Top 10 (David Letterman Style)

I was tagged at Getting Healthy and given the task of listing off my top 10 reasons to burn off 10(or more) pounds. I had been reading them as they went through the circle of blogs I frequent, and thinking that I should do it, so thank you for the push. Nothing wrong with a little nudge into some introspection.

My Top Ten (in no particular order):

1. Buy clothes off the rack from any store;
2. Fit into an airplane seat without encroaching on the person sat next to me;
3. Get fitter, stronger, healthier;
4. I told my husband that I wouldn't get pregnant at this weight, I want to be fit and healthy and strong to carry a baby (see associated reasons #3, #5, #6, #8). I want to enjoy the experience and not lay around eating junk because "I'm hormonal" complaining about my fat ankles, swollen feet and a sore back…although I'm sure that all of those will happen… but I want to try and mitigate them as much as possible;
5. So that I can participate in regular activities without worrying about how out of breath I'll be/sweaty I'll get;
6. Better sex (I stole that one from someone else… don't get me wrong the sex is great - but I still have issues with how I look neked in the belly area!! );
7. Enjoy looking at and having pictures taken of myself;
8. To learn to eat and enjoy food (good and bad) without the crazy binges - so that any children we might have don't end up with my monstrous food issues;
9. Hair cuts…I hate going for haircuts right now - squeeze into the little chair while Ms.Skinnystylist pumps away at it like a freaken Sherpa trying to get the chair up to a reasonable height, and then get out the cape, desperately trying to get it to snap shut and thereby accentuating and adding to my chins and choking me. Then sitting there, in a room full of mirrors, while trying to not move my neck and pop open said cape, and be even more embarrassed. (hello, my name is Tamzin and I have issues with hair cuts); and
10. So that I can cross the "I'm too fat/out of shape" excuse from my list of excuses.

well... most of these are pretty superficial, and I suppose that since the fat that I'm carrying around is superfluous then it shouldn't be a surprise. I occationally get concerned that most of my get "fit/burn fat" goals are really "get thin/beautiful" goals...but I can save that exploration for another day.

Anyway, I can think of 100 reasons why I don't want to be fat anymore, but these are the ones that are foremost in my mind at this point in time. I'm actually looking forward to reading this in a year and seeing how far I've come from this.

I'm also not going to tag anyone. Seems that this one has been getting around a lot, so I'll leave it as this. Unless someone WANTS to get tagged. Then just poke me and let me know and I'll amend this.

Need a little inspiration to get the day started?

I did... I was already plotting how to work in a full-fat muffin to my eating clean challenge when last I clicked over to Becky's site.

yeah... that rocked.



Toady's Goal - besides carry on with the drinking more water - today's goal is really a "tonight goal".

Tonight I am going over to spend NYE with some friends and they are the sort that really like to lay on a big spread. I used to look forward to it, but now...I'm dreading it. So tonight I'm going to eat a BIG dinner and go prepared.

Tonight I'm allowed to have:
2 small helpings of a dessert;
4 pieces of finger food (spanicopita, meatballs etc.);
2T of dip or dressing (with as many veggies as I want); and
1 glass of champers

Todays Nosh

Today… my legs are feeling the stairs that I did yesterday, little bit tight and sore, but good in that good hurt kind of way. I went down them again to get my coffee this morning!! I'm not going to be walking home from work, since I'm still carrying a residual cold that I want to kick, so I need to get my exercise in where I can. Food today thus far has been good:


Bfast: 1cup unsweetened almond breeze, 1 pkg oatmeal, 3/4c frozen raspberries
Snack: 1 med skim milk latte (+ 468 stairs), 1/2c apple&grain activia yogurt
Lunch: 1c Autumn harvest soup, 1c chickpea salad, 3 hearty rye crackers, 1 tin Jalapeno lime tuna (I only ate 2 small bites…very disappointed in the taste…damn it I bought 4 cans thinking that I would love it)
Snack 2: 1 Kashi 7grain bar, 1c Gerber apple&cinnamon stars
Snack 3: (potential banana), 1/2c 1% cottage cheese

I'm finished all my lunch, but I'm feeling….peckish, or snacky or something….I can't quite figure it out - but I'm not satisfied. Ug.

Ahh, I can see what it is. I'm not really getting filled up with the fibre today. Raspberries, were the only fruit/veg I had today until lunch. The soup - a good serving of carrot and squash - was in liquid form. I'm going to drink some more water and see if the beans don't start to make me feel fuller in 10min, I'll head down to the one little shop in our building that sells healthy foods and get a banana to have with my cottage cheese.

I don't have much planned for dinner, but I was reading Lyn at Escape from Obesity lots today and I think that the Butternut Mac&Cheese might just be what I need on a cold miserable day like today for my dinner. Is cheese clean eating?? I'm going to go with a yes on this one...its milk made cheesy...I'll get some good sharp Cheddar nothing crazy processed and some great wholewheat noodles that I love. I actually can not stand to eat white/regular noodles anymore - they taste so .... pasty.


Edit:: If you have not made this dish yet... DO IT! yum yum yum!

Water water everywhere....

Today I have to drink more then 2 litres of water before the end of the work day.

I don't drink enough and that is a total cop-out.

note to self... drinking more water is the best, simplest and easiest way to rev up the metabolism and get your fat burning started. Not to mention all the other great stuff that it does for you - better hydrated, nicer skin, etc etc..

also.... to self (aka: Queen Cheater of Cheat Island) - I can no long pretend that my very sexy Voss glass water bottle is 1 litre ... its NOT! Its 800ml, so I have to drink MORE then 2 of them in my work day to get over 2 litres.

edit:: I have have 1.5litres so far and its only 12.30!
edit 2:: I have been peeing like a racehorse!!!!! YAY me!
edit 3:: Done - 2 litres has been drunk. I'm happy AND I'm going to get some more.

ps - if you have not read the comments left on here you should! haha well worth a giggle.

Weight In Monday Dec 29

Weigh-In: 278.5lbs - down 1.0lbs

Neck -16, Bust - 48.5, Ribcage - 42.5, Waist - 49, Hips - 52.5, Thigh (L) - 27.5 Thigh (R) - 26, Calf (L) - 18.8, Calf (R) - 18.2, Bicep (L) - 14.7, Bicep (R) - 14.7
Total Inches: 328.4

Down 0.5 inches since last weigh-in...however worth noting....I've lost 5 inches total in December!!

