Five Things Friday: Fall Changes Edition

Good morning!

It is Friiiiiday, which means it is almost the weekend. I've got one more day of work and then the weekend is here! As usual, I am sharing five things that I have been loving this weekend. Let me know in the comments what YOU have been loving this week - try anything new? Eat something delicious? Buy some cute shoes? I wanna know! : )

First things first, this is an exciting change for my hair! I am not the type to get my hair done often, so when I do I like to make it special. Seriously. The last time I got my hair trimmed was over six months ago, and the last time it was coloured was when I did the whole ombre scenario over a year ago. Not only was my hair in need of freshening up, but I figured now was the best time to make a colour change, too! I am so happy with how it turned out. Funny how a new hair do can make you feel like a new person! : )

Ooh, yes. The coveted Blundstone boots I have been wanting for the last year. Ryan and I celebrated our anniversary on Tuesday, and this was a thoughtful gift that he knew I would love. Now it's time to break them in!

Mmm, Monday night's dinner was cauliflower crust pizza! Have you guys tried this before? It is amazing. The only downside is the cheese, BUT that is my own fault for adding more on top. Ha, ha. I used veggie pepperoni on mine, whereas Ryan cooked up some chicken breast for his pizza. This picture was taken pre-oven, so picture this all hot and melty. Ooh, yah!

So Nala still kills me. Seriously. She is so cute. Look at those puppy dog eyes! It made my at home yoga practice on Monday night difficult with her trying to get in there too. It's safe to say she is the real master of downward facing dog, no matter how hard I try.

So it's not exactly a Christmas mug, but it's close enough. For now. This has been my go to mug lately for any hot beverages, accompanied of course by my candy cane pajama pants and red, green, and white striped socks. I know. Too soon, Holly. Too soon. I can't help myself!

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Hope you guys enjoyed! Catch ya tomorrow : )

Five Things Friday

Hey, hey, hey!

I am back this morning with our regularly scheduled Five Things Friday, where I share five things from the last week (or so) that I have been loving.

Let's get into it!

The BC SPCA Paws for a Cause walk. Click the link to read my recap on the event. It was our first time ever going, but it was full of family and puppy love! Gotta like that : )

So technically this is from last week, but I really enjoyed this seriously easy Mexican black bean salad. I am already thinking of other one bowl salads to make and share with you guys, so stay tuned for more.

I have been LOVING this top from Lululemon. I purchased it when we were in Vancouver for the Seawheeze, and it has been a go-to for work outs from strength training to running. I wore it for the Wine Country half in Kelowna and was happy with the fit and cut while I was on the run. Sometimes shirts bunch up, or it feels as if they twist around your body. This tank skims the body without clinging, and the fabric is lightweight and breezy. Win!

Okay, so. I love me these face masks. I am wearing one as I type this, to be honest. Ryan gets a kick out of them when he comes in the room and I have this sheet of gooey tissue on my face, but it certainly works wonders for adding some extra nourishment to the skin.

I have always wanted to make my own almond milk - just to try, not to continuously do as it is expensive - and so earlier this week I bought a pack of almonds and used some to get a little crafty in the kitchen. I will have the recipe up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that! ; ) Sorry, no spoilers here, but it has been a favourite of mine this week! Does anyone else like doing these fun little recipes? It's a nice way to try something new and switch it up. Plus, the left over almond meal (almost like the pulp left behind) is pretty tasty in oatmeal!

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What are YOU loving this week!? 

SERIOUSLY Easy Mexican Black Bean Salad

A picture of me grocery shopping this morning after cleaning out the fridge. Hello, produce aisle! ; )

Good morning, friends!

I am back from Kelowna, which means I am back to our regularly scheduled blog posts. I had so many blog ideas pop into my head while I was away, so stay tuned for some fresh content coming your way!

My Kelowna recap will be up on Friday (in lieu of a 5 Things Friday post), so for now I wanted to share a delicious Mexican-inspired salad I made this morning. It is super easy, doesn't require any fancy ingredients, and is packed with fresh veggies.

