Cottage Love part 3

This was our last day in the cottage and I was trying not to think about leaving. Our day 1 and day 2 was so great that I wish we had more time to spend there.

I woke up at 6 am and that morning was so dewy and beautiful. This pic does not do justice to how gorgeous that sunrise was.

The hubby needed to get new rear brakes in the car with his dad's help and so that meant a lot of lounging and playing with DD for me.

So we both got into our swimsuits and attempted going into the water. My DD had a blast last year playing in the super shallow area and I thought she wouldn't have any problem going into the same spot again. But for the second time of trying, I couldn't get her the rest of her wet. All she wanted to do was dip her feet in the water and splash me occasionally. 

So between running after the ball, getting munchies, hydrating and making creations with sidewalk chalk, we lounged around on the Muskoka chairs. 

It was too hot to do anything else! The sun was right above us with no clouds to shield us from the UVs.

Eventually, my hubby was done with our car and we finally got to chill altogether. After a few hours spending time with family, we had to pack it up and head home :(

We totally had a blast during our stay and will cherish all the new memories we created.

Goodbye cottage! I hope to relax with you again soon, possibly the Canada day weekend :)

 We got fuelled up at the closest Tim Hortons and was ready to hit the open road.

So, I had been back to reality for a few days now and I have some good news!

I have been back on track on the healthy eating and will post about how I'm doing with the challenge. Also, I have great news that I have been DYING to share for the longest time and will post about it hopefully in the next few days. (Just because I'm so swamped with everyday things in life. And I injured my typing fingers today :'(  It got slammed by the car door, ouchie!)

Hope you enjoy the beginning of your week! I'm sure I will ;)

Cottage Love part 2

Hello peeps! This is part deux (that's 2) of how I spent my long weekend in the cottage. If you happen to miss part un (that's 1, I just feel like practicing my non-existent french today, lol), you can check it out HERE.

That morning, a big breakfast was served thanks to our lovely hostess, Dad-in-law's wife (the term sounds weird but how else do I refer to her?).

Since I was already 'fessed up about my gorging the first night might as well share what I had for breakfast:

3 slices of bacon

2 overeasy eggs

2 pancakes with no sugar added strawberry rhubarb jam

Pretty heavy... but it was delicious and it was the yummiest big breakfast I had in months. I just gave up with the healthy eating thing. You know why? Because I felt like healthy eating was part of my daily routine and being at the cottage kinda "freed" me from routine.

Enough with the boring stuff. With everyone's help, except mines and DD's, the boat got clean and in the water. YAY!!!! 

My folks made a day visit along with my little sis, her BFF and her mom (my mom's BFF too)

I say, I would stop writing right here and let the pics tell the story ;)

Good night folks! To be continued in Part 3...

Cottage Love part 1

So I just got back from the cottage yesterday and celebrated our lovely Queen Victoria's day there. And I am telling you, I am SO REFRESHED!!!!

Not only I got a killer tan, but I felt like I'm glowing from the inside out because of having no stress or worries for three days. 

I think it's the nature: the beauty of God's creation and the calmness that it brings to your soul that got to me.

Check out this view of the sunrise over the still river! Isn't is amazing?

Oh yeah I was waking up at sunrise feeling like I had a deep sleep for 20 hours. That's pretty crazy for me because I was never a morning person until I got there.

Let's rewind to the beginning:

This lovely cottage is my hubby's Dad and his wifey's (stepmom). It's not as grand as the fancy mansions in Muskoka but it is a blissful retreat for everyone in the family.

When we got there, we took our time and got settled in. It's vaycay after all, no rush. My in-laws showed us around the cottage since we haven't seen it since last year and they made some improvements. Then, it was time to put the dock in. My DD an I watched in a distance as the boys (Hubby, Dad, Hubby's brother and friend) out the floating dock back in that was stored away during winter. 

Once that was done, it was all fun and games. The teenage boys decided it was a good idea to take their bikes and scooter and drive it over the dock. Us girls didn't approve at all but what the heck, boys don't listen, even the grown-up ones. I just thank God that nobody went to the ER that day! Hubby took videos of their unapproved stupidity but it takes too long to upload. Sorry. 

My DD enjoyed kicking the soccer ball around and doing some of this:

It was so nice to be playing and running around outdoors though. I didn't even had the sense of time. My watch and my cell was shoved in the bottom of my purse. The only technology we had running the whole time was this:

The good old radio set on an AM station. AM? Didja know that still exists?

 After horsing around, we all as a family did the most amazing thing EVER... Napped altogether outdoors. We were relaxing by the dock on the Muskoka chairs and my DD went for her afternoon nap. Soon after my hubby and I went fast asleep as well.

