tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21810339968154295722024-03-13T00:16:52.216-04:00a cake for a wife.Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comBlogger346125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-72788287502644370362012-07-03T14:02:00.002-04:002012-07-03T14:02:55.989-04:00where you'll find me<i>Someday I'll wish upon a star,<br />
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me<br />
Where trouble melts like lemon drops<br />
High above the chimney top -- that's where you'll find me</i><br />
<br />
Actually, where you'll find me these days is over <a href="http://www.milkshakable.com/">www.milkshakable.com </a><br />
<br />
Just in case anyone still reads this old thing. :)<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-38621434744991299352011-08-30T11:30:00.003-04:002011-08-30T11:34:29.946-04:00see ya later, summer.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Tomorrow is
the last day of August and that means, in my mind, the last day of summer. Nevermind
your technicalities, that fall doesn’t officially start until September 21. For
me, fall starts as soon as the calendar rolls from August over to September. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I feel as
if a giant weight is being lifted from my shoulders. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Although I
always look forward to summer, and the many things I’m going to get out and do,
by the time the full force of summer hits I feel bogged down, exhausted, and
totally lost. It’s weird, but I think I have some kind of ‘reverse seasonal
depression’. I can’t figure out why but every summer it hits me – hopelessness,
loss, not caring. In the winter I get in a bit of a rut, sure, but in a different way – it’s more
like I don’t want to do anything but stay cozy in the house and watch crime
dramas and knit. I want to hibernate, and I'm quite happy to do it. But in the summer I don’t even want to do
that. In the summer I desperately want to not even exist - if only for 2
months.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">But as
September rolls back in, I feel myself coming back to life. I start thinking about projects again, and
hobbies and friends and things to do. I’ve been thinking about <a href="http://www.foodnotfuss.com/">Food Not Fuss</a>
again, and another blog project I have in the back of my mind. I’ve been
thinking of fun things to do, like taking my camera out to High Park
or buying a bike and exploring the bike trails. (Normal people usually get
excited about this stuff in the summer, but apparently not I.) I think about
cute sweaters and tights and finding the perfect brown leather handbag. I think
about pumpkin spice lattes, and my favourite pumpkin pasta, and eating pumpkin
oatmeal in the mornings. Life seems okay again – not just bearable, but
actually worth doing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Shaun and I
are heading to The Keg tomorrow night, because it’s our anniversary. And
although I’ll be celebrating four (amazing) years with him, part of me will
also be toasting to the end of summer. So long and good riddance. </span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-10839318604165481522011-08-25T21:46:00.003-04:002011-08-25T21:46:57.229-04:00thunder only happens when it's raining.Yesterday I got caught in a thunderstorm. Rain poured down and lightening lit up the sky and three of us huddled under a blue gingham umbrella. The talk centred around storms and someone mentioned prairie thunderstorms and someone else said that was one thing she wanted to do in her life, was to see a prairie thunderstorm. They are reportedly epic.<br />
<br />
I want to see a prairie thunderstorm. There is so much I want to see and do. I want to see a prairie thunderstorm and I want to see the Northern Lights and I want to go to Churchill, Manitoba, and watch the polar bear migration. I want to go to California and swim in the Pacific Ocean and I want to see the Grand Canyon and I want to drive up Route 66 and read Jack Kerouac and eat at small American diners and drink cheap American beer. I want to eat croissants in Paris and real Cajun food in New Orleans. I want to eat fried bananas in Thailand, and I want to ride the subway in Tokyo and I want to see the Mona Lisa. I want to paddle up a river in Costa Rica, and I want to see a real Broadway show and I want to go to Newfoundland and get screeched in.<br />
<br />
I feel immobilized sometimes, by everything I want to see and do. There is so much to see and do in this world. SO MUCH. <br />
<br />
I want to see a prairie thunderstorm. I want to see a prairie thunder but last night, in Toronto, lightening struck the earth 500 times a minute. Read that again.<i> Lightening struck the earth <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/08/25/storms-southwestern-ontario.html">500 times. a. minute</a>. </i>And I was there and I saw it and I will remember it. <div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-39837435561106355912011-08-24T11:17:00.001-04:002011-08-24T11:43:49.328-04:00you can make it last forever.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">i. Dear lord, please hold my hand.
It has been eleven days since my last Starbucks scone. How I miss that
sweet dense bread, with the glazed frosting that breaks so gently under my
teeth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">ii. Down 3.8 lbs at my first Weight
Watchers weigh-in, but already I am feeling hopeless, anxious, like I can’t
do this and do I even want to? I want to eat better to feel better but
this week I feel worse – dizzy, nauseous, anxious, panicky, hopeless,
overwhelmed. These are not the feelings I wanted. I feel like I might not
be well, and in a big way. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">iii. What is it about being in a cab
at night, in the rain, that is so melancholy? Saturday started out bright
and sunny and so I wore a white sundress, but I was out all day and by the
time I went home it was dark out and raining, and my dress felt strange and
inappropriate. I got in a cab and leaned my head against the window and
watched the rain. We drove through neighbourhoods I used to live in, but
barely recognize anymore, and outside I saw women dressed in short black
dresses and high heels, laughing and leaning against the arms of men and
dashing across streets to get into the bars and out of the rain. I
thought: <i>I do not know how to be a woman in this world.</i> And it felt weird
to think of myself as a woman, because in my head I am still a girl. But I
am 30 (31 next month) and I doubt that society considers me a girl
anymore. I am wearing a white sundress in a cab, and I am going home to my
house and my dog and my husband-to-be. Not a girl anymore, no. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">How did this happen? How did I become this person, with a
house and a dog and a husband-to-be? I don’t know how to be a woman in this
world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The radio in the cab played Tom Jones and I had to laugh,
because it was so incongruous to how I felt at the moment. It was so grown-up. I
wanted something else, like Smashing Pumpkins, something that reminded me of
being 16 and having a million roads open to me and not having to walk down a
single one of them.<i> Tomorrow’s just an excuse away. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">iv. Yesterday I ate saltines, a whole row, with a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I dreamed about the ocean. </span><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-49734534283887775362011-08-19T13:39:00.000-04:002011-08-19T13:39:05.364-04:00an actual weight-related post. oh my!<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A couple of
weeks ago, I started thinking. I started thinking about how I started on this
weight loss journey, back in 2008, and how far I came. (Because I came far.) And
more importantly, I started thinking about how good I felt. (Because I felt good.)
