Beets and Borscht and Broth

Apperantly, I have a thing for Eastern European cooking this month, first with the cabbage rolls and now with a Borscht.

A Borscht is a stew/soup with beets and/or tomatoes as the primary ingredients (thanks Wikipedia!). I bought some beets last week and some leftover cabbage and with googling those key words I found the Borscht recipe from Canadian Living. (Note that I didn't use bones and chuck steak, I used a hunk of beef with the bone in, and it did the trick).

I have a little crush on beets...they are beetutiful (heehee). I mean just look at this wonderful color!

Notice my fingers...beets get everywhere. 

They have the most sugar of any vegetable, so they should be used sparingly, but they are still better than a chocolate bar! Reminder that they make awesome brownies!

So today I got the groceries for the week, came home and starting my afternoon in the kitchen. I was boiling the beef, and preparing the veggies, and I realized that since I was already cutting up stuff, might as well do some prep work for the week, and cut up EVERYTHING! And then when I was cutting up everything and making a bunch of scrapes I was like, I should make veggie broth. So an afternoon in the kitchen was how I spend my day!

This little colorful container was all the stuff for the borscht: potatoes, beets, carrots, onions and celery. So colorful!

Ignore the broccoli, it is a lurker and doesn't belong in the Borscht

Once the meet was done cooking, I added all of it to the broth, and waited patiently to add the cabbage, the diced tomatoes, and the garlic.

Meanwhile I chopped and washed all of this:

Beets, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Broccoli, Celery, and Carrots Oh MY!

And with all of the scraps (peelings, choppings, a few real pieces) I created a ridiculous amount of pink veggie broth. 

Have you ever seen pink veggie broth?? Me neither... apparently a tiny bit of beets can make anything PINK!!

PINK!

That was after one batch of scraps. I had 4 batches. That is a heck of a lot of broth. And what am I doing with all this broth?? Being clever!

Muffin Tins!!

I decided to freeze it in muffin tins (which is about 1/2 cup per tin) so I have single servings ready to go for whenever I need it. Problem though, I only have two tin pans, and I have about 10 liters of broth. So right now I have two bowls full of broth sitting in my fridge, and one just about frozen. It's hard making large batches of things with a condo sized fridge and freezer. Once one batch of tins is done I am going to put it into freezer bags, and freeze the next batch in the tins...long process for sure.

Best part was for 10L of broth it was basically FREE!!! I used scraps and water I would normally throw out! So if I do the math, organic, low sodium veggie broth is around 5 bucks (high guess) for a liter...meaning I saved $50! Crazy!!!! (Not that I normally buy the organic low sodium veggie broth so it is much better for my health than the no-name normal chicken broth)

And finally after all this chopping, and boiling, and freezing, and stiring, I had supper! 

Hiya Borscht

As colorful as it was it needed some more flavor, I would at least add 5 more cloves of garlic, but I also love garlic. If I was a good chef I would also add fresh dill and not dried stuff, but I am a cheap-o!

What a productive afternoon! Now I have EVERYTHING ready for the week! 

And as an added food bonus this week, I have a friend staying with us until Wednesday, and she is making us Chinese food in return for us giving her a place to stay! Fair trade for sure!!! 

Happy Sunday everyone! Mondays may suck, but at least going into them with all veggies chopped is a good thing!

Anyone had borscht before?? What is your favorite veggie and why??

Why I Hate Thinspiration

This blog post is a day late...and I'll splain why...here is what I started with last night:


In consciously living a healthyish life, I spend a lot of time researching new recipes, going to the gym, reading health and fitness articles and blogs, and trolling pinterest for new ideas. Pinterest/the internet is a great resource for good advice, ideas and inspiration for leading an active healthy life. It can also be a horrible place where "thinspiration"is an actual word. 

OMG I hate that word, Thinspiration. While I do appreciation a good play on words, I can’t get my head around this one. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind putting a picture of a bathing suit on your fridge to remind you what you are working for (it totally doesn’t work for me), or keeping a bad photo of yourself to remind you how far you have come, and to keep going…that is fine.

It just really bothers me when people use photoshopped models as thinspiration. Heck even non photoshopped models. It isn’t “inspiration” if it can never happen. This isn’t me saying “oh I will never look like that because I had a muffin yesterday” this is about me saying “I will never look like that because that isn’t how I am” And no hate on skinny girls, if you are naturally skinny, that is cool! I just don't like when people think they can turn into a really thin girl by working hard. 

