Last weekend, I decided to try my hand at making a cheese cake for the first time.
It was Matt’s birthday recently and his mother always makes a cheese cake for special occasions; especially birthdays. But because we’re in Newfoundland and Labrador and his parents are in Ontario, it’s unlikely a cheese cake would have made it in once piece by Canada Post. I emailed my mom-in-law and told her about my plan: I wanted to make Matt a cherry cheese cake and needed her recipe.
Sarah Slean singing The Right Words
Dear friends,
You may have seen links I’ve posted about Feb-U-Hairy on Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t, the month of February has been renamed as part of a project to help raise awareness about the importance of Pap Tests. Two medical students from Memorial University are encouraging women (and men) to not shave their legs for the entire month and collect donations for the local Pap clinic at Planned Parenthood here in St. John’s.
And gentlemen, fear not – you haven’t been left out as we’ve even had some guys shave their legs so that they too can join in the fun! I’m asking you for your support in my efforts to raise funds and awareness.
Can I be your hairy valentine?!?!
“But Virginia, what the deal with this image?” you ask?! Well it was an ad I found in Toronto Metro, a commuter magazine back when I was at Centennial College in Toronto in 2005. It seems fitting since Valentine’s Day now happens during a rather hairy month.
Please don’t delay – pledge me today! http://bit.ly/hairyVM2011 Every dollar counts!
Thanks for your support,
Virginia
It’s been a few weeks since my last update. My only excuse is that life got in the way and I found myself too busy to blog; my bad. I even have a few posts in draft mode and a few more jotted down in my little black Moleskine… they’ll become a virtual reality eventually. ;)
At first, this update was going to start with details on the many things that have been happening over the past few weeks. Soon enough I realized that there was plenty of details to make it a separate blog update. I’ve since created another draft and will post again later this week.
The main purpose of today’s update is that I missed noting an important anniversary. On October 20th, I celebrated my one year anniversary of being a Weight Watchers Lifetime Member! It was back on April 21st, 2009 that I attended my first Weight Watchers meeting in Toronto. The meeting Leader, Lindsay, was a perfect leader for me – she was positive, full of energy, and wanted everyone at the meeting to feel good about themselves. One of her main focuses each weeks ensuring we knew it was important to her that we all reach our personal goals (no matter how big or small they were). If that meant talking about breakfast alternatives, or discussing what alcoholic drinks to avoid (not stop drinking all together, but helping us avoid the high calorie stuff). She struggled for a number of years with weight loss and was so happy being at goal and living a healthier life.
It wasn’t easy, but by tracking what I was eating (and staying on top of my points count), becoming more active (and discovering I love to run), and attending the meetings are the main reasons I was able to reach my goal. Of course having a supportive husband was also handy since it meant we had to change a lot of our eating habits, but it was a win-win for us both in the end. Weight Watchers also help me to understand my body’s food preferences. It also allowed me realize that some foods are just going to “stick” with me longer than others, so it’s better to make a healthy choice and not feel like I’m starving later than to always go for the greasy short-term food. I’ve also discovered that there are so many great recipes out there that are pretty healthy, but you’d never know it by how tasty the end result is on your plate (and in your stomach).
Over the past year, I’ve remained at goal and only have a few extra pounds creep up when I wasn’t paying attention. There were some stressful months this past spring, but as my weight went up a little, it was an internal alarm bell that I wasn’t properly taking care of myself. I had to refocus my priorities and start putting myself first (because if you don’t do that for yourself, who will?)
The holidays aren’t an easy time of year and I’m preparing for that now. Matt and I start beginner yoga classes on Saturday and I’m hoping to join a 5k clinic at the Running Room soon. I’ve dusted off our Wii Fit and will be using it more regularly as it’s an easy way to get some exercise in without having to go far (literally walking across the upstairs hall). And it’s about time I cleared some space around the treadmill so that it gets some love as well…
So before the New Year is upon us, is there anything you’re doing to feel healthier? Have you taken up a new exercise program? Even simple things like walking more or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can make such a difference. And don’t tell yourself that you have to suffer and can’t eat your special treats ever again. You can still have that KitKat or your medium fries… just don’t have them everyday. ;)
So tell me – do you live in the big city?
