That's how much accountability I've had this past two weeks...NONE. Hands down biggest fall from the wagon I've ever had. Seriously people, once I got to my Mom's it was like all bets were off. I was eating bloody shortbread cookies for breakfast with my coffee. And chips n dip like I would never see them again. Not to mention that my Mom makes the best turkey sammiches on squishy white bread. Yikes. I will know the damage for sure when I weigh in on January 2nd. I chose January 2nd because it's going to take until at least then to get through a few more obstacles and to do a proper grocery shop. Good news is that I've heard the snow has subsided in Halifax so I will be able to hit the gym hard for a few days before getting back to work....and then DBF is back to work too (and not at sea for a couple of weeks) so I can go back to my early morning workouts when I drive him to work. I'm pretty excited about it!! I also got a copy of the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD (thanks Mom!) for those days when Mother Nature chooses to keep me from driving to the gym. In fact, my plan is to use it in combination with my gym routine so as to speed the return of my less-squishy tummy. Actually I'd like to go beyond where I was. No sense in staying at a mediocre place!I know I've gained a few pounds but nothing too hard to get rid of. My concern isn't so much my weigh-in as it is the state of my body at the moment. I've certainly lost muscle mass and my tummy is soft and my rear love handles are trying to creep back in. Not OK! This is not a New Years resolution, just a long-delayed accountability post. I've been getting so comfortable with the poor choices that I didn't even hear that little voice in the back of my head reminding me that what I was eating was a bad idea. Today I heard that voice tell me to get my hand out of the cookie jar when I reached for a third cookie and man was I glad to hear it. Time to pay attention!
Merry Christmas Everyone! May you all have a fantastic holiday involving no tummy aches!
Hi all! Happy Christmas Eve!!I know I've neglected my posting duties for a few days so I thought I should try to catch up a little bit. It's been five days that I haven't been checking in with accounts of my holiday eating adventures. Ooooops.First, I have to say that I don't know why I carted my gym clothes and shoes across the country because I have had absolutely no opportunity to use them. My friend has a brand new gym in her condo building which we had planned to use for at least a couple of days, but between my working, our Christmas shopping, and visiting there was no time. Argh. I haven't even done near as much walking as I would have liked because of the crappy weather. I think I know what I'll be doing as soon as I'm back in Halifax and New Years is over. I miss the cardio dammit. (ha, who knew?!)Food was doing not too shabby for a couple of days but it has fallen astray since I last checked in... - Friday was my last work day while sitting at my girlfriend's place. I had Kashi Crunch and tea for breakfast, a lovely salad from the grocery store with a small crusty bun and balsamic dressing for lunch, an egg nog misto of course, and 8 chocolate coated mini pretzels(yes, I counted them!). My evening plans fell through due to weather so I ended up doing an evening visit to see my friends' new baby where I declined a beer but did eat two Turtles (couldn't be rude!). When we got home that night we were starving so opted for late night Chinese food. Found a restaurant neither of us had ever tried...so good and fresh! Wonton soup, chop suey, a bit of chow mein, and the evil sweet & sour pork. Stayed up until 2am watching Pearl Harbour....and didn't have that dried out, dehydrated "I just ate Chinese food" feeling. Nice. Also drank about 4 pint glasses of water.- Saturday started with a cup of Candy Cane Lane tea and some more water. I helped my girlfriend assemble sandwiches that she was going to hand out to the homeless (what a girl!). We got dropped off downtown and I was just standing in line for my daily dose of egg nog misto, when I got a call to meet her and our other friends for lunch instead. We hit up a new Irish pub in town where I had a panini with tomato, bacon, pesto & brie served with a small salad and a cup of homemade beef barley soup. We warmed up with coffee & a shot of Baileys. Yummm! After lunch I got my misto while we walked downtown in the freaking cold and did some shopping. Back at her place I think we had tea to tide us over....then headed out for dinner with a group of friends at 7:30. We had a few martinis, a fancy coffee, shared a warm dip and some pita...because of all that I opted for spinach salad with grilled prawns for my main meal. Of course, we ended up sharing an apple crumble for dessert and had a few more drinks. :) - Sunday was a totally lazy day of watching TV and eating the leftover Chinese food. In the afternoon we opted to pick up more Starbucks...a venti egg nog misto for me, and there might have been another choc chunk cookie. Didn't bother with dinner as I was attending another friend's annual Gingerbread House party where I indulged in a few treats and some seriously fabulous gourmet cheese...amazing. I had one glass of red wine and one shot of homemade Irish Cream that I sipped on. Delightful!!