Stressed, stressed, stressed!

Here’s what’s been on my mind lately:

• My sister (although she’s home today so that was already a good start!)
• The bar exam: I’m taking it on Thursday, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll pass. BUT (and here’s where the stress came in) I have spent a LOT of days studying, when other classes also needed time to be put into. So I’m behind. WAY behind.
• Which brings me to the five things that need to be done by Dec. 9th, in that order: presentation, 2 mini assignments that are not worth all that much but take a lot of time to do, and two 40-page papers. Very stress-inducing.

What’s making me even MORE stressed? This little affliction that I have called procrastination!!!! And it’s happening in a few ways, and for a few reasons:

• As the due date for my paper comes closer and closer, I get too nervous to even START the research. Does that happen to anyone?? I’m finally going to tackle the research for one of my papers tomorrow and I’m hoping that once I get started with it and actually start learning more on the subject, my confidence and paper-writing skills will kick in :)
• Reading about wills and business law for 8 hours straight? Yeah, I can’t do it. So every 30 minutes I have to get up, but then I stumble upon my computer, and next thing I know, an hour has gone by. An hour when I could have done something USEFUL!!

What I’m doing about it:

• Tea. Tea is helping out so very much. I get a nice mug of chai (or soon, some holiday tea which a friend will be bringing back from the States!) or jasmine green tea, and already I feel more calm and ready to tackle my tasks.
• Exercise [I’m tired: I had to use spell check to spell “exercise”]. More specifically, yoga and running. A year ago those would have been the very first things to go! But not this time. I guess it helps that at the same time as I run I get to catch up on my shows, so it’s definitely an added bonus (and it’s making me run for longer, too!). Check out my exercise sidebar (on the right), and you’ll see that I’m not doing too bad!!
• Cooking. What? I have time for cooking? Yeah, I’ve been making time for it. Because then I get LEFTOVERS, and these are totally great :)
• Some day-dreaming: after Dec. 9th, some fun things will be coming up that I can’t wait to share with you all!

I’m off to bed now, but I really wanted to get this post up because if not now, I don’t know when I’d do it!

But before I go:

Say hello to my new study buddies! I so couldn’t resist! I am absolutely loving the one on the right, but the one on the left is really big and hard to manoeuvre with my non-bear-sized hands lol :) And…

My Christmas cactus is finally in bloom!! After like… 2 years! I absolutely love this picture, it came out quite nicely I have to say :)

Have a good week everyone! Who’s stressed out?? Also, is anyone else experiencing surprisingly warm weather? Don’t hate me, but I want snow :(

Inspiration

Kelly kindly reminded me that my last post had been written quite some time ago and that it was time for an update!

It would seem that my sister is slowly starting to get better, so fingers crossed she could be home as early as this Friday! I have to say, I miss her silly questions and having her around!

You all seem to have had a great Halloween! I was supposed to go spend it with my sister but alas, caught a hold and had to stay home. I've been fighting it since Friday and it's still not completely gone! Some of my family came down (or up?) from Montreal so that was a nice break from my studies :)

My grand-father reading Shape! Too funny :)

I ran on both Friday and Sunday and I am just so thankful that I went out running when I did and did not wait until later on in the day because on both of those days I woke up feeling not too bad and got sicker as the day went on! In both cases it seems that my work-out finished just in time and if I had waited any longer I wouldn't have been able to breathe through my nose!

Slightly broken camera

I actually had something "fun" planned for this week! On Kelly's blog, she mentioned that one of her goals for the year was to blog all her food for one week, and I thought it was such a great idea! On the one hand, it would be a fun way for me to try out more recipes, and to watch what I eat!

Everything had started off well yesterday, but then I realized that the clicker button on my camera broke! Randomly! My camera didn't fall or anything, and since I was the only one home I can't really blame it on anyone else... I can still take pictures but there's no way that I can bring my camera with me anywhere...

Inspiration

Mel at Mel Tries to Run has had her article published in Australia's Runner's World magazine! How cool is that? If you check out her post, you will see the amazing picture that was taken of her. Seriously, just looking at it makes me want to go out and run!

