What I was reading last week...

I'm a little late posting this (darn husband!) but better late than never to share some interesting stuff you may not have seen yet!


Are you a responder or non-responder:
Does Exercise Make You Overeat?
I'm pretty sure I'm a responder :(

Maybe it is time to bring back something our Grandparents did to cut out all the processed food:
Canning for a New Generation

I may have wanted to be a thinner bride, but I never would have done this:

What Would You do as a Bride?

How about you?

   

While this is a great story, and the kid is smart and awesome, it makes me sad that in this day and age, the kids have to teach his parents about nutrition. 

A Child puts Himself on a Diet

I'm not at all saying it is the parent's fault, but society has evolved to a place where obesity is the norm for so many reasons!

Why always reassessing your goals and letting go of the unrealistic ones is good for you:
Redefining Life Goals can Foster Better Health
So no more unhealthy, unattainable, 50 lbs in 3 months type goals! OK?

Thought provoking since as much as we want to see "real" women in modelling and advertising, does our subconscious?

Do We Really Want See Real Women

I may have low self-esteem, but I refuse to let what other people think of me prevent me from reaching my goals!
Most Women Shy Away from Outdoor Exercise
(or at least I hope I have enough self-esteem to do that.)

Exercise is not only good for our appearance and health, but our minds as well:

What Kind of Exercise Benefits your Brain Most

I swear this is happening in shoes.  I used to wear a size 9 / EU 40.  Now I am in most size 8 / 38.  WTF?
I can wear a smaller pant size now! Or can I?

Use it or Lose it

To prove I'm an uber-geek.  I WANT!
http://bigbigpixel.com/

Stop saying "I'll do that when I'm skinny" for things you can probably do now, but just don't know it!
It is Time to get on with your Big Audacious Life

And now to prove how much I love baking and cute stuff, I want to make these now:
Cinco De Mayo Pinata Cookies

More reasons to get those berries in!
Berries may Reduce Mental Decline in Older Women

More reasons to stay active:
Daily Activity Tied to Lower Alzheimers Risk

How many of us experience poor eating when we're tired or running on empty?
Good Night Sleep Contributes to Healthy Eating


And now I need to go brush up on proper capitalization in titles and links.  Well... tonight when I finish work!

Happy Reading! 

Goal Check-in Week 2

Last week's goals:

 

Weight Goal:  

Lose 2 lbs. - FAIL.  weight loss was 0. 

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. - FAIL.  Adding in the 1000 calories from Friday and nothing on Saturday and Sunday, I only reached approximately 2700 calories.

Personal Goal: 

Finish cleaning / organising the house so when the hubby comes home we can enjoy non-housework stuff. - SUCCESS.  The house was ready when he arrived and we didn't have any stress about it over the weekend!

This week's goals:

 

Weight Goal:

Lose 2 lbs.

Non-Scale Health / Fitness Goal:

Workout for a total of 6 hours this week and track everything I eat.

Personal Goal :

Find and organise all the papers necessary for the Realtor.

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?

For the second spin class....

I survived!

201 calories burned

I'm taking a 30 minute beginner spin class at a local recreation centre about 15 minutes from my house.  4 half hour classes for $12, taxes in.  I can't go wrong.

I figured after my hour long class, that maybe, to prevent my bum from revolting on me, I should ease into this whole spin thing.

I know when people look at me they assume that I never work out, must be in horrible shape etc.  Given that this spin class is at the back of a large, very busy, weight and cardio area, I felt very awkward and unwelcome walking through there to find the spin area.  The class is not separated at all from the rest of the workout area, the benches were about 6 ft from my bike ~ so not knowing this I worse a tight tank top.  BIG mistake.  I felt so self-conscious as we were sprinting because my second wave arm flab was just a-moving.  I caught a glance of myself in the mirror and immediately thought, T-SHIRT next time, big baggy t-shirt.  *sigh*  All these hot young guys do not need to see my arm flab or belly roll.  (hmm... wasn't I just talking about not caring about what people thought last time... apparently I do care)

Anyways, back to the spin class.

There were 8 of us in total.  Four of them were all younger (mid-20s) girls who all knew each other.  One single middle aged lady and then a mother daughter pair.  All were much thinner than I was, other than the mom.  Boy, did I ever feel sorry for the mom.  She reminds me a lot of my mom, shorter, large busted and carrying all her weight around the middle; she was the only person in that gym bigger than me.  About 10 minutes in, the instructor showed us jumps (standing up then sitting down again).  On the last jump, that poor woman slipped, missed her seat and ended up stuck in an incredibly awkward position. Her feet were stuck in the pedals and her knees were on the ground.  Her daughter and the instructor rushed to her side to try to help her up.  Since I was on the bike beside her, I too got up, but there wasn't much I could do.  Her feet were eventually unstuck and the instructor and daughter lifted her up.  She was a trouper.  She got right back on and kept going (however not doing the standing up when we were doing hills) for the rest of the 30 minutes class.  I was so glad that no one stood around and stared at her and I felt nothing but compassion for her.  She was there, she was trying and I really hope they come back for the second class.

