Weigh in day

So today was my weigh in day. It didn't go well, it sucked. I was up almost a pound. I'm really surprised as I got in a lot of activity and I was careful with my points, but that's the way the ball bounces sometimes. So although I would like to put a big -Xpounds on here, I have to do the opposite and put +1 pound.

I did do pretty good today with my points, I was working by myself at the office and I always struggle with that, but I did drink my water and I brought my lunch with me which helps a lot. It meant that I didn't have to go to the food court or the vending machines. Which means that I stayed on plan even though I was feeling down about my weight gain.

However, today is a new day, the start of a new week so onwards and upwards!(or should that be downwards...you know what I mean though!)

This week may be a little bit harder than I would like. I didn't get my swim in today as the pool doesn't have a morning length swim and I couldn't go afterwork as we had company over for dinner. I won't be able to go tomorrow night after work as I have a meeting for the CBCF CIBC Run for the Cure. I'll have to make it up somehow. Not to worry though, I'll figure it out!

Good day!

I'm a little late posting this week. I had a great day though. First thing is first. Weigh-in. I was the same, no heavier, no lighter but I'm good with that. I still haven't managed to get myself back into the groove of going to the gym. I really do need to get to the gym!

I know that once I get the umption in my gumption and get going again, I will feel better about it and I will be happy about it. I know it is a mind set and I just HAVE to do it! I know that, I really honestly do but I just haven't gotten there.

I don't know why this is, I actually think it's ironic. Most people when they go on holidays worry about not getting in a good workout, they drop down their physical activity. I went on my holiday and hit the gym 90% of the time. I get home, and I haven't gotten to the gym once yet.

I know, I know. It make no sense what so ever, BUT hopefully if something comes together as my husband and I are hoping it will. I will be getting lost of outdoor activity. More about that later....Have a great day everyone!

Da...Da...Da....

So I've been off line for the past couple of days but that in no way means I haven't been active. I have been! I've been going and working and plugging along. I have weigh in tomorrow so I went to the gym to do my last chance work out. I'm pretty sure I blew it tonight though. It was my brother's birthday yesterday and as he and everyone else had to work today he was meeting people for dinner and a couple of drinks and invited my husband and I along. Knowing the restaurant that they were going to and the fact that there isn't a single menu item on there under 20 points, my husband and I decided that we would have dinner at home,(roast chicken, roasted carrots, potatoes and onions with steamed broccoli. YUMMMYYY!) and we would have a desert between us.

When we got there I ordered an unsweetened ice tea, since they serve Pepsi at the restaurant I knew it would be Lipton Iced tea, which isn't my favorite but I can't handle restaurant water. It's just blechy. Anyway long story short, one and a half glasses of iced tea and more than my fair share of Chocolate Explosion. Yep...I have weigh in tomorrow...did I mention that? I think I did all right points wise despite indulging in a bit too much of the desert(which honestly, wasn't all that great).

Ahh well. I did do a fair bit of activity this week, so here is Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's Activity Journals(Yes I do have three journals for Friday. While swtiching from cardio to weights I accidently turned off my heart rate monitor).

Wednesday
Date 20-Jan
Activity cardio
Duration 1hr 27min 45 sec
Time in Zone 1hr 23 min 05sec
Avg Heart Rate 134
Max Heart Rate 155
Calories 1184

Thursday
Date 21-Jan
Activity
Duration 47min 15sec
Time in Zone 43min 14 sec
Avg Heart Rate 129
Max Heart Rate 145
Calories 590

Friday

Date 22-Jan
Activity Dog walk 3km
Duration 28Min 26 sec
Time in Zone 23min 05sec
Avg Heart Rate 134
Max Heart Rate 159
Calories 378

Date 22-Jan
Activity Cardio
Duration 41min 37 sec
Time in Zone 41 min 25 sec
Avg Heart Rate 135
Max Heart Rate 143
Calories 558

Date 22-Jan
Activity weights
Duration 39min 03 sec
Time in Zone 34min 30 sec
Avg Heart Rate 129
Max Heart Rate 150
Calories 356


So you see, with all of this activity, I'm hoping for a decent loss tomorrow morning.

Super Saturday!

As it is Saturday today, it was weigh in day....however, I missed yesterday's blog entry so here's a brief recap.

