Three Things Thursday – Summer Vacay!

1. Well, today is Day 1 of my summer holidays, and I could not be more excited! Sumer school finished yesterday, and although it pays well, missing out on a month of my summer kinda sucked! I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing that again next year, and if I do, I will definitely only be doing it for 2 weeks! So, let the fun begin!! Here’s what we have lined up for the next couple of weeks…

2. We are heading to North Bay for the weekend to have a visit with my parents and hopefully see my Grandma.

August long weekend is always super fun in North Bay. There is a huge Summer in the Park Festival with outdoor concerts (Carly Rae Jepsen, Dragonette, and Metric, to name a few), vendors, a midway and fireworks!

No only that, but there is a ton of fun stuff for the kids – the Heritage Carousel , Mini Train rides, a gorgeous waterfront with a huge park and tons of beautiful beaches.

The weather is supposed to be pretty good, hopefully I will have some great stories and picture to share with you next week!

3. Next week we are going to my sister’s cottage. It’s their annual cottage party week and I’m super pumped for it! It seems like forever since I’ve just relaxed, hung out with friends, ate great food and enjoyed a few drinks. I can’t wait! And the kids are pretty excited too. Most of our friends have young kids and when they all get together they have a blast. I see some swimming, tubing, bike riding, boat rides and a little washer toss in my future! So fun!

I hope to get a few runs in while we are at the cottage and I’m even thinking about bringing my TRX. I’ve actually been eating well and exercising consistently for the last two weeks, hopefully I don’t get all off track next week!

Have an awesome long weekend!

What are your plans?

How to you stay on track with eating well and exercising while on holidays?

Healthy Lifestyle Challenge #22 – Cut Down on Screen Time

This WEEK’S CHALLENGE is to cut down on screen time.

Why?

It’s hard to live a healthy lifestyle sitting in front of a screen!

According to Stats Canada, the average Canadian watches 2 hours and 52 minutes of TV a day. Add to that the hour and 24 minutes they spend in front of the computer and the 2 hours and 20 minutes playing online or video games, and you’re spending about 6 hours and 45 minutes in front the a screen each day.

And let’s not forget about all of the snacking and mindless eating that happens in front of a screen!

How?

– Linit screen time to 2 hours per day.

– Establish family rules for TV watching and computer use.

– Set clear limits.

– Plan TV time – turn on the TV when there is a specific show you would like to watch and turn it off when the show is over.

– Plan alternate activities – go for a walk or a bike ride, read a book or play a board game as a family.

Remember, this challenge will last the whole week, so, step away from the computer/iPad/iPhone, turn off the TV, and do something productive!

Three Things Thursday – It’s Been a While!

I think I only missed one week, but it feels like forever since I’ve done a Three Things Thursday post! It’s time to get caught up!

1. This past Tuesday was our schools athletic banquet, and since hubby was working, I had to take the kids. They behaved amazingly and all the students loved them! They looked pretty cute too in their Country and Western themed gear…

2. Last Saturday hubby and I got out for a day without the kids – we went to Canada’s Wonderland and out for dinner – it was awesome!

First ride of the day was the Leviathan – it was crazy! If you’ve never heard of it, or rode it before, check it out – its over 300 feet tall, has an 80 degree drop an goes 92 mph! Insane!

Also loved the Behemoth and pretty much every rollercoaster in the park. Still hate the wooden ones- they are way too jerky for me!

Also rode Windseeker – didn’t love it! Though I was going to barf the whole time!

We had a super fun day – rode pretty much every ride in the park, had funnel cake and enjoyed a quiet dinner, just the two of us – so rare!!

3. We are off to Bluewater this weekend to visit my sister Kim and her family. They are embarking on pretty exciting adventure that will be taking them far, far away for at least a year. We are super excited for them, but definitely going to miss them! Our kids had a blast hanging out at their cottage last summer, and with everyone a year older now, things are sure to be even more fun!

Well, that’s it for this week! Have an awesome weekend!

Toddler Shenanigans

Here’s are a few totally random pieces of background information before I tell this story….

My daughter is 3.

She loves dresses (and princess crowns).

Our cleaning lady comes on Tuesdays.