I'm pleased that things are still moving in an ever slowly downward motion. I'm going to really give my clean eating a good go this next 5 weeks and see if I can really make some progress on both my inches and my weight. I set a goal much earlier in for a lost of 15lbs by Feb 1st. I'm not sure that is really going to happen for me, but I'm going to try and get as close as possible.

I have another day of this sickness and I should be good to go full on at the gym again. Very exciting! I also got a new pair of runners for Christmas, so my feetz are happy to have those to start running in. YAY.

I have to get a food plan together and get more lunches pre-packed as that is my downfall. I seem to be handling the trips in and out of the house well - no fast food stoppages. When I'm at the office the temptations are fast and furious. Much better to be full and feel the guilt of not eating what I've packed then to be hungry and wondering how I'll resist.

I also love it when I set a daily challenge on here for all to see, whatever it is that morning that is most on my mind. Its a great tool for me to live up to what I've said I will do (not eat cookies, go to the gym at lunch etc etc), so I plan on doing more of that as well.

Next Monday...... PROGRESS PICTURES!!!!! Come and get an eye-full! haha

Dinner is in the oven and I have a load of laundry in, and food to prep for tomorrow. I'll get on for some blog perving a little later and see what the people had to say this evening.

oh - Katschi - this is for you. Behold my amazing paint skillz!

Edit:: forgot to say that I did the stairs down to the ground floor again after work - I'm feeling it now! 468 + 468 = 936 steps down today! WooHoo!

Here is dinner... I had some rice, but it was one of those microwave bags and it smelled nasty...so I threw it away. Tonight was pork loin, organic apple sauce and green&yellow beans (lots, but I couldn't eat them all). After, I had some 1% cottage cheese, almonds and orange slices.

Burn Baby Burn!

Back on track - I will have my official weigh-in and measurements tonight - but I'm down a little. YAY! Just so you know. 278.5lbs today!

And….. TMI alert - I also did not have my normal morning "routine" pre weigh-in, or as my brother says, "it's still in the shaping room". I don't know what an average turd weighs in at, but I'm not going to bother to find out and I'm just going to be happy that even with my extra load I was still down from last week.

I spent a lot of time on the parental sofa this last five days chugging tea with lemon & honey, drinking Nyquil from the bottle and applying carmex to my chapped nose holes. But I did get to do some thinking.

First of all, I have been thinking about how I think about the term "losing" weight. Although this is really just semantics, I'm going to stop thinking about how much weight/fat I've lost and start thinking about how much fat I've burned off.

Lost implies that I've "misplaced" this fat and will be looking for it pdq, and I want to try to think of it in different terms. This fat didn't just fall out of my purse at the bus stop, my body has consumed it into nothingness. That’s a good feeling to know that the body has eliminated it and not just set it down somewhere to be picked up again.

Other then that, I'm too sick to do anything physical, but I will be doing my stairs down to street level after work today. I also told myself that if I wanted to have a "special coffee" today (skim milk latte) that I would have to take the stairs down there as well so I might get 2 sets in today.

...Actually, after I'm done this post I am off down the stairs and I will get my skim milk latte and feel special without the cream and get in an extra workout today. HA!

Bfast: tea (black), flax oatmeal package, kashi 7grain bar, 1/2c Apple Cinnamon Stars (Gerber baby food…don't judge they are tasty little buggers), (getting now) skim milk latte
Lunch: 1 cup Golden Autumn Carrot soup, 3 WASA hearty rye crackers, 1 cup bean salad
Snack 1: 2 cups chopped fruit (apple, honeydew & watermelon, grapes)

I'm in trouble for snacks today - I left the house in a hurry and forgot to get any yogurt or tuna. I'll have to get creative here. I'm also all out of fruits at the house, must rectify that this evening.

okay - I'm off to get my coffee, go down my 468 stairs!

and a bowl full of jelly

I don't know if clean eating includes NyQuil, but I hope to hell it does since that's what I've been living on for the last five days.

I'm guilty *Holds hand up* yes, me. Guilty of not making better plans to eat better, guilty of thinking that I could "manage okay" without setting limits, guilty of not bothering to care enough to do better over the holidays.

I did some good things. This is the first Christmas that:
- I ate good snacks before heading out to visit family/friends
- I did NOT have seconds after I finished what was on my plate.
- I ate a good breakfast every morning
- I only had milk and not cream in my coffee

Other then that, I kept some of my better eating plan in mind, but in my hurry to: leave, pack, get gifts, wrap everything, I failed to plan for me. Which is really the heart of the matter in my main struggles here. I seem to be putting the very thing that is going to help me the most to the very end of the list of things that "need" to get done.

So for Christmas, I gave myself a gift. The gift is that I will put myself and my weight goals first in my life.

Regardless of my lack of inspiring success, I've had a quick peek around on here and there are plenty of people that have been amazing over the holidays and I thank you all for continuing to post and keep us all honest! :D

AND....

Holy bloggers batman!!! 22 followers!! WHOOOOOHOOO *WAVES TO ALL* Hi and welcome and I really thank you all for tagging on and giving me another great reason to stay honest and post lots!

Okay, that's all I have in me tonight, was another day of crazy winter traveling. Back to work tomorrow and some more perving on blogs while I'm one of the only people in the office (skeleton crew of staff required this week = time to spend on blogs while nothing is going on).

Waste Not (and lots of linky love)

hectic day at the office. I had a lunch shopping date with a friend, I ate my morning food before, so we could get some last minute xmas gift buying out of the way and not have to stop and eat.

I got back, worked like a mad thing for an hour, and went to the office kitchen to get my chicken and veg lunch. The fridge...it was EMPTY! My heart sank, I had forgotten that today (last office day in session before the holidays) the fridge gets cleared out. What a shame. So I thought I'll eat my oatmeal and get my berries out of the freezer.... NOPE!

My raspberries - in tupperware - had been chucked out too. WHO DOES THAT?? *super pout* Come-on, frozen raspberries?? So I had nude oatmeal for my afternoon meal and then my apple on the way home.

However, in the wake of that, I just finished reading a very poignant post by FabKate. Its a good reminder that today I came home to a fridge full of foods that I wanted, picked and that are all good for me. Not everyone, even is our circle of blogging comrades, has that luxury. I want to thank her for the excellent reminder to not take what I have for granted. Thank you.