People always hire photographers for weddings, parties, or to mark an event. I think it would be great to have pictures taken when we're working out, and use these as inspiration on days when we just don't feel like moving our butts!

What inspires you to get moving when you just want to stay in bed?

Who are you?

What a week this has been, and it's not over just yet! Of course, the time that my sister has to be in the hospital is the time when I am just overflowing with busy-ness! Thankfully, I always seem to find a way to get it all done. I'm crossing my fingers anyways!

Relaxing Dinner

Both my mom and I have been super stressed out lately and last night we just needed to unwind, big time! I was done with my work for the day, so after a 4 mile run, I made us some delicious homemade pizza! We had that along with a nice glass of local red wine (or two), followed by an old episode of Glee. My mom LOVED the meal! All in all it was a great night :)

New Yoga Class

So this morning I went back to my regular yoga studio, but this time it was to try a new yoga class! This may seem weird to some but I have ONLY ever done Bikram Yoga. I love it (obviously) but I've always been afraid to try something different. This class was an intermediate Ashtanga class. I was a little nervous about not being able to follow with the rest of the students but that wasn't a problem because...

...My friend and I were the only ones!!! We pretty much got a personal yoga session and it was awesome. At first I got all nervous because then the instructor would see how LITTLE I knew, but he was extremely helpful and I left the class feeling amazing. I've always found yoga to be so graceful when done right (mostly when you flow seamlessly from one pose to another) and I could never really achieve that, until today. By the end of class I was quite proud of myself!

Questions for YOU!

So, it has come to my attention that there are some new readers out there! I would love to know more about you. Don't be shy!

So, to readers old and new, here are some questions:

• Tell me something about you!
• What's your favorite season?
• What's your favorite movie?
• What recipe/meal are you "known" for?
• If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?

Looking forward to know more about you!

The Irony

The week-end started off wonderfully. I had gotten some studying done and went over to a friend's house on Friday night to play Cranium. We had a blast and I headed home. I was about to fall asleep when my sister let me know she wasn't feeling well. We had had a feeling that she would need to be hospitalized soon so it wasn't too much of a surprise. So at 2 in the morning, I rushed her to the ER where she was admitted. She has pneumonia again, and has been in the hospital since. (for those of you who have just started reading the blog, my sister has cystic fibrosis, you can learn more about it here). Thankfully, my mom is arriving today from Geneva so it will help to have her be at the hospital with my sister. I try to go see her as much as I can but school is extremely busy right now. Knowing that she's not at the hospital alone will definitely relieve some stress.

Nike Human Race

So after going to bed at 2:30 am, I woke up Saturday at 10:30, because I had a lot of things to do. It was finally time for me to do the 10k for the Nike Human Race! I didn't really have a set training plan for this race, I just wanted to gradually increase my mileage to around 10k. I felt fairly confident that I had.

Unfortunately, Saturday was a RAINY day. I could've done the race inside but how boring is that? It would've felt like just another work-out. So for the first time ever, I ran outside in the rain! I have to say, I felt pretty bad-ass :P I felt great too! At first I was a bit afraid of slipping on the sea of leaves on the ground, but I soon found my stride and stopped worrying about it.

I did the first 2.5 k without stopping, no problem. At that point though I was at a big downhill and because I still worry about my ankle, I decided to walk it (since it was all slippery). I also realized that running in the rain with glasses isn't the best idea. I was totally blind and there was no wiping in the world that could have kept them clean for more than a few seconds. So I just took them off and enjoyed the blurriness! It was actually kind of nice like that. Everything was so green because of the rain and then there were splatches of yellow, orange and red everywhere.

When I got to about the halfway mark, my knee started to bother me a little bit, so I decided to run 0.8 km, then walk 0.2. I did that until I was at 9.5 km and almost home. At that point my knee started hurting so badly that I couldn't walk. It felt like it was twisted or something. I couldn't believe it, I was SO close to being done! So I took some deep breaths, told myself I was strong, that I could do this, that pain was temporary (ha, yeah right!) and somehow it seemed to work. I jogged home at a slow pace, and managed to finish the race in 66'10"! Iced my knee and took some Motrin.

