Happy Halloween!

BOO! So, it's the big day. I hope Tara wins her Halloween contest! I remember being a kid and coming home from school and being SO excited to get dinner over with and start getting our costumes ready. I used to always want to have fancy store bought costumes to wear... but my mom always insisted preferred to make our costumes. Maybe it was cheaper, maybe she just preferred to be a 'hands on' mom. Either way... now that I'm older I do appreciate it. Anyway, we'd take turns having mom get our costumes/make up ready and wait to have our 'group photo' of the 3 of us girls before we'd first hit up our neighbours and then drive to a nearby town to beg for loot from strangers.

I can't believe tomorrow is You know what that means? (Besides myself turning another year older)... it means it's the start of the Christmas season! Basically after Thanksgiving in the US (Nov 26) Christmas is in full force. I LOVE IT! Of course I will miss my grandma this year... but I know she'll be happy to know I'm still going to love Christmas as I always have. The first year without BOTH of my dad's parents was okay... this one will be too. What's EXCITING about Christmas eve this year is that Alex has decided to join our Callaghan party!! I'm SO happy to have him experience what an awesome Christmas eve party we have. Santa will be thrilled to meet him. Now we just have to hope and pray every day for good weather so he can make the drive up to God's country!! If not... maybe he can hitch a ride with the big guy himself.

Oops. I got distracted... who got me talking about Christmas? So... with the reminder of Christmas comes the fact that I have a weight I MUST be by then. I am currentlty involved in TWO contests at work which I must WIN! Potentiall, I could win over $100! Damn it... I want that money!!! I'm finding watching Christmas movies while on the treadmill is helping me keep my eye on the prize AND I'm enjoying them!

This post all of a sudden got ridiculously long.

Yesterday was my last day at work for almost a week! WOOHOO!!! I came home and decided to try a snack I recently read about (somewhere... forget where... maybe the WW website?). You see, I am LOVING apples this season. Apples and cinnamon all the way. I read about a woman who puts SF jello on her cut up apples and it makes them almost like a 'candy' apple. So, I dug out some SF strawberry jello while waiting for alex to pick me up for dinner at Montana's. HOLY AWESOME! I highly recommend you give it a whirl! I will be buying more SF jello this weekend and I think I'll just keep it in a container to sprinkle on as much as I want on an apple (because 1pkg is too much for 1 or 2 apples in my opinion).

Dinner at Montana's was great. It started with a MUCH NEEDED beer and was followed by a 'build your own burger' with a ww bun, chicken breast, lettuce and tomato... and I chose the 'pasadena' topping MINUS the bacon. Whole thing? 7pts. Not bad! Medium sized baked potato on the side... with SALSA, no sour cream! Photos?
I am finding I'm much less self conscious about taking photos out in public. There is such a huge wave of food bloggers now... if they don't care, neither do I. I have been thinking about making my blog a bit more 'public' lately (by actually commenting on other blogs I read or linking to them)... but recently a few Canadian bloggers have been getting such harsh and mean comments from readers... I've realized I don't know if I'm up for that. I keep my blog very private right now (I think only 4 people in total know about it!)... I may just keep it like that. I wouldn't mind getting comments from the few readers I have though (who knows how often they actually read this thing).

I'm off to JOG before heading to Hamilton to see my sis, BIL and nephew for Halloween! Weeee!!! Hmmmm... which Christmas movie to watch while jogging??

Holy Moly

I was down 0.6lbs. I not only managed to not gain... I managed a loss!

When I last left you I was thrilled to have jogged a solid hour to help my mood. This morning I woke up early and raring to go... I wanted to jog again! Normally I consider myself lucky if find time for a 45min jog (the usual) in the morning. Today? Another full hour! 2 hours of jogging within 10 hours. Between the jogging and the abs... I was SORE today. Loved it!

