Disappointed

I am very disappointed in self. I gained this past week and I can't seem to get back tracking.  I have been sick with a cold and it hasn't gone away yet.  I have no energy but lots to do... still no tracking.  I start tracking but can't seem to finish it at the end of the day.  My brain is working overtime but my body doesn't want to follow suit.  I tire too easy.  My hubby is about 5 days behind me with the cold and our son is a few days behind him... so it has now taken over all of us.  Hopefully we can now work together on getting rid of it!
There are days when I don't feel up to eating anything and days when nothing satisfies.  My points are all over the board - right now i am living on chicken soup, Popsicles and the odd chip.
Gotta get back in the groove...and very soon!

Slipping

I just realized its Saturday and I haven't been tracking!  I have been glued to my desk and getting a lot accomplished there but keep forgetting to track.  YIKES.
I haven't stepped on the scale but I do know I have been watching what I eat so I am not completely oblivious.  I still have my nasty chest cold although it is breaking up and I am drowning in phlegm.  I have been staying up far too late again trying to catch up from my sick days.  Speaking of, its getting late again now so I better make this quick and get some sleep so I can get something done tomorrow.
Today I had a slow day cause I had a headache to contend with.  It is gone now so I will get myself together and make sure I do some tracking tomorrow!
Tracking keeps me successful!
OK no more chit chat... off to put my sheep to bed and then go to my own.

Elated!

The weather cooperated today so I was able to make it to my WW meeting and WI.  Am I glad I did!  Wish I knew how to do emoticons on here!  LOL
I was down 3.6 lbs.  which puts me at 174.
 Having a cold I am sure had something to do with it but it is my belief that its because I was aware I would be less active and so I really was careful what I ate and that I tracked everything.  Its the calories in calories out that I was really concerned about.  I didn't want to over eat and I made sure the proper foods were in the house so that I had good choices while I was down. I also made sure I drank plenty of water and herbal tea to wash it all out of my system.  I think it worked. :)
Now to keep up the work for the next week.  I will be SOOOOO glad to be out of the 170's! 
I looked back into my weight history and I haven't been 174 in a LONG time... I am very happy to be here now but look forward to be "there"soon

Unofficially

I stepped on the scale this morning... for 2 reasons.  One, to see how I was doing cause I have been ingesting a lot of cold remedy meds and two, because I just wanted to see how I was doing... lol

Okay I step on the scale most every day, once a day, first thing in the morning, but that is just to make sure that I am staying on track.  I use it as a guide not as an obsession.   Yeah I might complain if the number went up but I also know to take into consideration where I am at during the month; what I have done the day before; what I have eaten the day before; how much stress I have had; so many many factors come into play.
Today's scale reading made me smile.  It said I was down 2 pounds. Now to hang onto that til the official WI on Wednesday.  I don't see it being a problem because I am eating light and drinking lots due to a nasty chest cold I have.  I have been fighting a fever - its slightly raised - and now my ears are starting to ache.  My lung capacity isn't all that great either which gives me warning signs of pneumonia.   With my home remedies I am feeling not too bad so will continue on with what I am doing.

We are getting a lot of snow right now and our road does not get cleared too often.  My car has winter tires on it but it is fairly low to the ground. It doesn't take much snow to fall before I am plowing it with my car.  DH keeps our driveway clear so that isn't an issue for me but the side roads are and I have to travel on them a ways before I get to a main one that would be cleared.  I didn't put the winters on my Ranger - its not a 4x4 anyway and I have to put weight in the back to have it be any good in the snow.  

The reason I mentioned the snow is because Wednesday is supposed to be the worst day here for snow... hmmm I may not make it to WI.  Or they may be closed cause the leader or receptionist can't make it.  Hard to say but I am looking ahead.  Oh well, if I miss Wednesday I can always WI  at another meeting this week - even though it just won't be the same.

Inspiration

 I am connected to Bob Harper's (trainer from the Biggest Loser show on NBC) face book page and every once in a while he will put up photo's that people send him.  These are before and after photo's.  One in particular made me smile.  I am elated when I see people get to their goal weight and especially those who have lost over 100 lbs.  I lose heart having to lose 50... I know how much hard work, sweat, tears and even laughs it takes to get it off... the real work starts after that... keeping it off.
Here is a link to a gals web page of her journey.  It is truly amazing and she did it by working the Weight Watchers program. 
Click on the link to see the
Jennifer  story.

Enjoy.

