Your body

We only get one body. Some people may be able to get transplants for body parts that aren’t working, however, in terms of our whole body, we only get one. That leads me to my question, what are you doing to take care of yours?

 

Recently I have been going to physio appointments for some wrist pain. It is nothing serious but I wanted to get ahead of it before it got worse. A few years ago I also had back pain from having such bad posture, especially when I was sitting. I have since improved my posture greatly, at least while I am at my desk anyways. I do try to be conscious of it other times as well. Where I am going with all of this is that there are many little things to remember. Sometimes too many things to remember and know that it can be over whelming and make us give up on our goals very quickly.

 

When I am doing my exercises hourly for my wrists I have to have complete focus on that and make sure that I am using proper form and keeping everything else aligned while doing it. This can be really tricky, especially when you feel like you are starting from the beginning of your journey to better health. What I recommend is to make small changes at a time. Pick one to three small things that you can change at a time and work on those. Once you have gotten those down then you can add a few more things.

 

Although our bodies are tough, they do rely on us to take care of them. I cannot tell you how many times I see people at the gym completing an exercise with awful form or just doing it completely wrong. I can’t stress enough how important it is to complete the exercises properly. If you can’t afford a personal trainer, perhaps you can find a friend who knows what they are doing to show you. Chances are if someone has worked with a personal trainer before they know about proper form and would be willing to show you. I have had to stop myself from saying something to people SO many times. Not only are they using horrible form that will get them hurt, the way they are doing the exercise is completely useless and doing nothing for them. I am really really surprised when trainers at gyms DON’T go up to people and correct them. That is their job! If I was a personal trainer in a gym, I would make sure that people weren’t doing things incorrectly.

 

Step one:

Know what your final goal is, or the big picture. Maybe it’s to lose weight, or quit smoking. Maybe you want to be able to run a 5K race, or maybe it’s something along the lines of being pain free (or at least significantly less pain). Sometimes we want to be able to do ALL of those things and we expect it to happen right away, then when it doesn’t we give up.

 

Step two:

Break down your final goal into much smaller increments. If your goal is to lose weight, focus on 5 pounds at a time. If it is to quit smoking count how many cigarettes a day you are having for a week and then aim to have one less a day every day for a week, then the next week take away one more (I have never smoked so I don’t know if this would help, this is just my way of showing you how to break it down). If your goal is to be pain free in a certain area then make small changes to allow that area to heal. Remember – these things take time but they will be worth it. When I speak about pain I am referring to pain that you can control, like for example my wrists. I am doing something that is causing them to be painful, so I need to correct the action.

 

Step three:

Find support. Find someone, or lots of someone’s who can help you reach your goals. These people will be very important when you struggle, which trust me, you will struggle.

 

Step four:

Reward yourself along the way. It doesn’t have to be a big reward but something that means something to you. If you are trying to lose weight I strongly suggest that you do not use food to reward yourself. Instead find something that you actually want and enjoy it guilt free when you hit your goal!  

 

October and November were really stressful months for me. I was really busy, I was sick with a lung infection, and a number of other things happened on top of a major bathroom renovation. During that time I still made sure I got to the gym, however, my eating was not the best. The past two weeks have been much better (aside from my hand slipping into my Christmas baking a few too many times) and I have been on a better track with my eating and have really been enjoying my gym workouts. I switched it so that now I go to the gym in the morning all the time instead of switching between morning and after work. There is just something about getting it accomplished in the morning that starts the day off the right way.

 

Now that December is here, it is usually a very busy time for families as there is a lot of extra items to do. I am really going to try to focus on slowing down and actually enjoying doing the items instead of just rushing through them and crossing them off my list. I am also trying to be very conscious of washing my hands and trying hard not to touch my mouth and eyes to minimize my chances of getting sick (or at least reducing theillness if I do get sick). It is also important that you get enough rest, so for me, since I am up so early, this means going to bed at an early hour. I might not get everything on my to do list done so I will keep my to do lists shorter and then feel great when I accomplish them. Even if it is only a few items each night!

 

What are you going to do to care for yourself this holiday season??

 

 

 

Bathroom Renovation Reveal

Well as many of you know we have been renovating our bathroom over the past few weeks and it is very close to being done. A few minor little things need to be finished and then it will be fully complete however there is enough done that I can finally do the big reveal.

