13 600 Grams

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Truth.

I'm having a hard time being truthful to myself. 2012 is the year I will make peace with food. It needs to be. Because it might be the last year before I become a momma. And I don't want to bring all these insecurities with me onto the next big step of my life. It's easy to forget where we come from. Back when I was 21 and 285 lbs, my life was miserable. Literally. I had little to no friends, I worked at McDonald's, I barely made rent for my crappy 1 piece appartement and above all I was sad all.the.time. I kept thinking: "if only I could lose weight, everything would be better". And then I quit my job at McD's to be a manager at a video rental store. All of a sudden, I did not hate my job so much. I quit junk food, made more money and moved to a better appartement, made new friends and started to lose weight. And with every pound lost, I had a new victory, a new accomplishement. When I first hit 250 lbs, I finally felt like I could do it. Then at 235 lbs, I had lost 50 lbs in a couple of months and felt so beautiful. Around 215 lbs, I bought my first piece of non plus-sized clothing. Then, one morning, the scale look at me with a 1 in front of my weight. 199 lbs. At 185 lbs, I had lost 100 lbs and never felt better in my life. But then it stopped. I really did not care, since to me and my close entourage, I was so skinny! Perspective! So I maintained my weightloss for a couple of years, until I met the love of my life. To be continued ...

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Wanted a bag of peanut M&m for my class, but somehow the stupid machine gave me a Mars bar .... I ate it and now feel guilty????

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True love

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Is it summer yet?

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The problem with being a grown up, is that it is too late to figure out what you want to be when you'll grow up

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Week-Ends.

Weight Loss would be easier if week-end did not exist.

Ok, scratch that: I would NEVER skip the week-end!!!!

This past week-end was packed: Drinks with school friends on Friday, Dinner at the in-laws Saturday and dinner at my best friend's Sunday, all mixed with a big school project.

I did not work out.

I drank A LOT of wine.

I ate all kind of foods.

I had dessert 3X.

Meh. Life goes on ;)

Eats

B- Egg sandwich (Whole wheat bread, low-fat cheese, egg, tomatoes), Cantaloupe

S- Cherries

L- Soup with Grissini bread sticks (obsession!), Carrots, Jell-o mousse

S- Apple, Granola Bar

D- Crock Pot BBQ Chicken, Roasted Rutabaga

De.- Frozen Yogurt

Moves

Lame Toning Class :( Our usual teacher is on vacation for 5 weeks and the girl who's replacing her is not that good. I barely broke a sweat.

[13600grams-blog]

80 Calories Muffins

This is a very simple and quick muffin recipe. This won't make big pastries cake-like muffin, but I find it's the perfect snack with my mid-morning coffee.

Makes 12 small muffins

- 1 Cup Bran Flakes

- 1 Cup Skim Milk

- 1 Egg

- 1/3 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce

- 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

- 2 tsp Baking Powder

- 1/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

- 1/4 tsp Salt

- 1 Cup Frozen Berries (You can add any fruits you want or 1/3 Cup Dried Fruits)

1- Pre-heat you oven at 400

2- Mix the cereal and milk together and let sit for 5 minutes

3- Add all the other ingredients and mix well

4- Pour into well greased muffin tin (I use Pam)

5- Bake for 20 minutes

Voilà!

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I'm completely envious of your food diary (and food choices). It all sounds so simple, healthy and balanced :)

Thank you, that's very sweet! Although I have a BIG problem with portions ... It's always been my downfall.

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Walk the talk

It's so easy to go and give tips and advices on weight loss. Oh yeah: I have it all figured out. Not. Even though I know that it can be a lot of things, at the end of the day, when the scale is a bitch, it plain sucks. When that number is staring back at you, you don't care about muscle vs fat, water weight and DOMS. All you think about is that brownie you passed on, the fries you did not get, the happy hour you did not go to. All you can think about is : This.was.not.worth.it. BUT. You have to ask yourself the real questions: Don't you feel amazing after an intense work out? Aren't you proud of yourself for making the right choices? Eat healthy. Move more. Drink water. Trust the system. It will pay off. Eats B- Greek yogurt, Banane, Blueberries, Pb S- 80 calories muffin (recipe tomorrow) L- Soup, HB eggs, Crackers, Jello mousse S- Apple, Granola bar D- Fajitas salad De- Frozen yogurt Moves 5k on the treadmill Foam Roll

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Hi! This is a bit late and all, but I'd love to see your apricot muffins recipe :) I'm also from Montreal and I'm 28, so I feel some sort of weird kinship with you XD Love the blog, btw!

Hey thanks! Montreal represent!! I'll post the muffin recipe tomorrow! Spoiler alert: it's a 80 calories kind of muffins :))

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Habits.

I'm a creature of habits.

They say that it takes 21 day to make an habit out of anything. I think it's kinda true.

For me, the only way I can succeed in losing weight is by having a structure, a routine.

Monday - Wednesday - Friday = Gym

Tuesday - Thursday = School

Saturday = Fun

Sunday = Errands+ Food for the week

If for any reasons I cannot follow my routine, I feel uneased, and it's usually the first step to quitting my good habbits.

There are good sides and bad sides to this.

The GOOD means that I have no problem working out. I can eat the same food day in, day out, without getting bored (hello soup and salad).

The BAD means that I become kind of an ermite. When friends ask me out on a gym night I always think twice about it.

It sucks that after all those years and all those pounds lost I still don't feel like a normal human being around food. If it isn't planned and calculated, I feel weird. Tomorrow at work, lunch is provided by the company. I hate this! When people see free food, I see uncertainty.

Losing weight sucks. Being overweight sucks.

