MWAH!

Pheeeeeeeeeeeew okay, where do I begin?  A simple “thank you” doesn’t quite express what I would like to say to the 30-ish of you who commented on my last post and who made me feel like the world’s luckiest girl on earth.  I mean great friends are one thing, but when you think about it, nothing really compares to reaching out with your soul exposed and having 30 “strangers” so to speak, step right up and make it all go away.

Thank you so much to: Syl, Leanne, H-woman, krissie, Suzie Q, Lex, Rosalie, Kim, Heather, farm girl., Lainey, Denise, Midwest Mom, marie, Anonymous#1, Anonymous#2, Me, Only Better, Cat, Emily, Miz, Amie, Jaime (Embracing Balance), Anonymous#3, Brandi, Sue, Anonymous#4, Karen, Lisa, Life, Health and Fitness, ayearfromnow & eurydice

I read a few of your comments before going to bed and those were enough to lift my spirits, but when I woke up today to find so many more, it literally put a skip in my step and I felt ready to tackle it all again.

So many of you wrote so many wonderful and kind things and I will be “bookmarking” that post for the next time I start to feel this way.  I literally laughed with tears in my eye when one of you anonymous angels even came up with a poem!  Seriously anonymous, you are something else!  THANK YOU!

I am so happy to say that I feel ready to continue on and get this job done ALL THE (FRIGGIN’) WAY :-D  Wooot!

So thanks to you all and you’re amazing comments, you helped me start today with a huge smile on my face and my feet facing in the right direction!

I started Breakfast with a cup of coffee with just blend cream:

 

No smoothie this morning, I decided on some Kashi Honey Almond Flax topped with a mountain of strawberries & blueberries and with 1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze:

   

Later on in the morning I Snacked on an hard boiled egg (and I may have shared with my assistant Sophie) which kind of stuck to the shell just a bit:

 

Nothing like a salad for Lunch to get you feeling like you’re on track :-)  It was the salad that I had packed for yesterday and it was delish.  It had:

• mesclin mix
• cherry tomatoes
• cucumber
• red onion
• 3 candied maple walnuts (which I had forgot were in there until I bit into one and it was such a treat)
• roasted turkey breast
• tbsp baba ganouj
• fig balsamic vinaigrette

 

So it turns out the best way to have fresh strawberries is to mash them up on the stove (for strawberry shortcake).  My Snack this afternoon was Liberte No Fat Probiotic strawberry yogurt with fresh whole strawberries and a few spoonfuls of mashed strawberries on top.  OMG.this.was.awesome:

 

So when I got home I was excited to show ya’ll that my spirit is back in the game, so here I am getting ready to hit the streets for Amy’s Workout Wednesday Challenge:

 

I didn’t take my camera along, but I think the evidence right her speaks for itself:

  

Lucy and I took our first “real” jog around our new neighbourhood and some of the neighbours got introduced to the newest neighbourhood nuisance dog :-D  We jogged around a loop for 45 minutes and it was a nice even-paced jog.  I didn’t push it too much since my knee’s been really acting up, but I got a good 350 calorie burn and it was beautiful outside and I would have been insane not to have gone!

I was anxious to get Supper on the table and tonight it involved a BBQ’d pork loin, fresh steamed green beans (my favourite) and a beet green sauté which had onion, mushrooms, garlic, hot pepper garlic, beet greens and fresh peas right out of the pod:

 

It’s funny because peas are one of my top five favourite veggies of all time and I never ever buy them fresh!  Turns out they make a great snack just like this:

 

and a perfect opportunity to use some of the garlic cayenne goat cheese I got at Fox Hill on the weekend:

  

And I couldn’t help but enjoy some organic coconut sherbet for only 80 cals for one cup!

So there ya have it bloggies, a perfect day on plan!  I came in at around 1350 calories :-)

MWAH!

How Do I Title This Post?

I woke up this morning and shortly thereafter was slapped in the face when I stepped on the scale which showed me UP.  That is not progress.  Seriously you guys I am upset with my messing around and careless disregard for my daily calorie intake and even though I can nail down a healthy eating lifestyle, I am not ready to free myself from calorie counting until I get to my frigging goal.  The problem is, it drives me friggin nuts counting everything.  But what other choice do I have?  Is following the WW plan any different? Not really.

So I was alone with my thoughts the entire way to work thinking about why after all I have achieved in weight loss and after all I have been through to lose 120 lbs, do I continue to find myself in the same cycle of failed attempts to keep going? 

Where is that vigor that I used to have where I would not accept anything less? 

Back then, it was my top priority and I found a way to make it work no matter what.  I think it is the fact that I no longer consider myself on the side of obesity that made me stick out in a crowd.  I am still overweight, but at a place that I really don’t care what anyone else thinks of me.  I never really did though.  Maybe it’s maturity, or maybe it’s pride for what I have already accomplished to date, but honestly, the only person I care about “caring” is me.  But that’s the thing though, I DO care, I DO!!!  So why do I keep letting the efforts fail.  I LET THEM.  I am completely aware that everything I eat and every bit of exercise I do or not do are completely in the realm of my power, so why am I standing in my own way from getting to my weight loss goal?  I am tough enough for this I AM, DAMN IT!  I’ve already proven it to myself!  I don’t have any thoughts of “not being able to” because I have done it.  I’m normally pretty good at dissecting my thoughts and working through them, but I have been through this what seems like a million times over the past year and a half. 

