Photo Friday: A Collection of My Favourite Pics

 Lately, I have been doing A LOT of biking. I've been using my bike to get to appointments instead of driving to get in some exercise (not to mention, it's a lot faster than walking)

I'm REALLY grateful that I invested in my bike.


On my way to the beach today, I was startled to see a
doe on the side of the road. Thankfully when the shock
wore off, I was able to turn around and get some pics :)

I was surprised how close she let me get to her, although, for safety I did stay in the car. I took a lot of pictures, and out of all the ones I took, I liked three of them. (Always the way with photography isn't it? At least now we don't have to spend loads of money on developing a roll of film for only a few pictures that turn out :D )


Pretty girl, isn't she?

I spent a good hour and a half at the beach today. I didn't really do any swimming, but I did get some sun in and I did get out of the house. Now, hopefully I didn't get a bad burn - I did put on sun block... I guess we'll see later on tonight.

 Super young dragon fly! He was still trying to dry off his wings when I waded out to this log with my camera (Thank goodness I didn't drop it in the water!) He didn't seem all that worried with me there.

They Don't Call It A Challenge Because It's Easy

Let's face it, weight loss is chalk full of ups and downs. It's exhilerating, it's empowering and you feel great with a sense of accomplishment after a good workout. But then there are those other days, aren't there?

The other days where you didn't eat breakfast because you had an appointment to get to or you didn't eat protein in all of your meals because you had to go shopping or were lazy. You decided that "Hey, pizza seems like a great idea... and I REALLY don't want to make dinner in this heat tonight...". That craving for something sweet really caught up with you and you bought a tub of ice cream. OR your spouse makes it hard to stick to your diet commitment to healthy eating.

Since I have started my weight loss challenge on May 1st, I went from 180 lbs to 170 lbs (YAY!) but after a few weeks of inactivity and poor eating choices, I gained nearly four of those pounds back (nearly...)Since then, I have started the INSANITY workout with my friend Caroline, and I am almost back down to 170. One more pound to go until I'm back, baby!

Shortly after I started my weight loss challenge, I was having a rough time with my emotions from the miscarriage and found it difficult to get into workout mode. As I Was talking to one of my high school girlfriends she said:

"If anything, I have to look at you choosing a really hard time to make a change like this. Look at the good days as your time to relax and enjoy life, see what you are working for as something good for yourself and on the bad days, let them be bad. Go for a run, an fight it off. Like the punching bag effect I guess. Those feelings are so justified, I cannot even begin to understand or relate to them but just knowing you have to experience it makes me hurt. On and off (waves of emotion) is a good thing, that there are good and bad times now. Not all bad."

And she is TOTALLY right. I did chose a super hard time to try to lose weight and be disciplined when all I want to do (some days) is eat my emotions and take comfort in food.

The thing I have to keep reminding myself when I do have bad days is:

1. I do feel better when I am active and exercising, even when having a bad day.
2. I am worth it to ensure I am living a healthy lifestyle.
3. It is worth the effort to make sure that our future children have a healthy and happy mom who is a good role model.
4. It will (and is getting) get better, it just takes time.
5. I can let the bad days be bad and then move on.

I am also really excited to say, that as of tomorrow, I am starting to see a councellor about the miscarriage! Her name is Nancy and I'm looking forward to meeting here and hopefully together we can help me to move on and get prepared for my (eventual) next pregnancy.

How have you been doing lately? Are things crazy where you are or are you just strolling and enjoying the scenery?

Photo Friday! A Collection of My Favourite Pics!



This week there was a fire in a duplex down the
street from where I live.



 In the last pic you can see it started on the right side, (Left side from
 the front of the house) the fire fighters tried quite hard - but in the
end the fire spread to the other side.





At one point the guy who lived in the right side of the duplex
asked fire fighters if he could go in to get his TV. Is it just me, or
is that what insurance is for? You get a NEW TV!





You know, for someone who hates bugs as much as I do, I sure do

take a WHOLE LOT of pictures of them!

My view during yoga :)

More Monarch Catterpillars! I was sad when I realized that I ripped
out a LOT of milkweed from my front garden once they catterpillars
started to come around. They solely eat Milkweed.