When we first bought our house we knew four things for sure:

1.       The roof needed to be completely redone.

2.       We would need to replace the floor in the downstairs bathroom, which led to a new toilet and new vanity because of the outdated stuff that was there.

3.       The Kitchen would need updating as it was all original.

4.       The bathroom would need to be done because not only was it very out dated (all original) but there was mold behind the tiles. How much mold we wouldn’t know until we started the project but we knew at best there was some.

Within the first two months of moving in we had the roof done. When we were moving in we also did the downstairs bathroom and added a heated tile floor to it.

Last year we redid the kitchen while I was off on maternity leave and this year was the time for the bathroom. We estimated how much it was going to cost us and then started saving. We added $1000 to what we thought we would need because you never know what you will encounter and we didn’t know how much mold would be behind the walls. Once we had saved the money we decided that it was time to start the reno. Sean works shift work so we picked two weeks he was on afternoons, booked Rylee for full time day care so that he could just work, and booked the time with help – because in order to get it done on time Sean was definitely need help on this one.

On October 4 we started to rip everything out. We were going right back to the studs and we thought this was going to take us all weekend. Surprisingly we were able to strip back everything in about 5 hours (including a very full truck load to the dump - $40)

Everything was stripped back to the bare studs and we could finally get a look at the mold damage. Thankfully, the mold damage wasn’t near as bad as we had been expecting. We washed it off (wearing gloves and masks) with heavy duty mold killer, let it fully dry, and then we sealed it with a spray called Kill All to prevent it from growing/spreading. We also found a nice surprise too! There was a small (very small) space where we could add a closet to the bathroom. This was a HUGE bonus to us since we were downsizing the size of the vanity AND we were losing our medicine cabinet mirror. This gives us a lot more room to store the little things!

Once we were done that then the real work started. Since I was at work full time Sean sent me lots of pictures and updates. The first day was very productive. Vaughn and Sean got all of the plumbing done, the electrical outlet moved, a new door put in (our original one was only 24” and we upgraded to a 30” door), all of the new subfloor laid, and a few other things. On day two the kept moving right along and got the tub fully installed and working, the plumbing got soldered, new insulation was applied and new vapor barrier was put up, and a bunch of other things that I don’t remember. The next days included a lot of dry walling, taping, mudding, sanding, and painting (at first I hated the paint colour but now that it is finished and all of the stuff is in I think it works really well with the room).

Week two started us out with the tiling being done in the shower, followed by grouting the shower, tiling the bathroom floor, grouting the floor, installing the vanity, and toilet. Once the grout had set I was finally able to take my first bath in the new tub. It was heavenly. Our old tub was awful and not good for taking a relaxing bath. However, this one is so nice. I am going to be able to enjoy it a lot more.

The last couple days were spent putting in the trim, re framing the door, having our old door cut down and made into a closet door (done fully by Vaughn) and caulking/sealing everything including the tub and the vanity. We also hung the little things, like the mirror, the shower bar, the towel bar, the toilet paper holder ect. I got a great deal on the mirror. At Lowe’s bathroom mirrors started around $80. I decided to take a stab at Wal-Mart and found one that I loved and fit the space perfectly for only $30! When we got our vanity, the taps were already included so we did not need to buy those, but we did however buy an all new shower head kit. Pretty much everything in the bathroom is new. We did try to re-use what we could but to be honest that wasn’t very much. We did everything in a brushed nickel finish – and again I am really pleased with how everything turned out.

By the time it was all said and done the total bill was $3164 which was $164 more than we budgeted/saved. That includes the extra cost of Rylee going to daycare full time for two weeks, the labour for Vaughn, adding a closet that we weren’t expecting, and widening the door which we also weren’t expecting. 

Over all I think that everything turned out perfect and we now have a great bathroom that we won’t need to redo again for many many more years haha.

Now for the next project...

Pumpkin pumpkin and more pumpkin!

This weekend was all about pumpkin. Last week I realized that it is already nearing the end of October and I have eaten a lot of Apple things but not near enough pumpkin! 

So this weekend I changed that. Saturday started out with amazing pumpkin spice pancakes, dessert last night was amazing pumpkin fluff, and today I made a few dozen pumpkin spice muffins! I also roasted the pumpkin seeds from our freshly carved pumpkin. I can happily say that I have enjoyed my share of pumpkin and apple this amazing fall season. 

Yesterday our little family of three went to the states in the morning and had some fun shopping. Then we came home and did some stuff around the house. Rylee spent the night at my parents house and we had a date night. Our date night included a good dinner and then going to bed far to early to admit. We made steak, ceaser salad (brand new recipe of dressing from scratch), potatoes, and pumpkin fluff for dessert. 

This morning we slept in with no alarm clock or baby to wake us up which was amazing. Then we picked up Rylee after a silent breakfast. Sean and I took her to the London Baby expo and she had a BLAST playing on the bouncy castle for at least 30 minutes. 

After that we went to a local pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkin. After that we had lunch and Rylee went down for her nap while I madly cleaned the house and Sean worked some more on the bathroom. When Rylee woke up we carved the pumpkin, ate dinner, and went for a family walk. Now I am sitting on the couch after a very long hot shower writing this. I hope you enjoyed my weekend play by play. 

I promise that soon I am going to do a post about the bathroom renovations but in the mean time I just wanted to take a minute and say how good life is right now. I have been through some pretty hard things in my 26 years here. Something's that I wasn't sure I was going to survive but I did. I know that over the next 26+ years I am going to face many many more hard things. But right now in this time things are good and because of the hard times I can enjoy it so much more and be so much more thankful for the small things in my life. 

I will leave you with this photo of our dinner. I love meatloaf and tonight I tried a new quoina and kale salad this turned out really yummy.

 

 

Recipe review

A few weeks ago I posted on my blog that I had some healthy new recipes I was trying and people asked me to share. Instead of posting them individually I thought I would compile them here for you to read.

The first new recipe was Roasted Vegetable Tacos. I found the recipe on Pinterest - http://saucypants.com/blog/roastedveggietacos/

They were good (especially the roasted veggie part) but I think next time I would just use guacamole instead of making this sauce. It was well liked by hubby and Rylee.

Next I tried Butter Chicken from Epicure. A while back I tried butter chicken on a trip to BC and is was amazing. Since then I have had it one other time which was from M and M's but in an attempt to make it with less processing I tried the Epicure packet. If you like butter chicken a bit spicey then I feel you would like this. My hubby and daughter gobbled it up, but I however was not the biggest fan. For the cost of $4 just for the spices packet I will probably not make it again, although it looked REALLY REALLY good when I was making it. 

                         

Recently I have also made a few tried and true recipes. My Berry Cobbler, which I also found on Pinterest (Frozen berries sprinkled with vanilla cake mix and pour sprite on top. Bake at 450 for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown).

And tonight I made a house hold favourite. Not only is it a favourite because it tastes AMAZING but it is the easiest meal ever to make. Crockpot Chicken - put the chicken breasts (thawed or frozen, uncooked) into the crock pot. Cover with salsa, add one c. corn, 1/2-1 can of black beans and cook on low for 8 hours. I love this because you don't have to do anything to the chicken and you can even throw it in frozen - super easy. We often choose to top the chicken with shredded cheese and sour cream and service with brown rice but I have also put the mixture into tacos, and quesedillas before. Again, this one goes over really well with both hubby and Rylee. Healthy meal for the win!

                 

I want to leave you with one thought before we head off to the park for an after dinner play time. What is the deal with tortilla shells? We try to eat as much whole grain and whole wheat items as we can however white taco shells taste SO much better than whole wheat. Why is that??? No seriously I want to know why they taste to much better. Usually I prefer whole grain/whole wheat food!

Our bathroom renovation is almost done - I will do a post about it in the near future!

A Time to be Thankful

This time of year is always when people share in abundance everything they are thankful for. I used to be one of those people. I feel like the only time I took time to appreciate what I was grateful for was on the "required" holidays. The only time I said thanks to my parents and give them special notice was on Mothers day and Fathers day, quickly forgetting the other 364 days of the year that they help me. The only time I would acknowledge things I was grateful for was Thanskgiving, and not the other 364 days of the year.

