Tag Archives: hiking

My Apple Pear is MIA!

21 Mar

I like staying inside until the sun has set – sadly, monday through friday that is not possible, sigh, but on the weekends, well, that’s my time!

Yesterday (sunday) I went for a hike around 1pm or so and felt like I was being blinded the entire time…I forgot my sunglasses in my suv, oops! lol. So, until the sun went down I spent the rest of my day inside, protected from the elements. 😛 This means I went grocery shopping around 8:30pm-ish, which really, is an excellent time because not many people grocery shop that late on a sunday. 🙂

The point of all this! I decided to try a new fruit, not new to the world or anything, but new to me – I picked up an Apple Pear. It’s white like a, well, like a pear (go figure lol) but apple shaped. I have absolutely no idea what this thing is gonna taste like but hey, can’t kill me to try something new right? I put it in my cart, put it on the moving part of the till…and that was the last time I saw it! It just…disappeared!

I didn’t realize it was MIA until hours and hours later when I was chilling at home and all of a sudden I realized I hadn’t unpacked it; it’s weird what our brains remember and when. shrug. I went rooting through the fridge, dug out the reusable grocery bags I use – I looked everywhere I could think of in the hopes I accidentally put it somewhere weird. lol. Then I went out and checked the trunk, under the suv, on the grass and path from my suv to my door…I must of looked so weird. Ah well. So then I dug out the receipt and checked to see if I paid for the missing fruit.

I did not. Weird.

I am thinking the cashier thought the apple pear belonged to the guy behind me and that’s why it didn’t get put through with my stuff, sigh. Annoying! I was actually pretty pissed cause I was looking forward to having the apple pear as part of my breakfast today but sadly it was not to be. Ah well, I stopped at the grocery store after work today and bought the last two the store had so I will get one for brekkie tomorrow along with some grapes! 🙂

 My food choices today were (I think) fairly great. 🙂 I ate lots of fruit and vegg and even had some protein in there, woohoo. 🙂

Here is what I ate:

1 apple = 1 point

1 cup grapes = 1 point

1 banana = 1 point

1 can Fiesta Veg and Black Bean Soup = 4 points

1 piece toast = 1 point

1 orange = 1 point

1 Minute Rice Brown Rice Cup = 4 points

stir fried mixed veggies = 0 points

     – 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 1 mushroom, handful of water chestnuts, handful of bean sprouts, garlic

15 grams light shredded cheese = 1 point

1/2 serving chicken = 1 point

4 cashews (split) = 1 point

1 piece toast = 1 point

1/2 tbls Nutella = 1 point

1 pckg Quaker Granola Crunch’ers = 2 points

Total Points Eaten = 20 😀

Perfect! 😀

Let’s count shall we? That is 7-8 servings of fruit/veggie, 2 servings of protein (the beans in the soup and the chicken with dinner), 3 servings of grain (the toast and the rice) and 1-2 servings of dairy (the cheese and the nutella) wOOt! wOOt! 😀

The points for the chicken are a tad weird, lemme explain. 🙂 I used Maple Leaf already cooked and sliced chicken breast; half the package is 2 points and I used a tiny bit over a quarter of the package – I did measure how much I used but didn’t write it down and can’t remember the exact weight. Oops! But that’s why my chicken was only 1 point.

I made a stir fry for dinner, a first for me. I was worried I’d screw it up but it turned out suprisingly yummy. A bonus to the whole stir fry dinner thing is I got a whack load of veggies, a way filling meal and it was low in points. 🙂

So far this week is already going better then last week – work wise and food wise. 🙂 Let’s hope I can continue to eat properly for the rest of the week…oh, and I guess I am also hoping the weather clears up so I can go hiking after work (it rained all day today)…I can’t believe I am hoping for good hiking weather…*rolls eyes*…will wonders never cease? lol 😛

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Back To Basics

20 Mar

Alrighty, so if you read my more recent posts you know that last week sucked a big hairy toe and I am uber glad it is over and done with. Well, turns out last week wasn’t quite done with me and wanted one more chance to kick my ass. sigh.

My food week starts on Saturdays so I weigh myself on Saturdays so that I know how my weight changed during the previous week – make sense? Well, I weighed myself yesterday (saturday) and almost fell off the scale…I had gained 3 pounds! Gained??!?!!?! Fuck! After a moment of pure shock and sadness and freak out-ness I had the hope that maybe it showed a gain of 3 pounds cause I was freakishly bloated…maybe I really only gained like 1-2 pounds but blotation was making it worse…hey, hope springs eternal right?

So after a day of shopping with KL – where I refused to try clothes on cause I felt so bad about the weight gain, and eating not healthy food cause of being out all day I decided what I needed was a reboot.

