Rediscover Yourself - WonderBra Women of Wonder

As they say, all good things come to an end! This is the last week for WonderBra's Women of Wonder campaign... I've had so much fun - this was such a fabulous opportunity and I will always be so thankful that WonderBra asked me to participate! This week:

Your Day

Reflect on the journey you've had over the past couple weeks. Share with us what you've rediscovered about yourself.

During this journey I got to:

1. take a cooking class where I learned to make healthy Asian recipes
2. be part of a newborn photo shoot with my husband and baby L
3. go to a spa for the first time in my life
4. take an acting class
5. reconnect with my sister from Montréal
6. take a yoga class with baby L

First thing that comes to mind - I would NOT have been inclined to go out at all if it weren't for these missions and that would've been sad - I learned that I can do it. The thought of going somewhere by myself with baby L was oh so scary but I did it and now I know I can do it again...

I learned that a healthy meal plan can be very simple - pick some veggies for the week, pick 2-3 recipes that include those veggies, prep and eat! You just need to take the time to sit down and think of it!

I learned that I can leave the baby with my husband and take a little time for myself (given that I provide enough milk for the time I'll be away...) and he was so supportive of me doing it - thank you so much S!

I learned that acting can be fun and that I would like to look into it some more.

I learned that, when I'm around my sister, I am giddy and feel like I'm a kid again :) (and I sound like one too, ha!)

I learned that I love to exercise - and that I miss it SO much! I am having cravings for a good run - I can't wait to do it again!!!! I didn't know if I was really into running and exercising so much until I went to that yoga class and got a taste of what it was like to work out again - man! I just love it! :)

I learned that taking care of a baby is much more involved than I though it would be - countless days were spent holding baby L in my arms and walking around so he wouldn't yell, or holding him so he would sleep... oh how naive I was to think this would be a piece of cake LOL I wrote many of my posts with one arm holding and rocking the baby and one hand on the keyboard :)

I learned that spending an hour straightening my hair for a mission/video is not smart use of my time... I was so concerned about my appearance and now? I can just tighten up my 'ponytail' and I'm ready to go :) who cares really? :)

I learned that I speak funny when I'm intimidated - hee hee I find that I sound weird in my first video, I was so stressed! ha ha ha I need to relax - I sound much better when I don't stress about 'sounding good' does that make sense? :)

I learned that I can 'vlog'! (Well, so long as I spend a bit of time editing it... :) I was so stressed about appearing in a video - oh my! But by the end of the project, I didn't mind so much anymore - I was much more comfortable with it! Practice makes ...um... practice made me feel like I don't need to be 'perfect' ;)

I learned that I am a new me and that it's ok. I'm a mom now and all my priorities have been re-ordered. I watched Rachelle Anne's video on the subject and I couldn't say it better than she does there. Among a lot of things that she says that are matching exactly how I feel about my new life as a mom and how I spend my days, one thing stood out: ''... I find that I get more fulfillment in my life through him...'' I too have realized that this is what I'm about now - enjoying the time I get to spend with my son, 'making memories' of his babyhood, enjoying the 'now' - time that I will never be able to live again!


I learned that I can do much more than I think I can. I made it to the end of this project - I MADE IT! :)

I hope you enjoyed following me in my journey - you can check out the four other lovely Women of Wonder here:


Katrina
Angela
Rachelle Anne
and
Roseanne



THANK YOU SO MUCH TO WONDERBRA FOR THIS WONDERFUL ADVENTURE!!! :)

Rediscover Your Community - WonderBra Women of Wonder

This is mission #5 for the Women of Wonder Campaign by WonderBra.

Your Roots

Get back to your roots. Reconnect with a childhood friend from your old neighborhood.

Because I spent my childhood moving from city to city, I don't really have an 'old neighborhood' but several old neighborhoods, none of which where I feel like I belong or have 'roots'. Instead, I have stronger connections with my immediate family. Who better to reconnect with than a person from my family, especially since I live at least a 6hr drive away from any of them?

I realized recently that I have not talked about anything BUT baby L with my sister in quite some time - it has been a while since we talked about her, so it would be nice to do that for a change! My sister is my best resource for all things baby health (she works for a famous children's hospital in Montréal) and right now my life revolves around the baby so much... She has so much valuable information that she nicely shares with me - she makes my life easier - so I can't help but ask her more and more questions - and then we run out of time for regular chit chat... I'm sorry sister! ;)

I discovered Skype with mission #4 and realized that I could easily 'reconnect' with her that way. She liked the idea and installed the program on her computer... and we were ready for the mission! :)


I love my sister - it's so nice to talk to her, she is such a no-nonsense person. I love that, even if sometimes we don't talk for months at a time, it's never awkward between us and it's always comfortable (well, unless there are cameras filming the conversation;) - it's like we can't fool each other because we know and 'get' each other so well. It's priceless for me to have someone like that in my life.

