farewell 2011, hello 2012!

ok, so i'm starting to make a habit of starting posts and not finishing them...here we are on january 9, and i'm just doing my NY update :P here goes:

after an up-and-down year of healthy/not-healthy lifestyle, multiple gym memberships, not-so-terrible 2's into the terrible 3's, a new job, a hawaiian vacation...2011 was quite a year!

it looks like i have my work cut out for me in 2012...i'll be a bridesmaid in my sis-in-law's wedding in june - perhaps i'll get back in shape with a personal trainer again :P to help with the healthy lifestyle, i'm going to use a benefit i've never taken advantage of before...a registered dietician! i could use my common sense when it comes to healthier eating habits, but obviously since i'm on a constant yo-yo-adventure i thought i'd try something new. the 3 gym memberships obviously aren't cutting it :P speaking of which, i've since cancelled my fitcity membership.

i'm very excited that steve nash is finally offering zumba classes at the brentwood location, so if i can get my ass in gear i could potentially zumba 4x/week! and i should use up my 10-pass at bonsor, so perhaps squeeze in a sunday class...we'll see :-) hahah. and since i haven't gone running since november 6 in hawaii, i almost need to start back at square one. i've been sick since the 1st, so once i can kick this nasty cold, i'll get right on that.

as for gabriel...we're having some problems at night again. we've had to stop using the video monitor - he doesn't like the "red eye" facing him in the dark; we used to have white noise in his room to block out the noise from the tv, computer, dishes, laundry, etc. after he goes to bed...he's since decided the noise is too scary, so we've stopped that as well. and to top it all off, he doesn't like his bedroom door closed - he likes to be able to see what mommy and daddy are doing after he's in bed. and the most recent problem...he wants the kitchen light on ALL NIGHT LONG. if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he demands more light. so i'm on the hunt for either a small lamp for his room, or an additional night-light.

asides from the night problems, we're still having all-out war at times...the latest was a doozy...chris went to work a lot later than usual, just to make sure that gabe and i were settled in our corners and were calm enough to co-exist :P hopefully getting back into the preschool routine and babysitting routine will help...the holidays were definitely overload...with christmas, having beau with us, and lazy days.

let's hope for an exciting 2012, filled with better parenting techniques and patience. speaking of patience, i've also been looking into hatha yoga and/or meditation. gabe's tantrums are definitely fueled by my over-the-top reaction to them...if i can channel my energy in a different way, perhaps we'll all be better off.

wish us luck!

christmas 2011

what a great month!

on the 4th, we watched the santa claus parade with the brown's. the previous year we arrived an hour prior, but with the route change, we ended up standing by a street closure barricade. at least next year we'll be better prepared, and there won't be any occupy movements! the parade was a lot of fun, and i had hoped seeing santa claus would motivate gabe to want a picture taken with him, but for some reason he just got more freaked about the jolly man in red.

on the 11th, we went to bright nights with our friends and their kids. 4:30 was a great time for the train ride...it was just getting dark and we could enjoy the lights (it helped that gabe had a nap en route!). afterwards, we walked around the park and checked out all the displays. we even managed a group shot with 10/12 kids! then, all the kids enjoyed their white spot pirate paks for dinner. yum yum!

on the 18th, we celebrated coraline's 2nd birthday. it's been awhile since we've been to gym-time, so gabe was in absolute heaven. different toys to play with, cars to drive, and best of all, lots of food, birthday cake and juice boxes :) later that day we went with the b-f's and wong's to van dusen's festival of lights. anyone thinking of going to this should always buy tickets in advance - as we were waiting for it to open at 4:30 there were staff checking tickets and stamping hands - very efficient! so once it opened, we just walked right through...easy peasy! i really enjoyed the festival of lights, and my highlight was the light & music display by the lake. it's like the bellagio but on a much much smaller scale. and judging by the "dancing" and laughing, i think gabe and tyler really enjoyed it too :-)

on the 21st, gabe and i were lunching at brentwood mall and he was looking at a table-top plastic picture of santa claus and finally decided he was ready to go see him. so we quickly finished our lunch and went running down to see him. after a 30 minute line-up, i thought gabe was about to change his mind, but we marched right over to santa and he hopped onto his lap and took a picture! this santa was great...he took time for a 1:1 chat with gabe, and he even asked me if we spoke any other languages at home so he could wish him merry christmas in another language.

