Race Day: DZ 500m

7 Jun

This weekend is the DZ 500m Dragon Boat Race Festival! 🙂

My team. :) We didn't all realize there was a camera looking at us lol

My team. 🙂 We didn’t all realize there was a camera looking at us lol

It is a two day event but each team races for only one day, there are three races per team per day. In the grand scheme of things it is a fairly small festival, mostly used as a qualifier for the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival (the largest North American dragon boat festival). It’s a good festival to gauge where your team is in comparison to other teams, and a great chance to see how your team does in a 500m race since you most likely haven’t competed in a 500m race since last season.

Racing during practice, either against a stop watch or other teams that are on the water practicing is a completely different thing than racing in festival, obviously lol.

We had an early start, we met at 8am and our first race was scheduled for around 9:30am…I think…I know it was around there but these things almost never run on schedule lol When we were getting ready for warm-up we were told they (the race officials) were running behind then in an almost magical turn around they were running early *rolls eyes* Ah well, keeps things interesting! 😛

We had excellent race times for all three races! 🙂 Yay!

First Race: 2:15

Second Race: 2:14

Third Race: 2:11

wOOt! wOOt!

Even though we are racing against other teams we are also racing against ourselves, we always want to do better than our previous race and we are oh-so-happy that we got faster with each race!

Plus! Not only did our times get better with each race we came in first place in our division! FIRST PLACE! *happy dance*

This is an excellent way to be heading in to our next race festival and talk about a boost to team morale, what a truly awesome way to start the race season!

Oh and on a vain note, we have new jerseys this year and we all looked amazing! 🙂 Last year we kept having jersey issues and we ended up going the whole season without a jersey, it was really nice to actually look like a competitive team this year lol One of my teammates designed the jersey and wow did he make them look sweeeeet! I didn’t take any pictures during the day, our races were back-to-back so there was no time during the day and afterwards when we were hanging out it didn’t really cross my mind but next festival there will be more time between races and we’ll probably take a team photo so I’ll post one then so you can see the jerseys, we all love em! 🙂

I’ve been pretty good about eating healthy today, well, except for a cookie I had earlier after our third race as celebration for doing so well lol Yeah yeah, I know! I shouldn’t celebrate with food but those cookies were staring at me all day and I’d just done three races, gimme a break lol 😛 Other than that cookie I did ok, oatmeal, banana, babybell cheese, salad, turkey bacon, egg, toast with peanut butter, tea, water…I think that’s all of it…that’s not sooooo bad, right? *nods head* Right!

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Admitting The Truth

6 Jun

I didn’t think I was that person who lost weight, then gained it back. After all, I’m nowhere near the size I was at the beginning of my weight loss journey buuuut…I’m also not the smallest I have been on this journey.

I haven’t wanted to admit this to myself, let alone to anyone else, but it is time I faced the truth…I rebounded a bit. Does this mean I am now a yo-yo dieter? I dunno. Does it mean I am doomed to gain back all the weight I lost? I dunno. Does this mean I am destined to gain and lose and gain and lose for the rest of my life? I don’t know that either…sigh.

Seems there is a lot I don’t know.

I know that I have to get back on track, but I feel lost and not sure how to do that. I keep thinking I am not going to go back to Weight Watchers because I plateaued so badly on that program. Don’t get me wrong, I am super grateful for Weight Watchers, I lost 35 pounds with them, I learned about proper portion sizes with them, I learned I can happily swap out junk food for fresh fruit and enjoy healthy eating but I also feel there are limitations to that program and that I outgrew it. I don’t feel like going back to Weight Watchers is the right choice for me but that doesn’t mean that I know what the right choice for me is.

I also know I am not good at extreme programs. I can only maintain eating paleo, or the bodybeach program, or super restrictive low calorie eating plans for so long before I cave. Even if I like the food and am getting good portion sizes it is more about all the foods I am not allowed to eat. Knowing that on an extreme program having even one spoonful of peanut butter could be considered cheating messes with me. I need a bit of wiggle room, space so I don’t get all down on myself when I step outside of the food rules that I am following.

I need something realistic, and affordable!