So to top off the morning I was already having mentally, I had an appointment with my Physiatrist and while I knew that corticosteroid injections were an “eventual” option to deal with my shoulder and hip pain, I didn’t realize that today would be the day.  I don’t know why I didn’t expect it though, it has been three years post injuries.  Today he decided he would just do the shoulder and I’ll go back for the hip on Monday.  I was a brave girl and didn’t “mind” the local anesthetic and the “other” needle so much, but before I knew it, he was helping me lay down on the bed and giving me an apple juice box because I was feeling really woooozy!  It was a scarry feeling.  It was a nauseating faint feeling.  Not pleasant at all :-(  He said it was likely adrenaline.

Following the procedure, he wanted me to hang around a while until I was okay to drive, so rather than heading back to the office where my lunch was in the fridge, I went to Subway across the street.  I was still feeling pretty weird and not myself, and never even thought to take the pics, so today is a no-pic account, (sorry guys), it was just one of those days and I wasn’t feeling it.

So the injections meant that I was unable to go to Bootycamp tonight and Thursday is iffy because the doc says I have to “gradually introduce” exercise to the area and have to be careful or else my long-term relief can be affected which defeats the whole purpose.  And since I have to go back on Monday for the hip injection, we will just have to see if Tuesday next week is in or out. 

So right now you guys I’m overall feeling bummed and I guess I just needed to vet and get it off my chest. I just need your support, encouragement and advice.  I am all choked up, probably a combination of the morning slap in the face and the procedure which will likely subside.  Things like that tend to open wounds related to our car accident and it will pass, but right now that’s how I feel :-(

Boooo Berry Vega

 

 

Monday.Coffee.’nuff said.

 

 

 

I’m getting quite adventurous with these smoothies I have to say.  Adventurous enough that I decided I’d try one of these Vega packets in place of my usual protein powder.  The entire shake consisted of:

• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1c frozen strawberries
• 1 tbsp sprouted chia seeds
• 1c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• packet of berry Vega
• 3c baby spinach
• water to make it wirl

 

The verdict?  Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I am NOT a fan of this berry Vega stuff.  I tried to save the smoothie by adding some cashew-almond butter and some PB2 but I only drank half of it and I decided I wasn’t going to force myself to drink something I didn’t like.  I am just barely getting over the colour of the them with the spinach, so I felt I’d just leave it at that! 

By mid-morning I had half of a Cosmic Cookie and life was good again:

And some more fresh berries (of course):

 

  Who doesn’t like oranges?  You’re nuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the lobster sub is back at Subway (as you may have gathered from my impromptu blackberry post at lunch time today.  I couldn’t help myself because they are AMAZING!  If there’s any time to ever ask for “double the meat,” this is it:

These baked southwestern ranch chips aren’t bad either:

  

Supper was awesome.  Remember the Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette I made that went along with the guest post on ZestyCooks blog today?  I became the world’s best glaze for brussels sprouts!  I had the other half of the leftover file of salmon and a scoop of homemade potato salad and the brussels sprouts were the star by far:

 

And my favourite dessert in the world, strawberry shortcake:

Not the most figure-friendly version in the world (homemade whipped cream and everything), but worth every single bite:

Dang it was good :-)

I Big Puffy Heart Lobster

And of course Subway for having the lobster sub made with REAL non-skimpy amounts of lobster.

Get double the meat for the best lobster sandwich ever :-)
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Guest Post @ ZestyCooks

Okay bloggies, I played a little fun game with you on Friday night telling you that my supper recap was "top secret" and now I can tell yas to head on over to ZestyCooks for the reveal! I made Maple Walnut Salmon over Beet & Goat Cheese Greens!

It was nothing short of phenomenal! Go and check it out!

Farm Girl(s)

I was so excited to recap our day for you yesterday when Farm Girl, Lynn and I spent the day in the Valley picking berries at Webster’s Farm (Farm Girl truly is a farm girl), but my camera erased all of the pictures :-(!  Luckily you can all check out Lynn’s blog for a great recap.

As Lynn says, we had Lunch at the Cider Press Cafe in Wheaton’s and I had the same Lobster Roll & side salad as Lynn (only I had the dill salad dressing).  It was unlike any other lobster roll I had ever had.  It was on a fresh toasted sour dough bun (although seemed quite a bit like whole wheat).

Lesley gave us a tour of the family farm where there is everything from strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb, wheat, beans, just to name a few.  I absolutely loved driving around the farm, even watching the huge sprays of water watering the crops.

Did you know that strawberries get their name because in the fall, they have to cover up the crops with straw?  Interesting!

