sewing day!

apparently it's supposed to snow a lot today. yikes! i hope it doesn't affect traffic because i have to be back to the city by 6pm for my sewing class. we are using the "amy butler barcelona skirt pattern" which looks like this:



i hope i can make it a bit shorter because i don't find that length to be very flattering. i bought a red and black patterned fabric last night at fabricland. i have to say, their selection of cotton fabric was really ho hum. unless you wanted a superlame christmas inspired design. can you imagine? maybe for pajamas or something, but not a skirt.

today i am lazy again. i woke up to swim at 6:30, and then suddenly it was already 7am and too late. what is going on? i went to bed at 11pm last night too, which is quite early for me. i love staying up late. i love sleeping too. what a conundrum, you see. conundrum: do you like that word? i do!

last night we made personal pizzas with multigrain flat out wraps as crust. i also went to the polish grocery store and bought two kinds of delicious salami. i went in to get tomato sauce and then forgot all about it, so we had to use bbq chicken sauce as a base. it turned out extra tasty. my pizza had green pepper, red onion, tomato, zucchini, mushrooms, light mozza cheese, and both kinds of salami. i always thought salami was really bad for you, but it's only 2 points per 1 oz. which isn't that bad because it's not that heavy.

i am having the rest of the salami today for lunch in a flat out wrap with lettuce, tomato, mustard, green pepper, red onions and mushrooms. wrapped up though too. it's huge! longer than my foot! i don't know if that's true or not. ;)

late post today

i didn't exercise this morning because i am all partied out. i'm going to do something tonight... probably a few 10 minute runs on the treadmill with weights and sit-ups in between. i can hear thunder out the window right now so an outside run is probably out of the question.

my party on saturday was a great success. probably the best party i've ever had. i woke up around ten thirty on saturday and cleaned up for a bit, then went on an awesome 5-mile run while my boyfriend made us breakfast. i spent the whole day cooking and cleaning and he went shopping for last-minute additions. we ran out to pick up the cake from one of my good friends who so nicely made it, and stopped at mcdonald's for dinner. i know... you are thinking... mcdonald's? seriously. i have nothing against fast food really. it's ok every once in a while if you usually avoid it. i had a hamburger with no mayo and small fries. yummy.

i made so much food for the party: crackers and cheese, chips, popcorn, cookies, egg salad sandwiches, deli chicken sandwiches, pb and j sandwiches, a veggie platter, bowls of nuts, hershey kisses, mike and ike's, m & m's, fuzzy peaches, meatballs with honey garlic sauce, jello shooters, a vodka punch, fortune cookies... the list goes on and on. surprisingly people ate 90% of all the food which makes me happy.

here is a photo of one spread:


here is a photo of the cake... the fire alarm just went off!


and here is a photo of my orange and black outfit... check the shoes :)


i think you can click on the photos to make them bigger. this morning after i left school i stopped at this cute coffee shop and tried a vegan chocolate chip cookie. i have never had vegan baking before (that i was aware of) and it was really delicious....

home today

i am at home today. since i am at home today, i am going to do my entry "food blog style."

i woke up at 8:30am and made a coffee, and small bowl of cherries and cheerios. ch ch ch champion foods. :) i was reading in bed, eating them, when i fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 11:30am. am i lazy or what?



now it's noon! i have some stuff i want to do today (on the computer), so hopefully i can get it all done. if i do, i'm going to reward myself with a trip to whole foods. (i have to drive there... bleh!) i was hoping to get outside for a run, but it's pouring rain... it might stop by 2pm or so for a couple of hours, so i'm going to postpone my workout until then and make something more substantial to eat.

for brunch or lunch i made my favourite... oatmeal:


1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze
1/2 small banana
1/4 cup wheatberries
1 T flax
1 t splenda
1/2 t vanilla
some thawed frozen berries on top. :)

i went for a long run... 6 miles. it was easy and my heart rate stayed about 140 the whole time. i think my monitor is working fine now... phewf. i was running for over an hour and burned 430 calories or so.

when i got home i thought about what to have for dinner. i looked in my vegetable drawer and saw a sweet potato that was almost ready to bite the dust, so i made a big batch of mashed potatoes.

