A technical error in my favour - when scales break down

One of the only good things to come out of my 2+ year relationship with my ex is a recipe for leftovers that he called 'Breakfast Hash'

The ingredients were simple - eggs, cheese, leftover steak & vegetables from the overpriced dinner we had the night before. I happily (read: bitterly) share the detailed recipe with you all below...

Recipe: Leftover Scramble (formerly titled - 'One of the few things he could get right')

Step 1: Chop everything up and add it to the fry pan. In my dish: onions, turnips, beets, garlic, shitake mushrooms (all that I could find in the fridge), and asparagus

Step 2: add your steak right before the eggs and grated cheese. In this case I had half a prime rid steak from a family dinner the night before.

Step 3: And finally add the egg, grate some cheese on top and scramble to taste.

Sometimes it doesn't look too pretty (It was a 2pm breakfast and I was too hungry to garnish it up) but man is it delicious. As for healthy- that really depends on your mood and how much cheese you need to use in order to get over last night's hangover. ;)

 Also, I'm in a great mood cuz I just weighed myself on my little bro's VERY inaccurate scale and it said I weighed only 172! woo! 10lbs less than when I first flew out to Toronto 5 days ago. I know it's wrong but magically my pants and clothes are looser thanks to this magical (and VERY inaccurate) scale. But I don't care - skinny me, woo!

I plan to pack it and take it home with me. I will let my friends pay me if they want to step on it themselves.

Instant mood booster for only $5 a pop. I will also happily ship this magical scale across continents if its services are needed elsewhere. Wanna lose 10lbs in 10 days?? Fiddle with your scale! After all, weight loss is mostly mental anyway, right?? I believe I've lost 10bs therefore I AM 10lbs lighter. ;)

EXERCISE: 1.5 hours at the local gym

45 minutes - cardio (sprints on treadmill, stepper)

45 minutes - weight training (triceps, biceps, back, chest and shoulders)

Drinks

WATER: 10 glasses

ALCOHOL: 2 glasses: 1 pina colada and 1 seagrams sea breeze cooler

Happy eating!

How do you go up a pants size in only 4 days!

The holiday season, that's how. 
Usually they advertise how to LOSE a dress size in that tme frame, not GAIN one. argh!
I'm still a size 10 for now, but its a tight fit.
Thank goodness my sexy New Year's dress is actually a size too big because now I will easily fit into it.
Tomorrow I go back to the gym and I will also make sure that its the first day that my water comsumption exceeds my alcohol consumption....hopefully. Drinks are flowing here in Toronto and I don't know how to say no. Nor do I want to. heh heh heh
Tomorrow is also my last day in Toronto & I fly back to Vancouver on the 30th to get prepared for the huge party on the 31st . Also, it's my last day to hang with that cool new guy I met the other night. He's so gorgeous and fit....and lives in Toronto.
Hmmmm. I never really did figure out how all that;s gonna work but carpe deim -seize the day! I can't spend my time thinking about the "How's that gonna work" for everything! It just will. You'll see. :)


ROLL CALL
Breakfast (2pm)

- Fresh baked whole wheat bread (thanks momma!)
- 2 oz soft andre cheese (like full fat cream cheese)
- 3/4 cup soy milk
- 1 cup honey roasted shreddies

Lunch (8pm)
Sirloin beef burger (took off half the bun)

1/2 fries, 1/2 salad

Dinner (1:30am)
2 mini veggie samosas
1 large slice of carrot cake (mmmmmm) with cream cheese frosting

DRINKS
Yes please! Gin & Tonic -More than 3 for sure....
Water: Not enough. Maybe 2 glasses - wow, that's pretty low. I'll chug a couple more now and double it to 4

EXERCISE:
Rest day. I wish I could have done some hot yoga but the class times just didn't work for my schedule. Boo!


Happy Eating!

Candy/Treat Holiday Bonanza!

Thank goodness the weigh-in was December 13th! Ever since I have been bombarded with chocolates, candies, tarts, various sweets,cookies, etc. Oh man!! I was up 8lbs last week (I assume it was water retention, hormones and the scale exacting its revenge on me) and I'm back to normal now after 5 days of trying to avoid the truckload of sweets and goodies that have been thrown my way at the day job since then.

Forget the food. It was full of veggies and fruits and protein bars.  honestly, it would be easier to keep track of the sweets and treats.

And more fun!