I mean, really good. I felt alive in my life. I feel hokey to say it, but I
felt <i>powerful</i>. I’m not sure how else to describe it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">And those
feelings weren’t necessarily because I had lost heaps of weight – I just felt
like I had finally gotten control of my eating and my habits, that I was no
longer living under the thumb of sugar and potato chips and laziness. I had
taken my life back from all those twisted habits and small addictions that, for
so long, seemed to run the place. I felt on top for once. <span> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">And I have
been thinking a lot about what happened to steer me off that course. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The truth
is, I got scared. Really scared. I felt good and I got confident, and that
confidence directly brought on a couple of incidents that, while I can’t get
into them here, I can say were stressful and challenging and made me question who I
was and who I thought I was. I started to feel like I was on an elastic band,
stretching further and further and further away from who I once was. I
panicked. I didn’t want the elastic band to snap, so I let it go. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">And it
went. I bounced back to where I had once been. All my new healthy habits were
replaced with old bad habits. It was a true downward spiral – but <i>down</i> was
where I wanted to be. <i>Down</i> was safe. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">So I have
spent the last year wrapped in the safety of 25 extra pounds, watching myself
spin further away from where I actually want to be. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I’ve tried
a few things to get back on track, but nothing has stuck. But lately a little
voice has been creeping up – it says, <i>“You already know how to do this.”</i> It
says, <i>“Start at the start.” </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">So I’m
listening. I made the decision last week to go back to Weight Watchers. It’s
what works for me. It’s my way to go back to what I know. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I started
on Saturday, and while my first weigh-in was kind of a bummer, I think I’ve had a
pretty good week and I’m excited to go weigh in again tomorrow. I’m also
excited about my meeting – in the past I would have HATED the idea of going
first thing on a Saturday morning, but now I sort of love it. I think it will set
a great tone for the weekend, and keep me focused during my toughest days. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I also love
that my leader is the beautiful and inspiring <a href="http://maintenancewithashley.blogspot.com/">Ashley</a>! I mean, if you can’t get
out of bed for this lady, who CAN you get out of bed for, AMIRIGHT? And I love
that our meetings are above an organic grocery store. It’s just perfect. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">So that’s
my news. I’m hoping to get back to blogging a bit more too, because I think
that is also part of what helped me succeed last time. Nothing like posting
weekly weigh-ins to keep you accountable, right? <span> </span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-32836838671085630892011-08-03T15:19:00.005-04:002011-08-03T15:21:09.578-04:00a life in questions.<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.3076731627353868" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
the past three months, a lot has happened. <a href="http://acakeforawife.blogspot.com/2011/07/joy.html">Shaun and I got engaged</a>. <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/goog_1358603116">We got a dog</a><a href="http://acakeforawife.blogspot.com/2011/05/oh-right-i-have-blog.html">. And we bought a house.</a> It has been wild and amazing and
insane and overwhelming. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I feel so happy, most of the time. I have everything I ever wanted. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But … that’s part of the problem. I have everything I ever wanted. So now what?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This
past month or so has been stressful, in a way that I wasn’t at all
prepared for. PLEASE don’t think I’m being unappreciative, because I
absolutely am not: I love Shaun and our home and I love getting to know
Riley and snuggling his sweet face. Everything I have makes me so happy I
feel like pinching myself. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But I am person who always seems to be working <i>towards something</i>. And now I feel like I don’t have a <i>something</i> anymore. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shaun
and I are pretty sure we don’t want kids, so that’s not coming up. And
we don’t want a big wedding, so I don’t even have wedding plans to throw
myself into. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instead, the big questions have been coming up.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. What now?<br class="kix-line-break" />2. What do I want to do with my life?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. What is my purpose?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Do I even have a purpose?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. What’s my next big goal?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
don’t have answers, and to be honest, I feel more than a little lost. Those are big
questions, and I feel like I’m drifting around in this big empty cavern
of what <i>could be</i> my life. How do I put up the walls, the floor, the
roof, when I don’t know what I want the house to look like?</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
have ideas. I’ve always wanted to write a novel. I’ve always wanted to
start my own business. I could get back to weight loss, set myself a big
fitness goal or learn a new skill. There are options. I just don’t know
where to start.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Anyone else ever find themselves in this position? What did you do? </span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-54554294700922403092011-07-05T11:36:00.001-04:002011-07-05T11:39:22.764-04:00joy.<div style="font-family: inherit;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">This weekend Shaun asked me to marry him. I said yes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although I knew it was coming, I still squealed my way through the entire proposal.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jhaoRDt_vEY/ThMtdU0tbkI/AAAAAAAABGs/-3dPneD-UFo/s1600/Ring-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jhaoRDt_vEY/ThMtdU0tbkI/AAAAAAAABGs/-3dPneD-UFo/s400/Ring-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I can’t believe I’m going to marry this amazing guy. I have never in my life known someone so supportive, so genuine, so kind, so dedicated, so talented – I could go on, but I’ll try to keep the gushing to a minimum. Suffice it to say that he’s the best. Sorry other guys, but it’s true. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Among other things, I love that his first reaction -- his gut reaction -- in any situation is to HELP.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> For instance, after the proposal I got on the phone with my mom, and Shaun offered to run to Starbucks to grab us a couple of iced coffees. Nice already, right? While he was there, he saw a woman outside with a little kid who was throwing up, so while he was in the Starbucks he bought them a bottle of water and brought out a bunch of napkins. Because that is just the kind of guy he is – kind, thoughtful, amazing. When there was screaming outside our house one night, Shaun rushed right outside, while I hemmed and hawed. When we are crossing the street and a car zooms around the corner, his first move is to throw his arm out in front of my chest, to stop me from taking a step forward. A day doesn't go by that he isn't helping a woman with a stroller get down the subway stairs, or helping someone with a suitcase, or a grocery cart. And the funniest part is, he doesn't even think about these things, and would probably be embarrassed to know I was talking about them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">That kind of goodness runs soul-deep. He inspires me every day to be a better person, to work harder for what I want, to dream of bigger things. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I can’t believe I’m going to be his wife. That he’s going to be my husband. That we get to spend the rest of our lives together, being partners in a game we make up as we go.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-07Vl4Wn9zyc/ThMs7TY731I/AAAAAAAABGo/Qy4GVAkrPjk/s1600/025%255B8%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-07Vl4Wn9zyc/ThMs7TY731I/AAAAAAAABGo/Qy4GVAkrPjk/s400/025%255B8%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I wanted to write that I feel so different now, but I don’t, not really. I feel just like myself, but with a sweet buzz of joy that burns through everything. And I think that’s the best feeling in the world.</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-80213722646398584992011-06-24T10:03:00.000-04:002011-06-24T10:03:10.218-04:00this thing that happened.<div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7234378012950422" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On Thursday morning, something happened. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I fainted on the subway. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I wanted to write that in a way that sounded better, like something different than it was, but there you are: I fainted on the subway. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On Wednesday night, I had gone to a bar with some colleagues, had a few beers. I had not eaten dinner. On Thursday morning I got up and did not eat breakfast. I was a bit hungover, a bit dehydrated, very hungry. The subway was very crowded, very hot. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Around Chester station I noticed myself feeling very dizzy. I thought about getting off the train, but there were so many people I didn’t think I’d be able to squeeze my way to the doors before they closed. I stayed where I was, but the dizziness got worse. Given that I just hate inconveniencing anyone, I didn’t want to ask someone if I could have their seat. I remember grabbing onto the poll with both hands, and just telling myself to ‘hold on, ride it out.’ </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then everything went black. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I woke up on the floor, the train stopped and everyone crowded around me. “Are you okay?” everyone kept saying. “Don’t get up.” “We pulled the passenger assistance alarm, the driver is coming.” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I kept apologizing. “I’m so sorry,” I said, “I’m sorry everyone. I’m fine, really, I just got a bit overheated.” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally the driver came, and everyone helped me into a seat. I declined ‘medical assistance’. A woman fanned me with her newspaper. The train started moving again. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By the time we got to Bay station, I felt fine. I got off the train and went to Tim Horton’s and inhaled a muffin (I figured the sugar would be helpful?). I went to work, like it was just any other day, like nothing had happened. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But something happened. I fainted on the subway. I fainted because I am not taking good care of myself. I can’t help but think that this would not have happened last summer -- when I was eating well and working out and living a generally healthy lifestyle. It happened because I am eating like shit these day, drinking, being a sloth, and just generally living the lifestyle I used to live, the one I fought so hard to get away from. And my body can’t take it this time around. It has known the good life, and it wants to go back. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>I</b> want to go back. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
