Feelin' pretty darn good today

So this morning was one of those mornings where the whole family sleeps in and then CHAOS ensues. Of course this happens on the first morning of summer camp. In the mad rush to get us all ready and organized I completely forgot to have breakfast. I did however, pack myself a lunch and at the last minute threw a banana muffin in for a 'breakfast' at the office.

 And since it's my 'Starbucks on' day, I had my muffin with a soy chai latte. The best breakfast choice? No. A yummy one nevertheless? Yes. Does eating it at around 10am still count as breakfast? I'm not sure.

I got busy at work today and didn't have time to even get hungry for a mid-morning snack even though I packed one. When I looked up at my clock, it was almost 1pm! So I had my lunch, which consisted of leftover stir-fry.

I REALLY wanted to go for a walk during my lunch hour today, but I was way too busy to justify leaving my desk for very long. So instead, I stayed at the office, got tons of stuff done, and had some watermelon while I worked.

I left work with full intentions of going straight from work to Burnaby Hit to get my first workout of the week in. This morning, I had even pulled out of the driveway, realized I forgot my gym stuff, reversed back in, ran into the house to grab my bag, and then raced to my chicklet's summer camp to get her there in time....all because I was committed to getting this workout in. However, on the ride home, my enthusiasm faded somewhat. I started with the mommy guilt trip (my daughter would probably not want to stay at aftercare very long on the first day, I should go get her now so she can just come home), followed by justifications (it's only Monday, if I don't go today, I can always go Wednesday, Friday and Saturday to still get my 3 workouts in this week). Eventually, I talked myself out of going, picked up my daughter and went home. By this time, I was hungry and so I ate my leftover snack from this morning.

Since I had decided not to go to the gym, I started prepping dinner and slowly the guilt of not going to the workout kicked in - "really Shan? You couldn't commit to 30 minutes for yourself today?". That would be what is referred to as my inner 'skinny bitch' I believe! I was supposed to go get my husband from work, and knew that I wouldn't have time to pick him up AND go to the gym. So, because I'm cool like that, I nonchalantly texted him, hinting that I was going to go to Burnaby Hit earlier, but didn't and really wished I had. Because my husband has really fabulous moments (and knows me better than I know myself sometimes), he suggested that I go and get my workout in and that he would suck it up and bus home...and then nicely hinted back that it would be wonderful if he could get picked up at the skytrain station by our house.

So, with no excuse, I went to Burnaby Hit and got my 30 minutes of intense and satisfying exercise in. I know I've said this before, but joining this gym was one of the best decisions I've made for myself in a VERY long time. There is something SO therapeutic about hitting and kicking  the punching bags, and beating up Bob at the end. I always leave there sweaty, red and feeling amazing. Which is good because

Today the trainer pointed out to me that she's noticed improvement in my strength, speed and posture/technique which boosted my motivation and confidence even more. After all, how great does it feel when someone else notices your good work?

In a fantastic mood, I went home and had a protein bar before going to pick up my hubby.

After we got home, I finished making dinner. Chicken, greek potatoes and chickpea salad. I of course only had the latter two. The good news is that I ate on a salad size plate. The bad news is I squeezed as many potatoes as I could on my little plate because these potatoes are by far the most amazing potatoes I've ever tasted. In my defense, the other side of my plate was filled with chickpea salad, which is a really good thing right? So I think I will refer to my dinner as balanced. ;-)

The best thing about this chickpea salad is that it still tastes great the next day and makes an awesome lunch. So I think that's what I'll bring tomorrow. Tonight, I've decided to skip the wine and snacking in front of the television, which is why I wrote my blog earlier. Now, if I decide to munch out, I have to re-edit my post and you all will know! I'm telling you, this whole public shaming/celebrating thing is really the way to go. Seriously. This helps a lot. So thank you!!

