where it gets hard.

Yesterday I got some pretty devastating personal news, and I've been a wreck ever since. I woke up crying about three times last night. Things are going to be pretty rough for my family for the next few months.

Aside from all the other million things I'm now worried about, I'm also thinking about what this is going to do to my weightloss efforts. I am DEFINITELY a stress eater, and I admit that the thought of binging has already crossed my mind. "I could eat an entire bag of chips," I thought last night. "Under the circumstances, no one would blame me." But then I thought: no one would ever 'blame' me for eating chips. No one else would even really care. I'm the one who'd be disappointed in myself, and that hasn't changed, even with the current family drama going on. I wouldn't be happy with myself if I ate a bag of chips, even if I had an 'excuse' like this one.

Anyway, so I'm trying to hold that thought for now. I stayed within my points yesterday, although I did have three glasses of wine (mostly because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise.)

Luckily, this week my motivation has been sky-high. I was all about embracing the hard. So I guess this is it: this is where it really gets hard.

Oh yeah, and I lost another 1lb at weigh-in yesterday. That means I lost 4.8lbs for all of January. That seems kinda low to me, but hopefully it's true that 'slow and steady wins the race'.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

the value of 'hard'.

Work's been so busy the past couple of days, and I don't have much time to post but things are still going well.

Something happened this morning that was pretty cool. I have this t-shirt that I bought a few years ago at Old Navy, and it's been my "sleep t-shirt" ever since. It's just so comfy! Anyway, it fit great when I bought it, but this summer, I noticed it completely did NOT fit anymore. It had gotten so small (or more accurately, I had gotten so big) that it would no longer fall nicely around my hips, and instead sit all bunched up on my waist. Come on, pears, you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, this morning I got up and as I was hovering around in front of the closet trying to decide what to wear, I noticed something amazing: my shirt was actually hanging properly around my hips! It fits again!

Wheeeee!

Here is the amazing thing I'm realizing: I CAN DO THIS. We all can. I spent so long thinking that I couldn't: I love food too much, I have a bad back, I don't have enough money to buy healthy food, I don't have a car and it's too hard to stock up on groceries, blah blah blah blah.

I have this friend who is a registered massage therapist, and one night she was complaining about a couple of her clients who never want their massage to 'hurt' at all. And she was frustrated by this because sometimes you really have to work the muscles to get them right again, and sometimes that's going to hurt a bit, but because they were so scared of that she couldn't really help them. And she said, "People are so afraid of any discomfort, or of anything being hard. They don't realize that sometimes that's the way you have to go to get where you want to be."

A lot of things 'clicked' for me then. How much I avoid anything that's hard. How even the slightest bit of stress sends me out to find cookies. How sweating even a little is a little too much.

But something happened that day, I don't know. I embraced the idea of 'hard'. I stopped connecting 'hard' with 'bad' or 'undesirable'.

Losing weight IS hard. It takes real work. But that doesn't mean it's 'too hard'. That doesn't mean we can't do it. We CAN do it. All of us can.

I'm sorry if I'm sounding preachy! I'm partly writing this so I'll have it to read later, on some day when I'm (inevitably) going to be all I HATE THINGS THAT ARE HARD SOMEONE PASS ME A DOOOONNNNNUTTTTTT.

For now though -- for now, bring it on. :)

Knorr "Green" Soup

I've always liked the idea that you should choose veggies based on colours, and try to get a good variety of the colours into your diet. I love colours in general, so actually AIMING to eat a rainbow of them makes for kind of a fun challenge. So I admit that I was kinda nerdily excited when I saw an ad for Knorr's Eat In Colour soups.

Today I spotted them at the grocery store, so I figured I'd pick one up and try it for lunch. It conveniently comes in those little tetra-pack-like containers, so it makes it easy(er) to eat at work, since you don't need a can-opener. The container is 500 ml, and a serving is 250 ml. A serving is only ONE POINT. Yes, people, one point. Although I think it's more like one and a half, and if you ate the whole container you might have to be honest and count it as 3pts. But still -- a pretty good deal.

I picked GREEN. The other soups seem to be the same amount of points, except the RED, which has more calories per serving and would probably work out to two points.



