Catching Up

Yikes, I'm so behind on reading all my fav blogs, sorry everyone. I'm going to try and catch up with my reading today.

The move went smooth and we already have lots of painting completed and most rooms are set up. I have my office all set up (well all books are still in the boxes BUT they are hidden in the closet for now and maybe forever haha!) I'm sitting in my new office right now. Check out my new view!

I'm so happy we chose a house with the greenery around too, I love love love nature! (and behind those trees in the above pic, is a trail! Whoohoo) (Below is the old view)



Even though this is our second house there is still so much I need to buy to make it complete.

I hope some of you can give me your opinion on this Chandelier below. It is in the hallway near the bedrooms, the old owners left it, but they took the one that was in the dining room. So to save some money on a chandelier I'm thinking of putting this in the dining room and buying a normal type light for the hallway and save like 300 dollars (I think, don't really know how much chandeliers cost, never had to buy one before I assume they are expensive haha)

This week I NEEED NEEED to get back on track with all my goals. I decided to not weigh myself for a long while. I'm too chicken! Our appliances just arrived on Tuesday and they are still not set up yet, so just imagine my food intake since Friday. I think I ate at every fast food place existing.

By Monday I want to have my new workout/eating plan for a fresh start.

Since I'm also looking for the dreaded J O B I need to set my goals on this as well. Today I updated my resume again and started applying to some jobs so that's a start.

Tomorrows Friday already and that will be a week that I've been in the new home! ;)

suburbia, say hello to the city couple

Finally the day has arrived! Tomorrow we move from our city home downtown Toronto to the Suburbs! Although the city we are moving to calls itself Vaughan, the City above Toronto haaah It's true it says that on signs and on their city website. It really is only about 20-25 mins to get back and from down here so I can't really complain. Down in the city we still have both our parents and brothers and sisters so we will be down here a lot I'm sure.

Some things I won't miss from the busy city.
- Parking tickets! I have 5 in my purse right now!
-Parking permit to park on the street
-Traffic EVERYWHERE
-Construction EVERYWHERE
-Toronto's Mayor (not on my good list)
- Garbage bin TAX (grr, we need to pay to throw out trash!)
- higher car insurance

Our pockets will be happy when we're gone!

Some things I'm looking forward to in the new city are;

-Closer drive to coffee ...and groceries,... and mall...and salons...and everything within 5min driving!
-NO street construction!
-PARKINGLOTS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!! ahahah
-Quiet calmer streets
-cheaper car insurance!
-No garbage tax!
-the happiest thing for us a GARAGE! whoohoo. No more street parking!

Another thing I'm looking forward to is the jog through all the streets and trails, can't wait to get back on track next week after the move.

I have NOT done my weight in for a while and don't plan to until next week. Next week I am going to get focused and start fresh, new start for the new home, new job and a new me;)

Excited!

Always a First

MMM Churros. This weekend the neighborhood had a festival at the park in front of our house and since it was our last weekend here we decided to go and have fun! Fun meaning eat all the yummy food they were selling. If you don't know what Churros are, you sure are missing out! It's a spanish donut sort of thing... fried dough pretty much coated in sugar and whatever topping you like. I had plain and Caramel milk ones. Yum! A gazilion calories I am sure.

We also stopped at a favorite ice cream shop up the street where I grew up and had a Limone ice cream in memory of my Dad for fathers day. My dad use to always take us to this place when we were little and it's one of my happiest memories of my dad.


All that being said I can say my weekly goals went out the window this weekend. Since we are moving this week today will pretty much be the last day I cook at home and this week will be far from diet friendly.

Once this week is over I will be sure to start up a strict diet plan, I need NEED to drop at least 15 lbs this summer. Could this be possible!? I don't know. But I will need to work at it a lot harder than I am to get there.

My mini goals for this hectic week:
Choose healthier choices - No Fries - Do donuts! (my weaknesses)
Drink a lot of water
10000 steps 3 times this week.

Simple enough ;)

Hopefully next week I will be ready to re-start my plans.

Oh and as my title says "always a first" I got my first speeding ticket! Going 56km on a 40km street :( I've been driving for 12 years! and this is my first time being pulled over. I was so upset and it pretty much ruined my Sunday evening. Can't get over it! Blah!

Happier things... The move will be fun, my sister and brother in laws are all coming to help :) 4 more days!!! (and 1 more day till our 2 year wedding anniversary! ;) Time flys!

TGIF!

Whoohoo for Friday! Weekend is here and I'm hoping to get some of my trail walks in to make up the rest of my 10000 for the week! I'm doing just ok with eating at home. I get kind of bored with my meals and I guess you can say lazy too! Last night we went for Sushi and I always over eat at Sushi not to mention cause it was a All you can eat Sushi Restaurant Ha! I was doomed from the start. Tonight I'm going to make chicken wings with the new buffalo sauce I bought, mm Hoping it is yummy! One of my easiest meals to make are chicken wings or legs, I pop em in the oven and just make a salad and out comes a hassle free/mess free meal ;) However the husband has been complaining for a more RED MEAT diet, and I'm not the biggest fan of cooking my own meat. I do what I can but I can say that 3/5 times I don't even eat the meat I cook. It's something about the smell of meat when it's cooking that totally turns me off, and if the meat takes llike meat at all, yucky I can't have it. Buuuut give me ribs or steak and a restaurant and I'm all over those! hahah!

