I do better on 8-10, at least for most days. I'm exhausted in the morning and yawn for hours so that's my indication that I could use some more sleep.

Gr. 7 Grad Pics

Tonight my daughter had her Grade 7 Grad Farewell. We went right after school and had her hair done up.

We looked around for dresses for her, but in the end she chose to wear a dress that I wore for my high school graduation. I didn't realize at the time that I was that skinny, though I'm guessing that she's going to be a fair bit taller than me (probably 2-4" taller). There was a bow on the back which she asked me to take off. Here is her tonight, and me from 1990.

Unfortunately I had my camera on the wrong setting and didn't notice until much later so my pictures turned out super bright. The color of the dress is more like the picture of her, emerald green.

I had wanted to wear a dress, but she begged me to wear this purple shirt that she loves, so I complied. Unfortunately there are no pics of me tonight as I was the one handling the camera.

We went to her school for dinner and a little ceremony. Then they stayed for a short dance. I took that time to go home and get in a quick little workout before we went back to pick her up.

Today's menu:

Breakfast - red river cereal, 1 boiled egg (4)
Lunch - 4 c. raw veggies, Cream of Broccoli Soup at Hand, 3 ham/pickle wraps (4)
Snack - 20 pretzels, 3/4 c. cereal, 1/2 c. milk (5)
Dinner - 1 thin sl. veg pizza, carrots, broccoli slaw (7)

Dessert - pineapple, 1" square blueberry cheesecake, 1" square chocolate brownie type dessert (7?) should have just stuck with the fruit

Total Points - 27

Exercise - 35 min fast running

I went to the doctor today and confirmed that I have a bladder infection. I have never had one before in my life and it's rather uncomfortable. So I'm on a course of antibiotics for the next 10 days. Apparently this can cause some water retention so maybe that's an explanation for my recent increase on the scale....

He recommended I also drink lots of cranberry juice, but at 150 cal per cup I think I will get the cranberry supplements because they are supposed to work just as well. I don't need the added sugar and calories.

The receptionist commented on my weight loss. It's been about a year since I saw her last and she said I was looking really good. :)

Tonight I met up with two girlfriends and we basically did a bootcamp style workout. We ran the track, ran stairs, did a variety of strength moves. Since my classes will be ending this week I'd like to continue doing this on my own throughout the summer.

Though, if I'm going to be working out on my own again I want to create a workout schedule so that I'm balancing out all my muscles. I've been very lax in this area lately and haven't been getting really well rounded workouts.

Today's menu:

Breakfast - 2 sl rye bread, 1 oz. cheese - grilled cheese sandwich (4)
Lunch - 4 c. raw veggies, grilled chicken wrap with Light Laughing Cow cheese wedge, Nectarine (5)
Snack - Plum, 1 c. cranberry juice (4)
Dinner - Weight Watchers Meatloaf (6)
Dessert - 1 iced oatmeal cookie (2)

Total Points - 21

Exercise - 90 min running & strength

I've been trying for a few days to make asian salad wraps, per Syl's instructions. But I've been to 3 stores already and they've all been sold out of the rice wraps. I'm going to try one more store and if I can't find it I guess I'll just make it as a salad in a bowl type thing instead. Frustrating.

Tomorrow is my daughter's Grade 7 Grad Farewell. They have a ceremony and a dinner, then we leave and they have a dance. I have NO idea what will be served for dinner. Though I saw someone bringing in a big container of salad dressing so hopefully there will be some salad and/or veggies. I'll just practice portion control and make the best choices I can.