Good morning!

Thank you so so much for all of the happy birthday wishes yesterday! Your comments, tweets, Facebook messages, and everything else made it an amazing day. Last night I went out for dinner with some of my girlfriends to Turtle Jack’s. If you’ve ever been there, you’ll know that it’s certainly not a vegan, vegetarian, raw, or organic restaurant like many of the ones I tend to frequent, but there was salmon on the menu and that’s what I was after!

It was a great day filled with lots of surprises. I need to take a moment to tell you just how awesome my roommate, Angie, and her boyfriend Jevin are. Each weekend (when I tend to do all my cooking, and when Jevin comes to visit), they witness an enormous mess of photography props, place mats, wooden surfaces, and random plates on our dining room table. They also listen to be babble on about what I cooked, how great (or gross) it tasted, and how the photos turned out. For the last couple of months, I’ve been talking about how I want to get a piece of drywall and put chalkboard paint on it. That way, I can use it as a background or photography surface, and label the ingredients with chalk. When I came home from Vancouver on Monday to my empty house, weary and loathing the thought of unpacking, I found this in my room:

Chalk board

How freaking amazing is THAT?!?!?!?! I’m so, so excited to start using it. Now I just need to find a free weekend to spend in the kitchen!

Looking back, twenty three was quite the year. Here are some of the highlights:

I met Tosca Reno at Can Fit Pro 2011 (and that just might happen again this weekend at the 2012 conference!)

I bought my domain, eat-spin-run-repeat.com, and transferred my blog over from eatspinrunrepeat.wordpress.com.

I went to San Francisco for a work conference, and when that was over, I shopped my heart out, went to Alcatraz, and visited the Full House house.

While in San Francisco, I also ate my first oyster at the Ferry Building markets.

eating an oyster

I fell in love withe some fancy shmancy gourmet olive oils and vinegars at Dana Shortt Gourmet, and just can’t look at average grocery store balsamic the same way any more.

I set some new goals for 2012.

I visited Italy for the first time with my dad and sister at Christmas.

I gave up gum chewing and drastically reduced my intake of artificial sweeteners. It’s 7 months later and I’m pleased to report I’m still going strong!

I wrote about my personal 10 commandments that I live by, inspired by Gretchen Ruben’s Happiness Project.

I celebrated my 2nd blog birthday and self-published my first book/e-book, Fresh Bites.

I splurged and bought a Vitamix (one of the best investments I’ve made yet!)

I attended Oprah’s Life Class in Toronto with Ange, and 8,500 other Oprah fans.

I went to Melbourne, Australia to be a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding. (Recaps can be found here, here, here, here and here.)

I launched my health coaching business.

And finally, as you saw earlier this week, I went to Vancouver for the Lululemon Sea Wheeze Half Marathon – Recaps are here and here.

Looking back at all these photos and posts makes me realize that I have a pretty awesome life. Since I believe that a good mood can be made even better when it’s shared with someone else, I’ve got a GIVEAWAY for you!!!

Love Grown Foods Granola Giveaway

The fabulous folks at Love Grown Foods sent me another love drop a couple of weeks ago, and I can’t wait to share a little lovin’ with one lucky reader.

The winner will receive one full-sized bag of Love Grown Foods granola (your choice of flavour!), as well as a couple of smaller snack packs. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below telling me about your favourite birthday memory.

LoveGrownFoods

You can earn multiple entries by doing the following and commenting back here to tell me you did:

  • Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway. Use something like “I want to win some @LoveGrownFoods granola from @eatspinrunrpt! http://wp.me/p1Y0xO-44d #giveaway”
  • Follow me on Facebook
  • Follow me on Instagram (@eatspinrunrpt)
  • Follow Love Grown Foods on any of the above (@LoveGrownFoods, up to 3 entries)

This giveaway is open to Canadian residents only (sorry guys, granola is kinda heavy!) and the winner will be chosen at midnight ET on Tuesday, August 21st. I’ll announce the winner first thing in Wednesday’s post.

Good luck! :)

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