The morning that hell froze over...

Before I went to bed on Monday night I had the following conversation with my husband. "Babe, I want to ask you to do something, but I'm scared that if I do, you'll do the thing I ask you." This obviously leads to my husband looking at me with a mix of scared and my wife is crazy. He's like "so what do you want me to do then?" After much contemplation and heavy sighing I eventually say "I want to go running in the morning but completely suck at waking up early. Can you 'help' get me out of bed? Remind me that I want to run in the morning?" So my husband agrees, but asks "and how do you want me to do that?" I tell him "just remind me I said last night I want to do it. If all else fails say Shan, if you don't want to get fat, you need to go for a run like you wanted to". At this point my husband looked at me like I truly was crazy, laughed out loud and said "ya f*%$ing right I'm going to say that to you in the morning" followed by something along the lines of "do I look stupid?". So we agreed that he would just remind me that I wanted to run and keep pulling the blankets off me until I got out of bed. Perfect.

So, in the morning, my alarm went off, I ignored it and my husband reminded me once or twice (or three or four) times that I wanted to go for a run. Somehow, him bugging me about it got me out of bed, into my running clothes and out the door. This is the point where hell froze over. I DO NOT RUN IN THE MORNINGS. I HATE MORNINGS!

But guess what? I did it and it felt pretty damn good! Yay me! And when I got home I ate breakfast too...raspberry yogurt with Kashi cereal. Good start huh?

On my way to work I stopped to get a Starbucks soy chai latte.  It was Tuesday after all.

I won't bore you with the details of my work day. Nothing too exciting happened. Lunch time rolled around and I had some leftover chickpea salad.

I love eating this salad the day after I make it. The flavours have melded beautifully by this point and it's tasty! After I ate my salad, I made it through the rest of my afternoon at work. Quittin' time rolled around quickly and I left work to go pick up my daughter from school. I'm enjoying those moments while I have them! When we got home we snacked on protein bars.

I figured I never ate one in the morning after my run, so it was fine to eat one in the afternoon. Once my tummy was full, I moved on to making dinner. I had to go back to work for my evening program and wanted to make sure I fed my daughter first. I wanted something quick and easy so we had BBQ veggie burgers with fries. I thought I'd take advantage of the remaining BBQ weather.

I had just a small handful of fries with my veggie burger. I didn't quite have the willpower to say no altogether...french fries are my weakness!  So I figured a handful wouldn't kill me. After I ate, I headed back to work. My program tonight covered a lot of material and even though my group participated very well, program went longer than usual. Then on top of that I had to stay late, catching a guy up who had missed a session. By the time I got home I was EXHAUSTED.  Early mornings and late nights don't mix well for me. This of course means that the second I walked in the door I decided to relax with a glass of wine.

That felt better! Unfortunately, because I had eaten my dinner so early (like 3:30 - super early for me), by the time I got home after work I was hungry again. I wasn't feeling very creative or much like cooking, so I had some more leftover chickpea salad...on a salad sized plate even!

This led to my next problem, one I've been having a lot more lately...late night carb cravings. I had managed to eliminate these for awhile and really wasn't doing much eating in the evenings. That hasn't been going so well lately. I had mad carb/crunchy/chip cravings which I eventually caved to. Jalapeno-cheddar Doritos.

So much for willpower! At least I can say that I had one handful in a plastic container and that I didn't return to the chip bag for more. The old Shannon would have definitely returned for more if not all of the chips left in the bag. So, I guess that's a step in the right direction. I think the best plan for me is to not have chips I like in the house. I'm weak! I don't know exactly why I've been having so many carb and late night snack cravings lately. I think it might have something to do with the fact that my meals haven't been as balanced lately...mostly because I've been unorganized in my eating plans. This was much easier in the summer for some reason. Things seemed more relaxed. Lately, I feel like I'm constantly on the go with no time to plan and prep. On the other hand, I'm keeping up with exercising, so maybe that's balanced enough? I don't know!!! What do you think??

Running around like a crazy person...story of my life

Monday morning I did not want to get out of bed. I was still kind of sad. By the time I got out of bed, I needed to rush around like a crazy person in order to get out of the house on time. But I made it. And since I didn't have time to eat breakfast before running out the door, I packed some raspberry yogurt and Kashi honey almond flax cereal in containers to mix together and eat at work.

Halfway through my morning I felt like I needed a little snack so I ate a banana...

...which left me with the last thing I had time to throw in my bag. Almonds!

I ate them too while I did some work. Next thing I knew it was 1:30 and I realized I hadn't ate lunch. I also realized I hadn't packed lunch either. I needed something to put in my stomach and didn't feel like walking far to get food. So, I went downstairs to the Starbucks in the main floor of my building, exerted extreme amounts of self-control and ordered a multigrain bagel, toasted, with cream cheese.

