Fitgirl Chronicles

Back from my Blog Holiday!

And how I did miss my daily blog outlet!  But a break is just what the doctor ordered. I am feeling  refreshed and motivated to take on the fall.

During this summer on our holidays my daughter decided that she was in love with lions and we started seeing lions everywhere so we decided to document all of the lions we could find.  We had a lot of fun trying to find the lions in the city.  I was surprised what a person can see when one starts looking, and seeing. This is what we came up with.  I thought this was a fitting symbol to channel to meet my goals.  Who wouldn't want the magical attributes of the majestic lion.  Bring on the:

STRENGTH

WISDOM

DIGNITY

SELF-CONFIDENCE

FIERCENESS

COURAGE

BALANCE

FAITH

HONOR

I am recommitting to my fitness and weight loss goals. This week I have been eating well and recording my calories to get my weight loss going. So far so good.  My portions have crept up to a larger size mysteriously  over the summer so I am fixing that before it gets too out of hand. And step two is to start moving more.  I will check in with a weigh in on Friday and I will get to where I want to.

At the risk of sounding like "Dr.Phil" losing weight is managed not cured.  It is something that I will just have to work at and keep working at. I can live with that. What I can't live with is not doing anything about it.

Tonight I made a stir fry.

And tonight it hailed.

Thankfully, my garden was OK.

I will leave you with some shots of our last camping trip of the summer.

Have a great night everyone.

And finally I just wanted say a big THANKS to Lara for being so nice - you rock! You gave me the push I needed to get back to my blog and be accountable.  

Summer in Saskatchewan

Every year we make a trek to visit family in Saskatchewan and every year I am blown away by the generosity we receive and the sharing and caring that takes place. To me, material things in life aren't important it is the kindness, fellowship, and generosity of spirit that matter. Picnics, laughs, cooking together, talking, happy hour, sharing and caring; as corny as it sounds this is what matters.

My sister in law is a cook extraordinaire.

Her lasagna.

Recipe please...

If you can believe it this is my sister and brother in-law's view from their house in the city where they live. I have said it before and I will say it again...I love the prairies!

A picnic with a prairie view.

There is nothing better than a really good sandwich outside on a summer day.

Saskatchewan Landing.

Another of the amazing meals we had.  Chicken purchased from the Hutterites and the best mashed potatoes ever.

More cartwheels.

More skateboarding.

I had to take a picture of this trailer we ran across. Only in Saskatchewan would you find this "Pilsner Homage".  Pilsner and The Roughriders are definitely all the rage in this province.

A portrait of me drawn by my daughter.  Fairly representative except for the ponytail sticking straight up on the side of my head; I haven't done that since the eighties.

PJ hanging out on the patio and looking adorable.

Mark's Margaritas (we ran out of sugar for the rim) but they were just as good as last summer. 

The bittersweet goodbye with the puppies saying adieu.

Until we meet again.....

A Picnic with a View....

We made our way to Lake Louise for one day.  Just when you thought the views couldn't get any better... wow....

We hiked a bit.

It is so nice it looks fake.  

We enjoyed our little picnic on the rocks by the lake.  We shared this sandwich that we got from the hotel and we brought the fruit. It was just the right amount of food.

My mountain sandwich.

Inside the Lake Louise hotel. Also full of history and character.

Some poppies that they had planted on the grounds.

This was the next day when we headed to Canmore to meet up with some family and have another picnic.  More amazing mountain views.

 

A prairie girl in the mountains.

Quarry lake, more like a swimming hole, very nice and clean mountain water.  It was a scorcher out too.

Some of our picnic. I could eat fruit all day.

Happy summer everyone.

Mountains, Muesli, and One Great Time....

I have had a great week this past week spending time with my husband is this beautiful place, Banff, Alberta.  I have visited many times and each time I do it takes my breath away. 

This holiday we splurged and stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel, something I have always wanted to do.  It was so worth it. I love places with history and character and a past. The hotel is gorgeous and castle-like and very historic.

We went on a hike by the river.

The water is really that blue.

The hike along the bow falls has some great trails,there are a lot of handmade rock stairs.

Lots of stairs...

This is the view from the top of the bow falls.

We stayed active and enjoyed the outdoors; easy to do here.

The Colombian Ground Squirrel a cousin to the squirrels we have living in our garage, somehow they seem cuter here.

