Tag Archives: water

Aquafit Tuesdays

7 Oct

Normally Tuesday and Thursday evenings I am in a dragon boat, training. I’m so used to that schedule that when training season ends and I have those evenings free I feel a little lost…what am I supposed to do now? Usually, for a month or so I just have fun doing whatever, either staying in or going out, doesn’t matter what I do I feel like I am in the wrong spot, like I’m cheating on the team lol

Training has been done for quite a while now and I’m trying to find something to replace it, I’m much more likely to not skip a workout if it is planned and I’m expected to be there. Gotta love accountability! 😛

A teammate suggested I join her at aquafit class on Tuesday evenings. Normally I would have begged off, uh, bathing suit? No thank you! But ever since my cliff jumping and subsequent swimming in the ocean I have been wanting to get back in the water. I had so much fun swimming in the ocean that I spent the rest of the summer wanting to repeat the experience. Every body of water I saw while on the rest of my vacation elicited the question “can we swim in that?” and the answer was always “no!”…makes you think about just how horrible humans are to the planet that there are so many different water sources and none of them are safe to swim in, what’s with that?

When I got back from vacation I thought I’d hit up the pool near me but it was under construction and wouldn’t be usable for a couple months, sucky timing that. I have been waiting for the pool to re-open when KR texted me about going to aquafit with her at a different community centre and I figured, yes, go for it! Forget about the whole people-seeing-me-in-a-swimsuit-thing and go, swim, enjoy!

This has been my third Tuesday in a row going to aquafit and I’m really liking it. I always thought of aquafit as something old ladies did lol but this class is an intermediate to advance and has a wide variety of ages, oh, and there are guys there also, not cute guys, old guys, but whatev.

The class is an hour long with 40-45 minutes of cardio, the rest uses these dumbbell foam things to do resistance work in the water. It works the muscles surprisingly well! 🙂

the foam dumbbells

the foam dumbbells

This evening I messed up on the time and was an hour early, oops! Last week I purposefully went early to use the fitness room in the community centre, I hopped on a treadmill and went for a run before meeting my friend for the aquafit class. Apparently my brain is easily confused because when I was getting ready this evening I was remembering being there for 7pm but thought that was for the class, not for the run then the class *rolls eyes* I didn’t take my running clothes because I wasn’t planning on running before the class, and I didn’t realize my error until I was in the hot tub waiting for what I thought were the last ten minutes before class started. I wasn’t about to go get dried off and try to find something to occupy myself for a little under an hour just so I could come back and get dressed in a wet swimsuit lol So I sat in the hot tub for an hour, oh the hardships! lol I actually spent most of that time sitting with my legs dangling in the hot tub, but close enough lol 😛

I know some people scoff at working out in the water, everyone knows it is easier on the joints but somehow working out in the water, in a lot of people’s minds, equates to a less effective workout. Perhaps because you can’t see the sweat? Here are some facts about water workouts that may surprise you…

– Working out in water means your muscles are forced to work harder, burning more fat and toning them up faster than land-based exercises. This is because they are fighting the water every time they move.

– Jogging on dry land will only burn up approximately six calories per minute. But aqua jogging can burn over 11 calories a minute, giving you a better workout.

– The extra pressure of the water on your legs also pushes more blood back up into the top half of your body. This makes your heart work harder, raising your heartbeat and burning even more calories during your water workout.

– Aqua-exercises also have a cooling effect on the body. Because you are working out in the water, your body is not sweating as much to cool the muscles down. This means there is less chance of you becoming dehydrated during your workout.

– People with lower back problems can benefit from aqua-exercises as the water supports them, taking pressure off the spine.

So there ya have it! Don’t mock those of use that work out in the water, we’re getting in shape faster than you are! 😉 lol

I bought a ten visit pass and plan to go to aquafit every Tuesday, most Tuesdays I will go for a run first, might as well utilize as many of the community centre’s resources as I can. 😉

Now to find something to do the rest of my evenings…

Advertisement

Tags: , , , , , , ,

More Fruit and Water!

9 Mar

Lately I have not been drinking as much water (or any fluids really) as I should be and I also cut down on my fruit intake. There are many reasons for both of these situations, none of the reasons are really good ones but, shrug, they are what I have. lol.

Winter hit which means fresh fruit prices shot up and my weight went down which means so did my daily allotment of points so I stopped eating fruit snacks at work cause I wanted to make sure I had enough points left at the end of the day for a good dinner. So, money and less points are what got me in to this predicament…well, for the fruit anyways. lol.

