JavaChick's Blog

Stormy Fridays

2012-01-27T21:10:00.000-04:00

We have been having an extremely mild winter which is just the way I like it. We had one big snow storm in November, then nothing until last Friday when we had a storm. Then on Tuesday it warmed up to 8 degrees and all the snow was gone by Wednesday. Today we had another storm - started with snow, then ice pellets and freezing rain, and it's supposed to warm up enough to rain after that. Honestly, I don't think we could ask for a better winter.

Last Friday

I did work at home today; I didn't like the idea of having to drive home in freezing rain. I had planned to go to Zumba this evening, but I didn't want it badly enough to go out in the weather. I'm sure it wouldn't stop a lot of people, but I freely admit to being a wimp about winter driving.

I had kind of a bad day. I've been feeling a lot of negativity about work lately, and today was even worse. I won't go into that, it's not why I'm here. I'm here because by the end of the work day I really just wanted to sit in front of the TV and eat guacamole. But I talked myself into a treadmill walk. I was sitting by my desk, putting my sneakers on, feeling cranky and trying decide between TV or tunes. At which point I decided it was time for a change of strategy.

I had this new Ellen Barrett DVD sitting there. Ellen Barrett workouts always make me feel good. They require some concentration, even more so when it's a brand new workout. So off came the sneakers, and into the player went the DVD. The workout flew by. There was one shoulder stretch at the end that hurt in a way that tells me I should be doing it every day. And I feel better. Thank you Ellen.

On the subject of new workouts, I've tried two others so far this month.

My Jackie Warner collection is nowhere near as big as my Ellen Barrett collection yet, but I have four DVDs now and I like them all. This is the newest; I've only had a chance to try the upper body workout so far.

It went something like this:

Hey! I like Jackie's hair cut, it's really cute...Hmmm, she says 3 - 8 lb dumbbells so I'll go with 6 lbs...This is kind of fun, but I don't feel like it's doing anything...Wow, they get through those reps really fast...Oh! Ow! Where are my 3 lb weights?

And then, thankfully it was over.

It went really fast. It was doable, but challenging. Each segment is two exercises that you alternate between, doing a pyramid; so alternate between pushups and bicep curls (pushups were from the knees, then you come up to kneeling for the bicep curls), starting with 1 rep each, then adding a rep and repeating until you get up to 10. I found it really challenging to change positions and keep up with the pace on the DVD; I don't know whether to blame that on it being the first time with the workout, my bad shoulder, or my being a wimp. In any case, I did survive the experience and was sore in new spots the next day which makes me happy because I know I've hit some muscles I don't normally work.

Now I just have to survive the lower body workout.

And finally: Zumba Circuit! I didn't make it to the regular Zumba class on Monday or Tuesday. I've been avoiding the Circuit class because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it with my bad shoulder. I ended up having a lot of fun!

I tend to worry about new classes, I think I will be lost, I won't keep up, etc. The thing is, I've been doing this fitness thing for quite a while and since I like variety I've tried quite a few activities; maybe not so many live classes, but a lot of DVDs and a lot of different workout plans. That doesn't mean I can walk into a class and get everything right the first time, but it's usually nowhere near as bad as I think.

Zumba Circuit was fun. We did one song to warm up, then everybody ran to stations. There was a max of 3 people per station, and I ended up going around with 2 ladies who were also new, which was nice; sort of a 'we're in this together' vibe. Most of the stations were not anything new, except 2 that used TRX - that was kind of exciting as I've never had a chance to try TRX before. That was also the only thing that bothered my shoulder, so I guess I won't be signing up for TRX classes any time soon.

I enjoyed the class, I worked hard, I walked out feeling good. Note to self: get over this fear of new things! And fun workouts make you feel better!

Now. Did someone mention guacamole?

Back to Reality

2012-01-02T20:14:00.000-04:00

Husband and I have had a lovely two week vacation, relaxing at home; sadly it's almost over. Back to work tomorrow! I'm glad we had the chance to goof off at home together for two weeks, as it's sounding like Husband will be heading back to Japan soon. Anyone have any suggestions on what to see in Japan in late January - early February? We're looking at the possibility of my flying over to meet up with Husband when he finishes up this stint in Japan. Nothing definite yet, and it's probably not the best time of year to visit, but it seems like a good opportunity.

For the first part of vacation, I divided my time between some extra chores around the house that I'd been meaning to catch up on, and sitting around on my butt. Husband & I both came down with a bad cold that lasted through Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, and somehow after that I barely managed to do anything productive at all. Oh well, vacations are meant to be enjoyed.

December Workouts

06: Jackie Warner Power Circuit Upper Body + Treadmill walk/jog[35 mins]
07: Jackie Warner Power Circuit Lower Body + Treadmill walk[35 mins]
13: Jackie Warner Xtreme Circuit Training[30 mins]
14: Treadmill Walk[45 mins]
16: Ellen Barrret Pick Your Level Pilates[30 mins]
11: Jackie Warner Xtreme Circuit Training[30 mins]
13: Zumba @ Baila Fitness
14: Jackie Warner Power Circuit Upper & Lower Body[30 mins]
31: Jackie Warner Xtreme Circuit Training

Dec 31st was Husband & my 10th wedding anniversary. My anniversary gift from Husband is a new lens for my camera which was very exciting. I took a bunch of pictures to play with it. I would have posted some cute ones of the Fabulous Felines, but after I downloaded the photos, and deleted them from the card, I discovered that they are not in the folder where they were supposed to have been imported. I have no idea where they went and I suppose I've lost them. Sigh.

We are having absolutely fantastic weather so far. We did have snow that arrived just before Christmas, then melted right after Christmas. There have been a few cold days, but mostly it was pretty warm. When I checked the weather earlier today it was 8 degrees celcius (for those who don't speak celcius, google says that it is 36 degrees Farenheit right now, and the weather page says 2 degrees celcius). For January in that Maritimes, that's downright balmy. I will enjoy it while it lasts because I'm sure it won't last that much longer.

Happy January everyone!

November Summary

2011-12-02T21:01:00.001-04:00

During the month of November I:

- Lived the single life, as Husband's stay in Japan was extended to 5 weeks
- Stacked 2 cord of firewood in the garage all by myself
- Hacked open a coconut all by myself (and ate it all by myself - I love coconut)
- Went to a live Zumba class - twice!
- Was mainly vegetarian, occaisionally pescatarian (had fish 4 times)
- Experimented with cutting out wheat and dairy

The weather went from no snow, to 30 cm of snow in one day, and back to no snow within a week.

The workout list for the month:

Nov 02: Jackie Warner Xtreme Circuit DVD[30 minutes]
Nov 03: Walk[25 mins]
Nov 04: Walk[20 mins]
Nov 05: Yard Work
Nov 06: Stacking Wood
Nov 08: NROL Phase 2 Workout A
Nov 10: Gentle Hatha Yoga #1
Nov 11: NROL Phase 2 Workout B + Cardio Intervals
Nov 12: Stacking Wood
Nov 13: Stacking Wood
Nov 14: Treadmill walk/jog[25 mins]
Nov 16: Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Nov 17: NROL Phase 2 Workout A
Nov 21: Zumba @ Baila Fitness
Nov 22: Ellen Barrett Power Fusion DVD[45 mins]
Nov 23: Ellen Barrett Skinny Sculpt DVD[45 mins]
Nov 24: Ellen Barrett Barefoot Cardio DVD[45 mins]
Nov 28: Zumba @ Baila Fitness
Nov 30: Ellen Barrett Power Fusion DVD[45 mins]

Being mainly vegetarian agreed with me. The conclusion on cutting out wheat and dairy is that it does indeed make a difference. I'm not sure what the optimum balance is at this point, and I suspect it will be harder to stick to/play around with this once Husband comes home, but I hope I can be mindful; I hope I can pay attention to what I'm eating and how I'm feeling.

Speaking of Husband coming home...I only have two more nights of sleeping without ear plugs, 2 more days of blasting the 80's station on the car radio. Since it means I get my husband back, I'm okay with that. :)

First Snow Day of the Winter

2011-11-27T21:34:00.001-04:00

Wednesday I woke up to radio announcers talking about snow fall warnings and school cancellations. When I looked out the window there wasn’t much to see but I decided better to be safe than sorry; I can work from home when I need to so why take chances?

Around 8:30 am the view looked like this:

By noon, snow was piling up.

By 4 pm I was extremely happy that I was safe at home.

Our driveway didn’t get plowed until almost 7pm. I did drive in to work on Thursday and a lot of the roads were still pretty messy.

By Friday the weather was starting to warm up again. Yesterday was a beautiful day, nice and warm.

So we’ve now gone from this…

To this…

Which makes me happy. I’m not ready for winter to set in quite yet.

Had a lazy morning at home yesterday, then went out and did some shopping. Today puttered around the house, finally packing away the rest of my summer stuff and digging out the rest of my sweaters.

I had Spicy African Peanut Stew from the Peas and Thank You cook book cooking away all afternoon in the slow cooker.

It was quite tasty and I look forward to the leftovers that will feed me for the next couple of days.

Zumba!

2011-11-22T21:11:00.000-04:00

So, week before last, on Wednesday, I took our car in for it's scheduled maintenance, and got the winter tires put on. The next morning on the drive to work, I had to pull off and park because something felt very wrong. I got out and discovered a completely flat tire. Not a fun way to start the day.

As I sat and waited for Roadside Assistance, I happened to notice a fitness studio has opened up in the little plaza where I was parked - which happens to be not far from my house - and they have Zumba classes. I've enjoyed my Zumba DVDs and have wanted to try a class, so when I finally got to work I looked up the schedule. I've had it in the back of my mind since then, but things kept coming up. I decided that yesterday was going to be the day.

The weather has really been kind of awesome - it has stayed pretty warm - up until yesterday when the temperature dropped down to 0 degrees Celcius. Can't say I wanted to go back out after I got home from work yesterday, but I did and I ended up having a blast. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to follow the steps or keep up...because I'm a worrier and that's what I do. In reality I managed just fine. I won't be heading out to classes every day, but once or twice a week would be a nice change of scenery from working out in my basement.

Today I did the Ellen Barret Power Fusion DVD. My right shoulder has been bothering me a lot, so I think I will be taking a break from strength training for a bit (I think it's a computer-use issue, but don't want to strain it). Ellen Barret tends to have a lot of reaching & sweeping arm motions in her workouts which I hoped would be good for the sore shoulder. It felt okay during, immediately after my shoulder was sore, but then felt better, so I think it was a good choice.

Allowing a little bit of dairy & wheat back in the diet, but trying to keep the amounts small. I seem to be feeling mostly okay. It does seem like the eczema is getting a little worse again though. Keeping an eye on it.

Had brown rice pasta for supper. I actually don't mind it. Good old durum semolina will always be my first pasta love, but to keep the wheat consumption down I can live with the brown rice pasta. I hava a feeling Husband won't mind it either, which is a plus. Never could get him to eat whole wheat pasta.

Lost internet at some point today. Got home from work, booted up the laptop and couldn't connect. Just as I was about ready to text Husband, he called and we managed to work out that it was a bad power supply on the network switch. Since I am married to an uber-geek, we were able to switch out the power supply with one from another switch (how many times can I say switch in one paragraph?) and get things working again.

And now I am tired. Time to start winding things downfor the night so the cats & I can go to bed.

Mission Accomplished

2011-11-15T21:35:00.001-04:00

This…

Has become this…

Two stacks of wood against the back wall of the garage, about as tall as I am (which is admittedly not very). The pile off to the side is the wood left over from last year. Husband oh-so-conveniently had to stay in Japan an extra two weeks, so I did it all myself, most of it this past Sunday.

Yesterday I got home from work and decided to take it easy, since I’d worked so hard on Sunday, and just did a little treadmill session. Today I felt half dead. Possibly I should have skipped the workout yesterday.

I mostly made it through my two weeks of dairy/wheat free eating. Yesterday technically should have been the last day and I gave in and had a muffin for breakfast. And then I had one again today. Plus real cream in my coffee.

I won’t say the dairy/wheat free eating experiment made me feel like a whole new person, but my eczema is a whole lot better. That was obvious about a week and a half in. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand it is somewhat of a relief to know there is something I can do – my eczema does get really bad and makes me pretty miserable during the winter – but I’m not sure how I feel about giving up wheat & dairy for good.

I guess the next stage is to figure out whether it’s just one or if it’s both, and whether I need to cut them out completely in order to see a difference. I did actually wonder if the muffins yesterday & today could have been what were causing me to feel so zonked today. I was really feeling wiped out, and I just wanted to be able to curl up in bed.

On top of that, the past two days have been overcast and gloomy, which also tends to have a negative effect on my energy. So many variables.

Also, I am ready for Husband to come home. I have enjoyed the sleeping without ear plugs, doing things on my own schedule, less dishes to wash, listening to the 80’s station on the car radio. But I kinda miss him and I want him to come home. Sigh. Just under two weeks to go now.

Good thing I have Frank to keep me company.

One Day I Bought a Coconut

2011-11-06T21:54:00.001-04:00

I remember a few times growing up when Dad & Mom bought a coconut. Dad would punch holes in it and drain out the coconut milk (or water) and divide it for my sister and I, then break open the coconut. I remember loving the whole thing – the coconut water straight from the coconut and eating the coconut meat itself.

I discovered Zico Coconut Water in the grocery store here recently and the taste is fairly close to what I remember, I suspected the difference had to do with it being bottled rather that straight from the coconut.

Last weekend while I was grocery shopping I picked up a coconut. It was an impulse buy, of course, and I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to crack the thing open. It sat in a bowl on the kitchen table for a week. If nothing else, it looked all decorative sitting there with a lemon and two limes.

Today I decided to give it a go. I whacked away at it a bit, then had the bright idea to use the point of a knife to poke a hole through the end (if you’ve never dealt with a whole coconut before, there are three depressions in one end). Poking the point of a knife in the – i don’t know what you call them so I’ll stick with – depressions was actually easier, and then I was able to drain out the coconut water. I’d heard it sloshing around in there but there was more than I expected.

I tasted the coconut water, wondering if I should refrigerate it, but then I just ended up drinking it down.

Then, since I’d been making a mess in the kitchen with bits of coconut shell flying everywhere, I took the coconut, my knife and a tea towel out to the deck and proceeded to whack away at it until I had exposed an area that I could cut through.

At that point, the coconut shell was cracked and I was able to whack at it with the back of my knife and crack it in two.

I really like coconut. Which is a good thing because I have a whole one to eat all by myself.

That was the fun part of my day. The rest of the day was spent doing some cleaning and stacking wood in the garage. First I had to move the leftovers of last year’s wood, which was actually the worst part because it stirred up all kinds of dust in the garage which left me sneezing and sniffling. That’s when I took a break and broke open my coconut.

After standing at the counter munching on coconut for a while, I went back out to start on the wood pile (Dear Bag Lady, the ritual banging of the wood was observed and I thought of you).

The stack of wood along the back wall of the garage grew at a satisfying rate, yet it was hard to see any visible difference in the pile sitting in the drive. I feel like I am going to be stacking wood forever.

Yesterday I put away all my garden planters, ornaments, tomato cages, etc. It was a productive weekend. I also remember to cut some catnip to dry for the cats. Frank approves.

Actually, both cats approve, but Frank is the one who got all flirty with the bowl. They both helped themselves quite happily.

Still dairy and gluten free, 6 days now. Last night I made chocolate from coconut oil and cocoa. I still miss cheese. How long do I have to stick with this, I wonder, to know if it’s making a difference? I can’t say I feel any different so far.

Dairy & Gluten Free–Day 3

2011-11-03T21:13:00.001-03:00

I woke up on Tuesday morning and decided it was day number one of the dairy/gluten free experiment. There was one serving of cheese-y pasta left, but I decided that would go in the freezer. And there are two unopened containers of yogurt – no idea how that happened really. Our last Costco trip was the Saturday before we found out Husband might be going to Japan. We bought our usual amount of yogurt, which usually only lasts a week…and somehow we only went through half of it. On my own, it would take me at least a week to polish that off, so I pretty much just threw in the towel on that one. If husband comes home at the end of next week, there should be time to at least use some of it before it expires.

So yeah. Tuesday was the day.

Breakfast – left the yogurt out of my smoothie and stuck with the protein powder, tolerated soy creamer in my coffee.

Lunch – I typically have a salad and often a Amy’s Kitchen Burrito. I’ve been buying the gluten free version since it showed up in the store last summer.

Dinner – There are lots of things I could eat that don’t involve dairy or wheat (gluten free is a bit more complicated that wheat free, I realize, so wheat free is the minimum goal). I of course have to try something complicated (requiring substitution) right off the bat.

I blame it on the Brown Rice Tortillas I saw at the grocery store. And I have been fascinated by this Daiya that Mama Pea is always talking about. So I had to turn all that into dinner.

I have this Veggie Burrito recipe that my sister wrote down while watching an episode of Urban Peasant years ago. I don’t actually follow the recipe mind you, but I use it for inspiration quite often.

First, I did taste the Daiya on it’s own first and the flavor vaguely resembles processed cheese. I’m sorry vegans, that is not what cheese is supposed to taste like.

And the the Brown Rice Tortillas kind of fell apart when I tried to pick up my burritos and eat them, so it made a huge mess. But, all together, the components made a tasty mess.

So for the second (and third) dinners, I decided to go the quesadilla route. We have this griddle that makes me sigh in resignation every time Husband suggests using it because it is a pain to clean.

Husband has been gone for 5 days and I’ve used the griddle 4 times. Sorry honey! (Actually, he doesn’t read my blog so he’ll never know. Mwah-ha-ha-ha!)

I panicked for a minute there wondering how I was going to flip the dang thing over. Was never so happy to have a pizza board and giant BBQ spatula.

This did work better. The tortillas got all nice and crispy and the daiya did indeed melt (and taste even more like processed cheese).

