It's warming up!

Woke up this morning and the sun is shining.  The weather is looking like we are going to have some nicer days ahead.  Today is a rest day for me besides biking to the movie store to return some movies.  My long run of 18k is tomorrow and I should be nice and rested for that one.  It is going to be done probably slower than usual as I just want the distance in and also because I have a a bit of a run race on Sunday.

I was just checking the Roadrunner's site and the time and location has changed from before.  It looks like it may be a harder course with a nice hill on the end of it. :(  So I am not sure if I am going to be able to beat my time on a 5k or not. :( :(

Scale wise, I peaked again and things are looking even better for me.  I had a healthy day yesterday and I hope to continue today so that it stays at this wt or may be goes lower...  only time will tell. :)

My one dog decided that she like to counter surf all of a sudden now. :(  My almost 4 yr old, Cleo, has eaten a few meals on the counter the last couple of days.  I have to make sure that everything is put way far back or she goes in there and helps herself.  Last night I had to make an extra plate because she decided mine was hers.  It's funny because she knows that she has done wrong and goes and hides after she has done it.  I hope she is not revolting because we have not done agility this year yet...  She loves her agility. :)  So I have to work on that with her.

Tonight I have a meeting that is for all parents in the gr. 6-8 of my son's school for a camp that they are going to in the beginning of June.  I will probably be gone all 3 days there since they always request that someone from our family is their because of my son's designation.  So I will be volunteering for a couple of things.  Just don't know what I want to do yet.  The students love when I am the cabin mom because the girls love the stories at night. :)

My husband left yesterday morning for Regina to work and will be back later today.  He is being sent out of town so much that anytime that I want to work, I can't because he is not home for my son in the morning.  I think I may have to come up with some other alternatives now for these types of situations.

Boy I am just rambling this morning... this must be a little boring. :)

For the rest of today, I am going to be working on cleaning up the basement and clearing out and unplugging the fridge downstairs.  We don't have anyone living down there and can't till repairs are done, so the area has been used for games, workout room, study room and such.  I was putting some extra stuff in there, but we all keep forgetting about it.  oops! :)  So I am just going to unplug the old thing and be done with it.

Well, since wi is tomorrow, I am going to work extra hard to make sure that it is a core day, watch the sodium, and up the water.  Let's see what tomorrow brings. :)

I gave in...

... my shoulder's were way too sore still and decided not to go to hot yoga last night and will hope that someone will be there to instruct on Thursday as they have been having a hard time getting someone for those nights.  I never did get my nap yesterday so last night I went to bed at 9:15 pm and woke up at 7 this morning... still a bit on the tired side, but my body needed the rest. :)

Today is elliptical and some wts and probably a bike ride with my son after school again.  He and I went out yesterday and stayed out for just over an hour biking around the school tarmack and such.  He did not want to come in.  I offered him to stay out by himself... but he wanted me with him.  He says he is ready to ride to school now so today I will buy him a bike lock.  God forbid if his bike ever gets stolen - I am not sure how he would react to that.

Supper last night was sooooo nummies. :)  I love being able to bbq meals again.  My husband is gone just for the day out of town here and will be back late tonight so it will just be my son and I.  As it is usually eat out Tuesdays here with renting a movie, I think I will ask what he wants to do and let him pick everything because I am so proud of him right now.  This is a huge accomplishment for him with wanting to be outside for anything. :)

Other than that, not much else is planned for the day besides the usual.

One thing I am working on though is changing my blog.  I think it is getting too busy with everything that I have on there.  The first thing I may do is either pick a less busy background or just a plain one. With all my picks and such... it is looking kinda messy.  I see everyone's looking so nice and well polished...  I would love to be able to design my own one day, like that's going to happen. lol  We picked up a website design book for me to try and learn.  This should be interesting... lol it is impossible for me to understand all that stuff!  For now though I am sticking with the general templates offered here and maybe another background from Pyzam.  I have not found the right design/cartoon/pic yet that I really want for my header.  So, until I find one, get someone to graciously make me one, or attempt to make one, I will use what I got.

