1. Growing up I was obsessed with bugs and the outdoors. My best friend/neighbor and I would spend hours outside exploring the forest, collecting bugs, and building shelters out of plants and random things we found (we lived at the edge of an island). Shocking my parents were okay with all of this (there were bears in that forest!).
2. My parents wanted me to be well rounded, so when I was in school I was involved in every activity/sport under the sun. I have tried everything from ballet to pottery classes to rugby. Unfortunately my parents also never pushed me to stick with any particular sport, so now I am not particularly good at any of them.
3. I have more jewelry than the Queen of England, and yet I only wear my gold earrings and birthstone ring, both of which were worn by my mum..variety anyone? not for me.
4. I am a morning person, and would rather wake up at 5am every morning than have to go to bed at midnight every night. I feel sick to my stomach when I sleep past 9am… feel as though I am wasting my day in bed.
5. I weigh myself everyday, and count every point that goes into my mouth. Due to a recent ‘deal’ with my bf though I am waiting until mid September to weigh myself… torture really. Also, I read the nutritional information on everything I buy. always.
6. I Love all my friends with such a ferocity that I would kill if someone hurt them.
7. I’m too nice, and was definitely bullied in elementary school, so I learned how to be a bitch and became the bully, now I sit somewhere in the middle and I find it works much better.
8. my favourite place is Ryan’s arms
9. I am a ridiculously productive person, I am addicted to ‘to-do’ lists. I write one everyday and strictly adhere to it.
10. I have a serious thirst for knowledge. In the ideal world I would be a student for life, but I do not have that kind of time nor money. The human body fascinates me, hence me being a nursing student.
11. I cannot sit still, I love being busy, I need to be busy, not because I don’t like myself but because I do not know how many more hours, days, months or years I have left on this earth, so I have to make the most of it here and now.
12. I often bake and then give it all away, partly because I am scared I will eat it all.
13. My entire life my mother has been the one person in the world I can depend on. If I even have an ounce of her spirit as I grow, I will be truly gifted.
14. I have always wanted to be an athlete–to just be really great at one sport.
15. I feel too hard and I care too much, I’ll wear myself into the ground helping other people because I believe that they will do the world some good in the days to come.
Posted on August 18th, 2008 by breathingspace
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Well I am home at my parents place for two weeks, there is so much food here! On the upside it is healthy, good food, mostly. Today I have been staying OP, I have had 17 points and 8 remaining. For dinner I will have a chicken salad with some fruit and cottage cheese on the side. I am dedicated to losing 25 lbs and being 125 lbs. My mom has done weight watchers in the past and she understands how it works and is supportive of me. BUT, my parents are always trying to tell me I look fine the way I am and shouldn’t worry about my weight. It’s very kind of them, but they will offer me sweets and say “oh, just forget about the diet for now, you look great!”. I know I am not obese, hardly overweight even…. but at this point it is a personal decision, I want to look in the mirror and smile, not just be “ok” looking.
My boyfriend Ryan was called out of province for work for a 1-2 month period. I haven’t seen him in almost 2 weeks, I miss him terribly. Since he is also trying to live healthy and lose weight we made a deal: no weighing ourselves until he is back home from work. At that point we will weigh each other. Knowing that he will see my weight at the same time I do, and not knowing how much I have lost until then will keep me on track. Often I fall into the trap of thinking ‘great, I lost 2 lbs, lets celebrate with some chocolate cake, and chips, and popcorn, etc.’ then before you know it that 2 lbs (or more) is back. It’s a bad cycle. This way I will hopefully have lost a significant amount of weight and I wont gain it back as quit. Hard to explain, but it makes sense to me.
The difficult part about being home is finding ways to exercise. Although my parents live in a nice neighborhood, the city in general has alot of crime and shady characters wondering around. I do not feel safe going for runs here, especially without my dog. There is no treadmill, or exercise equipment of any variety. My parents place is also a one-level home, so there are no stairs to climb. This basically boils down to me needing to be very creative with my workouts. On the plus side… there is a pool. This morning I swam 25 laps, but the chlorine was burning my eyes so I stopped. I bought a pair of goggles today, I will try them out tonight. I have a feeling all of my cardio will be done in the pool while I am home. There are gyms in town, but I do not want to pay the drop in fee of $10-15 every time… that adds up!