- Monday morning I got back to the Kashi. It was my travel day up to Nanaimo to stay with my Mom, so I got another venti egg nog misto for the ride....plus grabbed an apple and a small bag of peanuts. I still have the apple. haha. Dinner at Mom's was just tomato soup and grilled cheese...best snow meal ever. :) Of course, we got into the Christmas Eggies and Cheetos a little later in the evening. ooooops.- And finally yesterday....didn't have time for breakfast...slept in and then had to shovel Mom's car out (dammit I thought I left the shoveling in Nova Scotia!). I did convince her we had time for my crack, er I mean caffeine, stop at the new Starbucks here...so yes folks you guessed it...a grande egg nog misto for me. But then we were tied up with a few appointments so didn't actually eat a meal until after 4pm. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and I ordered my favorite bacon & cheddar burger at White Spot...with fries, AND the add of of zucchini stix and a small caesar salad. I was freaking stuffed and never even touched the salad. Late night last night I got snacky again though and we were into the Christmas candy and a fairly hefty sized shortbread cookie.Man, that was a lot and now that I've written it out it all sounds terrible. I need me some veggies!! So far today I've had a coffee with Baileys and I'm sipping on my second cup with just a splooooosh (haha, Jen that sploosh is for you!) of egg nog. This is the first day since I've been on holiday that I haven't been to Starbucks...lol...mainly due to weather and the fact that Mom actually has a coffee maker! I think I'm going to rummage around Mom's fridge for a healthy brunch...I know I saw yogurts and english muffins in there. Tonight is our family Christmas gathering where we open gifties and stuff our faces. There are lots of cheeses, meats, dips, chips, crackers oh my! I'll try to stick close to the veggie tray! I do all of the prep so I can actually load my plate before anyone else does...then I try to stay out of the dining room so I'm not randomly nibbling. Oh boy!As an aside I would like you to know that the snow here is insane. There was already like 4 feet of it, then it snowed another 4 inches overnight and it's been snowing all day with no apparent chance of stopping. Craziness! OK, that was an eyefull of reading for whoever managed to make it this far. Merry Christmas to all!!!
Hey now that last post was just a clarification, not an apology. haha. I'm proud to be a corporate whore! Not sure why, but I am. LOL.Yesterday went pretty OK food wise. I did indulge in another chocolate chunk cookie though so it's a good thing dinner was healthy and not too big. I met my girlfriend for my daily grande egg nog misto at Starbucks and that's where I picked up the bigass cookie...ate about 1/2 of it then. Afterwards I grabbed a second misto and wandered over to the Market next door to get some lunch. Unfortunately they didn't have much in the way of salads in the deli, so I opted for a wild salmon roll (think sausage roll but with salmon...from a yummy local bakery) and a scoop of what was supposed to be salmon pasta salad but turned out to be shrimp...still yummy though. Obviously way more carb heavy than I would have liked, but small portions so I'm not overly concerned. My second coffee carried me through the whole afternoon.Dinner was an impromptu meal at another girlfriend's house. My trip to see Xmas lights was postponed to tonight (hopefully!) so I met up with a different friend. She's 8 months pregnant (doesn't look a day over 6 months!), a vegetarian, and a healthy girl. She put together this crazy polenta casserole with all kinds of roasted tomatoes, red peppers, carmelized onions....then topped with fresh herbs and goat cheese. She kept talking about how she was just using up stuff she had on hand, but it was fabulous. I had a big scoop and left it at that. After dinner we just had some tea. Very nice! Oh, I finished the cookie when I got home. tee hee.I've moved to another friend's place for the next few days. So yesterday she picked me up my Kashi Crunch and vanilla Almond Breeze...what a doll! I was missing it and have had my fill of toast over the last few days. So cereal this morning with a cup of Candy Cane Lane tea (thanks Angie...I found it and it's super yum!). I'll be popping over to the local Starbucks soon for my actual caffeine fix and there's a different grocery store over here so hopefully I'll find a salad for lunch. Dinner is up in the air depending on what I end up doing tonight. I was thinking maybe something Mexican...I guess we shall see!
...all the extra Starbucks...If I was at home working, I'd have two cups of coffee in the morning. However, I'm camping out with some gracious friends who do not drink regular coffee at home so I am having to supplement my caffeine needs with tea in the mornings. And let me tell you that when you are used to a couple of cups of joe...tea don't cut it! :)So therefore I have to cough up a few bucks for a coffee down the block...and believe it or not Starbucks is the closest coffee joint (that I know of anyway). :)At least I'm getting a good 20 minute walk in for each trip I make!
