Happy Friday!

Today I'm not participating in Kelly's Korner Blog. Today Is the Guest bedroom pics and altho we lived here for 4 years we never finished the guest bedroom, we actually just started renovating it when we put the house on the market. Our new house will have 2 guest bedrooms to decorate! ;) My friends and family are happy that they won't need to stay on the couches anymore hahah!

So far this week I've been exercising every day ;) and we went hiking twice! I think I found my new fav exercise! I'm not a good runner, I usually get left behind gasping for air but hiking was so so fun! It used every muscle in my body, it felt great. It was tiring but I was never gasping for air. Yesterday was a beautiful day tooo!

This weekend is a long weekend which means lots of events. I decided to take it upon myself and add some "moving" type events. Tomorrow is going to rain so we haven't made plans yet. Sunday we'll be going golfing and Monday we are going to another provincial park for another hike! I can't believe what I've been missing! The park we went to yesterday was just beautiful!



Hope you all have a great weekend ;) I'm going to check out some of the links of guest bedrooms for some ideas! ;)

Hump Day Update

The weather is gorgeous today. Sunshine always makes everything feel better. I'll also use that as my excuse to feel better about eating a donut last night haha! Not good, especially since I've been doing pretty well. I'll tell you how it started. First of all at dinner I decided to make shrimp and scallops. I hardly fry my food, I'm a big fan of oven cooked and crockpot meals. BUT I decided to use BUTTER and dip my shrimp and scallops in flour and seasonings and fry them in butter!! BAD IDEA, they were sooo delicious! They were the yummiest scallops I've ever tasted! Good thing I made just enough for our dinner or we could of sat and ate them forever. So that is where it started, it's almost as if my body said "fatty foods! we want more!" That's when a ride to the store ended up at the Tim Hortons drive thru for a ice cappuccino and honey glazed donut. I'm not even going to look up those calories, I know they are a lot!

My husband is off work this week so we are dedicating 1 hour jogs in the mornings at the track in front of our house. We are also going for a hike on Saturday, that should be fun!


I haven't weighed in this week, I decided to wait until Monday and see what progress I made.

Wish me luck! I'm hoping to fit in some of my last years summer dresses soon! ;)

One or the Other? But both!?

Over the weekend I had a chat with my brother in law. He just started as a personal trainer at a popular gym here in Toronto. I asked him for some advise ;) He said "you want results? You need to work out everyday for an hour, or at least 5 times a week" HA! Not what I wanted to hear!

Really, do we need to work out that much!? One of the books I bought last week says Nutrition is key and exercise is important but not as much as nutrition. So what is true really.

That Extra 20 pounds Blog writes about the same thing today. I know that exercise is definitely needed to reshape body but can total weight loss be achieved with maybe only 2.5 times of exercise a week instead of 5!?

So I decided to do my own challenge!
Last couple weeks I changed my eating habits drastically eliminating as many carbs as I could, and working out only once a week. In this time I lost 4 lbs.

Starting today I am going to try my best to incorporate 1 hour a day for the whole week and see what kind of results I get at the end. I will also do my best on the nutrition side with what I learned this far.

Some things I learned last week;

Eat in this order of a meal; Soup,Salad,Veggies, protein then carb last.

Fat burning happens after is burns off carbs, incorporating strength/muscle training with cardio helps get to fat burning faster.

Use the 3 bite rule: With desserts and carbs just take 3 bites of it, this way you get to have it without spoiling our diet!

What are your thoughts on this?

Where you live Friday's

Kelly's Korner Blog started this Show where you live Friday's. I missed last weeks kitchen one but decided to join in on the fun this Friday for living room Friday!. I have 2 living rooms, upstairs and downstairs. My home is a 3 story 100 year old house with tons of rooms. Although we are moving in June I had so many great memories in this house. I'll use these pics also as a keepsake of where I use to live ;) Enjoy!

This is the main floor livingroom. It's soft and cozy. There's Zoe in the corner wondering what I'm doing. Also beside the window on the floor is a Hooka pipe. Our friends were over last night and we have many friends of different cultures. With the hooka pipe people enjoy smoking flavoured tobacco. Not my thing but they do have herbal scented stuff that can be smoked and that one is better and also makes the house smell yummy.
That's our wedding picture. It was taken on the grounds of University of Toronto.

My View from our front windows. Love the park. One good thing is that our next home is also in front of a park, it's a smaller park, but still I get my GREEN view!

This is my upstairs living room where we spend most of our time.


My husband is from Honduras and his parents brought us back this wood carving picture. I love it.

We are moving to a newer home in June and one thing I will miss is the character of the trim of this older home.

I got these picture holders from the Dominican republic on our hunny moon in 2007. In them I have pics of 2 of my favorite places. San Diego and Bahamas!
My view from the second floor, the more I look at it the more I know I'm going to miss it! But I am also excited for our new home and new area ;)

That Picture!

