The Friday Five – Facebook Memories Edition

So a while ago Facebook started showing you “memories” from previous years on whatever day it is.  I’ve been getting a kick out of those as it’s a nice trip down memory lane, and it’s been reminding me of not only good times I’ve had with friends and family, but also good eats that I’ve made in the past and forgotten about.  Here are some of my recent “foodie” memories.  Most of these recipes are listed on my “recipes you have to try page”, but I’ve also provided links to the recipes below.

1. Lean Green Bean Frozen Peanut Butter Cups.  
   
   

   

   These little beauties are quick and easy to make, and since I made them in a mini muffin tin, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about enjoying then as an afternoon treat at work or at night while watching tv.  I currently have some in my freezer at home and at the office! Find the recipe here.

2. Clean Eating Mediterranean Veg & White Bean Pasta.
   This is a delicious and quick pasta dinner.  It’s loaded with veggies and the feta cheese is a nice tangy topping.  Find the recipe here.  I like this one since it usually gives me 2 leftover meals for lunches at work.
3. Clean Eating Mongolian-Style Beef Crepes
   The bundle of deliciousness popped up in my memory feed this week and I am definitely adding it to next weeks menu when I do my meal planning this weekend.  I had totally forgotten about these, but do remember how tasty they were and I’m looking forward to making them again.  Find the recipe here.
4. Clean Eating Spaghetti Carbonara with Chicken Sausage
   I had totally forgotten about this recipe too.  I went through quite a phase of cooking from Clean Eating magazine when I first started trying to eat better and exercise more.   I made this last Sunday and it was even better than I remember it.  So good and it will definitely not be another 3 years before I make this again.
5. This last memory is not food related, but friend related.  For the last 5 years, in early April, I have gone to Brockville to play hockey with my best girls.  This year, we were initially planning to go to Nashville for a tourney instead, but that fell through as it became a bit too expensive and people figured the hockey would get in the way of our drinking.  So, we changed to a tourney the same weekend in Niagara Falls.  All was good, except 2 weeks before the tourney, it got cancelled 😦  It seems lots of teams said they were coming and then never sent their cheques in, so the organizer cancelled.  We couldn’t do Brockville this year because many of the girls had other commitments that weekend and we didn’t have enough to ice a team.  So, we didn’t get our tourney weekend in this year.  That made us all a bit sad, because the Corona Crushers really know how to have a good time at a tourney.  Here’s the memory that came up this week from last year’s tourney.  Love you crazy chicks.  xo
   

I’m sure I will be making more memories this weekend as it’s the Third Annual Jelly Bean Ball – a fundraiser my friend has for Community Living.  If history repeats itself, and I’m sure it will, we will eat, drink, dance and be merry until the wee hours of the morning.  Can’t wait!

Happy weekend!  The weather in the Toronto area is finally looking like spring.  As soon as I hit publish I’m heading to the back deck to enjoy a nice, cold Corona!  Cheers!

Are you enjoying the Facebook memory feature?

The Friday Five – Monday Edition

I started writing this post on Friday, but didn’t quite get it finished, so here’s my Friday/Monday Five!

Wow!  It’s April already…how did that happen?  Time is just flying by.  Once again, it’s been a while since I posted, so let’s get caught up with a Friday Five.

1. We had another great March Break at Okemo!  This was our 9th year going skiing for March Break and the 9th year we have had a fantastic time.  The snow was not the best this year. In fact, if you just judged by the snow seen from the tow, you might doubt we would be able to ski:
   The snowmakers at Okemo are always winning awards, and they were really kept busy this winter with the lack of snow in the East.  The only snow in the whole area was on the runs!
   
   The snow was not the best, but we still managed to have fun on the slopes.  We also had a good time with our aprés ski time!  I ate way too much cheese and drank too much beer, but that’s what vacations are for, right?
2. We extended our March Break with a trip to Cuba!  Last year we went to Cuba with some friends and had such a good time we decided to do it again, and expand the group to include 2 more families.  This year, we were a group of 19 and we had an awesome week of fun in the sun.
   
   We enjoyed lots of time on the beach, by the pool, had a few long walks on the beach, and we all experienced our first foam party!  It was pretty fun!
   