Easy Mexican Black Bean Salad

1 cup cooked wild rice

1 can black beans (rinsed)

1 can corn kernels (I purchased low sodium, otherwise rinse to reduce extra salt)

1/2 cup diced red onion

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

Buttloads of cilantro (or however much you like. I am a cilantro fiend)

Pink Himalayan sea salt & pepper (more pepper than salt, though I don't measure this)

1 tsp turmeric

A shake of garlic powder (depending how garlicky you like it!)

Juice of half a lemon

Mix it all up and VOILA! Easy peasy, lemon squeezey. 

And of course an obligatory Nala picture from our walk on the trail today. She is so stinking cute!

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See ya on Friday with my Kelowna recap!

Long Weekend Recap + Taco Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Good evening from this lazy puppy!

Sorry for falling behind on Monday's post. As I type this it is Tuesday, though it certainly feels like a Monday after the long weekend.

A long weekend does that to a person, hey?

For those who celebrated BC Day, I hope you all enjoyed the extra day off and got up to some fun and exciting things in the beautiful weather.

My long weekend started Saturday after work. Ryan and I ventured off to visit my parents, who were camping nearby. We took Nala with us for the adventure, and she had lots of "Ooh's" and "Awww's" from the other campers. I mean, can you resist?

SO DARN CUTE. I die : )

We stayed out fairly late on Saturday night, and I of course slept through my alarm on Sunday and woke up at 10am. This is unheard of for me. Fortunately Ryan was on puppy duty, so my sleep was, for the most part, undisturbed. That being said, I decided to use Sunday as my easy day and complete my long run on Monday. I will get to that in a momento!

Sunday was filled with running errands, which included a pit stop at Costco in search of an air conditioning unit. Of course, there were none when we got there, so we spent our money on organic fudgsicles, hummus, and giant boxes of salad greens. When at Costco, right?

Since I slept through my morning alarm on Sunday - and REALLY didn't feel like running in the blazing heat, I saved my long run for Monday. After breakfast was finished, I hopped on the treadmill and completed seven miles. Sometimes breaking a long run into two parts can serve as a good mental break, especially if you are doing it on the treadmill. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my treadmill. In fact, sometimes I prefer the treadmill because it gives me a chance to give my body a bit of a break (and I can tune out and watch YouTube to pass the time). Additionally. all of my other long runs were completed outside, so I am more than accustomed to the time on my feet. That's what the long run is all about, after all!

After the second part of my run I refueled with another huge salad. Is anyone else not into hot food in the summer? I could eat salad for dinner every day and be happy as a clam. Ryan, not so much, but this salad was a hit! He even made a delicious avocado dressing that I am going to share with you guys. That's what friends are for, yes?

*Note: Most ingredients are organic as we have access to local produce pretty much year round, though some things aren't. It's all about the price!

In my salad I had:

- Organic spring mix

- Organic cucumbers

- Organic cherry tomatoes

- Yellow pepper

- A handful (or so) of chopped cabbage (great for extra crunch)

- Lean ground turkey sauteed with organic yellow pepper and organic pitted olives, sliced <--- This olive idea was SO delicious. Adds a great punch of saltiness without physically dousing your salad in salt.

- Lightly salted tortilla strips

For the dressing:

Add one ripe avocado, about a 1/4 cup organic plain yogurt, the juice of one lemon, Himalayan pink salt, cracked black pepper, garlic, and a dash of olive oil into your food processor. Cream together until smooth - you can add more liquid until it becomes your desired texture.

This dressing also makes a yummy dip for crackers, veggies & nacho chips!

Sooo, sooo good. Let me know if you try it out!

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I hope you all have a great day & I will catch you on Friday!

Easy Black Bean Spicy Peanut Pasta, May Favourites & Workout Recap

 

 

Hey everyone! I hope the week has been treating you all well so far. Since we are now officially in June, I wanted to share some favourite things with you for the month of May.

