BalancedBlog

Reason #1 For Becoming Vegetarian + Chocolate Frosting Recipe

2012-02-15T15:17:00.000-04:00

I am the last person I would have ever expected to become vegan. My whole life ham and bacon have been two of my favorite foods. People have laughed at me before in the past when I have talked about giving up meat because I love pork so much. It has been an interesting journey to get to this point and I wanted to talk a bit about my reasons for making such an extreme change in my diet.

Source: Chapters

The changes started for me back in March 2011. Most of my life I have tried to find ways to save the earth. I have always tried to be eco-friendly but it wasn't until 2010/2011 that I really started to research about the state of our environment and what kind of impact my lifestyle was having on it. There are lots and lots of books, websites and articles out there about this but it was The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone that really hit home for me. Below are some scary facts about the impact our meat industry has on the environment:

"It takes 441 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef... By comparison, it takes only 33 gallons of water to grow a pound of carrots. One 16-ounce steak uses the amount of water you need for 6 months of showers!" (The Kind Diet 2009, p.25)
"It takes more than 11 times the energy to create animal protein than grain protein. When you take into account the fuel used for planting, watering, and harvesting of the grain a cow eats, its transportation, the energy used by factory farms, transportation of the cows to slaughter, and then the distribution of the meat to you... the average American eats 97 pounds of beef a year, our national burger-lust requires the energy equivalent of a mere 29 billion gallons of gas!" (The Kind Diet 2009, p.26)
"The average American car produces 3 kilograms of carbon per day. The clearing and burning of enough Costa Rican rain forest to produce one hamburger creates 75 kilograms of carbon." (The Kind Diet 2009, p.27)
"In fact, cattle grazing is the number one factor in the destruction of the rain forest, and we're losing 2.4 acres of it per second. That's 144 acres per minute. Seventy-five million acres per year! Rain forest used to cover 14 percent of the earth, but now it covers only 6 percent. You see, every hamburger requires a plot of land the size of a small kitchen to be cleared." (The Kind Diet 2009, p.27)

Those are just some of the disturbing facts I learned from Alicia's book. I highly recommend it as a good source for information on being eco-friendly when it comes to eating and also for the recipes.

Reason #1 for becoming vegetarian: better for the environment. After learning all of this information I couldn't continue to eat meat knowing how much damage it was doing to our planet. I will admit that deciding to become vegetarian or vegan is a very personal decision and it can be extreme for some people. I will never try to push this lifestyle on anyone but I would like people to take a step back and think about how much meat they eat. Even just consuming less meat than normal will help lessen the strain that the meat industry puts on our planet. I saw this amazing idea online somewhere of starting "Veggie Mondays". Every Monday try to eat anything but meat all day. It's only one day to commit to and it can be a great way to incorporate some creativity and culture into your cooking and your diet.

Another way we can lighten the stress on our planet is to choose better meats. Go to local farms or farmers market. Buy meats from farmers that do not overuse antibiotics and allow their cattle to eat grass instead of corn. Not only are you supporting people in your own community but you are buying food that has traveled less than 100km to get to you instead of 1000's of kms. You're also supporting ethical food production instead of giving your money to factory farming.

One of the biggest challenges I have found since making the jump to vegetarian and then vegan has been finding good recipes. I recently tried a recipe from The Kind Diet and am in love with it. Here is Alicia's chocolate frosting (The Kind Diet 2009, p.190):

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup (4 ounces) Earth Balance Butter
-1/2 cup agave nectar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1/2 cup soy milk powder

Directions:
To make the Fudge Frosting, use a mixer to cream the butter together with the agave nectar in a mixing bowl until very smooth. Add the vanilla extract and about half the cocoa powder, mix on low speed to combine, then add the remaining cocoa powder. Add in the soy milk powder, and beat at medium-high speed until fluffy. If it is runny, refrigerate the frosting until it sets up a little.

I used this frosting on cupcakes that I made from Kim Barnouin's Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. Keep tuned tomorrow for the cup cake recipe and "Reason #2 for becoming vegetarian".

Meditation, Love and Boy Movies

2012-02-13T15:49:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I went to the open house at the Shambhala here in Halifax. They do a guided meditation for 45 minutes, tea and treats for 15 minutes and then an hour long lecture/discussion every Wednesday. The guest speaker started the talk with "I recently fell in love so I figured that would be a good topic to discuss tonight." Inside I cringed. Love has been such a source of negativity recently in my life. Thankfully though, she wanted to talk about love for everyone/everything, not romantic love.

She touched on some Buddhist principles but it was a contemplation activity she had us participate in that stuck out the most too me. We all had to sit like we were going to meditate, with our eyes clothes but instead of meditating she prompted us to think of specific people in our lives. The first was to send love to someone we care about deeply. The second was to send love to someone in our life that really needs love and support. And the third was to send love to anyone else. It could be a friend, family member, neighbour, coworker or even someone you don't particularly like.

I have done this type of exercise before. Normally at the end of a yoga practice I will dedicate my practice to someone in my life and send love to them. By doing this every time I get on my mat I have been able to infuse love into my life no matter what happens to be going on. One of my favorite quotes (don't remember where I heard it) is "Put out into the world what you want the most". By me sending out love to people every single day I guarantee that there is always love in my life.

This is something I think everyone should do. I always get a warm feeling in my chest when I focus on sending love to someone in my life. I even do this with people that I don't get a long with or don't particularly care for. By sending love to these people I find you start to have more compassion for them. Instead of criticizing them or building stories about them in your head you start to understand them more and cultivate positive energy in the relationship you have with them. There is one person in particular that I have been sending a lot of love to over the past few months. Her and I used to be good friends until a year and a half ago when we had a falling out. Words were said, feelings were hurt, trust was betrayed. The usual story. And even though I tried to repair the friendship, it has stayed shattered in tiny pieces since then. I have accepted that we will never be friends again but I still hope for the best for her and regularly send love and positivity her way. It has been one of the best learning experiences I have ever had and I highly recommend trying to send love to someone you have had a falling out with.

Source: Deviantart

Which kind of brings me to the topic of today's post: Valentine's Day. The "awesome" holiday for anyone in love and the "not so awesome" holiday for anyone not in love. This will be the first time I've been single for Valentine's day in I don't even know how long. We're talking at least 5 years here. When I first realized that I got a bit anxious. No one wants to be alone on Valentine's Day. I'll agree that it is a commercial holiday designed to make people spend money in the break between Christmas and St. Patty's Day. I know that you shouldn't need a holiday as an excuse to be romantic with a partner; that should be done any day of the year. But when coworkers started to put up heart decorations around the office it seemed like a constant reminder of how very single I am right now.

So to turn Valentine's Day on it's head I'm going to spend it with my soul mates and send love to the non-romantic relationships I have in my life. I'm going for dinner and then to a "boy movie" with two of my closest girlfriends. These girls have been the foundation in my life for the past few years. Through good times and bad these women have always been there for me. That is what a soul mate is I think. Someone that, no matter what, will always have a tissue for you when you need to cry or a bottle of wine when you need to be distracted. No matter what romance comes and goes in our lives, we will forever be each others soul mates. To these two women, I love you with my whole heart. You are both strong, smart and fierce and I'm excited to be able to spend my Valentine's Day with you two.

This Valentine's Day take a moment or two to sit, breath and send love to someone or everyone in your life, not just your romantic partner.

Staying Sad

2012-02-12T12:55:00.000-04:00

February is always the point in winter where I start to get sick of the cold. I get sick of the snow, of scraping my car in the morning. I get sick of having to wear big winter jackets and of going through so much windshield washer fluid. If there is snow on the ground it is usually filthy by this point. It has lost it's pristine, sparkling glow that has always been able to mesmerize me with its beauty. A fresh, clean snow fall is one of the very few things I actually enjoy about winter.

Source: Deviantart

February is when I start to dream of summer. Or heck, I'd even take spring at this point. The days start to get longer and the snow starts to melt. You start to notice the sounds of birds chirping in the morning and the bright green of the tulips fighting against the snow to get some sunlight. It's the season that represents new beginnings. We get the urge to make changes in our lives; to re-invent ourselves. Normally by the time February rolls around people are starting to get restless. We want spring to happen. We want to be warm again and to look forward to the transition from winter to summer.

This year it is different for me though. I have always been the type of person to want to improve. I've never truly been happy with just being in the moment. I have always felt the need to want something more, to be something more, and to get over being sad or depressed as fast as possible. I mean, c'mon, who actually wants to be sad or depressed? Who wants to be stuck in the same old habits or be down in the dumps all the time? I think most people do everything they can to avoid feeling anything uncomfortable. I know I did for the last 24 years of my life.

But this February I have decided to change that. Instead of yearning for the warmth of the sun and the changes that spring time always brings, I want to be completely present right now. No more avoiding the uncomfortable moments. No more pretending to be happy when I'm not. I think everyone can learn a lot from just letting themselves be sad/lonely/depressed/etc. The more we try to ignore it or push past it the more it will build up inside of us. We should revel in the beauty of being sad/lonely/depressed/etc just like we revel in the beauty of being happy/joyful/content/etc. It is so cliché to say but we would never experience the highs without the lows. We would never know warmth or happiness unless we had experienced cold or sadness. But not only do we need to experience lows in order to experience the highs, I think we need to experience the lows to know that we can survive them.

Almost everyone I know lives in some kind of fear. Fear of failure, fear of being hurt, fear of letting people down. Fill in the blank for the fear in your own life. So we hold ourselves back. We would rather never take a chance at something we really, really want because we might fail. We might have to go through an uncomfortable experience. But what if we have already made it to the other side of an uncomfortable experience? What if we survived being sad/lonely/depressed/etc? I truly believe that if we stopped pretending to be happy all the time and let ourselves experience the "bad" emotions we would no longer live a life of fear. We would have no need to hold ourselves back from what we really want because we would know that yes, even if I fail and become lonely/sad/depressed, I know that I can live through it and be happy again.

It has taken me a long time to finally be ok with feeling the bad. To really give myself over to being lonely/sad/depressed. I know that it won't last forever and that I'll be better for having gone through it. So spring can take it's time IMO. I want to live in the now, in the coldness of winter with my sorrow, so that when spring time comes, I'll actually be ready for the changes it will bring.

Taking a shot at poetry

2011-12-21T13:17:00.001-04:00

I have never been much of a writer. English in school was never my strong suit. But over the years I have gotten better and better at expressing my opinions, feelings and ideas. Which has brought me to a bit of a crossroad. How much is too much to share? Should I really voice all of my opinions? What if someone is offended or disagrees? What if someone judges me for thinking a certain way? I think everyone faces these types of fears in some area of their life.

It is these fears that almost stopped me from writing this post. Last week I dabbled a bit in poetry. I have been reading more and more amazing poets lately but haven't written it since grade 9 English class. In an attempt to get out some emotions that I felt I had been holding in, I wrote a poem. Since then I have been struggling about whether or not I should post it. What if the person it is about reads it? What if someone is offended by the content or by the language? I had pretty much decided I wasn't going to post it until I read this amazing article over at Elephant Journal. Katarina is brilliant, that is all there is to it.

So this is for you Katarina. Thank you for giving me the courage and being my inspiration to share my art and my voice with the world.

Bleeding Heart

We fucked.
and fucked
and fucked
and fucked.

We reacted to each others bodies so naturally,
like two nuclei fusing together so forcibly
and exploding just as strongly.
You touched me everywhere I wanted to be touched and in precisely the right way
leaving me in a state of ultimate bliss underneath your sweaty bed sheets.
Your scent tattooed into my hair
into the crevice of my elbow and behind my knees.
So that later, when I was alone, I would be reminded of the tingle in my toes
of the way you kissed my face and my breasts,
of the rhythm of our bodies moving together like one.

But somewhere amongst all the fucking I fell in love with you
so deeply in love with you it made my skin hurt.
It made those tattoos burn with desire and passion
it made me want to be with you every moment of the day
and to run to the depths of the Amazon jungle to hide from you.
You pried open my chest and grabbed my heart with both hands
and you brought me back to life
You took a jackhammer to the walls that I had so delicately plastered
pushed them aside like they were nothing but Lego and play-doh.
You consumed me so deeply that I was gasping for breath
even though I wanted so badly to drown deeply in your eyes,
in your sweat,
in the pleasure of it all.

This kind of love is terrifying in the most real and inexplicable way
It grabs you unexpectedly and shreds all of your senses into tiny pieces
Before you know it you find your heart outside of your body
ripped from your chest and lying in the dirty hands of your lover
still beating..
As you lie there bleeding you can't help but wonder how is it still beating?
And what of those hands?
Will those hands belong to your knight in shining armor?
The one person that will hold you during your darkest nightmares and say "everything will be OK"
Will they be the one person that will look so deeply into your soul it makes your stomach hurt
and your intestines all squeamish.
Or do they belong to someone that will never really see you
Someone that will lose interest and toss your bleeding heart to the side
like an empty cup of coffee
high from the caffeine but in need of another fix.
Leaving you broken and bloody on the sidewalk.

This fear was very present at the creation.
Even you could see it there swimming beneath the surface
haunting me in the darkest of night and in the brightest of day.
Causing many nightmares and tension.
It would never fully leave me alone
but it would start to soften
the edges wouldn't cut through my skin anymore
the scabs eventually starting to heal
and as you rubbed the scars left behind by my internal war
I believed that this time it could be different.
But this realization was bittersweet,
the moment I decided to let you keep my heart and not fear it being broken,
was the moment you no longer wanted it.
The moment you decided that all of it was too much,
that you didn't have the desire to fight with me... or for me.
It required too much effort to be interested in my dreams,
you no longer wanted to come along with me for the ride on this roller coaster called life.

So you left me there, on the sidewalk,
broken and bleeding with my heart beside me
barely beating.

Things I have learned during 30 days of yoga

2011-12-02T09:45:00.000-04:00

For the month of November I participated in the Moksha Yoga Dartmouth's 30 day challenge. The rules are pretty simple: practice yoga every day for 30 days. That's it. The purpose is to make your practice a habit. It is said that it takes 21 days of repetition to build a habit that is 60% likely to stick. Or something along those lines.

So I committed myself to 30 days of yoga. There were some ups and downs throughout the month but I stuck to being true to myself and my practice and learned a lot. Here is some of what I learned.

1. You don't actually have to do yoga every day. A lot of people that participated in the challenge will disagree with me on this one but hear me out. In our Western society, our schedules (for the most part) are dictated by our jobs. Mine being a Monday to Friday 9-5 type job, it does put restrictions on when I can actually practice yoga. There were a handful of days over the past month where after having a crappy night of sleep and a long day at work all my body wanted to do was sleep when I got home. And so that's what I did. I slept for 12+ hours. No joke. Straight through the night. I confess... I skipped yoga class and I didn't roll out my mat at home. Instead I listened to my body and my body told me to crawl into bed and close my eyes for an unknown amount of time. This is yoga. Listening to our bodies and knowing what is right for us in this moment. Whether that is not going to class or not going up into headstand when everyone else is. Be present in your life.

2. My body wants to be healthy. I have always been a relatively healthy person. Sure I have my days where I can wake up and have ice cream for breakfast. But for the most part those days are few and far between. When I am practicing almost daily though I find my body craves healthy foods. I no longer crave sweets or greasy foods. My body wants vegetables and fruits and real food. Our bodies are smart machines and if we listen closely enough they will tell us exactly what they need.

3. The ego is powerful. This one I feel is pretty obvious. For the first week of my challenge I was constantly looking around at other people in class. I couldn't help but compare myself to others. "Her heels are touching the ground in down dog" or "his upper body strength makes bakasana look so easy", etc. I found it so discouraging and distracting when I was comparing my practice to them. I recognized this at the end of the first week and made an effort to keep my eyes on myself, the wall or my mat for the next week. Of course my eyes would still wander but when I realized what I was doing I just brought my attention back to myself. Everyone gets that competitive feeling in class (even instructors) and that's ok. When it comes up for you just try to acknowledge the feeling and bring yourself back to your own mat. Don't be discouraged by it.