I also stopped in at Jen with Prior Fat Girl and she had a post up on a topic that I had been thinking on, especially with the holiday season at the office and all the free food. Whenever our company has a lunch meeting the leftovers are put out. In the last year, I would more often then not, take an extra half a sandwich (or whole) and a couple cookies... you know... can't "let it go to waste". But in that year look what its done to me!!

Nothing is free! In fact - on Monday someone left a package of cookies out with a note on it "Free Calories". I grabbed a pen and wrote next to it "Nothing is Free". Hahaha! Made me giggle, also made me not take one.

Anyway - I've been home, perved some blogs, made a few "ellos" on posts and now its time to make some dinner. Whole Wheat pasta, with chicken and ... not too sure what else I can whip up. Time to go have a look.

Edit:: Dinner piccie. WW pasta with 1/2 red onion, 1/2 roma tomato, 1 chickenbreast, handful of snap peas, 4 scallions abd a clove of garlic. Sauted in a pan with some Pam. Yum!

Tonight I'm packing and tomorrow morning... the flight leaves at 7am sharp... thats a 6am airport call. Ouch! Time to get on it.

Anyway - I also wanted to say Hi to all the new people tuning in here. I've made linky love to them!! And I'll updating my blogroll to include you all for my blog perving pleasure! Thank you!

Tuesdays blurb

Can I just say quickly, how excited I am to see all the people that have joined up for this 6 week self impossed eat clean challenge. :D YAY!!

Thank you Katschi for getting the ball rolling on this one. You rock my (gym) socks!

Foods for today:

Breakfast - 1 cup Almond Breeze (unsweetened)...this stuff is nectar of the gods!!, 1 med banana, 1 med skim milk latte, 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
Snack 1 - kashi Black cherry chocolate chip bar, coffee with milk (Hello... I have dumped cream like a bad boyfriend! I am so proud, almost as proud as when I stopped putting sugar in my coffee... I'm a REAL grown up!)
Water thus far - 3/4 litre (not good enough!)

Food to come:
Snack 2 - 1 pita, 1.5 cups baby carrots, 2 tbsp hummus
Lunch - 1 baked chicken breast, 1 tsp 2 herb mustard, 1/5 cups green&yellow beans, 1 Kiwi
Snack 3 - oatmeal, 2 tbsp protein, 1 tbs ground flax, 1/2 cup raspberries
Snack 4 - Couscous&Lentil soup
Snack 5 - Green Apple
Dinner - TBD

Tonight I need to get home and pack to go home for the holidays. A short jaunt to see my family for 4 days. Sadly, I have to work the 29-31 and the 2nd, so no long holiday for us. However.... that means that I'll be at the office and not grazing at home on Christmas treats, AND I'll be in very close proximity to the gym.

So my one other goal for this challenge is this. Sleep
I typically get 5.5 - 6hours a night. Which is REALLY not enough. First of all, I'm hard to get out of bed (read here Grumpy bear that hits snooze at least 3 times), and secondly, I can sleep 11 hours straight on the weekend - both days... that means that I'm NOT getting enough ZZZ's in the week. And we all know that this is a major inhibitor for losing weight.

So I am going to challenge myself to get into bed before 11.30pm every night and see if that will make a difference. I don't see how it won't.

Monday Weigh-In

As posted earlier, I'm up 0.7lbs.
Weight - 279.5lbs

Inches: Neck - 16, bust - 49, ribs - 43, waist - 48, hips 52.5, Left Bicep - 15, Right Bicep - 14.9, Left Thigh - 27, Right Thigh - 26.2, Left Calf - 19.1, Right Calf - 18.2
Total Inches: 328.9

Okay - so that is still down in inches by a tiny 0.4 inches lost. However, I'm not happy to report that its coming more from either end and not the middle where its the worst. That is pretty normal for me, the last place I'm going to lose is in my waist.

I walked half way home and did my 468 steps down from the office to the ground floor and then power walked home for 20min, I was tired and sweaty! YAY!! I also was VERY good today about snacking. I had tempting treats surrounding me, but I solidified my resolve that I didn't need any of those treats, and so never had any. Very pleased.

Dinner is in the oven, Pork loins marinated (since this morning) in 1tbs splenda brown sugar, and a pinch of each ground ginger, pepper and salt, serving it with some unsweetened apple sauce. Its slowly cooking along with a greek stuffed bell pepper and the extra veg will be more green&yellow beans. They are getting freezer burn and need to get eaten up. ...picture after its done.

As for today - a good day all in all. I guess I have to take these ones and really enjoy them.

Now...for some blog perving!!! :D

Todays Food Piccies:
Dinner and Dessert (oats, pumpkin custard, almond milk)

We're Tied

Weighed myself this morning, not good news. Up 0.7lbs this morning. I'm sad, but not depressed or beaten or surprised really… what could I have expected if I'm going to:

Eat normally (plus treats & grazing on junk all week) + NO regular heart pumping exercise = Gain weight

This is not revolutionary. But I'm making changes, little changes that are going to become habits, habits that are eventually going to become my lifestyle.

As of now, me and the scale are tied 2 - 2. I know this is silly since its not really me v. scale, its me v. me.

Had my physio appointment, one of my upper ribs is "out of place", most likely a bunch of muscle and neck issues that are compounded by working hunched over my desk for too many hours, has now pulled mr.rib out of place and its the main source of my pain. It's getting taken care of though, and is stiff, but feeling better. More stretching and massage on it this evening and another appointment tomorrow I should be right as rain very soon.

For exercise tonight, I'm walk down the stairs and part of the way home, but not the whole way (still too cold out).

Today I got asked to go for lunch with some friends - I didn't want to go because I didn't want to have to be faced with ordering food. But I decided that I was strong enough, so ate my packed lunch first. Salmon with a mixture of green & yellow beans. We went out and I got a small salad from the salad bar and a flax seed bun. That’s all. I was very happy to be able to do that. Now, I'm all full of good food!

Speaking of, this "Eat Clean" challenge… to be honest, I really don't know what "eating clean" actually encompasses… I had better do some checking up to see what the do's and don'ts are for this. I may have broken the rules already! Ha. Sweet irony. Since this afternoon is looking quiet, I'm going to have some time where I can look busy and do some surfing on this eating clean idea.

