Thursday, December 31, 2009

Last day of 2009

The last day of the year always leaves me feeling like there is something I wanted to do and didn't get it done. It really and truly does. I'm not one to make resolutions. I never have been and I don't think I ever will be, however, I always get this sensation on December 31st. Do you know the feeling? It's like when you suddenly realize that your keys aren't in your hand anymore, or your bank card isn't in the proper slot in your wallet and there is that momentary panic? You take a moment and realize that you keys are actually in your pocket and the bank card is in behind something else. Then there is that sense of relief! Tonight at midnight will be that sense of relief. It's a new year. A whole new page to be turned over, and started fresh. It's a new chance to put the past behind, and look forward to the future. 2009 was pretty kind to me. I'm none the less looking forward to the New Year, 2010. WOW! It's amazing isn't it, at 1201am a whole new year begins and the possibilities are endless.

I wish all of you a Very HAPPY, HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

See ya next year!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Cheese...

that delectable, delicious milk product that calls to me from far and wide. Here I am....look how tasty I am....smell how good I smell? I admit, I have a love affair with cheese. Cheese is my downfall. It really and truly is. You know those blocks of cheese that you can get at Costco, the 1kg bricks that you think should last a couple of weeks at least. I can eat one of those in a week. Really! Truly! If I buy one of them, I can guarantee you that I will be having cheese with everything. I try to be good and get the light cheese, but still I still woof that thing back as though it was going out of style. Chop off a piece here, chop off a piece there, a nibble here a nibble there and before I knew it the brick was done and I'm saying to myself, where did all the cheese go??? When I rededicated myself to my weight loss regime, I said no more cheese. No matter what, I could not have it in the house. One serving is three points. Three! That's a baked a potato! I was really and truly missing my cheese, I always ask for cheese when I go to Subway, which isn't all that often, but it would give me my cheese fix now and then. I then substituted by eating cottage cheese. NOT THE SAME AT ALL!!!! Let me tell you, as a cheese connoisseur there is no mistaking cottage cheese for regular cheese!

Then, two weeks ago, at my WW meeting I heard about Laughing Cow cheese. Have you heard of this cheese? It comes in a pre packaged servings, and two wedges of this glorious cheese is only 1 point! Two wedges! 1 point!!!! Happy day! I now have my cheese fix. I really and truly do, it isn't the same as Cheddar, or Swiss or Havarti, but it really does give me my cheese fix. As I type this I'm having my evening snack of rice crackers and cheese. Very yummy, very satisfying. And best of all...I get to eat cheese again!

I didn't get online last night but I did make myself go to the gym last night and tonight. Hopefully I'll get over this head cold soon and will back up to full speed again. For now though here is my activity accountability charts for yesterday and today.

Date 28-Dec
Activity Cardio at gym
Duration 35min 34 sec
Time in Zone 36min 16 sec
Avg Heart Rate 127
Max Heart Rate 138
Calories 448

Date 29-Dec
Activity Cardio weights
Duration 1 hr 2min 6 sec
Time in Zone 55min, 50 sec
Avg Heart Rate 129
Max Heart Rate 151
Calories 826

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love getting together with family and friends. Catching up, hosting parties, hosting family. It's great all together. It's been a little rough. I've been fighting a horrible cold for going on two weeks now. Every couple of days I'll start to feel much better and then wham! I feel like I have been hit by a tonne of bricks. This unfortunately has meant that I haven't been getting a lot of activity in. I've simply been too exhausted or feeling too terrible. Even now, I feel as though my head weighs 50 pounds.

HOWEVER, I do need to get my activity going again. I didn't have an official weigh in yesterday as Weight Watchers was closed due to Boxing day, so I stepped on my own scale. A little afraid, as I haven't been tracking what I've been eating, simply because I haven't been feeling well. I did give myself permission not to count points on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I didn't count points, but I really did limit what I ate. I chose carefully and only had a little bit of each delectable item. I also made the HUGE decision not to do any baking this year. That's right, I didn't bake anything.