4. Yogis are not perfect. A lot of times yogis are labeled as being peace lovers, hippies, never get angry, zenned-out, vegan, etc. But we really are just regular people. Most of us make a conscious effort to practice things like ahimsa but we're not perfect. For me this is particularly obvious when I'm driving to yoga class. I try to have patience with other drivers but sometimes that just isn't possible. And that's ok. If you do 30 days of yoga in a studio like I did sometimes you might feel left out when other yogis talk about their vegan diet, their hemp clothes, etc. Remember that they are not perfect and some of them probably even rush home to sink their teeth into a big, juicy burger. Don't let their "yogi" persona bother you.

5. Finding teachers you like is key. I think anyone that is comfortable to stand in front of people and teach them how to move their bodies is brave. I have the utmost respect for all yoga teachers. But that doesn't mean I like all of them for my own practice. I have been to some classes that I find the teachers voice or demeanor is so distracting that I can't focus on my practice. Everyone has a personal preference when it comes to the "type" of yoga instructor they like. It is important to find instructors that you feel a connection with and stick with their classes.

6. Drink a lot of water. For the first ~two weeks of the month I'm pretty sure I was dehydrated. I drank the normal amount of water I have always drank. Instead I really should have increased my consumption. So for the last two weeks I increased my water intake and felt a lot better; more energized, aware and alive. My 30 days was in a hot room (for the most part) so I sweat a lot but even if yours is not in a hot room, drink as much water as you can handle. The water will not only keep your body hydrated but it will help your digestive system work more efficiently and flush out the toxins your organs sometimes hold on to. If you do sweat a lot in your practice make sure to also replenish your electrolytes. Some easy ways to do this is to drink lemon water (full lemon worth), coconut water (no sugar added) or eat a piece of fruit right after your practice.

7. Your body will get strong. I can only comment on my own experience but the difference in the over all strength of my body from Nov 1st to Nov. 30th is remarkable. I can now keep my legs straight when I lift up into headstand! Before I always had to bend them into my chest and extend from there. I know everyone progresses at their own pace but I have found that in one month my flexiblity and strength has improved faster than it has during any other period of time in my yoga practice. When you are practicing every single day you become very aware of your body. You will start to notice the subtlest of changes. Like maybe chaturanga isn't as hard as it normally is. Or warrior 2 doesn't burn until the 3rd time you do it instead of the 1st. Whatever the change is, it'll happen and it feels marvelous.

8. Emotions will come up. I can't speak for everyone but I found that after doing certain poses over and over again over the course of 4 weeks I would find certain emotions would arise every time. Towards the end of the month I found myself in a downward facing dog almost in tears. For some reason this particular down dog made me whole body overflow with emotions. Fear, doubt, joy, sadness, anxiety, hope, faith. All of it came out in the 5 breaths I spent in this pose. Thankfully it was a hot class so the tears were mixed in with the beads of sweat. I haven't had this happen to this extreme before but I have found that I will be peaceful and present in a pose when all of a sudden an emotion washes over me. My best piece of advice is to ride it out. Let it take it's course in your body/mind. Experience it fully and then let it go. Remember that nothing is permanent and you will get past that feeling.

9. Find your yoga vibe. One of the biggest things I learned this month is that a daily practice is just not for me. I missed 4 days in 4 weeks. Hence a 6 day a week practice is more suited for my life and body. I find if I miss more than one day in a row I am craving yoga, but I do feel like I need at least one day of rest a week. I think this will fluctuate for the next few months depending on what is going on in my life but for the most part it will be a 6 days a week practice for me. I have also discovered that I like certain styles of yoga more than others; I tend to enjoy Baptiste and Ashtanga style classes the most. There is no "best" yoga style though. There is only what is "best" for you. So find what style you like and stick with it. :)

10. Last but not least, yoga can actually help you through major events in your life. This month my grandmother passed away. Specifically, she passed away at 2:20am Monday, November 14th. Nan had been diagnosed with colon cancer in June of 2010. We knew that it would be terminal but had no idea how long we had left with her. She started chemo treatments around Christmas time of last year but by August 2011 there was nothing more they could do for her. I think her death didn't hit me as hard as it could have because I have been preparing for it since August when all of her treatments stopped (or I am in denial). When her treatments ended I started to dedicate every moment I spent on the yoga mat to her. This was my way of dealing with what was going to happen. To honor her I actually went to yoga class that Monday. It's funny how the universe works because Monday classes are with my favorite instructor in Halifax, Stefanie Winters. As usual her class was awesome and I'm so proud to have been able to dedicate it to my Nan.

The overall experience was fantastic. I can't wait to do the challenge again next year. I highly recommend trying this out if you want to deepen your yoga practice. Remember, it doesn't have to be in a yoga studio. Even committing to doing it at home will benefit you in so many ways.

"This practice becomes firmly rooted when it is cultivated skillfully and continuously for a long time." - The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali 1:14

How to be alone

2011-11-01T11:23:00.001-03:00

I have never handled being alone well. I'm a people person so I like having company around. Sometimes when I am left alone I end up running away with my thoughts and have to force myself to come back to reality. I have always viewed alone as a negative thing until I stumbled onto this poem a few weeks ago. I hope it helps to change how you feel about alone as well.

How to be alone - Tanya Davis

If you are, at first, lonely - be patient.
If you're not been alone much of if, when you were, you weren't
okay with it then just wait,
you'll find it's fine to be alone...
once you're embracing it.

We could start with the acceptable places: the bathroom, the
coffee shop, the library.
Where you can stall and read the paper,
Where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there,

where you can browse the stacks and smell the books

you're not supposed to talk much anyway,

so it's safe there.

There's also the gym.
If you're shy you can hang out with yourself in the mirrors, you
can put headphones in.
And there's public transportation
- because we all gotta go places -
and there's prayer and meditation
no one will think less if you're hanging out with your breath
seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple, things you may have previously avoided based on your avoid-
being-alone principles.
The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by chow-
downers,
employees that only have an hour
and their spouses work across town
and so they, like you, will be alone.
Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with eat-lunch-and-run, take
yourself out for dinner,
a restaurant with linen and silverware.
You're no less intriguing a person when you're eating solo dessert
and cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger;
in fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where
you were.

Go to the movies
where it is dark and soothing
alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.

And, then, take yourself out dancing,
to a club where no one knows you
stand on the outside of the floor
until the lights convince you more and more
and the music shows you.
Dance like no one's watching
('cause they are probably not)
and, if they are, assume it is with best and human intentions,
the way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous
and affecting.
Dance until you're sweating
and beads of perspiration remind you of life's best things,
down your back like a brook of blessings.

Go to the woods alone and the trees and squirrels will watch
for you.
Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets,
there are always statues to talk to
and benches made for sitting
give strangers a shared existence
if only for a minute
and these moments can be so uplfting
and the conversations that you get in
by sitting alone on benches
might have never happened
had you not been there by yourself.

Society is afraid of alone though,
like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements,
like people must have problems if, after awhile, no body is dating
them

But alone is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless
and lonely is healing if you make it.

You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands
with your partner
look both further and farther
in the endless quest for company,
but no one's in your head
and by the time you translate your thoughts some essence of
them may be lost
or perhaps it is just helpt,
perhaps in the interest of loving oneself,
perhaps all of those sappy slogans
from preschool over
to high school's groaning
were tokens for holding the lonely at bay.
'cause if you're happy in your head then solitude is blessed and
alone if okay.

It's okay if no one believes like you
all experiences unique, no one has the same synapses
can't think like you
for this be relieved,
keeps it interesting, life's magic things in reach.

And it doesn't mean you aren't connected, that community's not
present.
Just take the perspective you get
from being one person alone in one head
and feel the effects of it.

Take silence and respect it.
If you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it.
If your family doesn't get you
or religious sect is not meant for you
don't obsess about it.

You could be, in an instant, surrounded, if you need it.
If you're heart is bleeding make the best of it

there is heat in freezing, be a testament

Rain

2011-10-30T17:54:00.000-03:00

It's raining.

Halifax doesn't get torrential downpours very often. It's more of a constant stream of rain. From where I'm laying on Andrea's couch I can see the drops falling from the roof, hitting the patio and splatting all over her door.

Something you may not know about me is that I love the rain. As much of a sun child as I am there are many days throughout the year that I ask the sky to give me some rain. Especially after a hot summer day. Nothing feels better on my skin after a day at the beach than to stand outside with my feet in the grass and rain drops on my skin.

I don't know what it is about the rain that has such a strong hold on my heart. It could be the way it feels on my skin. As long as it's not cold out, if it's raining you will normally find me outside standing in it. Sometimes with my arms raised to a "T" and spinning in circles. Face lifted to the sky.

Or maybe it's the soft, fluid melody that accompanies rain. Best enjoyed when relaxing with a comfy chair and fluffy blanket close to a door or window. I'm not big on silence but I can listen to the drip drip drip of rain for hours. I think the gentle sound comforts my heart. Sometimes I get so caught up in my own head that the sound of rain draws my attention away from my crazy thoughts.

It could be what the rain represents to me. My whole life I have identified with the phoenix. The mythical creature that is reborn over and over again from it's own ashes. Rain means something similar to me. When I pay attention to the rain I feel like it is literally washing away the crap in my life. It gets into every nook and cranny of my hectic thoughts and dissolves them. I always feel lighter, more clear of head after a rainfall. "Cleansed" if you will.

And what about the fact that rain is the lifeblood of Mother Nature? Without rain water would not get distributed over land. Our plants would dry up, animals would flee and we would be stuck in a desert world. Rain is literally what makes us grow.

Whether or not you agree with me doesn't really matter. Heck, there are days when after I do my hair in the morning I am cursing the rain for messing it all up or for making my mascara run down my face. But next time it rains, try sitting next to an open window (as long as it isn't sideways rain) and use the sound of raindrops as meditation music. Allow the rain to help you let go of anything that is weighing you down. I promise you will feel a little lighter after.

Time for change

2011-10-28T14:24:00.001-03:00

It's time for change in my life. For an embarrassingly long amount of time I have had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Really, I still don't. My track record goes a little something like this: lawyer, marine biologist, oceanographer, climatologist, accountant, photographer, wedding photographer, wedding coordinator, etc etc.. I'm one of those people that can find an interest in almost anything. So when it comes time to become an "adult" and choose a career path I get fidgety, my palms sweat and I distract myself.

What if the path I choose is the wrong one? What if I waste my time, other people's time and my money on something that I will end up disliking a year from now? What if I fail?

These questions have haunted me for years. So I have avoided them. I have distracted myself with a "job", not a career. I have distracted myself with a social life and sports and reading books. I have played around with ideas that never really stick. Sure they sound great but how feasible are they in the "real world".

Something else I do quite often is start projects and not finish them. This has added a lot of stress in my life lately. Unnecessary stress if I'm being honest. There is enough going on that I don't need to add more burden on myself right now. Therefore I am starting a change. I am tying up loose ends that have needed to be tied for a long time. Once this has finished you'll hopefully start seeing some changes on the blog.

I will admit, I'm scared to voice what I am considering doing. Not because it's bad, but because if it doesn't happen I don't want it to be yet another failed project. Something else that I started with good intentions but became tainted by my lack of commitment. Therefore I'm keeping this one close to my heart. I'm hoping that sometime soon I will have the courage to share with you readers what is happening. Until then my random ramblings will have to suffice.

If you have any requests for topics that I should talk about on this blog please feel free to email me at christinenewhook2 (at) gmail (dot) com or leave a comment.

Day 17: Letting go of life

2011-10-18T13:16:00.000-03:00

I'm not talking literally, don't get freaked out here. I feel like I need to admit that I have been slacking on the 24 day cleanse. I have done a lot but in the past weekish I have been side tracked. My Grandmother was put into palliative car last week so the cleanse took the back burner.I signed up for Moksha's 30 day challenge for the month of November and even though I may not be able to do the cleanse again every day for the whole month, I do plan on continuing the challenge into November. We'll see.

Yesterday's "item" was very unintentional. Every few months I get one amazing yoga practice. I know as a yogi you are not supposed to attach good or bad emotions to certain postures/practices but during these rare experiences I can't help it. Stefanie is one of the best instructors I have ever practiced with so it didn't surprise me that I would have this experience at one of her classes. She normally starts of class reminding us to be present. To let go of all our stresses, our worries, etc. Stop thinking about work, your family, what you have to do after class, your to do list. Focus on being present in this moment and allowing yourself the opportunity to just practice. For some reason last night this really resonated with me. I didn't look around the class at all to see what other people were doing. I was consciously aware of my breath at all times. I stopped thinking about Nan being in the hospital or about my need for closure with my ex. I stopped thinking about work and my to do list and books. Instead I focused on my body and my breath. The pauses in between your inhales and exhales. The burn in my quads in warrior 2. The strength in my arms in chaturanga. And it was what I needed. These rare euphoric classes leave me feeling re-energized.. almost high. I cherish these times on my mat. They are what feeds my soul and keeps me coming back to my mat day after day.

Lesson? There are times when we have to have our thinking caps on. When we are problem solvers and are caught up in the stories of our lives. But be open to those moments when life just drops by the side and you can just be completely present in the here and now. These are the moments that feed our souls.

Inspirational Videos

2011-10-14T09:57:00.000-03:00

TED is one of my favorite websites. If you have never heard of it before TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a nonprofit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading". They hold conferences all over the world where inspirational people will talk about an idea. The reason I like it so much is because there is a huge variety of topics discussed.

Today I would like to share with you two videos I found. If you haven't been able to tell by now I try to live an eco-friendly life which includes being vegetarian. I know that lifestyle isn't for everyone but watch these two short videos and challenge yourself to think differently about how you live and what you eat.

Shape Best Blogger Awards

2011-10-12T09:26:00.000-03:00

One of my favourite bloggers ever has to be Danielle LaPorte. I think I have mentioned her before but if I haven't you have to go check out her blog over at White Hot Truth. She is funny, smart, beautiful, inspiring and an amazing writer.

If you like her as much as I do please show your support and head over to Shape 2011 Best Blogger Awards Site and vote for White Hot Truth :)

Day 10: Letting go of love

2011-10-12T09:17:00.002-03:00

(Silly blogger ate my first post.. let's try again)

This past weekend was been very emotional for me. I did not let go of anything on the 8th or the 9th. I was more focused on other aspects of my life. Like my Grandmother. She is very, very sick. On Sunday (9th) my family went to her place for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was really apparent that her health had taken a turn for the worse. As hard as all of this is, I decided I no longer wanted to wait for change in my life.

My ex and I have been trying to work through some problems and decided to break up about 2 weeks ago in the hopes of spending time apart and maybe trying to get back together after a month or so. After seeing my Grandmother on Sunday I decided there is no time like the present. The result of that conversation with my ex is that we will not be getting back together. We tried everything we could to make it work but it just isn't going to happen. Monday I faced that fact head on and even though I have had weak moments since then, I know it is for the better.

Dave, I love you. I always will. And I wish nothing but the best for you in the future.

Day 7: Letting go of magazines

2011-10-12T09:12:00.000-03:00

On the 7th day of this cleanse I decided to get rid of all my old magazines. Ok, maybe not all of them but most of them. I usually hold onto some Vogues or Ws for photo ideas/inspiration. It took a while but today I flipped through the majority of these magazines, pulled out photos that inspired me and then chucked the rest of the magazine. Now instead of a huge pile of magazines, I have a way smaller folder full of photo inspiration. I finished this process for all of my fashion magazines. Now I have to go through my handful of yoga magazines and do the same thing.

Make sure to recycle all of your old magazines if you decide to clean out your bookshelf as well.

