Hi gang . . . :grouphug:

Gee . . . there is some kind of white, fluffy stuff falling out of the sky . . . wonder what that could be :shrug: . . . in other words -- WILL THIS WINTER NEVER END. :mad: But . . . at least there are no piles of it on the ground, I hope God doesn't hear that. :o

Well, guess I'd better try to get myself moving and shaking and get some good stuff done today -- so far all I've really done is sponge a lot of cat hair off the furniture; for what seems like hours. You know, I think I could keep going over the same places for the rest of the day (year) without stopping and still keep finding more . . . wonder why my cats aren't bald yet. :D

Okay, hope everybody has a great day . . . See you all later . . . :carrot:

Happy Friday

Daffy and Meowee: Please feel free to make fun of us - it's a bit of a national sport I know - I lived in Calgary for 3 years so I understand REAL snow and REAL cold.

Bopeep: We had duck sausages on Easter - I am paying for it though as my weight has stayed the same this week :( - oh, and that Timmy's breakfast sandwich - yeah - I guess I'm lucky I stayed the same. Congratulations on the collarbones! I used to love my collarbones! I have collar cushions now.

Chubby: (yes, you need a new name - how about Gorgeous in Edmonton?) I am sorry to hear about your miscarriage - I know how painful and stressful that is :hug: Ditto what Bopeep said about frozen foods at the health food store. Amy's is a good brand. I would suggest adding in some salads though. Fibre is our friend.

Healthy: Oh, so it's your Uncle's fault we had snow! Tell him "no gloating until after April!"

You are a good sport MAMA . . . and you know it's just our jealousy of your 'normal winter weather' that's doing the talking . . . BTW, we have about 5 cm of new snow on the ground and it's supposed to continue falling throughout the night . . . that's what I got for teasing you. :D

Yep - it's called snow karma! Keep it up Canada!

I am so seriously green with envy about the Victoria winters! I'm an obsessed gardener and I'd move out there in a heartbeat if we could afford the land! Ye gads, all the things I could grow! But alas, we're not exactly rolling in cash so I'll just have to settle for poking fun of the snow panic :D ;)

It was an overcast and blah day here. Just above freezing and really uninspiring after the nice couple of days previous. Blah. Blah. Blah. Come back sun!!!

I had to take the day off of exercising today. I did something weird to my leg - the tendon in the inside of my thigh is all sore and stiff. I think I might have twisted it while I was all contorted trying to clean the kitchen ceiling yesterday - with all the extra light coming in the window, my apartment is beginning to look rather dirty! :eek: :faint:

I did manage to accomplish one thing today - I shoveled/chipped my way out to my pot storage area. Now I can start chipping away at the ice covering them and then I can start some more bulbs.

BP

Oh Bopeep:
I know how you feel! I'm an obsessed gardener too! You should have seen me in Calgary. April hit and I would be outside trying to dig into the still frozen ground - pining for some colour! I learned alot about gardening though - having to work with the elements like that was completely new to me. I had never paid any thought to "zones" before.

I am going out to the garden centre this afternoon with a friend to look at what's new. I have a huge list of "wants" and need to stay focused. I am worse with plants than food. I binge purchase! If I don't bring a list I just buy it all!

Here's to self control!

Hey all:
Just curious about something Bopeep said about buying land in Victoria - how much is an "average" house where y'all live?
We are in a suburb outside of Victoria - about 30 min from downtown and very central. We have a 1/4 acre lot with a 1700sq ft. rancher with double garage - built in the 80's and not updated since - with a 2yr. old renovating is just not a priority! We could sell it today for $475,000. We bought it 3 years ago for $335,000. We can't sell now because we could never afford to buy anything nicer. Just so you know, we all think these prices are insane too. Of course, up island and other areas of BC are much cheaper.

