Chanti

I did hatha yoga last night, and today I'm doing my personal trainer routine before I hit the road and travel 4.5 hours to my future in-laws, with Nathan.

Did 1.5 hours of ashtanga at the studio last night. I had cake for lunch and butter tarts for dinner, so now I'm feeling guilty :-(

I did the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred video on level one with 3 lbs weights last night. Not feeling a thing this morning, guess that means I should move on to level 2 now!!!

LOL poohshek, pigging out on Valentine's Day was also my motivation to exercise today! I did my personal trainer's work-out, which consisted of walking on the tread-mill at 7% incline, 3.6 mph for 35 minutes, then doing push-ups, abs and weights. I had extra time today so the whole routine took almost 2 hours. I will be sore tomorrow!

I'm a physician and my office space/waiting room/exam rooms are a nice cream, kind of light yellow, which has been shown to have a calming effect. I must say, so far so good!!! It would go well too with orange'ish floor, I think? My floors are birch-like laminate...

Last night I did my personal trainer's work-out (which is 30 minutes on treadmill then 30 minutes of weights and abs). Boy do I feel it today! Tonight, hatha yoga.

Tuesday: 1.5 hours ashtanga yoga Wednesday: 1.5 hours hatha yoga Thursday: Level 1 Jillian Michaels 30 day shred with 1.5 lbs weights (my first ever try of the DVD, didn't find the 1.5 lbs challenging enough) Friday: Level 1 Jillian Michaels 30 day shred with 3 lbs weights (better, but think I need to try the level 2 now...) Interestingly, despite eating right, my weight actually went up almost 0.5 lbs since last Friday. Must be muscle mass, because I'm fitting into clothes I haven't fitting into in 2 years and feeling better! (at least I'm trying to convince myself I'm getting somewhere...).

Hi Pamela, I'm getting married 1 month after you at Dreams Tulum. Good luck with your planning!!!

Hi Anna, from fellow Ontarian!!! Have fun planning!!!

Hi everyone, I went from being a "Secrets Maroma Beach" bride to a "Dream Tulum" bride during the week! Now I have to start all over again (my research RE: best building, which rooms to request, upgrades, wedding packages, etc...) so I'm feeling quite stressed out! Any advice, recommendations, reassurance, etc... to share?

YAY, my DVD finally came in. Hmmmmm, now I have to hook up my DVD player and TV, just moved into the new house. But I will start by the weekend at the latest! Just over 10 lbs left to lose in 5 months...

-Matthew Perry (in a hospital elevator in Ottawa when I was a medical student, back when Friends was still going strong - he was nice!) -Corey Hart (80's singer in Canada) -Julie Masse (1 hit wonder singer in French-Canada, married to Corey Hart): ran into them in the washrooms of a hospital in Montreal, they had 2 young daughters at the time so were busy with them. -Ethan Hawke: literally bumped into him in Yorkville during Toronto Film Fest a few years back, also very nice! That's about it.

I agree... My co-workers are also clique-y and it sometimes feels like I'm in high school again (which wasn't fun for me the first time around so I have no interest in revisiting that!). Wow the gossip that goes on.... yikes!!! I actually prefer focussing on friendships outside of work, for various reasons. The most obvious reason to me is that I prefer, on my own time, to talk about non-work related issues. Also, I don't like it when people come chit chat with me while I'm trying to get my work done so I try and respect the right of others to work in peace. I can't believe your boss is giving you grief about all this!

Wow am I ever sore... I did 4 hours of yoga in the last 3 days. I think my body needs a break tonight, and then I'll try my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred tomorrow. Just with the yoga routine this week, I dropped 2 lbs! Didn't think it was possible to go down so fast! To be fair, no pop, no cookies, no chips either, just plain ol' healthy eating and controlled portions :-)

This is awesome! I love the Beach Hippie, Braidy Lady and Bride-y Waves for my curly hair. Thanks so much :-)

Arghhhhh..... Trying to get better rates for my guests at Secret Maroma Beach, but my travel agent is having a really hard time negotiating with them... Turns out Secrets Capri has better rates, so great! Problem is we've already paid for our 2 weeks wedding/honeymoon AI stay at Secrets Maroma Beach through AirMiles (saved almost $2000 so worth it!). I'm trying to find out if we can "switch" that 2 week package over to Secrets Capri, while our Luxe Destination travel agent contacts the Secrets Capri resort to see if our wedding date is available... STD/invites not sent out yet, we were waiting to get the guest rate issue sorted out. :-( I'm having a bad day!

