Holy Crazy Day!!

Would you ever think it was possible to have a car totalled and stolen in the same day?

That's what happened to my s-i-l today. She slipped off the road into a ditch on her way to work this morning. No damage to the car, but she needed to get towed out. The cops came by and since there was a long wait for a tow, they took her to the station. A short while later, they came up to her and said, "we have to talk".

It seems a tractor trailed jack knifed and plowed into her car - destroying it.

While she was filling out the claim, her roadside assistance company reported that a "rogue" tow truck driver took her car. Apparently this happened in stormy weather and then they basically keep the car hostage until you pay their huge fee. The cops, who she was now chummy with, said they could treat it as stolen.

Craziness.

I'm having my own issues today -- came home from work and the house was 14 degrees. I shut the furnace off and on again (rebooting it?), and it re-heated the house, but it's getting cold again. The furnace is crazy old, but I'm hoping I don't need to replace it. Any idea how much a furnace costs? I don't have clue.

Food was a little crappy today but I went grocery shopping and got excellent, healthy stuff. I will be taking lots of good food pics this week.

Weighing in in the morning - will post then!

It's been that kind of week

Hi all,

Quick update. No pics as, well, it's been that kind of week. Work has been crazy the past two days. I have worked out every day but yesterday (crazy snow storm). Today I had my trainer and did about 1000 squats.
Today's food:
B: Oatmeal
L: Slimfast bar
S: 100 calorie chocolate bar - trust me, I needed it
S: Clif Trail Mix bar
D: multigrain, flax bagel with peanut butter and banana

That's it.
Looking forward to the weekend!

Recycle

So… there seems to be a war brewing between my neighbour and recycling man. It my city, every week we have blue box recycling picked up and green bin compost picked up (garbage is every other week).


Every week after pick-up, my compost bin is stacked neatly inside the blue bin. My neighbour's bin and boxes always seem tossed about. I never thought too much of it until last week when I went to pull into my driveway after work & it was littered with stuff. Shoes! Magazines! Laundry Soap bottles! It seemed like my neighbours recycle bins had been tossed. I cleaned up and put everything back on their driveway.


Last night, when I put my boxes out, I glanced at my neighbours boxes. They're blue bins were understandable overflowing and they added two cardboard boxes this week. Right on top was a sewing kit. It looked like it was from the 60s or 70s - my mom has a similar one. Needless to saw, it didn't look recyclable.


Cut to this morning...I left my house as the recycling guy was coming by. I said "Good Morning" as he neatly stacked my empty bins. I was scrapping ice off the car as I heard him curse, kick my neighbours box and wonder aloud, "what's wrong with these people?"


So now I'm wondering -- should I go and explain how recycling should work? Should I casually mention when I see them that the guy seemed angry. Should I sneak my recycling handbook (provided by the city just last month) into their mailbox? It looks like today, they put out all the stuff that was refused last week. I can only imagine what they'll have out there next week!





Moving on...


Yesterday was pretty boring diet wise...oatmeal, chicken + veggies + rice, bagelful, gym + trainer, chili + cheese





Today was good.





Oatmeal for breaky





Lunch was a Blue Menu Chicken Parmesan ( a little watery, but the chicken didn't taste fake like some frozen meals).





Snack was a banana cut up in Activia Strawberry Yogurt





Dinner was leftover chicken, 4 bean rice and corn with a side of leftover broc and carrots. I have confirm I hate cooked carrots and picked through them





Snack was skim milk and a chocolate vitamuffin





Looking forward to Biggest Loser!!

Weekend wrap up

Hi all,

Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was quiet - something I love and hate. I enjoy knowing I have nothing to do, but I hate being reminded that I could potentially spend a lot of weekends alone. My best friend has 3 kids. We were supposed to go to the movies Saturday, but she disappeared. She never called. She's never been the most reliable person, but it irritates me none the less. She normally calls 2-3 times a day, so I know she just didn't call today because she ditched me yesterday. When she calls tomorrow, she'll blame the kids and say I'll understand one day. She was the first of my friends to have kids. The second in my close circle had her first in December and two others are expecting.

Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on that tangent...

After yesterday's weigh-in, I had a quick breakfast and headed to the gym. I ended up doing 45 minutes on the elliptical. I was pretty happy with myself. Of course, I was starved when I got home.

