Progress (or not) - birth certificate stuff

Remember THIS POST about the issues with Jacques documents and how he spells his name???  Well, we have been working on getting Jacques name changed since the beginning of November and we are really not that much farther ahead!!!

We contacted Ontario (where he was born) who was sending us a document to take to NB (where he has lived most of his life) to gain their approval to change his name.

We received the document that was simply an application - grrrr.

He called back Ontario to find out we have to GO to NB first.

He called NB to find out WHAT he needs to do....they sent him a form

We just received it TODAY (one month plus a day later)!  We WiLL get there, we will!

It's a slow process....maybe this is what we need to grant us a little extra time to shed our extra pounds!

Anywhoo....renovations have been occupying our time so it's not something that I am too strung up about (for now).

NOW, Christmas is around the corner...

So that's it for now.  I'm off today to do some fundraising today for our adoption at our local market for a Christmas Craft show!  I hope to do as well as last year!

suprise progress

well, well, well...I'm quite surprised at my progress this week because I KNOW in my heart of hearts I cheated (a few + times) AND the night before I weighed in I ate CHIPS.  I lost all control with all the  balls I have up in the air right now and I horked down on some chips (crumbs and all).  I have NO idea how many I ate but I KNOW there were alot. 

Needless to say, when I jumped on the scale the next morning (to face what I thought would be a HARSH reality) I was SO surprised when I saw that I was DOWN 2.8 lbs.

SAY WHAAAAAT????

Oh, and I also did my measurements and I'm down another 1.0" total!

SO NOW...I'm left reflecting on my week and this is what I see.  EVEN THOUGH I did cheat (a few times) - it was (for the most) part WITHIN my calories each day and I still did my gym 5 times (3 days of cardio + weight and 2 days of JUST cardio) PLUS I did alot of 'around the house' reno clean up, painting, etc - SO - I got lucky because of all my activity (that I didn't account for)....but maybe next week I won't be so lucky (considering I've only been to the gym 2 x's - to allow for more reno clean up time and to get things done around the house - in preparation for our whole house to be painted next week).

SO....this week I need to KEEP MY EYE ON THE PRIZE, BABY and make better food choices considering I had less exercise!!!  Fingers crossed, considering we are going away this weekend too!

BUT...for now, I will just enjoy a little victory again this week.

Lots of Love
Tara


PS...if you leave a comment, could you please write who it's from because I got the most encouraging comment on my last post but have NO idea who it's from (I think I may know, but not 100% sure)!

Progress

HEALTH:

Well, I feel much differently THIS week than I did last week.  No need for tears or frustration.  I mean, I had a good week (down 4.0 lbs and down 3 inches) - no complaints here!

I lowered my calories to around 1200 per day and continued to feel great while doing my workouts - no dizzy's and no huge tired 'onsets' in the afternoon and do not feel hungry.  So I will continue this level of calories until my body tells me differently.

We've had a busy, busy week - with our home renos happening so there is LOTS of commotion going on around here.  It's out of routine for me and I'm trying really hard to keep my gym and diet routine in check!

NOW...if I want to get REAL honest here this is the truth.  I REALLY don't get it - I cheated alot this week.  I mean, I always kept my average calories were always BELOW my goal but I know in my heart that I didn't eat the foods that I should be eating. 

SO....I am going to NOT beat myself up for this because the BUTTERED popcorn at the movies was SO good and the BITE of Jacques Peanut Butter Ohenry was AMAZING and the 4 bites of Noah's Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie yesterday was TO DIE FOR and those few candy treats from Noah's science project were SO TASTY.....but IN THE END, I know that these things won't be a detriment to my health if I continue to eat healthy all the way around and if I continue to do my exercise plan.

Through our renos, I only went to the gym 3 times (one day, we worked around the house and 2 other days I painted).  My gym workouts haven't been AS intense in terms of PUMPING IT as hard as I was BUT, I've increased my levels on the elliptical making me work that much harder.  My goals for each HARD day are still to burn around 300-350 calories on the cardio alone PLUS my weights but now I'm just working at a harder intensity, rather than a more vigorous rate!

OH...and some MOST amazing news.

I bought a new outfit - pair of jeans and a sweater.  Jeans - next 2 sizes down - YAY and sweater - next size down.

I feel like a MILLION bucks in them.  I saw someone I hadn't seen in over a month and when she saw me, she did the whole EYE scan and said 'GIRL, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?' 

NO better compliment than THAT!!!

