A picnic at the beach

Today's plan was to get up early, go to Safeway to get all the things we needed for our picnic at the beach, and leave the house by 9:30 so that we could get to Buntzen Lake before they closed off the parking lot. That didn't exactly work out as  planned, mostly because we got out of bed at about 8:30. I rushed to Safeway while my hubby was still in bed and my chicklet sat in front of the computer. I also quickly stopped at Cob's Bread to get my multigrain bread. This meant that as soon as I got home, I ate toast. 

Did I mention that I also stopped at Starbucks on the way home? Yum, yum soy chai latte!

Once I got home, I tried to get my family into gear and my daughter helped me make the sandwiches for the picnic. For them - ham and cheese. For me - a veggie sandwich with cucumber, avocado, lettuce, red onion and Havarti cheese. And that was the first thing I ate when we got to the beach! Of course, this was after our 2.5km walk in with all our gear. Definitely a well deserved meal!

Between swimming, suntanning and chatting with our friends, we had some snacks. All healthy, all delicious! In terms of the veggies and dip, me, my hubby and my daughter ate about 2/3 of it. I probably ate 1/3 on my own! The rest were my personal servings of snacks!

This morning, when I was shopping for our picnic food, I made a pit stop in the chip aisle. As a family, we have religiously brought chips with us to pretty much every single beach visit we've done. Typically, we bring BBQ or Original Munchies...they're our family fave. I didn't really want to pig out on chips and I was worried that I would lose all self-control and do exactly that if I was at the beach all day with the bag of chips in front of me. So, as a precaution, I bought Original Munchies AND a bag of pretzels for me.

Now, you might notice there are no pictures of pretzels above. Why you might ask? Because I pumped my family so full of good food that they never got hungry for the chips and so I wasn't tempted to pull out my pretzels. Double score!! Between the sandwiches, strawberries, grapes, veggies and dip, and cheese, crackers (vegetable thins) and kielbasa (for them not me) we were all full. We didn't even get to our watermelon!

About six hours after arriving, we packed up our gear and headed back out. Another 2.5km hike back to the car. Sort of. The good news for me and my chicklet is that we were lagging way behind my hubby on the road back to the car, and our friends drove up behind us. By this point, I was walking with one shoe off and barefoot on the other because I got a bad blister (hiking along a trail into a lake and back with flip flops is not a good idea). They felt bad for me, so squeezed my daughter and I into their car and drove us back to our car (we waved at my hubby as we were driving past). I'm pretty sure my daughter said "ha ha sucker". Good times. Once we got to the car, I drove back and picked my hubby up. See how nice I am?

When we finally got home, I was starting to think about dinner because I had nothing planned. I considered ordering takeout Sushi for me and the fam, but no one else seemed as excited as I was about that idea. So I pouted and made a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover fruit and veggies for my chicklet. I'm not entirely sure what if anything, my hubby ate. I then ate another piece of toast.

 
 And then I went for a run. I wasn't sure how far I'd make it with all the walking and sun today, but somehow I dug deep and managed to run 4.5 km. In 23 minutes! Getting better! When I got home, I showered and then threw together the rest of my picnic leftovers. Everything I mentioned eating above, plus some almonds (10. I'm not sure what my obsession is with counting almonds).

After I ate, we took the guinea pig out to play, and I did some cardio exercise trying to catch him. Before I put him back, I clipped his nails. See how cute he is?

After this last 'chore', I poured a glass of wine and relaxed in front of the TV.

And that was my day. Pretty freakin' AWESOME if you ask me! I love weekends. I love seeing my friends. I love my little family!! And I love feeling fit and healthy enough to do all of the things we love to do together!

Not too bad for a social day!

As you know, last night I made some overnight oatmeal so that I'd have an easy breakfast option in the morning. However, I slept in a bit and needed to get to Burnaby Hit so I left the house, ate a banana on the way and planned to eat the oatmeal when I got back from my workout. 

