Sleepy Times....

Happy weekend to you all! My plan is to relax it up big time! Last night Brian and I took a nap and almost missed kickboxing / jiu jitsu! But we got there just in time and I had a pretty kickass workout as I always do there. It wasn't quite as intense as Wednesdays class though. My instructor says it looks like I've gotten a bit of the kickboxing bug. I think he's right! It's the most intense workout I've ever done. After class I showered, watched Brian's jiu jitsu class and then we headed to his place to watch the movie Hancock. What a fun movie that was! I got home and slept a good 9 hours. And now I have a few things I want to get done today like laundry, ironing and making my sister and her friends meal plan for next week, but other than that I just want to lay down and rest my body.... watch some good movies and veg. I think I deserve it! I may workout, but if I do it'll just be some light cardio. I need my muscles to not be so sore anymore!

Meals for Friday:

Breakfast - Vitamuffin top (chocolate dream flavor), 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, 2 jamieson chocolate calcium chews

Lunch - 4 tomato and basil tricuts, 2 tbsp. roasted vegetable and cheddar cheese dip, Apple, Jello sugar free pudding, Diet coke

Snack - Kashi dark chocolate and coconut granola bar

Dinner - 6 chicken meatballs (160 calories), 1 tbsp. honey garlic bbq sauce, 1 cup of stir fry veggies, 1 tsp. of oil, 1 cup of v8 acai berry juice (1 fruit and 1 veggie serving)

Snack - 100 calorie bag of lays chips, 100 calorie reese wafers

Workout - 45 minutes of kickboxing

Flippin' Cold!

Holy geez it's cold out there this morning! I just wanna be back home, curled up in bed, in my pjs, reading a good book. When it's like -30 outside, you really should be allowed to work from home ha ha. Anyways, other than it being freezing here, things are good. Last night Brian and I just spent a lazy day in watching Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (both very funny movies!) Tonight is night #3 of kickboxing... my muscles still hurt a lot but I know I can push through that!

Meals for Thursday:

Breakfast - Vitamuffin top (chocolate chip banana bread flavor), 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Apple, 2 jamieson calcium chews (40 cals and not as yummy as the caltrates but I go with what is on sale)

Lunch - 4 tomato and basil tricuts, 3 tbsp. fresh bruschetta, Herb and cheddar cheese stick, 1 cup of blueberries, 1 kiwi, Diet coke

Snack - Chocolate peanut butter granola bar

Dinner - Blue menu sheppards pie (390 calories), 1 tbsp. ketchup, 1 cup of acai berry v8 juice (1 fruit and 1 veggie serving for 110 calories)

Snack - 2 chips a'hoy cookie (110 calories)

Kickboxing Is Pretty Intense!

Just got home from kickboxing class # 2 - it's no easy task my friends. I am already feeling the pain... I dunno how much I'll be moving tomorrow (Thank God for desk jobs!) The kickboxing instructor asked me at the end of class how I thought it was tonight and I said, intense, but good! And he said that even though it says beginnner level, it's not. And he said he wants to see how much he can push me these next few weeks. My entire body is exhausted. Muscles I didn't know existed hurt. But I love it! I love when someone pushes me past what I think I'm capable of. I'm already looking forward to Friday's class!

Before kickboxing I did my groceries for the week and then watched the second half of Brian's jiu jitsu class. Here's what I picked up grocery shopping:

- Red pepper
- Broccoli
- Bananas
- Green grapes
- Calorie wise ranch salad dressing
- Roasted red pepper alfredo pasta sauce
- 2 x weight watcher's chocolate fudge cakes
- Fibre one granola bars
- Blue menu low fat sheppards pie
- Lean turkey lunch meat
- Roasted pepper and cheddar cheese dip
- Cheddar cheese
- V8 acai berry fruit and veggie drink
- Eggs


Meals for today:

Breakfast - 1 pkg. of raisin and spice oatmeal, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch - 12-grain bagel, 2 slices of lean turkey lunch meat, 1 tbsp. light mayo., 1 cup of blueberries, Diet coke

Snack - Kashi pumpkin pie granola bar

Dinner - Lean cuisine cheese ravioli, 1 cup of low sodium V8 vegetable juice

Snack - Jello sugar free pudding

This Week Is Fast Movin'!

I'm loving how quickly the work week is passing by this week. I cannot wait for another fantastic weekend! Last night was good.... my sister and her friend tried my Wii Active for the first time. They said they found it very intense. Then they tried out a recipe I put in their meal plan called Honey-Pecan Chicken. I found it in a Weight Watcher's cookbook and it looked really easy to make. They said it was amazing so I shall post here:

4 small chicken breasts dipped in mixture of 1 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce and 2 tbsp. honey and then coated in mixture of 1/2 cup of chopped pecans and 2 tbsp. corn flakes. Then baked until chicken is cooked through. I'll probably try it sometime in the near future!