We did some looking around the town.

I love all the stone work.

I didn't take pictures of all my meals. Some things were healthy and some were not so much but overall in holiday mode, I have been trying to be careful of what I am eating and if I do chose something that is not in my plan at least I try and enjoy it if you know what I mean. This caesar salad was excellent and I really enjoyed it. I did pretty good with the food and choices as a whole except for a fudge incident on our second night.  I bought some fudge (maple walnut - sorry no photos) from a local candy shop and proceeded to eat the entire chunk and be very sick to my stomach..... not good. I felt like a little kid who ate too much candy, which is essentially what I did do. It was always a tradition to get fudge at Banff and I was feeling a little too nostalgic I guess... I learned my lesson on that one.

We really enjoyed drinks in the lounge in the evening.  This nut mix was sooo good and dangerous.  We tried an organic shiraz, Bonterra,(Californian I think)  that I really enjoyed.

Nice....

 

Every night we walked around the grounds.

One night we had an amazing meal in the main dining - beef tenderloin.....

Relaxing!

This was the most amazing Muesli I have ever had.  I went on and on for about 1 hour about how good this was. My husband really enjoyed that. So tasty. I want to replicate it at home with a lower fat version. I am thinking the whip cream may have had something to do with it? 

 

When I make my low fat home version I will post it on here.

It was so nice to relax and take in all of the fresh mountain air and stay in such a nice place and eat good food and drink nice wine. I am very grateful and feeling thankful!

Have a great day everyone.

Recharging is so important....

And that is exactly what I did on the weekend with some amazing girlfriends.  We had a whole day of just spending some downtime with each other.  Yes, we did maybe eat a bit more than normal and have one too many glasses of wine but it was a VERY enjoyable weekend!  Thank you Stacey, Tracy, Penny and Diane.  I love you guys!

We tried to keep it healthy and have some good choices.

Nice muffins Penny.

We managed to go for a good long walk and hit a garage sale along the way. Some of our finds.

Stacey love your yard! You are the gardener extraordinaire!

Good times......

Had a few cocktails to celebrate our day together.

A bit of a splurge, was very yummy.

Tracy keeping us in stitches, as usual.

Veggies, veggies, veggies.... 

So happy to see you D., you are the best girlfriend EVER!!!!!

The ribs were great.

A very pretty cheesecake, dessert was nice but not a big cheesecake fan.

Thanks for the patio and hospitality miss Stacey!  Very much appreciated!

Fruit for breakfast was a big hit.

This weekend really made me realize how important it is to keep those close friendships going and how important they really are.  Balance in life is something I am always trying to get right. This get together made the "scales" tip a little bit in the right direction. Thanks guys!

Transition Week.....

Still in transition of starting my new job as this was my first week.  It has been a huge adjustment to fit things in as I said in my previous post.  But fit things in I must. 

Monday July 6 Workout :

Went to the gym and did 25 minutes of cardio. Combo walk/run treadmill.  Leg weights, bridge, and some core work.

Tuesday July 7 Workout :

Yoga from some videos on-line for 20 minutes.

Wednesday July 8 Workout :

Went to the gym did cardio on the bike and some leg weights + went to physio for knee appointment.

Thursday July 9 Workout :

Yoga tape for 35 minutes.

It's a start at least some movement not as challenging as I would like but at least a start and on a transition week.  Fitness goals - still want to build up to running.  More challenging cardio.  More weights to strengthen core and legs.

Did a road trip to the country on the weekend.  I love the country.

Prairie sky at dusk....

My Mom has the best garden EVER!!!!

Peas.....

 

Open spaces are so good for the soul.

Me and my little one...

My daughter is constantly flipping or cartwheeling through the air all summer...ah to be a kid again!! Maybe this could be another fitness goal of mine??? 

Not a food picture to been seen. You can tell how busy I have been if I am not taking food shots.  This week has been grab and go food. Trying to eat lots of fruit and veggies and stay away from the junk but I must admit there was a trip or two to a couple of take-out places.... Tomorrow is weigh day so time will tell.  

Still moving forward and so happy to have a blog to reflect upon things.  Today I am committing to trying harder and RE-FOCUSING on my goals.  Even though life is CRAZY busy sometimes I am realizing I need to stay the course and press on.

Bye for now big prairie sky...