Strawberry Fields Forever….

What a fantastic day for a trip to the valley; gorgeous skies and bright, warm sunshine! Lesley, her little guy, Angie  I, plus a couple of Lesley’s other friends all met up to go berry picking at her family’s farm – Webster’s Farm.  This is how all Summer days should be – having fun and getting out with good friends.  BIG HUGE THANKS to Lesley for taking us all over the valley and making it such a great day. :)

 
This post is going to be long, loads of fun pics though!

I hopped into the car early this morning with Breakfast to go, which was another one of the fresh whole grain rolls smeared with peanut butter and a side of fresh blueberries.

 

Made it out a Lesley’s and we were soon off for our adventure.

Fodd Health-Wonderful Warehouse…

We started out with the Hummus - House-made puree of Chickpea, Tahini and Olive Oil with Warm Marinated Olives and Pita.

 

It was SOOOO good!  Totally hit the spot too, since we were late eating.

I chose a light main course, the Warm Mushroom - Roasted Mushrooms, Baby Spinach, Pancetta Crisps, Feta, with a Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette. Terrific and just the prefect amount!


 

The rest of my day was pretty normal, except for one thing.  I was busy and found that my meals held me over well so there was no snacking.  Weird huh?

Wanted to share this pic of the beautiful roses on my desk – aren’t they just gorgeous? Love the colors.

 
So, food…
Thursdays I always have Subway for lunch.  My standard 6” Veggie on whole wheat w/ cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, banana peppers, a small squire of chipotle sauce and pepper.


Breaky was 2 slices of Ezekiel toast with organic peanut butter and Nova Scotia honey. 


Side of fresh Nova Scotia Blueberries.  These babies were fantastic!! Mmm, love fresh berries.

  
So that’s all I got for ya! I know I’m in desperate need of a good long catch up session on all of your blogs and I will definitely get to it soon.  I’ve been reading though, just haven’t had the chance to post comments.

Food Health-Late Night

I had a simple microwaved egg sammie for break. Two slices of whole wheat toast, egg topped with a bit of melted cheddar, organic baby spinach & tomatoes.


Work was fairly hectic, but I managed to stop for a quick bite – a peanut butter oat cake.  A few of you have asked for the recipe - I will post it over the weekend.


Lunch was all about moderation(and the fact that I need to hit up the grocery store in a major way, LOL).  Another egg sammie, this one was cold with mayo, onions etc.  Along with a side of reduced fat pringles (I know, I know!) and a juicy peach.

Mid afternoon I snacked on a perfectly ripe organic banana.

 

For Supper, we all met up at Subway to grab a bite to take to the theatre.  Lobster subs are still available so I couldn’t resist!  6” whole wheat with double meat, lettuce, tomatoes, green pepper, a few onions & a small squirt of light mayo.  Mmm mmm.

 

I did have a bag of baked Ruffles as welll, but I ate them in the dim theatre and my camera doesn’t “do” dim lighting… :( hint hint hubby. ;)  Chugged my h20 all night, in hopes of flushing all the sodium I consumed today.

Off to get ready for work, Happy Hump Day!!

I ♥ Mailbox Surprises

On the way home from work this afternoon I stopped at the mail box…opened it to find a nice surprise from Angie. It’s a little hard to read, but it’s a card congratulating me on 100 lbs lost. How incredibly thoughtful was that? Totally brightened my whole afternoon!! Thanks chickie! :) I feel so lucky to have made such great real-life friends because of blogging.

Today’s eat were on the ball. This morning I woke up to the heavenly smell of coffee, what a way to start off my Monday! (That and I wore my new shoes!!) J has finally jumped on the coffee bandwagon and had a steamy mug all ready for me.

For Breaky, I had an old favourite - 2 slices of ezekiel toast with peanut butter & sliced banana.

Munched on a fresh peanut butter oatcake when my belly started grumbling around 10.


Work was quite busy today; ended up eating lunch away from my desk so I didn’t get to take any pics. It was a bowl of the homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade roll and the other half of the banana from this morning.

Supper was so GOOD! BLT’s, corn on the cob and salad. Mmmm.

The sammie was made out of 2 slices of ezekiel toast, turkey bacon, lettuce tomatoes with a smear of light mayo.