The way I see it, if I bake it, it means I have to eat it. My husband will eat it as well, but we're both doing so well with our exercises and weight loss that I didn't want to put a roadblock in our way. So... I simply didn't bake. The end result. I was up three pounds yesterday. Yep. Three pounds. I'm not surprised really considering I weighed my self the morning after my second Christmas dinner. I do mean full Christmas dinner. I'm also not disappointed. I knew that I was going to gain. I have six days until I have another official weigh in and that is my goal this week. I'm going to lose those three pounds, no matter how tired I am, or how horrible I feel, I'm going to be going to the gym, each and every night. I have work to do and I have to get back to it!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Great day!

Saturday was a great day! It really and truly was. I was a little concerned going to weigh in, I wasn't sure if I had managed to lose anything last week due to eating out so much. I did lose though! I lost 1.8 pounds! Total weight loss to date. 21.2 pounds. I'm proud of myself. I've worked hard to lose every ounce of those pounds. I want to hopefully be down 25 pounds by Christmas. I'm not compeletely sure how realistic that is, but we're going to give it my best shot.

Saturday was also my Christmas party. I love entertaining, I love having people over, I LOVE having a house full of people. I had all of that yesterday and more. I tried to make a really concious effort to ensure that I had good healthy choices for people and it paid off. I received numerous compliments on my cooking, which I really do appreciate. However, I also got many complements on the choices of food that people had. One person went so far as to tell me she loved the choices. She had been at another party the night previous where almost all of the food choices were high fat, high calories items. She loved the fact that I had this great big platter of Veggies. Instead of having a variety of cookies and cakes, I had a fruit platter, with chocolate fondue beside it, if someone really wanted it. I love the fact that I poured out about 90% of the chocolate. That made me feel really good!

It was a great succesful evening, everyone left happy, and had a great time. I'm already looking forward to my next big party, BOXING DAY BRUNCH! I'm going to try to find as many healthy choices for that morning as well.

This is this weeks Activity Accountability Chart.

Date Week Dec 6-12
Activity various
Duration 9hr 15min 45 sec
Time in Zone 8hr 10 min 23 sec
Avg Heart Rate 129
Max Heart Rate 144
Calories 6622

Friday, December 11, 2009

Gearing up...

...for weigh in...and Christmas party!

Yes I have my weigh in tomorrow. I'm hoping to maintain or have a slight loss from last week. Seeing as how often I ate out this week, I'll be happy with anything but a gain. I think I've done more than my fair share of time at the gym this week. As this is Friday, I did go to the gym tonight after dinner to get in my last chance workout. Here is my Activity Accountability Chart for today.
Date Dec 11th
Activity SC&E & Weights
Duration 1hour, 44min, 11sec
Time in Zone 1hour, 23min 11 sec
Avg Heart Rate 126bpm
Max Heart Rate 148 bpm
Calories 1290

I did take the dog for a walk today, but it was a very leisurely walk so I'm not counting it towards my activity for today.


I've spent my last official day on holidays getting ready for our Christmas party. My husband and I host one every year and it sounds like this will be a really good one, we're expecting a lot of people here throughout the evening so I hope it all goes off without a hitch. I spent the day cooking, I've made Cheese puffs, a Cheese ball, turkey balls, and devilled eggs. I'll do the rest tomorrow. This year I wanted to stay pretty healthy so I'm doing a huge Veggie platter with two different types of dips as well as a fruit platter. I fully realize not everyone is watching what they eat so I am making a chocolate fondue for the fruit to be dipped in. I've never done this before so I'm hoping it will work out all right. I'm looking forward to having a houseful of friends and family here to celebrate the season.

I will also attempt to get some activity in tomorrow morning. I'm not making any promises as I still have a fair amount to do to get ready for the party. I also have to borrow some one's vacuum cleaner. Ours died a very stinky death this evening so I'll call around in the morning, and see if my neighbors can lend me theirs. Otherwise I will have to go over to my parents and steal theirs. I also have a birthday party to go to. One of my best friend's daughter is having her 3rd birthday party tomorrow so we will pop over there to see them and give her, hopefully, a great birthday present. Then we'll have to hustle back over here to finish up for our own Shindig. I'm really looking forward to it! Have a super weekend!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Hanging in, and hanging on!

