Friday 29 June 2012

June Foodie Penpal!

Hi Everyone! 


Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend! The weather is gorgeous here and I'm likely out celebrating because it's Canada Day long weekend here in Canada :)


I participated in the Foodie Penpal program again this month. Unfortunately there were a few hiccups and my post today is missing a few key parts. 




First things first, if you've never heard of the Foodie Penpal program, here's a brief description taken from The Lean Green Bean site:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treatsThe spending limit is $15The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

**


Last month was my first month participating and I really enjoyed it, so I was eager to sign up for June. This month I actually had non-bloggers for both my receiving and sending penpal. Which is perfectly fine! If you're paired with a non-blogger and you have a blog, you're supposed to give them an opportunity to give a write-up about your package to post on your blog. My penpal was Thara, she has a website, but it's not quite a blog. I quickly learned that Thara has food allergies to nuts. This made things a little more challenging on my end, but it just meant that I had to look a little harder for some goodies to send ;)


This was my box for her...



The box included: 

- Diva 3 Cheese Popcorn. This is a nice light snack (I believe it was 100 calories for the bag)

- Fruit & Fruit berry bar. This bar includes only whole fruit and is very tasty!

- Chocolate Truffle Bar. I wasn't too sure if Thara could eat this because it "could" contain nuts and I wasn't sure how severe her allergy was. 

- Cajun Oven Fries Seasoning. Love this stuff! You just slice up your potatoes, mix with olive oil and the seasoning and let them bake in the oven. 

- Cajun Lime Soy Sticks (I think that's the name?) - My sister found these at Bulk Barn last year and they are sooooo good! The flavour is awsome and they're nice and crunchy. I took a picture of the nutrition label and ingredients for her too... just incase :)

- Cinnamon Honey from the local market. I was given a sample of this at the farmers market and it was delicious! 


Thara emailed me and said that she really enjoyed the box of goodies! :)

Unfortunately, I haven't received a package from my penpal yet. BUT I know that it wasn't her fault. She sent it a couple weeks ago (which is more than enough time!), so I'm pretty confident that Canada Post has screwed up somewhere (shocking!). Hopefully it comes in soon and once it does, I'll make sure to publish a post with all my goodies... I'm anxious to get it :)


The Foodie Penpal program has grown to over 1000 participants in less than a year. It's a lot of fun and it seems like everyone really enjoys it! I've already signed up for July and you still have time to sign up as well!




Wednesday 27 June 2012

Progress

Thanks to the Lose a Marathon Challenge, I finally decided to take some "during" pictures and my measurements. I haven't done either since sometime last year when I was pushing 280lbs. I must say, I'm really glad I did it! I wish I would've worn the same shirt though. 


Here are my progress pictures (they can also be found on the LMC page): 



Measurements:

2011                       June 2012

Waist: 45"             43"
Hips: 54.5"            51.5"
Chest: 49.5"         47"
Stomach53"       49.5"
Thigh: 31"             30"
Arm: 18"               18"
Neck: 14.5"          14"
Calf: 18.5"             18.5"

Total Lost so far: 12.5"


I definitely notice a difference in my stomach and arms. However, my measurements tell me that I haven't lost any inches in my arms :P That being said, I find taking measurements difficult because I don't remember exactly where I should be measuring... so I could've lost an inch in my arms. I'm going to take another set of pictures and measurements during the first week of August and again at the end of the challenge. I really didn't think the weight loss was visible yet, so this was a nice reminder of how far I've come already :)


**

This week, as part of the Lose a Marathon Challenge, my goal is to drink the proper amount of water for my body weight. According to an online calculator, I should be drinking around 120oz. I learned to love water about 6 years ago and now it's all I drink 98% of the time. Every day at work I drink at least 3, 32oz bottles of water and then a few more glasses while at home.. so I'm pretty damn close to the 120oz goal. The only time I find it challenging is on the weekends because my water bottle isn't always sitting next to me. So my goal for this week is to drink at least 96oz of water during the weekend. 


