Check-in

The walk down the river trail from home to work is 2 miles, and includes scrambling up and down the river bank at the access points. I've done this walk 2 times now this week, a 3.5 mile walk on Sunday, and another 2 mile walk on Saturday. Plus the one mile walk to or from work, that adds up to a heck of a lot of miles this week already, 12.5 so far from Saturday to Wednesday, and I've been doing a lot of walking and stair climbing at work, too. Hope this shows up on the scale this week.

I haven't yet done a full yoga program, but have been stretching and doing some squats, lunges, downwards dog, twists and crunches. I even managed to stay out of the dessert buffet at work tonight, ok, had a couple of little cheesecake bites, but totally not what I would normally have, and didn't have any till after I had salad and some protein. I kept to my eating schedule and I don't feel nearly as wiped after work as I normally do.

Doing Good!

...if I say so myself, hehe.

I've suddenly lost most of my food cravings. I really put a lot of energy last week into food prep, and maintaining my eating and supplement schedule, and it is really paying off this week. I'm not craving sugar at all (ok, maybe not at all, but only for a few minutes, at night, right before bed, not the overwhelming "I must have sugar" zombie-like, can't think of anything else, sugar cravings I used to have.)

I'm keeping up on my food journal and adding in more fruits and veggies, have had beans 4 or 5 times in the last week, and really cut back on the dairy and meat. In fact, I'm finding meat really gross again, the side effect of a veggie/whole grain heavy diet, I think.

It's warming up outside and I've been making a point to go walking on the river trail at least every other day, the slippery, uneven trail and climbing up and down the river bank to get to it has been way more of a physical challenge than it looks. I feel fine when I'm walking, but I'm really feeling it in my legs and abs at night!

It feels great to have finally put together a couple of good weeks where I really stuck to my plan, and to have it pay off. I'm hoping that I will remember how bad I felt when I was off all supplements, not exercising and eating so much sugar! But this is my biggest bad habit. As soon as I start to feel better, I forget how bad I was and start to doubt that I was ever really sick, start thinking I can live and eat like everyone else and not have it rebound on me 100 times over.

Here's hoping this blog will keep me honest and focused. I'm still not 100%, not even 50%, but I'm feeling so much better, I can wake up in the morning, I'm not dragging myself around exhausted and overwhelmed, I'm not too tired to cook, clean, shop or hang out with my kid, or even read a book. I don't want to go back!

I feel so virtuous and good!

I'm really trying to push myself to eat better in order to set a better example for my son (the poutine and milkshake I had yesterday at work notwithstanding.) So I tried really hard today, and I feel like such a good mommy, even if O is grumbling and complaining about having to eat beans.

I made the most wicked dinner tonight, skillet black beans on brown rice with chopped peppers, mango salsa and cheddar cheese. Soooo yummy. O put his in a tortilla and ate the whole things in about 30 seconds, as is usual for his 14-year-old-boy self (man, boys can pack it away!) He didn't much like the idea of beans, as mentioned, and as he mentioned, repeatedly, all day long. But still, he ate it and a whole buttload of veggies to boot.

We went for a nice long walk on the river skate trail today, climbing the river bank in a few places too. I want to start with the exercise program I came up with for O, just a few basic exercises to start with, squats, lunges, crunches and a couple of yoga poses, hopefully I can get him to do 10 minutes or so tonight, and work up to 20 minutes in a few weeks. He's been complaining so much about his back hurting. He's grown so much in the last year, and even if he loses weight, he ain't never going to be svelte, he needs strong back and core muscles to hold his own weight up. So we'll be working on core stabilization and getting a basic fitness level going, for the both of us.

Movie night

I went to see Juno with my niece last night (great movie!!! btw) and B was greatly amused at my standard movie picnic packing. I never eat the crap they sell at movie theaters, the butter-flavoured substance they put on the popcorn makes me violently ill, I don't drink pop, and I refuse to pay 3 bucks for a chocolate bar, so I always pack a nice meal. I figure if I ever get jacked up by ushers, I will just argue that the day they sell fresh vegetables and whole grains is the day I will start buying their food.

I'm so used to packing for a day out with O, that I wound up with waaay too much food for B and I. But O and his buddy finished off the meal when I got home, so no loss.

I packed:
-store-bought cracked pepper hummus
-sliced red and green peppers and baby carrots (B's favorite)
-a quick greek salad (no lettuce, just cherry tomatoes, cuke, red onion and feta)
-a cheese and veggie wrap sliced in half (still too much for the two of us)
-a baggie each of grapes and orange slices
-2 one liter bottles of water
-a bag of Reese's tiny peanut butter cup things (it's a movie, we needed a treat!)

The meal went over great with B, she's always asking me about food and meal suggestions. My sis and bil eat a very standard suburban family diet (lots of frozen stuff, lots of drive-thru), the two youngest are very happy with this (the middle girl has lots of food issues, will only eat a few foods, even though she's almost 18 now will still mostly eat chicken fingers and fries, and the youngest is just highly suspicious of anything new.) So B is craving whole foods in a big way. It's so much fun taking her out to shop and eat, and cooking for her. She gets so excited about simple, good food. I bought her a copy of The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters for Xmas and she's been so excited by it, calls me to tell me whenever she tries out a new recipe. It's great to have another foodie in the family.

Snackage planning

I ate potato chips today, a whole big bag full. I was so tired by the end of the day today I just wandered through the grocery store and bought junk food, sigh.

It's the last day of my hell week, tho. I can take at least 2 days off work, maybe I'll even take three, if nothing goes really bad.

I finally have a chance to do the grocery shop I've needed to do for weeks, but now it's a stat holiday tomorrow and I don't know if stupid store will be open, gar!

I'm going to put together a care package for work like I did last year, healthy snack foods I can dip into or make a small meal out of in an emergency.

Whole wheat crackers
Whole wheat pitas or tortillas
high fiber cereal (no sugar, obviously)
whole wheat couscous pilaf mix (homemade, I'll post a recipe when I'm happy with it)
canned seasoned tuna
veggie chips
whole grain tortilla chips
canned or tetra pak natural soups

for the fridge:
bean dip (hummous, garlic and white bean, spicy black bean, refried beans)
cheese sticks (natural)
skim milk
fruit (apples, oranges, mango, berries)
avocado
red pepper slices

Obviously the produce portion is too much to keep around at work at any one time, most would go bad, but a small selection of fresh food, and some healthy starches to go with them will make the whole lunch thing much easier.

Post-gala hangover

Oh, I wish, don't be fooled by the title of this post. Last night was our annual charity fund raising gala at the arena, and I'm feeling sick, sore and so very, very tired today. Last night wasn't bad as far as galas have been, it's not like the Grey Cup gala I worked where I did a 60 hour week before the gala, and an 18 hour day during the gala (wearing a full tuxedo, no less) sprinting the length of the arena at least 4 or 5 dozen times, on top of everything else.

This gala was very, very small by comparison, 500 people or so, a tested menu, no real surprises, and we've had enough experience with this stuff that we had everything set up in advance, including water and a meal for staff. So it wasn't nearly as bad as it could be, I didn't even work any overtime, and only had to go around the arena a dozen times or so. I still wound up drinking way too much canned pop, eating pizza and chicken fingers and the most disgusting meat balls in gravy (oh the joys of the staff dinner), a chocolate martini that was a thank you from the boss, several handfuls of candy from the candy cart on the floor and munching down let's just say more than one of the left-over gala desserts (chocolate banana perogies in caramel with a chocolate tulip filled with Amarula cream.)

This past week at work has been a bit... stressful. Between losing half my staff to mid-terms (meaning I had to serve tables while simultaneously supervising the restaurant and two bars), the surprise health inspection, the annual inspection by head office, the fire (a small fire on the buffet table,) at that point I was thinking a plague of locusts would descend next. So while the gala night wasn't very stressful, at least compared to last two, it was pretty the nail in the coffin for my week. I woke up today barely able to stand, shaking, dizzy, dehydrated.

So, I shouldn't be too hard on myself for completely falling off the wagon over the past two days. Crappy food, not nearly enough exercise, more stress than I should probably go through in a year, Doritos for breakfast today. Sigh.

Back on that stupid wagon...

No more daily check-ins

Ok, maybe it was a tad ambitious of me to think that I would have time every day to blog about my eating and exercise, let alone exercise daily. As it is right now I should be doing the laundry, dishes and shopping in the one hour I have before going to work for 10 hours, but I'm playing hooky from my life.

I did manage last week to start doing one of my yoga dvd's, the beginner flow in Shiva Rea's Fluid Power Vinyassa flow. It's an intermediate beginner dvd, which is great because I get bored quickly relearning the positions over and over again, but wow, is it tough! The great thing about yoga is how quickly you can progress in it. Even by the third time I did the flow last week it was getting much easier and went from "Oh my god this is impossible that woman has no spine!" to "I wonder when I'll be ready for the next level?"

My back and neck feel so much better for the yoga, but I probably won't have time this week to do any dvd's. I'm going to try to get in a few sun salutes every morning, and a few shoulder stands and some meditation at night, just to stay loose and sleep well.

My eating goals are going well. O has offered to take over making dinners when I'm at work, I probably won't be eating much that he cooks, but he is taking over the burden of making sure he is fed during the day, a huge time thief for me, spending 2-3 hours a day doing the shopping, prep, cooking and clean-up, and making for a very, very cranky mom. I will take over doing the dishes (which I've been doing the past few months anyway), and he will deal with his own lunches and dinners. The quality of his eating is going down, but he's a 14 year old boy, and is really, really resisting eating vegan grain salads and poached fish, lol. I can deal with the occasional box of Kraft Dinner going into him, if it means that I can eat better, regain my energy and start to work on his diet when I have the strength for the fight.

I'm getting close to eliminating sugar, adding Goldenseal to my herbs has really helped. I'm aiming again for a complete elimination by summer, and to eat sugar, dairy and meat free over the summer. I'll see how I feel in September about my diet and readjust then.