The self-control was for the soy chai latte that I didn't have. Progress!

After work, I went to my daughter's school to pick her up. I parked the car on the side of the road and waited for my daughter to come out of her class...then realized it was the cross country meet today and I was supposed to be in the gym waiting to drive her (and anyone else that might need a ride) to the meet. Oops! I sped around the block (not really, it was a school zone), parked my car and ran to the gym. My daughter met me, changed her clothes and we were off to the cross country meet. As per usual I was a crazy mom who ran back and forth the length of the field so that I could cheer my daughter on at different check points. She did great! She paced herself, ran the whole run and saved a burst of energy for the end so she could pass a few people. Good girl...momma's proud of you xoxox!!!

Afterwards, I went home with my daughter and got ready for my evening. First up was Burnaby Hit. Then I needed to pick up my husband and do some running around/errands with him. Then the grocery store and eventually home for a late dinner. Too many things to do, not enough hours in the day. That seems to be my slogan. Sigh. My other slogan seems to be 'nothing ever goes smoothly' which fit well with the fact that my phone died as I was on my way out the door. Sigh again.

I made it to Burnaby Hit and got an excellent workout in. The gym was PACKED with a group of women giving it their all. I love the inspiring atmosphere...it makes me want to push myself even harder! I continued to use some of the adaptations Teri showed me which meant that I was BEAT by the time I left. It felt good! When I got back to the car, I ate my protein bar that I had packed. I needed something to hold me over until I got back home!

I then went to pick up my husband, did a ton of running around and eventually made it back to my house. At this point I was starving, so I got busy making some dinner, right after I poured myself a glass of wine.

Luckily I had the forethought to throw together a chickpea salad earlier so that the flavours could marinate and it would be one less thing I had to do when I got home. I threw some potatoes in the oven along with some marinated greek chicken I had picked up along my travels. Some time passed and voila! Dinner was served.

At this point it was probably around 9pm, but hey, sometimes it can't be helped. At least our family ate together....

After we ate dinner, it was basically time for my daughter to get ready for bed. Not the ideal way for our evening to go, but it is what it is. I tucked my chicklet into bed, parked my butt on the couch, simultaneously watched trashy TV and responded to emails with my phone that now had battery power and then hit the hay myself shortly after. I was exhausted. Running around like a crazy person all day long is tiring okay? ;-)

Good night!

Sad on Sunday

Sunday morning came quickly...and early. We had to be at the airport by 8am to see my dad and his girlfriend off. Boo....

When we got to the airport, I drowned my sorrows in a Starbucks chai latte. Even though I had already had my weekend one.

Lots of hugs and kisses later and my dad was gone back to Winnipeg. And I was all pouty faced. I hate saying goodbye to my family! My husband knew I was going to be even more pouty faced if we spent the day at home, so he took me to Stevenson village to walk around. We walked through the part of town where Once Upon a Time is filmed much to my daughter's delight. We then headed down to the docks for my husband and daughter to buy fresh salmon from the fishermen for dinner tonight. I tried to be cheerful, but I was still pretty sad. Eventually we headed home at which point we realized we were all really hungry.

The last thing I felt like doing was making breakfast/brunch/lunch so my husband again tried to cheer me up by bringing me out for brunch. We went to IHOP. :-)

I ordered some orange juice to start and then worked on figuring out what I wanted to order.

Suddenly I was having major sweet cravings...so I decided to order a strawberry-banana Danish fruit crepe. It looked like this when it arrived in front of me.

I figured that this already wasn't the healthiest choice so I probably didn't need the pound of whipped cream on top. I scraped some off and then it looked like this.

As you can see I also stole a few hashbrowns from my husband and daughter. I needed something salty to balance out the sweet. And sweet it was!! There were two crepes on the plate and I ate one and a half. I just couldn't do two, but that's okay 'cause I probably didn't need to do two anyway. After we ate, I definitely felt less sad, but kind of felt more guilty. What the heck was I doing eating this?? I REALLY needed to get back on track with the eating.

Unfortunately, in the afternoon, I wasn't done feeling sorry for myself. We picked up a cedar plank from the grocery store, went back home and worked on cutting up the whole salmon into fillets. Between me, my husband and You Tube, we were able to figure it out. Then I threw the fish into a marinade, soaked the cedar plank and sat my butt in front of the television. At this point chips seemed like a good idea so I had a handful of Jalapeno-cheddar Doritos.

I vegged out/pouted on the couch with my daughter until it was time to start cooking dinner. When that time arrived, I decided to have a glass of wine while I barbequed the salmon.

I must say that cedar plank salmon smells delicious when it's cooking. It almost tempts be to eat fish again. ALMOST. With the salmon, I made sauteed garlic asparagus topped with parmesan cheese and rice with mushrooms and peppers.

I ate the asparagus and rice. It was tasty! I was told the fish was delicious too!

