Oh so tired - must fix this sleeping plan :D

I was really tired tonight and so I did not enter a complete posting. There's really not much to add - I would just like to make a proper entry. Menu: breakfast -pancakes, fruit, maple syrup, snack - yogurt with pineapple, lunch - egg salad on a bagel, snack - pineapple, supper - chicken burger, baby potatoes. As I had homework club after school and then went straight to Krystal's place for the evening, I did not get any exercise in. I was thinking about this and have decided that, since the weather is BEGINNING to get halfway decent, I am going to suggest to Krystal that after dinner, we go for a walk. She has mentioned that she would like to get out and take Alexander for walks, so I think this idea will work great for both of us. I am finding myself very tired again and it's because I am not getting to bed at 10pm. It's time to get back to that.

I made it through my first week!

Well, that was the hardest part, I think. Being able to make it through a week of eating healthy and making time to make meals after I have been really slack for so long, takes a lot of willpower. I am not perfect, or rather was not perfect, this week, but I made a lot of headway. I have learned that I am good at making yummy meals (low fat). I am not so good at drinking enough water every day. I am okay at getting exercise every day (made four out of six this past week). I am pretty good at going to sleep at 10pm. This week, I am going to focus on getting at least 6 glasses of water into me each day. I would like to get to 8 glasses each day, but since I was getting only 4 each day in this past week, I think aiming for 6 cups each day is a good place to start. The menu today: breakfast - oatmeal, snack - yogurt, lunch - soup and tuna sandwich, snack - fruit salad, supper - garlic mashed potatoes, Apricot Honey Grilled Chicken, corn and peas. The chicken only took 16 minutes to grill and was moist and yummy. I have made my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. I talked with Char today and when I told her how much fat and calories there were in my pancakes (frozen), she told me about hers - she makes them fresh from a pancake mix and there are way less calories in them and 1/12 the fat. I immediately wrote down the mix on my grocery list - I sure hope I can find them tomorrow (makes my mouth water just thinking of yummy fresh pancakes). I did some more pilates today - I did the same 5 exercises as last week and I am pleased to report that I was able to do better at them this week. It's quite a sight to watch me do them as my stomach muscles are very weak and you must use them to complete the exercises effectively. But, I will persevere and do my next set on Thursday. My goal right now is to do the first five exercises twice each week until I can do them fairly competently. Then, I can move on to the next one. A friend at work and I were competing last year for who could lose the most weight each month. She won every month (she is a big girl and so I figured that she would lose more weight). She wants to start again (she really likes the $5 Timmy's card I gave her each month for winning :-) So, we are doing the weigh-in this week since it's April 1st on Wednesday and the contest is on again. I would like to win at least one month before the end of the school year. :-)

Fast Sunday

As this was Fast Sunday, I did not eat any breakfast or lunch. AND, I made sure to eat a regular dinner. I made glazed ham, roasted potato slices and corn. The potatoes were a disaster, actually. They were to be cut into 1/4 inch slices and dipped in a mix of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. They then had to be baked in the oven for 30 minutes - that was about 10 minutes too long. They should have been taken out at about 20 minutes I think. So, I will try them again tomorrow. I am enjoying these different versions of potatoes that I have been making lately. I love potatoes, but haven't been having them for a while because I didn't know how to make them low fat. Jennifer found this great site called lowfatlifestyle.com and it's got great low fat recipes and there are tons for potatoes. I think that I might have to try every one of them. :-) After dinner, I suggested to Mike that since we had fasted today, we might make a low fat dessert (and have one every Fast Sunday). We made the most delicious Apple Streusel - my mouth was watering as I ate it (it was hard to believe that it was low fat). There are so many low fat dessert recipes on the low fat site and I can't wait to try them all. :-)

A full day, but a good day!

Today was theatre day and we decided to go and eat at The Pickle Barrel. I haven't eaten there in years, so I didn't know what kind of food they served. It turns out that they have quite a few choices of healthy food on their menu. I decided on a wonderfully yummy meal of chicken kabobs, rice, mixed veggies, tzatziki sauce and garlic bread. It also came with a greek salad which I substituted with a garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I love salads (as you know) and this one was very yummy. I ate half the entree and will have the other half for lunch tomorrow. Restaurant portions are always about twice as much as I need to eat, so I am always bringing home doggie bags. :-) Mike has already claimed dibs on the leftovers. :-) Breakfast - cereal, snack - yogurt, lunch (already mentioned), snack - hot chocolate, Supper - glazed ham, potato and peas in a cream sauce, corn. I didn't get my exercise in today as my lovely grandsons came to visit/stay over shortly after I arrived home and shortly after I put them down to sleep, Mike, Krystal, Jesse, and Alexander arrived home from Vancouver. So, four out of six days I exercised this week which is four more than I have been doing, so I feel okay with that. I DO want to make sure that I don't get complacent about missing days of exercising, but I also want to make sure that I don't worry about it if I do miss it (for a good reason).

A good day!

