Going Gluten/ Lactose Free

Hi All! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted... I've been having a lot of problems with my stomach after my gallbladder surgery and am quite frusterated! They don't let you know all of the problems after the surgery that you can have!

I finally got in to see a naturopath that I really like on Friday. She put me on a no gluten, lactose or corn or potatoes diet!

It's going to be tough finding everything gluten and lactose free, but I'm hopeful that this will make me feel better. I'm also going on a couple supplements and my naturopath said that I could be back to 100%, still eating healthy, but that I could go back to eating whatever I want (within reason). It was like talking to a magician, I couldn't and still can't imagine that I can go back to having the odd treat or drink of pop without feeling sick!

I'm going to be posting healthy (gluten/lactose free) recipes and snacks that I'll be trying!

Today I tried "Quinoa porridge", Quinoa has amazing stats! Lots of protein and fibre!

Ingredients
1-2 cups of water.
¾ cup cooked quinoa
½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp raw walnuts
¼ banana mashed
Sprinkle of cinnamon


Directions
Combine quinoa, milk, and water in a small saucepan and place over a boiling heat. Once the mixture comes to a boil, turn it down to a simmer and allow it to cook for about fifteen minutes or so or until the porridge has thickened a bit and is heated through.

Stir in walnuts and bananas and top with cinnamon.

Approx Nutritional Analysis
Calories: 388 Fat: 8.5g Saturated Fat: .5g Carbs: 65g Fiber: 6.7g Protein: 14g

xo

My first foodie pictures!

Hi everybody! I hope you all had a great weekend! My weekend started Thursday night as I had Friday off! I saw my personal trainer who I hadn't seen in forever due to scheduling conflicts, but we finally found a night to do every week! It was good, she always makes weight loss seem like a battle that can be won! I biked on Saturday and today I went kickboxing! I was glad and happy with myself that I got so much excercise in to make up for the rest of the week! My eating has been pretty good. I'm going to a naturopath in March and I'm quite looking forward to it. Hoping I can get some of my stomach issues following my gallbladder removal surgery taken care of! I made some delish recipes I found on the 'recipes sharing board' on the x-weighted challenge webiste. I made 2.

First I made the "breakfast cookie"



Ingredients

1 1/4 cup regular oatmeal
1/4 cup flour
1/2 dry skim milk
1 cup applesauce
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 raisins
sprinkling of sugar

mix all together well in mixing bowl, put on baking sheet (makes 4 big cookies)

Bake at 375 for about 10-15mins or until browned.


The second was banana walnut muffins!



Ingredients

1/4 c. applesauce
1 c. sugar
3 bananas
1 c. whole wheat flour or regular flour
1/2 c.ground flax seed
1 tsp.baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 c. walnuts

mix all together well in mixing bowl, put in a muffin pan (makes 12 big muffins or 24 mini muffins)

Bake at 375 for about 10-15mins or until browned.


I tweaked this recipe as well, I have started to sub apple sauce for butter/margerine and I don't notice the difference!

As I get ready for this week I'm thinking what my short term goals are for this week and I'm making them simple so I stay on track. Gym atleast 3X, but 5X would be ideal. Also to eat healthy, I would like to try 2 new recipes this week!

Please leave me some if you have some delish recipes to share!

Frusteration and Yoga

Hi all! I'm so glad it's hump day today! I stayed home today because I was up half the night not feeling well. I had my gallbladder removed back in September and have been having some tummy troubles again.

Have any of you guys had your gallbladder out and troubles afterwards? I've really been watching what I'm eating, so I'm at a loss!

In the afternoon I was feeling okay, so I did the Biggest Loser weight loss yoga with the heater on, it was quite nice, I felt really relaxed. It's a really good Yoga DVD, if you're looking for something to do at home!

I'm debating going to a Naturopath too, I wonder if they can help me, hmmmmm

X-Weighted challenge!

I made myself get up this morning to go to the gym. I'm glad that I did and feel great that the gym is over with! I went to a new class that I didn't know much about, it turned out to be a step class. I usually don't like step classes, I'm not "step coordinated" but this one was good, it was intense and we had weights and bands and I quite liked it! It kicked my butt too!

My plan this week is to do AT LEAST 3 days at the gym, I went to Zumba yesterday and "Innovative Interval today" , so the week has started off well!

Now I'm at work, eating a sandwich and trying to think of something for dinner that involves chicken.. any ideas?

On a bad note, I gained 1lb this week and I was super dissapointed, I've been tracking and working out, so what gives? I was really down about it, but now I realize that I can't allow the scale to own me and just keep trying my best...

The x-weighted challenge is telling me I'm not on track. It wants me to lose 2.8lbs/ week, I've lost 2.5 lbs per week (with my big loss last week), so now to get back on track, I need to lose over 3lbs this week! Heres to a big loss again!