   We also chartered a 45 foot boat for a day and did some deep sea fishing, explored a “virgin beach”, had a great lunch on the boat, did some snorkeling…and we even caught a few fish.  My son Jackson caught the biggest fish of the day.  He was thrilled!
   
3. I had to do 16.5 in Cuba!  We were going to be in Cuba the whole time that 16.5 was “open”.  I checked the announcement on Thursday night – was less than thrilled to see if was 14.5 again, since that workout SUCKED HUGE!!  See here for that recap. After the announcement, I checked out the resort gym o Friday morning to see if they had what I would need for the workout.  Thankfully, they had barbells, so I was set. I would be able to do the workout – yay!  Ugh!  I decided to do the workout Saturday morning.  I didn’t drink Friday, since I was pretty sure 16.5 was going to suck enough all on it’s own that being hungover would be a bad idea.I stressed a bit about the workout on Friday, trying to decide between RX and scaled.  In 14.5 they didn’t have a scaled option, so I had to do RX.  Saturday morning, I rowed for a few minutes and did some stretching, and then started warming up my thrusters.  The gym was hot and the bar felt heavy after 2 weeks away from the gym.  Plus I was on vacation, so I cut myself some slack and decided to go scaled.  In the end, scaled was still a hell of a workout.  I was a soggy mess by the end, but I was proud of myself for doing it…and enjoyed many cocktails on the beach that afternoon!  Note my very official scorecard!
   
4. I’m going to strength foundations classes.   Hockey season is over and my Thursday night’s are open, so I’m going to start going to Strength Foundations.  This class at my CrossFit that focuses on the three powerlifing lifts.  It is run by  Coach Andrew.  He’s an elite powerlifter who has won Provincial Championships, and for a relatively small guy, can lift a shit ton of weight.  In the strength foundations class, Andrew helps “fix” our back squat, bench press, and deadlift.  I’m super pumped to be able to finally be able to go to this class.  I haven’t been doing heavy deadlifts a almost 2 years since I tweaked my back in 14.3 and the deadlift ladder.  I’m hoping that Andrew can help me fix my form and get me back to lifting without pain.I went to my first class last Thursday and Andrew assessed each lift and gave me a few things to work on for each lift.  This week he will create a program for me now that he’s seen where I’m starting from.  I’m super pumped to get strong!
   
5. I rode a bull!  Saturday night a bunch of CrossFit ladies went out to a bar in downtown Toronto to celebrate Coach Michelle’s birthday.  We started with a pre-party at Michelle’s house to get things started – isn’t this a great looking group of strong women!
   
   Party organizer Coach Katrina had arranged for a limo bus to take us to and from the bar – pretty sweet ride, eh?
   
   Everyone brought a few “travellers” on the bus and we were off to the Rock ‘N Horse Saloon.  I’d never been there before – no real surprise  since I couldn’t tell you the last time that I went out to a club or bar.  I was glad we went here since it meant I could wear jeans, a plaid shirt, and cowboy boots and not have to worry about buying a “club” outfit!  Everyone grabbed a drink from the bar, then a few of us tackled the bull.  This is not the best picture, but it’s me on the bull, holding on for dear life!
   
   Once everyone had their turn on the bull, it was time to dance…and dance we did! We danced until we got dragged off the dance floor and back onto the bus to head home.  It was a much less active ride home as the drinks and dancing took their toll on quite a few!  I won’t mention any names, but more than a few ladies “napped” on the drive home.  Everyone had a great time and agreed we needed to do it again sometime.  I can’t wait!

Now I’m home from the gym and looking forward to getting to bed. It takes me a little longer to recover from those late nights now!  

How has April been treating you so far?  

We got 6 inches of snow last night. Mother Nature needs to get her shit together. It’s April showers, not April snow! 

The Friday Five – 5 Recipes I Want To Try

Happy Friday!  I thought I would do a Friday Five, since I haven’t done one in forever!