Why is it that socializing almost always takes place around food? So yesterday the snow actually stopped by the time I finished writing my post, so I was able to bundle up and wander down the street for my caffeine fix. I actually got a Venti egg nog misto because I felt the need for the extra coffee. Yum! And admittedly I did succumb to the big-ass 11 point chocolate chunk cookie which I ate while on my conference call...and enjoyed every last bite!I wouldn't feel so guilty about the cookie if I hadn't been going for an indulgent dinner too...hehe. Our plans for Butchart Gardens fell through because although the snow in the city wasn't amounting to anything, it was a white-out along the highway and out to the Gardens. So we opted to stay in town for a nice dinner instead. I walked to the restaurant (it was a bit snowy, but nothing crazy) and it was a good bit of heart pumping...but not near enough to make up for my lack of exercise so far! It was nice being out in the cold air though.For dinner I had my dessert first...hot chocolate with Bailey's to warm up. :) I only had one sliver of bread with olive tapenade, then ordered the hazlenut crusted goat cheese on mixed greens for my appy...so freaking good. I tried to get my girlfriends to share it but they each barely took a nibble. haha. I tried a piece of my friend's appy too....toasted bread with melted cambozola and roasted garlic. Also freaking good. My main was salmon with mozza cheese and capers...sounds odd but it was pretty good. Came with some mashed taters and roasted veggies, but I was getting pretty full so I only ate about half of it all. Oh, two of us also shared a 1/2 litre of red wine....so I think I had two glasses....plus a limoncello martini. :) Thankfully they weren't offering creme brulle so I passed on dessert. This morning I had another Tazo BlossomBerry white tea and two pieces of the Silver Hills 16 Grain toast...one with natural PB, the other with the cashew butter. Yum and healthy...love it! I'm meeting a girlfriend for Starbucks and a visit around 1:00, so I'll be getting my daily dose of egg nog misto and will try to resist the baked goodies today! I think I will stop at the Market for something for lunch too....not sure what they have there but I'm sure the deli will have something resembling a salad. :) Dinner tonight is totally up in the air, but I'm planning for cheap and easy. Then I'm supposed to go out to drive around and see Xmas lights with some friends so I'm sure there will be tea or coffee or hot chocolate or something!
So last night's dinner was exactly what I wanted. I love that soup! and just as predicted, my salad was freaking delish. It has sunflower sprouts, which I love, and chickpeas and sunflower seeds and tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes even in Winter and slices of english cuke....and their creamy lemon feta dressing is the best dressing ever. Yummmmm. :) Of course, we did manage to include a bowl of mixed fries (regular & sweet potato) with some yummy chipotle mayo and I had one Strongbow. :)After dinner a few of the gang had some packing to do, so my girlfriend and I opted to hit up our favorite Starbucks (yes, I have issues) where I had just a decaf tall no-fat vanilla latte. I call it my dairy serving for the day. :)Oh I forgot to mention that after my lunch I did stop for my Starbucks (so yes, that was Starbucks twice in one day) grande egg nog coffee misto and I ended up getting a fan-freaking-tastic apple fritter. I have started forgetting how much better some of the baked treats are at Victoria locations because nothing in the Halifax stores ever appeals to me. Probably a good thing!Speaking of lunch, yesterday's was super yummy. There's this little tiny fresh Mexican place downtown, where you get 5 small fresh tacos for 5 bucks. It was there before I moved but because I lived in the boonies I rarely made it into town for lunch. They serve these little 3-4 inch fresh corn tortillas topped with meat (I had chicken) in their special seasoning, with salsa, cilantro and fresh lime wedges. They were out of guac yesterday but I didn't need it. Perfect little lunch.Today I went with two slices of the Silver Hills 16 grain toast with schmears of natural PB and a cup of pekoe tea. My hosts have a bag of hazlenuts here so I thought I'd try a few and it seems as though they are somewhat candied and taste like apple cinnamon, so I had about 1/3 cup of those. For lunch I have my leftover chicken soup with two rice dumplings...can't wait!! I was going to toddle down the block for a coffee of some sort but it's been raining gross all morning and the snow has actually started up again since I've been typing (we're supposed to get another 15cm...blech....Victoria is so not prepared for this stuff!) so probably no coffee for me. Oh well.Tonight I'm supposed to be hitting up Butchart Gardens with my girlfriends where we would walk around and check out the 12 Days of Xmas light vignets and then have a yummy decadent dinner at The Dining Room....but right now we are waiting to see how the weather goes. The Gardens are way out of town in a rural area that won't get plowed or anything so we may have to opt to stay in the city instead. Either way, dinner will be a splurge!Has the snow started in Hali yet?
I'm feeling a little tired and headachey this morning. Probably due to some residual jetlag and sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. Hopefully it passes today.Yesterday I didn't end up going out for coffee or lunch....too freaking windy and I was a little afraid of the sidewalk situation because of the shoes I have with me. So I made a cup of tea and ate a few of the egg nog almonds to get me through the day until dinner. Not so healthy at all. LOL. For dinner, my friend's hubby made us yummy perogies (and not the frozen Cheemo ones...he gets them from the polish deli) complete with polish sausage, sauteed cabbage and onions, and fat free organic sour cream. Delish. I had two big glasses of water too, which is amazing because I've been having trouble getting my water in lately. After dinner, her hubby dropped us off downtown and my friend and I went to the mall in search of boots. No luck. So we went to Starbucks instead, where I had a decaf grande non-fat Gingersnap latte with no whip. Yummy, but not as good as the full fat one DBF brought me last week. :) My friend had a big cookie (my fave, the 11 point chocolate chunk cookie that I can't get in Halifax) but I didn't even have a bite. I will have to at least share one with someone while I'm home though...I was drooling inside my head. LOL. Then we walked home....freaking cold and windy, but we're tough. haha.This morning I've had a cup of pekoe tea and two of the little homemade raisin scones her hubby made while we were shopping (yup, her hubby is the cook AND the baker!). Yummy. I'm meeting a girlfriend for lunch...I think at this great little Mexican place for tasty little soft tacos. And I'm sure I'll grab an egg nog misto for my afternoon warm treat. Tonight is dinner and drinks out with some friends. I asked to hit up one of my fave little restaurants that makes this awesome chicken soup with rice dumplings. Amazing stuff. And they also make a wicked side salad (I know it's just salad but theirs hits the spot every time), so dinner will be healthy and I'll finally be getting some fresh veggies in. :) Probably after dinner drinks...maybe a Strongbow since I haven't had one from on-tap since May.It's an action-packed day. I really need to get some proper exercise in soon though. This weather has impeded the massive amounts of walking I had planned on. Hmmmmm.