My scale has been tucked away for over a year and I am scared to pull it back out, I am scared to see what the number will be when I step on it. I’d rather be back in boxing class getting hit during sparring than stand on that scale again. How pathetic is that?? I originally put it away because I was building muscle and the scale number was no longer an accurate way to measure my progress. It was sloooowly going up as I was getting more trim and it was messing with my head. For so long I relied solely on the number it gave me every week to know if I was doing well and to see it go up, even though I knew it was because of muscle gain, made me feel like a failure. I started gauging my success/failure by other means, how my clothes fit, what size I could now buy, every now and then I would check my size with a measuring tape. For a while these methods of tracking worked but then they didn’t work so well anymore and I was left with no solid way to hold myself accountable.

I’m thinking that is around the time I started to slowly go up in size. For a while it was easy to ignore, my clothes still fit, just maybe a bit tighter, I could still reach the same levels at the gym, even though I wasn’t at the gym as often, I was eating roughly the same amount calorie wise but the calories were coming from more processed foods than fresh healthy foods.  The pounds snuck up on me and now I have to face reality that I have gone up an entire size, so that’s what, ten pounds? That’s depressing. All that work I did to lose weight and I have gone and gained some of it back. What was I thinking?! 

What’s twisted is that even with the weight gain I am more active then before, just in different ways. Instead of going to the gym daily I will swap out gym visits for a hike, or a run or my dragon boat practice. I am still active just not in a regimented gym equipment kind of way, and I guess the activities I am doing now aren’t as good for weight loss or weight maintenance as following a gym program is. Kinda sucks cause I enjoy the hikes an such but if I have to choose between enjoying the activity and getting results from the activity I will choose results every time…well, except for dragon boating, I will always choose dragon boating lol.

I don’t want to be writing this, I don’t want to be that person that gained weight back. But ya know, I follow a lot of other blogs that deal with weight loss, healthy lifestyles etc and I’ve noticed over the years I don’t seem to be the only one this happens to. It seems a lot of people, before they reach their goal weight have a slip up and gain some of the weight back. Most take a while to admit it to themselves and the longer you take to admit it the more weight you have gained back. I know with me part of it was the way I was thinking about food, I started getting cocky, thinking I didn’t have to be as strict cause I’d lost so much, I could let down my guard a bit. Well, proved that idea wrong! I let down my guard and look what happened! 😛

Even though I’m feeling down because I am facing the truth about my weight gain I am glad I am facing this truth now rather than a couple more months down the road when I will have possibly gained back even more weight.

I don’t have a solution for this, I wish I was concluding this post with some great awesome plan that would get me back on track but I don’t have one…yet! For now I am going to aim to get a new battery for my scale (mine died) and I plan to stand on that scale Tuesday morning. I also have a 4 week eating plan that I am going to research a bit more, see if it is doable on my budget, and I am going to schedule exercise into my days instead of leaving it as an up-in-the-air thing that happens more sporadically then it should. Hopefully I can get myself back on track within 5 days or so and huh, look at that, I may not have a solution yet but it seems like I actually do have a bit of a plan, at least a plan in the making…I’ll cross my fingers it works!…Uh, anybody wanna step on that scale for me? 😉 lol

Must remember this

Must remember this

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The Chief

4 Jun

What did I do today? Oh, nothing much, just climbed a mountain…yup, re-read that, it’s ok if it takes a minute to sink in, it would take me a while to comprehend that about me also 😉 lol

Today a friend and I went and climbed to the first peak of The Chief which is a mountain about an hour outside of Vancouver, it is overlooking the town of Squamish BC. There are three peaks to the mountain, all three can be climbed in one day if you so desire, I did not lol. Or rather my cardio and knees did not desire that. 😛

It’s a beautiful climb, hard, but beautiful.

If you want to read all the facts from the official website for the mountain feel free to click on the following link http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/stawamus-chief/

According to my Runtastic App (of which I am still using the free version but am seriously considering for the first time ever paying for an app and getting the full version) we went a total of 10.33km and it took 3:30:39, we burned 1105 calories and had a 33 minute break at the top to have a snack, a rest and enjoy the view…oh and get to feed the most adorable chipmunks, everybody say awwwww! lol

I took some pics during the hike so sit back and enjoy the prettiness!