This Friday Five is going to be 5 recipes I want to try.  I follow many food blogs and Facebook pages and constantly find awesome recipes that I save to my Pocket account so I can easily find them when I’m ready to cook.  Here are 5 recipes that I’ve recently saved, but haven’t tried yet.  (NOTE:  all photos come from the websites of the recipe creators)

1.  Slow Cooker Cheesy Mexican Quinoa from Chelsy’s Messy Apron

2.  Slow Cooker Cranberry Apple Chicken, from the Lean Green Bean

3.  Spiralized Mexican Sweet Potato and Chicken Casserole, by Skinnytaste

4.  Butternut Squash and Chick Pea Coconut Curry, by Tasty Yummies

5.  Crock Pot Coconut Peanut Curry Chicken, by Cara’s Cravings

Looking at this list I realize two things…I seem to be getting ready for crock pot season, and I have a strange attraction to casseroles!

I’m thinking I need to add at least one of these to this week’s menu plan.  I just need to decide which one…they all look so good!

If you were making one of these recipes, which one would it be?
Do you have any great recipes you think I need to try?

The Friday Five

Despite wanting to post more often, I seem to be sticking to my once a month updates 😦  Life is just too busy. 🙂

Let’s get right to it.

1.  Golf has started!  I love golf.   I am horrible, but I love it!  I may be horrible at it, but I’m actually much better than I was when I first started back into it a few years ago.  My handicap now sits at 27.7 (much improved over 33.3 that it used to be!) and my goal for the year is to get it to 25.0.  I’ve whittled a few strokes off my handicap every year.  Hopefully I’ve got a few more good shots in me to drop it to my goal.  We played a scramble format this week, so I didn’t keep my own score, but I had a number of good shots, made some nice chips onto the green, and my putting wasn’t too bad at all.  I’m looking forward to getting out there once a week and chasing the ball around the course.

2.  Ball hockey has started!  I miss my skates.  There is no coasting in ball hockey.  If you don’t run, you don’t move!  It was nice to see all the girls again.  Most of them I don’t see over the winter, so there was a lot of catching up going on in the dressing room.   We seem to remember how to play, and we won our first game 2-0.  We had the 10pm game, so there was no parking lot tailgate action this week, but I’m sure once we get rolling, parking lot Beves and Coronas will be happening!

The 2013 team…most of us are the same, with a few new additions this year.

3.   My back is still not 100% but is slowly getting better.  I’ve been seeing my physio guy twice a week up until this week, as I’ve graduated to once a week treatments.  I’ve been doing my exercises and it feels pretty good.  Once in a while something will tweak it and I’m reminded not to push it.   I was worried about ball hockey since running doesn’t feel the best, but for the most part it was okay.  I just kept my shifts really short and if it started to hurt, I went off.  I’ve modified most WODs at the gym and hopefully soon I can start lifting heavier again.

4.  I’m doing the Whole Life Challenge….again!  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve done the WLC.   This time, it’s a little different.  My CrossFit is calling it the WLC+ and they have designed eating plans for us based on our workout frequency, body weight, and goals.  It is a macro based plan, with assigned requirements for grams of protein, carbs, and fats per day.  They are teaching us about fueling for WODs and eating for recovery.  It is all very interesting.  Based on this, I have to eat MUCH more than I usually do…which is fun, and challenging.   So far, I have yet to hit my macro targets for grams.  I’ve come close once, but most days I am way under.  I am working on gradually increasing my intake to meet my targets.  Hopefully by next week I will be there.  I am diligently tracking my food on My Fitness Pal and constantly searching for high carb/high protein/low-fat food.  Since I’m focusing more on the macro part of this, I am only doing the Kick Start level for WLC which is not nearly as restrictive as the other levels, so I can still eat rice, corn, and sugar in some prepared foods.  It’s pretty much no bread/flour/pasta, no sugar in baked goods/coffee/candy – no chai lattes for me 😦 , no beer, no pop (regular or diet) and no junk food.  I’m okay with that, and I’m looking forward to the next 8 weeks to see how my workouts and body improve.