BFast - 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk; 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese, 1/2 cup activia apple&grain yogurt; coffee & cream (is cream allowed?? I'm going to go with likely not! ug)
Snack 1 - Kashi 7 grain bar, banana
Lunch 1 - 6oz baked salmon, 1.5cups green& yellow beans
Lunch 2 - mixed salad with 1 tbs lite ranch dressing (is that allowed too??)
Snack 2 - 1/2 cup gerber apple cinnamon stars
Water thus far - 1.2 liters
Snack 3 - 7 almonds (nude), 1 kashi Black cherry & choco chip bar (yum!), green apple
Water thus far - 1.9litres (need to drink more!)


Edit:: Thank you all for the posts!! That is kind of what I thought - but I wasn't sure if there were any hard and fast rules that I might have trod all over for eating clean.


okay - googled eating clean... I have yet to ferret out anything other then what you all have told me here too. I'm thinking that my xmas prezzy to self is going to be the Tosca Reno (?? spelling??) book about it.


Less processed foods, more whole foods.....So lets see, that means eating things that either walked, flew, or swam; were pulled off a bush, branch or out of the ground... or fell out of a chickens butt! HA!

Food P0rn

Breakfast:
12noon - 1 kashi 7 grain bar, 1 kashi pb bar
12.45 - Omelet: 1 egg, 1/4cup whites, 2 slices deli chicken breast, 1/4c red onion, 1/2cup mixed greens (spinach, green beans broccoli), 30z feta cheese; 1 package flax oatmeal, 1.4 cup mixed berries; and a cup Chai tea.

I really need to not sleep so late on weekends. Actually what I really need is to get more sleep on weeknights so that I don't do all my catching up sleep on the weekends.

Snack 1 - handful Almonds
Snack 2 - 1/2 cup Apple Cinnamon Stars (Gerber - yes they are for babies, but they are gooood!!!)

Cooking Dinner right now - Turkey/Chickpea burgers with 3 herb mustard, tomato and onion in a pita; white&sweet potato baked chips; and spinach & broccoli veggie side.

...overdid the potatoes a little!

Tea. Apple & cashew/macadamia nut butter for dessert.

Edit:: no apple and Nutbutter. Had another turkey burger and mustard - no pita

The Gauntlet has been thrown down

Katschi has challenged me to a six week long eating clean challenge. In a serendipitous moment...this is what I bought for myself for Christmas while out shopping yesterday.

I had been thinking about getting some more ideas about what to eat and I just happened to see this little gem.

Not only did it contain the inspiration for the ground turkey that I have in my freezer for my dinner tonight (ground turkey/chickpea burgers) it has some amazing foods in here! I was surprised. Its my reading after I'm done posting this and then I'm making a list and heading to the grocery store for supplies.

I will admit, I turned on the computer this morning and found the comment from Kastchi asking if I wanted to join her on a six week eating clean journey. My pulse raced, my palms got sweaty. I was scared.... what if I can't do it, what will I do over Christmas at my Mums, how will I feel if I fail or cheat... I don't have the time, I can't manage to get all that food cooked, what if ....what if.... what if...

I have accepted the challenge. As I made my breakfast I decided that this is really a great thing for me. When I make up my mind to eat better and not cheat, I do. But I certainly don't tell myself "No" enough. The scale doesn't lie. I'm 2-1 with the weigh-ins now and I'm afraid tomorrow the scales are going to even the score to 2-2. For all my BS blogging about what I want and how I want to lose weight, I'm doing a pretty shabby job of it.

I started blogging and the entitled attitude has slowly but continuously crept back in. I'm being "good", I should get some jellybeans/ice cream/chocolate/have a Burger and fries for lunch ad nausium.

I admit that I don't think that I'm going to be able to manage to eat clean for 6 weeks with the Christmas holidays squashed in there (EXCUSE ALERT). HOWEVER.....This is what I will promise:

That I'm going to give this 100% effort, and see if there is some way that I CAN manage and then enjoy each little victory. I'm bringing dessert to Christmas dinner, I'm in charge of what goes in my mouth, and I am going to try as hard as possible to eat what is good for my body and not what my mind tells me that I need.

late night quickie!

ha! not that kind that I would really like to be having right now! teehee

This is a very interesting article written by a behavioral economist. He begins with discussing behaviors found around risk taking with finances and bidding on ebay - but it turns into an interesting take on food/healthy behaviors that are common with most people.

"To improve ourselves, we have to act like each M & M matters. Like each decision has important consequences."

I like it.

...bed time!!

Mini Win!

Long day yesterday... good report though.

VICTORY! For all the trying and pressure of my co-workers I did not cave and eat any more junk on Friday at the office,.....even though someone brought in donuts, and someone else came and ate one right in front of me. Then several other people actually pelted me with Hersey's kisses, and another person put some more cookies on my mousepad....but I tossed them all in the garbage. Take that people!

I have to say though, it was a very strange day for that kind of thing. It's very uncomfortable for me to constantly have to explain why I'm not eating the candy...I kinda thought that it would be clearly obvious that I am a very overweight lady, sat at my desk, with her gut pooched out for all to visibly identify.

WHY....do you want to harass ME of all the people there about NOT eating junk.

odd.

Last night I did get a mini bag of Salt&Vinegar chips that evening with my dinner (I was too lazy to cook) roasted chicken subway sammich eaten while watching movies on the couch and a little bag of jellybelly jelly beans. Not that I needed them, but I did eat them anyway. :(

I'm pretending like it nice outside and trying to find my winter motivation. Its nowhere to be found.

Other then that, I'm not going to be able to get to the gym this weekend. But I'm trying to eat well and get some more rest. My week of working overtime has caught up with me, and I'm in a bad way with an old injury, in 2005 I fractured my neck, I was certainly one lucky monkey to get out of that with no real lasting or permanent injury. But, it does have occasional flare ups... such as now, mostly when I spend too many hours at the office hunched over my keyboard as I was this week, combined with the poor exercise regime - I'm missing my evening walks home a lot. Anyway, I can't exercise my way through this one, its rest that is required, and I have a physio appointment on Monday to help sort me out.

I have a friends b-day to go to this evening. She is pretty health conscious though, so its chili and veggies, shouldn't be too much in the way of garbage to eat. I'm going to bring my pumpkin custard!! :)

okay - I'll have to do some blog surfing later today. Now I have to get my butt out there and do the last of my Christmas shopping.

Happy weekend all!!!

Into the belly of the beast

This is ridiculous.... its not even 10am and I've already eaten 2 chocolate kisses and no breakfast.

