I can has weight loss

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 191.2 lbs
Weight Variance: -3.6 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 112.0 lbs

So I tracked how much food I ate this week and low and behold I lost weight. Check it out, almost four pounds this week. Not rocket science I know, but after dieting for so long you begin to think you can do it all in your head. Well you can’t, you forget the little things and those little things add up. I suggest that if you are struggling with your weight loss journey to write everything you eat down. On weight watchers we are allotted a certain amount of points a day and we track those points. I find when you have to write it down and be accountable then you are more mindful of what you put in your mouth. Also it is a great tool for you to see what types of food you consistently eat. “Oh hey, I do eat a lot of chocolate.” Or “Um… I don’t think I am eating enough veggies.”

Fresh

Quite a few of my friends are vegan so our dining options are limited. For the longest time I was very resistant to trying and liking the soy options, however over the years I have discovered that there are a variety of meatless options that are delicious. Fresh has three dining locations in Toronto and my friends and I enjoy the menu selection and atmosphere. I love their mushroom onion burger (which I had last night) and their banana pancakes. While they promote nutritious ingredients, they do not post their nutritional information on their website because they think that we should not be focused on the calorie content of their food. Although I agree that healthy ingredients are important over calorie content, I am a little frustrated that it becomes difficult to calculate the WW points for their items. Even though it is meatless doesn’t necessarily mean that it is lower in points. Chickpeas for instance can be very high in points, coconut milk if added to item have a lot of points associated with them. As long as I do not have the tasty sweet potato fries with my burger I feel like I have a least made a healthy option.

Start Walking

On Friday I went to the Queen/McCaul Goodlife with my good friend Alison to do the Body Combat class together. It had been a while since she did the class and since I was helping her move her piano later that night she decided to join me. It is a shame that she is moving because it would have been great to have another work out buddy. I really like this class, it is a great cardio workout and my muscles are sore afterwards. After we went for sushi and we saw all the people lining up to see Jack Layton laying in state at city hall.

Body Combat Video Promo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVw5s8G0Jww

Now a message for my readers who are not fans of exercise and the gym. Let me point out that I lost the majority of my weight (approx 100 lbs) walking and doing the occasional Biggest Loser DVD. It wasn’t until recently that I joined a gym to help with gaining muscle. So go buy a pedometer, try to get at least 10,000 steps a day. Start of slowly and work up from there, just start moving. Get off the bus early or try not taking the bus at all. Make sure you are wearing the right type of shoes and bring your iPod.

Podcast Review: Inside Out Weight Loss

Today I want to review an awesome fitness podcast called “Inside Out Weight Loss” by Renee Stevens. The things I enjoy most about IOWL is that Renee is more like a life coach then a fitness trainer in her approach to this health related podcast. She doesn’t talk about calories or exercises that you need to do to be thin. She gets to the root of the reason why you might have a weight problem in the first place. Dealing with the mental reasons why you over eat, which is half the battle to permanent weight loss. She focuses on how to think like a naturally slender person, something which I am trying to do more often. The show is around 15 to 30 minutes long usually, perfect for my morning commute. Her tone is so soothing that at times I zone out and forget to listen but for the most part I would recommend this as a podcast to add to your iPod any day. You can subscribe on iTunes or find it at personal life media.

Gym Bag

VS.
I have been going to the gym after work for the last four weeks now. My regular satchel bag is too small to carry my fitness clothes and running shoes. I have been bringing my fitness stuff to work/gym in a President’s Choice cloth bag and it is not the most professional looking bag around. I hate carrying two bags around plus I forget that I have two bags. Case in point yesterday I left work and got all the way to the gym before realizing that I had left the cloth bag with my gym stuff at work on my desk, so I had to go back. So after my workout I went to BQM to get chickpea burger (So good and healthy too) and I stopped by Queen Street Lululemon and sitting there on the display calling to me like a siren song was The Groove Bag II. I have been looking for a bag like this for a while and it looks like it will fit everything. It is a little expensive but I haven't really bought anything for myself in a while and I felt like indulging. Plus it’s pretty……

Weigh In Day (WID) Ritual

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 194.8 lbs
Weight Variance: +2.4 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 108.4 lbs

