Change Doesn’t Have A Set Date

Hey Friends!

Happy New Year!

How was your New Years Eve? Do anything fun?

Chatter at me. 😀

As I mentioned, It was my Mom’s birthday, so we spent a nice evening at The Keg for dinner…

Nomz. I got to try their baked sea bass! So good, although I wish I got more. #SadFace.

…and then we came back and watched a movie (The Inside Man, good movie!) and then did our usual watching of the ball drop and calling my Nana and Papa at midnight.

I also happened to prep a lil something interesting for my parent’s January 1st breakfast.

Mini cinnamon rolls using that same bread (Cinnabon bread) I made the french toast out of previously. Not the healthiest choice but seriously how cool is it that they turned out lookin like a cute lil roll when it was a slice of bread?

Yes. I can be proud of my most simplest, random ideas. If you want some all I did was soak the bread slices in that same french toast ‘batter’ I mentioned in that previous post, roll them up and stuff them into sprayed muffin tins. Oh and top them with a lil bit of melted coconut oil to get those tops crispy and sprinkle with some more cinnamon if you would like.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until they have reached the golden-ness and crispy-ness you like. They may look a lil deformed and small  pre-baked, but once they came out, the edges were golden and crisp and they had puffed up a bit and filled out into a nice cinnabon shape.

And voila! Sorry for the gross dark pictures. I made these last night at 9:30pm because I would be at the gym when my parents needed foodz.

For the ‘icing,’ I just used some of my vanilla New Zealand whey and some water. Casein would be best as it’s thicker, or go all out and use a cream cheese frosting for a more authentic feel. Also, these would be great with nuts, like walnuts or pecans, stuffed inside!

They made my parents happy and so they made me happy.

Top Chef over here ya know. 😉

Did anyone else kick off their New Year with a workout?

I decided to go all crazy and begin my year with a grueling leg workout because, well, it was leg day anyways and the gym was all like…

The perks of not getting hamm’ed on New Years Eve. Gimme all the squat racks. 😀

Oh and I took them, held onto them and squatted my lil tushie off doing a total of 4 variations of squats throughout my workout.

1 5×5 of back squats

1 4×6-7 of front squats

1 4x failure of pistol squats (this was my secondary exercise to leg press)

3x failure of heavy goblet squats.

Yup, my legs were like cedar blocks crawling walking out of there this morning.

Now onto the real reason for this post…

It’s that time of year again…

The time where people feel the need to make goals for changing themselves or modifying things in their lifestyles that they felt were lacking in the previous year.

Top New Years Resolutions you will hear people discussing…

1. Eat healthier
2. Go to the gym
3. Loose weight
4. Work less
5. Spend less

Why is it that when you list them all out that they seem so grueling?

It also makes them seem like punishment, no? Or like this is something you have to force upon yourself to create misery.

The sad reality is that most of these will not be met and will be given up before the month of February. Perhaps that is because of what I just mentioned.

I have a lil bit of an issue with setting New Years Resolutions in general and so I wanted to discuss that in a video that is posted below (click the picture for the link as usual). I also mentioned some tips on how to stick to your goals if you want to make them rather than just giving ideas on what one could consider resolving in their life. It kind of bugs me when someone makes suggestions on what others should be working in their lives because, well, it’s none of the other person’s business really and how would they know what that person really truly needs?

I have to stop and then ask myself if that makes me a hypocrite for saying that because I offer suggestions to you guys all the time. Please note that I’m never trying to push idea on you, these are just things I share with you all to shed light onto things you may not have known previously.

Anywho, check out the video if ya want and let me know what you think.

Although I believe in making goals anytime of the week or year, not necessarily just on New Years (or September), I will give some of my things that I want to work on or continue to work towards throughout this year. They are the basic idea, so nothing too specific or defined, but they are relevant to my own goals and, provided I am able to make progress towards them, the changes they will bring will benefit my life.

• Separate some ‘me time’ to blog when I head back into the second semester. I have gotten past the transitional 1st semester, so I’m really hoping to not see another lag in my posts this semester.
• Continue to build my YouTube channel and making vlogs for this blog
• SLEEP. This one I have been trying to work at but am still failing at so its back to the drawing board for this one.
• Continue to balance school with social things and down time so that I don’t end up becoming a hermit. In other words, realize that it’s okay to have some down time to enjoy with friends and not feel bad for not studying 24/7. I did much better with that this year, so I’m happy to continue making progress at it.
• Deal with online classes better. I have determined that I need to set a ‘class time’ to do my readings for online because I really have a hard time motivating myself to read a textbook from the computer.

 Well that’s all for tonight guys, but to end off I thought I would share something that is well suited for this post.

