Cinemarie in english

One Year

2011-10-09T20:39:00.003-04:00

On Sept 24th, Baby L turned One Year Old!!! :)
I have not given up on blogging, I just have to find the time.
I gave up pressuring myself to make time for the computer, for blogging... it'll come naturally when I start again, it won't be 'forced'...

Until then, here are a few shots of Baby L at 1.

He's already been to a TFC Soccer game :)

Daycare is going better than I could've ever imagined. He LOVES it there. I'm back to work at a new place, temporarily anyways. I have found a small project that will keep me busy for another 2 weeks (it was a total of 6 weeks...) It's a very quiet time in my industry right now.

It's going to take me a while to figure out how to balance work and family life - I know a ton of ladies have done it before me - I just have to figure out how to do it myself, in a way that works for my family...

One day at a time, right?! :)

I hope you are all doing well!!!!!!

The Pride Run

2011-07-01T21:23:00.000-04:00

I am very sad to announce that I will have to skip running the 'Pride Run' this year :(
I was so excited to get a chance to do it again - but I won't be able to.
Zut Alors!

in 2012 though - I will be there and I will finally complete that race!!!!

I will be thinking of Mouse and the Go Skirt team in the morning - sending good vibes their way :)

June, The Month of Many Goals...

2011-06-02T21:14:00.001-04:00

So things are going ok/well with sleep training - we're progressing, but allergies and eczema are making this a bit tougher and longer than it should be... we'll figure out what makes the little man itchy and hopefully everything will progress better...
That being said, I am now able to DO things when nap time arrives - not for all naps but for some naps!! We don't have a consistent nap schedule at all yet, but at least we have naps, and at least I'm not stuck with a baby on my lap all day! :) And you know what, I feel like he must be so much more comfortable sleeping in his bed and not all crooked on the nursing pillow on mommy's lap, no?!

Lots of things on my mind these days, lots of things to do:

Next week, we have a meeting at a good day care that may have a spot open for when my maternity leave ends. We might take a 2 day spot for the month of July, just so we are in for the full time. I might not take the baby to day care on all those days, but I figure I can slowly get him and I used to the whole thing that way...

Once we have that spot secured, I need to work on several things:

-Accepting the fact that I am returning to work and that my baby will spend most of his awake time away from me :(
-Find work. There are a few things in the air, but nothing is 'for sure'. Still looking...Anyone hiring? :)
-Get L to sleep through the night.
-Get L on a consistent nap and feeding schedule.
-Organize and figure out how I can continue breastfeeding while at work/day care.
-Get a flipping hair cut (Last time was Jan 2nd 2010 - my hair is a disaster!:)
-Go to the doctor's office (also hapening next week...) to figure out what's bothering me - I am experiencing pain that makes me think I might have this problem. It feels terrible when I run! :(
-Get lunch with a former colleague - the one lunch I've been meaning to have for about 8 months!
-Host 'brunch' for a few other former colleagues with whom I 'get together' every 6 months or so...

If I get the ok that I can run through the pain from my doctor, I want to run more!

And I have to get my head around eating well and getting healthier again. Would you like some numbers? Here are some:

NOV 2009 - Happy wedding day weight: 150
DEC 2009 - Holiday weight gain and official pre-pregnancy weight: 157 (+7)
SEPT 2010 - Just before giving birth weight: 222! (+72!)
NOV 2010 - 2 months postpartum: 190 (+40)

JUNE 2011 - Now - 8 months (and a bit...) postpartum - 165 (+15)

so yeah, at this point I have lost 57 lbs... and I am only 8 lbs away from my official pre-pregnancy weight, but let's face it, I'm 15+ pounds overweight... and my body is certainly not as, um, tight as it used to be... Like the midwives were saying, this is 'the new normal' I guess... ?!

I feel like I'm all over the place in this post. I feel like my life is all over the place - need to work on that too...

meh. *sigh*
here I come June!

Sleep Training is Hard :(

2011-05-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

Letting this little guy cry for even a second breaks my heart :( But I guess it's for his own good - he has not been sleeping well for a very long time now, and already we are seeing some progress... But most importantly, I get some rest. I need rest to take care of him the best I can, and it wasn't fair to him to just not give him my best. And now maybe I get a little time for myself to write a blog again? Don't know for sure, but we'll see :)
He's going to be 8 months on May 24th. My how time flies!

At the Park

2011-05-18T11:27:00.001-04:00

Baby L loves to go to the park. His favorite activity? Going to the swing with his papa and his maman.

He finds it so funny :)

Wordless Wednesday: Blue Steel...

2011-04-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

Harry's Spring Run Off - 8km - 2011

2011-04-03T10:43:00.004-04:00

So I 'ran' Harry's Spring Run Off 8km today. My first race after having baby L 6 months ago.

S insisted I sign up, and I'm glad I did. When I got to the starting line, with all the other runners and all the excitement, I remembered how much I like races, how much I enjoy running...

I didn't exactly train for this though - the winter is not ideal for training when you have to be accompanied by a baby! I can take the cold, but not the baby... Plus you pretty much can't use a jogging stroller until the baby is 8 months old... But we have been walking quite a bit, weather permitting, and I felt confident that I could take on the challenge, I did it pregnant last year - so I could certainly do it now, 6 months postpartum, right?

For timing, the race organizers used the new Mylaps 'Bib Tag' system (Can you see the back of my bib there?) It's basically a chip that's attached to your bib and that you can keep at the end of the race... No tying it up to your shoe and having to have someone cut it off. But somehow I kind of feel like it can't be as accurate as the thing that's right on your shoe and very close to the mat? But I guess it must be if they decided to go for it!

Woah! running was tough, I ran for 5 minutes, then walked for 1. Then ran for about 12 minutes (wow!) then walked for... well, I don't remember how long, but since my heart rate stayed above '100%' for a while I decided to give it a chance to get back to a more 'normal' number before I ran again. I knew I'd be out of shape, but didn't know what to expect... So I tried to run whenever I could, and push it a bit before walking again - as in, when I felt like walking, I would tell myself to go for at least an extra minute before allowing myself to walk. Often at the end of the minute, I would feel like running for a bit longer!

The second half of the race was much harder - I ran down the hills and quickly realized that it was a bad idea, my 'pelvic bones' started feeling sore, you know the ones that took a beating when I gave birth? Ouch! But I kept going - I didn't mind running slowly or walking, all that mattered was that I get a better time than when I ran it last year (even a few seconds faster would've made me happy:)

I did it!

Last year's chip time: 1:13:57.8

This year's chip time: 1:08:52.4

Last year's pace: 9:38

This year's pace: 9:00

Pretty good in my opinion! The good thing is, this being my first race after baby, I know I can only get better!

But I am starting from a pretty 'weak' point. To put things in perspective, last year, I ran/walked (mostly walked) and my HRM stayed between 83% and 96%.

This year my HRM says that my highest heart rate was 107% and my average was 97%. That can't be good?!

Here I am exhausted after the race, with my medal!! :)

I had a very special spectator waiting for me at the end - he wasn't so happy with my time ''I don't like waiting for you in the stroller mommy!''

a HUGE thank you to my love, S, who pushed me to do this and took care of a grumpy Mister L. while I was out there running and having fun:)

OH! I almost forgot - I am 85% certain that I saw Marie the Mouse on the course! I saw this pretty lady with the lovely long wavy hair, cheering on runners towards the end with a bunch of people, I think she might have recognized me too (if it was her indeed:) But, let's just put it this way, I don't have great vision, and I was exhausted - it could've been someone who just looked a lot like her :)

But regardless, seeing her there, towards the end of the course - where the huge ($@%%?$%&? STUPID @%#$%@$?$@) hill is - it gave me inspiration to push some more and run a little more. All I could manage to do was point at her and wave - I couldn't speak - ha ha!

It was so nice of her and her friends to cheer on even the last few slow runners!!

Thank you Marie and her friends (or thank you kind strangers!:)

Rediscover Yourself - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-12-20T15:49:00.001-05:00

As they say, all good things come to an end! This is the last week for WonderBra's Women of Wonder campaign... I've had so much fun - this was such a fabulous opportunity and I will always be so thankful that WonderBra asked me to participate! This week:

Your Day

Reflect on the journey you've had over the past couple weeks. Share with us what you've rediscovered about yourself.

During this journey I got to:

First thing that comes to mind - I would NOT have been inclined to go out at all if it weren't for these missions and that would've been sad - I learned that I can do it. The thought of going somewhere by myself with baby L was oh so scary but I did it and now I know I can do it again...

I learned that a healthy meal plan can be very simple - pick some veggies for the week, pick 2-3 recipes that include those veggies, prep and eat! You just need to take the time to sit down and think of it!

I learned that I can leave the baby with my husband and take a little time for myself (given that I provide enough milk for the time I'll be away...) and he was so supportive of me doing it - thank you so much S!

I learned that acting can be fun and that I would like to look into it some more.

I learned that, when I'm around my sister, I am giddy and feel like I'm a kid again :) (and I sound like one too, ha!)

I learned that I love to exercise - and that I miss it SO much! I am having cravings for a good run - I can't wait to do it again!!!! I didn't know if I was really into running and exercising so much until I went to that yoga class and got a taste of what it was like to work out again - man! I just love it! :)

I learned that taking care of a baby is much more involved than I though it would be - countless days were spent holding baby L in my arms and walking around so he wouldn't yell, or holding him so he would sleep... oh how naive I was to think this would be a piece of cake LOL I wrote many of my posts with one arm holding and rocking the baby and one hand on the keyboard :)

I learned that spending an hour straightening my hair for a mission/video is not smart use of my time... I was so concerned about my appearance and now? I can just tighten up my 'ponytail' and I'm ready to go :) who cares really? :)

I learned that I speak funny when I'm intimidated - hee hee I find that I sound weird in my first video, I was so stressed! ha ha ha I need to relax - I sound much better when I don't stress about 'sounding good' does that make sense? :)

I learned that I can 'vlog'! (Well, so long as I spend a bit of time editing it... :) I was so stressed about appearing in a video - oh my! But by the end of the project, I didn't mind so much anymore - I was much more comfortable with it! Practice makes ...um... practice made me feel like I don't need to be 'perfect' ;)

I learned that I am a new me and that it's ok. I'm a mom now and all my priorities have been re-ordered. I watched Rachelle Anne's video on the subject and I couldn't say it better than she does there. Among a lot of things that she says that are matching exactly how I feel about my new life as a mom and how I spend my days, one thing stood out: ''... I find that I get more fulfillment in my life through him...'' I too have realized that this is what I'm about now - enjoying the time I get to spend with my son, 'making memories' of his babyhood, enjoying the 'now' - time that I will never be able to live again!

I learned that I can do much more than I think I can. I made it to the end of this project - I MADE IT! :)

I hope you enjoyed following me in my journey - you can check out the four other lovely Women of Wonder here:

Katrina
Angela
Rachelle Anne
and
Roseanne

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO WONDERBRA FOR THIS WONDERFUL ADVENTURE!!! :)

Rediscover Your Community - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-12-17T11:26:00.004-05:00

This is mission #5 for the Women of Wonder Campaign by WonderBra.

Your Roots

Get back to your roots. Reconnect with a childhood friend from your old neighborhood.

Because I spent my childhood moving from city to city, I don't really have an 'old neighborhood' but several old neighborhoods, none of which where I feel like I belong or have 'roots'. Instead, I have stronger connections with my immediate family. Who better to reconnect with than a person from my family, especially since I live at least a 6hr drive away from any of them?

I realized recently that I have not talked about anything BUT baby L with my sister in quite some time - it has been a while since we talked about her, so it would be nice to do that for a change! My sister is my best resource for all things baby health (she works for a famous children's hospital in Montréal) and right now my life revolves around the baby so much... She has so much valuable information that she nicely shares with me - she makes my life easier - so I can't help but ask her more and more questions - and then we run out of time for regular chit chat... I'm sorry sister! ;)

I discovered Skype with mission #4 and realized that I could easily 'reconnect' with her that way. She liked the idea and installed the program on her computer... and we were ready for the mission! :)

I love my sister - it's so nice to talk to her, she is such a no-nonsense person. I love that, even if sometimes we don't talk for months at a time, it's never awkward between us and it's always comfortable (well, unless there are cameras filming the conversation;) - it's like we can't fool each other because we know and 'get' each other so well. It's priceless for me to have someone like that in my life.

Here's the video - now I have to warn you, some of it is in french. I will spend a bit of time to try and figure out how to add translation 'annotations' on Youtube, but it could take me a while... I couldn't finish that because the campaign is coming to an end and I am running out of time... Good news is, if you come back and watch it again after a few days, there will be more 'subtitles' for you to read :)

***UPDATE! Click on ''CC'' below the video to see the translation! I made subtitles woo hoo!! :)
*****You have to go to the Youtube page in order to see it... (click on the video once to play it, and once more to go to the Youtube page...) - phew! :)

a HUGE thank you to WonderBra!!! :)

Rediscover Your Hapiness - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-12-06T19:13:00.001-05:00

This is my fourth mission for WonderBra's Women of Wonder and this week my mission was:

Rediscover Your Hapiness

Lights. Camera. Action.

Doing something you've always wanted to do can be truly rewarding. Take an acting class to prepare for a real life audition.

I contacted Lori Pearlstein for this mission. Browsing through her website, I found that she had a great variety of classes to choose from - from serious coaching for the professional actor, to acting technique programs to more recreational classes for the person who wants to learn acting for fun - which was perfect for my mission. She even teaches kids! She is also a member of the Toronto Association of Acting Studios.

Lori usually teaches in a studio, but since I had limited time to accomplish the mission and not much options to travel with the baby, she offered the option to do a class via Skype - which I thought was brilliant! I got to stay home and set up my cameras easily and in advance - it just saved me so much trouble while still being just as good and as complete as an in person class. I had not 'Skyped' before - wow - it's so convenient!!! :)

I was so intimidated by this mission - I was going to 'act' and talk one on one with an acting specialist. Even if this was just for fun, Lori is a real professional actor, a person who is essentially an expert in the field and an expert at communicating - whereas I am a terribly shy person who is so scared to talk to people that most of the time, I avoid putting myself in a situation where I have to do it! I prefer to write - I get more time to think of what I am going to say, I don't risk finding myself mid-sentence awkwardly pausing because I realize I don't know how to say this or that in english... :)

But Lori made me feel really comfortable from the beginning, as soon as I contacted her she replied and she seemed so nice and really interested in the project. She made time in her busy schedule (and that particular week was an impossibly busy week for her!) to help me out and teach me for the mission.

She basically prepared the class to fit my mission - let me know all that I would have to know if I was going to a real life audition. She taught me about the business of acting, the process of an audition, how to stand out during an audition, etc. A lot of which could apply to a regular interview. It's a good idea to prepare good answers for questions like ''tell me about yourself'' for instance, which makes a lot of sense, but I realized when she mentioned it that I just would not have an answer for that if I was asked!! So it's good to think of it and prepare that now that I'm not 'put on the spot' :)

Then we read a script together, something simple that would be used for a short commercial. We acted it out. Wheeeee that was FUN! :) She gave me cues to how to know how to interpret the lines, and we read them again to perfect them... It was just so much fun - I think I just might have to try and audition for something one day, just for fun! :)

She also gave me the opportunity to ask her any question that I had. It was great to learn more about acting, something I always wanted to try but never did. I am so thankful to have had the chance to cross that off my bucket list :)

Check out Lori's website here: www.lorip.ca

Thank you SO much to Lori and to WonderBra for another AMAZING mission :)

Rediscover Your Balance - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-12-03T18:31:00.004-05:00

This week I'm skipping ahead to my Women of Wonder mission #6, but don't worry, missions #4 and 5 are in the works and coming very soon...

Rediscover Your Balance:

Relax and Restore

Take a yoga class and be inspired to incorporate balance into your everyday life,

I went to a 'Mommy and Baby' yoga class at Breathe Yoga Studio and it was WONDERFUL :)

I realized that I like exercising SOOOO much and that I miss it a lot. I need to make time for it...
Baby L had several challenges in the last few weeks that left his whole internal clock upside down for days. (Cold, growth spurts, first long trip to visit family, vaccinations, etc - OH MY! vaccinations...) He has been fussy and uncomfortable and I have pretty much had to hold him all day...
But I have hope that once he resumes having 'normal' days where things are more consistant for him, he'll be a happy baby again and nap without problem. I can't wait for the day where I know he's comfortable and having a nap for X amount of time and I can commit to doing something for myself for that time... At the top of my priority list: exercising again. Training to run again... litle by little...

Here's the video:

Thank you so much to WonderBra for this week's mission!!!!

thoughts...

2010-11-26T22:45:00.002-05:00

I came across a few pictures of myself on the blog tonight while searching for something, and it got me thinking.
Back in 2003, I went from 174lbs to 140lbs and was at my lowest adult weight ever. But back then I felt like 140lbs was 'fat', I wanted to lose more weight...
Back in 2009, just before I got pregnant, I weighed 150lbs, and at the time I felt like I looked 'fat', I wasn't comfortable with myself and I wanted to lose more weight. I would see pictures of myself from 2003 and think: 'I wish I was 140lbs again, I looked so skinny'.
Today at 190lbs post baby (yup, you read that right, I am a whopping 40lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight...) I find myself looking at pictures of me pre-pregnancy on the blog like racing pictures, wedding pictures, etc. and I'm thinking 'I wish I was 150lbs again, I looked so skinny'.
Do you see a pattern here?
yeah, I think I do to...

Engines are warming back up...

2010-11-24T15:48:00.001-05:00

Hello!
I'm quite behind on my blogging and I'm slowly getting back to it after dealing with:

a difficult cold - both baby L and I got it:(
a long period after the disturbance from the cold where I wasn't able to put the baby down without him being fussy pretty much ALL day...

