Day Two on Strike

This is quite the education. I have always liked people watching, (must be why I work in customer service), and boy, are people interesting! Give someone a megaphone and a whistle and a star is born! The day started out quite cool so the constant walking around, and around, and around, (you get the picture) kept us warm until the sun came up. Colleagues are showing talent in keeping people upbeat and motivated with song and dance. Today the drums came out.

I must say that the public have been great! Thank-you all for your continued support! Everyone is polite and wishing us luck with our issues. We were also joined by colleagues from the other unions and even employees from other companies!

The decision by the Conservative government to legislate us back could be precedent setting and I think that many labour groups are seeing what could happen to them.

I forgot to wear my pedometer today. I wonder how many steps I took. I know I'm not taking any more as I am permanently glued to the couch and quickly falling asleep. Three o'clock in the morning is obscene!

Zzzzzzz....

On Strike

I really am on strike, just not from exercise! My back is feeling much better. Just in time to hold a picket sign!

How do I add walking the picket line to my Wii Fit credits????

I Thought I Was Back....

.......but my back had other ideas. I knew I felt a bit sore however I just figured it was all of the exercise. I have been walking, gardening and "Wii-ing". I have also been ignoring the allergies. They're allergies and although inconvenient they will go away. The pain and stiffness became worse and finally I had to give in and accept that somewhere in the past week I put too much strain on my back. I have taken it easy the past few days and I can tell you that I'm antsy to get active again. I can literally feel myself becoming mushy. I want to exercise! Can you believe that! I was starting to see change in the shape of my legs and waist and arms. Although my weight has been very slow to reduce, (yeah muscle!) my shape is toning up!

Today I woke up and so far no major jabs of pain in my lower back! Let's hope I'm mending with no long lasting effects!

The Tree Pose

I am feeling better today. It is a beautiful sunny hot day and I hope it lasts! I know I'm feeling better because I cooked dinner. Breakfast was one slice of organic rye bread with a thin layer of smoked salmon cream cheese for flavour, with fruit and oj and green tea. Lunch was basically the same with a glass of milk added. My water intake is up, mostly due to the heat.

For dinner I made polenta with chicken stock. Once done I put it in a loaf pan and place the pan in the fridge. When we are ready to eat I remove the polenta and grill the slices and serve with sauce. For the sauce I removed sausage meat from the casings and browned the meat with sliced mushrooms and a tin of chopped tomatoes. That's it! You would be so surprised at the amount of flavour. Serve the sauce over the sliced grilled polenta and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. We are having carrot, celery and cucumber sticks for the veggie portion.

I also know I am feeling better as I was able to do 38 minutes on my Wii. I started with the advanced step in order to warm up. I hit a bucket of golf balls and tried unsuccessfully to make it to the third level of the advanced obstacle course. I laugh when I do the math game. I am on the advanced level, (add or subtract numbers to total 15) I can never finish! The Wii keeps telling me to make small hip shakes. My hips seem to make big hip shakes so I add and subtract numbers that I don't want, lol!

I had the Wii make up a yoga routine for me today. I just knew it would include my least favourite yoga positions. Yup! There was the Tree Pose. I was a dancer for years and I embarrass myself that I cannot stop wiggling while trying to hold this pose. I guess this should be another of my goals.

I do feel better; all stretched out again. I am still a little lightheaded and shaky, however, I feel I will not get worse. ( I hope!)

Think good thoughts for tomorrow!

Is It a Virus?

I know I haven't posted in a few days. It's not that I have given up. Not even the cramps kept me down long! I thought I had a bit of a cold or most probably allergies. On Friday I didn't feel good and looking back I thought it was something I ate. I slept in on Saturday and when I finally got up I had to really push myself to do anything. At one point on Saturday I had the chills, nausea, and nearly passed out in our bathroom. The really bad feeling did pass and I passed it off as an anomaly. Well, I still feel bad from allergies and it seems Hubby found out at work today that one of his coworkers had the same symptoms as I had. They went to the clinic and was told it's a virus that's going around. There is nothing to take for a virus so I guess I will just be careful and wash my hands even more than I do now. I work with the public and think I'm immune to it all. I guess I need time to become immune to the new germs. I just wish the public would stop putting their documents in their mouths before handing them over to us!