Dinner from Hell

Well, I guess it wasn't THAT bad but when you are trying to eat healthy and the people at your table aren't cooperative and neither is the server nor the restaurant itself... well you get most of the picture.

I'll start from the beginning...
Last night DH and I went out for dinner with our niece, FIL and an associate... I normally do research before I go to a restaurant to make sure I have an idea of what to order when I get there to stay within my points range.  This restaurant we go to does not have a nutritional guide, online or in restaurant.  I have asked before and they say to look on the web... I tell them its not there then they say well I don't know where its kept here.   By Law they are supposed to have it available to the customer.  This particular restaurant is very stubborn - I guess I should complain higher up.

I mentioned to my colleagues at the table that its hard to find a nutrition guide for the restaurant and got told "Nobody wants to know whats in restaurant food! Just eat it an enjoy! What is obvious is there is too much salt in restaurant food".  This comment coming from people who have had heart attacks and have high blood pressure and they are not interested in what they are eating?   Wow.
So back to the dinner... We got seated, the restaurant was somewhat full.  We haven't seen this restaurant this full in a long while... we chocked it up that one of the waiters weren't there - the obnoxious waiter.  He thinks he's all that and will actually sit at your table and join in on your conversation.  He picks on my kids, crosses the line (rude) with my FIL (FIL is a regular there) and he is very loud and seriously over weight.  He tells us that the restaurant falls apart without him.  phhhfffft!

Anyway!  So we are waiting at our table and the table next to us asks the waitress if their meal was coming yet (hmm warning bell!) ... we sit for 20 minutes and finally someone at my table asked the waitress walking by if we could get beverages... we ordered, the girl came with the coffee pot and our other beverages... she set down the water, chocolate milk, tea and then left with the coffee pot without pouring coffee.  We had to call her back.

On to the meal... we ordered - cause I am cautious there I order a garden salad with grilled chicken on top.
Once ordered I was concerned that because she didn't ask me what dressing I wanted they would just pour anything on top.  I either don't get dressing or I only get it on the side.  My hubby ordered the same thing I did...
Our meal showed up - or at least 3 meals at our table did... DH and I had to wait another 10 minutes.  We had arrived at 6:30pm it was now 8pm

We finally got our salad... they had a mini corn bread loaf plunked on the top of the salad - DH salad was 3/4 larger than mine even though we ordered the same thing.  Thankfully she had put the salad dressing on the side (guessing what she thought we would want) DH changed her choice.  I didn't use mine.
I looked at my salad - it was far from pleasing to the eye - it looked totally thrown together with corn bread plunked on top as an after thought.  I removed the corn bread (I am sensitive to corn so don't eat it)  I didn't realize it was coming with the meal.   Under the corn bread was bagged salad with croutons dumped on top... but the croutons were mainly crumbs. You know when you get to the bottom of the bag and you just have the crumbly stuff left?  well I had soggy crumbs.    I scraped off my cucumbers and ate them along with the chicken, then dove into the lettuce only to be shocked and almost puke.  The top lettuce was fine but underneath the lettuce was rotten. Yes, soft, mushy, brown, rotten... it tasted weird.   I tried to pick through it but my stomach couldn't take it.   When the waitress picked up our plates she asked if I was done with my salad I mentioned the lettuce was rotten.  Her response was "really? but your salad came from the same bag as his!"  Meaning DH's.  DH said "My salad came from a bag?" My response was" I guess I got the bottom and last of the bag"

I enjoyed the water and my tea... they never offered to refill my hot water... but then again they never brought the coffee pot around for my colleagues again either.  In the end, I did get my meal for free but that isn't want I was aiming for.  I just wanted good service and a tasty meal. 
Hmmm, maybe the restaurant does fall apart when the obnoxious waiter isn't there!
BTW it was Ricky's All Day Grill...

When I got home I didn't look for something else to eat. I found something else to fill my time positively... tomorrow is another day.

I DID IT!!!!!

I have completed 2 challenges!
One has taken me a tiny bit over 2 years...  I started in December 2009 and finished January 11th, 2012
It took 6,722,500 steps to go from Surrey, BC to Sydney NL
We have one large country! 
The longest stretch with no towns to stop at in between is Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie @ 531,250 steps
This is how you find out how spread out our "living'" space can be!