It is interesting to note that all Weight Watcher members develop a ritual on the day they are to weigh in. For me it started off with the clothes I wear to the meeting; first I would wear the same outfit every week so that if I fluctuated in weight it cannot be contributed to the change of my wardrobe. Then it changed to wearing my lightest clothes that I own. Then it is how much water I consume on the day. You would be surprised how drinking too much water can affect the scale. Some people have a cut off time; others have a limit of one cup of water or coffee. Speaking of coffee some drink that on weigh in day to promote a good bowl movement. Then it comes to the food someone eats on WID, if you attend a meeting in the morning you might not have breakfast until after your meeting. If your meeting is later in the day, some might eat lighter foods or perhaps not as much until their meeting and have a nice dinner afterwards.

I knew I was going to gain this week, so I am not letting it affect my positive mood. I am going to focus on tracking and living a healthy lifestyle. I bought a new tracker so I will count in a book and online. Being redundant can be good sometimes. I was going to throw out the pie that was in the fridge; however my sister decided to eat it instead. I got her to hide the cookies and original maple syrup somewhere in the house. LOL

Picture on the "Fridge"

Alright, thank you for letting me get my rant on yesterday. I decided two things this morning on the way into work:

1) I am going to start tracking my points back on the old Weight Watcher points system. I lost 80 pounds on that program and I am not getting that success on the new system. This means that I am going to have to do it in a book as opposed to online because everything has switched. On the old plan I have 26 points to eat a day and 35 weekly points. Let’s see how this will work.

2) I need to have a better game plan. Smaller goals which will make me feel good. I think to start I am going to get back into the 80’s, then back to 186 (my lowest point of weight loss), then to 183 and then into the 70’s and then to my 125 lbs loss goal of 178.2 and then 175. That is 6 goals. Perhaps I need some visual imagery to inspire me to my goals. Before when first started out losing weight I had the picture of “The Behemoth” as my background on my computer and I found it helped me to focus on my goal. I don’t know what to put now…. some lady in a bikini? I don’t think that is very work place appropriate. I do not have a magnetic fridge where I can place pictures on it to prevent me from going for the pie (which is still in my fridge!!! I am totally throwing it out tonight). Perhaps this blog will be my fridge. So I will first place a bad photo of me:

And now I will put something for me to use as an inspirational motivation. I remember back when I was 300 pounds I was watching Heroes a lot, and I was going through a Sylar/Claire shipping phase. Seeing this promo made me want to look and be like Hayden Panettiere. She looked fit and pretty in this clip and made me hope that I could someday look like that. Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX_T3VzP6IA

Spiral of FAT

On Friday I went to the Goodlife location at Queen and McCaul and I was really looking forward to doing the Body Combat class. I arrived at the space and waited…. and waited…. When 5:30pm rolled around and the class did not start. I went back into the change room and saw on the bulletin board that it was cancelled in tiny font. This is shit that needs to go in size 72 font on the front door of the gym. Fail Goodlife, Fail. This put a bit of a damper on my evening so I decided to just work on the machines instead. I was really hoping for a nice cardio workout, but I will settle for a weight training which left my arms sore for the remainder of the weekend.

We have guest over and I am finding that I am having a hard time staying on track. There is Nutella in the house and I have already consumed too much of it. We had a party yesterday and I overate then as well. I find that I only have so much will power, which is why I try not to have trigger foods in the house. I KNOW there is pie in the fridge at home; the family took it home from the party last night. If it is still there by the time I come home I might just eat it all, that and the rest of the Nutella in the jar. You don't have crack near a junkie or booze near a alcoholic. You wouldn't dream of doing that yet there is tasty food everywhere!!! Grrrr...... I am slipping and this makes me sad. It feels like I am never going to get to my goal weight. I fear that I am going to get on the scale tomorrow and will have gained 4 pounds. This reminds me of a Hyperbole and a half moment (Sneaky Hate Spiral). However this is the fat spiral. You are not doing so well so you splurge and have some bad. Then the next week you get weighed in and you see you go up, so you get depressed and eat even more, so then you gain more the next week. Need to stop the cycle.

To top it all off the Orchid I bought to cheer me up is dying. :( Sorry for the bitch fest I just need to get it off my chest.