Better Today

I felt so much better today in one respect. However, at the same time I seem to be either coming down with a head cold or starting allergies! I am still amazed that even feeling tired and sick I still went downstairs and put in a solid 31 minutes of exercise. I must say that everyday I exercise makes me believe even stronger in the adage that, "it takes 21 days to make a habit".

I warmed up with Advanced Step and the Advanced Obstacle course. I did hit another bucket of golf balls. Hitting golf balls really works the upper body and waist! I stretched out with a long yoga routine and finished with some deep breathing exercises. Yep, felt better afterward!

I will start paying attention to my weight next week. I have 16 days (of the goal I set) to lose 2.2kg. That's a lot of weight and I hope some will disappear with the water gain from this week and I will make more of an effort with food. The food thing is harder than the exercise thing. I'm hungry!

Tomorrow, on "Catch Up Fridays", I will fill you in on my day! Thanks everyone for your continuing support!

38 Minutes Today

I'm feeling much better today. I'm not paying attention to my weight this week. I did get an extra hour of sleep last night so I do feel more rested today. I still managed to nap around 2pm today for about an hour. I made myself get up right afterward and was surprised that I felt good, not draggy.

I ate well today in that my portions were cut way down. I was hungry so every time I felt a hunger pang I drank a glass of water. Mind over matter!

I'm still not ready for a lot of jumping up and down so upon my arrival downstairs I challenged myself with all of the balance and agility games. I tried golf for the first time and actually enjoyed it. The Wii evaluates my swing. I hit two buckets of balls on the driving range and was surprised at how hard it was. I always tease Hubby that golf is an excuse for exercise! I take it back! Hubby came down and tried the driving range when I told him about it and he said it was pretty good!

Before I knew it 38 minutes had passed.

Looking forward to aerobics tomorrow!

EA Sports or My Fitness Coach?

I have to be honest here. I did not exercise either yesterday or today. I have dragged myself to work the last two mornings and upon returning home I crawled on to the couch with Advil and wishing I had remembered I had a heating pad. I'll say it: CRAMPS! They seem to be returning with the same intensity from when I was a teenager! I'm getting migraines, too. I know: TMI!

You will be proud as I did at least weigh in before bed. I also did the body test. That was all I could physically or mentally manage. This will not stop me, I am committed to better health!

This brings me to the reason for the title of this post. In my better moments this weekend I was surfing the web for another Wii fitness game for variety. EA Sports and My Fitness Coach seem to be the two top Wii Fit games per all the various review I read.

Any opinions?

Today, Sunday, is a Day of Rest

It's the Sunday of the long weekend. Work this morning was so quiet, it was painfully boring!

When I went home I dutifully went downstairs to weigh in. Yep, up again. I have decided that one week a month I will not pay attention to the scale! Also, being Sunday, once again the Wii offered that I should take the day off. So....... I did a few balance games and called it a day!

I spent some time at Costco looking at other Wii fitness games. I think I might purchase another game and alternate just to keep things interesting. I am in no way bored yet, I am looking forward to when I might need to up the challange a bit.

Let's not talk about food today! We had the entire family over for a bbq today. So I will not mention the chicken legs, or the sausages or the potato and pasta salad, let alone the apple or blueberry pie with ice cream!!!!!!!!

Need I say more!

See you tomorrow!

The Morning After

The morning after beer, wings and fries held no issues except for the fact that my weight was up (no surprise there) and I was thirsty! (again no surprise) The wings were really good. I had the honey garlic with country fries. I did drink light beer. If we go back again I think I will try the wings with medium hot sauce and see how that goes. It was a fun night! What made it even better was that the son of one of my friends drove us all there and when we were ready to go home he came and picked us all up and delivered us all safely home! That was the first time we did this and it was strange as I remember him all little but at the same time it was nice not to have to worry about a DD. Funny thing was that no one over drank. I'm sure some of us would be 0.5 but no one was silly.

