Happy Weekend!

Hi friends!
Hope everyone is well and has been enjoying the spring weather we've been seeing the past few days, I myself am off to Mexico in a week for my first family vacation. Im pretty excited about it and have already packed, and have been routing things out everyday to hopefully make for a light vacation.
This week I didnt do much in the way of exercise, but have been cooking up a storm.
We had a dinner party with our friends, where I made a lasagna, and we drank too much wine.

 Hailey is really enjoying herself

Banjo and Sammy

Saturday morning I went over to my friend Sam's house to help her prepare for her girfriends babyshower. Sam mostly had it under control. I just helped make sandwiches, and devilled eggs. I wish I brought the camera as Sam went all out and was so inventive with the games she had. Greg even got an ice cream bowl for helping Sam put the meat slicer together.

We left around noon and went for a nice rainy geocache trip. We ended up only finding 2/4 but we picked up a tracker we are gonna take to Mexico, and dropped of a Slovakia coin we had had for a while.

I made A fabulous butternut squash soup for dinner on Saturday, and my sous chef made the baking powder biscuits. It was a nice hearty meal and I am really sad that butternut squash season is over. But I am happy spring is around the corner. Thats for sure.

Most of this week was spent spring cleaning, hence not being at the gym. I have really been feeling like purging and cleaning out my closets to feel lighter mentally and physically. It was nice to open all the windows and let the nice spring air in the house, I even hung sheets on the line! They didnt last too long, as it did start to rain, but they sure smelled fabulous when I crawled into bed that night!

I also made Greg ginger beef over fried rice with a whole bunch of asparagus we had to use up in the fridge. Greg makes this amazing charcoaled balsalmic asparagus on the barbeque, I was really hoping he'd make it, but I ended up just steaming it. It was still super delish.

Tonight I made some chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing, for my girlfriends baby shower tomorrow morning. Im really looking forward to the arrival of her little one! I went shopping and got a little carried away, everything is just so cute for little girls!

You dont need to press the mini cups down, they will sink when they cook.

 You cant even see the cups once the cupcakes bake!

Usually I would make my own cake mix, but I was also making butter chicken for Greg and I for dinner, so needed something quick and easy.

As soon as I posted the photo on facebook people asked for the recipe. Heres a couple I made this week.

Reece Peanut butter cupcakes

You will need:

1 Duncan Hines cake mix (chocolate fudge is which one I used)

Individually wrapped Reece mini cups, for inside the cup cake

Unwrapped Reece mini cups for decorating

2/3 cup Whipped Cream

2 cups icing sugar

1 cup peanut butter

3 Tbsp. butter

24 Cupcake liners

Piping bag

Prepare any chocolate cake mix, or devils food, or any of your choice, really, into cupcake lined sheet. Fill 2/3rds of the way full and place a mini Reece cup in the middle of each one, you don’t need to press them down into the middle.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Pull ‘em out and let ‘em cool. Take 1 cup of peanut butter, 3 Tbsp. of butter, 2 cups of icing sugar and whip in a large bowl until well combined. Whip 2/3 cup of whipped cream until light and fluffy. Spoon into a piping bag (or put in a Ziploc and cut the tip off) and pipe with icing. Place a cute little mini cup on top! Voila!

Butternut Squash Soup

You will need: 

Large pot and food processor or stick blender

1 medium to large sized butternut squash

1 large white onion

4 TBSP. butter

2 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP. curry powder

½ tsp. ground cardamom

1 clove minced garlic

1-inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated

8 cups chicken or veggie stock

Optional garnishes: chopped cilantro, dollop of sour cream, roasted corn, parsley

                               

Preheat oven to 350.

Take one medium to large sized butternut squash, cut in half and scoop out middle. Put a tablespoon of butter in each half, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast skin side up on foil cookie sheet for 45-50 minutes.

Melt 2 tbsp. of butter and olive oil in large pot on medium heat.  Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, ginger, curry powder and cardamom and sauté for 3-5 minutes more.  

Scoop flesh out of squash. Discard of shell. Add squash in to pot along with stock.  Simmer 15 minutes then puree in small batches using a food processor, or with a stick blender (usually until squash is smooth).

Return to pot and simmer another 15 minutes.

Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and some roasted corn.

And last but certainly not least,

My favorite lasagna

One box oven ready lasagna noodles

1lb. ground beef, or turkey

Prepared pasta sauce, or make your own using a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, any any veggies you like

1 container cottage cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese, 1.4 cup separated

2 cups mozzarella

Chopped frozen, thawed spinach, rinsed and drained

1 egg, beaten

1 cup cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper

Make pasta sauce.