Think about you and your group of girl friends, I am sure in that group of people there are tall girls, short girls, naturally thin girls, naturally curvy girls etc. It would be silly for me to think that “one day I will be a tall skinny girl” because that just isn’t going to happen. And it would be silly for a tall naturally skinny girl to think “one day if I try really hard I am going to have curves”.  It just is not going to happen.


I will be honest I have had "thinspiration".., Anna Paquin in this photo. I thought she looked skinny and healthy, and I said "wow I wish I looked like that" I think her photo is a little bit more realistic than some other thinspiration, however, I don't think I will ever be able to wear an itty bitty bathing suit top like that if you know what I mean. And me wanting to be just like her, is sadly unrealistic. 

This post wasn't going to be completely serious, it was going to be about how I don't like the word, and how I don't like the "aim for the thigh gap". It was going to more of a sarcastic look at unrealistic goals... Then I started some research, I wanted to use some pictures of unrealistic thinspiration (aka Victoria Secret models), and once I did some digging I discovered the truth in the word. 

Thinspiration (or thinspo) is a term that people with eating disorders use frequently. It is what makes little preteens and teens think that if they are not a victoria secret model, they shouldn't eat.

The more I read the more disgusted I got. 

Perhaps I live a sheltered life, perhaps I was lucky to be a preteen in the beginnings of the social media/social internet/blog world. I didn't ever google "ana4life" because I thought I was fat. I didn't discover that there is a whole community of bloggers, a sisterhood if you will, of people who support and encourage anorexia and bulimia. But what scared me last night, in my search of a slightly irritating word, I discovered all of that. And what really scares me is that little girls can find it that easily too.    

One of the first pictures I found on fun fluffy pinterest was a photo of a skinny girl with these words on it...
"You would give all this up for a bag of chips....you are pathetic"


Seriously. 


This disappeared today, so it may have been taken down, which is good. But it is a scary scary world out there. 

Then there is antithinspo. Some of this is healthy, and some of it is very very very morbidly obese people proclaiming that they are beautiful too.


Living a healthy life isn't about extremes. It isn't about thinspo or antithinspo.

It is about eating natural food. It is about following Canada's Food Guide.

It's about eating healthy lunches in the work week, and having waffles on the weekend. 

It is about reducing refined carbs, and eating rainbows (no not skittles). 

It's about a mixture of cardio and strength training, and trying new things.

It's about yoga and relaxation, sleeping well, and feeling energized. 

It's about fresh air, drinking water, and having fun!

It doesn't really have anything to do with how many bones are showing.
It might even involve a bag of chips now and then.


Who is with me in living a healthy life? Is anyone else happy they grew up slightly before internet took over!?

Karaoke to Skating and Everything In Between

Hi peeps,
I have had a crazy week this past week! If by crazy you think trying to finish a book for book club in time, then you are completely right! We read Half Blood Blues this month, and I procrastinated for a while, and managed to finish just in time for our Friday night meeting. And if by meeting you are thinking an evening of good book discussion, good food, drinks, and karaoke, well then you are right again!

I started off my weekend on Friday night by hitting up The Office Pub on John St. for above mentioned book club meeting. We had a good dinner, and then a few of us stayed and sang some Karaoke. It was a great crowd of karaoke people, no one was bad enough that it was unpleasant to listen to, and no one was amazing enough to be intimated to not sing.

More interestingly, this is one of the few nights I have actually gone out in Toronto since moving here. I know I have no life. I just haven't found my "scene" yet. I (and Mike) are not Dance Club people, and we don't necessarily go out just the two of us, so it was really fun to get out with a group of people, and actually go to a bar!

On Saturday I had a semi productive day that involved groceries, bulk barn, shoe shopping, and more importantly a girls night with Katie. The boys went out with friends and we were told it was "kind of a guys thing" so we did our own thing! We ordered pizza, drank some girly drinks, and watched some movies, and talked and talked and talked! Very fun!

Today I got up and dealt with the disaster that was my apartment, and watched Trueblood, and then made this deliciousness:

How granola

It is a super simple granola from All Recipes, basically here is what I did (full Recipe on the Noms page) Cooked the oatmeal with some olive oil in a big saucepan at medium heat, took it out, melted butter, brown sugar, honey, and maple sugar, added the oatmeal back in. After warming it up and mixing it all together, I removed it from the heat, added some coconut, cranberries, and mixed nuts. Oh my it is good! Now I have granola for a snack/breakfast/whatever.