I also watched Biggest Loser last night with Brian as we do every Tuesday. Again, it was an intense episode! Some of the people on there are really starting to bother me... normally most people there get along and help each other! This time I feel it's all about game play. It's rather annoying...

Meals for Tuesday:

Breakfast - 1 vitamuffin top, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, Starbucks tall skinny caramel latte (90 calories)

Lunch - 12-grain bagel, 2 slices of lean turkey lunch meat, 1 tbsp. light mayo, Apple, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Snack - Kashi raspberry chocolate granola bar

Dinner - 1 portion controlled burger (140 calories), 1 bun, 1 tbsp. ketchup, 1 tsp. mustard, 1 cup of grape tomatoes, Diet coke

Snack - 100 calorie pack of ruffles sour cream and onion chips, 60 calorie hershey's chocolate caramel stick

First Night At Kickboxing.

Well, I'm not going to lie... kickboxing is intense. I was able to keep up with the squats, pushups, jumping jacks, etc. Just felt a little out of place with the coordination of kick and punch routines. I'll get the hang of it eventually I'm sure. I think I'll sleep well tonight and I'll definitely be sore tomorrow! I do enjoy workouts like that.... pushing myself to the limit. And I'm glad it ends closer to bedtime.

On another note - My sister and her best friend started on a plan I created for them today. They're pretty excited to get started! They're starting a friendly competition too. Each time they gain weight they have to put money into a jar... and the winner in the end gets the money. I did this before with a friend and found it was a good incentive. Anyways, they seem excited with the meals they got to have so far.. and I wish them the best of luck!

Meals for Monday:

Breakfast- 1 pkg. raisin and spice oatmeal, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- 12- grain bagel, 2 slices of lean turkey lunch meat, 1 tbsp. light mayo., 1 cup of blueberries, Diet coke

Snack- Praeventia cranberry and pomegranite granola bar

Dinner- 1 cup of low sodium v8 vegetable juice, 1 serving leftover chicken bistro pasta

Snack- Jello sugar free pudding

Workout - 40 minutes of kickboxing

27.8 lbs and Counting....

Good morning all,

Down another 2.2 lbs this week! Yays! So close to the 30 lb mark. I'm pretty excited for that :-) I'm starting kickboxing tonight so I think that'll be 3 weeks of intense workouts. I'll be going 3 times during the week and then will do a workout at home on the weekend. I'm a bit nervous though... I don't want to be the only new person in class! It'll be good for me though.

Rest of my weekend was pretty fantastic. Got to hangout with Annie, which I haven't done since Christmas Day for like an hour. We went and saw The Lovely Bones. Thought the movie was pretty awful, but the company was good! Sunday I went out for breakfast with Brian, my sister, her bf, her best friend, her best friends bf and my cousin. It was nice to get everyone together. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Brian baking muffins, making our dinner (so good!), and watching movies. We watched Blood Diamond and Saw 5.

For dinner we made a Chicken Bistro Pasta from Kraft website. It was a cold pasta with chicken, Italian dressing, onion, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes. It was fantastic! And quite easy to make.

Meals for Saturday:

Breakfast- 1 cup of skim milk, banana

Lunch- 12-grain bagel, 2 slices lean turkey, lettuce, 1 tbsp. light mayo, Kiwi, 1 cup of blueberries, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Snack- 100 calorie pack of lays chips

Dinner - 1 cup of low sodium v8 vegetable juice, frozen sheppards pie dinner (200 calories)

Snack- Jello sugar free pudding, 15 sea salt rice works brown rice crisps

Meals for Sunday:

Breakfast / Lunch (at Broadway's) - Sesame bagel, 1 tbsp. peanut butter, 2 cups of mixed fruit

Snack - Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews, Praeventia cherry and pomegranite granola bar

Dinner - 1 serving of Chicken Bistro Pasta (290 calories), Diet coke

Snack- Weight Watcher's smart ones double fudge cake

Mmmm Sleep How I Love Thee....

I slept 10 hours last night... could've slept more but didn't want to waste the day. I will no doubt sleep in again tomorrow. I really need it and it's great! Last night Brian and I went to see the Book of Eli. It was good, but nothing super special to me. I mean, I'm glad I saw it, it was interesting, but it's not one I'd watch again. After the movie we did groceries! Here is what I picked up this week:

- Boneless skinless chicken breast
- Bananas
- Blueberries
- Grape tomatoes
- Sundried tomatoes
- Red onion
- Lean turkey lunch meat
- 12 grain bagels
- Feta cheese
- Blue menu omega 3 penne pasta
- Herb seasoning mix
- 2 Weight watcher's desserts (chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake)
- 100 calorie pack of lays
- Sea salt whole grain rice crisps
- Case of bottled water
- Skim milk
- Pepperoni pizza (300 calories per 1/4)
- 5 cheese pizza (300 calories per 1/3)

That's all I can remember! It was a good grocery trip! And I've also decided to have more filling meals (like the whole bagel instead of half...) with less snacks (like no pudding with lunch or something) on some days so that I can cut back on things that don't add enough nutritional value.