Day 6: Letting go of cloth

2011-10-06T20:50:00.000-03:00

I read in a book not too long ago (don't remember which one) that a good use for old sheets, towels, blankets, etc is to either turn them into rags or to donate them to animal shelters. Since I don't have my own kitchen I don't really need that many rags so I have decided to donate two sets of sheets, a towel and a blanket to my local SPCA. I haven't used any of these items in over a year so instead of them collecting more dust in my closet I might as well put them to good use and give them to a cute puppy or kitty in need.

If you're in Halifax the local SPCA can be found at 11 Akerley Blvd., Suite 200A, Dartmouth.

Day 5: Letting go of debt

2011-10-06T12:27:00.000-03:00

This will be a pretty short post since today's "thing" was very easy to let go of. Today I paid off one of my credit cards completely. Yay!! I really hate having debt so it feels like there has been a mini weight lifted off my shoulders.

For any readers out there that also have debt my best advice is to find a way to pay it off that works for you. I have tried different methods and some work better for me than others. The best professional advice I have ever received is to pay off cards/loans that are high interest first. That way you end up paying less interest in the end. If this doesn't work for you though, that's ok. Just create a plan that makes sense to you and stick with it :)

Day 4: Letting go of electronic clutter

2011-10-05T11:45:00.000-03:00

In today's society the majority of people have at least an email address. Most people have email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Although deleting emails doesn't take long, it still clutters up our lives. Today I took a few steps to rid my life of electronic clutter.

Unsubscribed from Groupon, Kijiji Deals, TeamBuy, etc.
Unsubscribed from almost all newsletters I have signed up for in the past (stayed subscribed to White Hot Truth and a couple yoga ones)
Deleted my "Deleted Items", "Spam", and cleaned out my saved emails
Deleted multiple applications from my Facebook account and turned off Facebook notifications
Cut down my google reader from 100 blogs to less than 20

Now all of this might not be much for some people but each time I pressed the delete button or the unsubscribe button I got excited about how many emails I won't have to delete in the future, about the smaller inbox I would have. This has to be one of the best days of letting go so far as I actually feel a lot lighter afterwards.

What subscriptions could you live without?

Day 3: Letting go of appearances

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-03:00

Not too long ago I started reading Adria Vasil's Ecoholic books. In the the first one she briefly touched on the topic of cosmetics and all of the nasty chemicals that are in them. One of the most surprising facts was that most nail polishes have traces of formaldehyde in them. Yuck. The amount of chemicals that we (women and men) put into our bodies from our soaps, styling products, cosmetics, etc is astounding. Just think about your morning routine. For me it consists of brushing my teeth, washing my face, washing my hair, conditioning my hair, shaving, washing my body, putting on moisturizer, putting on hair treatment, etc.

To cut back on the amount of chemicals in my life I have started to make my own products. But my bathroom was still cluttered with all of the yucky products I don't use anymore. So yesterday I cleaned it all out. Got rid of all soaps, moisturizers, nail polish, makeup, etc that I don't use or are past their expiry. I really encourage everyone to do this at least once a year. Many products that we use on a daily basis actually expire but not many people pay attention to this. Take a look in your product drawer and see if any of your products have the below symbol. It means that the product will expire in X months after it has been opened.

(Photo Source)

Stay tuned over the next few weeks because I plan on posting some recipes for homemade skin care products!

Day 2: Letting go of emotions

2011-10-02T21:00:00.000-03:00

Yoga has been a great tool for me to help let go or deal with emotions or situations in my life. I find it clears my head, grounds me and I get in shape at the same time. But I can't do yoga all day every day when there are hard times.

Instead I write in a journal. I have always wanted to be one of those people that write in a journal every day but with my life/lack of writing ambition I have never been able to accomplish that task. That being said, when I'm really stressed or I'm not sure what to do in a certain situation I find it always helps to open to a clean page and just let go. I normally turn off my music, my tv, and go to a quiet place where I can just write. It's the perfect way to sort through mixed feelings or thoughts or to really solidify your opinion on something.

As I have said in previous posts I have been dealing with a lot lately. Or really I should say I haven't been dealing with a lot in my life lately. I have had writers block and have been trying to just use yoga to help with my emotions and thoughts. But it obviously hasn't been working. So today I sat down at my computer (since I can type faster than I can print) and let it all go. Having been to therapy before I can speak from experience, it felt better than any therapy session I have ever had. When you're writing to yourself you don't have to worry about judgements or hurting anyone's feelings. You can just let it all go. It was difficult and it took a while but it feels like a weight has lifted from my shoulders.

Writing in a journal isn't for everyone but I recommend at least giving it a try. I plan on making it a part of my routine throughout this cleanse. See if any other emotions come up that I should be letting go of.

Tip: Try not to judge what you write down or how well your grammar is, etc. A journal is not a literary piece of art, it's a place just for you, a place to sort through what goes on upstairs.

Day 1: Letting go of books

2011-10-01T10:30:00.000-03:00

If you have known me for more than a couple of weeks or have been to my house you know I am a huge book worm. My parents say I have been like this my whole life. I was one of those weird kids growing up that loved school. Learning has been such an amazing adventure that I continue it to this day. When I'm feeling blue or something is on my mind I find comfort in Chapters. Walking the rows of books, smelling the dreamy scent of paper, cuddling up in a comfy chair to read a couple of introductions. It's almost as good for me as going to the ocean.

With the many times I have frequented my local Chapters store I think I have only left without a new book a handful of times. Therefore I have a lot of books at home. Some of them I adore and have read multiple times. Some of them I bought with good intentions but all they have accumulated is dust. So today I went through my collection and got rid of 22 books. That may not seem like a lot but it is a great starting point for me. The books were fiction, non fiction and even some old university text books.

My biggest tip for book worms out there is to find a used book store close to where you life. I have one I go to a lot in Bedford called "Buy the Book" and they have a great credit program. Bring in books that you don't need anymore and they will give you credit for them. The credit can be used towards half of your next purchase. I absolutely love this idea. It cuts down on the demand for new books and recycles your old ones.

Do you have any books that you could give away?

24 Days of Letting Go

2011-09-29T10:51:00.000-03:00

One of my favorite places to spend time on the web is Elephant Journal. If you haven't checked it out before please head over once you are finished reading this post. There are tons of articles about many different topics. One of my favorite yogi's (Kathryn Budig) is a contributor to this website.

Anyways.. Earlier this week I stumbled upon Marylee's post 24 Things: The Autumn Surrender. Four times a year Marylee goes through a 24 day cleanse of her life. Every day for the 24 days she gets rid of/gives away something that she no longer needs. After reading her blog it was made clear to me that what you're giving away doesn't have to be a physical item. It's about cleansing your life, letting go of old, possibly destructive habits. Opening space in your heart, mind and home to new dreams and goals.

There has been a lot going on in my life for the past two months (which I haven't decided as to whether or not I will be sharing on here) and this cleanse feels like it's the perfect thing for me right now. I feel like I need to let go of what is holding me back in life and create room and an environment for good things to come in. Therefore I have decided to participate in this challenge. From October 1st to October 24th I will be letting go of something every day. I will try to post every day about what I have let go of but I'm not sure what the next few weeks will bring. Please bare with me as I might just do some recaps along the way.

If you are interested in de-cluttering your life and want to participate in the Autumn Surrender here are some deets:

How to begin:
Day one: focus on what you want to call into your life, write it down in a journal or post it to a dream wall.
Try to keep it positive. Instead of writing “I want to lose 20 pounds” you might say, “I want a healthier, lighter body that allows me to live with more freedom.
The 24 Things experience allows us to call in what serves our highest potential as the clutter in our lives, hearts and minds falls away.
The Rules:
1: No purchases for the next 24 days. You can only buy necessities. If you see something you want, start a list. If, at the end of the 24 days, you still desire it, then go on and splurge. Chances are you wont even remember what it was you wanted.
2: ONE THING each day. Focus on letting go of one item or group of items each day. A daily practice retrains the mind, redirects the your subtle energy, and establishes a new way of thinking.
Resist the urge to pick 24 items and dump them in the first week.
3: Every day you will either nourish something that serves your highest good or let go of something that hinders it.

For more information please go to Marylee's website.

101 in 1001

2011-09-28T10:39:00.000-03:00

If you have followed my blog(s) for a while you'll know that I have made 2 previous 101 in 1001 lists. Not long after making them though I always realized my flaws in what I included in them. The first one I made a few years ago I was with my ex. At that time we were relatively happy in our relationship so I included him in a lot of my goals. But when we broke up there was no way I was going to be able to complete the goals that included him. So I made a second one. When writing it I was fresh out of a breakup and wanted to focus on my success in the world. Therefore I included a lot of goals about making my photography business work. You can probably see where this is going. Now that I am not continuing with my photography business I felt like I needed a new list.

So I made my third and final list. Well for the next 1001 days it will be final. I tried to focus on me. I didn't include other people in it. I didn't focus on any goals for my career. This is 100% all about things I want to do for me. So here it goes :)

Get one of my photos printed on canvas
Go to a social networking event
Take a photo of me with my grandparents
Complete a 50 self portrait project
Organize my photos
Complete my photo wall
Go to the Calgary Stampede
Read 150 books
Take a homeless person out for lunch
Make my own wine
Paint a canvas
Tour a lavender farm
Go sky diving
Take a yoga teacher training
Plant a tree on Earth Day
Knit an afghan
Bake a vegan cheesecake
Go vegan for a month
Bike the cabot trail
Get tattoos touched up
Get sunflower/violet tattoo
Make pottery
Donate blood
Donate plasma
Send a balloon message into the sky
Do yoga 6 days a week for 6 months
Run a 10km race
Pay off all debt
Complete all 3 reiki attunements
Learn 1 song on piano
Learn basic Spanish, French or Italian
Vacation down south
Spend a long weekend in PEI
Have a picnic on Citadel Hill
Go to Treego
Reach 500 twitter followers
Make cake pops
Make body butter
Move out of my parent's house
Change the oil in my car
Sell something on Etsy
Join a book club
Build my own altar
Make a mala for 5 people
Build a snowman
Skate on the oval
Blog 3 restaurant reviews
Host a giveaway on my blog
Attend the midnight premiere of a movie
Save $3000
Plan a trip to India
Photograph lightning
Launch a new website/blog (revamp current)
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go mud sliding
Go sledding
Go tidal bore rafting
Go snorkeling
Build a bird house
Volunteer
Host a dinner party
Go to a swanky New Years Eve party
Sleep under the stars
Do sky trails
Keep a my day in 6 words journal for at least 4 weeks
Learn to roll sushi
Play hide and seek with at least 10 friends in Ikea
Plant a window box herb garden
Try 20 new recipes
Make soy candles
Make incense
Send flowers anonymously to a friend in need
Go swimming at night in the ocean
Do a corn maze
Go to a sunflower upick
Have a book signed by the author
Watch the sun rise and set in the same day
Actually mail birthday cards for 1 year
Visit the grand canyon
Swim in another ocean
Cook an Indian meal from scratch
Buy a pair of cow boy boots
Have a tarot card reading
Spend an afternoon reading at the beach by myself
Attend 10 mysore classes
Write a letter to someone that inspires me
Visit the Rockies
Get a massage
Complete my Style Statement
Audit a class at Dal/any university
Unplug for a whole weekend
Go kayaking
Host a costume/theme party
Say "yes" to everything for 1 day
Donate $3 for every goal not completed

I left the last couple empty so that I can fill them in along the way. The list officially started on September 15th, 2011 and will end on May 21st, 2014. I'm going to try to blog about as many of these as I can as I complete them and every couple of months I'll probably post an update about which ones have been completed. I challenge everyone to try this themselves. It can be a lot of fun to plan what you want to do for the next 2.5 years.

Favorite Etsy Finds

2011-07-28T12:01:00.000-03:00

Over the past few months I have made a handful of purchases on Etsy.com. If you haven't heard of Etsy before it is "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage, and supplies". You can find everything from beauty products to clothes to furniture to food. I have spent many hours just browsing through the pages and favoriting items that I would like to eventually purchase or that inspire me.

One of the really neat things about Etsy is that they have a team called "EcoEtsy". This is a team of sellers that are dedicated to reducing, reusing and recycling. You can visit their Etsy profile here and their website here.

Another interesting thing about Etsy is that you can shop for sellers/items in your area. That way you can reduce your environmental footprint by shipping products less distances and support local entrepreneurs.

I haven't done a whole lot of purchasing on Etsy yet but I did want to share some of my favorite finds. These sellers are from all over the world and I highly recommend their products.

1. Christy Studio. Christy is from Malaysia and makes the best hand bags I have ever purchased. She makes her hand bags in lots of beautiful colours and has a style that can suit anyone's needs. The first bag I purchased from her was the Denise bag in a purple/fuscia color. She didn't have it listed in this color but when I messaged her she had no problem making the bag in the color. The second bag I purchased from her was the Anna bag in hot pink. The color is even more stunning in person than it was in pictures. It is huge as well. I have used it as a carry on bag when traveling and it fits everything I would ever need. Her customer service, speed and quality is absolutely amazing. I find a lot of bags I buy start to fall apart pretty quickly but these ones are built well enough that they can handle anything. She is one of my favorite sellers on Etsy and I will definitely be going back to her in the future. Click here to check out her Etsy store.

This bag is huge on the inside. There are 5 good sized books in there right now as an example. This is the Anna bag.

2. mylavendercottage. Kari is from Wisconsin and she is seriously gifted when it comes to paper. I purchased her 12 Month Planner and List Keeper stack with the 3-month and page marker add ons and layout upgrade. I had questions about my order and Kari responded to my messages quickly and with great willingness to help. Her handy-work is absolutely superb and I can promise I'll be going to her when this day planner expires. Click here to check out her Etsy store.

Kind of beaten up already but still in great working order.

3. cottonpurr. JoJo is from Georgia and she makes the most beautiful wallets/clutches. I think one of my favorite things about JoJo is that not only does she have different styles for different needs she has soooooo many different patterns. It took me a while to decide which one I wanted because there were so many that I liked. In the end I loved my decision and have received multiple compliments on it while out shopping. Her custom service was fantastic when I had issues with shipping (Canada Post strike for the loss) and was willing to do what it took to make the customer happy. Click here to check out her Etsy store.

Fits way more stuff than I ever thought it would.

4. soapwallakitchen. Rachel is from New York and has made the only natural deodorant that actually works. Well maybe not, but the only one I have been able to find that actually works. It smells fantastic and really does last. Even through a sweaty hot yoga class. The deodorant took a couple times to get used to because it is a cream not a stick but the cream absorbs into your skin really quickly so there were no problems. I bought two tubs with my first purchase and I can guarantee I'll be going back for more when I run out. Click here to check out her Etsy store.

Convenient size to fit in your purse as well.

5. tibetane. Cara is a little different from the rest of the above sellers. I guess I am kind of cheating here because she is no longer on Etsy. She makes stunning jewelry for really great prices. I originally purchased my earrings from her when she was still on Etsy. Since then she has closed the store and moved to a different website. I highly recommend you check out what she has up. She is super sweet and really talented in what she does. She also has new stock in frequently so there is always something new to see. Click here to check out her online store.

You can't tell from the picture but the turquoise is so vibrant.

As you can tell I like to shop. Hahaha. But honestly, I really do recommend all of the above sellers. If you've heard of Etsy before, do you have any favorite sellers?

Sunburns: Prevention, Treatment (Part 2)

2011-07-25T22:14:00.001-03:00

To read part one of the sunburns posts please click here.

The next logical step after the last post is to talk about how to protect yourself against the sun. The first way you can protect yourself really isn't something you can control. In yesterday's post I talked a little bit about melanin. Just as a recap, melanin protects our cell's DNA from being damaged by ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Melanin is also what gives our skin brownish/tan pigmentation. Now there are two ways our body reacts to UV rays. When UVA reaches our skin it immediately oxidizes the melanin already in our skin and triggers melanocytes to release more melanin. This creates a quick tan that can last for days. When UVB reaches our skin it stimulates our body to actually produce more melanin. This means that we can still tan from UVB rays but it takes around 2 days for us to see the tan. (source)

All in all, melanin is our body's way of naturally defending itself against UVR. But this only works in moderate exposure. When we are overexposed to UVR we become vulnerable to the damages that it can cause. Which brings us to the second way to protect ourselves: not coming into contact with UVR/minimal contact. This is probably the best way to protect ourselves from the damaging effects of UVR. But it can be pretty unreasonable to never go outside. Therefore when you are outside, try to stay in shaded areas. Or wear hats and clothing that protect your skin. It is my personal belief that exposure to the sun is good for us but just like everything else in life, it's all about moderation. So next time you go to the beach, bring a big sun hat or sun umbrella to lay under when you're not swimming.

