victoriagirl's Journal

Quick one...
Sep 15 2009 13:59

Quick entry as I have a staff meeting in a minute.

I feel crappy today. I am upset, I don't feel well, I feel stressed. Work stuff is stressing me, I can't shake this cold, and for some retarded reason I pigged out on Super Nibs late last night. They should not have even been in the house but I bought them a few months ago and have been fine just having one once in a while up till now. Last night I got home from my painting class (went ok, just the first class, the instructor seems nice but is a very laissez faire teacher, other students are mostly older ladies) and fell asleep on the couch while looking through some art books. I woke up at 2 am and that is a serious danger time for me to make poor choices, I KNOW this, but I was weak and could not resist the craving. Boo. Partially because I had to have dinner out between work and class, and it was very low in protein, there were only six tiny shrimp in my order of "chili garlic prawns", hmph. Oh well today is another day. And I will have to plan to either bring my dinner to work, or actually bike home and back downtown again after, for future Mondays.

Went for our re-do lunch at the French place (did I mention how I wrote a letter to the manager about how poorly our waitress treated us, so she asked the entire group of us back for a complimentary lunch? Pretty nice eh), I had just a small entree of halibut but it was swimming in butter sauce and the celeriac puree was suspiciously creamy. Delicious though, and the manager served us personally so no risk of a crazy waitress like last time (well she's been fired). It was a good lunch but not one I'd have often, that's for sure. Tonight I am looking forward to a homemade dinner of grilled meat of some sort and a big pile of veggies.

Painting class tonight! And stuff about other stuff.
Sep 14 2009 12:42

The weekend was good, a short one though, and Joel had things he had to do so we didn't see much of eachother. Except in bed, and that's the best part, so I am ok with it!

On Saturday I went shopping with my sister. We planned to buy shoes, but after much shoe shopping there was nothing that was right and we gave up. I reeeeally want those boots I posted the link to last week. I guess nothing else is measuring up. Anyway we ended up doing some clothes shopping too, I got an adorable purple corduroy blazer from H&M. It's too small but will fit eventually, and it is a nice replacement of the velvet jackets I had to get rid of as they got too big (I had a purple one, a black one, and a teal one, all gone now). And we stopped into Additione Elle as they had an event on...my sister was shocked at the prices...yeah no sh*t! I do NOT miss having to pay $60 or more for a new-stock item. But, my lower half still requires the plus sizes, so I cruised through the sale rack pants and found a nice pair of black jeans, size 18, for just $15! It's fortunate because my black jeans from last year are too big to wear, so come fall I'd have been crying over lack of black jeans. It's still warm enough that I wear capris most weekends, but come the cold weather, I need jeans! They fit great, the only thing wrong with them is they are far too low-rise for my taste. I HATE it when girls wear jeans that show their butt crack or underwear when they bend over. But, for $15 I could not turn them down, I will just have to be careful to wear longer tops (I do anyway) and not bend over.

Sunday Joel and his roommate were steam-cleaning the carpets, they have a new roommate moving in today and wanted to get it done before. I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen, made up some oatmeal-bran muffins, baked empanadas, and split-pea with ham soup so Joel would have some easy food for the week. He's going to be putting in even more overtime for the next few weeks, might even be working the weekends, as his comapany is implementing a new banking system and he is involved with the testing process before they go live. He just won't have time to cook, won't even be home before 9 most likely, so I wanted to help him out. I guess I will also be heading to Van for the next bunch of weekends as he can't come here. Sigh.

It's my first painting class tonight. I am nervous. What if I suck? What kind of people will be there? I hope the instructor is nice. I have to make sure I get there before 5 since I haven't bought my supplies yet and the class doesn't start until 7 but the store closes at 5...yikes lucky I checked. Nervous!!

