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Weight Watchers Wednesdays

6 Jul

wOOt! wOOt! It was a gooooood day at Weight Watchers todaaaay. 😀

I wasn’t really looking forward to stepping on the scale, not for any specific reason, I just don’t like scales…but then again, who does?

What is weird though is by about Sunday I was actively looking forward to weigh-in day because I was feeling good about my choices and I wanted to see if the scale showed a positive change due to those choices. So when I woke up this morning not wanting to go to the meeting I was kinda confused about this swap in attitude.

But no matter how I was feeling I was still going to go and I’m so glad I did!

I lost 2 pounds this week which puts me at a total 5 pound loss! Yay!

I know in the grand scheme of how much weight I need to lose that is a drop in the bucket but hey, I’ve gotta start somewhere and at least I am moving in the right direction. 🙂

I got given two things at Weight Watchers this evening, a sticker in the shape of a star that says 5lbs to commemorate my five pound loss and a key ring with a little WW charm on it.

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From what I can tell as I progress through the program I’ll earn other little charms to add to the key ring which I kinda think is brilliant. Visual representations of what you have achieved can only be a good thing and maybe if you’re being tempted by something super yummy looking but you really shouldn’t be eating the key ring showing you what you’ve managed to accomplish so far will help you make a healthier choice. shrug. I dunno, I could be way off base here but that is how I am looking at it.

This weeks theme is about Going Beyond The Scale.

What does that mean? It means that you are more than a number on a scale and you should try your best to remember that. So many people get caught up in what the scale says, they define themselves by that number. But why? What does that number mean? Does that number explain how you are good at playing an instrument? Does that number reflect how well you do in school? Does that number decide if people will love you or not? Of course not! That number is one thing that can be used to describe you and you know what? It is probably the least important descriptor that can be referenced when explaining who you are.

What answers do you give when asked to describe yourself? I know when I am asked the absolute last thing I would think to say is my weight. I talk about my career, about my dragon boat team, about my hobbies, about my friends, about my day job, about my family, about my cat, about how much I read…you get the idea. So how come, when describing myself to others I am a whole list of things but when I am thinking about myself, and lets be honest, judging myself, one of the first things I focus on is my weight.

I am not that number on the scale! And neither are you! Nobody is!

Is that number important? Sure. It helps us to know if we are living healthy lives, if we are taking care of ourselves, if what we are doing is creating change. But that shouldn’t be the only thing we use to gauge if we are living healthy lives and taking care of ourselves and creating change.

Which is why this week we are focusing on going beyond the scale, beyond that number, and learning to see our success in different ways.

So what is one way you can look beyond the scale?

For me I have come up with a little list:

  • hiking a longer / tougher trail than before
  • hiking a current trail faster than before
  • feeling more comfortable in my clothes
  • noticing when I make the healthier food choice
  • I can take my measurements and track how those change as well
  • taking note on how I feel after a meal, or a workout, enjoying how I feel better than I used to

By having more than one way to judge my success I put less pressure on that weigh-in number. There are so many reasons the number on the scale might not reflect the work you put in during the past week. The humidity could be crazy high and you could be retaining more water because of it, maybe you ate something salty the night before, maybe it is a different time of day than you normally weigh-in, maybe hormones are kicking your butt that day, who knows!

The point is that if I know I am getting faster on the trails, or my clothes are fitting looser, or my food choices are healthier, than that knowledge will help me to see my actions as successful even if the number on the scale doesn’t move as much as I would like, or even in the direction I would like. If I can shift my thinking I can avoid disappointment when my weigh-in result isn’t what I wish it to be.

Success can be tracked in all sorts of ways, and they are all valid. 🙂

Something else we talked about is forgiveness. Forgive yourself if you have a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad month. This journey isn’t a straight line from Point A to Point B and when you falter you have to be able to forgive yourself so you can move on. Weight loss doesn’t happen just on weigh-in day, it is constantly fluctuating – anybody that weighs themselves every day can tell you that! So when the number on the scale doesn’t go down, take a deep breath, forgive yourself, and remember all the things that will help you to move on.

journey

Some of the suggestions from my meeting for what to keep in mind are:

  • I can do better next time
  • It is just one day
  • Don’t put yourself down, positive self-talk!

Some of the suggested things we can do if we have a bad weigh-in are:

  • Look back at your food tracker and search for triggers
  • Keep track of your moods to see how that affects your journey
  • If you’ve fallen off the tracking wagon get back on

So yeah, if you take anything away from this week it is to forgive yourself and find ways to measure success that don’t rely on the number on the scale. 🙂

 

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Weight Watchers Wednesday

29 Jun

Last week we talked about decluttering, we were all given the challenge of decluttering something in our world.

I started with the bathroom but found I wasn’t really getting rid of anything, just cleaning, so I moved to the kitchen and decluttered the drawers, the recycling and the fridge. It is amazing how many things I could permanently remove from the kitchen drawers, they are sooooo tidy now! No more rummaging around through all sorts of things looking for a sharp knife or a clip to hold a bag closed, its a bit amazing how much my annoyance levels while in the kitchen have dipped from that alone.

My masterpiece was the fridge, I don’t know why, and it is really weird, but I love cleaning the inside of fridges. Freezers too, but mostly fridges. I took everything out, sorted through each item, actually read the expiration dates on my condiments (I was horrified at how many were waaaay past their dates!) and put things back in an organized fashion. Proteins all in one spot, fruit and veg in another, dairy products in a third spot, you get the idea.