Meals for Friday:

Breakfast - Vita muffin top (mint chocolate chip flavor), 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch - 1/2 flax bagel, 1 tbsp. peanut butter, Fat free vanilla pudding, Apple, Diet gingerale

Snack - Chocolate peanut butter granola bar

Dinner - 1/4 pepperoni and peppers pizza (250 calories), 1 cup of low socium v8 vegetable juice

Snack - Diet coke, 100 calorie bag of popcorn, 60 calorie hershey chocolate caramel stick

TGIF!!

Good morning all,

T'is Friday and I could not be more happy about that! I am feeling exhausted and my throat is starting to hurt.... it best go away if it knows whats good for it! Anyways, had a really good night last night. Did a little workout on the Wii, nothing too intense, and then headed over to Brian's to have some Subway with him and his mom. We watched Saw 4 (my favorite Saw movie so far!) and Sunshine Cleaning (really cute!).

Meals for Thursday:

Breakfast - Vita muffin top (banana fudge flavor!), 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews, Starbucks tall skinny caramel latte (90 calories)

Lunch - 1/2 flax bagel, 1 tbsp. peanut butter, Apple, No sugar added pudding

Snack - Praeventia cranberry and pomegranite granola bar

Dinner - Subway 6" turkey breast on whole wheat with lettuce, tomato, onion and light mayo, 1 bag of baked lays (130 calories)

Snack - Diet coke (caffeine free), 100 calorie pack of oreo cakesters

Working It Out.

I was feeling so sleepy on the bus ride home from work today that I texted Val to cancel my workout with her. I thought, if I worked out on my own at home, I could workout earlier, not have to spend the 20 minutes walking there, it would just all around be less time consuming. She understood and that was that. I came to my sense about an hour later. I am going to workout anyways, I may as well get a better workout on the treadmill and see my friend. I could push myself for the hour and then hopefully be tired enough to get a good night sleep tonight. So that was a little victory for me. I didn't succomb to my lazyness. And I did a kickass workout too if I must say! I did 50 minutes on the treadmill and pushed myself to run in longer spurts than ever before. Also, every other time I would run, I would stop when my lungs or chest hurt. Tonight, I've realized I'm in good enough shape where that doesn't really happen anymore! I can now run until my legs start to hurt, which takes a lot longer. My legs will hurt tomorrow, but I'm pretty proud of myself!

Meals for today:

Breakfast - Vita muffin (chocolate with white chocolate chips flavor), 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- 1/2 bag of Bistro express chicken and mushroom rice entree, Apple, No sugar added pudding

Snack- Herb and cheddar cheese stick, 1 serving of crackers

Dinner- 6 chicken meatballs in 1 tbsp. of honey garlic bbq sauce, 1 cup of stir fry veggies (carrots, onions, mushroom, potato wedges - 100 calories per cup) in 1 tsp of oil, Diet coke

Snack- 2 pk of oreo wafers (130 calories)

Workout - 50 minutes on treadmill, 5 minutes of streteching

Mid-Week!

Good morning all,

My Vita muffins arrived at my doorstep yesterday! I had to make quite a bit of room in my freezer for them, but I am so happy to have them as quick breakfasts some days during the week!

Last night was Biggest Loser. It was such an intense episode! Lots of crying and yelling going on at that ranch.... Brian and I had our burgers for dinner, watched Saw 3 (more gruesome than the first 2 I found!) and then headed to his place to watch Biggest Loser.

Meals for Tuesday:

Breakfast - Slimfast muffin bar

Snack - Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- 1/2 flax bagel, 1 tbsp. peanut butter, Apple, No sugar added pudding

Snack- Kashi dark chocolate and coconut granola bar

Dinner- Blue menu portion controlled burger (140 calories), bun, 1 tbsp. ketchup, 1 tsp. mustard, 1 cup of low sodium v8 vegetable juice

Snack- Diet coke, 100 calorie pack of ruffles sour cream and onion chips, 60 calorie hershey chocolate caramel stick

Tired....

I'm definitely feeling sleepy today! Hopefully this nice weather wakes me up a bit soon. Had a pretty boring night last night.... did a 30 minute workout on Your Shape and just kind of relaxed. Looking forward to Biggest Loser tonight!!

Meals for Monday:

Breakfast- 1 pkg. raisin and spice oatmeal, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- 1/3 mushroom medley flatbread pizza, Apple

Snack- 100 calorie shapers bar

Dinner- 1 serving of Chicken bruschetta bake, 1 cup of low sodium v8 vegetable juice

Snack- Diet coke, 2 peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Workout - 30 minutes on Wii Your Shape

25.6 lbs. and Counting....