So three days down and it mostly hasn’t been too bad though I do miss cheese and chocolate. But it’s only for a couple of weeks ~ whether that is actually enough time to know if it makes a difference, I don’t know. For now, though, I’m just going to focus on two weeks.

Minor kitchen mishap – wondered where the measuring spoons had disappeared to, then turned on the garbage disposal….

Mystery solved.

Last but not least; I was not fishing for compliments when I posted my profile photo on Monday. I was lamenting the harshness of my inner critic. Not only is the big meanie quick to detail all the things that are wrong with the way I look, when I do look good in a photo, the critic is ready and waiting to jump in and say it doesn’t count. That just seems crazy, yet I know it’s all coming from inside my own head. I just have not figured out how to change it.

I do appreciate the compliments though, so thank you! You are the loveliest blog friends a girl could hope to have.

October Wrap Up

2011-10-31T21:33:00.001-03:00

I have a sad little workout summary to post for October. What can I say? It’s been a bit of a crazy month.

Oct 01: NROL Phase 1 Workout B + Treadmill Walk[60 mins]
Oct 17: NROL Phase 1 Workout A[25 mins]
Oct 18: Cardio Intervals[40 mins]
Oct 20: NROL Phase 1 Workout B + Cardio [45 mins]
Oct 24: NROL Phase 1 Workout A + Cardio [35 mins]
Oct 26: NROL Phase 1 Workout B [25 mins]
Oct 31 Cardio Intervals[22 mins]

Almost every weekend I have spend at least an afternoon out puttering around the yard, trying to get the garden put to bed for the season. I planned to finish that job this Sunday, but the weather was really nasty so I ended up puttering around indoors instead.

This morning I pulled out a pair of gloves for the first time this season and I was glad I had them on the way to and from work.

Frank has wasted no time taking over Husband’s side of the bed while he is away. That would sound really bad if you didn’t know that Frank is a cat. But you know that, right? So we’re good.

Looks like he can’t wait for Husband to come home, doesn’t he?

Since Husband and I planned to use Skype for chatting while he is in Japan, I figured I would take an actual photo to use for my profile, instead of my usual cartoon avatar. I figured Husband might actually like seeing my face.

Mostly, I hate photos of myself though. I have this picture in my head of what I look like, and somehow whenever I see a photo I think: how can that be me? I suppose it has something to do with getting older, and gaining weight. I am not the skinny 25 year old I once was.

And yet, somehow on Sunday I managed to get a photo that looks like me. It’s all in the camera angle and lighting. First reaction was relief – there I am! I still look like me after all! Followed quickly by the feeling that I am somehow cheating. Because I managed to find a good camera angle and natural light. How does that even make sense?

But for the record – here I am, looking like myself.

So there.

All Alone With the Halloween Candy

2011-10-29T11:24:00.001-03:00

First of all, big thanks to everyone who responded to my last post. I appreciated every response and you all gave me some things to think about. I had every intention of responding with a post early last week, but things took an unexpected turn when Husband’s boss called on Monday evening to ask if Husband would be willing and able to go to Japan for two weeks.Willing was an understatement, but able involved a week of scrambling around and unexpected expenses.

Long story short, Husband is now en route to Japan and I am on my own for a couple of weeks. It’s a weird feeling. Husband used to travel for work all the time, but it’s been 10 years since he’s had to do that and I’m just not used to it any more.

Any-who, I’m thinking of taking this solo-time as an opportunity to do some experimenting diet-wise. I have thought about going dairy and gluten free to see whether I notice any beneficial effects. Intolerances to those foods seem to be quite common and I have seen them linked to eczema, asthma, allergies and lack of energy – which are all things I live with. I can’t say that I want to eliminate dairy & gluten permanently, but I would like to know whether or not it makes a difference for me. However, I also have lots of dairy, along with a package of spinach & ricotta manicotti, in the fridge needing to be eaten up this week if they are no going to go to waste, and only me to eat it. So, I guess I’ll see how things go.

For the moment I am just trying to decide what to do with my weekend and oh look! There’s a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon on Much More Music. Maybe I have a plan after all.

Why Can't I Do This?

2011-10-18T20:16:00.000-03:00

A little over ten years ago, I embarked on my first serious weight loss effort. I was 29, going on 30, I had started working a full time desk job 2 years before and the weight slowly started creeping on. I think I managed to lose 8 pounds which was not a lot, but it was enough for people to notice a difference. Then I started planning my wedding. Then I got married. Then we bought a house and moved. And I gained the weight back.

I started calorie counting, I joined a gym which I could conveniently get to on my lunch break from work. I didn't manage to lose any pounds that time, but I seemed to be at least maintaining.

During that time I developed some good habits - regular exercise, meal planning, not keeping to much in the way of junky snack foods around the house, no snacking after dinner. But over the years since then, some serious backsliding has been going on. I still exercise fairly regularly - maybe not as much as I should but for the most part I feel pretty good about my exercise habits.

The diet part on the other hand...

I just don't seem able to maintain any consistency. There is too much food in the house. I can't stick to a plan for more that 2 or 3 weeks at a time. I can't figure out if it's lack of motivation? Or not the right kind of motivation? I do know that any time I have to get ready to go out anywhere socially, there's a good chance I will end up standing in the bedroom with clothes strewn all over the place, ready to break down in tears. I know that I don't feel good at the size I am now. Pictures of myself make me cringe. So why can't I do anything about it?

I can talk the talk about chosing healthy options, watching portion sizes, yada, yada, yada...but I can't seem to walk the talk, as the saying goes.

You may recall that at the beginning of August I told Husband I wanted to try and make some changes and he agreed to go along with my plan. I remember the first two weeks going so well. It was easy and I thought I can do this. By the end of the third week I was down 3 pounds. I was so encouraged.

And then...Can you guess where this is going?

Exhibit A
Instead of Husband asking "what are the meal plans for this week?" he said "I looked in the freezer and we have a,b,c so I think we should plan d,e,f for meals this week." I thought: well, okay, that makes sense, I can work with that this week. Problem is, he kept doing that every week. Next thing I know, we're back to exactly the way we were eating before.

I'm not trying to blame my husband here. He kept catching me off guard, and it's not like he was making unreasonable suggestions. But it was basically taking away the 'diet safety net' I was trying to create for myself and I need to learn to handle this stuff.

Exhibit B
The company I work for started stocking the kitchen with snacks and beverages. Some healthy, some not. Bins of potato chips and chocolate bars. Just what I need. For the first few weeks I was able to resist. I peeked at the chocolate bars a few times, decided there was nothing there I really wanted, and walked away. Yay me! Then I started having one chocolate bar a week, usually on Monday. One a week, I could live with that. Then they started stocking the bins with those little Halloween sized bars. And I started eating 3 of them every day. Every day I would go in to work telling myself I was going to stay out of the chocolate. And every day for two weeks I would end up eating a handful of chocolate bars.

One weekend I decided that was it; I was done. And somehow, for the next two weeks I had no problem staying away. Okay, this is good, I've got this...Until suddenly one day I'm back into the treats and then it's every day again. Then I will very likely go home and munch on things that I don't need to eat. And end up feeling crappy.

So why? What is it that makes me able to go for 2 or 3 weeks, eating nutritious foods, feeling satisfied, ending the day around the right number of calories, feeling like it's effortless, noticing how good I feel when I am eating properly...Only to swing around to the opposite end of the spectrum where I can't seem to stop eating? Why is it that sometimes I can't seem to make myself care?

My Computer Programmer/Analyst brain tells me to gather data and look for patterns. Seems like the logical thing to do, but at the same time I wonder if making more work for myself is the way to go?
But, I don't have any other ideas at the moment, so I think that's what I should try to do.

So, that's where I'm at these days.

Also, I think I broke my husband. I've been making salads for husband to have with his lunches at work. His building was evacuated due to plumbing problems today around lunch time. On his way home he hit the Wendy's drive thru. After work when I asked how he'd enjoyed his Wendy's for lunch, he said he enjoyed his salad more. I don't know what to think; doppleganger maybe?

Unidentified Flying Garden Shed

2011-10-11T20:30:00.001-03:00

The first half of last week was rain, rain, and more rain, but by Thursday the sun came out and a short time later something new began to take shape in the garden.

Any guesses? How geeky are my blog friends?

My parents and baby bro came to stay for the long weekend and build me a garden shed. How awesome are my family? We had a perfect sunny weekend and everyone worked hard,especially my Dad.

It was amazing to watch it come together and take shape. My Dad & brother started on Friday morning and by Saturday evening all that was left to do was to put a lock on the door.

My Mom was peeking out the door on Saturday evening and noticed that the work was being inspected.

Frank thought it looked like a good lookout post, but he didn’t seem quite sure how to get down and Dad ended up having to rescue him.

It really was a fantastic weekend. It was so nice to finally see the sun and we actually had record high temperatures on Saturday & Sunday. I’m sure everyone was tired out by the end of the weekend but I think we all had a good time too.

And seriously, how awesome is this?

September Summary

2011-10-02T22:14:00.001-03:00

I don’t know what to say about September. Our unpredictable weather has continued. Things have been busy- as usual. Exercise has been off and on. I’ve just been doing my best to keep up I guess. And now it’s October. How’d that happen?

Stealing a photo from my last past as this is indeed a good representation of September’s workouts.

Though of course, there have been some other activities thrown in there for variety.

I’ve done 4 New Rules of Lifting workouts (2 different plans, 2 x each) and the biggest surprise is how short the workouts are. I worked hard, but it was over fast.Even though I actually followed the instructions and rested between sets, which I normally wouldn’t do (I usually turn these types of plans into a circuit where I move from one exercise to another, instead of completing all sets of one with rests in between – based on this post by Charlotte I’m not alone). Nothing in either of the workouts I did was new to me, and yet I finished the first workout thinking “something was different about that workout”…Then I realized it was only 5 exercises. Huh. That’s different.

My feeling thus far is that I am happy to have another option for getting in a good strength workout in a short amount of time. The more options I have, the more I can switch things up, which I like. Keeps things interesting.

September’s Summary:

Sep 06: Zumba Rush DVD[20 mins]
Sep 07: Jackie Warner Xtreme Power Circuit DVD + Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Sep 08: Walk[24 mins]I
Sep 10: Jackie Warner Power Circuit Training DVD + Treadmill Walk[60 mins]
Sep 12: Treadmill Walk w/Intervals[30 mins]
Sep 13: Jackie Warner Power Circuit Training DVD[30 mins]
Sep 14: Zumba Cardio Party DVD[45 mins]
Sep 15: Treadmill Walk + NROLFW Phase 1 Workout A[50 mins]
Sep 20: Treadmill Walk + NROLFW Phase 1 Workout B[45 mins]
Sep 21: Zumba Activate DVD[40 mins]
Sep 22: Ellen Barret Barefoot Cardio DVD[45 mins]
Sep 24: NROLFW Phase 1 Workout A[30? min]
Sep 28: Jackie Warner Xtreme Power Circuit [30 min]
Sep 30: Yoga For Weight Loss #1 + Zumba Live DVD[75 min]

Other than that, I shall leave you with photos of sleeping cats…

Frank

Zappa

The sad amount of tomatoes I’ve been getting from my garden this year…

And Sunflowers. I planted a bunch. Only 3 came up. But it’s nice to see something cheery in my poor garden.

September–Week One

2011-09-11T21:45:00.001-03:00

After my lazy first five days of September, I am back in the workout routine, as evidenced by weights all over the floor instead of neatly stacked away in their storage area.

Speaking of which; remember back in January when I reviewed a couple of Jackie Warner DVDs? You’re forgiven if you don’t. I recently picked up a third Jackie Warner DVD that I’ve been doing about once a week, and the Power Circuit Training DVD is back in the rotation. And I also happen to have the New Rules of Lifting for Women sitting around, which is Charlotte’s September Experiment.

So I am currently kind of torn. I feel like I’m in a pretty good groove right now. Coming home and firing up a DVD is a no-brainer workout and I like that the Jackie Warner DVDs are a good workout in a short amount of time. But, I’ve meant to give the New Rules of Lifting a try and this might be a fun time to try it out. So I don’t know. We’ll see how things go I guess. I find my exercise routine can be very mood-dependant.

In other news…Found at Costco:

Husband may have laughed at the way my eyes lit up as I homed in on the display, hands eagerly outstretched. He just does not understand the importance of Mac & Cheese. Also? $11.99 for 12 boxes which is a whole lot better than the $2.59 I paid for one box at Sobey’s. Run to Costco! Go now!

The latest in the Feeling My Age Chronicles – blasts from my past.

Ah, the good old days. I remember renting The Last Starfighter on LaserDisc.

The which anniversary?

Okay, well I was a teenager when that movie came out. But then…

Another anniversary edition. All within a week. Because the original edition of this novel? Is on my bookshelf.

I remember picking it up off a sale table….well, I guess somewhere around 20 years ago now.

It’s funny how it can feel like things were a long time ago, yet not at the same time. Anyone else ever feel that way?

It felt a lot like fall this weekend. It was sunny but the air has that feel to it. We barely even had summer. I hope we have a beautiful, warm fall to make up for it.

Easing into September

2011-09-05T16:31:00.001-03:00

This is pretty much what my weekend has looked like.

Weekends are when I get things done, so I usually keep pretty busy. I was looking forward to having an extra day this weekend to get things done. What I actually accomplished was reading my way through a stack of books. I was just so tired by Friday and, despite a good nights sleep, did not feel any better on Saturday. So I mostly took things easy. I think I needed it.

The cats also think a quiet weekend is a good idea.

That’s okay; I didn’t want to make the bed anyway.

August was a pretty good month though. I started off with the Seven Days of Yoga Challenge and from there went on to have a good month workout-wise. Mostly they were short workouts, but there were a lot of them so I’m okay with that.

August Workouts

Aug 01: Moon Salutations Flow[25 mins]
Aug 02: Crunch Yoga Body Sculpt DVD[40 mins]
Aug 03: Crunch Fat Burning Yoga DVD[45 mins]
Aug 04: Lunar Flow[20 mins]
Aug 05: Gentle Hatha Flow[20 mins]
Aug 06: Solar Flow[20 mins]
Aug 07: Ellen Barrett Yogini Workout DVD[45 mins]
Aug 08: Pick Your Level Pilates DVD[30 mins]
Aug 09: Lunar Flow[20 mins]
Aug 10: Jackie Warner Xtreme Time Saver DVD[30 mins]
Aug 11: Kettle Bell Swing/Squat Thrust Circuit(from 8) + Yoga For Weight Loss[24 mins]
Aug 12: Light yard clean up
Aug 13: House work
Aug 14: Gardening
Aug 16: Gentle Hatha Yoga[20 mins]
Aug 17: Jackie Warner Xtreme Time Saver DVD[30 mins]
Aug 18: Pick Your Level Pilates DVD[30 mins]
Aug 19: Gentle Hatha Yoga[20 mins]
Aug 20: Moon Salutations Flow[20 mins]
Aug 22: Jackie Warner Xtreme Time Saver DVD[30 mins]
Aug 23: Moon Salutations Flow[25 mins]
Aug 24: Jackie Warner Power Circuit DVD[30 mins]
Aug 27: Gardening[3 hrs]
Aug 29: Walk[40 mins]
Aug 30: Cardio Sculpt DVD[30 mins]
Aug 31: Crunch Fat Burning Pilates DVD[40 mins]

It has been the month of the breakfast smoothie, which has been going pretty well. Last weekend I decided to take one of my souvenir glasses down from the top of the china cabinet for my weekend smoothies. I’ll be sorry if I end up breaking it but it’s fun to drink out of it.

Also, we have a new cat toy. Frank thinks it’s great for cat naps.

Just for fun, when I was doing the photo of me with my camera bag for the Kelly Moore Bag review, I took a couple of pictures of me with the cats. My brother-in-law used to laugh at me carrying them around because they huge cats.

Holding Zappa, with the camera bag.

Holding Frank.

Ending with a little bit of a vent session – if you are squeamish or particularly sensitive about animals, feel free to skip the rest of this post…Keeping it short: Someone dumped a bag of garbage with a dead animal in it up the hill where I walk my cats every day. I discovered this on Tuesday. Not sure what it is, all I can say for sure is that it had grey fur, very similar to my cats. It doesn’t really matter what the animal was – it’s just wrong and it ruined my week. I called the sanitation department but they won’t do anything since it’s not city property. I called the police and they wanted to know if I’d seen who dumped it, since dumping garbage is illegal. The nice man at the police department also talked to someone at the city works department who agreed to come and clean it up, but that was Friday and so far no one has showed up. The whole thing just makes me sad and angry and frustrated. I don’t know who is responsible for stuffing a dead animal in a bag of garbage and dumping it on the hill beside my house, but whoever you are, I hope there is a place for you in the special hell. That is all.

Fashionable Photography–The Kelly Moore Camera Bag

2011-08-28T14:13:00.003-03:00

When I got my Canon Rebel T3i at the beginning of June, it came packaged with a LowePro Camera bag. A functional, good quality camera bag, but bulky and awkward to carry around. Remembering that Jaime had found a pretty camera bag for her Rebel, I started hunting around on the internet to see what I could find. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of options out there.

I spent about 3 weeks searching. comparing my top choices and just generally obsessing. I wanted something that would look nice and double as a purse so I would not have to carry more than one bag, I also wanted something that was not obviously a camera bag. I’m not a photographer, I’m just a girl who likes to play with cameras; I wanted to be able to carry my camera around and not feel self-conscious about it. I was also concerned about size – I wanted it big enough to do what I needed, but not so big that it would be awkward to carry.

I was seriously considering 3 options, but leaning towards a Kelly Moore Bag. Kelly Moore provides the largest number of choices in terms of style and colour, her website offers a lot of detail – photos and video demos by Kelly – to give you a feel for the size and functionality of each bag. I watched videos. I measured two of my favourite purses (much to Husband’s confusion) and compared to the dimensions on Kelly Moore’s site.

