Get your fit on

My back home running route! That speck in the distance is
Dave and Sydney running ahead of me :o)

Put on your spandex bodysuits readers

I'm talking about fitness today!

I don't talk about it all that much

Even though i really should, don't ya think?

My philosophy is that i just try to be active every single day

Except last week

I mean I was definitely active last week

Just in a moving my entire home into a 2 car garage kind of way

Remember when i said i was having issues with my shin?

It wasn't so much an issue

As i was in so much pain it hurt to put pressure on the gas and brake pedal when i drove

Its okay



I'm feeling better now

No need to avoid all my driving routes

What did i do to help the excrutiating pain?

I took it easy for a week

Then i took a whole week off

And i bought new shoes

My body needed a break

So i listened

And the result was me squealing with glee at Zumba Monday night to everyone that would listen

My shin doesn't hurt!!!!!!

And this week i broke my new shoes in on a 2km run on a route i used to take when i first discovered running about 6 years ago

Here is how it went...

THUMBS UP!!!

So i thought i would share what my typical week looks like Fitness wise (not much running because i've not been able to the last month or two)

Monday -> Zumba
Tuesday -> Run
Wednesday -> UFC and Physique 57
Thursday -> Cycle and Zumba
Friday -> OFF
Saturday -> Physique 57
Sunday -> Spartan & sometimes Yoga

Thats about 4 cardios, 3 strengths a week - some weeks i work saturday am so i take a class friday, i mix it up all the time, i just really try to do something every day even if it is go for a hike and a chat with a girlfriend or a long stroll with the fur baby

Being injured and having to stop working out made me UBER sad, i don't ever want to take my ability to kick a Zumba classes arse for granted!

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So this Monday before Zumba Christina and I tried out called Street Jazz where you learn one dance routine per class and here is our review

Intensity: High, way harder then we thought it would be but in a good way
Number of times Donna broke down in giggles: Too many to count, every time someone would do the splits i would laugh in the ridiculousness that was my attempt to do the same
Moments of sadness: one when we realized we wouldn't get to use the spirit fingers we had been practicing all day so we took this picture for you instead!

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Let me tell you all this fitness makes me thirsty though ;o)

Its THIRSTY THURSDAY!!!

Being in transition between houses has resulted in a serious lackage (totally a word i tell you) of vegetables in my diet so i'm trying to squeeze as much goodness into my smoothies as possible!


I don't have a new smoothie recipe for you today but here is one of my favs!

Chocolate Raspberry Green Monster

Ingredients

Handful of Raspberries

1/2 Frozen Banana

3 Ice cubes

1 Cup of Chocolate Soy Milk

1 Tbsp of Chia Seeds

2 Handfuls of Kale

Directions: Blend that powerhouse up and try not to get smoothie everywhere, this isn't your kitchen after all!

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Tomorrow is a day off for me but don't worry i have a post for you - i'm super blogger after missing you all for a whole week!

I'm leaving you with a photo of a weed (classy huh?) I just feel that this weed makes my runs better because they look like a pretty flower

I give you DITCH LILIES!!!



Breakfast of losers

Whats that Donna?

Shouldn't it be Breakfast of champions?

Not so much

Every quarter my employer does an event to celebrate specific achievements

This quarter i got to go

Yay me!

However...

It was a Breakfast event

And my crappy food radar went off immediately

Thats me in the middle being hopeful!

But i went in with a positive attitude

There should at least be fruit and, fingers crossed, maybe some oatmeal!

Alas there was not

We had sketchy looking eggs that must of come from some alien like chickens

We had sausages and bacon

There was what might have been wholewheat toast - hurrah!!!

But upon closer inspection it was already buttered

WHY???

So after a tiny pile of odd shaped eggs and a piece of whole wheat toast - I poured a small glass of juice for some kind of veggie/fruit consumption only to discover that it was the kind that came in frozen concentrated cylinders

So this leads me to my IRK of the day

Why do event planners forget about us healthy eaters???

I admit it, i cheat on my whole food healthy living ways occasionally

I have some of the naughty food that tastes SO good

Hello Cinnabon, i'm talking to you!

But during the week i focus really hard on eating well because it makes me feel good

No one wants a food baby and the immense need for a nap in the middle of a work day

FYI

1.	food baby
	October 13, 2010 Urban Word of the Day when you eat so much, that your stomach looks pregnant Jeez! I ate so much, I look like I am having a food baby!

