Goodlife Challenge

Afternoon bloggers – or evening for some of you. I’m still not use to being on the west coast instead of the east. It’s a little strange to think it’s only 4 o’clock here but 7' o’clock back in Nova Scotia.

This morning started out with something simple. Toast and oj. I had a slice of sunflower flax toast with some pb and a glass of oj.

 

After breakfast I hit the gym – more on that below. My post gym lunch was Annie’s Mac and cheese with some added broccoli.

 

Enjoyed with a nice cold glass of skim milk.

 

Today was a day where I really didn’t have many plans so I decided to do a little relaxing. I spend a little while continuing to catch up on some blogs and then I took a nice, long, afternoon nap. I don’t usually nap in the afternoons but my body was tired and I decided to enjoy some quiet time.

When I got up from the nap I was hungry and I had remembered seeing a yummy looking smoothie on Diana’s blog this morning so I thought I’d try it out. Strawberry Banana Chia Smoothie to be exact.

I followed her recipe very closely but had to make a few changes. First I didn’t have any strawberries so I used blueberries instead. Second, I didn’t have a frozen banana so I just used a fresh one and added lots of ice to make up for it.

I always forget how wonderful smoothies are without spinach in them too. This was no exception. I loved it. Thanks Diana!

Goodlife Challenge

As mentioned above I went to the gym today. What I didn’t say was what I did at the gym. That is because I have decided to give myself a challenge. When I was living in Nova Scotia I use to go to Nubody’s (a local gym there) a few years ago Goodlife bought Nubody’s so when we moved to Calgary I didn’t need to get a new membership I could just attend one of their 8 gyms they have here in the city.

For the past week I have just been doing my regular gym routine. I’ve been a little bored and not very interested in going to the gym so I decided that since Goodlife has many fitness classes my challenge would be a 7 day fitness class challenge. I figured not only would they be a great workout but they would challenge me to try something new since I’m not good with changing up my workout routine.

The rules are simple:

1. Must attend a Goodlife fitness class for 7 days
2. They do not need to be in a row (my weekends are just too busy) so they must be completed by next Friday (August 20th)
3. Must attend a different class each time (no repeats)

Today I decided to try two classes.

First – Body Pump

According to the website, “The original barbell class that strengthens and tones your entire body. Challenges all of your major muscle groups, using the best weight-room exercises like squats, presses, lifts and curls.”

I really enjoyed this class. It hit every major muscle group (legs – squats and lunges, chest, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders and abs) and pushed me to go harder and longer then I do when I lift weights by myself. I can see myself adding one of these into my regular weekly schedule.

Second – Body Flow

According to the website, “A fusion of yoga, tai chi and pilates. Take an unforgettable journey that leaves you feeling centered and calm. Builds flexibility and strength.”

This class was ok but I didn’t love it. I think I’m just more of a plain, old yoga fan.

I’m already sore from these two classes so I can just imagine how I’m going to be feeling tomorrow. I have a different class I’m all ready to attend tomorrow so I’ll keep everyone posted on how that class goes. You can follow the challenge on twitter as well. I’ll by tweeting under the hastag #7daysofgoodlife.

If anyone would like to participate please feel free and leave a comment below I’d love to keep track of your progress. You don’t have to be a member of Goodlife to participate. You can just challenge yourself to try a different exercise for 7 days.

Also, don’t forget to enter my giveaway. I’m choosing the winner on Friday so you have less then 48 hours to enter.

I’m going to leave you with a question of the day:

How do you mix up your workout routine? I’m usually not very good so I’m using this challenge to push myself and try some new exercises.

~ Katie :)

Outlet Shopping

First, did you miss my giveaway I’m hosting? Do you want to win a $40 gift certificate? If you answered yes to either of these questions then check out my CSN giveaway. It ends on Friday so don’t miss it!

I got up early (well early for me during summer vacation) this morning to try my very first Zumba class.

Breakfast was an egg and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin.

With a glass of oj of course.

After breakfast I headed for the gym. I was a little excited and a little nervous. Once I got to the gym, I changed and headed to the studio. While standing outside the studio I checked the schedule and to my surprise there was no Zumba. They had changed the schedule but not updated their website. FAIL!!!

It was time to think of a new gym plan quickly. I always go to the gym with a plan in mind so I know what I want to accomplish and I don’t waste too much time. After feeling lost for a few mins I hopped on the treadmill for a quick 5 min warm-up.

After my warm-up I did the circuit training that the gym has with the weight machines. I’m not usually a fan of the circuit training but since I didn’t have a weight plan with me I figured it would work for one day. I did a totally of 13 machines (the circuit had 9 and I added 4 on my own) then I added 2 extra ab exercises. In totally I did 15 exercises, 1 set of each and 15 reps of each.

After my weight training I hopped back on the treadmill and did a short ten mins of interval training.