I booked a bit of extra time off for the Thanksgiving weekend, as my family is heading to Edmonton for a little family get-together with my Saskatchewan cousins (well some live in Alberta now, which is where we all go to meet in the middle, but I still call them my Saskatchewan cousins). I haven't seen them in a couple of years so I am really looking forward! But really sorry I won't get to meet Manda who will be here that weekend, sorry Manda :(. I was looking foraward to that, but I can't really turn down a chance to see my family. Besides them being the nicest, best bunch of people ever and I miss them, also the last time they saw me I looked pretty different. So I am looking forward to dropping some jaws!They've likely seen pictures though so it won't be a total shock, too bad ;).

EDIT TO ADD: The scale os holding steady at 233.5, which I am glad for as I have not been very dilligent with my calories. If this is maintenance, it's alright! Joel said if I never lost another pound, I still have much to be proud of, and he considers me a success. It made me think...I have accomplished most of what iset out to do, the vast majority of the things I wanted to accomplish and overcome are done. It's wonderful to realize that while i am technically only halfway to my goal weight, I have accompished so much that I am really well over half way there....the rest will come with time, but for now, I am healthy and happy and confident and feel good about myself on a daily basis.

A success!!
Sep 10 2009 23:38

I found the perfect boots....oh I SO want these!! But no way I can spend that much...

http://www.theshoecompany.com/shop-by-brand/townshoescollect ion/town-shoes/prod63XXX042XXXX.html

My book club meeting was a success! Everyone loved the food (and yes, clamoured for the recipes! Especially the pita chips and the 6-pepper hummus) and many compliments were given about my place, which I have so lovingly decorated, and my many interesting objets and artwork (my taste runs to the eclectic) and I was thanked profusely for being such a good hostess. WHEW!! They even said I raised the bar once again with my wonderful homemade treats...gosh I thought I was kinda lowering it after last meeting's cheese-fest lol...so I am tired, worn out, but very content. I will sleep well tonight.

Book club prep and salsa-making frenzy
Sep 10 2009 09:23

So tonight I host this month's book club meeting. Just my luck, the full group is showing up, all 7...I was hoping for 4 or 5, since that's what it's been like so far. Last month there were just 4 of us in M's HUGE living room and her massive coffee table was covered with beautiful expensive cheeses, plates of crackers,deli meats, fruit, nuts, and bakery desserts. My spread will be much more modest, and I will have to have people sit on kitchen chairs. I don't even have a proper coffee table, just an ottoman with a coffee tray on it. Why seven, why?! Well I am prepared, foodwise, anyway...I made a trio of middle-easter dips -  hummus, 6-pepper hummus, and babaganouj - and homemade pita chips. I have carrots, cucumbers, and snap peas for crudite, and some fruit to cut up for a fruit plate, and I bought soda water to mix with my homemade wines for wine spritzers (the wine is actually quite good, but in my opinion too sweet to drink straight, hope they don't think serving homemade wine is cheesy), and I bought some tea and milk to make chai. I have the spice blend that an East Indian friend gave me, but I've never made it before, so we'll see. That should be enough, hey it's not fancy or expensive but it's all homemade and healthy. Also made my big batch of salsa last night ( I was a very busy girl!) and walked my cat-pee duvet to the cleaners and laundered my sheets and duvet cover twice. So hopefully that eliminates the cat pee! After work I have to clean, prepare the fruit plate and crudite and plate/garnish the dips, make chai, and set up the living room. Easy peasy. Hope its goes well.

My scale was on low battery this morning, funny! Guess I use it alot. I just put in a new battery last year, in fact still had the other one from the two-pack so was able to pop a new one in. Didn't improve the reading. I am another pound up, for no good reason, hoping it's just TOTM nonsense.

I forgot to take my contact lenses out before bed last night. In over 20 years of wearing contacts, I have never done that. Sure I have passed out with them still in, or been too tired to bother, but never have I just forgot. Disturbing.

Still sick, but not getting worse so that's good. Tired though. I am glad the weekend is almost here. It's been a short week but an exhausing one.