We've moved past that now (knock on wood!) and I have a ton of catching up to do... I'm working on figuring out his rhythm so that I can have some sort of schedule where I can find time to do some things again :) But Baby L is the priority so I have to take it slow...

here's what's coming up in the Women of Wonder project:

Mission #4:
I got to take an acting class to prepare for an audition.
Status: Accomplished! (Working on the video and post)

Mission #5:
Reconnecting with my 'community'.
Status: not done yet... you'd think that would be the easy one - think again :)

Mission #6:
Go to a yoga class.
Status: Accomplished! (Working on the video and post...)

Stay tuned! :)
While you wait, you can go check out what the other 'Women of Wonder' are up to here:
WonderBra

Technical difficulties...

2010-11-10T13:01:00.002-05:00

Baby L and I have been fighting a cold since last week. Hence the lack of posts...
We are focussing on getting better this week and are not going on a mission until we are healthy again. I can barely put him down throughout the day, and at night he sleeps for very small amounts of time at a time. I am beat - and fighting my own cold on zero energy is tough! I can only do so much...
That a 6 week old baby can catch a cold is very unfair let me tell you this - it breaks my heart to see him so uncomfortable and to not be able to do much to comfort him. His little cries of frustration and discomfort are so sad :(

Anyways, on a more positive note: Stay tuned, coming up lots of fun missions!!! :)

A letter to ''Exercise''

2010-11-07T20:21:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed reading this post by Julie of ''Chez Julie'' - a cute love letter to exercise. Go check it out! :)

Baby L's first Word? :)

2010-11-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

I love the little hand gesture that goes with the word lol

Rediscover Your Dreams - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-11-05T09:00:00.002-04:00

This is my 3rd mission. This week was a little different, people were asked to suggest a mission for me on the 'wall' of the WonderBra's facebook page. Ultimately I selected a day at the spa because let's face it - I needed it :)

I looked for a spa and came across Sunny Mummy, a spa with child care services. I knew right away that this was the right place to go! :)

I had a facial, a manicure and a pedicure. I had never been to a spa before, so everything was new to me.

When I arrived at the very cute location on Queen Street West, across from the beautiful Trinity Bellwood Park (home of the famous white squirrel:) I met with Nilla who took me through the process of the facial and explained the Aveda line of products that are used at Sunny Mummy - flower and plant based, all natural. I had no idea that a 'facial' could include shoulders, neck, arms and scalp massage, but I welcomed the idea - with all the breastfeeding I've been doing, my shoulders and neck have taken a beating! She had me select my preferred oil scent from three oils - is it a common thing or does this happen at every facial? Regardless, I enjoyed choosing for myself :)

She also did some accu-pressure - woah! She pretty much just gently placed her fingers on different spots on my forehead and cheeks and it felt like I would instantly relax, like deep 'repairing' was happening! Very surprising! I didn't film much of the facial because it was dark and, well, I was busy relaxing :)

Then I moved on to the manicure and pedicure with Lindsay. I got treated to a foot and hands massage there too - nice! My feet and hands have not been treated this nicely before - it was interesting :) Lindsay had me choose a few symbols that 'talked' to me from a bunch of cards. The three that I picked corresponded to some oils, and I got to pick my favorite scent out of the three again - I don't know why but I thought that was really cool - I enjoyed picking the oil! Once I picked it - she showed me what symbol it corresponded to, and let me read about it - Grounded. It was entertaining:)

I also got to pick a nail polish color and I happily selected a deep blue, which, I know is not a popular or common nail polish color, but it is my favorite color, and it was MY day at the spa right? :)

I was sent to a comfy chair to 'dry' and something unexpected happened - the next lady who was getting a manicure and I chatted. If you don't know me let me say this: I am terribly shy and I am not a very sociable person (in person anyway) I am basically avoiding people most of the time and am the last person you will see chatting with a stranger :) But I felt like a new girl and when this lovely lady started talking about her 14 month old daughter and asking about my 5 week old son, the conversation was easy and so welcome! We got to share our stories and she told me a lot about babies and what's down the road for me and Baby L. She is a writer and was heading out to an event - I wish I would've asked her about her books... or for her name... she was nice :)

A great experience and something I think I will do again. I was so tired going in, but coming out, I felt like a million bucks. One thing that helped me relax is also the fact that S got to stay home with the baby, and I got to go out by myself for the first time. I was feeling guilty at first, to leave Baby L with my husband, but once I got over it, it was well worth it:)

Thank you to the lovely ladies at Sunny Mummy, and thank you again to WonderBra for another wonderful treat of a mission! :)

A year ago...

2010-11-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

S and I were married on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

Then we got to hang out together in our favorite city for the most perfect and fun, best day of my life.

I love you baby - Happy Anniversary :)

Rediscover Your Beauty Photo Shoot - The Photos Are In!

2010-11-03T14:20:00.003-04:00

As promised - here are the photos from the Rediscover Your Beauty photo shoot with Andrea Smith:

Andrea couldn't resist sending along a photo of baby L being fussy during the photo shoot - too cute and funny :)

Thank you Andrea for the lovely pictures! :)

www.andreasmithphotography.com

And thank you to WonderBra for this great opportunity!!

Rediscover Your Beauty - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-10-29T21:35:00.005-04:00

I received another awesome package from WonderBra for my second mission!! This time, I got high cut supportive panties (yup, I can use that right now!:) and a couple of 'full support' bras. I will definitely try these on when baby L and I have a more predictable feeding schedule and I can wear regular bras again! :) As for the panties, I will wait until things have returned to more of a 'normal' state down there, lol

My week 2 mission for WonderBra's Women of Wonder was:

A Mother's Glow

Capture the special moments in life and book a photo shoot for you and your newborn.

I was again very nervous with the mission. I was still not that comfortable with holding baby L, as you can probably tell in the video! :) And for some reason it was really warm in the house - or it could also just be that my body was doing its post-pregnancy thing ;)

Andrea was great, you could tell she was used to working with babies. She knew how to handle the little guy better than I did! She was calm and gentle with him, and very patient - he got fussy because I pretty much messed up his feeding schedule.

If there's one thing I learned this week it's : Feed the baby until he's done! I mean Andrea was ok with waiting, but I was putting pressure on myself with having him photo ready, so I was cutting him off milk after a few minutes thinking that it would be enough to hold him for a while, only to have to feed him again, and again afterwards... babies are on their own schedule and your much better off following their lead :)

My favorite part about this week's mission was when we got to take shots of my husband with the baby. It gave me a chance to step back and enjoy watching my boys hanging out together - so sweet :) It was nice to have the husband participate in that mission since he couldn't make the first one...

I felt relieved after finishing the mission because I got to make sure that baby L was comfy again.

I was also so happy to do this mission and get the chance to have professional shots of our little family while baby L is still so little - they DO grow up SO fast!

Thank you WonderBra! :)

Baby L is One Month Old!

2010-10-26T15:06:00.000-04:00

oh la la...
I struggle to organize my time nowadays... I'll figure it out, please stay tuned :)
While you wait here are two videos of Baby L giggling this weekend, when my family visited...

For my second mission with WonderBra, I got to do a photoshoot with Baby L with the help of Andrea Smith Photography. I tried all week to work on the video but lots happened baby-wise and I figured since I'm just about to receive the photos from Andrea, I might as well wait for them and include them in my post about the mission! So hang in there, it's coming!

Talk to you soon :)

Rediscover Your World - WonderBra Women of Wonder

2010-10-16T17:30:00.001-04:00

Mission #1 = Accomplished!

This week's mission was about exploring another country's cuisine by taking a cooking class with my husband. I had always wanted to take a cooking class and WonderBra made that happen for me :)

They suggested a bunch of options where I could take the class, but one stood out: Marni Wasserman's. Her healthy approach to cooking was just in line with what I am doing with this blog - learn ways to get healthier by cooking more healthy home made food, among other things :)

Unfortunately, I had to schedule the class in the afternoon and since S ended up having to go back to work he wasn't be able to attend... Between him and me I'm the one who could use the class more (he's actually a great cook!!) so I thought it would be fun to do the class on my own and then serve him the food I learned to make when he got home from work :)

I have to be honest with you - I was SOOOOO nervous to do the mission. This would be my very first day on my own at home with Baby L, I would get a guest and have to cook and document the whole thing - all at the same time... Marni was great at helping me with the whole situation - she directed the class in a way that would let me stop whenever Baby L was interrupting, and whenever I couldn't put my hands in the dough because I was holding Baby L, she would take over and explain what she was doing... She even took the camera and shot a few images of me, cooking away :) Phew!

Here's what we made:

Yin Yang Miso Soup

Arame Soba Noodle Salad

Tangy Teriyaki Stir-Fry

Here's my video of the mission - please note that the links I am referring to in the video are available in the Youtube description and also at the bottom of this post - I thought I could add them within the video (you can't do that on Youtube, oops!) which is why I keep saying click here lol Also, please forgive the poor framing of some of these shots, if I am alone to set up the video next time, I'll take the time to make sure the camera is set properly - I was just too nervous this time :)

It was so nice in the end to be able to say that I did it!! :) I learned a lot too - from new ingredients to cooking tips and meal planning tips... It was really fun and informative - and at the end I had dinner ready for the husband and I - tasty and healthy food - the best! It was pretty easy to make too - I can definitely easily recreate it now that I've seen the whole process of making it during the class... And it made quite a good amount of food - enough for a few days worth of lunches.

Here are the links mentioned in the video:
Women of Wonder on Facebook
www.marniwasserman.com

WonderBra Mission #1 -Update

2010-10-12T10:44:00.001-04:00

Just thought I would let you know that I am taking a cooking class tonight! I will be posting about the experience sometime tomorrow with pictures and videos of the experience - I don't know what makes me more nervous, being on camera or taking the class! lol

It's going to happen in my kitchen, so I better get started on cleaning it :) It's going to be so much fun!!!

I already received info on week 2, I'm equally excited and intimidated by week 2, eeeeeeeee :)

Week 1 mission... in progress...

2010-10-06T13:57:00.002-04:00

Wow I didn't think it would be so complicated to find a cooking class for this week's mission for the Women of Wonder Campaign with WonderBra! I think it's a great idea and what a fun thing it will be to do - but I am having a hard time getting all the 'ingredients' to be just right!

I am trying to find a class that will teach both my husband and I in our home (can't leave baby L on his own! :) a class that will get us to discover another country's cuisine, and a class that we can take this week.

I might end up having to compromise on something, but for now I'm staying optimistic that in the end it will work out.

I am waiting on news from a person who was going to try and make herself available, but she wasn't sure she would be able to, otherwise, I will be going to a class solo in downtown TO, and will bring the food home for S to enjoy :)

So that's where we're at with this week's mission :)

WonderBra - Women of Wonder...

2010-10-04T12:22:00.006-04:00

Good Morning!

I have some exciting news! I was approached a few weeks ago by WonderBra Canada to participate in their 'Women of Wonder - Rediscover your wonder' campaign, where 5 women are going on a mission every week and talk about it on their blog.

I was worried at first because of the upcoming birth of our son, but they told me it was only starting in October, and they also assured me that the missions would be fun and easy-going, and that I would most likely be able to do everything with the little man by my side. They are also covering all the expenses for the missions! It sounded so interesting and they were so nice and understanding of my situation - I had to get on board!

First things first, I received this lovely package from them:

It contained a Flip camera to document the whole thing (neat!) the info on my first week's mission, and of course a bra from WonderBra. Their new Baby Love nursing bra!! :)

Very nicely packaged box!! :)

Let's talk about the bra for a moment - because OMG is it lovely! I have started breastfeeding and let's just say that my body has been roughed up good by the task :) As soon as I slipped into the new bra I felt so much more comfortable - like all the pieces were supported again.

The fabric is so unbelievably soft yet supportive, and it's pink!! :) With some nice and pretty details...

It's nice to have the 'flap' on the front and be able to have access to the 'necessary parts' without awkwardly exposing myself... And it's easy to open and close with one hand.

So here we go - First week's theme is:

Rediscover Your World

Week 1:

A Taste of the World

Explore another country's cuisine and

head to a cooking class with your husband.

Now I have to work at finding a class I can go to... I have a week to complete this - keep visiting for an update on the mission!

Flip in hand - here I come! :)

Baby L's Third Day :)

2010-09-29T21:20:00.001-04:00

The Big Day

2010-09-27T18:28:00.000-04:00

On september 24th I woke up with contractions, 11 hours later - baby L was born! A healthy 7 pounds and 13 oz little boy, and very very pretty, if I do say so myself :)

So it'll be a while before I can post again I hope youll understand! I need to... um... heal, we need to figure out all sorts of new things and get to know the little guy... For now I thought I would give you a quick update from my iPod - I haven't left the second floor of my house since the birth!

I am very much looking forward to tell you all about it :)

1 DAY!!

2010-09-17T15:59:00.000-04:00

As promised - here are a few shots of the nursery :)

BEFORE

That room had been used as an office and storage room for so long, so first thing we had to do was get rid of everything that was in there (for a 7x9 room there was a TON of stuff and it was pretty challenging to find a new spot for everything! Phew!)

The original paint was beige, and the walls needed work... so we decided to sand down all the walls and to re-plaster what needed it... On a few very hot days of the summer, I let S do all that behind a closed door, sealed with some painting tape to avoid getting dust all over the house.

Man it was much tougher than anticipated - and the cleaning, woah! But we did clean everything over a few weeks, and painted all of the room in another few weeks...

And here are the results:

AFTER

Do you like it? :)

15 days, or 37 weeks and 6 days...

2010-09-03T12:07:00.000-04:00

oh la la... this is really happening!

What to say... I am completing today my first week outside of the workplace. It went pretty well, I've been somewhat productive, I did some cleaning in the house... There's lots more to do, but it's a good start - it's not easy to clean your bath tub with a huge belly! :)

We're almost done with the nursery. All that's left really is to place the rocking chair in the room and put some art on the walls... I think we're going to stick to placing the rocking chair in there and save the art for later, so long as the room is functional, who cares if the room is not completely decorated, right? :) So stick around, photos are coming soon...

I ate at home all week - so cool! It's so nice to eat everything that's in our fridge and not waste food anymore - I'm not losing my fruits and veggies, I'm eating them - a nice change! :) I even experimented in the kitchen, I tried this recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows... I call my version of it 'Apple Fail' lol

Health and Pregnancy-wise I'm doing pretty well - just a bit uncomfortable... My feet are swollen all day, I have the occasional heart burn fest, my back and my legs are sore, and I'm tired a lot... but it's really not too bad...

Man I just can't believe there is only 15 days to go (if the baby is 'on time' :)

We're organizing a garage sale with a few of our neighbors this weekend - it's going to be so nice to get rid of some of our stuff - when we 'emptied' out our storage room to make it the baby room, we were left with so much cr*p all over the house you litterally have to zig zag in between piles of stuff and furniture to get from a room to the other... That's how it is when you have a small house and zero storage space! :) (ok, ok...and collect too much stuff like we do:)

Alright, I better get some cleaning done now - later! :)

Flavür - Product Review

2010-09-01T11:38:00.000-04:00

I received an email from Lassonde a while ago - they asked me if I would like to try this new line of beverages, Flavür juices and teas, and then share my thoughts about them on the blog... Of course I was interested!

I received a box of samples this week and I started tasting them:

First of all, a few words from the Flavür people:

This original blend of full-bodied fruit juice, enhanced with subtle flower flavours, is made from 100% natural ingredients. Try out the different Flavür: stimulating Strawberry-Dragon Fruit-Ginseng, purifying Lemon-Honey-Aloe Vera, or thirst-quenching Red orange-Guava-Hibiscus.

You’ll appreciate the smooth and exotic sensation of Flavür Tea, a refreshment that’s beautiful to behold and delightful to taste. Look for it at your favourite health food or convenience store. One gulp, and you’ll be sold on the Flavür Tea!

I find the packaging quite attractive - I was already refreshed just looking at the bottles :)

Results? Juices = Yummy!

I'm not a fan of teas in general, so I asked S (my husband) to try them out for me, I'll let you know what he thought of them soon :) Here are a few words from Lassonde about the teas for now (translated by me... please forgive me if it's not 100% accurately translated...)

Fine iced teas made from organic ingredients
Made from high quality teas (black, white and green)
Quantity of tea polyphenols in each of the 3 Flavür teas :
White tea = 130 mg / 250 ml
Black tea = 150 mg / 250 ml
Green tea = 145 mg / 250 ml

I did have the juices and... I LOVED them! :) With the crazy heat waves we've had recently, this was a great way to stay hydrated! A wee tiny bit syrupy, but more like apple juice syrupy than like a juice full of sugar... The 3 flavors were all delicious and I would not hesitate to pick them over a lot of other brands when buying juice at the store!!

A plus? The ingredients list is 'readable' - nothing artificial in there! Nutritional value? Low in calories, no fat, a little bit of sugar... SUPER! It would have been perfect should there have been a little more vitamins in there, but really, it's pretty good :)

My favorite flavour? Strawberry Dragon Fruit Ginseng. Wheeee :)

What I like above all? It's a Canadian product!! :)

If you are interested in trying them out they are available in most health food and convenience stores.

You can also find Flavür on Facebook here.

Almond Fresh - Contest Alert! :)

2010-08-31T10:52:00.006-04:00

The good people at Earth's Own Almond Fresh (the people who make the yummy Almond milk!!) have organized a fun contest. See the details here. And the rules here.

You can win fun prizes like a pair of cruiser bikes (a 1200$ value!)

Cool Cameras, iPods or iTunes gift certificates...

every winner also gets a month's supply of Almond Fresh!! YUM!! :)

You can either simply enter the contest by registering here, or if you want to have extra fun and kit it up a notch, you can participate in their video contest for 10 extra chances to win!!