I arrived in Victoria safe and sound after a long travel day yesterday. There is snow on the ground and apparently it's planning to stay for at least 10 days. Nutty. All of the walking I had planned on doing may get cut down a bit due to inappropriate footwear packing on my part. Oooooops.Travel day yesterday was pretty evil in the nutrition department. I was at the airport for 5:30am so decided I should have a coffee....love that early morning Grande Egg Nog Misto! I also ate 2 clementines that I had jammed in my purse on the way out the door. On the first leg of my flight to Toronto I mostly slept, so I didn't eat and just had water when they did the drink service. Once at the TO airport I got a multigrain bagel w/ light cream cheese and a medium steeped tea w/ milk at Tim Horton's. I probably should've eaten more but I was tired and nothing appealed to me. On the longer leg of the flight through to Edmonton I ate some of the bits n bites I had picked up at Bulk Barn and a few Christmas jujubes I had packed in my computer bag. I think I ordered a ginger ale from the drink cart that time....and slept some more. We touched down for about 30 minutes in Edmonton, but I didn't get off the plane because I knew I'd probably end up with more Starbucks and I didn't need it. :) Once back in the air I had another water and finished up the bits n bites. Upon arrival in Victoria, my girlfriend and I opted to hit up our favorite greasy spoon for a very late lunch (actually dinner time for me) and since it was my only real meal of the day I opted for my favorite Breakfast Hash (which is essentially a heart attack on a plate....real home fries fried with scrambled eggs, chopped sausage, onions, mushrooms, cheese, etc....dipped in hollandaise....freaking terrible for me but oh so yummy!). I drank two huge glasses of water and two small cups of coffee. This kept me going right until bedtime though so I don't think it will register too poorly in my calories for the day. In the evening I had a cup of tea, which was just what I needed. Oh and a couple of those egg nog almonds because I wanted my girlfriend to try them out. :)Today is a new day. I'm alone at my friend's place while she and her hubby are at work. Thankfully they are quiet healthy eaters so nothing sweet or carby to tempt me while I'm working (yes, I'm working this week!). For breakfast I had a cup of Tazo BlossomBerry White Tea (they don't drink coffee...eeeeek) which was really nice, and I made a slice of Silver Hills 16 Grain toast with a schmear of cashew butter. Soooo yummy. I've never been able to find Silver Hills bread in Halifax...the Squirelly variety is one of my all times faves...maybe I'll buy a few loaves to bring home. LOL. I have a clementine here to tide me over and then I think I'll venture out into the snow and hit up the coffee shop down the street and grab a snack at the Market. Dinner tonight will be whatever my friends decide...he is a great cook so I'm sure it will be tasty.I can't believe I brought the Nova Scotia weather with me. Boooo.
Did you know that it's extremely difficult to motivate yourself to go to the gym when you've only had 3 hours sleep, gotten up at 4:30am to drive your loving boyfriend to the airport, and come home only to realize that staying awake from 6am until 8am when the gym opens is next to impossible? Yup, that's what happened to me. Bwahaha. I so knew that my plan was far too optimistic. :) I ended up going for a "nap" at 6:30...set my alarm for 8:30...and hit snooze so many times I don't remember. What I do remember was actually getting out of bed at 11am. Ooops. So I ran a few errands, then it was time to meet the girls for lunch at Taj Mahal. Angie, Lesley, Roxy, Heather and I had ourselves a mini Indian feast. Yummmmm! Les was the only one that had any clue what she was doing, so we happily went along with suggestions from her and the very chatty waitress. I have to say that we were concerned about calories and points counting, but now that I've had time to think about it, it probably wasn't nearly as bad as we though. Yes, the pakoras are fried...but we each only had one. And because we shared everything, we each only had maybe a couple of ounces of chicken and maybe a big shrimp or two. Sure, this stuff had lots of sauce on it...but if we'd measured it out, I'd be surprised if any of us ate more than 1/3 cup of it. We even took it easy on the yummy basmati rice and shared only two decent sized naan breads between the five of us. Definitely not the healthiest option but because of our practiced portion control I think we can all safely say we didn't stray too far from the path. What do you think girls?Because of my late wakey-wakey and the potentially scary lunch I opted not to have breakfast. I did stop for a grande egg nog coffee misto, and I ate a healthy sized handful of sesame sticks from Bulk Barn, but that was it. After lunch, we hit up Starbucks (I think my corporate whoring is rubbing off!) where I had a grande reduced fat egg nog latte (they mix the egg nog with milk to lighten it up). Once home, I've had a few more sesame sticks and tried one Christmas chocolate while I was packing them up. I plan to have a couple of clementines before bed and that will be it. So all in all, a pretty decent points day....just maybe not the healthiest choices...but what's new?! LOL.Anyway, a bazillion more things to do tonight to get ready for my 6:30am flight. My suitcase is very full and I'm not done yet...yikes!
