Day 119 - 120, New Year

It is a beautiful Saturday in my little neighbourhood....it's about time after the all the rain and high winds we had all week.

Last night I went with some friends to see Calendar Girls at the The Royal Alexandra Theatre in downtown Toronto. The show was amazing...starring one of my all-time favourite Canadian actors, Fiona Reid.  We were in the Orchestra section, tenth row, centre. The cast was talented and the story was bittersweet, we laughed and cried.

Before the show we had dinner at Fred's Not Here on King Street in the theatre district.  Take my word for it, there is nothing point friendly on their menu!!! I had the Jump-up Spicy Vegetable Soup, 6-hour oven Slow Roasted Alberta “high river” region certified angus beef brisket w/ grilled portobello spinach risotto and the dark chocolate banana cake. Aside from being the most expensive meal I have had in a very long time, it was also one of the most delicious. The brisket melted in my mouth and the risotto was perfect.  I could have eaten a huge bowl of the soup and been happy. It was spicy and flavourful but not so hot that all you can taste is the heat. The banana cake was a very small portion, 3 very small bites, but it was so rich that it was just the right amount.

It was a difficult meal to "count" so I just allocated all of my weekly points (49) to it and will stick to my daily points for each day the rest of the week. This won't be a problem, I've done it many times and I also have activity points if I really need them.

I had planned yesterday to be a rest day from exercise but I ended up walking from the Eaton Centre at Yonge/Dundas to the Royal Alex which was about half an hour. Not a big deal except I was wearing very flimsy, non supportive galdiator sandals and today my feet are very, very sore. I had planned to redo Week 2 of C25K starting today but my feet were just too sore so I ended up walking to the Wentworth Stairs with my son's girlfriend and we did the stairs then walked back.

Still have a ton of housework and laundry to do. Just a normal weekend around here :) How's yours going?

Day 118, New Year

I struggled today. This was the last run of Week 2, but I am definitely redoing the week before I go to Week 3. Week 3 has 3 minutes straight of running. Not ready yet, the 90 seconds is a still a challenge, it's not as hard as it was the first time, but its not easy yet.

Funnily enough, even though I felt like I struggled today, I improved my speed for running by almost 2 min per mile over yesterday. My walking pace stayed the same. After the warm up walk, I don't push myself in the walk and try to focus on putting more energy into the running intervals and use the walking intervals for recovery.

When I was running into the wind and it was hard and I wanted to stop, I kept picturing 400 lb people on treadmills on Biggest Loser and told myself that if they could do that, I could certainly run for 90 seconds at my own pace.  And so I did.

It was very windy on our little mountain tonight and normally I pass lots of diehard runners, tonight it was just me out there.

I had a stellar eating day and feel firmly back in control of that now too. I went out for lunch and had a salad with grilled chicken and it was delicious.Restaurant meals are usually triggers for me, not to overeat, but to make unhealthy choices. I'm glad I did well today.

Tomorrow night I am eating dinner out - will make another good choice - and going to see Calendar Girls so it will be a rest day for exercise because I won't be home til really late but I will pick up C25K on Saturday.

Hope your day was wonderful!

Day 117, New Year

Week 2, Day 2 of C25K. I know the counter says its Day 3, but it got screwed up yesterday when the program turned off, so I have one more day of Week 2.

While I'm on the subject of C25K, there is a huge jump from Week 2 to Week 3. It goes from running 90 seconds to 3 minutes!! Seriously????? 

I also think the GPS on the C25K program cuts in and out because when I do the same route using my Nike+ it is more like 1.8 miles. It doesn't really matter as long as I can keep running longer and longer.

Ok..weigh in. Up 1.5 lbs which I was fully expecting. It's not "OK" though and I am determined to hit my 25lbs next week, that means losing 2.1lbs this week. It's not impossible. I've done it in other weeks and now I have added more activity so...it's doable. I did get my clapping hands charm for 16 weeks tonight though so thats my first charm to add to my shiny keyring.

I got a coupon for a free week of Curves and I'm going to give it a shot just for something different, when I checked them out a few years ago I thought they were very expensive considering what they offered, the hours they are open and that there are no shower facilities! But for free, I'm willing to give it a second look. Any of you go there regularly?

Day 116, New Year

Another rainy, cold day in the GTA folks. Ugh!!!

Went out tonight and did the Week 1 rep of C25K.  I got to the seventh running interval and my iPhone stopped  and when I restarted it, the C25K program was back at the beginning so I had to guesstimate the last walk/run and cool down walk.


I am tired tonight folks. I don't seem to be sleeping well since I came home last Friday and I didn't sleep well last week when I was away...and 430 seems impossible this week after a week of not getting up at 430.

Biggest Loser tonight, I missed last week so I'm looking forward to catching up.

Be back tomorrow with weigh in results....you might not want to stop by - I am promising nothing spectacular. That's exactly what I'm promising.

Day 115, New Year

Week 2, Day 1 of Couch to 5K. It was pouring rain, cold and very windy.  Determination or stupidity?

That was rhetorical..no need to respond.

Funnily enough – I got a response from Quantum Scale today saying my scale will be send early next week. Coincidence or web crawlers you think?

