Eat to Live Days 13-14

I've made it through two weeks of the Eat to Live program! (More or less - sometimes I overdo it on the grains, nuts, salt, and avocado.) Only four more weeks go to.

I feel like I spent my entire weekend grocery shopping, food planning, and cooking. Maybe because I did...

On Saturday, I decided to make good use of my TTC metropass and go to a few health food stores. I started out at Whole Foods, where I had big plans to treat myself to an expensive salad from their salad bar. I was pleased to find that they offer many salads and dressings that are oil-free! Perfect!

I don't even know what all I piled on there! There were lots of greens, some grains, and an oil-free avocado dressing. I only managed to eat half for lunch, and saved the rest for dinner. After my stop at Whole Foods, I headed over to my old neighbourhood in the east end. I went to Strictly Bulk at Pape and Danforth to pick up some pinto beans, raw cashews, raw peanuts, and almond milk. Then, since I was in the area, I wandered over to The Big Carrot.

After going to three different stores, you'd think I would be done with grocery shopping. Not the case! I still needed a tonne of produce, so I went to the regular grocery store Saturday evening. Then it was time to start cooking!

I made black bean burgers for dinner on Saturday, with the plan to bring one to the barbecue I had to attend today. However, they didn't turn out that great (I wasn't really following a recipe).

I was feeling very anxious about going to this barbecue--I felt awkward about bringing my own food, and I wasn't sure how to explain it to people. I even had a dream last night where I ate a hamburger (and subsequently felt guilty about it)!

Today, I started cooking as soon as I woke up. I really wanted to tackle this recipe for taco salad. I cooked pinto beans with lots of spices and I also made my own salsa!!! I was so impressed with myself. Turns out, it's not even difficult!

I piled loads of pinto beans, salsa, and avocado on some romaine lettuce for lunch.

It was delicious!! I also cooked up a big batch of brown rice to eat throughout the week.

But I still had the matter of the family barbecue to deal with. I had emailed my aunt in advance to let her know that I was avoiding fat and oil due to my gallbladder issues, and that I would be bringing my own food to eat. I decided to abandon the mediocre black bean burgers I made last night, and made a burrito using the pinto beans and salsa I had for lunch.

I'm pleased to say the barbecue was a success! No one questioned me eating my own food, and my aunt even had a plain salad ready for me to eat. Also, my bean burrito was so delicious I didn't miss the burgers and hot dogs that everyone else was eating!

I was shocked to realize that I didn't feel deprived--even when everyone else was eating cookies and ice cream for dessert (I had a banana). On a normal day, at this kind of event, I would have been tortured by the cookies and ice cream. I would agonize over the plate of cookies, wondering how many Weight Watchers Points each one was, and if people would think I was eating too much if I took another one (and another one, and another one...). Tonight, I was just able to enjoy the conversation and not think about food at all. I'd already made the decision about what I was eating, and I could actually focus on other things. It was great! So, in sum, I worried for nothing (as usual).

Stay tuned for tomorrow's weigh-in!

Slump Officially Over!?

I recently posted about being back on track.

Unfortunately, I spoke too soon! It only lasted a couple of days.

But now, I'm REALLY back on track, I swear!

I know it sounds like The Girl Who Cried Back On Track, but this time it's been four full days of tracking and exercising. Hmmm, four days isn't very many, but it's more than half of a week! And I'm determined to keep it going and have a great weigh-in this Saturday!

On Sunday, I mixed things up a bit with a brand new vegetable. It was spilling out of my bag!

Can you guess what it is?

It's red swiss chard! Isn't it beautiful? I'd never had it before, so I threw it in some soup. I also tried some sauteed in chicken broth, and I still have tons left. Dare I try it in a smoothie??

I'm ALSO back on the exercising train. Folks, I don't think you realize what an exercise desert I've been in. It reached scary levels.

Each time I work out, I give myself a star on my wicked-cool Where's Waldo calendar.

And now let's look at June:

Isn't that PATHETIC?! I'm really embarrassed by that, but I've already turned things around for July. The past three days, I've been to three different classes at three different Goodlife locations (I'm really making my membership work for me)!

