I really didn't disapear again.. got called away for work at the last minute and have spent the last 5 days at a hotel in Kelowna, BC. Going home tomorrow to assess the room service damage and get back to regular scheduled programming.

Wednesday Menu

Day Three of counting and tracking again and it was a challenge. DH and I found we had to make a last minute trip out of town and were gone from early morning until 9 pm and had to eat out for all three meals.. here is how the day worked out

cinnamon raisin bagel with light cream cheese - 7
coffee with milk X2 - 1
salad with 1 tbsp vinaigrette -1
open faced veggie sandwich with brie - 8
hot dog at costco -8 (this is definitely not in the clean eating plan)
veggies and dip - 2 (snack before bed)

I stayed within my point allotment but I am going to bed hungry - too many 'big ticket' food items today left me feeling unsatisfied but I am proud of myself for sticking with it. We also when on an hour walk early this morning and I did 30min on my Wii Fit tonight. I have a new weapon in my exercise battle arriving tomorrow. I will post a picture of it when it arrives.

Tuesday Menu

slow cooker oatmeal - 4
salmon - 7
mashed yams - 2
oatmeal - 3
veggies and dip - 2
apple - 1
turkey sausage - 4
scrambled eggwhite w cheese - 3
toast - 2
apple crisp - 4

I went over my points by four today... the piece of salmon is so high in calories, but so good for me so I dont feel that bad. The apple crisp was homemade using the topping from the ESBM cookbook so not too bad.

Monday Menu

apple -1
pear - 1
carrot sticks - 0
dip - 2
whole wheat pasta - 4
tomato mushroom sauce - 1
fat free pudding - 2
salmon filet - 9
roast potatos - 3
veggies - 0
dip - 2
banana - 2
peanut butter - 2

Good day today.. I resisted the candy drawer at work and stayed to the meal plan I had set out for the day. I'll be back tomorrow.

For Keeps This Time!!

For the past few months I have been stopping and starting and stumbling and starting and stopping doing all the things I know how to do to take of this last 40 pounds. I have been doing all the things I promised my self I wouldn't. I haven't tracked my food, I stopped measuring and weighing portions, I stopped a regular exercise routine and somehow I decided that I did not have to say no to all the 'special' treats that appear in my life on a regular basis. For the past week I have been feeling my desire come back. I want to feel the rush after a great workout, I want to see the scale go down, I want to feel like my will power is strong and completely within my control. So here I am, confessing my 'sins' and getting ready to start over with a clean slate and forgiving myself for breaking the promises I made myself.

Ok, enough self-flogging! Actually, the damage could be far far worse than it is. I have not gained any weight in the past month and am only 10 pounds higher than my lowest weight (June) so I am going to stop this madness before it becomes 20-30-50-70 pounds. I am not going to ease myself back into it.. starting tomorrow I will track every bite-lick-taste on WW.ca and stay within my points. I will measure and weigh my food, I will drink 2L of water and I will get at least 30 minutes of exercise 4-7 times a week. This plan guarantees me the success I have seen in the past and I DO NOT want to finish this year weighing more than I did at the end of last year.

I truly believe that the only reason I have not gained more weight back in the past months has been my commitment to clean eating whenever possible. I have not been exercising or watching my portions but I have been cooking at home about 80% all natural 'clean' food. I did continue taking pictures of some of my favourite meals so I will post them over the next while. I have been rereading my blog from the start, trying to recapture the excitement of when I was finding this weightloss/life style change so enjoyable and dare I say easy. I was finding myself inspired my my own success. My mind is now full of all the tips and tricks I learned while losing 65 pounds and I wrote down all the successful recipes I made over the past 22 months from various magazines, websites - so often I make things once, enjoy them but don't ever make them again. I love trying new recipes but I am going to pull some old favourites for a rerun.

Here are a couple of new ones we have tried. The first is Salmon Patties from the latest 'Clean Eating Magazine'. I used the salmon I canned this summer (and DH caught himself) and they were delicious. The fruit sauce is made from blackberry preserves from bushes on my in laws property and the squash is from my organic veggie delivery. This is exactly the type of meal we try to have most of the time. Local, fresh and non-processed. Although my progress has stalled I am so proud of the complete change we have made in the things we put into our bodies.