You can also find Almond Fresh on Facebook and Twitter :)

Go visit their contest website for all the details - and do it quick! The contest is open to Canadian residents (excluding Québec) and it ends on September 8th 2010.

Here we go!

2010-08-30T12:20:00.000-04:00

my mat leave... is starting now! Too weird...

I had a great last day of work. Busy enough to keep me from remembering that it was my last day, but also quiet enough to allow for a quick lunch with a few colleagues...

I got lots of nice gifts: my assistant/'successor' got me a cute 'onesie' for the baby and also a gift certificate to go to a restaurant I love that I had talked to her about... One animator gave me some fine chocolates from SOMA, the big boss gave me an assortment of bath soaps and such from Lush, another animator gave me a twix (he didn't know that it was my last day and insisted to give me something:) and I also received a nice card signed by the entire production. I appreciated that they gave it to me in private in my office instead of in front of everybody which could've been awkward/unpleasant...

For lunch, my PM, my assistant/successor, 2 coordinators and the animation supervisor took me to one of the rare restaurants in the area for a nice meal. I had a delicious cobb salad :) Conversations were easy, phew!

I better start to plan what I am going to do for this mat leave time I have at home... I have a lot of baby prep to do, lots of house cleaning, and a bunch of products to review for the blog (will post soon!!:) It all feels a little crazy right now, and a bit overwhelming - I'm not used to this kind of 'freedom'! :)

one thing at a time right? :)

phew!

2010-08-26T21:53:00.000-04:00

1 day.

I am only working for 1 more day before the start of my maternity leave.

phew...

it's.... I'm not sure what to think of it... I don't think I fully realize it yet...

I worked pretty hard to leave an organized project for my assistant who is taking over for me as of Monday... I think it's a great opportunity for her and that she should take care of things pretty well.

Tomorrow night, I can officially stop thinking about work and start to focus on this big life event that's coming up. I had to really prepare mentally for this change - learn to 'let go' - this project will go on without me and it's not my responsibility anymore to make sure that everything goes smoothly for everyone. What a change... I hope I'll manage :)

I'm almost at 37 week (saturday...) I'm doing pretty well considering I'm a giant :)

It's pretty crazy - the baby will be full term on Saturday, it could come out right then! I just hope that it will wait until at least September first because I would prefer it if my own midwifes would attend (they are on holiday right now...) That's all I hope for, after September first, you can come out anytime baby:)

wow - I'm not going to work for 7 months. 7 MONTHS!!! so weird...

33 weeks and 2 days

2010-08-02T12:38:00.000-04:00

what a weekend...

At about 2h30am on Saturday morning, I woke up with sudden pain on the nose. I collected myself and after a few seconds I knew exactly what had happened: I have 3 cats and they often sleep just in front of me at night, or between me and the edge of the bed. They probably stretched or something which likely made them lose balance and fall off the edge. As they fell they grabbed on to whatever was there to try and stay on, that included my nose... Unfortunately I have no idea which of my 3 cats it was, it could really be any of them... I now have a very pretty scratch from the side to the tip of my nose... sexy... pffff! lol

Saturday morning, we had an appointment at 3dbaby.ca. We kept it a secret just for fun... A co-worker had recommended it. It's basically a 'non-diagnostic' or 'non-medical' ultrasound that is intended only to give you a keepsake of the baby in you belly, in 3d. They take photos and videos and you get to keep all of it:)

I was slightly scared to go at first - for safety first (I read a bunch of articles about it and that reassured me) but mostly I thought - what if the baby looks funny, or has an arm growing on its forehead or something? It would be a pretty scary way to find that out! LOL I guess it wouldn't be better to find that out at birth right? But also, I had 2 'medical' ultrasounds in the past and they would have picked that up... I guess it was a pretty silly fear :)

It was SO worth it!! To see the baby's face made it feel even more 'real'. To see it move and see that it looks comfortable and alive and all... it was fascinating:)

Here are 3 pictures that they took:

I don't know if you can tell, but in the second picture, the baby's eyes are open! So cool! And slightly creepy - in a good way, hee hee :)

After the ultrasound S and I had a permanent grin on our faces, we were walking on a cloud all weekend :)

And on Sunday we had our last hypnobirthing class. We talked a lot about the birth itself this time and that was great - I think we are well prepared now - we can do this! :)

We also went grocery shopping and I prepped some lunches for the week - it was really a good start to the week!

32 weeks and 2 days...

2010-07-26T14:41:00.001-04:00

yup yup yup... that's what they say huh? :)

um... what's new you ask? Not much... let's see...

I am enormous. Other than that, everything is more or less normal...

We're still wrapping up our work on the nursery - it's not ready for anyone to see yet, but it's coming soon. We purchased the furniture and bedding this weekend, ''check!''. I promise to post photos of the room when it's all done, no worries:)

I have officially announced my decisions regarding birth to my midwifes at my last appointment. They seemed really happy with my choices and they were really encouraging, telling me these were very good choices and that they would support me 100% - phew!

So, if everything continues to go well and there are no complications, I will give birth in the water, in the comfort of my own home, using the 'Hypnobirthing' method. S and I have already done 2 of the 5 training sessions and I am really really happy to have found a way to 'proceed' that works 100% for ME (and S). I've always been a bit 'anti-hospital' and 'anti-doctors' (I am more in favor of trusting that my body is designed to function well if I take care of it...) so I am relieved to know that I will be surounded by a competent team of people who will be there should there be a need for them, but who will also respect my choice of letting me do things my way without interventions or 'coaching'. So yeah, that's my plan.

Other than that, pregnancy-wise I feel really normal, at this point I almost feel oblivious to the fact that I am pregant, it has kind of become somewhat of a routine thing - oh right, I'm pregnant... oh well! I work and come home and repeat... I am really looking forward to my last day of work though - on August 27th. I have tons of things to do before that day comes, but it still couldn't come fast enough. It's pretty 'blah' and 'depressing' at work right now so the big change that's coming is quite welcome!

oops!

2010-07-14T19:12:00.000-04:00

I just realized I forgot to include a few shots in yesterday's post... here they are:

it says : ''My first Disney Bear'' on it - awwwwwwww! :)

Thanks again!

For the person in my belly...

2010-07-13T21:25:00.000-04:00

I got a very sweet gift in the mail late last week. My mom sent adorable clothes and a teddy bear for the baby that's coming.

I recognized my mom's style right away when I saw the creative wrapping that she must have put together herself (am I right mom? You drew and cut out the pretty flower and put it on top of the box?)

I also recognized a family tradition: recycling old boxes to wrap up gifts, hee hee

no, it's not popcorn ;)

Look at how cute this is!!!

Thank you guys for the lovely gifts :)

The Pride Run 5km Race

2010-07-08T22:02:00.004-04:00

It was the Pride Run 5k race this weekend, the very first race I ever ran. Marie the Mouse had convinced me to participate - I was ready for the challenge and this was the perfect race for a beginner: easy and fun, and they give you cake at the end...

I had so much fun last year that I thought - I simply must repeat it in 2010! I also really wanted to do the full race this time (I made a mistake last year, details here)

Unfortunately - life happened and I was unable to run the race this year - my solution? Have S run it! :)

So we drove all the way to downtown Toronto on this very warm summer day that was this past Saturday - man is it hot out these days, especially when you carry around your own little heater on your belly :)

S was ready for the challenge - here he is all concentrated pre-race...

The only 5k that S ran was the Zoo Run last October (here) He ran the race in 27:30 (estimated since that race wasn't 'chipped'...) and man was I impressed with how quick he was! The Pride Run is a chipped race, so for the first time, S would get an official 5k time. I couldn't wait to find out what it was!!

Another first: this time I was going to be a spectator! Once the runners were on the course, I got to see the organizers prep everything for the finishers, the photographers prepare to take shots of the elite runners, all that while taking in the ambiance and the music. Time went real fast and in about 15 minutes the first runners were coming in. It was so much fun to cheer them on - woo hoo! yeah! It's impressive to see all these runners with all the concentration and determination in their eyes. A little over 26 minutes had past when I noticed that S was right there approaching the finish line! WOW!!! It was terribly warm and he hadn't run in a while (other than on a soccer pitch...) and he was already almost done in 26+ minutes? I was so proud of him!

S's official results:

He was the 345th person to cross the finish line out of 791 participants.

Gun Time: 26:56

Chip Time: 26:04!!!!!!!!!!!

He was the 259/413 man

And in his category he was 196/318

WOW!

Here he is at the finish line (he's wearing a red shirt, top left corner of the image...)

A little later, we had the pleasure to meet with Marie the Mouse when she crossed the finish line! It was mission accomplished for her as well - I believe she met the goal she had set for herself for the race. We enjoyed seeing her - it was funny how S yelled 'Mousearoo!' when he saw her - he too was excited to get to congratulate her :)

It was a nice day :)

28 weeks and 6 days...

2010-07-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

Less than 12 weeks to go... wow. Things feel like they are going pretty fast, but slow at the same time - well, things tend to feel slow when you have a ginormous belly :)

I got my glucose test results - all good! Phew! However, they tested my - whatever they call the test that sees if you have anemia - and they said that my levels were a little low... Nothing too dramatic but they suggested that I take a 'once a day' iron supplement to balance things out... pfff it's just another pill to take, I can handle that...

We bought our very first baby 'item' this week - I was cleaning up our babies r us registry in the hopes of putting it out there for friends and family to see (for now it includes everything that we need for the baby - lots of the stuff that needs to come out is stuff we plan to purchase ourselves... it would be a bit awkward to receive a breast pump from a colleague, for instance hee hee) when I noticed that one of the item was much cheaper than I remembered - it was indeed on sale - 100$ off on the travel system we had picked, and the sale was ending that same day! Quick emails were exchanged between S and I and that was it - we decided to order it! Score! :)

It's the Alano Flip It Travel System de Graco. We picked it because there were a lot of good reviews but mostly because it seemed to be the only travel system that had a 'flipable' stroller handle (where the baby can either face you or face away from you) It also seemed pretty compact and light and easy to collapse. And it was conforming to all the new security standards out there...

It was delivered in a record time - I think we ordered it and got it delivered within 2 days! I'm looking forward to testing it out but for now we're keeping it in it's box - we have no room for it yet!

This weekend we should be able to finish our big baby room reno - I will certainly share some pictures with you when it's done :)

Scallion-Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry by WW

2010-06-30T17:08:00.003-04:00

As promised, here's the WW recipe that I prepared last week for my lunches...

Scallion-Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry by WW
6 points per serving, 4 servings

ingredients:
1sprays cooking spray (5 one-second sprays per serving)
1 tsp canola oil
1 pound extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 medium scallions, green and white parts chopped
1 medium sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium green pepper, seeded and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup cremini mushrooms or button mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 cup cooked brown rice, regular or instant, kept hot.

directions:

Coat a large nonstick skillet or Wok with cooking spray and set pan over medium-high heat. Add oil and tofu and stir-fry until tofu is browned on all sides, about 2 minutes.

Add scallions, peppers, carrots and mushrooms and stir-fry until vegetables are tender and mushrooms release juice, about 3-5 minutes. Add soy sauce and cook 1 minute more.

Serve tofu mixture over rice. Yields about 1 1/2 cups of tofu stir-fry and 1/2 cup of rice per serving.

you can't see it very well but the rice is there - on the bottom of the bowl :)

I've done this recipe often and I find that you can easily change it up by using other veggies, so long as you use the same amount of tofu, rice and oil. I often skip the cooking spray and replace the oil with sesame oil (2tsps instead of 1 if I skip the spray... a bit heavier in point but not too bad...)

Here you go - lunches for the week!! :)

27 weeks and 2 days + Weekly exercise 2/3

2010-06-21T21:12:00.000-04:00

Whee!!!! I've successfully accomplished days 2 of my weekly exercise and I have another couple days to do my 3rd day - we can do this!

I did the Tracey Mallett: Fit For Pregnancy DVD again, but this time I did the 'cardio and weights' section for the 2nd trimester as well as the Core and the Flexibility sections. A good challenge - I definitely felt like I 'worked' at the end! :)

Food wise - after I'm done with this post I'm going to cook a Tofu and bell peppers stir-fry with brown rice (one of my favorite WW recipes - super easy to prep and healthy - I might post about it tomorrow...) I prepped all the veggies as soon as I got back from the grocery store this weekend - my fridge freezes all my veggies so preparing them and cooking them as soon as possible really helps me to avoid wasting them... It's going to provide me with lunches for the week!

We made a lot of progress with the baby room this weekend too - well I should say that S did the majority of the work. We took everything out of the room and then he sanded all the walls, fixed all the cracks, sanded the room again, and did a first big clean up. All that's left is to do a deep clean and paint the room!

Big scoop for family members who might be reading the blog: we picked our color - 'crisp green' from Benjamin Moore. It's from an old set of colors so you won't find it on their web site anymore, but it's like a very light pastel-ish green. Our furniture will most likely be 'espresso' color, and the accessories (not our final decision) will potentially be 'cream'.

In other news, I went for the glucose test this morning, to find out if I have gestational diabetes - it's a routine test since I have diabetes in my family.

The test goes like this: you go to the lab in the morning on an empty stomach. They take blood from you once, give you an extra sweet orange juice to drink in 5 minutes, then they take more blood after 1 hour, and after 2 hours.

I tend to have nausea pretty quickly in the morning if I don't eat, but I was ready for the challenge. I got up extra early to beat the usual crowd of older people who are always there first thing ;) Success! I was 8th in line which is pretty good for this location... S came with me as the midwifes suggested - I was so happy that he came!! :)

I started to drink the juice and thought - wow, this is not too bad! But after a few sips I realized that 'Orange Crush' for breakfast is and ideal (that's what it tasted like to me - orange pop) The bubbles leave an after taste that's not so good... But I drank it all and got to go back to S in the waiting room.

The first 15 minutes were great - I was on a 'sugar buzz' chatting with S, moving and laughing. Then slowly nausea came to the party and by the 30th minute, I was pretty miserable and counting down the minutes... I thought - stop looking at the clock and focus on not being sick - if I get sick I'll have to take the test all over again - and we don't want to do that!!

After the 1 hour mark, they took some blood again and the nausea slowly went away. I finished the test without problem - SUCCESS!! :) And I got to eat some Tim Hortons right after - what a treat :)

The results should be available at my next midwifes visit - on July 6th...

Weekly Exercise - 1/3

2010-06-16T21:22:00.006-04:00

For the first time in a long time, I finally was able to get up early this morning and exercise!!

I did the Tracey Mallett: Fit For Pregnancy DVD.

I probably have done it 5-6 times so far and I like it. She has a program specifically for the first and second trimester, as well as one for the third trimester. There are also a few bonus sessions for flexibility, core and postpartum.

The intensity is perfect. A thing that she repeats a lot during the sessions: you should never go above 70% effort (100% = exhaustion). At the start, it seems a bit easy, but by the end of it, it turns out to be a pretty good workout!

I also like the way that she split the main part of the workout in 3 x 6 minutes parts, with a running time on the bottom of the screen. I like knowing how much I can push based on how long I have to push for :)

Workout # 1 this week - completed! :)

26 weeks and 3 days...

2010-06-15T17:41:00.000-04:00

translated from my french blog

Yeah... I've been thinking of writing a blog post for days - but I'm out of ideas... I decided to just start writing and see where it takes me...

So I am 26 weeks and 3 days pregnant today. I have gained - watch out! - 40 lbs so far during this pregnancy (that's on top of the 7 lbs I had gained before becoming pregnant...)

On my wedding day, I weighted 150 lbs.
When I started WW I weighted 186 lbs.
Today? I weight 197 lbs - yup...

I'm not sure what to make of this... I mean, I still have 13 weeks to go and, depending on the source, people say I should gain anywhere between 0.5 and 1 lb a week from now on. So it's inevitable, that big scary number is coming - 200 lbs. (Well, I'll go up to 210 lbs if I really am going to gain a pound a week...)

oh la la...

I have to admit that I have not been all that disciplined in these 26 weeks. I didn't exercise as much as I should have (once a week on average) and as for food intake, I pretty much ate without paying too much attention. I tried to pick healthier stuff at times and other times, not so much...

I think I need to take care of this now. Pregnancy definitely surprised me with all its 'side effects' - I have had to let go of some of my 'control'. But there's only 13 weeks left, it's time to make an effort, it's going to be worth it in the end.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm going to try and lose weight right now - not at all, that would be unhealthy - but rather I want to make healthier choices, I will:

Exercise 3 times a week minimum.
Prep more food at home.
Count/Track what I eat - be it healthy or not, to at least get a better picture of what I'm doing...

I started to use this website again: Daily Burn. It's free (you can also pay if you want to access more options...) and what I like about it, compared to other similar sites, is that they have a lot of search-able food items in their 'library'. Also, you get a daily personal nutrition tracking page that gives you info on your intake of calories, fats, carbs and proteins. IT really gives you a good picture of what your eating in a reasonable way, and what you lack - i.e.: I try to eat lots of protein in my days now because I know it's very important for the baby and me - it turns out it's a big challenge for me and I didn't even know it was until I tracked with this tool!

The only thing is that it is not meant for pregnant women, more for people who are trying to lose weight for instance. But it's still interesting and it still gets me back in the habit of tracking...

There is a similar website by Spark People that is meant specifically for pregnant women: BabyFit, but I don't like it as much because I find that they don't always have all the items I want to track in their system, the way that daily burn does. It's annoying when you want to track something and it just doesn't exist on the site... And I came across a lot of 'missing' things. It's also free + they send you daily newsletter with useful info on pregnancy subjects if you want them to.

Ottawa Race Weekend

2010-05-31T14:20:00.003-04:00

translated from my french blog

It was Ottawa's Race Weekend, I was 24 weeks pregnant and I ran a 10k!! Ok, I only ran for about 2-3 minutes on the course, but the rest of the way, I walked "fast".

