Happy Monday!

Hello all,

Hope you had a great weekend! I work both days so my weekend was pretty short. Although Saturday was pretty awesome. Ry and I went out for breakfast to our favorite place, The Full Circle. This place never fails to make my tummy happy. Then we went to drive Ryan's car around in circles at the parkaid where he is storing it for the Winter. It felt like the movies, winding up and down all the levels at high low speed. We just needed someone to be chasing us to top it off! We then headed to the gym where I completed the first week of the TT Original program. Loving it and loving that I can lift more each time. The gym we go to is part of the community centre here in Nelson so access to the pool is included in your pass. What a better way to end a workout than to sit in the steam room and stretch and breath. Then run to the pool and cool off when you feel like you are burning. Repeat. Ahh!! Then we completed the afternoon with some awesome nutrition in the form of a power-packed green smoothie with hemp protein. So, yummy. Then my beautiful day ended with me going to work..blah! It was only a short shift, thank goodness! Sunday I worked until 5 and then we did our grocery shopping for the week. I was pretty beat when we got home so dinner was simple-huge salad, red quinoa, and steamed squash. We watched Extract which was okay but didn't make me really, really laugh. I find that I resort to old classics to really get me laughing. Dumb and Dumber, anyone? P.S. this was the first soundtrack I purchased on cassette, and I still love those songs. I bet you my Mom still has the cassette stashed somewhere too! Way off topic but I can get away with babbling on Monday, right? After the movie, we read our books. Ryan is reading Cesar Millan's Be The Pack Leader, trying to learn all we can for when we get a pooch. I just picked up Nomi Shannon's book The Raw Gourmet as I recently heard about it via Gena's website, Choosing Raw. I just flipped through it a little bit as my eyes were starting to close but everything looks great! I'm going to pick a few recipes out of there and give them a shot. I'll let you know how it goes. And if you have any suggestions about which recipes I should try from the book let me know!

Well that was my weekend! How was yours? Hope you had some time off to do something you love to do. And here's to a great week. Woot Woot!

Another PS- I totally forgot to mention the band that was here in Nelson the other weekend. Their name is The Accorn Project and they are from Bellingham, WA. They had this totally unique style that involved a mix of jazz, funk, rock and roll, and pop. Their instruments included a saxophone, keyboard, bass, drums, slide, and percussion. So, if you see their poster around your town go check them out! I really thought they were awesome!

I'm going to be writing another post hopefully today about Aloe Vera and its benefits. I am going to be submitting it to Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo who might choose to use it in her newletter. I'm so excited to submit a post to her as I think she really is a trail blazer when it comes to knowledge on raw foods and nutrition. Wish me luck!

Bittersweet!

Hey all,

The post title explains a lot about the weekend I had. First off, I tried a new brand of dark chocolate from my local co-op. It is called Flirt and the company is Zazubean. I didn't read all the ingredients, just the first couple as I didn't want any milk ingredients in there. Anyways, so I got home and took a closer look and that's when I noticed the bar contained horny goat weed. I have not heard of such a weed so I looked it up and apparently it is a much valued herb in Chinese medicine. Its use , as you might have guessed, is to support a healthy sex life. So, if your are looking for a little natural booster, try some horny goat weed and combine it with dark chocolate and, well, you have an electric combination! Some other ingredients in there were maca and damiana leaf. Maca is an ancient tuber that grows in the Andes and was used by the natives in the area for a multitude of uses, including increasing sexual performance. Yet, according to Dr.Weil studies on the subject are not conclusive. I think maca is a healthy food and so if it helps in the bedroom or not, I am happy to eat it , especially with chocolate! Damiana leaf is another shrub from Central and South America. A good, old wikipedia search says that this herb was used by the natives of these areas in a tea form. It is thought to be an aphrodisiac. Yet, the main reason why I bought this chocolate was because it had acai berries and cherries in it, plus the wrapper is an awesome pink color!. This is the real truth, I swear (wink, wink)! I really liked the chocolate but I thought there should have been more acai and cherries in there. There are 9 flavors available and they all have funky names like Squeeze, Smooch, and Ego! There is only one possible no-no about this chocolate bar. It contains glycerin. I have emailed the company to see if this is vegetable-based which I really hope it is. Although, I wish there was no glycerin in there at all.