Two things finally decided me.

First, I found this video review on vimeo.com. When looking at the styles available, I had originally passed right over the B-Hobo. It wasn’t really a style that jumped out at me (I was initially drawn to The Classic, but was concerned it might be too big). But watching this video, and then watching Kelly’s demo changed my mind.

Second, I found a Canadian retailer, Love Those Bags that carries Kelly Moore bags.
A couple of weeks later, I was the proud owner of a Kelly Moore B-Hobo bag in Walnut.

It has taken me a while to get around to posting this review because I wanted to wait until our trip to NS so that I could actually travel with it. Then while we were away, one of my lenses broke. I sent it away to be fixed the day after we returned home, so then I was waiting to get it back so I could show exactly what I carried in the camera bag while away. There have been a few cameo appearances on the garden blog though, because this bag is where my camera has lived since the bag arrived.

Kelly Moore bags have a flat, reinforced bottom so that it will stand up when you set it down. Inside, there are dividers that can be moved around to find the best configuration to accommodate your gear.

I carried my Canon Rebel camera body and 3 lenses – one lens on the camera in the center, and each of the other two lenses in a side compartment.

I have a fixed 50 mm, an 18 – 55 mm, and a 55 to 250 mm. They will all fit when attached to the camera body, even the 250.

In addition to the camera body and lenses, I carried:

Tissues, wallet, small flashlight, camera remote, Hello Kitty band-aids, spare lens caps, lip balm, keys, lip gloss and iPhone. I also had a pen (not pictured). There are pockets front, back and on each end of the bag (see the Kelly Moore site for demos), so you can stash quite a bit in the bag.

How did it travel? I carried it during the whole trip. It can get a bit heavy, carrying all that stuff around, but I think that would be the case with any bag considering what I was carrying. The only thing I wished I had space for in the bag and didn’t was my Kindle, so I can see myself getting a slightly larger bag at some point for travelling (I love the Libby and the 2 Sues which is new and was not available when I purchased my B-Hobo). But for day to day carrying around, this bag is great.

I carried it around for two days at my parents place before someone – either my Mom or my friend who was visiting – said “Is that your camera bag? I thought it was your purse!” My mom commented on the pretty purple lining.

When I’m wearing the bag, I do sometimes find it a bit awkward to get the camera out, especially if I’m rushing. That may have something to do with the fact that I have the neck strap attached to my camera (Husband calls me Miss Butterfingers. Neck strap just seems smart), and I think it is getting easier as I get more used to it.

These are not inexpensive bags, but the quality is good so my camera bag should last a good long time, even with me carrying it out to the garden several times a week.

The LowePro bag that came with my camera, which now gets used to store extra bits and pieces like camera chargers, my SD700, the shorter shoulder strap for my Kelly Moore bag, etc.

The Kelly Moore bag, sitting between my two most-used purses.

It is a little bigger, but still a manageable size for me. Kelly Moore bags come with two straps – a shorter shoulder strap (on the bag in this photo) and a longer cross-body strap, which is what I normally use. (Unrelated – that green bag is my newest and current favourite purse, it’s by Matt & Nat and I love it.)

And here is my 5-foot undertall self with my Kelly Moore bag.

For anyone else on a similar camera bag hunt, I highly recommend Kelly Moore bags, I can’t imagine that you would be disappointed.

My other two top choices were Jo Totes and Epiphanie. though Cheeky Lime bags are also cute. This blog post at blog.veralana.com (and the commets) lists an impressive number of options.

I wanted to write this review because when I am shopping around online for something I always look for reviews to read. I was happy to find so many options when I started searching for a camera bag, but it was also a little overwhelming. There were more choices than I expected. There are lots of reviews out there, but most are from professional photographers. I wanted to add my 2 cents as a hobbyist. If you are searching for a camera bag, I hope you find this post helpful. To everyone else, thanks for reading!

So how are things going?

2011-08-21T20:43:00.001-03:00

This week on As The Fit World Turns: JavaChick buys protein powder. Husband seeks an answer to that eternal question; what’s for dinner? And JavaChick learns to cut herself some slack. Hopefully.

I started out writing this with more detail but it was getting really long and I didn’t want to put y’all to sleep. Welcome to the shortened version.

Basically I suggested to Husband that we had to make a change if we want different results and I wanted to start basing most of our dinners around salads. I do my best to make healthy choices and watch portions, but I feel like dinner is where things often fall apart.

So the first week we had lots of salads for dinner, with sides to round things out. Chicken for Husband. For me smoked salmon or vegetarian protein sources like quinoa & beans. At the beginning of the second week Husband asked what were the dinner plans for the week. I said salads. At the beginning of the third week Husband asked what were the dinner plans for the week. I said more salads. This weekend Husband asked what are the dinner plans for the week, I said salads…Week three actually did not go according to plan, but I’m ready to start over this week.

I also decided to try protein smoothies for breakfast after reading about how whey protein can help with weight loss because it seems to lower ghrelin levels. I’ve never been a fan of smoothies, for various reasons, and have not liked protein powders I’ve tried in the past, but I decided to give it another go.

At the grocery store, I hunted for a whey protein isolate powder that did not contain stevia. I found exactly one. I wished it was in a smaller container, since I didn’t know whether I was wasting my money, but I bought it. On the first try I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t terrible either. After a bit of experimenting, I came up with a smoothie that I enjoy. Husband wants nothing to do with the protein powder, but after some experimenting we came up with a yogurt smoothie that he is liking. Husband has commented that he is enjoying his smoothies for breakfast, and after our blender met an untimely end on Thursday morning, husband mentioned missing his smoothie.

A week ago, Charlotte posted about dailyfeats.com, a site that can be used to track actions and motivate you to build good habits. I started using it as an acknowledgement of all the little things I do every day. I forever feel like I don’t do enough, I can’t keep up with everything I should do, most particularly housework. Our house is usually a disaster. It’s so easy to compare myself to my Mom who managed to keep a spotless house despite four kids and various pets over the years. Or to my friend whose house always looks like a spread from a home decor magazine.

So I started to keep track of the things I do everyday. Making meals. Washing dishes. Exercising. Taking care of the cats. Piano practice. And I was hit over the head with the obvious. My Mom did not work outside the home. My friend may work full time, like I do, but she doesn’t have pets; she doesn’t work out; she doesn’t play piano; she doesn’t blog. I chose to do the things I do and I wouldn’t give them up.

True, there are people out there who keep up with all of that and still manage to have a neat and tidy house. But there are plenty of other people who can’t. We all do the best we can. I am going to try and hold onto that for when I start to feel all these undone tasks closing in on me. Feel free to remind me when I backslide.

Phew. And this was the short version. You’re welcome.

This week’s photos:

Ingredients for the JavaChick approved smoothie:

I like a combo of yogurt & protein powder, with peaches (right now, once they are no longer in season I will switch to frozen fruit) and Coconut Milk. I also add a splash of vanilla. Husband likes frozen berries, banana, a full serving of yogurt and orange juice instead of coconut milk.

Replacement blender. So pretty and shiny and new.

Our kitchen is sort of starting to look like a Cuisinart ad. In behind the blender here, we have my Cuisinart Grind & Brew Coffee Maker (how do I love thee? Let me count the ways) and a Cuisinart spice & nut grinder. We also have a Cuisinart toaster oven, popcorn maker and garbage can. They should sponsor me.

Test of of the new blender at lunch time today, along with a test run of a new-to-us mac & cheese. Review posted separately to keep this post from being any longer.

Annie’s Macaroni & Cheese

2011-08-21T20:41:00.001-03:00

I’ll own up. I like Kraft Dinner. We don’t eat it often, but we usually keep a box around for emergencies. We had one of those occasions recently (i.e. too tired and lazy to cook real food) and went to the cupboard to discover that we were mac-and-cheese-less. Somehow we survived.

However, when I happened to be in Sobey’s on Monday, perusing the Organic Food section (because that’s entertainment for me) I discovered Annie’s Macaroni & Cheese on the shelf. I’ve seen it out in blogland of course, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in a store around here.

So of course I had to pick up a box. And knowing the box was sitting in the cupboard, we had to try it this weekend.

I have to say it – I love the bunnies on the packaging.

I did find that the cheese mix got lumpy when I added it into the milk, according to the instructions on the box. A whisk fixed that though. I added some black pepper because Kraft Dinner is not complete without pepper, and why break tradition?

I wouldn’t say that it tasted exactly like Kraft Dinner – not quite as cheesy? But I liked it and I’d be willing to make the substitution on a regular basis for a boxed mac & cheese that is a little healthier.

Husband said he couldn’t tell the difference between this and KD, but he also said he’s not the connoisseur of mac & cheese that I am.

I will be picking up a couple more boxes the next time I’m in Sobey’s. Speaking of which…I am a Superstore shopper. I’ve just always preferred their stores for some reason. But I’ll go to Sobey’s if there is something I can’t find at Superstore. Over the past couple of years, I’ve found Superstore has stopped carrying some things that I like. What’s up with that Superstore? Yes, there are alternative products, but when I like something I like it and that’s what I want to buy.

A couple of those things being Olivina margarine and Billy Bee Honey Mustard. And while perusing the shelves at Sobey’s, we discovered these infused oils. I picked up the Lemon one a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been using in on salads and liking it, so while I was there this time I picked up another bottle of Lemon and one of the Basil to try.

Sobey’s also has a better selection of Liberte yogurts and I picked up a container of Mediteranee in plain, as well as the Coconut one which I love. I have way too much fun in grocery stores.

Not the post I planned to write…

2011-08-15T22:35:00.002-03:00

I had planned an update on how things are going with our whole eat healthier and lose weight mission, but I’m just not in the right head space for that tonight. The space I am in is the whiney space. Sigh.
Keeping a long story short – we have chinch bugs in our lawn. If left untreated, they will destroy the lawn that we paid good money to have made all healthy and pretty looking. Our landscapers are great, they try not to use chemicals any more than they have to, and they try really hard to not spray inside the cat fence. So a week ago they treated outside the fence. And the cinch bugs decided to move inside the fence. So today they had to treat the lawn inside the cat enclosure, which means the cat door is firmly shut and the cats can’t go out until tomorrow after we get home from work.
Equals unhappy cats.
Lately if Frank gets upset/stressed/frustrated he will start peeing all over the house. Unsurprisingly, we do not enjoy this and would prefer he not do it. So, in an effort to keep him from being too upset, after getting home from work, giving the cats their food, changing clothes, I took Frank up the hill and stood around for an hour so he could sit outside and look for rodents (he’s very good at this and he did find one; we will never have a mouse problem as long as we have these cats). I also brought Zappa out for a bit, though it’s hard to manage both of them at the same time.
Then I came in and heated up leftovers for supper (thank goodness for leftovers), sat down long enough to eat and watch last night’s episode of Big Brother. Then took Frank back outside until it got dark.
I don’t mind taking Frank out for a little while every day, but spending most of my evening standing around when it wasn’t even nice out (it’s been gloomy all day and all while we were out there Mother Nature seemed to be trying to work up the gumption to rain) was sorta frustrating.
I did not do a workout. I did not practice piano. I did manage to find a few minutes to stuff my face with chocolate. I don’t want to talk about it.

And now Husband and I can likely look forward to a night of trying to sleep while both cats pounce on us and smack our heads with their paws because they want their silly humans to get up and open the cat door already. Yay.

Okay. That’s my whine. As your reward for putting up with me, lets look at some fun new stuff…

Shoes!

There was a sale. They are purty. And also comfortable. #miracleshappen
Broke into the coffee my sister brought me on her unexpected visit home last month.

I loved the packaging and it also turned out to be really good coffee. If you can’t see the fine print on the ‘Trekie’ label, it says ‘Live long and savour.’ I love it! My sister knows me well.
Sunscreen.

You’re saying: “Wait! Sunscreen is neither new nor fun!” I can’t argue with you. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this Neutrogena sunscreen. Once it goes on I can hardly tell it’s there. That never happens. Granted, I haven’t been to a beach or any place requiring me to be coated from head to toe this summer, but so far so good.
I tried out the BareMinerals one this weekend. I was a little nervous I used it on my face, neck, chest area and I could barely tell it was there. But I didn’t get burned and did not end up with a greasy face. I liked it.
Where did I test out this sunscreen? Working in the garden yesterday. The sun finally shone for a whole weekend and I finally got out to weed my poor veggie garden.
And look what I brought in:

Lots more garlic out there waiting to be dug up, I dug up this bunch just to see how it was looking. Lots of green tomatoes and blossoms on my plants too, so fingers crossed for a good tomato harvest.
Lots more garden photos on the garden blog.

Seven Days of Yoga–Done!

2011-08-08T22:03:00.001-03:00

Yesterday I completed 7 days of yoga for this challenge and I feel good that I managed to do all 7 days. Some days were short, if that’s all I had time for, but it got done and I enjoyed it. I considered continuing on for the rest of the month but my shoulders are feeling like they need a little break from all that downward dog and chaturanga-ing.. I would like to continue focusing on it though, I feel like I’ve lost a lot of strength and flexibility and if I want it back I have to work at it. Haven’t decided for sure what I’ll do, but today was Pilates which was a change but kept things in a similar vein.

After dinner I took Frank out for a walk. Everything is soaking wet because it started raining yesterday in the afternoon and kept up for most of today. Again. It rained pretty much every day last week. I am scared to go out and look at my garden, it’s probably a swamp by now.

I didn’t take my camera out at first, but I ended up running back for it (again! but this time only once). I was quite fascinated with the water drops that were everywhere. Frank was enjoying being outside, but not enjoying all the water so much. Too bad I didn’t have the camera pointed at him when he tried to step down off his perch and discovered he was cut off by a giant puddle. Kitty may be brave, but he does not like to get his paws dunked. At one point I turned around and managed to catch a deer heading into the trees.

Here are some photos – hope you enjoy!

Friday Night Dinner by Costco

2011-08-06T00:49:00.001-03:00

Last time on As the Fit-World Turns…JavaChick’s Husband agreed to make a more serious effort to eat a healthy diet…

Not that we eat a completely unhealthy diet as it is. I do make an effort to make sure we’re getting our fruits & veggies, but we could both stand to shed some pounds and too many treats are creeping in for that to happen. Being consistent is hard work, and it’s even harder when only one of us is making a conscious effort.

This week has gone really well and Husband has actually surprised me more than once. He seems to be really trying and thinking about what he can do which makes me happy. Now if we can just get the hang of this consistency thing.

Friday night is usually our grocery shopping night and most of the time we go out to dinner. Tonight we brought dinner home from Costco.

We saw these chicken burgers and decided to give them a try.

You may recognize the brand name if you are a fan of the Looney Spoons/Crazy Plates/Eat Shrink & Be Merry cookbooks (and their show on Food Network Canada).

We don’t often buy Costco prepared foods, but we have tried their Greek salad and liked it, so Husband was looking in the cooler for that and he spied a quinoa salad. They happened to be giving out samples of it, so we tried it, we liked it, and we brought it home, along with some 9-Grain Ciabatta buns. It should be noted that I’d fed Husband different quinoa salads for the previous two nights; shocked that he voluntarily suggested it for the third night in a row.

Quinoa Salad

Dinner is served!

I will not often agree to buy chicken burgers, and I’m not sure why I went along with it this time. Maybe something about the sound of “fire roasted vegetables’. I am very picky about textures and usually do no like ground chicken or turkey. But I have to say: these were tasty burgers! Frank & Zappa also approved of the tidbits that I fed them.

It made for a quick meal after a busy week and our evening of grocery shopping, and we enjoyed it while watching last week’s episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. My kind of Friday evening. It’s a wild life I lead.

Then later on I got to watch Frank chase a fox away from our yard.

Full story over on the garden blog.

What did I tell ya? Exciting life indeed.

Happy New Brunswick Day!

2011-08-01T21:50:00.000-03:00

Happy New Brunswick Day or Natal Day or whatever holiday you may have on this first day of August. My sympathies to those who didn't get a long weekend.

This is actually the last day of our vacation. I can't say that I'm looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, but back I will go.

It's been a pretty good week - a weekend home in Nova Scotia, and then a week relaxing at home in Saint John. The weather has been decent, a little bit of rain but mostly sun.

For the last week I only got in a couple of workouts. I didn't worry about it since I'm on vacation and I didn't want to be feeling like I HAD to do anything. For the most part I have either been puttering in the garden or doing a few things around the house every day - except for Friday when I did mostly sit on my butt all day.

July Workouts
July 01: Gardening[90 mins]
July 02: Gardening[60 mins]
July 03: Gardening[4 hours]
July 05: Solar Flow Yoga + Gardening[60 mins]
July 06: Spartacus Workout[20mins]
July 07: Walk[20 mina]
July 09: Walk[20 mins]
July 11: Jackie Warner Xtreme Timesaver DVD[30 mins]
July 12: Zumba Mix[60 mins]
July 13: Pick Your Level Pilates[30 mins]
July 18: Walk[20 mins]
July 25: Walk[20 mins]
July 27: Pick Your Level Pilates[30 mins]

August Plan
Now vacation is over and it's a new month, I plan to get back into the routine. Though I will continue to make time to work in the garden or stroll outside in lieu of a workout if that's what I want to do. Summer is half over already - I'd rather enjoy the rest of it than stress about working out.

However, I am going to attemp this Seven Days of Yoga Challenge. I figure it might be a good way to ease back into the work routine after a week of vacation.

Husband has agreed to try making some changes to our usual dinner routine, in an attempt to help both of us shift some pounds. I have some ideas, I expect it to be a challenge; we'll see how it goes.