We arrived to Ottawa by train on Friday afternoon - traveling by train was perfect, S and I got to relax and chat without having to drive all the way. When we got there we took a taxi to the hotel - that's when we realized what a good idea not having to drive in Ottawa was - there are lots of one way streets and lots of winding streets in Ottawa, would have been confusing...

We arrived at our hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, and then we walked to the "Fitness Expo'' to get my race kit. It was a good 8km to and from, so we walked at a relaxed pace - I didn't want my legs to be sore for the race! It was nice to walk all along Bank Street and see a bit more of the city :)

The day of the race, we walked around the ''By Ward Market'' a bit, and then we went back to the hotel to relax a bit, the race was at 6h30 pm.

Here is the obligatory belly/pre-race shot...

Wow there was a ton of people at the start line!!

My official spectator :)

Who is also my official photographer :)

I didn't put too much pressure on myself, just an ideal time to finish the race in 10 minutes per kilometer. I was happy to notice a lot of people who looked like they were there to walk the 10k - they had walking sticks and everything... It was kind of encouraging to think I wouldn't be the last to cross the finish line and/or the only one walking...

My heart rate was much better this time, better than at Harry Rosen's 8km, but my legs - they worked hard, I felt my calves and thighs getting tired real quick... At the 2k mark I though -woah, will I be able to do this for 10km?!! But kilometers passed and my legs got used to the feeling... Enough to change my mind as of km #6 where I thought - pffff I can totally do this!!!!

Just like at Harry's 8k, S came to meet me on the course at around 9km - oh how good it was to see him and also to realise that I was almost done!

The only weird thing or 'discomfort' that I felt during the race came at around 6-7km - it was really warm outside, I had been walking for more than an hour... MY HANDS!!! They swelled up like balloons - I could not recognize them anymore! They reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry was uncomfortable dating this girl because she had man hands!!

Ok, Maybe it's not that obvious here but trust me, my hands are usually slimmer than that. I'd say they are a third bigger than they usually are - I asked S and he says they were 37% bigger ha ha ha! It took a few hours before I could put my rings back on... I was so glad I had decided to remove them before the race!!

Official Results:

I was the 8275th person to cross the finish line out of 8497 runners

My 'Gun Time' is 1:46:56

My 'Chip Time' or 'real time' is 1:39:32

(99 minutes 32 seconds - mission accomplished!!!:)

In my category I finished: 831/845

and for women overall, I finished: 4839/5020

Not bad at all!!!

On Sunday morning, before leaving for Toronto, we had the chance to see some of the marathonand half marathon runners, from the comfort of our hotel room - the view from our room was fantastic!

I want to say a big congratulations to Laura who ran the 10k in Ottawa ''for real'' this weekend.

BRAVO LAURA!!! :)

A few questions answered...

2010-05-06T14:00:00.003-04:00

Things are moving along here. I am now 20 weeks and 5 days pregnant and I am starting to feel the baby a little bit. Not consistently yet, but still, there was a moment today when I felt something and it was clearly the baby moving for sure... I am a whooping 30 pounds heavier already - that's scary because that means I'm back to my pre-WW weight. And I know that it's more than the recommended weight gain.... more on that in an other post... :)

I wanted to go back to the questions that you asked a while ago. I haven't been blogging very often, but I still had these questions on my radar, I am going to answer a few now. Thank you so much to the readers who submitted questions!!!!! :)

How am I preparing for the baby:

To be perfectly honest, I have not really started to prepare for the baby much yet. Getting the right medical care and figuring out how to handle being pregnant has taken most of my mind until now. We have just started to think about the nursery and the items we will need once the baby arrives. We're going to build a Babies R Us registry soon for our friends and family - we have a really small house and I want to avoid people getting us too much stuff....

I think that it's starting to feel more real now that I have a bigger belly and that I'm starting to feel the baby, and I think that's going to give me that push I need to get things done. I still have some time though! :) I'll definitely post about things I prepare as I prepare them, so keep visiting for updates:) I plan to post a little more often from now on (at least once a week...)

Announcing the news to S:

We were pretty much "actively trying" to conceive, so we were both following the signs closely. I was sad when 'TOM" came, but when it stopped a couple days later (and was very light) I was suspicious (My TOM is usually pretty heavy and lasts forever, 8+ days at times...) So I did a test on a week day morning, before having a shower and heading out to work, and well, it said I was pregnant! I was shocked - I knew how little chance there was that we would be lucky enough to become pregnant on the first try! I wanted to tell S right then and there, but I had to finish with showering and I wanted to come up with a clever way of saying it. When the time came I opened the door and asked him:

"Do you know anyone who's a 'Virgo'?"

He said he didn't. That's when I pulled out the stick and showed him: "Well, you will in September!"
He had a big grin on his face, I think he was really happy. We were both really happy to know that quick that we were successful, we were going to have a baby!
That day was the longest work day ever, I was distracted all day!!! :)

S is English, Cinemarie is french...

S and I always had an understanding that my language is extremely important to me, and that our children would speak french fluently as much as they would speak english. There's no question in my mind - I want them to speak french not as a second language, but as their own language. I want them to think in french. We've been talking about having kids for a long time (I think we were talking about it in the first few weeks of our relationship, almost 8 years ago...) and I've always said that I would speak to our kids ONLY in french, and that he could speak to them ONLY in english. That way they have an easier way separating the languages.

I've read a lot about the subject and it looks like most people say it's the best way to go. I know it's going to be slightly challenging because S doesn't speak french, and also because the world around us is all in english, but I am going to try my hardest to never switch to english.

One thing that is going to help us is that we also plan to sign with our baby. Ever heard of that? When I heard of signing to your baby and saw that very young little girls and boys were signing way before they had the capacity to use words I was fascinated. I bought a book about it last weekend because I want to get a head start in learning the signs. This is the book: Baby Sign Language Basics: Early Communication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers, New & Expanded Edition PLUS DVD! So far it's great. It comes with a DVD where they sign all the signs from the book, so you can clearly see the proper way to do it. I played it once and I already have most of them memorized, well, most of the important ones (I memorized important signs like 'careful' but not all the signs that are less important like the ones about farm animals...) I'm really excited to start signing with our baby!! I can't wait!!! :)

The one good thing about this book is that they use actual ASL signs which are used all over the place. The great thing about ASL and signing in general, in our bilingual family, is going to be that the signs will kind of act as a 'bridge' between the languages. The same sign will be used for both a french word and an english word... I think it'll help S learn a bit of french too!! :)

Harry Rosen's 8km Race Recap

2010-04-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

Sorry it took me so long to update - here's my recap:

I was 16 weeks pregnant and I raced for 8km - WOOHOO!!!!

*****all photos are by my mother:)

That being said - it was the slowest race I ever ran!! Here are the official results:

I was the 2186th to finish the race out of 2208 runners
My chip time is 1 hour, 13 minutes, 57 seconds.
My pace was 9:38
I was the 1067/1080 woman
and the 226/227 woman in my age group.

Hey, I wasn't last!!!!! :)

I didn't push too much, with a baby in my belly, I didn't want to risk anything. I read a lot about exercise while pregnant a few days before the race, I was getting more anxious as race day approached. A lot of sites said to keep your heart rate under 140. However, that number seems to be from old sets of recommendations that were changed in the 90s. Now, most of the sources say to go with the 'rate of perceived exertion' (RPE) . Basically, you go with how your body 'feels' rather than your heart rate.

There's a good article about it on Baby Center. According to them, while pregnant, you should work out between 65% and 75% effort (100% = exhaustion)

Some places (including my midwifes) say that you should be able to have a conversation without being completely out of breath...

Armed with all that info, I still wore my heart rate monitor and also planned to listen to my body. Before becoming pregnant, if I ran at my normal pace, I would easily hit peaks of 185 bpm, but I would usually maintain it around 175 bpm.

I started the race with an easy jog and quickly my heart went up past 175... I slowed down a little... but I felt alright... so I continued and found that my 'sweet spot' was to slow down and start walking whenever I hit 185... When I went back to the 160s, I would jog a little... It was a bit frustrating, but again, it's no time to risk things, so I kept it safe and I ended up walking most of the way...

Close to the end (I'm pretty familiar with that park so I knew exactly what was coming, a big hill and then the finish line) some more 'regular' people were walking on the path and I was trying to avoid them. I saw someone coming in the distance, in a blue shirt, and proceeded to walk towards the other side, when I realized it was S! He had walked back to find me!! :) He walked the rest of the way with me, that was so nice :) I went up the hill walking, and then sprinted to the finish line.

In the end I felt pretty good that I walked/ran for 8km, the farthest I've ever gone. It felt really good.

And I got my first race medal!! wheee! :)

Here's a video of the race. You can see S (not very well) at approximately 1:04:40 (he's on the opposite side of the path from the camera and there's someone between him and the camera... he's wearing a blue shirt and black shorts) You can see him again and me (pretty well this time) at approximately 1:31:10. I think you can tell which one I am, I'm the lady with the bigger belly... ;)

Watch live streaming video from canadarunningseriestv at livestream.com

Guest Post: Cinemarie's Husband's 8k race recap:)

2010-04-12T19:00:00.002-04:00

***Cinemarie: Photos added!

***S with my mom who was visiting from Montreal that weekend - she took all the photos:)

Harry’s Spring Run-Off 2010

So I’ve been running with Marie for the last year and this year we’re a little more organized for the season and decided we’d do the Harry Spring Run-Off at High Park. There is a 5k and 8k version of the course – and since you get a medal for the 8k we figured “okay – bring on the 8k”.

Winter training has been treadmill and soccer and where 5k is pretty comfortable, I have run 8-10k outdoors last year, but in a random hap-hazard (getting lost on a trail) kind-of-way. Now it was time to play with the slightly bigger boys…

The race was on Saturday so on Thursday night I did a treadmill run – found my pace and ran a really comfortable 6k with a half kilometer sprint at the end (I really like end sprints).

Friday – feeling good – not much soreness from the run the day before so I wasn’t worried about soreness.

Saturday!

10am race time – 2700 runners in the 8k course with corral starts. I respect the runners who are runners and stay out of the first two corals. Since I like to pass people I figure I might as well start in the last coral – plus it gives me a chance to make sure my iPod-do-hickey is working before the start. Marie and I pretty much start at around 2400^th place which will take us 3-4 minutes to cross the start line. A quick shot of power-gel should help me work out any sore muscles early on.
***S and I at the start...

So in case you’ve never been to High Park – this course is hilly – like death-march hilly. Paired with some pretty narrow parts – it makes it fun to pass! (sarcasm).

Start: iPod working – nice pace – and I find a side where I can slip by people. 1.5 kilometers – find a pace buddy and we’re running well. See a bunch of people pull off to go to the first set of port-o-johns (note to self: don’t have coffee before a race). The hills are pretty moderate to start – long and gradual – so no major problems – my knees are a little sore, but I think that’s just from not stretching completely – plus switching back and forth from running on grass (to pass people) and on pavement.

2.5km: nice big downhill with lots of pace and lots of passing, followed by a very long gradual up-hill – too long in fact. This hill took about 1.5km – enough to feel a couple chest cramps and the delightful feeling of lethargy in my hips.

4km: Water station – Gatorade to drink and a water to dump on my head – LIFE!! After walking through the water station I had momentum again and started passing. Sometimes I’m motivated to go faster just to get away from all the people spitting on my legs (by accident of course!). This was supposed to be the only water station – so I made sure I was well hydrated to the end (no water packs on me for this race).

4-6km: Friggin’ downhill of death. The amount of people flailing their arms and running out of control down this hill was nuts – not to mention I was still in a pack so if anyone stopped – there would be about 30 people on top of them. Stay to the outside and jump into the bushes if things got out of hand. Hips definitely hurting now. I presume from the steepness of the hills. Normally I get some soreness the day after a race – but never on the day of. Need to focus and find a running pattern.

6km Surprise water station! This wasn’t supposed to be there – and judging by the randomness of water being handed out – I don’t think the organizers knew it would be there either. Anyways, it was a nice find with 2km left to go – so the slight wait to get water was worth it.

6-6.5km: Nice moderate run through the south end of the park. Tight trails though so there was a bit of jostling. By the end of it the hills started and mid-way up the hill there’s a damned French-Fry truck smelling like a deep fryer – mmmm lovely fries – I wonder if I could eat fries and run?? Sorry no money on me (thanks running shorts) so I had to continue up the hill. A long km of rolling hills finally gave a little space to pass people. Knees, blisters on the right foot, shoulder cramp and of course sore hips was making this arduous – but not as arduous as this…

7.5km Hill of death climb: Who the hell puts a giant friggin’ hill on the last stretch of the course!?! Forget sprinting – most people were walking up this hill. I had moments of passing people, but it was like night of the living dead on that hill with everyone moaning and expressionless.

Eventually I made it to the top and finished with a time of around 50min. Slower than my 5km pace and a lot sorer. I was never really out of breath on the course – just sore.
***That's S in the Blue Shirt at the finish line! :)
A few things I would change for next time: Take a Tylenol/Aspirin before the race- to thin the blood and get more oxygen to my muscles. Stretch my back and shoulders – they were stiff at the end of this race. Run in short-shorts – based on the temp – I was too warm and needed to cool off a bit on the long hill climbs. I need to find something for my iPod that tells me my pace – when I race I get too aggressive at times and need to avoid burn out.

All-in-all, I would do this race again. The competition in the 8k is a lot harder than the 5k, but the scenic nature of the run made it enjoyable. It’s not a spectator race though – since about half the course is run through the south end of the park – it’s hard to access.

Need to run tonight and try to stretch out the muscles – I’m not usually this sore after a few days (though it’s all in the hips).

S.

***Cinemarie: I will add photos to this post tonight and post my own race recap with my thoughts on how it felt to be pregnant and run a race, tomorrow! :)***

Exercising while pregnant - my perspective...

2010-03-29T13:45:00.001-04:00

I read a lot about pregnancy these days and I see everywhere that it is recommended for pregnant women to exercise - to do moderate activities every day... Things that are most ofthe time in the safe to do list:

yoga
walking
dancing
swimming
some strength training
etc.

There are many conflicting ideas about running - though most sources I read say that it's safe so long as you were a runner before becoming pregnant and so long as you get the ok from your caregiver - which I do...

Now, I am still registered to run for Harry's 8k on April 3rd, and Ottawa's 10k on May 29th (I registered before becoming pregnant...) and while I have not moved much for the first 3 months of my pregnancy (the 24/7 nausea from hell preventing me to do LOTS of things, or at least making it very unpleasant and uncomfortable to do anything) I have started again recently, slowly, to exercise, as my symptoms seem to, somewhat intermittently, want to subside.

I ran this weekend for the first time since January - it was interesting... I tried to keep an eye on my heart rate monitor to avoid running for too long on a high heart rate. Well, I ended up running for 3 minutes then walking for 2, and starting again... At this point I am thinking 2 things:

I am rusty just the way I would be even if I wasn't pregnant and hadn't run for months, and I need to build up my strength again, gradually...
Maybe I am not that rusty, but I just can't run that much anymore because I am pregnant...

So I ended up doing the safe thing midway into my running session - walking fast and not running anymore... I figured that if I go to those races and have to walk fast the whole 8k or 10k, well I'll just do that...

Results: it took me 50 minutes to do 5.21km. Now I'm not that great at math, but I think it means that, at that same pace, I would do an 8k in about 76 minutes, or roughly 80 minutes (1h20 minutes...) I used to run 5kms in 33 minutes approx. (53 mins for an 8k at the 5k pace...) so that's an extra 27 minutes... not that bad I think... but I would like to push some more - I would like a better time than that... (Don't worry, if I don't 'feel right' I'll walk the whole time, I don't mind at all... ) Right now it kind of feels like I'm being extra careful, maybe too careful...

I was thinking of that this weekend and remembered how Jess from 21 days, ran during her pregnancy and was pretty successful at it. I went back in time to read how she felt about the whole thing during her first trimester... I came across this interesting post:

''Doing my Research''

So I think I am going to try and push a little more. Now I am realistic and realize that we're very close to April 3rd and probably won't have a fabulous time at the end of the race (Especially since I know that the race course is really hilly...) But I will certainly train on my treadmill and push it a little more, and try to be as 'well trained' as I can be for the 10km in Ottawa...

That will be my last race before I have a baby! I'm kind of sad to have to skip racing this year - I wanted to try and do a half marathon at the end of this year, I was psyched to train really seriously and run more and farther... I guess I have to postpone that! In the meantime, I am going to train and run for as long as I can. And on alternate days, I will try other things that are part of the 'safe to do' list :)

Still to come: How I am preparing for baby - How I announced I was pregnant to hubby and how I plan to raise my baby given that we are a bilingual household (very good question - thank you Tash!)

14 weeks and 4 days... Eating...

2010-03-24T10:59:00.004-04:00

I got a date for my next ultrasound today: April 26th! I can't wait. That's when I will probably find out if it's a boy or a girl...

What I've been eating: I have been eating a very 'varied' diet lately that includes anything from McDonald's Chicken McNuggets to quinoa salads. I have tried to include more vegetables in my diet, as recommended, but I find that the veggies I usually go to and love I currently do not enjoy (nice way to say that just thinking about them makes me gag...) Things like broccoli for instance, that I used to love... now? ewwwww! :) I basically stick to tomatoes and cucumber for now. I am however, having lots more fruit - kiwis, apples, bananas, grapes, watermelon, strawberries... Fruit is great and easy and makes fabulous snacks!

A thing I realized is protein seems to help with my nausea. So I've pretty much had my favorite quinoa salad for lunch most days of the week at work for the last 4-5 weeks - it's really yummy and I can feel it helps my nausea pretty quickly. And it's got a pretty decent amount of protein in it!