Oh wow . . . house prices . . . you are speaking to a former Torontonion . . . everything seems cheap from that perspective. Anyway -- down here in rural Nova Scotia I have a side-split on almost a 1/2 acre corner lot; about the same size as your house Mama with garage and also built in the early 80's. I paid $83,000 for it in 1991. It's now worth about $125,000. :lol: You could come down here and buy four houses. Of course -- our food prices and our gas prices (currently $1.20 per litre) would soon gobble up the difference -- so you'd better only buy three. :yes: And my relatives wonder why I didn't move back to Ontario when I retired. :yikes:

Boy, did I sleep in . . . almost 9 am when I finally got up . . . and my blood sugar was awful (must have been the timing -- the almost 2 quarts of ice cream I ate yesterday couldn't have had anything to do with it -- :o ). The sun is trying to poke out off and on today and it looks so pretty shining on the almost 4 inches of fresh snow. :dizzy: I am not going anywhere today and that's a good thing because the radio has been talking about some pretty nasty accidents on local roads over last night and early this morning.

While I was out yesterday (as well as the Ice cream :mad:), I bought a couple of new Health/Weight related books . . .

Eat This - Not that, by David Zinczenko (the Abs Diet guy) So far, I'm a little disappointed with this one -- mainly because it is very US oriented. It compares a lot of restaurant meals and different brand-name products that we, unfortunately, do not have here in the frozen north called Canada. :lol: There are some real eye-openers though; but you do have to read the fine print because sometimes the main differences that they are quoting are not instantly clear in the pictures (it's very visually driven).

Magic Foods for Better Blood Sugar, by Robert A. Barnett (one of the authors of TheVolumetrics Weight control Plan which is one of my favourites). At first perusal, I like this one a lot. It is aimed at the current epidemic of Metabolic Syndrome sufferers rather than those of us who already have full blown diabetes. It's based on the GI (Glycemic Index) -- actually the more recent GL (Glycemic Load) which improves on the GI shortcoming by taking into consideration the actual impact of a 'serving' of food rather than a predetermined amount of net carbohydrate -- and I am a firm believer in the GI/GL theory of Good Carbs/Bad Carbs.

Anyway . . . enough of my babbling for now . . . I've got other places to visit around 3FC and it's the noon hour already . . . so I'd better get myself moving and shaking . . . Hope you all have a great day, doing lots of good stuff . . . see you later. :wave:

Healthy mama - watch out for those sticky pots. If you pick them up you can't put them down. The only way to unstick them is with liberal applications of plastic or colourful rectangular paper. I'm waiting for the weather to warm up enough for me to make the trek out to my favourite nursery - I too have a list of plants that I 'need', and I'm sure a few others I didn't know I 'needed' will jump into my cart while I'm not looking ;)

Housing prices here are more than insane. We live in downtown Montreal and we rent a ground floor flat in an very trendy area that has row house type of housing. To buy a place that's about 1000-1200sq. ft, you'd need at least $400 000, unless you wanted a real 'fixer-upper' (and by that I mean a place that hasn't been renovated in over 100 years). A place just down the street that was recently renovated sold for $500 000 last year (and it sold quickly). The burbs are similarly priced, but you get a bigger place and a postage stamp sized lot of land. If you go outside the city, things get more reasonable (and you can get real land for gardening). That's probably where we'll head if/when we have to move from our current place.

BP

Hi!
 

I just found your thread and like to join?

I am fairly new to 3FC, and have recently started dieting (again). I lost 35 lbs in 2002/2003. Then suprisingly got pregnant after years of trying. 2 children later and a hubby's tour of duty in that overseas place, I am having to start again. Last time I lost so much weight, I was low carbing it, and keeping my eye on my calories. This time I have 2 children- 2 and 4 and a husband who is deployed a lot of the time. I also am working full time. I was trying for several months with no luck. I would eat alright when I had the time to prepare, but in my household time is in short supply. In addition, I was diagnosed as gestational diabetic with both children. I have some residual impared glucose tolerance. My family doctor thinks I am diabetic; however the specialist isn't really sure. (A long story)

Anyway, on Feb 17, I started the diabetic program on nutrisystem. I have a friend who had real sucess. I have lost 15.6 lbs since. I thought the food would be horrible. Maybe actually hoping it would be to help not to eat more. But most of it is good. I have a few things that are not great, but some of the stuff is pretty good. It has additional fibre and protein over store bought stuff to help you stay on target. For me it was a simple matter of convience and not having enough time to prepare healthy and portion sized meals in the little time I have available.

