Secret joys.

Tomorrow will be my one week anniversary with my bike. So far, it has been blissful happiness. I have realized I am finding joy in small things. For example, every time we accidentally find a bike lane. This evening after leaving our friend's house we found two new bikes lanes. As a walker I never even looked at the road but now I am finding myself completely overjoyed at the prospect of new spots I can safely ride.

Another surprise joy? Riding my bicycle all by myself on a zero degree crisp morning. The wind in my face never felt so good. I actually found myself saying "Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!" out loud as I whizzed around a curve. Bliss.

Happy Wednesday!

I bought a bicycle last Thursday. I live in downtown Toronto and was looking for a fast way to get around the city. As everyone living in Toronto knows the TTC is definitely not a fast way to get around the city. The TTC is the Toronto Transit Commission and their slogan is "the better way" although I am not quite sure what they are comparing when they say "better way"...better than a horse and carriage? better than hopping on one foot?

Anyway....

My bicycle is tangerine coloured. It is a cruiser bike. I bought a wicker basket for the front that has a floral liner in it. My helmet is "shocking pink". NO one is going to miss me on the road.

This evening I had a bit of a dilemma. It was my first day riding to work and then part way through the afternoon it started to rain. I couldn't decide if I wanted to bike home in the rain or leave my bike at work. The main reason I was so torn was because I know it is going to pour rain tomorrow and I was more concerned about having my bike home to ride to work on Wednesday morning.

I bit the bullet and decided to ride home in the rain. The pluses? I was pretty much alone on the road in terms of other cyclists, so I was not constantly being passed. I have no problem being passed but as a new rider it makes me a little bit nervous to share my bike lane when I am already terrified about being hit by a car.

The minuses? My soaking wet pants and shoes.

Was it worth it? Hell yeah!!!

Happy Monday!

The ole scale

Two months ago I started exercising again. Over the past few years I have been very unsuccessful with exercise. I actually really, really love to workout. I love the feeling after a workout when I realize I have made my body a little bit stronger. I love sweating. The problem is that I am not very good at sticking to a routine. I have come up with all the excuses in the world. I don't like to run alone at night. I don't like to run alone in the morning. I don't like to run alone because it is boring. I just ate, I can't workout. I haven't eaten, I can't workout. I can't workout before bed. I am too tired in the morning to workout. And the list goes on.

What keeps me motivated is the changes have I noticed since I started working out. I no longer get tired in the afternoon. At all. No three o'clock sleepiness for me. I also no longer feel I NEED a coffee. You know that feeling, when you wake up and can't see straight until you have a cup? That feeling has disappeared. I still enjoy my morning cup but I can now wait a few hours before I have it.

The strange thing about my new workout? My weight has actually gone up but today I can almost fit into a skirt I bought during college AKA my skinniest time period. I guess I never really believed that muscle is heavier than fat. My body fat percentage is 21.3% down from 26.6% and I can't wait to drop it even lower.

So the point of this post? Please exercise. Your heart will love you and the added results of energy will be worth it. I promise.

Happy Sunday!

Macarons=heaven

I am not a macaron expert. Until two months ago they never even registered on my radar but NOW I feel I might die if I do not try every flavour. I am talking about French macarons. You know what I am talking about...those colourful little sandwich type pastries you always see in montages of Parisian food shows? Pastel colours...

Well, I saw them in pictures too but I always assumed they would be dry and crunchy and flavourless. I am not sure why I made that assumption because I was dead wrong. My favourite blog Domestic Sluttery has an obsession with them. They seem to be constantly posting new spots to try them around London and you can almost hear them drooling as they were typing up their new reviews. When I had read the fourth review I thought to myself "Self, if these bloggers who I feel have amazing taste in most everything love these macarons what am I waiting for?" and that signalled the beginning of my love affair.

I picked up my macarons today at a place called Nadedge in Toronto which is right across from Trinity Bellwoods park on Queen street W. Like I said, I am not a proper connoisseur by any means but what I do know is I gave away four macarons to four different people and every single one of these people gave me impressions of utter joy as they sunk their teeth into their little taste of heaven.

So what is a French macaron? It is a sandwich cookie of meringue that is filled with either icing, ganache or a fruity jelly. Please try one if you see them. You can thank me later.

Happy Thursday!

Character love.

I am now on the fourth book in the Sookie Stachouse series. This is the series that HBO's True Blood is loosely based around. I am addicted. It has vampires, werewolves and other "supes" but it is super smutty. And who doesn't love Sookie. I wish I WAS Sookie. These books are amazing and I have now been buying them in twos because I know when I finish the first one I will want to immediately want to start the second one. My mum can never start a new book the same day she finishes an old book. It's like she needs to let that one dwell or something. That being sad, she has stayed up very late finishing one book just so she can get to the next book waiting on her night stand. I digress...

The thing about the Sookie Stackhouse books is that I have totally, head-over-heels, fallen in love with Eric. Like silly fallen for him. The strange part is that because I watched the series before I started reading the books, I have also fallen head-over-heels in love with Alexander Skarsgard. I swoon when I see his photo.....like the one posted above....sigh....

So it begs the question, does good writing mean I have fallen for him or does good acting mean I have fallen for him???

Happy Thursday!

Another crazy day

What am I thinking about today?

Tonight is the last night of my eight week boot camp. We have measurements tonight. The last time we had measurements was four weeks ago. At that time I lost 22.5 inches. I felt amazing. I was on top of the world and so proud. This week I am not feeling so confident. I missed two of the classes from this round four week period. I have been mostly eating like crap. Ugh....but I am going to still be measured to see how (badly) I have done.

I am doing Booty Camp Fitness. Like I said, I am on the last day of my 8 week session. Every week my amazing teacher Susan switches things up. The first few classes we played tag as a cardio warm up. How fun is that? Now we are doing agility ladders and I pretend I am in the army. It makes the hour go faster.

I liked the boot camp so much that I have already signed up for a second session. In fact, I signed up for a interim session as well. I will have two weeks with no boot camp so I am hoping I can start running outside again.....

Alright, must throw on my sneakers and get outside.

Happy Tuesday!