I have eaten a bunch of stuff tonight (besides my beloved turkey sub)

Photos... I decided to stop at Shoppers and spotted these. Sure, I've seen sugar free candy before... usually with sorbitol (which is NOT good for me and my GI system!!). These were special though. Can you tell why?
Can you see why yet?Here we have it... they are sweetened with SPLENDA! Yippee!I didn't mind the jelly beans.. .the gummy candy weren't SO great. 2pts for 1 serving.
THEN... I decided to try these. HOLY GREAT! 2 cups are 2 points (maybe you can pull off 3 cups for 2pts too actually). They tasted JUST like the hickory and bacon potato chips I used to love as a kid. I ate half the bag!! I am saving some for my lunch tomorrow too.
Happy Friday! Alex and I are being treated out to dinner tomorrow night courtesy of his parents. I must remember to plan my dinner! Woohoo for not cooking and cleaning!

Frustration Be Gone

Warning: no food photos tonight

So... today started out with a short jog (by short, I mean 20min). I wasn't feeling it. I woke up in the night and couldn't get back to sleep... so it was hard to jog this morning. My mood changes when I can't jog in the AM. I feel bad about myself all day. Guilt is a terrible thing for this Irish girl. I know any time this happens my plan is always to jog in the evening... but it never happens. So, I had a long day at work (angry people all day doesn't make for a fun one). I came home feeling blah. I hadn't jogged and my mood was sheer frustration/irritability. I hate to blame hormones (I get so sick of girls blaming their hormones for EVERYTHING), but I know that was part of my issue today. I decided (rather than complain about hormones) I'd do something about it. I decided to EXERCISE. I did sit ups and some yoga poses... and then jogged for a full hour. It felt great and I'm happy to report my mood improved greatly!

The dishes are done, my clothes are laid out for tomorrow. I'm ready to cuddle up with my puppy and watch Iron Chef America. BTW... the secret ingredient tonight is blue foot chicken (apparently invented in Canada - woohoo!). Why do they feel the need to leave the heads on the chickens when they present them as the secret ingredient? Now I can't look at chickens the same! There's 2 kinds of chickens in my world... those cute animals with their feathers and heads, running around and eating... and the chicken in the grocery store without feathers OR a head. I'm glad the Iron Chef tonight is Bobby Flay. Alex and I really like his show, Throwdown... we watch it Friday nights. When did we become boring? Wait... we always were!! haha!! (we're happy being boring and it saves money. Win/win!)

This is a long and pointless post. here's what I ate today
BF: egg (2), 1 slick pumpernickel (1), cheese (2)
Snack: apple (1)
Lunch: veggie stew (2), yogurt (1), apple AGAIN (1)
Snack: coconut cream pie larabar (4)
Dinner: veggies (0), steamed turkey breast - no head! (3), yogurt (1)
Total: 18
Water: 4L - still no crystal light. When will this streak end? I'll enjoy it while it lasts... plain water is, of course, healthier.

Side note... the scale is NOT my friend this week. I feel like I'm doing what I can... but it's not budging. The thing is, this is my 'bloated' week... I'm trying to beat it though and hope at least for a "STS" at WW! I bet it seems like I call many weeks my 'bloated' week. The truth is... I do have more than 1 some months. I refuse to give you details on a public blog though... so if you're a close friend and you want to know about my womanly issues... feel free to email me!!

Happy hump day.
Happy Subway day tomorrow!

Good Golly

Is Biggest Loser making anyone else cry their EYES OUT?

First..... this poor girl makes me want to cry just looking at her. I can't imagine surviving what she has been through. I was crying while she chatted with Jillian tonight... AND I had the biggest lump in my throat.

Next...... her line tonight about not being able to make her mom love her... broke my heart. I just can't imagine not having complete and unconditional love and support from my mom (or my dad).

Damn... I am one lucky girl.

*I''m back. Holy crap. I have NEVER cried that hard during Biggest Loser*

The Day of the Ugly Food

First... Let me say... HOORAY! It's 7:30 and I'm done EVERYTHING I wanted to do this evening. I'm ready to sit on the couch with Biggest Loser before bed!

Let me recap the day for you. It started with a 45min jog, then work, then home to do a new 10min workout I came up with, eat dinner, make lunch for tomorrow and do the dishes. Now I must stick with the notion that THE KITCHEN IS CLOSED!

