A Spooky Way- A Halloween Helping Others

Since my last blog about Halloween, I could have possibly changed my mind on the subject and activities of the October custom. I usually relate Halloween to 'adults' (and I use the term loosely) acting like juvenile delinquents and proverbially raising hell in an unruly manner. I also relate it to children going out trick or treating and enjoying the acquisition of some yummy sweets. I still do, but I have also softened up on 'Adult Halloween'.

This year, I spent Halloween with my long time friend Stacey Yarwood, her family, and her neighbourhood.  I was part of an amazingly great time with a haunted house, trick or treating, a block party with DJ included and a fundraiser for BC Children's Hospital inspired by an amazing young man, Taylor Schoffenburg.  Taylor is diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of muscular cancer, and it's treatable.

Shane and Stacey Yarwood, throw a Halloween party each and every year on their block with a full haunted house through the Yarwood front and back yards for the enjoyment and entertainment of Halloween goers. Each year, they also choose a different charity to benefit from the traffic that goes through their block party. This year, they chose the BC Children's Hospital and will donate the funds they raised in the name of their nephew, Taylor. 

This year, they doubled the funds raised to nearly $1200. There were about 1200 trick or treaters and just about 1500 people in total going through their block and supporting their festivities.  Truly amazing when you think about a short neighbourhood block could bring so much joy to so many people.

They also got some help from the Tim Horton's Community Cruiser to provide coffee, hot chocolate and Timbits for the passer-byers as part of the festivities. More importantly, Stacey and Shane's family units and friends combined forces to help out in any way they can to make this event the success it was last night. From all the brothers, sisters and in-laws dressing up to be a part of the haunted house, to taking kids around the block trick or treating, giving out candy, directing traffic, running the popcorn machine and donation bins and taking pictures.

Tim Horton`s Community Cruiser

For the first time in a long time, I finally felt that Halloween could be fun, family oriented, and absolutely a wonderful way to share your causes with your communities.

This year, my family participated in volunteering, donating and enjoying the Yarwood's annual event.  I will be  the first to tell you all that Shane and Stacey Yarwood are amazing people.  Even if I didn't know them as friends from my school days, it's not hard to tell how generous, kind-hearted, and inspiring the Yarwood family is. Anyone looking from the outside in could see that, no one needs me, who has known them for over 20 years, tell you that.

The Yarwood family, truly amazing people!

So if your Halloween didn't seem so amazing or as fun this past one, there is always a great block out in Cloverdale on 190th street that will make you love your Halloween and will make you want to be a part of a wonderful event.  I hope to see many of you at "Spooky Way" next year!

From the Left...

Justine Galo

See Spooky Way Album Here

Halloween: Trick, Treat, or Adult-life Retreat?

It's that time of year again when the spooks come out to play and raise some proverbial hell. I'll be honest and be the first to say I've never been really big into Halloween, but it doesn't mean I hate it.  As an adult I never got into the whole dressing up, going out to a bar or party and just being a part of the night. For me, it's just another day but in 'drag' so to speak.

Unlike my other half,who will go crazy in the Halloween store, buying everything left, right and centre, I can't justify why I have to spend all this money to look like I slut in uniform, witch in wedges or hero in hooker boots. It's just not how I want to spend my night.

Halloween costumes for women, apparently.

A lot of this has to do with me probably being a mother early in my adult life. By 22, I was doing the trick or treat circuits in the neighbourhoods and malls with my daughter.  For me, as an adult, Halloween was all about the kids and their joy and excitement.As a child, I remember trudging through the rain in costume (with rain slicker over) to get my treats in my bags and then going home and rummaging through my candy treasures. Put a smile on my face and gave me a couple of cavities in the process.


It just didn't transcend as an adult.  Like I said previously, it probably has a lot to do with me being a younger parent.  My Halloweens were about kids, not adults wanting to have fun like kids.

Why I did it as a child. 

There is nothing wrong with it, and in fact. I've gotten a lot of flak for not being a big advocate of Halloween. "Party pooper", "lame" were words brought to my attention. It is what it is, I suppose. I already find enough 'excuses' to act like a sorority girl going through pledge week, but to do it in 'drag' is going to be a stretch for me.