I’d say I did well with last weeks challenge. 🙂

However, food wise I obviously dropped the ball, sigh. I only lost 0.2 pounds this week, putting me at a total weight loss of 3 pounds in two weeks. Pathetic. 😦 The lady at the weigh-in was trying to be nice and telling me that was good an stuff but let’s be real here, 0.2 pounds down is not good, it is, well, to re-use a word, pathetic. I know what I did wrong, super early in the week I ate pie, lots of pie, I wrote about that pie and it was freakin delicious, but also super high in points (something I didn’t check on until I had eaten a lot of the pie, *rolls eyes*) and I spent the rest of the week trying to make up for that pie but obviously failing.

I’ve already promised myself that this week I will do better.

ill do better

So now for this weeks meeting, we talked about two things, being encouraging and planning.

Create a support system for yourself, make sure you have people that are encouraging and also, be encouraging to yourself. I don’t know about you but I tend to be super mean to myself, waaaay meaner than I would ever be to somebody else, and that is something I guess I should work on. So, next time you are engaging in mean self-talk or putting yourself down in some way, stop it! Find a positive thing about yourself to say to yourself. Which yeah, ok, I know sounds way easier to do than it actually is. And sure, it will probably take a while because if you are like me I bet you think negative thoughts about yourself without even being consciously aware of it. But try, make a little goal for yourself this week, when you catch yourself being mean to yourself take a moment, breathe deeply, maybe close your eyes so you can focus, and flip that thought around.

 

Something that got brought up was one lady said how she had a bunch of clothes in her closet from when she was skinnier and while she was decluttering she decided to get rid of them. She found it hard because she was emotionally attached to some of the pieces but she was quite a bit larger than any of those articles of clothing and if she was being realistic, there was no point in keeping them. Then a second lady chimed in, said she had gone through something similar but while she was getting rid of her smaller sized clothes months ago she realized that when she loses the weight and gets down to the size of those clothes she will have earned new clothes.

I never really thought of that before, earning clothes. I, like most people who struggle with weight, have clothes from when I was thinner that I’d like to get back in to. I always saw keeping them as a way to motivate myself, or at least track my progress. But what this lady said resonated with me. Sure, maybe keep a couple items but not all of them. When you’ve put in all the work needed to get down one, two, ten sizes you have damn well earned the right to buy new clothes and not settle for all the old ones that you stuffed in the back of your closet!

The second topic was about planning. Specifically planning for parties, get togethers, trips, things like that. The upcoming long weekend, yay Canada Day!, is what seems to be prompting this weeks topic, apparently a lot of people party in the summer, shocking! 😉

Sooooooo there are a couple of ways to plan for upcoming social events. One lady said she saves up all her weekly points so she can use them at the party. That is definitely one way to go about it.

Other suggestions for how to plan were more focused on using your planning to prevent you from going crazy with the food and drinks at the parties.

Suggestions were:

  • bring your own food (if appropriate) so you know the exact points of what you are eating. This is easy if it is a potluck type thing but can also be done with pretty much any gathering being held at a person’s home, maybe check with the host in advance though just to make sure they are ok with this.
  • if it is a potluck or buffet type of deal walk the entire length of the table first, see all the offerings, and decide what items you are willing to eat that are high in points and find ways to minimize their effect on you. So say you really want that slice of cake, then maybe take a larger portion of salad and a smaller portion of foods with points for your entree.
  • once you have seen the foods being offered pull out your Pocket Guide or your WW app and look up the points of the foods that you are thinking about. If you are leaning towards eating the potato salad checking the app and seeing that one serving is 9 points might deter you from that choice, or at least help you to take a smaller portion.
  • focus on the fun, not the food. Instead of going to parties and focusing on what foods you are going to eat or how good things taste or how much wine you might indulge in focus on the friends you get to hang out with, the games you get to play, the time you are giving yourself to enjoy life. Don’t just sit at a table and chat with whomever is willing to sit near you, get up, walk around, the simple act of walking around and chatting with people will burn more calories than sitting in one spot chatting and it will help you feel more engaged in the party, more a part of the fun.

Our final thought of the day was Don’t Give Up! Maybe this week wasn’t a great weigh-in but forget about it. Last week is done, it is over, there is nothing you can do about it. Don’t wallow in the number on the scale, don’t keep thinking how you wanted to do better, don’t think there is no point to continuing with the program.

Don’t. Give. Up.

The act of trying counts. The act of working towards a goal counts. Sure maybe not every week will be easy, not every week will give you the results you want but remember the non scale victories. Remember that you feel better about yourself when you are trying. Remember that this whole being healthier thing is a journey and its up to you to make that journey positive. Remember that one week doesn’t represent the entire process, you started for a reason, probably for a lot of reasons, when you find yourself faltering remember those reasons and why they are important to you. And whatever you do, don’t give up! 🙂

dont give up

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Weight Watcher’s Wednesday – On Thursday

23 Jun

Sooooo I had planned to turn Wednesdays in to “Weight Watcher’s Wednesdays” and update once a week on how things are going which means I should have written this post yesterday but, well…I have a life, and it got in the way lol Which means I am writing it now, on Thursday…you’re just gonna have to be ok with this. 😉

Funny thing though, I kinda failed to do any of my Weight Watcher type stuff on Wednesday, cause again, I have a life…oh what’s a girl to do? lol

I had planned to attend Wednesday evening meetings but I knew I was going to be busy so I figured meh, I’ll go to the morning meeting at the same location. Sadly I am in a bit of a dead zone for meetings, the closest one to me is a thirty minute drive in decent traffic so I have to plan ahead for which meeting I am going to. However, the morning meeting that I was going to attend no longer happens, like, wtf Weight Watchers, way to make this more difficult. Eesh! 😛 So yeah, no Wednesday meeting.