The whole time I was obviously thinking about my sister who was in the hospital having trouble breathing, and there I was running outdoors. Part of me felt guilty, and part of me was just proud to be able to run for the both of us.

What about you: Why do you run?

Transforming Into Martha Stewart?

So after 3 intense days of working on a little insignificant project for school, I am back to having a little bit of free time!

Comfort Cooking

Because I needed some nourishment during my intense researching, I decided to make some nice homemade chili! I mean, the weather is just calling for it! Rainy, chilly... what else could you want?

So I made this chili recipe which I had discovered on Eat Like Me. I've been told by everyone who's tried it that it is the BEST chili they've ever tasted (I just have to toot my own horn :P). I have made a few changes:

• Broth: I double the amount so that I have more chili (so 6 cups instead of 3). It still doesn't get watery so it's great!
• Beans: I use 3 cans of 3 different types of beans (I like to get 3 different colors, brown, black and white).
• Chicken: I just use one breast (the size of my hand I'd say?)
• Tomato: I use a 28 fl oz-sized can (so double what the recipe says) of whole tomatoes.

I think that's about all the changes I've made? Anyways, it's delicious! See for yourself:

Hmm... So it doesn't LOOK yummy, but it is. Trust me!

I also decided to make... Pumpkin Butter! I've been seeing bloggers everywhere raving about pumpkin butter (more specifically, from Trader Joe's), so when Sarah over at Vitamin G posted a recipe to make it, I couldn't pass up on the offer!


I made enough to for myself, but also for a few friends. Aren't they cute? I love baking/cooking for friends, it makes me happy to see them happy!

Here's where I become Martha Stewart

Ever since my cooking incident where I really really burnt myself, I have known that I need an apron when I'm cooking. You guys have no idea the amount of food that appears on what I'm wearing when I'm cooking! So here is the appearance of new cooking attire, which I got from Anthropologie:

First apron - please pardon the frizzy hair, it's still wet!

Second apron!

Aren't they adorable?? I couldn't choose between the both of them. I love the pattern on the first one, and love the cut on the 2nd one. Oh, and those legging-type things that I'm wearing in the picture (that you can barely see actually) are from Lululemon and they are SO comfortable and extremely flattering of my behind I have to say! Plus they're just warm enough! I love them!

My treat: Running

I had scheduled to do a 4 mile run today, and because of the hard work I put into those last few days, I decided to take it slow today. I slept in, caught up on Gossip Girl, and decided to treat myself to an outdoor run. How is that a treat? Well, lately, because I'm so busy, I mix my two loves together: running and watching my shows. So when I've been running lately, it's always been in front of the tv so I could multitask! Today though, I had the time so I headed out.

It was supposed to be 11 degrees C, but it felt MUCH colder. No sun, only a grey sky. I would've loved some nice weather but the nice fall crisp air was enough. I ran for 1.5 miles straight, then walked for 0.5 miles, then ran 8 minutes, walked 2, and repeated. This took me to the top of my street where I usually walk home to cool down, but I looked at my Nike Sportband, and it said that I was at 1.8 miles and it had only been 40 minutes! I saw this as an opportunity to beat my previous times and ran the rest of the way home (at an 8:16 mile, thank you very much!), and managed to do 4 miles in 41'47", which is possibly the fastest I've ever run!

Unfortunately, now that I'm sitting down to write this, my knee is in EXTREME pain. I popped a Motrin so hopefully it'll be better soon! It's time to start studying, even though it's almost 4!

I leave you with one question: how are you like Martha Stewart? :P Did you do some time in prison or do you like to bake? ;)

Radical Change

How are you all doing this week?