I have a newly stocked freezer of Lean Cuisines & Smart Ones (gotta love when they are on sale for $1.99!), so I had a Smart Ones Tuna Noodle thing. It was pretty good. I also had an Easter Egg - couldn't resist :-)

As boredom set in, I knew I'd be in snack trouble, so I went for a 45 minute walk. I've been listening to Oprah's webcasts from her Best Life Week on my IPOD and the walk flew by. When I came home, I had a snack.

Dinner was Cajun spiced grilled chicken breast and some Green Giant Cheddar Pasta and Veggies. Yummy and filling.

I did have a few snacks -- I need to commit to photographing snacks as I tend to go overboard. That said, I ended up around 1800 calories. Not bad considering the bonus walk.

Sunday

Today started out slow. My mother calls Sunday mornings and if I don't answer she assumes I'm dead. So while I waited for her to call, I had a Bagelful.

After the call, I went to the gym and burned 500 calories on the Elliptical. I came home, cleaned a bit and made lunch.

Canned Veggie Chile with some grated cheese and a multigrain bagel.



Now, I must say, there is a lot of math involved in dieting. Not just calories in and out, but deciphering nutritional info. The can had 425 grams, but a serving was 247 grams. This is what I went through to try and figure out the calories in half the can.

I went for another walk in the afternoon (trying to repeat yesterday's success and then made a decent dinner. Grilled Chicken (I always do a few breasts at a time, so this was "leftover" from yesterday), Simply Steam Broccoli and Carrots and Knorrs Sides with Veggies (supposedly there is a serving of veggies - broccoli and spinach - in here). All in all good, but a tad high in sodium.

I had some cookies I shouldn't have for dessert and ended up with another 1800 calorie day. I've now banished myself to my bedroom to avoid the kitchen.

Good night!

Weigh in day

Current Weight: 219.4
Loss this week: 0.8

So...0.8. Kind of pitiful, but at least it's a loss.

I haven't blogged in a couple days as I've been super busy. I think I made some good choices though.

Thursday night my friends and I took our Mom's out on the town. They hadn't seen each other in a long time. We went to The Red Tomato downtown. I had the Sole and fries. Very few fries. Actually, I didn't know they would be fries - the lingo on the menu was a little tricky. All the other dished seemed creamy or cheesy. I didn't want to ask for anything special as we were on schedule -- we went to see a musical.

Yesterday was also crazy. I was exhausted in the morning (not used to late night weeknights). Breakfast was Chocolate Peanut Butter oatmeal. I forgot my lunch and had no chance for snack. At about one, I walked (just 10 minutes) over to Harvey's. I had the grilled chicken sandwich with mustard, pickles and lettuce. It seemed like a decent choice at 340 calories.

I got home at 5. I walked (20 minutes each way) to the grocery store. I was friggin' cold. I got some Lean Cuisines & Smart Ones frozen dinners (on sale for $1.99) and some Low Fat Superfries. I bought more than I though considering I had to walk home (in the friggin' cold) with it all.

Dinner was carb-o-licious
Seafood stuffed Haddock
Corn
Low fat fries


I was cold later so I had some low fat hot cocoa and an After Eight straw (which you can see melting in here).




Anyway - I'm going to bum up the exercise this week and hopefully I can lose closer to 2 pounds next week.

Have a good one!

Miscellaneous musings

1) Sometimes those smushed up letters that you need to decipher to leave a comment on a blog are hard to read

2) My neighbours didn't recognize me when I said hello while passing them on a street. They're strange

3) I had a bad work day and a bad food day - coincidence?

4) I'm excited for Lost tonight - it will be the first time I watch it live. I've watched the past 4 seasons on DVD over the past few months

5) When I look at my blog, sometimes the first part I can't see until I scroll down then up again. I realize that previous sentence makes little sense.

6) "Smushed" doesn't pass spell check

A great day on one hand...

Hi,

So like many people, I spent a good chunk of time today watching Obama. I've grown up in a very political household. My dad and brother especially are into all things political. It was strange late this morning when around my office I suddenly heard people logging on to watch the live streaming of the festivities. Pretty amazing how a bunch of Canadians are touched by the magnitude of what Obama represents.

The day started with a modification of my usual oatmeal. I took only 1/4 cup of oats, almost 1/2 water, 1/2 a banana, 1 tbsp of light hot chocolate mix and 1 tbsp of chopped walnuts and cooked them up. It was filling even though it was half of the amount of oats I normally have.

Snack was a cheesestring.

Lunch: Oy...I wanted to go home (partly to watch the inauguration). I should have planned better. I ended up dipping into my "emergency stash" at work and had a Peanut Butter Crunch Clif Bar.

