In the groove?

The past few months, I've had many frustrating moments just trying to get dressed in the morning. I feel very discouraged because my clothes aren't fitting the way they used to (obviously - I've regained 20 pounds!). Sometimes, I go through a ridiculous number of outfits before I find one I feel comfortable enough in to wear in front of a classroom.

Thankfully, the past couple of weeks, I've been doing a better job of focusing on the positive. Instead of being discouraged by snug clothing that used to be too loose, I am using it to motivate me to stay on track and reach my goals. After all, this clothing is proof that I can do it! I've done it before, after all. :)

I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm back in the swing of things. Even though last week wasn't "perfect" (I had a couple of evenings where I didn't track everything I ate), it was still pretty good, and I worked out four times. At my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday, I was down 2.2 lbs! I still haven't gotten to where I was before Christmas, but at least I'm going in the right direction again.

This week is off to a great start. I made it to the gym yesterday and today, and I've tracked all my eats thus far. I've also been sticking with one of the strategies I discussed in my new year's resolution post - drinking enough water. I've been tracking my water pretty faithfully and have definitely increased my intake.

Today's workout was extra-fun: I took my mom to a Zumba class! She liked it so much, that she wants us to start going regularly! I'm really excited about this, because I'm much more likely to stick to a workout if I have a buddy.

Before I go unwind and get ready for bed, I need to share with you some very rude yoga behaviour I witnessed yesterday:

I was trying a yoga class at my gym for the first time. There were three girls sitting up at the front beside me. Before the class started, one of the girl's cell phones went off. She reached for it, and I assumed she was turning it off... nope! It continued to go off repeatedly (at least 4 times) throughout the class. I think she may have actually been texting at one point.

Not only that, all three girls were constantly whispering, chatting, and giggling at everything. It made it super difficult to actually focus and try to meditate. Towards the end, when we were lying on our backs and trying to clear our minds, they very noisily gathered up their stuff and left.

Those same girls were at Zumba today, but that's a much different environment. Hopefully they stay away from yoga in the future!

That's all I have to report today - I hope you all have a great week!

In 2011.

In 2011, I will reach my Weight Watchers goal weight and become a lifetime member.

No more messing around. I know I can do this! This is my most important resolution for 2011.

How will I do it?

Well, tracking, going to my Weight Watchers meetings, and exercising regularly are definitely part of the plan. I'm also going to choose one or two healthy habits to focus on each month.

For the month of January, I will focus on the following:

• drinking enough water each day and tracking it
• finding time each day to meditate, even if only for 1 minute (inspired by one of Angela's "Eleven in 2011")

These are simple things, but I think they will make a huge difference.

To help curb night-time eating out of boredom (I hope!), I plan to spend more time on activities that de-stress me and make me happy. Which brings me to my second resolution:

In 2011, I will knit a sweater.

I love knitting, and I love starting projects (including sweaters)... the problem is finishing them! I don't want to think about how many times I've started a knitting project and not followed through. I think it will be totally rad to have a sweater that I've made all by myself! I'm pretty sure I'll tackle this one.

And my last resolution, which is hopefully not too vague:

In 2011, I will get organized.

I love my apartment, but right now it looks like a tornado swept through it. I plan to set up some new shelving and have a place for everything!

I also need to get my finances organized. I'd like to continue to pay down my insane student debt and help get a better handle on my pocketbook.

One thing I think will help is to go grocery shopping only once a week. It's not an exaggeration to say I love going to the grocery store! I'll often stop in several times a week to pick a few things up. I'm very good at only buying healthy groceries, but I find myself throwing out food that's gone bad much too often.

By planning my meals (at least partially), writing out a grocery list, and shopping once a week, I will keep my kitchen organized, save money, and help my healthy eating efforts.

So far, I think I'm off to a good start! Today, I went back to the gym after a hiatus of over two weeks, and I got a bunch of healthy groceries and cleaned out my fridge!

I'm really excited to see what I can accomplish this year. :)

Looking back on 2010

I started this blog last January with a post about New Year's resolutions. I mentioned two of them on this blog - how I wanted to reach my goal weight and become a Weight Watchers Lifetime member, and how I wanted to eliminate artificial sweetener in my coffee...

One out of two ain't bad, right??

I used to take three sweeteners in my coffee.... gross!!! I can't imagine how much aspartame my poor body has had to deal with. But I'm very proud to announce that, in a relatively short amount of time, I was able to cut that number from three down to ZERO. So at least I met one health-related goal in 2010!

As for reaching my goal weight: Nope, not even close! I gained weight instead. But instead of dwelling on that fact, I will treat the new year as a fresh start (like I always do).

