No Pop! No Fries!

Tonight was gym night! We walk to and from the gym which is a great 'warm' up before and after working out, but let me tell you again, it's cooold here! Burrrrrrr.

I'm a little amazed that I'm ending week two and I've had noooo pop! and nooooo fast food! I've gone out for dinner last weekend and once this week but no "fast food"! I feel great about that! Seems weird to write that because really I should not have been eating fast food every week... but I was! Busy schedules will do that to ya! So I'm really sticking to my schedules and so far it's working great! Although I wish my energy was a little bit higher. Doc is sending me for blood work so hopefully my B12 isn't low again.
I've been making more of Quinoa and just love it! Now I just need to find more recipes to make it different ways. Know any?

I'm sooo glad the weekend is almost here, although I have a lot going on this weekend. We are doing some reno's in the house and I'm not looking forward to a mess! I'll have some before and after pics next week.

Then Sunday it's my BFF's Baby Shower!! Can't wait to see all the great gifts her little man will receive! She is due in a month!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Tuesday Basement Workout!

Tuesdays are my basement workouts. So as soon as I got home I put dinner in the oven and went to workout!

Yesterday was such a busy day at work. My food choices started off great, but I was so busy in the afternoon I had no time to eat my snacks and I left work an hour later too! So my husband met me near by after work for dinner. We went for sushi but decided to order a dinner dish instead, I choose the Salmon (I'm sure it's still way above the calories than I wanted).... I really don't want to be eating out during the week, so I was a little upset that it was MONDAY and I already ate out! Glad today was a better day :)

I bought this new peanut butter and just love it!!

Since I've been having salads for lunch, my breakfasts are either Kashi Cereal and Coffee or 1 piece of 12 grain toast with peanut butter sprinkled with chia seeds and coffee. Since I bought this peanut butter, I'm choosing this breakfast a lot more haha!

The next couple weeks my schedule will get tighter, so I'm trying to be pro-active and picking out the days when I can fit my workouts in. So far Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sunday nights fit well. As for Hot Yoga, I really wanted to go every week,(I found a time slot that is 60mins :)) but its so hard to fit it in. It may be a every other week thing, I hope!

Week 2! How is your second week of January going??

Down 2.5 lbs!

Last week went great great! I followed my goals with counting my calories, eating at home during the week and exercising, so yesterday mornings weigh in, I was down 2.5lbs!

I'm being much more attentive with eating out as well (because we love going out for dinner on the weekends!) So Friday night my husband wanted to go for a lobster dinner. I skipped the rice that is came with and I also skipped dipping the lobster in the butter. So I saved some calories there! And still enjoyed this yummy lobster!

Yesterday morning we woke up to all this snow! So what a perfect day to try HOT YOGA! HA! Let me just say WOW! It was HOT!
It felt great! Although the truth is, it was a little intimidating with all the VERY fit women doing all the poses correctly and there I was full figured falling around and not being able to do the full 1.5 hours HA! I wore a tank top and yoga capri's I was soaked with sweat right through my bra! I'm not good with hydrating myself so of course I didnt drink enough water as I should have and that caused my day to be a little off with a massive headache. I also had killer lower back pain (oh boy!)

I will definitely be going again. I need to look at their schedule to find a shorter class, 1.5 hours was wayyy to much for this beginner!
This week we are planning our trip to San Francisco for February! I'm really excited! My husband and I have a tradition of going to buy a travel book of where we are going when we plan trips, so we did that yesterday. I know some of my followers live there or have visited so any suggestions you have just let me know! :)

Hope you are all having a great weekend. How are your weight loss goals coming along???

This weeks Goals I will follow:
*1500 Calories/day
* Tracking calories on Iphone "my fitness pal app"
*Drink lots of water everyday! A MUST!
* 3 bite rule on sweets or no sweets at all!!!
* 3 different workouts this week (Fitness DVD/Gazelle/Gym)

Working on those goals!

The best thing to do after setting goals is to start working towards them right away!

So in the process of begging my sister to join yoga with me (she won't!) we decided that we will join the gym instead!


It was great! We use to work out here all the time when I lived in the area. I use to live just down the street from my mom, and my sister and I would meet up a couple times a week to workout or do fitness classes together. All the good memories flooded back and brought me back to some of my happiest times when I lived in the city. Good thing my mom still lives in that area so I still feel part of that community. (Although I do love where I live now, A huge piece of me is with our first home, I have sooo many amazing memories from the 4 years we lived there so I love thinking about it :)
It's snowing like crazy out there! And we decided to walk to the gym it's not that far... but it was a blizzard! ahaha!

Annnnnd I decided to try Hot Yoga! My cousin and I will be going this weekend... EEK I'm nervous about that! Hot Yoga??!!!! Wish me luck!

Food : I'm doing really well with making Breakfast, lunch and dinner! And controlling my calories too. I love New Year Goals! I need to drop some weight already! The scale # is a little scary! I'm not going to lie.

But the key is to set yourself up for success! (says Anthony Robbins!) So I'm doing just that! Buying healthy foods in order to make healthy meals for BF, Lunch and Dinner! Planning my weekly schedule ahead of time with alarms on my phone that remind me just in case! and It works! Set up exercise dates with family/friends that way you commit to it! These are my New Year strategies.

Another goal I'm attacking, is the traveling. We decided on our first trip! Husband and I can't take a week off work until the end of March so we decided to take 2 days off and do a 4 day trip to San Francisco! So I'm in the process of planning that!

