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Thank you for all the wonderful comments on the Things I Learned in February post! Those are some of my favourite posts to write, but I kind of selfishly love reading all the things you learn in the span of a month. For example….

Morgan learned “I need to be more patient. Good things come to those who wait! (and work hard)”

ellie said “the biggest thing I learned is that only I have the power to change my life.”

Angela learned that “fortune cookies are hard to make at home and look much uglier.”

Angharad said “Despite what I *think* my body can do, it NEEDS a rest day at least one day a week, if not more.”

So many good lessons among us!! Even better, it’s a whole new month. One for new discovery, new mistakes and many more lessons learned ;)

For example, today I already learned that the spin bike in front of the fan is the most coveted spot in the room. I live in a university town and it’s March Break, so all the kids students are gone. Which means it’s pretty dead everywhere – including my gym! I credit my rest day yesterday and a constant stream of cool air to my kick butt spin class today. Felt goooood :)

I prepared a wonderful breakfast to devour once I got to the office.

Smoked salmon, laughing cow cheese, mustard, capers, tomatoes and spinach on an english muffin and a pear. But my hunger levels have been pretty low today (something I blame on the excessive amount of blondie eating I did yesterday which we won’t discuss).  Anyways, I tossed the pear after a few bites.

Drank all my iced coffee though!

Mid-morning I dug into some low-carb banana bread.

Which I kinda turned into a PB sandwich – it’s Peanut Butter Lovers Day after all!!

Lunch was a beastly chicken and spinach salad.

My salad dressing was homemade again – Mae’s Pizza Cheese!

2 tbsp hummus, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp water. All shaken up to coat everything.

Yum!!! LOVED it!!! The hummus + nutritional yeast is a stellar combo, I can’t believe I’ve never thought of it before! Next time I’ll try it on an actual pizza ;)

Unfortunately, I suffered from some digestive discomfort after this. My salad had 1/4 of an avocado that didn’t sit well in my tummy. Avocado usually does this, nothing like pineapple, but unpleasant nonetheless.

Carbonated drinks usually settle my tummy when it gets like this (ie I need to burp!). So I hit up the vending machine for some aspartame diet pepsi.

I actually don’t care for pop that much, the bubbles hurt my tongue! But it at least did the trick ;)

Afternoon snackage was a couple of boiled eggs and a piece of cheese. 

Perfect example of a low-carb snack. I’m trying to keep my macro ratios in check :)

Dinner was random, but still turned out pretty well!!

In the oven:

• 1 zucchini, cubed
• 1 eggplant, cubed
• mushrooms, halved

In the frying pan:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• few shakes ground cumin
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 can chickpeas
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• Many more cumin shakes, plus a dash of curry and chili powder

I love just combining meat, veggies and a legume in a bowl and calling it supper! I have three more bowls like this sealed up for the week. Yumyum :)

Dessert was a new chocolate bar:

Like how my nail polish matches the wrapper? This picture may have been set up to highlight that…

Luuurved the raisins in the chocolate. I may have gone back for another square ;)

So now that it’s March 1st, it’s time for me to set some new goals for the month! First, let’s look back to the goals I set for February:

1. Work out no more than 6 hours a week. I know this is kind of a backwards goal, but I am seriously addicted to endorphins. If I don’t watch myself, I can over-train and injure very easily. Here’s a weekly breakdown:

Week 1 – 5 hours, 25 minutes
Week 2 – 5 hours, 18 minutes
Week 3 – 5 hours, 4 minutes
Week 4 – 5 hours, 38 minutes

Met goal and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t have to take an extended break at some point this month because I wore myself out at the gym :)

2. Say yes more. YES!! My best friend asked me to go to Halifax – yes! I wanted to move to Toronto – yes! Hung out with some new people – yes! Took on some challenging work projects – yes!! Actually, I don’t think I had anything to say no to.

3. Make more leftovers. I finally succeeded at this one! I never had access to microwaves or refrigerators in past jobs, so making food with leftovers was always tricky. I could never repurpose them for lunch. But now that I can, every single week I whipped up something random like tonight’s meal and lived off it for the rest of the week. Makes meal time so much easier!

4. Eat more fat. Obviously, I did this one, read my Fatty February wrap-up to hear more!

So what’s on tap for March??

1. Work on getting my car sold and apartment subletted. Yes, this is number one. There’s a lot of things I need to do before I move to the tee-dot in June, but I can’t start building a life there, until I tie up the loose ends here.

2. Apply for a bazilion jobs in Toronto. Cause someone’s gotta bite…right?

3. Take more initiative at work so I can finish my contract knowing I made a mark. I’m exactly halfway through my four-month contract as a communications officer at my old university. I feel very comfortable there now and I do not want to coast through the rest of my time there. I want to bring more to the table and make the most of this wonderful career opportunity that has been given to me.

4. Learn as much as I can about personal training. I’m doing my in-class component of the course the last two weekends in March. I want to finish my textbook and online class work before then. And I want to fill my brain with as much info as I can before my exam in April, and eventual on-the-job experience.

5. Run outdoors again. It’s March! It’s almost spring! The streets are slushy and full of black snow, but it’s at least above zero! I think it’s time my new running shoes get broken-in outdoors ;)

Question of the Day: Your turn! What are your goals for March?