party prep

thanks everyone for all of your recommendations. i am going to go to the running room and see what they have to offer. probably better than ordering something online, because who would know if it fit or was comfortable, etc. and then i will probably go to mountain equipment co-op for a hat. i also want some new running shorts. by shorts i mean something little that just covers my bum. i have no shame... i just don't want to be hot...as in overheated ;) if it looks gruesome i'll get something with more coverage, but i'm sure it will be fine.

in other news, last night i tried the HIIT (high intensity interval training) that everyone is talking about these days. i wanted a short but effective workout so here is what i did:

warm up
0:00-1:00 3.5 mph walking
1:00-2:00 3.8 mph walking
2:00-3:00 4.0 mph walking
3:00-4:00 4.2 mph walking
4:00-5:00 5.0 light jogging

intensity time
30 seconds 8.5 mph (fast running!)
60 seconds 5.0 mph (light jogging)
i did this for 20 minutes... tiring!

cool down
5 minutes walking slowing down from 4.0 mph to 3.0 mph.

let me tell you... i was SO SWEATY. sweat was dripping off of my face and body. my head was soaked. my breathing was really laboured... in a good way of course. i read all about HIIT here and how it's really efficient for fat loss without muscle loss. maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but why not give it a try. i am always looking for shorter workouts to do on days that i'm not running (for pleasure) so maybe this is the way to go.

so it's my birthday coming up in june, and i'm having a birthday party in my condo. the thing is... i don't have bedding. i have sheets and stuff, but my old duvet cover was red and black and i painted my bedroom walls this colour (for the record, this image is not my bedroom, just a screen capture of the paint online):

i can't have a bedroom that is green and red, that's crazy! my bedroom furniture is white, and i've been holding off for bedding that is black, yellow, and white. but i can't find any. and it would be embarrassing to have a party with a naked duvet (no cover)... so i bought this "bed-in-a-bag" today from sears. it is for "youths" but i love the colours, especially the yellow.

i will not have a bedskirt (hate them), those giant flower pillows, or the mosquito net. but everything else. yes... it's kind of crazy but i like it that way. and it's just for the mean time, while i continue to search for the perfect bedding.

today on the menu is:

1/2 banana with natural PB

smoothie made from:
skim milk
2 t PB2
1/2 banana
splash of unsweetened almond breeze
1 equal
a few scoops of plain 2% yogurt

quaker high fibre berry oatmeal with:
1 T flax
1/3 cup all-bran
1/2 cup blackberries

big salad with:
2 cups spinach
chopped cauliflower
mushrooms
orange pepper
carrot slices
baby tomatoes
1/2 cup lima beans
1/3 cup wheat berries
1 T sun dried tomatoes
newman's own thai sesame dressing

1 serving kashi TLC crackers (if hungry)

and for dinner... not sure. :)

z is for zombie

is the week over yet? guess what fellow bloggers? the painting is finished! well, almost. i still have to do touch ups but i did a bit of them last night and it's actually fun. i love precise painting, i just dislike the big scale roller-style painting ya know? but it's over. i took the tape off too soon and it made a bit of a goopy paint mess, but it was fixed with touchups. i didn't go to bed until late last night so i am very tired today. but i wanted to finish painting, clean up all the painting stuff so i didn't have to look at it anymore, and clean the kitchen. i am having a friend over tonight and i want my apartment to be spotless and beautiful, not painty and messy and gross.

so now my bedroom is green. but - i have a red and black plaid duvet cover. oops. it's ugly anyway so this is the perfect excuse to give it the heave-ho. i want something patterned. something yellow and white and black. those specifications only! one more day until the weekend. ;)

in other news, my eating has been going pretty good and i'm exercising a lot, and i'm beginning to see some real ab definition. i may or may not post a picture. on the one hand, i want to show off my awesome new abs (years in development haha) but on the other hand, do i really want a picture of my stomach on the internet? on a blog? for the world to see? and would it be one of those fishing for compliments things? i mean, i deserve compliments because i worked hard! would other bloggers say nice things in my comments but then think mean thoughts in their heads? not that any of you think mean thoughts haha. and i don't like thinking about mean thoughts. what a scattered post. obviously i am not getting enough sleep but that is what weekends are for.