I wasn't hungry today, so I was really happy about that. It was a good day also since I was able to drink more water (about 1 2/3 litres) and I also got my exercise in (30 minutes of yoga). That was really interesting. I was doing fairly well (did the first 5 exercises pretty well, I think). Then, I got to the 6th one and my body just said 'enough'. This exercise really tested my stretching AND balancing. I might think about going to a few yoga classes to make sure that I am doing the exercises right. I saw an ad for one in town the other day - maybe I will phone them to find out how much it costs to attends a few sessions. Todays menu: breakfast - oatmeal, snack - banana, lunch - dagwood sandwich, snack - yogurt and pineapple, supper - ham, mashed potatoes, green beans. Supper was quite yummy: the ham had a brown sugar and mustard glaze on it, the potatoes were made with garlic and mashed with olive oil, milk and parsley, and the beans were cooked with red peppers, basil, lemon and sesame seeds. Yummy! I'm going to my latest theatre show tomorrow and that means lunch out again - I resolve NOT to eat three salads again! :-) I'm not sure where we are going, but I will say that I will be checking out the healthy meals on the menu. Guess that means no french fries with vinegar and ketchup.:-)

Hungry today

It's nice being able to get up a little later each morning (6:30am) now that I am organized the night before. I even get to read a chapter of my book every morning which is a very relaxing way to start my day. Menu for today: breakfast - cereal, snack - pineapple, lunch - spaghetti, bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, snack - banana and Special K bar and slice of low-fat apple bread, supper - lamb chop, potatoes, green beans. I had a brainwave today - I felt so bad about not exercising last night that I decided to go for a walk at lunch. I decided it was too cold to walk outside, so I decided to walk around the school. It went really well and I worked up quite a sweat. I think I pushed it a little too hard, but it felt really good and I think that every Thursday (my date night with Colin) I will do the walking either inside or outside the school. I find that by the time I have put Colin down for the night and get home, I have time to do all the prep stuff for the next day and it's 10pm. Then, I still have to write this blog. So, walking at lunch time will make sure I get my exercise in and that's a good thing. I have found myself hungry today and I'm not sure why. I have eaten well and it seems to have been lots to eat, but I didn't find myself full. Even now, I feel like my tummy is in need of sustenance. I was able to stay the course with my food (even though I took Colin to Dairy Queen for dinner and I didn't even have a craving for a yummy Peanut Buster Parfait :-) I would like to figure out why I was so hungry, though - I will have to see if it's different tomorrow. Maybe my body is just used to (lately) eating as much as it wants and now that it's not getting all that, it's complaining. Hmm, food for thought (no pun intended) :-) I have made it through four days now - doesn't sound like much, but it's all about one day at a time, right? :-)

A little slip

I got to sleep before 11pm last night - actually around 10:30pm, I was snoring. I was able to get up a bit later this morning, even, since everything was ready for today (clothes, food). I was a good girl while eating at school today: breakfast - egg on half a bagel, snack - orange, lunch - dagwood sandwich (turkey, cheese, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, pickled beets), snack - yogurt. THEN, I blew it (a little). I got together with my friend, Bev, who I haven't seen in ages and we decided to go out for supper. I decided earlier in the day that I would make sure to eat something healthy (even though, as I pointed out to my friends at school, eating healthy is more expensive than eating unhealthy food). Welllllllllllllll, Bev suggested we go to one of my favourite restaurants, East Side Marios. Okay, I thought, I can handle this.................well, not too well or rather, not as well as I would have liked to. One hint: my tummy is still full and it's been two hours since we left the restaurant. That's right - I ate too much (drats!). I decided to go with the spaghetti (all you can eat special which included a yummy sounding chocolate decadent cake) and before you gasp, I did not eat the cake and did not intend to eat it! :-) And I only got one portion of spaghetti (actually fettucine) just in case you were thinking that I had pigged out on the pasta. BUT, I did have three salads. Grandma Martin used to call me 'the salad girl' when we went out to eat because I just love a good garden salad and tend to eat more of that than anything else. I only ate half of the fettucine (I will eat the other half tomorrow for lunch) and I had a little bread. BUT, the one thing I have learned is not to beat myself up about a little setback. I DID eat too much salad, but I didn't eat the cake (I gave it to Bev to give it to her husband), so all in all, not TOO much of a setback. NOW, about the exercise: needless to say, I have not done it yet. I am hoping to do a little bit of yoga tonight - I am just waiting for my tummy to feel less full - I might just have to do the yoga even though my tummy feels so heavy (not sure how good that is, to exercise when I'm so full). We didn't have a lot of time tonight since Bev had to get somewhere, but in the future, if I am going out to eat, I think that the best thing to do would be to exercise before I eat. I love these 'me' days I am having. I was home tonight before 7pm. I took a bath and read a great book I am in the middle of. I have 'American Idol' on the tv while I am writing this blog. Breakfast and lunch are sorted. AND I didn't even bring home any schoolwork. It's lovely relaxing and I am hopeful that all these things I am doing (eating well, exercising, relaxing) will help to keep me healthy and happy. :-)