Fitness Friday- Trying new Things

Oh hey, I'm blogging on a semi regular basis now...lets see how long I can keep this up!

FITNESS!

This is the first year in a long time where I don't really have specific New Years Resolutions involving weight loss or diets or getting in shape. It is kind of nice! I think what helped is that I didn't feel like I fell off track on the holidays. I stayed active with lots of walks in the snow, and then when I got back to Toronto, I still had a few days off so I did a personal 5 day hot yoga challenge.

I'm planning a big post about hot yoga, but a quick version if it is that I do Bikram style yoga, which is an hour and a half, 26 postures, 2 breathing exercises, all in a 40 degree room. And I love it!  The hardest part about doing the 5 day challenge was walking too and from Yoga in -30 degrees...blech! But I did it!! I had never done 2 days in a row, so to go 5 days straight was pretty cool. The first few were a little rusty, and then the 4th class was DEADLY (really full and really HOT), but the 5th class was really good. I probably could have continued if tutoring didn't get in the way on Tuesday.

My 5th class happened to fall on Monday the 6th (the day most people went back to work), and even though I found the class ok, 2 people had to leave the room and one girl apparently fainted. I think it may have been people diving to hard back into routine, maybe not eating/drinking enough before class! I don't want to scare anyone away from hot yoga, I have personally never felt that sick, or that weak during the class, though I am a big proponent of lying/sitting down if you get overwhelmed.

Since the hot yoga challenge, I have done a few Nike Training Club workouts, as well as a INTENSE Body Combat class (cardio kickboxing). The last (and only) time I did body combat was back in Halifax, and I didn't really like it, so I never went back! This time, I felt really goofy for the first 10-15 mins (I am NOT a fighter), but after getting into the routine, I really enjoyed the class. It was a killer workout and the instructor was fantastic. It wasn't my ultimate favourite goodlife class, but I would definitely go back!!

It was a good lesson though, that with group exercise it is good to give a class more than one shot, try a few times, with different instructors. I got a way better work out and enjoyed the class I "didn't like" compared to doing my own workout for that hour!!

Anyone else try a exercise class they like recently? Has anyone else turned a combat inspired class to a "dance" to enjoy it more??

WIAW-Muffins from Juice Pulp

For my What I ate Wednesday, it will be more of a what I'm eating in general/good recipes..not necessarily what I actually eat on Wednesday..because that would be very repetitive haha.

For Christmas this year Mike and I got a Jucier!!

After hearing about how awesome juicing is from a friend, I was very excited to try it out! The first one was too sweet, and the next one was too...ummm...gross (too many root veggies), but from then on we hit a good balance. Mostly we are doing 2 carrots, 1 apple, some greens (broccoli, spinach, cucumber), 1/2 a lemon and a little bit of ginger. I haven't noticed a huge difference in energy levels, or food cravings, but Mike is swearing he has more energy at the end of the day. We aren't doing a juice cleanse, just one a day for a morning snack.

One thing that happens with juice is that you get a lot of leftover pulp, which I feel bad just throwing away. So I did some googling, and now have started using pulp in everything. First we added it to wraps and sandwiches (it is especially good with hummus), and then I added it to a stir fry (the result was...meh), and then I found this post from Fitting it all in, and made some veggie bread and muffins. I followed the suggestion and used apple sauce and bananas.

Not the most visually appealing thing!

SUPER HEALTHY. I was very hesitant at first, but it is actually delicious. No it doesn't taste like cake, or chocolate, but for a 0 fat, mostly natural sugar recipe, it is pretty darn good.

In other food news, I made a quick and easy supper on Sunday: Couscous salad with Chickpeas, Peppers, Kale, Tomato, Avocado a Tahini Lemon Dressing! It was too pretty not to take a picture!

Everything is delicious with Avocado

This could be modified for any vegtables, but the dressing was super easy:
3 tablespoons of Tahini Paste
4 tablespoons of Water
Juice from half of lemon
1 minced garlic cloves

Nom nom nom!

Anyone have some tasty juice recipes? Anyone else shocked that veggie pulp can result in tasty loaf?? 

