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Life adventures through weight loss/maintenance

Friday, January 29, 2010

Sodium soduim soduim

Good evening!

I gotta say, I really feel that the website
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ is a great website, as ling as you are aware of how to be healthy. I have several friends on the website, to support each other. However I have found that people aren't staying accountable even to themselves. I know that this is going to work for me because regardless of eating healthy or not I am keeping track of what I am putting into my body. I really think even if I wasn't actively trying to lose weight, I might simply by default.

Yesterday I went to Jack Astors for dinner with a couple of girls from work (you can read about it on yesterdays blog). Anyway like I said yesterday I packed up half my meal right when it was brought out to me to prevent me from over eating. So anyways, I was able to use myfitnesspal to see how even half a serving of Pad Thai from Jack Astors puts me way WAY over my daily sodium for the day.

So this morning I got upto go to the gym for Cardio Bosu class at 6:10am. Class was great, and the instructor told us that the routines we have been doing for the last few classes were going to get changed up next week to challenge us more. Well oh boy, I can't wait to see how badly that will make me sweat because I still work up a mean sweat as it is. Sadly on my way to the gym I realized that I left my prepacked lunch bag in the fridge. So I resolved that after Cardio Bosu I would do some treadmill work then pack up and head home and grab my lunch and shower in my own clean (cuz I'm always showering at the gym) shower. That was a nice change. And the good news, I still made it to work on time :-)

Well for my meals for today, weeelllll, not all healthy, but what can you do?!?!

Breakfast I didn't have enough O.J, and I was a lil sad to say the least. So I had some Vanilla Chai milk by Bolthouse. Also if you have been keeping up with your southern Ontario weather, you will know that it is so bitterly freezing cold out right now. Perfect morning for some Quaker Oatmeal (heart smart quick cooking oats). I tossed in 1 oz of skim milk to help cool the oatmeal, and 1 tbsp of crasins.


Well the morning was quick and cold. I have a heater in my office that Kevin bought for me when first started (cuz I was cold back in Nov - I had no idea what I was in for). So I managed to get a nice hot coffee in before I had to head out for my 11am meeting at a local school. so 1 cup of coffee, 2 oz skim milk and 1 tsp of white sugar.
When I got back from the meeting at 12:30, I headed right for my lunch. Yup that left over high sodium content veggie pad thai. Mmmm it was just as good as it was last night. Everyone in the office was asking me too what I was eating cuz it smelled so good too. However though my taste buds were enjoying the pad thai, my brain was thinking salt salt salt salt, water retention, water retention, water retention. LOL Whatever its just 2 meals out of my week. Meh.

Shortly after work I had my kids snack. Cheese string! Though I did not make myself one, you can clearly see our friend Gigi La girafe. Isn't she lovely?!


2 hours later I had my 7 halved strawberries I would have had as my morning snack had I had more time.

Dinner didn't happen until 6:30 because I went and had some fun at the grocery store buying all kinds of goodies for meals over the weekend. I won't give you any hints, you will just have to keep checking in to find out what I bought.
So yeah, dinner, I had 1/4 cup of long grain wild rice, with sauteed red onion and 2 kids of mushrooms (shitaki and crimini). I then broiled up 4 oz of halibut. It was a success, even Kevin liked it.








So my input output for calories today was 1640 calories taken in and calories burned was 1230. Not too shabby. I drank about 10 8 oz glasses of water too. *whispers, thats a lot of trips to the w/c*
Sweet dreams
~ M ~

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Girls Night Out


Good evening all! So today was an ok day. Still addicted to the website myfitnesspal.com. Not much to report on today, plus its 11pm and I have to get to sleep soon so I can get up for Cario Bosu at 6:10 tomorrow. I am so tired that as I type this I see my writing is blue colourned and all underlined so I don't know if tonight's entry will look different from the others. Anyway. . . . Got up good and early for my 6:10 spin class at the gym. Different instructor Thursdays that the Tuesday class, which is ok, different but ok. When we were doing sprints in the spin class I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it felt like my legs wouldn't work properly to get up to a sprinting speed, but I pushed on thinking I was at a low tension. With like 5 mins left in class I realized that I was at the higher end of tension, and that is why I wasn't able to get my legs going faster. Oh well I guess that just means I was working that much harder right LOL.