A kind of lazy Sunday

This morning I was thrilled because I managed to sleep in to 10am, which doesn't seem to happen much lately. Shortly after I was up, so was my chicklet and her friend who slept over last night. My husband was still sleeping, the girls wanted some cereal and I wanted toast. I thought about how I should really do the cereal with yogurt thing, but I REALLY wanted toast. Then, after getting the girls organized with their cereal, I went to grab the multigrain bread to make my toast and I was FOILED! The bread went bad! So I guess this was a blessing in disguise because I ended up with the Kashi cereal and raspberry yogurt choice and it was yummy. Why didn't I want to eat this again?

After I ate, I checked on the girls and they were happily giggling and playing xbox kinnect. So, I decided my husband could handle it on his own with the tweens and I went for a run. I must say I was kind of disappointed with my run today. At first.

I have a few routes that I regularly run in my neighborhood, and typically, I run my routes without stopping to walk. Today, I just couldn't do it! I had to stop twice to walk...not far and never longer than one block. I felt like I was dying running today! I supposed it could be all in my head, but I really think it was the heat. Normally I run in the morning before it gets to hot, but most frequently, I run in the evening when the suns starting to set and it's definitely cooler. Today I chose noonish for my run...and it was hot! Anyway I pushed myself hard the last bit of my run and made it to my new finish line. I didn't run the whole route I was planning to run and had adjusted it while running. When I got to that finish line, I looked at my stopwatch and seen that my new modified route had taken exactly 27 minutes and 34 seconds. I was convinced I hadn't run far and delayed mapping it on 'map my run' when I got home because I didn't want to see how much I sucked! When I walked in the door, I got a glass of water, looked in the mirror (red tomato face - check), and downed my protein bar.

Shortly after, I 'mapped my run' and guess what? I had ran 4.5km. I think the heat made me crazy!! I was definitely not disappointed with that, but I now think I shouldn't run in the heat because my mind plays tricks on me! This was a lesson in getting over my obsessive perfectionism. I realized, sheepishly, that the reason I felt so down on myself wasn't because I hadn't done a good job ('cause I had), I was disappointed (and pouting) because things didn't go as perfectly as I had planned and I hadn't ran the 5km route I originally wanted to. I chastised myself for being so hard on myself...and moved on with my day in a better frame of mind.

My daughter's friend went home and she was occupied with a hardcore dancing game on the xbox and my husband went out to a friends, so I decided to lie in the sun in my backyard. It was great! My chicklet and I had a late lunch in the afternoon. She had mini pizzas and I had my pita-salad. I REALLY like these.

I'm not sure what all went down for the rest of the afternoon, but I don't really remember doing much and somehow the day flew past. My hubby got home from his friends and we took a walk to Safeway to pick up a few veggies I needed for tonight's dinner: stir-fry on rice. When we got back, my fantastic husband offered up his sous chef skills again and we made dinner together. I must say, I really like it when he helps me cook! And while we made supper, we had a glass of wine each. What the hell. It's the weekend right?

And I must say that dinner was really good. My stir-fry was straight veggies and my hubby and daughter had some chinese five spice/teriyaki chicken over top theirs. The other good news is there was enough leftover for lunch tomorrow which means one less thing I have to think about in the am!

We ate supper quite early for our house. Usually because of our crazy schedules we end up eating at 7 - 7:30, even 8pm some nights! Ridiculous. Today we ate dinner around 5pm...which meant I was really hungry by 7. And here's where I caved. And ate a handful of chips. Plain, salty, ruffled ones. Sigh. I only feel a little bit bad about it though 'cause it was only one handful, and for me, sticking to only one handful of chips once I start is a pretty big deal.

The saltiness made me crave sweet, and I began having thoughts of the 100 calorie chocolate dip granola bars in my cupboard and of my protein bars sitting in the fridge. I ignored those thoughts as much as possible and went about baking the banana muffins I had told my family I was making this week. While doing so, I drank LOTS of water to keep my mind off the food. About half an hour later, my muffins were ready and of course I HAD to try one. They were so good and the bonus was they satisfied my craving for sweet.

