Soyummi Chocolate Non-Dairy Whipped Pudding

Curiosity influenced me to pick this up from the health food section of my local grocery store. Not only is this product vegan but it is also gluten-free. Although the texture of this pudding was more jelly-like, the flavour was good and it satisfied the chocolate craving Hubby and I had!

The FitBit Zip!

About 3 weeks ago I realized I had been procrastinating and made a commitment to myself to begin working out again. My in-laws have a treadmill so we began working out a schedule where I could use their machine a few times a week and do the rest of my workouts at home. 

A week later, my father-in-law surprised me with a FitBit Zip. The Zip is a tiny device that you can easily clip on to your clothing. It's lightweight, comes in a variety of colours and tracks your daily steps.

FitBit Zip

Much more than a pedometer, the FitBit Zip will also track the amount of calories your intaking as well as the amount of calories you burn making it an excellent tool for weight loss. One of the most difficult challenges I face is portion control. Everything nowadays comes super sized, including dish ware! In the past I would find that even though I was eating healthier meals and exercising regularly the number on the scale wasn't decreasing.

The Zip makes that easy! FitBit.com offers a weight loss dashboard tool in which you can set your current weight, your goal weight and the amount that you wish to lose every week (with a healthy maximum of 2lbs). It uses this along with your daly activities to automatically create a daily caloric deficit to reach your weekly goal. As long as you are logging your food portions it will monitor your calories in/calories out. I love that by dinner time I know exactly how many calories I have left for the day so I can choose what I want to eat wisely! As you move more during the day this will of course fluctuate - so if you had a high intensity cardio workout in the afternoon you will of course be given a larger amount of consumable calories afterwards then if you sat on the couch. 

FitBit Computer Dashboard

The log contains thousands of pre-programmed foods so you can quickly look up an item and add in your serving size. It will then calculate your calories. Unfortunately as it is a US based system, many of the products available in Canada aren't in the log. This hasn't been a major issue though, you can also log your own foods, saving them in the history so you don't need to provide the nutritional information multiple times.

Logging the type and length of your workouts on the dashboard as well as the time and calories burned will also adjust your caloric burn. Logging the time ensures it doesn't double count your steps.

FitBit also offers a free downloadable app that is great when you're out and about! That way there's no excuse not to be logging your food and watching your steps. 

FitBit Dashboard On iPhone

I have been using the Zip for about 2 weeks now and am so happy with the results I'm seeing! I have lost 5lbs with it's help and find that using it has really motivated me to keep moving. It challenges you to walk at least 10,000 steps per day and I often find myself taking an extra quick walk around the block or around my house to reach this daily goal! Logging my food has given me a new appreciation for the meals that I eat as well as controlling my portions. It seems to be the little extra oomph I needed to fuel my weight loss!

FitBit also offers devices that will monitor things like your sleep and heart rate. If you are interested in learning more I suggest checking out their website: http://www.fitbit.com/home

Tofurky Pizza

Generally Hubby and I make our own cheese-free pizzas but one thing we definitely miss is that traditional pizza taste! Then while doing our grocery shopping we stumbled upon this! I'm not a huge fan of imitation meat but I do enjoy Tofurky's products so I was really excited to try this out. I have to say, it was pretty good! It didn't of course taste just like a real pepperoni pizza but the flavour was yummy and it satisfied that pizza craving we had! Best of all - no animals were hurt in the making of it!

Running

Thanks to a gift certificate I received for my birthday to the Running Room I was able to purchase some new running shoes.

As you may know from my previous blogs I have been focusing on adding daily exercise to my routine. I have to be careful of what exercises I do due to previous injuries I sustained in a car accident but lately I have really been missing the accomplishment and high you get from running. Years ago running used to be a huge part of my life. While in University I worked out anywhere from 1-3 hours daily. I loved the way it made me feel, how it made my body feel and how I looked.

When I added a full time job, having my first home, being a newlywed and pets in to the mix I found it harder to keep up. My gym dates became few and far between. Sometimes I would have the momentum to go, which would last a week or two and then I would just become too overwhelmed and it was the first thing I dropped.

While trying to strengthen my body post car accident I found running was just too much. It caused my neck and back to seize and I could barely put any weight on my knee. So I began walking instead and sticking to the recumbent bikes.

It is now almost 3 years later and although I have the same problem spots they are nowhere near as painful as they used to be. So I thought I would give it a shot. I enjoy walking with the dogs but I don't feel like it's a great workout - I need something to challenge me and make me sweat!

My husband has also been running for a few years now with our dogs and said he'd really like me to join him. He has been an amazing coach, pushing me to go that little bit further and encouraging me with praise when I hit or surpass my goals. When I have to stop short of my target he isn't mean or negative but still makes me feel great for what I have accomplished.

Right now my goal is to run four times a week along with my daily walks with the dogs. I love running with the dogs, they love to run themselves, and it feels great to have family time with them and my husband. We often run through the dog park as it's a safe area for the dogs and has lots of beautiful wooded trails for us to follow. On Friday I did so well that I beat my previous time by more than 10 minutes. Instead of heading home I asked my husband if we could run a few fields again!

Birthday Celebrations at the Cottage!

What an awesome birthday weekend I had! Being at the end of August, my birthday occasionally falls on the Labour Day long weekend so I decided to head up to the cottage to celebrate! My family joined me as well as my sister's friend and my best friend!

We had a beautiful weekend and took full advantage of the lake! My best friend and I even went out tubing a few times! This was probably due to the amount of margaritas we consumed!

My husband had to work all weekend so he had stayed home....but just before dinner time I turned around and he was there! Hubby had driven 2 1/2 hours just to see me on my birthday, bring me flowers, stay for dinner, go out for an evening boat ride and then drove the 2 1/2 hours home for work the next day! What an amazing guy!

This is the gorgeous bouquet my Husband brought me. I was so shocked when he showed up! There were some definite tears! 

 

The sky was absolutely incredible and I was able to give my sister's friend a tutorial on night photography. I'm not a professional but I have been playing around with star photography a bit and was really happy with how this one turned out! Love the clarity of the milky way and the fact that this is what we see every night at the cottage!

The next morning my Bestie and I got up bright and early to kayak around the lake. The lake we are on is so serene, it doesn't get a lot of traffic and is fairly small so our kayaks cut the water like glass. We loved touring around this one rocky area where the trees intertwined with the rocks and their roots continued in to the water.

In the early evening we enjoyed taking a round trip in my Uncle's newest toy - a pontoon! The sunsets on the lake were incredible!

And just because we could, one day we took the pontoon out to the middle of the lake and just jumped in! We had a blast swimming and even the dogs jumped in for some fun!

When it got dark, we started the bonfire and spent the rest of the night gathered around it. The perfect way to end the summer!

Happy 28th To My Amazing Husband!

Yesterday I was busy baking some of Hubby's favourite vegan desserts in celebration of his birthday.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup almond or soymilk
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Begin by whisking together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl except the chocolate chips. Once these are well mixed you can add the oil and milk to the mixture and mix well. If the mixture seems a little too dough-like you can add small amounts of milk at a time to get the proper consistency. Finally add in the chocolate chips and mix well. You don't want to use an electric mixer for this recipe, hand mixing is fine and will get you the proper texture you want.

Put a little vegetable oil in the bottom of a frying pan and heat for a minute on medium-high heat. Pour a small amount of batter in the pan and let it cook for a few minutes. Small bubbles should begin to form when the underneath side is finished. When this happens flip it over to cook the other side. Each pancake should only take minutes to make so make sure you don't burn them! Repeat until all of the batter has been used, then serve with your favourite maple syrup!