Soba Noodle Soup with Cabbage, Daikon and Carrot

Although I meal planned at the start of the week, I always seem to find myself off course. It’s really hard for me to stick to my plan. So many factors that effect what I eat and whether I follow my plan: energy level, mood, illness, cravings, dinner invites, seeing other people eating something tasty, and food blogs. Oh food blogs, source of inspiration, distraction and cravings.

Today, my energy level was running low and I wanted to take a nap as soon as I got home. Luckily, before I left the house this morning, I already knew I wanted to make a meal and checked what ingredients I had in the fridge to use up: onions, sweet potatoes, cabbage and a beet. I also had spinach and edamame in the freezer.

The easiest thing to do would’ve been to just throw this all into a soup but I didn’t really want another borscht like soup since I had that for about 3-4 meals this week already. I saw my co-worker having brown rice vermicelli and then it hit me. Soba noodles!! I had a pack in my pantry along with dashi stock and miso paste in the fridge. I bought the rest of the ingredients on my way home from work.

This soup came together with all the prep work in about an hour. I wanted to eat asap, so I sliced the carrots and daikon radish thin.

Soba Noodle Soup with Cabbage, Daikon, and Carrots

Ingredients

• half green cabbage – sliced into thin strips
• 1 yellow onion – peeled, cut in half and sliced up thinly
• 1 thin slice of ginger diced up (skinned)
• 1 cup of frozen shelled edamame beans.
• 2 bundles of buckwheat noodles (my pack was split up so every bundle = 2 servings)
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced into thin coins
• 1 daikon radish, peeled and diced into thin coins
• 3 tbl of olive oil
• 8-12 cups of water for soup stock (estimate) – I tried to fill up my pot about half way
• 8 cups of water for soba noodles (the measurements on the soba noodle package were Japanese, so I just filled the pot 3/4 way).
• 2 packs of dashi stock (6grams in each).
• 2 tbl of yellow miso paste (or more, to taste)
• 2 tbl of soy sauce (or more, to taste)

Method

1. Turn burner to medium heat, fry onions until they begin to soften and add ginger.
2. Pour in water and bring to a boil. At the same time, bring another pot of water to boil (for the noodles).
3. When the soup pot comes to a boil, put in the dashi stock, and miso paste. Stir well until combined. Then add in carrots, daikon and cabbage.
4. When noodle pot comes to a boil, add in noodles. Stir occasionally. Bring to boil again and after 5 mins, take off heat, strain and rinse with cold water. Set noodles aside. (Please note: these were the instructions on my buckwheat noodle package – it was a combination of buckwheat and wheat flour, follow the instructions on yours as it differs).
5. When the daikon and carrots have cooked, stir in soy sauce, mix the soup and taste. If it’s flavourful enough you are done! Otherwise, add soy sauce/miso if it needs more sodium, or more water if it’s too salty.
6. Divy up noodles into serving bowls. Ladle soup on top and serve hot.

This is the first time I experimented with soba noodle soup. I got a recipe a few years back when I went to a Sanko (Japanese food & giftshop) where a worker was kind enough to assist me with picking up ingredients to make my first soba noodle soup and soba noodles with dipping sauce. When he found out it was my first time, he also wrote down the exact ratio to use to make soba noodle soup base as well as the dipping sauce for soba noodles. How nice is that?! So nice! I remember the ratio helped produce a really tasty soup with wakame, rice wine, dashi, and soy sauce and the dipping sauce was addictive. Unfortunately, that same winter, I lost the ratio, so I’m planning on going back one day to see if I can get that ratio again.

Anyways, yay to experimenting! It is always sort of nerve wracking to freestyle in the kitchen. I’ve always found that it’s usually hard to screw up soup though.

I would’ve added more ingredients (roasted seaweed, toasted sesame seeds, tofu, mushrooms) but I was too hungry to wait any longer.

Do you stick to your meal plan? Do you cook without recipes? What’s your favourite soba noodle dish?