this morning i ran (outside woohoo in the city sunshine) for four miles, then came inside and did four miles on the bike (which really isn't that much... about 15 minutes) and did some ab work. it's another busy day at work and i work best in the morning (as opposed to the afternoon) so i'm gonna tcb (take care of business). today i'm eating:

fibre source granola bar (2) - did you know these have HFCS! i am still eating mine...

yogurt with strawberries (1.5)

oatmeal with added flax and all bran (3)
(6.5)

sol cuisine veggie burger (2)
ww bun (2)
spicy hummus (1)
green beans (0)
(11.5)

yogurt and strawberries (1.5)
(13)

apple (1)
(14)

carrots and hummus (1)
(15)

spaghetti squash (1)
salad with dressing (2)
turkey grill em sausage (2)
(20)

wine with my friend (4)
(24)

a lot to do

well, i'm back at work. hooray! am feigning sarcasm or what? maybe. i'm actually happy to be back at this work because at least here i get to sit in a nice chair instead of being a skilled labourer (painter) all the live long day. i am almost done painting, so no pictures yet. i want it to look somewhat decent before i take any shots. i have one more coat of green to do in the bedroom, and touch ups of course. and i made the mistake of painting part of the kitchen yellow, which really should be grey like the living and dining room. i changed colours at a corner, and it looks really tacky, and it's going to bother me until i fix it, so i'll finish everything tonight.

i have so much to do at work it's crazy. my immediate boss is away on business for more than a week, so i have to pick up that slack as well as get caught up on the stuff i missed during my three days off. all i really want to do is leisurely go through my emails and catch up on blogs, haha. hopefully i can read some at lunchtime today.

yesterday i went for a five-mile run. i am really digging these five-mile runs outside. it's great because even if you want to stop, you are still so far away from home that you might as well keep going haha. i got caught in the rain halfway through. i sort of didn't like it but it sort of made me feel super hardcore - like "so what nature! take that!" haha. anyway...

this morning i woke up early and did four miles (walking) on the treadmill and four miles on the stationary bike. i much prefer working out in the mornings.

today i'm eating:

lemon source yogurt, the dessert kind (1)

regular instant oatmeal with added flax and all bran (3)
1 cup frozen berries (0.5)
(4.5)

pc blue menu microwave dinner - shrimp whole wheat pasta something or other (5)
raw carrots and baby tomatoes with hummus (1)
(10.5)

another source yogurt (1)
3 little almond biscotti (2)
(13.5)

dinner:
green beans (0)
veggie burger (4)
salad (3)
(20.5)

maybe something else too. :)

wacky schedule

my schedule is all off because today is the last of my vacation days. i didn't do any painting on the weekend but i did go for a nice 5 mile run on saturday. i should have worn gloves though because my hands were throbbing ice cubes when i got back.

this weekend was pretty good. friday i went to bed early (exhausted from painting?), and saturday i went to see the spencer rice movie - confessions of a porn addict - which was alright (funny if you like kenny vs. spenny) but a bit too long (i kept thinking that my bum was getting numb and that's never a good sign). and my boyfriend and i devoured a giant bag of popcorn between us. i guess once in a while it's not so bad and the taste difference between it and smartpop (although still good too haha) is pretty obvious! later we went to a house party and stayed out way too late.

today i'm painting the kitchen and hopefully the bedroom. i also want to get a run in. i am hoping for outside but it's pretty rainy so it might be the dreadmill again for me. for breakfast i had a quaker weight control maple brown sugar oatmeal with added ground flax and a bit of fiber one, and a source blueberry tango yogurt. and this amazing butterscotch coffee i got at the grocery store yesterday. yummmmmmmm!

