This is the home-stretch; Today marks day 96 of the challenge. I've been trying to write this blog entry for the past 5 days or so. Something keeps coming up everytime I sit down to write it. Not sure what's going on there.
For the most part, the cigarette cravings have finally gone away. I still get the odd one here and there that makes me want to curl into the fetal positon and weep like a school-girl, but they're few and far between and I've learned to manage it relatively well. I started going to the gym about 2 months ago so I keep telling myself that if I smoke, the treadmill will just kill me harder than it already does.
Our portions are back to a more normal (for lack of a better word, I suppose) level. It helps a lot when we're planning our meals a few days to a week in advance. It's difficult to stick to because we both work, but we're doing well on that front also. We've also cut down a lot of late-night snacking which, I'm not sure if I mentioned, we did quite a lot of. Both of those are really positive. That's huge.
Since my last update, both Linds and I have been trying to bring lunch to work; We've been doing quite well. I figured, with Christmas coming up, it's probably not a good idea to buy a 6-8 dollar lunch every day. We've kind of found the balance (the "sweet-spot" if you want to get technical) on when to buy lunch stuff and what we're actually going to use. We still have a bit of work, but it's been quite a marginal improvement.
Speaking of Christmas, I'm a procrastinator. It's pretty safe to say that as of right now, December 6th (I should probably call my mother, seeing as how it's her birthday), I have no Christmas shopping done. And no ideas. I really need to get on that. I usually go home for Christmas, either a few days before or a few days after, and I've made the unfortunate habit of picking up most, if not all, of my gifts at the Walmart about an hour from my parents' place, which I hit after about 6 or 7 hours of driving.
Seeing as how today marks 96 days without fast food, I've made the executive decision that I'd like to attempt to continue this fast-food free lifestyle after the challenge is complete. Only with stuff like McDonalds, Wendy's etc... (So I'll still occasionally dine on my share of delectable chicken wings). I've found that of the things that I've stopped eating with this challenge, fast food is the thing I miss the least. It never even crossed my mind that "Oh hell, I really wish I had some McDonalds right now", like it did with Coke and Pepsi and Cigarettes. It wouldn't bother me if I never ate another burger from McDonalds again. Not that I'm trying to single out McDonalds or anything, the same would go for Burger King, they're just something everyone recognizes. This stems somewhat from the fact that I've learned that there's always a better option to just grabbing a burger. Always. You're always told that fast food is bad for you, but as I mentioned a while ago, you don't realize how bad it is until you see how you feel when you don't eat it for an extended period of time.
The other day I looked at my very first picture in my picture-a-day catalog. Wow. My face has changed quite a lot over the course of 75 to 80 days. Over the next few days I plan on pulling them off of the camera (I don't have a way to get them off the SD card, we've lost the camera cable somehow) and hopefully uploading them as a Youtube video in time for the challenge to finish. Unless I just procrastinate it, as I have a habit of doing. I'm sure I'll get around to it.
Four more days.
We've succeeded.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Pepsi and Cigarettes
I just want a cigarette.
The last two weeks for me have been brutal. I didn't have that big of a problem with not smoking for the first 70 days or so. Sure it sucked and I had the cravings and whatnot, but now it's all I think about. The smell of a lit cigarette is like heaven for me all of a sudden. I'm probably sure, given the chance, that I'd graze like cattle in an ashtray... Yeah, there's not a chance in the nine-hells anyone would ever do that. I really want a cigarette though. I started going out on the balcony with my neighbour when he smokes and I haven't caved. Somehow.
I also seem to have some sort of burning desire to drink a Coke. Or a Pepsi. Wherever your loyalties lie. I was at Walmart the other day and I saw a wall of those 710ml 6-packs of Pepsi (these glorious works of magnificence). It took a lot for me not to buy them, take them to the car and systematically guzzle them down like they were the last drinkable liquids on the planet. I generally don't get cravings for stuff (except cigarettes, of course), but for some reason I really, really want a Pepsi... They were on sale too.
We've gotten marginally better with eating out; I think we've only been out once in the past couple of weeks. We tried the new Milestones that opened downtown. The food was really good, the service was good, the atmosphere was good. It's a little pricey but I recommend trying it at least once. On that note, we've started to go back to eating subway for lunch quite a bit. I know I have. Lindsay works at the mall where there's a ton of food options in the food-court, so I'm sure she's probably in the same boat as me. Although, I think we're going to try again to do the whole lunch thing. For some reason, it's just hard. Who wants to try to find something to make for lunch every day? No one, that's who. Alright some people.. most people. I'm not yet among this elite group of lunch connoisseurs.
My company had a lunch function yesterday. A "lunch and learn" I believe is what they were calling it. If you've never heard of this, or you have but have never had the wonderful pleasure of attending one of these, I highly suggest it. In terms of entertainment value, it's right up there with plucking out your eyelashes one by one with a seafood fork. But seriously, it would be more fun to pick out the crumbs from your keyboard and organize them from smallest to largest and by texture. Either way, lunch was free. I was stoked, I was ready. So, lunch hour rolls around and the pizza gets here. That's right. It was pizza. Needless to say I didn't do the lunch part. I also didn't learn a whole lot, other than standing for an hour and a half straight will get painful around the forty-five minute mark. No lunch, no learn, 0 for 2. I made an emergency trip to Pan Chancho bakery and had a sandwich.
We've put a lot of work into not eating after 8pm. I think we're doing relatively well, but we do still have a lot of work left. Oddly enough, if we do eat after 8, our portions are not too bad. It's a couple of walnuts or almonds, a granola bar etc... Sometimes it's not but I suppose it's still a lot better than a bunch of chocolate or chips. We'll get there. Unfortunately our portions are still somewhat large, but we're also improving (ever so slowly) there as well.