As the night went on, I ended up conversing one on one with someone and my answer became clearer.  I said that I wanted to focus on myself. I want to direct my energy inwards and make time for quieting my mind.  I feel as though we often put ourselves last and are quick to put off activities we enjoy.  Even if it’s something we know we want and need to do in order for us to feel happy and balanced.  I don’t think I’ve ever come back from an exercise class or from a journaling session and thought to myself “ugh, what a waste of time”.  Instead, I usually feel refreshed.

The more I put off activities that energize me, the more I will feel run down, get distracted, get irritated easily, have trouble listening and need to take a break from work.  If I took care of my needs more regularly, I don’t think I would say things like “my holiday was too short” or “my weekend was too short”.

There’s nothing enjoyable about waking up cranky and fatigued and then marching through the day feeling increasingly tense and overwhelmed.  I’ve been finding I am waking up more and more like this. It isn’t pretty.

I’d like to make my overall goal for 2012 to become more energetic.  I’ll be doing this by keeping my daily to-do list short, meal planning and cooking, developing routines, and making time for activities that help me focus.

These are the things that I would like to do to accomplish this goal.

• Not making a long to-do list where not being able to check an item off causes me to feel anxious/guilty.  I find making lists useful but I think that I need to just focus a few key things to get me through my day. Like Leo from Zen habit’s three MIT’s.
• Meal planning and experimenting in the kitchen.  The thought of planning out every single meal is very daunting to me.  It sounds like a lot of work.  But I can see the value in it (health, time, money savings, and control).  I think this will be a lot of fun but it’ll require some discipline.  I’ll probably start with cooking two meals a week as I tend to make big portions that span three to four meals.
• Developing routines to combat the nightly “It is so late, I should’ve been sleeping one hour ago” and the morning “I woke up late, no time to eat – skip breakfast (or pick it up on the go), forget packing my lunch and run out the door”.  Naturally, both of these bad habits have a domino effect on the rest of my day and possibly the rest of my week if it repeats.  Now, this doesn’t happen every day, but when it does happen, it’s a pretty bad pattern and difficult to break.  There are many great posts I’ve read on Zenhabits and Smallnotebook, I’ll be using as guidelines and inspiration.
• Allocating some part of my day towards activities that I feel will help to quiet my mind and focus.  Yoga, reflecting and journaling, reading, and meditation. The main reason I want to do this is because I feel run down when I haven’t done any of the above activities and there are so many benefits to all of them.  I also would like develop better focus as it’s really hard for me to sit still without thinking ahead to the next thing I need to do.

All of the above are good habits that I’m hoping to master before life gets any more complicated.  It isn’t getting any easier that’s for sure!  There’s more habits to work on, but this is a good start.

How about you, any New Year’s resolutions this year? What do you want to focus on in 2012?

On July 21, 2011, my friend Ying and I volunteered to be part of the Kitchen Crew at The Stop Community Food Centre. The Stop holds monthly Food For Change dinners to fundraise for their organization.  You can either go to enjoy the meal or to volunteer as part of the kitchen crew.  We signed up for the kitchen crew.

We spent the day in a kitchen on what was believed to be the hottest day in Toronto in decades (37 C with a humidex value of 47 C).  Just so you know, when we signed up for this it was a few weeks before the event so we had no idea it was going to be this hot.  We prepared a five course meal with a Executive Chef Chris Brown, his partner and his friend.  Ying and I had no idea it was going to be the five of us preparing a five-course meal for 50 dining guests until we arrived that day.

Cooking at the Stop: Me and Ying

I was too nervous in the morning I couldn’t eat even though I knew that I may not get another chance to.  That’s saying a lot since I love food.  There were a lot of thoughts going through my head that morning: Will the executive chef be nice? Will he be more like Jamie or Ramsey? I’m an amateur, should I have practiced some knife skills?  After getting there though, and meeting everyone, my nerves slipped away.  Chris was friendly, funny and his hair reminded me of Jamie.  Chris and his Chef partner clearly love love working together.  He asked us what made us crazy enough to pay $100 to volunteer?  I said that I love food but I spend more time on food blogs then I do in the kitchen.  And I always wanted to see what it was like to work in a real kitchen as it was a career route I was considering in the past.  It felt really weird to say this out loud to someone I just met and a real Chef at that.

