Wobbling on the Track

Silly cold has totally killed my plans for “balance” for this trip!  I really didn’t want to majorly compromise on indulgent holiday eating so the plan for this year was EXERCISE.  Not that food would be a free-for-all because that’s just not my style anymore, but I was hoping to keep things levelled out with portion control and a few extra holiday workouts.

My cold has other plans.

Kinda tough to fit in an outdoor run while wheezing up a lung.  I can’t even do a proper yoga session because anything slightly inverted or hanging causes my head to pound.

I guess I’ll survive with some basic crunches and the hope that this will pass quickly.  Until then I’m trying to eat mindfully…having said that though, some mother/daughter visit traditions may be working against me.  :)

Monday was pretty good throughout the main part of the day.  (Most photos are brought to you by my Blackberry as I forgot my camera at the Gingerbread party…)

I was still at Tiff’s and still working so I had simple breakfast of Red River cereal.  Warmed the tummy.

Cooked with 1/2 banana and topped with a spoonful of peanut butter.  Deeeeelish.

With tea, green juice, and a couple of cookies for mid-morning snack…

For lunch I met Tiff next  door at Buon Amici’s for a going away sammich.  I opted for the ham panino…which is essentially a ham and cheese sandwich on a yummy bun…

With a few rippled chips…

And a small 1% vanilla latte…

Later in the day I connected with Ingmarie and Alex for a ride to my Mom’s house in Nanaimo.  I snacked on the second half of my banana and some water before the car trip. 

As per our tradition, Mom and I ordered up some Chinese take-out for dinner.  We do this almost every time I’m home and we almost always order from the same place.  Unfortunately it seems as though the restaurant has changed hands again and this time they’ve changed their recipes…and not for the good.

I hate when I splurge on something and then it doesn’t live up to expectations.  Oh well.  $50 worth of take-out wasn’t going to waste so we ate up.

Although we did throw out the Almond Chicken.  It was completely inedible.  Boooooo.  (the universe must have telling us we didn’t need deep fried battered chicken!!!)

My cold hit hard that night so we finished dinner with a light treat of homemade peppermint marshmallows that Ingmarie made and then I promptly hit the sack. 

I was exhausted but slept terribly.  I think I was actually excited to get out of bed when my alarm went off just so I could get away from that awful sleep.  Bugger.  I need some sort of workout to tire my body out naturally…and to help kick the stuffed sinuses!

How is everyone making out with your holiday temptations?

Live from TO

Hi all,

Just thought I'd pop in for a quick minute and say hi from Toronto! The cottage weekend was fabulous...we lucked out with good weather and spent most of Friday and Saturday out in the boat, catching some rays and catching some fishies (OK, fishing is a spectator sport for me, but it's still fun to watch!). Food was good, drinking was minimal, laughter was plentiful. All in all, a good time had by all.

On the drive home yesterday the skies opened up over Toronto and let loose a huge storm...thunder and lightening...the whole mess. Lightening even struck the house here and blew out my friend's modem, PVR, alarm clock and Xbox. Thankfully he resurrected his Xbox and modem, but the PVR is about to make a trip to the store.

I'll be back full force from Halifax tomorrow. In the meantime, don't forget to enter the contest for a FREE four week Booty Camp. Visit Friday's post and leave a comment to enter. I will choose the winner tomorrow night (pending more entries...come on people, this is a $200 value!!).

Til then,
Jaime

Last Day in Winnipeg

Technically I don't leave until tomorrow, but since my flight is at 10am I don't really have time for anything constructive in the morning...so today is my last vacation hurrah. The sun is back with us (we lost it for part of yesterday) so we are off for a fun kid's day at TinkerTown. FH's little boy and his cousin should be pretty entertaining. I'm looking forward to the Tilt-a-Whirl. :) We'll finish the day off with a backyard BBQ and some friends.

I plan to start uploading photos to my laptop and get some posts written while I'm flying home so look out because hopefully there will be a daily onslaught of Winnipeg photos and anecdotes every day for the first week I'm back.

I miss my daily healthy eats and food porn. My body needs a vacation from my vacation. :)

Do you miss me? hehe.

A Quick 15

With only about 15 minutes to fit in a workout today, I easily could have talked myself out of it. Definitely no time for a run, which made me consider just skipping the whole thing...but I didn't! Instead I just used the time for some minor strength training and I'm so glad I did. :)

15 of each:

- crunches
- reverse crunches
- bicycle crunches
- 1 minute plank
- downward dog pushups
- regular pushups (girlie)
- tricep pushups (girlie)
- squats
- plie squats
- bridge raises (two legs)
- bridge raises (each leg)
- crunches again

Man, I can't wait to get in a proper run and workout when I get home. (ha, who knew I would EVER say that!?). You guys are going to be bombarded with posts when I finish vacation. :)

Rained Out

When I got up this morning (or more accurately, when the five year old burst into my room this morning...) the sky had opened up for a good old fashioned Prarie rain storm. Holy Hannah. I've seen some torrential rain in Halifax but this was something new. Huge gloppy sheets of rain just absolutely pouring from the sky. I was running around closing windows because after less than half an hour the interior window sills were filling up with rain water. Incredible. We got some good thunder and lightening too. Too bad it was daylight.


