I ♥ Mailbox Surprises

On the way home from work this afternoon I stopped at the mail box…opened it to find a nice surprise from Angie. It’s a little hard to read, but it’s a card congratulating me on 100 lbs lost. How incredibly thoughtful was that? Totally brightened my whole afternoon!! Thanks chickie! :) I feel so lucky to have made such great real-life friends because of blogging.

Today’s eat were on the ball. This morning I woke up to the heavenly smell of coffee, what a way to start off my Monday! (That and I wore my new shoes!!) J has finally jumped on the coffee bandwagon and had a steamy mug all ready for me.

For Breaky, I had an old favourite - 2 slices of ezekiel toast with peanut butter & sliced banana.

Munched on a fresh peanut butter oatcake when my belly started grumbling around 10.


Work was quite busy today; ended up eating lunch away from my desk so I didn’t get to take any pics. It was a bowl of the homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade roll and the other half of the banana from this morning.

Supper was so GOOD! BLT’s, corn on the cob and salad. Mmmm.

The sammie was made out of 2 slices of ezekiel toast, turkey bacon, lettuce tomatoes with a smear of light mayo.

Fresh corn with melty olive oil becel & pepper. Delish!

All About the Comfort Foods

So we survived Hurricane Bill. It was windy and pouring but that’s really all that happened. Pretty much every Winter storm causes the power to go out so I thought for sure we’d lose it but nope, not even a flicker. Was a perfect day of relaxation though – the house was tided/ chores done in anticipation of not having power, so all I did was blog/tweet and watch tv. I needed the rest though.

In exciting news, Jen, Cat and hopefully Amy (plus spouses) will be coming to Halifax in a little under 7 weeks! The Halibloggers have been making some pretty fun plans for their trip including a Thanksgiving Blogger Dinner. Not sure if you know this about me or not but Thanksgiving is my absolute favourite holiday and I’m so excited to be having such a special dinner with everyone! I’m really looking forward to their visit, I missed out on the TO trip this past June and am really glad they decided to come to the East Coast.

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It was still pretty gray/misty out this morning which lead to a day of comfort foods. Breaky was a organic free range egg fried in a little evoo with a slice of ezekiel toast and the last of the fresh blueberries. Flipped though the latest issue of Best Health mag while I enjoyed my meal. Really like this magazine, mainly because it’s Canadian and showcases products, people, places that I know. ;)

Like every morning, I had coffee. The pic is always the same and not really worth showing. It really hit the spot though because I was not in the mood to be awake at all. Ha, who am I kidding coffee always hits the spot! ;)

In anticipation of Hurricane Bill I’d picked up some non-perishables including a box of my fav Kashi Dark Chocolate Cherry granola bars. Mmm, it’s been awhile…yum!


Moving on to lunch, total comfort food again with a bowl of homemade cheesy tomato soup. Thanks to Lynn for posting this terrific recipe! I made a pot the other weekend and froze it in individual servings.

Along with the soup there was some organic veggie crackers for dipping and a side of mixed greens with french dressing.

Splash of Red

Good Morning Everyone. Can’t believe I’m on the last day of my long weekend already, it really flew by. Not much really planned for the day today – visit to the Farmers Market, out for a run and make lunches for the week. It’s grey and rainy yet again today, what is up with the weather?? Last July was the same way, I thought that Summer was supposed to be sunny!? Silly Mother Nature…I did have a strange dream that it snowed last night but thankfully that was just a dream. :)

Anywho, going back to yesterday~ Decided I was okay with making my WI day, my “treat day” so you will see a few indulgences below!

While we waited for our friends to arrive, I munched on this juicy nectarine.


We ended up stopping at Subway for lunch on the way into town. I got my usual 6” Veggie ;) Change it up a bit with an added squirt of mayo.


Side of Plain Baked Lays. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to get these because I really don’t care for them. Kind of like salty card board. I was hungry though.

We got lots of errands done yesterday day including picking up shoes for the beautiful bride to be, Holly. Holly has a blog and has joined Amy’s Challenge, so go over and show her some love!!

