Personal Empowerment and Control

Well that wasn't easy.

I wish Staples had a NOT EASY button. I'd press that. A million times I wouldda pressed it last night.

Having dinner and then NOT eating after 6pm and going to bed @ 11:30pm.
I had to leave the house and go over to my friend's place. However, on the way there all I could think about was food:

• I smelled delicious curry from the Indian place (spianch curry on special)
• I noticed all the pizza pies at the nearby pizza place (7 large pies on display)
• The mexican restaurant (taco's are now 3 for $5!)
• The hot dog vendor by the train
• McDonalds' billboard advertising the new mcminis
• and I think you get the hint

Luckily my friend's a skinny minny so there's never food @ her pad (thank goodness...for once!)

EVENING ROLL CALL: 3 pieces of gum and 10 glasses of water and crystal light had to satisfy my need to put something in my mouth (I'm single right now as you know, lol)

Results:  Well besides being down 1/2 lb, I'm also way up in self confidence.  It was like a one day test to prove that I COULD DO IT!
I didn't starve myself
I didn't eat too little
and I didn't die from not eating last night.

Now I feel empowered. Like I can do anything. I feel as though food doesn't control my life - I can control it! Woo hoo!

But!!! Tonight I'm hitting up a soiree hosted by Motorola (yes THAT Motorola).  They typically serve tons of finger foods, give out free booze and offer many giveaways.  I typically gorge myself on all of the above when I go so this time I have to try and gorge on only the giveaways. Eeep!

Last night there was no food at my friend's place to even munch on ('cept for gum and water). Tonight there'll be more food than I'll know what to do with.
I guess the real test begins.

Free food AND free drink. yikes!
What strategies can I use to NOT eat?? Help! :o

Back to the dang budget

The ol $149.75/week one.

Today was a hard day.


I wanted Swiss Chalet or chinese food or anything else for dinner than what I had available. And what I had wasn't bad. It just wasn't what I really, really wanted.

• KFC- I would even try the grilled chicken options (with fries of course)
• Subway (a ham sandwich is less than $5!)
• Sushi (I can get a great combo for $6 or less)
• And the list goes on.

No
NOPE
Nada!

Instead I had this:

My patented (patent pending) shrimp caesar salad with moderately homemade dressing


Delicious.


Followed by lots and lots of water.
I'm dabbling into crystal light these days too.
I love water but every once in awhile I need some flavour and crystal light does the trick.


Btw, $$$$ spent today: $0

Actually, I MADE a dollar cashing in a lotto ticket I found, woo!


Its about 6:30pm now, I won't be in bed till 11pm and I need to NOT eat for the next 4.5 hrs.


Maybe I should have a snack while I brainstorm.
Oh damn.
Right.


ROLL CALL


Breakfast:
The ol breakfast smoothie
1 medium boiled egg
1/4 cantaloupe
1 cracker with peanut butter


Lunch:
Mmmmmm. Sandwich time. Day 3. Tomorrow I will definitely switch it up. But for now...

oh yeah baby. you know it looks good.

Snack:
1 cracker with peanut butter
1 cup air popped popcorn


Dinner. See salad above
Ingredients: red peppers, romaine lettuce, avocado, shrimp, garlic, celery (for the crunch!) and sea salt.


Dessert: spoonful of cookies & cream ice cream @ my friend's house.


Eating is DONE!!

Water for the rest of the night!


oh man, wish me luck.

Happy eating!

Hot yoga, day 2 (of 30??)

Results: Down 1lb already, tee hee. I heart hot yoga! I know, I KNOW! I shouldn't get so excited about it and its probably just water weight but woo hoo! Now I'm back in business. As always, no excuses and no BS. Eat healthy, eat well, proper portions and lots of water and exercise.

I have and had sooo much to do today (laundry amongst the many things) that I opted to go to the 8pm 90 minute hot yoga class instead. Means my last meal of the day has to be by 5pm and a small snack after class cuz I'll most certainly be stah-ving.

I'm back baby! I'm prepared and I'm most definitely READY to slim down to summer! (hmmm. I  think I like that as a future blog post title too)

ROLL CALL

Breakfast:

-Breakfast smoothie (banana, strawberries, almond milk, skim milk, agave syrup, protein powder)

I bought some protein so the ol breakfast smoothie is back. Haven't had it in awhile so I'm hooked again!

-1 medium boiled egg

Lunch:

Cheddar broccoli soup (7g/cup) homemade of course from my fave gourmet recipe site www.drgourmet.com. The recipes are delicious but soooo time consuming! I tried doing a week of them and almost died of exhaustion while my boyfriend at the time nearly died from hunger as our dinners ended up being at 9 or 10pm each night, lol!

Whole grain sandwich with flour-less bread, meat, avocado, veggies and mustard. mmmmm

Now for its close up:

Dinner:

Eggplant Parmesan over brown rice noodles- my low fat, oven fried, veggie packed version (I'll post the recipe another time)

After yoga snack (planned) - peanut butter protein shake (peanut butter, cottage cheese, water and protein)

  

Alright, one hour till I have to leave for class.

