Weight Loss Wagon

I'm sure you've noticed that I started updating with a bit more regularity... I'm going to chock it up to the fact that I put a little application on my google homepage that allows me to post directly.

Anyway, I've decided to really get back on the weight loss wagon. This includes tracking what I eat and trying to actually lose weight. I used to use a particular website (www.thedailyplate.com) but stopped using that a long while ago. So I searched out something on Facebook (since I spend enough time on that website as it is, might as well make it useful) and added a diet tracking application. I input all that I ate yesterday plus all the exercise I did yesterday... and realized I don't eat anywhere enough food to make up for what I do in a day. AARGH!

This is the part I always have a hard time with. In order to lose weight you have to consume less calories than you burn, but if you consume WAY less (like, in my case yesterday about half) then your body stays in starvation mode and nothing happens.

So I have to start eating more. Or at least eating way more on the days that I plan to go to the gym.

I've been eating a lot of soup lately, which is good for you and fills you up and isn't super high in calories.

I think I need a game plan. Last night I went to the gym and did 50 min of cardio while watching The 40 Year Old Virgin... managed to burn like, 600 calories! (whoo hoo!) However, I didn't do any weights. Haven't been in the mood to do weights lately. But I really should. Gotta build up that lean muscle!

If only I could just win the lottery and get liposuction on my saddle bags. Thats the only part of me that really bothers me!

Photo Graphy...

I've really gotta start taking pictures again! I saw some of the pictures from Ty and Lauren's wedding and their photographer did such a great job! I was super jealous that it was awesome and my photos are not that awesome.

Things to put on my list of things to accomplish: make new website. Set it up to sell prints. Sell prints. Find people who need help with photo editing. Make some money!

Soup

I've been on a soup kick lately - I've made both potato and squash soup in the last 30 hours. I'm not certain what has encouraged me to get so creative in the kitchen, but it's an easy thing to keep on hand in the fridge to take for lunch. My recipes are as follows:

Potato Soup (Mom's recipe)

Potatoes - enough to cover the bottom of a large pot. 6-7 med or 5 large. Peel and put into a pot and cover with water - just to the top of the potatoes.

Sausage - smoked sausage is the best way to go. Polish sausage is an easy way to go. 3 sausages is usually enough. Lay them on top of the potatoes.

Chicken soup stock - a tablespoon or so would be sufficient (I rarely measure anything...) Put in the pot with the potatoes, water and sausage.

Onions - finely chop one medium sized potato and put it in the pot.

Parsley - gives the soup some colour.

Corn - also gives the soup some colour. Totally optional.

Boil the potatoes until they are soft, even possibly falling apart. If the water goes down while cooking, add some more. When the potatoes are done, take the sausages off and set aside. Mash the potatoes and add parsley and corn. Slice the sausage into "coins" and put into the soup. Add milk to give it a creamy texture, possibly about a cup.


Random Squash Soup

About 4 cups of cooked squash - I used acorn squash this time but any kind will work.

Soup stock (or water and chicken soup base). - also approx 4 cups. I just add it in until I think there's enough

Onion - one medium sized onion, chopped up.

Garlic - about a teaspoon.
Ginger - about half a teaspoon.

Pepper - I found this great pepper medley at Bulk Barn a while back that I have been using for anything requiring pepper. About half a teaspoon.

Nutmeg - a dash. Up to you to determine what constitutes a dash.

Rosemary - again, a dash.

Put everything in a pot and boil til squash is soft and can be mashed with a spoon. When it's good and cooked, probably 20 min or so, put into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour back into a pot and add about half a cup of milk. Would probably be great if it had some ham or sausage in it.
- This has a whole bunch of different flavours going on - pepper, garlic, ginger - it's kinda "spicy" but not in a bad way.

Thanksgiving and Giant Doggies

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from my brother that went something like this:

*phone rings, I question why my brother is calling me*
Me: Hey... whats up?
James: "Hey! Guess what I'm doing right now"
Me: I surely have no idea.
J: I'm going to get a dog!!!
Me: What? What kinda dog? And from where?
J: A St. Bernard!!
Me: WhAT!? seriously?
J: Yeah. Bonnie and Steve know a guy that needs a home for his dog... seems I was kinda hung over and I told them I'd take it...

