Monday Weight In

Yes, it's Monday. No, I don't have access to a scale. No, I don't want to have access to a scale. I'm sitting eating a packet of Walkers English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding crisps.....Talk amongst yourselves.

Veggie Gardens and European Travel

A BIG Foodzilla congratulations goes out to my sister for winning the Health Unit raffle!

She won a veggie garden starter kit, so dinners at her house should to be REALLY healthy this year. I'll be over weekly and I expect to be fed well.
She WON!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!! HOOOOOOO!!!!!!

She's excited because she so rarely wins. It was a good day.

The garden kit was, actually, a really welcome prize, since she and her husband were planning a veggie garden this year anyway. Now they have all the bits and pieces to get it started.

No excuses. I expect fresh vegetables. Make it happen.

In other news, someone sacrificed a goat and appeased the volcano in Iceland. The airlines are scrambling to catch up on the backlog of passengers waiting to travel to and from Europe.

So far, things look promising for our flight tomorrow evening. My fingers are crossed and will continue to be crossed until we arrive at our destination.

If anybody else out there wants to cross there fingers as well, and maybe send us some good vibes, it would be appreciated.

With a little luck, things will be quiet at my end for a couple of days as we travel and acquire internet access again. I hope to keep you all posted on our mini adventures (adventurettes) as we go along.

But, I don't want to jinx anything, so I'll just leave you with the hope that everything goes smoothly over the next couple of days and that transport goes off without a hitch.

I hope to write to you next, from Europe.

A Day in Africa, in Toronto

I'm a pharoh-phile and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Everything about the art and architecture of ancient Egypt fascinates me.

Before I shuffle off this mortal coil I need to see the pyramids with my own two eyes. I'm not ready to die yet, though, so I'm holding off on the trip. But, the day I get the bad news diagnosis is the day I buy my ticket on Egypt Airways (or whatever airline will honour my aeroplan points).

So a week or two ago my husband, knowing my pharaonic fetish, secured two tickets to a huge exhibit of Egyptian antiquities at the art gallery in Toronto.

It was really busy and hectic, but it was worth negotiating the crowds to come face-to-face with Akhnaten and be inches away from some of the finest relics antiquity has to offer. The quality of the art and the intricacy of the details were amazing. It was humbling to think how long ago the objects were created.

There was no photography allowed, so I don't have any pictures...sorry.

After the exhibit, we went for dinner. We rarely have the opportunity to dine out together, just the two of us and we wanted to take the opportunity to be adventurous. We wanted to try something different. Something our three-year-old would have bawlked at.

At a friend's recommendation, we opted for an Ethiopian restaurant called Addis Ababa.

Yes Ethiopian food, I know, there's so many different jokes it's hard to pick just one. I'm not going to make any, so you can insert your own joke here ________. OK, are you done? Good.

Addis Ababa actually has an extensive and varied menu so you can consider your assumptions confounded.

We tried an Ethiopian beer. I'm not much a beer drinker, but this was really sweet and I liked it because it was almost like drinking a shandy (half ginger ale, half beer). My husband prefers his beer bitter, gross, and tasting like burnt Shreddies, so he wasn't as enamoured with the Ethiopian beer as I was.

Our food was served traditionally, all together on one plate. It was presented on a bed of flat bread, which you use as both a plate and a utensil.

Many of the dishes are very spicy and scared me off. I went for something on the mild side but found it a bit too bland. My husband ordered a sampling of spicier dishes. He was happy with his meal and found it very flavourful.

I can't remember what the dishes were called 'cause I don't speak Ethiopian. I apologise for my inadequacies.
For me, the highlight of the dinner came after the main meal. We shared dessert, which was fried bananas with ice cream and sesame seeds - yum. We also ordered coffee...

Coffee at Addis Ababa is an experience like nothing you'll get at Tim Horton's. It's not just grabbing a coffee, it's an event that engages all your senses.

They start by bringing freshly roasted beans to your table, so they can tease you with the heavenly aroma. Then they grind them and brew the coffee in a beautiful Ethiopian carafe.

A tray is brought to your table with demi tasse cups, the carafe of coffee and a dish of smoldering frankincense.

You need to decant the coffee, carefully, into the cups in an attempt to keep the grounds settled at the bottom of the carafe. That's the only word of warning. The coffee is strong and delicious.

The burning incese adds an exotic, quasi cerimonial, touch to the coffee ritual. I could have sat there huffing frankincense all night, that stuff smells amazing.

