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What’s Your Goal?

13 Mar

Everyone has a different goal, sure they can often times be lumped in to groups but each person’s goal is unique. In terms of weight loss the main groups I have been focused on lately are:

– get skinny

– get strong

The reason I am focused so much on these two groups is because for the loooongest time if you had asked me my goal it was “to get skinny”. That’s it, end of story. All I wanted, more than anything, was to be skinny. I’m decently tall for a girl (5’8″) and feel it is grossly unfair I am not also skinny, aren’t tall girls supposed to be skinny? *pout* All my Weight Watchers, low calorie, paleo (and more!) eating plans were followed because of the promise I would lose weight and I interpreted that as “I would get skinny”, after all, that’s what happens when you lose weight, right? All my hiking, treadmill running, HIIT training, weight lifting, squat challenges etc were all done for the same reason, to get me skinny.

Obviously that hasn’t happened.

Over the past couple months or so my goal has, hmm, I don’t want to say completely changed but…shifted I guess? Evolved. Altered. Broadened.

Now when I think of how I want to look it’s not just “skinny” it’s a combination of words: skinny, fit, obvious muscle definition, strong.

I want to be strong.

Not body builder strong, *shudder* but my body’s version of strong.

I say “my body’s” because I firmly believe not every body can achieve the same “look”. I heard this from a trainer years ago and I have to say, it makes sense to me. My body has a natural build, that I sadly, covered in excess squishy-ness but under all my squishy-ness there is a body type that I have to work with. I have hips, not just cause there is fat on them but because my skeletal frame gave me curvy hips, some women have super slim hips sometimes referred to as guy’s hips, no matter how much I diet, how much I work out, unless I get plastic surgery I will always have curvy hips. Just like the woman with the super slim hips will always have super slim hips.  You can’t change what your bones are doing. You have to just deal with what you have and work with it.

fat grapefruit

As I have come to terms with this I took a look around for inspiration, for women who have the physical look that I am trying to achieve. Whereas before I used to think of Nicole Kidman or Julia Roberts or any number of runway models and obsess over how they are so skinny and I want to be soooo skinny but how the hell do I get to look like them?? Now I am thinking more along the lines of Michelle Rodriguez. She is slim, has muscle definition, nobody doubts she is strong (and not strong for a girl but simply strong), curvy, fit and feminine. The feminine part is important because I find the media forgets that women who are strong can also be girly.

Michelle Rodriguez - slim but with muscle

Michelle Rodriguez – slim but with muscles

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman – sooooo skinny

I realized that a lot of the fitness activities I partake in were never going to get me to “skinny”, because while yes they provided cardio and burned calories the activities I lean towards also involve working my muscles and that will automatically strengthen my muscles…which, if I am lucky, will give me some level of muscle definition. Actually, I know it will give me muscle definition cause last dragon boat season my shoulders and arms had actual definition that I lost during the off season and am oh-so-hoping to get back soon. Muscle memory how I am relying on you!

For a while I worried that I was focusing more on getting strong because I thought I was incapable of achieving skinny, I was looking at my change of perception, my change of goal as a failure. But now, I don’t think that is what this is about. It’s not just about my being realistic for what I can achieve either. It is what I want. I could cut my food intake drastically, do nothing but cardio and let my body eat away at itself until I am super skinny but then what? I won’t be able to dragon boat, I’ll be too weak to compete. I won’t be able to make it up the side of a mountain when I go hiking, I’ll have no stamina or strength to manage the trails. I won’t be able to enter things like the BMO run. I’d never finish the course. For all that I want to be skinny, I want to be strong more. I want to be able to enjoy the various activities I take part in. I want to be able to sign up for a new challenge and know I’ll be able to work hard towards completing it. I want to not just keep up with others but pass them by – hey, what can I say, I’m competitive! 😉

The happy side effect of this new goal, this goal of attaining strength, muscle definition and being fit is that it will automatically make me look slimmer. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat so if I can swap out my fat (obviously not all of it or I’d be dead lol) for muscle I’ll look slimmer, be stronger, get my muscle definition aaaaand manage to uncover the body that I hid underneath all this squishy-ness. And wouldn’t that just be fab? 🙂

sorry for the random girl in her underwear...

sorry for the random girl in her underwear…

sidenote: I didn’t put dragon boating in the list of activities I do to attain the goal of skinny because I dragon boat because of how much I love the sport…it just has the sweeeeeet side effect of being a fitness activity lol

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Run Turtle! Run!