The water? Yeah, I don’t know what happened there…actually, maybe I do. It’s been cold, I don’t want to drink water when it is cold. And yes, I know that it’s not just 8 glasses of water we are supposed to drink a day but 8 glasses of fluid but even with my increased tea drinking that didn’t make up for the water I had stopped drinking. sigh. When the weather was nice and it was still daylight when I got home after work I would go hiking on a trail near my place, I was averaging that hike 3 times a week before winter hit so that’s not bad. On those days I sooooo got all my fluids for the day cause when I got home from the hike I’d drink a huge bottle of water and then shower and then drink another huge bottle of water throughout the evening. Combine that with all the water I was drinking at work during the day and, shrug, I was good to go. 🙂 

But yeah, winter, no exercise, expensive fruit, fewer points – all of this combined to where all of a sudden I realized I had drastically decreased my fluid intake and fruit intake – Not good! In fact…BAD!

Yesterday I started pushing the fluid intake and today I started increasing my fruit…so far, I like it. 🙂

I used to eat a piece of fruit mid morning and mid afternoon at work but I stopped cause I didn’t want to use the points up during the day – I became worried I’d not have enough points for dinner so I cut the fruit. Well, I generally have enough points for dinner plus a good chunk left over for a snack so I figure, cut down on the evening snack and replace it with a mid afternoon snack. I still don’t eat fruit mid morning but that’s cause I am not hungry for it so I have started eating that piece of fruit with my lunch. shrug. It worked today so hopefully it’ll keep working…

Today I ate:

1 package instant Quaker oatmeal = 3 points

1 cup carrot soup = 2 points

1 piece toast = 1 point

1 orange = 1 point

1 pear = 1 point

1 bagel = 3 points

2 pieces deli turkey = 0 points

15 grams shredded cheese = 1 point

baby spinach, mustard = 0 points

1 mini red velvet cupcake = 2 points

57 grams Just Bunches cereal = 4 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

2 digestive cookies = 2 points

Total Points Eaten = 20 😀

I feel like this is the first day in ages where I have eaten all my points and there wasn’t any guessing involved – everything I ate today is countable and I got 2 servings of fruit and 1 serving of veggies, not perfect but better then yesterday! lol

Tags: , , , , , ,

Spots?!?!

7 Jul

Alright, I will be the first to admit my skin wasn’t great looking when I was growing up. It was fine till stupid puberty and then it went, well, not-so-fine. lol. I would have never been picked for a noxema commercial or any other clear/pretty skin ad but that’s alright cause even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time I think having to contend with spotty skin helped me learn some valuable lessons about people and how they treat you based on what you look like at the time.  So see? Something good came from it. 🙂

So here I am, at the ripe old age of…well, older and way past puberty age and what is happening? I have stupid spots again! Spots, zits, acne…whatever you want to call them…I have them!!! W.T.F.! I am not impressed. Grr!

Just last week I was thinking how my skin is looking nice and fresh and wondering if it was all the water I am drinking (and healthier food I am eating) that was the reason why. Maybe it was but it seems to have its highs and lows. I am most definitly in a low…

From what I learned today from two reliable sources; when you start drinking a lot more water and eating healthier your body starts to do it’s own flush. See? You don’t have to go buy one of those Cleansing Kits – just drink lots of water! lol. So, as you drink all this water your body starts to kick out of it’s system all the impurities and crap that have been building up inside you. Yummy huh? Why you can’t just pee it all out I don’t know but one of the ways it starts to come out of you is through your pores and apparently as it sneaks outta your pores it clogs them up and wham! Spots! It seems like some kind of cruel joke that in the act of getting healthier I am now getting uglier. sigh. I can only hope they clear up on their own and I don’t need to resort to more drastic measures! In case you’re wondering the drastic actions would be going back on Accutane, sigh, strong side effects but totally worth it, imo, I’d do it again in a blink if I needed to but I would not enjoy it. 😛

So, here is what my spotty face ate today:

3/4 cup Almost Special K = 2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1 banana = 2 points

1 cup Heinz Maple Baked Beans = 4 points

1 piece of toast = 1 point

2 triangles of Laughing Cow Cheese Light = 1 point

1 wafer Desiree = 1 point

1 cup blackberries = 1 point

Grilled cheese sandwich

– 2 pieces of bread = 2 points

– 1 tbsp light miracle whip = 1 point

– 2 Kraft cheese slices = 2 points

125 ml Campbell’s Tomato Soup = 2 points

1 package Jolly Time popcorn Butter Flavour = 1 point

This puts me at 21 points used. I will eat a little snack to use up my last two points, never fear! No point is left behind! lol

Oh, fyi, my 1 point weight watchers candy I had last night to use up my last point was a Pecan Crown, it is basically a Turtle. It was yum! A bit chewy for my taste but I am sure it will be well enjoyed by all…including me cause I still have a bunch. lol

Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to go drink another couple glasses of water to increase the speed in which my body kicks out all it’s ickiness and exfoliate…my poor skin. sigh. 😛

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Black Fingernails Against the Red of Cherries

6 Jul

I absolutely love black fingernails; on guys or girls. I don’t paint mine nearly often enough – mostly out of laziness lol. I decided to paint them last night and have enjoyed them all of today. The best thing I saw my nails do today was contrast with the red of the cherries I ate as my evening snack. No two colours go together as well as red and black and the entire time I was eating my cherries I enjoyed how my nails looked near the deep red of the fruit. 😀

I ate less fruit today then I normally do and I am feeling the lack; I have gotten so used to eating such high quantities of fruit I almost missed it. Weird considering I used to barely eat any fruit and if I did it almost always came out of a can. I kid you not! I don’t know if this was my body compensating or what but I drank a lot of water today, I felt dehydrated right from the beginning of the day and since I wasn’t getting as much fluid from fruit I was chugging back the glasses of aqua. Oh how quickly our bodies can change!

