October Foodie Penpal Reveal Day

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I have a special post for this special day. Today is my October Foodie Penpal Reveal!

But, before I get into the details of that... let's briefly talk Halloween.

We've lived in our home 3 years now, each year Hubby and I decorate the house and buy all the chocolate only to have 1-2 kids show up at the door. This has resulted in us eating enough candy to feed 100.... all in one sitting. I am very happy that this year we have decided not to hand out candies. Hurrah! Now, I don't have to deal with the waist-line after effects. :)

Today we are having a bake sale and costume contest at work. I've decided to make some healthy treats which I'll blog about later (Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirls, yum!). Having a bake sale gives me so much more control when it comes to eating sweets and I'm looking forward to it!

The most stressful part of office Halloween parties is finding a costume that is work appropriate. All lady costumes seem to have that sex-appeal? So, I've decided on this classic costume:

Like?

 

Rosie the Riveter is such a classic symbol.  I am proud to be donning her apparel today and representing women in the workforce.

Now let's talk about the Foodie Penpal program, the point of my post today! To sum it up; you are matched with two other foodies each month. You send a foodie package to one by the 15th of the month, and you receive a package from another person of the same value. It's that easy! This was my first month participating.

I had the pleasure of being paired up with Nicole at Live.Eat.Smile.Repeat. She has such a cute blog with so many inspiring recipes. I was drooling upon reading it! I sent her some local goodies from our local farmers market. Nicole, I hope you enjoyed them!

I received my package from another Canadian, Shanna. She is a blog reader with a love for all things local. She sent me this great package:

 

It included:

Package of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - Hubby and I ate these in one sitting at our kitchen table as we smiled like kiddies and tried to figure out what flavours they were.

Flax Seeds - I will totally put these to use in my cooking and smoothies. Full seeds such as these should be ground before consumption to get the full health benefits.

Nougat Bar - This was so good! It was the perfect snack after coming home from a busy day at the office.

Caramels - Delicious!

Honey Wafer- Hubby and I shared this after our Jelly Beans. We love sweets!

Mints - Which are now at my desk at work.

Maple Jelly - This is hands down my favourite item in the package. I served this on homemade whole wheat pancakes on the weekend. It has the texture of grape jelly, but the a light maple flavour without the sugar high. So yum!

Now, don’t you wanna join in the fun?! Here are the Foodie Penpals details:

• On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
• You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
• The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
• You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
• Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
• Foodie Penpals is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

Click the logo below for more information regarding signing up for this FUN program!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween today!

My First Marathon!

Well everyone, it's official. I can finally call myself a marathoner! After 18 weeks of training, some gruelling runs and battling some injury... I did it. Ahem, barely did it.

I now have a shiny new medal to add to my collection:

On Sunday, I ran the Niagara Falls International Marathon with a great group of friends. This marathon is unique in many ways, but the highlight is running from one country to another. Only 1,200 runners participated in the marathon, but over 6,000 runners ran that day in their various events.

Let me give you a recap of my weekend:

The festivities started on Friday at the expo where I picked up my race kit. As I mentioned above, the race runs from one country to another. So it was mandatory for each marathon runner to pick up their own bib and get their clearance through customs. The expo was quite small in comparison to other expos with about 40 vendors. It only took us 45 minutes to walk through the show, this included me getting a massage.

I had the pleasure to talk to John Stanton, the founder of the Running Room while I was there. He gave me numerous race tips and signed my first marathon bib. I was pretty emotional at this point as I remember the year prior having a similar conversation with John as I was about to embark on my first half marathon experience. At that time "The Marathon" seemed like a distant dream.

After the expo I went home to make my favourite WW pasta dish and unpack my race kit.

The pugs helped me sort through my goodies. :)

Included in the kit was:

• A long sleeve technical shirt with the NFIM logo on it. I will proudly wear this again.
• Gluten free penne pasta
• Bottle of Cold FX
• BIOs collapsible water bottle
• Werthers soft caramels (I ate this whole bag over the weekend.. so delicious)
• Blue diamond almond sample pack
• Protein bar
• Nestea sampler
• Bio-freeze sample
• Magazine, coupons etc.