OK, let me just say that going to 18 pts a day is crazy!!!!  There is not for choices out there when you hit that low of pts.  I am trying to be more creative here but I am lacking in it right now.  Core is soooo much easier...  Not going back just yet though. :)  The scale is still the same from last wi here and I am hoping for at least a .2 lb drop on Friday.  My exercise is now pretty high and I do not want to starve myself to lose.  I have a bit of flex to use up yet before friday here so today will be the day :).

I am sooooo looking forward to running tomorrow!  The weather will not be as nice as it was this weekend but beggars can't be choosers!  As long as there is no snow. :)

Non-smoker. :)

elliptical: 45 mins

wts: 30 mins

As I expected...

... official wi and challenge wi today and I am up 1.2 lbs which makes me at 126.6 which is OK with me. :)  I knew the wt came off a bit too fast there for a bit...  Also, this week was TOM, I know I did not have my usual amount of water this week, AND my DH brought home OPA last night for supper!  Realistically, OPA is not that bad except for the sodium and the tzaziki sauce that they put on it.  The sauce and the white pita bread were really not core.  As I said, I am OK with the gain and I know this puts me back in the 'safer zone' of losing wt. :)  My body could also be slowing down now in the wt loss due to all the muscle that I am putting on.  I did miss one work out this week due to being sick too AND maybe a bit of overtraining symptoms prior (fast loss of wt).  So, I guess there are lots of factors on why I went back up. lol  Oh ya!  I did eat every pt allowed to me this week also in the end. :)

I had to think there for a bit what day it was here... lol  Glad it is friday. :)

I am still in the inspirational mode here from the movie. :)  So, I can see a great workout coming my way.  Today is stationary bike and wts tonight, I may slip in a super easy recovery jog with Tala this morning because she really looked hurt the last couple of days when I did not take her (too far for her yet).  :(  30 mins max is all I am going to do there. :)  And as I said, SUPER easy as I do not want to over train. :)

Well, I have never changed my official wi day before... so this should be interesting...  I was a bit leery about it this morning when I saw the scale, but I know this will be better for fueling up days (Saturday) before my long slow runs on Sunday.

Food wise for today, I am still not quite sure except for my breakie. :)

Austin ended up staying home yesterday because he was sick and I am waiting her to see how he is this morning if he needs another day off or not.  The one thing about cold meds and his regular meds... the cold negates his other meds and things get quite interesting around here.  I keep on telling him that he needs to relax on the couch... but ends up running around in his self-made ninja costume... lol He has such a hard time controlling himself...  and when he can't calm down when he is sick... that is when we end up in the hospital.  When I talked with the school and his EA last night, they both had said to watch for Foot and Mouth because it is in the school right now.  Maybe keeping him home another day might not be such a bad idea.... :S

Well time to check up on him and to see what I should do.  Another mommy/son day would be nice. :)

Oh ya!  Hills yesterday... I worked so hard on trying the positive self talk doing them!  I made it!  All six times up and down. :)  It was funny because when I started there were these city workers setting up on the side of the road doing something and ended up cheering me on as I kept on running up them.  I know they must have thought I was crazy or something (Stacie... I vote for the crazy too!  lol)  but they kept on saying 'how many more left?' and cheering.  It was just a bit creepy... but it was really great and helpful also.  My time also improved running them as I went to the hill that I used to train on.  The warmup and cool down trail is flatter and it is away from the downtown area of the city.  The hill street is also less busy and a smoother road surface.

OK.. did I talk your head off yet?  lol

Non-Smoker :)

run: easy 30 mins morning with Tala, temp +8 and sunny, 3.97km/27:33 mins, avg 147 bpm 6:53 min/km, it turned out to be a bit faster than I wanted. :(  Need to focus on staying on a slower pace on recovery runs.

stationary bike: 60 mins tonight

wts: 30 mins tonight

Welcoming Monday...

Today is a rest day for me.  I may take the bike out here later as it looks like it is going to be a cloudy, but nice afternoon out. :)  Tomorrow is going to be just BEAUTIFUL out!  Wooo Hooo!  I guess it is time to take my x-mass decorations down.... lol Yes, they are still up. :P

So, I have been totally ignoring my homework here this weekend.  Not good.  I need to get on track here and get it done and have to stop procrastinating and get my butt in gear.