After dinner, I hung out with my family. We didn't do too much. I got my daughter in bed early so that she'd be able to wake up easier in the morning. Then I ate a protein bar...

...watched the season finale of Breaking Bad with my husband and headed to bed. That's it, that's all. I was still feeling pouty faced!

Sweet, salty, pasta and drinks...the weekend!

Saturday morning started with a walk to Safeway with my dad and a soy chai latte.

When we got home I helped my daughter get organized to go out with my dad and his girlfriend to watch her nephew's hockey game. Shortly after they left, I headed out to Burnaby Hit to get my exercise on. Without a real breakfast. Oops. I was pretty sure I was going to regret that decision. Sarah was in today and she was great and encouraging as always! I threw some of the new exercise adaptations that Teri showed me last Wednesday into the mix and left feeling sore, exhausted and happy! Any guesses on what I did the second I got home?

Yep, that's right. Ate a  protein bar. I was freakin' starving!

Shortly after I got home, everyone else arrived back at my house too. We all had tons of leftovers from the pasta dinner at Anton's the night before, so to keep things simple, we all ate pasta leftovers for lunch.

Mine was in a small bowl. Really...there wasn't lots in it!!

After I ate, I remembered that today was the last day to register for a fundraiser Burnaby Hit was participating in...30 Minute Hit kicks the *&%! out of cancer!

What a great cause! I signed myself up and got busy working on fundraising. I want to fight cancer now, while I don't have to and in hopes that I or anyone I care about will never have to. I also want to fight for those who can't. Here's the link to my personal fundraising page if you want to donate...it would be much appreciated!

After lunch, we all got ourselves organized and decided to do some sightseeing. May as well take advantage of my dad and his girlfriend's last day in Vancouver! First stop was downtown where we went to take some pictures at the Olympic torch. Next stop was Stanley Park. We went up to Prospect Point, enjoyed some views and took some more pictures. We watched two brides get their photos done and waved at a cruise ship passing by. My chicklet had some ice cream but I refrained myself. And then we decided to hit up another part of Stanley Park. We drove up to Second Beach and parked the car, then walked along the seawall up to English Bay where we took some more pictures with the laughing men statues. Fun! We then walked back to the car and headed back home.

My dad and his girlfriend had dinner plans with her brother, so it was just me, my husband and my daughter for dinner tonight. I had no real dinner ideas planned, so I contemplated some options while I drank a glass of wine.

Turns out the wine didn't help me with creativity in meal planning. No one in my family was helping either...I got a bunch of "I don't knows" from them. So I gave up trying to come up with dinner ideas and opted to just reheat the rest of the pasta leftovers. Sigh.

That's right. Pasta for lunch. More pasta for dinner. Not well thought out clearly. I really have some work to do this week in terms of getting my eating back on track!

After dinner, my dad and his girlfriend arrived back home and packed up their stuff 'cause they were going home in the morning. After they packed up, we hung out together and after my daughter went to bed we watched a Russell Peters comedy show. In between laughs, I ate some Jalapeno-cheddar Doritos. Just a couple...

And after everyone else went to bed, just me and my dad hung out, had some long overdue daddy-daughter time accompanied by one more glass of wine (beer for him).

I missed him. And my mom. And my sister. And my nieces and nephew. And my BFF Marcey. And all the other people I live so far away from!! I'm surprised I didn't have yet another glass of wine to drown my sorrows in! Instead, I went to bed, sad that my dad was leaving in the morning. I didn't even have time to think about my crappy eating choices today...I was too sad! :-(

Celebrations!

Friday morning started off well. I got up easily, had some time to spare and made myself a breakfast smoothie.

Then me and my smoothie headed to work. Halfway through my morning, I needed a snack, so I had a granola bar.

It worked. It had pumpkin seeds, cranberries, flax seed and almonds in it. It was good and it carried me a few hours more until lunch. Today, lunch consisted of leftovers from yesterday's takeout Indian food. Chickpea and potato curry with rice...

Followed by Mary's Organic rice crackers and hummous.

Okay. Let's face it. That was a carbaholic lunch. Oops. But hey, there's some protein in hummous right? Somehow all those carbs got me through my afternoon without making me too tired. I had interviews all afternoon, which are one of my favourite parts of my job. My last interview went longer than expected...good thing my dad was with my daughter otherwise I would've stressed about staying late at work! But since my daughter was safe and sound, I took my time getting home. When I got there, I had a protein bar 'cause I needed a snack to hold me over until dinner.

Tonight's plans were a family night out for dinner at one of my favourite restaurants...Anton's! I went and picked up my husband from work and he and I met my dad, his girlfriend, my daughter and my sister there. If you know Anton's, you know there is ALWAYS a lineup outside and it takes forever to get in. That being said, the pasta is worth it! Plus, because my hubby and I met everyone there, they already had a spot in line, so we didn't have to wait long once we arrived.