Add caption

This little guy I found in my garden while I was watering it, and he
was unable to fly away. Instead of drowing him, I picked him up to
put him in a tree safe from harms way :)

  

See? More bugs :) But if you didn't know, dragon flies are bossy

and super territorial. They will chase other dragon flies or (try to)
chase me away. I was determined to get a picture though :) 

An angel statue at my new doctors office! Some
have waited for up to 5 years to get a dr here, I just
got lucky to be on the list to get one when they were
accepting (9 months later, but hey, not 5 yrs!)

Body Image - The Male Perspective

We hear a lot about the body image issues that young girls and women are facing every day, but what about the body image issues that the men in our lives face? They sort of get lost in the background don't they? Maybe some of the guys don't want to bring them to light, let's face it - we all have hang ups, even some of the most confident men we might know. (I mean, come on, doesn't everybody want at least someone to think they are sexy?


From the type of drink that a guy orders at the bar; what he wears; to how much muscle he has and how it's distributed on his body, men face a lot of body image issues. Some of those are similar to those that women face, that we women can relate to.

In an article I read recently trying to get into a guys head on these issues had a really interesting points. The "ideal male body" is steadily growing more muscular. GI Joe is to boys what Barbie is to girls, and over the past 20 years GI Joe has grown more muscular and in more recent years, have sharper muscle definition. The GI Joe Extreme action figure, if brought to scale at a height of 5’10”, would have larger biceps than any bodybuilder in history.

From another perspective, A Playgirl centerfold model of 1976 would need to shed 12 lbs of fat and gain 27 lbs of muscle to be a centerfold of today. Now that is a lot of time at the gym.

After talking to some of the men in my life (Who were VERY co-opperative with answering all of my questions, thanks guys! Big hugs to you all!) I got a little bit of an idea on what did and didn't affect their idea of body image.

The answers varied depending on the person, but there were quite a few common points. Most of the guys I talked to do feel pressure from the media to look a certain way. Those Calvin Klein underwear ads; the super hero movies that get those close ups of the main characters pecs, steel cut abs and firm ass as he's getting into his sexy rubber costume; movies with actors with the likes of Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling... these are the expectations they believe that us women have of them. And I can only assume (I didn't think to ask it at the time) that it doesn't make them feel good if they aren't up to that standard just as we don't feel great when we see guys drooling over the "it" girl in ads or movies. One of my very funny friends had this to say on whether men were affected by the media: "Of course! Ain't a damn fool alive who would wear skinny jeans unless he thought it'd somehow work in getting him laid!"

How men feel in the work place varied on the environment:
One man I know, is almost hyper aware of his weight and body shape as he works in an environment where physical fitness is a requirement. If he lets himself go for a while, he feels more self concious about it until he loses a little bit of that belly.

A friend of mine stated that in his place of work, most of the men are dressed down, and as such, "they talk about their own bodies far more than anyone else talks about them" (I know, surprising, right?) "They'll complain about gaining weight or needing to work out. All of it is self-directed."

Another friend of mine said that how men carry themselves in the work place depended on how they see themselves. "I know that I carry myself taller, I don't have a problem feeling like someone can see my shape under my clothing (I don't wear baggy clothing/tug at it to keep it loose), and have completely different posture and attitude best discribed as confident. Whereas, when I'm not fit, I hunch my shoudlers and ruin my posture. My personality doesn't change, but how I carry myself totally does."

While yet another one of my fantastic guy pals had this to say: "It doesn't really bother me. I'm there to do a job, and if I'm sweating, it just means I'm pushing myself harder than they (the other guys) are."

While I was reading on male body image, one point that came up was that men tend to be concerned with "real body factors" more than women, such as sweat, body hair and body odor. One of my patient fellows said that men are just as sensitive about sweating as women are, but men have a tendancy to sweat more than women do and the difference between the two is that when women sweat, it often doesn't smell bad until it gets to a certain point, whereas a mans sweat smells bad no matter what.

All of the men I asked, said that they have never thought of body image in relations to their parents or home environment, while the home environment and relationships to parents did affect the body image of most of the women I spoke to.

Many men, like women, are prone to suffering from eating disorders as well as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (A type of mental illness, when a person is concerned with a perceived defect of their physical features). One study shows by the University of Toronto revealed that one in every six people diagnosed with anorexia is male. As time goes on, it seems guys are succumbing to the same pressures as we women. The rate of eating disorders and body image-related problems in men seems to be on the rise.