Okay that may be a bit of an exaggeration however I know that I was not thankful enough every day of the year, and maybe I'm still not but I do know that I have come a long way. In two days from now, the day after Thanksgiving will be the 10 month mark of the passing of my father-in-law. Although I did not get the privilege to know him all of my life as my Husband and his brothers did, I was blessed to get to know him for quite a long time. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him in some way or that there is something that reminds me of him and the short time we did have together.

One of the main things that has changed about me since this unexpected event is my thankfulness. In every aspect this has changed. So often now I do take notice of tiny little things and stop to pause to really truly be thankful for them. I often get very excited over little small insignificant things that before I wouldn't have even noticed. I wouldn't have stopped to take a second look. I wouldn't have held my baby girl that much longer before putting her down, and the list goes on and on. I owe this to Dave because before I would not have stopped to realize how incredibly grateful I am for all of the amazing things in my life. 

I reflect on this time last year when we took a family trip to Florida. Although not everyone was able to join us we did have a really great time at a family wedding. Memories that I will hold dear to my heart, and yet again be thankful for. This time last year Dave was dancing with Rylee as she was just giggling away. We had an explosive diaper that took 6 people to clean up, and lots of laughs with cousins. We had our last Thanksgiving dinner with Dave, and ate pumpkin fluff. These things may not mean anything to you, but for me, it is one more small thing I am grateful for. Again, find joy in the little things, for you never know what tomorrow may hold. 

His chains are gone, he's been set free. Although we hurt here, we can be SO thankful that he hurts no more.

                

Do you remember me?

Again, another very long time in between posts…I wonder if I will ever get into the habit of writing regularly. I guess it depends how many out there are actually reading? I haven’t posted not because I don’t have anything to write but in fact have just had no time. Being back at work full time, a very busy toddler, and trying to keep up with the house and everything else that life entails is not an easy feat!

August and September are a very busy time at my work. I would get to work, look up and it was lunch, have lunch then look up and it was time to go home. The days went by very fast, which to be honest, I love when that happens. But on the flip side to that it also made it very tiring.

I will give you a few updates about life but first I will start with my weight loss since it is after all the reason for my blog. I did end up reaching my weight loss goal to hit 190lbs. I did not do it in the time frame that I gave myself since I had some unexpected things deter me slightly, but the important part is I did reach it! I was very pleased with myself when I stepped on the scale to see that I had hit that goal. My hard work and day to day efforts have been paying off. 

Sometimes it feels like my weight loss is going very slow but if I stop to look back at how much I have accomplished in the last 19 months it is actually quite amazing. Since having Rylee I have lost 86 pounds (that number DOES include baby + fluid) and that would average a loss of 4.5 pounds a month. If you also take into consideration that I had a very hard time losing weight while breastfeeding and didn’t start to really be able to take it off until I started weaning Rylee then that is actually quite impressive (in my opinion anyways).

I think that so many times people want it to come off very fast, and get quickly discouraged if it doesn’t. They try fad diets and cleanses that don’t work, or work for the very short term before they put the weight back on. If you want to look at the simple solution you need to eat healthy and exercise. I do believe that you can use some products in conjunction with healthy eating and exercise but bottom line it boils down to those two things. I have been there and tried many things. I got tired of the yo-yo dieting and finally just admitted to what I didn’t want to hear. It was going to take work (lots of work), dedication, and commitment, but in the end IT IS worth it. I don’t lose 5 pounds a week as I know that is not realistic, but when I do lose 5 pounds, it stays off. Long term. I make daily changes that are attainable and I feel great about them. I still eat unhealthy food often but I incorporate it into my daily food and I move on. I don’t stress about it or feel guilty over it. I enjoy every bite, and if something is not good I throw it away! I don’t finish it just because I feel I have to!

Now that being said, it took me a long time to get here. It took me a long time to learn my body and how it works. But I have also not binged on food because I haven’t been depriving myself of anything. I eat very healthy most of the time but still make room for pizza, cake, and chocolate because let’s be honest I don’t want to live without those things (and you shouldn’t either). 

