What I’m going to do:

1. Find balance in my daily food intake. Since raw veggies cause major tummy issues for me, I need to find creative ways to incorporate cooked veg and lean protein into my diet and reduce my carbs. Also, Drink more water!
   
   
2. Exercise 5 days a week for at least 1 hour. This can include intensive gardening, renovating, bike riding, walking, swimming and gym going.
   
   
3. See my trainer 1 - 2 times a week. It’s an expense that I feel is worth every penny.
   
   
4. Spend no more than 2 hours watching tv or browsing the web. Serious time suck, and I alsways feel tired and blah after spending too much time staring at a screen.
   
   
5. Be frugal. Weddings are expensive and I don’t need to spend money to have fun, especially in the summer here.
   
   
6. Enjoy the outdoors. It’s mosquito central in Saskatchewan right now but I need to suck it up! The warm weather is few and far between here, especially this year with all the rain.
   
   
7. Appreciate the victories, learn from the failures. I’m not perfect, but I’m also capable of changing my life, one small step at a time. Positivity is crucial
   
   
8. Focus on being HEALTHY. While looking good in my wedding dress is inspiration for this, it’s not the main reason for making these changes. My overall health is my ultimate goal.

So we’ve tentatively picked a wedding date and it’s just over a year away which means I need to SERIOUSLY get back into being healthy. The dress above is basically my dream dress with a few modifications like cap sleeves, a higher neckline, and more green underneath the lace. There’s just a few problems: Given my current size, dress selection is LIMITED and what actually would look OK on me does not always translate to what I want or like. This was my exact problem when looking for dresses last year, not to mention the fact that my city doesn’t get very many designers.

So it’s time to begin Operation Wedding Dress, because I’ll be damned if I’m going to look dumpy in my wedding photos! I’ll figure out the exact details and post them shortly, no slacking on this one.

I woke up this morning at 6 am with a killer tummy ache (I blame the pasta I had for dinner) and could not get back to sleep which is the only reason on earth that I would be awake at 730 am on a Saturday. Ugh. I am TIRED. I even tried to go back to sleep with no luck, so here I am.

Despite this, I am determined to get some vitamin D and exercise in today by taking my bike out and enjoying the beautiful weather. My lovely friend Heather is a Mary Kay rep and is hosting an all day sales party so I’m going to bike down and support her this morning. This is seriously dangerous for me as my addiction to makeup and beauty products knows no bounds, but I’ll try to be good. Maybe I can convince Ryan to give me his VISA? ha ha.

I finished a paper last night which makes me feel a lot more productive. Post make up party I’ll be working on my take home final for Women and Gender Studies which is due on monday. I have a serious set up at the kitchen table, dual monitors and everything. No crowded, loud, horrible library for this girl.

I will also be going gluten free for a few days to see if it helps my tummy issues. It does not feel like a coincidence that I was doing great yesterday until I had pasta for dinner. (and a cookie for dessert…) Now that I’ve had my blood test, it’s safe to eliminate it from my diet but I’m just struggling with how to go about it. I am a carb fiend. I will not become a bland-ian just yet since I still have about 3 months left of medication to finish and the idea of not being able to put hot sauce on everything kind of makes me want to cry. So for now, bye bye wheat!

Today is the last day of classes for the term, I still have 2 papers to finish and hand in and probably won’t do so until mid next week. Instead of getting up early and to work on them I slept in, watched ANTM (not proud of this) and did some reading for my last International Development seminar tonight.  I still haven’t exercised in over a week, and I’ve got a feeling that tomorrow’s training session is going to kick my ass.

I’m hoping getting my term paper back in class tonight will give me the confidence to just finish these damn papers. That’s assuming I do alright on it, but I did work very hard and I generally do pretty well when I put effort into something. Isn’t it amazing how the two correlate? I say this sarcastically of course.

I DO have to ability to pull off good grades when I try, and the same thing goes for healthy living. When it’s important and I try my hardest, then I see results, it’s not exactly rocket science. So why do I avoid doing what needs to be done? Push my responsibilities aside for immediate gratification and self-indulgence? It’s like a part of my brain shuts off.

My biggest life goals right now are to lose 100 lbs and get an honors degree before I turn 30. I’ve been avoiding and postponing both for so long and I’m running out of time.

What was the kick in the ass you needed to get moving on your goals?

Seriously, who knew waking up at 8 am on a Saturday could be so fantastic? Ryan and I usually sleep in on the weekend, hang out and eat breakfast together then run errands etc. But today he left to go visit his parents for a few days so I figured it would be a good opportunity to work out then get some paper writing done. I was right!

I met my friend Gina who is also going to South Africa this May, and went to the university gym, which I’m slowly starting to like, but definitely not as much as my regular gym. Breakdown of the workout:

• 20 min warm up on treadmill (I walked, with an incline since my calves are still sore)
• Stretch
• Squats
• Free weights
• Crunches and V sits (OW!)
• Stretch

At this point Gina had to take off, but since I didn’t have to be anywhere I hopped on a stationary bike for 30 mins and went hardcore. I don’t think I have ever pushed myself that hard when working out on my own and it felt AMAZING.I even got a little emotional when a really good song came on and I was trying to push through the last 2 minutes before the cool down. I kept thinking “I can do this! I can actually do this!” It was so weird, and super liberating.