So what do we do to kind of put a halt to the pressure that we all feel about achieving the toned body? Here are a few of the things that I thought of off the top of my head:

• I think that having healthy models (As well as anyone else) and not weighing them solely on the Body Mass Index which can never be really 100% accurate.
• Supporting the fashion based companies that have decided that the models who are wearing and selling their clothes won't be photo manipulated to look a certain way.
• Setting a requirement for fashion ads in magazines and billboards to have a notice on whether or not the photo was manipulated (Or, in my humble opinion, not manipulating the models body in the photo at all)
• More discussion between parent and child thoughout different stages of developement and teen years to see what the child thinks healthy body image is.
• Classes in school about healthy bodies as well as discussion on what may or may not be accurate about body image in the media.

How do you see male body image? What steps do you think society can start taking to help everyone have healthier lifestyles?

Photo Friday! A Collection of My Favourite Pics!

Hello! I'm so glad that you stopped by today! And TGIF hey?! I didn't have the opportunity to take that many pictures this week because both of my camera batteries died on me... I know, the nerve hey? But I did manage to get a few :)

Enjoy!



Wow! It's a monarch caterpillar! I've never seen one of these before
now and I just thought that it was the coolest thing ever!

I must have taken about 50 shots of this little guy, and this is my
favourite one :)

What's In My Fridge?

Even before my weight loss challenge began, I found it difficult to eat healthy. For the most part the majority of my meals were really healthy. At work my co-workers would marvel about how healthy my lunches and snacks were - what they didn't see were my snacking habits. (Or the eating habits of those around me)

You can always find tons of fruit in my
house :)

My regular snacking habits are AWFUL - would make Bob Harper yell at me and any nutritionist shake their head in dismay.

My weaknesses? Whole bags of Miss Vickey's Salt and Vinegar chips, chocolate covered pretzels, pretty much any kind of chocolate bar... Coca Cola, Dominos Pizza. If I go to Bulk Barn, you can be pretty sure that I'm walking out with multiple clear plastic bag of gummy, sour and crunchy confections. Ohhh... and McDonalds cheese burgers and fries? *wipes drool off chin*

Lately, I've been opting for baby carrots and hummus. Still good, but they aren't Miss Vickey's Salt and Vinegar, now are they?

 I guess you get my drift hey? I think that it's safe to say that I still have a LOOONG way to go when it comes to really changing my eating habits. I have found some new foods that I like to eat, well, more variation on what I used to eat. My favourite salad lately (And I eat a LOT of salad) is grilled chicken with lemon juice (Love the flavour!) klamata olives with red onion and feta cheese - or bits of melted, shredded parmasian balls. SO GOOD! Before I would add more flavour by adding loads of croutons and dressing, which isn't the best option since I can eat croutons by themselves as a snack and I won't bother stopping until the bag is empty. But seriously, who would stop themselves? Those little crunchy morsels are delish!

I've also been substituing healthier versions of my already healthy food choices. Eggs, for instance. I've started buying Omega 3 eggs.

The chickens that lay Omega 3 eggs are solely fed on Flax Seeds, which is high in O3 which helps to lower our cholesterol, as well as having the potential to help to decrease our risk of cardiovasular disease. Won't complain about that hey? They do cost a little bit more, but I would rather shell out the extra buck fifty to get eggs laid from a hen who had a healthier diet rather than those eggs laid from a hen that was solely fed on corn. Just sayin'.

 I am a huge fan of seafood, unfortunately, there are those who don't appeciate seafood, so I didn't always make the effort to buy it often in the past. In recent says though, I have been enjoying a lovely variety of different fish in addition to my other choices of meat. Some, I haven't ever tried before and will most likely buy again so I don't get tired of the same ol salmon or tuna - let's face it, who likes to eat the same thing ALL the time? Right?




For easy quick meals I've been getting the frozen chicken breast. I would really rather buy these from M&M Meats, but I'm not willing to drive half and hour to the next town to be able to. I'd rather not spend the gas money (Especially since I'm a Lady of Leisure) and get these which are just as good.