One more week till the move, feels like we have been waiting FOREVER! 3 months felt like forever! I'm so going to miss this house and area ;( I consider this my first move just because my mom lives up the street where I was living before so I've been in this area all 27 years of my life! Now we are going to Suburbia half hour away! haha I'm not making it sound too great am I. I admit I'm going through some really weird up and down emotions lately. But weekend is here and I really want to watch the Proposal if we can fit that in :)

My little living room full of boxes!

Have a great weekend everyone.

PS.I've been really thinking of changing up my weight loss routine since weight has not budged for a while. I'll have an update Monday.

Hump Day Update!

I found a site that I was able to put my current weight and desired weight and get these cute images. So I put what I originally started at and a goal weight of 128 (Not even close). Like I mentioned before I am more bottom heavy, I don't think the pics really look like my body- add more thickness to the legs for the top one and there its me lol ahhaa.

Last night my sister and I went for a 2 hour walk and took 12500 steps! I was shocked! :) And boy was I exhausted when I got home!

My weight has not changed for a while now, I'm guessing I should make more changes than what I have been doing but I will reevaluate Monday.

Job hunt has begun, which is really hard. I've had many different positions and have a college diploma in Business and a software testing certificate so I've been in the office industry and in the IT world. I'm a little confused on what to go towards now since being laid off... I will misssss being home!! :( too many changes to overcome these days. All I can repeat in my head is that it only means I'm growing towards my dreams ;)

What career path do you have? Do you enjoy what you do? Have you changed career paths lately?

Food Plan for the week

Last week was good and bad all mixed together :) I did ok reaching some high numbers on the pedometer this weekend. 13500 Sunday alone :) Proud of that. Not so proud of the Big mac and fries I had on Sunday (bad bad!). I'm the classic emotional eater. When stressed, Big mac always makes me feel better, Ha! that is so bad isn't it!

The move is in 2 weeks and the house is upside down! I'm also trying to consume all frozen foods since our appliances don't come till the next day after the move, I really don't want to waste food especially on our super tight budget.

On that note, I'm looking for work these days as well. Our online company is doing well but I think our move was more expensive than we thought. So my job hunt has become more serious!! Boo :( Is it bad that I actually enjoy being home? I love the time for myself I get so much done working on the online business and to tell you the truth we save money too ;) Buuut We need all the extra cash we can get at least until we settle in and get our numbers straight. I'm pretty good at time management so I am sure that even with Full time work I can get all my extra activities fit in there as well. ;)

On a better note. My asthma is improving! With the meds I take daily, I haven't had coughing or wheezing for at least 5 days straight! I'm super happy about this! I'm going to try and run a couple laps this week and see if I have improvement in my breathing :)

Grocery shopping yesterday was a success, I bought lots of meals to be cooked at home :) So I will plan my meals out so that way we can stay AWAY from Fast Food! Bought a new wing sauce for wings :) Love eating weeks cause I can eat them with just a salad as a side. I'm trying to minus the carbs as much as we can.

Here are my new goals for the week. (Well same as last weeks, I didn't add anything from last weeks goals, I think I need to work hard on these 5 goals and FOCUS!)

1. Continue cooking at home (Plan meals)
2. Limit or fully cut out fast food, no fries!
3. No coffee shop foods, only coffee
4. Workout 3-5 times a week (1hour workouts) and/or 10000 steps on the pedometer.
5. No eating after 7pm.

Gotta Step it up! Help!

I only did 4528 steps yesterday, I opted out of my trail walk to watch the movie the Hangover (crazy funny a little disturbing ahahah!)

This week has not been good on the diet side. Altho I'm cooking at home, I'm eating wayy too much and I also made cookies the other night and ate like 10 of them!!!! I don't know what is up with this week I'm thinking (blaming) the move is too stressful and I feel my motivation diminishing. How can I break out of this lazy bump? I need to get it back! Good thing it's still cool here in Toronto because wearing shorts or even a bikini can not happen for me yet. :( I feel so frustrated!

This is the park across my street, today there are a couple of ppl with their personal trainers (ha!I should join them!) watching them is making me feel so bad for not achieving my goals this week. I'm going to head out this afternoon for a walk and hopefully achieve my 10000 steps today. :)

Have a great weekend everyone ;)

Hump day update - gorgeous day!

A nice sunny day love these days! Still a little cool but at least the Sun is out. Monday was so cold that the heat in the house went on! Hopefully our summer comes out soon! Actually I take that back, soon but I also need to get bikini ready which I am not!

I Did my weigh in today and I am exactly the same! I need to boost this up! I've been reading other blogs and I read that Acai pills or Hoodia are really good to aid in weight loss. When I was younger I was obsessed with weight loss pills, I would take anything that sounded promising. I even bought these "Brazilian Diet pills" From a customer from a job I was at for something like 300 dollars for a month in a half! I was crazy! They did work tho. My friend and I still laugh about it because we lost a lot of weight but once off them we both gained double the weight back!!!!!

