Day Six

Dear Journal.

It has been six days since my my lips touched the sweet delicious temptation known as carbs.  I feel like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.......the horror.......the horror.  Four more days to go.  And then I feast.  And then maybe juice again?  I do feel good that my fridge looks like this:

I don't feel good about the number of plastic bags, or the vast amount of pulp I'm creating without a way to compost.  Two problems I will have to address in the near future.

No more weight progress, but I have hope.

Julie out.

Early Bird Gets The Worm

Also, can someone please pass me a cookie, please?  Pretty please?  Bread?  Anyone?  A slice of bread?

Reboot With Julie

So the thing I didn't mention about our stop at Canadian Tire, was that Sim was there to pick up a juicer!  I'm not sure what spurred it on but she had done her research and knew exactly what she wanted.  And it happened to be on sale that week which a bonus.  One of my coworkers has been juicing, as in they are on a juice diet, but I never really gave it too much thought.  I love my solid foods too much.  I love me some pasta and bread.  Basically everything that is the worst for you, I love.  I buy fruit and veg all the time, but a lot of it ends up getting wasted.

Anyways, this juicer purchase led to her watching a movie on netflix about a guy who was overweight with a rare auto-immune disorder who decided he needed to make some drastic life changes to drop the weight and get off the scripts for ailment.  He decided to juice.  The results were really quite unbelievable.  Something like 80 lbs in 60 days.  Which sounds like a farce.  Jeff at work had watched the movie and mentioned all of these success stories I kind of shrugged it off.  I know I've needed to drop some of my own weight but other diets never really appealed.  Unless there was a bread and specialty ice cream diet it just wasn't going to happen.  But after I finished watching Fat Sick & Nearly Dead something resonated with me.  I knew I had to start juicing!  Maybe it was because I already knew someone 3 weeks into it and they were feeling great.  Maybe it was because I knew Sim was down with the juicing.  Whatever it was, I went out and got a juicer of my own, and I'm currently on day 3 of a 10 day "Juice Reboot". 

You eat a fair amount of food, but it's allll fruits and veg.  Some spices and a bit of olive oil and S&P and that's it.  Some of the juices are good, but I've found a few that I can't consume, and a few that induce vomiting.  I lost my lunch yesterday trying to down a not-so-delicious pear & cucumber juice.  I wish I had just eaten the two pears and two cucumbers raw and be done with it.  Once I'm done the 10 days I'll know what recipes work and which can go straight in the garbage.  Last night the dinner was really amazing leek & broccoli soup.  Yummmmers.  I cut coffee out about 4 days before starting.  It was just a cup a day habit, never with a strong dependency, so it wasn't too bad to cut that out.  I do miss having soda.  I miss having little snackies.  I told Sim on the first day I wanted to throw a mini fit because I wanted some crackers.  I had just bought 3 packages of water crackers because they were on sale in 3s, and I love them.  And in my cupboard they sit untouched.  I miss meat.  I miss sauce.  I miss browsing the flyers for deals, because none of them apply anymore.  BUT, I've lost 5lbs so far, I think.  I don't believe in quick fixes, but if this at least helps, then thumbs up.  And if anything I've learned one thing.  Kale aint so bad.

I'll update any further progress.

Neighbourhood #10 (!!) - East Danforth

This is a little bit delayed, but I've been a bit exhausted this week.  I quit coffee earlier this week, so this may have lead to a bit of a disruption.  I don't know if I've gone to bed at 9pm since I was 10.

So last Sunday Sim and I decided to venture into her new hood to see what the good word was.  And there were lots of good words.  The day started with a stop at her new place.  A little walk-around the premise.  A little lookie-loo at the new digs.  And I must say, the new digs, they are fresh.  I look forward to an inside tour as well ;)

Our day started with a breakfast at Melanie's Bistro.  I hate to use absolutes, but that might have been the best brunch I have ever had in my life.  Newfoundland Benny.  Instead of an English muffin it's set on a fish cake.  Wow, wow....wowee wow.  Sim had the Heuvos Rancheros which also looked mighty delicious and minus a plate licking was all gone at the end.  After this most delicious of meals we walked down to Coxwell to do some 5-pin bowling at Danforth Bowl.  I went once for Sonia's birthday party aaaages ago.  It was exciting to get back to the lanes.  And I don't like to brag, but since I never win at bowling ever I will brag.  I WON AT BOWLING.  And although neither of us got a turkey, we did happen to get a communal turkey, which was still satisfying.

