Blizzard!

Well, not really.  They kept calling it a blizzard but it was really just snow that kept coming so it accumulated over three days into a ton of snow.  For our first snowfall, it was a doozy.  I decided to take advantage of the blustery weather and stay in for the whole weekend (except for spin class).  The snow was supposed to start falling Friday overnight.  I headed to the grocery store to buy stuff to make a bunch of food for lunches and supper.

Thankfully, I didn't really need all that much.  I like that after trying more than a few recipes from a cookbook, you tend to have many of the spices etc on hand.  I was also very lucky to not need much so I could go through the self-checkout of 25 items or less.  Even that took 15 minutes.  The lineup for a regular cashier was AN HOUR!  I took a picture.  The line went across the front of the store to the far aisle and all the way to the back of the store.  I guess everyone had the "better shop before the blizzard" idea.  Funny thing is, I bet most people could eat out of the freezer and cupboards for two weeks.  They needed those signs like at Disneyland "it is 30 minutes from this point".  It looks like just shopping but it's an actual line.

So I ended up making Creamy Carrot Soup, Curried Sweet Potato Soup, Red Lentil Dal, African Kale & Yam Soup, Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits, and Pumpkin Bread.  Oh hell yeah!!!  I also managed to do all my laundry and some tidying up.  

Sweet Potato Soup & African Kale & Yam Soup

And finally, the Pumpkin Bread.  Funny story though, I was all excited to make it and the first instructions are to mix the wet ingredients, okay done.  Then mixing the dry ingredients.  The last ingredient on the dry list was baking soda.  Couldn't find it anywhere so either it's still hiding or I actually finished it or tossed it at some point.  So I put a lid on both bowls and put the wet ingredients in the fridge until Monday when I went out again and got some baking soda.  Funny now, not so funny then.  Ah well.  

Workout wise -- doing pretty good.  Alright, I suppose.  Last Wed, I did Core & More, Thursday was spin class and then Friday, I knocked it out of the park.  I did boot camp and since most of my department was out at a buffet for lunch, I stayed for the second class as well, which was Fusion.  Holy crap was that challenging.  It's Pilates & Yoga I believe.  Much of it was completely new to me and I can sum it up as this -- get yourself into the most awkward position ever and then hold it balancing on one foot for the next couple of minutes.  I think I sweat more in that class than I did in bootcamp and my legs still hurt all weekend.  Saturday morning, since there was only 10 cm of snow at that point, I headed out to the Y to do some weights and then spin class.  Awesome as usual.  Being Remembrance Day, the store wasn't open so there was no run club.  I didn't go to running clinic on Monday night.  I woke feeling blah blah blah.  Can't quite put my finger on it but it went something like this -- alarm goes off, snooze, alarm goes off, snooze, alarm goes off, oh my head hurts, i feel stuffed up, i'm exhausted, i'm pathetic, why am i so tired, cry, reset alarm.  I probably wouldn't have gone to running clinic anyway because it's a nightmare running on the road before the snow clearers have been out.  Especially with that much snow.  I should have gone to the gym and used the treadmill though.  My bad.  Today was Sculpt at lunch and spin class at the Y tonight.  I was dragging in Sculpt.  She had a few new moves and one killed my butt.  I wasn't the only one either.  Spin was awesome as usual.  I love it.  

And for the television . . . I'm behind on some shows and some shows, I think I'm willing to let go.  Revolution is one of them.  I was really excited about this show and it started off strong and now I just feel like every episode is the same.  So I may give it one more week or just drop it now.  If I heard it ends up turning out awesome, I can always catch up next summer if I decide to pick it up again.  Okay, decided.  Deleted from my pvr.  I'm loving Parenthood as usual, I'm liking that new one Emily Owens, M.D.  As usual, loving Survivor and Amazing Race.  I'm excited that Bachelor Canada is over in a couple weeks.  It sucks so badly but I have to stick it out now.  I will not watch any future Canadian version of this show.  It's terrible.  Modern Family makes me laugh out loud.  

My niece had party number one for her 1st birthday which is next week.  She sure does like cupcakes!  Hahaha - I love this picture!!  I think she gets that from me. :) Can't wait to have her party here!!  

Now onwards to a good week of eating all my delicious food and seeing a loss on the scale!

Those People

I wonder if I'll ever be one of those people.  Oh, you know the ones.