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm down 0.8 lbs this week... not a huge loss, but I'm ok with it! I know some weeks are going to be slower than others. It doesn't matter how much I work out or eat healthy, sometimes there'll be weeks where I lose very little. I'm not discouraged though... only motivated for bigger numbers this week!

My weekend flew by! I did a lot of resting and movie watching on Saturday. I did do the 60 minute Marathon workout on Wii Active though. My muscles were very sore on Sunday! Sunday Brian and I had a relaxing day of movie watching, Super Mario video gaming and dinner cooking. We decided to try out a new recipe this weekend. It's called Chicken bruschetta bake. It was so easy to make, only 330 calories per serving and quite delicious! We got the recipe from the Kraft website. You take 4 small chicken breasts and put them in indivdual sheets of tin foil (spray pam on the sheets first.) Then you mix 1 box of stovetop stuffing, 1 can of diced tomatos and 2 cloves of garlic into a bowl. You pour a bit of that mixture over each piece of chicken, and top each piece with a sprinkle of basil and 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. You fold up the tinfoil and put the servings into the oven at 400 for about 35 minutes. So yummy!

I tried my new Kashi granola bars. They are so fantastic! The dark chocolate coconut ones feel like they have a thick layer of fudge on top. The pumpkin pie ones have a thick layer of pumpkin spice. The key is that the "topping" on the granola bars are made from dates, which is why it's so healthy. The chocolate one tastes so much like fudge but really it's dates and cocoa. I highly recommend both flavors!

Meals for Saturday:

Breakfast - 1/2 cup of Post pecan and raisin cereal, 1 cup of skim milk, Banana

Lunch - 1/2 flax bagel, 3 tbsp. bruschetta, Apple, 2 caltrate calcium chews, No sugar added pudding

Snack - Kashi dark chocolate coconut granola bar

Dinner - 1/3 mushroom medley delissio flatbread pizza, 1 cup of low sodium v8 vegetable juice

Snack- Diet coke, 100 calorie bag of Ruffles sour cream and onion chips, 1 fun size chocolate bar (80 calories)

Workout - 60 minutes on Wii Active

Meals for Sunday:

Breakfast- Slept in.

Lunch- 1/3 mushroom medley delissio flatbread pizza, Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Snack- Kashi pumpkin pie granola bar

Dinner- 1 serving of Chicken bruschetta bake (330 calories), 1 cup of salad, 1 tbsp. balsamic fig vinagrette dressing, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- 2 chips a'hoy cookies (110 calories)

Fantastic Weather For The Weekend!

I could definitely get used to the mild weather.... So it's finally the weekend and I'm quite enjoying it so far! Last night Brian and I saw It's Complicated at the new movie theatre in Orleans. The theatre was alright, nothing special. The movie, while a bit cheesy at times, was hilarious! I loved it! After the movie, we went grocery shopping at the Superstore. I love that grocery stores are open pretty late.... and they're less busy after 10pm so it's really a good time for me to go. I love finding new things to try and I'm quite happy with what I picked up:

- Bananas
- Apples
- Bag of salad
- Bruschetta
- V8 low sodium vegetable juice
- Flax bagels
- Skinless boneless chicken breasts
- Kraft part skim mozzeralla cheese
- Can diced tomatoes
- Stovetop stuffing
- Dellissio crispy flatbread mushroom medley pizza
- Dellissio crispy flatbread pepperoni, red pepper and yellow pepper pizza
- 100 calorie packs of Ruffles sour cream and onion chips
- Kozy shack no sugar added chocolate pudding (4 g. fibre each cup!)
- 2 pk. of Smokin' stampede quesadillas
- Kashi pumpkin pie granola bars
- Kashi dark chocolate & coconut granola bars

This is the first time I've come across the flatbread pizzas. Each pizza is just over 300 calories for 1/3 of the pizza, which is pretty good! I'll probably try the mushroom one tonight! I think the kashi granola bars are new too. Kashi products are made with 7 whole grains, have a ton of fibre and have no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. They're quite healthy and I'm always excited to try new products. I'll try one of the flavors for my afternoon snack and let you all know how they are!

Meals for yesterday:

Breakfast - 1 cup of captain crunch cereal, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch - 18 organic sweet chilli rice crisps, 1 herb and cheddar cheese stick, Apple, Fat free butterscotch pudding

Snack - Praeventia cranberry and pomegranite granola bar

Dinner - Subway turkey breast on the flatbread with lettuce and light mayo, 1 bag of baked lays (130 calories), Diet coke

Wii Active

I decided to try the 30 Day Challenge on Wii Active today. It's supposed to be a 5 workouts a week thing, but I think you can add in when you do a different activity as well. This works out for me because I would like to continue to workout with Val on the treadmill or elliptical once a week, plus do Wii Your Shape once a week as well. I find Wii Active to be a lot of strength training, which is so amazing for toning up, but I'm going to keep up the other workouts as well because they are more cardio focused. I completed workout 1 of the 30 Day Challenge in just under 25 minutes on level Medium. I think I should've chosen the Hard option because I found it a little bit easy. It could also be that it was a shorter workout. There was parts that were still pretty intense for me, but all in all I didn't break a huge sweat. Here is a breakdown of the workout I did this evening:

