Keeping Perspective

So my last weigh in sucked. I've been really frustrated this week because I keep weighing myself every day or so (big mistake, I know) and some days I weigh in just as high as my starting weight. That, to put it lightly, is disheartening.

I took a few days to be a bit pissed and tried to channel that into my workouts. But today, I noticed something. I absentmindedly (read: while still asleep) put on a button-up shirt this morning that I hadn't worn in a while. I hadn't worn it, because when I did it was so tight the buttons would pull and be really uncomfortable (not to mention flattering!). Today, though, it fit noticeably better. It was still snug, but it didn't pull, nor make me look like a sausage escaping its casing.

And for today? That's enough.

Weigh-In Monday #4 - Stuck At 150

Weight BF % Chest Waist Hips Right Thigh Right Bicep (flexed)
154.3 30.1 37" 33" 41.5" 24.5" 12.5"
148.9 28.5 35" 32.5" 41" 23" 12.5"
150.3 29.0 35" 31" 40.75" 24" 12"
150.8 29.5 35" 31" 40.25" 23" 12"

Total Weight Lost: +0.5lbs
Total Inches Lost: -1.5"

Yikes, weight plateaus suck.

Random Act of Kindness #4

Today I was walking down the street, thoroughly stumped as to what my next random act would be, when suddenly it hit me.  In the form of a bus.

But Pie!  There's still so much we wanted to tell you.  We were supposed to be together.  Forever.
Fear not readers, the "hit" was metaphorical.  The bus was not.

Also, we're pregnant.
......

So the bus goes by and on it is an ad telling me to text "MEAL" to 45678 and it will give $10 to the Ottawa mission.  Perfect!  I did a good deed using only my cell phone!  And not just by sexting.  (Hello RAK #5)

C'mon Pie, does that really count?
Does my monthly donation to Greenpeace count?  The answer is Hell Yeah it does!  What?  You guys don't make the rules.

So here I am on my way to buy groceries and my next RAK literally (metaphorically) hits me in the face!  Evidently god is speaking to me.  Again.  (I haven't been taking my meds)

I should have my own holiday.

ZOMG That's Healthy!

Sometime over the past year, my most favouritest recipe site Recipezaar.com was bought out or possibly won over a foolish ultimate frisbee bet. All I know is that now it is called food.com and is a giant pain in the ass to navigate and is constantly giving me HTTP errors when I am trying to do something so offensive as save recipes to my profile (the nerve I have!). To that end, I'm starting a segment called "ZOMG That's Healthy! Recipes" (name inspired by my Lil' Sister).

Recipe The First: Tom's Tasty Breakfast Pancake

3/4 cup Quaker oats

1/2 cup egg whites

1/2 cup milk (or milk alternative)

Cinnamon (to taste)

Nutmeg (to taste)

A sprinkle of brown sugar (if you want to be a little bad)

*You'll probably want to play with the quantities to get it right for you and how much pancake you want to eat in the morning (does that sound dirty?)*


1. Combine ingredients in a bowl the night before (probably at 1:30am because you're busy playing video games).

2. Put bowl in fridge. Go to sleep. Snore and steal all blankets.

3. Stumble out of bed after alarm goes off for the third time. Dump contents of bowl in small frying pan and set on medium heat. Wander off until you smell burning, or until you can use a spatula under the edges of pancake and it doesn't call apart. Flip. Cooking time will depend on how big your pancake is (I can hear LiLu saying "TWSS").

4. Eat. Don't be hungry again for at least an hour if you're Tom, never be hungry again if you're me (hooray!).

I'm On To You, Girl Guides

Look down, now back up at me, where am I? I'm over here at In It To Gym It.

*****************************

Tomorrow is Cookie Day at Sears. If you've never heard of it, you're not alone. Apparently, the solution to people who want to buy Girl Guide cookies but don't know/live near any child hocking lovingly selling them. Clearly this is an offensive play by the Universe to sabotage my diet. CLEARLY.

As a general rule, I don't bring anything I can't eat into the house. I also don't bring in anything sharp if I can help it, but that's neither here nor there. My willpower starts and quickly ends at the purchasing part of the equation; once it's accessible, it's going to get eaten.

My one bizarre exception is if I buy something sweet, then put it in the freezer. There, it's almost helpful to the diet. It's a strange comfort to know I have a tasty treat stowed away (perhaps I am part squirrel?) and I have caught myself saying "I don't need to buy this, I already have cookies in the freezer!"

