Endangered Species

All I’ve kept hearing about in blog land this summer is about this amazing chocolate.  I found out it can be purchased at Whole Foods.  Naturally, I was not going to pass up the opportunity to try chocolate.  And since I just spent the last couple of weeks in Vancouver…guess what?  There are 4 Whole Foods locations.  Guess who commuted about an hour each way (via bus and skytrain) from my parents place to hit up the Vancouver Whole Foods store ? I also picked up a few other things while I was there.  Here’s what I snagged up:

I haven’t tried them all yet, I mean I do have to ration them since I won’t be back to Vancouver before Christmas.  But I was highly curious and excited to try the one with the bat.  It’s 72% cocoa and contains cocoa nibs.  Oh my !

Intense Dark is right!  It was soooo soooo good.  I loved the crunch of the nibs, but I found that when I had a craving for some chocolate, all I needed was one or two squares and I was satisfied.  I didn’t take a picture, but my mom had prepared a bowl of fresh peaches (from their tree) and cantaloupe.  I ended up chopping up a couple squares and mixing it in a bowl with the diced peaches and cantaloupe.  I can’t even begin to explain the taste.  All I can say was that it was one of the best deserts I’ve had in a while.  And yet so simple and satisfying. I will let you know what I think of the others when I get a chance to bite into them. 

Did you know that bats don’t use their eyesight to see in the dark?  They use sonar waves to communicate and navigate.  Thank you Endangered Species for teaching me something new about bats   I love how the wrapper contains a variety of information regarding the Endangered species on the front of the bar.

I’d love to hear about your favourite type of chocolate.  Have you tried this brand?  Others?

Back soon !

Almost back to new :)

Wow!  The month of August has pretty much come to an end.  How can that be?  In my neck of the woods, we can’t even really call the last 2 months “summer” since the sun and heat made rare visits.  At least the last 2 weeks were pretty nice.  I spent the last couple of weeks in Vancouver visiting my parents.  The last time I blogged I gave you a post-surgery update.  You can read about it here if you missed it.  I had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon 2 weeks after the procedure and he cleared me to travel, so I packed the car, grabbed the dog and cat and drove south to spend time with family and friends before the end of summer. 

My first week in Vancouver was pretty low-key.  I still had no energy, was still on antibiotics and just started eating more variety again.  To this day (31 days post-op) my throat is still sensitive and sore and feels irritated.  It feels like I have a cold that I can’t clear.  The surgeon did tell me my throat will take about 6 months to heal fully.  Joy!  It hurts to yawn too, I guess because when I yawn, it stretches the skin in my throat.  Fortunately, I am on the mend and well on my way to a full recovery.  Yippee!

Week 2 in Vancouver was a little more active.  I spent time with some of my friends, we hit the Waterslides at Cultus Lake, picked blueberries in my parents backyard, went to the beach and I got on my mountain bike a few times.  I also did some shopping.  Unfortunately all fun must come to an end and I came home yesterday afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bootcamp Update

At the end of July (the day before surgery) I completed an 11 week “Get Sexy Challenge” that my bootcamp instructor hosted.  The results came in and I am so so happy with them.  I made “Top 10” best transformations, so I was pretty stoked.  I lost 12 pounds and you can definitely see a great change in my midsection, which is where I want to see results.  And on another note, I’ve lost another 6 pounds since then, so I am on a role.  I’ve received a ton of compliments during my visit in Vancouver. 

Here are some ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am going to continue working hard to tone up more and get stronger.  I can’t wait to see my results by Christmas time. 

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Stay tuned for a post about my “new addition to the family”.  And another great recipe coming up soon.  It feels so great to cook again . 

Ciao for now

Bea

xoxo

Surgery Update

So I went under the knife July 29th to have my tonsils and adenoids removed.  My surgeon did tell me to expect a 2 week recovery, but I didn’t really believe him.  I’m a healthy, active and fit young woman, I figured after a week I could slowly start getting back into my routines.  Boy oh boy, was I wrong.

Surgery was scheduled for 1:45pm, but I was the last one of the day and things were running behind, so they didn’t call me into the OR until after 3pm.  By that time, I was starving.  It didn’t help that the TV in the waiting room kept showing food commercials.  I ended up turning the TV off and playing on my iPad.  When I went into the OR, the anaesthesiologist had a hard time finding my veins to draw an IV since I was pretty dehydrated.  I guess not drinking anything all day will do that to  you.  The next thing I remember is breathing in some Oxygen and then it was lights out until I woke up in recovery.

I can’t begin to explain the pain I had in my throat.  I had a difficult time breathing because of all the swelling and pain in my throat.  The nurses gave me some more pain meds and some liquid codeine to help soothe my throat some more.  It helped but all I wanted to do was sleep.  A few hours later, I was being wheeled to a hospital room to prepare for my overnight stay.  There was another girl who also stayed overnight and we shared our room.  The rest of that night was a bit of a blur.  I got to go home the next morning.

Week 1 of my recovery was pretty painful.  I didn’t eat much, was jacked up on heavy painkillers and antibiotics and slept a lot.  My awesome friends checked up on me daily to let Buster out for his walks and to bring me soup and soft food that I could somewhat manage to get down. 

Week 2 was a bit of a different story.  Day 9 post-op I spiked a very high fever and had to go to Emergency.  I ended up with a bladder infection as well as a yeast infection.  Of course the docs give me more antibiotics. 

I am now Day 16 and finally eating some more solid foods.  I lost a bunch of weight, but I will put it back on I’m sure.  My throat still hurts a fair bit, especially when I yawn.  The worse feeling currently is the constant irritation as the scabs have formed and are starting to come loose, a great sing of healing.  All I can do is drink a lot of liquids and things will get better, day by day. 

I can’t wait to be able to exercise regularly, cook up a storm again and start blogging more often. 

Cheers for now,

Bea

xoxo