Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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A Beautiful Fall Day

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It was a nice Fall day here in Toronto. My husband and I decided that since it was so nice out we’d better get outside and get some of our outdoor work done.

I spent some time tidying up the front garden beds. Some of the roses had grown and their branches were starting to block part of the front walkway.

My husband has spent some time over the last month repairing the parging on our foundation at the side of the house whenever the weather has been nice enough to do this kind of work. He had finished repairing the parging, but it needed to be sealed so he spent some time sealing the foundation this afternoon.

It’s supposed to be nice tomorrow as well, so maybe we’ll do a little bit of work in our backyard garden. I know that my husband wants to take our Patio table apart and get it stored for winter.

Winter … man I can’t believe I’m saying that word already, but I guess it’s coming – and soon. It will really only be a couple of weeks, and then we’ll be outside hanging our led christmas lights. That’s definitely something we need to do before it starts snowing.

Did you have nice weather in your area today? Did you get outside and enjoy it? Are you like us, trying to get some yard work done before it gets too cold?





I quit smoking – I haven’t had a cigarette in 76 hours

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I’ve had an interesting week.

On Tuesday I finally managed to quit smoking. Yeah! I did it with the help of medication – not cold turkey. No way … I’ve tried that before and uhm … no one likes a raging Trish.

I started taking Zyban on October 1st and after 3 or four days the cigarettes that I was smoking had started to have no really taste … they were just like sucking on hot air. You’d think I would have put them aside at that point, but old habits die hard. I kept reaching for them even though there was zero enjoyment from them.

By this past Tuesday – October 12th, I’d only had two cigarettes by about 2:30 in the afternoon. At the point I decided to try not having any more that day – and well if I could make it through the rest of Tuesday then that would be my official Quit Day.

It was. I haven’t had a cigarette in about 76 hours and for the most part I think I’m doing pretty good.

I’ve been having cravings here and there, but when I do I just try to distract myself and within five to ten minutes the craving goes away.

Thanks to the Zyban it’s definitely a lot easier to quit smoking than going cold turkey. I’m not as agitated, anxious or angry as I was when I tried quitting cold turkey in the past.

The only major problem is that I’m not sleeping very well at all. I think the medication gives you a bit of an energy boost and it’s known for giving people insomnia. Maybe I should put on the ol’ Nike Dunks and burn off some of that extra energy in the early evening so I can get some sleep?

Now that it seems that I’ve successfully quit I’ll see if I can lower the medication dose in a few days. I think that might help with my sleeping issues as well.

I’m determined to stay quit this time around. My husband, who smoked much less than I did, also quit, so our house is smoke free now.

I’m still losing weight

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It seems that I’m continuing to lose weight. I’ve been on my new migraine medication for about 6 weeks now and I’ve lost 15 pounds!

Isn’t that crazy?

I’m amazed at how fast I’m losing weight.

The migraine medication has all kinds of weird side effects – just scroll through a few of my posts from the last 6 weeks and you’ll see what I mean, and one of them seems to be loss of appetite and weight loss.

I certainly don’t have total loss of appetite, but I guess you could call it appétit control . I’m not hungry between meals at all and I’m eating less than I used to. I never ate all that much to begin with, but I’ve noticed that when I put food on my plate the portions are smaller than they used to be.

Also … because the migraine medication causes taste perversion I can’t drink soft drinks anymore and quite a few other foods taste different, weird or just not as good as they used to taste. I only used to drink one pop a day, but I guess not drinking that one pop is making a difference.

Anyway … those 15 pounds I’ve lost … I’ve gone down two pant sizes. Good thing I kept a lot of my older clothes! I’m also going to need to get some new bras. Right now I have the straps and band tightened up as much as possible and they’re still lose. That’s not where I wanted to lose weight. LOL

Apparently the weight loss effects of the migraine medication that I’m taking only lasts a few months. I don’t really have a lot of weight to lose so I’m hoping it slows down soon … and maybe by the time it does I’ll be at the right weight for my body type.

A belated birthday wish

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One of my brothers did something kind of funny the other day.

My birthday was at the beginning of the month and he was away on a vacation with his wife. He’d gone to Peru and all through the trip he sent an email (pretty much every day) telling us what areas of the country they were visiting and sending a few photos of the wildlife or of the meals they were eating. One picture was of deep fried guinea pig! Not my kind of meal, but apparently it tasted ok.

Anyway .. he’s usually pretty good about remembering my birthday, but I guess with traveling and then getting back to work shortly after their return home he forgot that my birthday had come and gone. So on the 20th I get this call from him and, since he doesn’t call all that often, I though maybe something was wrong, but it was just a belated birthday phone call.

Wasn’t that nice?

While we were on the phone we talked a little more about his trip, a few other things and joked around. Then only a few minutes after we’d hung up I got an email and he’d sent me a birthday picture. It was composed of three pictures of me as a child – one of me as a baby walking through the Tulips at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa, another of me sitting on his lap when I was about 3 or 4 years old and then the last picture was an old school picture – probably of me when I was about 9 years old. It was really cute.

I don’t know if he already had the birthday picture made up before our phone call or if he made it very quickly but it was a great idea. I’m going to have to remember to try to do something like that for him or maybe one of my other brothers or sister for their birthday. I think they’d like it too.

Speaking of my family … I haven’t heard from my brother out in Vancouver for a while. Last I heard he was just about to close a multimillion dollar deal for his business. I think it had something to do with getting investments from asset based lenders. I wonder if that went through or not. If it did, the business he’s been working on for the last year should be off to a good start.

Anyway … I’m sure I’m not the only one with family that sometimes forgets their birthdays. I usually don’t forget my families birthdays, but I’ll get distracted on the day of their birthday and then end up wishing them a belated happy birthday … kind of like my brother just did for me. Does that happen to you too?

Huge dinner – I’m so full!

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I am SO full.

My husband and I just had a big dinner. It was delicious though. I just don’t think I’ll be moving around very much for a little while.

We had grilled boneless skinless chicken breast – that had been marinated in a mesquite marinade, Long grain and wild rice, and corn on the cob. This was accompanied by a small piece of garlic bread that I made with a loaf of bread from Ace Bakery and my own homemade garlic Parmesan butter (well cholesterol free margarine).

After dinner we each had a small bowl of fresh fruit – a mix of chopped peaches and strawberries. Yummy. Oh and I made homemade iced coffees for us as well.

As I said – I’m stuffed. None of the portions were very big, but overall it was a much bigger dinner than we normally eat.

If we ate like this all the time I’d be researching weight loss products right now. LOL But then again .. I’ve been losing weight over the last few weeks – I made this big meal on purpose – I was determined to not lose any extra weight today. I think I’ve been losing it too fast and I’m worried if this keeps up I’ll be too skinny in a month or so.

I hate feeling this full though. Maybe in a little while when I’ve digested some of this food I’ll go outside for a little walk.

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