The third way to protect ourselves is to wear sunscreen. Now there is controversy online about sunscreen vs sunblock but for the purposes of this post I'm going to generalize it as sunscreen. Sun Protectant Factor (SPF) is the quantitative measure of a sunscreen's ability to protect you against the sun. The easiest way to explain how it works is to give you an example. If your skin burns in 5 minutes then a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 will protect you for 30 times longer (2.5 hours). The higher the SPF the better in my books although I did find an interesting article online that talks about how SPF factor doesn't really matter since the differences in protection are so minimal. Some sunscreens claim to be water resistant/sweat resistant but I recommend reapplying after swimming or physical activity. You should also reapply after prolonged exposure to the sun (for me it's about every 2 hours). When purchasing sunscreen make sure to get a "broad-spectrum sunscreen" as these are the ones that will protect you against both UVA and UVB rays. Some sunscreens will protect you against UVB rays and not against UVA rays. This can be deceiving since UVB rays are the ones that cause sunburns. So just because you don't have a sunburn doesn't mean you were completely protected against both types of radiation.

Two of the most common compounds in sunscreens are titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide.

Titanium dioxide is found in almost every sunscreen with a physical blocker because of its high refractive index, its strong UV light absorbing capabilities and its resistance to discolouration under ultraviolet light. This advantage enhances its stability and ability to protect the skin from ultraviolet light. The titanium dioxide particles used in sunscreens have to be coated with silica or alumina, because titanium dioxide creates radicals in the photocatalytic reaction. These radicals are carcinogenic, and could damage the skin. (source) I was able to find an article on titanium dioxide that states that studies have shown it as being non-carcinogenic unless in the form of ultrafine or nano particles.

From what I have been able to find on zinc oxide its function in sunscreens is to absorb UV light. It does not get absorbed into the skin, instead staying on the outer surface. One natural sunscreen company states that they put ingredients that are high in antioxidants to counter any free radicals that can be created by the zinc oxide. Another thing you can do to help fight against free radicals is to eat foods that are high in antioxidants like blueberries and acai. Overall it looks like zinc oxide is better than titanium dioxide in toxicity testing.

Compounds like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are found in mineral sunscreens. They stay on the surface of the skin. Chemical sunscreens however are absorbed into our skin and can cause other damaging effects. To read more on chemical sunscreens please go here. For the most part I would stay away from chemical sunscreens whenever possible for a few reasons:

1. They are powerful free radical generators.
2. They often have strong estrogenic activity.
3. They are synthetic chemicals that are alien to the human body and accumulate in body fat stores.
(source)

Recommended Sunscreens

When I went down south last Christmas I stocked up on a bunch of sunscreen. Therefore I am still working my way through the current stash at home and haven't been able to test out any of the products listed below. I have found the below products using google searches and with the help of Ecoholic's article "What’s the greenest sunscreen on the shelf?".

1. Aveeno Sunscreen Lotion with SPF 55. This is the sunscreen stash I am currently working my way through. Taking a quick look at the label it has zinc oxide in it and no parabens. This formula does leave a bit of a white film on my skin but since I'm pale it doesn't bother me. The reason I liked this one so much is because it is non-greasy and provides really good protection. I missed a spot when I went to the beach lately and you could tell big time.

2. Aveeno Natural Protection Sunblock Lotion with SPF 30. This one I found on Aveeno's American website as it is not available in Canada. Although the website does not have an ingredient list posted the description states "contains MINERALBLOCK Technology with 100% naturally-sourced active ingredients...". I would read the ingredient list before purchasing though to make sure there aren't any nasty chemicals.

3. Green Beaver Certified Organic SPF 30 Adult Body Lotion. Only available in Canada Green Beaver's line of sunscreens are made with zinc oxide as the main protection agent. What impressed me about this product is that the website states it is "Organic Certified, Health Canada approved, Non-whitening, Waterproof, Fragrance-free, Non-nano, non-silicone coated". The website does also have the ingredient list posted so check out the link for more information as to what is in it and where you can purchase it.

4. Badger SPF 30+ Unscented Sunscreen. Again, uses zinc oxide as the active sunscreen ingredient. Website does have the ingredient listed posted and a quick skim through shows that it does not have any parabens in it. It also has cocoa butter and shea butter in it which will help keep your skin moisturized preventing wrinkles. This one is probably the next one I will test out.

Edit: My lovely friend Lisa reviewed Badger Sunscreen on her blog. Check it out here. Basically, it sucks. Don't get it!

5. Kiss My Face Oat Protein Sun Screen SPF 30. Another paraben free, zinc oxide based sunscreen. Website has the full ingredient list posted. The description states "combines Oat Protein and Oat Beta Glucan, a dynamic duo of ingredients that help reduce irritation and inflammation and fight against damaging free-radicals as they moisturize your skin.". This is pretty cool in my books.

All in all there are lots of options out there. The best thing I can recommend is for you to go to your dermatologist for recommendations as they can assess your skin type and recommend something specific for you. You can also visit your local health food store. Just be careful to check ingredient lists as sometimes the products are listed as "natural" but actually have some nasty chemicals in them.

I learned a lot writing these last two posts and hope you have too. If you have a favorite sunscreen that you recommend me testing out please comment below.

(edited to include the following)

Sunburn Treatment

I have found that there aren't any products that will make your sunburn heal faster but there are some that help with the pain of sunburns. I always drink lots of water to keep the skin moisturized. This will definitely make you feel better and make your skin feel less like it's going to crack. I also recommend using 100% aloe which can be found and your local health food store or pharmacy. This literally cools your skin and helps treat the pain of the sunburn. Times when I have had a really really bad burn I have also used Vitamin E. This can get messy since it is a sticky oil but it again helps to keep the skin hydrated which will help with the healing process. I find the best thing to do is to put this on before you go to bed at night and wash it off in the morning. My only warning is that you might stick to your sheets.

Sunburns: Breakdown (Part 1)

2011-06-07T18:29:00.002-03:00

This doesn't have anything to do with yoga but a lot to do with my life. As a red head I get sun burns regularly. Summer or winter. Sunshine or overcast. I am far from a specialist about sun burns but I thought I would share a little bit about what they are, best ways to prevent them and how to treat them. (edit: this post got pretty scientific so I'm sorry if any of this is confusing. Please check out the sources I have notated for deeper explanations.)

Originally I was going to start this post talking about ultraviolet radiation but I thought maybe I would give you some background on our body's way of protecting ourselves from it first. In the bottom layer of our skin we have cells called melanocytes. These cells produce melanin and insert the melanin into melanosomes (specialized cellular vesicles). The melanosomes are then transferred into skin cells in our epidermis. Once in a skin cell melanosomes accumulate on the cell nucleus where they protect the nuclear DNA from being damaged by ultraviolet radiation (UVR). (source) Melanin protects the nuclear DNA by absorbing UVR and dissipating the energy as harmless heat. (source)

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is produced naturally by our sun and artificially by sources like tanning bed bulbs. There are 3 types of UVR rays: UVA, UVB and UVC.

UVC has the shortest wavelength and the most energy, but it doesn't reach the Earth's surface because it's stopped by ozone in the Earth's atmosphere.

UVB light is between UVA and UVC in wavelength and energy and is the primary cause of sunburns. UVB light can cause direct DNA damage. Direct DNA damage happens when the radiation excites DNA molecules in skin cells, causing adjacent thymine bases to bond with each other, instead of across the "ladder". This "thymine dimer" makes a bulge, and the distorted DNA molecule does not function properly. (source). When this happens either type 1 cell-death is triggered, the DNA is repaired by our body or the cell is replicated with the damaged DNA. When the damaged DNA is replicated a DNA mutation will be present in the new skin cell. This mutation can result in cancerous growths. From what I can tell these growths form the two most common types of skin cancer: squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma. For more information on skin cancer go here.

UVA has the longest wavelength, the least energy, and the most penetrating power of the 3 types. Of all the UV light that reaches the Earth, about 95% of it is UVA. (source) Studies have shown that increased exposure to UVA rays can cause pre-mature aging of the skin and indirect DNA damage. From my understanding indirect DNA damage causes malignant melanoma (for more details go here). Melanoma is the least common type of skin cancer but it is the deadliest causing 75% of skin cancer related deaths (source).

Tomorrow's post will talk about sunscreens (what's in them, natural vs. artificial, recommendations), how they work and what to do if you find yourself looking a little red after a day outside.

Yin Practice

2011-06-03T14:08:00.005-03:00

I figured this would be an appropriate post after my last one since I struggle a lot with Yin.

Here is a bit of a background on yin yoga for those who are not familiar. Regular asana practice focuses on our muscles. On the strength and flexibility of these muscles. It isn't always but it can be a demanding practice. Poses like chaturanga and utkatasana focus on building strength. Whereas poses like uttanasana and prasarita padottanasana focus on building flexibility in the muscles. This is called our yang practice. Our active practice. Yin on the other hand is more of a passive practice. Yin yoga focuses on stretching our connective tissues, specifically our ligaments and tendons. It does this by holding postures for longer periods of time (anywhere from 2-8 minutes). When holding postures for this amount of time it forces us to become passive, to not use our muscles. When our muscles are no longer active we can get a stretch in our joints and spine. (To find our more about yin yoga go here) As with the rest of our life, yoga requires balance. Balance between our muscles and our connective tissues. Most asana classes will have a yin section at the very end but the poses are not held as long as in a yin class.

As much as I love how open and relaxed my body always feels after a yin practice, the practice itself, the whole 75 minutes is always a really hard struggle for me. One of the many reasons I love yang yoga is that you don't hold the poses for very long. Therefore my mind always has something new to focus on. On average a yin pose is held for about 5 minutes. This gives my mind time to a-wander or b-focus on how much I don't want to be in the pose. I'm not sure if everyone else feels this way during a yin practice but I know that I'm in the pose properly when it starts to feel like I'm old and I don't know how I'm going to get out of the pose. Which starts the ball rolling into a mini panic. I start to fidget and sweat a lot. I find myself saying "get out of this pose now, now, NOW!".

I want to clarify that I am never in pain in yin, you should never be in pain in any yoga practice. I just find it to be the hardest practice I can do mentally. I really hope this doesn't intimidate readers to try this out. Like I said above, I reap amazing benefits from my yin practice. I just wanted to throw my mental struggles with yin out there so that someone else will realize they are not alone if they have a hard time with yin as well.

And since I haven't posted any photos for a long time I thought I would show you some of the regular yin asanas.Anahatasana (image source) stimulates the meridian lines that run along the spine (urinary bladder lines) and along the arms. It especially helps to open our chests (heart and lungs). (source)

Dragons (image source) stimulates the stomach, spleen, gall bladder, liver, kidney and urinary bladder meridian lines. (source)

Saddle (image source) stimulates the stomach, spleen, urinary bladder and kidney meridian lines. (source)

Struggles

2011-06-02T16:04:00.003-03:00

Today I read a really inspiring article about the Goddess Akhilandeshvari from Hindu mythology. I don't know much about Hindu mythology (although it would be interesting to learn more about) but this article touched me in a peculiar way.

If you break down Akhilandeshvari it means the Goddess of never not broken. Never not broken... always broken. There are a lot of people in this world that inspire me. Friends, family, celebrities, etc. But it is always the yogis that I find touch me in a unique way. I normally end up following their blog or twitter account and assume that everything in their life is perfect. They've got this whole thing called life figured out. Which surprisingly is pretty depressing as I am so far from perfect it's kind of a joke. I make mistakes. I fall. I have those days where I just don't want to get out of bed because of family issues or drama that's happening in my life. It has taken me a long time to realize that everyone, literally everyone, has moments in their lives that are like this. It is normal. And it should be seen not as a miserable time in your life, but as a time for recreation.

Akhilandeshvari derives her power from being broken. She teaches us that by being broken we never have the limitations of being whole. We can constantly rebuild, shape and sculpt who we are as people. Broken-ness can help us to rid our lives of the toxic routines that as a race we normally cling to. I don't know about you but I have always striven for routines in my life. Weather that be in my work, personal, or yogic life. Routine can sometimes be boring but it can also provide familiarity and comfort. I think it is human nature to strive for these things in our lives.

When you are broken your routines and comforts become screwed up. You get the opportunity to recreate what you want to do, where you want to go, who you want to share your life with. By never being not broken you can makes these choices until your very last breath. I find this truly inspiring. It's one of the best examples of taking a situation and turning it from negative to positive.

A friend of mine is moving to the other side of the country in the next few days. We went for coffee to catch up before he left not too long ago and I was shocked by what he said to me. We were talking about our careers and how I'm having a hard time deciding on what I want to do in my life. There are so many restrictions financially, physically, mentally, etc that I feel are holding me back. He called bullshit and told me that I am letting them control me. He said that I need to make a decision about something that I truly love and run with it. Make it work instead of making reasons why it won't work. If it doesn't end up working then oh well. You start over again. He pointed out all of the comforts that I hold on to in my life. The routines, the luxuries. He told me about how he was in the same place in his life only a few months ago but by taking the risk to go for what he really wanted to do in life the universe rewarded him with getting it. He is now moving to Vancouver to further his career as an actor/director/producer in hopes of eventually going to Hollywood.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all have moments in our lives where we feel at our lowest. Where it seems like everything is going wrong. But it is in these moments that we get to choose a new path for our life and to run with it. We shed our life of the bad relationships, bad jobs, or bad habits that we form and we recreate ourselves. Just remember that this process should never end. We should never be not broken.

Community Play

2011-04-27T15:39:00.005-03:00

My day started off normal yesterday.

Wake up. Shower. Eat breakfast. Drive to work. Work for 8 hours. Rush home to get yoga gear. Eat a small snack on my way to practice. Swear a couple of times at horrible drivers. Find a parking spot. Talk to the instructor. Lay down my mat. Savasana for 5 minutes. Zone out. Become centered.

Sound familiar? I think so many of us "escape" into our yoga. We make it all about us. This is our time to have peace. To pay attention to our own bodies and forget about our job, our stresses, or the people in our lives. Time to just be in the present. And as much as I always look forward to it I'm starting to think that this isn't how it should be. Especially after last nights class.

Emilie is a fabulous yoga instructor at Moksha Dartmouth. She is great at walking us through challenging flows and really pushing us to dig deep. She is also really good at leading the class spiritually. She doesn't spout lots of spiritual mumbo jumbo but every once in a while she says something that really resonates with me. Or she does something completely unexpected.

Like partner yoga. At first it seemed harmless. She talked about how this week it was community week at the studio for the "Live Your Moksha" challenge that is going on and how we were going to incorporate that into our practice. At first we just had to introduce ourselves to our neighbours. Then we sat on our neighbour's mat, back to back to breath. Inhaling together. Feeling our partners inhale with our own. Everything is all good. Then we went to our own mats, did a few flows and the partner thing left my mind. Just when I'm starting to break a sweat she gets us to do another pose with a different neighbour. I will admit that I cheated the first time and sat with a friend. But this time I had to wrap my arms around a stranger while we did tree together. And I was surprised by how fun it was. We giggled the whole time trying to keep our balance and not knock each other over. Again this happened 3 more times throughout our practice.

I left that class with the biggest smile on my face. It was a lot of fun to enjoy some humor during practice and to also participate with the others in my class. So many times I see people, myself included, walk into the studio, not talk to anyone going in or out. I think it is important to be centered in our practice but to also acknowledge that we are sharing our energy with our neighbours as well. It was a great way to meet some of the other students that go to the studio and to have a few laughs.