On Sunday, I went to an amazing Zumba class (and ran into the amazing Ashley). Yesterday, I tried my first ever Goodlife spinning class. Today, I made it out to Body Combat!

I also picked up Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth last weekend. I've wanted to read her books for a long time and I'm really excited!

But it will have to wait until I finish my current book - The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Once I get to it I'll let you know!

In other news, I am HATING the heat. I finally bought a fan today, which is helping.

I'm off to make my lunch for tomorrow now! Peace out, homies.

First Outdoor Booty Camp!

And it was super tough! We're lucky (or unlucky...) enough that the park we're in has a big-ass hill. We ran up it. Several times. Once on all fours. It was BRUTAL! Even worse than running up was running back down. It was really steep and kind of scary. But it's all about getting out of your comfort zone, right??

We also didn't have music during our class, thanks to yours truly. Yep. I stepped on the stereo cable right before class (in my defense, I was walking next to the instructor and the cord was trailing on the ground) and broke it. Oops!

I can tell the next four weeks are going to be tough. :)

In other news, I have to confess: I have not been on-plan the past couple of days. I don't want to make excuses, but I will anyway (hehe). I've been feeling emotional lately and trying to deal with various stressors that all seemed to hit me at the same time. Luckily, I'm going to the cottage tomorrow for some much needed r & r! I plan to rejuvenate (and exercise!) and get back to my cheery, motivated self. I have finished marking my exams, submitted the grades, and tied up all the loose ends (I think!).

I won't be able to make my meeting this weekend either (maybe subconsciously this was contributing to going off-track - knowing I'm not weighing in on Saturday. I would just go to another meeting, but there don't seem to be any where I'll be). This will be the very first meeting I've missed since I joined in November, and I'm sad that my perfect streak has to end!

But I will go BACK on plan. I do NOT want to "lose" the 10% milestone I worked so hard for (will the Weight Watchers police come take my key ring away???), so I will suck it up and stick with the program!

When I got my new 3-month tracker a couple of weeks ago, you may recall that I vowed to be on plan for 10 of those 12 weeks. I can still easily reach that goal!! I was feeling like a failure, but I'm picking myself back up again. Truly, the only reason I'm no longer this girl is because I will never give up, despite the inevitable setbacks:

I will have very limited internet while out of town, so I will be catching up with you all on Sunday when I return! Enjoy the rest of your week & weekend!

Fight Back

Tomorrow morning at 8 am (meaning a 5 am wake-up time for yours truly), I have around 50 students writing an exam. Out of the goodness of my heart, I held some drop-in office hours this afternoon. Because I am incredibly kind, I bought lots of chocolates this morning for my poor, hardworking students (I envisioned a fun group-study-session-type-thing).

I think you know where this is going.

Two students showed up! Two! Leaving Katie alone with lots of chocolate for the better part of two hours. (Chocolate that went really well with the large coffee I was nursing).

Figuring it can't be that many points and I would make up for it with a tiny dinner, I ate some. I tracked it. I thought about how well I've been doing recently, and how this could be my third week in a row staying within my points.

I thought about how close I am to reaching my Weight Watchers 10% (1.2 pounds away) and how close I am to reaching 100 pounds lost (7 pounds away). I didn't want to go over my points for the week just because of some stupid chocolates. Instead of giving up on a great week, I decided to fight back and earn some activity points!

I quickly looked up class schedules at my new gym and spotted Body Combat at 6:45. I was not planning on working out tonight (did you hear I have a 5 am wake-up tomorrow?), but I rushed home after work, polished off my shiny new gym membership, and was on my way.

Body Combat was GREAT and my energy is still through the roof! I'm feeling SO PROUD that I combatted (get it?) my unplanned chocolates (and my unplanned latte and nature square from Second Cup this morning...) with an unplanned workout! And not just any workout - a new class that took me out of my comfort zone! AND I was right up in the front row, messing up the combos for all to see. :)

I'm off to try and unwind before bed! And hopefully wash my only good pair of workout pants so they can dry by Booty Camp tomorrow night...

Toodles!