I took this pic as soon as I woke up. Aren't they darling?

My hubby's arm got the tingles holding our DD for about an an hour so I took over. (Oh yeah and that missing board on the dock was because of some rich prick in a big yacht wizzing down the river. He made waves like from a hurricane and broke 3 boards on our dock.)

For dinner, we had a barbecue fest! And as I feared, I gave in to temptation and my diet went out the window. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the food because it was all so busy and chaotic around the dinner table, I barely got time to shove food in my mouth. (Which I managed to do a lot of :/ yikes)

But at the 1st day's dinner I had:

Turkey burger in white bun (the only kind we had)

Topped with tomatoes, onions, grainy mustard, horseradish and ketchup

A little scoop of a creamy macaroni salad

 and...

A sausage in white bun with BBQ sauce. 

OMG. I know. I ATE. A LOT. That was the biggest meal I had for more than a year! As soon I saw all the delicious food, my tummy ruled over the brained. Until my tummy got really upset even before the last bite of that sausage. Man did I a tummy ache that evening. 

As I was nursing my upset stomach, we all enjoyed the evening together chatting it over a nice little bonfire.

Until, all the mosquitos started eating us all alive so we had to go inside. Then, the kids (Hubby's brother, step sister and friend) started watching Will Farrell's "A night at the Roxbury". I haven't seen that movie in ages and it forgot how stupid and hilarious it was. My DD got pretty tired chasing around the cats (Dad-in-law brought his 2 cats to the cottage) so we had to call it a night before the movie finished. 

It was a wonderful first day and I can't wait to share the rest of the trip.

So stay tuned for DAY 2! 

I think there was some water involved with that thing that floats on it that you can ride on... and of course more food and eating... LOL

Challenge update+Cottage excitement!

Sorry for the lack of post, I warned you though. I've been a busy bee I'm not gonna lie... Last weekend flew and I don't even remember what I did. This week is the same. On a happy note, it's my first time blogging on my Macbook Pro!!! This is thing is pretty neat, I love it. Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with details so let's get down to business:

The challenge update!

Here's how I'm doing with each rule:

Big salad once a day:

This is easy. And delicious. Dinners are easy peasy for me now. I wish I can also feed the rest of my family with salad so I won't have to spend time cooking dinner. (I LOVE cooking don't get me wrong, but it's tedious some days). Here are few of my salads that I ate last week (No pics from this week sorry):

Spring mix with avocados, tomatoes, turkey breast slices (dressed in balsamic vinegar and little splash of EVOO) and whole wheat toast with red pepper hummus

Spinach leaves dressed with balsamic/EVOO topped with crush walnuts. Baked sole with mangoes and brown rice

Spring mix and spinach leaves, sundried tomatoes dressed with Balsamic/EVOO and Baked tilapia topped with red peppers, zucchini and red onions

No Sugar:

This one is HARD!!!!!!!! The first weekend I did it I crashed and had a mental breakdown. I went berserk! Just ask my hubby or my sis... they were afraid to come near me. After the church service one sunday, I had a little 2-bite brownie. Not because I craved it, but in hopes to get me in a better mood. And it worked!

So far, I cheated only three times including he incident above. I had a spoonful of ice cream (there goes the no dairy too) while my DD was having a bowl, then I had another brownie another day (I blame my sis for getting a big box of 2-bite brownies from Costco). Oh, and I accidentally had ketchup one time with my Omelet. I didn't mean to, I totally forgot there is sugar in Ketchup.

No Dairy:

I had no trouble doing this. I adapted to Soy milk quite easily. I do miss the cheese but so far I haven't given in. I bought something called "Veggie slices", it's ok but it stink of soy a little too much for me.

No Alcohol:

I don't miss it. Period.

45 minutes of exercise:

There were a few days I didn't get my workouts in. I don't remember why, but most likely I was swamped with things to do like cooking, getting DD to bed, bible study, random errands etc.

So far this has been my regular routine:

20 to 30 minutes of running/Ab Ripper

alternating with 

Cardio X or Yoga X

This week I changed it up because I noticed I didn't have enough strength training in my workouts. So since Monday I was doing:

20 to 30 minutes of running

alternating with 

30 day shred by Jillian Michaels (20 minutes)

Yeah, I know that's not a full 45 minutes but I'm only human! And a working mom! I'm so swamped especially this week when there was all kinds of stress at work and at home (Will update you later as it relates to my That phone call I was telling you about). I'm surprised that I got all workouts in everyday since monday.

1 minute of belly breathing:

It's hard to remember to do this everyday. So yeah I haven't been doing this regularly. I have recently set an alarm on my phone to do this and so far it's working. So I hope I can get into a habit doing this from now on.