While they look good prior and taste good during consumption - I doubt anyone feels great after eating chocolate bars and sausages

At least i know i don't

Give someone a fruit salad and a yummy bowl of oatmeal or a buckwheat bake and they will feel peppy all day

So my question is - What do you do when events happen and you know it won't be the best food?

Me?: I will be running home on my lunch to prepare a giant green smoothie to partake in this afternoon in an attempt to offset the unfortunate food of this morning

What Green Smoothie will i be enjoying???

Glad you asked

Breakfast Blues Green Smoothie

Ingredients
1/2 frozen banana
1/3 cup of frozen blueberries
1 cup of almond milk
1 icecube
1 tsp of chia seeds
3 drops of stevia
1 tsp of peanut butter
2 large handfuls of spinach

Directions
1.  Throw it in your blender (apologize for taking it away from griddler, they are becoming close now that they sit on the kitchen counter together during the move prep)
2. Take the fur baby for a quick walk so you can go to UFC class after work and you won't have to worry about her bladder, its enough you have to worry about your own!
3. Drink at your desk while speaking in soothing tones to your stomach that you are sorry for putting it through that this morning - tomorrow will be a breakfast cookie for sure!

Old photo - my apologies but its a similar blue/green colour!!!

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I admit i forced 2 coworkers to try this smoothie

I'm kinda pushy when it comes to this healthy eating

They were both surprised that something that looks so obnoxious can actually taste good!

Welcome to my world friends - obnoxious AND tasty :o)

See you tomorrow for fashion friday!  I need your input on what to spend my birthday $ on

Thunderstruck

no this isn't brantford - hahaha

I just LOVE thunderstorms

We have been experiencing some doozies here in South Western Ontario

When we were little my sister and i used to sit on our front steps and watch the sky light up with looks of wonder on our faces

There was also excitement in our bellys

There is something dangerous about thunderstorms that just by watching them you feel a little crazy 

We all know what a good girl i am

And its pretty funny (and lame) that watching thunderstorms is me being a bad girl!

That and the fact i eat expired food in our fridge more often then not

Oh yeah, i'm living on the edge 24/7

So does anyone remember that movie "Sweet Home Alabama" staring Reese Witherspoon?

Well in that movie they explain that when lightening hits sand it makes beautiful glass

If i had a bucket list, that would be on it

Item #22 (because apparently i will have a lllooonnngggish bucket list)

Make glass with sand and lightening*

*Try to not get electrocuted in the process, last time that happened i cried for about 10 minutes, how was i supposed to know you can't touch the metal part of a plug while its in the socket?

Have i mentionned lately i'm a natural blonde? ;o)

So all this danger happening at 5am made me want to try something new for Thirsty Thursday 

Something that gives you goosebumps and makes the little hairs on your arms stand on end


Don't pretend you dont have arm hair


We all do

Lime/Strawberry/Banana Daquiri Green Smoothie

Ingredients

Pulp and juice of half a lime

1/3 cup of frozen strawberries
1/2 frozen banana

1/2 cup of greek yogurt

1/2 cup of almond milk
1/2 Tbsp of chia seeds
6 drops of stevia

2 handfuls of spinach

Directions
1. Blend that baby all together
2. Run around your backyard at 6am in your underwear photographing it
3. Then take pretty smoothie and throw it in insulated mug to drink at work - yup i'm blogging a new smoothie recipe before tasting it - muahahahaaaaaaa.... gee i hope it tastes good!

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I sincerely hope you have had the song Thunderstruck stuck in your head this whole post because i certainly have and it takes a lot longer to write these then it does to read them :o)


Have  a great Thursday friends - Tomorrow i have a little snipping going on - Stay tuned!

Where might i adopt an elephant?

The sun shone yesterday - can i get a woot woot?

Its a bright and cheerful day here at LRT because

1. The sun is shining - did i mention this already?

2. BF is coming home from West Virginia today!!! He isn't normally away so much and I seriously miss him like crazy every time he goes - this time the trip was for work and i hope he comes back in one piece, i can't say what BF does for his job but I can say last time he went he came home with a video of himself being tasered, fun right?

3. Yesterday i got to spend time with one of my besties and see a movie, I love getting to spend time with Mandy, she is seriously one of the sweetest, loveliest girls i know and her love for animals is immense!  Whenever something is wrong with fur baby she is the first person i call not just for advice since she is a vet technician but for moral support, she has more then a a few fur babies of her own!

