eleisawifelife

Road Rage Triggers – Highway Edition

eleisawifelife — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:55:43 +0000

Well, if you remember reading my post on Road Rage Triggers, there was quite a few people who felt the same frustration when driving with idiots on the road.

I wanted to comment about the idiots on the road again, but specifically the idiots on the highway.

Driving to the very list inch of road before merging in and expecting people to let you in: Once you are off the on-ramp and you are trying to merge into traffic, get in when you can. Why do you find it necessary to drive all the way to the end of the lane before you get your signal on. There was tons of space behind me, but instead you speed up to the end of the merge lane, put your signal on, and then have the audacity to give ME the dirty look for not letting you in. Suck my tail pipe! Especially those who go around the car who is slowly merging in behind me, drives to the half foot before the lane ends to try to get in front of me. You get the single finger salute pal.
On the flip side to that are the people who won’t let anyone in. It’s bumper to bumper traffic and I need to merge in. You let one car in, the car behind you should let one car in, and so on, and so on. Don’t speed up and not let me in. Then totally stare ahead as if your neck is broke and can’t turn it to acknowledge you are being an a-hole. Karma. Trust that one I’m in the lane I will move over to the next lane and I will NEVER let YOU in. I will watch you in my rear view to make sure you do not get ahead of me in my lane if I have anything to do about it.
The law implemented about people using their cellular phone is a joke. I wish I had a dollar for every time I see people still talking on their phones. Get a hands-free gadget if your conversation is so important. Personally, I just pump up the Street Mix drive at 5pm and putter on home. At some point you need to unplug people. Be in the little bubble of your car and be out of reach to everyone for the drive. Trust me. You are not that important. What kills me are those same people are driving and talking are the same ones how cause #2 most of the time. They are oblivious! on so many levels.
Rubber neckers who cause the longer delays. I get that you may have a car that stopped working on the highway (been there), or there’s a fender bender, or even just someone changing a flat on the side of the road. These things get moved over and yet still there are kilometers and kilometers of traffic backed up. When my driving commute is already too long, I am ready to shoot myself or someone else by the second hour. What the hell is the hold up?!? Every single car creeps past it and as soon as they pass the distraction on the side of the road the traffic is clear sailing. Like no one was there. It’s that invisible line that separates us from being in traffic and speeding away home (probably right into a speed trap)
People who back upon the on-ramp. So, you didn’t listen to 680 NEWS radio station to find out about the traffic accident on the highway before you get on. That doesn’t mean you back up! How can you notexpect to get into an accident. Find, you don’t care, you’d rather risk it?? How about the poor schmuck you hit? Why should their insurance go up? And you better hope no one gets hurt because of your b.s. There’s a special Darwinian room for you dumb dumb.

When there is no traffic a long drive on a sunny day with the windows down and the music on loud can be so enjoyable. Especially when you ‘borrow’ your brother’s Corvette. heehee. But, not when you are driving in rush our traffic on the highway with a bunch of idiots.

Please tell me I’m not the only one and I have a rage problem.

Healthy Vegan Whole Wheat BlueBerry Muffins – No Eggs, Butter or Milk

eleisawifelife — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:55:14 +0000

I had bought 2 pints of fresh blueberries since they were on sale at the Metro grocery store when I was planning to get Franklin some La Rocca cake, kinda last minute. So combing those with my home alone with the kids, I figured we could bake something while the music is playing and the TV is off.

I found this recipe and although it didn’t have tons of reviews, it was perfectly scored with a rating of 5/5 stars. Here is my take on it so my kid with all the allergies can have some too!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 of those single serving unsweetened applesauce cups
1 of those single serving blueberry puree cups
1 pint fresh blueberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper liners. Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
Whisk vegetable oil, applesauce, blueberry puree together in a separate bowl until smooth, and stir the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture (take out 2 tablespoons of flour before mixing) until moistened. Lightly mix the blueberries with the 2 tablespoons of flour. Add to flour and liquid batter and lightly mix. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full.
Bake muffins in the preheated oven until they rise and the tops are golden brown, about 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out clean.

