1 day to go...

Well, it's finally here! We made it. Wew.

So the last three days I've been in Montreal with Rob relaxing, having birthday celebrations with family and enjoying not being at work (haha) before my trip. Admittedly, there has been no gym, albeit lots of walking everywhere around the city and occasional home arm/ab workouts. 

We've had lots of amazing vacation/summer food to eat, including:

- chicken sandwich with salad for lunch outside in Old Montreal

- homemade bolognese for linguine

- smoked salmon sandwich with soup and salad

- homemade pizza with salad with red velvet mini birthday cake

- fried chicken (with Rob's lab)

- lots of apples and bananas for breakfast with tea and coffee

and...drumroll...

My amazing dinner at Garde Manger with Rob, as a celebration of my birthday, his exams being done and our vacation. 

At Garde Manger, they bring you amazing chewy fresh bread with smoked paprika and tomato cream cheese. I read reviews saying "this stuff is so good they should charge for it" and they're right, they should.

The classic Garde Manger caesar with absolutely amazing crab legs. This thing was like $16 but totally worth it. So so so good.

We figured we'd get a taste of what Garde Manger is all about and get the seafood platter for two. We had Matane shrimp, smoked salmon with creme fraiche and cucumber, massive scallops (which I'd never had raw before!) and succulent oysters from New Brunswick. Those shrimp - OMG. 

And of course, you can't come to Garde Manger and not have the famous lobster poutine. Totally amazing. 

We were hoping to see Chuck Hughes at GM, but unfortunately he didn't stop by. The waitress told us that he's spending more of his time at Le Bremner these days, so we high-tailed it over there to have a drink. He wasn't there, but lucky for us, Danny Smiles from Top Chef Canada was still around!! We got to meet him, have drinks with him, chat for a bit, and he was gracious to let us take a picture with him! What a super fun, laid-back guy. 

So, here's where it ends. We leave for the airport in a few hours, so it's packing time around here. I'll be sure to make another entry once I get back from the trip to give an overall impression of how I felt there, but for now, I will say this: I didn't achieve what I set out to achieve. I didn't lose much weight. I didn't become bikini-ready. I did tone up a bit and I am much stronger now, but this strength didn't come with an aesthetic accompaniment. This is disappointing, and I've definitely identified some challenges in eating in a "diet" manner, with changing your lifestyle, in striving to be super in shape and go to the gym at every chance. I commend myself on the effort and overall, aside from a few stretches here and there, I was consistent. Maybe it's like Sarah said...if I go to the gym and eat properly and take care of myself and this is the body I have, then so be it. 

7/6/5/4/3/2 days to go...

WOW giant fail this week in keeping up with everything. I'll do my best to summarize.

Breakfasts have been all smoothies all week. I'm officially addicted I think. No breakfast today.

Lunches (all except Friday and today) were salad with either tuna, salmon, or chickpea patty with cucumbers and home-made croutons. Friday I had leftovers of Thursday night's Vietnamese noodles. Today I had sushi lunch with my brother. I was SOO full from all the beer and poutine that I barely ate anything.

Dinners:
Monday - chickpea patty burger
Tuesday - same
Wednesday -  last of the pork tenderloin fillet with huge plate of greens
Thursday - few slices of pizza from a meeting at work and half an order of Vietnamese noodles
Friday - beer (haha), half a small order of boneless chicken wings and poutine (yeah, we celebrated my birthday. We also had cheesecake that my coworkers had brought in for me! Yay!

Exercise:
- Monday and Tuesday - gym after work, both really hard workouts
- Wednesday and Thursday - none, busy running errands for the trip
- Friday - none, out with friends
- Saturday - none officially, but I was out walking around and I cleaned the whole apartment from top to bottom. That almost counts, because my back is killing me.

So for those of you who know when I leave, you'll notice that I fail at counting. We are leaving Wednesday, not Monday as the countdown would indicate. Whoops!

8 days to go...

Today was a really chill day. Really chill. I slept until 12:30am and lazed around until I went for a walk to run an errand and do a restorative yoga class. I ran another errand to the drug store later and that's it. Pretty mellow.