So I'm verrrry sceptical these days about taking anything different. However, I am feeling a little desperate these days.

I added lunges to my daily routine. I'm more bottom heavy and my thighs are my main issue! My thighs prevent me from finding good fitting pants, and Jeans, ha! forget it! I own only 1 pair and not a fan of how I look in them..I hate it! Tights and long tops have become my daily wear.

I've been doing well with my pedometer, I love how I'm constantly aware of how many steps I do. I haven't hit the park yet so my yesterday and monday I only got up to 7500 and 5500 steps, but today I will reach my 10000 or above when I hit the trails!

Packing the house for the move is almost done ;) I have some empty rooms now. I have mixed feelings of happiness and sadness all mixed together lol whaa to that!

Feel'n gloomy on this gloomy Monday

I wish I got more ZZZZZZ's last night. I was awake all night coughing like crazy. I'm pretty sure that the Asthma meds made me sick, I have a horrible sore throat and coughing soo much. I slept on the living room couch yesterday cause I felt bad waking up the husband coughing all night when he had work this morn. I can tell you I feel horrible today, I went out for lunch and grabbed a latte and right now I'm still dosing off as I'm writing. Not a good start of the week! whaa!

I didn't do a weigh in today, maybe I will be brave on my Wednesday update. I've been doing good and bad. My pedometer is really a great help and I get excited to increase the steps cause it's so fun! Ok so last weeks goals are below, let's see how I did...

1. Continue cooking at home ( I did really well all week, however we did eat out a couple times on the weekend ;( Below was one of the meals I made. Haddock kabob with spinach salad, rice and a samosa YUM!

2. Limit or fully cut out fast food, no fries! (eee had fries once this week ;(
3. No coffee shop foods, only coffee ( Had timbits, not thaaaat bad lol)
4. Workout 3-5 times a week (1hour workouts) ( 4 times)
5. 1 minute push ups everyday (only 3 times)
6. 1 minute jumping on trampoline (i'll move my trampoline to the first floor, my husband said he dosnt want me breaking the house before our move hahahah! Nice huh. ( Did not get a chance to jump around lol)
7. Try and relax and not let stress get to me, read every night before bed to relax my mind (Tried but the move is really stressing us both out and we are fighting a lot!)

For this week I'm going to make similar goals and minusing out some previous ones.

1. Continue cooking at home
2. Limit or fully cut out fast food, no fries!
3. No coffee shop foods, only coffee
4. Workout 3-5 times a week (1hour workouts) and/or 10000 steps on the pedometer.
5. No eating after 7pm. ( I did this a couple times last week and weight was down the next morning, sounds good to me!)


Keeping it short and simple this week ;)

3 more weeks!

3 More weeks till our move! Zoe is not happy with some of the empty rooms in the house!
As I mentioned before our home is a 3 story home and our bedroom was on the 3rd floor. Yesterday we started packing up the 3rd floor and brought our bedroom down to the second floor and into the office room. (So I don't have offie pics for Kellys Korner Show your home Friday ;( ) .... We took apart the office and brought it all down to the main floor where the dining room use to be since that is also taken apart! Zoe was mad and running around all night meowing wondering why things are not where they use to be hahha!

I was not impressed with the massive dust bunnies under the furniture, ha! no wonder I can't breathe. I must say, altho the new asthma meds the doc gave me have me with a sore throat and a little chest tightness, I think I was able to do a lot more than I ever did yesterday without getting overly tired. However I did go to bed soo achy, lower back pain and my knee is acting up again. (not sure the issue with the knee, feels like arthritis, omg my bod is breaking down everyday, so scary!) Whhhaaa!

Weekend is here, and don't really have anything exciting planned, only packing and cleaning, fun!

Have a great weekend everybody. Hopefully I have some good progress on my weigh in Monday ;) Fingers crossed!

Hump Day Update ;)

I bought a pedometer! Fellow blogger friend has been following the regime of 10000 steps 4 days a week. So I decided to jump on this too. I need all the help I can get. Now that my doctor looked me straight in my eyes saying my breathing "is NOT normal" makes me want to prove even more that nothing will get in my way and make sure that my August appt shows improvement! (weird the way I react when someone tells me something I don't like) lol

I bought the pedometer yesterday afternoon and by the time I went to bed I did 6500 steps, not bad huh! Today so far Ive only done 615 so I need to get steppn!

I'm on a crazy tight budget (NO FUN) so I bought the cheaper pedometer at only 5.99 but wish I went for the 11.99 one, (don't ask why I just didn't ;( ) the 11.99 one had the calories loss on it too, that would be good to find out. I'm sure I can look it up on the net to see how many cals are lost in 10000 steps.

This weeks goals are going pretty well so far. But I did have a choc chip cookie tho, just one ;) hhaha! It's just soooo hard, it totally called my name!