For the first time since 2002, I am dressing up for Halloween. I even attended "Fright Night" at Playland because it's something my other half liked to do. Hell, I even went through haunted houses for him. It's so not me, but I did it, just to show I am a good sport.

All I am saying is, if I give Halloween a chance on an adult level, I'd like you Halloweenies (*wink*) to try a custom or hobby that you might not be that into for someone you might know who does.  I hope the other half doesn't mind Baryshnikov.


From the Left...

Justine Galo

My best impersonation of Elphaba

Staying Healthy on the Road

For someone like me, traveling for work is a very commonplace thing and eating right is not always an easy part to do. So I had to find ways to help keep my caloric intake lower when I am on the road and not cooking for myself.  It's not ideal but it's better than starving yourself. Hitting a fitness routine on the road is also a challenge, so find ways to exercise and stay motivated.

• Try to find a hotel that has a stove/kitchenette so you can stock up on some groceries and cook a fairly healthy meal for yourself.
• Pack a shaker of Sea Salt and Pepper to take with you on your trips. It doesn't take up a lot of space and can cut down on iodized varieties of salt. 
• Bring an exercise band or jump rope in your suitcase. Just in case there isn't a gym on the facilities, you can get some form of exercise in your hotel room. 
• Continental breakfast orders help with weight loss over bacon and egg breakfasts, but if you feel like something hot, try ordering an omelette of egg whites and some veggies. 
• Find time to just to walk around and tour the area your hotel is situated. 
• Don't spend your whole entire time working and then staying in your hotel. Go enjoy the sites and some local flavour. Isolating yourself could end up being counter productive and you'll end up eating out of sheer boredom. 
• Keep your drinking near a minimum. It doesn't have to be a dry trip, but if you're serious about losing weight, you should reconsidering having that 4th martini or glass of wine. Limit yourself to 2 if need be. It's a good number. You have more than one, and you can still be standing when it's all said and done. Not to mention to those that get hangovers, a couple glasses of your favourite bevvy won't kill you in the morning. 

A road trip for work doesn't have to be an excuse to veer away from your fitness regimen, it just a challenge and adjustment for those that are serious of getting fit and feeling better in the long run.

Justine Galo

PS If that piece of cheesecake keeps calling your name, have it, just be willing to know what you have to do to counter those calories.

Taking the "Work" out of Working-Out

Why do I workout? Mainly because I want to feel better and find a way to battle my PCOS symptom of a 40lbs weight gain. Not only that, I've always been active throughout my life and over the last few years, I let a diagnosis beat me. So I decided to 'fight back'.

Consensus says that people don't enjoy working out because it feels like a chore. The idea of getting on a bike, treadmill, or elliptical and going nowhere to try to shed a few pounds is not appealing. I also heard that lifting weights might make a woman 'bulk up more (which is truly a false story).   I understand completely, but it doesn't have to be so.   How? I don't look at a workout as 'work' or something I HAVE to do because I want to be in better shape. 

Here are a few tips to help your workout feel less like a chore and feel more like something you like to do four to five times a week.

1. Implement music as part of your routine. You'll find that 30 or so minutes on your cardio machine of choice doesn't seem so long and endless if you get a few tunes going on. Try more 'fun' tunes that make you want to get up and dance a little or sing along to them.
2. Although this may  be easier for me because I workout at home, but try enjoying the music during your workout.  I sometimes do a little dance on the elliptical as I am striding or sing along to the chorus.  
3. When doing your sets during your weights session, between them, dance along or just walk and sing to the music. Why not? 
4. When you're feeling discouraged, think about the one less workout closer you are to your goal. I am not saying you should stop working out once you attain your goal (would defeat the purpose would it not?).  The easier you can put off a workout once, the easier it will be the second time. 
5. Read a little doing your cardio if you can.  A magazine usually does the trick. 
6. If at all possible, workout with a buddy. Having the second person there encourages you to keep going and you can do the same for him/her. Also it shows you that you are doing that same for the other person. 
7. If you can, try calling it a fitness regimen instead of a 'workout'.  I find a difference in the usage of words with certain people has a different effect. 
8. Smile through the pain and exhaustion.  Yes, when you workout properly, you're going to feel exhausted towards the end, as you should, but smile through it. Remember how good you're going to feel in the next 30 minutes. 
9. When you're done, smile at yourself and say you did a great job today. It will encourage you to keep at it on your next workout.

