Scallion-Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry by WW

As promised, here's the WW recipe that I prepared last week for my lunches...


Scallion-Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry by WW
6 points per serving, 4 servings

ingredients:
1sprays cooking spray (5 one-second sprays per serving)
1 tsp canola oil
1 pound extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 medium scallions, green and white parts chopped
1 medium sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium green pepper, seeded and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup cremini mushrooms or button mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 cup cooked brown rice, regular or instant, kept hot.

directions:

Coat a large nonstick skillet or Wok with cooking spray and set pan over medium-high heat. Add oil and tofu and stir-fry until tofu is browned on all sides, about 2 minutes.

Add scallions, peppers, carrots and mushrooms and stir-fry until vegetables are tender and mushrooms release juice, about 3-5 minutes. Add soy sauce and cook 1 minute more.

Serve tofu mixture over rice. Yields about 1 1/2 cups of tofu stir-fry and 1/2 cup of rice per serving.

you can't see it very well but the rice is there - on the bottom of the bowl :)


I've done this recipe often and I find that you can easily change it up by using other veggies, so long as you use the same amount of tofu, rice and oil. I often skip the cooking spray and replace the oil with sesame oil (2tsps instead of 1 if I skip the spray... a bit heavier in point but not too bad...)



Here you go - lunches for the week!! :)

27 weeks and 2 days + Weekly exercise 2/3

Whee!!!! I've successfully accomplished days 2 of my weekly exercise and I have another couple days to do my 3rd day - we can do this!

I did the Tracey Mallett: Fit For Pregnancy DVD again, but this time I did the 'cardio and weights' section for the 2nd trimester as well as the Core and the Flexibility sections. A good challenge - I definitely felt like I 'worked' at the end! :)

Food wise - after I'm done with this post I'm going to cook a Tofu and bell peppers stir-fry with brown rice (one of my favorite WW recipes - super easy to prep and healthy - I might post about it tomorrow...) I prepped all the veggies as soon as I got back from the grocery store this weekend - my fridge freezes all my veggies so preparing them and cooking them as soon as possible really helps me to avoid wasting them... It's going to provide me with lunches for the week!

We made a lot of progress with the baby room this weekend too - well I should say that S did the majority of the work. We took everything out of the room and then he sanded all the walls, fixed all the cracks, sanded the room again, and did a first big clean up. All that's left is to do a deep clean and paint the room!

Big scoop for family members who might be reading the blog: we picked our color - 'crisp green' from Benjamin Moore. It's from an old set of colors so you won't find it on their web site anymore, but it's like a very light pastel-ish green. Our furniture will most likely be 'espresso' color, and the accessories (not our final decision) will potentially be 'cream'.

In other news, I went for the glucose test this morning, to find out if I have gestational diabetes - it's a routine test since I have diabetes in my family.


The test goes like this: you go to the lab in the morning on an empty stomach. They take blood from you once, give you an extra sweet orange juice to drink in 5 minutes, then they take more blood after 1 hour, and after 2 hours.

I tend to have nausea pretty quickly in the morning if I don't eat, but I was ready for the challenge. I got up extra early to beat the usual crowd of older people who are always there first thing ;) Success! I was 8th in line which is pretty good for this location... S came with me as the midwifes suggested - I was so happy that he came!! :)

I started to drink the juice and thought - wow, this is not too bad! But after a few sips I realized that 'Orange Crush' for breakfast is and ideal (that's what it tasted like to me - orange pop) The bubbles leave an after taste that's not so good... But I drank it all and got to go back to S in the waiting room.

The first 15 minutes were great - I was on a 'sugar buzz' chatting with S, moving and laughing. Then slowly nausea came to the party and by the 30th minute, I was pretty miserable and counting down the minutes... I thought - stop looking at the clock and focus on not being sick - if I get sick I'll have to take the test all over again - and we don't want to do that!!

After the 1 hour mark, they took some blood again and the nausea slowly went away. I finished the test without problem - SUCCESS!! :) And I got to eat some Tim Hortons right after - what a treat :)

The results should be available at my next midwifes visit - on July 6th...

Weekly Exercise - 1/3

For the first time in a long time, I finally was able to get up early this morning and exercise!!

 I did the Tracey Mallett: Fit For Pregnancy DVD.


