fitness goals.

my goal last week was:
4 days bike to and from school
2 strength workouts
1 run
2 yoga classes

I completed these goals for the week and was really happy about it.  I find it SO much easier to go into the week with a plan.  first I make my list of goals, like the one above, then I slot time in each day to make it all happen.  this makes everything easier to manage when the week seems to fill up quickly with school and work.  this week I made a similar list.

the strength workout I completed twice last week was an arms and abs workout.  I opted for working these muscles since my legs were pretty tired from biking, running and yoga.

I found this workout on pinterest and adapted it slightly:
10 pushups
20 dips
30 bicep curls(with 5 pound weights)
40 second plank
50 crunches (25 x 2 sets)
40 second plank
30 bicep curls (with weights)
20 dips
10 pushups.

short yet efficient! I think next time I would up the plank to 1 minute.

todays awesome thing: when I tell D he is on dinner duty because I just can't fit it in after a long day at school and then yoga.  and he agrees without complaining and I come home to a warm, delicious, vegetarian meal.  love him.

and this dog.

weekend.

what a wonderful weekend with the girls.  we had lots of laughs over wine and a vegan feast! brooke organized a clothing swap which was such a hoot! oh my goodness, just when I thought I couldn't laugh any harder(I had already cried from laughing so hard at this point in the evening).  we all took pictures in some ridiculous outfits.. this sweater for instance, that makes me look about twice my size. 

I don't think pink is my colour..

brooke managed to scrounge up some mens boxers.. good score friend!! :) just kidding- those went straight to the donate pile.

who's are these?? haha

 emma, brooke's ball of energy, got in on the fun too..

emma wasn't a fan of this shirt.

brooke and court strutting their stuff.. regardless of all these not-so-fashionable finds, all of us did manage to walk away with a couple good scores!

nice hat court!! :)

what a good time!! each of us brought some vegan items to contribute to our dinner feast.  I made guacamole and oatmeal banana breakfast bars.  other items included, pita and hummus(all homemade- yay court), kale chips and a massive fruit plate that we just devoured.

our dessert (not vegan).. amanda made these delicious little frozen yogurt cups with fruit. mmm delicious.

photo source: brooke

hope everyone had a great weekend! mine went by way too fast.
--m

6 things I'm loving now..

*derek and morgans infinite playlist. I stumbled across this cd the other day and couldn't help but smile. I loaded it onto my computer and my ipod. I made this cd for derek almost 3 years ago- it included songs by fiest, sarah mclaughlan, radiohead, jack johnson and a couple others. out first trip away together was to victoria and we stayed overnight and attended some free outdoor concerts including fiest and sarah- we had such a good time and following that I made this cd and included those artists. the others are just some of our favourite road trip tunes. it was a nice surprise to stumble upon it :)

*halls lozenges- so, on the weekend I wasn't feeling quite myself. I had some vitamin c halls lozenges and each individual wrapper had a little inspirational quote on it! how adorable! totally, totally awesome. I'm a sucker for that kinda stuff!

*blazers- I have been searching for one that I really like and I found these two from forever 21. cuteness! I have to order one of them pretty quick. thoughts and opinions? I can't decide!

*the glass castle-- just finished this book and absolutely loved it! definitely a must read if you haven't already.

*my sunroof- even though my car is basically an antique, doesn't have a gas door, has squeaky brakes, has a speedometer that only works when it wants to and several other quirks, I am totally so thankful for my sunroof. letting the sun shine in is wonderful, even if I have to struggle to get the sun roof open from time to time :)

*this post from carrots 'n' cake- oh my goodness, is their pug cute or WHAT! wow.

originally this list was 7 things and I included the sweet video of acro yoga allstars joe and steph doing some AMAZING stuff. unfortunately, that didn't upload and I was really disappointed. I'm sorry :(

game 7 today- eep! keep your fingers, toes, legs, arms crossed so that the canucks win it all!!

--m

thai cooking: part 2

tonight we had our second thai cooking class. last week was awesome but I failed with taking photos.  unfortunately, this week I didn't do much better.  I was just so excited to eat everything and my stomach was growling so I didn't get around to taking pictures of our appetizer salad or dessert :( sorry!

here was the main course: salmon salad with sticky rice.  it was delicious! lots of mint, garlic, chili and cilantro which gave this dish huge flavour!

for an appetizer we had a papaya salad with shrimp which was also awesome! and my absolute favourite was the dessert, sweet sticky rice with mango. SO yummy.  I have had this dessert at my favourite thai restaurant before so I knew what was in store! it hit the spot- my taste buds were seriously satisfied. the lady that taught the classes was phenomenal- this was her last class because she is moving to victoria so she wanted to take a picture with all of us for her cookbook! we gave her our emails and she said she would send us all a copy when she finishes writing it.  she was the best!

in other news.. the darling brooke introduced me to another fabulous blog called a bicycle built for two.  one of their pages is their bucket list.  by far, the BEST bucket list I have ever seen.  I have been developing my bucket list slowly and their list inspired me to start crossing things off.  some of their ideas are so simple yet totally satisfying.

just a few of my bucket list items are:
*go to a yoga retreat
*make a thanksgiving dinner for my loved ones.
*take my mom to the ellen show
*see a jack johnson concert
*buy a home with a laundry room and BIG kitchen :)
*get a dog as soon as humanly possible! (once we sell the condo and buy a home with a big yard)
*spend at least one month volunteering in another country
*watch the sunrise
*travel travel travel! (my list of places I want to visit is much too long to list) :)

what is on your bucket list?

i'm out in the field tomorrow- should be a beautiful day for it!
--m

cute little valentine

had to share this picture, isn't he the cutest??

happy valentine's day everyone!

*cA

cute little things

rider wanted to share photo's of his newest scarf we bought yesterday. can you blame the guy, he looks so adorable....

happy humpday everyone!

*cA

snow day too!

it’s seems everyone across Canada right now is dealing with mass amounts of snow.  and while morgan got to enjoy a real snow day and stay at home (lucky girl!), people in sask were not so lucky!  my dad and i just finished shovelling our driveway, which at one point was not possible to drive down without getting stuck.  Shovelling it turned out to be a 3 hour job, and somewhere underneath all of the snow i also had to locate my car and brush it off.  even d had to have his own personal path made in our backyard, or he literally would have drowned in all of our snow!

hope everyone and their puppies have a great snow day!

*cA

winter wonderland.

3 months of living in van has been more than enough to make me realize how much i love west coast weather & HATE prairie winters. with that being said, on my trip home this weekend my backyard did look beautiful and if anyone appreciates a good snowfall, it's d.

my outfit: dress- lux from UO, cardigan- dex, belt- H&M, boots- aldo.

*cA