4 Mar

I am not a runner. People think I should be good at it cause I have long legs. That’s like saying I should be good at basketball because I am tall. Neither of those presumptions makes any sense! *rolls eyes*

Despite this I decided to sign up for the BMO Run in May…I should not be allowed on the internet after midnight! lol So, due to a deep rooted fear I will either (1) not be able to complete the run, (2) be the slooooowest person in the run, (3) die while attempting the run or (4) a combo of all three, I figure I should do some sort of training. Ya know, run a bit, work my way up to the distance I will be running in May.

run meme

Of course there is the side benefit of (hopefully) losing weight while I take on this whole running thing. I may hate running but even I know it is wicked awesome cardio. 🙂

Tuesdays are my Saturdays and I usually spend them doing an amazing imitation of a sloth until I meet up with friends at night but this Tuesday I made no plans with friends for the night and gave myself a whopping two goals to accomplish.

(1) Eat healthy

(2) Exercise

Seems pretty simple right? I mean, it’s only two freakin things to accomplish in one day, who can’t manage that??

I feel that for the most part I ate in a healthy way, I’m not very good at judging if food is healthy or not due to the fact that I have so many “food rules” floating in my brain, some of them contradict each other, and I’m never sure which rules to follow. sigh. Why do there have to be so many rules?

My first meal of the day was a whole wheat wrap filled with two slices of turkey bacon, sauteed mushrooms, two scrambled eggs (seasoned with dill) and about 6 sweet pickles. Oh, and I spread two triangles of Light Laughing Cow cheese on the inside of the wrap. Soooo yummy! I also had a banana. I know I should have used only one egg but it was a big wrap and I accidentally added too much water to the first egg so when I poured it in to the pan it looked not-so-great, it seemed a wise decision to add a second egg…even if it is gluttonous. sigh.

I then procrastinated on the going for exercise part of my day, of course! lol 😛

I originally thought I’d digest for a half hour or so then either go for a run or go for a session at the gym. I was good with either and actually kinda wanted to do both. I wanted to run because of needing to train for the run in May but I wanted to go to the gym because I feel I have lost some of my upper body strength and I want to build it back up, what with it being dragon boat season an all.

It was sleeting so that made the decision for me, I’d jog to the gym, work out, jog home and feel righteous lol Well…I slacked, as is my way lol I watched tv, played games on my iPad, cuddled with the cat, thought about how I should get up and exercise but didn’t actually move from my seat lol convinced myself it was ok if I didn’t go right away cause my gym is open till 11pm today so I can always go later evening if I want.

The slacking lasted so long I got hungry, oops! I didn’t want a meal though so I made some toast with peanut butter and honey on it. Bad I know! CarbsCarbsCarbs, ugh, why do I have to love you so much?? I decided that if I was going to continue slacking then I had to increase my fluid intake, at least do something good for my body, so I made more tea lol and drank a couple big glasses of water. I used to drink water like it was going out of style but I somehow got out of that habit – I should really fix that…note to self, drink more water!…maybe that can be my goal for tomorrow? 😛

Eventually I got off my ass and got ready to go work out, it had stopped sleeting so I decided to go running, I wanted to use the MapMyRun App I had installed the day prior and I really wanted to use the ArmPocket I bought a bit ago. It didn’t occur to me until I was outside locking my door that it was pitch black outside, way past sunset. Did this deter me from running? Nope.

The MapMyRun had a route starting near me that was a bit over 5km, I thought that’d be a good place to start. If I’d gone in daylight the route would have been way better lol It took me on a non-lit, deserted path that had river on one side and forest on the other, I felt like I was in an episode of Criminal Minds and was half convinced I was going to die due to my stupidity but obviously nothing happened. The map route however, was flawed, erg. I got to this one section and it wanted me to cross the street to go do a loop through a park, well, the street it wanted me to cross was the highway, at a section there is nowhere to cross and I’m sorry but I may do a lot of stupid things but jaywalking across a highway is not one of them! Also, signs for the park the map said I would find across the street indicated it was actually on the side of the street I was on but farther down. I was mightily confused because oh man do I have seriously lacking navigation skills. I opted for turning around and heading home, not through the deserted scary trail section though, phew! I was around the 4km mark at that point and figured for sure I’d hit 5km by the time I got home, turns out I ran 6.80km. Which I am aware is super short for most people but I’m happy with it. At the end I felt like I could have kept going which I take as a good sign for my next run, and the run in May!

