Out 6th Wedding Anniversary

I woke up this morning and posted this on face book "Six Years ago today, I married my best friend, my confidant, the love of my life.  Happy Anniversary, I love you more than words could ever say."

I married my wonderful husband 6 years ago.  It has been a great six years.  He took me out for a lovely dinner last night.  A little restaurant here in Abbotsford that neither of us had been to but a friend had recommended.  We went to Antonio's Italian Restaurant on South Fraser Way.  If you live in the valley and are looking for excellent food, good prices and wonderful ambiance, this is the place to be.  It's a small family owned restaurant, where everything is home made (or so I suspect) the pasta was fresh pasta, the sauces were amazing.  It was a great night, and when we were planning to leave the house my husband asked me not to worry about my points, just have what I want.  I did just that, but the accountable side of me did have to count them.  My total points for dinner was 38 points, I did dip into my weekly points for the first time, but it was very well worth it!

I started with an appetizer of Mozzarella Cheese in a red sauce.  It was delicious!  It was one flat piece of mozzarella, coated and fried sitting on a red sauce that was heavenly.   It smelled so good and looked so good that I forgot to take a picture of it.  Oops.

My husband and I then split Bruschetta.  It was to die for.  The bread was so fresh and the herbs and tomato were fabulous. (Again, I forgot to take a picture, I'll practice more I promise!)

For my entree, I ordered a Chicken dish (I can't recall the actual name of it) but it was a roasted chicken breast with peppers and onions served with fresh vegetables, and pasta in a red sauce.  It was so delicious!  The pasta was  angel hair pasta, fresh and delicious.  The red sauce was light, not heavy at all.  It was so good!!  After the first bite of pasta I remembered to take a picture!

For desert I had my favorite treat of all time Spumoni Ice Cream.  I love Spumoni and this was amazing, the flavors just popped.  It didn't hurt that I had my wonderful husband to share it with it!

I also received my anniversary present from my husband earlier in the week!

He got me the Garmin 205!  He saw me read about them online a few weeks ago and then last week, through weight watchers I received a coupon for the Running Room.  My awesome husband went up, told them that his wife was a newbie and he wanted to get her a watch/heart rate monitor all in one.  This watch is amazing, but that will be tomorrow's posting.

It's been a wonderful Anniversary weekend and I am so thankful that I get to spend the rest of my life with this incredible man.

Lots of steps equals

A big loss!  I made up for just losing 2 ounces last week by losing 4.2 pounds this week.  I was so happy, but at the same time a little disappointed.   Yes I did just say disappointed!  Not at the 4.2 pound loss,  that was awesome! But at the fact that I've lost in total 49.8 pounds, yes that's right  I missed the 50pound loss mark by 2 ounces!!!  I swear to goodness, 2 ounces is becoming my nemesis!   Those pesky 2 ounces seem to be popping up left right and centre.  It's enough to drive a girl crazy!

I did get a lot of steps in this week.  I made a concerted effort to try to get to at least 15,000 steps a day this week.  If I wasn't at that level by the time I got home, well then Angus Puppy got himself an extra walk in the evening!
Here is my step count for this week.

Saturday 19,441
Sunday 12,870
Monday 18,282
Tuesday 17,118
Wednesday 18,616
Thursday 17,260
Total Steps this week 103,587. 
Not too shabby if I do say so myself!  The goal for next week is to beat that total!

You probably noticed that I didn't include Friday in there, my reason is that depending on how you look at it, Friday is either the last day of the week or the first day of the week.  Seeing as how I go to a mid day weigh in meeting, it's technically both.  It's my old week until I get weighed and then it's my new week when I step off the scale.

It may seem silly, but that's my logic and I'm sticking to it.  I never give myself any activity points on a Friday.  I do however count all of my points.  I don't believe in "cheat days" or "reward days" or "days off".  If you are truly doing this as a LIFESTYLE change and not a diet, you need to truly live it and that means sticking to plan!  It doesn't mean you can't have a treat every now and then.  I had home fries with a turkey burger the other night for dinner, but every french fry was counted out for the serving size and the points were counted for it.