On to today. I woke up and weighed in. (need to be good for the next few days) Cleaned the house and gardened. I took a break from gardening and did my 30 minute yoga routine. I'm getting really good at the downward facing dog. Has anyone tried the triangle pose? It feels like you have stretched every muscle in your body afterward! I can now do the standing knee without wobbling all over the place. The Wii is very proud!

Let's see, breakfast was oatmeal with berries and I tried for the first time vanilla almond milk. Wow, tasty! Lunch was two slices of homemade pizza. (I should have had only one) I have eaten two bunches of grapes and a trail mix nut mixture for a small snack. I had lots of water. Dinner was one slice of german sunflower rye bread with the thinnest layer of mayo, sliced spanish salami, (spicy!) and sliced tomatoes. I drank a glass of orange juice with dinner. I wonder how much fat was in all I ate today? Looking back at what I ate I think I did ok with the fruit and veggie servings. I put one cup of berries in my oatmeal and I ate about a cup of grapes in total. It was only half a tomato with dinner, though. Hmmmm. I have to learn to eat more salad!

On to tomorrow. I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. I hope we get lucky and have as nice a day tomorrow as we did today!

Busy, Busy Day

From I woke up this morning until now at 10:35pm I have been going, going, going. It's just one of those days. I only had twenty minutes from when I arrived at home from work this morning as I had to pick up the older one from school for his second eye appointment this week. I really wanted to weigh in before I ate but I didn't have time to eat either!

After the eye appointment we went for a nice lunch together at "Arbys". I like Arbys! I had the Philly beef and swiss with an orange crush. I haven't had a pop in over a year! The older one and I shared the most amazing order of small fries. So much for calories!

Dropped him off back to school and went off to FedEx to courier a letter. Finally, went back home and enjoyed a cup of tea before heading back out to pick up the older one again from after school band practice. We went to my favourite grocery store, Oceans, where we picked up a huge bag of mussels, lettuce, and a few other items.

So, dinner was pasta with mussels in a tomato sauce. Wow, was it ever good. Nice and simple. I just sauteed some minced onion and garlic in olive oil and butter. Added in a can of diced tomatoes and some wine. Seasoned with salt, pepper. thyme and tarragon. Reduced it down to concentrate the flavours and added in the mussels to steam. Again, wow!

I was good though, I kept myself to only one medium sized serving. Hubby had two huge servings and was moaning from a full belly after dinner!

Guess what? I still managed to fit in 30 minutes of exercise way after dinner. I took it a little easy and did twenty minutes of yoga and 10 minutes of balance games. Not bad, eh?

And here I am blogging about it now. I will persevere!

Food, Food, Food

And what to do about it!

Now that I seem to be following a habit of exercising 30 minutes every day I have discovered another challenge. Food! I like to eat because I enjoy food; how it tastes and the preparation. It's hard to reduce portion size. It's not that I'm still hungry.... rather it's that I want to continue experiencing the taste.

I have learned from people with whom I speak that I will start to gain muscle mass and that will keep my weight up. I need to burn off the fat! The more I exercise the hungrier I am. So, what to do?

I did 15 minutes today of aerobics and 15 minutes of strength training. All the while I am thinking about dinner. I made german goulash with spaetzle and salad. Yummy! I did have a small plate. I think for the next twenty-one days I am going to really, really watch and blog what I am eating. All of it. (Do I have to count the beer/wings/fries from this coming Friday????) Just how am I going to eat less than I already am?

As for the weight, I just remembered. I am reaching the start of a new cycle. (if you know what I mean) I always seem to eat more and retain more water so this could be the reason my weight is creeping up. Maybe, I should just ignore the next two weeks; in regards to food. ( I will not stop exercising) I will monitor and see how it progresses.

And the Journey Continues

It really is a journey isn't it? A lifelong journey to promote better health.

I had a busy day today with meetings at work and a few stops before I came home. However, I still found that I was drawn downstairs to the Wii. I did 20 minutes of aerobics and 10 minutes of balance games. It's interesting that I found time (which was always there) to go and exercise. I also managed to do a load of laundry, make break and prepare dinner.

Lunch was a treat. Take-out from, "Made in Japan". I had chicken and veggies and noodles. I know, I know, there is a lot of salt in that terriyaki sauce! It was good!

