How's your water?

I am looking back over the last couple of days, and trying to do some positive self talk. Trying not to fall victim to more of what has been going on yesterday & the day before. I see too that I haven't been drinking nearly enough water. Nowhere even close to 8, 8oz glasses of water. More like 1 or 2, for the whole day. So dehydration may be exaggerating the mood swings.

So needless to say, lots of augwa for yours truly today.

I woke up and wanted to get something in me that was going to keep me full for a long time. I had a big morning a head of myself. This called for a protein green monster. This one was so good, it might even be worth submitting to The Green Monster Movement site. Note the spill, not because it's over-flowing, rather I got distracted while pouring and made a mess lol.

Peanut Butter Vanilla Green Monster

• 1 scoop of vanilla Whey protein powder
• 1 whole banana
• 3 cups of spinach
• 1 tbsp Kraft smooth PB - running low on the cashew butter otherwise that would have been used.
• 1 cup of UVAB
• Blend & Serve

After breakfast was over, it was off to get a quick run in before hitting the gym. Cardio Bosu class today. Honestly this class keeps me going all week long. I luuurve it! Here are a few sample pics I found online of what Cardio Bosu is like. We run circuits in the class, it's great!

[source]

[source][source]

I even managed to fit in an hour spin class with my fav instructor Sheena this morning. Ok, ok it's a lot yes, but I was excited and had banked on doing all of this before work this morning.

After class, I went and had a swim in the pool. However not the best of swim, I ended up getting chatty with 2 other swimmers, who also run. So there was much to talk about. I did however manage to get 5 laps, maaaaybe 6 before I had to take off and start working.

Needless to say burning all those calories I needed to refuel before I would have time to get a typical morning snack in. I planned for this and had half my lara-apple-bar.

Once I got back to the office (as I had some out of office work to complete) I was ravenously hungry. I ate my apple so fast, I'm not even sure I saw it. Tupperware lid open, mouth open, apple gonzo! Two of my coworkers have recently asked me what I do to my apples to keep them from getting all brown (as I cut and pack my apple the night before). I haven't been doing anything special, and I've been more aware of this trying to figure out what my secret is. When I cut my apples, it's packing varies from Tupperware to glassware, and it's storage varies from refrigerated to left out on the counter top. Then coworker Kelly and I figured out it might be the type of apples I eat. I eat Royal Gala Apples, which I love because they are almost always firm and crunchy, unlike a soft McIntosh. Could this be the secret to not having uber brown apples?

Remember when I talked about my love for breakfast foods here? Well being in a mopey mood last night I had no grand inspiration for today's lunch. So I went with something comforting and oh-so loveable! Oatmeal! That's right, breakfast for lunch (I swear dinner isn't going to be breakfast food).

I packed my dry ingredients, and tossed some fresh fruit in another Tupperware.
Lunch Time Oats

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup of quick oats
• 2/3 cup of water
• 1tbsp chia seeds
• 1tbsp dried goji berries
• 1/2tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4tbsp nutmeg
• 1/3 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup blackberries
• 1 banana
• 3 walnut halves

Directions

• See here for standard banana mash
• Add water
• Add all dry ingredients to your banana mash mix (oats, dried fruit, seeds & spices)
• Mix well with a fork to get that banana mash goodness all over
• Cook in the nuker for 2 mins
• Top with fresh fruit and nuts
• Using your fork, mash that fresh fruit to release it's juices into your oatmeal

Manga manga!Just for an update, I have already had 6, 8oz glasses of water today (by 1:00), and I am feeling much better today. Fingers crossed that it stays this way for the rest of the day.

Question: Do you ever do uber long workout sessions? Do you feel like you need to make up for missing one?

Answer: Me? Why did I workout so much today? Because I felt like I had to? No! Did I feel like I had to make up for missing yesterday? In a way, kind of. However I didn't do all that I did this morning because I felt like I had to. I did it because this was something I was looking forwards to. I had fun doing it and seeing if I could push myself and make it through it all. I never feel like I must workout. I do get the feeling of having to, but let me explain that more. Being that I work so much and have such a busy schedule because of work, the times that I am not working, I feel like I have to workout, because I know that I won't get the chance to later, so it's a now or not today. So I have to grab the opportunities that I have otherwise it would be way too easy for me to say, I work 2 regular jobs and 1 casual, I don't have time to workout. So If I want to,I have to!

Who's hardcore?