My husband, the evil ectomorph who never gains a pound had TWO and with butter. My daughter has to wait for hers in the morning 'cause I had made them after she went to bed. Which of course means I'll have to bake something with her tomorrow now. Hmmm....any suggestions on a 'healthy' baked treat?

Good night!

Finished with fireworks!

So tonight I actually did do something fun! Fireworks with the family! But before I get to that, I'll break down my day.

This morning I started off with the Kashi honey almond flax cereal with raspberry yogurt. I only added about 2 tbs yogurt and that did it for me. It was yummy!

I ate my yogurt/cereal mix while I caught up on my blog this morning...and my chicklet had some too. Healthy breakfasts all around! Shortly after, I got myself ready and went to Burnaby Hit to get my third time in this week. Zunobia was there this morning and I had another great workout with lots of external motivation!  Afterwards, I felt great (exhausted, but great) and I started thinking about how today was my 'Starbucks on' day. I thought about stopping on my way home to get my, in my opinion, much deserved soy chai latte. But then I thought about how I'm supposed to feed my body some protein after working out, so I held off, went home and ate my protein bar...that I still can't believe is healthy because it tastes too good!

Next up was waking up my husband and making, I mean asking, him to walk with me to Starbucks to get my now REALLY much deserved latte. So we went together and he got one too. Except it wasn't a chai and had no soy haha! His drink is a cinnamon dolce latte with a shot of caramel. Mmmmm....Starbucks.

We made our way home and watched some of the Olympics with our chicklet. We all started getting hungry for lunch so the family had some Kraft dinner (yuck) and I had a salad in a pita again. Seriously, this is good. I could eat this lots. 

After lunch it was time to battle with my daughter over cleaning her room. Girlfriend has SO MUCH crap in her room! We tackled the bookshelf last week and there was more organizing to do this week especially since she was having a friend over for a sleepover. So we fought/cleaned her room together! Actually, it wasn't too bad, and I have to give her credit for getting rid of some stuff. I also need to remember that tween girls like their 'stuff' so I gotta ease up a bit on this battle. I have to pace myself...we'll have lots of battles to come I'm sure!

Anyway, after helping get her room organized, it was time to make dinner. I felt like cooking with a glass of wine today...so I did.

Tonight's menu consisted of baked salmon for my family and I had the asparagus and mushroom risotto that they had on the side. By the way...risotto is super time consuming and NOT a good idea when you have multiple things on the go. Luckily, I have an amazing sous-chef/hubby who likes to help me cook. And thanks to his helping hand, it turned out fantastic.

The little brown things on the asparagus are garlic. I sauteed the asparagus in a little bit of olive oil with garlic, salt and pepper. Maybe not cooked as healthy as it could've been, but it's our family's favourite way to eat asparagus. You'll also notice dinner for me was on a salad size plate again. This was seriously one of the best pieces of advice I've recieved this month and it's really helped me to watch my portions. Thanks Teri!!

 After dinner, it was time to pick up our chicklet's friend for a sleepover and a trip downtown for the fireworks competition. When we stopped in the girl's house, her mom, who is a friend of mine offered me a chat and a glass of wine. Who could say no to that?

Don't worry. I didn't drive. My hubby did. Sous-chef and DD. I love him! After this was finished we all went downtown and watched Vietnam put on an awesome fireworks show. I wish I had thought about taking a picture of the fireworks to put up here. Anyway, on the way there we did a store run for snacks. The girls got chips and pop and I got water. I must say I was pretty proud of resisting munching out on junk food. It's much easier now that I've learned to eat when I'm hungry and not just out of habit!

So, on that note, I'm now getting kicked out of the living room for the girlies to watch a movie and camp out. So...that's it for today! :-)

The morning after...

I'd like to be able to say that I lead an incredibly exciting life and that I was so busy being out and having fun last night that by the time I got home I needed to crash in bed. The truth of the matter is that I fell asleep on the couch while waiting for my husband to get off the computer. Sigh. I had full intentions of doing my blog last night, I even emailed the pictures to myself off of my phone! Oh well, better late than never as they say. Will it make it better if I say that I'm eating my Kashi breakfast with yogurt while I write this??

