Costco + Keurig = Happy Amy

Remember when I wrote about my Keurig breaking after just a few months of use?

I have little to no patience with sending things back to the manufacturer, so before I did that I thought I would try returning it to Costco.

No questions asked, they allowed me to exchange it.

The best part?

They no longer carry the Ultimate, so I got a Platinum instead at no extra cost!

I’m not sure of the exact difference right now, but the thing that caught my eye is that is makes ICED COFFEE… and we all know how I feel about that right now!

I’m not going to unpack it just yet, as I’ll just have to turn around and pack it back up, but I can’t wait to use it!

Thank you Costco for such amazing customer service!

Moving on….

My half training continues to be okay. I use the word ok, because some runs are peachy and some runs are just sucking ass.

I’m basing my runs on this schedule, and am pretty much sticking with it.

Observations:

1. I hate tempo runs
2. I hate steady runs
3. I run much more efficiently in the morning
4. I’ve been making an effort to “give’r” during my last kilometre. I like it.
5. This is the best running song ever. It’s from the Blade soundtrack, and anyone that does RPM Spin classes will recognize it as the “track 7 from hell” from a recent release.

I have a hefty to-do list today, so I better have-at-er! TTFN!

Late Check In

Good afternoon friends! A bit of a late start for me today… why? I’m on vacation. While I’m technically using vacation leave, I prefer to call it moving hell.

This morning I met a kitchen designer over at the new house to talk about adding some additional pantry space. Our new kitchen is WAY smaller than our current one.

Current kitchen:

You can’t see it in this picture, put I have a huge pantry beside the fridge that has a TON of storage! I’m also going to miss the island. There is storage in it on the side not pictured.

New kitchen:

See that cabinet to the right? It’s not there anymore. So the designer is going to work on some sketches to build us a pantry and maybe a little desk area too! Can’t wait to see it.

While I was there I got to see the newly installed hardwood for the first time. We ripped out all the carpets on the second floor. I’m so happy to say goodbye to that nasty germy disgusting carpet.

Master before (with all the former owners stuff in it)

This is the master now. Bad angle. But see that doorway on the left? That’s Andrew’s closet.

 

And this is the entrance to MY closet. You have noooooo idea how excited I am to have my own closet. The pictures really don’t do it any justice. It’s HUGE. 

And my other favorite part?

Second floor laundry! The washer and dryer are right beside the master bedroom. Hopefully all my laundry issues will cease after this.

Laundry issues = never putting away laundry. I’m bad.

Anyways, enough house talk for now. I arrived home famished, and whipped up a random bowl of deliciousness.

Quinoa, broccoli, and chickpeas topped with a dallop of butter, S&P and some nutritional yeast. Random yes, but delicious and also practical. I’m trying to eat what we have in the fridge so we don’t have to move it!

 

I meant to rave about my Sally Hansen Nail Effects earlier, but forgot. I’m on day 5 and they still look fabulous. Sorry for posting my gross runner’s feet on the internet, but I love how cute they kind of look!

My big toe nail is cracked horizontally in the middle (being held on with nail glue), and both of my middle toes are black so I’m too embarassed to go get a pedicure. These nail strips are going to be my saviour this summer!

Alright.. I best get back to packing. Later!

Gardens and Salad

Generally speaking, I take great pride in my flower gardens.

However, since the “SOLD” sign went up gardening has been the last thing on my agenda.

Last night I spent some time taking care of weed-fest 2011 that has appeared in my flower bed. Yes, I’m moving in 1 week… but the new owners don’t deserve that mess!

I pulled out a lot of weeds. An embarrassing amount actually.

 

There were a lot of these prickly monsters. No fun to remove.

 

I had to call in the reinforcements in the form of gloves. I was getting stabbed like mad from those a-hole prickly plants.

 

When all was said and done, I threw it in the composter.

Composter = over the fence.

 

I must say, I’m going to miss a lot about our current house and not having back neighbours is definitely one of them. I cannot tell you how much stuff I throw over that fence. Weeds, fruit scraps, stale bread. It all goes over the fence baby.

After my yard work was complete, I made a summer favourite.

Homemade chicken salad!

I poached 4 chopped chicken breasts in water and allowed them to cool.

I separated half of it (the other half I’ll prep for lunches tomorrow) tossed it in 1 tbsp of FF mayo and a drizzle of honey mustard. Added in some chopped apple, green onion, raisins and toasted pecans. Season with kosher salt and pepper. This made enough for 2 servings.

The secret ingredient for PERFECT chicken salad? Loads of freshly ground black pepper.

What’s your favourite summer meal?

Monday - GBU edition

**Preface: WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH FORMATTING IN BLOGGER?**
It's Monday. How about a little Good, Bad and Ugly à la Mousearoo?