2010 was a year of changes, including some difficult ones. Some significant events that come to mind are:

• Trying Booty Camp Fitness, joining the gym, and trying yoga. I'm still not in as much of a routine as I'd like to be, but I definitely put the tools in place to become a fitness machine!

• Going through a difficult break-up & dating someone new for the first time in years.

• Reaching my Weight Watchers 10% goal in May.
  

• My father suffering a fairly serious heart attack and being diagnosed with congestive heart failure (he is also a diabetic) - on the bright side, he has quit smoking. :)

• A fairly stressful job interview process for a full-time teaching job - I didn't get the job, I'm still "just" a contract teacher, but I learned a lot from the interview, and was very proud of myself for getting one in the first place.

As is evident by my weight gain, eating is definitely my number one coping mechanism for stressful situations.

Over the past couple of months, I have also been doing a lot of knitting! I don't think I've mentioned it here on the blog, but I love knitting and fancy myself pretty good. ;) In fact, for my mom's birthday (right before Christmas), I knit her a milkweed shawl that I consider my best work ever. I didn't manage to get a good picture of it yet, but here it is during blocking (I soaked it in water and pinned it in the shape I wanted it to take):


Knitting is definitely something I want to do more of in 2011 - but I will talk about my aspirations for 2011 in a post tomorrow (yes, I'm planning two posts in two days... after a hiatus of over a month...)

So stay tuned for tomorrow's 2011 post, and have a lovely Saturday evening!

Proud!

Hey folks!

So, despite the fact that I was up 1.2 lbs at my meeting today, I'm feeling really good for the following reasons:

• I worked out four times last week (much more than I had been in prior weeks)
• I ate well and tracked for 5 days out of 7, and partially tracked the other 2
• I went to Swiss Chalet for dinner tonight, and actually ordered something reasonably healthy (i.e. not french fries)! And not only that, I stopped eating before I was uncomfortably full. I actually left food on my plate. I bet I could count on one hand the number of times in my life I've done this before at a restaurant. And now I feel good, not overstuffed. :)

I think part of the reason I was up this morning is that I indulged a bit last night... mainly in some (er, quite a few) potato chips. I'm confident this week's hard work will show up on the scale next Saturday. In the mean time, I'll keep on trucking... and tracking!

I don't know what's gotten into me...

But it's making me do crazy things like exercise twice in the same day! :D

I was down 4.4 lbs at my meeting on Saturday (embarrassed to say that I was still 0.2 lbs above my joining weight over a year ago...) and I really want to be down again this week. I've been gaining weight for so long and trying so hard to regain control of my eating habits that I don't want to lose this momentum.

I've had a couple of non-tracking moments so far this week (including a big potluck craft party... let's just say I did way more eating than crafting), but I've been trying to make up for it with LOTS of exercise. I went for a run on Saturday and to a Newbody class on Sunday (for the first time).

I thought I was going to have to miss my usual BodyCombat class tonight, so I went to a spinning class before work this morning... but then I ended up being free for BodyCombat! Usually I would have skipped it anyway, but my friend wanted to go, and I really want to push myself this week... so I did! So it was a double workout day for me. :)

After all that, I'm freaking exhausted, so I think I'll have a hot bath and get to bed early. Good night!

Super Early Workout!

Just stopping in to inform you that I am officially back in an exercising groove.

That's the only possible explanation for my whereabouts at 5:00 this morning--the gym.

I was at the gym at 5 am, which means I got out of my warm, comfy bed at 4:40 am! Craziness!

And that's not all. This is the third time I've worked out in three days! Tuesday was BodyFlow, Wednesday was BodyCombat, and this morning I did 30 minutes on the stairmaster. Booyah!

I was out of town last weekend and missed my Weight Watchers meeting, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about this Saturday. I think I'm finally starting to settle back into my old healthy ways. :)

Pad Thai Time

Happy Wednesday!

I do hope to get back into the groove of frequent posts... fingers crossed! The past week has been filled with marking an endless pile of tests. Thankfully, I wrapped that up yesterday, and now I have about three weeks before I have to mark again! :D

Last Friday, a dear friend was visiting from Ottawa! She came over for dinner and I wanted to make her something special.

I chose the pad thai from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry!, which I've made once before. I prepped all the ingredients before my friend came over. I felt like I was ready to shoot my own cooking show!

After all the prep was done, the meal came together quite quickly.

It was delicious! We both thoroughly enjoyed it. :)

I've also been rocking the stir fries lately, and I've gone back to an old standby: steel cut oats with brown sugar! I need something to keep me warm, since I try to keep the heat as low as possible.

I'm off to watch some Sex and the City on DVD and knit!