Good Food & A Deal

My good friend Steph swears by compression socks for recovery after running.  A few days ago, I decided I was going to buy a pair but when shopping around online and seeing that they were $50 - $70, I resisted.  I decided that I would buy a pair as a reward for getting to Onederland or something.  And then, I saw last night on a twitter that Pro Compression had a Fitfluential coupon code (code=FIT2013) for 40% off and free shipping on their regular-priced marathon socks.  Whoop!  I jumped out of bed to get on my computer.   It worked for Canada so that's awesome.  And I splurged and bought two pairs.  The bright pink and the black.  Yay!!  Not sure how long the coupon code works so if you're on the fence, go for it.  So excited!!!

I've been quite the internet shopper the last couple days.  Just the other day, I ordered a sports bra, some running gloves, one of those personal quick dry towels, and a travel shower kit from MEC.  Which reminds me, I may have to ask a favour of one of you awesome blog followers of the USA.  Moving Comfort (my fave sports bra ever) has something against shipping to Canada.  Jerks.  As soon as I get this one in the mail (only colour available to Canada), I will make sure the size is right and then I will be hitting someone up to order a different colour and ship it to me.  I will prepay!!

I just realized something and I am super proud of myself for it.  Every work day this year I have left the house with my homemade coffee, green smoothie, and lunch.  This might be some sort of record.  I'm sure of it.  I've had $40 in my wallet for a week.  This never happens.

My lunch is something that my sister made for her work lunch every day when I was in BC at Christmas.  If you like the ingredients, do this.  I've had it every day and I'm not even close to sick of it.  Love love love.  It's half a cup of cooked quinoa, then sweet peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, cilantro (if you like), bit of feta cheese, avocado if you have it (mostly I don't).  It's delicious.  Doesn't need dressing at all.  With the feta, cilantro, and moisture from the tomatoes and cukes, it's perfect.  I make a small pot of quinoa twice a week and it ends up being enough for my lunches and I add a little to soups for supper here & there too.

I tried a couple new recipes from the Happy Herbivore cookbook.  This one is called Hippie Loaf.  She actually has the recipe on her website here.  It was really tasty but a little bit mushy inside after an hour. When I make it again, I think I will bake it in a muffin tin instead of a loaf pan or make it in two loaf pans so it's not as thick.  I also used her recipe for Brown Gravy and paired it with mashed potatoes and maple carrots, all plant-based.  

The flavour of the Hippie Loaf was so good and I also thought that it would make a good bean burger. And since it was a bit mushy, I actually cut off a chunk and shaped it into a patty and fried it both sides and made this amazing burger.  It was so so so good.  I wanted to make another one right away just to taste it.  I didn't though.  

My planned workouts have been going well.  With the exception of spin class.  My friend Nicole and I had tentative plans to try out the 6:45 AM class on Monday.  On Sunday night, the forecast for Monday morning was -44C.  Um.  No.  No, no, and hell no.  I messaged her that it was not likely at all that I show up for that class and she replied with "thank God!!" so I'm glad I wasn't ruining anything for her. It's just not worth it at that point.  However, after work that day, I had scheduled a 3 km run, which I did!

Tuesday, I did lunch time yoga.  Awesome.  This is only my second yoga class and she was giving basic instruction and then giving the more advanced move.  I was gaining confidence so at one point, my back was on the floor and and my butt was resting on a yoga block and both my legs were straight up in the air!  She walked around the class correcting some people and she walked over to me, I was cringing and she just leaned over and whispered "you're doing great!"  If I could have clapped, I would have.  On Wednesday, we had fusion at lunch and again, loved it.  This is definitely one of my favourite classes.   Amazing stretches and it always amazes me that working with a resistance band can actually make your muscles sore.  Also on Wednesday, my scheduled run was 3 km.  As I walked home from the bus, before I even went inside, I started my car to warm up.  Ran in, changed, got my stuff together and left.  Get it done!!

And now it's Thursday.  My plan was to do spin tonight.  I stopped by the Y and reserved my bike on my way to work.  Then, it warmed up ever so slightly outside (like -25C) which is now warm enough to snow and snow it did.  The road were crap and my windshield was frosted inside and out.  After I spend 15 minutes clearing windows and then 10 minutes slide-driving down the street, I decided to cancel my reservation because I was not coming back out in it.  I think one of the reasons that I've never been in a car accident (while I was driving) is because I just don't go out in these conditions unless absolutely necessary.  

my windshield from inside

Tomorrow, I have boot camp at lunch and a 3 km run after work.  It's happening!  I'm also weighing myself in the morning for my week check-in.  Last week's loss was so great and then the first two days of week two the scale went up!  I was so frustrated.  It did come down that same amount again but I would really like to see at least a one pound loss this week.  I've worked hard and I've counted everything I've eaten and haven't gone over once!!

CUTE NIECE TIME!

First try on the potty!!!

HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE!!