I got busy at work and didn’t eat my afternoon snack so I had a larger dinner then normal and I wonder if this might be a better way to go. I don’t mean purposefully making myself hungry – what I am talking about is that it is not even 8pm and I only have 1 point left – this means no having to force myself to eat a couple cookies and a glass of milk later this evening to use up my remaining points. Niiiiiice! I will have one of those 1 point Weight Watcher candies I have talked about before and end my food portion of the day on a small sweet note, yum!

Ok, let’s see what I ate today:

3/4 cup Almond Special K =2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1 banana = 2 points

1/2 cup Heinz Maple Flavoured Baked Beans = 2 points

1 piece of toast = 1 point

1 kiwi = 1 point

1 Activia Blueberry Yogurt Cup = 2 points

1 serving whole wheat pasta = 5 points

1/4 cup Knorr alfredo sauce = 2 points

mixed veggies = 0 points

2 cups Kettle Corn = 3 points

1 cup cherries = 1 point

That totals 22 for the day and in an hour or so I will have my little candy and yah! that’s all my points for the day. 🙂

A note about that Kettle Corn I ate; that is not the Jolly Time Kettle Corn from previous entries,  it is Kettle Corn I bought at the Night Market. Real kettle corn! You gotta love google, it helps me find a lot of nutritional information. You can eat 2 cups of kettle corn for only 3 points 😀 *happy dance* This doesn’t mean I am going to eat it all the time (altho it will be popping up a lot in my food journal for the next couple days until the bag I bought is gone lol) but it is something that I really love that I have found a way to incorporate in to my diet. Hooya! I will take what small victories I can get! lol

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Blackberries, Tattoos and Weight Loss

3 Jul

So it has been a busy couple days; yesterday I went shopping and came away with a Blackberry Bold and today after work I went shopping and came away with an inner wrist tattoo…ah the things we do to ourselves. When did we stop spending all our money on shoes? lol. The reason I am telling you this is because to look at my posts I am obsessed with Weight Watchers, you’d think my life revolved around it…sadly, it kinda does.

I was out tonight with a friend, KL, and we wanted to grab a bite to eat before going to a movie. KL wanted to hit up this nice looking sushi place and I had to go to Subway…that’s right, I said had. I pre-calculated my points so I knew what I would be tallying up if I ate the already chosen sub whereas if I went for sushi I’d be guessing and I know I would have eaten over my points. sigh. I sat with KL while she ate and it looked and smelled sooooo good but not one little bite went past my lips. While I am marginally happy about my apparently increasing willpower when it comes to food I am sad that I couldn’t partake in the sushi feast.

You are supposed to be able to eat anything you want on Weight Watchers but that’s a bit of  a lie, I couldn’t have eaten what I wanted at that sushi restaurant not without using a ridiculous amount of flex points. I  have gradually been cutting out of my life foods that don’t fall in to the points realm, Almond Roca (3 pieces = 6 points) – in my opinion not worth it so I have cut them out. I will miss them but I’d rather be skinny then eat Almond Roca. But sushi??? I have given up so many foods already and it looks like the list is just going to keep getting longer.

So now it is almost midnight, I am freakin tired and am I sleeping? Nope I am doing laundry and worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow is….dun dun dun…Weigh In Day *insert scary music here* Will I lose weight? Will I gain weight? Will I stay the same? Will the pants fit any differently, and if so a good or a bad different? I want to know but I am scared to find out; what if I have been doing all this work (and it is work!) and nothing has come of it? I know I have to be patient, I keep trying to remind myself of that, maybe this first week weigh in I won’t lose anything, maybe it will take longer to get results but I am a result oriented person and I need to see results to keep me motivated. Will I be able to keep going if the scale doesn’t show I have lost weight? I guess there is nothing to do about it until tomorrow when I weigh myself and see what my reaction is to whatever that damn digital screen tells me.