ADOPTION:

We got INTRO 3 & 4, these include little paper work - just signing an agreement with Gentle Path (that does not have to be done until our PRIDE training in January) and the collection of our original birth certificates, marriage certifates and colour copies of our passports.

We've kinda been slacking off with the renovations that have been going on.

We are still waiting for Jacques birth certificate to get straightened out - so then we can order our original copies that match his passport and drivers license (that needs to be changed as well).

I'm so sad I could cry...

OH wait a second - I did cry (and hard).  I couldn't stop yesterday morning, I just babbled in Jacques arms out of PURE discouragement.

You see, I snuck on the scales (just KNOWING I was in for an AMAZING week from all the things I had done to ensure this)!!!

When I saw (as of yesterday) that I had gained 1.8 lbs - I was heart broken, flabber-gasted and completed discouraged.    I have NO idea what's going on.

SO...I pulled out the tape measure to see if possibly I was down a big number in inches and NOPE.  It even appeared my waist was up a half an inch.  BOY...did I sob all day.

 I made an EXECUTIVE decision for myself for TUESDAY only.....

• I would NOT go to the gym (you see, I've been busting my BUTT to make time to squeeze in the gym this week because the siding is going up on our house and I'm back and forth to the hardware store, running around for the guys and helping clean up the yard)
• I WOULD eat a treat for lunch - I ate ONE little hot dog with 20g of chips (all in all it was 442 calories) and TASTED so good!

I'm glad I did that...and don't feel guilty one bit!

SO the end result today on weigh in was that I GAINED (again) 0.8 lbs and I'm discouraged because I KNOW, in my heart of hearts that I did EVERYTHING that I could (that has given me success in previous weeks)......

• lots of hard exercise (5 days) and lots of activity outside of this
• no eating past 7pm
• good healthy choices
• within (mostly under my calories per day)
• low sodium
• low caffeine

SO NOW I am COMPLETELY stumped.

Even more so because I went to the doctor last Thursday to get our paperwork done for the adoption.

She re-checked my blood pressure (because it was just slightly on the high side of normal the last time she checked on Sept 21 - which was the FIRST TIME EVER that my BP was ANYTHING other than NORMAL).  I was concerned about it then, read all I could about it and made sure I would do anything I could to bring it down.

As I handed her the adoption paperwork, I was telling her about how the slightly above normal BP reading last time changed me.  I told her about how I came home to read all about blood pressure, so that I could change what I was doing to change this number.  I also told her about Russia's strictness about weight/health and told her I was working my BUTT off to achieve this 'health' for all these reasons.

As we were talking, she said, 'let me check your blood pressure'.

She had a look on her face that wasn't good and said, 'well, you're not going to like this'......

This time, it was 160/90.

You could tell she was a bit stumped when she saw this number. 

NOW....we had been talking about something that had caused lots of stress in our lives, so possibly I was all worked up previous to her taking my pressure.  After checking my heart, she said she would go check another patient then come back to check mine again.  She told me to try and relax while she was gone.

Once she came back and rechecked it was back down to 130/80 and she was more pleased.

She IS sending me for a slew of blood tests and said that losing weight 'should' remedy this problem. 

I also called the dietitian, Allyson and have an appointment with her on Nov 29 to talk over my diet.

Looking forward to having my blood work done to see if anything is going on that I can't figure out right now....

Discouraging week at my weigh in :(

I had my first gain at the scales and it's awfully discouraging.

As I sit reflecting on my week, I'm feeling confused.

I don't want to make excuses but.........here's my reasons!!! (just kidding)

OK.........if I want to get real here, here goes:

• I had my first treat meal this week (1/4 of a Costco poutine and a bite of Jacques hot dog)
• I ate 2 x's after 7pm (eating some veggie stick 'chips) - did NOT measure completely - just estimated
• On Thursday, I did only a 30 minute walk outside, no exercise on Friday AND Sunday (so really, I only worked out only 4 days this week)
• Halloween night, I caved and ate 7 treats (3 kit kat, 1 coffee crisp, 1 Swedish berries, 1 sour patch & 1 bag of chips)
• My calories went up from 1200 to 1400 daily, and possibly I was 'starving my body' in the past 4 weeks (so maybe my body held on to all it could this week because of this)

I didn't think EACH individually would matter, but ADDED ALL UP - obviously it did.

SOOOOOO......

My action plan for the week and BIG reality check!

• Eat only 1200-1300 calories (up'ing my intake ONLY on my hard workout days)
• Exercise 5-6 times
• NO treat meal this week
• NO eating past 7pm
• NO treating without measuring

That all said, I have noted (and will keep an eye on this in 4 weeks) that approximately 4 weeks ago I was disappointed with my weigh in - so it IS possible that despite having a hysterectomy, I could still have PMS symptoms (with bloating and weight gain)!  NOT AN EXCUSE, rather an observation!

