Author: Juliana

I, like many other people ended up catching whatever was going around this week. I also left work early Friday afternoon and I stayed home sick on Monday and Tuesday. That was a huge deal for me as I normally don’t take any time off work. There is always too much to do and I usually end up staying home and worrying about all the things that are piling up on my desk. This time, I tuned out work and forced myself to get the rest that I needed.

Normally, when I push through and force myself to work while I’m sick, I end up making myself even more sicker. I remember someone telling me once (or many, many times) that the reason why my colds stuck around so long was because I refused to get any rest. This time I was lying flat on my back underneath several covers, drinking lots and lots of fluids.

My body was thankful for it.

Also, I’m sure that my co-workers were happy about me staying home too as I was pretty much a wheezy, phlegmy mess (yuck!).

So the weather has turned on us. No longer do we have those wonderful warm sunny days. Now we have to contend with the regular, usual, mundane Vancouver rain.

Of course the rainfall that we had earlier this week was definitely exciting as we have never seen a such a torrential downpour in a very long time. In addition to the rain, we also have to contend with the cool temperatures. The cool temperatures and the wetness do pose a challenge when I do my 1 hour and 15 minute walks, but in some ways the change in weather has helped with my workouts. As it is colder and wetter, I am more inclined to walk faster, so I am getting more of a cardio work out. With the increased pace, I am slowly getting to a point where I am covering the same distance in an hour instead of 1 hour and 15 minutes.

My reasons for walking fast is two-fold. First of all, the faster I walk, the faster I can get back inside where it warm. Second of all, walking fast, allows me to keep warm while I’m out in the cold. It’s a total win-win situation.

Now that I’m working out in cooler weather, I now have to wear different clothes. I have traded in my T-shirt for a nice fleece. Whenever I go for my workout I always make sure that I wear a jacket with a hoodie. This way if my ears get cold, I can just pull the hood over my head. As for the rain, well, I’ll have to see how it goes. I am really not a big fan of being wet, so I’m not really sure what I will do if it is pouring down rain. May be I’ll take an umbrella or I’ll decide to do some treadmill or elliptical work in the gym.

I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

The true motivator for continuing the walking workouts is that it is a good way to de-stress after work and I find it to be much more painless than going to the gym and doing something intense. In addition, it gets me outside into the crisp air and I will admit, I do like the crispiness of autumn, especially after sitting in an office most of the day.

I know that people often wonder just how much calories can be burned from just doing something as low impact as easy as walking. If you’re wondering, check out this calorie calculator at: http://www.internetfitness.com/calculators/calburncalc.htm.

I do not make any claims on how accurately this website calculates calorie burn, but it does cause you to think a little bit more about the activities you do on a daily basis. The activities that they have listed include gym activities, training activities and daily life activities such as raking the lawn, gardening and even sex!

So check out the website and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing all of your comments.

So I am soooooo proud of myself. I actually went to the gym in addition to going for my 1 hour and 15 minute walks.

During my gym session, I spent a half hour on the elliptical and I was watching a documentary on Haute Couture.

The documentary was about the Haute Couture industry and it focused on an exclusive group of women that would buy and wear Haute Couture clothing.

The commentator mentioned how the women who were in this club were often on perpetual diets because if they could fit into the Haute Couture dress that was fitted for the runway model, they could get 30% discount.

I was somewhat amused by that. Many women would kill to have a model’s body shape and yet, here there was an actual monetary benefit to having a model’s body….30% off the price of a very expensive piece of clothing!

I realized that even if I had enough money to afford an Haute Couture dress, I would never, ever get the discount even if I had managed to get the exact waistline of the model. I’m 5 foot 2 inches and while it may be possible for me to get the “preferred” waistline of a model, I could never stretch myself into the typical height of a model (which I’m told is about 6 feet).

And that got me to thinking about models, body images and our standards of beauty. When I was growing up, many of my contemporaries wanted to look like the models that graced the covers of the fashion magazines. They would get all kinds makeup, do their hair in specific ways and be on perpetual diets to meet this goal. I think I would have fallen into that trap too, but since I stopped growing beyond 5 feet 2 inches and didn’t have blonde hair, I knew that there was no point in even entertaining that idea, so I didn’t bother.

But in truth, how many of us do look like a fashion model? Does that make us look less beautiful? Of course not. Although we may know this intellectually, many of us get negative attitudes about our bodies and those negative attitudes can really affect our perception of ourselves. This has been wonderfully shown in the TV show called “How to Look Good Naked”. In this show they portray women who feel absolutely ugly and overweight. They “feel” as though they are bigger than everyone and uglier than everyone. When the host asks the woman to compare herself to other women of various sizes, she always ends up over-estimating her actual size. As the show progresses, you see how the woman is transformed into loving her body for what it is, instead of loathing it. And all this is done without the woman shedding one pound.

Beauty exists in all shapes and sizes, and I just wonder when the fashion industry will also realize and celebrate that fact. When will they start designing for real women and when will they stop putting out unrealistic standards for women to live up to? When will real mental and physical health and wellness be celebrated by our media?

I honestly don’t know the answers to those questions, but I do believe we can create a change by not buying into their ideals. We can start to value true beauty, regardless of its shape and size, and we can value true mental and physical wellness.

By making these changes, who knows what can happen? May be women won’t have to be on a perpetual diet to get a 30% discount off an Haute Couture gown. And may be we will feel more beautiful and a lot more happier with ourselves regardless of what our shape or what our size.

So I know that I had said that since my food cravings were increasing, I would be running and doing more of an intensive workout.  Well that did not happen this week.  I did keep up with my 1 hour and 15 minute walks but that was it.  I just could not get myself into the gym this week.

Luckily my midnight raids to the kitchen for potato chips have stopped and my insatiable appetite has abated somewhat.  I think my night out at “The Kettle of Fish” met my appetite needs.  At the restaurant I enjoyed some Salt Spring Island Mussels and I tried Sablefish for the first time.  While I was proud of myself for going for the seafood and not the steak, I am pretty sure that I canceled out any nutritional benefits with the sauce that was served with the fish.  I could feel the butter linger on on my tongue as I savoured the dish.  Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious and I would definitely try it again, but this does bring up the issue of all the things that they put into food when you go out to eat.

So I have tried to start cooking at home (shocking, I know).  Contrary to popular belief, I can cook.  I have started to get more adventurous and I am trying to cook some of my favorite seafood dishes at home.  This weekend I cooked some scallops and pancetta and I am pleased to say that it wasn’t that bad.  I am also going to try and cook some mussels at home.  I have recipe that I would like to try.  It has a little bit of an Asian flare to it.  It requires some lemon grass and some other spices, so it should be quite interesting.  Once I try it out, I will share with you all how it went.

I would also like to try cooking sablefish at home.  I recently went to the grocery store and saw the price of the fish and thought may be I should start off with something cheaper in case I totally screw it up.  While I can cook, I have a long way to becoming a gourmet chef and I really don’t like to mess up on really, really expensive ingredients.

Does anyone have any good seafood recipes that they would like to share?  Specifically those for mussels and scallops?  Those that don’t require any alcoholic beverages and those with a little spice to them would be greatly appreciated!