Follow Through Friday - # 3

This is the 3rd week I have joined this link up and I quite like this one!

It's a great place to set some small goals for the upcoming week and review the goals I set the previous week.

Let's see how I did with last week's goals shall we?

My goals from last week:

• walk my required km for each day - 5.70 km
• Lose 1.50 lbs
• Take a picture of myself everyday
• No chips 

2 out of 4 (details below)

• I am not having any trouble maintaining my km for my walking challenge at this point
• I actually lost 3 pounds, which is awesome!
• I've given up on this one for now...not because I don't think it's valuable, only that it's boring.  BUT I will make a point to be in pictures with my family if we do something fun.
• I totally failed at this one too.....it seems like the minute our TOPS group picks a "restricted food"

Goals For The Week

• walk my required km for each day - 5.70 km
• Lose 1.50 lbs
• Start my 30 Day water challenge - Feb 1 - March 2 - see blog tomorrow for more details
• Do at least 3 - 10 minute workouts with weights - TOPS challenge for the week
• Log my food

Food

I dusted off my Lose It account and have promised myself I will log food for the next week.  This means I have to just eat plain food that I can calculate calories with easily.  Necessary?  No, but anytime I try this and have something I can't log easily...I quit and say it's too much trouble.

Exercise

I'm finished up the first month of my walking challenge.  At this point I am right on track and should actually finish a bit ahead.  I can't even express how impressed I am with myself and this challenge.  I have committed to walking on the treadmill 6 out of 7 days.

I'm also going to dust off my hand weights and use them for 10 minutes a day until Tuesday.  I want to finally complete a week long challenge that TOPS presents for us!

How did you do this week?  Are you setting yourself some goals for the following week?  What is your plan to keep them?

Non-Scale Victory # 18

It's link up time!

It wasn't a struggle to pick one this week!

See, this is the thing...I have come down with a cold.   My nose is running like a tap and I just feel tired and crappy!

The old me would have convinced myself that I was too sick to exercise...that I couldn't breath well enough to exert myself.

Yesterday I told myself that if I didn't feel that I could do my walking all at once, then I better just take it in 10 minutes stretches.  That is what I did and still managed to get in over 4 km of exercise.  Now a stomach flu might be a whole different ball game, but it's just a cold!

The Truth of Tuesday Night

If you will recall from last week, I was busting my butt on the treadmill for an hour each night and had a rather disappointing show on the scale.

Instead of getting discouraged, I just kept on trekkin', strutting myself in the privacy of my basement on the treadmill.

I am proud to say it finally paid off this week!

Last week:  243.75 lbs
This week: 240.75 lbs

Loss of 3 lbs!

I should mention that our scales at TOPS may be off a little, as it got moved over the holidays and our weight we use to balance the scale has gone MIA.  Until we get a replacement weight for balancing, we have been deducting a pound from the weight that registered.

I will continue to do my km's on the treadmill and I am starting a new challenge on Saturday for 30 days.

I"m going to do a 30 Day Water Challenge.  I plan to blog about it on Saturday, but the idea is simple....drink 8 glasses of water a day for 30 days!  I certainly do better with my water consumption then I used to, but I could do better!

Remember, every little bit counts, so work on it this week!

2014 Pinterest Challenge - January

Over on my other blog, I started a year long Pinterest challenge and figured it would be a great motivation tool to continue it on over here.

CLICK HERE FOR THE RULES AND TO JOIN THE LINK UP

The basis is simple!  The goal each month is to complete at least 1 item you have "pinned" and report back on it.  It must be completed by the end of each month. If you have a blog, blog the results...the good, the bad and the ugly!  If you don't have a blog and still want to participate, I have created a Facebook group, ask to join and use that forum to show what you have done each month.

Most importantly, make sure you give credit where credit is due and link back to the original pin.

First off, I needed to get some more music.  It's essential to working out.

I had this playlist pinned for quite some time:

I did tweak this list a bit.  For one, it wasn't long enough and there were songs I didn't know very well on the list and others that were more "fun" that were not on the list.

My playlist is below:

1. Carrying the Banner - Newsies
2. Oo-De-Lally - Robin Hood
3. Something That I Want - Tangled
4. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Mary Poppins
5. The World Will Know - Newsies
6. Under the Sea - The Little Mermaid
7. When Will My Life Begin - Tangled
8. Whistle While You Work - Snow White
9. You've Got A Friend In Me - Toy Story
10. King of New York - Newsies
11. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - Song of the South
12. A Spoonful of Sugar - Mary Poppins
13. Disney Dudez Remix 
14. Once and for All - Newsies
15. Hakuna Matata - The Lion King
16. Kiss The Girl - The Little Mermaid
17. Seize The Day - Newsies
18. Life Is A Highway - Cars
19. Real Gone - Cars

Number 13 also came from Pinterest.  Below is the You Tube video...check it out, it's so much fun!