I was assigned many small tasks that ultimately lead to the creation of the smoked salmon crostini.  After preparing the smoked salmon mixture, the chef showed me how he wanted the baguette to be sliced and after trying a few times, I still couldn’t get my bread slices from squishing down together.  He patiently showed me how to slice it again emphasizing to use the whole knife.  Watching him reminded me a lot of using the bow on a violin, you need to use the entire length of the knife when slicing the baguette, the same way a violinist needs to use the length of their bow when they play.

There were a few firsts that day.  We got to pick basil and sorrel from the garden.  Straight from the garden to the kitchen!  It was so hot it was like walking from one oven to another.  Other than weeds, I’ve never picked anything from the garden before.  I remember when we headed out, I told Ying, I can’t believe he just asked us to “go outside and grab basil”, it’s like he thinks we know what we’re doing and we have no freaking clue.  Well, at least we know what basil looks like and we can always smell it to confirm.  I told her that I remember coming across someone’s blog sometime ago about the proper way to “pick” things, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t permanently kill anything.  So we went to the greenhouse to check with one of the workers on how to pick the basil.  Luckily we did because we found out we were about to pick from the community garden and there was another garden we were suppose to be picking from.  Anyways, picking was pretty easy, just tear the leaves off… easy peasey.

I got to eat rabbit for the first time (I was nervous about it because I had a pet rabbit growing up and I was worried I would think of him as I ate it).  But when I saw the finished product (after hours in the oven), it just looked like morsels of chicken swimming in a golden translucent broth (duck fat).  I couldn’t resist, it smelled phenomenal and it was probably one of the tastiest, juiciest pieces of meat I’ve ever bit into.  It’s all about the duck fat!  The next day, I was searching online for where to buy the stuff and how to go about making my own duck confit.  That’s what happens when I have/see something delicious, I usually try to find out how to make it.

Me, plating the marinated tomatillos

Plating was exciting. It reminded me of Food Network’s Dinner Impossible.  There’s this rush to get food out of the kitchen and onto the plates.  But we also have to place things onto the plate precisely the way the chef envisioned without adjusting it (it leaves streak marks) and wiping off the little dribbles of sauce here and there.  This was a lot of fun! The chef handed me a pot of marinated tomatillos and asked me to just follow what he had done.  So much trust. Love it!

It was great to hear feedback from the guests about how good the food was.  Guests passing us by as we were plating would tell us what they enjoyed and the wait staff would come back to the kitchen to tell us what people were saying about the dishes.

Before dessert was served, Chris rushed the kitchen crew out into the dining hall.  I felt a little embarrassed standing out there with an apron on at first because I didn’t know why we were being called out.  He shared a few words about what Food For Change was about and asked the dining guests to give the kitchen crew a round of applause.  It was a very sweet way to wrap up the night.

End of the night shot: Kitchen Crew

Overall, it was fun to participate in the full aspect of meal preparation.  Work on various small tasks and then piece by piece seeing how all the little small jobs we did culiminated into the five courses of the night’s meal.  It was nice to get a firsthand look at how hard the kitchen staff works.  We drank here and there (water and wine..yeah, Chris poured us some cold wine as we worked) and sampled some dishes, but there was no time for a real break to eat.  Kitchen life is hard.  It was tough just as I expected but I got so much out of it.  This experience has given me an even greater appreciation for people that work all day in kitchen’s.

That night, I left around 10:30pm in need of a shower, and completely exhausted. I felt pumped thinking about how I spent my day, everything I learned, feeling satisfied that all of our hard work in the kitchen paid off and feeling a bit sad that it was all over.

If you are the teeniest bit curious about what it would be like to work in a kitchen with real Chefs or would like to experience Food For Change as a dining guest, I would encourage you to go check out The Stop’s website:  http://www.thestop.org/events/food-for-change

The doctors had all said that removal through laparascopy (key hole surgery, shorter recovery) was their recommendation.  If by any chance they couldn’t remove it laparascopically, laparatomy (large incision, longer recovery) would be used.  I was scared about torsion (risk of rupture) and risks with surgery but excited because this could be the source of why I feel pressure/pain in my abdominal area, get full really fast, feel bloated and get an ache in my lower left back side.  Although, the doctors couldn’t confirm whether the dermoid was the cause of these symptoms.  They said we wouldn’t know for certain until we had this thing taken out.  They all did seem to agree that since I was a small girl and this thing was rather large approximately 8.5/11cm I might be feeling it a lot more than if I was a bigger.

