Banner Credit


Many, many thanks to Spubba for designing and producing my title banner...so frickin' awesome!!! :D

Friday, January 27, 2012

An evening from hell

Yesterday started great; hunnybun and I were able to sleep in a bit together (I was working from home and he had the day off to attend some appointments).  We schnuzzled until about 7:50am and it was great.

My working day wasn't too bad, either; at lunch time I went out to grab myself a new wireless keyboard and mouse combo with the gift certificate hunnybun had given me for xmas.  (I chose the Logitech MK550 and yeehawwww I love this keyboard!!)

The day was fine...until a late afternoon call with my client from hell.  The one that should have been turned over to support about a month ago.  The one that kept quiet about their laundry list of issues until the moment I tried turning them over.  Them.  A-holes. Anyway, this is when the headache began.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Where do we go from here?

My mom stopped by last evening for a visit, and of course the usual subject of how good I look in my jeans/top came up...she asked what my goal weight is.  I said 140 lbs.  She knows I'm currently in the 144 range, so she then asked me what my next goal will be once I reach 140.

I didn't know what to say, because I hadn't considered that, but after a moment I said that I guess I won't really need a new goal, because my body will continue to lose the fat until it's done.  It's not like I'm starving myself, so I won't whither away completely; my body will just become optimized, I suppose.

I like that idea.

This afternoon at work I was a bit peckish (my lunch was two sausages and the leftover veggies from dinner) so I went to see if there was anything decent enough to buy from the vending machine.  Silly tit!!  Of course there wasn't anything good in there...but my eyes locked on my old nemesis Coffee Crisp for a fleeting moment.  I thought for sure I'd give in (always did before) but I didn't.  And it didn't bother me one bit.

I went back to my desk and promptly forgot about eating until I got home.  Success!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Today's post is brought to you by the number...

144.3!  Back down again from last week's reading, which I'm obviously happy about.  I've been a good girl this weekend.  I've also been using the pull-up bar to stretch against and attempt more chins/pulls a few times each day.

I'm not anxious to go back to work tomorrow (somebody please, make the stupid go away!), but I am VERY anxious to get back to my wonderful new height-adjustable desk!!  I can't wait!!


Saturday, January 21, 2012

Follow-up to the revelation post

In my last post I spoke about buying a treat as a bit of a test, and while I didn't gorge myself on the cake, it did taunt me every time I opened the fridge so I had to hide it behind another item.  That worked really well, actually, because I forgot about it so well that I was surprised when I saw it yesterday (I had to get a pork chop out of the container that was hiding the cake).  That's a point for me, in my books.

Yesterday we forgot to defrost the package of chicken thighs so we ordered in.  Swiss Chalet is our favourite chicken restaurant, which also offers a great-tasting fish dinner (with a side of veggies instead of chips/fries).  So we ordered one each, a ceasar salad each, and...a dessert each.  Crap.

Mine was their beyond-fucking-scrumptious coconut cream pie (weakness!!) and his was their carrot cake.  I didn't eat my pie until later at night because of being full from dinner, but as soon as I ate it I felt guilty for even ordering it in the first place.

No more.  I want to fit into my size 7 pants, DAMMIT!!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A revelation, indeed!

Last night we went grocery shopping for a few items and I practically forced myself to pick out something from the bakery section that would be that first official "oh-so-worth-it" indulgence after competing the YB program.  We brought home a Laura Secord chocolate mousse cake.  (I picked something small so that it wouldn't linger within my sight and reach for too long.)

Last night my taste buds wanted to taste it but my brain told them it was too late at night, the fast has begun, and to just shut up because they weren't getting any until tomorrow.  It actually worked!

This morning I walked (note: didn't RUN) to the fridge to have a small piece with my morning coffee.  I enjoyed eating it and did not feel the urge to have a second piece.  Holy.  Shit.