For dinner I marinated chicken breasts with olive oil, sherry, garlic, shallots, oregano, smoked spanish paprika (thanks Carol!) and salt and pepper. I covered the chicken with diced onion, red pepper, and sliced manzanillo olives. Covered the dish with foil and baked for 30 minutes. I am serving it with rice seasoned with saffron and cooked in diluted chicken stock. Salad and steamed baby peas will round it all out. Yummy!

The Twenty-First Day!

I made it!

I just finished a 35 minute workout with my Wii. I started again with the Rhythm Parade. I really like the way it warms up all of me. I followed with Advanced Kung-fu and I almost achieved a perfect score. Then I did the math game and finally won! I can now count to 10! The advanced obstacle course has ice and I kept slipping off into the abyss. I will have to learn more finesse with that game. I cannot resist the advanced steps. I pretend I'm dancing and I always wonder if there is a Wii game that contains more rhythmic dance? I must investigate! As it was the last day I decided to do the Short Run. I will admit that I am not a runner. I will leave that to Carol! This time the Short Run did not claim me.... I actually made it and did not feel like dying! I guess this just goes to show that the exercise is working. I will see if I can slowly work my way to the Long Run. No promises, though. I finished off my aerobics with a Ski Jump and Snowball Fight. The Snowball Fight is a good time!

I believe that took me to 25 minutes of aerobics so I programed a 10 minute yoga routine to stretch myself out and cool down. I still really feel good doing the Sun Salutation. I can almost touch my toes.

I look forward to continuing my exercise routine. I also need to work harder on what I eat. I need to add more fruits and vegetables to my day. I'm not a snacker so I find it hard to pick up an apple and eat it. I like apples, I'm just not hungry between meals. I will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and have juice, tea, milk and water with meals and in between meals. I was reading that smaller meal portions and healthy snacking keeps the metabolism consistently working. I guess I will have to learn how to snack?

I will continue to blog daily about my exercise and food intake as I find it keeps me honest. It's been twenty-one days and this routine is working so, why change it?

Thanks everyone! I feel (or pretend) I have a silent cheering squad out there in blog land keeping me going.

Day Twenty of Twenty-One

One day to go until a lifelong habit is formed! Yeah! I will continue as I have become accustomed to it and it is a lot of fun. I know I am repeating myself but I am consistently amazed at how I will start my exercise feeling low and not wanting to participate and after 30 minutes I feel so positive and full of energy! After almost twenty days I would certainly hope I would not stop the routine. It's funny though as I have now come to realize that every Sunday the Wii tells me to take the day off! I understand that it's all part of not overdoing it. So, on Sundays I work a lot with the balance and coordination games. I really enjoy the obstacle course. When you do the course enough times a virtual reality thing seems to take over as my Mii and I seem to become one! What I mean is, after a while you really feel like you are performing the task at hand. I can better understand how people can get sucked into video games! You would probably laugh at how hard I concentrate when on the tightrope, especially when I have to jump on said rope! I have yet to unlock the advanced version of the tightrope. I have only made it across once! There is also a math game where you have to shake your hips in the direction of a bubble to choose it to add the numbers together to achieve a given sum. I think my hips wiggle too much!

Here's looking forward to tomorrow!

Day Nineteen of Twenty-One

I woke up all bright and bushy tailed this morning! Hubby was already up and he was taking the younger one to his last art class. The younger one wants to be an art and music teacher for secondary school so he has already made an arrangement to volunteer to help his art teacher with her next set of classes. Our piano is getting a much needed tuneup today. Yeah! It always sounds and plays so nicely when it's just been tuned. Our piano is played everyday and I missed getting it tuned last year so it is long overdue.

I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing I did after I got out of bed was to go and workout on my Wii. I'm down another 0.3kg and I think I am starting to notice a slight difference in my silhouette. (I might be just imagining it, but hey, positive vibes, right!)

I started out with the 'rhythm parade' which is great for getting warmed up. I then did 'rhythmic kung-fu followed by step ups and then the obstacle course. I also did hula hoops; the advanced version; what a killer!