oh my god

so last night i went to get another can of pink paint. good times. i finished the third coat of pink and then went on to do the second coat of gray "castle stone" in the living and dining room. well, what do you know, i run out of paint, one wall to completion in the second coat. so i had to go back there this morning.

and THEN, i come back to my apartment... and my door is wide open, and there are men on my balcony. WTF! men! seriously! they were here to fix some metal thing that blew up on a windy day, which is good, but still, warn a girl. i could have been sleeping or in the tub or something.

i finished the gray wall now, and i'm going to walk on the treadmill for a while, before starting something else. friday is weigh in and i lost 2.6 (!) so i'm at 118.8 which is back in the maintenance range. i'm sure i burned a thousand million calories painting because i can hardly move my right arm anymore...

before i go, i have to plug those source tango yogurts. they are 100g, only 35 calories, and two colours - white and another (varies for flavour). they are so good and i'm pretty much obsessed with them and eat up to four a day. thank god it's the weekend. i need a stiff drink with a capital D. :o)

thursday day off

the exercise continues. yesterday i walked for 60 minutes on the treadmill then did 15 on the bike. i also went for a little walk at lunch to return some stuff at the mall. today is my day "off" so i am gearing up to go for a five mile run. yes, five miles is a lot - but i planned it out on mapmyrun.com, and i can always run longer outside that inside because i am aware of the distance ahead of me. it's a lot different to feel like you are actually going somewhere - a real destination.

i am bit annoyed with painting already. i have run out of pink paint. keep in mind i am only painting one little wall pink. two coats was not enough and really, that's very annoying to me. more than two coats? seriously... now i have to go back to canadian tire and get yet another can of this paint. for one little wall. good thing i am not painting a giant room this colour or i'd be faint with exhaustion at the very thought of painting more coats on every wall.

last night my boyfriend came over for our regular wednesday date. wednesday date just means we hang out and make dinner and watch america's next top model haha. i made delicious double baked potatoes, which i have never made before. here is the recipe:

take 2 baking potatoes, place them on paper towel, piece them with a fork, cover with a damp paper towel, and microwave (mine took 8 minutes on potato setting). then when they are ready, cut in half and scoop out the insides, leaving about a 1/4 inch of potato with the shell. spray a pan with pam and on high heat, fry some garlic really fast. then add 1/4 cup skim milk and turn down the heat immediately. pour this on potato mash (which should be in a bowl) and add some salt, pepper, italian seasoning, 1/2 cup chopped ham (leftover from my mom's easter ham) and 1/3 cup grated cheddar. stir this and then plop the mixture back into the potatoes. top with another 1/3 cup cheddar cheese and bake at 500 degrees for about 8 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown. delicious!

this morning i had a whole wheat english muffin, and after my run i plan on making some oatmeal. then the serious painting must begin. i don't want to do it but i'll feel better once i've made some progress. have a nice day!

getting back on track tips

the home improvement project continues. last night i painted two coats of varnish on the newly black tv unit, painted one wall in the den pink (one coat so far), and painted a frame black. i also took lots of empty boxes down to my storage locker. some of you might remember that i bought the debbie travis paintable wallpaper for the one pink wall in the den... i've decided it's a no go. i did the measurements last night and i would need to buy another roll and truthfully, i can't be bothered to hang it up and make sure the patterns match and stuff. it's too much work. so the wall will have to be pink on its own with no texture and hopefully that will be interesting enough. (it is... it's vividly pink.)

i didn't mention this before but i have this thursday, friday, and monday off of work. i have vacation days from 2007 that i have to use up before the end of march or else they vanish into thin air. poof! i only get 2 weeks of paid vacation a year so of course i greedily hold onto those days in case something comes up and i need to lickity split. of course nothing comes up haha. but i am going to use those days for painting. *finishing* painting so i never have to talk about it again.

i just read this article which had some pretty good tips for getting back on track if you've fallen off the wagon. so here are a few (that aren't plugging the website...)

1. Try a short workout. Even five minutes is better than nothing.

2. Try a new recipe. Cooking healthy foods can be fun and it never has to be bland.

3. Eat a healthy breakfast. Your morning meal sets the stage for the rest of your day, so start if off right! Get lots of breakfast ideas here.