My second challenge took me a year..from January 2011 to January 5th, 2012.  Is my walk from Surrey BC to Tijuana Mexico!  It only had 3,213,750 steps to complete... I say ONLY cause after the Canadian one it seemed like peanuts!
I finished it a week before the Canadian one :)

Now that these two are complete I can start afresh and do the next walking challenge for 2012.  We have decided to do a BC Circle tour.  I am well on my way with 192,500 steps done which brings me to Hope BC.  To complete this challenge I need to do 3,221,250 steps.   Here I go!

Another week, another walk, another pound

Last Saturday Jan 7th I went with my marathon walking group... I was quite "down" that day.  My knee was giving me issues and I tried to walk through the pain and I was incredibly emotional.  Not really sure why but part of it I think is I don't feel as "welcome" this year.   There are many new people in the group but they have all come with partners.  The gal I used to walk with walks much faster than I do and she seems to be on a mission this year.   So needless to say I was feeling a bit icky.. so if you look at the pictures you will find me walking very much alone.  Believe me, it was for the safety of others.  Here is the link
      January 7th week 1 

This week I haven't been able to walk as much - I wanted to walk with the local group that I started walking with last week but I have had too much other work to do and haven't been able to make it a priority.
I did however get to the pool Wednesday night for water aerobics.  I felt good after the fact, even though my knee spoke up a bit during the work out.  I just modified some of the exercises so it didn't aggravate it too much.  Today I have felt like a truck ran over me - thank goodness for Aleve... its helped but I have the energy zapped out of me.  Hopefully a good night sleep will help increase tomorrows energy level.

On a BRIGHT note I have lost weight 2 weeks in a row now which I am quite pleased about!  First it was 2.7 then 0.7; not much the second time around but at least its still going in the right direction!  Gotta keep up my tracking... amazing how that works!

tomorrow I plan to either use my stationary bike or do a walking Wii exercise DVD.    Then on Saturday its another long walk.  Supposed to be a beautiful day  - no rain... I hope my knee holds out.

A little something I will Share

I am going to try and connect pictures of my January 1st walk ... the marathon training walk... its a slide show - hope this works.
Can you tell which one is me? lol
New Years Day 7 km walk (said to be 5k but we disagree!)   Just click on the link... then click on the picture and it will start scrolling thru the photo's.

Another day another 5

Yesterday I was researching a little on the WW site... (ok I was procrastinating instead of getting my other work done!) but it was a good thing!  I came across a local walking group that walks during the week.  One of my downfalls is I don't walk during the week and I think that is a big reason why I "failed" to complete my training for the marathon last time.  At first you don't notice it but when the stretches become 15 - 20 km plus... and you haven't done any walking in the week - it gets tough and injuries happen. 

Sooooo, I went on a very nice 5 km walk with this "new" walking group (6 showed up today) at Mill Lake Park. Its a little hidden park/lake in the middle of the city.  I had great company - including a Chihuahua named Quil and another little Heinz 57  named Lily.  Despite the threatening rain the time went real fast with all our chatter and laughter. 

Not only am I doing the walking I am trying to do a little therapy with my knee to keep it strengthened. So last night I called up my pal Jo (Joanne) and said "Hey! the pool is open again lets go to water aerobics!  She said "good idea!"   So off we went - the award is the soak in the hot tub after!   Best of all our class was small (6 including instructor) and the pool was not busy at all! So we have made a pact that every Wednesday ... off to the pool for water aerobics! 

Wow I don't know where this good head space has come from - and all this energy... maybe its cause I started taking my vitamins again or maybe after a year I don't feel so burnt out anymore!  

Happy New Year!

... and a Happy New Year it is!  Today was my WI day and I lost 2.7 lbs over the past week!  woohoo!
That included 2 dinners out and a wedding that took place in a home that had food out the whole time! veggie platters are wonderful!   It also included my almond roca stealing... but I obviously worked it all off - did a 7 km walk on the 1st of January.
YEP I am back with my walking group!  They are training for a half or full marathon come April 21... I probably won't do the marathon but I want to do the walk. 
I have connected with another walking group east of me that walks during the week too so I am going to meet up with them tomorrow for the first time.  On Wednesdays I have joined ranks with a friend and we went to our first (of this year) Water aerobics class tonight.  We hope to make it a weekly event... since the pool is only 5 minutes from my home!
So off to a good start!  I still want to become that skinny bitch! I told my son that by his graduation I am not sure who will outshine who! lol  Nah, it will be him but I will be feeling good about standing in the photo with him!
Here I come 2012!