Meat marathons; not condusive to weight loss... go figure!

Every year around June 22nd to Jun 26th there is a festival in Ottawa.  It's not your typical festival, there are no carnival rides, there are no clowns or performers, there is no cotton candy and other type fairground foods, but there is meat.  Ribfest is all about pork ribs, beef ribs, pulled beef brisket, pulled pork sandwiches, whole chickens and even a few chicken wings.  They don't sell beverages, some of the kiosks don't even bother with side dishes and there is no seating because all the room is needed for standing in line to get to the carnivorous nirvhana of meat.  There are kiosks from all over Canada and the US, some boasting orange juice in their sauce (Go Gators!) some have honey, some from texas taste more like traditional BBQ sauce, but they all slop it on with a small mop and they chop up the cooked pieces with huge cleavers all whilst singing, clagning cow bells and some kiosks will even squeal like piggies when you put money in the tip jar. *SQUEEEEE*

Bottom line is this... I've expanded my bottom line.  I didn't need to go everyday, I would have been good with going once but since we went everyday I went in the spirit of living the WW lifestyle and I tracked it all, but going to the Meatfest 5 days in a row is just too much for a body to handle.  The real killer was the decimation of my workout schedule to no movement at all.  All the time spent in line for the meat, eating the meat and socializing while digesting the meat just took up all the non work time of the day. 

I gained 2 pounds, I also gained a few good ideas on how to deal with next year's meat bonanza.  I know the obvious answer should be "don't go!" but you just can't live that way... WW is supposed to be a lifestyle, not a diet and if I stop myself from going at all, then that's just not living!  The 2 pound gain sucks because it looks like the month of June was a waste of time, but I know that it could be waaaay worse like the 8 pound gain during vacation this spring... EEEEK! *searches for silver lining*

Some good ideas for next year:

• Reduce the amount of visits if possible
• Bring veggies or eat some in advance (while standing in line) to help fill up
• Split a typical serving of whatever with whomever else is willing to share (good luck on that one)
• If these other suggestions can't be applied, then find time in the early morning to work out in anticipation

This coming weekend I have the 5 mile/ 8 km Perth kilt run, which I'll be walking with Alex and her friends.  I'm excited to finally get my official kilt... wouldn't it be cool if it was too big??? 

*mental note to bring big safety pins*

Review: Zumba for the Wii

Friday I Zumba'd my butt off like a crazed latin pop star.
Saturday I ran 2kms
Sunday I walked 5kms for the Weight Watchers Walk It Challenge
Monday I spent about 4 hours in the wave pool at our local water park jumping for each wave lest I drown. It was FUN and great exercise, but I was frozen by 1:30.  Thankfully the wave pool was heated so that we could enjoy our staycation day even tho it was cloudy/windy/rainy.

Doing well on the hoarding of activity points.  Sunshine really helps, would have stayed until 5pm at the wave park  *hint, hint* mother nature!

OK, now down to business with the Zumba review.  I love doing Zumba, and even moreso when I can do it in the privacy of my home since I feel like a dicombobulated nimcompoop when I first try some of those moves :P

The main differences I can see between doing a Zumba DVD and using the Zumba Wii is that with the Wii you can compete against other players (exercisers) you can play one person against one person or one team against another team. 

With the DVD you would be limited to a certain amount of routines you could do (think Jillian's 30 day Shred) whereas with the Wii you can do a 5 minute routine, 20 minute routine, different kinds of music, different kinds of steps.  There probably isn't a ton more stuff, but you can mix it up a bit more.  As you play more, you also get to "unlock" more locations like the Rooftop.  All of the routines start out in the Nightclub.

The downside for me is that it's not a real person on screen, it's sort of a cartoon person, but not really.  I prefer seeing real people work out, seems to help me grasp some of the complicated ones faster.

If I can't go to a real class, I like the Wii, but I'd probably enjoy the DVD's as well to be able to see a person for realz :)

Houston... we had a problem

I still haven't played my Wii Zumba game.

Not for lack of wanting to Zumba like a crazed Latin pop star...
Not for lack of getting up off my butt...
Not for lack of changing into workout clothes....

We had technical difficulties. 

Our Wii died of a broken heart.  After over a year (at my estimate) of not being used I believe our Wii passed away silently during the quiet daytime hours while we were at work.  I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but Wii will be missed even though it thought that we didn't love it anymore.

Burial services will be held in the storage room under the stairs this evening.  No need to send food or flowers, but a donation to the "Get Carol's ass off the couch" fund would be happily accepted.

Since Nintendo is coming out with a new Wii system, our local gaming store has their refurbished Wii's on sale for 80 dollars plus tax.  I now have a Wii in my possession and low and behold I can't use it tonight because we're playing softball, but I'm closer than I was yesterday :)

For the last two evenings while I stood in our living room in my workout gear, Wii remote in hand, tear in my eye and no activity happening, I decided to not let the demise of the Wii stop me from hoarding more activity points.