Namaste till next time. :)

The hot yoga challenge

This weekend had its ups (partying @ 3AM with a young playboy, a swinging couple and a bicurious female) and its downs (after the party, went for delicious poutine @ 4AM and got the large)

After pulling a tendon in my knee last week I have been couch-bound and knee deep in the refrigerator. Results:  In the past week of not working out I've gained 4 lbs! 4! This just shows how much I work out to stave off weight gain.

Sigh.

Enter hot yoga.

Slimming down!

Toned muscles!

Increased flexibility!

Better state of mind!

Inner peace!

Enlightenment!

If you don't know, Hot yoga consists of 26 poses done over 90 minutes in a room heated to 40 degrees Celsius +(105 F).  You sweat like crazy and the calories are supposed to burn away.

@ my current weight (185 - boo!) I can burn 1200+ calories each class. 4 to 5 classes a week that means I can burn approx 5400 calories a week! woo!

So now I start the 30 day yoga challenge. Between now (April 12th) and May 11th, I will try to do as many yoga classes as I can.They recommend 30 classes in 30 days but that's just plain CRAZY!

Anywho, wish me luck! And please feel free to tell me about your hot yoga experiences!

Happy Monday!

I've sprained my medulla oblongata!!

If you've ever seen the movie The Waterboy with Adam Sandler, then you would totally get that reference.  hee hee hee. No what I actually did was pull/strain/sprain a tendon in my knee.

• Diagnosis: strained my Patellar tendinopathy
• Cause: Over use, over exertion and not enough stretching prior to a heavy quad focused workout last thursday (felt so good too!)
• Cure: Limit leg/knee movement, ice the knee and take anti inflammatories for any swelling.

Booo!

Limited movement and definitely no gym or hot yoga or boxing or running, or jogging or walking home.

I can feel myself getting fatter every day. Wah!!

Today is day 2 of no exercise. I don't know how people can live without working out.  I miss my 5 to 6 days a week at the gym! Now all I have left is food and TV. I can't go shopping and I shouldn't be moving it too much so I'm left with nothing to do.

Well not nothing, but nothing I want to do.  Damn you budget. I can't even buy my happiness now that I'm on a $149.75/week spending cap. A bottle of vodka is at least $23 here. Shoot.

So my knee is out but surely there must be other exercises I can do while laying on my back??
Oh that sounds so dirty! lol! Seriously though, can't anyone help or point me in the right direction?

What exercises can I do that won't aggregate my pulled tendon?

Thanking you kindly,
xoxo

Eating in is so hard to do

Day 8 on the budget and so far, so.... Well okay, I'm $50 over my 149.75 budget. Whoops!

What?? My roomie just told me that its only day 6. April 6. Dammit! lol! So I am WAY over budget already?? Yikes!

The whole point of the budget is to 1- spend less, 2- save more $$$ and 3 - eat the piles and piles of food I have in my fridge, freezer and cupboards.  Every week or so it feels like I'm buying new stuff and throwing out stuff I didn't get around to using, forgot I had or just didn't feel like eating (sorry brussel sprouts)

I expect this experiment to produce several outcomes:

- More $$$ in my pocket
- Based on the food available in my cupboards, I should start losing weight immediately. There's nothing in my house that's as unhealthy as the pre made stuff u can buy.

$149.75/week or 599/month.

Yikes
 

ROLL CALL: 

Breakfast: oatmeal, almond milk & frozen berries
Whole wheat toast (out of the freezer) and peanut butter

Lunch: spinach salad with cucumbers and tomatoes
Penne pasta with chicken (fresh made meal that I froze last week)

Snacks: hershey's kisses (free @ work!) Crackers & cream cheese

Dinner: My patented (patent pending) chicken caesar salad
1/2 cup Chick pea salad
 

Snacks: Almonds, peanut butter, 1oz cheese, granola bar, etc....

Happy spending!

My how time flies...

Has it really been almost a month already that I have avoided this blog??
My bad and never again! My apologies to you slimmingtimes. You must feel so neglected
(gives blog and bloggers a big hug)
April is in full swing for me and I have given myself a challenge for this month. Its food and money related.
#1- I spend too much money. I always have and probably always will. 
#2- most of my money gets spent on food and food related items.

$149.75
The goal: $149.75/week.  This is my food, entertainment and starbucks $$$. All the extras that we don't think about - this is how much I can spend on them per week.
I'm already 5 days in and so far, so good.  I haven't spent much on food and my wallet is thicker for it. Plus the biggest realization is that I have tons of food in my fridge and cupboards and its great to actually be able to use up my supplies BEFORE I head back to the grocery store.
However, I almost over budget because I got my hair done, bikini wax and went out drinking a couple nights this long weekend - whoops! ;) I have $0.50 left until wednesday. I need to either sell something or find more $$$ in my house. 

In the meantime, I'm happy to hear any food related or fun related money saving tips because I've never cared to NOT spend $$$ before but I'm excited to find ways to cut corners while still having a good time. So if you have any money saving tips - please let me know. PLEASE! lol!

More to come and wish me luck! :)