Holiday ROLL CALL:

Thursday, December 17th:

- Organic dark chocolate bars  - a thank you from a coworker

- A bag of truffle chocolates (mmmmm)

- a box of Pot of Gold chocolates as another thank you

Friday December 18th:

- a box of chocolate covered cherries (ewwwww! who eats those things?

- Purdy's Chocolates. The big box as thanks. yah, thanks for the calories!

Monday December 21st:

- 3 boxes of various chocolates from Charlie's Chocolate Factory

- Homemade shortbread cookies (a treat and thank you gift from the caterers)

- various homemade cookies (coworker was making em and decided to share) which consisted of:

*Nanaimo bars

*Chocolate chip Smarties cookies

*Dark chocolate brownies

*Chocolate Macaroons

Tuesday, December 22nd

- A big box of various Lindor chocolates (wowza!)

Wednesday, December 23rd

- A non food gift - yay! Little bottles of scented sanitizer.

- And the best gift ever - LIQUOR! a mickey of my fave booze - GIN! MWAH! I love you too kind stranger. :)

Happy Eating!

Shopping Bonanza!

No time to blog. Too busy shopping!

I deposited all the $$$ I won from the 6 month weight loss challenge and I just couldn't wait to start spending it! So for the past several days, I've been living in the mall trying on numerous tops and bottoms and seeking out amazing finds at rock bottom prices. I always said that when I got to my ideal weight, I would spend the money and buy the expensive stuff. I still believe that to be true and since I'm not there yet (happiness is a, ahem, seize 6 after all), I can continue to shop at cheap boutiques and discount retailers - woo. More bang for my buck is the way to go. 

Shopping ROLL CALL

1 black deep vneck button up sweater (pictured middle below, left)
1 purple lace cami (pictured left)
1 white long sleeved v-neck shirt
1 casual off white t-shirt (pictured right)

1 pair of dark wash skinny jeans - size 10

1 pair of faux suede knee high boots
1 striped blue and green sweater (below, right)


1 brown, short sleeved knit shirt
1 grey, long sleeved thin knit sweater
1 blue fitted blouse (below, left)
1 blue and green necklace





 

Total time spent at mall: 8 hours

Total spend: $223 - not bad if I do say so myself.

Dang I'm good!

If only they gave out awards for shopping!

Still needed:

Blackleather platform knee high boots (for wider calves)

White fitted blouse

Silver drop earings

Boot cut, mid rise,dark wash jeans

Okay, so now that the personal stuff is out of the way, it's time to start the Christmas Shopping , woo!

7 gifts in total will have to be purchased for my mom, dad, 2 brothers, my sister/cousin, my brother's fiancee and my young cousin who will be going to post secondary school here in Canada come January

The malls were crazy though so the thought of going back out there into that big mess is not appealing to me at all.

Hmmm.... maybe I can just write 'em all a cheque as a gift or is that too tacky?

and more importantly, do I care??

Happy Holidays!

Winning again!

Yay! My first award, woo!

First the weight loss award and now this. Thank goodness I bought a lotto ticket yesterday. My luck needs to keep going till at least midway through the new year.  In that time I need to improve my blog (there's so much I still wanna do!), move cities (Montreal's been catching my eye lately), increase readership on my OTHER blog (nelleytimes.wordpress.com), become a published writer (I'm looking at articles first), become a highly qualified social media marketer and of course, find my true love. Easy peasy.

I have searched the local Vancouver bars high and low for this elusive individual and have yet to make contact with him.  I even secured what I like to call a 'security bf' while I continued the hunt.  However, being with someone you're not in love with becomes tiring and boring after awhile so that little fling of convenience had to end....2 years later, lol!

But enough about my failed work-in-progress love life. Let's get to the good stuff: things that honour me! As this category is brand new, it's a very special moment for me.

Miss Nobody (who is anything but!) over @ Miss Nobody's Scribble is honouring me?? (Really? Me? Aw shucks!) I love awards! Even when they aren't of the cash variety. Check it out and take a read of her always intriguing blog. A definite must read on my bloggers list. :)

ROLL CALL

CENSURED

I organized a catered brunch today at work and the food was plentiful and delicious.  Everyone ate, we sang Christmas carols and then we ate some more.