We hit up a tiny local bakery, the Sour Dough Country Bakery where I stocked up on biscuits for the strawberry shortcake that will be made in our house this week, you can be guaranteed of that since it IS my FAVOURITE dessert of all time!  I also bought some fresh baked cereal bread, whole wheat buns and a tray of misc. sweets (for hubby of course).

Next up was a visit to Fox Hill Cheese House, where I hit the motherload and sampled many cheeses and made some purchase:

• Plain havarti (for the hubby)
• Garlic & Cayenne goat cheese (heaven)
• Lemon-Dill quark
• Curry quark
• a fancy new shaker for my morning breakfast smoothies
• the best hazelnut gelato ever made in a waffle cone

It was getting late by then, so we made one more quick stop at the Just Us Roastery where I stocked up on a bag of coffee, a dark chocolate organic chocolate bar and a coffee.

Not to mention I had a fantastic supper which I was so excited to show you but my damn camera let me down :-(.  It was such a delightful and fresh tasting salmon sandwich.  I had a leftover salmon filet in the fridge, so I spread some of my amazing lemon-dill quark cheese on two slices of the fresh cereal bread and topped it with a half of a salmon filet and some mixed lettuces.  I had it with a side of cold steamed beets and topped with crumbled plain goat cheese.  Heaven I tell you, heaven!

All it all it was a fan-friggin-tastic day, we enjoyed it immensely!  We can hardly wait to re-visit when the raspberry crops are ready!  Wooot!

I heart my bloggie buddies!  I swear I have never met such awesome ladies in my life that I enjoy spending time with.  (Okay I’ve known Les for 11 years, but still).  I wish that all of my blogger buddies lived here! 

MWAH to you all!

Speaking of great friends, Tasha is now moved on from Paris and is enjoying a fantastic hotel suite (apartment size) in Madrid where the weather is hot and the wine is still only $1 - $2 per bottle!  They have visited many many museams, saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo with their very own eyes, a ton Van Gogh paintings, Whistlers Mother, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne etc!  and her personal fav Monet!!!!!

I will continue to live vicariously through her emails and share tidbits of preliminary updates on their vacay of a lifetime!

Frig Yeah Friday!

So now I’m into Breakfast smoothies with a little berry punch because this morning’s smoothie had a really nice tartness to it which I loved:

Today’s mix was:

• 1 frozen banana
• 1c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze 
• 1 tbsp sprouted chia seeds
• 1 tbsp Artisana coconut butter
• a few splashes of Mangosteen
• a few hunks of frozen pineapple, melon & cantaloupe
• 2-3c of baby spinach

I added a bit more Mangosteen in the end to help it “whirl” around a bit better in the blender and it gave it the extra tartness and was quite enjoyable to sip all the way to work.  It actually makes 2 large glasses full which could be shared, but since hubby wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole, I drink it all myself!

(Coffee preceded smoothie, of course while I was getting dressed etc.):

Lunch was a bed of salad greens with some cherry tomatoes, red onion, a sliced feta-stuffed jalapeno pepper, roasted chicken breast and, of course, a sliced hard boiled egg.  I seasoned it with S&P and enjoyed it without any added vinaigrette or salad dressing:

And some beautiful berries on the side:

Speaking of berries, I’m very much looking forward to berry picking with Farm Girl and Lynn tomorrow!  Followed by a little lunch somewhere in the Valley = perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday morning.  Wooot!

I did indulge again this afternoon with a coffee with cream and a maple pecan danish from Tim’s:

Supper was

  Muhahahaha!  :-D

I can’t tell you because it’s being held in a vault until guest posted on another blog next week :-P 

Hint: there is a small connection with my indulgent snack this afternoon and my supper this evening (but in a much healthier light).

I’ll be sure to let yas know when it goes up next week :-)

Hello Eggs, It’s Been a While

Okay bloggies these smoothies are getting out of control! (In a good way though!) This morning’s Breakfast smoothie had lots of yummy ingredients, two of which were these:

I have been looking for a way to use my huge jar of Artisana coconut butter and I have a few bottles of this Mangosteen stuff that a client passed along a while ago and it’s perrrrrfect for these smoothies.

The entire smoothie consisted of:

• 1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze (the rest of the carton)
• 1/2c skim milk
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 scoop tropical vanilla ultimate protein
• 1 tbsp sprouted chia seeds
• 1 tbsp coconut butter
• a few strawberries, hunks of pineapple, cantaloupe & honeydew
• 3c baby spinach
• ice

Oh yeah and a coffee with cream (of course):

And Lunch today was a repeat of supper last night. You may have noticed quite a few hard boiled eggs around here recently. I buy organic eggs (which tend to cost a bit more) and they were on 50% off at the grocery store so I bought two dozen. It turns out that the best before date was today so I had to cook them all! I don’t mind though because eggs are delicious, nutritious and pretty much the perfect food all around. There is nothing to fear about the egg!