On Saturday my plans were to relax and mentally prep myself for the event. While cooking breakfast I made a swift move to grab something upstairs and I noticed a pain shoot right down my shin that made me stop in my tracks. Oh crap, my injury hasn't recovered... and it was the day before the race. About ten days prior I was out for a run when this pain started and it never went away. I was hoping with the taper and having three running days off that I would recover. Boy, was I wrong.

I went into a panic state and texted almost all of my running friends. Joanna was quick to reply to my text with encouraging words. That's why its great to share this journey with someone who can understand what you are going through. I calmed down almost immediately as there was nothing I could do at this point other than run my race the next day.

Sunday I was up and at em' at 5:00 a.m. I had to meet my girls at the Running Room for 6:30 a.m. and I had a lot to prepare. After eating my breakfast of homemade cinnamon apple oatmeal, I gathered these essentials:

I had a package for myself and for my hubby since he would see me on route and after the race. When it comes to packing for anything I always have a strange feeling I'm forgetting something, thank goodness I didn't.
 

After meeting the girls at 6:30 a.m. we drove to Niagara Falls and quickly found parking. The school buses transporting us across the border to the start line were leaving between 7:00-7:45 a.m. We hopped on the second bus and were on our way! It was about a 45 minutes drive and we were stopped at the border for yet another customs check.

 

The bus took us to the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. Here were were able to stay in the warm museum and relax before our big race.

Before we knew it, it was 9:30 a.m. and we had to load our baggage onto the baggage bus and start to line up. I think I peed three times during this time period as I got so nervous about the race. 10 a.m. came even faster and we were off and running our first marathon!

The first six kilometres we were running through the streets of Buffalo. We ran past some nice old houses and some motivating spectators. I don't travel to the states that often, so I was distracted by what the cops wore for uniforms and what their street lights look like (I don't get out that often, lol).

Running across the border was the highlight of this race. At kilometer seven I saw customs approaching and we ran through it like it was no ones business. There were loads of motorists stopped as some lanes were closed for us marathoners, it was bittersweet seeing their angry faces as we ran right passed them.

The winds started to pick up the moment we stepped onto the Peace Bridge and crossed into Canada. From there we did a three kilometer loop before we started on the Parkway. The Niagara Falls Parkway is a 53 kilometre stretch of road which travels from Fort Erie to Niagara on the Lake. The rest of the race continued on this stretch. While on the parkway we battled 20-30 km headwinds the rest of the race.

At this point the rest of the race seems like a blur.

Things started to take a turn for the worse around kilometer thirteen. When I saw my husband I told him I was struggling. I knew something was wrong but didn't want to admit it to myself during the race. My injured leg was feeling fine up to this point but it seemed every other muscle in my legs were coming fatigued. Shortly after seeing my husband my quads seized up. I have never experienced pain like that before in my life. To describe the pain I would say it was like a charlie horse and it stopped me in my tracks. This pain continued throughout my race and only got worse. I could only run about five minutes before I would stop, cry, stretch and try to run again.

 I was very fortunate to have friends and family cheer me on along the race route. It was nice to see their happy faces and hilarious signs throughout the course. I believe it was them that kept me going. One sign my friend Dawn had for me was "Pain is Temporary, Pride lasts Forever". That became my mantra for the rest of the run. I didn't want them to see me fail on my first marathon attempt, so I just kept truckin' along. Dawn also got me back for the "Don't Poop Your Pants" sign I made for her at her last race.

Crossing that finish line was such a feat. I was overcome by emotion and pride. I knew I could do it if I put my mind to it. Regardless of how hard the run was I would not take back that experience.

 

 

I don't have an answer as to why my legs seized. I'm guessing low electrolytes or dehydration leading into the race. Either way, I'm hoping to never experience that pain again and will do whatever I can to avoid it in the future.