5.  I’m on vacation! As of tomorrow afternoon, you will find me on the beach in Cayo Coco, Cuba at the Iberostar Mojito!  We are off for a week of fun in the sun with some friends of ours.  It should be a fun time.  The kids are all so excited – there are 5 of them between the two families so they should have no problem entertaining themselves!   I’m pretty sure I will lose all my WLC nutrition points, but I’m still going to try to hit my macros while I’m there.  I’m not going to beat myself up when things go off the rails..I’m on vacation!!!  I’m looking forward to the heat (although it is finally nice here in Toronto), the beach, the cold beer and the Mojitos!  So, don’t expect a blog post next week…but I will likely be updating my Instagram account, so feel free to follow along there!
Happy Friday!

See you in a week!!! 

The Friday Five

Hello Friday….I love you!

I haven’t done a Friday Five in quite some time.  Let’s see if I can get caught up on a few of the things going on with me.

1.  I’ve hurt my back.   I actually hurt it last year, and it eventually got better, but it has been acting up over the hockey season and then finally last Thursday at the gym it decided it had enough, and heavy kettle bell swings put it over the edge.  Friday I stopped and didn’t finish a WOD for the first time since I started CrossFit.  It sucked.  My coach gave me the name of a physio guy who is supposed to be great and I went to see him today.

Apparently my hamstrings are tight, I have a glute that doesn’t fire, my hip flexors are tight, and all this affects the way my leg moves, making me use my back to help me walk rather than just for stability.  Who knew!  Anyways, an hour and a half later, I was stretched, poked, cracked, had my hip “scoured” (it feels as awful as it sounds), stabbed and electrocuted (I had acupuncture on my hip/glute).  I’ve got some stretches and exercises to do that should help strengthen my hip and glutes.  I guess time will tell.  I see him again next week.  Fingers crossed it all works!

2.  I’ve started watching Game of Thrones.    Holy crap this show is crazy!  How did I manage to go so long without watching?  I’m 5 episodes in and absolutely loving it.  I feel like I need a cheat sheet to figure out who belongs to which kingdom and I have no idea “where” everything is in relation to each other.  Guess I need to hit up google for a Game of Thrones map.  Well that took all of 5 seconds…

3.  The weather tonight was perfect for a BBQ. After a long, cold winter, it was finally a perfect night for a BBQ and dinner on the back deck.  Come on summer.

4.  Kevin Bacon is in an egg commercial…and it is awesome.  Enjoy!

5. I’m looking forward to a weekend with nothing much to do!  Last weekend I was in Brockville with my girlfriends for our annual hockey tournament.  We had lots of fun, drank too much, and had really late nights.  This weekend I don’t have much going on.  I’m supposed to go to CrossFit at 10:30 tomorrow morning, but every exercise looks like it will be tough on my back, so I may cancel and just sleep in.  After that, we have a team lunch for my son’s hockey team and not too much else going on.  I can’t wait to just relax this weekend.  It’s going to be awesome.
Happy weekend.

Doing anything exciting?

The Friday Five – 15.1 Edition

Happy Friday!  Another week down, and February is almost over!  Time is flying by.

This week’s Friday Five will all relate to the first WOD of the CrossFit Open.

1.  Workout 15.1 was announced last night.  I was playing hockey last night when the workout was announced.  (We won!  YAY!)  As soon as I got off the ice, I got on my phone and searched for the announcement.  Here’s what I found:

2.  At first, I didn’t think it looked that bad.  I can do all of those movements, not all well, but I can do them.  The biggest issue for me with this WOD is the 75# snatch.  I think the heaviest snatch I’ve done so far is only 65#.  At least that’s what it shows in my MyWOD app:

I may have gotten a bit higher than that (maybe 5#) since October…I will have to go back and check my WOD book I keep in my gym bag.   So, that 75# snatch makes me question my ability to do the RX version of the WOD.

3.  The scaled WOD looks very doable! The scaled WOD has a lighter snatch and ground to overhead is allowed, which makes it much more friendly.  Plus, I’m way better and knee raises than I am at toes to bar!
4.  My gym is doing the Open Throw Down again this year.  Between 6:30 and 8:30 everyone (or at least all the cool kids!) will be at the box to do 15.1.  We sign up for heats, get ourselves warmed up and when it’s time…we THROW DOWN!  People not in your heat cheer and it’s a great atmosphere.  Initially I was going to go to my regular 4:30 class and do 15.1 then, but I decided it would be more fun to do it with the group in the Throw Down, so switched my time.

