MEXICAN ADVENTURES

The journey continues in Mexico - Oct 23. Naturally I was concerned about my weight on this vacation, but interested to see how my new eating/exercise habits would play out!

I had a 5 lb 'buffer' built in before the trip, so even if I put on a few lbs I would still be below goal.

It was a romantic vacation and wonderful for my confidence. I took 4 bikinis and wore them all!
We had a terrific kitchen so we made many of our own meals, keeping with the Mexican theme. Home made guacamole every evening but with broken up tostadas instead of fatty,salty tortilla chips. Fresh local fish, and Mexican fried rice, but we added black beans for fibre and protein.
Exercise included aqua aerobics at the resort pool and lots of ocean snorkelling, following the amazing sea turtles as they grazed.
The end result?
My Wednesday weigh in showed an increase of 1.4 lbs after we returned! A few weeks at the gym should remedy that! The important thing is that I was able to eat carefully but without depriving myself and have a ball on vacation without gaining a significant amount!! wonderful for my confidence. I took 4 bikinis and wore them all!

We had a terrific kitchen so we made many of our own meals, keeping with the Mexican theme. Home made guacamole every evening but with broken up tostadas instead of fatty,salty tortilla chips. Fresh local fish, and Mexican fried rice, but we added black beans for fibre and protein.

Exercise included aqua aerobics at the resort pool and lots of ocean snorkelling, following the amazing sea turtles as they grazed.

The end result?

My Wednesday weigh in showed an increase of 1.4 lbs after we returned! A few weeks at the gym should remedy that! The important thing is that I was able to eat carefully but without depriving myself and have a ball on vacation without gaining a significant amount!!

Personal Best!

33 min, 10 seconds in the Pinery 5k on Sunday!! My weight is staying steady at around 170, but I'm much fitter! Took 6 minutes off of my Port Stanley time!

This week I'm preparing for our holiday in Mexico. Abs of Steel mat exercises every morning and herbal tea only in the evenings. I'd like a buffer before we go away.

The strategy is to do much of our own cooking (we have a kitchenette!) and try to do some form of exercise every day. There is a gym at the resort, so I'll scope it out right away. Snorkelling and walking will be the main forms of exercise though! The trick will be avoiding margaritas!

Thanksgiving 2009 vs Easter 2009

Can you spot the differences between the Easter picture (first post) and Thanksgiving?

August 29 -Woodstock Haflinger Show

Tight riding breeches do little to enhance a girl's figure and they tell no lies!

I've been cringing at photos for years now and the fact that Naomi is so little just makes the whole effect more comical!

Yesterday was different! I'm still big on her, but at 5' 10" I always will be. The difference this time was that my legs looked shapely and not like giant hams! My rear was a bit sloppy- but hey! Its a 50 year old rear- it's seen some action! lol!

No ribbons on my bridle at this show, but I was wearing a big smile all of the pictures and enjoying myself thoroughly! No scavenging for food on the midway either. We had a cooler of diet pop and fresh fruit with us. Naomi even shared her carrot sticks with me.

Ran the Run!! August 14, 2009

So, one of my 'before I am 50' goals was to run a 5k.

Not to win, just to finish!

'Reach the Beach' in Port Stanley takes place in the early evening, so perhaps not the best for an asthmatic like myself. Thanks to Pauline, my running partner, we were there early enough for me to do lots of stretching. She had warned me about the hill, but nothing had prepared me for this monster! We walked the hill, which saved us plenty of energy to run the rest of the race. We finished a respectable 177 and 179 out of 226. Plenty of room to move up next year, and for a personal best in October! And Victoria Park in London has no hills, so we're good!

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My second goal was to lose 30 lbs. I'm 3 lbs off that after an unfortunate sodium encounter early this week. I gained 1.8 lbs, but I told it that it had to leave next Wed -and take some friends with it!!! The moral: READ LABELS!! My lovely Japanese tuna dinner had 890 grams of sodium!!!

Pounding back the water now, and walking for 1/2 hour at lunch. This is a habit I gave up when I started running, but both is better, right?

Almost at Goal!

I tried something new last week. Another Weight Watchers member and I restricted our diets to what WW calls 'filling foods'. It's not as grim as it sounds. I can have lean meats, eggs, corn, watermelon, berries-so all of my favourites. If I really want something that is not 'FF', I can still have it, but there is a limit.

When I went to a horse show with my friends on Saturday I was the ultimate WW planner. I took lots of water, celery sticks, yogurt, a small wrap and a tub of blueberries. Good thing, too!

There was only a chipwagon for food, so although the poutine sure looked good and the hamburgers smelled heavenly, I was happy with my wrap and some berries!

I can't run on weekends. As much as I wanted to, we are just too busy and cherish our time together. The only way I could do it is if Brian ran too. So we walked, alot, and so did the dogs.

My weight was down 2.6 lbs at weigh in this morning!!! 1.2 lbs to goal, and I'm finally at a healthy BMI!!!

I ran 4.5 k this morning to ramp up for my 5 k race on Friday!

So hopefully by this time next week I will be at my goal weight and have achieved my other goal of running a 5k race before I am 50!!!

AUGUST 5 2009 -Four More Pounds to Goal !

The last ten pounds really stick! I didn't think I could give up alcohol in the summer, but I realized a week ago that I had to in order to make this happen. Points matter in the long run, but I'm not a patient person and I know I'll lose momentum if I don't keep losing. Alcohol and lack of activity are my enemies.

Funny, Brian's nutritionist pointed out that his diet was unbalanced. He was eating very few carbs and no grains because his diet is in sync with mine. A diabetic diet has to be low in carbs, but no so low that it is out of balance. I've been trying to include a grain serving every day now. I have a wheat sensitivity, but I can eat rice and oatmeal. I've been eating no grains at all, since they are high in points and gluten-free products taste weird and tend to be not worth the calories.

Low and behold- when I balanced my diet, I dropped 2.2 pounds! I have 3.8 to lose now to reach my goal of 173 lbs. That will bring me to the 'healthy' BMI range. I'll hang out there for a while and then lose a bit more as I run more.

Another thing that has really helped is my 'virtual duct tape'. I imagine a piece of duct tape over my mouth at 7:30 pm, and add an 'alcohol inhibitor' on week nights. Not eating or drinking alcohol after 7:30 is really helping and I hope to carry this new habit on for the rest of my life.

We visited with my daughter last weekend and she took me to her studio for a photo shoot. What a treat, to get all 'glammed' up and have professional pictures taken! I felt quite the princess! The bathing suit photos told me that I still need to lose some even after I'm 'healthy'. Brian and I are 'sun-bunnies' and on our holidays I'm rarely out of a swim suit.

But I'm close to being healthy, and isn't that what it's really all about? I'm bracing myself for another plateau, but also determined to run every day, even on weekends. I've been running 3-4 times a week, and not at all when I was sick/injured, so maybe there won't be a plateau this time!