When I finally mad it home around 3 I was starving. I had a fat free pudding cup (Butterscotch) with the other half of my banana from breakfast. This morning I cut it into thin slices and put them on a tray (single layer), covered them with wax paper and froze them. So good mixed in with the pudding.

At 5, I had an early dinner -- I needed fuel for my workout. I fried an egg in a non-stick pan, toasted a multi-grain bagel and added some low fat cheese. It was yummy (even though a very angry customer called partway through my enjoying it).

My workout was intense. Twenty minutes on the Elliptical then 30 minutes of hell with the trainer. My legs are going to be sore tomorrow.

When I came home I had a decent snack. An apple (Fugi -- it went brown as I was cutting it which was a little annoying), another cheesestring (I wanted a little protein and these expire today) and some Preaventia cookies.
Has anyone tried these cookies? They are dark chocolate and oats with prebiotics and red wine extract. So good -- although they are 150 calories for 8 little hearts.

I should have stopped there. I was right at my limit (1550 calories). It was only 8 though and I knew I'd get in trouble. I didn't take photos, but I did eat about 370 calories more of junk (read: dark chocolate). I'm glad I stayed under 2000. I think I do need more on workout days, but I should have planned better. Oh well...tomorrow s a new day.

Who doesn't love Mondays?

So I looked like I was moving out of my house this morning. I was lugging my large purse, laptop bag, gym bag and lunch bag.

The work day was ok. I'm a senior project manager and some of the regular project managers hate being assigned to my projects (they handle smaller projects on their own and feel they could do my stuff too). Anyway, one PM that has the biggest issue with my team (the "seniors" have a different reporting structure"), is filling in for somebody on one of my projects for 6 weeks! oh well.

I planned on going to the gym right after work. I thought about not going. I even sat in the parking lot contemplating not going in. My gym is in a grocery store and I walked around it for a while before going up. I did it though. 30 minutes/400 calories on the Elliptical. I would have done more but it was crazy busy and people wanted the machine. I have my trainer tomorrow.

Food for the day:

Breakfast:
Bagel with Chocolate Peanut Butter and 1/2 a banana:




Snack:
Activia yogurt and 1/2 banana

Lunch:
Veggie Lasagna

Snack:
Cheesestring and 100 calorie granola bar

Dinner:
Mixed greens with broccoli and a touch of Onion and Red Pepper Dressing


Leftover Couscous with chicken and roasted veggies (originally they weren't mixed, but they got shaken in the container so I went with it)


Snack:
Cookies and Strawberry tea

Total calorie intake: 1600

the return of the microwave

Perhaps the main reason it is good to live so close to my parents is there is somebody to do the household tasks that freak me out.

Last week, I blew the fuse for the microwave and have been microwave-free. So, I invited my parents for dinner and asked my dad to change the fuse. And heck, while he was down there, I asked him to change the furnace filter too.

I made them my standard veggie lasagna. I think I'm getting sick of this, so I'll have the leftover piece for lunch tomorrow and that will be it for a while.

Today I started off with a breakfast I haven't had in a while.
Two Omega 3 eggs (140 cals)
1 cheese string (have stirred into the egg) (60 cals)
1 multigrain flax bagel with 2 tsp of becel super lowfat margarine (170 + 25 cals)
Some low-sugar ketchup



It was surprising lowcal. I have to admit that between breakfast and dinner, I grazed, but I did stay within my calorie goal.

Anyway, I 'm hoping the snow clears up over night. We got a bunch more today, but I really want to go into the office tomorrow.

Non diet/exercise goals for the week (I'm thinking if I write them, maybe I'll do them):
- Arrange for upholsery cleaning - my couches are starting to look blah
- Oil change
- Take clothes to Goodwill

I'm alive!!!

Hi All,

I'm alive! Seriously. I just had the craziest drive home in the snow. I can't believe how much snow is out there.

Today was good...I think.

I made my chocolate peanut butter oatmeal for breakfast. It's not a pretty picture, but filling and yummy.




Mid-morning I went for another crazy walk in the cold. I've downloaded some health/fitness/diet webcasts and podcasts and listen to them on my Ipod. I listened to Oprah and Dr. Oz for the 45 minutes I was out today.

When I got back, a friend called to confirm tonight's plans. The restaurant ideas that were being tossed out were not the healthiest (although I flat out refused to go to a buffet). As a result, I kept lunch light.

I had Activia Strawberry Yogurt with Walnuts & some fresh fruit.