One of those people who works.
One of those people who always manages to pack a lunch and prepare supper.
One of those people who works out.
One of those people who keeps a clean house without laundry & dishes piling up.

And even better, one of those people who manages to do not just one or two of these things but all of these things at the same time!!

I always find that with run club and spin class both being at 6pm, by the time I'm home, it's about 7:15 pm or so.  Unless I've got something already prepared for supper, I end up eating something crappy which defeats the purpose of working out.  Or stopping at Subway, which isn't a terrible decision but becomes expensive if it's a habit.  I need a plan!

On Thursday night I was pumped after spin class, I knew I didn't have anything in the house for supper so I stopped at subway.  When I got home, I ate, and then tried to get as much as stuff done as I could.  I ended up getting the dishes and kitchen cleaned up and two loads of laundry done.  Go me!  Wish I could say I was productive on the weekend.  Geez, this is when I should be doing the above things!  Prepping meals and getting organized so that it's not hectic during the week.  I'd be much less likely to stop at Subway if something was just waiting to be reheated when I got home.

Angela over at Oh She Glows has so many amazing posts and recipes but one of my favorites is her make ahead lunch post.  I've already tried the Avocado-Lime Black Bean Salad and loved it so to simplify things further for my first time doing this (this coming weekend), I'm going to double up two recipes and have them twice each and toss a big salad in there for one of the days.  I plan to do the same thing for supper.  I'm picking two recipes I haven't tried before and doing as much of the prep work as possible.  Ideally,  I'd love to be able to do it all and just reheat.  This weekend, I'm making the plan and my grocery list and then after run club on Sunday, I'm getting it done!

I haven't posted in a week so to catch up . . . I did Core & More on Wednesday (Halloween) at lunch, it was great.  That night, I did run club.  It was fun to be running down the street when all the little dressed up kids were on the sidewalks.  Thursday, I did spin class in the evening.  Friday, I did boot camp.  Saturday morning, I did weights and spin class.  Saturday night, I had a few glasses of wine and way too much food with my neighbours so I did not make it to run club Sunday morning.  Booooo.  I did go Monday evening though.  I slept terribly last night.  Tried not to fall asleep at my desk all day.  I did Sculpt class at lunch and I felt a little better after that.  Then I had to leave early for a doctor's appt and by the time I got out of there, I was exhausted again and cutting it far too close to get home, changed and back to the gym for spin class so instead, I just drove by and dropped off my pass so someone else could take it.

So for the most part, I'm rocking the activity and mostly loving it.  I never regret working out.  Sometimes I drag my ass there but I'm always happy I did.

My diet . . . . a little out of control.  ARGH!  I have a had rough few days with that and I don't quite know what's driving it.  On top of the crazy food stuffs with my neighbours on Saturday night, here's some highlights . . . buttered popcorn, grilled cheese, Yes, that is a burger king bag (it was poutine), & peanut butter cups.

This does not make for weight loss!!  No amount of exercise just fixes this.  I've always heard too that weight loss is 80% what you eat and 20% what you do.  Ouch.  

Credit to arthlete/tumblr

So yeah, gotta get on all that and get it together.  Because really, I've been putting in the workouts, the scale absolutely should be reacting by this point and it's not, so my diet is the culprit.  I made some calendar pages of my workouts but don't know how to post them yet.  

Anyhow, moving on . . . some fun/funny stuff.  My sister is coming for a visit because she wanted to be home for my niece's first birthday so in just 9 days, my favorite itty bitty person will be here!  Here she is making cookies and her first Halloweeen.  Gah!!  And she's walking now, just started.  My sister says she just laps around the kitchen island forever.

Onto the funny.  I had to drop off a prescription at Safeway today and when I pulled in, I saw this guy parked.  What is so hard about diagonal parking?? Whether he walked in front or behind his vehicle, you'd think he would have either noticed how much of his spot was open or how far he was into the aisle (blocking well over half of it and the crosswalk).  D-bag.  Oh and he left it running.  I was tempted to hop in and pull his vehicle up.  Or to leave a note on the window.  Bet there wasn't even a handicapped placard hanging.  I didn't notice.  I guess his defense could be that he wasn't actually in the spot.  

Have a good rest of the week everyone!  

So how do you people swing your meals??  Especially interested in hearing from people who are okay with cooking but don't totally LOVE it. :)