That's it!

Friday, December 19th - I am not going to treat my body like a garbage can.

Today. NO MORE COOKIES. NO MORE CHOCOLATE. NO POP. NO CRACKERS. If anyone offers me any, I'll take it and when they aren't looking and either throw it out, or give it to someone else.

Done. The words are posted. If I don't do what I said, then I'll have to admit defeat later... and I don't want to do that.

Land of Nod

OOps!

I got home tonight, stripped down, laid in bed and pulled the covers up. About 10min in I rolled over and thought, "I'll get up in about........ zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz".

I decided after work tonight that I was totally exhausted and that I needed to recover. Today was day four of working 9.5 -10hour days without a break, no lunch break - except for what I could scarf down at my desk while I worked. Anyway, its taken it toll and today I had to put some energy back in the tank.

I have some rice with chicken and curry sauce in the nuker right now. Drank most nut juice (don't tell Mr.K! haha) ....errr, I mean almond milk, straight from the container and I'm getting ready to eat because...I'm HUNGRY!

Eating at the office was a 6/10 I think. I did NOT have a good solid breakfast, and I know that this typically catches up with me in the afternoons. I did pretty well, but I did snack on the xmas treats that are all around. A lot less then I would have in other years, but I should have eaten the better alternatives around first.

Tomorrow, I will do better then I did today. Time to have a quick snoop through others peoples daily postings and then back to bed.

Home again home again

Another long day at the office, except today I was looking forward to my gym session after the day was done. A change of mindset and dealing with motivation issues positively- which I've been reading about lots on many people blogs recently. Must be the winter, its hard to get going when its miserable and dark outside.

I went down the stairs after work (yay! its so bloody easy now!!)
468 steps done!
60min on the elliptical - 7.4km(4.5miles) - and I worked hard today (see penance for cookie comment below).

I feel good tired right now, that kind of tired where I know that I'm going to sleep really well tonight. Work was very stressful and incredibly busy. It was 'hair-straight-back' all day running from one crisis to another without stopping.

I had a coffee and my breakfast at 9am and I didn't stop to get anything else until I had a pot of Healthy Choices Couscous soup, a handful of Goldfish, and a small tin of tuna...then...see cookie comment below.... *sheepish grin*

Dinner was 2 wraps with 3 slices of deli chicken breast meat, 3 oz of Swiss cheese, lots of mustard (my favorite) split between them, 1 cup of garden mushroom soup, 6 rye crackers, 1 cup baby carrots, 1 heaping tbsp hummus, 1/3 cup pumpkin custard (soooo yummy!), water and a kashi 7 grain and almond granola bar.

I had a bad day with the treats in the office. A managing potential outcomes issue. I had decided that I would eat cookies after lunch - assuming that cookies would be gone... but then when they weren't....I ate some. I ended up eating 2 cookies after my lunch - the work people let me down, must be less people in the office for the holidays, Damn them! Then I had another one at 4.30 tonight. :( ug. So I made myself work extra hard at the gym. Ate my apple on the way home and now I'm stuffed full of good foods. And I'm going to lift HARD tomorrow night.

I'm going to make a cuppa shortly and read my new book while I wait on Mr.K to get home from quiz night, which should be shortly.

I got noticed!

today one of my co-workers was talking to me and then suddenly looked at me and said, "you've lost some weight". I got to say, "actually I haven't really lost weight, but I am down 6 inches".

I think that I'm going to do my cardio at the gym tonight, its still pretty baltic out here, and I'm not too keep on walking home and getting chilled.

Today is also treat day in the office, I have my oatmeal on standby for when the cookies arrive. They are an office favorite - so I know that if I can resist until after lunch, they will be all gone.

Forgot to go down the stairs yesterday - I need to post a note to remind myself to do that!

26 floors
26 x 18 steps per floor
Total = 648

I also got an award from Kate! Thanks darling!! There is something about a copy and paste ma-doodle so I'll have to look at it when I'm at home. Cheers for that!

Tuesday Struggles

Walking home tonight I was thinking about what I was going to blog about, and I had this huge laundry list crappy things that are making my life so hard ... ... I had to work late, had lots of ugly friend drama over email all day, slept poorly last night and ate 2 cookies after lunch... I was going to give up and go home instead of go to the gym because, you know... lifes' been kicking me, so I should just curl up in a ball, right?

Halfway home I realized that these are just reasons that I use to keep me from looking after my body and myself the way that I should.

But I changed my mind, chatting with the hubby on the phone I told him to tell me to get my butt in the gym. He did, and so I did. :) And it was good.

I did 10 HARD minutes on the elliptical and got sweaty.
Leg press - 215 x 10, 6s 315 x 6r
Calf press - 215 x 10, 6s 315 x 6r
Ham curls - 85 x 10, 6s 115 x 6r
Leg extension - 85 x 10, 6s x 100 x 6r
Lat pull downs - 70 x 10, 1s 100 x 6r, 3s 100 x6r
Bicep curls - 6s x 20 x6r

I didn't do all my usual weights, but I was exhausted. I ended up walking home, even though I didn't plan on it. It was pretty nice out actually, so I'm glad I missed the bus.

Dinner tonight was a mix of crazy things from the fridge that needed eating.

First up - two whole wheat wraps with 1 small tin of lemon pepper tuna, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 mini box of sprouts (mini-win - I've never finished a box of these doo-dads before they've gone bad - Yay me!);
Second up - two wraps done quesadilla style with 2 slices of swiss cheese and 2 slices of deli chicken between them and fired in the pan with a little bit of pam spary; and
Third up - 1 cup of garden mushroom soup with 20 goldfish crackers.

I'm fully, happy, tired and excited about the rest of this week and getting my good food in me. I'm going to sleep well tonight.

Weight In Monday, Dec 15, 2008

Well today was weight in (see last couple of posts!) I'm up. Not good.

Weight: 278.8lbs (+0.2lbs)

Inches:
Neck - 16.1, Bust - 48, Ribs - 43, waist - 48.5, Hips - 51.4, R Thigh - 27.5, L Thigh - 27.8, R Calf - 18.3, L Calf - 19, R Bicep - 14.9, L Bicep - 14.8
Total - 329.3

So, I guess calling this blog one inch at a time was pretty accurate. I'm not too unhappy as my inches have gone down, I think that I'm about to have a good breakthrough if I can just maintain my better habits and keep my activity level up right now. I've made a mental shift as well. That this is not going to be simple, so now when its hard I'm not as disappointed that I'm struggling. Managing expectations I suppose. :)

So there you have it! I'm having some rice chicken and curry sauce with peas and carrots tonight, as well as 4 mini pitas toasted with hummus. Its pretty great! I have some other obligations tonight though, so I have to run. I'm going to be on later to surf the other blogs and see what everyone else has been up to today and over the weekend.

