Wish me luck!!

Playing 2 soccer games tonight - it's the winter season's playoffs... First game at 10h30, second game at 11h30 - oy...

We're in second position, we actually have a shot at winning this year!! Yay:)

Wishing you all a nice evening! :)

It's cold in TO tonight...

Oh boy oh boy, today was soooo busy... I am so tired... Days like this I just feel like quitting... well it's the evening now! And that's a good thing, phew!

I made my oatmeal with pumpkin again this morning yay!! :) Just as good as yesterday's...

oooh! I forgot to mention yesterday that I also added a pinch of salt, which I believe does make a difference!!


For lunch I had a ''Rice and Beans'' from Smart one / WW...



And a Luna bar as a snack... I went to work 2 hours early this morning, so I was had lunch early and was really hungry all afternoon!!!



For dinner we had some chili that we prepared yesterday, yummmmy :)



Nothing too special, ground beef and red kidney beans...



some chick peas...



And finally, I tried some plain yogurt with pumpkin purée, as suggested by Pam.

What I did:
100g of fat-free plain yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoon of pumpkin
1 teaspoon maple syrup (I knew I would need a bit of sweetness)
A bit of cinnamon and nutmeg

of course, with a few chocolate chips:)




Mixed...



Not bad at all!! I would add a little more maple syrup though, the yogurt was pretty 'sour'. But it was still pretty yummy!! :)

We have a winner...

I was succesful this morning with my oatmeal/pumpkin puree. I read a post by Tina from Carrots and Cake yesterday and I noted that she adds her pumpkin puree before cooking the oatmeal... I also added less puree this time, only 2 good tablespoons.

With a side of raspberries...



So this time I used:

1/3 cup of Quaker Oats 'minute'
2/3 cup of water
2 tablespoons Pumpkin purée
2 teaspoons Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon Brown Sugar
And a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg...

The taste was much better, something about the pumpkin being ''cooked''... I don't know...

Ans I also had a couple of these dark chocolates for my sweet tooth :)

Too many vegetables?

For dinner, nothing spectacular - S felt like having pizza, but I felt like something ''healthier'' something that was going to make me feel ''full''... So I had a frozen dinner by Amy's Kitchen - the Palak Paneer.



along with something I had for way too long in my freezer that I felt like trying - frozen brussels sprouts from the ''Green Giant''. S wanted to be in the blog, so he pointed at them :)



I enjoyed them in one of my favorite bowls - it's grrrrreat! :)



I have to say that I was very full after eating all of that, very close to ''having too much'' to eat... but after a bit of time I was still ready for a little desert

Half a cherry/dark chocolate Kashi bar,



and a handful of small dark chocolates :)



If I end up feeling like eating some more, which is not very likely, I'll probably have some raspberries or some asparagus...

Pumpkin...

I've been meaning to try adding some pumpkin puree in my morning oatmeal for a long time now - I've seen a lot of people on different blogs do it... So this morning, I finally opened the can I had... :)




I really didn't know what I was doing, so I started with my usual 1/3 cup oats, 2/3 cup water, 1 tsp brown sugar. After cooking it, I added 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree, some cinnamon and some nutmeg...



It wasn't great... Kind of missed something sweet... So I added 2 tsp of maple syrop, and a tiny bit of vanilla - that worked. I investigated on some blogs and found that Kath Eaths, for instance, usually adds half a banana to it, which probably makes it a bit sweeter, so I'll try that next time I buy bananas. I know a lot of people also add nuts to it, but I'm really not a fan of nuts, so I'll pass...

We went bowling after that - yup, bowling!! :) It was the first time for S since his knee surgery and it went well... Hopefully he can come back to the soccer team for the summer!! :)

We had some camera problems today and I know I took a photo of my lunch time Harvey's ''Grilled Chicken Burger'' but I can't find the file anywhere... What worries me the most is that I most likely lost a bunch of other pictures that I don't remember, no fun :(

******EDIT**** Found it!! :)



In the afternoon we went shopping and I bought some jeans - I'm down to size 6!!!! That was a great NSV:)

Back home I felt like snacking, so I had some raspberries,



some mushrooms,



and a cup of my favorite cranberry juice.



