Smitten Kitchen Book Signing

Hey guys...

Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen is in Vancouver tomorrow doing a talk and book signing.

Yeah, I am so there.

The other day my girlfriend texted me if I knew about it after seeing a sign up in Chapters. Ha! Had she realized I had already put this date in my day-planner weeks ago? I think I might explode with excitement tomorrow. Maybe start to eat the pages of the assumingly well-photographed book.

Fall Change: Thoughts on Day 2

Day 2 was a breeze.

Honestly, this cleanse was easy. Not only was there tons of food, I had a ton of energy throughout my workday and even enough to power me through a workout at the gym. I honestly feel like I could go eating this for a week straight and it would be no big deal. For someone who doesn't eat this type of food regularly I could see it being hard but since I eat the foods that were recommended (even the prunes) on a regular basis it didn't feel like any sort of deprivation.

I liked that this cleanse was not one that focused on losing weight but instead focused on your body ridding itself of toxins. After the 48 hours not only did I feel good physically, I also felt like I felt good mentally.

So do I recommend the Dr. Oz cleanse? Yep. It wasn't difficult to do and I liked the focus on cleansing your body as opposed to losing weight. Next time I'll add in my modifications that I noted in my previous post and sub in an alternative to the green-juice to either veggies or an organic store bought veg/fruit juice.

Fall Change - Starting with a Cleanse

A few weeks ago Hayley McGowan (a trainer I read online) challenged her readers to put a greater focus on nutrition and health as summer came to an end. I was feeling pretty confident that I didn't have that much to change since health and fitness-wise, my summer went pretty well. I ran a lot, took long walks with the boyfriend, ate pretty healthy and was getting a good amount of sleep. Maybe a few minor tweaks here and there, but nothing major.

But then life got a little hectic for the last month. Suddenly I wasn't sleeping well from the stress in my life and started eating more calories and drinking more coffee to compensate for my tiredness. In addition, my activity level dropped and in the last two weeks I got so busy that I only ran once. ONCE. This came both from being tired and not making the time to be active. I did get a few long walks in and we ate relatively healthy but I could tell that my body just didn't feel like it was running at its prime.

This last weekend marked a new chapter in my life and with it should come a decrease in the stress that I dealt with in September. So this weekend I re-activated my gym pass (it's getting colder here in Vancouver for outdoor stuff) and restocked my kitchen with lots of healthy options.

I'm also starting off the eating change with a 48 hour cleanse that Dr. Oz had in the Oprah magazine earlier this year. There is a few reasons that I chose this one as opposed to all the others that I read. First, I don't believe in most cleanses that consist of juice detoxes or apple-cider-maple-syrup-cayenne-drink detoxes (yes these exist) as being more than something that will cause me to lose water weight. Also like normal people, I don't enjoy the feeling of wanting to gnaw my arm off from starvation. This one seemed to include real food and with whole grains (quinoa) and protein (also from the quinoa). In fact, looking at the menu, it seemed to be A LOT of food. Also, besides the green juice involving pineapple-kale-mint drink, I have made a variation of most of the foods on the list before.

So today I am done Day 1 and I have a few thoughts on it so far:

• There has been a ton of food, almost to the point that it feels like too much
• I had tons of energy throughout the day and didn't feel hungry at all
• I switched the blueberry smoothie to breakfast and the quinoa to lunch since I don't have a blender at my work to make the smoothie
• The quinoa recipe called for way too much water. I would cut it down to 2/3 cup of water and since I didn't enjoy my prunes to be so soggy, I would hold them back till after the quinoa is done cooking and then just stir them in before eating
• I really enjoyed the taste of ginger, nutmeg and quinoa together and think that I will have to make this again sometime. I am also thinking that pumpkin spices and quinoa, and heck, maybe also some pumpkin with the pumpkin spices would be an awesome breakfast/dessert dish
• The green juice was way tastier than I had thought it would be. Tasted like mint and lemon
• If you are not into the green juice, the Dr. Oz website has another version (I found this out later) of a fruit juice (no blending required) or suggests snacking on raw veggies between meals if you get hungry
• The soup recipe says it "makes enough for at least 2 meals" and should actually read that it makes enough soup for 10 meals...maybe more (see above photo)
• The soup cooking time of 1 hour was a bit too long, I felt 35-45 minutes was plenty
• I upped the amount of paprika in the soup recipe to 2 tablespoons of sweet Hungarian paprika and 2 tablespoons of hot Hungarian paprika since I am Hungarian and well we those sort of things
• I have never taken an Epsom salt bath before...um...it's pretty great. Admittedly I haven't taken a bath in years so maybe I just enjoyed relaxing in a bath. Here's info on how to take an Epsom salt bath

