Category — Deals

So, unfortunately the ankle I twisted during Saturday’s trail race is still slightly swollen and may not be fit for running. I can walk on it, but I just feel that the right thing to do is to not run on it for the next week or so.

The only issue with this is that I go completely bananas if I can’t do any form of physical activity. I’m a much nicer person at work because I get the majority of my stress/frustration out during my workouts. So, in an effort to still keep active while the ankle completely heals I have bought a 10 class pack to Spynga. I’m hoping that their spinning classes will do the trick! My first class will be tonight.

As I haven’t been able to workout as much as I like I have had more time to look at one of my other loves – cookbooks! I recently picked up Donna Hays’ Off the Shelf and it really is one of the more practical cookbooks I have bought. all the recipes I have tried so far have been clean, simple and delicious. The other night I made up her country style shrimp dish and it was on the table within 20 minutes.

I chose to serve it with a baguette and green salad. The bread was perfect for dipping into the sauce!

Other things on my radar:

Susheela Willis Nutrition & Wellness

A good friend of mine recently graduated from the Institute of Holistic nutrition and has become a Certified Nutritional Practitioner. Congratulations Susheela! She’s offering a lot of great services – one on one nutritional consulting, grocery store tours, kitchen pantry makeovers and much more. Best part? She’s offering a discount on her services until the end of October. I not only want to hire her to makeover my eating habits but I also want to hire her to makeover my website – her site is beautiful!

Operation Beautiful

I started reading Caitlin’s Healthy Tipping Point blog earlier this year and found out about her Operation Beautiful mission. The idea behind this mission is to post anonymous notes in public places for other woman to find. The main objective of doing this is to remind us all that we are BEAUTIFUL just the way we are. The Operation Beautiful blog has been so successful that it has now been published as a book. I got my copy yesterday and so far am loving it. In fact, I’m loving it so much that I picked up another copy at my local bookstore and want to give this copy away to one of you.

All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment below explaining why you would love to have a copy of this book! I’ll pick someone via a random number generator and announce the winner on August 16!

So, as you all know I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with yoga. I’m still waiting to have that Jennifer Aniston moment of yogi bliss transformation. That said I do know that yoga is a sport I should learn to incorporate more into my life. Even though I do Pilates on a somewhat regular basis (three times a week or so) I don’t think it has the same stretching benefits that yoga has.

I need to get myself to a yoga class soon…

Only issue is that I have already spent my monthly “fitness allowance” already for June, so don’t really want to spend $20 or so on a drop-in yoga class. Thankfully King West Fitness is running an “All You Can Yoga” this weekend.

This weekend and a few other weekends this summer King West Fitness in Liberty Village is offering free yoga classes Saturday and Sunday (at 10, 11:15, 12:30, 1:45 and 3:00). All you need to do is drop by before one of the classes – no need to register. Take one class or take as many as you want.

I’ve never been to this gym before, but looking forward to checking it out & seeing what the yoga they have to offer. Curious to see if it will similar to taking a class at a yoga studio.

Before signing off today I thought I’d share a quote from something I read that really resonated with me.

“The best ideas come from imagining the possibilities otherwise you’ll just get more of the same.” ~ H. Ferrara

Always good to be reminded that your imagination is a good thing!

I used to work for an organization called TakingITGlobal and during my time there I developed a love of organizations and people who support youth in the work that they do. I recently came across an initiative – thanks to Core Studio – in Toronto called Now 4 Youth which I think is a pretty interesting combination of helping support youth development and encouraging youth to be active.

In a nutshell what they do is provide funds to at-risk Toronto and GTA youth so that they can advance their education in the wellness sector. Their 2010 programming will fully fund selected at-risk youth to become certified yoga or pilates instructors. At the end of the programs the youth will be provided with a variety of support mechanisms to help them continue their journey.

Definitely check out their website to find out more about this program and if you are interested in helping support this initiative they have just published a coffee table book called Adaptation. This photobook contains artisitic adaptations of yoga and pilates poses. Could make a wonderful holiday gift for the fitness crazed in your life I think?

I just came across this neat fitness challenge for anyone living in Toronto’s Bloor West Village. On Saturday, November 7th a group of health and fitness centres in the area will be offering free classes as a part of the 8-minute path to fitness challenge. Apparently all the participating studios are within an 8 minute walk of one another!

Here’s the deal:

Basically you will get to sample bite-sized (20 minute classes) versions of the fitness classes at any of the participating studios or facilities for free. It seems that all studios are running classes every half hour between 12:30 and 2:30.

Participating studios include:

• Breathe yoga studio
• Retrofit Pilates
• RPM studio
• Think fitness

Sounds kind of fun and loving the community spirit aspect of this fitness challenge! Kind of wishing I lived in Bloor West Village to take part in this!

Credit: Zazzle tshirt

This weekend one of Toronto’s biggest running events will take place – the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront. This marathon is marketed as “Canada’s #1 big city marathon”. I have no clue how many people in total will be running, but I know that it will be busy. I also know that it will be a great weekend for picking up all sorts of goodies.

Even if you aren’t a runner head down to the expo and stock up on all sorts of goodies. There are usually some great deals to be had on shoes and clothing! You will also be able to pick up some samples of products like Clif bars and all sorts of sports nutrition type thing!

There will also be some fun exhibitors there and you may be able to pick up some Christmas stocking stuffers! Never too early to start! Last year I picked up some pairs of Dirty Girl undies which have some great slogans on them and are super comfortable! Perfect gifts for any runner in your life!

PS: If you have some time come cheer some of us runners on! I’ll be running the half marathon!