Aug. 14: CanFit Pro

As you know, the last year has been rough for me.  Today was an absolute highlight for me!

My youngest daughter and I went to Toronto for the CanFit Pro Conference and Trade Show today.  I was fortunate enough to get to meet Tosca Reno, who was the inspiration behind my weight loss.  I wrote here about that moment that I saw her "before" picture and suddenly believed that a 40 year old overweight single mom could really do it - lose weight, change her life, and be an example for her children.  It was a privilege to meet her.  She was warm and friendly and seemed sincerely interested in everyone's story - and there were many of them.  Here is a picture of my daughter and me with Tosca. Yep, I'm kinda geeky and pale!

My little girl, Rachel and I wandered around the many displays.  There were cooking demos, weighted hula hooping, Zumba - any kind of exercise wear or equipment you could imagine and some you couldn't!  We had a few "what the heck is that thing?" moments when looking at the equipment.  Rachel tried every single protein bar that was cut into sample sized pieces and decided quite definitely she does not care for protein bars.

We ended up back at the Oxygen booth and got to meet Bob Kennedy.  What a nice man!  I wasn't quite sure what to expect after reading some of his more acerbic comments in his editorials, but he could not have been kinder.  He asked Rachel if she ate clean also and she told him she did.  He told her she was just beautiful.  He asked how much I'd lost and I replied about 60 pounds.  I said, "I still have a bit to go."  He looked at me and said, "Not that much - you're looking pretty good."  Now coming from Bob Kennedy, I took that as a HUGE compliment.  I was nearly star struck and giddy.  So then I shut up and let Amanda, one of the super nice Oxygen people, take our picture together.

We had an excellent time.  Tosca is a very motivating speaker - even Rachel was pumped about good eating habits when we left.  I had an excellent day sharing something I am passionate about - nutrition and fitness - with my little girl, and hopefully helping to kindle the flame for fitness in her.

On the way home, we were starving.  I asked, "What do you want to eat, Rachel?"

She replied, "Well, we can't really have french fries after that!"

We settled on pitas.  Rachel got a whole wheat pita with meatballs, marinara, mozzarella, and red and green peppers.

I had a flat baked Thai Beef pita - also on whole wheat - it was so delicious!  I was pretty astounded to discover that it had just under 500 calories and 28 whopping grams of protein!  (Sorry Tosca - I'm still a calorie counter - but a clean one!)  It was loaded with marinara sauce, red onion, mushrooms, broccoli, steak, a light sprinkling of mozzarella and a drizzle of Thai chili sauce.  Yummmmm.....I'm going to recreate this one at home!

Aside from this meal, my day has not been a protein winner, I'm going to have a protein shake as an evening snack. 

m1: Bagel with light cheddar and butter, berries
m2: the above deliciousness
m3: pita crisps with light ranch dip
m4: protein float

Okay, today was not a nutritional goldmine.  Tomorrow is weekly food prep and I have some spectacular foods to make!  I'll take pictures and also go over my weekly food prep plan - I haven't done that in quite a while!