I look back at where I was this time last year and I can see how far I have come! Where were you this time last year? Have you made the progress you wanted to make? Okay let me rephrase that, are you making the progress that is realistic for you to make? Not everyone has weight to lose; you may have other goals you are working towards but have you made the progress that is realistic? If not, sit down and really evaluate why. If this is important to you, you will do what it takes to get it done. If they result of reaching your goal is not worth the effort you need to put in the you will forever be spinning your tires on wet ground.

My next goal is a small one (last time was 10 pounds). This time my goal is to get to 185. I am not setting a deadline for myself because I know that this is a daily process and I am going to keep plugging away at it, one small change at a time. I don’t know yet what my reward will be for it but I am going to think of something good (maybe along the lines of some new make up). 5 pounds off is a lot to celebrate – it really is the small things!

A few other updates happening in the McNamara house: 

We are currently fully renovating our upstairs bathroom! I mean a complete gut. I can’t wait to be able to have a nice bath in my brand new soaker tub! 

Before demo

Mostly demo'd

When we bought our house in 2013 we knew that eventually the kitchen and the bathroom would need to be renovated since they were both really outdated. We had the roof replaced right when we moved in and we also did the downstairs bathroom as well by putting in a heated floor, new vanity, and new toilet along with a fresh coat of paint. Last year we did a major kitchen reno by painting the cupboards and adding hardware, putting up a backsplash, tearing down a wall, new countertop, new island, new ceiling fan, and of course a fresh coat of paint. So in terms of indoor renovations the bathroom is the last major renovation we have to complete. Of course there are little things as there always is in a house but all of the big things will be done.

Next year we will try to focus a bit on the backyard. We are hoping to be able to refinish our main deck and the pool deck, as well as put in a new pool liner. I know that the jobs will never be finished but I feel quite pleased that in terms of large jobs we should be done (knock on wood that we don’t have some disaster!).  Well for now anyways, until a few years down the road we decide we want to change things haha. I plan on doing a garden again next year but will do things a bit differently than this year. My first year with a garden was definitely a successful one.

If you read our camping review you may have noted that we enjoy camping, quite a bit actually. I prefer camping in a tent over a trailer although there are definitely perks to a trailer! Sean and I knew that our current tent would not be big enough next year so at the end of the season clearance we bought a new tent that is really big (I mean REALLY big). We set it up to make sure it worked but we did not take a picture, so next year I will take a picture and show you the new beauty!

This weekend we had our first toddler flu experience. Poor Rylee was really sick on Saturday night but I was very thankful that it wasn’t a work night! I am glad to have that experience over and now I know what to expect next time. It is SO heartbreaking as a parent to see your child going through that. You just want to take it from them and be the one going through it. It was really hard to watch because she is just so little – but that being said she fully bounced back the very next day and was fine so I am glad that is over!


Christmas is coming up quickly (yes I am totally one of those people) and my gift idea list is getting really good. I have a lot of people figured out what I am going to get them which makes the holidays a lot less stressful for me being the planner that I am. 

Fanshawe Conservation Area: camping review

This weekend we embarked on our first ever camping trip with our daughter Rylee (17 months). The forecast for the whole weekend called for Thunderstorms so I wasn't quite sure how things were going to pan out.

I woke up early Saturday morning to get all of the groceries, then came home and prepped the food and packed the cooler. Then we loaded up the car and we were ready to go. I did pretty well with the packing, we each had one duffle bag (not crammed), pillows/blankets, tent/air mattress, camping chairs, one cooler, two reusable bags of food, and our "camping kit". Not too bad for three people (including the baby!). Oh yes of course, and her diapers. Even still the car was pretty full.

When we got to our site we were pleased with the proximity to the washrooms. We chose site number 466. It was good for what we wanted but now that we have been there and looked around I would have chosen one of the sites that are on the bend on in "the birches" section as they provided a significant amount more privacy.

Once we unloaded our gear and set up the tent within minutes there was a heavy down pour. I was thankful that the tent was already set up so we had a place to wait it out that wasn't the car. Thankfully the rain only lasted about 15-20 minutes. 

When the rain was done we opened up our "camping kit" that was a wedding gift from two of our bridesmaids. We had not had a chance to use it yet so it was fun to see what they put in it. We did not pack anything extra knowing that they probably thought of everything and they pretty much did! After going through the box we made our first camp fire and made our dinner (stew and fresh bread). It was very yummy. Saturday night we had some friends over to the site for some marshmallows and drinks.