- Walking
- Running
- Side Squats
- Bicep Curls
- Tricep Curls
- Shoulder Press
- Kickboxing Punches, Kicks and Knee Ups (my favorite part of the workout!)
- Inline Skating (Basically holding a squat for a really long time.... and then lifting your left leg, then right leg when there were obstacles to skate over. This was the hardest part of the workout)

I'm excited for the next workout though as it should be more intense! I also noticed that there is an hour long workout (not part of the challenge) that I may try a night where I have a lot of time. I feel like working out for a full 60 minutes would allow me to really push myself to the limit. It says I burned about 145 calories this evening, which seemed pretty accurate. I'm taking tomorrow off to rest and then will pick it back up again on Saturday morning!

I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to eat junk food tonight. But I haven't! What's with me and craving junk food on Thursdays anyways?

Meals for today:

Breakfast- 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- Apple, 2 caltrate calcium chews, Starbucks grande skinny caramel latte (130 calories)

Lunch- 1 plain rice cake, 1 tbsp. peanut butter, 1 banana

Snack- Praeventia cranberry & pommegranite granola bar

Dinner- Turkey sausage, 2 servings of grilled veggies (mushrooms, peppers, onion, seasoned potato wedges and green beans - 100 calories, 6 g. fibre) cooked in 1 tsp. of extra virgin olive oil, Diet coke

Snack- 100 calorie bag of lays chips, 1 fun size chocolate bar (80 calories)

Workout - 25 minutes of Wii Active, 5 minutes of stretching

Organization Is Key.

I'm bound to run last minute in the mornings, so planning ahead is what keeps me on track. Every evening as I'm preparing dinner for myself, I also pack my lunch for the following day. I'm in the kitchen anyways, and it takes 5 minutes if I just suck it up and get it done with. Would my lunch be as healthy if I packed it the following morning as I was rushing to catch the bus? Probably not. It'd most likely be the quickest option I had. Healthy or not. Tonight I even figured, why not give myself two minutes more sleep in the morning and have my cereal measured out, in the bowl (with saran wrap covering it to keep it fresh), sitting on the counter. Seriously now all I need to do is pour the milk and eat up! How can you not eat healthy if all the work is already done?

Tonight I had a great workout at Val's. I did the elliptical, on level 7, for 45 minutes. I followed it up with 5 minutes of stretching. I'm now quite energized, but am still hoping to be tired enough to get to bed early tonight! Also, it deserves to be mentioned on here that Brian did in fact get his orange belt in jiu jitsu this evening. I'm a proud girlfriend; way to go babe!

Meals for today:

Breakfast- 1 of mom's homemade healthy muffin tops, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- Apple, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- 1 whole wheat pita, 2 tbsp. baba ghanoush dip, Kiwi, Fat free vanilla pudding

Snack- Chocolate chip granola bar

Dinner- Chicken quesadilla, Diet dr. pepper

Snack- 18 Simply organic rice crisps in sweet chili flavor (90 calories)

Workout - 45 minutes on elliptical, 5 minutes of stretching

Vita Muffins!

As I've written before, I'm really enjoying Vita muffins! I mean, they're packed with nutrients and fibre! They even have protein in them, which is fantastic since I sometimes lack protein in the mornings. I checked out http://www.vitalicious.ca/ and found out that I could actually order a box online. The prices are the same as in store, but there are so many different flavor options! I think the chocolate muffins with peanut butter chips look the most appealing, but I didn't want to get a 24-pack of all one kind so I opted for the "sweet tooth" variety pack. It contains: 6 Double Chocolate Dream , 6 Deep Chocolate , 6 Chocolate Mint and 6 Banana Fudge. I can't wait for them to arrive on my doorstep. Chocolate in the mornings? Sign me up!

Last night was such a relaxing night. We just made burgers for dinner and vegged in front of the TV while watching our guiltiest pleasure: The Biggest Loser! I'm not finding I like the contestants as much as previous seasons....but I'm sure once they start to get more serious about it, I'll get more into it!

Tonight I get to head over to Val's for our weekly workout together. I'm pretty excited! I'll be using the elliptical tonight so I'll post how that goes a bit later on.

Meals from yesterday:

Breakfast - Deep chocolate vita muffin, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack- Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- 1 whole wheat pita, 2 tbsp. baba ghanoush dip, Apple, Fat free buttersotch pudding

Snack- S'mores granola bar

Dinner- 1 portion controlled burger (140 calories), 1 bun, 1 tbsp. ketchup, 1 tsp. mustard, Diet coke

Snack- 100 calorie bag of lays chips, 1 fun size chocolate bar (80 calories)

So I've been doing better with my fibre, calcium, protein and water intake, but I'm starting to notice a slip in adding fruits and veggies to meals! I'm going to need to focus more on the from now on. You're supposed to aim for 5-10 servings per day, and I've been making it to about 3. Ah well, I guess there's always going to be something to improve upon!

