I decided to start a new blog that would focus more on my life than just my weight loss. I’d been talking to some friends about chronicling our adventures checking out cool restaurants in Toronto and reviewing the clubs/lounges we go to, but I also wanted to incorporate my efforts in trying to live a healthy lifestyle by reviewing exercise classes I intend to try out (e.g. hot yoga, bootcamps, etc.). I started this blog as a way to be accountable with my diet and exercise plan. I was inspired by all the food blogs I was discovering to keep a photo food journal (or attempt to!) and I felt comfortable in the 3FC community to be honest about my weight and my struggles with losing it.

When you’re surrounded by thin people, it’s embarrassing to talk about your terrible eating habits. The late night sugar/carb binges, the eating out every other day and finishing the entire huge portion. I know it’s a common struggle for those of us who have gained weight, but I don’t feel it’s something that is talked about openly. That’s why I’m grateful to have discovered the 3FC community. It’s amazing reading posts on the forum where people really open up about their insecurities and realizing “OMG! I can totally relate to that!” or “I feel the exact same way!” It’s comforting to find people to relate to and who can inspire and encourage you.

I also tend to put up a very self-confident front for my friends. I remember when I first opened up to my now best friend about feeling insecure, she was surprised. But keeping up the facade has been difficult over the years as my insecurities have been eating me up. On a brighter note, the insecurities appear to be directly related to my weight, because when I lost the 10-15 lbs 2 years ago, I felt more confident for real and more energetic and stronger, and just better overall. I’ve noticed that the feeling is beginning to return as I’ve become more consistent with exercising. Must be the endorphins!

Anyway, I’ll be keeping this blog for the deeper stuff and moving the frivolity to the new blog All Angles. Give it a looksie if you’d like!

Update on last week: I did relatively well sticking to the plan. There were a couple of days of excessive sweet-eating (blame it on the TOM) and I didn’t quite stick to the running plan, but I did the swims and pilates.

I actually ended up convincing a friend to go running outside with me last week. We managed to go 2 times. We’re both pretty much beginners so it was a run/walk mixture probably around level 3 of C25k, but I gmapped it out and it turns out we did do 5k in about 40 mins. Unfortunately, we were both pretty sore the next two days and when we went again on Friday, it wasn’t quite as intense. But we were out for about an hour and added in some strength moves (walking lunges, tricep dips on a bench, 2 sets of 25 ab reps).

The weather’s been great here lately, perfect outdoor running weather. I hope it holds for this week!

So, it’s been awhile! Life has been really hectic lately and of course, I fell of the wagon. :(  I almost made it to my Halloween challenge goal of 140, but stress from school and boy troubles triggered emotional eating. I’ve been working to get a handle on the emotional eating, but lately I’ve just been too discouraged to care. I’ve been eating whatever I like for the last 2 weeks, but luckily my consistency with swimming 3-4 times a week has helped me maintain my weight. I’ve been stuck at 145 for awhile now, but I’m just relieved it hasn’t gone up more than that.

With 9 weeks til New Years Eve, I’m going to join that challenge and aim to lose 10 lbs. I’m really hoping to be in the early 130’s by then.  My ultimate goal is to be 120 (or less) by mid-February when I’m planning on going on a reading week trip down south.  It’s certainly an attainable goal, only I’ve been having trouble controlling my eating. I can’t stand the idea of ‘depriving’ myself, so I don’t. Instead I’ve been going on mini binges, especially after Halloween with all the mini chocolates around. I’ll have 4 or 5 of them in a row for dessert, but that’s like 500 or so calories!!

I also completely stopped tracking my calories or recording what I’m eating, so I need to get back into the habit of doing that. I’ve discovered that oatmeal chocolate chip cookies satisfy my sweet craving and at 150 calories, I think I’ll try them this week to ease myself out of this sugar haze.

Plan for this week:

Breakfast - I’m making a frittata tomorrow partly following this recipe for a Spinach and Potato Frittata. I’m also going to add button mushrooms (my must-have veggie!). I’ve got a carton of eggbeaters that needs to be used up because I’ve mostly been having Green monsters for breakfast. This way b-fast/brunch/lunch is covered all week.

Lunch - Leftover frittata or my new fave salad go-to–Broccoli slaw!