Yesterday morning started of with...you guessed it. Toast. On mulitgrain bread. With butter.

I couldn't help myself! I love toast! I'm cringing as I write this, but after eating my toast, dropping my daughter and husband off at summer camp and work, I went to Burnaby Hit. Maybe one day I'll learn not to go work out after eating toast. Clearly that day wasn't yesterday. I still managed to give it my all with the help of Teri. I felt an odd mix of 'good' and 'wanting to die on the floor' after the workout. So I sped home and ate this to make me feel better.

Yum yum protein bar! I showered up, did some things around the house and tried to decide what I wanted for lunch. I really didn't want a salad and nothing else was jumping out at me, so I decided to go for a walk to Safeway and buy pita bread. Then, I could stuff my salad into a pita! So I did!

While at the grocery store, I stayed strong and resisted Starbucks. Also, I picked up some raspberry yogurt to try out with my cereal, since the vanilla didn't cut it for me the other day. Stay tuned to see how it went tomorrow!

I decided to do something really luxurious in the afternoon with my free time and new found energy, so I did...laundry and cleaned up in the living room. Yes, this is what my life has come too. *Insert eye roll here*. After my luxurious afternoon, I went to pick up my chicklet at summer camp, we came home and she told me all about her day over a handful of almonds. Twenty for me. She had ten.

Shortly after, it was time to pick up her dad, so off we went. Since he works in Richmond, by the time we got home it was time to start dinner. For them - steak. For me - all the side dish stuff. I made baked potatoes on the BBQ along with the steak. (As for the recipe I used PAM olive oil spray instead of butter and less amounts of the seasonings). We also had Caesar salad and steamed broccoli. My family had theirs with mounds of homemade cheese sauce. I had mine with a tiny bit of cheese sauce on the side, just 'cause I wanted to have a little bit. But to be honest, I like broccoli, so most of it was eaten without.

And with my dinner...a glass of wine.

While eating dinner last night I was thinking about where we were eating dinner. In the living room. Again. We always eat dinner together as a family, but I think a lot of that is lost when sitting in the living room with the television. We still make a point of talking about our days, but it's not ideal. So I got to thinking that I'm going to try to make an effort to have us eat at our kitchen table more often. I feel good about that decision.

After dinner, my hubby hopped on the computer and I watched television. PVR'd episodes of design star and 'til debt do us part. I was having mad cravings for junk food, so I settled on a small bowl of popcorn sans butter or salt.

And just like last time here's the before:
 

And here's the after:

I again managed to not completely go overboard and only ate what it took to satisfy my craving. I also drank a ton of water yesterday. Good job me! The rest of the story ends with me falling asleep on the couch as mentioned above so I won't bore you with the details. All in all a not so bad day...as written the morning after ;-)

I had some good intentions...

This morning I woke up and told myself "you ARE NOT having toast for breakfast"! The problem was, I hadn't gone out the night before to get something different. So I got myself ready for work, said bye to my family and headed to Starbucks (I mean Safeway) to buy myself some breakfast food! Seeing that it was my 'Starbucks on' day, I had my soy chai latte while I grocery shopped.

I went back to the exact same spot I stood in yesterday morning and began the great cereal/granola and yogurt debate. I had already decided I would go with yogurt instead of milk because I can't stand milk...and I only seem to like soy milk when it's in a latte. I figured I would try vanilla yogurt today and, in case I didn't like it, I just bought a mini one to start. Plus, I was planning on going from here directly to work and didn't want to buy a big yogurt and have it go bad! I then contemplated cereal versus granola. I was eying up the Kashi, and was considering the Kashi Lean stuff my bestie was talking about. Unfortunately, at Safeway this morning, they only had the Kashi Lean in the jumbo box for $12 and since I wasn't even sure I was going to like it, I didn't want to spend that much. However, the regular sized boxes of Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal were on sale for $5 so I opted for that. I mixed it together when I got to work and voila!

Ok, to be honest, I really liked the cereal part, not so much the vanilla yogurt. I'm really not that excited about yogurt generally, but I think I'll try raspberry flavoured and maybe I'll like it better. Or maybe, I'll reduce the amount of yogurt so there's just a little bit in it. I'm also considering buying oatmeal and berries for next week's occasional breakfast. We'll see. I'm still eating toast once and while though okay?! I'll try to commit to having fruit with it!

I was having a quieter day at work today so I decided to take a seawall stroll on my lunch hour. The weather was beautiful and the mid afternoon walk was definitely nice. I 'mapped it' when I got home and it turns out I walked almost 3.5 km along the seawall! Nice! On the way back to my office, I stopped and picked up lunch. I almost packed my leftover pizza from yesterday, but thought I'd 'forget it' at home and look for something else. I went to Nu Greek, which is up the street from my work and bought myself a chickpea-mint salad. It's lemony yummy deliciousness!! And it's only $3! And it has protein! What I'm most proud of is that I resisted the pita bread with satsiki dip that I usually buy too.

I got busy in the afternoon and next thing you know it was almost dinner time (I work late on Thursdays - til' 7-8pm) and I was hungry. Next up, my veggie and dip snack I packed this am. I know, I know, veggies without dip is better, but I used less than half the dip, I swear!

I taught my class, my hubby and chicklet picked me up and we drove home. Luckily, I had one more snack in my bag - the grape and almond combo! I'm seriously loving this snack, I have no idea why I never ate this before? Sweet and crunchy! Needless to say, my daughter and I polished these off on the ride home.

So here's where it goes from pretty darn good, to pretty darn bad. My family was eating a late/easy quickie dinner of chicken fingers (homemade) and poutine. And there it is. My weakness. French fries. Okay, so maybe I have a few weaknesses (chai lattes, salt and vinegar chips, jalapeno Doritos, french fries, wine and passion flakies). But this is definitely one of the top five. I knew this was coming and had planned all day to just make it for my family and have a salad for myself. YEAH RIGHT. That didn't work so well. So I negotiated with myself and had a salad size plate instead of a dinner plate. I don't know who exactly was the winner in THAT negotiation, but it tasted good? Unfortunately it almost makes me sick looking at it!! Sigh.

And finally, I reminded myself that it was not a  totally bad day - that I did get in some exercise, fruit and veggies, some protein and a better breakfast. Plus, first thing tomorrow, I'm going to Burnaby Hit to burn some calories! Some might call that justifying my actions. I call it me being awesome (see below). So I celebrated ;-)

Pizza and picnics

So I got some feedback that my breakfasts basically SUCK, which isn't really something that surprised me! It does however make me a little bit embarrassed to post today's predictable and clearly not enough breakfast consisting of a piece of multi-grain toast.

In my defense I read the feedback after I ate haha!!  Actually, the funny thing about all of this is that first thing this morning, I walked to Safeway to get something my husband needed. While there, I stood in the cereal/yogurt aisle for about 15 minutes contemplating some raspberry or vanilla yogurt and granola. I couldn't for the life of me make a decision about the granola (do I want berries? do I want nuts? do I want granola at all? do I even like yogurt?)...so I left with nothing. And ate toast.

This is going to be a tough one for me to change. I haven't ate 'real' breakfasts probably since I was a kid. I DO NOT typically like breakfast food OR eating when I wake up. In terms of options - Eggs - no, cereal - no, milk - no. Granola/yogurt - possible. Oatmeal - a big maybe. Any other suggestions?? Help!!

P.S. - to whomever posted the links to their fave food websites with suggestions...I'll get there, I just haven't had time to do it yet ;)

So obviously by the time I got to work, I was hungry so I ate my typical almonds.

You'll notice a lot of repetition this week...there's a reason for it! Among other changes in my life I'm trying to make, my spending habits are being targeted for change. I was spending WAY too much money on food and WAY too much food was going to waste. I'm sticking to a budget and a grocery list this month and not going off script until the next grocery shop day! I'm trying to eat what I already bought this week. This also means that with the exception of maybe buying some granola and yogurt, major breakfast changes may have to wait until next week!