Start of a Good Week!

It is definitely a rare occurrance to have a Monday that runs so smoothly....but I'll take it! I woke up energized and well rested, the weather was mild, and everything just seemed to go my way! It was really nice and I appreciated it muchly.

After dinner I went to watch Brian at his jiu jitsu class. We thought he'd be getting his orange belt tonight, but apparently that's going to be Wednesday.... which is the night I workout with Val so I'm gonna miss him get his orange belt... annoying! I know he'll do awesome though!

Meals for today:

Breakfast - 1 vitamuffin top, 1 cup of skim milk

Snack - Banana, Starbucks tall skinny caramel latte

Lunch - 1 whole wheat pita, 2 tbsp. baba ghanoush dip, 2 caltrate calcium chews, Apple

Snack- Praeventia cranberry and pommegranite granola bar

Dinner- Weight Watchers Chicken Parmesan meal, Diet coke

Snack- 2 fun size chocolate bars

24.8 lbs and Counting....

Happy Monday everyone! I actually woke up feeling well rested this morning.... that's a first in a long time! And I stepped on the scale, to be pleasantly surprised with a 3.4 lb loss this week! I think the first splurge for me is going to be a new pair of running shoes....maybe in a month or so.

I had a great and relaxing rest of my weekend! Saturday I went to workout with Val in the morning and did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I'm constantly pushing myself to run for longer spurts and at higher intensities. I was definitely tired after! I came home and spent a good 3 hours cleaning and organizing my room. It looks great! Brian and I saw Sherlock Holmes Saturday night, which was a fantastic movie. I realized, there hasn't been a movie I've seen in theatres in a really long time that I have not enjoyed. Yay for good movies! Sunday was the most relaxing day of all. Brian and I watched movies (Garden State and Bad Boys 2), played some Super Mario on the Wii, baked some muffins and made a yummy dinner together.

Meals for Saturday:

Breakfast - 1 Vitamuffin top, Kiwi, 1 cup of skim milk

Lunch - 1 whole wheat pita, 2 tbsp. chipotle humus, 1 cut up apple, 1 vanilla fat free pudding, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Snack- Praeventia cranberry & pommegranite granola bar

Dinner- Weight watcher's smart ones thai chicken and rice noodles meal

Snack- Diet coke, 100 calorie bag of Lays chips, hershey's chocolate caramel stick (60 calories)

Workout - 45 minutes on treadmill, 5 minutes of stretching

Sunday's Meals:

Breakfast - 1 Vitamuffin top, Kiwi, 1 cup of skim milk

Lunch- 18 organic brown rice crisps, sweet chili flavor (90 calories), 2 tbsp. baba ghanoush dip, 1 cut up apple, 1 chocolate pudding, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Snack- Praventia cranberry and pommegranite granola bar

Dinner- 3 oz. chicken cut up and cooked in 1/2 can of cream of chicken soup over 1/2 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of green beans, Diet coke

Snack- 100 calorie bag of Lays chips, 1 fun size chocolate bar (80 calories)

Ready For A Relaxing Weekend :-)

After a quite long and tiring work week, I am so ready for this weekend! I got home from work yesterday and headed over to Brian's where we picked up some Subway for dinner, watched the TV series "Undeclared" and just vegged. Later on in the evening, we picked up some groceries for the week (Gotta love 24 hour grocery stores!) I normally am so excited about my meals (that's what is great about buying foods you love!) but as Melissa noticed yesterday, I was bored with the plain food I had left in the fridge. This is what I got grocery shopping yesterday:

-Apples
-Kiwis
-Bananas
-Whole Wheat Pita
-Chipotle Humus (excited to try this!)
-Preventia (I think?) Cherry Pommegranite granola bites
-Skim milk
-Sheppards Pie
-Chicken and Thai Noodles Weight Watcher's Meal
-Chicken Parmesan Weight Watcher's Meal
-Boneless Chicken Breasts
-Turkey Sausages
-Vita Chocolate Muffin Tops (100 calories, 7 grams of fibre)
-Whole grain rice crisps in Sweet Chili flavor
-100 calorie packs of Lays chips (plain)

I think that's it.... but now I have a fridge, freezer and shelves stocked with delicious food for the week!

