Blog Make-Over

As per Julie's recommendations, I have given my blog a slight make-over. I'm not sure I love it, so it may change again.

This week has been pretty good so far. I feel like I haven't been moving as much as usual, but I'm having some pain in my shins and I'm trying to stay off of them in preparation for my 5k on Sunday. I've been spinning/biking/doing videos. I don't know, I just feel sort of lazy. Perhaps it's the heat.

I was teaching this morning then went for a little bike ride around the neighbourhood early this afternoon. It's an absolutely beautiful day and not windy at all, which is definitely rare here in Lethbridge. I'm done teaching tonight at 7:30 so I think I'll go with the hubby for a nice walk.

I've been thinking about purchasing a new bike. I am currently using my husbands old (and much too big for me) bike and I would love to have one that fits me. I also think it would be a fun activity we could do together since it's so low impact and Cory could definitely keep up. I took a look online and I'm thinking about cashing in some airmiles for some Sportchek Gift Cards. I can get about $125 worth to put towards a new bike. It would essentially be like getting a bike for half price. Hmm. I checked out the Canadian Tire website too to see how much they are there...I'd basically be paying a couple hundred at least. Anyone bought a bike at Sportchek? Anyone have any opinions on this matter?

On another note. It looks like the man and I are taking the plunge and finally moving to Greater Vancouver. Cross your fingers, pray, whatever you do....we need jobs! I'm done teaching the third week of June and I will be heading out about that time. Cory will follow within 2 weeks. We'll be staying with my parents until we can find a place and get set up. At his point, I'm willing to make major sacrifices to be out there and get this show on the road. I may be working at Tim Hortons, or my 15 year old brother may be training me at McD's. haha. Hopefully not.

That means, Julie and I will be less than an hour away for a year. Yay. Until she moves her butt back to Alberta. We can't win. But I'll take what I can get :)

Looking forward to this weekend! Dinner with Julie and fam Saturday night, 5k Sunday morning, then I'm staying with a good friend and her new little daughter for the night in Calgary.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Reached my first goal!

Well I had a really great week and it showed on the scale again. I am down another 1.5lbs. The best part is that I have now reached my first goal of 15 lbs lost! 15 lbs in 5 weeks. Amazing. I am so proud of myself for sticking with this.

My reward for this goal is 2 new cookbooks. I previously purchased them at COSTCO and hid them in my closet until this very moment. This morning I will be enjoying my coffee and reading through "The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook" and "Hungry Girl 200 under 200" I am so excited to have some new recipes to try.

The past week was good. I continued to get tons of AP's (just about 60 I think) and of course I stayed on points completely. I even had a treat of a small ice cream yesterday while on a day trip to Waterton.

I did a "practice" run/walk of the 5k that Julie and I are doing next Sunday. I did totally great. Run 2 then walk 2. It took me about 37 minutes. Good for me anyways. I know Julie won't let me get away with Run2/Walk2 so I'm going to try Run 2 Walk 1 today and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure I can do it.

Breakfast this morning was some Cottage Cheese Oatmeal Pancakes. Sounds weird, but they are really good.
Make 4 small pancakes
2 servings (of 2)
4 points per serving

1/2 cup oats (not cooked)
1/4 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs (I'm sure just the whites are fine)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar or splenda

Put it all in a blender and give 'er. Cook like regular pancakes with some PAM in a med-high pan. I topped mine with almond butter, grated apple and a little plain yogurt.

Just a quick one right now, need to get some coffee and get my day going. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Yipee!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO JULIE! She has successfully lost big number for the last 3 weeks in a row. She had taken the plunge into the 160's! I am so very proud of her. I honestly think that if I had the struggles she was dealing with at first, I probably would have quit. But she didn't. She usually doesn't. That's why she is so wonderful!

Can't wait to see your skinny butt next weekend. (haha, your butt has always been skinny....can't wait to see your skinny-ness next weekend!)

Way to keep healthy my friend.

Enjoy your day and celebrate!

New Workout DVD Reviews

As I mentioned a couple days ago, I purchased the "Biggest Loser Bootcamp" and "Jillian Michaels' Blast Fat Boost Metabolism" DVD's. I'm actually very happy with both.

BL Bootcamp - Led by Bob.