I got up today and weighed myself again – sadly, the 3 pounds gained is real, double fuck! Then I went for a hike. *rolls eyes* Nothing like getting fatter to motivate you to get some exercise. lol.

I hiked 3.8 km on a strenuous level path around a golf course; this is the hiking path I was using last summer on a fairly regular basis. When winter finally showed up and I had to stop using the hiking path there was a part of me (a huuuuuge part!) that was happy I had a legit reason for no longer going out and exercising after work. I can’t afford a gym or anything and hey, if I can’t go out exercising cause of the weather…well, I can’t be blamed for the seasons changing. 😛

I guess since spring is practically here I don’t have a legit excuse – oops, I meant to say reason, a legit reason for not exercising. *big dramatic sigh* I’m not looking forward to the next chapter in my weight loss journey – I don’t want to start hiking again, I am lazy and I like being lazy! Also, when I got home I could still smell the out of doors, ugh, I don’t like the out of doors – I like being inside, away from nature. My clothes had picked up the smell of trees and leafs and grass an stuff – ick.

Maybe my punishment for getting fat is having to go out in nature to exercise…?

So today I started what is sure to be the painful path back to losing my weight instead of gaining it back – cause really, having to re-lose weight I had just lost, totally sucks! I thought about food groups, I planned ahead for what I was going to be eating, I refused to let myself snack when I wasn’t hungry, I was really careful about writing down what I ate, I didn’t fudge on my points and I exercised. Seems simple, and really – it is. I don’t know why I stopped being so diligent about all of this but I did, sigh. No wonder I gained 3 pounds, shrug.

This coming Friday I am going to a birthday dinner so my goal for this week is to not use any flex points until Friday and weather permitting I will hike twice this week. Those both seem reachable goals to me and I made sure to buy lots of healthy stuff when I went grocery shopping – I have even come up with some dinner ideas to try out this week that will include large veggie portions and lean meats – see? Planning ahead!

I wonder if I will be able to lose that 3 pounds as quickly as I gained it? Guess we’ll find out in a week! 🙂

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Conversations With…Myself?

21 Oct

Do you ever talk to yourself? I’m sure you do…I think we probably all do at some point. I have conversations with myself all the time – don’t worry, I am not that crazy person who talks out loud on the bus, lol, the convos are all in my head. Oh, and it’s not like I am running some commentary about everything I see and experience, the convos all have a point and are to help me decide on a course of action or figure out how to do something…you know, they have a purpose. lol. 😛

So, here is how my convo went today when I was on the way home from work:

Me: I can’t wait to get home and sit on the couch, I am so frickin tired.

Me: You have to exercise first, don’t forget!

Me: I don’t wanna! *stomps foot*pouts*

Me: Don’t you want to get skinny? You’re never going to get an agent if you don’t lose weight. *glares*

Me: Well…yeah, I wanna lose weight but…I am tired, and I think it’s raining, I can’t go hiking in the rain…

Me: Who cares if it rains, go out anyways!

Me: Hmmm, no, my hair will go frizzy and it’s cold and it’s already getting dark…and look at those clouds, it’s gonna pour.

Me: And who is going to see you and your frizzy hair? Nobody!

Me: Ok, listen, my hair isn’t the point. I have errands to do and I am hungry and I’ve been cold and tired all day and I have laundry and whenever I go hiking I don’t get to finish my laundry until way late and I want to go to bed early.

Me: Do your laundry another time, eesh.

Me: Dude, you’re in my head, you know I have specific laundry days and this is one of them!

Me:  If you don’t lose weight this week you know you’re gonna be pissed at yourself…so don’t blame me!

Me: Whatever. I am ignoring you now and going home to eat carbs. 😛

Aaaaahhh, a glimpse in to my head, enjoy yourself? lol. So, I continued to ignore that voice in my head and made myself a nice big plate of whole wheat pasta with some mixed vegg thrown in and topped with an alfredo sun dried tomato sauce, it was gooooood! Totally worth the points. 😀

Today was just a “day” ya know? I woke up hungry and stayed hungry all day, ugh, I hate that! On top of the hunger I was tired and cold and I kept walking in to walls, what’s with that?!?! So I decided that yes, exercise is good, but getting a proper nights sleep (something I haven’t managed to do all frickin week!) is better for me at this point, so no hike tonight. Instead it’s been an evening of pasta, laundry and phone calls…oh, and of course writing this blog. 😛

Today I ate:

29 grams Special K Vanilla Almond = 2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1 small banana = 1 point

1 Activia = 2 points

1 Amy’s Indian Mattar Paneer = 6 points

1 piece toast = 1 point

2 triangles light laughing cow = 1 point

mixed raw veggies = 0 points

85 grams whole wheat spaghetti = 5 points

1/4 cup Classico alfredo and sundried tomato sauce = 2 points

mixed cooked veggies = 0 points

1 shortbread cookie = 1 point

1 Thinsations Fudge Dipped Bar = 1 point

Total points eaten 23.

