Friday, November 20, 2015

Ladies Night Fashion Show

Yesterday was my beautiful mom's birthday!!

To celebrate we went to Get Dressed (a little boutique my sister, Dianna, used to work at in North Van), where my mom and Dianna got to be part of a mini fashion show.

The store was having a promotional event with various gift bag giveaways (by donation) as well as 20% off the entire store. The event was to support mental illness awareness. 

Surprisingly, even with all our busy schedules, myself, all three of my sisters, my mom, and one of my aunts were all free on the same night and able to go to the event. It was a night filled with gossip, chaos, glamour, accessories, and of course spending some $ on fashion! 

As a present for my mom, we let her pick out a couple items from the store (after the fashion show chaos was over) and we bought them for her. But honestly it was just nice to spend quality time with all the gals. Of course checking out all the name brand fashion doesn't hurt though either!

The store carries some pretty high fashion name brands: Wildfox, Sandwich, James Perse, etc. (all of which are brands I had never heard of until my sister introduced me to them). I did my best to resist all the beautiful, extremely high priced, temptation (I'm on a very strict budget right now) so I only ended up purchasing one item: the red wine/rust color graphic long sleeve t-shirt (see below). Its good hYOUman - $69 (after the 20% discount).

Top: All of us with our goodies, from left to right - Christina, me, Mom, Leigh, Nandi, Dianna
Left: From front to back - Leigh, Nandi, Christina
Right: The store was completely packed!

Top Left: The outfit I chose to wear to the event
Bottom Left: The new "good hYOUman" shirt I bought
Right: From front to back - Me, Leigh, Nandi, Christina

After the long evening of shopping we finally grabbed a bite to eat at the Two Lions pub across the way. Again, it was filled with good food, easy conversation, and lots of laughter! I don't think anyone could have asked for a better way to spend my mom's birthday!

-Linds



Friday, November 13, 2015

Clean Eating & Fitness Blender

I've been active all my life. I was a dancer from ages 5-12, basketball player from ages 10-17, volleyball player from ages 11-26. I've also always loved to run through out these years, it's one of my favorite ways to get some mental clarity. 

Because of all this "active living" though, I have never been much inclined to workout at the gym, lift weights, follow a workout program, or practice anything resembling a diet. This never mattered much when I was young and had a super fast metabolism, but after 2 years of being in post-secondary school and struggling with bad eating/exercising habits all of a sudden I noticed I was sinking.  After another year and a half out of school trying to recover my previous body but finding no success with the limited fitness knowledge I had, I finally turned to Fitness Blender. I know I've mentioned it briefly a few times before so sorry if I sound like a broken record, but it has honestly changed my life so much I can't help but want to keep talking about it! 

Simply put: It's a website with an assortment of free workout videos or workout programs and meal plans that you can purchase. 

The website allows you to select the area of body you want to work on, the amount of time you want to spend, the assortment of equipment (or lack there of) that you have available to use, etc. And, if you download the app, you'll find there is an entire community of support which truly is great for the ego!  

After a couple months of using the free workout videos on top of my usual running and volleyball, although I was seeing progress, I definitely noticed I was starting to slip from day to day. So finally I decided to purchase a workout program. 

Last week I finished FB30 (just the two week trial) and then this week I started FBbooty and FBabs (both four weeks). In six months of working out with Fitness Blender I've only spent $20.00 and I have seen more progress in my body than ever before. Not only have I seen shapely progress but I am now ALWAYS eager to want to workout! As soon as I finish one video, I want to start another one. Everyday I am eager to see what the next day workout is.  

Also, somehow during all of this (I think mostly thanks to the insanely supportive and creative app community) I have also started to get excited about clean eating, or in other words #eatrealfood. I'm buying way more fresh veggies/
produce instead of boxed/packaged basics when I go grocery shopping. I've also learned to do "generic meal prep." I chop up all my veggies ahead of time so when I go to make a meal,  everything is already ready to go. Yes, you lose some nutritional value chopping early, but not more than letting everything go bad instead because you're too lazy to prep when meal time comes. 

Anyway, I know I'm starting to ramble but I really just wanted to stress what a good website this is because of how much it has improved my lifestyle! No matter what your level of fitness (brand new or seasoned veteran) I highly recommend you check it out and I'd love to hear what you think! 

(Post workout photo-so sweaty, #eatrealfood dinner, power walk with the pup) 

How do you feel about fitness? Are you stuck in a rut like I was? 
-Linds 






Saturday, November 7, 2015

Furry Trainer!

My furry trainer, Mr. Capt'n, likes to try to get involved during my workouts. Mark caught him "spotting" me while I was doing my headstand practice today! 


I love this little bugger! 
-Linds 

Friday, November 6, 2015

Steel Panther!

Fun fact about myself: I have only ever attended two concerts in my life time, one of which took place only two weeks ago.

That's right, about ten years ago the guy I was interested in at the time took me to I think it was GM Place (now Rogers Arena) to see....to be honest, I can't even remember the name of the band. I do remember however that we went to Olive Garden for dinner before hand, and he laughed at me for my outfit of jeans, t-shirt, and cardigan, meanwhile he was wearing skin tight leather pants. We had seats way high up and off to the side, could barely see anything, and I basically just stood there while he sung along to pretty much every single song. Needless to say, not the greatest concert going experience, but it also wasn't the worst either. I just knew nothing about the band, so it was kind of tough to get captivated.

Ever since then I've never been much inclined to go to other concerts. It's always seemed like a lot of money for a very loud, crowded, impersonal experience.

Two weeks ago though I had a much more pleasant concert-going experience. Mark's co-workers invited us to the Steel Panther concert at the Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam. Mark had seen them once previously when they were here in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics and of course loooooooves their music so at the very least I knew a bit about them as a band. To be honest, I was hesitant about going in the first place (I just wasn't sure it was going to be my thing), and it didn't help that Mark and I happened to get in a fight earlier that morning, but it ended up being a totally fun night!

If you don't know anything about Steel Panther, let me give you a brief rundown. They are a "glam-rock" band, that basically plays up the whole idea of the "rock n roll" lifestyle. Their lyrics are incredibly vulgar and yet incredible hilarious!

I loved that the venue was small (we were standing right on the main floor) because it seemed like a much more intimate/personal experience. And, as much as I hate to admit this, I knew lots of the lyrics to plenty of the songs (thanks to Mark for originally introducing me to them back in 2010) so I was able to sing along and even "bop along" with them and the crowd!

As vulgar and profane as the lyrics are, the band has full entertainment value, especially their lead guitarist, Satchel! They all play up their personas so much and totally feed into and off of the crowd! I would highly recommend going to see them, that is, if you're not easily offended by profane language and topics!

Here are a couple photos from the night (sorry for the poor quality):
(My outfit: Jean's,  grey t-shirt, leather jacket, and I paired it with black leather boots)
STEEL PANTHER
(Mark and I at the Hard Rock Casino watching Steel Panther)

As well as a couple short video clips:

Yes, you heard correctly: "show me your boobies", and "my cock is community property"!

Anyway, after seeing Steel Panther in a small, intimate venue, I am much more inclined to find other local concerts to attend!

What concerts have you seen?
-Linds

P.s.: I just remembered the name of the band I saw first: Velvet Revolver. I think they were popular at the time, I just knew nothing about them.