The Walk That Went Nowhere

2011-07-29T11:21:00.003-03:00

We had a fun visit in Nova Scotia from Thursday to Sunday. We got home around 7:30 on Sunday night and I went out to water the garden. We’d had a hot sunny weekend at home in the valley, and I’d say that things weren’t much different in Saint John. Things were looking wilt-y.

We were still on vacation for the rest of the week. Yay! Our cat & house sitter was only available from Friday to Sunday though, so that set the dates for or visit to Nova Scotia. It was nice to have a week at home though, the weather has mostly been good and Husband and I are both content relaxing at home.

Monday evening I headed out for a walk. There is a spot, just a few minutes walk from our house that the city had all torn up to do some work last summer. Since then I’ve sometimes seen ducks, geese and deer wandering around if I happen by at the right time. Of course, any time I remember to take my camera, it’s deserted.

Sure enough on Monday night, no camera on my person, I saw a deer. I stopped and wondered how likely it would be that I could run back, get my camera and return to find the deer still there. I hesitated for a moment, then decided it was worth a try.

Back to the house for my camera, back down the street. Yes! The deer is still there! Plus I see a second one farther in. I get my zoom lens on, get all set up and positioned and click the shutter….Only to find there is no card in the camera; I had not put it back it when transferring my photos from the weekend, earlier in the day.

Another moment of hesitation. Then I turn around and head back to the house.
If you’ve watched much science fiction, you’ve probably seen an episode of a show where the characters get caught in a loop, repeating the same actions over and over again, until finally someone saves the day and the show ends with a positive outcome. That popped into my head as I was covering the same ground for the third time.

I made it back, with the card in my camera, and the deer were still there. I snapped a couple of shots and noticed there was a couple walking down the sidewalk. I wondered if, after all that back and forth, the deer were just going to get scared off.

The deer did actually run off into the trees, and the couple apologized for scaring it off, but obviously they had a perfect right to be walking down the sidewalk. The deer hadn’t gone very far though, and in no time it was sauntering back out, not at all perturbed by the fact that I was standing there.

I spared a moment to get a shot of the other deer, farther in

And before long, my closest subject was heading for the other side of the road – still not at all concerned by me standing there.

I decided to get a bit closer to the second deer.

This guy seemed a little more wary. I looked down and fiddled with my camera for a moment and when I looked up, it had retreated into the bushes.

I like this last shot, though you may need to click to enlarge to see the one deer’s head peering through the bushes, and a third that I had not noticed up to that point farther in (toward top right of the photo).

I didn’t get very far on this walk, but I’m still counting it. With all the back and forth, I certainly got in some steps.

My week of no exercise

2011-07-20T22:14:00.001-03:00

I did exactly one ‘workout’ this week. I went for a 20 minute walk on Monday evening,mainly because I could not bear to report a a whole week of nothing. The rest of the week I have been trying to get ready for a long weekend away. Doesn’t really sound like it should be that much work. There’s only two of us, after all.

We have a house-and-cat-sitter coming, which is awesome. But I figured she might actually like to sleep while she is here, so I’d better find the bed in the spare room. I knew there was one in there somewhere.

I’ve been going through closets and dressers and baskets of stuff lately, trying to sort through way too much stuff. My method is to attack things in stages. Which means items get removed from closets and dressers and baskets and dumped in the spare room so I can figure out what to do with it all later. Fabulous system unless you actually want to get into the spare room.

Plus, Frank has been getting walks and Zappa has been getting lots of cuddles because I feel guilty that we are going away and leaving them. And also because that’s what they always get. Who am I kidding.

One more sleep, and we are off for a long weekend visiting both our families. I’m almost ready.

Photos from the past week…

I was testing out the new remote I got for my camera and a new lens. Had to point the camera at something. Also, I really like this lamp.

Husband actually took this photo of Zappa, with the new lens. Zappa is hard to get photos of, especially close ups because as soon as he sees the camera pointed at him, he comes running.

Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos are totally not boring. Trust me.

My garden is beautiful right now. You should click on over to the garden blog and check it out. If you click on this photo though, you will see ants in the flowers. So maybe don’t do that. Unless you like ants.

Diary of a Week: All the things I want to do

2011-07-14T22:31:00.003-03:00

Keeping a diary worked well last week, let’s see how this week went…
July 8 – Uh. Nothing. I was tired and had an upset tummy when I got home from work. I was a lump and the evening disappeared quickly.
July 9 - It was a busy day. But I went for a short walk.
July 10 – Tired from my busy day and still really not feeling well. Nothing again.
July 11 – Jackie Warner Xtreme Timesaver DVD. I did not die. But I was relieved when it was over.
July 12 – Zumba Mix DVD. Fun!
July 13 – Pick Your Level Pilates DVD.
July 14 – Today. Nada. I’m okay with it.

Once upon a time, it seemed like all I did was go to work and come home and then do it all over again. There was the house work, and the exercising, and the cooking dinner, but I didn’t do anything interesting. I thought: How boring am I? I need some hobbies; things I want to do, not just the things I have to do.

Then there was the garden. And then there was the blog. And the piano. And the other blog. Then I got a new camera that I want to learn how to use.

And the working and the house cleaning and the cooking and working out are still there. Also a husband. And two cats who like to throw up hairballs all over the house. Now I have too many things to do. It's easy to feel overwhelmed, trying to work out a balance between the things I have to do and the things I want to do.

I’ve had a week of bad hair days. A trip coming up that I’m not ready for. Some cat or other threw up a hair ball on the bed again. Not to mention a couple of other things(that I don’t care to talk about on the blog) that had me on edge and wondering if I was going to make it through today.

The day was finally over and we made it home from work – an hour later than usual. And I didn’t even think about exercise to be honest. Today I played in the kitchen instead. Some days are just like that.

Hello Chorizo Spiced Pork Taco!

Photos from this week…

From my walk on Saturday evening – the day started out with heavy rain but ended with sun.

Looks so relaxed and peaceful doesn’t he? Don’t be fooled – he’s just waiting for the perfect moment to throw up a hairball on the duvet.

Good morning to you Mr. Robin! Seen on my neighbor’s fence this morning, hard a work with a beak full of…whatever Robins collect in their beaks.

Diary of a Week - Workouts and Musings

2011-07-07T22:37:00.000-03:00

Since workout motivation seems to be lacking lately - at least that's what it seems like when I look back on the past couple of months - I thought I would try keeping track of my week to see what was going on. It made sense to start from last Friday, since that was July 1st. So here goes...

Friday - Canada Day! It's a holiday! I love holidays! :) There was a Torchwood marathon on Space. A weekend not too long ago it was a Doctor Who marathon. The Space Station has to stop doing this to me. Anyway, I've been picking away at sorting through my closet and doing some organizing. So I spent some time working on that while watching Torchwood. Oh yeah, also made Strawberry Shortcake. Busy day. Then spent 90 minutes or so out in the garden - determined to get the garden planted over the long weekend. Has to be done!

Saturday - More Torchwood. Husband and I went out, on the hunt for an air conditioner, then grocery shopping and I can't remember what else. Back out to the garden for another 90 minutes or so.

Sunday - Didn't turn on the TV. Didn't want to get sucked into Torchwood again. Garden will get done today! All in all, I'm guessing I spent 4 hours out in the garden. And got things mostly done. Finally.

Monday - I apparently did nothing. I can't really remember why. So much for keeping a diary. Sheesh. It was a rainy day and I think maybe I was tired after Sunday's marathon of gardening? Oh wait...now I remember...I actually came home from work in the mood to hop on the treadmill and jog for a bit...But I didn't because the city was turning off our water from 7 pm to 7 am Tuesday morning, and by the time we got home I wouldn't have had time to do a workout and have a shower before the water was turned off.

Tuesday - Sun shining again! Only one day of rain! It's a miracle! Unfortunately, came home with a headache and zero energy. Did a 20 minute yoga download when I got home, and then after dinner went out to do a bit more puttering in the garden. I say that totally counts.

Wednesday - Charlotte posted a link to The Spartacus Workout and I immediately thought "I want to try that." Funny where motivation can come from - I guess I just need some new workout inspiration? I made it two times through the circuit and decided I was throughly exercised. Guess my goofing off lately has taken a toll. Or, you know, it could be the fact that I didn't really read the instructions so I didn't do any of the rests between exercise or circuits. Oops.

Thursday - Kinda tired and feeling my muscles a bit. Husband and I had to go into town after work to return the air conditioner that would not fit in our window. We found another one that works. Yay. The weather was so nice though, that by the time I finished dinner I was ready to head out for a short walk. Nothing strenuous though - just a stroll to enjoy the summer evening.

So that was my week. I always find myself torn this time of year. We really have such a short span of time where the weather is nice, or so it seems, so I feel like I want to get out and enjoy it - working in the yard or going for a walk. But I have a tendency to think of those things as not being a 'real workout'. If I don't get out and enjoy it though, the summer will pass me by and I'll wonder where it went. This year we've been waiting so long for the nice weather too. It would be great if I had time to do both, but honestly I have a hard time keeping up with everything as it is. The 'real workouts' will still be there when the cold weather sets in again.

Today - Kitty Walk with Frank

The moon was out early.

Waiting For Summer

2011-07-02T11:40:00.003-03:00

If you're wondering where the garden pictures are, please click on over to the garden blog - that's where the action has been happening.

I'm not sure I've ever posted a sadder workout recap[Oh wait. Apparently I said the same thing last month. Must kick this trend in the butt. Stat.].

June 02: Ellen Barret Fat Burning Fusion[45 mins]
June 04: Zumba Step By Step[60 mins]
June ??: Gardening [90 mins]
June 15: Zumba Cardio Party [45 mins]
June 17: Gardening [60 mins]
June 19: Gardening [60 mins]
June 20: Ellen Barret Fusion Flow [45 mins]
June 21: Walk [20 mins]
June 27: Gardening [90 mins]
June 28: Gardening [90 mins]
June 29: Zumba Rush[20 mins]

June was a bit of a weird month. The weather has been crap. We had a couple sunny days here and there, but mostly it's been rainy or, at least, dark and dreary. The kind of weather that saps my energy and makes me want to curl up into a little ball. I feel like I'm being cheated out of summer and I'm not at all happy about it.

My garden is still not planted. I've been picking away at it whenever we had decent weather and I could manage to find the time. It feels like it has been a busy month.

My fun news is that I got a new camera – a Canon Rebel T3i. I've always enjoyed photography, but I've always had point and shoot cameras. I've really enjoyed my Canon point and shoot, which was my first digital camera, but there is only so much you can do with a point and shoot and I'm at the point where I want to be able to do more. Still working on learning, and experimenting with the new camera, whenever I can find the time.

Here are a couple of recent favourites taken with the new camera.

Barefoot Workouts

2011-06-03T21:05:00.001-03:00

May’s workout diary is looking a little sad…There’s a big game in there. Things got pretty busy for a while and the workouts weren’t happening. Most of the time I can make post-work exercise work for me, but when you’re late getting home every single day it gets tough.

And then…and then…I injured myself! Okay, nothing serious really. I smashed my big toe against something hard and broke the toenail right across the nail bed. I couldn’t stand to wear shoes for days. It’s still iffy. So sneakers were not an option. And I’m so paranoid about hitting it again that I find I’m favoring that foot. I haven’t lost the toenail yet, and I’m assured that it would grow back, but the idea just freaks me out.

Of course the day I smashed my toe I finally saw a notice on the board at the Superstore for a Zumba class on Wednesday evenings in my neighborhood. I had been hoping for something like that but I haven’t been able to try it out. Hopefully soon.

So, in May, early in the month there was lots more Zumba (I have a whole saga to tell about my Zumba DVDs, but I will save that for another post). I did try to throw some other workouts in there for variety, but the Zumba is just so much fun! Then at the end of the month there are the barefoot workouts and walking. I suspect there will be more of that coming up.

May Workouts

May 02: Walk[40 mins]

May 03: Zumba Sculpt & Tone DVD[45 mins]

May 04: Xtend Barre DVD (Warm Up + Barre)[30 mins]

May 05: Zumba Express DVD[20 mins]

May 06: The FIRM Power Half Hour DVD[30 mins]

May 07: Zumba Cardio Party DVD[45 mins]

May 10: Zumba Cardio Party DVD[45 mins]

May 14: Zumba Live DVD[55 mins]

May 17: Zumba Activate [40 mins]

May 26: Walk[30 mins]

May 28: Kathy Smith Total Body Lift DVD[60 mins]

May 30: Ellen Barrett Barefoot Cardio DVD[45 mins]

May 31: Walk[25 mins]

Other news for May

It’s been rainy, rainy, rainy.

Go outside? In this weather?

My yard is soggy, I haven’t been able to do anything in my veggie garden yet. Still, there are a few interesting things to see, so you should click on over to the garden blog to see what’s new.

On the long weekend my parents & baby bro came to visit (also the weekend I smashed my toe). They helped us with a bunch of stuff around the house, and I finally got this put together:

Now I just hafta use it.

All Zumba! All the time!

2011-05-01T20:26:00.003-03:00

So April. It’s a blur. I’ve been tired a lot. I’ve been busy. A lot going on at work. I like my job, but lately there’s been a lot of stress. Zappa got a tick. I broke a piece off a tooth. Cory had a tick on his arm.
I’m really tired, and to be honest I haven’t been feeling so great a lot of the time. I’d like to fix that and I’m going to try.
As for April’s exercise, the last half of the month was pretty repetitive. I’ve been wanting to try Zumba for a while – I thought it would be fun. So I finally got my hands on some DVDs.

They came in the mail on Friday, April 15, and I tried out the Zumba Basics workout that very night. And then I did it again on Saturday. I was right – Zumba is fun!
The Basics workout takes you through the steps one at a time, and runs about an hour. I’ve done my fair share of cardio, including a Cardio Salsa DVD at one point, so a lot of the moves were familiar or fairly easy for me to pick up. There were a couple that were challenging though.
Since then, it’s mostly been Zumba Express, which is a 20 minute workout, because I’ve either been short on time or just plain tired. Hoping to try out some of the other routines soon.

April Workouts
Apr 28: Zumba Express[20 mins]
Apr 26: Zumba Express[20 mins]
Apr 23: Zumba Express[20 mins]
Apr 22: Jackie Warner UB & LB + Zumba Abs[55 mins]
Apr 20: Zumba Express[20 mins]
Apr 19: Zumba Express[20 mins]
Apr 18: Element Ballet Conditioning[50 mins]
Apr 16: Zumba Basics DVD[60 mins]
Apr 15: Zumba Basics DVD[60 mins]
Apr 12: Walk[40 mins]
Apr 11: Treadmill walk/jog[38 mins]
Apr 09: Kathy Smith Personal Trainer Sculpting Workout[60 mins]
Apr 07: Ellen Barret Fat Burning Fusion DVD[45 mins]
Apr 06: Crunch Burn & Firm Pilates DVD[45 mins]
Apr 01: April 2011 Fitness Mag Express Workout + YDL Yoga for Runners #1[45 mins]

I have been posting a few updates to the garden blog.
There’s not a whole lot to see at this point, it’s still early, and as I say, I haven’t had a lot of energy. But if you want to keep up with the goings on in my garden, keep an eye on the garden blog.

Red Letter Day

2011-04-29T12:00:00.000-03:00

Do you think Hello Kitty knows it’s my birthday?

April's Fool's Day Courtesy of Mother Nature

2011-04-03T20:58:00.000-03:00

So totally not funny.

Let us not speak of it.

March Workouts

I started of the month with a lot of neck and shoulder tension that was causing headaches. So there was a fair bit of yoga. It got better for a while, but this week it came back, so expect to see more yoga in April. But hopefully less snow.

Mar 02: Treadmill Walk + Yoga Emergency ARMS & SHOULDERS[35 mins]
Mar 03: YDL Gentle Hatha Flow #2[30 mins]
Mar 05: Yoga Emergency ARMS & SHOULDERS[12 mins]
Mar 08: YDL Heart Opening Flow #120 mins]
Mar 09: Treadmill Walk/Jog + YDL Shoulder Opener #1[50 mins]
Mar 10: The FIRM Power Half Hour DVD[30 mins]
Mar 12: Crunch Cardio Sculpt DVD[30 mins]
Mar 13: Walk[20 mins]
Mar 14: Treadmill Walk[20 mins]
Mar 15: Pick Your Level Pilates DVD[30mins]
Mar 16: The FIRM Power Half Hour DVD[30 mins]
Mar 20: Walk + YDL Solar Flow #1[45 mins]
Mar 22: Jackie Warner Workout UB + Cardio Intervals[40 mins]
Mar 24: Jackie Warner Workout LB + Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Mar 26: Crunch Cardio Sculpt DVD[30 mins]
Mar 29: The FIRM Power Half Hour DVD + Heavy Circuit[40 mins]
Mar 30: Treadmill Walk/Jog + YDL Gentle Hatha Yoga #1[45 mins]

I Take it Back?

2011-03-27T20:15:00.001-03:00

After the beautiful warm weather we had last weekend, the temperature dropped on Monday. Tuesday we woke up to this:

So not amused. It didn’t stick, and while we’ve had some flurries, there has not been any snow since then. The temperature has stayed around freezing or below though, and that’s always hard to take once you have those first few warm days in the spring. I’m so done with being cold.

I also could really use a long weekend or some vacation. Ah well.

One cool thing this week – I finally managed to get a photo of our neighborhood fox.

It was taking through the living room window and I was rushing, so it’s not a great shot, but there he is. He’s a jaunty looking little fellow, always looks like he’s having a good time out there.

We don’t seem him often (not like the deer) but every once in a while we catch a glimpse, and it’s always a cool thing to see.

Sprung!

2011-03-20T22:12:00.001-03:00

Spring, that is. Happy Vernal Equinox! I hope your first day of spring was as fabulous as ours.

We celebrated by having pancakes for breakfast.

Okay, we actually just had pancakes for breakfast without realizing it was the first day of spring, but any day with pancakes is a good day as far as I’m concerned.

