Water: My Crazy Life Change

Oh how bad of a history I have with water! I don’t know how I did it, but somehow I slipped past my parents all throughout my childhood rarely drinking water. Seriously… I have no doubt months went by with no water at all. Juice? My fav! Pop? Yeah, that was ok. Milk? Well… we’re all taught it’s healthy for you, right? Water? Tasteless, boring, awful. So I didn’t drink it.

I can even remember my father asking my cousin and I why we hated water. He asked us what it tasted like, to which we replied, “Nothing!”. He asked us how we could hate something that tasted like nothing. And we just looked at him and said basically that’s the point. It has no taste. We need something with taste.

Of course, now there are tonnes of ideas for getting in water such as putting lemon in it, letting berries or things like cucumber and mint sit in the water to give it a bit of a taste. But those ideas weren’t so prevalent when I was younger.

Fast-forward to now, and so much has changed. I continued to struggle with water most of my life. I really did. I just couldn’t seem to get hooked on water. However, thus comes another change with diet and fitness. Sometimes, I sit, and feel dehydrated, and can think of nothing more glorious than a litre of water. Serious! A litre of water! What has happened to me? I can tell when my body wants water? My body actually craves water? Wow! Talk about a complete turnaround.

Water is so underrated. Make sure you are getting in enough! My recommendation is a minimum of 3L a day for an adult, more if you are working hard or very active. Drink 1 L of water 30 minutes before every meal, not to fill yourself up, but to make sure you digestion is hydrated to properly digest your food. My best tip is 1 L of water first thing in the morning. Before I’m allowed to eat, I need to suck that water down! It’s a definite motivation and you can keep the water right by your bed.

Do you have any tips for getting in your water for the day? Any tips for parents who have children who hate water like I did? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!

Week 9 Day 1: Had Some Fun

Today was a pretty awesome day.

First of all we slept in. I love sleep. If someone had only been able to convince me at a young age how much I’d value sleep later on, I think I would have slept more.

Then we got up and went to the Canadian Finals Rodeo: Championship Sunday. This was so much fun! Going through the Expo, watching all the finalists; it was a blast! I’ve loved horses for as long as I can remember, and my husband and I really seem to have picked up the rodeo circuit. We absolutely love it!

After the rodeo, we went to one of our favourite restaurants, Azucar Picante that has traditional Peruvian food. Now here’s a funny story. The ONLY South American country I’ve been to is Peru. I went on a mission trip with my church’s youth group, TYMES, during my grade 12 year. My husband’s uncle married a Peruvian woman and so his cousins are familiar with only Peru as well. Small and strange, but a definite connection here!

As always, the food was great! I was able to get a shredded chicken, rice, potato, and some delicious sauce dish that was amazing. I can finally eat soft food! But I did try something crunchy earlier and winced in pain. So no hard foods yet.

Following the restaurant, we came home and took a nap.

After the nap, we got up and went to the gym. Today’s workout was a three circuit workout of mainly shoulders mixed with some abs. Oh boy. Did I have fun playing with poses and the lighting at the gym. I have not felt like I’ve been losing much fat lately, but seeing how some of my muscles were popping out tonight, that encouraged me a little bit. At least changes are happening!

Now I’m home, working on grading again. Of course, taking an intermission to write this blog. I’m going to work much harder to stay on top of these daily posts. Thank you guys for your support this whole time! Life is a journey with many ups and downs, but it has been and always will be my focus to stay on the happier side! Night everyone!

Week 5 Day 6: A Fantastic Day

Today I woke up on top of the world! I had quite a few things to get done, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but I got up and got ready anyways. I took care of the animals, and tried to eat breakfast. I don’t know what to tell you, but it filled me so much I couldn’t finish the thing. This was breakfast:

Huevos Rancheros. So filling.

So it ended up being two meals for me today. This is the first meal I’ve found to be so filling. But hey, at least that means I’m not going hungry!

After taking care of home things, I went out. I first stopped at the registry to provide them with a copy of my husband’s work permit to extend his Health care. I then went to the bank to get a new bank card. I hate the chips they put on the cards. This is my third card since it has begun. I miss the swipe cards. I also took out the cash I needed for a later appointment.

I then went to the strip mall and looked in Wal-Mart for pyjamas for pyjama day but wasn’t really impressed with any of them. I went next door to Mark’s Work Wearhouse to see what they had for pyjamas but they did not carry any women’s sleepwear at all. So I put this task aside for now.

I then went to the DollarStore to pick up a few things for my classroom. I then went to the health food store to get liquid B12 for a morning drink. And after all of these things, I still left the mall at the exact minute I knew I needed to and got to my appointments on time. It was a morning for the books!

My chiropractor appointment went well today. She didn’t even have to use the little kicker thing on me. So I count this as a success. I then went to my acupuncture appointment and my acupuncturist was so impressed she said I should come one more time in two weeks and if things are still this good, I can be released until I feel I need to come back. Yes! Improvements are important!