Ended up stopping to pick some ingredients for homemade pizza and made a trip to the booze store for some wine. Then on the way out, made another stopping for my fav summer treat – waffle cones! Hehe, I’m seriously addicted. I got a small scoop of cotton candy. Yummy!



Once we got home, I whipped up the pizza dough and then cracked open my bottle of Cab Sauv.


Mmm by the end of the evening you could say that I was fairly relaxed. ;)


Supper turned out quite well. My half of the pizza was topped with red, green, yellow & orange bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, a little bit of prosciutto, mozza cheese & a sprinkle of feta.

Wrapping Up Another Weekend

Yup, Sunday evening already. Overall it was a pretty productive and fun one though. Last night Holly & I hung out while the boys had the bachelor party. We browsed a few stores in Bayers Lake and then headed over to see The Time Traveler’s Wife. I thought the movie was pretty good although it wasn’t the best movie I’ve seen recently. Will probably read the book now, just to see the differences.

I scored a hot new pair of shoes, at Walmart of all places, and for only $5.00!! Gonna paint my toes a lovely shade of red and kick off the work week feeling fab! :)

We got in around 3am; I didn’t sleep well at all and was up by 9am. Decided it was a Brunchy type of day so I made a run to the store for some yummy fixings.

On the menu, homemade “McMuffins.” - WW english muffins with melted swiss cheese, egg, turkey bacon, sliced tomatoes & baby spinach. Side of sliced nectarine. Oh, and of course coffee!

Half Day

As in I didn’t take pics after my afternoon snack. Whoops. I was tired and spent the evening reading on the couch. No TV, No Exercise, Nothing. Yesterday was more about maintenance than deficit, unfortunately.

Breaky was a yummy open faced egg sammie. Fried egg on a slice of ezekiel toasted with a smear of cream cheese, fresh chives & spinach. Along with a side of Strawberry Liberte Yogurt.

I was going to have an apple for my morning snack but I was really hungry, so I pulled the tried and true Cherry Pie Larabar from my purse instead.

Beach Day

Wow, we had sun 3 days in a row, figures I’d wake up to a down pour this morning. ;) Didn’t get much accomplished yesterday, tided up for a bit and spent the afternoon at the beach.

I’m still in need of your DOMINICAN REPUBLIC RESORT REVIEWS! Please post yours here!

Rewinding back a bit, Breaky was homemade hash browns (since I was already chopping potatoes for potato salad) and scrambled eggs. Combo of 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, splash of milk, mix of spices, chives and herb & garlic gouda.

Fun Summer Day

I am feeling so much more energetic today! I’m going to head in to work tomorrow morning and see how it all goes. (Yes, I’m secretly happy to be going back to work!)

Got a late start to the day when I didn’t get out of bed until after 9am!!! This is huge for me since I’m usually a 5am kinda of gal. Obviously my body needs the rest.

Started off with a couple of the yummy Blueberry Chia Muffins; warmed with becel of course!

Along with a juicy organic orange.

Healthy Balance

Sometimes I wonder if I have too many goals and not enough focus.

I want to do a lot why my life. Lose the weight, excel at my job, run a half marathon (full too!), be an awesome wife, daughter, sister & friend… you get the point. So I’ve set all these goals for myself, most with deadlines. But have I spread myself so thin that I’ve managed to lose all focus? Ok not lose it, but by putting a little bit of focus on this and a little bit on that it only seems be make the goals less and less attainable after each passing week.

I guess you could say that I’m struggling to maintain a healthy balance. The past few months my calendar has been jam packed, there have been very few weekends that we’ve stayed home. I know being on the go constantly is one of the key reasons that I’m not reaching my weight loss goal as fast as I want. At the moment I feel that goal needs to be my main priority so I’m going to try and cut back on commitments. Simple as that.

So starting right now, it’s time to focus 100% on me. :)

A Yummy Success!