My dinner was a chicken breast stuffed with cheese and broccoli, sliced pan cooked yam, roasted yellow peppers, vermicelli noodles with a bit of sweet and sour sauce mixed in and some sweet pickles. Why the pickles? Cause I like em. 🙂 I think it was healthy, but again, not certain because while I can argue that it is, I can also find ways to argue that it isn’t, sigh. It was tasty though…if that counts? 😛

dinner - healthy? not healthy? who knows!

dinner – healthy? not healthy? who knows!

A couple hours after dinner I ate a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich, man those are good. In the world of Weight Watchers they are 2 points which makes it seem like not such a bad snack? I’m still feeling kinda hungry but no more food for me today, instead lots more water. Mmm water!…said no one ever! lol 😉

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I Missed It

28 Feb

Here I was all psyched for the first dragon boat practice of the season, and I missed it! *gasp* Which resulted in my pouting last evening for a good chunk of time, sigh.

This stupid cold! It keeps getting worse, yesterday saw the onset of an oh-so-lovely cough but none of my other symptoms went away, how is that fair? You’d think with every new symptom you’d get rid of an existing one…at least that is how it would work in a universe run by me…buuuuut nope!

I was torn about going, I didn’t want to miss practice for soooo many reasons. The top three being (1) first practice of the season, (2) I don’t want to make a bad impression on the new coach and (3) see my team of course! But the reasons for not going were pretty strong, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t be more than an arm length away from kleenex, the cough and more, blah. 😛

I texted a friend on the team and told her I couldn’t decide and she said I should stay home, no way being on the water at night, in the cold, getting wet and paddling were going to do anything but make me sicker which was a very valid point. I decided to take her advice hence no practice.

The whole evening I kept looking at the time and thinking “right now they are warming up”,  “right now they are loading on to the boat”, “right now they are paddling and seeing what the new coach is like”…ugh, I was so jealous of all of them! I wanted to be there so badly but I couldn’t deny I would have had a hellish time because of the whole not-breathing-constantly-needing-kleenex-coughing-a-lot situation I was dealing with.

In a lame attempt to make myself feel better I made some comfort food. I cooked a batch of sticky rice in coconut milk instead of water then topped it with sliced mango. It is a Filipino dish that I really like. The coconut milk makes the rice a tiny bit sweet and the mango topping, well, do you need words to describe the yummy value of mango? Nah, course you don’t! Everyone knows mango is great! 🙂 …um, if you haven’t tried mango go grab one from the produce section of your grocery store, totally worth it!

It’s not the prettiest dish, least when I make it, but that doesn’t bother me lol

mango on coconut rice, yum!

mango on coconut rice, yum!

I gotta say, it didn’t do much to cheer me up lol Which I s’pose means the comfort food didn’t do it’s job of comforting me but my reassuring myself I will be well enough to go next week helped. 🙂

When I bought the coconut milk I decided to try the Light Coconut Milk, which I didn’t even realize existed lol it wasn’t as good as when I use the normal coconut milk, the rice wasn’t quite as sweet but, shrug, it still tasted good and if using light saved me even a teeny bit of calories and/or fat then it’s worth it…I guess 😉 lol

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Headlamps an Stuff

27 Feb

I have been sick since Sunday and instead of getting better I appear to be getting worse, arg. It’s not a debilitating illness or anything, just a run of the mill cold but I’m smack in the middle of the symptoms and it’s annoying. Kleenex are my new best friend. *rolls eyes* I’ve been purposefully not letting it slow me down so Tuesday I went snowshoeing, Wednesday (today) I went to the gym and Thursday I will be dragon boating. A nice busy three days off from work! 🙂

I’m so psyched for Thursday, it will be our first time back on the water this season and it’s gonna rock and suck all at once lol. We won’t be on the water till about 7:15pm so it will be dark and cold and this year head lamps are mandatory. Guess who doesn’t own a head lamp? Oh yeah, that’d be me lol

I wasn’t aware until last night we were going to need them so when I was out today I did a little shopping. Silly thing cost me $45! It is a white LED light but if I am in distress I can push a button and it will flash red, interesting huh? I think I will actually get to return it though, yay! One of my teammates found some for way cheaper, only $11, so she bought a bunch and I can just buy one from her. Which means back to the store I will be going to return the head lamp but hey, a special trip to get money back? I’m cool with that!