Did you check it out?  I'll just wait....go!  Shoo!  Watch it now!  There were no direct links to link back to, sorry.

I also did some motivation jars for both myself and my TOPS group:

Mine

TOPS

I haven't gotten to move over any beads yet but I will soon enough.  I have them right beside the treadmill so I can see them for the entire torturous time I am on it!

I also tried a new food/recipe.  I tried quinoa.  I have tried it before, but cold and it didn't do much for me.  This recipe had it warmed up.

Strawberry Quinoa Breakfast

This was...eh!  It was definitely a texture issue.  The taste of the quinoa was not repulsive, but I for sure couldn't eat it by the spoonful. I haven't given up on it yet, but this was NOT the format for me!

So there you have it!  I hope this has inspired you and you will participate, even if it's just once and awhile. Go cheer on the other participants!

Follow Through Friday - # 2

If you will recall from last week, I joined this new link up as a great way to review my week to determine if it helped or hindered my weight loss progress.

You can find the link up here, make sure you go check it out and give some love to the other participants!

My goals from last week:

• walk 40.95 km for my walking challenge 
• Climb 1776 stairs for my CN Tower Challenge
• Lose 1.5 lbs 
• Take a picture of myself everyday 

I managed to complete 2 of them.  I didn't lose any weight and actually gained .50 lbs, but I'm ok with that.  I also didn't take pictures this week.  My camera wasn't within easy reach and I wasn't motivated enough to do pictures.  To go along with that, my lack of picture taking made me slack on my appearance.  My hair, while it did make it through the straightener, proceeded to get put back in a barrette.  I should have taken a picture Monday morning before I did it....my 7 year old son took one look at it after I brushed it and said "MOM!!   You should SEE your hair!"  It was total poodle fluff!
My stair climb with a girlfriend worked out well.  I would like to do it again, but make it a bit more challenging AND perhaps "climb" something else, like the Eiffel Tower!

Goals For The Week:

• walk my required km for each day - 5.70 km
• Lose 1.50 lbs
• Take a picture of myself everyday
• No chips - My TOPS group is picking a food to restrict or a goal to complete each week, it's chips this week

Food

My plan is still the same.  I am just going to be aware of what I eat, but not log it or stress about it.

Exercise

The treadmill is still my BFF and I am owning that bad boy!  The only night of the week I don't get on it is Tuesdays.  I am still taking it pretty easy.  I'm walking at a level of 2.5 (2.7 on a real good day or for small stints)  The incline is pretty close to 0 still at this point.  I am still trying to make this a habit for me and I am also trying to avoid aggravating my foot.  Last time my foot really acted up, I was sidelined for over 3 months and it is still very finicky.  Different shoes other than my running shoes or even my stint at a Richard Simmons exercise video can cause me severe discomfort.  I know it's a double edge sword I am battling.  My feet hurt because of my weight, but I need my feet to help me lose weight.  I listen to the clues a bit more carefully and deal with them as it arises.

So there you have it.  That is how I fared last week and what I plan to do for this week!  What about you?  What plans do you have in place to help you succeed?

Non-Scale Victory # 17

I had to think all day about what  my non-scale victory.

I think when you have big challenges to overcome, you tend to conquer the same one time and time again.  For me, it's still an accomplishment, but not excited to write about!

I have been going pretty steady on the treadmill for almost a week now.  I am not letting life get in my way.

My non-scale victory is that.  To me more exact...not letting my kids be the excuse.  I would often say I can't get on the treadmill while the kids are still awake and by the time they go to bed, I'm too tired.

Each Thursday, my husband and son go to the hockey game, leaving just us girls.  I do normally get on the treadmill once the kids are in bed at 8 and then don't sit down until 9.  BUT, I miss just relaxing, playing around on the computer, etc.  So, for the past 2 Thursdays, I have headed downstairs around 7 and just let my daughter play in the toy room while I did my thing.

No big deal to her and I get to relax in my jammies at night!

Non-Scale Victory - Kids do NOT equal an excuse!

