44 days to go...

Today was a great day! I slept in, got up and went to a really intense 75 minute hot yoga class called Baptiste Power. This is a class with lots of holding, lots of flows and lots of intense muscle work. I have to say, and I mentioned this to Rob this morning, that going to the gym often and doing focused workouts has drastically improved my yoga practice. I'm building confidence because I can hold my poses longer and with less strain, I can go deeper into the poses and I can move in ways I couldn't. All of this translates to a quieter mind as I have less to struggle with in terms of my inner dialogue. Awesome class!

Before class I tried an avocado-banana-orange juice smoothie. It was ... ok. I only used half an avocado and no matter how much orange juice I added I still felt that it was a bit thick for my liking. Still, a great way to get healthy fats into my smoothie. For lunch in the afternoon I had a can of italian wedding soup and some chips (leftover from last night with Leslie).

Dinner was amazing! Leslie came over again and we made fresh shrimp spring rolls! These had carrot, cucumber, cilantro and shrimp, with vermicelli and wrapped in rice paper. We made a sauce as well, as follows:

1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. water
1 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp sugar
few drops of sesame oil

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer for 3-5 minutes until sugar has dissolved and sauce has thickened.

Leslie brought cookie dough and made us chocolate chip cookies for dessert as we watched Sleeping Beauty. What a great few nights with my lady friend! :)

47/46/45 days to go...

Wow, I haven't really been keeping up. Here is what I can remember back from Wednesday...

Wednesday:

- Breakfast: smoothie (banana, yogurt, flaxseed oil, protein powder, fruit)
- Lunch: wasn't too hungry, but had a few bites of salad and some yogurt
- Dinner: I had my brother over, and I made some gnocchi with tomato alfredo sauce (can), baked with cheddar and parm and with jalapeno cheddar bread (his favourite)

I went to the gym after dinner with my brother, and did cardio (20 min bike + 5 min intense rowing), a bit of arms, and abs

Thursday:

Thursday was a gong show. I had to get up at 5:30am to catch my 7:30am train to Toronto for work, so I had a protein-flaxseed oil smoothie at like 6am and that held me over until a very late lunch around 2pm with the people I was working with. We offered to take our host out for lunch as a thank you and he picked a burger place (...) so off we went. Remember that I eat like a bird at lunch, a little spinach salad with yogurt. Needless to say, I wanted to die after having a burger with fries. I was SO uncomfortable, bloated and felt miserable. I never eat that heavily over lunch, and now I understand why people have light lunches. I wanted to have a nap and thankfully we got in the car to come back here and I got to digest a little bit. My god. Awful. When I got home I went straight to the gym and did the same thing as Wednesday. A bit of munchies at a friend's house for her birthday (carrot sticks, birthday cake, chips etc.) but no dinner.

Today:

- Breakfast: same smoothie as usual
- Lunch: spinach salad (ahhhh!), with carrots, cucumber and that thai chicken I made earlier this week
- Dinner: my friend Leslie and I decided to have a slack night in and we got pizza and snacks and some wine and caught up. Very girly night in, with gossip, sweat pants and lots of candy. Felt amazing :)
- Gym was the same as above, and definitely necessary knowing tonight was going to happen

And now for a weekend of catch-up!

48 days to go...

No post yesterday, unfortunately. I got home Monday night and had a bizarre nagging headache, which went away during yoga, but came back later that night and stuck around until this morning (...). Migraines are wonderful, especially two in one week. -_-

So, yesterday was no gym or yoga and a bit of a free-for-all in terms of food. When I get a migraine, I usually eat a little in the morning just to get the engine going, but I generally lose my appetite. So, for breakfast I had a tablespoon of steel-cut oats with milk and that barely made it down.

Then I had a dentist appointment to get to, which was horrible, and then in to work to get samples ready for my trip to Toronto tomorrow. I couldn't NOT come in. I got home and slept from about 10am to 7:30pm, with a few sips of water here and there. I got up to take ibuprofen around 5pm, and that made it possible to get up and make a bit of dinner. Migraine dinner consisted of a bowl of all-bran and a smoothie (banana, raspberries, yogurt, orange juice, flaxseed oil and protein powder). I'm having my brother over for dinner tonight, so I managed to make a loaf of cheddar-jalapeno bread (his favourite), so I tried a slice to make sure it was cooked properly, and I also made a batch of homemade gnocchi and also tried a few to make sure they were ok. Homemade gnocchi is delicious with pesto!