I think I will continue with the spin.  I need to definitely work harder on pushing myself.  My average heart rate was only 112bpm.  In boot camps and circuits it ranges anywhere from 130-160bpm.  The class did show me that I do need someone on me to push me in order to get the calorie burn I want when I'm feeling unmotivated.  However, 200 is 200 and it got me moving!  So far, I'm doing well, working out or doing something very active 6 times a week.   I just need to learn to push myself.

Tomorrow morning is our 7 am boot camp class.  Depending on who the trainer is, I'm going to ask them to kill me.  I need my ass kicked after a week of lacklustre workouts on my part.

So I've got the workout thing under control.

Food... *sigh*  How about we don't talk about the 1/2 box girl guide cookies I ate on Monday?  Or the 1/2 bag of mini peanut butter cups I ate till I felt ill yesterday?  My curse is having no healthy snack food in the house and boredom.  I started eating stale pretzels when I got home since I knew I needed something.  I should start my knitting again to keep my hands busy, but I can't motivate myself to go searching for all my needles and cast something on.  I desperately need to go grocery shopping and organise my crafts so I'm not sitting around home doing nothing.

I have a children's birthday cake to do this weekend, so I know I'm going to indulge in a icing and cake batter, so I really shouldn't make cookie dough tonight or eat any of the chocolate in this place.  I don't even have milk to have a bowl of cereal.  I think peanut butter on crackers is what it will be.  I REALLY want to make myself some cookie dough but I am going to be good and resist. I want that number on the scale to be down at least 1 lb on Monday morning.

So to everyone out there: stay strong on your food and don't be afraid to try new workouts; if you fall, get back up!

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?

As luck will have it...

I'm lucky, I won't deny it, with the support and resources I have available to make my lifestyle change.

I work for an amazing company where there is a free gym in our building.  Not only can we access the gym daily from 6 am to 10 pm, the company also pays for personal trainers to come in and host bootcamp and circuit training classes FREE for the employees.  Yes, free!!

And yet, I'm still fat.  The company gym has been open for 3 1/2 years and I'm the same weight I was when the gym first opened.  However, I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, (what the heck does that even mean?) and my fitness and health are 100 times better.  I can run laps around the gym without stopping to walk, the elliptical no longer makes me want to cry.  I still hate running the stairs, but I can do it.  I have become very intimate with every piece of equipment in that gym and it has been graced with my sweat.  I have taken almost every class available to me and become friends with the trainers.  I look forward to going to the gym on a regular basis.  I laugh more inside that stupid room than I do at my desk!

Yet, I'm still fat.

That is not my company's fault, for they have given me every opportunity to lose weight (wait (haha) until I tell you about the Biggest Loser style competitions!) My weight is my fault.  My food has been hit and miss ~ I've yo-yo dieted so much that I have next to no metabolism.  For me to loose a pound, I have to work twice as hard and eat half as much as my healthier co-workers.

But I'm not giving up.

I've become quiet close with one of the trainers who is also a nutritionist.  Combining the free bootcamps, with personal training sessions (paid by me) every other week with the trainer, I'm getting a handle on what food combinations work for me.   In the middle of January I went on a restricted diet that limited my calorie intake to 1000 - 1200 calories a day after we tried many combinations over the previous year.  My food was boring.  BORING!

Here was my daily menu:

Breakfast 
1/4 cup steel-cut oatmeal
3-4 egg whites
1 serving fruit (generally 2 kiwis or 1 cup berries)


Snack
1 cup grapes


Lunch
2 cups spinach
150 grams chicken breast (baked, stir fried with herbs and seasoning)
1 cup berries (generally the frozen berry mix from Costco so the juices make a dressing)


Snack
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 fibre one brownie


Dinner
1 red pepper - raw, cut in slices
150 grams chicken
1 cup spinach
Small carb serving (generally I used 1 90 calorie 5 g fibre pita bun, or a 100 calorie high fibre wrap)


Evening Snack
*80 calories dark chocolate

* the nutritionist didn't recommend this!
I LOVE chocolate, 50 lbs of my fat is from chocolate alone.  There is no way I could live with the diet for so long if I couldn't have chocolate.

So technically I wasn't supposed to have it, but I did anyway. I figured it was worth it to keep my sanity.  I found these amazing Lindt chocolate balls where I can have 3 of them for only 80 calories.  Since I snacked in the evening like most people, I would play a game with myself so I wouldn't snack.  I would dole out those chocolate eggs at a rate of one per hour.  I got one at 8 pm, 9 pm, and 10pm as a reward for not snacking and for keeping with the diet.

And even with a few bumps here and there, I'm keeping with that restricted food plan.  I'm now allowed 1600 calories a day and generally stay at 1400 unless I go a little nuts with the chocolate.  I'm down almost 20 lbs from where I started 12 weeks ago.  I think if I keep this up, if I eat like this 80% of the time and keep the pizza and cookie dough to 20% of the time, one year from now, all the free stuff I'm lucky enough to have at work, will have paid off and I will be in one-derland!

* As a footnote, please remember I'm not recommending anyone go on this diet, I'm not a doctor and this is my and my nutritionist's diet plan tailored specifically for me.  So please...don't do anything this drastic unless you've talked to a trained professional!  Please!