The soup is quite tasty -- the only thing that I found a bit off-putting was that it has a bit of a 'chalky' aftertaste. But I've noticed that in other foods in the past, and no one else I was with could taste it, so it may just be me. And anyway, by the time I was done eating, I found myself running my finger around the inside of the bowl to get the last drops, so I must not have minded the 'chalk' too much.

I had one serving and ate it with two cheese strings, for a bit of protein, and then afterwards, I had a handful of strawberries. It is now two and a half hours later, and I'm not hungry, which is a good sign. The container was $3.99.

Here's the ingredient list, nothing scary in it!
Water, green peas, Celeriac, spinach, green zucchini, Onion, cream, modified potato starch, chives, salt, garlic juice, concentrated acerola cherry juice and yeast extract.

I will definitely be buying this soup again, and its colourful little friends too.

complimentary snacks.

You guys. I had a GREAT weekend. On Saturday I went to a party and there were quite a few people there who I hadn't seen in awhile, and they all kept coming up to me and telling me how great I looked. !!! I was very surprised.

I know 16lbs is not really that much, but I do feel a difference in how I look and feel -- I just don't expect anyone else to notice yet. So it was very satisfying to get all those compliments.

Of course, I let it all go to my head, and proceeded to spend the night drunkenly snacking on pistachios and sour cream and onion chips. But don't worry, I tracked and counted everything. And to be honest, I felt like I'd gone overboard because I ate: 10 chips, 6 pistachios, 4 pcs. sushi, and a few red pepper sticks with guacamole, and in retrospect, that isn't really so bad at all. I guess I just felt bad because I know I didn't NEED any of it and because I know I still have a really hard time controlling myself when there's an open food source like that.

But still, all the compliments were nice. And despite my raging hangover the next day, I didn't give into any of my desires for greasy salty food. We even ordered Swiss Chalet for dinner and I picked the Spinach Chicken Salad. Go me!

I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well!

pretty in pink.

For Christmas, my sweetie gave me (among other things) a $50 gift card to Old Navy. All this week I've kind of had the blahs, so I decided after work yesterday to do some shopping. I ended up spending the gift card on ... workout clothes!




It's totally motivating me already -- this morning I did a 30-min walking DVD just so I could wear my new outfit. It looks extra cute with my pink and silver Pumas.

I also finally took some 'before' photos. I know I should have done it when I started but I just couldn't bear it. I have a few snapshots from that time and they'll be reminder enough.

the experiment continues.

Halloo! I'm sure you've all been eagerly awaiting the results of my weigh-in, and last week's experiment to eat ALL my points each day, so here it is: I lost 1.6 lbs! I'm quite pleased with that.

It also puts me at 16 lbs total lost, which I feel GREAT about. The month got off to a slow start for me, and it seemed like every week, I thought I might make it past the 15lb mark, but I never did. FINALLY yesterday I got there, and now I'm creeping up on 20 and that feels really good.

I'm going to continue my 'experiment' again this week, because I don't believe one week is ever enough to really test anything like that. Our bodies don't exactly work on the same seven-day schedules as our weigh-ins do, so this second week should give me a pretty accurate idea of how my body does with more points. If all goes well, I may actually move into a new points range next week! (I'm only 1.6lbs away!)

****

In other news, I tried out Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred video yesterday, and, as many of you have written, "It totally kicked my ass." But in a good way. And to be honest, I actually kept up a LOT better than I was expecting. Three months ago I seriously would have gotten a work-out just getting up and down off the floor that much.

olives, iloves ya.

I think olives might be my new obsession. They are so delicious and SALTY. I bought some organic black olives the other day (packed in water), and they are so great. They really satisfy my salt cravings but they're so intensely flavoured that I can't eat more than a half-dozen or so, and that's only 1 point!

Tonight for dinner I'm planning on soup and sandwiches, and I thinking my sandwich is going to be: spinach, sprouts, tomato and goat cheese, with hummus spread on one side of the bread, and olive paste spread on the other. I am excited already!

I'm feeling really nervous for my weigh-in tomorrow -- I've been doing an experiment this week, in actually eating all my points. It just seems so counter-intuitive to me, though, to eat more and still expect to lose, but we'll see tomorrow how it all plays out. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Today at lunch I felt insane.

