the last 10lbs and the first 10kms

yummy food = yummy meals

2009-07-18T19:51:00.008-04:00

Whew! What a day!! And it's not even over yet! Today began my mini self challenge of trying to make myself healthy meals while making sure not to break the bank!

After returning from my weigh in, where I lost 1lb of the 1.5lbd I had gained last week I was a bit down on myself. I've been bouncing around between 143-145 for the past little while so I was starting to feel like I was never going to break 143. My goal is to be somewhere between 133-136 so I have a ways to go and I know I've made some great progress but sometimes I just feel like I'm stuck here. To cheer myself up I made myself some french toast!!!

I have no idea why this picture is sideways...
2 slices sprouted grain bread in 1egg, cinnamon, banana, blueberries and a dash of syrup

Then I met up with a friend at an outlet strip mall where I managed not to spend any money, woo hoo! I'm saving for a house.. or just to move out. I did buy myself lunch, however, because I was starving at the end of our shopping. I got a Chicken pita from extreme pita and loaded it with veggies and a bit of honey mustard. Mmm!

Then it was time for one of my favourite things... grocery shopping!! I think I stuck to my like almost 100% except for a few things I had forgot but knew I needed for the recipes I plan on making.

Here's my loot!

I bought: bananas, sweet potatoes, eggplant, apples, plums, raspberries, blueberies, peppers. celery, carrots, yellow and green zucchini, green onions, potatoes, spinach, tomatoes and a watermelon! Plus the non produce items: turkey sausage, rice vinegar, tamari, 60pepper hummus, firm tofu, whole wheat tortillas, vegetable broth, PB PUFFINS!! and Stonyfield vanilla yogurt. Who now you could buy stonyfield products here??

Soo.. for dinner I had some brown rice leftover so I grilled some turkey sausage, zucchini, eggplant and pepper slices. Mmmm!! So good!!

Yum yum! It was very good. A bit of a bigger dinner but I am going over to a friend's place tonight and her bf is a chef so I will be surrounded by tasty yet calorie laden foods. I ate a bit extra in the hopes that I would be too full for any nibbles. I am bringing a Zinfandel spritzer though, my little treat for the day. ;)

recaps, news, challenges, announcements..

2009-07-17T09:33:00.006-04:00

Oh man... no entries from me since early July?? Oopsies!
Shh... I *might* be writing this from work right now so I'll try to make it snappy
Quick recap of the past few weeks:

friend's wedding- AWESOME
vacation in Toronto (including running in High Park, a concert, shopping and buying mainly exercise clothing (weird for me to do that), meeting the lovely and wonderful Ashley, and other various gallivants. There are pics which I may post later, but none of them are overly exciting..I was alone for most of the trip because my sister had to work.
seeing my faaaavourite band 2 days in a row and meeting 2 members
coming back to work and struggling to get back into the swing of things

And that's pretty much where I stand now, wishing I was still on vacation but recognizing that you gotta work hard to play hard. The next 2 weeks should be interesting to say the least. My fam will all be up at the trailer for 2weeks leaving me home alone to cat-sit. Since my mom will have to buy all the groceries there she isn't exactly leaving me much food or $$ for food. So, I am seeing this as my chance to cook nutritious, filling, yummy meals on a budget. Our house completely empty in the food dept but we are definitely low in the fresh foods. So far I have created a rough 2week meal plan. I'm not really the type of person who likes to follow a strict meal plan so rather than setting out a day by day schedule I have a list of meals that can be made any day and require either ingredients we already have or small things to buy. Expect pics of yummy food and cute cats in the next 2 weeks!

In other news I did something a little crazy last night...

One of my fave blogs is OhSheGlows, I just adore Angela and her recipes, tips, stories and of course cat pics. Anyways the other day she posted that she had signed up for a half marathon and wondered if others would like to run with her. Ha-ha I thought to myself but the next day she posted about it again. So I started thinking ok.. 13.1miles/21.1km..end of May so about 10+ months away... could I do it?? With shaking fingers I somehow made the right clicks and I am signed up for the marathon. Eeek! I'm pretty nervous about it but also excited. I've looked a bit at training schedules and found a good one on the race website which I will start after my 10k training and race.

Ok c'est tout for now. I weigh in tomorrow and have my fingers crossed that I will hit my 10% (wt would have to be 142 or below) tomorrow!

Oh I would just like to PS and say HELLO to my new followers or anyone who reads this blog really!

early morning

2009-07-02T20:52:00.007-04:00

Going back to work after 1 day off is tough! Especially doing it 2 weeks in a row. I guess the only good thing about it is that most people seem to be screwed up from the holiday. Today my boss asked if I had a good weekend... So this meant that today was probably the longest day ever. Time seemed to crawl slightly forward.