So my challenge to anyone reading this, if you go to a studio, or even if you don't, introduce yourself to someone you see often. Whether that be someone at your office, at the coffee shop you frequent or someone that does adho mukha svanasana beside you every night. Share your energy with the people around you and trust me, it will make you smile.

A Stranger's Kindness

2011-03-29T15:09:00.003-03:00

Life has been hard for me lately. Some of it has been self-inflicted but some of it I have had no control over. When life gets like this I tend to write a lot in my journal. I find it is a good way to organize thoughts and to reflect on them in the future.

Fate would have it that Sunday night, during a real low moment, an older gentleman asked if he could sit in the chair beside me at Starbucks while I was writing in my journal. "Of course" I responded with a smile.

I watched as he put down his bag, then his coffee, and slowly sank into the over-sized leather chair. As I started to write again he took up an interest in the stranger sitting beside him - me.

"Are you a writer or is that a diary?"

"It's just a diary."

"What do people write about in those things anyway?"

"Anything that is important in my life. It helps me to organize my thoughts and work through my problems."

"Sounds like your in a crisis."

"Yeah," I laughed. "I guess you could say that."

"Well, don't worry about it," he said with a smile. "You seem like a nice girl. Stick with your positive attitude and you'll make it through any crisis."

And just like that, the kindness of this gentle old man had me on the verge of tears in this busy Starbucks. He continued making conversation, asking if I was a student or worked full time, where I worked, etc. Polite conversation that I've only ever received from people in an older generation. It got me thinking about how my generation - the x y generation - walks around completely oblivious to others around us. For the most part. There are some of us that take interest in strangers. We smile and hold the door open for strangers, pick up a stranger's dropped belonging, simple acts of kindness. But for the most part, (and this is only my experience) most of us don't pay much attention to others.

I have always tried to be the type of person to smile at others if we make eye contact, to tell a worker that they're doing a good job, to compliment someone when they are looking good. These are such simple acts of kindness we can do in our every day lives that can actually make an impact on others. Just like this old man made an impact on me.

That night I had been struggling with a big decision in my life. Whether to go for something I really wanted or to back away politely in peace. This complete stranger (his name is Don I ended up finding out) gave me that little bit of extra courage to stand up for what I wanted and fight for it.

So the next time you see someone that looks a little down on their luck, throw a compliment or even just a sincere smile their way. Open the door for a stranger or lend someone a helping hand. You never know what kind of impact you could make on them. And plus, it never hurt anyone to spread kindness into the world. :)

Ashtanga

2011-01-31T15:49:00.002-04:00

This Saturday a friend and I went to the Ashtanga Yoga Shala's 1 year anniversary celebration. They had a free 2 hour class in the evening followed with mediation, chai and treats. We only stayed for the practice and the mediation but it was absolutely phenomenal. This was my first ever Ashtanga class and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I was familiar with most of the postures but not the sequence. From what I can tell there are two sequences in Ashtanga. The primary and secondary. In each one you do a specific sequence of poses in the same order every single time. It seems like once you know the sequence you would go into almost a moving mediation. You wouldn't have to think about what was coming next.

I have to say that it challenged me a lot more than the majority of classes I have gone to recently and I'm seriously considering buying a pass to the Shala. I have two more class passes I have received so I'll use those first just to make sure I really like it. The only down side is that the Shala is in downtown Halifax. I wish it was closer to my house!

Live In The Moment

2011-01-24T17:44:00.003-04:00

If you know me you know I'm a planner. I have been planning my whole life ever since I realized I could dream and set goals for my future. Sure, these dreams have changed almost as many times as new moons but I have always had a destination of sorts.

Until recently.

Last month was a me month. As I've mentioned, my family and I went to the Dominican Republic for a vacation. If you ask me what we did on that vacation my response would be "absolutely nothing". Which is exactly what the doctor called for. I reveled (don't think this is a word? lol) in the time I had to just be me. Kind of reminds me of this post (could find the one I really wanted but this is a substitute) by my beautiful friend Lisa. Instead of having to get things done like reading, yoga, snorkeling, taking photos, I just enjoyed doing nothing. And I think that is the biggest thing I brought back with me from my vacation.

New Year's Day I decided to commit to a 30:30 challenge. Didn't happen. But you know what? I'm not sad about that. I listened to my body when it told me that I needed a break (no, it was not saying that it wanted to be lazy). And I'm ok with that. I'm sick of having so many expectations for myself. Sure, there are things I want to do in my life. A "bucket list" of sorts. But I am open about the possibilities, flexible with the outcome, as long as I am happy.

I have decided to live in the moment. I'm trying a lot harder now to not make plans. To go out with friends at the last minute. To listen to my intuition and my gut when it tells me to stay in my pj's all day. And I refuse to be guilty about that. Why? Because enjoying the life we have right now is 100 times better than waiting for the life we want tomorrow.

30:30 and Dalai Lama

2011-01-10T12:12:00.002-04:00

30:30 is going good so far. I have only missed two days. I'm not beating myself up over it though because life happens. And it's in the past, there is nothing I can do to change it. All I can do is move forward. Tonight some girls from friend yoga and I are going to Halifax Yoga for Krista's Powerflow class. I'm really excited. I haven't been to a studio since October so it'll be a good change for me! I plan on getting the new student unlimited 10 day pass as it's only $20 and a drop in class is $14. That way I can go to lots of classes in the next week :)

On Friday I bought a daily calendar. The ones I've had before haven't been anything special but I really like the one I picked for this year. Every day there is a new quote from the Dalai Lama. I have decided to post them here for the remainder of the year. Out of the ones until today there is only one that I really liked:

Happiness comes through taming the mind; without taming the mind there is no way to be happy.

Today's quote though is:

The ten misdeeds include three physical activities - taking life, taking what is not given, and abusive sexual behavior; four verbal activities - lying, slander, harsh words and idle gossip; and three mental activities - covetousness, malice, and wrong view. Abandoning these ten is crucial if we want to achieve a fortunate rebirth.

2011 Goals

2011-01-06T13:36:00.003-04:00

This post is a little late but oh well right? Tends to be a theme with me I think. Hahaha.

This year I have decided to make some goals focused more on myself than I think any year previously.

1-Practice yoga at least 3 times a week
2-Read 50 books (I've already read 1. To keep track of what I'm reading go to my GoodReads page)
3-Give myself more "me" time to just be. Not have to worry about my to do lists or yoga practice. Even if it's just sitting with a cup of tea and watching the sun come up or sun come down.

That being said I would like to do some other things this year but they aren't "goals" per say. One of them being 30 days of yoga, which I am doing right now. Started Jan 1st. I don't have any rules for it. As long as I get on my mat once a day I'm happy :) I would also like to make my own body butter and maybe some other body products. I'm doing a lot of research right now on what ingredients are good and bad for your body. I'm trying to go 100% natural, organic, fair trade, etc. Hopefully it won't cost too much and will be worth it :)

As for my yoga practice itself I have been feeling good. While in the Dominican (photos will be on my photography blog soon) I practiced yoga 4 out of the 6 days. Which made it 100% worth it to bring my mat with me. It was so nice to practice outside on our balcony while listening to the birds and the ocean. Talk about a calming practice. The 30 day challenge has only had one hiccup so far. I accidentally fell asleep last night before doing my practice. So to make up for it this weekend I'm going to do two practices in one day. Hopefully one when I wake and then another sometime during the day. I have been feeling a lot stronger. My core is feeling stronger in plank. My arms are feeling stronger in chaturanga. I'm really feeling the progress :)

I am a little nervous though. We had our monthly coffee and yoga meeting on Tuesday and some of us decided to make a yoga date on Monday night for a class at Halifax Yoga. I haven't been to a class in months and I'm used to certain instructors on yoga glo so it will be interesting to be in a class environment again with a new instructor. Will keep you updated :)

Chaturanga : Motivation

2010-12-15T11:41:00.006-04:00

Not too much new to talk about. Except I'm starting to feel better about my chaturanga. I've always kind of struggled with it, mostly with the pushing back up once half way down. So what I decided to do a few weeks ago is to just focus on slowly lowering myself to the ground completely with control. That way I will build up the strength eventually and hopefully be able to push myself back up. I've found that the lowering down in chaturanga has become easier the past two practices. Yay!! Success :) Hahaha.

Oh yeah! I went to this store called Bhavana in Halifax. It's a yoga stuff store. I absolutely love it, especially the book selection. The only problem I had was that everything I liked was really expensive. I really want to start getting some nice, quality jewelry. I was looking at the Sonja Picard collection that they had there. But the necklace I liked the most was $70 ish. Ouchie! Dave was with me and we were talking about it afterward and came up with the idea that maybe I'll make it like a goal. I'll put $1 in my piggy bank for every hour of yoga that I practice until I save up enough money to buy it or something else. I think it'll be a good way to keep me motivated to practice and also to reward myself for the dedication. What do you think?

And to keep you entertained here is a video of an amazing artist, Paul Dateh. I absolutely adore his music. His voice is creamy like butter. :)

Yoga Sutras

2010-12-09T17:20:00.004-04:00

Did the same yogaglo routine last night with a friend and now I am SO sore. I think before bed I'm going to do a simple set of sun salutations to help my sore muscles but I don't know if I'll be able to do a regular practice until Saturday at the earliest I think. All is well though. Just taking it easy. It is about non harm/injury to the body right? I forget the sanskrit name for that.

I have started reading the book The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi. I really want to take my time with this book and do all of the activities it suggests. It suggests and activity for every chapter or every sutra I believe. It is pretty much a guide to the yoga sutras from a feminine perspective. The yoga sutras are defined by Wikipedia as "..a Hindu scripture and foundational text of Yoga.". I don't really know much about the sutras so I'm hoping this will help me understand them better. I will post here at the end of each activity of the sutras as a reflection of what I've learned.

On a kind of fun note, about 3 years ago I got a tattoo of a heart on my wrist. I hate it now. I really do not like the way that it looks. For a while I have been thinking about what I could get as a cover-up tattoo/adding onto it. Well yesterday I found that the symbol for om works really really well. I drew it on my arm and fell in love with it! I have re-drawn it today and I'm about 99% sure that I'm going to get it. A friend of mine knows a fantastic tattoo artist and I really want him to do it. Originally I was thinking about getting it this weekend but that would hinder my Christmas vacation in the Dominican as you shouldn't let your new tattoo see sunlight for 1 month. So we have made an appointment for Tuesday at 5pm as a consultation. Hopefully I will be getting it in January. Exciting! Here is a photo of the symbol in case you didn't know.

YogaGlo With Friends

2010-12-08T18:11:00.007-04:00

Last night was so much fun. I got the chance to go to EcoYogini's home to do some yoga with some other yogis. We did one of Jo's routines from yogaglo and it was great!! Such a great practice. I'm pretty sore today surprisingly but I think I'm going to do the same routine tonight with a friend I liked it that much.

I love this thing that EcoYogini has got going on with coffee and yoga and YogaGlo with friends. I have a few friends that are into yoga as well but I find they aren't into it as much as I am. They just kind of do it whenever they get around to it. It's nice to hang out with people in Halifax that have the same attitude/love for yoga as I do. I've already put it in my schedule for every Tuesday night that there is not coffee and yoga. Exciting :) I really hope it pushes my practice that much more.

Thought I would share this little video as well. Stumbled upon it somewhere and I love it. My favorite part is the people in the subway station that do a few poses.

Routine : Eco Friendly

2010-12-06T00:23:00.002-04:00

I've done the routine mentioned in my last post twice now and I really like it. It's quick and easy. The poses flow together really well. But I still get a decent work out. I think what I'll do from now on though is at the end of the sequence add in a few poses that I might be needing that day. Like today I did pigeon and handstand after. I'm hoping to get a lot of yoga done this way and maybe get more bikini friendly for Christmas. I haven't mentioned this but the family and I are going to the Dominican on the 24th!! So excited :) Hoping to get lots of relaxation done. Maybe even some yoga and meditation. We'll see though.

I'm going to start reviewing products on here. I've been doing more reading on beauty products and a lot of them are made with some pretty gross chemicals. So in an attempt to be more healthy and to be more Earth friendly, I'm going to start switching over my products. Now the hard part about this is that I can't just do it all at once. So I'll be doing it in steps over the next who knows how long. On Saturday I bought the Lafes natural and organic deodorant stick. It is just a stick of potassium alum (natural mineral salts). You get it wet and then apply it like a regular deodorant. It doesn't have a smell but so far it has made me not smell as well. I really want to give it a good try though before I really review it. Another product I'm trying is the Diva Cup. Now I know this is going to be TMI for most readers but oh well. This is me, I don't have a filter. So far it has been working really well. It was weird to get used to but I really like this option better as long as I keep having good experiences with it. In some of the reviews I read people said that they had issues getting it to "pop" open once it is inside but I haven't had that problem. And no leaks so far! Even when doing yoga it has been fine. Again, I'll give a more in depth review after I have tried it out more.

Off to bed I go though. Starting to fall asleep as it is.

Foundation

2010-12-03T10:54:00.003-04:00

Slept in. As usual. I think a boot camp would be needed in order to whip me into shape to get up that early. Maybe even if I just went to bed super early. That could work.

I have been feeling off the last few days. Like just something isn't right. I don't know if it's hormonal, a chemical imbalance or what. This week some ghosts from my past have kind of peeped their heads up into my life. Is that what is causing me to feel so weird? Maybe it's a lack of vitamin D. Sunshine has always been important to me. Maybe I'm just not getting enough of it... I have no idea.

I was just thinking though and maybe I should have a solid foundation routine that I can do. Something that I know I can do, I know works, and my body will feel comfortable doing it. Similar to why I think people practice Ashtanga yoga, the consistency, the predictability. That way when there is something going on in my life that upsets it, I can just do this foundation routine and it will bring me back to a place of inner peace.

What would be included in this routine though? How about the 5 Tibetan Rites? That is a quick and easy workout. It would by pass my current frustration with chaturanga. Or maybe just a variation on the sun salutations. Here is a sample routine that I think would be easy enough:

Tadasana - Mountain Pose
Uttanasana - Standing Forward Bend
Ardha Uttanasana - Standing Half Forward
Uttanasana - Standing Forward Bend
Adho Mukha Svanasana - Down Dog
Plank Pose
Chaturanga Dandasana - Four Limbed Staff Pose
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana - Upward Facing Dog
Adho Mukha Svanasana - Down Dog
Anjaneyasana - Low Lunge (right leg back)
High Lunge (right leg back)
Itthita Parsvakonasana - Extended Side Angle Pose (right leg back)
Virabhadrasana 2 - Warrior 2 (right leg back)
Utthita Trikonasana - Extended Triangle Pose (right leg back)
Prasarita Padottanasana - Wide Legged Forward Bend
Adho Mukha Svanasana - Down Dog
Plank Pose
Vasisthasana - Side Plank Pose (right leg on bottom)
Camatkarasana - Wild Thing
Plank Pose
Chaturanga Dandasana - Four Limbed Staff Pose
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana - Upward Facing Dog
Adho Mukha Svanasana - Down Dog
Uttanasana - Standing Forward Bend
Ardha Uttanasana - Standing Half Forward
Uttanasana - Standing Forward Bend
Tadasana - Mountain Pose
*repeat left side*

I think I'm going to try this tonight or tomorrow.

Frustration

2010-12-03T00:21:00.002-04:00

Really quick post. I'm really trying to honestly document this journey of mine so I figured I would put in the good with the bad. I got frustrated today. I don't know if it's because it's that time of the month or because I sat in a chair all day at work but I couldn't finish my practice. I came home, was hungry and tried to do an hour long YogaGlo class. About 15 minutes in my legs were not in good shape at all, tired already, and I was losing patience. I'm used to feeling almost like bliss when practicing yoga but this was anything but bliss. I stopped the video, found and easier, shorter one to try. And about half way through it I decided to call it quits. I am glad that I gave it a second try but frustrated with myself for getting frustrated and for not finishing either of the videos. Does anyone else ever have experiences like this? I set my alarm clock a bit earlier than normal tomorrow and I'm going to try to do a nice easy set of sun salutations with maybe some warrior poses before I get to work. I hate leaving something on a bad note. Oh well.

