Rough Week....

For an unknown reason, this past week was a really rough week.  It was bad in all sorts of ways.  I didn't get my steps in, I didn't do my workouts.  I didn't get my walks in each day.  I took the skytrain instead of walking to work 3 days.

I don't know what was with me this week but it wasn't a good week in so many different ways.   It didn't help that it was also a hungry week.  I seemed to be constantly hungry this week and although I tried to stay within my daily points, at the end of the week I had used more than 20 of my weekly bonus points.  I have never used them in the past.

I only earned 38 activity points instead of the usual 60-70.

It all added up today and clubbed me over the head with a gain.

Not a little gain like it was a month ago, but a major gain.

I gained 2.4 pounds in a week.

2.4 pounds!  I am back to having lost under 60 pounds, and I was so proud of hitting that 60 pound mark.  I'm now at 59 pounds lost.  2.4 pounds doesn't seem like much but to me it is huge.

I will not let this get me down though.  I will not let this side track me.  I will not let this be an excuse to binge.

I am in control.  Me.  The person I want to be is in control and I will get over this hurdle.

I have a poster up in my office, and the words on it were never more true than they are today.

"Of course it's hard!  It's supposed to be hard.  If it was easy, everyone would do it"

Losing weight is hard.  I've had it too easy for too long, but no more.  I will get the upper hand and I will succeed!

Hills, Hills and more hills???

I feel as though I have been having an up hill battle kind of week this week.  My husband has been away on a business trip so it's been the dog and I.  When my husband is home, I ensure that we have a good healthy dinner at the table each night.  I really should have done that this week.  I didn't I usually ate on the fly, at the computer.  I didn't even eat dinner at the table tonight, I ate sitting at the desk as I was getting ready for a call with some volunteers.  My eating hasn't been as good as it should have been.  I didn't go wild, I just didn't eat properly.  Unless you count heating up Brusselsprouts in the microwave at 830 at night proper.  (I don't!)  My husband will be home in about 26 hours and everything will click back into place.

It was an uphill battle all week, I didn't eat properly, I didn't do any intervals at all.  (My pledge from last week not to do intervals with the dog ever again still stands).  I did get out for my mid day walks, add in a dog walk in the morning, and one in the evening and I managed to get a lot of activity in.  Which equaled a 1.2pound loss this week at weigh in!  I was very happy, that's three weeks in  row I've had significant weight loss!

My activity this week was a lot of walking, walking the dog in at 530 in the morning was new for me this week, my husband normally takes the dog in the morning, and I do the evenings.  I was really happy with my steps and I'm trying to keep my km's up as I have another 5k Race coming up on Canada Day.  I'll be doing the Rock on the Rock in White Rock to celebrate Canada day.  On the website it said that the route is a 2.5km out and back flat route.

The day before my husband went away we drove out to White Rock to get an idea of the area.  I found a route map from last year on line and we had a rough idea of where the walk starts and ends, and yes that's flat, but unless the route is different this year, than last year, it's not a flat out and back route.  There's a HUGE hill at the 1.5km mark that goes for 3/4 of a km!

That got me worried, so I've worked a lot of hills into my mid day walks this week, which isn't hard in Vancouver, and fortunately here at home I've got a hill to get off our street, and one to get back on it.

I took Angus this morning up the Whatcom Road hill near where we live.  It's a fairly long steep hill, we walked up to the first cross walk, back down, to the flats, and then up the Winfield Park Trail to get home.  All in all it was a 2.75 km walk that took us almost 40 minutes to do.  Considering I had the dog with me who either kept looking over his shoulder expecting to get picked up and driven home or simply sitting down with that "I'm not going another step" look on his face.  I'm not disappointed with our time.

I'm not taking another step I tell ya!  

Those hill's are a killer for a puppy dog, I'm exhausted!

Steps for this week:
Sunday         12,220
Monday       14,789
Tuesday       12,806
Wednesday  15,665
Thursday     11,101
Friday          14,496
Total Steps   81,077
 

Accountability

 Definition of ACCOUNTABILITY
: the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions

I didn't realize until today how much I need to have that accountability in my weight loss journey.  Without realizing it I didn't know how much I depend on my husband to help me be accountable.  My husband is away on a business trip this week, he's been gone a couple of days now and will be home in a few more.

I have found the past two nights that I have been snacking despite not being hungry.  I used to snack all the time in the evening.  Popcorn, rice cakes, etc.  I found myself tonight counting out mini rice cakes for a snack at 8pm and as I was doing so I stopped myself and asked why?  Why was I preparing this snack?  Was I hungry? Was I bored?  Why was I going to eat.  It was then I realized it.  I wasn't hungry, and I wasn't bored, but I didn't have anyone else to be accountable to.  