Well after feeling frazzeled by not getting my swim in last night like I had planned, I was determined to get up early early to get a lot of exercise in this morning.

I set my alarms (set 2 clock alarm and cell phone), just to make sure I didn't sleep in after hitting the snooze button.

4:45am, first alarm. Snooze and back to sleep. 4:50am, snooze is over, but let's hit it one more time. This time I was awake but in a fog. 4:55am. alright lay in bed a few mins, and see if Kevin wants to get up with me to go for a run. Groggily he declines, but says he will get up with me tomorrow, he swears.

5am. Up and out of bed, on time like I had planned. I knew that I was going to be giving this morning my full attention to working out. So I knew that I wouldn't be able to fend off a hungry stomach for the next 2 hours. So I grabbed an orange.
I didn't' want to get too full, so I only had two slices, leaving the rest for later.

Let me tell you how excited I was to go out on this run this morning. You see last night I met with my kijiji seller, and did in fact buy myself a used Garmin GPS watch, for 95$. There is nothing wrong with it. The seller told me he just wanted to get some newer technology. I'm no techy, so this works just fine for me. Sure beasts spending 400$+ at the running room to get myself a brand new one.

I played with the watch for a couple of minutes last night in bed before falling asleep so that I wouldn't have to fiddle with it in the morning when I wanted to be out running.

Watch on, satellites found, and I was off for a run by 5:15/5:20ish. Not too shabby.

I had no route or direction planned out, rather as I came to a point where I thought, ok I'm gonna go this way, I did. I just ran wherever I wanted to. Up through catwalks, through subdivisions (got a little disorientated, but kept running), and back to main streets to head home.

I ran for 35 minutes (the extra time is my cool down walk time around my court). I was so proud of myself. I only stopped when the watched started beeping at me, and I was trying to figure out what it was telling me, (heart rate too high, and beeped after each lap).

3 miles. When I got home I had no idea how far this is. Living in Canada and not being a mathlete, I had no concept as to how far this was in Km's. I would figure it out later. But I felt strong after that run. It was so much fun!

I had two more slices of my orange, and grabbed a bottle of water, took off my Garmin and strapped myself into my Polar HRM, and walked down the the bsmt to hang out with my BFF Jillian.

After yesterday's attempt do do her two workout videos I have (30Day Shred and Blast Fat Boost Metabolism), I realzied that, for me I should start with the BFBM, then do my Shred. So that is what I did.

I did a full 45minutes of BFBM, and Oh Man! Let me tell you! That baby works you hard. I felt like I was at hot yoga I was sweating so much! I didn't hold back until the last 5 minutes either. I skipped the stretching portion of this video as I was going right into my Shred, and knew that I could stretch on my own after the stretching portion of Shred was over.

Welcome more sweat. This sure made it hard to do push-ups.

After those two workout videos, I was hungry. I went and finished off my orange, and had to jump in the shower, it was 7:20am, and I have to work this morning!

After I showered, did my hair, makeup and got dressed, I made breakfast to go.

• 3 Cups Spinach
• 1 Tbsp Ground Flax
• 1 Cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (UVAB)
• 4 Strawberries
• 1 Whole Kiwi
• 1/2 Banana
• 1/2 Apple

Into the Blender Bottle, and out the door for a full day of work.Question: What is the earliest you have gotten up in the mornings to squeeze in a workout?

Weekend recap

Well, I had an interesting weekend. How about you?

For me this was my first weekend off since March 27th. I was so excited for this workless weekend. And I must say I did enjoy the not having to work, however I did have social obligation I needed to be present for. However they were nothing like having to run around getting ready for work.

Saturday I got up nice and early to go for my first ever 5K race. Then at noon I was in attendance to Kevin's cousins bridal shower. After that I had the house to myself, and wore my quitters. Mainly I spend the night in front of the TV, however I was folding laundry, and took breaks away to clean my bathroom.

Sunday, was equally relaxing. I woke up when my body told me to wake up. No alarms were set! It was truly a beautiful thing. I put away 4 over flowing baskets of clean laundry and did some ironing. With some help from Kevin the house got swiffered, dusted and vacuumed. The house was so desperately crying out to be cleaned.

My mom and I went out to Costco to pick up some dinner supplies, and then the two of us headed back to my place so I could get dinner prepped and made. I love hosting special occasion meals at my house for my family!

So that was my weekend, as I didn't really do much posting focused on food, or post at all. This was all part of my weekend devoted to doing what needed to get done around the house and relaxing.

