Look what I had for dinner last night:

Who say’s mac n’cheese has to be unhealthy!

Taking yet another tip from the lovely Caitlin, I added broccoli into my mac n’cheese last night and ate it on top of a bed of spinach. Still super yummy and I got way more bang for my buck nutrition wise.

Guess what else I did last night?

Only at the yoga studio, not in my teeny tiny hallway Last night was “Hot Yoga Flow”, which is a class my hot yoga studio hosts about once a month or so. It’s an Ashtanga style of yoga so we do lots of vinayasa sequences (downward dogs, chataranga’s etc.) and lots of lunges.

It’s intense, but so fun.

Guess what else I did?

I splurged, BIG TIME, and got a 10-class punch pass. The two other memberships I bought to this studio were bought on sale but that was when they were a new studio and it was summertime so they were having lots of sales to attract new students.

Now that it’s cold out and more people know about them they’ve been SUPER BUSY. I don’t predict they’ll be having any sales soon so I splurged and bought the 10-class punch pass for the full price – almost $200 with tax! Eeei!

I have been going back and forth on this purchase for the last week: Is it worth it? What else could I spend my money on? I could always save that money. I deserve this! But do I want something else more?

Finally I bit the bullet and just did it because I love going to Hot Yoga and knew I wouldn’t regret the purchase. Plus, I’ll probably only go to the classes once a week so this card will last me for the next 9-ish weeks.

Not to mention that I rarely eat out, never go shopping for clothes and have majorly cut back on my latte consumption: I get one every 2 weeks or so now. I figured I could afford to splurge on myself a little bit. Some women buy shoes, I buy a hot yoga pass. To each their own

Would you spend that much money on a yoga or gym pass? If not, what is something you are willing to splurge on?

The most-read post on my blog right now, by far, is the one I wrote a few weeks ago entitled How a book changed the way I eat.

In this post I do a review of the book ‘Eating Animals’ and explain that since reading this book I have no appetite for meat anymore.

Today I want to talk about  the fact that I haven’t ate meat for over two months, don’t plan on starting again anytime soon and I’m training for a marathon.

The #1 question I get, usually from people who’s mouths are hanging open and have no experience doing anything remotely close to training for a marathon is “Well, where do you get your protein from?”

After I calmly explain that I still eat dairy products, lots of beans and use protein powder in my smoothies etc. 99% of the time I get a, “That’s not enough protein!” response.

First, I’m going to point you to this blog, this blog, this blog and this blog. All blogs of athletes who have done insane things, think ran marathons, biked 100′s of miles, ran ultra-marathons, participated in triathlons, ran 8:00-minute miles etc.

All of them? Vegetarians and, in one case, Vegan.

The simple fact is that we do not need as much protein as we are made to believe and we can get our protein from other, non-meat sources.

I am not trying to force anyone to give up meat! It’s certainly not for everyone and I don’t even know if it’s something I will continue forever. But right now I literally cannot stomach the idea of eating meat, so I don’t.

It’s been better for my grocery bill, too

Here are some things I have been eating. On a side note, I need to get better at taking photos of my food because it’s usually pretty darn delicious!

Portabello mushroom burger with some veggies and a baked potato with cottage cheese. Some nights, when I’m tired and get home late, I throw a baked potato in the microwave, plop some cottage cheese on top and call it a meal. True story.

A scrambled egg wrap with spinach and mushroom, salsa for dipping and fresh cucumbers and tomato on the side.

I’ve also made a couple of batches of vegetarian chili in the crockpot with homemade cornbread and some really good veggie pizza!

So I’m curious to know if anyone else is in the middle of reducing their meat intake? And, whether you’re a vegetarian or not, what’s your favourite veggie-based meal?

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I’m actually really glad that I didn’t have it in me to write this post on Monday night because yesterday’s Ten on Tuesday questions – and all the comments – inspired a lot of this post.

Is it fate that I waited to write this post today and that the Ten on Tuesday questions inspired me? No, it’s a coincidence.

If you missed yesterday’s post, basically one of the questions was “Do you believe in fate?” And my answer was:

Nope. I believe that things happen because of choices we make, not because they were “meant to be”. I also believe that sometimes bad things happen simply because someone is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A few people mentioned meeting their significant other and how it was fate that they met each other when they did and if one or two things hadn’t happened the way they did then they may not have ever met their significant other.

I don’t think that’s fate. I think it’s a coincidence.

For example, in the first year that Eric and I were dating we were very on-and-off. At one point, we hadn’t spoken for almost a month and were both moving on from each other. One day I went to the bank to deposit a cheque. Well, who would be in line at the bank that day but Eric.

Was it “fate” that brought me to the bank that day? No, it was the fact that I was on the way to the gym and the bank was there. It was pure coincidence. If we hadn’t ran into each other that day and started talking again who knows where we’d be today. But my point is I don’t believe that was fate, I believe it was a very lucky coincidence.

Now, I’m going to go into the topic of soul mates and love, which is the deep topic I was originally pondering the other day.

Lately, I’ve heard a lot about friends/bloggers/people I know ending their relationship. In some cases, it’s people who have been together for a long time and on their surface they seem to have a very good, happy and healthy relationship.

Obviously, not everything is the way it appears, so just because I think these people have a wonderful relationship doesn’t mean all truly is wonderful.

But here’s my internal dilemma: I bet to all of you, Eric and I have a wonderful relationship. I rarely, if ever, write about our problems. But that’s not to say we don’t have any. If we ended it, you’d probably all be very surprised (don’t worry, we are both very happy right now and have no plans to end it anytime soon).

I guess what I’ve been wondering lately, quite simply, is why us?

Why are we able to make it work when others cannot? We have our problems, too. Some that seem very daunting and difficult to overcome. We are both young with our whole lives before us. There have been times when breaking up may have been easier then staying together. But we made the choice to work through the hard times.

This is where I touch on the subject of soul mates. Do I believe that Eric is my soul mate and that there is no other person out there for me? No.

I don’t believe in soul mates.

I believe that there are probably a number of men out there that I could be perfectly happy with. Once again, this all comes back to choices, coincidence, and being in the right place at the right time.

I love Eric. A lot. A lot, a lot, a lot. So much it hurts sometimes. It’s hard to imagine that I could feel that same amount of love for anyone else. But I think if situations were different, I probably could.

Our relationship works because we make it work. The reason I don’t believe in – or particularly like – the idea of soul mates is because it makes it seem like love is fine, dandy and easy. It’s not. It takes sacrifice, it takes making hard choices and it means going through a bit of hurt.

So, to wrap this incredibly long post up, I don’t believe in fate. I don’t believe in soul mates.

I believe in coincidence and making choices.

And I believe in love. I believe that love takes hard work, sacrifice, and making tough choices. I believe that the right kind of love is worth all those things.