And where exactly is this city of big stature?
Who decides the criteria for a big city vs. a small town?
As someone who is not native to my current big city, I find many people classify my birth place a small town.
Defining a “City”
According to Wikipedia a city is considered: “A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there are no agreed on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a town meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law…”.
Side Story – Mount Pearl the “City”
This next part will be lost on most of you, but the community next to St. John’s, NL known as Mount Pearl was officially recognized by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador as a “city” many years ago. If you look at the geography of Mount Pearl, it’s somewhat like Japan only instead of being surrounded by water, it’s surrounded by the City of St. John’s and the town of Paradise. A lot of people in St. John’s turn their nose up at Mount Pearl’s city status. In my own family it’s even been joked, “to be a city you need to have a clearly defined downtown area and at least ONE elevator!” So even in our small towns we’re arguing over who’s really a city and who’s just trying too hard.
It’s all relative really when you think of “going to the city” or “getting out of this small place and moving on up to a bigger place!”
Experience Can Influence Perspective
I attended Occupational Health and Safety training in July and our instructor (who was very entertaining and managed to make a rather technical topic fun) joked that what we consider traffic and rush hour in Toronto and the surrounding areas is nothing to stress about. Now while he currently lives in the Brampton area (and has no intention of moving closer to Toronto), but as he put it, as already “done his time” in the big city by living in New York for several years. At one point he worked in the heart of the city near the Empire State Building. It was normally for him to stand on a sidewalk and watch hundreds (thousand probably?) of people move in waves, shoulder-to-shoulder. No, he doesn’t worry about traffice in Toronto. Instead of suffering three hours in bumper to bumper gridlock, he’ll invite a friend out for dinner or a drink and wait until 6:30 p.m. or so and drive home without any problems.
His take on the whole big city perspective left me thinking. If you ask any of my friends from back home (Newfoundland & Labrador), they would say I live in a big city. But I also have friends who are from small outport communities in my home province and they would consider moving to St. John’s as a move to “the big city”.
Heck, I remember visiting my in-laws , who live about an hour outside of Tononto and while waiting for a Greyhound at the “lovely” bus terminal, I approached a local teen and had the following discussion:
Me: Hi. Do you know if the next bus going to Toronto is already here?
Teen: No it’s not here yet, but it’ll be pulling in over there. *points over to the #5 spot*
Me: Oh ok. Thanks!
Teen: *sulks a little* You’re luckly you’re going to Toronto.
Me: *currently homesick for Newfoundland* Thanks, but I don’t feel overly luckly.
Teen: Yeah, well it’s better than being stuck HERE!
It didn’t take a rocket surgeon to tell she wasn’t overly proud or loving her current community. And she’s probably just a normal teen who can’t wait to get out and move into the big city.
Toronto the Big City
Some of my friends who aren’t in Toronto find it amazing that I don’t mind living here and that I don’t find it overwhelming. I think their amazement is more a transference on how they wouldn’t want to be in my shoes. And I’ll be honest – I know a lot of people who would do very well in a larger population, but there are a lot who would go insane and be lost to all of society.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but not everyone is cut out for certain conditions. Example: riding the subway in rush hour. Besides the clastriphobic tendencies a lot of us get when gammed into a tin can subway car like a sardine, you suddenly become up close and personal with dozens of people. I’ll admit, I suppress a lot of rage sometimes when riding public transit.
Compare that to an average day in St. John’s where I’d likely commute in my own car (possibly alone), and I’d really only experience the closest thing to population overcrowding by going into a supermarket on a Government cheque day or the liquor store the day before a civic holiday.
But is somewhere like Toronto really all that big city?
According to Worldatlas.com’s city population lists, Toronto isnt the first city on the list… in fact we don’t even make the top 10.
Toronto is actually number 50 on the list!!
There are more people accounted for in Tokyo than all of Canada.
So I ask again – do YOU live in a big city?