We also went skating today (Sunday tradition) and it was a perfect winter day for skating, 3 weeks in a row we have been lucky with nice weather.

Mike made a nice bowl of lentil and bean soup with chili powder and we will now have leftovers forever!

With corn not tomatoes.

 And now I must run and go deal with the last bit of cleaning, the folding of the laundry:

Laundry

Can you find the Moseby in the photo? If you see him you get a prize!!!

Mo Sugar Mo Problems

So week 2 of the paleoesque diet is finished. Here is the break down. Not only did I not eat dairy/wheat/starch/caffeine for the work week, I also barely had any meat. Whoa. My meals consisted of   kale and while bean soup, spicy green beans with tofu, an giant veggie omelet, and one meal had chicken with broccoli and salad. Not too bad!

As I mentioned before I made work a no junk zone and that worked again this week. On Friday I had a diet coke though, cheated a little with that. On the weekend I didn't splurge too much, but I didn't stick to the low sugar diet either. I had some sushi with edemame on Friday night (and a delicious cheap glass of wine), on Saturday I had some popcorn and a apple crumble "dessert" (it was a microwaved apple with oatmeal and honey). On Sunday I had a waffle, which didn't have as much sugar in the recipe as I was expecting. I made up for it by using maple syrup. 

Tonight I ate my cabbage rolls and they were delicious! Totally worth the effort, and now I have leftovers for ever!! (All recipes are on my Nom's page!)

Mmmmmm cabbage

I really like this eating really well during the work week, and homemade meals on the weekend, so I can actually enjoy the treats (aka sushi, waffles) and not feel too guilty! 

Also to help me not feel guilty...I did AWESOME with the gym/exercise this past week. I did Zumba, Body Pump, Walking/Body Flow, Body Jam+Abs+Power Walking and then Skating/Walking on Sunday! Definitely got my 150 minutes this week! The cool thing is now that I have been going to the same classes with the same instructors I am starting to get to know them, and they notice if I miss a class. Totally makes me accountable for going to the gym!

I have now started week 3 and now I get to eat cheese again! Oh happy day. I didn't notice any stomach issues since starting to eat cheese so I am sure I not intolerant or anything. That is the whole point of cutting out stuff for the first 2 weeks, is to see if you are allergic or sensitive to anything.  So far dairy and I can be besties again :)!

Also, I am still hovering around last week's weight, so 5 pounds in 2 weeks is very good! I just hope I keep seeing results like that! 

Anyone else loving the gym lately? Anyone else have a crazy crush on cheese?? 

Making Cabbage Rolls Took Over My Life

Has anyone made cabbage rolls ever??? I did for the first time tonight. I found the recipe on Best Recipes Ever (CBC). I planned to have them for dinner tonight. I figured it would take some time little did I know it would take 2 hours of prep and 2 hours of cooking. We didn't have it for supper but it will be ready for tomorrow (and the next day, and the next day) for supper.

The cabbage on top is just so the rolls on the bottom don't get burned, I have no idea how the actual rolls look. I will let you know how it tastes, but it certainly smells good!

My weekend flew by! I repeated the body jam/ running to dinner again on Friday. This time I was meeting up with my friend Ben from DAL who was in town. We hit up a sushi place up on Bay and Elm. It was really good, and even better because we had a 50% off coupon! After all the running around I came home and crashed on the counch and was asleep by 10:30.

On Saturday I got up and got some groceries and renewed my passport. Then I was super lazy and watched Funny Face and lounged around. Saturday night was spent working on the blog (refer to last night's post).  Today I woke up to this...

Thanks Mike!

Next I "cleaned" aka watched tv, then went skating, then came home, fought with cabbage for 2 hours then actually cleaned. And here I am, chillin on my couch, blogging to put off going to bed, because when I go to bed it means the weekend is over wahhhh!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Anyone else have HOMEMADE waffles this morning??? Are you jealous???

Saturday Night In

I have officially been blogging for a year! I started this blog on January 11th 2011, and have been blogging semi-consistently ever since!

Like I said with my Big Plans post, when I first started blogging I really had no idea what I was doing..since then I have decided what I want to write about, how I want my blog to look. Since January 1st of 2012, I have added pages, reved-up my about me section, and re-arranged the layout.

