Uncategorized Archives - Page 10 of 17

Category: Uncategorized Page 10 of 17

Snow Day

On March 18, 2013

As the rest of the world is preparing for Spring, we’re just hoping Winter doesn’t last too much longer. Spring in Calgary is always a roller coaster of ridiculous weather. Last week the temperature literally changed by 30 degrees. Wednesday it was 12 above; Thursday it was 20 below. Yes, you read that right: 30 degree temperature change in 24 hours. March is one of our snowiest months, but I still go into it thinking “Hey, Spring is almost here!” Fool.

A few weekends ago, we started the weekend in the teens and finished with a full blown snow storm. It was classic Calgary. Luckily, the storm hit on a Sunday so most people could just stay in, wrapped in blankets, watching movies.

I, however, decided to venture out for a few provisions: namely fresh sourdough bread and artisan coffee. I figure that I drive a Subaru for just such occasions. Nothing gets in the way of me and food or coffee. Seriously. Don’t try.

I also decided that I’d make good on my promise to myself to use my SLR more often and take some photos. Our street is pretty gorgeous year round, but there’s just something about fresh snow that I love.

Of course, I started with some obligatory outfit photos. Flannel, Canada toques, leggings, and pink socks. I know, I’m such a fashionista.

By the time I was done taking photos of snow covered Rula and our street, I was covered in snow and I hadn’t even actually brushed any of it off my car. It’s a good thing N was at football; he’d never have put up with my taking pictures of my car instead of actually doing something about the snow covering it.

Rulala

Our pretty street

Sorels are the best!

Driving was a bit of an adventure, but nothing too ridiculous. I slid around a fair bit heading to my destinations, but by the time I left Analog Coffee things are cleared up significantly and I had no trouble making it back home.

Mission Accmplished: Artisan Sourdough

All in all, it was a pretty great Sunday. As much as I’d love to be enjoying patio beers and gearing up for Spring, sometimes a Winter snowstorm is just what you need to reboot. There’s something so relaxing and peaceful about watching the snow fall as you enjoy a delicious cup of coffee.

Thanks for keeping me safe, Ru!

Meal Prep

By whoalansi

On March 13, 2013

In Uncategorized

Daylight savings gets me every time. Somehow this week is already getting away from me and it’s only Tuesday. Between upcoming deadlines at work and CrossFit on a regular basis, life feels busy.

I wrote a post back in December about our experience with the Paleo Diet. It changed the way I look at food and how we eat and we haven’t really looked back. We’ve both seen some awesome benefits from cutting our grains so it just makes sense to stick with it.

We also attempt to abide by some semblance of a budget, so we both bring our lunches to work daily (or at least we try. We’re mostly successful with this, although I give into lunch with the girls sometimes). I know this sounds like a lot of work, especially after I just said that life feels busy, but it’s actually not.

A mostly Paleo meal we made for my parents

I don’t have some crazy secret or a tip you’ve never heard before. We honestly rely completely on meal prep and leftovers. Every night we make dinner at home so we just make a little extra so we can both have lunch the next day. It’s one of the easiest things. I’m fairly certain my mom would laugh and say I told you so if she were to read this. I can’t count the number of times she told me things like this.

Sometimes our planning doesn’t work out perfectly, so I also keep canned tuna and spinach on hand all the time so I can throw together a large salad if need be. (That’s what we’ll be eating for lunch tomorrow, in fact.) Every morning, I make a smoothie that we drink before we leave the house. I prep large batches of bacon that we keep in the fridge and we cook up some eggs to go with it once we get to work. This has become a habit but I still don’t always feel like doing any of it. Of course, I’m always pretty glad I did once I get to work the next day. How can you go wrong with leftover lamb meatballs or steak?

Lamb Meatballs and Balasmic Fig Compote

Another great “trick” I rely heavily on is meal planning. I’m not going to tell you this is something that I love or even remotely look forward to, but I find it pretty essential to staying on track. Sometimes it gets altered during the week and sometimes we end up going out still, but it’s incredibly satisfying not to have to worry about thinking up dinner that night. It takes me 10 minutes on Sunday and then we’re ready for the week.

Wasabi Salmon “Burgers”

I’m not going to pretend we’re perfect. A lot of this is an experiment, but most of what we end up eating is pretty delicious. Don’t worry, we still eat out more than we should and go over budget sometimes (that bacon is expensive!). We’re pretty human in that way. For the most part I think we do pretty well, though and I’m proud of us for that.

What are you tips and “tricks” to saying on your budget or diet?