So I'll have to decide if Girl Guide cookies will be my cool minty comfort food. Especially because I want to have them around for Christmas this year.

Random Act of Kindness #3

Today's RAK is a little different.  Rather than focus my energies on strangers (who might turn out to be jerks anyway) I decided to be kind to someone close to me -- my mother.

BTW, she totally follows my blog.  And kindly ignores the sex jokes, binge drinking and variations on those two themes.  Which is to say most of it. 

Anyways, here is the letter I wrote for her:

Dear Mom,

Thank you for your  genetic contribution     unconditional love.  It would be impossible to count all the wonderful things you've done for me over the years.  BUT, I like a challenge.  So here goes...

Things to thank you for:

Your nose.

Buying me a talking ninja turtle. 

Not taking away the talking ninja turtle.

Buying spider man bandaids because they totally work better.

Unplugging the Nintendo.

Raising me, my sister and two dogs single-handedly.  And making it look easy. 

Teaching me how to shave.

Just rolling with it when I shaved my head.

Buying me a classical guitar even though I used it to play punk music.

Pretending you liked punk music.

Knocking.

Giving me my first box of condoms.  Trogan Large.  At Thirteen.

Pretending the walls in our house were soundproof. 

Being right most of the time.

Not bragging about being right most of the time.


In short, you are like, awesome and stuff.  I love you.

In It To Gym It

You can now find me over at In It To Gym It, the group fitness and health blog started by the beautiful, talented LiLu, aka the person I would most want to have a daquiri sleepover with.

Art Imitates Life, or something like that.

"She is not happy until everyone around her is panicked, nauseous, or suicidal."

This is a line from the Devil Wear Prada, when Andie is describing her first day to her boyfriend.

This, I can relate to.

Now I know that bosses all around the world in every facet of industry are notorious for being awful, evil, manipulative, and downright psychotic. In this line of thinking I am not unique. And my boss isn't especially awful, but she does have the power of making me feel like I am about to throw up and probably burst into tears. Chefs around the world are notorious for this, and I have the benefit of having a boss who is probably one of the nicest chefs, despite everything else. One day I hope to experience more of the nice and less of the nausea.

Sometimes I think that if I wrote about a fictional world, with fictional people doing fictional things I might be more successful. In theory fiction means writing anything you'd like because there are an infinite amount of situations you can find yourself describing, and, if you're writing science fiction they don't even have to be realistic.

But I don't write about fictional people, I write about real people. Real people in my life, real situations I encounter, real constraints of plausibility and reality.

Which is why I think, that writing isn't so easy for me. Not because I am bound by the retelling of real events, no I have plenty of material in my life for that, but because writing about this life involves replaying, and revisiting these exact situations. . This isn't always a good thing.

Two horrendous back to back days of work preceded by a terrible service on Saturday has made me avoid writing like it's a bad ex-boyfriend.

I'm trying to leave work at work and my personal life at home, which is hard when everyone you work with wants to know the minutiae of your entire existence. And then I get to come home and obsess about things I did or maybe did not do at work. Did I remember to do everything at close? Is the door locked? Did I forget any extra requests? Is there catering tomorrow? Am I actually supposed to come in when I think I'm supposed to? Throw in the fact that I have started to flinch every time I hear my name because I am expecting to get yelled at (a current trend in my work-life) and I'm pretty much a mess 24/7.

It's exhausting. I'm mentally exhausted. But I have written 1300 words thus far, I have so many more in my head that hopefully sometime soon, with a glass of wine in hand, I'll recant in print. For now I'm at least trying to maintain some level of creative work because it makes me feel less guilty about writing so slowly. I started a painting that is nearly complete, and I have been picking out paint samples and fabric swatches for my room in my new place. I move in 10 days and I am *so* excited. In 10 days I'll also be going down to 2 shifts a week at work, which is great for my anxiety issues, but slightly sad for my wallet.

Hopefully it'll also give me more time to focus on activities. Fingers crossed.

A Letter To The Universe

Dear Universe,

I do not appreciate your constant line up of temptations. If you didn’t know, I am trying to lose the extra padding around my midsection, even though it is winter here and clearly I need it for heat. First, I am was making a Very Good Decision© by getting a soy latte at Starbucks, yet you insisted on surrounding me with pictures of delectable coffee treats like the Pumpkin Spice Latte (only here for a limited time!). Even Second Cup has a PSL now, so nowhere is safe from your blatant marketing tactics.