You might notice this picture looks exactly like the one I posted previoulsy. That's because I left my phone at home today and so wasn't able to take a picture. This re-used picture was the next best thing. At least I was honest!

Today was a great day at Burnaby Hit. Each station has different intensity options for the exercises and today I somehow found it in me, with the help of Zunobia, to do the high intensity version at most of the stations. That girl sure knows how to motivate! I was dripping sweat by the time I was done and that was okay with me. Why? Because...

I drove home feeling pretty darn proud of myself. And when I got there, I remembered my oatmeal. Now, I didn't follow the recipe above outside of using it for the overnight cooking method. Me and my daughter then had a make your own oatmeal bar. Mine is on the left and I put in 1 Tbs peanut butter, 1Tbs unsweetened shredded coconut, 1 cup of mixed berries (thawed from the night before), and a sprinkling of cinnamon. My chicklet's is on the right and she added 1 Tbs peanut butter, 1 Tbs unsweetened shredded coconut, a sprinkling of cinnamon and 1.5 Tbs brown sugar. According to her, her's was better than mine (mine was sans sugar) and apparently better than the boxed kind too!

I ate just over half my oatmeal and it was time to get ready to head to our friend's house for a BBQ. Really, my oatmeal breakfast was more like an oatmeal lunch thanks to the sleep in. We live in Burnaby and they live in Maple Ridge and a bad habit of ours has always been to do a store run for the ride out there...so we fill our faces with chips during the drive. I assumed my family would still be doing a junk food stop, so I took a pre-emptive strike and grabbed a 20 count handful of almonds to eat on the way so I wouldn't be tempted. And...my family surprised me and didn't stop! But I still ate the almonds.

Today was hot in Burnaby...and HOTTER in Maple Ridge. In an effort to keep us all cool and refreshed my girlfriend passed around the watermelon. I wasn't feeling all that hungry just then, but I couldn't help but to have at least one piece. Yum! Watermelon tastes great on a hot day!

The other thing that tastes great on a hot day is a vodka cooler. And since it was a social event, I indulged without feeling guilty. 

I fully realize I may as well be drinking a glass of sugar and calories, but they taste good dammit!

Next up was dinner and as mentioned it was a BBQ. Everyone but me had smokies that were apparently delicious. Me on the other hand, being a vegetarian, had a veggie burger. And our good friend who was in charge of the BBQ was fantastic...he kept my veggie burger seperated from the meat AND remembered to use a separate utensil which lots of non-vegetarians forget. Thank you!!
 

The veggie burgers I like are not soy based ones, but rice based ones. My favourite are the Gardenburgers from Costco.  They taste even better on the BBQ. In fact they are so good that I got three bites in before I realized that I needed to take a picture of my plate! What can I say? I was hungry! I also had some veggies and dip to round out the meal.

Thanks again to our friends for having us over and doing all the work to get the food ready. I tried to help, but about 5 minutes in while chopping up lettuce for the salad, I decided to nearly take off my thumb. Some paper towel, ice and three bandaids later, I was kicked out of the kitchen, at least in a cooking capacity. So instead, I helped out in a social way, chatting it up with my girl, who I hadn't seen in far too long!

After dinner...one more cooler. But it was my last one. I swear. And I didn't drive. My husband played DD. Thanks to you too!!

After a great day with a nice visit and some awesome people, it was time to head home. We have an early morning plan tomorrow to go to Buntzen Lake with some friends. But on the way home, I had a moment of weakness and caved when my hubby decided to stop at Tim Hortons. I had a small hot chocolate. (Side note - see the bandaid on my thumb? Sigh). 

To be honest, I pretty much regreted it about 3 sips in. It was kind of gross tasting and I knew I really wasn't hungry OR thirsty, but was just getting one to get one, 'cause everyone else was getting something. I know better. But I drank it anyway. Guess it didn't taste THAT bad. ;-)

So that was my day. Not horrible considering that going to a friend's house for dinners/BBQs can often mean major overindulging. Tomorrow will be a packed picnic lunch, so we'll see how I do with that too. And in the meantime...I'm going to bed! 