The sun was shining though, so this afternoon I had to head out and check on things in the yard.

We even found some catnip, leftover from last fall I think, but the cats seem to agree that it’s still good stuff.

There are still patches of snow out there, and it still cools off quite a bit at night, but it really was a beautiful afternoon. After hanging out in the garden for a bit, I headed out for a short walk. Then I came back and decided I could use a good stretch so I came down to the basement for some yoga.

I remembered I had Yoga Download’s Solar Flow #1 that I’d been meaning to try for quite some time. I looked at the pose guide first and almost changed my mind; I thought it might be too much for me today. But then I decided to just try it and do what I could do. I was so glad I did; it turned out to be such an enjoyable session.

This evening, Husband and I met up with some friends to try out a new Thai restaurant which turned out to be quite good.

All in all, it turned out to be a great day!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

2011-03-17T21:18:00.001-03:00

We had absolutely fantastic weather last weekend – there was a bit of rain, but mostly it was sunny! And warm! I like warm. :)

It turned cold on Sunday night, and it stayed chilly until today which was another warm and sunny one. I was pretty tired when I got home from work today, but I couldn’t resist going outside for a few minutes.

So I exchanged my St. Paddy’s Day green leather boots…

For my Smurf Blue rubber garden boots…

And made my way out to the yard.

There’s still snow in spots, but it’s melting causing the usual swamp effect at the bottom of the yard. Happens every year in the spring.

Spring! Did I really say spring? Maybe it’s not quite here, but when it starts to get all warm and sunny I want to soak up as much as I can. So do the Fabulous Felines; they really didn’t spend much time outside over the winter, but now they are wanting to go out. Even if they have to head to high ground to keep their feet dry.

I definitely saw some paw shaking today. Poor guys. I bet that snow melt is cold.

But hang on guys. Spring is definitely coming. So say the Snow Drops.

I confess, recently I have been going back and visiting the early posts from last year’s garden blog. I needed to see colorful pictures of sunny days and growing things. It helped. Right now I’m just hoping that the warm weather is here to stay. We’ve had quite an intense winter and I’m ready for it to be done.

In case anyone is wondering about the fitness & diet stuff – things have been up and down. I’ve been really busy and feeling overwhelmed a lot of time time. I had a couple weeks of headaches and stiff neck, so I’ve been trying to take things easy and do the best I can (also why there hasn’t been much blogging going on). I’m hanging in. That’s about all I can say.

Ask And Ye Shall Receive

2011-03-07T21:11:00.001-04:00

Okay, it’s not quite spring yet, but we had our first little taste of it.

All last week we were having cold weather and snow flurries. A bright spot was when this came in the mail on Wednesday…

Oh the anticipation!

Still, it was looking like gardening season was a long way off. I think the deer agree with me.

But on Friday it started to warm up. And in the space of a few days we went from this:

To this:

It’s truly amazing how quickly the snow disappears once the weather warms up.

I was feeling pretty crappy all last week. Exhausted, headachey, stiff neck and shoulders. I wasn’t quite sure what was causing what, but it was a long week. I got 10 hours of sleep on Saturday night though, and yesterday I finally felt better. I headed out and about to do some errands, and thoroughly enjoyed the warm day.

This morning I was wakened half an hour earlier than I wanted to be so that Husband could tell me that another neighborhood cat had managed to get itself trapped inside our fence.

The first time happened about 3(?) weeks ago, at 9:00 on a snowy Sunday night. I spent an hour crawling around the yard (the snow was seriously too deep to walk in, crawling was easier) trying to figure out how to get the cat out. I had visions of it being stuck in there still spring. I dug out the gate, but it was frozen shut. That time the cat finally got out by climbing the cherry tree.

This time, due to the warm days we’ve had, I was able to open the gate and set the poor critter free. Then I checked out the fence and found a spot where the fencing had come away from the fence pole and fixed it. Hopefully that will be the end of strange felines inside the fence.

Tomorrow the temperature is suppose to start dropping down again, but I think, just maybe, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Spring is coming.

February Review

2011-03-01T21:23:00.001-04:00

More snow storms! On Friday and yesterday. It just doesn’t stop this winter! I think the winter blues may have officially set in. I’m really just wanting to curl up with a blanket, read a book, and not do much of anything else.

I think that shows in Feburary’s Workout Summary:

Feb 28: Treadmill Walk[45 mins]

Feb 23: The FIRM Hi-Def Sculpt[45 mins]

Feb 21: Treadmill Walk[45 mins]

Feb 19: The FIRM 500 Calorie Burn DVD[60 mins]

Feb 17: Treadmill Walk[40 mins]

Feb 16: SP Full Body DB Circuit[20 mins]

Feb15: Treadmill Walk[45 mins]

Feb 10: Fat Burning Fusion DVD[45 mins]

Feb 08: Gentle Hatha Yoga #2[30 mins]

Feb 07: RC Dial It In Workout B[40 mins]

Feb 04: Cardio Intervals[25 mins]
Feb 02: RC Dial It In Workout A[45 mins]

I’m too tired tonight to come up with much else to say, but here are some winter views to show how buried we are.

Can we have spring now please?

Hormone Diet Update

2011-02-15T18:35:00.001-04:00

I kept wanting to post updates all last week about how things were going with The Hormone Diet, but just didn’t have time. As the week wore on, I also came to the conclusion that I need to go back and re-read that chapters on diet. I thought I would do ok with the lists in the book, and the tracker that you can print from the site, but I found myself feeling confused.

According to the list & tracker, I can only have one serving of whole grains or sweet potato per day. I can have one serving of dairy (i.e. plain yogurt). I am supposed to have protein with every meal & snack. I can have one serving of beans per day.

May sound fairly straight forward but, since I prefer to have most of my protein come from vegetarian sources, I like to have beans/legumes and a whole grain for lunch. That means that I can’t have sweet potato or another serving of whole grain for supper? Or since I’m counting that as my protein (beans+whole grain = complete protein) is that ok?

She is also big on protein smoothies, made with whey isolate protein and berries for breakfast. I’m not big on smoothies and I don’t really want to go out and buy a protein powder at this point (not saying I never will, but I think it should be entirely possible to eat a healthy diet without protein powder). If I can have a smoothie with whey protein and berries for breakfast, why could I not have yogurt & berries for breakfast?

Possibly I am over-thinking.

So I’m feeling the need to go back and review, to make sure I’m understanding correctly and also to hopefully understand the reasoning behind these rules.

As for sticking to the rules, I definitely wasn’t 100% last week, but I knew I wouldn’t be. I am on a ‘use up what we have in the kitchen’ kick, which means some foods that are not on plan. I tried to stay on plan for breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack and didn’t worry about it too much for dinner. I did add up my calories the first couple of days and I was coming in around 12—0 1300 calories.

By Wednesday I really wanted a cookie. On Thursday I had one.

This week….Well, it’s only Tuesday and already it is one of those weeks where nothing is going according to plan. Actually, I guess that started on the weekend. Just lots going on. Hoping things will slow down and get back to normal tomorrow.

For now, gotta run!

The Hormone Diet

2011-02-06T22:41:00.001-04:00

I hear the ground hog saw his shadow, but we’re still seeing an awful lot of winter in these parts.

We’re trying to put on a brave face, but dude; there’s a lot of snow out there.

When the sun shines, it looks pretty.

But somehow the living room looks more inviting.

Okay, now that’s out of the way…The Hormone Diet.

This is going to be short because it’s been a busy weekend and it’s getting late and Dr. Turner (author of The Hormone Diet) says I should go to bed at 11:00.

Dr. Turner covers almost everything – diet, exercise, stress management, sleep, skin care and sex (she says you should have it). The idea being that if your hormones are out of whack, getting them back in balance will help you to lose weight, not to mention potentially improving other health issues you may have.

In theory, I like this whole mind-body-life approach. It makes sense – you want your body to be performing optimally so that it can do all the things it needs to do, including burning fat and building muscle.

That said, the diet is pretty strict. I’ll be honest, I looked at it and thought: This is not a diet I could be happy following. But. I’m going to give it a try.

Husband’s parents visited us last summer on their way to and from Ottawa. Mother-In-Law talked about this diet quite a bit, and this was the first I’d heard of it. She and Father-In-Law had been following it for a while and having great success. To paraphrase, MIL had tried many other ways to lose weight and this was the first one that worked for her; she was not having cravings, she felt satisfied with what she was eating and the pounds were coming off.

A pretty good recommendation as far as I’m concerned. Also? MIL is a nurse.

However, I still held off because it sounded way too complicated and strict. But it stayed there in the back of my mind. Husband has been saying more and more that he needs to do something to lose weight. To look at them, Husband and MIL have very similar body types. I thought that maybe we should give this a go.

So I bought the book.

I still think it looks complicated and hard to follow.

But I feel like I should give it a shot.

I really should be starting off with a two week detox, but I don’t feel quite ready for that. Also, based on the quizzes in the book, I don’t test positive for any of the hormone imbalances. Dr. Turner says you should have 2 clear weeks to do the detox, and we’ve had lots of social stuff going on lately. Fun but not so great for detoxing. So, I’m going to do my best to try and stick to the diet – I imaging it will feel like a bit of detox anyway – and see what happens.

Wish me luck!

January

2011-01-31T22:09:00.001-04:00

It turned out to be a stormy month.We had 3 snow storms in 3 weeks, and there is another one in the forecast for this week.

In between all those storms, things have been busy. Some fun stuff and also some work stuff, so I ended the month feeling pretty tired out.

I have also been trying out some new workouts – from The Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove. I had followed along with great interest as Charlotte and her gym buddies tried it out. I read the book for myself in early December.

I won’t go into any detail about the book here – because it’s been so long since I read it – but I will say it was a quick read. I actually got through it in an evening, though I skimmed/skipped some parts. The ‘why you should lift weights’ arguments are not new to me, and I found the client success stories got repetitive. Hence the skimming. I guess the ‘Revolutionary’ bit is the reduced cardio in Cosgrove’s program.

I can’t claim that I have been following the program; basically I’ve been trying out the strength training routines. I’ve done 3 of the 4 phases so far. A lot of it feels pretty familiar to me, especially having worked with Lindsey last winter & spring. Again, the difference would be the reduced cardio – and reduced overall training time.

I do think it is a solid program and would probably be good for someone looking to get started on a weight training plan. I’ve enjoyed the workouts, I find they go by pretty quick – though that may have something to do with my discovering The Great Buffy Rewatch on Nikki Stafford's blog; I’ve been inviting Buffy and the Scoobies along on my workouts (Yes I own all of the DVDs. Shut up.) which keeps me entertained.

I should mention here that I was able to skip through the early phases as a lot of this is familiar to me. The 3rd phase is definitely more difficult – Ms. Cosgrove increases both the difficulty and the reps for a lot of moves. Seems a little unfair. :)

Also, these workouts are designed for a gym, not for a home exerciser. I was able to adapt/adjust/substitute based on past workouts (Lindsey in particular is good at adapting gym moves to home equipment). And I did the same thing if the difficulty level proved to be impossible – either adjust to make the exercise doable or reduce the reps. It’s good to challenge myself, but trying to do something that is too hard for me is just going to lead to frustration or injury – neither one of those is good. So my philosophy is to back off and work my way up.

Workouts

Jan 31: RC Dial It In Workout B[40 mins]
Jan 29: RC Dial It In Workout A + Treadmill Walk[60 mins]
Jan 27: RC Dial It In Workout B[45 mins]
Jan 24: RC Dial It In Workout A + Treadmill Walk[75 mins]
Jan 21: RC Define Yourself Workout B[45 mins]
Jan 18: Treadmill walk[40 mins]
Jan 16: RC Define Yourself Workout A[40 mins]
Jan 13: Burn & Firm Pilates DVD[45 mins]
Jan 11: UB Circuit + Abs[40 mins]
Jan 10: LB Circuit + Treadmill walk[40 mins]
Jan 08: RC Define Yourself Workout B[40 mins]
Jan 07: Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Jan 05: RC Define Yourself Workout A[60 mins]
Jan 03: RC Base Phase Workout B[40 mins]
Jan 01: RC Base Phase Workout A[40 mins]

I also read The Hormone Diet this month. That one took a bit longer to get through than the Cosgrove book. Still mulling that one over, but I will post my thoughts eventually. Maybe there will be a shoe post as well. You never know.

Sunday Brunch – Coconut Flapjacks

2011-01-16T22:12:00.001-04:00

When we were home over the holidays, I was flipping through a Bon Appetit magazine at my in-laws house and saw a recipe for Spiced Coconut Pancakes with Tropical Fruit. It was in an article by Mark Bittman talking about his new Food Matters Cookbook. The article and the recipe caught my interest, so when I got home I looked up the cookbook on amazon. After reading some reviews, I decided to order the cookbook.

My fist step with a new cookbook is to page through it and get an idea of what is in there. I was surprised that some of the recipes seemed so very basic. Is it really necessary to write a recipe for salad greens tossed with oil and vinegar? Or for a basic tomato sauce?

On reflection, I suppose the answer to that is yes. Husband and I both grew up on home cooking. We – and our siblings – learned to cook at a young age. Most of our friends are foodies who like to cook and experiment in the kitchen. It’s easy to forget that not everyone has that comfort level in the kitchen. That there are many people who don’t cook at all. So it makes sense that if you want to bring people back to cooking real food, you need to give them some basics.

In addition to the basics though, there are plenty of interesting recipes to consider. The inclusion of a recipe for Ma Po Tofu is enough to make me like Mark Bittman just because I love it so very much. I already have my own Ma Po Tofu recipe but I’m happy to see someone else spreading the Ma Po Tofu love. I was also happy to see a recipe for a Brown Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk, something I had been planning to try even though I didn’t have a recipe to work from – now I don’t have to wing it.

This weekend, with no plans or obligations, I decided it was a good time to test some recipes. For dinner last night I made Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder with Chipotle accompanied by Jalapeno Cheddar Almost Whole Wheat Quick Bread.

They were both good. Not Wow-I-Can’t-Wait-To-Make-This-Again good, but it was a satisfying meal. The quick bread lived up to it’s name, coming together both quickly and easily. Definitely a good option to have in your recipe arsenal (though maybe not as quick as tea biscuits, as a loaf takes longer to bake). The chowder was good, though I thought it was missing a little something. Likely just a matter of playing with the seasonings.

However, it was filling, it was a healthy meal, and we have leftovers. I could see making both of these things again.

This morning I finally made the Coconut Pancakes – or rather Coconut Flapjacks, as the recipe in the book is a bit different than the recipe I saw in Bon Appetit. I actually didn’t realize that fact until I searched for the recipe to link to it for this post. I just remembered that I wanted to try the coconut pancakes.

The text of the cookbook is very basic. No pretty photos of food. Just the text of the recipe, and in some cases variations – like the Jalapeno Cheddar variation of the quick bread.

The Coconut Flapjacks recipe was pretty easy to throw together – basically your dry ingredients, coconut milk & water. Then, based on the recipe, they should cook up like regular pancakes. I pulled out my snowflake griddle pan and set to work.

They didn’t look very impressive, and they were really hard to flip over. I didn’t see how I could have messed it up, as the recipe was fairly simple, but I’ll be honest: I didn’t have high hopes. They did, however, smell like fresh baked coconut macaroons – that was a little bit promising.

Mr. Bittman says these flapjacks can be served with fruit or – his favorite way – sprinkled with turbinado sugar and a squeeze of lime. We have a fruit syrup that Husband’s parents gave us that I thought might be good.

When I was finished making the flapjacks, Husband cooked up some eggs and back bacon. Then we served up our brunch.

These I really liked. They had a nice texture, a little more hearty than your usual pancake, maybe a little more chewy, but still light with a subtle coconut flavor. The fruit syrup was definitely a nice complement, as were the sugar and lime. These I will definitely make again.

And there were leftovers – normally I half pancake recipes because I know it will be too much for just the two of us, but for some reason today I didn’t. But that’s okay – I can just look forward to flapjacks for breakfast tomorrow!

Working Out with Jackie

2011-01-12T20:09:00.001-04:00

Back in September Mizfit reviewed a Jackie Warner workout DVD. I had never heard of Jackie Warner, but the DVD sounded like just what I’d been looking for. I have strength training DVDs, but they are mostly full body workouts.

Yes, I like full body workouts. But sometimes I would like to be able to split it up over 2 or 3 days.

Yes, I could make my own workout plan. But I like working out with DVDs. So much easier to just pop in a disc and follow along, rather than having to think about it.

So, of course, I looked it up on amazon and discovered two DVDs. Eventually I even got around to ordering them. What’s more, I tried them out. :)

The DVDs

Workout: One-On-One Training with Jackie has 3 20 minute workouts – Upper Body, Lower Body and Core. Each workout is made up of segments where you do (usually) 3 strength moves for one minute at a time, followed by one minute of cardio. If I had to choose only one of these DVDs, I would choose this one because:

a) It has a specific warmup and stretch for each of the 3 workouts

b) It has a menu option that allows you to choose the workouts you want to do, which is nice if you want to do 2 of the 3 workouts.

Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training has 3 15 minute circuits – again: upper, lower and core. These circuits are made up of segments where you do 3 strength moves for a minute each, then for the last minute you repeat those same strength moves for 20 seconds each.

This DVD does not have specific warmups & stretches – it uses the same one for each workout. On both of these DVDs I find the stretch routine to be really short, and if you’re cramming stretches for all 3 workouts into one minute, you’re really not getting much of a stretch (in my amateur opinion). Also, using the exact same warm up over and over could get a little boring. I’m just sayin’.

However, this DVD does include a 40 minute and a 15 minute total body circuit which is nice to have if you want to get in a full workout in a short amount of time. I did do the 40 minute routine, but have yet to try the 15 minute total body circuit.