Post-workout lunch was leftover Hawaiian pizza.

 

And the return of the green smoothie. I finally picked up some Almond Milk today and the first thing I wanted with it was a green smoothie. In the blender today: organic spinach, chia seeds, a banana, UVAB (Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze) and ice.

It was so nice to drink some veggies again. I have really missed my smoothies.

After lunch it was time to do some outlet shopping. Banana Republic outlet shopping to be exact. On the weekend Matt and I found out that Calgary has a Banana Republic outlet. One of only four in the country. I was excited to pick up a few nice items for a fantastic price.

My purchases:

 

This nice green shirt that goes great with jeans, skirts or shorts.

This dress is really cute. Its simple but still a little dressy. It will be great for a night out.

On the way home I stopped at Starbuck and got a Venti Passion Tea Lemonaide and a slice of Raspberry Lemon Loaf.

 

After getting home from shopping I spend a little time catching up on some blogs. I’m very behind right now but I’m slowly catching up.

When Matt got home from work I threw supper together.

I picked up this frozen pasta at the store on the weekend so I figured tonight would be the night to give it a try.

It didn’t take lot to prepare at all, then I tossed the pasta in a little EVOO and sprinkled it with a little fresh parmesan.

I served it up with a slice of Sunflower Flax bread and a glass of skim milk.

It was ok. Matt didn’t like it at all and I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either. We probably won’t be making it again. I wasn’t very hungry and only ate about half the pasta and one half the bread as well. I was full so I was listening to my body and not eating too much.

Now we’re going to catch up on Mad Men and relax for the rest of the evening. Does anyone else watch that show? I love it! I love the fashion as well. I really need to add some more 60’s inspired clothes into my wardrobe.

~ Katie :)

Welcome to Calgary

I am so falling behind on my blogging this week. I’m trying to get the apartment unpacked, job hunt and get back to the gym and because of all this blogging has become second to real life.

I’ve been planning to do this post for a couple of days now. We’ve been in the apartment since Saturday (almost a week) and I still haven’t posted pictures. I figured we’d have a while before our stuff showed up so there was no rush - boy was I wrong. Our estimated delivery date was Friday (tomorrow) but I got a call two days ago (Tuesday) saying that they were hoping to deliver our stuff. Imagine my excitement. I was getting tired of sleeping on an air mattress and eating off the floor.

I quickly realized I didn’t have any pictures of our apartment ‘before’. So I ran around taking pictures quickly. Here’s the empty (well almost empty) apartment before our stuff arrived.

Kitchen:

All the sunlight that we have in this place caused for some dark pictures (don’t worry I’m not complaining).

Living Room:

Linen Closet with washer/dryer (one unit – which is pretty cool).

For some reason the bedroom picture turned out blurry.

Now this is what the apartment looked like after all of our stuff was dropped off.

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Bedroom:

Hall:

Bathroom:

As you can tell there’s a lot to do. Since taking (most) of those pictures the living room and kitchen have been unpacked so it’s a little more liveable. Today I’m going to tackle the hall (linen closet and front closet) and then only the bedroom will be left. I’m confident by the end of the weekend all the boxes will be gone.

As mentioned earlier in the post on of the reasons I’ve fallen behind on the blogging is my return to the gym. This also includes my return to healthy eating. I have been so excited to eat vegetables again!

Yesterday morning/afternoon was the last of the paper plates/glasses before unpacking my dishes.

Breakfast yesterday was Special K Strawberry Cereal with a glass of oj.

  

After breakfast I headed to Starbucks to use their internet to search for jobs. While there I had a non-fat vanilla latte and a low-fat banana chocolate chip loaf.

After spending a few hours job hunting I headed for the gym. This is the first time hitting the gym in weeks. When I got there I hopped on the treadmill and ran 2.5 km. I’m not going to lie. It was hard. The hardest I’ve had in a long time but it felt great to get back to the gym even if it was only for a short run.

After the gym I headed home for lunch. Veggies, hummus, cheese and crackers.

Veggies included cucumber, baby tomatoes and carrots along with some roasted garlic hummus.

And some cheese with multi-grain wheat thins.

After lunch I spend the afternoon unpacking the kitchen. I’m pleasantly surprised that I was able to get all of our stuff in there.

After Matt got home from work dinner was leftovers from the previous night. Lasagna with a whole wheat roll.

 

And a side salad with spinach, carrots, baby tomatoes, cucumber, red and green peppers.

Overall, it’s been great to get back to a regular routine and I look forward to getting even more settled in my new city.

Stay tuned for my first giveaway! I will be posting it very soon.

I’m going to leave you with one more picture of Charlie. He seems to be enjoying the unpacking process as much as he enjoyed the packing process.

~ Katie :)

The Countdown Begins

Morning Tweeps! I’ve been up and going to a good few hours now.