The Good

• I have a short week. Holidays start on Wednesday!
  
• The sun is shining after a weekend full of rain
  
• I got to see my adorable Godson yesterday
  
• Iced cofee
  
• The piano got moved to the new house! It fits!
  
• The hardwood at the new house is almost done and it looks amazing!

The Bad

• I have a short week, which means not a lot of time to accomplish all the work I need to do
• It's supposed to rain again tomorrow
• I ate a lot of swine yesterday at Ribfest
• I forgot my camera, my phone and my Ipod today

The Ugly

• I have to pack. A lot of stuff.
• I hate packing.
• My lawn looks like the amazon
• Jersey is a in a huge funk. All the chaos is stressing her out I think
• In my packing efforts I've decided I'm one step away from being on Hoarders

Today

If you do anything today, you MUST go to the grocery store and procure yourself a carton or 7 of this:


And then add it to your iced coffee. Trust me.

Thanks Kelly! :)

Happy St Jean Baptiste

I’m off today! Why?

It’s St Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec.

I get a lot of questions regarding where I live. Some times I call it Ottawa, sometimes I say Gatineau. If you’re a geography buff you know that Ottawa and Gatineau are in two different provinces.

I live in Gatineau, QC. I have Quebec licence plates.

And for the first time in my career I’m working in Gatineau, QC and that is why I get today off. You must WORK in Quebec to get today off, and up until now I have always worked in Ottawa.

I work for the Federal Gov’t which has developed the acronym “NCR” for National Capital Region which encompasses both Ottawa AND Gatineau.

The cool thing? It’s Ottawa-Gatineau is divided by a river. You literally need to cross a bridge to “get to the other side”.

Problem is? Not so many bridges which results in A LOT of traffic. Like the worst traffic EVER.

There are 5 bridges

1) McDonald Cartier – the one I use most often

2) The Alexandra Bridge – this bridge I call the “Kaching-kaching” bridge because it makes that noise when you drive across it

3) The Portage Bridge – one of the most scenic views of Ottawa

4) Chaudière Bridge – To many locals this bridge is called EB Eddy.

5) The Champlain Bridge – This bridge crosses out of the downtown core into Alymer. It also is the most scariest bridge to drive on, I think. It’s also 1.1km long!

 

So there’s your little geography lesson for the day.

Oh, and as of July 5th? I’ll be living in Ontario again. I can hardly wait (read: PAIN IN THE ASS) to change all my cards back to Ontario. While I have no regrets in moving to Quebec, I’ll be happy to get back to the Ontario side!

Happy St. Jean Baptiste!

The perfect snack

...not to be confused with the Perfect Cheer from these guys:

"Who's that Spartan with junk in the trunk?"

"It's me, It's me!"

I work from 7-3, and often (read: all the time) arrive home absolutely startving. Usually, I'm craving carbs and cheese. Not so figure friendly.

This week I've been enjoying this little tasty combo, and thought it was worth sharing.

Veggies served with 1/4 cup salsa and 1 tbsp ranch dressing mixed in.

The ranch dressing 'creams' up the salsa perfectly and I love the flavour.

I tend to gravitate towards the fruit bowl, but this little snack has kept my afternoon hunger under control, yet it dosn't weigh me down for my workout.

Love it!

What's your favorite afternoon snack?

Wicking Perfection

Confession: I haven't procured a new workout top in ummm, a LONG time. I don't think think I could actually tell you when it was. It was definitely YEARS ago.

I tend to wear Running Room clinic t-shirts, race shirts, or the selected few I bought years ago.

Here's the thing: I don't like tank-tops... mainly because I don't like my arms AND I sweat like a mofo. Tops with sleeves hide my bat-wings AND absorb sweat. Perfect.

I had some time to kill between ball games over the weekend and stopped in at Winners. I actually can't stand going into that store as it kills what little patience I do have, but I've always had good luck finding cheap workout gear there.

Enter my new workout top. It's Addidas, and it was only $13.99!

I love the color. I likley could wear a size smaller, but I like them loose.

And the back is pretty flattering too with the stripes down the centre like that!

Even though I NEVER put my workout gear in the dryer, I didn't realize it, but they have stopped wicking. After my workout I was shocked at how light and dry'ish my shirt was.

I think it's time to gradually replace all my shirts. They wreak.

Old faithful

The good thing about moving?

Finding gems that you totally forgot you owned.

I rediscovered my good old Tupperware Tumbler, which will now act as my new iced coffee transporting device.

From the website:

Tackle even the biggest thirsts with this terrific tumbler! In the home, outdoors or in the car, the double-walled design keeps beverages cold for hours. The Drip-Less™ Straw Seal minimizes leakage even when tipped, preventing messy spills.

