Living in the Present

Breakfast today was something new and I really enjoyed it :-)  I decided to give the Natures Path Pomegran Plus with Oatbran waffles a try.  I slathered them with some PB2 and a sliced up half of a banana and a few sprinkles of mini chocolate chips.  It tasted just like any regular waffle would taste and the staying power wasn’t all that bad, but not as good as oatmeal ;-).  That with my coffee with scotsburn blend cream was about 329  calories:

       

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning Snack because it was a bowl full of fresh berries.  I swear I’m keeping the berry industry going this winter all by myself *sigh*.  This was about 76 calories:

Lunch was the same as yesterday because I wanted to use up the other half of the can of Pacific Salmon Pate.  I spread it on a mini naan and topped it with some sliced cucumber, red onion and capers for about 290 calories:

The sun was shining today and it made me feel better right off the bat.  I decided to take a walk down the street at after that and sat at the coffee shop and enjoyed an Americano with a little bit of cream and a tsp of organic sugar.  This coffee shop is a fair trade coffee shop, so it makes me feel all “do-gooder”ish to go there :-D.  That was about 45 calories and later on in the afternoon I had a deep chocolate vitatop with 1 tbsp of PB2 on top for a heavenly 127 calories:

As soon as I got home from work I strapped up Lucy and she and I went for a 30 minute walk.  It was a mediocre walk and I didn’t get my heart rate up where I would have wanted had it been a longer walk, so I burned only about 85 calories, so said my HRM.  Although, I’m not sure it was reading properly at first because it kept saying “O” for my heart rate during the first 10 minutes quite a bit! Regardless, I know it wasn’t a crazy calorie burn or anything, I just wanted to get out and enjoy what was left of the nice day and get Lucy outside for a walk before supper and yoga.

Since I was a little pressed for time, I decided to thaw out another smaller portion of the Creamy Greens & Pepper Rotini combo I made a while back that I had frozen with the leftover of the Spinach & Beet Salad from last night which I sprinkled with a bit of feta.  Those two things combined were about 421 calories:

 

Then I munched a little on a few of those gluten free ginger snap cookies for another 79 calories  AND a Junior Yo-Granola for 50 calories and ran off to yoga.  This beginner class, as I’ve said is not a real calorie burner class, but I’d guess I burned about 75 calories if I were to guess.  So that paid for the ginger snaps pretty much! :-D  I’m tellin yas, at the rate I’ve been gobbling up bites and snacks lately, I’m REALLY GLAD I have these little low calorie alternatives and that I don’t have the high calorie naughty versions around because I’d be eating them in a second!  This is why it is so important for me to have my environment set up to stay on plan!

When I got home from yoga I ended up finishing off the rest of the Fox Hill Vanilla Yogurt that I had left which I have been having spoonfuls of here and there since Saturday!  The stuff is good!  there was about 90 calories left in the container. 

So that wracked my total up for the day to be about 1500 and my daily goal (having earned 160  from exercise was 1360 which put me over by 140.

The thing I really like about MyFitnessPal is that at the end of every day after you finish logging your food and exercise, there is a button you can click to “complete” your day and when you click it, it analyses how well you did for that day and based on today’s info, it says, “If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 167.1 lbs in 5 weeks”  So on the one hand you feel like you’re “finalizing your entries” so you don’t want to eat any more unplanned food, and you get an instant picture of how your day measures up to your overall longer term progress!  And ya know what?  I like that.  I was just thinking to myself that I feel like my problem these days really is getting my heart into the exercise department and that I don’t really feel like I can comfortably reduce my calories any more (aside from my recent indiscretions of course), so based on today, I could totally live with losing at this slower rate.  It’s especially nice to see that slower rate progress illustrated because it is something that is so slow, it’s hard to really appreciate the progress that you really are making when you’re not “perfect” ya know?