5.  It’s now around 2 o’clock and I have a 4.5 hours to decide what level I will do – RX or scaled.  Right now I’m leaning scaled.  I will have a chat with my coaches and see what they say.  I’m not going to the games, so I don’t really need to kill myself with the RX version.  I’m pretty sure scaled will still leave me in a sweaty mess when I’m done!
Now I’m off to have some lunch and then spend the rest of my afternoon trying to stay calm!

Are you doing 15.1?  RX?  Scaled?  Let me know how it goes!

Happy Weekend.

The Friday Five – Saturday Edition

Wohoo!  Made it to another weekend 🙂  I started this post on Friday, but didn’t quite finish.  I got to #2 and picked up at #3 Saturday night.  Here goes…

1.  I have hit my reading goal for 2014!  After staying up way too late reading every day this week, I hit my 24 book goal.  I’m hoping I can keep on rolling through December and add a couple more titles to the list. Check out what I’ve read here https://mypursuitofhappinessandskinnyjeans.wordpress.com/books-read-in-2014/ and feel free to suggest some books I should add to my reading list.
2.  I’m loving my new CrossFit kicks!  Both the nano4s and my lifters ares awesome…and I seem to have started a new trend…the #footsie.  Check out Reebok Canada’s instagram post:

3.  The AirDyne is the devil!  Friday’s WOD was snatch balance work and then squat snack or hang power snatch, depending on what your ability.  I did the HPS since the snatch is not my best lift, so rather than push it with a squat snatch, I just worked on getting a solid lift from the hang.  It felt good and I’m happy with my progress.  After the snatch work, it was time for the MetCon…10 minutes on the AirDyne, 12 seconds max watts, 48 seconds recovery.  Oh.  My.  God!  It was hell.  By the end of the 10 minutes I could barely pedal that bad boy for 12 seconds.  My ass was killing me and I’m very afraid of how I’m going to feel walking tomorrow!   I guess that’s why they call the AirDyne Satan’s Tricycle.

4.  I need to get my golf stuff organized.  I’m off to Arizona on Thursday!  I can’t believe it’s only 5 days.  I have not swung a club since September.  I’m not even sure where all of my golf stuff is!  Guess I better spend some time tomorrow getting my stuff together, figuring what I’m taking with me, and I should probably hit Golf Town and buy some golf balls!  I’m nervous and excited to head south, out of this cold weather that has hit, and play a few rounds of golf.

5.  I made the most delicious pasta dish for dinner tonight. French onion soup pasta from Katie at The Rose Record.  Oh my god….so delicious.  It seemed to take forever to caramelize the onions, but totally worth it.  So awesome. Make this dish soon!

Okay…now it’s late and I’m off to bed.  I have a date with the design team at Home Depot tomorrow morning at 10am to talk kitchens.

How’s your weekend going?  Let’s hope tomorrow goes by nice and slow…

The Friday Five

Happy Friday!  Let’s get right to it!

1.  I have been a very bad blogger lately.  By the time I get home from work, eat dinner, do a few things around the house, go to CrossFit, come home and shower, I have zero energy or motivation to write a blog post.  Plus, I really haven’t had that much to say lately.  My life is rather dull, I’m afraid!

2.  I have also fallen so far behind in the Photo101 course.  I was doing alright the first week, and then the wheels fell off.  Ideally, you are to take a new photo each day that relates to the prompts.  Well, by the time I get home from work, it’s dark…which makes it difficult to take decent pictures.  I think I am going to cheat and this weekend look back through all the pics I’ve taken and see if I can find some that relate to the prompts we’ve been given that I have missed:  connect, landmark, natural world, warmth, mystery, pop of colour, architecture, moment, swarm and landscape.