On the day of surgery I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be and the hours of anticipation only made it worse.  I was there from about 7:45am to about 5:30pm.  After chatting with a nurse and getting changed into a hospital gown, I was taken to the waiting room.  A couple hours later, I was taken to the operating area to chat one by one with the surgery nurse, anesthesiologist, and the two surgeons that would be operating on me.  I had no idea I’d be meeting with everyone before going into the operating room.

Once I was in the operating room, I remember lying down on a pillow, hearing the anaesthesiologist apologize for flicking his finger repeatedly against my wrist because he couldn’t find my vein and finally feeling the prick of the needle going into my arm. I complained that it really hurt and heard something that sounded like two blades rubbing against one another (probably tools) before I conked out.  The next memory was waking up in the recovery room with an extremely dry throat and not being able to make out much (I had to take off my glasses before the operation).  It felt as though no time had elapsed whatsoever, although several hours had gone by.  I asked for water from a nurse that passed by, she laughed and said “I can’t give you water, you’ll throw up”.  I remember thinking that it was sort of mean to laugh at me, but she was right because when I got home, I gulped down a lot of water and threw up.  An upside to the anesthesia was that it was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time.

The first couple of days post-op were horrible.  I remember feeling like the pain medication wasn’t working and when I was awake I couldn’t do very much but go to the washroom, sit in bed, or sleep.  Luckily, my sister was around to help me with moving around as I couldn’t use my abdominal muscles.  And every time they engaged by accident it hurt like hell and I had to remind myself to let go and “be dead weight”.

I took small steps in increasing my walking.  I had trouble with standing up straight because it felt like I was pulling on my stitches.  It really hurt to walk.  I felt my belly button stitches the most with every step (it felt like someone had stapled my stomach horizontally) so I’d crouch over and take small steps.  My energy level was pretty low although I gradually started to feel more like myself.  My visitors helped to keep my spirits up by chatting with me and made me feel like I wasn’t missing that much of the outside world.  I am especially thankful for my sister and boyfriend for their company and assistance during this time.

During my follow up, my doctor told me that the good news was the cyst was benign and that it turns out there were actually two of them inside of my left ovary and they stretched across my abdominal area.  Which wasn’t a surprise because the radiologist did say that the ultrasound was having a tough time getting a clear shot of my right ovary.

After four weeks recovering at home, I returned to work and two weeks later I started exercising again.  It took a while to transition back to my old routine as I was still low on energy and wasn’t used to sitting at a desk for an eight hour day.  I remember noticing how stressed everyone seemed to be.  It’s funny looking back and remembering how long my days felt during my recovery.  The recovery was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be but It feels good to know that this is all behind me.

I was hesitant about writing this post because it is a personal story but I remember when I first found out about my ovarian dermoid I felt more at ease when I read other people’s stories.  I hope that someone might read this and find comfort in it.  Whatever the case, take an active interest in your health.  Keep up with routine physicals with your doctor and bring up any concerns, symptoms or changes in your body during your visits.  After all, it’s your body, if you’re not going to take care of it, well no one else will.

Wishing you all good health.

To keep me cool and hydrated, I have coconut water and Gatorade in the fridge.  I try to make sure I have both available during the week to prevent or treat dizzy spells and to hydrate me on those days at the office when I somehow manage to drink only a thermos full of water.

I’ve had the magic bullet for about half a year now and other than an avocado/yogurt/almond milk concoction the day after I bought it, I haven’t used it (Bad! I know, I hate buying things that I really want and then have them collect dust).

I’ve been having fruit smoothies for my weekday breakfast for the past few weeks because I wake up and want something easy, quick and cold. I really like it because it’s fast, easy to make (even when I’m groggy), saves me time and money.

On the morning this whole thing started, I woke up feeling really hot.  I needed to have breakfast and something to cool me down.  A quick look in the fridge and freezer resulted in my first smoothie.   Luckily, I had frozen bananas in the freezer (which took care of the cold and thick factor – no need for yogurt!).  I got into the habit of freezing ripe bananas when I was all crazy about making banana bread (about a year ago).

