Awareness goes a looooong way

I had a NSV on New Year's Eve. Normally, my husband and I have an all out food fest on New Year's Eve - I would almost say an orgy of food. {blush} This year, I am trying very hard to be more accountable for my choices and so I had decided in advance that I wasn't going to deprive myself completely but I wasn't going to gorge myself like usual.

With that in mind, we had our usual selection of appetizer type foods: BBQ chicken wings, M & M Cheddar Balls and M & M Vegetable Spring Rolls. As we were waiting for them to be ready, I had decided in my mind what I was going to eat: 5-6 wings, about 25 cheddar balls and 4 spring rolls. So while I waited, I wanted to note the nutrition info so I could log my foods on my BodyBugg food tracker.

It's funny - but the wings were shown with 3 wings being 1 serving size so I had 6... made the math easier. And the Cheddar Balls were 7/serving - I had 21 to start and had 3-4 more once we got going. And Spring Rolls are 2/serving and I had 4. I also had about 1 tbsp of 2% sour cream to dip my cheddar balls in. Normally, in all honesty, I would have eaten 10-12 wings, probably another 10 cheddar balls and the same number of spring rolls and more sour cream.

When I was done eating, I felt full and comfortable - not stuffed to the gills thinking "oh - what have I done?". We even had chips in the cupboard which we didn't need.

When I calculated it all this morning, 1156 cal in total for that meal. More than anything, the sodium in this food floored me. So I wasn't surprised to see a water gain on the scale this a.m. I also wasn't very active yesterday but today, I bumped up my calories expended to make up for the caloric surplus yesterday.

Dec 31st:

Calories Out: 2392
Calories In: 2916
Surplus of 524 calories

Jan 1st (to 4:30pm):

Calories Out:1748
Calories In: 1294
Deficit of 454 calories

So it's not perfect by any stretch but I am certainly learning alot about myself and what goes in & out of my body!!

OH!! And I also wore my BB to bed last night and I'll have to ask the consultant on Monday how to reset my sleeping/rest numbers as I burn 1.8 cal/min (on average) which is higher than the BB shows if I take my armband off overnight (it uses 1.3 cal as a default). Guess it is true that you burn more calories when you have sleep apnea.

Some humour from my mom to start the year off right:

Winter Exercise program...


Take one Weetbix.
Take an Aero chocolate bar.
Crumble the Aero over the Weetbix.

Voila! AEROBIX!

I've been BodyBugg'ed

OK - I bought myself an early Christmas gift. I got a Body Bugg - the armband that you see the contestants on the Biggest Loser wearing. I installed it about 3 weeks ago but it took me a bit to figure it out. The first time I actually put it on was the 22nd of December after I had my consultation with BodyBugg (I get a one hour free consult/instruction with the purchase) and it turns out I was supposed to have been wearing it already - oops - so we rescheduled for Jan 5th.

The first day I wore it, I had to take it off after about 4 hrs - the band was super snug and hurting me. I tried again on the 24th and I lasted about 6 hrs. On the 26th however, I was rummaging through the box and found (tada!) a bigger armband and a wireless transmitter. So I've now been using the Bugg itself for 4 days and it's fascinating!! The program also includes an online food tracker, etc.

I log my caloric intake and then I download the Bugg's data 1-2X a day (for now so I can see how I'm doing). The food tracker program is ok - needs a lot more foods and they have no Canadian data so I'm often having to input my own but that's ok - I'm taking the time to learn what's in my food, etc.

It's certainly made me more aware of what I'm doing - to the point that I can say I've lost 2.3 lbs since I started 4 days ago - might just be a fluke and all but at this point, it's certainly help make me more accountable for my (shall we say) input and output. :)

Shouting from the Rooftops!

I got my surgery date!! March 12th will be a truly life altering day.

Surviving Christmas??

Well - Christmas 2008 has come & gone and I'm pleased to report that it was fairly easy to survive. I've been trying not to weigh myself too much - too frustrating but on Christmas Day, I tried on my engagement ring which I had to stop wearing mid-November (I could get it on but if my hands swelled even slightly, it was painful) and it fits again!! Still not 100% comfortable but I would say I'm at 90% comfort compared to about 50% 4-5 weeks ago. So I hopped on the scale on Saturday and I'm down... 10 lbs since I met with Dr. Pop in mid-November!! Woot!!

It's nice to have my folks here for Christmas as we all struggle with our own weight issues so we tried not to bring too many sweets into the house, etc but were allowing some so that the kids can enjoy some of the joys of the holidays too. My really close friend Penny made cookies and sent me home with a 12 x 6" container of homemade cookies on the 19th - sugar cookies, soft ginger snaps, shortbread, a chocolate coated peanut brittle type stuff and chocolate coated oriental noodles with marshmallows & peanuts. I admit to eating quite a few of the ginger snaps but maybe 2-3 a day? On the 23rd, we had my mom's cousin over for tea and we had almost half of those cookies still left to put out along with some from a tin of store bought ones (the President's Choice Belgian Chocolate selection).

The 24th was a little more challenging - we went to my Aunt's home and she had made Nanaimo bars and added extra dark chocolate (a weakness for both mom & I) on the top. Thankfully she cut them small (1/2" x 1/2" ??) so when I say I had 3 of them, it sounds bad until you realize I normally would have eaten 3 "normal" sized ones which are 1 x 1". Otherwise, I had a cup of tea... she had made mince tarts but I'm not a huge mince tart fan and I decided to splurge my calories on something I adore. How's that for a NSV?! (non-scale victory)

Dinners the week leading up to Christmas were great - we made a big ham on Tuesday night with scalloped potatoes and carrots (which meants yummy ham for lunch on Wed & Thurs). Wednesday night was Farm Boy tourtiere and ham leftovers which most of the adults chose! Christmas dinner was spectacular - we bought a fresh turkey at Farm Boy (seriously - I will never buy frozen or a "ball" bird again!!), made stuffing from scratch, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed/whipped white potatoes, carrots and peas. And we made gravy from the pan drippings... It was fabulous!

On Boxing Day, Bill & I made turkey soup with lots of veggies which the kids all loved!! I've even cooked dinner (don't drop dead out there!) 6 out of the last 7 days (with the exception of Boxing Day when Bill & I ordered in pizza).

Yep - still waiting

Not much more to add at this point - I'm still waiting for a date. I have called each week (except this one with my MIL here) and they say Dr. Pop hasn't yet signed off on my chart. Considering I have no tests to do before he even approves me, I don't understand the delay.

*sigh*

Still waiting

Still waiting not so patiently for a surgery date. I'm hoping to hear from Barix next week (and I would be lying if I didn't say that I was hoping to hear EARLY in the week) as they've basically not been doing any bookings this week with US Thanksgiving and Dr. Pop's doing his boards (?).