4. Drink your water. Try to aim for 8 cups each day and you’ll feel the difference!

5. Read success stories online.

6. Track your food today. No matter how it adds up, you’ll learn from it.

7. Share your goals.

8. Exercise for 10 minutes. Jump rope, march in place, or do some crunches. Small amounts do add up to something big!

9. Find a buddy. Get support from friends, whether you need someone to listen or a mentor to give you ideas and encouragement.

10. Take a walk. Don’t worry about how long or far you go—just get out there!

11. Go shopping for some healthy foods.

12. Check the nutrition facts before you go out to eat. That way, you can make an informed choice.

13. Ride your bike. Even a leisurely ride has benefits for your body and mind.

14. Work in the yard. Gardening and yard work is a great way to add activity to your day.

15. Take the stairs. Even if this is the only thing you do all day, you’ll feel stronger for it.

16. Listen to an inspirational song. Better yet, make a playlist of them so you can turn to it whenever you need a boost.

17. Measure your portions. It’s a simple way to learn how much you’re eating.

18. Eat a piece of fruit. Even if 5-9 servings of fruit and vegetables sounds impossible to you, one is doable.

19. Slow down during meals. You’ll be less likely to overeat and more likely to enjoy your meal.

20. Play! What kids call “play,” we often call “exercise.” Play a sport, a game, or use the playground equipment to bring the fun back into fitness.

21. Learn something new. Sometimes simply taking a quiz or reading an article about nutrition, fitness, or health can change your mindset and get you back on track.

personally, i love shopping for healthy foods, and reading success stories online - but sometimes i forget about these things.
i'm very busy at work so i'll post workout and menu for today... tomorrow!

big fat gain

friday is weigh in day and i've gained... i feel crappy just writing this but i've gained 3.4 pounds. how is that even possible in one week? i can't say that i'm not bummed about it. i know that this journey is about health and not about numbers on the scale - i'm just bummed that now i'm going to have to be more diligent about points and counting everything for the next little while. i like maintenance because it cuts a little more slack than losing. but seriously, did i really overeat by 10,500 calories this week? doesn't that seem like a lot to you? the body works in mysterious ways people, mysterious ways!

that being said - i had a really active day yesterday, i counted points, and i felt really good about myself. i still do. for dinner i made a big fat omlet with egg beaters, egg whites, spinach, onion, leftover turkey meatballs, sundried tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, and 40g of light old cheddar. yum. it was SO big. it filled up my entire pan and i couldn't flip it, so i decided to broil the top in the oven. i took it out with an oven mit, and then when i went to put in on my plate i just grabbed the handle like a super-moron and burned my hand. i always do this!!! i never learn. i always carefully take something out of the oven, and then let my mind wander a bit, and then grab onto something ultra hot.

last night when i got home from work i had a little nap. i needed to because one of my girlfriends was coming over. i went to tap class, then came home and we went swimming in the pool. see? active! i even went running in the morning so it was a day of fitness! we also watched biggest loser and i was really sad to see who went home. remember last week when it was between brittany and maggie, but they pushed the elimination until the next week? well, my friend said they were showing commercials that gave away who got sent home, because the other person was getting a makeover and it was obvious. come on tv people, get with the program!

for breakfast this morning i made myself a big smoothie. i used 1 cup of frozen berries (1), ice, a vanilla activia yogurt (1.5), 1/2 a banana (1), a cup of unsweetened almond joy (1), and 2 tablespoons of PB2 peanut butter (1). yum yum. i had half and am saving the other half for later. i also cleaned behind the fridge and stove, and vacuumed, which i have been meaning to do for awhile. now i am going to paint the tv unit (i primed it last weekend) and then go for a walk on the treadmill. i have to lock my cat up in the bathroom but really, it's for his own good. no more paint paw marks. lately he has taken to sitting on the fridge, and taking swipes at all the photos and magnets on the fridge. he's a naughty boy but what can i do about it? i spray him with water when he jumps on the kitchen counter. now when he sees the spray bottle he runs away, but that doesn't stop him from going there when i'm not looking. in one of my old houses, one of my roommates kept a water cooler in the kitchen, and my cat used to push the lever for fun and spill the water all over the floor. see? naughty! what can i say... "don't do that!" he's a cat!