The next picture is a recipe my fabulous cook of a husband found online and whipped up from some salmon that we candied in our little smoker. This was so so so good, the veggies we fresh, the salmon had come out of the smoker only the day before and served with vermicelli it was a really filling lunch (I had seconds!! - still need to work on the portion control!)

Here is the link to the video in case anyone is interested in the recipe.

I will be back tomorrow!! I hope I still have some readers... I need the support!!

I would like to thank the academy....

Thanks Natasha for this blog award! Instructions are to copy these 35 questions and fill them in with the answers that suit you then pass it on to 6 favorite bloggers (notify them that you've given them an award!)

35 Questions:

1)Where is your cell phone? - plugged in on the bathroom counter

2)Your hair? -dyed

3)Your mother?- fun

4)Your father?- smart

5)Your favorite food?-spicy

6)Your dream last night?-forgotten

7)Your favorite drink?-milkshake from Peter's in Calgary

8)Your dream/goal?-to be a mom

9)What room are you in?- living room

10)Your hobby? bike riding, cooking

11)Your fear? car accidents

12)Where do you want to be in 6 years? still living here!

13)Where were you last night?-at home canning salsa

14)Something that you aren't?-negative

15)Muffins?-not worth the calories

16)Wish list item?-No debt

17)Where did you grow up? Vancouver Island

18)Last thing you did? put in a load of laundry

19)What are you wearing?-cotton dress

20)Your t.v.?-small

21)Your pets?- adored

22)Friends?- cherished

23)Your life? stabalizing

24)Your mood?content

25)Missing someone? hubby

26)Vehicle? little cute grey

27)Something your not wearing? Socks/shoes

28)Your favorite store? William Sonoma

29)Favorite color? Orange

30)Last time you laughed? today at work

31)Last time you cried? Tonight watching Biggest Loser

32)Best friend? Patrick/Darla

33)One place that I go to over and over? my sister's house

34)One person who emails me regularly? Dana, Hubby

35)Favorite place to eat? my dining room when DH is cooking

Seven people I will pass this on to:

Janet

Dancing Sweetpea

Julie

TJ

Seashore

Catching Up

This post is long overdue, but I will cram in all of the things I have been busy with while neglecting my blog. I am continuing to can all of the deliciousness my garden has produced.. over the past two days I have made salsa with the last of my tomatoes (and all the green ones) as the weather is about to turn cold and wet here in the next few days. I did this with a friend and we put up 44 pints of yummy spicy salsa!

Hubby has been busy fishing and I have really been enjoying accompanying him on these trips.. I love sitting on the shore with a book, jumping up to help him when he reels one in. It it spawning time so he harvested the eggs from the last two catches and cured the roe to make bait (I did not help with this - yuck! but am happy that the eggs were not wasted)

We borrowed my Dad's smoker and smoked a ton of salmon that we will enjoy this holiday season as well as give for gifts. It is a time consuming but relatively easy process.
I felt that the Fall weather meant it was time for a new look... here is the darker and shorter haired me:
In my constant search of ways to keep myself interested in exercise and to spend some quality time with my sister we joined a curling team. I curled as a kid (20 years ago!!!) and we are having a blast playing in a weekly mixed league - suprisingly all that sweeping is a pretty good workout.

I have been LOVING my organic veggie delivery. Here is a glimpse of last weeks bin... fresh delicious local fruits and veggies.. mmmmmmmm

still here

will hopefully post a long entry soon... just been really busy.. still struggling but never giving up!!

Mixed bag of updates

Another picture collage from my evening walk.

This has been a pretty good week. I only lost .4 at my WI but thats ok, a loss is a loss. The most important thing is that I am still feeling back in control. I went to the gym three times this week including a great yoga class on Tuesday night. My canning is still going well. A girlfriend and I are doing a bunch more this week so the pantry will be full soon.