EDIT::
Forgot to log my Monday stairs. Down 26 flighst, every 5 flights I went up 1/2 flight.
down 26 x 18 = 468
up 2.5 x 18 = 45
down 2.5 x 18 = 45
Total = 558

phew

Well I weighed-in this morning and I'm up 0.2lbs to 278.8 lbs
I'm grateful that is all the damage that I did.

more later :)

Sunday Sinning

Well, I wish that I could say that I've been good this weekend and done all the right things and not eaten badly. But I haven't, I've been bad.

I'm freaked out about my weigh-in tomorrow, and I will not be surprised to have gained back what I have lost in the last 2 weeks. Sadly, the good brain has told me to stop, but I still decided that it was much nicer to keep munching.

The offending treats arrived here via an office auction where I bid on a basket of goodies in the spirit of charity (and re-gifting). I bid, quite low actually, with the hope that I would LOSE. Sadly, I won. It stayed intact for 2 weeks, until this weekend when I thought that I should break it up and get everything into piles for re-gifting (HA! how cheap is that?! the good 'ol Scottish side of me coming out).

WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!!! "hello, I'm a recovering coke addict, but I'm just going to cut this blow into lines so that you all can snort."

Needless to say, I've eaten more of it then I would care to admit. I managed to throw away most of the treats before I eat it all. Typically stuffing in my mouth while I dumped the rest into the trashcan.

The numbers will tell me tomorrow what I know already, that unless I really want to change and make sacrifices, that I'm not going to make any headway. I've been reading lots of blogs and watching everyone's triumphs and set-backs and seen how much attitude has to do with success. Mine stinks at teh moment.

I had a very strange moment in the mirror today. I noticed that yesterday I was looking at myself and seeing the progress and feeling good. Today (with a poor mental shift) I caught a glimpse of myself and was appalled by my troll-esk dumpy fat appearance. Holy fun house-mirror mind. :( .....but there is NO WAY that my body has changed that much overnight that I can go from okay to ogre in 12 hours???? .... I mean, I ate too much but it wasn't THAT much.

That's enough of that for now. On to the good news.

I found this pumpkin custard recipe at both Lyns and Debbies blogs a while ago and I finally got the chance to try it out. AND I found Almond breeze, Katschi I can't even tell you how excited I am to try this out!!!!

In my oven right now is baking:

PUMPKIN CUSTARD
In a bowl mix together:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup splenda (I found Splenda-brown sugar and used 1/2c of that)
1 tsp cinnamon (didn't have any of that... where the h. e. double hockey sticks did it go?)
1/2 tsp allspice (nope)
1/4 tsp ground ginger (YES...put in extra to make up for no all-spice and cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt (yes)
Then add:
1/2 c egg beaters, or 4 egg whites
1 15 ounce can pumpkin
Mix tog. using a wire whisk.
Slowly add:
1 1/2 cups original or unsweetened vanilla almond breeze (40-60 cal/cup)
Pour into a 9 or 10 inch pie plate sprayed with pam. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Center is slightly wiggly when you bump it. Cool to room temp, then cover and refrigerate.
Cut into wedges to serve, or just scoop into a bowl to eat like pudding. You can serve w/ a bit of lite reddi-whip or lite cool whip on top.

Tonight's dinner is going to be all veggies. Another giant salad with everything that I can think of in the fridge. And water water water, and then some tea.

Sorry - this is going to be one long weekend post.

I've also been considering my goals. There were some other people that put their lack of goals up and its been making me think about mine. Also I found this great blog, Gettn' Shrunk, that made me think that I've really should have set my goal weight lower. Her tagline is "Those who believe they can do something are probably right — and so are those who believe they can’t."

I wonder if I'm putting in a full effort, or if I'm really just waiting to fail like all other times that I've set out to lose weight. I hate to think that this is what I'm thinking at my very core, but I think that I might be. So, I need to change that asap.

"The will to prepare to win, is more important then the will to win".

I guess I've been trying to fool myself into thinking that "its not that bad, and I'm just a little overweight" bla bla. But really, I need to lose a lot of weight. I need to lose 100lbs.

There...I said it. One Hundred Pounds.

I should be 180lbs, but I'm not. I've covered myself in 100lbs of fat and to take that off I'm going to have to change my life, my attitude, my ideas and what I think about myself. This will be the hardest, most spectacular thing that I ever do for myself, for my partner, my family, and my potential children.

A challenge. I have to prepare to win this more then just wanting to be thin. I need to prepare my food, prepare my mind and prepare my body to shed 100lbs from my frame, and then once I do that... I need to be able to see what has happened and enjoy it, revel in it and manage my life from there forward.

Easily said. I guess that it all starts here and now. 100lbs. :)

lazy weekend

Well..the weather outside is frightful. Very cold, snowy, blowing wind, and just plain ugly. I'm not loving it. I don't even want to go out there. So this weekend is going to be an inside affair. I've rented movies and I'm going to try and eat good food, drink mint tea and rest.

If I get cabin fever tomorrow I'll see if its nice enough to go out and get some walking in - if not, I'll throw on the Jillian Michael's 30day shred DVD and do some sweating in the living room.

I'm about to put sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and chicken into the oven to slowly roast while I read a book.

EDIT:: Went for salmon not chicken. Its faster to thaw and faster to cook. Plus I hadn't had any fish in a while.

Made it Home!

I did the stairs down again today (YAY!!!!!!!! ty ty ty katschi, I never thought of how great ended the workday would be doing that). Walked home in the snow, its getting crazy out there, but not too cold, so it was a very nice evenings outing. Short walk, no hill... however, every fibre in my quads feel like they are going to spring free. So I figure a little rest today is okay.

Got home and was NOT in the mood to cook. Made a large yummy salad....boiled an egg while I was unwinding from the walk home and that was it. I'm eating it right now, and its dee'lish!