The results I expected...and the ones I didn't!

Today is officially my one month in mark! I started my exercise routine and fitness/health goals on July 4...my blog followed a bit later. When I first measured myself I was not thrilled with what I saw. And I was ball-parking my weight around 130-135, but really that was a complete guess. This morning, after going to Burnaby Hit to meet my 3x/week goal, I came home, took a deep breath, and pulled out the measuring tape.

I don't know why I felt nervous. I knew that my body had changed for the better and I DEFINITELY knew my strength and endurance had improved. I told myself that these changes were good enough so that even if I hadn't lost many inches I'd still be happy. Then I measured myself and here are the results:

Hips: 37.5 = 2.5 inch loss!
Waist: 27 = 1 inch loss
Thigh: 22.5 = .5 inch loss (could be better - stubborn area)
Bicep: 10.5 = .5 inch loss

I'm stoked! Seeing these kinds of results in 1 month's time makes me SO happy, SO motivated, and SO ready to stick to this routine!

And those were the results I expected. I didn't know what the exact amounts would be, but I knew there was improvement. Now for the improvements I didn't expect.

The first improvement is in my mood. The effects on my mood were completely unexpected. I'm happier, I'm less anxious, I have a more positive outlook on things and I feel less impatient with those around me.  I feel much less stressed, and I'm guessing the cathartic nature of hitting and kicking things is definitely helping me get out some pent up frustrations. That and taking time out for myself through exercise is definitely helping me to feel more balanced. My husband, brave man that he is, pointed out that he's noticed I'm happier and, generally speaking, more fun to be around because of the positive energy I'm expressing. 

Speaking of energy, this is the other unexpected improvement. I truly believed that if I exercised more, and what amounts to be 6 times per week between Burnaby Hit and running, that I would be exhausted all the time. The complete opposite has happened! I have so much more energy and overall am less tired (with the exception of my late night / early morning problem). I also believe that this boost in energy plays a role in my better mood because it's hard to stay cheerful when you are feeling worn out all the time! My strength and endurance have improved and I'm finding that all those tiring day to day chores and activities are taking less of a toll on my body.

Finally, the last major unexpected improvement for me is the increase in confidence I have in myself. I used to dread summer. I hated wearing shorts and basically would do anything possible to avoid them. I was very self-conscious. Now things are different. I don't have a perfect body, but I'm okay with that. I like my body better now. I wear shorts even though my body doesn't look exactly the way I want it to. Why? Because I feel better and stronger and I like me more! I know that I'm a work in progress and somehow the workouts I do at Burnaby Hit make me feel more confident generally. I know that I can do it...even when it hurts, even when I think I can't. One of the major lessons I've learned this month is as follows:

So I do!

Forgetting food.

Today was a day where I forgot to eat. Now don't freak out, this really wasn't an intentional thing. This was a "I was so focused on other things that I didn't notice until 3pm that I hadn't eaten anything but almonds" thing. Let me explain.

Last night was another late night which translated into another chaotic morning. This whole sleeping thing is really something I need to work on. I'm a night owl by nature and will probably never be the early bird that catches the worm. Plus, to be honest, I'm a bit stressed lately. My chicklet is heading on her own mini vacation in a few days, going to visit family across the country, by herself. For 3 weeks!! It's exciting for her and stressful for me. This probably doesn't solely account for my crappy sleeping habits, but the added stress is likely not helping it either.

Anyway, due to us all sleeping in a bit later than we should've, the morning was a mad scramble and all I had time to do on my way out the door is grab a handful of almonds. But because I'm obsessive like that, I counted to make sure I had 20. Sigh.