So here’s my food for the day:

1 bagel = 3 points

1 tbsp light cream cheese = 1 point

1 banana = 2 points

1 Shrimp and Scallop Pasta Bowl from M&M Meath Shops = 6 points

2 triangles of Laughing Cow Light Cheese = 1 point

1/2 small Blenz Fruitchillo with yogurt = 4 points

6″ Subway Turkey sub on 9 grain whole wheat = 6 points

extra stuff on sub (cheese, light may, mustard) = 4 points

1 package popcorn = 1 point

That puts me at a total of…28

Aw shit, how’d that happen? Admittedly some of the points are estimated so maybe I didn’t do as badly as I calculated but maybe I did worse? And the day before weigh in day! Argh! The sub is 6 points, that’s taking the nutritional info from the Subway site but their info doesn’t include the light mayo, mustard and cheese I got put on so I had to guestimate how many extra points that is. And the Blenz drink, well, the Blenz website is not as helpful as I would like for nutritional info, sigh. All their calculations are based on the medium sized drink…I had a small and only drank half of that! I have no idea how many points that is so I took the 9 points the medium drink is and pared it back a bit. shrug. It’s the best I can do.

I also broke a cardinal rule, oh dear, never ever eat anything salty the last couple days before weigh in day cause you’ll retain water…and what did I do? I ate popcorn while sitting here typing, dammit! I needed a snack though and it seemed perfect, wasn’t till I was eating it I realized the mistake I was making. *rolls eyes* Maybe today I was trying to sabotage myself so that if I fail tomorrow on the scale I have built in excuses (oh, I probably did lose weight but I am retaining water from the popcorn so the scale doesn’t reflect it) Someone needs to smack me tomorrow if I write something like that down…that sounds like a joke but I mean it! I have a horrible habit of self sabotaging myself and to that I say No More!!!

Now, I am off to tend to the tattoo, hopefully the next time I type I will be a couple pounds lighter! 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Danger Will Robinson Danger!!!!

29 Jun

OMG, I broke one of the biggest rules of all dieters, I went to the grocery store when I was…hungry!!! Ack! I know better then to do that but I had to go after work and I was sooooo hungry – that’s my fault, I didn’t eat enough during the day. *rolls eyes*

I went to a Save On Foods, they always have various things that are on sale out near the front of the store so you pass by these items on your way to carts (on the right) or baskets (on the left), well, I saw the tables with sale items and thought I’d take a look, as I walked towards one of the tables I realized what was on it, PIE!! Crap!! I must have amused anyone who was looking at me because as soon as I realized what I was seeing (the evil bad for me perfectly baked to a golden brown crust pies, sigh) I turned a sharp 90 degrees and aimed for the baskets instead…all the while muttering under my breath “pie, crap, don’t look at it!” Cause you know, if you don’t look at it it can’t suck you in…lol

Instead I went in to the produce section and bought fruit and salad, yah me! lol. I also got other stuff from the non-produce section, one of the best things I discovered today was a Weight Watchers approved popcorn – who knew?!

Only 1 Point!

The packaging is amusing, it warns you that the package will take less time in the microwave then traditional popcorn packages to pop…welll duh! The packages are less then half the size of a “normal” popcorn package, of course it will take less time! I got 2 flavours, traditional butter and Kettle Corn, I am a sucker for Kettle Corn, Mmmmmm. I ate a package of the Kettle Corn this evening, it’s good, not so much the regular Kettle Corn flavour but I think that’s a flaw of all microwave popcorns, I have yet to try one that claims to be Kettle Corn that actually tastes like Kettle Corn. For this one I say good effort and since you’re yummy and low in points I will forgive you for not tasting exactly like the flavour your supposed to. Yes, I talk to some of my food, it’s ok, I am still as sane as you thought I was at the beginning of this post. 😛

You can go to the company website at www.jollytime.com and get coupons – well, you might be able to get coupons, they wouldn’t print for me but oh well. They also have a thing on there that you can get a free reusable shopping bag or find boxes with free bowling coupons on it. shrug. Not my thing but it’s all good.

After that store I hit up a M&M Meat Shop, www.mmmeatshops.com, my mom suggested them. They have these fish steaks with sauce that are not overly expensive and you can buy single servings so you’re not stuck buying a huge box and eating fish steaks for two weeks straight. lol. I got the one with dill sauce but there was a whole list of sauces you could choose from. 🙂

I have gone down in points allowed per day; not promising for my hunger pangs! eesh. When I started this program I was scared to weigh myself so I guessed my weight based on what it was last time I weighed myself. lol. I know! Not the best way to go about things. 🙂 That put me in the 180s, well, I weighed myself this past saturday (I have chosen saturdays as my weigh in day) and I am in the 170s which means I go down a point, now I only get 23 a day…I am hoping that 1 point will (a) make a big difference in my weight loss per week and (b) not make such a huge impact in my daily life that I feel like I am starving. That seems like a fine line to balance but here’s hoping!

My food today:

1 bagel = 4 points

1 tbsp Philly Light CreamCheese = 1

tea = o points

1 banana = 2 points

1/2 cup Campbell’s butternut squash soup = 1 point

salad = 0 points

1 tbsp salad dressing = 1

2 triangles of Laughing Cow Light Cheese = 1 point

1 Activia yogurt cup = 2 points

1/2 cup Heinz Brown Sugar and Bacon Baked Beans = 3 points

1 piece Safeway bread toast = 2 points

1 pouch Jolly Time Kettle Corn = 1 point

This puts me at a daily total of 18.