This morning I woke up at 6am to get a home workout in. Lately it has been so cold out here in Ontario. It was only a week or two ago that we had 26 degree (78.8 F) and now it has been ranging from 0 (32F) to 13 (57.2F). I just wanted to be warm this morning so I nixed the early morning run.

As I relaxed this weekend, my only workout that I got in was my 5K race Saturday morning. To make up for not having done my 30Day Shred Saturday and Sunday I thought I would ramp up my home video workout session this morning.

I did my Day 6 of Level 1 in the 30 Day Shred, then I popped in for my first time ever Jillian's Blast Fat Boost Metabolism video.

Wow I had no idea BFBM was a 40 minute video. I sadly ran out of time and could only completed 10 minutes of this video. Also, should I try this combination again, I will definitely lead with BFBM and follow it up with some shredding. However I did like what I was doing in the BFBM video. I love me some kickboxing style workouts.

After the workout, I went and made myself some breakfast. Nothing to start the week off right like a Green Monster! I kept this mornings GM simple, mainly because of the lack of fruit selection and also just to bring it back to basics.

• 2.5cup spinach
• 1 banana
• 5 strawberries
• 1tbsp PomWonderful
• 1tbsp ground flax
• 1cup skim milk

I would also like to take a quick minute to talk about some new straws I bought. They are reusable glass straws. I bought two of them. I am very excited about these straws. I have seen them in a couple of different blogs.

These particular straws came from Glass Dharma. I ordered 2. One for water and one for shakes. Plus this way when one is dirty you don't have to go without a straw.

I love that Glass Dharma offers different sizes, designs and shapes in their straws. I knew what I was looking for, and I was so happy when I found it.

A 'bendy' glass straw. I love bendy straws and was worried that this could be something I might lose when using a glass straw. But thankfully Glass Dharma offers glass straws with a bend in them to simulate a bendy straw.

I also love how the straw doesn't fall down in to the contain I am drinking from. I do not like having to stick my finger into my water bottle to fish out the straw.

I do not however like that the straw is taller and sticks out of the water bottle. This is because I like to close it up and transport my water bottle around with me everywhere. This means that I will have to take my straw out and possibly dry it to tote it around with me. This is why I have pictures of the box it came in. I plan to keep them in as good condition as possible to keep my straw clean, while out of my water bottle.

Wicked Wednesday

First off my day started terrific!

Today at my full time job we are hosting Bowling For Kids Sake. Basically we have a bunch of teams of local businesses who are joining us for bowling and have so far raised 17K online for our agency to provide for children.

How fantastic is that.

My day gets better. Because I will be working until after 9pm, I didn't get to work until noon.

I slept in until 7:15am! Whoot!
For breakfast I made myself a strawberry banana Green Monster, with 1tsp chocolate vegan protein powder. It was so tasty.

It was a great breakfast to have as, Kevin was home with me this morning and though he was tired and said he didn't want to, the two of us went on a 5.3k run.

I even made better time than our last run.

Last run 5.3k = 39.53 mins
Today's run 5.3k = 38 mins.

I'm totally proud of myself. Especially because Saturday May 8th, Kevin and I run our very first race. It is a 5k race in Lakefield Ontario. I have signed up for various races this summer as I have mentioned here. These races are totally just for fun. Actually my boss might be running in the race Saturday.

After the run, it was right to the basement to complete Day 4 of my 30 Day Shred with my new BFF Jillian.

Day 4 is definitely easier than day 1, but I still struggle to do more than 5 real push ups, and shoulder raises. Oh well, I'm still happy to know that I am working hard at something.

Kevin and I had a bank apt today at 10am. Can't tell you what for though. ;-)

By the time we left the bank, it as 11:50, and I hadn't eaten my morning snack. I was famished! I knew Kevin was too, as I heard his stomach growl a couple of times in the bank.

So needless to say once I got to work, I got right down the business. The business of eating lunch!

• 2 Cups romaine lettuce
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 1/12th avocado
• 1/2 cup cucumber
• some red onion
• 4oz broiled salmon

And I ate that salad like it was going out of style! I vaguely remember tasting it. I decided to eat what would have been my morning snack as a lunch hour dessert. Greek Yogurt, Blackberries and a cereal mix (1/4 cup grape nuts & 1/4 cup Kashi Go Lean). So good!

Usually I don`t post what I haven`t eaten yet, but today I am. This is because I know that once I get home I am not going to want to post after a long day. And honestly though it happens more times than not, I hate having to back blog. I hate leaving out all without something to read. So this is what I will be eating to finish off my day.