Yup, that was me at the end of the day yesterday. I had a solid work day again, plus was working on laundry and household stuff throughout the day. At the end of the work day, I ended up cleaning out my fridge while putting dinner together (you know, digging out all the stuff you realize will go bad while you are away). Needless to say, there was no time for the gym....again. Sigh. I did enjoy a lazy night watching a DVD with DBF though, and I wouldn't trade that time for gym time at all (unless he was going to be around for more than a week!).I guess I sort of turned my brain off last night. When he suggested cookies and tea I didn't even consider not having any. It was weird. Like I had gone back in time to when I would snack without thinking. I mean, I still snack when I shouldn't but I still know that I shouldn't be eating it and feel at least somewhat guilty. But last night when those cookies arrived I just ate them, enjoyed them, and didn't even really think about them until this morning. Weird. But yummy weird. :)Dinner ended up being really yummy. The turkey burgers I thawed out looked freezer burned so I chose to use the chicken breasts instead. I had a bag of spinach that needed using, so I sauteed up a bunch of that with EVOO, s&p, and fresh garlic. I seasoned and baked the chicken in the oven until about 3/4 done, then topped with the spinach and some leftover spaghetti sauce and put it back in the oven until the sauce was hot & bubbly...then I topped it with grated cheddar and left it under the broiler to get all golden and yummy. Served with steamed brocolli & cauliflower and boiled baby potatoes. So good!!I had a ton of broc & cauliflower left in the fridge that I didn't want to waste, so I chopped it all up and froze it. I did the same with the baby potatoes, except I cooked those first. I see some sort of potato chowder and creamy broccoli soup in the future! Today I am getting my hair done at lunch (man, shorter hair requires A LOT more upkeep!)...needs a fresh cut for the holidays. After work we wanted to go to see The Nutcracker, but it's sold out tonight so we are opting for a casual date night instead...dinner out and then going to see Four Christmases. DBF's flight is at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Mine is on Sunday. No time AGAIN for the gym tonight, but I should be able to fit it in tomorrow between taking him to the airport and meeting the blog girls for lunch....I have so much to do!!Today's eats:- OJ (gotta drink it up!)- instant oatmeal with 1/2 banana & 1 tbsp natural pb- clementine- grande coffee misto with egg nog (on way to hairdresser)- leftover small portion of spaghetti- pear (still haven't eaten that!)- dinner out...Boston Pizza maybe...if so, mushrooms caps & spinach salad.- decaf tea for the movies
I had chips and chocolate last night. While visiting friends, the boys opted to make drinks which I declined because I was trying to be good....but then they put out chips and apparently there is some sort of magnetic force between the bowls and my hands. I had a few chocolates too, but not as many as I would have had the chips not been there. Not sure which would be worse. Oh well.This morning my computer is giving me grief, so between waiting for it to cooperate so I can work I have been multitasking some household chores into my day. Laundry started and festive chocolate bark has been prepared. If I had more chocolate chips I'd be making more stuff. I guess maybe I will add cleaning the bathrooms to the list too. Oh, how exciting. :)If my computer keeps acting up I'll be heading to the gym early and I'll stop for more baking ingredients while I'm out. If it's working OK, I'll be doing the gym later this afternoon and catch up on work a bit tonight instead.Our menu for today and tomorrow will be a mish-mosh of whatever is in the fridge. We are leaving this weekend for our family Christmas visits so I don't want anything wasted or rotting while we are away. On a sad note, I ran out of egg nog today so I won't have it for my coffee tomorrow. :( Today's menu...- coffee with final sploosh of light egg nog- 2nd cup of coffee with boring skim milk & brown sugar- instant oatmeal with banana & pb- clementine- leftover chicken noodle soup I didn't eat yesterday- pear I didn't eat yesterday- dinner will be steamed veggies, served with either chicken or possibly turkey burgers (whichever thaws out first and looks the best)...probably eat up the leftover spaghetti and spuds from the other night too.- taste test the festive bark :)
My honey was at Chapters today so came home with a treatie for me. He brought me a Starbucks Gingersnap Latte and boy was it ever yummy. I'd never had one before but he thought I had said I like them...either way it was tasty!(now how do you politely tell someone that brings you a treat that next time you want your treat to be non-fat? hehe, you would think he would know by now. gotta love him anyway though!)On the points side it was high, but he brought it just as I was getting into my conference call so it kept me happier during the call and I ended up not being hungry for lunch.