We went shopping in the afternoon. I bought furnace filters, garbage bags and fuses. Exciting.

We ended up at Casey's Bar and Grill for dinner (the first place had an hour long wait which we were up for). I had the Moroccan Chicken with Couscous and Zuchinni w/ roasted red pepper.

The chicken was a grilled, skinless breast. Dry, no sauce with a teeny bit of dried apricots and almonds on top. The couscous was dry and not that flavourful. The veggies were good -- not oily at all. I forgot my camera (although my friend would have laughed if I took a pic). I think the whole meal was 720 calories based on the website. It said "a la carte" -- I assuming they mean with the side dishes included on the menu as the chicken alone was obviously about 200 calories. Anyway I ate half.

The my friend and I went to her house, put her kids to bed and watched "Man of Honor". I saw it in the theatre, but still thought it was cute. I at a 220 chocolate frozen dessert thing. It was good and I'm glad I ate it. I definitely had calories left.

Anyway, I have leftovers which is always a good thing. I think I'll keep them for Monday as I have stuff going on tomorrow.

Good night!

weigh in day

Highest Weight: 257
Current Weight: 220.2
Loss last two weeks: 6.6


It's weigh in day.

So the scale said 220.2 - not bad for 2 weeks.

My last "official" weigh in for BLBE was 2 weeks ago and I was 226.8 so that's down 6.6.

I need to get it out of my mind that I "cheated" and weighed myself last week and was 221.5.

I also need to forget that on Nov. 21 I weighed 215.3 - stupid December.

Anyway, here's how things went yesterday:
Breakfast:
Half a Blue Menu multigrain bagel with flax (85 calories per half) with 2tsp of Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter (58 calories). 3/4 cup of fruit.


Lunch:
Low Fat Veggie Lasagna (270 calories)
2 pieces of Dark chocolate (80 calories)

Exercise: I'm a freak - I knew I would go to the gym so I went for a 45 minute walk. It was -10, but it wasn't too bad. I included a 10 hike through a snowy field.

Snack (aka lunch #2):
Lentil Soup (150 calories) and the other half of my bagel


Dinner:
Pad Thai left over from Thursday - still so yummy (340 calories)

Snack:
100 calories snack pack of cookies and light hot cholocate made with skim milk

Friday afternoon

SO far so good today. I'll post details later. My friend just told me it's a good thing God made her fat otherwise she'd be a slut (she's married and has only ever been with her hubby). Very strange.

Easter Eggs!

Hi all,

Well tomorrow is weigh in day. I'm excited I think although I've had a couple of lazy days (I haven't exercised since Tuesday & both days I ate about 200 calories over goal).

Yesterday was a busy workday - Thursdays always are.

Breakfast: I had my chocolate peanut butter oatmeal - made on the stove! I still have the fuse blown where the microwave plugs in. I've never made oatmeal on the stove! It tasted different (not better/worse - just different).

Lunch: President's Choice Pad Thai. So good. It's part of their combo line. It has a ton of chicken and is only 340 calories per serving

Just after lunch, my friend called asking if I wanted to do dinner and a movie. I was actually hesitant because of how if would impact my food intake. Realizing that was silly, I agreed.

Thankfully, out restarant plans changed to the food court and I had a 6 inch chicken breast sub (no cheese).

The movie was Revolutionary Road. Really intense. Let me just say - DO NOT see this movie with a friend with marital "issues."

I had a 100 calorie snack pack of oreos as my movie treat and a piece of my friend's licorice.

After the movie we went for a late night grocery shop. I got some great fresh fruit and veggies as well as eggs which will be good on the weekend. I knew I had a few calories left over so when I saw that Cadbury Cream Eggs were out, I couldn't resist (180 calories!). I can't believe they are out already - I'm in trouble :-)

Total calories for the day: 1650

mini post

1. I'm hungry
2. It's too cold to go out
3. I miss my microwave

Breakfast: Activia Yogurt followed by a Banana Bread Clif Bar

Lunch: Veggie Lasagna

Snack CheeseString & Granola bar

Cheater Snack: 180 calories of dark chocolate

It's 3:41 and I've had no exercise all day. Why am I so hungry?

Nutrition?

Hi all,



I'm typing as I watch Biggest Loser - I hope my trainer doesn't get any ideas from Bob!