It looks like it's going to be a great weekend here.  The forecast is for Sunny skies and warm temperatures so it looks like I'll be putting on those walking shoes and knocking off some kilometers as I try to get my walking speed for a 5k up before June 8th.  That's the day I'll be participating in the Abbotsford Police Challenge Run supporting Special Olympics.  If you live in the Lower Mainland you should consider signing up for either the 5k or 10k run.  Here's the link to sign up. http://www.abbypd.ca/Challenge-Run

If you're participating in the Vancouver BMO Marathon, Half Marathon or 8K races, have a great race.

Have a great, safe weekend! 

Productive Saturday.

I had a very productive Saturday today.  I started out early this morning.  When I got up around 7am , it was still dry out.  The weather forecast was 100% chance of rain today.  YEAH!  NOT!   When I got up and saw that it wasn't raining I knew this would be my opportunity to get a true long walk in.   

My primary goal today was to walk to the Starbucks a little over 5km's from our house.  My secondary goal was to do it as quickly as I could.  Considering I've not gotten that far, I didn't know how long it was going to take.  My only point of reference was from several weeks ago when I thought it would take an hour to get to Angus Campell road and we made it there in 40 minutes.

With my ipod playing, Angus and I headed out.  We were almost thwarted right away as it was doggy central at the gate to our complex with a brouhaha going on between a Westie, a Lab, a Pug and a Chihuahua.  Of course my dog being the dog he is wanted in on the action and started barking from our side of the gate.  That of course changed focus of the other dogs and the owners managed to get their dogs untangled and maneuvered towards their respective complexes.  I waited another minute or two and then headed out the gate when the coast was clear.  Angus was still a little excited but off we went.  Of course a few minutes later who do we come across but his arch enemies from our complex the two Jack Russel's.  These two dogs bark whether there's anything to bark at or not.  Fortunately when we reached the main road, they went to the left and Angus and I headed to the right.

We had a pretty good pace going, but with the starting and stopping and probably a good 5 minutes of dog excitement by the time we got to Angus Campbell Road we were 4 minutes behind from our last time doing this route.  I picked up my pace with Angus trotting along beside and little behind me and kept plugging along.  I looked at my phone and we were nearing the 1 hour mark.  I knew that my wonderful husband would be on his way to meet us and may very well pass us at any time.  Sure enough, not even two minutes later Angus plopped his behind down and dug his paws in as he looked over his shoulder.  I swear he has the best hearing ever.

My husband stopped and I put the dog in the back seat and looked down at my mapmywalk app that I was using to track our distance.  I was a little disappointed as we were only at 4.45 km's and I really wanted to hit the 5km mark.  I decided on the spot to keep walking.  I told my husband to go on and I'd meet him at the Starbucks.  Less than 10 minutes later I met him in the parking lot.  I was thrilled with my time and my distance!

This link should take you to my walk today.
http://www.mapmywalk.com/routes/view/199064468

Now seeing as how I'd just walked for a little over an hour and we were after all at Starbucks, I decided to give myself a reward for what I had done.  I got myself a Grande, extra hot, non fat, 1/4 sweet (1pump of syrup) peppermint white chocolate mocha with no whip and no drizzle.  I love me a white chocolate mocha.  This drink is how I got my gold Starbucks card automatically :)

Thankfully the rain held off until we headed home.  A little while later, I headed out to do some errands for my parents.  It took me a few hours to get everything done, and when I got home I was honestly tired.  A quick look at my pedometer and I knew why!

Wahoo!  I guess I beat my 18,000 steps on a non work day!  Now that's what I call a productive Saturday!

Weigh in Day....