I signed up for this great organic produce delivery service www.sunshineorganics.ca They deliver a bin of fresh, organic (mostly local) produce right to your door. I am excited about getting inspiration from these great fruits and veggies and love the idea of less trips to the grocery store (and less temptation). Eating fresh, non-processed, chemically free food has become really important to me over the past year. The effect on my mood, energy level, sleep patterns, skin and hair is amazing - not to mention the obvious weightloss benefits. It is not cheap to eat this way so I am trying to be smarter about my shopping - buying in bulk and then canning/freezing for easy use later. I would like to go to the grocery store only once a week at the most - that will hopefully cut down on the convenience foods and treats that inevitably make their way into the cart. Stay tuned for a picture when my veggies arrive!

DH has been taking advantage of the last few weeks of great salmon fishing in our area. We have tons in the freezer and enough cans to last us through the winter but we went out again today to catch a fresh one for dinner. Here is my big fisherman doing his thing and me and my favourite girl hanging out on the shore.

I can can!!

I am loving my new canner! Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that my DH works out of town four days a week in a teensy weensy town on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. In an effort to help him maintain our healthy lifestyle while he is working long shifts out of town I pack a car cooler full of healthy meals for him to take. I love cooking and enjoying doing this for him because he works so hard and travels so much. But it does take a good chunk of one of our days off together to get these meals ready. I have been reading a lot about canning and discovered how easy it is to can whole meals like chili, stew and soup. So I thought I would make a giant batch of chili, can it in 500ml jars so he can have them for lunch. He won't have to worry about refrigerating them and we can still control the amount of fat and sodium in the meals. I started with chili and it worked great. I did enough in an afternoon for him to have lunch for a month. I will still make him dinners to take up but my prep time will be a lot less! Here are some pictures of the chili.

I also used my crazy growing cucumbers from my garden and made us enough relish to last until next summer. The relish was unbelievably easy to make and so delicious.

I have plans to can every evening for the next week, salsa, stew, Shepard's pie mix, chutney, more chili, soup and spaghetti sauce. The local farmers markets have such great prices on produce right now - I'm going to take advantage of the fresh veggies and fill my pantry with easy meals. I think this will really help get me through those inevitable slumps when making a healthy meals seems so hard. My grandma would be so proud of me!!!

I went to the gym again last night (yay to the exercise bug biting me again!!) and I had a great workout. I did a vigorous 30 minutes on the elliptical - I was sweating like a maniac. I can't believe that I used to hate sweating, I thought it was gross and nasty - now when I sweat in a workout it makes me feel proud of how I can push myself and I see it as a sign of strength. The scale has fallen a little more in the past few days and I think I will be back under 210 by my next official weigh in woo hoo!

Weigh-in... Down 0.8

A loss is a loss and I'll take that .8 with a smile on my face! I went to a Cardio-Kickbox class tonight and it kicked my ass. It has been awhile since I have seen sweat drip from my nose onto my mat as I do pushups and leg lifts (sorry if that was TMI). I feel good though.. strong and in control!

I did a little updating to my blog tonight. So many of the bloggers I had originally linked too have disapeared from blogland and I have discovered many new blog buddies over the past months so I thought an revamp of my inspiration list was in order. I read a lot of blogs but the ones featured are of particular inspiration to me these days, if you have not read any of them you are in for a treat.. check them out!

Finding my inner farmer's wife...

So I have been trying this year to eat 'cleaner'. We have cut down on the amount of processed food we are consuming and are trying to make things fresh and homemade where ever possible. So continuing in that spirit I spent the afternoon turning my great backyard tomato harvest into cans of sauce that I can enjoy this winter. This was my first experience in canning and it was actually kind of fun. Tomorrow I am going to make cucumber relish with the mountain of cucumbers my husband picked from our plants this afternoon.

We had some friends come for dinner on Saturday night. DH caught a beautiful Salmon in the morning so we grilled it simply with lemon and olive oil. I also served roasted potatoes and asparagus. The highlight of the dinner was this Strawberry Cake I made. It is from the Barefoot Contessa's' latest book Back to Basics. The cake was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS and absolutely not weight watchers friendly, but I feel like it was worth every calorie!Here are the fish DH caught that morning. We grilled up half of one for dinner and he canned the rest (I'll let you know how that worked when we sample one of the jars in a few days). He has been fishing up a storm and out freezer is full. I think I am going to borrow a friends smoker if he catches any more, I love smoked salmon!