Since I was at SportChek I also bought an Olympic Team Canada t-shirt. I know, I know, cheesy or what but, shrug, I’ve been wanting one since the collection came out and now that the Olympics are done they are on sale lol. Cheesy and cheap! 😉 The t-shirt apparently has great wicking capabilities blah blah blah, I’m sure it is great, and I did buy it wanting to wear it when exercising but let’s get real, I didn’t buy it cause it’d suck my sweat away from my body quickly, I bought it cause I like it lol 😛

my new t-shirt, hopefully it will inspire me when I work out

my new t-shirt, hopefully it will inspire me when I work out

Then I bought a toque! Ack! I’d say it was like a shopping demon came over me but I already knew I was needing to find a new toque, shrug. All but the Olympic collection toques were gone, winter gear is being phased out because spring is soon to be upon us, wOOt! So I bought an Olympic gear toque, it’s actually really nice, red and black, I didn’t buy the one that says Canada on it cause clothes that scream your country’s name are so vulgar *shudder* Unless you are a spectator at a sport your clothes should not say your country’s name, or unless it is your independence day and you are celebrating your country, then it’s ok. So yeah, toque, t-shirt and headlamp, quite the productive little shopping trip.

Not that you were wondering, but the reason I so suddenly need another toque is because I looooove my toque that I wear for snowshoeing and that means I do not want to wear it when dragon boating cause it’ll get wet with nasty water and I have no idea how to wash my snowshoeing toque. It is a hand made product, not like it has a tag inside saying how to wash it! I gotta be careful, and making sure that toque doesn’t come in to contact with the water I dragon boat in well, that’s just good ownership lol

I’ve got a couple other pieces of gear I need for dragon boating buuuuut have no money to buy them soooooo just gonna have to do without, shrug.

Hmmm, this quickly became quite the post about shopping, oops! Lemme catch you up on other stuff real quick…

– We got snow! As in lots of snow! Three days worth of non stop snow! Lovely! I was so happy while it was falling, every time I went out in it or looked outside it made me smile. Made most other people grumps but whatev. I so desperately wanted to go snowshoeing in the falling snow but was too sick for that, boo!

while snowshoeing, gorgeous!

while snowshoeing, gorgeous!

– The avalanche warning was high but I like to think that makes things more interesting lol. It was so sunny you could hear the snow melting and a couple times I got pelted with snowballs that were actually chunks of snow falling off trees. 🙂 I ass-tobogganed part way down the mountain which was epic and I sooo want to do again! lol I went off trail on the way down so I could walk through some fresh snow, it’s way more fun, well, I got to a part that was super steep and no way could I climb down it, instead of going back and finding the trail again I sat down, had my knees bent, snowshoes on the ground in front of me (feet still strapped in them) and let myself slide down using the snowshoes to steer me, clear the path so my butt slid smoothly and also act as breaks when needed. Seriously, most fun ever! There was a minor issue of not being able to stop in time at this one section and becoming a tad airborne but meh, I landed on soft snow so who cares? Just made it more fun actually…I’m really hoping I get to do that again lol

– Some not so cool stuff, I keep getting sick! My immune system is really taking a beating this year, I am not impressed at its lackluster performance in the germ kicking business.

– I bought a piece of fish I have noooo idea how to cook, sigh. It is coconut encrusted, sounded interesting and was on sale. Perfect combo! I am going to (most likely) attempt to cook it tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes *worried face* I really hope I don’t food poison myself before practice, that would suck!

– I skipped Stir Fry Sunday this week cause I was too sick to want food Sunday or Monday and by Tuesday it just seemed like I was destined to not have stir fry this week. I will be back to my stir fry madness this coming weekend though, no worries!

– I discovered the deliciousness that is cherries in a cherry sauce put on top of ice cream, trust me, this is something you should try, Mmm!

– The cat got mad at me and purposefully peed on the floor right in front of his litter box to show his anger. You’d think I’d get mad, instead I realized that because I’d been sick when I’d been home the past couple days (this was on Monday) I was unconscious so I made a concentrated effort to stay home and conscious more and since then he’s been much happier. Yes I am aware he has me well trained. 😛

– Lastly, I missed three days in a row of my Squat Circuit Challenge because of being sick. Sunday and Monday I got home from work and basically crashed. Then Tuesday I forgot, which is weird, I think because I was out of the rhythm of it. So starting tomorrow I will pick up where I stopped. I hate that I inadvertently took a bit of a break in the middle but whatcha gonna do, can’t control being sick, shrug.