Friday's are the day I weigh in and go to my weight watchers meeting during my lunch break.  I'm proud of how I'm doing but this was a bit of a challenging week for me.  I didn't get all my steps in a couple of days.  I did get extra steps in on others so in the end it balanced out but still. I've looked back at my tracker and I've noticed that my activity points have taken a real dip in the past couple of weeks so I need to refocus on my activity level.   I've bumped my work day step goal up to 15,000 steps  and my weekend steps up to 18,000 as I need to increase my activity level. 

Typically on Thursday evenings I get off the train at 610 and head right to the gym so I can get a good 60-90 minute work out in, then I go home, have dinner and basically call it a night.  I wasn't able to do that last night.  I had a work call to be on, and by the time I was done that I honestly didn't have the motivation to go to the gym.  It was after 8pm by the time my call was done, I had dinner, and checked in with my mom who was released from the hospital a couple of days ago.  I honestly didn't want to go to the gym at 830 at night. 

My results from my weigh in weren't stellar, I was down .2 of a pound, but a loss is a loss is a loss and I'll take it over a gain any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  However, I know that I have to be accountable to myself.  I have to get my steps in.  I have to stay active.  

Steps for the week
Tuesday 13, 423
Wednesday  16,526
Thursday 14,747
Today 19,016

Have a great weekend everyone!  Hopefully the sun will continue to shine and we can all get outdoors to enjoy the fresh spring air. :)

Support is so important.

I have always known that having people who support you in whatever you're doing is important.  It doesn't matter whether it's for a class, a hobby, work or dealing with weight loss.  I am very fortunate to have a very supportive husband.  Anything I need or want on my quest to get fit is fine,  expense is not really a consideration.  If I need it to be successful, it's done.  I know how lucky I am to have a supportive husband.

I'm even luckier to have a supportive family.  Since I restarted my weight loss and getting fit project in January, we have celebrated several birthdays, had Easter and several get togethers that have included food.  My family has been great in asking what I want to have so that we can keep temptation away from me.  My family has even gone so far as to substitute a veggie platter instead of the bags of potato chips and cheezies.   Every time I see them they encourage me and tell me how proud they are of me for sticking to it.

I've even lucked out in the supportive co-workers area.  Several of my co-workers have commented now on my weight loss, they tell me how good I'm looking and it makes me feel pretty good.  It's no secret that I go for a walk (almost) every day during my lunch break.  A few of them have asked to come along and it's great that a couple of days a week there will be a few of us out walking.

Today was a rough afternoon for me.  After my mid day walk, out of nowhere I had the most intense craving for cookies.  I wanted a great, big, huge, chocolate chip cookie.  The kind that you have to hold with two hands.  I drank some water instead, I drank some more water and when the craving was still there and I found myself reaching for my wallet to walk down the street to the bakery.  I stopped.  I sent out an S.O.S to one of my friends who is also a coworker.  I sent her a YouTube clip of the Cookie Monster and told her in no uncertain terms that I wanted cookies and I was fighting not to go buy some.  Bless her heart, within a minute she was at my office door with  a  2 Point WW snack bar to help get me though.  We sat and talked for a few minutes.  I drank some more water and about a half hour later, I ate the 2 Point snack.  Much better than the 20 point cookies, I was craving so badly.

It's great to have support and today and I was so truly thankful for it.

Was there a weekend in there somewhere?

How can it possibly be Monday evening?  I missed the weekend I think.  I guess that's what happens when you're busy with family stuff.   Mom is still in the hospital, she had her stress test and her nuclear medicine test today so we'll get the results tomorrow and find out if they have to clear any blockages.   Hopefully she'll be on the mend before long.  She hasn't had an Angina attack since Thursday so that's a good thing.