Lets just hope I wake up to my alarm! :P

Yoga and Coffee December 2010

2010-12-01T12:42:00.003-04:00

Last night I went to my second ever yoga and coffee night. It was so much fun. A few of my friends practice yoga but we don't really ever talk about it. It's really nice to be around people that share something that is so important to me. I love talking about the different poses, the meditation, the stories from studios, the philosophy, all of it. We tend to kind of do like a round table where someone will bring up a topic and we all kind of provide our own input.

I ended up asking if anyone else does meditation with their practice. I find that yoga has become so westernized and I was curious if by that happening, it has lost it's original purpose. They say yoga is 1% practice, the rest of it is theory/meditation. The asana's (postures) were designed to physically prepare your body for sitting still for hours on end to meditate. I would say at least half of the group on Tuesday still uses yoga to meditate. Which I found fascinating! I told them that I've been having a really hard time with meditation. Like I can't turn off my head. And they all reiterated what other people have told me about meditating; it's not about turning off your thoughts, it's about acknowledging them for what they are, just thoughts. They do not define you anymore than your physical actions. I still find this hard to do though. I understand what they are saying but I don't know how to do it. One of the guys in the group recommended a book called "Turning The Mind Into An Ally" by Sakyong Mipham. He said it has helped him to understand meditation better and to actually meditate better. I went to Chapters right after our meeting but the one I went to didn't have it in stock. I'll have to wait until I go to one of the other stores.

While at Chapters though I did get a book on yoga. It stuck out to me because one of the authors/the person that put it all together is a guest speaker at the Atlantic Yoga Conference in 2011. I didn't know about this until the other day when surfing the yoga/blogger community in Halifax. I'm seriously considering going. From the minute or two I spent on the site it didn't sound like it was much about the physical practice, more focused on the theory practice. I'll have to sit down and take a long look around though. But I digress. The book is called "Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga and Buddhism". The editor is Michael Stone (the guest speaker mentioned above). I'm really excited to read it because people keep telling me that a lot of the principles in yoga are based off of Buddhist beliefs. I'm curious to learn more about both.

Onto the last thing I wanted to mention. In the coffee and yoga meeting someone brought up the term grounding/earthing asking if anyone had heard of it. Personally, I had not but some of the others did. I don't know much about it but it seems that there is a theory out there saying that people will actually soak up negative ions and free electrons from the earth simply by spending time outside, in nature, in the grass in our bare feet. That we soak up these things by coming into real physical contact with the ground, how we were originally meant to be. I found this interesting video on the technique/theory. I also mentioned it to Dave and he seemed to like the idea. Too bad we're going into winter right now :( We said that it would be fun to go camping sometime next spring/summer and make it kind of like our own little camping/meditation/yoga retreat. I LOVE the idea :)

Namaste.

Meditation/Practice Props

2010-11-30T10:29:00.004-04:00

I read the book Eat, Pray, Love this summer and absolutely adored it. I was going through a breakup myself and I really felt like the words in the book were coming right from my heart. Something that I was introduced to in this book are japa mala beads. These are Hindu or Buddhist meditation/prayer beads. Traditionally they have 108 beads on what looks like a necklace. From my readings monks would sit and pray/meditate with these beads in their hand. They would pull one bead between their fingers for every prayer/mantra they repeated in their head.

Typically, I have a hard time meditating. It is something I have always struggled with because I am always thinking at least 5 thoughts at once. I have tried repeating different mantra's which has helped but I always end up thinking about something else as I'm repeating the mantra. Yes, you do not want to get in my head while I'm trying to meditate. I'm hoping that maybe by using these beads, since it will give me a physical point of reference it will help me to concentrate better. We'll see. I am going to go to a few local stores looking for a set. If I can't find any I have found a great website where you can order them. I think I would want the Rosewood ones they make.

On a similar note, Dave (what a sweet guy) got me some quartz. He got it for me with the intention of focusing my energy on it and pushing "positive energy/thoughts" to it when meditating. I did a little bit of research on quartz and have found some interesting information. Turns out it is one of the most abundant rocks in the world. I found this website that mentions a lot of the mythology around quartz such as "The strongest of Grandfather Dragon stones, Quartz is the master stone for bringing energy and light to all it encounters. I've found that one of its most potent attributes is to amplify, and that can be anything from mental activity to spiritual consciousness to emotional disposition." and "Quartz increases the power of anything that it is placed near to ... It can be used for healing, increasing physical vitality, enhancing all spellwork, or for anything you wish to amplify.".

Personally, I don't practice spellwork but I do think that using it during meditation might have some positive effects. Or at least I hope it will :) I'll try to update here if I find either the quartz or my japa mala beads (once I get them) help during my meditation practice.

Vasisthasana

2010-11-22T14:37:00.003-04:00

In my last post I mentioned that I had done a yoga routine from Yoga Glo. One of the poses the focused on was vasisthasana. Before I started yoga I always hated doing side planks, which is what vasisthasana is essentially. Now I love it. There are so many poses I love to do that have vasisthasana as a foundational pose. Wild thing or camatkarasana is one. There are some others that Kathryn went through in that routine but I don't remember the name of them. After that class and finding the love for this pose I decided to do a quick 20 minute practice just on vasisthasana with the variations I know so far. Although it was a quick practice it was still great. I find no matter how long I do yoga I always feel relaxed and at peace afterwards.

One thing I did notice is that I have a lot more strength in my core during this pose that before. I can lift my top leg up when in the pose. Can grab my foot and even do a bit of a back bend. What I need to work on now is gaining more strength in my arms. I shake so bad when on one arm. Something to progress towards though. Have to have goals right?

Hoping to get in another practice tonight. Maybe a full 60 minute or 90 minute practice. We'll see. :)

Namaste

Love The Pain

2010-11-13T14:03:00.002-04:00

I believe that there is good pain and bad pain. Right now I'm definitely experiencing the good pain. *phew*. I practiced yoga consistently from last January til about June. Then a lot of stuff happened in my life and I fell off the band wagon. I find once you get into the routine of doing something I'm pretty good at keeping it up. But once you get out of the routine it's so hard to get back into it.

I've been trying to get myself back into doing yoga but it hasn't really worked. Yesterday, in hopes to make that effort better I bought some new yoga pants. I can't do yoga in pants that are too long so I bought a pair of the capri style ones. And I love them! As lame as this sounds, I hope they are the thing that pushes me to get back into yoga. Once I start doing it a bunch I'll get into the habit again and keep it up. Well, lets hope so at least.

Last night I finally took advantage of my Yoga Glo membership. I took one of Kathryn Budig's classes and it was fabulous. It absolutely, 100% kicked my butt. And I loved it. We did some new poses. Some interesting back bends that I have never done before and don't know what they're called. But now I'm so sore. I was hoping to do at least some sun salutations today but I can't even do chatarunga so sun salutations are out of the picture. I am going to force myself to do something tomorrow morning though. Whether it is sun salutations or the 5 Tibetan Rites. *crossing fingers*

One thing that I did notice about the practice last night was that I could actually calm my mind when in savasana. I don't do a lot of yoga at home so I find it hard to focus sometimes on quieting my thoughts. Which is why I love going to a yoga studio because it helps for some reason. But after last night's practice I could almost go into a meditative state right away. I think it might be because I had such a good workout and I was so focused on doing the yoga that it maybe started the meditation process? I have no idea. We'll see next time though. I'm hoping that if yoga makes it easier to meditate then I'll want to do both more often.

That's all of my fitness updates though. I'm re-doing my photography blog right now so I haven't gotten around to fixing this one up yet but it'll happen soon. I promise :)

Reiki Attunement #1

2010-11-09T12:37:00.002-04:00

This is the first post where I am actually going to talk about Reiki. So I'll start by giving you a quote from Wikipedia:

Reiki (霊気^?, English pronunciation: /ˈreɪkiː/) is a spiritual practice^[1] developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui. It uses a technique commonly called palm healing as a form of complementary and alternative medicine and is sometimes classified as oriental medicine by some professional bodies.^[2] Through the use of this technique, practitioners transfer healing energy in the form of ki through the palms.
There are two main branches of Reiki, commonly referred to as Traditional Japanese Reiki and Western Reiki. Within both Traditional and Westernised forms of Reiki, there are three forms of degrees, commonly referred to as the First, Second, and Master/Teacher degree. According to Reiki practitioners and Masters, at First Degree, a Reiki practitioner is able to heal himself and others, at Second Degree is able to heal others distantly (commonly called distant healing) with the use of specialised symbols, and at Master level (specifically Master/Teacher level) is able to teach and attune others to Reiki.

Now from my research and from talking with my friend Dave about reiki, I have interpreted it as being a form of healing by using our energy source. You can use reiki to heal physical problems, emotional problems, mental problems, etc. My experience with it so far has been really interesting and I find that it does help a bit. Now there are going to be a lot of skeptics out there, and that is ok, but if you try this yourself, you have to keep an open mind. If you hold doubt in your heart when trying to practice reiki it puts up a barrier and it won't always work.

That being said, last night Dave performed my first level attunement. As the Wiki quote said, once the first attunement has been performed on you, you can then start practicing healing others. My main want for going through the attunements is to be able to meditate better myself. I have such a hard time meditating because I'm always thinking about something. I find it very difficult to quiet my mind, let thoughts pass through and not grab onto one and run with it.

The attunement itself wasn't very eventful for myself. It took roughly a half hour. There were 3 or 4 sections that needed to be completed and I pretty much just focused on trying to meditate and being open and accepting for whatever was being pushed to me. Afterward I didn't feel very different. Maybe a bit more relaxed but that's it. I'm going to try meditating for at least 15 minutes every day. I think it might be easiest to do either late at night when everyone in my house is sleeping or early in the morning before work, that way everyone has already gotten up and left and no noise is being made. We'll see though. I'm going to ask Dave if it's ok to meditate with music. If it is I'll get some ocean/nature sounds on my iPod and try using that to help drown out all other distractions.

Once thing Dave did say about the after effects of attunements is that your body will try to get rid of waste/toxins. The attunements are designed to try and help clear out the paths that energy takes in your body and the connection to the "higher being" and to do that your body needs to get rid of toxins that you may be holding onto. Just as he predicted, I woke up this morning and REALLY needed to poop. Hahaha. I know this is TMI for most people that might read this but it was a "larger than normal" kind of dump. LMAO. I'm going to focus on meditating and maybe try practicing healing on friends/family for the next month or so. Depending on how much I get done and how far I feel I have progressed I'll then do the second attunement.

If you have any questions about the experience just leave them in the comment box and I'll answer them in my next post.

And oh yeah! I'm sorry the blog is a little messy right now. I'm focusing on getting my photo blog looking the way I want it to, then I'll start updating this one so it looks better. Please be patient :)

Back Again

2010-11-01T12:59:00.002-03:00

Hey!!

I have decided to activate this blog again and take a new route with it. I'm doing more now than just running. I'm pretty serious about yoga and reiki now as well. So to document the challenges, the progress and the fun times in all three areas I decided to activate this blog again. In the next week or so I will be tweaking the way it looks until I get it just right. Then I'll start posting about this lovely journey to a balanced life I am on.

Namaste.

Warning

2010-01-10T23:19:00.002-04:00

I really want to start 2010 with my priorities straight. As some of you may know I have a photography blog. This is my priority for 2010. I will be retiring this blog until I can get back into the routine of posting regularly on my photo blog. I really want to develop a stronger business and to do so I need to cut some things out of my life that are not necessary right now. Unfortunately this is one of those things. I hope everyone had an awesome holiday and started off the new year right. I will keep you updated with random posts if I can.

<3

Catch up #1

2009-12-23T18:03:00.008-04:00

So... I originally planned to do a vlog for my catch up post. I took the video thinking that I could edit out some MAJOR bloopers but turns out I don't have any video editing software. Which means I have to do this the old fashioned way.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in my last post but for the first week of December I was pretty sick. The second week I was recovering. So for two weeks I wasn't eating a whole lot and couldn't do any exercising. Then with Christmas coming up I got so crazy so quickly it's not even funny. I hand made 40 Christmas cards this year to give out to family and friends. I had ALL of my Christmas shopping to complete. Matt and I went to Wentworth for a weekend. I made 7 dozen cookies. Made 14 candles. Put up our Christmas tree and all of the decorations... And the list goes on and on.

I haven't been photographing everything I eat but here are some of the highlights.

Jackie's love potion smoothly from the juice bar at Pete's Fruitique.

Breakfast wrap from Pete's Fruitique.

Pete's makes the BEST salads ever!!

These are the best granola bars I have EVER had. I have been trying to find them again but can't. Might have to make my own.

Chicken, cous cous and veggies.

ColdStone Creamery chocolate chip cookie dough. This is to die for. I could gain sooo much weight if I had no self control. lol.

Eggs benedict at Smitty's.

Nachos.

Homemade waffles for Dad's birthday.

Sandwich - mixed greens, tofurky, avocado and tomato.

Chocolate chip cookie dough cake for Dad's birthday.

Sushi.. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm. This one is called the green dragon. It has shrimp tampura, avocado and crab on the inside and then avocado on top too.

Thai noodles. I made these from a box but I want to try making them from scratch next time.

Indian style curry veggies.

Fabulous M&M and oatmeal cookies.

Cookies all baked. I haven't made cookies in a while so I over cooked them. Oops!

Tomorrow I'll post all of my Christmas decorations. I'll be photographing what I eat starting Christmas day again and hopefully I'll get into the post a day routine again.

Whats In My Purse and Wish List

2009-12-09T21:17:00.006-04:00

Over the past few weeks I have been adding more and more blogs to my Google Reader. Yesterday I added a bunch of financial blogs that Alexis recommended. For the longest time I only ever followed photography blogs. Me wanting to be a photographer, that kind of made sense. Then I started to read a bunch of health/fitness blogs. Now I have added a variety of financial and a couple fashion blogs to the list. I find the mixture keeps me interested and it gives me ideas for future posts.

Today I was reading Give Me Back My Five Bucks and found this archived post. Then I was trying to find my lip gloss in my purse and it was such a mess it took me longer than it should have. SO... when I got home from work I emptied it out on my floor. This is what the mess looks like...

Horrible I know. After putting away things I don't need to have in my purse the pile was narrowed down to this...

Not too bad. A LOT better than it was before. Interested in what is in there? Here's a list

-wallet

-work BlackBerry

-personal BlackBerry
-lip gloss
-Kleenex
-tampons
-security badge for work
-thumb drive
-certs
-Advil
-pens and post its for Operation Beautiful
-leather gloves
-and usually I have my dSLR in my purse for my daily eats.

I'm sure that wasn't super exciting but oh well. I kind of enjoy when people post photos of their stuff so why not do the same?

Wish List

I have decided that once a month I will post photos of some items that I would really love to get. They are going to range from running shoes to wine glasses. Pretty much anything goes here. This months wish list is below.

From top to bottom we have:

Spibelt
RoadID
Sooke Stackhouse Boxed Set
Black&Decker Bread Maker
As much Tazo African Red Bush tea as I can get my hands on. I found out tha tthey are discontinuing this flavour which SUCKS because I reallllllllly love it :(

On to the regular updates. I still have not completely recovered from being sick last week so I have decided not to do any work outs this week. It's really weird. I haven't worked out in over 1 week and my body is craving it. Too bad my lungs can't really handle it right now. I really hope to start again on Tuesday and start from the beginning of my training schedule as I was only 1 week into it.

For breaky this morning I had a quick english muffin with homemade strawberry freezer jam. This is the stuff that Matt's mom makes and it's soooo yummy.