Monday 25 June 2012

Monday Weigh In and Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, I sure did!


I stepped on the scale this morning for my first Monday Weigh In and it read 256. I little more than it did on friday, but I'll take the 1.5lb loss :) I've also added a page where I'm going to track my Lose a Marathon progress. I was surprised to see a difference in my pictures already (the first picture was taken sometime in 2012) and I'm also down about 10inches overall. I'll likely take another picture and my measurements at the halfway point and again at the end of the challenge. I hope it keeps me motivated throughout the summer. 


We had an action packed weekend. Saturday morning we headed to our friends place for the 3rd Annual Washer Tournament. This tournament is always so much fun! This year was no different. There was about 40 people there and 30 of us in the tournament. The first round started around 1:30 and I don't think we went to bed until after 2am, but the tournament itself is over around 6pm ;)


most people have never heard of Washers, so I thought a picture would help :)


For some reason the boyfriend and I were up at about 7:30am, so we cleaned up a bit, said bye to the hosts and headed home. We had plans to go tubing that afternoon so we were hoping to get a nap in before then. 


The nap never did happen and by 11am we were on the road again. We met up with another couple and headed to a nearby river. A couple months ago I was actually trying to find a place where we could go tubing down a river, so I was pretty excited when they asked us to go this weekend. Not to mention that this place is free (the other places I found were run by someone). The weather wasn't the best, but we had a great time. It took about an hour and a half and the river went through the cutest little time so there was lots to look at. I look forward to doing it again! Next time I'll be bringing my camera too. I wasn't sure if it would be too rough for my camera and didn't want to risk it. 


I definitely blew my diet on Saturday. We started drinking at 12:30 and didn't stop until 2am and there were lots of snacks and treats kicking around. I'm not a big drinker anymore. These days I tend to save my drinking for events like this or get togethers with friends. This coming weekend is a long weekend for us Canadians (Canada Day!) and we're staying at my sisters for the weekend. We have a bunch of tentative plans, but my goal is to stay on track and to not over do it with alcohol or food.. I think I'll be the DD :)


Friday 22 June 2012

Friday Weigh In??

As per my usual Friday schedule, I work up and hopped on the scale. To my pleasant surprise I was down 2lbs! (255.5). However, it doesn't technically count because this week I started the "Lose a marathon challenge" and one of the rules is that our weigh ins have to be on Monday. As much as I'd love to track this loss, I also want to be fair. The good news is that I'm hoping the Monday weigh in will help me stay on track this weekend because we have two parties to go to. We shall see what Monday brings!

I've been feeling pretty good this week. On Wednesday I wore a cute dress to work. The last time I wore the dress was February in Mexico and it fit much better on Wednesday :) I've never worn this dress to work and I got sooo many compliments (it was nice!) and I had 2 people ask if I lost weight (yay!). The scale hasn't been moving all that quickly, so hearing comments like that reminds me that this is all worth it. 

I decided today that I was going to take a "before" picture and record my measurements so I can see how I really change over the next 13 weeks for the Lose a Marathon Challenge. I had taken pictures sometime last year and have been recording my measurements every so often. I was surprised to see a somewhat noticeable change in my pictures this morning. I carry my weight all over, so it can be hard for me to notice a change.. so pictures are a good thing! I've also lost a decent amount of inches, which I'll share later. At some point this weekend I'm going to create a new page for the Marathon Challenge where I'll post my before pictures and stats and continue to update over the next 13 weeks. 

It's been unbelievably hot here all week! Like I'm talking 109 degrees! (I have to convert this as I'm used to Celsius, but I know most of my readers are from the US). I went for a run on monday when it was still cooler out, but the rest of the week was just too hot. Yesterday we had an intense thunder storm which broke up the heat and today it's comfortably hot out :) Today is my friday off, so I was able to go for a run this morning.. it was nice!

Tomorrow we're off to a washer tournament (think horseshoes..kinda) and sunday we're going tubing down a river... I can't wait!!

