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That Consumer

20 Jan

So apparently I am that consumer, you know, the one that calls stores and complains about something.

Ugh. I hate the idea that I am that person and yet…I did it, and I would do it again lol

The other day I went to Costco, you know Costco, the store that convinces you buying everything in bulk quantities is a great idea, even if it means you’ll be eating the same thing every day for a week just so you can finish it up before it goes bad.

I sound like I don’t like Costco when in fact I love Costco lol

Anyways!

I was at Costco and one of the things I bought was Diet Coke, which to me is a requirement for living a happy life. A case of Diet Coke at Costco has 32 cans of pop in it, yay!

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So, I get home and start putting the cans of pop in the fridge. Because of the size of the packaging I take the cans out of the main package and put them loose in the fridge. Normally I put a couple cans in the fridge and as I drink one I put a new can in but this time I decided to put them all in, that way the room temp cans aren’t taking up valuable floor space.

Well, turns out I was missing a can. Sadness! No way was I attempting to get the cans back in the packaging and carting them back to the store but…I didn’t want to be shorted a can of pop.

Which is how I became that consumer. The one who called customer service, told them what happened, and just by being on the phone with them was obviously expecting a solution to the problem that would not inconvenience me lol

The lady I spoke to was entertaining, and didn’t make me feel like an idiot for calling about such a thing, which was nice. I told her I couldn’t get back there until Sunday so they have a can of Diet Coke waiting for me at customer service that I can pick up this Sunday after work.

I’m sure she was rolling her eyes at having to put one can of Diet Coke to the side for me but I kinda don’t care…I paid for that can of pop so I want it…obviously. lol

The whole thing is ridiculous, and I think in the past I would have just shrugged and figured oh well, but I am on a strict budget this year and every penny counts…can I still say that or should the expression change to “every nickel” since we don’t use pennies anymore?…hmm, something to ponder…but yeah, I’m being super strict with money this year and apparently that also covers something as silly as a single missing can of Diet Coke.

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Kodiak Cakes

7 Jan

Oh Kodiak Cakes, how I will miss you!

Kodiak Cakes, in case you don’t know, are a high protein pancake / waffle mix that make a pretty decent pancake. I don’t have a waffle maker so I can’t say from actual experience how the waffles made with this mix are but I’m sure they are also good.

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An Aunt Jemima pancake they are not! Don’t be tricked in to thinking they will be just like the pancakes you get from iHop or that you ate growing up as a kid, before we all got convinced white flour is devil food and never to be touched *rolls eyes*

Despite not being like a “real” pancake, they are good, and a less guilty indulgence on a lazy morning day when you have time and the inclination to whip up some pancake goodness.

Sadly though, I ate my last Kodiak Cake today and will not be buying more. Not because I don’t want to be buying more, but because Costco has stopped carrying them (meanies!) and the closest place to me to buy them is a Safeway that is an hours drive across the border into the States. sigh.

Every time I am in Costco I ask if they have them back yet, maybe nagging them will change their minds?

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Kodiak Cakes covered in PB2, Mmm!

So there they are, my last two Kodiak Cakes, I savoured every bite, *wistful sigh* Oh, and no, I don’t eat them with syrup, I regret to inform you I stopped eating syrup due to the high sugar content, ugh, who have I become? 😉 Instead I took two tablespoons of PB2 powder, added water, made it pretty close to peanut butter consistency and spread it on the Kodiak Cakes when they were still hot. It actually tastes good despite my being all whiny that I no longer eat syrup lol I use PB2 on a lot of things, quite the useful little food!

If you live somewhere that still has access to Kodiak Cakes I highly recommend giving them a try, and hey, if you end up not liking them send the rest of the mix to me, I’ll eat it! 😉 lol

(fyi, that is a joke! )

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Day 2 of 12

21 Dec

Alrighty peeps, it is Day 2 of the 12 Days of Fitness and I’m sure everyone has been active today, right? Right!

