Monthly Archives: December 2009
Not Ready To Leave
Good news! I don’t work until Tuesday evening, so I decided to stay an extra night at my mom’s :) I’m currently cuddled up watching movies with the fam. No wonder I want to move home – they treat me too well! ;)
Chris wasn’t feeling well this morning so I was solo for spin class today at the giant-sized Nubodys Dieppe. It’s one of those “Super Clubs” and it’s gorgeous!! It’s in a heavily wooded area and has a “resort” feel to it. I wish I’d taken pictures. But no worries, it’s the gym I’m doing my personal training course at in a couple weeks – so I’ll be back!
As for the spin class, it was challenging, I loved it. The instructor was quite knowledgeable and explained what and why we needed to do everything really well. She also had us do some tough seated hill climbs, and then standing climbs while we pulled back and hovered over our seat. Holy moly, my legs are pretty accustomed to spin, but they’re already sore!
Came home starving as per usual and filled my belly with more smoked meat.
Toasted on rye bread with mustard, relish, swiss cheese and grapes on the side. Believe it or not my family has actually eaten most of the giant hunk of smoked meat my mom bought at Costco. We eat like pros ;)
It’s also become a bit of a running joke that my nana, mother and I eat our cookies one half at a time.
I guess we like to nibble on our sweets rather than eat them all at once. Others keep finding bits and pieces of cookies and wondering what happened to the rest of them :P
Also being nibbled – another Costco-sized item – mixed nuts.
Way too salty for my tastebuds, but that hasn’t stopped me from digging out the brazil nuts ;)
It was a goooorgeous day here. Around +3 C (37 F) and clear skies. So my mom Mark, Jane, Chris and I all head out for a walk.
We walked down to Centennial Park, one of Moncton’s green areas. The trails weren’t that great because the snow was either melting or freezing over into ice.
Is it wrong the ducks made me think of Julia Child and de-boning a duck? I can hardly believe I was a vegetarian for eight years ;)
I must also say that I enjoyed running on this same trail more when I was home this summer. I miss the warm weather already!
We were out for around 50 minutes. It was great to get the fresh air – it’s been a while for me! I’ve been hibernating indoors recently.
I was hungry again when we got home, so I dug into one of the Glo Bars Angela gave me.
Angela said this is a new flavour with no name yet. It had peanut butter, apricots, cranberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds and some mystery seed I couldn’t put my finger on. Hemp maybe?
The bar was ooey-gooey and absolutely lovely. I liked the huge chunks of dried fruit and almonds. Felt more like a treat than some of the other boring bars I eat.
Dinner tonight was yet another fabulous meal. I was in charge of the salad:
Mixed greens, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, green pepper, bacon bits, parmesan.
My mom’s dish was the real masterpiece though…
She pretty much made it up!! Instead of making a turkey pot pie, she made the filling (with xmas dinner leftovers), then topped it with biscuits.
Sosososo good! I liked the filling much better with biscuit than I do with pie crust.
So I am going home for real tomorrow. I have yet to hear a confirmation on my new job, but I tentatively start next Monday. What a whirlwind that’s going to be! At least it will make this next busy week at Starbucks easier to get through. I’ll have to stock up on cheap coffee while I can ;)
I’ll also be working on the typical “year in review” and “goals for the new year” posts when I get home. I just don’t want to put the time into it while I’m here with the fam.
Question of the Day: Looking back over the past year, what’s the one thing that stands out in your memory the most? Mine is graduating from university in the spring!!! I’d say that’s a big milestone, no? :)
Blogging About Bloggers
Hello friends! Are a lot of you going back to work on Monday? I’m still at my mom’s place, but I drive back on Monday. Boo. Although, if I stay here, I may run out of pants that button up ;)
Started the day out fabulously with a run at a new women’s only gym in town. I was there waiting when they opened the doors at 8am! After all the HIIT yesterday, I was feeling a long and slow run, so that’s what I did :)
On 1% incline:
0:00-5:00 – 3.5 mph
5:00-10:00 – 5.6 mph
10:00-15:00 – 5.8 mph
15:00-20:00 – 6.0 mph
20:00-25:00 – 5.8 mph
25:00-30:00 – 6.0 mph
30:00-35:00 – 6.2 mph
35:00-40:00 – 6.0 mph
40:00-45:00 – 6.2 mph
45:00-50:00 – 6.4 mph
50:00-55:00 – 6.2 mph
55:00-60:00 – 6.4 mph
60:00-65:00 – 6.6 mph
65:00-70:00 – 3.5 mph
Covered about 10k in this and loved the interval pattern. Except, I was out of the line of fire for the air conditioning and was a downright sweaty mess. Felt like I was running in July again!
Came home and gobbled up dessert breakfast.
A random packet of organic cinnamon instant oats I found in my mother’s pantry, mixed with yogurt, topped with crumbled whole grain crusted apple pie and PB. This was awesome. Some desserts were just meant to be crumbled atop oats ;)
Then my mom, sister Jane and I actually went to church! It’s been almost ten years since we’ve been to the small Anglican church we basically grew up in. We were feeling very nostalgic being back there today. Now that I will have proper weekends at my new job, I hope to make it to church more often in Fredericton!
Lunch was almost a repeat of Christmas dinner.
I got lazy and just reheated a few of the dishes. Sweet Potato, Goat Cheese & Parmesan Galette, Brussel Sprouts with Bacon & Figs, turkey (the dark meat!), Chunky Cranberry Apple Sauce and stuffing that I didn’t end up eating.