Rylee gave us a really hard time when it was time to go to bed. She just wanted to play and didn't want to settle, especially since it was a new place and all with LOTS to look at and do. I finally got her to sleep in the Moby Wrap after doing to creative walking around the site a number of times. However, when we went to go to bed she thought that was time to wake up and play! It took about an hour to get her to go back to bed since she thought it was fun to play around and be silly. We finally all got to sleep around 11pm.

At 2 am Sean woke up with a migraine and was quite sick. The man snoring in the tent next to us woke me up then I had to pee. Rylee of course woke up when we both got up so she was wide awake. We tried everything to get her to go back to sleep but she just wasn't having it. During this time she threw her head back and smashed the back of her head on the bridge of my nose. I thought for sure it was going to be bleeding and that I would have two black eyes the next day, although I did not get any black eyes, the pain is STILL there and the area is very very tender. Rylee FINALLY went back to sleep around 5:30am and woke again for the day at 8.

We made our breakfast (yogurt parfaits) and ate them in our camping chairs. Sean did a timmies run for us and the sites around us so I had a bit of quite time just sitting and relaxing. 

Once he got back we got changed and headed out to explore some trails. We pretty much hiked all morning.

Lunch was sandwiches and vegetables. After lunch we tried to get Rylee down for a nap. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to get her to sleep and we all passed out for 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was a much needed nap all around! After the nap we hit up the splash pad...

Once we dried off and changed it was time to make dinner. Typical hot dogs on the fire. I also had salad to go with them. I had just eaten my hot dog and then had two bites of my salad (it was really good). Rylee lost her balanced and tripped coming within inches of the fire. I leaped up to catch her (sending the salad every where) and managed to pull her back just before she fell back into it. She was totally fine and didn't even know anything happened. My salad, however, was not salvageable. BOO! I ended up having a few of the left over veggies from lunch instead. Needless to say from that point on we moved our chairs back away more from the fire to give Rylee more walking room.

After dinner we went for a hike to the beach and saw A LOT of groundhogs. 

We went back to the site when it was getting dark and made some more marshmallows. We knew it would take a while to get Rylee to bed so we started at 9pm and we were right. It took over an hour to get her to sleep but at least she slept through the night. Sean and I did wake a number of times from the loud snoring taking place next door but otherwise night number two was a success! 

This morning we packed every thing up and were out of the campgrounds by 9am. We had all the laundry done and everything put away by noon (Rylee passed out the minute we got home for a wonderful 2.5 hour nap that allowed us to get it all done). A big part of the speedy clean up was that I am pretty organized and put all the dirty clothes in one bag, all the dirty dishes in another, and so forth. Sean cleaned off the tarp and we let the bottom of the tent dry out.

Over all we consider the weekend to be a big success. One thing that we will need to invest in for sure is a bigger tent. It is fine for just Sean and I but by the time you add Rylee and her duffle bag and her diapers + diaper bag it made for a very squished camp (hence the "broken" nose). I think it would have been much easier to move around if the tent had been bigger.

I am also very proud to report that I staying on track all weekend! Again, good planning and healthy food options were a key to my success. I also made sure we had LOTS of water to drink.

I would definitely recommend Fanshawe Conservation Area to people with families as there are a lot of things to do. The only down side I would say is that the map of the park is really difficult to read, although, that could have just been us ;). There were a lot of kids there this weekend but that was to be expected since it was a long weekend. Overall the noise wasn't too bad but as previously mentioned I would choose a more secluded spot next time. 

A weight loss goal

I have set many weight loss goals for myself. Some realistic and some
not so much. One thing in common is I have never reached a weight loss
goal within the time limit I have given myself. My last weight loss goal
I missed by 0.8 pounds.

When I reached my last goal of getting under the 200 pound mark I
decided to set my next goal which was to get to 190 pounds by September.
I decided that I wanted to lose 10 pounds over the summer. I have been
doing really well with my eating and so far have managed to lose 6 of the 10 pounds. The past few weeks I have really tightened up my eating
and have been very mindful of what is going in my mouth and making sure
that I track it all. This weekend we went to two events – a wedding on
Saturday and a BBQ picnic on Sunday. Both nights I went a bit heavy on
the desserts (even though they were delicious!) 