Now I know I usually try to not eat my flex points but considering how hungry I have felt all day I am impressed I didn’t go farther over my daily 22 points. Oy! All I wanted to do today was eat and/or sleep. lol. If I could have slept while eating I would have! I am feeling so hungry because I am so tired, I know this, when thinking rationally I am aware of this and that is how I managed to not over eat while at work  but still…once I got home all I could think was “carbs!” and “bed!” I gotta get more sleep cause I don’t wanna go through another “hungry day” just cause I am tired, that’s just not cool man, not cool.

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Some Confusion Happenin Over Here

14 Oct

It is thursday which means I exercised…yes, somehow I am still managing to do that! lol. The weather was crap most of the day, raining and blah, I am on the 24th floor at work and our view was of the cloud we were in…which to tell the truth I enjoyed, made me feel like I was in the Jetsons. lol. Remember that show? Man, I want to be in the far far far future so bad! Someone needs to invent time travel and I need to be important enough to get to use it…ok, I’ll stop now…lol

who wouldn't want to be in a building that high? or in a flying car? awesome!

While at work I kept looking out at the clouds and the rain hitting the windows and cursing the weather cause yeah, I sooooo don’t hike in the rain. *shakes head* it’s just not gonna happen. I didn’t want to not get my thursday exercise time in and sure, I can use the stationary exercise bike I have but (1) I was hoping to hike as much as possible before the weather makes it impossible and (2) thursdays my roomie watches a bunch of tv shows so she’d be stuck listening and seeing me on the bike while trying to enjoy tv and that’s just not cool. Well, by the time I was on my way home the rain had stopped, it still looked like it was threatening and it was way cloudy and overcast but shrug, whatcha gonna do? I almost didn’t go out, I was uber close to hopping on the bike but I decided I’d just dress warm and suck it up. And it worked. I had to wear two shirts and a hoodie and my legs kinda froze cause my pants are summer weight, oh, and my hands stayed cold the entire time and I got to “enjoy” seeing my breath puff out in front of me – but put all that aside and it was fine. lol.

Here is where my confusion comes in, sigh, you calculate your exercise points using intensity level, the levels are graded as (1) Low, no sweating, (2) Moderate, sweating after 10 minutes and (3) High, sweating 3.5 minutes. Easy-peasy right? Well, normally right, but today? Not so. Normally on this hike I consider myself at the High Intensity level, I use the five minutes it takes to get to the trail as warm up and once on the trail really push myself so I am sweating pretty quickly…er, scratch that, I am glowing pretty quickly cause I am a lady and ladies don’t sweat we glow… 😛 So, normally I am glowing by the 5 minute mark thereby putting me in the High level, following so far? Well today was cold, not freezing I am in the dead of winter cold but it was around 8C which for all you Americans is…wait, I can do this…ok, who am I kidding, I googled it, it’s 46.4F which sounds a lot warmer to me then 8C lol. So definitely a nip to the air. This nip meant I didn’t start sweating, er, glowing, until much farther in to my hike. I was working as hard as I normally do but my body just wasn’t getting that warm that quick – I can not control the weather people! Trust me, if I did it’d be a hell of a lot warmer all the time!

Sooooo, how do I calculate the exercise points? Does my exercise become a moderate intensity level cause I couldn’t get my glow on within the first 5 minutes of my hike cause of weather conditions? Or do I still count it as High cause I know that in non-cool weather it is a high? A dilemna that’s for sure!

Oh, fyi, it is a dilemna I have yet to solve so don’t be looking to this post to answer the question for you. lol. I will do some digging, see what I can learn and if I come up with something I will post it another day but for now? I am in the dark.

Let’s see what I ate today:

29 grams honey nut cheerios = 2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1 small banana = 1 point

1/2 cup cottage cheese = 2 points

1 Lean Cuisine Chicken a l’orange = 4 points

1 peach = 1 point

2 triangles light laughing cow cheese = 1 point

1 Activia yogurt = 2 points

baby carrots = 0 points

29 grams beefless tips = 1 point

95 grams Green Giant Simply Steamed broccoli and carrots with garlic and herbs = 1 point

1 cup tomato soup = 4 points

1 toasted sandwich

    – 2 pieces bread = 2 points

    – 2 turkey bacon strips = 2 points

    – 2 cheese slices = 2 points

    – 1 tbls light miracle whip = 0 points

Exercise Points Earned = 4

Total points eaten is 26 which is my 22 daily points and my 4 exercise points. 😀

Case you are wondering, I guessed on my exercise points. lol. Since I hadn’t answered my exercise point calculation question I guesstimated. shrug. It’s all good. 🙂 I actually felt a little weird cause I always have something sweet at the end of the day and I didn’t have the points for it so no little piece of chocolate or cookie for me, sadness. I didn’t miss it though, I was nice and full from dinner and felt fine without it – which is a relief cause I didn’t want to go over my points tonight, not when I have gone over in record numbers so far this week and I am going out after work tomorrow and eating who knows what!