The 10min workout? I got done in 8min, so I might have to add more reps tomorrow. I did...
10 push ups, 20 squats (repeat)... 20 reverse crunches, 20 crunches, 20 bicycle crunches (repeat)... 15 trice dips, 15 tush toner things (repeat)... 60sec wall squat.

The competition began at work this week... the "United Weigh" weight loss competition. I WILL WIN! I need your support to make sure I do!!

Here's what I ate today...
Breakfast: Breakfast cookie made with 1/3c oats (2), 1tbsp natural PB (2), 1/8c skim milk (0), 1/2 apple which was first cooked in some cinnamon (0), hard boiled egg (2)
Photo:
Snack: smoothie w/ fruit (1), spinach (0), 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (1), berry amazing grass (0), amazing grass wheat grass (0)
Lunch: home made black bean burger (2), cheese (2), salsa (0), spoonful of ff plain yogurt (0), spinach (0) - all in a ww tortilla (1), apple (1), yogurt (1)
Snack: baby carrots (0), almonds (2)
Dinner: veggie stew - nutritional information confirmed (2)
Total: 19
Water: working on my 4th litre (plain water still... when will I feel ready to add crystal light to my fancy water bottle?)

So... my black bean burgers are SOOOO YUMMY! I took 1/2c black beans, 1/2c corn, some red onion and garlic and maybe 1/8c chick peas. I put them in the food processor and pureed it all up. I needed bread crumbs but didn't have any so I toasted 4 slices of ww bread and let it dry out a little and then threw it into the processor too (originally I only put 2 slices in, but it needed 2 more). I divided it up into 4 patties and grilled them up on Mr. Foreman. They... are... DELICIOUS! Here's a photo of 1... The breakfast cookie and the black bean burgers don't look so appetizing, but trust me... they taste SO GOOD!

So, this post took longer than I thought it would... I'm off to watch Biggest Loser!

So long, Monday!

This has to be quick... I need to get to bed!

First... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!! I can't believe I'm celebrating the 6th birthday with you (well, the first one we weren't really together.. but I knew you and I knew it was your birthday, so it counts).

So... today started out with a full 1hr jog with a Christmas movie and The View. I went to Alex's office to see him on his birthday and take some baked goodies in for him and all those girls he works with.

After work I came home and busted my butt. I have hard boiled eggs, made a breakfast cookie, made black bean burgers (and grilled them) and done all dishes. I'm spent. Stay tuned tomorrow for details on all that food I just made

Here's what I ate today...
Breakfast: 2 slices pumpernickel (2), 1/2c ff cottage cheese (2), apple (1)
Lunch/snack all in one: smoothie with spinach, fruit, 1/2scoop protein powder, berry amazing grass and amazing grass wheat grass (2), 2c veggie/bean stew (1), 1/2 pomegranate (1)
Snack: peanut butter larabar (4), apple w/ cinnamon (1)
Dinner: 2c veggie/bean stew (1), almonds (2)
Total: 17
Water: 3L - you know what's funny? Since getting my new water bottle I haven't wanted to get it 'dirty' so I have only been drinking straight water since then... no crystal light.

here's a couple of photos
Today's breakfast... The veggie stew (which I actually have to sit and calculate the points for)

See you tomorrow!!

Whirlwind Day

Let's see how quickly I can recap my day for you before I hit the hay.

I woke up and relaxed for a bit... I had to wait until 11am to do any shopping I wanted to do. I went to Old Navy (2 new pairs of pants... to hold me over until goal weight of course), Bulk Barn (baking supplies), dollarama (freezer bags and a container for cookies) then home. Once home I finished up baking for birthday boy's office tomorrow. Baking done includes: chcoolate chip cookies, cakeballs and 2 loaves of amish friendship bread. I did all the cleaning I wanted to get done (bird cage - always a big undertaking, floors, bathroom). I did some menu planning this week... and quickly realized (since not grocery shopping this weekend) that I wasn't sure WHAT I was going to have for dinners after all. So, took a look in the pantry... and now I have a veggie/chick pea stew thing in the slow cooker (diced tomatoes, cream corn, onions, mixed frozen veggies, white kidney beans, garlic and some spices). I also plan (tomorrow morning) to try to make some black bean veggie patties. Wish me luck! Also... I managed a jog in there too (while watching 'ELF')!!