There we have it, my catch up of the last couple days. Food, exercise and shopping…apparently that is my life this past week lol 😛

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Flyer Scouting

21 Feb

I never used to bother with flyers, if I lived somewhere where I got them I’d just toss em in the recycle box cause what’s the point? Going through a bunch of flyers from a bunch of different stores, trying to figure out what you are going to buy and which store you are going to buy it at…like I’m going to go to multiple stores to buy all the items I need? Nope, not likely. I’m all about convenience, if I’m in Safeway and they are selling avocados and I want avocados, I’m gonna buy them at Safeway instead of going to a different store that is selling them for a dollar cheaper. Cause no way I want to use my time store hopping.

where I find my flyers at

where I find my flyers at

Welllllll, let’s just say that has changed. I don’t always check flyers before I go shopping but lately I have been and not only that I’ve been making lists of what I am buying, at which store, and how much it says it will be in the flyer (I tend to look for the sale price on the shelf, makes the specific item I am looking for easier to find).

I shock myself every time I do it lol 😛

This evening after work I went grocery shopping and I gotta say, I get a little kick knowing that I saved money on this item or that item cause I bought it cheaper at the second store I went to rather than buying it at the first store. Weird huh? Luckily, I work right across the street from a Safeway and I pass by a Superstore on my way home so it makes it easy to go to the two stores. If only I passed a Wal-Mart Supercentre on my way home, I’d be covered for everything! lol

On weeks I shop with knowledge of what’s in the flyers I have to write a list, I always feel grown up when I am shopping with a grocery list, and yet, I don’t cook meals like a grown up, or at least I don’t think I do…

My mom can open a cupboard, glance at whatever is inside and boom! create a healthy meal. Just like that. No planning, no digging up a recipe, no googling for how to cook something, she just knows how. And has the creativity to see what various ingredients can become without freaking out and calling someone for help. I don’t know how she does it. I know every food item that is in my kitchen because I buy a lot of the same things and if I buy something not on my normal list it is because I have a recipe I am going to try or because someone has convinced me I really can cook item X. Only very recently have I tried buying items I didn’t already have a plan for and what do you know, I either ask my friend whose a chef, call my mom in a mild panic or google.

I didn’t start checking flyers because of an article I read but after I read it it made sense. This article was about how the poor and the rich shop differently. They didn’t mean which store the two demographics frequented or brands of items they purchased. What they meant were the shopping habits.

People love a good deal no matter how much money they have. Everyone feels better about buying an item they need when it is on sale cause saving any amount of money is always nice. Unfortunately, not every item is on sale every time a person goes shopping and we’ve all been in the situation where something goes on sale that we bought a week or so prior so we don’t need it now but by the time we run out and need to purchase it again it may no longer be on sale. Sucks right?

Well according to this article, if let’s say the jumbo size package of toilet paper is on sale but the smaller size isn’t, someone with money who is shopping will be all “oh hey, the jumbo pack is on sale, I’ll buy it now even though I don’t need it cause it’s a good deal and I’ll need it eventually” a person with less disposable income will think something like this “sure the jumbo pack is on sale and will last longer but I’m tight on money so I’m buying the smaller package cause it is cheaper”.

Unfortunately, the smaller package will run out sooner, which means it will have to be replaced sooner and in the long run will end up costing the consumer more. It would have been the more financially sound move to buy the larger package that is on sale buuuuut if you only have $40 to do your shopping you don’t want to spend $10 on toilet paper when you still need to buy enough food to feed you and your family for the next week or two. Is this making sense?

That article got me thinking. There are a lot of times when I buy the smaller sized item for multiple reasons, (1) there is only me and buying jumbo or large sized packages of things often doesn’t make sense (2) I live in a super small apartment and don’t have a storage space so if I stock up on something I literally have nowhere to put it and (3) I often find myself trying to stretch my money to be able to afford rent, bills and food so while the larger package might be a better deal I just can’t afford the deal.

Flyers help me find the deals and capitalize on them. Go flyers! lol. I check out the flyers online after I have a rough idea of what I need to buy. I make a list for the first store of not only items I know I need/want but items I am close to running out of that have gone on sale or items that intrigue me and are cheap enough I might be able to afford trying them. Then I do the same for the second store. Then I cross check them and see if there are any items that are on sale at both stores and which has the better deal. This helps me plan my shopping in terms of what I get where, it also helps me see where I am saving money, helps me stock up on non-perishable items and helps me be a smarter shopper in the long run. I knew I was starting to get low on toilet paper so I kept an eye out and what do you know, both stores had the same type on sale this week. If it is on sale this week it won’t be on sale next week and if I wait until next week then I’ll have to buy it no matter what, whether it’s on sale or not. So sure, I used money from this pay cheque to buy something I don’t technically need right now, I got it for cheaper than if I had waited till I needed it sooooo in the end I saved money.