Brunch: an omelette with salsa and a piece of soda bread.

Dinner: a piece of pork loin, a LOT of greens and some whole wheat pasta with pesto. Dessert was a small date square that my grandpa made and I had frozen, and testing a failed batch of red velvet cupcakes for the co-workers.

Workout: hmm not a physical workout but a calming restorative yoga class. I have been a total and utter mess lately (my poor boyfriend...I feel so bad for him) so I needed the grounding, cooling and calming class. It definitely helped.

Snack tonight was a small bowl of ancient grains cereal.

Yep, nothing major today. This week I'm going easy on the food and hard on the workouts I hope. I'm anxious to get into that bathing suit!! This time next week I'll be in my man's arms and all ready for our first vacation together!

11/10/9 days to go...

We are into SINGLE DIGITS PEOPLE!!

Breakfast:
- smoothies Thursday and Friday, and this morning no breakfast (slept in!)

Lunches:
- Thursday: salad with a quinoa cake and mushrooms in it, with carrots for snack, and greek yogurt with fruit, chia, kamut and honey
- Friday: sushi lunch! we ordered from this amazing place downtown, and I also had yogurt and veggies as per usual
- Today a bunch of us from work went for all you can eat sushi. Heaven. Absolute heaven.

Dinners:
- Thursday: Subway (12" turkey on brown with veggies)
- Friday: frozen pizza (fail)
- Today: pork chop with greens

Snacks and Activities:
- Friday: beers and nacho fries with my brother
- Today: movie night so lots of chips and candy (another fail)

Workouts:
- Thursday and Friday: none
- Today: intense gym session! 40 minutes of cardio plus abs with weights and arms


I am feeling the effects of the stress of monitoring all of my food intake now. It makes me grouchy and vulnerable, and I think about everything I eat. I can't enjoy something fully because I'm worried about what it will do to my bikini bod. That's not right. I can't wait to be done this, for one because I'll be on vacation haha but also I'll be free of monitoring everything with a very specific and glamourous end goal in mind. I know I'll still stay healthy but I won't be worried about the effect of every candy and pizza slice.

In a related note, my poutine craving is stronger than ever...

14/13/12 days to go...

Breakfasts:
- Monday: smoothie
- Tuesday: smoothie
- Today: peanut butter toast. I have been craving peanut butter for a while now and it seems I'd been doing smoothies a lot. Time for a change!

Lunches:
- Monday, Tuesday and today: mixed green salad, leftover croutons and grape tomatoes, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, ginger carrot soup and greek yogurt with chia seeds, kamut flakes and honey (today I added raspberries - SO good)

Dinners:
- Monday: I was coming down with a migraine so I made a quick whole wheat pasta with pesto and slept most of the evening
- Tuesday: leftover lasagna with soda bread
- Today: leftover lasagna, and a snack of candies and soup (yep, movie food)

Workouts:
- Monday: gym until the headache started getting bad. I didn't do much, just 15 minutes of cardio but I was still feeling my advanced yoga class from Sunday so it almost felt like I worked out haha
- Tuesday: 75 minute hot yoga
- Today: gym (30 minutes cardio + legs + arms + abs)

Overall I feel super excited and so-so with the eating. I feel like I've been thinking about nothing but food and the gym for weeks, and I can't believe this but all I want is a poutine right now. Or a greasy slice of pepperoni cheese pizza, or baked ravioli, or garlic bread or all of the above! My poutine craving is by far the strongest of them all, so maybe next week when my lab and I celebrate my birthday I'll give in and go have a small at Smokes! Until then, 12 DAYS!!!!

17/16/15 days to go...

I just freaked out a little that I just wrote FIFTEEN. Wow.