Shopping has gotten much easier lately because all I buy is a box of baby spinach, chocolate almond breeze, low-fat cheese, chicken/fish, and broccoli slaw (my parents buy their own groceries and I’ll sometimes steal some their staples like mushrooms, onions, bananas and tomatoes). This definitely helps save fridge space. In the past I was buying spinach and kale for green monsters and mixed greens for salads, those bags/boxes took up a ton of space in the fridge with all of my parents foods too.

Anyway, I prefer raw broccoli (and cauliflower) to their cooked counterparts, so the slaw is perfect for me. I’ll have a cup or 2 with a chicken breast or fish (mostly salmon lately), no salad dressing required since the juices from the protein are enough for me.

Dinner - My mom made a large batch of her chicken and veggie soup, so I’ll be eating that or my broccoli slaw salad.

Dessert/snacks - Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (2 mini cookies = 150 cal), SF jello cup (15 cal), Liberte mini mix chocolate nuggets in vanilla yogurt cups (229 cal)

I’ll be trying to stick to these items only this week. We’ll see how it goes.

Exercise:

M - 30 min jog/walk (C25K week 3/4)
Tu - 30-40 min swim (1 km)
W - 30 min jog/walk
Th - 30-40 min swim
F - 30 min jog/walk
Sa - 30 min jog/walk; 1 hr pilates; 30-40 min swim
Sun - 30-40 min swim

I will undoubtedly stick to my swims, they’ve completely become part of my routine, but we’ll have to see how I do with the running. I’m aiming for 3 times this week. I’d also like to get weight training back into my routine, so I’ll try to get back into the 30 day shred again.

Okay, I’d better get some studying in before bed. I’ve got a midterm on Tuesday and I still have 5 chapters to read for it!! :S

I’m so excited to finally be really consistent that I had to post a quick update. I’ve just finished day 3 of the 30 day shred! 7 more days to go. I can’t believe I’ve actually managed to do the program 3 days in a row! I also went swimming today and set a new personal record, swimming 1km in 30 mins. On the flipside, I didn’t eat too well today. I went to my sister’s house for dinner and she made meat lasagna. I only had a small piece and 2 small slices of garlic bread, but it’s still not the healthiest meal (though it was yummy!).

Oh well. I slaved over the cutting board on Sunday. It took me 2 hours to cut up the veggies to make a humongous batch of vegetable soup. The soup is very brothy and light and perfect for the fall weather. And with colds and flus going around, it has really been hitting the spot the last couple of days.

Anyway, I better get back to work. Hope to update on more progress soon!

The scale has budged! Somewhat. I’m down to 146, but who knows if it’s just a fluke. It’s been 2 days in a row now, so I’ll keep monitoring before declaring it officially 1 lb down. Geez, it’s sad I’m excited about a pound.

Food-wise: so-so. I have good days and bad. On the brightside, I haven’t had pizza all week!

Exercise-wise: Swimming 4x a week regularly. Ran once last week. I’m satisfied with that. I’ve realized that swimming is the cardio exercise that suits me best.

People always say that running helps them clear their heads and that’s why they love it, well for me, it’s swimming. Who knows, maybe running will become that for me as I keep building up my cardio strength, but I don’t want to beat myself up about not achieving the running goals I set.

It’s going to be a slow process for me as I try to find the balance between school, work, life and healthy living, and I just have to accept that. I won’t become a 5k runner in 9wks. But maybe, if I continue building with 1 or 2 runs a week, in the spring I’ll participate in my first 5k race.

Also, I restarted taking pilates classes to strengthen my abs. My back pain has finally begun to subside. It’s still there with painful twinges when stretching or twisting a certain way, but it’s much better than it has been in the past month. Hopefully the pilates will fix it and prevent further injuries.

I’m also going to try the 30 day shred again. 1 day done. 9 more to go! (Let’s see if I can stick with it this time, LOL!)

I took some food pics last week but haven’t uploaded them yet. I’ll try to post again soon with the pics.

Sadly, no pics this week. I think I’m just going to stick with a weekly posting to comment on my progress and whether or not I’ve managed to stick with my goals.

Weight: 147 lbs. Have been stuck at 147 for the last month and a half now. It’s very frustrating, but it’s my own fault for not eating on plan. I guess I should be happy for maintaining at the very least.