Does any of this make any sense? Or are you all just going “omg it took you this long to figure this out? the rest of the world has known this for freakin ever!”

This isn’t a completely new mindset for me, but it’s the first time I have had it so solidly figured out in my head and actually plan my shopping based on it. Make fun of me if you will, I am enjoying my little bit of new knowledge, it’s making me feel a tad more grown up…now if only I could figure out how to cook like my mom! 😉

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Stir Fry Sunday: A Gifted Sauce

18 Feb

2014-02-17 18.02.05I was talking stir fry with a friend of mine on Sunday while I was at work and sauces came up. She vocalized the crazy assumption she had made about my weekly stir fry dinners by saying something about my home made sauces. I looked at her like she was nuts and said “What? Made the sauce? Do you not realize who you’re talking too? I’m the girl who only figured out a month ago how to cook raw chicken. And who did a happy dance at figuring out how to hard boil an egg…remember??” To which she started laughing, made a “oh yeah!” face and then wondered where I get my sauces from. I told her all my sauces come from the same place, the Asian Food Aisle at the grocery store. She started laughing again. Apparently that is funny? *confused face*

Then she walks in to the fridge (I should point out she is a chef, we were in a professional kitchen so the fridge is massive, seriously, it could fit a bed), comes out with a container and says she is giving me some of what is inside. Turns out one of the other chefs had made a ginger and orange sauce that she figured would be good with stir fry.

Sauce…not from a jar…ok, I’m game! 🙂

It was quite tasty, though a tad strong, I blame that on my using too much of it lol.

So my stir fry last Sunday (I’m writing this on Tuesday, I’m such a slacker! 😛 ) was shrimp with a mixture of traditional stir fry veggies and mediterranean veggies with the ginger & orange sauce on top of brown rice. Mmm!

Using the home made sauce made me think I should look in to learning how to make my own sauces. I’ve been reading up on it a bit and apparently a good stir fry sauce is all about the spices used, that and an apparent magic touch lol I can’t afford to go buying a whole bunch of new ingredients right now but it’s something I’ll keep in mind for a future hobby…making sauces…can’t be any weirder of a hobby than whatever other people do, maybe lol 😉

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30 Day Challenge Confirmed

13 Feb

It seems that I am taking part in the 30 Day Squat Circuit Challenge…I’m still mildly confused by this even though it was my decision to do it lol

I'm doing this??

I’m doing this??

I did the first day thinking something along the lines of “I can do this but it doesn’t really mean anything…I can still not do the challenge…” then I did day two and three and well, it seems I’m committed now lol. 😛

I’m glad I’m doing this challenge, it’ll be good for me, and will hopefully push me to get to the gym more often, and the mountain! We got some fresh snow the other day up on the mountain so guess whose hoping to go snowshoeing tomorrow? If you guessed me you’d be riiiiight! 😀

Today was spent with my lil sis at the gym working with a trainer. He focused on showing us solid, full body moves that we can do in gyms or at home (so we have no excuse to not work out lol) and I felt like I got a good workout. Not as good of a workout as it could have been but that was because it was a learning workout so there were more pauses than there normally would be as he explained things, or corrected form or took pictures. Yes, took pictures, weird huh? He took pictures of us doing various exercises that he will email us so we will remember what the proper form looks like for various exercises. Smart man.

He also gave us a suggestion for a workout to do together next week (this week was our last session with him, sadness), he suggested we do the Widow Maker. Neither of us had heard of it, it is basically a freakin huuuuuge outdoor staircase that equals to 12-13 flights of stairs. Huh. We promised we’d do it next wednesday and have also promised to email him to let him know we did it so we really do have to do this thing, we’re accountable to the man…I think that was his sneaky plan to make sure we kept working out…

He also suggested we go back in 3-4 months and have another fitness evaluation so we can see how far we’ve come (this is of course assuming we get better and not worse lol). I think it’s a great idea! My lil sis wasn’t quite as excited at the idea but maybe she’ll warm to it…I was hoping to magically find the money to be able to meet with a trainer from there every three weeks or so, to help me stay on track, learn new things, and to eventually re-evaluate my fitness levels. I can’t sign up with the trainer we’ve been working with cause he charges $75/hour and you have to book minimum 2 sessions per week with him, eek! Sooooo can’t afford that! He said other trainers there charge $65/hour and don’t have minimum amounts you have to work with them. I’d rather stay with him cause I’ve been working with him but I’m sure the others are just as good. However, I have decided I can’t afford the expense, boo! But am more than willing to take up his offer of another fitness evaluation in 4 months time. This will give me something to work towards and motivation is always a welcome thing in my world lol