This evening, again, my taste buds are asking for something for a snack (reminding me about the cake in the fridge) but my brain has already told them to can it for the night.  Wow.  I'd say this experiment was an astounding success.  :)

Our dinner tonight was something I had intended to make for breakfast (since I worked from home today); bacon, onions, garlic and shredded sweet potato in a pan.  It was actually good!  Next time I'll cook the bacon til it's crispier, the onions until they're a little more caramelized, and the sweet potato separately so that it's more like hash browns.  Anyway, will eat again.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Boring Sunday post...

I decided last week to wean myself off the YeastBuster program because I felt I was ready and I was really sick and tired of having that damn drink first thing every morning.

I'm happy to be off it, but I left all the bottles in the same spot on the counter as a bit of a reminder; if you fall off the wagon you'll be back on this wagon!!  Yucky.

So far, so good.  I've not gorged myself on cakes yet, which is a good sign of me actually kicking this yeast problem/sugar addiction.  There are sweets in the cupboard (such as semi-sweet chocolate chips and my dad's homemade rum-soaked fruitcake) that are not interesting to me at all.  What a revelation!

Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner.  They didn't know what to make us for dinner so they made tacos.  Well, sounds good to me - I haven't had tacos in eons!  I looooooooove eating a hard-shell taco loaded with ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce and shredded cheese.  Yum!  I had two hard-shell and one soft-shell and I was pretty full.  Oh yeah, I drank two rum 'n Cokes.  Only two.

I brought a container of blueberries and strawberries plus a small container of coconut milk because I knew they would have crap for dessert (and I was right).  My friend busted out the chocolate cream pie from the fridge shortly after we went downstairs to play darts.  She also had a really gross-looking bag of no-name cheese crunch things.  Blech.  I had a sliver of the pie.  Normally I would have told everyone to get their own damn pie while I ate mine...okay, I'm exaggerating.  A little.  After my sliver of pie I got myself a nice bowl of fruit in coconut milk.  My friends commented on how good it looked so of course I offered them some.  After all, I brought enough for everyone;  I'm a good friend. :)

Today I had bacon with my eggs for the first time in, like, two months (because of being on the YB program - delicious bacon is NOT allowed on the program).  It's a boring day and I'm supposed to be reading for my latest course (Fire Protection) in the Occupational Safety and Health program I'm working through, but I'm finding that my mind keeps wandering to the kitchen for some munchies.  A couple of plantain chips and a few spoonfuls of vanilla-flavoured, 9% MF yogurt did the trick.  For now.  I'll continue reading after posting this entry.

Weighed myself yesterday and the scale read 145.4 lbs, but since we've started working with weights and the pull-up bar I can't worry too much about weight anymore.  I wore my size 7 pants last night!  W00t!!

Chicken thighs for dinner.  Can't wait!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Grass-fed bavette of beef...



Yummers!!

New progress pics...*goes to hide under a rock*



If I look at these too long my brain starts to remind me that I'm not in the same light and am a little further away from the mirror, but I know for a fact that there are significant changes.  It's just that they're all-around instead of concentrated in one area.  I know my belly doesn't stick out as far (and my newt tattoo looks better, too!), and I can see a difference in thickness (front to back) in my pelvic/bum area in the side shots (check the curve of the bikini bottom side).

Can't wait to see more results soon!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Mmmm, chicken. And motorcycles. Ooh! And a weight update!

That humungous free-run bird you saw in yesterday's post is now resting comfortably in the slow cooker on a bed of onion, carrot, garlic and celery, bathed in sea salt, freshly-cracked pepper, Italian seasonings, "roasted garlic and pepper" seasoning, and seasoned salt (guilty pleasure of ours).  Actually, I'm starting the cooker on high for a bit, so perhaps the poor dear isn't so comfy...good thing it's not feeling anything at all!  :)

Yesterday after work we headed over to the motorcycle show, which happens (almost always) on the first weekend of the year.  We had previously arranged to pick up a set of tires for my bike (Honda 599 - aka Hornet) and we also grabbed a pair of boots each (my toes were constantly scraping the front of my old ones), a set of custom-made ear plugs (I wish we could try them out on the bikes, but it's only 6C here and we don't have any heated gear!), a couple of bike covers (to keep the sawdust off them while in the garage), and I also bought myself a new helmet.