New pics from whale watching trip, check em out!
Sep 09 2009 09:27

Whale watching was a blast! The suit fit, it was a Large so likely not even the biggest size (the guy just kinda sized people up and handed them a suit that he figured would fit, I checked the label out of curiosity). So my fears were for nothing....Manda you are right, I just don't have a clue about what actual size I really am, not like clothing-size-wise but just life-wise. I guess that will just take time.

I was fairly obnoxious about securing the front seat on the boat....I really wanted it, and it was great that we had it, even though it was a bit narrower than the other benches so the three of us were really squeezed in there! It was SO fun slamming over the bigger waves, totally worth it. We saw whales galore and had a great time, pretty sure Joel's son did too. He's 15, so kinda hard to tell lol. Nice kid though. On Thursday we left to take him back home and visit J's parents in the Kootenays, it was a lot of driving but it was really nice to see his parents, sister, neice and nephew, and his two other sons. I really like his family, and they seem to like me too, a LOT, but the bar was set pretty low after his first wife, and second one too for that matter. So I get to sweep in and be the hero lol....I am making light of it, but it really does mean a lot to me that they like me. I like them too! Joel has such a hard time going there though, lots of bad memories and getting mired in his past is just not fun.....we did some new, fun things though so hopefully newer better memories can be created and help the past fade away. We did have an Incident with his daughter getting her nose out of joint, as we didn't stop on the way to pick her up and bring her with us to see her grandparents and aunt/ cousins/ half-brothers....she made a big drama over it and poor Joel felt like crap, and got some nasty Facebook crap from people she'd cried to. That's the bad part of online social networking....way too easy for people to get in your business. I think it's mostly blown over now but GEEZ.

After the weekend of travelling I came home and my bedroom door was shut. With the cat trapped in the bedroom for who knows how long....the door had blown shut because I forgot to put the doorstop in before we left. CRAP. She seemed alright, had the fishbowl to drink from which she prefers anyway, and she wasn't even interested in food when she came out, but my bed was used as a litterbox so now I have to deal with getting all the bedding cleaned and hope that the mattress wasn't affected....hard to tell yet. AND I picked up a cold so I am sick, AND I have to make and can a ton of salsa cuz we bought tomatoes that won't last until next week, AND I have to prepare for my book club meeting that I am hosting on Thursday so yeah I am feeling pretty sorry for myself right now!

Ah well, life is good anyway. Everything is better with LOVE, and I have that in spades!

Joel's mom made the best muffins ever, especially wonderful because they had next to no fat in them, and a ton of fibre and fruity, oaty goddness! I was very impressed and got the recipe, yay for yummy muffins! She made banana-blueberry and raisin-walnut, both were to die for.

It was way too hard to count calories on the travel weekend, so I didn't bother. I know it was on the high side...every day there was something to push it over. Like on Sunday we went out for lunch to this great little cafe that had an awesome menu, very surprising for a small town to have such a place, there were gluten-free options and sophisticated flavour combinations and it all sounded very good. But the execution was NOT good. I ordered a chicken avacado sandwich that sounded great in the description, but when it came, it had been fried like a grilled cheese and was dripping with grease, and it didn't even taste great so likely was not even real butter, SO not worth it. And the "homemade" soup tasted like campbells. Ahhh there's the small-town cuisine I was expecting! Plus Joel's parents put out a veritable feast both evenings we were there, plus all the road snacks....oh well, back to counting this week. I am holding steady at 233 so that's not bad.

If you made it to the end of this novel....happy humpday!!

Whale watching today!
Sep 02 2009 08:46

So I went to the whale-watching place office yesterday, and said I just wanted to make sure the insulated suit they provide will fit me, considering the girth of my hips and all. The girl behind the desk said "It will. No problem." in a very cavalier way. I said "Really? Are you sure?" and she, with barely a look at me, said "Yep. No problem." So, still unsure if she was looking so unconcerned because there was no cause for concern or because she didn't give a rat's ass if I got humiliated by trying on a suit that doesn't fit, I asked again "ARE YOU SUUUURE?" and gave her the fish eye. Unshakably, cheerfully positive, she said "Yep!" So I feel slightly more confident now but not completely. cello says when she went the suit was huge..but so's my butt...so we'll see. (To be fair to my butt, it's not that huge anymore, but unfortunately my hip measurement is still pretty huge because the girth includes my butt, hips, and belly area. If not for my big saggy belly, I'd be a lot more svelte and my butt would not get such a bad rap. Makes me understand why some people in my kind of situation choose surgical removal of said belly area.) Anyhoo...I digress. Here's hoping it won't be an issue at all and I will be relieved and feel silly I even gave it a second thought.

