good places to visit on the east coast?

Hey so I mentioned my folks were going out to the East Coast of Canada for a month long holiday right? Well they asked what are some good places they should definately check out. And I was gonna look up stuff online, but I thought I'd ask you guys, I know some of you live out there or have at least visited. They're definately hitting up PEI and N.S. And maybe other places, they have no concrete plans except their flight days and they rented a cottage in PEI for a week. So share your ideas of places to eat, things to see, ways to spend a day!

Happy WI day to you!

Well it was to me at least! 137.6. So that's down 3 lbs from monday! yay! Almost back to the old number, well half way there. I did measurements this morning and everything is up. I knew it would be because my comfy jeans that usually fit great (aka not my tight jeans) are a bit tight and my legs don't look like they used to. But I'm pretty sure that I can work that all off in no time. I'm sure I lost some muscle too because i'm only up like 2.5 lbs, yet half an inch all over, I think some replacing went on. Which again I'm sort of excited about, means I can melt inches just by picking up my strength work again.

Which I did not get around to last night. Hubby wanted my help on the sprinklers so I did a quick jog (intervals which are hard again, I'm outta shape!) then worked on that. Not any heavy lifting yet. Just planning stuff. Then these friends came out (at like 9:30 at night! Hello? Bedtime?) The only stayed an hour, then we had to finish the planning we didn't do so he could pick up pieces at work. So it was sort of a late night for me. Oh well. It's a long weekend!

These are the friends who we were doing the MS bike tour with. They've done it for years and years as a tradition, we just joined last year. I've already raised all the money I need to (and more is pouring in!) and hubby's just about done. Well they haven't even registerd yet and she told me they're probably not doing it this year, they're just too busy and don't have time to raise money and need a weekend off. Well this is super annoying because they're the ones who organize where we stay and when to go and all that stuff. We just sort of tagged along last year, assuming it would be the same this year. Well now they're out so we have to figure it out ourselves. Frankly if we knew they weren't doing it, we probably would have opted out this year as well (though I'm glad we didn't, I love having goals to train for like this, plus it's a good cause and I wanted to be more charitable this year). But hubby was super annoyed. He really struggled last year and didn't enjoy himself much so he's suggesting that we just donate the money and don't ride. But I'd feel too bad doing that, all these people that donated thought we were riding and if they ask about it I don't want to say we didn't do it. This way we can maybe do it just the 2 of us, just drive up for the day for it, not the whole weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Again I said I had no plans right? Well tomorrow I'm actually shopping with SIL for fabric and stuff for the dress and veil I have to sew. May also do some shopping for a dress for me to wear, but that also may be a last minute thing since I still wanna drop about a size. Not really sure what we're all shopping for, but it's supposed to be an all day thing, with 2 SILs and 3 kids under 8. yay fun? ugh. Shopping is for grown-ups! Once I've got the stuff I need them for (fabric things) I might ditch them and do fun shoe shopping or something. Need some new runners badly. But we were invited to SILs house for supper and I'm supposed to bring dessert. So I need to make something tonight. Any ideas? I'm thinking just like a pound cake or angel food cake that I can use my raspberry sauce on (the jam I made that didn't set). Anybody have any other uses for basically raspberry syrup?

Anyway, today hubby's probably playing poker so it's just me at home. Definately get my strength workout in, maybe another interval run. Nothing like results to keep you motivated! Also some scrapbooking. I'm back in the groove. We're getting SIL a whole bunch of cookbooks for her shower (she wanted them) and I feel cheap since I got ones on sale, so I wanted to make her a little recipe card holder too for the handwritten ones from her mom and stuff. Cute idea huh? Then if I have time I'll copy a bunch of her mom's best recipes (that she's basically who you call when you want to know how to make whatever ya know?)

Anyway today is turning out to be the boring at work day. The people who give me work are in meetings, my thesis is done, but at the same time, one of the meetings is with my thesis supervisor who might pop his head in when they're done, so I don't want to have like youtube open or something. Gotta be able to pretend to be working. So far this morning I was calling around getting sod prices so we can install it next week already and be finished our yard completely.