To celebrate, our group went to Boston Pizza and enjoyed some well deserved carbs. This was after my husband made me walk up a steep hill to get to my car. Note hill in photo below:

 

 I am so thankful for the support I received from my husband, friends, family and running instructor Bob during this journey. Without them I don't think I ever would have gotten to the finish line. Now, I can't wait to book my next race and work towards having a happy healthy experience! I guess it can't get any worse right?

 

 

Photo's courtesy of: Dan, Dawn & Jaime :)

What I Ate Wednesday Edition #3

I'm excited to be posting another edition of WIAW!

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of my daily eating habits. Hopefully it will inspire you and your daily meal plans. I was inspired by many other WIAW writers, and it helped me bust out of many daily eating ruts and encouraged me to focus on healthy eating.

 

I'm sure many of you can relate; some days life is busy from the moment you wake up. That was my day yesterday!

I had a meal plan and tried to stick to it as best as possible. I failed in the sense that I got so busy I didn't eat as much food as I wanted to. I skipped my afternoon snack since I was busy in meetings, but paid for it in the evening when I was starving at 5:30 pm. When it came to dinner, I was so hungry but could only eat half of my meal. This was not intentional, I think it was due to the combination of eating so late and skipping my afternoon snack.

Every meal and snack is important to keep up your metabolism during the day. That's why I "try" to stay consistent with my meal times and I "try" to fall into these good snacking habits.

Here were my eats for the day:

 

Breakfast (8:30 am):

• 1 1/2 cups of pure orange juice with pulp
• Homemade yogurt blueberry bran muffin

Snack (10:00 am):

• Healthy homemade granola bar
• Green tea, black

Lunch (12:30 pm):

• Salad from a local salad bar with caesar dressing
• Kaiser bun... carb load!

Pre-Workout Fuel (5:30 pm):

• Banana and 2 tbsp's crunchy peanut butter
• Oiko's Greek yogurt, key lime

Dinner (8:30 pm):

• 1 homemade chicken enchilada

Snack (10:00 pm):

• Handful of dried cranberries

These are my nutritional details for the day:

Calories: 2,029

Fat:  81.9 grams
Sodium:  1780 grams
Carbs: 270.7 grams
Fibre:  28.1 grams
Sugars:  127.4 grams
Protein: 69 grams

Core Nutrient Breakdown:

Fat: 35.1% of calories
Carbs: 51.7% of calories
Protein: 13.2% of calories

Calories burnt during run: 785. This was my last run before my marathon!

Do you fall into any good habits during the autumn months?

Tapering for the Marathon

Well, its finally here... the last week of tapering before my first marathon. This week is crucial to my success and cannot be taken lightly. There are so many things to focus on: de-stressing, getting adequate sleep, eating a carb enriched diet and most importantly cutting back on mileage.

Saturday was the last official run of notable distance, 16 km. My schedule for the rest of the week looks like this:

Yesterday:  6 km

Monday:  off

Tuesday:  6 km

Wednesday:  10 km

Thursday:  off

Friday:  off

Saturday:  3 km (optional)

Sunday:  42.2 km

It's hard to believe that cutting your mileage down that much during the last week can be beneficial but there are many reasons to it:
 

• Minimize fatigue

• Repair muscles

• Replenish hormones, glycogen, enzymes and antioxidants

I missed one of our last 32 km runs a couple of weeks ago due to a migraine, so I pretty much started my taper early. I can tell you that I have felt my strength rebuild so far and I'm starting to feel back to normal. I'm curious to see what one more week will do!

In addition to this physical preparation, I've been mentally preparing too. I'm full of quotes and positive imagery which I know will help me cross that finish line with a smile.

 

This past Sunday I only ran 6 km. This was a nice change from the usual 2-3 hours of running, followed by a long shower, followed by a 1-2 hour nap. I didn't know what to do with all of this free time, so I decided to spend it in the kitchen.

Throughout the day I made:

 

Healthy Homemade Granola Bars

Yogurt Blueberry Bran Muffins

Tandoori Salmon and Zucchini Boats

Fresh Tex Mex Salad with Southwest Beans on Toast

and finally.... Full Fat Apple Crisp!