So I thought I'd start with a little bit on nutrition or my "diet" plan. On the BLBE2 board, Lynn posted on "Healthy Food vs. Diet Food". It's a topic I think about greatly. My past has me eating prepared foods (usually fast food) 3 meals a day. Add to that crappy snacks, and you have 85% of the reason I was over 250 pounds. I have determined that it's not realistic for me to go from that to made-from-scratch goodness. Therefore I have developed "phase one". Here are my "rules".

1. Log everything I eat on the DailyPlate


2. Eat 5 times per day


3. Always eat before leaving the house


4. Eat under 1600 calories per day (unless I work out twice - then I can up this to 1800)


5. Eat a fruit or veggie at every meal


6. Pay attention to sodium & fat intake

There we are in a nutshell. Sure, I'd like to eat more fresh veggies and not the frozen covered with cheese. I'd like to enjoy an apple as a snack and not have 100 calories of a cross between cardboard and cookies. One day I will improve. For now, I'm working in baby steps.

So...here's a quick run-down of today. I worked from home (only day this week).

Breakfast

1/2 cup Total Cinnamon cereal with small banana and 1/2 cup of skim milk

Lunch

The plan was to take some frozen corn and rice & beans and microwave them while grilling my chicken. Turns out the microwave and the grill on at the same time blew a fuse. Embarrassingly enough, I don't know how to change a fuse, so I needed an alternate to the microwave (I moved the grill). I ended up pan-frying (in a non-stick pan, no oil) the corn and rice together. It got a bit mushy, but was pretty good.

Early Dinner

Um, perfect example of what I was talking about earlier in the post, but this was leftover Shepherd's pie and veggies (from the freezer).


Then off to the gym for 20 minutes on the Elliptical and then 30 minutes of hell with my trainer -- squats, crunches and lunges.

Post Work-out snack

Bagelful & Milk

Snack

100 calorie pack of Oreos. I liked them.

Total: 1585 calories consumed

Weekend recap

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of blogging - busy weekend. Well, busy, and I lost my camera cord (again) and didn't want to post without pics.

Let's start with Friday:
It was an exercise-free day sadly, but after Thursday's night with my trainer, I didn't feel too guilty. I should have though. After a crzy work day, complete with a stressful meeting in the office of a CIO in an important organization (customer), I had a birthday celebration. First, per the bday girls request, we saw "Bride Wars". I had very low expectations and it was way better than I thought it would be - take from that what you will :-)

I was good - I didn;t eat or drink anything and didn't miss it. But... by the time we got to the house of the friend who was making dinner, I was starved. Dinner was pasta with bechamel sauce (although it was made with 1% milk, eggs & flour - no cream). There was a veggie or meat and cheese option so I had veggie (skipping the dressing soaked salad). Here's a pic (I ate 3/4):

Dessert was not surprisingly cake, but with a twist:



I had a small piece of both:


Saturday:
Saturday I was back to tracking and had a great day. In the morning I went to the gym and did 45 minutes on the eliptical. Killer. I had an awesome post-workout snack/lunch. It doesn;t look like much, but it was actually filling and took a while to eat (I need more things like that).

I ate about 1700 calories total for Staurday which I was happy with.

Sunday:
Planning to repeat Saturday's success, I had my oatmeal and headed to the gym. I added some squats and crunches to the 45 minutes on the eliptical. I came back and had a less healthy version of yesterday's lunch:

I went to a friends for the afternoon to help entertain her kids while she had all new applances delivered. I was there way longer than planned. Even with a few snacks here and there, I was famished when I got home. I had a reduced fat lasagne, followed by hot chocolate and Chips Ahoy Sensations.
I ended up at abut 2000 caloris which was more than I intended :-(

Anyway, I hope everyone else had a great weekend (go team ANGIE - I'll have a BLBE update later in the week)!

Thursday

Hi all,

Today was a crazy, crazy day. I knew work was gong to be busy, so set the alarm for 6am. I had a shower and made Chocolate Peanut Butter pudding (it's really oatmeal). It's light hot chocolate, light peanut butter and oats. Yummy and filling.

I got to work and before I made it to my office somebody approached me with a problem from over night. Oy!

The morning flew by, but I had a cheesestring at some point. Lunch was a Oatmeal Slimfast bar on the go and an Activia yogurt with some walnuts.

Just before leaving work, I opened a peanut CLIF bar. Pretty good - much better than the carrot cake. I ate it as some fuel for the gym.

I worked on the Elliptical for 20 minutes (250 cals) and then met with my trainer for 30 minutes of hell. Squats, lunges and free weights. I actually didn't feel that great (in comparison to normal), so I'm going to have to eat better before my next session.