As for my exercise goals from last week…
-No go with the 30 DS. I just can’t do it everyday for some reason, and that led to not doing it at all the rest of the week.
-Running: only did 1 C25k week 3 workout
-Swimming: kept this promise. Swam 4 days an average of 40 mins.
-Bonus: Did the P90X ab ripper x video. It’s a 16 min ab-centric video that goes very quickly. I highly recommend the whole p90x series. I find all the videos 1 hr videos go quickly and the moves are doable, tough with all the reps, but doable.

The downside is today my hip flexors are KILLING me!! Walking is very uncomfortable.

Mondays I usually try to do a run or else it is a rest day since I work in the evenings and am out running errands/going to appointments/studying at the library during the day. Tuesdays are swimming days, but this Tuesday I’m covering a shift for a co-worker, and I won’t have any time for exercise during the day, so I’m wondering if I should work through the hip flexor pain and do a run tomorrow.

Or maybe I’ll give my legs a rest and do an arm workout…Yes, that’s a much better plan. So:

Monday: Arms
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Run/30DS
Thursday: ab dvd/Swim
Friday: Run/30DS
Saturday: ab dvd/Swim
Sunday: Run/Swim

I’ve also been eating out having way too much pizza on days when I’m getting home late or just don’t feel like cooking. I’m challenging myself to give up store bought pizza for the next two weeks. Pizza is my weakness so I know giving it up completely is pointless, but store bought pizzas are loaded with empty calories, bad carbs, bad fats, etc. So, I’m going to defrost my fave low-cal Joseph’s flax and oat bran pitas. At 60 calories a pita, with a tablespoon of tomato sauce and a sprinkling of low-fat cheese, pita pizzas are just as satisfying with much fewer calories.

Other plans for the menu this week:
-Lots of SALADS!! I haven’t been eating many salads lately, so I need to get into them again.
-Shirataki noodles with homemade pesto sauce and grilled chicken.

I’m also thinking about taking a snack with me to school so I won’t be tempted to buy a bagel, or worse, cookies. But I don’t want to be munching on baby carrots or celery, so I’m going to have to look around for some ideas.

I’ve also decided to make a trek to the Whole Foods store (for the first time ever!) to see what they have available.

Will report back next week!

Of course the green monster continues to be my go-to breakfast meal:

Here’s a shot of my go-to breakfasts and brunch/lunches from this past week:

Breakfast: my usual GM with a slice of toast and some strawberries (or other fruit). Brunch/lunch on my sleep-in days: 2 slices of ezekiel with garden fresh cherry tomatoes (or sliced tomatoes when there aren’t any ripe cherry tomatoes) and shredded marble cheese; an eggbeater omelet with mushrooms, onions, cherry tomatoes and a sprinkling of shredded marble cheese; strawberries/other fruit.

I’ve basically been eating those meals all week and then either a healthy dinner of salad and grilled fish/chicken when eating at home, or pizza on the nights I have a late class.

I haven’t lost any weight (which isn’t surprising since I haven’t exercised much this week), but I’ve been maintaining.  I need to up my water intake, I’ve been slacking on that front lately.

I’ll be back to swimming this week and I restarted the 30 Day Shred, so I hope to finally get through that dvd. I’m also going to try to incorporate some ab exercises in addition to those on the dvd, just so I can get rid of this terrible back pain! Worst feeling in the world! And it certainly doesn’t help that I’m now sitting for hours at a time every day.

This week’s food goal: Eat more salads!
Exercise goals: Swim 3x; run 2x; 30DS 5x

Not much is new in my life. I’m finally done camp and will be back at school starting tomorrow I’m hoping to get into a nice routine balancing school work, healthy eating and exercising. Every school year I strive for it, hopefully this is the year I achieve it!

I’ve been doing well with regular exercise. I’m glad the pools are open again. I’ve been swimming about 3 times a week, jogging 1-2 times a week, but haven’t done any strength training in over a month. My back has been suffering because of it unfortunately. I really should take the cheap way out and strengthen my abs instead of paying to see a chiropractor once a week, but I’ve been too tired and lazy to do more than cardio.

