Blog Archives
Weekend Delight
Hellohello!! Hope everyone had wonderful weekends :) I went MIA yesterday, but hopefully my new Fitness Friday series was enough to hold you over! I’m trying not to get all bent out of shape about posting every single day anymore. When it comes to writing, I’m a true believer in quality over quantity. But I’m happy to finally be sitting down to share my weekend with you!
Let’s get to the highlights, in a topical and orderly manner.
Breakfast
I like to think of Friday’s breakfast as the black & white cookie of oatmeal.
Dark chocolate dreams + marshmallow fluff atop protein oats.
Post picture, I swirled together the two melted toppings. My father said marshmallow fluff is not appropriate breakfast fare. I beg to differ.
I can’t get my new protein waffle recipe off my mind. On Saturday, I made another fluffy batch with date pieces cooked in. Dipped in a sauce of syrup and almond butter. It was nothing short of amazing.
This morning, I wanted more waffles, but was missing an ingredient.
Next best thing – coconut walnut french toast. Bread dredged through a mix of two eggs, almond milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, flaked coconut and walnuts. Ohyes.
Snacks
A dark chocolate vitatop smothered in my Easy Peasy Cream Cheese Icing and flaked coconut.
Just how easy is it? One wedge of laughing cow cheese + one tablespoon marshmallow fluff = instant deliciousness.
New tasty snack thanks to Lynn – dates stuffed with cream cheese. Sugar and cream cheese were meant to be!
Music
My friends rocked it out on Friday night. I’m trying to learn how to take decent band pictures. The low light and movement makes it pretty damn hard! The pictures don’t do them justice either, you can listen to The Station Agents here ;)
Exercise
During my fitness assessment last week, I realized that I’ve been ignoring my core a little too much. Okay, I hate working my abs. But I know having a strong midsection is so important to not just sports and exercise, but everyday mobility. So here’s the ab-focused full-body strength workout I came up with:
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Load | Target |
| Assisted pull-up | 3 | 12 | 70 lbs | Back, biceps |
| Push-up | 3 | 12 | – | Chest, triceps |
| Swiss ball crunch with dumbbell pullover | 3 | 12 | 10 lbs | Abs, upper back, chest |
| Curtsy lunge | 3 | 24 | 30 lbs | Quads, glutes |
| Swiss ball leg curl | 3 | 12 | – | Hamstrings |
| Prone jackknife | 3 | 12 | – | Abs |
| Front raise with lateral open | 3 | 12 | 5 lbs ea | Shoulders |
| Back extension on roman chair | 3 | 12 | 10 lbs | Lower back, glutes |
| Captain’s chair | 3 | 12 | – | Abs, hips |
| Cable pushdown | 3 | 12 | 40 lbs | Triceps |
| One arm cable bicep curl | 3 | 12 | 12 lbs | Biceps |
| Cable horizontal woodchop | 3 | 12 | 25 lbs | Obliques |
I did these in mini-circuits of three exercises, indicated by the different colours. With a 15 minute cardio warm-up, whole thing took me 65 minutes :)
Beer
I did pretty well in terms of beer this weekend. I went out both Friday and Saturday nights, which provided ample opportunity to consume mass quantities of alcohol. I waited till Saturday night to splurge on any, and they were worthy splurges indeed.
Mill St. Lemon Tea Beer: “Sunset-coloured (orangey-amber) slightly sweet, malty palate with dry lemon-tea finish. Beer made with addition of Black tea leaves and lemon in aging tank. Very smooth and quenching; unfiltered.”
Smelled like tea, tasted like beer! A good tasting beer, thumbs up.
On an impulse, I treated myself to my new favourite beer, Fruli.
I know how some people feel about fruity beers, but this strawberry white is downright delightful.
The view at Sin & Redemption pub isn’t too bad either. Nice bike, no? ;)
Sausage
Because you can’t attend a barbecue without grilling up some of the delicious sausage prepared by your neighbourhood butcher. Featured here is a handmade garlic mushroom sausage. Probably one of the best sausages I’ve ever had. No joke. Not pictured is the sauerkraut that was eaten on top. Not audible are the “MmmMMmMmmms” made while eating this.
Salad
Because there’s no better way to wrap up a weekend than with a giant bowl of greens. This one here included some kale, tuna, olives, mozzarella cheese, and a dressing made up of pesto and lemon juice whisked together.
Last but not least, I bought a watermelon for two dollars today. A pretty stellar end to a pretty stellar weekend, I’d say :)
Question of the Day: What are your weekend highlights?
A Worthy Gain
What’s up.
That would be me in my new personal training uniform. So unreal to be able to wear it now!! My client roster is slowly starting to fill and I can’t believe how lucky I am that I get to go to the gym, help people get in shape, and call that “work” :)
Mucho gracias for indulging me in my last post about Jagerbombs. Despite being an employed trainer now, my behaviour has been decidedly “un-trainer-like.”