I haven't written since before Halloween, and I just wanted to add that we, quite easily, gave out candies and didn't even eat any. I remember at the start of this, I thought for sure Halloween would be the day we'd cave. Maybe not Halloween, but the day or week after. The chocolate and candy is always on sale. I didn't think we'd do it. Awesome.
Three quarters of the way to the end.
I just want a cigarette.
The last two weeks for me have been brutal. I didn't have that big of a problem with not smoking for the first 70 days or so. Sure it sucked and I had the cravings and whatnot, but now it's all I think about. The smell of a lit cigarette is like heaven for me all of a sudden. I'm probably sure, given the chance, that I'd graze like cattle in an ashtray... Yeah, there's not a chance in the nine-hells anyone would ever do that. I really want a cigarette though. I started going out on the balcony with my neighbour when he smokes and I haven't caved. Somehow.
I also seem to have some sort of burning desire to drink a Coke. Or a Pepsi. Wherever your loyalties lie. I was at Walmart the other day and I saw a wall of those 710ml 6-packs of Pepsi (these glorious works of magnificence). It took a lot for me not to buy them, take them to the car and systematically guzzle them down like they were the last drinkable liquids on the planet. I generally don't get cravings for stuff (except cigarettes, of course), but for some reason I really, really want a Pepsi... They were on sale too.
We've gotten marginally better with eating out; I think we've only been out once in the past couple of weeks. We tried the new Milestones that opened downtown. The food was really good, the service was good, the atmosphere was good. It's a little pricey but I recommend trying it at least once. On that note, we've started to go back to eating subway for lunch quite a bit. I know I have. Lindsay works at the mall where there's a ton of food options in the food-court, so I'm sure she's probably in the same boat as me. Although, I think we're going to try again to do the whole lunch thing. For some reason, it's just hard. Who wants to try to find something to make for lunch every day? No one, that's who. Alright some people.. most people. I'm not yet among this elite group of lunch connoisseurs.
My company had a lunch function yesterday. A "lunch and learn" I believe is what they were calling it. If you've never heard of this, or you have but have never had the wonderful pleasure of attending one of these, I highly suggest it. In terms of entertainment value, it's right up there with plucking out your eyelashes one by one with a seafood fork. But seriously, it would be more fun to pick out the crumbs from your keyboard and organize them from smallest to largest and by texture. Either way, lunch was free. I was stoked, I was ready. So, lunch hour rolls around and the pizza gets here. That's right. It was pizza. Needless to say I didn't do the lunch part. I also didn't learn a whole lot, other than standing for an hour and a half straight will get painful around the forty-five minute mark. No lunch, no learn, 0 for 2. I made an emergency trip to Pan Chancho bakery and had a sandwich.
We've put a lot of work into not eating after 8pm. I think we're doing relatively well, but we do still have a lot of work left. Oddly enough, if we do eat after 8, our portions are not too bad. It's a couple of walnuts or almonds, a granola bar etc... Sometimes it's not but I suppose it's still a lot better than a bunch of chocolate or chips. We'll get there. Unfortunately our portions are still somewhat large, but we're also improving (ever so slowly) there as well.
I haven't written since before Halloween, and I just wanted to add that we, quite easily, gave out candies and didn't even eat any. I remember at the start of this, I thought for sure Halloween would be the day we'd cave. Maybe not Halloween, but the day or week after. The chocolate and candy is always on sale. I didn't think we'd do it. Awesome.
Three quarters of the way to the end.
I just want a cigarette.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Lindsay
This challenge has changed my life.
A few nights ago Lindsay and I were discussing some of the things we've learned about ourselves since we started this. It was essentially a reflection at the half-way point. We both went into this challenge unsure of exactly what we'd get out of it. Part of me thought it might just last the hundred days and that'd be it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Lindsay admitted to me that, at the start of the challenge, she was afraid of not being able to find the willpower to last as long as we have. She was afraid that somewhere along the line she'd cheat. Sneak something, find a loophole somewhere. Even with the natural pressure that people put on you (the same things I described in my first blog entry) to try things and the occasional "Ah, one won't hurt the challenge", she hasn't. For that I'm very proud of her. We've both discovered self-control that we didn't know we had. I'm hoping (and I do believe) that we can take this further than the hundred days.
When Linds and I started dating, she was among the pickiest eaters I'd ever met (even she will attest to this!). If it wasn't made of chicken or some form of noodle, she wasn't having it. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that intense, but you get the idea. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I'm the exact opposite. I'll eat anything at least once. I like to cook, so I do most of the cooking for us (hey don't get me wrong here, I love missing out on the whole dishes thing).
Our differences in taste were... er, stressful... to say the least, but compromises were made and we worked it out. While we were talking, Lindsay admitted to me something that she was doing, without knowing, that I think proves with impermeable certainty that something as simple as a 100-day challenge really can change you: When we started dating, we ate out A LOT. We worked and carpooled together so it was always the easiest thing to do. When I first moved into my place, she stayed with me quite a bit, so we actually ate out probably more than 80% of the time. This continued up until September first. Lindsay told me that because she was a picky eater, she'd always want to eat out because she was afraid of my cooking. Perhaps I shouldn't said "afraid" (come on now, I'm a magnificent chef), but more worried. Apprehensive. She said she was worried about not liking something that I'd cook and so eating out was her scapegoat. If we'd eat out, she wouldn't have to deal with that huge unknown of eating something she'd never tried. Because of the limitations we've placed on ourselves with this challenge, I've started cooking for her a lot more, which in turn has her liking my cooking. Now, we can deduce one of two possible conclusions from this: Either my cooking actually is cataclysmic and neither of us have tasted really really awesome food is so long that we've forgotten the taste, or my cooking isn't too bad and necessity really is the mother of invention. I'm leaning towards the latter of the two. Either way it takes a lot for someone to admit that theyre wrong or that they've made a mistake and I admire Lindsay for that. That's a huge win for her. Well done indeed.