I'm telling you all of this because it kept me from doing my DIY Booty Camp. Boooooo. Trust me, I need it. Ice cream and carbs are the only two food groups I've been consuming. The rest of our day was too busy to fit it in (and ironically it was way too hot this afternoon anyway). I'm aiming for tomorrow morning...before we go for a cheesecake lunch. LOL.


** Don't forget to scroll back and check out the guest posts that finally started auto-posting. Lots of hard work went into the posts and I'd hate for any of those awesome recipes to get overlooked!

Mini DIY Vacation Booty Camp

Yesterday morning I was pressed for time, but being Tuesday I wanted to get my vacation Booty Camp time because I knew my fellow Halibloggers at home would be working up a sweat with Heather. I don't want to be tooooo far behind my girls!

I did a similar run to Sunday's, but admittedly there was a little more walking. My lower back isn't loving the futon we've been sleeping on and is making everything in my body a little tender. It was still a solid 3 km of cardio though.

For my mini-workout at the school park I took an idea from Amy's 15 Week Challenge and decided to use the bench for my exercises. Squats (30), step-ups (30), tricep dips (15), pushups (15) and a plank (30 sec). I wanted to do ab work as well, but they had just mowed the field and the mosquitos were out in full force. Instead I did some walking lunges and then jogged back to the house.

Not bad for a 1/2 hour. :)

It Must be a Vacation!

• Chips
• Chocolate
• Ice Cream
• Beer
• Hamburger
• Fries
• McDonalds
• Slurpee

Oh good Lord. Help me. *grins*

(at least tomorrow is DIY Booty Camp day!)

Do it Yourself Vacation Booty Camp

I had planned an afternoon run yesterday when we returned from our day's adventures, but FH's brother and family showed up for an impromptu visit so I had to change my plans. We had nowhere to be this morning, so after a nice sleep in and a couple of cups of coffee I decided it was now or never.

I set out to do what we figured was about a 3km jog, but passed a school on my way so decided to throw in a mini set of our Booty Camp exercises.

(Sorry no photos folks...hard to run with a camera...plus due to the lack of wireless I'm using the house computer and it's a pain to upload photos.)

This was my first official outdoor run and I must say I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I warmed up with a few stretches and a 2 minute walk down the block...then I set off and decided to use landmarks as my markers instead of trying to time myself. I ended up sort of doing both. Ran to the next big lighted intersection...took 5 minutes. Walked 1 minute, then ran again. So on and so on. Total running time was about 20 minutes...about 4 minutes of it was walking.

When I got back around the block I headed for the school field. Another quick jog and then I started with the DIY Booty Camp.

• squats (2 varieties)
• 1 legged deadlift bends
• lunges (regular & reverse)
• burpies
• plank (1 minute!)
• pushups (regular and downward dog)
• crunches (regular & reverse)
• bridges (1 legged & 2 legged)

Finished up with a final jog around the rest of the field and back down the block. Cooled off with a short walk and some stretching.

WooooT. Now I don't feel so bad about the Chinese Food feast we partook in last night. :)

(So sorry about the guest posts. Amy says she's having trouble too and she thinks it's Blogger. Booo Blogger.)

Not a Good Sign!

Argh. The post I had schedule for 9am today doesn't appear to have posted!!! Not impressed. Sorry folks (and especially those of you that sent in guest posts!) Everything is on my home computer so I may have to just do check-in posts while here in Winnipeg and then re-post all of the guest work when I get home. Booooo.

Girls Getting Touristy - Friday

First things first…we decided early on that a breaky at Cora’s had to happen because Cat has never been.  For some reason Cora’s doesn’t reach out to BC.

We found a location near the CN Tower and headed on over.  Coffee a plenty, and yummy breakfasts for all.  Off the gigantic menu I opted for Theo’s omelette (veggies minus green stinky       peppers) with a side of bacon and extra fruit cup. 

Amy and Cat posing in deep thought.  :)

The CN Tower was visible from outside the restaurant so we just started walking towards it, enjoying the city view and taking pics. 

    

Then up we went!!

Afterwards we relaxed with lemonade and sunshine…and our first Dippin Dots experience…

Miss Jen modelling the world’s coldest ice cream.  Brainfreeze for all.

Then we decided to get on a double-decker bus and see some sights…

 

We hopped off the bus about 1/3 of the way through the tour (our tickets were good for the next day) and decided it was time to head back to our hotel for relaxation before getting ready for our big night out.