Asthma Follow up

Today the doctor officially told me I pretty much have Asthma . I'm always surprised at these new problems that arise as I get older, whaa! Not happy about this. I thought I was doing pretty good, many of my recent jogs the last couple weeks have been without the need of using the puffer. 2 weeks ago I went for a test that would give me low doses of a medication to induce an asthma attack. The lab tech told me she would make me inhale a little at a time in separate intervals to see how my lungs react etc. I thought forsure I would last pretty long... to mine and the lab techs surprise I had an asthma attack at the smallest first dose she gave me! Whats up with these lungs! She looked over at me and said ok, the test is done, your lungs are very sensitive :(. The doctor did another test today to measure the exhale airflow, he said I don't have normal readings for my height and weight. (hmm I wonder if he meant I'm overweight haha!) He put me on a daily medicine (hate taking meds!) for 3 months. I'll go back to him in August for another test to see if my airways show improvements. Fingers crossed if they do. Cause if they do, then that will mean I'll be able to exercise longer meaning more weightlossss I think, I hope... always a brighter side right. Now if I can just use my positive spin on the other aspects of my life ;)

Monday blues

Monday morning and still do not want to hit that scale. It is so weird, it's almost as if I'm terrified of it!

Friday night I went out with the girls we had a great time. I'm so glad I wore all black, all the girls looked great and no way I'd be caught wearing shorts yet, my legs are far from fit ;(. It does help me get more motivated tho.

I think I did ok following my goals last week;

1.Workout 1 hour 5 days a week (I am going to try my very best to get out to the park mon-thurs and sunday) *** I did 4 times, not bad.

2. I will also add 1 min of push ups (as on my fellow blogger WeightLossWeekly Blog) *** Hmm I did this 3 times.

3. No coffee shop treats at all this week! Only coffee allowed ;0 *** My biggest accomplishment last week, NO DONUTS! I'm sooo happy I accomplished this goal!

4. Cook at home all week. This I can do, the weekends I need to work harder on. *** Whoohoo did this tooo only had fast food once and that was after the club Friday night booo

5. If fast food comes in the picture, choose healthier choice and no fries! *** Ok flunked this one HA!, had fries with gravy that club night.


Ok new goals this week.

1. Continue cooking at home
2. Limit or fully cut out fast food, no fries!
3. No coffee shop foods, only coffee
4. Workout 3-5 times a week (1hour workouts)
5. 1 minute push ups everyday
6. 1 minute jumping on trampoline (i'll move my trampoline to the first floor, my husband said he dosnt want me breaking the house before our move hahahah! Nice huh.
7. Try and relax and not let stress get to me, read every night before bed to relax my mind

Added more to the list ;)

Ah ha moment...

Lots of stress in our home these days. Our move is 4 weeks away and many things are not going as planned. Can I say extreme stress is in our way! It's almost as if the more I pray for things to work out, they are getting worse... I still trust in God and a true believer that all things happen for a reason, so lets hope it's a good reason...

So since the weekend wasn't all smiles I got to thinking a lot. I started focusing on my weight gain and really thought hard to see when it all started. My weight was never that steady but I was always able to lose when I tried. But lately I've been really trying and I find myself only losing a couple of pounds then gaining it right back. So what is so different now than before?

I started to think back and my weight started creeping up when I moved out with my husband at age 24. I'm 27 now and 20 lbs (15 now) heavier then I was then. My ah ha moment came when I started to think that since then it has been soo many stressful days, not all is stressful but way more stressful than I could have ever imagined it. Money, relationship, career all stress! I'm really praying that the move to the next house is the beginning to no more stress or at least very limited stress! So my ah ha moment (or blame you can call it haha!) is stress! I think Stress is the reason my weight wants to stick to me and not go away... Something I will need to add to my Monday weight loss goals, ... tackle stress!

I did get one good thing out of the weekend, a mind calming 2 hour walk thru the beautiful park yesterday morning ;) Nature always makes me feel better on those down days.

Not so bad, but not good enough!

I had to post the pic of the yummy desserts at my mom's bbq this weekend. I must say that I was very proud of myself I used my 3 bite rule, and ate much less than half of that brownie, and I also waited till everyone picked the desserts they wanted so there wasn't any left for seconds! Good idea huh ;)

My goal last week was to really try and combine healthy eating and exercise and control evening binges. So far I've been good some days and not so good other days.

This weeks goals;

1.Workout 1 hour 5 days a week (I am going to try my very best to get out to the park mon-thurs and sunday)

2. I will also add 1 min of push ups (as on my fellow blogger WeightLossWeekly Blog)

3. No coffee shop treats at all this week! Only coffee allowed ;0

4. Cook at home all week. This I can do, the weekends I need to work harder on.

5. If fast food comes in the picture, choose healthier choice and no fries!

Since I have been working slowly on all these changes I am confident I can achieve these goals this week! ;) I think my Hump Day Wednesday post will be better this week .... fingers crossed!

Still afraid to do my weigh in, I really do not want to see it higher than last week. Should I just go for it and use it to motivate me, or just wait another week. So not a fan of that SCALE!

Show your house Friday!

Today on Kelly's Blog, is show your Dining room. Since we are moving in June my house is turned upside down right now. I searched up some old pics of the dining room so I have those posted below. I think this will be my last post for show your house friday's ;( as all my rooms are getting filled with boxes and emptied out more and more each day.