happy friday everyone - tonight is my boyfriend's rock show and tomorrow i am going to an all girls sleepover. sunday is easter at my boyfriend's parents and monday back to work. :o)

sunny monday

monday again and another super busy week. i have that photoshop course on monday and wednesday night this week, from 7 to 10pm. no tap on thursday thought because it's march break. yippee! except i still have to work, haha, but my boyfriend doesn't (he's a teacher) so it's still a good week.

this weekend was pretty good. on friday was the hawksley concert. it was good for the first hour, but the second hour (plus more) was a lot of hawksley workman loving hawksley workman, and jams that went on for way too long. i like a musical interlude as much as the next person, but each song doesn't need to be 15 minutes long with beyonce songs mixed in. on saturday i went for a run, and then just lounged around until going to the grocery store. yesterday i went swimming and painted my bathroom. it looks great although now my bathroom colours are yellow and blue and very swedish/ikea looking. i will post pictures but i want to do all of the touch-ups first.

i decided to take today off from exercise because i'll be out so late tonight without being able to go home. actually "decided to" means i got up to have a run, but was too tired and it just wasn't happening so i went back to bed. also daylight savings means losing an hour of precious time (sleep?). maybe i will extend all my workouts this week by 10-15% to make up for it.

today i'm eating:

grapes (1)
1/2 peanut butter banana pecan muffin (1)
(2)

rolled oats with a banana and peanut butter (6)
(8)

chunky beef soup (5)
multigrain toast (2)
veggie cocktail (1)
(16)

yogurt with all bran sprinkles (4)
(20)

granola bar (2)
(22)

busy week ahead?

oh boy, monday again. actually it's not so bad for a few reasons: 1) it's not freezing. it's actually going to be 8°C or something like that today which is practically tropical. 2) i already worked out today. normally i run on monday evenings, but today i did it in the morning and i'm done and it feels pretty good. 3) i did other stuff before work too which makes me feel productive: i went to the grocery store and bought frozen berries for breakfast and dropped off my white winter coat at the dry cleaners because it was getting really gross looking. 4) i went to bed at a somewhat reasonable time last night (around midnight) so i am not dead tired.

so on saturday my boyfriend came over and we had some coffee then jumped in the car and went to canadian tire to buy paint. i bought paint for every room in the house. "castle stone" gray for the living and dining room (one big long room), "blue jeans" blue for the bathroom, "citrus swirl" yellow for the kitchen and hallway, "pic nic" green for the bedroom, and "passion pink" for one wall of the den. yes, my house is going to be a crazy colourful wonderland but so what? it's my house and i can do whatever i want and i love colour! and it is only paint, which can be re-painted easily if it looks hideous. for the "passion pink" wall, i also bought this debbie travis paintable wallpaper. basically it's a raised design and it gives your walls a really neat texture. i got this victorian looking floral pattern which is going to look really wild with the pink. i'm not going to paint yet. first i have to hang up that paper and do all of the boring stuff like taping everywhere. boring!

so this morning i had a nice run - 4 miles, then did strength training and sit-ups and stretching. i got some new workout shorts and headphones at wal-mart on saturday, too. just cheap headphones, panasonic or jvc or some brand that isn't sony but is still a name brand. i like the kind with buds that stick in your ear, but have that sport ear wrap around thing. they were only $12 or so, which is a good price. now i need to stop spending money... i am burning a serious hole in my pocket.

menu is erratic today, since i'm going out for lunch and having guests for dinner:

breakfast:
pc blue menu multigrain oatmeal
1 T flax
1 T splenda
1 T cinnamon
3/4 cup frozen berries