Shannon Falls

Shannon Falls

Ok, so Shannon Falls looks way better in person (obviously) but at least I tried to get a picture of it lol

One of the warning signs

One of the warning signs

This is more funny than anything else lol Sucks somebody vandalized it but I found the caution sign amusing. This sign is partway up the trail, past where the people who just wanted to see the falls will be, the sign says “The trail is NOT a “walk in the park”.” then goes on to list all the things that could go wrong, talks about some dangerous aspects of the trail and gives a list of things you should take with you. I am not sure why it doesn’t also mention the wild animals you could encounter…perhaps they didn’t want to overly scare tourists?

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I really like pictures of water, I find them soothing.

 

 

The below pictures are of ladders that are attached to the rock face in two different sections because without them it’d be freakin hard to get up the mountain. I was impressed with how sturdy they are, no wobbling or loose parts. Quite a relief when you consider where the ladders are placed lol

Ladder number one

Ladder number one

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Ladder number two

You can just barely see that at the top of the second ladder my friend is starting to climb on a steep section, she looks kind of funny because she was using a chain that is attached to the rock face, you basically straddle the chain, grab on to it for dear life and use it while climbing (and descending) because the rock face is so slippery you can’t make it safely up or down without something to anchor yourself to. It is really easy to do and kinda fun. 🙂 Those chains were set up in hmm, two sections? Maybe three, I can’t quite recall right now.

The next four pics are views from the first peak where my friend and I had a bit of a rest…

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And of course the day wouldn’t be complete if a cute animal didn’t make an appearance, this little guy and a friend kept darting in and out around where my friend and I were sitting. He was even brave enough to take some of my granola bar from my fingers. They were so cute I wished I could bring them home but of course I would never do that, they make out quite well up on the top of that peak getting food from most of the people that stop and have a snack, it’s like the mecca for little cute furry animals who can beg food from humans lol

I want one!

I want one!

This was the first time I got to use my water backpack and I really liked it. I sorta wish I’d bought one a little bigger but oh well. I’ll just have to be careful how I pack it when I go for large climbs. It held an apple, granola bar, energy gummies that I didn’t eat, sunscreen, the water bladder, ID, chapstick, phone, small package of kleenex…I think that’s about it, and it was packed. When I bought it it seemed large enough I’d be able to stuff a jacket in there but I’m just not sure I’ll be able to, I will have to see if there is some way to tuck the jacket under those stretchy ties on the front that will for sure secure the jacket and not let it slip out when I am climbing. I’ll figure it out eventually. 🙂

The day was fairly awesome, healthy breakfast, climbing with a friend, home to chill. I was a lot slower than my friend and I felt bad she kept having to wait for me to catch up, that doesn’t often happen to me and I didn’t like being the slow one in the pair, sigh. I think it was because it was a much steeper incline than I am used to, I hike that distance on different trails in a much shorter amount of time but on those trails the inclines are steep but for a shorter distance which is easier on my knees. I’ve been babying my knees since I got home to try to make sure they don’t give me trouble tomorrow, I’ll just have to wait till tomorrow to see if my babying worked! lol

All in all I’m glad we went and yay for getting to check off climbing the Chief from my list of things to do! 🙂

 

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That’s A Wrap!

31 May

This past Thursday I had the most amaaaaazing experience!

I shot my first…dun-dun-dun…commercial! 😀

<insert happy dance here>

I had the best time, I don’t have enough descriptive words in my vocabulary to properly describe how it was, think of every word that means amazing/stupendous/awesome/over-the-moon, string all those words together and that might come close to how much fun I had…maybe! lol

A paid acting job – can’t get better than that! 😀

It is a commercial for a local company and it is an online commercial so you won’t randomly come across it when watching tv but if I find a link for it once it is up online trust me when I say I will for sure share the link lol

The director and camera guy and sound guy and make-up lady and well, everybody that was there was nice, super friendly, gave me great feedback and was so much fun to work with! Couldn’t really have had a better time. 🙂

The commercial was set in a grocery store so that is where we filmed, first in the parking lot of a grocery store then when the shop was closed we were inside. Some random things I learned about grocery stores are:

– they never ever ever turn the music off

– the produce misters randomly mist during the night

– they are creepy when there is only a small group of you there and you know the store is closed

– the staff bathrooms are nasty

Some things I learned about myself after extended time in a grocery store:

– the longer I am standing in an aisle the more interesting the food in that aisle becomes

– I didn’t know you could buy iced tea in such large jugs

– it is instinct to want to reach out for items that are on sale so I can buy them, even though there is no staff to buy them from lol