When making my meals last night I packed foods that were going to keep me full for a long period of time and provide me with lots of protein to help do that. So my afternoon snack was no different. I love these guys. A little too much. So much so that when I first got them, I was eating them too much. I had to store them in our under the basement sitars storage, so that they were out of sight out of mind.

Dinner is a smaller sized dinner. Not as little as I am used to. However it is packed with good filling calories. And let me go on about this new bread I bought and will be trying for the first time today. I haven`t even tried it and I am already tooting it`s horn. Stonemill - Sprouted Grain bread. BAKED WITH 100% GREEN POWER! How awesome is that! Seriously I think that this is part of what excites me about this bread more than I was before I read the tag. Some good nutritional values here too. & healthy ingredients that can all be pronounced. The slices themselves are pretty little compared to what you would get out of a regular slice of bread. No complaints here. It smelt so good and fresh too, and that is after buying it from the grocery store. Simply yet to be satisfying Cashew Butter and banana sandwich. So excited for dinner, hehe.
Because the sandwich is filling, it`s simply not enough calories to get me through the busy night I`m going to have. So some baby carrots and 1 sliced gala apple to go along with the sandwich/nibble on through the evening *while everyone else drinks and has pizza - I will stay strong!)

I hope everyone else is enjoying the day and the beautiful weather we are having here today in Ontario and everywhere else my readers are from. Have a great night filled with fabulous foods!

Work marathon

As I have mentioned before, Saturday was a marathon work day. I worked at my first part time job from 9-3pm and then hauled a$s to my second job to work 3-11pm. Luckily *big shout out* the girls I work with were free and were able to let me leave at 2:15pm so that I could get to my second job on time. Thanks girls!

Knowing what kind of day Saturday was going to be I made 2 snacks, a lunch and dinner Friday night after getting home from date night with the girls.

For breakfast I wanted to start out strong and healthy. Enter Green Monster! ! ! !
2 cups of baby spinach, 1/2 banana, 5 large strawberries, 1 tsp cocoa powder, and 2 tsp ground flax.

Luckily my day was flying by, soon it was 11am, and I hadn't eaten a snack yet. I ate my orange and didn't even think twice about stopping to take a picture, that was only until I finished it. No matter we all know what an orange looks like, right?!

Lunch quickly followed the orange.
2 cups romaine lettuce, some thinly sliced red onion, 2 dried figs, 6 large strawberries, 1 tbsp unsweetened coconut, 1 tbsp cashew, sesame seeds, sesame seeds, topped with my homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
My afternoon snack was something I have never had before. Well no that isn't true. I've had this yogurt before, this is just a new flavour
It was good yogurt. Personally I wasn't a fan of the chocolate granola. The yogurt, vanilla, however is divine. I wouldn't buy this flavour again. I do however have one more of these yogurts (cranberry) left in the fridge.

At work, at the co-ed teenage group home, there were no kids at the house all night. They were all out in the community with friends or family and not due back until 11pm (the end of my shift). As nice and quiet as this is, I was disappointed. I had brought chick flicks to watch with the one girl who is usually home. Also she is a vegetarian, so I brought all kinds of veggie goodies to make wraps together.

So I made dinner for just myself (my co-worker, he opted for the white bread homemade subs).
Parsnips baked with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Wraps(per each wrap)
1 tbsp garlic hummus
2 slices tomato
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
2 slices of zucchini
some orange pepper,
3 slices of beets
1 Florette cauliflower rice

The key here is to not use the little wraps like I did and fill them up this much, unless you are going to eat it like a soft shell taco. Go for the big wraps.

As the night went on I got chilly so I made a mug of chamomile tea.
Home by 11:40, to cuddle with Kevin before we decided to go to bed for the night.

Feeling Great

Well there is so much to write about this morning! Layoffs, workout videos, a fabulous morning workout with the husband and some pretty amazing food! p.s. sorry in advance for the long post today.

Let's start with the layoffs. Remember when I was all uber stressed out that I might lose my job? Well, the drama continues. It has not gone away by a long shot. If anything, it has gotten worse at work. Bumping is still happening all throughout the agency. Rumours as to people being bumped are being spread a week before those people have been given their notice. And these rumours people have all turned out to be true so far. Monday 2 of our 3 full time workers were given their notice and their options (accept layoff and take Employment Insurance or bump someone with less seniority). They opted to bump. Well the union president told them both, individually of course, that they might not even be able to bump down from their full time position into a part time one (our part time list is 16 people with 5 casuals). They were told that there is 16-20 people bumping all throughout the agency and ultimately our department is the bottom of the barrel so those other people might take the positions our full timers are looking to bump down to.