Meals from yesterday:

Breakfast- 1 of Mom's healthy muffin tops (barely any sugar, blueberries, craisins and red river cereal), 2 Caltrate calcium chews

Snack- Chocolate pudding, Fruit cup

Lunch- 2 plain rice cakes, 1 tbsp. light peanut butter, Kiwi, 1 herb and cheddar cheese stick

Snack- Chocolate peanut butter granola bar

Dinner- Subway 6" roast beef on whole wheat with lettuce and 1 strip of light mayo, 1 bag of baked lays chips (130 calories), Diet coke

For today, I am leaving shortly to walk to Val's for a workout. This afternoon the plan is to organize and clean my room (which will likely take hours....), clean up the kitchen a bit, and perhaps reorganize my food on the shelves (everything is just kind of thrown on there randomly). Tonight Brian is coming over and we'll just veg and watch movies and whatnot. Ahhhh I cannot wait for more relaxing!

New Me VS Old Me

I had my first "slip up" today. Though I'm not so sure it's a slip up since I'm not following any sort of plan. I indulged a little bit more than I normally do is what I'd say. But I have grown so much and learned so much over these past 8 weeks. And I realized that today more than ever. Winter is really hard for me. I cry at inopportune times, I let little things get me down, I become overwhelmed and panicked at little things (more so than normal!) I'm sensitive by nature, but winter just brings it out ten fold. Anyways, as most of you know it's been a long week for me and today in particular was a bad day. I was really tired and slow moving this morning so I was running late trying to make my bus. My sister, very forgetful sometimes, forgot a metal candle holder on the stairs, which I didn't see. I took a spill. I'm in some pain. I was already crying before I left the house. Once at work, my boss asks to speak to me in his office. He's unhappy with the e-mail message I drafted for him yesterday. The one he asked to be 1 paragraph in length and generic. He's unhappy because he wants it to be 4 paragraphs long and quite specific. "Absolutely," I responded. "I'm sorry that the draft wasn't what you were looking for; I will write one up ASAP that suits your needs." I go to the washroom and cry some more. How frustrating is it when all you want to do is yell because it's not your fault that he changed his mind and now wanted something completely different than he did the afternoon before. And then when I had another question, I went to his office to go ask him, and I woke him up so I'm pretty sure he's going to forget what he told me anyways and want something completely different. After work, I came home, got my pj's on and crawled into bed. It's a comfy night. But I wanted to treat myself. And I didn't want my 1 chocolate or my 100 calorie bag of popcorn, or whatever it is I would've chosen. Here's where I've noticed big changes in myself:
Old me would've eaten an entire bag of chips, and any chocolate I could find in the house.
New me had a bowl of tostidos with salsa, and 4 lindor chocolates.
Old me would've thought I "cheated" or "failed" and thought the week was a bust already, so why not be careless for the rest of the week.
New me is not mad at herself. Yes, she ate a little more than normal. Yes she feels slightly bloated. But she knows in the grand scheme of things that she will still lose weight this week or at the very least maintain her 21+ pound loss.
I'm competitive and I work hard to be successful, but I know that I am not perfect. In fact, one minor "slip up" in 8.5 weeks is pretty damn good! I've been eating so healthy throughout Christmas, the parties, the nights out, etc. I'm proud of myself! And tomorrow morning I will wake up, focus on the postives, forget about the negatives, and continue on to lose these last 26 lbs or so!

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast - 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, dry

Snack - Starbucks tall skinny caramel latte, 2 calcium caltrate chews, 1 fruit cup

Lunch - 12 pita chips, 2 tbsp. baba ghanoush dip, Apple, Chocolate pudding

Snack- 100 calorie shapers bar

Dinner- Weight watcher's smart ones rigatoni dinner, Diet coke

Snack - 1 ferrara roche chocolate

Today's meals:

Breakfast- 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, dry, 2 caltrate calcium chews

Snack- Fruit cup

Lunch- 5 olive oil and basil breton crackers, 2 tbsp. roasted red pepper dip, Chocolate pudding

Snack - S'mores granola bar

Dinner- Chicken quesadilla (240 calories), Diet coke

Snack- 1 bowl of tostidos with salsa, 4 lindor chocolates

Biggest Loser Premiere OMG!!

The Biggest Loser premiere was everything it promised.... more intense, bigger contestants, harder challenges... I cannot wait to tune in every Tuesday. One guy started out at 526 lbs! And the very first workout they had to do was on the treadmill at an incline of 7, which is something I don't even do now! If someone at 526 lbs can do that kind of exercise, I really have no excuses!

Still feeling the blahs.... is it summer yet? I'm finding myself extremely tired in the mornings.... body feeling heavy.... but the continued support I get from you all is helping a lot! What does everyone else do to help with the winter blahs? I could use some advice! Right now I'm eating well, exercising regularly and taking vitamin d supplements. Any other ideas?

Meals from yesterday:

Breakfast - 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, dry

Snack - Starbucks tall skinny caramel latte (90 calories), 2 Caltrate calcium chews, Kiwi

Lunch - 6 bagel crisps (130 calories), 2 tbsp. of roasted red pepper dip, 1 fruit cup, 1 herb and cheddar cheese stick (80 calories)

Snack- S'more granola bar

Dinner - 1 portion controlled burger (140 calories), 1 bun, 1 tbsp. ketchup, 1 tsp. mustard, 1/2 cup of cooked carrots, Diet coke

Snack- 1 ferrara roche chocolate (75 calories)

Feeling Blah....