Now for the story…

Most nights Ryan does not want to go to bed and pulls out all the stall tactics she can think of. She has a pretty good sense of when its bedtime and about 5 minutes before, she asks for a drink, or a snack, or a story, pretty much anything to allow her to stay up longer! Then after we get her in bed, she often sneaks half way down the stairs and sits there eavesdropping. We actually discovered this because one night she fell asleep there and actually fell the rest of the way down the stairs!!! Oops!

Anyways, last night my sister was over for a quick visit and we heard Ryan playing in her room, going back and forth between her room and the bathroom and then finally she not-so-quietly snuck down the stairs. After just finishing telling my sister that lately Ryan has been all about changing her clothes multiple times a day – which, apparently is something most little girls go through, and really, I’m ok with it – most times – she sheepishly came down the stairs asking for a drink wearing her Halloween bumble bee costume!

But it doesn’t end there. She has her drink, we say bye to my sister and I take her back up to bed to find this….(keep in mind her room was spotless when I put her to bed) ….

So, needless to say I was a little surprised to see this much mess! I mean she’s pulled a few things out of her dresser and changed a couple of times here and here, but this is crazy!

I tried my hardest not to laugh, but with her sitting there saying “I’m sorry mommy, I’m really, really sorry” it was hard not too!

So guess who’s learning to fold and put away laundry after daycare today! Yep, my sweet little girl!

And guess who will not have a dresser in her room for the next few weeks….yep, Ryan!!

Any other suggestions?
Ideas on how to help her fall asleep?

Three Things Thursday – March Break Edition!

So, once again, I’m a little late with my post, but we have been super busy enjoying some March Break fun! Here’s a bit about what we’ve been up to:

1. Check, check and (hopefully) check! We’ve almost done everything we were hoping to do over March Break and even a little extra! We’ve been to Kitchener to visit my sister and her boys, we’ve been to the Maple Syrup Festival, we’ve moved all the toys to the basement and created a nice playroom for the kids, Ryan had her friend Lauren over for a playdate, and tonight we are having more friends over for dinner and to hang out. I’ve also been to the gym a few times, and if we’re lucky, we might make it to the zoo before the weekend is over! Isn’t this a cute picture!

2. We’re looking for a new car – well, actually an SUV. We need some sort of 7-seater so that we have room to carry extra people. Right now, with the two carseats in the back there isn’t room for even the tiniest person to squeeze between them 😦 We are considering the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder,  Ford Explorer,  Chevy Traverse and the Mitsubishi Outlander….

…Any recommendations?

3. One thing I haven’t been doing is running 😦 And I just realized today, that the Toronto GoodLife Half Marathon is only 7 weeks away! YIKES! I better get moving!

I’ve made a calendar and have planned all my runs (and a few workouts) between now and race day – its pretty jammed packed and doesn’t include workouts to be done with my classes at work! I hope I can swing it!

I’ve had to abandon my original plan and move onto something a little less intense – I don’t feel as though I have done enough running to be running an 8km tempo run and a 17km long run this week! So, I’ve back things off a bit and feel like I will have a good run if I commit to these workouts. I will post my modified schedule once I figure out how to make it fit on the page!

What’s the least amount of time you have trained for a half marathon in, and still done well? I’m thinking 7 weeks might be cutting it a bit tight!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I look forward to reading your comments 🙂

Three Things Thursday Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I am home from work today with a sick little one who has been up all night with the stomach flu. We are currently having some quiet time watching Cinderella and writing blogs between quick trips to the bathroom.

Anyways, here are this weeks three random things…

1. Scrapbooking. As I mentioned before, I went away last weekend to a Bed & Breakfast. I’ve already talked about how great the food was, so now I’m going to share a few of my better scrapbooking pages. Be warned, I’m not very good at scrapbooking!

2. Shoes. I got new running shoes! The past few times I was running I kinda a felt like the cushion was gone in my old ones – even though they really aren’t that old! I’m guessing the probably had about 250 kilometres on them, which is not much at all for a quality pair of shoes, but when I considered the fact that I’ve probably done about 60+ hours of BodyAttack classes in them, I figured they’ve served their purpose.

Always $115 later (thanks to a $100 gift card) I’ve got some new kicks! They’re super cute…lets just hope they are fast!