The Eat Atlantic Challenge that is. I managed to eat only Atlantic Foods yesterday, I did have to scrounge a bit throughout the day (IE: eating Scotsburn ice cream at 10am for a snack. hehe) but am proud to say that I stuck with it.

As planned last night Jaime, Ang & I got together for a yummy local dinner. We had a good time chatting while we prepped all the eats. I’m going on record to say that no points were counted and that I’m positive if they were, I’d be over. No sweat though because I couldn’t have asked for a better evening with great friends & great food! No regrets here. :)

Our main course was a local Eden Valley Farms chicken, that Jaime butterflied and cooked on the grill. She seasoned it with Mallett’s Maple Pepper Chipolte blend. As you will see further down, it turned out fantastic!

Along with the chicken we had some roasted taters that I prepped. These were local Scotian Gold potatos. Seasoned with olive oil, fresh ground pepper, sea salt & fresh local garlic.

Ang had my least favourite chore, shucking the corn on the cob. I picked this corn up from Superstore, it was advertised as “Atlantic Grown” but the produce manager couldn’t tell me what province it actually came from.

While the food cooked we cracked open of bottle of Blomidon Estates L’Acadie Blanc and munched an appy platter that Jaime whipped up for us!

Great Start to the Weekend!

I was so impressed and will be going back, just a little earlier next time to avoid the crowds. Check out my loot, all this for only $50.00!


Loaded up on green onions, fresh chives, beets, mushrooms, 2 types of zucchini, huge bag of spinach, peas, cucumber, new potatoes, a sweet potato, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow & green & purple (!!!) beans, cherries, fresh whole wheat bread and cheese - herb & garlic gouda & feta from Fox Hill.

After we plowed through all the cash on hand, we head over to Cora’s for some yummy brunch & a gab session. ;) I enjoyed the Asparagus & Swiss Cheese Eggs Benedict. (Hollandaise sauce on the side.)



Mmm, totally hit the spot! I left most of the fruit because the eggs were so filling. Apparently we arrived for brunch at the perfect time because the line up to get in was out the door and on to the street when we left.

We browsed around Lululemon for my reward for breaking out of the 190’s. I tried on sooo many things; would you believe a size 10 fit me? LMAO. Anyways, they fit but I wasn’t that pleased with my overall comfort level wearing the clothes (I felt really self-conscious) so I decided to not make any huge purchases today. Instead, I rewarded myself with an awesome new H20 Bottle (these are the new ones made by SIGG and hold 1L!) and a black Slipless Headband.

Beware of impact of cavities

Do not underestimate cavities, because cavities does not stop at dental abscess, but also must be alert to the threat of focal infection throughout the body, It is raised in the discussion themed "Increasing consumption of sugar in Indonesia VS acute complications in the tooth".

"Focal infection due to the poison and the rest of the dirt and microbes triggering infection in teeth and mouth and then spread to other parts of the body", said Dr.Tengku Nahdar in south Jakarta on Friday.

During the public may not obtain information about the dangers of dental disease, this needs to be disseminated to the residents, many residents still consider the teeth and mouth disease is a common thing, but after a severe new to the doctors they consulted.

Health survey data from households (SKRT) 2004 conducted by the health department said the prevalence of caries (holes) teeth in Indonesia is 90.05 percent. Another fact is that Indonesia suffered the teeth and mouth disease is aggressive cumulative, meaning the damaged area becomes incurable.

Dental disease is a type of disease in the first order complained of society. Based on survey results of 2001 health service, dental disease 60 percent of the population complained of Indonesia. Moreover complaint unwittingly dental disease also affects the productivity decline of patients, most of the stops on the move between 2.5 days to 5 days.

So now you're having problems with your teeth? immediately see a doctor, do not worry about today's dentists are equipped with sophisticated equipment and comfortable, the pain almost nothing. So do not be afraid to go to the dentist !!!

Some recent research says the relationship between dental disease to diabetes, coronary heart disease & stroke. Professor Howard Jenkins of the University of Bristol in England said there are more than 700 types of bacteria in the human mouth. Most of these bacteria are not dangerous, but there are some that can cause disease in blood vessels where the harmful bacteria sticking to the platelets that cause clotting within the blood vessel.