Shout Out: Skinny Taste

I have family over from Holland and I decided to take the day off to spend some time with them. My cousins have two kids who do not speak a lot of English. However nothing crosses the language divide like a good game of football (soccer). I was able to get my fitness in regardless running around the backyard entertaining them.

Today I would like to give out shout out to an awesome blog called Skinny Taste. The author Gina’s posts awesome recipes which are all weight watcher friendly. The pictures she takes of each item make me hungry just looking at them. I highly recommend the cauliflower fritters, no-bake cheesecake and the baked zucchini sticks. Check it out if you are stuck for what to make for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert!

Listening to my gut

Yesterday I was unable to bring my lunch so I ordered my lunch from the food court in the Village by the Grange. There is this place called Mission Burrito that looked really tasty, in retrospect it wasn’t the best choice because I ordered the large beef burrito. The thing was huge (that’s what she said) and I felt so full afterwards, like Thanksgiving Day full. It is nice to know that my stomach is shrinking however I felt pretty uncomfortable for the rest of the afternoon. Later in the day I met a friend for dinner at Java House. I was still full from lunch and instead of doing what I normally would have done and ordered a dinner sized meal despite what my tummy was telling me, I ordered an appetizer (pita and hummus). It was the perfect size meal and I was satisfied. I feel like I am back peddling a bit, so today I am going to get back on track.

It's a brand new day

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 192.4 lbs
Weight Variance: +2.4 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 110.8 lbs

Last night I crashed downtown where my sister was house sitting. It was great; we watched the first two episodes of Band of Brothers and got takeout. The best part though was how wonderful it was not to have to deal with the TTC this morning. I got around 5000 steps walking to work and it was one of those mornings where the birds were singing and the sun was shining. Little Italy is really quaint in the morning. I marveled at the skill the cyclists exhibited on ride into work as they zipped past cars in what looked like a snowbirds formation. It almost made me forget how much I gained on the scale last night. Back to life, back to reality. I am challenging you all to be interactive this morning because I need some motivation. It would be nice to hear back from my readers. What I would like for you to do is post your favorite motivational quote either in the comment section, on my Facebook wall or @mention me on twitter. Here it is easy I will post one first.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Sir Winston Churchill

Shout Out: Aradia Fitness

I’m having one of those days. I’m grumpy, tired and I really do not want to weigh in today. I bought myself an orchid for my desk at work hoping that it would cheer me up…. So far it is working. I know I am not going to like what I see on the scale. Do not get me wrong, I am going to go to weight watchers anyways. It’s really not an option. I go regardless because I am a food addict and I know these meetings help me. They are my “people” and they fuel me to be better. I almost need them more on the days where I go up on the scale. They help focus me. I just wish that there wasn’t this moment (the stepping on the scale and realizing that all my hard work has been ruined moment) tonight that I am dreading on a day which is already sucking.

So to push past that I thought that I would talk about Aradia Fitness, they are a pole dancing and sensual fitness studio. To some Pole dancing can seem as this dirty thing; however I find that it is sexy and takes strength and skill. I have taken two beginner classes at their Queen Street West and Bathurst Location. The first class I took was last year when I reached 250 lbs (which happens to be the weight limit for the poles) and by the end of the class my arms and wrists were killing me. I did it as a treat for myself for losing over 50 lbs at the time and let me say that it was so much fun, so much so I signed up for another class 6 months later. The second time I participated in the beginner’s class I found it was much easier to hold myself up (as I had lost another 50 lbs by then) and I had some of the technical skill from the previous class. In the next few months I would love to take another set of classes, when I have some extra class laying around. I would recommend them to anyone so check them out if you are daring enough.

Give and Take

I had a wonderful time camping this weekend. I went up to Silent Lake near Bancroft where I went swimming, hiking and had a great time socializing with friends under a meteor filled starry sky. The tricky aspect of the weekend was that I had very little control over my food. For the most part the food was pretty healthy, however I ate bread which wasn’t my regular thin Weight Watcher brand, or burgers and potato salad which I have no idea the point value of. The event was run by a friend and she provided the menu selection for me and it was tasty. I even think she tried to pick healthier options for us ladies this year, which I appreciate. Then there was the pit stop at Tim Horton’s where I made sure that I didn’t go crazy on doughnuts and Extra Large French Vanilla Cappuccinos. I brought my own snacks (bananas, cherries and reduced fat Pringles) and beverages (Coke Zero which sometimes had rum included).