Here's the video - now I have to warn you, some of it is in french. I will spend a bit of time to try and figure out how to add translation 'annotations' on Youtube, but it could take me a while... I couldn't finish that because the campaign is coming to an end and I am running out of time... Good news is, if you come back and watch it again after a few days, there will be more 'subtitles' for you to read :)


***UPDATE! Click on ''CC'' below the video to see the translation! I made subtitles woo hoo!! :)
*****You have to go to the Youtube page in order to see it... (click on the video once to play it, and once more to go to the Youtube page...) - phew! :)



a HUGE thank you to WonderBra!!! :)

Rediscover Your Hapiness - WonderBra Women of Wonder

This is my fourth mission for WonderBra's Women of Wonder and this week my mission was:

Rediscover Your Hapiness

Lights. Camera. Action.

Doing something you've always wanted to do can be truly rewarding. Take an acting class to prepare for a real life audition.

I contacted Lori Pearlstein for this mission. Browsing through her website, I found that she had a great variety of classes to choose from - from serious coaching for the professional actor, to acting technique programs to more recreational classes for the person who wants to learn acting for fun - which was perfect for my mission. She even teaches kids! She is also a member of the Toronto Association of Acting Studios.

Lori usually teaches in a studio, but since I had limited time to accomplish the mission and not much options to travel with the baby, she offered the option to do a class via Skype - which I thought was brilliant! I got to stay home and set up my cameras easily and in advance - it just saved me so much trouble while still being just as good and as complete as an in person class. I had not 'Skyped' before - wow - it's so convenient!!! :)

I was so intimidated by this mission - I was going to 'act' and talk one on one with an acting specialist. Even if this was just for fun, Lori is a real professional actor, a person who is essentially an expert in the field and an expert at communicating - whereas I am a terribly shy person who is so scared to talk to people that most of the time, I avoid putting myself in a situation where I have to do it! I prefer to write - I get more time to think of what I am going to say, I don't risk finding myself mid-sentence awkwardly pausing because I realize I don't know how to say this or that in english... :)

But Lori made me feel really comfortable from the beginning, as soon as I contacted her she replied and she seemed so nice and really interested in the project. She made time in her busy schedule (and that particular week was an impossibly busy week for her!) to help me out and teach me for the mission.

She basically prepared the class to fit my mission - let me know all that I would have to know if I was going to a real life audition. She taught me about the business of acting, the process of an audition, how to stand out during an audition, etc. A lot of which could apply to a regular interview. It's a good idea to prepare good answers for questions like ''tell me about yourself'' for instance, which makes a lot of sense, but I realized when she mentioned it that I just would not have an answer for that if I was asked!! So it's good to think of it and prepare that now that I'm not 'put on the spot' :)

Then we read a script together, something simple that would be used for a short commercial. We acted it out. Wheeeee that was FUN! :) She gave me cues to how to know how to interpret the lines, and we read them again to perfect them... It was just so much fun - I think I just might have to try and audition for something one day, just for fun! :)

She also gave me the opportunity to ask her any question that I had. It was great to learn more about acting, something I always wanted to try but never did. I am so thankful to have had the chance to cross that off my bucket list :)




Check out Lori's website here: www.lorip.ca


Thank you SO much to Lori and to WonderBra for another AMAZING mission :)

Rediscover Your Balance - WonderBra Women of Wonder

This week I'm skipping ahead to my Women of Wonder mission #6, but don't worry, missions #4 and 5 are in the works and coming very soon...

Rediscover Your Balance:

Relax and Restore

Take a yoga class and be inspired to incorporate balance into your everyday life,

I went to a 'Mommy and Baby' yoga class at Breathe Yoga Studio and it was WONDERFUL :)

I realized that I like exercising SOOOO much and that I miss it a lot. I need to make time for it...
Baby L had several challenges in the last few weeks that left his whole internal clock upside down for days. (Cold, growth spurts, first long trip to visit family, vaccinations, etc - OH MY! vaccinations...) He has been fussy and uncomfortable and I have pretty much had to hold him all day...
But I have hope that once he resumes having 'normal' days where things are more consistant for him, he'll be a happy baby again and nap without problem. I can't wait for the day where I know he's comfortable and having a nap for X amount of time and I can commit to doing something for myself for that time... At the top of my priority list: exercising again. Training to run again... litle by little...

