Consumer Products Rant

Well I am irritated beyond belief with the constant inundation on tv.  Ads for all kinds of junk that we don't need and most frustrating of all is the ads that prompt us to replace good reusable products with disposable things that will go in the garbage.  And especially galling is how those ads go about trying to convince reasonable people to throw away their money and the environment along with it - by building up fears upon fears upon fears.

Don't get me wrong I think we should have a healthy respect for what viruses, bacteria etc can do to us but we should also have a reasonable approach to this.  Just because the media has pumped up massive fears of whatever the virus flavour of the day is doesn't mean that we should cover ourselves in anti bacterial whatevers and spray every surface in our home with some awful chemical compound and throw away all of our cloths, towels etc and replace them with some disposable handwipe covered in who knows what kind of product to make it white and soft and "nice" smelling.

Well rant over for the day.

New Weigh In Plan

Well I see that the daily weigh in with it's little ups and downs is a bit too much of a roller coaster for me.  I like that I have never been obsessed with weighing myself and knowing if I gained a half a pound or lost a half a pound.  And I saw that changing with the daily weigh ins.  And I definitely know I was frustrated the other day - and I let that make me decide on a "who cares" kind of a weekend - at least as far as eating was concerned (think I only had 4 servings of vegetables all weekend long and I don't want to talk about the junk food I consumed and the late night eating I did).  The one thing I will miss about doing the daily weigh in is the age test. I kind of enjoyed doing those each day.

So I now plan to weigh myself once a week and I think I will do it every Monday morning.  So that is today and unfortunately I am back up half of what I was down since I started this 109.1.  Needless to say I am disappointed with my results but am going to work on improving.

Yesterday was interesting though.  I got a chance to try out the XBox Kinect yesterday and it was a lot of fun and a pretty good workout (my quads got more of a workout from it than they really have from most of the Wii stuff).  But overall I would say that both are really good and it is nice that I might have the chance to go over and use the Kinect on occasion to change up the routine but that overall I am just as happy to have my regular workout be on the Wii which I consider just as much fun.

Frustrating week

Okay so I know I did bad the one night and ate really bad for me snacks etc but since then I have been doing decently on the food front (admittedly I did eat 6 pecan halves last night).  But for the last several days my weight has been going up steadily and I just can't figure it out.  I have been doing my workouts and I have been eating relatively good choices.

Yesterday I did pretty much miss lunch though. So I guess it isn't just about what I am eating for me it is clearly also very much about when I am eating.  And it isn't just about the late night snacks being a problem.  So I am going to try going back to trying to get into the routine of eating a bunch of smaller meals several times a day and see if that gets me anywhere.

Bad Crystal

Well I guess not really so terribly bad, but still I would sure like to see myself be doing better than I am right now.  So this morning I had to change my routine a little bit to give the spousal unit a ride to work.  So what did I do, instead of taking an orange or apple to eat on the way (prior to my morning workout and body test on the wii) I stopped at good old Timmies for a breakfast sandwich.  I suspect it's clunky presence in my gut is the reason my weight went up today - otherwise I suspect it would have just sat at the same amount as yesterday.

So I guess it is time for me to stop deceiving myself that all I need to do is stop eating late night snacks and somehow magically my little short workouts each day will transform me to the slim and in shape girl I once was.  But I also know that here at home I am not terribly likely to get into a perfect eating routine, the influence of the other household member is a bit too strong for me to overcome.  So I will start with a couple small things.

1.  Eight glasses of water a day (I will add something to the side bar on this blog once I figure out a good way to note it).
2. 4 servings of vegetables a day and ditto on the tracking on the blog.

Also just thought I would mention this article http://stillettochick.typepad.com/blog/2010/11/making-peace-with-your-body.html.  I appreciate the sentiment of it, I am not sure if I will be kissing or writing a letter anytime soon but I do believe that we need to make peace to move forward.  I find it easiest to make peace with my body when I am doing some of the yoga on my Wii.  I am very happy that my body has maintained a lot of flexibility despite the other challenges I have with it.

Figured it out

Ah the snack was so not science, unless it was some kind of sneaky olfactory science.  I realized the trigger for my snack the other night.  We have this Saskatoon berry tea and it smells amazing.  The remains of a cup of the tea were sitting near me and the smell was incredible.  But instead of going and making myself a cup of the tea to satisfy the cravings it created with its smell I ate that stupid muffin.  Well I am glad I recognized what the trigger was.