Sammie was whole grain bread, one hard boiled egg (sliced with one of those awesome egg slicers), hellman’s olive oil mayo, S&P and some lettuces. And some fresh blueberries were delicious too:

And out came a craving for a chocolate dipped oat cake from Planet Organic. I friggin love those things:

Okay, okay, okay and there was also an organic peanut butter ball :-D:

Hey a woman needs to curb her cravings when they come. For me it only hits me like this once every 3-4 months so I consider myself lucky! :-D

I was feeling a bit sluggish this afternoon and I knew that I had bootycamp after work so I thought I would give this Vega Sport powder a try as some pre-workout mojo. I mixed it up in my Bluenose water bottle with plain water:

I decided it needed some chill to it, so on the way to Bootycamp I stopped into McD’s for a cup of ice (I have no desire to step into that place otherwise. I remember going there every single weekend a few years ago :-D).

It’s not the prettiest drink in the world, kind of a murky iced tea look to it. It wasn’t too bad tasting, totally drinkable:

I have to say though that I just wasn’t feeling it tonight at Bootycamp. I dunno what it was but I had a hard time pushing myself. My knee was bothering me quite a bit, but I was definitely missing my mojo and I didn’t regain it from the Vega sports drink.

Post workout, Lex pulled out some raspberries that Farm Girl and I didn’t mind dipping into. She how shy Farm Girl is?

We chatted and gabbed a little bit before leaving, and it was getting late, so I munched on an apple on the way home:

It was about 8:30 by the time I got home, so my originally planned dinner got postponed to tomorrow night and I had, you guessed it, some more egg! This time it was 3 slices of whole grain bread, one spread with green onion hummus, and two hard boiled eggs sliced on top of some olive oil mayo and some lettuces:

And a yummy side of fresh strawberries, blueberries and a dolop of wild blackberry Liberte yogurt:

That’s three eggs in one day! That’s gotta be a record for me.

Now off to watch Big Brother!

Damn it I hate Jessie! Booooooooooooooooo! What a coincidence, an egg head!

Aha! I Needed BREAD!

The day started off innocently enough.  You know, Breakfast was the “”youj” with a coffee and a Green Monster. 

   

You may have noticed that my GM’s always included Salba.  Until recently I didn’t realize that Salba was a registered trademark version of “chia seeds” which is the actual super food. Then I realized that buying chia instead of Salba was waaaaaaaaay cheaper so this time around I bought a bag of Sprouted Omega Chia.

It’s apparently the latest and greatest super food which flax pales in comparison.

 

My hunger started to show itself earlier than usual after having a GM, so I had a hard boiled egg for a Snack with my buddy here:

 

 

 

Lunch was leftover Beef & Broccoli from last night’s supper (I love having leftovers for lunch the next day):

  

 

 

Some H2O of course.

 

 

 

And a little while later I met up with my buddy Jacki and she offered me one of her cookies from Subway which she had warmed in the microwave:

 

Then all hell broke loose and I seriously could not quiet the snacky hunger at all.  I decided I would try a iced coffee of sorts to see if that would take care of it and got a mochaccino from the second cup.  I didn’t actually end up liking it, so after drinking about 1/4 of it, I threw it away.  Then I stopped off at The Pretzel Maker and got one of their 100 calorie frozen yogurts.  I had raspberry and it was not a bad way to enjoy 100 cals:

  

Later in the afternoon, I Snacked again on a peach:

 

When I got home from work I kept on snacking.  There were snacks that my camera didn’t capture:  a handful of baked ruffles, some crackers and baba ganouj, liberte yogurt and then out came the loaf of whole grain bread that I was dying to try.  I had a few slices with green onion garlic hummus and some strawberries:

 

And I realized it was the bread that I neeeeeded!  I went back and reviewed what I ate in the last 3 days and I hadn’t had any bread whatsoever since Sunday and I finally started feeling full after I had an egg sammie on some more whole grain bread and olive oil mayo with S&P:

    

It was AMAZING.  I loved every bite!  I could have dressed it up a bit more with some veggies, but decided I’d go straight up and it was perfect.

And of course those damn peanut M&M’s are still around and there I went:

 

And I felt kind of chilly so I felt a cup of tea was in order to sip on while I watched Sex & The City.  I’ve been watching re-runs every night on Cosmo TV while I blog.  I love that show.  I could watch it non-stop forever.

Speaking of TV, is anyone else stoked that Big Brother starts tomorrow???  I’m a bit of a trash TV avoider, but there’s never anything on during the summer and I live for it!

Halibloggers Are Up for the Challenge!

Another amazing day of food.  And the Green Monster I made this morning was the best yet and was so satisfying.  I started of course, with a cup of coffee with cream:

 

Today’s GM included:

• 1 frozen banana
• 1c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• 1 tbsp Salba
• 1 tbsp cashew-almond butter
• 3 c baby spinach
• a few strawberries, hunks of cantaloupe, honeydew melon & pineapple…et voila:

 

The secret is having one of these on hand:

Later on in the morning, I had a peach.  It was a bit “mealy” but sweet enough that it was still good:

 

 

 

I was treated to a tea with milk from Tim’s too

 

 

 

Lunch was more salad from last night’s supper!  What a fantastic salad!