My Dining Room! Soon to be just a memory ;(
Story behind the table; That is not just any table, nope... Under neath that is a Poker table ahah!
Our Brother in laws made us a big poker table when we moved in here 4 years ago. At that time we had no furniture and decided to just put a wood slab above it and here we are with our dining room table that transforms into a poker table when guests are over. Finally it will go into the basement of the new house ;)





The big Paris picture. We got this at ikea and I just love it!

Everyday I have been packing a little more, and a little more each day I get more nervous and a little stressed. This was our first home together and so many memories were made here. Ugh I'll take it day by day ;)



This is the dining room in the new house; Minus their furniture and curtains lol and paint color! and chandelier, they are taking it.
I have many ideas for this room. I'm thinking a soft beige (what else lol, I love beige!) I want to get white shutters for the windows. Since I have a cat, curtains do not go well with her. Her fur would be all over them. I'm not sure yet to what type of furniture or color of furniture we will get, but I'm thinking since the room is very long, I may had 2 sitting chairs and the end with a little round table, kind of like a reading area. What do you think? I'm going to head over to Kelly's blog and check out all the beautiful dining rooms for some ideas!

Hump Day not so good update

I feel like this today - Minus the hair... ok and the horns- hahaah!

Seems like so far I can only do one thing at a time, it's either eat healthy, or exercise. Why is it so hard to combine the both? We have been going the park for our runs and it is going really well. However I think because of the extra work outs my appetite is increasing as well and a salad is not what I'm craving - fast food is! Last night at 11pm my husband and I went to McDonald's for a chicken wrap, which we painfully ordered since the Big mac was really what was calling my name!

I need to learn how to change these habits before they happen.

The issue: Evening hunger strikes for junk food! Tonight I'm going to try and eat before the hunger strike happens. I think around 9pm I will eat a snack. Today i will try crackers and cheese ;) I think the salt on the crackers will help calm cravings.

I will not do a weigh in until Monday so for now I'll do my best in combining healthy eating and exercise. We will go back to the park again today for our hour run, we are on a roll!. The park also has a Zoo and as big kids we have to go through it after our runs hahah.

Victoria Day

Morning Everyone actually afternoon. Took me a while to get started this morning. Today is a holiday here in Canada. It's queen Victoria day. If you are curious and want to know more about it click this link for some facts ;)

Last Monday I said I was going to work out 1 hour every day then the weekend came along and I did not keep my promise. Friday I actually sat around the whole day chatting with my sister and my cousin, not productive at all! That Day turned into evening at a coffee shop still chatting away, I amaze myself at times and wonder how on earth do we talk so much! hahaha!

Saturday I started packing boxes for our move, this I considered a work out, lifting heavy boxes, walking up and down 2 flights of stairs, It was tiring! And yesterday we went to the golfing range, a mini workout I'll say. (When I lay it out that way, I don't feel so bad)

However I did eat lots of french fries yesterday :( not good!.

Today is a beautiful day and we are going for a jog in the park later, which I'm really looking forward too! (Never have I looked forward to this, I definitely see improvement)

My goal this week is to fully combine healthy choices in food and exercise for a total lifestyle change. Slowly I think I will get it :)

My weigh in is actually 1 lbs up. This is ok, I know what I did wrong and I'm going to try my best to fix that this week!

By the way thanks for all your motivating comments on Friday as well, they really give me a boost!!

Happy Friday!

Today I'm not participating in Kelly's Korner Blog. Today Is the Guest bedroom pics and altho we lived here for 4 years we never finished the guest bedroom, we actually just started renovating it when we put the house on the market. Our new house will have 2 guest bedrooms to decorate! ;) My friends and family are happy that they won't need to stay on the couches anymore hahah!

So far this week I've been exercising every day ;) and we went hiking twice! I think I found my new fav exercise! I'm not a good runner, I usually get left behind gasping for air but hiking was so so fun! It used every muscle in my body, it felt great. It was tiring but I was never gasping for air. Yesterday was a beautiful day tooo!

This weekend is a long weekend which means lots of events. I decided to take it upon myself and add some "moving" type events. Tomorrow is going to rain so we haven't made plans yet. Sunday we'll be going golfing and Monday we are going to another provincial park for another hike! I can't believe what I've been missing! The park we went to yesterday was just beautiful!



Hope you all have a great weekend ;) I'm going to check out some of the links of guest bedrooms for some ideas! ;)

Hump Day Update

The weather is gorgeous today. Sunshine always makes everything feel better. I'll also use that as my excuse to feel better about eating a donut last night haha! Not good, especially since I've been doing pretty well. I'll tell you how it started. First of all at dinner I decided to make shrimp and scallops. I hardly fry my food, I'm a big fan of oven cooked and crockpot meals. BUT I decided to use BUTTER and dip my shrimp and scallops in flour and seasonings and fry them in butter!! BAD IDEA, they were sooo delicious! They were the yummiest scallops I've ever tasted! Good thing I made just enough for our dinner or we could of sat and ate them forever. So that is where it started, it's almost as if my body said "fatty foods! we want more!" That's when a ride to the store ended up at the Tim Hortons drive thru for a ice cappuccino and honey glazed donut. I'm not even going to look up those calories, I know they are a lot!