I didn't even eat them right away! My hubby and I dropped our daughter off at summer camp and then I ate them on the ride to my husband's work. After dropping him off, I stopped in at the airport to organize and pay for the rest of my daughter's trip - I had already bought her ticket there and now needed to buy her ticket home. After what seemed like forever at the airport, and $8.75 later for parking, I decided I really wanted to walk the Stanley Park seawall. It's one of my most favourite places to walk and is approximately 10km around. It was a beautiful day and I was determined to take advantage! Plus I hadn't made it to Burnaby Hit this morning, so wanted to get some exercise in (P.S. - I'm going tomorrow to get my 3 workouts in this week). 

The walk was great! I saw some friends and had a chance to make some plans for the weekend - yay! I also saw a cute little seal swimming close to shore. All in all, it took me about 1 hour and 50 minutes to do my walk. This was great, and I guzzled lots of water along the way...problem was, by the time I got back to my car, popped into work to pick a lunch reimbursement cheque (yay) and made it back to Burnaby, it was about 3pm. And I hadn't eaten anything since the almonds this morning. Oops.

As soon as I realized this, I also realized how hungry I was. What was I thinking!! I had nothing planned for lunch at home, so I stopped by Subway on the way home and picked up a 6 inch veggie sub (lettuce, onion, green peppers, jalepeno peppers and cucumbers) with sweet onion dressing. I brought it home and ate it up.

There. That was better. And since I was still hungry and in need of a bit of protein, I had my last slice of protein bar. Time to make more of these delicious little things!

At this point it was time to pick up my daughter from summer camp, so I did. Shortly afterwards, we walked to Safeway to pick up some things for dinner. Tonight's plan was to BBQ some chicken thighs for my family and have a salad and corn on the cob with it. I picked up everything that we needed for dinner, things we didn't need for dinner (like creamsicles) and also grabbed some steel cut oats and frozen mixed berries with the intention of trying to beef up my breakfasts.

When we got home, I threw the chicken in a marinade and me and my chicklet went to pick up my husband from work. About 45 minutes later we were back at home and it was time to think about getting our grill on. One habit I have developed over the years is liking to have a cooler while barbequing. My mind has now completely associated the two things as belonging together. So, I drank this while I barbequed.

I boiled the corn, 'cause I was feeling too lazy to BBQ it. Once the chicken was done and resting, I made the salad. Romaine lettuce (so I could share with my guinea pig - he loves when I make salad), cucumbers, grape tomatoes, red onion, radishes and avocado, topped with shredded cheddar, sunflower seeds and for me, Italian dressing. I had a dinner sized plate of salad because well, it's salad, plus I had ate very little today so thought it would be appropriate! I didn't want to douse the salad with dressing so I used two capfuls of dressing (the cap was small).

 

Just as I was finishing my dinner, a friend called and wanted to go for a run. So far our schedules had not been meshing so I was stoked to finally get a run in with her! To be honest, I was a little hesitant at first. Not because of my friend (she's fantastic), but because up to this point I had only ever ran alone. All my insecurities about not being fit enough, fast enough or able to talk while running trampled into my mind and briefly made me want to say I couldn't do it. But then I challenged myself to give it a try and actually enjoy some time with a friend! I'm notorious for forgetting to have me time and even worse for forgetting to have me and a friend time. So, I met her, we ran, and it was FANTASTIC! We kept pace with each other, stopped briefly when we had to, enjoyed catching up and ran farther than I thought we'd be able to...just over 5km in 39 minutes! I definitely learned that running with a friend is fun...and we decided to do it again. These next upcoming days are a bit busy, but I'm making a point of trying to get a run in with her again soon...I enjoyed it! Maybe it can become a weekly thing? Or maybe even more often!

Once I got home, I downed more water, rested for a bit and decided to have one more snack before bed. After digging around in my semi-bare fridge (I really must do a real grocery shop soon), I opted for a nectarine. So good!