I live in Manitoba and am currently waiting for the storm to hit. They are calling for 30+ cm by tomorrow night. Hopefully they are really mistaken as things were just starting to melt!

I read most of the thread from the beginning. I wish I could find the time to get on my treadmill like most of you. I try to manage twice a week. Usually once on the weekend and once on Mondays (the house hasn't degraded from a week of working by Monday- Things don't start to go downhill until Tuesday, LOL) The rest of the week is tied up with getting things ready for daycare/ lunches the next day, meals and cleanup.

It's nice to have somewhere to talk to fellow Canadians. Most of the other threads they talk about products and things that don't mean much to us because it doesn't apply or we cannot buy it here!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Hi Mileigh! :wave: :welcome:

I remember those days, working full time and taking care of house and child, but I only had one, and my then-hubby was at least there, if not very helpful. Hats off to you for getting this far with those challenges, and for finding treadmill time!

HMama: "I have collar cushions now"...thank goodness I wasn't drinking coffee...Thanks for the laugh. :)

HMama/Bopeep: DW used to let me go to the nursery by myself, but not anymore...she's keeps a close eye, otherwise I would bring home tons of stuff, despite the fact I do NOT have a green thumb :(

We live in the Ottawa 'burbs, in a semi-detached about 15 min out of downtown, (if there's no traffic). Our lot is huge by today's standards, 35' wide by 135' deep, we have about 1400 sq feet. In our neighbourhood, one with a few more features than ours just sold for just under $265,000. We bought ours in 2000 for $124,000, when updated ones were going for about $140,000. We updated it, and really lucked out insofar as timing goes: it's worth $255,000+ now. My daughter's tiny 600 sq ft condo, right downtown is worth about $180,000.

Bopeep, I had no idea Montreal had gotten SO pricey! I remember when my folks bought a McGill side split in Pte-Claire on a huge lot for $21,500 in '71, a very similar house one street away is listed right now for $309K.

Meowee, I know that pretty 'sun on snow' look well, we see lots at the cottage, particularly this winter! Sure beats the 'urban grunge snow' vista I get here in town.

Have a great day everyone! Someone mentioned snowstorm, so I'm off to check the weather, just in case...we're close to a record here, and since we've shovelled this much, I'm hopeful we get there.

Well hello there again! I've had a crazy, busy week so I haven't been posting much. My entire family (6 of us) came down with the flu at the same time. Between being sick and taking care of everyone else, my eating habits hae suffered a little. I just haven't felt like eating at all. So I'm hoping my metabolism doesn't bite me in the butt (literally) once I find my appetite again.

Welcome to the thread Miliegh! I just started here myself!

As or house prices, it's fairly expensive here too. Not Toronto high but high enough. I'm in London ON and you can't buy a house for under $200,000. Well, not one you would want to live in or in a neighbourhood you would want either.

Hi MILEIGH . . . :wel3fc: and to our little group as well . . . hope you will love it around here as much as the rest of us do . . . 3FC is a wonderful place for lots of support and information as we all travel down the long and sometimes bumpy road to better health and fitness.

BTW, I'm also the moderator of the Diabetes Support Forum here at 3FC . . . so if you'd like to chat about that 'long story' you can drop me a PM or come over to the forum for a chat.

Hi NANCY . . . Hi DAFFY . . . big :hug: for each of you.

I'm not far from Toronto (Oakville/Burlington border, actually) and prices are insane. My house bought for $75,000 in 1985 now sells for $350,000 and same house downtown Oakville would be $600,000 and downtown Burlington $500,000. It's insane. Its a 1300 sq foot backsplit. Lot size is 45' x 150'.

Chris

:wave: We had a lovely sunny day today; went shopping and got some walking in today. Our housing prices are probably lowest of all mentioned, if you don't mind our weather, that is. The prices have started climbing this past year quite a lot becuz people from the south caught wind of how cheap homes were here from the net. Some places have doubled or tripled (ie they bought for $50,000 and can now sell for $150,000). You can still buy a decent bungalow here for $75,000 to $100,000.

Have a great weekend all ... :hug:ROSEBUD:hug: