Come to the Dark Side ..... We have Cupcakes

Resist! Resist!  DON'T come to the dark side.  It isn't a pretty site as we all know.

One of my biggest hobbies / side businesses / relaxation techniques is baking and cake decorating.  I've been doing it since I was little and have become, to toot my own horn, pretty darn good at it!  So when a friend of mine included the Martha Stewart Cupcake book in a care package, a mutual friend and I decided to make a couple of different cupcakes out of the book to send back to her when my husband leaves for Edmonton on Sunday morning.

Cupcakes, cupcake batter, cupcake icing are the devil.  We made a coconut cupcake and a salted caramel chocolate cupcake.  OMG, salted caramel with chocolate cake ~ I had to only let myself have a tiny bite or I would have sat down and eaten it all.  It was a fun evening actually making it all.  I also proved how much willpower I can have when I give myself credit.  Not only did I split one of the coconut cupcakes with both my friend and husband, I also did not have a chocolate caramel one.

My trick/method/whatever you want to call it?  My husband's healthy balanced meal beforehand of a salad with avocado, mango, and grilled chicken and a small side of whole wheat pasta and my homemade turkey meatballs.  After that dinner, I was perfectly satiated and didn't have any of the sugar cravings while baking.  I must remember to eat a balanced meal before baking in the future to help me resist licking the spoon and "taste testing" the finished product.  Who would have thunk it?  lol... most likely everyone other than me!!

Other than that, I did another shopping trip to the States with my husband yesterday morning / afternoon.  He needed jeans, t-shirts, and shorts.  I finally got him into some nice fitting jeans.  He likes his jeans big, baggy, saggy, and light blue ~ they look horrible on him!  So this trip was all about getting proper fitting jeans.  He is an odd size with a skinny waist and long legs, so out of all the stores at the outlet mall, only the True Religion, Lucky, and Levi's fit him properly.  He didn't want to spend over $150 on a single pair of jeans since he is working on bulking up his leg muscles and might size out of them, but splurged on 2 pairs of Lucky Jeans for $100 instead.  They make his ass look fantastic!  My husband may be stick thin, but he has a booty.

My good news from the shopping trip was that I tried on a pair of size 18 jeans at The Gap...and.... they fit!!!  Well, fit as in looked good from the belly button down.  However, I'm weird and different in the fact I like my jeans higher waisted.  I have a very long torso, so I can wear my jean above my belly button without looking like they are touching my boobs (in fact, if I don't, most normal length t-shirts look like mid-riff shirts on me!)  Why am I weird?  Because I like my jeans to hold in my stomach instead of having said stomach hang out above my jeans.  I prefer a smooth silhouette when I wear my shirts instead of rolls.  I just don't have the confidence to rock my rolls like so many girls.  So I didn't buy my Gap Jeans That Fit, but instead will wait until my stomach no longer sticks out further than my boobs before rocking that look!!

Oh.. and in healthier fitness news, I went to my third spin class last night as well! Wohoo!  I burned almost 30% more calories than previous classes.  I really didn't want to go, I was tired from the States trip, I was tired thinking about making the cupcakes afterwards and my legs were bothering me from the Wednesday morning workout and which then made them hurt even more with all the walking and standing while shopping.  But I dragged my sorry butt to the class and actually enjoyed it!  It gave me energy and put me in a good mood to come home to make and resist the cupcakes!  One more class to go...

In even healthier fitness news, my husband and I decided to buy bikes for each other as our one year anniversary gift.  We went to a bike shop when we were across the border yesterday to see which we liked and will be checking out the Vancouver Police bike auction on Saturday morning to see if we can get a good deal.

The downside of this?  The auction preview is this afternoon from 12-6.  For me to make it there and still work my full 8 hours, I had to skip morning bootcamp so I can leave work at 3:30.  With our existing plans to meet with friends and family in the evening, it doesn't look like I'll get a workout in.  As well, the auction is Saturday morning, which means I'll once again miss my circuit class on Saturday morning.  I'm praying that the day leaves me an hour to get my own cardio session in!  Even better for me would be to get a great bike at a great price and go riding on Saturday!