We shot three different scenes, meant to take place on three different days, I am not sure if they will pick one they liked the best and use that for the commercial or if they are creating three separate commercials, that is not the type of information I am given. There were four actors total for this section of the commercial, there were others scenes being shot today that those of us that filmed in the grocery store won’t be in. I had to be on set for 5:30pm and be ready for filming by 6:30pm, that gave me enough time to do wardrobe and make-up and discuss with the director what I would be doing, oh, and also for meeting the other people I’d be in the scenes with. Some of the actors didn’t have to come till later in the day because the scenes with them in weren’t until later. I wrapped (that means I finished on set) a little after 4am, so a 10.5 hour shoot which is about right. It could have been a little shorter, well, a lot shorter I suppose, but after the sun was too low and we couldn’t film outside anymore we had to wait for the grocery store to close at 11pm before we could start setting up and filming inside. That gave us a nice break where we could get a hot drink, get fed (they feed you on set), hang out, do whatever. I didn’t go anywhere because I looked horrible lol My character is this really tired, defeated mom so my make-up was smudged and my hair was messy and my outfit was, um, not attractive lol Perfect for the character but nothing I’d want to go wandering around in…though I was quite comfy. 🙂

I got exceptionally awesome feedback from the director, he said I did a great job, he loved working with me, he said all kinds of good stuff but it’s rude to brag so I’ll stop with that lol

When it was all over I got home and arrived to this at my door…

large, pretty and nameless lol

large, pretty and nameless lol

They are from my landlord and his wife, they are from the garden. I don’t know what they are but they smell quite nice. I was reluctant to bring them in because the last time they gave me blooms from the garden there were ants in them and well, yuck! I carefully inspected these ones and they seem to be bug free, I’m hoping I didn’t miss the little buggers, I can’t abide insects in my place, *shudder*. Even though they weren’t left for me as a “good job” or “congrats” for the acting job I sort of pretended they were, well, for about a minute lol, then reality set in and I realized they wouldn’t remember that was the night I was filming and they were just being nice, shrug.

Oh and get this, as if getting to be on set wasn’t enough to make the day awesome prior to filming I had an audition, so it was a day filled with acting, acting and more acting! 😀 Oh how I wish all my days were like that, sigh.

I am determined that this is the beginning, the first noticeable step, from here on out it will be bigger and better and one day I’ll be making my living from acting, not just squeezing it in between day jobs!

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Food For A Friend

28 May

I don’t invite people in to my place often, the main reasons are:

(1) my cat doesn’t like people

(2) I only own one living room chair so that means only one person will get to sit comfortably

(3) I don’t own a table so there is nowhere to sit and eat

(4) my place is super small, having two people in it makes it feel crowded

(5) I am a sucky host

Despite all these reasons I decided to invite a friend of mine over for dinner, a dinner that I would be making!  I was happy with making the offer, even happier when she said yes but as the day of the dinner got closer I started to get a bit stressed. I was trying out two different recipes and I was freaking out about messing up and giving both of us food poisoning, or about the food tasting horrible and having to order emergency take out or about any other possible ways to screw it up that I hadn’t thought of yet lol.

I chose two random recipes from online, spoke to a chef friend of mine for some tips and explanations of things in the recipes that confused me, bought ingredients I would never normally buy and next thing I knew I was prepping food, in my kitchen, while listening to music, and kinda enjoying myself. Go figure.

I felt so domestic! 😛

The appetizer was Crusty Parmesan Herb Zucchini Bites. I rate them a 5 out of 5 for ease of making but I didn’t like them, my friend did though so I think it was just that I’m not a huge fan of rosemary but that’s in the recipe, a little less rosemary and I might like them better. Also, I kept them in the oven a bit too long so the cheese was browner than I cared for. shrug. Personal preferences, whatcha gonna do? 😛

washed, ends chopped off, halved, coated in oil

washed, ends chopped off, halved, coated in oil

drizzled balsamic vinegar

drizzled balsamic vinegar

mixture of parmesan cheese, rosemary and thyme

mixture of parmesan cheese, rosemary and thyme

cheese and herbs sprinkled on top

cheese and herbs sprinkled on top

I put the zucchini in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes, the last 5 minutes the broiler was on which was theoretically going to make the cheese a nice golden brown buuuuuut it turned out like this…

not quite how the picture with the recipe looked, sigh.

not quite how the picture with the recipe looked, sigh.