Task Tuesday- How to Organize Purse Junk

I thought that this first Task-Tuesday post would be a good place to talk about new years resolutions before diving in to my first "Task"

In 2013, lets see how I did:
1. Get my E-life organized (photos/files etc.) Mike and I have been having computer/hard drive issues and this needs to happen so I don't lose everything!- We did back it up, but I think it is something we need to work on a bit more. I need to organize my photos again!
2. Get my finances organized..actually go to a bank and talk to someone so I am getting the best account/TFSA etc. Actually be a grown up. DONE AND DONE!
3. Go to the Gym and stay focused on the diet. Run a 10 km in the fall. Do the Mud Run in 50 mins.
I did awful at this from Jan-June, but from June until now I have been to the gym on average 4x a week, and instead of a 10 km run I did a triathlon. This year for mud hero I finished in the top 30% vs the bottom 30%! Huge improvements. And I'm about 8lbs lighter this year that I was this time last year! Yay!
4. Pick up my clothes off the floor/be more organized- more on that below.
5. Have more free time on the weekend!!!-I can't really remember what I meant by this, but I think I meant doing more errands on week nights to have free time on the weekend. Anyway, I would say this stayed neutral this year.

This year my New Years resolutions are not as formal as last year. One thing I was thinking is focusing each month on something, and January will be Organzing/Simplyfying my life. I sometimes put organization of my apartment at the bottom of my list, and each weekend it seems like it explodes, so this January I want to get it under control!

I have already started with organizing my closet and drawers, as well as a giant pile of papers and magazines. This past weekend I focused on my purses. I have accumulated a ton of junk in my purses over the years (yes years).

So how do I organize purse junk?? 

Step 1: First I dump all my purses at once. Normally I have about 5 bags on the go, so that equals a big pile of GROSS:

Garbage EVERYWHERE!

Some highlights of what I found include:
100 pens (slight exaggeration)
2 pedometers
$9.10 in change (from various countries)
A wifi stick from Morocco (I went to Morocco in 2012)
11 Socks. Yes 11 (not 10 or 12...)

Step 2. I sort through everything, and separate it into like objects. Garbage gets tossed on the floor, and things get sorted (example, a pile of office supplies, a pile of bathroom things, a pile of socks). If it doesn't belong in the purse, it gets moved back to where it belongs.

Step 3. After sorting through lots of garbage (yuck), and putting things away where they actually belong. I got it down to this, which all fits in my new bag.

Much better!

These are the basic essentials that bring me from the gym, to work, to tutoring etc. My bag essentials include:

• Pencil case with a few pens/pencils
• Tutoring Notebook
• Wallet
• Purse "stuff" in the small mesh bag which gets transferred to other purses if needed (mirror, bandaids, deodorant, lint brush, lipgloss, small notebook)
• Cellphone
• Keys
• Headphones
• Shampoo/conditioner (for gym trips)
• Yoga Clothes/Towel
• Lunch!

No more digging for keys!

Bonus Points: The key for bag organization (for me) is having smaller organizing bags (like my black mesh thing, but makeup bags would work) to transfer between multiple bags, as well as cleaning it out on a weekly basis. I will try to work on this every Sunday night so I don't have to do a big clean, as well as cleaning out my purses after going on a trip, so I don't find stuff 2 years later!! Also having a bag that has a lot of compartments is great. This bag is actually a laptop bag and was a xmas gift from Mike's parents (THANKS!) and it is the perfect size for my busy day!

Purse Selfie!

Anyone else have tips on purse and bag organization?? What is the strangest thing you have found in your purse?

The Pink Hardhat- 3 Years Old

Happy new year everyone!
Hey, this bitty blog is 3 years old today!

Keeping it real time...over the past little while I have really considered if I want to continue blogging. I had a bunch of posts drafted/started, but I could never seem to find the time to collect pictures and post them. Or I would over analyse the post if it wasn't "good enough". There were some pretty good ones too about staying in the fitness routine after stopping triathlon training, some good cooking posts, 2 about hot yoga, one about holiday decorating, gift giving. I have also had some good ideas that I have had forever, but never actually gotten around to writing (budgeting, mood boards, 1 apartment 2 ways etc.)

Blogging (good blogging I should say) takes a lot of effort, and unfortunately as much I as love writing random posts, I can’t find the time to edit, take good pictures, and fight with blogspot to actually post it (side note, blogspot photo placement with my tiny netbook working on ubuntu has recently become a PITA!) So kudos to those bloggers who have a full time job, and still manage to post multiple times a week, with lovely graphics and photos, and giveaways…you guys are awesome!

