Photo Improvements

On Friday I posted an Operation Beautiful note on a friends car. Such an easy way to brighten someones day :)

This weekend was pretty relaxing. I've decided to relax every weekend when it comes to blogging. So as a summary here were some of the highlights.

Mmmmm Subway cookies!

Squeaky wanted to make an appearance on the blog and I mean, how could I say no to her?

Saturday night we made a really nice romantic dinner. We tried our first bottle of ice wine with caesar salads and spaghetti.

This morning was a quick breakfast of toast, almond butter and banana with milk.

Then some yogurt, blueberries and granola. We tried this new type that has more nuts than the usual ones. I don't think I like it with yogurt but it would go good sprinkled on apples :)

Leftovers from the weekend served as an awesome lunch.

Snacked on some milk and a vector bar. I haven't tried a variety of protein bars but I really like the vector bars.

Before my 4.5km jog I had to get something in my stomach so I grabbed some apple with almond butter.

I was inspired by Caitlin's blog a week ago to buy some tofu. Wasn't really sure what to do with it so I smothered it in some BBQ sauce and baked it. Added some broccoli to the mix and had myself a really yummy healthy supper.

Before bed snack was some cereal with banana. I think I might have actually gotten my serving of fruits and vegetables today. :)

When I started this blog not too long ago I was using my Canon point and shoot to take the photos of my meals. As you can tell (especially in this post) the photos have improved quite a bit. That's because I've decided to start using my dSLR. I have the Canon 40d which I use for my portrait photography. It's kind of annoying to bring to work with me but I definitely think it makes all of my meal choices look that much better :)

What do you use to photograph your meals?

Oh yeah!! On Thursday I posted about the whittle my middle challenge. I was SO sore after that initial workout that I haven't been able to do an ab workout since. I hope to complete one tomorrow though with my regular weight training routine. Check in tomorrow night to see if I was successful!

Morning Sunshine

Since yesterday was a rest day I got up bright and early and went for a jog this morning before work. I took my camera with me to take some photos. Here is a photo of the sun rising over the Bedford Basin. The run was about 4km.

Some of the frost on the leaves. It was reallllllly cold. I was impressed though that the cold didn't affect my lungs. It only affected my fingers! lol. I need to buy some gloves to wear while running.

The frost is a sign that winter is actually coming. I love snow. But I'm not a huge fan of the cold and the small number of hours that have sun. I've decided to prepare myself for the winter running season I need to invest in a few things..

1. GLOVES!! Hopefully really really warm ones. I'm thinking of getting the mittens that are actually gloves on the inside so I can use my fingers if needed. These are what I'm talking about.

2. Spibelt. I don't have a holder for my ipod so I just carry it with me. Its not a big deal but it would be nice to be able to put it in something. I also carry my keys in my hand. And on mornings like today I had to carry my camera with me also. It's really just annoying and I think a Spibelt would make it easier.

3. Something to carry water. Again on the theme of not wanting to carry things in my hand. I don't want to carry a water bottle with me while I'm jogging. Right now I'm not running for more than 45minutes (usually around 30 minutes) so I don't really need one. But I want to build my endurance and continue to increase my milage. So it's very important for me to have a way to hydrate myself during my run. Anyone have good suggestions?

4. Recovery socks. Because winter is coming that means running on paths isn't going to be easy and could increase my chances of rolling an ankle or falling down when there is ice. So I will be stuck running on the sidewalks when they are clear and that means my shin splints are going to start hurting again (like they did this morning). I do the whole scrunch a towel with your toes thing but I'm afraid it won't be enough. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping the shin spints to a minimum while running on pavement?

5. Garmen. Maybe! Right now I'm using the Nike+ system. It's good but I find the milage tracker can be inaccurate. I think a Garmen would help a lot in this department but I don't think it's necessary.

I run along the Bedford Highway. For those of you who don't live in Halifax, it's a really really busy street. There are always lots of cars and walkers/runners. It is also one of the major bus routes. So I brought chalk with me this morning and did an Operation Beautiful note on the side walk in front of one of the many bus stops. I love how these make me smile and I hope they make other people smile and feel good about themselves. When I was finishing up a man arrived at the bus stop and I caught him smiling as he read the note. On my jog home I saw a few more people walking towards the bus stop. I hope they saw it too :)

I also tried doing one on a bus stop but the sun probably melted it soon after.

Breakfast was a glass of milk with a blueberry bagel topped with almond butter and jam. Those darn bagels!! Hahaha.

At work I snacked on a bag of trail mix. I didn't eat it all in one sitting though. I made it last the whole day.

With some tea.

Lunch was leftovers from last nights dinner. Sooooo good, even as left overs!!

I also snacked on some chocolates. Only a few though!

I'm actually writing this at work right now using Google Docs and I'm realizing it is going to be a lonnng post. I think I'll put it up as soon as I get home and then do a second post later on. I want to talk about another challenge I'm participating in this month. More to come :)