I attempted to post yesterday, but my hubby insisted on watching a "The Skin I live In" on Netflix, so here's my very picture heavy post about what I did over the Canada Day long weekend. First off we had a family gathering with my in-laws. My big Italian family. I always do well at family celebrations because there is always chicken and salad at every family function we go to. This gathering did not disappoint because not only was there three kinds of roasted chicken, but also tossed salad, green bean salad, cucumber salad, and roasted veggies. There was also Paella, sausages, the requisite dinner rolls and ice cream birthday cake, the only things I did not eat. I did eat a few of the shrimps off the top of the Paella though. Aunt Nancy rocks! She inadvertently planned a menu I could totally eat.
On the left, we have tossed salad, three kinds of roasted chicken, and the sausages. On the right we have the Paella, roasted veggies and green bean salad. The shrimps on the Paella were very, very yummy!
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This was my plate. Chicken, shrimp, salad and
roasted veggies with green bean salad.
I'm not gonna lie, I had seconds! |
We had family visiting from Sicily and it was really nice to see everyone again. Many of these relatives haven't seen me since the winter. That was 60+ pounds ago. Some said they barely recognized me. It was strange to feel like the centre of attention at first, but it died down pretty quickly and everyone returned to normal. I always feel a moment of panic when people make a big deal over my weight-loss. I'm getting better at just being gracious, thanking them for their compliment and moving on. It's strange that I feel more self-conscious now when people comment about my weight-loss versus when I was 90+ pounds heavier and I walked around every day morbidly obese. Go figure!
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La famiglia. Only half...the other half were inside watching
Italy lose to Spain in the Euro Cup.
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I love this photo. This is Jules and his little cousin.
He loves babies! |
So after we left the family luncheon, we headed back home to feed the boy, let out the dog and then headed to Lynden Park for the annual Canada Day fireworks extravaganza. I actually don't know if they call it that, but I have aptly named it that because it was a great show. We met my gal Beverly there with her family and Jules had a blast playing with her boys. It was a lot of fun and I was a bit nervous because Julien has never seen fireworks before. I didn't know if he would be scared or not. He was a trooper. He ended up having a great time.
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| Jules with his sword and shield. |
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Bev and I waiting for the fireworks to begin.
Is it me or is my head too large? |
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| Happy birthday Canada! |
Canada day was on Sunday, but Monday was the statutory holiday and everything was closed. Julien's day camp program began though which gave the hubby and I time to go out for a run right after we dropped him off. We ran 3k with an average pace of 7:41 per kilometre. That's fast for my hubby, and he said he should run with me more often because when he runs by himself, he runs much slower. Unfortunately, we rarely get to run together because someone needs to watch the boy!
My hubby has the running bug now. We're even discussing future family trips around marathons and/or beautiful places we could run. I want to do the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2014. I think it will be a great family trip and Bev, Greg and their boys are gonna come with us. Hubby's freaked out about the distance (42.2K), but I think with the proper training, we'll do fine. He's only 3 months behind me in running experience. If all else fails, we can always do the 1/2 marathon.
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| Hubby and I after the run! |
In the evening, even though the Running Room was closed, my 5k clinic decided to meet in Bayfront Park to do a talk about hills, a run and then do some hill repeats. Hill repeats are basically running up a hill as fast as you can, running down leisurely to recover, then repeating. We were supposed to do three repeats, but due to the heat and humidity, we only did two. Even with the weather conditions, we managed to clock 4k which brought my total mileage yesterday to 7k. The most I've ever run in one day.
Yesterday was one of those bad run days for me. Maybe it was because I ran in the morning, or the beef taco salad I ate the hour before, but I really felt sluggish and had cramps the whole time. One of those few times where I did not feel like a million bucks when I ran. It happens, but no matter, I still love to run! I am not a good summer runner. Give me the cold over the heat to run in any time. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's run. It's supposed to be another scorcher!
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Bev, me and Tanya in front.
Our fearless leader Eric in back.
This is after our second hill repeat. |