The reason I am writing this is that I am determined not to let that
turn into a whole week and get off the course of reaching my next weight
loss goal. By posting this I am going to use this as an extra accountability. I have put it out there and I do not want to fail. And if I do fail I will do so having tried my best.

Life has been really busy lately (what else is new??) but I must admit
I am thoroughly enjoying the summer weather! I know it is raining a lot
(which has been great for my garden!) but overall the weekends are
pretty good weather so we can’t complain too much. I play for a
women’s soccer league on Friday nights and have been really enjoying getting the extra exercise running up and down the field. I often complain when there is more than one sub because I just want to
play and don’t want to come off for a break haha!

I have a new favourite food! Okay well make that TWO new favourite
foods!

The first one is I have discovered Naan bread. You can get them in little round portions that go perfectly with vegetables and hummus. I have had a hard time finding a hummus I like but I have finally found one that is very smooth and full of garlic which I love.

The second thing I love now is chocolate zucchini muffins! I have been
gardening this summer (more on that in a minute) and I have these MASSIVE zucchini’s that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, until a co-worker told me about chocolate zucchini muffins. I went
online and found a recipe and then tweaked it to be healthier. The outcome was AMAZING! I mean better than brownies amazing and I REALLY
like brownies! I am quite pleased with this new addition to our food
menu

When we bought our house we had a perfect spot in the back yard to have
a garden. Given that I had just had Rylee last year, gardening wasn’t exactly high on my list of priorities! This year I decided that I was going to start a vegetable garden after talking with a few co-workers and friends. My main goal was low maintenance since I was just starting
out I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.

I planted raspberries, tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, lettuce
(which was a flop), cucumbers, and zucchinis. I was told that all of
these (except the raspberries) were very easy and simple to grow. At
first I didn’t really enjoy the garden because it was a lot of
weeding, but I found as long as I kept on top of the weeding then it was
not too bad to do. Then the vegetables started growing and overnight my
garden blossomed. I am really excited to keep checking at what is
growing! The cucumber tastes great in my garden salads, the zucchini
tastes great fried up and in my muffins, and I plan on turning the
peppers into frozen prep for fajitas/stir fry, and my tomatoes into
homemade pasta sauce. I am practically drooling as I type this! For
anyone who has a desire to start a vegetable garden I would strongly
recommend it because it is high rewarding!

This weekend we are going on our first official camping trip with
Rylee. We will be roughing it in tents and trying to take as little as possible to get a real camping experience (while at a camp site with public washrooms and a pool). We won’t have access to electricity so
we will be cooking everything over the fire. I am really looking forward
to getting away for a few days and enjoying the great outdoors!

My final thoughts today rest on corn. Corn on the cob that is. There is
a corn stand on the side of the road not far from where we live that has
THE BEST CORN in the whole world. Again, I am practically drooling as I
am typing this. My mother in law is going to be picking some up for us
today as they usually sell out pretty quickly so we will be eating it
for the next few days (along with the fresh zucchini from the garden). 
We usually just husk it and boil it, we don’t even put anything on it
because it is so good. Sometimes if we want a bit of flavour we will rub
a lime on it and sprinkle on some spices to give it different tastes,
but again, it’s quite unnecessary since just eating it on its own is
mouthwatering. Who says eating healthy can’t taste good?

I will keep you posted on the camping!

Monday morning update

Early morning work out done! I love the morning workout now because it allows me to get it over with! I have no time to make excuses as to why I can't do it and now I can focus on my whole day. I will probably even get a walk in later tonight for a bonus! 

Since I started back to work I have not been working with a personal trainer. Most times I am able to still push myswlf pretty hard -- but it's not the same as working with a trainer! I have been working further on cleaning up my eating and laying back on the treats. I sure notice a huge difference in how I feel when I eat right!

As an update I am at 197 pounds last I checked. That is 7 pounds away from my next goal and 27 pounds to go total! I can see the small tiny light at the end of the tunnel. 

Rylee has been super cute lately. She has been dishing out lots of kisses and hugs. The other day while I was gardening she kept patting my back as to say good job mama! We have been having a fun summer with her between our activities and swimming and keeping busy and she is just at such a fun stage! 