I want to be clear though that really right now I think that exercise is almost more important to my overall success right now because I know that I have work to do in the metabolism department with my body and the only way to do that is to step up the exercise on a more consistent and permanent basis.   Up to this point I’ve really gotten away with minimal exercise and was still successful at losing weight.  Originally this was due to circumstances beyond my control, but now I’m perfectly capable of doing it, of stepping it up and doing it.  Something is holding me back on the mental side of it and I don’t quite know what it is yet.  I will get there though, I’ll figure it out and I’ll get there!

Jillian said something that resonated with me today on one of her podcasts.  She said that many of us feel like we’re “battling” with weight loss and that we have “a story” about our obesity or about our being overweight and that it is really just our ego.  Feeling like we’re in “battle” with this journey is only a waste of energy and it’s likely only hindering progress making it harder.  I think there is so much truth to that, don’t you?  I mean we ALL have “that story” because most of us are here and reading this because we have/had a weight problem or have a desire to lose weight.  How many of us could have a long-winded story to tell about our experiences being “fat” or overweight?  Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in it that we become unable to separate from it and instead of living in the present, and living in what is in front of us today to make choices, we continue to think about the past as it is associated with being overweight.

For the most part I do feel like I live every day in the present.  I have experienced some major life events up to this point in my life that have shaped me as a person (as many of us have), but I have always chosen to draw positive things from them and I have always respected that those experiences shaped me as a person, as cliché as that sounds.  But lately, I have to admit, I’ve been living a little less in the present, so this was a welcomed reminder to me about how I normally prefer to live my life.

/end tangent.

Less than hot

Hey ya’ll.

I’m not quite feeling my best these days, so this may be short and to the point. 

For Breakfast today I had a serving of Cinnamon Barbara’s Bakery Puffins with some unsweetened vanilla almond breeze and rather than have cream in my coffee this morning I had some more almond breeze.  The whole shebang was a total of only 142 calories: I do enjoy these cinnamon puffins because they remind me so much of cinnamon toast crunch which I always LOVED.  But this breakfast’s overall  lacking in the calorie department was proportional to its staying power because I was hungry easily by 9:00!  So I had some seedless green grapes and a Cracker Barrel light medium chedder portion to tide me over until lunch time for a total of about 170 calories:

Lunch was something totally unconventional.  It was a mini naan bread that I bought at Pete’s (garlic and coriander flavour) topped with a pacific salmon pate that I bought at Planet Organic and then topped with thinly sliced english cucumber, red onion and some capers for a total of 299 calories:

Now here’s where my day started going wonky and off the rails.  I got into these little peanut butter cup friggers and instead of only having two, I had SIX for a reckless total of 400 calories.

And I gotta tell yas, yesterday and today I have felt totally off my game.  I have no desire to exercise and I generally feel lethargic.  I don’t like it one bit.  So I couldn’t bring myself to get an exercise session in after work even though I have just added some new additions to my “home gym” that I’m slowly starting to develop.  The Superstore had most of it’s exercise department on sale and I bought a set of hand weights (2lbs, 3lbs, 5lbs and 8 lbs), weighted resistance bands for your legs (for pilates), a skipping rope and a stepper! And they were ALL on sale. :-D  Step aerobics has always been up there with my favourite hardcore aerobic activity.  I always loved doing it and did it even when I was 300lbs.  I was excited that I found one and it was on sale for only $11.99 (down from $35)!  The only problem is that I have to take it back because the riser on it was broken, but I’ll exchange it for a new one.  So now I’m on the hunt for a good step aerobic DVD.  Anybody have any they would like to recommend?

For Supper tonight I put one of the recipes from the Eating Well magazine to the test.  It was “Warm Beet & Spinach Salad” which was such a great combination of fresh and “hearty” so it was perfect for supper.  The only thing I changed was I added some feta on top at the end and served it with a few mini chicken skewers for some added protein for about 260 calories:

Oh and then I frigged it all up because I got into the Breyers Double Churn ice cream cups and instead of just having one, I let my “woe is me” feeling get to me and I ate THREE and then that wasn’t enough and I also had a Smart Ones Strawberry Shortcake thing too!  This added an embarrassing 470 calories onto the previous 400 in the peanut butter cups I had after lunch!  Seriously????  That’s a total of about 1750 for the day.