Shortly after my mid morning snack, lunch time rolled around. This morning, I made the time to make the whole family, including myself lunches. Since none of us seem to like the same things...my hubby had leftover ribs over rice, my daughter had cheese, crackers and kielbasa cut up and I had a veggie sandwich. It was on multigrain bread and consisted of a little bit of mayo, romaine lettuce (been eating a lot of this type of lettuce so that I can share with my guinea pig!), cucumbers, red onions, avocado and a slice of marble cheese. I wanted Havarti, but forgot to get some while I was at Safeway this morning. Sigh.

 After dealing with some difficult people in the afternoon, I was ready for another snack. What I wanted was a bag of Ms. Vickie's salt and vinegar chips and a fruit and nut chocolate bar. What I had was a banana.

And then when I got home...I had my protein bar. This successfully subdued my chocolate craving. Yay!

 Pretty much as soon as I got home after picking my daughter up from summer camp, I immediately started making a homemade pizza. I thought of a fantastic idea...I'm going to make the pizza, shove it into one of those insulated pizza bags ( my husband's random purchase), pick up my husband and go for a picnic with my family for dinner! And that's exactly what we did. My pizza was vegetarian...sauce, cheese, red pepper, mushrooms and red onion. My hubby's/daughter's was the same, but with pizza meat.

I know that this wasn't the healthiest meal. But I'm okay with that. I'm not aiming for perfection...just a higher frequency of better choices and an honest effort at paying attention to what I'm putting in my mouth! I know myself and if I cut all the things I like out of my life...I'll quit. So I figure pizza every once an awhile won't kill me. I will however accept suggestions on how I could make the pizza healthier! Plus, oh my god, how cool was it to eat homemade fresh pizza out of a take out insulator bag at a park by the airport with my family, watching airplanes land right over our heads while we ate!! Fun!!

So this was it for my eating today. You'll notice no wine haha! Instead I drank water all day and night long. Despite my not so balanced day, I didn't feel starving by midnight and didn't feel the need to mindlessly snack in front of the T.V. On the downside, I didn't make it to Burnaby Hit today as planned. I was at worker later than planned and I had to make a decision - Burnaby Hit today and no picnic OR family picnic and no Burnaby Hit today. I opted to enjoy the weather and time with my family. BUT - to make up for it I went for a run this evening...and guess what? 5.36km in 40 minutes!! I stopped only once to walk a block and resumed running again. So proud of myself...maybe that Colour Me Rad run IS within my ability/reach!! And in the meantime, I'll be seeing the lovely ladies of Burnaby Hit this Friday and Saturday morning in order to meet my 3x/week goal! :-)

~Shannon

A mostly veggie day...

This morning's rush involved packing myself a lunch, but skipping breakfast. I know, I know...bad decision. Somehow I did find time to swing by Starbucks and buy my soy chai latte though...hmm.

In the roughly 30 minutes it took me to get to work, I then realized my body was yelling "feed me something!!!" So I had snack one...10 grapes/10 almonds.

I think I'm starting to love almonds. It's been awhile since I bought them for snacking. They're good, they're crunchy and it doesn't take many of them to fill up! Lunch consisted of leftover pasta primavera from yesterday. I think it tasted as good reheated as it did fresh yesterday. Yum....

Tuesdays are my late work days and this particular Tuesday was non-stop busy. At about 5 pm, I realized I hadn't ate anything since noon and needed another snack. Veggies and dip it was. I fully realize it would've been healthier without the dip, BUT in all fairness, I used less than half the container there!

While snacking, I had a chance to chat about protein powders with a workoutaholic friend of mine. They started using a protein powder called vega sport. This might work well for me with being a vegetarian and my coworker offered to let me try some of theirs after my next workout to see if I can stomach the taste. Anyone have experience with this stuff? I don't want to waste my money!