Did you know that Bulk Barn sells something called an Egg Nog Almond? Well, I do now! They are like a chocolate covered almond, but instead of milk chocolate it is some kind of egg nog flavored white chocolate and they are dusted with icing sugar. Yum-a-licious. Dangerous...glad I only got a small scoop to try them. Still scary in the old points department though!Do you ever go to the gym and just sort of wander around trying to figure out what to do? It doesn't happen to me very often...I usually have a plan in mind...but last night I got there and didn't know what to do. So I jumped on the elliptical and that was good...but after I got off there I just sort of dabbled with some ab exercises and some arm stuff, then totally lost interest. I hopped on the treadmill thinking I would do some running intervals, but after 5 minutes I packed it in. I never do that. If I am not feeling it I will usually at least walk out the 15-20 minutes, but not last night. Weird. Anyway, today is a new day. No time for the gym today as it's Wednesday which means I have that crazy long conference call and two reports to put together before that. Blech. That will take me right through to the end of the work day, then tonight we are visiting friends (didn't go last night) and I have some errands to squeak in there somewhere too.Food for the day:- late breaky...so more of a brunch: fried egg sammich with ff cheese slice- coffeeeeeeeeeeee with sploosh of light egg nog- clementine- leftover chicken noodle soup- pear- dinner is either leftover spaghetti or dinner with friends- maybe a drinky-poo or hot chocolate
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I didn't get to workout yesterday. Work ran long until 6pm, then I still needed to get a few groceries for dinner. By the time I shopped and cooked and we ate, it was too late to go to the gym. Besides, I can't work out on a full stomach. Booooo. It was too dark, cold, and slippery to even walk around the neighborhood either. Such is life. I'll try again today as long as DBF brings the car back at a reasonable time...he's got some shopping to do! :)I do have an NSV though! After dinner DBF made himself hot chocolate and had a stack of those Superstore Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies....which I friggin love considering they are a storebought cookie. I didn't have any. I was actually stuffed from dinner and definitely didn't have any room to spare in my menu. And you know what? It didn't bother me at all. Funny, if I had been alone with that stuff I would have eaten it no problem...but because I've told him I'm on a stricter plan this week I didn't want to cave in. Nice.Dinner last night ended up being chicken in PC Blue Menu Butter Chicken Sauce. It was pretty good and decent on the calories. I snazzied it up with some sauteed onion, mushrooms, and wilted spinach. Served with roasted cauliflower, a few baby potatoes, and papadums that only sort of turned out. A bit higher in points than I had planned, but all pretty healthy so I was happy with it.Today's plan...- coffee w/ sploosh of light egg nog x 2- instant oatmeal with 1/2 banana- Chunky Chicken Noodle soup, Bacon Dippers, cheddar cheese- clementine- granola bar if I need it- dinner is either spaghetti with homemade meatballs (with added veggies in mine) or possibly dinner at a friend's (which will either be pizza or something I have no control over...)
Totally forgot to post today's plans...Eats:- tea (had to wait for DBF to dig the car out and go get coffee) = 0 points- 1 serving Ginger Zing granola with skim milk = 4 points- coffee x2 with splooshes of light Egg Nog = 1 point- oatmeal for lunch...instant Weight Control maple & brown sugar oatmeal with 1/2 chopped banana & tbsp of natural PB = 6 points- 10 Bacon Dippers crackers with 1.5 tbsp light cream cheese = 3 points- clementine = 1 point- dinner is going to be some sort of chicken & brocolli concoction...either with alfredo or mushroom soup and Smart pasta. = est 8 points- Gingerbread Tea & maybe a couple of cookies (I saw a bag of cookies hiding in our pantry that DBF brought home) = maybe 3 pointsActivity:It's another conference call day, which means I can't go anywhere this afternoon....sooooooo, either a walk around the neighborhood if it hasn't gotten dark and crazy cold when I get off the call, or maybe a trip to the gym if DBF isn't chomping at the bit for dinner. Either way, lots of extra stretching...my hamstrings had quite the workout at yoga yesterday!
