Giving Thanks

This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada. Unfortunately we didn’t celebrate this weekend. My dad and step-mom are coming to visit in a week and we decided to save Thanksgiving until them. We did do quite a few fun activities including taking the niece and nephew to an amusement park, having a board game evening with the family and another trip to Banff but I decided to go camera free and just enjoy the weekend. It was actually kinda nice to just enjoy myself but because of this I have nothing to show you.

Since this past weekend was Thanksgiving I decided that a post on what I’m thankful for would be appropriate today.

I’m Thankful For: My Husband

He can be silly or serious, happy or sad but he is my best friend and I love him. He would do anything for me and I have no idea what I would do without him.

I’m Thankful For: My Kitty

He is the best fur kitty anyone could ever have.

He loves to play…

 

He love to sleep…

 

And everything in between.

I’m Thankful For: My Friends and Family (back home and all over the world).

 

 

I’m Thankful For: My Family (here in Alberta)

I’m Thankful For: All the Awesome Food I Get to Eat Everyday

 

I’m Thankful For: My Two Job Interviews I have Coming Up

(Source)

Finally, I’m Thankful For: My New Blog Friends

Over the past year I have met some wonderful people. Whether in person…

Through twitter…

(Source)

Or through other blogs. You all have changed my life for the better and I thank you.

For all those things and many others…I give thanks.

~ Katie :)

CSN Stores Love

It feels great to be part of the CSN Stores Preferred Bloggers. They have so many wonderful sites that you can buy dining sets, cookware and even shoes.

Last time I worked with them I did a giveaway for a gift certificate to one of their many stores and this time they are giving me the opportunity to review one item from their many stores.

They have over 200 online stores with almost any idea you can imagine.

Some of my favourites include:

Should I choose a new food processor or maybe some sheets. I still haven’t decided but as soon as I do and have to product in hand be ready for my review.

While your here why don’t you show them some love and take a look around a few of their sites. I promise you won’t be sorry.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a little Thanksgiving love!

~ Katie :)

Farmer’s Market Goodies

Today has been a very busy day. It started out as with a trip downtown to meet the hubby for lunch and ended up being almost an all day excursion.

After lunch I decided I should head to the police station to get my criminal record check done. This technically doesn’t have to be done until I get a job but since it makes the whole process faster if it’s already done and I was already downtown I figured I’d just head to do it. What a slow process. Not only is there only one place in the city you can get it done so it is always super busy but it also isn’t even in the police station and it took me for ever to find it.

After it was finished and I had paid the money the lady tells me that they have to put on it that if my employer wants they can also ask for a check back in Halifax since I have only lived here 2 months. Thanks police! Thanks so much! It might have been nice to know this earlier, plus how am I going to get a check done from Calgary with the Halifax police??? Hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be a problem.

After the painful experience I decided to hit up the Farmer’s Market in Calgary. Food always makes everything better, right?

Although I didn’t take any other pictures while I was there I ended up with a great stash of goodies so I thought I’d share my purchases with you.

Organic Free Range Eggs.

Two very large Honey Crisp Apples. Everyone seems to be taking about these lately so I picked up a couple to see what all the fuss is about. After I try them I’ll let you know if they’re as good as the hype.

A cucumber and four peppers. Two red, one yellow and one orange. I picked up the two red peppers to stuff this week and the other two are for salads and such.

Brussell sprouts, green beans and baby tomatoes.

A bag of BC cranberries.

Apple Butter. I think I’m most excited about this purchase.

In totally I spent about $38. Not bad for all those goodies!!!

After I left the Farmer’s Market I found out we’re heading to Banff tomorrow with my step-brother, his wife and my niece and nephew and we’re planning a picnic. Matt and I are in charge of some veggies and fruit so I headed to the closest Co-op to pick up a couple of things to bring with us. I also grabbed some baby carrots, broccoli, and grapes. I figured I’ll cut everything up and make a fruit and veggie plate to go along with the veggie wrap that I’m going to bring with me as well.

Today also marked the return of the green smoothie.

In the blender went two huge cups of spinach, 1 banana, 1 cup of UVAB, 2 tbsp of flax and ice.

It’s so nice to have these back in my life. I get lazy with using the blender because I makes such a mess but I love them so hopefully you’ll be seeing more of these on the blog.