And as of tonight I have my FANCY SMANCY HEADER!

I have been planning the header since before Christmas and finally got around to doing it. I was inspired by the header makeover at young house love. Since I don't have photoshop on my netbook I had to wait until it was a good time to steal Mike's computer, and use a legit desk and mouse.

I am by no means an expert photoshopper or photographer, however they have been skills I have always been interested in acquiring. So this blog will be a good place for me to practice! I am trying to save up for a fancy smancy camera at some point in my life, so if I get into the habit of taking pictures, and editing them I will have validation for buying a nice camera (with lenses..oooo).

Anyway back to my header that I just spent my Saturday night working on (I am a PARTY ANIMAL I tell ya).

I started by taking pictures of all of the stuff on a neutral background.

Next I edited the background out, resized it and combined all of the items on Photo shop. I also adjusted the brightness and color to make things pop. For the CN tower sketch, I used one of the free picnik effects to change a picture (actually a picture from this blog post) into a sketch. The blank map was from google images, and then I added the little starbursts.

Like I said, I am not an expert photoshop user, so it is a bit rough, but I literally squealed when it uploaded because it is exactly what I was picturing! I am not 100% sold on the font so I may change that later, but for now it is PERFECT!

I think the spinach picture is my favorite :p

From left to right, I have a map of NB and NS to indicate where I came from. I have a bowl of berries to represent my healthy eating aspect of my life/blog. Next up I have pretty shoes, because I like the contrast of those shoes to my steel toe boots (and because they are pretty). Next up I have the PINK HARD HAT itself! On the left of the pink hard hat are those well used steel toe boots. Underneath the boots is a sketch of the CN tower to represent Toronto, and finally a brightly colored colander (with spinach because that is what it had in it) for the food part of my blog.


As much I loved it when I first did it, now I am seeing all the little things I can fix..oh well something to do in the future! For now it is PERFECT!

Next I wanted to add my photo, so I had a on the spot photo shoot, and with a few picnik edits, I was good to go! Now I actually have a decent picture of myself on this blog!

What a productive Saturday Night! I should actually be cleaning my apartment, instead I made more of mess by having a photoshoot.

The photoshoot got photobombed. Moseby was very curious to what I was doing...

He was also very interested in the light flicking from my camera...

So I took a picture of him to make him feel important...

 And of course he decided my backdrop would be a perfect place to lie down...

The he attacked the back drop...

That lump is him btw

Even my own picture attempts got photobombed..

Why yes I am using my Bathroom as photostudio..it has the best light :P

And even as I wrote this post he was all up in my grill.

It is a photobomb, within a photobomb. Inceptobomb.

Hope this post wasn't too crazy cat lady for ya'll! Tomorrow I am back with actual post about me doing actual things, not just having a photo shoot in my apartment.

Anyway one else have a random Saturday night? Anyone squeal in excitement for a mediocre photoshop project?

Eating like a Cave-Woman

I was perusing Pinterest the other day and I came across this....

Source

I thought wow that sounds exactly like what I have been eating. Then I realized I am kind of doing the Paleo Diet. The Paleo Diet, or caveman diet, is suppose to replicate our eating habits to what we ate as cave men/women. Think about it, prehistoric humans did not have chippies avaliable to hunt.

Anyway that little picture sums up my diet way easier than I ever could, so I thought I would share it here! 

BTW...I AM NOT A EXPERT ON THIS DIET BIDNESS...I know more about designing pipelines and writing technical reports than I actually do about nutrition and food chemistry and what not. I think that Canada's food Guide is still probably the smarter more balanced thing to do. All that being said, reducing sugar consumption can't be a bad thing! 

So in review, my week on the Paleoish diet went a little something like this. Tuesday/Wednesday I had headaches from sugar withdrawals but by Thursday I was doing ok. I was sticking to the diet completely, and didn't feel hungry! 

On Friday I was offered 2 treats at work, a chocolate cookie and a free mini bag of Munchies. I politely refused both (Woot) but the chips some how still ended up on my desk. I know people mean well when they give out free treats at work, but I can only resist so long! But...notice that I said it ended up on my desk, not in my belly. I took them and put them in the drawer, and forgot about them. Then when I came to work on Monday, I decided that I didn't want them in the first place, and I threw THEM IN THE GARBAGE...UNOPENED. Who am I??