I know I should use the rest of my points on something healthy like fruit but it will take a lot of fruit to use up 5 points and it’s too late in the evening for that so instead I will finish off my day with cookies and milk, yum! 🙂

The Brown Sugar and Bacon flavour Baked Beans are not as good as the Maple Flavoured Baked Beans (also Heinz) and this flavour is higher in points so I don’t think I will get them again. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned how low in points baked beans are; they are so filling and low in points they make the perfect dinner (putting them on top of a piece of toast of course, lol). Oh, and I forgot to list my water, I am drinking it, not as much today as I was managing by the end of last week, I think my lack of water drinking over the weekend impaired my ability to drink as much as I had been last week. I will spend this week working back up to my multiple glasses of water a day and try not to screw it up next weekend.

Hmm, increase water while losing a point per day of food…it’s gonna be an interesting week!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psychology say what???

28 Jun

So I am learning that there is a psychological component to this losing weight thing. Today has been really hard and not because I am hungry but because I want to eat; the eating wouldn’t be serving any purpose except to let me indulge in my food cravings so I am trying really hard to not cave but oh I want to!

I drove my roomie to the ferry, originally she was getting an early morning ferry so I immediately thought “sweet! after I drop her off I will pick up McDonald’s breakfast”. See, I love McD’s and almost never get the breakfast cause weekdays even though I am up early I am not going to detour to a McD’s on my way to work and on weekends I sleep in too late. shrug. Not a huge deal, it just makes it more of a treat when I get it. 🙂 So I have it set in my head that certain activities create the opportunity for McD’s breakfast and I jump at those chances; these opportunities are road trips, early morning errands – things like that. When I got home last night R informed me that she was going to take a slightly later ferry, no biggy, it was actually better for me cause it meant I would have more time to sleep but when I was driving I realized this meant I wouldn’t get my McD’s breakfast cause it would be over by the time I could get to a location. This should have been a relief cause it meant I wouldn’t have to fight my natural urge to turn in to the drive thru but I started thinking I’d trade in the Breakfast Bagel for a cheeseburger and fries, *rolls eyes*, that’s even worse! In the end I didn’t go, I drove home and thought that would be the end of it…it wasn’t. The weather today is rainy, kinda grey, the perfect weather to sit on the couch with a book, a cup of tea or even better hot chocolate and food to snack on. Since I knew the fast food was not gonna happen I started thinking of what I had at home that I could eat and what I instinctively wanted was a big bowl of pasta in a creamy thick sauce. Yum! I realized I was craving all kinds of things that I can’t have in portions that are horrible, what’s up with that?? I had been doing so well!

I think I figured it out though, watch my simple detective skills at work! lol. When the weather is rainy and grey I always sit curled up nice and cozy with a hot drink and a snack and dinner would be a nice big bowl of pasta – and not healthy pasta, pasta like those Lipton Sidekicks packages, they are so yummy but so bad for you! Oh, and fyi, not like I was eating a small portion of the package so not only was I eating something unhealthy I was eating it in a huge portion. I got so used to doing that I now associate rainy grey weather with pasta. lol. How dumb is that? Linking a weather pattern to a food, *rolls eyes*. It is looking like I associate a lot of things I do with certain foods and certain quantities of those foods. This is obviously something I am going to have to break. I already knew I loved the act of eating, I have never been able to stick with a program that has you downing shakes instead of meals, shrug, I just like to eat too much for that. I didn’t realize tho that my love of eating had transferred itself so strongly to different activities, that is just plain weird.

I am going to have to look out for these situations to make sure I don’t cheat because of an activity. I keep racking my brain for other things I do that have food linked to them, so far the only thing I have come up with is going to a movie, I love getting the popcorn, some maltesers and a pop…it’s the perfect combo in my opinion. I was going to go to a movie today just to prove I could go and not eat those things but I think that’d be pushing things too quickly, it’s hard enough sitting here and not eating the pasta I so badly want.