That is basically it for now… any exercise suggestions would be great! Also, what do you think of not weighing myself for 1-2 months?
Good luck to everyone else out there on the weight loss journey, it’s not easy… but worth it!
Posted on August 16th, 2008 by breathingspace
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Right now is a new low… to balance of the high from last weeks weigh in. I am now 150.6, so frustrated!! In all fairness I haven’t been watching what I have been eating, or counting points regularly. I get so hungry at work that I use up most of my points before I even come home at 3pm. Then when I do come home I am still hungry and end up saying screw it and eating whatever I want and thinking that tomorrow will be a fresh start. It never is though, this is a daily cycle.
The girls I eat with at work eat ALOT and I am stuck eating salads and fruit with a little bit of chicken and if I am lucky maybe a 100 calorie pack of some form of carbohydrate. I usually get around 10 points at lunch… usually because the girls I eat with do the whole “try this, try that” thing, like everyday is a freakin potluck. Good for them, they are sharing and eating, and happy… but unfortunately I cannot partake in that when I am trying to stay within 21-25 points a day. I have many a times been tempted to eat on my own, but should a diet really mean social isolation at work?! I have healthy snacks here at home… but eventually if you eat enough 1-3 points snacks, they add up (big surprise).
Anyways, just trying to vent. I honestly want this week to be better, but I am feeling lost with it all. I am lost without a compass… help!!
Posted on August 9th, 2008 by breathingspace
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I lost weight!! The best part is, I wasn’t even being perfect with the points, I am sure I went over on pretty much everyday. This morning I weighed in at 149.4, last time I weighed myself (a little over a week ago) I was about 152. YAY, I am super excited. Looks like weight watchers is working for me. The first week was definatley and adjustment phase, learning how big servings are, how many points are in which items, and how to stay low in points without starving. To make a good situation even better, I tried on a pair of jean that haven’t fit me in forever…. and they fit!! They weren’t tight at all.
Since I am at the start of a new week my flex points have renewed themselves. This week I am going to work harder to not use them all up within the first 3 days. My plan is to not limit myself in which foods I eat, just in how much of them I eat. Anyways, I have an essay to write and a final exam to study for. Wish me luck!
Posted on August 1st, 2008 by breathingspace
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So I went grocery shopping a few days back… and I was extremely proud of my food choices. Ryan (bf) and I only put items in the cart that we knew we would not feel guilty about eating. It was a big milestone for the both of us… usually we end up throwing a few random “treat” items that will get eaten within a day and leave me feeling disgusted with myself. But not anymore! The “worst” item we got was fat free ice cream, but in this heat we needed something! Plus it’s only 90 cals for 0.5 cup. Just for my own personal reference I am going to write some of my favorites and the points
Thinsations cookie packs: 2
Cracker packs: 2
Thin Addictives biscuits: 2
Popsicles: 1
Fat Free Ice Cream: 2
Pretzels (85 sticks): 3
Weight watchers carrot cake & chocolate cake: 1
Ohhh… and I also purchased a TON of summer fruit! Satsumas, watermelon, plums, and apples! Sorry, but this is really exciting for me, I have yummy foods I can eat without the guilt. On a negative note… I went to the theater last night to see step brothers (really funny movie!!) and I ate 3/4 of a med bag of popcorn. I saved up points for it though. I had 8 points alloted for it, I am sure it was a little over that, but movie popcorn is very difficult to find nutritional info for. Either way… I went for a run and a body blast class at my gym, so I don’t feel guilty about it. Today is a new day… fresh start!
Posted on July 31st, 2008 by breathingspace
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BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES
Oatmeal cookies with a banana twist
Banana ripening: 2 weeks
Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Time to table: 1 hour
Makes about 30 cookies, easily doubled
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 very very ripe banana
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 1-1/2 cups oatmeal (old-fashioned or quick, not instant)
- 1 cup coconut, preferably unsweetened
Preheat oven to 350F.