3.  My hands are so sore!  I wasn’t feeling the greatest on Monday (had a headache all day), so I cancelled my CrossFit class and switched to Tuesday night instead.  Well, Tuesday’s workout was a tough one!  Strength wasn’t too bad – ring rows (since I still can’t do an unassisted strict pull-up :()  and GHD sit-ups.  The MetCon is where things got fun:
I did the beginner lever, since it was going to add up to 60 pull-ups, which is more than I have ever done RX in a WOD (I did 45 once!).  I also used a band on a rack for the push-ups, since 60 RX push-ups was unlikely.  Things were going along well – if you define well as exhausting – until the last set of pull-ups when my hands ripped on rep 54.  I ended up doing the last 6 reps as ring rows because my hands hurt so much.  I can’t remember what my time was – I really need to get better and putting my workouts into my MyWOD app!  I went home, took the loose skin off my tears and coated them with polysporin.

Wednesday night’s WOD had toes to bar in both the strength and metcon.  We also did deadlifts in the strength work, and just holding the bar hurt my hands – not just the torn spots, but my calluses at the base of my fingers as well.  In the end I asked for a substitute for the T2B in the metcon (which was 20-15-10-5 DB squat cleans, T2B, box jumps).  I just couldn’t take the pain.  Instead my coach game me candlesticks.  I only learned after the WOD what they were…lying on my back on the floor, holding the rig, pike up legs and then reach them up the rig as high as you can get them…basically like this:
My hands are still sore and there are more pull-ups in today’s WOD…I think I will do the beginner ring rows again and try to let my hands heal.

To help prevent this from happening again, I ordered a pair of Natural Grip wraps.  I have had my eye on them for a while, but finally broke down and ordered a pair.  It will be the best $17 I ever spent if they work like they say they do.  Natural Grips were recently featured on Shark Tank and they got a deal!!!

4.  I got some new CrossFit kicks!  Reebok has a Friend’s and Family 40% off sale last weekend and I picked up some new Nano 4s.  Aren’t they pretty!
I also got some lifters…but they haven’t been shipped yet.  Can’t wait for those to arrive!

5.  It’s only 2 weeks until I go to Arizona for the EWGA Cup.  I really should get out to a golf dome or simulator some time in the next little while.  I will have been 3 months since I’ve played golf when the competition starts and that can’t lead to good things.  Hopefully it will work out I can get out once here before I go and we have a practice round scheduled the Friday before the competition starts, so hopefully I will remember how to swing a club!

 

Happy weekend!

Got any big plans?  

The Friday Five

Wohoo!  We did it!  We made it to the weekend.  For some reason, this felt like a very long week, so I am glad it’s over.  Now, let’s get to it.

1.  Found this on the web.  I don’t watch much late night TV anymore, but if I do it’s usually Jimmy Kimmel.  Occasionally I’ll watch Jimmy Fallon but not that often. I’m kind of sad that I missed Fallon’s interview with Bradley Cooper  this week…just to see how they rescued an interview out of this.  It’s a bit on the long side, but totally hilarious to see how they just can’t keep it together.

2.  To Serve and Protect, and help with math!  Saw this on someone’s Facebook page and thought it was cute.  Love the mother’s reaction at the end!

3.  I’ve been reading a bit lately.  I`m always looking for a good book to read.  When I go to Costco I take pics of the latest books out and then try to borrow them from the library.  I also like to see what other bloggers are reading.  That`s how I found the last book I read.  Lindsay, over at Happy or Hungry, shared a few of the books she`s been reading lately.  I managed to find a few of them and so far I`m really enjoying them.  I just finished The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, and I`m reading another book by her called The Silver Star.  I`m only a few pages in, but I`m hopeful it will be as good as The Glass Castle.  I’ve updated my Books Read in 2014 page as well.  I’m up to 18 of my goal of 24 books read this year.  I better keep reading if I want to hit that target. 

4.  I want this cookbook. 

I’ve been following Thug Kitchen on their Facebook page for a while.  The recipes look amazing and their recipe details and instructions are written in such a way you know exactly what’s on their mind!  I just learned they have a cookbook out.  They give a teaser on their website…check it out, it’s a good read.  I will have to venture to Costco this weekend and see if it’s there, or I may be forced to pay full retail for it at Chapters!

and last, but certainly not least…

5.  My baby turned 13 today!  I can’t believe Jacko is 13.  Time has just flown by.  I can remember the day he was born like it was just yesterday.  I had been craving McDonald’s french fries like crazy.  Finally, that night, I was going to get some fries.  We walked into McD’s and my water broke.  I was scheduled for a c-section 5 days later, but he decided he wanted to make an early appearance.  I never did get my fries. Instead, around 9pm I got a bouncing baby boy.  6 lbs 7 ounces of cuteness. 