Ok fellow Bloggeries, you know what I'm talking about. That picture that shows you exactly how you look whether you want to believe it or not! That picture that just opens your eyes to say WOW things need to change!

Yesterday we had a family event and of course the cameras were flashing. When I looked over at one of the cameras and saw my picture, I almost cried! I did not like what I saw. (Just like Zoe's big belly showing above, is basically how I felt my poses in the pics looked this weekend!)
I was s depressed by those pictures and I think I had my ah ha moment. I really really need to change a lot more than I have.

I think I have been doing a lot better than before, I'm down 2 lbs but still 10lbs heavier than my wedding 2 years ago, and 15-20lbs heavier than where I want to be!
My sister was feeling the exact same way with me yesterday so we decided to start enforcing these pointers a lot more than we have.

1. Email each other what we ate for the day.
2. Be honest with each other and give pointers on how to do things better
3. Add more fruits and veggies, eliminating as much carbs as we can
4. 3 day a week work outs or more!
5. Drink lots of Tea and water, no POP or Juice
6. Smaller portions, eat on smaller plates to help with this

What are some pointers that have been working for you? Let me know and my sister and I will try them out!

Dreams

The word Dream has different meanings. Of course the first meaning to mind is the dreams we have when we are sleeping. Other meanings to it is to dream or hope or aspire towards something. My blog name Growing towards a dream is the second meaning. Growing towards life/things/ways of being in the future.

My progress so far?

In 2005 my husband and I bought our first home, a major fixer upper. (I'll post pics next time with before and afters). When we bought our home our family thought we were crazy. It was a 2200 sq ,3 story home that needed fixing in every single room! Inside and out, top to bottom! We had just finished school and been working full-time for about a year when we got into this, Me 24 and my husband 26. We spent our evenings and weekends fixing it all up ourselves, painting/plumbing/making kitchens and bathrooms. Actually our first day here our shower head broke off behind the wall and water was just flowing between the walls! Fun huh! We had surprises like this for the first year. (Remember that 80's movie Money Pit, we rented that movie when we bought the house ha! very similar) After a year of fixing it up we separated our house into 3 apartments. The two apartments we rented out, a bachelor and a basement apartment that had back yard entrances, then our section was part of the main floor/2nd and 3rd floor with the front entrance. More than enough room for the 2 of us. Many people never even new we had part of the house rented, we did a great job in separating it. We always had pleasant tenants and never any problems, whew!. Income from rent was 1400/month which was great and helped with the bills and even the paying for our wedding in 2007.
Our goal for this home was to turn over a large profit, and we did just that when we sold it this spring for 118k more than we bought it for ;).

Hard work does pay off!

When we first put our home on the market last year, the plan was to move into a condo in downtown Toronto. The reason for this was to be able to easily rent out our condo when we decide to leave and work in other countries 6 months at a time. Our dream... to work in San diego first for 6 months. So last year the house did not sell, and the thought of the condo didn't look so good anymore. We ended up buying another house with no rental income potential.

Does the move to SanDiego seem far fetched? We don't seem to think so ;) The new home has much much less to worry about than our current home therefore leaving it for months at a time will not be so bad. As per cost, we ensured that the new home we purchased altho more expensive in price, but with the amazing interest rates and larger down payment our mortgage is less and the house bills on a newer home is much cheaper compared to what we pay now in our 100 year old home ;) (we thought this through really well)

My husband and I are the type of people that ensure we are doing what we want for ourselves and ourselves only. We like nice things but will not sacrifice ourselves for them. We are very happy for our new home, nice and new and fresh, but by ensuring our costs were lower than what we are paying now also allows us to keep dreaming of those other things we want to do in life. Like 6 months in San Diego! I'll keep you updated on this for sure even if it is in a couple years! ;)

With this current move I'm really beginning to see how we are growing towards our dream. I can see that with our expenses lower we will be able to save much more money and focus on what makes us happy like our online business/travel/investments and even 6 months in San Diego! All feel that our goals are more attainable and looking forward in growing towards our dream!!!!!

and Singing your own song is what it is all about for us!

Grocery Shopping and healthy choices!

Last night I did some grocery shopping and added some new items to my list. One of which is Goat Milk, never tried it... I read about Goat Milk being easier to digest and how it does not cause bloating as cows milk does for some people (such as myself). I will let you know how that tastes in my Special K cereal tonight!

Some other items I bought is Spinach, I love Spinach salads and it's full of nutrients! AND i got some laughing cow cheese spread for my melba toast snacks, yum!

Below are BANANAS I bought lots yesterday since Ive been eating 1 banana for BF every day with green tea. Some how this keeps me going until lunch time, I don't mind that ;)


Ok, so the whole grocery trip was pretty good, I stayed OUT of the cookie aisle and bought more fruits and veggies and even a whole chicken to throw in my slow cooker (love that!)