It was a hard weekend to get my steps in.  The weather wasn't cooperative at all really.  On Saturday Angus and I headed out for our Saturday morning walk, we were out about 40 minutes or so before my wonderful husband arrived to pick us up.  I had decided to start walking in the country so when the dark clouds moved in, my husband thought it was best to come get us before we got too wet.  We did some of our running around and then I headed over to my parents house and the hospital.  We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and had a great time.  I made us fajita's for dinner and it went well.  I did treat myself to a small piece of black forest cake for desert but I stayed within my daily points and I didn't have to use any of the activity points that I earned.  I did 14,313 steps on Saturday.  Not quite my 15, 000 weekend goal but I'm happy with that considering all that I had going on. :)

Sunday was a different story.  It rained, and rained and rained.  Going grocery shopping was a challenge between the rain and the wind.  By 2pm it was still raining and I had a movie date with my husband for the 4pm showing of 42.   My husband did think it was hilarious that I was tucking a banana into my purse for my "treat" at the movies :)

I was thinking after the movie I could get my walk in, however by the time I was done visiting my mom at at the hospital and doing my dad's feet, it was too dark to go for a walk.  It didn't help that I had forgotten to put my pedometer on for our morning grocery shopping, so although the pedometer only has 10,350 steps on it for Sunday I'm thinking I did closer to 14, 000.

Today I worked from home as my mom was having her testing done and I wanted to be close by just in case I was needed.  It's hard working over an hour away from home, even harder considering I usually take the train in which means I have to wait until the first train heads back at 350.  I can tell you from experience there is nothing worse than that helpless feeling of needing to wait to get a train to come home when someone is ill or injured!

As I was working from home and it's a whole 100 steps from my desk to anywhere here on the upper floor I wasn't having much luck getting my steps in.  When my husband and I went up to see my mom at the hospital after dinner I was only at 5800 steps.  I still needed to go to my dad's to do his feet for him so I decided I would walk from the hospital to my parents house.  I figured it would take me roughly a half hour and I was pretty close, it took 28:56 according to the map my walk app on my phone.  Not bad.  The nights not quite over and I'm at 10,655 so although I'm not at 12, 000 where I would like to be, I'm not going to complain.  I'm making healthy choices and after all, that's what it's all about.
:)

16 Weeks, healthy choices and daily activity

Equal 45.4 pounds lost!  Wahoo!

I worked from home on Thursday so that I could be on hand if I was needed as we were hoping that my mom would have a series of tests to see what is causing the Angina attacks.  Unfortunately the morning nurse who came on shift in the ER didn't read my mom's chart correctly and put a nitro patch on her, gave my mom her morning pills and then let her have breakfast.  As my mom started to eat breakfast the nurse realized what she had done but it was too late.  Because of the pills and the nitro patch they weren't able to do the test.  This has upset my mom and dad immensely as this means my mom is now in the hospital until at least Monday.   Although I didn't go into work, which means I didn't get my normal work day steps in, I still did all right.  I took the dog for a walk, walked around the house, and got steps in going back and forth to the hospital and my parents, another quick walk with the dog and a quick 35minute elliptical work out I reached my 12,000 step daily goal and then some.

I decided to drive into work on Friday in case something happened I could leave immediately and come home.  My co worker who also lives here in Abbotsford agreed to come along with me so that I could use the HOV lane.  With the new Port Mann bridge we were at work in just over an hour, before they built the new bridge and HOV lane, the same drive would have taken us close to 2 hours.  I'm loving the new bridge and I don't mind paying the toll for it as it's so much quicker than it used to be.

I got some steps in going from the parking garage to the office.  I got steps in at work yesterday by walking and talking to people rather than calling them or sending an email.  I walked to my Weight Watchers meeting the long way(going around the buildings rather than cutting through them,) and added an extra 2 block walk on my way back to the office.  I was thrilled with my weigh in yesterday, I'm down a total of 45.4 pounds in 16 weeks.  I am so happy with how I'm progressing, and I did have my challenges with food last weekend at work.  However, by making healthy choices and getting in my daily activity, I'm reaping the benefits! 

When I got home, we had dinner and then I headed up to the hospital to see my mom.  She was in much better spirits then she was yesterday and this morning so that's  good thing.  When I got to the Cardiac Care Unit she was sitting in the patient lounge having a good laugh and chat with a few of the other patients.  We sat and talked for an hour and a half, then I went over to see my dad and put his cream on his feet for him.