First things first, I want to kick this post off with one of my favourite dinners we had last week. I was in the mood for pad Thai, so this was the next best option, and fortunately it was a big hit! Easy peasy, too. 

Black bean & veggie pasta with spicy peanut sauce: 

Black bean pasta (found at Costco)

Cremini mushrooms

Yellow bell pepper

Dinosaur kale

Broccoli

Red onion

For the sauce:

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

Juice of 1 lime

2 tbsp Tamari or soy sauce

Chilli flakes (to your liking)

Salt & pepper

How to:

Bring water to a boil and cook noodles for 8-10 minutes

Sauté together all vegetables with coconut or olive oil, until tender. 

Mix all sauce ingredients together, then stir sauce into veggies.

Plate noodles & add veggies on top. Sprinkle on more chilli flakes if you like things a bit spicy!

 

Today I wanted to do a recap of this last week in work outs. I have officially started training for the Lululemon Seawheeze half, so running has been in the mix!

Monday: Cathedral Grove with Ryan 

Tuesday: Hot yoga & a walk around Chemainus Lake with the Brownies

 

 

Wednesday: Track workout. 10 minute warm up, 6 X 30 second sprints with 1 minute walk in between. 10 minute cool down. I covered 3.1 miles (or 5km)

Thursday: Hot yoga

Friday: 20 minute run & stretching

Saturday: Long run, 10KM

Sunday: REST!

 

One of my May favourites has been this rose quartz bracelet I picked up at a cute little crystal shop on Monday when Ryan and I went up to Coombs. I also bought a tangerine quartz that I keep on my desk. 

 

I am slowly collecting items for my home office. Ryan so kindly hung one of my paintings, and I found an older Victorian style chair for the corner. As you can see, I don't have an ordinary desk chair. Having the exercise ball reminds me to keep my core engaged, and I have some resistance bands stashed in one of the desk drawers so I can workout, too. I want to find a small side table or something of the sort to put on the opposite wall on the right, as there is only a lonely picture hanging there. In time!

 

Speaking of pictures, I am also loving this painting that I picked up at Home Sense. Thankfully Ryan is a handy man, so I just had to show him where I wanted it and voila, it was hung! Just like magic ; )

A few desk favourites, which include the tangerine quartz I picked up in Coombs. Also pictured is citrine and amber, I believe! It is always nice to have fresh plants in the house, too : )

 

As you probably gathered by my book reviews lately, I have been into reading. I am reading consistently and am currently about half way through the first Harry Potter book. My book shelf is becoming full (this is only one stack of many), and I much prefer getting lost in a good book than watching tv. Let's face it. As soon as you put me on the couch to watch a movie, I am out like a light, but fortunately reading is a different story!

Favourite Work Outs of May: HOT YOGA and RUNNING! I am so happy to have rekindled my love of running, and the Seawheeze training plan helped move that love to "on again" status ; )

Bloggers of May: Read about 'em here, PLUS my sister's blog! Be sure to check it out & give her some love.

Favourite Day Trip: Well, pretty much the only day trip of the month, but Cathedral Grove!


That is all for my favourites - or all that I can think of, anyway! In a later post I will talk about some beauty things I have been loving, as I have purchased a few new goodies from Sephora that I am loving!

Until next time : )

What are you loving this month? Let me know!

Birthday Fun: Commence Food Coma

Good evening, friends!

I hope you all had a great week. Mine was fantastic, mainly because I was counting down until my BIRTHDAY! More on that to come.

My days have been filled with working and going to the gym, as per usual, but I am extra excited to see the flowers in the garden start to bloom! They are so pretty and remind me that spring is around the corner.

So, let's get onto the birthday talk, shall we?

Sunday mornings start with posing practice at the gym. After I came home, I took a shower and relaxed with a cup of coffee & Ryan made me pancakes! I haven't had good, doughy pancakes in a long time. Way, way, too long. Rather than using wheat flour he substituted with oat flour, which happens to be friendly to my competition diet. I topped my pancakes with natural peanut butter, chia seeds, banana, and syrup. And yes, I did eat my weight in pancakes, and yes, they were amazing!