Hope you have had a great start to your 2015 year!

Do you believe in New Years Resolutions? If so, what are some of your goals?

What is the number one reason you think goals are not met or given up on?

What is something you want to do more for yourself that is not related to weight or food?

-Chelsea

You Remember Me!

Hey friends!

How was your weekend?

I had a few fun things that I got up to this weekend and because I like being all personable with you all, I decided to share them with you.

The first thing, which was on Saturday, is something you may cock your eyebrow at but I was sooo excited about. What can I say, I’m a foodie and the chance to go to a new an exotic (that being the key word here) makes me excited. So I bring you…

Yes. I went to go see these guys…

Does anyone else think ostriches are terrifying? I mean look at that face?!?

Speaking of ostriches, this video actually makes me roll on the floor laughing…

Sorry it cuts off at the very end, I can’t find the full skit for some reason

Anyways, yes I went to the ostrich farm to get me some new exotic game meat and yes I was uber excited about it.

STEAK!

On top of buying a good sized steak (which I will try tomorrow for dinner!) and a pack of ground ostrich, I learned quite a bit while I was there too. Did you know that:

• Ostrich meat is higher protein and iron then beef?
• Leaner then chicken?
• It’s easier to digest than beef?
• All cuts are the same filet mignon-like tenderness?
• Obviously antibiotic free and able to freely roam eating what animals should be eating (ie not grains)

Amazing no? Now you understand my excitement.

This place is actually super close to my parents house so I may be frequenting it often when I’m home for a good splurge if I like the ostrich, which I would be surprised if I didn’t as there hasn’t been a game meat I have met so far that I don’t like.

They also sell free range chicken, local whitefish, bison, water buffalo, eggs (including ostrich, chicken and duck) and boar. All antibiotic free and free range.

If you are interested, here is the link to their main page. Check them out!

Today was also exciting because I was heading over to my grandparents house for a Christmas brunch with my Mom’s side of the family. I’m actually going to call it linner because it was at 2pm. Anywho, before we left, I did make something a lil special that I wanted to show you using a very special bread that my Dad and I snagged a few days ago..

You guys this stuff is not healthy whatsoever but do you know how long I stood there with the package literally up my nose?

…with the bread.

…OMG cinnabon is actually one of my favourite smells like ever and I just couldn’t put the package down.

So with said bread of amazingness, I wanted to give my parents a lil something special so I whipped up some french toast for their breakfast before we left for my Grandparents house.

I basically took a few pieces of the bread (3 for my Dad and 2 for my Mom) and soaked it in a mixture of egg whites, milk, cinnamon and vanilla extract and then cooked them up in a pan in a lil coconut oil and voila, cinnabon french toast. So easy and my parents loved it.

Seriously guys, french toast is like the fastest and easiest thing to whip up when you want something tasty and seemingly fancy. You can use whatever bread you want and the mixture I used above to make a perfectly healthy french toast for any morning. If you’re worried about your sugar, skip the maple syrup and spread some nut butter on them along with melted berries for a PB&J style breakfast.

Soon after we left to head to Kitchener for the meet up and I was super surprised (and excited!) to find that my Auntie Melanie and Uncle Kent had showed up with my cousins, who I haven’t seen in like 3 years! I was worried at first that they wouldn’t remember who I was but I was happily greeted with a hug and a big smile from both of them. Of course the moment had to be documented with a few selfies. I happen to love this picture of us all snuggle up on Grandpa’s big chair.

MacKinnely, “Kinney,” (on the left of me) is in grade 3, while Kodey is now all the way in grade 5. Oh how the time has passed. I had missed them.

She’s quite the lil girlie girl with a big and bright personality. She was more then happy for a few snap happy moments with cousin Chessie.

I was so happy to see and spend some time with them and was thrilled to see their excited faces rippin their presents open because, when it comes down to it all, Christmas is all about the kids, seeing their smiles, their joy and enjoying your family.

I got it from my Mama

Also in attendance was my Auntie Candy and Uncle Rory (my Mom’s brother), who I also hadn’t seen in quite some time, so it was nice to catch up with them and see what’s been happening with them. They got a new dog recently!

Overall, it was a great few days and this week is going to be filled with last minute shopping, more traditions (ie dinner date with my Nana and Papa tomorrow night and Christmas nails and baking with my Mom), and of course the big day on Thursday. We will be hosting Christmas dinner for my Dad’s side of the family so that will be tons of fun with lots of food and good company. Can’t wait to get cookin!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and have some time off soon for the holidays!

Are you a last minute shopper?

Favourite thing about Christmas?

-Chelsea