Food-wise, I’ve been eating relatively well. Green monsters every morning with toast, lots of fruits, salads, wraps, yogurt. Unfortunately I’ve practically negated my efforts of the last few weeks in the last 3 days alone (maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure feels like it!). On Friday we had a brownie and cookie filled last day of camp party. Saturday was my mom’s birthday and we went to a Chinese buffet restaurant. Sunday, I had pizza (and not even the good kind. It was a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza) and m&m’s while at the movies. Today hasn’t been any better so far. Our neighbor brought over cake and homemade chocolate chip cookies from her daughter’s birthday party yesterday, and it was all very, very yummy!

Oh well. It’s still early in the day. I’m designating today an intense workout day. I’m also trying to guzzle water because I must be retaining a lot of water from the massive sodium consumption this weekend.

No pictures today as I get adjusted to my new laptop (got a Macbook!). The hard drive on my old computer kept falling out and was just so slow it was time for an upgrade. I understand now why everyone raves about macs.

Fingers crossed for a better week!!

Yikes! It’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been so busy finishing off school and getting used to working full-time again, it’s been exhausting. I definitely didn’t have any time for food pics, but I do have a lovely one from a souped up Amy’s pizza I had a few weeks ago. I’m going to try to get back into the swing of things with the food blogging, but no guarantees. I still haven’t gotten used to waking up early and am usually rushing out the door with a slice of ezekiel after downing a green monster (and those all pretty much look the same).

Half of an Amy’s Pizza that had pesto sauce, mozzarella, tomatoes and broccoli. I added mushrooms, red onions, spinach, and basil.

I haven’t lost any weight, but I also haven’t gained, which I’m happy about. I’ve been doing some research on the relationship between stress, high cortisol levels and weight gain. Basically, what I’ve read is that cortisol levels rise when a person is stressed, which can contribute to weight gain and specifically, a person holds more weight in their abdomen area.

For the last month and a half, I’ve been eating relatively well (much healthier than I used to) and exercising moderately, so I should have lost more than just 2 lbs. in that amount of time, but I haven’t. Of course, I’ve had terrible sleeping patterns and lots of stress from my summer classes, and those two things must have slowed down my weight loss. Also, I noticed I was carrying more weight around my stomach even with my loss. And then when I finished school, I instantly felt lighter. I’d even gone down an inch in my stomach area! The human body is bizarre!

For the last two weeks of summer, I’m trying to up my fitness activities. Work keeps me pretty active running around after kids and all, but I’m trying to re-integrate swimming 2-3 times a week and doing the c25k program and 30 day shred regularly.

At least that’s the plan for this week and we’ll see how it goes!

Yikes! I haven’t had any time for posting. The next 2 weeks are going to be HECTIC! I’m finally back to work next Monday, but in the mean time I have to study for an exam and finish some projects that are due by then. It’s going to be a very stressful time, which usually means my diet goes out the window.

This past weekend was a long weekend here, and I ended up eating out pretty much everyday from Thursday to Monday because of birthday parties I had to attend. Wish I could say I made up for it by exercising, but that’s gone to the wayside as well lately. Luckily, I haven’t gained much weight as yet. I had lost a couple of ounces, but I’ve gained about 1 lb. in the last 2 days alone I’m sure I can gain a whole lot more if I go back to my carb heavy, stress eating habits. I’m going to try to make an effort to eat less and get some exercise in.

On to the review… I didn’t get to post but I did try to take pictures of my meals. Didn’t always happen, but I have some pics to share:

Finally got a picture of the ground chicken spaghetti meat sauce I made with mushrooms and onions and tofu shirataki noodles.

I’ve been having this for breakfast/lunch regularly all week - 4 McCain potato pancakes, 2 slices Ezekiel bread, mushroom, red onion, spinach, basil and marble cheese omelet made with Eggbeaters.

Started to get back on track on Monday with my usual Green Monster:

I added extra milk because it’s nearing it’s expiry date LOL. The smoothie turned out extra chocolatey and super delicious!

My sister brought over some fresh french bread (a total weakness of mine) so I indulged in some slices with margarine and I tried out some type of gourmet cheese she brought with the bread, Prima donna or something like that, not exactly sure what it’s called. It tasted a lot like a sharp cheddar, though.

