The weekend....

How have things been going since I last was here??

Friday was a busy day for me.  I had my workout out in my barns, where once a week I do a complete clean out and change over.  It's usually about 3 hours of shovelling out a combination of shavings and manure over about 3000 square feet, Shovel, Shovel, lift, carry, Shovel....it's all very physical work and I am usually sweating pretty good by the time it is finished and generally need a recovery day afterwards that I may plan a quiet computer day or something.  When I finished out there I had 8 little Dalmatian puppies to bath, dry, phtograph and video graph with the kids and of course supper to make.   Breakfast/lunch was a peanut butter bun with banana.  Supper was spaghetti Squash and brussel sprouts with salt and pepper. 

Saturday I decided I wanted a lazy day with a book that I needed to read for my book club meeting today.  I spent a relaxing morning, got up and did my biggest loser workout and then went back to reading my book.  We also managed a couple other projects that worked out quite well.  It was nice to be able to relax for a change.   Lunch was a pickle and a glass of milk.  Supper was a chicken stirfry that I ate over about 1/2 a cup of rice. 

Sunday was an okay day.  I won in some area and not in others.  I have read as part of most diets it's good to have one day a week where you have a free day and make sure you eat within reason but foods you wouln't nomally eat on your diet, so that your body doesn't feel it is starving, slow down your metabolism and store fat.   I had decided that I wanted to get some baking down as we were running low on buns and I bake the family supply myself.  While the buns were raising I figured I better make the kids some cookies for lunches as well.  I did excellent.  The kids were my official cookie tasters, although I admit over the course of the day I did eat 4 myself.  Lunch was a ham bun before we went off to get in a good swim before coming home and eating ham, lettuce, cheese and tomato buns.  I had three and then, sinc emy freezer was now filled with cookies and buns, I needed to help my husband eat the last two peices of icecream cake.  Yum.  So not a great day, but it was a nice and relaxed day.

Today is Monday and therefore official weigh in day.  I am down 5 pounds from last Monday!  This makes me happy and I am almost bouncing over to the TV in order to do the biggest loser workout again.

feeling better

There was a post on my facebook page this week from QuickChick.  She said something to the tune of many people thinking that weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% excercise.  She had made the comment that she believes it to be 100% mental and I would have to agree.

Now that I have actually made the choice that this is what I want to do, it's almost easy.  There is no decision...the exercise will happen today, the right food will be consumed in smaller quantities with very little guilt going on.  There is no temptation when you mentally put the block up and tell yourself that going back isn't an option.

I didn't even consider anything other than a salad when we ate out in the city today.  I didn't feel inclined to put a single processed item into our food cart.  Skipping out on a workout just wasn't an option, there will be a time and a place for it, I am sure if my knee acts up, but for now, all is going good.

It's amazing how much better I feel better about myself and I am already feeling a positive change from the workouts.  Squatting is easier and I have already been able to cinch the belt up one more hole.  I need to keep this up!

What did I eat yesterday?  I had some of the leftover meatloaf as a breakfast lunch.  It was so yummy...I love meatloaf.  I did have a couple bites of Kraft Dinner with it, which I almost hate to admit.  We buy almost nothing processed, pasta being pretty much the only thing and that's only because I am too lazy to make it most days, even though I bake our bread and other things we avoid processed.  Kraft Dinner is my weakness.  I don't usually eat it myself but even though I know how horrible it is, I will often make it for the kids as a fast lunch when I am too busy for anything else.  Yesterday was one of those days.  There was preschool in the morning, which I came home form, got in the 30 minute biggest loser workout, a shower and 30 minutes with ice on my knee before it was time to head back and pick her up.  Then it was a quick lunch and we loaded and off loaded three trailer fulls of garbage to the dump...about 120 bags of shaving and manure from mucking out my barn.  Supper last night was spaghetti and jambalaya...the sauce consisted of meat balls, sausage, shrimp, and red peppers.  I also steamed the last of the brocolli as a side and made a big salad.  After drinking three glasses of water, eating a bowl of salad and a cup of steamed broccoli, I was able to keep the portion size of the pasta down to a cup and the sauce down to about a half a cup. 

Today's diet consisted of an egg, scrambled with a bit of the leftover jambalaya sauce on top. We had a trip into the city today for more veggies and so lunch was a delicious Costco chicken apple pecan salad.  Supper when we got home was just a leftover night.  I had a cup of spaghetti with some jambalaya sauce on top.  Dessert I did allow myself a frozen yogurt bar.   Exercise today was pretty much nonexistent, but tomorrow is another biggest loser day.  I will probably go do a couple daily 100's just to make sure I get something in today.

2.5 Stars

Well if yesterday was a movie, I think I would have given my effort about 2.5 stars.  I can't say I am completely impressed with how I did.

I was feeling good and wanted to pop in the Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD again.  The workout was awesome and I look forward to really improving my form/effort/time/endurance on it.  I've always heard about needing a day of rest in between that kind of a work out though and since my muscles were still sore and repairing, I figured I would put in Your Shape and play some fitness games, do some cardio fitness training and take a fitness class.  It resulting in a couple hundred calories burned but after doing the biggest loser workout, it hardly seemed like a satisfying workout, but it was something, so I couldn't be too disappointed.