This DVD is broken up into 3 sections plus a 5 min warm-up and 5 minute cool down. You ADD on sections as you get better, increasing the workout from 20min to 45min. I did the warm-up, the first 20min section and the cool down. I think after finishing the Shred I'm beyond just doing the beginner level on it's own. HOWEVER, I was totally soaked after the first section. I liked the variety in the moves and weight exercises. There are previous BL contestants doing the video with Bob and it's a little unorganized (all changing the moves at different times, etc) but I get the point. It's supposed to be for regular people. Also, I liked his Yoga based cool down moves. I'm unsure of how to count this video...I think maybe moderate rather than high. I wasn't DYING the entire time.

Jill's Fast Blast Boost Metabolism-

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this video. 40 minutes of intensity plus 5 min warm-up and 5 minute cool down. Interestingly, there are no weights involved. Her "girls" are super athletes which makes me be a little more hardcore and Jillian is by FAR more ripped in this video than she was in the Shred. She actually does most of the moves too, which is cool. This video is make up of 7 different 6 minute circuits. 2 are based on kick boxing, 1 is calisthenics, 1 is ply metrics, one is floor/plank etc. It is continuously intense and you really never stop moving. I recognised many of the moves from the Shred but there are a ton of new really awesome ones too. I was able to get through the entire video (alright, I stopped for water a few times) but I think it will remain challenging for quite some time. The DVD also has a feature that lets you choose which circuits you want to do...if you only have, say, 25 minutes. That's good too. I'll b e counting this as high intensity for 40 minutes (not counting the 10 min for warm up/cool down.) 6 AP's. If it get's substantially easier I'll move it to moderate. Definitely as intense if not more intense than the Shred for the time being though. I miss push-ups though. I was really starting to get used to those.

I'm partial to Jillian. Intensity is sort of my thing. I think the use of weights in Bob's will be a nice complement to Jillian's though.

Also, I added in a 12 minute "Oldie but goodie" video for abs from my Slim in 6 DVDs. "Slim in 6 pack" I find both videos are sort of lacking in hardcore ab moves, so this should keep the momentum going in that department. In addition, I've been trying to do either a short Pilate's or stretch video every evening so my body doesn't give out on me :) It's quite relaxing and I can reach well past my toes with straight legs while stretching. Never been able to do that before.

Alright, that's my reviews. Julie, you know the drill. I'll bring the DVD's for you to "try" when we meet up for our reunion run in a couple weeks....eek...less than that.

Good luck at your weight in tomorrow Julie. Hope everyone else is having a great week.

PS - I had an adventure this morning trying to make homemade almond butter.....was I successful?...you can wait anxiously for my post on that :)

A few new recipes.

Hello guys!

First off, congrats to Skinny Me!!! on her major loss at this weeks weigh in. Keep it up girl!

I had sort of a blah day yesterday. I think my body needed a little rest after my mach 10 attempts at AP's last week. Alas, I just did a Pilates DVD in an attempt to stretch and get a little movement in. I feel a lot better today though and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week. Long, long teaching day today (1-9) so I'll be glad when that's over.

Thought I'd do a little post on some of the recipes I've tried yesterday and so far today. Julie asked me to try and post the actual recipes along with pics when I can, so here you go! I'll try and do the recipes whenever I have the extra time.

This is my very random lunch yesterday. I kind of just made it up on the spotm but it turned out to be SO yummy.

Warm Coucous Salad with spinach, mushrooms and cashews
1 serving = 5 points.
1/4 cup of cooked whole wheat organic couscous (cooked in Veggie stock)
1 cup fresh spinach
1/2 cup fresh muchrooms
handful of cashews
half a lemon of fresh lemon juice
1 fresh chopped scallions
Garlic Powder

Add the Spinach to the hot cooked coousous, cover and let it wilt. Meanwhile sautee the mushrooms with some garlic powder in a tiny tiny bit of oil and veggie stock. When the mushrooms are almost done, add the cashews to the pan to lightly toast. Add the mushrooms and cashews to the couscous and spinach. Squeese on fresh lemon juice and top with fresh scallions. Enjoy!

Our dinner last night was a Chicken Parmasen Burger. I take no credit for this recipe because I lifted it from a blog the other day. Very very good though.

Makes 4 servings. 7 points per burger including topping. Plus Bun.

Ingrediants;

Burgers

1 lb, extra lean ground chicken

1/4 cup, grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup, bread crumbs

1 clove, garlic

1 medium, shallot

3 tbsp, fresh chopped parsley

2tsp, Italian Seasoning

Topping

1 cup or so, pasta sauce

1 cup, sauteed mushrooms

4 large slices, fat-free mozza cheese

In a medium bowl combine all of the ingredients for the burgers. Mix well until thoroughly combined. Form the mixture into 4 patties. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle.
Grill (or broil) burgers for 4-6 minutes on one side, then flip and grill for 4-6 more minutes on the other side until fully browned and cooked through. Remove from the grill, top each burger with pasta sauce and cheese. Place back under the broiler for 30-60 seconds until the cheese is melted. Top with sautéed mushrooms if desired, and serve on toasted hamburger buns.