I did manage to attend a meeting today (it’s Thursday, fyi) and I guess trying a different meeting is a good thing cause I get a feel for how other leaders do this whole leading thing.

The place was set up the same, the leaders were a bit more…umm…brusque I guess would be the word. Not mean, just not as nice. I didn’t feel comfortable going up to ask them a question I had but I figure I have the 24/7 help via the website or the app so I guess that is ok. There seemed to be more stuff for sale at this meeting, more food items mostly. I took a gander but they are all $10 a box and that seems a little steep to me…what do you bet I’ll be buying them no problem in another month our of sheer desperation for a low point treat? lol

I stepped on the dreaded scale and woohoo I lost weight! 😀 I went down 2.8 pounds which is a decent first step in this whole weight loss journey. I mean sure I wish I magically lost all my weight in one week but realistically this is a perfectly decent amount to lose in one week.

Sadly, I don’t really believe the scale. I tend to over think things and since weigh-in I realized that last week I was bloated, hey, I’m a girl, for about three days every month that happens, it sucks but there ya have it so I think some of the weight loss wasn’t real weight loss, it was just lack of bloating…which is making me paranoid I will show a gain next weigh-in. sigh. It is a week away and I am already worried about the next time I step on the scale…that is messed up! *rolls eyes*

This weeks theme is decluttering, which may seem odd for a weight loss plan but hear me out. Having clutter around can cause stress, anxiety, annoyance, basically a bunch of negative feelings. Also, say your kitchen counters are cluttered, are you going to want to cook or prep food? Probably not cause before you can do any of that you have to clean off the counter surfaces and that is one extra step that you may not feel like doing. So what do you do? Do you make a healthy, tasty, Weight Watcher friendly meal or do you grab something that is quick and easy and not as healthy? I know which I would do and it is not the make a healthy meal option…

So we were all given the goal of decluttering one thing this week. Whether it is one drawer or one room or one closet, just declutter something and see how you feel afterwards.

Funnily enough, before I knew this weeks theme, I had already told myself I was going to spend my day cleaning the apartment and I tend to naturally declutter while I clean so ha! I was ahead of the game this week. 🙂

A lot of the ladies talked about going through all their cookbooks and clearing out the ones they never use which got me thinking about my cookbooks. I seem to have a freakish amount of them, considering I don’t cook, but I think that is the point. I am not a natural cook and if I want to cook something I don’t just “wing it” I need a recipe. But do I ever reference those books? No, not really. I go online, or call my mom lol I didn’t actually go through the cookbooks this go around but its something to think about for my next decluttering session…I think I’ll tackle my clothes closet first though…that seems more fun!

Some tips the leader gave were: don’t compare yourself to others, no two people are alike so don’t compare your weight loss journey to another persons, or your perceived faults against someone else’s so-called desirable traits. Also, treat yourself, in a non food way of course. Go get a manicure if that is your thing, or a massage, or buy that new book you’ve been wanting. Whatever it is that would be a happy treat for you that would make you smile, go do that, you’re worth it! 🙂

dont compare

I got given a cute sticker today, it is a glittery butterfly, which is meant to go in my little tracking book where my weekly weigh-ins are put. I’m not exactly sure why I got it, not everybody did, shrug. I put it on this page called “Yes! My Bravo Scrapbook” which is exactly what it sounds like. Pages you are meant to put stickers on to and then write what you did to earn them. There is also a separate page for putting stickers that mark every 5 pounds lost.  I know it seems childish, I remember getting stickers in elementary school from teachers for little accomplishments but it is a cute sticker so I’m ok with it. 😛

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A lady achieved Lifetime Status at this meeting. She now gets free membership for ever, as long as she stays within 2 pounds of her goal weight – seems a small amount of wiggle room to me but I don’t make the rules lol. She also gets free access for life to the online tools which seems like a pretty good deal. She was asked to share what helped her get to her goal the most and she said the meetings, that coming every week kept her on track and without the meetings it is easy to slip up here and there and before you know it you’ve gained ten pounds or more and you feel like you have to start all over. Something to think about…

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The Weight Watchers Plunge

15 Jun

Last Sunday on my lunch break I said “screw it” and I signed up for Weight Watchers. And not in the I’m-doing-it-on-my-own kind of way but in the for real, paid money, am officially a member of Weight Watchers kind of way. It kinda feels like I’ve joined a cult…but full of nice people and so far none of them have asked me to drink anything suspicious or pledge allegiance to anything weird…or anything at all lol 😛

I chose to attend meetings as well as use the online resources, might as well utilize everything they have to offer, right? Right! Since I signed up online on Sunday that is my official start date even though I wasn’t able to attend a meeting until today, Wednesday. At first I was going to wait to start tracking my food and figuring out the system until my first meeting but changed my mind and started using the app and the website on the Sunday when I clued in to the fact that I was already paying for the services so I shouldn’t waste four days of access to the WW  info. This stuff ain’t cheap!