Here's the video:



Thank you so much to WonderBra for this week's mission!!!!

thoughts...

I came across a few pictures of myself on the blog tonight while searching for something, and it got me thinking.
Back in 2003, I went from 174lbs to 140lbs and was at my lowest adult weight ever. But back then I felt like 140lbs was 'fat', I wanted to lose more weight...
Back in 2009, just before I got pregnant, I weighed 150lbs, and at the time I felt like I looked 'fat', I wasn't comfortable with myself and I wanted to lose more weight. I would see pictures of myself from 2003 and think: 'I wish I was 140lbs again, I looked so skinny'.
Today at 190lbs post baby (yup, you read that right, I am a whopping 40lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight...) I find myself looking at pictures of me pre-pregnancy on the blog like racing pictures, wedding pictures, etc. and I'm thinking 'I wish I was 150lbs again, I looked so skinny'.
Do you see a pattern here?
yeah, I think I do to...

Engines are warming back up...

Hello!
I'm quite behind on my blogging and I'm slowly getting back to it after dealing with:

1. a difficult cold - both baby L and I got it:(
2. a long period after the disturbance from the cold where I wasn't able to put the baby down without him being fussy pretty much ALL day... 

We've moved past that now (knock on wood!) and I have a ton of catching up to do... I'm working on figuring out his rhythm so that I can have some sort of schedule where I can find time to do some things again :) But Baby L is the priority so I have to take it slow...

here's what's coming up in the Women of Wonder project:

Mission #4: 
I got to take an acting class to prepare for an audition.
Status: Accomplished! (Working on the video and post)

Mission #5: 
Reconnecting with my 'community'.
Status: not done yet... you'd think that would be the easy one - think again :)

Mission #6: 
Go to a yoga class.  
Status: Accomplished! (Working on the video and post...)

Stay tuned! :)
While you wait, you can go check out what the other 'Women of Wonder' are up to here:
WonderBra

Technical difficulties...

Baby L and I have been fighting a cold since last week. Hence the lack of posts...
We are focussing on getting better this week and are not going on a mission until we are healthy again. I can barely put him down throughout the day, and at night he sleeps for very small amounts of time at a time. I am beat - and fighting my own cold on zero energy is tough! I can only do so much...
That a 6 week old baby can catch a cold is very unfair let me tell you this - it breaks my heart to see him so uncomfortable and to not be able to do much to comfort him. His little cries of frustration and discomfort are so sad :(

Anyways, on a more positive note: Stay tuned, coming up lots of fun missions!!! :)

A letter to ''Exercise''

I enjoyed reading this post by Julie of ''Chez Julie'' - a cute love letter to exercise. Go check it out! :)

Baby L's first Word? :)

I love the little hand gesture that goes with the word lol

Rediscover Your Dreams - WonderBra Women of Wonder

This is my 3rd mission. This week was a little different, people were asked to suggest a mission for me on the 'wall' of the WonderBra's facebook page. Ultimately I selected a day at the spa because let's face it - I needed it :)

I looked for a spa and came across Sunny Mummy, a spa with child care services. I knew right away that this was the right place to go! :)

I had a facial, a manicure and a pedicure. I had never been to a spa before, so everything was new to me.

When I arrived at the very cute location on Queen Street West, across from the beautiful Trinity Bellwood Park (home of the famous white squirrel:) I met with Nilla who took me through the process of the facial and explained the Aveda line of products that are used at Sunny Mummy - flower and plant based, all natural. I had no idea that a 'facial' could include shoulders, neck, arms and scalp massage, but I welcomed the idea - with all the breastfeeding I've been doing, my shoulders and neck have taken a beating! She had me select my preferred oil scent from three oils - is it a common thing or does this happen at every facial? Regardless, I enjoyed choosing for myself :)

She also did some accu-pressure - woah! She pretty much just gently placed her fingers on different spots on my forehead and cheeks and it felt like I would instantly relax, like deep 'repairing' was happening! Very surprising! I didn't film much of the facial because it was dark and, well, I was busy relaxing :)



Then I moved on to the manicure and pedicure with Lindsay. I got treated to a foot and hands massage there too - nice! My feet and hands have not been treated this nicely before - it was interesting :) Lindsay had me choose a few symbols that 'talked' to me from a bunch of cards. The three that I picked corresponded to some oils, and I got to pick my favorite scent out of the three again - I don't know why but I thought that was really cool - I enjoyed picking the oil! Once I picked it - she showed me what symbol it corresponded to, and let me read about it - Grounded. It was entertaining:)