I was up earlier than any human being should be when on vacation but that is what happens when you are staying with parents who wake up early…and when you are going to a morning WW meeting lol

Today was a happy day, went to my meeting, down a pound, entered a new weight decade, out for brunch with the parents, ate a delish meal at Cora’s. It was a random mixture of healthy and non-healthy foods, as most meals out are.

I got Theo’s Omelette which is an omelette filled with oh so many vegetables, covered in cheese, and served with a side of potatoes, fresh fruit, and toast. I asked them to make the omelette with half the normal amount of cheese because restaurants always seem to drown food in cheese and I think it came out with a pretty decent amount.

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After brunch it was errand time, borrowed my Dad’s car for a while and bonus points for me, I returned it in the same condition it was in when I left the driveway. 🙂

This evening after dinner I realized that even though I had parked far away and walked when going to all the shops I hadn’t really done anything worthy of being called exercise so I grabbed one of the exercise dvd’s I brought and started working out.

Tonight I did the 5 Mile Walk dvd by Leslie Sansone, it is a “walk at home” dvd which means you are walking on the spot, or forwards and backwards, or side to side, in random combinations and taking her word for it that eventually you have walked 5 miles. I tend to jog for large parts of it, and incorporate more arm work, so I get a better work out.

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The woman, Leslie, is so annoying, ugh. But she keeps you moving which is the important part. Normally I play the dvd on my laptop with the volume down low and watch something on tv while walking but my mom joined me this evening so we kept the volume up high and we kept being told to “walk! walk! walk!” lol  😀

My fear that I would fail this challenge by Day 2 has been relieved. Now on to figure out where to fit something in on Day 3!

Did you work out today?

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Preparing for Snowmaggedon

8 Dec

Apparently we are about to be hit by snowmaggedon which of course means the stores were full of people today…buying Christmas present lol

Depending which weather report you believe the snow is going to start within the hour, continue on all night and tomorrow, be combined with strong winds, which will create white out conditions and basically tomorrow will be ridiculous.

The other main weather report says it will start snowing around 2am, snow throughout the day Friday, and then turn in to freezing rain around 2pm.

Gotta say, if I have to choose between white out snow conditions or freezing rain I choose white out.

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Either way, it is looking like there is going to be a lot of snow to deal with. What comes along with snow? Power outages. Crazy driving conditions. Restricted body movement because of wearing so many clothing layers. Ya know, normal winter stuff. 😉

So, in preparation for possibly losing power in my place I stocked up on food, in a sense. I bought a foot long sub from Subway, got them to cut it in half, and saved half for tomorrow.

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One for today, one for tomorrow.

Look how organized and in planning mode I am! Seriously, it is a wonder I have survived in Canada this long lol

Last time I lost power I went to Tim Horton’s, ordered a tea for my travel mug so it would stay hot longer, a tea in one of their to-go cups, a sandwich and I believe I even got a doughnut. Then I hunkered down in the apartment with a throw blanket, the cat, a flashlight that I borrowed from my landlord and a book.

This time I at least got some ready to eat food in advance!

I still haven’t gotten a flashlight though…

 

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Dinner and a Movie

7 Dec

A friend and I met up tonight for, in case you didn’t guess from the title, dinner and a movie.

We went to a place called Raglan’s Bistro on Lonsdale and had a pretty decent dinner. Normally I rave about places I eat at, and there was nothing actually wrong with what I ate, but it wasn’t oh-my-gawd-you-must-go-there-right-now-and-eat kind of a meal. It was a good food, decent price, left with a full belly kind of meal.

