South Beach...

No, we're not headed to South Beach (I wish, with the weather we are having!). We have been on the South Beach Diet for almost 3 weeks. Things are going pretty well. The first few days were a little tough with the no sugar, no carbs and no alcohol but I did manage to lose 4.5 lbs. in the first 2 weeks. This week we are in Phase 2 where we introduced some fruit, some carbs and some alcohol. Thus we are in better spirits :) And I lost 1 lb. Therefore, in total I've lost 5.5 lbs. on South Beach and and 3 on the crazy diet (well, it was actually 5 but then gained 2 back) for a total of 8.5 lbs. I now have 3.5 lbs. left to lose to be at my target (realistic) weight and 8.5 lbs to get to my dream (not so realistic) weight. I continue to walk but have slowed down on the gym. My knee has been hurting and I am not sure what it is caused by. Must check it out. In the meantime, we continue to plug away on this diet and are very happy with the results. you should see Gord. He has lost so much weight, he is hardly recognizable!

Mission 'Almost' Accomplished

UPDATE: Our friend C. called mid-afternoon on Thursday to see if we wanted to join her and her lovely daughter, G, for a quick bite at the Bistro before going to see a bunch of people shave their heads for charity. So there... the mission was, in fact, accomplished!!

During the week last week, I had made plans to dine out Wednesday and Thursday of this week. As I was sitting on the dock last Sunday, I received a Facebook invite for dinner on Monday. Since we are going away this weekend, Friday dinner would be in Stoneham. That left Tuesday night to fill and I would NOT be doing any cooking! So I scrambled a little to find something and then I remembered that our town always has a theme night in the park on Tuesdays. Perfect... Russian night for Tuesday!

So this is how it all panned (and will pan) out:

Monday: Dinner at Vino Restaurant to celebrate Mortimer's Mom's birthday. I was invited by one of her friends via Facebook and joined her galpals for a very loud but delightful dinner.

Tuesday: Russian Night was rained out but since the girls were at our friend's house for the evening, Gord and I went to the local Bistro and had a renovation meeting, a do we or don't we kind of discussion. Lots of lychee martinis and wine were consumed and by then, we pretty much agreed to go all out on the renos.

Wednesday: Dinner at Tapeo (a tapas bar) with A and C, our dear old friends and neighbors. It was fabulous! Not only was the company great but the food was outstanding. Anyone in the Montreal area MUST try this restaurant!

Thursday: Problem. Our dinner with M and E to celebrate our 2 year referral day called to cancel. Now what? I am scrambling to find a solution. Help!

Friday: Wine and cheese with Cara-Li's adoption group in Stoneham. We are gettting together with all 8 families for our annual reunion. Sound be fun!

Saturday: BBQ dinner in Stoneham.

Sunday: Dinner on the road on the way home.

And finally, Monday is the start of Phase One of the South Beach Diet which will last 2 weeks. No starches, no sugars and no ALCOHOL! Yikes...

Recap

Whew! Time is certainly flying by and it's not because we're spending all our waking moments enjoying the summer. The weather has not been great but yet we are still busy with everything!

Here's what we've been up to:

Cara-Li finished school almost 2 weeks ago with rave reviews from her wonderful teacher, Mme. V, who mentionned to me that Cara-Li was the student that showed the greatest improved throughout the year. She started off hardly speaking any French and being very reserved and quiet to a a young girl who is no longer shy to speak French. As Mme. V put it, 'Cara-Li blossomed into a beautiful rose right before everyone's eyes.' It is soooo nice to hear this and after my 5 minute telephone conversation with Mme. V, I was certainly the proudest Mom on earth! Congratulations Cara-Li on your success in 1st grade!

For Father's Day, we went to Granby Zoo. Every year we go to a park of sorts with the girls on this day. It is a great way to spend the day. This year we packed a lunch as I didn't want to eat the usual junk available at these places. It was great fun! Granby Zoo has been totally renovated adding a waterpark which is always welcomed at the end of the day when it is really hot out. To end the day, we then had dinner at my parents' house.