It's been an interesting week. It was my Birthday on Tuesday and technically I've been celebrating since last Saturday. It's hard to stay on plan when you seem to find yourself in a different restaurant every day of the week. You see, I also took the week off of work. I have holiday time I have to use up by the end of the month so with only a couple of weeks left I had to take the time off.

I'm been doing a lot more than just eating in restaurants. I've gotten a lot of activity in this week and I'll be posting that in a few minutes. I've been able to spend a lot of time with my mom and dad this week as well. I love spending time with my family and we just don't seem to get together as often as we used to.

Sunday was great, we went to my parents house to put up their Christmas lights. My sister and her husband soon joined us and then my brother arrived home and we had a great time together. I spent time with my mom on Monday, running around helping her with her Christmas shopping.

Tuesday, I have to admit, I was a big old bump on a log. Besides taking the dog for a walk in the morning, i didn't do a whole heck of a lot. My Husband got me two of my favorite movies on DVD so I popped some popcorn and had a movie watching afternoon. Then we went out for dinner to celebrate my official birthday. We went to a new restaurant in town called RAIN GRILL AND BAR. The food was fabulous, I love the look of the restaurant now, it's so cozy, the service was great as well. If you live in the Abbotsford area, you have got to check out RAIN! You won't be sorry.

Wednesday found me over at my parent's house once again. My dad insisted on taking me out for a birthday lunch. We went to a Greek Restaurant here in town and I really did try to make good choices. I chose a wrap for lunch and was filled with dismay when it arrived with....FRENCH FRIES!!!!!(insert dramatic music here)

I did good though, I ate my wrap and covered my plate with my napkin and when a server was walking by, I asked her to take my plate so that I wouldn't be tempted...I was quite proud of myself.(Insert theme song from Rocky here).

Today found me doing my grocery shopping for our Annual Christmas party, I had to go to the grocery store as well as Costco. Needless to say, my mom and I again, ended up in a restaurant for lunch. I chose the Southwest Chicken salad, no cheese and dressing on the side. It was very good.

All in all, I've had a lot of restaurant food this week, I've gotten used to ordering things how I want them prepared, and I've gotten over the feeling that I'm being demanding. I'm hanging in, and I'm hanging on. I'm hoping for a loss this week, I will be happy with a small one. Saturday will be here before we know it.

To help with the loss, here's my activity accountability charts for the past two days.

Date 9-Dec
Activity Dog walk
Duration 28min 15 sec
Time in Zone 24min 13 sec
Avg Heart Rate 129 bpm
Max Heart Rate 143 bpm
Calories 243

Date 9-Dec
Activity Elliptical
Duration 41min 20 sec
Time in Zone 32min 31 sec
Avg Heart Rate 131
Max Heart Rate 145
Calories 589

Date 9-Dec
Activity Dog walk
Duration 19min 45 sec
Time in Zone 15min 10 sec
Avg Heart Rate 121 bpm
Max Heart Rate 135 bpm
Calories 167


Date Dec 10th
Activity Dog walk
Duration 31 min 55 sec
Time in Zone 28min 12 sec
Avg Heart Rate 131 bpm
Max Heart Rate 151bpm
Calories 345

Date Dec 10th
Activity SC & E & SB
Duration 1hour 22min 14sec
Time in Zone 1 hour 11min 22sec
Avg Heart Rate 129
Max Heart Rate 138
Calories 988

Monday, December 7, 2009

Sticking to plan,

Is really hard this time of the year. It really is. It's not just all of the Christmas festivities, it also happens to be my birthday this week. In just a few short hours I will be 39 and around here, birthdays get a lot of attention.

It started on Saturday night when a friend who as going to the cookie exchange with me wanted to take me to dinner to celebrate my birthday. Now, when I go to restaurants, 99% of the time, I order salad. My friend made the stipulation that I couldn't have salad and I couldn't have a chicken burger. So I was very choosy with the menu and I picked a great points friendly meal. I'm very happy with that, including dinner out, the sampling of some cookies and the nibbles during the evening, I stayed on plan.

