Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Oh She Glows!

My new room mate showed me a vegan lifestyle blog called "Oh She Glows" and I am quite certain this will become my new nutrition and recipe source! The blog is great, pictures look delicious, and there are so many delicious looking recipes. Since it's fall, there are lots of comforting fall-chill foods with pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, sweet potatoes and on and on. I can't wait to start tackling them all!

Today for lunch I made an Oh She Glows inspired salad - I didn't have all the ingredients so I improvised. I did quinoa, with orange lentils, chick peas, spinach/arugala, other veggies, and a light cuminy lemony dressing. It was deeeelicious and now I also have lots of pre-cooked carbs for a few days :)

I went to the general meeting for the track team today, with fanciful dreams of being a varsity track athlete. Only to realize I don't really want to commit all my time to a sport, let alone having that time in the first place, and the standard times are very quick, I'd hate to have a defeatist attitude, but I am nearly certain I wouldn't be able to run those to make the team let alone compete. I have decided to try my hand at intramural sports, so we'll see if I can get in on any this fall :)

I hit the gym after the meeting for an upper body workout. I forgot to write my workout down so I was texting Mike like a dork in the locker room! :P Upper body went great, felt good and lifted good weight. Afterwards I attended yoga at the Mac gym - always love yoga with Phil. I got plenty of cracks, pops, and stretches. I nearly fell asleep at the end of class during a lying down breathing exercise!

That's all for today. Is it just me or does it feel like this week has been going on forever?

-Cait :)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Busy Tuesdays!

Today was honestly a great day :) I started my day at around 8:30. Spent a frustrating half hour trying to convince my printer to stop translating everything into computer gibberish. Later got ready for class, went to school, home for lunch, back to school, then GYM GYM GYM!

After my cardio warm up I saw one of my old high school friends and started up chatting with her. She totally KILLED my gym-time chatting - but I love her so that's fine with me :) Then I crammed my actual workout into the 35ish min I had left, which was great for keeping my heart rate up actually. I was changing to go back to class and realized that I forgot my work shoes at home, and only had 21min to go home, shower, change, get my work shoes, and get back to class! I somehow pulled it off - heaving and sweating - only 3min late for class. After class, straight to work til 8, then hit up No Frills and Fortinos with Mikey, and came home to make stir fry!

I felt awesome all day today - especially once I went to the gym - finally I am getting that work-out high that I have been desperately missing for so long! Feels good to be getting some motivation back in me.

I am also loving my new house! My room is bigger with new floors, and I'm FINALLY getting everything organized and functional. It is also amaaazzing to be so close to the school! My new room mates are great - they're all super cool nice people :) I appreciate so much living with people who are active and healthy like me! and as a bonus, everyone does their dishes right after eating, keeps everything clean and tidy. Mutual respect is extremely important, and I finally have that here. Plus, I can do my own thing and no one talks about me behind my back. So happy with my decision :) Life is rollin' rollin' rollin'. I am so well taken care of and so blessed in every part of my life.

CHEERS - to healthy living and happy, positive people!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Bubble People

So yesterday I went to Ikea. Ikea - famous for it's ridiculous bubble people illustrating what to do and what not to do - comics are appreciated in every language, apparently. Ikea, also famous for including everything you need to complete your furniture project, so I thought.

I bought 3 new shelves to put up in my room - crucial for setting up my room and finally getting organized. All 3 of the shelves required screws and other bits of plastic in order to put them on the wall. I was given everything to make the shelf and nothing to put it on the wall. Kind of fights it's purpose.... So attempt 2 at shelves is happening tonight.

Monday-morning alarm clock fail - 'nough said.

Now Jeanette Jenkins is ringing in my ears - fail to plan and you're planning to fail.

I had an awesome workout yesterday at LA Fitness in Burlington. Hammered down all-around shoulders and then hit the treadmill for a hard 20min sprint workout. 

Time to prepare my meals and hit the gym! Week one here I come.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Abandonment....

Abandonment... of so many things. Let's do this confession style.

Abandonment of.... well, it is September, and my last blog entry was July, so I think it is safe to say that I abandoned the entire month of August.

What exactly was I doing in August? Well.
August Week 1: feeling sorry for myself, but more specifically on the verge of a mental breakdown. I will say this without any censorship, fear of people reading this blog, or sensitivity. My old room mates were the worst room mates that anyone could ever hope to have. To be short, and not turn this into a cliché bitch-blog, they took SLOBS to a whole new level. Few examples: basement floods, other peoples feces are remnant on the bathroom floor down there, and this girl continues to use the washroom and shower in there.... irony? Not to mention trash everywhere, pot smoking every day and bombing the kitchen with nasty foods and rotting everything. Okay, I'll stop. Bottom line is: this lifestyle certainly does not mesh with mine. Secondly, the only guy room mate was the source of the most personal drama I have ever had in my life. I am talking gossip QUEEN. I have never met a WOMAN who gets away with the shit he pulls with regard to drama and gossip. I haven't had a conversation with this person that wasn't gossip-based... and he wonders why drama follows him? Wake up. Anyhow - this issue became so unbearable that my mental health was suffering, my mother and boyfriend had a serious sit-down and specifically told me to move out, bitching and complaining about this situation was literally all that consumed my life.
August Week 2:I began the hunt for a person to take over my lease as well as new living arrangments - which, in short, somehow panned out more beautifully that I could have ever expected... I had a little more than luck on my side :)
August Week 3: I set the arrangements in concrete and packed and moved. I found a fabulous new house, half the distance to school, renovated, bigger bedroom, with room mates who actually care about the fact that they're in university, care about their health, and care about living in a hazard-free space (Like I said - WAY MORE than just luck on my side. God obviously agreed with my decision). I absolutely could not have pulled off this move without the help of Michael and his brother Christian, who also painted my new place. Week 3 was extremely hectic - I packed, painted, moved in about 2 days. I was so cramped for time I was literally digging my plants out of the garden at 9pm. Then I set up my bed in my new place, packed for Algonquin, slept, and left the next morning at 7am for....
August week 4: Field Course to Algonquin park. I did 10 days here studying Aquatic Geochemistry. Was fantastic. Learned so much, met some really great people, and had amazing experience.
So I say August abandonment - but I really achieved an unbelievable amount in a very very short amount of time!

Abandonment of.... my old house and room-mates obviously. Do I regret this decision? Absolutely not. I believe it took a lot of courage for me to do what I did. I achieved the seemingly impossible, and made an absolutely necessary change in my life. My regret surrounding this decision was "playing nice" for as long as I did, especially to the drama-queen. Michael lost it on him and I tried to be nicey-nice peace keeper, but the fact of the matter is, everything out of Mike's mouth was MY THOUGHTS, and every brutal remark was something that I believed and should have stood by. Are they happy I'm gone? I'm nearly certain of it. But without a mother/maid they can rot in their own stench/weed-fumes/garbage/bad plumbing/hang overs/poor marks/promiscuity/raunchy mess. (I swear I'm nice in person)

Abandonment of..... diet and fitness. I know, terrible right? I start a blog about vegetarian health and fitness and last about a month - how many blogs does this happen to? Given, my August was crazy in every sense of the word, and it definitely tested my limits, to which I gave-in to, to say the least. However - being a vegetarian, I really don't have the availability to eat as poorly as 75% of the American population (sorry guys), but for my own standards I left myself feeling bloated, squishy, pale-faced, decrepit, deflated, weak, and disappointed. Okay, maybe those words are overboard, but I'm sure anyone who's failed at dieting and working out can appreciate what I mean.

Abandonment of..... Hopefully: negativity, hopelessness, helplessness, shame, defeat, anger, being taken advantage of, fake friends, bad friends, weed/alcoholism, laziness, desperation, complaining... I could go on.

Abandonment of.... summer. So by now I have pretty much proved what a neglectful human being I am - who abandons summer? Honestly, I would love nothing more than to pack in just one more weekend at my mum's place, soaking up the sun on the beach, working out every day, eating good food with good people, staying in her cute cottage-house. However, school has started, and it's about time that familiar September-smell returns to the air. I'm ready to pull out my fall sweaters, boots with tights, scarves that match the turning leaves, and inhale a breath of non-humid fresh air.

Last, but not least, abandonment of my blog, obviously. I'm not sure that anyone even reads this thing, but hey, I have enough cliché aspects in my life, I don't need that in my virtual life too. But having a blog at all pretty much achieves that, doesn't it? :)