Today is my spin anniversary!

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Cycle, Health & Fitness

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Way back in the day!

It has been so long since I started teaching spin or cycle or all terrain – whatever you call it – that I can’t remember if it is 6 or 7 or 8 years now. Today I taught a 7 am class with a special Valentine’s theme and fondly reminisced about the first class I taught in that room on Valentine’s Day.

Back then I had to burn my classes on to a CD and had little note cards that told me what I should be doing for song. Now I have thousands of songs on an iPod Touch and don’t know what I am going to be doing til the moment before I do it.

I do love teaching – it is such a high to watch 20+ people all working so hard while the music is going. I hope to be celebrating my 25th anniversary as I grow older and hopefully stronger.

If you are a rider or and instructor and have music or drills to recommend please leave a comment!

Brainrider moves in to the Chelsea Shop!

10 Friday Feb 2012

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This past week Brainrider (where I am an Operating Partner) moved in to the Chelsea Shop on Huron Street. I have always loved this building back from when I was an undergraduate student at U of T and love that this is where I will be going to work when I am not at the home office.

Gorgeous photo I found on Flickr (2009)

The Brainrider team moved in February 1st and hosted two events in the space after a lot of work by the entire team to get it ready (there was actually a table saw in the middle of the floor when I arrived on Tuesday morning!) There was the b2b Marketers meet-up that happens every 6-8 weeks (Click here to join the Linked In group, so you can know when the next one is) and the inaugural Toronto User Group for one of our partners Pardot.Nolin kicking off the evening

My research to find the history of this great building has lead me to a long list of businesses that have called this building home:

  • An employee counselling centre
  • An art gallery/ boutique (read The Star article about Dandi Maestre)
  • A place where the Toronto Law of Attraction group had meet-ups
  • A webservices firm called pixcode
  • Business Partnerships Canada – networking site for small businesses
  • Crucible Management Solutions
  • Benflex Inc

The list could likely go on and on since I think the building is almost 200 years old! One thing is wasn’t able to find was the history of what the Shop first was! If you know please share as I am curious what happened in the building in the early 1900s.

Falling Water – perfect integration of nature and architecture

03 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Pleasure, Travel

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I had been visiting Pennsylvania my entire life, literally from the age of 2 months (maybe less) and never got out to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.

Fall Water

Walking up the drive

I had heard of Wright but had never visited his most famous work that is on Smithsonian‘s Life List of 28 places “to visit before you die.” And I have to admit it is truly stunning to see. We were only able to walk around the grounds but it is the perfect integration of nature and   structure.  We had the entire place to ourselves on a sunny day after a brief snowstorm and it is like going back in time when you walk around taking the self-guided tour.

Fallingwater

From the overlook

It is hard to believe that the home was built in 1935 for the Kaufman family – they owned the department store chain named after them.  The family wanted a weekend home and assumed that Wright would design them a cottage or cabin with a view of the waterfall. Instead he integrated the waterfall in to the design and pushed the engineering boundaries.

If you are ever up for a road trip I highly recommend you stop by Falling Water which is just 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The drive takes you through the Laurel Highlands and the Allegheny Mountains. I definitely plan to go back in other seasons and especially when I can take a look inside the home.

If you lost someone close to you recently…

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Advice & Recommendations

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Both my grandma and my pappap passed away within the last 18 months and while I didn’t live in the same city or country as them I do miss them.  They were my last surviving grandparents … sort of forces you to grow up no matter how mature or old you are.

On the weekend, when I was in PA visiting my aunt, uncle and cousins, they gave me grandma and pappap bear. The bears are actually made with my pappap’s flannel shirt and one of my grandma’s turtlenecks.  It is very touching – I can actually remember them in those tops and it is like having them with me.

A comfy place for them in my home

Now I don’t know where in Toronto to get bears made but it doesn’t look very complicated – let me know if you know where you can convert a flannel shirt in to a bear!

 

If you like beer this place is your mecca!

29 Sunday Jan 2012

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As I posted earlier this month I was going to be doing some traveling … I am down in PA visiting family and maybe getting a ski day in.  I returned for a second time to The Headkeeper Tapas Bar with my cousin Jamie and her boyfriend. Not only is the food amazing and the patio likely the best in Greensburg but the BEER selection is obscene (in a good way).

Headkeeper

View of the beer fridges from the 2nd floor

There are over 600 beers in the fridge and dozens on tap. How it works is that you go over the the fridge, select your beer, take it to your table or the bar and the server opens it up for you. You can also buy beer to take home! On this trip I selected a Cherry beer (I must confess the bottle and the label are big influencers for me!)

Beer

Organic Cherry beer and the Duval

and my boyfriend a Duval. And I have to add that if you are used to Toronto prices The Headkeeper is a pleasant surprise – 3 bottles of beer, one draft, and 2 mixed drinks came to …. $27! So if you ever find yourself in Greensburg PA you must head over to The Headkeeper!

My thyroid is broken…

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in About me, Health & Fitness

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Many of you who know me well know that after my last fitness model competition (I may have to cover off those days with another post!) I got really sick with a horrid flu that had me on the couch for days barely able to move and once I got off the couch I didn’t feel much like my old self. I had been in the gym 3 hours a day leading up to the competition and now I could barely get enough energy to teach a spin class. So off to the doctor I went… blood work showed nothing… but I didn’t get better… so back to the doctor I went insisting something was not right. She then testing me for Hashimotos which is an auto-immune disorder and discovered that I did have it and my own body was attacking my thyroid. I was prescribed Synthroid to deliver the stuff my body wasn’t creating on its own.

Now I have a lot to stay about this topic and I have to state the obvious … I am not a medical professional and what I say only comes from experience and nowhere else.  Oprah single-handedly derailed a whole bunch of hypo-thyroid fans byt claiming she didn’t need her medication … how did that work for her? (EXACTLY!)

Some things I learned that might be useful to you or someone you know:

  • Challenge your doctors – my doctor admitted to not knowing the diagnosis levels had changed for hypo-thyroidism had changed to a lower value between 1 and 2 from below 10. Thank goodness I have a friend who is a nurse and was working with an endo at the time!
  • Synthroid is not the only game in town – I have tried it and actually use dessicated thyroid. It is dried up pig thyroid. Sounds gross but remember the days before synthetic insulin?
  • Do your research – there are a lot of experts and opinions so look around but also do what works best for you. You know your body better than anyone.

Some online resources:

Message me if you too are hypo… we can swap tips and stories OR if you think you are and have any questions. I think I have mine pretty much under control but who knows…

It’s not you, it’s me….(an update on the break up)

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

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Yesterday in the mail came my rate increase for my basic cable service… and an offer

Should I stay or should I go?

from the competition! My only two two pieces of mail. With an increase in my basic service and the rental of my PVR I would now be paying $60 a month. I just don’t feel like I am getting that out of this relationship, so I picked up the phone and dumped my cable.

My cable tried to save the relationship saying it could do better, asking if there was someone else. I told it ‘no, there isn’t anyone else’ since I have no intentions of entering a relationship with another provider and promised to return it’s things soon.

I hope that we will be happier without each other! I know I will be a tiny bit wealthier each month… who knows some day we may reunite but I am gonna give it a try on my own.