Blogging to me is a fun activity, and since it doesn’t actually do me any tangible benefit, it often falls to the bottom of my priorities. And the past couple of months, I have had somewhat of a struggle, no struggle is too strong of a word, challenge maybe, of meeting all of my critical priorities. I was feeling a little stressed in November, and I couldn’t figure out why, but I realized is because I am making too many things my number 1 priority. Planning wise I was fitting everything in, and no individual item was causing me stress, but I was just putting a lot of pressure on myself to do everything the BEST. (Type A, goal driven, perfectionist personality sometimes has that impact).

For some reason this fall I put all these stupid goals in my head. Like not only do I have to go the gym 5x a week, I have to do a specific workout regime, and go to goodlife to do it or I am wasting money. Or not only I am going to make some money by tutoring, but to save more money I am not going to buy any lunches or dinners during the work week (including 5$ subway). Or the apartment has to be spotless every day, even when there are not showings. It was getting annoying. I was setting these unrealistic goals for myself that weren’t even important.

Once I acknowledged that I was “sweating the small stuff” I finally gave myself a little slack. And for the past couple of weeks, I’m actually getting more done, without being stressed at all about it. Which is weird because I was actually busier than normal with all the holiday stuff. I guess it is just the now I can see the trees through the forest or whatever clichéd metaphor fits best :P.

So moral of the story: setting unrealistic goals for yourself is silly. And sometimes having a blog post with no pictures is perfectly acceptable. So therefore this blog will continue, and maybe there will be no pictures now and then. Deal with it. 

Anyway with all that being said, I will continue to blog..and this year I will have FORM AND FUNCTION!

• Matrimony Monday- Mike and I got engaged (ZOMG), so i want to share some of my lessons learned from starting to wedding planning- Stay tuned for next monday!
• Task Tuesday- I have a lot of projects/organization on the go, and I want to blog about and be motivated to talk about it. Project Tuesday didn't sound as good as task tuesday. Just consider this the posts where I will be whittling down the never ending to-do list!
• What I ate Wednesday- What I have been cooking and eating/healthy food, not so healthy food..maybe some with cheese!
• Fitness Friday- Staying on track and different fitness goals!
• Weekend Randoms- posts that don't fit any of the above categories will go up on Sunday nights! 

I may not post 5x a week, but there will be some order to which I am posting...huzzah! Ok year 4, bring it on!!

Gymless Fitness

Since I am stuck inside due to the storm that is impacting all of eastern Canada, I figured it would be time for a little blog post.

Since my last post, time has just flown by. Some highlights from this fall included, a visit from my friend Erin (and Halloween Haunt), cooking our first official Thanksgiving turkey, Mike's graduation from his Masters (and a fantastic visit from his parents), and Mike getting a job! (Huzzah!). It also included a free trip to Vegas that Mike won from a UFC event (yes I'm serious!).

The past couple of weeks have been busy with pre-Christmas stuff, end of term tutoring, and bracing for winter weather. I'm now on vacation, and enjoying my relaxing time off, but I thought I would do a little fitnessy post for the holidays. Obviously the holidays are not the typical time to be focusing on fitness, but consider this a warm up for January 1st!

After doing the triathlon at the end of Summer, and diving back into tutoring up to 10 hours a week, I was terrified that I was going to fall off the wagon completely and go from working out 5/6 times a week to 5 times in 6 months (yes that happened this past spring). I had some motivation in September from the 12.5 km trail run, and the 5 km run for the cure.

The 12.5 km run, was extremely challenging and even with walking it, it was a 2 hour adventure. It was fun though, almost like a mud run without the obstacles. Next came the Run for the Cure. Since I hadn't really been training for running I wasn't sure how I was going to do, but I managed to keep up with Mikes pace for most of it, and we finished right around the 30 min mark, and felt pretty good about it. Considering that 2 years ago I  couldn't run for the full 5 km, and last year it was a big deal to complete it, and this year it was a blip on the fitness radar, was pretty cool. Also my work team raised $1250 bucks!

After that my "race season" was complete. But I didn't want to stop. For the past few months I have tried to eat moderately healthy, and trying to fit in exercise when I can. I think I have averaged 3/4 times a week, so not at triathlon training level, but still something! Also, I am walking a lot more to all my tutoring clients, so even the days I can't go to the gym I'm still fitting in some exercise.

What I have realized this fall is flexibility is key. Sometimes a tutoring session will get cancelled, giving me an opportune moment to work out. Other times, I may have to work late and not go to a class. The other thing that has helped, is with Mike leaving for work early in the AM, he drops me off at the gym and I can get a workout in before work. It helps having a goodlife connected to my building.

Even with the goodlife though, some days it just doesn't make sense to schedule my life around the group fitness schedule, so some alternative workouts have been created. This made me realize that there really is no excuse to not fit in some exercise. Here are some of my suggestions for a non-gym workout:

1. Stairclimb- if you happen to live in a tall building do the stairs. Try to go up only, and elevator down to prevent knee damage.  It is a great cardio workout, and good for toning the legs! Note: Music is a must, I found this workout challenging and kind of boring since you are doing 45 mins of the same thing, so music is a good motivator to keep going!

2. Dance party- I love getting to Zumba/Body Jam, especially on a Friday after work. My old gym had the best schedule for that, but unfortunately the Goodlife closest to my work doesn't have this option. So I came home one Friday, and remembered enough Zumba moves to have a dance party workout of my own in the my apartment. Bonus I got to play my favourite songs. I also incorporated some abbs, squats, and arm moves to gain some extra toning. Another option, buy a zumba/dance exercise DVD and do it at home.

3. Nike Training Club App. There are many fitness Apps, but this one has some great reviews. It consists of multiple circuit based workouts that can focus on Cardio, Strength or Toning, and it includes 15 mins focus workouts for core, arms and legs. The workouts require a small amount of equipment (most are optional) and they are really tough!  I like the "trainer's" voice "30 seconds left, keep going". Highly recommend the free download if you can!

Source: Nike.com

4. Get outside
The past few days I have been going for snowy walks with my family. Trudging through a few centimetres of snow is certainly a good leg and cardio workout. Getting outside is the easiest way to fit in some fitness over the holidays, whether it be a walk, skating, or a SNOWBALL FIGHT. Even building a snowman can burn some calories!

Especially a upside down one!

Moral of the story is that I can't use "no gym" as excuse not to workout, especially at the holiday times where there is a lot of extra treats (nom nom chocolate!).

Hope everyone has a healthy and happy holiday!!

What is your favourite gymless workout? Anyone else ever build an upside down snowman..seriously a lot harder than it should be!

Balcony Redo

As the days grow shorter, and the wind grows colder, it is the perfect time to blog about a patio makeover. Of course.

This is for all you folks out there who procrastinate like me. If you are in anyway inspired by this for your own patio renovation, you have a whole WINTER to get your act together.

And then you have the WHOLE SUMMER to finally blog about it...we will chat in approx a year, cool?

Ok back to the point.

I have an addiction pinning home décor on pinterest. I seriously will need 10 bathrooms, 11 home offices, and at least 5 kitchens to get in all my favourites.But as much as I pin, and as much as my blog info says I am a DIYer..the most I have done in the past 2 years has been to buy some tiles for an ikea table in the kitchen.

One day though, when I have space and time, I will spray paint ALL the THINGS! In the mean time though, living in a tiny 600ish sqft rented apartment, the décor options are only so flexible. I can’t paint an accent wall, or hang a purple chandelier, but I can accessorize..with teal, teal and more teal.

One area that got badly overlooked was the patio. When we first moved in we got the IKEA cheapy Jeff Chairs and table, we had a little herb garden and some plants. Last year we rigged a safety harness thing for Moseby (we NEVER let him out if we weren’t there with him), 

Not fall arrest!

And this year somehow the chair and table got moved out and that was it. It is high up and windy, and has a big gap between the glass and the concrete which makes me scurred.

After going on vacation in August and spending so many hours outside, I decided I wanted to make my patio somewhere I actually wanted to spend time. And since I can’t do anything about the height and the gap, I decided to trick myself with nice décor.

After pinning some inspiration like here and here, one Sunday afternoon I hit the mall with my friend Katie. My goal was to find some things to make the patio more cozy and colourful…less terrifying and concrete. I also wanted to breakaway slightly from the teals and blues, so I went with teal bases and crimson/orange cheaper accessories, so I didn’t have to commit too much. I also mixed textures and metals to create an eclectic vibe, which doesn’t match the rest of my apartment, but I love the look of it.


Being the end of season I found some pretty good deals, and ended up with this result:

Ooo plants and stuff

Lanterns and Baskets-Homesense
Plants- Home depot and Walmart
Seat Covers/random orange bits- Dollar Store
Candles- Target

The best find was the giant teal lantern/plant holder, that was at Homesense for an “Compare to” price of 200 dollars, for sale for 25.99. Plants were a little harder to find but I found the big basket (actually a hanging basket with the hanger broken off), and some indoor plants that spent the late summer outside. I think with gift certificates I was around 100 bucks for the whole makeover…which was a pretty good deal.

Now here is the keeping it real part, it is now October, and my vision of sitting out there with a book on a Sunday afternoon happened maybe 2 times. As from my last post, my weekends for the past couple months have been jam packed, so any free time was not spent relaxing on the patio. I still find it is too windy to actually have enjoyed it, and now that it is getting to be winter (NOOO!) I moved everything inside. Hopefully some of the plants will survive the winter!

I guess I enjoyed the process of decorating it more so than actually using it! One day I will have a lower patio, that faces south west, and can get all the light..and I will actually sit out there, and maybe even BBQ!

Even so, for the one day I did sit out there to review Mike’s thesis:

Totally worth it.

Late Summer Recap!

In addition to running a triathlon this summer (which I blogged to death) I also did some pretty fun things over the summer/into September that didn’t make the blog at the time…here is a quick recap:

Pride Week:
Some friends came up from Halifax and we went out to check out the parade. After missing the past two years, we figured it was about time we went to this event. People warned me that it would be really scandalous but only a few groups really pushed the envelope, the rest of the parade was just a lot of fun. The guys in front of us were most excited for Justin Trudeau, and I must admit, he was very photogenic!

Can't say the same about Kathleen Wynne though..Sorry, bad angle!

That weekend also included going out to eat in Kensington market for Blupper (Brunch at 3:00pm), trying to find a pizza place that is open at 4:00am on a Sunday night, and a very sleepy Canada Day haha!

Second City

For Mike’s birthday we got tickets to go see Slapshot at second city. It was hilarious. The actors all came out singing about Hockey then the Narrator character came out and stopped everyone and said “Lets get things straight this isn’t a musical, because why does everything have to be a musical!!” this was a running joke throughout the play. We enjoyed the whole thing, but the girl beside us had a scowl on her face the whole time, some people have no sense of humour!

Medieval Times
Mike and I found a groupon for Medieval Times, and went one Friday in July. It was really fun, the food was pretty tasty, but I found it was quite an American experience...it reminded me of going to Disney world or something (not in the good way, more in the over the top way)…What impressed me though was the skill of the guys who played the knights. Not only did they have to be fairly good actors, they had to have good horseback riding skills, and stage combat skills. Very impressive, but I think it was more of a one-time event than a regular thing.

And we got Crowns!!

Shakespeare in the Park
Like last year Mike and I hit up Shakespeare in the park. This time twice on the last weekend it was showing with Brittany. For some reason going to this always gets delayed until right at the end of Summer. This year they did Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth. Shrew was fun, and was good for some laughs, but the Macbeth blew me away (mostly the same actors, just Macbeth is just more dramatic). I still love that you can bring your own food in (Shrew was homemade spicy pasta) and Macbeth was post triathlon Pizza.

Ontario Science Centre
To celebrate our first day “off” all summer Mike and I went to the Ontario Science Centre on Labour day for another part of his Birthday Present (Yes his birthday is the end of June…we just had a busy summer.) There was an exhibit on 60 years of video games. The Science Centre is fun, but you could definitely tell it was the end of the exhibit. It is also a huge building/compound, so if you go be prepared for lots of walking. I think I like the ROM better, but I’m glad we checked out the OSC!

Canoeing

Mid September (as another part of Mikes Bday Present) we went on a Canoe ride along the Humber River. It was so peaceful, and I found it hard to believe that we were in the middle of the city. We had spent the morning running in High Park, so we certainly got our fair share of fresh air!

Ready to Paddle!

Do you believe this is downtown Toronto??

Mike has a glow about him!

Dragon Boat
I signed up with Brittany's division (we both work for the same company, different offices) to participate in a Dragon Boat race to raise money for the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority. We ended up coming in 2nd, and it was so much fun! Mike even got to join our team as we had empty seat. Our theme was Hawaiian! I could definitely feel it in my arms the next day.

Matching Flamingos!!

City Place Party

The developer of our neighbourhood threw a big party for residents of City Place. It was super intense! There was delicious food, a smores bar, live music and even a Vampire flash mob. Ok they weren't vampires, but they all showed up looking gorgeous, and I was convinced they were vampires..but they were actually a dance troop. 

Smores!!!!!!!

So many people!

Also this picture happened:

No one puts baby in a corner. 

I am pretty sure it was empty but it was still really funny. 

And now I relax. Not really though, October is going to be just as busy and fun I think!!

What were your late summer highlights? Anyone know who's baby was in the corner???