tea back then and tea today ...

A great moment happened this week and I can thank my lovely friend Mike Plumton for that. He surprised me with a belated birthday celebration of going to the Windsor arms in Toronto for a Twlight Tea. 2 years before that .. I had taken him to a similar experience at Royal York for a tea.

As we are sitting enjoying our tea .. .he said to me .. I have something on my phone you should see. Then he shows me his phone .. and there I was ... the old me ... the almost 260 pound me .. the unhealthy me. I was slightly shocked and did have trouble looking at it.

Then he thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of the 2 years later me .... same situation (tea together) ... different body and different mindset.
Here it is (too bad it's not a full body .. but still kinda exciting!).

March 13, 2011 on the left .. February 20th, 2013 on the right ...

who knew there was something crazier than a burpee....

there is ..........

burpee with a push up ... who knew this existed ?

I didn't until I started boot camp....

It's a typical burpee except when you bring your legs out you go right into a push up before coming back up again ... it's like the ultimate body experience ..

I hurt ........

body ... muscles ... rebuilding ...........ugh

=)

feelin' good

Down a pound .. this week and feelin' fabulous :)

Just gotta keep this up .. unfortunately my boot camp ends on March 5th - going to miss it, but it's $200/month which I can't afford .. SO ... back to a gym I go! I'm thinking LA fitness .. heard lots of good things and they have a ton of great classes. I'm REALLY missing the spinning so that will be good and lots of people rave about their instructors. I'm also a lot more confident than I was before about doing weights etc. on my own .. so that could be good. I know I need to be doing more of this strength building ...........

Change can be good .. but I was pretty successful with training 2x a week and boot camp 3 or 4x a week .. so I just hope I can maintain this level of activity once I join a gym.

Will keep you posted ...

Sharing a delicious and fabulous recipe I tried tonight. It's vegetarian too .. but you'd never know as I felt SO FULL afterwards. It was FANTASTIC :) !!!

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/quick_and_easy/stewed_kale_and_lentils.php

Last point of the day ... I have always wanted a kettle bell .. SO .. right now I'm at 55 pounds lost ... when I lose 60 pounds I will buy myself a kettle bell ;) good present I'd say ..

That being said I'm going to force myself to remain at 60 pounds lost for a month before I buy it .. I think that's fair.!

Quinoa garden burger

THE GARDEN BURGER

 

-labelled as kid friendly and can be gluten-free if you use gluten-free bread crumbs

-even Nick liked it and I LOVED IT!

-delicious even on it's own (Without a bun)

 

This recipe is inspired from the Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood.

Burger is delicious includes some great veggies! comes out at 276 calories, 5 grams of fat and a great 14 grams of protein! It said serves 6-8 , I was able to make 7 decently sized burgers.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup dried green lentils
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs
• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed, drained, lightly mashed
• 3/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 cup finely chopped red (or green) bell pepper
• ground black pepper and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan over high heat, combine quinoa, lentils, and water.
2. Bring to a boil, cover pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until lentils are tender. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
4. In a large bowl, combine walnuts, bread crumbs, chickpeas, celery, onion, bell pepper, and lentil/quinoa mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Use your hands to mix ingredients and form 7 patties.
6. Place patties on the prepared baking sheet (using 1/2 cup of mixture at a time) and bake for 20 minutes. Serve immediately with your choice of bun and toppings.

Try it out - enjoy (I know I loved it!)

burpees!!!

If you asked me 2 years ago if I would ever be able to do 100 Burpees I probably would've laughed and said never. In fact I don't think I even knew what a Burpee was. I was thinking back to some of my first weeks with Shawna and I remember when she introduced me to the burpee.  I think I was able to do one barely and after doing it I thought who in their right mind would want to participate in this crazy maneuver? Is this actually fun? I was breathing heavily, completely exhausted and was barely physically able to do even the one burpee. Don't get me wrong burpees and I still have a love-hate relationship, but times have sure changed which I learned tonight at bootcamp. 

Back to present day.. I walked in and saw on the whiteboard the following workout which she called "Turbo work- out"

20 jumping jacks

20 high knee

20 squats

20 mountain climbers 

20 burpees

5 times...

Okay until I noticed the five times at the bottom I thought I can totally do this. Then in my head I did a bit of quick, mental math and the sheer understanding of the number of exercises that would occur overwhelmed me.

Now there is a happy ending to the story. I did it! Yes that is right world, I did it! This girl- Emily Moxey completed 100 jumping jacks, 100 high knees, 100 squats, 100 mountain climbers, and worst of all 100 burpees. I did all this in the designated time that she gave us which was 12 minutes. 

Boot camps are typically 50 minutes long. You do the math. This 12 minute turbo work out was only the beginning of craziness. I feel great. I feel happy. And I feel accomplished.

I felt like I was going to die at the end of just the turbo workout but I also felt huge sense of accomplishment. While I was doing them I was thinking back to that first day when I was introduced to what the heck a Burpee was. 

I couldn't be happier or more proud right now. I never thought I would say it...but I'm so glad I learned to love and embrace the world of the burpee.

For anybody that doesn't know what it Burpee is and wants to try it look at this video. I never thought I could do one and today I did 100. Get off the couch and give it a try, you won't regret it.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=Pf7wZvraWV0