Dropping the ball - and not just in NYC! :)

Hi there!

I just thought I would check in and say hi - boy have I 'dropped the ball' on my blogs recently - and my health as well... I need to find my focus again... I am positive that I will find it...

I have gained a lot of weight recently - funny how it comes back on so quick! as of the last time I weighted myself - I read 157lbs... phew! The positive in all this is I am really observing what I do when I eat my way into gaining weight, and I work towards understanding what's going on and how to adjust... I pay attention to how I eat and how I feel... Most often I have the alarm in my head that goes 'watch out, this is expensive in points, avoid it or have very little...' followed by 'oh I'll have just a little' and then 'this is so good I want mooooore'. And then I usually end up eating the remainder of the box.

I find my over eating often comes in the form of boredom/treat eating, or un-prepared eating... that's my weak spot. I have to PLAN PLAN PLAN! I really struggle with that. As for boredom/treat eating, I need to find something to do instead of eating. Or at least, prepare something healthy to snack on - cut up bell peppers or something... But ideally, something that involves moving around would be best!

For 2010, I want to work on planning my meals and making exercise a better part of my routine.

I also have to think hard about my work as my contract/project ends in about 6 months... I am always debating about continuing to work hard at it and keep working in my field, or just plain changing careers...

I often remember the words of Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld) when I think of my work, he said that when the show started he had trouble writing it, that writing it felt like an impossible amount of work. When the show got picked up and he was asked to write 22 episodes he thought - there is NO WAY I can write any more of these - it's impossible, it's way too difficult, way too stressful! Yet, he went on to write several seasons.

I often feel that way about my work - like there is no way I can survive working through X amount of episodes. But I always end up somehow finishing it... which is just so unbelievable to me. Anyways, it's very stressful and at the very least, if I continue to work in my industry, I need to find a better way to deal with that stress. Because it is far from being healthy... I can say though that I have done a lot of progress in that realm this year - I started off the year with physical signs of being stress non-stop, and ended up the year far more relaxed about the whole thing, mostly through internal dialog in the lines of 'calm down, do what you can, one thing at a time' I tried to stop the 'panic' before it happened by making sure I 'decided' to keep positive about difficult situations, taking on the many challenges while trying to stay calm.

Biggest thing I realized was - you are the one who decides how you react to things with 'panic' and there is no need for that. It's not the people around you who are making this stressful, it's you. Keep positive. One thing at a time. Easy does it. Breathe in, Breathe out...

I am not saying this quite the way I would like to - but hopefully it makes sense...

ok, I better start some work around the house now!

Have a happy new year guys!!

HAPPY 2010!!!!!!!!!

Week 2 - 155.2 lbs (+0.8)

translated from my french blog

The negative part:
I was 'on plan' for the first 2 days of the week, and then I 'lost track'.
I managed to eat 50 points I didn't have!

The positive part:
I was 'on plan' for 2 days!
I used my e-tool and tracked for 5 days!

My goals this week:
Continue to plan ahead (I think that goal will stick around for a while - it will be on the list until I succeed!:)
Continue to track with e-tool, everyday!


Idea to solve one of my recurring problems:
instead of hunting for a snack in my cupboards whenever I feel like one, I should prep myself some veggies or fruits to snack on - if I don't have any in the house: go out and buy some!!!


Today's plan (Monday)

Breakfast: Corn Bran cereal and skim milk.
Lunch: Mexican Rice WW Smart One (frozen meal). Some asparagus.
PM Snack: Activia Yogurt and a WW Chocolate Chip 1 point cookie.
Dinner: Home made beef Chili, a serving of corn chips to go with it. A Glass of low sodium v8.

should not have had: 4 caramel candy thingys at work and a pastry/dessert when our neighbors came over for a visit this evening.

Plan for Tuesday:

Breakfast: Corn Bran cereal and skim milk.
Lunch: Mexican Rice WW Smart One (frozen meal). Some fresh cut melons.
PM Snack: Activia Yogurt (I forgot to bring a cookie! but I'm not too hungry so far...)
Dinner: Some leftover home made beef Chili, a serving of corn chips to go with it. A Glass of low sodium v8.



Have a nice evening!

Let's start over...

translated from my french blog: On recommence...

At the beginning, the point of this blog was to help me track my weight loss. It worked well from January to July 2008, and then I hit a loooooong plateau. I lost about 7 pounds during the first edition of 'BLBE' about a year ago, and since then, I have maintained my weight at around 150 lbs.