It was a catered brunch and the menu was:

Scrambled eggs

Bacon/Ham

Vegetarian quiches

Cheese and veggie turnovers

Hash browns

Bagels/croissants/toast/muffins

Fresh fruit

A selection of juices

Then in the afternoon we had what I called Afternoon Delight (snicker, snicker) which consisted of:

Cinnamon buns

Brownies

A cheese plate

A selection of crackers

Sliced asian pears

Seedless grapes

Seedless mandarin oranges

Dessert tarts

Mini cupcakes

Egg nog!

ooooo that reminds me. I think there's egg nog left in the fridge at work.  I am sooooo going back to get me some of that. Well tomorrow morning at work of course.  i hope there's some left... mmmmmm I love egg nog and it only comes round once per year so you gotta get it while the getting is good!

So needless to say I ate all of the above and then some sashimi and a negitoro roll for dinner (sushi).

DRINKS: I need to drink more water but once I do that I'll be at 10 glasses today, woo!

EXERCISE: 15 minute walk, 60 minute crossfit class where we did more sprints (400m) and then we learned the power snatch which is a super fun weightlifting move.

So I guess that's all - burp- for now. hee hee

Happy Eating!

And the winner is…

1000’s of workout hours, 100’s of healthy meals carefully planned out, dozens of supportive friends and family members, 9 health-minded gals, 6 month timeline, goal setting of 1-2lbs per week, 1 cash prize, 0 excuses.

The Final STATS (June 13th, 2009 to Dec 13th, 2009)
Height: 5’7” (no change, heh heh)
% weight loss: 17.8%
In lbs: 39lbs

Inches lost
Bust: 3.5″
Waist/abdomen: 5″
Hips: 4″ (still got that booty, woo!)

So the final weigh in was this past Sunday and yay, I WON!!

$900 was the pot and less the $100 I spent on drinks and appies that evening, that leaves me with $800 to buy some new, much needed, duds.

My shopping list:
New runners, workout tops, jogging pants, jeans that fit, work pants that fit (yee gads this is 9-1-1!),  a winter jacket, a workout hoodie (preferably an Olympic one), a leather weekend bag, a few winter sweaters from Old Navy, winter boots, rain boots,  a new belt, a blazer from Banana Republic (on sale of course), a couple new shirts, a few blouses and anything else I held off buying for the last 6 months. To put it in perspective, for the past 3 weeks I’ve been using safety pins, a $9 belt on its tightest rung, a dash of hope and a heap-load of prayers to keep my work pants up.

I think it’s finally time to go shopping.

So I weighed myself this morning and I'm already up 4lbs, lol! Tomorrow we have a catered brunch @ work followed by a potluck on the Thursday, Chinese food dinner Thursday night, Christmas party the Friday night, a bday party the Saturday night and then a farewell dinner at East Side Mario's on the Sunday.

Eating black holes. Thank goodness I won already. :)

ROLL CALL

Breakfast (8:45am):
The old breakfast smoothie
1/2 a tea biscuit (scone)

Lunch (1:30pm):  
Smoked salmon salad with green tea salad dressing 
1/2 cup chopped red and yellow peppers

 







Afternoon snack (3:30pm)
1/2 protein bar - elev8 me

1/2 tea biscuit

Dinner (8:30pm):
6in ham and cheese sub on whole wheat from subway
with tons of veggie and a splash of marinara sauce

Dessert (yay! Its been so long -9pm):
1 slice of apple pie - i had this slice of heaven in the freezer since thanksgiving (Canadian thanksgiving was oct 9th this year) with plans to inhale it once I won. Totally worth it and it tasted soooo dang good!
1/2 cup of Nestle vanilla ice cream  with white chocolate pieces

DRINKS: 10 glasses of water

EXERCISE: 20 minute jog, 20 minute walk

Now I'm baking cupcakes for the potluck on Thursday and will have to frost and decorate them tomorrow night. I just have to hold off on the taste testing till then. 

I have a crazy week followed by a temptation filled weekend ahead of me.
Yee gads people. Wish me luck. I know I'm gonna need it.....


Happy Eating!

Girls weekend in Whistler!

Weigh in this sunday morning and I'm not doing as well as I should be. I haven't been to the gym since a week ago Tuesday but still losing weight, woo! Of course that's mainly cuz I've been carefully watching  what I eat so that helps. :)

80% eating, 20% exercise is what they say and unfortunately they're damn right. Humph. But I love exercise! I miss going to the gym this week and my bootcamp classes and my spin classes and my hot yoga but this week I just didn't have the time. Working 12 hour days will do that to you. But OT around this time of year @ time and a half kicks ass!