Yesterday was the family get together. Now, when we get together for some one's birthday, the deal is the birthday person gets to choose what they want for their birthday dinner. In previous years, I have asked for the triple cheese lasagna, or the knife and fork home made pizza. Not the best choices by any stretch of the imagination. Keeping my new eating plan in place, I asked my mom for either Cabbage rolls or a stir fry, choices that are good and I know that everyone else would like them as well. I also asked my mom not to get a cake. I didn't want it. I would end up eating more than my fair share of it. Instead, I brought over the cookies from the cookie exchange that we all nibbled on through out the day. Family birthday dinner, and I stayed on plan, I actually didn't use all of my points yesterday. Not bad at all.

I'm off work this week, using up the last of my holiday time for the year, so I spent the day helping my mom with her decorating and Christmas shopping. While we were out and about we ended up at Swiss Chalet for lunch. Now, my most favorite thing to order there is the Hot Chicken sandwich,(the one smothered in gravy) with a double order of fries. So...what did I order today? Go ahead guess, I dare you!

I was good, I was very good and ordered the minestrone soup and the Chicken on a Kaiser. NOW, I know what you're thinking, that's still really high in points, especially with that huge kaiser roll they use. Here's the thing, I picked the chicken off of the bun and only ate 1/4 of the bun, with my soup. Yep, I did great!

Add to this great eating plan, I also got a lot of activity in today! Despite the sub zero weather we're having right now (that I'm really not used to, we don't get it this cold here very often) I took the dog on not one, but two walks.

So without further ado...here is today's Activity Accountability Charts. Yes, Charts! I also went to the gym tonight.

Date Dec 7th
Activity Dog walk 3.5km
Duration 28min 57sec
Time in Zone 26min 33 sec
Avg Heart Rate 133bpm
Max Heart Rate 145bpm
Calories 332

Date Dec 7th
Activity Dog walk 2km
Duration 22min 18 sec
Time in Zone 16min 10sec
Avg Heart Rate 121 bpm
Max Heart Rate 132 bpm
Calories 178

Date Dec 7th
Activity Gym, Cardio
Duration 1hr 4min 52swc
Time in Zone 55min 30 sec
Avg Heart Rate 125bpm
Max Heart Rate 139 bpm
Calories 788

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Started the day off right.

I had a great night last night with my friends and the cookie exchange, I did well. I only had a shortbread cookies, a lemon square, a snicker doodle and a rum ball. We then had some cheese and crackers as well. I did great, I kept myself in check and had a fabulous points day yesterday.

Today started off great, had an English muffin with p-butter on it before heading to the gym, where I worked my buns off. My husband got me Jillian Michaels Hot Bod in a box from costco a little while ago, so today I did Work out 4 for my weights.

Today's Exercise routine.
Stair Climber, 30 minutes on Level 8(the whole time!!!!)
Weights: Wide Grip Lat pull down,
Medium underhand Grip pull down
Pelvic Thrust
BOSU Lunges ( She calls for Jumping lunges, I tried but couldn't do them)
Hill walk at incline of 12 for 1 minute speed 4mph.

Terry pulls
Standing Lat pull down
Back kicks with Shoulder press(I certainly don't have the form that they show on the card.)
Hill walk at incline of 12 for 1 minute speed 4mph.

Low dumbbell rows
Step ups (40 on alternating legs)
Butt Kicks (I really did kick myself in the butt a couple of times LOL!)

Incline Bicep Curls
Ball Crunches
One Leg Pelvic Thrusts
Butt Kicks

Dead Lift
Boat pose ( I couldn't do this, I tried a few times and then did 50 crunches)
Reverse Plank(again, I couldn't do this so I did the regular plank)

Elliptical 25 min on Hill Climb level 7(Goes up to level 17 during the program)

So this is what my Accountable Activity chart for today looks like.
Date December 6th
Activity Gym Workout
Duration 1hr 34min 15 sec
Time in Zone 1hr 27min 48 sec
Avg Heart Rate 142bpm
Max Heart Rate 165bpm
Calories 1442


Have a great day everyone!!!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Hard work pays off!!