Again Faster

By whoalansi

On March 8, 2013

In Uncategorized

I’ve been on a CrossFit posting kick lately. I apologize. This blog really isn’t going to be only about Fitness and CrossFit. It’s just a really exciting time for CrossFit right now! Don’t worry, I’ve got some recipes and photos and non fitness things coming.

The first CrossFit Open WOD (13.1) was announced on Wednesday and my first reaction was “Holy #$%*!”. Everyone had been dreading another rendition of last years 7 min of burpees or a snatch ladder. Those were the first two work outs of the Open last year: 12.1 and 12.2. Well, CrossFit did us one better and combined those two WODs to create a beast of a workout.

Workout 13.1

17 minute AMRAP of:
Round 1 – 40 Burpees
30 Snatch, 75 / 45 lbs
Round 2 – 30 Burpees
30 Snatch, 135 / 75 lbs
Round 3 – 20 Burpees
30 Snatch, 165 / 100 lbs
Round 4 – 10 burpees
Max rep Snatch, 210 / 120 lbs

I tuned in right at 6 pm to watch Scott Panchik and Dan Bailey go head to head in this workout right after it was announced. It was intense. If you missed it, this is the only video I can currently find.

Julie Foucher (the second fittest female in the games last year) also did a great demo of the workout. She is a pretty incredible lady. She’s toned down her training this year to focus on Med School and she still managed to score 195 reps. That’s nuts.

I did the Workout last night. I was pretty nervous and excited before it. I haven’t really done many snatches since last July so I’d practiced a few on Wednesday night, but I still wasn’t super confident about that 75 lb snatch.

I scored 107 reps. I’m pretty proud of myself. I did really well on the first Round. A 45 lb snatch isn’t that heavy, but after 40 burpees it was significantly harder than usual. I finished that round in 6:27 and moved on to 30 burpees. That also went pretty well so I had plenty of time for the next set of snatches. I failed my first 3 snatches at 75 lbs. It was a bit discouraging. The best thing about CrossFit is that you always have a cheering section to get you going. All I could hear was “You can do it. You’re doing amazing! You’re so close, just get under that bar!”. On my fourth try, I finally got a successful rep. The next 5 or so minutes was a mixture of successful reps and failed reps. I got down to the last minute and got 2 reps in. With 10 seconds left, I tried for another, but just couldn’t lock out my arms at the top so I ended with 7 snatches. I got high fives all around and took my turn to cheer on the next heat. It was a pretty cool experience.

Once I was able to breath again, I knew I wanted to try the workout again. They’re doing it on Sunday, so if we don’t go skiing I may just have to try again. I know I can get those snatches now!

My score is officially up on the website, which is pretty cool. I will definitely move down in the standings, but for a time I was in the top 100 in Western Canada, so I’ll just focus on that for now.

I obviously am not going to qualify for Regionals or the Games, but it was great to participate. I’m looking forward to the next WOD and hoping it doesn’t include things I can’t manage yet! Fingers crossed!

CrossFit Open Games

By whoalansi

On March 5, 2013

In Uncategorized

I went to CrossFit last night for a super cardio-based WOD. It was awesome and painful at the same time. I was the fastest of all the girls (just barely!) and afterwards, as we were stretching (or lying on the floor trying to recover), talk turned to who was going to participate in the Open this coming week. All of the girls said yes except me. I hadn’t decided yet, I told them.

It’s just for fun! You’ll get to see where you’re at and where you stack up next to everyone else. You may even surprise yourself. You did great today. You’ll probably do better than the rest of us, they continued.

I admitted that I’d gotten 3/4 of the way through the Online Registration. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. They’d all done that at first too. They offered a few more words of encouragement before I headed home to register.

So I guess that’s it. I guess I’m doing the open this year. I really don’t expect to advance past the first workout (13.1), but it’ll be fun to be part of it. I’m pretty sure the gym is going to be packed on Thursday night. The WOD gets announced tomorrow so my box is doing it Thursday and Sunday. You have until Sunday night at 5 pm PST to submit your score. It should be interesting. I created a profile online and convinced a friend to do it as well. So it’s happening. It should be fun!

I’ve been catching up on CrossFit news and videos. This one is pretty awesome. Check it out.

February in Instagram

By whoalansi

On March 4, 2013

In Uncategorized

It’s that time again: Monthly Instagram Recap!

Follow me on Instagram @whoalansi

February was a short, action-packed month. We seemed to have something going on every weekend. Here’s a snapshot of what we got up to.