Several times since starting this fitness program, your evil mignons my kind-hearted co-workers have brought in baked goods and treats. I resisted. And today, just when I thought I was safe having driven by the giant waffle billboard and several Tim Hortons locations, I opened the mailbox to find this flyer.

And it doesn’t stop there. I get emails about ice cream flavours at Marble Slab, or I pass by a DQ with their Blizzard of the Month flavour prominently displayed. Even surfing the web isn’t safe as I stumbled across this. (It’s healthy! It says so!)

You haven’t even limited your tricks to me, as poor Tom had the chance at free Dr. Pepper (which he loves more than me, I suspect) at his conference.

Cruel. That’s what you are. Please remedy the situation by making my next lotto ticket a winner. Also, please send $5 for said lotto ticket.

Love,

Erin

Weigh-In Monday #3

Weight    BF %    Chest    Waist    Hips    Right Thigh    Right Bicep (flexed)
154.3      30.1       37"        33"       41.5"   24.5"              12.5"
148.9      28.5       35"        32.5"    41"      23"                 12.5"
150.3      29.0       35"        31"      40.75"  24"                 12"

Total Weight Lost: +1.4lbs
Total Inches Lost: +0.25"

I don't feel too badly about the gains this week because I lost so much the first week. I am pretty sure the first week was mostly water weight and that I looked like this:

Also, this was a short week for us due to the Newlyweds engagement party (big fun!). This week is a long one, so hopefully the results will be good next week!

Random Act of Kindness #2

So after the success of RAK #1, I decided to get even more ambitious.  I walked next door to my neighbour's house and offered to walk their dog for them.

Please, don't think of me as a hero.

Anyways, "Bodie" is an adorable Australian shepherd puppy.  He comes up to about knee height but could probably jump clear over me if he were so inclined.

Wait, are you saying you offered to play with your neighbour's puppy?  For FREE?

That's right.  Because I care.

My neighbour was actually quite surprised by my offer:

"You want to take Bodie?  For a walk?  Bodie?  Walking?"

"Um... Yes?"

Bodie watched the whole thing go down with that curious puppy head-tilt that was so adorable it belied his fiendish intelligence.  He waited patiently by the door.

After a thorough briefing slash agreement of zero-liability, in which the words "he's a puller" and "uncatchable" featured prominently, Bodie and I took to the streets.

As we neared the end of the block I made to go right, towards the park.  Bodie assured me, emphatically, that this was not in fact the way to go.

Fair enough pup, I'll play your game.

Before we go any further, it should be noted that Bodie does not "walk" in the literal sense.  His is more a canter, which is liable to explode into a full run should a cat, squirrel, or friggin' leaf dare to move in his presence.  His determined gait makes it clear that this is no mere "walk" but something akin to a death march: you fall behind, you get left behind, human.

After several minutes of twists and turns, I am now thoroughly lost in my own neighbourhood.  Rounding a corner, we reach the park.  I still don't know how.

Eager to burn off some of this pup's energy (oh my youthful naivete), I picked up a nearby stick for a game of fetch.  Lobbing it across the field, Bodie found his fifth gear and chased after it.

Unfortunately, Bodie has mastered this game; in that he now knows if he gives the stick back to you, you'll just throw it away again.  Humans can be so silly.

Given the combination of Red Bull and steroids that my neighbours must be feeding him, it took a long time to catch him.  Evidently he has also mastered "chase".

After what felt like (and probably was) hours, I returned a perfectly content and innocent-looking Bodie to his rightful owner.  Then I went home for a much needed bubble bath  for a beer all manly-like.

And you know what?  I think I'll do it again.

Holy Food Hangover

It's brutal. Apparently part of this plan is to make you suffer twice as much after a cheat day since you are eating cleanly six days out of seven. Makes me not want to cheat though! Except for the chocolate swirl cheesecake squares someone brought to work today. I sure wanted those.

On the upside, I had a great run today!

Weigh-In Monday #2 - The Turkey Edition!

It's that special time again. Here are my stats updated.

Weight    BF %    Chest    Waist    Hips    Right Thigh    Right Bicep (flexed)
154.3      30.1       37"        33"       41.5"   24.5"              12.5"
148.9      28.5       35"        32.5"    41"      23"                 12.5"

Total Weight Lost: 5.4lbs
Total Inches Lost: 4.5"

I'm guessing that's a whole lot of water weight lost since I can't really keep up the hydration the way I should until we have a bathroom again (probably today! YAY!). But still, progress in the right direction! This might just work after all!