I know it wouldn't have made a big difference in my life if I had ate them, but it was more the premise of it. I was really proud of myself.  In other big news, I haven't had any dairy in the past week, and that is the part I miss the most.  I <3 Cheese. Dairy comes back in next week, and I will be eating my share of low fat cheese.

I have made a commitment to eat healthy all day at work and as healthy as I can when I am home, that way if I go have some starbucks on the weekend, or popcorn at the movies, or a good meal in a restaurant, it is ok! It is the 85/15 rule.  This week I didn't do to bad overall even on the weekend. I had the aforementioned snacks, and I had a small bowl of oatmeal, and mini sandwich with almond butter and blueberries on whole wheat bread. So even my cheats were healthy. Except for the sweet potato fries on Friday night, those were just a treat.

I haven't been bored with my food at all, I have had a variety of food, from Curry Lentil Soup to Spicy Salmon to this creation tonight:

Why yes that is a face with Broccoli Hair!

Because I am five, the face plate consists of some raw veggies, an avacado nose, and a mouth made of green pepper stuffed with left over ground pork with homemade taco spices, and some hot sauce on top! I also had some Kale Chips with spicy flavors, and then I made some homemade protein bars for this week because Mike asked me too!

On top of all that healthy eating I have been good with going to the gym too! I went to an awesome Zumba Class yesterday, and went to my normal Body Pump class with the instructor who is great and haven't had a class from in a long time!

All this healthy eating and fitness is paying off, according to the scale I lost 4 pounds since Christmas which I know is a high weight loss for one week. I finally broke a plateau that I had all of last fall, and the trick will be to see if it stays off, or even goes down!

Like I said in my previous post, I don't think the complete, intense Paleo/Diet Solution diet is right for me and my life indefinitely, but for now I think I will stick with it. Next week I get dairy back, and the week after I get quinoa, brown rice and split grain bread. I think I can handle that! After a month, I will see if I want to continue!

Have you made your supper into a face lately??? How are your New Years Goals going?

My Version of A Lazy Weekend

It’s Monday again. Sometimes I really like Mondays, it is a fresh start to the week,  back to routine, and chances are I have a fridge full of groceries, and a closet full of clean clothes!  Today was no exception, I was totally prepared for the week, but right before I woke up I had a super depressing dream, and it totally made me wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  Luckily, I had a good day at work, and I went to Zumba (for the first time in about a month) and that made me feel happy. I even came home to a nice pot of Kale and Bean soup!

I should have had an even more awesome Monday since my weekend was fantastical!

On Friday right after work I hit up Body Jam for a super fun workout, then booted it home to meet Mike and our friends Katie and Travis for dinner. We went to Fox and the Fiddle near our apartment. It was a good restaurant, but I was trying really hard to stick with the diet, and I was bored of salad. So I ended up getting French onion soup and sweet potato fries (the fries were my treat!).  I was that super annoying person who asked for no cheese on my soup and didn’t even eat the bread bits in the soup. Crazy.

On Saturday, I had a well needed sleep in, and then spent the day folding laundry and watching bad tv. Then I watched some better TV (aka Tru Blood), and then made some healthy supper for Mike and I. Then we headed out to go see the early show of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Mike and I both read the books and were super excited to see the movie. Mike had attempted to see the Movie 2 times over xmas break, but didn’t have any luck, so he was even more excited!

And here is the funny story to accompany attempt number 3 of seeing the movie.

Mike has a points card for the movie, so every 10 tickets you buy, you get 1 free. We were buying ticket #10 and getting a free one for the movie. So we went to buy the first one, and the cashier told us it takes a few minutes for the points to accumulate, so we should go and buy the 2^nd ticket near the concessions. So we went and bought our snacks first, then we went to buy our 2^nd ticket. But…as we are waiting in line to buy the second ticket, and we noticed the screen switch to SOLD OUT..fail.  

Normally stuff like that doesn’t really throw me off. We were in no rush, and we could just exchange our ticket for the later show, and hang out around the movie theater until then, but that being said…. I had been looking forward to that small popcorn and diet coke in a dark movie theater with a good movie all week.  Since we had our popcorn already I pouted like a child for about 10 minutes because the plan had failed.   We ended up eating some of our snacks, then going over to the nearby chapters, where we spent almost 3 hours perusing the shelves, and getting a skinny mocha from Starbucks. Silver lining: I found a laptop lap cushion/table in one of my fav colours for half price! Yay! Mike was being a creeper in Chapters!

Who is that Guy?