I probably have done it 5-6 times so far and I like it. She has a program specifically for the first and second trimester, as well as one for the third trimester. There are also a few bonus sessions for flexibility, core and postpartum.



The intensity is perfect. A thing that she repeats a lot during the sessions: you should never go above 70% effort (100% = exhaustion). At the start, it seems a bit easy, but by the end of it, it turns out to be a pretty good workout!

I also like the way that she split the main part of the workout in 3 x 6 minutes parts, with a running time on the bottom of the screen. I like knowing how much I can push based on how long I have to push for :)

Workout # 1 this week - completed! :)

26 weeks and 3 days...

translated from my french blog

Yeah... I've been thinking of writing a blog post for days - but I'm out of ideas... I decided to just start writing and see where it takes me...

So I am 26 weeks and 3 days pregnant today. I have gained - watch out! - 40 lbs so far during this pregnancy (that's on top of the 7 lbs I had gained before becoming pregnant...)

On my wedding day, I weighted 150 lbs.
When I started WW I weighted 186 lbs.
Today? I weight 197 lbs - yup...


I'm not sure what to make of this... I mean, I still have 13 weeks to go and, depending on the source, people say I should gain anywhere between 0.5 and 1 lb a week from now on. So it's inevitable, that big scary number is coming - 200 lbs. (Well, I'll go up to 210 lbs if I really am going to gain a pound a week...)

oh la la...


I have to admit that I have not been all that disciplined in these 26 weeks. I didn't exercise as much as I should have (once a week on average) and as for food intake, I pretty much ate without paying too much attention. I tried to pick healthier stuff at times and other times, not so much...


I think I need to take care of this now. Pregnancy definitely surprised me with all its 'side effects' - I have had to let go of some of my 'control'. But there's only 13 weeks left, it's time to make an effort, it's going to be worth it in the end.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm going to try and lose weight right now - not at all, that would be unhealthy - but rather I want to make healthier choices, I will:

1. Exercise 3 times a week minimum.
2. Prep more food at home.
3. Count/Track what I eat - be it healthy or not, to at least get a better picture of what I'm doing...

I started to use this website again: Daily Burn. It's free (you can also pay if you want to access more options...) and what I like about it, compared to other similar sites, is that they have a lot of search-able food items in their 'library'. Also, you get a daily personal nutrition tracking page that gives you info on your intake of calories, fats, carbs and proteins. IT really gives you a good picture of what your eating in a reasonable way, and what you lack - i.e.: I try to eat lots of protein in my days now because I know it's very important for the baby and me - it turns out it's a big challenge for me and I didn't even know it was until I tracked with this tool!

The only thing is that it is not meant for pregnant women, more for people who are trying to lose weight for instance. But it's still interesting and it still gets me back in the habit of tracking...


There is a similar website by Spark People that is meant specifically for pregnant women: BabyFit, but I don't like it as much because I find that they don't always have all the items I want to track in their system, the way that daily burn does. It's annoying when you want to track something and it just doesn't exist on the site... And I came across a lot of 'missing' things. It's also free + they send you daily newsletter with useful info on pregnancy subjects if you want them to.

Ottawa Race Weekend

translated from my french blog

It was Ottawa's Race Weekend, I was 24 weeks pregnant and I ran a 10k!! Ok, I only ran for about 2-3 minutes on the course, but the rest of the way, I walked "fast".

We arrived to Ottawa by train on Friday afternoon - traveling by train was perfect, S and I got to relax and chat without having to drive all the way. When we got there we took a taxi to the hotel - that's when we realized what a good idea not having to drive in Ottawa was - there are lots of one way streets and lots of winding streets in Ottawa, would have been confusing...

We arrived at our hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, and then we walked to the "Fitness Expo'' to get my race kit. It was a good 8km to and from, so we walked at a relaxed pace - I didn't want my legs to be sore for the race! It was nice to walk all along Bank Street and see a bit more of the city :)

The day of the race, we walked around the ''By Ward Market''  a bit, and then we went back to the hotel to relax a bit, the race was at 6h30 pm.

Here is the obligatory belly/pre-race shot...

 

Wow there was a ton of people at the start line!!

 

My official spectator :)

 

Who is also my official photographer :)

 

I didn't put too much pressure on myself, just an ideal time to finish the race in 10 minutes per kilometer. I was happy to notice a lot of people who looked like they were there to walk the 10k - they had walking sticks and everything... It was kind of encouraging to think I wouldn't be the last to cross the finish line and/or the only one walking... 