But I will be honest with you, it feels just as hard to get started this time as it did last time. I never knew what really clicked for me last time, and I don’t know how to click it back into place. I feel like fainting was a wake-up call, but for how long? How long before I drift back into my sloth-like slumber? </span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-80311166775135301552011-06-22T09:54:00.001-04:002011-06-22T10:00:02.161-04:00the truth of who we are.<blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7987560823075625" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We cannot violate the truth of who we are within our dreams. - <a href="http://www.johntunger.com/">John T. Unger</a></span></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I <a href="http://www.scoutiegirl.com/2011/06/post-congregation-syndrome-what-does-fathers-day-have-to-do-with-it.html">read this quote</a> the other day on a new blog I’m enjoying, called <a href="http://www.scoutiegirl.com/">Scoutie Girl</a>. It has stuck with me the past few days, coming back to me at odd moments. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7987560823075625" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We cannot violate the truth of who we are within our dreams.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shoving a handful of chocolate-covered raisins in my mouth yesterday, it came to me again. It was not my first handful, I am sad to say, or even my second or my third. The tub seemed unending, and my hand kept travelling to my mouth, again and again and again. My stomach was protesting, and my mouth felt hot, too dry, but I ate more and more pieces, not letting myself stop, not letting myself even drink the water I craved. Over and over again. I turned my mind away, reading blogs while I force-fed myself these fucking little raisins. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.7987560823075625" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We cannot violate the truth of who we are within our dreams.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have no doubt in my mind that this is a form of violation. It is a punishment that, for some reason I, and lots of others, insist on inflicting upon ourselves. For what, and for why, I don’t know, and I don’t even know how to find out. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We cannot violate the truth of who we are within our dreams -- but we do. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I do. In my mind (or in my dreams), I am someone who eats good food. Who does not binge. Who values herself and takes care of herself. Yet in the real world, I am something much different. I think about it this way -- would I force my dog to eat "snausages" to the point that he felt sick? I don't even LET MY DOG eat "snausages". He eats facny-pants organic food with sweet potato and chicken. Snausages aren't good enough for him -- and forcing him to eat them (or anything) till he was sick would be considered abuse. Yet I force-feed <i>myself</i> this factory food until I feel like <i>I</i> might throw up. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tell me that is not a violation. Tell me that does not make you want to cry, for what so many of us have become. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Every day I do something, many things in fact, that violates who I am in my dreams. But I want to stop. So I am trying, every day, to do better. To be more like the person I am in my dreams. Because the price of these violations that is just too high.</span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-18834463874618954242011-06-21T13:24:00.002-04:002011-06-21T13:51:26.197-04:00you're still a kitten to me.<div style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0lcevGm6UnM/TgDUmwHmY9I/AAAAAAAABGg/GOZg4UxIJxQ/s1600/Beezus6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.8067357952232076" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Today my sweet cat Beezus turns 10 years old. I can’t believe it. </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eS8GRJfYq3I/TgDSTZI39-I/AAAAAAAABGY/S7ktZiOisi0/s1600/Beezus2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eS8GRJfYq3I/TgDSTZI39-I/AAAAAAAABGY/S7ktZiOisi0/s1600/Beezus2.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ulTatP5CZck/TgDO2XTnkeI/AAAAAAAABGQ/TJayLXjesNo/s1600/beezus1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.8067357952232076" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> Here are just a few 'interesting tidbits' about this girl: </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;">She has moved nine times, including a big move from Halifax to Toronto, where she spent 36 hours on a train, and I cried every time we stopped and they wouldn't let me go back to baggage car to check on her. Let's just say they always let me go check on her.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She loves to carry things from room to room -- pens, knitting needles, lipgloss. She brings them to wherever we are, and drops them near us, meowing up at us. “Good girl, Beezus!” we always exclaim. “Thank you for bringing us that pen / needle / lipgloss!” One evening we went to go to bed and discovered an array of plastic utensils on the bed, Beezus looking pleased with herself. </span></span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She loves baked goods -- in the early days, until I figured this out, I routinely came home to find shredded loaves of bread, half-eaten cookies on my bed. Still today, I always share my muffins with her. Muffins for my muffin. </span></span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She loves Shaun. I mean, LOVES him. And he loves her. To the point that I’ve had to honestly consider the possibility that if Shaun and I ever broke up, I would have to let her go with him. </span></span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Speaking of Shaun, the moment I first knew he was the guy for me was after we’d been dating for less than 2 weeks, Beezus went missing. She clawed her way through a screen overnight and by morning she was nowhere to be found. Shaun and I had plans to go somewhere but I called him and said, “I’m not sure I can make it, Beezus got outside and I can’t find her anywhere!” and promptly started crying, and he just said, “I’ll be there in five minutes” and five minutes later he was. He stayed with me all day, circling my block, shaking cans of treats, knocking on doors and harassing the construction guys to check their trucks. When she finally strolled home, nonchalantly, around 8pm, I scooped her up and hugged her, and Shaun hugged the both of us, and I knew that I would be SO. DAMN. LUCKY. to have him in my life.</span></span></li>
</ul><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What I love about Beezus is that she is never anything other than herself -- bossy and demanding and sweet and loving and hilarious and ballsy and unapologetic.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I cannot even tell you how many 'food photos' I have that turned out like this: </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-08JCY9yGQIM/TgDSTIsw7uI/AAAAAAAABGU/rc6HNUD40XY/s1600/beezus4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-08JCY9yGQIM/TgDSTIsw7uI/AAAAAAAABGU/rc6HNUD40XY/s320/beezus4.jpg" width="212" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VFMQF8iOC2c/TgDSTzJAtrI/AAAAAAAABGc/RJ8uVgrCx9Y/s1600/beezus3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VFMQF8iOC2c/TgDSTzJAtrI/AAAAAAAABGc/RJ8uVgrCx9Y/s320/beezus3.jpg" width="212" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She may have been dropped off on the doorstep of the <a href="http://www.bideawhile.org/">Bide-Awhile Animal Shelter</a>, but I feel like she was born inside my heart. When I grew, she grew. When I moved, she moved. When I sobbed on the edge of the bathtub, she licked the tops of my feet. If cats can be soul mates, she would be mine. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thank you, Beezus, for 10 years of never being what I expect, for never being less, for never waffling, for never fading. Thank you for cuddles, for cold shoulders, and for always sharing my muffins. Thank you for being you, my beautiful girl. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0lcevGm6UnM/TgDUmwHmY9I/AAAAAAAABGg/GOZg4UxIJxQ/s1600/Beezus6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0lcevGm6UnM/TgDUmwHmY9I/AAAAAAAABGg/GOZg4UxIJxQ/s320/Beezus6.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ulTatP5CZck/TgDO2XTnkeI/AAAAAAAABGQ/TJayLXjesNo/s1600/beezus1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ulTatP5CZck/TgDO2XTnkeI/AAAAAAAABGQ/TJayLXjesNo/s1600/beezus1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-2767857500503580492011-06-20T13:09:00.000-04:002011-06-20T13:09:08.381-04:00who we once were.<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.17027588291614726" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have kept a blog, or online journal of some kind or other, since 2001. 2001. That is ten years, ten very long years, ten years in which I went from being 20-years-old and oh so lost to 30 and very nearly found. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My very first ‘blog’ was on a site called Diary-X. I blogged there for a good four years, before eventually switching to LiveJournal. For part of those years, I considered myself a writer. I lived in Halifax and I wrote for The Coast and I did other freelance work, writing and editing, and I felt myself on a path. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometime in 2006, after I’d stopped writing there, Diary-X went through a catastrophic server failure, and every single post I’d written -- every single post every single person had written, in fact -- was lost. I was sad but I had moved on, I thought. I lived in Toronto by then, and had different things in my life, different people. I doubt I thought of myself as a writer anymore -- I was working in accounting and was feeling lost again, but I wasn’t the same person by that time. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But I have been thinking about that diary lately, and wishing I could read parts of it again. There is insight there, in who I was. I walked away from that person but there were things worth keeping. Those chapters didn’t need to be over -- those chapters weren’t even chapters, really, just commas and semi-colons, small punctuations in a longer story. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I was miraculously able to dig up a few of my old posts. It was so strange, happy and sad at the same time, to read through them again. I was struck by how much I noticed, how much I felt compelled to record, to remember, to imbue with meaning. I miss that, how I saw everything and everything meant something. That was worth keeping. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This was a post I wrote in 2004, and I thought it was pretty and although I don’t miss that aching loneliness, I miss the meanings. I miss the words. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I thought about pretending that I couldn’t remember who I wrote this about, but that didn’t seem fair, to me or to him. So this is for Jim, who knew me when I was lost, and for Shaun, who found me. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*****</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Saturday, February 28, 2004</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">little miss.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lying in my bed until the sun goes down, until hours after the sun goes down. I miss you. Tangled in my own sheets, in my own thoughts, in grey and white and shades of blue. I miss you. Wrapped in this blue rectangle that is my room, watching the sky go from blue to grey to black, sucking the colour out of my walls, out of my things, out of my air. I miss you. All I can see is night time snow, and all I can hear are cars and coughing, cars and coughing, and all I can taste and smell and feel is lonely. I miss you.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(I miss you.)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I want to be with you in the spring, when everything turns green and sweet-smelling. When all this snow melts. When the night-time takes longer to get here. When there is freshness and newness and sun and hope, and those first glimpses of new grass, of dry pavement.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(I miss you.)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I want to be with you in the summer, when it's too hot to put your bare feet on the sidewalk. When the air smells like salt. When the night-time takes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">forever</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to get here. When everything is as alive as it's ever going to be, when the rain breaks like bread, just as glorious.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(I miss you.)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But mostly, I want to be with you now, in between these blue walls, as this sun goes down. I want you here when the light goes away. We'll bring our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">own</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> colour, and a picnic. We'll bring our own spring, our own summer. We'll melt snow between these blue walls, collect it in a giant cup and drink it down. We'll wash away the taste of lonely.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(I miss you.)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-36226761008140931402011-06-14T10:05:00.002-04:002011-06-14T10:05:00.280-04:00This was me yesterday at around 7pm when I got home:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4UcEKilAVS4/Tfa0WKyyiPI/AAAAAAAABGE/PiQHW3RhZNE/s1600/Run-12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4UcEKilAVS4/Tfa0WKyyiPI/AAAAAAAABGE/PiQHW3RhZNE/s640/Run-12.jpg" width="425" /></a> <br />
<br />
And this was me by 8pm:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GMJQgiWunU/Tfa0XMn1eJI/AAAAAAAABGI/dl5WCEhi1zY/s1600/Run-13.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5GMJQgiWunU/Tfa0XMn1eJI/AAAAAAAABGI/dl5WCEhi1zY/s640/Run-13.jpg" width="425" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K1SzQQ-1PWg/Tfa0UGn8reI/AAAAAAAABGA/rFXMz-FdytE/s1600/Run-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>Please ignore the mess in the background. And don't ask me why there is an orange juice carton on the floor. Feel free, however, to direct that question to Shaun. :)<br />
<br />
Anyway, yesterday <a href="http://acakeforawife.blogspot.com/2011/06/working-on-my-fitness.html">I promised</a> that I'd work out this week -- and yesterday I DID work out. You know what? It was just time to just bite the bullet. I decided to tackle the Couch to 5K again, so I did Week 1, Day 1.<br />
<br />
Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard. I mean, I didn't die. Progress! In fact, the above photo was snapped AFTER my work out -- I expected to have one of those red-faced sweaty post-workout pics, but nada. I recovered pretty quickly from this one. I think that's good though -- ease back in, and all that.<br />
<br />
I plan to do my second run on Wednesday. Good times!<br />
<br />
Oh yeah, one thing you may have noted from the above photos -- my hair is short! Yes, I chopped it all off a couple of months ago. So far I LOVE having short hair. So easy peasy!!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K1SzQQ-1PWg/Tfa0UGn8reI/AAAAAAAABGA/rFXMz-FdytE/s1600/Run-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K1SzQQ-1PWg/Tfa0UGn8reI/AAAAAAAABGA/rFXMz-FdytE/s640/Run-1.jpg" width="425" /></a> <br />
<br />
Self portrait outtake: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K1SzQQ-1PWg/Tfa0UGn8reI/AAAAAAAABGA/rFXMz-FdytE/s1600/Run-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xszB3-3dcCk/Tfa0XiWJacI/AAAAAAAABGM/LNyXdIji8uk/s1600/Run-14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xszB3-3dcCk/Tfa0XiWJacI/AAAAAAAABGM/LNyXdIji8uk/s640/Run-14.jpg" width="425" /> </a><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-53753981875858013582011-06-13T12:00:00.002-04:002011-06-13T12:00:07.767-04:00working on my fitness.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Forgive me, weight-loss buddies, for I have sinned. I have completely fallen off the workout bandwagon. And I miss it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I haven’t been a total sloth. I still track my steps, and I know that I get about 10,000 on my very lightest days – just with going to and from work and walking the dog. Most days I average around 12-14,000, and it’s not uncommon for me to even hit 18,000. I thought that was enough, but I think I need to push myself more than that. I need the cardio and the muscle work that comes from actual, intentional exercise. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The thing is, I’m really struggling to figure out what fits into my schedule. I don’t know how people with kids do it. I just have a DOG and it seems to now eat up all my time. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I need to keep reminding myself that no option is going to be perfect. I just need to do something – ANYTHING. I’m thinking that my best options at the moment might be stuff I can do at home, or on my own time – 30 Day Shred or other DVDs, Couch To 5K or a similar running program, or something like that. I also think I could squeeze in a yoga class on the weekend. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Yet for some reason, I put off starting. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I downloaded a Couch To 5K app onto my phone WEEKS ago, but have yet to use it. My most recent excuse is that I don’t have the right pants to run in. My pants all fall down when I run, for some reason. (No, it’s definitely not because they’re too big. Sadly! I just seem to only be able to wear workout pants with a drawstring waist, which I don’t currently own.) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Isn’t that lame? I am rolling my eyes at MYSELF right now.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So I guess the reason I’m writing all this is to say: I intend to get back to working out. In fact, consider this a promise. I WILL work out this week. And I WILL come back to tell you about it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Is anyone else interested in starting a running plan? Or other home-workout commitment? Maybe we could do some kind of summer challenge. </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-88875844916535402972011-06-02T10:30:00.002-04:002011-06-02T10:30:02.698-04:00abcdefood<b><span style="font-weight: normal;">I found this on <a href="http://amerrylife.com/2011/05/26/abcdefood/">A Merry Life</a> and thought it would be fun to do here. As you know, <a href="http://www.foodnotfuss.com/">I love to talk about food</a>. </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>A is for Apple, what’s your favorite variety?</b><br />
Honeycrisp for the win! Since those are available for such a short time though I most frequently buy Gala.<br />
<br />
<b>B: is for Bread, regardless of nutrition, calories, or whole grains what is your favorite type to have a nice big piece of?</b><br />
It would depend on what I'm eating. Rye is awesome with mustard and sliced meats, but I admit that if I'm just eating BREAD you can't top a big old whole hunk of Italian white bread with butter. Mmm.<br />
<br />
<b>C: is for Cereal what is your favorite kind currently (just one!)</b><br />
I love the Compliments "Balance" brand granola. I eat it almost every morning. Any of their varieties are good.<br />
<br />
<b>D: is for Doughnuts, you might not currently be eating them but what kind do you fancy?</b><br />
I’m not a huge donut fan, but I could devour an entire box of Sour Cream Glazed. <br />
<br />
<b>E: is for Eggs, how would you like yours prepared?</b><br />
Scrambled! With lots of fun toppings like veggies and olives and cheese.<br />
<br />
<b>F: is for Fat Free, what is your favorite fat free product?</b><br />
I don't think I buy anything marketed as 'fat free.' I think fat free milk products (yogurt, cheese) are gross, likewise for salad dressings and other random stuff. Oh, I guess the one thing I do eat is TWIZZLERS. Shaun is addicted so we almost always have some in our house. <br />
<br />
<b>G: is for Groceries, where do you purchase yours at?</b><br />
I mix it up a lot. Foodland, Bloor Street Market, The Big Carrot, Loblaws, Metro, Masselli's -- I always combine groceries with whatever else I'm doing so it totally just depends where I am.<br />
<br />
<b>H: is for Hot Beverages, what is your favorite hot drink?</b><br />
Coffee, far and away. I could live with never having any other hot beverage again, but I could never give up coffee. <br />
<br />
<b>I: is for Ice Cream, pick a favorite flavor and add a fun topping</b>.<br />
Cookies and cream! Oh my gosh, that stuff is so good. I actually never add toppings though. Although sometimes if I'm eating plain vanilla I will crumble a cookie on top to make my own version of Cookies And Cream. <br />
<br />
<b>J: is for Jams or Jellies, do you eat them, and if so what kind and flavor?</b><br />
I eat them once in awhile, I guess my favourite is actually apricot preserves. Gosh I feel really poncy saying that. In my head I just said "apricot preserves" with a snooty British accent. <br />
<br />
<b>K: is for Kashi, name your favorite Kashi product?</b><br />
Hmm, I guess I like their Go-Lean cereals. Oh, and those granola bars with the pumpkin on them. I totally forgot about those until right this second!<br />
<br />
<b>L</b><b>: is for Lunch, what was yours today?</b><br />
I haven't eaten lunch yet today, but yesterday was a trainwreck -- half a box of Vegetable Thins with some salsa, and a Starbucks Frappucino. Someone put me out of my misery.<br />
<br />
<b>M: is for microwave, what is your favorite microwave meal/snack?</b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;">I do a lot in the microwave! My favourite is to<a href="http://www.foodnotfuss.com/how-to-microwave-an-egg/"> cook an egg</a> or bake or a sweet potato. </b><br />
<br />
<b>N: is for nutrients, do you like carbs, fats, or proteins best?</b><br />
Mmm, carbs. Although it is the combination of carbs and fats that really does me in: macaroni and cheese, greasy potato chips, buttery popcorn, any kind of baked goods...<br />