When you first sign in to the website you get asked a bunch of questions, the answers are apparently used to personalize not only the program to me but also the information that will be sent to me. So like, recipes, exercise ideas, food tips, and other such things. I’m thinking the more personalized the program is the better it will work for people…I hope!

I’ve gotta say, so far I have been kind of sucking at the whole Weight Watchers lifestyle, sigh. Which was not what I was expecting! Although, I did cook a healthy dinner yesterday instead of just eating some toast and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter after I looked at my points tally for the day and realized I couldn’t just eat willy-nilly and not go over my daily points. So I guess that is something…a teeny tiny baby step towards progress perhaps? 😉

Today at my meeting I got given 4 different booklets:

  • a mini journal, I take it each week to meetings and use it to track my official weigh ins. It also has a section for you to write your reasons why you are starting this journey, what your final weight goal is and even a section to write down ideas on how I can be good to myself.
  • the next booklet is the Pocket Guide, this booklet has a food list with corresponding points, a portion estimate guide and FitPoints charts. Oh, there is also a note section at the back.
  • the third, and I think most important booklet is the “Your Plan Guide” which has everything in it. It is basically the how-to book for the entire program, it explains how the program works, how the points work, suggestions for how to distribute your points throughout the day, goal setting, fitness, and being kind to yourself. There are also recipes, meal plans, no-count option list, different fitness / exercise ideas meant to fit in to different increments of time (1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 15 minutes) and a bunch of other stuff – I’ll go in to more detail another day, after I’ve had a chance to read the whole thing.
  • the fourth and final booklet is a weekly booklet, I guess I get a new one each week. From what I can tell each week covers a new topic and the leader has a more in-depth version that she uses to direct the meeting. This weeks topic was about self-talk, how we think of ourselves and others and how it can affect your weight loss. A stat shared this evening said that a study showed that people experience 75% more weight loss when they have improved self-image, partly because they tend to treat themselves better and make better choices.

So I wanted to show you what the books look like but as soon as I put them down the cat decided he haaaaad to check them out lol I eventually managed to convince him to move – by plucking him up and holding him in a death grip while rearranging the books and taking the picture lol

The overall theme to this weeks meeting was: Be Positive!

Some ways to do that are to remember to give myself credit for putting effort in to changing. Be positive about how I think about myself. Remember that no matter how slow the progress or how many times I stumble I am ahead of those who are not trying.

Some ways to work on being more successful are to really question myself when I feel hungry. I might actually be bored, or thirsty, or emotional, or who knows what. By questioning myself before heading in to the kitchen I should be able to decrease my mindless eating which can only lead to good things. 🙂

Even though I am keeping track of everything using the app I bought the tracking journal when at the meeting this evening. I really like writing things down, something about being able to flip through the pages of the book to see what I did a week ago vs hitting the previous page button on my phone, I dunno, it is a tactile thing, shrug, just go with it, ok? The book cost me $12 and is good for three months. It is an unfortunate brown colour, ugh, but otherwise I like it.

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The actual tracking page (on the left) is pretty simplistic, you put the date at the top, write down your foods and their corresponding point values, then tally everything at the bottom. There is a line for putting how many of your weekly points you used, in case you went over your daily points. There is also a section for writing down your exercise and corresponding FitPoints earned. At the end of each week there is a 20:20 Hindsight page (on the right), where you can write down all kinds of things. Then there are a couple of pages for notes. Each week is the same, the only thing that changes is the weekly quote, this weeks is:

Some days you just have to create your own sunshine.

At the end of the book are a bunch of pages for notes. I am using one page to remember how many daily and weekly points I get as well as my weight. I know I have the little booklet to keep track of my weight loss but I figure I’ll write it in this book also since this book is only for three months and the little one I take to meetings goes for 16 weeks and well, I dunno, I figure one day the two books will get separated but I’ll probably keep the journal so if I check it out one day a long time from now it might be nice to see the progress I made…or depressing, depending on how this goes… 😉

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Chia Seeds

3 Jun

I’ve been wanting to make those overnight oatmeal recipes in a jar for ages now but all the recipes for them seem to contain Chia Seeds and I (1) had no idea what that was, (2) figured they were ridiculously priced as all weird fad foods seem to be and (3) wasn’t willing to shell out a lot of money for something that I might hate…I learned that lesson the hard way with Flax Seed, ugh.

But then I came across this…

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Yoghurt mixed with oats and chia seeds, oh and raspberry, can’t go wrong with raspberry! 🙂 It is over priced considering the size, almost $4 for that little thing, but I thought it was a safer way to try chia seeds than buying an entire bag and being stuck with them if I hated them. Turns out this little yoghurt thing is freakin delicious! It has yoghurt but isn’t the texture of yoghurt due to the chia seeds and oats, it is thicker, and while you don’t need to chew the oats or chia seeds you still feel like you actually ate something substantial vs slurped down some simple yoghurt. But still, too much money for me to want to buy them all the time, shrug.

Which of course means I am trying to make my own…and so far have failed miserably lol I can’t get quite the same consistency in mine but that isn’t to say my concoction is bad.