And I end of this week in beautiful Whistler, BC! Home of the 2010 winter Olympics. My bff got free room and board here so we decided to jet up here (via car) and spend the weekend in the lap of luxury. Whistler is an expensive town to be in so if you can get a deal - take the deal and run! Plus this is going to be the craziest place to be come 2010 so we wanted to see it one last time before the world comes to visit. They have an indoor theater here and provide food and snacks for the movie or you can rent free movies if you'd rather chillax in your room.  We just left the outdoor hot tub and pool (it was snowing outside as we steamed away in hot, bubbly water) and even now I'm writing in the room via the free wireless internet.

Sigh. Why can't all weekends be like this??

On the agenda for tomorrow - well after 8 full hours of sleep tonight, I'm going to hit the gym in the morning for a couple hours (my own LAST CHANCE WORKOUT), followed by fresh fruit and a protein bar for breakfast. Then maybe the pool and the hot tub once more and a walk around whistler village. The plan -NO PLANS! Woo!

After Vegas last weekend and a few parties coming up this weekend, this R&R is much needed. ooooo! I wonder how much to get a massage here. hmmmmm.

ROLL CALL

Breakfast (9am):

Shrimp and goat cheese frittata

One bite of boston cream donut

2 homemade chocolate chip cookies

Lunch (2pm):

Pho -Rare Beef noodle  soup with broccoli and carrots

Dinner (7:30pm)

Taco Bell! (my fave cheat. Never any regrets when I'm @ the 'Bell!)

1 soft taco supreme

1 hard taco supreme

1 black taco (black bag, black taco. Black box, black taco, lol!)
Fries supreme

16 oz Mocha cafe

1 chocolate cookie

Late night snack (11:30pm)

1 packet of  pizza flavoured combos

1/2 bottle of tropicana orange juice

DRINKS: 8 glasses of water

EXERCISE: none. eeep.

I know, I know. If I lose the weigh in on Sunday, it's totally my fault. But my bff told me she saw my competition and at 17% weight loss so far, I'm ahead of the game... But in any case, tomorrow's the last day to do it all so it will be clean eating, I promise

It would suck to lose by a percentage point of something but it was taco bell for goodness's sake. You don't say no to THAT!

oh man, 1 day to go till the showdown/weigh-in, yikes.....

Happy eating for the rest of you!

So when does the hunger go away??

Sooooo hungry....

Although, now that I'm looking at what I ate, it was a lot of food. Still, with only a few days to go till the weigh-in, food is unfortunately weighing heavily on my mind. So much cooking too cuz its always easier and safer to eat at home and make the stuff yourself. I have to be more careful of everything I put into my mouth and it's getting to be a pain in the arse! However, if I win enough money for the shopping spree I so desperately need then woo! It'll all be worth it. Weigh-in's on sunday morning - 4.5 days to go. I can do this, I CAN do this!

ROLL CALL

Breakfast (8:30am)

1/2 cup full fat yogurt

3/4 cup Sliced strawberries

1/3 cup low fat granola 

1 large free range hard boiled egg

Lunch (1:15pm): 

Baked chicken stuffed with orzo pasta, mozzarella and tomato sauce

1 cup oven roasted yams

1 cup steamed broccoli with 1 tsp ghee butter

Afternoon Snack:

1/2 sliced large red delicious apple

1 babybel cheese

1 package of saltine crackers

Dinner:

Veggie heavy Stir fry

3 cups mixed veggies (broccoli, mushroom, onion, zucchini, carrots and red peppers)

1/3 cup medium tofu

ginger, garlic, honey and soy sauce

"Stir fry in the making!" I love fresh veggies just hitting the fry pan. So gorgeous.

DRINKS

6 glasses of water

8 cups of tea (2 tea bags, mug refilled several times)

EXERCISE

15 minute jog

20 minute walk

Happy Eating!

The Vegas game of eating roulette

Back from Vegas at last!


Flew out last thursday and arrived back home yesterday evening. There are no pictures of course (or evidence as I like to call it).  Only memories. Very blurry, foggy, hazy and out of focus memories that I will treasure forever.


My friend and I joked that we'd only eat the garnish off the many drinks we planned to have but we ended up eating more food than last time!