These bats were NOT part of the zoo animals. They were just these wild things hanging up side down for a nap! They were HUGE!

Next... since Cara-Li finished school a week before most, we sent her to the Day Camp at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with a neignbour of ours, S. There she discovered that a girl from her class was also attending. The day always started off with a visit to the museum, sketching what they saw and then followed by reproducing their interpretion of the art. They did some painting, sculpting, stain glass painting and watercolour. It all ended with a vernissage where we got to visit the museum and their art work. It was extremely fabulous and Cara-Li really enjoyed her week there. After the exhibit, we had 30 minutes to kill before picking up a frien, we decided to stop off at Pub Alexandre and I had a wonderful Kir Royale on the terrace just like in Paris! A great start to the weekend!

Cara-Li is now in the Mo-West Day Camp for 4 weeks and in swimming for 9 weeks. She seems to be having fun with the other 10 boys in her group. Yup... they assign 1 girl with 10 boys! Who was the planner here? I was going to ask to have her moved but apparently she likes her group and doesn't want to change. Should I start worrying yet???

A couple of weeks ago, I, along with some friends from the neighbourhood, started power walking in the evening. We do this twice a week and for one hour. We are a group of eight and although not everyone comes each time, you are always guaranteed to have someone to walk with. We meet at 8:30PM at a particular corner and whoever is there is there. It has been great and my legs are starting to feel it. This is part of my get fit and lose weight program that I am on. So I go to the gym 3 times a week and power walk for 2. I rest on weekends. Also, in two weeks I will be starting the South Beach diet. With this, I should be able to lose the extra pounds that i didn't lose in the crazy diet from a few weeks ago. I am proud to say that I have not gained any of that weight back either!

Last weekend was our first weekend at the cottage. Luckily, there were no surprises. Gord was with us which explains the lack of surprise! Gord mysteriously is never around when stuff goes wrong at the cottage ;) Well, we did have one surprise. M, who is the 7 year old granddaughter of our cottage neighbour, was up visiting. Cara-Li and M. have not seen each other in 2 years but did not miss a stride. They kept going back and forth from one house to the other the entire weekend. M. is 2 days older than Cara-Li and is also adopted but from Georgia (not USA but Russia) so they have a very special connection. Here are some pictures of the girls fishing. Too cute!

That is all for now. Will try to post more frequently instead of one huge one every 2 weeks.

Some Thoughts

Some of you asked what were the results of that nutty diet I was on last week. I lost 5 lbs. in 1 week. I must say I felt like crap during that week but now my clothes are fitting so much better! I need to lose 5 more lbs. but the memories of last week are still too fresh to start again. I will wait a little before doing it again. Mom lost 7 lbs. and Gord lst 8 lbs. My first meal was not too tasty and I had trouble getting it in, lunch was a little better and pretty normal by dinner. Now I am trying to be careful of what I eat until I figure out some sort of plan. I also continue to exercise 3 times a week. We shall see...

A couple of bittersweet moments this week:

First, I unpacked the diaper bag and retired it for good. Great news as Alexia is out of diapers... sad news as I most probably will never use that bag again :(

Second, Cara-Li scored her first goal at soccer today in the pouring rain (what a trouper!). Sad part, Mom wasn't there to witness it (I'm not crazy to sit in the rain!).

Third, for the first time I thought to myself that 2 kids is as much as we can handle. Always thought that we might go for a third but at this point I really feel that 2 is just right for our family. A little sad...

There's the Finish Line!

It is Sunday and it is the end of my silly diet. Let me back track.

Day 5: I woke up this morning feeling almost as bad as the day before sue to my wild cold. So I stayed in bed pretty much all day. Well, actually, I got up at 2PM and was in a car at 2:15PM making my way to the Cirque du Soleil. Yah! Just what I wanted to do today... I WAS a great show and did feel better afterwards. Mostly especially because we were allowed to eat chicken. Plain roasted chicken and tomates. So that is what we did right after the Circus and within minutes my belly started to ache. Not used to eating something so solid, I guess.