Chris showed up this afternoon to spend my last night here with me. We spent the afternoon scouring used book stores with Jane. For dinner we hit up my favourite restaurant in Moncton – Calactus! (which you can also read about here, here, here, and here – I eat there a lot!)
It’s a local vegetarian/vegan restaurant full of delicious, natural ingredients.
Except this time, we had special guests – Angela from Oh She Glows!
And her husband Eric. Both are in town visiting Angela’s Dad for the holidays. We’re from the same hometown and even went to the same high school!! We were in different years though and don’t remember each other. Funny how the two of us would both end up as food bloggers!
Chris got his usual – The Big Marc Burger.
With a side “caesar” salad and homefries.
I tried a new dish this time – the Burrito.
Omg. Soooo good. It had black beans, broccoli and other various veggies, smothered in cheese of course ;) The best part was actually the chapati bread they wrapped it in. Loved it!
And let me just say that Angela is a downright sweetheart! Just as lovely, smart and gorgeous as she comes across on her blog! Her and Eric were awesome to hang out with. I’m such a dork, I love being able to talk about food, exercise and blogging with other people who get it!
Angela also gave me two new Glo Bars to try, which I obviously can’t wait to dig into ;)
Chris and I skipped on dessert as my mother was assembling a trifle just as we were leaving. I was excited to come home and try it!
My mother’s too funny. She apologized for not putting whipped cream on top because she thought it’d be ugly for the blog. Whipped cream + custard + cake + strawberries is delicious no matter how you serve it.
Best way to end the day is the same way you started it – with dessert!!
I think it may turn into a low-key evening around these parts. Chris and I are hitting up a spin class together in the a.m, and heading back to Fredericton at some point before dark. Really wish I could just stay here forever, but I can’t afford the new wardrobe :P I’ve savoured every piece of food I’ve eaten these past few days, but it’s time to go back to the real world and do some damage control! Time to introduce green vegetables back into my life ;)
Question of the Day: What food do you always crave after a few days out of your regular eating routine? When I come home from vacation, I’m always most excited for oatmeal, apples, pitas and salad. Standard eats that just always make me feel goood.
Boxer Day
Happy Boxing Day!!! For you American folk, boxing day is holiday here in Canada and many other parts of the world. Click on the link above to learn what it means, then come back and tell me, cause I still can’t figure it out! A day of recovery after Christmas dinner perhaps? :P
I slept for a glorious 8.5 hours last night – a rarity for me! A food coma for sure. I prepared a usual-sized breakfast for myself, ate part of it, and felt stuffed to the gills.
Smoked meat, swiss cheese, homemade relish, mustard on rye bread and some grapes that went uneaten. I had to wait a solid two hours after this before I could even think about going to the gym! So not like me!
Sister Sara wanted to join me for the workout. She’s a member of the YMCA, and my mom had a handy-dandy pass for me.
Did you know there’s special VIP change rooms at the YMCA? I didn’t!! It had a whirpool! Anyways, my sis said she wanted to do some upper body weights, so that’s what we did!
Warm-up:
20 minutes on the elliptical w/ 10 min high intensity intervals
A1 – One-arm dumbbell snatch:
3 sets @ 20 lbs x 8
B1 – Romanian deadlift to bent-over row:
3 sets @ 55 lbs x 8
B2 – Dumbbell fly:
3 sets @ 15 lbs x 8
C1 – Assisted pull-ups:
3 sets @ 70 lbs x 8
C2 – Cable tricep pulldown:
3 sets @ 30 lbs x 8
Plank: 90 sec
Side plank: 30 sec each side
Swiss ball roll out: 12 reps
Prone jackknifes: 12 reps
HIIT:
15 minutes in treadmill, 2 min recovery, 1 minute sprints
T’was an awesome workout! I typically work out alone, so it was nice having a buddy :)
My hunger returned with a vengeance after the workout. Thankfully, there was leftover lasagna to be had.
Then it was off to my dad’s place!
They just got a new puppy – a boxer/bull mastiff mix. I was a little apprehensive, especially when we were greeted by this GIANT kennel in the entrance!
But the puppy is harmless. Ohmygoodness, the most docile and shy dog I’ve ever met. No beastly doggie to be found.
It was a wonderful afternoon hanging out with my dad and step-family #2. We noshed on many sweets, fruit, and maple smoked salmon.
And showed off all the gadgets we got for Christmas.
The cat meanwhile, snoozed behind the tree. Typical :P Oh, you guys may apreciate this: their cat’s names are Peanut Butter and Cashew ;)
Then it was back to my mom’s place for even more food!
Leftovers. Reheated Sweet Potato, Goat Cheese & Parmesan Galette, Brussel Sprouts, Bacon & Figs, Carrots & Turnip and then whole grain baguette that I ate with laughing cow cheese, turkey and Chunky Apple Cranberry Sauce. Um yeah. It was good.
Eaten with my two boys by my side…
Bah! I miss having pets around!
Then I cuddled up with the fam and watched movie about, you guessed it, food!
I liked it, it was cute :) I also randomly want to debone a duck now.
I gotta say, today I really noticed the difference exercise has on my appetite. I didn’t workout yesterday and basically ate a big breakfast and big supper and was completely satisfied the whole day (when I usually eat 5-6 times a day). When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t stomach my usual sized breakfast. After 90 minutes at the gym, it’s as if those big meals never happened. I got hangry!! And have been all day! Exercise also gets rid of that lingering grossness I have after big meals sometimes. Funny how that works. Another +1 for a solid sweat sesh in the morning! ;)
Question of the Day: What’s the number one reason why you workout? I’m addicted to endorphins. Some of it is vanity for me, but nothing beats the way I feel both during and after. It’s incomparable to anything else!