I kinda feel like the x-weighted challenge doesn't reflect the x-weighted show weights, paul usually says 2lb/week not 3, I think almost 70lbs in 6 months is quite excessive, but I'm hoping I can pull it out of my hat!

How are you guys feeling about the weight you have to lose on the challenge?

My Mother's Birthday

My Mother's birthday is today, she would have been 53, I sadly lost my mother when she was at the young age of 43. I have been trying a lot lately to 'celebrate her life' instead of 'mourning her death' and although I have many happy memories of my mom. It's still hard on days like today when I wish she was here and I was spoiling her with presents and celebrating her day!

I'm going to stay on track today and not eat my feelings because that's what I've been doing for a long time.

I'm going to try and stay proactive and positive and thankful for everything that is in my life!

Remember to not take anyone or anything for granted and tell the people you love that you love them!

xo

X-weighted, the Canadian biggest loser?

I love the biggest loser, but I can't seem to get into this season! I felt like turning it off last night, the whole thing with the green team was lammmme! I would give anything to be on the biggest loser, but unfortunatly it doesn't come to Canada! I am in the next best thing, x-weighted the challenge. The challenge is going pretty well so far, I'm hoping I can keep this pace up for the next 25 or so weeks. Sometimes it gets to me and is a bit daunting that I need to lose 69lbs just to be qualified, not even to win. I mean, I know I'm doing this to get healthy/fit etc.. but I really want to go see the Plak man!

I have been working out a lot this week and I forgot how tiring doing a lot of heavy weights was! My muscles are soooo tired!

I made the most amazing dinner tonight (I should have taken pictures) I always forget! I need to get into the habit I guess! I made a casserole! It had egg noodles, cut up chicken breast, cut up asparagus, mushrooms and cream of asparagus soup, mix all together in a casserole dish and cook for about 50 mins! mm mm

My food has been pretty good this week. I realized that I can't be trusted with Chocolate, I thought I was ready to portion out the delicous dove chocolate until a wave of hunger came over me in the afternoon, bored at me desk and I devoured the rest of the bar = GIANT FAIL. I am trying to figure out a balance, it's hard sometimes though. I feel like sometimes it's either I have to be perfect or not do it at all!

How do you all find balance? xo

PS I'm so excited I now have 20 followers!

Weigh in!

I weighed in this morning for my x-weighted challenge and I lost 5.8lbs! I am very very happy with this! I now have 63.2lbs left, which is still a little daunting, but I think I can do it! I also passed my exam I wrote in December! Very good weekend so far!! I saw sherlock holmes today, it was pretty good, but slow at parts, I think they could have cut 20mins out! It's saturday and I'm being a little laxed with food, but still aware! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Food

Overcoming food addiction is such a hard thing! I am super frusterated today! I have not overate yet though, even though I want to! I keep telling myself I want to lose weight, I don't want food! It's so tough though! How do all of you get through it?

Foodie giveaway

Hocho!! mmmm! Check out this yummy giveaway!

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Cute giveaway!

Check out this cute giveaway!

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SUCCESS

I just finished a meeting and didn't indulge in any of the treats, even though I was SUPER hungry and was sitting with them in front of me! I'm really proud of myself. I kept saying "you'll be happy when you don't eat that and you lose the weight" to myself of course! I came back to my seat and had my kashi granola bar that was waiting for me!

I'm really hoping for a big loss on Saturday to kick off my x-weighted challenge journey.

I'm also nursing an injury in my knee, so I have to focus more on food as I can't be as hardcore at the gym that I want to! I hurt my knee at the challenge hitting it on the hardwood floor during the fit test, bruising it and then on Sunday I was getting my 10 lb weights out of the cupboard and it clipped the 5lb weight and fell on the very same knee, so I have a big goose egg and swollen knee, it doesn't help that this all happened on the knee that has torn ligaments previously in it! grrrr, I just want to go to the gym and my zumba class :(

Stay strong today everyone and don't give into temptation! It's worth it for how I feel right now!! xo

X- WEIGHTED

I have signed up for the x-weighted challenge. It seems like a popular thing to do in blog land. I lovvve x-weighted (not feeling this season though). I want to win the weekend with Paul and have him kick my butt!! I went down to T.O on Saturday to do my wi, measurements and fit test. The fit test was soooo hard, I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was, lay down/stand ups are hard when you're so overweight. So I have to lose 69lbs in 6months to qualify to be entered! AH! Thats
3lbs a week, which is quite a lofty goal! Luckily my boy joined up too and we're going to support each other! We did a huge healthy grocery shop today and had a delicous healthy dinner of chicken, roasted potatoes and spinach salad! I need to start taking pictures of my food for my blog!