I am quite proud of myself today though... I got up at 5:30 and did level 2 of the 30 Day Shred! It was tough but it felt good to get up and get my exercise out of the way. I couldn't quite get every move/section done 100% because my knee was bothering me a bit :( I'm really worried that there is something wrong with my knee but my doctor is on vacation right now so I won't be seeing her until early Aug for my yearly physical.

Anyways for breakfast I enjoyed 1/2 a large orange, 1/2c steel cut oats, 1tbsp PB, 1/4c Fibre 1 cereal and a glass of milk. Thanks to Jess I learned that making a few servings the oats at the beginning of the week is the way to go!

For snack time I had 1/2 a biiig apple but that wasn't enough, so I had 1/2 a Kashi Peanut Peanut Butter Bar that I had hidden in my cubicle

Finally it was lunchtime! Yay! When we were at the farmer's market last week I picked up a bag of mixed greens. It's was a very good blend! It even had dill in it which gave it a really nice taste. I paired it with a mustard dressing, some honey turkey and some plain yogurt topped with fibre 1 and raisins. Yum!

My afternoon snack was some raw veggies and a couple pieces of Lindt Chili Chocolate. Wow! It packs punch!

Dinner was by far the best meal of the day. I'm always so impressed with people who can just open their fridges and throw something together with what they've got. Off the top of my head I know that Meghann is pretty darn good at this.

My parents were having fish and chips for dinner so I decided instead of having the traditional baked fish and fried fish I would try to come up with something a bit healthier. So I threw together fish tacos! While my tilapia baked in a cajun seasoning I mixed together a mango salsa with red onion, cucumbers, cilantro and jalapeno. I threw that in a WW tortilla and a side of mixed veggies.... I may have sneaked a few fries off my dad's plate..

Well that's it for me.. big weekend ahead. Tomorrow I'm hitting the gym, then getting a mani/pedi following by a wedding rehearsal at night and then Saturday is the big day! It's my friends wedding!! Pics to come!! :)

I love UPS.

2009-06-29T17:39:00.006-04:00

Totally forgot to take pics of my food today except my breakfast:
Mmmm vanilla yogurt, Kashi Go Lean Crunch!, and fresh berries. It was heavenly.

In other exciting news check out what I got in the mail today......eeeeeeeeee!!

SO excited! Can't wait to go out and use it!!... except we had a nice sunny after and then around 515 tonight the skies started turning dark D'oh!! Maybe tomorrow is the day...

Ohhh! I almost forgot, I've added an About Me section with some photos...check it out!

off to a bad blog start!

2009-06-28T19:59:00.007-04:00

Whoa! Who's not good at blogging so far?? Ok so my last post was on Wednesday.. Thursday I completely forgot to take pics of my food oopsies! But there may be a good substitute for pics of the food I ate... I knew this was arriving for me but when I got home I was still filled with glee!

Qu'est-ce que c'est? It's a my lovely order from the lovely Glo Bakery!! What's inside? 2 Blueberry Banana Glo Breads, 1doz Gl'oreos (my fave!) and 1doz On the Glo bars! I maybe sorta had a bite of everything, gotta taste test and it's all SOOO good. I highly recommend placing an order with Angela, most of the products are vegan!

Friday I started the day off with a lovely breakfast of 1hard boiled egg, 1 slice of toast with Becel and an apple. See?

I finished the day by forgetting to take pics of my food. :( I can't really even remember that I had for lunch... I do know that for dinner I was VERY proud of myself. My parents ordered pizza for dinner and since my weekly weigh in is Saturday mornings I decided to have 1/2 a slice and some baby carrot sticks and cucumber.

I think my resistance paid off because when I weighed in on Saturday I was down 2.5lbs!! Woo hoo! I am about 6.5-7lbs away from goal! Yippee!

I guess from my excitement from my excellent WI I decided to indulge a lot that day... It was my BFFs birthday so there was a bit of a party. I knew that over-drinking was not a good option for me so I stuck to club soda, lemon/lime with a splash of vodka. But I ate, and ate, and ate. Scallop ceviche on won tons, veggie chips, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, Fruit Mania candy, a hot dog sans bun, coleslaw, raw veggies, 2 slices of steak, chips.... Not good. We ended up going downtown which turned problematic for me. My whole body was rejecting ALL the food I ate so at midnight I ended up taking a $40 cab ride alone home because I felt so sick. Lesson learned, that's for sure. I've never felt that sick/bloated/crampy/uncomfortable.

Oh well, today was a new day... I woke up a bit late but this was my breakfast, another "green" monster!
Almond milk, spinach, blueberries, strawberries, yogurt = yummy yummy!