I hope you had a great week-end filled with fun and great fall weather. It was certainly the case here! A bit cold, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the outdoors as much as I could! Friday night was chick flick night with a friend. We watched The Proposal (did I ever mention that Ryan Reynolds is the perfect guy in my mind??) while eating delicious and quite over-priced pad thai from Savana Cafe (no matter how disappointed I was with them last time, they still make the best pad thai ever!). We also watched The Cutting Edge - the mom from One Tree Hill and John Locke from Lost are in it! After that I just crashed - and woke up with a cold. Great! Saturday was a blur because of that. I had a major headache and even tried to nap, which I never do. Thankfully, I woke up Sunday feeling 100% better. I've never had a 1 day cold, but I'm not going to complain either!

How do you handle stress?

This past week (and most likely every week from now on) was extremely stressful. I had to lead the class discussion for my Friday morning class, and I just hate having to do any form of public speaking. I was stressing out about having to do that, about not knowing my material, and the list goes on. What would I have done a year ago? I probably would've eaten a LOT of chocolate, among other things. And maybe relaxed by watching some TV.

Full disclosure: I did have chocolate. But I also hopped on the treadmill and ran over 4 miles. It gave me time to distance myself from my topic and when I got back to work everything just fell together. Plus I'm pretty sure I did great during the presentation!

I was also pretty stressed out on Sunday night, because of an assignment that I have to do and other things. Once again, I hopped on the treadmill, and I'm now feeling much better.

I guess using exercise as a stress-reliever is no secret, but it's definitely new for me to actually use it specifically for that, knowing that I'll feel better and have a clearer mind afterward.

Yoga

Today marked my re-return to the yoga studio. I went with a friend, but I don't think she enjoyed it as much as I always do. It was still fun to have someone else to go with so early in the morning! I love knowing that by the time most people start their work day, I've already worked out and that my week is off to a great, healthy start.

Tonight I will be making my delicious chili along with some other little treat. All I will say for now is that it involves pumpkin...

Blog Lovin'

Trixie over at Swooning the City gave me this award a while back and I keep forgetting to put it up and thank her for it! Go check out her blog, it is awesome! I love her witty posts :) I have to pass it on to 3-10 loyal fans, so here goes:

• Amber @ Girl With The Red Hair
• Lisa @ Lisa's Yarns
• Lizzie @ Run, Woman, Run!
• Sophia @ Burp and Slurp~
• Shoshanah @ From LA to L.A.
• Adi @ Oatonomy
• Erin @ Lucid World
  

And thanks to all other loyal readers out there :)

ps: Is anyone else finding Brothers & Sisters REALLY good this season??? I've been tearing up at almost every episode...

pps: WHERE did they find that french guy... He doesn't look french at all but boy is he hot!!!

Turkey? No Thank You!

Thanksgiving

It was so good that there wasn't much left!

It appears that I am more of a store-bought rotisserie chicken kinda gal! It was Thanksgiving week-end here and buying one of those saved me SO much time! Overall, it was extremely busy and fun, and didn't involve quite enough homework as it should have...

I really intended to have some fun this week-end, but also get a lot of work done... Unfortunately, I lazed around Saturday, and just as I started to get into a groove on Sunday, I hit a little bump in the road (something to do with my eye) that pretty much made me unable to work all of Sunday afternoon. I really intended to get some work done on Monday , but getting the house ready for my friends coming over took longer than I thought it would, and next thing I know it's already Monday night.

I seriously have to learn to WORK when I am supposed to, that way I can truly enjoy my moments of leisure. When will I learn this???

So back to the week-end. Like I said it was quite busy: Friday I went to the orchestra with a friend and had a blast. We went for a drink after and just chit-chatted about life.

Over the week-end I got an intense craving for guacamole so... I made some! So simple, and so delicious:



And then Monday night some friends came over for Thanksgiving dinner! Oh, the food that was there... Boy was it good! I wish I had taken more pictures of just the food but I don't think I did!! Anyway, we had a blast to say the least. I made pie for the occasion:

I made pumpkin pie while drinking my
Grande Nonfat 3 pump Pumpkin Spice Latte!