Prepare ground beef, add to sauce. Simmer 15 minutes.

In a large glass oven proof dish, spoon a layer of sauce onto the bottom of the pan and top with noodles.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1 ½ cups mozzarella, ¾ cup parmesan, container of cottage cheese, spinach, salt and pepper and beaten egg. Use hands to combine.

Layer noodles, pasta sauce and cheeses.

Top last layer with sauce, remaining parmesan, ½ cup mozzarella, and cheddar. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Let sit for 10 or 15 minutes before serving. I like to serve this dish with a nice salad and some garlic bread.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! Are you doing any spring cleaning? Any project planned for the warmer weather? I know I cant wait to start planning my veggie garden. Hasta Luego, amigos!



Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday fellow bloggers!
Hope the week went by fast for you. Thank goodness the weekend is here!

My week was pretty good. Tuesday I went to an aquafit class by myself, since Samantha, my partner in crime had to work. I came home. made a smoothie, walked my dog, and did another meditation. This meditation focused on ego, and how to be more aware of it. The instructor told us to think of things we own. I thought of my dog, my feelings, my possessions, my body. By the end of the meditation I was feeling pretty good. I decided to make myself a ginger beef salad to take to work for dinner
.
So I was all ready to go to work and about to leave, when I called Banjo to come in. I called him for a good 15 minutes before I started to panic. I called work and told them I'd be late, because I couldn't find my dog. I started driving up and down my street, looking in the ditches and calling his name. Half an hour had gone by when I called animal services and they said they picked him up because he was on the road. I think what happened was that, because it was recycling day, he was at the end of the driveway pulling the recycling out of the box. He does this every Tuesday like it is a fun game for him. Well it wasn't funny anymore. I was hysterical. But thank goodness he was okay. I went to the SPCA which is just down the road. And even though they told me he was there, they said they had taken him to the other animal rescue place. So I had to drive there and get him. It cost me $35, but I was just relieved he was okay. After all that I ended up being only 10 minutes late for work. Go me!

I didn't work my traditional closing shift, which was a nice change to be off early. A table of mine invited me to stay for a beer, so I did. They told me they are leaving to go to New Zealand for 3 weeks in a couple of days. That was exciting since it ha been on my list of To Do's for the past year now. I know they will have a great time and can't wait for them to come back with awesome stories to tell.

Wednesday was back and bicep day at the gym. Sam and I also went to a yoga class which was nice. I had my first face to face health consultation with a potential client of mine. I think it went really well and it was much easier than I thought. I almost find it harder through skype because its harder to connect with the person. After that I went home, did some notes on positive psychology, and had another meditation before work.

Thursday wasn' t very eventful. I made a lemon meringue pie. I wish I got a before picture, because although I told Greg not to eat it before 8:30pm, when I got home from work at 9:30, this was what was left...

What a thoughtful boyfriend I have.

The Canucks chalked up a HUGE win against Detroit, and it was one of the best games I'd ever seen! We tied it up with 15 seconds left in the third period. And Burrows delivered the winning goal in the shootout. And that ladies and gentlemen, is how hockey is played.

I noticed some lower back pain when I first got to work, which only got worse as the night went on.
By the end of my shift I was miserable. I was off around 10, and came home and passed out.

My back was still not feeling 100% on Friday, and Sam wasn't feeling it either, so we skipped our workout. I got a package in the mail with some dresses I'd ordered. It was a bummer because neither of them looked good. They were both too big. I always forget that American sizes are larger than Canadian sizes and I should have ordered a small in both. Oh well. Internet shopping, you win some, you lose some.

Greg was off work early because of torrential downpour so we went grocery shopping. I rushed to work because I thought I started at 4, but I didn't start until 5. It was good to have a coffee, eat my salad and relax before work. Sometime we need to be reminded to relax and not worry so much. The world has its ways of telling us this. And I was happy the Canuck game started at 4:30 So I got to actually watch the first period. We ended up winning against New Jersey. Man, I love hockey.

I got home around 9:45pm and Greg was watching some terrible movie. I went to read in bed, but fell asleep.

This morning I was up at 8am. Which, if you know me, is unheard of. Greg and I made some kick ass french toast, and had some coffee. I am already feeling pressed for time, since I have a million things to do and it is now 10:30am. I am going to make some cookies for my friend Georg's birthday. I also need to catch up on my meditation since I missed yesterdays. I have some school work to do and a few calls to make. But this morning I got outside and noticed some spring flowers poking through the ground. Hope this means good weather is coming! Only 3 more weeks until Mexico. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Thanks for reading.
Angie

What I've been up to lately

Hello there, World!
It's been a few months since my last post. I was feeling overwhelmed with my lifestyle change so much that I was uninspired to blog about it. It's been 3 months, and I've  still been eating healthy, and exercising regularly. I have noticed small changes but nothing drastic. My home cooked foods have been improving in the sense that I cook a lot more than before.

I've also enrolled in IIN, which for those of you who don't know, is the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I'm doing a distance education program, since they're based out of New York City. I think that is the main reason I haven't been blogging. I have been trying to focus on the program a lot and cut out some of the distraction that help me to procrastinate :P

But since I cant deny the love I have for blogging, I found myself inclined to write recipes of the food I've been eating each day as well as some of the workouts I've been doing.

 I slept in this morning since I had a busy weekend and had gone to Wildplay the day before with 3 of my girlfriend. Wildplay is basically like an obstacle course in the tree tops, with zip lines and platforms with obstacles in between the trees. It was really cool. Some parts you are like 60 feet up in the trees. It's pretty awesome, but really physical. If you have been contemplating going but haven't gone, GO! You will love it.

So I got out of bed and made myself a kale and blueberry smoothie. To be honest, it was my first time experimenting with kale, and I didn't love the stuff. I found my smoothie rather chunky and hard to swallow without gaging. Yesterday I signed up for Deepak Chopras free 21 day meditation challenge. I was really excited to get my first meditation email since meditation has been something I've wanted to get in to for a while. I saw it in my inbox, but decided it would be easier to relax once I had gone to the gym.

So off I went, for chest and triceps day. It was all good, except my yoga teacher was late and wasn't the girl that usually teaches. I tried to convince myself to enjoy it, and to embrace the adversity, but her class was pretty boring and was really hard on my back. I left half way through and did some cardio on the treadmill. I left the gym and came home.

I turned on the meditation challenge and laid on the floor with a warm blanket over me. I listened to the tap and followed the incredibly easy instructions. The tape was 16 minutes long but seemed to be much shorter. Before I knew it time was up. I felt as though time had stopped. It was a nice feeling. I went an poured myself a bath. When I got out I made myself a peanut butter banana sandwich on ancient grain bread. IT was so drippy and delicious.

I listened to a school lecture and took some notes.

I did the huuuge mound of dishes Greg and I had acquired over the weekend.

Greg came home from work, and I was giddy as a school girl to catch up on the 5 episodes we had missed of my latest obsession 'The Walking Dead'. We decided to make Thai Fish Curry for dinner. I was skeptical about it since it was from a jar, and I still felt it was much too sweet and not spicy enough. We made it with halibut Greg got from the summer that needed to be used. We also had whole grain naan bread, and fresh tzaziki. I added some peppers, put it on brown rice, garnished with toasted cashews, and a sprig of cilantro. It was just right.

There is a recipe I took from those free little magazines at Thrifty Foods, that Greg and I were dying to make. It is a banana, rolled up in a flour tortilla, brushed with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, then baked in the oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. When it comes out you drizzle melted chocolate over it and garnish it with toasted peanuts. It was UH-MAY-ZING.

(We had to use ancient grain tortillas, as we had no white flour tortillas, but they were still good!)

I also had a couple pre-made pie crusts in the fridge that needed to be used, so I whipped up a strawberry rhubarb crumble. It only took a couple of minutes and smelled so so good while it was cooking.

Tomorrow I will make a lemon meringue pie with the other crust.

Over the last month, I read 'The Omnivores Dilemna', by Michael Pollan, which I found to be a good, easy read. He does a great job of documenting his journey through the North American food system. A lot of the point he made were valid and I enjoyed reading it.  I recently checked 'In the Defence of Food' out of the library and can't wait to read it, in between 'The Fellowship of the Ring', of course.

I also went to a Canucks hockey game with my girl Sarah. We won 4-2. It was one of the best days in a long time.

A friend of mine, Daniel Cutler, recently published as article of mine, about why you shouldn't buy bottled water, on a website he is working on. Check it out here.

I also recently lopped all my hair off, Thanks to my amazing hairdresser friend, Megan. If it wasn't for her I would never ever have gone out my comfort zone, and I'm so glad I did.

Other than that, not much is new. Greg and I have been thinking about perhaps a road trip this summer. We are looking forward to Mexico in the next month. It will be my first family vacation and I couldn't be more excited. Anyways, hope everyone had a great start to the week. I definitely did and I feel good to be back blogging.