When I got to work I had a banana for a snack.

I also brewed a cup of ARB tea and then FORGOT about it and it went cold :(

Lunch was my yummmmmmmmy corn chowder. I never really ate much corn chowder growing up but lately I'm craving it all the time. I had some pumpernickle bread on the side.

If anyone wants to try making it here are the ingredients:

potato
celery
red pepper
onion
sunflower cooking oil
1% milk
vegetable broth
can creamed corn
frozen corn
hot chili pepper flakes
salt&pepper

As you can tell I don't have amount because I don't follow it that closely. For a batch of maybe 4 ish servings follow these instructions. Mix in frying pan on medium heat potato (1 or 2 large, cut up), celery (1 stalk cleaned and cut up), red pepper (1/2 pepper cut up), onion (1 small onion) and sunflower cooking oil (could use EVOO instead, 1-2 tbsp). Once vegetables are a little soft put them in a large pot adding milk (~1/2 cup), and vegetable broth (~1 cup). Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Once boiling add creamed corn (1 can) and frozen corn (1 or 2 cups). Once the chowder is boiling again add in hot chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste. Personally I like mine on the spicy side so I use a decent amount of the pepper flakes. Turn burner to low-medium heat, put lid on pot and let simmer until all vegetables are cooked.

In the afternoon I had some sliced strawberries, canned peaches and yogurt for a snack. A little bit of granola on top.

+ a clementine

It was snowing when I got off work and the short drive home was soooo slippery. I'm getting my snow tires on tomorrow morning (early) but I they are at my parent's place. So I got my dad to drop them off. While I was waiting for him I threw together a breakfast sandwich. I really like these sandwich thins. They're great!! It had tomato, avocado and two friend eggs in it.

And here are some pictures from my balcony tonight. Brrrrr.. snow.

Can you pick out my baby?

Hopefully it'll be cleared up tomorrow morning so I can drive to the shop. Off to do some work now. Good night :)

PS- Don't forget to comment! I am running cans for comments until Dec. 15!

Start Over

2009-12-04T18:06:00.000-04:00

So as you can tell the blog has been lacking this past week. That is because a lot has happened. Last weekend work had it's annual Christmas party. Saturday was SO busy between running to the mall, getting ready and go to two parties before the Christmas party at 7pm. I will be honest, I drank a few drinks too many and Sunday was completely wrote off as a recovery day.

I'm not sure if I picked something up at the party or when I got back to work but on Tuesday I started to show flu symptoms. Nothing major, just kept getting the chills and I felt achy all over. Decided not to go to work on Wednesday and tried to get healthy. Ate some soup, drank some tea and lots of water. Wednesday night my mom calls telling me they are bringing out cat Missy to the vet as she is bleeding maybe from her lungs? A little while after that phone she calls again to let me know that an xray showed there was a tumor in her lungs and the vet gave her a couple of days left to live. Missy is the first pet I ever remember owning. We got her when I was like 6 or 7 years old. That's 16 years people! Not many cats live such a long life. We all knew Missy hasn't been really healthy the past few years because of weight loss but was never diagnosed with anything when brought to the vet. So my parents decided it was time for her to rest. I jumped in my car in my pj's and drove to the vet to see her. If any of you have met Missy, you'll know she is a pretty grumpy cat. Pretty much only lets my sister, mom and dad pat her (yeah, she doesn't like me much). The vet had given her Valium before I got there and she was realllly calm. No hissing or groaning like usual. We all said our good byes and then the vet gave her the shot.

That is one job that would be really hard. Especially since I cry as soon as I see someone crying.

On the way to the vet I started to get some stomach pains. Afterward they were so bad I couldn't drive. So my dad drove my car and I went with mom back to their place. By the time we got to their house the pains had gotten a lot worse. It literally felt like there were ninjas in my stomach. That was the only way I could describe it. An hour after they started though they went away and I was back to just the regular flu ish symptoms. I drove home after some tea and got some rest.

5am Thursday morning though I woke up in tears because the ninjas were back and kicking my ass! I knew this could be normal so Matt drove me to the emergency. By the time I got in to see a doctor the pains had stopped (almost exactly an hour after I had woke up). The doctor went through my symptoms, asked some questions and felt my abdomen and said she thought it was just some extreme gas. She said if they continued to happen into Friday or if they got worse to come back in. Right when we were about to go she asked if she could do an ultra sound for her learning. Turns out she finished an ultra sound course and needs 200 scans in order to get the credit. If I can help someone with their education than I definitely will so I said sure! And I'm really glad I did.

Her and her boss scanned my whole abdomen and pointed out all of my organs; heart, diaphragm, liver, kidneys, spleen, bladder and uterus. Turns out I am one of the 20% of women that have an anti-verted uterus which basically means that instead of my uterus tilting towards my spine it tilts towards my belly button. This doesn't cause any issues with pregnancy it's just something that isn't common in women. They even took a photo of it so she could use it for her class. Kind of cool eh?

Yesterday was another sick day. Had soup, toast and tea and just watched movies/tv with Matt all day. Nothing very exciting. And today went the exact same way. I woke up with a bit of a fever but Tylenol took care of that. I'm glad to say the stomach ninjas have not come back. Yay!!! I don't ever want a visit from them again.

I'm not glad to say that it doesn't look like I will be better tomorrow and tomorrow morning is the Santa Shuffle. I was really excited about doing another run this year and my 10km training and everything but looks like it will have to be postponed. I haven't done any training in the past week so I'm hoping to just start again at week one once I'm healthy again. I have also decided to post pone the cans for comments deadline. Instead of it ending on the 8th it will now end on the 15th. I haven't really posted anything for you all to comment on until now so hopefully between now and the 15th there will be lots to comment on.

Time to bring this post to a close. I'm sorry it was so long but oh well, blogs are for reading right? Here are some photos from the Christmas party last weekend. I won't be posting daily photos of what I eat just because I haven't been eating much while sick. Those will start once I'm healthy again. I'm hoping to do a review of The Lost Symbol tomorrow. Stay tuned :)

The beautiful Alexis and I.

Matt and I, yes I know our purples don't match. lol.

At a friends house before the party.

Cans For Comments

2009-12-01T21:33:00.005-04:00

FEED NOVA SCOTIA is the provincial food collection and distribution centre for approximately 150 food banks and meal programs across Nova Scotia. We provide year-round food deliveries to member food banks and meal programs who serve at least 38,000 Nova Scotians each month.

But FEED NOVA SCOTIA is much more than a food collection and distribution centre. While we know that food banks play a vital role in the lives of Nova Scotians experiencing food insecurity, we are also dedicated to finding long-term solutions to poverty and chronic hunger that will reduce the need for food banks in Nova Scotia.

In light of the coming holidays I have decided to participate in cans for comments. It's pretty self explanatory. I have noted how many comments I have received so far on this blog (14) and for every comment received from now until December 8th, 2010 at 8pm I will donate 1 can to Feed Nova Scotia. I will be doing this on both of my blogs RunnerChristine and ChristineNewhook. The comments can be on posts I post from now until the 8th or on past posts.

So help the hungry and go comment!! :)

I Did It!! Finally Back On Track

2009-11-25T23:27:00.004-04:00

I did it!! Finally I woke up at a good hour and got a chance to do a workout before heading to work. As per my training schedule I did Yoga Sculpt and leg strength training. I really liked getting my workout over with and going on with the rest of the day. I also found that I am a lot less sore/stiff than I normally would be. Most of the time I do my workout late at night and then don't do much for the rest of the night. I think the lack of moving around causes me to get stiff. Whereas today I feel absolutely fine :) Hopefully that will motivate me tomorrow morning to get up early again. He he he.

Breakfast was a bowl of cereal with a sliced banana.

When I got to work I snacked on some granola with yogurt and a clementine.

By lunch time I was getting pretty hungry and this sandwich hit the spot perfectly. It's just greens, tomato, turkey on my fav bread (pumperknickle).

I also had a couple of bites of yesterdays pasta salad.

During the afternoon I snacked on a clementine.

And I succumbed temptation and bought a bag of hickory sticks.

We're not perfect all the time right? ;)

I was originally planning on making some chicken noodle soup for supper but when I got home I wasn't really hungry. Instead I cleaned our entire department. I mean like scrubbed, dusted and vacuumed the whole thing. I even scrubbed down our shower with CLR. Talk about a productive evening. :)

Afterward he hunger hit and I made corn chowder. Here it is in the pot.

And in my bowl :)

It was the same recipe as last week. Let me know if you want it!

After my run last night I posted on Twitter/Facebook asking people if they knew of any ways to get rid of shin splints. I got a lot of good suggestions that I will be trying very soon. In the back of my head today I was thinking about being not just a better athlete but a smarter one. Then when I read Angie's post tonight it really got me thinking about it. She talks a little bit about how it has taken time to trust herself and realize what she is capable.

I know what my New Years resolution will be. To be a smarter athlete. My doctor (she's been my doctor as long as I can remember) retired this past summer. And although that is awesome for her, it sucks for me :( I am going to find a new doctor in the new year and go for a check up. I really want to be proactive about keeping my body healthy and strong enough to continue with my running.

Have you thought about your New Years resolutions for 2010?

Just Another Day

2009-11-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

November 24

As I mentioned in yesterdays post I have been having a hard time getting up early to do workouts. Today was no exception. Even though my alarm was set for 7am I didn't get up until 8am. I'm going to aim to be to bed by 11:30pm tonight and I hope that will get my butt out of bed early in the morning. *cross fingers!!*

Before work I had the last of the dozen blueberry bagels with almond butter and jam. I am going to attempt to remember to take daily vitamins. I am not good at remembering them but I have started my next attempt to do so. From left to right there is vitamin D, one a day for women and fish oils (name).

When I got to work I snacked on one of these two celmentines.

Lunch consisted of a chefs salad from Sobeys with poppy seed dressing (my new fav!!). I also had a few bites of this pasta salad. Saved the rest for in case dinner needed a little punch.

While at Sobeys I was browsing the organic food section and stumbled upon a few items I wanted to try. First was snack bar called Everyone's Organics. It is made by Honey Bar which just so happens to be a Canadian company :) Yay!

It was pretty satisfying. The ingredient list is pretty simple so I might try making some on my own sometime.

When I got home I went for a 3km run as per my training schedule. I have found my Nike+ to not be very accurate. I tracked my distance using Google Maps and it was 3km but my iPod showed 3.48km. The run was a lot better than the run I had last Thursday. Thankfully!

Anyone else have problems with their Nike+ being accurate?

I was browsing the internet tonight and stumbled upon RoadID. I really want to purchase one. I think that'll happen after Christmas. I would probably get the sports band for my wrist. It is basically a little ID bracelette that you wear while running/cycling/hiking/etc. that has your name and emergency contact information on it. You can even get ones with a subscription to an online Emergency Response Profile. There you list all of your information including name, address, alergies, medical information, picture, emergency contacts, etc. The bracelette will list a phone number and website with your serial# and PIN# and the first response person can use either method to find out everything they need to know about you. Maybe Santa will bring me one? ;)

By the time I got home I was pretty hungry so I made the second item I bought at Sobeys earlier. Wolfgang Puck butternut squash soup with some pumpernickle bread. I love the holidays. The holidays bring with them pumpernickle bread :D I ended up not needing any of the pasta salad I had bought with lunch because the soup was pretty filling.

And because she is just SO cute here is Squeaky.

She doesn't look like she wants her photo taken. hehehe.

Upcoming Races

2009-11-25T00:19:00.001-04:00

November 23

I have concluded I am horrible at getting up early to work out. I meant to get up early this morning to go for a really quick jog but alas, my alarm clock couldn't get me out of bed until I had just enough time to get ready for work. I am pretty lucky with my current position. We can come in between 8am and 10am as long as we do our full shift when we are here. I have been unable to get up in time to go to work for 8am or 9am consistently for the past two months pretty much and have ended up coming in at 10am pretty often.

Fuel for the morning was some cereal with a banana.

Afternoon snack was some clementines and tea.

Lunch was a mean salad. And by mean I mean wonderful. It was made up of mixed greens, tomato, red pepper, mushroom, turkey and flax seeds with some sun dried tomato and oregano.

During my lunch break I devised a training plan because I have decided to run some races. I will be participating in the following runs:

1. Santa Shuffle - Dec. 5th - 5km

2. Run For a Better Tomorrow - May 2, 2010 - 10km

3. Bluenose - May 17, 2010 - 5km

4. Johnny Miles 10K Classic - June 20, 2010 - 10km

5. Run For The Lobsters - July 11, 2010 - 10km

I have not officially registered for all of them but I will before the registration closes. Promise!

Here is a look at my training schedule. I have never made one before and it looks pretty busy. If any experienced runners out there have any suggestions for it please email me or comment below. I was told not to advance in milage by more than 10% a week so I haven't.

Afternoon snack was some POM Wonderful jewels with yogurt and granola.

Before I went home Matt came by to visit at my desk. He brought with him some blueberry juice which I had a couple sips of.

Isn't he a fabulous hand model?! ;)

After running some errands I made some supper. A veggie omelette with 1/3rd a banana and an english muffin with almond butter and jam. This really hit the spot. I was so hungry because it was pretty busy at Shoppers and I got home later than expected.

Before bed I snacked on some pieces of apple with almond butter on them. My almond butter is almost gone :(

Finished the night off with some reading. I am having such a hard time finishing The Lost Symbol. I'm only about half way through...

Books and Stuff

2009-11-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

November 22

Today was another early morning but for a completely different reason. I woke up around 7am, had a breakfast of a blueberry bagel with almond butter and jam, packed my bags and went to a photoshoot. It was a portfolio session with a local male model. I'll be posting some of the photos on my photography blog in the next few days so keep an eye out.

While waiting for the model to finish getting ready I snacked on a clementine.

After the shoot I stopped into a used book store on the way home. Matt and I go into book stores at least once a week and during the past couple of visits I have been SO close to purchasing Germs, Guns and Steel by Jared Diamond. The reason I haven't is because it is so close to Christmas and I might get gift cards :) I have made a deal with myself that for the next month the only books I am allowed to buy are ones that come from a used book store. So I stopped into this place looking for Germs, Guns and Steel. They didn't have it but I did pick up Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Once I got home I had lunch of fried eggs and meatless Italian sausage. I forgot to take a photo of it though because I was in a rush to get out the door again.

Then off I went to a friend's place to take photos of her pets. She just got a new pug puppy and she is sooo cute. I photographed the puppy and her three cats. Here are some of the photos.

When I got home I had a snack of yogurt with granola and a clementine.

Supper was similar to a previous night but was still just as delicious. I had BBQ baked tofu with broccoli and fried zucchini. I LOVE zucchini. The only other time I can remember eating it was when my mom put it in chocolate cake and you couldn't really taste it. But it is sooooo good. I can't wait to try some new recipes with zucchini in them :)

Dinner was so delicious that when Matt got home he had to try it while I was sleeping and ended up eating all of the left overs! Hehehe.

The rest of the day was just recovering from Friday night/Saturday. Again for some reason I had no energy so it was mostly spent reading and napping. Oh I love lazy Sundays. :)

Nature

2009-11-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

November 21

As usual, the morning after some good drinking I always get up super early. Don't get me wrong, I go back to bed for a few more hours but I always end up waking up for a bit early in the morning. Saturday was a great example. We didn't get to bed until 2am the night before but I was awake at 7am. I got a nice cold glass of water and sat by the back door and watched the birds in the back yard. It was something about this that made me want to write. If you know me I'm not much of a creative writer. Never have been. Even though I thought about it, I didn't end up writing anything that morning. Instead I rocked back and forth in a rocking chair, watched the sun come up over the field and enjoyed the quietness of the country. Next time I will definitely boot up the computer and write a little bit.

When I woke up a few hours later I went downstairs for breakfast. While it was cooking I saw more birds in the backyard and this time I ran, grabbed my camera and photographed them. I love blue jays. They are so pretty. I really want to do some more nature photography. Now that it's winter it might be a little hard to accomplish but next spring I will definitely be going out in the woods with my camera more often.