But then... I saw these in the frozen aisle. Only 100 cals right! I know just because it says 100cals doesn't mean it's better, but I guess it is sorta like the better choice. I never tried these but I'll let you know how they taste once I get my hands on one ;)




Overall, I was really happy with my groceries, I shopped slowly and after dinner (so I was not hungry) I looked at my options and came out with much more healthier choices! YUM Can't wait for lunch and dinner today! Oh and for my 100cal dessert!

Hump day flop!

It was the apple pie that messed up an overall pretty good week of eating healthy! We had visitors over last night so I decided to put a apple pie in the oven. YUM it was good, I had 2 pieces! I tried to get the guests to eat as much of it as they could so I would not have leftovers.

My week other than the pie has been good. I had an amazing workout on Tuesday and hitting the gym today as well!

I bought some yogurt to help with my sugar craving, haven't noticed if it helps yet as I did eat apple pie yesterday! ;)

Also, started to cut out some carbs from my meals and have more veggies and protein. It's working well so far.

So far my dinners have been:
Chicken legs in the oven served with salad and a 1/2 a baked potato with veggies!
Slow cooked whole chicken served with salad and veggies.
Lean Ground Beef stuffed peppers.
And tonight I will be making RedCurry beef with veggies minus the rice!

Some of my meals are made in my slow cooker. I absolutely love the slow cooker. You can make healthy meals in it and have your dinner cooking throughout the day ready for you after work! love it!

My favorite recipe is the stuffed peppers, so easy to make and 1 pepper is filling!

Here is the recipe for my famous stuffed peppers!

1 Package of lean ground beef or turkey.
1 package of flavored rice mix
1 teaspoon salt and/or other seasonings (I like to use Mrs Dash no salt seasoning)
Chopped up onions (I also add cilantro)
(I love spicy food so i drizzle some of my favorite hot sauce on top)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Cut the tops of the peppers, clean them out.
Stuff meat mixture in the peppers and place in slow cooker.

Cook 4 Hours High or 8 Hours Low.

YUM!

Back on Track...or not..

Trying to get back on track! But was I ever really on any sort of track ha! Who am I kidding. I have no will power, although I do try, I do give up oh so easy!

My goal this week is to make Breakfast, lunch and dinner at home all week! At least when I eat at home I eat much less calories than at restaurants or on the go to fatty fast food places. Another weakness I need to control is my sweet intake. So I bought Cinnamon Special K cereal and hope to eat a small bowl of this when I crave sweets. (and save me from hitting a bakery for a sugar fix!)

I read an article today about making bets with friends can help shed pounds. I got this idea from a fellow blogger a while back and my friends and I have a $300 weight loss challenge going on for 2 months. End date May 1st, my weightloss total so far .... ZERO lol! I don't think that really motivated me that much. We'll see what I can pull off the last 2 weeks.

I added some items to my diet.
I currently take 1 tablespoon of Greens Plus in the morning before BF (to help balance ph levels)
I also started taking Lecithin Granules 1 tablespoon in the afternoon (lowers cholesterol and heard it helps burn fat!)
I don't eat that much fish, Love fish but have no clue how to cook it so I also take Premium brand of Fish oil pills daily at lunch ;)

As for exercise, I know it needs to be kicked up a lot of notches but I am trying to get my jogs in at least twice a week! Although it should be a minimum 3 times as my doctor expresses to me when I see her. (My doctor is very blunt and will not hesitate to tell me I need to lose weight!)

Rainy Monday Morning but off to a good start!

If anyone has some yummy recipe suggestions, let me know!

Our Guardian Angels

This weekend one of my Aunts passed away. She was in the hospital for a couple months from a stroke well a couple strokes. Things didn't get better and she passed away on Good friday ;(.
(My Aunt is the wife of my uncle my dads brother)
My dad passed away 6 years ago at the age of 46 this was devastating for the whole family. My dads family is large, he was the youngest so all his brothers and sisters are much 10-30 years older than he was. The family is heartbroken once again with the loss of my sweet aunt. So as I was thinking about people passed and family now I was getting overwhelmed with sadness. The way it was when we were kids is changing so much. I guess this is life. We need to remember to Cherish the memories of those that passed and never forget what they were here to teach us.

I'm going to list some of the people that recently passed and write some things I remember about them. You should try and do the same with people you knew. Sometimes it takes the smallest changes we can instill to make us even better people.

My dear Aunt
- Very caring
-Always happy to see her family
- Ready and willing to help
-Great listener
- Good Hearted
-wise
What I'll never forget - a happy welcoming face.

My Daddy
-Never judgmental
-good hearted
-Funny
-always smiling
-Social
-lived life in the moment
-loving

What I'll never forget- Joking around smiling and laughing.

My Grandfather
- loved to share his stories
-wise man
-always a do it yourself kinda man
-best friends with our dog
-strict and old fashion
-took care of his family

What I'll never forget- His smile.

I see them all as my guardian angels watching over us ;)