Now, although he’s not a baby anymore, he will always be my baby!  Love you Jacko! 

All he wanted for his birthday was a Mac Book Air.  We wrapped up a couple small presents – some socks and underwear…every 13 year old’s dream gifts!  Then we gave him a math workbook that Rory found at the grocery store…a joke gift…math book / Mac Book.  Get it?  We thought it was pretty funny, but he was not impressed.  He looked heartbroken.  Then we told him to look under a blanket on the floor beside the couch.  We had hid one last present for him…he actually screamed when he opened it. 

Once he got the real Mac Book Air, he appreciated the humour of the Math book a bit more!

We had pizza and ice cream cake for dinner and Jacko seems to be a pretty happy birthday boy. 

Just so happens that today is also my mom’s birthday.  I like to think that giving her a grandson for her birthday was the best present she’s ever gotten!  She may agree with me

I’m off to CrossFit tomorrow morning to do some front squats and then a 12 minute partner WOD where one person holds a handstand against the wall while the other partner does 5 burpees, 10 kettle bell swings and 15 goblet squats.  Sounds like fun! 

What’s up for your weekend?

Read any good books lately?

The Friday Five

So, despite not blogging much lately, a lot has been going on in my world.  Let’s try to get caught up with another edition of…

1.  I’m doing the Whole Life Challenge again.  My CrossFit is doing the challenge again, and I decided to join in.  I was debating since last time I pretty much paid my money and then didn’t really get much out of it.  I didn’t even do the final WOD last time!  This time I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it, since week 2 of the challenge I would be on vacation in Jamaica and I knew I would lose all of my nutrition points.  But, I really needed something to help me get back on track, so I went for it.  I did lose all my food points for 8 straight days (can you say blender drinks!), but I managed to keep the rest of my points, so it wasn’t a complete waste.  I’ve been back home for a week and things are going well.  I’ve lost a few pounds and my eating has been great.  Once again, being prepared is the key, so I’m all over my menu planning, grocery shopping and food prep.  Hopefully I can keep it going for the remainder of the challenge. 

2,  I’m doing a partner comp at my Box this weekend!  It is the 4th anniversary for CrossFit Newmarket Central, and to celebrate they are having a friendly competition.  I’ve partnered up with my friend Nikki and I’m really looking forward to it.  The first 2 WODs have been announced:

I have no idea how we will do, but it should be lots of fun and a pretty good workout!  If I live to tell, I’ll share how we made out!

3.  I’m going to Arizona to golf in December!  The first weekend in September, I played in a match play competition for the Great Lakes Regional qualifier for the EWGA Cup. My 8-person team, the YS Cresties (named after our home course, RedCrest) finished in a three way tie for first after the 2 day competition.  We had a sudden death playoff, and in the end, we finished third, but qualified to go to the Cup finals at Troon North, in Scottsdale, Arizona Dec 7-9.  I can’t seem to get the video to post, so you’ll have to click on the link to see a bit of what we have in store for us:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfan4X0nmLM and here are a few shots taken from the Troon North website.  It sure looks pretty!

We’ve rented a house on the 9th green of one of the courses and the flights have been booked. now we just need to wait for December to come…only 65 more days!

4.  I’ve had some good eats lately.  @Cleaneatingmag spicy spinach and chick peas, @paleonick bacon wrapped shrimp jalapeno poppers, and I’m bringing @thepaleokitchen twice baked butternut squash to a potluck Sunday night.  Yummo!

5.  It’s the weekend and I’ve got lots going on!  I’ve got CrossFit class tonight at 5:30, hitting up a Lululemon sale at 7:30, CrossFit comp tomorrow, kids hockey tomorrow and Sunday, and at some point in there I need to meal plan, grocery shop and do some food prep.  Should be a ton of fun!

Happy Weekend!