christmas eve - not exactly the day i had planned. i was having some eye pain for almost 2 days, and i finally got an optometrist appointment. however, it wasn't a problem with my eye - it was my eyelid, and he isn't able to prescribe medications. with all the walk-in clinics closed, the optometrist suggested contacting a dr. on call to help. i waited 2 hours for the phone call back :P note for next time: DOCTORS ON CALL ARE USELESS, ESPECIALLY ON XMAS EVE - he refused to call a pharmacy with a prescription (even though the optometrist had diagnosed my problem), and he refused to do a housecall. so at 6 p.m. i drove myself to the ER to get it looked at and then finally i got a prescription. note for everyone: SHOPPERS DRUG MART (kingsway) HAS A 24 HOUR PHARMACY - OPEN ON XMAS, TOO!

after a 2 hour inconvenience, i finally returned home so we could open up our family presents. this year no one had any surprises...we pretty much all bought everything we wanted for ourselves and just billed the other family members. not a very christmas-y spirit, but it worked for our family :) gabe was in heaven with all of his new trains (it's hard to believe he still gets excited - he must have 30+ trains now!), he loves the crayola pen for the ipad, and we can't wait to see him ride his new balance bike from my parents!

by the time we got home at 11 p.m., we quickly left a glass of milk and cookie on the table for santa, along with gabe's artwork. it might have been the late night or the anticipation of more presents in the morning, but it was a rough night...gabe woke up almost every hour. it's a miracle that santa arrived in between the wakings!

christmas day - gabe slept in till 9 a.m., just minutes before my parents arrived for breakfast and to watch him open more presents. santa was very good to gabe and brought him everything he asked for ;-) for lunch, we headed to chris' aunt house for a potluck and more presents! christmas dinner was at my aunt's house (more presents!) - i was still full from lunch that it's shocking how much i still managed to eat appetizers, dinner, and dessert :P

boxing day - we did absolutely nothing! we didn't do any shopping at the mall or online...we just hit the dog park with beau, then celebrated my bday dinner with my family.

the 28th - gabe had a fun playdate with lexi, aly and gavin, and the girls even brought over a bday cake for me :-) so yum! for dinner, chris took me and gabe out for sushi...complete with ice cream for dessert - big mistake...gabe was singing in his bed until 11 p.m. that night :P grrr!

overall, a great month! we hope everyone else had a fun christmas with their families :)

kauai 2011

i can't believe it's taken me 5 weeks to post this! (it's also hard to believe that it was only 5 weeks ago we were in hawaii...it seems longer!) but here goes...

GREAT VACATION!

after almost a year of planning, the brown's, the edge's, the lowe's, and the lok's kicked back and chillaxed for a week of fun, sun, and sand :-) thanks to a groupon deal, i'll be able to put together a photobook of our vacation, but until i get my butt in gear, my blog will serve as a journal for now.

the flight!
we started our day at 4 a.m. with a drive down to seatac airport. gabe didn't sleep in the car like i hoped, but did manage an hour on the plane - unfortunately for me, 45 minutes of that nap was curled on my lap. this was gabe's first time having his own seat on the plane - he had a bit of trouble with the seatbelt on/off rules, but overall he did great...thank goodness for ipads, ipods, iphones, touchpads, activity books, sticker books, and food - nothing kept his attention for more than 10 minutes!

the chickens!
we first discovered them at the car rental agency - at first i thought it was cute and funny, but having them pecking at your bags and beach stuff, it's not so fun. i later read in a travel book that during a storm (many years ago), a farmer lost all of his chickens and couldn't round them up. so they got loose, started procreating, and that's that. now there are chickens EVERYWHERE on the island. they've gotten used to tourists feeding them that some of the roosters are aggressive and may peck at small children :P


the accommodations!
we rented a "5 bedroom" condo for the week. now, the term bedroom is up for debate...the 5th bedroom was actually a loft overlooking the living room, so the plan to have the 3-year-olds share a room never panned out. fortunately for all of us, the kids were accustomed to sharing a room or a bed with parents on other trips, so this wasn't a huge issue. (however, the re-training to sleep alone at home was not pleasant!) after an email to the property manager, i have since checked out the vrbo website and the pictures now properly reflect the loft even though it's still called a bedroom. asides from that, our place was great - newly renovated, lots of space, and close to the beach :-)

the beaches!
we started out a bit rough cuz we couldn't find any gear at the condo so on our first day, the kids hijacked someone else's toys :P fortunately for us, the repair guy had to come and help with a few household items later that day, and told us where to find all the goodies - so from then on, we trekked to the beach with strollers full of beach towels, chairs, boogie boards, sand toys, snorkel gear, and coolers of beers :P we were pros!