Food wise yesterday, things were not too bad but I did make sure to eat my share of it after my run. :)  Today is going to be a good core day.

Well it's a pretty short post today as I have to get moving and get my son ready for school.

Still no smoking. :) (although very hard this weekend)

Finally Sunday...

Well I took my son to the movie Nim's Island after the unfortunate news yesterday.  My son was pretty upset about Suki and was really focusing on the whole death issue of the other pets.  I assured him that right now everyone is OK but things in life do happen.  We had a good long talk about the whole thing...  I am not too sure how he is now because this morning he was upset with Santa (yes Santa, I told him the truth this year because he is in grade 6, but he still believes).  At x-mass Suki started to get really bad and I thought she was going to die then.  My son had already wrote Santa previously, so he re-wrote another email to Santa requesting that he wanted to take back everything that he wanted for x-mass and have Suki get better instead.  So now with Suki gone... he is pretty much in the angry stage right now, especially with Santa.

As far as how was the movie Nim's Island?  Wonderful!!! We both really liked the movie and I thought it was pretty good for a family movie to all go see together. :)  I only heard one little girl that was about 3 yrs old say that she did not like one part in it because she thought it was scary.  My son is a real scaredy cat at even the slightest scare and he had no problems.  I would definitely recommend this movie for the whole family to see. :)

Today I went out to run 16k.  It is a good thing that I check the weather station before I leave because the weather decided to change things up a bit.  Started off at -2 and plans for 1-3 cm of snow.  Great! :(  Well it is a good thing I was prepared because what a snow storm!  It came up at about 4k in to the run and lasted till the last k.  So it was lots of fun!  *insert sarcasm here* lol

Well it really was not too bad of a run in the end though.  Today I was really focussing on going slow and trying to keep my HR low.  I checked in to some sites that I was referred to and looked at paces geared for me for my different types of runs.  I found myself going a little fast at times and had to really focus on the slow part.  I guess the hardest part is that I am basing all of my training paces on my 5k runs that are on the paths here that are really hilly.  I can't wait for my first event here so I can get a realistic time for one and then go from there.  I had heard once from someone that was wondering how slow to go because they felt fine at the faster pace for their long slow runs.  Their pace was based on what they had done in a race last yr.  Another person replied that maybe this person was not going fast enough when they run their races and therefore their long slow ones would be geared faster.  This kind of struck a point with me.  I know I have improved tremendously in the last couple of yrs from going from a snail's pace to a turtle, but maybe I am better than what I think I am... I figure since I have been running for a couple of yrs now I should start looking at tweaking things a bit while still remaining injury free. :)

I am having a bit of troubles with my garmin and the distance that it is registering that I am going.  It seems like it is saying that I am going farther than I actually am.  My Nike+ actually recorded the distance better than my garmin when I mapped out my run.  For now I am still going to use the garmin stats to keep stats consistent though.

Well 3 people, that I know of, are injured from running with the running clinic.  The one girl that I was running with was having some problems and finally did herself in one night pushing herself a little too much.  I like the instructor in their clinic but I am finding that too many people are going too fast for what they should be and therefore injuries.  Their clinic is for first timers doing the 1/2.  This kind of takes the fun out of running and many lose interest because they are getting constantly injured.  I have done this and learnt my lesson.  The good thing is that I never gave up and found my proper way of getting my mileage in.  So for all you newbies out there wanting to start running...  take it slow!  Please?  lol  Your body will thank you so much more for it! :)  Now unless you are quite physically fit already then fine.  Go at what feels comfortable but remember the 10% rule with distance, time and effort. :)  There, did my little parental nagging for the day. lol

Food wise, things are better again.  After much thought, I am going to move my wi day to Fridays instead of having the 2 wi's on Friday for the challenge and Sunday for the official.  With my 1/2 marathon coming up and some other events always ending up on a Sunday, I would like to be able to eat more on the Saturday night so my body is fueled up properly.

