Okay... I am in love again

This time his name is Sidney (Sid for short) and he is all mine :) He came home on Friday night after a rushed stop to the pet store (so glad you can take your pets shopping now by the way). He is a purebred ckc registered Pug and I love him. I don't care that he poops on the floor or pees on my sweater (which was my own fault), or that he chews on my toes really hard and gets footprints all over the laminate.. because I love him and he is mine (and soon those faults will all be trained away!). He is smart and sweet. He doesn't even bark. When you pic him up, his paws stick out front. When he bites your hand, he licks it better. When you call his name, he tilts his head at a funny angle. Maybe it's just me (or maybe it is because I haven't had any sleep or down time in the last 3 days) but having a dog again is the good life :)

(Sorry about the cell phone pic.. it is all I had (don't mind *the fiancé* in the background)... I seriously couldn't even find time to turn my computer on this weekend...)

un-fatPaulie Weekly Update #3

Here's me, ever svelter!

Food:

Calories were surprisingly level this week, due to a lot of salads, and fresh vietnamese food. I did have pizza on Wednesday (2 slices = 800 calories!), and even had beer and wings on the weekend. But still, it's nice to know that the exercise and calorie counting works - I just spend my calories on what I want to eat, while trying to keep mostly balanced.

Exercise:

Once again my weak area. Steps picked up toward the end of the week by going fishing and hiking. I can notice that physical exercise is a little less strenuous than before. Going to add long walks to Wed and Friday this week, post-work.

Total Steps for the week: 42750
Goal: 70000

Previous weight: 363
New Weight: 356
Total loss since first weigh-in (370): 14 pounds

See you next week!

I'm in Love

It's true. I'm in love. Not with a human (well technically yes, I already am) but with this little guy...his name is male puppy #4 and he is a BUG! Bug: 1/2 Boston Terrier + 1/2 Pug. And he is not mine (yet) but if he was, I think his name would be Bugsy. And I would love him and pet him and feed him. We would go for long walks on the beach (well along the fake lake where I live) and play puppy related games. Bugsy & I would stay up real late and pig out on icecream and then he would have doggy farts... The problem is that Bugsy lives far away (about 4 hours to be exact)... so if any of you are going to Northern Saskatchewan, please let me know so you can bring him to his rightful home. And mom, I still don't care what you say.. I am all grown up and getting a dog if I want a dog :P

un-fatPaulie Weekly Update #2

Me again, with this week's update:

Food:

Another good week for calories, with some slippage towards the end. Started off with 2000 on Sunday, to go with that epic walk. The rest of the week saw values between 1150 and 1690 for the day, with my average being right on 1500. The big weakness - I had some chicken wings and a potato skin. Soooo yummy.

Exercise:

This is still my weak area. Steps were a little low this week, except for last Sunday with a monstrous walkabout with Ben, Cory, and Hoop. Spent the week mostly recovering from blisters. Went out fishing at the end of the week, which was sunburny goodness.

Total Steps for the week: 45600
Goal: 70000 still

Previous Weight: 370
New Weight: 363
Total loss since first weigh-in: 7 pounds

See you next week!

Happy Mothers Day to the following awesome Moms who potentially read this blog:

Mom (aka Mo B.), Vivienne S., Granny, Lisa L., Pat B., Sheila M., Joan B., Carmen B., almost Maureen S., Liz S., Caroline M., Lisa S., Dawn N., Sue H., Amanda M., Sarena S., Terri C. and the Queen.

We love you. Have the best Mother’s Day!

Love your kids & families

To anyone named Brittany:

You suck.

Don’t you wish you had a name that was used before the 1970’s? Because I would.

And ooh this is clever: Meaning “From Britain”. How witty.

Too bad there are unlucky 13 ways to spell your annoying name, including such gooders as "Brittani" and who can forget, "Britni".

I wasn’t going to go down this road, but I can’t resist. Two words: Britney Spears. Enough said.

Yeah, I am talking to you Brit! (Don’t even get me started about people from Newport)

Signed,

Sarah with a Vengeance

PS - Bitter much?

I’m so old!