Today, back from my 2 week holiday/wedding/honeymoon: 154.4 lbs.

So I am motivated to start again and follow the program more seriously this week.

On Sunday night, I prepared 5 meals for this week's lunches - 5 points each. I also filled my 'e-tool' with this info. I think I can progress and lose some weight if I make an effort in planing what I will eat ahead of time. Calculate my points ahead of 'eating them'. I've made the mistake of guessing how many points I eat and not journaling for too long now. Oh I have about 10 points left for today so I can afford to eat a little more chocolate... when in reality I was already out of points for the day...

I think that if I calculate my points before meals, I will be less likely to want to eat too much and have to count more unplanned points...

That's my goal this week: Count all my points a day ahead. Counting before eating...

one goal at a time right?

one, two, three, GO!

Sneak Peek :)

Will be back home in a week or so...

meanwhile here's a sneak peek :)

Countdown...

5 hours to go...

My Sixth 5k (Toronto Zoo Run)

translated from my french blog

warning, the following post is really long... phew!

Today (as in Oct 17th. I didn't feel like translating for the longest time! :P) for the first time S ran a 5k with me!!! It was the Oasis Zoo Run. Wheee :) We ran in our neighborhood a few times to practice together and I noticed right away that he is well ahead of me when it comes to speed - oh la la! It's crazy how easy it seems for him! When we train together he is nice - since I'm much slower than him he runs ahead at his own pace and then he loops back to meet me so that I always have him in sight. For his very first race though, I wanted him to give all he had and not wait for me, I was really curious to see what kind of time he could finish in! :)

It was 2 ºC outside (35.6 ºF) this morning - I didn't have the 'courage' to run in shorts - brrrr. But S decided to be brave and do it. Let's just say that getting there an hour early and having to wait in the cold was not very pleasant - I was so cold myself, I can't imagine how cold he must have been!





Unfortunately, these are the only 2 shots that made it to the memory card, even though I thought I took a bunch of shots before the race. The batteries were really low, that must be why... Too bad, I had some better shots in there - but I guess they just don't exist anymore :( oh well...


At the start line, they had organized people in 'waves' based on how long it would take to finish. We went to the 28-32 area, the second wave to start, one minute after the official start (the course was just too 'small' to let all the participants in at the same time...)

When we finally started running, S asked for my help to start his iPod, a few clicks and it worked, as soon as it did off he went... He ran so fast, he quickly disappeared in the crowd ahead of me, I was so proud! Go S GO!!! :)

There were a lot of hills on the course - oh boy oh boy - pretty difficult! (Hills that I inexplicably didn't anticipate even though I was right there visiting the zoo with my co-workers back in april... pffff!)

There were some 'loops' during the race where you got to run facing the runners that were ahead of you (how do you call/explain that? does it make sense?) anyways... So at the first 'loop' I kept an eye on the oncoming runners to see if I could spot S, I eventually saw him, all focused and concentrated! So concentrated that he didn't evn react when I yell woo hoo at him and waved :) It took me what seemed like a minute to a minute and a half to get to the point where I met him - I was so impressed when I realized that! WOW!

Somewhere around the 3rd km I started having cramps :( I tried to breathe calmly/deeply/slowly to see if it would go away, but the air was too cold, which kind of made it worse (exercise induced asthma/coughing etc.) But I was hanging in there... a few minutes later I started to feel pretty intense 'TOM' cramps - ouch So I ended up stopping twice to walk a little bit, it was brief, but it was needed...

By the time I got to 4km, I was really giving everything I had to this race - you're doing fine, don't pay attention you're not in pain... don't stop! don't stop! Eventually I heard a volunteer yell ''100m to go!'' So I started pushing and accelerating. I sprinted to the finish line... oof! this had to be the toughest sprint I ever ran, more difficult than any other race I did before - but I did it!!! The clock said '34:13' when I crossed the finish line (so 33:13, if you remove the extra minute we waited for being in the 'second wave') My HRM says 32:30 though... and I really clicked a bit before the start line and really waited until after the finish line to stop it... So my time was ok I guess, somewhere between 32:30 and 33:13. Not too bad...