I'll report back on how Day 2 goes tomorrow

Girl Crush: Because Smokes Cigars & Drinks Scotch

During the week Sarah from Cinesnark wrote up a post on Aisha Tyler being the proto Funny/Girl*. Sarah writes about why Aisha Tyler, even though she is talented, funny and beautiful, she never quite took to the mainstream:

My answer was that Aisha Tyler is six feet tall. She smokes cigars and drinks Scotch (and brews her own beer). She tells jokes about scratching her vagina in public—she tells jokes “like a man”. And she did it before the Funny/Girl was recognized as distinct from Funny Girls. She didn’t fit into the small, limited box the industry kept trying to put her in. -Lainey Gossip

Sarah is right on point on it. And it's because Tyler has all of those qualities that I have such a girl crush on her

*read Sarah's take on Funny/Girls from this earlier post

Just Read: Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Published: June 2011 (US) HarperCollins

Since I had a little time this weekend to go to the beach, I found this book in the fast read section at the library. It's a debut novel for author S.J. Watson who wrote the novel while working as an audiologist at the National Health Service in England.

The story is about Christine Lucas who suffers from amnesia, both anterograde amnesia (the loss of long-term memory or the inability to form new memories) and retrograde amnesia (not being able to recall pre-existing memories). She wakes up every morning thinking she is in her mid-20's (sometimes younger) even though she is 47 and has no recollection of what has happened during the last 20 years.

Every morning she gets introduced to her husband Ben and learns about the horrible accident that has robbed her of her memory. Each day she receives a phone call from her neurologist Dr. Nash who directs her to a journal that she has been keeping that helps her re-learn what she has been able to remember on previous days. Every night she goes to bed where her mind will erase everything she did that day.

City of Bones - They Are Filming It

 Photo via Just Jared Jr.

A couple of years ago I picked up the first book of The Mortal Instrument series called City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It was entertaining though had its share of problems with the writing. Like some serious plot issues. But the story flowed well enough that you can overlook most of the plot issues while reading it.

I have so far read four in series and a both of the books from the prequel series Infernal Devices. Not as good as the Hunger Games or Divergent series, but entertaining for sure. I might do a review of each book in the series when I decide to re-read them in a couple weeks since it's been so long since when I first whipped though them.

But like I said, they have some plot issues.

The biggest one from what I remember is

***SPOILER ALERT***

********

********

is that Clary falls in love with Jace... WHO IS HER BROTHER.

WHAT?

Yeah. That's what you find out at the end of the book.

How does this work for something they are making into a movie? Oh you hadn't heard they are making City of Bones into a movie? Neither did I until I came across this cast photo via MTV. They are currently shooting in Toronto right now with the movie projected to be out in summer 2013.

Now if you keep reading in the series,

***another SPOILER ALERT***

...you find out that Clary and Jace are not technically blood relatives, but that they both received angel's blood and instead Sebastian is actually her brother. Oh, and Clary makes out with Sebastian in City of Glass (the third book) before getting back together with Jace. Yeah this family is f-cked up.

I have no idea how the script will make sense to someone who hasn't read the series. The ending is just soleft field. And if you have read the series, how does Jamie Campbell Bower get casted as Jace? Who was responsible for this? He's not what I pictured Jace should look like.

 

Photo via Just Jared Jr.

But Lily Collins with that red hair as Clary, yeah I can see it. And Robert Sheehan as Simon....almost seems too hot to be Simon, but I'll roll with that.

Jessica Simpson Is An Everyday Woman

Today Jessica Simpson 'revealed' her post-baby body on Katie and debuted her first Weight Watchers commercial:

Is it weird that she didn't actually say how much weight she lost? Does that come in her next commercial then?

From earlier this week she was quoted in USA Today:

"I didn't realize it (the weight) didn't all come off with the baby," she says.

"I'm not a supermodel. My body is not bouncing back like a supermodel. I'm just your everyday woman who is trying to feel good and be healthy for her daughter, her fiancé and herself."

She's just your everyday woman who (presumably) has a personal chef, trainer, babysitter and a $4 million cheque from Weight Watchers.

Yes, you are like an everyday woman Jessica. At least that's what you are selling right?