As you may have noticed there’s been a lack of gym going on the blog lately. I’ve been so busy with packing and planning that the gym has taken a back seat. That’s ok though with all the packing and cleaning I’ve been doing I’ve been working up a great sweat.

This morning the hubby’s work schedule changed again and I had to drop him off around 9 so I hit the gym afterwards.

Pre-run fuel: homemade granola bar.

Once hitting the gym the plan was a warm up, some weights then a 20-30 min run. After my 5 min warm up on the treadmill I headed to the weight room, and my ipod was dead! I decided to skip the run and do a longer weight session instead.

I had a couple of Gina workouts in my bag so I combined a couple and made a longer full body workout. I did them circuit style (one set of each exercise then repeat the entire circuit three times).

Here’s what it looked like:

Bend-over fly	16lbs	12 reps
Frog Crunch		15 reps
Plie and Bicep Curls	16lbs	12 reps
Bench Dips		12 reps
Chest Press	24lbs	12 reps
Calf Raises		12 reps
Reverse Crunch		12 reps
Overhead Press	16lbs	12 reps
Weighted Ball Crunch	12lbs	12 reps
Stability Ball Hamstring Curl		12 reps

It felt great to get back to the gym and do a weight sess!

Post-workout fuel: whole wheat english muffin with egg, cheese and a slice of turkey bacon.

Served with a glass of oj and another cinnamon muffin.

So I have a big plans today to get lots accomplish in regards to packing. They include start packing glasses (including wine, martini and coffee mugs), going though our pots and pans cupboard to see what we’re keeping and what we’re giving away, packing unused counter items (foodsaver, espresso machine) and cleaning the downstairs bathroom.

If you missed any posts from earlier in the week you can check them out here:

• Thursday: Unnatural Fears
• Wednesday: Travel Schedule and Chicken Meatball Subs
• Tuesday: My Growing Love of Cooking
• Monday: Apartment Hunting

Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts on my new blog look!

Well the movers come to pick up our stuff in a week so the countdown begins! ACK!!!!

Lots to do. Must Go!

Happy Friday Everyone.

~ Katie :)

The Things you Find

Morning Blog World!

It’s a beautiful Friday morning and I’m happy to be up and at it early this morning. Lot to do.

I figured I’d start this morning off catching up on the last 24-36 hours.

Yesterday morning started with yoga! Out on the deck no less.

It was a beautiful sunny Canada Day so I thought I’d start out on the right foot. Look at beautiful scenery from my deck.

Even my kitty enjoyed the view.

I decided to do a yoga workout that I had found on the Women’s Health website a while a go.

You can find the full workout here.

After 30 mins of calm, relaxing but intense yoga I headed inside and Matt and I had some breakfast. On today’s menu was Omelettes. Mine had some mozza and turkey bacon.

Served with an orange.

 

We needed a good protein filled breakfast to get us through the day. We had big plans. Cleaning out storage room!

If you remember from last week this is what it looked like to start:

I took pictures along the way to show your our progress:

Charlie being in the way most all of the time!

Look what you find when you haven’t cleaned in a while:

Floppy disks! Hahaha!

After empting everything out and putting what we are keeping back in here’s the finished product:

Much better then the first picture I think! We now have stuff everywhere they we need to take to a charity and donate and we took about 5 bags of garbage down to the garbage room yesterday but overall we were very productive.

At some point in the afternoon we headed downstairs for lunch. I had a grilled cheese sandwich with mozza and lots of water. Since my camera had been upstairs I never got around to taking pictures of it.

We worked on the storage room for about 7 hours and by the time we got done we were famished.

Dinner was BBQ Chicken with baby potatoes.

Along with whatever veggies we had in the house: red and orange peppers, cucumber and snow peas.

We spend the rest of the evening chilling and relaxing. We were going to try to make it to the fireworks last night but we were pooped!

After a good night’s sleep last night I got up early to drive Matt to work and get another workout in at the gym.

Pre-workout fuel: kashi bar and 1/2 and orange.

Today’s workout was similar to Wednesday’s

1. 20 min run on the treadmill at 5.2
2. 15 mins on the stairmaster at 3. The last 5 mins I did 1 min intervals between 3 and 4.
3. 10 mins of intervals on the treadmill that looked like this:
• Run 1 min @ 6.9, walk 1 min
• Run 1 min @ 7.0, walk 1 min
• Run 1 min @ 7.2, walk 1 min
• Run 45 sec @ 7.5, walk 1.25 mins
• Run 30 sec @ 8.0, Walk 1.5 mins

It was another great sweaty workout and I ended up burning 500 calories! It felt great.

Post-workout fuel/breakfast: a piece of Ancient Grains bread with pb and a glass of oj.

Happy Friday Everyone!

~ Katie :)