brenneckes beach - a 7 minute walk through our condo property. great beach, playground for the kids, with boogie-boarding for the adults.

poipu beach - a 2 minute drive from our condo. on this side, there wasn't a protected ocean area, so the kids encountered the waves. lexi definitely wasn't impressed, but gabe and aly hopped on the boogie boards to catch some little waves along the shore.

ke'e beach - the northern most point you can drive to on kauai. this part of the island was definitely a highlight. upon arrival we saw we a sleeping monk seal - 1 of approximately 30 seals that make kauai their home; we passed by a couple of wet/dry caves along the way. i would've liked to investigate one of them further, but gabe was a little scared of the dark depths.

after 2 failed attempts at snorkelling in the past, i decided to give it another try. even though i took swim lessons through the lifeguarding series, i'm definitely not comfortable in the water anymore. putting my face in the water, wearing the mask, breathing thru my mouth...panic set in. i drank a lot of salt water, sputtered a lot, and managed to scrape my leg on the coral and rocks. good times :P to be fair, i did try 2 more times, but i prefer to have my feet on the ground and look in from above. so instead, sunny and i would take the boogie boards out and float around awhile :)

the kids had a great time building sand castles, making "soup", helping dave build a sea turtle, digging holes to china, and general kid-like beach chaos :-) but no matter how many sand buckets or shovels you have, a fight shall always erupt :P it was pretty funny to keep track of who was not talking to who!

the food!
since we were a party of 14, we knew dining out would be a challenge, so each family took a turn cooking dinner at home. it was great - not having to worry about getting dressed up, worrying about meltdowns, trying to find 6 boosters and highchairs...definitely this was the stress-free route :) so happy kauai had a costco!

poipu shopping village - puka dogs - the hawaiian version of a hot dog. instead of traditional mustard, ketchup, etc., the choices were a lemon secret sauce and a tropical relish.

koloa fish market - famous hawaiian poke tuna! i think the hands-down fave was the korean style. for the kids, there were cooked bento boxes. delicious!

the shops at kukui'ula - there's an ice cream place that all the travel books recommended - lapperte's! the kona coffee ice cream was DELISH!

hawaiian shave ice. i only had this on my last day at the beach...probably a good thing, too, otherwise i would've been there every day :P when we go to hawaii next time, definitely gonna have this more often!

to celebrate a great vacation, on our last night we had dinner at roy's. the food and service were great, and in typical fashion aly and gabe were restless so they required some play time in between courses. they were absolutely fascinated by the lanterns at the shopping village so we'd run around in circles checking them ALL out.

the sights!
hanalei - we did stop there for lunch after ke'e beach, but didn't get a chance to walk around and enjoy the sights. there were some great looking houses raised on stilts...unfortunately i didn't catch any pix of them :P i did manage to get a kona coffee & chocolate milkshake :)

kilauea point lighthouse - we stopped en route from hanalei, but unfortunately we arrived 20 minutes after they closed, so we just took some pictures.


waimea canyon - gorgeous! very similar to the grand canyon, but on a smaller scale. at the highest point, kalalau lookout we had a gorgeous view of the Pacific.

kilohana plantation - they have a 40 minute train tour of the crops - sugarcane, banana, taro, cashews, etc. - and included a stop to feed the wild pigs (and chickens) - definitely a highlight for the kids! after the tour, the boys went to the koloa rum company for a free tasting, and the girls got some souvenir shopping done. there was something for everyone on this outing :)

the friends!
what can i say...it was a great trip with our friends. with the exception of brendan, all of the kids had a little playmate on the trip. however, lexi did take quite a liking to the younger man :) and 5+ weeks later, gabe is still talking about our "hawaii house", our luggage being left behind at the beach, and playing in the sand.

the lessons learned!
- at breakfast, beer is an acceptable substitute for coffee.

- this should've been a no-brainer, but alas...always dress for the return destination weather - you never know when a plane will be overweight and luggage will get left behind. thankfully i knew exactly which suitcase model i own, as well as enough identifying features (olympic mascot tags and purple pom-poms on every handle!) to make yet another black suitcase unique!