I find I have a tendency to lose motivation, I still have all the reasons I have always had to get in shape buuuuuut my laziness takes over and I forget in the moment why I should work out instead of go to a movie with a friend, oops? lol Adding another reason for why I should work out is good, but what will make the difference is that he will be seeing me in a relatively short amount of time and I want to be able to show him I’ve gotten better, not stayed the same or gotten worse. I think knowing I will be tested will help me to not eat the bad-for-me-food and will also help me get out there and exercise. *crosses fingers*

Oh, and don’t forget that 8km I signed up for…I should really start training for that soon…maybe that should be my motivation? 😉

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A New Fruit, A New Chocolate

11 Feb

I got given a new-to-me fruit today, I thiiiink it’s a papaya?

What are youuuuuu?

What are youuuuuu?

Luckily I was given instructions on what to do with it, I was told to peel it, cut it in half, scoop out all the black seeds, and enjoy. Sounds easy enough right?

And guess what? It really was easy lol

The poor fruit had an unfortunately hard ride home in my purse so there were some super soft spots but hey, it happens, shrug. I used a carrot peeler, for some reason I was expecting the skin to be thick like an orange but it wasn’t, it was thin and really easy to peel.

The flesh was firm on the outer parts, the parts that were right under the skin but the farther inside you go the softer the fruit. I didn’t handle it very gently so it kinda turned partially mushy by the time I put it in the bowl, hence the unattractive picture below…

not the prettiest looking food...

not the prettiest looking food…

I’m not sure if I like it or not lol At first I was all “hmm, ok, it’s alright” but the more I ate the less I enjoyed it. I also got a tummy ache out of the blue, not sure if it was from the fruit or not but the pain coinciding with the eating of the fruit makes me suspicious. I ate a little under half of it and then quit it. I’m tempted to chop it smaller and put it in oatmeal tomorrow for breakfast, maybe it’ll be better then…or maybe it’ll ruin the oatmeal? Oh the horrors! lol 😛

I also tried a new hot chocolate this evening and Mmm! Mmm! Mmm! 😀

My Uncle (who is all kinds of awesome!) sends me various goodies from England. He knows I am trying to lose weight, actually, I don’t know if he does know that…but he knows I like Weight Watcher products and that every other country in the freakin world has a wider variety of Weight Watcher foods than Canada. sigh. What’s with that??

Anyways!

He sends me these great hot chocolate packages and this evening I tried a new one, it is Caribbean Coconut and holy cannoli did it smell delish right from when the water hit the powder!

2014-02-10 16.04.50

 

It had a subtle coconut flavour, oddly enough the coconut smell was stronger than the taste but that’s ok cause the taste was still good. They have an orange chocolate that is da bomb! I only have one of those left so I am holding off on drinking it cause once it is gone it won’t be replaced soon and that is all kinds of sadness. 😛 The packages are small, and I like my hot chocolate to be strong so I either use one package and only half a cup of hot water or two packages and a full cup of hot water. This evening I did two packages, to be honest I usually go the two packages route, I mean c’mon, who wants half a cup of hot chocolate? Not me!

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Stir Fry Sunday: A Cancelled Guest

10 Feb

I had a friend coming over Sunday evening, I warned her Sunday is Stir Fry Sunday in my world so if she came over at dinner time the food I would be offering her would be stir fry. She was cool with this so yay! Or not yay? Gotta say, I was pretty much instantly worried that (1) I would kill her with food poisoning or (2) it would suck and I’d be feeding her something disgusting. Neither was really something I wanted to happen so I almost chickened out and suggested the veggie soup I made but then I decided to suck it up and make the stir fry.

Turns out she had to cancel so I was making the stir fry just for me, which while it sucked she couldn’t make it I’m not gonna lie, I was a bit relieved I wouldn’t be potentially poisoning my friend. I mean c’mon, I like her, I don’t wanna make her sick! lol

This weeks stir fry wasn’t all that exciting, and yet it was tasty. 🙂

It had chicken that had been marinating overnight in a tangy Thai sauce, Mmm!