I checked out their menu before we went but ended up changing my mind on the advice of the waitress so instead of the Vegetarian Burrito I got the Quesadilla el Vegetal (vegetarian quesadilla), it had zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, mushrooms and mozzarella with salsa, chipotle sour cream and a green salad, for $13. I was trying to be good so I asked for it to be made with half the normal amount of cheese. It was still good, despite having noticeably less cheese, kind of proving that restaurants put way too much cheese on in the first place…at least proving it to me lol2016-12-08-01-56-15

We split an appie, Coconut Prawns, Mmm! The waitress forgot to put in the order so when our main course came first and we asked about the shrimp the look of confusion on the guy who brought our meal was real. They did a rush order for us so it all turned out ok in the end. 🙂

For the movie we went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and holy crap that movie was good! How does JK Rowling come up with this stuff? Her imagination is a wonderous thing. 😀

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The movie theatre, for reasons not explained, was super cold so we ended up not only wearing our winter jackets while watching the movie but also putting on gloves and my friend put on her toque lol I would’ve put my hood up but I’m vain and didn’t want to mess my hair lol  😉

We decided this year to not exchange Christmas presents, instead we are waiting until the New Year and going to have ourselves a day trip adventure, yay!

She however did not forget my birthday, which oddly enough, I kind of had lol She bought me such a pretty ornament, the picture doesn’t do it justice! She also got me the best socks, I have started collecting funny / odd / unique socks and these totally fit the bill. 🙂

It was a fun night, totally worth freezing my ass off if I get to spend time with her. 🙂

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12 Days of Christmas Fitness Challenge

7 Dec

Tis the month to gain ridiculous amounts of weight super fast if not careful! With so many social gatherings, and treats, and just general feelings of wanting to eat alllll the food this month it can be easy to wake up January 1st and realize your jeans aren’t fitting quite as well anymore.

I so don’t want that to happen to me!

Yes I know that being healthy is 80% what you eat and only 20% exercise but let’s be real here people, there will be food aplenty all over the place and I am sure I will end up eating more than planned.

So the idea is to help minimize some of the food damage I will end up doing by ensuring I stay active this month.

Here is the plan…

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The challenge begins December 20th and goes to December 31st. You don’t have to be out there running marathons, or making massive gains at the gym, I’m not looking for crazy changes in fitness activity. All I’m looking for is fitting exercise in to the daily routine over those days when so many of us skip exercising.

Just because there are a million and one things to do over the season doesn’t mean we should stop finding time each day to take care of ourselves. How else do you expect to enter 2017 feeling your best if you load up on food in this last month and don’t at least try to burn some of it off?

Some ideas for exercise could be:

  • a walk around the block
  • mall walking if you are somewhere cold
  • during the commercials do some squats, or sit-ups, or planks, or push-ups, or whatever you are able to do
  • take the stairs instead of elevators
  • park far away from the doors of the places you are going
  • snowball fight! build a snow fort! basically anything with snow!
  • pop in an exercise dvd
  • play tag with your kids, or nieces and nephews, or your friend’s kids

You get the idea!

So who is with me? Who is willing to try reeeeally hard to make the time everyday, for 12 days, over the busiest time of the year, to be good to ourselves and fit some exercise in to our days?

C’mon, you know you want to!

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Advent Calendar Time!

1 Dec

Woohoo! December 1st! Know what that means? I can finally crack open the advent calendar, yay! 😀

A piece of Lindt chocolate a day for 24 days? Yes please!

Never have I eaten a piece of chocolate soooooo slowly but I wanted to savour the taste lol That chocolate ball was so creamy and perfect. 😀

I’m thinking this piece of chocolate a day idea is going to make my tastebuds (and by extension, me!) very happy!

Enjoy your December!

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Late Night Baking

11 Nov

Most people, when they notice it is 12:30am think, “hmm, maybe I should go to bed” I noticed it was 12:30am and thought “hmm, maybe I’ll try out that new recipe I’ve been staring at”.