Breakfast was the best cure for a tiny hangover. Fried eggs, bacon, homefries and toast with some pineapple juice. I love greasy food the morning after drinking. :)

After the stomach had settled a little bit I had some blueberry and pomegranate white tea and did some yoga sculpt. The tea wasn't my favorite but it was nice.

Lunch consisted of some yummy homemade lasagna with garlic bread. Matt's mom is such an amazing cook. I wish we lived closer so that I could enjoy it more often :) Her house is amazing too. It's a tiny home in the country that really feels like a cabin. Next time we're there (probably over Christmas) I'll have to take some photos to show you all.

Matt and I headed back to the city pretty early (around 6pm). We did some grocery shopping and when we got home we were both completely out of energy. Furnace heat is sooo different than electric heat. It like zaps the energy out of you. Supper was an easy bowl of cereal with a banana and a clementine on the side.

I didn't keep track of how much water I drank but I can tell you it definitely wasn't enough. Hahaha.

Off We Go For a Mini-Trip

2009-11-24T09:35:00.006-04:00

(November 20)

Eat, Live, Run often posts her breakfast oatmeal and I decided this morning I had to try it. Ingredients included:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

1 banana smushed up

1 cup quick oats

2 tbsp almond butter

brown sugar to taste

I have to say I really really enjoyed this. It's such a good twist on a classic. I can't wait to try her overnight oats. I'll let you know how it goes :)

As per the norm I got to work and had some tea and my morning snack was vanilla yogurt with POM Wonderful seeds. This is such a good mixture. I think the only thing that could have made it better would have been a little tiny bit of granola.

I love leftovers. I honestly think that almost everything is better after it's been in the fridge for a night. I was so happy to have some more corn chowder for lunch today. And as usual, it was PERFECT as a left over. I can't wait to make this again. I think I might double the recipe and freeze some.

My afternoon snack was a yummy banana. As good as banana is mixed with stuff it's pretty awesome on it's own too.

And a cookie. It was cookie day at work so I couldn't help myself.

When I got home from work Matt and I left to go to Wentworth for the evening. We picked up two bottles of wine and stuff to make a pizza on the way. When we go there we made two big pizza's for everyone to chow down on.

Toppings...

Bacon... yummy ....

Pizza crust..

My first glass of wine ;)

My first piece of pizza...

I ended up drinking about a bottle of wine and Matt drank the other bottle of wine. I ate two small pieces of pizza.

Overall it was a great night. There was 7 us at Matt's mom's place and we stayed up until about 2am. Ooops! More to come in the next post.

New Moon and New Chowder

2009-11-24T09:26:00.004-04:00

(November 19th - Was playing with my camera after one too many drinks Friday night and deleted all of my photos for this post. oops!)

This morning started out with a real breakfast. Most mornings I wake up and have toast or something equally as quick. This morning I made some scrambled eggs with ketchup, WW english muffin and a glass of milk. I think my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I could eat breakfast foods for lunch and supper.

Got to work and had a cup of African Red Bush tea with some vanilla yogurt and sliced banana. Yogurt is definitely a necessity in my diet. I don't think I could give it up.

Last night when I was at mom's house we planned for her to come over tonight for dinner. My mom hate's intruding so she doesn't call me much or try to stop by for visits. She thinks I'm always busy. Well a lot of the time I am but I love my family and I encouraged her to come over more. I'm hoping to get more calls from her during the work day to say she is stopping by for supper. It's perfect Sunday-Wednesday too because Matt works late those days. So mom, if you're reading this, you are not intruding by coming over after work, don't be so silly! ;)

Back to food, I decided to make corn chowder for tonights dinner but had to pick up some ingredients. On my lunch break I went to Sobeys and got everything I needed plus a chef salad. These are one of my favorite types of salad and I was surprised by how good Sobeys was.

First time trying poppy seed dressing and it was awesome!!!

Afternoon snack was a honey crisp apple with almond butter and a cup of tea. I'm drinking a lot more tea now that the weather is getting colder.

When I got home I went for a quick run before mom came over. It was horrible. My knee pains are coming back and my shin splints are not getting any better. About 1/4 of my way through my regular root I stepped on an apple that was hidden under leaves and twisted my ankle. Hopped around on one foot for about 2 minutes and then power walked home. By the time my ankle was good to run again my knees were in too much pain to be able to jog. So the power walking was a good compromise. It kept my heart rate up which is a bonus right?

My Aunt Trudy was able to get this corn chowder recipe from a bistro in Halifax that she loves. It was really really really good. Email me if you want the recipe and I'll send it to you.

Because Matt still hadn't eaten the cookie I made him on Tuesday with Sarah, mom and I had it for dessert.

Once the dishes were done mom timed me for my 6 minute abs workout. My upper body was still sore from last night and I was finding that my arms were giving out before my abs were. I think that in order for me to be able to continue doing this 6 minute ab workout I reallllly need to strengthen my upper body. Matt bought a pull up/chin up/ tricep dip/push up bar. Maybe I'll tackle that on the weekend.

Mom said good-bye after that and I showered and got ready in record time. It took me 15 minutes to shower, blow dry my hair, straighten my hair, put on makeup, get dressed and go out the door. I was impressed :) I picked up my friend Andrea and we went to a late night showing of New Moon!!!! I was expecting it to be better than the first movie and I was not let down. I absolutely loved New Moon. The director did such a good job with it, they didn't use the digital retouching they used on the first one (which I found very distracting) and they left the right parts out. In the movie Twilight I found they left out parts that were important in the story but they chose well in New Moon.

Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

While at the theater Andrea and I both bought some TCBY. I absolutely love this frozen yogurt.

ZZZZzzzzZZZzzz

2009-11-18T22:20:00.006-04:00

Lately I have been staying up waaaay too late. I mean like 1-2am. Not cool. Because of my late nights I didn't get up early this morning to work out. Got up with enough time to get ready and get to work. I was able to scarf down a blueberry bagel with almond butter and jam though.

Mmmmmm POM Wonderful juice :)

Apples and cheese for a snack. I totally recommend this to anyone who has not had the two together. It's sooo yummy.

I didn't get a chance to make anything for lunch so instead I bought a turkey wrap at work.

When I got home after work I had a snack of yogurt, banana and blueberries then went to run errands. Whenever I go to drop something off at my moms house I normally plan to be there 15-20 minutes but end up staying much longer. More like 2 hours. Like I did tonight. Ooops! lol.

Got home and made some eggs, tofu italian sausages and raisin cinnammon bagel.

With some pomegrante, blueberry juice.

Supper was kind of entertaining with these two :) Squeaky thinks she can do anything she wants whenever she wants. So cute!

Todays workout consisted of Yoga Sculpt with some weight training (quads and glutes) and then my 6 minutes of ab workout.

I'm so tired though that I can barely keep my eyes open. Night!

Silly Memory Card

2009-11-18T09:06:00.004-04:00

(November 17th - Bad news... my memory card ate all of my photos today so you'll have to use your imagination)

Lately I have had my nose stuck in books. Since I would say the beginning of August I have been reading book after book. Some of them I was finishing within 1-3 days of starting them. If only I could read them as fast as I added them to my never ending book list. Last night I spent the majority of the evening finishing off Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. It was my second time reading it. The only reason I read it a second time is because I bought the next book The Lost Symbol. Started it today and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I'll blog a review maybe when I'm done.
With all of the reading I did last night I ended up posting last nights blog pretty late.. at like 1am. Eeek! Needless to say I didn't get up in time to do my workout this morning. Instead I quickly got ready, ate a bowl of cereal with some sliced banana and headed off to work.

It wasn't until I got to work that I realized how sore I was. I will admit I have been slacking in the stretching department. I love to do yoga but I'm not motivated to do it at home by myself (I love going to classes or using videos, which I don't have any of). Just general stretching is kind of boring to me. Well, I should have done more of it. My calfs and hamstrings are really tight tonight. I think after my weight training this evening I'll do some yoga/stretching. Maybe I'll ready my book at the same time to keep me busy :)

Any suggestions on relaxing music to listen to while stretching/doing yoga?

Before lunch I snacked on some yogurt with blueberries and a yummy hot cup of tea. It was pretty chilly this morning so this helped to warm me up when I got to work.

Lunch was leftovers from last night; BBQ tofu with steamed broccoli and I added in some couscous and chick peas.

I was surprised when hunger hit me so soon after lunch. I thought the couscous and chick peas would really help me fill me up but they didn't. So a banana helped to quench my snackies.

Leaving work I went straight to my Aunt Trudy's house to hang out with my cousin Sarah. Sarah just turned 8 and she is the most energetic kid I have ever met. I go over once a month to entertain Sarah so my Aunt can get some time to herself. Sarah has had a lot of medical issues in her life and whenever she needs anything she almost always turns to her mom. It was my Aunts idea for me to come over more and act kind of like a big sister so that Sarah has someone else she will hopefully feel comfortable asking for help from.

This visit we made some awesome Christmas inspired sugar cookies. I really wish the memory card had not eaten my photos. Sarah is so cute!! I'm going to see if I can somehow recover them tonight. If so then I will edit this post.

By the time I got home at 10:30 I was exhausted. I ate pouched eggs on WW english muffin with ham. Matt and I watched some TV and then went straight to bed.

I ended up drinking a total of 5 glasses of water today.

Photo Improvements

2009-11-17T01:18:00.008-04:00

On Friday I posted an Operation Beautiful note on a friends car. Such an easy way to brighten someones day :)

This weekend was pretty relaxing. I've decided to relax every weekend when it comes to blogging. So as a summary here were some of the highlights.

Mmmmm Subway cookies!

Squeaky wanted to make an appearance on the blog and I mean, how could I say no to her?

Saturday night we made a really nice romantic dinner. We tried our first bottle of ice wine with caesar salads and spaghetti.

This morning was a quick breakfast of toast, almond butter and banana with milk.

Then some yogurt, blueberries and granola. We tried this new type that has more nuts than the usual ones. I don't think I like it with yogurt but it would go good sprinkled on apples :)

Leftovers from the weekend served as an awesome lunch.

Snacked on some milk and a vector bar. I haven't tried a variety of protein bars but I really like the vector bars.

Before my 4.5km jog I had to get something in my stomach so I grabbed some apple with almond butter.

I was inspired by Caitlin's blog a week ago to buy some tofu. Wasn't really sure what to do with it so I smothered it in some BBQ sauce and baked it. Added some broccoli to the mix and had myself a really yummy healthy supper.

Before bed snack was some cereal with banana. I think I might have actually gotten my serving of fruits and vegetables today. :)

When I started this blog not too long ago I was using my Canon point and shoot to take the photos of my meals. As you can tell (especially in this post) the photos have improved quite a bit. That's because I've decided to start using my dSLR. I have the Canon 40d which I use for my portrait photography. It's kind of annoying to bring to work with me but I definitely think it makes all of my meal choices look that much better :)

What do you use to photograph your meals?

Oh yeah!! On Thursday I posted about the whittle my middle challenge. I was SO sore after that initial workout that I haven't been able to do an ab workout since. I hope to complete one tomorrow though with my regular weight training routine. Check in tomorrow night to see if I was successful!

Whittle My Middle

2009-11-13T00:11:00.000-04:00

As I was saying in my last post I am participating in another challenge. Today is the first day I'll actually be doing it though. It started yesterday but I didn't find out about it until today.

It's called the Whittle My Middle 30-Day Challenge. Angela started it on her blog and I think it'll be a really good addition to my weight training. Basically you do a 6-10 minute core workout 5 days a week from November 11th (12th for me) until December 10th. I'll be photographing my mid-section and taking measurements before, half way and after (Nov 12th, Nov 25th and Dec 10th, respectively). The core workout will consist of these movements:

-Plank

-Side plank

-Plank with elbows on stability ball

-Stability Ball Jackknifes

-Stability ball roll out

-Plank rotations.

They are all featured here in this video by Turbulence Training.

Here are today's pictures:

Todays measurements:

Smallest Waist: 29"

Widest Waist: 35.5"

Hips (widest part of the butt): 41.25"

And because I talked about progress here I figured why not keep track of my legs too. They won't change from this workout but I hope they will change from my regular strength training and running.

Thighs: 24" (each)

Today's stats:

Plank: 1 minute

Side plank: 0:30 minutes on each arm

Plank with elbows on stability ball: 0:45 minutes

Stability Ball Jackknifes: 15 reps

Stability Ball roll out: 10 reps

Plank rotations: 1 minutes

Total time: 6 minutes

Another thing I want to keep track of is how many glasses of water I drink a day. For a while I was drinking 6-8 and felt GREAT because of it. Then I stopped. Today I drank 5 glasses of water.

At work I had an afternoon snack of yogurt and blueberries.

Tonight's supper was tacos with rice.

Taco 1

Taco 2

I was so full after supper that I didn't eat anything at all before bed. Now it's time to sleep :)

Morning Sunshine

2009-11-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

Since yesterday was a rest day I got up bright and early and went for a jog this morning before work. I took my camera with me to take some photos. Here is a photo of the sun rising over the Bedford Basin. The run was about 4km.

Some of the frost on the leaves. It was reallllllly cold. I was impressed though that the cold didn't affect my lungs. It only affected my fingers! lol. I need to buy some gloves to wear while running.

The frost is a sign that winter is actually coming. I love snow. But I'm not a huge fan of the cold and the small number of hours that have sun. I've decided to prepare myself for the winter running season I need to invest in a few things..

1. GLOVES!! Hopefully really really warm ones. I'm thinking of getting the mittens that are actually gloves on the inside so I can use my fingers if needed. These are what I'm talking about.

2. Spibelt. I don't have a holder for my ipod so I just carry it with me. Its not a big deal but it would be nice to be able to put it in something. I also carry my keys in my hand. And on mornings like today I had to carry my camera with me also. It's really just annoying and I think a Spibelt would make it easier.

3. Something to carry water. Again on the theme of not wanting to carry things in my hand. I don't want to carry a water bottle with me while I'm jogging. Right now I'm not running for more than 45minutes (usually around 30 minutes) so I don't really need one. But I want to build my endurance and continue to increase my milage. So it's very important for me to have a way to hydrate myself during my run. Anyone have good suggestions?

4. Recovery socks. Because winter is coming that means running on paths isn't going to be easy and could increase my chances of rolling an ankle or falling down when there is ice. So I will be stuck running on the sidewalks when they are clear and that means my shin splints are going to start hurting again (like they did this morning). I do the whole scrunch a towel with your toes thing but I'm afraid it won't be enough. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping the shin spints to a minimum while running on pavement?

5. Garmen. Maybe! Right now I'm using the Nike+ system. It's good but I find the milage tracker can be inaccurate. I think a Garmen would help a lot in this department but I don't think it's necessary.

I run along the Bedford Highway. For those of you who don't live in Halifax, it's a really really busy street. There are always lots of cars and walkers/runners. It is also one of the major bus routes. So I brought chalk with me this morning and did an Operation Beautiful note on the side walk in front of one of the many bus stops. I love how these make me smile and I hope they make other people smile and feel good about themselves. When I was finishing up a man arrived at the bus stop and I caught him smiling as he read the note. On my jog home I saw a few more people walking towards the bus stop. I hope they saw it too :)

I also tried doing one on a bus stop but the sun probably melted it soon after.

Breakfast was a glass of milk with a blueberry bagel topped with almond butter and jam. Those darn bagels!! Hahaha.

At work I snacked on a bag of trail mix. I didn't eat it all in one sitting though. I made it last the whole day.

With some tea.

Lunch was leftovers from last nights dinner. Sooooo good, even as left overs!!

I also snacked on some chocolates. Only a few though!

I'm actually writing this at work right now using Google Docs and I'm realizing it is going to be a lonnng post. I think I'll put it up as soon as I get home and then do a second post later on. I want to talk about another challenge I'm participating in this month. More to come :)