Since we were at the show for over 4 hours were a bit hungry so we ate....ugh...a pizza slice each.  Gross!!!  Actually, it tasted pretty good, but it sure felt icky.  I have a headache this morning, too...wonder if I'm that stressed about eating it or if I just over-slept this morning.

My weight this morning was 144.6!  Yahoo!!

Come onnnnnnn, SPRING!!!  Mama's got some ridin' to do...

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Mom...perhaps she's starting to listen??!

This past year my mom has been told by our family doctor that 1) her iron levels are pretty high, and 2) she has a fatty liver.  This freaked her out a bit, though initially she didn't do much about it.  She continued drinking her diet sodas and munching on junk food like cookies and such.

Now that she's seen my weight edging downward again (I hit a plateau for the last few months, which I wasn't trying too hard to get past), she's become interested in hearing about what I'm eating and where I bought the jeans that look so good on me.  LOL

I told Mom about Big Fat Fiasco and she said she'd like to see it (!).  She has started re-reading her Atkins book and has learned more about what foods to eat and what fats are healthier.  Last week we watched BFF together.  She wanted to come back yesterday so we could do more research on the computer about the fatty liver and iron, and I printed off a bunch of pages for her to read.

One piece of advice was to get some of the iron-rich blood out of the system by donating a few units of blood on a regular basis.  Mom isn't keen on donating blood, though I'm still working on that.  (She was willing to do it when I offered to go with her, but she ended up getting rejected at the clinic because of her age; they needed her doctor's blessing before she could donate.  She had psyched herself up to do it so she was pissed!)

Advice with regard to the fatty liver was to lose weight. See, Mom's had problems with her weight for a bunch of years, but mostly she's had problems with her BRAIN.  She is bi-polar and has been on (the wrong doses of) meds for a looooong time.  She used to complain that these meds made her overeat and that's why she got fat.  Roughly two years ago she decided that the meds were poison and promptly stopped taking them.  Fast forward past a couple years of hell (for her AND for those around her) and the doctors FINALLY got her dosage right.  When she was ill anything you said would go in one ear and out the other.  It's taken a long time, but I've finally got my mom back (YES!!) and she's willing to LEARN new things.  Shit, I never thought I'd see the day.

Mom's been on the Atkins diet before and lost about 85 lbs.  TWICE.  She wants to lose more and has been asking what kinds of meats are good (grass-fed, organic, hormone-free, etc.), where to buy them, and what oils are okay to use for cooking.  She even wanted to come to our house for NYE because "you put out HEALTHY food that's not going make my weigh scale go up."

I think we're getting somewhere here...

Monday, January 2, 2012

One! One pull-up! Ah ah ah!


Hunnybun installed the doorway chin-up bar this morning, and after testing it out with a couple of half-assed (I mean, leg-assisted!) chin-up attempts earlier, I finally did one chin-up tonight!  Ok, it wasn't pure form, but hell, I managed to pull my ass up off the floor! :D

2012 has to be the year that I incorporate more movement and lifting of heavy things into my lifestyle, which will compliment the diet changes I've already made (and continue to make).  Progress needs to continue!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Instructions for starting the Primal lifestyle

1. Take "before" pictures. Lots of them.
2. Eliminate sugar and grains from your diet immediately.
3. Start reading and learning: Primal Blueprint 101 | Mark's Daily Apple
4. Adopt other aspects of the PB as you learn/are ready for.
5. Take pictures during your transition.
6. Start saving money to buy new, smaller, clothing.
7. Take more pictures.
8. Enjoy your new life.
9. Post your before and after pics in this thread.