Go Big Or Go Home – 2010 Goal Setting

As I was preparing to write this post, I found out that a dear member of my theatre company passed away. He was such an amazing man and supporter of the arts and will be greatly missed. It won’t be the same to perform without him in the audience on opening night. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

I led a Weight Watchers meeting this morning and shared the following quote with my members:

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
~Michelangelo

2009 was a big year for me filled with self-discover, healing, good friends and food and I’m really proud of all that I’ve accomplished. This year I am committing to living every day to the fullest and working towards big, fat, juicy, positive, inspiring goals including:

• Taking care of myself by eating well, tracking, drinking tea, sleeping, practicing yoga, spending time with friends, singing, writing, dancing and working out
• Taking advantage of my education and being an active participant in my classes
• Helping even more members reach their goals with Weight Watchers, including getting to Lifetime
• Journaling regularly, writing a book, blogging regularly and exploring other writing opportunities
• Raising a minimum $2,500 for the Toronto Heel n Wheel a Thon and continuing to raise awareness of IBD through my role as Honorary Chair and fun initiatives on the blog
• Giving my all in my performing career through my upcoming role in REX, getting new headshots and actively auditioning for awesome roles

When I was in theatre school, we were told that we should either “Go Big or Go Home” and I think that will be my motto for the coming year. I am not going to let the fear of success stand in my way in any aspect of my life. I encourage you to do the same in your life. What have you been aspiring to do in recent years, but haven’t committed yourself to fully? What has been standing in your way? What can you do to change that this year? What are your juicy goals for 2010? What can you do to go big or go home?

If you’re looking to be more active this year, why not print off my latest activity chart and get started?

I’ve been looking forward to 2010 for awhile now and I’m absolutely thrilled that we’re hours away. Wishing each and every one of you health and happiness in the year to come. I look forward to hearing about your goals and watching you achieve them in 2010. Here’s to a great, big beautiful year!

Starting to Say My Goodbyes

Last week I got a calendar invite for lunch today from my boss. He didn’t specify the location and noted that there were going to be “mystery guests”. I like surprises so I was excited.

They took me to Live!!

My boss has been so supportive of my decision to leave my job and over the last two years we have become very close. We talk about food a lot (and he always gets the Buddha bowl when I’m grabbing lunch at Fresh) and has always been interested in Raw food. My mystery guests were 3 guys who work for one of our sister companies up in Vaughan who came down to Live to say farewell. I should tell you now, that none of my lunch companions eat like me. They used to burritos. Pizza. Veal sandwiches. Pulled pork. With that in mind, I thought it was pretty awesome that they would brave the raw food world for me (and was glad that I missed the email train of jokes about the food they were about to eat).

Watching them browse the menu was pretty hilarious and there were lots of questions like…
“How do you get sour cream from cashews?”
“What is tempeh/wakame/Dashi sauce?”
”What’s the worst thing for you on the menu?”

The table started off with some raw nachos (with salsa, guac, sour cream and walnut taco filling) and sweet potato fries The nachos were quite delicious, just like the tacos I had on my birthday. The boys enjoyed them too!! Everyone was munching and the plate was totally clear by the time our mains came. I really loved the kale salad the last time I was there, so it was a bit of a tough call for me. I decided to branch out a bit and got the wild mushroom and walnut stroganoff. I really liked it! The mushrooms were absolutely my favourite part. It felt like a really delicious, varied salad with creamy dressing. I was very happy. Three of the boys got the black bean burrito and really enjoyed it. The president of our company got the Pure Macro bowl and was raving about how delicious it was. Success!!

Since it was a celebration, I had to get dessert. My boss got the pecan pie and I opted for the raw tiramisu. Ah-mazing!!

I think raw desserts are quite possibly the most delightful thing on earth. It was rich and creamy and made me really happy. It was a great lunch and I thought it was really thoughtful that my boss would take me somewhere that really appealed for my going away meal. It waaaaaay more food than I’m used to eating for lunch, so I’m taking it easy tonight with a smoothie for dinner.

Before we left I took some pictures in the washroom because I’m a nerd like that Love this quote.
And I thought that this was just really cute. Kind of like a built in Operation Beautiful note? Sprouts are indeed sexy.