We’ve had people visiting these past few days, which should always be met with celebrations. When they said they were going to Smoke’s Poutinerie I had to go. I knew it was going to be bad. Real bad. But I seem to have this insatiable food curiosity that sometimes takes away from my better judgement.
I know a few people would be horrified by their treatment of the classic poutine – a dish of fries, beef gravy and cheese curds. Smoke’s has a large menu filled with various toppings and varieties. We’ll agree to call it a “fry and gravy” place ;)
I went for the Country Style: slow roasted chicken breast, double smoked bacon, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions.
Not gonna lie, I was a little horrified upon seeing what I’d ordered.
LOOK AT ALL THAT BACON!!!
I had to dig deep to find the actual poutine part…
Omg, I can feel my arteries clogging all over again just looking at this. I think I finally have my This Is Why You’re Fat submission.
I arrived to the Poutinerie after a heavy weight-lifting workout, which in retrospect was perhaps not the best idea. My stomach was loudly growling and I polished off the whole thing. The whole thing! In terms of how poutines go, it was just alright. I think I liked the Elgin Street Diner in Ottawa better. I prefer shoestring fries and mushroom gravy :)
We walked down to Trinity Bellwoods park to enjoy our greasy boxes. The same place as the blogger picnic, and my favourite park in Toronto!! Okay, the only park I’ve been to in Toronto…
Chris got the triple pork poutine with pulled pork, smoked bacon and Italian sausage. A little something he coined “poutirnalism.” Eating mass quantities poutine for the sake of mankind.
I of course immediately regretted stuffing myself with such food as I had to go directly to a job interview (part-time job at a coffee shop – fingers crossed!), and then to a fitness assessment!
I offered to be the victim of a fitness assessment at my new gym to get an idea of how they go about doing them. Keep in mind, mine was much harder than what they do to the average person. The trainer I was working with obviously wanted to see what I’m made of ;)
I tried to explain to him that I’d just eaten a pound of poutine, and that I’ve been feeding on hamburgers and cake since travelling to Banff in June. I can’t say I was surprised when I stepped on the scale and discovered I’ve gained 6 lbs in the last three months. Every ounce of that gain is the result of good food and good times I wouldn’t trade in for the world. But there’s always something about that numerical value that seems to sneak out of the scale and slap you across the face.
You mean I can’t eat a pound of poutine on the daily?? :P
Yeahyeahyeah, I guess now that I’m settled in my new home, it’s time to settle back into my usual eating routine as well. Noted Mr. Scale. Noted.
Weight gain aside, I did pretty well on the fitness assessment. There were a lot of lateral raises, ab moves and lunges among other things. My core strength needs work, but my legs and back are waaaay stronger than I was expecting. My shoulders are still struggling a little, but I’m workin’ on it :)
Lunch was eaten at 1:30pm and I didn’t start to feel snacky until 9pm!!
I reached for this Daryl’s All Natural Regular Elite Granola Bar. A Canadian-made protein bar that I spotted in the fridge section of a local natural foods store.
Ingredients and stats are okay…
But the taste? Meeehhh. Notsomuch. The texture was lovely and reminded me a lot of my own homemade bars. But I thought there was too much honey and the dried fruit was a little tart.
I awoke this morning with the determination to get back on the straight and narrow. This of course meant celebrating Waffle Wednesday!!
I whipped up quite possibly my best protein waffle recipe yet:
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup unflavoured soy protein powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- several shakes cinnamon
- 1 packet stevia
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Made two medium-sized waffles. While they were cooking, I also cooked peach slices with cinnamon in a frying pan.
Thrown on top with flaked coconut and sugar-free syrup.
They tasted like real waffles!!
The recipe has 270 calories, 3g fat, 25g carbs, 4g fibre, 0g sugar, 37g protein.
It’s love!!
Even though I woke up incredibly sore from weightlifting and the fitness assessment the day before, I was still pumped for a noon-hour spin class.
Pre-spin fuel was a few figs topped with my Easy Peasy Cream Cheese Icing.
All I did was mix together a wedge of laughing cow cheese and a tbsp of marshmallow fluff. SO good!!
Unfortunately, I got my days all messed up and there was no spin class happening once I got to the gym. Instead I just hopped on various cardio machines while watching Sex and the City. Just as well!
For lunch, I stir-fried every fresh veggie I had in the fridge and added tofu balls.
I tossed the whole thing in Averie’s peanut sauce and it was divine. Stir-fries are becoming one of my favourite summer meals!
I’ve been trying to avoid the chocolate cake my roommie brought home, so I snacked on my own version later in the day.
Deep Chocolate Vitatop with Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter.
That right there, really is the stuff dreams are made of ;)
I will leave you with the above image to drool over. My dad, big sis and little step-sis are arriving in less than an hour and I’ve got things to do! I’m superduper excited to see them and show them my new city :)
Sweat It Out
Hiiii!!! Long time no *see*!!