Here’s the weird thing…now that I’ve blogged it and tracked it, even though it was a total waste of calories and complete junk, it’s not nearly as bad as it seemed.  1750 for one day isn’t the end of the world by any means!  I feel stuffed to the brim and I suppose I can take some comfort in knowing that my version of a binge makes me top out before 2000!

G’night!

I think that yesterday’s moving took a bigger toll on my energy today than I had originally thought!  I feel utterly drained today!  So much so that I think I’m going to kick it to bed early tonight and get a good snooze.  And I swear if any animals feel the need to snuggle up into a little ball right in the middle of the bed or right up in between my legs practically on my bum and/or on a little ball ON MY BACK, I might just have to be Ms. Grumpypants and kick them off!  Am I the only one who doesn’t have the heart to do it??  I mean why do I always sacrifice my own sleep and comfort for those little furballs when they can and DO just sleep all day when we’re gone?  *sigh* cause I’m a softy, that’s why :-S 

So I decided on an Ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin for Breakfast this morning with some plain light cream cheese and a coffee with some scotsburn blend cream and sugar free syrup for 282 calories. I seriously love Ezekiel breads!  They are SO filling!!  I have never felt full from an english muffin in my life!

 

Later on in the morning, I was treated to a Tim’s tea with milk and to my delight was reminded that it’s nearing Spring because it’s “Roll Up The Rim” time again!  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a winner though, but nontheless a great mid-morning cup of tea.  I also peeled an absolutely delicious pink grapefruit completely from it’s membrane and all and enjoyed it’s wonderful juiciness and it was really refreshing for about 64 calories:

Seriously, look at how plump and juicy it was and it’s 10000 times better to eat without the tough membrane/peel:

When Lunch time came around, I tried the other Amy’s entree I had bought last week.  This was one was the Enchilada with Spanish Rice & Beans.  I have YET to have an Amy’s product that I did not like!  I’m a huge fan!!  This one kicks the Smart One’s Sante Fe Rice & Beans butt any day of the week!  I also had some Raspberry Liberte No Fat Probiotic Svelte Yogurt with some fresh organic raspberries on top and all in all this was a HUGE lunch.  In fact, if I hadn’t already dished out the yogurt and berries, I would have saved them for another time.  All in all lunch was a total of 476 calories. 

Oh and I bought organic raspberries when we were at Pete’s Frootique on Saturday because they were the same price as the regular ones.  I have to day, I didn’t think that there would be a difference in taste from the regular ones, but there was!  These were sweeter and tastier than usual (if that’s possible), but they were also a little softer than the regular ones too.

After I got home from work I had some unplanned snacking (the hardest part of the day for me).  It wasn’t really that bad, but still extra calories I didn’t need.  I had some Guiltless Gourmet Chipotle tortilla chips (my fav) with some medium Pete’s salsa for about 120 calories and a few organic chocolate teddy grahams and about 4 whole almonds for another 97 calories:

 

These were the culprits from yesterday’s indiscretions on moving day!  I had waaaaaaaaay too many handfuls :-S

 

 

 

 

I’ve said it before, but I’m super impressed that Shopper’s Drug Mart has their own organic line of food!  And the prices are comparable to the regular items! 

For Supper I baked a chicken bouquet that I also bought at Pete’s on Saturday.  It’s basically a chicken breast stuffed with asparagus, emmentall cheese and sun dried tomato and in a special marinade.   It was pretty good, but I liked another one that I tried last time which I think was chicken supreme?  Along side I had some steamed green beans and about 1/4 of a sweet potato baked into fries for about 337 calories.  I was that lazy and tired I had no problem eating supper in the family room in front of the TV while I flipped through another new mag I picked up today:

 

It was delish.  My daily total today was a total calorie intake of 1439 calories.   That’s over my net target of 1200 because I didn’t get in any exercise!  Boooooo.  I didn’t have it in my today, so I decided to take today off. 