Served with 1/2 an English muffin topped with pb and granola for breakfast.

Well that’s all for me today folks. I’m going to spend the rest of my evening enjoying a glass of wine, baking and catching up on The Vampire Diaries.

I want to wish all my fellow Canadian’s out there a very Happy Thanksgiving and I’ll be back again on Monday.

~ Katie :)

90’s Music Remembered

Last night after watching some shows on our DVR I had pressed stop and guess what was on the TV? FRIENDS!

After watching a few mins of it Matt and I headed to bed but not without a discussion of the 90’s. First some TV then we moved on the music. Don’t worry I’ll do a post soon of some of our favourite tv shows of the 90’s but I had music on my mind so I thought I’d take everyone down a trip of memory lane.

First up a few of the biggest hits from the 90’s. **Disclaimer: Not saying these are all great songs but they were definitely everywhere**

Who can forget:

• New Kids on the Block – Step By Step
• (Everything I Do) I Do it For You – Bryan Adams
• Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice
• I’d Do Anything For Love – Meatloaf
• This is How We Do It – Montell Jordan
• Macarena – Los De Rio
• Wannabe – Spice Girls
• MmmmBop – Hanson
• My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
• I’ll Be – Edwin McCain

Although they were some of the biggest hits during this time I thought I’d share 5 more that will forever remind me of my teens.

5. Waterfalls – TLC. This is just one of those songs that was everywhere when I was in High School. One of my friends and I were obsessed with TLC and the Red Light Special Album but this was the most popular. I still know ever word to the rap in the song.

4. I’m Too Sexy – Right Said Fred. Come one everything! You know you loved it. No matter now ridiculous this song actually is everyone was singing it. And we can’t forget the awesome follow-up: Don’t Talk Just Kiss.

3. Tubthumping – Chumbawamba. This was the song that was popular went one of my friends and I travelled to Ontario in grade 12 to visit another friend who had just moved there. I will never forget driving down the road listing to this at full blast in the streets of Sarnia, Ontario.

2. I Swear – All-4-One. This was typical mid-90s music. The boy band, the cheesy lyrics, being over played and school dances and of course the talking in the middle of the song that they (and many other bands) ripped off from the next group.

1. On Bended Knee – Boyz II Men. Boys II Men were huge during the 90s and although this might not have been their biggest hit it had always been my favourite and the song that will forever remind me of grade 9.

I know I didn’t even come close to hitting some of the other big hits of the 90s. Some runners up that almost made the list were: Summer Girls – LFO, Truly Madly Deeply – Savage Garden, Gangsta’s Paradise – Coolio, Sukiyaki – 4PM (if you don’t remember this so go check it out – it will bring a smile to your face remembering), Lighting Crashes – Live, Red Red Wine – UB40 and I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers.

Since this is a healthy living blog I’m not going to leave you without showing you my new favourite breakfast/snack. So simple but so good.

A whole wheat English muffin with pb and powerhouse granola.

Healthy and delicious.

I also made a awesome pasta dinner last night. I forgot to take pictures but we’re having leftovers tonight so I’ll take some pictures then and share the recipe later with you.

Also, don’t worry I’ve been doing a little exercise lately too. Heading to yoga later. I’m really loving this studio I’ve joined!

Well that’s all for me today. I hope all the Canadians out there are getting excited for Thanksgiving.

Question of the Day: What is your favourite 90’s song or What song will always remind you of the 90s?

~ Katie :)

Random Thoughts of the Day

Random Thought #1: My new obsession: greek yogurt, powerhouse granola and fruit(strawberries).

I’ve been eating it for breakfast, lunch and even snacks. I have photographic evidence to prove it.

 

I swear there’s been more too! And served with a whole wheat English muffin with a little Earth Balance. Nothing can beat that right now.

Random Thought #2: I’m beginning to experiment with other veggies on my pizza.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know then I’m a pizza lover but only with meat. I’ve been working on this. The other day there was progress.

Pizza toppings included spinach, mozza and…wait for it…red pepper. There was no meat in sight. Baby steps people…baby steps :)

And the best part? I actually really enjoyed it.