The last few days in a nutshell:

Breakfasts:
- Friday: smoothie
- Saturday: had the girls visiting from Toronto, so bagels with cream cheese and mixed fruit, with tea
- Today: smoothie

Lunches:
- Friday: leftover flatbread pizza from my Farm Boy date with Leslie, with some greek yogurt and carrots, also half a pint of cider after work to celebrate a prof's tenure (woo!)
- Saturday: mid-afternoon lasagna and bread leftovers from Friday dinner
- Today: Subway (6" roast chicken on whole wheat with baked chips and chocolate milk, amazing post work-out)

Dinner:
- Friday: homemade vegetable low-fat lasagna, mixed green salad and fresh bread (with the girls!). We had wine and a few two-bite brownies for dessert, as well as some of our host's apple crisp later that night at a wine and cheese
- Yesterday: leftover lasagna and bread
- Today: guess what...more lasagna

Workouts:
- Friday and Saturday: none, busy with the girls (although, we shopped and walked around quite a bit...does that count?)
- Today: 75 minutes advanced yoga. totally kicked my ass, but totally amazing.

We're onto the last few weeks now so doubling my efforts to cut the carbs and up the cardio. I made homemade ginger carrot soup (Jamie Oliver's recipe, can't go wrong) for this week. Here is the recipe:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/member-recipes/Ginger%20Carrot%20Soup/3124

Also, I'm getting stupidly excited as the girls got me an early birthday gift of a gorgeous white H&M beach bag and flowy flower dress! Thanks ladies!!! On our shopping trip I picked up some tops from RW&Co (my absolute favourite store of all time), as well as a cute turquoise and white bikini from Old Navy of all places. All I need are flip flops, a hat and some last minute item gathering and I'll be ready!!

Maldives, here I come!!

21/20/19/18 days to go...

Wow it has been a busy busy week! I haven't forgotten about the blog though! This week here is my summary:

Breakfasts
- smoothies!! I'm in love. Any combination of banana, fruit juice, almond milk, flaxseed oil, ground flaxseed, protein powder, strawberries and blackberries = amazing

Lunches
- spinach salad with cucumbers and quinoa
- greek yogurt with kamut flakes, chia seeds, cocoa powder
- carrots for snack and an apple or some other fruit in the afternoon
- Wednesday was the exception, where I had a bagel with cream cheese (the light stuff!) at 11am and no lunch.

Dinners
- Monday: Subway (footlong turkey on whole wheat, no chips, no pop) on my way home from an excellent sweaty workout (40 minutes cardio + abs + arms)
- Tuesday: quinoa spinach chick pea burgers, with no bun and a little mustard
- Wednesday: same, before a 60 minute hot flow class
- Today: dinner with Leslie was samosa and flatbread pizza from Farm Boy (IN LOVE), with cinnamon buns and chips (yep, major cheat day but delicious)

I've noticed that I have let three rules fall by the wayside over the last month:
1. No eating 2 hours before bed. Yeah, I eat when I'm hungry, and smaller meals spaced longer apart mean that I get hungry. I never eat a meal before bed, but a snack for sure.
2. No snacking. Again, this is difficult because of the small meals. I just get hungry!
3. Morning and evening crunches and pushups have all but disappeared. I feel bad about the abs, but my arms have been getting stronger through more focused workouts. I see definition in my abs for sure, but I'm uncertain of the effect of doing 100 extra crunches a day. I've found in the past that I get really awesome definition in the upper portion of my abs, but I still have a really tough time eliminating that last layer of extra right below my belly button. Plus I'm tired in the morning and at night so the motivation for this is dwindling.

Related to this, I have noticed that this bootcamp has become more of a lifestyle change than a diet or bootcamp, which likely contributes to my abandoning on the more hardcore rules. Having strict rules like that leave very little wiggle room and it makes for a regimented, rigid lifestyle. It's practically a measure of how badly you should feel about yourself that day depending on how many you break. Don't get me wrong, with the flight fast approaching, I'm going to try really hard to get back into working out more often and more consistently, just one last push! I have no more visits with Rob before we go, so I will have weekend time to get myself to the gym and yoga, and way fewer excuses for eating poorly.

In related news, I AM GETTING SO EXCITED!! We have a very long layover in London on our way there, so we'll be trying to get some sightseeing done while we're there. Very long flights, but very much worth it. It's starting to get difficult to focus on real life!