My heart rate was much better this time, better than at Harry Rosen's 8km, but my legs - they worked hard, I felt my calves and thighs getting tired real quick... At the 2k mark I though -woah, will I be able to do this for 10km?!! But kilometers passed and my legs got used to the feeling... Enough to change my mind as of km #6 where I thought - pffff I can totally do this!!!!

Just like at Harry's 8k, S came to meet me on the course at around 9km - oh how good it was to see him and also to realise that I was almost done!

 

The only weird thing or 'discomfort' that I felt during the race came at around 6-7km - it was really warm outside, I had been walking for more than an hour... MY HANDS!!! They swelled up like balloons - I could not recognize them anymore! They reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry was uncomfortable dating this girl because she had man hands!!

 

Ok, Maybe it's not that obvious here but trust me, my hands are usually slimmer than that. I'd say they are a third bigger than they usually are - I asked S and he says they were 37% bigger ha ha ha! It took a few hours before I could put my rings back on... I was so glad I had decided to remove them before the race!!

Official Results:

I was the 8275th person to cross the finish line out of 8497 runners

My 'Gun Time' is 1:46:56

My 'Chip Time' or 'real time' is 1:39:32

(99 minutes 32 seconds - mission accomplished!!!:)

In my category I finished: 831/845

and for women overall, I finished: 4839/5020

Not bad at all!!!

On Sunday morning, before leaving for Toronto, we had the chance to see some of the marathonand half marathon runners, from the comfort of our hotel room - the view from our room was fantastic!

 

I want to say a big congratulations to Laura who ran the 10k in Ottawa ''for real'' this weekend. 

BRAVO LAURA!!! :)

A few questions answered...

Things are moving along here. I am now 20 weeks and 5 days pregnant and I am starting to feel the baby a little bit. Not consistently yet, but still, there was a moment today when I felt something and it was clearly the baby moving for sure... I am a whooping 30 pounds heavier already - that's scary because that means I'm back to my pre-WW weight. And I know that it's more than the recommended weight gain.... more on that in an other post... :)

I wanted to go back to the questions that you asked a while ago. I haven't been blogging very often, but I still had these questions on my radar, I am going to answer a few now. Thank you so much to the readers who submitted questions!!!!! :)

How am I preparing for the baby:

To be perfectly honest, I have not really started to prepare for the baby much yet. Getting the right medical care and figuring out how to handle being pregnant has taken most of my mind until now. We have just started to think about the nursery and the items we will need once the baby arrives. We're going to build a Babies R Us registry soon for our friends and family - we have a really small house and I want to avoid people getting us too much stuff....

I think that it's starting to feel more real now that I have a bigger belly and that I'm starting to feel the baby, and I think that's going to give me that push I need to get things done. I still have some time though! :) I'll definitely post about things I prepare as I prepare them, so keep visiting for updates:) I plan to post a little more often from now on (at least once a week...)

Announcing the news to S:

We were pretty much "actively trying" to conceive, so we were both following the signs closely. I was sad when 'TOM" came, but when it stopped a couple days later (and was very light) I was suspicious (My TOM is usually pretty heavy and lasts forever, 8+ days at times...) So I did a test on a week day morning, before having a shower and heading out to work, and well, it said I was pregnant! I was shocked - I knew how little chance there was that we would be lucky enough to become pregnant on the first try! I wanted to tell S right then and there, but I had to finish with showering and I wanted to come up with a clever way of saying it. When the time came I opened the door and asked him:

"Do you know anyone who's a 'Virgo'?"

He said he didn't. That's when I pulled out the stick and showed him: "Well, you will in September!"
He had a big grin on his face, I think he was really happy. We were both really happy to know that quick that we were successful, we were going to have a baby!
That day was the longest work day ever, I was distracted all day!!! :)

S is English, Cinemarie is french...

S and I always had an understanding that my language is extremely important to me, and that our children would speak french fluently as much as they would speak english. There's no question in my mind - I want them to speak french not as a second language, but as their own language. I want them to think in french. We've been talking about having kids for a long time (I think we were talking about it in the first few weeks of our relationship, almost 8 years ago...) and I've always said that I would speak to our kids ONLY in french, and that he could speak to them ONLY in english. That way they have an easier way separating the languages.