Me: Does dad know?

J:... no, I figured I'd just show up with it. He'll be fine...

Me: Oh dear lord. Call me as soon as you get him! I wanna hear what Dad has to say.

I was all ready for some massive blow out and my brother being forced to live in his trailer after he arrived home with this massive dog, but it seems my dad was fine with the new addition. I've been waiting paitently to meet this gentle giant and this weekend when I went home for thanksgiving I was finally able to! Such a nice dog!! I love him! He's enormous - his back is the same height as my hips! His head probably weighs like, 80lbs... which is almost half of his body weight! I took all kinds of pictures of him while I was home... (click on the picture to see more pictures!)

This was also my first time ever making a full Thanksgiving dinner without help from my mommy. There were 11 people for dinner, including myself, and I did turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing, turnip, carrots and parsnips, beans, and 2 kinds of pie. It was a great success, which made me happy. I think my mom would have been very proud, although I'm sure she was slightly disappointed she couldn't be there, over my shoulder, telling me how to do things.

Italy Part 3

Wow... I've been slacking. Okay - so here's what else happened on our adventures:

Tues Sept 1 - Florence/Tuscany

This morning started with a leather demo in Florence - we were shown how a Florentine Jewelery box is made from leather and then had time to wander around. Ange was on the hunt for the perfect leather jacket. After about an hour of wandering and shopping, we met up with the group and had a walking tour of Florence. Our guide was really good. We saw Michelango's David and a bunch of other sculptures. I have to say, the one of Perseus defeating Medusa was more impressive - the detail that went into it and the fact that it was made by one solid piece of brass was crazy! We spent the entire day after that shopping shopping shopping! Ange found the perfect leather jacket but it was just WAY too expensive. We had to meet the group to go to our Tuscan dinner and she told the people at the shop that she'd come back later. We didn't have time to go back before going for dinner so decided that if it was meant to be, it'd happen. Otherwise it wasn't. We got in our bus and drove to a look out spot over Florence and took a group picture overlooking all of Florence. Then we headed into the Tuscan hills to our dinner spot. Dinner was pretty good, but the sangria they served us before hand was AWESOME! Best sangria ever. One of our travel buddies, Mike, got up on the piano and played for all of us and sang, it was amazing. After dinner we went back to the hotel while a bunch of the people went to the "Space Electronic" disco... we had another balcony party. It was great - we even ducked when our tour leader, Katia, came home and were joking that we were hiding from "Mom".

Wed Sept 2 - San Giminagno etc

We got up early and left for San Giminagno, a medieval city outside of Florence (after getting yelled at for having our balcony party - Katia threatened that we would have to pay for the hotel room that someone had left without paying due to our noise). It's in the heart of the Chianti region and has great wines and is home to the best gelato in the world. It has all kinds of interesting flavours. We wandered around for a while, and had some great inexpensive pizza and bought some inexpensive wine to take home. After that we went to a winery and had a tour of their operation. We had a tasting and it was great! I stole a few grapes off a vine to see if they tasted like normal grapes and they did. Afterwards we went back to Florence and Ange went back to the leather shop that she had found the jacket at. She figured if they would still give her the great deal then she'd get it. The guy there wasn't the same one as the day before, but he was willing to give her a great price on it anyway, but she just wasn't ready to drop almost $400 on a jacket. The guy that was helping us seemed more interested in taking her out on a date than anything. He's actually a Canadian apparently, and told her that if she still wanted the jacket she could always order it and he'd bring it back to Canada for her next time he was here. While we were there I asked him if he could suggest any great Mom-and-Pop style pasta places. He recommended one within walking distance and a bunch of us set out to go there. In the end it only ended up being about 6 of us total - it was the BEST dinner of the whole trip, and SOOO cheap. Only 40 euros for 6 people to eat dinner. Just amazing. We gave the guy a huge tip and he gave us free Limincello. haha. Afterwards we went for a walk around Florence and checked out all kinds of interesting things. It seemed our theme of the walk was "what's this? Hmm... maybe it's blah blah blah..." and try to figure it out... only to see a sign describing what it was about 5 feet away. We got some beers and walked around the piazza where David is and enjoyed some live music. A great night!