Which is why, at 1:15am I was comfortably seated in the living room with a cup of tea and two muffins fresh from the oven. Mmm! 😀

Now, before anyone thinks I am claiming this recipe as my own, this is NOT my recipe! It is from the website http://www.drizzlemeskinny.com so go there to see it in full. 🙂

The recipe I tried out is Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Muffins. Quite the mouthful to say! lol

These are a Weight Watcher friendly recipe, each muffin is 3SP. For those not on Weight Watchers, each muffin has a breakdown of:

Calories 103, Fat 3.9g, Sat Fat 1.2g, Carbs 14g, Fiber 1.8g, Sugar 3.4g, and Protein 3.8g

It is important to note that nutritional information doesn’t include the bananas – don’t ask why, its a Weight Watchers thing lol 😛

The muffins have egg, egg whites, brown sugar, plain greek yoghurt, mashed banana, light peanut butter, vanilla, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and mini chocolate chips.

I made some minor changes, of course! lol I used PB2 instead of real peanut butter. I also took regular chocolate chips and chopped them down instead of buying mini chocolate chips, that is mostly because I am cheap and didn’t want to buy mini chocolate chips when I had perfectly good regular sized ones in my pantry lol. I used a mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate chips because in my opinion the mixture of the two tastes better than using just one.

Oh, one other thing I did differently, but by accident, I kinda, sorta, forgot to put the vanilla in. Oops!

I don’t usually make mistakes when baking so I’m kinda shocked I forgot the vanilla…guess that is what happens when I bake at 12:30 in the morning…though I’ve done that plenty of times so I guess it isn’t really an excuse…*rolls eyes*

The strongest flavour is the chocolate, so if you like chocolate you’ll probably like these. The texture is more moist than what I am used to with muffins, not in a bad way, just something to get used to. I think if I make them again I would keep them in the oven an extra minute or two, or put in a bit more oatmeal or use slightly smaller bananas, to make them a little less moist. It is all about tweaking, so it is an easy fix, just fiddle till the batter seems right. 🙂

Enjoy!

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yes those are halloween muffin papers, don’t judge! and of course the pic isn’t in focus, sigh.

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Washington DC Memorials

21 Oct

Couple weeks ago a friend and I went to Washington DC for a short, fun-filled, trip. I wanted to post about it as soon as I was home but I came home ridiculously sick and just wasn’t up to it. Lucky for you (assuming you like what I write that is) I am now feeling well enough to regale you with stories and pictures from the trip. So grab a cup of tea, get comfy, and be prepared for I’d say 2 to 3 posts in a row about Washington DC! 🙂

My friend was travelling from Alberta, I was leaving from BC, we met in Montreal and then had the same flight to DC. I had an early flight but not disgustingly early, I did however have a lovely nap on the plane, yay for sleeping while someone else transports me somewhere! Sadly, they don’t feed you on flights across the country so all I got on the plane was tea, *big epic sigh* I made sure to take snacks with me though because heaven forbid I not have food at my fingertips! 😉 I bought the overpriced fruit salad while in the airport along with a hummus and crackers, both were tasty and I gotta say, I think the fruit was a brilliant idea because it not only filled me up but helped me to stay hydrated, something I always find a challenge when flying.

I got to Montreal first and while walking down this long, practically empty, slightly creepy hallway, on the way to the border guards I came across this piece of art…

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Random moose sculpture…

Once I met up with Nic in Montreal we headed to our next flight which was in a little plane and had not only no food but no entertainment…practically barbaric!

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No tv! No wifi! The horrors!

Lucky for me I always take a book when travelling. 🙂

We didn’t do too much that first night. Grabbed an Uber from the airport to take us to the hotel, settle in, took a walk to a local pub where I ordered this yummy meal…

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Meal Number 1! Chicken burger with fries.

There were no obviously healthy options on the pub menu and nowhere else to go try out so I figured roll with the punches and get something ridiculously tasty lol It is a battered chicken burger with cheese and a sauce I can’t remember the details about and sooooo many fries. It was freakishly good! I cut the burger in half and split the fries in half. I ate half of each and boxed the rest. I had every intention of finding another day to eat the remaining half but every time I thought of it I figured I could find something healthier to get so I never did go back and finish off the burger and fries. I really hope housekeeping cleaned out our room’s fridge…

Our first full day of being in Washington DC was full of all the touristy stuff! 🙂

We had decided to walk to as many places as we could which meant an approx 40 minute walk from our hotel to just about anywhere. This made me super happy as my hope was all the walking would help offset the food I would be eating lol We had time to kill before a walking tour we were taking at 2pm so we wandered with the ultimate goal of going past the White House. Turns out every building in DC is large and old and important looking so we passed quite a few that we tried to figure out what it was and if we should be taking a picture of it or not lol

There were statues everywhere!