Once seated, our drinks were ordered and I had some cab-merlot.

We ordered our meals and while we waited for our entrees, they gave us fresh buns. I had one bun. I couldn't help it. I have a weakness for bread...especially fresh bread.

My husband ordered a house salad appetizer and insisted I try the dressing (he raved about it when he went a week or so ago). He was right - it was good! But to be honest, I prefer more vinaigrette style dressings and this was more creamy. It didn't stop me from eating it though, the flavour was great!

By the time I got through my salad, my wine glass was ready for a refill. At this point, I remembered the last time I overdid the wine (you know, when my lovely husband took pics of me passed out in the car for my blog) and decided I should probably slow down a bit. Then I reminded myself that I was putting lots of food in my tummy while I drank so it would probably all work out better.  So I refilled my glass.

Shortly after my refill, dinner arrived. Look how HUGE the portions are!

I ordered Penne Alla Greca which is pasta with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes & feta cheese in a garlic white wine sauce. It's one of three pasta dishes I rotate between when I come here. But no matter how delicious the pasta is I never can (and probably never will) eat everything on my plate. There's enough food there for breakfast, lunch and dinner for two days. As such, here's my after photo.

Guess what I'll be having for lunch tomorrow?

After our wonderful meal (thanks Dad), we all headed home. When I got there, I found a surprise! Two more Lolita wine glasses for my collection! Now I have six! Thanks again Dad (and dad's girlfriend)!!

Since it was Friday, and I was relaxing at home with my family after a long week, it only seemed fitting to have one more glass of wine...in my brand new TGIF glass of course!. Perfect end to a great day. I'm gonna miss my dad when he goes back to Winnipeg!

Lack of planning...

Thursday morning, I made an effort to get off to a good start so I had some Kashi honey almond flax cereal with strawberry yogurt. Yum....

Everyone managed to get out of the house on time and my daughter made it to her early morning cross-country running practice. I even had time to throw some food items in my bag to eat today. Of course I stopped at Starbucks for my Thursday soy chai latte.

I got to work and had some meetings scheduled. I was happy because my report was finished so I had a day to take a break from writing. Unfortunately I'm going to have to get started on my next report in a day or two though...sigh...

In the meantime, I enjoyed my report writing free work day and ate some strawberries...

...followed by eight Mary's organic rice crackers and sliced marble cheese...

...and a banana!

That was lunch! I worked some more in the afternoon, then headed home. But not before having a near heart-attack. I had made arrangements for my sister to pick up my daughter from school today and at the time she was supposed to be at the school, she called me to say she had missed her bus. S#*t!!! I immediately called the school and had them page my daughter to the office so that she could sit and wait the 10-15 minutes until my sister got there. In the meantime, I tried to get a hold of my dad to see if he could drive to get my daughter from school if he was back from the Island....but couldn't reach him. Next thing you know, my sister texts me to say she's running up the street to my daughter's school so I felt a bit more relaxed...until I got a text 2 minutes later saying "Shan I'm at the office but your daughter's not here". What??!! Panic mode set in. I quickly texted my dad again to ask him to immediately drive to her school since he had just texted me to say he was back from the Island. I also called the school to tell them to page her again, but they let me know that they already had and my daughter was now safe and sound with my sister...she hadn't heard the first page. Sigh! Panic mode for nothing. Near heart attack for nothing.

Between my dad and my sister, I now knew my daughter was getting picked up from school, so I just went straight home. When I got there, I had a mad chocolate craving (probably from the stress) so ate a protein bar.

That took care of that!

Dinner was undecided, I had to get back to work in the evening for my program, my daughter had to get to her dance class and my dad and his girlfriend had plans visiting her family this evening.  Suddenly it seemed super convenient if we all just grabbed dinner to go. So that's what we did. I ended up with Indian takeout. Chickpea curry, salad with balsamic dressing and some curried potatoes.

It was good, but I wasn't thrilled with having eaten out AGAIN. Sigh. At least I didn't mow down the entire over-sized portion. Maybe half at max.

I went to my program, taught it, had a great group and headed home. On the way, I grabbed my husband dinner (he worked late and came home to no dinner 'cause we ate out so I felt guilty) and also grabbed some hay for my guinea pig.

Once I arrived home, I relaxed with my family and had a glass of wine.

And that was it for my eats/drinks on Thursday. Started off strong and ended kind of weak. I KNOW that I need to get organized for dinners/lunches. I HAVE to plan some meals, make a list and do a grocery store run so that I can stay on track. But when?? Friday night the plan was to go out for dinner with my dad, his girlfriend and my sister. Maybe Saturday? But Saturday is my dad's last night here. Sunday? Who knows. Stay tuned to find out if I get my crap together and start eating good again...!!