In the evening I combine:

  • 1/3 Cup almond milk
  • 1/4 Cup Greek Yoghurt
  • 1/4 Cup oats
  • 2 tsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp honey
  • dash of cinnamon
  • fresh or frozen fruit

All but the fruit gets put in to a jam jar or tupperware or whatever you have, mix it all up, then throw the fruit in. I toss in some frozen fruit because well, that is what I buy, lol, but you can use fresh also. Put the lid on and toss it in the fridge. By morning the chia seeds and oats are soft, it has thickened up a bit and magically turned in to something tasty that looks like this…

Granted, not the prettiest colour but whatever, get over it, it tastes good and is decently healthy lol 😛

When I started researching chia seeds the very first article I clicked on started out with blasting in large font about how chia seeds are a super food whiiiich instantly turned me off. Any food that gets paraded out as a “super food” and the next “it” thing to be eaten I automatically want nothing to do with. What can I say, I am a bit odd like that, but despite that annoying article I persevered and found some good reasons to try the little guys out.

(1)  A 1 ounce (28 grams or 2 tablespoons) serving of chia seeds contains

  • 11 grams of Fiber
  • 4 grams of Protein
  • 9 grams of Fat (5 of which are Omega 3’s)
  • 137 calories
  • there is also a decent percentage of your daily Calcium, Manganese, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Vitamin B3, Potassium, Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B2

(2) Chia seeds are high in antioxidants

(3) Almost all the carbs in Chia seeds are from fibre making Chia seeds a low carb friend

(4) Chia seeds are high in quality protein

(5) Chia seeds are high in many nutrients that are important for bone health

(6) This is something I can’t find scientific research for but many sites claim Chia seeds will aid in weight loss because they expand when exposed to liquid so they help keep you fuller longer thereby decreasing your desire to snack or have your next meal early. I have noticed when I have my little concoction for brekkie at work I’m usually good until lunch time and skipping that mid morning snack comes in handy during a busy day at work. Weight loss though, I can’t say that has happened since I added them to my meal plan, shrug.

Because I liked the little yoghurt cup thing I bought a bag of Chia Seeds from Superstore, all the options they had are organic, which is annoying as I try to avoid foods labelled organic but oh well. One bag cost me $7 which was less than what I was expecting and I am eating them often enough I don’t feel the bag was a wasted food investment. I am considering upping the amount of chia seeds in my yoghurt concoction to get more of the health benefits since I currently only put in 2 teaspoons and 2 tablespoons seems to be the standard daily portion. I think that will mean upping the other ingredients so as to not have it be too thick, not sure though, so I’ll do some experimenting with that and see what happens.

If you are thinking of trying chia seeds, well, ultimately the decision is up to you but I’d say go for it, it can’t do any harm and just might do you some good. Just don’t be like the idiot who swallowed a spoonful of them then drank some water and ended up choking because the seeds expanded so quickly they blocked his esophagus. Seriously, what is with some people? *rolls eyes* And before you freak out about me being soooo callous, the guy is fine, docs saved him.

 

 

One of the sites I got my nutritional information about the Chia Seeds from:

https://authoritynutrition.com/11-proven-health-benefits-of-chia-seeds/

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A Hike and A Workout

12 May

Wednesday was Day 3 of this new workout plan I am trying (you can read the deets on the plan by going back a post or two). Even though Day 3 is a body circuit day I figured that didn’t mean I couldn’t do other stuff as well, so I went for a hike. 🙂

I worked Wednesday, my normal day off, 10a-4:30p and when I was done I was sooooo close to this hike called Quarry Rock I figured I shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to go. I used to climb this particular trail on an almost weekly basis two years ago, last year I didn’t climb it as much which is unfortunate. I didn’t do as many hikes in general last year, not really sure why.

So this was my first time on the trail in a while. It has changed a bit, not in a bad way or anything, just natural changes that you will find in a forest. It is definitely showing the signs of lack of rain though, which sucks. The trail is drier, there is less green, the bridges built to get over the water aren’t really needed since there is barely any water. It is kind of sad when you think about it.

But! On the plus side I took pictures, so lets focus on those! lol

New signs have been put up, I’m thinking because of the stupid people you see on the trail wearing flip flops (not even joking!). Or I suppose they could be because some people head in to the wilderness with no idea about what they might encounter, and might not be properly prepared for the possibilities. Meh, who knows!

The next pics are views from the top…

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Isn’t it so pretty? Makes the hike up completely worth it! 🙂

While I was sitting up there, even with my sunglasses on, it felt like the sun was searing a hole through my eyes straight to the back of my head. Poor eyeballs. 😦 So I didn’t stay up there as long as I wanted to, but I did stay up longer than I used to. When I hiked this trail on a regular basis I used to get to the top, take a quick glance, then go right back down because I was hiking the trail primarily for exercise, not to enjoy nature. This time, it was such a harder climb than it used to be for me that I decided to enjoy being at the summit.

That climb really made me realize how lazy I have been. I used to be able to hike Quarry Rock without even thinking about it, which is why it was a great hike to do at the end of a busy work day once a week. It was exercise without being extraordinarily demanding. Now? Ha! Now it is hard apparently. There were parts where the only positive thing I can say about myself is that I was still technically going forward, felt like I was moving in slow motion through molasses, but I was still moving, so that’s something…

I have decided that I will hike Quarry Rock once a week, weather permitting, for the next couple months, get back in the groove of dealing with inclines and rocky surfaces an all that.

