Best Day Yet!

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. in running/walking

I started off with my husband and the dog this morning and when we got to the rugby pitch I continued to the high school track. I surprised myself by running an entire 400 m lap without stopping and then I continued to walk another lap and half way around it I started to run again and finished another 200 m without stopping.

I left the school and continued following my new route. About 1 km from home I started to run/walk again. I figured in total I walked/ran about 5.5 km today and in that distance I ran at least 20% of it. I feel great.

I think I’ll time myself next time and then set a goal for myself for completing the 5km in June.

I just hope I don’t injure myself before then. My right knee is a little sore after today’s activity. Any suggestions?

Yesterday was a “piece of cake”!

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Mama Cormier

No need to worry……….

I guess I was too slow getting ready for our walk yesterday so I ended up going on my own. There’s something very zen like when you walk alone. It gives you time to reflect.

I also increased the distance on Saturday and went for 3.6 km and for 1/10 of it I ran. When I got home I mapped out a 5 km distance on g-pedometer.com. Maybe I’ll give that a whirl today. It looks like a fantastic day, weather wise.

The party was not an issue, food wise. I had 3 shrimp, no wine and I didn’t even see a cake.

Later in the day I took Frances for a short walk. We always start in the park, about 50 m down the street from the house. I’ve posted some pictures of the great view I’m blessed to see everyday. I don’t care what others say about Toronto, I think I live in one of the best cities in the world. The entire walk probably added another km to my total walking distance today.

I think I’ve figured out what’s going on with my pedometer. After walking 4000 steps yesterday and probably more I noticed that the little gizmo had reset itself back down to 0. It happened again later in the day. I guess you get what you pay for and since this this one was given to me for free I can’t really complain. Time to visit the Running Room and invest in a better one.

Low GI “Korean Style” Vegetable Pancake

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Mama Cormier

Anyone on a low GI diet knows that flour based recipes don’t fit into the program. Years ago I had a traditional Korean pancake and I loved it. Actually there are many versions of these pancakes. The one I had was filled with lots of shredded cabbage and onion. I’ve come up with a version made without flour. Some of you might call this a frittata.

Ingredients

2 eggs or egg substitute

1 tablespoon cream (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup finely chopped onions and sweet pepper

thinly sliced green onion and chives (more traditional)

1 cup broccoli slaw or cole slaw

3 thinly sliced fresh mushrooms

2 tablespoons shredded cheese (optional)

Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil over medium heat in a small pan and add the onions and peppers and cook just till the onions sweat.

Add the slaw and cook for a few more minutes until it is tender crisp. Add the mushroom and continue cooking until they are soft.

Whisk the eggs, cream and salt and pepper together and pour over the vegetable mixture in the pan. With a spatula lift the edges of the egg mixture so that the uncooked eggs flow to the edges and cook. When the egg is mostly set and doesn’t run when the pan is tilted add the cheese. Cover the pan with a lid and remove from the burner. Leave covered until the cheese melts.

Plate and garnish with cucumber or tomato slices and add a little hot sauce, soy sauce or chipotle ketchup. I used my husband’s homemade chipotle ketchup. To die for! Enjoy!

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Hooray for the Weekend!

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…… but with it come some challenges.

I always look forward to the weekend but after a week of successes on the scale I always worry about the next two days.

For dinner tonight my husband made pasta with homemade bolognas sauce. Carbs are often my enemy but he did use a whole wheat pasta and he measured exactly half a small box for the two of us. We also had a nice big salad with it and we decided to forgo the wine tonight.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will probably go on one of our long walks with the dog and I will try to run some laps at the rugby pitch. Later in the afternoon we are invited to our neighbour’s birthday party. I know there will be lots of good food but there are usually some healthy options to choose from. Will I have some birthday cake? All depends on the cake. I’ve learned that not all sweets are created equal and some just aren’t worth it.

I don’t know if it’s the weather or my husband’s next round of chemo next week but I have the urge to clean, organize and purge. I’ve started doing more of that in my classroom and now I want to extend it to my house. I have to be careful that I don’t use that as an excuse to not get outside and move. Wish me luck! Happy weekend everybody!