I had leftovers from yesterday's dinner -- I made "Greek" pasta, with whole wheat rotini, chicken, zucchini, grape tomatoes, feta cheese, black olives, and a 'dressing' of lemon juice, white wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic and oregano. YUM. I ate about a third of it at dinner yesterday, so I had 2/3 left, or, enough for two meals. I have stupid-sized tupperware right now, though, and I couldn't find two smaller ones, so I just put the whole thing into one bigger container.

I brought that container to work with me this morning, thinking I'd eat half today, and half tomorrow.

Well. I was luckily distracted this morning, watching the inauguration on CBC with my colleagues. But then at 12:30 I came back to my desk and I started thinking about my pasta. I thought, "I'll just have one bite now, and then eat the rest at 1:00 when I take my lunch." So I had one bite. And then around 12:32, I thought, "I'll just have another bite now." And then around 12:33, I though, "I'll just have a bit of the zucchini, and a little tomato." By 12:37, I'd eaten 1/4 of the container, or half my lunch.

So then of course I decided it was 'lunch time', and started plowing into it for real.

I can't tell you how hard it was to stop eating. My brain (and I know it was my brain, and not my body, because my stomach was FULL) but my brain, just kept chanting MORE MORE MORE. I felt ... well, desperate is the best word I can think of for it. Panicked, almost. Panicked because I didn't want to stop, because I needed all these calories RIGHT NOW. My mind started spinning with the idea of so much pasta, and trying to remember what I had at home that I could eat later too. I had to make myself little plea bargains. "If you stop now, you can get a coffee in half in hour," and, "If you save some points, you can buy one of those over-priced fruit cups from the cafeteria."

I did manage to put some of the pasta away, but wow, it was hard. Way harder than I'd like to admit. I don't know what set me off like that -- maybe because it was pasta and I haven't had any in a couple of months now. I should have served my portion into a bowl and put the rest away immediately. I'm fine this afternoon, now that the pasta is put away and lunch time is over. I did get a coffee, but the idea of FOOD FOOD FOOD AND MORE FOOD isn't calling to me the way it was earlier.

Anyway, the point of this entry is: my brain is broken, when it comes to food. My brain is very broken. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm basically an addict. But slowly I'm starting to recognize that, and to find ways to manage all my weird issues, and to talk myself through these incidents, back to sanity.

dream a little dream.

Happy Monday morning, everyone!

Thanks for everyone's comments on my last post about eating all your points! Of course, I should know by know that asking the internet a question is going to get you a hundred different answers, but it still gave me lots to think about. Basically the conclusion is that I should figure out what works best for me. I can do that. :)

I definitely ate all my points this weekend -- and about a dozen flex points for good measure. I admit that I feel a bit guilty about it, though mostly I feel bad because of the types of food I picked. Barely a fruit or veggie all weekend, and I definitely didn't drink enough water. We also got Swiss Chalet yesterday. In the back of my mind I had planned to get the spinach salad, but as soon as I started talking to the order-person, I found myself ordering my old standby: quarter-chicken dinner with dark meat, fries, and gravy. Oy.

The good thing is, I think it worked. All last week I was craving the worst foods, in the worst way: Kraft Dinner, chips, pizza. I went to the grocery store on Thursday night and had to come straight home because I just found myself standing in front of the frozen cheesecakes, unable to tear myself away. And of course, I was wracked with the biggest baddest craving of all: poutine. I was seriously spending whole afternoons day-dreaming about fries and gravy and cheese.

But yesterday's dinner seems to have done the trick. This morning I tried thinking about all those foods, imagining myself eating them and ... nada. And all last night I had weird and hilarious dreams about all the veggies I was going to cook for dinner tonight. Seriously, I had the same dream about 6 times and in all of them, I was making some Mediterranean or Spanish style chicken, I put different veggies in each time: spinach, red peppers, roasted red peppers, olives, red onions, kale, eggplant, etc.

So needless to say I'm gonna make some sort of Mediterranean or Spanish style chicken tonight. With loads of veggies, and olives, and maybe a bit of feta. My dreams have foretold it.

Weigh-in, and some thoughts on points.