Random Thought #3: I forgot to tell you all about the hike we did on the weekend. The hubby and I went with my step-brother, his wife and three of their kids (15, 6 and 4) on a short but pretty good hike on the weekend.

It was only about 3km in total but it was great to be enjoying the outdoors and I just can’t spend enough time with the little ones. They are so adorable.

Here are a few pics from the day:

 

 

Fall was definitely in the air but it was a beautiful day for a hike.

Random Thought #4: I guess this one isn’t so much random but I thought I’d share. I went on a job interview today! Sounds exciting right? Unfortunately after the interview I decided the job wasn’t for me and had to call them and tell them I wasn’t interested. It felt wrong to turn down a job before finding out if they were even going to offer it to me or not but I know it was the right decision.

Question of the day: Have you ever turned down a job? And if yes, do you feel it was the right decision?

~ Katie :)

My Turn to Respond

I have been debating all night about whether I should comment on the Marie Claire article that was written about six of the bloggers in the healthy living community. I think I’m a little late in the game but I thought I’d respond anyways.

I feel very small compared to the bloggers in question and the other bloggers who have responded and I usually don’t get too involved with controversial issues in the blogging community but I guess this one just invoked something in me and I felt a few these things need to be said:

1. I only read a couple of the bloggers in question but from my perspective the ones I do read I do not feel like they are creating an un-realistic or bad perception for others.

2. I am not going to blindly defend everyone and say they are all perfect – I don’t read at least half the blogs in question so I can’t comment on those ones.

3. Maybe I feel this way because I am 30, feel more confident in myself and don’t feel like I get influenced as easily as others (if I had encountered this community 10 years ago I might feel differently then??)

4. I do feel that the article was mean-spirited and the author could have made some of the same points without attacking specific individuals. I also found the way the author presented herself to the bloggers (you can read what Meghann had to say about how she contacted them) a little questionable. She says she is writing an article about one thing then the article ends up being about something else (I guess you can say that’s journalism)

5. I think that the author has points about disordered eating, obsessions with exercise, eating and healthy living in general, destroying food, etc but  just attacking 6 bloggers I do not feel is the way to discuss this. Writing an article about these topics in general might have been a better strategy. I think the way she went about it is now causing people to be more upset with the article then to bring light to some important topics.

6. I think that there are blogs out there that might have some over the above issues but I try to stay away from blogs that are negative or have unhealthy behaviours on them. The reason I joined this community was to help inspire me to lead a healthier lifestyle and blogs that don’t do that I tend to avoid.

7. I enjoy reading healthy living blogs not so I can see every single thing someone has eaten or to want to be that person but because it has become a resource for me for healthy living.

8. Blogging has helped me become a better cook and more willing to eat different things. I use to be extremely picky but after seeing some yummy recipes on blogs I’m more willing to try something I might not have been willing to try in the past.

9. I have found some of these ladies who are constantly training or running races more inspirational then anything else. I am not a runner and have found Caitlin’s mantra, ‘You can do anything for a minute’ exceptionally helpful when just trying to complete a 20 min run. Reading her blog does not make me feel incomplete or bad about myself for not being able to run 22 miles. I’m happy with my 20 min run on the treadmill and blogging has helped me realize this.

10. Finally, what I see, as far as I can tell no one else has pointed out, is how are these bloggers any different then a show like The Biggest Loser. If we feel that these bloggers are unhealthy for those with body image issues/disordered eating then a show like The Biggest Loser would be well (this is not an attack on the show – I love it and watch it every week). We can’t think that it is realistic for ‘most’ people to lose 30lbs a week like they do on The Biggest Loser. People need to be responsible for themselves. I agree that maybe a person with body issues/disordered eating shouldn’t be reading some healthy living blogs but they probably shouldn’t be watching The Biggest Loser either. As must as people need to be responsible for what they are writing, the people reading also to be accountable. If you feel it is creating unrealistic expectations then maybe you need to find a blog you find more inspiring. I think almost every healthy living blog that I read (especially the ‘big’ ones) always says something along the lines of this might not work for you but this is what works for me.

Well I guess that is more then just a few points. I didn’t think I would have so much to say but once I started typing I just wanted to get all my points across.

Please let me know what you think of my points.

Do you agree?

Disagree?

Comments below welcome!

~ Katie :)