So far, I’ve done the following combinations.

• Strawberries, blueberries, half a frozen banana and almond milk
• Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and half a frozen banana and almond milk
• Frozen mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries) with half a frozen banana and almond milk
• Strawberries, peach, half an avocado, a drizzle of agave nectar and almond milk

I like the thickness of the avocado in the smoothie because it sort of reminds of a thick milk shake.  I find that it mellows out the flavours of the berries, which is why I added agave to sweeten it.

What do you do to stay cool in the summer?

Any good smoothie ideas? Cold breakfast ideas?

A whole lot of eating.

From the end of February until mid-March, my friend Dan (from France) came to visit Toronto for the first time. It was pretty exciting for me because I met him while on vacation this past fall in San Francisco and didn’t expect to see him so soon. I had gone with one of my good friends and we were lucky to have been able to connect with him through her personal network.

I’ve included photos and blurbs of some of the places that we ate at and what I thought.

Hibiscus

This was probably my third time at Hibiscus but my first time here having their dairy-free ice cream. A friend of mine had raved about this dairy-free ice cream.  The past couple of times I had their salad and soup combo and their crepes.

I got the pistachio and it tasted like it was made with some kind of bean milk but I didn’t know what kind. I really liked how nutty it was.  I also loved the tiny wooden spoon that it was served with alongside the small brown/green bowl.  One of my friends asked the server if all of the ice cream was made with coconut milk. He went on to explain that some of the ice cream was made with mung bean milk, some almond milk and some coconut milk.  Before this, I had never heard about mung bean milk, only soy milk with mung bean in it.  Turns out my pistachio was made with mung bean milk.  All their ice cream is made in house. Amazing!

The service has been consistently good and so has the food. No complaints.

See the beautiful salad & ice-cream pictures and review of Hibiscus by Feedthesink.

Pistachio Mung Bean Milk Ice Cream

Pizza Libretto

I heard good things about Pizza Libretto and when I got there and read over the the menu my eyes landed on the description of the pizza.  The pizza would be soft with blackened spots and how it takes less then 90 secs to bake in a 900 degree wood oven (hand built).  What? 90 secs? Amazing. Imagine if we measured what we could accomplish in 90 sec increments… Nothing.  I would need more time! haha

We ordered two pizzas, tiramisu, panna cotta and Crocche di Patate (Neapolitan potato croquettes).

The pizza was pillowy soft.  The texture reminded me of a fresh naan.  Although I had initially picked the sausage pizza, I preferred the salami one because of the tomato sauce.  I fell in love with the tiramisu, seeing it in a jar made it seem as though it was a staple item, something you’d find in your pantry.  I had never seen dessert in a glass jar before, well other than baby food and I found the mascarpone heavenly.  It was my first cake in a long while, so I think the flavour combination made me crazy.  It was more mascarpone then cake, but I didn’t care, I wanted more.  All in all, a good time was had.  The place is quite popular as there was a line up going immediately after we were seated and all the way up until we left.

Salami, Tomato, Gorgonzola, Roasted Red Peppers, Mozzarella

House-Made Sausage, Caramelized Onion, Mozzarella, Chili Oil

Panna Cotta & Tiramisu

The Stockyards

Last summer, I ended up at The Stockyards one evening for take out.  I remember the tasty burger devoured on the way to a house party and how my eating companions and I couldn’t stop talking about how good it was.  When news came of Dan coming to Toronto, this place made the list of places we had to eat at.  It was just as great as I remembered.  There was a great balance of flavours and on a toasted sesame bun too (gotta love a hot toasted bun!).  The aged cheddar and caramelized onions are my favourite toppings.  The fries are good too and remind me a bit of the ones at Smokes and NYF, only they are thinner.  I love the novelty of being served food in a cast iron pan.  Although might not be too fun for the waitresses to carry those things around. Heavy!