Well, I had my weigh-in last night, and I'm down another 1.4, for a total of 14.4 lbs. I've been doing this for exactly 10 weeks now, which puts me at an average loss of 1.44 lbs per week, which is pretty spot-on to what they advise (1-2 lbs a week.) So I'm feeling pretty good about my overall progress, even though of course the "impatient child" part of me thinks I should have lost AT LEAST 40 lbs by now.

For those of you who follow Weight Watchers -- how do you manage your points? My daily target is 30 pts, and I usually have one day in the week where I break into some of my flex points and eat between 40-45 points total. Then, I get kind of guilty feeling about that, (even though I know it's allowed because that's what flex points are for!) so then I have a couple days where I eat UNDER my daily points range to make up for it. Usually I'll have 2-3 days at around 27pts each. I know this isn't actually what I'm supposed to do, but in my mind this is what 'thin' people do -- eat heavier one day and then cut back for a few days to make up for it. It also makes me feel better because then I know if I miscounted anything that day, I'll have those 3 spare points to cover it.

But I'm not sure if I should keep doing this, as I'm really trying to follow the program as 'religiously' as possible. I made it my goal for the next two weeks to actually eat ALL my points, EVERY day. I am really curious to see how this will affect my body / mood / weightloss.

So what is your experience with points targets? Do you eat them all and then some? Or do you stay below them sometimes? How does that affect your losses?

"lemony lentil" is really fun to say.

I'm on a really good roll lately -- both eating-wise and general productivity-wise. Is it just me or do those two things always seem to go hand in hand?

Yesterday for dinner I made 'twice-baked' potatoes, with fat-free sour cream, goat cheese, onions, and parsley. I also cooked up a can of lentils with onions, garlic, lemon juice, and parsley, and then dumped a huge spoonful of it on a bed of spinach, and topped with goat cheese. It was basically the Weight Watchers "Lemony Lentil Goat Cheese Salad" except I cooked the lentils first. It was tasty -- I always forget how much I like lentils.

I also managed to hem three pairs of pants last night -- something that's been on my to-do list for, oh, months. I actually have a reasonable amount of wearable pants now.

I bought this crazy water yesterday called MetroMint. It's just regular water with a bit of mint flavour -- it was kinda nice actually. Although it gave me that feeling that my teeth were freezing -- you know when you chew minty gum outside on a cold day? That's how I felt every time I took a drink. I definitely had to sip it rather than drink it down. Oh well, at least the bottle is super pretty. :)

foil is my new best friend.

Yesterday I managed to make something pretty good for dinner -- it definitely fit in with my 'comfort food' thing, AND it was easy and quick. It was this recipe for Quick Beef Stew In Foil. Kind of amazing -- you just mix all the ingredients together (cubed beef, chopped potato, veggies, and a bit of gravy), wrap them up in foil, and then bake in the oven for half an hour. For some reason I didn't really believe it would work, but it totally did!

It's the perfect amount for two people (I figured the whole thing to be 14 pts) AND there's no pot to clean afterwards. I liked it a lot, and my sweetie loved it. I will definitely make this one again. I've been thinking of different ingredient combos too. Yesterday, in addition to the frozen mixed veggies they call for, I also added some quartered mushrooms, and chopped broccoli, but I'm also thinking you could use pork or poultry instead of beef, sweet potatoes instead of regular, and so on and so on!

I also tracked down a really old WW cookbook I have called Pure Comfort. I brought it to work today so I could flip through it on my lunch, and hopefully find something else yummy to make for dinner tonight.

Cooking is such a big part of weightloss for me. I find there are so few 'convenience' foods that are both low in points AND satisfying, but cooking makes it so easy. In fact, the days I cook and really plan out my meals, I often have a hard time hitting my points target for the day. In a lot of ways, it's been easier for me to think about this 'lifestyle change' as not being about weightloss at all, but instead as being about learning to not rely on convenience foods, and instead prepare things for myself.

Of course, today I have the world's laziest lunch: a pb&j sandwich, with two cheese strings and a pear. But we take it one meal at a time, right? One meal at a time.

grrrrowl! (that is me being a bear).