Something else I will have to work on is my eating during the weekends, I started off ok yesterday (that was saturday) – I had my cereal and fruit for breakfast and was content. Thing is, I didn’t eat that until around noon , I went to a friends house and while there got hungry so I had a bit of yogurt but I wasn’t snack hungry I was hungry hungry. We went for dinner to this great place called Brown’s Social House, the site address is www.brownssocialhouse.com and let me tell you, picking food from that menu was hard! They have a great selection of things, I could have had salad, sushi, a burger, fish (all Ocean Wise fish btw), pad thai…anything! I really really really wanted the Hickory Burger, it’s got bacon, beef patty, bbq sauce and all the rest of a normal burgers toppings. It sounded awesome. I settled instead for the Spa Veggie Burger, it is not a fake meat patty but a patty made from mushroom and grains (if I remember correctly what the waitress said), it wasn’t as good as a meat burger but it was darn good. Great flavours, good texture…almost all the things you want in a burger. lol. I got them to cut it in half in the kitchen and wrap half to go before bringing me my food so I couldn’t eat the whole thing in one sitting. Since my points for this meal are going to be estimates I figured it was best to try to cut them where I could. 🙂 With my burger I got yam fries, now an entire yam is only 3 points so you’d think something made from yam wouldn’t be so bad for you but when you think about the process the yam goes thru to become a fry, well, they probably aren’t very good for you. I am going to have to google nutrional info for them since yam fries are not listed in my weight watchers food book. Maybe they are so bad for you they don’t even put them in the book? Oh, thats a scary thought! Ack! To top it off K ordered the Wicked Mushroom appetizer and let me have some, I am fairly certain any health benefit you could get from a mushroom was taken away by the sauce they were drenched in. lol. And we ordered (to split) the Three’s Company dessert, it has samplers of all three of their dessert items. The waitress did mention all the desserts are made in house so that should cut down on how bad they are because there are probably no preservatives in the dishes…not like those frozen pies etc you can buy. The three samples were of a chocolate pecan pie (heavenly!) a banana and chocolate sponge cake (holy crap good!) and key lime pie (it was alright). Combined from all three of the samplers I think I had what would amount to a full piece of a dessert so thats how I counted my points for that, it was totally worth it though, yum! 🙂 After that I was so full I didn’t eat the rest of the day and I know I didn’t get as much water in me as usual. I was so full I didn’t want anything, not even water, I did sip at a glass of it but couldn’t manage to really drink the stuff.

Today (sunday) I started off similarly, cereal and fruit for breakfast (that was around 11am), then when I got home from my errands I wanted to eat even though I shouldn’t have been hungry yet. I refused to let myself eat and had a really hard time figuring out when I was actually hungry. Seems my body associates hanging out at home with gorge fest and that’s all I have wanted to do since I got back here. sigh. I had the other half of that veggie burger, not like I am going to waste food, and a big serving of mixed veggies in the hopes of quieting the tummy. lol. I didn’t get full from the meal but I am learning the sensations I associate with being full are actually how I feel when I have over eaten, I don’t think I really know what it feels like to be full but not stuffed…I am learning though! So now it’s evening and I am hungry…again…I am gonna hafta eat and I know I have points left I just don’t know how many cause I haven’t tallied up my points from today yet. Hopefully I have enough left for something really filling.

Here is what I ate Saturday:

3/4 cup Red Berry Special K = 2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1 nectarine = 1 point

tea = o points

1 yogurt = 1 point

1/2 veggie burger

-patty = 2 points

-bun = 3 points

-slice jack cheese = 3 points

yam fries = 7 points (I knew the points for these was gonna suck!)

dessert sampler = 6 points

So that is 26 points and I am only allowed 24…crap!

It could be worse I s’pose. Since I am allowed 35 flex points a week and I haven’t used any all week I guess using two is ok, I had hoped to not use any but it’s too late now. I will just have to be more careful this coming week…and on that note I am going to go find something to eat for dinner that won’t mess up my points for today!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fiesta Friday!

26 Jun

Hola mi amigo!

Today was Fiesta Friday at work, it was supposed to be a team building thing *rolls eyes* but really it was an excuse to eat a lot of food, drink at work and goof off on a sunny friday. Normally I would have been thrilled for this but it seems a cruel world that during my first week trying to lose weight throws at me bday cake, mexican food, alcohol and invites for after work today for more mexican food and margaritas. It is totally patio season! Today was all sunny and warm, slight breeze but not enough to get your hair in your food and I could envision myself sitting out there with a nice big drink and some nachos. I felt that I would not have had enough willpower as of yet to resist ordering something horrendously bad for me at the restaurant so I didn’t go, sad for tonight but a small sacrifice to be made for my happiness in the future.  This whole looking at the big picture thing can kinda suck. 😛

I was concerned about what I would be eating today since I wouldn’t be able to acurately calculate my points but I don’t think I did too badly. shrug. I didn’t eat as much fruit as I have been used to and I found that I was unconsciously drinking more water. I don’t know if I was drinking more water because I wasn’t eating the fruit and my body wanted the hydration or if I am just a bit more used to drinking water now. I guess it doesn’t really matter why I was drinking more it’s just good that I was. AC, a friend at work, she brought in dessert for today (well, one of the desserts) and she is so awesome, she knows I am trying really hard on weight watchers so she brought in a Mexican Fruit Salad, it had cut up fruit (duh) and she used the actual juice from fruit instead of juice juice and there was a bit of rum in it and chili powder. I would never of thought to put chili powder in a fruit salad but it was really good. 🙂 I totally owe her because the other desserts were brownies, expensive boxes of chocolates and the candy in the pinata – none of which I could touch.