According to my photos, I ate some grapes I still had left from the plane ride and a bottle of water…and apparently a pick me up afternoon iced coffee and treat from Starbucks.  :)

Sad Saturday

Booooooooooooooooooooooo! Right now we are probably at the Punta Cana airport crying our eyes out while we wait to board our plane home. Waaaaaaaaaaa! Don't make me go....Don't make me go!

All good things must come to an end.

The bright side is that you get a real, live me back to post tomorrow. Aren't you excited?!

If you are excited, join my challenge and follow me! Well, even if you aren't excited if you are still reading then you should follow me too! ---->

Stay tuned for vacation recap...the highs and lows of drinks, eats, and sand in my shoes.

TGIF

Well it might be TGIF for you all, but what it means for me is that our vacation is coming to an end. Nooooooooooo! This time tomorrow we'll be at the Punta Cana airport and heading for home. Please tell me the snow has gone!!

Two days until "operation back from vacation" kicks into full gear. FH has assured me that he will be back on the straight and narrow and ready to take on the world come Monday morning. Boy am I glad to have a partner in crime. Sunday we'll stop up on good, clean, healthy groceries and get a workout in before having one last "vacation" meal and then GAME ON.

Oh....it's Friday the 13th. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!!

Time flies

Hello everyone!! How are you holding up? I know without me your days seem sad and incomplete. I promise I'll be home soon (but not toooo soon!).

:)

Have you all been good little bloggers while I've been away? I won't need to come back and kick any bums into gear for working out and eating well will I? That's OK if I do, because I'm sure I'll be needing you all to kick my butt into action when I return from a week of slackerdom.

I wonder if I've been drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits and veggies like I promised myself. I'm pretty sure I haven't been doing any exercise. I guess we shall see when I get home!

Did you join the challenge from Sunday's post yet? Follow me!

Humperific

Happy Hump Day to those of you that are busting your humps! My hump is attached to my rump which is enjoying not being busted this week. Yes, I'm nutty. It's probably all the sun and rum going to my head?

Ah man, it's the hump of our vacation though. I hope we are having fun. :) By now I'm probably trying in vain to get FH to the Japanese tepanyaki restaurant....come on honey!!! I mean, who doesn't go to the Dominican for sushi? haha.

T-t-t-tuesday!

I bet by now I'm wishing I had my computer. But that's my rule this week....no f'ing computer!

My bloggie friends probably have so much to say and I'm probably missing out on a ton of great stuff, but there comes a time when we just have to say NO. no no no! Hmmmm.....

Don't do anything too exciting while I'm gone. Leave me comments so I have some love to come home to. I'm thinking of you all while I sip my pina coladas and squish my toes in the sand.

:)

Don't forget to follow me!!

Nine Day Weekend

Aw man, all you poor people that had to go to work today..... :(

Happy Monday from the sunny Dominican Republic! Maybe today's the day I convince FH to go ziplining....or maybe he's managed to get me strapped up for parasailing. Or maybe we are just sitting like happy lumps, enjoying the sun, sand, and free flowing umbrella drinks. Either way, I'm sure we are relaxing! I just hope we aren't sunburned!

Did you follow my challenge? See yesterday's post if you haven't done it yet!

Challenge

By now we've been in the sun and sand for a full 24 glorious hours (I hope they are glorious!). Do you miss me yet?

:)

I have a challenge for you all. As of when I left I have 44 followers. See? -----> over there ----->

I know there are more readers lurking out there! My challenge to you is to sign up and show your faces. Wouldn't it be a great giftie to me to come home and find I've broken 50. Yes, I think fifty fabulous followers sounds just great!

Do it!

Boo!

haha, you didn't think I'd just disappear for a week without leaving you something to read did you?

No, I am not posting live from my vacation in sunny (I hope it's sunny!) Punta Cana. I have set these up as little messages to you, all my lovely readers, so you don't forget me while I'm gone.

:)

It's now just before 10pm and I'm ready for my pre-flight nap. It's going to be a long night, and it's already been a long day. You saw the list I made....well I think I completed everything....except my beloved yoga. *sigh* I could do it now, but I'd rather just relax under the cozy covers and hopefully doze for about 4 hours. We had McDonald's for dinner not too long ago anyway, so I'm thinking downward dog might jostle the fast-food around and no one wants that before a flight! (side note: I can sure tell that I've been eating cleaner and avoiding the junk lately because although it was enjoyable my body is already showing signs of anger due to the nasty stuff hiding in those tasty fries!)

Bye bye bloggies!

Just to clarify...

...all the extra Starbucks...

If I was at home working, I'd have two cups of coffee in the morning. However, I'm camping out with some gracious friends who do not drink regular coffee at home so I am having to supplement my caffeine needs with tea in the mornings. And let me tell you that when you are used to a couple of cups of joe...tea don't cut it! :)

So therefore I have to cough up a few bucks for a coffee down the block...and believe it or not Starbucks is the closest coffee joint (that I know of anyway). :)

At least I'm getting a good 20 minute walk in for each trip I make!