CN Tower Stair Climb - The Results

If you will remember from last week, myself and my girlfriend challenged ourselves to climb the equivalent stairs that are in the CN Tower.

1776 stairs to be exact.

Basically, we had to do 12 flights a day and going down counted (I didn't make that real clear in the rules) and you didn't have to do them all at once either.

I was able to complete this challenge without too much trouble.  I tried to do them in sets of 5 if I could.  That is enough to get the heart rate starting for me.  I finished it, so I just technically I am at the top of the CN Tower.

I would like to re-visit this challenge again down the road, but make it a bit tougher next time....by either only having the upward part of the stairs count or having to do them all at once.  I'll have to see who I can sweet talk into joining me next time.

The CN Tower stair climb is a real thing people!  Its a fundraising event each year for the United Way.  I don't ever anticipate myself doing it for real though...I like to have my heart attacks in private! :-)

Any suggestions for my next mini challenge?  Anyone want to join me in it?

The Truth Of Tuesday Night

Last week was our first week back to TOPS since before Christmas.  We ended up having a 3 week break and it really was a long time and I was anxious to get back into routine.
I felt I had a pretty good plan in place.  I was going to be more conscience of what I ate and get in my exercise.

The results were not as impressive as I had hoped.

Last week: 243.25 lbs
This week: 243.75 lbs

+.50 lbs

Yup, even with my hard work I still gained!

BUT... 

here's the difference...

previously, I would have said to myself...I walked over 40 km and cut back on unhealthy foods and look at what good it did me.  This time however, I am not really worried about the scale.  Perhaps the truth is it will just take time for my body to adjust.  I don't really know the answer, but I do know I am not giving up.  I still plan to just focus on one thing at a time.  I am going to give myself a solid  month of focusing on the exercise part.  Now, that doesn't mean I am going to just eat whatever I want and not worry about that part, but it just means that I will take it one day at a time.  If I start changing everything at once, how will I know what will work and what won't?

I do know that even though I don't LIKE the exercise, I feel accomplished afterwards for doing it.  I've also noticed that I am not as hungry and am sleeping better.  That in itself is a bonus.

Catch you next week, with hopefully better results!

Linking up again!

Follow Through Friday - #1

I was reading one of my favorite blogs for inspiration, 24 to 30, and she did a post about a new link up she had joined!

I thought, perfect! I love a good link up, so I thought I would give it a try!

It's a recap of your week and to see if what you accomplished helped you towards your goal or got in the way.

I feel my week has been pretty good.  In my mind, my week runs a bit of a different schedule than the regular...for me, my week starts Wednesday morning...because of my TOPS meeting on Tuesday nights....Wednesday is my Monday.  Clear as mud, right?  But I will review from Sunday on.

Getting on the scale each week gives me perspective and a chance to make changes if necessary.

Goals For the Week

• walk 40.95 km for my walking challenge - so far I have completed 40.42 km and I still have today's to get in.
• Climb 1776 stairs for my CN Tower Challenge - I am on track for that one
• Lose 1.5 lbs - I will see how it goes on Tuesday, but I feel good about it.
• Take a picture of myself everyday - so far so good....will share them a bit further down

Food

I started out the week trying real hard to food journal, but it just didn't work out very well.  I end up having something that isn't easily found in the list of foods, make a guess and get discouraged.  I guess that is part of the problem when you cook more than you eat out.  My plan instead is to just use better judgement for now.  Staying away from the junk.  While I do still have some things, it's not to the same extent as before.  I was also successful in keeping with my meal plan for the week and resisted the temptation to just make things easy and bring home dinner.

Exercise

I have been taking to the treadmill like it's going out of style!  I am not a  morning person, so I end up working out once the kiddo's go to bed.  From about 8 - 9, I walk on the treadmill.  I decided to pick a show on Netflix that is JUST my treadmill show.  I picked "Drop Dead Diva"  I think it's great so far and it makes me want to watch the next one and get back on the treadmill for the next episode.  I have also been climbing stairs.  To keep up with my stair climbing challenge, I have to go up and down the stairs about 12 times a day.  Honestly, there are some days I don't do the stairs in the house more than once, so it's a good challenge.  I have been trying to do them in sets of five.  It does get your heart rate up, if you have stairs at home, you should try making them a part of your workout!

Pictures

I wanted to start taking pictures of myself everyday.  In part to help document the changes I hope my body will go through, but also to help myself get more comfortable in front of the camera.

