Well i went for a walk......

And i loved it!! Except...... when i hit a patch of ice and fell flat on my back :) But no fear i came away unscathed!!

Now this was delicious!!

Banana French Toast :)

2x bread, 2 egg whites, mashed banana, sugar free maple syrup

And for Canadians out there i found a nice bread for 1 point and it's got nice size pieces not thin!! It has 4 grams of fibre per slice.

Resolutions???

No, no  new resolutions here.

I have to admit i'm not much of one to make resolutions as that just doesn't usually work for me!!

I prefer to do my goals weekly and i'm going to be back to doing them this week :)

But that said there are  things i will focus on this year:

Eating clean

Exercising

Living life to the fullest

Enjoying my family

Learn to not be too hard on myself

Enjoying my blogger friends

And that my friends is where i am in my life!!

I'm excited!!

For those of you who are new to reading my blog, i do a lot of volunteering for people with mental health issues :) Tonight we are going for a walk through the park to see the "lights"!! And afterwards we are having hot chocolate and cookies (sugar free versions of both as well :) I can't wait. Hopefully some people will show up  :)

And we are already planning a spring bingo next!!

Today i'm either going to go for a walk in the snow or if there's no snow i'm going to do the weight watchers workout video :)  Got to move somehow! (update-no snow so i think i'll do an inside workout)

Got to remember my favorite words: Discipline and Consistency

How is your day going??

I went for a walk....

To the library and for some strange reason i took my camera. I get a block away from home and look and the cuteness i see :) Oh and where is the snow?? We're getting 5-10cm tomorrow!!

The mailman just knocked on my door!!

Wowsa's i'm soooo happy!! So many things to read :) And the angel reads: where there is great love there are always miracles !! 

Today...

So today i've got to go to the post office again! Then i need to go to the bank and the library :)

That should be good for an hours walk!!

More new recipes to try today. First a baked eggplant dish which you can find here for lunch and then for dinner i'm making stuffed cabbage rolls from here !! Hope everything turns out o.k. :)

Grocery shopping is also on the agenda.

Oh and today i can't talk at all!! Well it will be a quiet day around here :)

My walk around the park to see the lights is tomorrow night so i'm really looking forward to that, and i hope we get a few people who will turn out for it even though there's hardly any snow left on the ground from all the rain we've had :(

Make today a good day for you!!

What i'm doing today :)

So i'm sitting here listening to my window shake and rattle from the windstorm here today :) Doesn't inspire a walk i've got to tell you!

Oh and i made these today to have after dinner tonight :) (i did substitute half the sugar with sweetner, i just don't like sugar much these days) And they're only 1 point each!!

And i have to whip over to the store because i just found out i have no onions and i need to put this in my crockpot!!  Not to mention that i want a grilled cheese for lunch and i have no cheese :)

Can you say it's one of those days??

Actually i'm having  a really good day, i made the cookies with no cravings and i'm feeling great!! Other than the fact i've got some kind of virus :( But i'm in good spirits and that's major for me when i'm sick.

Next sunday i'm going to go back to doing my weekly weigh in and weekly goals :) I was just waiting for normalcy to come back into my life!!

I'm back on my daily nosh :)

I took a couple of days off of taking pictures of my food, i'm not even sure why. I wasn't particulary eating too much i was just tired! 

I think having our first christmas alone overwhelmed me. I'm o.k now i promise :)

So if you read my other blog then i'm back!!

Does anyone else have total ice on all their sidewalks!! Please be careful out there.  I hate walking when it's like that, thank goodness the woods are usually a little easier to walk in :) So this morning i'm taking a walk in the woods.

I need to get back in the normalcy of exercising, lately i've had to make myself do it, usually i know how many times i'm going to exercise and just do it! Most of the time i enjoy it immensly and even when i don't i  Just Do It :) Definitely need to be feeling like that again!!

The other thing is that last night at work i almost felt like an addict trying my hardest to ignore anything made with sugar!! It was sooo hard  :( I just hope i can stay away from it again tonight!! At least i have the next 3 days off away from it.

mmmm....

Now this was a good lunch:

low carb pizza and a nice cold protein smoothie!!

Oh boy!!

I woke up this morning with no voice!! I don't feel bad just have no voice. And i go to work today :) Lots of fun.