Finally, my breakfast this morning was SO SO good. I've been seeing some interesting Oatmeal concoctions on food blogs. This is my attempt. Peanut Butter and Banana Oatmeal. Really really filling too. 5.5 Points

1/3 cup of large flake oatmeal

1 banana

1 tsp natural peanut butter

1/2 tsp honey

1/4 cup of plain, non fat yougurt

Cook oatmeal according to directions. Add all other ingrediants and stir. Enjoy!

Hope everyone enjoys their Wednesday. Halfway to the weekend!

"You want results, you've gotta fight for them..."

So I had an intense week. I'm just sort of like that in general. I embrace things completely or not at all. Julie always reminds me of my "B" phase (B for Becky.) Remember when monograms were all the rage on purses and necklaces? Well I had 2 monogram purses, a monogram hat, several necklaces, probably a shirt or two. And I wore it all together. I was a walking trend. I also embraced the 80's fashion resurgence in 2003. Too painful to speak about though.

I digress.

Back to my week. So somehow this week I managed to earn 60 AP's. My weekly goal was 40, but it got out of hand very quickly. I did spinning (3 x 1hr, 9 AP each), Shredding (7 x 3AP each), a few bike rides, regular gym stuff and an intense few hour walk on Sunday. I feel wonderful and was full of energy all week. On top of all this, I made all of my meals at home this week and didn't have to dip into my weekly points at all. Just an all around success. I decided last night that I didn't care what the scale said this morning for my WI. I knew I had done my absolute best all week. That being said, I was pleasantly rewarded for all my hard work with a 2.5 lbs loss! Yippee!

I have lost 13.5lbs in my first 4 weeks on WW and a total of 11 inches from all over the place. This is so worth all the effort. I feel amazing and more motivated than ever.

Also, today is my last day of the 30 Day Shred. All 30 days in a row. No missed days. Peace out Jillian. It's been great.

I leave you today with some inspirational lyrics from a favorite cool down song of mine. Believe by Suzie McNeil.

No one says it's easy

And no one says you have to be perfect

But as long as you try

You're always gonna find

It was worth it...

The day after tomorrow...

Tomorrow is day 30 of the Shred. I can't believe it's been 30 days. I feel amazing and it's so great to know that on days I'm feeling blah, if nothing more, at least I've "Shredded." I haven't missed a single day, which probably makes this the first time in my entire life that I've stuck to something this long. That being said, this also marks the end of my first month on WW. So I guess I've stuck to 2 things for 30 days....more to come.

The day after tomorrow I begin month 2 of WW and the second installment of BL DVD's. I went to Chapters yesterday and purchased 'Biggest Loser Bootcamp' and 'Jillian Michael's - Banish Fat Boost Metabolism.' BL Bootcamp looks like 3 levels, level 1 20 min, level 2 15 min, level 3 10 mins. It seems to me that you ADD ON levels as you go through them...so eventually you have a 45 minute workout plus 5 min each of warm-up and cool down. It's with Bob. We'll see. Banish Fat is just one workout for 40 minutes.

Listen people, I work from home. Most day I have my mornings free. I have no reason to "phone-in" (haha, Shred joke....) my workouts and have them only be 20 minutes. I can totally find the time to do 40-60 min. On days when I really am short for time, I'll just pull the Shred back out.

I declare here and now that I will do another 30 days of consistent DVD workouts on top of my normal gym and other activities starting Tuesday. I think I will still call it Shredding for ease of words. But it could be any one of three DVDS.

Finally, I tried making a Falafel Burger last night. I used a slightly modified recipe from the Rachael Ray cookbook "The Big Orange Book." (Man, she uses a LOT of oil in her recipes.) Anyways, it was really good. She called for a high fat Tahini based sauce but I just made a fake-out tzaziki sauce with plain, non-fat yogurt, dill, lemon and garlic. Topped it off with the sauce and some sliced cucumber. It is not the most colorful of meals. But it was really good. I'm going to have the left overs in a pita for lunch today with some greek salad. Yummy.

Thanks to all the new people who have been reading and leaving comments! Much appreciated! I'm enjoying checking out your blogs as well.

Off to the gym for some spinning.