 

Are you exhausted yet? I was. That's what I would call a busy day in the kitchen!

 

Let me share one of my favourite recipes from the day.

 

Healthy Homemade Granola Bars

 

Dry ingredients:

3 cups whole oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped cashews
1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp chia seeds
4 tbsp sunflower seeds
4 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
1 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup light olive oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp natural peanut butter
1 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

 

Preheat oven to 350 f. Line a 13 x 9 inches baking pan with parchment paper.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan, heat oil and add the other wet ingredients. Stir until smooth and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well.

Spread the mixture into the baking pan, and press to form an even layer. Bake for 25 minutes, and allow to cool completely before cutting into bars. Keep refrigerated. Makes approx. 15 bars.

This recipe was adapted from alive.com

 

Nutritional Facts:

 

Calories 253

Fat 14.1 g

Sodium 19.5 mg

Potassium 127 mg

Carb 29 g

Fibre 3 g

Protein 4 g



This granola bar was a nice change from the store bought bars. Higher in calories than the popular 90 calorie bars, but this is filled with many good items and is very filling. I think it will be a regular in our household as it required minimal effort and not a lot of time. A win-win in my books.

I hope to post some of the other recipes I made yesterday in the upcoming week.

I'm off to get my read on and catch some much needed Zzzzz's. I hope you all had a glorious Monday and a great start to your week.

 

A Healthy Thanksgiving for Two

Hello readers, I hope you all had a great long weekend!

Mine was filled with many enjoyable fall activities. As mentioned in my last post, we went on a "haunted" hayride, enjoyed a nice scenic fall walk with the pugs and made a nice healthy dinner for two on the Thanksgiving Monday.

The pugs had fun on their walk and even posed for couple of photos:

The view was just breathtaking where we were. It made me remember why I love fall so much and why I must stop to enjoy the scenery a little more often.

After our walk, I went right back into my kitchen to make us this delightful meal:

 

Slow Roasted Crock pot Chicken

Garlic Ginger Butternut Squash

Raspberry and Goat Cheese Spinach Salad

Steamed Broccoli

Looks amazing doesn't it? It was such an easy meal to make too, and one that made the hubby go back for seconds. That's a home run in my opinion. I impressed myself as it was the first time in awhile I didn't work off of a recipe. Sometimes its fun to wing it!

Slow Roasted Crock pot Chicken

 

This chicken was tender, juicy and fall off the bone. Very simple to prepare too.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
2 small onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp Italian spices
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp kosher salt

Cut up onions and garlic roughly and place in bottom of crock pot. Rub down chicken with the spice mixture and place in the crock pot on top of the onions and garlic. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until the internal temperature is at 85 degrees.

Optional: Transfer contents of slow cooker into a roasting pan and broil in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp the skin.

Seriously, best.. chicken.. ever!

Garlic Ginger Butternut Squash

 

I think this is going to be a holiday staple in our home. It had a nice blend of sweet & sour and was a nice substitute for the normal potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash - peeled and cubed
4 cloves diced garlic
2 tbsp margarine
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup of raisins
1 cups of water
1 tsp all-spice
1 tbsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease large kitchenware dish with margarine. Have a pug watch you place all ingredients in dish. Place in oven and cook for 1 hour. Finish off with 2 minutes on broil to crisp up squash.

Lastly, the salad was a quick mixture of these items:

Spinach
Chopped strawberries
Dried cranberries
Sliced red onion
Crumbled goat cheese
Almond pieces
Raspberry dressing

It was a nice compliment to the meal, and is one salad my husband just loves.

Since it was a holiday we paired the meal with one fabulous wine; Flat Rock 2009 Unplugged Chardonnay. It was a crisp, dry chard that really paired well with the spice of the chicken.

  

I hope these recipes inspire you to try something new for your next holiday or big Sunday meal. They were simple and only required a few ingredients. Most importantly they were big on taste and low in calories compared to your typical holiday meal. 

This weekend I hope to get some baking done. Daniel has been wanting some bran muffins, so I want to come up with a low calorie hearty muffin for him. This week I continue with my marathon taper and will be doing an easy 16 km run on Saturday.

Have a great day!

I am Thankful for....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your time with loved ones and thinking about what you are truly thankful for.

Yesterday marked my last "longer run" of marathon training. The past 16 weeks have been tough; I've been through many ups and downs and faced many challenges. With the past 3 weeks being the most challenging yet, I was anticipating this run to be a battle.

A few weeks ago I reached that point in my training where my body just didn't want to partake in any more running activities. I had a couple of horrible runs that left me in tears mid-way through. Thankfully I am surrounded by plenty of positive and encouraging running friends. When out for a long run with Joanna, she encouraged me the whole way telling me I wasn't a failure and that I was a good runner. I didn't believe her at the time, but I really channelled her and her positivity yesterday.

Since it was a few weeks since I had a good run, I was nervous going into it. It was my last chance before the marathon to prove to myself that I could do it. To prove that I am a long distance runner. Running a marathon is 90% mental attitude and that has been the hardest thing yet. I beat myself up mentally and it drains you. I knew that if I didn't have a good last long run that going into the marathon I wouldn't have confidence in myself to run the whole 42.2 km's.

I had 23 km on the agenda and set off around noon for my run. I was pumping myself up by listening to some upbeat music while getting ready. I pulled out my favourite running gear that included my pink CEP compression socks and then I laced up my Mizuno's. Feeling spiffy, I had to take some self portraits before the run. I then went to the Running Room to start my run from there and had a very inspiring chat with the Assistant Manager Jenn before heading out.

The first 5 km breezed by; it was a beautiful day (8 degrees and sunny) and it was my first time wearing a long sleeve shirt since starting training. I was so comfortable and cool the whole way through. Around 10 km in I really started to think about what I was thankful for. I determined that was my goal throughout the run, to be able to dig deep and really think about it.

14 km - I was smiling and realized I was so thankful for a healthy body that was allowing me to run that day. I almost teared up at this point.

17 km - I am so friggin' thankful marathon training is almost done. Only 13 more days to go. Wow.. I am really going to do this.

20 km - I am so thankful for my husband. He has always been so supportive, especially with my running journey. Last week he even offered to roller blade 32 km alongside me because he knew I'd been having a real hard time with my runs. THAT is love.

21 km - I'm thankful for taking all of the adversities that have been present during my life and learning from them. I wouldn't be whom I am today if I didn't go through everything that I have.

Before I knew it my run was done. I gave Jenn a big thumbs up when I got back to the store and she gave it right back to me as well. I was speechless. At that point I realized that I am ready for my marathon. I can do this. When times get rough you really need to think about what you are truly thankful for. It's what kept me going.

After my run I had to quickly get home and get ready for Thanksgiving with my family. At that point I was thankful I burned off 2000 calories earlier in the day and I got to enjoy my dinner guilt free. This dinner also marked the first time my immediate family had shared Thanksgiving together in over 10 years. I honestly could not remember the last time. I was so thankful for spending that quality time with them.

I don't think I have ever been so thankful for so many things in one day. I can tell you it is good for the soul.

I now need to get some housework done, and make my Thanksgiving dinner for two. I might even get out for a nice hike with the pugs and hubby to enjoy the colors of the season.

I hope you all enjoy your last day of the long weekend. What are you thankful for?

What I Ate Wednesday Edition #2

Welcome to my second instalment of:
 
Fortunately, my run club finished early Tuesday night, so I had time to prep and plan my meals for the day. Eating clean is always easier for me when I have the time to plan in advance. I was able to log all of my food, and make adjustments where necessary. i.e. add more protein, reduce sodium.