So this morning i have to walk to work since i found their key to the garbage container in my coat pocket and they'll need it before i go to work. Which isn't necessarily bad as i will also go on a walk and i'll stop at the grocery store as well! (I'm leading a walk through the park to see the lights on tuesday so i'm hoping to pick up some cheap christmas cookies, which won't be opened until i go :)

Today at least i'm back to routine, i didn't do too bad over the holidays although there was too much wine and bigger quantities of food than i'm used to. So today i'm back to doing what works for me :)

How is your day going??

Merry Christmas

From Snuffy and our family have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Look what i made.....

Remember i posted the recipe for these?? Well i decided to go ahead and try them and since they're made from, prune, dates and peanut butter they are a great nutritious alternative!!

Go here for the recipe :)

Nice treat for the hubs and when i asked him what he'd like for dessert on christmas day?? Rice pudding made with sweetner :) Well that i can certainly do!!

And how awesome is this guy??

This is my hubs :) 

He's come along way this year. In September he had a heart attack and found out that one of his arteries was 99 % blocked!!

Here was a guy that already exercised, ate relatively healthy and took pretty good care of himself!!

However he was shown how to exercise with an added focus on his heart rate, told exactly what he needed to eat and told he should lose a few pounds!!

So what did he do?? Exactly what he was told to :)

I get his food ready for him everyday and in his words "when it's gone it's gone". He has actually started to do a bit less cardio as he was actually doing too much!! But now he's doing quality cardio now. And to top it off he's lost 23 pounds since coming home from the hospital and is down 48 pounds from his all time high weight!!

Hon, i'm just soooo proud of you!!

Congratulations Tony and Brian!

Wow is all i've got to say about Tony he has now lost over 200 pounds!! Go congratulate him. And that's not the only thing to congratulate him for, he and his wife are expecting a baby.

And i'm not forgetting about Brian either :) He has lost 121.4 !!

I just find these guys so insipiring, check them out i hope they inspire you too :)

So far today....

I have picked up a few things at the grocery store to tide me over till tomorrow :)

Bought hair dye so i can do my hair tonight-actually i'll probably do it tomorrow!!

Had my hair cut!

Painted my nails (i haven't done this in i don't know how long:)

Gone to a meeting where we plan the next social events for the next year.

Finished plans for a walk through the park to see the lights with hot chocolate and cookies after for the place that i volunteer (sugar free ones too :)

Finished my last minute shopping

Gone to the liquor store

I am now beat :) I'm having a glass of wine and putting my feet up for the rest of the day!!

And tomorrow i'm:

Finishing my grocery shopping

Going to the post office

Enjoying the heat from the lamps i go under for my skin condition (psoriasis)

One of these days i'll have nothing to do!! And then i won't know what to do with my free time.

I'm in!!

So Katschi posted yesterday about doing a 6 week total commitment challenge!! She's willing to give a pass on christmas day and new years eve, but other than that it's going to mean total commitment!! Am i up for that?? You bet your sweet patootie i am :)

I believe i need this. But i'm still not worrying about the scale until after christmas!!

And my main focus is on family and enjoying this christmas season while at the same time making smart choices for me :) 

Anyone else up for it?? Feel free to join us :)

People really need to relax!!

Wow people are in such a rush, they don't stop and think about others!!

On my way to work yesterday, which is only a block and a half away from where i live, i was almost run down 2 times!!

And while i was working people are just so nasty and pushy :(

Get a grip!!

I realize people have a lot of pressure during the holidays but they really need to de-stress or else they are going to have heart attacks!!

Has anyone else noticed this??

So hopefully the rest of my week will go smoothly, without being run over :) 

On to another day at work!!

Taking a breather!!

I won't be doing my update goals/weigh in post this week!

I have some crazy running around to do and i need to focus on getting that done :) I'm also going in to work for 4 hours tomorrow :( and i'd like to spend time with the hubs and not banging away on the computer all the time!!

Eating and exercising while not perfect are not bad either! But that being said i've decided not to get on the scale until next Sunday (December 28) I just don't want the scale deciding what mood i will be in through Christmas and knowing what's coming up this week i probably won't be too happy with the scale!! But then again maybe i'll be pleasantly surprised.