Breakfast was skipped.  Lunch was a piece of Squirrely bread, with a piece of lettuce and a slice of tomato and a teaspoon of mayo. I know I should try to cut that out, but I don't want to cut out all the flavor from my meals or I feel I will be left wanting and more likely to snack. 

I feel I let myself down a little at supper time though.  I had a about 2 cups of a nice garden salad with a bit of ranch dressing.  I had about 2 cups of steamed broccoli, and then because I just couldn't resist the yumminess of it....I had a slice of meatloaf about 1cmX 3 cm X 4 cm and 5 perogies.  Even knowing that 4 perogies was 220 calories....I still ate 5 of them. 

Then to make matters worse, a couple hours later after coming back from softball and cleaning up the kitchen, I have to have another slice of meatloaf and since it was my hubby's birthday there was also a yummy frozen icecream cake that I had a slice of.

I use a program sporatically called My net Diary.  I just typed all that in to get an idea of how many calories that all was, and it only spit out at me that is was 1200 Cal.  So I guess I don't have to beat myself up about it too badly!  Maybe I should change my rating from 2.5 stars to 3.5.....

Ow

So last week I think I really did a good job of getting the dieting part down.  This week I want to be better at the fitness part.  I really enjoyed the Your Shape game for the Kinect last night.  It was a great 30 minutes of working out and I left off feeling sweaty and rubbery and good.  Last night for supper I had a big bowl of salad with salsa and a cup of baked rotini with mozerella.  Probably not the healthiest choice, but, I kept the portion small.

I figured I would start today off with a bang and I dragged out the Biggest Loser Boot Camp work out video.  I popped it in and 30 minutes later I was sweating and hurting.  The whole work out seemed to be done in a squat or lunge.  I did it holding onto 8 pound arm weights and my upper body was as tired out as my lower body.  They said it was a calorie burning work out and I'm sure it was!

Ways I can see improoving that workout over the next two weeks...I want to get my lunges a lot lower, especially want to work on that on my bad knee.  I want to get some running shoes.  Working out in Crocs is not fun.  I want to work on the push ups and really make sure I am engaging my abs and core through some of the routine.

The rest of my day involved 7 dogs that needed to be groomed.  I can say that after that work out, my clipper felt a whole lot heavier than it is and I could only get 5 of the dogs groomed.  I just was not able to hold my arms up for any longer than that!

After the work out, for break fast I had a fried egg on squirrley bread with a teaspoon of salsa just for a touch of flavor.  Lunch was skipped since breakfast was a little late, but I ended up having two pieces of squirrely bread with a dash of mayo, a slice of tomato and a half slice of cheese for supper.  I find one of the hardest things to resist is what the rest of the family is eating...tonight I ended up having a bit of the whole wheat spagetti with some meat sauce.  It could have very easily fit inside a cup and there was only about 2 tablespoons of sauce and beef on top.

What's squirrely bread?  It's a sprouted whole grain bread made without flour with all organic ingredients.  It's a very yummy alternative to most yucky breads that are filled with glucose fructose.  It is about 100 calories per slice.

I am full and sore and hydrated.  I think I will take the night to lay in bed with a book.

The weekend and eating out....errrgggg.....

SO after doing so good all week, yesterday we headed into the city for a chocolate making session for the kids...great...I had my will power packed.  I ate a salad with guac and salsa and tuna before we left so that I would be well armoured against any desire to eat out.

We arrived at our friends place and I did excellent.  The kids went about eating their chocolates, melting them down and having fun.  I of course had to try one chocolate pretzel in order to appease my little ones.  Yummy.

Supper came and we decided on KFC.  I figured that shouldn't be too bad, they ought to have a garden salad there as well as the rest of their goodies.  Well they didn't.  So we order a 15 piece meal for the 9 of us.  I figured the temptation would be lower if there wasn't an abundance of food and I thought it needed to be rationed.

I did really well.  I avoided the fatty potato salad.  I avoided the cole slaw, the fries and the gravy.  I had one itty bitty piece of chicken and drank a bunch of water.  I was happy. 

That would have all been good until it started getting late and I was getting hungry.  There weren't the vegitables around to fill the void.  There wasn't the fruit around to grab a snack on...but there were scads of chocolate and I had brought my cinnamon buns.  Even still I managed to maintain some control and only had two more chocolates and a cinnamon buns.  My cinnamon buns are made with course whole wheat and not enriched white flour, so it wasn't a complete loss, I rationalized.  There was also a couple glasses of wine in there....

So it wasn't completely horrible.  We spent the night and headed out in the morning with hungry children.  A stop at walmart and lunch arriving with children who hadn't had brekfast yet, left us with a decision to feed the kids before the two hour drive home.  There stood the glowing M.

So into Mcd's we went with me looking forward to a delicious salad that I know they have...except this location didn't serve salads...or anything remotely healthy.  So A Big Xtra and a Junior chicken sandwich later I was left with a roiling stomach and a heap of regret.  I avoided the pop and the french fries but it was a very small consolation when I looked at the 1000 calories that the two sandwichs consisted off.