And sending emails. My sister left for her European holiday for a month last week. My mom and dad leave for their month long east coast holiday next week, and then my brother leaves for Germany for another backpacking excursion (a couple months?) a couple weeks after that. Just me and my little brother left at home for September. So just touching base with everyone, getting flight info and plant watering info and stuff like that. Trying not to be supremely jealous. Especially of my brother. He's going to Germany and a friend he met there are just going around Europe for a while. But he's going to see people and basically not have a job, he doesn't care where it is. When I would just love to see Europe! I want to see castles and ruins and little pubs and places with history older than 100 years (like here in SK) and he could care less about it. No fair. But whatever, I decided to get married to somebody who doesn't like to travel and then buy a house and get a dog and settle down so it's just not in the cards right now. (maybe when I retire...)

Anyway, very excited for the weekend, unfortunately work drags when there's nothing to do. Hopefully everybody posts today so I have some reading material at least. Anything interesting online I should look at? Good online stores (for canadian shipping?)?

sciatica

I am having some nasty weird hip pain right now. Definately a nerve pain, coming around from my spine, around my hip to the inside of my thigh. At least the back isn't hurting. This sciatica I can deal with if it's just the weird shooting parts, not the actual back pain. It feels better when I change my position. However I have a desk job, so there aren't many options for that ya know? boo. And I don't have any drugs here at all to help. Gotta tough it out.

Yesterday I stopped at Costco and (again) bought another workout outfit. Every time I go I'm guaranteed to spend $40 on a new pair of yoga pants and a new zip up coat thing. This time the pants were $5 off and the coat is this really pretty blue color. AND the pants I bought were size small! Wore them last night and they fit great, a bit tight in the tummy (they're higher than pants I usually wear, like belly button) but don't muffin top me and kind of suck it in for me. Handy.

Got home and made supper. Turned out to be ground turkey spaghetti sauce not chili. I didn't have any onions or celery. (crazy). So I dumped some canned tomato puree, a can of pork and beans, a ton of spices and some red peppers into my browned turkey and mixed it with a bit of spaghetti. Pretty good. I definately didn't over eat on the pasta, but had tons of the sauce (since it's totally healthy) but my stomach still felt stuffed. I don't know what it is about pasta, but it sort of leaves me not feeling well, no matter how much I eat.

I finally got my bike ride in last night! I took Daisy for the first 15 minutes, then she was basically foaming at the mouth and I was going too slow so I dropped her off and did another 30 minutes. Butt was definately sore by the end and I was a little bit out of breath so I guess it was a workout. Mostly I'm trying to break in my ass (sounds weird.) so it doesn't hurt for half the ride. That's about all I did yesterday, watched half of 21 with hubby (I'll watch the end tonight, I had to go to bed). I did a few glute bridges because I was reading some stuff and it reminded me that my butt definately doesn't get the workout it's supposed to during things (my back and hamstrings over compensate). Hopefully I can get that firing the way it's supposed to and it will help my back problems too.

Also went over a list with hubby of what he should be eating. He knew he was supposed to be eating protein, but didn't know what that meant. So I made him a list. Reminded myself of tuna while doing so, so that's in my salad today. Then I made a list of possible snack options, basically, any fruit and yogurt, any veggie and cheese strings, tuna and crackers. He's doing so well. Sort of. He went out for wings last night as a friend was in town, he ate 20 wings and had 2 light beers. The best thing he's doing is writing EVERYTHING down! I told him I've never been able to do that for more than a day, he's done it all week! So hopefully we can go over it on the weekend and I can add things up for him and he can see just how bad the wings and chips and whatever other snacks he sneaks in are. Today will be a test as he's got the day off. I know it's a challenge for me.

I also polished off my cottage cheese jello! Good thing it's low cal! (I only put in about 150 cal's of cottage cheese in it and split it between morning snack and supper dessert). Might make another batch tonight as I bought a big thing of cottage cheese.

So as it's almost September (holy crap! that's what you get when you're gone all of August! summer flies!) it's time to sign up for fitness classes and stuff for the fall. I have to figure out if I want to do that again this year. There's a monday and wednesday class, one's just weights (no more step I guess), the other is weights and kick boxing. I don't know if I want to give up both nights or just one. It's still nice enough I can run and bike outside. Plus I know I'm going to be going to the gym more often before the wedding. I think they start next week already! I already know that I'll miss the first monday because of a scrapbooking thing with SIL. They're only $35 for 10 weeks each. Decisions decisions. I'll read the descriptions and check my calendar over some more today.

