Pay it forward

An old friend of mine sent me an email telling me that she had been following my weight loss progress via Facebook and it had inspired her to lose weight herself. Her telling me that totally made my day, you have no idea. Sometimes it feels like I’m talking to myself and it is things like that or the comments on my blog or Facebook which makes me feel motivated to keep posting on my blog. I have gotten a few of my friends motivated to lose weight, either on their own or with Weight Watchers. One of the factors which helped me when I started my journey was my friend Matt who had lost over 80 pounds on Weight Watchers. Seeing his success made me realize that I might be able to achieve the same results. It makes me think of the movie “Pay it forward” and how one small action can start a chain re-action. So if I have inspired you, then hopefully in turn someone might be inspired by you. So when you feel like giving up, just realize that there are people who are noticing your hard work and determination. Be a role model. :)

"The odds of hitting a target go up dramatically when you aim at it." - Mal Pancoast

Biggest Loser

I love watching the biggest loser. I never did watch the first few seasons but whenever they were nearing the end of a season they would post the before and after pictures in the news and my heart would break with envy and jealousy seeing their transformation.”I wish that could happen to me” “That change could never happen to me.” I would see the people starting the show at 250 pounds and think “You think that is fat?!?” and then “OMG I am fatter then someone who is on a fat person reality TV show???” *Shame x3*. It wasn’t after watching the season which started the contestant “Shea” who was at the time the largest female contestant that I was inspired enough to attempt to lose myself. I don’t watch it for the drama or the contests. I like the results and seeing their personal realizations and transformations. I loved Courtney last season because her positive energy fueled me ever week. When they are fat I connect with their stories. I remember what it was like and it is a nice slap of reality. Then when they become thin I connect with who I am now. I love the new trainer, he’s handsome. I love how he and bob yell at the contestants. Tough love baby!

Non Scale Victories

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 191.0 lbs
Weight Variance: +1.4lbs
Total Weight Loss: 112.2 lbs

I wanted to talk about non scale victories in the shadow of my gain last week. I went to the gap yesterday and fit into a size 12 “long and lean” blue jeans. I look hot in them, so I bought them. Now I am at work in my new sexy size 12 jeans. That feels so much better than my false gain at the scale. Yesterday someone also said something slightly hurtful to me about my body size, it wasn’t intentional or meant to be hurtful, but it made me think. It kind of gave me this fuel to want to lose to “show them”. Perhaps a little personal competition might be just want I need. I also went out to dinner at a pub last night and I am very proud to report that yours truly had a Cesar salad with chicken and one cider instead of a burger and fries and multiple beers. I felt decadent eating Cesar dressing and was proud that it was enough for me.

P90x?

I borrowed my friends P90x DVD’s and I am curious to see what they will be like. I haven’t started yet because of my back injury; however I think I will start later this week. Has anyone else tried them? I have seen the infomercials on television on those people get ripped! I will let you know what I think after I try a few of the DVD’s.

I was watching the last 10 pounds the other night. It made me think that I need some sort of target outfit or something… maybe a really sexy dress. I will keep my eyes open for one.
Wish me luck on my weigh in tonight.

Ouch!

Today’s post I will be talking about pain. (Pain #1) This Friday I believe I was a little too vigorous with my Body Combat class, because I woke up on Sunday morning in pain. I must have sprained a back muscle near my right shoulder blade. This is not a pleasant feeling at all. I couldn't find a comfortable position to sleep in last night. I would kill for a practiced RMT massage right about now. I must have punched too hard or something in the class. There is a lesson in this to be mindful of all my movements because a sprain like this can hinder my ability to work out later in the week.

(Pain #2) Beware boys I am entering the land of TMI *evil laughter* I weighed myself this morning and noticed I had gone up a bit; I am not surprised by this as it is “That time of the month” and I always observe a little weight gain as a result of a little water retention. I’m also a little grumpy and noticed that my craving for sweet things has increased. Although this is going to be a little painful to witness after my really successful week, I am not going to take a gain at the scale to heart due to this monthly miracle because I have been on track this week. That is the important part.