24 oz./700 mL.
Includes virtually liquid-tight, Drip-Less™ Straw Seal (straw not included).
In Lupine.
Not intended for microwave use.
Dishwasher safe (top rack only).

It's big. It dosn't sweat. I like it.

Hopefully I'll rediscover my freakin' Garmin soon. It still remains lost in my house.

Rest day guilt

It's Monday. I'm tired and my body hurts.

My weekend looked a little something like this:

Friday: 4k tempo run, 1 baseball game
Saturday: A "medley" class consisting of 30 mins Pump, 30 mins Attack, 30 mins of Combat, 30 mins of Flow and 2 games of baseball
Sunday: 9k LSD run, 1 baseball game

I was thinking that I might hit up a double class tonight. Pump and Step. But you know what? I haven't been home all weekend, my house is a wreck, there is packing to be done, and I'm TIRED. I need a day to rest and catch up on life.

As I was entering my food into My Fitness Pal I discovered that I will only have 451 calories left for dinner, and instantly I panicked. My immediate thought was to hit the gym.

Since I started using MFP, I've struggled to keep my calories under 1500. I really rely on the calories I burn exercising to get me through the day.

The likelihood of going over my calorie allowance today is quite high. I'm tempted to go to the gym, merely to earn some extra calories to allow for some flexibility and to avoid see the ugly red numbers below.


But I just told you, I'm tired. I need the rest.

So I will do that... and try my best not to feel guilty about it.

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to my amazing Dad.

In your honour, I rocked out hard to American Woman on my run.

And now I’m off to play baseball.

The apple doesn’t far fall from the tree does it?

Thank you for everything that you are, and all that you do. I love you!

It just felt different...

I've been a resident of Barrhaven for approximately 36 hours now.

Is it surprising that I've already checked my new gym? :)

I went to the Goodlife at Strandherd Crossing for the first time. It's a mere 5km from my new house and it's a beautiful facility. SCORE!

I checked the schedule, and there was a Body Combat class at 5h30.

Source

If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that I'm not new to Body Combat, I've been attending that class for at least 4 years.

But the second I walked into this class it just felt different. The second the music started, and the instructor gave her opening remarks I knew it was going to be a great class.

I'm not a happy exerciser. I'm there to work. I'm there to sweat. I'm there to burn calories.

You know what though? During this class I actually smiled. A lot.

The instructor's energy was totally infectious. Her music selection was amazing. She was EXACTLY what I like in a fitness instructor, a combination of drill Sergeant with a bit motivational speaker tossed in.

And her back muscles? Gorgeous.

Throughout the class, I told myself that after the class I would go introduce myself and thank her for such an amazing class. Like I said, I've taken HUNDREDS of classes and have yet to be "wowed" like I was last night. I've never really chatted with an instructor after class, but I felt compelled to tell her how much I LOVED her class.

Just before we started our ab track, Denise humbly told us that she was being considered for Instructor of the Year in Ottawa. A title she most certainly deserves.

I've been having some slight anxiety issues about leaving my current club, as it's become like a little family to me. A sense of comfort if you will...but after taking Denise's class last night and even just being in the club itself, all my anxiety went away. As cheesy as it sounds, it felt like home.

I cannot wait to find out what other classes she teaches, because I will most certainly be in her "fan club".

Thank you Denise for making me work hard, for making me sweat, and for making me realize that exercise can be fun.

I'll be back to your classes. Often. :)

Question: Have you ever been wowed by an instructor? What makes a good group fitness instructor?

House and Hockey

It's ours!
We're not actually moving in until July 5th, but it's ours!

I know it's likely not proper to talk about politics on a healthy living blog, but I picked up the keys and this was attached.

Then I puked in my mouth a little bit.

A little word about hockey....
As a Habs fan, hockey as been dead to me since they were beat out. I've been sitting back and watching secretly rooting for the Bruins (I know, they beat out my team!) because I reallllly like Tim Thomas and I reallllly like Chara. I got a little teary eyed as I watched them both hoist the cup last night.... and what really impressed me was the fan reaction when Tim Thomas raised it. They acknowledged his amazing series against their team. He has such a cool story, that it makes this cup extra special. What's really too bad are the riots that happened post-game. I really thought that Vancouver might be an exception to the trending "let's riot when our team loses" but nope. It really makes us all look bad, just not as hockey fans but as Canadians as well. Boo to that.

Cherry-Banana Soft Serve

Confession: I looooove ice cream.

Like a lot.

Like a little too much.

And at our house, there aren’t many meals that DON’T end in ice cream… which is usually in the form of fro-yo pour moi.

On days when I don’t have a lot of extra calories to spare, banana soft serve is a great alternative.

But what is even better than banana soft serve?

CHERRY BANANA SOFT SERVE!

