I had a very long day and I’d love to tell you all about it but sleep is way more important to me right now

Today is the first day of the Salad a Day Challenge! The challenge where you have one meal as a big tasty healthy salad!

Greek: chopped romaine, cucumber, tomato, red pepper, red onion, feta and grilled chicken seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper. Balsamic vinaigrette.

Deeeelicious! I was pressed for time so I wasn’t as creative as I usually am. Didn’t get started on dinner until about 7:30!

Here’s a few from the facebook page!

Rory shared this, I dunno what it is but it looks tasty. Is that shaved carrot? oOOoh.

Yazmin shared this! Chicken/garbanzo salad with strawberries,almonds,carrots, cucumbers,spinach and romaine!

A few other pictureless salads:

• Pepper had: “very colorful , had almonds and tuna and a tasty dressing with mustard and honey”
• Petrina had: “Roasted chicken spinach, red quinoa, walnuts, dried cranberries and aged balsamic vinaigrette”

Both. Yum.

So? Who else?! What did you have!

Gonna make that salad tasty!

First and foremost,the basics. A vinaigrette is generally comprised of 3 things. Oil, Acid and flavouring.

Dressing is usually a 2:1 ratio of oil to vinegar. But you can always adjust depending on what you’re looking for.

You want to make sure you’ve stocked your pantry with an assortment of vinegars and oil. Depending on how much variety you want, of course.

Some good choices are:

• Balsamic Vinegar
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Rice Wine Vinegar

But you can also use other types of “acid” instead, like lemon juice!

There are many varieties of oil you can choose from as well, that can greatly enhance the flavour of your dressings. But to keep it simple, I stick with a really good olive oil, and a canola oil.

Don’t forget the pantry! A few good things to have around are:

• Dried spices and herbs
• Honey/sugar
• jam/sauces (you can turn anything into a dressing, really!)
• Fresh herbs
• Garlic/Ginger/Red onion

Equipment:
You don’t really need anything other than a bowl, but I find making dressings in a glass bottle or a mason jar can really help make your life easier. It saves on cleaning and you need to do is give it a shake and you’re ready to go! Any excess can be stored in the same container!

See! Fancy.

There are many recipes available online, and with practice you can dream up many different tasty combinations, but here are a few from me:

In a Pinch Panic Dressing (this is when you’re trying to make an excuse about dressing and are in a tight squeeze):

Squeeze of lemon, light drizzle of olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Wait, What? You’re crazy you say? This is a very, VERY simple dressing but it adds flavour and brightness, and is light on calories.

Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette:

• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp each dried oregano/basil
• salt and pepper

Apple Dressing/Creamy Apple Dressing:

• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp grainy mustard
• salt and pepper

In order to make a creamy version, substitute the canola oil for plain yogurt. You may have to adjust the vinegar/honey to taste if your yogurt is very sour or has a thick/thin consistency.

Raspberry Vinaigrette:

• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp raspberry jam
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper

Chili Lime Dressing:

• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1 tsp sambal (chili garlic sauce)
• 1 tsp honey
• salt and pepper

Asian Sesame Dressing:

• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper

From here you can experiment and expand. Use your imagination and be creative!

Grace from Grace Got Healthy suggested we do it again, and dammit, it’s a good idea.

I need a little somethin’ somethin’ to get me rolling again, and this is perfect.

This is how it goes. Every day, have one proper salad as a meal for a week. Forever if you feel like it!

By proper salad I mean well balanced, colourful and with protein! You want this puppy to keep you FULL!

Here are some salads that I made the last time!

Turkey Taco Salad
Mixed greens, extra lean ground turkey, taco spice, black bean salsa, avocado, cheddar, toasted corn tortilla strips and jalapeno ranch dressing.
And a Green Salad
Mixed greens, cucumber, carrot, tomato, pumpkin seeds, crumbled goat feta and a boiled egg.

Bbq Chicken Salad
Bbq chicken breast, mixed greens, mushroom, tomato, and goat cheese.
and
Honey Mustard Basa
Honey Mustard Glazed Basa fillet on spring mix with julienned red peppers, snow peas, tomatoes and raspberries.