It’s starting to hit me that my new life is really beginning. I started training my replacement yesterday and start school in a week today. I received a bunch of my books in the mail and I’m already starting to get the back-to-school jitters. It feels like so long ago that I gave my notice and I’m so thrilled that the wheels are in motion and that I’m really doing this!!

Pinch me please??

Some of My Favourite Posts In 2009

I don’t know what I did with myself before I started reading blogs.

The blogging community has been incredibly kind to me and with their support, encouragement and inspiration, I have been able to do some pretty awesome things this year. I wanted to highlight nine of my favourite posts from some of my favourite bloggers in 2009.

It seemed like it was a year of change for many bloggers, so posts on the topic of transition and following your dreams by Tina, Angela and Gina really hit home for me. Reading posts of this nature by these incredible women inspired me greatly. It gave me proof of others, just like me, who have followed their dreams and haven’t turned back. Amazing.

Speaking on inspiration, I was so blessed to find Annabel’s blog, In the Hot Spot. She posted a round up of her 2009 posts the other day and I think that pretty much sums it all up for me. I dare you to read any of her articles and not feel inspired to shoot for the stars and change your life.

Andrea’s post on how to get the most out of your Weight Watchers meetings was absolutely stellar. They say that people who attend WW meetings lose 3 times more weight than people who don’t. Andrea goes to meetings and has lost 74 lbs and counting. I think that speaks for itself!

It has been incredible to read the story of Kristen’s journey to pregnancy and I wish her all the best with her little monkey. I bawled my eyes out watching this video. It is just stunning.

Crazy Sexy Life has also become one of my favourite sites this year because of posts like Rory Freedman’s Tips for a Better Life. I am going to post this at my new work station so that I can read it daily in 2010.

I do a lot of cooking and I’m constantly being inspired by the beautiful and delicious foodie blogs I follow. Some of my favourite blogger recipes this year have included Heidi’s asparagus stir fry, Jae’s pear ginger amaranth crumble, Michelle & Lori’s chocolate cream cake and everything from Meghan’s kitchen.

Speaking of Meghan, I have to say that I look forward to her posts every day. Her recipes are staples in my kitchen and I appreciate her outlook on life. Finding her blog this year was such a blessing, taking her cooking classes was wonderful and I am so lucky to have her as a mentor and friend. Everything on her blog rocks, but two of my favourites this year were I’d Rather Be Chubby and My Secret to Healing.

There are days when I can’t keep up with my Google Reader and suddenly I find myself with 300+ posts to read. Rather than click Mark as Read, I do my best to actually catch up and read everything because of amazing bloggers like these ones!! These are just some of the fantastic posts I have read (and starred) this year. Thank you to all the bloggers for your thought-provoking, gutsy and inspiring posts. Keep ‘em coming!! 

Which posts have inspired you this year?

Celebrating the Year That Was – 2009 Edition

My Saturday morning meeting is closed today due to Boxing Day, so I sent my members a video meeting talking about this week’s topic: celebrating. In the video I’ve encouraged my members to celebrate their accomplishments in the year that has passed as well as set some goals for the new year. I’ve decided to take my own advice and celebrate my accomplishments from 2009:

• I quit my job and enrolled in nutrition school
• I received 2 major awards as a Weight Watchers Leader 
  
• I led more than 25 people to Lifetime membership and countless others achieve their goals
• I blogged 4 times as much as I did in 2008 and have increased my readership by leaps and bounds
• I performed leads in two wonderful shows (Silk Stockings & Annie)
• I performed in my first and second belly dance recitals
• I completed an 8 week Boot Camp and saw great changes in my body and felt proud of my accomplishments both mental and physical
• I did a complete overhaul of my eating and am now gluten free and vegan
• I continue to actively do everything I can to heal my body and as a result feel amazing
• I have continued to maintain my weight
• I joined a gym and actually use my membership weekly
• I raised $1,724 for my first Heel n Wheel a Thon in support of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada
• I was asked to be the Honorary Chair for Toronto’s 2010 Heel n Wheel a Thon

I will be following this up with a list of goals for 2010 early next week. This list covers a lot of the big stuff and I have to say it feels wonderful to look back at everything that has happened in 2009. I’ve had a lot of fun with friends (old and new) as well as getting to know so many more people through this blog. Thank you for your continued readership and enthusiasm!! 2010 is going to be a year of change for me, and I’m truly looking forward to everything coming my way.

