Another star!

Pin It I got another star at WW yesterday!  This makes 17 5 lb stars in total :-)  I'm another pound into my next five pound star and I just realized how CLOSE I am to earning TWENTY five pound stars!!  For those of you who are not into multiplication, that would mean 100 pounds!! haha  Had another great meeting yesterday.  I can't believe that after more than a year on program and having lost my beloved leader, I am STILL loving this meeting!  The people are so amazing and our new leader, Fiona, is great too!  For the second week in a row she gave me the flashing green rubber ring to wear ;-)  I'm such a kid at heart - my book is covered in stickers and I get excited about wearing a green, flashing rubber ring for 30 minutes!  So silly, I know :-)

After WW yesterday I had an appointment at Goodlife Fitness to do the Visual Fitness Planner with one of their trainers.  I know deep down that this is a sales pitch for personal training sessions - of course her "prescription" for me was going to cost me over $3,000!!  I really think if I've lost 86 pounds on my own (pretty much) over this past year, I don't need to spend $3,000 to lose these last 25-35lbs!!  I have a weight workout from my last trainer (who does not put pressure on to buy thousands of dollars worth of sessions!) and I plan to work that plan for 4-6 weeks and then perhaps purchase another couple of sessions from her (she's non-Goodlife!).  Check out my VFP printout:

After my session, I picked up a few groceries - I've recently learned that I LOVE sushi!  I picked up some sushi for lunch as a special treat for my new 5 pound sticker (I still sometimes reward myself with food, but I use new healthier foods that I like rather than chocolate, chips or Chinese food).  Here is a pic of my yummy lunch:

Tonight I made a stir-fry salad.  I got the idea from Kokomos Restaurant in Bayers Lake.  They do stir fried veggies over a Caesar salad.  I used my 2 tsp of olive oil, mushrooms, peppers, broccoli and shrimp sauteed with spices.  Towards the end I added some Sweet Thai Chili sauce.  Over my plate of lettuce (aka my salad) I added 2 Tbsp of Renee's Japanese Ginger vinaigrette dressing and then topped the whole thing with the sauteed veggies/shrimp.

Back to work tomorrow...I still wish someone would come up with a 5 day weekend and a 2 day work week :-)

Operation Shrink Charlie's Big Butt: McMuscles and Me

Pin It OK, this blog post by Charlie has me in tears (that and Ellen giving away stuff to military families!) Check it out - it's a long post but by the end I'm in stitches!

Operation Shrink Charlie's Big Butt: McMuscles and Me

My visit to the gym

Pin It For the second time in as many weeks I have taken advantage of my gym membership (my charitable gym donations is another post for another day). Today I went to the one in the grocery store - how convenient since I needed to replenish veggies!  Thirty minutes on the treadmill, PLUS...






8 minutes on the bike




5 minutes on elliptical - another record

 

FIVE whole minutes on the stair master!  I've never even been able to make this WORK before!!



 
 



Wholly Guacamole

Pin It For any of you bloggers out there who are interested in give aways, visit Danica's blog:

@danicasdaily is giving away a WHOLE LOTTA GUACAMOLE~ click here for your chance to get some guacaliciousness http://bit.ly/9zDmcB or http://danicasdaily.com/wholly-guacamole-a-giveaway/comment-page-1/#comment-17281

I nearly forgot!!

Pin It So I started my post last night with the intentions of telling you about my new leader at WW and it completely slipped my mind.  I will do better this time!

So as some of you may recall, my leader Terry (had been my leader for 51 weeks) left WW on my one year anniversary (Oct 3).  I had often thought that she was what kept me going back to WW and what kept me staying for the meetings.  She was a huge inspiration and encouragement to me and our entire WW group on Saturday mornings - frankly the group adored her (and I believe her attendance was among the highest).  So that rainy, miserable Saturday morning when I had planned to celebrate - had hoped to reach 80lbs gone (was only 0.4lbs away) and was celebrating one year at WW (besides my job, I've never stuck with anything that long before!).  I weighed in (up 1.4!!) and then found out Terry was gone.  My bubble had burst.  I didn't want to like Fiona, the new leader.  I didn't even want to go back to WW.  The illogical part of me blamed Fiona for taking over for Terry, whereas the logical part of my brain knew it wasn't her fault, she was just the replacement - Terry had left WW on her own accord....Soooo, now that I have re-capped, here we go.  I weighed in the next Friday before I went to Ottawa and had lost that 1.4lbs - sadly, still had not reached the 80lb mark.  I went to Ottawa and had a great visit with my friend and even weighted in up there - happily I was down 2.5lbs on the day before I returned home :-)  This week I did little exercise, but my food was bang on (as it usually is) - weigh/measure everything.  I was hoping for a loss..period.  I got my wish - 2.4lbs!  I was tickled.  THEN the meeting started.  People just kept coming in and before you know it, the room was packed (circa Terry-days) and the meeting was AWESOME!  I think I am really going to like Fiona.  I got to wear the flashing green ring (don't ask!) for the meeting because I put my hand up first for having had a great week.  She had us laughing most of the session and, as in the first meeting, she read us a poem she had written on the day's topic.  I wish I were fast enough to write these down!  I may ask her if she can share them with me in paper form so I can tell you more about them - giving her all the credit of course!