It’s been awhile since I last barbequed, but there was some chicken marinating in the fridge, so I thought I’d grill it along with some potatoes.

I also sauteed some mushrooms, red onions, spinach, and kale to get my veggies in. The chicken was so moist and yummy, I actually ended up having another big piece and some more potatoes later on.

Tuesday was incredibly carb heavy (no pics unfortunately):
-2 slices ezekiel with potato pancakes
-2 slices of ezekiel with tomato slices and marble cheese
-2 slices of ezekiel, lettuce, roast chicken sandwich meat, marble cheese.
-Kale chips
Pretty much within my calorie count, but I feel very bloated from all the bread and cheese.

On the menu for today:
-Green monster
-omelet with mushrooms, onions, spinach, a sprinkling of grated cheese, 2 slices of ezekiel
-Sushi or Subway sandwich (I have class tonight)

Note to self: Must work out today!

It’s been a busy couple of days. I was on the run on wednesday, so I didn’t make a green monster but grabbed a protein bar instead. I did a 1 hr weight workout at the gym and had brown rice sushi for the first time ever. It was from the supermarket, so it wasn’t that great, but I liked the chewy/nutty consistency of the brown rice. I also ended up going out to a latin dancing club that night and drank way too much.

Of course the next day I was super hung over and unable to keep any food down til evening. I blame it on not ending the night with greasy food. I swear everytime I go out drinking and don’t have a slice of pizza at the end of the night, I end up sick the next day. I was craving pizza once I finally felt better, so I decided to indulge.

Friday was also rushed, so I didn’t take any pictures. I ate relatively well throughout the day, had toast and my mom’s healthy veggie/chicken soup. In the evening, I went to the movies to see (500) Days of Summer (which was really good btw), and I can never seem to resist peanut glossettes at the movies. I also brought along kale chips and roasted potatoes, which ended up being my dinner.

I splurged on some Amy’s dinners when I was at the grocery store on Thursday. I bought veggie burgers and a frozen pizza to try out. I was really surprised at just how expensive it was! Not products I’ll be able to buy regularly.

Yesterday, I made a bulk batch of green monsters because the spinach was wilting and probably wouldn’t last through the weekend. I used:

• 4 tbsp ground flax seed
• 2 cups chocolate almond breeze
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 cups kale
• 4-6 cups spinach
• 2 bananas

I didn’t try it out yesterday, just put it in a container and into the fridge. I was surprised to find it had separated a bit, which hadn’t happened the last time I had stored a leftover smoothie.

Luckily, a thorough shake fixed that:

Unfortunately, it didn’t taste as good as it normally does. I think it was because I had added so much spinach but only 2 bananas. I think 1 more banana would have helped. I was still decent, just not delicious. I also had a couple of pieces of mango with it (forgot to take a picture).

For lunch I made the Amy’s pizza I had bought:

I love veggie pizzas, but my favourite toppings are mushrooms, green peppers and red onions. I didn’t have any green peppers on hand, but I did have mushrooms and onions and some fresh basil that I added on top of the pizza.

And out of the oven:

The serving size is 1/3 for 310 calories, but it’s really a small pizza, so I split it in half.

It was AMAZING! It had a pesto sauce instead of tomato. I love pesto sauces, but usually like traditional tomato sauces on pizzas. This combination was spectacular though! I enjoyed it so much I had to have the other half for dinner:

I also had some leftover kale chips from yesterday.

They weren’t as good. They surprisingly still had a bit of crunch, but they had gotten kind of soggy and were much chewier than they are fresh out of the oven. To satisfy my chocolate craving, I had some Sha Sha Co. Cocoa Snaps.

Total calories: ~196 cal (green monster) + ~40 cal (mango) + 95 cal (kale chips) + 951 cal (pizza + extra toppings) + 140 cal (cocoa snaps) = 1422 calories

Plus I did a 30 day shred workout (20 mins) and 40 min high incline walk on the treadmill.  Which burns approx. 150 cal + 272 cal = 422 calories  And puts me at 1,000 net calories for the day.

So, overall a good day! I’m going out to meet some friends for drinks in a bit, but the thought of alcohol is making me queasy still, so I think I’ll be safe from consuming extra calories tonight.