- perhaps next time we'll rent a house, or at least a ground floor unit - the poor people below us must've thought a herd of elephants (aka, 5 kids) were running above them :(

- changing time zones backwards is rough. the lowe's had it the worst...they would be up at 2 a.m. with the boys. by 4:30 a.m., gabe would be stirring and by 5 a.m. pretty much everyone was up and ready for breakfast :P

now, did someone say cancun 2013?!

big changes!

gabe has been growing in leaps and bounds lately! preschool has definitely had a positive impact on him. he comes home and tells us about his day (with a lot of questions from us of course) - who he plays with (remo and sofia - he can't remember anyone else), what activities he did (water table, sand table), sings songs he learns (including the "clean-up" song!), and talks about his teacher (marina and 'tina - he can't say christina).

more impressive is his imagination! recently he's been"pretend" playing at home, making phone calls on his "phone" (it's actually a flip alarm clock); pointing out the "spiders" in his bed, and just being creative in general...i love it! now that it's dark, cold, and wet outside we spend a lot of time playing indoors and gabe is really enjoying his boardgames.

we've made a successful transition to the big boy bed. and quite literally it's big...a double! but that's how our crib converted, and it actually gives gabe the freedom to roll around and sleep however he likes, which is often diagnal (like his mom)! since we're not using a boxspring, we skipped the bedrails altogether and after 5 nights, we haven't had a single problem. the only irritant is that he refused his thomas comforter (could've saved myself some $!). i think the trains all over it scare the bejeezus out of him, so he sleeps with a sheet and fleece blanket.

to coincide with the big boy bed transition, i've decided to let gabe skip his afternoon naps...unless we're in the car and he happens to fall asleep. it's definitely helped at night because now he falls alseep within 20 minutes of going to bed versus the 1+ hour he'd be yelling and screaming from his crib.

helping disassemble his crib

the bedframe is in place!

the final product!

the trade-off of no-nap is more tantrums during the day - between 12 and 2 p.m. are his witching hours and anything can set him off :P it'll last about 60-90 minutes and then he'll come to his senses, apologize, and tell me that he wants to be a good boy. taking away privileges hasn't worked for us - gabe will just watch us take things away and sometimes suggest toys to take away, so it's not exactly punishment. i haven't quite figured out the time-out situation - i don't have the patience for it, so i have to figure out something that works for our household. i think one of the biggest challenges i have is keeping gabe busy and occupied...when there's a lull, he starts acting out. we might try some baking activities this week, and we have the added intrigue of packing our suitcases for hawaii!

3 years old!

ok, so i've been drafting this for 3 weeks, and i'm finally posting gabe's 3 year update. it's been a work in progress - it seems i'm never in the right frame of mind to write on my blog...whether it's a headache, a busy day and i need "me" time, or if gabe's driven me up the wall and i don't have a positive thought in my head...just gotta suck it up and get it written, otherwise he'll be 7 when i get to it :P

where do i begin? like i said, it's the terrible 3's...and even my parents have had their own tantrum incidents with gabe. for me though, it's a daily ritual - something sets gabe off, and it's off to battle. whether he didn't get enough warning about something, or i made him get off the toilet too soon after doing his business, or i pushed the elevator button instead of him, or if i told him we were going to eat cheeseburgers at the mall but he wanted to eat rice, or if i just looked at him wrong...it's never-ending. i'm really trying to be more patient with gabe, but it's definitely an uphill battle.

preschool has been going well. whether it's me or chris doing drop-off, gabe likes us to stay for circle time on the mat until he feels comfortable (we're the only parents there :P) . but once we're gone, at least there aren't any tears...phew! i had my first duty day so we could celebrate gabe's birthday with a special snack! i tried to observe from afar and interact with the other kids and not hover around gabe, and i was a little sad to see that he preferred to play solo...he doesn't like it when other kids crowd him, so he just leaves and will go to the messaging centre or just wander aimlessly until something catches his attention. for awhile he just stood on the ladder until the teacher talked him down. funny guy.

gabe continues to chat up a storm...it's hard to believe only 6 months ago we were struggling to understand him and encourage him to speak clearly. now he doesn't stop...whether he's yelling at us from his crib, or whining that we drove the wrong way home from grandma/grandpa's house, or asking for mcdonald's for dinner, or demanding to watch kai-lan...we definitely have a louder household :P we're still working on enunciation...he has a hard time with some of the consonants like f and k. i still get a kick out of the abc's - you never know when gabe'll just burst into song and dance. he did it today at the bank. good times.

thanks to living social, i bought a 1-month pass for gymboree, and gabe's really enjoyed it. circle time isn't his best time (either at gymboree or preschool), but once the activities start and he can run around, he's in his element! this is gabe's only activity outside of preschool - i know how he hates new things, and he's really turned into a homebody lately, so i'm careful about picking my battles. i'll have to decide whether to continue gymboree or return to music together next year.