This evening I went out with 3 girls from work. We went to Jack Astors's for dinner. Now in the past this has been one of my fav places to go. Their garlic pan loaf is to die for laterally because it is loaded with cheese grease and garlic. So like I always like to do through the day I went to the website to look at their menu and nutritional information to my my choice when I was not hungry or feeling pressured to hurry and choose. Well they do not have their nutritional information on the website. I called the restaurant to see if they had one on location. They did. So we get there, and when the waitress finally gets around to bring it over to us, its in a 3 ring binder, printed out on their printer, and its not even in any kind of order, its all completely random. On top of that, its out of date, they have items listed that are nowhere to be found on the menu we have, and there are items we wanted that are on the menu that aren't listed in their guide.

Breakfast this morning I decided I would get wild and mix things up, instead of cutting half a banana into my PC blue menu granola I threw in 1tbsp of crasins. I think this might be my new fav breakfast.


For my mid morning snack I had 7 strawberries cut into halves. Now granted strawberries have been selling for 5.99 a pint I got these for 3 at No Frils and they actually have some flavour to them too.


Lunch I had Knorr Rustic Vegetable and Potato soup. Delish!
Mid day snack was a peanut butter & banana protein smoothie. . . let me tell you this is the best thing in the world. Just don't have too many lots of sugar.
Dinner at Jack AStorS. Let me tell you despite my better judgement I went with the crowd and got a sugary alcoholic drink. Its the Twist or something like that. Very tasty, not worth the extra cals but still yummy. Dinner was also another bad choice I'm going to say solely based on the difficulty of navigating a menu and nutritional guide that were hardly compatible. I got the veggie pad thai. I asked the waitress to split the order half on my plate and half packed ready to take home. Well I forgot to ask this when I first ordered so asked her 5 mins later, when she told me it was already plated and garnished, so she will bring me a take out container and I can do it myself after she brings me the dish. 5-10 mins pass before my already plated meal got to me. This was at 5:30 on a Thursday and it wasn't busy. Ugh. So I halved the meal myself. Left overs for lunch tomorrow.

Well being the good social workers we all are we decided to go and see the movie Precious at the AMC. But we were finished and rushed out of the non busy restaurant. So we walked over to Demetre's for a "coffee". MmmmHmmm yeah just a coffee. Well we ended up splitting 3 ways a double brownie cheesecake. I also ordered a double bianco latte. However I asked that the latte be made with skim milk, and to hold off on the whipped cream, white chocolate drizzle and white chocolate flakes.


Well I apologize again for the shitty blog tonight. I am sitting in bed typing this out. As for my caloric input output, I burned a total of 1033 calories between spin class, the post spin class crunches and weights, and my daily walking around as per my pedometer. I however took in a total of 1472 calories, sodium intake was over by quite a bit obviously from the pad thai and the cheesecake.
Have a great night!
~ M ~





Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Hmm first struggle

Well today was a challenge. Though I must say that I tried to make healthy choice and stay strong. I was simply too busy today. Got up for 5again to be at the gym for my muscle moves class (weight training). That was a good 45 of weight and strength training. After that I went and walked/mainly ran on the treadmill at varying inclines 1.5-4. The treadmill told me I burned 132 calories doing this for 17 minutes. Not too shabby. So I get to work and first thing I go to do is enter this data on http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ (the website I was raving about yesterday). HOWEVER i was very upset when I went to enter my work out information. I found that the website does not consider the strength training exercising (weight lifting) as burning calories. So according to the website I only burned the calories I burned while running and my walking (info a-la pedometer). Frustrating, but I know that I burned calories, but maybe not everyone will feel the same way.