Well, must go shower.  My apartment smells so lovely - I woke up to the smell of roast beef in the crockpot and while I love that smell, I really don't want to go to church smelling like a side of cow!

Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful Sunday.  It is a gorgeous day here in Halifax and I plan to enjoy it to the fullest!

Happy days are here again!

Pin It Had a great WW meeting this morning - it certainly helped that I was down 2.4lbs!  My total, as you can see from my tracker, is now 84.4 lbs.  Our leader asked us to set a small goal for ourselves today to be met by the week before Christmas (8 weeks from today!)  My goal for this 8 week period is to lose 12 pounds.  If I maintain my momentum of 1.5 lbs per week, that should be totally achievable.  I am still maintaining my goal that my trainer set for me (another 25.2 pounds by Feb 5 I think it was), but I think it will help to set a smaller goal.  It's so strange to be thinking of such small numbers now - when I first I first started this journey, the amount seemed SO big that it felt like I would never even get close!  Now that it's almost here, it hardly seems real.  I'm still struggling with body image problems in that when I look in the mirror without my clothes on (at home people, not in public!!) I still see the same person from 84 pounds ago.  I need to work on that (along with my obsession with numbers).  I'm afraid if I don't deal with the body image problems that things will be harder for me once I am at goal. 

Well, I'm off to finish watching Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel and then go to bed.  Must remember to turn on the crockpot first - the folks are joining me for lunch.  Roast beef, baby red and yellow potatoes and rainbow carrots in the crockpot and broccoli on the side...yummm...it's been a while since I've had roast beef!  I'm not a huge red meat eater, but I do so love a good roast beef dinner :-)  Hmm, perhaps I will send the scales home with the folks for the week!

100% perfect?

Pin It A common theme that I've been reading on blogs and listening to on podcasts lately has been about people who "go at it" 100% - losing weight, that is.  Some people out there tend to go all in with the process - staying on program in the strictest fashion.  Are you one of those people?  I've realized today that I am leaning in that direction.  Not the exercise part, but I definitely take the food part VERY seriously 98% of the time.  More importantly, I have realized I am obsessed with the numbers.  I allow the number on the scale to determine my self worth.  I weigh myself regularly (I won't tell you HOW regularly!) and towards the end of the week when my weigh in day is coming up, I TOTALLY obsess over the number - why hasn't it moved?  Woohoo, I'm down...will it hold til Saturday?  Crap, I'm UP...how can I get it down before Saturday?!  I think it's time to admit it...I am a numberaholic.  My name is Tanya and I have a problem.  I know I am not alone in this.  A friend of mine told me that the small numbers along the way don't matter - it is what it is, and you are what you are - or rather you weigh what you weigh, obsessing about it won't change one little thing.  All we can do day to day, hour to hour, is follow the program to the best of our abilities and celebrate when the scale is favourable and work harder when it's not - also realizing that certain times of the month make a difference (for women!) and our salt intake during the week also makes a difference - so many variables, but in the end, it is what it is.

I think that next week I am going to "loan" my scale to my neighbour for a week and see if I suffer from withdrawal or if I obsess as much...we'll see how it goes!

So, my friends, how often do you weigh yourself at home?  Are you obsessed with the numbers?

Saturday fun

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Me in Almonte, ON

Bike riding...take 2

Gotta love breakfast at supper time!! Yum!

Tonight's supper

Pin It Turkey sausages, roasted peppers, mushrooms, potatoes and cauliflower, apple/cranberry sauce...yum!