After work was done, my hubby picked me up and we went home where he had ribs slow cooking in the oven. I must say that even as a vegetarian, I thought the house smelled pretty darn good! I wasn't sure what I felt like eating with it, but knew that potatoes were my family's side dish of choice for ribs, so started with that. We call them magic potatoes...boiled potatoes with sauteed onions and magic spice (an amazing flavoured seasoning salt). Healthy way of eating potatoes. Not so much. But they're so tasty!

I tried to balance my less healthy potato choice with something better, so made a salad to go with dinner. Lettuce, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, cheese and sunflower seeds with a tablespoon of italian dressing. It was good too! And you'll note that the amount of salad on my plate is double the amount of potatoes. Good work me!

With dinner....a glass of Merlot! What? It was a long day OK?? ;-)

So today I didn't get in a workout or a run, but tomorrow is a Burnaby Hit day for sure. I did however, meet my water goal! Lastly, I realize that this wasn't the most witty and exciting blog I've wrote so far, but I dumped most of my thought and effort to my previous post. Bonus points for a double post day??

G'night!

Giving up and goals

 

As some of you know, I teach programming to federal offenders, that covers everything from violence, substance abuse, anger, negative associates and general crime.What I see a ton of in my day to day business is guys struggling with substance abuse issues. One of the primary things I try to teach them is to NOT let a slip become a relapse. And I got to thinking that this lesson is something I can apply to myself and my fitness goals.

I can't tell you how many times I've started and stopped fitness routines and diets. If I'm honest with myself, one reason for this relates to giving up because I messed up. In terms of dieting, I'd deprive myself of the goodies I love which is difficult if not impossible to maintain indefinitely. Then I'd give in and eat some of the not-so-good food, get disappointed that I didn't have 'enough' self-control to stay away, say 'screw it' and give up. Or I'd justify having more junk food with the fact that I already messed up anyway, so what difference does it make if I have another? This is exactly what I tell the guys in my group not to do in regards to their own mistakes! Sigh.

Fortunately, I think this time will be different. Why? One, I've set small realistic goals. They are SMART too - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time framed. The goals I came up with when I first started my new lifestyle was the following (this was pre-blog):

1. Attend Burnaby Hit 3x/week
2. Drink 4 or more 8oz glasses of water per day.
3. Drink Starbucks chai lattes every second day.

I set three goals that I thought would challenge me to make some changes in my life, but that were realistic for me. One of the most important things about these goals in my opinion was the wording. I tried to set goals focusing on what I WANTED TO DO do rather than what I DIDN'T WANT TO DO. For example, my goal could have been not to drink starbucks everyday, but right off the hop it means depriving myself and honestly...how many times have any of us done something that we've told ourselves we 'shouldn't do'? Instead, I chose to focus on allowing myself to enjoy my drink every second day. I want to keep things positive by focusing on what I can do not what I can't do.

The second thing I did that's helping me stay on track is allowed myself room for error and adjustment. If I 'slip' and have a starbucks two days in a row, I don't decide I'm a failure and give up...I make an adjustment (not have one on my official 'on day' and readjust the schedule). If I only get to Burnaby Hit twice one week, I go four times the next week to balance it all out. In other words, I make mistakes, learn from or fix them and move on!

You'll also notice I didn't set eating rules. Why? Because it has NEVER worked in the past for me. Maybe it works for some people...I'm NOT one of them. Instead of calorie counting and only eating certain foods, I've decided for now to just log my eating and be aware of it...self-monitoring if you will. When I have to look at pictures of everything I ate at the end of the day (and POST THEM), it makes me think more about my choices throughout the day. This awareness of what enters my mouth is what's making this work for me so far.

Pretty soon, I'm going to think about adding more to my goals in order to continue challenging myself. But right now I'm celebrating the fact that I'm still working hard on them, haven't given up and am seeing success! I've accepted the fact that I will fail sometimes and am determined to learn and move on! And I feel good about being able to share that lesson with others :-)