3. Running. Today Yesterday was the last day of the Winter 100 Challenge. The challenge was to run or walk 100 miles between December 1st and February 28th. Unfortunately, I was super sick for most of December and only ran twice all month. Although I fell short if the 100 mile goal, I’m super happy with the 91 miles (147.4 km) I did run. I took the challenge because I normally don’t run at all in th winter and I was hoping it would be the motivation I needed to get out there and run. And, it was! I ran twice in December, 11 times in January and 12 times in February. That’s probably 25 times more than I ran in the same time period last year!

Three Things Thursday!

Happy Thursday everyone! Only one more day til the weekend, and it’s a long weekend for us Ontarian’s! Woohoo! Here’s what’s happening this week:

1. Happy Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day usually isn’t a big deal at our house, but since my husband will not be home from work before the kids go to bed we started today off with a bit of a party!

The kids opened little gifts.

We organized valentines for our daycare friends.

And we had cake for breakfast!

It was super fun and a great way to start the day!

My husband actually got me roses this year, which was a huge surprise. Not only are they beautiful, but they are surrounded by a 6 pack of corona and chocolate – seriously, could it get any better!

2. I tried hot yoga yesterday for the first time!It was difficult, but I loved it! I was hoping my first lass would be a Gentle Yoga class, but it turned out it was a Hot Flow. Since I’ve haven’t really done yoga before I wasn’t sure what all the poses were and when we were suppose to have out eyes closed I was always peeking to see what I was suppose to be doing 🙂 hehehe!

3. I’m going to we BON JOVI on Sunday night, and I’m so excited! I absolutely love Bon Jovi – he is so frighten hot! And his music is pretty good too!

I’m going with a group of girlfriends who I don’t get to see as often as I would like, so it’s going to be fun to catch up over dinner, rock on at the concert and then we are all spending the night at one of the girls parents house who are out if town for the weekend. These girls are so much fun, I can hardly wait to see what the night brings!

Friday Favourites – My Favourite Things to do on a Snowy Day

So it’s been snowing here non-stop for over 30 hours, and apparently it’s going to continue for about 8 more! Despite it being a snow day, I still had to go into school 😦 There were no students there, which made for a bit of a long day! I managed to do some planning and some photocopying, so I’m all set for next week, but the highlight of my day had to be my 10km run through the upper halls – yep, I ran laps…40 of them…

Although it was a little boring, I think it was better than running on the treadmill! And since it probably would have taken me about 3 hours to drive to the gym, run and drive back to work, I think it was a pretty good alternative.

So, now that I’ve shared that with you, it’s time to get on with this weeks Friday Favourites. Since its snowmagedden out there, I figured I’d share with you my favourite things to do on a snowy day…

1. Toboggan – After work I picked up the kids, bundled them in their snow gear, and we headed out for a little fun in the snow!

2. Drink Hot Chocolate – Check out this delicious and clean hot chocolate recipe…I’ve posted the link before, but it’s perfect for a day like today. Thanks Meg!

3. Bake Cookies – Occupying the kids can get tricky at times, but baking is a great way to have little fun, and, something good always comes of it! Today we made these cookies posted by The Eat Clean Diet on Facebook. You can find the recipe here.

We substituted chocolate chips for raisins and I think next time I will use sucanat or another sugar substitute rather than stevia, but overall, the cookies are really good!

What’s your favourite thing to do on a snowy day?

Three Things Thursday – 31 Days to a Healthier You!

As I mentioned earlier, I am participating in Fitness Cheerleader’s 31 Days to a Healthier You. I’m absolutely loving this week’s challenges and thought that I would share a few of them with you as this week’s Three Things Thusday.

1. Monday’s Challenge – Start and end your day with a dance party
This might seem a little out of the ordinary for most of you, but dance parties happen all the time at our house! My daughter Ryan loves to dance and my little guy Tanner just can’t sit still when music is playing. Unfortunately all of our dance videos are on my husbands phone, but here is one of my kids dancing with my sister Cathy and her husband Rory just last weekend! We love dance parties!

2. Tuesday’s Challenge – Do a handstand push-up
I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually done a handstand before, let alone a handstand push-up! Needless to say, I didn’t have a whole lot of success.

I actually did this challenge during my period 5 Fitness class and my students loved it. I’m not sure if they loved that I would do something so crazy in front of them, or the fact that I failed at it miserably!

I seriously tried this like 40 times! At first I was so scared I was going to bang my head against the wall that I didn’t want to step into the handstand and just tried flinging my feet up from a downward dog-ish position.