I've been really craving comfort foods lately. I think it's because it's really winter now, without the holidays to look forward to, and my hibernating urges have kicked in full-blast -- complete with the desire to eat enough calories to last me till spring. I swear sometimes I'm part bear.

I'm going to look through my cookbooks tonight for some good recipes -- I want food that's warm and hearty, like casseroles maybe. I think I'm going to try Lyn's Butternut Macaroni and Cheese, but it seems to be a bit time-consuming to make so I'll wait until the weekend. I've also been thinking of buying a slow-cooker, cause I think that would make exactly the kind of meals I'm looking for, with the added bonus of everything actually being ready by the time I get home. Seriously, that seems so amazing to me. Like having a husband who cooks! Okay, a small ceramic husband, but still.

Do you have any favourite warm-and-hearty winter comfort meals?

for the days I don't wanna.

For a while now, I haven't really recognized myself in the mirror. I look in the mirror and I puzzle at this face. This face has cheeks as wide as oceans. This face has too many chins. This face, this face.


As bad as that is, pictures are even worse. Every photo feels like a betrayal, like reality let me think one thing, meanwhile going behind my back and being something else entirely. Every photo I see of myself feels like seeing a photo of a cheating boyfriend, embracing a lover. How could you do this to me?


Awhile ago, my favourite jeans stopped fitting. I left them in the laundry basket, pretending they still fit, pretending they were dirty and I just hadn't gotten around to washing them yet. It's been about a year, and I'm still pretending.


Yeah, losing weight is hard. But the alternative is fucking miserable.

happy Friday!

I weighed in last night, and am down another 0.8 lbs. Not a stellar loss, especially since it's been 9 days since my last weigh-in, but I'm okay with it. I've lost 13 lbs in total now, and am more than half-way to my 10%.

The greatest part of our meeting was when our leader asked if anyone had done well over the holidays and wanted to share -- of course my hand shot straight up in the air, being the braggart that I am. Since we hadn't had a meeting in two weeks, I got to announce that over the holidays I lost a total of 6.4lbs. Everyone kinda stared at me in shock -- it took a minute before the usual applause started. It was a great moment. :) Our leader asked how I did it, and I said it was all about the tracking. She made me repeat that about four times, and kept looking pointedly at certain people in the meeting everytime I did. She is funny. :)

So, anyway, a small loss this week, but I'm not feeling even the slightest bit down about it. I'm planning to have another great on-plan week, and I know all these *small* losses are going to add up to something big.

Happy Friday, everyone!

i am impressed with myself, a little.

Yesterday I was planning to make my ultimate lazy-person meal for dinner. Microwave a can of kernel corn, top with a squeeze of lime juice and a 1/2 tsp of chilli powder -- seriously, this meal has saved my ass on many occassions. Just three points, healthy, filling, and FAST. Anyway, I decided that I was going to WALK ON THE WILD SIDE this time and add 1/2 c. black beans to it, so I picked up a can of those as well.

I trudged home through the rain and snow, and by the time I got home I was soaked. Also known as cranky. I put on my jogging pants and slippers, and headed into the kitchen to make dinner. Also known as microwaved corn. Suddenly, though, I had a thought: CHILLI. I still had a can of tomatoes in the cupboard, and, lo and behold, a bit of hamburger in the freezer. Ten minutes later I had a pot of chilli bubbling up on the stove, and 30 minutes after that I was watching old episodes of Friends and eating a huge bowl of spicy, warm chilli.

You know those days, when you want something but you don't know what it is? How great is it when you accidently stumble on exactly the right thing? I'm so happy with myself for making that extra little bit of effort last night.

The best thing is, the chilli is only 15 points for the ENTIRE POT. I should have snapped a picture, but my camera battery was dead. Anyway, here's what I do!


Andrea's Super Fast Cheap Chilli!

- 1/4 lb hamburger (4pts)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 can whole tomatoes (you can buy chilli flavoured, but not necessary)
- 1 can kernel corn (3pts)
- 1 small can (375-400ml) black beans: 6pts
- *1 Lindt truffle (2pts)
- 2 tbsp of chilli powder (or to taste)
- 1/2 tsp Frank's Red Hot Sauce (or to taste)

Spray pot with cooking spray, saute onion for about 1 minute, add ground beef, saute until cooked through (no pink.) Dump in tomatoes, corn, and beans, stir well, simmer for about 15 minutes, at about medium heat. Add chilli powder, hot sauce, and chocolate, stir well, simmer for another ten minutes or so. Remove from heat, let stand for 15 minutes (if you can wait), or do what I do and serve your bowl and put it in the fridge for 5 minutes or so. The flavours are nicer when they aren't straight-from-the-stove hot.