I then went to the car and ate my second meal that I had brought with me. This was another Simply Whey Protein bar in chocolate mint flavour. This was pretty good and it helped to keep me on track!

After I quickly ate the bar, I drove straight to my physiotherapy appointment. I went to get that popping rib muscle checked out. I had a bit of time before, so I went to that Dollarama to find a couple more things I needed. I then went to the appointment, she assessed me and unfortunately had a hard time diagnosing me due to the area it was located on my ribs. However, she gave me some exercises to do and some stretches and told me to come back at any time that I felt I needed to.

Following this, I came home and did a few things while trying to get in my nutrition for the rest of the day. My meal three was the chicken salad snack (which I’ve had before). Veggies and a scoop of the chicken salad that goes on the chicken spinach salad. Delicious and again, filling.

When my husband came home, we had a bit of dramatic evening where my brother-in-law told us some awful news pertaining to their cousin, and some great news pertaining to himself. Of course this took up way too much time, and Fridays are always time-restrained because the gym closes early. So we went out to Pizza Hut where my husband had the usual amazing things and I had a salad with chicken. I did leave enough room for half of a breadstick, and that was my treat for the night. I fought any and all urges to eat the rest. A small, but important success.

Then we raced home, got ready for the gym, and had a phenomenal workout. It consisted of two circuits again, mainly for back, legs and abs. I pretty much died doing plank-ups and exercise ball planks with circular motion. Oh my. My abs will never be the same! And my legs were in so much pain because the gym was getting close to closing and I had to fit in hack squats, leg presses, and side chops. So my rests were basically non-existent and my legs were crying in pain. You know what they say, no pain no gain!

After the gym, I had two more meals to fit in. I couldn’t do it. I just was not hungry. I’m not sure what’s going on with my body. But I did eat one last meal.

Chicken Stir Fry.

And with that, I went to bed. Hopefully my appetite comes back!

27th Time… Complete!

I was not looking forward to the move at all. I think of all the work involved, the amount of cleaning that will need to be done, the sorting through junk you’ve accumulated, the arrangements, the inaccessibility of daily items (dishes mainly), I felt overwhelmed before it began. Thankfully, it fell upon Easter weekend which gave us the full four days to complete it.

Because my job is so demanding and report cards are coming up much too quickly, I had only a few things packed. But nevertheless, with a late start, the moving began on Good Friday. Of course, the only U-Haul available was 27 feet long (much longer than I needed), but my husband’s cousin came to help us and felt fine driving that large of a vehicle.

Loading that U-Haul took much of the day. And of course, unloading it was much simpler than loading it. But in repayment for his help (and continued help the next day), we took him to our favourite Punjabi restaurant for lunch with an all-you-can-eat buffet. Then for supper, we took him to Famoso, both of which were a huge hit for him.

We slept at our new place that night, and woke up early to return the U-Haul and start packing more of the old place, this time loading his cousin’s truck bed. This also took a large chunk of the day, though less than the previous. For breakfast, we took him to Cora’s, and again, right before he left, we took him to Azucar Picante which was the best hit of all as his mother is from Peru, and the restaurant was created with Authentic Peruvian dishes. I can say that he ate well during this process!

My husband’s cousin said good-bye after lunch as he had to return to prepare for his university finals this week (he graduates this weekend!!). My husband and I finished picking up the majority of our old apartment, and went to our new place late in the night.

Of course, we had that old Audi of ours to move, which didn’t seem to pose a problem after we have fixed the alternator and it runs quite well again. However, we made it to our new street, and as I was following him in our Kia, I started to notice a line down the road. I assumed that he had hit a puddle that I hadn’t seen, but when I met him in the parking spot, there was smoke coming from under the hood. We’re assuming it’s the radiator. I’m pretty sure, by the time we actually sell this car, everything in it will be brand new except the body. I’ve never had a car like this in my life. Do you have a hard time with cars? Maybe it’s just me…

We had to get something to eat, so we had a quick run to McDonalds. We also did not have our internet services transferred yet, so McDonalds provided us with some free internet service for the time being.

We went to bed late, and got up super early. We had to finish cleaning before the walk-through at 1:00. It took so much work, so much detailing, so much throwing out of items. And yet, somehow, we finished on time. In fact, the landlord was 15 minutes late. But I didn’t care by this point. I was so drained, so tired. I just wanted to go to bed.

The man came, the inspection was completed with no problems, and I got to go to bed after stopping at Booster Juice for a quick but healthy snack and smoothie. Of course, later, I found out I had somehow skinned my knee in the process. How I do these things, I’ll never know.

So now begins the process of getting addresses updated, services switched over, and of course boxes unpacked. The moving part may be over, but the actual move is not over yet!