Secret mission number three of giving my spouse a Winter he loves was a dinner date at The Village Biergarten in St Jacobs.
For only $10 extra you can rent a heated outdoor igloo on the patio. The fee is incredibly low and you can rent the tent for up to eight people for around two hours.
To start, we ordered a tray of mac and cheese croquettes – they were okay. For drinks, Mr. Lobster Shorts ordered a beer and I a white wine sangria – yum!
We both ordered vegetarian burgers for the entree, which were really good. I would definitely go back if I was craving a burger, we both loved them. For a non-veg restaurant with a fairly small menu, it was really fantastic to see two veggie burger options. I got the falafel burger and he the portabello burger. We are both wearing our coats in these photos, but the igloo was pretty warm and toasty. I was not cold. There were only two of us and we were there for under an hour. You can see a lot of condensation on the inside of the igloo(we are full of hot air). When we were ready to leave, the condensation was beginning to drop down. It was starting to rain indoors. If you were a larger group and were planning to stay in the igloo for the entire time you rented it, you might get a little damp.
It was a fun experience and for only $10 extra it was defiitely worth it. I would do it again.
The town of St Jacobs is an incredible place to visit. The whole town looked like it was a movie set for a Christmas movie. I loved it. While we were there we picked up some hot sauces from Taste The 4th Sense, to do a spicy sauce challenge. I posted the video above if you want to watch us challenge ourselves to some spicy delights.
This weekend we celebrated our puppy’s first birthday and the weather turned towards real Winter. It’s still technically Fall here, but November is usually when the real cold starts. It was -5 today, which is not bad, but it’s also windy, making it feel colder.
I had a cavity repaired on Saturday which brought us to the city, and we decided to go shopping for Winter coats. Sport Chek was having a huge sale and I got the coat I wanted for 40%-45% off! I was so happy and it is so warm. Mr Lobster Shorts found one too.
I was in the mood for warm and hearty when we arrived back home. I made soup from yellow lentils (moong dal), potatoes, cauliflower, vegetable soup cubes, potatoes, spinach, and a heaping scoop of curry powder. It was my intention to put a can of coconut milk in the soup, but it was fine without it. It was delicious. I turned off the lights, lit the candelabra, and loved how cozy it made the table. The bread was a multigrain loaf from the grocery store and it was delightful. It was a romantic, cozy ending to the day. We curled up on the couch together to watch a movie but were both falling asleep before it ended.
Sunday started with this super simple, delicious breakfast made with sweet potatoes, I got the recipe here. It was yummy and easy! We made one for the dogs too (minus the blueberries for Otis. He gets explosive diarrhea from blueberries. Although I’m pretty sure after all the sweet potatoes and cupcakes, we’re going to be waking up to something horrible tomorrow morning). Sunday is usually pancake day for the whole family and the dogs love it. They circle the table and kitchen like sharks until it’s their turn. They are not patient. Today we had something a little different. We all loved it, puppies too. Aren’t blueberries and sweet potatoes such a pretty mix of colour?
After breakfast, we took the dogs for a trek through the woods and tested out the new Winter coats. They did really well! We were both toasty warm. Otis still fit in last year’s boots thank goodness. For a street dog, he’s got sensitive little toes! Oliver doesn’t need them unless there is a lot of salt. The pups had fun in all the snow and didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all. I figured Otis would be okay, with his thick golden retriever fur, but Oliver is half-spaniel and his coat isn’t very thick. No coat, no shoes, no problem. He wasn’t cold at all.
Lunch was the leftovers from last night’s dinner (minus the candlelight). Isn’t soup always better the next day?
Oliver was wondering why we weren’t sharing lunch with him! He IS the birthday boy.
Doesn’t Otis look adorable in a birthday hat? This only lasted long enough to snap the photo, then he pawed it off his head.
Oliver was less chill about the hat. His expression here says it all. He took off running with the hat in his mouth after the photo. We had to chase him down before he ate it. Good times little buddy!
Birthday shenanigans ended with mini vanilla cupcakes (from the grocery store) and a new toy. Both dogs are currently having a late afternoon nap sleeping off their treats and morning walk. I’m sitting in a beam of sunlight enjoying a hot cup of tea, content.