Here are a couple pics I snapped on the way back down to show you the shape the forest is in, see what I mean about drier than normal and a little sad looking?

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When I got home from the hike I immediately started on the exercises for Day 3. Each set included:

30 seconds jumping rope

15 squat jumps

10 bench dips

15 standing calf raises

20 shoulder presses

10 side lunges (each leg)

25 crunches

I had to make some modifications due to a variety of factors but I did my best to keep to the spirit of the exercise I was modifying so I’d still get the same, or at least a similar, benefit.

The exercises I modified are the jumping rope, the squat jumps and the shoulder presses.

The jumping rope I can’t do because my apartment has an extremely low ceiling, there isn’t enough clearance for the rope. Also, there isn’t enough open space for the rope when it is going around my body. So yeah, not happening. Instead I ran in place for 30 seconds, I didn’t half ass it or anything, I basically sprinted in place for the same amount of time I was supposed to be jumping rope.

As I learned on the Monday, squat jumps and my knees are just not friends. Instead I did normal squats. I didn’t realize until just now when I was re-reading the exercise list that the alternate for the squat jumps was a 30 second wall sit, oops. I’ll do that next time. I don’t think it was soooo bad that I did normal squats though…

The shoulder presses, ok, so this is a weird one. I have free weights, they are only 5lbs and 8lbs but whatever, it is a start! So I have the weights and I know how to do a shoulder press, but I can’t do them in my apartment because the ceiling is too low. I can’t raise my arms above my head when standing and straighten the elbows because I am hitting the ceiling. Instead I did a forward lunge, maintained the lunge position, and did 10 shoulder presses. Then I stepped back, did a forward lunge with the other leg, maintained the position, and did the other 10 shoulder presses. I figure it might even be better than just doing shoulder presses because I am utilizing my core more to maintain balance and using my leg muscles to ya know, stay in the lunge position.

So yeah, that was how the workout went on Wednesday. Haven’t quit the new program yet! lol 😛

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Now Comes The Exercise

10 May

I warned you in the last post this one would be about the new exercise plan so don’t blame me if you’re all “omg all she is writing about is working out, ugh” 😉 lol

I found the work out plan I am going to follow by complete and total fluke, such a pleasant surprise!

I can’t lay claim to any part of this plan, I found it here…

http://www.popeyescanada.com/strongtothefinish-en.html

It is the Popeye’s Supplement company website. I was on it seeing if my protein powder was on sale (sadly, it isn’t) and noticed they are having a contest. I can’t enter because it is already started but that doesn’t mean I can’t read the information they have on the site and learn from it.

You select your gender and from there check out four different workouts. I have made copies of all of them with the theory that once I have gotten good at the beginner level I will be able to move up to the more advanced workouts and well, might as well be prepared for that, right?

Here is what the beginners workout plan looks like…

Capture

For some reason the part that most appealed to me was that all the workouts can be done at home. Normally I don’t like working out at home, I like being lazy at home. Buuuuuut there are advantages, like, I don’t have to worry about making myself presentable to the world, I don’t have people in the gym watching me, I can work out at anytime of day or night, my shower is less than ten steps away so when I’m done I can get cleaned up super fast.

Oh, and the biggest perk is that I have no excuse to not work out. My gym closes at 10pm Fridays and Saturdays which means I can’t get there after work and I don’t care for working out prior to going to work so I have used those two reasons for more often than not skipping my Friday and Saturday workouts. Well, no more!

Something else I like about this plan is the alternate exercises. It is smart to not keep doing the same exercises for weeks and weeks and weeks in a row so having things to swap out to keep the body guessing is good. Also, as I get stronger I can add weights to the moves, add more reps and sets, make it more of a challenge. 🙂 Plus it alternates cardio with the full body circuit and even throws in a rest day and a stretching day. It’s a good mix.

I wasn’t intending to have Day 1 be a Monday but I wanted to start the program right away and I found it last night so right away meant Monday. Whiiiich actually turns out to be a good thing because if you’ll notice on Day 2 and 4 I will be doing cardio and in the alternate exercises one of the options is “sport” and those are the days I have dragon boat practice which means my dragon boat practice can be substituted in to this work out plan and count. Yay! I figure I am probably still going to do a separate 30 minutes of cardio on those days, cause why not? But if life gets in the way and one day I can’t fit in time for a run or hike I won’t be missing out completely cause I’ll still be going to practice. Maybe my logic is flawed but it makes sense to me…

So today after work I went for a one hour hike with a friend then came home and immediately did Day 1’s workout. I had to make some minor changes, after the second set my knees were hurting quite badly so during the third set I did 20 squats instead of 15 squats and 5 squat jumps, the squat jumps were killing my knees. Also, in set 3 I did my push-ups on an angle because I felt it was better to do angled push-ups with proper form than pathetic push-ups on the floor that weren’t giving me as good of a workout as they could be. I’ll get stronger and be able to do all three sets of the push-ups soon but until then I’ll do one set angled, build those muscles!

There ya have it, my new work out plan. Easy in the sense I can follow it and have no excuses to not work out. Challenging enough that hopefully it will start me on a lovely path of getting more fit. 🙂

Care to join me?