 

And then it was time for the Halibloggers to show everyone in Amy’s 15 Week Challenge how to step up :-D!

Lex, Farm Girl and I met up after work at Point Pleasant Park to get a “park workout” in per Amy’s challenge for week 2.  It worked out perfectly in that respect because our Bootycamp was cancelled because our instructor was injured, so it was THE situation where you use your creativity to make do!

Lex and I both have signed up for Amy’s challenge, so we were eager to get 2 bonus points under our belts!

We started off with a light 5 minute warm-up jog and then found a park bench and did 30 stepups on each leg:

  

We were visited by this cutie petutie (among others) during our entire workout:

 

After our step-ups, it was another 5 min run to another park bench where we did tricep dips.  I think we did 15-20:

Already working up a sweat!

Then it was another run and time for some squats.  We thought we’d use a park bench as a guide to try to sink lower by almost sitting.  I have no idea how many we did.  30?

Time for another run and enjoyed some of the scenery:

     

Nearby the Prince of Whales Tower, we plopped down for some ab work.  We did many situps and crunches and then some of these:

 

And some downward dog pushups which are not easy at all:

 

We were almost all finished and did a bit more jogging around and enjoyed a bit of the scenery.  This is someone’s home across the Northwest Arm through the trees:

 

And a good place for a photo-op:

And then I fell down the mountain!

 

Okay not really, but it was a funny pic to take :-D

The workout last about an hour and not too shabby on the calorie burn department.  I burned right around 500 calories which is comparable to what I’d burn at Bootycamp.  That said, I’d say I pushed it to about a 6 or a 7.

So challengers, I hope to see more participant posts around here this week ;-)

After we walked back to the parking lot, I immediately pulled out my post-workout snack to tide me over until I got home to make supper.  I had a hard boiled egg (with a little S&P)…

  

a peach…

 

and a few raspberries:

 

I couldn’t wait to get home because I was making Beef & Broccoli:

 

In the pot:

• canola oil
• beef strips
• entire broccoli crown
• 1 red pepper
• 1 orange pepper
• half large yellow onion
• bamboo shoots
• garlic, S&P, red pepper flakes, 2 frozen cubes of ginger
• light tamari, Worcestershire sauce
  

  And I had one major sweet tooth after supper so I had some of these AMAZING sorbet right out of the carton:

It tastes awesome and you’re not even going to believe the NI stats:

THIS is going to have a permanent home in my freezer this summer too!

And not pictured were a few hand grabs into the gigantic costco sized bag of peanut M&M’s that hubby insisted we get (pfffffffffffft!)

All in all though, it was a great day and I”m super proud of our Point Pleasant Park workout.  We definitely missed not having Lynn there because she wasn’t feeling well and Jaime who’s on vacay on the other side of the country at the moment, but even still, we did it!

I Think Chandler’s Enjoying His New House

 

:-)

Hello Homemade Banana Fro-Yo & a Telegram from Paris

Do you see what I see?  That’s right bloggies, that’s a Green Monster straight up with see through glass because I’m not afraid of the green anymore! :-D

  

It was back to work today and I started Breakfast off with a cup of coffee with cream and my GM was my usual combo:

• 1 frozen banana
• 1c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• 1 tbsp salba
• 1 tbsp almond-cashew butter
• 1 scoop tropical vanilla ultimate protein
• a few frozen raspberries
• 3c baby spinach

although I actually only ended up drinking about half of the GM because I was feeling pretty full.  But I ended up paying for it for the rest of the day because I just could not shake the hunger!

I Snacked on an apple with some PB& Co Cinnamon Swirl peanut butter with a few veggie stix (I think that’s what they are called  - even though they were stale):

Lunch was leftover Turkey Basil Meatloaf that I made yesterday (this was soooo simple and really good!  It didn’t even have many ingredients!).  And along side was some strawberry Liberte svelte yogurt with some fresh raspberries and blueberries:

    

And it was one of those days where I was craving ice cream so I stopped off at Laura Secord during my lunch break at the mall and had myself some peanut butter fudge swirl or some such, whatever it was called, it was heaven and it rocked:

 

I cracked open my new Clean Eating Magazine last night and was anxious to put this simple salad recipe to work for Supper this evening:

  

 

 

OH.MY.GOD.YUM.

 

 

 

I grilled enough chicken for leftovers for lunch tomorrow and it would be a perfect lunch:

 

And even though I had a haaaa-uge salad for supper, I couldn’t help but try out this new frozen banana soft-serve idea from choosingraw:

That’s right folks, this is only frozen banana in a food processor and it is the most amazing dessert!

You do have to be patient and let it “do its thing” for a while in there while scraping down the sides and letting it melt enough to blend to the creaminess, but it eventually gets there.

 

I served mine with a dolop of Blackberry Liberte yogurt and it was devine:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello new healthy dessert to have on hand at all times!