I've also had lots of hard boiled eggs, and I eat lots of dairy products for calcium and protein also... I drink lots of skim milk, have some cheese (not soft cheeses though, as apparently some of them are 'dangerous'...) lots of low fat yogurt...

I have the occasional granola bar here and there...

I read in a few places that carbs and/or whole grains helped nausea - well not for me! I started trying to calm it down with some whole grains and crackers and felt miserable - I felt full all the time, but I was still hungry, still had nausea, and couldn't eat any more... I literally had to force myself to eat, it was not pretty... I didn't want to eat anymore... never thought I would ever say that! :)

So for weekday lunches and snacks I'm doing ok - it's the evening meals that are more challenging - a combination of the evening being my worst nausea time and the long drive home which means waiting to eat for a long time - it all makes it extra miserable. Having to prep dinner with all the odors and the hunger and the nausea, not good... So I've resorted to eating from the 'drive-thru' more than a few times. The idea that I only need to wait 5 minutes and it's ready to eat and warm - it's just heaven... I try to get the healthier options on the menu, the ones I am used to - like the grilled chicken burger at Harvey's, and some salads at Wendy's and McDonald's... but sometimes I just feel like fries and chicken McNuggets - what can I say! :) I think that so long as it's in the mix along with a lot of other healthier meals, it can't be that bad...

Quantity-wise, I am not limiting my intake anymore, the way I used to when I counted points, but I try and go for the healthier things when I eat more. I'm definitely not doing the 'eating for two' thing. They say you only need about 300 extra calories a day. I have quickly realized that I am used to a certain quantity of food a day - but a quantity that is meant for weight loss - I have been on weight watchers for so long! 300 extra calories are on top of a much higher number of calories than what I am used to... something like 2000-2300 (Angie All the Way explained it well in her post on Feb. 8th - did you know she was pregnant as well?! :) So yeah - I think I am eating within the range, but I have not been counting - I figure if I keep eating as healthy as possible, then everything should be A-Ok...

Thanks for your comments/ideas ladies, that helps a lot!!! :)

next up - exercises!

So I'm pregnant...

2010-03-22T12:01:00.004-04:00

It doesn't feel really 'real' yet - well, except for the nausea and the heartburn and the weight gain... I have not 'clicked' yet - realized that this is really happening...

I waited to tell everyone until I was safely past the first trimester, the risk of miscarriage is really low as you get to the 2nd trimester... I was very scared to tell my work people, very anxious, as I am finishing a contract at the end of April, and my upcoming contract would keep me busy from the end of April until the end of February. Knowing that I will only be able to work for 4-5 of the 10 months of this contract, I was putting myself in a position where my employers might want to just hire someone else who would be able to just do the full 10 months... Anyways... There really hasn't been that much talk about 'details' yet, but they have given me enough indication that this contract was mine and I felt confident enough to go ahead and let them know... I just couldn't afford not to work starting in April. Not with a baby on the way - oy...

As for health and baby development - I think things are going ok - normal anyways... I am 14 weeks and 3 days along today, and I feel pretty miserable physically, but have high hopes that things will become easier in the 2nd trimester... I think this pregnancy will have changed the way I see food forever - My Oh My!!! I have been suffering from pretty intense 24hr nausea (I am medicated now and don't feel as bad- but I can still feel nausea a few times during the day...) Things I used to crave are now making me gag... and the only way to help it go away is eating... so I've piled up about 14 lbs so far. Yup I'm at 171lbs already. phew!

I have done very little exercise so far - I really need to improve on this. But I just feel so bad all day... I have good intentions of starting... any time now... any time...now... yeah... :)

I don't really have crazy cravings or anything like that - at least not yet - just things I can not think about or see without gagging... :) I tried to avoid reading some of my favorite food blogs because of that... it was tough! :) What's the worst is that you know that eating will help, so you try to plan what you could eat in you head, but then that makes you nauseous... ugh... a big challenge! I can't remember what it feels like to not have nausea every day anymore, I can't wait until it's all a thing of the past... :)

I'm sporting a little belly, and am already wearing some maternity clothes. Oooo maternity clothes are so comfortable!!!

I can't wait for the next ultrasound (should be in 4-6 weeks) where I get to possibly find out if it's a boy or a girl. I know a lot of people are into finding out at birth, but I just can't wait to find out!

I'll keep you posted... What would you like me to write about - do you have any questions? I'm a bit rusty, I think it'll take me a few posts to get back to my blogging rhythm - getting your feedback will help :)

I shall return...

2010-03-19T15:01:00.002-04:00

I let my work people know about what's going on today, so I am free to reveal why I have not blogged for the last 3 months:

see you back here soon...

In the right direction...

2010-01-18T11:25:00.002-05:00

translated from my french blog

I lost 0.2 lbs this week! So I am down to 157.0 lbs.

After a stellar week (that week I lost 0.6lbs) I had a pretty poor week where I didn't count anything at all. So I am pretty lucky to see a loss... But I don't worry about it too much - there are weeks where I am 'good' and I make an effort with WW, and there are weeks where I lose track and start eating like there won't ever be any more food in the world...

The important thing is not giving up at the first sign of difficulty, but rather to move on and start making better decisions now. In the end, the important thing is that there are more good weeks than bad weeks...

I decided to subscribe to that web clinic from the running room... It's a bit overwhelming, but I think I'm on to something... They give you a schedule to follow like the amount of km to run on what day of the week and everything... The goal is to gradually build up to being able to run a 10k - to complete a 10k, no matter how long it takes to run it... They have a lot of info online and it's really interesting...

I meant to say that the idea came to me when I read about Laura's experience, she did the 'in person' clinic and she wrote about it on her blog and I found it incredbly inspiring. She writes so well... It's thanks to her that I looked into the clinic in the first place, so Thank you Laura! :)

My sister came over from Montreal this weekend, and it was nice. She came with her friend and we all had lots of fun. It was nice to see my little sister!!! :)

The calm before the storm...

2010-01-05T12:37:00.003-05:00

translated from my french blog

I'm at work right now and I know that my afternoon will be slightly unpleasant and busy - so I am fully enjoying the last few minutes of calm before 1pm - that's when my first screening of 2010 will start! I'm having a leisurely lunch while reading some blogs :)

I did well yesterday - points-wise I did good! I replaced my potential evening snack with a slightly bigger portion of the dinner meal, and an extra glass of juice. I didn't even feel hungry later in the evening - wasn't even tempted to eat more! I ended up using 25 points - not too bad!

I have to say that I have a new distraction/addiction at home: Little Big Planet. Man! this game is fun! - S and I play together which is a plus... I find the game so beautiful - so cute! :) OK, it's not exactly the most 'active' activity I could do, but it does help keeping me distracted from snacks...

Today I 'pre-counted' my points for breakfast and lunch, which should help a lot. I know what I will have for dinner already and, while I have not counted it yet, I know it is pretty points friendly and so long as I 'measure' my servings properly, I should be A-OK on the points side today!

I'm thinking of maybe subscribing to a 'web clinic' from the running room, the 10k clinic. I don't know if it's a good idea? I have a feeling that if I pay for it I will feel the pressure and will find the motivation to train 'for real' ;) I'll think about it more seriously and get more info and I'll let you know!

Again And Again...

2010-01-04T12:19:00.002-05:00

translated from my french blog

Yup, that's right - 'twas the holiday season and I had a fun and lazy time :) Fell off track so much that I must consider this week as yet another 'new start'. But, let's not waist any time thinking about what was done wrong - let's move forward instead, yes? :)

Weigh In, Monday, January 4th, 2010: 157.8lbs

I 'pre-counted' my points for the day and I'm at 23 (I have a budget of 21 pts a day, so I borrowed 2 from my weekly pts...)

Now, let's face it. With the plans I made for dinner, hunger is definately going to come and haunt me some time in the evening and therefore more pts will potentially be consumed. Here's what I plan to do to minimize the damage:

to do - vacuum around the house
to do - exercise with the Wii or my Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred DVD

to eat - heat up some frozen veggies (0 pts)
to eat - half a 'Smart Pop' pop corn (2 pts)

to avoid - chocolate!

Running

I have thought about it a lot over the holidays and decided that I really like running - even if, except on the soccer pitch, I have not run at all since Oct. 17th for the Zoo Run. So, to motivate myself, I registered to 2 races for 2010:

The Harry Rosen 8k - April 3rd 2010
The Ottawa Race Weekend 10k - May 29th 2010

Two races that I am really excited about: S will run the 8k with me - wheeeee! - and the Ottawa race is - well, in Ottawa!!! :) Last time I went to Ottawa was in 1992 or 1993 I think? I can't even remember - so looking forward to it!

Anything interesting to do there? Will any of you be at the race? A good sushi restaurant to recommend? ;)

I think it's really going to be a great experience, and running a 10k is a goal that I am really looking forward to reach. In the meantime now I have some serious training to do! No choice! :)

In June I plan to also do the Pride Run - which will bring me 'full circle' - it was my very first time running a race ever last year, and it really was the most fun! :) And I will finally get to 'correct my route mistake' - ha ha ha - phew! :)

Dropping the ball - and not just in NYC! :)

2009-12-30T10:24:00.002-05:00

Hi there!

I just thought I would check in and say hi - boy have I 'dropped the ball' on my blogs recently - and my health as well... I need to find my focus again... I am positive that I will find it...

I have gained a lot of weight recently - funny how it comes back on so quick! as of the last time I weighted myself - I read 157lbs... phew! The positive in all this is I am really observing what I do when I eat my way into gaining weight, and I work towards understanding what's going on and how to adjust... I pay attention to how I eat and how I feel... Most often I have the alarm in my head that goes 'watch out, this is expensive in points, avoid it or have very little...' followed by 'oh I'll have just a little' and then 'this is so good I want mooooore'. And then I usually end up eating the remainder of the box.

I find my over eating often comes in the form of boredom/treat eating, or un-prepared eating... that's my weak spot. I have to PLAN PLAN PLAN! I really struggle with that. As for boredom/treat eating, I need to find something to do instead of eating. Or at least, prepare something healthy to snack on - cut up bell peppers or something... But ideally, something that involves moving around would be best!

For 2010, I want to work on planning my meals and making exercise a better part of my routine.

I also have to think hard about my work as my contract/project ends in about 6 months... I am always debating about continuing to work hard at it and keep working in my field, or just plain changing careers...

I often remember the words of Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld) when I think of my work, he said that when the show started he had trouble writing it, that writing it felt like an impossible amount of work. When the show got picked up and he was asked to write 22 episodes he thought - there is NO WAY I can write any more of these - it's impossible, it's way too difficult, way too stressful! Yet, he went on to write several seasons.

I often feel that way about my work - like there is no way I can survive working through X amount of episodes. But I always end up somehow finishing it... which is just so unbelievable to me. Anyways, it's very stressful and at the very least, if I continue to work in my industry, I need to find a better way to deal with that stress. Because it is far from being healthy... I can say though that I have done a lot of progress in that realm this year - I started off the year with physical signs of being stress non-stop, and ended up the year far more relaxed about the whole thing, mostly through internal dialog in the lines of 'calm down, do what you can, one thing at a time' I tried to stop the 'panic' before it happened by making sure I 'decided' to keep positive about difficult situations, taking on the many challenges while trying to stay calm.

Biggest thing I realized was - you are the one who decides how you react to things with 'panic' and there is no need for that. It's not the people around you who are making this stressful, it's you. Keep positive. One thing at a time. Easy does it. Breathe in, Breathe out...

I am not saying this quite the way I would like to - but hopefully it makes sense...

ok, I better start some work around the house now!

Have a happy new year guys!!

HAPPY 2010!!!!!!!!!

Week 2 - 155.2 lbs (+0.8)

2009-12-01T13:22:00.004-05:00

translated from my french blog

The negative part:
I was 'on plan' for the first 2 days of the week, and then I 'lost track'.
I managed to eat 50 points I didn't have!

The positive part:
I was 'on plan' for 2 days!
I used my e-tool and tracked for 5 days!

My goals this week:
Continue to plan ahead (I think that goal will stick around for a while - it will be on the list until I succeed!:)
Continue to track with e-tool, everyday!

Idea to solve one of my recurring problems:
instead of hunting for a snack in my cupboards whenever I feel like one, I should prep myself some veggies or fruits to snack on - if I don't have any in the house: go out and buy some!!!

Today's plan (Monday)

Breakfast: Corn Bran cereal and skim milk.
Lunch: Mexican Rice WW Smart One (frozen meal). Some asparagus.
PM Snack: Activia Yogurt and a WW Chocolate Chip 1 point cookie.
Dinner: Home made beef Chili, a serving of corn chips to go with it. A Glass of low sodium v8.

should not have had: 4 caramel candy thingys at work and a pastry/dessert when our neighbors came over for a visit this evening.

Plan for Tuesday:

Breakfast: Corn Bran cereal and skim milk.
Lunch: Mexican Rice WW Smart One (frozen meal). Some fresh cut melons.
PM Snack: Activia Yogurt (I forgot to bring a cookie! but I'm not too hungry so far...)
Dinner: Some leftover home made beef Chili, a serving of corn chips to go with it. A Glass of low sodium v8.

Have a nice evening!

Let's start over...

2009-11-23T11:16:00.002-05:00

translated from my french blog: On recommence...

At the beginning, the point of this blog was to help me track my weight loss. It worked well from January to July 2008, and then I hit a loooooong plateau. I lost about 7 pounds during the first edition of 'BLBE' about a year ago, and since then, I have maintained my weight at around 150 lbs.

Today, back from my 2 week holiday/wedding/honeymoon: 154.4 lbs.

So I am motivated to start again and follow the program more seriously this week.

On Sunday night, I prepared 5 meals for this week's lunches - 5 points each. I also filled my 'e-tool' with this info. I think I can progress and lose some weight if I make an effort in planing what I will eat ahead of time. Calculate my points ahead of 'eating them'. I've made the mistake of guessing how many points I eat and not journaling for too long now. Oh I have about 10 points left for today so I can afford to eat a little more chocolate... when in reality I was already out of points for the day...

I think that if I calculate my points before meals, I will be less likely to want to eat too much and have to count more unplanned points...

That's my goal this week: Count all my points a day ahead. Counting before eating...

one goal at a time right?

one, two, three, GO!

Sneak Peek :)

2009-11-07T10:17:00.002-05:00

Will be back home in a week or so...

meanwhile here's a sneak peek :)

Countdown...

2009-11-04T09:13:00.000-05:00

5 hours to go...

My Sixth 5k (Toronto Zoo Run)

2009-10-26T13:21:00.006-04:00

translated from my french blog

warning, the following post is really long... phew!

Today (as in Oct 17th. I didn't feel like translating for the longest time! :P) for the first time S ran a 5k with me!!! It was the Oasis Zoo Run. Wheee :) We ran in our neighborhood a few times to practice together and I noticed right away that he is well ahead of me when it comes to speed - oh la la! It's crazy how easy it seems for him! When we train together he is nice - since I'm much slower than him he runs ahead at his own pace and then he loops back to meet me so that I always have him in sight. For his very first race though, I wanted him to give all he had and not wait for me, I was really curious to see what kind of time he could finish in! :)

It was 2 ºC outside (35.6 ºF) this morning - I didn't have the 'courage' to run in shorts - brrrr. But S decided to be brave and do it. Let's just say that getting there an hour early and having to wait in the cold was not very pleasant - I was so cold myself, I can't imagine how cold he must have been!

Unfortunately, these are the only 2 shots that made it to the memory card, even though I thought I took a bunch of shots before the race. The batteries were really low, that must be why... Too bad, I had some better shots in there - but I guess they just don't exist anymore :( oh well...

At the start line, they had organized people in 'waves' based on how long it would take to finish. We went to the 28-32 area, the second wave to start, one minute after the official start (the course was just too 'small' to let all the participants in at the same time...)

When we finally started running, S asked for my help to start his iPod, a few clicks and it worked, as soon as it did off he went... He ran so fast, he quickly disappeared in the crowd ahead of me, I was so proud! Go S GO!!! :)

There were a lot of hills on the course - oh boy oh boy - pretty difficult! (Hills that I inexplicably didn't anticipate even though I was right there visiting the zoo with my co-workers back in april... pffff!)

There were some 'loops' during the race where you got to run facing the runners that were ahead of you (how do you call/explain that? does it make sense?) anyways... So at the first 'loop' I kept an eye on the oncoming runners to see if I could spot S, I eventually saw him, all focused and concentrated! So concentrated that he didn't evn react when I yell woo hoo at him and waved :) It took me what seemed like a minute to a minute and a half to get to the point where I met him - I was so impressed when I realized that! WOW!

Somewhere around the 3rd km I started having cramps :( I tried to breathe calmly/deeply/slowly to see if it would go away, but the air was too cold, which kind of made it worse (exercise induced asthma/coughing etc.) But I was hanging in there... a few minutes later I started to feel pretty intense 'TOM' cramps - ouch So I ended up stopping twice to walk a little bit, it was brief, but it was needed...

By the time I got to 4km, I was really giving everything I had to this race - you're doing fine, don't pay attention you're not in pain... don't stop! don't stop! Eventually I heard a volunteer yell ''100m to go!'' So I started pushing and accelerating. I sprinted to the finish line... oof! this had to be the toughest sprint I ever ran, more difficult than any other race I did before - but I did it!!! The clock said '34:13' when I crossed the finish line (so 33:13, if you remove the extra minute we waited for being in the 'second wave') My HRM says 32:30 though... and I really clicked a bit before the start line and really waited until after the finish line to stop it... So my time was ok I guess, somewhere between 32:30 and 33:13. Not too bad...