2014-02-09 19.49.13

I was short of cash so the only fresh veggies in the stir fry were sliced mushrooms. The rest of the veggies were frozen Europe’s Best Imperial Blend, which is a mixture of edamame kernels, snow peas, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, carrots and red peppers. I also added some grilled red and yellow peppers, the combo was quite good though I would have liked more water chestnuts.

2014-02-09 19.49.20

topped with peanuts of course

topped with peanuts of course

I cooked some brown rice, added a bit more of the Thai sauce once the veggies were cooked then topped with peanuts cause I like peanuts in stir fry, and if that isn’t the perfect reason to put them in there then I don’t know what is lol. 😛

I’m getting better at knowing how much to make. What you see in the pan was split in two, I had half Sunday for dinner then the other half was my lunch Monday. When I ate it Sunday it was perfect but when I warmed it up Monday at work the chicken was a bit dry. The flavouring was still really good but yeah, the chicken was a bit dry and chewy…I don’t know if that means I overcooked the chicken or if that is just because of heating it in the microwave. Anyone know?

For dessert I had a mini Panettone, quite possibly the cutest thing ever! lol I love Panettone but they are always so huuuuge that I don’t buy one for myself when they come out at Christmas time but from work I got this mini one. Turns out the mini one is better than the large ones I have had in the past. It was more moist (generally I find them a bit too dry), was just the right size so I didn’t have to worry about weeks of eating the same thing everyday or freezing it and it was cute. Hey, there is something to be said for enjoying what your food looks like lol

Look how cute and adorable!

Look how cute and adorable!

So there we have it, one more successful Stir Fry Sunday, wOOt! wOOt! 😀

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Words I Don’t Like

4 Feb

Sepsis.

Blood work.

Urine testing.

X-ray.

Fluid in the joint.

Specialist.

Urgent.

Inflammation.

Fever.

ER.

.

.

.

There are a lot more words I don’t like but those ones in particular, being used in a convo with me, in regards to my hip, well lets just say those words are my current most hated words.

I had my doc appointment today to learn the results of my CT scan, the results aren’t exactly awesome. I’m not dying, so that’s good but I have to go for more blood work, rushed blood work, and I have a rushed referral to a specialist whose title I can’t recall right now and if my hip gets red, warm to the touch, more painful (or a bunch of other things) I am to immediately go to the ER and tell them I have fluid in my hip and two calcifications or bone chips (or something that reads like those) in the joint and well, presumably they will know what to do. Eesh. This is all becoming a tad overwhelming.

I appear to be a bit of an anomaly, apparently the fluid in my hip usually indicates an infection but I don’t have a fever nor have I had a fever recently so it seems unlikely I have an infection…I’m confusing the doc lol

It was explained to me that I have two, let’s call them calcifications, in my hip joint, they aren’t sure if I was born with them or if my hip underwent a trauma that caused them, but either way, I have them and they are causing the pain and that is causing the fluid in the joint and the infection that isn’t an infection. Oh, and I have a cyst but that appears to be unrelated, it just happened to show up on the CT scan. Lovely.

I’m wondering if I forgot anything but I don’t think I did…as if all that isn’t enough? *rolls eyes*

I’ve calmed down since I’ve been home, I’m not freaking out nearly as much as I was before. I’m in a tests-are-being-done, specialists-are-being-called, steps-are-being-taken so why worry frame of mind. It’ll get sorted and no point in freaking out about it. Right? Right!

So after the appointment I went grocery shopping, dropped a tonne of money (ugh, poor bank balance) but I stocked up on frozen foods that were on sale aaaaaaand I bought the ingredients for the Weight Watcher’s veggie soup (the recipe is above under the Recipes Page) and that is what I did when I got home. I made a huuuuge batch of veggie soup, most of which I will freeze in individually portioned out sizes but some I will keep in the fridge to eat this week. Not to be tooting my own horn but I make a pretty good veggie soup so I’m looking forward to eating it. 🙂 😛

how veggies become soup!

how veggies become soup!

The finished product - veggie soup!

The finished product – veggie soup!

 

Tonight however I googled how to bake a potato in the oven (turns out it is really easy but takes a while), when it was cooked I split it open, put some marble cheese on it, waited for it to melt then topped the whole thing with maple flavoured baked beans, Mmm! It’s a comfort food dish I don’t eat often but I guess I’m a bit more thrown by what the doc said then I want to fully acknowledge and I ended up with comfort food for dinner. *rolls eyes* Oh well, not like it’s gonna kill me! 😛

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