If this happens blood clotting brain regions will result in a stroke, occurs when the heart will cause a heart attack. The WHO believes that oral health is essential to quality of life and Affects general health, particularly chronic inflammatory conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease.



U.S Surgeon General says that:

Oral health and general health are inseparable, oral health is integral to general health and the mouth is a portal of entry for infections that can affect local tissues and may spread to other parts of the body. Oral examinations should be part of general medical examinations!!!

Running, Oh How I’ve Missed You!

Breaky was a yummy bowl of oatmeal! Mmm, it always tides me over so well. This morning’s combo was 1/3c organic oats, 1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze, 1/2 organic banana, 1tbsp peanut butter, 5g mini chocolate chips, 5g sliced almonds & 1tsp hulled hemp seeds. Perfection!

Morning snack was the usual peanut butter oatcake. Sorry, most of my eats of late have been quite routine.

Lunch was a bowl of chicken noodle soup with a roll. My lunch pictures turned out really blurry though. The worst part though? I forgot my bowl and had to heat up the soup in the plastic container. Eck, sooooo bad of/for me. :( But I was hungry.


After work, I enjoyed a yummy mug of Heavenly Hash ice cream. Oh how I adore ice cream. It is one of my guilty pleasures and something that I will never give up.


So, Supper… as usual it’s been the best meal of the day! I know I only made the Easy Shrimp Pasta a few weeks ago but I was craving it again. This is one of my fav recipes of all time!



I did make a few additions to the recipe – some fresh diced garlic and 2 cups of organic baby spinach. Yummy creamy goodness!

Getting Back To Me

I’m trying to not make any other plans for the rest of the week. Want to catch up on my ZzZZZzz’s and get back into my routine. We do have another busy weekend planned – I’ve got a Pampered Chef party at Angie’s on Saturday and then a family BBQ on Sunday, plus we are going to visit friend’s of ours who are going through a really sad time. (Loss of a child.)

Today’s eats were yummy. Breaky was a fried egg with a sprinkle of fresh chives & pepper on a slice of whole wheat flax toast and a side of Nova Scotia raspberries.



On the way into work this morning I decided that I totally deserved an Sbux, and a venti at that! ;) I was in desperate need of my caffeine fix!


Lunch was really about using up the last of stuff. I made a yummy caesar salad with organic baby spinach, 1 tbsp real bacon bits, spinkle of parm, Fresh Gourmet Organic Croutons & Renee’s Light Caesar Dressing. Along with a side of the sweet orange tomatoes from the farmer’s market and whole wheat croissant. Was lacking in the protein area but still managed to keep me full all afternoon. Mmm mmm!

Night Off From The Kitchen

Not only was it a wonderful to have a night off from cooking but as a bonus, I still managed to enjoy fantastic, quality food too! Our friends Holly & Dean came over for the evening and Dean, who is in Culinary school, surprised us by offering to cook dinner. Not like I was going to turn that offer down! :)

Oh, and please excuse my ugly blue corelle plates, all my pretty white ones were in the dishwasher.

On the menu ce soir: Sticky Lemon Chicken w/ Garlicy Mashed Taters.

The recipe for the chicken is from Gordon Ramsay’s book Fast Food but is available online from Rachel Ray’s site.

With a glass of White Zinfandel.

Honorary Halibloggers

As you may have noticed, I haven’t blogged in a few days. That’s because I’ve been too busy having an absolutely freaking fantastic time with the Halibloggers and our honorary members – Jen, Amy & Cat!

I just want to say how truly lucky I feel to have such a wonderful group of ladies (and their hubbies) in my life. It’s not often a big group of 17 can get along so well and are extremely fortunate that everyone seemed to click almost instantly. We have developed some life long friendships and being from all over the country makes it that more special. Love you ladies!

Since Angie had to work all week and I had the time off, I ended up staying at her place so that I could show people around and help make sure they got a true Nova Scotia experience. I don’t have as many pictures as I’d like because I spent the past few days having a good time instead of worrying about taking a bazillion pics.