On Sunday we went on another all day bike ride. We went along an ocean route heading up Vancouver Island to Miracle Beach/Saratoga Beach near Campbell River. It was a great day of riding, I felt strong! When we finally got home we had ridden 68km and burned almost 2000 calories. Here is a picture of Miracle beach.. beautiful!!

Jazz Hands!!!

This picture was taken at my friends wedding and posted on facebook for the world to see. It is pretty funny and shows pretty much how I a feeling tonight. I did a class at the gym tonight... it was called No Jump Pump (although there was a lot of bouncing involved) It is the first class I have been to since June. I am happy to say that all the biking I have been doing has not let my cardio slip as bad as I thought. My friend went with me (she joined the gym just recently) and though she is smaller than me she was way more winded and sweaty that I was. It felt good to be sweating and huffing and puffing again. We are planning on swimming tomorrow night - one of my favourite exercises but something I have not done at all this summer (except playing in the lake).

Food has been pretty good too, here is a picture of the Turk De Soleil burgers I made the other night (from ESBM). They were delicious!

Weekly weigh-in

I am back to doing an honest weekly weigh-in. This morning the scale read 212.6. Not a huge loss but 1.4 pounds from the same time last week. Tomorrow I am headed to the gym after work with a friend and DH and I have another monster bike ride planned for Sunday - the mapped out route is 80km.

Hanging my head... shuffling my feet... can I come back to blogland?

It has been almost a month since I last posted. That is my longest stretch of non-blogging in 18 months. A lot happened in the past month - some good some bad:

My brother got married!

My best friend got married!

I took 12 days off work to hang out with family and friends

I went on a vigorous 70km mountain bike ride through some really tough trails

I went on two short-notice work trips involving many meals out

I stopped counting points or calories

I did not exercise regularly

I drank way way to many iced lattes

I ate a lot of cake!

I drank a lot of wine, tequila, margaritas, cider, pina coladas

I gained 12 pounds.....

I am really hoping that a good solid week back on plan will take care of at least 5 of those 12. This morning my jeans felt a little tight.... I do not want to fall off the wagon, I am not too far out of control not to be able to reign myself back in.

I made a meal plan for the week, got groceries, made a healthy delicious dinner and plan on a long bike ride or walk after work tomorrow.

Here are a couple of pictures from the weddings, and other vacation goodies... can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs, I hope everyone has not given up on me!

Another day, another picture collage of my evening walk with my favourite girl. She is always smiling or sniffing so I had to get pictures of her doing both. Does anyone know what the orange plant is close to the bottom of the collage. The blooms were like little paper lanterns.. so pretty, I want this for my garden. My food today has been good, we are leaving on Tuesday for a three day camping trip so I am making a list of healthy meals to make while at the lake.. thanks to my blog I can look back at the trip we made last year and get some inspiration for the grocery list.

Hope you are not too bored with the pictures, whatever makes exercise more fun!!

I was reading a blog last week (sorry I can't remember which one) and to get motivated the writer took pictures during her daily walk and then posted them. I found it really interesting to have a glimpse into her walk, and since I love to take pictures; I thought I would do the same.

So here is the first installment of the sites of my evening walk (click picture to enlarge). Included are the strange winding path, blackberry bushes, the marsh where the scary Blue Heron hangs out, the storm brewing in the sky, some lovely flowers and my house as I rounded the corner on the way back.

Today was day two of counting points for me and I did good here is the menu du jour:

breakfast: flax cereal with soy milk and agave (4)

snack: baked chips (4)

lunch: shrimp and veggie rice (6) raw veggies (0) apple (1) yogurt (1)

dinner: tuna melt with tomato (8)

snack: smoothie with berries and soymilk (4)

The most exciting news of all is that I went to the gym last night after work!!!!! I barely remembered how to get there it has been so long. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of free weights and 15 minutes of situps/pushups with the ball.