Just three hours until I am on holidays all the way to next Tusday! Yay! Joel is bringing the car, so I will have to try and squeeze in a grocery shop cuz my freezer is looking pretty empty. Sure hope there's some good meat sales on!

Sept 1 stats
Sep 01 2009 11:16

Well I managed to convince the scale to eke out one little pound loss for the whole month, and I was lucky to get that considering these last couple of weeks. Disappointing since I was so close to 230 midmonth...but 233.5 isn't that far off either. For Oct 1 I will be below 230!! I know 4 lbs is a bit ambitious considering my usual pace, but I think it will happen.

I made the reservations for whale-watching tomorrow. The lady told me we don't have to worry about dressing warm as they provide insulated suits for us to wear. Great. A couple of years ago this would have made me cancel outright....there's no way they could have a suit that fit me...even now I am a little nervous. The jacket part is no problem, it's the pants that are concerning me. Joel suggested I drop by their office today to check it out in a non-pressure situation, I think I will. Better to find out beforehand. Gosh I will be SO GLAD when I don't have to worry about this kind of crap ever again. It's all so humiliating. If their pants don't fit, I guess I will have to try and hunt down some plus-size rain gear pants after work, I have no idea where to find that. So I am really hoping they have a large range of sizes.

Heading out shortly for a work birthdays lunch. We are going to a French bistro, the menu looks yum but not much for low-cal choices, it's French after all. I think I am going with the halibut. It comes with a celeriac and green pea puree, sounds divine! If I was strict I'd ask them to leave off the brown butter. We'll see.

It's the end of the summer
Aug 31 2009 09:07

Well here we are on the cusp of September. Fall. Well hopefully there are a few more nice summery weeks left!

It sucks how a few days of overeating can destroy an entire month's weight loss results. Here we are at the end of August, and I am just where I was at the beginning, thanks to some overindulgence this past weekend and the one before. Disappointing to say the least.....well maybe by tomorrow some miracle will happen and I will go down a bit.  A couple of weeks ago I was already at a nice 2.5 lb loss for the month....gone now. Well, nothing to do for it but keep on keeping on, make better choices, recommit to my calorie target. It's just really disappointing because I felt like I had some good momentum going there and that I would just power through the 230's (ok "powering through" to me means a few months, but it feels like powering when the last 10 lbs took like 8 months!) So here's to making it happen this month...I WILL get to the 220's this month, I will! And the good news is, I am getting to the gym a bit more out of guilt for eating too much, so I've been getting some good workouts in.

Weekend was great, too short of course, but I only have 2.5 days of work until my little holiday, so that's good. Joel's son came on Friday, we had a late dinner...Joel had asked what he wanted, saying (ok bragging) that I could make anything he wanted, so he asked for ginger beef. I of course did a modified version as there is no way I was deep-frying anything, so I doubt it was what he was expecting and don't know if he even liked it. It was super-tasty but he's a teenager from a small town and there's not exactly a huge range of food there. Anyway the yumminess vs. non-yumminess of the dish got completely overshadowed by the overspiciness....the beef wasn't too bad but the veggie side-dish was WAY too hot for his poor teenage tastebuds, I don't know what I was thinking. So ever since, everything we eat is like "careful don't make it too hot for K" which makes me feel bad because he likely feels like we are insinuating that he "can't handle it", when really it was just too hot for most people and a regular amount of heat would be perfectly ok with him. Or maybe I am just overthinking it. It's been cool to have him try some stuff he's never had, though, and he's pretty open to it...he liked the shawarma we had on Granville, and he liked the vegan veggie-roll we had on Commercial, and he's open to trying some Indian food too. He's a good kid. We went to my parent's place for dinner last night and he was sociable and helpful and not at all like I was at that age. I was awkward and painfully shy and often sulky/ moody. His mom might be the devil, but he sure turned out good! He and Joel went to the AC/DC concert on Saturday, had a great time, while I went to my sister's place. On Saturday we went to buy him new shoes since the ones he was wearing were literally falling off his feet. We spent hours and hours picking out shoes. Not even shoes, runners. Only after we spent an hour or two in regular shoe stores before he spoke up and said he just won't wear the funky shoes Joel kepy trying to pick out for him, which I guessed right from the beginning. So we switched gears and hit the sports stores instead all started all over. I never knew shopping could be so horribly painful lol...though because we spent so much time in sports stores I did manage to find myself a couple of sports bras, no more bounciness on the elliptical, yay!