Addis Ababa was a really unique experience. The staff was friendly. The other patrons were friendly, for that matter. The food was good and certainly beat the pants off of a cardboard burger. We're glad we tried it and recommend it to one and all.

Monday Weigh In

It's time for our weekly progress update, or in my case, lack of progress update. I gained 1/2 a pound.

I had lots of good workouts and lots of bad food. There you go.

I don't really care this week, to be honest. I'm too hugely frustrated by an ash cloud, at the moment, to worry about the holding pattern my weight seems to be in. Global events have taken over the priority spots in my brain.

It will be interesting to see how the events of the next week unfold, and then it will be interesting to see how the events of the subsequent couple of weeks unfold.

How did you guys do?

Stupid Volcano - Crampin' My Style

Well my blogging buddies, have I got a string of expletives for you.

#$*^^&@!!! volcano in Iceland!

For months, LITERALLY months, I have been looking forward to a family vacation in Britain and Italy. Now, here we are, just days away from take-off and the whole trip may get kyboshed...volcanoed out.

I was so looking forward to finally seeing Mt. Vesuvius. If a volcano in Iceland prevents me from seeing a volcano in Italy, I will finally know that there is a god and he is ironic.

Have you noticed that everyone is calling it 'the volcano in Iceland'? Nobody is calling it by its name. They call Mt. Vesuvius, 'Mt. Vesuvius'. When Mount St. Helen's erupted, they called it 'Mount St. Helens'. Do you know what this volcano's actually called? It's called, Eyjafjallajökull. Try pronouncing that sucker. Ya.

Anyway, I know this post doesn't have anything to do with food or exercise or weight loss, but I have volcanoes on the brain at the moment. It's so discouraging...all this not knowing. For now we're stuck in volcanic limbo. We'll just have to wait and see.

At least SNL is on tonight. That'll cheer me up! Andy Samburg's dreamy, there I said it.

Merry Christmas to Me!

I finally got my Christmas present a couple of days ago! My gift from my husband was a pair of concert tickets, hidden in a Sham-Wow box. He is both sweet and practical...jealous ladies?

So Tuesday was concert night, at last. We went to see 'the troubadour' Gordon Lightfoot. Yup, I love Gordon Lightfoot. I'm THAT cool.
He's about 71 years old now and his voice is showing his age. He was a bit of a whistley geezer and kept repeating his own jokes but it was still good to see him. I was bound and bent to see him live, in concert, before he dies.

Lyrically, he's hard to top. He has more talent in his little finger than a lot of today's stars have in their whole bodies. I know, now I sound like a whistley geezer, "you know in my day..." But it's true, so suck it.

That's not to say there isn't some huge talent out there right now. I'm just saying, some big stars didn't make a name for themselves with their talent, if you know what I mean. But it was ever thus.

Anyway, Grandma and Grandpa came up for the evening and stayed over. They watched our son while we were out and then yesterday we all went to the mall.

That's where nutritional disaster struck. I gave into my carnal lusts and ate a Big Mac and fries. But I wasn't done! After lunch we went to Dairy Queen and I had a butter pecan sundae.

So that was about a week's worth of calories in one afternoon. Not to worry, I'll just jog that right off - ya right.

Oh well, I haven't been to McDonald's in months and I haven't been to DQ in about two years so I don't think this one transgression is going to be habit forming.

I did a little shopping today and bought a pair of jeans...size 10 (which is good for me - just in case there are any skinny size 0 people out there gasping 'that's huge!') I went to our new American Eagle and picked up a couple of cool t-shirts too. Oh, and a fedora...'cause everyone needs one of those ;-)

I'd dress up my pillow to show you, but I can't be bothered.

Oh My, it Must be Alphabe-Thursday...Letter M

Message to self - Must stop Munching.

From Morning ‘til Midnight, I Manger Myself sick. It Must stop!

My resolve is Mediocre. I aM certainly not a Monk.

More exercise! More control! That is what My body Mourns.

I Must persue My Mission. McDonald’s can send their Minions, I will not be beaten.

Starting Monday

For More information on these and other M words, please read Alphabe-Thursday ;-)

Monday Weigh In

Hey Hey!

I can't believe it, but I held steady this week! I'm really relieved. You may bask in my awesomeness if you want.

I missed my run last week, so I'm going to do it today.