I feel my mojo coming back............ fingers crossed!

Heat Wave

There has been a ridiculous heat wave burning through my edge of the country and we were hit with temperatures between 35-40 degrees for about 6 days. We are not used to that kind of heat and dry weather, and it zapped any energy I had. I did not cook a proper meal or do any active exercise during that time. The weather has cooled a little in the past couple of days and I am trying to get back on track. The week of eating out and laying in front of the fan for hours caused me to gain 4 pounds. I am done with whining about my stalled weight loss efforts.. its time to make myself accountable again.

Yesterday DH and I went on a 40km bike ride through some trails, down to the ocean and then some highway riding. My cardio is starting to slip from lack of strenuous exercise and I really felt those 40km.

Onto something more positive.. my garden is doing fantastic! Here are some pictures of some of the fresh veggies I have been enjoying straight from my backyard.

Fennel

Purple Haze and Rainbow Carrots

Parsnips

Swiss Chard

We picked up a big box of blueberries the other day so for the first time in a few weeks I pulled out my cookbooks and made some healthy goodies. Blueberry Crisp from Eat Shrink and Be Merry and Blueberry Muffins from Hungry Girl 200 under 200.

I am going to start taking this one day at a time (really one meal at a time) for this week. My plan is to use up the protein in my freezer and the veggies in my garden, no going out or grocery store visits until Monday. Hope you are all doing well.. Im off to visit your blogs for some inspiration!

Still here

Sorry for neglecting my blog. I am still here, still struggling but I am maintaining my weight and not gaining. I just cant seem to make myself be consistent. I am by no means out of control but have just lost focus. I have a friend who just joined my gym, I hope that going with her will kick start me back into regular exercise.

Sigh... wish I could get my mojo back!

2 clean days and counting..

Why is this so hard right now? I spent 12 months eating healthy food and exercising regularly and lost 60 pounds. I have spent the last 6 months kind of on plan and have lost only 10 pounds. In the last two weeks I have eaten things that I never allowed in my mouth during my year of 'healthy only' and apparently I have decided that a day is not complete without some form of full fat full sugar chocolate involved. On a positive note I really feel that I have conquered the portion control demon that has plagued me my whole life, I understand what a 'portion' looks like and keep my meals in check. My issue is with the extras that keep creeping in, a handful of chocolate chips, extra raisins on my morning cereal, small ice cream at DQ, bag of baked chips in the afternoon (every afternoon??) extra glass of milk before bed. None of these things are leading to binges but they add up enough to keep my weightloss stagnant.

I think I was getting frustrated with my plateau.. I was doing everything right and stopped losing so I figured I might as well have some little treats so the lack of weight loss had some benefit (wow that is a messed up idea.... hmmm I think a lightbulb just went off!!). The exercise has also fallen off track.. I used to love going to the gym, swimming, yoga class etc... now (other than the biking) I have not done any of those things in weeks. Time to suck it up and get back to where I was. This morning I weighed 205.6... why am I sabotaging my trip to onederland..

Sorry for the rambling post, just trying to sort out my mental state. Life really is good right now, having a fun summer, enjoying time with DH I just need to kick my butt into gear on the weightloss front.

I HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL AND WILL BE SUCCESSFUL AGAIN!!!!!

Tough Love

That is what I need, I wrote that last post committing myself to counting points, staying on track, blah blah blah... and I did none of it. This morning I weighed 206lbs. Not a huge gain but moving in the wrong direction none the less. I have been doing the... 'oh Ive been so good Ill just have a little of this' or 'Ill make cookies for DH and his co-workers and pop a few into my mouth as well'. The most frustrating part is that I really don't feel bad about it. I do what to lose these last 25-30 pounds but I am so much happier with myself physically, emotionally, etc.. than I was a year ago that it is hard to get mad at myself for and splurging on an ice cream cone now and then. But, I know this is a slippery slope and I have to regain some of my focus and get back into a regular routine. It has not been all bad - DH and I got in a 30km bike today on a trail system in a nearby town - here is a picture he took of me deep in the bush (I am trying to avoid tan lines so I can wear a strapless dress to an upcoming wedding - hence the 80's flashback tube top!)