Oh and P.S.:  I got a telegram from Paris where Tasha is having a wonderful trip.  Okay, not a “telegram” per se, it was an email, but it sounds more fabulous and exotic as a telegram since she’s in Europe! :-D.  London was fabulous and she and hubby got to visit with an old friend and his wife and new baby and now they are in Paris.  She’s pretty much in heaven since it’s cheese and bread everywhere you look and drinks cost less than a pepsi would!

The Things You Discover in the Doctor’s Office Waiting Room

 

Am I the only one who always picks up a magazine in the doctor’s office waiting room and there always seems to be something that catches my interest and I always want to tear the page out? So instead of de-facing property, I settled for a quick snap ;-)

The idea of using the coffee as an exfoliant to clean the shower seems kind of strange to me because doesn’t coffee stain and wouldn’t it consequently dirty up your tub?

Planet Organic Love & Free Swag! :-D

Today’s eats were absolutely awesome.  Every bite was delicious!

I started it out with my morning joe with some blend cream while I read some blogs.  I love starting my day out this way when the house is quiet:

 

Soon after hubby was up and it was mid-morning and we had Breakfast.  I topped a toasted Ezekiel english muffin with a schmear of almond/cashew butter and a crumble of Artisana Cocoa Bliss (OMG!) and a side of low sodium, low fat cottage cheese topped with chopped strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, raspberries & blueberries.  

I thought I would start hydrating right off the bat and had an iced pomegranate green tea and a mango pashionfruit tea on ice with some berries.  It was so refreshing!  I think I know what I’ll be experimenting with this summer!

     

I’m finally coming around to the cottage cheese & fruit combo (even though it took me a while):

  

Later on in the afternoon I was a little hungry for a Snack and I started putting things in a bowl that went together and ended up with a falafel dip platter:

In the bowl was:

• 1 tbsp baba ganouj
• 1 tbsp garlic & green onion hummus
• 2 falafel balls heated and broken up
• light crumbled feta
• 2 chopped cherry tomatoes

A pita and cucumber slices to dip!

Late afternoon friends of ours came over with food in tow and the BBQ was blarin’ and Terry (aka BBQ Chef Boyardee :-P) grilled up a few pieces of baguette and we topped it with some bruschetta mix from Costco and topped with a tiny bit of crumbled feta for a little snacky snack.  OMG it was soooooooo gooood (I had two pieces):

   

And we grilled up the package of pork scaloppini that I had defrosted and they were only tiny little guys and I had 2 of those to munch on as well.

As hubby went out to mow the lawn, I went out and worked up a sweat on the trampoline!  OMG that’s SO much fun!!!  My heart raced, I worked up a sweat and had sooo much fun!  The down side is that it’s losing some of its springs so it’s not going to last forever.  The stitching is starting to let go and one by one the springs are popping! :-(  I hope it lasts the summer because I can’t tell you how fun it is to get a workout on it!

For Supper I had also taken out a package of lean ground turkey to make a recipe from my new Planet Organic Cookbook that I received from them for participating in their Yogurt Diet Club a while back.  I also got a gift certificate too!  I love free swag!

It wasn’t until it came time to make the recipe that I realized that I was out of eggs and my basil had gone bad, so I improvised on the basil by using the frozen cubes that I had in the freezer and I left out the egg all together.  It turns out you didn’t need the egg at all, and it was delicious:

    

I served it along side some steamed green beans since I had already had my fill of carbs with my late afternoon bruschetta love affair ;-)

And while at the Bulk Barn yesterday for movie treats I picked up a few hunks of organic dark chocolate almond bar and I enjoyed a piece of that for dessert:

Off to fire up the jets for a relaxing bath and to catch up on the Clean Eating & the Eating Well mags I bought the other day ;-)

Opa’s & Optimus Prime

Hello bloggies!  I’ve been taking pictures of everything and haven’t been posting = bad blogger!

But today I did not fail you and here are my eats for the day:

Started off the morning with a cuppa joe with some blend cream, sipped on that while catching up on some emails and blogs, then followed that with an absolutely delicious bowl of oats mid-morning:

  

Today’s oats consisted of:

• 1/3c large flake oats
• 1/2c unsweetened chocolate almond breeze
• 1/2 medium banana
• 3/4c water
• pinch of salt
• splash of vanilla, dash of cinnamon
• Toppings: 1 tbsp Chocolate PB2 (this seriously is the secret to “sweetening” the bowl), sprinkle of unsweetened coconut, a few mini dark chocolate chips, 1 tbsp of almond-cashew butter (the BOMB)

I can’t believe the variety of nut butters there are out there today.  It’s AWESOME!  I’ve recently fell in love with cashew butter, so I thought I’d try almond-cashew butter and of course, it rocks ;-)

Breakfast was really closer to lunch, so when hubby and I set out to run some errands, I snacked on a coconut cream pie Larabar:

  Hubby and I cruised some furniture and appliance stores since we are now in need of a new dryer and I took advantage of the free coffee they had at the Brick:

A few stores later, we were pretty hungry.  We had plans of hitting up a matinee and then supper, but we ended up doing supper and the early show.  We hit up Opa’s where I gladly hit up the bread with herb infused EVOO and a diet coke:

    I and then enjoyed the most amazing salad with a skewer of lamb souvlaki on top:

   

And I scooped up hubby’s tzatziki with my pita chips (he never appreciates what he’s missing out on!)