My Experience with the Workouts

These are challenging workouts, but I think they are adaptable to many fitness levels. Jackie gives good instruction on form, and offers modifications in a lot of cases. And she mentions often that if you can’t do the full range of motion, just do what you can and keep moving. And of course you can make it more challenging by adding/upping your weights.

I do find that I have to use lighter weights than I would use in a traditional strength training session in order to keep going for 60 seconds. They move through their reps pretty fast sometimes too, and I don’t always keep up the same pace. But, as Jackie tells me to do, I keep going for the full minute.

The exception being core. I admit it, the core segments defeat me. Have mercy.

Also, they switch from one exercise to the next pretty quickly – which I guess is sorta the point – Keep moving! But sometimes I need to switch dumbbells and there’s not a lot of time to figure that out. But, hopefully that will get better as I get more familiar with the routines.

More on the stretch/cool down thing

I started out with the One-On-One Training DVD (the one with the 20 minute workouts). The first day I did upper body. A couple of days later I did lower body + core. After which I ended up walking funny for several days. That Lower Body workout was killer.

So, when I got to the Lower Body routine of the second DVD, I followed it up with a yoga session. Yay! I could walk afterward! It was a miracle.

Back to DVD #1, I did the Lower Body workout and followed it up with a slow & easy treadmill session. Again with the walking! Magical!

Hence, my complaint about the lacking-ness of the stretching segments on the DVDs. But, lesson learned; I make sure to get in a good cool down and/or stretch after the lower body workouts and I’m fine.

All in all, I’m pleased with these DVDs. They give me a workout option that I’d been wanting in my collection. The workouts go fast, you do not have time to get bored, and when you finish you know you’ve worked hard. What more can you ask from a workout DVD?

How’s the weather where you are?

We are currently on our way to being buried. We left work early because of the weather, and this is what it looked like when we got home.

It’s still snowing.

Dontcha wish you were here?

Winter Resolution

2011-01-09T20:28:00.002-04:00

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again: I have a really hard time keeping up with housework. It pretty much seems like an impossible task. One of the things I had counted on doing during my vacation was giving the house a really good cleaning. That didn’t happen and it was a big part of the reason I was cranky going back to work last Tuesday.
You’d think that if it’s so important to me to have a tidy house, I’d just get it done. Sounds so simple. My mother always kept our house spotless. My sisters both seem to do okay. But the good housekeeping gene seems to have completely skipped over me. I want to keep things looking nice. I just don’t seem able to accomplish it.
I did manage to get the living room all neat and tidy in the last couple days of my vacation. Yep, one whole (tiny) room. And I remember sitting there that evening, feeling like a weight had been lifted. The mess and disorder stresses me out. I need to do something about it. I don’t need things to be perfect or spotless. I just want to not feel like I’m in the middle of a disaster zone.
Part of the problem is that we have too much stuff in too little space. I get easily overwhelmed and frustrated. So I decided that I need to figure out the problem areas and come up with solutions. I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions, but I am going to take this on as my winter project. Maybe if I can get things organized, come up with better storage solutions, it won’t be so hard. Maybe that is wishful thinking, but I’m giving it a shot.
Today’s project was to tackle the cupboard of baking supplies. With dinner cooking away in the slow cooker, I spent the afternoon pulling everything out. I got rid of some things. I organized things in storage bins.
I ended up with this:

On the top, I used 2 large storage containers (stacked) and 4 small storage containers (stacked in twos). Hopefully this will make it easier to find things. Or else it will be really irritating when I need to pull out the storage bins. Remains to be seen.
On the bottom, I got rid of some things that didn’t need to be there. I used a couple of storage baskets for small items that were hard to keep tidy.
And then I straightened up the living room.

Baby steps.
One thing I did do during my vacation, despite being sick, was bake many batches of cookies. Most went home to my parents & In-laws.
But I also made a batch to try out these cookie cutters that Husband gave me last year:

It looks like there is a recipe on the back of the package, but since it’s in Japanese it didn’t help me much:

So I decided to try shortbread cookies thinking they wouldn’t spread much so they should hold the shape. I should also mention that it’s been probably….15 years since I’ve made plain shortbread cookies.
The cookies did spread, not a huge amount, but enough that I thought they might not work. And since I was feeling pretty crappy at the time, I just packed the cookies away in a container and forgot about them.
One good thing about being sick, I was able to forget about cookies. Not a normal state of affairs, I assure you.
But I finally had to give it a try and I actually did get some to work.

Kind of fun, don’t you think?
The cookies have been sitting around since the week before Christmas, and I know a lot of people say shortbread gets better with age, but I wasn’t sure. However, Husband ate one and said it was fine. So I guess now that we’ve played with our food, we can eat it. :)

Last Day of Vacation

2011-01-03T20:25:00.001-04:00

I am not remotely ready to go back to work, but back I go tomorrow morning. I had things I wanted to get done while I was on vacation and most of them didn’t happen. Trying to let it all go, since there’s nothing I can do about it now. However, I did manage to squeak one thing in today.

I love pancakes, but they are usually a holiday/long weekend breakfast. Early in December I picked up a cool griddle pan at Costco and I was looking forward to trying it out when my vacation started. When vacation finally did roll around, I was so tired and I kept thinking I would feel better the next day…Which I didn’t, since all that was leading up to the flu.

Finally, today was the day.

Is that not a cool looking pan?

While I was at it, I decided to try out a new recipe. For years now, I’ve been using a Nigella Lawson pancake recipe that I’ve been quite happy with. But, I have a new cookbook to start experimenting with.

It actually is very similar to the recipe I had been using; I guess pancakes are pretty basic.

It took a bit of practice to get the right amount of batter in the little molds and to flip the pancakes without messing them up, but it made such fun little pancakes!

I thought they came out looking really nice, and they had a nice light and fluffy texture. I did think they tasted a bit salty, but Husband did not notice that. I will definitely make them again, but cut back on the salt a little bit maybe.

All in all, a successful kitchen experiment and an appropriate breakfast for the snowy day we woke up to.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T11:41:00.000-04:00

As usual my vacation has flown by and I haven't quite managed to do all the things I had hoped to do. Still, I have a few days left - back to work on Tuesday - to make the most of.

I ended up getting sick the first week and was still feeling fairly miserable when we went home to Nova Scotia for Christmas weekend. Then the day that we were supposed to come home there was a storm, so we were delayed by a day. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the ferry home as we had planned, and the weather was still not great on the day we came home, so it was a long drive. A lot of it looked like this:

We were tired, but oh so glad to get home.

That was Tuesday; on Wednesday we had an appointment to bottle wine (see recap here) which ended up being kind of fun. Then we went out and bought groceries, then came home and relaxed.

Yesterday was Husband & my 9th wedding anniversary, and oh yeah, New Year's Eve, so we went out to dinner with friends. Missed my baby sister who normally comes to spend New Year's with us, but she moved out west this summer. It was still a good evening with friends though!

Anyway, just wanted to say Happy New Year to all my blog friends! Hope you had a fun New Year's Eve and that 2011 will be a fabulous year for all!

December Workouts

Dec 22: Total Body Circuit + Treadmill walk[60 mins]
Dec 16: Treadmill walk/jog[30 mins]
Dec 13: LB Circuit + Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Dec 11: UB Circuit[20 mins]
Dec 08: Treadmill Walk/Jog + Abs[45 mins]
Dec 07: The FIRM Power Half Hour[30 mins]
Dec 05: LB Circuit + Gentle Hatha Yoga #2[45 mins]
Dec 03: UB Circuit + Treadmill walk[35 mins]
Dec 02: The Studio Barefoot Cardio DVD[45 mins]
Dec 01: Cardio Sculpt DVD + Treadmill walk[60 mins]

It's the end of the world as we know it

2010-12-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

I ran for 13 minutes straight on the treadmill.

And I feel fine.

It’s Starting to Look a Lot Like Winter

2010-12-01T20:54:00.001-04:00

We got our first real snow fall on Saturday. It was coming down pretty steady all day, fluffy-fat flakes of white stuff. At this point, it’s new enough (and late enough in the season) to be pretty.

We didn’t get a huge amount, but enough to cover everything in a blanket of white. A lot of it is gone already, the rest may not last much longer, but I think winter is here.

Sunday morning was actually bright & sunny. Husband and I were sitting in the living room and I happened to look up and see a fox trotting down the hill and across our neighbor’s yard. I was wishing for my camera, but it was down in the basement on my desk. It was a pleasure to see though, and we’ve watched several deer saunter past, close enough that we can see they are wearing their thick winter coats.

November Workouts

Nov 29: Burn & Firm Pilates DVD[45 mins]
Nov 28: Candlelight Yoga DVD[40 mins]
Nov 24: Lower Body & Abs[40 mins]
Nov 22: Upper Body + Cardio[45 mins]
Nov 20: Fusion Flow DVD[45 mins]
Nov 16: Treadmill walk/Jog[20 mins]
Nov 15: Treadmill walk[20 mins]
Nov 10: Cardio Intervals[30 mins]
Nov 09: Shape Mag Dumbbell Circuit[35 mins]
Nov 06: Treadmill walk/jog[40 mins]
Nov 04: Fat Burning Fusion DVD[45 mins]
Nov 03: Treadmill walk[20 mins]
Nov 02: Fitnessista BootCamp #2[30 mins]
Nov 01: Treadmill walk/jog + Lunar Flow #1[45 mins]

I’m feeling pretty good about November. Last week I was not feeling so great, starting around Wednesday. Went to the doctor on Friday and ended up with a prescription for antibiotics. Felt really crappy on the weekend, but feeling much better now and looking forward to December.

Starting Monday I have 2 weeks of work left, then I’m on vacation until January. Can’t wait!

I can’t keep up…

2010-11-18T21:22:00.001-04:00

Am I crazy or was the first of November just a couple of days ago? How does that happen?

After all the rain I was complaining about at the beginning of last week, the sun came out and the last 4 days of the week were fabulously sunny. And since Remembrance Day was on Thursday, I only had to work on one out of those 4 sunny days. It was lovely I tell you.

The cats and I had some quality time together and I finally got most of the yard cleaned up for the winter. You know, it’s a whole lot more work in the spring – dragging out containers, bags of soil and compost, transplants and all the other garden tools and paraphernalia – but it seems like harder work putting it all away for the winter. Ah well, it was good to get out and enjoy the sun.

Kitty Walks

The garden is put to bed for the winter.

Lazy Sunday morning view – Frank on his loveseat, Zappa on my lap.

I really should cut some of this catnip and dry it. Look at that plant! It’s a catnip tree!

Gloomy-ish weather came back on Tuesday, but it hasn’t been as bad as last week. It’s been a busy one though.

I didn’t do any formal workouts on the weekend – I had good intentions, but I was busy doing stuff around the house and yard, so I don’t feel like it’s quite as necessary.

Monday I was feeling kind of sluggish. I made myself get on the treadmill anyway, but the sluggishness did not go away, so it was a short session.

Tuesday I was feeling better, raring to go even, and a new DVD I was looking forward trying. Put the disk in the player…Nothing. Popped it out and back in. Nothing. Tried a different disk. Nothing. That sorta ruined my mood, so it ended up being another short treadmill session. I’m continuing with my “some is better than none” philosophy.

Yesterday I knew I wasn’t going to have any time, so I planned on a day off. As it turns out, I woke up with a stitch in my side that did not go away all day. Taking a deep breath was challenging. This happens to me sometimes – I have respiratory issues – but it usually doesn’t last that long.

Today it’s better, but I’m not feeling quite back to normal, so I decided to take it easy for another day, just to be on the safe side. Not that I want to make excuses not to exercise, but I do find breathing to be rather essential.

And lookie, it’s almost the weekend again!

I’ll leave with a few more photos that I thought were kind of neat. Last Friday I worked from home, and during the day there was a flock of birds that circled around and landed a few times. Fortunately both cats were indoors sleeping while all this was going on, so no birds were harmed.

Photos taken through my living room window. You may want to click to enlarge.

I Meant It…

2010-11-09T21:08:00.001-04:00

…And I followed through.

Yes, it is still raining.

Yes, I did a workout.

While flipping through a Shape magazine on the weekend, a workout caught my eye. I decided to give it a go today.

I did a quick warm up and then repeated this circuit twice. I actually counted reps instead of doing timed sets – I find timing an exercise to be a pain in the butt. Other than that, I followed the routine. I find workouts from magazines can be hit or miss, but this one I liked; I may keep it to do again.

The routine is here if you are interested; I did the dumbbell version.

Then instead of doing a third repetition of the circuit, I tried a couple of other moves from the magazine.

With some stretching to finish things off, I was done in 35 minutes, which was about the amount of time I had for exercise today. I ended my session with that jelly-limbed feeling that I associate with a good strength workout, so I think it was a well spent 35 minutes.

Then I made supper which I enjoyed while watching last night’s episode of Castle, had a shower, and now I’m having dessert.

Don’t be too impressed by that healthy choice; I’ve had my fair share of chocolate today.

Off to try and get in a little piano practice before bed.

Rain & Impromptu Thai Feast

2010-11-08T22:26:00.001-04:00

It has been raining since Friday. I’m ready for it to stop, but the forecast is saying more rain for the next couple of days.

I was sitting in my chair after work, with my fuzzy blanket, thinking I should really get up and do some exercise. But I couldn’t seem to make myself do it. I thought maybe after supper.

However, by the time supper was ready to eat, it was 8 PM. It was one of those nights when Husband was in the mood to play in the kitchen. He’s been slightly obsessed with a new cookbook.

We ended up with a Thai feast…

Green Curry Chicken, Tofu & Mushrooms, Broccoli with Oyster sauce. I didn’t eat the mushrooms because mushrooms are yucky (oh yes they are) but the rest of it was excellent.

And I have lunch for tomorrow.

But that’s it. Two days in a row of wallowing is enough. Tomorrow there will be a workout of some sort.

Really.

I mean it.

November So Far...

2010-11-03T21:55:00.000-03:00

Getting back into my workout groove...I hope! Monday & Tuesday - Mission accomplished. Today I had every intention of coming home and doing a workout, something not to intense since I'm feeling sore from my circuit workout yesterday. We even got home a little early. The sun was shining. But I just wasn't in the mood. I thought maybe I'd take a rest day, give those sore muscles a chance to recover. I was feeling strangely motivated to try and catch up on some housework...

Frank let me know that he wanted a walk. And the sun was shining. It's been a chilly week, but it was pretty nice outside...Maybe just a short walk!

We headed up the hill, with Zappa watching and complaining from below.

Up over the hill we went. Frank was all keen to explore, then one of the neighborhood kids came running up the hill and went past us. Frank didn't quite know what to think.

Once the kid disappeared we wandered a bit more, but I didn't want to go too far since I knew I'd have to carry my 16 1/2 pound cat back to the house.

Once we got back Zappa felt that it was his turn. Frank tends to meander and take his time, checking everything out along the way. Zappa usually trots right along, so we headed right off around the house, down the driveway, and suddenly another youngster went dashing by up the hill.

Zappa stopped to look (sorry - blogger won't let me reorient the photo - should have written this is LiveWriter) then he immediately turned around and ran back to the house. So much for that.

Anyway, then I came in decided to do a short, easy walk on the treadmill after all. So much for housework.

And, for the sake of record keeping, here are September & Oco

October Workouts:
Oct 23: Fitnessista BootCamp #1[55 mins]
Oct 21: Treadmill walk/jog[25 mins]
Oct 20 Walk + Lunar Flow #1[40 mins]
Oct 18: Treadmill walk/jog[32 mins]
Oct 13: FitChickExpress DVD Superset #1 + Treadmill walk[30 mins]
Oct 12: Treadmill walk/jog[30 mins]
Oct 10: Walk[20 mins]
Oct 05: Walk[40 mins]
Oct 04: Lower Body weight circuit + Treadmill walk[35 mins]

September Workouts:
Sept 30: Cardio + Bicep/Tricep curls
Sept 29: Treadmill walk/jog + short strength circuit[35 mins]
Sept 27: Treadmill walk[25 mins]
Sept 25: The FIRM Power Half Hour DVD[30mins]
Sept 24: Crunch Yoga Body Sculpt DVD[40 mins]
Sept 22: Walk[45 mins]
Sept 19: Walk[40 mins]
Sept 14: Treadmill walk + short upper body circuit[35 mins]
Sept 11: The FIRM HiDef Sculpt DVD[45 mins]
Sept 10: Treadmill Walk[40 mins]
Sept 09: Crunch Pilates-Yoga Blend DVD[40 mins]
Sept 08: Hip Opening Flow #3[30 mins]
Sept 07: Treadmill Walk[40 mins]
Sept 04: Walk[35 mins]
Sept 02: Lunar Flow #1[20 mins]

October

2010-10-31T22:43:00.000-03:00

Wanted to slip one post in under the wire, so that the whole of October did not go by with nary a post. What did I do this month?

First weekend of October, my Mom came to visit. First time I've ever had Mom visit all by herself. We did girly stuff like shopping all day and watching Gilmore Girls on DVD. It was fun! And busy.
Thanksgiving weekend, Cory and I had a quiet weekend at home. I made salsa and started tidying away the garden.

The next Friday I heard that a college friend had passed away. It was a shock and very sad.
Then Cory came down with a cold.
Then I came down with a cold. Nothing serious, but it made me very tired.
During the course of the month I completed my annual Harry-Potter-athon; re-read all the books because the second to last movie comes out on Nov 19.
I also read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It was such an engrossing story, but oh! The ending! I was so upset.
I've been in the mood to bake and, among other things, experimented with the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. Pizza dough and French Bread were created. It was fun!

I guess it's been a month of ups and downs. Which is how life goes. My exercise schedule is still messed up. Hard to imagine that for a while there I thought sticking to an exercise routine was easy. Goes to show, one should not get complacent.

Although, now that I'm looking at my notebook, September was not that terrible. I think October just threw me for a bit of loop. Will post a summary soon, since I do like to keep a record; just don't have time tonight.

So that was October.

Hidey-ho neighbor!

2010-09-30T22:03:00.001-03:00

Mighty fine weather we’re having, isn’t it?

Good harvesting weather for sure!

Actually, this week has been a little dismal – foggy & rainy, but at least it has stayed warm. All in all though, September has been pretty decent.

I have been bringing in a steady stream of tomatoes. Plus a few carrots, when we want them, and this past weekend I picked a lot of tomatoes, even some that weren’t quite ripe. I’m hoping the weather is going to stay warm for a bit, but you never know.

So there’s been a lot of this…

And this past Sunday my kitchen table looked like this…

No that I’m complaining.

Among other things, we’ve had pretty salads…

We tried out a new recipe for Tomato and Egg Soup…

It was a hit and we ended up making it two nights in a row.

And of course, some salsa…

I haven’t made nearly as much as I made last year; somehow it just seems like there hasn’t been time. I’m sure I’ll manage to put up a few more batches before the tomatoes are gone though.

Not this weekend, though, because my Mom is coming to visit. She doesn’t usually come by herself, usually my Dad & brother come too, but she had the opportunity to travel with someone this weekend, so she’ll be here tomorrow evening.

So, I will just give you a hello from the Fabulous Felines…

And a nod from some Sunflowers…

And then I’ll say good-night! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hodge Podge From My Garden

2010-09-13T20:55:00.001-03:00

Yesterday’s bounty!

It had actually a few days since I had been out to the garden – the weather was damp and dreary for a lot of last week – so there were a ton of tomatoes to pick. I also pulled some carrots (there are still more in the ground), dug up garlic and the rest of the bunching onions, and emptied one of my potato tubs.

I filled my Star Trek movie popcorn bucket with potatoes of varying size. Enough to give us a few meals.

I had the last of the green beans in the fridge. We hit the farmers market to pick up a few extras.

Then we made supper!

Totally worth growing my own potatoes for this Hodge Podge! I’m not normally one to get excited about potatoes (or carrots for that matter), but when they are consumed the same day they come out of the garden, it’s a whole different thing.

My beans and peas are definitely done, but there are more tomatoes, carrots and one more tub of potatoes. The weather has definitely taken a turn toward autumn, but the garden is not quite finished.

I Can Has Grilled Cheeze!

2010-09-08T20:44:00.001-03:00

I think I am experiencing some end-of-summer blues. Granted, we can still have lovely weather for a while yet, but the air has that autumn feel to it and the long summer evenings are quickly disappearing.

Fortunately, I have some consolation.

I am eating as many grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches as I can manage. With tomatoes that I grew my-own-self, and my beloved Balderson Extra-Old White Cheddar.

I believe I have had one of these sandwiches per day for the past four days. Plus a couple of bacon and tomato, for good measure.

I’ve also got plenty of grape and cherry tomatoes to go in salads.

So I guess things aren’t all that bad.

Hurricane Earl amounted to nothing more than a rainy Saturday in these parts, and by late afternoon the sun was out.

We had a holiday Monday to laze around the house.

True, the holiday is over and we’re back to work. But it’s a four-day week – and here it is Wednesday already – so another weekend is not far away. And more grilled cheese & tomato sandwiches to be eaten!

I guess I don’t need to worry about winter just yet.

September 1st!

2010-09-01T20:50:00.000-03:00

Today was warmer than yesterday. 33 degrees Celsius as were pulling into our driveway. At 10 to 6. On September 1st! I think we’ve been setting a new record every day.
I would like to point out that I am not complaining. Yes it is to hot to do much moving around. Husband didn’t even want to go out and light the BBQ after work today so we had salads and snack plates. But I sorta feel like I have to store up all of this sun and heat to get me through the winter. We did move the air conditioner from Husband’s computer room to the bedroom last night though, so we could sleep.
So, time for that month end review. I did actually work out during the month of August, even though I was not updating my sidebar. So here it is:
Aug 01: 2 hrs stacking wood
Aug 02: 80 minutes stacking wood
Aug 04: The FIRM Express Cardio DVD[30 mins]
Aug 05: The FIRM Power Half Hour DVD[30 mins]
Aug 12: 25 minute walk
Aug 14: PYL Pilates[30 mins]
Aug 16: Cardio Intervals[20 mins]
Aug 17: Fat Burning Fusion DVD[45 mins]
Aug 18: Cardio Intervals[25 mins]
Aug 24: 2o minute walk
Aug 25: Fusion Flow DVD[45 mins]
Aug 26: Barefoot Cardio DVD[45 mins]
Aug 27: 1 hour stacking wood
Aug 28: Gentle Hatha Flow #1[20 mins]
Aug 30: PYL Pilates

I’m finding, at the moment, that I do better to just keep my expectations low. Aim for short workouts. Doing what I can. I’m sure I will settle back into a routine once fall really sets in, but for now this is what works.
Two fun grocery store finds to share from our stop at SuperStore on the way home today.
Feta from Nova Scotia.

White Cheddar from PEI.

We had some of the feta in our salad tonight and it was very good. A creamy, mild tasting feta which is perfect for us as Husband doesn’t like a feta that is too strong.
Have not tried the Cow’s Cheddar yet, but looking forward to it. They make good ice cream, hopefully the cheese is just as good!
Spent a little time in the garden this evening, watering and then lounging in a chair with a magazine. It is slightly cooler outside than inside. Not a huge difference, but still welcome. And the surroundings are quite pleasant!

End of August Heat Wave

2010-08-31T21:29:00.001-03:00

It’s been really hot the past couple of days, record highs for this time of year. I went out right after work to get some oregano and when I came inside I was laughing at just how ridiculously hot it is out in the yard.

Not that I’m complaining. It’s too hot to move, but I sort of feel like I need to store up all this heat to get me through the winter months. I just hope it cools down enough that I can sleep tonight.

While I was out snipping oregano, I also found a few more ripe tomatoes and a miniature cucumber. The cucumbers are just starting, but I’ve been getting a handful of tomatoes daily since Saturday (check out the garden blog). Soon I should be getting a whole lot more.

The oregano was to go in a pasta dish for supper. We certainly don’t want the stove on any longer than necessary when it’s this hot, but we had not remember to defrost anything for BBQ. So, Mediterranean Pasta was the plan.

It should have had fresh basil, but I don’t have any. I figured oregano would be fine (which it was because I love oregano). Then I also discovered that our Feta had gone off, so we ended using parmesan instead. But it was still good.

The secret ingredient?

Our favorite Balsamic Vinegar. This stuff is thick and syrupy and very smooth tasting.

And this post has taken a whole lot longer than I planned because I was sure I had posted the pasta recipe at some point, but if I did, I didn’t label it and I can’t find it. It’s hot and it’s late and I’m not going to type it out now. I will say that it was a good dinner and it hit the spot!

Now I think I am going to stand under a cold shower and see if I can get cooled off enough to sleep.

Hello Healthy Living Bloggers

2010-08-23T20:47:00.001-03:00

Yes, I do remember that once upon a time I used to blog about food and exercise and weight loss. It has been on my mind that I should get back to it. I’m always waiting for the right time. Waiting for that magical day when I have the time and the head space to sit down and get my thoughts in order. Which, of course, never happens. So maybe I’m better off just sitting down at the keyboard and spewing out whatever is on my mind.

Like tonight.

I’ve been a bit off my routine for the past few days. Never a good thing for me. My in-laws were coming on Saturday to stay over night on their way to Ottawa. I said to Husband on the previous weekend that we should get the house cleaning out of the way so that we weren’t rushing around at the last moment. He said, oh, it’s not that bad, it won’t take long. That’s what he always says. Probably because I do most of the work (my own fault, I’m not good at asking for help).

So of course we were not ready. Then, somehow, getting into the car after work on Friday, Husband did something to his shoulder (don’t ask me, I don’t know. He doesn’t know) so I felt bad enough making him do the amount of cleaning that he did, and I tried not to ask for much extra. Which leaves me rushing around like a crazy woman right up to the time our guests arrived, fantasies of a Saturday workout dashed (unless you count housework).

We went out to dinner and I had chicken nachos and black bean quesadillas and a margarita. Not complaining, but a workout that day would not have been amiss.

Yesterday, I have only myself to blame. I had good intentions to get in a work out. But I was feeling tired and not disposed to do much, likely due to the rushing around all day Saturday and then not sleeping well Sunday night. I don’t sleep well when we have company, isn’t that weird? Neither do the cats because they kept jumping on me and poking at me all night.

So no exercise yesterday. Except more house work. Laundry anyone?

The plan for tonight was BBQ. We are getting a new fridge tomorrow. (Yay!) So we’ve been in clean out fridge/use stuff up mode. I was looking forward to coming home to a simple BBQ meal. I had my calories tracked for the day, figuring I had room for supper and that I would have time for at least a short exercise session of some sort. I was also looking forward to minimal dishes to clean up, since BBQ does not involve dirtying up pots.

Then we were late leaving work. Then Husband decided that he wanted to do something different for supper.

I don’t like to discourage Husband when he gets the urge to experiment in the kitchen. It’s always nice to have help, plus we do have fun spending time together in the kitchen.

But the end result is more calories than I planned on, and my evening pretty much gone.

I enjoyed spending time with Husband, but at the same time I find myself feeling like the evening I had envisioned got stolen away from me.

Does anyone else ever feel that way? Or do I sound completely nuts?

If you made it to the end of my whining session, I now reward you with a few extra photos from yesterday….

If you haven’t seen yesterday’s garden post yet, click on over and check it out.

Thanks for listening/reading. :)

Tomato Watch 2010

2010-08-22T21:42:00.000-03:00

New post on the garden blog. Thar be tomatoes! Also sunflowers, green beans and cats. :)

I would insert a picture, but blogger is being a pain. You'll just have to click over to the other blog to see.

Quick 1-2-3…

2010-08-17T21:14:00.001-03:00

Point 1:

Finally made it to the mailbox on Sunday afternoon and found a package waiting for me.

Thanks so much to Lynn for the fantastic giveaway. Coffee, chocolate & Chai – three favorite things! Husband is quite impressed that my blog reading leads to treats! He is wondering if I should start buying lottery tickets.

Point 2:

A friend mentioned that my favorite shoe store was having a big sale. I tried to resist, but it’s like I was hit with a tractor beam. Two pairs of flats, in 3 photos:

What can I say? Shoes make me happy.

Point 3:

Curious to see what the blossoms on a Green Thai Eggplant look like? Head on over to Frank & Zappa's garden and take a peek!

Strawberry Jam!

2010-08-07T17:13:00.001-03:00

I feel like I have been missing out on a lot of the usual summer things this year. Not sure why – it just seems like we’ve had so much on the go.

Last night though, we had nothing going on; we just relaxed at home. I took the cats out for a bit.

Frank looks deceptively relaxed doesn’t he? Just sitting there watching the world go by. If I was to turn my back on him, he’d likely be out of the harness and headed for the hills in no time. So I hung out with them a bit, then took them in. It was kind of a weird evening, warm & humid and kind of dark.

Later on in the evening – not sure what time it was – we had a major downpour. Husband was running around closing windows so we wouldn’t end up with puddles in the house.

Today we did one of those summer things that we haven’t been doing at all – we drove out to the farmer’s market. I thought I had missed strawberry season. I saw local strawberries in the SuperStore for a couple of weeks, and thought to myself that I ought to get some, but I was always rushing in and out. Next thing I knew they were gone.

Then what do we see in the farmer’s market today? Local strawberries! They were beautiful too. Four boxes quickly went into our basket.

So, unexpectedly, I spent my afternoon doing another summer activity - making freezer jam!

I was a little disappointed to discover that the lids on two of my plastic preserving containers were cracked – I haven’t even had them that long. Three were still good though, so I used a couple of glass jars and recycled an empty plastic container.

So happy to restock my freezer with strawberry jam. It’s my favorite! I asked husband if it would be bad form to scrape out the jam bowl and lick the spoon; he said I’d earned it. :)

August

2010-08-02T12:13:00.001-03:00

How did it get to be August already? We’ve had a fantastic long weekend. Husband and I both took Friday off and today is New Brunswick Day, so we’ve had a four day weekend. The weather has been perfect – sunny, hot, but not too hot. I kind of don’t want it to end, but we still have the rest of today to enjoy.

Yesterday and today’s exercise:

This was a blast from my childhood past. It’s been years since I stacked wood. I always hated doing it, and I remember that it seemed to go on forever. Up to now Husband and I got wood from a guy who would bring his kids along, and we’d pay a little extra to have it stacked. However, it seems that firewood is getting harder to come by; last year we couldn’t get any at all, so this year we’re stacking our own and counting ourselves lucky that we got it.

Husband lasted about an hour yesterday (without complaining, which I do appreciate, because I know he’s not used to that much physical activity). I kept going for an hour after he quit because I wanted to get half way, or as close to half way as I could, through the pile. I really don’t want to spend a week getting it all stacked. So hopefully we’ll get out and finish it this afternoon.

Monthly Workout Record

Normally at the end of the month I do a post with all of my exercise for the month. I didn’t do that at the end of June – workouts in June were sporadic and I didn’t keep track very well.

I think that I kind of burned myself out a bit in May/June. Not necessarily with exercise, but with feeling like I had to keep up with everything, including exercise. So this month I backed off a bit and gave myself permission to just do short workouts if that’s all I could do. I figure I am more active this time of year anyway, with the gardens to take care of, plus we’ve been doing a lot of cleaning, rearranging and sorting in the house.

July was better. This is just what works for summer and I need to remember that.

So, the summary for June & July:

July Workouts:

July 30: Yoga for Runners #1 + Cardio Intervals[55 mins]
July 29: Crunch Candlelight Yoga[40 mins]
July 27: Lunar Flow #1[20 mins]
July 26: Gentle Hatha Yoga #1[20 mins]
July 25: Moon Salutations Flow #1[25 mins]
July 24: Lunar Flow #1[20 mins]
July 21: Gentle Hatha Yoga #1[20 mins]
July 20: Cardio Intervals[20 mins]
July 18: Walk [45 mins]
July 17: Crunch Yoga Sculpt[40 mins]
July 15: Walk [40 mins]
July 13: 60+ minutes in the garden, weeding, trimming & watering
July 12: Sun Salutation Flow #1[20 mins]
July 11: Strength Training + Cardio[45 mins]
July 10: Cardio Intervals [30 mins]
July 01: Cardio Intervals + Gentle Hatha Yoga #1 [45 mins]

June Workouts:
June 29: Cardio Intervals[30 mins]
June 23: Burn & Firm Pilates[45 mins]
June 21: Cardio Intervals + Weights[55 mins]
June 9: Walk[40 mins]
June 6: Fat Burning Yoga[40 min]
June 4: 1 hr 45 min in the garden

I suspect August will be similar to July. Honestly, summer is short and goes by so quickly around here. We have to make the most of it!

Quick Yoga Check In - Days 4 to 6

2010-07-30T20:41:00.002-03:00

Just a quickie to update on the Seven Days of Yoga Challenge...

Wednesday - crazy busy, no yoga
Thursday - Crunch Candlelight Yoga DVD
Friday - Yoga for Runners #1 (pre-cardio session)

One day left!

Day 3 of Yoga

2010-07-27T13:42:00.005-03:00

I was really looking forward to this lunch today, and it looked so good that I pulled out my iPhone to snap a photo. The reality lived up to the anticipation, too; it was a salad of leaf lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes and red bell pepper combined with a serving of soaked bulger that had been flavored with cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin and a little hit of roasted garlic flavored olive oil, then topped with hummus. It was oh-so-tasty, and for me, a perfectly satisfying lunch.

I've been thinking about food lately. Well, I suppose I always think about food. More accurate to say I've been thinking of food in terms of how it makes me feel. I wouldn't say that I have reached any final conclusion yet, but I've noticed a couple of interesting things. Which I fully intended to explore here, but of course things came up and now it's 10 pm and I want to go to bed. So not tonight.

I've just finished my Lunar Flow yoga workout. I have to say, enjoying Savasana with a cat purring on my stomach is not a bad way to end the day.

Day 2 of Yoga

2010-07-26T22:43:00.002-03:00

Busy, busy, busy, but got in a short session of Hatha Flow. Always feel so good after finishing a yoga session!

New garden post up; sorry for the typos and photos that I forgot to rotate. It's late. I'm tired. There are a lot of things I like about wordpress, but once you stick a photo in, you have to take it out to change it. Boo.

Off to bed!

Seven Days of Yoga

2010-07-25T22:41:00.002-03:00

I wish wish wish that I had spent my weekend relaxing with these guys out in the garden.

But it was another weekend of crazy. Just when you think your ducks are lining themselves nicely into a row…Well, let’s just say the ducks got ornery and changed their minds. I’ve been crazy busy and the house is a disaster yet again.

I’m a little stressed…again.

So, this is really good timing for Lynn's Yoga Challenge (and I totally titled my post without realizing that Lynn used the exact same title). I kicked things off today with a new one from Yoga Downloads - Moon Salutations Flow #1. It was definitely a great way to wind things down for the day.

I plan to have a new post up on the garden blog soon – hopefully tomorrow, but in the mean time here are a few things that have been showing up in my kitchen!

Aren’t those colors gorgeous? Lettuce, green onions and purple basil from the garden, along with some red bell peppers and tomatoes.

Sugar snap peas and a few strawberries.

A nice addition to Saturday’s lunch of leftover tofu pad thai.

And my cilantro was desperately in need of being chopped back. It was a good excuse to make guacamole last night for dinner! And yes, I am still using my Star Trek popcorn bucket from last summer to carry my garden harvests. :)

And now I need to be tucked into my bed. See you all tomorrow for day two of the yoga challenge.