I took the day off of work, I called it my own mental health break day. I have a lot of time accumulated and I just needed an extra day off to sort some things out for myself. I started my day off by going to the gym where I proceeded to do my last chance work out. I did 40 minutes on the Stair Climber Interval program level 7 & 9. I feel really good about that. Next came my weights. I did them and I did them, and I have to say....I ROCKED THEM!! I did my ball press ups, I did my step ups, I did my crunches and my pull downs, I did my ball chest presses, I did my hammer curls, I did my triceps pull down 21's. I did my bosu squats with 10 pound bicep curls, I did my plank. I did it all and I rocked it! You know you've worked hard when your shirt is sticking to your back because of all of the sweat. The back of my shirt was soaked! Absolutely soaked. It was actually pretty gross, but I'm proud of that. Later in the day, just for the heck of it I took the dog on a long walk, 3kms in under a half hour. I rocked that walk too!

My work outs this week did pay off. I went to weigh in this morning and I was down 2.4 pounds. I am only 1.5 pounds away from being into the 280's. I don't when I last weighed that little. It's working pretty good and I'm happy with it.

I had my mind set to go to the gym tonight and do a super cardio set. However I ended up passing. I had to go the lab for some blood work this morning and the lab technician, went through my vein. I actually have two puncture marks in my arm and it hurts like a son of a BBEEEEPPP!!! I have this wonderful nasty bruise that circles my elbow and is slowly creeping up my arm. To top it all of, I've had the killer headache from he!! all day and I just couldn't do it tonight. That does not mean that I didn't get any activity in though. I did our grocery shopping, which means I did 12 flights of stairs up and down to get all the groceries up, and then I took the dog for a 5km walk. We did really good on the walk, we did the full five km's in just under 45 minutes. I think that's the fastest we've done this particular route. So, although I didn't get to the gym today, I still do have activity to log in my activity accountability log here:

Friday
Date 15-Jan
Activity Cardio/weights
Duration 1hr 32min 04sec
Time in Zone 1hr:25min47sec
Avg Heart Rate 134
Max Heart Rate 160
Calories 1236

Saturday

Date Jan 16th
Activity 5km dog walk
Duration 44min 05sec
Time in Zone 35min 58sec
Avg Heart Rate 129
Max Heart Rate 152
Calories 554

On the Road again!

...on the road to health and happiness. For some reason as I finished up stretching at the gym, that song by Willie Nelson popped into my head. I didn't think anything of it as anyone who truly knows me, knows there is always a song or two rumbling around the old noggin. I just thought it was extremely funny when I got into the car to head home, and turned on the radio to hear the announcer say,"and now, here's Willie Nelson, On the road again." I laughed and laughed, how prosaic was that!

I thought it was too funny but maybe it's just my mood tonight. It was a long day at work, as so many of them are this day it seems. Stress and worries and so the game goes. I went and saw my doctor about this stupid head cold that just won't quite. He's not overly thrilled about it and I have to go get a whack of blood tests down tomorrow to please him, but he did give me my monthly B12 shot so hopefully that will help with the total lack of energy portion of the program. We'll just have to wait and see.

As previously stated, I did get to the gym tonight and I did work my little fanny off. I used the stair climber for my cardio, 30 minutes on it, I did the interval program, with the lower interval being level 7 and the higher interval being level 9. It did indeed get my heart pumping though, after my cardio I did a half hour of weights, as it's been a while I thought I would take it easy but I'm happy to report I didn't do that. I challenged myself by bumping all of my weights up a level. It was a hard on the first rep, and even harder on the second, the third reps I went to exhaustion as I wasn't getting the full 15 counts in. Pretty good I think. I took a full five minutes to stretch afterwards as it's been so long since I worked out and I do want to be able to move tomorrow. I still really did kick it out tonight though as my Activity chart will show, my heart rate stayed up and my calories burned was great!

All in all, the day turned out pretty all right. I'm not going to complain, I worked hard at the gym and hopefully that will pay off in my weigh in on Saturday. I will be going to the gym again tomorrow night to get in my version of a last chance work out. I have to work on Saturday morning at 8am so I'll be able to go for weigh in(that starts at 730am) but I won't be able to stay for the meeting. This will be the first meeting I've missed since rejoining weight watchers. I don't want to make a habit of that!