Thanks for reading,

Take care,

Angie

Days 14-18

Hello and Happy American Thanksgiving everyone!
I haven't had too much time to blog these past few days, as Ive actually been quite busy.
Sunday night I had some friends come up for a DIY sushi night. I decided not to make any brown rice as I was already feeling a little overwhelmed with prep. It wasn't too bad actually, as I gave myself lots of time. Everything turned out perfect!

Yum! Tempura Veggies!

We each made a couple rolls which was fun. I only have one sushi rolling mat on purpose, because I like to watch everyone make their rolls.

We drank Asahi, and ate our huge sushi feast. There wasn't even a single piece leftover!



The next day, I spent most of the day cooking again, for another dinner party. I went to the gym for chest and triceps, and also for a HIIT sesh. Then I came home and made twice baked potatoes, broccoli salad, spinach dip and an apple and pear crumble for dessert.

Our friends ended up not making it, and we were stuck with tonnes of food. We ate ourselves into food coma, and I decided there was no more room for sacrificing my eating plan.

Tuesday was pretty uneventful. I got up early and made kickass egg white tacos with corn tortillas and salsa. It was a cardio day, so I walked my dog for 45 minutes. I tried to walk relatively fast to keep my heart rate up. When I got home I whipped up a protein shake and headed to work. I made myself a salad with chicken, spinach, carrot, cucumber, red pepper and pumpkin seeds for dinner. I worked til midnight and was exhausted when I got home.

Wednesday was a great day. I woke up at 7am for a webinar through IIN. I am seriously considering enrolling in their health coach program. The Q and A session was pretty helpful. I am feeling like I need a change for the better in my life so I am going to give it some more serious thought before deciding to spend my life savings on education.

I went to the gym early for back and bicep day. I also joined in an aquafit class. There were so many people! I usually go to the noon class on Wednesdays but I had to work at noon, so I decided to go to an early one. The music was awesome and everyone was singing along. It was a lot of good energy.

I had a flat tire from driving over a screw so I got that fixed before work. Work was busy and went by quickly. There was a hockey game on so my girlfriend Sarah and I had a couple beverages and I even gave in to some nachos and a half size chocolate brownie for dessert. Eating poorly make me really tired. It is actually crazy to see what a difference Ive noticed. Obviously eating healthy whole foods gives you energy, but now I see very clearly just how eating bad food makes you feel. I felt so sluggish and sleepy and went to bed at 9pm.

This morning Greg didn't have to work so he made me breakfast which was really nice. My biceps are killing me and my lower back is feeling kind of strained today. I was going to go to a hot yoga class at 12:30 but haven't hydrated enough today. I am really lazy and unmotivated from the weather. I think I will do a bit of stretching and walk my dog before work. Looking forward to Friday tomorrow!!

Day 11-13

My veggie burgers turned out pretty good Wednesday night. I was actually surprised, as were a couple of my veggie friends I used as guinea pigs. The sweet potato fries were awesome and so easy to make!


Thursday morning I woke up exhausted and decided not to push myself too much. It was a cardio day so I did a fast paced walk twice around Chemainus Lake. I ran small sections to keep my heart rate up but I had to work and didn't want to be too tired.


I had Puffins cereal for breakfast, with regular milk as I only had the chocolate almond milk. I had a protein shake after my run. Greg was home from work early so we went grocery shopping together for a couple of things I needed.


For lunch I had about 15 snap peas with hummus, and also one slice of break with lean turkey and avocado. It was delicious!


For dinner I had steamed tilapia with spinach, roasted red peppers and brown rice. The pesto really made it, but I still didn't enjoy it very much. It was too fishy, and the bones in the fish really threw off my appetite. I think ill stick to fish tacos.


My girlfriend Sarah came over and I had half a beer with her after work. I went to bed around midnight since I had to be up early.


Friday was a busy day. I got up at 7am, had a coffee, some yogurt with vanilla extract, and a half a grapefruit, before hitting the gym. I did shoulders, legs, abs, and a HIIT sesh. I knew I wouldn't be working out Saturday so I did both workouts. It was awesome, and I went to work feeling full of energy. I had to open the restaurant which was great because I wanted to drive to Victoria Friday night for a girlfriends birthday party.


I had a protein shake after the gym, a kashi bar, 25 almonds for a snack and a salad with veggies and chicken at about 3pm. I also had a happy hour at 3pm and had a martini. TGIF!


We decided to have dinner at a restaurant in the city where my friend Jesse works, since we hadn't been there, and also hadn't seen him in so long. It was a beautiful restaurant and we shared some crab ravioli, a thin crust pizza, and of course we had gelato for dessert. Everything was delicious, but I did feel slightly guilty for straying off my meal plan. But it was a special occasion and I would have been even more disappointed if I didn't go.


We headed out to the party and had a really great time. It was so nice to see friends I hadn't seen in months and months.

Everyone had a really great time. I definitely drank too much, although not enough to give me a hangover, thank god. We stayed at the party until about 3am before someone had the not-so-brilliant-but-at-the-time-was-brilliant idea to go to Denny's. So we caught a cab and to Denny's we went.

I hadn't been to Denny's in probably 10 years. And for good reason. But I still felt the need to order way too much food. I ordered a bacon avocado wrap, of which I ate half. I also ordered a buttermilk biscuit with turkey gravy on the side. The waitress brought me 2, of which I ate one half of one. and I had 2 chicken strips, because my friend is vegetarian so someone had to eat them (that was my excuse), 2 mozzarella sticks, and an onion ring. I don't even eat deep fried foods. I actually despise the taste of them. Its so weird what the influence of alcohol makes you do.

We cabbed to Emily's after Denny's and passed out. We probably got home at about 4am. Greg was super hurting and still is. He doesn't know his limit and always surpasses it. I had 5 cider, because my 6th went missing, but it was a really long night so I think that is why I'm not feeling as rough this morning.

I woke up feeling pretty sore. My shoulders and abs are especially sore which is great because I find my shoulders are difficult to workout. We made the drive home, we stopped at McDonald's and I got a fruit and yogurt parfait. Today I am going to eat a lot better and hopefully forget some of the guilt of eating all that crap last night.

Today is a new day! Last night is water under the bridge. I'm going to take a nice hot bath, and make myself a turkey wrap. Some friends want to have drink tonight also but I think I will volunteer to be the DD. I'm also going to pack some ready to eat snacks so I don't get careless. Tomorrow we are having friends come up for a make-your-own sushi night. I am going to try and make sushi with brown rice for myself and see how it turns out. I will take photos and keep everyone posted. Happy Saturday, and thanks for reading!

Day 8-10

Monday morning I drove down to Victoria for a Doctors appointment. I squeezed in a nice workout at the Oak Bay Rec Centre. It was OK. The treadmills are all preset for 25 minutes ONLY so that is your cardio limit. The weight room was pretty crowded and very old but it still got the job done.

Turns out I drove down there for no reason because my doctor is on vacation and wasn't in office. They tried to call me but didn't have my updated number. Doh!

It was still nice to be in the city though. It was a beautiful sunny freezing day. I had tea with my friend Georg and caught up with Emily. She is super motivating right now and is always sending me fabulous inspiring text messages, which I love. Here is one;

No wonder she is my bestie!

I followed my meal plan pretty close for the most part. I had dinner with another one of my best friends, Melissa. She is pregnant at the moment and is so incredibly beautiful to me. She just looks so radiant and perfect. We had pasta and garlic toast for dinner. The toast was not on my meal plan, but neither were the 2 girl guide cookies or the strawberry shortcake I indulged in. It is really hard to hold back on eating around a pregnant woman! I think I did pretty good. Luckily for me, Mel bought Cool Whip which only has 25 calories per 3 tablespoons, and the mini only had 100 calories each. Add some fresh berries and BAM! You have yourself a pretty healthy little dessert.

Tuesday was cardio day and Banjo and I ran for about 45 minutes. The road was pretty icy so we had to walk little sections of it. The sun was still shining and we had a nice view of the lake from where we ran.

I created the best protein shake Ive ever had. I mixed coconut milk, vanilla protein, unsweetened flakes of coconut, banana, a little bit of water and some flax oil. SO delicious!!

I had leftover pasta for lunch and left to go to work. It was really slow and I got to come home early which was nice because my triceps were KILLING me from Mondays workout. I had some salmon an steamed broccoli for dinner, and a kashi bar for a late night snack, before hitting the hay. Well, I didn't really hit the hay. I stayed up for a few hours researching Southeast Asia and trying to find a financial way to make it happen this summer. I'm gonna talk to Greg about it later.

This morning I woke up to snow. It was slightly depressing since the past two days have been so beautiful. Everyone kind of suspected it was coming though as it has been really cold at night.