Today I had breakfast: an English muffin with egg, avocado, and black coffee. On the way to work, Mr. Lobster Shorts suggested lattes. I rarely say no to a latte, so we made a stop at the Snapping Turtle. Even though I had breakfast not that long ago I was starving on the commute, a little queasy even. I’ve no idea why. I ate not that long ago and was drinking my latte. I had some apple sauce and that did the trick and I was okay again until lunch. Lunch of course was a bowl of chili.
On the way home from work Mr. lobster Shorts and I stopped at Costco for a couple things. We got granola bars raspberries and some other essentials. Whenever we get any kind of berry at Costco, we bring them up front to snack on and we call them “road berries”. Does anybody else make up cute names for things? They were awesome and I ate a ton of them – about a cup. I also had one of the new granola bars, a strawberry yogurt one from Quaker. YUM!
Dinner was a bocconcini pizza on naan, from Hello Fresh. The calorie count for Hello Fresh was 690 calories, and I couldn’t finish the last two bites, I ate all the salad first. My spouse isn’t super into peppers, so I loaded all the pepper onto mine, put spinach on his instead, and gave him a bigger portion of cheese. As you can see they were very generous with the amount of cheese, this one being the one with less cheese. I love the texture of bocconcini cheese.
Tuesday
Calories
english muffin
140
egg
78
avocado
160
chili
400
latte
160
apple sauce
90
granola bar
150
Raspberries 1 cup
65
Hello Fresh – Pizza
690
banana
105
total calories
2038
Before bed I had a banana. I wasn’t even hungry and I knew I was already over my calorie count for the day. I’m not sure why I wanted it so much. I saw them on the counter, they looked really good and I hadn’t had one in a long time. I don’t know who else has banana loving puppies, but if you have a banana in this house you have to share it with the dogs. I think I had about half the banana and the dogs had the rest.
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
It’s the start of a new week and I did really good today. As per usual, I had an English muffin with egg and avocado for breakfast, with coffee. Lunch was chili and lots of tea and later a snack of apple sauce. All the Hello Fresh meals were gone and I wanted a Harvey’s veggie burger.
The calories for a Harvey’s veggie burger are awesome! 310 calories! I thought that must be for the patty only, but I checked and the patty is only 150 calories. Yes, please! I love their veggie burgers. Since this likely didn’t have any toppings calculated in, I just guessed my toppings were around 150 calories. For toppings, I always order “everything” which is ketchup, mustard, relish, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion. They messed up my order and instead of putting on the sauces I asked for, they put chipotle on my burger. Good enough, I didn’t go in and exchange the burger. It was still good, but I definitely prefer my menagerie of toppings. The messier a burger, the yummier.
My spouse likes to order fries with his meal and I pretend I don’t and eat his fries lol. He is also trying to lose a few pounds and opted just for the burger. I wanted to get some extra veggies into my diet and ordered a garden salad with balsamic dressing. I ate the salad while we waited for the burgers. I wasn’t able to eat the last bite of my burger. This is a pretty good strategy for me, eat the salad first. I ended up being over full because I liked the burger. That is another issue I have with food. If I really like something, I end up eating more than is comfortable for me. I’ve been pretty good about not over-stuffing myself lately, but I did end up doing that with the burger.
Monday
Calories
english muffin
140
egg
78
avocado
160
chili
400
apple sauce
45
garden salad
40
salad dress
90
veggie burger
310
burger toppings
150
wine
200
popcorn
160
total calories
1773
I did really good today and stuck with my goal – 1800 calories or less. I did get hungry later in the day and split a bag of popcorn with Jay. I also had a glass of wine while I worked on a puzzle. It all fit into my calorie budget and I’m happy with how the day went.
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
I made berry crisp for breakfast this morning. I cut up rhubarb from the garden, and then strawberries and blueberries from the grocery store. I added a half tablespoon of sugar and cornstarch.
I topped it with oats, whole wheat flour, butter, brown sugar, and some salt. I didn’t add a lot of butter and it was still delicious. The calorie count for one was 520 calories. It was really nice with black coffee.
I snacked on cherries and a couple of chocolate crackers and had a salad with avocado for lunch. My spouse wanted to surprise me with dessert today.
He spent all day making me coconut cream pie (I had mentioned I had been craving it) and I had a really big piece.