Fresh corn with melty olive oil becel & pepper. Delish!

A Yummy Success!

The Eat Atlantic Challenge that is. I managed to eat only Atlantic Foods yesterday, I did have to scrounge a bit throughout the day (IE: eating Scotsburn ice cream at 10am for a snack. hehe) but am proud to say that I stuck with it.

As planned last night Jaime, Ang & I got together for a yummy local dinner. We had a good time chatting while we prepped all the eats. I’m going on record to say that no points were counted and that I’m positive if they were, I’d be over. No sweat though because I couldn’t have asked for a better evening with great friends & great food! No regrets here. :)

Our main course was a local Eden Valley Farms chicken, that Jaime butterflied and cooked on the grill. She seasoned it with Mallett’s Maple Pepper Chipolte blend. As you will see further down, it turned out fantastic!

Along with the chicken we had some roasted taters that I prepped. These were local Scotian Gold potatos. Seasoned with olive oil, fresh ground pepper, sea salt & fresh local garlic.

Ang had my least favourite chore, shucking the corn on the cob. I picked this corn up from Superstore, it was advertised as “Atlantic Grown” but the produce manager couldn’t tell me what province it actually came from.

While the food cooked we cracked open of bottle of Blomidon Estates L’Acadie Blanc and munched an appy platter that Jaime whipped up for us!

Great Start to the Weekend!

I was so impressed and will be going back, just a little earlier next time to avoid the crowds. Check out my loot, all this for only $50.00!


Loaded up on green onions, fresh chives, beets, mushrooms, 2 types of zucchini, huge bag of spinach, peas, cucumber, new potatoes, a sweet potato, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow & green & purple (!!!) beans, cherries, fresh whole wheat bread and cheese - herb & garlic gouda & feta from Fox Hill.

After we plowed through all the cash on hand, we head over to Cora’s for some yummy brunch & a gab session. ;) I enjoyed the Asparagus & Swiss Cheese Eggs Benedict. (Hollandaise sauce on the side.)



Mmm, totally hit the spot! I left most of the fruit because the eggs were so filling. Apparently we arrived for brunch at the perfect time because the line up to get in was out the door and on to the street when we left.

We browsed around Lululemon for my reward for breaking out of the 190’s. I tried on sooo many things; would you believe a size 10 fit me? LMAO. Anyways, they fit but I wasn’t that pleased with my overall comfort level wearing the clothes (I felt really self-conscious) so I decided to not make any huge purchases today. Instead, I rewarded myself with an awesome new H20 Bottle (these are the new ones made by SIGG and hold 1L!) and a black Slipless Headband.

Honorary Halibloggers

As you may have noticed, I haven’t blogged in a few days. That’s because I’ve been too busy having an absolutely freaking fantastic time with the Halibloggers and our honorary members – Jen, Amy & Cat!

I just want to say how truly lucky I feel to have such a wonderful group of ladies (and their hubbies) in my life. It’s not often a big group of 17 can get along so well and are extremely fortunate that everyone seemed to click almost instantly. We have developed some life long friendships and being from all over the country makes it that more special. Love you ladies!

Since Angie had to work all week and I had the time off, I ended up staying at her place so that I could show people around and help make sure they got a true Nova Scotia experience. I don’t have as many pictures as I’d like because I spent the past few days having a good time instead of worrying about taking a bazillion pics.

The first night was, of course, a lobster boil. I don’t really have too many pics from that night at all because I was pretty busy cooking the tasty things! Both Jaime and Angie have great re-caps though.

Unfortunately, it has been raining for most of their trip here. Our plans for Thursday were initially a day trip to Mahone Bay & Lunenburg, instead Jen, Amy & I went for some tasty brunch and picked up the Thanksgiving groceries. We spent the afternoon driving around the city and were able to get an hours walk along the waterfront when the rain finally decided to let up.

That evening was our Keith’s Brewery tour. Before we left Jen straightened my hair – I’m in LOVE! My hair has never looked this good. Even in the misty air it held out.

Sometimes It’s The Simple Things…

Like this shiny set of new frying pants that totally made my night!