So of course we had to pick a movie with the hot guy from Twilight AND animals in it win/win! - We saw Water for Elephants!

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Water for Elephants Book Review


Add caption



My lovely friend (and brand new bride Amy) lent me this book a couple of weeks ago and i might have devoured it in a few hours, i am that girl who once i have a good book in my hands i respond to nothing and nobody until i've turned the last page!

The book was written by Canadian author Sara Gruen, go Canada! 

Book Flap Summary:  so and so did this and that (don't you love how in the draft form of my posts i write things like this, i left it in here today for your amusement)

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie.

It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

About the Author: Sara Gruen moved to the United States from Canada in 1999 for a technical writing job. When she got laid off two years later, she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. A devoted animal lover, her first novel, Riding Lessons, explored the intimate and often healing spaces between people and animals and was a USA Today bestseller.

Sara Gruen’s awards include the 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award, the Cosmo Fun Fearless Fiction Award, the Bookbrowse Diamond Award for Most Popular Book, the Friends of American Literature Adult Fiction Award and the ALA/Alex Award 2007.  Sara Gruen lives in the south with her husband, sons, horses, dogs, cats and a goat.

My review:  I really really enjoyed this book, i have heard a few people say it was hard to get into but i was sucked in immediately, i turned every page eager to find out more, i felt compassion, i felt horror, i felt love, i just felt through the entire book

The ending was not a surprise but there was a lovely bit that i was not expecting

During the book i was able to picture the actors who play the characters as I had seen the movie previews and knew Reese Witherspoon (love her) and Robert Pattinson (love him) were playing the lead characters!  It doesn't bother me too much that I didn't get to imagine the characters myself

Water for Elephants Movie Review

Normally i hate watching movies right after reading the books, the movies always end up feeling "empty" does that make sense?  Instead i actually prefer watching the movie then reading the book - but i truly enjoyed this movie, it followed pretty closely to the book and we might have been a little bit whole lot weepy at the end!

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Todays Thirsty Thursday! is my version of a whats in my fridge/oh yes this/ lets throw it all together/ smoothie

Liquid Sunshine Smoothie

Ingredients

Abandoned peach yogurt from the fridge
1/2 Cup of Vanilla Soy Milk
5 Pieces of Frozen Mango
Handful of Spinach
Dollop of Orange Avocado Pudding

Directions
Blend to your hearts content and pray to a higher power that the expired yogurt won't kill you in your sleep

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So i'm completely incapacitated today, Christina and I hit up the UFC class at our gym yesterday and now i remember why i have a love/hate relationship with this class, its only 45 minutes so the minion from hell instructor packs as much in as she can, it was about 5 minutes before i was drenched in sweat and 10 minutes into it felt like i had been there for an hour already - i am really excited for the class though, i love having this feeling, you know the one where you can't actually lower yourself onto the loo because your thighs hate you THAT much - fun times!  I'm hoping they will loosen up in time for Zumba with my favourite instructor tonight!


Okay - Have a happy day everyone, enjoy the sunshine, vitamin D all around :o)

Put a hat on it

Kind of like put a ring on it, only with hats? Still with me, this is one of those posts, buckle in :o)


So is anyone else gearing up for the Royal wedding EXTRAVAGANZA tomorrow?


Now i have to tell you, hats are very important part of weddings in the UK, isn't this one a doozy?

Hi, my name is crazy and i like yellow hats that look like curly horns, they unravel into a seriously badass weapon

And i LOVE hats, see the following examples...

I look like the undercover pink detective 

Could my kissing recipient look any less interested?  Maybe she isn't a fan of my hat choice either?

I love love love this roxy hat, its a little squished and crooked from being in my luggage though, i'm so happy here i'm doing the nose scrunch smile!

Yes we are wearing matching hats in Venice, he might grumble about it, but BF loves lululemon too!

Group hat shot, note to self don't wear an ear flap hat tubing again, its hard to hold on to a tube and ear flap hat at the same time!

This is one of my favourite "hat" photos, i really think i'm rocking the pigtail hat look, sexy no? 

And BF dares to make fun of my hat choices!  Here we are rocking the mummy/canadian winter look 

This hat is super cute imho, don't worry you don't have to agree, i like my delusions!