Today it is minus 40 out and I overslept so no Wii workout this morning, just a very cold walk to work today and hopefully I will work in a workout when I get home from work.  Wish me luck since I am not usually that good at getting in an evening workout.

In the name of science? right

I would like to tell myself that my late night snack last night (half of a big chocolate muffin) was really a test of my belief that late night snacking is the worst culprit in my quest to lose some weight.  Yeah right, it was all about science and testing my theory.  It couldn't have anything to do with my entire lack of willpower and a completely unexamined need to eat that muffin that was sitting there.  The worst part is that I had stayed up later than I should have, I was tired and I wasn't hungry at all but I still insisted on eating that muffin.  And to add to the bad, I also didn't really reflect - to try to see what was driving the urge to eat that.  I just told myself I would see how it affected me.

Grrrrrr! But the good thing is that I can't get away with using that same excuse again.  Hopefully not after writing this down.  Well - I am going to work really hard on keeping those night time snacks off the plate as it were.

Batteries!!! :(

Well batteries were a little bit of a bane of my existence this weekend.  The batteries in my Wii remote were done for and I had no replacements.  And despite my best efforts I could not find any place in the city that has a solar battery recharger - I found some on line that have a nice flexible solar panel that you plug your batteries into and they get recharged.  Instead I ended up having to get a standard battery recharger.

Saturday morning I had to work so I didn't work out in the morning and then the battery issue kept me off my Wii for both Saturday and Sunday.  But this morning I got in a nice workout and I am happy to say I am down in the Kg department once again.  Just need to keep up this pace and I will be slim and slender in about another 3 years :).  But seriously it is good to feel engaged in something like this, where I feel bad about missing days because I like what I am doing.

Changing the type of digital dummy I am

Last night I watched a documentary on Doc Zone http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/ on whether we are becoming digital dummies.  Some of what they said certainly rang home - especially when I think of my phases where I was completely hooked on an internet game.  But I am glad to say I am not currently playing any internet games that have me sitting at my computer for hours and hours at a time!  What I am hooked on is my Wii but in a good way.  Still going strong with a half hour workout each day.  And planning to get myself another fitness game so I can add some variety to the mix in case I start getting tired of this one.

Today I finally managed to hit one of my goals.  I hit it early but I think my pace is good and safe I haven't been going crazy with dieting or anything like that, just avoiding the late night eating.  So I am pretty happy with my progress although tonight (Friday) is always one of the harder days for me to avoid my bad habits so we will see how I do tomorrow.

And colour me confused.  The other day when I was posting I could swear I remembered the weights on my chart just fine so when I wrote about it I was sure I knew what they were.  But alas perhaps I am becoming a digital dummy and maybe my reliance on technology is shrinking my brain and killing my memory!  On the 17th I was actually 109.2 so down 1.2 Kg not 108.4.  But nevertheless today I am at 108.3 and I reached my goal as I mentioned before.  So the new goal is 1.2 Kg in 2 weeks - wish me luck!

New Options

Just found a really interesting list of fitness games for the Wii.  Am looking forward to trying some of them out!

http://www.nutwiisystem.com/best-wii-exercise-games.html

A Huge Success?

I have been Wii, Wii, Wiiing all the way home.  Well technically I guess I have been Wii, Wii, Wiiing at home.  Just about a month ago I got a Wii and Wii fit plus as an advance present for my big 40.  I had tried it out at my sister's place and really enjoyed it.  So knowing that I don't really like the whole "go to the gym and exercise" thing I was hoping this would be an enjoyable alternative to that.  And it has been!

While my first month has not seen me lose a tonne of weight (just 4.4 pounds) it has been a great discovery process.  I have zigzagged all over the place on improving my eating habits in conjunction with using the Wii fit almost every day.  And what I have discovered is that those dirty old night time snacking habits are the most certain way for me to see an upward spike in my weight chart.  It seems like regardless of how good or bad I have done during the day with my food choices, the one that seems to currently be making all the difference is the after 8:00 eating choices.  When I don't eat after 8 I go down in weight, if I eat anything more than an apple slice after 8:00 my weight goes up.  And the more I eat late the more it goes up.

So my goal for right now is to just avoid those late night snacks and see how I do.  At some point I am sure that will no longer be enough for me to concentrate on but I can't wii, wii, wii, all the way home if I don't start out with some first steps!