staying active while away

My video from yesterday! I meant to post this earlier this morning but I had technical difficulties while uploading. It also gets cut off suddenly at the end because I had a giant blooper at the end which I had to cut out (lol) One day i'll master the Vblog, I promise;)

If you are interested in finding out what I included for my prepared meals this week you can find yesterdays post here.

Some pics from my vacation to the Island:)

BC Ferries

Running a long the ocean:)

My workout zone in Kirk's parents basement with the equipment I packed

My girls getting ready to go into Science World

Lego Exhibit! Which was amazing.

body parts

Beaver Dam

We <3 T-Rex

Hollow Tree

My New(ish) Niece, Kaycee

Becca, my not-so-baby-bro Noah, my mom and Summer, and myself.

***The entire content of this Blog is based upon my own opinions, the information on this blog is not to be used without your own research and advice of a qualified health care professional. The information is not intended as medical advice, and I will not be held liable or responsible for any injury sustained in your home, gym, or elsewhere. Please consult your health practitioner before starting any new diet, cleanse, detoxification, or exercise routine.

my post vacay meal plan

I'm back! I was trying to make a quick little vblog about my trip but it got overwhelming so i'll try and post the video later :)

I only made it through 10 days of my Spring Clean Cleanse, though I still ate really clean on my trip I found it really challenging to make smoothies while on the road a lot. I also remember why I avoid fruit generally (I try to eat 1 serving of berries, unless i'm really craving something sweet). I find fruit never keeps me full, and then I get hungry with a vengeance! So back to the butter and bacon for this girl;) As I mentioned in my video I made my lunches/snacks packed in the fridge so I can focus on blogging, writing/doing my workouts, and paying catch up this week.

A typical breakfast for me is a vegetable (steamed broccoli/asparagus/green juice and soft poached eggs (you can read about the benefits of yolk, especially when 'runny' here), which I make post morning workout usually.

My prepared meals are (I used organic ingredients, do whenever possible):

Mid Morning Snack:

Day 1 & 2:
1 cup fresh rasperries
1/2 cup (shell on) pistashios

Day 3 & 4:
1 medium gala apple slices, sprinkled in cinnamon
1 tbs almond butter

Lunch:

Day 1 & 2:
-1 palm sized baked chicken breast (I cooked for 30 minutes on 350C- tossed in 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs oregano, 1 tbs basil, 1 lemon zested and juiced, 1/2 tsp sea salt, and cracked pepper)
-handful of chopped cucumber
-handful of chopped red bell pepper
-1tbs red onion
-2 cups each herb salad mix
-my green goddess salad dressing (I divided and used half of the ingredients)

Day 3 & 4:
-1 palm sized baked chicken breast
-handful of chopped cucumber
-handful of chopped red bell pepper
-1tbs red onion
-4 cup chopped and pitted kalamata olives
-2 cups each herb salad mix
-tossed in 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of fresh lemon

Afternoon Snack

Days 1-4:
1 cup sugar snap peas
8 oz buttered coffee (1 tbs grassfed organic butter, 1 tbs mct oil, and a dash of cinnmon buttered)

If I get hungry I may add a green juice somewhere in there, but so far I've found it filling enough until bedtime. When I eat a high fat breakfast I feel satiated throughout most of the day. 

Dinner: 

Tonight I'll make a palm sized local steak, small salad and some steamed broccoli latthered in butter;) maybe some avocado on the side. That's pretty typical for me, a meat, a salad, and some steamed veggies. I like to keep it pretty simple. |(i'll try and post my dinners but I don't have them preplanned because dinner plans sometimes change for us depending how crazy life gets:)

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Spring Clean Cleanse 2/21

I SURVIVED DAY 2 of 21 of the Spring Clean Cleanse! And by some miracle even got my workout in. I think getting my sweat on actually really helped me de-stress, and yes i'm feeling some detox symptoms (irritable, hungry mostly, no headaches so far). My breakfast was a ton of lemon water, a bulletproof coffee and then a passionfruit/pineapple/strawberry-avocado/chia seed smoothie. That was more sugar than I typically eat but since I will be eating mostly liquid diet I wanted to be sure I had enough carbs to survive until lunch and fuel my workout. I even went for a walk with my sister but then discovered it was colder and icier than we anticipated so decided we'd hit up 'coffee' instead, which I resisted my usual honey latte and got a herbal tea, black. Definite will power. Coffee Fiend Resistance at it's finest.