Dinner was a portabello burger (the mushroom cap was the burger patty) from Hello Fresh with a side salad.
I overdid the calories again today.
Sunday
Calories
berry crisp
520
coffee
0
chococrackers x2
60
salad
325
Cherries 2 cups
154
coconut cream pie
429
hello fresh burger
burger and sald
620
coconut cream pie
200
Calorie Totals
2308
Sunday is supposed to be the only day I go over 1800 calories. I didn’t do very well this week. My average daily calorie intake was 2141 a day, but I was down a pound. Monday morning I was just a hair under 176lbs.
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
Saturday morning, my spouse and took the pups in for a weigh-in. The puppy is now 75lbs and his older brother, Otis is 82lbs. After five months, Otis is at a really good weight. He doesn’t need to gain anymore. Both the dogs are healthy and doing well.
As per usual, Saturday morning Jay and I went to The Stonetown Cafe for breakfast. Sometimes we bring the doggos, but the two of them can be a handful, so we went ourselves. I was a little hungover from Friday and had orange juice instead of coffee. I had an egg sandwich on a bagel with a slice of cheddar cheese. I really like their iced coffee in the summer, but I was too thirsty.
Jay and I headed to the beach at noon and I got the Harvest Sandwich at Tim Hortons for lunch. I seem to be having a lot of these lately. Jay wanted one too, but there was only one left. Being the sweetheart he is he let me have it and opted for something else. He’s such a gentleman.
We had a super fun day at the beach. The water was warm bath water. I loved it. I brought a little underwater metal detector that I found on Aliexpress with us. I didn’t have much hope for it, but it actually worked! It takes a 9-volt battery and it’s really small and discreet. I don’t know why, but I feel really silly using a metal detector around people. This thing definitely flew under the radar and guess what… It’s waterproof! We went snorkeling with it and I’m in love with this little thing. Jay even found something in the water!
Aaaand we found a dog shock collar. No, we will not be keeping it or using it. I wish we had found something a little less… shocking. The summer is just starting there will be a lot more fun beach days with this gadget. I’m so excited to use it again.
Jay made us dinner with Hello Fresh. It was absolutely delicious, but the calorie count was HUGE. The bag was 810 calories per serving, but the tortellini noodles were separate. The noodles were around 400 calories. Knowing the last time, they didn’t include the items separate from the bag into the meal calories, this meant this was massively high in calories. Even though I ate less than the serving size, I still had quite a lot of it. I adjusted the calories so they would more reflect what I ate. I also had popcorn and snacks this day, bringing my calorie count for the day to a whopping 2789 calories! YIKES.
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
Friday starts with “Epic Breakfast”. Epic breakfast has lattes from the Snapping Turtle and Harvest Sandwiches from Tim Hortons.
I was going out for dinner with friends this evening. Knowing that I had the option to take a train or walk home earlier that afternoon. It was a pretty hot day and I wanted to burn some extra calories before dinner. For the same reason, I wanted to have a light lunch.
I stopped off at the grocery store and you can see what I bought in the photo above. The strawberries smelled so wonderful I had to get them. I was pretty thirsty, so I also got watermelon. There were two slices of watermelon, but one of them didn’t make it home. It was SO GOOD! It got all over me it was juicy and delicious. YUM! I had half the garden salad for lunch with avocado and balsamic dressing. I forgot to take a photo of it. I got really hungry before I went out for dinner and had a chocolate cracker.
Dinner started with a cocktail at the Braai House in Stratford. I’ve been there a few times now and always enjoy the food.
I didn’t order appetizers. I rarely do. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with being hungry with just the entree, so I skip it. I ordered a pizza to share with my spouse.
I had two slices of pizza and two cocktails. I will stick with one drink next time. Two drinks hit me like a brick and I left that restaurant pretty tipsy. I’m pretty sure I was still tipsy when I went to bed that night. One is enough lol.