I quickly spotted S in the crowd after finishing, faster then my stomach/lungs recovered so I had to collect myself before asking him how he did, hee hee... after a minute I said 'how........ long... you....?' He said that theclock said 28:30 when he crossed the finish line!!! (As in 27:30 if you remove the 1 minute offset...) WOAH!!!! I was so proud of him!!! His very first 5k and he does it in 27:30!!! Imagine if the course would've been flat - he would've been even faster!!

ok now I'm jealous! hee hee, just joking ;)

It's our last race before our wedding on Nov. 4th... in a little over one week... We plan to run on our honeymoon at Disney World, I looked it up and there are a few paths available... it's going to be so much fun to run there! Like a little bit of extra summer time to enjoy running outdoors :) From now until the wedding we have cut out all activities to avoid getting any injuries hee hee do you think we're being too 'safe'? :) Let's just say I'd rather be safe than sorry...

Last Sunday, we went to cheer on our soccer team (we're officially on the team but we're not playing until after the wedding...) and a girl from the opposite team fell on her wrist, you know, a typical fall where you would just get up and forget about it. Well, when she checked her wrist with her other hand she immediately lost all color in her face - the pieces of her arm were not in the right place anymore. Both teams were in shock to see what happened to her. I'm pretty sure she must have broken the bones in her forearm, her arm was like a 'Z'. She left in an ambulance and the game continued - everybody was slightly less, um... competitive after that... I think it really traumatized everybody - she kept repeating (please forgive the swearing...) ''My arm, it's fucked! It's fucked!''

so yeah - maybe it is a good idea that we're not playing after all... :)

Anyways, I'll keep an eye on the web site for the race to see if they post some photos, I'll update this post if they do...

A thing I meant to mention though is that both S and I have been sneezing like crazy since we got back from the Zoo, S more than me (he tends to be allergic to a bunch of things...) I wonder if it has to do with the animals at the zoo, or if it's just that we caught a cold or something...

Also, go see Marie's video of the 'finish line' on her blog - she ran the 10k at the zoo this morning! WOO HOO Marie!!! If I run today, it's in big part thanks to her - she persuaded me to try a race, which led to me 'training for the race'... And she always generously encourages me... I am totally addicted to running now - wheeeeee!! :)

My Fifth 5k...

translated from my french blog...

So I completed my fifth 5k this morning, it was for the CIBC Run for the Cure. My new shoes made their first appearance :) Speaking of which, it was when I bought them at the Running Room that I was told that this event attracts even more people than the Scotiabank run!

woah!


And boy was that true! It was kind of hard to find my way, the signage wasn't very clear... That might be because it wasn't an 'official' race but rather a 'fun run' - as I was told when I picked up my kit... There was going to be no official time recorded, no 'chip'.

But that's not so bad, because the 'charity' part of the event was really cool. It just felt like it was much more about that than it was about running... Sometimes you gotta do it for the charity right? ;)

I really enjoyed seeing all the 'bibs' that people were wearing that said who they were running for. Certainly made for interesting reading material during the race hee hee :)

Since the official shirt was white, I decided to go for my yellow 'Acura' shirt again, easier for S to find me in the crowd... :)



The race was supposed to start at 10am, but it was delayed, not sure why, although the 30 000 people present might have had to do with it... we actually started closer to 10:14...

It was pretty tight in there, but people around me were running pretty slowly, which helped me pass them all, mua ha ha ha It sounds silly, but the fact that I had to pass people a lot to keep a 'decent' pace definitely helped a lot with accomplishing this:

At the finish line, I looked at my watch (which I wore specifically because there wouldn't be a chip, to get a sense of how much time it took me and all...) and I couldn't believe my eyes - here I am, getting ready to show S with a 'no way - that's impossible!' look on my face





ha ha, I realized you can't see the info on that shot, so I took a new shot when I got home, here's what it said:





Wha??? 28:38? No way!!! According to S, the big clock at the finish line with the 'gun time' was indeed showing something like 28/29... Really? Ok, I guess I'll never know for sure without the official results of the chip, but I think it's safe to say that I beat my 32:19 personal best for sure! Wheeeee!! :)

My next race is the 'Zoo Run' at the Toronto Zoo. This time is special, this time S will accompany me!!!!!!! :) It's another 5k, and I am really looking forward to run it with him. This will be the last race before our wedding too :) I'm not quite sure if there it's a 'chipped' race or not yet, but we'll see...