Thurs Sept 3 - Pisa/Venice

We left early to go to Pisa on our way to Venice. Of course we took all kinds of silly pictures beside the leaning tower. It was kinda a disappointment though, as there wasn't really anything to do by the tower other than look at it. We didn't have time to go up inside so we really just hung out and waited to go back to the bus. While we were standing around outside, we were talking about how we were in the danger zone due to the pigeons up above us... and all of a sudden I felt something wet on my arm. Looked down and a bird had crapped on me and my camera. BARF! After Pisa we got back on the bus and headed to Venice. We arrived in the late afternoon and most of the group left on the train to go to Venice island. Our hotel was on the mainland about 30 min by train to the actual city of Venice. Ange and I decided to stay behind, get some food at the grocery for our next couple days and then take advantage of the included dinner. There ended up being only 4 of us for dinner! Ange and I and two girls from Montreal, along with our bus driver and Katia. Afterwards we went to this random little bar and had a glass of wine for 1.50 euro! Cheap! Had an early night since we really just needed a day of not going anywhere.

Friday Sept 4 - Venice

We left the hotel early and got on the train to go to Venice island. On the way there Katia recommended a bunch of things to do. Before we had time on our own we went to a glass blowing demonstration and then a lace making demo, 2 things that Venice is famous for. After that we took off on our own. Ange and I decided to try this dessert that Katia had told us to try - she described it as frozen chocolate with cream. However, it turned out to be a hunk of chocolate hazelnut icecream and whipped cream! And was WAY too expensive. We spent the rest of the day shopping. We saw more glass jewelery and lace stuff than I ever need to see again. I ended up buying a bunch of my souveniers in Venice - some necklaces, some crazy coloured pasta and some other odds and ends. After spending the whole day wandering around trying to get lost (not something I was in the mood for cuz I had a huge headache) we met back up with our group and headed to our dinner cruise. We had a great time on the boat, drinking Prosecco and orange juice (a Spritz, a venetian drink). Ange and I kept singing "I'm On A Boat" and hoping someone else would know the song... only a few people did. After the cruise we left for the hotel where we met at this random little sketchy bar on the other side to have a few farewell drinks with people.

Sat Sept 6th - Back to Rome

We took the bus back to Rome with the people who weren't leaving from Venice. It was a good group of people and the bus ride actually went really fast. I think we napped most of the way there. On the ride, Katia translated the song "In Italia" that we had been listening to over and over for. The bus dropped everyone off at the hotel that we started at and Ange and I took the bus back to Termini station. From there we walked to our hostel and decided to just have a chill day. We napped and checked our emails and all that kinda thing. The hostel had a free pasta dinner that we took part in and then later we went to find the Holy Steps and the Colosseum at night with a girl from our room (who we weren't smart enough to get contact details from). Got back relatively early and just had a quiet night.

Sunday Sept 6th - Back to Toronto

Woke up pretty early despite the fact we didn't have to. Got breakfast and made friends with a guy in our room named Jackson. We went to the train station and he joined us since he also was taking off. We hung out there for quite sometime, because we were NOT going to miss our train again! Got on the train to the airport and got through check in with ease (thank god!) Got some food at the airport and after being total creepers and taking pictures of this guy that looked just like Trishelle's dad and step dad mashed together we eventually got on a plane. Flew to Amsterdam and panicked because we had to run through the airport to get to our flight from Amsterdam and back home! It was sorta a false alarm though, since we probably had plenty of time but we didn't want to take any risks. Once on the plane we settled in and watched 3 movies! We had our own remotes and own personal tvs which was awesome. We watched Angels and Demons which was really cool since we'd just been in Rome and knew all the landmarks. And then we watched The Proposal and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. The Proposal was much better than the other! Got back into Toronto around 8:30 at night and Ange hung out with me while she waited for her friend to pick her up and I got on the shuttle to take me home... and I finally made it home around midnight.

Adventure Over! It was an amazing trip!