I have the points plus for the rice cakes so that's not a big deal, but why was I wanting a snack of rice cakes?  My husband is away, he would never question why I was making myself a snack but I wouldn't have one without being hungry.  It makes me wonder how many other times, I've eaten something or not eaten something because of being accountable to someone.  

I joined Weight Watchers meetings because I needed the accountability.  To know that someone was weighing me in, made me accountable for the choices I was making through the week.  I know that is part of the reason why I'm doing so well. 

Accountability - it's a good thing!

Busy, busy week and a new milestone!

Well, that week went by in the blink of an eye!  I'm sitting trying to figure out how a whole week has gone by without a posting.  I need to keep on top of that.  It was a busy week for me at work, I worked late on Monday night assisting with an Orientation, worked regular on Tuesday, worked late on Wednesday, regular on Thursday and Friday, but I have to tell you that week went by fast.  I did manage to get a lot of activity in, although I did have two days where I didn't get my regular lunch time walk in.  The two days I worked late, Angus got an extra bonus of a morning walk instead of a night time walk.

It was hard to tell if he was actually happy with the morning walks as he was very stubborn.  I should have done my intervals on Monday and Wednesday this week but that didn't quite happen.  It wasn't for lack of my trying, but rather lack of cooperation on the dogs part.  Monday I tried a couple of intervals and pretty much felt like I was dragging Angus along with me.  When I tried to do my intervals on Wednesday....well now....Angus just wasn't having it!

Every time I would start to run, I would just about have my arm dislocated as he would dig in his paws and refuse to move.  It actually became quite comical and I ended up texting my husband a bunch of messages with pictures.

Intervals you say?  HA!  I'm just going to stand here until I'm good and ready to walk slowly!

Intervals? There's no intervals being done here today....not according to my schedule

Give it up human!  Ain't no intervals happening by me today.  I'm too busy sniffing.

It took us 45 minutes to do a loop that normally takes us about 25 minutes.  I couldn't believe that I walked half the distance 2.5km's in almost the same time as I did my 5k on the weekend. 

I was so frustrated with him by the time we got home that it was either laugh or cry.  Then we got to the door to come in, I took off his leash as I always do as we get to the door and what does he do?  He takes off, full speed running like a bat out of heck around the green space.  I only got him into the house by yelling milk bone!  He'll always come in for a milk bone, but then what does he do once in he's in the house, he goes zooming through the house, in a figure out, through the bedroom, down the stairs, up the stairs into the living room and back to the bedroom.  He did that for almost 5 minutes!

When I came out of the shower, this what I found;

Passed out cold, he didn't eve wake up when I left for work 20 minutes later.

This did make me decide that when I'm going to do my interval's the dog will stay home, I'll do my interval session and then I'll take him for his walk.

Friday was weigh in day and I hit another milestone!  I've lost 60.4 pounds in 23 weeks!!!  I know I shouldn't put a time goal on losing weight, but I'm feeling confidant enough to say that I hope to hit 75pounds by August 15.  That's 8 weeks away and at 2 pounds per week, I believe that's an attainable goal for me to hit.  I'll just have to wait to see how it goes.

Steps this week:
Sunday           14,552
Monday          13,100
Tuesday          10,150
Wednesday     14,371
Thursday        14,575
Friday             15,249

Abbotsford Police Challenge 5KM

I did it!  I did my first official 5KM race today.  I was nervous this morning, I had so much energy that after I got dressed, I ended up pacing the house.  It was too early to leave for the race, but I just couldn't sit down!

When I signed up for the race back in January, I just wanted to finish before they closed the route.  Then I wanted to finish in an hour and fifteen minutes.  Last week I decided I wanted to finish in an hour and 5minutes.  For now, let's just say, I shouldn't have been worrying about my time.

I drove to the Run Site, parked and pinned my bib on.  I went looking for my sister who is the race organizer.  I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help her out.  She had everything under control with a fabulous number of volunteers ready to go.  I chatted with a couple of people I know, my brother in law and his best friend.  Before I knew it, it was time to head over to the stage area for warm up.  A few minutes later, the national anthem sung and speeches by the dignitaries, it was time to head out.  The 10km runners went first, then the 5km runners and finally us walkers.

I started out in the middle of the pack and quickly found myself toward the back of the pack.  I guess there were just a lot of fast walkers doing this race.  I was determined not to let that bother me and I decided to try to keep up with two ladies who were walking at a good pace just a head of me.  I did manage to stay with them for the first 10 minutes or so but then I wanted to do my intervals so I started jogging for 40 seconds and walking for 1minute and 10 seconds.    