Melt butter in a small dish in microwave, 10 seconds at a time. Transfer to mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, thoroughly mix in sugars, banana, egg and vanilla.
Scoop the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt onto the butter mixture without mixing in. With a fork, lightly combine the dry ingredients on top, still without mixing in. Now use the mixer to combine the flour mixture and the butter mixture. Stir in oatmeal and coconut.
Drop dough by tablespoons onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake for 11 – 14 minutes until set and golden. Cool 5 minutes before removing from tray but do remove or will stick.
NUTRITION ESTIMATE Per Cookie: 98 Cal; 3g Tot Fat; 2g Sat Fat; 16g Carb; 1g Fiber; 58mg Sodium; 11mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 1 point
Posted on July 30th, 2008 by breathingspace
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The new plan… going great! The downside, I only have 3 flex points left for 4 days :o( Oh well, I will just have to be super smart about my food for the next couple of days. Yesterday I did walk 27km, it took 4.5 hours! I am a little sore today, but it is a good pain. Kinda like a constant reminder of how much I am capable of! I know you can burn off points with exercise but I am not entirely sure how it works. Today I am going out for dinner with an old friend. I am seriously only in the mood for a salad with chicken. Carbs aren’t even slightly tempting me right now, probably because I had a sandwich for lunch and some crackers.
My cousin’s girlfriend is going to see if I can come along to a meeting with her as a guest to see if it’s something that would work for me. I mostly just want the materials that they get in the meetings… like the compact version point counter, point slider, exercise counter, etc.
Anyways, hope everyone is doing great!
Posted on July 28th, 2008 by breathingspace
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So I started weight watchers… so far loving it. I love the flex plan and being able to allocate my points for each day and not just having a set limit. That being said… I am an awful cheater at dieting. I find myself nibbling here and there and thinking to myself ‘this wont count, I will be good from now on’. Today for example, I was doing great until I got to work. I was eating lunch and then there it was… the cinnamon roll. Somebody brought a box in, they looked delicious, so I had one. I was starving and only had a salad, fruit, and pretzels for supper. So I counted it as 3 points extra and called it even. Really I am sure it was about 5 points. THEN… there was a coconut cream pie downstairs. How could I resist, it’s my favourite. 2 small slices later I was feeling a little disappointed in myself but justified it by the fact that I am walking 25km tomorrow. Then my shift was over and I come home… oddly enough…. hungry. My stomach is a bottomless pit at times. So I had a handful of chocolate chips and a bowl of cereal (that I am finishing as I type this). I feel like a HUGE failure and have completely lost track of the points for today. I will likely use all of my flex points if I count today properly. What is wrong with me?!? Why am I always so hungry at work and have no willpower?? Has anybody else experienced this? I feel so lost right now.
Posted on July 27th, 2008 by breathingspace
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Hello all!
So my cousin’s girlfriend has persuaded me to start the weight watchers program. I hate counting calories, but still require a method to keep track of what I am putting in my mouth. She has lost 20 lbs so far and is looking great! I cannot afford the meetings, so I am going to attempt it solo. I have found some great websites that give point values and point calculators thanks to the weight watchers forum on 3FC. I am very new to all of this and just hoping for the best. I think I am going to try the flex plan–20 points a day with 35 points to use throughout the week. I think I can stick to that a bit easier than strict amounts per day. This way I can save up if I know I am going out for dinner or something.
I am pretty sure that nobody out there is reading this… but if you are please comment so I know you exist!!
*Jill*
Posted on July 24th, 2008 by breathingspace
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So I have found a major downside to counting calories. It is a pain in the a**. I like to eat a variety of foods, and ones that typically are not readily available on a calorie counter. Yes, I could take the time to input each ingredient of every recipie, but after awhile this becomes tedious and makes the entire calorie process seem slightly obsessive. So I am deciding to take a break from calorie counting. I reasonably know how much I should be eating, and the general nutrition of foods. I am going to go for 3 days without counting and see how it goes. Another new thing I will trial for 3 days is not eating after 8pm. Wish me luck!
Posted on July 19th, 2008 by breathingspace
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