 For lunch (my solid meal of the day) I had a mixed green salad with home made avocado dressing and a palm sized local steak. 

I actually did my run later in the afternoon and was feeling pretty weak so I ended up having a second bulletproof coffee (okay so not a complete success, but at least it wasn't a sugary latte:) and a organic rice cake with almond butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon, post run. My dinner smoothie will probably actually be a juice, i'm thinking lemon-cucumber-cilantro, maybe a bit of spring mix too.

My workout was whole body today, the usual 30 on 10 rest with my gymboss timer (if you don't have one maybe try for 10-15 reps for 3 sets)

1. Squat and Press
2. Spiderman Pushups
3. Stability Ball Crunches
4. Plie Squats
5. Dumbell Flies
6. Bicyle Abs
7. Ball Bridge
8. Bicep Curls
9. Tuck Abs
10. Squatting Side Lunge

I then did a half hour fast run, cooled down with 10 minutes of hula hooping and a stretch:)

Spring Cleaning (and no I'm not talking about my closet)

HOLA! This morning I woke up to a beautiful 10 degree celsius day in FSJ. I was supposed to take my dad and his girlfriend, Holly, to the airport this morning; they are on route to Puerto Vallarta as we speak. I am sooo envious. Unfortunately my body had other plans for me, and I got hit hard with the stomach flu. :( This would suck enough if our family wasn't already one man down with Kirk and his broken leg. Anyways. In the spirit of looking to the bright side, this has inspired me to kick my ass into gear and put my full focus into food, and feeling good. For the next 21 days (starting today, since solids are out as is), I will be doing a 'cleanse' (I use this word loosely as I already eat pretty strict paleo, so a lot of the foods you may have to cut to join are already not a part of my diet. Based on the Clean Cleanse, advocated by Gwyneht Paltrow. Now that's 'Spring Cleaning' at it's finest. ;)

Basic Guidelines:

1. Liquids only for breakfast and dinner—and allow 12 hours in between dinner and breakfast for optimal digestion.

2. Solids are allowed for lunch.

3. No soy, dairy, gluten, caffeine, or alcohol.

4. Moderate intensity exercise daily to aid circulation and cleansing of lymph nodes

I don't eat soy, gluten or dairy as is, but the alcohol and caffeine will be hard. I'm planning to still have my one bulletproof coffee with breakfast smoothie, but green tea for the res of the day, as I'm a true believer in the benefits of coffee, and think the fat content will be beneficial to stay energized throughout the cleanse. Since this morning I was very ill I skipped breakfast, had a bulletproof coffee, and water all morning. By noon I finally mustered up the strength to stumble in the kitchen and make a smoothie, so i'm thinking i'll skip the solid meal today and hope my stomach feels better for the schedule tomorrow. My solid meal throughout the cleanse will probably look like a big green clean salad with a lean cut of red meat, bacon, free range eggs, or wild salmon. I find my digestion works best when I'm not doing the vegan thing, and I try to avoid chicken most of the time. My liquid and solid meals will be abundant in healthy fats like nuts, seeds, coconut, avocado, olives, ect, and I will probably add hemp protein powder most of the time. I typically workout 45 minutes of HIIT/cardio (running), but I may have to adjust depending on my energy levels and hunger. I will drink green juices in between meals when necessary.

Clean green goddess dressing from last post, herb mix, and local bacon!

My smoothie this afternoon was:

1/2 cup organic passion fruit juice
1 cup pineapple
1 cup strawberries
half an avocado
1/2 cup cucumber
1 scoop chia seeds
2 tbs organic virgin coconut oil

For the duration of this cleanse I'm going to include 1 cup organic dandelion root tea with organic lemon on an empty stomach in the morning. I will be supplementing with cod liver supplements, 10 000 iu vitamin d (in the morning), a multivitamin, 2-3 acidophlilus (spaced throughout the day)  and 2 coconut charcoals (before bed).