So... can you see why I'm tired? I wish I had accomplished a longer jog or gotten my closets cleaned out... but perhaps I can save that for next weekend.

I didn't get a chance to make a smoothie after all today. I stayed on points though.

Here's some photos from today's food
Egg in a basket (been seeing it all over blogs lately, had to try it. tasty... but I think it's just as easy to fry an egg and put it in a sandwich)

Pomegranate! Seeds from an entire fruit... I ate half of this (this is about 1c in the container) Pumpernickel bread with the rest of my beans in tomato sauce. Quick lunch but yummy.
My Amy's non dairy burrito
So... I think I will finish up watching Desperate Housewives and call it a day. Tomorrow I have to leave early for work to drop off halloween candy at our buliding lobby, then drop off birthday goodies at Birthday boy's office, then go to work... then come home! Only 1 week of work before I have 3 days off!!!

Saturday!

Well, that brings us to Saturday (it's amazing how much blogging I can do while the TV is on UFC and preoccupying my boy!).

I woke up early today and headed out for Whole Foods. It opened at 8, I got there for 8:30. Only took me half an hour to get there (and I didn't even take my battery-dying camera to get photos). The store wasn't huge... not a Loblaws... more like an IGA. It's not cheap! I wandered around for an hour before heading home (only took a half hour to drive home too. Left at 8am and was back at 10am!). The people at the store were so friendly (but not over bearing!). When you walk around the staff walk by you and say things like 'let me know if you need help finding anything'... I was glad to have gone to the Oakville location over the Toronto one. Some photos of my morning...
So, they didn't have Peanut butter & JellyLarabars BUT, I did find this one. I have already eaten one and enjoyed it. You taste the orange zest and it's more refreshing than sweet. Thumbs up!

Yep, I may have gone a little nuts buying Amazing Grass!! I will be making a smoothie tomorrow with the berry superfood AND some wheatgrass! Wish me luck!While at the store I realized I was hungry... I explored their salad bar area and realized they sell their take out food in BOXES! I always see American bloggers with their boxed food and think it looks cool... so, I decided to treat myself (heck, I was already spending a month's rent on amazing grass). Here's my food...

I first grabbed some of their breakfast buffet... just a few wedge cut potatoes roasted with some tomato and onion... then a teeny bit of cheese melted on top. I had already eaten about 3 wedges before the photo. The other thing you see there? The bread? Creme brulee french toast. TO. DIE. FOR. SO YUMMY! I had eaten one piece already... and ate the other one as soon as I took the photo. Good breakfast. Nice treat! Next, lunch. Different rice/couscous salads, some falafel, some teriyaki tofu, some blue cheese, roasted garlic... little bit of everything! So filling (and some still waiting in my fridge) So, this afternoon Alex and I ventured out to tour around. I recently saw a commercial for Molson Canadian 67. 1 point beer? They have some in the US (MGD), but until now - not here. So... we found it today at The Beer Store!My review? LOVE IT! It's my new beer for sure. I have also baked several dozen cookies and a few other things for the birthday boy on Monday.

Tomorrow will be running errands, more baking, cleaning and JOGGING! I jogged almost every day last week and it finally felt good to jog again. No more shin or calf pain (knock on wood). I'm ready for a longer jog tomorrow. Now... back to UFC. Yippee!

Please join me in wishing Tara GOOD LUCK in her half marathon tomorrow!!!

FRIDAY

So... let's catch up on Friday now!

I woke up early enough to jog, but preferred to lay in bed for a bit instead. I went to work, ran some errands on lunch (it's too cold for walks outside on lunch now! Only walks will be mall walks... and won't be every day). I came home to Alex here already prepping for dinner... I made something I used to order (back in the day) at a College/Bathurst restaurant/pub. It's a chicken/spinach/mushroom/mozzarella mixture inside pizza dough and wrapped up like a panzerotti. I used whole wheat dough of course... I made mine a good size but may have made Alex's just a tad too big. See?
His is on the left, mine on the right (can you see a size difference??)
He only managed to eat half (not even) of it... it was just too much dough! I ate all of mine!!

