Resolutions or Goals?

I don't like to make New Year resolutions as they typically don't go any further than Jan 2. However I find myself waiting to turn the calendar before I put any concrete plans into action. There is something about the new year attitude.

I do have goals for next year and I will post them here so I can look back next year and see how far I got.

The Goals:

• To be at goal weight of 140 pounds so I can stop paying at Weight Watchers. I'm not sure if that's my personal goal but I'll find out when I get there.
• Run the HSBC Half Marathon in July 2008.
• To finish my Human Resources Managment Certificate.
• To write the first knowledge test for my CHIRP designation.

Alright so it's now official.

Here's to 2008 and I hope you all achieve what you want to achieve.

To quote Yoda : Do or do not, there is no try.

To quote Edna Mode (The Incredibles): I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now.

Play safe tonight my friends.

As the clocks ticks

Ah the cusp of a new year and the soon to be onslaught of diet propaganda and "New year, New you" being chanted on every channel both tv and radio, in the window of every bookstore and drugstore. Are you ready?

Things I've learned in the past year and things I know I must do:

Diets don't work for me, no magical program named after an exotic location that tells me what I can and can not eat will make me part with my money. Just watched an interesting doc called Diet Confidential - whoo eee do these people make a bizillion dollars off of us with just the marketing of these books.

It's simply calories in and calories out. Weight watchers does work for me providing I follow the program. What I need to work on is consistency and stop treating Weight watchers like my favourite charity by just forking over money every week, I need to work for that money and I mean food and exercise wise.

My head has to be in it or game off.

I must face forward, no looking back.

I must believe with my whole heart that I can do this.

2007 was a wonky year for me, I'm considering it served as the foundation of the amazing accomplishments I shall achieve in 2008.

Who's in?

Back in town

Hello All,
It was a beautiful drive back to Calgary today, the mountains were covered in snow and at 9am the moon was still in the sky as the sun rose.

I stepped on the scale when I got home and was surprised to see the number I saw, I was expecting much worse. I enjoyed my 2.5 days at Dad's. It was very calming and relaxing, watching the daily soap opera of the squirrel trying to shoo the birds away from the bird feeder, but the birds return when he has his back turned.

I always re-discover the CBC at his house as he has 4 channels. For those of you who aren't familiar with the CBC it's the good old Canadian Broadcasting Corporation typically known for it's news, documentaries and quality children's programming and of course......Hockey Night in Canada. Every Canadian can hum the theme to Hockey Night in Canada. However the CBC is breaking from tradition with shows like Little Mosque on the Prairie which is quite good. They have some really good dramas as well and it looks like there are some interesting shows coming like MVP-the secret lives of hockey wives.

It was a bit of sensory overload returning to my digital cable, the sad this even with 200 channels there can be nothing on.

Before I left I bought a cheap DVD player for my basement so I can do workouts downstairs. I plan to return to the gym next week....just in time for all the new year resolution people.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Happy Happy Holidays to All

Thus far my weekend has been weird food wise, after my confession of evil purchases on Saturday the rest of day consisted of cookies which strangely worked out point wise, nutritionally in the pits of course.

Yesterday I made coyote pancake mix, with 4g of fibre in this maybe I calculated 3 pancakes at 4 pts. Later on I saw National Treasure with Nick Cage, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't all that great either. It was fun. Then went out for lunch at an Irish pub where I had a chicken quesadilla and bread pudding. I payed for it later with a wicked bought of heart burn. Lesson learned.

At noon I'm off to the Greyhound station (den of humanity) to take the bus to Olds, Alberta with stops in Airdrie, Crossfield, Carstairs and Didsbury. This is true rural country as some of these stops are on the side of the road by the gas station. I'm so looking forward to 3 days of quiet with no city noises and no street lights. The stars are so visible it feels like you can touch them.


I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope all your wishes come true in the New Year.

