Weight Loss Update: Sept to Oct

I have really been struggling lately on my weight loss journey.  I keep using events (my mom's last days in Edmonton, my birthday, the vacation to Victoria) as an excuse to make bad food choices.

Now, it's not as bad as it could be.  I have not been stuffing my face in extreme excess.  So the result is that I have not been losing weight and I have not seen the home scale go higher than 260 (which was right after I got back from Victoria, and that would make a total gain of about 5 pounds).

Still, I really need to get back on track.  Even if that just means getting out of the office at lunch and walking around City Centre (out of the wind and slightly chilly temps) so that I get more steps in each day.

I can admit that weekdays are, as usual, easier than weekends.  Saturdays start out well with my planned breakfast and I bring snacks - but by the time lunch or dinner rolls around, I have trouble making good decisions in regards to food.

So, back to the basics.  I need to figure out my WW points for Saturdays and Sundays.  If I make a plan before the weekend rolls around, then it will be easier to stay on track.



Weight Watchers Weigh-In

Original Weight:  314.8
Previous Weight:  256.6 (Sept 13)

Sept 20:  Missed Meeting
Sept 27:  258.4
Oct 4:  258.2
Oct 11:  Missed Meeting
Oct 18:  Missed Meeting
Oct 25:  260.8

Change:  +4.2 pounds
Total Loss:  -54.0 pounds


SP Weigh-In

Previous Weight:  254.2 (Sept 13)
Last Week:  258.0 (Oct 25)
Today's Weight: 257.0 (Oct 30)

Change:  +2.8 pounds (since Sept 13) and -1.0 pounds (since Oct 25).


If you look at today's weight on my home scale, I am moving back in the right direction.  I do expect at least a 1 pound loss at my next WW meeting.

I can do this.  I just need to stop being lazy and think of how far I have come over the past two years.

A Much Needed Vacation

I spent 10 wonderful days at my parents house in Victoria from Oct 10 to 19.

It was relaxing and wonderful and exactly what I needed.  I have not booked a full week off work since last September, and I was definitely due for some time away.

I arrived in Victoria on Friday morning (October the 10th).  My dad and I drove over to The Rootcellar and picked up vegetables for Thanksgiving dinner as well as the Turkey we had ordered. We were going to have the big family meal with all the fixings on Saturday as my cousin, his wife, and 5.5 month-old son were going to come over from Surrey.

Saturday (October 11), we visited with my cousins and played with the baby.  He is so darn cute and is working on being able to sit up unassisted.  My cousin's wife added me to her iPhone picture group and now I have hundreds of photos of their son, plus I get updates.  We had our Thanksgiving dinner with maple pecan pie and pumpkin pie for dessert.  Everything was delicious, although we somehow forgot to put the cranberry sauce on the table.

Sunday (October 12), the visitors left and we had leftovers for dinner plus the cranberry sauce.

On Monday a nurse came in to take care of my grandmother for 3 hours.  My parents and I went to Wal-Mart uptown and then lunch at Milestones.  It was nice to just hang out with them.  I felt like an only child, lol.

Tuesday started off with my dad and I trying to get blood work done on my grandmother.  Something about the lab being busy, and nothing being checked off on the requisition form, and they turned us away saying they needed an order from a BC doctor.  So we went over to the walk-in clinic at the Superstore where there was a very short wait and they had her already on file from a previous visit. Later, my mom dropped my dad off at the airport in the afternoon for his weekly trip back to Edmonton.  My grandmother and I continued to work on her puzzle.  Actually, we had bought a few 300-large-piece puzzles, and she was able to do them pretty much on her own.  But I would help with a piece or two every once in a while.

My grandmother and I watched a submarine head out from the naval yard.

Wednesday my mom and I took my grandmother, along with the BC requisition, to get her blood work done.  We had good timing and were in and out fairly quickly.  I also went for a nice walk along the top of the hill where my parent's live.

Thursday is another day when a nurse comes in to take care of my grandmother.  My mom had a physio appointment and so I had lunch at Floyd's Diner and enjoyed a dish called Jack's Toast with the Candied Banana topping.

Then I made a trip to Michael's, and then I went back to pick up my mom.  Later a woman came in to do my grandmother's hair (curl and style).  I also went to pick my dad up from the airport.  I only missed one turn, because I could not get into the right lane (too busy), but I remembered that I could take a different exit a few blocks up, so it was all good.

Friday my dad and I made another trip to the Rootcellar.  I could have filled the shopping cart with apples & pears and been very happy.

We also ordered Romeo's pizza for dinner.  It's my favourite pizza place.  I got the Maui Luau (with no chedder) and I froze the leftovers and brought them home with me.  Yummy.

It was a windy, drizzly day, but I got some awesome pictures of the waves on Lagoon Road.

 

Saturday we went out to the Keg for dinner in a super old building on Quadra St in Saanich.  I realized it had been ages since I had a good steak.  Mmmmm red meat deliciousness.

All too soon it was Sunday and I headed home.  It was a beautiful day and I ate lunch sitting on the deck and watching the sailboats.