Vacation almost over...

Pin It Today is Friday and my vacation is all too quickly drawing to a close.  I spent Wednesday night and most of Thursday with one of my dearest childhood friends.  We went for Thai food on Wed night - I was proud of myself...I had about a cup and a half of Pad Thai, 2 very mini veggie spring rolls and a cup of hot and sour soup.  Any of you who know me know that Thai food is my weakness...I LOVE Thai food!  I had decided ahead of time that I would have Pad Thai (and had PLANNED to leave a good chunk of it on my plate), soup and a salad roll (uncooked spring roll) - 2 out of three ain't bad eh?!  They did not have salad rolls and my Pad Thai came with the spring rolls, so I decided to eat (and count) them.  They were seriously the size of my pinky finger, so the points were not bad.  Yesterday we went to a mini market in Hull and then went to the Museum of Civilization (I'd never been there before!). 

Came back to my friend's place in Nepean last night and had supper and did some shopping - tried on some size 13s at Reitman's (got 'em on, but would NEVER go out in public in them...or sit down for that matter!).  Bought a pair of black dress pants (in my current size 15) and a blouse so that I would have some work clothes :-)  My work wardrobe is seriously lacking - I might have to hit Frenchy's when I get home.  I really didn't get much to wear to work when we were in the US I'm afraid. 

Today I am vegging in front of the TV/computer and enjoying looking at the rain, knowing I don't have to go out in it anytime soon.  If it clears up, I would like to go for a walk, but I am not going to stress over it.  Tomorrow morning we are going to go to WW for me to weigh in and we'll stay for the meeting.  I am stressing just a little - I've been very good all week and have gotten in a decent amount of activity, but her scales are not showing favourable results for me I'm afraid...I know, I know, you can't really go by "at home" scales and this time I'm really going in blind as I don't know if the Ontario WW scales are even close to our Halifax ones!  Grrr...this is such a mental game for me.  I hate how the scale determines how I feel about myself on any given day/week.  I need to decide NOW that I will not let the number on the scale tomorrow bother me or take control of my whole day.

Here are some photos from the past couple of days:



Linda and I





That was my bad motorcycle mama face...lol

Weekend and Thanksgiving Photos

Pin It Took a hike this morning, collected leaves for the table for thanksgiving dinner, made dinner and had a lovely meal, including dessert!  Some photos from the weekend and today below.

Waterloo Outlets - Waterloo, NY





Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dessert...yum!

Since we last spoke

Pin It Happy Turkey Day!  Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada (Happy Columbus Day to all of my American friends and family!)  Since my last post, I have flown to Ottawa, driven to Waterloo, NY, back North to Syracuse and am back in Ottawa. 

Friday morning I weighed in at WW with a very lovely cranky lady - oh joy.  She made a snide comment about me being "back on track" with a 1.4lb loss (which, in case you missed it, is exactly what I gained last week).  I did not appreciate her tone.  Oh well, onward and upward.  After work on Friday I rushed home (grabbed a McD's Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad on the way...yum!) and then quickly ate and ran downstairs with my bags to wait for my sister in law who so graciously agreed to drive me to the airport...didn't have to wait, she was there before me!  Off to the airport we go.  Checking in (well, just dropping off my bags since I had checked in online) was a breeze, but security was crazy busy.  Overall, from drop off time until I was through security was only about 20 minutes or so - really not bad considering it IS Thanksgiving weekend!  I was happy I ran into an old friend at the airport  - hadn't seen him in over a year, so it was nice to catch up.  Flight to Ottawa was uneventful - good service, comfy (as they get on airplanes in economy class) seats, nice snacks (Porter!) and my friend was waiting for me when I landed :-)

Bright and early (6am ish) we loaded up the car and headed for Waterloo, NY to the Waterloo Outlets....ahhhhh, I love outlet shopping.  We shopped and shopped all day long and then went to Applebee's for supper - slow getting in, but did get in eventually.  I had the tilapia (ww = 6pts according to their menu) and my friend had the shrimp diavolo (sp?).  The shrimp dish left a little to be desired appearance-wise and was a tiny portion...I have to say, it looked disappointing.  The tilapia was quite nice.  Spent the night at the Super 8 hotel in Auburn, NY.