Just as sort of a footnote to that: I've been trying, with zero success, for the past year to get Lindsay to try sushi for the first time. Finally, on October 14th, she said that within the next year she'd give it a try. That means that she has until October 14th, 2012 to try sushi. I think I'm going to add another count-down to the top of this blog. Yes I will.
In an attempt to tackle some of the side-stipulations of the challenge, we've tried to add in the "no food after 8 o'clock" rule to help stave off some of the loop-holes we've run into. By loop-holes I mean stuff like eating things that we probably should have included in the contract, but simply overlooked. Things like Munchies Coated Peanuts (these). Perhaps it's more of a portion control stipulation in these case but I just cannot keep my hands off of them. It's like they're laced with friggin' crack. Or other various, highly-addictive, illicit substances. We've had zero success with this one. It sort of sucks, but I think it's something we'll hopefully still work at. Our portion control is also getting out of hand. Could use a bit of a revamp there too but it's nothing we can't handle.
I mentioned in a previous blog post that I'd started a picture a day of myself and that I was going to post them at the end. Well, I've changed my mind and I think I'll have my web-developer friend give me a hand with some sort of dynamic picture setup somewhere on the blog. Maybe that'll give me some incentive to actually take them off the camera. We'll see though.
I'm 62 days smoke-free.
Oh, if anyone's interested, I took off the member requirement to post comments. Now anyone can post comments on any blog entry if they want to.
A few nights ago Lindsay and I were discussing some of the things we've learned about ourselves since we started this. It was essentially a reflection at the half-way point. We both went into this challenge unsure of exactly what we'd get out of it. Part of me thought it might just last the hundred days and that'd be it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Lindsay admitted to me that, at the start of the challenge, she was afraid of not being able to find the willpower to last as long as we have. She was afraid that somewhere along the line she'd cheat. Sneak something, find a loophole somewhere. Even with the natural pressure that people put on you (the same things I described in my first blog entry) to try things and the occasional "Ah, one won't hurt the challenge", she hasn't. For that I'm very proud of her. We've both discovered self-control that we didn't know we had. I'm hoping (and I do believe) that we can take this further than the hundred days.
When Linds and I started dating, she was among the pickiest eaters I'd ever met (even she will attest to this!). If it wasn't made of chicken or some form of noodle, she wasn't having it. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that intense, but you get the idea. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I'm the exact opposite. I'll eat anything at least once. I like to cook, so I do most of the cooking for us (hey don't get me wrong here, I love missing out on the whole dishes thing).
Our differences in taste were... er, stressful... to say the least, but compromises were made and we worked it out. While we were talking, Lindsay admitted to me something that she was doing, without knowing, that I think proves with impermeable certainty that something as simple as a 100-day challenge really can change you: When we started dating, we ate out A LOT. We worked and carpooled together so it was always the easiest thing to do. When I first moved into my place, she stayed with me quite a bit, so we actually ate out probably more than 80% of the time. This continued up until September first. Lindsay told me that because she was a picky eater, she'd always want to eat out because she was afraid of my cooking. Perhaps I shouldn't said "afraid" (come on now, I'm a magnificent chef), but more worried. Apprehensive. She said she was worried about not liking something that I'd cook and so eating out was her scapegoat. If we'd eat out, she wouldn't have to deal with that huge unknown of eating something she'd never tried. Because of the limitations we've placed on ourselves with this challenge, I've started cooking for her a lot more, which in turn has her liking my cooking. Now, we can deduce one of two possible conclusions from this: Either my cooking actually is cataclysmic and neither of us have tasted really really awesome food is so long that we've forgotten the taste, or my cooking isn't too bad and necessity really is the mother of invention. I'm leaning towards the latter of the two. Either way it takes a lot for someone to admit that theyre wrong or that they've made a mistake and I admire Lindsay for that. That's a huge win for her. Well done indeed.
Just as sort of a footnote to that: I've been trying, with zero success, for the past year to get Lindsay to try sushi for the first time. Finally, on October 14th, she said that within the next year she'd give it a try. That means that she has until October 14th, 2012 to try sushi. I think I'm going to add another count-down to the top of this blog. Yes I will.
In an attempt to tackle some of the side-stipulations of the challenge, we've tried to add in the "no food after 8 o'clock" rule to help stave off some of the loop-holes we've run into. By loop-holes I mean stuff like eating things that we probably should have included in the contract, but simply overlooked. Things like Munchies Coated Peanuts (these). Perhaps it's more of a portion control stipulation in these case but I just cannot keep my hands off of them. It's like they're laced with friggin' crack. Or other various, highly-addictive, illicit substances. We've had zero success with this one. It sort of sucks, but I think it's something we'll hopefully still work at. Our portion control is also getting out of hand. Could use a bit of a revamp there too but it's nothing we can't handle.
I mentioned in a previous blog post that I'd started a picture a day of myself and that I was going to post them at the end. Well, I've changed my mind and I think I'll have my web-developer friend give me a hand with some sort of dynamic picture setup somewhere on the blog. Maybe that'll give me some incentive to actually take them off the camera. We'll see though.
I'm 62 days smoke-free.