Bonus points for being creative, the more colours the better! Extra high fives for including nuts/seeds!

LETS DO THIS!

This starts on MONDAY so get prepping this weekend, fill your fridge and plan plan plan!

Here’s a COMPREHENSIVE salad guide to help you you!

Mostly moving, but there have been a few other things.

The move went well, I LOVE MY PLACE! I’ve also been eating terrible food and drinking. It’s tough, and I know I shouldn’t have done it but I did it anyway! Moving, new areas, being tired, having an empty fridge. If you fail to plan you plain to fail!

Onward!

Here’s my new apt, not fully set up but you get the picture!:

Also, prepare for nerdiness.

The kitchen! Ignore the giant bottle of cider with a bendy straw in it. *cough*

Living room!

Other half of living room!

Bathroom!

Balcony!

Bedroom. I didn’t frame this pic well there’s a bit more room in this…room.

It’s the largest apartment we’ve lived in so far, and in an AWESOME part of the city! Plus I can now fully walk to work, which takes 20 minutes.

Happy!

The rest..what else happened. I have a very close friend in the hospital right now and I’m super worried about her. and other than that I’ve been work work working.

Tomorrow I get back on track properly! As always always “getting back on track”. There aren’t any more upcoming plans that will put a kink in my routine, other than a vacation at the end of June. So from now until then, it’s well behaved Lee.

Hopefully.

The last few days were fine. Same ol. Went one of my best friend’s bday party! It was glitter themed! As a present I bought her decorations and made some platters.

Meat/Cheese Antipasto kind of platter!

Froot!

My outfit. I had cosmetic glitter on my lips. Took it off after it started crunching in my teeth. Lol.

My darling. She’s an actress! Does tons of musical theater! She’ll be famous one day!

She was on of the actor’s on “My Evil Sister”, check it out! She shows up in the second half, around 25:20 mark.

http://www.biography.com/tv/my-evil-sister/videos/lose-a-sister-gain-a-husbandthe-sinner-and-the-saint-full-episode-23089219773

Soo proud of her. <3

Speaking of proud, I’ve been at this for ONE YEAR!

Can you believe it?!

I’ve posted this on facebook already, but check me out! A year ago, and a few days ago. Plus my measurements over time!

Now for today.

Breakfast: Oatmeal and Peanut butter

Lunch: Leftover pizza flatbread thing from work and a few slices of lean turkey breast.

Went to the gym straight after work. That’s where my day got crappy!
There are two gyms we workout at, one near my house downtown, and one closer to work. Every Tuesday my workout buddy and I go to the one by work. But for some reason, some of the women that work out there are very glare-y. Not very nice, tend to stare. I thought it was just me but my workout buddy made similar comments.

So today I’m working out, and some hardcore super muscular lady was in the same area as me. I see her staring at me. Frowny, watching me the entire time. I ended up turning around so I didn’t have to see her angrily staring at me.
I start doing some squats and she just snips “You’re doing it wrong.”

Now, regardless of how I was doing it wrong or what, I know my heels don’t always stay on the ground but my center of gravity is still off due to the excess fat I’m still working off.

Just the way she said it, and how she was scowling at me the entire time.

I just walked away, without saying a word and went to do some cardio. I’m no good with confrontation, and tend to panic. I couldn’t even speak, just ran away to cool off.

It made the rest of my workout a little difficult and I was super self conscious the entire time. Luckily I had my workout buddy because if she wasn’t there I probably would’ve went home.

Eventually I returned to the same area and evil lady was gone, thankfully.

My workout:

• 10 mins treadmill HIIT, which I had to cut short and just walk fast with a high incline because my PANTS KEPT FALLING DOWN. Seriously, to the point of “I probably shouldn’t be running unless someone wants to see my underwear”
• 10 mins angry/anxiety elliptical
• Walking lunges
• Tricep Dips
• Arnolds
• Bicep curl to Shoulder press
• Tricep Swingbacks

AND THIS!

Ab DESTRUCTION!

I pretty much did all of it, I cut my jack knives, and leg crossovers short. But I’m proud that  I went through it! My abs are already sore, I can’t imagine what it’s going to feel like later.

I’m still feeling a little anxiety so I’m just going to relax for the rest of the night.

Love love.

Oh. And another amazingly on track day!

Breakfast! Heartier. Two free range eggs, two slices sprouted grain toast, 25gram sausage.

I also drank a red bull.

The red one! Cranberry flavour! Just to get me going in the morning.

Walked to the train, as usual, and worked worked worked.

Lunch I went with a lighter option to balance out the breakfast.

Wrap! (it’s just red, nothing fancy. No I don’t know where to buy it), with grilled zucchini, red pepper hummus, sriracha, cucumber, sprouts, tomato and spinach.

After work I walked alll the way to my girlfriend’s house to hangout and do my hair!

The sun today. man. So nice. Warm!

On the way there. Chocolate bar hanging in between the glass walls of a bus shelter. cruel!

I had a snack of greek yogurt, raspberries and a mandarine orange at her house. And an almond milk latte. No sugar.

She ombre’d my hair up. This is us later on at some fancy cosmetic’s place called Curlique. I waited while she picked out glitter.

Then I walked home AGAIN. For a total of 4 miles of walking today, woo! Not including the back/forth up/down stairs all day at work either!

I got home so late. But I’m proud I didn’t grab any crappy food along the way. Had some chickpea curry, and pineapple and blackberries for dinner!

1630 calories today! Right on track, plus all the walking I did. Another wicked day.

Here’s to tomorrow ! TGFI. FINALLY.

HEEEY! How’s everyone?

Another completely on track day. How am I doing it? Magic? Luck? Common sense and motivation?

Breakfast was kind of lazy, this waking up at 4am business I still can’t seem to adjust to. Over 1 year of this and I’m still dead tired.

2 slices of sprouted grain bread and 2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter. Heftier in calories, but this bread I found has 6g of protein in each SLICE. My toast breakfast had 18 grams of protein. Ha! That’ll keep ya full.

This bread. This is the first actual loaf of sliced bread I’ve bought in a very very long time. It was on SALE!

Walked to the train as usual, worked a bit overtime today too.

Lunch:

Portuguese bun hollowed out, 2 tbsp red pepper hummus, grilled salmon, cucumber, sprouts, tomato.

I only ate about 3/4 of this, near the end I was getting full so I just plucked the remaining salmon and chucked the rest.

Went to the gym right after with my workout buddy!

20 mins on the elliptical

10 mins HIIT on treadmill

• tricep dips
• tricep swingbacks
• arnolds
• walking lunges
• squats
• bicycle crunches
• regular crunches
• situps while my buddy held my feets.
• More of those funny bosu planks I posted the other day

There’s this one part of the gym there that’s a ladies only stretching area that I was exercising in, and I dunno for some reason that gym always seems to have some rather…glare-y women in it.

There was this one woman who kept giving my workout buddy and I the super evil eye. I don’t know why some women do that? I try to not let it bother me but it cut my alternating planks short.

I wasn’t in the way or even saying anything, just working out peacefully on the other side. Bah!

Women.

Anyway.

After the gym I grabbed a muscle milk. FOR ALL MY MUSCLES! *flex*

I kinda hate these. Lol. Plus the ingredient list isn’t so… clean.

Walked home from the train again, did a bunch of laundry.

Then made some super simple chicken noodle soup.

I didn’t have much to work with, so.

I sauteed some white onion and carrot. Added my chicken stock (1 full carton), and a bay leaf. Let that simmer a bit until the veggies were cooked through. Added 1 heaping tbsp of itty bitty soup noodles. I had 1 lb of skinless chicken breast tenders, so I cubed them and pan seared them just until brown, and threw it into my stock. Brown = more flavour! Boil for a few minutes so chicken finishes cooking and you’re done! Add fresh parsley and green onion right before serving.

Et Voila! You don’t have to use noodles, and I usually put more veg in but this was what I had!

Simple and comforting.