<br />
<b>O: is for oil, what kind do you like to use?</b><br />
Typically olive, although I got a salad the other day that has totally rekindled my love of SESAME OIL. <br />
<br />
<b>P: is for protein, how do you get yours?</b><br />
Lots of chicken, eggs, tofu and yogurt. <br />
<br />
<b>Q: is for Quaker, how do you like your oats?</b><br />
I almost always eat my oats exactly the same way. I cook 1/3 cup of oats with 2/3 cup of water, in the microwave for 1:10. Then stir in about a tsp of brown sugar, some cinnamon, and about 1/3 cup of cottage cheese. Top with about 1/2 cup of fresh of frozen (thawed) fruit, some shredded coconut, and flax meal. So good. I could eat this forever. <br />
<br />
<b>R: is for roasting, what is your favorite thing to roast?</b><br />
Sweet potatoes! They make the best oven fries. <br />
<br />
<b>S: is for sandwich, what’s your favorite kind?</b><br />
I LOVE breakfast sandwiches. I microwave an egg and add some cheese, spinach, tomato, and throw it on a sandwich thin. <br />
<br />
<b>T: is for travel, how do you handle eating while traveling?</b><br />
I have a whole philosophy about <a href="http://acakeforawife.blogspot.com/2009/06/vacation-eating.html">how to eat when I travel</a>. Mostly it involves eating for ultimate enjoyment. So that might mean treating myself to fabulous desserts, fancy drinks, unhealthy entrees -- whatever will make the experience better. But it ALSO means I try not to eat to the point of feeling overly stuffed, because then that kills the experience. <br />
<br />
<b>U: is for unique, what is one of your weirdest food combos?</b><br />
I love the combo of salty / sweet or savoury / sweet, so I probably eat a lot of things people find weird. Like I will make a regular wrap with chicken, tomatoes, spinach, cheese, sprouts -- and then I will smear the whole thing with apricot preserves. (Yes, I totally just said that in a British accent again.)<br />
<br />
<b>V: is for vitamins, what kind do you take</b>?<br />
NONE! Very bad. <br />
<br />
<b>W: is for wasabi, yay or nay?</b><br />
yay, with a lowercase y. It's good but only so sparingly. I also had wasabi mayonaise on a big walnut mushroom veggie-burger once, THAT was awesome. <br />
<br />
<b>X: is for </b><b>XRAY. if we xrayed your belly right now, what food would we see?</b><br />
Coffee and a pumpkin scone. <a href="http://acakeforawife.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-do-not-heart-mornings.html">Is anyone shocked by that? </a><br />
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<b>Y: is for youth, what food reminds you of your childhood?</b><br />
Specific stuff my mom used to make: her spaghetti sauce, pork chops with mushroom sauce, her amazing stuffing that she made at Christmas, her 'fruit cocktail cake', sugar cookies. Mmmm, I miss my mom. Some packaged stuff reminds me of being a kid too, like "Lunchables", ice cream cones, and those packaged snack cakes like Joe Louis. <br />
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<b>Z: is for zucchini, how do you prepare it?</b><br />
I love zucchini. I love it grilled and plain, or I like to shred it into 'pasta' -- I use a carrot peeler -- and then saute it with a wedge of Laughing Cow. Mmmm. <br />
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<b>YOUR TURN. </b><br />
Pick a letter and tell me what YOU like! Or let me know if you fill this out on your own blog. I love reading about what other people eat.<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-80378663656018866932011-05-25T17:26:00.000-04:002011-05-25T17:26:57.753-04:00i do not heart mornings.I saw this poster on the subway the other day, and it actually made me 'lol', as they say.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NEK01iV5i04/Td1yz6zwdXI/AAAAAAAABFk/Sy32pwZSO7k/s1600/subwayphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NEK01iV5i04/Td1yz6zwdXI/AAAAAAAABFk/Sy32pwZSO7k/s320/subwayphoto.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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You see, I too am not a morning person. In fact, I so identified with this poster that I was inspired to create my very own. Although it is kind of an ad for Starbucks now. Because that is how I roll.<br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MmLFviCjM50/Td1y2sO2fMI/AAAAAAAABFo/Huw0dCOzzYI/s1600/mornings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" id=":current_picnik_image" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uUuCZWsCiTc/Td1zMjKfB4I/AAAAAAAABFs/-ABTtPzVDhM/s1600/14241743656_MVLM3.jpg" /></a></div>What can I say, sometimes a girl just needs a breakfast pastry.<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-17946999424092413322011-05-23T16:33:00.000-04:002011-05-23T16:33:50.486-04:00floating in outdoor space.Our house closes on May 31!!! Can you believe that? In a week, we'll be homeowners. Not going to lie -- my mind is a little bit blown.<br />
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One of the things I LOVE about our place is that we actually have some outdoor space. Not a lot, mind you -- this IS downtown Toronto afterall -- but we have an enclosed back patio AND a balcony. (Actually, we're part of a townhouse complex, and we're the only ones that have that much space - all the other units only have the patio. We got lucky!)<br />
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Having outdoor space means I've been <strike>haunted</strike> psyched about the idea of gardening and outdoor decorating. <br />
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I got my herbs started about two weeks ago, and they aren't dead yet, so I'm considering this a pretty good achievement.<br />
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We've got:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_Vw4WFjYws/Tdq9M7fn81I/AAAAAAAABE0/ntCnXbaCalc/s1600/Patio-11.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_Vw4WFjYws/Tdq9M7fn81I/AAAAAAAABE0/ntCnXbaCalc/s1600/Patio-11.jpg" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_Vw4WFjYws/Tdq9M7fn81I/AAAAAAAABE0/ntCnXbaCalc/s1600/Patio-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><i> Left to right: chives, tarragon, rosemary, thyme and dill. </i><br />
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As well as:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rApNfKtSGyQ/Tdq9KMTfGzI/AAAAAAAABEw/m1BRnJ0IcKg/s1600/Patio-12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rApNfKtSGyQ/Tdq9KMTfGzI/AAAAAAAABEw/m1BRnJ0IcKg/s1600/Patio-12.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<i>Left to right: peppermint, spearmint, and basil.</i><br />
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Keep on keeping on, little buddies. You can do it!<br />
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I also randomly bought a fern. I have no idea why! I was at Home Depot and briefly became possessed. I was like, "I HAVE TO HAVE THIS." <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cs7GUIBQi_s/Tdq9rLM5CtI/AAAAAAAABFY/SIGuoU7sjLI/s1600/Patio-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cs7GUIBQi_s/Tdq9rLM5CtI/AAAAAAAABFY/SIGuoU7sjLI/s1600/Patio-2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Haha! Well, ferns are nice, I guess. <br />
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I've also been thinking about what exactly to DO with our outdoor space. This is what we're starting with:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9fPU0kFRfVk/Tdq9RoZ2F9I/AAAAAAAABE4/Ccut6_AiMjU/s1600/Patio-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9fPU0kFRfVk/Tdq9RoZ2F9I/AAAAAAAABE4/Ccut6_AiMjU/s1600/Patio-1.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is the back patio, as seen from our living room. I think this photo makes it look a little longer than it is, but it's a good idea. It's basically a pen at the moment, but I think it has potential. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's a view facing the opposite direction: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CqPF66IOVMg/Tdq9UfA_SQI/AAAAAAAABE8/t60Vj7fmdsw/s1600/Patio-3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CqPF66IOVMg/Tdq9UfA_SQI/AAAAAAAABE8/t60Vj7fmdsw/s1600/Patio-3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We're inheriting the barbecue and table/chairs from the sellers, so those are staying, and you can see the fern peeking out from the side of the BBQ. We're also keeping that long black bench. My bike will be moved. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Of course, there's this big piece of furniture to contend with as well:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qyVo5D4eYhY/Tdq9amA_OjI/AAAAAAAABFA/JGbzmpk2jlE/s1600/Patio-4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qyVo5D4eYhY/Tdq9amA_OjI/AAAAAAAABFA/JGbzmpk2jlE/s1600/Patio-4.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">No idea what to do with that. Nothing to do but chuck it, I guess. Hee! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What I'd really like to do with this space is some kind of sectional sofa-type seating, over in that corner where my bike is. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p0-U8K3vEgY/Tdq9dM_crRI/AAAAAAAABFE/rG2iZR3WuCQ/s1600/Patio-5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p0-U8K3vEgY/Tdq9dM_crRI/AAAAAAAABFE/rG2iZR3WuCQ/s1600/Patio-5.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I really want something cozy and friendly, especially since we already have a table and chairs at the other end. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These pictures have been my inspiration -- how cute would something like this be?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0PJs93uLlBQ/TdrA247x0gI/AAAAAAAABFc/z3OwwZVgU-k/s1600/patio+inspiration+1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0PJs93uLlBQ/TdrA247x0gI/AAAAAAAABFc/z3OwwZVgU-k/s1600/patio+inspiration+1.gif" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5mxePqA_3lg/TdrA3g43gUI/AAAAAAAABFg/Ns3ZtK_G_YQ/s1600/patio+inspiration+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5mxePqA_3lg/TdrA3g43gUI/AAAAAAAABFg/Ns3ZtK_G_YQ/s320/patio+inspiration+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Love!! <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then of course we have the balcony. I'm totally stumped on that one. My herbs are up there right now because it gets full glorious baking hot sun during the day. So I'm thinking maybe lounge chairs for sunning? I don't know!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is what it looks like when you first step out the door: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXrS0GAs-Gc/Tdq9f2qCSHI/AAAAAAAABFI/4qbyxYNoMtA/s1600/Patio-7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXrS0GAs-Gc/Tdq9f2qCSHI/AAAAAAAABFI/4qbyxYNoMtA/s1600/Patio-7.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And this is looking to your left: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j72FzBGIVg8/Tdq9iG1dk8I/AAAAAAAABFM/KFAJXLHD1lU/s1600/Patio-8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j72FzBGIVg8/Tdq9iG1dk8I/AAAAAAAABFM/KFAJXLHD1lU/s1600/Patio-8.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is standing at the far end and looking back towards the door: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3fc9SIzJzzE/Tdq9krqPjII/AAAAAAAABFQ/VlbDEiKDxZE/s1600/Patio-9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3fc9SIzJzzE/Tdq9krqPjII/AAAAAAAABFQ/VlbDEiKDxZE/s1600/Patio-9.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And this is a jail-break in progress: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aFpMEbRAip0/Tdq9nZ6URcI/AAAAAAAABFU/deQqfOCkRcY/s1600/Patio-10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aFpMEbRAip0/Tdq9nZ6URcI/AAAAAAAABFU/deQqfOCkRcY/s1600/Patio-10.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I purposefully didn't bother tidying anything up, so these are true 'before' pictures. I doubt I'll have everything finished this summer, but I'm anxious to see how it evolves. I mean, it can only get better, right?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unless I just buy more and more ferns. That might be scary. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-81434129637423380732011-05-01T12:00:00.000-04:002011-05-01T12:00:35.736-04:00oh right I have a blog.Hi! Hello! Hey!<br />