As for my official wi today, my wt has stayed the same. :)

The rest of the day here I am going to do some cleaning and laundry and hopefully something with my son. :)

No Smoking. :)

run: 16.04 km/1:59:55 mins, avg 160 bpm 7:29min/km, temp -2 with snowstorm, wore 3 light layers, felt pretty good except for the snow, tried to remain on the road where I could that would be the same route as the half marathon, ran with the running room group but was by myself at the back taking it slow. :)

ummm....

Please don't shoot me for this... I am down another big number for the week and it is actually worrying me a bit.  Don't get me wrong though... I am taking it and running with it. :)

Down 3.2 from last Friday wi challenge that I am in which makes me 125.4 lbs!  AND I made a 21.2 lb loss thus far!  That makes it 2 wks in a row now though that I have had a big number loss.  Grant it my APs are a big number and yesterday was a steady run for about 1.5 hrs (at a sloooowwww rate :) and hills :(  ) <---- it was a real struggle to finish it.  I have only 10 FPs left and only the last 2 days I have not been able to eat all my APs earned.  Next wk my plan is to eat MORE!!! lol  I hope to eat all APs earned and all my FPs for the week. :)  If I gain a bit, that is going to be OK so that my body will even out a bit.  I foresee a nice treat coming my way... lol  I have been pretty busy which I did not realize until a few have pointed it out.  Thanks guys! *wink* lol  I am going to slow down a bit here too... Maybe that's why I have been so dammed tired here the last couple of days... :s *duh*  lol

There is no movement again in Suki's cage and I am too scared to look.  DH is gone till Tues now....  I am sick to my stomach right now...

I am going to see if I can get a pic on here of my new do today.  I have a couple of self taken pics that day from my camera phone and my camera.  I will load them up and see which one doesn't look so goofy. :)

For exercise today it is going to be cross training with the stationary bike and wts.  I am not going to push myself too hard as I am feeling super tired and a little sore from yesterdays run.  So it is going to be an easy workout.  Any pain and I will be stopping.  I can't wait for tomorrow's rest day....

Food wise today, I am going to have my steel cut oats for breakie with a banana, I have already have had 1 cup chocolate milk, lunch will be a tuna something, and supper will be a chicken oriental salad from McD's with my son. :)  Core snacks to fill me where needed.  So it will be a mostly core day and my FPs will be used up more.  I am planning to rent a movie here with my son tonight so popcorn will probably be in there too. :)

Still no smoking!! :)

Sbike: 60 mins?

wts: 30 mins?

Funny British/slapstick movie...

My DH and I went to see this movie last night and we both enjoyed it.  It has a bit of fowl language in it so just a pre-warning incase you may be offended.  Although it makes fun of many running cliches, and not really realistic to train for a marathon in that short of time, it had a good moral to the story.  My DH and I had a good talk afterwards about things like hitting the wall and other such running issues that I think my DH is looking at what I have done in the past differently (better) and is more interested in my running now. Who would have thunk it that this comedy would have brought on all that?  lol  It was a mindless funny show though that I will actually buy when it is released on DVD for my feel good/funny/motivational running movies.

Yesterday I had a great ride on my stationary bike and increased the resistance a couple of times for some intervals.  My wt session also went well and I am really focusing on making sure that I am getting a total body work out so I am balanced more in my strength.  Today is a rest day for me and I will just be getting in some leisurely walking in at the GardenScape Show here.  I am so excited to go and get some new ideas.  :)  I am working on trying to have a more 'green' habitat out there with the composting, rain water collection, and solar lighting.  I sure hope they have some new things that I can take advantage of at some pt.  I have a dream to have a house one day on solar power and water reservoirs under the drive way and such... but it sucks that so much money is needed first to be able to do these things... It kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me...  Low income families would have cheaper utilities if all the houses were more eco friendly...

Tomorrow is official ww wi day so watching sodium and drinking lots of water.  I have no more flex left from earlier this week :), and no APs will be earned so today I think may be on the tougher side.  That is the one thing that I really like about core though... I do feel I am quite satisfied on less than I ate before which makes me think in the end that it will not be as bad as I originally thought.