I don't know why, but we left for the airport at 2:45 for my 4:00pm flight.  So when I got to the counter at 3:30pm, they had closed the flight for checked baggage.  I got rebooked on the 5:00pm flight to Vancouver (instead of going through Calgary), but all the flights out of Vancouver (on Air Canada) were booked with people already on stand-by.  I ended up on the 9:55pm flight to Edmonton and crawled into bed after 1:00am.  I was tired Monday, but mostly I just wanted to still be on vacation.  I also learned that I need to make sure I am at the airport 1 hour before the flight leaves the hard way, lol.

Goals for 37

Looking back over the past year I realize that I have accomplished a lot, even if it was not exactly part of my goals for the year I was 36.

I lost 28 pounds.  I wish that number was higher, but at least I did lose weight and the scale is moving in the right direction.  If I was not going to Weight Watchers meetings and participating on Sparkpeople online, that number would definitely be different.  I could just have easily gained 28 pounds (or more) over the past year.

I am more than halfway completed in my online course.  There are 18 different modules and I have finished 9 and I am working on the 10th.  I got 97% in Customer Service (that was a boot camp), 80% in Business Communication (76% on the first part and 84% on the second - and this was a workshop), and in Office Procedures I got 98% on the first 4 chapters, and 96% on the next 4 chapters and I am now studying chapters 9-15.  All the MS Office modules were online assessments and I completed them 100%.

Over the summer I found and moved into my new house.  All of the boxes are unpacked, but I do need to organize my room, especially the closet.  We also packed and moved my parents out of their home of the past 29 years and then moved my grandmother out to Victoria as well.  So much work, but it was all worth it.

The divorce is finalized.  I have only spoke to my EH a few times over the past year, and most of those communications were quick instant messages or emails about the divorce proceedings. Weirdly, he wished me a happy birthday on Monday, but I just deleted the email without a response.

Now I want to make some goals for my year as a 37 year old.

1.  I need to exercise more.  Whether that means Wii games or videos at home or the gym or classes  at the rec centre/YMCA - it doesn't matter.  I will start by making a plan and scheduling exercise.  Maybe a reward system for doing a certain number of days a week?

2.  To go along with the exercise, I need to eat better.  I want to make sure I am tracking most of what I am putting in my mouth.  I am much better at not going overboard on the weekends.  Now I just need to continue and make sure that I stick to my WW points.

3.  I will continue to work on my online course.  I want to finish the course work by May/June so that I can complete my 4 week practicum and get my diploma.

4.  Once my course is done I will take the next big step and find a new job as a legal administrator.

5.  I want to put myself out there again and start dating.  I have an online dating profile, with eHarmony, but I have not really done anything with it lately.  I also want to look at some of the MeetUp groups in Edmonton.  If I put some effort in I think I could at least make some new friends.

6.  Ultimately, whether I find someone to spend my life with or not, I want to start saving/looking into being a Single Mother By Choice.  I really want to have a child.  I have no problem with using a sperm donor, but I know that I need to be healthier and to make more money (hence goals 1 through 4).  It probably won't happen this year, but I want to put the gears in motion for next year.


I know that these are achievable goals.  I just need to make some plans and be more dedicated instead of procrastinating.

Happy Birthday to Me !!

Another year has passed and I am now 37 years young.  Well actually I will be 37 as of 9:00pm tonight.  My youngest brother Greg will turn 30 tomorrow.  Yes, he is 7 years and 5 hours younger than me.  It was a little frustrating when I wanted to have birthday parties, as Greg would have the closest Saturday to his birthday without it being Thanksgiving, and I would end up having my party up to two weeks before or after my actual birthday.  Other than that it was neat having a sibling with a birth date one day later (it was almost the same day as he was born at 2:00am).

I had a few of my friends over on Saturday afternoon to celebrate.  It was also a chance to show off the new home.  On top of that, I was also commemorating that I am actually divorced with papers in hand.  Lots of great reasons to have people over.

There is a part of me that wishes I was still closer to 30 than 40.  Since I do not have a magic youth elixir, I will just have to enjoy being 37.  I am looking back on the goals I set for my 36th year, here they are for a refresher:  Goals for 36

Well, I slacked on the exercise.  I was playing my Wii exercise games for a while.  Then there was bowling on Wednesday nights.  I want to check out the Terwillegar Rec Centre for an aquasize class (or the YMCA, Dani we should do this together).  I have lots of room for the Wii again, so I should pull out the games.

I don't have an excuse for not recording what I eat, except laziness.  The SP and WW apps are on my phone.  I can also access both websites from my computers at work and home.  I was doing it a bit last week, and finding places like milk in my coffee where I was being sloppy.

With my online course - I finished two sections with bootcamps.  I have finished the MS section as well.  I wrote two tests on the first 8 chapters of Office Procedures.  I just need to continue to read and make notes while I am watching tv in the evenings.

The goal that I actually achieved was getting divorced.  It feels great to be able to put all that behind me and never look back.

I will post my new goals for 37 later this week.