Those are things I try to make my fitness regimen. Why? I feel it's important to find joy in all things you do. Whether it be work, school, taking the kids to the park, making dinner or just even relaxing, there should be some level of enjoyment. Otherwise, like most people out there, it's just another hour or so of work I have to do to get what I want.


Justine Galo

The Replacements: Making your Breakfast a Healthier Start

Being on a new nutrition plan isn't always easy, you're going to have days when you just want to fall off the wagon, and every now and then (maybe at most twice a month) you can fall off that wagon. It's not hard to get back on, provided you allow yourself a good lead on your health front to get back on. 

Yolk all over the place

Today's Breakfast:

"Healthy" as a hard boiled egg can be, the cholesterol levels are much higher and while in an egg white, it's virtually none. Also, most of the protein of the egg is in the whites.  A little whole wheat egg white wrap with some spinach and/or turkey bacon is a filling breakfast with a low amount of calories. On the left is a sample of the breakfast I am having currently and on the right is one that I used to have just a few months ago.

1/2 cup --egg whites --- 60 calories                   1 hard boiled egg --large --- 78 calories
1/4 cup --spinach --- > 5calories                       1/4 cup-- black forest ham-- 118 calories
1 tortillia-- whole wheat -- 85-100 calories        2 pieces of whole wheat toast (Not buttered)- 200 calories
1 tbsp salsa ---10 calories                                 2 tbsp cheddar cheese --130 calories
16 oz pressed coffee-- black-- 4 calories         16 oz pressed coffee-- black-- 4 calories
1 tsp-- raw sugar-- 15 calories                          1 tsp --white sugar--15 calories
1/8 cup -- 1% milk--28 calories                       2 tbsp --half and half cream-- 40 calories

Total calories: 222                                          Total calories: 585


I am comparing what I used to have for breakfast and what I have been having for the last few weeks.

I have shed between 300-330 calories just off one meal by making some little changes. It takes no time to get used to it and cooking it is simple.

I'll continue to have such a breakfast incorporated with similar meals at lunch and dinner and small snacks in between but also doing a good fitness/workout plan to boost my metabolism.

I am sharing my journal to help those on a similar trek to keep going. I'm not interested in losing pounds but making myself healthier and leaner. So far, I've dropped 2 inches off my waistline and trimmed my arms in the last 3 weeks. Just have to keep at it.

Justine Galo

Your Body is Your Temple: Worship It

Women for years and years have always had this ideal to be whatever the socially acceptable was for what their physical appearances should be throughout history .  I have found that many women, famous or your neighbourhood friend, are and have been willing to do just about anything to attain 'the ideal'.  In today's society, 'the ideal' seems to be rail thin. To me, it's never been that attractive. In fact, in some cases it's down right disturbing.  It's not always that when you see a thin woman she has an eating disorder. I know a good number of thin women who are naturally quite thin and fit, but I would say about 50-50 is the ratio these days for those with eating disorders. 

I'm not actually here to preach to you all about what is 'the ideal' and how you should not try to attain the unattainable. I am just here to share my story with my battle with weight in recent years.  It's not that I had been completely lazy and as some people say "let myself go" but I have had some health issues that have thrown some obstacles my way.

In the fall of 2006, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or the acronym of PCOS. I was at first in shock because I have never heard of it before, but I was wondering why I had been feeling pain in my lower abdomen and of course seeing a noticeable weight gain. Prior to my diagnosis, I was a woman's North American size 4, and after I was a North American size 6. I was also 31 at the time, and also realized that I was getting older and my metabolism wasn't quite like it once was, so I accepted the gain as something 'natural'.

I was also working a ridiculous amount of hours that year as well working in a sales firm and then trying to start up my own company. I didn't have time for exercise and a healthy lifestyle but I did a huge amount of walking and tried to still find the time to do something physical and fun. So I did for a short amount of time "let myself go".  I wasn't feeling bad about it, but I wasn't feeling all that great either. That was a time I also ran into someone I hadn't seen in years, who only remembered me as a 19 year girl who had this amazingly thin body and told me "You got fat." It was hurtful but I managed to just ignore it at the time, but I am not going to lie, the words rung in my head more than I would ever let people know.