My DS comes home tomorrow and I am so excited.  It is always so hard for me when he is gone to his dad's.  He gets the typical spoiled time all in a short period of time and then wonders why he can't have/do these things here.  I keep reminding him that he only sees him a little spurts maybe 5 times a yr so yes, it seems like a lot.  I simply ask him in about a years time what have I done... It is really disheartening though because my ex really flaunts the money around and when my DS called me the other day... he's like hi mom, I am talking to the Lexus!  So... my ex bought another luxury car... Well at least he did not threaten my son this time like when he was told not to not tell me about the beemer...  Who cares.  Am I hurt? Realistically... yes.  But just because it seems that my ex is trying to buy my DS's love and attention.  No amount of money in the world would ever bring me back to wanting this man and my son will soon figure things out on how his dad really is.

Well, thanks to the cold weather, I was not able to take my new bike out for a spin yet and today is looking the same.  It is sunny today but still cold.  We are supposed to have a bit of snow yet again...  Not much... but just enough to say... enough already! Bring on Spring!!!! :)

A good day so far...

I sneaked a peak at my scale and was totally surprised!  It showed in the 120's!  Now that is a sight I have not seen (officially) in a looonnnnngggg time. :)  Tomorrow is the beginning of the April Fool's Day challenge and I am hoping that it will stick.  I am finding it quite hard to believe though with all the junk stuff I ate and such high pts at the beginning of the week.  I usually do have a higher pts then but not THAT much or that high.  Sunday alone was over 50 pts!  My FP's are gone as of Tues, and I have just been eating my DPs and APs.  I am trying to sort this in my head is that I either completely shocked my body and put it in super metabolism mode, that I may need more food than what I have been eating, that the guy from 'I Can Make You Thin' on TV has a pt about eating what you want (in moderation)  :), or who knows?  I have been increasing my weekly mileage and being strict with my training so that may have something to do with it and not overtraining.  There are a few factor involved in this so it really makes me wonder.  The other thing is, is that I thought things would really start to slow down here because I was thinking that my body would be leveling itself out because it should be telling me here soon that I am close to a goal of sorts.  The other thing that I think it may be telling me is that my original goal is not too far off from what it should be.  I have gone back to eating core after my little spurt of high pts and it is still hard, but I am going to continue to struggle through it.

Suki is still around, very weak right now but still snugly... I had her out on my shoulder around the house yesterday while I was watching some TV downstairs.  I am so going to miss her if this is her time...  

Today I have some hill repeats that I am going to do.  I was going to do them on the TM but I may head out and drive to the river and do them their.  There is a couple of  really good hills here by Broadway and another couple on the other side of the city by Lawson.  I will probably choose the closest. :)

Last night, the running room group did 5 km instead of 6 that I thought they were going to do.  So I did it and had to really push myself last night though.  The 2 girls did not go so I went faster which was good but started off to fast... My Garmin was giving me wonky readings and I could not tell until it was too late.  So, I still did a great time!  The cold wind was horrible though and it sure felt like it was the beginning of winter all over again out there.  It smelled like it. :)  After the run, a few of us went out to starbucks and decided we should do this more often.  It was fun getting to know more people and all there stories.  A good chunk of us gave the running a reason for there wt loss.  It was also good to hear about some of the mistakes we all made when we first started out.  It made me feel more human and not so embarrassed about mine. :)  I guess we all learn from our mistakes!  :)  Slow and steady is the key, especially when first starting out.

Food wise, I have been a good girl again in this area as stated above. I got myself back on track and I am avoiding chocolate at all costs right now... except my after run chocolate milk of course. :)  OH!  I found Nesquik chocolate syrup with less sugar in the store yesterday!  This is great because I can mix it with my skim milk and it is cheaper and better in pts. :) I have found that the lowest pt chocolate milk so far is the Dairyland brand but it is hard to find.  The other Lucern and Beatrice are higher.  So, it was a great find for me. :)  My body after my run's is thanking me too.

I am still not smoking!  And yes, I really have to update the bottom of my post. :)

run: hills x 5, outside, temp -8 and sunny, 9.44km/1:20:35, avg 165 bpm 8:32min/km, very slow pace as I was doing the hills in the middle, 3k warmup and 3k cooldown, I took the hills easy at the same exertion as I felt running on the flats, since I have been running my hills before on the treadmill my knees took not as highly to the downhill running, I stretched, iced and took ibuprofen, I will have to remember to take extra glucosamine for my joints, I wore too much clothing as I thought it would be colder out. (3 layers) It was a steady run with no walking breaks and only stopped 2x for some stretching.  Yeah!  A PB for me in how long I lasted running straight for me!