Unfortunately, it did not turn out quite successfully... It was liquid! Why does this happen to me?? It was still good pumpkin pie soup :P And now that the leftovers have been sitting in the fridge for a bit, it does have a more solid consistency.

Orthotics?

Yesterday, I finally listened to all of you and went to see my doctor regarding the knee pain I've been experiencing. It's been really bad lately - whenever I run, I experience extreme pain when going down a flight of stairs for at least 24 hours. She was going to have me see someone who makes orthotics and I was lucky enough that he happened to be at the clinic that day and that a client had canceled! So I got my assessment that very day, and indeed, I do need orthotics. It was really interesting to hear how something in your feet can cause pain in your knee! Because I have (apparently) flat feet, it causes a lot of tightness in my hamstrings which in turns causes pain in my knee. It also explains why it's very painful to bend forward and touch my feet (I just thought I was very unflexible!).

I think I should be getting them next Friday? Anyways, I'm excited to see if all this will make a difference!

ps: The Proposal is out on DVD! Woohoo!

Proud of Myself!

Like my new Starbucks mug?

I've hinted at it on the blog for a while, but now it's time to actually spell it out. I am living in a nice little place called Plateau Land. Where the weight doesn't budge! After I lost a few lbs post-breakup, my weight has just stayed there, not moving. With school starting and me being super busy, it has been VERY hard to stick with my work-out schedule and eat right. And for the past month, every day has been a struggle to do all those things.

Finally, this week, it seems like I've started to see the sun streaking through the clouds. Everything became just a little bit easier, and today was actually a really GOOD day! I ate healthy, had vegetables and fruits. I actually made Bec's Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe (slightly modified, I used a regular veggie burger and feta... and I'm not sure if I bought the right type of squash lol!).

Yum!

I was really tired today so my plan to work-out early in the morning fell through. I figured "Well, at least I'm playing volleyball...". And actually, I kicked ass tonight! But here's the kicker - when I got home, at 8:00pm... I hopped on the treadmill! Ran 3 miles without stopping ONCE. This might seem like nothing to a lot of you, but I've always done the run-walk-run thing. Or if I decided to simply run, I'd stop for a minute or so. So tonight, today actually, I did awesome, and I am very proud of myself!

It's also made me decide to pick a new weight goal and set it in motion: I want to lose 13 lbs by Christmas Day. That averages a bit over a lb a week, and I know I can do it!

My cousin came to visit yesterday and since he's vegetarian, I finally had a chance to try out The Green Door. It was a buffet (which I didn't know) and the food was quite delicious. I had the lasagna and boy was it good! Only thing that wasn't great is that the food was lukewarm/cold. I got one of their desserts to go because it looked so good!

Double Yum! Chocolate mousse and raspberry pie!

This week-end is going to be a good one I think! A lot of homework but some fun as well ;) It's Thanksgiving in Canada and I'll be having some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner on Monday!

What are you up to this week-end?

How do you react?

Hi guys!!

Hope you all had a great, hopefully relaxing and fun-filled week-end! Mine was definitely quite busy! I left early Saturday morning for Montreal to go visit my family, whom I hadn't seen in QUITE a long time! Seriously, I think I hadn't seen them since Easter... It felt so nice to see everyone, and they all seemed as happy as I did to see them!

I spent Saturday with my grand-parents and seeing my mother's side of the family. Obviously, since they hadn't seen me since Easter, everyone's first reaction was "Oh my God, you've lost so much weight, you look great!!!". It's not the first time I've been told that... but somehow I couldn't seem to handle it well coming from my family, and I'm not too sure why. My grand-mother couldn't stop talking about how great I look, how much weight was gone, etc., and all I could say was "Thanks", and then I would promptly change the subject... Usually I'm all over this stuff! If you ask me "Have you lost weight?", I'll usually reply with what exercise I'm doing, exactly how many lbs I've lost, how much I still want to lose, etc...