One of the symptoms of PCOS is weight gain and obesity and it wasn't one of those putting on 5lbs a year of weight gain it was noticeable and rapid. By the end of 2006, I had moved up to a North American woman's size 10. For my 5'3 frame, I felt and looked huge. During the week of my 32nd birthday in January of 2007, I was in the hospital because of my PCOS, and stayed there for almost a week.

So for the last three years, I have been "playing footsies" with my PCOS-- battling it and then being lazy about taking care of the weight gain. I had lived in three different cities in the last three years that I felt I was always trying to find my footing, so this was the last of my worries.So I prioritized it like it was so.  Now that I am back home in Lotus Land, I have no excuse.

When I decided it was time to make a lifestyle change or revamp and setting my goal to be a size 3/4 like I was prior to my PCOS, I was told that it's 'unhealthy' and not natural. Obviously this person never saw me as a size 3/4 on my 5'3 frame. I wasn't rail thin, but I was definitely in shape and athletic.  I was also told that I should be happy with the body I was in. I said to myself, "Why?" Why should I pretend to have to be happy with it when I am not? I am a size 3/4 woman trapped in a size 8-9 body. I want out!!!!

I found that people will be negative at your goals because they can't see themselves attain theirs, so in order to feel better about it, they would rather try to shoot you down before you even get out of the gates. I'm far more resilient than that. If I can survive living with an abusive (physically and mentally) ex-boyfriend and then go on to attain the 'successes' I've had in life, I think a little weight loss isn't such a hard thing, don't you?

Within the last three or four months, I made the conscious decision to really put an effort to get myself healthy and see if my lifestyle change with a good nutrition plan and a healthy amount of exercise will help me shed some of this weight gain from the last four years.  I am not 'dieting', I don't believe in diets, in fact I think going on a diet is a way to get yourself fat. I am learning to cook my flavourful edible meals in ways of low-fat cooking.  I am planning out and doing a great regimen that I used do to working out alongside my good friend Mike (Ingy) at the gym and implement in my schedule.  I've learned that I had to be more selfish with my time so I can attain my goals.

I only have one body, I need to take care of it in a healthy way. I have my goals, I want to attain them whether people think I can or not, it doesn't matter. I know I can. It is mind over matter. I know what I can be happy with in terms of my physical appearance. I am not doing anything to harm it. In fact, I am doing all I can to make it better...the RIGHT and HEALTHY way.

It's my body. It's my temple. I want to worship it so I should be able to decide how my temple should look.

Justine Galo

Doing the Kooza with Pride

This past BC day long weekend was the first one I managed to stay in town (that being Vancouver) in the last five years. Usually at this time, I am traveling for work or just trying to get some peace and quiet from the craziness that happens on the lovely west coast of Canada.

The annual Celebration of Lights have now come and gone with the final show finishing up this past Saturday, July 31st. I haven't seen one of these in years. I think it's more to do with the fact that I am finding myself not all that patient dealing with massive crowds, public drunkenness or having to deal with the aftermath of extensive littering throughout the downtown core. I'm a little sad because I truly do enjoy a great show of fireworks, but it's being going on for about 20 years or so and I've done my share. Maybe next year.

However, the Cirque du Soleil has made their way to town with their latest production of Kooza. A brilliant array of colours, stunts and stage presentation.   A first class company putting together a first class show. This year we managed to get ticket to the Cirque VIP tent (Tapis Rouge) and received complimentary drinks, appetizers and some great shade from the hot sun.

Being in the big tent was a wonderful experience bringing me back to what it felt like to be a child and heading to the circus or carnival during the summer months. The show itself was just purely amazing. I would highly recommend it to those who have yet to experience a Cirque du Soleil production.

But the biggest event of them all is definitely Pride. With the crowds gathering throughout the downtown core, mainly on Davie Street, Vancouver has one of the biggest Pride Festivals in North America and this year was no exception. Colourful, decadent, bright and fabulous!  A fantastic way to end the Provincial holiday with a bang.

I forgot how fun it was to stay in town during this long weekend. I've been away so much it was like discovering the city all over again. Heck it even rained a little to make sure we're still in the realm of reality. Vancouver sharing its best with the world and their native sons and daughters, can you ask for more?

Justine Galo