See you all Monday for my official weigh in.


Wednesday 20 June 2012

Quest to Lose a Marathon

I've been feeling really great the last few weeks and I know I have running to thank for it. Unfortunately, the scale hasn't been much of help and it's really starting to frustrate me. I still have my birthday goal in the back of my mind, but it feels like it's slowly slipping away. I've also been toying with the idea of changing my weigh in days to Monday. I think weighing in on Mondays would keep me more accountable through the weekends, but it also scares me! I hadn't decided on anything until I read this post over at Minus One Hundred. She has just signed up for a "Lose a Marathon Challenge".

Some details for the challenge are as follows: 
- The goal is to lose 26.2 lbs by Sept 17th
- Weigh Ins are on Monday (how convenient!?)
- Small prizes are rewarded throughout the challenge 
- There are over 800 participants!
- You must sign up by June 25th 
- For full details, click here 

This challenge came at the perfect time! I think it was a sign that I stumbled upon it before the 25th. My birthday goal (which I'm still aiming for) is to lose 30 lbs by September 1st (229lbs). The Lose a Marathon Challenge would bring me to 231.3 lbs by Sept 17th. Both of those goals sound good to me, but at the rate I'm going the Lose a Marathon Challenge is more realistic. 

Weighing in on mondays makes me very nervous. I'm going to weigh in this friday and then again on Monday and I'll continue to weigh in every monday throughout the summer. Yikes! We have a lot of weekend plans coming up, so hopefully this will help me stay on track...that is the point, right!?  






The challenge for week 1 is to write out your plan and goals. I'm going to add another page to my blog where I'll post my goals, progress, "before" pictures and my measurements. Stay tuned!

Monday 18 June 2012

Strawberries and my first 5k Race!

I don't think I've felt this good on a monday morning in a long time! 


But, before I get to the reason why.. let me recap the weekend ;)


**


After work on Friday my sister and I headed to a local strawberry farm to pick some strawberries. I love freshly picked strawberries, they don't even compare to store bought ones! This farm in particular is so cheap! It's run by a man and his wife, so they don't have much overhead. Anyway, we picked 7 litres of strawberries for 7$!! Here's a visual...





After berry picking I headed over to pick up my race kit for sunday then rushed back home to meet up with my boyfriend and some of his friends from work. 

Saturday started off with a lovely breakfast of waffles and strawberries. Yum!

I hate the lighting in my apartment! :(

After breakfast I headed over to the local farmers market. I was a bit disappointed as it was smaller than I was expecting. However, it just opened last weekend so maybe it will get bigger. I find the farmers markets are in their prime during August and September anyway. I picked up some peas and a little something for my Foodie Penpal ;)


Saturday night we headed to my boyfriend's parents place for his mom's retirement party. They have a pool so we went early to sneak in a swim as it was a very hot day! The party was potluck style and the food was really good, but I don't think I'll be eating a potluck dinner the night before my next 5k...

**

I know you've all been waiting in anticipation to hear about my very first 5k race ;) 
Let me start by saying that a potluck dinner the night before isn't the way to go lol. The food wasn't greasy or too different from my usual diet, but I ate much later in the evening than I'm used to and I wasn't all the hungry... so my dinner sat with me well into the night. I remember waking up in the middle of the night not feeling so well. That mixed with nerves had me going to the washroom a few times before the race started at 8:45 am. I was slightly worried that I was going to suffer from runners trots during the run (luckily I didn't!). I had a 40 minutes drive to get to the race, so I turned on the radio, drank a bottle of water and ate a cliff bar to give me some energy. I was going to stay at my sisters the night before so I didn't have to get up at 6:30am, but I figured the drive would give me some time to relax... which it did! 