we celebrated gabe's 3rd birthday at confed park train - it made the most sense - easy and somewhat low-effort on my part, gabe still loves trains, and it was a compromise between no party (my choice) or party (chris' choice). we could make this an annual event, especially since everything in our house is train/thomas-related :P hopefully gabe loves trains for a REALLY long time! i took him to toys r us on the weekend and they had a hot wheels demo which gabe was intrigued by. looks like i know what santa's buying gabe for xmas :)

whistler getaway

we had a great weekend at whistler! gabe was a superstar - no meltdowns, no tantrums, it was a breeze! we drove up on sunday after a birthday party, and gabe napped in the car - so peaceful :-) whistler was buzzing - with the long weekend in full swing, it was packed!

the living social deal that i bought included a 3 night stay at cascade lodge in a 1-bedroom suite (complete with kitchen), free parking, free daily dvd rental, and a welcome gift basket. all for a what i think is a steal at $208! i got the coupon awhile ago, and is valid until mid-december, so it could`ve been used for the ski season, too! so we booked our weekend getaway to coincide (sort of) with our 6 year anniversary! and even better...i had a gift certificate for white spot (whistler location only), and a gift certificate for the fairmont - so we had 2 of our dinners for FREE!

gabe skipped dinner but really enjoyed the chocolate fondue at the fairmont

when we planned our trip, i thought maybe gabe would sleep on the aerobed in the room, but as we packed, it just got too cumbersome to bring it along with us. so then we thought he would sleep in the bedroom bed at his usual time, and then i could sneak in later on. but no such luck...gabe wanted company, so we had to modify his bedtime - so he and i hit the pillows at 10 p.m., and lucky chris got the sofa bed! i have to say, sleeping with gabe is not fun. he likes to snuggle in close, and then he moves around a lot. so at one point when i woke up, he was lying across the top of the bed by my head - we looked like a letter T. and just like chris, he talks in his sleep - "no, me watch kai-lan!", and he would randomly cry/whimper in his sleep. it was definitely a restless sleep weekend for me :P

it's been so long since chris and i were at whistler, and we never go in the summer season, so walking around was a treat! it was also great to imagine what the village looked like during the olympics. we spent a day around the village doing some shopping - great end of summer sales to enjoy! there's a fun playground for kids, so gabe was in heaven...morning, noon and night! and lucky for us, gabe played hard, and then took his afternoon naps at the hotel with chris :-)

the inukshuk @ the top of the whistler gondola

and a "high"light of the trip was taking the peak 2 peak gondola. i thought it would be a quick trip up the mountain and we'd be back by lunch! boy, was i wrong! it was a 3 hour adventure, and that's WITHOUT walking any trails, but we stayed for lunch with a view! gabe and chris were the fearless ones on the gondola and enjoyed the spectacular views from the gondola...i remained frozen in the rear seat praying that we didn't die :P after all...it's amazing that the entire system is supported with only 4 towers!

i have to say, going over labour day weekend was perfect...we got to experience the buzz of the busy village on sunday, and then by monday night it got more peaceful, and i didn't have to stand in line for 10 minutes just to get my a.m. coffee :-) oh yah...i broke my coffee habit and splurged on the weekend. hell, i broke all the rules that weekend...we ate lots :-) i did take my running gear to get a practice run in, but when chris literally ran into a bear on monday at lunch, i dismissed any notion of running solo!

our 3rd bear sighting - this was a full grown adult bear in the day parking lot

all in all, a great mini-trip...and now we have hawaii to look forward to! (by then, gabe will be sleeping in his own bed!)

a new start

i can't believe i did it...after 9.5 years, i resigned from aon hewitt. i don't start my new job at morneau shepell until september 19, so i have a couple weeks off. it felt like an out-of-body experience when i told my manager(s) that i was leaving, and then it just felt surreal when i had to pack up my desk. mind you, i'd already started clearing stuff last week in anticipation of a job offer, so it was just the surface items that i had to pack away.

this new opportunity was one that i couldn't pass on many levels - the convenience of being close to home, the part-time hours, the pay increase!, the new responsibilities and the potential of future growth within the organization, and not to mention the chance to work with sr. consultants who i've known (and worked for at AH) for years.