(Pain #3) This is not a fitness related pain… but I have to bring my cat to the vet tonight. I am sure that bill will be painful, but I love my fur child and that is a finacial hit I’m willing to take.

Podcast Review: Fat 2 Fit Radio

I downloaded a whole bunch of fitness podcasts a while ago to see if there was something out there I liked, and out of the 15 I subscribed to only one still remains, it is Fat 2 Fit Radio. It is a weight loss and fitness podcast hosted by Russ Turley & Jeff Ainslie. Jeff is a Canadian, a gym teacher and he has developed a whole philosophy and system to weight loss and getting fit. Russ is from California and he has lost over 100 pounds on the system. They are funny and a pleasure to listen to. I like how structured the show is, their banter and how focused they remain on the topic at hand. The show runs about 30 mins long. Over the years they have followed Russ’s weight loss, they then answer listener questions, talk about fitness articles and then follow up with a healthy recipe and fitness quote. Here is a quote from their web site that best sums up why I like the show:

“The show is not about fad diets, or get skinny quick schemes. We’re advocating weight loss through lifestyle change, not quick fixes – they simply don’t exist. Stop eating and acting like a fat person and start emulating the diet and habits of a fit person. During each episode we’ll tackle one or more exercise, fitness or diet topics. Week after week if you incorporate the ideas and tips we’re sharing, you will lose weight and start looking and feeling better.”

Subscribe on iTunes or go to
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/

Goodlife Location Review: Toronto Women's Club

Holy crap on a cracker. I went to the Toronto Women’s Goodlife on Adelaide and all I have to say is “Now that it is a girly gym”. Now I’ve been to a women’s only gym before, but that was just a gym where only women go a work out. This was a place catered to women. First the place looked really nice, like it could be a spa. Then I went into the change room and they have hairspray, deodorant, shaving cream and all the mirrors. There are lockers you can rent so that you do not have to lug your stuff to the gym every day. Then upstairs there are tons of treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes. Food network, Slice and Women’s Network are on the televisions with the exception of one which has CP24 news. The weight lifting area was small and there were three trainers working with clients and they're taking up a good chuck of space. It was very difficult to find a spot to do my free weight workout. Then off to the corner they have an entire bay of massage six chairs and a tv on a fishtank channel. After my 1 hour workout I spent a nice 20 minutes getting this knot out of my back. *Bliss*. Would I go here again? Maybe, if I wanted to get a massage. But for the 30 minute walk it took to get to the location I could be at the gym already. I can see how they would sell a lot of memberships touring this club.

Loser

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 189.6 lbs
Weight Variance: -3.2 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 113.6 lbs

So I ate less, cut out my coffee (with cream) and kept my fitness the same and will you look at that, I lost weight. (happy dance) So this week I will do the same. Even better I hit the first of my six weight loss goals.

MY SIX GOALS
1. Get back into the 80’s
2. 186
3. 183.2
4. Get into the 70’s
5. 178.2
6. 175

Last week I wrote the number 189 on my arm to help motivate me. So now I have written the number 186 on my arm in ball point pen. I need to keep doing what I have been doing. My legs are really feeling the work out I gave them on Monday. Today I am going to go to another Goodlife gym so I can give you another review for tomorrow.

Work Out Review: No More Trouble Zones

So yesterday I went over to Christine's house and we did the Jillian Micheals "No More Trouble Zones" DVD. This video only has one routine which includes a warm up, 4 or 5 cycles and a cool down. For this work out you will need a set of free weights, perhaps around 3-5 lbs each. I find that this video would best suit someone who has just a little fitness in their lives. Not the best for a newbie, but someone who already does a boot camp 2 a week or someone who goes to the gym a lot might not get a lot out of the workout unless they used a heavier weight like the 5 lbs. There are a few moves that I struggle on but most are pretty straight forward. Christine's brother Alex joined us for the workout so this work out video is good for both men and women. We finished off the video afterwards with a few leg lifts, crunches and wall squats to really work out lower body. Then after the workout we watched 2 1/2 men (good episode).

"Never again, never again."