I've read a lot about the subject and it looks like most people say it's the best way to go. I know it's going to be slightly challenging because S doesn't speak french, and also because the world around us is all in english, but I am going to try my hardest to never switch to english.

One thing that is going to help us is that we also plan to sign with our baby. Ever heard of that? When I heard of signing to your baby and saw that very young little girls and boys were signing way before they had the capacity to use words I was fascinated. I bought a book about it last weekend because I want to get a head start in learning the signs. This is the book: Baby Sign Language Basics: Early Communication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers, New & Expanded Edition PLUS DVD! So far it's great. It comes with a DVD where they sign all the signs from the book, so you can clearly see the proper way to do it. I played it once and I already have most of them memorized, well, most of the important ones (I memorized important signs like 'careful' but not all the signs that are less important like the ones about farm animals...) I'm really excited to start signing with our baby!! I can't wait!!! :)

The one good thing about this book is that they use actual ASL signs which are used all over the place. The great thing about ASL and signing in general, in our bilingual family, is going to be that the signs will kind of act as a 'bridge' between the languages. The same sign will be used for both a french word and an english word... I think it'll help S learn a bit of french too!! :)

Harry Rosen's 8km Race Recap

Sorry it took me so long to update - here's my recap:

I was 16 weeks pregnant and I raced for 8km - WOOHOO!!!!

*****all photos are by my mother:)

That being said - it was the slowest race I ever ran!! Here are the official results:

I was the 2186th to finish the race out of 2208 runners
My chip time is 1 hour, 13 minutes, 57 seconds.
My pace was 9:38
I was the 1067/1080 woman
and the 226/227 woman in my age group.


Hey, I wasn't last!!!!! :)

I didn't push too much, with a baby in my belly, I didn't want to risk anything. I read a lot about exercise while pregnant a few days before the race, I was getting more anxious as race day approached. A lot of sites said to keep your heart rate under 140. However, that number seems to be from old sets of recommendations that were changed in the 90s. Now, most of the sources say to go with the 'rate of perceived exertion' (RPE) . Basically, you go with how your body 'feels' rather than your heart rate.

There's a good article about it on Baby Center. According to them, while pregnant, you should work out between 65% and 75% effort (100% = exhaustion)

Some places (including my midwifes) say that you should be able to have a conversation without being completely out of breath...

Armed with all that info, I still wore my heart rate monitor and also planned to listen to my body. Before becoming pregnant, if I ran at my normal pace, I would easily hit peaks of 185 bpm, but I would usually maintain it around 175 bpm.

I started the race with an easy jog and quickly my heart went up past 175... I slowed down a little... but I felt alright... so I continued and found that my 'sweet spot' was to slow down and start walking whenever I hit 185... When I went back to the 160s, I would jog a little... It was a bit frustrating, but again, it's no time to risk things, so I kept it safe and I ended up walking most of the way...

Close to the end (I'm pretty familiar with that park so I knew exactly what was coming, a big hill and then the finish line) some more 'regular' people were walking on the path and I was trying to avoid them. I saw someone coming in the distance, in a blue shirt, and proceeded to walk towards the other side, when I realized it was S! He had walked back to find me!! :) He walked the rest of the way with me, that was so nice :) I went up the hill walking, and then sprinted to the finish line.

In the end I felt pretty good that I walked/ran for 8km, the farthest I've ever gone. It felt really good.

And I got my first race medal!! wheee! :)



Here's a video of the race. You can see S (not very well) at approximately 1:04:40 (he's on the opposite side of the path from the camera and there's someone between him and the camera... he's wearing a blue shirt and black shorts) You can see him again and me (pretty well this time) at approximately 1:31:10. I think you can tell which one I am, I'm the lady with the bigger belly... ;)

Watch live streaming video from canadarunningseriestv at livestream.com

Guest Post: Cinemarie's Husband's 8k race recap:)

***Cinemarie: Photos added!



***S with my mom who was visiting from Montreal that weekend - she took all the photos:)

Harry’s Spring Run-Off 2010

So I’ve been running with Marie for the last year and this year we’re a little more organized for the season and decided we’d do the Harry Spring Run-Off at High Park. There is a 5k and 8k version of the course – and since you get a medal for the 8k we figured “okay – bring on the 8k”.