After breakfast, we got ready for the day. I requested we go shopping in Victoria, so that was the adventure of the day.

Outfit of the day: Sweater by Mink Pink (plain white tank top underneath from Forever 21), jeans by Guess?, necklace from Old Navy, light pink bead bracelet from Archer & Arrow (local boutique), and gold watch by Michael Kors.

My parents were also en route to Victoria, so we met up with them along the way as we were shopping. After visiting all of our favourite shopping destinations and spending way too much money at Lululemon, it was time for dinner. Maybe next week I will do a little haul/favourites post!

Hello, cheat meal! I tend to be fairly conservative with my reward meals. I'll either eat more carbs or I won't measure my serving of salmon, if that's what I'm having for dinner. OR I will eat dark chocolate, because I miss having chocolate. However, now I feel so much better without all that extra sugar in my system, so I suppose it's all about balance. 

Anyway, we went out to a restaurant called Bin 4 in Victoria. If you haven't been, I strongly urge you to go! It was delicious, decently priced, and I had the best company around me which made for a great birthday dinner. My burger of choice is called the Mr. Bean burger and is a hand-made bean and vegetable patty on a soft, squishy bun with lettuce, tomato, and red onion. And the FRIES. Oh, the fries were to die for. And ketchup! And garlic aoli! Oh my lanta. I kid you not. I unbuttoned my pants on the way home because I was so damn full. Food coma, commence.

A big thank you to my amazing family & loving boyfriend for such a special birthday. I am so thankful! Safe to say my belly and heart were full yesterday.

I hope you all have a nice evening! I am off to make some food. Girl's gotta eat.

Who Wants a Cat? Weekend Recap

Hey, hey, hey! It's Monday again, and I have you guys booked in my planner.

I'm not kidding. In order to remind myself to blog once a week I wrote down "BLOG POST" every Monday for the next couple months (at least). It is keeping me accountable, and it forces me to set time aside in the day to reflect and check in with you guys, which I don't mind, even if only my family members are reading this little blog of mine.

To recap the week, nothing too interesting happened. The usual working, going to the gym, and hanging out with Ryan and Simba when I get home. We did, however, go to my parents' house on Thursday night and picked up the ELLIPTICAL machine! I am so excited. So now there is a treadmill and elliptical in the garage, so a few more choices when I actually make it out of bed for morning cardio. I admit, it is currently my go-to choice in the morning when I am half asleep. Something about the thought of jumping on a treadmill for HIIT at 6AM does not sound appealing, but gently waking up on the elliptical does. All in the mind, I suppose. All in the mind.

This weekend was also the day of loooove. That's right. It was Valentine's Day, and now we can all enjoy discount chocolate! Well, those of us who have chocolate in the meal plan (which generally does not include bikini competitors). Although I can't have chocolate right now, I did have some on Valentine's Day, but I made sure to keep my workouts and other meals in check as to not over do it!

After work on Saturday I came home, hopped on the elliptical and got my cardio in. Then, Ryan surprised me by coming home early and made a beautiful and delicious salmon dinner with roasted veggies. Yes, and roses to boot! I am lucky.

Simba could smell the fish cookin' and was trying to dig in with us, but sorry, no cats allowed there pal. It was seasoned with cracked black pepper, dill, and lots of lemon. I swear I could eat lemon on any and everything! I am drinking lemon water as we speak.

Valentine's Day gifts included a dozen red roses, a book I have been eyeing up (back story: I was going to buy this book at Chapters one day, but put it back on the shelf to browse around some more. Much to my dismay, when I came back the book had been scooped up by someone and of course it was the last one. Cue disappointed Holly here). I am excited to dig into this book with a nice cup of tea this week!

Side note: I say that all the time, but have yet to finish the last two books I've started. All in due time.