Also today I struggled while I was at my second job (between 4-8pm). There was jujubes out on the table. And if you will remember yesterday I was saying how I find being there difficult to resist temptation, and jujubes I was done for. I tried to avoid them as best as possible but between 4-5pm I was starved, and knew I couldn't eat my dinner that early. So I grab 3 jujubes. After having 3, and having the yummy taste in my mouth, I proceeded to have 4 more four more for a total of 7 jujubes. The nutritional info on the packaging told me that there was 110 cals for 6 jujubes. So I have definitely taken this information and though it isn't a lot, I feel the guilt.

So my meals today . . . . .
Breakfast was tasty though completely unoriginal from yesterday, the exact same thing. I had 2/3 cup of P.C Blue Menu granola with 1/2 a banana, and 2/3 cups of skim milk. I had 6 oz of my fav O.J.
My snack was a new twist. I had a cheese string. I mean really they really are wonderful. They are the perfect serving size of 1 oz of cheese, and its fun to eat! Plus I had a cup (yes I measured) of coffee with 2oz of skim milk and 1 tsp of sugar.I had a couple of meetings before and right after lunch, both of which were out of the office. So I went back to the office for about an hour and a half. Then suddenly it was 12:45pm and I hadn't eaten yet. So I started to eat my salad. Chicken ranch salad. 2 cups of romaine lettuce, 1/2 cup of cucumber, and 2tpbs of Kraft Low Cal Ranch salad dressing. However I needed to leave the office to get to my 1:30 meeting and I wasn't able to finish it all. After my meeting, around 3:30 I had 1/2 cup of raspberries. Gotta make sure you get your moneys worth and they don't go bad sitting in the fridge waiting for the next time you remember about them.
So 5:00 rolls around, and I am all over eating my dinner. 1 cup of Cateli Smart Spaghettini, with about 2/3 of a cup of Bravo pasta sauce. I seasoned it with some Cumin, basil, oregano, salt, peeper, and chili powder. I also added some sliced zucchini, an orange bell pepper, red onion, and tomato. It was all very tasty.
Well I did mention that I cheated, so I snapped a picture of my first 3 jujubes I ate, remember I ate 7 of them in total. Yes I was bad and cheated. :(


Well that was my day in food and exercise. Thanks for reading.







Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Lots of accountability

So today was a great day. I joined another online weight/goal tracking. I joined http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ One of my girlfriends introduced this website to me after getting her new Iphone. At first I was opposed to the idea of joining, as I just started this blog, and I was already finding it difficult to take 10-30 mins to write about myself. However after some navigating, I found several features on the website that I really like. On the website I logged in, created an account, entered my stats (height and weight), and my weight loss goals. So I did just that. Then it calculates how many calories based on the stats and goals you need to input and output to lose or gain as much as 1.5-1.5lbs or maintain your current weight. Then I input my workout/physical activity and it tells me how many calories I have burned based on my personal stats. Also you can add all of your daily food intake and it again based on the serving size you ate how many calories you have taken in. Also even better for many of us, it also helps you keep track of all the water you take throughout the day.
Honestly I truly became addicted to this website today. There are lots of people on there who can help support you, and offer ideas and alternatives to meals.

You can also see and help me keep track of me weight loss goals though the badge from the website on my blog.
So onto my daily intake
For breakfast I had 2/3 of a cup of granola with 2/3 cup of skim milk, and 1/3 of a banana. I again washed it down with 6oz of O.J.
I went to the gym for 6:10am I went to the gym for a 45 min spin class. I have been going to this class for a couple of weeks now and I haven't really seen any results. So last night I decided that I would need to start to step up my work out routine and intensity. So needless to say I really pushed myself in the spin class this morning. After rather than going into the sauna for what would normally be 20-25 minutes, I went back out to the gym floor where I did some ab work. I grab two hand held 8lb weights, stood in a squat and did some side work. I engaged my abs, and leaned from one side back to the centre and then over to the other side. I did 3 sets of 20 reps. I then went and grab a 2lb ball and did some sit ups for about 3-5 minutes. Finished off with some sit ups on the workout ball. I went and and sat in the sauna to loosen up/relax for 15 minutes.