1. A Superbowl weekend full of food: Girls Night Fondue Party, Brunch at Brasserie, and Superbowl at H’s parents’ house.

2. Some gifted clothes from D. Feels like I went shopping!

3. Made my parents a delicious, and mostly paleo, meal.
4. I finally found a maxi skirt that I like! Thanks, F21!
5. Drinks with my Valentine at National, followed by dinner at Ox & Angela.
6. Panorama with a little Bird.
7. Lazy Sunday walk on the lake with some swimming ladies.
8. Amazing lunch date at MARKET with H & D.
9. Catching up with old friends over fried chicken & waffles at Model Milk.

Big Taste is this week in Calgary and I’m really excited.”Calgary’s chefs are meeting foodie demands with new culinary creations, multi-course meals and set-menu dining just for the Big Taste. It only lasts for 10 days, so book your tables and bring your appetite.” (Downtown Calgary). There are 70 restaurants participating this year and I’ve planned downtownfood for lunch on Wednesday and Charcut with my family on Saturday night.

Ski season is wrapping up relatively soon and our next day is free, so I’m hoping we can get out this weekend or something. I don’t understand how this season went by so quickly. I really can’t complain about this winter at all.

How was your February? Anything exciting on the horizon for March?

Forging Elite Fitness

By whoalansi

On March 1, 2013

In Uncategorized

I’ve been doing CrossFit workouts sporadically for the last year and half. I used to just go to the website, write down the Workout of the Day (WOD), and do it at the YMCA after work. Sometimes I’d do it with friends, but it was never really more than once a week.

This summer I started going to a friend’s gym in his garage. I still was mostly running and only going about once a week, but I really loved it. Sadly, CrossFit is really expensive, so I went back to running for most of the fall.

You might be asking yourself what is CrossFit ?

“CrossFit is an effective way to get fit. Anyone can do it. It is a fitness program that combines a wide variety of functional movements into a timed or scored workout. We do pull-ups, squats, push-ups, weightlifting, gymnastics, running, rowing, and a host of other movements. Always varied, always changing, and always producing results. Kids, cops, firefighters, soccer moms, Navy SEALS, and grandmas all do CrossFit.” (CrossFit.com)

Last month, I got the opportunity to try out Airdrie CrossFit Edge for six months. I’ve been trying to go three times a week and so far it’s been great. I love the competitive nature of it and the fact that I always feel like I’ve worked hard. I used to waste a lot of time at the gym. I’d spend longer working out, but wasn’t as effective so I wasn’t getting anywhere.

Anyway, the CrossFit games are coming up. I watched a lot of the Games last year and they’re so inspiring. These athletes are incredible! I just love Camile Leblanc-Bazinet. Seriously, check her out. She just blows through that WOD after three days of intense work outs; it’s so beautiful! (Plus she’s French Canadian, adorable, and gorgeous – love her!)

In order to get to the games, you have to qualify. The process starts with the CrossFit Games Open, which anyone can enter. A lot of people at my box are doing it and they tried to convince me to sign up yesterday. If I go next Thursday, I’ll be doing the WOD anyway. Their argument is that if I register for the open, I’ll get to see how I compare to everyone else who does it. It costs $20 to register. I’m sure I won’t make it very far, but it might be interesting to see where I stand. I’m still undecided, however.

What do you think, blogger world? Should I register?

Christmas

By whoalansi

On February 28, 2013

In Uncategorized

Talk about down to the wire eh? I said I’d get my Christmas posts in before the end of February and here I am on February 28…

It took me a while to get to organizing my photos from Christmas this year. I even took far fewer than normal and still I could not find the spare time to sit down and edit them. I just can’t help but feeling I’m always sprinting from one thing to the next lately. It’s been nice to have some downtime to relax this winter. Once I learn to stop feeling guilty about taking a day off and being lazy, I’ll be set. (Will this ever happen?) Maybe that’s why I was so intent on posting something about Christmas and showing off some of the beauty of our time at the lake – it’s one of the few places that I can actually unwind and relax without the guilt.

I caught up on my reading, went for walks every day, ate a lot of food, and drank a lot of wine. It was glorious.

Family Walks

N and I in the snowy driveway

Snowy Mountains

Christmas Day at the lake is the best. There is no one to wake you up at the crack of dawn, so we all sleep in a bit. When we finally do stir, we leisurely enjoy some coffee and a light breakfast. Mom pops some bubbly, adds a little juice, and we sit down to open presents.

Once the presents are opened, it’s brunch time. This usually involves a little more bubbly and lots of delicious food. My Nana made Christmas bread as usual. Not only is it delicious, but I think it’s totally gorgeous too.