Classic Burger with Fries (with Aged Cheddar and Caramelized Onions)

Line up of Stockyard Burgers in cast iron pans

La Paloma

We ended up at La Paloma when we couldn’t get into Dutch Dreams as it was closed.  My friend told me it’s been around for ages (since 1967) but I haven’t ever been.  They had an assortment of flavours that I hadn’t ever seen before like gelato that was covered in marshmallows and candies but I had one flavour in mind from the get go – pistachio. It was very satisfying.  Although I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad gelato.  I had tiramisu on the brain because of our Pizza Libretto visit and so that was my second flavour and I opted for the larger size.  Dan got the coconut gelato.  Mine is the one pictured in the front.  Love how much it overflows. haha

Pistachio & Tiramisu Gelato

Hodo Kwaja

My family’s been coming to Hodo Kwaja for years.  I’ve grown up in the Christie/Bloor area so we are no strangers to walnut cake.  My BF suggested that we bring Dan here and it was a good call.   Dan seemed to be amused at the sight of fresh pancakes being made.  Don’t you love watching people cook? I know I do.  There’s just something about the process that gets me excited and hungry.  There are two pancake flavours: red bean and brown sugar with sunflower seeds.

As for the walnut cakes, we ordered a mixture of all of them: mashed potato with walnut (my fave), mashed potato with almond, and red bean with walnut. I grew up eating the mashed potato with walnut but this time I tried the mashed potato with almond and you know what, it was pretty good too.  I’ll add that to my rotation.

If you come during the day you can see the walnut cake machine in action and get hot ones!  The store always smells like butter and sugar. Yum!

Hoddeok: sweet pancakes with brown sugar syrup filling

Hodo Kwaja: Walnut cakes

Bi Bim Bap

One of our friends brought us to Bathurst/Eglington to have some bibimbap from a restaurant called Bi Bim Bap.  The restaurant was modern and I loved the wooden tables with the white porcelain bowls.  The prices were a little higher than I was use to paying for bibimbap but I guess it makes sense because of it’s location in the Forest Hill area, the decor and the variety of bibimbaps on offer.  I went with the Traditional pictured below.

Traditional Bibimbap

My Traditional Bibimbap All Mixed Up

The Corn Beef House

Dan couldn’t make it to  Montreal so I thought the least we could do was try some eats here that would give him a taste of what he was missing out on back home at The Corn Beef House.  I found out about this place because we had our BCBD Christmas party here – December 2010.  The sandwich was delicious.  The meat was warm and full of flavour.  Love warm sandwiches! Although, it was a little heavy for me (maybe because of the side of fries we ordered), my tourist friend was very happy with it and finished the whole thing.

Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich

Smokes Poutinerie

It was really hard to describe poutine to Dan as he did not know what this “gravy” was that I was talking about.   I took him to Smokes Poutinerie hoping he’d like poutine as much as me.  Gravy made more sense when he saw it on the fries.  He explained that he was used to seeing it on roasted meats but not on fries.  He opted for the large and really enjoyed it.  I got the regular size but was a little bit disappointed in the gravy, it wasn’t as great as I remembered.  I like beefy tasting gravies and I think I like the City Hall Blue Chip truck a little more but that’s better in warmer weather.

Traditional Poutine

Amber

Perogies and Cabbage rolls.  Who doesn’t love comfort food?  These are two of my faves and I was so happy last fall when BF and I walked into this restaurant by chance only because the Japanese place next door wasn’t open.  We took a quick look inside.  I saw perogies on the menu and we were down.

When Dan told me that he tried perogies for the first time at St. Lawrence Market (European Delight), I thought of Amber’s and how I like their perogies so much more.  I’ve been to European Delight too but after having tasted my BF’s grandmother’s home made perogies it’s really hard to settle for anything that didn’t taste like grandma had just made them.  Hot and fresh, not just reheated.

Everyone was happy with the cheddar perogies with fresh dill and sour cream.  We had two plates to share between three of us (each plate had 8).  We also ordered cabbage rolls – delicious, melt in your mouth quality.  The cabbage is soft, tomato sauce is a good complement and there is a good ratio of meat/rice.  The flavours all seem to go well together.