Notes:

I would try with less white sugar next time, i.e. maybe 1/2 cup brown and 1/4 cup white. Or just less sugar all around, i.e. 1/2 cup brown sugar. I felt it was too sweet
It was a bit too moist although my toothpick came out clean when I poked it to test if it was completely baked, maybe add 1/4-1/2 cup of oats
I put the whole pint of berries in, so that’s what made it so moist. Add the oats or maybe just less blueberries
I only used the blueberry puree cup because it was the last one in my pantry.

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 10

eleisawifelife — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:41:55 +0000

The kiddies are still sleeping while I get ready. I make my shake and grab the spaghetti and meat sauce that Franklin has packed for my lunch from last nights dinner. I purposely bought a smaller Pyrex container to help me with the portion control. But, I just know it’s not going to be enough, so I pack a salad to eat with it. I want to eat something so I grab a yogurt and quietly get out the door.

Without packing a spoon, eating my yogurt isn’t an option for the commute down to work. Ah well, it works out since after my morning shake (which is Strawberry this time because I add the flavouring packet) it turns into my morning snack. For lunch I eat the spaghetti and drink water. I feel for a crunch so I head down to the store and grab a small bag of chips. Love the party mix one so I don’t have to choose. It has the cheesy ones, sun chips, pretzels, etc! When I get back to my desk I remember my salad. I figured I would eat it then eat the chips. Hopefully, the salad will fill me up so I won’t eat too much chips. D’oh! Forgot to pack dressing. But, I don’t have of those tiny Tupperware things to carry a bit of dressing and I don’t want to put it on in the morning and have soggy salad, so plain is ok. Not great, but doable. It was good. Then the chips. I eat most of it.

Off to teach Excel Pivot Tables and all of a sudden it’s the end of the day. I grab the train with the rest of the weary and luckily find a seat for my one hour commute. I am hungry. I try chugging some water, but now I’m just bloated and hungry. Halloween size Smarties! Schweet! Eat the 3 chips to finish off the bag of chips I bought this afternoon.

Luckily Franklin has prepped for dinner and as soon as we get into the house, he sticks it in the oven. It’s Shake ‘n Bake pork chops, roast vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, asparagus), salad, and rice. Delicious! I want more, but figure I’ll wait. I resist wanting to finish my kids plates. I do eat half a banana.

Franklin’s heading out to his buddy’s tonight, so it’s me and the kiddies. I bought a whole bunch of blueberries, so I foresee baking some muffins with them tonight. Hopefully I don’t eat them all.

Have to find one without milk, eggs, or butter. Maybe I’ll just doctor the Vegan Banana recipe…

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 9

eleisawifelife — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:36:45 +0000

Well, it’s the shake again for my breakfast. Ugh. Even though it tastes good, you can only have a good thing so often that you want something else. But, I chug along and chug it down for breakfast. I can’t remember what I had for my morning snack.

Lunch turns out to be the Korean lunch for $4 again. Brown rice, glass noodles, coleslaw, and chicken stew type atop. I teach the rest of the afternoon so no time for afternoon naughtiness.

For dinner Franklin has made spaghetti with meat sauce that have chunks of zucchini and mushrooms, and onions. Delicious! I want more, but figure I’ll wait a bit. Sure enough, within 15-minutes I feel stuffed! It helps to wait and help digest. And I’m glad I did.

Marcus wanted some lemon meringue pie that we had left over from Franklin’s birthday weekend. Well, I can’t deny him since he ate all his dinner, right? And a smile slice makes it to my lips too. Not my favourite, but love cakes, pies, cookies, chocolates, ..SUGAR!

I’m sure I’ll pay for it on the scale. But, to tell you the truth, I don’t care. Momma wants her slice of pie. It was exactly 3 bites, so it’s not like it was huge. (I keep trying to convince myself)

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 8

eleisawifelife — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:28:18 +0000

Back to the grind….for work and for this diet. It’s getting to be a bit overwhelming at work because I have to teach again AND do all my other responsibilities. My extra touches that I do to provide the best experience with each interactions with my clients is now biting me in the butt. Ah well. They’ve finally hired on another trainer so I won’t have to put in the double duty starting in March. I’ll just have to catch up on everything else!