Monday night I went out and ran 3kms and last night I walked 5kms.  I.am.awesome. At least I think so :P

Fantastic weigh-in!!! *virtual cartwheel*

As I posted mid-week, the sun was shinning and I felt like it was a great week, and it really was!

I accumulated a ridonculous amount of activity points (over 80!) which my WW leader said was too much, but it was an out of the ordinary week with the hours upon hours of volunteering.  She did mention that it showed that I probably don't do enough activity on a weekly basis... which I agree with.  Running 3 times a week at this point is more like a maintenance amount of activity, so I have to try and get more daily activity.

Good news is that the WII has been moved up to be near my treadmill so I should be able to get in some Zumba time :)   Yes I caved to temptation and bought the Zumba game for the WII.  Way better than buying a dozen doughnuts don'tcha think? hehehe  Besides, the Zumba game was my gift to myself for completing my May 5km race.  WOOOHOOO.

Back to the weigh-in, since I feel the need to do more *virtual cartwheels*.  I wrote 230.5 on my mirror and 230.5 on my wrist and happily hit my lowest weight this year at 228!  That is also 10lbs away from my 10% weight loss (219.6).  I have a big freaking smile on my face :)  *Fist pump* *devil horns* *virtual cartwheel*

OK, I'll chillax with the celebrating for now :) and get back to work.  I can't loose focus now!

To sign up or not to sign up?

I wrote a really long post between yesterday and today so I decided to split it up into two :)

I haven't signed up for another 5km running clinic.... it's not that I don't love them, I really do, but I think I'm going to try and continue running at least 3 times per week on my own.  I'd like to see if I'm capable of keeping myself on track and most of all I want to save a bit of money.  The clinic itself would only cost $49.99, what ends up costing a lot is the gas money to drive to the course location that I like (Merivale/Baseline area) and the traditional Subway supper that I have on that day.   Why do I do that you ask?  Well there was originally two reasons:

• Reason #1, I used to meet with Alex at that location because it was the halfway point between my home and her home.  
• Reason # 2, I would go straight from work to the Running Room location to save some gas.  (see breakdown below)

If I go home after work:
Work to home is 16.9 km
Home to Running Room @ Merivale is 24.6
Running Room to home again  24.6 km = 66.1 km. 

If I go straight to the Running room after work:
Work to Running Room 6.5 km
Running Room to home 24.6 km = 31.1 km

Alex and I work within approximately two or three blocks of each other, and the Merivale Running Room is closer to my work than my home.  I finish work at 3:30pm, so on  the clinic nights, I would just drive to the Running Room location, walk across the street and have Subway for supper and hang out with Alex until our class started at 7:15.  The actual run was around 8:00 or 8:15 and we'd run for around 30 to 45 mins dependant on the distance of the day.  Then around 9:00 or 9:30 I'd drive home.

After Alex's knee began to complain loudly and she traded her running clinics for intense gym time, I continued to go to the same Running Room location.  I really liked the staff and the instructors (Linda is my favorite) and it's still close to my work (6.5 kms).  Last week during our last run with Linda, she announced that she won't be teaching for the summer because she's going to be training for herself and taking the 1/2 marathon clinic.  Cool for her, sad for me because I think that's yet another reason I didn't have the ambition to sign up for another clinic. 

Saving money, not having access to my favorite instructor is enough to make me want me to train on my own for now, but I really should switch to the Orleans Running Room location, since I live in that neighborhood.  I'd still have to drive there, but I could eat at home after work.  My only fear is that I would get too comfortable at home before needing to head out to class.  Once the bra comes off I don't usually leave the house... and y'all should be happy about that!

It's been a good week... and I plan to keep it that way!

I've tracked everything.  I've pre-tracked some of the days.  I've moved everyday.  I've drank water.  I've gone outside.  I've eaten all my weekly allowance points.  I've tracked 60 activity points so far  (yeah 60!)  I went out for Sushi Monday night.  I went out to Montana's and a movie last night.  The scale this morning still made me smile.  I guess it's all relative.  I'm positive about Saturday's weigh in.

I was a bit tender on Monday after race weekend, but it went away quickly, hell I even wore high heels to work Wednesday (Workin' it!)  Picture can be made available upon request :)

I wasn't always a person that enjoyed warmer weather, but I always felt that I was in a better mood with the sun, sand, surf months of the year.  When I was over 300 pounds hot weather meant sleepless nights, sweaty evenings and days at work spent trying to stay awake, while trying to avoid the temptation to just move to the office (I know how you feel Tonia!)

After I lost a pretty good chunk of weight, the hot weather wasn't as much of a thing to endure, but is slowly becoming a thing to celebrate.  Yeah, I still sweat like crazy when trapped in contraffic (construction + traffic) but the sunshine, sundresses, flip flops, outdoor running, BBQ'ing, slushy drinks, sweet juicy fruit and total lack of anything winter related really make me happy... so much so that it must be obvious to everyone.  This was proven to me when we vacationed in Las Vegas where it's an extremely dry heat and I loved it!  This week we have humid heat, but I don't care, the sun makes me smile.  The sun makes me want to run everyday... and in my book, that's awesome!