Drinking is fun, I don't do it very often, usually the occasional beer in the summer. However I have discovered that now that I have lost over 100 lbs I now have a very low tolerance. This can be interpreted as a good thing and a bad thing as I discovered this past Saturday, when I went to my friends birthday party. I met a lot of great new ladies and had an awesome, unforgettable night. I had intended to only drink one beer. However there were jello shots, I was already tipsy and I discovered (surprise, surprise) that my judgement then becomes impaired. At the end of the night I had consumed too much and became sick (something that never used to happen when my BMI was higher). The night was fun, but the feeling afterwards wasn't. I think that I am going to have to be more careful in the future because (calories aside) I am not used to what my limit is anymore. I think I am going to stay away from alcohol for a while. It is a good lesson about monitoring temptations, be it food, alcohol or cowboy strippers..... Um... forget I said that last part.

Inspiration from a Condo Magazine

So I am reading a free condo guide magazine because I love window shopping from property (I kid you not, ask my mom I am always looking at MLS.ca or viewit.ca when I am at home). ANYWAYS there is this article by Hellen Buttigieg *snicker @name* and she has two points in her article on taking time for yourself. First she writes about how important it is to live in the moment "We have become a society of multi-taskers, but in an effort to be more eficient, we have robbed ourselves of the pure release that comes from performing simple tasks.....focus only on the task at hand. Engage your senses." I like that, it reminds me of the commercial where to couple takes the hike to the top of the cliff and the husband is checking his crackberry and she and the dog are enjoying the view. Life is short. Live every moment as if it were your last, because tomorrow.... you could be dead. Second bit I liked was "Life has a way of flowing effortlessly when we put ourselves out there. If there's something you've been wanting in your life, take one small action toward it and notice how other things fall into place."

So have a great weekend, go outside, and do something fun.

Listen to the sound of my voice...

Holy Hades it is cold out there. Fall has officially arrived in my mind. Burrrrr!
So last night I was stocking my iPod up with new music and content and I found my old hypnosis mp3’s. I love these things and they were very helpful so I thought I would talk about them today. Back when I was smoking I saw these horrible anti smoking commercial series called “Every cigarette”.
http://youtu.be/BwKNh8abWuA

This freaked me out, enough to quit. I watched this testimonial on Ellen from Ewan McGregor for Max Kirsten’s hypnosis mp3’s, that they really helped him to quit being a pack a day smoker. How can I not take such a handsome mans advice LOL. So I downloaded them and played them every day and eventually (along with the nicotine patches) I stopped. The recording starts off by getting you relaxed and in a receptive state and Max’s dulcet voice gives you phrases that help to change your perspective on smoking, like “It’s not pleasure, it’s poison” or mantras like “Every day and in every way I am getting better and better.” After listening to it a few dozen times the words sink in. They become your perspective or desires. Now when I think about smoking a cigarette my mind screams “It’s not pleasure, it’s poison!” and I stop. So when I discovered that he had a weight loss series and downloaded those too. I would listen to them on the way to work and the constant affirmations made you feel better. “I will only take what I need to survive for today.” “I will crave fresh fruit and vegetables.” I am not saying that this should be your only resource, however I think this is a great booster when you are starting to slip off your motivation. Re-program your way of thinking.
http://www.maxkirsten.com/

Rant #2: Second verse same as the first!

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 192.8 lbs
Weight Variance: +1.8 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 110.4 lbs

Kind of funny to be posting a rant after a entry about inspirational quotes, but C'est La Vie.

So there is this phrase we often use at Weight Watchers when we greet someone. "How are you doing today?" I might ask as a friend comes into the meeting and they will say "Give me a couple minutes and I will let you know." Meaning that their weight loss/gain will determine their mood. Normally I have a pretty good prediction of how my weigh in will go depending on how much I weighed on the scale that week/morning of, so the weigh in doesn't effect my mood too greatly. I days where I think I might gain the added time helps me to prepare.