Tomorrows goals:

Menu plan for the week and do 60 minutes of Wii (DDR and/or Active)

Blog in the evening whether I was successful or not!

Camping Chaos

I am back from my camping trip and I did pretty well as far as what I ate. I mostly stuck to my turkey dogs and the raw veggies and dip that I brought. Friday night was our actual anniversary and even though we had already done a private celebration my sister had planned a little camping party. My parents and DH's parents all drove out to the campground for dinner. Here are some pictures of the party. The first is my sister giving our 10th anniversary toast and then next are us with the cake that my mom brought out.

The trip was a lot of fun as it always is. We swam lots.. my DH discovered that now that I am smaller he can pick me up in the water and toss me, flip me, put me on his shoulders etc... my nieces loved that because it is usually me doing those things to them. We brought our bikes as well and got in some nice trail rides (loving the new bike!!!)

I did eat some of the junk food that my sister brought. Not a lot, but enough to make me feel bloated and tired today. I really need to find the resolve that I had not too long ago and the will power to say no to the unhealthy food that I don't even really like anymore. I am going to get back on track with counting points this week, I have been counting in my head lately but I know I need to get back to writing my intake down. I did some meal planning today and filled my fridge with healthy groceries. I have made a delicious lunch for tomorrow and have prepped veggies for the next few days. I will be posting my menu here for the next week.

Finally is this picture of the first zucchini from my garden, I grilled this little beauty on the BBQ with some balsamic vinegar... mmmmm delicious. I can't wait until all the other veggies I have planted are ready to be eaten!

details

For those who wanted more details on my pretty new bike here is the link to the website. I am leaving tomorrow for our annual family camping trip. I have prepared lots of healthy fruits and veggies, stocked up on turkey dogs, egg beaters, turkey sausages, baked chips and salsa. I plan to stay on plan while I'm aways so I can post another loss next week.

See you Sunday with good news and some pictures.

This post dedicated to DH

DH and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday and today (it is actually next week but we will be camping with family then and wanted to have a day for just us.) My DH surprised me after work yesterday with a lovely meal (salad with chicken, grilled cherry tomatoes, avocado, grilled corn and other lovely veggies).

We exchanged gifts - he is very hard to buy for so I booked us a full day of white water rafting in a couple of weeks. He has always wanted to do that so is excited about his gift. He gave me a new IPod touch, great gift but the best part was that he had preloaded it with all the hit songs from 1999 (the year we got married) and a few movies that we watched that year. What a sweetheart! We then went to the movies and watched The Proposal (great date movie!) and had a really lovely evening. Today we had planned a long bike ride but got caught in a rain storm. Luckily we were close to this cute little diner/bakery out in the country so we had a little lunch and then turned back for home when the rain eased up.

Once we were home DH said he had another surprise for me, we go in the car and headed to a local bike shop. I had done a lot of research on a new bike (my cheap shockless mountain bike is really hard on my back) and he had emailed around to find the one I have been coveting. We picked up my new beauty this afternoon. Unfortunately due to the rain I have only been out on a ten minute ride but it is sooooo comfortable and speedy!

We had a lovely anniversary celebration. All together we have been together for 14 years - I was only 18 (and he was 19) when we began dating so really we have grown up together. Like every relationship we have had good times and bad times. A few years ago we went through a really dark period and last night as we were holding hands at the movie, and stealing kisses on our evening walk I was thinking about how grateful I am that we have never given up on our relationship. Things now are better than ever and I am so very thankful that I have him as my partner through life.

Ok, enough sappiness.. I still owe you all the frozen 'yogurt' recipe I promised.

This comes from the latest Clean Eating Magazine:

2 cups frozen raspberries
1 package soft tofu
1/2 cup sugar free soy milk

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/4 cup orange juice

1 tbsp lemon juice

Whizz all ingredients for a couple minutes in a food processor and then transfer to ice cream maker. It was really good and really low points. A little tart though, I think I will leave out the lemon juice next time.