It really and truly does. I worked hard at my program this week, I measured everything, I tracked everything, I took care to order food the way I really needed it to be. I dedicated my self at the gym and I worked hard at the gym, and it paid off. It really and truly did.

I was down 5 pounds this week!!! FIVE POUNDS!!!! YEAH!!! I feel so good, in 7 weeks I have lost 19.8 pounds. That's nothing to sneeze at I gauran darn tee you! I feel great about it.

Did I want to go to the gym every day that I did, no I didn't. Did I want to eat how I did, not really but I stuck to my plan and it worked. It really and truly worked. I am so happy!!!

I worked most of the day and came home early so that I could get my cookies baked for the cookie exchange I'm going to tonight. I baked low fat peppermint macaroons. They are only 1 point per cookie so I feel good about taking them. All in all, as far as cookies go, they are a pretty reasonble choice.

Once the cookies were out of the oven, the sun was still up so I leashed up Angus and off we went for our long walk around the block, the 2.5km walk, we did it in under a half hour, considering how many times the dog stopped to sniff or leave his scent I think we made pretty good time. Again, I didn't have to huff and puff my way up the hill. That feels so darn good!

I've also added up all of my time at the gym and put together my weekly activity accountability chart. The first week of being accountable for my activity and I think I did really great.

Here they are:
Date Dec 5th
Activity Dog walk
Duration 28min 45 sec
Time in Zone 27min 41sec
Avg Heart Rate 135
Max Heart Rate 150
Calories 260

Date Week Nov 29-Dec 5
Activity various
Duration 5hr 30min 55sec
Time in Zone 5hr 10min 19sec
Avg Heart Rate 135
Max Heart Rate 152 avg
Calories 3466

A pretty good calorie burn, and I'm not totally sure if the calories are acurate or not. I would love to be able to find a heart rate monitor similar to the MIO, but also lets me track my average heart rate, max heart rate and time, just as my polar heart rate monitor does.

If anyone knows of a brand that they use, please post a comment and let me know.

Have a great day! Katie:-)

Friday, December 4, 2009

Last Chance workout!

It is Friday night, which only means one thing. Tomorrow is weigh in day! I had a crazy busy day today and worked in both of my offices. I took lunch with me to work but didn't manage to eat any of it other than my mandarin orange. That was it. I was so hungry when I got home from work, my Dear Husband had started dinner for us so in no time at all we were eating dinner. After dinner we were both very good, we got in the car heading to get desert and changed our minds. I KNOW. We changed our minds, instead we ended up at the grocery store so I could get some baking supplies(making a few dozen cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow night) and we even passed up on the bakery stuff. I had been tempted to grab a brownie but after seeing 500 calories and 34 grams of fat, holy cow, it will be frosty day in he## before I have a store bought brownie again. Instead I opted for a cadbury thin bar, 2 points, that's all, and then I didn't have it until after I got home from the gym.

I worked hard at the gym tonight. REALLY HARD!!! I did an hour of the Elliptical on the Mountain Climb Setting, the ramp at level 5 and the resistance started at level 6 and went as high as level 15. I was sweating up a storm. After my time on the Elliptical was up it was weight time.

Now the thing with weights, is you have to do then quite intensely to keep your heart rate up, but tonight I did it. I challenged myself on everything I did and upped the weights on everything.

Tonight I did: Triceps Press 21's 45lb's(7 wide, 7 med, 7 inner) x3
Straight arm pull down 65lb's 15 rep x 3
Double Ball Press 15lb's 15 rep x 3
Bosu Squats 25 x 3
Ball wall Lunge 25 x 3
Ball Bench press 30lb's x 15 reps x 3
Curl to ball Crunches 30 x 3
Pec Fly Ball Crunch 15lb's x 15reps x 3
Stair runs 2 ups and downs x 3
Lat pull downs 45lbs x 15 x 3
Superman on the ball, 20 x 3

It was a great work out. Here is my activity accountability chart for today.

Date Dec 4th
Activity Weights and Elliptical
Duration 1hr, 37min, 23sec
Time in Zone 1hr, 36min, 33sec
Avg Heart Rate 137
Max Heart Rate 155
Calories 1204

I'm hoping for a really good weigh in, I've put in a little over 5 hours of intense activity in this week, so here's for hoping for the best!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A day of NSV's...