I came home and pan fried a salmon fillet (Blue Menu honey mustard). As a side I had 2 servings of Simply Stream/Green Giant Broc and Cauli in cheese sauce. It was all really good.

Finally for dessert, I had a chocolate/marshmallow Santa. They are only 100 cals - from Laura Secord. My mom gave me 8 of these yesterday. I guess they were extra stocking stuffers.

Anyway - it's 8pm now and I think I could go to bed now.

Tomorrow I have another hell day at work including a customer meeting at their location. I'm meeting a friend for a movie (Bride Wars - her choice) and then a late birthday dinner with some friends.

Saturday is weigh-in day. I'm so happy I haven't peeked at the scale all week - I'm so curious. So far I'd give this week a 7 out of 10 - including a bonus point because it's my first week back "on pogrom" after a 6 week detour.

Winter Wonderland

Hi everyone,

Today was a snowy day here. I chose to work from home - love that option.

The day started with a small breakfast - a Strawberry Bagelful. I recently discovered I can just stick these in the toaster. I really like them & they are only 200 calories.

I then went for a walk in the snow! I walked through a field to the local school. It was really different than walkng on pavement. It was only 30 minutes though.

When I came back I ran across an neighbout of mine - a nice old gentleman who alway waves. He said, "I don't envy you having to drive in this." I replied, "I'm going to work from home." He said, "Oh you work from home, that explains your unique schedule we were wondering about." What?! I love that my neighbours are discussing my schedule.

I went in the house & started working.

Snack was a Cheesestring

A few conference calls later, Lunch was good old veggie lasagne (the last of that one). I also had 2 slices of dark chocolate orange and 6 chocolate covered coffee beans (150 calories of yumminess)


After a few more calls and a gazillion emails, I had an Activia Vanilla yogurt for snack, and called it a (work)day.

I went for a facal. My favourite (non-food) indulgence! It's kind of a hybrid facial-massage. She says she can give me an RMT reciept for it so I can claim it. I know I have coverage through work, so maybe I should see about getting the note required to claim massage.

Then I headed over to my parents. We had Subway for dinner - mine was a 6inch on wheat with grilled chicken, lettuce & honey mustard. I reviewed my finances with my financial planner (aka dad), got depressed, and came home.

Final snack of the day: Vitamuffin and milk.

I think I'll start tomorrow with some oatmeal and aim for a few more veggies.

I'm going to try and read before my eyes start closing. Having a good night!

Biggest Loser is back!

I super excited for Biggest Loser this season! I think watching it will keep me motivated for Biggest Loser Blog Edition.

I'm typing this as I watch.

So today was definitely more exciting than yesterday. My best friend's sister is renting out her house (townhouse actually) and a tenant just left. OMG the house is a disaster! I'm talking the toilet...it's in the tub! Clearly there was some kind of flood. There are other major issues - plus the house is dirtier than dirt. The guy was apparently in after the eviction (neighbours saw him), so I stayed while they called the cops to report a break and enter. I'm never going to be a landlord - ever!

Food wise I was good. I track via dailyplate.com and they've been having server issues -- too many resolution people! Tracking on paper today was a pain & I made a dumb error that cause me to go 250 cals over my plan. Math sucks :-)

Breakfast:
Total Cinnamon cereal w/ banana and skin milk.
Snack:
Cheesestring

Lunch:
Veggie Lasagna

Snack: Chocolate Milk

Dinner:
OMG - there was an issue. I ate late due to the aforementioned issues & was starved. I had a low fat, stuffed chicken breast in the freezer. I didn't have the box, but I looked up the instructions online for microwaving (I threw away the box as I know the details, but usually oven bake them). Why, oh why, didn't 12 minutes sound like too much? It was. I ended up with a shrivelled hard thing and blackened CorningWare. Needless to say, I microwaved myself a piece of stuffed fish. I had Green Giant pasta and veggies with it.


Snack:
Granola Bar & Hot Chocolate with marshmallows. Let me explain the cocoa. For Christmas I got a very pretty pack of hot cocoa, marshmallows and Vanilla Sugar. Now it was a very nice gift, but who puts sugar on the hot chocolate? Anyway, I had a low fat, low sugar hot chocolate mix with 40 cals of marshmallows!



Anyway - today I ate 1750 calories. Too many considering I didn't exercise - I'll make up for that tomorrow (exercise wise).