Tuesday

Wednesday - taken by Abby

Wednesday - with Abby

Wednesday - with mini me

Thursday - this is "the outfit'" for me right now

Thursday

Friday

Saturday - with my partner

Saturday - love from my girl

So, there you have it!  My week in a nutshell!  Go join the link up and share your week too!

Non-Scale Victory # 16

It's a simple one today.

I was browsing on Pinterest and saw this qoute:

My victory is that for once, I believed the end part....I'm a lot more wonderful, beautiful and special then I ever give myself credit for!

So here's to giving credit where credit is due!

Join me at the link up!

CN Tower Stair Climb

I decided it was time to throw another challenge into the mix to get myself moving more each day.

 Of course I can't do a challenge alone and roped in a girlfriend, The Empress of Pounds, to do it with me.

First, let me tell you a little bit about the CN Tower in case you are not familiar with it.

The CN Tower was built by the Canadian National Railways in 1976.  It is 553.33 meters (1815 ft, 5") tall.  From 1976 - 2010, it was the world's tallest free standing structure.  It took approx. 40 months to complete at a cost of $63 million.  Approximately 1.5 million people visit every year.

From the ground floor to the main deck is 1776 steps.

The challenge is this:

Our goal is to climb the stairs in the CN Tower over the course of one week.

I averaged that a set of stairs has 12 steps.    We have to do the set of stairs 22 times a day to reach the goal.  That is going to put us just a little over.  It might seem like a lot, but it's not really.  Plus, it is supposed to be a challenge.

So there you have it.  Our challenge starts today and ends next Tuesday at Midnight.  We are going to blog our results at the end.  Go check out my partner and encourage her on!

The Truth Of Tuesday Night

It seems like it has been forever since I did one of these posts and quite frankly, it has.

It finally feels like all my chicks are in order and that things will shape up nicely.

I'm back to exercising on a regular basis, trying to cut back on what I am eating and skipping the ice cream while hubby has a bowl.

Last time I weighed in at TOPS, the scale said:

242.75 lbs

This week:

243.25 lbs

That is a gain of .50 lbs, but I don't consider that too bad with all the holidays and lack of trying in there.

I have also started to do something new for myself.  It may sound odd or strange to some people, but I have started to make an effort with my appearance everyday.  Mostly my hair.  See, the thing is, for the past who knows how many years, I have put my hair up in a barrette and left it at that.  My reasoning was "I'm married, I don't need to impress anyone"

But the thing is just this....I did need to impress someone,  just didn't realise it was myself.

I got my hair done just before Christmas and some new clothes and honestly felt on top of the world.  I realized that keeping that feeling going would be important to getting my butt moving to exercise.  If I feel sexy during the day, I am going to work harder that night on the treadmill to help get myself looking the part.

The other thing I have started to do was take a picture of myself everyday.  Not unlike a lot of other people with weight issues, I have this total phobia of pictures.  To the point that my kids could totally forget what I looked like.

So I will share some of the pictures.  I don't have one of those fancy phones for "selfies", so I just had to do the best with what I have.

All linked up....are you?

On The Road Again...

I'm singing a little Willie Nelson in my head now as I type this!

My BBFF Julie and I are hitting the road again.  Our last road trip was so much fun that we felt it was worth doing again.  Plus it was excellent motivation and goodness knows I need that.

So, here is the plan for this year.

It all started on January 1 (which means I am already behind, because I haven't done much exercise yet) and will end on Oct. 31.  We both found it to be a bit hectic over the holidays.  The other change is we will only blog once a month about our journey.  For me, I am aiming at the beginning of each month.

Our destination you ask?

We are heading to a couple State Parks again.  We just love camping in the great ol' U.S. of A.

First stop.....

Crowley's Ridge State Park, Arkansas

Atop the forested hills in northeast Arkansas, Crowley's Ridge State Park occupies the former homestead of Benjamin Crowley, whose family first settled this area.  Native log and stone structures constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps set the mood for the rustic warmth of Crowley's Ridge State Park. The park includes two lakes--one for fishing and the other for swimming.

From there, we head on over to our final destination of Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas

If you put together the perfect state park in your mind, it would be Devil's Den. Nestled in picturesque Lee Creek Valley in the Ozark Mountains, Devil's Den is one of Arkansas's five, original state parks built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. In these beloved parks, the rustic-style facilities mirror the rugged natural beauty that surround them. In the heart of Devil's Den, a rock dam spans Lee Creek forming Lake Devil. This eight-acre lake is a serene setting for fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and pedal boating.

The number breakdown goes as follows:

The distance from my house to Crowley's Ridge is 1399 km.  From Crowley's Ridge to Devil's Den is 325 km, for a grand total of:

1724 km

 

So in order to meet the goal, I need to walk 5.70 km per day.

The rules are the same.  Half of my km's each day can come from everyday walking (2.85 km), the other 2.85 km must come from exercise.  As I mentioned earlier, I am already behind, having not done any extra exercise....so I have about 25 km to catch up on.  Gotta get on that NOW!

Julie also had me promise to show pictures of my progress.  I will figure it out this time for sure!

So, are you wondering how we came up with the locations?  We pondered a few different places.  One of the the ideas I had in my mind was to walk the length of the Great Wall of China, until I did some research and discovered that it's almost 9000 km long!  I wasn't looking for a challenge to last that long.  Others were too short or not interesting enough.  For me, the destination was not really important, it was the journey and motivation to move every day.  I left the ultimate decision up to the navigator and this was what she came up with.

While I haven't asked her directly, I am assuming our locations are inspired by my favorite show, one I have gotten her hooked onto as well.



I'll explain further...

The main bad guy is named Crowley, he is also The King Of Hell.  

He's the character that you love AND hate all at the same time!

So, I'm going to pop on my Supernatural play list and head on out down the road.  Catch up with ya'll in a few weeks!

Snow Much Fun

It's winter here in Ontario.

Firstly, I must say, despite 2 years of living in the Yukon, I am not much of a winter person.  I don't ski, skate or shovel snow.

I don't like the cold and am starting to realize the benefits of spending winters in Florida.  Julie, can you make room for me?

We have been in the grips of a cold snap for the past week, and by cold snap, I mean -40 Celsius with the wind chill.  It was a pretty crummy way to finish off the second week of Christmas vacation.  It was too cold to even think of sending the kids out to play.

Today was the first nice day in a bit and we took advantage of it.  We live about a block away from the school and they have a great hill for tobogganing.  Around 2 in the afternoon, we bundled everyone up and headed on over. 

The kids love it and the kid in me does to if I'm being honest.

Here is the proof of today:

Me and my girl!

I also decided to get over my "fat girl" fear of photos.  I even asked my hubby to make sure he took a picture of me.  

 

Remember....winter law dictates that warmth is more important in style!

That is what I tell myself anyway!

Here is the video proof that I did go down the hill a time or two as well!

The weather is supposed to be nice next weekend too, so as of right now, the plan is to drive over to my uncle's house and use his front hill.  He lives in the house that belonged to my grandparents and the hill is where I spent my entire youth sledding.   The hill is big and awesome.    We used it on Boxing Day last Christmas and it didn't disappoint.

So, get out there and enjoy it just a little.  I'm glad I did!
 

Road Trip Review - Weeks 21 - 25

It's been since the end of November since I actually posted about my walk progress.  In hindsight, I think blogging it every week was a bit much and I think on our next journey, I will only blog once a month.

I must say, I loved doing this journey with Julie.  She has become a great friend and I can only hope we meet for reals one day!

I did learn something important about myself on this journey....I learned I am capable of so much more then I give myself credit for.  I am able to walk at least 5 km every day.  I also learned that I can't slack off...it's best to take the time to do a little bit each day so that come the last month of the challenge, I am not busting my ass to pick up km's.

My numbers for the last half of the challenge look pretty impressive, but they are not as good as it seems.  It wasn't the same level of cardio as in the beginning of the challenge, I "cheated" a bit and rode the bike, etc.  Little things that bumped up the km, but didn't take lots of time.

So, to review our trip, our destination was:

Morrow Mountain State Park in Albemarle, NC

 

 

Week 21:



                   
Eligible km: 59.27

Week 22:

Eligible km: 44.45

Week 23:

Eligible km: 83.15

Week 24:

Eligible km: 70.78

Week 25:

Eligible km: 39.44

I made it!  JUST....and I mean JUST!  I was only over by about .12 km.

But together, we are now camped out, enjoying some hard earned s'mores!

Our next adventure is in the works.  If anyone else would like to join us on our next adventure, I'm sure that would be just fine.  The more the merrier!

I mentioned on my other blog about a Pinterest challenge I am doing for 2014.  I might try to incorporate it on this blog.  You can read more details about it here and if you think you might be interested in joining, let me know.  If there is enough interest, I might make it an "official" link up.

To everyone who reads, have a great 2014 and Happy Trails!