Down, down, down…….

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Mama Cormier

Feeling Good

It’s been a good day. My weight is holding steady but I’ve been down everyday this week. I’m trying to drink more water and when I do I definitely notice it on the scale. I’m eating well and no more unplanned snacking, especially after 8:00 at night.

I’ve been wearing a pedometer for the last two days. Yesterday was dismal; only 1600 steps. How is that even possible? Today was a different story. Lots of activity. At lunch today I played floor hockey at school; the school team champions against the teachers. The teachers won 4-3. Everyone gave it their all and the students enjoyed watching their teachers running up and down the gym.

Girls on the Run

After school I met with my group of girls for Girls on the Run. Today’s theme was reflecting on things we are grateful for. After a fun warm-up (they always want to do more of these activities) they started their actual run. The challenge today was to run 2 km without talking to their friends and reflect on their promises and goals. Do you know how hard that is for some 10 year olds?

I was going to stay back and join the girls on the second kilometre but I decided to start running with them right away. I ran/walked about 200 m to our newly mowed 200 m track and I started running laps on the track. I tried to run half the lap before I started to walk and I came pretty close to doing that. In total I managed to run/walk 8 1/2 laps and then I ran back to home base.

As much as I don’t “love” running I don’t hate it as much as I thought I would. It was great hearing the cheers and words of encouragement from the girls as they ran by me. I might even sneak out at the beginning of lunch tomorrow and run a lap or two before the kids come out for recess.

As I write this post my pedometer reads …… Oh, no!….I accidently reset it. It was around 7800 steps.

Maybe I’ll get out with the dog before I go to bed tonight. TTFN

Food and Me – Discovering Yogurt and Diet Pop

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Mama Cormier

At the age of 14 my parents owned a Becker’s Milk store. I’m pretty sure it was then that my mom introduced me to yogurt. Blueberry yogurt!!! It didn’t come fat free or artificially sweetened back then. I remember it was delicious and because it was healthy it became my diet food of choice. I remember eating nothing but yogurt for lunch in high school. Well I’m sure I ate other things but yogurt was a staple for many years.

It was also around this time that I started drinking diet pop. I thought it was the best invention ever. I don’t think I’ve ever had regular pop since, except maybe ginger ale or tonic water. I didn’t care about the health warnings about artificial sweeteners. If they helped me loose weight that was more important. Today I avoid them as much as I can.

The third food I discovered and used frequently when I dieted as a teenager was Swedish rye crisp crackers. It didn’t always occur to me that putting butter on them defeated the purpose.

I didn’t really lose weight during high school but I pretty much stayed at the same weight for about 5 years. Dinners and snacking in the evenings have always been my downfall. I think I’ve mentioned before that my parents were pretty good cooks and supper was always my favourite meal even when I or my sisters were responsible for cooking it.

I also had a friend whose mom made the best after school snacks. I loved going to her place on the way home from school and having a Nanaimo bar or two. It’s funny the things one remembers.

So food was my best friend and my enemy. I ate because I loved the taste of food and I felt loved and accepted by my Dad who loved to feed us. It was only when my Mom suggested that I needed to lose some weight that food became my enemy. It was like going through a revolving door. It never led anywhere and yet I continued to go around in circles.

The only times I was able to escape from this revolving cycle happened whenever I fell in love……to be continued.

Time to Brag!

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Mama Cormier

I’m happy on many counts today.

First and foremost, the scale finally moved in the direction I hoped for. Down. I’ve been working hard on eating well and moving for the last two weeks but my hard work wasn’t showing on the scale. I know that it’s only a number and what’s more important is how one feels. I have to admit that I have been energized (when I get enough sleep), my joints don’t hurt as much and my clothes fit better.

The second reason I’m happy today is because the three of us ( KC, the dog and I ) got out for a walk this morning and like yesterday we covered 1.8 miles or 2.9 km. I’ve been trying to run a portion of the course and today I ran 160 m without stopping. I’m hoping to increase the distance everyday and start doing some interval training. I’ve discovered gmap-pedometer. com and have been mapping out my walking routes and it even figures out how far I run when I do my short distances.