Bored, Boring, Bore

So today was supposed to be back to normal. I want my routine back. I was so bored at work (which is so rare). It's not that I don't have anything to do, it was just quiet. I guess everyone was catching up on emails and stuff.

I should preface what I'm about to admit be saying that I work a fairly flexible job (in terms of hours). I pretty much always put in my 40hrs or more a week, but I can work from home & more or less set my own hours. We just need to be available - especially between 10 & 3. So today...I left at 3.

I went to the gym and did just 30 minutes on the Elliptical. I don't know why it seemed so hard. Maybe it was the friggin FOOD network that is always playing. They were making cookies!

So I came home and watched tv. Oprah was great. She talked a lot about why she has gained weight back again. She came across very honest. I also watched last night's Desperate Housewives. All in all a boring evening and it's only 7:30. The rest of the week should be better.

So, onto the details...

Breakfast:
Activia Vanilla Yogurt
1 tbsp walnuts
1 banana

Snack:
1 Apple
1 Cheesestring (I have to eat these every day as the expiry date is approaching

Lunch:
Blue Menu Veggie Lasagna

Snack:
Carrot Cake Clif Bar. My s-i-l and I went on a US road trip in November and picked up a ton of these. Now, I should mention she's extremely active. She runs a lot, plays squash, b-ball etc. So, I probably didn't need any, but I thought they'd be good "emergency" food. This wasn't an emergency, but I though it would fuel me up (from the previously mentioned boredom and in prep for the gym). Anyway, I'd give the carrot cake flavour a 5/10. It tasted better when I ate it, but the more I think about it, the less I like it -- I'm weird, I know.


Dinner:
Same as yesterday (leftovers). This time I had my rice, corn and chicken mixed up in a bowl -- I know how to shake things up!!



Snack 275 calories of junk. And it's only 7:45pm.

Grand Total: Just over 1600
Burnt at the Gym: 400

Hope you are all well!

Biggest Loser Blog Edition

So I just joined the Biggest Loser Blog Edition! I'm thinking this will be good for me as I'll have some added accountability & hopefully have some encouragement.

I don't know how to add the image and link to my left column like I see other participants have done, but I'll try to figure it out.

Today was great for the most part!

The good: I got my Christmas decorations down and put away.

The bad: My dad passed by my house and put something in my garage and believes I have a mouse in there. I'm already afraid of the garage - the car never goes in there and everything I need is right at the very front. He says I need to get a mousetrap - then what! Thankfully, there are no entries from the garage to the house and I never go in there. If I just ignore it will it go away?

The food:

Breakfast: Bagelful (I'm boring I know)

Snack: Cheesestring

Lunch: Veggie Lasagna - PC Blue Menu - I eat this alot because they were on sale - 2 for $10 - that's $1.25 a serving!

Snack: 3 wedges of Terry's Dark Chocolate orange. I bought a couple of these on Boxing Day. Dark Chocolate is not bad for you and it satisfies my cravings!

Dinner: Rice, Corn, Blue Menu Cajun Chicken Breast grilled on my Cuisinart Grill (greatest thing ever)

Snack: Vitamuffin and Skim Milk

Here's a dinner pic:

I went for a walk outside - it was only 30 minutes, but I went on a hilly route and kept a decent pace.

Bye Bye Christmas

So...small confession...I'm afraid of my crawl space. Under my stairs in the basement there is a rather large crawl space. With a flash light I can look in and see that it is clean and safe, but I don't go in. Anyway, I tell you this as I have to keep this blog short...my friend is coming over to put my Christmas decorations away :-)

Yesterday was great until the late evening when I had about 225 extra calories. It wasn't horrible though as I did get a work out in.


Breakfast:

Total Cinnamon Crunch w/ skim milk and half a banana


Snack:

Apple & Cheese String


Lunch:


Bagelful, Activia Yogurt, 1 tbsp walnuts and half banana




Snack:


100 Calorie Dipps granola bar (I should NOT have these in the house, but so far I've controlled myself


Dinner:


Stuffed fish, broccoli and cheese and Blue Menu 4 Rice w/ beans



Snack:


Vitamuffin and Skim Milk

Extra Snack:

2 100 calorie snack packs and an After 8 Straw

Total Calorie intake: 1750

I went to the gym and burnt 400 calories on the Elliptical

Talk to you later...

First (official) weigh-in of 2009

Weigh In Day

I know I only weighed myself 2 days ago, but I was curious and Saturday will be my regular weigh in day so...