I quickly spotted S in the crowd after finishing, faster then my stomach/lungs recovered so I had to collect myself before asking him how he did, hee hee... after a minute I said 'how........ long... you....?' He said that theclock said 28:30 when he crossed the finish line!!! (As in 27:30 if you remove the 1 minute offset...) WOAH!!!! I was so proud of him!!! His very first 5k and he does it in 27:30!!! Imagine if the course would've been flat - he would've been even faster!!

ok now I'm jealous! hee hee, just joking ;)

It's our last race before our wedding on Nov. 4th... in a little over one week... We plan to run on our honeymoon at Disney World, I looked it up and there are a few paths available... it's going to be so much fun to run there! Like a little bit of extra summer time to enjoy running outdoors :) From now until the wedding we have cut out all activities to avoid getting any injuries hee hee do you think we're being too 'safe'? :) Let's just say I'd rather be safe than sorry...

Last Sunday, we went to cheer on our soccer team (we're officially on the team but we're not playing until after the wedding...) and a girl from the opposite team fell on her wrist, you know, a typical fall where you would just get up and forget about it. Well, when she checked her wrist with her other hand she immediately lost all color in her face - the pieces of her arm were not in the right place anymore. Both teams were in shock to see what happened to her. I'm pretty sure she must have broken the bones in her forearm, her arm was like a 'Z'. She left in an ambulance and the game continued - everybody was slightly less, um... competitive after that... I think it really traumatized everybody - she kept repeating (please forgive the swearing...) ''My arm, it's fucked! It's fucked!''

so yeah - maybe it is a good idea that we're not playing after all... :)

Anyways, I'll keep an eye on the web site for the race to see if they post some photos, I'll update this post if they do...

A thing I meant to mention though is that both S and I have been sneezing like crazy since we got back from the Zoo, S more than me (he tends to be allergic to a bunch of things...) I wonder if it has to do with the animals at the zoo, or if it's just that we caught a cold or something...

Also, go see Marie's video of the 'finish line' on her blog - she ran the 10k at the zoo this morning! WOO HOO Marie!!! If I run today, it's in big part thanks to her - she persuaded me to try a race, which led to me 'training for the race'... And she always generously encourages me... I am totally addicted to running now - wheeeeee!! :)

My Fifth 5k...

2009-10-04T18:17:00.002-04:00

translated from my french blog...

So I completed my fifth 5k this morning, it was for the CIBC Run for the Cure. My new shoes made their first appearance :) Speaking of which, it was when I bought them at the Running Room that I was told that this event attracts even more people than the Scotiabank run!

woah!

And boy was that true! It was kind of hard to find my way, the signage wasn't very clear... That might be because it wasn't an 'official' race but rather a 'fun run' - as I was told when I picked up my kit... There was going to be no official time recorded, no 'chip'.

But that's not so bad, because the 'charity' part of the event was really cool. It just felt like it was much more about that than it was about running... Sometimes you gotta do it for the charity right? ;)

I really enjoyed seeing all the 'bibs' that people were wearing that said who they were running for. Certainly made for interesting reading material during the race hee hee :)

Since the official shirt was white, I decided to go for my yellow 'Acura' shirt again, easier for S to find me in the crowd... :)

The race was supposed to start at 10am, but it was delayed, not sure why, although the 30 000 people present might have had to do with it... we actually started closer to 10:14...

It was pretty tight in there, but people around me were running pretty slowly, which helped me pass them all, mua ha ha ha It sounds silly, but the fact that I had to pass people a lot to keep a 'decent' pace definitely helped a lot with accomplishing this:

At the finish line, I looked at my watch (which I wore specifically because there wouldn't be a chip, to get a sense of how much time it took me and all...) and I couldn't believe my eyes - here I am, getting ready to show S with a 'no way - that's impossible!' look on my face

ha ha, I realized you can't see the info on that shot, so I took a new shot when I got home, here's what it said:

Wha??? 28:38? No way!!! According to S, the big clock at the finish line with the 'gun time' was indeed showing something like 28/29... Really? Ok, I guess I'll never know for sure without the official results of the chip, but I think it's safe to say that I beat my 32:19 personal best for sure! Wheeeee!! :)

My next race is the 'Zoo Run' at the Toronto Zoo. This time is special, this time S will accompany me!!!!!!! :) It's another 5k, and I am really looking forward to run it with him. This will be the last race before our wedding too :) I'm not quite sure if there it's a 'chipped' race or not yet, but we'll see...

Speaking of S, I have to tell you that all these races I've been running recently, I couldn't have done them without him. He's my #1 supporter! He encourages me so much - he drives and comes with me to all the events, he always reminds me to and helps me prepare, he has a wonderfully positive attitude about the whole thing and it motivates me so much! I think he genuinely enjoys watching the races :)

and now, I leave you with something I would just prefer leaving 'un-explained':

And also - thank you all for your encouragements - I think of the blogosphere all the time when I run, I wouldn't have dared to try this if it wasn't for you guys! so THANK YOU!!!! :)

My Fourth 5k

2009-09-28T20:47:00.003-04:00

translated from my french blog...

This Sunday I participated in my fourth 5k event. It was for the Scotiabank Waterfront 5k.

20 000 runners were expected this year for the 20th anniversary! (running in the marathon, the half marathon or the 5k) There was a LOT of people at Nathan Phillip Square - phew!

It was so crowded at the finish line - S couldn't get a spot close by... This was his view of the finish:

I was well prepared this time. My outfit and gear was all in one place, ready to go. I had breakfast plans (Ezekiel bread and peanut butter with a glass of milk, yummy) I tried to 'apply' my new strategy : convince my brain that what I was about to do was easy... :)

So I started in the middle of the crowd in the yellow corral, about 2 hours after arriving on site (the start of the 5k was at the CNE this year, so there were shuttle buses from downtown to the start line...)

When I started running, I noticed I had some lower back pain, felt like muscle cramps of some sort. I guesses it was probably because I was a little cold and had been standing for a while... it worried me a little bit, but it quickly went away, phew!

A little later, I noted that there was a problem in my shoe - pain that I could only assume was due to the nail from one of my toes cutting into another toe... ouch! I tried to somewhat 'spread' my toes apart in there, but quickly realized there wasn't much I could do about it at that point, so I kept going...

Everything was going well, my strategy was working perfectly until I saw this hill that I was familiar with since I drove on it thousands of times - man I thought the brochure said the course was flat!! My brain was instantly and inevitably distracted - oh la la...

ok Marie, don't stop, keep running, you can do this

uh oh, that's tough!

it's ok it's ok, no big deal, let's just keep going, all that matters it that you keep running

but.... uh.... but..... it's difficult......

I kept running, all the way up. But my pace took a beating and my comfort/strategy - pffff... gone! I needed. to. walk. I still kept running until I got to the water station, where I dangerously slowed down to drink.. and then... and then... I walked for a bit.

A the end of the water station area there was a nice volunteer who was cheering on runners she said something along the lines of 'Come on you're almost there, don't stop now!' That gave me the kick I needed to start running again.

At that point, I started thinking about the finish line. Thinking about how I was doing for time... my goal was to finish faster than 32:19. So when I finally turned left on Bay Street, I checked my time and my iPod said 26 minutes. Wow! I was impressed! Being just a couple blocks away from the finish line meant I was doing really really well. So I started accelerating. It goes Front, the King, then Queen right? Here comes Front, yeah! Ok, time to push it a little more! then came Wellington (huh?) that's ok, keep going faster you're almost there! Then came King, ah!!! good, almost there push it!! Adelaide (wha???) man! ok how many more streets now?
Temperance St......
Richmond St..............
and Queeeeeeeeen!!!!
and FINALLY - the finish line!!!! Wheeeeeee!!!

Official results: 32:32 minutes

1311/4249 for the 5k runners
640/2769 for womens
148/474 for my category
pace: 6:44

Wheeeee!! Phew! Only 13 seconds above my goal - not too bad at all!! :)

Another 5k - done!

I found the finish line pretty crowded, I probably lost 1 second there, pfff ;) it really was crazy crowded past the finish line though and I started to worry, wondering if I would find S easily...

Let's play where's Waldo :) I was wearing my green shirt from the TO Women's 5k (I officially decided on a new tradition to wear the shirt from the last race on all my races if possible)

Oh there! I found you!!! :)

After the long path toward the exit and through the food station........

............ S and I 'found' each other and we left the race site. We went to the Running Room right away to get my reward: These super duper new running shoes!! :) (My old shoes were going on 4 years... they are now my designated 'yard work shoes' hee hee

When I took my shoe off at the store to try on some new pairs, I noticed that my sock was bloody - oooops! My toe nail was cutting my other toe after all - oh well! Luckily I had packed another pair of socks... I feel so tough now, yeah! ha ha ha ha

My next race? The CIBC Run for the Cure... Next Sunday! Ouiiiiiii :)

Later!!

My Third 5k

2009-09-25T20:16:00.001-04:00

translated from my french blog...

Ok, even if I mistakenly ran for 3.5 km on my first 5k event, I decided it still counted - so from now on, I will include the Pride Run when I count my races. That being said, on August 29th, I ran my 3rd 5k :)

It was the TO Women's 5k. I was better prepared for that race... I got to wear the shirt from my previous 5k at the Acura 10 miler - which ended up being perfect for S, it was easy for him to find me in the crowd!

Can you see the yellow shirt in there? :)

I bought some 'real running shorts' for the occasion. Hmmm, a little short... I decided it doesn't really matter how it looks if it helps me run better :)

I was a bit nervous because I really didn't train much before that race, but I was still determined to improve my time from my previous race. So I pushed hard - I wanted to beat that time so bad! I ended up having to walk a little bit because I had a cramp. It was a very hot and humid day, it was difficult... but I did it!

The results?

Acura 10 Miler: 33:57 minutes
Toronto Women's 5k: 32:19 minutes.

32:19!!! WOW! I was proud of myself.

Next I am running the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon. The 5k, not the marathon!! hee hee I'm looking forward to it. I am a bit nervous because I trained even less this time around. I ran yesterday for 35 minutes though, and I would say it was actually pretty 'easy'.

I decided I wouldn't be hard on myself if it felt difficult (after all - I had not run in 2 weeks - oy!) I put myself in this mindset: it's ok, all I have to do is keep going for at least 32 minutes. I told myself: 'pffff it's going to be easy, 32 minutes is nothing! I can to this no problem...' and it worked!!! It was kind of easy. I spent the whole time thinking about my wedding planning, it was fun and very comfortable! If it was that easy every time I go for a run, I would sign up for a 10k! I'll try and trick myself into thinking that running is easy again on race day.

Calm down Marie, we can do this, it's going to be easy, all that matters is that we keep running...

I would really like to get a new record for the Scotiabank race and do it in even less time than the women's race. I'll push it, be uncomfortable for half an hour, but then there will be lots of joy, wheeee :) ha ha ha

ok that's it for now!

I would like to say Good Luck to some lovely TO blogger ladies who are running on Sunday:

Mouse
Eurydice
and
Angela

The are a great source of inspiration to me and they are all running the half marathon WOW! Good Luck Ladies!!!! :)

November 4th 2009

2009-09-07T14:48:00.002-04:00

That's in 2 months. In 2 months I will be in New York City and it will be S's and my wedding day.
I have so much to prepare. Lots of things happened since I got engaged in February 2008:

I lost 35 lbs.
I successfully finished my first contract in Toronto.
I started a new (and extremely stressful) work contract.
I started to blog in english.
I started running.
I participated in 3 x 5k events.

Yeah, that's about all I can think of for now... My life is all about work these days. But let's not talk about that...

So here's the deal. I want to push myself to exercise seriously in the last 2 months I have before I wear what will probably be the only dress I will ever wear, and be photographed more than I probably ever will be in my life. My dress is strapless and short... it will show my arms and my legs... I know these photos will be around for a while and that is a very scary thing. Maybe that's somewhat 'shallow' but hey, I just would like to feel good enough in my skin to forget about how I look and enjoy every minute of that special day... and right now I just don't...

I know it is now impossible for me to be at my 'goal weight' by November 4th, so I will focus instead on strengthening my muscles, and tracking all my food properly. We'll see if the scale is nice or not. At this point I have maintained my weight at around 150 lbs for about a year, so it is safe to think that I will be 150 lbs in 2 month whether I like it or not... I would really like to lose 10 lbs (weight 140 lbs) by then, but it will not be the end of the world if I don't.

It's going to be a tough 2 months, intense in work and exercises, but I think it will be worth it, right? I get to enjoy the first 2 weeks holiday I had in 10 years! I need it sooooooo bad!

Now all I need is to stay focused long enough to come up with a plan... hmmmmm........

Booty Camp Fitness Day 5 + 6 + 7 + 8

2009-08-23T12:46:00.004-04:00

I finished my 4 weeks of Booty Camp Fitness and here are the long awaited results:

I did not lose weight but... I can definitely see that my body is visibly more 'toned' - I can see my ab muscles a bit now and my legs seem a little slimmer... I couldn't believe it!

I lost an official 4.5 inches!!! Wow! That's more than an inch per week - that's pretty good isn't it? I lost those inches in my chest, hips, bum and thighs mostly... My clothes are getting a little bit lose actually...

During the last 4 sessions of the camp we did some circuits, with a good mix of cardio, legs/arm strength training and abs. Every session Leigha increased the difficulty by having us do more challenging exerices but also by increasing the amount of time that we would do intense work between the small breaks... basically making our bodies stronger every time, improving our performance every time...

I really appreciated how she showed us to do so many effective moves that require no equipment - lots of ab exercises that I had not seen/done before. I really loved the ab work that she made us do, it was very thorough in the sense that it made us work every single ab muscle in every angle - you were working hard, but you were changing positions enough that you could keep going and push it... It really opened my eyes to that kind of exercise and how important having a strong core is and how it doesn't have to be just 'crunches'...

I liked all the leg exercises that we did too. I find that my legs felt so good the next day, gave me that 'spring' in my step!! :)

And I also got to try new arm exercises - my arms are soooo weak... I remember when we lived in MTL and S and I would walk to the grocery store and bring back bags and bags of stuff... he would carry 10 while I would carry 2 light ones, and I would still manage to have to take a break halfway and put them down... lol Starting from that point, with little to no strength in my arms, it is pretty much impossible for me to do push ups... At the Booty Camp, I learned 'moves' that are easy enough for me to do, and challenging enough to get results, and improve my arms' strength which I had pretty much given up on...

So overall, I really enjoyed the experience of the 4 weeks Booty Camp Fitness. Leigha our instructor was really fun and absolutely into feedback from the class, she was keeping things varied so it was never boring, and whenever someone had a request she would adapt the session to include it... She was very friendly and encouraging but she still kept things challenging - I am pretty competitive and I wouldn't have liked it if it wouldn't have been tough, you know? LOL

You can look them up at www.bootycampfitness.com - they have 95 locations in Canada so most likely there's a location near you! They have classes starting in September so don't wait and sign up soon!! I would definitely recommend it!!

A Sweet Potato Weekend!

2009-08-09T19:48:00.007-04:00

This weekend, S and I somehow ended up having the same craving for sweet potatoes - first in the form of these Sweet Potato chips from 'Food Should Taste Good' - I loooove these, ingredients list I can pronounce, taste I am addicted to... a nice treat!

Then we took it to the next level and made a typical Québécois meal - a poutine. Warning! This is not a point friendly meal (well it could be if you used a looooot less cheese... but it wouldn't be very nutritious...)

All you need is some sweet potato fries

Some gravy (my gravy of choice is the St-Hubert brand, of course. It's available for sure in Ontario and in Québec, but I'm not sure about the rest of Canada... probably not available in other countries...)

and some cheese curds - or like they say in Saguenay - some fromage 'skouik skouik'

And voilà! Just like in the Belle Province! :)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Not a good way to end a very inactive weekend due to neck injury, but hey, you gotta treat yourself sometimes! :) We used to have poutine all the time when we lived in Québec, and this was our first 'at home poutine' in more than 2 years... so I think it's ok :)

We did go out to a very special event on Friday night though! We went to see Toronto FC play vs Real Madrid!! It was - interesting... Man these Real Madrid guys were so good - so fast! As a soccer player myself - I really admired their tactics and skills... and their speed!
It was so funny how some guys at work requested that I take photos for them!! LOL I am a very lucky girl! It was a very special event, we don't get soccer royalty often over here!!

Here's the final score ;)

I almost felt bad (almost...) for Christiano Ronaldo - every time he had the ball people were boo-ing him... Anyways, it certainly was a spectacular evening - a once in a lifetime opportunity! :)

Booty Camp Fitness Day 2 + 3 + 4

2009-07-23T13:00:00.001-04:00

I am still working out with the Booty Camp Fitness peoples on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my instructor Leigha is kicking butts!!

Here's a quick recap of the last Day 2 + 3 + 4 sessions!

Day 2
I was still sore from the previous Tuesday. ouch. But I was there to give it my all and push it! We did some hopping from and to a squat position - OMG my legs were hurting so much :) then we did some circuits, half the group would do abs while the other was going through the circuit, then we would switch and repeat... I was confused at first, I thought we were doing this once and that was it - so I pushed it 110%. But then I realized we were going to do this 3 or 4 more times - phew! Let's just say I slept like a baby that night! LOL That was a great workout!

Day 3
That Tuesday, we were split into 6 groups and did 6 groups of 'circuits' then we repeated. It was a little easier for me than the previous week, but still enjoyable!