I hope I’ll be making it an earlier night and my goal is lights out and head on pillow, eyes closed at 1o p.m.!

Hi!

I just wanted to poke in here for a quick post because I ran out of time for my regular post last night. Hubby and I spent the day helping some friends move and by the time I got home, got some grub, switched over the laundry, changed the bed sheets, got the BLBE stuff organized and posted for the week, I was just plain too exhausted and not to mention sore and stiff!

We started moving aroudn 10:30 and settled down to go home around 6. So it was definitely a productive day for exercise and I can definitely feel it today BIG time! I feel good that I feel sore! :-) Although I will say I negated whatever extra calories I burned yesterday because I ended up grabbing a million handfuls of almonds, chocolate teddy grahams and sun chips :-S It was a snack and go kind of day all around.

Today's WI was good. It was a loss of 2.4 so I'm on my way back down from last week's off track-ness. I loaded up on tons of healthy and fresh produce from Pete's on Saturday and I have some recipes that I want to try out from my Clean Eating and Eating Well magazines I bought on Friday, so I'll be posting those as I make them. For those of you who were asking about what I thought of the mags, I've so far only done a first round flip, so I'll let the recipes etc. speak for themselves as they come and I'll let yas know!

ta ta!

Me, Tasha, Farm Girl, Lynn, Bionic, Megs, Cora and Pete = BFF’s :-D

Lucy woke me up this morning earlier than I had planned, but it turned out not to be a bad thing after all because it got my out of bed early enough to get a small pre-breakfast” before brunch with the girls later on at Coras and not too heavy before a little exercise.  I had a half of an apple with some PB2 for dipping and a cup of coffee with scotsburn blend cream, some sugar free cinnamon dolce syrup and I also put a tbsp of PB2 in my coffee to give it another try.  Again, it turned out not being worth the use of PB2.  It tends to settle to the bottom, so that’s my take on the PB2+coffee.  My “pre” breakfast was only 163 calories:

Then the Lu-ster and I got geared up for a nice walk since the sun came out and the poor little thing hasn’t had a decent walk in ages.  I got my iPod all ready, got all dressed and then I went to grab my iPod earphones from the car and I FOUND MY HAT!  I didn’t lose it after all!  It was hidden all tucked underneath the console by the emergency break the whole time! YAYYYYY!  I LOVE that hat!  I was ready to call the lululemon headquarters to try to order a new one! lol  So Lucy and I went on a 45 minute walk/jog.  Yes that’s right JOG!  I couldn’t help myself.  After about 30 minutes I just went for it and I wanted to see how it made me feel.  I really really really really want to run again and I want to do the 5K in the Bluenose Marathon this year and I really hope that my doctor “okay’s” it.  It felt great and I only ran for about 10 minutes of the whole thing, but it was a straight 10 and it reminded me of a time a few winter’s ago when it was an early morning walk with Lucy and I “tried” to run and the best I could do was try to go from one telephone pole to the next.  I remembered it clear as day and I remember the thoughts I was having at that time on how I was trying to encourage myself to “just go to the next telephone pole.”  Wow I have come a LONG way from then!  I am proud of myself for that.  :-D  That is why the 5K meant so much to me last year.  It broke my heart when the doc said that I should stop running “for now.”  I took the “for now” to be arbitrary and not “never again” so maybe I’ll test the waters and give it a try here and there to see how I tolerate it and whether or not my hip will scream at me.  So all in all I burned 275 calories through the entire walk/jog :-)

Then I jumped in the shower and got ready to meet the girls for Brunch at Cora’s since Tasha had an impromptu visit home from Toronto for the weekend and we had a great brunch with Farm Girl, Bionic, Lynn and Megs (non-blogger).  Brunch was great and I had a few pours of coffee with just milk and I had one tsp of sugar at the end.

