Farmer's Market, Picnic + My Workouts of the Week

The last 7 days have been good to me, I have to say. I've been keeping busy but also managing to take plenty of advantage of the gorgeous sunshine that we had all week long (aside from the last couple of days, which turned grey again). The gym is still very much a part of my routine, as you've seen, but I don't feel bad taking a day off from the gym and just taking a long walk out in the sun instead.  Here's what's been going on this week, in a nutshell:

Sunday: Walked to the Kitsilano Farmer's Market on 10th and Larch, where I bought some local kale, blueberries, and dark chocolate truffles.

Monday: Went to the gym and relaxed on the beach after work, followed by a walk downtown before dinner.

Tuesday: Walked to Second Beach in Stanley Park for their Fresh Air Cinema series. Each Tuesday of the summer, they set up a big outdoor movie screen on the lawn, and you can come and picnic and watch the movie...

... I put together a picnic dinner for us that included baby carrots, sandwiches, watermelon, chips, caprese skewers, and chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies. The picnic was delightful, and it was a warm and sunny evening. Unfortunately, the sunshine was such that the movie wouldn't be able to start till 9:40pm, which was really too late for us, so we packed up and headed home around 8pm.

Wednesday: Gym and beach after work.

Thursday: I headed down to Robson St. with David so he could pick up a few goodies for his nieces and nephews. While we were down there, I popped into The Body Shop (for the first time) and picked up a new body butter and a hand creme. After that, we got Red Robin for dinner and finished our downtown trip with a stop into Chapters to find a good animal book to accompany the other gifts Dave was bringing to his nieces/nephews.

Friday: In the early morning hours (around 4am), I brought David to the Vancouver airport for his 6:00am flight to Massachusetts. He'll be there for the next week visiting with his family. Friday night after work I went to the gym, picked up a quinoa salad for dinner, and finally rented Frozen from Redbox. I was crying like a baby by the 11-minute mark, and cried several more times throughout the 90-minute movie. Don't judge me. I also managed to eat an entire bag of Jiffy Pop by myself. So.

Saturday: After a completely leisurely morning at home, I walked down to Robson St for what was marketed as "the Robson Street Summer Fest." Once there, I was confused and disappointed to realize that I didn't really see anything resembling a "summer fest" going on. Some of the shops had balloons out in front on their sidewalks, but that's about it. Nonetheless, I managed to spend money in both Lush and Forever21 while I was down there.

Yesterday evening I spent some time going through my makeup collection to try to weed out some of the more useless space-taker-uppers. I was definitely able to get rid of some products, but not as many as I would have really liked. Anyone else have trouble throwing away makeup products?

My night ended last night with a satisfying trip to Scoop for some raspberry frozen yogurt and a million chocolaty sweet toppings. Mmm. Which brings me to this important question:  How are there people in the world who don't like sweets?? What in god's name is going on inside your brain and mouth that you don't LIKE sweets? TELL ME.

Anyway, speaking of being on a path towards Type 2 Diabetes, here's what I did at the gym this week to try to counteract the effects of eating too much sugar:

7/13 (lower body)

5 mins biking

3x:  12 sumo squats, holding 20 lbs

3x:  40 alternating forward lunges

3x:  40 calf raises, 20 lbs each hand

3x:  40 bridges

7/14 (core)

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

40 leg raises + reverse crunch

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

40 Brazilian crunches

40 crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

40 cobras

40 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 8 lbs

40 side-to-side oblique crunch

7/16 (upper body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 13 deltoid flys, 8 lbs each hand

   - 8 overhead press, 12.5 lbs each hand

   - 8 deltoid raises, 8 lbs each hand

   - 13 bent over rows each arm, with 20 lbs

3x: 20 alternating chest flys, 8 lbs each hand

3x: 13 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x: 10 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 8 lbs each hand

7/18 (lower body)

5 mins biking

3x:

   13 sumo squats, holding 30 lbs

   60 alternating forward lunges

   60 calf raises, 20 lbs each hand

   60 bridges

This afternoon I'm going out to do something rather fancy and fun - an afternoon tea service at The Urban Tea Merchant in downtown Vancouver. A fellow Vancouver blogging buddy, Whitney, posted a recap of a recent afternoon she spent at the UTM and it sounded so delightful that I rounded up a group of ladies to go there to try it out ourselves. Whitney is even coming, too! I can't wait. 

I hope you guys are all having a great weekend!

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A Day in the Vancouver Sun: Farmers Market & Beach!

Yesterday was insanely gorgeous here in Vancouver. Sunshine, ever so slight breeze, warmth, people out and enjoying the weather - it felt like summer! And I definitely made the most of it!

As luck would have it, the Kitsilano Farmers Market kicked off yesterday. On such a gorgeous day, I had no excuse not to go for a walk to check it out. First I went back to Viva Fine Foods & Bakery for a breakfast sandwich (that place is becoming my new favorite spot for breakfast pastries!), which I took down to Kits Beach to eat beside the water.

After nomming at the beach, I took a gorgeous stroll through Kitsilano on Larch St., which is an area that I've not walked in before. The neighborhoods, trees and gardens in this part of town were so freaking charming. It was probably the slowest walk of all time because I was in constant awe of the flowers and branches around me, and I even stopped in my tracks a few times to stare up at the sky or snap a random photo...

Eventually I did make it to the farmers market, which is located at Larch & 10th in Vancouver. What a bumpin' market! There were vendors for everything from produce to plants to breads to pastries to seafood.

Before long, I'd accumulated a few things from a couple local vendors - a small honey votive and jar of blueberry honey from Jane's Honey Bees, and a homemade Peppermint Spearmint soap from The Other Eden. Both of these ladies (and many other vendors at the Kitsilano Farmers Market) accept major cards right at their booths - super helpful for the not-prone-to-carrying-cash amongst us (such as myself).

Later in the afternoon, the sunshine was still not quitting, so I continued to take complete advantage of it. Armed with a blanket, a good book, a cold water bottle and a banana, I headed down to Kitsilano Beach where I spread out on the lush green lawn.

My book of choice this past week has been It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness by Sylvia Boorstein. It's my favorite book, and one that is perfect for re-reading from time to time. I recommend that you read it because it's a quick read full of valuable Buddhist-inspired lessons, taught in a way that the layman can really understand.

After about 2 hours out on the Kits Beach lawn, I finally came back inside for some dinner. And obviously... I went back out again after dinner to get some gelato from my favorite Vietnamese sub shop - Paradiso Italian Gelato.

The evening wasn't complete till I watched Justin Timberlake's Master Class special on Oprah's OWN channel last night. In case you were wondering, I specifically changed around my cable package this weekend in order to include the OWN channel. (The JTim Force is strong with this one.)

Was the weather nice for you yesterday?
Have the farmers markets launched in your town yet?
Did you catch the Justin Timberlake special? I assume you did.

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