Oh, if anyone's interested, I took off the member requirement to post comments. Now anyone can post comments on any blog entry if they want to.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Thanksgiving and the Prawns-a-Plenty Promotion
I think I'm just a procrastinator.
I mentioned in my last post that Lindsay and I had had our challenge success tested quite a bit. This week-or-so was no exception. In fact, we were probably tested more this week than we have in the past month.
Last week was Thanksgiving in Canada (I'm not sure how many, if any, American readers I have). Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie, apple crumbles, other pies, other crumbles etc... Well, and turkey of course. Lindsay and I went to her parents' place for dinner on Sunday. So, here's the thing: In the contract we didn't really make a stipulation about pie. Or desserts of any kind for that matter. So, despite our best efforts in the contract creation, we've actually come across quite a few gray areas that we're just not sure of. For example, we've specified "no pizza" in the contract, but does that then mean that we can't go and buy a pizza-bun from Loblaws? Can we just buy the cheese-bun (which is essentially a pizza-bun minus tomato sauce)? We've erred on the side of caution when it comes to most of the gray areas.
Anyway, more about pie. I was in the laundry room with Lindsay at her parents' place (they're so awesome that they let us do laundry there), and she asked me "What about pumpkin pie? Can we have pumpkin pie?". She kinda ninja'd me a little on that one; I didn't know the answer. On one hand, it's a baked good (which I'm not even entirely sure there's a stipulation in the contract for either), but on the other hand, we mentioned nothing about pies in there either. My equally diplomatic and tacful response: "It's your contract too, you do whatever you want to do.". She didn't eat any of the pie. We're coming up on the half-way mark of the challenge and this proves to be another reason why we've done so well. Both of us are easily able to say no to stuff that we feel would be a violation of the contract. Worlds ahead of where we were on day one.
With the good always comes some bad. Last night we went to Red Lobster to celebrate Lindsay's mom's birthday. They have a deal going on there right now where you can order one of 5 shrimp dishes and you get unlimited "refills" of any of the dishes after that. This is appropriately titled "Endless Shrimp". How original. I'd have called it the Prawns-a-Plenty Promotion. Just sayin'.
Just go to go off on a side note here, the Endless Shrimp deal is awesome. However, the way they have it set up is somewhat annoying. You order 2 shrimp dishes, they come with some sides (the sides don't matter), and you can order more shrimp until you can't possibly eat shrimp anymore. The problem with it is this: You have to wait order "refills" until after your previous order has come out. So I can't tell my server "Can I please have... um....... nine..... of the garlic ones?". Now, this may not seem all that annoying, but it still takes the same amount of time to come out as waiting for your initial order. So if the restaurant is relatively busy (it was last night), you have to wait quite a while. Oh, and unlike your initial order, you can only order one shrimp dish refill at a time. Don't get me wrong though, the shrimp was delicious. Ahem, back on track.
I placed my initial shrimp order for their Sweet and Spicy Shrimp, and an order of their straight-up Hand-Breaded Shrimp. We wait a while and everything comes out. At this point I'm famished so I devoured my spicy shrimp skewer with record-setting haste (I was supposed to share with Lindsay but I'd forgotten in a fit of starvation-induced frenzy). After that, I start, with relative humanity this time, on my hand-breaded shrimp. After eating a few of them I decided I'd actually took a look at one of them. Dammit... they're deep-fried... So I delegated the remainder of them to the others at the table. They accepted with great haste (who would say no to shrimp?). Although, that's a minus one for me. I slipped. My bad. The rest of the meal/evening was great, there were pictures, cake and good times.
A few weeks ago I made the decision to start going to the gym and working out. I figured if I was doing this challenge which was forcing me to (sort of) eat healthier/not as poorly, I might as well try to make some other improvements to myself as well. I went online and found a decent beginner workout, which I found here for anyone who wants to know. It's been about 2 weeks and I've noticed some really great improvements already. I'm able to run a seven and a half minute mile as opposed to the eleven minutes it took the first time I ran it, which would have never happened had I not quit smoking, I'm lighter than I've been since I was in highschool and I'm now actually motivated enough to go to the gym regularly. It's awesome.
I think I'd mentioned in a previous blog post that I'd wanted to start taking a picture a day of myself for the duration of the challenge. Well, I finally started that (I know, day fifty right?) and I'm about a week or so in. At the end of the challenge, I'll post the results in a slideshow or youtube video or something. I hope to keep that going for longer than the duration of the challenge.
Day 47. Almost half-way.
I mentioned in my last post that Lindsay and I had had our challenge success tested quite a bit. This week-or-so was no exception. In fact, we were probably tested more this week than we have in the past month.
Last week was Thanksgiving in Canada (I'm not sure how many, if any, American readers I have). Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie, apple crumbles, other pies, other crumbles etc... Well, and turkey of course. Lindsay and I went to her parents' place for dinner on Sunday. So, here's the thing: In the contract we didn't really make a stipulation about pie. Or desserts of any kind for that matter. So, despite our best efforts in the contract creation, we've actually come across quite a few gray areas that we're just not sure of. For example, we've specified "no pizza" in the contract, but does that then mean that we can't go and buy a pizza-bun from Loblaws? Can we just buy the cheese-bun (which is essentially a pizza-bun minus tomato sauce)? We've erred on the side of caution when it comes to most of the gray areas.
