Healthy Life Lessons

I'll admit I get irritated easily by things, so I have a lot of pet peeves. Here are some of them (in no particular order): 1. The stickers they put on produce 2. Overheated spaces (I HATE being hot, it gets me very agitated...I don't even like summer, it's too damn hot!) 3. Strangers on the street who give you parenting advice 4. Traffic - I am sure there are a lot of cities that have worse traffic, but the traffic here in Toronto drives me nuts. I hate sitting in the car going nowhere. 5. People who keep me waiting (Whether it's doctors or friends, I hate it when people are late) 6. Insect bites - I am extremely allergic to mosquitos so I swell up and get extremely itchy and miserable. Consequently, you won't ever catch me camping! 7. People who never ask you anything about yourself - I frequently meet people who will happily answer all of my questions about them and talk about themselves at great length but fail to ever ask anything about anyone else. 8. Trans...

P1: I was working on my 20 page paper for the Theories of Personality course today and something struck me: I've actually really ENJOYED writing all of the papers for this course. Like I actually look forward to sitting down and working. Now, I've always loved being a student but I am not sure I loved doing the assignments, it was more the class discussion that I liked. This time around I don't have true class discussions, since it's all online, but I have been really enjoying writing the papers. It's kind of cool! P2: We had an uncharacteristically amazing weekend. Both girls were so well behaved, we just had a lot of fun. Saturday morning I took the girls to the Wychwood Barns farmer's market while Adam was at the gym. When we got home I put Little A down for her nap and Big A played quietly while I worked on my paper. When Adam got home we took them to Costco so we could purchase mass quantities of stuff. That place is addictive, but kind of disgusting at the...

P1: I can't seem to get started on my 20 page paper for school. Procrastinating is very unlike me. I guess I'm not really procrastinating as I have been doing the background research but now I'm dreading getting it started. So I know I should just get it over with and start already! My next term starts in May after this class is over, and by then, Sherma will be coming 4 days a week to watch Little A and life will be so much easier! P2: I am really getting sick of Little A throwing food on the floor and eating so poorly. So yesterday, I finally decided to start her meals with the food already on the floor. I just plopped her on the floor beside the food (on a plastic mat we had under the highchair to keep the floor clean) and...voila, she eats voraciously! What a weird baby! I now want to feed her all her meals on the floor but Adam doesn't seem so thrilled with this idea. It certainly is messy...even moreso than when she was throwing everything...but she's eating s...

P1: I finally feel like this course is under control. I've submitted my first 10 page paper and have completed a first draft of the second. I've got two more weekly quizzes and I now have to start wrapping my head around the 20 page paper. But I actually feel like it's all going to get done somehow. Yay! P2: Big A has been pretty good lately and we've been having fun. Yesterday, she told me her best friend Grace had her nails painted and she wanted hers done. OMG, she's not even 4 yet! I told her I would paint her nails for her birthday (and clean them off the next day!!!). I can't believe how early this stuff starts. Little A is still driving me crazy with her inconsistent food intake. One day she eats well, the next she simply throws everything on the floor. This morning's breakfast was a bad one. She only wanted to eat banana and blueberries. In fact, fish and fruit are really the only thing she will consistently eat. Sounds healthy, but a ba...

I had to take a break from my school work today to devote a whole post to the topic of apples. I LOVE apples, they are by far my favorite snack. Baby carrots come second. I am not a "snack food" eater as I believe most of it is garbage and is not even very tasty. I am a firm believer that you need nothing more than fruits and veggies to snack on, assuming you are eating hearty, well balanced meals. Anyways, back to apples. As a kid I only knew of 4 kinds of apples: Mcintosh, Red delicious, Yellow delicious and Granny Smiths, none of which I particularly like. But as an adult, the whole world of apples opened up to me. And wow, what a world it is! Honey Crisp apples are definitely the "it" apple du jour. I agree, they are fantabulous, but they are not my favorite. I also like Jona Golds and Fujis, but my absolute favorite, by far, are Mutsus. They are also called Crispins sometimes. They are large, pale green apples that have the perfect balance of tartnes...

Here is the recipe I made on Wednesday, which turned out nicely. I'll call it, "Mediterranean Vegetable Stew". I served it over brown rice. 1 tsp olive oil 4-6 small zucchini, sliced into thin circles (the really small ones are most tender) 1 red onion, diced 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained, or 6-8 roma tomatoes, diced 1 can chickpeas 2 cloves garlic, minced Splash of red wine vinegar chili flakes (optional) salt and pepper, to taste Sauce 1 cup plain yogurt Juice and zest of 1 lemon 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp ground cumin Couple handfuls fresh mint leaves, chopped 2 tbls spicy mint chutney (optional) Saute zucchini over medium heat in large skillet or frying pan until golden. Add onion and saute until softened. Add garlic, chickpeas, tomatoes, vinegar and chili flakes, if using. Continue to saute until tomatoes are cooked. Season to taste. To make sauce, simply stir everything together until smooth, then drizzle over veggie mixture. This n...

It's been such a good week! P1: I am feeling so good about my professional future right now. The one exception is I'm not sure I'm going to do brilliantly in my current course at school. I am finding it very interesting, but challenging and time consuming and I don't know if I can devote enough attention to it right now to do my best. On the bright side, I got the job at the Toronto Athletic Club!! So end of April I will be teaching a Brazilian Butt Lift class on Thursdays, ha ha! As you can probably guess, it's a lower body strength training class which is perfect. I didn't really want to take on another cardio class as I prefer to do my own cardio at home first thing in the morning and aside from Sundays before my spinning class, I don't do much lower body work simply due to lack of time. I also met with the infertility counsellor who works with my sister-in-law. She was so helpful and encouraging and provided me with some really great career advice....