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
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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