I woke up Saturday morning to a wonderful surprise- a nice package from my Hubz!
My first Lulemon outfit! I was so excited I couldn’t wait to try it on. Along with this outfit the Hubz picked out a bottle of wine (I’ve wanted to try forever) and my favorite trashy magazine.
I tried the outfit on and it fit great so the Hubz and I headed downtown to Lulemon (which I only learned that we even had one on Friday-so out of the loop) to go to a free yoga class. So excited about free yoga classes on Saturday mornings at Lulemon!
The Hubz and I went to our first yoga class in months and it felt so great to be back on my mat with other people practicing all around me. It is such a different feeling to practice with others then to just practice at home. I honestly have no idea what type of yoga we were doing but it felt great, a little challenging at times but I got a good sweat on and left feeling relaxed (and hungry).
After yoga we stopped over at the co-op to pick up some lunch and sat outside and enjoyed our food in the warm weather. After lunch we ran around and did some errands before having guests over for dinner.
Yesterday the Hubz and I headed out bright an early to start on a 15 mile hike on the Long Trail. We started at Codding Hollow and hiked to Eden’s Crossing, climbing Laraway, Butternut and Bowen Mountains reach the summit at each and both the north and south summit at Bowen. This hike was one of the most difficult that I have done but it was an amazing time. We hit tons of mud, steep climbs, a set of stairs to get to Ritterbush Pond outlook which just killed me because it was at the last 1.7 miles and after 9 hours of hiking I was pretty beat. One of the most difficult areas however was a section called Devil’s Gulch which is all rocks, so there was a lot of sliding down on my bum to get through. One of the best things we purchased recently was a Camelbak backpack which was great because we had to refill the bladder twice, which made the Hubz happy because he got to use our water purification stuff. Next weekend we are hiking another section at Smugglers Notch while we camp so it should be an adventure.
Today was finally a day off from my regular job but meant it was time to put on my housekeeper hat. We are still in the process of organizing and unpacking due to our insane schedules. This morning called for a nice big mug of coffee so I got the french press out and made some yummy coffee.
Which I enjoyed with a breakfast burrito; I was feeling a little savory tonight.
After hours of sorting through boxes I finally made lunch which was inspire by tabbouli. My lunch consisted of parsley, cucumber, tomato, chickpeas, forbidden rice and a hemp balsamic dressing. It as amazing, period.
After lunch it was right back to work and I finally sorted through my growing collection of magazines removing any recipes, workouts or other articles that I plan to refer back to at a later date. I will put these in 3-ring binders specific to the category and when it was all said and done I ended up a pile of magazines to recycle.
All of the cleaning and organizing made me work up an appetite so I snacked on a Dr.Zevia and a Pumpkin-N-Spice trail mix bar. The Dr. Zevia was pretty good but not my favorite Zevia and the trail mix bar was a little sugary for my taste.
On to the next part of my “day off” a beautiful run right in my own “backyard”. Part of my Couch to 5K program, which I am on day 2 of week 2. I am loving it and it was the perfect day to run.
Well this weekend the ladies and I are headed out for a girls weekend and in honor of our girls weekend a girlie giveaway. I received a sample package of Annmarie organic and natural pure skin care products. I love the little sample set that I was sent but disappointed that some of the items include honey which in my vegan world, well, isn’t vegan. I gave away the samples that included honey and have tried most of the others.
My two favorite have been the neroli toning mist and the coconut body & facial oil. These make your skin so soft and it smells so good when you are putting it on; it is like you are having your own private facial/massage at home.
Annmaire also sent me an additional sample packet for one of you lucky readers to win. I know that there are a few non-vegan items in the package I am still doing the giveaway; if you are a no honey vegan then I suggest just giving the honey products to a friend to try.
To enter this giveaway please leave a comment telling me what your favorite thing to do is with your girlfriends or male-friends. Entries will be accepted until 5pm Sunday August 8th.
Disclaimer: Annmarie provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.
This morning the Hubz and I were up and raring to go so we packed up our laundry and headed to the laundromat to get some washing done since we have yet to purchase a washer and dryer for our new condo. I worked on some school work and snacked on a bagel with hummus (that I brought from home) and sipped on a horrible iced coffee which I unfortunately did not take a photo of and threw out after about half was gone. When we got back to the condo it was down to business for me and I set up a work station near the windows for me.