Anyway, more about pie. I was in the laundry room with Lindsay at her parents' place (they're so awesome that they let us do laundry there), and she asked me "What about pumpkin pie? Can we have pumpkin pie?". She kinda ninja'd me a little on that one; I didn't know the answer. On one hand, it's a baked good (which I'm not even entirely sure there's a stipulation in the contract for either), but on the other hand, we mentioned nothing about pies in there either. My equally diplomatic and tacful response: "It's your contract too, you do whatever you want to do.". She didn't eat any of the pie. We're coming up on the half-way mark of the challenge and this proves to be another reason why we've done so well. Both of us are easily able to say no to stuff that we feel would be a violation of the contract. Worlds ahead of where we were on day one.
With the good always comes some bad. Last night we went to Red Lobster to celebrate Lindsay's mom's birthday. They have a deal going on there right now where you can order one of 5 shrimp dishes and you get unlimited "refills" of any of the dishes after that. This is appropriately titled "Endless Shrimp". How original. I'd have called it the Prawns-a-Plenty Promotion. Just sayin'.
Just go to go off on a side note here, the Endless Shrimp deal is awesome. However, the way they have it set up is somewhat annoying. You order 2 shrimp dishes, they come with some sides (the sides don't matter), and you can order more shrimp until you can't possibly eat shrimp anymore. The problem with it is this: You have to wait order "refills" until after your previous order has come out. So I can't tell my server "Can I please have... um....... nine..... of the garlic ones?". Now, this may not seem all that annoying, but it still takes the same amount of time to come out as waiting for your initial order. So if the restaurant is relatively busy (it was last night), you have to wait quite a while. Oh, and unlike your initial order, you can only order one shrimp dish refill at a time. Don't get me wrong though, the shrimp was delicious. Ahem, back on track.
I placed my initial shrimp order for their Sweet and Spicy Shrimp, and an order of their straight-up Hand-Breaded Shrimp. We wait a while and everything comes out. At this point I'm famished so I devoured my spicy shrimp skewer with record-setting haste (I was supposed to share with Lindsay but I'd forgotten in a fit of starvation-induced frenzy). After that, I start, with relative humanity this time, on my hand-breaded shrimp. After eating a few of them I decided I'd actually took a look at one of them. Dammit... they're deep-fried... So I delegated the remainder of them to the others at the table. They accepted with great haste (who would say no to shrimp?). Although, that's a minus one for me. I slipped. My bad. The rest of the meal/evening was great, there were pictures, cake and good times.
A few weeks ago I made the decision to start going to the gym and working out. I figured if I was doing this challenge which was forcing me to (sort of) eat healthier/not as poorly, I might as well try to make some other improvements to myself as well. I went online and found a decent beginner workout, which I found here for anyone who wants to know. It's been about 2 weeks and I've noticed some really great improvements already. I'm able to run a seven and a half minute mile as opposed to the eleven minutes it took the first time I ran it, which would have never happened had I not quit smoking, I'm lighter than I've been since I was in highschool and I'm now actually motivated enough to go to the gym regularly. It's awesome.
I think I'd mentioned in a previous blog post that I'd wanted to start taking a picture a day of myself for the duration of the challenge. Well, I finally started that (I know, day fifty right?) and I'm about a week or so in. At the end of the challenge, I'll post the results in a slideshow or youtube video or something. I hope to keep that going for longer than the duration of the challenge.
Day 47. Almost half-way.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Portion control and home-brewed soup.
It's been another relatively lengthy amount of time since my last blog update. I'm still somewhat busy with work (which is actually where I've written all of these blog entries). I've also been known to procrastinate a little. Hmm, who knew?
We're actually doing quite well with our portion control endeavour, which was something I thought both Lindsay and I would struggle with. It's slow going though. Breaking habit and routine in terms of what (or in this case how much) you eat is a very difficult thing to do. We're coming along nicely though. We've also been able to drastically reduce the number of times we eat out in a week. I think this past week we only did once or twice. I've also gotten used to not ordering fries with a meal. It's great. I had also wanted to try to take lunch to work (which I haven't in the past couple days actually), so the other night I'd attempted to make some somewhat-healthy homemade soup. It turned out remarkably well. I'll add my (approximate) recipe to the end of this post.
In the past couple of days I think both Lindsay and I have had our challenges tested quite a bit. Lindsay started a new job a few days ago. She was telling me that the first thing her boss had done (I guess they were supposed to have meetings or something) was bring in cupcakes and cookies and candies and other confections for the staff. I know how hard it is to say no to that sort of thing, I can only imagine how hard it would have been on her first day to tell people she'd never met that she was refusing their generous offer of ambrosial baked goods. She did it though and I would have to say that that would count as a triumph. Well done indeed.
We had a baseball tournament this weekend, after which my team decided to order pizza while having a drink at one of my teammate/coworker's houses. I didn't eat it obviously. I had already eaten so that wasn't too bad. I did feel somewhat bad though because the host of the party thought I was saying no to her other food offerings to be polite. It sort of goes back to what I mentioned in my first blog entry: You don't realize how much people want you to eat with them, until you're not eating with them.
Over the past week, there have been 3 birthday cakes in my office. Actually I'm not sure that they were birthday cakes, but cakes for some form of celebration. They're not even the really cheap ones either, I'm talking $50-$60 bakery-purchased, custom-cake excellence. We've also had countless plates/platters of donuts from Tim Hortons, other forms of baked goods, muffins, chocolates, etc... The latest cake was rich chocolate; You could smell this thing across the room. It's been sitting in the lunch-room for two days. I think it might even have my name on it.
It's amazing how much of a positive effect that not eating take-out, junk-food, candies and chocolate has on your body. Both Lindsay (I'm sure she'll disagree with me on this one for eternity, probably longer) and I have lost a noticeable amount of weight. We've both started going to the gym and exercising more. We have more drive to succeed with this. It's really quite impressive.