Happy Monday. I think. haha. Is there such a thing?Good news is that DBF got home on Friday! Early too. I picked him up at 10:30, and thankfully I had worked ahead on Thursday night so didn't have to spend the day working. I don't remember my whole menu for the day, but I'm sure you will all forgive me for that. I know there was some early afternoon drinking...haha...which accounts for my lack of memory. We also spent the late afternoon and evening with some visiting Navy friends from the West Coast (might be DBF's last chance to see them for a long, long time) so that included some more drinks and I did order fish n chips for dinner when we were out. I hadn't eaten very much all day, and with the drinking I decided I needed something carby and greasy to soak up some booze and fill my tummy. I only ate one piece of the fish and a handful of the chips though so really it wasn't so bad. Later on, the gang ordered nachos and I didn't even touch them...not one chip. Truly a victory!Saturday we spent the late morning/early afternoon shopping for new Christmas tree decorations. The tree is DBF's favorite part, so I waited for him to return before tackling that (I had already done the outside lights and other indoor decorations). Before braving the malls, we stopped at our fave little restaurant and had breaky. I had a mushroom & cheddar 2 egg omelette with bacon, a few home fries, and 1 slice of ww toast with a smear of PB. And coffeeeeeeee! It was a big breaky, but the rest of the day was pretty light so I think it pretty much evened out. At our afternoon pitstop at Starbucks I opted for the ever-popular Grande Coffee Misto with Egg Nog instead of a higher-point latte. Later, instead of dinner we opted to crack open some red wine while we decorated the tree and had some cheese, meat, and crackers instead of a meal. Yum!Sunday I decided to have a really clean day. I knew I had a Hot Yoga class with Angie, Lynn, and Lesley so kept my early eating as simple as possible. Didn't even have coffee....instead had a cup of Gingerbread Spice tea (all the talk of Pumpkin Spice tea led me to start digging around the cupboards for something other than Pekoe!). For breaky I stuck with a serving of that Ginger Zing granola with 1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk. Later I made a smoothie with a whole tiny banana, 1/2 cup strawberries, a few blueberries & a cup of vanilla soy milk. Crazy good! After yoga I was starving so opted for about 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese and two random slices of leftover old cheddar from Saturday night.Dinner was a healthy mish-mosh of items on hand. A chicken & bean wrap thingy, side of steamed brocolli, and a few reheated baby potatoes with real butter. I was craving dessert as soon as dinner was over, but thankfully there was nothing readily available so I just chilled on the couch and eventually the craving went away. Later I was a bit peckish so I had a clementine orange. Yaaaieee me! :)In the end that all led to a stay the same on the scale. I'm in my comfort zone, so it's all good.
I made it through book club relatively unscathed. My neighbors have perfected the cosmopolitan...yummmm! Only one though, so all good. I had a couple of my cookie bars and a few nibbles of cheese and crackers but that was it. Phew! Oh, and I did manage to get my walk in yesterday. Not before my conference call unfortunately...I didn't finish my report until like 10 minutes before the call. So I was worried that the call was taking forever (2.5 hours people!!) and it would be dark when we finished...not to mention past my quitting time...but it wasn't! We finished up at just the perfect time for me to run downstairs, put on my outdoor gear and head out for a 15 minute jaunt around our very long block. Crisp and lovely! and just barely dark when I came trotting back up the front stairs. I worked a bit late to make up for it.Somewhere today I have to fit a gym trip in. I'm aiming for around 3:00 again like I did on Tuesday...that was a good non-busy timeslot at the gym. By 4:00 the place was getting really busy. Hopefully I can power through the work stuff I need to get done because I have tentative plans tonight and don't want to have to work late to make up for gym time. Gah, it's so complicated sometimes!!DBF is home tomorrow!!!Angie I hope you feel better soon!! It's almost the weekend!OK, that's all I've got. :)Today's menu plan:- coffee with sploosh of egg nog x2- Kashi Crunch with vanilla almond breeze (finishing off the box)- clementine- Campbell's Healthy Request Italian Wedding ready-to-eat bowl, slice of miche bread with light cream cheese & sliced tomatoes- grapes- 1% cottage cheese after the gym if I need it- butternut pasta thingy from freezer, with one last serving of my jazzed up sauteed spinach- either a few drinks out with friends, or hot chocolate at home :)
If you are looking for the Chocolate Toffee Bar recipe, it has moved HERE.