I cooled down with 20 minutes of yoga to stretch myself out. As I finished the older one came downstairs and he had some fun with the obstacle course and ski jumping. Hubby made my favourite breakfast. "Camping breakfast" Nothing beats bacon and eggs with a cup of tea when camping. I figured out that with the exercise my metabolism was up and active so would burn off the breakfast calories sooner! (one can hope!)

I am wondering what I will do when I have reached the twenty-first day. I believe that blogging is a great way to help keep me motivated. I don't think you will all want to continue to read about my continuing goal of better health. But I am thinking, if it keeps me honest I will continue.

I hope no one minds!

Day Eighteen of Twenty-One

Today is the day I go to help Carolin at her work. She has been hired to cater a meeting at her school. I am looking forward to seeing her new kitchen and seeing how her day goes!
I went downstairs to weigh myself as soon as I awoke. Guess what...... I have lost 2kg! Yeah! I reset a new goal to lose another 2kg in a month. I like the idea of taking a month to lose a small amount of weight. I am hoping that by losing weight slowly it will stay off!

I am back now from helping Carolin. You will have to read "Catch Up Fridays" to see how it went!

I came home and relaxed with a book and a glass of water in the backyard. It was a beautiful day! I cut the lawn and put out a few garden trinkets. Dinner was courtesy of Carolin. She gave me some leftover pizza from her kitchen. It was yummy! Thank you so much!

I didn't actually exercise with the Wii today. I did input fit credits for doing dishes though!!!! I was active in the garden and I decided to reward myself for achieving my weight loss goal! I will be back on the Wii tomorrow. Only three more days to go!

Day Seventeen of Twenty-One

I always find that I am so tired by the end of my work week. I know that that is no different from anyone else. One battle that I am starting to win is not to give in to my desire to just sit and vegge. out on the couch. With that in mind, I came home from work and weighed myself right away. This makes me commit to exercising later. I ate lunch of leftover ground beef stroganoff with wild rice. I did not have any vegetables and that was wrong! I did have my cup of tea, though. I became so sleepy after I ate that I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up when our dog started barking at something outside.
It was a good thing as I slept for two hours! I got up and put on a loaf of bread and tidied the kitchen. Dinner was tuna fish sandwiches with salad so not a lot of prep. work. I went downstairs and did a solid 30 minutes of strength exercises. Ouch!! I need to do more strength work and less yoga. The yoga is becoming easier. The Wii had me doing side planks and push ups and jack knifes and other forms of torture! I did feel pumped afterward so I guess that is the reward for today.

I am looking forward to helping Carolin at her school cafe tomorrow!

Day Sixteen of Twenty-One

Here I am at sixteen days of consistent exercise and reduced servings of food. How do I feel? I do feel lighter in spirit and I do find that I am in a better mood. I feel positive and I also find that I have more conviction with getting things done. Hubby thinks that I should not count down the days as he feels that when I reach the 21st day I will feel a sense of relief that it's over. I hope not! It's supposed to take 21 days to ingrain a new habit so I hope that 30 minutes of exercise and reduced meal servings will just become the norm.

I am feeling stiff and sore. I think I can feel muscles that I didn't know I had. I think of the Wii as my own "Trainer Josh"!

After work I did the Wii body test. I lost another 0.5kg! I then ate lunch of leftover bbq pork chop with salad and some rice. I went to volunteer and did my 30 minutes of aerobics and strength and yoga after dinner. I am very tired now. I hope I sleep well.

Day Fifteen of Twenty-One

This week is passing by very slowly. I seem to be one day ahead in my mind. It could be because the boys had a PD day on Monday. This however, did not deter me from my Wii. I weighed myself as soon as I came home from work. Yeah! I'm down another 0.3kg. At this pace I should be down a few pounds in a month.

I did another few loads of laundry and (drum roll please) 3 1/2 hours of gardening. As I sit here now I can feel myself starting to stiffen up!

Ok, I just stepped away to do 15 minutes of yoga to stretch myself out. I wonder how I will feel tomorrow? I remember I said that I was going to do strength exercises but I think the gardening was a great substitute!

Dinner was bbq'd pork chops with wild rice and a Greek salad.

Six days to go!