I had in my mind before I went that I was ordering the “Peggy’s Poached” and I decided I wouldn’t even open the menu because that always leads to switching my plan and getting something not so easy on the ol’ calories.  So I stuck to my plan and got Peggy’s Poached with no butter on the toast either (impressive I know! :-D)  So basically it’s one slice of whole wheat toast, one poached egg, cottage cheese and fresh fruit!  I estimated Brunch to be about 456 calories going a little on the higher side with the cottage cheese not sure if it was skim or 2% or whatever:

Then we moved our party to Starbucks where I had already had quite enough coffee for one day and I tried the Passion flavour of Tazo tea.  It was delish!  My only concern was that it had a very strong pink colour to the tea, and it does have colour in the the ingredients, so I don’t know whether it’s a “safe” artificial colour or not.  Either way, it was a great way to get in a sbux treat calorie free:

Then Tasha had to split and spend some time with the hubby and Farm Girl went for her massage and the three of us went to Pete’s Frootique to stock up on some produce and to just have a look-see around the store because it’s an awesome grocery store. 

And LOOK what I got to try that they were giving samples of!  Dragon Fruit!!!!!!  I’ve never heard of it in my life and holy frig it’s actually that pretty pink colour on the outside!!!!  It was super tasty and not a strong flavoured fruit at all as I though it might be because of the outside colour.  It kind of reminded me of a kiwi from the tiny seeds.  It was quite good and if it wasn’t $7.99 I would have bought one just for kicks, but seriously $7.99??  It’s bad enough that I pay an arm and a leg for raspberries on a fairly regular basis!

The dragon fruit I think would have been only about 15 calories:

Then I tried one of these brown rice crisps samples which wasn’t worth counting the calories for and I liked it, but didn’t buy any because they were quite salty.

Okay and then there was the fudge and naughty food case at Pete’s.  I could have been reeeeeeeeeal bad and got a big piece of fudge, but instead I got a tiny cup of a few morsels of different kinds of fudge for a little treat.  I did refrain at Starbuck with only a tea and did super great with my brunch selection, so I enjoyed a few of these little guys and I estimated it to be about 280 calories in total because I had more later!  The whole point was to buy them “for hubby” but I’m ashamed to say he didn’t see much of it!:

And also while at Pete’s I bought a pork schnitzel and a mixed salad from the salad bar and I had that for Supper.  The pork was only 100g of pounded lean pork which was lightly breaded and I cooked it on a non-stick pan with some spray of EVOO.  The salad bar at Pete’s is awesome and I got a mix of:

• spring mix greens
• carrots
• red onion
• cucumber
• black olives
• chick peas
• egg
• I feel like I’m forgetting something else…

I had a balsamic lemon vinaigrette that I didn’t end up using.  I estimated the above to be about 380 calories. 

I was hankering for a sweet something and while at Pete’s I bought some more of the Fox Hill Vanilla yogurt suggested by one of you lovely people a while back because it is yummy stuff and even though I eat the Liberte on a regular basis, it’s nice to change it up! This stuff is full fat yogurt, so it did feel like a dessert treat.  I had 1/4c topped with a few organic raspberries for about 109 calories:

So all of that brought me to about 1403 calories for the day which allows me about another 80 to play with.  I may munch a bit on something later.

Oh and it was funny because I brought the umpteen jars of PB2 and Chocolate PB2 that I ordered back in December to share with the girls and I had it in my trunk and I joked with the girls about how I’m their “PB2 dealer” because we had to go back to my car to “do the deal” :-D  I snagged this picture from Lynn which would have been perfect except it was missing Tasha who had already split for the day!

All in all it was a fantastic day and I enjoyed hanging out with the girls so much.  I miss Tasha!!!!  I want you to hurry up and get a great job here sooooooooon!!!

And I wanted to shout out to Heather who we unintentionally left out of the loop about our brunch today and who’s celebrating a birthday!  Happy Birthday Heather!!!  We’re so sorry that we missed including you on our GTG loop! :-(  We’re going to have a
“make up” GTG soon and now we have a good excuse ;-)