Quit Smoking:

Happy Easter!!!

So, was the Easter Bunny good to you this year?  He was to me!  My DS and I have had a great time this weekend doing what he wanted.  Now that things are winding down, I am in the middle of doing laundry so that I can pack his close for his trip this week.

I just finished downing my McD's of a McRib and med fries with a diet coke... all in all the McRib was not so worth it but the fries sure were!!!! :)  Yesterday I did stay within my pts but it really was not that much core.  Today so far the only thing that has been core was my breakie.  *giggle* Oh... those little Lindt chocolate eggs... ate them too.  Don't know how many and don't care today.  I just finished running 12 km and being Easter with just my son around... I let myself go. :)  It was well worth it and I know that I still have a 1 pt left of my daily pts - I think and my flex.  (the little eggs confused me)  But... If I eat well tonight and just stick with my eat out Tuesday... This week should be a good one still.  I know I can get back on track again.

Well.... drum roll please.... I am down to 130.8 lbs! and a whopping 18.5 inches!  Ya Hooooooo!  It was really funny yesterday because I was trying to find a pair of pants to wear and they all looked terrible!!!  I only have 2 pairs of jeans at this moment that I can wear in public. :)  Those 120's are looking mighty fine close at this pt.  The last time I thought I was this wt was back in 2004!  I am really not too sure at this pt because the scale I had been using was out.  By using this new scale and the way the clothes are fitting me... I think I am skinnier.  :)  So I know that when I hit my goal wt before 2004... I really did put wt right back on.  Not this time though!  I will not let myself get past 130 lbs again.  My goal wt is set for really low rt now but I am waiting to see where things taper off more and that should give me a good indication of where I should be now in this time of my life.  I still can't get over the pants though because 3 yrs ago I bought these one pair of pants one summer and today they look extremely baggy... I sure let that wt come back on....

Well today's run went super well.  It was a bit on the slower side again as I was helping with pacing with 2 other girls.  They have a bit of a problem going out too fast at the start and then almost keel over with being so tired.  The distance today was really hard for one of them...  The other was a bit stronger though so at the last half km of the distance I let the other go in stronger and I stayed back and only pushed the one a bit hard coming in.  They are doing quite well though.  My new shoes worked out great!  I am so happy that I went yesterday and got them.

The rest of today is rest besides getting my DS ready to go and then it is all alone time for me for 24 hrs till my DH comes home....  Gee... what am I going to do with myself!  :)

run: 12.02 km/1:28:29 mins, avg 164 bpm 7:22 mins/km, temp -5 small wind, outside and sunny, wore med layer with wind shell.  New Mizuno's worked great.

Quit Smoking: 1 month 11 days

Good Friday

A little late in posting today... I was a bit busy this am.  Austin and I just finished dropping off Jason at the airport with his work partner for some re-certification on some stuff.  Jay won't be home till Monday night now... And with Austin leaving Sunday night... I am going to be alone for 24 hrs!  Woooo Hoooo!  I wonder what kink of trouble I can get into... :)

Well today I went looking for some new runners and wanted to go to a different store other than the Running Room this time to get a second opinion on what shoes to get.  I know I need a stabilizer but the ones I have are not doing to well in keeping my rt foot under control.  I do not want to go to orthotics unless I absolutely HAVE to.  The other store here, Brainsport, has been in Saskatoon for years and are very knowledgeable, but I am always intimidated when I go there because it always seems that just the elite go there.  They are a little bit more expensive, but the knowledge is worth it.  So I got in my car all ready to go with my current running shoes on and low and behold... the store is closed today.  I was quite surprised because majority of the stores here are open, it is just the government, banks, and city ones that I understood were closed.  Oh well,  I can wait until tomorrow.  I just will not be able to wear them on my long run on Sunday.  Have to break them in first and make sure they are good ones for me.