So what does this all mean for me? Well if this is all true and this is how it plays out. I am part time, part of the 16 part time staff. That would mean if the full timers who are 1 and 3 above me in seniority can't get a part time spot, logically that would mean I'd lose my spot as a part timer.

How am I dealing? Well I am far beyond worried stressed anymore. I am annoyed stressed. This whole process has been going on already from start (where they announced they would be making cuts) to now, has been 3.5 months. And the layoff/bumping is still going on, and could be until May 18th.

Ugh whatever, I'm so over it, I wish I could just be told one way or another right here and now what my fate is going to be. I'm sick and tired of them stinging us along and it taking over my life.

Breath!

Yesterday's mid afternoon snack I shovelled into my mouth so fast I don't even remember what it tasted like. I thought I had a meeting right at 4pm, leaving me with mear minutes to eat. Turns out I didn't have a meeting until 4:30. Well at least I could relax as I digested a little. lol

1 serving of Liberte Greek plane yogurt, 1/3cup of all bran buds and 1 tbsp crasins.

I was anxious to have dinner. A repeat salad from the other day, which apparently I didn't share with you, so here it is today! This is where I used me homemade red wine raspberry vinaigrette I walked about here.

• 2-3 cups baby spinach
• 4 large (honkin') strawberries (1/8thed)
• 6-12 raspberries
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 1/8 avocado
• 1 tbsp of cashews, slivered almonds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, Pumpkin & sunflower seed
• 5 halves walnuts

I truly love fruits and nuts in my salads.

I also ate a grapefruit after my salad. I sneaked out of work 10 minutes early as I wanted to check out WalMart for . . . . . Some Jillian Michaels. I've been hearing a lot about her 30 day shred, so I did some research and messaged some people who had or are doing it. I was sold based on their feedback. But after 2 WalMarts and no luck, I headed to Future Shop. There I found 1 30 day shred.

Now I was looking for two. One for me and one for my girlfriend MJ. No luck finding the second, but I did find this,

[Source]

I thought well I could 'share' and by share I don't mean take turns with the DVD ;-) the two between us. And for 9.99$ each, you can't go wrong. [Source]

So MJ is going to start her shred Saturday May 1st. I work from 9am-11pm so I haven't decided when I will start mine. Maybe May 2nd-May 31 (that's 30 days). Yup seeing it now written down, that is what I will do. :-D

I ran out of Future Shop as I had a hot date at 8:30. None other than my favourite Hot Yoga! It was an advanced class. This is my second advance class, and I'm loving it. I love trying all the balanced postures (extended side arm balance, eagle pose, peacock, crow and headstands). Luuurve it!

This morning came so early. Even earlier for Kevin (as he didn't get home and to bed until 1:45am). I was so so so happy that Kevin agreed to get up with me for a early morning workout.

For breakfast I started again with my new favourite Apple Larabar. Honestly its perfect for me first thing in the morning before a workout.

After mowing down on this, it was out to get on the bikes. Not before stopping to use some masking tape on our right pant legs (neither of us have chain guards and it was only 6 degrees Celsius out). Sadly I didn't think to take a picture of this.

Off we were for a 13k bike ride followed by a short 2k run. My energy was running low and so was time before work otherwise I would have pushed through for more K's. Back at home Kevin and I did some weights working our arms and then did some ab work.

Then as I promised Kevin, I would show him the advance postures I've been working on in Hot Yoga. He was impressed with my progress (I can't always get the poses or hold them too long but keep practising).

I grabbed a quick shower and though I was going to have a mushroom egg white scramble, I was short on time. So I made something I could take with me in the car to work for a mid morning snack.

• 2 tsp ground flax
• 2 heaping handfuls of baby spinach
• .66 of my banana from yesterday
• 1/2 pint of blueberries
• 1/4 pint raspberries
• 1 cup Almond milk
• 1 beet

It was delish and hit the spot around 10am this morning.

Question: What is your favourite Yoga pose? Have you ever tried a pose you didn't think you could do, but gave it a try anyways?

For me that was the first time 4 weeks ago when I first tried a headsatand. It felt great just getting into the pod.