Like I said, I didn’t much care for them but if I try them again with different herbs I might. I normally love zucchini so despite this recipe not working out all that well I might try it again with different toppings, see how my tastebuds like it then. 🙂

The main course was a One Pan Pasta dish that I kept seeing floating around facebook. You put all the ingredients in the pot at the same time, add water, get it to a rolling boil, boil with occasional stirring for the length of time it takes to cook the pasta and boom! Pasta dish! It is really pretty looking at the beginning, at least I think so…what do you think?

See? Pretty!

See? Pretty!

There is whole wheat spaghetti pasta, washed and halved baby tomatoes, one thinly sliced red onion, salt, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Not shown is the 4 1/2 cups of water you add. Once it is all cooked according to the recipe there will be a small amount of water at the bottom of the pot which you shouldn’t worry about because it will thicken up in to a sauce. Um…hmm…small amount of water?? I don’t think so! More like whole whack load of water! I was worried I’d somehow screwed up since there was way more water than there was supposed to be but I used tongs to serve it and it was ok, actually better than ok, it was really good. I especially liked the addition of the red pepper flakes, they made quite the difference – in a good way! I also give this dish a 5 out of 5 for ease of making, there is a bit of prep work needed which to me seemed like a lot of work but that is probably because I never cook, I think compared to most recipes the level of prep work needed wasn’t that big of a deal.

The recipe said it would make 4 servings but it made way more than that…course most people eat larger portions that I do so that probably has something to do with it lol It would be a good dish to make then portion out in to servings and freeze for future meals, well, I think it would be, do baby tomatoes freeze ok? *confused face*

The final result was this…

not as pretty looking lol topped with parmesan cheese, Mmm!

not as pretty looking lol topped with parmesan cheese, Mmm!

Since I don’t own a table I put two tv tables against each other, kinda ghetto but hey, it worked lol The final look was…

my "table"

my “table”

My friend brought some fancy bread and she put together some balsamic vinegar and oil for dipping. The little mugs were filled with strawberry daiquiri , I don’t own glasses meant for alcoholic drinks either…I feel like I should start making a list of things I don’t have but apparently should lol.

All in all it was a good meal, with great company and I’m glad the evening happened. 🙂 Turns out my stress was about nothing cause even with the cheese getting too brown on the zucchini everything worked out alright…maybe I should invite people over more often…maybe lol 😛

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30 Day Squat Circuit Challenge Revisited

27 May

I can’t believe I am giving this another try, ugh, but heeeeere we go, I am once again doing the 30 Day Squat Circuit Challenge. It is the one that looks like this…

Here we go again!

Here we go again!

The reason I am doing it again is because our dragon boat coach wants us all in better shape, I am ok with that because being in better shape is always a good thing and being extra motivated by an outside source can be helpful to keeping you on track, in my opinion anyways, but still…sometimes going through something with someone else makes it easier. 🙂

I posted to my team’s facebook page the Squat Circuit Challenge and asked if anyone else wanted to do it at the same time as me, I got a handful of people who said yes they would which was great! It also meant I couldn’t back out, or put it off since I said in the facebook post what day I was going to start, I was being held accountable right from the beginning! Ack!

So far I am on day 8 which is a rest day, yippee! lol I missed day 6 so on day 7 I did the squats for both days 6 and 7, just an fyi, I don’t recommend that, it wasn’t fun… 😛

To be honest, I’m not finding the squats hard, right now my lack of motivation is fueled by boredom, doing squats is boring. Standing there, doing squats while watching tv or listening to music or whatever, it’s just…well, boring, shrug. I have no better word for it…

I didn’t make it through the 30 day Squat Circuit Challenge last time, I got sick part way through, missed too many days because of being sick and quit it. I had fully intended to start it up again after I was better but I didn’t. I wish I had an awesome reason for you for why I didn’t but I don’t, it was pure not-wanting-to-do-it-ness and nothing else. Well, maybe a bit of knee pain but that is inconsequential.

This time I am determined! I have teammates doing the same thing as I, we can encourage each other, hold each other accountable and maybe even help it be less boring! *crosses fingers*

When I didn’t finish it last time I was super annoyed with myself, I have completed every 30 day challenge I have tried and I knew if I hadn’t gotten sick I would have kept going and finished. First I was annoyed because I got sick, then I was annoyed that when I was better I didn’t get right back to it, can anyone say lazy? *rolls eyes*

I guess I’m hoping to redeem myself a bit by re-challenging myself. Cause hey, just because I say I know I can do it, until I actually do it, the words mean nothing. So bring it on 30 Day Squat Circuit Challenge! Bring.It.On.

If I was a cat, this would be my determined face.

If I was a cat, this would be my determined face.

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Mail Day!

26 May

It’s not often I get fun stuff in the mail, usually I’m getting hounding letters from the student loan people, bank statements, boring stuff. But today I got two fun things, yay! 🙂

The first is a package my parents sent me, it had a letter written by both of them, newspaper clippings, some Weight Watcher info in case I wanna try again aaaaaand a package that came to them but is for me. That package within the package was the tab for my BMO Run medal! Yippee! The back of my medal has a spot that has been waiting oh-so-impatiently for the tab to fit in it. The tab shows my name and my official finish time, which is good cause otherwise I’d forget lol. 😛 I want to show you a picture but my full name is on there soooooo sorry but the picture of it won’t be put on here. Don’t be offended, I still love ya! 😉

The next package had this:

First is the postal envelope...

First is the postal envelope…

 

Then comes the pretty envelope...

Then comes the pretty envelope…

 

And finally the super pretty wedding invitation is revealed!

And finally the super pretty wedding invitation is revealed!

 

It is my cousin’s wedding invitation! I knew it would get here eventually, and I already knew I was going to the wedding, heck, I planned an entire trip to the UK around this wedding, but getting the invitation was still exciting lol It made it that much more real. 🙂

The mail was pretty much the highlight of my day today…is that sad? I’m gonna pretend that isn’t sad lol 😉 I had a super busy work day, I hate when I have to actually work at work, sigh. Then I did some quick grocery shopping, or at least it would have been quick if I knew what a zucchini looked like (don’t fret, I got help and now I know!), then homeward bound was I. My landlady was in the backyard when I got home so I chatted with her for a while then eventually made it inside to my little slice of personal space. I was hungry enough to want to gnaw my own arm off (well ok, not quite that hungry but getting there!) so I made a super fast meal of maple flavoured baked beans on toast. Mmm! I love how it is a classic British dish but I Canadian-ize it by using the maple flavoured baked beans, it’s the best of both sides of the pond! lol

Since then I have done nothing interesting which would be why the opening of mail was the highlight of my day *rolls eyes*. Never fret, I will have more interesting days later this week, I’m just getting a bit of a slow start to the week is all, resting up for the really good stuff…or something like that lol 😉

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Grocery Store Guilt

21 May

Today after a nice 10.45 km walk I stopped at a grocery store I don’t usually shop at to buy eggs, exciting huh? 😉  Eggs are a ridiculously important part of my daily food intake and I ran out yesterday. Payday isn’t till Friday so I couldn’t technically afford to buy the eggs but after careful deliberation I decided I had to find a way to get them, I’d be fairly screwed food wise if I didn’t buy them today so in to the store I went.

I wandered a bit until I found the eggs and this is what I came face to face with…

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The small print on the sign is hard to read in my picture, what it says is:

Cage-Free: hens roam indoors and outdoors

Cage Eggs: hens in cages, behaviours restricted

Um…don’t tell me that right when I am about to buy eggs!

It’s not like I don’t know that chickens have sucky lives but I am on a ridiculously strict budget and even if I wanted to buy cage-free organic eggs I wouldn’t be able to afford it so don’t try laying on the guilt at the crucial picking-the-eggs-from-the-shelf-stage of my shopping trip. That is just…mean! 😛

Every single egg carton had a sign letting me know if the eggs were from Cage Free hens or Caged hens so not like I could even buy a different brand and keep my ignorance about the happiness levels of the hens that produced the eggs I will be ingesting, sigh.

In the end I did what I always do when buying eggs, I bought the cheapest, shrug.  Then I did what I always do when confronted with something that makes me feel sad in regards to animals, I went home and hugged my cat, at least I can make sure he has a happy life.

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I Literally Missed The Boat

20 May

My day was going so well, slept in, had a yummy breakfast wrap, finished a book I am reading, chilled with the cat, got ready in plenty of time to leave for dragon boat practice aaaaaaand that is where the good day ended, sigh.