I am so unbeliveably tired today.... which makes me cranky and definitely craving chocolate, chips, and lots of 'em! I could've seriously eaten an entire bag of chips and box of cookies.... out of tiredness! Isn't that horrible? Instead I made sure to have a more filling snack.... but seriously, I've only had 2 nights of really bad cravings in 8 weeks, which isn't bad... but those 2 nights were tough! I need to go to bed early tonight....

Food note - Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal is MEGA filling. It kept me full for over 4 hours.... I wasn't needing my snack until about 10:30am!

Meals for today:

Breakfast- 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, 1/2 cup of skim milk

Snack- Apple, 2 Calcium caltrate chews

Lunch- 1 plain rice cake, 1/2 can of tuna, 1 tbsp. of light mayo, 1 kiwi, 1 cheddar and herb cheese stick

Snack- 100 calorie shapers bar

Dinner- 1 serving of fibre + veggies, 1 smokin' stampede quesadilla (290 calories), Diet coke

Snack- 1 pkg. of crystal light in 2 cups water, 100 calorie bag of popcorn, 2 chips a hoy cookies (110 calories for 2)

Now that I'm focusing more on fibre, I added up at least 29 grams today and it's recommended you have between 25 and 35 grams a day so woo, go me!

21.4 lbs and Counting....

Happy Monday All,

I'm down another 1.2 lbs this week.... not a super big loss, but I'll take it and hope for a bigger one this week! It's crazy to think I've been doing this for 8 weeks straight now. It's definitely a change for life.

I'm so sad the weekend is over.... they're never long enough! I really would like a vacation.... just take a week off or something..... can't wait for a permanent job in which I am able to take vacation! Going from school straight into full time work with zero break is starting to take its' toll.... but I am thankful to have found work and to make enough money to pay off my loans quite quickly.

This weekend I started getting bored with all this planning ahead and the foods I am eating and whatnot.... so I took a step back and evluated what I was eating. I've mastered the being within 1200-1500 calories per day, but I do still eat a lot of chocolate, or sometimes empty calories in my meals. So I went to Shopper's and stocked up on higher fibre foods (like Kashi's Go Lean Crunch cereal which has 9 grams of fibre per serving!) and more protein (like cans of tuna). I definitely haven't been eating enough of either the fibre or the protein so it's time to start being more aware of that. Now I shall sit back and hopefully watch the scale go down some more!

Meals for Saturday:

Breakfast- Banana, 1 cup of skim milk, 2 Caltrate calcium chews

Lunch- Chicken, spinach and mushroom lean cuisine panini, Apple

Snack- Chocolate peanut butter granola bar

Dinner- Subway 6" turkey breast on whole wheat with lettuce and 1 tbsp. light mayo, Diet coke, 1 small bag of baked lays chips (130 calories)

Snack- Fat free butterscotch pudding

Meals for Sunday:

Breakfast- Banana

Lunch- 1 plain rice cake, 1/2 can of tuna, 1 tbsp. light mayo, 1 cup of cantalope, 1 cheddar herb cheese stick (80 calories), 2 Caltrate calcium chews, Diet coke

Snack- 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, 1/2 cup of skim milk

Dinner- 1 cup of whole wheat pasta, 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce, 1 cup of salad, 1 tbsp. sundried tomato and olive oil salad dressing

Dessert- 1 cup of fruit

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hey everyone,

New Years Eve was great! Went to a house party with friends and had a blast :-) Got all dressed up with Val too, which is always so much fun!

Since I started my "New Years Resolution" back in November, I feel much less pressure to make one! I'm being really healthy, working out lots, eating well, and all around just feeling good about life. The only thing I want to work on is actually building toned muscle instead of resorting to just cardio to burn off fat. I want to be extremely fit. So that's my goal.

Meals from New Years Eve:

Breakfast- Slimfast muffin bar, Banana, 2 caltrate calcium chews (20 calories for 2)

Lunch- 4 tomato & basil triscuts, 2 tbsp. roasted red pepper dip, Apple

Snack- S'mores granola bar

Dinner- Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla (240 calories), Diet coke

Snack- 1 small homemade shortbread cookie

New Years drinks- 8 light beers

Workouts- 40 minutes on Wii Active doing "The Athlete in You" lots of work on legs, biceps and triceps.

Meals for New Years Day:

Lunch- 30 pretzels, 2 tbsp. baba ganoush dip, Fat free pudding, 1 cup of cantalope

Snack- Chocolate peanut butter granola bar, Diet coke

Dinner- 3 oz. turkey, 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes, 1 brussel sprout (tried for the first time... do not enjoy ha ha), 1/2 cup of corn, 1/2 cup of stove top stuffing