i am going to miss the friends i've made at AH, and am sad i won't see them every day for our chit-chats and lunches. i will miss the energy of working downtown and the convenience of it all. i'll be working in east van, with no access to shopping or food courts. guess this is a great opportunity to save money - not tempted by fast food, benkei ramen, and the dozens of restaurants within a block radius! i haven't worked out the full details yet, but i imagine my commute to/from work can be a combination of bus, skytrain, or WALKING (depending on the weather)!

so i got home today at 2:30 p.m. and i wallowed for a little while...unsure of what to do with myself. it felt strange to not be at work (even though i work part-time), and stranger still to be emailing my friend AT work about my departure and what the buzz was.

so as many people get ready for a return to school and/or work, the lok's are packing for a living social getaway to whistler, and then gabe and i will be enjoying an unexpected 2 week "vacation".

crash and burn

so after my weekend post, i've hit a brick wall. i feel exhausted. maybe it's the "heat wave" we're getting in vancouver, but i just lost all momentum. i did run on sunday morning, and hit the gym in the afternoon. i even went to the gym at 5 a.m. on monday morning, followed by my PT session on tuesday night, and then my morning run today. in spite of all this exercise, somehow i still feel uninspired. i couldn't be bothered to do the cardio core class this morning (instead i opted to shop for workout clothes at the running room), and i missed out on zumba this evening.

perhaps i need to consider working out only 5 days a week. but my running sessions don't always feel like a solid workout since it's only 20 minutes, so i feel like i need to do more on those days. while i am happy with the 6 lb weightloss, i also noticed that i haven`t lost anything in over a week. so i had a setback today, and had leftover steak for a mid-afternoon snack, washed down with a can of pop. i only felt a little bit of guilt.

hopefully my new purchases today will invigorate me on my run tomorrow night.

1 month

it's been a month since i joined snfw, and i'm loving it. not the words i thought i'd use in a sentence with a gym membership :P i'm working out 6 days a week, and i have enough variety to keep engaged in what i'm doing. here's the breakdown:


monday - gym: cardio workout or training run
tuesday - personal trainer
wednesday - a.m.: cardio core (only for 3 weeks while g's at preschool); p.m.: zumba
thursday - running clinic
friday - personal trainer
saturday -DAY OF REST!
sunday - training run



i've had a change in personal trainers...katty left snfw to work at a newly opened yoga studio downtown, so she left me with jonathan. he's been really great, and we've increased our workouts to twice a week - i found that i just wasn't hitting the strength training in between sessions with katty. i don't have up-to-date measurements yet...that'll be in a couple weeks, but the scale is much happier...6 pounds!


the "diet" situation is progressing well. one month of no coffee, i had my first iced tea today in a month, and for the most part we are eating more healthy, and for me...smaller portions. and even more importantly...cutting out all the unnecessary snacks! i still have my moments of weakness, like cookies by george on tuesday, then a slice of dq ice cream cake on friday.


i'm probably a bit nuts for going from 0 to 100 in a month, but i'm really motivated right now, and feeling good. earlier this week my body was screaming in pain, but i pushed through it, and i actually find that on saturdays i just get bored and feel like i should be doing something active (asides from spending the day with gabe).

kick in the ass

so my personal trainer is a bitch. but a nice bitch. i thought ryoko was tough earlier this year, but katty means business. we go from one drill to the next...no breaks. it's 60 minutes of nonstop moving. i'm dripping with sweat and looking like crap by the end of it. seriously, i've never sweated so hard before! the zumba class is going well, too. it's even more intense than the class i took at bonsor. good thing i bought a bunch of $0.49 towels at ikea awhile back...they're sure coming in handy at the gym :)

snfw is the first co-ed gym i've belonged to. i'm definitely too intimidated to hit the weights section during the busy hours...so i'll stick to the ladies only section. but seriously...there are people of all shapes and sizes at the gym...i don't feel like i need to impress anyone or look good when i go there. and it's such a large gym that there's always a cardio machine available to use.

i recently bought 2 new cookbooks to liven up our meals...the complete canadian living cookbook, and the biggest loser family bookbook. the latter was an impulse buy...i was with gabe, he was having a tantrum, and i just wanted a new cookbook...i meant to return it, but the 2 week return policy came and went, so i'm stuck with it now. oh well, i'm sure there's a few recipes that'll come in handy.

i've been doing some reading online about vices, and how cutting just one vice is a step in the right direction towards weight loss. so my plan was to cut out coffee and sugary drinks starting today. so to kick it off, i had a tall latte with breakfast and then an oreo ice cream sandwich for snack. GREAT START! tomorrow's a brand new day, right?