I did 1.5 hours of ashtanga yesterday, will do 1.25 hours of hatha tonight, and another 1.5 hours of ashtanga tomorrow... I am still waiting for my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD to come in, I won't be doing it daily because of my "intense" yoga schedule, but at least over the weekend days!

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive from Amazon!!! I ordered it over 2 weeks ago, usually I get my orders within 7-10 business days :-( In the meantime, doing ashtanga (power yoga) and my upper body is killing me now!

Wow that's even worse than our situation. My fiancé got laid off last week (permanently): he was a software developer for the real estate industry. Seeing as real estate in Toronto isn't doing too hot right now, it was not unexpected, but still a shock. At least Nathan knows there is no chance but I have to say his ego has taken a serious blow :-( He was also the best in his company and had been with them 8 years so was getting paid quite well. All the new hires were working for 1/2 his salary, so I think this is one of the main reasons they decided to let go of Nathan... He's spent the last week while I'm at work holed up in the basement and playing our PS3. We're trying to be optimistic since I am hoping to get a job in Ottawa and he'd been talking about going back to school anyways... Good luck to you and if you need to chat just PM me!!!

I'm being charged $450 USD for 45 minutes for a violinist... They originally quoted me $650 and I said "forget it" and they came back with this price instead.

So I finally know the problem with my knee: tear of the anterior horn of the lateral meniscus. Now I know why I can no longer run... Will be going in for surgery. Hopefully that will not ruin my plans to lose 10 lbs. I guess if I just live off of soup and veggies I'll be fine :-) Last night I walked on the treadmill for 35 minutes at a 6% incline (which I discovers burns the equivalent amount of calories as running for 18 minutes on 0% incline) and then did push-ups and sit-ups. And after, went to a 1.25 hour yoga class... Luckily, no knee pain today, so I'll keep up this schedule until the surgery.

Hi Laura! I'm also in Toronto, and totally am keeping it simple :-) It is definitely possible and there are many of us on this forum who have chosen to do a destination wedding in order to minimize stress associated with planning elaborate weddings. Let me know if you want to chat about what I have done and how simple ours will be, private message me if you want! Chanti

Where did you get your shoes? I'm also in Toronto trying to find cute ivory strappy sandals for the reception!

Thanks, you are all wonderfully supportive!!!

So I had a little shock yesterday: often, my FI will text me to see if I'm free to meet up for lunch during the day (our jobs are at 20 minutes walk from each other so we meet half-way). I was free to meet him yesterday, and the first surprise came when he texted me that he was at the door of my building. The second surprise came when he announced he had just been laid off (along with 19 other people) from the company where he's spent the last 9 years of his life. I have to admit that there were warning signs: the company asked him to return his Blackberry December 10th. I had thought at the time that it was weird but he said "they're cutting back on a bunch of costs" so he didn't worry about it much. Then they had all the employees document how they spent every half hour during the day, for a two week time. And now this... But we're both kinda happy! To tell you the truth, he hated his job. He was thinking of quitting (which does not provide you the great severance package he got!) and going back to school anyways, but never really looked into programs or followed up on that. In addition, I applied for my dream job in Ottawa in December, and I almost didn't because I didn't want him to have to start over again and look for a job if we did end up moving. Now we are both seeing this as a "sign" that big changes may be in the works. I will be interviewing for the job in early February, and already know that my chances of landing it are very good. All my family lives there, as do many of his closest friends, plus we want to raise our future kids in a completely bilingual environment, so have been talking about moving to Ottawa on and off since the start of our relationship. So I guess, all in all, great timing! But still a bit of a shock (see, mixed feelings, sigh...). He's so cute: we're in the midst of home-renos and now he's all keen to become Mr. Fix-It AND make sure dinner is waiting for me when I get home :-) I just have to get used to the idea that for the time being (and maybe a few years if he does indeed go back to school), we will be a single salary couple. At this point, the most important thing is that we have each other and we'll get through no matter what! Also, we have an amazing wedding to look forward to, and now that he has free time during the day, he's already started helping out with planning :-) Thanks for letting me vent, no one knows yet (friends or family)...