I’ve been saying forever that we need some new pans and it’s gotten to the point where we’ve even been made fun of for only having one crappy frying pan. :-P

We finally gave in and ordered a new set with some points that J had accumulated through his rewards system at work.


Of course I had to try it out right away! So nice to have new non-stick, I always had to use oil on the old one. Cooking up the tacos was a breeze.


PS. Holly you can pass along to your hubby that our kitchen tools should now all be up to par.. ;) hehe

Oh and to top it off, I finally found some icing that works for the tree cookies!! Which means that I’m all ready for the exchange tomorrow night. Glad, because I really didn’t want to give away naked cookies. :)



All prettied up for my girls….

Got a busy weekend coming up. Work all day tomorrow and then we have our Haliblogger potluck and cookie exchange. Saturday, I’ve got an early Weight Watchers meeting, the Santa Shuffle 5K, post run brunch at Coras (?) and then hubby and have got movie + dinner plans in the evening to celebrate the anniversary. Sunday is my birthday but we’re actually going to an extended family brunch at the Prince George.

I’m sad to say that this week has been a write off for me in terms of WW’s. I can’t wait to WI on Saturday and move on. I knew this week would be a struggle and having the gain last week didn’t help at all. This is me being 100% honest with you all. However, looking at this from a long-term perspective, it’s nothing but a small glitch and as long as I keep moving forwarding then I can’t go wrong. :)

Oh, there is a certain goal that I'm really looking forward to achieving in the next 6 months, can’t wait to share all the details with you soon! I’ll give you a hint, it has to do with running……

Sushi & The Symphony

Evenin’ everyone, I’m blogging a bit later than usual today because I just got in from a fun evening out with Angie & Jaime. A few days ago I mentioned that Jaime and I won tickets from Symphony Nova Scotia, well tonight was the show.

In true Haliblogger fashion we made it a night out and met up for dinner beforehand. After hearing Jaime’s review of Doraku, I knew where I wanted to go…
But the inside was just lovely. The first place we hit was the bathroom. There were candles and all kinds of yummy smells throughout the building. :) After powdering our noses our waitress took us to our seats - we actually had to take our shoes off and walk up the table. It was so neat!


While we waited for Jaime to arrive we browsed the menu and decided on a bunch of rolls to split.


I like to have green tea when I’m having sushi, ours came in a beautiful teapot.

We decided to start of with a cup of miso soup and a few bowls of edamame for the table. The miso soup really hit the spot on this cold, damp day.



And of course, the best part, the rolls. We ordered a few different ones to share including - Sweet Potato Tempura , Philadelphia Roll, Spicy Tuna and a Spicy Scallop. It was the best sushi I’ve had in the city. I’m definitely not an expert but better than the other 2 places I’ve been. :) (Excuse my poor quality pictures.)




After dinner, we made a dash for the Cohn and arrived just in time to get a few ticket issues sorted out (the staff were great and very accommodating!) and got to meet two other Halifax Twitters - @TammiHayne and @AliceinParis. So cool to meet other local twitters! I may have snuck a few pics once we got inside…




We enjoyed the sounds of “Brushstrokes and Bows.” Over all I liked it. I just wish I hadn’t have been up since 5am because I was pretty tired. It was my first time going to a Symphony though and it was pretty amazing! Thanks again to Symphony Nova Scotia for the tickets! I can’t wait to go back in December to see the Nutcracker!

Local Love

Good Evening Bloggies, long time no chat! What a busy week for this household. Thankfully, it’s wrapping up quite nicely and I’m looking forward to the weekend.

I’ve got some exciting news – Life, Health & Fitness is now being streamed in the “Life” section of Haligonia.ca.

It was a big decision to make because being published on a local site kind of takes always from my anonymity. However, the whole point of my blog is to share my experiences with others, so why not locals as well? Thanks again to the Haligonia.ca, I really appreciate this opportunity!
_______

This evening the Halibloggers were supposed to go for our first group run. You know in preparation of the Santa Shuffle 5K that is a mere 2 weeks away. Yup, sometimes the schedules just don’t work out the away we want them to.