I went into work and reheated the coffee I had made at home. I knew it was going to be a long day so I did more planning ahead.



I had an appointment at work so was out of the office and not able to have a mid morning snack until 11am. When I got back I had a half cup of raspberries.

I held out as long as I could for lunch without leaving lunch too late. I boiled 2 eggs and made myself an egg salad sandwich. Sadly this sandwich is on white bread. This is only because when I went to put the egg salad on my pumpernickel rye bread, it had gone bad. Hmmm... this seems to be a pattern, maybe I need to refresh my pantry and veggie drawer. Anyway, there is mayo in my egg salad, Kraft Light May, and about 1.5tbsp of it, but damn it was tasty.

For a snack I had a mango yogurt protein smoothie. I drank this as I drove between jobs. Very tasty. Sorry no pictures.

While at my part time job, I often find I struggle the most. There is always some sort of sweet and savory snack laying around on the work table where we always linger around. And today was no different. There was some sort of chocolate backed cookies in a Tupperware container. I tried very hard to avoid these treats. I did so well up until 7pm. This was however due to the fact that I hadn't yet eaten dinner. So I had my dinner, and I did not eat any of those cookies.

I had about 2 cups of Dole Coleslaw, with a half a Royal Gala apple cut up into thin slices. I topped my salad with Extra Virgin Olive Oil mixed with Cider Vinegar. Delish!

Total calories that I took in today was 1,356, and my total calories burned through my work out and according to my pedometer the calories I burned through my everyday walking was 1,323.


Monday, January 25, 2010

On Track

Well today I have been a good little blogger. I have remembered to take photos of all my food today. Though I must say that I only remembered half way through my dinner to remember to snap a photo of my meal.

I have got to say the more structured my day was the easier I found it to eat at normal scheduled time and then of course to remember to photo document it.

Monday, first day back at work. So I started off with 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean cereal with a half cup of skim milk. Washed it all down with approx 6oz of O.J.
At work I had a meeting and because of this I wasn't able to get a snack in as early as I wanted to. So at 11:00am I had 6 strawberries and a Med double double with milk from Timmies.










Lunch came shortly there after. Sadly lunch was a grave disappointment. I had packed a spinach, cucumber, salmon salad with home made olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. Sadly my olive oil had become congealed from being in the fridge. Despite letting it sit and warm up for a while, no avail. Also my spinach had gone bad. It had been opened a week ago, and was no longer fresh. I just couldn't bring myself to eat it. So I ate the cucumber and the salmon for lunch.

Snack which was shortly before 2 because I was so light headed from lack of food at lunch was a royal gala apple cut up into slices.
I got home earlier than I normally would have today from work and was pretty hungry again because of the hole lunch debacle. So I ate one of Kevin's lunch snacks, carrot cake with a cream cheese icing.







Dinner turned out so much better than what I had planned. Originally I had planned broiled Salmon, steamed broccoli and some brown rice. Pretty boring. What I ended up having was sauteed onion, yellow pepper and broccoli, with brown rice and broiled salmon. I seasoned the veggies with Kraft Asian Sesame dressing.


After dinner, I went to the gym and did a 60 minute Step & Pump class followed by a 16 additional crunches into a standing position. Then I went and sat in the sauna for 24 minutes.

It was a good day, both eating, work out and over all like I said a good day.

WOW

So it's now Monday, and I am just now finding the time to getting around to making another post. When you aren't used to having to find the time to get on the computer, esp over the weekend, you suddenly realize how hard it is. So let me recap first off that rather than keeping a food diary that only I see, knowing that friends, family and strangers will be able to read what I've eaten I feel way more accountable and guilty about my cheats.

so. . . .