i used:
1 giant sweet potato
4 cloves garlic, chopped (2 were really mini)
3/4 head of cauliflower
splash of unsweetened almond breeze

i steamed everything and then used my blender on a stick (what is that called?) to puree everything. yum yum. i love mixing cauliflower into mashed potatoes because it really increases the volume and not the calories.

i ate a small bowl right away:


i had a bath/shower afterwards and then made dinner. i had a sun-dried tomato gardenburger on an ezekiel english muffin, with some greens and mustard, leftover steamed veggies and some mashed potatoes. now i am very very full.


i have never tried ezekiel english muffins before ($4.99 for 6!) and i have to say, they are really delicious. way better than any other english muffin i've tried. i still have some work to do on the computer so i better get cracking. i am not going anywhere tonight because it's still raining and i just can't be bothered. that's how much i hate driving. why do i even have a car?

i hope you enjoyed looking at my food today. =D tomorrow will be back to regular posting (no pics), although i do have to say, posting my food for the day really inspired me to make the most of my food (variety, somewhat nice presentation) and really curbed the mindless snacking and little bites of things i would usually take but wasn't hungry for. interesting...

not a monster anymore

last night i went to bed early. for me, that means getting into bed about 10pm and reading until 10:30... then lights out. and i feel great today, too. it's beautiful and sunny outside... my favourite kind of day. :o)

yesterday after work i went down to the gym and did some biking and strength training. i finished reading the black book of hollywood diet secrets. i would recommend it, if you get it from the library. it's cute and there are some good tips, but it's not really worth owning. (it's very light and will probably be outdated in a few years.)

for dinner i made a spinach salad with spinach, a chopped tomato, 5 chopped almonds, a sprinkle of dried blueberries, about a 1/4 cup of fiber one, honey mustard dressing, and spicy thai shrimps. yummo! i really have no problem combining weird flavours and textures, obviously. i also had a baked sweet potato with fat free sour cream.

my big news is that i bought a heart rate monitor. i couldn't help myself. i was going to buy it on ebay, but then i found a real company in BC that sold them for a reasonable price, with free shipping, so i bought it from there. it's called "fact canada." i like buying canadian because a) i like to support my home "peeps" and b) the main reason: the shipping is always less hassle. usually things that ship from the US are ok, but sometimes they take too long and once in awhile there will be a duty issue and i'll have to pay more. i hate paying more... cash on delivery is the pits. i got the polar f4 - in cherry red. ooh la la. now i have to wait for it to come in the mail. that's ok. i love getting mail.

this morning i got up and went down to the gym. i walked for four miles at four miles per hour at an incline of four. four four four (i just realized that now... good thing that isn't unlucky). i also did a quick mile on the bike and some situps. i made a giant caramel iced coffee and it was so delicious and refreshing. i made a giant cup of coffee before going to the gym and then put it in the fridge. it was still warm when i took it out over an hour later (weird!) so i put in some ice and some sugar free caramel syrup. yummo.

tonight is my book club and we are discussing suite francaise. fun! today i'm eating:

fat free apple crumble yogurt with fiber one mixed in (pre work out) (1)

10-15 almonds post work out (i really need to not eat these from the bag... very dangerous) (2)
2 dried apricots post work out (0.5)

giant caramel iced coffee (0)

hot coffee (0)
(3.5)

1/2 banana (1)
oatmeal (2)
(6.5)

yogurt (1)
clementine (0.5)
(8)

soup to go (2)
1/2 banana (1)
mini bagel (2)
(13)

grapes (1)
yogurt (1)
puffed kamut cereal (1)
(16)

dinner: maybe a veggie burger. i know i say this every day but i really love veggie burgers and usually don't end up eating one anyway.

crazy man, crazy

i should not be allowed near shopping malls. i hate shopping because i dislike crowds and people who walk too slow and get in my way (it's my german efficiency haha) but i'm really good at it. i can walk into a store and glance around and immediately know what i like/dislike in seconds. no browsing like a chump for me. i can be trying stuff on in the change room of any store just a few minutes after setting foot in the store. but anyway...i digress. i shouldn't be allowed near shopping malls because i buy too much.