Friday
Calories
Tim’s Harvest Sandwich
391
latte
160
Apple sauce
45
M&Ms
100
Watermelon 2” slice
87
Strawberries 1/2 cup
25
garden salad
130
Avocado 1/2
160
Dressing 1/8 cup
90
Watermelon 2” slice
87
chococracker
30
2 cocktails
500
Pizza 2 slices
740
Total Calories
2545
I was trying to keep the calories down at lunch to come closer to 1800 calories, but as you can see, I went WAY over. I should have stayed away from those M&Ms at least. I didn’t have a calorie count on the pizza, so I used the same as it would be for a pizza chain for a large pizza and used that. I also used a tequila sunrise to guess how many calories were in the cocktails I had. I’m hoping there were less in what I had! I went over and it’s going to happen sometimes. I still want to be able to enjoy restaurants with friends and I’m not going to beat myself up about it and move on.
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
I found something out today and I’m annoyed. Hello Fresh comes packaged individually for each dinner and sometimes extra food items that need to stay extra cold are left out to be in contact with the ice everything is shipped in. Each bag has the number of calories per serving on it and I thought that the calorie count included everything in the whole dinner. I started making the sesame salad recipe for that evening’s dinner, I looked at the calorie count and it said 240 calories… What? I knew the Beyond Meat patty that was included in the dinner would have had around that many calories by itself. There was no way. I looked at the calories on the Beyond Meat package and it was around 300 calories per patty. There were two patties! LIES! So what I think is happening, is that Hello Fresh is only listing the calories in the bag and anything extra you need to add has its own separate calories. I’m so annoyed. The calories should be listed as the whole dinner. I get why they wouldn’t add the oil you use from your own kitchen into it because you can use whatever oil you choose and they wouldn’t have access to that info… but when it’s an included ingredient and it’s part of the recipe!? – Add it to the calorie count! Grrr. That means my calorie counts are under for the last two days, I never added oil either. Now I know and can adjust for the future. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hello Fresh and will continue to buy it, but that’s annoying. Also, no wonder I didn’t find the last two days very difficult.
As for what I ate today and the calories (this time the count is more correct), it started out with my usual egg on an English muffin and black coffee. I ran out of avocado so I had the sandwich with cheese. Pretty good, but I do love my avocado and missed it. Lunch was chili in a can, the same kind I’ve been having repeatedly for lunch, Sprague brand from Costco and really good.
On the way home I stopped at a thrift store hoping to find a teapot. Mine was broken over the weekend. I loved it and I’m so hopeful I can find another one. This one was special because you could heat it with a tea candle and your pot of tea would stay hot for hours. I really loved it. I did not find a replacement teapot, but I did find clothing items and these pope mugs! I did not buy the pope mugs, sorry.
Dinner was sesame salad from Hello Fresh, it was really good and I’m pretty sure I’ve got the calories right now. There were almost enough calories left for a dirty matcha latte. I knew I’d go over a bit but I wanted one.
I make my dirty matcha latte with a shot of Tia Maria Matcha, a cup of whole milk, and a teaspoon of matcha. It was pretty good. I prefer the latte sweetened with maple syrup and not Tia Maria, but sometimes I want the naughty version. I’ll post my daily calorie count in the chart below. I couldn’t find the calorie count for Tia Maria Matcha, so I used the calories for Tequila Rose, I figured they would be similar.
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
Before I go into what I ate today, I will give you a weight update. Unfortunately, I have gained the weight I lost for the wedding back. I was 169lbs on my wedding day and currently weighing 177lbs this morning. It’s disappointing to have lost all that headway. I did OMAD (one meal a day) to lose weight before the wedding. I don’t want to do that again. My history with fast weight loss and diets hasn’t done a lot for me. An 1800 daily calorie limit seems to be more sustainable. I’ve only done it for two days and even in these two days I wanted to do late-night snacking with binge foods, but it wasn’t a big deal not to have them. It’s been great for stopping from grabbing fizzy sweet drinks from the fridge – not soda, but it might as well be. Instead, I’ve been drinking sparkling unflavoured water. It’s not bad!
Breakfast and lunch were my go-to’s: English muffin with avocado and egg and a bowl of chili. As usual, I had coffee with breakfast and tea during the day. I got a latte on the way to work from The Snapping Turtle. I love it without any sweeteners or flavorings, while my spouse loves hazelnut. I do really like the flavor shots in a latte, but I only want a couple sips, while with a straight latte I love it right to the end. This is very strange to me because I have such a sweet tooth.