 

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Another New Plan

9 May

I feel like I am always coming up with new plans that never work out. New plans to eat healthier, work out more, lose weight, get stronger, blah blah blah.

I know I am not alone with this, this random stage where ideas are hatched, plans are formed and possibly even followed through for a while but then discarded for all sorts of “reasons” only to leave room for regret because follow through was once again not your thing. I read other peoples’ blogs, I’ve read this story many times over. And each time I feel for that person, because it is a sucky stage. Every time I start the cycle over again, and then fail, I get more demoralized and convinced I will never lose this weight…I’m pretty sure others feel the same.

Plus, it must be super boring to come here to see what I wrote about only to read about yet another Great Plan but a couple weeks later realize I haven’t commented on my new Great Plan in a while.

I firmly believe to be successful at any weight loss plan you have to hit your breaking point, or as a friend calls it, have your “a-ha!” moment. I had that back when I initially lost all my weight but this time around, with all these different plans, and ideas, and attempts I hadn’t had it. I don’t know why I hadn’t had it, it’s not like I didn’t want to succeed, shrug, but for whatever reason it just hadn’t happened.

Yesterday though, it happened.

Gotta say, it was pretty awesome. 🙂

I’d been toying with actually signing up for Weight Watchers, starting next month, cause I can’t afford it this month, if only to get me started. But for some reason that idea wasn’t inspiring me.

I toyed with trying to find the money to get a personal trainer for however many sessions to get me in to a routine and force me to be less lazy. But the cost of a trainer didn’t appeal to me and again, something about it didn’t feel right.

Then out of nowhere I thought about the old meal plan I used to follow, the high protein, high healthy fat, low carb meal plan combined with daily exercise. It was hard core, hard to maintain even when I was super dedicated, and kind of miserable at times because I was eating almost the exact same thing every day. Plus, the plan has you tracking your micro-nutrients and the amount of carbs I was allowed was soooooo low and I love carbs soooooo much, it was kinda sucky at times lol.

But…it worked!

When I started that plan I had already lost over 30 pounds, I was trying to get that last 5-10 pounds and tighten up. This means I was already in the mind set of watching what I ate, and working out often, and was used to following a healthy life routine. Plus, I was starting all that exercise when I was in better shape than I am now so while it was a challenge it was do-able.

This time I am starting farther away from my goal and I am trying to be realistic about what I can handle so I don’t end up quitting.

I don’t want to eat the exact same foods, in the same order, 7 days a week. I don’t want to never splurge. I don’t want to order salad with no dressing topped with a grilled chicken breast every single time I eat out because that is the only “safe” meal I can find on a menu.

I know to hit my goal I will need to make sacrifices and I am ok with that. I won’t get where I want to be without stopping habits I have formed and routinely doing things I haven’t been doing.

But I can’t just half-ass this. I need a plan, a detailed, written out plan that I can refer back to when my brain blanks on day 2 and I can’t remember what the hell I am supposed to be doing for breakfast lol

So I wrote down all the foods I ate on that plan, then I tweaked a bit. Instead of only eating chicken and tuna for my protein I added lean beef burger patties, fish steaks, hard boiled eggs, maybe quinoa (I’m currently researching to decide if the protein I’ll get from quinoa is worth the carbs).

I decided that I’d be allowed 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of dressing on my salads. I might even let myself have cheese every now and then…crazy huh? 😉

Then, after thinking of little tweaks I wrote down what I will eat and where (at work or at home) on the different days of the week. This might seem strange but I did it because three days of the week I have no structure decided by work. Two days of the week I work 3p-9p and 2 days of the week I work 7a-3p. When I started this job the transition to my odd work schedule threw me off, because this meal plan was not only food specific but very structured for how far apart the different meals were eaten and where in the day you exercised in relation to your meals. I couldn’t make every day the same anymore and I quickly spiraled in to not following a plan because I couldn’t follow my plan perfectly.

I’m hoping by being a bit more relaxed with the timing, and being willing to switch things up a bit, I can make it work.

For instance, I am supposed to start my day with 1/2 an apple and a simple protein shake. Then a half hour to 45 minutes later have one egg, 2 slices of turkey bacon and the other half of the apple. Well sure, that is fine on my days off and my days where I start work at 3pm but the days I work at 7am? Uh yeah, not gonna happen. So, the days I start at 7am I will have 1/2 cup of oatmeal for breakfast when I am at work.

Does it follow the rules of the plan exactly? No. Is it something I can actually do, that is relatively healthy, and maintainable? Yup.

I have to be ok with these little changes. And sure, maybe I’ll get more hard core as I really get in to things and revert back to how it was last time I followed this plan but I have to ease in to that level of dedication, re-drink the kool-aid so to speak lol

keep-calm-and-drink-the-kool-aid-8

I am so psyched to start this new plan but I won’t be following it properly until Saturday because I have to wait for Friday to be able to buy groceries so until then I will make do with what foods I already have. I can increase my protein since I already have protein rich foods. I can work on the timing of my meals, so I get used to that structure again. I can start to cut out unnecessary carbs (sadness 😦 ) and I’ve already got my grocery list written and ready to be filled.