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Random building I liked the look of.

Some more statues…

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Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building

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Front of the White House

So funny story…Nic and I are walking past this building, see all the fences and guards and people taking pictures, we look at each other and ask “what is this?” Turns out this is the front of the White House! We had only seen the White House via pictures or shots in movies and they always showed what we thought was the front but turns out it is actually the back. So this is the front…kinda boring…the back is way nicer!

There were Secret Service allllll over the place but mostly around the White House – obviously. The guard in the above picture isn’t so hard on the eyes 😉 hence my taking a picture at that particular spot lol

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Part of the line up of people waiting to get in to the White House garden tour.

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The view of the White House I am used to seeing…

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So close and yet so far from President Obama!

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It appears to be a golden sword on fire…

The above is the Washington Monument, built to honour George Washington, the US’s first President. It is a 555 foot marble obelisk that you used to be able to go up (there is an elevator and stairs inside) but people aren’t allowed inside anymore. If you look closely you can see where the marble changes colour partway up…they got the monument partially built then had to pause for war an stuff, by the time they got around to finishing it the quarry they originally got the marble from was empty so they had to source marble from somewhere else and the colour is a bit different. Apparently when they started using the new marble they thought the colours matched but as the monument was exposed to the elements it became more apparent they were different.

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There is a whole story behind the KillRoy part of the monument but it is too long to put here so go google it, trust me, it is interesting and worth the search! 

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Vietnam Memorial…

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The Three Soldiers Statue at the Vietnam Memorial

Good ol’ honest Abe…do you see how his hands are loosely signing “AL”in American Sign Language?

The Korean War Memorial…once you enter the area there is always a statue that is watching you…instead of writing all the names like in the Vietnam Memorial they put the images of actual people who were involved in the Korean War on the wall.  Rumour has it Alan Alda’s face is on there somewhere (that’s the actor from the tv show MASH), I didn’t see it but there are so many faces on the wall it’d be super easy to miss if you didn’t know exactly where to look.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial…

So that wraps up Day 1! I have waaaaaay more pictures and stories from this day but this post is already freakishly long and it has taken hours to get the pictures to upload and I wanna go to bed lol

More tomorrow! 🙂

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Giant Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream Bar

20 Oct

Oh boy, happy find! When I was in the states yesterday I was looking for an ice cream I was told was a “must buy!” – it is called Arctic Zero and is apparently amazeballs. I didn’t find it but while perusing the ice cream aisle I came across this…

*happy dance*

How can a girl go wrong with a chocolate fudge ice cream bar?

Well lemme tell ya, a girl can’t! 😀

It comes in this giant size and a snack size. The giant size is 4 SP and the snack size is 2 SP. I thought briefly for like, 10 seconds, about which size to get but really, was there ever a doubt I was going to get the giant size? In case you don’t realize, there was never a doubt… 😉

When I opened the box and grabbed one last night I realized it isn’t some crazy giant size, it is only giant in the world of Weight Watchers lol It is a normal sized ice cream bar but is somehow only 4 SP, how that is possible I do not know, nor do I care. All that I care is that it tastes yummy and is a size that doesn’t leave me feeling deprived.

It has a whipped texture and isn’t as dense as other ice cream bars which means it also melts faster so there is definitely no chance to eat it super slow and linger over it but if that is the sacrifice I have to make I will gladly make it.

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All in all I count this as a win – doubly so since it was on sale! 🙂 I haven’t seen these in Canada, the States and England always seem to have waaaay more WW food options than us so these will definitely be a rare and happy treat.

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