I will NOT give up and I am MORE determined with this result this week!

THANKFULLY!

With or Without a Joseph or an "S"

OH NO...snag city (possibly or possibly not) but we are NOT taking a chance.

Here's our dilemma:

Jacques birth certificate is spelled:  JACQUE_  MORIN (with NO 's')

Jacques drivers license is spelled:  JACQUES JOSEPH MORIN (with an 's' and with a 'Joseph')

Jacques passport is spelled:  JACQUES MORIN (with an 's' and with NO 'Joseph')

Can you see there may be an issue here ???

First line of defence:  getting driver's license changed to say JACQUES MORIN (with NO Joseph)

AND....the tougher one is having Jacques birth certificate changed (which could take up to 8 weeks - not a big deal just yet) to HAVE an "S" - which is the way he was always taught to write his name!!!

A little story of Jacques history!

So, he was born and his parents either never had or lost his birth certificate.

He got baptized and his baptismal certificate was used for getting his drivers license (must be common around small French 'catholic' Canadian towns) when he was 16. 

NOW, his baptismal certificate had the middle name of JOSEPH (very common to catholic French children who were not given a 2nd name) - SO his drivers license has the name of Jacques JOSEPH Morin.

Fast forward a few years (2004), when Jacques applied to get his passport.  He filled out his paperwork, spelling his name "WITH an 's'" and NO Joseph.  Once the paperwork was filled out, we waited for his original birth certificate to come in the mail. 

Once it arrived, he was surprised to find out that he didn't even know his own name and that he had been spelling it wrong all these years!

SO...he took the application and the birth certificate into Passport Canada and they issued his passport with his name spelled WITH an 's'!

SO........NOW........he has 3 documents, ALL spelled differently!!!

Halloween Struggles

I kinda took my eye off the prize tonight :(

OK...so admittedly so, I've been really struggling.

I've still been going to the gym (and totally bringing it when I'm there), still been eating right (except for my treat this weekend) - but internally, I've not been feeling overly motivated to get up and go to the gym. 

I KNOW the reason....when I do my HARD cardio days, with my weights - I get SO light headed that sometimes I have to put my head in my arms on the machine to get my bearings again.  Once I'm done my weights, I feel fine....UNTIL, I get home.  When I get home, I have NO, ZERO, ZILTCH for energy and feel horrible. 

This has been going on for a bit now and the reason I contacted the dietitian. 

NOW...she had got me to UP my calories to 1400 per day on my 'light' workout days and told me to UP my calories to 1500 (even 1600) on my BIG workout days.  I did this on Saturday (my last BIG workout day) and even still, I got home and I felt all woozy and tired.

IT'S DARNED FRUSTRATING....

After my workout Saturday, I talked to the guy that worked at the gym (also a gym teacher and into weights/working out) about how I was feeling (and gave him some back ground - although he's works with my gym trainer as well so he knows my goals) and he highly suggested on my hard workout days to take 2 scoops of protein powder.  He offered the suggestion that AFTER each hard workout, I should have only used 2/3's of the calories I consumed before (still having 1/3 left). 

WOW...considering I've been having about 400-450 calories for breakfast then burning 350 calories JUST for my cardio - NO WONDER why I've been dizzy doing my weights (I have no energy left)!

SO.....yesterday, I took TWO scoops of the protein powder in my smoothie for breakfast (ate 700 calories JUST for breakfast).  I did my hard cardio (burning 350 calories) then did my weights and my abs. 

I didn't feel dizzy.
I didn't feel light headed.
AND....
I had energy all day.

YAY...

But wait a minute.....

I don't feel like I pushed myself as hard as I usually do because I'm getting scared of feeling like this.

I mean on my cardio...I only pumped my heart rate to the 140's (rather than the 150's) and the weights....I did 15 my first set then only 10-15 on my second set and some of them I had less weight.

Does this mean I'm slowly giving up?

PLUS......Halloween was last night and I (feel like) completely caved.  Well...for ME it feels like this.  I ate 4 mini bars, 2 mini candy treats and 1 mini bag of chips (495 calories).

I'm going to KEEP on KEEPING on and surely it will pay off......

THANKFULLY, I am going to the doctor on Thursday so I can address all these issues with her....maybe she'll have a suggestion or two!

Oh this is such a balancing game - and it's so hard!