I have been drooling over all things made with frozen cherries, but was never able to find frozen cherries. I finally found them at the $300 store Costco on the weekend.

I think they were $11.99

 

I used the banana soft serve recipe, and added in a handful of cherries.

It’s absolutely phenomenal.

Best part? One serving (made with one banana and a few cherries) is roughly 110 calories.

A great figure friendly, yet satisfying summer treat.

Hey Cathy, I betcha you could fool Jamally this one! :)

What’s your favourite summer time figure friendly treat?

My other favourites are watermelon, fro-yo, and banana popsicles!

What Not to Wear: The Sports Bra Edition

I’ve been noticing that a lot of my sports bras are getting a little rank of late. You know, the “one piece of clothing can only wick away so much sweat before it starts absorbing it” stench? That’s pretty much every piece of workout I own right now. It’s time to start investing in some new pieces.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’re aware that I am a Costco-whore.

I was shopping there on the weekend and saw these bras.

I have a couple of Champion brand bras that are decent, and the price was great! 2 for $23.99.

 

I grabbed a size “L” which is meant for 34D-36C-38BC.

Now that I type that out, I have no idea what the hell kind of sizing that is!

And I think I just wrote my bra size on the internet. Ooops.

 

The material is super soft and stretchy.

 

And I really liked the racer back.

The fit was great.

But the support? Non-existent.

I always wear 2 sports bras, because I like to be secure.

Secure = not moving/uniboob supremo.

Even wearing both of these bras at once, I was still a jiggle-saurus-rex.

I’ll likely just wear these bras over my beloved Shock Absorbers, or around the house. They’re not made for chesty lassies, that’s for sure.

I think I might just have to bite the bullet and shell out the cash for more Shock Absorbers. I only have 2 of them, but they have lasted since November 9, 2008 which is pretty impressive. They’re not quite as supportive as they once were, but still do the trick.

What’s your favorite sports bra? Do you hate the jiggle? Do you wear two?

Come on… tell me about your tatas!

Progress

It's Monday. I really don't have much to say today.

I'm feeling kinda skinny today.

While I'm still having SEVERE scale denial, I know that my weight is going down. I have always had an unhealthy relationship with the scale. Even though I really have no idea how much I've lost, I know that my weight is going down.

My clothes are looser, and I'm feeling pretty lean.

I always lose weight in an odd way. I tend to lose it first in my waist, then my face, and then my boobies.

I was noticing today that my waist is looking smaller, and dare I say, my pootch is too?

I'm feeling strong and fit, and I'm rocking my workouts. I'm tracking daily using My Fitness Pal, which is keeping on the straight and narrow. I'm diggin' it.

So when I post in a couple of weeks about how I'm not working out, I'm over eating and I'm stressed about moving.... just remind me of this little post ok?

Kickin’ it old school

The quest to find my Garmin continues.

I managed to find my old Garmin 201, that somehow managed to still have a charge.

 

I’m pretty sure I thought it was broken, or at least that was the excuse I used to buy a new one.

I ran 7.58k in just over 50 mins. I ran it a little faster than the traditional 2:30 LSD pace, but I was feeling good so I just kept on truckin’.

When I got home, I enjoyed breakfast on the patio. An iced coffee, yogurt, blueberries and a few slices of dried mango.

PSA: If you haven’t tried dried mango, do it NOW. I bought mine at Costco.

 

While sitting on the patio I heard the screen door open.

Followed by a very sneaky black cat in stealth mode.

 

Who was followed by his grey, less stealthy brother. I swear, that cat can smell food from a smile away.                          And then there came their ginger sister, who is still embarrassed about her shitty hair cut. She just chose to lounge in the grass.    

I called the groomer in rip her a new one… turns out her sister died and she had to fly out to Vancouver on very short notice. She apologized over and over again as I was not the first person to call and complain about the poor service received while she was away.

I’m off to a family BBQ. Enjoy your Sunday!

Good intentions?!

I had no idea what to blog about today, until I heard Andrew grumbling as he was paying the Weedman bill.

You see, we currently live beside a park, therefore, our front lawn ends up looking very similar to this:

Source

Earlier this year I was home alone when I heard the doorbell ring.

It was the Weedman wanting to do an estimate. I totally got sucked in, and ended up signing up for the services.

I was so excited, especially since Andrew spends hours outside trying to keep the weeds at bay. I thought I had done him a huge favour.

The conversation went a little something like this…

Amy: I did something really great today. I signed us up for Weedman!!They will come 5 times this summer to fertilize and treat the weeds. How amazing am I?

Andrew: Umm Amy, we’re moving in June.

Ooooh shit. Sometimes I forget important details.

Yes, the account is transferrable. That would work… however our new yard?

Not so much grass.

Double shit.

Maybe I get bonus points for trying to be a good wife?