August 31 2021

Shark week has begun and I am getting cravings. I want cookies! I am trying my best to ignore them. Last night I got take out at the Pita Pit – a small halloumi pita. I finished the whole thing. In the future I’m hoping to cut that down. I’m not sure how many calories are in a pita, the small size is pretty big. I’m hoping to shrink my portion sizes down and polishing the whole thing off isn’t helping. I recall not being able to finish one back when I was 20lbs lighter. I’m sure I’ll be getting pitas again in the near future.

When I got home from work I went for a jog on the treadmill. My speed was 3.7 again and I went a little further on the distance and for a longer duration. My goal on the treadmill is to keep it at around 30 minutes, but to increase the speed. My legs are tired, but so far my hip muscles aren’t bothering me like last time. I think that’s pretty fantastic, but I usually feel the previous days workout in the evening the next day, so I might still be in for some more discomfort.

I was sweaty. I snacked on a banana before I went to bed and had some sparkling water. I would have had more water, but I didn’t want to be up all night peeing. I need to improve my water intake. I’m pretty sure I live in a constant state of dehydration. I don’t seem to care to drink anything unless it’s coffee or alcohol. I never seem to be thirsty.

Breakfast started with a smoothie bowl and coffee. For lunch I had a can of Campbell’s Moroccan Chickpea soup. I’ll be going out for sushi after work today and I’m really not sure how I’m going to make that healthy. It’s a buffet. I’ll have to make up for it by eating healthier on Friday and the weekend.

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional

Sunday Too Much Funday and Week One Weight Loss Results

Sunday started with “Epic Breakfast” (that’s what I call the big breakfast I cook on Sundays. There’s no restrictions). It was air fried potatoes with salt and a bit of avocado oil, a croissant, two fried eggs, and coffee. I massacred those eggs. Sunny side up was not happening this day.

Here I am taking the kayaks for a walk. It was going to be another scorcher today, so we went for a paddle on the river. We tried out the new kayak racks. They worked very well, but the tie downs that came with them were crappy and kept slipping. I tied the tails to the boat seat and that helped a lot.

I saw some pretty things and cool creatures along the way. There are tons of clams in the river. Don’t worry, this one was put back in the river after a quick snap shot.

There was a clear spot that is a little deeper further up the river. We were super hot and decided to take a quick swim to cool off. It was very refreshing but I don’t know if there are any leaches or craapy things in the river, so I made it quick. I must have snapped this pic before I got crispy fried. I don’t know why I always assume I’m not going to burn. I did. A lot. My spouse was putting aloe all over my face and neck when I got home and calling me his cherry tomato.

Lunch was a bowl of leftover green curry and for dinner I had a 6inch veggie sub. Between lunch and dinner I managed to have a bottle of a vanilla mudslide (the boozy kind), and a strawberry banana Palm Bay. The mudslide was amazing and I want to drink a million of them.

I also had these cookies with the sub. Later I had a slice of pie and a glass of wine too. It was a decadent day. Because I went kayaking, I counted that as my workout for the day. I was planning to do the stretching video, but I was burnt and didn’t feel like it.

Time to see my results after a week:

I’m down 0.2lbs… That’s it. After all these really tough workouts. I am annoyed. Apparently, my cheat days include too much cheating. I was very irritated with the results when I got on the scale this morning. I had planned to make a green smoothie bowl for breakfast but I was in a foul mood and didn’t make anything. I ended up stopping in at Tim Hortons for an egg and cheese sandwich on the homestyle biscuit and a coffee. I had a bowl of soup for lunch today and plan to have a healthy dinner, but no idea what that is yet.

I’ll give my measurements to compare as well:

August 23 August 30
Waist 37″ Waist 37″
Hips 43.5″ Hips 43.5″
Mid Thigh 22.5″ Mid Thigh 21.5
upper thigh 26″ Upper Thigh 26″
Mid Calf 14″ Mid Calf 13″
Bust 40″ Bust 40″
Upper Bust 36″ Upper Bust 37″
Bicep 12″ Bicep 12″

Even though I’m down in some spots, that could be a measuring error, so I’m not counting it as a win yet, plus my chest is up an inch. Overall I’m pretty unhappy with the results. I’m going to have to do less cheating on cheat days and reduce the amount I’m eating. I didn’t see the results I was hoping for, which would have been a loss of a couple pounds. I’m grumpy.

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Saturday Breakfast and Workout

Every Saturday, my spouse and I go to the Stone Town Cafe. We go every week, it’s a tradition we started back when our dog was still alive. The three of us would get egg and cheese sandwiches. The owner of the café always had a couple cookies for her, sometimes a few of the café regulars too. She was stuffed by the time we went home. I miss her a lot. She loved her Saturday morning treats.

We’ve kept with the tradition, and still go every Saturday. Lately, I’ve been having a lot of eggs at home and have wanted something different. I’ve been getting the Mediterranean wrap. It’s healthy with lots of veggies and light on the cheese. I get it with a coffee.

On the way home from breakfast, I went to Kitchen Smidgen for some sweet treats. They had one of my favourites, custard tarts. One for both of us and a meringue to split. One bite each lol. It’s probably lucky for me that the bakery is only open Fridays and Saturdays. I feel it’s okay to splurge on weekends.

Lunch I made an attempt at green curry without a recipe. It was okay. It had tofu, green curry paste, coconut milk, and veggies. I served it over brown rice. I did some weeding today and I just sat on my butt in the garden to do it. My thighs are still burning like crazy from the Start It Up workout I did two days ago. I’m making sounds when I sit down and stand. You know… huhhhhhhh what did I do to myself groany sounds… Every time I sit or stand. I did the Slim In 6 Ab workout. That’s all my legs would allow. I wanted to save the stretching video for tomorrow.