I'll write about today later on.

49 days to go...

I feel much much better today. Don't get me wrong, I still miss Rob terribly and the feeling of being cut out of someplace you feel you belong and plunked back into where you are is still very much present. On the plus side, I got back into my routine today, so I feel good in that respect.

Breakfast was steel-cut oats with milk, a dab of peanut butter and cinnamon. A serving of oats is 1/4 cup, but it's quite filling.

Lunch was a spinach salad with cucumbers and 1/2 can of canned salmon with olive oil/balsamic dressing, and yogurt with cinnamon, a bit of that PC protein plus granola, chia seeds and kamut flakes.

Snack in the afternoon was a solid cup of sugar snap peas on the walk home from work. I had a nibble of cheese (purchased to make my brother "thanks for watching the cat for a whole week" cheddar jalapeno bread) to hold me over while I went to my friend's house to try on formal dresses.

Here is the dress I tried on:

I LOVE this dress!! I sent this picture to Rob and he loved it too. My friend Caro is probably like 5'11" and weighs as much as I do, so for me to fit into this dress (it's an XS!!) is mind-blowing. I feel amazing in it!! This is me at 19 days into the challenge, supposedly around 135lbs. Feeling awesome!

Dinner was chicken, quinoa and carrots, same as yesterday. 

I finally went to yoga and it felt ah-mazing. Working out makes me feel tough and strong, but there's nothing to balance out this very masculine energy like a sweaty introspective bendy sweaty class. Mmmmm. 60 mintues of detox hot yoga = workout for the day! When I got home I blended a banana, a blood orange, a tbsp of protein powder, orange juice, a touch of honey and fat-free yogurt into a post-workout smoothie and had a small bowl of all-bran. I'm determined to add extra fibre to my diet, and if I have to eat cardboard cereal (I love pretty much all cereal, so I kid here), so be it.

Onwards through the next 3 weeks of solo eating.

51/50 days to go...

Aaaand here I am, back home. Sigh.

Yesterday we went to visit my grandparents who live north of the city, and they served us lunch. We got up late enough that I didn't have anything for breakfast except a quick cup of coffee, and lunch was pea soup, maraconi casserole, salad and white cake with apple jelly.

For dinner, Rob and I ate leftovers. I think I had a sandwich (the one I was supposed to take to work on Friday but never ate), a few bites of mac and cheese, some of that cake brownie thing, and an orange. No gym, since we had to come home early from lunch so Rob could get some studying in. We hung out and watched The Office (our favourite) and watched The Lovely Bones. Thus concluded our last night of this amazing week.

This morning we had oatmeal for breakfast with coffee. Rob packed me a lunch of a half sandwich, grapes, a banana, an apple and a few Oreos for the bus trip. I ate the sandwich, an Oreo and enough grapes to help swallow an Ibuprofen. I was NOT feeling good about leaving. I really settled into living there, going to the gym there, the routine of commuting, which I don't have to deal with at all here, and generally the lifestyle of getting to live with my man all the time. Needless to say, getting to spend a week of normalcy with your long-distance partner is truly a gift, and one I didn't want to let go of.

When I got home, I went to the grocery store for some much needed "health food" aka. vegetables! I picked up some spinach, carrots, a ton of bananas, cilantro, bok choy, and english cucumbers. I also got some All-Bran style fibre cereal and lots of milk and yogurt for smoothies. Because of the bus ride, the quick trip to the lab to get organized for the week, and the work I had to put in to prepare for tomorrow's tutorial, on top of grocery shopping, no gym AGAIN. That ends tomorrow.

I made chicken with that Thai cilantro stuff, quinoa and steamed carrots for dinner. I made enough to last me three meals, including tonight. For dessert I had a bowl of that fibre cereal (1/2 cup = 1 serving), and a banana-orange-raspberry smoothie with flaxseed oil and some honey. I really missed that thing and a tiny part of me was excited to come home to make smoothies. But now that I've had it and I'm still alone in my quiet apartment, I would give it up to be back in Montreal curled up on the couch laughing with my boyfriend.

I have a long 18 days coming up. This is the amount of time until I see my man again. He has midterms until the 19th so the next week and a bit for him are solely dedicated to study. I'm going to Cornell from the 20-23, so there goes that weekend for visits, and the following weekend is finally Easter! Rob will be coming home with me for some much-needed family and relaxation time. It honestly feels like an eternity away.

Aaand the tears :(