My x-weighted goal is to run a 5k , I want to do mini fitness goals along the way, some things I'm interested in are indoor rock climbing and kick boxing/karate!

My January goal is to just get my schedule with the gym in check and food in check to prepare myself for a crazy journey of losing 69lbs in 6months (eeeeeek). It's not impossible righhhhhttttt?

Food for thought

I think about food, a lot (am I alone on this one??) It has been my comfort for the last 25 years and I'm trying to correct this. I started seriously comfort eating after my mom passed away, I was only 16, so after almost a decade of abusing my body and my ups and downs with my weight, I think it's about time I deal with it! I started going to grief counselling, I tried it when I was younger, but the therapist was very sterile and very pro-medication, but this one I have now 10 years later is really helping me. Imagine that if I had of met her 10 years ago instead of being turned off therapy by the other woman and doing for myself now what I should have been doing then ... TAKING CARE OF MYSELF.

Anyways yesteday was a pretty solid day. I ate well (minus a dove chocolate bar) I read on Jess (byebyelovehandles) blog that she enjoyed dove chocolate instead of granola bars because they are less processed etc.. so I decided to give it a whirl, I love chocolate, but at this time I cannot do that as I seem to have no self control with chocolate and/or my ravenous appetite as I am now counting my calories and sticking to a 'budget'.

I did however make it to 1 hour of Zumbbbaaaa. I love Zumba, it's a great work out, I burn 500+ calories and have fun doing it, some of it is hard, but overall I loved it. I could really feel myself letting go last night and it was an amazing feeling.

I like working out, there I said it. I've been in denial about it the past couple of months, but I do I like working out. I like how I feel, how I look and I like feeling like a warrior after a really brutal workout. MY weight loss is truly 90% mental and 10% physical.

xo

Back to blogging

I really feel renewed with this new year, I feel like I have a fresh start! I am very happily saying GOODBYE to 2009! I will be back to blogging, clean eating and excercising!

I am excited for 2010, I am signing up for the x-weighted challenge this weekend, I am physically going down to Toronto and doing the fit test and stuff, I am very excited. I love X-Weighted and Paul Plakas, well I have a love hate relationship with Paul LOL. However the boy and I are going down and are serious about weight loss in 2010. We have put a picture of the "plak man" as we call him on our fridge to remind us to make good choices, WWPD? haha.

I started up personal training once every 2 weeks with my old personal trainer Jenny, she helped me get all the weight off last time, so I figure now that I've let it all creep back on, I need her help again. Jenny is great for listening and getting me focused and let's not forget kicking my ass!!

I'm really excited about these new oppurtunities and for 2010 in general. The boy and I are going on holidays to Cuba I believe at the end of March, so I would like to lose about 30 or so pounds by then. It's going to be a struggle, but I would like to lose 60 for the x-weighted challenge. I want to go to Canmore and get my ass kicked by the plak man, that would just be amazing. (note: I will get to go, when I win!!!)

Fit Day and working out!

Today after my calorie journal got ruined in my lunch bag, my soup leaked grrrrr. I remembered the website I used when I started my weight loss journey (first round of losing) way back when! www.fitday.com, it has a lot of info for cal balance etc.. I found it really helpful back then and I'm finding it really helpful today. I got right into it and took my measurements and everything today.

I am super focused this week... my work out sched looked a little something like this...

Mon 5am - BL bootcamp - 20mins, bike 20 mins, yoga 20min, zumba 1 hr after work
Tues - Bike 30 mins, yoga 25 mins, tues night bike 30mins
Wed - BL bootcamp - 20 mins, bike 20mins, yoga 20mins, dance class 1hr after work
Thurs - Bike 45 mins, DDR 10mins, walk at lunch

I'm super proud of this accomplishment, I am feeling strong and focused and am happy I have a weight loss goal (239lbs by xmas) and I want to think of a fitness goal and then after xmas reset my goal, I would like to be under 200 for my bday in march..

xo

WI !

I took a bit of a hiatus from blogland. I just needed to get my ducks in a row again. My food hasn't been terrible, but not 100 % either. I did however starting last week get back to working out 4 times in a week, so I'm proud of that.

I did "zumbathon" it was basically zumba for as long as you could and your money was donated to United Way, it was such fun! I could have danced all night, but my friend I was with had to leave.

I went to niagara falls on the weekend for my 2 year anniversary with bf, it was wonderful, a few bad food choices, but with all the walking and then we swam laps in the hotel pool both days, it all evened out.

I weighed in and was down 2lbs this morning, it was on the BL wii game I WI and I was still below the yellow line, it needs to be more realistic that we're not actually on the show! Losing 0.79% in one week for a normal situation is pretty darn good!