Challenge wi today was a sts.  I was not too surprised as my exercise schedule is going to be hill workouts on the Thurs before Fridays now.  I was contemplating doing them on the Tues but then I have my speed run on Wed.  Decisions, decisions...  But on a good note, I have met my challenge goal and my AP goal.  Surpassed both!  :)

Well I have almost completed a full week of core now and I am still not too sure of what I am going to continue with.  I really like how I am feeling fuller and I do not have the cravings that I used to as much, but on the other hand, my eating schedule for the week is not quite suiting it.  I am having a hard time with that and making the right decisions food wise and I do not want the family to change our little traditions.  I once heard of someone referring to a combined mix of core and flex as flore.  This is where you eat a majority of core foods and count pts.  I must admit that I did continue to count my pts this week while attempting core and I found that I was forcing a little to eat my required amounts for pts with APs.  With switching to more core foods, I was fuller longer.  So, I am going to continue to count the pts and try to continue to be as core as possible and see where this takes me.

NSV today was putting on a pair of pants that I bought myself in Sept/07.  They look ridiculous!  lol.  No word of a lie... when I pull them away from my waist, there is a good 3 inches of a gap!  And these were nice, snug, and fitting when I bought them.  :)  I showed my husband and he just laughed at me and said I was melting away on him. :)  So that put me in a good mood today.

Today for exercise is some cross training, strengthening, and stretching.  We went out for our brunch at OPA and I was very good.  No pita bread, had the chicken, and had the ceasar dressing on the side.  :)  I am sure the chicken would be a bit high on the sodium and extra fat but I will be counting some extra pts for that.

A complaint on the weather here... I thought a temp of 1 should feel warmer than this!  It smells like we are going to have a major snowstorm here!!!  And the cold is just biting.   :(

I joined a new Canadian running group last weekend and I love it.  I was involved in the Mom's in Motion here last year but really did not feel that I fit in.  It seemed that everyone was more of a crowd that just had babies or young toddlers.  So I just did not see the 'fit.'  So this new group is called Running Mania and everyone just seems like a hoot and there are all abilities of runners there.  So I feel quite more at ease with them.  I just ordered some of their running maniac gear so I can run my half marathon here in maniac style.  :)  

cross training

strengthening

Quit Smoking 1 month 9 days

No School?

I thought my son had school today but found out last night that he did not.  I even put up the schedule in his classroom and the teacher did not say anything about it.  I am confused now as I was going to sub today... :(  Now I am getting phone calls for other schools.  I did not bring the phone to bed cause I thought ok I guess I am not working and here I have some messages.  Well I guess I am going to be booking myself off since my son is going to be home.  So, no paycheck this month... :(  :(

Last night's run went really well for me.  I am getting so close to running 5 k in 30 mins!  There were a couple of hills that were long and dragged out and I had 3 lights to deal with.  This is my year to hit it I know it!  It was such nice weather last night also.  Tonight I am going to do my first hill workouts for the season on the treadmill.  This should be fun...  I just have to keep saying to myself... I love hill workouts, I love hill workouts...

Well, challenge wi is tomorrow again so lots of water and watching the sodium.  When I went to the store last night, I picked up some cherry tomatoes and snow peas for snacking.  I am trying to not just have mostly fruit during the day so I am hoping that these will help me.  I can't wait to grow my own so it will not be as expensive.  I have looked at those in home light growing kits and they are just under $200!  OUCH!  So, growing right now is out of the question.  Oh well, pretty soon I will be able to start my plants from seed here in preparation to getting ready to start my garden.  I have always just bought prestarted ones and put them in but I am going to try this on my own this year.

I am working on what to do for supper here.  We have some cous cous left over from supper last night (stir fry) so that will be part of it.  I have to get back into planning my meals here... It works out so much better when I do that.  

I have a little rant.  Two weeks ago my chem instructor changed.  The old one was awesome and was always on the ball.  This new one had my assignment for almost a wk before he marked it and I emailed him 2 days ago for some help and I still have not heard anything back!  I am just about finished my next assignment but I am confused on one question on the practice stuff and low and behold there is a question on the assignment that is pretty close to it.  I sure hope that he gets himself organized more and starts to respond quicker.