Sunday morning we were up early (not 6am!) and were shopping by about 9am - Tops grocery store, The Christmastree Shop (yay!), Kohls, Target, Walmart, Dress Barn, Burlington Coat Factory...and more!  We were originally going to spend another night, but managed to get all of our shopping done by late afternoon, so we decided to head home after eating (for the second time that day!) at Panera Bread...if anyone has not eaten here, you MUST!!!  Soooo delicious!  Border crossing was uneventful - both had to pay Canadian taxes on our purchases, but that was expected since we were gone less than 48 hours. 

It is now Monday morning and all is quiet here.  Been up for about an hour (I'm still on Halifax time) and am enjoying relaxing and catching up on emails.  We are cooking a Jennie-O turkey tenderloin, roasted veggies and stuffing today for Thanksgiving - a last minute plan, but yummy sounding meal (originally we had no Thanksgiving plans, but decided last minute to pick stuff up since we were coming home early).

Be thankful - we have so much to be thankful for.  I am thankful for my friends, family, I have a good job, I have a nice place to live, I am blessed to have my own car and I have a God who loves me!

25 Hours to go

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I'm getting excited!  My flight leaves for the great city of Ottawa tomorrow night at 8:30 and I get to see my friend in Nepean (haven't seen her since April!) and later next week my childhood friend in Gatineau (haven't seen in...years!)  I am excited to see my friends and to be away from the office for a week AND to do some cross-border shopping!  Heading to WW tomorrow morning to weigh in before work since I will not be near a WW meeting on Saturday morning.  I attended a meeting on Monday night in Bedford since I knew that I NEEDED a meeting after the week I had last week.  It was an OK meeting, but I think I'm still working through what went on last weekend...things will be fine with my new leader, I have to think positive.  The week has been rough, but the eating has been good and I have exercised three out of the past 5 days, so hoping for good results tomorrow.  Off to make supper now - just got home from my PT session at the gym, so I'm famished!

One Year Weight Watchers Anniversary

Pin It One year ago I joined WW.  Below are my progression photos from my heaviest to present day.

To date I am down 78.2 pounds - just shy of my 80 pound goal for the year.  Hoping to break the 80 pound barrier this week before I head out on vacation.

It's a sad, sad day...

Pin It Well, today I was hoping would be a celebration day.  Last week I was 0.4lbs away from an 80lb loss and my one year Weight Watchers anniversary.  My leader Terry said she looked forward to giving me another 5lb star this week and celebrating my my anniversary with WW.

I get to the meeting this morning and where I usually see Terry, Madeline and Anne Marie at the scales, I only see Anne Marie...and two strangers.  I don't like strangers...not at a WW meeting when it comes to leaders/weighers.  I'm a creature of habit - I always weigh in on the far right scale with Terry.  There's an odd sense in the meeting room.  Everything is quiet.  Terry's Saturday morning classes are usually jam packed (the 7:30am AND the 9:45am) and they are quite lively...this morning there was something different in the air.

I get on the scale with one of the "strangers" on the far left scale (I know, a scales is a scale, it makes no difference, just like it makes no difference WHO weighs me in)...and I'm up 1.4lbs...I get off and get back on again and yup, 1.4lb gain is what I have achieved this week.  Way to go Tanya...  Part of me knows that this is only my second gain in 52 weeks of WW, but part of me is SO mad at myself and ready to give it all up. I always post my losses on Facebook when I sit down in the meeting - it's something I've been doing for a while now and I find it helps ME and keeps me honest and motivated.  Friends of mine have said that it inspires them too.  Now I really, really HATE to let people down.  My first thought when I sat down was that I would not post anything this morning.  I decided to be honest with myself and others and to post my gain.  I was feeling OK about things, ready to start with a fresh week...and then Fiona (aka "Stranger #2") walked into the meeting room and told us she had bad news for us and good news.  The bad news is that Terry is no longer with Weight Watchers.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  I thought maybe she would say she was sick and would be back next week or that she was on vacation...but nope, she's never coming back.  Fiona tells us that the "good news" is that she will be our new leader.  The jury is still out on whether or not this is actually good news.  She runs things very different from Terry.  I know change isn't always bad, so I'm going to reserve judgment at this time.

I'm not going to analyze how traveling for work affected my weight or how social events took over my week.  The week is over and done with and today is the start of a new week.  I won't be at WW next Saturday since I'll be in Ottawa, but am hoping to weigh in before I leave on Friday night. 

So that is all I have to say today.  I'm sad.  I'm going to hibernate for a while and then clean with a vengeance.