2 large handfuls of spinach, generous portion of sprouts, corner of a red onion, 1 egg, 1 slice deli chicken breast, feta cheese. Topped with x-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Viola!

Here's to a good weekend for all of us.

Change of Mind

I caught myself red handed deep in food lust today. Naughty!

First off, I haven't not eaten enough today, nor did I start the day with a good breakfast. That always seems to catch up to me in the afternoon and then bad things happen... such as....

Sitting at my desk, thinking that I would skip the gym and go home and order pizza ... yummy greasy greasy pizza....and since I was good and didn't drink a coke with my lunch - even though I thought about it, then that means that I could have one tonight....or maybe even 2, and rent a movie and get some ice cream....

The crazy food p0rn swirling around in my brain was about to get hold when I realized what I was doing to myself. I changed my thoughts to the veggies that are in my fridge and all the delicious things I can make with what is in the house already.

Tonight its roasted brussle spouts, baked sweet potato, chicken breast and a spinach salad. Most likely a sweet salad with almonds and mandarin orange segments again. Yum!

Its so much easier to control those thoughts when I have something else to focus them on. YAY for a step in the right direction today.

Stair MASTER!

I hobbled around the office like I was 100 years old today - but it did force me to drink more water (in the hope that it would help flush out the lactic acid in my poor legs). I have to say though, that I did enjoy the stairs, and today... I did it again.

18 steps between floors x 26 floors = 468 steps. I felt every one of them. So did my calves, my quads and my butt(s).

I did get to the gym, but I skipped my leg weights. I didn't know if I would be able to finish then AND walk home after. As it was I shuffled home at half pace - but I did it. Victory!

10min elliptical warm up
Lat pull downs - 70 x10, 2s 100 x 6r, 2s 90 x 6r
bicep curls - 17.5 x 10, 2s 20 x 6r, 2s 22.5 x 6r
military press - 5s 22.5 x 6r
chest press - 5s 22.5 x 6r
abs x ball work.

Tonight's dinner was veggie frittata. 1 egg, 1/3c egg whites, red onion, asparagus, spinach, deli chicken breast and feta cheese on top. One grilled whole wheat wrap and 1/2c hot salsa. It was tastier then it looks! :)

Dessert tonight is cashew/macadamia nutbutter with my Strawberry & Grand Marnier jam (yes...its as lush as it sounds) rolled in a wrap and a 1/4c cottage cheese.

Bed early tonight. I'm totally beat.

Hello Legs!

My legs... they hate me. Lots!!

I'm like the caring disciplinarian parent to the naughty tween. "Legs, even though you didn't like it, 25 flights of stairs was good for you, it builds character and will make you stronger"

Ha!

Asparagus - Nature's reminder that you are what you eat!

No cookies today! Happily the other office carbo-addicts ate them all before I could even get a good look at one to decide if I wanted to cheat or not! ha!

Work has been infiltrated by drama llamas and I'm hating it. Ug. But, I had a good day for eating, too much coffee and not enough water, but I'm getting there.

Post work.... I did the stairs (thanks Katschi!! I'm loving this challenge!)... 25 floors down. Needless to say, I was slightly damp when I exited out into the main floor. It was good though, and completed the night with a 7.2km (4.44m) walk. The evening was really nice and I had a great time. My legs were stiff this morning from weights yesterday, but after the excellent warm up, my walk was great.

I stopped for groceries on the way home and stocked up on fruit and veg as well as some more eggs/egg whites, and Swiss cheese.... I'm feeling an omelet phase coming on! :) And viola, we have what I had for dinner.

1 halved blanched green pepper, filled and then baked with 1 slice deli chicken breast, red onion, spinach 2 eggs and 1/4 cup egg whites and 3 oz feta cheese on top. Some asparagus spears and a couple of mini pitas (no evil butter). I ended up putting it in the nuker for a minute at the end to get the middle cooked - I was following a recipe from memory, so I think I got the oven settings wrong. I'm going to have to find it again and do it right.

That's all from me. I had a busy night, a friend dropped in for a late cuppa tea, the hubby is at quiz night and I did a little cleaning while cooking. Its not left a lot of time for me to check up on all of my blogroll....

But I am now!! i r on da netz, readin ur postz!

Cookies in the office today

and today ... I'm not having any.
:)

Tuesday Weights

I'm happy that I didn't let yesterdays pitfall trap me like it typically would have. Today I ate well, even resisted the treats that were out all day in the office kitchen...not that it was too hard since I felt more guilt then hunger.

Post work I went the the gym and did my weights session and it really does help the mood. I can't tell you how good it felt to get out of my tights and into my shorts!! FREEDOM!!!

Elliptical - 10min warm up (worked hard)
Leg Press - w/u 195 x 10 - 1s 295 x 6 r, 3s 315 x6
Calf raises- 195 x10, 1s x 295 x 10 r, 3s x 315 x 10 r
Hamstring Curls - 100 x 6, 3s x 115 x 6 r
Leg Extensions - 4s x 100 x 6
Lat Pull downs - 70x10- 4r 100x 6r
Bicep curls - 4s 20lbs x6r
Military Press (on the ball) - 20 x10 - 4s 22.5 x 6r
Chest Press(on the ball) - 20 x10 - 4s 22.5 x 6r
Abs - 5 x 20r various crunches.

All in all it was good, ate my giant green apple on the way home, walked. Chatted with the most excellent hubby for a little while as I was walking, then hung up and power walked the rest of the way home.

Tonight's dinner porn is:
1/2 avocado, 1 tin of drained tuna (in water), 2 slices of low fat Swiss cheese on top of 2 slices of organic flax bread and then grilled in the oven.

Spinach "salad", 1/2 tomato, and x-virgin olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing. Now I'm fixing a mug of mint tea.

Tomorrow is a new day and another start. :)

For Better and for Worse

Well in the wake of my success last night I did a bad thing. I didn't want to post about it, but after a long think, what is the point of blogging about this if I don't post the stuff that will remind me to stay on course.

After all my wins, I had a fail. I stopped on the way home last night and bought saltines to go with my soup for dinner. I thought that I would be able to just have some. After finishing my post about what a great day it was, I fell into a binge on crackers and margarine (yes, not even the good stuff butter) with my veggie soup.

I mindlessly ate 2 sleeves full and started a third when the reality of it all caught up with me. ....I WASN'T EVEN ENJOYING IT! :( I stood up, ran to the garbage, crushed the rest of that bag into cracker dust and threw it in the trash. But just like an addict… I put the forth bag up in the cupboard*. I should and do know better then to get stuff like that. I just HAD to celebrate my success with a complete sabotage.