I do drink the shake in the morning even though I’m WFH today. No fruit for morning snack, so by lunch I am so hungry. The 2 cookies I eat are not enough to hold off the hungar. Chugging all this water has all made me have to urinate more. I am still very hungry. So I end up getting 2 ribs, half a chicken breast, 1 baked potato, and some slaw (all left over from Swiss Chalet dinner over the weekend). The Boys went downtown to drop off stuff at the hospital. I scarf it down and am pretty full. Actually, really full. I think my stomach is shrinking.

For dinner, we are off to my parents. Another healthy home cooked meal. Less than half a cup of rice, one small pork chop, and green beans. Delicious!

Still hungry….

Eleisa’s Boody by Vi – Day 7

eleisawifelife — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:50:44 +0000

Another day I didn’t do it. Same excuse. It’s the weekend and while I make the kids breakfast I want to eat hot food instead of a shake. Even if the shake has a great taste of cake mix, I prefer food.

Franklin is having a rough day and is sleeping. He sleeps all day and periodically wakes up calling out for me to give him Tylonal. I take care of the two drippy nose kids and ,et him sleep. By 1pm I ask how he’s doing, but he still cannot open his eyes because the light is too bright. The lights are off and there only barely light in the room coming through the curtained window. I guess I’ll be missing my cousin’s wedding shower. This is one of the reasons I hate making plans. I can’t count on him feeling well and I just disappoint people and myself. This is not the first time nor the last. I hate you Kidney Failure!

By 3:30pm the bear wakes from his slumber and our stomachs are grumbling, but the kids are napping. Franklin suggests we go to The Dumpling House without the kids. It’s his Birthday weekend, so you get what you wish for, right? I call the ‘rents to see if they’ll watch the kids when they wake up. I call The Godfather to see if he wants to join us (he did introduce us to The Dumpling House, we’re not sure where it is, and we enjoy his company). Love dumplings! So delicious dipped in my concoction of hot sauce, soy sauce, and the juice of a few dumplings that have soup inside. I lost count of how many I had. I was overstuffed so it couldn’t have been too many. LOL

It has been seven days and I have really only followed this thing for 5. And I did eat tons of food since it was a birthday eats this weekend. OK, enough of the disclaimer. I have haven’t lost any weight. I’m not surprised. Maybe a little disappointed. But, if I’m being honest with myself, what did I expect? I only had the thing once a day, did no exercise, and ate way too much on the weekend. Actually, that’s awesome. For all the food and non-activity, I DIDN’T gain weight. woohoo for me! It’s not great, but I am happy with it.

The friend who is also doing this has lost NINE POUNDS in her first week and she hasn’t incorporated exercise into her regime yet! She does drink the shake twice a day. But, good for her to fight through the munchy faze and not indulge. When I shared her success story with Franklin he was happy for her and was all “woohoo Jill!” but, also added that it’s probably ‘water weight’. He’s probably just adding that on to make me feel better. LOL Water weight or not, I know I couldn’t do it.

We’ll see how week 2 goes.

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 6

eleisawifelife — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:21:50 +0000

Didn’t do it today. I want to eat food. Since it’s the weekend and I’m not running out the door to work I have time to eat. I don’t have any Zumba class to run off to since I didn’t sign up for one this winter session.

Breakfast is a bit of the soup pasta with lean group pork with the kids. Not much. I also heat up a bit of the chopped duck stuff from last night since I was still hungry. As I put Lucas down for a nap I fall asleep too! So tired from the sleep deprivation during the week. We get up and it’s lunch time. We watch Julie and Julia. The movie about the girl who blogs about doing all the recipes in the book by Julia Childs. Her blog turns into a movie. MY DREAM! So inspired we call my brother to head over to his place for 15 minutes. We want to check out all his cook books to see if we can run with this inspiration and try some recipes.