Eats

B- Greek Yogurt, Berries, PB

S- Fruit & Fiber Muffin

L- Soup, Cracker, HB eggs, Jello Chocolate Mousse (So.Good.)

S- Apple, Granola Bar

D- Pork Chops, Unsweetened Apple Sauce, Roasted Brussel Sprouts

De.- Frozen Yogurt

Moves

Toning class (It was a killer one tonight! Love it)

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Binge.

When you look around on the web, thousands of people gives numerous advices on how to lose weight, get into exercises and avoid binge eating.

While I'm guilty of giving away tips, something that I don't support is this pseudo crap about becoming binge free.

*Disclaimer: If you suffer from binge eating disorder or bulimia, please seek the help of a professional .. This is just a rant about the occasional binge

I believe that binging is part of life. Anyone that have a healthy relationship with food will tell you that they sometime overeat. It's normal.

It's not okay to pass your emotion in food. It's not okay to distort your view of food.

Food is fuel. But food is good. You should enjoy it.

Don't deprive yourself too much. And if a binge happens, then it happens. That's it. Move on. The problem comes from thinking "Well, I've screwed it so it doesn't matter anymore".

Remember that a pound is 3500 calories. You're not gonna put on 10 lbs overnight because you ate too much.

Move. On.

But don't let a binge define who you are and what you do.

The journey to being healthier is a long road. It is not straight. It has a lot of bump on it. And at the end of the day, it's not worth it to feel like shit, crying on the floor because you had a bad day and ate half the gallon of ice cream.

It's ok.

Eats

B- Greek yogurt, Banana, Blueberries, PB

S- Pear, Crackers

L- Lunch & Learn at work: small veggie sandwich, chicken skewer, veggies on a stick ... Really tried to chose the healthiest options and not overdo it

S- HB eggs, Apple, Instant oatmeal (I needed more snacks because of lunch)

D- Tuna Salad with Honey Dijon dressing

De.- Toast with PB & Chocolate Chips

Moves

45 min. INTENSE spin class

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i need to lose a good 45 pounds. my stamina's shot, of course, and i'm too embarrassed to go to the gym b/c i'll stop running after maybe 2 minutes. is there a workout i can do at home for the first month or so that'll get me on track so i'm comfortable running in public? (yes. i'm that self conscious.) much love & i'm very proud of you.

First, you should never be ashamed. You are on an healthier journey and what other people might think (they probably don't anyway) just do.not.count!

If you are afraid of running only 2 minutes, shoot for intervals: Walk 1 min 30 seconds, Run for 30 seconds. This way you'll improve your cardio!

BUT I also totally get how you feel. A couple of tricks for at home work-out:

- Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred

- Wii Fit

- Body Rock TV (this is intense)

- p90X

- Blogs (like The Fitnessista, she has a lot of great idea)

Also, why don't you look for group classes at your gym? Trust me, there's a lot of different person in these groups!

Good luck on your journey ... you can do it!!!!

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WIW 3

Well .. WIT!

Since I totally forgot to weigh in yesterday, here's what the scale had to say this morning:

SW: 186 lbs

PW: 182.4 lbs

CW: 180.8 lbs

GW: 155 lbs

Weight lost this week: -1.6 lbs

Weight loss total: - 5.2 lbs

Well, well. Looks like my body like to lose -1,6 lbs a week!

What's great is that almost out of the 180's. FINALLY!

Because you know what sucks more than losing weight? Losing it for the second time, uh!

Have a great day!

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Oops.

I forgot to weigh in this morning ..

Who Am I?

WIW will happen tomorrow ;)

But the scale hasn't moved at all in the last week. Too many carbs I think.

Eats

B- Greek Yogurt, Banana, Blueberries, PB

L- Salad with steak, veggies, almonds and honey dijon vinaigrette, Pear

S- 2 HB eggs, Triscuits, Carrots

D- Chicken Curry on brocoli slaw

De.- Apple with PB

Moves

30 min elliptical, p90X Shoulders & Arms

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Cramps.

In all my 27 years of glory, (ehm ehm), I've been lucky to go through THAT time of the month like a breeze. But today, out of nowhere, CRAMPS. Big. Painful. Cramps.

So I did what I read and heard as a tip so many time: Exercise through it.

It was SUCH a BAD idea. I should have gone home.

I decided to take my first group class tonight. It was a toning class where you do aerobic moves while lifting weight on music. Real fun. But 45 minutes in, I felt dizzy and almost like I was going to puke.

So I left the jam packed gym. So awkward.

I'm on the couch now with a heat pack. It sucks to be a woman! haha

Eats

B- Bran Flakes, Banana, Blueberries, Skim Milk, PB

S- Apricot muffin (care for the recipe?)

L- Spaghetti Squash & Ground turkey sauce, Babybel

S- Apple

D- Grilled Chicken Salad

De.- Lemon meringue yogurt

Moves

45 min of toning class

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First, I just want to say that you are such an inspiration and look absolutely fantastic! How did you manage to cut out the crappy food? Or at least train yourself to do that? What helped keep you focused? That's always been my hardest part.. it's so hard for me to just say, "No, I will not eat that cookie." Instead, I eat the cookie.

Hi! Thank you so much for your kind words :)

I found through the years that the more I put rules, the more I fail. As soon as I thought "you can NEVER have cookies", the first thing I wanted was a cookie.

The key, I think, is to never deprive yourself. You have to find healthier alternatives. For instance, I love ice cream. But eating ice cream as dessert every night is not the better choice. Instead, I eat a fruity yogurt.

And you know what? Once in a while, have the damn cookie!