Well, I had better go and book myself off here so that they know that I am unavailable for work.

run: 3 hills

Quit Smoking: 1 month 8 days

another visit!

OK... a little PO'd here... TOM decided to show up again!!!!  Not too happy here.  Last year I had it like 4 times with one or two weeks inbetween with no breaks.  I am going to put it up with the exercise that I have been doing or the injury for now.  If it continues though... I am going to go back to my doc...

Well last night's supper was not core at all.  KFC to be exact.  A whole 18 pts worth! lol I did not eat as much as I usually did before I started ww and I was not stuffed.  I was actually hungry about 3 hours later, so I had some grapes with sour cream then went for my workout.  I made sure I got in my 3+ L/day yesterday and the scale was not too overly bad this am so all is good.  I counted everything and I am moving on.

We rented the movie 'Enchanted' last night and it was funny!  The singing was a bit much but I sure laughed my head off throughout the movie though.

Tonight I have my run with the Running Room group and I think we are running 5 or 6 km tonight.  I have to check that.  I will be working out my IT band a bit this am and make sure I really stretch out good after my run.  Last night I had no pains beside my knee at all so what I am doing is working.  I just have to keep it up!  :)

Not quite sure what I am making for supper yet... I think I am still half asleep here.  :)

Plans for the day are homework and submit and assignment I finished yesterday, running, and a little cleaning.

Edit: I completely forgot to tell you about my 'new love!'  Now, I absolutely HATE plain yogurt... really hate it!  So when I read about people mixing ff chocolate pudding powder in their yogurt, I was really skeptical.  I have tried this on Sunday and man oh man... it is totally da BOMB!!!  I love cheesecake and this tastes just like one. Today I put 1 tsp of olive oil (for daily oils) and a tbsp of bran in also and now it is even more like a cheesecake!!!!  I have ran out of my container so now I have to take a break and go to the store to pick up some more.  Oh ya,  I find it quite satisfying and it really tides me over till my next meal.  It satisfies my cravings for chocolate, desert, and stomach all in one.  :)

run: 5.01 km/32:42 mins, avg 175 bpm 6:31 min/km, temp 2 and sunny with little wind, felt good and could have pushed a bit faster, had 3 stop lights to wt for, outside with running room group

Quit Smoking: 1 month 7 days.

Last nights eating...

OK... so yesterday I was doing that slow down your eating thing and stop when you are full and I don't know what happened but last night I kept on snacking... 12 almonds, 11 pretzel chips, more yogurt and ff cho-pudding powder, cadbury thin... I finally made myself a home made London Fog tea at home and said enough already!  The only thing that was core was the yogurt and pudding powder by the way.  Yes it could have been worse but man oh man I do not know what happened.  :(  It was completely mindless eating...  oh... and my water... maybe 1 L in? I still have a couple of WPs left but not very many.  I don't know what I am going to do for the rest of the week let alone tonight for Tuesday's eat out night.  I am counting all the pts and trying to move on on core but I am really not sure now how I am going to make it.  I will be earning some APs today for some extra pts and hope for the best.

So for exercise today I am going to cross train, some strengthening exercise, some challenge moves, and some yoga to stretch things out.  Yesterday I managed to do some yoga and really worked on my IT band.  I also iced it 3X yesterday with some pain killers/anti-infamatories and will do the same today.  I still have bruising on my chest so I wont's go super hard working out that area.  There is only minor pain there right now so I will just take it easy on it.

I was considering subbing today but want to work on my homework.  Last night I had a phone call from one of my guy friends that is in the LPN course here.  He started with the RN one and then decide time wise he would just do the LPN first and decide later.  I used to work with him at one of the long term care homes as a special care aid before I became an EA.  Then I ran into him while I was working at a school because his kids went there.  Small world!  :)  Anyways, he kinda kicked my butt more and got me thinking that I really need to buckle down on my straps more.  He is a good person but man, he is worse than a woman on the phone and does not stop talking!  Two hours later... I finally said that I really have to get going!

Well, as I get ready here for the day, my plans are to really try to see if I can get core to work for me, homework, plan meals, and some light cleaning of the house.

cross training

strengthening

challenge moves

yoga

Quit Smoking: 1 month 6 days