My husband is off work this week so we are dedicating 1 hour jogs in the mornings at the track in front of our house. We are also going for a hike on Saturday, that should be fun!


I haven't weighed in this week, I decided to wait until Monday and see what progress I made.

Wish me luck! I'm hoping to fit in some of my last years summer dresses soon! ;)

One or the Other? But both!?

Over the weekend I had a chat with my brother in law. He just started as a personal trainer at a popular gym here in Toronto. I asked him for some advise ;) He said "you want results? You need to work out everyday for an hour, or at least 5 times a week" HA! Not what I wanted to hear!

Really, do we need to work out that much!? One of the books I bought last week says Nutrition is key and exercise is important but not as much as nutrition. So what is true really.

That Extra 20 pounds Blog writes about the same thing today. I know that exercise is definitely needed to reshape body but can total weight loss be achieved with maybe only 2.5 times of exercise a week instead of 5!?

So I decided to do my own challenge!
Last couple weeks I changed my eating habits drastically eliminating as many carbs as I could, and working out only once a week. In this time I lost 4 lbs.

Starting today I am going to try my best to incorporate 1 hour a day for the whole week and see what kind of results I get at the end. I will also do my best on the nutrition side with what I learned this far.

Some things I learned last week;

Eat in this order of a meal; Soup,Salad,Veggies, protein then carb last.

Fat burning happens after is burns off carbs, incorporating strength/muscle training with cardio helps get to fat burning faster.

Use the 3 bite rule: With desserts and carbs just take 3 bites of it, this way you get to have it without spoiling our diet!

What are your thoughts on this?

Where you live Friday's

Kelly's Korner Blog started this Show where you live Friday's. I missed last weeks kitchen one but decided to join in on the fun this Friday for living room Friday!. I have 2 living rooms, upstairs and downstairs. My home is a 3 story 100 year old house with tons of rooms. Although we are moving in June I had so many great memories in this house. I'll use these pics also as a keepsake of where I use to live ;) Enjoy!

This is the main floor livingroom. It's soft and cozy. There's Zoe in the corner wondering what I'm doing. Also beside the window on the floor is a Hooka pipe. Our friends were over last night and we have many friends of different cultures. With the hooka pipe people enjoy smoking flavoured tobacco. Not my thing but they do have herbal scented stuff that can be smoked and that one is better and also makes the house smell yummy.
That's our wedding picture. It was taken on the grounds of University of Toronto.

My View from our front windows. Love the park. One good thing is that our next home is also in front of a park, it's a smaller park, but still I get my GREEN view!

This is my upstairs living room where we spend most of our time.


My husband is from Honduras and his parents brought us back this wood carving picture. I love it.

We are moving to a newer home in June and one thing I will miss is the character of the trim of this older home.

I got these picture holders from the Dominican republic on our hunny moon in 2007. In them I have pics of 2 of my favorite places. San Diego and Bahamas!
My view from the second floor, the more I look at it the more I know I'm going to miss it! But I am also excited for our new home and new area ;)

That Picture!

Ok fellow Bloggeries, you know what I'm talking about. That picture that shows you exactly how you look whether you want to believe it or not! That picture that just opens your eyes to say WOW things need to change!

Yesterday we had a family event and of course the cameras were flashing. When I looked over at one of the cameras and saw my picture, I almost cried! I did not like what I saw. (Just like Zoe's big belly showing above, is basically how I felt my poses in the pics looked this weekend!)
I was s depressed by those pictures and I think I had my ah ha moment. I really really need to change a lot more than I have.

I think I have been doing a lot better than before, I'm down 2 lbs but still 10lbs heavier than my wedding 2 years ago, and 15-20lbs heavier than where I want to be!
My sister was feeling the exact same way with me yesterday so we decided to start enforcing these pointers a lot more than we have.

1. Email each other what we ate for the day.
2. Be honest with each other and give pointers on how to do things better
3. Add more fruits and veggies, eliminating as much carbs as we can
4. 3 day a week work outs or more!
5. Drink lots of Tea and water, no POP or Juice
6. Smaller portions, eat on smaller plates to help with this

What are some pointers that have been working for you? Let me know and my sister and I will try them out!

Dreams

The word Dream has different meanings. Of course the first meaning to mind is the dreams we have when we are sleeping. Other meanings to it is to dream or hope or aspire towards something. My blog name Growing towards a dream is the second meaning. Growing towards life/things/ways of being in the future.

My progress so far?