The last thing I'll mention, I added a javascript counter to the top of the blog so I can tell how long the challenge is set to run for....... I thought it was cool.
Oh, and the soup recipe follows:
Ingredients:
We're actually doing quite well with our portion control endeavour, which was something I thought both Lindsay and I would struggle with. It's slow going though. Breaking habit and routine in terms of what (or in this case how much) you eat is a very difficult thing to do. We're coming along nicely though. We've also been able to drastically reduce the number of times we eat out in a week. I think this past week we only did once or twice. I've also gotten used to not ordering fries with a meal. It's great. I had also wanted to try to take lunch to work (which I haven't in the past couple days actually), so the other night I'd attempted to make some somewhat-healthy homemade soup. It turned out remarkably well. I'll add my (approximate) recipe to the end of this post.
In the past couple of days I think both Lindsay and I have had our challenges tested quite a bit. Lindsay started a new job a few days ago. She was telling me that the first thing her boss had done (I guess they were supposed to have meetings or something) was bring in cupcakes and cookies and candies and other confections for the staff. I know how hard it is to say no to that sort of thing, I can only imagine how hard it would have been on her first day to tell people she'd never met that she was refusing their generous offer of ambrosial baked goods. She did it though and I would have to say that that would count as a triumph. Well done indeed.
We had a baseball tournament this weekend, after which my team decided to order pizza while having a drink at one of my teammate/coworker's houses. I didn't eat it obviously. I had already eaten so that wasn't too bad. I did feel somewhat bad though because the host of the party thought I was saying no to her other food offerings to be polite. It sort of goes back to what I mentioned in my first blog entry: You don't realize how much people want you to eat with them, until you're not eating with them.
Over the past week, there have been 3 birthday cakes in my office. Actually I'm not sure that they were birthday cakes, but cakes for some form of celebration. They're not even the really cheap ones either, I'm talking $50-$60 bakery-purchased, custom-cake excellence. We've also had countless plates/platters of donuts from Tim Hortons, other forms of baked goods, muffins, chocolates, etc... The latest cake was rich chocolate; You could smell this thing across the room. It's been sitting in the lunch-room for two days. I think it might even have my name on it.
It's amazing how much of a positive effect that not eating take-out, junk-food, candies and chocolate has on your body. Both Lindsay (I'm sure she'll disagree with me on this one for eternity, probably longer) and I have lost a noticeable amount of weight. We've both started going to the gym and exercising more. We have more drive to succeed with this. It's really quite impressive.
The last thing I'll mention, I added a javascript counter to the top of the blog so I can tell how long the challenge is set to run for....... I thought it was cool.
Oh, and the soup recipe follows:
Ingredients:
- 8 cups of water (for the stock) and enough extra water to boil potatoes
- 4 chicken boullion cubes
- 2 cups medium egg noodles
- 2 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (or julienned depending on preference)
- 2 cups coined (or julienned depending on preference) carrots
- 3 medium potatoes, cubed
- 4 medium stalks of celery, coined
- 3 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp basil
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp margarine
- Prepare the carrots, celery and potatoes and place them into separate bowls.
- In a pot, cover the potatoes with water and boil until soft
- Bring the 8 cups of water to a boil. When it boils add the boullion cubes.
- Add carrots and remaining 1 tbsp of margarine to a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle with cinnamon and microwave on high for 6-7 minutes or until soft. Stir them about halfway through.
- In the meantime, sauteé your garlic in 1 tbsp of the margine over medium heat for one minute, add celery and sauteé another 5 minutes. Add the chicken and sauteé until it's about halfway cooked.
- Keep the water boiling and add the chicken concoction and basil and oregano to the boiling water and boullion mix.
- Drain the potatoes and add to the soup.
- Add the carrots when they're soft.
- Boil on high for 10 minutes, reduce to low-medium heat and let simmer for about half an hour, stirring it on occasion.
- Increase to medium high heat, add the noodles and boil until they're cooked.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Radisson
It's been a while since I last posted. Mostly because last week was an insane week of work. Everyone in development stuck around late every night to hit our Friday deadline.
I put in about 60 hours. A good thing about the company I work for is they (usually) will pay for your dinner if you work late. So since everyone was here, a lot of pizza was ordered most of the nights. Luckily it wasn't that Tata's crap they normally order. This was straight-up Pizza Pizza. Ever-so-delectable, mouth-wateringly tasty Pizza-Pizza...
So, Subway was fantastic.
One thing I've noticed in the past week or so is that I don't really crave cigarettes anymore. Although, every once in a while I'll get a whiff of one in passing that smells like heaven, but for the most part it doesn't really even bother me. I'll chalk that one up as a win as well.
On the night of our anniversary, Lindsay had surprised me at work and rented us a hotel room at the Radisson for the evening. The room was awesome. It was a junior executive suite, decked out with everything you could need in a hotel room. A long executive table, a flatscreen TV, a little desk to do stuff at if you had stuff that needed to get done. Oh and windows across two full walls. I'm going to post the pictures of it here when I can get them off the camera. It also had some stuff that you probably wouldn't need in a hotel room. Like a safe. And a sleep-number bed.
If you've never slept in a sleep-number, go ahead, try it; It's the only kind of bed in the world that comes with a customizable mountain range on one side and a pile of puddy on the other. You can literally roll from prison on one side to a pool on the other if you were so inclined. Oh you can switch them too with their handy-dandy remote that requires as little as a degree in astrophysics to use properly. So I guess what I'm trying to say is you probably don't want to use one of these beds. Although, we did have a pretty good laugh playing with the controls.