I know some of us haven't had the best couple of weeks on record, but it's OK. Nobody makes or breaks their weight in a week or two. Jump back on the horse and ride on. Get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, now that there's nice weather to be had.

Don't forget, walking, cycling, gardening, dancing, it's all exercise. Do something, anything, and you'll feel better which will make you WANT to eat better, which will make you feel better still.

Let's hear how you did this week and, if you want, let's hear how you plan to do better over the next week. If we plan our awesomeness together, we'll all succeed. Go Team Awesome!

I Was A.W.O.L. - But Now I'm BACK

I can almost guarantee tomorrow's weigh-in will be bad, I write as I brush cookie crumbs off my shirt.

I've had a terrible week. I blame the Easter bunny and the psychedelic Peeps and assorted chocolate he left behind.
I ate badly. That probably goes without saying. I managed to heave my chocolate laden butt off the couch for one workout all this week...and it was this afternoon. I was sleeping really weird hours too. I'm kind of nocturnal and with no one around to keep me in check (the husband was on nights) I stayed up 'till ridiculous o'clock but still had to get up, with the little guy, and function in the morning. As a result, I was grouchy like a bear with a rash. I was TOTALLY unmotivated and wasn't writing much of anything.

Early this afternoon, though, I felt my mood lift. The grouchy clouds parted and my motivation returned. I guess I was a little burned out this week, but the fire's back, baby!

It's on again - though tomorrow's weigh-in won't reflect it - wa wa waaaaaaa

The Two Faces of L

La la la la Lazy
La la la la Lethargy
La la la la Latte
La la la la Last in the Line

hmmm, try again.

La la la la Lettuce
La la la la beLLy Laugh
La la la la Lost weight
La la la la Load bearing exercise

Here's a diLLy

LA LA LA Longevity!

WOOOOO!

FoodziLLa has been brough to you today, by the letter L and by Alphabe-Thursday and by the number 73 ('cause, why not 73?)

Late Late Monday Weigh In

I'm late with today's post, very, very late. So late, the Monday Weigh In is being posted on Tuesday. That's pretty bad, I know. What can I say? I've been busy.

I didn't want to weigh myself today, but I'm kinda glad I did. Easter didn't end up doing much damage. I'm down a pound since last Monday, though I'm up 1/2 a pound from my lowest point this week. All-in-all a decent result considering what I've eaten.

How did everybody else do? Don't worry if you had a bad week. It's to be expected with the holiday weekend and all.

Easter Preparations Have Begun

Easter preparations have begun at Foodzilla's house. Foodzilla has already availed herself of the chocolate eggs. yum yum yum. Foodzilla LOVES Easter.

Foodzilla will stop referring to herself in the third person now.

We decorated Easter eggs yesterday. They turned out awesome! I let my little guy pick the egg dying kit this year. He chose the PAAS Sand Blast kit. It's fun to let him choose things now because he'll often pick something different. I usually just pick the boring regular dye kit.

This kit was cool because, after the dyed eggs have dried, you brush glue on in patterns and shapes and then poor coloured sand on the glue. The result is a colourful, textured graphic on the Easter eggs.

I should probably preface this by admitting that, since I'm not much of an egg eater, hard boiling the eggs, to prepare them for the dye, involved a call to my mother and the untimely explosion of five of the eggs. They detonated in the pot and spewed their guts into the water. It was as gross as I'm making it sound.

Our little guy really enjoyed dying the eggs, but had limited success with the sand. I took over and finished the job myself. At that point, I was the one having fun.
I'm sure that if this kit were placed in the hands of someone genuinely creative, the results could be astounding. In my hands, the eggs turned out like an elementary school art project, oh well.

In the end we had 11 eggs, then our son broke another one so there are presently 10 completed Easter eggs. We'll see how long they last.

I'm going to be dipping pretzels in chocolate and making candied walnuts all day today. Hopefully, I can keep myself from eating them all. I don't know why I do this to myself. The temptation is much too great. I am Foodzilla for crying-out-loud!

Do you guys dye Easter eggs? How do you unleash your creativity?

And Now For Something Completely Different: An Exposé on the letter K

I thought I'd give this a try, just for the sake of something different.

Foodzilla has been brought to you today, by the letter K and by Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday.

Kickboxing, Karaté and Kung fu are Kinds of martial arts. Did you Know that? Did you Know that Killing people with your bare hands is an art? That's Kind of awesome when you thinK about it.

K. The letter K. noooneenoooneenoo