I hope you enjoyed the kick off to my Blogger Interview Series with Tamzin and Tina while I was off gallivanting around Halifax. I’ve got tons more coming up in the next several weeks, should be fun :)
So this will be a short and sweet recap. I didn’t snap many photos as sometimes it’s nice to put the camera aside and live life outside of a viewfinder. Let’s see some of the highlights…
Friday morning I woke up and gave a stab at dairy free protein pancakes.
- 1/4 cup soy protein powder
- 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp ground flax
- 1 tsp benefibre
- 1 stevia packet
- 1 tsp baking powder
- lotsa cinnamon
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- 1/2 cup almond milk
Oh yeah, and I sprinkled some flaked coconut and walnut pieces on the batter while it was cooking. Holy yum. This batter may not work for waffles, but it makes good pancakes!
Friday morning I also did a full-body weight lifting workout which I quickly regretted upon my arrival to Halifax. The bestie has become a yogini since my last visit, and brought my to my first ever hot yoga class!
Moshka Yoga is a group of independent yoga studios across Canada and several parts of the world. It’s done in a heated studio, around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (or 38 C). It’s not a power flow based class, more static standing, sitting and laying postures.
We started out laying on the floor in savasana (corpse pose). As I laid there, I was already breaking into a sweat over my upper lip, and I was a little concerned I wouldn’t make it through the class. I’m pretty temperature sensitive.
We then moved into crescent moon, awkward pose, a warrior series and balance series, to name a few. All poses I know and am capable of doing, just with the addition of sweat pouring out of every pore on my body.
We also did a few bicycle crunches which was surprising, and ended back in savasana. I left feeling refreshed and peaceful, as well as thirsty and hungry ;)
We wolfed down some Subway (one occasion when the additional sodium is welcome!) and were ready to get our evening started ;)
The smudges on the mirror are courtesy this guy:
Griffin tends to fight his reflection. He’s also always exposing his manbits by laying with his legs spread like that :P
We started our night out at the Seahorse Tavern for some live folk-pop music. But somewhere along the way we ended up at a sports bar playing pool (where I whooped some ass, might I add). The only other group of people at the bar happened to include someone I went to elementary/middle/high school with!! Small world. Several pitchers of beer were consumed and the night may have finished off with a McDonalds’ Big Mac Snack Wrap.
Because after some draught and pool, I get classy like that ;)
Night turned into morning and I have a feeling it was 5am by the time I crashed.
We were hurting bad enough the next day that I even gave in to Tim Horton’s coffee.
I hate Tim’s. But the caffeine did wonders :)
A chunk of Saturday was spent running around town picking up food – including this place!!
They have some things that I can’t buy in New Brunswick, including some new-to-me bars.
Vita TOPS (we can only get VitaMuffins)
Fact: muffins are superior when ingested in “top” form.
Plus, the peanut butter is easier to spread on top :)
I also picked up some waffles that I was sent coupons to sample. Will feature in the next few days – I’m excited to try them!
Then we got cookin’! I taught Erika how to make guacamole.
I helped her come up with a meal plan for a 12-day detox (don’t worry, it’s safe and healthy). We cooked up a whack of fish and brown rice.
And let the kitty lick up the fish juices ;) She lives in student housing with a communal kitchen though, and we stank up the whole house with the fish. Whoops!
The rest of the evening was spent laying in bed watching Supernatural, and eating bbq ribs and coconut cream pie. I’ve never had the big kind of ribs before. Amazing.
Since we were in bed at a decent hour Saturday, we were able to get up for a morning yoga class today. Friday’s was 60 minutes long, but today we tackled the 90 minute one. I loved it! Felt gooood to sweat all that beer and pie out. Also notable was that I was able to do a whole flow series doing the high plank, chaturangas and cobra, instead of the modified versions on my knees. Getting stronger!
Arrived back to my mom’s place in time for supper.
A giant chicken salad – just what I needed after an indulgent weekend!
I like to throw all my usual “healthy” habits out the window every once in a while. It’s more for mental sanity than anything else. To be able to eat and live without any nagging thoughts in the back of my brain. I will say, my tastes have truly changed. While a Big Mac Wrap is briefly tasty, something like this salad satisfies me on a much deeper level. Afterward I can feel my inside smiling :)
Well, this girl is beat. I will do the goals check-in tomorrow, so you’re off the hook this time. I hardly went near a computer all weekend, I’ll be tackling my inbox tomorrow. Fret not if you haven’t heard from me yet! Heart you all! xoxo
Question of the Day: Have you ever done hot yoga? What are your thoughts on it? I was expecting to pass out, so I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it!
Bonus Question: What’s one dish you really want to try but haven’t because it’s not “healthy?” I’ve been dying to try a rack of ribs since I started eating meat again. A real rack doused in sauce. When I had the option of getting them this weekend, I knew the time was right. Worth the wait!!