And that's it for my eating day. I think tonight I'm going to try an overnight oat recipe so that I have breakfast basically ready in the morning to fuel my body before going to Burnaby Hit. Then I have no excuse not to eat in the morning. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow...which coincidentally is my official one month mark of my new workout routine.That also means I'll be posting my monthly results! Stay tuned....and goodnight for now! :-)

What I ate...a little late

I woke up yesterday morning with a new sense of determination stemming from the new goals I set for myself for August (in a blog post to come, maybe today). Unfortunately, my mornings have been tough and I've been having a hard time getting my butt out of bed on time. I think I'm going to bed too late... Once up, I scrambled to get lunches together for myself and my daughter because 1. she was going on a field trip with summer camp and couldn't be late despite my sleeping in and 2. Tuesday sucked because I was starving all day from not packing enough food and I didn't want to repeat that mistake. After getting the lunches together and getting my daughter and my husband out the door, I had my breakfast. 

I'm getting used to this whole eating cereal and yogurt thing, but I don't want to get bored of it so I really must remember to buy some oatmeal and berries to try to fit in to my breakfasts. Then I have to figure out how to cook it properly because I'm doubting Quaker instant oatmeal made in the microwave is the healthiest option!

I caught the bus to work yesterday morning as my hubby takes the car on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I wasn't ready to leave with him. On the walk to the bus stop, I stopped by Starbucks and got my soy chai latte. Now, don't panic, if you follow this blog you might have noticed that yesterday was my 'Starbucks off' day. There's a reason that I had one which relates to my new month's goals...but remember you have to stay tuned for what they are! It will all make sense!

 When I got to work (like an hour later), I was already feeling hungry for my mid-morning snack. It was a good one!

Yum....kiwi and nectarine. I really like fruit, despite it being a pain in the ass to cut up. My daughter got some of this in her lunch too!

Somehow, I got so caught up in work yesterday, that I forgot to eat my lunch. My calendar alarm went off at 1:30 that it was time for a team meeting....crap! No time to eat first. I went to my meeting and sighed. I was in trouble. I hadn't ate since my earlier fruit snack and my boss had brought a huge tray of chocolate cupcakes to the meeting. Yikes! I watched as the guy across from me ate not one, not two, but three chocolate cupcakes. He was an evil ectomorph too. I was so hungry and so tempted, but I didn't want to give in! Somehow I made it to the end of the meeting, when my boss pointed out that I didn't try one of her cupcakes. Foiled! I politely took one, saying I'd eat it later and she gave me another one (for my daughter). So this was at about 3:30, which meant that I had to keep them with me in my office for another 2.5 hours before my program and then for the ride home afterwards. Great. I put them on my bookshelf in the corner of my office and quickly grabbed my lunch before I binged on chocolate cupcakes.

I had thrown the leftover chickpea salad from Monday into my lunch yesterday. I basically never keep leftovers longer than two days. I have a paranoia about food going bad and honestly, it's pretty rare I eat something even two days after it was made. But I figured it still looked and smelled good and my fridge was looking bare so I went for it. It tasted good (flavours were really melded by this point) AND I'm writing my blog today so I know I didn't get food poisoned! But I will say that what didn't go into my lunch went into the garbage.

Because I had waited so long to eat and was REALLY hungry, I had some veggies & dip (half the dip) right after eating the chickpea salad.

I somehow made it to my 6pm program without eating the chocolate chip cupcakes sitting on my bookshelf. For good measure, I ate my almonds to make sure I wasn't tempted to wolf them down after my program was done. Didn't want to return to my office starving!

After program, I shoved the cupcakes in my bag where I would no longer have to look at them, went outside where my husband was waiting and told him to get me home quick so I could eat dinner! My husband and daughter did their own thing for dinner (chicken drumsticks and potato wedges) and I was feeling lazy so I had leftover chickpea curry from Wednesday night. But while it was heating up, I had a glass of wine.

So, I'd like to say that was the end of my eating yesterday, but it wasn't. My husband and I tucked our daughter into bed and watched TV together. I forgot to mention that I watched my daughter eat one of the chocolate cupcakes for dessert and the second one was sitting on the table. My chocolate cravings were out of control!! I put it off...and put it off...and put it off. I was determined NOT to eat the icing covered chocolate cupcake. So instead, I had this.