Now Tom and I are off to have breakfast with the Newly Engageds and kick off the start of a glorious Thanksgiving Cheat Day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay. So. We are making resolutions.

It is October, which means NaNoWriMo is just a few weeks away and every amateur, semi-professional, professional, and just really enthusiastic about writing individual I know will soon be pledging to write an entire novel in one month. This is INSANE, no?

Well okay, maybe it's not so much. There are many more insane things a person could do for a month. Like pledge to become a crocodile hunter. That would be more insane.

However I recognize that for me, an individual with the least amount of motivation ever documented outside the animal kingdom of sloths, pledging to complete an entire novel, or an entire chapter of a novel (hell perhaps even the first page of a novel) in one month is ridiculous. It is so far outside the realm of reasonable that if 'reasonable' was the Sun this particular goal is chillin' next to Pluto.

(Maybe the added volume of such high expectations could function to restore Pluto to its former planet status. That would be a nice additional bonus.)

So, my resolution is this:

I'm getting a jump on NaNoWriMo as it were. I'm pledging to start now on completing some body of writing, in the hopes that by the new year I won't have to make this a "New Years Resolution." Hopefully by then writing will be a habit, or at least a well engrained hobby.

Realistically I don't have enough material to make up a novel. But I can start to write, and maybe one day this writing will turn into something bigger.

So there you have it. Now I'm off to open a word document and give it a title and see if I can't jot down a few lines.

Accountability - now there's a motivator.

Workout Modifications That Will Kick Your Ass

I conned Tom into training me on Thursday night, which was a great ass-kicking. It's awesome to go around with someone who knows as much about fitness and training as Tom does. It also hurts. A lot. He had me do a few modifications that really made a huge difference in my weight routine (we did lower body weights).

1. Continuous Reps
   Instead of pausing at the peak of every rep (no matter what exercise), Tom had me go up to 80% of the rotation, then continue to the next one without pausing. It was an easy way to make things more challenging, without adding more weight. This is especially good for me because I am paranoid of a) dropping the weights and b) putting on so much muscle I am mistaken for Tom's short and sturdy body guard. 
2. From Machines To Free Weights
   It's simple, and it's said quite often, but moving to free form weights from machine weights makes one hell of a difference. I'm told it's because it becomes a compound exercise (which works more than one muscle group at once) and it works the stabilizer muscles and your control at the same time. I think it's because they are really heavy, and it feels like everyone is watching so you don't want to quit early.
3. Hitting A True Ten
   If you're ever feeling lazy in the gym, take someone with you to push you that extra 10%. Tom is definitely not afraid to take an exercise to failure, as evidenced by him throwing up during his run the other day.
4. Racing to a Secondary Exercise
   After completing my sets, he'd have me get off the machine as fast as possible to do a secondary exercise that works the same group. OW.

50 Random Acts of Kindness

When I was approached to write for this blog, I had not fully appreciated the magnitude of the request.  I racked my mind for days to come up with a resolution, yet somehow "I resolve to keep being awesome" seemed too  arrogant  easy.

Now I know what you're thinking:
But Pie, how do you improve on perfection?

Alas, dear friends, this is my burden.  I have no real vices (except pie, caffeine, and pie.  Seriously don't touch my pie I will fight you) and I already have a killer bod (experiences may vary). 

Then it hit me.  I should spread some of this awesomeness around.  Give back to the community.

Again, I know what you're thinking:
But Pie, it's too cold to walk around topless!

And you're right.  So I came up with the next best thing: over the coming weeks I will perform no less than 50 random acts of kindness.

RAK #1

Strolling into my local coffee shop, I decided to buy coffee for the next person behind me, whoever it should be.  Now this was a ballsy move, considering yesterday's debacle.

Thankfully, the next customer to walk in was a charming young mother with a stroller.  Or a baby thief, I never did check.  While she seemed genuinely surprised, she graciously accepted my offer to buy her coffee.

It went down like this:

Me to cashier: "I'd like to buy this nice woman's coffee please."

Young Mother: "Oh!  Well thank you.  I was going to have a tea actually."

Me: "That wasn't part of the deal."  What? I'm new at this.

YM: "Oh... well I guess I could have a coffee."  Damn straight.

And you know what guys?  It felt good.  She was genuinely appreciative, like her faith in humanity had been restored (the coffee really is that good). 