The hubby and I enjoyed two visits to just one of the great coffee shops in Nelson called Oso Negro. Everything about the place is great. Two levels of seating, great organic coffee and tea, fresh baked goodies (mostly vegan), and lunch too! The best part about it for us is that it is only 10 steps from our place. Talk about convenience! If you are planning on coming to the Kootenays this place is a must try!


Onto my workouts, I just finished week 2 of my Turbulance Training Journey! I am totally loving it so far and can't wait to try more of Craig's programs (check out my post on how fun TT is). I am currently using TT intermediate and bodyweight intervals. I am so dedicated to this and even took pictures so I can compare my body before and after. I might even feel gutsy one day and post them on here...eek! So, I hope your fitness routine is kicking you in the but and getting you the fat loss (or muscle gain) you want.


Now for the bitter part of my weekend. I have a second job and am liking it so far! It's always hard to start working in a new atmosphere but the other employees and the manager are great! There was mistake with the schedule and I was put down to work when I requested time off for when my mom was in town. I got super upset and it seemed like I might have to work the whole time she was going to be here. All weekend I had knots in my stomach and was withdrawn because I was so looking forward to the visit which then seemed ruined. I found out today that I am good to go and only have to work one short day. Yippee! I don't know why I let myself get that way but I did. I know it is not healthy! I am definitely going to work on this.


Then I made some cookies as the hubby was craving something sweet. I didn't want to search through all my cookbooks and blogs for a recipe so I trusted supercook and put in the ingredients I had and chose a recipe. Well, they turned out horribly and were nothing what a oatmeal cookies should be. The hubby sprinkled some brown sugar on top and then resorted to dipping them is some of my mom's apricot jam. I should have know better than to use a recipe on a site that I never used before. Oh well, live and learn!

TME79FWWATAE



I hope you had a SWEET weekend! I'm looking forward to this week of preparing for my mom to come and I want to make some good food too!

Working out the fun way!

Hello all,

I think its safe to say that Craig Ballantyne's fitness philosophy has changed my world. He opened up my eyes to the scientific ways of fatloss. It was not only fascinating, it was the real deal. There are too many gimmicks out there stating you can lose weight with minimal exercise, no exercise, or even with a pill. These are a CROCK, please do not fall for them. Fat loss takes work and discipline but the benefits to your health really are endless. And I'm not talking about going on the elliptical for an hour. This is similar to what I used to do at the gym, pumping my arms to the beat on my ipod, watching the calorie counter go up thinking the fat cells were being incinerated around my body. Then I read Craig's free ebook The dark side of cardio , and, boy, did that open my eyes. I had been doing it wrong all these years, and was mad at myself for not realizing this sooner. I didn't have too much to lose, 10 pounds maybe, but they weren't budging. And now I knew why. I was doing too much slow cardio and not enough resistance training paired with HIIT (high intensity interval training). Did you know that reisitance training with HIIT at the end of you workouts will allow you to burn fat throughout the day? Now that is cool. So, I changed my workouts overnight and have not looked back since. I signed up to be on Craig's email list and I'm telling you, they are so awesome and fun (and full of cute pics of his dog). He puts sample workouts in them too and that's what I have been basing my routines on. At first it was strange to think a 30 minute workout or a body weight workout could be effective but, oh by golly, they are. The first workout really humbled me, to say the least. I had on my cool shoes and my super cool yoga pants, I was ready. Things were going well and I was having a great time until I had to go on my knees. I was still quite cocky at this point thinking 15 girlie push-ups would be a breeze. It was only after I was breathless from doing only 8 of them that my ego was brought back down to earth. I forgot one of Craig's recommendations is to drop your ego at the gym door. Lesson learned.

Since moving to the Kootenays, having gym passes wasn't in the budget so I have been doing all my workouts at home. Yes, people, it can be done. I have been wanting to buy his program for awhile and then I received an email that he was having a half price sale at Turbulance Training. I bought the program and completed Workout A from the intermediate program. It was awesome, challenging, and fun, all the things I hoped it would be. So, if have some fitness goals you want to reach , give Turbulance training a try!