WI was followed by workout! I did the BL bootcamp DVD (I quite like this and recommend it) then 20 mins on my stationary bike and the BL yoga for weight loss DVD. I also enjoyed this and took a tip from Angela over at Oh she glows and used my little heater to make it "hot yoga"

I'm also going to Zumba tonight, double work out days! I lovvvvve that I'm FINALLY feeling better and can work out etc...

I also have a Christmas goal to be 239, it can and will be done!!! I need to keep focused!!

Eating for a purpose...

My whole life as far as I can remember eating wasn't for the purpose of being full or getting my proper nutrtion in, it was for entertainment, comfort or reasons other that just being "hungry".

This past week and a half I busted out my BL calorie counting journal and started tracking, something I haven't done in a long time. I had a short stint on spark people or did it on here, but theres something about having a small journal in your purse that you can write it down as you're eating it. Anyways, I have cut my calories to about 1500 a day and I've been HUNGRY. So now I am trying to find ways to get the most bang for my caloric buck. I've encorporated lots more fruits, veggies, fibres and proteins... simple right? I just find that now that I'm tracking and not only tracking but looking over the past week it has made me a lot more accountable. Now I (try) to eat atleast 4 servings of fruits/vegs etc..

Now I eat every couple hours and try to stay full with nutrient good for you foods! Tracking works!

In other news I think I mentioned I bought the BL WII game last post.. I really like it! It's quite good, the challenges are a lot of fun and the WI is making me think about what I put in my mouth! I fell below the yellow line last week (ha) luckily I didnt' get eliminated (ha ha), I don't know how that would work... am I not allowed to play my wii game anymore?? BL is on tonight, although this is def not one of my fav seasons of people. I do like Rudy and a couple other people though, but I'm not a fan of Shay or Tracey... thoughts?

Vitalicous giveaway

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Monday Mornings and WI

Monday morning is here again! I had a terrible sleep last night, I feel like I haven't slept at all actually! But here I am at work :(

I walked into work this morning and it was a little chilly, but a good walk! I realized walking to work this morning and the last little while that I want to take a karate/self defense class because I think it would be really empowering and take some worry off my mind walking into work in the dark! I looked up classes and it seems there is a womens only seminar over at the rec centre near my house, so I will have to call and inquire. I can't exactly do it for a couple more weeks because of my back and stomach, but it's something that I want to look forward to! Have any of you guys taken any karate classes?

I made it to the gym last night, did 40 mins of laps in the pool and then had a steam (ahhhh). It felt great, I was happy to get to the pool and get in some excercise and I think it's helping with my back too. I think I will go after work again today to the pool before the aqua fit classes start tonight.. I was thinking about going to aqua fit tonight, but it's called "intensity plus" and I'm not sure if my body is ready for intensity yet...

I had my WI this morning. I bought the BL WII game last week and today was WI and I gained 3lbs! I couldn't believe it. I have been under my calorie limit this whole week (even though I had a couple treats) and I excercised 4 times. grrrrr so frusterating. Luckily it wasn't an elimination week because I was below the yellow line.... it's a cool game, I'm going to have to start playing it more and figuring out all the features... they actually have challenges and stuff, which is pretty entertaining, to rub salt in the wounds I fell into the pool and failed the challenge this morning too... just not my day I guess.

I hope Monday gets better soon!! xo

Movie Weekend

Well the weekend is almost over! I had a good weekend, I'm finally starting to feel better (thank god). The end of the week I thought was taking a bad turn. My back was on FIRE by Thursday and I went and had a massage appt. I specifically said that I wanted a light massage as I was already soooo sore.... flash forward to her like elbowing my lower back, tweaking something and making me have an even sorer (sp?) back on thursday/friday!

By Friday afternoon, I was feeling better. I went out for lunch at swiss chalet (which was great, I was at one where provided NI pamphlets with the menu), all of the chicken dishes there are really good cals/fat. We met up with friends to go see "Law Abiding Citizen", which I thought was really good... (I may be byist though because I think Gerard Butler is super hot and you get to see his tush lol). I had a small popcorn and brought a long an orange G2 to drink. Saturday I got my hair done, it's a lot shorter now, but I like it and did some shopping. I found an anniversary present for my bf (2 years on Nov 3rd!). Then Saturday night we went to dinner (and another movie). This time we saw "Love Happens" it was okay at best... and that's saying a lot because I usually like terrible girl movies! I got a small popcorn (and orange pop) and had a small cheese pizza at ESM and scraped a lot of the cheese off!

Today we went and saw my dad, stopped by a lovely market and got some home made bread/buns for sammies and cheese curds (bad I know, but so delish)...

I am sad to report I haven't been doing my biking because of my back, I tried yesterday and made it about 1 mile. I did go to the gym swimming though, which felt great, I might actually go this afternoon! Have a relaxing Sunday everybody! xo