Oh!  And I got TWO stamps on my coffee card!  Score.

Day #3 - No Cheats

Day 3 and I haven't cheated yet! It's like a Christmas miracle in October (which, considering the Christmas section is already up in the Bay so, not a huge stretch).

We're facing the first potential scandalon (Greek for stumbling block, thank YOU only thing I remember from my Early Christian Writings class) and that is picking our cheat days around social events. Our normal cheat day is Sunday (right before Weigh-In Mondays in the hopes that we don't overdo it) but we have a birthday event on Saturday for a fabulous woman AND Thanksgiving on Monday (om nom nom). What to do, what to do.

I took my before photos last night and oh my, it wasn't pretty. I have decided that my greatest fear (besides having those photos posted ANYWHERE without my hopefully awesome after photos) is that I will make it to the end of the 12 weeks and not look or feel any different. And then I will have missed Pumpkin Spice Latte season for nothing.

On the upside, our bathroom is nearly done which means the extra hydration will no longer cause me to drive to Tim Hortons all the damn time once in a dainty while.

Weigh-In Monday #1

Yes, it's Tuesday, but I weighed in yesterday so it TOTALLY counts.

STARTING STATS:

Weight    BF %    Chest    Waist    Hips    Right Thigh    Right Bicep (flexed)
154.3      30.1       37"        33"       41.5"   24.5"              12.5"

Hold me.

Revenge of the Baked Goods

It's Day One so, of course, there were chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen at work this morning. I took a deep breath and walked by (yay!).

 

I happily munched my second meal and went to the gym where I rowed out my HIIT program instead of running because my knee hurts and I want to be able to play in my soccer tournament on Wednesday (*gasp* runonsentence *gasp*).

 

I got back from the gym and the chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen had been joined by cupcakes. Seriously?!

 

Too bad, tasty baked goods and the intending-to-be-kind-but-really-evil souls who provided them. You won't sucker me in!

 

Tom and I are going to weigh in tonight (yikes!) and take our before pictures (DOUBLE YIKES!) and we decided to have  "friendly" "competition" between us to see who can lose more by body fat percentage. Anyone who knows us knows that this will most likely end in a fist fight (which I will win) (because I will cheat) (shut up, he's a 200lb, 6ft tall rugby player!).

 

Starting stats to come (be afraaaaaid).

A journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step.

"We all want to change the world"- Beatles
Far be it from me to challenge the Beatles, but really what asshat thinks they can change the world. Everything in this world is a journey, instead of just thinking of the large goals, take it one step at a time.
I've made the decision to change myself and see what follows.

I am going to complete another cycle of 'Body for Life' which is a 12 week program.

I've completed this once before and it was awesome, and also one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was fantastic and I've never felt better. Since then I've relaxed and just let the hard work slip away. I'm not out of shape but I know I've been fitter.
The plan for tomorrow. Six meals, 1 trip to the gym, just one day, not that hard.

Today

Today, I hit my breaking point.

You know the days when everything feels wrong? That was today. Today I felt like I was a stranger in my own body, with no control over what happened to me. This isn't just about weight loss; it's about reclaiming my body, my sense of self and my life. Today I begin a 12-week journey that I will stick to – no matter what.

About Me:

I'm a 23 year-old female, a graduate of the University of Toronto, a young professional, an editor, a reader, a writer, an athlete, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter, and a partner.

I suffered a knee injury in the spring which has left me overweight, and I am determined to change that. 

My Goals:

Food & Drink:

I will…

·       Eat five meals a day, balanced with protein, complex carbohydrates, veggies and fruits

·       Drink 3 litres of water a day

·       Eat only one refined carb per day (1 slice of whole grain toast)

·       Be allowed one cheat day a week where I can relax on the "I will not" list

I will not…

·       Drink alcohol (sigh), coffee (SOB), or pop

·       Eat anything processed

·       Overdo it on my cheat days

Exercise

I will…

·       Work out five days a week, aiming for six

·       Weight train twice a week

·       Do cardio three times a week

·       Do yoga one day a week

·       Put in 110% (just for you, baby) effort into these workouts

I will not…

·       Use my bad knee as a excuse

Personal

I will…

·       Weigh and measure in every Monday

·       Take progress photos on the first Monday of every month

·       Stick to my financial budget, because money stress = FAT ME

·       Take the supplements that keep my thyroid happy, and me less certifiable

Let's see how drastically I can change my life.