The first night was, of course, a lobster boil. I don’t really have too many pics from that night at all because I was pretty busy cooking the tasty things! Both Jaime and Angie have great re-caps though.

Unfortunately, it has been raining for most of their trip here. Our plans for Thursday were initially a day trip to Mahone Bay & Lunenburg, instead Jen, Amy & I went for some tasty brunch and picked up the Thanksgiving groceries. We spent the afternoon driving around the city and were able to get an hours walk along the waterfront when the rain finally decided to let up.

That evening was our Keith’s Brewery tour. Before we left Jen straightened my hair – I’m in LOVE! My hair has never looked this good. Even in the misty air it held out.

Non-New Years Resolutions

I’ve really been thinking a lot about how unorganized and chaotic my life is. Today, I’m taking the first steps to change that. These are my Non-New Years Resolutions if you will. There are definitely areas that need to be re-prioritized. I don’t manage my time as well as I could which always bites me in the butt.

• I need to unplug and not go online when I please because I end up wasting so much of my free time tweeting, blogging, emailing etc. Don’t get me wrong, you couldn’t pry me away from my wonderful online buddies but I need stop doing 20 things at once and just focus on one thing. (IE: just cooking supper and tidying the kitchen instead of leaving my laptop open while I’m in there.)
  
• I need to start focusing on the people in my life who are important to me. Relationships take work. Nuff said.
  
• I need to be more strict with my spending habits. Honestly, I kind of just buy what I feel like, when I feel like it. :-X
  
• I need to take more pride in my home. Our house isn’t ideal, it’s definitely a fixer up. I’m embarrassed to have people over because of it’s ugliness. There I said it out loud. We need to keep going with the renos but they take time and $$. Also, I’ve really let stuff slide in areas of cleaning. Instead of tidying every day I wait until the weekend. And I stopped composting about 2 weeks ago because our green bin containers are just nasty and I got lazy. WTF. That is not me at all.
  
• And last but not least, I need to get the rest of this weight off so that I’m healthy enough to have a baby.

Phew! That’s a load off my mind. Does anyone else have any Non-New Years Resolutions to share?

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Food today was parfait! Breaky was 2 slices of ezekiel toast with peanut butter & fresh blueberry jam. And, of course coffee. Two cups of it actually. Was hard to get out of bed this morning after the full weekend.

New Look!

Our fridge has a decent amount of veggies already but I still stocked up on some fresh blueberries,plums, sweet tomatoes (like the ones I had at Jaime’s on Friday night!) organic garlic,chives, cantaloupe, squash and some cool looking mini squash & zucchini. :)


I couldn’t resist sampling the fresh scallops for lunch. Cooked up half a pound in a bit of becel. How delicious do these look?! Mmm mmm!


Used the sweet juicy tomatoes in a side salad as well.


I spent most of the afternoon baking and now have a freezer full of lunch stuff including peanut butter oatcakes, peanut butter granola bars & rolls. I also tried out a new recipe for oatmeal blueberry lemon muffins. Made a few modifications – used almond breeze instead of milk, 1 whole egg instead of 2 egg whites, 1tbsp of oil instead of 2 and I omitted the topping. Ended up having 2 of these yummy guys for breaky this morning.


The best part about yesterday was that I went out for a run as planned! :) I’ve definitely decided against re-doing C25K again, instead I did 10:1 intervals as Amy suggested. All went well, I wasn’t gasping for breath. So glad that I haven’t lost the ability to run, I really was afraid of that. My new plan now is to increase by one set each week, so this week I will be doing 3x10:1 for a total of 3 days. Should work out perfectly to start Half training mid-October!


So, I’m off to clean, clean, clean. Opps and I was supposed to mow the lawn. Eck! We have quite a busy week coming up, only a 3 day work week. Both of us took Friday off to help Holly & Dean with the final wedding errands and then Saturday is the big day! I’m really excited!!

Anyways, that’s all for now!