Take care,
Sylvia

Down 1.6

Bringing me 0.6 away from the 170s, I'm happy with that it's been awhile since I've seen a solid over 1 pound loss. The back of mind is saying it could have been better had I not had dinner at Arby's on Thursday or consumed a beer, two spring rolls and two samosas at the game on top of the 4 pts of snacks I had before leaving for the game. I could have had dinner pre-game and not partaken in the free drinks and not gone over my weekly points, oh well c'est la vie. The game was good, even though we lost in overtime. The Flames played well overall.

I'm also impressed with my loss as this past week has been the dreaded week before TOM, which ususally has me inhaling anything I get my hands on.

After weigh in I popped over to Walmart and got 3 cute Christmas tins. I'll bake my colleagues some cookies to put in the tins and bring them to work on Christmas Eve. Walmart was civilized I hopped on to a self serve tin right away, popped into Safeway after that and no line ups there either. It pays to go early. I did take my eye of the ball in Safeway though, I didn't really need groceries as I'm leaving on Monday but I picked up Ben & Jerry's, almond tarts and egg nog. Got home had one tart, one glass of nog and some ice cream and realized what the hell am I doing so it all went into the garbage. Id rather be out the money I paid for it then start a backwards slide. So I have 6pts left for the day and will probably be making some 0pt soup.

After I get back from my Dad's it will be back to the gym or running outside. I've committed myself to taking part in the July half marathon again this summer and this time I'm going to run most if not all. Training needs to start soon so I can build up my distance. Depending on the condition of my Dad's 100ft dirt driveway, I'm going to do intervals while I'm there and drink copious amounts of water. The good thing about Dad's house is that he buys very little processed food.

I doubt I'll post tomorrow but I may be back on Monday for a quick Merry Christmas.

Don't let any treats wreck your moods this Christmas, it's Christmas afterall. Surround yourself with those you love and know that your blessed.

Peace!

Party like it's Friday

Whoo, I'm so happy to see Friday. I've had one crazy week and am feeling a bit more sorted now. I'm 99% sure I'll see a loss on Saturday...whoo hoo.


I do have a challenge this evening though, I've been offered a ticket to the Flames game tonight in the box seat section. This is a pretty cushy thing as you have you're own bar and food in each box. I have 9pts for supper that I'll save for the hockey game, I'll snack on 0pt veggies until then. I will consume lots of water and be up late so there shouldn't be too much damage. Now the Flames have just finished a 6 game winning streak and Dallas lost to Vancouver yesterday, it will be interesting I'm sure. Game doesn't start until 8, I hope I can stay awake. Coffee may be in order.

I need to come up with a gift for my 3 collegues, each of them have given me something and I'm thinking of baking them cookies and putting them into a Christmas tin. One gave me a computer mouse pad calender, the other a cute box that has note paper in it and the other a bag of Lindor chocolates. Maybe I'll but together a little gift basket or something. I'll pop into Walmart after weigh in tomorrow and figure it out.

I wish you all safe travels if you're off this weekend. I'll be back tomorrow to report my weigh in.

Have a great night!

The plan works

Well I have tracked for 5 days in a row now, on my way to 6. I have dipped into flex but still have 10 unused and I don't plan to use them over the next two days.

On Saturday when I stepped on my home scale I was 184 (182.2 at WI), yesterday I was 180, today was 181 thanks to some after 8pm snacking but I'm cool with that. I usually do better if I have some fluctuation with my daily points. I am treating this like my first week of weight watchers and the proof is in the numbers. When you follow the plan, the plan works. Right now I'm on track to be back in the 170s on Saturday.

I will definitly post Saturday morning with my official weigh in.

Did you all catch the season finale of Biggest Loser? Why does everyone look so tan in the end?
Wowsers did the final 4 look good.
I was quite happy with Bill winning, sure it would have been nice for Julie to win but I genuinly liked Bill. The people who got sent home earlier did really well too. I'm still not crazy about Amy, there's just something about her that bugs me. What about when Jerry took off his shirt, I think I actually said "put it back on" outloud.