I don't know what I'm going to do or dinner yet, but I still have 8 points for it and that makes me happy :)

Next time I'll try adding pumpkin to yogurt, as suggested by Pam.

NSV...

I bought new jeans today...

+1.2 lbs - One Tuesday later...

Yup, I gained weight this week... I couldn't resist going to the bakery with S on Friday... I could've resisted eating so much of it though... ugh... It was really up to me and I didn't stop myself... no wonder the scale was showing me a higher number... no excuse... but I'm putting this behind me and focusing on the 'now' - let's make better decisions, now.

So this morning I had a Luna bar in the car



An Activia Yogurt at work...



Some Kashi craquers at lunch



To accompany my Scallion-Tofu Stir-Fry leftovers. It's a WW recipe I made this weekend... This time I had it with some Wild Rice. The photo was taken this weekend, when I actually had it with some rice, but today I had it without it... Just as good...




For dinner we had some President's Choice Vegetable Samosas (forgot to take a photo...)

With some red peppers and snow peas as a snack



My cranberry juice...



A Date Square from the bakery (I only had a third of an actual serving- I had the whole thing on Friday... tsk tsk tsk)



and also some... hickory sticks :(

I don't know what's wrong with me these days but I'm going to have to start 'controlling' myself again when it comes to snacking... I don't get what happens, I just start with a snack, and then I just don't stop... Enough!!!

I know what I need to do... plan... I'm very new to planing - I need to teach myself that... Yes, I can;)

Day 2 - not really...

Yep, it's only day 2 of trying to wake up early, but we got up late today... So I ate a luna bar in the car either 3 or 4 points... (french - some day I'll translate it...) I prefer going for 4 points to be sure...




I was too busy at work, so I didn't have any morning snack until I noticed it was time for lunch... I had a ''Smart One'' some sort of Tex Mex Rice and Beans thing, it had a bit of cheese I think... I liked it a lot - 6 pts



Had my usual morning yogurt after lunch 2 pts


I got hungry, and I wanted to avoid the crazy headache I had yesterday, so I had a few more snacks. First, some Kashi TLC original crackers (1.5 pt)



And then a banana later at 4pm... (1.5pt) sorry for the dark picutre...



At home we had some Black Bean burritos from Amy's Kitchen (5pts)


With a cup and a half of my low calories Cranberry/Raspberry Ocean Spray juice... (1pt)


And then I gave in and accepted to share one of these chocolate-y goodies... (3.5 pts)


And finally, I had a small bowl of Smart Pop (2pts)



No exercise so far today, except for falling on the ice this evening, walking towards the car after work, grrrrr... ouch... lol Ok, maybe I'll do some Wii later :)

26.5 points for today...

Weigh In #1

Oui!! 150.2 lbs! In the 140s next week??!!

I woke up early enough that morning to prep and eat some oatmeal, with some skim milk...



at work I also had an Activia yogurt (not photographed)

For Lunch I had a bowl of rice from Amy's Kitchen - what a great find this Amy, I love these frozen meals!! They're kind of expensive, but I find it's worth it... much better than Lean Cuisine...



I recently went down to 21 points per day, and I noticed that it goes away quickly with the amount of snacks I usually have in the afternoon at work. So that day, even though I brought a lot of snacks to work, I started by counting my points first, and decided to only go for 1 snack, a 1 pt oat and raisins cookie from WW. (not photographed -oops!)

I was very hungry by 3pm, and had a huge headache by 6pm, I get home at 6h30pm... So I'll have to find out how to balance my meals and snacks better...

For dinner, we had some Blue Menu Italian Chicken Meatballs... There are 6 on the photo, but I had 14 of them, with some ketchup... (8pts) They are pretty small, and with the headache I had, I needed to feel full quick...



I felt like something chocolate-y, so I had a chocolate-soy pudding from Belsoy (2 pts)



oh, and I did about 20 minutes on the Wii Fit... but I don't count my activity points...