Bye, bye chocolate cravings!

So that was my eating day. I drank lots of water. I didn't go to the gym or run yesterday and was completely exhausted from a long day. After watching Big Brother, I started the process of my blog by emailing the pictures from my phone to my email account. And then I gave up and went to bed, because my brain was no longer functioning and I knew trying to write this would be a mess! But I also knew that I'd get around to it in the morning...and I was okay with that. :-)

Exercise check. Eating meh.

This was my motto today. I went to bed a doubter and woke up this morning a believer. Why you might ask? Because I got my ass out of bed this morning and ran 3.5km before work! And that was just the beginning.

Now before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to make it clear that today was not perfect. My eating wasn't fantastic. The things I ate were okay, but I really don't think I ate enough today. And my breakfast choices continue to be less than ideal. However where I was weak in one area, I kicked ass in another. EXERCISE!

Why the success with the exercise? Because I've changed my approach. I'm exercising to be strong and fit. Skinny is just the added bonus...not the end goal. I really think that makes the difference.

But back to my eating choices since that's the starting point of the blog. One reason I'm not a great morning exerciser...I'm not a great morning eater. Yes, I did get up and run 3.5km this morning (did I say that again? Yes I said it again. I'm proud of myself dammit!). But because I woke up later than planned, and was determined to get a run in, I rolled out of bed, got dressed and ran out the door....on an empty stomach. Not a great beginning. When I got through my run, I went home and immediately decided I needed to put something in my stomach, mostly because I felt like I was going to throw up if I didn't. So I ate the quickest and easiest thing I could find. Not toast. I ran out of multigrain bread. I had a banana muffin instead. With lots of water.

After I ate this, my daughter was raving about how fantastic her new cereal (that I let her buy in a moment of weakness) tasted. Of course, she wanted me to taste it. So I did. But first, she kindly pointed out that I needed to take a picture of what I eat. So I did. One piece of Krave cereal!

After my sad excuse for a breakfast, I showered, madly rushed to throw a decent lunch together (no way was I making the same mistake as yesterday and not packing enough food to get me through the day), and managed to get myself and my daughter to where we needed to be on time. Sort of. Well, she was on time. Me on the other hand - I ran a bit late. But it wasn't completely my fault.

At my work I don't have my own parking spot, but a coworker who does have a spot he doesn't often use, lets me use his on Mondays and Wednesdays which are my driving to work days. Unfortunately, he went on holidays, so someone else not aware of our arrangement took it upon themselves to use his spot while he's away...and whoever it was got to work before me! This meant I had to pay for parking, but unfortunately I had no cash on me and the machine needed coins. So, I parked my car, kept my fingers crossed for no ticket and ran across the street to a 7-11 to take money out of an ATM to then get change to park. And of course the ATM was down. Great. I went back to my car (no ticket, whew) and proceeded to take a scenic tour of Yaletown looking for a bank machine. I found a bank, parked and ran again (no money for the meter...sigh) and managed to get money from the machine, but only half the task was accomplished because I still needed change and there was a line up of about 15 people for the teller. Crap. I drove back to the parkade, parked and ran inside the building to Starbucks (yay!) where I ordered my soy chai latte for the sole purpose of obtaining change (yeah right).

After my getting-to-work adventure, I went to my office, started to work and eventually realized I was starving. Shocker. At this point it was basically lunch time, so I heated up leftover chickpea curry. It more or less tasted the same as it did yesterday which is good, but not great.

What you may or may not notice about my lunch is that my portion amount was way off. I loaded the curry and jasmine rice into my container in my mad rush out the door. The good news is a new skill of mine is eating reasonable amounts of food, not everything on my plate just because it's there. So my after looked like this:



Not too bad right?








Fast forward to later in the afternoon and my body told me it was time to eat something again. One thing that I got right this morning was packing watermelon for a snack. Yummy!!