I was thinking about what a Biggest Loser Canada would like that, instead of working out at the beach would they have to shovel snow?

Have a groovy day everybody!

Step by step

Alright I stayed totally on plan as I went to Walmart after work yesterday. The whole time I was in there I was chanting 7pts in my head to keep me focused on the task at hand and not distracted by the Christmas yummies. Got home, made dinner, watched the finale of Project Runway Canada, fell asleep in the last 5 min so missed who won. Had to call my friend in Vancouver, started to munch on things while I was on the phone....damn it.

(I pvr'd a later episode of PR Canada so I know who won and I'm super happy about it.)

I went over for daily points but I tracked it all and used flex points for my munching. I still consider that to be OP as I strongly believe in using the flex points. I just need to stop and think before mindless noshing. Tonight I have 10pts for supper so I think I'll have a pasta dinner.

I'm so looking forward to the Biggest Loser finale. I have no guesses as to who wins. I love the transformations and how different everyone looks.

I had wicked work stress today but I have no desire to bury my frustrations in food. I'm still focused kids and taking it day by day.

Hugs!

Things are looking up

Whew, the money has been reimbursed and I am so relieved that I can now pay some bills.

Once again everybody - be careful with your debit and credit cards this is the season where fraud increased.

On to other news.

Weigh in saw a disappointing 1.2 gain, totally self inflicted probably due to stress about the debit card thing. I realize that my lack of losses have been due to not having my head in the game. Well I'm happy to say I've tracked two days and so far so good for day 3 and stayed OP for each day. I've already seen a 1.5 pound loss on the scale. My goal is treat this week like Week 1 on program.

One of my friends was at the meeting and she suggested I rejoin, officially start over with WW-earn my 10% again. At first I couldn't understand why she was suggesting this to me. I then realized she knows I've been on WW for awhile , having a hard time lately and thinks I should be at goal by now, she even mentioned how long I've been a member of weight watchers. I told her I didn't want to do that as I think of that as failure. I want to get it right with the membership I have now. She didn't drop it and brought it up again later. I once again said I'm not interested. I know she means well but I didn't want advice on getting on program - ya know? If I was asking for it that would be one thing, but lately I've been focusing on getting my head back in the game with me, myself and I. I'm going to be the only consistent thing in getting healthy and staying healthy. While I love the love and support of all my weight loss buddies, I wasn't asking for advice. She asked me about workouts and I fully admit that I haven't been to the gym in awhile and she said something along the lines about how she had wondered about that with my quite frequently mentioning tv shows I've seen.

I didn't bother to mention that I PVR most of the shows and watch them on Sundays while I do laundry. I didn't want to get defensive as once again I know she meant well.

My issue is half assed following the program and seeing half assed results

The thing is I'm not concerned with how long I've been on this journey. I've needed the time to face my challenges and deal with them one by one. There are plenty of people in my meeting who have joined mulitple times and I'm proud of them for picking themselves up and re-committing.

She did succeed in firing up a competitive streak in me, so now it's game on. Even if we had never had that conversation it would still be game on. My plan is incorporate more core but not officially flip over, just encorporate more core foods and track them like flex. As I said above so far down 1.5. I'd like to see myself back into the 170's by Saturday.

Happy to see the 2008 changes with WW. The 3 month tracker is a smaller size - yippee, so is the slider. I despised the square version as I found it really awkward.

Here's to taking it one day at a time.

Hugs!

Whew...It's Friday

Update on debit issue: Now the bank has taken $700 bucks from me of my own money due to those bastards depositing an empty envelope that said they were depositing $700. Of course the part of the bank that took the $700 doesn't know that I signed all the papers to say it wasn't me. Lovely bank dude who I was talking to when I finally got access to my online banking has sent a request for the money to be refunded. So these scum of the earth people who did this have now cost me $1000. God knows how many other people they did this too. I'm so angry that they'll probably get away with this too. I so hope karma kicks them in the ass.