WI tomorrow. Send skinny vibes :)

Fake-out Take-out

Just a short post tonight. I wanted to say 3 things.

1) First of all, congrats to JUJU on her WI this morning! The scale is now moving in the right direction, receiving from me a resounding "Hallelujah!"

2) I went for a bike ride tonight. For the first time in probably 10 years. I enjoyed it more than I can express. I truly loved every moment of it. I can not wait to go again tomorrow. On that note, can I just ask one question....when I used to bike ride it was common place to get off and walk your bike across roads. Is this still the correct procedure? I got off and walked across roads while people were whirring past me on their bikes. Am I that biking dork with my past leg tucked into my sock and a goofy helmet? Am I supposed to ride across? At intersections? This seems a little dangerous to me. Please tell me if I missed an update on the rules.

3) I made the most wonderful and awesome dinner tonight. Courtesy of Rachael Ray. I used her recipe for Orange BBQ Cashew Chicken. Basically fake-out take-out. We had it with some brown rice. OMG! So so so so so so so so good. I definitely recommend you try it. You can fine the recipe on her site. (I just didn't stir-fry the chicken in canola oil...way too many points. Just a little tiny bit of oil and chicken stock.) It was 7 points for one serving plus 2 points for the rice. Makes 4 servings. Unbelievable and TOTALLY worth the points. Wowza.

Here's a pic of my breaky (Peanut butter and banana on toast) and my yummy dinner!

Seriously? Doesn't that look good? Left overs tomorrow!

The butterfly effect.

So I was doing some thinking and I realized that if I stick to WW and loose 1 lb per week I can be at my (first) goal of 150lbs by Nov 16th of this year. That's 28 weeks of loosing 1lb per week. Total loss of 39 lbs. I can totally do that. That would also allow me to be at 165lbs by our anniversary on Aug 8th. That would be a loss of 24lbs. All these little, seemingly inadequate loses over all the weeks do add up. And they can add up pretty quick in the grand scheme of things. Some little thing you do today, making that right decision this afternoon, really can impact the future you. It's like those time lapse pics on BL. It's difficult to notice the loses week by week (even though they were often loosing double digits...) but when you watch the time lapse, it all adds up to AMAZING results.

I've been doing WW for almost a month now. 4 weeks on this coming Monday. If someone would have said to me a month ago, "hey, I have a guaranteed way for you to loose 11+ pounds in the next month" you can bet I would have jumped at the opportunity and told everyone I know. Is it really this easy? Not that it is easy, per say, but if this is all I had to do from the beginning...geeesh; all that strife over trying to loose weight.

I'm starting to think that all those people who have "tried everything" and couldn't loose weight, really didn't try everything. I think in the majority of cases (save for some people with medical limitations) this eating well and exercising does work. Over time. Of course there will be set backs. Gains some weeks, nothing in other weeks. But over time, in the grand scheme of things, the body responds. If it doesn't, you didn't really do it.

This is just my opinion. I suppose it could change if I loose some momentum. But for now, I really truly believe this.

It all comes down to this...

Well, what an exciting (and all together epic) evening last night. Usually I tape BL, but I decided to watch the 3 hour finale. It was long. Intense. Anti-climactic. But I still loved it.

1) I loved that Jerry won the at home prize. He looked great. Although some of those with young families probably could have used the money more.

2) I was impressed by mostly everyone elses weighins. I loved that Sione and Philipe looked so great. I think that Kristin looked great too. That one crazy girl who only lost a bit, she still bugs me. And I thought it was really sad that the one young guy only lost like 40 lbs. Now what for him? Do they still help him out?

3) I have read that Jillian is not going to be on the next season of BL. However, they said nothing of that, no "Thanks Jill" or anything. hmmm.

4) I think Mike looked great and almost a little too thin for my male tastes. But he looked unreal.

5) Tara. What can I say. Basically I want to look like her. She is amazing. I've always wanted her to win, but quite frankly, I think she looks perfect at the weight she is now. 10 more lbs and I think she will be too skinny.

6) Speaking of too skinny. Helen. Good for her. She looked really incredible. BUT I think that weight will be impossible for her to maintain. I heard she is 5'6. Personally I think women look better when they still have curves. I'm bitter. I wanted Tara to win. haha

Enough BL. I love that show though.

So I tried out some new recipes from ESBM and I wanted to share them.Above is the 'Kentucky Freud Chicken.' Basically a baked chicken with lots of yummy seasonings. I liked it because it was a little crispy and not greasy AT ALL.