I had a really good day of work yesterday. I finished my thesis and wrote up this report in a big hurry and made the deadline, PLUS got a "good work" from the boss. So that means today, there's not much on my plate. I have only about another hour's worth of work I have to do, then nothing. So I'll be blog reading and podcast listening and ... oh I just heard my boss talking about finding me some work. There goes my relaxing thursday!

Anyway, today I plan on doing a strength routine and going for a jog hopefully, weather cooperating. We have no plans for the long weekend so I'm gonna try and work out something every day of it. (well we are planning on putting in sprinklers and getting sod, so we'll see how much of a workout THAT is!)

THESIS

I just submitted my thesis to the committee for review! YAY! it's again out of my hair, AND it's on the last step! I should be finished with this whole thing in about a month! woohoo!!!

Good start!

So I've already lost 1 full pound since monday! yay! 9 more to go! (no I'm not expecting this pace to continue).

Yesterday it was pouring rain when I got off work. And since I had supper ready in the slow cooker I knew I'd be just drooling waiting for hubby to come home. So I went to Walmart after work and bought some stuff I was short on. Including sugar free Jello and cottage cheese for a recipe I found yesterday.

Anyway, because it was raining I didn't go for a bike ride. I did do my strength stuff. Just body weight routine I found. It was good. Pushups, lunges, mountain climbers. Nothing much hurts today, hip flexors are a bit tight. But I was quite tired when it was done.

Then I made my jello concoction. RECIPE ALERT! If you want to eat cottage cheese but don't much like the taste (aka me, good source of whole food protein, calcium). You make your sugar free jello regular style. Blend up some cottage cheese (or leave it lumpy if it doesn't bother you). Then just mix the cottage cheese in with the jello. (it will separate a bit as it sets, but that's ok). I used a wisk which worked well. Then just let set in the fridge. I tried it this morning and it was really good. The jello as made has only 5 calories per 1/4 recipe, so really it's just the cottage cheese, which is good!

Anyway, that was basically my night. A bit of scrapbooking, reading, cleaning. Early to bed.

Today's food is EXACTLY the same as yesterday with the substitution of my jello for some soy nuts, a nectarine for a banana and supper is ground turkey chili instead of chicken breast. And today, assuming it's not raining, I will finally get that bike ride in. Sheesh!

it's not really good for you

Totally stealing this from that blog I mentioned who says he got it from The Fat Loss Troubleshoot:

• If your food has a wrapper or a box, chances are it isn’t good for you.
• If your food has ingredients you can’t say, chances are it isn’t good for you.
• If your food makes a claim that it’s healthy, chances are it isn’t good for you.
• If your food comes pre-seasoned, chances are it isn’t good for you.
• Lastly, if your food makes any claims about fat loss, chances are it isn’t good for you.

a new one from the male perspective

This blog is funny. It's by a personal trainer guy who sometimes co-hosts the FitCast podcast, which I listen to. Lots of good info, myth busting, training tips and comedy. And a couple pictures of sexy women in bikinis. In case you're into that too. (think motivation, right ladies?)

back with a vengance

So yesterday I packed what I thought was a nice, healthy, satisfying lunch: snack of yogurt and grapes, lunch of green salad with hard boiled egg, cherries for dessert, afternoon snack of carrots and another yogurt. protein every few hours, lots of fruit and veggies. Unfortunately I was starving in the afternoon and carrots and yogurt weren't going to cut it. And I had no back up food and there's nothing to buy anywhere near here (thank god!). So I made myself an oatmeal (I had a multi-grain instant oatmeal packet in my desk). I made it in a coffee cup with just water. And it was super gross. But I ate half of it because I was really hungry. and it held me over until supper. (which was a great veggie and chicken breast stir fry with whole grain rice.) I'm glad I'm back on the healthy, unprocessed foods train, I'm just wondering if my calories and serving sizes are appropriate to lose weight. I may track today.

The scale did show me down half a pound from yesterday already. So that's nice to see. I'm betting some of that weight was serious water, I was peeing like crazy yesterday, definately more than I was drinking (and I was drinking a lot).

today's food is exactly the same, even the same breakfast (WW bread with thin peanut butter and a banana). Supper is again chicken breast, this time slow cooker teriyaki, and probably garden potatoes and frozen peas or something.