I couldn’t find my keys. How is it possible I couldn’t find my keys?? I put them in the same spot every time I come home but apparently yesterday I didn’t put them in their spot and I got screwed over today. double sigh.

It took so long to find them I missed practice, I literally missed the boat, by about an hour and a half. Oops? I felt like such an idiot. I tore apart pretty much everything in my apartment trying to find them, it was ridiculous. Having to text a team mate to say I wasn’t going to be able to make practice because I couldn’t find my keys…who does that?? *rolls eyes*

When the latest time I could leave and still get to practice came and went I was slightly less frantic in my searching, not like finding them would get me to the boat on time anymore, but obviously I had to keep looking otherwise I’d be in the same predicament tomorrow. I figured if I was tearing the place apart I might as well clean it while I was tearing so by the end of the night I had a clean apartment and keys. Yay! lol

I am going to pretend that the cleaning counted as some sort of exercise, even if I didn’t work up a sweat lol Right after I was done I did a bunch of squats so I feel that should count for something, at least a little something…maybe?

My brekkie wrap, Mmm!

My brekkie wrap, Mmm!

Some info about the breakfast wrap I ate today, it was super delish! There is one triangle of laughing cow cheese spread on a whole wheat tortilla, then a slice of white cheese (don’t judge! I like cheese! lol), two slices of turkey bacon, lettuce, salsa, half an avocado and an over easy egg. It doesn’t stay closed unless I am holding it which is why the pic is of the wrap when open lol The avocado was a massive treat! I have a bunch of foods I don’t buy anymore cause I am strapped for cash and avocados are one of them, this one was given to me by a friend yesterday and boy did I enjoy it! 🙂

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Looooong Weekend!

18 May

For those of you not here in Canada it is a looooong weekend, wOOt! 🙂 I am not celebrating because I get a long weekend away from work, I am celebrating because I get to work the stat holiday thereby getting stat pay! Double wOOt! 🙂 🙂

happy victoria day

So why the long weekend? May 25th is Queen Victoria’s birthday and who doesn’t like to celebrate a birthday? The Monday before Victoria Day is a statutory holiday throughout Canada, it is meant to honour Queen Victoria but it is commonly thought of as the beginning of summer.

It is practically tradition to go camping on this weekend which in parts of BC will be a pleasant experience, in most of the rest of the country it will still be quite chilly at night and is almost considered a test of strength lol.

In honour of Queen Victoria and the day off from work she is giving some of us and the stat pay she is giving the rest of us, here are some facts you may not know about her:

(1) She became Queen at the age of 18

(2) She kept regular diaries that you can read here.

(3) She is associated with Britain’s great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and empire.

(4) She married in 1840 and had 9 children by 1857 – that is a lot of kids!

(5) Her hubby died in 1861, she wore black for the rest of her reign. Sadness.

(6) After her hubby died she almost completely stopped going out in public, with the encouragement of family she started taking part in public life again in the late 1860’s.

(7) Seven attempts were made on her life. Seven!! Eesh!

(8) Her reign lasted 64 years and she stayed active right till the end – reminds me of the current Queen!

She has some amusing quotes, if not all that positive or uplifting:

(1) Being pregnant is an occupational hazard of being a wife.

(2) I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all.

(3) I don’t dislike babies, though I think very young ones rather disgusting.

(4) An ugly baby is a very nasty object – and the prettiest is frightful.

(5) I think people really marry far too much; it is such a lottery after all, and for a poor woman a very doubtful happiness.

(6) We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist.

I especially like that last quote, used when going to war. I think I might adopt it for inspiration when working out and I feel like I am hitting a wall, maybe insisting that defeat doesn’t exist will help me push a little harder next time I’m exercising…can’t hurt to try! lol

If you think of Queen Victoria at all you probably get an image like this in your head…

How she is remembered

How she is remembered

But don’t forget that once upon a time she was a young lady getting married in a crown made of flowers…

On her wedding day

On her wedding day

And before that she was just a little baby…

Awww, Queen V you were kinda cute!

Awww, Queen V you were kinda cute!

So there we have it, the reason so many people will be sleeping in tomorrow and why I will be getting paid time and a half! Thanks Queen V!…anybody care for a spot ‘o tea? 😉

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