I picked up my sister around 7:50, had another bathroom break then headed downtown. Once we were at the race location, I promptly found the washroom again then found my way to the starting line. While standing in line I could feel a small rock in my shoe so I took my shoe off and gave it a shake. A few minutes later, the whistle went off and away we went. After a few minutes I realized that the rock was still there and I noticed it the entire way (there was no way I was stopping at that point to take it out). The race started on top of a pretty large and steep hill so I picked up momentum right away. It was nice to have a little push start, but it threw off my breathing because it wasn't my usual running pace. I was happy to see that there were a lot of people doing a run/walk combo so I had a good feeling that I wouldn't be last. 

The first 2.5km felt long, but I didn't stop. I was relieved to see the turn around station because I knew that I was half way there. Unfortunately the turn around station was up a small hill and at that point I just had to slow down and walk for a minute. My downfall when running is stopping to walk because I always find it so hard to get a steady running pace afterwards. Anyway, the way back went by pretty quick, but I did have to stop and walk a few times. I mentioned that the race started on top of a hill, well obviously this means that the last 50-100 meters were running UP this steep hill. Holy crap I wanted to die lol. I jogged up the first half of the hill then had to stop and walk. At this point I was only half way up the hill, but I could see the finish line. There was no way that I was going to walk through the finish line so I pushed myself and slowly made my way up to the top. I crossed the finish line and seriously thought I was going to puke! 

Here's a picture of the hill. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you can tell that it was a good, steady incline. The finish line was near that weird looking statue at the top. 
Add caption
Once they took the chip off my shoe and handed me my  5 lb metal, I found my sister and promptly made my way to the water station. They were handing out bananas, but there was no way that I could eat just yet. The feeling of wanting to puke quickly went away and I felt awsome!! Right away I knew that I would be running another 5k race in my near future :) 
Before the run, trying to get my number in the picture :)

A couple hours after the run :) Isn't the metal nice!? 
I posted the last picture on Facebook and received so many congratulation notes, it felt great. 

When I crossed the finish line I quickly noticed the digital timer, which read 53 minutes. That was a little discouraging. I knew I was slow, but I didn't think I was THAT slow. However, this morning my boss (who ran the half marathon) went online to check our official times and it turns out my time was 38:33!! That seriously made my day! I came 155 out of 186... not too bad! 
Apparently there was a mixup and some people were told to turn around sooner than they should've. I don't think I was part of this group, but I could've been. If that's the case, than my time isn't quite correct, but that's ok :)

I'm actually looking forward to signing up for my next 5km race and trying to beat my time. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth! The professional pictures aren't posted yet and they likely aren't pretty! If I find one that's half decent, then perhaps I'll post one later this week ;)

I was really tired yesterday and I had headache all afternoon because I waiting too long to eat a decent meal and I was likely dehydrated. My legs and thighs are pretty stiff this morning and that damn rock in my show caused a small blood blister so I can feel that rubbing against my sandal. Otherwise, I feel fine :)

I just wanted to thank you all for your amazing support!! I was really bummed and discouraged when I found out I'd be running alone and if it wasn't for all your encouraging comments, I likely would've bailed on the race. So thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!! :) I'm so glad to be writing such a positive race recap this morning. 


I hope everyone else had a great weekend! 



Friday 15 June 2012

Thank God it's Friday!

Good Friday morning everyone!


I managed to maintain my weight from last week, so there was no change in the scale. Normally I would be disappointed with this, however, after my girls weekend the scale wasn't too pretty on monday so I technically lost weight since then :P There was also birthday cake in the office yesterday and I allowed myself a small piece. I'm confident that there will be a loss on the scale next week ;)




I have a busy weekend ahead! I just love summer, there's always something going on :)
Right after work today my sister and I are going strawberry picking! Strawberries fromt he store just don't compare to freshly picked ones; I can't wait! Afterwards I have to scurry home to meet up with my boyfriend and a couple from his work. We're going for dinner then heading to Dave and Buster's. 
Tomorrow I'm going to check out the local farmer's market. We moved to our current area in the fall last year and I didn't realize there was a farmers market until it was too late. I love markets, so I'm excited to see what this one is like! My boyfriend's mom is retiring in a couple months so they're throwing her an early retirement party tomorrow so we'll be heading there for the evening. 
And of course, my first 5k is on Sunday at 8:30am. Two of my runs this week were pretty crappy, but yesterdays was good, which gave me some confidence. You guys have left me some very encouraging comments and I'm starting to feel like I CAN do this. I hope to have a good race recap for you on monday :)