This week I am staying at a place where there is no scale so I couldn't monitor my progress. So today I stepped on and was surprised to see that I was back in the high 92's and my heart dropped. I tracked very diligently this week! I made my own meals and everything. I knew I had gone over my weekly allotment (68 as opposed to 49) thanks to some beer however I had earned 94 activity points this week. Every night I walked around the downtown core making sure that I got over 15,000 steps a day. That gave me 75 points of cushion, and even without the given 49 that would have been 26 extra points. So where did this 1.8 lbs gain come from? Did I not track correctly? Did the two week rule come into effect? Did the food that I had last week kick in this week? Will my activity go towards next week? Who fucking knows..... *sigh*

Anyways, so I'm pissed.....stewing and quiet before meeting, and SOOOooo not wanting to be there. But, I refuse to leave, I am committed so I keep my cute butt in that chair.

When the meeting starts I don't participate in the achievement section of the meeting. I always contribute so it shouldn't always fall on me to fill time. However when the meeting is quiet Lindsey my leader always likes to engage me because I have advice and stuff to share. So when I don't talk she asks me how my week went. I really didn't feel like talking because all I wanted to do was rant about how I'm frustrated I was. I really try to not be negative because it is a real downer when someone bitches during a Weight Watchers meetings. Lindsey does such a great job at keeping people motivated and it is hard to get the energy up afterwards. I mention that I gained, that it has made me a bit grumpy tonight (hoping she would get the hint) but I am thinking that perhaps I am must be missing some of the little things. Perhaps I am not counting the cream in my coffee correctly. Maybe I underestimated a few items this week. etc etc etc. I mention that I know I wasn't awesome, but that I did a lot of activity blah blah blah, (deep down I'm frustrated because the weight isn't moving and the more I talk the frustration begins to mount to the point where you are trying not to cry, especially since attention is on me). Then she brings up my total loss. I have found that it is starting to tick me off when she mentions it. I know she thinks that it helps me to gain perspective (and usually it does), but sometimes it feels like she is using it just to promote Weight Watchers. (Oh Michelle has had a bad week this week, but she's lost over 100 pounds and you can too!). I haven't lost anything since February so in my mind I haven't lost anything in months. The 100 pounds happened so long ago. I used to be this weight loss guru and now I can't loose 15 fricking pounds. WTF.

*deep breath*

So what am I going to do? Lets try to make this a learning experience because I hate people who always focus on the negative. I will cut out liquids that have points this week. No more coffee, no more beer. Lets see if I can go a week without a soft serve ice cream cone. Lets keep the fitness level at the same range as this week and I will get more veggies in. So mote it be. LOL

Quote Bombardment!

For those who need inspiration, Chuck Norris and I present to you "Quote Bombardment!!!"

“To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping”

“Be specific in what you want, and use specific words. Empower yourself, and become the person you dream about.”

“What would you attempt, if you knew you could not fail?”

"If we defend our habits, we have no intentions of quitting them."

“Rather than aiming for being perfect, just aim to be little bit better today than you were yesterday.”

“Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...”

“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.”

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently"

Winning and losing battles.

A friend of mine came to me and asked me to help him. He was amazed at my weight loss and asked me to help him solve his weight problem. I was flattered and more then willing to help someone who needed guidance and a plan. I spent the time helping constructing a healthy meal plan, a work out regime and goals to accomplish. He went to Weight Watcher meetings and I thought things were going well until I discovered that he had fallen off the wagon a few short days later. He stopped attending meetings after a while. I figured that "Rome wasn't built in a day" and gave him further encouragement, however after a few short weeks he was back into his old ways. When I tried to speak to him about it he lashed out at me. I got frustrated, angry and confused. He had come to me, asked for my help. Why had I become the bad guy? I had invested all this effort to help them and what for? After some deep reflection I realized that....... this was Karma kicking my ass. LOL

I realized that I had done the exact same thing to my mom when I was younger.

I remember when I was really fat I would cry and be depressed about how heavy I was. I would lament to my mom that no boys liked me etc etc etc. I remember my mom decided to help me. We would go for walks, she would go out and spent money on a fitness system she saw on the TV or by paying for Weight Watchers when I was in high school. However, after a few weeks I resented the assistance I got from her. I lashed out at her, stopped trying and went back to my old ways. When she would comment about me sneaking extra cookies after dinner I would get so mad at her for that.

Why? It was hard and painful. Change is difficult. I guess nobody likes being told what to do. Eating fatty foods made me happy. It felt good to rebel. Being skinny seemed like an unobtainable goal and anybody who questioned my life or how I ran it didn't appreciate how awesome I was. Why did they want to change me? Did they think there was something wrong with me. I could point out their faults but didn't realized my own.