Friday started off strong, with healthy choices, here you can see my 1/3 cup of oat meal with cinnamon and about 6oz of O.J

I had a raspberry protein smoothie for a snack, but then come lunch is when things started to go down hill. I had a staff meeting at work that started at Lunch. They ordered pizza, which I initially opted out of as they ordered 2 pizzas with meat on them (ham, pepperoni, ground meat etc), and figured that once the staff meeting was over I would just eat my salad that I packed.

Well the meeting went till 2pm, and sadly i was so famished that salad just wasn't going to help me. So i went down to the pizza pizza that is right beside the office and got myself a cheese slice with dipping sauce and a coke for lunch. I hang my head in shame lol.

Dinner was mildy better. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, so myself and two of my girlfriends had set a date to go out for dinner at Milestones. I had preselected my dinner meal ahead or two a head (which is always a smart thing to do when you are trying to stick to healthy choices). I had picked out a Californian Style Salad, which sadly I can't post as it is taken with my other camera and I do not have that with me right now. However you can see it on the Milestones website. I ordered it so that half the salad was already pre packed to take home so I only ate a half serving. Because I had an "around the world tasting" of dips and nan bread. Top that off with two Bellini's.

I know I'm bad and don't have pictures of them, but the other part of this blog that is going to take some getting used to is that every time you are out to eat you are having to remember to dig out your camera and snap a picture before you eat, and if you are out at a social meal than to even remember about it at all.

After dinner we went to Dmitri's where I did remember to take out my camera . . . .

my LG vanilla/hazelnut
steamer & I believe its called fully loaded (peanut butter ice cream, banana, brownies on a belgian waffle, mmmmm)

That was the end of my Friday, which was a real rollercoster. Starting off healthy, going greasy and gross to mildly healthy and then sweet and delicious!

I am not even going to try and touch on Saturday Sunday as I asked my husband what we had for dinner Saturday night and neither of us can even remember, I did not have the time between my other job, cleaning the house and vegging to remember to take pictures or even journal to remember.

I hope to blog later tonight with better documentation of today!

~ M ~

Thursday, January 21, 2010

A New Journey

So welcome to my blog. Here I am going to chronicle my journey of trying to lose that last 10 lbs and maintaining it. My plan is to keep a daily journal of all that I've eaten that day, though writing and through photos of what I've eaten. I hope that this will be a better help in keeping me accountable and making healthier choices. I am also going to keep track of the physical activity that i do each and every day here. I am going to be daring and start this blog on a Friday. . . . Yes that's right a Friday, the last day of most peoples diets, cuz when the weekend comes the healthy eating all goes down the toilet and the unhealthy choices and portions are too hard to resist.

Back in June 2008, I started eating healthier, smaller portions with healthy snacks between my meals. What i actually found was a meal plan, not a diet, but rather meal plan that was posted on a local boot camp website (sorry it is sadly no longer posted on there). The meal plan advertised lost 10lbs in 10 days. I was skeptical to say the least. I am 5'9 and at the time weighted about 195lbs. I had tried fad diet pills to suppress your appetite, I tried eating less, but those didn't work. So when i started this meal plan I expected the same results, nothing. Day one, day two, day three, I was down 3 lbs. I didn't believe it and thought that my scale must have been broken from lack of use prior to this meal plan. Day for, day five, down 5lbs, by day 10 I had lost the 10 lbs. I stopped the meal plan, and fully expected to put the weight back on once I resumed my old eating habits. . . . But I didn't put the weight back on. Over the next 8 months I did this meal plan 4 more times losing a total of 40lbs. HOWEVER, I was also going to my local community centre at least 3 times a week going for aerobics classes or working out on machines, lifting weights and doing sit ups. Summer 2009 came and I was down 40lbs and looking great. The weather was ok for summer, and my husband and I were finishing our basement (from scratch, studs drywall and all), and I didn't make it to the gym hardly at all. Over the summer I went up and down 5-8lbs.
So ideally I would love to lose 10lbs, and if I wanted to be greedy 15lbs.

. . . . . . . So . . . . . . this is my journey, join me, support me, follow me, and give me any and all feedback (constructive and positive).

Enjoy!

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