And why am I so old? Because I have a mortgage and when you have a mortgage, I think that officially disconnects you from the youth category. Hey just because I am old doesn’t mean I’m not young at heart. I still got the “under 14 PST exemption” at the clothes store this weekend (really I am only 9 years out), that’s still young right?

That leads me to this… why I have a mortgage in the first place. If that wasn’t obvious to you, the fiancé-who-shall-not-be-named and I bought our very first condo! While the thought of having a mortgage is utterly terrifying, once you have come to terms with selling your soul (not a piece of fish) to the bank, being a home owner kicks serious butts (yes… plural butts even)! And hey, I got airmiles so it was worth the trade right? I just try and pretend that interest is not actually as much as it states on the legal bank document and that it's just a typo… *yikes*

And now for why owning a condo (which I may occasionally refer to as house because to me it is my house) rocks? It just does. No buzzing sounds (for those regular readers who know what I am talking about), no annoying landlords, no crappy old apartment cupboards…just my cool west-coast style townhouse in all it’s newness. Now I am paying ME not some greedy corporation man in Toronto, which is what I should have been doing all along being the money-conscious commerce grad that I am (um suuuure). I even have real neighbors (although apartment Maureen was pretty awesome) - the cutest little girl and the smiley-est people from Africa! I have pretty white cupboards (as you can tell this is important to me). I get to buy furnace filters.. oooh ahhhh. Okay, so I might be a little out in the boonies and as far as you can possibly get from work – but none of that matters once it is yours. The best part… did I mention it’s brand new and nobody has ever sat on my toilet before (okay perhaps the contractors did as has been suggested but that sooo does not count)? Enough new house rant… too excited to blog now as I have to run home and clean my new place!

(PS VOTE KIM)
(PS GO UNFatpaulie.. we all support you! Send Paulie your love, cheer him on!)

un-fatPaulie Weekly Update #1

I've decided that I'll just make a Monday morning update each week, as time allows. I actually write these up on Sunday night before bed, and get around to posting sometime Monday morning, so it shouldn't be that tough.

I bought a scale this weekend for my first weigh-in. It's sad and scary.. I'm 370 pounds on the nose, according to my scale. That's my benchmark. That means I'm aiming to lose 150 to 170 lbs in the next 3 years. At about 1 pound a week, that's perfectly safe and doable.

Food:

Calories were pretty easy to keep down around 1500, with the exception of Saturday. Summer means Barbecues, and barbecues mean beer. I had Coors Light, which till now I had derided as an old person's beer. I guess I'm old. 102 calories in a bottle, and it's a beer. Not too bad. Then I went back to Rachel's suggested bevvy of choice - the Tall Rye and Diet Press - 64 calories that tastes good and lasts as long as a beer.

Sunday was DimSum day, and I tried to not eat too much, nor too many fried foods. I don't have a good Googley source for dim sum item calories yet - if you know of one, please send it my way.

Exercise:

Walked to work on Monday, but bad weather, and too much body strain from the epic 13k walk the day before pretty much wiped me out. Wednesday was the low-point with only 3000 steps. I set a new record on Sunday with 14200 steps for the day, all in my Crocs, which felt great, but were not confining enough on my toes, causing a couple of very nasty blisters.

Total steps for the week: 42500
Goal: 70000

Just figured out a new way to measure the calories burned for steps:

(Steps/100) x (weight/100 x 3)
425 x 11.1 = 4717.5 calories burned this week for me.

Why do it?

It's the beginning of spring (yeah, May 1st begins spring up here, leave us alone!), and though today is gonna be a thunder-showery day, I still walked to work. You gotta commit to something, never half-ass it. If you're going to do a job, do it at 120% all the time.

But why? Why put effort into anything?

Because you're alive! Because you have exactly one shot at this very moment. This second, minute, or hour will NEVER be here again for you (sorry, Buddhists, we've got no proof yet). So find something that inspires you, something that moves you, and something that motivates you. And whatever that is, be the best you can be for that one thing that gets you going every morning.

I've got my inspiration, and I've never felt better in my entire life. Really. Not tramping through jungles, or riding trains in the Tokyo megalopolis, or even riding a bike with no hands at 8 years old. I'm 32 years old, and I'm having the best time of my life.

Now, here's a little inspiration for the rest of you.

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson