Rapunzel

Random fact #7: I had really long hair (and bad teeth in the pre-braces days) until I was about 12.

This picture was taken on the day of my first communion I believe.

I’m no Elizabeth Manley

Random fact #6: I took skating lessons for a LONG time.

This is just one of many horrible skating pictures. At the end of every skating season, we had a carnival where we’d dress up and put on a show for our parents.

Any guess to as what I’m actually supposed to be here? The answer is an OYSTER.

Other costumes were: a snowflake, a sunflower, an octopus, etc etc etc.

Solo

Random Fact #5: I went to the prom by myself.

Me and my BFF – Prom in 2000.

Greetings followers of Amy's Quest to Skinny Blog!

My name is Adam, an old, old friend of Amy's. As I am a quasi-faithful follower of her blog, Amy thoughtfully asked me if I would do a guest post or two while she was away on vacation. So, here goes...

**Warning** This is my first time blogging, ever, so please go easy on me. :)

A little about myself and my friendship with Amy:

I actually "met" Amy coincidentally enough through the Internet. Remember ICQ? Well, a friend of mine who was in the same residence as Amy at university added her to my ICQ contact list. Before I knew it, we became ICQ BFFs. The next year I went to the same university as Amy (Guelph) and we continued our friendship in real life since then. That's going back 10 years now that I think of it. I am not the spring chicken that I once was!

A little while ago, Amy told me about her blog and how she wrote about her exercise and weight-loss adventures. Since then, I have been following her on her blog almost every day. Although I have never really been presented with any weight-loss challenges myself (at least not yet...) I have always been a fan of exercise and active living, and, more recently, healthy eating. I enjoy reading Amy's blog for useful meal ideas and learning about the variety of exercise and workout routines that she gets involved in and mulling over whether they would be something I would be interested in (note: I tried spinning class twice and both times I had to be practically air lifted out of the room...after 10 mins...). But above all, I respect Amy's honesty, humour, determination, and dedication that shines through in her blog postings. She is truly someone I admire.

Alright, enough of my kissing Amy's butt!

I've been thinking about what to write about on this blog, and I thought I would put some questions to all of you!

I usually exercise after I get home from work, but I am often too tired, lazy, or hungry, etc to get myself going. I am CERTAIN that I am not the only who experiences these moods. I would be interested if anyone had any tips, tricks, suggestions, etc to get into that mood for working out. Or, is the trick to work out in the morning before you go to work?

As well, my significant other (Kathryn) and I have recently started to exercise together, or at least be in the gym at the same time as each other. i was talking with her the other day about potential joint exercises we could do. I am not thinking about her spotting me while I use the bench press, or vice versa, but more like activities like her throwing a medicine ball into my stomach during crunches, or vice versa. Although, when I type that out, that doesn't sound like fun at all! I'd be interested in hearing how many of you do joint exercises/workouts with your significant other, and if so, if you have any specific exercises that you would recommend?

I guess my blog posting wouldn't be complete if I didn't have some sort of food posting. Admittedly, I have been pretty lazy in the kitchen lately, but I did make some homemade chili the other day (lean ground turkey, kidney beans, celery, onion, tomatoes, garlic). Typically, I put A LOT of cheese on top of it but this time I substituted diced up avocado for the cheese - delicious!

While I don't have a picture of the chili, I do have a picture of a meal that I ate sometime last year that I am NOT proud of. For those of you that remember a post where Amy linked this website (http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/), I tried to post this picture on the website but I guess it wasn't good enough.



That is a hearty patty of meat, juicy back bacon, a succulent breast of chicken, cheese, and two dirty onion rings. I called it the Food Group Burger.

FYI - (Un)fortunately, this "meal" did not become a staple in my diet.

Thanks for reading!

Adam

The pouf

Random fact #4: I had hideous hair.

This is my grade 7 photo which would have been 1993-94’ish.

Spiral perm complete with bangs shellacked with hair spray.

Tell me you didn’t have something similar? :)

My dad, my hero

Random fact #3: My Dad is the best.

Odd statement yes, but I wanted to plug my Dad today because he’s having surgery today. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

He’s been there for me every step of the way.

From this…

To this….

I love you Dad.

Random Fact #2 - Chloe

Random fact #2: Jersey isn’t my first golden retriever.

Meet Chloe, my childhood dog.

Chloe was a huge part of my childhood. I have so many great memories of this dog.

My Dad initially got her to be a hunting dog, to retrieve ducks. However, on her first time out after one gunshot she ran back to the house and cowered in her dog house. That was the beginning and end of her hunting career.

She lived a good long life, and was tragically hit by a the oil truck (in our own driveway!) at the age of 12.

Golden retrievers really are the best!

A blast from the past…

I’ve been tagged a few times recently for Blogger Awards, where I’m to state 7 random things about myself.

When my Dad downsized a few years ago, I inherited a box of old photos from my childhood. Over the weekend, I decided to take a peak through and discovered some gems.

Coincidentally, Andrew also happened procure a new scanner so I thought it would be fun to give you one little piece of randomness from my past each day I’m away in Mexico!

Random Fact #1: Its apparent my obsession with food started at a young age!

This was me on my first birthday! Yum, cake!

Weekend recap

I was a bad blogger this weekend. I apologize.

I don’t have a lot of time today, so I’ll recap as best as possible.

Friday night:

-Worked late, skipped gym in lieu of an outdoor run. It was great.

- Made a delicious meal. Pork tenderloin, broccoli and ceasar salad.

- Captured this moment. Its not hard to see who rules the roost in our house eh?

Saturday:

- Had a wicked sweaty workout at Body Combat.

- Took Jersey for an hour long hike in the woods.

- Did some errands for Mexico prep.

- Prepared an easy peesy dinner. Tomato soup, with grilled cheese/tomato/spinach sammies.

-The feature of desert were DISCOUNT BANANAS…. for my girl Cat!

- Pumpkin dip, apples and bananas.

- And maybe a couple of these.

Sunday:

- Got up extra early to squeeze in a run before Baby Shower mayhem.

- Started off with a pre-run Breakfast Cookie.

- Headed out the door and ran a glorious (albeit it a little short for an LSD) 8.5k with my buddy.

- Came home, got pretty and raced to my home town to get the prep done for the baby shower I threw for my cousin’s wifey.

- I put my Aunt in charge of ordering the cake. We all laughed our asses off when we saw the end result. HIDEOUS!! Good thing it was tasty!

- Lots of awesome food was enjoyed by all.

- All the lovely women. Yes, I’m holding child in this picture, get your jaws off the floor!

- The beautiful Mom-to-be. She’s due March 5th.

- Following the shower, I stopped in for a quick visit to see my Daddio then headed to my Aunt and Uncles for an dinner and a few hands of golf. It was my first time playing, so luckily they were nice to me and didn’t take all my money!

Monday:

-I’m off today. Got up and drove Andrew to work so I could use his car.

- Its weird driving automatic when you’re used to driving stick.

- I had a great sweaty treadmill workout.

- Got some American money.

- Ran a few more errands.

- Came up and made a delicious brunch. Pumpernickle bread with melty cranberry brie, grapes, canteloupe and a green smoothie. YUM.

- I have to clean like a mofo and pack, so I likely won’t be back tonight.

- I have some great material ready for you guys to keep you entertained while I’m gone, and a couple of guest posts too!

BRING ON THE BEACH!

Busted

95% of the time Andrew eats pretty healthy. Frankly he doesn't have much of a choice, because he doesn't cook and just eats whatever I make him.

Andrew goes into work much later than I do, so has a little more time in the morning.

I always assumed that he just had toast or cereal for breakfast.

Yesterday I arrived home immediately after I finished work. I opened the door and detected the slightest hint of bacon in the air.

My suspicions were confirmed when I walked into the scene of the crime and discovered the evidence!

Yes my friends, that is a bacon greased frying pan with traces of egg.

This leads me to believe that my dear husband not only had bacon, BUT HE FRIED HIS EGGS IN BACON GREASE.

Gross.

Its a good thing he’s cute.

Andrew, I know you’re reading this and laughing your ass off. Happy Friday baby, 3 more sleeps until vacation! xoox

Airing out the dirty laundry

Go figure the one day that I actually make it out of work on time to make it to the gym, I decide to blow it off to go for a run.

Who could blame me with the weather being crazy mild and sunny sky like this:

The second I got in the door, I got changed and grabbed my girl and headed out for a glorious 7k.

The whole run I feeling great. I was slightly underdressed for the weather, I wore just a 3/4 shirt and my jacket. Despite that, I still managed to sweat my face off.

If you look closely in the first pic you can actually see the sweat rolling down the side of my face. Hot eh?