I weigh 226.8. I think that confirms some of the 230 from Thursday was water weight. I feel a little better.

This has been such a weird week - I'll be glad to get to next week when I'm back in my non-holiday/regular routine. I miss being forced to sit in my cubicle with no access to snack food!

Today should be good. I'm addicted to LOST. I haven't been watching it on tv, but since the summer, I've watched it on DVD. I didn't have season 4 on DVD (and am trying to financially recover from Christmas and didn't want to but it), but I found it online at watchinglostonline.com. I hope it's legal. Basically you can watch 70 minutes a day (although I think if you take an hour long break you can watch again). I'm addicted.

I'm going over to a friend's house this afternoon for present exchange with 3 people. I'll be glad to get the Christmas stuff out of the house. I'm going in the mid-afternoon, so hopefully food won't be an issue. I have to make sure that I make good choices this week to get mentally back on track. The friend whose house we'll be at doesn't exactly make the wisest food choices.

Yesterday's Menu/Activity:
Bagelful
Amy's Enchilada with Spanish Rice and Beans (good & filling - I'll but this again)
Pretzels and Cheesestring
SlowCooker Chicken a la King and Rice
Vitamuffin and Skim Milk (love the chocolate vitamuffins)
Walk in the snow -- so pretty. I used my runners and shoe grips in the fresh snow.

1600 cals eaten. Today I will eat some veggies!

Hi all,

Hope you had a good New Years! Mine was oddly quiet, but I needed yesterday to relax from the hoopla of Christmas - plus I have a busy weekend ahead.

So yesterday I ate about 1700 calories - not bad, but I was aiming for 1500. I track my calories on dailyplate.com

I ate way to much junk yesterday. I have lots of treats from Christmas to get through (although I've already eaten the ones that don't have clear nutritional information available).

Here are chocolate covered coffee beans from Purdy's. They are 10 cals per bean. I don't like/drink coffee, but I ate these anyway.

I also had 2 :blush: of these chocolate covered pretzel rolls. They are 120 cals each.

Time to put away the Christmas decor & stop eating the treats!

So yesterday I watched a few episodes of "Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic". It was scary. I hate to say it, but I wondered how people let themselves get to 500 pounds. I know a lot of my skinny friends wonder the same thing about me...

I was amazed at the number of people who thought they were obese due to slow metabolism and not food addiction. I know I eat way more than the average person. I haven't figured out why, but I binge like crazy. I eat when I'm bored - I just need to eat carrots instead of cookies I guess.


To avoid sitting on my couch the whole day, I did go for an hour long walk. I stopped walking outside in November because the sidewalks are so icy in my running shoes. My sister bought me these grips that you put on your shoes and they were pretty good (once I got used to them). The walk felt good (although my ipod died part way through).



Yesterday's menu:
Bagelful (these will be on my menu a lot - not the wisest choice I'm sure, but quick, yummy and only 200 calories).
Blue Menu (grocery chain's "healthy line" ) Chicken Parmesan with side of Simply Steam Broccoli and Cheese
McCain Slow Cooker Solutions Chicken a la King and Rice
Sugar fee Peach Jello
The aforementioned treats
Total 1721

Gaining It - but Happy New Year anyway :-)

Happy New Year!

I hate to start the year on a low note, but t serves me right. I took the month of December "off", I can't even explain what started it, but once I stop counting calories, I go crazy. Basically, I viewed December as a chance to eat anything and everything I wanted. I can't even imagine it, but I've gained 15 pounds in less than 6 weeks.

Today I weigh 230.5.

I don't even know if last nights calories have caught up with me. I'm embarrassed and annoyed with myself.

I've read a couple of blogs this morning and people are listing their accomplishments (health wise) of 2008. I don't really have any except I know I can lose weight. I just need to figure out how to avoid getting into a cycle. I'm re-committing to this blog as I at least feel obligated to report to you what's been happening.

So the plan for 2009: calorie count and exercise. I'm not going to do a low calories thing, just what worked before - around 1700. I went shopping yesterday to prepare for re-starting and have loads of healthy foods in the house.

When you read this blog on January 1 2010, I hope you see it more as an inspiration rather than yet some other sad girl losing the battle.

Anyway, I'm off to have breakfast and then hopefully it's nice enough to go for walk. I also have to clean my house and wrap presents for the final holiday gathering tomorrow night.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I'll post frequently in the next few days.

Oh - and my one commenter (?) back in November asked me to enable RSS feeds or something like that. If anyone knows how to do that let me know.