In 2005 my husband and I bought our first home, a major fixer upper. (I'll post pics next time with before and afters). When we bought our home our family thought we were crazy. It was a 2200 sq ,3 story home that needed fixing in every single room! Inside and out, top to bottom! We had just finished school and been working full-time for about a year when we got into this, Me 24 and my husband 26. We spent our evenings and weekends fixing it all up ourselves, painting/plumbing/making kitchens and bathrooms. Actually our first day here our shower head broke off behind the wall and water was just flowing between the walls! Fun huh! We had surprises like this for the first year. (Remember that 80's movie Money Pit, we rented that movie when we bought the house ha! very similar) After a year of fixing it up we separated our house into 3 apartments. The two apartments we rented out, a bachelor and a basement apartment that had back yard entrances, then our section was part of the main floor/2nd and 3rd floor with the front entrance. More than enough room for the 2 of us. Many people never even new we had part of the house rented, we did a great job in separating it. We always had pleasant tenants and never any problems, whew!. Income from rent was 1400/month which was great and helped with the bills and even the paying for our wedding in 2007.
Our goal for this home was to turn over a large profit, and we did just that when we sold it this spring for 118k more than we bought it for ;).

Hard work does pay off!

When we first put our home on the market last year, the plan was to move into a condo in downtown Toronto. The reason for this was to be able to easily rent out our condo when we decide to leave and work in other countries 6 months at a time. Our dream... to work in San diego first for 6 months. So last year the house did not sell, and the thought of the condo didn't look so good anymore. We ended up buying another house with no rental income potential.

Does the move to SanDiego seem far fetched? We don't seem to think so ;) The new home has much much less to worry about than our current home therefore leaving it for months at a time will not be so bad. As per cost, we ensured that the new home we purchased altho more expensive in price, but with the amazing interest rates and larger down payment our mortgage is less and the house bills on a newer home is much cheaper compared to what we pay now in our 100 year old home ;) (we thought this through really well)

My husband and I are the type of people that ensure we are doing what we want for ourselves and ourselves only. We like nice things but will not sacrifice ourselves for them. We are very happy for our new home, nice and new and fresh, but by ensuring our costs were lower than what we are paying now also allows us to keep dreaming of those other things we want to do in life. Like 6 months in San Diego! I'll keep you updated on this for sure even if it is in a couple years! ;)

With this current move I'm really beginning to see how we are growing towards our dream. I can see that with our expenses lower we will be able to save much more money and focus on what makes us happy like our online business/travel/investments and even 6 months in San Diego! All feel that our goals are more attainable and looking forward in growing towards our dream!!!!!

and Singing your own song is what it is all about for us!

Grocery Shopping and healthy choices!

Last night I did some grocery shopping and added some new items to my list. One of which is Goat Milk, never tried it... I read about Goat Milk being easier to digest and how it does not cause bloating as cows milk does for some people (such as myself). I will let you know how that tastes in my Special K cereal tonight!

Some other items I bought is Spinach, I love Spinach salads and it's full of nutrients! AND i got some laughing cow cheese spread for my melba toast snacks, yum!

Below are BANANAS I bought lots yesterday since Ive been eating 1 banana for BF every day with green tea. Some how this keeps me going until lunch time, I don't mind that ;)


Ok, so the whole grocery trip was pretty good, I stayed OUT of the cookie aisle and bought more fruits and veggies and even a whole chicken to throw in my slow cooker (love that!)

But then... I saw these in the frozen aisle. Only 100 cals right! I know just because it says 100cals doesn't mean it's better, but I guess it is sorta like the better choice. I never tried these but I'll let you know how they taste once I get my hands on one ;)




Overall, I was really happy with my groceries, I shopped slowly and after dinner (so I was not hungry) I looked at my options and came out with much more healthier choices! YUM Can't wait for lunch and dinner today! Oh and for my 100cal dessert!

Hump day flop!

It was the apple pie that messed up an overall pretty good week of eating healthy! We had visitors over last night so I decided to put a apple pie in the oven. YUM it was good, I had 2 pieces! I tried to get the guests to eat as much of it as they could so I would not have leftovers.

My week other than the pie has been good. I had an amazing workout on Tuesday and hitting the gym today as well!

I bought some yogurt to help with my sugar craving, haven't noticed if it helps yet as I did eat apple pie yesterday! ;)

Also, started to cut out some carbs from my meals and have more veggies and protein. It's working well so far.

So far my dinners have been:
Chicken legs in the oven served with salad and a 1/2 a baked potato with veggies!
Slow cooked whole chicken served with salad and veggies.
Lean Ground Beef stuffed peppers.
And tonight I will be making RedCurry beef with veggies minus the rice!

Some of my meals are made in my slow cooker. I absolutely love the slow cooker. You can make healthy meals in it and have your dinner cooking throughout the day ready for you after work! love it!

My favorite recipe is the stuffed peppers, so easy to make and 1 pepper is filling!

Here is the recipe for my famous stuffed peppers!

1 Package of lean ground beef or turkey.
1 package of flavored rice mix
1 teaspoon salt and/or other seasonings (I like to use Mrs Dash no salt seasoning)
Chopped up onions (I also add cilantro)
(I love spicy food so i drizzle some of my favorite hot sauce on top)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Cut the tops of the peppers, clean them out.
Stuff meat mixture in the peppers and place in slow cooker.

Cook 4 Hours High or 8 Hours Low.

YUM!

Back on Track...or not..

Trying to get back on track! But was I ever really on any sort of track ha! Who am I kidding. I have no will power, although I do try, I do give up oh so easy!