Yesterday I didn't get the workout I planned on (bike ride) because I was helping hubby haul dirt. Have I ever mentioned the dilema with our yard? We moved in 2 years ago in the winter, to a new house on a new crescent with no neighbours. We already had topsoil down and a fence and driveway, so we were ready to sod in the spring, unfortunately, our money wasn't ready to sod, nor did we really know we were ready (we bought in the winter! didn't see the ground!). So we postponed that a year. Over the year, the weeds grew like crazy, and some topsoil eroded away. Then the next summer we're ready to do it, but our neighbours are building their house, and the dummy who digs their basement mixes our topsoil with a bunch of clay from next door when he's leveling it out, we call the company and ask them to fix their mistake for a year, nothing comes of it. He also backfills the neighbours house too high in between our houses, so if we put grass on top of it, our basement windows are covered. Nothing is done. So this year hubby and I quit bitching and just did it ourselves. Leveled out the best we could between the houses with a shovel and rake (slopes toward our house still so water will run that way, but not much water gets in there so hopefully it just helps our grass grow.) hauled in a bit more topsoil to level it out and fill in any holes and stuff. This week hubby's gonna figure out the sprinkler's and I'm pricing out sod. Finally get this stupid thing done! In like a week or two! yay!

The backyard I seeded last year and is actually really really nice, aside from the dog pee killing areas over the winter.

Anyway, yesterday was shovelling dirt and raking it out. It was a bit of a workout, but I didn't sweat and wasn't really tired so it was nothing more than going for a walk. But I had already ran yesterday morning! yay!

Tonight I'm definately biking. It's supposed to be really cold. so I was gonna run too but maybe I'll do weights inside. Definately 2 things though. gotta keep busy so I don't snack (that was the habit over the last few weeks).

From reading some of your posts, seems a lot of us are sort of in a slump right now. Trying to get back on the wagon or recover from vacation gains. Luckily I think most of us are ready to kick ass again though right? I feel like I've got a good plan again. Plus hubby's with me now.

He even told somebody at work that we were losing weight for the next few months for his sister's wedding. I know that telling people makes it harder for me to quit so that's a good sign. Yesterday he ate his lunch and snacks I packed, had no pop (down from 2 a day!), worked out at lunch, then shovelled dirt (and for him it was a workout, he was sweaty and out of breath). He did have a beer when our neighbour came over and was helping us with figure out sprinkler stuff. and I did have half a diet pop and half an apple juice (neighbour's son kept wanting to switch with me).

ANYWAY, I just wanted to emphasize that even though I'm not where I want to be, I think things are going good and I definately feel motivated and really positive that I'm going to really get to my goal now. Just wanted to share that with you all.

I am back!

Hello sports fans! I am back to the land of the working with no plans to be leaving again any time soon. (except for the long weekend this weekend!) My holidays were nice, relaxing. But it's nice to be back, into a routine and back to normal.

A brief recap? sure:

Well I told you about getting back from up north. Then had thursday night to do laundry and then friday took the day off. Packed and went home to visit my folks. They're going to the east coast for all of September so wanted to see them before that. Then that night went with hubby's parents to a lake for the weekend. It was ok. I did no swimming and no running (though I was all set, but somebody wanted to come with so we just walked). It was a lot of sitting and doing nothing really. oh well. relaxing.

Then we came home sunday and packed for our holidays. Left early monday. First stop was 3 hours later for lunch (where the debauchery began) it was a holiday and we ate at tim hortons, so I got my boston cream donut and 2 cookies and timbits for the road. Second stop, Drumheller, this big dinosaur museum (they found a lot of bones around there). It was 39 degrees out, way way too hot. especially with a dog you have to leave in the car while you're in the buildings. I felt so bad. But she didn't complain. (we hosed her down and left windows open and parked in the shade.) Then we had supper there, at boston pizza, I had a salad, I was craving veggies already.