Pan fried cheddar perogies with caramelized onions and fresh dill

Cabbage roll with mashed potatoes on the side

Overall, it was really fun having a friend visit because it shook up my routine and I got a chance to hang out with people I might not usually see.  It was especially nice to see everyone showing Dan the same kind of warmth/hospitality that he had shown my friend and I while we were in SF.  I hope Dan’s visit was chock full of happy memories with great people, great food and good times that he’ll be able to relive through all the great photos he’s taken.

The first bit of good news was an email from Eva Redpath about the winners of the 2011 Body Conditioning by Dancers 21 Day Challenge, all the participants of the challenge were entered into a draw and I was one of the winners.  I actually had to read the email twice (groggy from just having woken up and because I was surprised). What did I win? A 1-week yoga pass at Moksha Yoga Uptown.  There were wonderful prizes this year and feel so lucky to have won at all. I was really glad to have been able to participate in the challenge this year. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about everyone’s progress throughout and loved the support that we were giving one another.

The second surprise was from an email from Rachel Meeks.  She is one of my favourite bloggers and I have been quietly following her blog for about 2 years now.  Check out Small Notebook, if you haven’t yet been to Rachel’s blog. Over the weekend, I decided the next time I went to her blog, I was going to leave a comment on her blog (I have been meaning to for ages, but I’m shy and a complete newbie to the blogging community).  Turns out, it was her 3 year anniversary post and she was doing a giveaway on her ebook called Simple Blogging. Anyone that left a comment was going to get entered into the draw.  There were 6 copies up for grabs and 399 responses to her blog post.  And you know where this is going… I won! I was in complete shock – first because I had just received an email from her (I guess it would be a lot like receiving an email from a role model/celebrity you never met).  And of course, because I just won her book. I’ve never met her but I feel like I know her and she always seems to write something that I can relate to and that I can learn from.

It’s actually quite funny that I won these two draws because I have been trying to win something from Steamy Ktichen’s giveaways section for a while now, jump over to Jaden Hair’s blog if you get a chance, you’re bound to find something you like. I have my eye on the BlendTec and IPad 2. Of course, I love the rest of her food blog too. I’ve been following her for about 3 years now and love her style of writing, great photography, and the little behind the scenes stuff she shares with her readers.

Two wins in one week, if every week could be this awesome. I love that both of these wins will enable me to explore two new activities for me: hot yoga and blogging. I really do feel lucky.

This was the last week and it has probably been the worst week yet.  I had a good sunday but I was eating out more often (lots of white carbs) this week and so I’m feeling the nasty effects of it.  What made matters worse was I also found myself eating my dinners very far apart from my lunch and not snacking or drinking enough.  All in all, a bad week.  The upside is, at least I’m aware of these bad decisions and will try to change them this coming up week.  Yes, even though the challenge is over, I will still continue to work on my goals.

I can’t believe how quickly these past six weeks have gone by.  I wish I could say that I accomplished all the goals that I set out for but I haven’t, and that’s okay.  However, I have gotten a lot further than had I not taken part in this challenge.  By participating, it has enabled me to change and develop some good habits.

One of my end visions for this challenge was to be able to put on my work pants and have them feel roomy instead of snug.  Three weeks in I was a little upset that I didn’t see any changes, but then I thought, it probably took a while for me to gain that extra weight around my waist, so I’m going to think more long term and continue with this routine beyond the challenge.

I probably wouldn’t have been motivated to exercise at home if I wasn’t part of the challenge.  But I have felt like it has paid off in class because I am not struggling as much as I was before in the AB track and also in the push up track.

As a result of this six week challenge, I am more conscious and mindful of my eating, lifestyle and exercise habits and would like to continue with setting goals for myself in these areas and in other areas of my life.

Thank you participants for journaling about your experiences throughout.  Reading about your challenges, your accomplishments, your good days and bad, made me feel like we were all in this together.

Thank you experts for sharing your knowledge.

A BIG Thank you to Eva for putting this challenge together and for the regular inspirational quotes and encouragement.

This week did not go well in terms of reaching my new goals. After a good fourth week I was all ambitious and enthusiastic… but that didn’t last.