I took my time stretching and relaxing after the fact, then grabbed some subway and a V8 for lunch. Now I have a sweet cubicle with a window and I’m ready to get to work.

After my interview, which turned out to be less of an interview and more of a 5 minute chat, (but it went well!) I stopped by work to drop something off and started talking to a women who also works in the campus food court area. She mentioned previously that she was on the G.I diet with her fiance and we started talking about food and exercise, what I eat and how I work out etc. She seemed very open but the biggest thing I noticed was how limited her options were with the G.I diet. For example, I mentioned how I like to add banana to my oatmeal in the morning, but apparently they are not allowed because they are too high in sugar. I understand that to some degree, but I just can’t get behind a diet plan that restricts REAL food. This focus on restriction instead of moderation really gets to me, because banana’s are awesome for you. They are high in soluble fiber and potassium and lots of other great stuff.

This is similar to my beef with weight watchers and processed foods. I really believe that if you eat REAL, unprocessed good quality food in moderation it will do amazing things for you in the long run. Weight loss is really just a part of it, think of cancer prevention, stronger bones, eyesight, digestion, energy levels, mental and physical strength and overall, LIVING a longer life.

Believe me, I am not a saint by any means, I crave chicken nuggets, fries, chips and refined sugars as much as the next fat chick. Eating real food is hard because we live in a society where fast and cheap are the norm and everyday foods we eat are full of preservatives and chemicals. Just the other day I searched the grocery store for a loaf of whole grain bread that didn’t have preservatives in it and came up short. The alternative: 5 bucks for a loaf of multi-grain bread from an organic bakery in town, it may be twice as much and I’ll have to freeze it so it doesn’t go bad but at least when I read the ingredients list, I can pronounce and recognize every item. Now that’s real.

• Monday: Personal training session
• Tuesday: 1 hour cardio (split between bike/elliptical)
• Wednesday: 1 hour cardio (same) and abs
• Thursday: Break
• Friday: Personal Training session
• Saturday: Bike Ride? Walk/Run outside?
• Sunday: 45 mins cardio and abs

Despite my insane schedule for school, I am determined to get 6 days of exercise in this week. I think it will help keep me focused and less stressed out about all the work I need to finish.

I am also going to set my alarm for 6:00am each day and see if I can get going to the gym early. It’s pretty much the only spare time I have, and as long as I go to bed early enough, why waste it sleeping?

I’ve been having a really off few days and I feel like I’m starting to loose the drive I had from going to the gym 5 times last week and breaking through my plateau. I haven’t worked out since Saturday and before then it had also been a few days so I wonder if I’m going through endorphin withdrawal? Is that even possible? I’ve been too tired to work out, yet without it I have less energy, it’s a total vicious cycle.

To be honest, pouring over the negative details never did me any good, in fact that’s what caused my anxiety to spiral out of control last term. SO, this is me being positive by forgetting the not so healthy things I’ve eaten and the lack of working out in the past few days and looking forward. I think the success of my school work (ie: paper due on Thursday) and happiness depends on this.

Hooray! I tried on my favorite cords today and they fit! Two weeks ago they were too small to do up, now they are perfect. life is good.

Had a tasty mango/strawberry smoothie for breakfast, will have tasty chicken and quinoa for lunch (dinner is undecided) and I feel like my cravings are slowly going away and being replaced by a need for good tasting healthy food.

Today is my second non gym day of the week, I normally don’t like to have two break days in a row but I have a lot of school work to get done and I’m alright with workinf out fri, sat, sun.

Have you had any non scale victories lately?

I’m procrastinating school work and I wanted to update you on my gym success this past week!

My tentative schedule was:

Monday - break

Tues - Training: check

Weds - 40 mins cardio + abs (didn’t go, boo)

Thurs - Break (Went this day instead! yay!)

Fri - Training (Worked my ass off, yes!)

Saturday - 1 hr cardio (Danced at the bar for hours instead, although the alcohol prob. canceled that out)

Sunday - 30 mins cardio + abs (I was DETERMINED to work out yesterday so after work at 11pm I did the Yoga Booty Ballet Cardio vid, and yes its as cheesy as it sounds but still pretty awesome. And some pilates for lower body)

Soooo, if you count Saturday’s dancing, that’s 5 days! Not too shabby!

This morning was rough, doing an intense workout right before bed probably wasn’t the best idea even though it felt awesome at the time. My neck and lower back are quite sore but I still think I’ll go to the gym today. Maybe aquacize?

Workout Schedule for March 8 -14

Monday: Core circuit followed by aquaftiness

Tuesday: Training

Weds: 8am yoga?? (hah, unlikely but I will try)

Thursday: break

Friday: Training

Saturday: 45 mins Cardio

Sunday Break.

Also, I lost another 2.5 inches! Screw you unchanging weight, I got muscle now!

So I’m now at:

Waist: 41.5’ (First measurement was 48.5, what!?)

Belly: 50’ (First time I’ve measured this, gah its horrid but oh well)

Hips: 46’ (Still the same and fine with me, I have a flat ass, TBH I wouldn’t mind if it was bigger! haha)

Wish me luck this week. I’m going to have 7 days of being perfect even if it kills me! (Well maybe just near perfect…)