My goal this week is to make Breakfast, lunch and dinner at home all week! At least when I eat at home I eat much less calories than at restaurants or on the go to fatty fast food places. Another weakness I need to control is my sweet intake. So I bought Cinnamon Special K cereal and hope to eat a small bowl of this when I crave sweets. (and save me from hitting a bakery for a sugar fix!)

I read an article today about making bets with friends can help shed pounds. I got this idea from a fellow blogger a while back and my friends and I have a $300 weight loss challenge going on for 2 months. End date May 1st, my weightloss total so far .... ZERO lol! I don't think that really motivated me that much. We'll see what I can pull off the last 2 weeks.

I added some items to my diet.
I currently take 1 tablespoon of Greens Plus in the morning before BF (to help balance ph levels)
I also started taking Lecithin Granules 1 tablespoon in the afternoon (lowers cholesterol and heard it helps burn fat!)
I don't eat that much fish, Love fish but have no clue how to cook it so I also take Premium brand of Fish oil pills daily at lunch ;)

As for exercise, I know it needs to be kicked up a lot of notches but I am trying to get my jogs in at least twice a week! Although it should be a minimum 3 times as my doctor expresses to me when I see her. (My doctor is very blunt and will not hesitate to tell me I need to lose weight!)

Rainy Monday Morning but off to a good start!

If anyone has some yummy recipe suggestions, let me know!

Our Guardian Angels

This weekend one of my Aunts passed away. She was in the hospital for a couple months from a stroke well a couple strokes. Things didn't get better and she passed away on Good friday ;(.
(My Aunt is the wife of my uncle my dads brother)
My dad passed away 6 years ago at the age of 46 this was devastating for the whole family. My dads family is large, he was the youngest so all his brothers and sisters are much 10-30 years older than he was. The family is heartbroken once again with the loss of my sweet aunt. So as I was thinking about people passed and family now I was getting overwhelmed with sadness. The way it was when we were kids is changing so much. I guess this is life. We need to remember to Cherish the memories of those that passed and never forget what they were here to teach us.

I'm going to list some of the people that recently passed and write some things I remember about them. You should try and do the same with people you knew. Sometimes it takes the smallest changes we can instill to make us even better people.

My dear Aunt
- Very caring
-Always happy to see her family
- Ready and willing to help
-Great listener
- Good Hearted
-wise
What I'll never forget - a happy welcoming face.

My Daddy
-Never judgmental
-good hearted
-Funny
-always smiling
-Social
-lived life in the moment
-loving

What I'll never forget- Joking around smiling and laughing.

My Grandfather
- loved to share his stories
-wise man
-always a do it yourself kinda man
-best friends with our dog
-strict and old fashion
-took care of his family

What I'll never forget- His smile.

I see them all as my guardian angels watching over us ;)

April Snow!

Snow in April! What happened to spring!!! I took this pic this morning and all day its been cold and snowy!

On the weekend my husband and I drove to Connecticut to visit a friend in New Haven. 10 hour drive! We had a good time ;)


Road trips are not good when trying to watch weight. I ate just about every fast food food in side! So starting yesterday I need to get back on track! We have 1 month till the weight loss challenge is over and I have not lost any weight!

Today I decided to make cabbage soup. Loaded with veggies I made enough to last me all week. After the weekend of eating bad food I need to replenish with veggies ;)


I made my cabbage soup in the crockpot.

• 1 organic green cabbage
  
• 2 zucchinis
• 1 Can of red kidney beans
  
• 2 cloves garlic
• Mrs Dash salt free seasoning
  
• Hot sauce for some spike
  
• 12 ounces V-8 Vegetable Juice
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 package French Onion Soup
  
• 1/2 cup finely sliced carrots
  

Combine all in crockpot High 4 hours or Low 8 hours
The good thing with this soup you can add any veggies you like, celery is good in here as well I just forgot to buy it, and you can add whatever seasonings you like.

SOLD!

The past couple of weeks have just been sooo heckteck! Selling our home happened wayyy to fast, I guess that is a good thing, especially in today's market.

So all is good now and house sold for a price we were happy with. Now the next step, getting approved for a slightly higher mortgage. This gives me uneasy feelings and we are still waiting for the banks call. I am really really bad with stress. I feel like my chest is closing in on me at times with anxiety! whaaa!

I'm trying to be positive and using the "secret" styles lol, repeating that I already have the new house etc I hope this works!!! Cross your fingers for me!

So on the weekend we did go out on a house hunt. Many homes are overpriced! But we did see a few that we liked. The funny thing is, we are looking for many of the same qualities that our current home has (without the age heehee, our current home is 100 years old!) we like open areas like parks near by, currently we face a park and we love it especially in the summer. I love lots of windows and naural light, (i neeed the earths energy daily!) I guess you can say we love nature but we also love city, so lets see if we can combine the two in our next home here in Toronto.

4 years ago we moved into our current home from our parents house so all we had when we moved in where luggages of clothes, now on this next move we have a house full of furniture! and tons of mail coming in lol. If you have any tips for a stress free move, I'll be glad to hear em!

Have a great day and hope no one got fooled badly today! Happy April Fools day!!!