Drive to Calgary. Stayed in this bed and breakfast that allowed pets. it was very bed and breakfast. there was nothing in the place that didn't have flowers on it or a ruffle. oh well. it was just a bed for like 8 hours.

that day was the Calgary zoo. Pretty fun all day. weather was good, not too hot, not too cold. Daisy was in puppy daycare having a blast (she better have for $30!). The best were the hippos probably. very cool, plus nice and close. Then we hit up a grocery store and headed off for the mountains. by the time we got there is was clouding up, so we set the tent up quick, cooked some hot dogs on the fire and basically called it a night.

We spent wednesday touring the town of Banff a little bit, going in expensive souvineer shops. I didn't want to but hubby did I guess. Then back to the tent for lunch. Then hubby napped, and I read a magazine and split firewood. That was pretty much the whole day. it was rainy again.

thursday was the day I liked, we went on a hike to some water falls (about a 2 hour hike?). Hubby was tired but didn't complain much because he knew it was important to me. Made me glad that i'm in pretty good shape, because yeah, we basically climbed a mountain, I was out of breath, but I didn't really need a break ever. Again it was raining on us.

Then we drove to lake louise in the rain, saw a deer. no elk or bears or anything exciting. Took the obligatory picture in front of the lake. then drove back to the tent. Because it was only 5:00 but raining so much we couldn't have a fire and would basically be stuck in the tent for the night, and then were leaving in the morning, we saved ourselves $50 and went back to Calgary (after I had a little cry about it. I really wanted this trip to be fun since hubby didn't really want to go and I went on and on about how he'd like banff and we'd see wildlife and have campfires and everything and none of that really happened. But he still said it was fun and worth coming.) We stayed at friend's of ours for the night and then went to a mall for a few hours before coming home.

On the way home we did see wildlife, we saw a big herd of like 20 antelope when we turned on this gravel road to pee. that was pretty cool. Hubby was so sweet, he said that he was praying that we'd see wildlife the night before because it was so important to me. (when really I didn't care about it, I just though it would make hubby like the trip more, so it was really sweet on both our parts).

So we came home on friday and still had the whole weekend to unpack and clean the house and get ready for work again. Which was great. My thesis edits are like an hour away from being done (but I'm sorta busy at work today so might be tonight). the house is clean, laundry done. grass mowed. olympics watched (I was away for like the whole olympics huh? I loved the olympics and watched as much as I could. cried every time too)

So now the next few weeks are still busy unfortunately. I've got a ton to do for SILs wedding in October. Like sew a bridesmaid/flower girl dress for my niece, sew the bride's veil, make the wedding slideshow, lose 10 lbs, buy a dress for myself, buy shower presents, go to shower. eek! Plus I've got the MS bike tour one weekend in september. PLUS we're trying to put sod down this fall so I need a weekend for that.

Oh yeah, the lose 10 lbs thing? Well that would have been 5 lbs on August 1st. But the scale showed me 140.8 this morning. that's up a good 5 lbs from before I left. Ew. However I've already accepted it, I knew I wasn't eating well or exercising or anything. So I've already taken steps to correct it. Last night I did a new strength routine, then this morning I already went for my interval run. Plus tonight I'm going to bike for half an hour. Eating is going to be ON.

We went in to see my sister on the weekend and all hubby's pants that fit were in the wash, he was wearing pants he used to wear like last summer but they were too tight. So he said that he was serious and that he wanted to do something about it. (however he's said that before too...). But we agreed we were going to do a program and plan until SILs wedding in mid October. Meaning we could call each other on eating bad food or being lazy and not working out. I'm so pumped. It's so much easier to be good when you're teaching somebody else. So I packed his lunch today with snacks and explained fibre and protein are our friends, as is eating every few hours. (he normally doesn't eat breakfast, and doesn't usually eat at his coffee breaks, so this should help his metabolism). Plus I spent $100 on produce so we've got good food for the next week.

I'm hoping that these recently gained 5 lbs come off nice and steady (should right? put then on in 3 weeks, take them off in 3 weeks?) but that once I'm in the loss groove, the scale might keep dropping huh? Especially since I'm pumped about "training" again, for the bike ride. And I'm excited to get back to the gym. Plus I've got my garmin back so I can do my intervals and check my heart rate and stuff. I'm set.