We heat up some butternut squash soup and have a couple of pieces of flaxseed bread toasted with butter. Not enough. After much debate between Mexican or Indian, we decide to just get Italian and eat in. Pizza Nova! I only have one slice and finish Babe’s’ half that he didn’t eat. Better than eating a whole slice, right?!?

Babe is getting a bit too rambunctious, which is a tell-tale sign he is tired and should have a nap. We hop into the car and both kids fall asleep. Schweet! While the kids are asleep, I want to go get a cake since Franklin hasn’t blown out any candles yet. And everyone needs to make a wish on their birthday. I head out to the grocery store and grab a Lemon Meringue pie (they didn’t have his first 2 choices and I didn’t want his third choice) since it is also one of his favourites.

We’re staying in tonight, so I head over to Swiss Chalet after to pick up a family and ribs meal combo. After 20 minutes in the take out line I am out the door. Franklin is a bit pissy because I took so long. Whatever. I unpack groceries, get the children each a plate ready, and we eat the rest family style. I am stuffed, but happy that I only ate half a breast (kids had the other half), one rib, 1/2 a roll (with butter because everything taste better with butter), Cesar salad that I picked up at the grocery store, corn (one of the sides from the combo), and the majority of the fries (also, one of the sides). It doesn’t seem like a lot now that I’m typing it out, but it’s way too much carbs, and it’s past 7:30pm.

With only a small slice of pie (because I don’t prefer it, but hey, you gotta have a slice of birthday) I am off to do baths, teeth, and start the process of shutting down.

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 5

eleisawifelife — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:46:09 +0000

I’m trying to play ‘catch up’ with these daily blog posts. I had the shake in the morning. Then provided a consulting session from 10am-12pm, so I didn’t have time to acknowledge my 10am hunger pangs.

It was Wendy’s for lunch with The Colleague. I didn’t go full healthy and get a salad, although they did look OK. I wanted meat! So, I got a junior bacon cheeseburger, a small chili, and water. Not the best choice, but definitely could have much worse on the calories, fat, sodium, front. After finishing everything, I was craving their delicious sea salted fries. I was really on the fence, but held strong and booted it outta there. I knew a huge dinner awaited me.

Had a training session from 1:30pm-3:30pm, so again, no time to go get my typical Snickers or bag of chips for my afternoon munchie. I did have 2 boxes of Halloween size Smarties. Lesser of other evil choices.

Finally end of the workday and I’m waiting at my parents before we all head out for a celebratory birthday dinner for Franklin. But, since we are waiting for a couple of hours, I munch on Miss Vicki’s Original chips and those pancake dots that you can get at P-Mall. I’m hungry! and dinner isn’t until 7pm. Next thing I know I eat ALL of the pancake things. I combined one dot with one chip and I was in sweet and salty heaven. It was also soft and crunch too!

We finally head out to dinner and it was a smorgasbord. Corn egg-drop soup, lobster, Peking duck, lettuce cups with the chopped duck meat, deep-fried squid, Guy-Lan (Chinese broccoli) with sliced beef, this tender steak on a hot plate, roast chicken, and rice. I’m guess I am lucky that Lucas wanted to walk over to the fish tanks all the time. Help me cut back a little. But, then we all started taking turns walking him back there. I’m sure I made up for my Lucas time and chowed on more than I should have.

Ah well. It was to celebrate another birth year of my husbands. Definitely worth the cheat day.

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 4

eleisawifelife — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:11:32 +0000