About and hour in I got antsy and decided that I would try out the new Couch to 5K iPhone App that I had purchased last night. The Hubz decided he would go swimming and we headed out to the bike path which is conveniently behind our place and right on the lake *swoon*.
So I successfully completed day 1 of C25K and I LOVE IT! I think that this is one of the best app’s that I have ever purchased never mind that it’s the only app I have ever purchased. Three things that I love about it are:
You can add play list right to the music section of the app and they start when you start the workout.
Before each interval starts there are 3 beeps and then it tells you to run/walk so you never have to look at the screen to see what you need to do next.
When you reach the half way point it lets you know so that you can either turn around like I had to or just so you have a reference point to how long you have been going.
This program is really great for me because I was running and then for various reasons you can go back to read about I just drifted away from running. I signed up for a run in September and I am so excited to do it and use this app for my training. The Hubz has even decided that he would like to try it after he met up with me after swimming and saw/heard how enthusiastic I was about it.
All the running and extra speed walking I did worked up an appetite and so we came home and made yummy wraps and had coconut water and Brad’s Raw Chips-sweet potato. The wraps had sauteed portobello, avocado, spinach, green onions and a little hot sauce in them, and some cilantro in mine.
Hubby scrapped out the insides of the coconut and I will use it later to make some “chicken” burgers from Ani Phyo’s new recipe book. Now it’s back to the work station to get down to business. Then we are off to run errands and to the movies with my GF to see Inception!
The Hubz has been wanting to do some hiking this year and we haven’t made it out in the past month and half so today we decided to hike part of the Long Trail which is conveniently located near my parents’ house. We did a 6 mile hike; the hike was basically straight up the mountain and we came across some great views where we stopped to have some snacks.
Our first stop was Prospect Point a this great lookout where we took a few photos and shared a Lara bar.
Next stop Roundtop Shelter (almost to the summit of Roundtop Mountain) where we enjoyed Nuttzo with jam and beautiful view.
Most repulsive smelling place ever---the outhouse- no we didn't use it
After hiking a yummy grilled tofu sandwich and baked sweet potato fries were in order…however hunger made me forget to take a picture.
Tomorrow we are heading out to go camping with our friends from Toronto so I am spending the day working and trying to clean our house, prepare food for camping and locate all our camping gear. Last year our first camping trip was to Lafayette Campground at Franconia Notch in NH. Here is a recap:
Hubby and I woke up this morning and headed out for a hike. Hubby has been begging me to go on a hike since the snow disappeared but the weather hasn’t been great so when we woke up to a bright sunny day it seemed perfect. We stopped in at Onion River and picked up some shot blocks and Gu.
We started on our hike and at first it was pretty hard especially since I have been nursing a cold. We hiked for awhile and then decided to share a piece of XoBiotic chocolate which unfortunately was a little stale but we ate it anyway.
One of the fun things about our hike is that the trail we picked was a historical trail with little things to stop at each way. Below is me pretending to tumble into a 27 foot well from the 1800s.
So our hike started out pretty well and then we decided to go to the top of this summit and went down the otherside. About 40 minutes later we decided that we were going the wrong direction so we turned around and went the other direction for about an hour and 20 minutes. Then again we decided that we were probably going to wrong direction. Finally I spotted a trail that might get us back to where we started. To my delight we found a headed up the trail and at the end of it were 2 Bud Light cans that we had seen earlier in the day and I yelped with joy.
Neil was pretty excited too. We were no longer lost.
After our 5+ hour hike that should have taken ohhhhh 2.5 hours, if we hadn’t have gotten lost, we headed to The Alchemist for some beers and delicious food. When we got there they weren’t serving a full menu so we started with Genius Waters, beers and pretzels with spicy mustard.
Then we got a second beer, sweet potato fries to share and each ordered a tempeh sandwich. Our eyes were bigger than our tummies though so we only ended up eating half of our sandwiches.
Now we are hanging out at home relaxing our bodies and drinking tea.