On Sunday my sister and I went to see my dad's side of the family, but not without stopping to do some shopping first! When you're broke... you go to H&M! (Thanks mom, for paying for it :P ). I have to say, I had a lot of fun shopping! Everything I tried on fit, it was really just a question of price! I even got a dress that's a little bit on the short side (which I NEVER would have worn before because I hated my thighs), but I am actually going to wear it!!

Then we stopped at my aunt's house for a feast, not even kidding! There was so much good food, and most of it was fairly healthy! I tried a bit of everything (all in moderation of course), and I think the only thing I might have gone slightly overboard on was cheese. It was so good and I hadn't had cheese other than cheddar in a long time. Oh, and dessert. My aunt made maple syrup pie - um, to die for!!! I wish I had taken a picture of it, it was so beautiful, and out-of-this-world tasty!

After that we were on our way home... The drive is usually pretty boring, but I was lucky enough to have those fall colours to entertain me:


I was simply exhausted this morning, but I was still going to go to yoga, until I got up and felt extreme pain in my knee. I think I may actually have a problem now... great. So I went back to bad and caught up on my sleep. After studying really hard all day I actually ran tonight, but did a lot of run-walk-run (10 minutes of each). I still managed to do 4 miles which was pretty good, and I'll go to yoga Wednesday morning instead. When you're busy, you learn to be flexible, that's for sure!

I think I call it a night soon in regards to studying. I will go reheat some enchiladas that I made the other day:



Don't they look good? I used Jenna's recipe, but used half the chicken and added some black eyed peas. It is so delicious (first time I ever had enchiladas actually! Go figure!).

So, am I the only one who reacts weirdly to questions like that?

Have a good week everyone!

Hot and Cold

Finally! This morning, my alarm went off at 5:50am, and off I went to my Bikram yoga class! As usual, the excitement of it all kept me from falling asleep promptly, and I woke up multiple times throughout the night. The class itself was great! It was really hot when I went in (hotter than usual I think) but I got used to it fairly quickly. I was already sweating before class started! I completely stretched out both my body and my mind, and felt amazing after. I really have missed that post-yoga euphoria! I've also noticed a big improvement in my ankle - just a month ago, a lot of the poses were painful and I was a lot less flexible whenever a pose would involve my ankle. This time, only two poses caused me trouble - and one of them was just sitting so I think I'm ok!

This was a great beginning to my week, and a great ending to my week-end! It involved some studying, but also some fun! The Sunday bike ride didn't end up happening - partly because of the rain, and partly because there is no more date (lol!). But instead, I had a great Saturday! A friend and I went to a flea market (which was actually a total bust, but at least I had great company), then went over to Carolyn's house (hi Carolyn! :P) for some home-made pizza! It was really fun and spontaneous (I'm a lot more spontaneous since being single, go figure!): I just brought over some dough that I had made earlier on in the week, and we cooked them at her house! We watched a great movie and had some good laughs.

This is what our amazing pizza tasted like. I may or may not have eaten pizza again
on Sunday night because it was so good and I had extra dough left...

Carolyn also told me about this thing called "101 things in 1001 days". It's pretty self-explanatory: you make a list of 101 things that you want to do, and you have 1001 days to do them. I think that sounds like such a fun idea, so I'm working on my list, which I will share with you whenever it will be done.

This week, I am also going back to an old friend: the food journal. I am starting to lose count of how much food I'm eating, and I want to kick this plateau good-bye! I really shouldn't complain, it's my first serious plateau since I started losing weight in January. I lost some weight in Italy, and then some more when I got back here from lack of eating, and now I'm just stuck there. I am SO close to my original goal that I can almost taste it! I initially wanted to get to 139 lbs (and I'm now pretty close), but I have no revised it to 125-130. I'll just see as I go, I don't necessarily want to settle on a random number. I am now close to the thinnest I've ever been, and I just don't know what I would look like any lower, so I will have to take this one step at a time.

So to get back on a healthy track, this is what I had for dinner tonight:


Whole wheat pasta with a lot of spinach, white beans, some parmesan and a lot of hot sauce!

Hope you will all have a great week!