I also got to pick a nail polish color and I happily selected a deep blue, which, I know is not a popular or common nail polish color, but it is my favorite color, and it was MY day at the spa right? :)

 
 


I was sent to a comfy chair to 'dry' and something unexpected happened - the next lady who was getting a manicure and I chatted. If you don't know me let me say this: I am terribly shy and I am not a very sociable person (in person anyway) I am basically avoiding people most of the time and am the last person you will see chatting with a stranger :) But I felt like a new girl and when this lovely lady started talking about her 14 month old daughter and asking about my 5 week old son, the conversation was easy and so welcome! We got to share our stories and she told me a lot about babies and what's down the road for me and Baby L. She is a writer and was heading out to an event - I wish I would've asked her about her books... or for her name... she was nice :)

A great experience and something I think I will do again. I was so tired going in, but coming out, I felt like a million bucks. One thing that helped me relax is also the fact that S got to stay home with the baby, and I got to go out by myself for the first time. I was feeling guilty at first, to leave Baby L with my husband, but once I got over it, it was well worth it:)


Thank you to the lovely ladies at Sunny Mummy, and thank you again to WonderBra for another wonderful treat of a mission! :)

A year ago...

S and I were married on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

Then we got to hang out together in our favorite city for the most perfect and fun, best day of my life.

I love you baby - Happy Anniversary :)

Rediscover Your Beauty Photo Shoot - The Photos Are In!

As promised - here are the photos from the Rediscover Your Beauty photo shoot with Andrea Smith:

Andrea couldn't resist sending along a photo of baby L being fussy during the photo shoot - too cute and funny :)

Thank you Andrea for the lovely pictures! :)

www.andreasmithphotography.com

And thank you to WonderBra for this great opportunity!!

Rediscover Your Beauty - WonderBra Women of Wonder

I received another awesome package from WonderBra for my second mission!! This time, I got high cut supportive panties (yup, I can use that right now!:) and a couple of 'full support' bras. I will definitely try these on when baby L and I have a more predictable feeding schedule and I can wear regular bras again! :) As for the panties, I will wait until things have returned to more of a 'normal' state down there, lol

 

My week 2 mission for WonderBra's Women of Wonder was:

A Mother's Glow

Capture the special moments in life and book a photo shoot for you and your newborn.

 I was again very nervous with the mission. I was still not that comfortable with holding baby L, as you can probably tell in the video! :) And for some reason it was really warm in the house - or it could also just be that my body was doing its post-pregnancy thing ;)

Andrea was great, you could tell she was used to working with babies. She knew how to handle the little guy better than I did! She was calm and gentle with him, and very patient - he got fussy because I pretty much messed up his feeding schedule. 

If there's one thing I learned this week it's : Feed the baby until he's done! I mean Andrea was ok with waiting, but I was putting pressure on myself with having him photo ready, so I was cutting him off milk after a few minutes thinking that it would be enough to hold him for a while, only to have to feed him again, and again afterwards... babies are on their own schedule and your much better off following their lead :)

My favorite part about this week's mission was when we got to take shots of my husband with the baby. It gave me a chance to step back and enjoy watching my boys hanging out together - so sweet :) It was nice to have the husband participate in that mission since he couldn't make the first one...

I felt relieved after finishing the mission because I got to make sure that baby L was comfy again.

I was also so happy to do this mission and get the chance to have professional shots of our little family while baby L is still so little - they DO grow up SO fast!

Thank you WonderBra! :)

Baby L is One Month Old!

oh la la...
I struggle to organize my time nowadays... I'll figure it out, please stay tuned :)
While you wait here are two videos of Baby L giggling this weekend, when my family visited...





For my second mission with WonderBra, I got to do a photoshoot with Baby L with the help of Andrea Smith Photography. I tried all week to work on the video but lots happened baby-wise and I figured since I'm just about to receive the photos from Andrea, I might as well wait for them and include them in my post about the mission! So hang in there, it's coming!

Talk to you soon :)

Rediscover Your World - WonderBra Women of Wonder

Mission #1 = Accomplished!