 And you have to love mineral water... OK, maybe it's an aquired taste. It is a good option if you love pop and are haivng a hard time giving it up. The lime flavoured Perrier kind of reminds me of the taste that the green Fruit Loops have and gives me a feeling of nostalia of my childhood days :) I guess it doesn't hurt that mineral water helps you get your full serving of Calcium in a day :)

 AND MY FAVOURITE MUST HAVE AT ALL TIMES... Klamata Olives! Another thing that I can just snack on all the time by themselves, but aren't nearly as heavy in the saturated fats. I would have hated these as a kid, but now that I'm a grown up big kid I love them. They are flavourful but are also a little salty to fill that salt craving I get.

Eating healthy is so much easier when you have healthy foods that you love on hand all the time and that are good options for when you have those cravings that coiuld very well add to your junk food belly rather than do you any good. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go have a healthy snack and do my yoga :)

What are some of your favourite healthy food options that take the place of your favourite junk foods?

My Girlfriends Are Amazing!

One thing that is super healpful when you are trying to tackle ANY challange, is having amazing friends who you can rely on to be your personal cheerleaders. They can be there right beside you the whole time, give you an ego boost and make your feel great about your accomplishments, or just be there to listen when you need to vent.

I have made three really great friends since moving. (And lets face it, you only need one or two great ones - I'm fortunate to have three) I met them all a few months after I moved into my new house at the first "Viva Volunteer" appreciation dinners I ever went to. I was the last of us to come in, and little did I know when I sat down, I would form a wonderful bond between these three fantastic women.

I could probably gush on and on about how great my friends are, and even though we haven't known each other for long, and there is always a chance that any one of us might move - BUT we are forming bonds that I believe will last a life time. These are my friends. They are awesome.
Caroline

Caroline is wonderful because even though she has a super busy schedule, she makes the effort to make time for everyone. She is chic, but never snobby. She is hilarious, but never cocky.
In a couple of weeks, Caroline and I will be starting the "Insanity" workout, and I have to tell you, we are bit nervous. I had never heard Insanity until she mentioned it to me and told me to Google it.

I googled it and the thing I remember most was a woman in front of the camera saying "I threw up on the first day" I texted Caroline and said, "I want to do Insanity with you! I just bought it off Amazon!"

She has such an amazing body, I can't even imagine how she will look when she's done!

Sadly, I don't get to spend as much time with her as I would like to, since she lives in the next town over. I look forward to making new opportunies to get together.

Hayley

Hayley is awesome because she is a Brit!

OK, OK, seriously, other than her accent and British vocabulary, Hayley is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and has the best conversational skills ever.

She loves discovering new places, having only been in Canada for 2 years. This summer, we are going to learn how to kayak and make our way up to the provincial park a few hours away to do some hiking. We might even succeed in tanning our pasty legs. :)

I get to spend the most time with Hayley because we are both Ladies of Leisure



Sophie

Sophie is awesome because she is 100% sincere and genuine.
Every single time I have talked to her she is able to see the silver lining in a bad situation. She always appreciates everyone for even the smallest friendly gesture they offer.

Sophie is always encouraging, optimistic and a great hugger. She sees hidden potential and urges those close to her to take the leap or take on a new challange, knowing that it can be done.


Quite a few of my friendships in the past have gone awry. Either too much drama, negativity or cattiness. None of which I have room for in my life.

The night we met, I was surprised that one of the things that was said quite often was "Good for you!" Thinking of starting a family? That's awesome! You're engaged? That's fantastic! Congratulations! Looking for a job? Is there anything I can do to help?

You get the idea. They are so supportive (We have to support each other with the lives we lead.) and I am blessed to have such great friends. Thank you to each and every one of you!

What sort of challenges have your friends helped you with lately?

On a different note, have you scrolled all the way down past the comments at the bottom? You can go see my aquarium!

Photo Friday! A Collection of Pics From This Week

SO!

I did have some really awesome photos that I took today from my walk, ALAS! I lost them all!

I usually edit my pictures while they are still on my camera while it's hooked up to my laptop, but after I edited them earlier, I absent-mindedly deleted them afterwards without transferring them to the laptop. 45 minutes well wasted don't you think?

I do, however, still have a few pictures left over from earlier this week.

ALSO! I have reached my first weight loss goal! I am now 170 lbs!

Home after a run. It's nice outside at night lately,
Might as well make use of it! Part of that "moisture"
is water... part of it is sweat.

This week I have been going for jogs. In between the periods of running, I do short spurts of walking.

I have, played with the idea of replacing my walking with a walking lunge, which I haven't gotten around to yet. I am, as many of my good friends could probably tell you a silly forgetful woman...