One other thing I got right this morning was that I threw my gym clothes, shoes and boxing gloves into my bag and put them in the car this morning JUST IN CASE I decided to be brave and try to do a 30 minute hit circuit as well as my morning run. I mulled this over in my mind and envisioned how I would probably keel over and die in the middle of the floor after trying to do both in one day.Then I told myself to stop being a drama queen and to give it a try. So I did.

Today I met Lisa at Burnaby Hit. And it became obvious why she does the bootcamps there. The girl doesn't let up on you! Which is AWESOME!! Elbows higher! Kick harder! More power! Throw your hips into it! Somehow, I managed to make it through the circuit, despite thinking that I was probably going to die after each station. I think that part of me pushed even harder to do it, just because I thought I couldn't. Bob got the beating of his life after that workout. And I felt amazing!

Have I mentioned how much I love the trainers at Burnaby Hit? Every one of them is fantastic and let me tell you I never leave there feeling like I didn't give it my all or that I only got a half-assed work out in. Trust me. In fact today, I was so red and sweaty, that Lisa took a picture of me. Why the hell would anyone want a picture of me in that state you might ask? Or for that matter why the hell would I LET someone take a picture of me in that state? Well for the Sweaty Betty contest of course! Sounds gross hey? Well, the winner gets a trip for two to somewhere hot, so I'll tell you if the gross was worth it if I win it ;-)

Anyway, after the killer workout, I drove to my chicklet's summer camp to pick her up and we went home where I ate a protein bar.

And then, because rushing around is the story of my life, we drove to Richmond to pick up my husband from work. From there we went to the mall for what was supposed to be a quick stop, but wasn't. I really should have expected this. Have you ever shopped with a tween girl? I have, and it's never quick. By the time we were done, everyone was hungry and my husband and daughter got the great idea that a McDonald's stop along the way home would be the perfect option for dinner. Me not having to come up with dinner ideas was the convincing point for me, though I wasn't pleased that my family was eating garbage for dinner. I really need to work on their eating habits next! Anyway, they grabbed their meals and I got nothing. At this point my husband pointed out that he realizes I'm definitely committed to my fitness goals because normally, I would've said "screw it" and had McD's french fries for dinner. And of course he then asked me, "you just don't want to take and post a picture of them right?" Jerk. He was right though.

Of course I couldn't eat NOTHING for dinner, so I needed to come up with SOMETHING for myself. So I settled on a salad in a pita. When I have it for lunch, I usually just have half, but since it was dinner, I had a whole one.

And that was it for my eating today. I feel like I probably needed to eat more, but I don't feel like I'm starving as I write this, so probably my eating choices passed some bare minimum requirement.  But the GOOD news is I drank tons of water today and the GREAT news is I got TWO workouts in!! What this boils down to is that I took last night's challenge to myself  seriously and decided to "wake up and be awesome"! I'm going to be even more awesome tomorrow and challenge myself to focus on my eating choices. Stay tuned to see how it goes!

A chickpea kind of day

Woke up in the morning feeling like P Diddy....just kidding. There was no bottle of jack for breakfast. What I did do this morning was make time for a better breakfast. So I had Kashi honey almond flax cereal with raspberry yogurt. I think I could get used to this and I'm definitely going to try to get some oatmeal breakfasts into the mix next week. But I'm also gonna have toast once and awhile too okay?

After dropping off our chicklet at summer camp, my hubby dropped me off at the skytrain station and away to work I went. I worked. I got hungry. I had a mid morning snack. Watermelon!

Today's shoes were not good for lunchtime walking, so I decided to do something else. Being that I'm right downtown Vancouver, I decided to go shopping. And since I was feeling pretty darn good about the results I'm seeing so far, I decided to be really brave and go swimsuit shopping! Yikes!