Original post:

I don't know what was up this week but it seemed so very long, I found myself falling asleep to Biggest Loser Australia on the couch by 8:30 last night. I figured I'd be tired after being wicked stressed due to the debit issue yesterday. I still can't access online banking but I stopped by a bank machine to check that my paycheque went in. Thankfully it did. I called the bank last night about not being able to check online and they said it can take 24 hrs to re-establish access so if I don't have access by 5pm call my branch, thankfully my branch is open until 6pm tonight.

I started off well with the tracking this week, I didn't track all of Wednesday and didn't track yesterday. I'm going to go back and fill those in.

I'm kind of excited about the meeting tomorrow, we get a sneak pick at the 2008 program. I haven't been able to buy a 3 month tracker for weeks so I'm betting a new version of that is coming out. I wonder if they go back to the not so square like version.

I was on the bus thinking that last year at this time I had completed a marathon and was in Honolulu hobbling my way to Starbucks. Craziness I tell you.

I'm not sure this Resolution run will happen, my run training has been non existent but I will compete in the half marathon in July in 2008.

My plan is finish all my Christmas shopping on Saturday and anything to do with Christmas so I can be focused on the gym next week and establish a routine before all the new year resolution people get swinging.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Damn you debit skimmers

Well my dear friends,
I had one very sleepless night last night as scary events unfolded. I headed to my local convenience store after work yesterday to pick up milk. I tried to pay with debit but the screen said "card use limited refer to branch". I'm thinking "oh oh". I go home try to log into my online banking...nada. Have a voicemail from the bank saying please go to a branch as soon as you can with two pieces of i.d.

Yup, I am a victim of debit fraud. Some bastard got my info deposited an empty envelope saying it contained $700 and took out $1000. I'm out $350. Luckily the Bank flagged it right away and shut everything down. I went into the bank at 10am this morning and I was the second person that day with this issue. They gave me a new bank card, I signed a few things and my money should be back in my account by early next week.

The odds of these people being caught, unlikely due to there ever increasing technology.

I have no clue where it happened, I have some thoughts but hopefully they'll let me know.


So please, please, please be careful this holiday season.

Here's a link to some handy info that you should know.

Here'a link to some handy info on avoiding being a victim.

Later

Blood sugar levels are tricky

I tracked for the 3rd day in a row...yippee. My day did go a bit wonky towards the end. After work I decided to attempt Christmas shopping. I have two friends that want books so I headed off list in hand to see what I could find. First I went to McNally Robinson (it's a gorgeous store) and I found nada. Couldn't find any of the books they wanted. I then tried Coles, they had the authors but not the books so I guess Amazon is the way to go.

I debated having dinner in the mall but knew that my choices were limited. So I decided to go home as I was super hungry. I was so hungry by the time I got home I had cereal for supper. Of course I didn't have my afternoon snack so my blood sugar levels were pretty low. I'm very happy that I avoided the temptations of the mall. Unfortunately I didn't stick to cereal when I got home there was some additional snacking but I tracked it all.

Tomorrow we have our Christmas potluck so I'm planning low breakfast (oat bran) and low supper (veggie soup) and be cautious at the potluck. I'm not going to avoid anything but I'll pick very small servings of things I know are high and fill up most my plate with low. I'm bringing the request I get every Christmas potluck...really decadent scalloped potatoes.

Must head to Walmart tonight to pick up some odds and ends for my Christmas list.

Well that's all for me today.

Later

Enough is enough

Well I've tracked my eating for two days, it hasn't necessarily been on plan but I wrote it all down. I was up 0.2 at weigh in, probably due to the long johns I was wearing and I had no interest in changing out of them and back into them. What truly hit me on Saturday was how I thought wishful thinking would make me see a loss on the scale. I've made very little progress in what is now adding up to months. I have no one to blame but myself as I haven't been paying attention as I should be.

I think I needed a break from the tracking and the always focusing on weight loss, the problem is a break can turn into a lifetime if you're not careful.