We headed out to the market today where we picked up a basket of strawberries, 6 peppers (1red, orange, yellow and 3 green) and 3 HUGE cucumbers. Mmm freshness.
As we were leaving I noticed that the community is having a 5k centennial run on July 19th... perhaps I will run it!

If you have read this far, I congratulate you. It is a very long blog post so I will stop it here. Don't worry you're not missing anything exciting. Thanks for reading!!

About Me

2009-06-25T19:39:00.012-04:00

I've struggled with my weight for over half my life. In my early teens I gained a significant amount of weight (approx 20-25lbs) and quickly went from a carefree kid to a teenager consumed with weight. My self confidence suffered as I tried many times to diet and lose the weight. For over a decade I've relentlessly failed at diets and weight loss.

After years of highs and lows including extreme diets which left me worse off, I finally began to succumb to my negativity; I began to believe that maybe it was sort of my "destiny" to be the bigger/fat girl.

My highest weight, that I know of, happened at a yearly physical. I think I was around 18-19. I stepped on the scale and it read 169lbs.. I remember being shocked and ashamed. I'm just under 5'6" so I'm neither tall nor short but I knew full well that 169lbs was not an ideal weight. Over the next few years I hovered between 155 and 160-something.

Summer 2006 Summer 2007 April 2008 April 2009

Just as I began to give up, I came across an article on Tina Fey discussing her career and weight loss. She mentioned that she had turned to Weight Watchers to lose 25lbs. 'Really??' I thought. 'Weight Watchers??' I headed over to the WW Canada site and began reading.

Oh a whim I thought, 'Why not??' Let's see what this is all about.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first but I gave it a shot at first as an online member. As I began learning about healthy eating and exercise I decided that I needed the support of people, so I started attending weekly meetings with WW.

In the past 5 months or so my life has changed dramatically. Gone is the girl who used food to comfort herself and who didn't like what she saw in the mirror. Over the course of the past year or so I've lost approximately 20lbs! Although I believe I'm still about 10lbs away from goal, I'm so happy with the progress I've made. Beginning Weight Watchers opened my eyes to a whole new world. I've discovered AWESOME weight loss blogs and AMAZING people. My eating habits have completely changed and I actually enjoy exercise! I've started running and so far I've run 2 5km races, with a 10km planned in the fall. :)

a well enjoyed day off

2009-06-24T20:16:00.006-04:00

Although I live in Ontario I work in Quebec so that meant that I had the day off today for St Jean Baptiste day! And I planned on taking full advantage of it.

My internal clock dutifully woke me up at 6:30 but I managed to get back to sleep and slept til about 8.

While catching up on some blogs and other random interweb surfings I sipped on a Green Monster!

Into my blender went: handful of spinach, soy milk, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and a packet of protein powder I had lying around.

My GMs never really turn out green and I suspect it's because I usually add blueberries or blackberries.

After a quick shower I biked to Starbucks where I enjoyed chatting with a friend and an unsweetened Passion iced tea. Realizing that there was a Quizno's next door I decided to pick up a sm Veggie sandwich, again inspired by Angela at OSG who recently posted about Quiznos.

And following an afternoon of suntanning, reading Twilight, level 1 of the 30 day shred (which I found was slightly too easy for me!! woo), visiting a friend and more interwebing I sat down to eat this:
On the skewers: 1 palm sized steak, red/yellow pepper slices, mushrooms, zucchini, red onion and on the side sweet potato fries. Mmmm.

And that's about all I gotta say about that.. time to get ready for bed and read some more Twilight!!

a little bit of everything..

2009-06-23T20:48:00.010-04:00

Ta dah! It's my first full post from a day! It even has pictures! I will try to make it as short as possible..

Last night I had the full intention of waking up extra early to go for a run....FAIL! My alarm went off at 5:30 am and I quickly hit snooze, reset my alarm for 6 and went back to sleep...
I hadn't planned out my breakfast so I grabbed something quick and easy.

A small, sprouted grain bagel toasted with 1tbsp 94% FF cream cheese, an apple and a glass of milk!

And off to work I went carrying my Laptop Lunch which I was first introduced to thanks to the lovely Ash. I actullay haven't used my LL in awhile but I was inspired by a recent contest run by Ash.

Inside my LL was: leftover chicken breast, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, spicy mustard, cucumber, red and green pepper strips, 1/2 WW pita and romaine lettuce and a string cheese, which was the main part of my lunch. A red plum for my morning snack. And then I had the rest of the veggies that didn't fit in my pita for my aft snack. I was having a hungry day so I also snacked on a small bag of Lay's Regular Baked chips.