So off into Walmart I went again and picked up Zumba and Your Shape for Kinect.

Got home tonight and quickly got through all the chores so that I could head in and start my workout.  I put in Your Shape and spent the next hour going through fitness tests and some cardio workouts.  The sweat was dripping, the knee was aching, the hardly used quad and hamstring on the right leg were cramping up, but I burned off a third of what I consumed at Mcd's and appeased my conscince a little.

I'm Impressed

I'm impressed with myself.  Yesterday was a really good day.  I even stared temptation in the eye and won!

I started off the day with a homemade whole wheat bun with a scrambled egg and touch of salsa on it.  It was yummy and healthy.  Lunch was similar with a whole wheat bun with some tuna and guacamole. 

Unfortunately it was a busy day filled with computer work, and a committee meeting in the evening.  I decided for the meeting I would bake some fresh cinnamon buns out of the oven.  Usually I just make them plain or add in some raisins, but I did some pecan buns, pecan raisin, chocolate chip and chocolate chip raisin ones.  I didn't even have one!  Yes their are more in the freezer and some standing on the counter, but I am able to turn my back on them and not cave in.

I didn't get a work out in but I am planning a good one for later on today.  I think I will pop in and try the biggest loser DVD I have here and see if my knee will hold up to that work out.  I'm also going to scope out kijiji and ebay and see if I can find Zumba and Your shape for wii or kinect.  I think they may also have some good workouts worth doing.

Supper last night, I stayed on a fairly good roll.  I ate around 9:00pm because of the meeting and I was hungry but was able to still make a pretty good supper choice.  I had a bowl of salad with a slice of chedder cheese mixed in and a table spoon of ranch dressing.  I was still hungry so had a second bowl of salad with a table spoon of Guacamole and salsa.  It was bed time after that!

Spagetti?

Yesterday was a good day!  It was very busy with my going back and forth a lot.  I drove Brook to Playschool and then went to visit my mom, so breakfast was skipped as was lunch because by the time I settled in at home, I didn't want to eat before going out to get the chores done.

The chores involve shoveling out about 3000 sq ft of shavings and manure.  It's a job you can break up a sweat doing pretty easily.  Especially if you can combine some boogying to some good tunes while doing it.  It usually takes about 2 hours to complete and I figure it's a pretty good work out.

The kids went to their friends place so for supper we decided we would try the spagetti squash that we purchased this weekend.  We added to it some Newmans Own Maranara sauce with some fresh red peppers mixed in and some fried mushrooms.  It was delicious and very filling.  Total calorie count was under 500 calories.  I was happy with that!

I was pretty exhausted and feeling a little sore from the shovelling and the exercise from the last couple days, so I hit the bed around 9:30 last night and was out pretty quickly.  No late night snacks or ways to wreck the new healthy plan.

Sigh...

Okay, I have come to the conclusion that I have not made a commitment to this yet.  I haven't made a decision to really do this.  Instead I have been coasting...some days I will some days I won't.  Some days the cheeseburger is just to great a temptation.  Some days the bed looks better than the bike...

So yesterday I finally made the decision.  I've had it with dipping my toes in the water.  I'm going to dive in.  I didn't phase myself into being a vegitarian.  One day I ate meat, the next day I decided I wouldn't anymore. 

I'm diving.  I'm wet.  I have to keep strong while grocery shopping and keep the veggies in the house.  I have to resist temptation while making meals with the kids.  I have to ignore what the table is set with and eat my dinner in front of me. 

I have printed off a four weeks to a better body exercise and meal regime and started following it yesterday.  So far so good. 

Yesterday I woke up and had two fried eggs.  For lunch was a garden sald with a tablespoon of tuscan italian dressing with a touch of canned tuna added.  For supper I had the salad and a couple pieces of broiled pork tenderloin.  I've been drinking tons of water.  When my husband went through his late night snacking phase, I had a handful of almonds, a couple raisins and a bit of my daughters popsicle.  I excercised for 20 minutes on my stationary bike with arm weights and movements.  I did a daily 100.  I did a minute of sit ups.  It wasn't a perfect day, but it was better than nothing.

Today I skipped breakfast as we had a trip into the city to do some grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping went well.  Lots of veggies came  home to keep me focused for the week.   We already don't eat processed foods and white flour, so it wasn't difficult to stay away from that stuff.  Lunch brought forth the array of fast food emptations, but we ate at Costco and I was able to say no to the hot dogs, pizza and poutine, although it was all on the table in front of me.  Instead I had the Apple Pecan Chicken Salad.  I only used half the packet of the balsamic venegar dressing... Tonight I resisted all but a taste of the hamburger helper type meal we made for the kids and ate a garden salad with a few peices of cheese and the italian dressing on.  Lots of water...but it was delicios and I am full.  Now to resist the temptation of the late night snack.  I did purchase some frozen yogurt bars that are only about 120 calories, so hopefully they taste fairly yummy.  I haven't had a workout yet, but I'm sure I will get that in tonight once the kids have settled.

So I have made the commitment.  I have cut myself off.  I will do this. I will I will I will....