Well what I can see now is that they were worried about how I was treating my body. I was eating myself to death and anytime they tried to help I bit their head off. I wonder how frustrated she got at me. Could any one have said anything or done anything to help me? I am not sure. If my mom had yelled at me more would I have resented her or is it the structure I needed? Would my friend have resented me? I don't think I would have learned anything then. So at this point I want to thank my mom for caring.

How did I change? How does anybody change a bad habit? I do not think that anybody can say anything to change someones thought process.... not unless you are Tony Robbins. Even then... It has to be something the individual has to realize on their own. I think you really need to want to change with your entire being and perhaps something else has to be more painful. Usually there is a trigger. For me it was being kicked off that roller coaster at Wonderland for being too fat, the idea that I might never have a boyfriend or get laid again. The fact that I was a size 26 and that was as high as the store went. Those things hurt my soul. The pain created by those facts were worse then changing my lifestyle. For others it may be waking up and not knowing where they ended up, or being put into rehab, or not being able to pay your rent because you spent all your money on drugs or something.

"And only in the darkness can you see the light" It is true. I also think that you have to fight for what you really want in life. It reminds me of a quote from Eat, Pray, Love": "I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging "please, please, please, let me win the lottery." Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says "my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket." I would beg the gods to make me thin, but I never dieted. I never put in the effort. I just wanted everything to be magically fixed. Same goes for a job, how are you going to get the job of your dreams if you never send out any resumes? It won't always just fall in your lap.

I am not sure what I will say if my friend asks for my help again. I wonder when he will be really ready. I do hope him the best. I hope that he finds the drive that he will need for the long haul. :) Until then, I have my own battles to fight.

Read the Label By MunFitnessBlog.com

Reading food labels is an effective way to determine the right food to buy during your grocery shopping. If you have always wanted to read Nutrition Facts on the food label, but have no clue what to read and where to start, no worry. Today, I am going to share with you one of the key information you should pay attention first.

Almost all food product has these jargons, “Serving Size” and “Per Serving” information. Before explaining further, do not be confused by this “Serving Size” term used in Food Pyramid and Nutrition Labels. In this article, I just focus in per serving information on food label, I mean serving size of saturated fat, sodium, fat, fiber, cholesterol and others on food label.

At the top of each food label, you will see the amount for serving size. It is determined by the food manufacturer and it is based on the amount that people generally eat. All other information about the nutritional value of that food is then listed according to that serving size.

For example, if a serving size is 1 cracker and 1 serving has 20 calories and if you eat all the 4 crackers in the package, you will consume 4 servings and total of 80 calories.

As for the example below, 1 cup is the single serving. If the package is meant for 2 cups and if you consume the entire package, you have consumed 2 cups. You just need to multiply the calories per serving by 2 to get the total calories.

Other serving size commonly used are 1 cup or 1 tablespoon for sugar or salt. For cake or pie, serving size can be defined in fraction of the entire product like 1/6 pizza. Other per serving can be mentioned in weight like 10 gram or 30 gram.

Because it is up to the manufacturer to decide, much serving size is defined loosely. Many intentionally make their food serving sizes small to make the food is healthier than it really is. So, as consumer, you need to find out the total servings in the package and multiply calories or fat amount each serving to find the total nutritional values.

In Europe, it is more common to have nutrition values based on 100 grams or 100 milliliter. In this case, the serving size is standardized to 100g or 100ml. So, if the entire package is 200g, you still need to do your own maths to calculate the total nutrition value.

In conclusion, always look at how many servings are in a bag, box or can of food before you look at the rest of the numbers. Hopefully, by learning this serving size will give you a better idea what to buy in your next grocery shopping.

Ghetto Chickpea Burger

I wouldn’t consider myself an amazing cook, however I am adventurous and usually my creations are very tasty. Always willing to try a new recipe and get dirty, and that would perfectly capture this dinner.