The next recipe was INCREDIBLE. Also from ESBM, it's the 'Crash Test Dumplings.' I've always wanted to try a recpie like this and I was impressed by how well it turned out. I bought some wanton wrappers from the grocery store and filled them with a yummy asian flavored mixture of ground chicken. We steamed them and served them with the really well flavored sauce they also had a recipe for. The actual wanton making was a little time consuming and you can only steam them in one layer at a time so you have to make them in batches. But so worth it. We also tried some Whole Wheat Couscous for the first time. Just boiled a little chicken stock and bam. Easy a pie? Easier really.

A really great day. I'm looking forward to throwing the left over wantons/dumplings into some soup for lunch this afternoon. Also Day 25 of Shredding today with no days missed. Just about done! I need to go look for a new DVD.

Have a great day!

You spin me right 'round baby, right round.....

Well, a great "Non Scale Victory" for me today. I successfully motivated myself through my own HOUR long spin session at the gym. It was amazing. Truly, I felt totally unstoppable. 60 minutes and 9, count 'em 9, AP's.

I've realized that the absolute best way to spin is with some amazing music. The other night found a whole ton of fast remixes of everything from Celine to MJ to old school '90's stuff like Scatman...(do you remember this song...the beat is amazing for working out.) So I plunked myself on the spin bike and decided I could do at least 45 minutes (the length of my spinning classes.) Once I got to 45 I thought "what the hey, I'll just keep going!!!" I was totally soaked, my face was red as a cherry and I felt like I was going to keel over. But I didn't. Then, I put on my cool down selections (today's was The Climb by Miley Cyrus and a song called Believe by I don't know who.) Basically I almost started to cry. In the gym. Biggest Loser Style. While I was stretching on the bike. I was so exhausted and impressed with myself and into the song I just about freaken started crying. haha. So funny. I think I busted through a mental block today. I keep telling the hubby to stop saying that he can't in regards to exercise etc and I think I'm finally started to believe it myself.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you will.

Down 1.5lbs at my WI today. Total of 11lbs lost in 3 weeks.

SO excited to keep this going. I truly feel better than I have in years.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U.....this is taking too long....

I will be channeling my inner preteen for this posting.

What has happened to the "here and now" mentality of my youth? Countless authors has written about it (ie. Eckhart Tolle - A New Earth) and it's a common subject between friends. Why can't we just stop living for the next "big" moment?

I will be happy when (fill in the blank)
I loose 20 lbs
I quit my job
I get married
I have children
I have a bigger house
........


I have very little patience for anything anymore, including my recently restored weight-loss journey. They say patience is a virtue. I'm not really sure what that even means, but I know I'm desperately looking to hold onto whatever patience I have at least a few days a week. But I am learning...(and impatiently waiting for the next weigh in...)

In an attempt to better appreciate all the little things that add up to what is, essentially, our lives, I offer you the following innocent lyrics as told through the eyes of a sort-of teenage girl who probably knows very little about struggle or patience seeing as she has a (successful?) singer father and has been on Disney's payroll since the age of 11. All bitterness aside, please look up this song "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. I have posted the lyrics to the chorus below. Insightful little ditty.


There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb


Miley is right your know. It is the climb. Or at least it should be. I'm going to try and put that into perspective.

On a totally unrated note, I did BOTH level 1 and 3 of the Shred tonight. Level one with the hubby and then I thought, "just do it....seriously." So I did. And I survived.

May Goals

In keeping with the general attempt at bettering myself I have laid out the following goals for the month of May.

1) Complete the 30 day Shred. I will continue to do the Shred everyday, making day 30 on Monday May 18th. At this point I will either a) keep shredding b) find a new DVD to do (maybe BL Bootcamp or something..)

2) Stay OP. So far I have had absolitly no problem staying within my points allowance. It's been 12 days so I know I can do it. That being said I have not eating at a restauruant or eaten ANY mealsthat I havn't made myself, soo...

3) Eat in a restaurant or subway/timmies no more than once every 2 weeks. I think for me, this is where I may have some trouble. I'm picky and very rarely eat meat at a restaurant. So, I tend to go for higher calorie pasta etc. I need to be careful.

4)Do spinning at least twice a week. Once in class and another time fore at least 20 min on my own.

5) Go for one long walk (2hrs-ish) each week.

6) Go for at least 2 smaller walks each week.

7) Drink at least 4 litres of water a day. So far so good.

8) Apply for jobs. I need to apply for at least 20 jobs in Greater Vancouver a week.

9)Loose a total of 15 lbs by the end of may.

10) Get a minimun of 40 AP points each week.


I can do it!