Day 6: Today was going to be a great day. We could have steak and veggies. The biggest part of my day was going to Loblaws to prepare for our feast. I got a honkin' piece of filet mignon at god knows what price and a huge variety of veggies to stir-fry. Did not enjoy my trip at the grocery store as I couldn't buy anything else and I was light-headed. But that. steak. was. some. good!

Day 7: And the final one. THANK GOD! Brown rice and veggies. OK. Not bad as it is the first carb in 7 days. It actually was pretty tasty.

Tomorrow: I have been thinking for a few days what I would eat on my very first day of real eating. Breakfast is a toss up between an english muffin and peanut butter or vanilla yogurt and berries. Hell. I might just have both! Lunch is for sure gonna be pizza. I have craving pizza since day 1 and if you know me well at all, pizza is not ONE of my favorite foods. Wierd! Dinner I think is going to be fish but I haven't figured out what sides. There. That's what I'm gonna have.

Through all this Gord has been painting the main bathroom from bright orange to a more subdued straw colour. Perhaps I'll have some pics tomorrow. It is still completely upside down.

And it continues...

We are still plugging along on our diet and boy, it is really tough! But I have set my mind on this so I am getting through each day some how.

Day 3: Today was fruits & vegetables all day all the time. Not too bad but we were looking for something hot to eat. So for dinner, I made a delicious vegetable stir-fry that both Gord and I wolfed up. Along with the usual soup and things were not too bad.

Day 4: Today was bananas and milk. Yup, that's it, bananas and milk all day. So it was a smoothie for breakfast and well, bananas and milk for lunch and dinner. I, however, contracted whatever virus the girls had and went home at 3PM to lie down. Besides the terrible cough that I have had for a couple of days, I was hit with the worst cold of the year. So my meals were the least of my worries as i was trying not to die from my cold.

Let's see what tomorrow brings....

Day 1 & Day 2

OK. So I started a 7-day cleansing diet yesterday. Yup. My mother, Gord and I are doing it. Let's just say, it has not been easy!

Day 1: All we were allowed to eat was vegetable soup (all you can eat) and fruit and nothing else. Basically, throughout the 7 days, you can eat all the soup you want or can (or can stand!). Eating fruit all day is not that easy. At one point you just want to eat something salty but you can't. So I showed up at work with a Banker's box full of fruits and soup. Everyone thought I was a little bit cooky. Gord called me mid-day stating that he was going to have a steak and a beer cause he just couldn't take it anymore (but he didn't). Anyway, by the end of the day, we were all pretty nasty so it was off to bed early with no Food Network viewing.

Day 2: Today was vegetable only day. Really was not easy! I like my veggies with dip or butter or sour cream or something. But I stuck it out and ate my soup and cold veggies. Yuck! By 4PM, I will literally starving and very light headed. But I munched on a carrot stick and it passed. For dinner, we were allowed to eat a baked potato with butter. I added some steamed asparagus and it was a dinner fit for a king! Topped it all off with some tomatoes, avocados and cucumber. Not bad however I still had huge hunger pains throughout my meal. It is now 9PM and I am going staight to bed with hopes of falling asleep quickly so as not to think about food too much!

Oops... I gotta go. Alexia needs to pipi and it sounds fairly urgent....

Huge Problem

That's right... I have a HUGE problem! As you know I started watching what I eat back in January in hopes of losing some weight. So I have reduced my portions, say no to seconds, cut down on most condiments and toppings and started working out. I have lost app. 5 lbs. But here's the problem... in the evenings after having spent some time on the computer doing some work, catching up on blogs and, of course, shopping, I like to watch a little television before I go to sleep. And every night, I get hungry. I want to eat everything in sight! But I don't (I might have a rice cake as opposed to my favorite Nutella and peanut butter sandwich) and I fall asleep frustrated. This morning I came to a realization that my problem is that I spend my last waking hour watching the Food Network while reading food magazines! Well, that'll do it! That'll send anyone on a diet over the edge!

Gotta go... my Dad is having a Big Mac. He's 80 years old. He certainly can't eat the whole thing. I'll be like a dog and eat his table scraps....

UPDATE: Bugger... he ate it all!