Oddly enough I actually crave sweating. Bizarre, I know.

The best part of the skipping the gym was getting home early. By 6h30 I was done my workout and had supper ready for Andrew when he got home.

On the menu tonight balsamic chicken, 1/2 cup rice and a whack load of broccoli with one fat free cheese slice on top. Delicious.

Alright my friends, I have a problem. This is what my kitchen table looks like on any given day during the week.

Yes, that is a bra, underwear, boots, a sweater, a blouse, a toque, 2 pairs of pants and my winter jacket

How does this happen you ask? Well it’s simple. I’ve gotten in the horrible habit of just wearing my gym clothes home after I’m done. When I get home, I go directly upstairs to shower and get in my pjs. Therefore, my work clothes don’t get unpacked until the next morning when I’m repacking my gym bag. I NEED TO STOP THIS!! I keep my house pretty clean except for all the friggin’ clothes. I know the solution to fix this is simple, so I thought coming clean about it on the blog would help me break the habit.     

Do you have any horrible habits you want to confess?

The perfect protein solution

I’m not a huge fan of flavoured protein powders. I think its because of my aversion to certain flavour combinations:

• Chocolate and fruit. I prefer vanilla with fruity things.
• Peanut butter and fruit. I always puke in my mouth a little when I see people adding nut butter to their fruity smoothies.

This always causes a problem when looking for the perfect protein powder, as it comes in HUGE containers and I tend to get sick of it before I use it all.

Enter the solution to my protein woes: Leanfit PLAIN Whey Protein. I got this 2kg tub at Costco for just $23.99. I’ve tried it in a smoothie and also in a breakfast cookie. The verdict? GREAT!

 

The nutritionals aren’t too shabby either. I have been using just half of a scoop.

I got stuck late at the office again tonight. I was a little pissy about this because I missed my step class. I try not to get too upset about missing a workout, but it really does get to me.

I came home and whipped up a Pumpkin/Cinnamon/Raisin breakfast cookie for breakfast tomorrow. I really am amazed at how full these babies keep me.

Dinner was FAST and required zero cooking. Cesar salad and California rolls from Costco.

Andrew left to go to basketball, and I started to feel guilty about not exercising. I popped in my Bootycamp Fitness DVD and did the quickie cardio session which was an awesome little mini workout. After that, I did a 25 min intense workout on EA Active. Not the best workouts I’ve ever had, but it was better than vegging on the couch right?

I’m feeling a little parched tonight. I suspect that’s from the soy sauce I had with my sushi.

Well, I’m signing off for tonight. I’m going to enjoy a little Amy time while Andrew is at basketball. Hoarders is on. I’m kind of obsessed in a sick way with this show.. very similar to my infatuation with Intervention.

PS- Head over to Angie’s blog to check out some fahhhbulous news!

Arc-Trainer Madness

Hey bloggies! I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot lately, but holy frig I’ve been busy at work. It hasn’t been all sugar and spice, but I guess I’m coping ok.

I did something out of character today. I went shopping for some new dress pants for work. For the first time in a LONG time I bought pants without caring about the size. Usually I get so hung up on the size, I leave empty handed if size “X” doesn't fit. Today size “X” was too tight in the thighs so I went up a size without really caring.  Although a bigger size, I left with 2 great pairs of pants that are totally flattering and make my ass look AHHH-MAY-ZING!. This is huge for me guys.. HUGE! I think watching so much Stacy and Clinton has finally started to wear off on me!

On to the gym… Not only is it January, but its also new release week at the gym. For those non-Goodlifers out there, new release week occurs ever 6 weeks or so. Its when they release the new choreography for the group fitness. I had big plans to hit up Body Attack, but because of new release week it was required you sign up in advance. I failed to do this, so I had plans to do an interval run on the hamster wheel. However, this plan changed when just about every piece of cardio equipment was occupied. I decided to give the Arc Trainer a whirl. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! I had no idea how much a) this works your quads/ass b) how great of a workout it is c) how much it makes you sweat like a mofo with the resistance cranked up! For anyone looking to switch up your workout, give this guy a try!

Even though my legs were pretty much cooked, I turned on EA Active when I got home and did day #8 of the 30 Day Challenge…. and guess what? It was a leg workout! Lovely. I’m pretty sure I’ll be written off tomorrow, but BRING IT ON!

Dinner wasn’t very pretty but it was tasty, easy and GREEN!

Brussels

Annies with broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, chicken breast cubes and spinach.