Anyways, here are some pics of what I had been lunching on:

Spicy chickpeas and couscous (I added zucchinis in this batch)

Whole grain bread with red pepper hummus spread, veggie slice (fake cheese), turkey breast slice, chicken bologna and handful of baby spinach leaves.

Had lunch at Cultures! I swear I love this place. I had roasted veggie panini with three bean salad and a couscous salad (Yeah I love couscous)

Spicy salmon roll bought from Metro

I regularly had 3 or 4 of this a week. I squeeze a little bit of honey in my cup to sweeten it up. Yumm!

On another note, I can't wait for this long weekend!!!!! Finally, the weather is warm, the sun is hot and we have a three day weekend coming to enjoy it all. And what better way to enjoy it than going to the cottage!!!! This year will be my DD third year in the cottage and I can't wait for her to enjoy it. She is already so psyched with her new Hello Kitty swimsuit and pink swimming shoes.

This was us last year:

Now, I hope I don't get too carried away with yummy summer barbecue eats this weekend. How do you stay eating healthy on vacay? More importantly how are you spending your long weekend?

Hope you have a great and sunny one!!!

In transition

Today was a good great day! Yes, it was raining and cold outside (where did spring go?), yes I had a lot of work to do and yes I'm still bothered and worried that our house is still on the market after more than a month. But it all seems unimportant now because I had a phone call that made my day. Now it's still all hush hush because... well just because it is. But I will break the news when the time is right. (No, I'm not pregnant).

That phone call was so powerful and meaningful to me because it proved to me that God does know our heart's desires. Even though I was on my lowest point and had a broken spirit for so many times, I repeatedly got myself up and continued trusting in Him (which is extremely hard, I might add). But slowly He is revealing his plan for me and my family. It's not because He just wants to take His sweet little time but because His plans are much more bigger than you and I can imagine. It is pretty amazing to me that now it all makes sense because as soon I stopped asking and worrying, I was blessed.

Source

On another note, I kind of celebrated my happy phone call today by getting a brand spanking new....

MACBOOK PRO!!!

It wasn't an impluse buy or anything, my trusty old Toshiba was on it's last legs and broke down a few months ago. I have been "borrowing" my hubby's laptop ever since, and I guess he was getting annoyed with me hogging it. So we both decided that it would be best to get myself not just a working laptop but a darn good one too (hopefully it will last me longer than the old Toshiba).

Source

Well unfortunately, I still haven't played with my Macbook as it is currently occupied transferring files from my Parent's iMac. And tomorrow, I will be doing the same transferring from hubby's laptop to mine. So, long boring story short, there might be a lack of post in the few coming days.

To make sure you won't forget about my blog, here is what is in store for the upcoming post that you can look forward to:

• 
  
  Updates on "the challenge" with extra highlights on the 'no sugar' thing.
• 
  
  Pictures of what I have been eating on the new 'no sugar, no dairy, 1 salad a day' diet.
• 
  
  Post on how I avoid or give in to non-healthy eats during social events.
• 
  
  Pictures and stories on my little DD's shanenigans.

Oh, and I forgot to mention on the "the challenge" post that I can't consume any alcohol and do belly breathing for the whole 8 weeks. I only drink a glass of wine or two when I'm at a party and honestly, I haven't been to one since... March, I think. So I totally forgot posting that because I really don't have a problem not drinking for the challenge.

Now, I hope to get my files compiled on my Macbook soon so y'all won't miss me too much (or forget about me).

The weekend is coming up and I hope you have a great and sunny one wherever you are!!!

Green Tea Soy Latte

Now that I have been off of sugar and dairy for the challenge, I have replaced my milk and sugar with soy and honey for my morning coffee. Now, I have to admit the taste is slightly off and different to me and I really don't enjoy it as much as my regular version. When I went to Sammie's blog I saw her post on how to make a home-made version of the soy latte. Then, I recall that I use to make a soy drink I enjoyed all the time before I adapted the coffee habit just last year. It might be less caffeinated but it's so delicious, warming and comforting that it's almost like you are enjoying that cup in a spa while getting pampered.

Green Tea Soy Latte

2 heaping tbsps. of loose leaf Green tea or 2 teabags

I used Green tea leaves with Jasmin and toasted brown rice bought from a Chinese grocer

Squirt of Honey (to your taste)

Photo Source

2 cups of Original Unsweetened Soy Milk

Heat up the soy milk into a small saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes. Mix the loose leaf green tea or add the teabag.

Cover and let it simmer for about 5 more minutes to let the tea steep (careful not to let it boil over).

Then, whisk in a squirt of honey.

Strain the tea leaves using a strainer and pour drink into your favorite teacup or mug.

Enjoy this little cup of (almost) instant bliss