The rest of the room and hotel and experience was really, really great. That night we had the pool and hot tub/spa areas to ourselves, so that was nice. Lindsay also set us up breakfast in bed the next morning which I thought was awesome. Partly because I've never had a strange man in a blue robe bring me food while I was half-naked and still 99% asleep, but mostly because the food was really good and it was a thoughtful thing to do.
On the night of, I took Lindsay for dinner at Frankie Pesto's, seeing as how she'd never been there, and it's essentially right beside the Radisson. This is sort of where the portion control and stuff from my last post kind of breaks down a little. Frankie Pesto's gives you a pile of food. Most of it is greasy, cheesy, pasta sauteéd in butter and oils and other stuff that would tranquilze a nine-hundred-pound silverback gorilla. We both ordered one of those meals and it was pretty fantastic. The only down-side: Lindsay ordered a Sprite. However, because it was our anniversary dinner, we had both decided that it would be alright to let it slide this one time. Unfortunately though, strike-two for Lindsay.
Over the last few days, Lindsay and I have been talking about what we can do, aside from the challenge, to improve our health. So, me being me, I researched, analyzed, digested and understood most everything that I could find on the subject through some carefully targeted, well thought-out internet browsing (read: I Googled it). Most websites out there will tell you pretty much the same thing: "Don't eat fast food and don't drink pop.". Good thing for us, we're already doing that anyway. We've also agreed that we'd make a concious effort to make and plan our own meals, which I'm hoping will help us out with this whole portion-control dilemma. Now that both Lindsay and I have relatively stable nine-to-fives, I think I can safely assume it will be a marginally easier task. I hope.
Day twenty-two. I think we're doing quite well.
P.S.: If ever you're in room 236 at the Radisson in Kingston, the combination to the safe is "8882".
I put in about 60 hours. A good thing about the company I work for is they (usually) will pay for your dinner if you work late. So since everyone was here, a lot of pizza was ordered most of the nights. Luckily it wasn't that Tata's crap they normally order. This was straight-up Pizza Pizza. Ever-so-delectable, mouth-wateringly tasty Pizza-Pizza...
So, Subway was fantastic.
One thing I've noticed in the past week or so is that I don't really crave cigarettes anymore. Although, every once in a while I'll get a whiff of one in passing that smells like heaven, but for the most part it doesn't really even bother me. I'll chalk that one up as a win as well.
On the night of our anniversary, Lindsay had surprised me at work and rented us a hotel room at the Radisson for the evening. The room was awesome. It was a junior executive suite, decked out with everything you could need in a hotel room. A long executive table, a flatscreen TV, a little desk to do stuff at if you had stuff that needed to get done. Oh and windows across two full walls. I'm going to post the pictures of it here when I can get them off the camera. It also had some stuff that you probably wouldn't need in a hotel room. Like a safe. And a sleep-number bed.
If you've never slept in a sleep-number, go ahead, try it; It's the only kind of bed in the world that comes with a customizable mountain range on one side and a pile of puddy on the other. You can literally roll from prison on one side to a pool on the other if you were so inclined. Oh you can switch them too with their handy-dandy remote that requires as little as a degree in astrophysics to use properly. So I guess what I'm trying to say is you probably don't want to use one of these beds. Although, we did have a pretty good laugh playing with the controls.
The rest of the room and hotel and experience was really, really great. That night we had the pool and hot tub/spa areas to ourselves, so that was nice. Lindsay also set us up breakfast in bed the next morning which I thought was awesome. Partly because I've never had a strange man in a blue robe bring me food while I was half-naked and still 99% asleep, but mostly because the food was really good and it was a thoughtful thing to do.
On the night of, I took Lindsay for dinner at Frankie Pesto's, seeing as how she'd never been there, and it's essentially right beside the Radisson. This is sort of where the portion control and stuff from my last post kind of breaks down a little. Frankie Pesto's gives you a pile of food. Most of it is greasy, cheesy, pasta sauteéd in butter and oils and other stuff that would tranquilze a nine-hundred-pound silverback gorilla. We both ordered one of those meals and it was pretty fantastic. The only down-side: Lindsay ordered a Sprite. However, because it was our anniversary dinner, we had both decided that it would be alright to let it slide this one time. Unfortunately though, strike-two for Lindsay.
Over the last few days, Lindsay and I have been talking about what we can do, aside from the challenge, to improve our health. So, me being me, I researched, analyzed, digested and understood most everything that I could find on the subject through some carefully targeted, well thought-out internet browsing (read: I Googled it). Most websites out there will tell you pretty much the same thing: "Don't eat fast food and don't drink pop.". Good thing for us, we're already doing that anyway. We've also agreed that we'd make a concious effort to make and plan our own meals, which I'm hoping will help us out with this whole portion-control dilemma. Now that both Lindsay and I have relatively stable nine-to-fives, I think I can safely assume it will be a marginally easier task. I hope.
Day twenty-two. I think we're doing quite well.
P.S.: If ever you're in room 236 at the Radisson in Kingston, the combination to the safe is "8882".
Monday, September 12, 2011
Mom's visit/Photoshoot weekend
This past weekend my mom and brother were here for a visit.
I think it's universally accepted that when your family members come to visit (or vice versa), you eat. A lot... You just do. For example: I cannot visit my grandmother, even for a minute, without her asking me if I've eaten and subsequently attempting to feed me everything in her fridge, which actually equates to a years worth of nourishment for a small nation. Not that I didn't love every second of their visit (because I did), but this weekend was hard.
My mother is a saint.