It is always a challenge to get workouts in when your schedule is in flux.  But to keep the healthy habits up, you make it work.  I'm not going to sacrifice sleep, but am not going to make hobbies, like TV or reading, more of a priority.  Balance is key.

So are you sick of my long winded post?  Apparently I had a busy Thursday!


I now have a question for you:
How do you balance exercise and healthy eating when your schedule gets out of whack?


* Since I gave you Tuesday's calorie round-up on Wednesday, here is Wednesday's and Thursday's.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 (oh so close!!!):

Totals	1,834	213	54	94	29	1,667
Your Daily Goal	1,785	245	59	66	20	2,500
Remaining	-49	32	5	-28	-9	833
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Fiber	Sodium
	*You've earned 425 extra calories from exercise today

Thursday, May 3, 2012 (barely squeaking by!):

Totals	1,577	209	44	82	23	1,730
Your Daily Goal	1,637	225	54	61	19	2,500
Remaining	60	16	10	-21	-4	770
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Fiber	Sodium
	*You've earned 277 extra calories from exercise today

Oops, I did it again....

That would be not get out of bed in time to do the 7 am bootcamp.  *sigh*  I sometimes think that if the classes weren't free, even if there was just a $5 charge, I'd be more likely to go!

 Now just to make me (and hopefully others) smile:

photo credit

That poor dog... so scary, yet so so funny.  My husband refuses to let me do anything fun to our white dog's hair!  We're afraid to cut it since the part of this tail fur he burned off in a campfire hasn't grown back (No, we did not torture I dog.  He backed into a campfire while trying to jump into a chair ~ he has a long tail and part of the fire caught a flame - he wasn't hurt, more concerned over why everyone was yelling at him!)

And in other disappointing news, my tenants just gave notice for the end of May.  This gives me 5 weeks to sell my condo or else end up further in debt.  We only rented it out and moved since we couldn't afford to keep living there after being hit with a huge leaky condo levy.  They introduced new bylaws last year where if your tenant moves out, you move back to the bottom of the rental wait list.  In our strata we are only allowed 7 rental units at a time and those spots are all taken and I know there are at least 4 - 5 people on the wait list.  So now I have to sell.  It is about a year before I was planning to do it and throws everything into a loop.  Change means stress to me.  Stress means my body goes into conservation mode and makes it nearly impossible for me to lose weight.  This means I'm going to have to be extra vigilant in my workouts and eating.  Man, I'm nauseous just thinking about it; heart is racing, mind is racing, beginning to sweat ~ yup the stress has started. 

That means that this:

wed afternoon individual cardio session

isn't going to cut it anymore.

I've never been so happy in my life that my husband is coming home.  I need that support right now.  Heck, we have 2 condos to sell so I might as well get used to it!

Well, on the positive side, it will accomplish one more item on my 101 things to do list.

Now... where was I?

Oh... yeah, the not waking up in the morning.  I think I'm going to leave that challenge for another day. 

Monday Blahs

Monday afternoon bootcamp

So I was a very bad girl this morning and skipped morning bootcamp.  I woke up at 6:00 am and then let the negative side of me come through.  My back was bothering me and the thought of an intense cardio and core circuit just wasn't appealing.  I know we need to keep the numbers up to keep the class from being cancelled, but I had slept poorly and just wanted 2 more hours of sleep.

I ended up getting out of bed at 8:10 am.  *sigh*

I did however go to afternoon bootcamp and burned my 478 calories!  My shins were bothering me like mad so I was happy with the result.  We had the new trainer again and he totally cracks me up ~ he repeats all of his motivational sayings at least twice.  It both annoys me and makes me laugh at the same time:  "Come guys keep it up, keep it up" or "Let's get moving, let's get moving" in a monotone voice.  He is a good trainer I think, just young and inexperienced.  He'll get his trainer legs soon!