After a long afternoon preparing for a presentation on Thursday and a sweaty bus ride I was home and ready for a day off tomorrow! Yay! Since I had skipped my morning run I knew that I had to jump on it immediately or it wouldn't get done. With the heat and humidity I decided to hit the treadmill so before I jumped on it I munched on 1/2 of this..

After a sweaty run on the treadmill it was dinner time!!!

PC Blue Menu has come out with these Portion Wise burgers which are like a smaller version of their Thick & Juicy burgers and they are delicious! I'm not a huge fan of feeling like I'm gonna hurl after eating a burger and this was just the right size. I had mine on a thin burger bun with salsa, light mayo and mustard. I also made myself a spinach greek salad with feta and a tiny bit of dressing. And for a little treat I had an Apricot Wheat beer...which admittedly is still sitting next to me, half full...

I wanted something chocolatey after dinner, so I had this... and it was spectacular!

Chapman's Dutch Chocolate fro-yo with strawberries.

Now I'm off to read some more Twilight (yes, I am probably the last person on earth to read this book, I know. I haven't seen the movie either) I'll try to work on my picture taking skills tomorrow since I don't have to work. Living in one province and working in another means I get tomorrow off as a holiday.. but it also means that all my friends don't... Hopefully I'll find something to entertain myself.

Let's start with a weekend racap...

2009-06-22T17:08:00.005-04:00

I suppose the best way to do this is just to jump right in!

I'll start with a little recap of my weekend. Usually on Saturday mornings I weigh in with Weight Watchers, but since I was running a 5k race Saturday morning I had to move it to Friday at lunch time. My race also meant that I had a pretty low key Friday night I tried to pack a little extra food in so that I wouldn't be too hungry Sat morning but I just wasn't hungry...

Anyways this was my 2nd 5km race so I was pretty pumped. I wasn't able to get too much training in over the past few weeks because I had been busy with my accounting final but I was still excited to run... Here I am before the race..

all smiles, sun is out and I'm ready to go!

Although I wouldn't call myself a full fledged runner, I was proud of my finish and happy to improve my time. I made the rookie mistake of starting wayyy too fast so when I crossed the first km marker and saw that it was only 9:05 I began to slow down a bit. I finished in 33:55:20 which isn't great but isn't terrible either.

Here I am shortly after:

I ran alone hence the self portraits on my BB.
And yes, I'm crouching down between my car
and another so that people don't see me..

After the race I picked up some real food (that bagel wasn't that great so I only had a few bites) and went home to make myself a bagel BLT. Mmm.

That night I had a friend's bachelorette party to attend so I decided to have a little nap.

The party was great!! I was sneaky and managed to limit my alcohol consumption.. I mean I love a drink here and there but I hate overloading; it doesn't help with my weight loss and I am not a fan of feeling lie poop the next day. We pre-drank at her parents' house so I had a couple glasses of punch and then began refilling my own glass, making sure only to add punch and no vodka. Then, at the bar a friend bought me a corona mmm. So I reciprocated by buying her a drink and getting myself a water....which looked a LOT like a vodka-soda. ;)

Sunday was spent relaxing, reading blogs and trying to soothe my sore legs.

Why this? Why now?

2009-06-21T16:12:00.000-04:00

My name is Jessica and this is my blog.

I'm 24 years old and in the past year I have lost 20 lbs through my own work and with the help of Weight Watchers. Although I still have about 8-9 lbs to lose, I am ery proud and happy of my success so far.

I've always had a keen interest in fitness, weight loss and nutrition. Since joining WW in February I have discovered a whole world of blogs, vlogs and online communities filled with inspirational people who were a lot like me. I have learned a tremendous amount from these people and I think it's what will help me get to my goal and maintain it.

A couple of weeks ago I seemed to start to hit a plateau in my weight loss. With only 9lbs left to lose I knew I couldn't give up now so I was more than ecstatic when my lovely friend Jess said that she would help me get back on track and lose the last few pounds. She's been keeping mey accountable by having me send my daily meal plans to her. I've never actually met Jess in real life, but she's been such a great inspiration to me in my weight loss.

One day this past week I was talking to my good friend Helen and our conversation went something like this:
ooh check out this girl's blog! she lost 20lbs and now runs marathons! its so cool!
my friend jess posted pics on her blog, look how amazing she looks!

Then Helen asked "why don't you blog" to which I responded "haha I would but believe me, nobody would read it.."
But for some reason that question kept coming back to me.. WHY don't I keep a blog to track my progress? I admit I did try the youtube vlog thing, which was great at first but soon I started to realize that it wasn't really for me. So why not blog? Honestly I don't really have an answer.

So there it is.. My little introduction. I hope you come back soon for new posts which will included menu recaps, weekly weigh ins and an activity log.

Thanks for reading! :)