The last stop on our neighbourhood tour was at The Circus Coffee House.  Super cute, super local, super smalllll, just super.  Sim went for the Blueberry Pear Mango smoothie, and I went for my regular Americano.  It's what I order when I don't know how to order anything else.  It's my go-to.  We sat and played a most deserving two sets of backgammon.  I think I won one of them, which also rarely happens.  Getting to roll first is usually only something I get to do when I win the first roll-off.  And even then one of the dice isn't even mine.  Just a bit of BG humour.

We made one more detour on the way home which was the Canadian Tire at Danforth and Main.  Apparently there is also one at Pape, but given two choices I will always choose the one more likely to have a larger more accessible parking lot.  Fortuitously, this led to the discovery of the Danforth GO station, which happens to be on the Lakeshore line.  Perhaps it's time for me to get a PRESTO pass.

We got a bit fudged with Santa traffic on the way back downtown.  I thought I had the perfect route but it got all busted up.  I ran upstairs to pick up a moving dolly I had left at Sim's.  And on my way back to the Lakeshore I got stopped at a light while a train of floats zipped by going back to I guess their homes.  Lights were red, lights were green, but we weren't moving.  Sim told me to snap a shot, and I did.  And ironically enough it was the very last float to go by.  And it was smooth sailing home from there.

I may have already said this, but I'm really really enjoying getting back into neighbourhooding.  BTAI.  Big time awesomeness important.

Until next time.

Neighbourhood #9 - Cabbagetown

Another new hood!  Sarah joined us this weekend which was awesome.  We all met at the corner of Carlton and Parliament just before noon.  Sim and I actually found a really really terrific parking spot, which always starts the day off in the right direction.

Our first stop was the Jet Fuel coffee shop.  I've actually been wanting to get to Jet Fuel for years now so that worked out nicely.  I'm not sure how much I like the non-menu.  As a non-coffee aficionado I need to see what my options are.  But the coffee was a delicious, and we sat in the back and chatted for nearly an hour.  We could have stayed for longer, but there was business to be done.  We headed North up Parliament stopping into Green's Antiques and Menagerie Pet Shop along the way.  They pet store was cute, with a few little slimers and small furries in the back.  Including one jub jub that had rather menacing eyes.   The antique store was really packed I was getting worried at this point that we were going to strike out.  We walked up to Wellesley and I started to wonder what else was going to grab our fancies.  So I suggested we break across to Sherbourne and cut back down to Carlton.  That may have been the worst idea of the afternoon as we spent 10-15 minutes walking past residences and schools.  Finally when we tailed back onto Carlton, the actual adventure began.

Ok, that's a bit of a lie.  I kind of ruined everything by not putting enough money into the parking meter.  So we had to walk up Parliament a smidge.  But that did bring us to Sinate Creations.  A kind of Tibetan hand made goods store.  They had some nice sweater coats.  And oth
er such goods.  But we didn't spend too much time in there.  Just West of Parliament on Carlton is where all the hot business is going on.  I think we could probably all agree the store of the afternoon was Labour of Love.  Everything in that store was just awesome.  I ended up getting some Bitters crafted in NYC for my brother for Xmas.  I probably could have spent a lot of money in that store.  Just a bit more down the road was a sweet home design store called Mi Casa.  A little more high end modern stuff.

Across to the South side of the street we popped into London Calling which had some cute British goods available.  I think I would like to go to London to see what they provide to expats seeking the Canadian experience.  I love most things British.  Keep Calm and Carry On, stiff upper lip.  At this point we were all starving so we settled on the Irish pub Stout.  It was super clean and pubby inside with a nice gas fireplace against the Western wall.  We all settled on a bevvie, I wish I could remember which one I had.  Something to do with Beavers or Hops, or probably something else altogether different.  I had the classic breakfast but it was really anything but classic.  The eggs were poached well, but served in a bowl with water on the bottom, so when they were cracked it was just gross.  The toast had black lines on it like it had been seared rather than toasted.  And the fruit cup was altogether unappealing.  That being said, the two other dishes at the table looked sooooooooo goooooooooood.  So I guess I just pulled the short straw.  And if you can believe it, we actually managed to hang out for almost 4hrs.  There were a few more places we could have tried for food and drink, but that'll be for another day.