I do know that i will be happy once all my running around is finished with! And although i love Christmas i will be happy to be back to a normal routine :)

This is the first chistmas that i won't have either of my children home :( One is on a cruise and the other is in Holland :) Will definitely be a different kind of christmas this year!

Now this is the way to start a day :)

The tree's were groaning with the wind and everynow and then you'd hear a branch break :) Squirrels were barrelling through the snow across the path in front of me!! For a while i couldn't find my boots :) And i loved every second of it. 

Another one!!

Don't get me wrong i'm not really upset, i'm just surprised that this happens as often as it does!

These are weight watchers whole wheat bagels, they are supposed to weigh 60g. The fact is that one weighs 53g and the other 69g :)

I've made my choice :)

O.k remember i said i was getting frustrated with all the different things out there?? Well one of those things was that i've been using unsweetened silk soy milk and i thought, you know everyone seems to be using almond breeze which is 1/2 the calories!!

So i decided to give the almond breeze a try! Why? just to cut down 40 calories a cup!

What did i find out? I like the silk taste better! Not only that but the nutritional facts are better:

silk                                            Almond breeze

80 cals                                      40 cals

4 g fat                                        3g fat

120mg sodium                         180mg sodium

300mg potassium                   190mg potassium

4g carb                                      2g carb

7g protein                                  1g protein

10% vit a                                   0

30% calcium                             20% calcium

10% iron                                   2% iron

45% vit D                                 0

25% riboflavin                         0

So for me i'm choosing the higher calorie but for me the best tasting :)

And i'm definitely not arguing with peoples choices but this is just one of the things that works for me !!

Made these today :)

Weight watcher biscuits!! 1.5 points recipe here

Yummy!!

I got this in with a christmas card yesterday from the states and all i have to say is yummy!! Thanks Kathie :)  Now if i could only find somewhere here to buy it :) Any Canadians out there that have seen this???

I was going to go out for a walk today before work, however i do have things around the house that have to be done. So i'm going to go on the stationary bike and read a book :)

So last night i did end up eating more chinese than i had planned, i also ended up having some chocolate. However, the rest of the day had been awesome and when i jumped on the scale this morning it was exactly the same!! I'll take that and run :)

Hope everyone has a great day!!

Challenge?? Anyone

Mark has once again offered up a challenge!! Anyone up for it?? I just finished it before i go out for my meeting :)

Guess who :)

Just found this the other day, taken at a wedding in England!!

Thanks!!

Thank you for all the great comments yesterday they really made my day :) You guys rock!!

This morning i was at the hospital with my hubby at 7:30 AM!! That is so not my time of day :) He had to be there for test yesterday and again today. We are crossing our fingers that they come out great.

So what did i do at the hospital that early while waiting. I walked!! I did the stairs, i walked the corridors and when that got too boring i went outside and walked :) Oh and i drank a bottle of water while doing it.

This afternoon i have a board of directors meeting where i know they are having the annual chinese food for dinner! Rather than stressing over it, i've decided to take one plate with the healthiest foods i can find and then move on. I will however be drinking a lot of water :) Oh and to help even more i'm going to walk there!!

What are your plans for today?? Have a good one!

Questions :)

I was wondering what kind of info do you write in your daily food journals?? Sometimes i think i'm being a little OCD with it and i need to maybe just simplify it a bit.

Do you journal daily??

Lately i think from all the blogs i read (and love) i just get overwhelmed about whether my calories are too low, should i just be doing points, am i eating too many carbs, should i only be eating what my ancestors did, maybe i need to eat 6 meals a day instead or are 3 meals a day o.k.!! I'm honestly getting a little ovewhelmed with it all.

Health wise i know i need to eat clean, i need to use healthy oils etc.. But my question to you is, are you becoming overwhelmed with all the information out there (and there's new stuff daily) or do you just stick to what you always did??

Weighing things again!!

So this morning i'm making egg mcmuffins for the hubs and myself and he says you know one of those english muffins is really small and one is pretty big!! Now they are weight watchers whole wheat english muffins, they are supposed to weigh 65 grams. 

So out comes the scale! One of the english muffins weighed in at 61 grams and the other weighed in at 71 grams. I realize it doesn't sound like much but if 10 things you eat in a day all weigh more than you think they do think what that would add up to over a week!! Eeeck :)

weekly weigh in and goal update

Well this morning after having chinese food and pizza i stayed the same!! 133.6  I'll take that anyday :)

Last weeks goals:

1. keep up with the discipline and consisitency!! - I did pretty good with this one this week considering all the temptations at this time of the year!!