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Shaun reminded me today that's it's been a dog's age since I've updated here -- or anywhere really. I feel like I have been so insanely busy lately. Work has been busy and home has been busy, and I certainly haven't done anything even remotely related to weight loss recently, so I've neglected blogging.<br />
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I'd like to still be able to update here once in awhile though, but I think the focus will not so much be on weight loss, or even really healthy living. Just, you know, life. We have a ton going on at the moment (more on that in a bit!), and healthy living hasn't been such a huge focus for me. I'm still doing what I can, but it's definitely not my life's project at the moment.<br />
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So what's going on with us? Well, for one thing -- we got a dog. This dog:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p-RqIPDptIs/Tb1_h4Qf-TI/AAAAAAAABEY/jdoR8G_j-s8/s1600/Riley-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p-RqIPDptIs/Tb1_h4Qf-TI/AAAAAAAABEY/jdoR8G_j-s8/s400/Riley-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NZa_yjai_lk/Tb1_m9hEVcI/AAAAAAAABEc/n4EI6tb6z64/s1600/Riley-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NZa_yjai_lk/Tb1_m9hEVcI/AAAAAAAABEc/n4EI6tb6z64/s400/Riley-4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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Isn't he the sweetest? He's a 5.5 year old field-coated American Cocker Spaniel. We named him Riley, and he's a rescue, originally from a puppymill right here in Ontario. We've had him about 5 weeks now, and we are all slowly adapting to our new lives together. It's been a bit touch and go for the past couple weeks, because we found out he CRIES the whole time we're not home, and is bothering our neighbour, but we're working with a trainer and I think we're seeing some progress, so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to keep him.<br />
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If you like dogs or are interested in reading more about our adventures with Riley, you can check out <a href="http://www.roomforadog.com/">Room For A Dog</a>, a (randomly updated) blog I started to chronicle our new life together.<br />
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Other news? Well, remember when Shaun and I moved into a new townhouse back in October? The one with the beautiful kitchen?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Aek6G5Ks_oU/TGAOA9JS50I/AAAAAAAABCQ/KPQiWDNwZ7o/s1600/kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Aek6G5Ks_oU/TGAOA9JS50I/AAAAAAAABCQ/KPQiWDNwZ7o/s400/kitchen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
At the time we were renting it, but in a strange twist of fate, we've been given the opportunity to buy it, so we're doing it! By the end of the month, we should officially be HOME OWNERS. Whoa.<br />
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So we've been quite busy with contracts and mortgage brokers and lawyers and condo boards and all the other stuff that goes along with purchasing a home. It's been an interesting process, and fortunately not too stressful because we never had to worry about finding the perfect place, competing with other potential purchasers, etc. And we won't have to move! So overall, as far as home-buying goes, it's been pretty low-stress, but busy and intense all the same. <br />
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I guess for old-times sake, I will mention weight. I've basically maintained the same weight now since about November. Although it's about 15-20 lbs higher than my lowest weight from last summer, it's still a weight that I'm relatively comfortable at, and one that seems pretty easy for me to maintain. So although I'd like to eventually get back to where I was, it's just not a priority at the moment. For now, I'm good where I am, especially since I have so much other stuff to focus on right now. <br />
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So I guess that's it! A little update on what's been going on with me. I won't promise any frequent updates on the blog, but I'll be here when I can, especially since I've taken the pressure off myself to blog solely about weight/health stuff.<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-37086890320518583682011-01-06T14:10:00.000-05:002011-01-06T14:10:25.751-05:00sugar in my coffee, sugar in my tea<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">My week back on track is going swimmingly, how about you guys?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Cutting out sugar is actually going really well. I don’t intend to do this forever, but I felt like I needed a week away from the stuff to break out of that crappy cycle. The one thing I’m still eating this week is fruit, and even some dried fruit. I know that stuff can have a lot of sugar too but I feel like it’s different than other added sugars, you know?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The one thing I’m the most proud of this week is that I stopped putting Splenda in my coffee. I typically have two coffees a day, with two Splendas each. I would often think about cutting that out, and once in awhile I would do just one Splenda, but for some reason I never ‘dared’ to try my coffee without at least that one sweetener. I’m not sure why I was so worried – I guess I thought I wouldn’t like it, but it’s not like I couldn’t grab a couple Splendas for the road and add them in later if I was really finding it intolerable. But I just had this weird little block about it, like I won’t be able to do it, so why even try?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Now, I’ll be honest, I don’t love the unsweetened coffee. After this week is over, I’m not sure what I’ll do – if I’ll try to persevere and learn to love unsweetened coffees, or if I’ll just return to one little Splenda packet, or maybe try to get into honey or raw sugar or something else a little more natural. I’m honestly not sure. But the cool thing is I tried something even though I didn’t think it would work for me. I have always been very ‘set in my ways’, which in some ways is good, but there are a few habits I just never thought I could break (and wasn’t even sure I wanted to.) But there’s no harm in trying, right? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">I snuck a peak at the scale this morning, and things are definitely moving in the right direction. Just need to tackle the weekend, and I’ll be home free. Having one perfect week under my belt always makes me feel so great and like I can do anything, so I’m determined to wake up on Monday morning with no regrets. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">PS: Speaking of coffee, did you guys hear that <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Starbucks-gives-logo-a-new-apf-1766882105.html">Starbucks is changing its logo</a>? I don't like it. To me, Starbucks is more about the typeface than the mermaid chick. Their font is so recognizable that sometimes I see it in other places / on other brands and still immediately think "Starbucks". Whereas I don't even think I could even have described the mermaid chick without looking at my cup. Very strange decision, I thought. </span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-68383731690786510212011-01-03T13:11:00.000-05:002011-01-03T13:11:01.012-05:00day 1: back in business.Today marked the first day of getting back on track -- so far so good! I weighed in at exactly 189.0, so I updated my sidebar to reflect that. I decided I didn't want to be too focused on getting 'back' to my lowest weight -- instead, 189 will be my starting weight and anything I lose from here on in is just great.<br />
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One major thing I need to focus on this week is SUGAR DETOX. I've seriously eaten so many cookies and chocolates over the past month -- and aside from the calories it adds, it also seems to affect my mood, energy level, and cravings. The more sugar I eat, the more I seem to crave it, and the more I seem to need to satisfy the craving. For instance, I've been making coffee at home the past couple of weeks, and yesterday I went out and got a Starbucks, adding my normal amount of sweeteners (two), and it actually didn't taste sweet enough. I resisted adding a third sweetener but it made me realize how much I'd upped my sugar tolerance this month.<br />
<br />
So for this week I'm making a real effort not to have any extra sugars. I'm making a quiche so that I can have savoury breakfasts, and I'm going to stay away from sweets (candy and cookies, obviously, but also granola bars and other snacky foods.) I'm still going to have lots of fruit, but that'll be it.<br />
<br />
Please tell me I'm not the only one who overloaded on sugar over the holidays? Are you doing a detox this week too? The thing I really noticed is that sweets (and alcohol) no longer felt like a treat, you know? I like when they are more rare occurances in my diet and I actually ENJOY eating them, rather than just pounding them back out of habit or need. <div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-59179650991744988492011-01-02T13:44:00.000-05:002011-01-02T13:44:49.475-05:00resolution 1: weight lossSince this is ostensibly still a health and weight loss blog, I thought I'd do up a post about how I plan to tackle the first of <a href="http://acakeforawife.blogspot.com/2010/12/11-in-2011.html">my resolutions:</a> weight loss.<br />
<br />
I've already admitted that I gained back about 20 lbs over the last six or seven months. I can definitely see and feel the difference in myself: none of my clothes fit right, I have less energy, my back hurts more often, and I've been having a lot of those moments where I look in the mirror and don't like what I see. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think those thoughts are exactly weight-related -- a year ago, being at this weight was THRILLING. But I think what I see reflected in the mirror now is a general lack of vitality -- last year I was working out and eating well, I felt happy and confident and capable. These days I feel sluggish, and a bit sad. <br />
<br />