We spent the evening watching yet another Christmas movie...
Overall, another great Friday!

Let's play 'catch up'

Thursday... I was down 2.2lbs! Yay! I also vowed NOT to blow it this weekend. So far... so... okay! I'll get to that later.

After weight in I ate:

Oh... and maybe some gummy candy!

I'll be back to discuss Friday!

Food Network Wednesday

I shouldn't watch the food network on Wednesdays. It makes me want to PIG OUT... which I really can't do the night before weigh in!

Today consisted of ANOTHER jog before work.. then a busy day at work... then home to relax. Next week I'm hoping to introduce some evening activity back into my life. I'm happy just to be back to morning jogging this week though. It's unfortunate the scale isn't really moving for some reason... but I'll keep up the efforts and the scale will catch up to me!

I've decided this weekend's adventure will be a trip to Yay! I'm going looking for new Larabar flavours and some Amazing Grass - I hear they're at Whole Foods now. Hopefully I find what I'm after and explore other fun food options! There's a location in Yorkville here in Toronto... but the people were rude to me on the phone when I called there last night AND you have to pay for parking... so I'm taking a road trip to Oakville where the people were friendly on the phone and the parking is free (and the store is bigger)!!

So, here's what I ate today..
Breakfast - apple (1), pumpernickel toast (2), PB (2)
Snack - smoothie with just 1c fruit and spinach (1) - not the greatest
Lunch - edamame (1) and veggie (0) salad, apple (1), carrots (0), yogurt (1), tuna (1) on a flatout (1) w/ cheese (2) and lettuce (0)
Snack - carrots (0)
Dinner - 1/2c veggie chili leftovers (2), veggies (0), 1tbsp almond butter (2), 7 chocolate chips (1)
Total: 18
Water: 3L (still plain water.... no crystal light. I don't want to get my shiny new bottle messy!)

Good luck to me tomorrow!

An apple (or 2 or 3?) a day...

I thought maybe it was just me. Thought maybe my taste buds are different yet again this year... but for some reason I am LOVING apples this season. Any apple. Doesn't have to be macintosh, doesn't have to be granny smith, doesn't have to be the ever-popular honeycrisp... any apple at all. Why do they seem to be so good this year? Turns out... my colleague (a vegetarian who doesn't care for fruit - sound like anyone you know, Tara??) feels the same way. She is LOVING apples this year. Baked, raw, cinnamon, no cinnamon... Keep 'em coming.

If I eat 2 or 3 apples a day now... does that even out as 'an apple a day' once summer comes and I don't eat them?

Accomplished

So, today was pretty great. It started out with a nice jog this morning (which was tiring... it's so dark at 6:30 and I'm still not used to getting back at the morning jogs!). I went to work and decided my lunch would consist of going to the mall. I came out with 2 shirts: ... then another one that's red, has a christmas present on it and says "mom's favourite present" (couldn't find a photo on the old navy website... and too lazy to take my own photo). Of course, these shirts are for my little nephew, Simon! My family is having a birthday dinner for me (and Alex) in a few weeks and I have decided to thank Simon for coming by giving him a gift (of a couple of holiday shirts!).

After running into my hair colourist at Old Navy (who is also from Toronto... funny the people you run into at the OC!) I walked into Lululemon and stumbled across this!It's a new stainless steel 1L water bottle! It's hard to find these things... let alone in pink! It says "I ♥ lulu". There was a lime green one that said "I ♥ running"... I thought about getting it... maybe I'll get it next time! In honour of my new healthy water bottle I have had pure water in it tonight (no crystal light).