So once again I'm going back to week one. Starting with the tracking and encorporating more exercise. My priority is to get the tracking on target. There have been far too many slides into bad behaviours.

This morning I came in early to help a colleague with a project. She had mentioned that we could go for breakfast which would have been a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich (I forget the exact points but I think it clocks in at about 11). Instead I got up half an hour earlier and had oatmeal for breakfast. I'm far too easily swayed into unscheduled eating like buying lunch when I've brought.

I need to stay diligent.

What brought all this on? I don't even want to think about how many times I've started over, but you know what? It doesn't matter, the point is not giving up and picking yourself up. I don't care if I have to start over a bizillion times at least I'm not settling.


I want goal by June....enough said.

My beloved water bottle is trying to kill me?

This morning when I woke up to the news the first thing I heard was that Mountain Equipment Co-op (for my American friends that's the Canadian version of REI) has removed all Nalgene water bottles from their shelves. For the full scoop check out the article in The Globe and Mail. It will be interesting to hear the results of the official study into this.

I have a few of these bottles and use it every day but luckily I recently purchased a metal SIGG bottle (see picture) at Roots, so that's my preferred drinking container from now on. I'll need to find a second one for home as I hate carting back and forth.

On to other news:

Had a lovely dinner out celebrating my friend A's birthday last night. I've never been to this restaurant before and I thought it was alright. I was a bit disappointed as I paid a few dollars extra for the Village salad (cucumbers instead of lettuce in a greek salad). It came with 3 pieces of cucumber, 3 pieces of tomatoe and one olive and few strips of green pepper. It wasn't worth the extra $2 by any means.

The continuing adventure of online dating continues.

Firefighter guy dropped off the face of the earth before we either spoke or met in person.

Sales guy and I have moved on to regular email and are going to schedule a coffee.

Forest fighter guy is useless at conversation.

New guy today that we shall call European guy sent the first set of questions.

I find this whole endeavour kind of interesting from an analytical perspective. We shall see what happens.

On the weather front a Chinook is coming (warm air mass that can take us from -20 to +10), thank goodness for that.

Christmas shopping wise, ideas are starting to come to me but alot of these things need to be ordered so I hoping timelines work well.

I'm ready to be more focused WW plan wise, I've had enough of goofing around and half - assed following the plan. I'm going back to basics with a determined focus on working out.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Onslaught of reality

Interesting things are going on in tv land due to the writer's strike. A new Biggest Loser will debut in January, so that we will only be a few weeks without. Those of us in Canada also have the first season of Biggest Loser Australia running on slice.

While Project Runway Canada is about to wrap up, we'll finally get to see the new season of Project Runway (Heidi version). I'm trying to avoid mention of the recaps so I can watch it on slice without knowing anything in advance. I'm looking forward to compairing American and Canadian designers.

In regards to Biggest Loser, I'm not really rooting for anyone. I didn't have a favourite this whole season besides the trainers.

Big Brother will be launching in January and it normally runs in the summer. Plus there will be a new season of Survivor.

Lucky for me I am a reality tv buff.

I was a bit disappointed that Heather got knocked off ANTW, I really don't have a favourite for this show. I heard somewhere that Bianca was a fan favourite, I just can't root for her. I find her attitude irritating. I don't find Jena all that model like. Saleisha and Chantal just seem so bland to me. Perhaps tonight will cause me to pick a favourite.

I totally adore Gossip Girl, it's like a sped up soap opera with ridiculously expensive clothes.

On the weight loss front I've been lousy at tracking again this weekend, I guess I needed a break. Eating has been very in control as I keep an eye on the scale. With it being super cold my desire to go the gym has disappeared as when you leave it's even colder. Of course I could be working out at home too. I think sub-consciously I'm waiting for January and a new calendar, which is stupid I know. I hope they have new trackers in at the meeting on Saturday, that can work in the meantime as a clean slate.

I hope all those besieged by winter are warm and safe.

Later