Maybe this lull before I can start this plan full time is a good thing, it will allow me to prep and plan and psych myself up even more. 🙂

meal plan

This is an example of my meal plans for the different types of days I have. It isn’t exact or set in stone. The proteins can be swapped out and moved from one day to the next. For ease of making the document I put in mostly chicken but I have another page written up with other meal ideas that are high protein, low carb, high healthy fat. Plus, I’ll have to work on the timing, figure out where my exercise fits in to each day and maneuver some meals around that – my large protein shake for instance will best benefit me if I have it after I exercise. So I will probably end up moving that to when I am home after my 3p-9p shift because I tend to work out after that shift rather than prior. But it is a framework for me to move within, which is what I know I need to succeed.

So ok, sorry to bore you with the food portion of my “Great Plan”. But writing this and putting it out in to the world helps me, it helps me stay committed to the plan (theoretically) and helps me believe I can make it work.

I feel I should warn you my next post will probably be about the exercising portion of my new plan, especially since I’ve already started the workouts lol

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Snack ‘n Go

30 Jan

I discovered in Safeway the other week these great little hummus snacks. Well, they are great if you like hummus…and crackers…and snacks…

Who doesn’t like snacks?!

There are two flavours, original and roasted garlic. I bought both and love both equally. I enjoy hummus, not as much as some people, but it is a yummy food choice that I have pretty much no guilt about so yay for that! Normally I buy a larger container of hummus and some carrots and go that boring old route but I seem to never finish the hummus, or the carrots, and it is such a waste. But these! These are perfect for me! I love things that are portioned out already, they make it so much easier for lazy people like me to pick the healthy option vs grabbing some cookies or just not eating lol

The crackers are crazy delish. To the point I purposefully finish the hummus quickly so I can eat one or two of the crackers by themselves. Yeah…I’m that person *rolls eyes* What can I say, carbs make life worth living. 😉

Sadly, as with any small convenient food option, they aren’t cheap. I only bought them because they were on sale for um, two for $4 or $5 I think it was…which doesn’t sound like a lot initially but when you realize they are only small snack items and regularly they are three something each well, is it really worth it? I dunno…You’d get more snack time out of the bag of carrots and larger container of hummus but these I did not waste, ate every bite of the 6 I ended up buying before the sale was over. So maybe, when you look at it like that, they are worth the money? I’ll leave that decision up to you and your wallet, but if your taste buds get to weigh in on the decision to buy them be prepared for the taste buds to say “yes! buy! buy! buy!” cause seriously, so tasty! 🙂

 

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December Fitness Challenge

1 Dec

I came up with a challenge for myself to try to encourage more physical activity in the month of December. See, I am going back home for Christmas and don’t want to be the same lazy blob then that I am now. Yes, I know that in 20 days I won’t be magically transformed, but hopefully I will feel better about myself when I am there and even if I don’t manage to get smaller hopefully I will at least not get any bigger before I go! Hey, it’s the Christmas season which means more food and drinks and parties and all that stuff which means waaaaay more things to tempt you off your healthy eating plan…assuming you are on one lol 😉

christmas challenge

Originally the challenge was just going to be for me but I decided to rope my co-workers in to it and turned it in to a work fitness challenge. I also strong armed a friend in to it but she likes being active so it won’t be that much of a challenge for her I don’t think.

The challenge itself is super simple, please feel free to join! Basically it is:

20 Workouts In 20 Days!

Boom! Mind blown with the simpleness of this challenge am I right? lol

I fly out on Dec 21st so I had 20 days to work with. I decided to challenge myself to be physically active every one of those 20 days. The activities don’t have to be just traditional fitness activities they can be anything that keeps you physically active for 30 minutes or longer. Some suggestions I gave to my co-workers were:

  • go for a walk
  • go up and down the stairs at work
  • clean your house for 30 minutes
  • decorate your house for the holidays
  • drop in on a fitness class
  • do body weight exercises while watching tv
  • exercise dvd
  • swimming

My list of suggestions is not exhaustive but I wanted to make it clear to do this challenge you don’t have to be hitting up the gym every day for 20 days to succeed. You just have to be consciously engaging in some form of physical activity for 30 minutes every day for 20 days and reeeeally, shouldn’t we be doing that anyways?

Oh, and if you are thinking that life sometimes gets in the way and you legit won’t always be able to work out for 30 minutes some days that is ok because you can make up the missed session. This isn’t an all or nothing type of challenge. It is flexible, like how we have to be in order to navigate life lol So say today I just didn’t have the time or energy or drive or whatever to work out in some manner, ok, that’s cool, I’ll make it up tomorrow and do 60 minutes. Before you freak out! that 60 minutes doesn’t have to be all at once. I could go for a 30 minute run in the morning and then clean the apartment when I am home in the evening, or run the stairs at work at the beginning and end of my shift and on my way home hit up the gym, or do weight work while watching tv in the evening, you get the idea I’m sure. 🙂

I made up, and distributed at work, a cute Activity Tracking sheet. It is a picture of a Christmas Tree with the numbers 1 through 20 on it, randomly placed, like an Advent Calendar, so you can cross off numbers as you go. Visual reminders of the work done help encourage you to keep going when you hit a day you just don’t feel like working out. Or at least they do for me, shrug.

So there ya have it, my December Fitness Challenge! I would put a picture of the Christmas Tree Activity Tracking Picture on here but it is saved on my work computer sooooooo it will have to wait. 🙂

 

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