2. go out for more walks.- And i enjoyed them immensly :)

3. take care of me this week, i need a little pampering this week. I tend to forget this :( - I failed at this one  big time but will try again this week.

4. get house in order (this is a hopeful goal :) - ummmmm...... not!!

So this weeks goals:

1. Still get out for my walks and make it to my walking group which is definitely motivational.

2. Take care of me!! This is a huge one for me.

3. Need to spend time on the house.

4. Try not to spend time worrying and stressing so much tis week. Ties into #2 but is a separate thing.

Sorry!!!

Sorry i've been major busy today, not to mention i got a new laptop that i'm playing around with!! Back tomorrow with another post :)

Oh this is good!!

For lunch today i was going to simply take some low sodium chicken broth and add some noodles to it and throw in a little chicken breast! Well first i also threw in a little green pepper, then some onion, managed to find some mushrooms, and sliced a couple of baby carrots really thinly and to top it off i popped in some smokey hot paprika :) Can we say mmmmmmmmmm.....!!

My exercise

for today is going to be to try this

Should be interesting!!

On a different note, lately i've been reading how if you're trying to lose weight you need to watch the portion sizes. For example if something says 1/2c or 30g you should weigh to make sure your only getting 30 g!!

So this morning for my cereals i decide, what the heck, i'm going to see if there is any difference between the measured amount and the weighed amount. Yes there definitely was!! Each time i weighed what i had measured to be the right amount, the weight was higher than it said it was supposed to be. And that's only on two cereals that i tried this morning. So i think for the next few days when i get a chance i'm going to see just how often these things are in sync.

Now i'm off to plan my menu for the next week or so :) Then it's off to work!!

Have a great weekend.

Need suggestions....

I don't usually go to eat much so i don't have much experience!! Anyway tomorrow hubby is taking me out to an all you can eat chinese buffet for lunch, any suggestions on what would be wise healthy, choices and what i should stay away from???Any help would be appreciated :)

Walk pictures :)

So i planned on going out for a 30 minute walk today before work, however i was enjoying so much i stayed out for 45 minutes!! Enjoy :)

Christmas finally got to me

Well i've been so gung ho, managing to stay away from the goodies, the extra goodies etc... till last night when my little hands found there way into this:

But it's over and done with and hopefully that will do me for another year. I have to admit poppycock is one of my downfalls!! And yep i enjoyed every bit of it :)

So today my plan is to drink my water, go for a walk and enjoy my day! Because my plan is to lose over christmas not gain :)

A challenge!!

Following in my friend Katschi steps who was following Mark i took the staircase challenge this morning.
One thing i found was that it didn't take long :) which is also a nice thing. The other thing was that it wasn't easy. Now that could be because i have arthritis in my knees, but i've never let that stop me!!

So off for my stairs i went. Mark is doing 50 sets of stairs!!!!! I made it 10x :) But it was good, it was out of my usual exercise routine and i enjoyed doing it. Although maybe the hubs thought i was a little crazy.
Update: went and did another 10 sets!! I think that's about all the knees can take today :)

Can't wait for Mark's next challenge :)

A day off of work

The is the "cat" basket where snuffy get's the occasional treat!! Slightly blurry (you've got to be quick before he moves) but still cute :)

So this morning we're off to see hubby's cardiologist!! We'll see what she has to say. Hopefully only good things.

And i need to go to the post office to mail a package.

Need to figure what workout i'm going to do today ;)

And then i plan to vegetate or just catch up on the computer!! Because tomorrow i'm back to work.

Win something!!

If you would like a chance to win a beautiful vita mix blender go here:

http://eatingbender.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/vita-mix-super-5200-giveaway/

By the way it's open to canadian and american entries :)

New food find

I had this with my lunch and it was very good!! I've also tried their salsa verde and really liked it :)

Salsa verde-4 tbsp-15 cals

Peach mango salsa- 4 tbsp-40 cals

Ewwwwww!!

O.k i need advise anyone whose used protein powder in their oatmeal. Do you put it in after it's cooked???? I just put it in before and although i'm eating it, all i've got to say is ewwww. And i love protein powder!!