For those of you who don't know what a NSV is, it's a Non Scale Victory. It's a victory in my weight loss path that is not necessarily related to my weight on the scale. Today, I had a whole bunch of them. I had the kind of day, that makes you think, I can do this, I will do this!

NSV #1. My loving husband gave me a gorgeous pendant for Christmas two years ago. It's a beautiful necklace but when I first got it, it was too tight so I had to purchase an extender for it. I haven't worn it for quite some time but wanted to wear it today so I put it on, looked in the mirror and the pendant was hidden by my top. I took it off, took off the extender and put the necklace back on and it fits perfectly. The pendant is laying right where it is supposed to! HAPPY DANCE!!!

NSV #2. My husband drove my car last, and as he is much thinner then me, he usually moves the seat up and I move it back, well this morning, I just slid right into the driver's seat. I looked over at the passenger seat thinking perhaps he had moved it back but no, the driver's seat was ahead of the passenger seat so it was where he left it. An added bonus, my tummy isn't rubbing on the steering wheel! HAPPY DANCE!!!

NSV #3. I forgot part of my lunch at home today so I decided I would go to Subway to get a 6inch sub. The closest one is about a kilometre from work so on my lunch I decided to walk to Subway. I walked to Subway, had my lunch and walked back all within a half hour! HAPPY DANCE, HAPPY DANCE, HAPPY DANCE!!!!

NSV #4. My husband and I went to a Christmas dinner for a group that he is a member of. It was a buffet Turkey dinner with all of the trimmings! Turkey, dressing, carnberries, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, beans, salad, deserts! OH MY!!! I did fabulous. I took about 4oz of White Turkey meat, 1/4 cup of mashed potato, salad and green beans. I left the rest off of my plate. No Dressing, no gravy, no rolls, no deserts. AND I LOVED MY DINNER!!!!!

I'm so proud of myself. I did go back for seconds, of salad! That's all I had. I feel so good about facing tonight's challenge head on and doing so well at it. There were even little cups of Hershey's Kisses at our table setting, I LOVE Hershey's kisses, but I didn't have single one. I wasn't even tempted!

Then to top it all of, one of the members of the club who attends the same gym as we do, congratulated me on winning the Greatest Loser contest and told me that I'm looking really good.

What a great way to start the holiday season! Here's to many more NSV's in the future.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Plugging Along

I'm just plugging along on my journey here, don't mind me, coming through! LOL! It's been an interesting week at work, there's some stuff going on that makes life a little stressful. The difference is, I'm not eating my way through it. I'm really not, I've stayed on points, I've stuck to my plan, I'm doing good. I didn't get in any activity yesterday except for a quick dog walk at 630am, it was dark, cold and we hustled around the block! Even the dog didn't want to be out in the cold, so we did our once around the block in just over 15minutes. I'm not really counting it as exercise because hey, it was less than 20 minutes, and my heart didn't get a pumping. I'm trying to be as accountable as I can here and that means I also have to be brutally honest as well. I didn't get any activity in last night as I went for Christmas dinner get together with 12 ladies from the store where I work. I was a little worried about how I would do so I ate my points lightly and then I was very specific when I placed my dinner order. There weren't alot of points friendly foods on the menu so I ordered chicken cordon bleu and asked for them not to fry it, if they do fry it, then please just bring me a grilled chicken breast. I felt really awkward making demands but I've decided during this season (another Christmas dinner tomorrow night) that I have to be. I have a right to be. I'm trying to get used to being demanding. I'll have to let you know how that goes.

Today's activity Tracker

Activity Weights & Elliptical
Duration 1hr, 15min, 13 sec
Time in Zone 1hr,4min, 33 sec
Avg Heart Rate 131bpm
Max Heart Rate 149bpm
Calories 427

I'm not sure if I should be tracking my calories on my Heart Rate monitor, it is much lower than the calorie count on the machines, especially when I take the time to punch in my weight and age into the machines. I really have to think about it. Any opinions on that?

Have a great day everyone!