This week's mission was about exploring another country's cuisine by taking a cooking class with my husband. I had always wanted to take a cooking class and WonderBra made that happen for me :)

They suggested a bunch of options where I could take the class, but one stood out: Marni Wasserman's. Her healthy approach to cooking was just in line with what I am doing with this blog - learn ways to get healthier by cooking more healthy home made food, among other things :)


Unfortunately, I had to schedule the class in the afternoon and since S ended up having to go back to work he wasn't be able to attend... Between him and me I'm the one who could use the class more (he's actually a great cook!!) so I thought it would be fun to do the class on my own and then serve him the food I learned to make when he got home from work :)

I have to be honest with you - I was SOOOOO nervous to do the mission. This would be my very first day on my own at home with Baby L, I would get a guest and have to cook and document the whole thing -  all at the same time... Marni was great at helping me with the whole situation - she directed the class in a way that would let me stop whenever Baby L was interrupting, and whenever I couldn't put my hands in the dough because I was holding Baby L, she would take over and explain what she was doing... She even took the camera and shot a few images of me, cooking away :) Phew!

Here's what we made:

Yin Yang Miso Soup

Arame Soba Noodle Salad

Tangy Teriyaki Stir-Fry

Here's my video of the mission - please note that the links I am referring to in the video are available in the Youtube description and also at the bottom of this post - I thought I could add them within the video (you can't do that on Youtube, oops!) which is why I keep saying click here lol Also, please forgive the poor framing of some of these shots, if I am alone to set up the video next time, I'll take the time to make sure the camera is set properly - I was just too nervous this time :)




It was so nice in the end to be able to say that I did it!! :) I learned a lot too - from new ingredients to cooking tips and meal planning tips... It was really fun and informative - and at the end I had dinner ready for the husband and I - tasty and healthy food - the best! It was pretty easy to make too - I can definitely easily recreate it now that I've seen the whole process of making it during the class... And it made quite a good amount of food - enough for a few days worth of lunches. 

Here are the links mentioned in the video:
Women of Wonder on Facebook
www.marniwasserman.com

WonderBra Mission #1 -Update

Just thought I would let you know that I am taking a cooking class tonight! I will be posting about the experience sometime tomorrow with pictures and videos of the experience - I don't know what makes me more nervous, being on camera or taking the class! lol

It's going to happen in my kitchen, so I better get started on cleaning it :) It's going to be so much fun!!!

I already received info on week 2, I'm equally excited and intimidated by week 2, eeeeeeeee :)

Week 1 mission... in progress...

Wow I didn't think it would be so complicated to find a cooking class for this week's mission for the Women of Wonder Campaign with WonderBra! I think it's a great idea and what a fun thing it will be to do - but I am having a hard time getting all the 'ingredients' to be just right!

I am trying to find a class that will teach both my husband and I in our home (can't leave baby L on his own! :) a class that will get us to discover another country's cuisine, and a class that we can take this week.

I might end up having to compromise on something, but for now I'm staying optimistic that in the end it will work out.

I am waiting on news from a person who was going to try and make herself available, but she wasn't sure she would be able to, otherwise, I will be going to a class solo in downtown TO, and will bring the food home for S to enjoy :)

So that's where we're at with this week's mission :)

WonderBra - Women of Wonder...

Good Morning!

I have some exciting news! I was approached a few weeks ago by WonderBra Canada to participate in their 'Women of Wonder - Rediscover your wonder' campaign, where 5 women are going on a mission every week and talk about it on their blog. 

I was worried at first because of the upcoming birth of our son, but they told me it was only starting in October, and they also assured me that the missions would be fun and easy-going, and that I would most likely be able to do everything with the little man by my side. They are also covering all the expenses for the missions! It sounded so interesting and they were so nice and understanding of my situation - I had to get on board!

First things first, I received this lovely package from them:

  

It contained a Flip camera to document the whole thing (neat!) the info on my first week's mission, and of course a bra from WonderBra. Their new Baby Love nursing bra!! :)

 

Very nicely packaged box!! :)

Let's talk about the bra for a moment - because OMG is it lovely! I have started breastfeeding and let's just say that my body has been roughed up good by the task :) As soon as I slipped into the new bra I felt so much more comfortable - like all the pieces were supported again.

The fabric is so unbelievably soft yet supportive, and it's pink!! :) With some nice and pretty details...

It's nice to have the 'flap' on the front and be able to have access to the 'necessary parts' without  awkwardly exposing myself... And it's easy to open and close with one hand.

 

So here we go - First week's theme is:

Rediscover Your World

Week 1:

A Taste of the World

Explore another country's cuisine and

head to a cooking class with your husband.

Now I have to work at finding a class I can go to... I have a week to complete this - keep visiting for an update on the mission!

Flip in hand - here I come! :)