The movie went late, and it is a pretty intense movie, so I ended up only falling asleep at 3:00am therefore, Sunday started late. On Sunday, we got our groceries for the week, and then I bought some new skates, since mine were a junior size five that I have had forever, and they made my feet numb because they were so small. I also left them in Bathurst, so it was a good excuse to buy a new pair!

After a quick late lunch, Mike and I headed out to the Harbourfront skating pond for a super fun skating date.

SKATING...FREE..OMG

 They have free skating every day, and on Saturday nights they have a DJ so Mike and I are totally going to use skating (on nice days) as our weekend exercise!

After skating we met up with our friends for a coffee date! I have become that person to get a tall-non-fat, no-whip-pumpkin spice latte, I roll my eyes at myself for this. Sunday night was a super non exciting night of leftovers, dishes, ironing, and Trublood watching!  

In summary of my weekend:

2 Starbucks treats

2 boxes of groceries for the week

2 Dates with the Michael

2 Friend Dates with K & T

3 Episodes of Trublood watched

8 Hours of Laundry related activities

Anyone else do copious amounts of Laundry or Trublood watching this weekend??

Sugar Withdrawals

As I mentioned yesterday, today I am writing about my JANUARY DIET. I’m writing in caps to make it sound exciting…it actually isn’t.

Back in March, I signed up for a diet program on the interwebs with the total boring name of the “Diet  solution Program”, and I followed it for about 3 weeks.  Basically the program is about lowering sugar, and artificial stuff in your diet (so artificial sweeteners are out too).  Technically all of the food you eat is suppose to be organic, (everything, right down to your table salt) and that part I am just ignoring. Oh well. The program comes with a kick start guide, and that is the main thing I have used. I like that it has meal plans, and is pretty restrictive with grains and dairy. It is a little too restrictive for my normal life (especially if I am going to the gym) so I stopped doing it back in March. It definitely isn’t a long term thing (for me) but it has helped me discover new foods (almond butter, coconut butter, Omega 3 supplements) and think about meals in a different way (ex non breakfast food for breakfast).

Some of the foods I now use because of the diet plan

Since I ate way too many treats this Christmas/ December, I figured I wanted to start the New Year right.  It was time to redo the diet solution kickstart.  I didn’t have a hard time convincing my boyfriend either.  So I logged into my online account to find that the program had changed! Not a lot, but the meal plans are different, and the website was way cooler than 8 months ago.

Here is a little more info how the program works. Depending on your metabolism type (determined by a 20 question quiz) and how many calories you should consume in the day, the program comes up with lists of carbs (breads, fruits, veggies), protein (meat, eggs, dairy, beans), and healthy fat that are best for your system. Then it tells you how many portions you should have of each for what meal. The kickstart is basically the same, but it just gives a  list of food options and the serving break down, and depending on how you feel you can eat more servings of protein or carbs etc.  Because there are lists of available foods, the combinations are relatively endless, and if you just have all the right stuff in your fridge, you can quickly throw a meal together.

Now here is the hard part….all the carby goodness of bread, potatoes, and pasta, and rice are off the list (at least for the first few weeks). Even high sugar veggies and fruit are limited. This means no Juice, no squash, no melon. I have also opted to do the 2 week no dairy. I have also cut out caffeine. Ughhh.

You may be wondering why I am doing this… it is obviously because I am completely insane.

I know that if I followed Canada’s food guide, and went to the gym as much I as I am planning to (5 x a week) I will most likely lose weight, and be in good health.  I think I just wanted to do a challenge, something to get me out of “Christmas Mode” and back into normal mode. For example, there are left over Christmas chocolates sitting in my freezer. If I wasn’t doing this diet thinger, I would have eaten them, all of them, in one sitting. But because this is a CHALLENGE, I refuse to eat them. Testing my will power oh yah.  

Bag of Chocolates, Lurking in my Freezer

I also turned down “free work treat” today (it was chocolate cookies, not that I noticed, or thought about all day or anything), and that NEVER HAPPENS.

You may also be wondering what the heck I am eating this week. I did groceries on Monday, and I was pretty proud of my healthyness! Also it only cost 90 bucks so that made me happy too! It helps having Mike doing this too, because it means that I only have healthy stuff in my house so there is no temptation.

Here is a sample of what I ate today…

Pre Breakfast:  multi vitamin, and a omega 3 pill , Hot Water with Lemon and Cayenne pepper, this wasn’t part of the diet solution but other idea from chatelaine, it wasn’t too bad actually!