Even with all my caution I know I exceeded my point limit. It makes me wonder sometimes about the give and take of weight loss. I work my butt off and then one weekend of fun can set me back. You get mad because you were mindful throughout the entire trip and made better choices then you would have before your weight loss journey. I would hate to think of how much I would have gained if I had not been careful. I have to remind myself that it is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to enjoy yourself some weekend or else you might just go crazy. There are just some events in life like weddings, vacations or trips where you have to take the hit. The important thing is to get back on track as soon as you get back. Do not let that event spread to the next weigh in.

Heroine Goals

I went to the McCaul gym last night and did some serious strength training on the machines. I thought that I should get a workout in before I leave for the great wild. Today I thought I would share with you some of my non scale fitness goals. They are kinda fun and silly, you might enjoy them. I call it "Goals of a Heroine".

Out run a zombie

I remember watching Zombieland in the cinema and when they gave the first rule "Cardio" that the fatties were the first to go. I was like shit! I would totally be dead if zombies roamed the earth. I could barely walk fast at my previous weight of 303.2, let alone run for a durations of time. So I have been working on my running.

Fight an Attacker

When it comes to fight or flight I am definitely the second. That is just sad and Buffy, Xena and the Bride would just be very disappointed in me. I'm not saying I should take on an army of 88 bad guys, however basic self diffence and maybe some ninja moves with the strength to be able to deliver then would be good. I have been working on toning my muscles and plan on joining a karate dojo once I do not have to pay for weight watchers anymore.

Pull myself up from a cliff/wall aka "hanging on for dear life"
I watch people in movies who have fallen over a cliff and wonder at how they can pull themselves up when they are holding on by their finger tips. I would totally fall to my death and that is just pitiful. I don't think I can do a chip up, let alone climb a rope. I need to build my upper body.

Finally, I would like to be able to do a flip.

This is more for fun then serious. I see heroines on tv do these awesome flips and I don't think I have ever done one. A cartwheel when I was a kid but never a flip. Can an adult learn gymnastics and where would the learn that. When could I practice that?!?! Things to research.

Can you guys think of any other ones which would be important to be able to do, like ride a horse or learn to sword fight.....?

Dealing with Disappointment

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 190.0 lbs
Weight Loss Variance: -0.2 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 113.2 lbs

After all the hard work I put in at the gym and watching my food last week I was sure that I was going to see my efforts reflected at the scale. That happy feeling was crushed a bit when I weighed in and discovered that I lost 0.2 lbs. My first thought was “WTF?!?!?! How is that possible? That’s not fair!” I was angry. The entire way home I wanted to eat things that were not great in rebellion of this outcome. But I didn’t succumb to that temptation, which made me proud. No McDonald’s ice cream cone will make me feel better. After a night of reflection I have to ask myself a few things:

Did you feel great this week? Yes.
Did you do your best? Yes.
Are you in this for the long haul? Yes.
Are you going to keep going? Yes.

So suck it up princess. Hey, maybe I gained some muscle, who knows. I do know that I have to watch what I eat while I am camping this weekend. Stay focused. I am going to the fancy schmancy gym tonight, put in a good hour and feel all the better for it.

Go the f*ck to sleep!

I have a cold, booooooo. I am the worst patient and I push myself to hard. I was supposed to work out with my friend Christine yesterday, however from expirence I know that if I were to do that I would make it worse and I have a camping trip to go on this weekend. I need to be well and part of being healthy is to know when to rest. So I went to bed early like a good girl yesterday, and I will not be doing any Yoga tonight either. I am simply going to weight watchers tonight and then going to bed.

Did you know that there is a correlation between weight loss and getting enough sleep? It is recommended that you should get between 7-9 hours of sleep a night. “Inadequate sleep interferes with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and causes high blood levels of glucose, which leads to higher insulin levels and greater body-fat storage. It will drives down leptin levels, which causes the body to crave carbohydrates and it also reduces levels of growth hormone--a protein that helps regulate the body's proportions of fat and muscle.” Also if we stay up later we are more likely to snack to occupy our time and then snack in the morning with sweet, high calorie or caffeinated items to give us more energy. So try to catch some more Z’s, your body will thank you. :)

Body Combat & Body Flow

I finally started utilizing a service from my gym that I have been neglecting for far too long. Goodlife offers workout classes and I managed to attend two this weekend. The first one I attended was on Friday night at the Queen/McCaul location and it was called Body Combat. It is a fitness class with martial arts mixed in and I figured that it would help turn this girl into the Heroine that I desire to become. Due to my anxiety I am always quite nervous to attend an event that I have never done before, because I don’t know what to expect or if I will be able to do the entire class. I told myself to “suck it up” and I figured that if I was close to the door then I could leave if I wanted to. Well once the class started I forgot all about my anxieties and became too focused on the routine to worry about anything. It was high cardio and a lot of fun; I was kicking and punching, trying to stay coordinated with the class. Afterwards I was sweaty, red faced and I felt like I had started the weekend off right.

Then I convinced a friend of mine to attend the Body Flow at the Eglinton/Don Mills location on Sunday morning. In this class they combine Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates to give you a mild workout, great for fitness newbie’s like my friend and it helped me to work on my flexibility. I enjoyed this one because there were many women in this class and I always find that the more people in the class the more you can blend in. I did work up a bit of a sweat and I had fun hanging out with Lindsey. She and I worked out a bit before the class; she did the elliptical and I hit the machines to work on my legs.

And the beat goes on

Every good Hero or Heroine needs a great soundtrack. Something to keep your motivated when the chips are down and you feel like giving up. I have found that my iPod has become a very important part of my weight loss journey. I keep it stocked, charged and ready every day.

When it comes to the music on your playlist I find there are two types. There are the songs that are upbeat fast and fun and make you feel like dancing or moving. Something new and with a fast tempo like Dance, electronic or the new popular catchy song on the radio. I suggest updating your place list with new music around once a week so that you do not get bored. Then there are the motivational songs, old standby’s that help you remember your goal (Eye of the tiger, or the theme from the Biggest Loser). I find that these help on the days where I am too hard on myself and they help me refocus my efforts. Songs are short and you can easily change them to suit your mood or the tempo or the exercise you are doing.

Next thing I have on my iPod are podcasts. These are free radio style programs that can be as short at 5 mins to over an hour long in length. I find that these are great to listen to when you want to get lost in the media and not focus on the task that you are doing (like running or walking). I enjoy listening to them because they will either make me laugh or learn something. There are podcasts that speak on many different topics so I suggest just typing in your interests into iTunes and find one that you like. I find it is good to have a variety of podcasts on different subjects. Sometimes I will listen to my “Learn Japanese” podcast, “Star Talk” with astrophysics Dr.Neil DeGrasse Tyson or the comedy show “Smodcast” with Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier. I have started listening to a variety of fitness podcasts so I will review them at a future date.

Finally we have the audiobook. Between work and working out I don’t have a lot of time to read and sometimes carrying around a massive book is not always practical. When I download an audiobook, I get a master storyteller weaving me into a different world. I have listened to the Hunger Games series, The Sookie Stackhouse Series, even Stephen King books all via audiobook and for a price similar to that of actually buying the book itself. I find these make a workout fly by and similar to the podcast help me to distance me from the task I’m doing.

I leave you with the quote of the week:

“Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.” Bruce Lee

Fancy Schmancy Gym

Today I went to Goodlife Toronto Eaton Centre North to work out after work. It is located on the fifth floor 250 Yonge office tower connected to the mall, very swanky. Just the view of Yonge Street from above is a reason to check out this location. The change rooms are large, there was a nice selection of equipment and there were an equal amount of men and women working out. The gym was moderately busy, but I got a treadmill and was able to use other equipment without any delay. 15-20 minutes running, 20 minutes on the machines, 10 minutes on the floor. I like the fact that it is located near the mall and subway because then I could get dinner fast and get home quicker. While I was working out I could feel some muscle pain from the day before from Yoga. This morning I really feel my body, I am wondering to what extent the protein powder is helping to reduce the pain.

One thing I might do though is pick up a few Cliff Builder Bars for my bag so I don’t have to fret about what to eat for dinner. I went to Jujo Juice and I was going to pick the Southwest Chicken Wrap, but it looked very thin and was 13 points. I only had 9 points available to me for dinner so I ended getting the lesser of two evils (Original Burger with Cheese from Harvey’s). It was 10 points however I don’t think that was any better for me. I am trying to think of other things that I could get after a workout for dinner on the go. I know that a Subway sub is around 13 points and 12 pieces of veggie Sushi is around 11 points. Perhaps I should pack a snack and wait until I get home to make something. If I am prepared and have safer options available to me I am less likely to make a poor choice. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them.

Working towards a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 190.0 lbs
Weight Loss Variance: -1.8 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 113.0 lbs

I was very excited to see that I went down almost two pounds this week. I find that I enjoy attending the meetings just a little more when I know I worked my ass off and you know you are going to see a loss at the scale. This is a driving force for attend the meetings, for they motivate me and help me be accountable for my choices. I love my leader Lindsey, she is very optimistic and helps turn any negative into a positive. Even on the days where you have gained 4 lbs and feel like shit, she can make you feel like anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I bought the new product they were promoting (ginger snaps: 3pts) and I hope that they are as tasty. Hold on, screw this it is snack time *opening package*….. Mmmmmm yup, they are good. There are 11-12 little cookies around the size of a Loonie ($1 coin). It really goes well with my coffee. Om nom nom.

After Weight Watchers I went back to the Lulu Lemon on Queen Street for free Tuesday night yoga. The Lulu Lemon people are sneaky because while you are working out you are looking at the awesome clothes and products. I now have the strong urge to buy an $60 tank top…. must resist. Anyways, I used to do a little Yoga when I was more overweight and I didn’t like it as much because the weight made it more difficult to hold the positions. Easy stuff like child pose was difficult because of all the weight I was holding around my stomach. My least favorite position is downward dog because I have horrible upper body strength and all my weight was in my upper body. I was lucky not to fall on my ass after 30 seconds so you can understand why I would be so proud last night when I could do the movements and not feel uncomfortable because of my body. I did however discover that my right elbow started to become sore halfway through the exercises, almost like developing runner’s knee. I am not sure why it happened or if it is something that with time and practice I can strengthen. If you have any suggestions on how I can help my elbow I would love to hear them.

I leave you from this quote I found by Mr.Yoga which I really enjoy.

"You cannot always control what happens on the outside. But you can always control what goes on inside."

Run Forrest Run

Good morning everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. For me it was an opportunity to sit back and relax, although that doesn’t mean I didn’t get my exercise in. I am very proud because I jogged a 2.2k route in my neighborhood called “The Loop”. This is the first time I have completed the entire run without stopping. I should preface this with the fact that I HATE running. I have memories of being forced to run in high school around the track by what I believed to be a sadistic gym teacher. I was never good at it and when I got larger I would hate the way my fat would “jiggle”. It made me very self conscious and for a long time I just wrote myself off as never being a runner. Then last year I was invited to go out running with my sister Amanda and her friend Christine. I realized that if I ever wanted to be in “Heroine” shape that I would need to be able to run, I just had to “suck it up” and go for it. Who cares how my body moved when I was running; the important thing was that I was getting the exercise I need. So we went back to that damn track I loathed so much and in the beginning I sucked. I ran half a lap and walked a whole one, completely out of breath and getting that taste of blood in my mouth. Eventually over time I could run a little more and breathe a little better. Christine who is a better runner then I would lap me frequently, but whenever she caught up I would try to sprint/jog at her pace as long as I could. I am happy to say that it takes her longer to catch up to me now. I find it helps to have an iPod with you to help take your mind off of the fact that you are running. I am not the fastest runner; however my focus is to just keep jogging at a steady pace.

I also wanted to mention that picked up some ISOflex whey protein powder (vanilla) at “Your Good Health”. One can drink this either in the morning, pre workout or post workout and it is supposed to help aid with muscle growth and help stop the muscle pain which can occur after a workout. I have never drunk a protein powder before, except in the occasional booster juice beverage. I have been drinking mine with cold water and it tastes alright. I think it would be better with skim milk, however the drink on its own is already 3 ww points, the additional points for milk would take a dent into my daily total. I will be interested to see how adding this into my work out regiment will help with my muscle growth. Speaking of Weight Watchers points, I have my meeting tonight. I hope that all the effort that I have put into this week has translated into a loss at the scale. We shall see tomorrow.