*Tonight when I get home, I'm going to find that bag, crush it and throw it away as well.

After the crackers, I halfheartedly made my salad, boiled some eggs and put a stuffed pepper, veggies and my regular fruit and breakfast into my lunch bag for work today. But I felt less positive about it all. A failure.

I fell asleep at 1am last night, and woke up at 5.30… all I could think about what how I lost control and really let myself down, I felt guilty. Worst of all, I b*tched at the husband this morning, for no reason other then I was cranky. Once I was at the office I sent him an email.

Sorry about this morning, I'm in a foul mood
1. I wasn't alseep until 1am;
2. I was awake at 5.30;
3. Its cold;
4. I'm wearing a skirt and tights;
5. the bus never came so I walked to the train - which never came - so I walked all the bloody way to work in tights;
6. I have chub-rub now from said tights;
7. I'm puffy from eating so much salty food last night;
8. I am angry and irritable from eating salty food and cheating on my diet;
9. I'm mad that I still see it as a diet and not a new way of eating; and
10. I'm pissed that I have next to no willpower… wtf.

And this is what he sent back to me. (Gawd I love that man)

Sorry you are in a foul mood- wish I could do something about it... :(
Changing the way you eat and the way you see food takes months if not years. It's really difficult, so there will be occasional setbacks, don't beat yourself up over it. And you do have willpower, you gave up drinking and other destructive behaviors. It will just take more time with this. For now just do your best and keep your eyes on the goal and I know you will do fine, and when you have a bad thing happen don't beat yourself up over it, just make a promise (and write it down) to do better next time.

I kinda got teary at my desk after I read that. I hated myself last night, and this morning. I really didn't want to post the bad. I wanted my fat loss to be all rainbows and ponies and frankly, easy!! But its not going to be. Its going to be the good and the ugly, and I think that both are equally important when coming to grips with this challenge.

Funnily, I gave up drinking 3 years ago. That was hard, but in a different way. It was hard because all the people that I used to drink with didn't like it (I have a feeling that some of the people in my life who are used to/like me being fat are not going to enjoy me when I am not what they like to pigeon hole me as, but that is for another days post I think). But easy for me in the physical sense (first of all I wasn't addicted to it), because I never HAD to have a beer. I can have an occasional wine now and then, or a G&T on a patio when its hot and not get outa control. But I have to eat, and every time I do I feel like a ticking time bomb.

I just have to keep reminding myself, that one step back is not the end of the world. This is just one more opportunity to take that feeling and use it to temper my resolve to constantly seek to be better, even if its only be a slight degree from the day/week/month before.

Weight In Monday

I have to say that I have been waiting all day to post this. I got up this morning and was not really too keen to step onto the scales for the "bad news". BUT... it wasn't!

Current weight 278.6 which is a 1.2lbs loss this week.

Even better is that my inches went down 1.1 Inches!!

Other great news was that I was able to renew my gym membership in my office building today so I can keep working out in my most lovely convenient space. Hurray!

So other then being totally flat out at work today and working overtime tonight and getting in late to my blogging, I have such good news to post. I am not on target to lose 15lbs by Feb 1st... yet! This weeks activity will be ramped up I'm sure, and I might try to get in some extra lunchtime cardio on my weights days now.

Me = Very pleased!

Here is a little pic of my breakfast and lunch (packed last night) for today since I know that Katschi loves them!

BF - Banana, 1% cottage cheese, yogurt, oatmeal & berries.

Lunch - Mini pita breads, Swiss cheese, deli chicken breast, tomato & sprout sammiches, salad from last nights dinner.

Snacks - Hummus with carrots & snap peas, apple, pear, avocado.

I actually didn't eat it all today, and wasn't hungry. Happy Days

Sunday Cardio Done

I did it! Elliptical machine for 60min. Tired and sweaty! :)

I'm going to see if I can sort out a shovel and clear the snow from our walkway... little extra never killed anyone! put I'm going to have a snack first. Apple and Almond butter, here I come!

Edit:: Shoveling done. Reward procured. Dinner Made!









Regular brewed coffee with cream (switching to lower fat whitener soon). Dinner is spinach with mandarin orange slices, almonds with a splash of balsamic vinegar and ex-virgin olive oil. Pepper is a Greek stuff roasted pepper, and Daaamn it was good.

motivational crisis. aka - Snow

Ug...okay I wrote that meme, surfed blogs and have been sitting here thinking about all the excuses that I have so that I don't go for my walk... since its SNOWING! :(

I'm going to get in my car and go the the gym (free underground parking) and get on the elliptical machine with my ipod and imagine the fat burning off me.

Today's goal - soak my tee shirt with sweat. Now that I've posted it... I have to do it.

A meme for Sunday fun

Mara at 24Steps to go tagged me with a meme. :D I love these things! and its a little Sunday fun.

Rules:
1) Link to your tagger and list all these rules in your blog. (done)
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. (done)
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs. (yikes...I don't know that many bloggers yet!!)
4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

hummmm lets see. I'll try to make this as interesting as I can.

1. My bottom left rib is half the size it should be. It was discovered at a chiropractic appointment where I had a full torso x-ray. I have a ribblette! ha-ha Never bothered me before, and the Dr. says it never will.

2. I hate raisons.

3. I don't own a TV and haven't had one for going on 4 years now. Its great. I actually don't miss it at all.

4. I am a fantasy nut! I love fantasy books and movies. And since I don't have a TV I typically read at least one book a week. Luckily I have a couple of great used book stores very close to me.

5. I have size 10.5 ladies feet, which makes it hard to find cute shoes for work. But I am totally in love with asics runners and they have ladies 10.5 that fit me like slippers. I own 5 pairs right now.

6. I lived in England for 4 years.

7. My husband and I decided on to have our wedding on October 4th, because we thought 10-4 for an anniversary date was funny!

Well, there you go! Everything you never needed to know about me. Thank you Mara!!

Okay, you lucky people! I'm tagging you !! :)
Katschi at FITCETERA
Stephanie at Taming the Chew
Fab Kate at Fabulous at 50
Chai at Out of the Frying Pan
Amy at On my way to a healthier slimmer me!
Sarah at Finding by Losing
and last but not least
Roder at Waste The Waist