It happens to be a Work From Home (WFH) day. So, trying to get my head in the game and not eat all the food in my fridge. I’m already regretting finishing Baby’s food last night. I wasn’t even hungry. But, it was there. It tastes good. It’s the late night eating that’s my nemesis. Ugh! As I’m making food for the kids (they wake up typically around 5:45-6am) I can’t help but make a small bowl for myself. I want hot food too! This shake is not going to cut it. But, after a few spoonfuls, I figure I should just drink the shake and give this thing a fair shot. I already slipped up last night, so might as well give it the old college try this morning. As 8am approaches, I slip away to work. I didn’t bring any fruit for a snack . So, again, by 10am I am hungry. Hello, Halloween peanut M&Ms. The kids and husband come home from their morning activity and Franklin makes lunch for the kids. This guy is adding up points! I help feed the kids, then they are off to their grandparents. Franklin’s going to get a sub, so I get a ham sub, no cheese, tons of veggies, on whole wheat with honey mustard sauce. Sounds healthy right? I eat the entire foot long. A 6-inch just would not be enough. I drink 1-L water with it and throughout the afternoon. We’ll see how the rest of the afternoon lies. I had dinner at the ‘rents again. Cauliflower, pork chops, rice and a big glass of water. I get a home cooked meal, chat and connect with my mom and dad, and get home early enough to hang out a bit before bed. As we pull into the house, we see my brother’s car. Poor sucker lives close by, so we stop in to invite him to birthday dinner plans. He has a variety pack of ice cream bars, cones, sandwiches, etc and Popsicles for The Baby. Always a special treat for the kiddies when they visit their Uncle/Godfather. So awesome of him, considering he doesn’t eat that stuff and he buys two different kinds since each kid likes different things. Sweet, but dastardly for my diet. I ‘help’ Babes along with his treat since it’s way too much sugar before we go to bed. Baby can’t finish his, but that goes into the sink (cause I prefer ice cream tonight). But, other than that, I’m home free to go to sleep with the late night snacks. I’m a little concerned I’m eating too little and my body is going to keep all the calories because it doesn’t know when’s the next meal! I think I ate more before when I lost the 25+ lbs last year. Haven’t done any walking at lunch yet. I’ll weigh myself tomorrow and see how things are. I would be happy if I was down 1-2 lbs. Slow and steady wins the race, as they say.

Eleisa’s Body by Vi – Day 3

eleisawifelife — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:56:07 +0000

This morning was so much better. The kids woke up on their own and were happy and chill. No tears when I left and even a “have a good day”. I do get asked to change baby’s morning diaper and a glass of home-made lemonade, all before I’ve made my breakfast shake, packed my shoes, or put on my make-up. ugh.

Well, surprise, surprise. A new 2-L box of skim milk for me to make my shakes. Sometimes The Husband gets it right. So, this time I make my shake with 2-cups of milk with my 2 scoops. I make sure I bring grapes and an apple because I remember I was so hungry in the morning just before lunch.

I drink my shake in a shorter time instead of sipping it over a couple of hours. But, by 10am I am getting hungry again. Thank goodness I brought the grapes and apple. I ate them both! And I’m good until lunch. It’s brown rice, glass noodles, cole slaw salad, with chicken, in the right portions. Probably a bit bigger than what is considered a good ‘portion’, but it’s smaller than some of the other lunch options out there. And none of it is greasy, so I think it’s a good choice. The other option was Subway subs, but I know I would have eaten a 12-inch since I was so hungry. So, Korean lunch was perfect. I wasn’t overly full and it was tasty. I was training in the afternoon so no time for an afternoon snack.

Again, the lovely husband was on point. He had spaghetti and meat sauce ready. He had one of those market research thingys that pays you for your opinion, so he gets our food ready and is out the door about 6ish. I feed the kids and we all finish eating by 6:30pm. This is awesome. We play toys in the basement, then head upstairs to start our shut down process. Thankfully, my mom has bathed both kids already. We colour, trace letters that spell “HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY”, and hang out. I brush everyone’s teeth and start Baby on his night-time dream travels. Babes gets to finish his “homework”, as he calls it.

It’s 8:45am Babes was hungry. Ugh. It’s too late to be eating. But, we go down so he can have a warm glass of milk. Of course, there’s the pasta and meat sauce that Baby didn’t finish. Of course I eat it. I’m hungry. It’s there. I don’t want it to go to waste!

I finally weigh myself since and think I should be lighter, right? I have felt a bit more energy. WTF!?! I have gained 2-lbs?!? UGH!! Well, it is end of day. I will check again in the morning. Day 4, here I come!