Let's Go - Starting with Core De Force

Today marks day one of my journey with Core De Force, and as I talked about last week I don't think I've been this excited to get started with a program in a long, long time!

I've spent the week test-driving the Core De Force workouts and I'm stoked to officially jump in with the full 30 day calendar today. This has been a tough year and my body is not where it was. To be completely honest, I'm feeling frustrated, sad and a bit embarassed about this. I am such a huge advocate for healthy living and loving your body, but that's something that's been really tough for me of late. I want to write more about this in the future, but I'm feeling optimistic and empowered today to be starting with this brand new program and really giving it 100%.

In anticipation of getting started today I've gotten ready by:

taking my measurements

snapping before photos

making a meal plan

doing some grocery shopping

prepping some meals

I did my meal plan and grocery shopping from Monday - Thursday by hand and then hit the grocery store yesterday!

The little colour coding system at the bottom of my meal plan refers to my allotted containers for the meal plan each day. This program follows a similar version of the 'Portion Fix' program that is used in 21 Day Fix, 21 Day Fix Extreme, Cize, and more. I'm in the 'A' category for the meal plan. I kept things fairly simple for the week and I'm also looking forward to sampling a few of the recipes from the Core De Force meal plan guide. 

I spent some time on Sunday doing a little meal prep (which included protein waffles and chilli) and made a couple of tweaks to my meal plan:

This is mostly based on the fact that a) the protein waffles didn't really turn out as planned (the first one was a COMPLETE disaster!) and b) I realized I was going to be eating out on Thursday night and needed to move things around a bit. In any case, I'm all set with meals!

I'll be getting up each morning to get my workouts done. The workouts are 30-47 minutes long, so I'll be up at 6-6:30 each day to get them done! I'm thankful for our November accountability group which is getting started tomorrow because I'll have an awesome group of challengers and coaches to help keep me accountable!!

You may be wondering why my meal plan only goes Monday-Thursday... well that's because I'll be in New York City Friday-Sunday! I'm thrilled to be spending a weekend in my very favourite city. It's been 2 years since I've been back (check out my last trip here for the food and the fun) and I've been missing it! I'll be drinking my Shakeology, carrying on with my workouts but visiting all sorts of restaurants and having great adventures. I can't wait!

Okay Core De Force, let's do this! 

Feeling Sassy at Brass Vixens

As a part of a Love a Heart date, I got to spend some quality time with the lovely Reggy at Brass Vixens for a private lesson.

Brass Vixens is Toronto's first pole dancing studio, located at 721 Queen Street West. In addition to pole for all levels, the studio offers classes in cardio hula hoop, Kangoo jumps, aerial fitness and burlesque (with the Toronto School of Burlesque beginning to share space across the hall very soon!) They also do private events for all sorts of occasions including birthdays, bachelorettes and "I'm so over him" parties. Reggy and I got a taste of chair and floor work during our private lesson with Dawn.

Dressed in workout clothes and heels, Reggy and I had a blast learning the basics of chair and floor work. There was a lot of sexy strutting and leg work and hair flips and shaking our bon-bons. We learned that apparently I have some natural affinity for chair work? Who knew.

 

Oh yes, that happened. 

Not sure that I'm going to be rolling off a chair in real life anytime soon, but the class definitely armed us with some fun new moves and added confidence. After running through a slew of basics we put everything together into a couple of fun and sassy routines. 

 

The class was also an amazing ab, arm, back and leg workout. Total body fitness all the while feeling kinda hot? I'm in. 

The studio has a bunch of specials on for first-timers and people who want to give their classes a go. After the class I scored a sweet Team Buy that's happening right now for a 10 class pass for $59.  I can't wait for the deal to go active so I can get into my first pole basics class!

Thanks to Reggy for being a sweet date and Dawn & Brass Vixens for showing us the ropes! Definitely looking forward to spending more time at the studio.

January Eats & Fitness

It's been a busy, busy month but I'm happy to report that good things have been happening in my kitchen and with my workouts!!

Food

I was super stoked to pick up Kris Carr's new book, Crazy Sexy Kitchen. Kris and Chef Chad Sarno have put together an amazing selection of vegan recipes, both raw and cooked with lots of gluten free, soy free and kid free options. I've been inspired with some refreshing new green juice combinations and have had a lot of fun making some delicious new recipes including bok choy with lemon tahini sauce, mango & coconut millet 

and a root veggie & chickpea tagine. I've got my eye on some kale salads I really want to try and a scrumptious looking polenta with tomato sauce. The book is beautifully laid out and I find Kris' writing style enchanting. I adore it. 

Also - why have I never roasted chickpeas until Monday night?! If you just read that last line and realize that you too have never roasted chickpeas, then I beg you to change that. And quickly. My sweet friend Laura (of 6th grade BFF fame) posted about this Smitten Kitchen soup on Monday, and considering I had all the ingredients in my house (save for a full giant bag of carrots) I knew I had to make it. 

everything tastes better in an owl bowl

The soup on its own is quite nice, but the tahini and roasted chickpeas take it over the edge into spectacular territory. It's an easy weekday night dinner, perfect for our chilly Toronto temperatures and I suggest you make a double batch of the chickpeas because you'll find yourself having them as a snack while you blog rather than saving them for leftover soup. 

Fitness

I'm on week two of Insanity and I have to say that I'm enjoying it. I did not barf during the Fit Test (as two people told me they did) and I'm already feeling stronger and leaner. I've buddy-ed up with my friend Amanda (who was in Breadwinner with me) and we've been motivating one another through silly/awesome texts and Facebook messages. I definitely end up a sweaty mess after Shaun T's crazy workouts, but I think it's going to be worth it. And thanks to Amanda, I'm still smiling!! 