FAIL!

When I realized that there was no way that was going to work for me, I put my fear aside and stepped into it. I had a bit more success doing it this way, but slugged to keep my back straight, my hands far enough apart, and not totally wrench my neck since I could not get past not looking at the wall, even when upside-down!

FAIL!

After about 25 tires, I finally figured it all out and managed to get up and stay up – unfortuanely, the girl who was working the camera didn’t start recording until I was up there for a bit (like 5 seconds) and once she did, I fell over!

FAIL!

Here is my final attempt, not great, but I managed to get in a bit (and I mean bit) of a push-up before falling back.

FAIL(ish)!

All and I it was super fun! I loved trying something new and will definitely be doing this again.

3. Wednesday’s Challenge – Plank it out!
This challenge was to hold a plank for as long as you can, three separate times during the day. Apparently, I need to work on my core strength 🙂

Round1 – 1:43

Round 2 – 1:12

Round 3: 1:48

Can you do a handstand push-up? Link up your video in the comments section below! I’d love to see how it’s really done!

13 in 2013 – Week 2 Update

1. Spend less, save more – this weeks money saving strategy…making my own tea rather than heading to Starbucks for a chai latte (or two) a week. Since I used up my gift card this past weekend, lattes are back to costing me $4.80 each 😦

2. Run a 1:58 half marathon – We have pretty much decided to run the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Half Marathon on May 5th. Next step – decide on a training program to get me race ready!

3. Try one new clean eating recipe a week – Last week I actually made TWO clean eating recipes.

• Clean Eating No Bake Honey Peanut Butter Balls

• Spaghetti Squash with Chicken, Pears and Parmesan

Both recipes made a ton! There’s enough for lunch all week!

4. Become a certified RPM instructor – I didn’t make it to RPM last week, but did ride the bike a bit at work. I definitely need to get my riding legs back if I’m going to go for training at the end of March. With BodyAttack release week just around the corner my focus this week will be on learning choreography, so realistically I will only be able to make it to one RPM class this week. I’ve penciled in a bike workout for lunch on Thursday with plans of returning to at least two classes a week starting the week of January 27th.

5. Do 10 chin-ups – After only 1 week of the program, I can already do 2 FULL chin-ups in a row! Crazy! I’m super impressed with my progress and feel like I might actually be able to do 10 chin-ups by the end of June!

6. Build Strength – This week I am starting a 12 week strength training program. It calls for 5 workouts a week, which I think is a bit much considering everything else I am doing. So, for now, I’m planning on doing 3 “hard and heavy” workouts a week.

• Monday – Quads, Glutes, Chest and Biceps – I actually did this one yesterday and loved it!
• Wednesday – Core
• Friday – Hams, Calves, Back, Shoulders and Triceps

7. Go to bed earlier – I did much better at getting to bed earlier last week, making it to bed before 9:30 every night except for Saturday (date night) and Sunday (9pm soccer game). I think this is the biggest contributor to my finally feeling better, and will make it a focus again this week.

8. Blog more – 6 days last week, yay!

9. Run 3x a week – Last week I actually ran 4x, Tuesday, Wednesday (twice) and Friday. I ran a total of 13.3 miles which took me 2:07:32, giving me an average pace of 9:34/mile. I burned 1356 calories.

I have now completed 27 miles…only 73 to go before the end of February!

10. Drink more water – I’m still struggling with this one. I lost my Nalgene bottle two weeks ago at soccer and was drinking from a metal one and did not like it at all. I could taste the metal when I drank and it was deterring me from drinking. So I bought a new BPA free plastic water bottle over the weekend and I’m trying to drink one full bottle each period while at work. So far, so good!

11. Read 52 books – I’ve just started my second book – House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III, and am having a little trouble getting into it. I’ve heard it’s a great book – it’s part of Oprah’s Book Club – it’s gotta be good, right? Hopefully after a few more chapters, I won’t be able to put it down!

12. Take at least 2 family trips – ​Still in the planning stages for this summer’s big adventures.

13. Date night once a month – Dylan and I went on our first date night of 2013 on Saturday, it was awesome! You can read a bit about it here.

How are you doing with your 2013 goals?

Share your successes and struggles in the comments action below! Lets keep each other on track.