When it comes to some things anyway, my memory is a deep well when it comes to tiny insignificant details that no one else seems to remember. Time lines? No can do. Detailed conversations? (most of the time) Better luck next time. Random details from years ago? Bingo!

I went to a "Shape Up, Wake Up!" fitness class this week, for the low, low price of $3.00!

I thought that it would be a nice leisurely class with a bit of cardio thrown in for good measure. And I have to say, IT WAS INTENSE!It was a little warm in the studio, but I was sweating buckets! The instructer had a killer body, and it was such a good workout! I've been stretching my quads and hamstrings ALL week! I've needed to.

I will definitely be going back to get my ass handed to me again. It's three days a week, but I will probably only go twice a week.

My walking buddy, Bello. Bello is my neighbours

bossy beautiful husky. Such a sweetheart. I will
Train him yet <3

Every now and then, I walk my next door neighbours dog, Bello. He's such a sweet boy, but he is bossy and I'm working on training him.

I've also ordered and recieved the Insanity workout DVD's. It looks intense, but I'm really looking forward to starting it with one of my girlfriends :)

I'm fortunate, because I have so much time on my hands being a "Lady of Leisure" that I can really do my workouts any time during the day, without having to worry about squeezing it in between work and dinner or waking up early to get it in on time. We will be starting it hopefully the second half of June, as she doesn't have hers yet.

Isn't he so pretty? He loves his treats :)

I purchased some new Nike Free 3 running shoes online of the Sportcheck website (I really wish you could buy off of the footlocker site! I could have bought the purple ones instead of the plain old black!) and I'm really looking forward to taking them out for a spin around the neighbourhood.

A friend of mine who I met while working in a shoe store back in 2007 recommended them, and you know, he's sort of an expert since he has been management at Foot Locker for ages up until recent history.

 

This little guy got onto our side of the window screen somehow, he's
quite lucky that I just wanted to take pictures of him and not
squishing him with a tissue.

 I did fall off the health wagon yesterday. I went to a little Fish and Chips truck a few minutes away from home.

I'd been craving a burger and fries for a few days and decided to just go for it and indulge my craving.

I did have my burger and fries with a can of Coke...

This wasp was REALLY interested in our little friend and kept
hovering around him, which really freaked the spider out. He kept
trying to jump away. Eventually Mr. Wasp flew away for an easier
target.

And it was glorious. It wasn't the best burger I'd ever had, and definitely not the best fries I've ever had. It was, however, just what I needed to get over my craving, jump back on the health wagon and keep on going.

Just because I fell off, doesn't mean that it's the end of me trying to be healthy or that I should give up.

Just happens sometimes.



What have you been doing lately? Have you been getting into any awesome hobbies or activities? Have you been passionate about anything new lately?

I hope you have an awesome weekend, that you spend it doing the things you want to do with those whom you want to do them with. Take some 'you' time. And like Clinton Kelly says, "Wear something cute, and don't take any crap!"

Let's Talk Body Image, Shall We?

Here's some reading music for you. Hope you like Emmy Rossums "Slow Me Down"

I've been thinking about body image lately. What helps us to create a healthy body image and self esteem; and on the other end of the spectrum, what contributes to a person having poor body image?

At first when I was thinking of writing about body image, I was just going to pick out a few talking points and talk about those points alone. And as I thought more about what creates each and ever persons own body image, I realized that there is SO many factors that I started to get a little overwhelmed on how I would write it in a clear and concise manner but without rambling on for an eternity.

In the end, I've decided to write a series of blog enteries about body image throughout different phases we might go through in our lives. The few that I've decided that I want to touch on are:

• Body image in our teen years
• Body image and miscarriage
• Body image and pregnancy
• Men and body image
• Body image after children
• Body image and illness

I would really appreciate any and all imput from any of my lovely readers since we all have different life experiences and none of us see anything in the exact same light. I'm a little nervous to write the segments since it's such a broad area to cover and I don't have personal experience with all of them, but I'm really looking forward to it at the same time.

Again, any imput would be greatly appreciated!

Photo Friday! A Collection of Pics From This Week!

Unfortunately, I didn't get out that much this week due to some issues with my left knee and left hip, but I did manage to take some pictures in home and on a few short walks :) I played with different light - from my blinds in the morning when I get lots of light coming through the front windows.