This was dinner this evening. Avocado and egg on a whole wheat bun, a piece of cheese. I’m still craving this non stop. No signs of getting sick of it anytime soon. I had a slice of pie this evening and a glass of red wine. I forgot to take a picture of the pie. It was strawberry rhubarb pie with a sugar crumble topping, homemade. I’m going to be splurging a little tomorrow too. Sunday is big breakfast day. Once it cools down a little I’d like to spend some more time outside. It’s still very hot here in Ontario.

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Snack Boxes, Cookies, and Pizza… Oh My

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Here we are again, avocado and an egg on an English muffin, served with coffee. I love this breakfast. I could eat this every day, multiple times over and over and over again. Just talking about it, I want to eat it again.

I didn’t bring my lunch to work today, I was going to make something when I got home. My snack box from Vegan Cuts came in and I dug into it on the way home.

I split this rice krispie square with my spouse. Then novelty of having rice Krispy squares again was wonderful, the square was okay.

I split this cookie from the snack box too. I don’t want to dump on a product, but this was really gross. We both took only a bite and didn’t want anymore. It tasted really plastic like.

We tried these Snacklins and I really liked them. Lots of snacks, right… well there’s more.

I stopped in at the Snapping Turtle again for a dreamy latte and a cookie. This time the cookie was MY idea. I had forgotten I hadn’t had lunch yet. They didn’t have my favourite peanut butter cookie, but they had these chocolate covered coffee bean shaped ones and they left the café with me. One for each of us.

I didn’t really need lunch at this point, but still wanted something else, so I tried the new cheese from the Cheese Of The Month Club from the local cheese shop. I’m not sure what kind of cheese it is, but it has chili peppers in it and super good with a wonderful nip to it.

To make my day even healthier, I had pizza for dinner with wine, again. It was tasty.

I got everything I needed to do today done around 8:00pm and I really wasn’t feeling up to a workout. My legs were still really sore from yesterday and I just didn’t have it in me. I am trying to form a habit, (don’t they say it takes around 30 days?) of daily exercise and I didn’t want to start slacking off before I’d even hit a week. No days off. So I did this arm workout again. I didn’t do well. I had to put my arms down constantly and give them a shake many many times. I was doing push ups (very very modified push ups) yesterday with Slim In 6 and I don’t think my arms had recovered enough for this one. It was probably the day I should have done stretching, but I really wasn’t in the mood to set up the DVD player and change my clothes.

It wasn’t my best day, but I was saving Friday to Sunday for cheat days. I didn’t want to eat quite this badly on Friday, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it. I’m hungry, so I’m going to snack on some pickles before bed.

Which turned into a slice of strawberry rhubarb pie

Day Four – Eight Minutes of Discomfort

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Breakfast today was made by my spouse, an English muffin with a fried egg, and cheese. I snacked on more cherry tomatoes during the morning while I was at work.

This… this was my lunch today. I must admit, it was magical. I do love my cookies and lattes. It wasn’t my intention to get a cookie, the plan was just to get a latte and make lunch when I got home. My spouse was the one to go into the Snapping Turtle on the way home from work (it was only a half day for me today) and he came back with lattes and cookies. I COULD have said no… but I love these cookies, they’re so good. I was still going to make a lunch when I got home, but I was full, so I waited for dinner to eat again.

It appears I am still on a halloumi kick, I had salad with the leftover farro and halloumi from a couple days ago. This time I used a commercially prepared balsamic vinaigrette for the dressing. It was a huge plateful and I didn’t finish it all in one go. The plate was close by (I had dinner on the couch watching a movie) and I ended up finishing the salad by the time the movie ended. I had a glass of wine with it.

My hips (hip muscles) are pretty sore today from yesterdays jog on the treadmill and I didn’t feel like doing anything overly sweaty today. I remembered this arm workout a friend sent me awhile ago. It’s a short arm workout and it’s HARD. Quick and intense, is an accurate description! I had to put my arms down A LOT during this video and eight minutes isn’t that long. It’s easy and simple in that you can do it anywhere, even at work at your desk! I did it with my spouse and we were laugh crying it was so hard. We made it to the end and did as much as we could. I liked this one a lot and plan on doing it often. It’s perfect for when you’re looking for something quick and you don’t want to sweat buckets.

Does Anyone Remember Slim In 6

It’s hard. I find it super hard. Even the beginner start up work out. This is an older workout series from Beach Body. There were some trendy ones (like P90X, and Yoga Booty Ballet) I’ve had it so long it came on DVDs and I had to order it over the telephone. I never made it beyond the second workout, it’s so intensely hard.

This photo is of me after finishing the Start It Up workout.

Okay, this is more likely the expression I had. You can’t tell from this photo, but I was covered in sweat. This was the first time I’ve done this workout in over 10 years. I haven’t been working out at all. I haven’t been eating the way I want to. I don’t recognize my body anymore.

Numbers aren’t important, but I’m at least 20 pounds away from a healthy BMI (I’m 5’10 by the way) and I can tell. I don’t feel as strong and vibrant as I used to. I’m spending way too much time couch surfing and not enough time outside. Getting back on the exercise band wagon felt good. I am finding it a lot harder to lose weight now that I’m older (in my 40s).

My spouse and I have decided to work out every day. He prefers to workout in the morning and I prefer evenings. Either way, we have to get our butts in that gym, sometime before we go to bed. Every night. No days off. If we’re sore we’re still going to do something, stretching or yoga, but it has to be something. I know I’m going to hurt like crazy tomorrow, so stretching might be on for tomorrow. Then I’ll tackle that DVD series again.