From above:

and some carby goodness on the side.   

I may have to go to Montreal in the next couple of days to assist with some emergency work stuff which would involve working for the weekend. I’m not thrilled about this, but the saving grace is that I’m on holidays afterwards. We shall see.

I shall leave you with this picture of Lewis. I think he is fed up with having his picture take all the time… so he decided to sleep ON my point and shoot to avoid me capturing any embarrassing moments. Good thing I have another camera!

Question: What time do you get home from work? I usually get home at about 6h45pm. I finish work at around 4h30, head to the gym and hubby picks me up his way home.

Lately I’m hating getting home so late, but I love my gym time.

X-Weighted Challenge: Week One Reflections

Alright, so I've got week under my belt and it was a successful one indeed. I lost 6 lbs.

What did I do to make this happen? I TRACKED EACH AND EVERY BITE THAT WENT INTO MY MOUTH.

Those of you who have been reading for a while, know that I'm a bit of a workout nazi. This is always the easy part for me.

My week in exercise looked like this:

M - EA Active, 60 min walk, 20 mins Abs
T- Body Attack
W- 6k run, EA Active
TH- 5k run, EA Active
F- 60 min walk, EA Active
S- Body Combat
S- 10k run

My eating was pretty spot on. I tried to avoid processed foods and filled up on fruits and veggies. I also stopped eating dessert and substituted a light hot chocolate to curb my sweet tooth.

I plan to do a little recap of my week after each weigh-in. I think it will be nice to look back on my progress.

My goals for this week: Up the water intake. I generally do just "ok" in this department. This week I want to rock the water!

To my fellow X-Weighted Challengers: How was your week?

What a weekend!

Sorry for the lack of substantial posting this weekend. It absolutely flew by with not much time for bloggity blogging.

I feel like I need to do a recap of some of the fahhhbulous food I’ve had over the last couple of days.

Friday night’s dinner was definitely blog-worthy. Mixed greens topped with cucumber, red pepper, fig goat cheese, toasted pecans, apple slices and pomegranate/orange marinated pork tenderloin.

Saturday morning started out with me losing my breakfast cookie virginity. To quote the Fitnessista herself, it was definitely a “foodgasm”.

1/2 cup oats, peanut butter, chocolate protein powder, mashed banana, pumpkin seeds and raisins.

  After surviving a crazy sweaty Body Combat class, I returned home and prepared an amazing lunch.

Peanut butter and banana, sliced apple, pumpkin dip and Cinnamon Rice Works chippies. YUM.

Andrew and I finally got on the bandwagon and saw Avatar last night. I must admit, I was a little apprehensive going in as its not really my kind of movie. I left pleasantly surprised. The story line wasn’t anything spectacular; in my opinion it was a combination of Dances with the Wolves and Pocahontas. But the effects were incredible and totally made the movie! Dare I say I actually loved it?

This morning I decided to test the holding power of the breakfast cookie as fuel for a long run. I made the pretty much the exact same version as I did Saturday morning.

It held me over perfectly for a 10k LSD. My buddy Crystallina and I had a great run. It was a little chilly as I swear the wind was in our face the entire run. There was a brief moment I wanted to kill her for leading us up a haaaa-uge hill… but I decided it would be a long run back to her house without her. Hills are our friends right?

Breakfast #2 was eaten while reading in the bathtub to warm up post run.

Pita One is jauuuum and a light hot chocolate with frothed milk.

Andrew and I spent the rest of our Sunday doing errands, and taking our pootch to doggie paradise.

I whipped up a pretty friggin awesome dinner tonight.

His and hers pizza.

Hers: Homemade pizza crust from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry. Topped with alfredo sauce, spinach, cooked chicken, broccoli, mushrooms and skim mozzarella.

His: Store bought crust, pizza sauce, bacon, green pepper and mushrooms.

I looove the crust recipe from ESBM. Today I didn’t have any flax seed/meal that the recipe calls for so I subbed with Chia seeds for some extra nutrition. It didn’t effect the recipe at all.

Served with a simple salad – mixed greens, cucumber, red pepper, fig goat cheese and tossed with fig balsamic dressing.

Desert was simple, healthy and tasty – Cantaloupe.

Gotta jet… My boyfriend  Jack Bauer is on in just 6 minutes. I’ve been waiting for this day for almost a year.  I heart Jack!

Maybe even more than I heart Paul Plakas….