I weighed in this morning at 239.4, so I'm still below 240 for the 3rd week in a row which means I can update the very first item on my 101 things to to in 1001 days page to be complete!   I am stoked.  However, it also means I probably would have lost serious weight last week if I could have kept the chocolate and Reese Puff's cereal addition monster under control.  I did well until Saturday night, Sunday morning where I just grazed on everything including way too much chocolate, the semi-baked cake, and 3 massive bowls of cereal.

I'm trying to get back on track with food by planning all my meals and having them all laid out.  I batched cooked the protein / veggie portion for 8 meals (M-Th) and then will allow myself a cheat meal on Friday since I have my personal training session that day.  My husband also arrives back in town Friday night so I'm super excited about that!  I have him for a week before he goes back for his summer class.  We'll probably end up going out for sushi Friday night.  Since I eat mainly the sashimi with a side of edaname, I should be good for food.  Just to control that boredom eating and then I'll be set.

What tricks do people employ to avoid the boredom eating?  I try to keep myself busy at home and if I had more of a social life and more friends I can see myself going out more.  But I seriously heart me some TV and tend to want to graze on food while watching.  I don't buy most of the junk food, but anything can be overeaten ~ including the "healthy" stuff.  Too much fruit isn't a good thing and too many veggies make my tummy unhappy.

I've decided to make myself some goals this week to keep my focus:

Weight Goal: Lose 2 lbs.
Non-Scale Health / Fitness Goal: Burn a total of 3500 calories this week ~ that averages to 500 a day and if I keep my workout schedule I should be able to do this.
Personal Goal: Finish cleaning / organising the house so when the hubby comes home we can enjoy non-housework stuff. 

Question: What are your goals for this week?

I understand everyone smells... but jesh!

After taking yesterday off to hang out with my wonderful friend, I was back at the gym today.

I was out late last night and even though I woke up at 6 am to let the dog out, I crawled back into bed for another 2 hours after that.  I couldn't face doing a morning bootcamp, working for 8 hours, and then having a stretch of boring time at home trying to avoid watching the hockey game tonight.  So instead, I went to the 4:30pm class and am working late.

Now, I used to always go to the afternoon bootcamp.  It is a comfortable group of people where no one really pushes you and if you don't want to try too hard, you don't have to.  It fit me for the first few years I was doing the classes.  The crazy morning class where people want to be punished scared the hell out of me.

But, after having done the morning classes for the last few months ~ I want back!  The afternoon class has many more people on average (15 today vs. 6 in the morning) and trying to put it delicately, 2 or 3 who, well, smell.  REALLY REALLY bad, to the point their body odour will smell up the whole gym.  Or like today, the whole stairwell as you run stairs with them.  I don't know if they don't wear deorderant, don't wash their gym clothes, or if it is just their natural scent, but when you get all 3 in one class, combined with 12 or 13 other people ~ I can't handle it.  Pushing my heart rate to 190 while having to prevent myself from being neaseous from the smell just doesn't work.

While the calories weren't bad, I had a horrible workout.

I've talked to the trainers regarding the smell and honestly there isn't much anyone can do.  If they don't smell when they come in ~ some people are just unlucky in that regard.

I guess smell is like sweat.  I sweat like a freaking pig.  It just drips off of me and I feel gross and ugh.  I feel like others at the gym judge me for how much I sweat, equating being fat to the sweating.  Yet, there are people who sweat even more than me (trails of sweat on the floor when running) who are in fantastic shape.

When I'm at the gym, I try not to judge other people.  For the most part, we are all there to get in shape, workout, and do the best we can that day.  I know we all think others are watching us but I bet in fact, no one really is.  It is all in our head.  At my gym, there are one or two people who do watch others ~ who are persistent in calling out those they perceive not to be working hard enough either to others after the classes or during them by offering "advice".  However, when they do that, don't they realize that they can't be working hard enough if they are too busy watching and judging others?  We have a guy and a girl like that in the classes that drive me up the wall.  I've gotten good at ignoring people when I'm doing my thing, but still, no one should ever go into a gym and feel like they aren't good enough because they can't do what others do.