I am so excited to feel rejuvenated by the end of this, I've been feeling very run down from being super social (and the liquid confidence that goes along with that;) and from the stress I've been under at home lately! I would love to hear your feedback via Facebook or email! Have you done a cleanse similar to this? Are you 'spring cleaning' your body with me? Support helps build adherence:) Happy Spring Cleaning! <3

fitness, food, and fashion = material heaven

Spring is in the air! Actually, not really in my 'neck of the woods', however, brown snow banks and gravel and dust is in the air which means 'summer' is just a round the corner. I love fashion just about as much as I love fitness, and I live in a place where my shopping options have been extremely limited; so you can only imagine my ecitement when it was opening day this morning at our new local WINNERS! Wahoooooo! I think I died and went to material heaven. My sister and I hit the racks bright and early at 8:40 am and shopped until we dropped. I am pretty impressed with my shopping skills. I had my eye out for bright pops of color (orange, yellow, red, turquoise, ect), bold black and white prints, and chevron stripes.

We worked up quite the apetite... thanks to our dad for treating us to a sushi feast. :)

spring break happenings, ass n' thigh burn

I'm back!!!! Over Spring break I took an unannounced and somewhat forced hiatus from blogging. My older daughter had two weeks off school so I was her main source of entertainment. It was really busy despite the fact that I didn't have to be up as early as usual, it totally threw me through a loop and out of my routine. Then to top off the chaos my fiance broke his shin the first Monday of Spring Break; gaining me my title of nurse, personal chef, and chauffeur extraordinaire. Just Kidding. I'm really struggling with my new role of nurturer but I am trying to be as accommodating as possible despite my already full schedule. He slipped on location at work. He spent the first seven days in a soft wrap (full leg) because he had an open wound they couldn't cast until it had some time to close. Last Monday I took him to the hospital to get his cast put on. He has to have a full leg (foot up to top of his thigh) for 6 weeks, and then if it's healing properly they will shorten the cast to just above his knee for another 4 weeks, followed by physio. Way to go Kirk;)

The only bonus to this whole leg mishap is I have more opportunities to get out and about without the kids since he csn't go anywhere. I for once didn't have to go to extraordinary measures to find a babysitter or bring my daughter to my hair appointment. I finally took the plunge and got an ombre hair style I've been itching to try for almost a year! I like it, i'm not used to change but I think it looks pretty hot!;)

I planned to rewrite my workouts for March however I didn't get to all of them, just ass day (which I do every third day of the week) Here it is below. I do it with my beloved gym boss timer, 30/10 for 30 rounds, but you could do in sets. I'd aim for 3 sets of 10-15 reps of each exercise.

Lemon Sockeye and Asian Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad

I BBQed the salmon with a rub of organic extra virgin olive oil, squeezed Lemon, and covered in lemon slices and cooked for about 10-15 mins on low (times will vary based on the size of fish)

Yam Bake: 

Organic ingredients whenever possible

Preheat oven to 400c. 

2 medium sized yams chopped into small cubes

1 small white onion, finely chopped

1 tbs raw honey (optional, I omitted)

2 tbs rosemary (I prefer fresh but dried is OK) 

1tsp himilayan or sea salt 

Cracked pepper

Mixed Herb Salad with Asian Balsamic Vinagrette 

Dressing:

2 tbs sesame oil

4 tbs balsamic 

1 tbs orange juice (could squeeze right from an orange) 

2 tsp gluten-free soy sauce (I used tamari brand) 

1/4 cup chopped red onion 

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup red pepper chopped 

1/4 carrot grated 

1/4 cucumber chopped 

1/2 ripe avocado chopped

4-5 cups of mixed greens of choice 

4 tbs sesame seeds 

 1tbs goat feta (optional) 

1/2 cup chopped orange (optional, I omitted) 

The Method: 

In a medium salad bowl whisk dressing ingredients (if you can do this ahead if time the flavours will 'blend' but if not that's ok). Chop remaining ingredients, toss and enjoy :)