The whole rest of the race, I would pass a woman pushing a wheel chair and then she would pass me, we seemed to be running intervals at different times, I was resting when she was running and she was resting when I was running.  Her name was Darlene and her companion was Bob, an older gentleman who was just excited to be there, honking his horn and calling out hooray to people who passed him.

I was really conscious of my pace and kept checking my Garmin to make sure that I was on target, I figured I needed to walk about a 12min km, which is pretty normal for me.  I was surprised to see that I was actually in the 11-11:30 min pace.  I think I have to attribute that to the play list I downloaded last night, and the fact that I didn't want to be the last person to cross the finish line!

I was thankful for the water station at 2.5km's as my throat was really dry, probably because I've just started learning to run that I breathe in and out through my mouth.  I made sure to thank all of the volunteers as I came across them, the Road Marshall's, the water station attendants and the people cheering the runners and walkers along.

I kept my intervals up through Km 2-4 and then planned to walk the last km.  It turns out with Bob and Darlene pacing me, I decided I had to do a couple of more intervals and I ended up running down the lane to the finish line.  I got such a sense of pride and accomplishment as I did that as I knew there were a few people still behind me.

I was completely shocked when I stopped to get my finisher's medal and stop my Garmin when I saw the time on it.

It's hard to see but the time is 54:47:59!

Oh yeah, I beat my goal by ten minutes. I stopped my Garmin at 54:47:59.  Woohoo!  I was so excited that the first thing I did was call my husband who is away this weekend.  I had to fight tears back as I told him I was done and I had done it in 54:47.  I am SO proud of that time!

Once I was done talking to him I saw a friend of mine from the Run for the Cure Committee, and she took my post run picture for me.

As you can tell by my smile, I'm a happy, happy girl!

I made my way over to the food area where they had so much food, they had bunches and bunches of banana's, Costco Muffins, Pizza and Ice Cream.  Keeping my points in check was important so I just took a banana and a bottle of water.  I have to say, the water really hit the spot!

When I got home, I was interested to see where I ended up overall for the race and I went to the Race headquarters page to look up my details. 

Watch Me	Place	Name	Residence	Bib #	Time	Chip	Pace	Category	Cat. Place	Gender Place
	245	Katie		5048	54:47	54:27	10:54	Female 40-49	21/23	145/156

So 21 out of 23 isn't bad, or so I thought until I looked at the page that shows my age group and the other 2 ladies didn't actually do the race.  I'm still happy with how I did and I'm proud of the fact that a year ago I wouldn't have done this at all.  I would have been too self conscious and too embarrassed to register for a race.  So yes I may be slow, but hey!  Slow and Steady finished the race!

I'm really proud of what I accomplished today!

Made it through the week!

It's been a challenging week.  A lot of different things happened but I'm really happy with how I've handled them.  I had a bit of a disaster of a day on Wednesday.  I got home from work and about an hour later my husband and I decided to go for a drive.  We opened the door to the garage and were overwhelmed by the smell of gasoline.  We soon discovered that my fuel filter had cracked and fuel was leaking from the car.  A call to the fire department and an hour later the gas was being soaked up by an absorbent material, the fire department was gone, BCAA had been called for a tow in the morning to the dealership and I had made arrangements to work from home on Thursday.

I was happy with how I handled the whole situation, in the past I may very well have sat down and eaten a bowl of popcorn or chips or something.  Instead, I sat and talked to my husband, surfed the internet and played with the dog.  I wasn't even tempted to make something to eat and that made me feel really good.  To me it means the changes I've made in my lifestyle are taking hold and I'm doing good with the options and choices I'm making.

As I was working from home, dealing with getting the car fixed and attending a fundraising dinner at a local pizza restaurant I knew that I had to ensure that I got all of my steps in on Thursday and I did really well.  When the dealership courtesy shuttle was driving me home, I had them drop me off a couple of blocks away so I could get a bit of a walk in, and then when my sister was coming to get me to take me to pick up my car, I walked  few blocks to make it easier for her to pick me up as well. 

Besides attending the fundraiser last night, I also got to do something I have never done before.  I picked up my first official Run Kit for the Abbotsford Police Challenge Run.  I went by Peninsula Runners and picked up my official bib with timing chip.  I was so excited to get it that I didn't even wait to get a good picture of it at home.  I lay the bib and the bag on the car seat and snapped away.  A quick tweet and I was off!

This morning, my friend and co-worker was picking me up as my car still smells horribly of gas and needs to air out.  I walked down to the park for her to meet me  as well, saving her a couple of minutes driving time but getting a 20 minute walk in first thing this morning.

As you know today was weigh in day and after the disappointment of a gain last week, I was hoping for a good loss this week.  Well I wasn't disappointed.  I weighed in at lunch time with a total loss of 3.4pounds.  Wahoo!  I felt so good about it!