So... here's what I ate today...
Breakfast: 1/2c oats (3), 1/2 banana (1), 1/2tbsp natural PB (1), 1/8c skim milk (0)
Snack: smoothie the same as yesterday (2), apple wedges with cinnamon (1)
Lunch: flatout (1) w/ tuna salad consisting of tuna, spoonful of plain ff yogurt, mustard, tomato, garlic and spinach (1), yogurt (1), 1/2c sweet potato cubes (1), baby carrots (0)
Snack: pecan larabar (4)
Dinner: 1/2c veggie chili from a colleague - had some chick peas, tomato, peppers, onions, beans, onions... (2? at the most), taco salad with 1/4c chick peas (1), 30g light cheddar (2), veggies, salsa, 2 spoonfuls of plain yogurt (0)
Total: 21
Water: 4L

Food photos...
taco salad with most of the trimmings...taco salad with ALL the trimmings...yummy chili from my vegetarian colleague (she wants to start her own catering business so she periodically brings me dishes to try... thankfully I am one of the few people in the office who appreciate vegetarian dishes and I get her yummy food!)and a photo I found on my camera... I think it's from the other day (Monday maybe?). Toast with a little pb and some cinnamon apples on the side
Happy Hump day tomorrow!!

Goodbye Monday!

"I fights to the finish 'cause I eats me spinach"... random photo, but after the loads of spinach I put in tomorrow's smoothie, it just seems fitting!

Well... another Monday is being put to bed. I had a rather productive day... and it feels great. I managed to get in a full hour jog today! Work was quite busy (busy season started a tad later this year)... but it made the afternoon and evening go by pretty quickly.

Tonight I have made tomorrow's breakfast, lunch and snacks... and the dishes are done. I even made my smoothie ahead of time and threw it in the freezer. I've figured out I can take it out in the morning and by the time I'm ready to drink it mid-morning it's nice and slushie. It feels good to go to bed knowing I'm all organized for tomorrow!

Here's what I ate today...
Breakfast - 1 slice pumpernickel rye (1), 1 omega 3 egg (2), apple (1)
Lunch - 1/2c baked beans in tomato sauce (2), toast (1)
Snack - smoothie w/ fruit, spinach, 1/2scoop vanilla protein powder, chocolate amazing grass and chia seeds (2), apple w/ cinnamon (1)
Dinner - mixture of 1/2c chick peas (2), 1/2c baked beans in tomato sauce (2), 1/2c cubed sweet potatoes baked with ground flax seed (2), yogurt (1), almonds (2)
Total: 19
Water: 3L

My tastes... they are a' changing! I used to DESPISE beans (especially baked beans with wieners). Recently we had a potluck lunch at work... there appeared to be few 'healthy' choices, so I tried beans baked with real maple syrup. LOVED them. They were toooo good! Then at Thanksgiving my uncle Ron's mom joined us for dinner and she brought baked beans... I had to pick around bacon, but again... so good. I bought some no name baked beans in tomato sauce to try... LOVE THEM! Who would have thought one day I'd like tofu, baked beans, old stinky cheese, chick peas... and spinach in my smoothies. Bizarre!

Time to call it a night... treadmill is calling me early in the morning!! Sleep tight!

So, where were we?

The weekend got away from me.... When I last left you Alex and I were headed to dinner at Freshii. (York Mills/Leslie location). Here's what we walked up to...
When we walked in, this is what we saw... a bunch of clipboards (and pencils) on the wall. You check off what you'd like to eat (wrap, salad, soup) and what you'd like in it, then you hand it to the person behind the counter.They have pre-made wraps too... Alex got the turkey cobb (I custom ordered mine)We ordered and then took our wraps home to eat. Here's Alex's... he really enjoyed it!Here's mine. They wrap the outside of your wrap with the order sheet you filled out.Here's a crappy photo of my wrap in my hand. Decent size.Here's the inside. This was the first disappointment - it's ALL spinach (I ordered stuff in it besides spinach, but I felt like I was eating spinach in a wrap).
So... after all was said and done I went back to double-check my nutritional info. I had misunderstood and thought I could get a wrap which was wrapped in spinach instead of a tortilla... but, when I got there I found out that wasn't the case. Not so bad, it's a whole wheat tortilla and it's pretty thin... it can't be THAT bad, right? Well, damn... it was EIGHT POINTS! My 4pt wrap turned into 12pts because of that wrap! I could have had a footlong turkey breast sub for that!!! Then we decided to figure out how much Alex's was (turkey, avocado, bacon, egg)... you ready? TWENTY FIVE POINTS!! I'm not even kidding!

We have decided we may not go back there any time soon. Great store, just would rather have subway...