I now encourage all of you to look back on 2009 and celebrate your accomplishments: big, small and everything in between!

Give yourself the credit you deserve and spend some time truly celebrating. Don’t make it about the things you wished you did or things you didn’t do. What’s done is done. I know that each of you have done some remarkable things this year, and now is the time to be proud of yourself. Reflecting on your accomplishments can be incredibly motivating and can be a great source of inspiration when the negative thoughts start to creep in. Positivity is contagious!!

What accomplishments are you celebrating from 2009?

Surviving My Office Holiday Party

As part of my office’s social committee, I’ve been busy planning our holiday parties for quite some time now. We had our kiddie party last weekend (where I was in charge of the cupcake room) and last Thursday we had our adult party at Milagro.

Milagro serves traditional Mexican fare and I wasn’t sure exactly what that would mean for me! I had a late lunch and had a snack before I left the office to ensure that I wasn’t going hungry! I spent the first part of the night greeting everyone as they came in and handed out drink tickets and raffle ballots. It was really fun to mingle with everyone and chat with them as they came in. We had rented out the entire restaurant, so I also had to turn some strangers away.

In between employees coming in, I munched on corn chips with guacamole. Best. Guac. Ever.

It was creamy and tangy and wonderful. I ate a lot of it. Other appetizers came including quesedillas and shrimp ceviche, followed by a veggie one, which my table bestowed upon me, dish and all. It was really yummy, but it had a lot of black pepper in it and I find that I just can’t handle black pepper!! It burns my mouth, so I generally try to avoid it and don’t cook with it at home. Black pepper aside, the ceviche was refreshing and delightful.

Because I don’t drink, I found myself drinking water or cranberry juice all night. The guys behind the bar were laughing at me, so I asked them to make me something fun: A mango-pomegranate smoothie – yum!! It was delicious. My decision to drink has been based on a few different factors:

• I’ve always had a very low alcohol tolerance and that tolerance was dropped down to ZERO once I had gotten to my goal weight
• When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s, I was put on a medication I was unable to mix with alcohol so I stopped drinking altogether
• Once I was taken off that medication, I wondered what effect alcohol was having on my body and decided that I was probably better off without it.

I’ve come to learn that I can have a great time with people, even if I’m the only one not drinking. I’ve noticed that as long as you have something in your hand (like my giant smoothie or even a glass of juice), people don’t say anything. And if anyone asks, I give them my reasons and they go on their merry way.

When the mains came out there wasn’t a ton of options for me, so one of the other members of the social committee spoke to our server and they brought me out a cactus salad and some rice So at the time, I had no idea it was a cactus salad. I knew that it was green and tasted tangy and veggie-like but wasn’t exactly sure what I was consuming. It was great that they were able to accommodate me and I left with a happy tummy.

The party was a great success and everyone certainly enjoyed themselves (I left when the complimentary tequila was starting to roll out). Lucky for me I did not leave empty handed. We had scored some pretty sweet prizes for our raffle and as a member of the social committee I knew what everything was including a blackberry, Raptors tickets, days off, bottles of wine, sports jerseys and a PVR. Wasn’t my name called first?? Merry Christmas to me! I picked this:

An LG netbook – perfect for school!! I haven’t gotten it going yet (because in the beginning I wasn’t sure I was going to keep it for myself) but after taking it out of the box, I fell in love a little bit. It’s super light, very small and will be perfect for school and blogging.

I had a wonderful night with my coworkers talking, dancing (with the mariachi band) and laughing. While I thought that the food might pose a little bit of a challenge, I had quite a few yummy choices and definitely did not leave hungry! Everyone was interested in hearing my plans for the new year and I was even told that I’m expected to come back as the office’s corporate nutritionist. Everyone was enthusiastic about my new endeavours but also shared that they were sad to see me go. It was a really nice way to end my time at the office as I transition into my new life!!

How did your holiday parties go this month?
Anything exciting coming up this week?
I can’t believe that Christmas is tomorrow!!