Weekend Roll Call: Burgers, fries, pizza, garden salads, turkey clubs, more salad, more burgers, more fries and then subway subs on the last day.


Luckily, no damage done. Weighed myself this morning and the scale is still the same-yay! Very happy to know that I can control myself and make healthier choices, even on vacation. No buffets or all-you-can-eats for us. Too expensive anyway and I can't eat enough food to make it worth the $25 US they were charging anyway.


That's all for now. This week marks the last week in the weigh-in contest so I need to be accountable and keep active. So I will definitely update this entry again at the end of the day - keeps me on my toes! 


Yay Vegas!


ROLL CALL
Breakfast (9:30am):
The ol' breakfast smoothie is BACK baby!
1 cup  - sliced strawberries & bananas
1/3 cup full fat yogurt
1/2 scoop of that crappy protein I need to replace
1 large hard boiled free range egg


Lunch(12:45pm):
1 cup cheese filled ravioli
3 cups garden salad


Dinner (8:30pm):
Craving that shrimp salad again...so I made it, woo!

3 oz shrimp meat
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/4 cup sliced avocado
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
1 stalk of Chopped celery (for the yummy crunch)
3 cups+ Romaine lettuce
Kinda homemade dressing:
1 tbsp lite Caesar dressing
1/2 tbsp Italian dressing
1/2 lemon
Dash each of worchestire, hot sauce, sea salt, pepper and garlic seasonings 

Evening Snacks (from 630pm to 945pm):
- Handful baked chips with 1 tbs full fat chipotle/spinach dip
- 2 chocolate malt balls
- 1/2 cup of beef chili (my roomie was cooking it up in a big pot and it smelled soooo good. mmmm)
- 1/4 cup strawberries (sweet and delish!)

DRINKS: 
8 glasses of water
4 cups of green tea (2 tea bags)

EXERCISE:
30 minute brisk walk home

Happy Eating!

I got what I wanted.....so why does it hurt so bad??

Ow.

My stomach hurts.  Its gurgling and twisting and making sounds that I'm not used to hearing.

Owwwwww.

Had my whiskey burger from Red Robin! So delicious and instead of the bottomless fries they come with I opted for the garden salad with balsamic dressing. I was so excited to see the burger in fact that I scarfed it down before taking its picture (see borrowed one below). whoops! Oh well. When I go back there in 6 months or so, I'll remember to take a picture of it then. tee hee. My date got a pasta dish and ate it so quickly that I didn't even have a chance to steal some off his plate. And you know how I love that!

Saw the movie Couple's Retreat tonight and it reminded me that I should really think about finding my soul mate one of these days. I assume, nay, I KNOW he's out there, I just have to go out there and track him down wherever he may be (I'm hoping he's in France, le sigh). While the movie had some lame parts (don't they all?), overall it was a fun movie, I had a lot of laughs and since my date paid for it all, it was well worth the money. hee hee hee. 

Early night tonight (that means in bed before midnight) and off to the gym @ 7AM tomorrow. Its crossfit time people and this bootcamp type workout is going to kick my ass for the whiskey burger....and the popcorn with butter at the movies.

Totally worth it!

ROLL CALL

Breakfast (9:30am) 
Breakfast shake (yes, it's back!) 
1/2 cup full fat yogurt

1 cup frozen strawberries, blueberries, bananas and peaches

1/2 cup milk

1/2 scoop of protein

1 squirt of nestle chocolate syrup (in a rush & couldn't locate honey or stevia!)

Lunch (1:30pm)

Baked chicken stuffed with cheese and broccoli (4 g fat, 160 cals)
1/2 cup brown rice

2 cups steamed broccoli and carrots with 1 tsp ghee (clarified butter) 

Afternoon snack (4pm) 
1/2 red delicious apple, sliced and with sea salt (try it, sooo good!)

Dinner (6:30pm)

Red river burger (Ijust looked this up! It  has 1129 calories and 69g of fat, lol! Dang!)

Small garden salad

Balsamic vinaigrette

Evening snack (7:30pm)

1 small bag of movie popcorn 

Layered butter (hells yeah!)

One stomach ache - 9:45pm

Owwwww. Ok I get it! Clean eating from here on out!

DRINKS

2 cups of coffee

2 mugs of green tea

11 glasses of water

EXERCISE (7to8am):

25 mins - elliptical

20 mins - jogging on treadmill

10 mins - abs and stretching

Happy Eating!