We all settle down for a while (or if you’re me, go off for a 5 km run) before dinner prep begins. This year, my parents went non traditional (again) and made lamb. I think they’ve decided they’re done with two turkeys in the span of 3 months. If that means we have lamb instead, that’s perfectly fine by me.

N and I relaxing before dinner

delicious, delicious lamb

Spring begins in March, right? Good thing I got this winter blogging thing out of the way before the end of February then.

xoxo
a

Real Estate

By whoalansi

On February 26, 2013

In Uncategorized

Real Estate is something I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about lately. N and I hope to one day own a house and we’d like that day to be sooner than later, so we tend to pay a bit of attention to what is going on out there. Or at least we try to.

When my parents first moved to Calgary, they bought in the suburbs. It’s close to Dad’s office and to the airport. As he traveled more and more frequently, they came to appreciate this proximity.

At one time, however, they had looked at a lot in Crescent Heights. It was right at the end of Centre A St NW, beside Sunnyside Bank Park, with a view of all of downtown Calgary and the river valley.

Crescent Heights – Google Maps

It was amazing. The lot was listed at $250,000 so they decided against it. Instead Jim Shaw bought it and built an incredible house – a 10,000 square foot, hill-top mansion.

View of Downtown isn’t too bad – Calgary Herald

I think I could deal with this kitchen…maybe – Calgary Herald

I don’t think I could deal with this Downtown Hot Tub view – Calgary Herald

I walk by this house almost daily and it is currently for sale. The listed price? Only $11.5 million.

Check out the story in the Herald for more photos.

Tree Trimmin’

By whoalansi

On February 20, 2013

In Uncategorized

It doesn’t really ever feel like Christmas until we have a tree and one of the best things about spending the holiday out at the lake is getting to pick one out from the forest. Normally, my dad and brother go out to hunt for one, but this year brother had to work. N and I went out to help Dad find one instead.

Heading out to find a tree.

The three of us piled into the truck and headed down the highway to find a nice tree. Normally there isn’t too much snow up there in December. This year there was a ton, making turning the truck around on the narrow road a bit difficult. Dad dropped us off to find a tree while he went looking for a way to turn the truck around.

Nathan sawing down our tree in camoflage.

The snow was so deep, even my Sorels couldn’t keep it out! We were soaked, but we found our tree, successfully cut it down, and stuffed it in the back of the truck.

Snow covered Sorels

The boy

My brother arrived that evening and Mom put him right to work. We always do a pretty simple tree since we’re in the country. Mom gets the boys to put on some lights and a star and then adds a few simple ornaments.

Lots of help trimming the tree

Mom loves having us wrap our gifts in brown craft paper. She says it goes with the country feel at the lake. We all indulge her with this and it does end up looking really beautiful.

Presents all ready under the tree

I also made some home-made ornaments this year with some girlfriends. We got the idea from A Beautiful Mess (Thanks Elsie & Emma!) and, although ours didn’t turn out as well as theirs, they were pretty cute. I gave a lot away as gifts, but some ended up on the tree as well.

Joyeux Noel

Noel Noel Noel

We haven’t had the lake house for that long (only 5 years), but our tradition of getting our own tree and setting it up together on Christmas Eve has become one of my favourites.

Well, that and my Christmas Day 5 km run. Everyone else thinks that one’s a bit crazy though, even if I did convince Dad and N to join me this year.

Worky

By whoalansi

On February 13, 2013

In Uncategorized

Exciting news for me in the job world! Ok, so this isn’t exactly news since I started a week and a half ago, but I forgot to share. I’ve been with geoLOGIC Systems as a Customer Solutions Specialist for the last 8 months. Basically, my job was to answer phone calls about how to use our software and troubleshoot client issues.

In January, a position for Instructional Designer came up and I applied. We’re redesigning our training courses and the manuals that go with them. Turns out I got the job! I started the first week of February and it’s been great so far. The job itself is great. I get to edit and write as well as be a bit creative since it’s a redesign. Not only that, but there are so many little things about this job that are great. I no longer have a strictly set lunch hour. I’m also no longer tied to my desk and don’t have to check who is available before using the washroom or getting water. The freedom is unreal!

It took a couple days to transition out of solutions but I’m now moved into my new desk and mostly only working on stuff for my new position.

WHOA lansi

francophile, oenophile, logophile, turophile

Category: Uncategorized Page 10 of 17

Snow Day

Meal Prep

Again Faster

Workout 13.1

CrossFit Open Games

February in Instagram

Forging Elite Fitness

Christmas

Real Estate

Tree Trimmin’

Worky

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