I'm starting to really develop an appreciation for more of Toronto, which is what started this whole thing.  We're pushing the limits of our comfort zones.  And although we still have a lot more of the regs to get through, like Little Italy and Danforth and Liberty Village, we're going to keep it spicy with new guys like Little India and Davisville and Corktown.  And in fact, the very next day (Sunday) Sim and I did another impromptu neighbourhood.  More to come....

The Solution

My change has been weighing me down lately.  I have a lady's wallet yet I was still almost unable to close it because of the bulging change section.  Total Costanza.  I cleaned up a bit around here and found a few bucks laying around.  And I wasn't sure how I was going to get rid of it all until today.  It's not ground breaking, and you have to have no shame if there is a line, but paying with change at the self check-out at the grocery.  A weight has been lifted.  Total....bonus...important.

Absolution At A Low Low Price

Ross sneezed this afternoon and Jeff said "I bless you my child."  I piped up and said, "So you do blessings, but do you do absolutions?"

Work has been stressful without Dean.  It's easier now that Jeff is available to back-up the warehouse.  Now it's not falling on my shoulders.  But there's still an elevated level of stress.  Ross is stressed out all the time, which trickles down onto me.  But we all just have to manage because Dean has more important matters to attend to.  His wife has now gone into palliative so he has some really real truths that he's going to have to face in the near future.  We're all unsure how we're going to move forward from such a terrible lose.  She's so young, it's too soon.

There's this really freaky thing that happens at our office, that if we say something it will happen.  We mention a customer, they will call and place an order.  We jinx ourselves by wishing something wouldn't happen.  I know it's the whole "Whenever I think about Sim she calls me" thing, where I don't count all the times I think about Sim and she doesn't call (why don't you call me anymore?? lol jk).  But these are very very specific instances.  I said to Ross, "Some of our regular email contacts are going to start asking about Dean's absence.  Like Debbie, or Christina."  That night, Christina called, as the office was closing, and the first thing out of her mouth was "Where's Dean?"  And the other freaky one that just happened was that in the span of two days, we either talked about or had a phone call from four Dennis'.  And I commented to Ross, now we just need this new guy Dénis to call in and we'll have a full set.  And today after a three month silence we had a call from that very Dénis.  In both cases I identified a specific person and within 24 hrs they called.  And in one case I nailed what they would be calling about.  They call me the Office Clairvoyant.  

I'm getting an old Tassimo from my mom's house delivered.  She's dropping it off at my office tomorrow, along with some infamous frozen steaks I recently stood her up on.  She reminded me that the Tassimo had a recall and I'd need to get the replacement part.  And she also told me that she asked Tassimo to send two parts when I was living at home and they refused.  THEY REFUSED!!!  I emailed, and told them what a top notch job they had done.  Super fantastic customer service, job well done.  Needless to say I'm getting that replacement part in the mail, without having to submit my serial number.  Which gives them partial redemption, but not really, given that I could have burned my face with coffee hot water.

One last thing...I wanted to give special mention to a great afternoon out I had with Sim and Sarah just a few weeks ago, before Sim's nuptials.  We had a wicked walk through Kensington trying to find a hair piece for Sim.  And after getting an amazing restaurant reference from a stranger on the street ("It's South of Augusta and Baldwin......those are street names." lol) we ended up at Pancho Y Emiliano.  We both got three very different dishes.  I ended up with the corn tortilla fish tacos and omgggg were they amazing.  Ever since I saw this food show about the best fish taco, I've been making a point of trying them out.  Last time they were a bit too....lacking in sauce.  These ones were sooooooooo good.  Mmm......good food.

That's all.  Stayed tuned for Neighbourhood #9, coming soon.