Today's Activity Accountability chart:

Date Jan 7th
Activity Cardio/Eights
Duration 1hr 5 min 34sec
Time in Zone 1 hour 1min 5 sec
Avg Heart Rate 142
Max Heart Rate 163
Calories 1022

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:-)

Weigh in day.

Good Saturday morning! It was weigh in morning this morning. There's something about weighing in on a Saturday morning at 8am that just starts your day off right. I think it's because I lost another 2.4 pounds for a total loss in five weeks of 15.4pounds!

~~~~~~~~Happy Dance, Happy Dance, Happy Dance~~~~~~~

It just totally made my morning, from weigh in I went and did my saturday errands which included Safeway, Mad Butcher, Costco and Petsmart. When I got home, instead of trying to haul all of the bags up the stairs at once as I usually do, I took one bag at a time. One bag and I ran up and down the stairs, easier than it sounds but when you have a cat and dog who want to get in on the action it makes it a little interesting. However, ten trips later dodging the cat and running around the dog, I had all the bags of groceries upstairs.

It's amazing how much easier things become. When we first moved into the house two years ago, I would never have considered running up and down the stairs once, let alone ten times! It makes you feel good when you start to do things you never could have done!

Setting Goals

Have you ever sat down with a notepad and pen and thought,'I need to set some goals.'? I am a goal setter. I readily admit it. I set a goal, I envision what I have to do to reach that goal, I work out my plan and start working towards it. This doesn't mean that I always reach my goals mind you. Sometimes I realize they aren't viable for me at that particular point in time, or they don't make sense or they are just all together are unrealistic.

However...when someone tries to tell me I can't do something, that I can't reach my goals, that it isn't attainable, well they don't know what they are talking about. Take for example the first year I did the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. It is a 60km walk through the streets of Vancouver. I signed up for the walk in January of 2008, shortly after learning that one of my best friends mom had been diagnosed with Cancer yet again and had only weeks to live. I decided then and there, at that moment that I had to do something about cancer, not just Breast Cancer, but all Cancers. In the middle of the night, too upset for my friend to sleep I saw the commercial for the Weekend to End Breast cancer, I came through to the computer and immediately signed up for it.

When my husband got up the next morning, I told him what I was doing and he gave me his total support, whatever I needed him to do to help me he would do. It was great, but there were others who told me I COULDN'T do it. I was too heavy, I was too out of shape, I would hurt my knee's, my ankles, on and on the list went. Every time one of those people told me I couldn't do it, I trained harder, walked further to build up my endurance and I DID IT!! I did it not just in 2008, but I did it this year as well, and I've already signed up for next year. I put my training plan in place, I trained for it and I succeeded.

I've come to realize that my weight loss is just like that. I want to lose weight. Great, but HOW am I going to do it? I didn't have a plan, I had a goal, Yes, I want to lose a hundred pounds. A huge amount when I think of it like that but that's what I HAVE to do. So how am I going to do it? Now that I've set my goal, I have to set out my plan, and I have to have mini goals along the way. I started out having a rough day today, I woke up hungry and craving chocolate, the craving bugged me all morning and into the afternoon. I finally satisfied the craving, not the way I once would have by going to the store and buying two or three chocolate bars and eating them. I went for coffee with my husband, we bought an oat fudge bar and split it between us. I knew going in what I was going to do, I had a plan, and that kept me on goal for today. Today's goal was to stay within my regular points allowance, I didn't want to go over and have to use some AP's or Flex points. I wanted to stay on plan, that was the goal for today.

The goal for tomorrow, is the same, stay on plan and go to the gym, spend an hour exercising.

The goal for next week, to lose two pounds at weigh in.

The goal for next month, to reach my 5% of me lost goal.

The goal for January, to start training for my walk, and my run. Yes my run, I've set a goal for myself. I'm going to actually RUN the CIBC Run for the cure next year. All 5km's of it. This year I walked it with some very special ladies. Next year, I want to run it.

For me, it's all about setting goals, and planning for achieving those goals. One day at a time will soon add up to a month at a time. It's not that hard when you break it down that way. At least I'm hoping it won't be as hard.