My energy was low and my days felt long. On Sunday, I made a batch of brown rice and pan fried tilapia, mushrooms, peppers in coconut oil and steamed broccoli. It was my first time using coconut oil, and I was rather generous… I didn’t know how generous until I had a pile of tilapia sitting in a puddle of oil… yuck… Ah, I’ll know for next time. I bought the Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil from Noah’s – it’s something I’ve wanted to try since I read about coconut oil’s amazing healing powers last year. The two benefits that piqued my interest were coconut oil’s ability to aid in digestion and boost your metabolism (sounds good to me!).

I’ve listed by new goals for this week below and how I did on them.

Increasing Veggies
I don’t usually have a problem with this when I make my own meals, but for much of this week I was eating on the go. I did manage to put together some warm and colourful combinations this week at the salad bar. My favourite dishes would probably be the stewed okra and tomatoes and the cauliflower/broccoli/pepper salad.

Incorporating tricep pushups and pushups
Fitness was okay this week – I am doing my situps/crunches/leg ups still but this week I wanted to work on my tricep pushups and regular pushups at home since I am finding it challenging in class. I found that I can do tricep pushups – it just takes some adjusting to get myself in the correct position. As for pushups at home, I think since my body is a lot more warmed up in class, it’s easier to do. I find it a lot more challenging doing them on my own but I will continue to work at this.

Decreasing white carbs
Sunday was the only day I was cooking in the kitchen, the rest of the week I was grabbing things on the go – healthy for the most part but they I also included some white carbs..white pita, white potatoes, and white rice – of course not all at the same meal. I’m starting to feel like it’s harder to steer clear of these when I’m eating on the go, all the more reason to prepare things at home (save time, money and temptation).

I’m hoping to turn this around this weekend for next week by doing most of my prepping and cutting on Sunday/Monday. I find if I don’t get it done on Sunday, it’s really easy to resort to take out when I’ve had a long day and dinner just becomes one more thing I need to do before I can get some sleep…

Protein
This week I managed to have protein at every meal. I’ve also been having protein shakes after Eva’s (just almond milk with whey chocolate protein powder). I’ve found it’s helped with the morning after BCBD – I’m usually an achey wreck. However, I don’t believe I’m having enough protein in the morning. I’ve read on Women’s health magazine website that we need approximately 30 grams of protein at every meal. And I’ve only been having 2 Tbl of Ruth’s Hemp Chia Goodness cereal along with brown rice crisps and almond milk in the morning. Some days that’s enough for me but lately, I’ve been feeling pretty hungry by the time 9:30am rolls around.
I’m hoping to find some easy way to do this other than smoothies (no blender).

Does anyone have any protein breakfast ideas they would like to share? (other than cottage cheese and eggs)

This post is part of a series “2011 Body Conditioning by Dancers 21 Day Challenge” which focuses on sharing my experiences during the six weeks of this event. To read about the challenge, or to follow our progress click on the 21 Day Challenge Website.

This weekend, I had my first cupcake since before the challenge started. I picked a couple up from Bunners (vegan/gluten-free cupcake shop in The Junction ). Red Velvet and Vanilla! Although gluten-free, they didn’t taste any different to me then regular wheat cupcakes. They didn’t have the “beany” taste and I enjoyed every bite. Thinking back, the last time I had one was four weeks ago in Kensington Market at Miss Cora’s. At that time, I remember feeling a little sad that I wouldn’t be able to have them (for those days when I need a pick me up). This was a personal choice of mine to avoid the things I was craving and indulging in the most (cakes, chips, chocolate). As for chocolate and chips, I haven’t touched them. I do see them when I go to the grocery store or at work but I’m not missing them. So I’m happy to report that I am not using food to deal with stressful moments.

This past week, I am feeling a lot better than in the prior two weeks because for most of it I managed to hit most of my goals (weekly meditation, supplements, lemon water before breakfast, preparing most of my meals and having breakfast at home). I believe that I was more successful with my goals this week because I reviewed them regularly (at least daily) and was journaling more often.
I will be adding a few more goals for the final two weeks just to make things a little more challenging for myself.

Adding pushups and tricep push up’s to my daily exercise routine.
Increasing my veggie intake.
Having protein at every meal.
Decreasing white carbs.
The last one will be the most challenging for me but as long as I have enough variety in my meals I don’t think I should be missing anything.