Winter training has been treadmill and soccer and where 5k is pretty comfortable, I have run 8-10k outdoors last year, but in a random hap-hazard (getting lost on a trail) kind-of-way. Now it was time to play with the slightly bigger boys…

The race was on Saturday so on Thursday night I did a treadmill run – found my pace and ran a really comfortable 6k with a half kilometer sprint at the end (I really like end sprints).

Friday – feeling good – not much soreness from the run the day before so I wasn’t worried about soreness.

Saturday!

10am race time – 2700 runners in the 8k course with corral starts. I respect the runners who are runners and stay out of the first two corals. Since I like to pass people I figure I might as well start in the last coral – plus it gives me a chance to make sure my iPod-do-hickey is working before the start. Marie and I pretty much start at around 2400^th place which will take us 3-4 minutes to cross the start line. A quick shot of power-gel should help me work out any sore muscles early on.

***S and I at the start...

So in case you’ve never been to High Park – this course is hilly – like death-march hilly. Paired with some pretty narrow parts – it makes it fun to pass! (sarcasm).

Start: iPod working – nice pace – and I find a side where I can slip by people. 1.5 kilometers – find a pace buddy and we’re running well. See a bunch of people pull off to go to the first set of port-o-johns (note to self: don’t have coffee before a race). The hills are pretty moderate to start – long and gradual – so no major problems – my knees are a little sore, but I think that’s just from not stretching completely – plus switching back and forth from running on grass (to pass people) and on pavement.

2.5km: nice big downhill with lots of pace and lots of passing, followed by a very long gradual up-hill – too long in fact. This hill took about 1.5km – enough to feel a couple chest cramps and the delightful feeling of lethargy in my hips.

4km: Water station – Gatorade to drink and a water to dump on my head – LIFE!! After walking through the water station I had momentum again and started passing. Sometimes I’m motivated to go faster just to get away from all the people spitting on my legs (by accident of course!). This was supposed to be the only water station – so I made sure I was well hydrated to the end (no water packs on me for this race).

4-6km: Friggin’ downhill of death. The amount of people flailing their arms and running out of control down this hill was nuts – not to mention I was still in a pack so if anyone stopped – there would be about 30 people on top of them. Stay to the outside and jump into the bushes if things got out of hand. Hips definitely hurting now. I presume from the steepness of the hills. Normally I get some soreness the day after a race – but never on the day of. Need to focus and find a running pattern.

6km Surprise water station! This wasn’t supposed to be there – and judging by the randomness of water being handed out – I don’t think the organizers knew it would be there either. Anyways, it was a nice find with 2km left to go – so the slight wait to get water was worth it.

6-6.5km: Nice moderate run through the south end of the park. Tight trails though so there was a bit of jostling. By the end of it the hills started and mid-way up the hill there’s a damned French-Fry truck smelling like a deep fryer – mmmm lovely fries – I wonder if I could eat fries and run?? Sorry no money on me (thanks running shorts) so I had to continue up the hill. A long km of rolling hills finally gave a little space to pass people. Knees, blisters on the right foot, shoulder cramp and of course sore hips was making this arduous – but not as arduous as this…

7.5km Hill of death climb: Who the hell puts a giant friggin’ hill on the last stretch of the course!?! Forget sprinting – most people were walking up this hill. I had moments of passing people, but it was like night of the living dead on that hill with everyone moaning and expressionless.

Eventually I made it to the top and finished with a time of around 50min. Slower than my 5km pace and a lot sorer. I was never really out of breath on the course – just sore.

***That's S in the Blue Shirt at the finish line! :)

A few things I would change for next time: Take a Tylenol/Aspirin before the race- to thin the blood and get more oxygen to my muscles. Stretch my back and shoulders – they were stiff at the end of this race. Run in short-shorts – based on the temp – I was too warm and needed to cool off a bit on the long hill climbs. I need to find something for my iPod that tells me my pace – when I race I get too aggressive at times and need to avoid burn out.

All-in-all, I would do this race again. The competition in the 8k is a lot harder than the 5k, but the scenic nature of the run made it enjoyable. It’s not a spectator race though – since about half the course is run through the south end of the park – it’s hard to access.

Need to run tonight and try to stretch out the muscles – I’m not usually this sore after a few days (though it’s all in the hips).

S.

***Cinemarie: I will add photos to this post tonight and post my own race recap with my thoughts on how it felt to be pregnant and run a race, tomorrow! :)***