My only complaint about Opa’s is that it’s kind of overpriced.  My salad was a small salad and it was $10 (the large was $14) and the added skewer which was really 3 pieces of meat was $7.  The meal was fantastic but I wasn’t full.

Sooooo I ended up munching on popcorn and a few pre-movie treats purchased at Bulk Barn which I didn’t get the chance to photograph since it was pretty dark in the Imax theatre!  We saw Transformers which was certainly action packed I’ll say that much.  I think I liked the first one better though.

It feels good to post up my pics!  Pheeeeew!

Amy’s Weekly Challenge: Recipe Revamp – Chicken Fingers & Fries

Okay challengers, this is it, this is Amy’s first weekly challenge and her challenge to us this week is to revamp a recipe to make it healthier.  Easy peasy!  We all live for this stuff, right?!!

So I thought I would share my revamp of chicken fingers & fries that I make for hubby all of the time.  It’s the only healthier version recipe that he never puts up a fuss about.  (If it’s hubby approved people, you know it’s good)

The secret to breading meat or fish is to have three dipping stations:

1. The first dry dip (to give the egg something to stick to)
2. The egg coating dip (to give the crunchy dip something to stick to)
3. The outer crunchy dip (the good part)

(As you can see from the box in the background, I’m still not completely unpacked.  That box is full of cookbooks that have no home in our new kitchen (because there are so many!), so they are sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for hubby’s help to go downstairs!)

1.  The “dry dip” (which is the first dipping station for your chicken breast) consisted of whole wheat flour, psyllium husks, flax meal & S&P.  I didn’t measure, just a little of this and a little of that.

  

 

 

2. The second dipping station after the dry drip is the “egg coating dip” and rather than using whole eggs, two egg whites do the trick just fine.

 

 

3. And the third and final dipping station, the “outer crunchy dip” consisted of lots of healthy ingredients that make these chicken strips just as satisfyingly crunchy as if they were deep-fried: one organic whole grain Wheetabix biscuit crumbled, panko crumbs (or regular bread crumbs), Salba (more on this later in the week), light grated parmesan cheese, S&P:

Dipping each piece of boneless skinless chicken into the three dipping stages ensures a crunchy coating! (Before bake):

After bake with sweet potato fries:

These are soooo goood! 

And you can dip ‘em in whatever you like.  One of our favourites is Kraft Calorie Wise Three Cheese Ranch dressing, but ketchup or buffalo wing sauce (plus the 3 cheese ranch = awesome).

Since I didn’t measure the ingredients, I don’t have the NI specs for you, but rest assured they are a majorly a healthier choice than out of a frozen foods box or worse, straight out of the deep-fryer!

Enjoy!

Post-it Revolution Props

First of all, if any of you have participated in Operation Beautiful, you understand the “high” that you get from leaving your “good deed” note. I still smile from ear to ear just thinking about when I posted my note on the GNC scale at the mall. Well imagine my excitement when I got tipped off that my note was mentioned in the article written about Caitlin and her Operation Beautiful mission in a Florida newspaper?!

Just think about it for a second though. That’s Florida, this is Halifax, Canada. The note was the easiest thing I’ve ever done and it did make an impact. I think we underestimate just how powerful we truly can be. Good deeds do not go unnoticed and at the very least leave you beaming from the inside which is projected 1000 fold in other aspects of your life. I’ve been beaming from the inside ever since and the fact that it was recognized in a Florida newspaper only justifies the impact that kind of act has on people not just in our little corner of the world.

On that note, last night after Bootycamp, we all went out for sushi and Lynn pulls out a stack of post-it notes all created for the intended purpose of participating in this movement. She will find homes for each and every one of them I’m sure. I snagged one of them and found a home for one of them right then and there:

Thanks Lynn for lending a note ;-)

My Dad Made 'Way With My USB Cord!

I've got tonnes of pics and no USB cord to upload them! He put it in the mail and I should get it on Thursday. I'm sure I've got at least a few more around the house, but not likely going to locate one amongst the debris of boxes unpacked!

We'll see how I feel after Bootycamp tonight. It looks like the ladies and I are planning a little "sushi suppa afta." I really love going out for sushi and there's something about sharing the food that makes me leave the restaurant perfectly satisfied. I think it's because you're not served a plate of food in front of you to eat, instead you pick and choose amongst the rolls on the table, a few at a time and when you're satisfied you're done. I usually suffer from a "finish my plate" complex, so sushi is perfect for that.

The sun has come out! Looks like we'll have a good bottykickin' tonight ladies!