Breakfast: 1 low fat sausage (PC blue menu), spinach, ½ banana

Snack:  Almond butter, celery sticks, handful of strawberries

Lunch: Leftover Lentil curry bean and spinach soup (modified from here) I could have had a salad (with apple cider vinegar and EVOO dressing) with this, but I found it was filling enough, I did cheat and get a fruit salad, because I needed some sugar. (Haha fruit salad is a cheat..seriously why am I doing this)

Snack: Almond butter, celery sticks, apple

Supper: Chicken, Asparagus, Salad

Plate of goodness

It really isn’t that different from what I normally eat, I guess instead of having 2 veggie things (asparagus and salad) I would have 1 veggie and 1 carb (like rice).

But, I think cutting all sugar completely after eating a lot of sugar during xmas, may not have been the best option. I have had minor headaches starting after lunch, and I have been pretty tired. I did go to Body Pump last night and didn’t feel weak or anything, so I am not too concerned. I am going to give it a week and if am still not feeling 100% I am going to switch back to more carbs. It so isn’t worth it if it is making my brain fuzzy.  Hopefully though the symptoms will go away, and I continue this plan for a month. I want to just see if it makes a difference in how I feel (and added bonus, how I  look), and if it does cool, if not, well at least I got my veggie quotient in!

Like I said before this is not a long term thing for me. It is a heck of a lot of work (mentally), and I would rather go to the gym than have to manage everything single thing that goes into my mouth. I have always enjoyed food, and looking at it as an experiment definitely takes the fun out of cooking, and eating out!  Speaking of which the diet has one cheat day a week, and on Friday night I am going to the movies and getting a kids pack of popcorn with some diet coke. I’m already looking forward to it !!

Anyone else getting on the healthy eating train for January??

Happy 2012!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I disappeared from the blogosphere for the past two weeks because my vacation was absolutely stuffed with family time and friend time. It was great to see everyone! I managed to visit all of my relatives in Bathurst, my high school friends, my university friends in Halifax, and Mike’s relatives in Cape Breton.  Lots of driving around, but I did manage to relax for some of it. Ahhh vacation, why do you go by so fast?!

In between all that visiting I had some time to do a few blog related things. I played around with layout and colors, and as you may notice my blog now has tabs, and advertisements…ooo legit blogging. I plan to use the tabs to organize food (noms), random thoughts, and places I go (restaurants, adventures etc.) This is more for me to stay organized because I often find myself looking for stuff I blogged about and having to search through the archives. Not cool. And did you notice my Pinterest link?! I finally got a pinterest account, and it is filling me with crafty ideas! I also got a snazzy new camera for Christmas (thanks Mike!) so I am actually going to have nice pictures for the blog!  I am working on a fancy new header using said camera and photoshop. Stay tuned!

I have decided to have a kind of weekly feature for different things I want to blog about. Kind of a highlight of the week for different things. Each topic won’t have a specific day per se, more so I want to cover all these topics in more focused posts on a weekly basis. Does that make sense??? Any way we will see where it goes. I plan to blog about food, healthy living, projects, random stuff, and a here is what I did this week post. It should work out to 5 posts a week (like a blogger for realz).

With all that being said, since it is the New Year I wanted to share some of my 2012 goals. I know some people don’t like New Years Resolutions but I actually find them effective. I don’t really like calling them resolutions more so goals. Last year my goals were start a blog, get in shape, find a job and a few other smaller ones. I actually achieved those big goals HUZZAH. This year I’m actually confessing them all the blogosphere, so hopefully it will keep me accountable. I am going to detail these more in the upcoming week(s)!

Blog Goals:

-          Blog 5 times a week

-          Take more pictures for blog

-          Complete a craft/DIY project twice a month

Food/Fitness Goals:

-          January Diet

-          Lose 15 pounds by May 1^st

-          Go to the gym 5 times a week

ME goals:

-          Actually have a bedtime routine (aka don’t read pinterest while lying in bed then fall asleep)

-          Keep my “clean” clothes off the floor in my room

-          Remember Birthdays

-          Stay on Budget

As you can see these are pretty typical goals/ resolutions, but they will make a difference! Tomorrow I am going to blog about my fitness/food plan for January!

Anyone else make New Year’s Resolutions or Goals??? Are they cooler than mine???