26 points for the day, not too bad...

Afternoon Snacks...

Yep, we ate healthy stuff - A total of 4.5 pts! And also, I did my first day of week 3 of c25k! wheee!!

So, we started with a bowl of cucumber with a few cherry tomatoes



accompanied by a 1 1/2 cups of my low calories Cranberry/Raspberry Ocean Spray Juice



Felt like some yogurt...



and then I felt like something crunchy, opened our new box of Orville's Smart Pop - half a bag is just 2 points! I had 1/4 a bag...

A Nice Sunday Morning... And Some Goals...

This is the translation of what I wrote on my french blog, sorry if you read that one too...

I started taking picture of everything that I eat, a bit just to try and see if it was going to help me be more 'aware' and careful of what I eat. It helped a bunch of people who write blogs that I love reading, so I thought why not try it? I've been posting the results on my french blog... I tend to start doing it on the weekend and forget to post the photos on the blog and pretty much give up until I get a boost of motivation again... like today :) Well, the good thing is I really enjoy the process, and it does most of the times keep me from over eating (thinking do I really want to go get the camera and take a picture just for this extra snack I don't really need?) I think that if I stick to it, it could become a 'second nature' thing... The taking the picture part is ok, it's the posting the pictures on my blog part that I find more time consuming and, well, I keep forgetting about it!! :)

So today I had oatmeal. I haven't had oatmeal in a while mostly because I kind of got sick of it, but also because I tend to eat in the car on the way to work to 'shorten' my morning routine and get some more sleep time: (oh, I'm not the one doing the driving, just in case you were wondering...:) So this morning, I felt like oatmeal again, I find it's really the only breakfast that keeps me feeling full until lunch time. I tend to get sick of it because I always have it with brown sugar, maple syrop and cinnamon... I think it migt be a good idea for me to give myself this 'mini-goal' for January to find a couple more oatmeal recipes I would enjoy ( I tend to be picky:) Something with pumpkin puree and spices, and something with bananas and vanilla maybe?! we shall see :)

So here's this morning Maple Syrop, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Oatmeal... (I think it's around 3 points)



And a cup of skim milk (2 points)



I was also going to have a banana, but it was too 'green' still...



My 2009 'Goals'...

1. Be at my goal weight before my wedding (most likely in October)
2. Exercise at least 3 times a week (I'm at once a week playing in a Coed soccer team on wednesday nights)
3. Become more organized at home, be organized enough to be able to have guests over!
4. Save enough money to be able to pay for the wedding without getting a loan...
5. Save more money (we tend to buy too much stuff...)

My Goals for January

1. Be under 150 lbs within about 2-3 weeks
2. Start training for the c25k again (I stopped after only 2 weeks...)

That's it for now... Well, the other thing that's been in my head a lot lately is finding another job, actually probably change career all together... What I do stresses me way too much, and sometimes I wonder if it's worth it... I worry a lot about not being able to find something that will pay as much, but... that what I need to think about - what do I want to do for a living? I just don't know... I started looking up the 'second career' programs and find it pretty overwhelming... What's difficult is to make that switch while I work somewhere that's making me so stressed out and leaves me with so little time to myself that I don't function properly... that's the challenge...

oh well...

I hope I have a good weigh in tomorrow!!! Have a nice Sunday!! :)

A New Start!

So here we are again... It's a new year, and we're starting the 2nd season of biggest loser blog edition!!! There are a looooot of participants this time around, I wonder how we should proceed to 'comment/encourage/kick bums' ... Waiting to see how Angie and Lynn are going to divide the teams, maybe we could read from our teammates?... we shall see... I just wanted to post quickly to report on how I am starting this new 'season'

Here are the new stats:

Start weight: 152 lbs
Weigh In Day: Monday
Goal weight for the end of the challenge: 135lbs * I might recalculate and edit later :)

ok, will pick up where I left when I get home...

Hope you guys are doing GREAT! Happy 2009!!!!