Fast forward to today. I woke up early, got my cardio in, then headed off to the gym for a check-in with my personal trainer. So far, so good, and no changes to my plan as of right now. Everything is humming along, and I am losing inches consistently. I still have a few months left until my show date, June 28th, so there will be more changes ahead. Following my check-in, I got in my glute workout, picked out fabric for my second suit (for the fitness model category), and then Ryan and I went off to Nanaimo. We were on the hunt for side tables for the bedroom, but came home with some fancy decorative boxes for the bathroom (I figure my ratty black make up bag isn't too appealing to the eye), two sets of new towels, and a rug that Simba has already pulled some yarn out of.

Anybody want a cat?

I kid, I kid. 

It ended up being a productive day, and we came home to a beautiful sunset while we were on our way home. We are still going, though! Dinner is sizzling away, I have meal prep to do, and then it's bed time. Phewf.

I hope you all have had a wonderful week!

Let me know in the comments what your favourite weekend moment was this weekend :)

Celebrations, Running Around & Dem Ocean Viewz

Good morning! It's been a week(ish) since I last checked in, so this post will have lots of photos from what's been happening lately!

Note: Nothing earth shattering or life changing on my end here, but it has been a fun week!

Let's start with the weekend, shall we?

Saturday morning started with a walk with my mom & Marley. We wandered around town and headed towards the beach on our way home. I snapped the picture above when we reached a look out point. The water was so peaceful and calm, and it was relatively warm out despite how gloomy the morning was! That gloom soon turned into sunshine, which turned into HEAT during my run later on that day. Lovely, yes. Painful, yes. However, you can't complain with ocean views like this! So beautiful. 

Stairs of death (that I didn't run down. I thought about it, then ran home).

Here's my splits for Saturday's run! Saturday is usually a long run, but I cut it short because A) I was getting too hot and mentally tired of the heat + humidity and B) I had more important things to do, like attend my friend's wedding!

A girlfriend of mine who I've known since kindergarten got married on Saturday! It was such a beautiful time with so many good people. Congratulations, Sheridan & Scott! Ryan and I had tons of fun, so of course Sunday was spent relaxing. We headed to the beach and went for a swim, ran some errands, then went for an hour long walk before making some dinner.

I was feelin' a big salad with shrimp! We tried a new honey mustard dressing that paired well with the shrimp and avocado. It is a winner in my books!

After work yesterday I went for a hot, humid 5KM run on the trail. What is it with this crazy humid weather? Or maybe I'm just insane for running at 4:30pm in the summer time? The trail was quiet with not many people out and about, so I had the whole place to myself to run and frolick and be free and dream about watching CityLine when I got home. Yeah, it's like my 5 o'clock thing now to drink tea and watch a late-afternoon daytime TV show.

 ...And then I sat on the floor for a while.

Until next time, friends!

Easy, Healthy Dinners, Sheep & Return to Trail Running

Friday night dinner: Ginger honey lime prawns with broccoli carrot slaw. This was super easy to make and packed a flavourful punch. The recipe called for couscous, but I wanted a heartier meal and substituted brown rice. I also added cilantro and slivered almonds. Healthy and delicious!

Marley moo takes a little snooze, thus leaving me couch bound until something outside caught his attention or I forced him off. I don't mind the snuggles, though.

My cute little succulent plant :)

7.5km (or 4.66 miles) of glorious trail running this afternoon around a local lake. I'd like to do this at least once a week!

This guy makes a wonderful running buddy and is so good off leash! Before I was hesitant taking him off leash, but my parents have gone with him hundreds of times before, so I figured I'd try it out today. He is very careful and always looks back to check if you're still there. Or, he'll sprint up ahead and wait, then once you catch up he goes off again. He's very polite when coming across other dogs, too. Sniff sniff, goodbye.

Post-run bubble bath with this Halloween bubble bar from Lush Cosmetics. I crumbled the lighter orange part as well as the leaves, and a bit of the side and had some big bubbles going on!

Lounging in fuzzy sheep socks. They are "shea infused" so I should have some soft feet after this. Maybe. We'll see. I'm probably due for a pedicure any day now.

Hope you guys all had a fantastic weekend!