Day 4
Leigha, our instructor, changed the music as per someone's request - that was a nice touch, even though I didn't mind the music so much. She is really good at changing things up and motivating you, she really listens to the feedback she gets from the 'recruits' and makes sure she asks for feedback when people are too quiet (which I tend to be hee hee) That's nice. When she asked us about the kind of exercise we do and if we preferred one type over the others, we all said we preferred just mixing things up... And she has not repeated a single exercise even once! I certainly appreciate the variety... it's never boring! :)
That day we did some hops over each other - some people fell, it was not pretty, lol... but very nice and very challenging. Then we did some 2 by 2 exercises, and did some arms exercise - I was just about to make that request if we were not going to work out the arms on day 4 (my arms are soooo weak :) but I didn't even have to! I was feeling muscles I didn't know I had for the following few days lol

I have no complaints so far - Leigha is great at keeping us interested and listening to people's feedback. I sometimes have a hard time getting the instructions quick enough (you know, with my being a frenchy and all) but as soon as we start I just look at what other people are doing for confirmation and all is good - I honestly prefer it if we keep going - I would hate it myself if we spent a long time just getting instructions on how to do things, and less time working out... During the poses she keeps giving instructions on proper form, to help people adjust and know what to focus on...

It's good and bad that there won't be any camps this august, I would have liked to keep going, but at the same time, I want to go back to training for my running. And I do like the flexibility of exercising at home whenever works for me (even though it's more challenging to get the motivation to work out at home)... Going out and having a commitment to exercising at the Booty Camp ensures that I do it... no excuses! I don't go through my usual big ''pre-work out negotiation'' between my brain and my body:)

I signed up for it, I gotta do it... end of story. And it's fun, so I look forward to it too!

Registration is open for September Booty Camps - go sign up quick before they all fill up! There are locations all over Canada, so don't hesitate! It's super fun and it brings great results!! :)

Desi Chef - New frozen meals...

2009-07-21T10:30:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I had the chance to try a new line of frozen meals - Desi Chef. (Available at some Sobey's grocery stores in the GTA)

S and I were so excited to try their butter chicken and get to review it - we couldn't wait- we loooove indian food :)

The chicken was nice and tender, good sized pieces (it was not 'plastic-y' or 'chewy' like what you find in typical frozen meals) it looked, tasted and felt closer to real chicken you would cook at home. It was dead easy to prepare too - 11 minutes in the microwave, stirring once after 7 minutes.

The sauce was nice and thick, the taste was heavenly. The right combination of spices... very yummy! It was a good amount of food - good portion size...

Had it with some quick basmati rice from Uncle Ben's.

I would definitely recommend it and will definitely buy it again (and again, and again... :)

Here's the nutritional info:

It's 2 points per serving (there's 3.5 servings per container - I had a full container which adds up to 8,5 points.) It's a bit on the high side of the amount of points I like to have for a meal - but it was well worth it - and, I mean: we're talking about butter chicken here, that's as points friendly as butter chicken will get without losing yummy-ness!! :)

I hope they become available in more stores and in more cities soon! Looking forward to see what other meals they offer...

My first 5k = My second 5k!!!!

2009-07-19T10:46:00.001-04:00

Yay!!! I HAVE COMPLETED A 5K!!!!! WOOOO HOOO:)

A real one... not like at the Pride Run where I got confused on the course and only ended up running 3,5 km... I ran a full 5 k race!!! I am so proud of myself!! I don't know the official result yet (the timing chip people have not posted it yet...) But I think it's somewhere around 33m, which is so much better than I ever imagined I could do!!!

*******
UPDATE! Here's the official info: 33:57 minutes :)

361/444 overall 5k runners
189/253 overall women
45/56 in my category
pace: 7:31

*******

I was so not prepared though - I put together my shorts, shirt (the one I got from the Pride Run :) my bra and my iPod in a bag before I went to bed. Set my alarm to wake up at 6h30am which would give me about 30 minutes to prep before I had to leave... I heard the alarm, but I didn't get up right away... I didn't wake up until 7h03!!!

Panic!!!

Where are my shoes, what am I going to have for breakfast, we don't have time to go park at S's work and walk to the event anymore, so where do I leave all my stuff?! ..... I did get ready clikety quick, grabbed a few granola bars to eat in the car on the way, then S dropped me off to get my race kit and he met me later at the start line, where he offered to hold on to my 'stuff' (I had the race kit and my wallet, etc.) PHEW! :)

I was still pumped and excited to get a chance to finish 'a real 5k' this time, and I was happy to get started... S thought of bringing his camera - I had forgotten mine - he's so smart :)

That's me smiling at S just after the start ;)

And there I am on my way, headed to Lakeshore... (I'm on the far right, with the white letters on my bum :)

And that's me after the finish line - sticking out my tongue :)

Wait a minute, I didn't stop my iPod!

Anyways, I think I did pretty good considering I have not been running in over a week (I did exercise though - 2 days of soccer tournament, then one night of soccer, then 2 nights of Booty Camp Fitness!) So I'm quite happy...

I know a few of the Toronto blog ladies were doing the same race (which is also a 10-miler) I hope they did well and had fun on the course! Can't wait to read the updates over at Mouse's :)

I have lots of post subjects lined up next - I'm behind on blogging because of all the exercise I am doing nowadays - not a bad thing ;) Some of the stuff I want to write about soon:

Booty Camp Fitness
Angela's On the Glo Bars (Oh She Glows)
I was tagged by Julie for a Q&A
Desi Chef Frozen meals
Wedding stuff (I have a dress!!!:)

ok that's about it for now - I hope you all have a wonderfull Sunday :)

Amazing Giveaway on Oh She Glows!

2009-07-13T12:56:00.000-04:00

Angela over at Oh She Glows is giving away some amazing grass products - man I want to try these after seeing them all over the blogosphere!!
You can still enter here !
Good Luck :)

Booty Camp Day 1

2009-07-07T21:00:00.000-04:00

Ayoye! (this is a Québécois ''expression'' used when 'ouch' doesn't quite cut it... :)

Ok. First of all, I have to mention that I spend my Sunday evening (8-11pm) playing soccer (1 hour non stop, 1 hour break, 1 other hour non-stop) and I was feeling it big time on Monday morning, and feeling it even more today... Then, I attended my first day of

AYOYE!!! :)

It was awesome! Nice park by the water with a nice breeze... The instructor, Leigha, was great with lots of energy, she was fun :)

We started with a quick fitness assessment and weigh in - apparently I have tiny arms :) (well not sure if it's a good or bad thing? :) It was the end of the day, with all my clothes on and my shoes... I weighed in at 154.5 - not too bad I think! I also got a DVD with at home workout sessions and a booklet, which I will explore more tomorrow... Lots of english reading for the frenchie ;)

We did series of jog/strength training/abs exercises, lots of variety, which I liked... I did ok on my running around, but I need to work on the strength some more - oh la la, my legs are shake-y :) And I pretty much have zero arm strength... ha ha ha But that's why I'm there isn't it? :)

I liked that you don't have to think of anything you just let go and follow your leader... I like not having to count and time everything... It was like a class really, but outdoors.

The only negative I would say was that I definitely didn't pick the right spot to place my yoga mat, I seemed to be on an angle and had a bit of trouble keeping proper form... I'll pick my spot better next time :)

One of the ladies who was starting her second half of the 8 weeks program said that she had already lost a total of 10 inches -wow! I think that what's great about this is I'm committed to it, all I have to do is go to the 'appointments' and do the exercise, push it, and come back home - It would be pretty difficult for me to screw this up, hee hee I think if I just stick to it, I can get similar results! And it's fun, so what else could I ask for? :)

I came back home and had a wrap with eggs, spinach and tomatoes with a lil cheese. Yummy. I had my last WW cookie from the box I bought as a treat, and that's it! It reminded me of something that Roni often says on her blog that stuck in my head recently: one good decision leads to another, so start your day right... something like that - go read her post, she writes it much better than I do :) Anyways, when I had my dinner tonight, after a nice workout, I felt I didn't need to snack as much, that's why I'm thinking of that right now...

It's been a pretty tough day at work today, and I am very upset about it... I think I need to do some serious thinking, but I just feel like distracting myself away from the problem... ugh...

but I don't want to bore you with any more work talk... I'm exhausted and don't have access to my own computer right now, so I'm going to skip the food photos for today... Glad you enjoy my 'one photo per meal' idea Fatinah :) I'll continue doing that... it's just so much faster for me too anyway...

ok, am I getting rambly or what? hee hee I'm out... good night!

Glo Bakery...

2009-07-06T22:37:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention, I am super excited to have ordered some of Angela's famous Glo Bars today. I just can't wait to try them out!!!!!!! :)

Exercise Schedule...

2009-07-06T22:01:00.000-04:00

Ok, I have tried all night to find a way to upload pictures to blogger without it taking too long and I failed. Now I am frustrated and out of time :( Enough to make me consider switching to wordpress... but I digress... actually, I think I just thought of another way... wait a minute while I try it...

...................

Got it! It's way past my bed time now - so I didn't get to do much with the layout - and the image quality is not great... but here is what I ate today:

For Breakfast:

Lunch:

And dinner...

I have my first Booty Camp Fitness session tomorrow night -Yay! I will talk about it when I get home... I can't wait!

I just realized today that I have a pretty decent exercise plan for July:

Monday Nights : Soccer
Tuesday Nights: Booty Camp
Wednesday : Running
Thursday Nights: Booty Camp
Friday: Running
Saturday or Sunday: Extra Booty Camp at home day...

Phew!

Ok, I would have worked on this post more, but I'm out of time...

Do you have any tips/advice for uploading pictures on Blogger?

Have a super duper Tuesday! :)

Amy's 15 Week Chalenge - Weeks 1 + 2

2009-07-06T13:50:00.000-04:00

Starting Weight 150.2 lbs

Week 2 - I gained 0.2lbs (151.2)
Week 1 - I gained 0.8lbs (151.0)

Oh wait - I am supposed to lose weight?!! Aaaaaaaaah! well that makes more sense... Now this week I'll do that...

pfff

I think I've snapped myself out of it - will be more serious this week...

Tagged...

2009-07-03T17:10:00.000-04:00

A loooooooooooong time ago, the lovely Mel from A Box of Chocolates gave me an award/tagged me. I was very excited and looking forward to participate - so I started my list, but didn't finish it: I couldn't find 10 things to list... So an incomplete list has been sitting in my 'drafts' folder ever since (Feb 1st!!!) Well I finally finished it today and here it goes:

I am crazy in love with New York City. (Which is partially why S and I are getting married there this Fall...) My life long dream is to live there some day... Anyone want to offer me a job in NYC? ;)
I hate onions. Can't eat them, and honestly, I don't understand how people like them - they have a weird texture and they make you stink... why eat them? :)
I love chocolate, and I like nuts. But I can't eat them together, just don't like it - it's like my brain can't compute the mix of these 2 flavors...
I never wear make-up - I have no idea what products are out there and what they are meant for... really... lol
At work, a lot of people have said that I come across as a very organized person - but I am the absolute opposite. Well maybe that's not fair - I am extremely messy but I can find my way in my mess - well, most of the time...
I pretty much taught myself English by listening to other people talk and watching movies so it often happens that I will ''pick up'' someone's accent when I speak to them, which is sometimes a bit awkward :)
I am an extremely shy person (seriously, it's a real problem...) One example of how shy I am is how I am uncomfortable with eating in front of somebody - I always avoid eating out with people but if I have to go, I'll pick something simple that I can eat neatly with a fork and a knife and I will cover my mouth a lot... or else I will just not finish it... Last time I was offered a job I was invited to lunch by my potential employers and without thinking I ordered a club sandwich - and it was a huge sandwich - why oh why did I do that ?!! It was already stressful enough to be there to talk about my next contract! I was so uncomfortable - I think I swallowed a lot of bites without chewing them :)
I am 'absent-minded' (I just learned that word playing Sims 3 and find it is so accurate to decribe me :) I get distracted very easily...
When eating a meal, I will wait until I'm done with all the food before drinking anything. Always been like that - as a kid my mom used to push me to drink during the meal, but I couldn't, and for some reason that used to drive her nuts lol
I am addicted to MLS (the real estate web site :) I love seeing the inside of people's houses... I really just enjoy all things houses/renos in general...

That's it!

Thank you so much for the award Mel - and thank you for your patience :)

I have been tagged by Julie to do another fun question-and-answer-style list - Thank you for tagging me Julie and don't worry, I'm working on it!

My first 5k?!

2009-06-27T17:20:00.001-04:00

I went to the Pride Run today! It was such a nice and sunny day, with a little breeze to keep you comfortable...

I followed everybody's advice and hydrated well (not too much) before the race :)

so here is how I did today:

It says I was 227th out of 810 people! I did the race in 23 minutes and 11 seconds, at a pace of 5:01, 39/284 in my category, 51/383 in my gender... That's impressive isn't it?

Well, don't get excited... see - here's the map of the race:

Notice how there's a giant loop there? I was supposed to go around it... twice... Yes, I screwed up and only went around it once - making this a 3.52 kilometer race, and not a 5km race!! I thought it was odd that they were making us go the one way - I thought it would be pretty simple and clear - but no, I am just that confused!! lol It was too late when I realized I went the wrong way and going back was not an option, so I kept going, sprinted to the finish line, and met with S who thought I would finish at least 15 minutes later and was slowly approaching the finish line to get a shot... I'm disappointed, to be honest, but I can say this - the positive is I think this was fantastic and I want to do it again asap!!! :) It was sooooo much fun!!!

I am definitely doing this particular run again next year - such a nice course and the crowd was so friendly... I caught a glimpse of someone very famous in the blogosphere but I was too shy to approach him :) I recognized him on the course when he passed me with his pink skirt and a camera in his hand :) He did very well WOW!! (Marie, let me know if you/he would rather I remove this photo - I will remove it no problem if you/he is uncomfortable with my posting it...)

If I look at my iPod/Nike+ stats this is how I really did (approximately) pace was 6'23'', so I would have been somewhere around the 565/810th place... not too bad! It's sad because as I was turning where I thought I had just looped around for the first time I thought - man I can do this, I can really do this! I was doing ok... Except for the drink of water I tried to have without stopping and then completely choked on LOL

ok, I think I need to say more about this, but my mom decided to 'surprise-visit' from Montreal and she's just about to show up now, and I can't review my post right now - I'll just update it later in a different color :)

oh! One thing I need to say is THANK YOU SO MUCH everybody for your nice encouragements and advice, here and on twitter... you made my day!!! I want to give you all big HUGS!! :)

My first 5k...

2009-06-26T21:55:00.000-04:00

Is tomorrow!!! I'm going to run the ''Pride Run'', as suggested by Marie.

To have that goal set, to know I was going to run a 5k, certainly gave me a motivation 'boost' - I trained more seriously, more regularly, I worked hard at following the c25k program... I ran for 28 minutes without stopping yesterday morning - for the first time in my life, and I'm pretty proud of that...

Tomorrow morning, it's the real thing. I am looking forward to it, and also a little bit scared :) I hope I'm going to sleep well... Not sure what to eat for breakfast yet - I'm out of bananas (I forgot that I was saving the last one for tomorrow - ugh...)

In other news - I still can't believe that Michael Jackson is... gone....

2009-06-25T22:14:00.000-04:00

you know what? I feel like I forgot something about myself- I forgot about it for a very long time, and now it's too late... it's dead... that's my clumsy way of saying how I feel about MJ being gone...

yeah...

Drum Roll Please... and the winner is..........

2009-06-24T20:24:00.000-04:00

Random.org said #3 Marie-Claude!!

Here's her comment:

The two Etobicoke Elite Drill Instructors are Leigha Borland and Natasha Moore.

I'll keep my fingers crossed LOL

Congratulations Marie-Claude! You've just won a free 4 week Booty Camp Fitness Session!!

Please send me your details at cinemarie@gmail.com!

Thanks again to the ladies at Booty Camp Fitness Session for this great giveaway - can't wait to start working out with you guys! Giveaways are fun, hope I get to do another one soon!! :)

Bonne St-Jean Baptiste!!!

2009-06-24T10:19:00.000-04:00

It's St-Jean-Baptiste Day today - I wish I was in Québec to celebrate!! :)

A difficult 25 minutes...

2009-06-23T10:15:00.000-04:00

I did the second day of week 7 of the c25k program this morning - it was very difficult. I tried using my own music - I shuffled through my entire library, that was a big mistake. I really need to concentrate on running, on my body and performance on my breathing... not on 'I don't like this song so much, how do you skip ahead?' and 'Ok the Charlie Brown Xmas song I like so much at Xmas time is NOT a good song to run to...' LOL I also expected to run for 5 minutes on each song, but realized quickly that most songs are 3 minutes long (or at least that's how long I can tolerate them for before I need to skip...)

It probably sound pretty superficial, but it was a real problem - because I wasn't focussing on my breathing and my form, I was pretty dizzy and uncomfortable at the end...

I know about how you can create playlists, but I seem to get sick of the songs anyways...

I was thinking of maybe getting something like a 'remote' so that I can keep it in my hand and easily skip, but I don't think holding something in my hand is really an option... unless I clip it on my clothes? I don't know... hmmmm

Basically, after 15 minutes of running I decided to go back to good old Robert's mix... I don't particularly like the music in the podcasts, but at least it's not distracting!! Well, maybe except for the one song in week 7 where it sounds like someone is laughing at you... oy! lol

I am starting to wonder what I am going to do for the Pride Run... will think about it...

don't forget to enter my giveaway!!! You don't have to have a blog to enter! Just leave your name!! I will use radom.org to pick a winner on Wednesday night!! so make sure you come back to find out who won! :)

A Giveaway on Cinemarie in English!!!

2009-06-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

The lovely ladies over at Booty Camp Fitness are generously offering a free 4 week Booty Camp Fitness session to me and one of my readers! So it's time for a Giveaway! Wheeeeee!

There are 95 locations all over Canada so don't hesitate to enter!!!

