S is for Soup, Salad, Simplicity and Sleep

Soup (a staple in our house)

Salad (mixed greens, carrot, cucumber, celery, avocado, sunflower seeds, sundried tomatoes, & marinated tofu with agave-grape seed oil-apple cider vinegar-mustard dressing)

The pair made for a delightful on-the-go dinner. 

Simplicity and Sleep
It has been such a busy weekend between all the Weight Watchers excitement on Saturday (thank you for all of congratulatory remarks!!), gym on Sunday (mini run, BodyFlow and Zumba) and then Annie rehearsal. I spent Sunday afternoon chopping veggies for the soup and salad whilst singing along to Annie karaoke tracks in preparation for my evening rehearsal.

With everything that has been going on lately, I’ve really been trying to keep things simple with my eats. Soups, salads and snick-snacks that are easy to grab have been amazing because they require very little thought on my part. I’m trying to find a good balance of work and play and really making the effort to take care of myself. I also spent the day in comfy lululemon cropped pants, tank, hoodie and hairband – no thinking required! And even though I have a million things I could do as I write this (10:34 on Sunday night) I am heading to bed because I need as much sleep as I can get! It’s another busy week ahead!

What are some of your favourite simple things in life? Fav soup and/or salad?

October Activity Accountability

Where did summer go? It blows my mind that September is nearly behind us!

How have you been doing for activity in September? (Please feel free to send pictures of your activity chart with your recap to me by the end of this week!) I have to say that my biggest victories for September came last week when I got up early not once, but TWICE to go the gym before work!



It's cold and dark at 6:30am these days! (hence the really happy face on the subway...)
I surprised myself by doing it two days in a row, but after feeling incredibly energized after doing BodyFlow and a 15 minute run on Thursday morning, I decided to do another class with Jess on Friday. I'm excited to keep rolling with this momentum for the end of September heading into October!

My October plans include:

• Getting to the gym at least twice in the morning each week
• Zumba at least once a week
• Bellydancing once a week + practicing at home
• Riding my bike whenever possible
• Strengthening my core through yoga, pilates, dance and planks!
• Aiming for at least 24 stickers on my chart by the end of the month!

What are your goals for the month? Do you have any plans for Halloween?

August's Activity Results Video

Thanks for your amazing and inspiring feedback on my vest post. I love hearing your stories of finding things to compare your weight loss to and seeing the difference in your bodies in pictures! I loved the visual of Kate carrying around a huge piece of 64 lb metal! And wow, Diana, congratulations on 96 lbs lost!! It's important that we give credit where credit is do and applaud ourselves for all the hard work we put into this journey!!

And I think Meghan had a good point as well, wearing clothes that fit makes a big difference. At my highest weight, I used to squeeze myself into thing and I have no idea why I did that. (The vest was a different story since it was a costume piece) I think in some ways I was in a bit of denial and did not realize that my weight had gotten up as much as it did (it was certainly a shock to step on that scale at Weight Watchers Day 1) For me, it was about getting to a point where I felt comfortable in my own skin again and I'm happy to report that I feel that way now!

Rather than just give you another post on my activity results for the month, I made video #2

Here is a picture of my activity chart:

21 stickers - hooray!
Here is Annika's:

How amazing is she??? She is WAY up north and if she can get out and be active, than those of us further south have absolutely no excuse!!

How's your September chart coming along?? Do you have anything fun planned for the long weekend?

Slender in September

How's that for a catchy title?

Who wants to move more this month? What are your goals? Here's a new activity chart to keep you accountable:

I can't wait to see your results! This month I plan to shred like it's going out of style (I miss Booty Camp!), dance like no one's watching and keep up with my Sunday routine of Zumba and Body Flow.

As always, if you would like to share your activity calendar with me and my readers you can email me a picture of it with a description of your month to wwleaderashley@gmail.com I hope to get August's recap up late next week, so please send it to me by Wednesday if you would like to be included!