Now, to fold all that laundry I did, and sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be another great day!!

Breakfast! Similar to yesterday, eggs and toast. (Foreshadowing! I eat eggs again today! *GASP!*)

Lunch:

Wrap. A rap rap.
Black bean corn salsa, sriracha, chicken breast, sprouts, tomato, lettuce. delicious.

Went to the gym but got into a stupid text argument RIGHT before.

I don’t care what anyone says, working out when angry is very difficult. It’s also hard to do cardio with a lump in your throat. Kinda hard to breathe.

Anyway. I got over it. That’s me post workout. It’s how I’m looking now! Woo!

I did 20 mins on the elliptical. Dips, bicycle crunches, sit ups, crunches on the ball, leg lifts, and those planks where you alternate straightening your arms.

Starts around 28 seconds, watch the guy on the right.

I followed it all up with 10 minutes of HIIT intervals on the treadmill.

I walked home after the gym and had a protein shake made with 1 cup unsweetened almond milk.

I think I need a smaller blender bottle. Also. Semi empty apartment! Got a good head start on packing!

I also ate a way overripe banana. I prefer them “recently green”.

Dinner. Lazy kind of, I had to run an errand before and want to pack more tonight. Liberte pineapple yogurt, pineapple, blackberries, 2 free range eggs, 25gram sausage, 1 tsp canola oil to cook egg in, 1 slice sprouted grain bread, 1 tsp olive oil margarine.

My total calories for the day was around 1619. Give or take. Or Give.

Probably give.

Now. I procrastinate on packing and probably make my husband dinner before he gets home. Taaa!

Who wants to pack for me?!

I didn’t sleep very well though, my roomate went out for Saint Patrick’s day and got hammered, so when I got up to use the washroom in the middle of the night I had to deal with him ASLEEP IN THE BATHROOM.

So breakfast was:

1 slice multigrain toast with 1 tsp olive oil margarine, 1 free range egg cooked in 1 tsp canola oil. 263 calories.

Breakfast was light because A: I was half asleep, and B: Because I anticipated having to taste a lot at work today. Which I did. A bite of macaroni salad, green bean salad, roasted broccoli salad, and black bean and corn salsa. Everything I make I have to taste, because if I don’t I have no idea if it’s seasoned properly, and you can’t give the unknown to customers.

Lunch:

Salmon fish tacos! With some of that black bean salsa I made earlier. About 300 calories.

After work I met up with one of my girlfriends and we ran around town finding decorations for her bday on the weekend. It’s “glitter/gold” themed. So lots of gold/silver.

Stopped by for some sushi:

We made it just in time for last call. (they close for a bit before dinner time) I got spicy tuna sashimi and an avocado roll. So good.

Headed home after that. Walked about 2.5 miles today. More for sure, but I only calculated the walks I could remember, no in between walks or any of the running around at work.

Dinner:

1 container Liberte pineapple yogurt, black berries, 50g kielbasa, 11 wheat thins, 15g goat cheese, 15g cheddar, carrots. About 376 calories.

I’m being as precise as I can for this week, using my scale to measure everything I can.

I have 200 ish calories left in the day, I’ll save those in case I need a snack but I should be okay as it’s 7pm now. I’m thinking of just making  a big pot of tea

Onto TOMORROW!

Did you guys have a good day too?

Made some epic tacos.

Ate half of an epic chocolate bar.

My feet don’t reach the floor on the bus.

We started packing for moving!

Got a cute new purse.

Went for some pho, took a neato photo.

It was sunny today and I’m rarin’ to go for this week!
I’m going to be much more strict this coming week than I have been. Actually going to set up a meal plan. Gotta get serious about summer, AND I have my girlfriend’s birthday this weekend and bought a cute dress!

The dress! Imagine me in leggings instead of jeans. and flats.

Not that a week of hardcore eating right/exercise is really going to make a huge difference, but I’d like to feel good about myself at the end of the week too!

Here’s to a good week, wish me luck!

I don’t need to mention that I skipped Saint Patrick’s Day. Not my thing!!

How was everyone’s weekend?