In anticipation of the run, I had a bite before I left work. For some reason I’ve been craving egg salad lately, so……


Bodywise WW Bagel with organic baby spinach, spread with the egg mixture – 1 egg, 1 tbsp of the best light mayo ever, diced chives and various seasonings. YUM and the perfect amount of carbs and protein to fuel my workout.


We agreed to met up at Starbucks beforehand and as usual I was a tad early. Not to worry, I managed to snag a comfy chair and had the crackberry and a short dark roast to pass the time. :)


In the end it was just me, Jaime and Tash who hit the pavement. Ang had planned to go but got held up at work. Lex and Farm Girl had previous commitments. We started off with a brisk walk down Spring Garden, then ran intervals for the next 45 mins or so, throughout the South End. It was a beautiful crisp evening, hard to believe it’s almost December. I haven’t done a lot of group running and have to say that I really enjoyed it. It’s nice to be out working up a decent sweat while spending time with good friends. Thanks for tonight girlies :)

On the WW’s front I’m doing okay, this week as been really busy which has resulted in a lack of “me” time. Read: lack of work out time. I’ve stayed within my points, used all of my WAP and most of my APs so we’ll see what the scale says on Saturday. I have a feeling that I won’t have much of a loss but I’m okay with that because the last 2 weeks I’ve had great results. I am finally back to where I want to be in terms of focus/motivation AND I’m back to running on a regular basis. Really don’t have much to complain about.

I will be checking in with everyone shortly, sorry for the lack of comments this week.

Time of my Life!

Well the G2G is just about over. I am tired, a bit hung over and sick as a dog but am still smiling because this whole week has been just amazing! I never thought a group of 16-18 people could get along as well as we all did, but apparently it can happen. FYI: I’m trying to put only flattering pics of everyone in this post but it might be a little tricky because we were all having quite a “good” time. :)

Our Thanksgiving dinner was yummy, we had a huge 21lb free range, organic turkey complete with all the trimmings – Cat & Jen made the yummy garlic mashed taters, Amy made her famous sweet potatos, Lesley and I both made different stuffing, there was sweet potato casserole and corn, Jaime made awesome roasted brussel spouts, plus mashed carrots & turnip, and Tash brought over yummy pumpkin & apple pies from Pete’s. It was a huge feast! I only have one pic from the actual meal and it’s of the bird. :)


To be honest I can barely remember the rest of the evening. I’m not a big drinker by any means but this was certainly a night of indulgence. hehe. I know I started off with wine but then Jen brought out her the jello shooters and it all kinda went fuzzy from there! Of course you end up with lots of cameras when bloggers unite.





Meanwhile, the men were getting to know each other the usual way – with beer, video games & sports, hehe!


Oh and Lex’s b/f Dave is a rubix cube genius and he spent part of the evening sharing his tricks of the trade!

Saturday we had a yummy brunch – bacon, scrambled eggs, hash & toast then J & I snuck out to attend a memorial service. J was really hurting so I took him home after the service and then headed back into the city to meet up with everyone at the Halifax Feast Dinner Theatre for a hilarious evening of entertainment. We saw High School Reunion - The Musical. I had a blast and can’t wait to go back for another show! After that we wandered up to Maxwell’s for a few drinks (and so the guys could watch the hockey game.) Ang & I got this crazy idea that we needed something to commemorate the G2G. We snuck out and after a bit of running around (there’s not that much open at 1145pm on Saturday night) we got a group shot printed and had everyone write on each other's.

It was another late night with some yummy butterscotch shots and a game of “What.” I think I finally hit the sack around 4am. Eck.

Yesterday we packed up and Jen & hubby were off to the airport, they got their flight info wrong so they made it just in time. It was a short but sad good bye. Miss you already chickie. I headed home sick and in desperate need of sleep.

One finally gathering this morning at Cora’s for brunch where I said my goodbye’s to Amy & Cat. Really can’t believe it’s over already. Can’t wait to see what we come up with next though.


I’m not even sure how I managed to drive there to be honest. My body is simply going through the motions and I plan to spend the rest of the day on the couch getting some much needed rest.

Once again ladies, this was truly one of those experiences that I will never ever forget. I’m just in awe of it all. I love you all from the bottom of my heart, thanks for some wonderful memories! xoxo

PS. DETOX STARTS TOMORROW!