I went to the gym and did a 5 min warm up run, literally to warm me up, because I was freezing. Then did biceps and back today, before heading down to the pool for aquafit. My friend Sam joined me today and we had a fun class. The thing about aquafit is that you are so buoyant, you don't realize how hard you've worked until you get out of the water and feel like jelly. It was really nice to watch the snowfall outside as we were nice and warm in the hot tub.

Now I am home writing to all of you. I just had another one of those protein shakes I had yesterday. It makes me feel like I'm in the tropics even when its snowing out. I'm about to prep some sweet potato fries and make a salad for dinner tonight, since Ill be at work. Tonight is the night I get to try out my veggie burgers I made on Sunday! I cant wait! Ill keep you all posted as to how they turn out. Ciao for now!

Days 4-7

Thursday I waited around for some friends to go to the gym. I did some housework since I worked the day shift Friday and Greg was coming home Saturday.

My friends ended up bailing and I ended up pressed for time before work on a cardio day. I took my dog on a quick 30 min run on the TransCanada trail. The leaves were all different colours and the sun was shining, too bad everyone was burning.

I had some chicken for dinner before work, then a couple beers after for the Canucks game. Too bad they lost :(

Friday I worked the day shift at work so I made some overnight oats on Thursday night. I also had an orange a cold cup of coffee with ice and organic sugar.

Friday was also a holiday for Remembrance Day. Work was slamming busy!
Good thing I was prepared and brought food from home with me. I had leftover chicken for lunch and some grapes for a snack.

I wanted to squeeze in a workout but the gym was only open for a few hours since it was a holiday. I promised to work out extra hard on Saturday.

It was Friday night and my girlfriend Sarah got off work early so we decided to treat ourselves to martinis during the hockey game. I had 3 too many and splurged on chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. I only had half a piece as the guilt got to me and I couldn't fully enjoy it. I also had some nachos. Safe to say Friday wasn't my strongest day. It wasn't a strong day for the Canucks either :(

Saturday I got up and made french toast with multi grain bread, egg whites and almond milk. It turned out OK. Wasn't too tasty. I cleaned the house like a crazy woman all day since Greg was coming home that night. I also went to the gym and worked legs, shoulders, abs and did a HIIT sesh. I didn't have time for the sauna as my workout ran a little longer than expected so I gulped down a protein shake and an apple and went home to shower.

I picked Greg up at about 5 o'clock and we decided to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Its sort of a tradition, and we go every time we are in town which isn't very often. I usually always get the same thing. The chicken enchilada and Chile relleno combo, with a salad instead of beans and corn, and regular enchilada sauce with molé on the side. I was so full I couldn't eat anything else all night. Greg and I watched "Crazy, stupid, love" and I ogled over Ryan Gosling. God I remember when he was in Breaker High on YTV. He sure grew up!

Today was Sunday, which is my food prep day. I didn't really do much exercise which is fine because I had to grocery shop and prep my food for the week. I made a delicious hummus;

which was so good Greg ate the leftovers from the blender.

Greg's brother Rob stopped by and I made some Thai coconut shrimp, over leftover brown rice;

This is the site of my work area.

I also whipped up a batch of delicious veggie burgers, and some more fresh salsa. I wish I took some pictures of the veggie burgers as they were so beautiful! And pretty tasty too. I used s spaghetti squash in place of the summer squash the recipe called for and they still turned out great.

We went over to our friend Virginia's house for dinner and she made a kick ass Seafood Chipotle, which is her and her husbands favorite dish at Gina's, the same Mexican restaurant we love. She always cooks up a mean dish and this time was no different. She never fails to impress, and we always come home with a food coma.

Tomorrow I have to drive down island for a Doctors appointment.
Tomorrow is also the second week of my weight training, which means I'm moving up to 2 sets of 15 reps. I will probably do this for the next couple weeks at least, until I feel strong and consistent. I think I am going to keep doing the HIIT for my cardio as it helps the time go by really fast. I am also going to start jumping rope for a couple minutes as my warm up before weight training.

I bought a couple new products to try out this week;

I am pretty excited to try the chocolate almond milk with a banana, oats and some peanut butter in a protein shake. I am also interested in the coconut milk as it is a new item at my grocery store and was on sale.

I haven't really noticed much change this first week. Ive noticed a little definition in my arms already, and that I have more energy. I also feel a bit leaner which is crazy because I'm eating more than ever before! Ive also decided to follow a more practical plan, which I will still modify to include protein shakes, cereal, and overnight oats.

Overall I am pretty excited and feeling really motivated going into week 2. Thanks for being supportive and reading!