I am so excited for tomorrow.  I'm hoping to do the 5km in an1:05:00   That's been my best time so far on my walk with the dog, so I think I should be able to do it no problem.    I'll write up a full report on it tomorrow night. 

Steps so far this week:
Sunday 19,333
Monday 11,688
Tuesday 14,026
Wednesday 15,604
Thursday 12,383

Enjoy your weekend!

Super Sunday!

What a difference 24 hours can make for a person.  Sunday was bright and sunny, my mood was good and the dog cooperated on our morning walk!  Wahoo! 

The day started off with a 3km walk around the neighbourhood with a pick up from my husband and our usual Sunday morning stop.  A timbit for Angus and a drink for my husband.  We stopped by the nursery and picked up some plants, so I was able to get my gardening done.  We put in 2 tomato plants, 2 strawberry plants, 12 peas, 6 beans, a variety of herbs and did some containers of plants as well.  I have to tell you I was happier than a pig in muck.   I so enjoyed getting everything planted.  It makes it seem as though summer may actually be around the corner.

When I was done gardening, I went in to put some heat on my back as it was not happy with being bent over all morning planting.  I sat and read a book for a while and decided that I really wanted some ice cream.  I've been fighting the urge for it for a few weeks now and I really wanted it, and not just any ice cream but Birchwood Dairy Ice Cream.  It is the best ice cream around and you can only get it at the actual dairy. 

I told my husband I was going for ice cream and could he meet me at the dairy in an hour or so.  You see the dairy's about 4km's from our house and I decided I was going to walk it.  I turned on my ipod and hit the road.  45 minutes later.  I was there...with my husband just before me.  He literally passed me as I was turning into the drive way.   

The line up was out the door, about a 25 minute wait, my wonderful husband got in line and Angus and I wandered the parking lot until a picnic bench opened up.  We took a seat in the shade so Angus could cool down and waited for our Ice Cream.

I loved every bit of my Smores Ice Cream Cone!

It took about a half hour before my husband came back with Smores Ice Cream for us and I have to say, I loved it.  It was so worth earning the activity points to have.  Premium Ice Cream was 8 PP, the Cone was another 3, but I earned 11 activity points with my two walks so I was more than happy to call it even!

I didn't eat all of my cone as Angus was really wanting some Ice Cream, however we both chose a chocolate based ice cream, so that meant he got my cone but no Ice Cream for the poor dog, no matter how longingly he looked at us.

Oh come on dad, just a taste, a little bit? 

It was a great day for activity, at total of 19,333 steps and 16 activity points earned.  I call that a great day!

Rough Day

Saturday was a rough day, all around a rough day!  I woke up with a pounding headache at 4am and that was the precursor to how my day went.  At 7am, I got dressed and was ready to go for a long walk.  Angus and I headed out but....well....he wasn't having a good day either, 15 minutes later we were home.  I was frustrated and upset and trying to figure out where the beginnings of a bad mood was coming from.

My husband and I dropped my car of to get looked at, a couple of items have popped up this week that we needed to have taken care of so we dropped the car off, only to be told that they can't fix everything as they don't have the electronic tech in on the weekends.  Ugh!  Bad mood...frustration kicked in big time.

We did our regular running around, Bank, Dry Cleaners,  Costco, grocery store, market and home again.  I cut up the watermelon and put it into the single serving size containers, put the rest of the groceries away and then I brooded, I didn't know why, but I did.

Around 1pm it hit me.  I had a gain this week, and that's what my problem was.  I was expecting the gain, I knew it was coming, it was only a small gain, but in my head I had it as a huge gain.  How huge was it.  My eating almost went out the window.  I nibbled on Pop chips, I ate 2 bags within  a half hour and was reaching for the third when I stopped myself.  I was not going to let this headache and foul mood trigger a binge.  NO MATTER WHAT!

Around 2pm the car was ready, so my husband took me up to get it, the gym is right across the street and I knew that I had to do something to get myself out of the funk I had fallen into.  So, over to the gym I went.  I bypassed the Elliptical and headed right for the treadmill, it wasn't busy and I wanted to try to do my intervals as runs with walking rest periods.  I walked for 5 minutes to warm up and then hit the interval button on my Garmin.  I alternated the speeds as 3mph for walking and 4.3mph for my runs.  I finished up with a 10 minute walking cool down.  I think I did fairly well, my heart rate got up which is good, my average heart rate was 140bpm, and maxed it out at 160bpm.  I wasn't ready to go home yet so I hopped onto the stairclimber next.  I did 20 minutes on it with an average heart rate of 136, maxing out at 141.

It's amazing how a good sweaty workout will improve your mood!  It didn't help the headache but I was much happier when I got home from the gym :)