Here were my eats:

Breakfast (7:30 am):

• Whole wheat English muffin with no-salt margarine
• 1 fried egg
• 2 slices of turkey bacon; a great lean way to get protein in the morning
• Green tea, plain
• Vitamins
• Oil of oregano. I've been on the verge of a cold for the past couple of days, so I've been doing my best to take the oil 3 X daily
• Pumpkin spice tea with a splash of milk to go

Snack (10:00 am):

• Banana
• Oikos greek yogurt

Lunch (12:00 pm):

• Spicy hummus roti wrap with pea shoots
• Big salad; mixed greens, pea shoots, mushrooms, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, light feta cheese with Kraft classic herb dressing
• Oil of oregano

Snack (4:00 pm):

• Mixed berry nutri-grain bar
• Snap peas and strawberries

Pre-Workout Fuel (5:30 pm):

• 5 prunes

Dinner (8:30 pm):

• Open faced sandwich of pesto, brie & veggies on sourdough bread. I just have to say this was one of the YUMMIEST things I have eaten in a long time.

Ingredients:

Four slices of eggplant
1/2 red pepper
2 slices of red onion
1 tsp olive oil
40 grams of brie cheese
1 tsp pesto
2 slices of sour dough bread

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a pan heated at medium heat, saute the veggies with the olive oil for about 10 minutes. On a separate pan, spread margarine on the bottom side of the bread and spread pesto on the top. Layer veggies on top of pesto bread and then top with cheese. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Yum. Yum. Yum.


Snack (10:00 pm):

• Grapes
• More brie cheese... I cannot control myself when this stuff is in the house!

These are my nutritional details for the day:

Calories: 1918

Fat:  74.2 grams
Sodium:  2718 grams
Carbs: 405 grams
Fibre:  26.2 grams
Sugars:  91.1 grams
Protein: 77 grams

Core Nutrient Breakdown:

Fat: 25.7% of calories
Carbs: 62.4% of calories
Protein: 11.9% of calories

Calories burnt during run: 736

According to Anytime Health:

Below are some guidelines on how much of each nutrient you should be consuming each day.

Total Fat: Keep fat intake between 20% and 35% of total calories.
Saturated Fat: Consume less than 10% of calories as saturated.
Cholesterol: Consume less than 300 mgs / day.
Sodium: Consume less than 2,300 mgs / day.
Total Carbohydrate: Keep intake between 45% and 65% of total calories.
Total Protein: Keep intake between 10% and 35% of total calories.
Fiber: At least 25 g for women and 38 g for men daily.

My sodium was on the high end of the spectrum. This was due to the extra indulgence of cheese. I'm not that upset about it. :)

I need to get ready for work now. So, I hope you all have a wonderful, healthy Thanksgiving weekend!

Healthy Eating During the Holidays

As Thanksgiving looms upon us, I find I need to pump myself up for it and be ready for some major food temptation.

I've always had a problem with overeating and going beyond that point of fullness. Holidays would always stress me out as I know I would put on 5 pounds just from looking sideways at the pumpkin pie.

Here are some tips I've learned over the past year to deal with the holiday temptations:

• Avoid the bread basket, you will be full enough after eating your meal. You don't need the excess carbs.
• Eat the white meat of the turkey and peel off the skin. White meat has less fat and fewer calories.
• When self serving, portion your plate like this; half of your plate should be vegetables, and the remaining 2 quarters should be for the grains/carbs and protein.
• Bring the dessert! There are plenty of low fat dessert options that you can bring (or make) for any holiday. If you provide the delicious dessert you will know in advance the calories you will be consuming and this can make your portion controlling easier.
• Be careful with your drinks as they are loaded with empty calories. Treat yourself to a glass of wine, but share the rest of the bottle with friends and family.
• Lastly take the focus off of food. Thanksgiving is supposed to be about spending time with loved ones, and this doesn't mean surrounding yourselves around the appetizer table. Pull out the boardgames for some old fashioned fun. Time will fly and you'll hardly realize you're not munching.

This weekend I'll be attending one dinner with family and then making dinner for just hubby and I the following day. I will post details on my "Thanksgiving Dinner for Two" next week. We are going to kick off our long weekend with a old fashioned hayride in a haunted forest, can't wait!

What tips do you have for keeping slim over the holidays?