I am so excited to have jumped on board - I needed to commit to that kind of an activity... It's great because it's in the evening and it's right in my neighborhood! It's at 6h45 which is perfect - the first thing I do when I get home... It's 2 days a week, which I think is absolutely manageable... I need to get in shape for my wedding, and this is exactly what they offer:

Look Great with a Bikini Belly, Booty Shorts Butt, & Tank Top Arms
in as Little as Two Nights a Week!
Up to 16 lbs weight reduction
1 - 6 inches reduced in your thighs, midsection, and arms
A boost in your immune system, and a decrease in sick days

25 - 100% increase in strength and stamina
An energized yet relaxed feeling...

PERFECT!!

I like that it's a mix of a lot of different activities such as yoga, strength training and cardio... It's designed by women for women, so the classes are women only - which is great!

It includes: 2 Physical fitness assessments Work Out DVDs (so you can do it at home, one more night every week) Lots of interesting books (Guide, Cookbook and Nutritional Guide) And they also have a forum where you get 24/7 support and you get to exchange with other participants or 'Recruits' :)
I can't wait to tell you all about it starting July 7th - I need to push it, I need to kick it up a notch and get ready for my wedding - I need to be as healthy as I can be - how about you?:)

So here's how to enter: leave a comment on this post and answer this question: Who are the two Etobicoke Elite Drill Instructors?

That's easy - you can go to their website, navigate to 'locations'... Etobicoke is in Ontario ;)

You have until Wednesday, June 24th @ 7pm to enter - I will announce the winner when I get home that night. It's your chance to de-lurk!!!

Good Luck!! :)

Amy's 15 week Challenge

2009-06-20T17:02:00.001-04:00

Go visit Amy's blog - she is challenging you - um, blog people :) to participate in a 15 week challenge!
I'm so excited!! Wheeeee! :) She has LOTS of great ideas for the challenge so it promises to be an awesome 15 weeks!!

Breathing and running - how do you do it?

2009-06-19T09:49:00.001-04:00

I have done day 1 of week 7 of the c25k program this morning. I remembered how I wanted to talk about breathing. A few years ago - I think it was 2003-ish, way before I started WW - S had tried to make me run, the plan was to run around the neighborhood... I thought - sure! why not, I can do that! Boy was I wrong. I could barely go around the block without feeling like I was going to cough up a lung... S had asthma as a child so he pointed out right away - you're not breathing right! That's when I first found out that I needed to control my breathing while exercising. (Yeah, I was clueless, I know!! :)

A few years later, I lived near High Park and thought that it would be such a great place to run, so I decided to try again. The first time I did it, I remembered quickly why I had stopped - ouch my throat and lungs!! So what's that big secret about how you're supposed to breathe a certain way for this to be possible? Well, I had no idea, but I tried this - breathe in through the nose for 2 steps, breath out through the mouth for 3 steps. And it seemed to work! I was so impressed at how simple this was and how much better I felt, how much more power I had, how much longer I could run...

To this day, that's still how I breathe through a run. And it's so silly - as soon as it starts being difficult I am always tempted to stop it and go for a big gulp of air. But now I know that I have to keep up with it, I find it tough, but it's the only way it works for me - if I control how I breathe...

Now, I pretty much 'made that up' for myself, and recently I was curious to see if there was info out there about breathing when you run, you know, to see if there was an even better method... I found a few articles on the subject, and now I'm confused:

How to control breathing while running
The Ins and Outs of breathing during exercise
Breathing during exercise

So my question to you is - how do you breathe when running?

Angie's and Farmgirl's Bootcamp Giveaway!

2009-06-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

Just found out about a great giveaway that you can enter via Angie all the way and Farmgirl .

Go look it up! There are locations all over Canada, so don't hesitate to enter - it's so exciting!!! :) Time to 'up' the challenge for me!!! :)

I have to do a proper post soon - I met with some wonderful ladies last Saturday for the Blog Girls GTG in Toronto, and I have to talk about that!!!

Have a nice Thursday!! :)

OMG OMG OMG - What did I just do :)

2009-06-10T21:05:00.000-04:00

I signed up for my first 5k!!!

A big thank you to Marie the Mouse for letting me know about the run - She is such an inspiration! I couldn't pass up on it, you were pretty convincing :)

And another thank you to Mel from A Box of Chocolates for pushing me to do this, she rocks: less then a year ago she wasn't even a runner, and now she has 3 5ks under her belt! Thanks for your encouragements Mel, you're the best :)

In other news, I stuck to my meal plan until 8pm, and then I had an extra 6 points worth of dark chocolate and 1 piece of Twizzlers, hmmmm... Let's put it this way - it's better than yesterday's snack fiasco where I had umm 19 points worth of snacks, ugh... I find that I need about 5-6 extra points a day, to feel 'full'. And most days it has to be a treat - I just crave it too much! Maybe if I 'train' myself to eat some every day, but less and less gradually... I just need my chocolate you know? :)

We're having another strange 'outing' at work - after the Zoo adventure, we're now going to go on a boat for the evening this Friday! We're going to screen some completed episodes and have some food and tour the Toronto Islands... That should be fun! :)

Also, I am excited to meet some blogging ladies on Saturday at the Keg in Toronto! This idea came up amongst some of the BLBE people and being in Toronto already I couldn't miss it! Looking forward to see you there :)

The plan...

2009-06-09T21:44:00.000-04:00

I have put my menu for tomorrow into my Points tracker - and I thought I would share what the plan is here, so I stick to it. I am having trouble doing that these days, I have had trouble keeping track - the only way it works is if I kick my own bum and plan the night before... count first, then eat - not the other way around...

Breakfast:
'Oatmeal' PC bagel, with some 95% fat free cream cheese, and I'm going to throw in some spinach, see if it'll taste good (4 pts)

Lunch:
A Lean Cuisine frozen meal (5 pts)
A fibre one bar (or any of my 2 pts bars...)
100g of Fat free Activia Yogurt (2pts)
1 1/2 cups of strawberries (1 pt)

Dinner:
9 PC Blue Menu Chicken Meatballs (5pts)
A whole lot of fresh asparagus (Roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper) (1.5 pts)
A cup of Ocean Spray low-calories cranberry juice (1 pt)

That's a total of 21.5 points (I get 21 a day...) That's not bad...

Have a happy hump day! :)

20 minutes...

2009-06-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

Oh my Oh my!!! I just wrapped up week 5 of c25k - that means I ran for 20 uninterrupted minutes for the first time in my life!!! I can not believe I just did this!! Although I am quite shake-y :)

It was pretty intense/challenging. My body was definitely trying to make me quit ''oh, um, hey, what are you doing? Pff, that's way too difficult - see how tired you are and it's only been 2 minutes?! You're really thinking of doing this for 20 minutes? Uh huh, nope, no way, I really don't think so...''

My head was thinking a mix of the following - ''Keep going, at the end of this you'll have accomplished something wonderful, 20 minutes of running! Think of Mel who's done it before - she said, stick to the program, it works! And she's a runner now! Think of Jess, who's still running during her pregnancy! You want to be a runner, you want to feel great, you want to get better at it, you have to keep training...''

I want it to become easier, to become a hobby - I want to go run outside for a longer preiod of time, I want this to become a habbit... So I pushed through it, and now I want to keep going more than ever...

I actually kept 'brisk' walking for an extra 8 minutes, just for fun - I get more time to run on the weekend, so I better take advantage...

ok, I better get ready, I'm going to see Toronto FC beat LA Galaxy this afternoon ;)

Next time I want to talk about 'breathing' when you run...

150.4 - maintaining...

2009-06-02T18:29:00.001-04:00

I've been having a hard time blogging recently... and I am also having a hard time being on program. I feel like dissecting a typical day - maybe if I read it to myself I'll find some sort of 'answer' :)

I usually get up at 7h30, get ready for work (showering and drying my hair always takes exactly 1 hour:) Leave for work, eat in the car on the way... (I have recently started to try and get up early every morning to sneak in some exercise, but since I often end up having to come into work 1-2 hours early once or twice a week, it throws me off a bit...)

I have 0 time to blog at work (On a regular day, I start at 9h30am and end at 6pm, I do not take breaks, or take time for lunch - every thing happens in front of the computer, most of the time running 3-5 tasks at once...) I spend a lot of time getting distracted by what I would like to write on my blog, what I would like to do to be healthier, sneaking a peak at twitter and some blogs... but it's often interrupted with last minute changes in the list of tasks for the day, and a panicky coordinator who tries hard to make the most of my time by re-arranging everything as material and directors becomes available...

Then I get home at around 7 - 7h30pm... I prepare dinner, most of the time it's something that takes less then 15 minutes to prepare because at that point I am dying to eat, and most of the time I didn't plan ahead what we're going to eat... Rarely we prep something from scratch, often we are picking up something on the way home, often we eat pre-packaged foods, not always a bad thing, but there's room for improvement...

We pick up our plates and take them to 'the office' where S and I each have a computer. We eat in front of the computer, most of the time we also have the TV turned on in the background...

At that point, I go online and try to read everything that 'teased' me throughout the day at work - an article that got my attention, something on twitter, something on Youtube, some of my favorite bloggers who've posted something I can't wait to read:) At that point, on some days, I have time to blog - yes! But then inspiration doesn't come... It's like my brain can't focus, there's too much pressure... I start twittering, commenting on blogs, and of course, I spend a bit of time with S... before you know it, 9h30, 10pm comes around and it's time for bed (well, we usually watch TV in bed for an hour :) At that point I feel like I've left my whole evening go by being zombie like, absorbing as much info as I can without really being focused on anything specific...

Now I'm going to read this when I get home tonight, and think about it, then come up with a plan :) That's how I write on my blog these days - write as it comes to my brain, then read when I have time, and take action - hope you don't mind :)

I want to write so bad...

2009-06-02T15:16:00.001-04:00

but for some reason, I never get around to it, I am such a bad blogger these days - please stick around, I'll get back to it :)

Weekend Eats

2009-05-24T19:37:00.000-04:00

I am taking so many food photos but I'm not posting them, so I figured I would do a quick 'best of' for the weekend...

We had 'breakfast' at Starbucks on Saturday morning

I had a Rice Krispies Square...

And an Orange-Mango-Banana blend Vivanno - I looooove these Vivannos :) I wish I could have them every morning like I used to when I worked on my previous project...

We had a late lunch - we BBQed some turkey burgers with sun dried tomatoes... I usually add ketchup or something on my burgers, but this was tasty enough as is - I used meat from the blue menu (president's choice)

We had snacks for dinner, some ice cream - yup! oh well...

This morning I opened up my new bag of frozen spinach - they are all packaged up as little cubes - I didn't know that - very cool! :) I made some scrambled egg with the spinach in it, and also had a whole wheat croissant, with a nice glass of skim milk...

S had a special request this weekend - an old friend of his mentioned Little Caesars pizza in an email, and how they used to eat it in high school, and that made S crave it like there's no tomorrow... He asked if we could get some this weekend and of course I said yes :)

Here he is at the restaurant, waiting for the yummy treat...

And here's the pizza I had, vegetarian, with no onions... I had a third of a medium sized pizza - yup I gave up counting at this point... and I had the same for dinner - ah la la la...

Felt like snacking on something fruity, so I ended this weekend's eats with a bowl of strawberries and a cranberry juice!

Now this week I need to get serious on counting and tracking - it's not even funny anymore! I may or may not make some food now for my week's lunches, I plan to make some brown rice/tofu/veggies stir fry...

I've been thinking about why it is that I can't seem to cross the 150s line... maybe I'll share in another post...

Hope you had a great weekend! :)

I graduated from week 4!

2009-05-24T18:59:00.000-04:00

I started my day with the last workout session of week 4 from the C25k program - moving on to week 5 next week - Yay!!! :)

I found it more difficult this time, I had to constantly push myself to not give up, my brain was not into it at all... Although once Robert said I had finished my last run I decided to push it even further - I played my 'power song' and kept running for an extra 2 minutes!! Yup! I really like this feature with the Nike+ - I change it after every workout session, so it's always a surprise - it works for me :)

About the stats, I'm puzzled... I know I should calibrate my running, and I plan to do it soon, but for now I'm looking at the stats from the Nike+ and from my treadmill and nothing makes sense (well, mostly the treadmill itself...)

Nike+ says I ran 5,03km, ok...

The treadmill, by default, is set to miles, but I changed it so it would display in kilometers. But I have a feeling that somewhat threw it off. The manual says that 1 lap = a quarter mile (I did 20 laps so that would mean I did 5 miles...) If I assume that the treadmill does actually convert quater miles to quarter kilometers, that would make sense and it would match the 5k from the Nike+, BUT! the distance calculator on the treadmill says 4! Um, 4 what?

If I try to figure out the math behind the speed (which is the only place where the display confirms that the machine is indeed set to kilometers) I walk at 5,5 kph and run at 8,5 kph, so in 15.5 minutes of walking and 18 minutes of running, I would have travelled about 4km. Which would match the distance data on the treadmill...

So I guess the most likely distance is indeed 4km... still not too bad!!

I wish I knew how the Nike+ calculates that distance...

anyways... here's the graph:)

I have a soccer game tomorrow, hopefully we win again! :)

Tackle it... um... NOW! :)

2009-05-24T18:45:00.000-04:00

The front yard needed a lot of work - it's nice out, and Mel's post gave me a little extra motivation to get this done:

Before - You can barely see the actual 'plants' in there, the weeds have completely taken over the whole flower bed. Can you spot the 2 little lights? :)

After - much better :)

So, what did you tackle this weekend?

I did it again!

2009-05-21T11:11:00.000-04:00

I was on the treadmill this MORNING!! yup! I chose exercise over sleep - yup! It was a nice and sunny morning...
The only drawback - the music in the C25K week 4 podcast - and how it's in my head now...

eeeeeeeew! :)

It's time for bed...

2009-05-20T22:33:00.001-04:00

and I am so hungry!! But I brushed my teeth and I'm not going to eat any more!! uh huh!

Look at the giant truck I got to drive!! :)

I had Starbucks for lunch - Thai Tuna Wrap and an Orange-Mango Vivanno

and some yummy indian food for dinner!!

I'm going to miss the month of May;)

I'm too tired for more blogging... Good night! :)

151.4 - Déjà vu... Monday recap

2009-05-19T09:59:00.000-04:00

That's a 0.8 loss since last weigh in, but it's still pretty high compared to the progress I had made just a few shot weeks ago... I guess it's still 'progress' right? I'm focused and I'm ready for this new week. Time to make better choices starting - NOW! :)

I had some corn bran for breakfast, then for lunch I had an 'ok' meal - some President's Choice Chicken meatballs (from the Blue Menu) a litle bit of ketchup, some steamed veggies from Green Giant et some Low Calories Ocean Spray Juice...

We had a nice and relaxing day. I really needed this first 3 day weekend of the year! (Yes, it was my first one...) At the end of the day we had our first soccer game for the spring season. Went pretty well - S got to play for the very first time since his surgery - he was looking forward to it soooooo much!! :) We won 4-3. In the second half I went for a block and ended up with the ball in my face - with my hand in between, you know, knuckles and all... ouch! And it was a pretty powerful kick from a guy standing about 3 feet in front of me... I'm a bit swollen and have a few bruises this morning... I look tough LOL

After all this 'stress' I ended up eating dinner pretty quick - forgot to take a photo of it... It was a Southwest Taco salad from Wendy's (no sauce)... My HRM says I burned 358 calories - so that's not too bad...

In other news, I tried to calibrate my iPod/Nike+ - I did the 'walking' calibration by walking 400m and, it was accurate! I was very surprised... Then I tried running the same distance to see if it would give me the same result, but the session 'failed' and it wouldn't let me use it to calibrate... oh well, I have to try that again tonight...

Alright - I better get to work now - I have to leave slightly early today as I am picking up my grandmother's dining table - long story short, my 'Mamie' just moved to a retirement home and had no space for it. She lives 1000km away from here - hard to pick it up... My one aunt who works for a bus company offered to put it on a bus that was scheduled to travel to TO for a tour, which is VERY nice of her - the only catch is I have to pick up the table at a hotel downtown at 6pm. So I rented a pick up truck - I am so scared of driving it downtown by myself!! oh well, it's much better then to have to rent a pick up truck to travel 2000km and drive all weekend!! :)

Have a great day! :)

Wheeeee!! :)

2009-05-17T10:46:00.000-04:00

First run with my Nike+.... check!

Although I doubt my Nike+ is calibrated properly - how could I have done 5km on week 4 of couch to 5k? I'll have to figure this out...

Have a happy Sunday! :)

On the right foot...

2009-05-13T19:45:00.000-04:00

Today was a good day - Starting with some dried peaches and corn bran in the car (See the Toronto CN Tower in the background?:)

After a bad week, I decided yesterday to commit to make this week a good one. Yesterday, I took out my Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook
and picked a couple recipes to make right away. Talking about it with S, he was inspired and suggested I make the Brown rice pilaf and he would prep some fish to go with it.
Inspired by other recipes, I made my own wild rice recipe. Basically throwing together some veggies (zucchini, spinach, red peppers, tomatoes, celery and mushrooms) and some wild rice! I will probably have that for lunch for the rest of the week ... It's yummy!!! I did it - put some ingredients together without a recipe and it turned out good!! My first time!! :)

with some water at work...

Looked better in the pot when I was preparing it yesterday :)

I also had some kashi crackers as a snack...

For dinner we had some tilapia that S promised to prepare, and the brown rice pilaf. This was so nice and filling!!! Made me feel like I did something good for my body - gave it healthy fuel... and it wasn't that much work...

and I had some dried peaches and frozen yogurt for dessert :)

I can do this - I need to eat 'clean' this week and 'detox' from the bad food and out of control portions I've had all last week. My belly will thank me :)

Eating Bender's Giveaway

2009-05-12T12:35:00.000-04:00

I'm entering this giveaway - I can never have too many cookbooks!! You? :)

Inspiration...

2009-05-10T21:44:00.000-04:00

I need to remember this.