Speaking of S, I have to tell you that all these races I've been running recently, I couldn't have done them without him. He's my #1 supporter! He encourages me so much - he drives and comes with me to all the events, he always reminds me to and helps me prepare, he has a wonderfully positive attitude about the whole thing and it motivates me so much! I think he genuinely enjoys watching the races :)





and now, I leave you with something I would just prefer leaving 'un-explained':





And also - thank you all for your encouragements - I think of the blogosphere all the time when I run, I wouldn't have dared to try this if it wasn't for you guys! so THANK YOU!!!! :)

My Fourth 5k

translated from my french blog...

This Sunday I participated in my fourth 5k event. It was for the Scotiabank Waterfront 5k.

20 000 runners were expected this year for the 20th anniversary! (running in the marathon, the half marathon or the 5k) There was a LOT of people at Nathan Phillip Square - phew!







It was so crowded at the finish line - S couldn't get a spot close by... This was his view of the finish:



I was well prepared this time. My outfit and gear was all in one place, ready to go. I had breakfast plans (Ezekiel bread and peanut butter with a glass of milk, yummy) I tried to 'apply' my new strategy : convince my brain that what I was about to do was easy... :)

So I started in the middle of the crowd in the yellow corral, about 2 hours after arriving on site (the start of the 5k was at the CNE this year, so there were shuttle buses from downtown to the start line...)

When I started running, I noticed I had some lower back pain, felt like muscle cramps of some sort. I guesses it was probably because I was a little cold and had been standing for a while... it worried me a little bit, but it quickly went away, phew!

A little later, I noted that there was a problem in my shoe - pain that I could only assume was due to the nail from one of my toes cutting into another toe... ouch! I tried to somewhat 'spread' my toes apart in there, but quickly realized there wasn't much I could do about it at that point, so I kept going...

Everything was going well, my strategy was working perfectly until I saw this hill that I was familiar with since I drove on it thousands of times - man I thought the brochure said the course was flat!! My brain was instantly and inevitably distracted - oh la la...

ok Marie, don't stop, keep running, you can do this

uh oh, that's tough!

it's ok it's ok, no big deal, let's just keep going, all that matters it that you keep running

but.... uh.... but..... it's difficult......


I kept running, all the way up. But my pace took a beating and my comfort/strategy - pffff... gone! I needed. to. walk. I still kept running until I got to the water station, where I dangerously slowed down to drink.. and then... and then... I walked for a bit.

A the end of the water station area there was a nice volunteer who was cheering on runners she said something along the lines of 'Come on you're almost there, don't stop now!' That gave me the kick I needed to start running again.

At that point, I started thinking about the finish line. Thinking about how I was doing for time... my goal was to finish faster than 32:19. So when I finally turned left on Bay Street, I checked my time and my iPod said 26 minutes. Wow! I was impressed! Being just a couple blocks away from the finish line meant I was doing really really well. So I started accelerating. It goes Front, the King, then Queen right? Here comes Front, yeah! Ok, time to push it a little more! then came Wellington (huh?) that's ok, keep going faster you're almost there! Then came King, ah!!! good, almost there push it!! Adelaide (wha???) man! ok how many more streets now?
Temperance St......
Richmond St..............
and Queeeeeeeeen!!!!
and FINALLY - the finish line!!!! Wheeeeeee!!!

Official results: 32:32 minutes

1311/4249 for the 5k runners
640/2769 for womens
148/474 for my category
pace: 6:44


Wheeeee!! Phew! Only 13 seconds above my goal - not too bad at all!! :)

Another 5k - done!

I found the finish line pretty crowded, I probably lost 1 second there, pfff ;) it really was crazy crowded past the finish line though and I started to worry, wondering if I would find S easily...



Let's play where's Waldo :) I was wearing my green shirt from the TO Women's 5k (I officially decided on a new tradition to wear the shirt from the last race on all my races if possible)






Oh there! I found you!!! :)



After the long path toward the exit and through the food station........




............ S and I 'found' each other and we left the race site. We went to the Running Room right away to get my reward: These super duper new running shoes!! :) (My old shoes were going on 4 years... they are now my designated 'yard work shoes' hee hee



When I took my shoe off at the store to try on some new pairs, I noticed that my sock was bloody - oooops! My toe nail was cutting my other toe after all - oh well! Luckily I had packed another pair of socks... I feel so tough now, yeah! ha ha ha ha





My next race? The CIBC Run for the Cure... Next Sunday! Ouiiiiiii :)

Later!!