i got a really cute pencil skirt at jacob. it is this skirt, but black:


i also got a red t-shirt sweater, but i might return it. so then... i went to h & m and got new skinny jeans and two (yes two) pairs of supercute retro heels. they both have cute t-straps and a little bit of a platform. one pair is white and one pair is red. i was going to return one pair because they were kind of expensive but when i brought them home i knew that was never going to happen! they are made of really soft leather and really comfortable and perfect for summer.

i have a confession to make about the jeans. i got them in the kids section! apparently i have the body of a 13/14 year old girl (this is not surprising to me by the way) :o) i really like skinny jeans because i have no hips and straight legs and they fit me really well. but i've noticed that adult stores (like smart set) are going back to the boot cut. i don't want boot cut! skinny jeans look cute with flats, heels, and fit well under boots. it's a win win win. did you know that jeans from the kids section are only $22.50? it's crazy man, crazy!

last night i asked my boyfriend, "what do you want for dinner?" and he replied, "well, i'm sure you've got something healthy all planned, so why are you even bothering to ask me?" and i say, "well, because i thought for sure you'd be pushing for poutine..." his response was just a drool, haha, so we had poutine and it was yumtastic. i had one too many alcoholic bevs and woke up in the middle of the night so hot with a thirst that couldn't be quenched. and then i couldn't get back to sleep. my mind was racing about cleaning my closet of all things! i had visions of myself sorting everything into piles, and trying on all of my pants, etc. i kept telling myself this was not the time to be thinking about this but my mind wouldn't listen. i guess i know what i'm doing tonight.

when my alarm went off at 6:45 i jumped right out of bed and went for a 5 mile run. i'm sure i'll be tired tonight so i'm happy it's out of the way. here is today's menu:

1/2 granola bar
handful of leftover popcorn from last night (this is why doing dishes before bed is a good idea...)

regular oatmeal with added ground flax and fibre one cereal
frozen mixed berries

pc blue menu shrimp whole wheat pasta frozen microwave meal
red, yellow, orange pepper strips

yogurt and grapes

whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter

dinner ?

some new goals

hello everybody. yesterday i was a snacking machine. i think those steel cut oats in the morning messed up my "flo." i just wasn't into them. i made four servings, ate one right away (on sunday night) and put three into tupperware for the week. but then i thought that one serving wasn't enough for me, so i divided one into the other two containers, making each portion 1.5 servings. blah blah blah. are these details really necessary? anyway, yesterday at work my stomach was killing me! i couldn't figure out what was wrong, but eventually i pinpointed it as gas. tmi, i know. when i got home from work i lay on my stomach while watching the news and then felt better.

yesterday morning i did a quick 30 minutes on the stationary bike, rode my bike to and from work, and then ran 4 miles after work. my run was brutal. why? i was just too tired. i need more sleep, so i'm going to make that a priority. starting yesterday! i went to bed at 9:30, read until 10:15, and then snoozed until 6:40. it was amazing. i feel great today! full of energy and not like a walking zombie. and i hate looking like death with dark under eye circles. now that i'm in my mid-late 20s i have to worry about this stuff. :o(

this morning i walked for an hour on the treadmill, did some strength training and sit-ups, and rode my bike to work. pretty fun. i have decided that i need to make some new goals for myself, so here they are:

1) get more sleep. sleep should be a priority! get to bed as early as possible, but by 11-11:30 at the latest.

2) ride my bike to work on every weather appropriate day. it's easy, it saves me money (transit) and it's good for health.

3) eat the food in the freezer. my freezer is so full! and full of good, healthy stuff too so i might as well eat it up.

4) go through my closet and divide everything into four piles. (i saw this on tim gunn's guide to style last night which i have never seen before and didn't finish but taped the rest of to watch another time.) one pile keeper, one pile repair, one pile giveaway and one pile nobody on earth should ever wear these hideous clothes again! good advice. i have a lot of stuff that a) doesn't look good b) doesn't fit and c) is super fug. and now with the changing seasons it's the perfect time to do this.

today's menu is:

1/4 all bran bar (pre work out)
1/4 all bran bar with 1 t peanut butter (post work out)

yogurt with grapes
oatmeal with added flax and all bran

pc blue menu frozen veggie lasagna
1/2 cup leftover veggies from last night

red, yellow, orange peppers with spicy hummus
cheese string

veggie burger on whole wheat english muffin
frozen veggies