This week, they are going to do some sightseeing around Vancouver then come out to Victoria on Wednesday and we'll go whale-watching before heading back  to take K home to the Kootenays. So it will be a busy week!

The antimicrobial cream I was using to fight the infection in my newly pierced ear did something weird to my skin, so now I have this big patch of leathery, scaly, peely skin around my ear, SIGH. For pete's sake. So I've switched to just some polysporin but the skin is still all gross. Why is it never easy?

Welp, that's all for now. Happy Monday everyone!

Day 3 of ScaleWatch
Aug 28 2009 09:38

Still up 4 stupid pounds, but at least now there is a good reason....my muscles are pretty sore from Wednesday's workout. I really need to start doing resistance training on a more regular basis, I want nice strong muscles!

I picked some more blackberries on my way home from work yesterday, but not very many because I forgot to pack gloves and whatnot. I got scratched up but not too badly, and got myself 2 cups or so of berries. Yum! The really big, gorgeous berries are too deep and/or high to reach, it's so sad! All those big juicy ripe berries going to waste.

Yay for it being Friday, one of Joel's sons is in town this weekend and next week, so we will be playing tourguides and Sat night they go to the AC/DC concert so I will be left to my own devices, probably do something with my sister. It will be a quick weekend I am sure, but next week is a short week as I took some holidays...yay!

Day 2 of ScaleWatch
Aug 27 2009 08:56

Weight is still up 4 pounds. I am aggravated because the end of the month is almost here and I want to record a good monthly loss for Sept 1, to me "good" is three pounds so at this rate I will be up instead of down, and that just won't do, even if I know it's just some freak water-retention or something.

Last night I went to the gym (yay me!) and had a great work-out, 30 intense min on the elliptical and then a full circuit of the arm/chest/back weight machines. It felt great, but I had a hard time getting to sleep...I didn't get back from the gym until 10 pm or so, and couldn't fall asleep until 2ish, that's just WAY too late. I need my beauty sleep! I did take the time to cook up some beans, I made my own bean medley of pinto, cannellini, red kidney, and black beans, and also cooked up some red and brown jasmine rice that smelled incredible even that late at night. Mixed them together with some homemade salsa and topped with a tiny bit of cheddar cheese, and that's my lunch today. It looked and smelled so good last night I wanted to eat it right then! I figured I better make up some budget-concsious foods since I was a very bad girl and spent $5 at the evil SB yesterday :(.

My muscles don't hurt yet but I expect they will by tomorrow. When I was young, like in my early twenties, my muscles always hurt the day after a hard work-out, but now for some reason they hurt a day later, not the very next day. Must be an age thing.

On Monday I got my ear repeirced, he used the existing front of the hole but needed to punch through the back part to straighten it out. It didn't hurt at all, and didn't hurt Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. Today, it's sore at the back and when I put peroxide on it it fuzzed all over the place. Dammit. I fear infection. I've been using the special cream and doing the saltwater dip, but clearly it's not enough. Hope it works out ok.

Happy Friday Eve everyone!