Not THAT kind of stiffy, you dirty dirty minds! ;)Stiff from the gym. That, and my stupid arm/neck thing is acting up big time. Argh. But I went to the gym just like I said...so I will take the stiffness as my punishment for my no-excuse hiatus from the gym and will try to keep going to work out the kinks. I went in the afternoon as planned....did 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 20 minutes of running intervals on the treadmill, a triple set of squats/crunches/step-ups/and ab twists, and finished up with 15 minutes on the good elliptical. I was tired and freaking hungry when I was done. Whew.This meant I had to work extra long last night but that's OK. I wish I could do it every day, but Mondays and Wednesdays I have conference calls right smack in the middle of the afternoon that bugger it all up. Oh well. Tuesdays and Thursdays will have to do for now!I managed to eat two more of those cookie bar things, but they fit within my activity points so I think it all worked out. The rest of them will be gone tonight to book club, so no more problems there.Today I hope to get out for a walk as soon as I finish my report for the conference call. Probably only 15-20 minutes around the neighborhood, but that's better than the nothing I've been doing lately. It's actually quite beautiful outside, so I'll bundle up with a toque to keep my ears warm and it should be a lovely walk. Today's menu...- forgot to set coffee up last night and didn't want to wait for it, so a cup of tea- new granola Nature's Path Ginger Zing...1/2 cup with 1/2 cup skim milk & 1/2 of a teeny banana for 4.5 points. Pretty good, but I didn't notice the ginger at all. (the NI on the website is different than the box...)- lunch snack plate: couple slices lean deli turkey, brie wedge, pickles, tomatoes, leftover 1/2 gala apple, slice of mache bread with drizzle of evoo & balsamic- another homemade chicken & bean burrito thingy from the freezer w/ light sour cream, with grilled zucchini- few snackies at book club tonight
Ya, go me. Booooo. I reached into the fridge for the egg nog for my coffee this morning, and right beside it was a plate of these Toffee Bar things I made last night...and what did I do? Ya, I had two of them with my coffee. Booooo. haha...but they were DELISH! Good news is that I now have a tried & true fab new Christmas treat recipe that was easy and tasty...and I have book club tomorrow night so I know where to get rid of this batch. :)I'm just waiting for my lunch to settle while I do a bit more work, then I'm finally off to the gym. Lots of cardio for me today, and some squats/lunges/crunches/pushups in between sets. I want to make it like a double-time workout to make up for missing yesterday. I decided last night that December's goal should be to get to the gym or go for a walk every day (this should prove interesting while I'm on holiday vacay, but I'll give it a go). Of course, I came to this conclusion so late last night that I had already missed the first day! But...it's a good day to get away from work today and if I miss anything I'll already have my workout done so I can spend time at the computer tonight if I need to. Woooo. Finally.Today's ass-backwards menu:- coffee with sploosh of egg nog x 2- 2 toffee bar thingies- Red River hot cereal with 1/2 banana & tbsp natural pb- GYM- 1% cottage cheese with 1/2 gala apple- multigrain Wheat Thins if snack needed before dinner- from freezer: homemade chicken & bean burrito thingy w/ light sour cream, with steamed brocolli & carrots- grapes- tea
...that helps keep my weight down.Weighed in down .2 pounds this week. Not much, but the right direction for sure....especially considering that I haven't truly been on plan at all this week (or three really!)....and I didn't go to the gym at all. I've said it before, but it continues to hold true: the body is a mysterious thing.My current theory is that I must be counteracting a lot of the bad stuff/large portions with the extra coffee and fibre I take in. Let's just say...everybody poops! haha.Anyway, you all saw on Angie's blog the lovely waffle I had for brunch on Saturday...I did have a side of bacon with mine too. Followed that up with the same drink she had...a grande coffee misto with egg nog at the Bux. Yummmmm! (I know what all of those SB gift cards I got will be spent on.) I ran a bunch of errands in the afternoon so I didn't start making dinner until around 6:30. I decided just to make a quick panini with deli turkey, brie, and veggies. Just as I was biting into it, my girlfriend popped over and invited me to an impromptu birthday dinner for her hubby....I couldn't say no! So a couple of hours later I had a couple of sushi rolls and some miso soup....and a little too much red wine. hehe.Yesterday I got up early to do my weekend chores. I was meeting up with some friends from the West Coast so I opted not to have breakfast and just ate a Fruit Source bar to tide me over. They had been out until the wee hours drinking the night before and wanted a greasy brunch so we hit up my favorite little diner "The Armview" where I had two scrambled eggs, bacon, a few pan fries and one slice of whole wheat toast with a bit of pb...and coffee of course! After I dropped them off I ran a few more errands, got another egg nog coffee, and then came home and just crashed on the couch the rest of the day. Dinner was some of my homemade beef stew with a grilled cheese on the Griddler. After dinner I had a three pack of Ferrero Roche that had just jumped into my basket at Walmart. :) Oh, and a hot chocolate (I got those gourmet hot chocs for my birthday and the vanilla truffle one is sooooo yum!)I had every intention of getting up early today to start work and get a couple of things out of the way so I could go to the gym for an hour, but yet again it didn't work out. I actually managed to sleep through my alarm for about 1/2 hour which threw the whole morning out of whack. I swear I'm unknowingly mentally sabotaging myself. Argh. So now I'm back to trying to stay motivated to get myself there this evening...but I DESPISE Monday evenings at the gym...it's always sooo bloody busy. But I really want to get at least an hour in every day this week so I can relax and have fun on Friday when DBF is home and so I'm not totally out of cardio shape on Sunday when I try hot yoga with Angie and Lesley. There's two motivators that I need to keep on top of mind!!Anyway, speaking of work...must get to it.
Today's eats:
- coffee with sploosh of light egg nog (x2) = 1 point
- chocolate from Advent calendar = 1 point (actually this is only about .25 points but I'm going to count it high to keep it accountable)
- instant oatmeal = 3 points
- grapes = 1 point
- fancy grilled cheese: miche bread, dill havarti, tomato, light mayo...on the Griddler = 6 points
- homemade beef stew, sauteed spinach with mushrooms & garlic = 6 points
- zucchini choc bran muffin = 2 points
- hot chocolate or tea = 1-3 points