I decided to head to La Vie en Rose, because I usually like the swimsuits they have on display. Of course, every female reading this knows that bathing suits looking fabulous on display doesn't always translate perfectly into bathing suits looking fabulous on the body. And I must say that I was really nervous. I know I feel better physically and mentally and also have lots more confidence in regards to my fitness and body, but I was really scared I'd try on 20 bathing suits and be really disappointed with what I saw. I sucked it up, narrowed it down to three bikinis that I thought looked hot, and went into the change room hoping for the best...

Guess what? Bikini #1: not sure who would look good in that one, but it certainly wasn't me. Uh oh. Not a great start. Bikini #2: looked pretty hot!! I was SO relieved, felt sexy and loved the changes I've made to my diet and commitment to fitness even more. I didn't even bother with Bikini #3, because why mess with what works? Yay!! Bathing suit shopping success. Who would've thought?  Unfortunately, my budget wasn't allowing for this purchase today, but tomorrow is payday.... ;-)

I went back to the office in great spirits and had my lunch. Leftover chickpea salad...hit the spot perfectly and tastes even better the day after!

I'm going to confess right here and now that there was more in my container than is in this picture. Bottom line - I was hungry and started eating before realizing I forgot to take a pic. So this pic is about 5-6 bites in. Better late than never. And hey, I was honest right?

If you've been following my blog, you know that I work late on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually I finish the program I teach anywhere between 7-8pm. This translates into a long day away from home and a late dinner. By the time 3pm rolled around, I realized that today I didn't plan very well and was running out of snacks to get me through to my late dinner. The last thing in my lunch bag was my container of almonds...all 20 of them. Let's just say they went quick and slowly enjoying each bite was not how I ate them.

So this snack got me through to about 4pm and I was in trouble. I was hungry, tired, and basically sick of being at work at this point! Don't get my wrong, I love my job, but being at work hungry and tired sucks! I started having mad cravings for a soy chai latte, but it was my 'Starbucks off' day. So I did what any rational female having mad cravings would do - I called my husband and tried to justify to him why I should probably have a Starbucks soy chai latte (I was hungry, I needed the caffeine energy boost, I can go without tomorrow) and hoped that he would agree with me. He didn't. But of course he didn't tell me not to have one because he knows that if HE tells me not to, that I'm going to have one just to make a point (I don't like being told what to do). Instead, he said something along the lines of "Shan, if you want a chai latte, have a chai latte. You're the one who made the goal, so you decide if you're going to stick with it or not". NOT what I wanted to hear! I wanted to hear "it's no big deal, just have one if you want one". Ugghh!!

So, here's what I decided. I didn't pack enough food. I felt low on energy and I wanted a boost. I didn't want to drink a latte. I didn't want to eat a muffin from Tim Horton's or some other yummy treat that I'd immediately regret. So I still went to Starbucks and decided to try one of their 'refreshers'. It's a very berry hibiscus green coffee extract with blackberries. It has half the caffeine and calories of a soy chai latte. I know it's not ideal to fill up with liquid calories, but it gave me the boost I needed to make it through my program and wait to eat more until my late dinner. I'm okay with that!

My husband picked me up from work and we went home to have dinner. My hubby and daughter ate their own thing and I made chickpea curry. The night before I had soaked some chickpeas and while I was at work today, my husband cooked them for me so they were ready for the curry when I got home (I love him). While we cooked, he had one of these. So did I.

More liquid calories. I know, I know. I'm not even going to try to justify this one.

Anyway, my chickpea curry turned out pretty good. I tried a new recipe, because I'm still searching for the 'right' recipe that has an authentic Indian taste. To be honest, I think I liked a different recipe I've used better, so next time I make it, I'll post the old one. But it was still good enough that I had a salad sized plate full and ate every last bite.

I think I know what lunch tomorrow will be....

My plan was to go for a run tonight, but by the time I ate dinner, it was dark and I just wasn't feeling like a run in the dark. So tomorrow, I'll be going to Burnaby Hit after work, and MAYBE I'll try to squeeze in a run in  the morning. Don't laugh. If you know me, that is a doubtful prospect as I'm NOT a  morning person, but hey....there's a first time for everything right?