I did manage to skip the M&Ms today, but not the granola bar for the ride home. I also had some apple sauce as well. Dinner was paneer curry from Hello Fresh and it was really good. The calories were 560 per serving and although I had less than half, I was munching on the cheese bits and peppers while I was cooking it, so I used the full calorie count.
I did get hungry later in the evening and I munched on some cherries. The cherries were SO good. I was thinking of having chocolate, but I didn’t want to go over my calorie count for the day and 2 cups of cherries seemed better than one small piece of chocolate (I was snacky!), so I had that. I managed to stick to my calorie count for the day and feel pretty good about how things are going. I’ll post the calorie chart for the day below:
Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet/nutritional advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.
I’ve tried tons of diets. If they include a vegetarian lifestyle (even if they don’t I can usually adapt it to one), I’ve probably tried it. I’ve even tried Keto, which I did notice increased my libido. I’m taking a guess here and assuming that means my everyday diet includes too much sugar/carbs. Keto was not a diet I was able to stick with, even with the unexpected benefits. Like every other diet I’ve tried, it was quickly cast aside and any benefits I gained were quickly lost, or it just didn’t work. I’m sad to say, there is no miracle solution to weight loss for me.
I really dislike counting calories. It’s monotonous, tedious, and annoying, but I need to do it. For the last few weeks, I assumed I was eating pretty well with fewer calories, but I didn’t lose any weight. It was time to figure out where I was going wrong and have a better understanding of how much I was eating. I knew I was doing a couple things wrong. I was eating too much junk food and portioning out the same amount of food as my spouse, who is a male. I do not require the same amount of calories as a grown man, therefore I really shouldn’t be eating the same portion sizes as one. I cut my portion size down to about 75% of what he was eating, yet still didn’t notice any weight loss.
I started a spreadsheet chart and am aiming to eat around 1800 calories a day. Sundays I’ll be a little more lax. I’ll post the results of what I ate on July 11/2022.
Monday
Calories
Avocado eggs benny
563
coffee
0
tea
0
chilli
400
m&ms
100
granola bar
160
apple sauce
45
strawberries
18
cola – a couple sips from my spouse
10
curry
680
Totals
1976
As you can see I went over my 1800-calorie goal on my first day.
Tuesday I had an egg sandwich with avocado for breakfast.
For lunch, I had a can of vegetarian chili I got at Costco: Sprague. They are great for lunch – heat and eat. Although this photo does NOT look appetizing, the chili is actually really good, with a slight hint of heat. I really like it and plan on having it for lunch during the work week, until I eventually want something else.
Dinner I have been making Hello Fresh for a couple weeks now and I LOVE IT!!! They have about 6 vegetarian meals to choose from every week. I just noticed that they have the calories for each meal listed on the bag. SUPER helpful. Even though it’s pretty expensive it keeps me from getting takeout on the commute home. That was a huge problem for me. I have been having granola bars on the ride home which isn’t great, but I notice the dogs get a better walk when we get home if I’m not starving, as they are always walked before dinner. I tend to become a homebody after dinner and prefer to walk them beforehand. That usually means we eat really late at night, but so far that’s how it’s going for us.
Last night was fatoush salad from Hello Fresh and was one of the lower calorie items: only 480 calories per serving! I usually divide the dinner into three as Hello Fresh usually has generous portion sizes, giving my spouse lunch to take to work the next day, but because the calories were so low, I only divided it in two (I did not dole out a smaller portion size than my spouse this time lol). It was really good. I loved it. I’ll post the results of the calories I ate for the whole day:
Tuesday
Calories
english muffin
140
egg
78
Avocado 1/2
160
black coffee
0
Lemondade 1 cup
100
bite of a scone
30
tea
0
Chilli 1 can
400
m&ms 1/8 cup
100
tea
0
apple sauce
45
granola
160
raspberries
65
fatoush salad
480
chocolate cracker
30
Total
1788
That chocolate cracker was had late at night and right before bed. It wasn’t necessary, but since I would stay within my allotted calorie count for the day, I ate it. Not exactly the precedence I want to set. These little things add up and could interfere with my goals.
Overall I think I did really good yesterday and hope to keep it up. My intentions usually fall apart and instead of picking myself up and continuing, I scrap the whole process. I’d like to stop doing that and figure out a way to stick with it carrying on with my goals. It’s something I need to work on in myself and learn to figure out.
Lobster Shorts 