This morning is all about cleaning the house :) Gotta do it sometime!!

And then i have to walk to the dr's to get a repeat prescription because if i try to phone it will never happen.

Oh and then i get to go to work!!

Hope everyone's having a a better start to their Monday :)

What a walk i had.....

It snowed yesterday and it is verrrrrry cold. Wow i think that was one of the hardest walks i've had in a while.(It was -11 with the windchill -23) First it's hard to walk in virgin snow where no one has walked before. Second i got 3/4 of the way through my walk and realized i'd lost my sunglasses!! Turned around re-traced my walk and found them :) So my walk ended up being 1 hour and 20 mins long. And a hard one up and down hills and climbing over tree stumps!!

Weekly weigh in and goal update

So this week actually turned out to be a pretty good week!! I'm finally starting to slow down with my meetings etc which definitely makes life a little easier :)

This week i'm down 1.2 lbs bringing me to 133.6 which is just 8.6 lbs away from my goal!

Last weeks goals:

1. Discipline and consistency!!-I rocked this, i was consistent and my discipline was great! I planned what i wanted to do, i did it and i enjoyed it :0)

2.Get some weight training in :)-I did maybe not as much as i would like but more than last week.

3. Exercise 5 days this week.-I did and if i included all the lifting of the table to set up and clean up the christmas party(and boy could i feel my muscles after) i actually did it 6 days!

4. Keep trying new things with food! - I am definitely doing this and enjoying it!

5. This week i'm determined to have fun!! First with cranberries on monday, i'm making i believe 13 bags of cranberry sauce. And most of all at the christmas party i'm helping to organize on Tuesday for over250 people and yes there will be lots of pictures!!-I had a blast this week and i was so glad that everything went smoothly and everyone had fun :)

So on to new goals for this week:

1. keep up with the discipline and consisitency!!

2. go out for more walks.

3. take care of me this week, i need a little pampering this week. I tend to forget this :(

4. get house in order (this is a hopeful goal :)

It's getting harder!!

Last night at work, on the table where we take our breaks and eat our meals, sat the biggest box of Lindor chocolates you've ever seen!! This is just the beginning if this year goes the same as last year!!

So while i'm sitting there eating my nice dinner i'm bombarded with images of chocolates and soon they will be joined by cookies etc.... So what did i do?? I moved them during my break and put them back after!! And not one passed these lips :) This time at least.

Home is easy compared to work! Not only do i touch and sell candy cane donuts and make hot chocolate with whipped cream and candy cane bits on top but on my break i have to see even more.

Now i know myself pretty good, let me tell you. And for me there's no such thing as i can have just one!! No sirre bob. It's either don't touch or watch out here i come :)

Thankfully my christmas parties are over so i don't have to deal with that as well and as for christmas day?? It's just my hubby and i so i think we'll have some turkey breast and the trimmings and a glass of wine and a pile of movies :)

How do you guys deal with the christmas temptations?? Abstinence or do you just go for it??

Ugh!!

Forgot to set my alarm so i woke up later than i wanted to!! So it's rush, rush, rush around here :)

I realize that for the next few days i need to eat up what i have in the fridge etc... I also realize that although i want to eat as clean as i can i like eating different things all the time, so i think it's going to end up being my version of clean :) Which isn't necessarily a bad thing!

You'll laugh at this. I have 24 steps to climb to get into my townhouse, i have another 7 steps to get up into the kitchen and another 7 to get to the laundryroom and bathroom. For added exercise i have been taking the stairs two at a time, which at 5'0" is quite the funny thing to watch.
However you won't believe how much i'm feeling it in the old legs :) My goal lately is to find little ways to do a little more!! If i'm waiting for the kettle to boil i'll do some counter push ups (not all the time but every now and then). When i'm at work and standing still sometimes i go up on my toes and hold it for as long as i can :)

Anyone else sneak little bits of exercise in??? I'd be glad to try new things.

So that's the way my mind is rambling today :) Have a great weekend!!

My walk !

Exercise day 3/5 this week!! O.k i'm not doing so bad this week :)

It's really cold outside so i decided i needed oats this morning! This hit the spot :) And of course it gave me some fuel!!

And i not only walked but for the first time in my life i did SPRINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wowsa's and i loved it :)