She was very supportive of the challenge, which doesn't come as a surprise to me. She purchased some Kirkland brand granola from Costco (this stuff), which she buys every time she's here because there isn't a Costco in the North. Every time she wanted to eat some, she'd always ask myself or Lindsay if it was alright, just to make sure we weren't going to eat any and throw off our challenge. She read the physical contract (Lindsay pinned it to the wall in my apartment) and compared my wording of the contract to something that Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory would produce. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not. Either way it was adequately hilarious. My mom is awesome. The only thing that wasn't awesome: She smokes.
My brother likes his candies. And his chips. His chocolates not so much, but they're up there. In contrast to my mom, Chris had no problem at all eating the aforementioned items (and all the power to him by the way): Doritos, Skittles, some weird fish-chip things from the Asian Market and a myriad of other stuff that's strictly against the challenge criteria. It was pretty friggin hard to say no Doritos, but we managed.
We went out to eat a few times, once to Lonestar again (I was working Thursday and it's the fastest lunch you can sit down and eat) where we successfully avoided the chips, and once to Copper Penny because it's my favourite restaurant in Kingston and I know my mother enjoys it. With that said, I think a part of the contract that both Lindsay and I feel we're somewhat taking advantage of (for lack of a better phrase) is portion control. We do eat out quite a bit, which we've both agreed that we should probably cut down on, but we also tend to snack relatively frequently after supper. Perhaps this will be our focus in the following weeks.
A small bit of back-story for the last part of this post:
For the past few weeks I'd been emailing back and forth with the girls from Niche Photography here in Kingston to setup a surprise photoshoot for Lindsay and I (from which I'm really stoked to see the resulting images), seeing as how September 13th is our one-year anniversary. Her sister Cassy is an esthetician and as soon as she found out about the photoshoot, generously offered to do Lindsay's makeup and hair the day of the photoshoot (which turned out wonderfully by the way). Consequently, Lindsay wasn't at my place on Friday night, but instead stayed at her place to be surprised Saturday morning. It worked out really well actually.
On Friday night, my friend/neighbour Lee and his girlfriend Ashley came down from upstairs and the four of us, myself, Chris, Lee and Ashley, got our drink on. A lot. The evening's excursions began at my place after which we somehow worked our way to the Grizzly Grill. That's besides the point... Now, anyone who is a smoker will attest to the fact that drinking and smoking are peas and carrots, cheese and wine, Abbot and Costello and all that other stuff that goes together like peas and carrots. The whole night I didn't crave or smoke a single cigarette. Magnificent. Although, there is a very good chance that I may have urinated on a Hakim Optical. Maybe.
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. Not only for this challenge, but also because the photoshoot went exactly as planned and I got to see my mother and brother.
I think it's universally accepted that when your family members come to visit (or vice versa), you eat. A lot... You just do. For example: I cannot visit my grandmother, even for a minute, without her asking me if I've eaten and subsequently attempting to feed me everything in her fridge, which actually equates to a years worth of nourishment for a small nation. Not that I didn't love every second of their visit (because I did), but this weekend was hard.
My mother is a saint.
She was very supportive of the challenge, which doesn't come as a surprise to me. She purchased some Kirkland brand granola from Costco (this stuff), which she buys every time she's here because there isn't a Costco in the North. Every time she wanted to eat some, she'd always ask myself or Lindsay if it was alright, just to make sure we weren't going to eat any and throw off our challenge. She read the physical contract (Lindsay pinned it to the wall in my apartment) and compared my wording of the contract to something that Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory would produce. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not. Either way it was adequately hilarious. My mom is awesome. The only thing that wasn't awesome: She smokes.
My brother likes his candies. And his chips. His chocolates not so much, but they're up there. In contrast to my mom, Chris had no problem at all eating the aforementioned items (and all the power to him by the way): Doritos, Skittles, some weird fish-chip things from the Asian Market and a myriad of other stuff that's strictly against the challenge criteria. It was pretty friggin hard to say no Doritos, but we managed.
We went out to eat a few times, once to Lonestar again (I was working Thursday and it's the fastest lunch you can sit down and eat) where we successfully avoided the chips, and once to Copper Penny because it's my favourite restaurant in Kingston and I know my mother enjoys it. With that said, I think a part of the contract that both Lindsay and I feel we're somewhat taking advantage of (for lack of a better phrase) is portion control. We do eat out quite a bit, which we've both agreed that we should probably cut down on, but we also tend to snack relatively frequently after supper. Perhaps this will be our focus in the following weeks.
A small bit of back-story for the last part of this post:
For the past few weeks I'd been emailing back and forth with the girls from Niche Photography here in Kingston to setup a surprise photoshoot for Lindsay and I (from which I'm really stoked to see the resulting images), seeing as how September 13th is our one-year anniversary. Her sister Cassy is an esthetician and as soon as she found out about the photoshoot, generously offered to do Lindsay's makeup and hair the day of the photoshoot (which turned out wonderfully by the way). Consequently, Lindsay wasn't at my place on Friday night, but instead stayed at her place to be surprised Saturday morning. It worked out really well actually.
On Friday night, my friend/neighbour Lee and his girlfriend Ashley came down from upstairs and the four of us, myself, Chris, Lee and Ashley, got our drink on. A lot. The evening's excursions began at my place after which we somehow worked our way to the Grizzly Grill. That's besides the point... Now, anyone who is a smoker will attest to the fact that drinking and smoking are peas and carrots, cheese and wine, Abbot and Costello and all that other stuff that goes together like peas and carrots. The whole night I didn't crave or smoke a single cigarette. Magnificent. Although, there is a very good chance that I may have urinated on a Hakim Optical. Maybe.
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. Not only for this challenge, but also because the photoshoot went exactly as planned and I got to see my mother and brother.
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