I know that is an idealistic view.  Many people, skinny and fat, aren't comfortable in some gyms due to the perceived judgements from others.   I battle that constantly.  I have to keep telling myself that no one is looking at me.  It doesn't always work and I try to hide in the back.  I tailor the clothes I wear to the gym so I don't offend anyone.  I make sure my shirts are long enough to cover all the chub and loose enough so the fat rolls don't appear.  I HATE doing jumping jacks or other things that make my fat all jiggle in front of others since I don't want them disgusted by me.  However, those clothes aren't always the most comfortable to wear.  Should I be concerned about offending people?  Who cares if I wear a tank top where you can see the rolls, I'm not showing any skin, just spandex controlled fat!

I'm going to a new spin class at the local recreation center tomorrow, one I've never been to, so I wonder what the atmosphere there is going to be.  I wonder if I'll be comfortable or try to hide again.

The gym is such a different social beast to navigate.

Question:  Are you comfortable at the gym you go to?  Do you avoid certain exercises so you're not judged?

Aie-Yie-Yie. My poor bum!!

photo courtesy of janeyeseeyou

I did a new exercise yesterday - I attended a free spin class held by my trainer's gym last night.  The trainers are attempting to get a regular spin class going and held a few free classes to see if their clients interested. 

To be honest, I was dreading it.  I spent the afternoon at work alternately telling myself to take it easy, you've had the stomach flu, you can skip the class and trying to convince myself that it won't be so bad and that I need to push myself past my comfort zone to continue and that I needed the cardio.

Well, as you know, the angel on my right shoulder prevailed and I dragged my sorry butt down to the gym for 4:00 pm (yah, stupid freaking time and now i need to make up an hour of work today.)  The trainer holding the class was one I haven't worked with before, but she seemed super friendly and all up for it although there was only 3 of us attending, one of them being the trainer's best friend.  The other thing I really liked about this trainer is that she isn't super thin ~ to be perfectly candid, she has some meat on her bones and doesn't come off as a fanatic or super intense person which is what I imagined most spin instructors to be like.

So... the class... was FUN!  The music was upbeat and positive and the trainer wanted all of us to go at our own pace.  I expected my quads to burn baby burn.  However, they survived just fine.  I even expected my bum to be unbearably sore during and after the class, but during the class, there was enough up and down that it didn't bother me. 

What I did struggle with was 3 things:

    My feet!  Who would have thought that!  The bottom of my feet from where the pedal ended was on fire from about the 25 minute mark all the way to the end.  Luckily, my feet recovered quite quickly from it and seem to be ok doing the walking / shuffling in this morning's bootcamp.

    My arms!  With all the standing up and leaning over, they got quite the workout.  My triceps and shoulders were sore from my workout on Monday and the "hovers" and such moves really tired them out.  I also must have put too much pressure on one of my forearms during the hill climbs and bruised a small part of my forearm.  I don't bruise easy so ouchie!! And this morning, my chest is killing me!  The push-ups in bootcamp this morning suffered from seriously poor form.

    Movement from sitting to standing!  I really struggled with the "jumps" where you quickly transitioned from sitting to standing.  I found my knees wanted to buckle and it just wasn't smooth for me.  When we started doing those, my arms and feet were already done so I generally just stayed in a seated position.


So I mentioned above my bum didn't bother me during the workout ~ heck it was only a little tender while driving out to pick up my dog.  But holy mother of hell, was it sore this morning when I woke up.  Just sitting I wanted to cry.  Coming up from a full situp, when you roll across your tailbone onto your butt cheeks, nearly made me cry in bootcamp this morning.   Even sitting now during lunch at work I'm uncomfortable.


So, will I do one again?  I think so.  It was a fantastic cardio workout ~ 550 calories in 50 minutes and the pain afterwards is similar to the pain after bootcamps, just in different places.   As well, it is something different from the bootcamps and circuit.  I know exactly what to expect and I can completely lose myself in the blasting music.  The local rec centre is holding a 30-minute beginner spin course starting in a week or 2.  I'm thinking that might be a better start for me so my butt and body can transition slower.  Plus, it is significantly cheaper than the $20 per session that my trainers want to charge.  I just hope they don't mind me singing along to the songs!

Do any experienced spinners have any advice?