Oh! Happy news! Tonight, on the flat area of the trail at the end, I did three jogging/running spurts! wOOt! Last tuesday I managed two jogging/running spurts so today I thought I’d see if I could do better…oh, and they lasted longer too, oh yea babeeee! teehee.

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Did I Really Do That?

7 Oct

I did something I totally never thought I would do – I had the idea on my way home from work and before the idea was even fully formed a different part of my brain (normally the louder part) was yelling at least 10 different reasons to not go through with the idea. What was the crazed idea? It was simply this – go for a hike after work so I get some exercise.

Crazy, right? lol. Even though I spent the whole rest of the way home justifying not going out for a quick hike I still somehow went…it’s like I don’t even know myself!

Here were my reasons to not go: (1) I am lazy (2) it looks like it is gonna rain (3) sunset comes way early now and there is a lot of overgrowth along the path so it gets dark on the path soon as the sun starts to dip down (4) I am lazy – that one deserves to be repeated (5) I didn’t have an afternoon snack so I won’t have enough energy to finish the path…there were more but you get the idea.

Here is what convinced me to go: (1) I wanted to earn exercise points to make up for the higher point lunch I had (2) the weather will be nasty soon and I won’t actually be able to use the path cause it’ll be all mud and for real too dark by the time I get home so I should use it while I can (3) for some weird reason I wanted to, I think cause I got in to a habit of exercising on tuesdays and thursdays, my body now seems to expect it…that’s it, only three pathetic reasons to go versus a whole slew of reasons to not go and what did I do? I went! *rolls eyes* logic just thrown out the window. *shakes head*

I didn’t do too badly though, better then the last time I went – course the last time I took that path I was 11.6 pounds heavier, I may not be in a shape even remotely close to being called “good” or “decent” but I can tell the difference between hiking 3.8 km at my starting weight and hiking it now. wowza.

When I was on the path, I was about mmmm, 15 minutes in maybe and I was thinking how I was doing pretty well, good form, decent speed stuff like that and then this guy comes up from behind, now instead of hollering out “left!” so I move over to the side of the path he goes off the path, leaps like a frickin gazelle over a log and some bushes then pops up on the path in front of me – all without breaking his stride or seeming at all bothered by the extra exertion. uh, hello? You just leaped in the air, like…well, what the hell leaps? um, leaping antelope? Yeah, let’s go with that! Who does that?!?! Freaky way in shape people, that’s who! I suppose if I had almost no body fat I could leap all over the place too, harumph. 😛

Today I ate:

29 grams honey nut cheerios = 2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1/2 cup diced peaches = 1 point

1 nectarine = 1 point

1 Lean Cuisine Sweet n Sour chicken = 5 points

1 Activia yogurt = 2 points

2 triangles light laughing cow cheese = 1 point

1 english muffin = 3 points

1 burger patty = 4 points

1 cheese slice = 1 point

1 corn on the cob = 1 point

1 tsp margarine = 1 point

1/2 cup mashed yam = 1.5 points

1 Quakers Crunch’ers = 2 points

Exercise Points Earned = 5 points

Total points eaten is 26.5 which sounds horrible but! that is my 22 daily points and 4.5 of my exercise points. 😀 So take a deep breath, it’s all good. lol.

I had to guesstimate on how many exercise points I earned today, I would call the path a moderate activity level and it took me an hour to complete but that would only give me 3 exercise points and I worked out way harder tonight then I did in the swordfighting classes and those classes got me 3 points. So I thought ok, calculate it as a strenuous activity level but that would be 9 points – no way it was worth 9 points! I decided to compromise and picked a number in between the 3 and the 9. shrug. My own kind of math. lol.

It’s weird how people say exercise gives you energy, it never does that for me. It’s like my endorphines didn’t get the memo or something. shrug. Once I got home I showered, put laundry in, ate dinner and during all that all I wanted to do was go to bed. It’s still all I want to do but I have to wait for the dryer to finish, sigh. But hey, it’s all good, the long weekend is almost here and then I can sleep all I want! 😀

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