Luckiest Girl on Earth

I am exhausted. I've been seriously non-stop for days! Sleep has been interrupted by Chandler meowing about the house wondering where his food is lol He's spending hours just exploring the new digs and is too timid to stay outside, just goes about 5 feet and comes right back in (I like that, it makes me feel better about him getting lost!). Lucy is adjusting better than we expected and pretty much acts like she's hasn't moved anywhere. That said, she spent the entire time barking on the back patio when the movers were moving our stuff in the house (I bet our new neighbours were thrilled about who was moving in next door!)

Eats have been less than stellar, but each and every extra calorie earned. The less than stellar part would be my lack of hydration when I needed it the most, just too pre-occupied to remember to drink water. I am now working on drinking lots of water today.


I could not be happier with our new home :-) So far there have been moments when I would just stare at everything and I literally couldn't speak because I felt so overwhelmed with my new surroundings. Those who know me in "real life" know how far I have come from where I grew up. Leap and bounds doesn't quite articulate it. Each and every thing that I have or have ever done has been earned and not having anything ever handed to me made me a better person. I appreciate every single thing I have in my life and I think about it often. I even teared up a few times because it was all so surreal. While unpacking and getting settled, I now randomly just bellow out random facts about the house like, "Hey honey, we have a garage!" (Which I certainly don't have to remind him about since he's pretty much lived in there since we moved in! lol), or, "OMG I have a friggin walk-in closet!"


FYI - bubble bath and jucuzzi tubs are to be combined only very carefully! lol What a sight!


Many people are bugging me to post pictures of our house on Facebook. I dunno though, the last thing I want to do is to appear to anyone like I'm showing off my new house and bragging. That's just not my style. I'd actually feel quite uncomfortable with it. Our new home is ours to enjoy and not a symbol of anything to anyone, know what I mean? I dunno, maybe I'll feel differently later and change my mind, but that's how I feel for now.


Oh and what are the chances that we'd move in right next door to a couple from Newfoundland who lived in Lab City for a while? Doesn't surprise me in the least! (Some of you are familiar with the amazing branches of community that are associated with a place like Labrador City (where hubby is from) .) Oh and the family that lives across the road used to live on the street that we just moved from. Freaky!

Like Father, Like Daughter

 

That’s right bloggies, we got the keys to our new and beautiful home today!!!  It was a gorgeous day which had originally been forecasted for thunder showers, but ended up being hot, sunny and beautiful.

It was pretty much non-stop the entire day and I’ll warn you right now, eats were on the go and I exceeded my quota for deep-fried potatoes for a while :-D :

Breakfast was a large double double from Tim Horton’s:

 

 

I grabbed an apple and a Larabar at around 11:00, but only ended up eating the larabar because I got distracted doing the 2049583 things to do this morning:

 

 

As you can see our kitchen is over-flowing with boxes etc:

By the time we went to sign all the documents we were starving and we ended up grabbing Lunch at Mary Brown’s and I had a Big Mary Combo with taters (don’t shoot me):

   

The the entire day flew by in a flash.  We have movers coming tomorrow morning but hubby, dad, MIL and I spent the day loading up the two trucks and two cars with smaller items that we didn’t want to pack into boxes or worry about getting broken (i.e. lamps, plants, end tables, odds & ends and the fridge & freezer contents).  We’re only moving to another subdivision in the same general neighbourhood, so it was easy to make trips between the two houses (it’s weird that technically we own two houses right now).  Before we knew it, it was after 7:00 and we were beat and hungry.  We ended up going to Lefty’s for a well-deserved Supper:

We shared a few appetizers of pita wedges & tatziki and wings & chips (which I didn’t have any of, I only had pita wedges):

I ordered the Lobster Roll & fries (more deep fried potato).  I couldn’t help it though because they make the best fries known to man and we no doubt at all more than earned our fare share of today’s indulgences:

        

I wasn’t crazy impressed with the lobster roll though.  It was indeed fresh lobster and they weren’t stingy on it at all, but just a bit too much mayo and celery for my liking and the roll was too crumbly.  It didn’t stop me from eating it though! 

And I may have mentioned to you guys before that the sellers of our new house left behind a little something to keep me occupied this summer:

OMG this was so much fun!  Just bouncing like this did a major calve and hamstring workout and raise the heart rate quite a bit!  So fun!  I can’t wait to have some fun burning calories this summer!  The pics aren’t the greatest because the sun was setting just behind over the trees, but you get the point :-D:

Like father, like daughter:

Tomorrow is the “big” move, but really we’ve hired movers so all the hard work is going to be done for us.  My job is to get to the new house early to wait for the Eastlink guy to show up for an “all day appointment” to hook up our cable/internet/phone.   I hope I don’t have to wait all day for him, that’s no fun all by my onesome!  Oh and we have to change are damn phone number and we’re only moving up the road!  Apparently we’re just on the edge of a limit, so we’re in a new exchange.  We’ve had that number for 10 years! Pffffft!  Bah well, such is life.  I’d trade that phone number for a new beautiful home any day :-)