Hats however obviously don't love me as you can see from the above photos


I've mentionned my tiny head on multiple occasions on this blog


But it really is true, i don't usually look that great in hats, they are usually all too big for me and i honestly believe its a travesty of epic proportions


I have one that BF threatens to throw out everytime he sees it, i think its cute, he thinks its fugly

Its not going anywhere though, its seen some pretty great times on holiday plus I have this unfortunate habit of developing sunstroke on vacation due to my pale pale skin and light fair hair so hats are an absolute necessity for me, i will therefore always be a fashion disaster


So todays smoothie didn't want to feel left out of all the fun...

Her Royal Highness Smoothie

Ingredients
2 handfuls of spinach
1/2 frozen banana
1 vanilla soy milk drinking box
1 dollop of greek yoghurt
1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
2 ice cubes


Directions
Blend and prepare yourself for the best smoothie ever (well so far) and get organized for the wedding

Not sure this is the kind of hat you wear to royal wedding but i didn't want to hurt smoothies feelings

Smoothie is checking on the kale to make sure we have healthy snacks for the wedding viewing 

Wants to make sure the satellite is working okay, nothing ruins a good wedding stalking watching more then satellite signal loss

Weather looks promising!

And then smoothie got comfy for the show but since its an entire day away i didn't want to hurt its feelings so i drank it instead, teeheheheeeeeee

So in summary of my totally silly random hat post, if you are having a bad day, the only solution is to put a hat on it, it will solve all issues and make for some interesting conversation starters, just don't go with the yellow one at the top of the blog, i might have to point and laugh at you and i would NEVER want to point and laugh at all my sweet, lovely blog readers (except for you BF, you make fun of that black hat one more time and i'm throwing out your new lululemon one in retaliation!)


xox

Obsessed

Nope i'm not talking about that bad/horrible/silly movie starting Beyonce that i TOTALLY didn't spend 95 minutes wasting time watching...


(Me thinks she doth protest too much)


I'm not even referring to BF's obsession with baseball - he is currently watching a Jays game while reading fantasy stats and occasionally referring to some kind of baseball magazine that i prefer to use as a coaster.


I wish i was kidding... i'm not.


There is a chance i'm referring to my Lululemon obsession, the Online store has been closed for weeks now and i'm jonesing for a Luon hit, but BF insists we shop for refrigerators instead of tank tops.


...I think he is a spoilsport and i stick my tongue out at him.

Have I made you wait long enough yet?


Probably.


You are might be getting annoyed now.


But don't worry.


You won't be annoyed when you see what I have for you today.


Here we go.


I am officially 100%, completely, utterly and magically obsessed with Kale Chips.


(*Swoon*)


In the past 5 days i've made 3 batches, Zehrs is running low on Kale and it's ALL my fault.


What is Kale you ask?

Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties; kale is considered to be anti-inflammatory.^[1]Kale or borecole is a form of cabbage (Brassica oleracea Acephala Group), green or purple, in which the central leaves do not form a head. It is considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms.

Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium.

Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.^{[citation needed]} Boiling decreases the level of the anti-cancer compounds; however, steaming, microwaving, or stir frying do not result in significant loss.^[2] Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells.^[3][4] Kale is also a good source of carotenoids.

From WIKIPEDIA.

It tastes good and it fights Cancer? Kale is my new hero!

Batch One

Batch ONE (aka: the day i lost my Kale Chip virginity) I made the tried and true recipe that all bloggers blog about, it was Cheezy Kale Chips.

Batch Two

Batch TWO (aka: the time i made Kale chips at 1am) Came from a hodgepodge of recipes and turned out alright but batch one was still our first and most memorable.

Batch Three

Batch THREE (aka: the not so hot younger sister of Batch one) Was a good idea but still is nowhere near as lovely as my first time ;o)

I have prepared a menagerie of Kale photos for your enjoyment

Keep in mind, looks are deceiving, they might look like innocent leaves but everyone who has tried them has repeated the next few words.


Holy... Crap... These... Are... Good.


And since you have probably spent this post wondering if i remembered its Thirsty Thursday.


Well i did.


Because the doodle reminded me.


She was trying to get on my good side.


Cause she wanted me to drop more kale on the floor, which i did, i'm such a klutz.

Chocolate Raspberry Green Monster

Ingredients
Handful of Raspberries
1/2 Frozen Banana
3 Ice cubes
1 Cup of Chocolate Soy Milk
1 Tbsp of Chia Seeds
2 Handfuls of Kale


Directions
1. Blend
2. Hang your head in shame when BF catches you eating your nine millionth piece of Kale when you didn't think he was looking

Happy Thursday Friends, my question for you is - Have you ever tried Kale chips?