I hope everyone has a great weekend and I look forward to my post on Monday :)

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Summer Bucket List

I've been seeing a trend with some of the blogs that I follow; summer bucket lists. So I've decided to jump on the bandwagon! I love Summer (although, Fall is my favourite season). It always feels like it goes by so fast and June is slipping away! I hope to accomplish most of my list by the last day of summer and I'll revisit the list when that time comes :)




2012 Summer Bucket List 


Go camping twice. I used to spend entire summers camping with my family and about 5 weekends a summer in high school camping with friends. I miss it so much and I hope to get out a few times this year. 


Visit some college friends up North. My friends from college are like family to me. One of them has 2 kids and the other is due in November with her first. I used to go visit every few months, but it's becoming harder and harder to find the time (and money) to get up there for a visit. I need schedule a weekend this summer to go visit. 


Go on a road trip. I love driving. One of my favourite things to do is to roll down the window on a sunny day and turn up the radio and just drive. My boyfriend and I aren't planning much of a vacation this summer, so I think a road trip somewhere is in order. 


Run another 5k. My first 5k ever is this sunday. I'm hoping that it goes well and I'll want to sign up for another. 


Continue running regularly. Even if my 5k doesn't go well, I still want to continue running. I find that it's helping with my weight loss and it does make me feel good. 


Reach my birthday goal. To reach this goal, July and August will have to be GREAT months for weight loss.. so we'll see. I'm definitely going to try through!

Go strawberry/blueberry picking. I LOVE strawberry picking. My sister and I will be going this friday and blueberry season is in August. 


Try Kayaking. I've always been intrigued by kayaking and I really want to try it one of these days. 


Go on a hike. I haven't gone on a real, legitimate hike in a very long time. I'd like to seek out some local trails and head out!


Play tennis. There's a tennis court across the street from us and we've borrowed my sister's rackets. Now we just need to play... 


Go to a concert. There's a few that I have in mind...


Try the new roller coaster at Wonderland. It's the biggest coaster in Canada and fifth in the world (we can see it from our driveway). 



Monday 11 June 2012

Weekend Recap!

Good morning!


I had a bad sleep last night and I'm struggling to write this post. 


My weekend was filled with friends, sun, rain and too much food. I was in Wasaga Beach all weekend at our friends' trailer for a girls weekend. Friday kicked off with some drinks and a great fire that we enjoyed well into the night. We woke up saturday to some decent weather. It was overcast for most of the day, but still warm out. We hung out at the trailer and just relaxed. Myself and another girl are both reading 50 Shades of Grey, so we sat outside reading for a while. After dinner we headed into town to get a drink somewhere. On our way back we got caught in a down pour and had to hide under a tree in someone's yard. The rain stuck around all night so we set up camp inside the trailer and played drinking games cards for a few hours. We woke up to a gorgeous day on Sunday so we quickly packed up our stuff and hit the beach. All in all, it was a good weekend. I definitely regret the poor food choices though. I ate way too many chips, macaroni salads, ice cream, s'more and not nearly enough water. I wish I could just go away for the weekend and not worry about gaining weight... I didn't even go near the scale this morning. I'm going to focus on lean meat, veggies, fruits and water this week and hope for the best come friday. 


Remember a little while back I wrote about my struggles with the scale? My goal was to not weigh myself at all until the following friday (weigh in day). Well, I failed. I failed miserably. I felt so anxious and needed to know what the scale said. I'm working on it though. Next week I've decided that I'll let myself check the scale twice. It doesn't matter what days, but it can only be twice. If that works, I'll continue each week like that until I can get back to one weigh in per week. 



Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday 8 June 2012

Friday Weigh in - June 8

Previous weight  - 259
Current weight - 257.5
-1.5 lbs 




I know slow and steady wins the race, but I SO wish I was one of those people who loses 3+ lbs consistently. I just need to remind myself that the small loses add up. I'd much rather be at 257 than 279 that I saw back in the winter. I really can't wait for the 240's though...it's been 3 years since I've seen that decade. 


I wanted to say thank you to everyone who left me some really thoughtful and motivating comments on my last post.  It really meant a lot to me and it made me feel a lot better about running my first 5k in almost a week. By the way, I will now be running it by myself!! I signed up for the race about a month ago and the other ladies procrastinated and went to sign up on wednesday and all the spots were filled!! I was SO disappointed. I wasn't mad at them, I just really didn't want to run by myself. My boss and her husband will be there, but they're running a half marathon. If it wasn't for all your motivating comments, I probably would've threw in the towel. However, I'm still motivated and determined to do this next weekend, even if it is by myself! My sisters is going to try and come down and watch me, so that will be better. 


I'm off for a girls weekend tonight. We're going to Wasaga Beach (longest fresh water beach in the world, FYI). My boyfriends' friend has a trailer out there, so the girlfriends are taking over :) There will be drinking involved, so I need to be mindful of my eating. I'm going to try not to think about it and enjoy my weekend away. They're calling for rain saturday, but super hot on sunday, so we'll see how it goes!


I'm off to drive the boyfriend off at work then heading for a run. 




Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Ten Days..

My first 5k race is in 10 days... TEN DAYS!


I can't believe how fast it has come. 


I don't feel ready for it. 


I'm nervous. 




I haven't actually ran an entire 5km's yet. My normal route from my house is a 2.5km loop and if I run it twice then it's obviously 5km in total. My problem is that I keep quitting after the first loop. It's hard, it's really hard, but I need to push myself past that first loop. I definitely believe that it's a mental thing and if I can just push myself to not turn down my street, I can complete the second loop. This is my goal for my friday run. I have 5 more scheduled runs until the race date (June 17) and I am determined to run at least  one 5k route before then. Perhaps this will give me the confidence that I can do it?


I have a feeling that my time is going to be close to 45min. I'm really hoping that I'm not the last person to finish. Luckily, it's also a half marathon race so a lot of people will still technically be running. I'm running with 3 other coworkers and one of the ladies runs at the same pace as me. My secret goal is to beat her ;) 


I'm praying that the weather isn't really hot. The race starts at 8:30am I believe, so if it is supposed to be hot then hopefully we beat the heat in the morning. The weather has been all over the place lately, so I have no idea what to expect. 




For all the runners and new runners out there, what was your time for your first 5k? Did you have to stop at all during the race? I hate stopping only because I fund it SUPER hard to get running again. 

Monday 4 June 2012

Binges, Rain and Chaboni

Good Monday morning everyone!


Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine wasn't too bad. It rained all weekend and I'm very much a sit-in-the-sun kind of person, so the rain put a damper on my mood a bit. 


Friday ended up being a really bad day for me (food-wise). It was one of those days where I felt constantly hungry and nothing was satisfying me... which led to a binge :( I decided to get some sushi from a near-by grocery store for lunch. Normally they come in packs of 9 pieces, which works out to be around 300-350 calories, but for some reason they were packed with 12 pieces. I told myself that I'd give my coworker the 3 extra (Ha!). Then I headed over to the bulk food store to pick up from ground flax. This was my downfall. I did get my flax, but I also grabbed a small bag of clodhoppers and chili lime cracker things. I then returned to my office and continued to eat all of the sushi followed by both bags of treats. I felt disgusting and so full! This feeling didn't stop me though. Once I got home my boyfriend decided that we should go to Swiss Chalet for dinner and I happily obliged. I'm pretty sure I had some Mini Eggs in there as well. 


I ate so much food. I don't even know what came over me. It's been a while since I've had a binge quite that bad...