I had 600 some unread posts in my google reader, so I will not be catching up with all of you. However, I am back and should be able to keep on top of your new posts like usual! So fill me in! how are you all doing!?!

brief visit

Hey folks!
I got back early from my field work in the north (THANK GOD!) and have many entertaining stories from there that I may or may not get around to telling. Sometimes you just want to move past things and not think about them any more (not that anything was horrible, just was a lot of working in a place where the people were very... not like me. It was an old mining town full of old drunk hillbillies or teenages with babies. Just a different place.) I know that eating was tough up there. breakfasts I did alright, we had kitchen suites so I had either toast or cereal or yogurt. Good stuff. But lunch and supper were at the restaurant in town (yes THE restaurant). And while the food wasn't gross, it definately wasn't healthy. I did eat about 4 or 5 chef's salads which were really good and healthy, but you can't eat that for 2 meals a day for 10 days. Had some chicken stir-fries (in a very sweet thick bottled sauce), some chicken kabobs (marinated in a greasy italian dressing) and some clubhouse sandwiches (hold the mayo). And then for some reason when I got to my room at night, I'd want to much on more food. So I'd eat some of the granola bars and cereal I had. I did buy a carton of blueberries so I got some fruit. and my veggies with the soup and salads I'd eat as sides (ok there were fries too, I'm not perfect). I worked out in my room 3 evenings (squats, crunches, pushups, lunges, planks, dips) but no running (town was too sketchy). I felt bad/guilty for most of the trip, but looking back I did ok. I also felt all bloated and yucky because of course it wasn't my home toilet and that does things to you when you travel ya know? (along with lack of fruit...).

I gained I guess 4 lbs. May or may not be real weight. I'm gonna get a run in tonight. And maybe tomorrow. But then I'm off again camping. Food was all planned without me, but I'm sure there will be healthy options. Or healthier at least. I'll bring some fruit for my travelling food. Plus then next week all week we're off camping again (to Banff! fun!) and I'm in charge of the food there (it's just the two of us) so it will be alright. I don't know if there will be any weight losing over the next week or 2, but I shouldn't gain any more I don't think.

Anyway, I miss you all, I'll do some catching up this afternoon, but I've got 377 blogs in my google reader so I don't know if I'll catch everything...

toodles!

So nothing like scrambling around last minute for this trip tomorrow. arg! Oh well, it's not so bad really, just packing and finalizing stuff. Realizing I have to bring all these things that weren't sent so I don't know if I can pack any clothes! boo. Plus the guy who I'm meeting there doesn't seem like he's trusting my work or something. I wrote this program, sent it to him, then he emails this other employee and asks her to write the program from scratch! What's wrong with mine? Luckily that girl talked to me and isn't going to do it since it would be a waste of time. annoying.

Anyway the weekend was good. Not food wise but what do you expect. It was a big carb fest that brought the scale up 3 lbs this morning. But I'm not upset about it, I don't think I look different, clothes still fit. I even went for a run monday and strutted in my sexy bikini on saturday. It was definately not enough sleep. Now I'm feeling very stressed about packing for this work trip (gone until Sept 15th.) then the day I get back I'm supposed to go camping with hubby's family. Then the day we get back from that we're going to banff. I'll just have to buy new underwear since there won't be time for laundry. oh well. it's all fun stuff. I probably had my last shower at home for 3 weeks this morning. strange.

anyway, don't expect any posts from me over the next few weeks. you might get lucky if I have any internet coverage, but I'm basically at a mine, super far north, no cell coverage, so I'm not optimistic. Luckily I've got my final edits from my supervisors so I'll work on that in the evenings and the olympics start right away so I'll have lots to fill my down time (if I have any). Plus I have plans for pushups and squats in the hotel room. Not to mention work will be fairly physical. I'll be alright.

Anyway, I'm definately gonna miss you guys! Have a good August!

quicky

Just stopping in to say have a good long weekend Canadians, and regular weekend Americans! I'm feeling much better about my work trip next week now that I've got some work done to get ready for it. Plus I think that's all I'll be doing tuesday (packing etc). So I'm ready for a nice fun weekend (camping and golfing and swimming) before all this field work at a northern mine. My hard yucky work at least is sandwiched between two holidays. So I should be back to post on Tuesday, but then probably not for awhile.

Oh yeah, the scale was stubborn and showed 135.2 this morning. But I can deal.