I took a nice big salad with me to work thinking that I would eat that with my taco thereby making me full and not tempted to go back for a second taco. Well, lunch ended up starting later then planned and I was going on an errand with S so we both scarfed down our tacos and bolted. By the time we got back I didn’t want the salad so I figured I’d bring it home and have it with my dinner or eat it tomorrow…great plan but it is still sitting in the fridge at work cause I totally forgot about it. sigh. Hopefully it’ll still be ok on monday! Mid afternoon I was getting peckish so I grabbed my cut up pineapple and nibbled on it, I had 1 cup of pineapple but only ate half at most so I brought that home too. Seems to be the day for bringing food home with me. lol.

So here is what I ate today:

1 light whole wheat bagel = 3 points

1 tbsp peanut butter = 2

tea = 0

1 cup grapes = 1 point

1 taco = 6 points

-taco topped with ground beef, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, tomatos, shreeded cheese

grilled veggies = 0

fruit salad = 0.5 points

1/2 cup pineapple = 0.5 points

whole wheat pasta = 5 points

1/4 cup Knorr’s Alfredo sauce = 2 points

mixed veggies = 0 points

That puts me at 20 points, 4 left over!

Not enough left over points for cookies and milk but that’s ok, I had that last night. 🙂 I will finish off my points with some fruit which is apparently becoming my “go to” food. lol. Who’d of ever thought that would happen? I may keep a couple points un-used just in case my calculations for the day are off and I used more then I realized. It’s so hard to guess what the points used are when you can’t measure. I made sure to be really sparing with the peanut butter, guac, sour cream and cheese but when those things are all combined who knows what number they add up to? I think this whole worrying about points thing will get old really fast, or I will become strangely obsessed and be one of those annoying people that talks about their food and points all the time…I realized yesterday I am talking about food and points way too much at work to my friends so I am trying to shut my yap about it. Just cause I am getting all absorbed in this doesn’t mean they want to hear about it. lol. I must remember that!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Temptation Already? Oh dear…

24 Jun

Alrighty, so it is day three and despite the piece of bday cake placed before me at work I did not cheat! wOOt! 😀 One of the girls at work had her bday, duh, and so one of the other girls brought this huge wonderful looking cake. Home made, coconut dusted, buttercream icing, Mmm! She uses Splenda tho instead of sugar and when I learned Splenda has arsenic in it well, it made me not want to eat it. Not that I ate it before so it’s not like a big sacrifice or hardship to not include it in my food choices. And old roomie, she is henceforth dubbed R, used it and I am sorry but anything that fizzles and has some crazy way noticeable chemical reaction when you put it in your tea is just weird. *shudder*

I digress, so there was this cake, and even tho it was a splenda cake and not a sugar cake I normally would have eaten my piece and wished I could’ve had more, I mean hello? It’s cake! I kept myself very far away from the cake for a good chunk of the day in the hopes if I couldn’t see it I wouldn’t lust after it. I also had a part of my brain trying to find a way I could justify eating a slice; if there is one thing I can do it is find a way to make something that in unhealthy sound healthy. Here is an example; chocolate is good for you because it comes from a bean and beans are good for us. See? Easy! 🙂 What’s scary is I can easily make myself believe stuff like that, oy! So impressionable and easy to trick am I!

I digressed again, oops. So the cake, I avoided the cake thinking that was the easiest way to not cheat and then what happened? X (another girl at work) cut the cake into enough pieces for everyone and brought a piece to my desk, I was busy on the phone and didn’t notice so when I turned around there it was! It’s like it was stalking me! I wondered if it crawled it’s way over to me knowing I was the one person who didn’t want it – similar to how a cat sits on the lap of the one person in the room who doesn’t like cats – but someone mentioned X brought it so my paranoia went away. Once back on sane ground I put my slice of cake to the far reaches of my desk and then blocked my view of it with various tall items. For most of the rest of the day I was ok, didn’t even think about it…ok, that is a lie, I could smell the icing and kept thinking how I was hungry and one little slice wouldn’t kill me…that’s where this blog came in and saved me, phew, I didn’t want to have to explain/justify aka. make an excuse for why I ate it, I can’t believe the blog actually helped prevent me from eating a slice of cake. Go blog go! 🙂

I know on weight watchers you get what are called flex points, for anyone who doesn’t know those are extra points that are allotted to you on a weekly basis instead of daily so that you can fit those little treats into your eating plan. You don’t have to use them but you can if you need/want to. My mom uses hers every evening to fit in her night time glass of wine. I am trying my best to not use them, I think I will get faster results if I don’t indulge in those little extras which is one reason I didn’t want the cake. Another reason is that at work this coming Friday we are having “Fiesta Friday”  – I kid you not. It is s’posed to help with team building or something like that. *rolls eyes* We all have to bring in various ingredients (we picked from a list) and on Friday we will have a Mexican Lunch complete with a pinata…I wonder if they will actually allow us some kind of weapon to hit the pinata with, don’t know that I’d allow our group to vent our irritation with work matters like that! I can just see it now, candy flying everywhere while we all fight over the stick so we can beat up on something…mental health day anybody? So, because of Friday and my knowledge of the fact I am going to be surrounded by all kinds of wonderful foods (and alcohol!) I want to save my flex points to use them that day – if I do use them at all.