The day turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun came out and warmed things up a bit. Always puts a smile on my face.

As moms I think we’re entitled to boast a little bit when our children do something well. Today when I was in the bookstore I found a copy of the magazine that my son edits. I believe that this is the first edition with his name on it. I’m sure if it’s not he’ll let me know. It’s hard to tell from the picture because it’s a mirror image but the name of the magazine is Volume and the cover title is “Privatize”. I miss B and I wish he didn’t work so far away but I can appreciate

why he loves Amsterdam and more importantly he loves the job.

…….and that’s why I’m happy today!

What a Difference a Day Makes and a Good Night’s Sleep

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Mama Cormier

In bed by 11:00 but lights weren’t out till 11:45. It made a difference though. I was much happier today and less stressed.

This will be a short post. After work I went to the eye doctor and those drops have left me with pupils the size of pennies and sensitive to any light. Looking forward to another good night’s sleep.

Hooray for the weekend!

Lack of Sleep Makes Me Grumpy

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Mama Cormier

Didn’t get to bed till after midnight. Had to stay up and watch Survivor. Not a good idea in hind sight. Up at 6:30 and out the door at 7:10 to get to school in time for soccer try outs. Met with the book club during my lunch hour and then took 2 grade one classes, back to back, to the computer lab.

I love the little ones but they’re not very patient at the best of times and today was no exception. Unfortunately the computers in the lab decided not to cooperate today. The internet worked for some students and not for others. There was a lot of whining and sad faces as they struggled to complete their cartoon strips.

I held it together for the most part but I could feel how weary my body and mind felt. By recess when I realized that I was also on duty today I was ready to cry. My friend L came out with me and let me vent for a few minutes and I felt somewhat better. I tend to internalize my stress so it’s always good when I can talk about it.

After recess my patience had worn thin and my next class had to suffer my grumpiness. I try not to let my emotions show or I will warn students ahead of time when I’m not in the best of moods. Most of the students are good but today I just couldn’t abide a couple of the boys who always use my library likes it’s the gymnasium. Time to call the parents!

Three o’clock finally arrived but now I had to get ready for day 4 of Girls on the Run.

Girls on the Run – Week 2 Day 4

Despite my exhaustion I managed to complete all the tasks today with the girls and walk/run 1.2 km. I’m running a little bit further each time I get out for long walks or ‘run’ with the girls. I have to confess that I feel like a bowl of jello. I haven’t run in over 30 years. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it much more now but as long as I can stay injury free I think I might start enjoying it and hopefully reaping some benefits from it. A few years ago I ran on pavement for a very short distance with some students who wanted race me and I paid for it all summer with a painful injury to my foot.

The other exercise that I did today with the girls was jumping jacks. Every time the other team answered a question correctly my team had to do 10 jumping jacks and the same held true for Coach C’s team when we answered a question correctly. I think in total I did about 80 jumps. Not a pretty sight! We also did a lot of running on the spot.

After an hour and a half with the girls I went back to my classrooms (my home room and library) and tried to prepare for tomorrow. I finally left school at about 6:15.

NEW GOAL: In bed by 11:00

Feeling a Little Melancholy

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Mama Cormier

April 18th! This would have been Mom’s 81st birthday. Hard to believe that she’s been gone for 19 years. She taught me everything; how to cook, knit, sew, clean a house (how I hated that) but more importantly how to love and be patient with the ones you love. We had our differences over the years. The teen years were particularly hard but as a young woman and wife (pretty much happened at the same time) we became closer.

I remember in the awkward preteen years she always told me I was beautiful and I always responded by saying “you’re my mom, you have to say that!” She encouraged me when I tried to lose weight but she didn’t realize that it was never going to happen until I was ready to do so and that it had to be my idea. I know she only wanted the best for me. She herself struggled a little bit with weight, especially as she got older.

After the birth of our first daughter, I did lose a lot of weight and got down to 132 pounds. An all time low for me. Many of my family friends thought I was too thin but in hind sight I think it was a good thing because soon after I became pregnant with twins. That’s a story for another time.

Thanks Mom. I miss you. I know you’re watching over me.

In the 60’s with Mom and my sisters.