Have you begun attacking those goals?? ....We can do this!

My 2011 Goals!

Ok I’m done my goals, Well for now. I’m sure I will add things as the year goes on.

Yesterday my husband and I went down to our old neighborhood to discuss our 2011 goals. We went for a walk in different areas. Down in an area called the Junction, then in High Park and down on lakeshore where I rollerblade in the summer.(and people were rollerblading yesterday too!)

Here are some of my 2011 goals!

Health/Life:

* Lose 15-20lbs but more focused on healthy eating and healthy exercise.

* Yoga once a week

* Workout 3x a week.

* Take up Italian Classes again.

* TTC in 2011 Husband and I are very excited to start a family. Although it’s harder than I thought it would be I trust God has a plan.

Travel:

* Visit 1 place in Canada (Alberta or Vancouver)

* Visit 1 new Caribbean island

* Visit 2 new places in the USA

* And mayyybeee if we can take more than a week off at one time, go to Europe!

Business:

* Launch my new Blog site (details to come later in 2011)

* Dedicate 3x a week or more to my side biz's.

Spiritual:

* Attend church more often

* Help those in need

* Love life and be grateful for all that I have everyday!

I have a longer list than this one and I posted it in my bedroom and on my vision board. :)

Are you done with writing your 2011 goals!?

Here we grow 2011!

Vlog Giveaway Winner!!!!

The Winner is Kyooty from http://kyooty.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for entering in the Giveaway! It was so much fun to do!


The holidays are over and we go back to work tomorrow :(

I still haven't written out my goals! I've been taking notes on my iphone tho so I just need to get them down on paper and onto my vision board!

I'll be working on that today!

Hope you all are having a great Monday!

(PS. I kept count of tweets and comments on my notes in my iphone as they came in, the total was 17) :)

New Years Eve Fun!

Happy New Year Friends!!

New Years Eve was so much fun. No one we knew had any plans, so last minute my sister decided to have a party at my moms house. :) It was a pretty good turn out.


It wasn't the safest thing to do in the house ahahah and also not good for meee, the smoke from these things made my asthma act up and of course once again I didn't have my inhaler. So that slowed me down. Breathing from the tiniest airway. I looked online and read that drinking a cold coke could help. I did that, it helped a bit, that or me sitting in one spot for a while. It didn't slow down the fun tho!

It was a late night and the party ended at 6am!
Spending NYE with this princess was perfect :)


And now the holidays are over!!! :(

It's time to get focused on my goals! Every New Year the husband and I re-write our goals and re-do our schedules to ensure we are a success at our goals. So we'll l do that today :)

I'm going to work off my goals from November We have a lot of great new ideas for 2011. Can't wait to get started!

PS. One more day to enter in my VLOG Giveaway!

Thinking of my 2011 goals

Ok, so it's that time again to re-visit, re-vamp, re-create goals for the new year. I'm thinking really hard on this one. 2010 was a little more crazy than I expected it to be and I'm looking forward to taking some control in 2011! (with what God allows of course! Haha! Some times we are not in control at all, this I know!)

So I started my list and I'm working on.

Weight Loss is of course on top of my list.

And eating this...


Won't help me! But it was really really delicious! I blame watching Man vs Food all day yesterday all about burgers! Not a good show to watch when wanting to watch my calories. Ha!

This morning I went to visit my prego bff and her new place. We chatted over a coffee and muffins. I can't wait to meet her little son. She is due in February and I'm sooo excited!

Then I went to hang with my sister to get some things ready for NYE!

She was baking cupcakes and I noticed this little knife she was using.



And It's a knife from my Dental Hygiene kit from when I was in college 10 years ago! ahahah! It was used to mix sealants and stuff. So funny. It made me think about the last 10 years and boy sooooo much has happened in 10 years. Every year made me different, made me stronger, made me grow and made me understand more of who I am. 2011, I'm excited!

What are your 2011 goals!?

PS. Don't forget to enter in my Vlog Giveaway. (Thanks for all your sweet comments too ahhahha when I watch the video I laugh :)

VLOG Giveaway!

My first Vlog!

Good luck on winning the mug!

The draw will be done on January 3rd 2011!

To enter the draw you can....
1 entry: Be a follower and leave a comment on my blog (mandatory entry)
2 entries: Follow me on twitter and tweet me!
3 entries: like my Growing Towards a Dream Facebook page! ------>
4 entries: recommend my blog to a friend! :)

Vlogging is tough! hahah!

So glad to be off this week!

I'm off this week! And I love it! I love not working (minus the whole not getting paid thing haha!) But If I could work from home I totally would! So I have some BIG side biz goals for the new year!

I just love the holidays, we've been visiting family and friends and having a great time catching up with every one.

The last 10 years I've had a lot of different jobs and from every single job I have friends I still keep in contact with, even if it's only a couple times a year we see each other we have blogs and facebook and email these days so we are always in contact with each other. :) Tonight I met with one of those friends for a coffee, it was so nice to catch up.



Zoe loves when we are home. I love how this little fur ball loves our attention and always wants to be around us. When husband and I are sitting on the couch she's always between us. And she follows me everywhere! The minute I get up she following me. Wherever I go sit, she's beside me.
(I was yelling at her to get off the table, so she went on the chair)
Hope you all are enjoying your holidays!!! Hoping to do a VLOG (video giveaway) soon! I'm a little nervous about it though! :)