I woke up saturday morning feeling "off". My head felt light and just didn't feel myself. I honestly think it was from all the crap that I ate on friday. It was also rainy and crappy and I really didn't feel like going for a run, so I decided to do the 30 Day Shred instead. The good news is that I ate really well and felt much better after working out. That evening we headed over to our friends' place to watch the playoffs and it was really nice to get out of the house and visit with some good friends. 


Yesterday I woke up, did some cleaning and headed out for a run. I felt kind of nauseous while running, but managed to push through it. It was my boyfriend's moms' birthday yesterday so we headed over to their place for the evening. We had some salmon, grilled chicken, salad, corn and strawberry shortcake. I didn't eat too much, but I was glad that I got my run in earlier in the day. 




I heard through some coworkers last week that one of the grocery store chains here has started selling Chaboni Greek yogurt. I've noticed a Chaboni trend with the U.S. blogs and it sounds like it's a pretty popular brand down there! I love Greek yogurt and there are a ton of different brands/varieties here, but I figured Chaboni must be pretty good because everyone blogs about it. I guess they recently started distributing it in Canada, so I went to pick some up this weekend. 





This morning I tried the black cherry flavour mixed with Fibre One cereal and flax. My breakfast has 17 grams of protein and 18 grams of fibre! I really liked the yogurt, but I'm not sure if it was worth the price. Greek yogurt is very pricey in general, but these were $1.99 for an individual size container. I picked up 5, but I may go back to my usual brand for cost reasons. I wish Greek yogurt was cheaper. 

This picture doesn't do my breakfast justice ;)


Hope everyone has a great monday!


Friday 1 June 2012

Friday Weigh In - June 1

(I can't believe it's June already!!)






Previous Weight: 261.5
Current Weight: 259
- 2.5 lbs 




I'm happy that I had a decent loss this week, but if I'm being honest, I wish it was a little more. I was hoping to see 258. Oh well!


I must say that I am feeling pretty good these days. The scale may be moving slowly, but I feel comfortable in my clothes again and I just feel lighter. A coworker even asked me on wednesday if I was  losing weight. Actually, she stated that I was losing weight lol. I just have to remember that the number on the scale isn't everything. 


Speaking of the scale, I'm having an issue with it. I've become a daily weigher and it's driving me nuts. When I lost weight back in college (when I got down to my lowest weight of 214) I didn't even own a scale. I belonged to a women's gym and the (pricey) membership included a "coach" who helped you with your nutrition, took your measurements and weighed you in every week. So I technically didn't need a scale because I would have a weigh in at the gym every week. This worked well for me and I continued to weigh myself once a week even once I was done at this particular gym. 


Last year when I finally got a reality check and realized that I had gained most of the weight back, I tried a few fad diets to get back on track. One diet in particular was the "17 day diet". Which is basically a lower carb diet that consists of three phases of 17 days. During the first phase you can only consume 2 servings of fruit before 2pm and you can eat unlimited veggies and lean meats. It really did work and weight fell off during that first phase. I started weighing myself daily just to see how much I could lose in one day. I was seeing a 1-2 lb drop per day. Exciting, right? Well the diet definitely wasn't something I could keep up with or see myself doing for the rest of my life, so I stopped. Every few months I would try it again and it would last a few weeks before I would quit again. However, the daily weighing never did stop. 


I know weighing myself daily isn't the worst thing in the world and a lot of people swear by it. For the most part it does keep me accountable, but I feel like I'm always thinking about the number and I don't like that. So my goal for this week is to not weigh myself again until next friday. It's going to be really hard, it's become almost like an addiction. I want to see how I feel come next friday and see what kind of loss I have when I don't know where I'm at throughout the week. It should be interesting. We'll see how it goes! 




Hope everyone has a great weekend! It's supposed to be cool and rainy here all weekend :(
I'm visiting with a friend after work tonight and sunday it's my boyfriend's moms' birthday. Nothing too exciting, but I'm ok with that :)


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How often do you weigh yourself? Are you guilty of weighing yourself too often?