Anyways thats all for now!

There is only 24 hours in a day

Oh Hello! You have probably forgotten who I am by now right? It has been over two months since my last post, although, trust me, I have thought about posting often, time just doesn't allow. 

There has been so much happening the past few months. The weather is finally beautiful and warm so we have been outside a lot. We have been on the go and have no signs of slowing down anytime soon. I have so much stuff on my brain but I will stick to my health in tonight's post. 

Let's go back to April when we had Easter. I did get into some mini chocolates which caused me a bit of a slippery slope for a week or two. Thankfully I didn't gain from that but it did cause me to miss my next weight goal by 0.8 of a pound.

My goal was to get under 200 pounds by May 17 which is when I left for a week in BC. I was SO close that it stung to miss by such a little amount especially when I know that I didn't do my best for two weeks. But it was also hard to be too upset because I had worked really hard and still felt great.

For the past few weeks I have been teetering RIGHT above 200 pounds. I went from 200.8 to 200.4 to 200.2. Last week I was FINALLY under 200 pounds. I weighed in at 198.4!!! I was SUPER excited to see a 1 in front of my weight instead of a 2. 

I do love the summer weather. I have been walking often, still going to the gym 2-3 times a week, playing soccer, on top of all of our house work and gardening. I have been pretty good with my eating, all while still enjoying my summer treats (as I sip my Bud Light Lime beer). This summer I have ventured out into the world of vegetable gardening. I bought all of my vegetables already started and planted them all a few weeks ago. My garden is now in the weeding stage where I have to weed it often. Perhaps I did not prep my soil properly? Next year I will look into some kind of weed killer before starting to plant my vegetables. I bought a lot of plants so hopefully we will have a successful "crop" this year and get some good eats!

So how am I doing it all?! Good question...I wish I knew haha! I have had to really focus on what is important to me. I am very organized so I still do my meal planning and grocery shopping the same as before. I squeeze in my workouts when I can and that includes utilizing our workout program during lunch times some days. On top of eating healthy and exercising I have still been following our automatic body program and taking the Nutrie products. It definitely helps with my energy level that's for sure.

One thing that has been very over whelming to me is trying to make the best health choices for myself and my family (especially my daughter). I am having a very hard time trying to educate myself on things that are natural and good for her. I can't tell you how many hours I spent researching and deciding if I was going to give her cows milk. My over whelming decision right now...sunscreen. There are SO many arguments that say that the chemicals in brand name sunscreens are worse for you than getting hit with the sun. Rylee (like myself) is very fair and would burn easily. I use a natural sunscreen on her BUT that being said with all of the trickery out there on word plays ect how can we know what is actually natural or not?!

It is absolutely exhausting. Part of my wants to just give up and take the easy way out. Part of my thinks "well giving her a chicken breast that is not certified organic is better than giving her kraft dinner". And part of me only wants the best for my family but I don't even know where to begin. I try to pick small changes that we can manage like changing our lunch/food storage containers to glass instead of plastic. But like I said I can't tell you how many hours I researched and seriously stressed over the decision to give her milk or not and that is only ONE small piece of her everyday food consumption. 

Some choices are easy - like juice. We do not give her juice. period. She LOVES, and I mean LOVES water - so why give her juice and make her not like water anymore? The odd time (maybe once a month) she gets diluted juice at daycare which I am totally fine with her having once in a while but it is NOT a daily occurrence. My mom also makes Rylee popsicles out of water with a bit of juice for flavour. So for US the right choice is to not give her juice. I understand that this is not the right choice for every family so as long as you 
have figured out what works for you then more power to you.

The problem today is labels. They are there for you to read but the amount of trickery that goes into the wording is UNREAL. You think that you are getting meat that is "Free Range" yet really Free Range is the NAME OF THE COMPANY that supplies the meat! Same thing with McDonalds 100% real beef. That is the name of the company that sells McDonalds their meat and so they advertise their products as 100% real beef. 

Food has become a huge problem in today's society and I don't even know how or where to begin to find correct, unbiased, non-judging information. 

So I apologize for not having written more posts lately but when it becomes a choice between the blog of fitness - fitness will win everytime ;)