Although I think I mentioned that my resolution was to reach my goal weight this year, that's not exactly accurate. My goal is really just to get my act together again and go back to healthy eating and working out. I want to feel good again. I expect to drop some weight in the process, but really I just want to get back to my old ways, and my old self. (To be honest, I don't even know if I HAVE a goal weight, although I'd like to see what the vicinity of the 150s would look and feel like for me.)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Step 1: <b>planning</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>I've already sat down and planned out a week of eating, complete with recipes, points and a grocery list. I plan to head to the grocery store later today, and even make up one of the recipes this evening (a crustless quiche that I plan to eat for grab-and-go breakfasts this week). Having this plan already makes me feel excited and ready to succeed.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Step 2: <b>tracking</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>While I hope that there will come a point in my life that I won't need to track, for now I do. I made the decision to join Weight Watchers online, so I'll be using their tracking system (so happy they have an iPhone app now! Phew.) I already tracked a few of my recipes so I could figure out the points in advance, and I plan to go through a few other grocery items when I get back to the store. The new plan is still VERY unfamiliar to me, so I really have to work at this for a few weeks.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Step 3:</span><b><span style="font-size: large;"> fitness!</span> </b><br />
<b> </b>Here is the thing I think about fitness though: it's not crucial to weightloss, and I no longer want to do it just to log my calories burned, or track my activity points. But the reality is that I feel better - physically, mentally and emotionally - when I work out. It really does give me more energy, seems to make me want to eat better, and just gives me that certain 'glow', you know?<br />
<br />
So my plan so far is this: I signed up for 8 weeks of boot camp with <a href="http://www.fitchicks.ca/">Fit Chicks</a>, Shaun and I joined a once-a-week curling team with some friends, and I plan to get in one yoga class a week as well. I think this is a really good mix of fun and focus, and I'm really looking forward to it. (I plan to blog seperately about the curling and the boot camp, since both are new and kinda exciting to me.)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Step 4: <b>hydration</b></span><br />
Although it seems minor, I absolutely can't say enough about this. I have noticed a direct correlation between my moods, my cravings, and my water consumption. The less water I drink, the more depressed and lethargic I am, and the more I crave sugar. I'm aiming for 3L a day this week. <br />
<br />
So there you go. Nothing fancy -- no magic or gimmicks. Just old-fashioned back-to-basics good times. And you know what? I can't wait.<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-80955708596714305792010-12-31T13:20:00.000-05:002010-12-31T13:20:43.771-05:0011 in 2011.I am just astounded that today is December 31st, and the last day of 2010. WOWZA. This has been a good year, in most ways, though I struggled with a few things.<br />
<br />
I looked back to see if I made a list of resolutions for 2010, but I couldn't find anything. I think that some of my priorities were to get a new apartment, get a pug, pay off some debt, and be permanent at my job. So three out of four isn't too bad (still no pug, but maybe this year!)<br />
<br />
A few major things from 2010:<br />
- Moved into a really nice townhouse<br />
- Was made permanent at my job<br />
- My cat had to have a tumor removed from her leg<br />
- Travelled to Cuba, and Chicago<br />
- Payed off one student load ($5000 yayyyyyyyyy), only to discover another one that had been 'missing' for the last four years ($9000 boooooooooo)<br />
- Filed my taxes for the first time in four years - and filed all four years worth! (Don't judge! I am bad with financial matters, but I'm getting better).<br />
- Started a food blog, which has been woefully neglected lately, but which actually seemed to be doing pretty well. (Did I ever mention I did a post for CBS News? Yeah, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20021446-10391704.html">I totally did</a>. <br />
- Took my first yoga class, and loved it<br />
- Lost and gained about 20 lbs -- yeah, I'm at about the exact same weight I was at this time last year.<br />
<br />
This year I wanted to actually sit and write out my resolutions for this year. All the better to focus on them, right? I liked <a href="http://www.ohsheglows.com/">Angela's</a> idea of having 11 resolutions for 2011, so that's what I did.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>1. Weightloss.</b> This is number one on my list at the moment, mostly because of how crappily I've been eating (and thus feeling) over the holidays. I'd like to finally get to my goal weight this year. Back to tracking, back to good choices, back to water and fruits and vegetables, back to feeling like myself.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Finances.</b> Boring but necessary. I've done a great job of catching up on my debt, but I need to go further with this. I need to sort out my pension stuff at work, put some of my savings into RRSPs, and I'd like to save more money each month so that we can afford a downpayment on a house sometime in the next couple of years. I also would like to pay off the student loan I 'discovered' last year -- I'm doing pretty well already, but I'd just like it gone.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Blogging.</b> I really miss it! I put a lot of pressure on myself and when I can't be the best at something, I decide not to even try, which is sort of what happened to me with blogging this year. There are a lot of popular bloggers out there, but I don't have to be one of them to still add something valuable to the conversation. Plus I just like you guys. :)<br />
<br />
<b>4. Photography.</b> This is something else I enjoy but avoid because I know I'll probably never be amazing. But I'd like to keep at it and not talk myself out of it before I even pick up my camera. I don't think I can commit to one of those 'photo a day' projects, but I'd like to aim for a photo a week. The first step of this is that I HAVE to find the cord for my camera, or buy a new one. I haven't been able to find it since we moved, in October.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Driver's License.</b> This is just a small thing, but I really need to get my driver's license. I don't even actually need to learn to drive, but it is REALLY annoying not having a valid piece of ID except for my passport, which I'm not keen to carry around with me all the time. I almost couldn't get some Christmas parcels from the post office because I didn't have any ID. Blargh.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>6. Pug!</b> I really really really want this to be the year Shaun and I get a pug. So much cuteness!<br />
<br />
<b>7. Work.</b> I don't like to blog too much about work related stuff, but there are a few things I want to do in the new year to be better at my job and overall make the time I spend at work more pleasant.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Family and friends.</b> I would like to be better at keeping in touch with people. Right now I'm kind of a jerk and barely talk to anyone in my family. I haven't even mailed out there Christmas stuff yet. I'd like to be better about calling, and hopefully Shaun and I will even make it out to New Brunswick this summer.<br />
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<b>9. Cooking.</b> Over the past year, I've found that I really enjoy cooking, and I'd like to do more of it. I want to cook at least a few times a week, and actually use more of the cookbooks that I have.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b> 10. Accumulate less.</b> Shaun and I are both really bad for buying stuff. I seriously buy SO MUCH STUFF. Books, DVDs, magazines, kitchen stuff, clothes, shoes, make-up, whatever. I honestly don't think a day goes by that I don't come home from work with a shopping bag. It's not even (only) the money I'm spending, it's just the clutter and accumulation. We really and truly do not need as much stuff as we have. We both decided January was going to be a total freeze on purchases (with the exception of consumable stuff like groceries and coffees), and I'd like to make this a real effort this year.<br />
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<b>11. FUN.</b> I may have mentioned this already, but I really want 2011 to be about having more fun. I feel like I've been so serious the past couple of years, and I think that's been good, but I want to lighten up in 2011. Life is too short to be constantly worrying and wondering and wishing. I want to enjoy the moments I'm in, do more things I enjoy, and be grateful for what I have. <br />
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Phew! This post has taken me forever to write. Now I'm off to get supplies for tonight's new year's eve dinner (Shaun and I are staying in and having a nice dinner with wine and champagne), and clean the house a bit so that tomorrow starts off on a good note.<br />
<br />
I wish all of you the happiest of evenings, and I hope that we ALL have marvelous 2011s. Do everything joyfully, and I'll see you all 'next year!" :)<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-74869689675058311092010-12-03T21:56:00.001-05:002010-12-03T21:57:44.712-05:00reverb 10: a moment.<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Today's <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb 10</a> prompt:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><blockquote><div class="entry"><b>December 3 –</b> <i>Moment. </i><br />
Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). <br />
(Author: Ali Edwards)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Funnily enough, I think the moments that I felt the most alive were the very first of the year. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, Shaun and I were in Cuba. We had gone down for Christmas, staying at a gorgeous 5-star resort. We had spent the last five days lying by the pool, talking, reading books, taking naps, eating calamari, and drinking mojitos. It was basically my dream vacation. It was also our first sun vacation ever, so everything felt like a beautiful revelation: you mean we don’t have to trek around the city and try to muster enthusiasm for our 4<sup>th</sup> museum of the week? You mean they’ll bring us beer after beer, for just a few pesos in tips? You mean I really don’t have to do anything but lie here? You mean the pool has a bar that I can SWIM to? You mean these pina coladas DON’T have any calories?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Okay, that last one might have just been a lie I told myself, but still: it was a wonderful vacation. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">New Year’s Eve was our last full day there. The resort hosted a huge buffet lunch down on the beach. We sat with our new friends, two sisters from Calgary, and we ate hamburgers and drank cold mojitos, pushing our cups into the sand between sips. We stayed for hours, just watching the ocean and feeling the breeze, knowing tomorrow we’d be leaving. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Dinner was to be a fancier affair. We went back to our rooms, napped, showered and went to our 8 o’clock reservation. We had steak, lobster tails, more wine than I can remember. They gave us champagne, glass after glass, and they gave us noisemakers and masquerade-style masks. After dinner we met the sisters in the lobby bar for more drinks and mingling, and then we joined the party outside. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In front of the resort they had set up a band-stand. A Cuban group was playing music, and they had costumed dancers working their way through the crowds. I’d say most of the guests were out there, dancing away, everyone dressed in their ‘resort finest’. We were all stuffed from dinner, happy from champagne. Shaun and I almost never go dancing – we are not the type – but we danced that night. The resort was mostly older people – I’d say the average age was 50 – and everyone seemed so care-free, and I think Shaun and I are secretly a 60-year-old couple anyway, and so we just fell right into it. At midnight we all counted down, and then we toasted, and then I got to kiss the person I love the most in the world, and then we danced to Auld Lang Syne. I have always loved that song, regardless, but it was truly one of the most perfect moments of my life. Those first couple minutes of 2010, I felt very much alive, and very much myself. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BX1fYIp1bnc/TPmtbwCeeHI/AAAAAAAABDA/BoKxg2E3vzI/s1600/Cuba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BX1fYIp1bnc/TPmtbwCeeHI/AAAAAAAABDA/BoKxg2E3vzI/s400/Cuba.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">My only regret from the evening is that I have no pictures. But I dug this one up of one of our days at the pool. </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Of course, even as I was typing this out I was hitting up travel websites. I would love to go back there again this winter, if finances allow. I think I'm totally meant for resort vacations. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Have you ever been on a sun trip? Is it seriously like the best thing ever?</span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-80479473615310570512010-12-02T21:48:00.000-05:002010-12-02T21:48:21.968-05:00reverb 10: writing.Today's <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb 10</a> Prompt:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><b>December 2</b> – <i>Writing</i>.<br />
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?<br />
(Author: Leo Babauta)</blockquote><br />
Funnily enough, I didn't get around to <i>writing</i> this post until just now. Why? Because I have one giant secret time suck that I'm about to share with you.<br />
<br />
It's a little thing called <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/">World of Warcraft</a>, and it's my nerdy little secret.<br />
<br />
Shaun and I have been playing together for a couple of years now, and it's still a fun evening when we can sit down and quest for a couple of hours. And you see, there's a new expansion coming out next week, (some updates are already being made) and other parts of the internet that I frequent are all abuzz, and my (certain, nerdy) coworkers are all abuzz, and I am thinking just a <i>litttttle</i> too much about dragons these days. That's totally normal right? <br />
<br />
What's weird though is that in general I'm not a 'gamer' (unless you count playing Bejeweled on my iPhone.) And I'm not typically a fan of the fantasy genre -- I can't sit through Lord of The Rings, and I despise most fantasy novels. But this game sucked me in from the first time I played it, back when Shaun and I were first dating. <br />
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The game is a mixed blessing when it comes to weightloss, I must say. It definitely keeps me from snacking -- I have been known to bring a bowl of something into the living room while I play and only notice it again two hours later, completely untouched. So there's that, which is good, but there's also this: I do nothing but sit on my ass all evening when I'm playing. It is pretty much the most inactive you can be without being dead.<br />
<br />
So: Can I eliminate it? Yes. Do I want to? No. My new goal is fun, remember? And I'm not embarrassed (well, maybe just a little) to say that these days, playing WoW with Shaun and the boys from my office is good fun. <br />
<br />
Do you have any nerdy little secrets? Are you embarrassed by them? I will also admit that I have a huge crush on <a href="http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/">Wil Wheaton</a>. And that I've watched all seven seasons of Buffy about four times. Oh, and that I read The Hobbit in grade 5 just because I had a crush on a boy who liked it. (Though I guess that doesn't count as nerdy so much as boy-crazy.)<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-11985844606299684342010-12-01T19:44:00.000-05:002010-12-01T19:44:07.365-05:00one word.<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><b><span>Today's <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb 10</a> prompt:</span></b></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><b><span>December 1</span></b></strong> <em><i>One Word</i></em>.<br />
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?<br />
(Author: Gwen Bell)</span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>This year I have been like someone panning for gold: <b style="color: #666666;">sifting</b>. I feel like I have spent the year sifting through all the dirt of my life, looking for the bits of gold, the pieces and habits and stuff worth keeping. In 2009, I was very serious about weight loss – I made it my life, my project for the whole year. It was my only real hobby and my one big passion. But in 2010, I sifted through the process, and found the habits and behaviours worth keeping, and the ones I could see sustaining for the rest of my life. I may have gained 15 lbs in the process, but I have found the bits of gold: yoga and cooking and beer and walking – and I have gotten rid of the dirt: running and deprivation and peer pressure. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I have figured out what I like about my work, and what I don’t. I have figured out who I like to spend my time with, and who I don’t. I have figured out what I really want to read, what I want to do with my time, what’s important to me. And of course, Shaun and I moved into the townhouse, so when we moved we did some actual </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b style="color: #666666;">sifting</b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>: papers, clothes, books, junk, more junk, and still more junk.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>This year has been good – difficult but good, and I would say the same about the previous year too. But next year I would like simple, I would like <b style="color: #741b47;">fun</b>. After years of hard work, I would like to just have <b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b>. I want to go to yoga because it’s <b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b>. I want to have people over to our place because it’s </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>. I want to cook because it’s </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>. I want to go curling with our friends and drink beer because it’s </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>. I want to go on another sun trip because it’s </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>. I want to take pictures and play around in Photoshop because it’s </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I don't think </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span> means being reckless or irresponsible, it just means finding more joy in the things I do every day. Enough worrying – enough analyzing. Next year I’m going to have </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b><span style="color: #741b47;">fun</span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>. </span></span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BX1fYIp1bnc/TPbpULNYPRI/AAAAAAAABC8/ujvOED2w2iM/s1600/have-more-fun.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BX1fYIp1bnc/TPbpULNYPRI/AAAAAAAABC8/ujvOED2w2iM/s400/have-more-fun.png" width="247" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>(I snapped this picture in Vegas last year -- that was definitely a fun trip, and I always thought there was something so free about all these suspended umbrellas.) </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What would be your word to describe 2010? What do you want 2011 to look like?</div><br />
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2181033996815429572.post-73191350721254357652010-12-01T16:04:00.000-05:002010-12-01T16:04:03.259-05:00a holiday project.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">I am insanely excited for the holidays this year. I missed Christmas almost entirely last year because we went to Cuba (not that I’m complaining – I mean, Cuba!), but this year I’m ready for double-doses of Christmas movies, traditional music, great food, time with friends, and holiday decorating. We’re going to put up a tree and everything – funnily enough, even though this will be my fourth Christmas with Shaun, it’ll be our first time actually having a tree. Can you say YIPPEE?! </span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">So I have been looking for a way to mark the season somehow. <span> </span>I looked at doing these <a href="http://aliedwards.com/2009/12/december-daily-compilation.html">Daily December </a> pages but they’re more aimed at scrapbookers – and while I think I would probably enjoy scrapbooking, the Christmas season is not really the prime time to be trying to learn and invest in a new hobby. And anyway, I knew I wanted my project to be digital, to involve some storytelling but also some photography and just general creative goodness. </span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Anyway, then I stumbled across this <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb 10 project</a>.<a href="http://www.reverb10.com/"><span></span></a></span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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From their site: </span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><strong>Reverb 10 (#reverb10) is …</strong> an open online initiative that encourages participants to <strong>reflect on this year</strong> and <strong>manifest what’s next</strong>. It’s an opportunity to retreat and consider the reverberations of your year past, and those that you’d like to create in the year ahead. </div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So each day they will post a prompt for you to write about, something that will allow you to reflect a little on your year. Perfect, right? So I will be playing along, and trying to incorporate some photography and holiday spirit and whatnot. I'm not 100% sure of the form it'll take, or if it'll always be consistent, but but basically I'm just trying to post something creative every day, something that I can eventually look back on and remember this season. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ll actually post my first entry later today. I just wanted to get this little explanation out of the way first, so you weren’t all like, WHAT?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">PS: Since this is still somewhat of a weight loss blog, I'll mention that I'm still trucking along with WW Online. Down 0.8 lbs this week, which is not terribly remarkable, but I am taking my time through the holidays, I think. Looking forward to the new plan coming out on Monday! I've been enjoying reading first impressions from my American blog friends. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">--- <i>Follow me on Twitter <a href="http://www.twitter.com/acakeforawife">@acakeforawife</a></i> ---</div>Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03153590782817733949noreply@blogger.com