(None of these times are exact: the longer you simmer it, the thicker it'll get, which is good, but this is how I do it when I'm short on time.)

*About the chocolate: this is totally my 'secret' ingredient for chilli. You can use baker's chocolate if you have it around, or chocolate chips, or cocoa powder, but I happened to have leftover Lindt Truffles from Christmas so that's what I used. I've also been known to throw the ears of chocolate Easter Bunnies in there. :) If you have NO chocolate around, brown sugar will do in a pinch.

other people say the smartest things.

For those of you who don't read Scale Junkie's blog, I wanted to point out this great post she wrote called Learning To Stop At Just Enough. This is one of those posts that hit me in a big way, that made me want to say ARE YOU INSIDE MY HEAD OR SOMETHING?

The things she mentions are things I struggle with a LOT: feeling angry and even scared when you feel you aren't getting your 'share' of the food; treating every meal/treat like it's THE. LAST. TIME. you are ever going to get to eat that and therefore you need to stuff yourself, never thinking your portion is big enough, eating what you DO have until you are far past full.

I don't know why we do these things (though I genuinely believe there's some brain chemistry thing involved), but I think being aware of them is really helpful. Sometimes just recognizing those feelings can give you the clarity you need to power through them.

stairway...to heaven?

I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building, which means it's only one short flight of stairs up to our apartment. But even that leaves me out of breath, so I still take the elevator. Yesterday though, I was doing laundry so I was down in the basement. I hit the button to call the elevator but it was taking forever, so I decided I'd just take the stairs, even though it would be two flights.

To my huge surprise, by the time I got to our apartment, I was only the tiniest bit winded. I'd taken two flights of stairs and found I was less winded than when I used to struggle to make it up just one flight.

This seems amazing to me, as well as, frankly, somewhat impossible. I've only lost 12 lbs and done a handful of DVD workout sessions which doesn't seem to me to be enough to make that kind of difference, but there definitely is a difference. I can't explain it, but 'I'll take it', as they say.

******

In other news, can I get a 'woop-woop' for TEAM LYNN??? Unfortunately I think that's the opposite team from most of my new bloggy friends, but that's okay, as long as you all don't have any hurt feelings when we kick your butts. :)

(Leave a comment if you ARE on Team Lynn, though -- I just scanned the list quickly and I might have missed some people.)

knit one.

My knitting class last night was so fun! I made a teeny tiny thumb-less mitten. When I got home I made my cat try it on (though strangely she did not find this as amusing as I did.) Anyway, most importantly it rekindled my love of knitting, which I sorely needed.

I was already getting stressed about this winter, because nothing seemed to really interest me -- I was bored of watching TV and movies, and crafts didn't seem that entertaining anymore either. I spent a lot of the fall playing World of Warcraft (hmm, I suppose I just outed myself as a nerd there, didn't I?), but that had gotten boring too. You know when you just hit that point where you feel, I don't know, just existentially bored? Of everything? Anyway, it seemed like it was going to be a long winter.

But last night totally revved up my 'knitting engine' if you know what I mean. I'm excited to get started on some mittens, and I'm thinking of taking the Socks 101 class from the same woman, in March. I might even build up the courage to tackle an even bigger project like, gasp, a sweater. Well, maybe I'll start with a sweater vest. Less, um, sleeves.

Anyway, the reason I'm talking about this on a weight-loss blog is because I think it's so important to have hobbies if you're trying to lose weight. It's not just about being busy (though keeping your hands occupied is definitely a bonus), but it's important to have that time for yourself. It's important to feel productive and creative, to be able to relax on your own and do something you enjoy.

A LOT of us eat because we're lonely or bored, and having hobbies you love can help with that. It'll never eliminate it entirely, but it definitely helps. For me, for now, it's going to be knitting. What are your favourite things to do in your free time?

put a lid on it.