Sunshine & Fog

2010-07-23T10:37:00.002-03:00

I took this photo walking down the street a week ago. It was a beautiful, sunshine-y day and I thought the fog over the harbour looked pretty. And then I never got around to posting it.

I also added a new post to the garden blog, fully intending to write a post here as well. Which I never go around to.

So go check out the new garden pictures - lots of stuff there - and hopefully I will be back with an actual post soon!

The Sun’ll Come Out…On Monday…

2010-07-12T21:19:00.001-03:00

Saturday we had fog, Sunday was more fog, interspersed with rain – some real downpours – so we took advantage of a weekend with no plans and goofed off.

Sunday, during a break in the rain, I happened to be looking out the living room window, watching the resident gopher graze on the neighbor’s lawn. I saw it go into the tall grass and weeds at the end of the lawn and it looked like it was reaching up for something. Of course, I had to get out my binoculars (stalker gear, as my husband calls them, but I only spy on the wildlife, I promise!) to see what it was doing.

Not sure how well you’ll be able to see this, since it was taken through the window at max zoom on my little camera.

There are these weeds with purple flowers – really quite pretty – and Mr. Gopher was standing on his hind legs, reaching up to pull them down so he could nibble on them. I’m not sure what the actual name of the plant is, we always called them wild peas because they get little seed pods that look like miniature pea pods. Anyway, they are apparently quite tasty. If you’re a gopher anyway.

Speaking of tasty…

I have been looking and looking and looking and I finally got my hands on some Liberte Greek Yogurt and the Coconut flavored Mediterranee. I actually had found the Vanilla flavored Greek Yogurt a while back and tried it. I wasn’t crazy about it – I find the Liberte Vanilla flavors are too sweet for me. Husband likes it though, so I got a tub of the Vanilla for him, and the plain Green and the coconut for me.

Breakfast on Sunday morning (and Monday morning…)

Kashi Honey Almond Flax + Coconut yogurt + blackberries. Awesome in a bowl.

What’s that? Why yes, that is a pretty table…

I went out on Saturday to look for some hooks to hang some strawberry baskets on and Husband said something about maybe we should have a table for out in the yard…So I found this one at Pier 1.

I was quite disappointed that it was rainy and yucky yesterday because I wanted to take my table out and get my strawberry baskets up.

Today the sun came back and it was lovely and hot outside when we got home from work, so after supper I went outside, intending to arrange my new lawn furniture (ok, the table with the two chairs that my dad made) but ended up getting side tracked.

I stepped out on the deck and saw a bunch of baby trees sitting in the yard.

We’re having a bit of work done to the hill facing the road.

The grass just doesn’t grow well there, and it’s kind of uninteresting looking, since it’s just the end of our house facing the road. So the flower bed there has been expanded – quite a bit, that top corner where you can actually see trees and plants was all that was there before. They came and expanded the bed last Thursday, and must have dropped off the trees today.

So I couldn’t exactly arrange my table and chairs…

I will soon though, and will post updated veggie garden pics. Honestly, it’s like things grew overnight out there. Including weeds, so there’s some work to be done – hopefully tomorrow.

It’s just amazing. Last week I was out there thinking my tomato plants were still looking a little spindly….

Now they are turning into big, bushy, lovely plants.

Everything is so green. I guess the rainy weekend wasn’t such a bad thing!

July flying by...

2010-07-10T20:01:00.013-03:00

Well. Long time, no blog. I'd like to say that I've been off enjoying myself - and indeed, Husband and I did have a pretty good week around the Canada Day Holiday. The past week has been rather stressful though, and I've been pretty exhausted. I believe we have made it through to the other side, and things should be a bit more relaxed for a while. Finally!

I haven't been keeping up with things very well lately, and I feel like I owe you guys garden pictures. I actually created a second blog, dedicated to the garden so that I can post updates for my family. I like to keep this blog to myself. Sounds insane - a second blog - when you consider that I haven't been able to keep up with this one, but we'll see how it goes. There is a link in the side bar if you want to check it out - click on the picture of Frank & Zappa in the garden.

Things are actually coming along quite well in the garden this year - better than last year certainly. We've had lots of sun, but also a good amount of rain; pretty much perfect garden weather.

My tomato and pea plants have blossoms! I can see my carrots!

I have actually harvested some herbs and some onions for salad. It's not much, but every little bit makes me happy!

Dill & Parsley

Bunching Onions

I made Potato Salad, using the dill and about half of the onions. I used the rest of the onions and the parsley in a tossed salad.

Because I don't like mayo, this is what I make for potato salad.

Dill Potato Salad

Cook your potatoes until fork tender. While potatoes are still warm, add fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt & pepper, chopped dill and green onions.

Toss to mix everything together, then add sour cream.

And you're done! Chill until you are ready to serve. How easy can it get?

That felt like pretty much a perfect summer evening, in my kitchen putting together a summery meal, no rushing, and Zappa rolling around on the deck, soaking up the sun.

Suddenly Summer

2010-06-30T21:28:00.001-03:00

I wait all winter for it to be summer again, and it seems like I’ve hardly had a chance to notice that it’s here! But it definitely is, and I’ve decided that it’s time to stop and smell the…er…cilantro.

There was an avocado sitting there, just waiting to be turned into guacamole, so after work today I headed out to the garden to snip a bit of cilantro. I grabbed my camera on the way and managed to drop it. It hit the floor pretty hard – I actually grabbed my camera case and was swinging the strap over my head and the camera flew out – and now I have this black crack across the top of the view screen…

So mad at myself. I love this little camera. It still works, it’s just that I like to take care of my things. So that put a bit of a damper on my sunny afternoon, but I headed out anyway.

I have cilantro growing in two spots. First, in this container, along with some pepper plants and purple basil.

A second plant is at the opposite end of my veggie patch, where I have a bunch of herbs in the ground.

These were plants from the garden center. I also have some seeds in and hopefully they will grow. We like cilantro!

While I was out there, I figured I might as well do a little tour of the veggie garden. Things are really coming along now. At the beginning of the season, things seem to go slowly. You put in your tomato plants and it seems like not much is going on. Then suddenly they start to grow. You can almost see it!

Remember those Potato Tubs I planted when my parents were visiting in May? Those little seed potatoes have turned into plants that are just bursting out of the sacks. I also have a couple of tomato plants in containers at then end of the garden – as usual.

This is a view of my little veggie garden, from where the potato tubs are. This end is where I have some herbs, garlic and bunching onions growing.

And then many, many tomato plants.

There is nothing like tomatoes fresh from the garden!

Here I have some miniature cucumber seeds planted. They are just starting to come up.

At the other end, I have lettuce, cabbage, peas and beans. I think it won’t be long before I have lettuce! I could definitely pull up some of those bunching onions now. Throw in some purple basil and I’ll have a salad!

And of course more containers with mostly tomatoes, but also the peppers and herbs that I mentioned at the beginning….Excuse me while I snip a bit of cilantro!

On the deck, I have one more container.

This is a Tomato Success Kit from Veseys. When I saw this in the catalog, I couldn’t resist giving it a try. Technically, the deck is not full sun, which tomatoes should really have. But, when the sun is shining, it’s the hottest spot in our yard so I’m hoping it will be ok.

Looks promising; I can see buds forming already.

Tomorrow is Canada Day which means a holiday – no work! And Husband & I took Friday off. The weather forecast is looking pretty good, so I have four whole days to slow down and soak up some summer!

Hope you all have a happy Canada Day and a great weekend!

At last you belong to me!

2010-06-23T21:41:00.001-03:00

Once a year, in June, there is a huge Paderno sale at Harbour Station. Once a year, Husband and I have way too much fun walking around at the Paderno sale and spending money. We both love kitchen stuff. For a quite a few years now I have been dreaming of a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and this year at the Paderno sale they had them for $200 off....So guess what we walked out with!

After our expensive Paderno shopping trip, we headed out to dinner and to Costco. This is becoming our Friday night routine. Costco just opened here at the beginning of June. We have been loving their produce section.

The rest of the weekend went by in a blur, including some gardening. Among other things, I planted my two new tomato plants in containers. Still lots to do though.

We've also been picking away at cleaning out the storage closet in our basement and Sunday we decided to just keep going and pull everything out. Many boxes were set aside to be dealt with later as we tackled the boxes of books. Many boxes of books.

Husband and I both read fantasy novels, which tend to come in series. We often find ourselves standing in the book store wondering whether we have a particular book sitting on the shelf (or packed away in a box) waiting to be read. So we decided to catalog all of our books. We had started a couple of weeks ago, doing a couple of boxes at a time, but then things got busy and the cataloging came to a standstill. Sunday we decided to keep going until they were done.

Then, I started sorting books by author, stacking them on the kitchen table.

Eventually the table was filled to capacity and I started putting books back into boxes, but this time they are at least sorted (we do plan to get more bookcases, we never intended these boxes to sit around for so long).

Eventually we decided we should break for supper. When I looked at the clock, it was 9 pm. No wonder I was tired and cranky. And we are nowhere near finished.

I've got boxes of books stacked in the living room (sorted).

There are still books and boxes on and around and under the kitchen table.

Husband wants to get rid of a bunch of books. He has no specific books in mind, he just decided that we should decrease the collection by half. Let's just say we have differing opinions on this matter.

There are boxes full of other stuff all over the basement.

Our house is still not quite put back together after the great living room makeover of 2010 (ongoing).

And. We are having company this weekend.

I'm a little stressed out.

At least the cats are happy.

My Tomato Obsession

2010-06-18T14:14:00.002-03:00

As if I don't have enough tomato plants already, look what I bought while I was out and about on my lunch break today. For $1 each, a yellow and an orange grape tomato.

Blog posts from yours truly have been scarce of late, but rest assured that I have been busily planting gardens - both flower and vegetable - and I hope to update the blog soon. Aiming for this weekend.

Stay tuned!

Rewind

2010-06-08T08:04:00.001-03:00

This past weekend was a bust weather-wise – it rained buckets – and we haven’t quite made it back to sunny skies yet, so it seems like a good time for a rewind.

The Saturday before last was beautiful, hot and sunny. We had to take the cats to the Vet in the morning. This always stresses me out, as the cats don’t like it and the meow pitifully for the entire car ride, there and back. Makes me feel awful. This year it was worse because the Vet we have always gone to retired last fall so we had to go to a new Vet (strike 1) which is a little bit of a longer drive for the cats to put up with (strike 2) and for some reason Husband was dragging his feet and I knew we were going to end up being late (strike 3).

But we did make it, only a few minutes late and we all survived. The cats passed their checkups with flying colors and the Vet commented on their temperament – even though they were obviously not happy to be there, they were quite easy going about the whole thing.

Since we were almost to the Farmer’s Market, we went there after leaving the Vet’s office and picked up a bunch of produce, then headed home. I expected that Husband would want to stay home while I went out for groceries, but he surprised me by coming along. In retrospect, I think he was afraid I would come home with whole wheat buns for the hamburgers we were planning to BBQ if he let me go on my own (and I probably would have).

While I certainly have to objections to hanging out with the Husband, I had planned to visit the garden center after getting groceries. I mentioned it to Husband and said we could go home and I could come back on my own if he wanted, but he said to go. Then of course he stood around looking bored so I didn’t feel like I could take my time and enjoy it.

Which means that Trip #1 to the Garden Center this year didn’t see me bring much home.

Once we unloaded the groceries, I headed back out. It was time to finally start doing something with the flower bed by the driveway.

Since the crocuses in April, there have been violets…

Which are gone now, and periwinkle…

Which is still blooming – I think this will pretty much keep blooming all summer, but I can’t remember for sure.

Right now, we also have this stuff which I planted last summer…

I forget what it was called, but I definitely don’t remember it flowering like this last year.

Pretty stuff.

But, there is still lots of space to fill in, so I got to work; as it turns out, it was just as well that I didn’t bring too many plants home.

We noticed that we had some sort of insect nest it the top left hand corner of this flower bed. We knew they were there but couldn’t figure out exactly where their entrance hole was, so we asked our landscapers to check it out (Husband is seriously allergic to stinging insects). The landscapers said they found multiple entrance holes, and they sprayed and hoped they had got it all.

Unfortunately they didn’t. We were still seeing a few insects buzzing around, and when I got out there and started digging, there were obvious holes. For example…

Normally, I like to evenly distribute plants as I go, but this time I decided to stick to the opposite end of the garden. Better safe than sorry.

So the after doesn’t look all the much different.

It will take some time for the new plants to fill out and start blooming.

Saturday evening I went out and did some puttering in the fenced in part of the yard. I was excited to see my irises starting to bloom.

At the back, beside the chimney pipe is a patch of comfrey. It grows really huge and ends up pushing stuff in font of it over. I had intended to dig it up this spring and move it, but I didn’t get to and and before I knew it it was too huge.

I decided to try cutting some of it down with my new Harvesting knife.

I sort of felt like a murderer, cutting down innocent plants in their prime…but it had to be done. I chopped down the front row – knife works like a charm – but still left a good sized patch.

The flowers are actually quite pretty.

Right now, my striped phlox is also blooming. Love this stuff!

Along with Lily of the Valley, which always make me think of home and my mother’s garden (which is where these came from).

The forecast is still not looking great for the next day or two, but hopefully we’ll get some sun soon – or at least drier weather. So much gardening to do, so little time!

June: Ch-ch-ch-changes…

2010-06-03T21:10:00.002-03:00

May has flown by. I don’t know where it went. So it’s time for my monthly workout review…Toward the end of the month I was really busy so there were a lot of missed workouts, and when I did work out I wasn’t always so good about keeping track…But I think this is more or less accurate:

May 29: 30 min walk
May 28: 40 min walk
May 26: Upper Body A [30 mins]
May 23: 30 min walk
May 18: Upper Body B + Cardio[40 mins]
May 17: 40 min walk
May 15: Lower Body A + Cardio[60 mins]
May 14: Cardio[40 mins]
May 10: Upper Body A + Cardio[60 mins]
May 06: Lower Body B + Finisher(4:35:48) + Cardio[55 mins]
May 05: Upper Body B[30 mins]
May 04: 40 min walk
May 03: Lower Body A + Finisher for time(5:59:00) + Cardio[60 mins]

At the end of April, I almost decided that it was time to take a break from Lindsey’s fitness coaching for a while. At the last minute I changed my mind and decided to give it another month. But May demonstrated that it is definitely time to take a break. I’m not keeping up with the workouts. There are so many other things that I want/need to be doing. So it’s time to go back to my whimsical what-kind-of-workout-do-I-feel-like-today routine.

This is not really surprising. I find I can only stick to a specific schedule for a while, then I need to take a break. Lately workouts have been feeling like a chore. So it’s definitely time for a change [even if that is a change back to my old exercise habits].

Although there will be a little bit of “new” thanks to my newest piece of exercise equipment, which my Dad installed for me when he was here.

That would be a Perfect Pullup system.Which I have only had a chance to try out once, but I definitely think it will be useful. The top bar actually swings down, so you can use it for different exercises, not just pullups. Pretty nifty.

This past week has involved activity of a different kind though. Perhaps this will give you a hint.

Sofa in the kitchen? That’s brilliant! Why didn’t we think of this ages ago!

Woo hoo! I am Super Zappa! Defending the innocent and…Zzzzzzz…

Hey! Furniture without a covering of beautiful, silvery cat hair! How did that happen! Must take steps to rectify immediately and…Zzzzzzzz…

So yeah. We’ve been tearing our house apart and rearranging things. Again. Still. Forever.

Someday we might actually be finished.

Nah.

There has been a little teeny bit of gardening. Not enough. And now that I’m starting to think I might have time to get my tomatoes planted, the weather has gone into the crapper. Little bit disappointed, yes I am.

Oh well. There’s still lots to do inside the house. And I do have some garden pics that haven’t been posted yet, so I’ll try to get those up sometime soon.

In the mean time, check out these photos that I got with my Zoom lens the other night. Hello Mr. Gopher!

I’m pretty sure my cats are bigger than you; Better stay clear of Super Zappa…You know…if he ever finishes napping…Zzzzzzzzz!

State of the [Garden] Nation: Late May

2010-05-28T21:01:00.001-03:00

I love this time of year. We're full into growing season around here, and things are starting to fill out. I was out for a walk tonight, enjoying the scent of Lilacs in the air. And exciting things start showing up in the produce section.

I wish I was one of those people who naturally loves all fruits and vegetables. I know they are out there, but I'm not one of them. Which is not to say that I don't eat them, just that the list of fruits and vegetables that I really, truly enjoy for their own sake is short. But I found one of them in Pete's Frootique today.

iPhone photo

These are not local, still too early for that. Not as good as what my parents will be picking from their cherry trees a month from now. But they are juicy and sweet and I will do my best to eat my fill before cherry season wanes.

Out in the garden, things are looking lovely. It's warm enough most days to enjoy being outside, but not silly hot yet. I think I could quite happily live with this weather year round.

Tuesday, when I was out planting seeds, Frank was doing his best to crawl into my little green basket. I use this basket to carry my seeds, garden gloves, scissors, twine, a bottle of water...all those small, miscellaneous things that I want to have with me out in the garden. I wasn't sure why Frank was so enamored, but I had to pull out the camera. I snapped a shot or two, then zoomed in closer and realized he had dumped my pea seeds all over the ground and was nosing around in them like he thought they might be something good to eat.

For those of you who have never planted peas, the seeds are literally dried peas. They are often coated in something that turns them pink. I don't actually know what it is - I remember seeing these pink pea seeds when I was a little girl and I've always just accepted that is what they look like. But I wasn't so sure it would be a good idea if Frank were to ingest any of it, so I immediately stopped to pick them all out of the grass.

At this point Zappa joined the party. Obviously there was something interesting going on here and he had to check it out.

With all this good stuff, there is still more to come. These baby plants are still waiting to be transplanted in their final locations.

Which is why I love this time of year so much I guess – so much more to look forward to!