I looked at a varied of Chickpea burger recipes and decided to free form something. I knew I had a can of chickpeas, garlic and flatbread buns back at the house. So I got an onion, a lemon and bread crumbs. I opened the can of chickpeas to drain; roughly chopped the onions threw in some garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, curry powder and about 2/3 a cup of bread crumbs. Getting it to become a paste was really tricky and let’s just say Kitchen: 1 Michelle: 0. Looks like I am going to have to buy my friend a new kitchen whisker, Sorry! #kitchenfail

Once it was a paste I flattened them it into four paddies and fried them in a pan with a little light margarine. When I went for the buns, I discovered that they had turned moldy, so I had to use weight watcher bread…. which has the structural integrity of tissue paper.

There is no picture because the results were too sad to document. The burgers themselves tasted good, however they were very plain. To fix it I would like to add more toppings, lettuce, tomato, sautéed mushrooms and onions, maybe even some cheese. Proper buns and more curry powder or spice in the burgers themselves. They were very filling I only really needed one instead of two. I would say that one burger paddy was 6 points, the bread was 2 points and ketchup was 1 point for both burgers. All in all it was a 17 point dinner.

Temporarily Re-Located

Weight Watchers Stats
Starting Weight: 303.2 lbs
Weigh in Weight: 191.0 lbs
Weight Variance: -0.2 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 112.2 lbs

Check it out, I lost 0.2 lbs after a long weekend. The gods are smiling on me.

I am currently staying at a friend house to look after her cat (this is Eawaz, she is super cute). So far I love it because this means that I get to stay down town, walk to work instead of taking transit and cook for myself. I have had to purchase a few items like Weight Watchers bread and some fruit so that my lunches are nice and healthy. I am excited by the fact that it will be a short walk home from the gym. I am thinking of swinging past Kensington to get some fresh fruit and stuff I will need for chickpea burgers. I will let you know how the burgers turn out. Also, by chance does anybody know how to get rid of fruit flies?

Picking your self back up

Sorry this took so long to write. This week is the first week of classes and I am swamped in photo ID cards. LOL I finally have 5 minutes to myself. Now that I think about it, all my posts this week might be posted later in the day.

Today I wanted to talk about slipping or falling off of your diet, or off of plan. There is a leader at my Weight Watchers that says “If you trip when walking up a flight of stairs you do not throw yourself down the rest of the stairs. You get up, brush yourself off, learn from your mistake and keep on going.” This is true when you cheat or have a bad day, like I did with this long weekend. I know what I did wrong, it might reflect today in the scale. The important this is that I am going to learn from my mistake and keep on going.

Grocery Shopping

How do you do your weekly shopping? Do you know that most shopping chains have the "good" food along the edges of the store and the bad food is in the centre? Also the more expensive stuff is at eye level while the discount stuff is on the bottom of the shelf. They also will try to consistently bake stuff (like bread and pastries) to pump that smell into the store to make you hungry and thus buy more.

One way you can save money and calories is to go shopping on a full stomach. This way you will be less tempted to buy impulse food like chips or cookies because you are hungry.

Another way is to make a list and stick to it. It will also help you navigate the isles a little better. I used to just go isle to isle and when ever I saw something I was out of I would get it... I found that if I didn't have a list I was more likely to buy crap and not have all the ingredients needed for the meals I wanted to make that week. One time I bought ALL crap and didn't have a single thing to make and entire meal. "Oh I bought pasta but no sauce", or "oh I bought the chicken, but forgot to pick up the cheese and veggies." Then I would go to the store again to buy the ingredients I missed and happen to pick up more crap.

You could also have a game plan. Know your store and plan the route of attack so that you can stay away from tempting areas.

Has anything like this ever happened to you? Any ideas on what you could do differently?

Crazy Time!!

This is a quick post as it is orientation week at my University and I am in charge of photo ID’s. It’s crazy. I am finding it tricky to eat right because I do not have the time to step away from the students to heat my lunch up that I bought. I had a co-worker pick me up an egg salad sandwich which I was hoping was a better option than some of the burgers and Chinese food in the food court. Then I went to the CNE and resisted the deep friend butter and other crazy food. I might have had a little fudge and a few tiny tome doughnuts; however my dinner consisted of corn on the cob. Yummy!