I was stupid today and left my lunch at home. Not because I forgot it, but because I couldn't find the lid to the tupperware it was in. In retrospect, why the heck didn't I just put it in a different piece of tupperware? DUH.

I'm taking a knitting class tonight after work, called Mittens 101. The second part will be next Monday. It was a Christmas present from one of my dearest friends, and we are going together, so I'm pretty excited about that. What I'm not so excited about is that I won't have time to go home between work and this class, so I'll have to figure out what to do about dinner. My plan as of now is to eat a bigger and later lunch (probably Subway, around 1:30 or so), and then eat a few snacks around 4:30 before I go. I'll bring some almonds with me in case I get desperate, but that should hold me over so I can eat dinner after the class. Luckily I have those leftovers which are still in my lid-less tupperwear, so dinner can be speedy once I get home. :)

I'm thinking of signing up for a writing class this winter as well, but the one I want to take is on the same night as my WW meetings. I guess I could switch meetings for now, but I'm always scared to mess with my routine when it's working for me. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? We will see, we will see.

let the competition begin.

I'm super excited -- I just signed up for the 'season 2' of the Biggest Loser Blog Edition! I hope it'll be a fun way to stay focused, plus a way to get to know some other weight-loss bloggers. Even though I've only been keeping this blog for a little over a month, I already find it a great way to keep thinking about weight-loss stuff.

Yesterday I tried making a 'frittata' for dinner -- it didn't quite work out, but it was still pretty good. I used 1.5 cups of frozen hashbrowns, chopped onions, red peppers, mushrooms, and spinach and sauteed them all together. Then I added four eggs, let them mostly cook through, and then added some grated low-fat cheddar cheese on top. The whole pan worked out to be about 16 points, and I split it with my sweetie, for an 8-point dinner. It was pretty tasty, and a great way to use up whatever leftover veggies you might have in the fridge.

Yesterday I also wore my WW pedometer when my sweetie and I went downtown -- and according to that thing, I walked 8000 steps and earned two activity points, just from the walking around we did. I never bother counting activity points unless I'm doing 'intentional exercise', so it's kind of amazing to see how much I'm probably accumulating just by doing my day-to-day stuff. For instance, we don't own a car, so we walk a lot (even walking to the subway is about 1000 steps). I walk to and from work every day, which is about 5000 steps. And I do all my errands on foot -- groceries, buying cat litter, etc -- which also means lugging stuff around.

So that's pretty cool. But I'm still going to do a 30-min walking DVD today, just because. :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekends, everyone!

a quick update, plus a shout-out.

Well, so far 2009 has been going pretty well for me. I took yesterday off and bought lots of healthy groceries, did a 20-min cardio DVD, and had points left at the end of the day to split a pitcher of beer with my sweetie. We went to our 'local', and we sat near the window and watched the snow come down outside. It was a perfect evening. 

In other news, I was pretty excited to get a mention on Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat? yesterday. I like that blog a lot because it's sensible about weightloss, but not too serious. Plus it generally makes me 'LOL', as they say. 

a thing I wanna try!

I'm experimenting with taking more pictures, so I want to try posting about some of things I like eating. I'm the world's laziest cook, but I still manage to come up with a few easy and healthy menu items, and I hope that posting about them will give other people some ideas too. 

So! To start! 

Spinach Salad!

This came together in about 2 minutes. I buy prewashed baby spinach in big tubs, so I threw about three cups worth on a plate. I also buy pre-sliced mushrooms, so then I threw about a 1/2 cup of those on top of the spinach. Then I sliced up a hard-boiled egg, and added that as well, and about a centimetre slice from a log of goat cheese, which I crumbled on top. Then I sprinkled balsamic vinegar over the whole thing. Voila! Presto! Lunch!

(It works out to 3 or 4 points, depending on how much goat cheese you use. It would also be a bit more if you opted for a balsamic vinegraitte instead of the straight-up vinegar as I used.)

Also, about hard-boiled eggs: They probably take about 15 minutes to make BUT they'll keep for about a week in the fridge, so you can boil up a half-dozen or so when you have time, and then eat them throughout the week. I like them on salads, or on their own as a snack, with a little salt and vinegar.