Day 104 - 114, New Year

Reset.
Reset.
Reset.


Ugh! I spent the last week away from home. Me and non-routine and weight loss = epic fail.

I ate out way too much over the last week and although I did my best to control portion sizes and kinds of foods...it was still way over what I would eat normally.

On the plus side I did go to the gym/pool every day, which is more than I would have done while I was at home.  I did miss my weigh in for the week though so I'll be back to my regular weigh in on Wednesday and hoping I was able to contain the damage, if not.....it's a just a moment in time and next weigh in will be better.

Eating crappy food makes me feel crappy. Yeah, I knew this already...but this week was a slap in the face reminder.

I'm home now and hitting reset.  This week will rock.

A few weeks ago I received an email from Susan at Quantum Scale to do a review and give away. I was told my scale would be received in a few days, I could review it then host my giveaway. To date, my scale hasn't arrived, despite several follow up emails and being told it was sent and that I would receive a tracking number. I'm really disappointed as I was looking forward to doing the giveaway and also having the scale.....I know some of other bloggers got their's without a hitch so that makes me even more disappointed.  If anyone has a contact other than Susan - would you shoot me the contact info? Maybe I can follow up that way.

Happy Easter and Passover.

Day 103, New Year

Today's post is brought to you by the letters: W T  and F and the ever useful ?

Weight Watchers weigh in was a loss of 0.4 lbs.

Seriously, that's all I can say about that without delving into the use of many non-alphabetic characters on my keyboard.

Went out at lunch today for a walk:

Day 102, New Year

Couch to 5K…continues. How come it measures in miles when it’s called Couch to 5K???? I cannot find the option to switch to km.

Day 101, New Year

I worked for the provincial government for 10 years, ending in 1998 and am now working for a company that although not really government, is governed by the City of Toronto and parts of the Ontario government. I am so bad at office politics. I have zero, zip, nada, zilch patience for the games that go on in bureaucracy. It is making for stressful work life right now, I had forgotten how bad it was when I was with GO and had hoped that with my own maturity and life experience it wouldn’t bother me so much returning to that environment…but it does.

Thankfully with Spring now upon us I’m able to get out of the office at lunch and enjoy the sunshine and have some time to think about something other than work. Today was a beautiful, beautiful day.

Today I walked 2.72 km at lunch and am feeling pretty tired…so it will be an early night for me tonight.

I’m planning to do Week 1, Day 2 of C25K tomorrow night and then enjoying The Biggest Loser.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with my weigh in results. I’m hoping for a new charm to add to my key ring :)

Day 100, New Year

Up	Down

 

Wentworth: The original wooden steps built in 1903 consisted of 6” to 7 ¼” risers. The stringers rested on cedar posts sunk 4-7’ in the ground. The original staircase had 570 steps. After a rock slide in March 1983 they were replaced with metal steps just east of the position of the original steps and now follow the path of the old East End Incline Railway. They have 498 steps.

That’s what I did today! It’s about a 6 min walk from my apartment building to the top of the stairs..then it’s straight down. Down was not too bad…as long as I didn’t look down or to either side of me and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other.  But when people ran past me and the stairs shook, I did feel a little dizzy so I just went slower until they were well past me. 

Coming up…well I did stop a few times but I had to go back up, it was the quickest way back home! At the top my legs were like jello, I thought for sure I had left them back on the stairs. I rested for 3 minutes then started walking home and once I started walking, the jelliness disappeared.

Someone numbered the steps with a sharpie and there are actually 500 steps..that’s 500 all the way down and 500 all the way back up. And I did it!!!

Between yesterday and today, I should sleep well tonight.

Day 97 - 99, New Year

I did it.

Again.

Week 1, Day 1 of Couch to 5K. Inspired by my friends Melissa and Kat and encouraged by Tiffany, I thought it was worth another shot. Last year I made it to the end of Week 3 before my knees and hip hurt too much.

I ran outside, on asphalt for the most part, and in daylight!!!

And look what song I ended on...hahaha. That's me when it comes to running :)

Day 94 - 96, New Year

A loss of 1.3 lbs tonight to bring me to 24 lbs. I needed 23 to get this shiny trinket.

Next goal 25 lbs...I know it doesn't sound challenging, but WW will give me a shiny 25 charm to add to my keyring...so it's my next goal.

WW and the Running Room are hosting a 5km walk on June 12th. I'm signing up (and not JUST for the shiny 5km charm I'll get for completing it).

Day 90 - 93, New Year

I've had a productive weekend.

• Got an oil change and found my car needs a relatively costly repair.
• Cleaned the apartment.
• Went for two walks.
• Spent some time with a good friend.
• Watched two movies.
• Made this carrot soup - seriously the BEST carrot soup I've ever tasted, which is a good thing because this recipe makes a lot so I'll be eating it all week for lunch.

My head doesn't seem to be in the weight loss game the last few days, I'm going through the motions though and hope that counts for something and hope that sometime in the next day or so my thoughts will match my actions. 

I'm hoping Spring sticks around and I can go outside for walks on my lunch. There's a handy 2 km loop around my office building that is perfect to fit in some exercise and to clear my head mid-day.

Other than that, I'm hanging in - one day at a time.