I've downloaded the (free!!) My Fitness Pal app on my iphone and I'm kinda loving it. I still haven't weighed myself (it's been almost a year?!) and don't really intend to, but I love having a way to keep track of the food I've eaten, keep an eye on how much protein I'm consuming and track my workouts. It's super motivating to add in my Insanity workouts with their calorie burn!! 

I also love having friends on there to be inspired and motivated by. If you're on it, feel free to add me!

I've been to the gym a few times for my favourite Pump class and also tried a crazy spin class at QuadSpin. You can feel the January energy everywhere and while I sometimes get annoyed with the crowds, it's encouraging to see so many people working so hard. We all just need to dig deeper (as Shaun T would say) and keep up the good work! 

Goals for December

After a busy day of singing on Saturday, I enjoyed an incredibly relaxed day on Sunday which included watching Gross Point Blank on the couch, eating gluten free pancakes and sipping tea whilst writing in my journal

It's been nearly a year since I left Weight Watchers, but I often associate certain times of year with things I would do with my members. December is always a tough month for anyone trying to lose weight with so many social activities, tempting foods and booze popping up everywhere. I was always a big advocate of setting small, realistic goals for December to help stay on track and give everyone something positive to focus on amid the frenzy. 

So I decided to utilize my own advice. 

After writing them in my journal on Sunday night, I posted a list of some realistic goals to focus on in the month of December. I have to say, that so far things are going really well! I've already surpassed my goal of walking to work at least 3x/week and am drinking lots of water and eating mindfully. I did a great spin class last night and have some more workouts planned for the rest of the week. 

I know that the next few weeks are going to get even more insane, with lots of social gatherings, pot lucks and a performance, but I'm happy to have these goals to keep me in line! They're also nice things I can do to take care of myself. While it's only a 10 minute subway ride to work, taking the extra time to walk gives me a moment to breathe and clear my head. Self care is definitely a really good thing!

I feel awesome about having these goals for the month and look forward to continuing to work at them! I'm also really excited about some cool things I have planned for my workouts coming up. The awesome people at Beach Body are going to be sending me a couple of their programs to review! I've watched a few friends have some amazing results with their programs which has been really inspiring. I'm going to be starting with 10 Minute Trainer in December, and then in January I'm going to start Insanity. Not gonna lie, I'm mildly terrified for Insanity, but I feel like I'm up for the challenge. Shaun T seems like a pretty cool dude, but I know he's going to kick my ass. 

What are some of your goals for December?

Get Moving!

Summer is just around the corner and so far we’ve done a lot:

Week 1 – Reasons & Commitments
Week 2 – Do something that scares you
Week 3 – Eating tune up
Week 4 – More self love
Week 5 – Getting back to good habits
Week 6 – More water

This week’s challenge is inspired by the 2nd annual Walk It Challenge that I got to participate in on Sunday. I didn’t get a picture of my whole group because everyone was spread out AND my digital camera has died sadly but I think I saw about 30-35 of my members? There were about 150-175 of us in total doing the walk in the beachesI wandered around handing out Bravo stickers to my members and the awesome staff at the Running RoomLoved crossing the measuring tape finish line! Congratulations to everyone who participated and thanks for coming out!! It was such a gorgeous morning and I had a lot of fun chatting with my members in the sunshine. Watch Snap Beaches/Danforth for pictures from the event and maybe even a little video hello from yours truly?

Week 7 – Move More

This week I want to hear about your plan for activity! I’ve been seeing lots of great results on Twitter with people using the #52dts hashtag and feel really inspired!

My week:

Sunday: 5k Walk It Challenge + at least another 5k walk home
Monday: early morning spin
Wednesday: early morning class
Thursday: 2x bellydance class
Friday: early morning spin
Saturday: zumba + flow

What’s your plan? How are you going to kick things up this week?

Check In #2–How Scary Was It?

Hello 52 days-til-summer-ers (so catchy, right?) how’s it going?

How scary was it?

Everything “scary” that I did this week was related to activity:

Sunday: run outside on the boardwalk in the Beach with my dear friend Justin
Monday & Wednesday: work out with new trainer
Saturday: get butt kicked by old trainer w/ TRX

On the running front – I’ve never claimed to be a runner. In fact, when I was in junior high, the last memory I have of running was crossing the finish line after doing the 12 minute run (or 1600m or something equally horrific), FALLING and skidding across the pavement, imbedding my knees with gravel and crying a lot.

True story.

So any run is a feat for me. Justin called me on Sunday and asked if I wanted to go for a run and I fear aside, I just went for it. While I’ve done my share of running a la treadmill, it’s rare that I run outside, but was up for the challenge! It was tough and a bit scary, but all kinds of awesome.

My workouts with my trainers this week were pretty awesome, but I definitely pushed myself which can be totally scary. My new trainer says I don’t say enough/make enough noise when I work out (I think it scares him a little…) but it was definitely tough and I was DEFINITELY sore more of the week. This afternoon I did a bunch of TRX stuff and my bum is already killing me. Never a good sign for tomorrow.

I’ve seen some cool stuff happening with my #52dts peeps happening across Twitter and the blogsphere:

• @GregMaddeaux was out running and is working on his cardio
• Leah has been sharing food journals and rocking the Power Foods
• Megs is getting her butt into gear and working on her fear of success
• Laura tackled level 3 of the 30 Day Shred
• Danielle signed up for a new gym and is working out like a superstar

Check out these peeps for some inspiration or check out the #52dts hashtag on Twitter to check in!

Have you been reading your list of reasons this week? How’s your workout calendar looking?

Check back on Monday for some yummy food pics from this week, next week’s challenge and an awesome giveaway!