I checked in my weight watchers book and a fast food taco is 3 points, not bad actually. I figure since all our toppings are fresh and we are each making our own taco I will load mine with lots of veg and a smaller portion of meat and way small portion of sour cream etc. and it may not even be 3 points. I am still going to count it as 3 just in case tho. I also plan to take a salad with me and have that with my taco so I only eat the one. This should also leave room for a small sliver of whatever kind of dessert will be there, it is a suprise what it is so who knows how many points that’ll be!

Hmm, this post was supposed to be about water –  I didn’t realize I’d blab so long about the cake etc. Mmm cake…*shakes head* ok, enough of that!

Water…we all drink it, probably when we don’t even think we are drinking it since it’s in pretty much everything. We all know it is important to drink a certain amount of it although that amount seems to shift from 6 glasses to 8 glasses (per day) to whatever feels right, to a glass every 2 hours to drinking water whenever you feel hungry because you are more then likely dehydrated. So many different rules! It’s just water! I used to drink almost exclusively Diet Coke, tea, chai latte…um, I think that is pretty much it. There is water in all of those but they don’t really count as a glass of water each, too bad really. I have stopped drinking pop…well, on a daily basis, I still have some if I go to a movie, and I also stopped Chai Lattes (I got mine from Starbucks) because they are ridiculously high in points, 6 points for a grande!!! Thats practically a meal! I shall never give up tea, I was raised on the stuff, I will go to my grave crading a cup of it against my cold body. Since tea doesn’t have calories and I only put the tiniest amount of milk in it I figure this is ok. I realized though that if I get rid of my pop and my latte, where does that leave me? Only tea? Sure I love the stuff but there are limits…so water came in to my life. I was not happy to have it enter my life, it is boring, flat, tasteless, a big yawn really. I looked at it like medicine, I had to take it cause it’s good for me and will make me better…wait, that isn’t right, I wasn’t sick, there in was a problem. It’s easy to suffer through medicine when you know it’s only something you have to swallow for a week or two but this water thing is now for life? Oh geez, the thought is enough to make me want to quit and dive in to a swimming pool of diet coke with chai lattes spaced all around the edge so I can grab one easily. But ok, gotta suck it up, just make the change and maybe it won’t be so bad…right? Well, kinda. I used to chug a glass of water right before bed every night not realizing unti I was drinking it how thirsty I was – I am fairly certain that screams of “dehydrated!”, the past two nights I have about 1/3 of the glass and am perfectly fine. Throughout my day at work I set little goals, one glass of water every two hours. The first day I didn’t make it, lol, I think I got one glass within my first 4 hours at work and half a glass over the rest of the day, pretty pathetic really. And no, once I get home I don’t drink water so any hope of reaching my 6-8 glasses per day rests at the work place. Yesterday wasn’t as hard and today I drank about 4 glasses, practically a record! I know it isn’t my 6-8 but maybe drinking that much water is something that has to be worked up to, a gradual thing. I mean, if I chugged 8 glasses of water today I’d probably feel like I was floating, be peeing every 20 minutes and feel bloated. This way, by the time I get to 8 glasses of water I will be used to drinking larger quantities of the stuff and my body will be happy for the top up instead of feeling abused. That logic sound good to anybody else?

Also, we shouldn’t forget all the water our bodies absorb from our food. Our intestines are wonderful icky things, they suck everything possible out of everything we let pass through them – including water. If you noticed how much fruit I am eating now, and veggies, all those contain a large amount of water so not only am I drinking the stuff I am eating it too! It’s a good way to trick yourself into getting more  water throughout the day, just eat it. 🙂

Here is my food list for the day:

3/4 cup Honey Nut Cheerios = 2 points

1/2 cup 1% milk = 1 point

1 banana = 2 points

tea = 0 points

1 cup green grapes = 1 point

1 nectarine = 1 point

1 orange = 1 point

1/2 cup broccoli and cheese pasta = 4 points

1 salad = o points

1 tbls salad dressing = 1 point

1 cup Maple Baked Beans = 4 points

1 piece Safeway sandwich bread = 2 points

tea = 0 points

Total used today = 19 <— you might think this is good, being under your points, but in weight watchers is isn’t good, the points are an indication of how much fat, calories and fibre you are getting and being lower then your allotted points means your not eating enough and your body may go in to starvation mode. sigh. I still have 6 points and am not hungry (miracle!) and it’s late and I don’t feel like eating so I will eat something small but high in points like a cookie or two and 1/2 cup of 1% milk to use up those points quickly.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

%d bloggers like this: