I’ve moved!

Hey everyone!

I have moved to a self-hosted site so that I can have more freedom with the design.  Unfortunately, since I am moving, my followers from wordpress.com don’t get anymore updates until I contact their support staff which I will be doing shortly. Hopefully everything works and you can continue to follow my posts (I’ve definitely enjoyed your company!). However, if it doesn’t work, you can always click over to my site healthmylifestyle.com where you can follow in your favorite reader or by email. My email followers should still be getting my updates, if you haven’t, let me know! Thanks for all of the support! I updated yesterday, but many of you may not have seen it so feel free to check it out if you missed it.

xoxoRachel

Every song’s like new shoes, salads, cookin’ in the kitchen, running, exercise, this is healthy living..

We don’t care, we’re making pasta in our dreams! Oh, that’s not the lyrics to the Lorde song? My bad.

So where has the time gone?! I think about you all every day! And my laziness. And the fact that I should blog more. And workout more. And that I’m a failure. Ok, I’m being a little melodramatic. But I seriously need to step up my game. Can anybody lend me their time management skills? Mine are pretty much non-existent. Thanks!

I really have no excuse for not working out or blogging. In the evenings after I’ve finished my homework/studying… I just… I don’t even know! Time disappears. I end up watching Dexter or something with Daniel and before I know it, it’s bed time. I’m an old woman now so bed time comes early between 10 and 11 pm. In my undergrad days, it was never before midnight! My how times change.

Ok, so what have you been up to? Well I’ve been up to eating healthy! Just kidding. I’ve been attempting to eat more salads. Check out these tasties:

Spinach salad with a greek spin. No olives but I added cucumber, tomatoes, feta, and some balsamic vinaigrette. So good!

This one was pretty much like the one above except with strawberries and raspberry vinaigrette. Sweet!

I’ve also been getting my fish on as well. Daniel has cooked us some tasty tilapia.

We opted to make something easy by baking it with the Chipotle Raspberry Sauce like we did with the salmon here, but in foil in the oven at 400 degrees F. I think it was in there for 15-ish minutes. It was good but I think the sauce is even better with the salmon.

Daniel also wanted some breaded tilapia one night which I am all for. I made the bread mixture with Panko, corn flake crumbs, parsley, and lemon zest. It was nice and crispy.

We also attempted to make our own version of Chipotle with rice, corn, black beans, sautéed veggies, salsa (homemade with tomatoes, cucumber, and onion), and shredded kale on top! We were out of cheese and didn’t have sour cream so I opted to spread some jalapeño Laughing Cow cream cheese on my tortilla. It was pretty good!

We’ve also had some not-so-healthy dinners.

These are THE BEST fish tacos you will ever have. From So Long Saloon in Manhattan. I love the crispy shell and the tasty sauce mixed in the with coleslaw on top. Oh it’s sooo good! We ordered them to go and ate them while we made the Chipotle Raspberry Black bean dip. I’m obsessed.

I’ve been trying to at least eat a healthier, more filling breakfast than my usual cereal. I’ve been meaning to try overnight oats. Ever heard of them? I think they’re a new trend but I first heard of them from Julie at pbfingers.com. Let me just say–they are so good!

I have yet to try them with fruit. I’ve mainly been sticking to pecans and Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. It’s like dessert for breakfast! Definitely make them with chia seeds–they fill you up! I don’t get hungry at work in the mornings anymore when I eat this for breakfast. It’s amazing! I’m usually hungry two hours later after breakfast like clockwork.  On the days I forget to fix overnight oats the night before I just make hot oats with the same toppings. The chocolate melts and makes it so good. It’s only 70 for 16 chips 😉

Speaking of chia seeds. Now that I’ve had them I’ve started noticing them more in other items, like my tortilla chips!

Yeah, Walgreens definitely brought the satisfaction. It made me feel a little better about eating the bean dip with these.

So remember when I bought new running shoes a couple months ago? I really liked them (the Brooks Adrenaline 13) but I felt they were too similar to my old Brooks Ravenas. Also, I accidentally bought the wide size so I had to tie them a lot tighter for them to fit the same snugness. I realized this after one time of wearing them indoors so I continued to wear my old shoes until I exchanged them for….. drum roll please….

The Brooks Ghost 6!

They’re so light, comfortable, and still have good support! I’m going to try them out as is but if feel like I need more cushion I have some inserts I can use. They just fit my foot shape so much better. I’m in love.

Just in case you couldn’t already tell how much of a loser I am, I took some glamour shots of my new shoes…

I took a lot more than 3 photos but I’ll spare you. I’m so pumped to wear them. It’s been so long since I’ve gone running. I can’t wait to get back in the game! I also bought a tank top that matched my shoes… it was meant to be!

Alright, enough about food and shoes. My best friend Charissa is in town and I’m so excited! She’s been here all week and tonight we are reliving our days in the Ville, Aggieville that is (the bar district for all you non-Manhattan folk).  It shall be fun! She also bought some new running shoes the other day (we went shopping together) and she chose the new Brooks Adrenaline 14. They are awesome! Hopefully we can motivate each other to actually run in our new shoes! Wait, didn’t I say enough about shoes? Sorry!

Have you been getting your run on or shoe shopping? Or eating? I hope you’ve at least been eating!

Masterpieces Revealed!

Our pumpkins turned out fabulous — they’re a work of art! Well, at least my mom is proud.

We were considering doing a Lady & the Tramp theme, but decided on a simpler design. Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

I google searched some ideas and this design was actually originally suppose to be on just one pumpkin with a heart in between them. You can see it here.  But I decided to make our own templates with a mouse on each pumpkin. Our apartment building gets pretty bright at night with lots of out door lights so I brought them inside for another visual with the lights off.

I wish we had made the tails a little bigger to see them better, but overall I’m happy with how they turned out! Check out Daniel’s Mickey. A pumpkin seed stuck on the wall inside his pumpkin looks like it could be Mickey’s eye!

Here’s individually for more detail.

And together! This was during the day after we finished them.

Ok enough pumpkin photos. How about some basketball photos? Daniel and I went to the K-State women’s game vs. Washburn University last night. And K-State won! We went with his mom who is a Washburn fan so I tried to celebrate internally.

Here’s our ladies making a basket!

And here’s the Bramalage Coliseum during half time. It was pretty empty on a Monday night.  Where’s the support wildcat fans?

And of course I had to document that we were actually there. Check out the girl giving us a stare in the background. Haha! Oh and excuse our choice of attire. We decided to wear neither purple (K-State) nor blue (Washburn) so that we could be neutral (even though I really wanted K-State to win). And his mom wore pink, so we were all neutral in the end!

Sorry this post is so random tonight. I have not been tracking calories like I wanted to and I have not been working out. I don’t know what happened to my motivation. This week is crazy for me school-wise. Hopefully I can return with some progress! I miss running.  I think it’s been… a month since I’ve gone running? I hope I can still run a mile! I think I’ll make that a goal this weekend to go for a run and see how far I can go.

Questions:

What workouts have you been doing lately? What has been motivating you?

Juicing Day 5

I survived my first juice fast! I have to be honest though… I ate on my last day. I was running late between work and a networking event so I didn’t have time to juice.  At the event they had appetizers so I helped myself to a plate of fruit… and cheese and crackers! Oh the shame! It felt so good to eat again though. Since I had ended my fast, I felt more inclined to eat for dinner, so I went out with friends for some Mongolian BBQ.  I feel pretty satisfied with myself for lasting most of the fast. And I’ve still been having one juice per day!

Results:

I was feeling pretty good on it once I got my schedule down and wasn’t allowing myself to get hungry. My lowest weight was 124 lbs. That was awesome to lose 4.5 pounds in 5 days! However, now that I’m back to eating solids again, my weight is back up to 126.5 lbs. I haven’t been eating that great since getting off of the fast. I’ve had some salads and stir fry, but Daniel and I made that pizza I spoke of the other night for our Friday night feast!

We each made our own personal pizza. We bought the crust to save on time and added our favorite toppings.

Mine has pineapple, orange bell pepper, black olives, and spinach on it.

I put my toppings on the sauce first and then clumps of cheese so that I ended up putting less cheese on.

Daniel on the other hand, cover his pizza in cheese and then put pepperoni, spinach, orange bell pepper, and black olives on his.

Excuse the minced olives. We bought chopped olives thinking they’d be chunks but they look more like caviar. Still tasty though! We each ate half our pizzas and then had the rest for saturday’s lunch.

For dessert, we made that revered Chipotle Raspberry Black Bean Dip… but with a twist! We bought thin pizza crust, baked it in the oven for some crispiness, then topped it with the bean dip!

It was good but I actually think it would have been better if we had baked the bean dip on top of the crust. Either way, I still prefer salty tortilla chips with it. Nothing beats the combination of salty and sweet!

Ok, back to the topic of juice.

Advice for juicing:

Juice doesn’t last long after you make it because the nutrients start to oxidize immediately.  It’s better to drink it fresh, but that’s not always possible to make every two-ish hours. I started making my breakfast juice at night and putting it in an airtight container filled to the brim with little room for air to be in there and placing it in the fridge over night. That saved a lot of time.  My dad has recently started juicing and he makes most of his juice for the day the night before.  For those limited on time throughout the day, I would recommend that. Nothing is worse than being hungry and not having time to juice. You’re more likely to break your fast if you get too hungry.

I think juicing would also be a lot easier if you prepared for it. They recommend starting to introduce juice into your diet and start eating more fruits and veggies a few days before the fast. Getting your body acclimated with less processed foods in your diet will make the switch to juicing easier. I went in without any preparation except a couple juices the day before. It was definitely a hard transition.

Here’s a video of Joe talking about starting a reboot and what steps to take to prepare for it.

On a side note, Daniel and I never got around to carving our pumpkins. After making our pizzas we settled down for a night of movies: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Cloud Atlas. Daniel hasn’t seen many HP movies, or even read the books! So I’m educating him. Cloud Atlas was really good but really confusing! I need to read the book! I love movies like that where actors play several characters. Austin Powers anyone? haha.

We plan to carve our pumpkins today and we’re going with a Disney theme! The masterpieces will be revealed tomorrow!

Questions:

Do you like pineapple on your pizza? Some people hate it but I love the sweetness of it with cheese and sauce.

Are you carving pumpkins or dressing up for Halloween this year?

Juicing Day 3 & 4

I’m finally getting the hang of this juicing thing. The hardest part was incorporating enough time into my schedule. I’ve found it easiest to make my breakfast juice the night before, place it in an airtight container up to the brim to reduce exposure to oxygen and put it in the fridge. My favorite are my breakfast juices because I always make them extra sweet with lots of fruit. You shouldn’t have too many fruits later in the day because the sugar in them will make you crash later.

My typical morning smoothie has consisted of peaches, apples, pears, oranges, strawberries, one carrot, and spinach. I try to get a little veg in by adding the carrot and spinach, but I don’t want to taste them! Adding one carrot and a few handfuls of spinach creates a perfect balance with the other fruit flavors shining through.

Now that I’m not allowing myself to go hungry anymore, this diet could actually be fairly sustainable. Not sure how easy it’d be to keep up with travels but otherwise, it’s perfectly feasible to do! I admit though, I am very excited to be on my last day! I can’t wait for those delicious dinner plans Daniel and I have that I mentioned last time.

Here’s one of the green smoothies I’ve made off the rebootwithjoe.com suggestions. It’s called the Green Lemonade:

• 6-8 kale leaves
• 3 handfuls of spinach
• 1 green apple
• 1 cucumber
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 lemon

It’s actually pretty tasty!

This one was also really good made with 4 carrots, 2 apples, and  1 lemon — also from rebootwithjoe.

I should have stuck with the recipes more because adding too much variety to each juice starts making all the juices taste the same — and that gets old fast. Don’t worry about fitting all of your veggies into your juice every time. Mix it up and have some in one juice and some in another.  A suicide of all the flavors is no bueno.

Ashley Update

She is down to 210 lbs! That’s about 10 lbs lost since she started her new weight loss regime almost 3 weeks ago. I’m so proud of her! She was busier this last week and only worked out once a day instead of her previous twice a day routine, but it seems to be working for her.  She’s also been keeping up with her healthy eating. Way to go, Ashley!

Have a lovely Thursday night!

Juicing Day 1 & 2

I owe all of you an update on my juicing experiences. I’ve decided to shorten it to just a 5 day juice fast, which means I’m almost halfway done (I ended up starting on Sunday instead of Saturday). It is much hard than I expected. I feel tempted all the time to just go eat something, but it is getting easier. Daniel was doing the juice fast with me but I allowed him to eat since he needs significantly more calories than I do, and he wasn’t getting enough from the juice. However, he is keeping me motivated! Definitely have a juice buddy to help you stay on track!

Here’s a little Q & A of how it is going so far:

What kind of juicer do you use?
I use the Breville Juice Fountain Plus. I bought it off Amazon.  It’s really easy to use! And the clean up isn’t so bad. A plastic bag to catch the pulp makes it faster. And the brush provided does a great job of getting things clean.

How hard is it?
Juicing simplifies things in a sense because you don’t have to worry about making a meal, you know exactly what you’re going to have.  And once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t take that long to make. Just prep everything and send it through the juicer. It’s actually kind of fun to make different concoctions. My favorite are the sweeter ones, obviously =)

What recipes do you use?
I first followed Joe’s reboot recipes at rebootwithjoe.com but now I mix it up. Daniel and I even made pumpkin juice! Warning: nothing like pumpkin pie. I was a little disappointed. We added an orange and apple and I believe some ginger to it. I can’t really remember. But man that pumpkin flavor is strong!

My favorite recipe was with an orange, pear, peach, strawberries, carrot, and a handful or two of spinach. Reminded me of a smoothie!

Here’s what our cart looked like when we first bought groceries for it. It is the most produce I’ve ever bought at once.

What’s in the cart:

Liquid Gold

I did something I’m not proud of yesterday. I ate a Snickers candy bar.  In the midst of learning about the ideal diet of 80% vegetables and 20% fruits in the reboot system from the Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead saga of Joe Cross losing weight and regaining health through juicing, I decided I needed this artificial, poor excuse for snack. It was only satisfying for the first few bites and then it almost became too much sweetness overload. And that is crazy for me. Snickers have always been my favorite candy bar.

Other than Fiber One bars, I really don’t feel like I have sweets that often anymore. I don’t crave them as much either, I’ve notice.  But don’t get me wrong, I still have a ginormous sweet tooth. Hopefully it doesn’t lead me down a road of failure because….

I bought a juicer! And I’m soooo excited to start juicing.  It supposed to be delivered today! Now, I don’t plan to do any extreme juicing fast. My goal is for 10 days to drink nothing but juice starting this Saturday as my Day 1. I hope I can make it! I’ve heard a lot about juicing from various bloggers but it didn’t seem realistic for me because not only did I not have a juicer, but I felt like it would hinder my working out. I thought there wouldn’t be enough protein in the diet to sustain a workout plan as well. But after watching the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, I was inspired to finally take the leap and purchase a juicer. I visited their site, rebootingwithjoe.com which provides all the information and starter guides to get you on the path to juicing. That’s where I found out my assumptions about protein were severely wrong. Yes, you’re getting a juice packed with micro nutrients, but there’s plenty of protein in there to cover your daily intake and then some. A few veggies won’t provide much protein, but a diverse assortment with increased quantity intake is plenty! Afterall, you’ll be having juice 6 times a day.

My goal for this juicing fast is not necessarily to lose weight, although a few pounds off would be nice, but more to jump start healthier eating habits. I’ve been eating wayyyyyy too many processed foods. My meals lately (mainly out of laziness) have been pasta with store bought sauce. And you know, detoxing my body might be a plus. There’s so many added benefits of juicing: faster absorption of micro nutrients, stronger immune system, weight loss, and higher energy levels. It’s liquid gold, as Joe would say it!

After I complete my juicing fast, I plan to incorporate juice into my daily routine as breakfast or snack.

Workout Recap

P90x is going well. I’m definitely sore everyday! Unfortunately Daniel and I seem to always put off working out until 10pm which makes things tricky being on the third floor of our building. We don’t want to disturb our neighbors, so some of the movements like jumping exercises have to be modified.  Wednesday night, we ended up just doing the stretching video and it felt amazing! I haven’t stretched that good in a long time. If I had the time, I’d do that video every morning and night. It incorporated a little bit of yoga which I always enjoy. Last night we didn’t get around to working out because I was studying hardcore for my stats midterm today. I felt fairly good afterwards, not too many questions I couldn’t answer so I’m hoping for a good grade!

Ashley Update

She is officially 214.9 lbs! That week of eating healthy and working out really showed! She said her daily routine is walking for an hour in the morning and then using various elliptical machines for 45 minutes to an hour at night. She’s continuing that same routine this week and will hopefully get some more good results!

Here’s an idea of what she’s been eating from the groceries she got last week: Turkey pitas, veggies burgers with hummus, bananas for snacks, yogurt with fruit, spinach salads with fruit feta and raspberry vinaigrette.

Lots of tasty things to eat! Better than what I’ve been eating. I plan to go to the grocery today to stock up on fresh produce for my juicing adventures. I’ll show you my loot later.

Speaking of what I’ve been eating. Daniel and I went to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant the other night. I had three plates. This was the least unhealthy of them all:

My other plates consisted of wontons, crab rangoons, this cheesy pastry thing, a spring roll, and lots of Tso’s chicken with rice. And can’t forget that sweet and sour sauce!

I always had my last girlfriend discount from Daniel at Einstein’s so I went all out with a turkey sandwich topped with cucumber, tomato, avocado, cream cheese, bacon, and bbq sauce. So good!

On my juicing fast I probably won’t keep track of calories just because I’ll be consuming nothing but fruits and vegetables but I hope to reclaim that habit afterwards.

Have a fabulous Friday!

Question:
Have you ever juiced before?

Hello, I’ve Missed You Quite Terribly

Hi all! Would you believe me if I said I’ve missed you? Because I have! I seriously wish I had more time for blogging. This whole grad school thing is seriously putting a damper on my personal life and goals. Both blogging and working out have been on the back burner! Unacceptable! I’m vowing to try harder this week!

Ok so keeping track of calories last week was an obvious fail. No Weekly Wrap-Up this week. But how about another montage of what I’ve been eating? Here goes:

I left off Thursday where Daniel and I went out with his friend Garret for dinner and a few shots… after that stressful week, I need a little somethin’! Originally, we were going to get our favorite 50 cent tacos from Porter’s, a local bar in Manhattan, however, it was crowded and we were hungry! We decided to check out the newest bar, Wabash, for some eats. They were advertising 75 cent JUMBO wings. I don’t know if I ‘d agree they were jumbo, but they were tasty! I had mine with honey mustard of course! (It’s the best, in case you were unaware)(Also, excuse the blurry photos, we ate outside on their deck and it was dark)

I also thought their fried shrimp appetizer sounded really appealing. It came with an asian sauce that was flavorful. I’d order this again!

Friday, Daniel and I went to see GRAVITY!!! It is sooo good! And no, it’s not just Sandra Bullock floating around in space. But it is a suspenseful movie! I keep saying that I’m surprised I still have hair after watching it–the anticipation was aging killing me! But I digress, go see it! Totally worth it in 3D too. Even with the headache, it’s exciting to have things come at you from out of the screen (and yes I totally tried to dodge things).

After the movie we were starving and Panera is nearby the theater which made for an easy meal.  Did you know they have an autumn squash soup now?!? Have you tried it? It’s AMAZING! I was left wanting more. Not a fan of the seeds they put on top, but the soup is so good! I had my usual Napa Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich with it for the Pick Two.

Saturday, we failed to make it to the CrossFit intro class. AGAIN. But that’s because we went out with friends for drinks the night before and 10am always seems to be too early on a Saturday. BUT, we started P90X! More on that in a minute.

So for dinner we made more pasta with the last of our vodka sauce.  Daniel made some tilapia to go with it. I made the bread crumb mixture! I’m so helpful like that. I pulsed a slice of bread in the food processor with some lemon pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then I added Panko bread crumbs to beef it up a bit with more crunch. Daniel cooked in on the stove for 8-ish minutes per side. I think that’s a little longer than usual but the pan wasn’t heated all the way when he put them on.  It came out pretty good! Breaded fish is the best.

Sunday, we had some people over to watch the Chiefs’ game. Unfortunately, I was attempting to multitask and do homework at the same time so I really didn’t get a chance to watch much of the game. But I did get to eat this:

I’m sure you were expecting something more exciting than a bowl of cereal. Technically, this is Daniel’s cereal but I’ve been helping myself to it as well. With some vanilla flavored coconut milk, it is soo good! It’s so sweet, like dessert. And only 100 calories per cup! I’m sure all the sugar in it isn’t good though. I had at least 5 bowls of it this past weekend. And to be honest, I just paused my typing to make another bowl. Mmmmm….

I’ve also been snacking on a lot of these:

It’s a plain ol’ rice cake topped with Laughing Cow Cinnamon Cream Cheese.  The cream cheese makes it amazing. Also, it’s only 35 cal for the rice cake and 45 for the cream, which makes for a nice small snack when you just need a little something.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I made brussel sprouts for the first time in my life this past weekend! I HATED them growing up. I’m not sure how exactly my mom prepared them, but they were always a mushy green vegetable with bad texture and taste. However, after stumbling upon Julie’s blog, Peanut Butter Fingers, last winter, she made me believe there was hope for this little green vegetable after all. She has a recipe for roasting them in the oven. I finally got around to making them, but I didn’t follow her recipe exactly. First of all, I didn’t have minced garlic. So I tossed them in the olive oil and then dashed some garlic powder on them with the black pepper. I skipped the salt, and didn’t have balsamic vinegar either, but I like how they turned out! The smaller crunchy pieces were my favorite. And the flavor reminded me of kale. The little roasted leaves that fell off could definitely have been mistaken for kale chips. Yummy! Daniel was a fan of them too. In fact, I think he ate more of them than me! Definitely going to be making more soon!

Last but not least, Sunday dinner. Lemon pepper and cajun spice tilapia with some stir fry! I added red and green pepper, zucchini, and celery to the stir fry with honey, soy and teriyaki sauce.

Other than my Thursday night splurge for fried food and a lot of sugary cereal, I don’t think I’ve been eating too bad.

Work Recap

We bought this Door Gym from Wal-Mart to do the pull-ups. It is suppose to hang over the door frame and press against the sides so no holes in the wall are necessary! Unfortunately, the doors in our apartment are extra wide so it doesn’t fit! Boo.

But I do like it for the push up aspect of it. My wrists always seem to hurt afterwards so it’s nice to have something to hold on to instead of just having your hands on the floor.

So for P90X, we’re not going in any particular order for the videos. We decided Sunday will be our rest day but I was craving a workout since it had been so long so we did the Ab Ripper X video. It’s only about 16 minutes long but you definitely feel the burn! It’s suppose to be used in conjunction with some of the other videos but we might just do it every Sunday. So far so good!

Ashley Update

Ashely has been eating healthy and working out! She said at the gym yesterday that her weight was 214! That’s 5 pounds down in a week! However, since we originally weighed her on my scale we’re going to have her come over to see if that matches up. We both won’t have time until Wednesday, so maybe she’ll be down even more than that by then! I’ll also give you a more thorough update on what she’s been eating and doing for exercising.

Alright, this grad student needs to go study for a mid-term this Friday! (It’s statistics and I need all the help I can get)

Goodnight!

Ashley’s Before Photos and My Eats

I know, it’s been a while. Yet another busy week for me!  I had a big take home test to complete, a big test today, and an interview today for a summer internship! Needless to say, I had a few shots tonight when it was all over… that’s acceptable right? It’s Thirsty Thursday!

Ok, here’s Ashley’s before photos. Now remember, she has already lost over 100 pounds! Doesn’t she look good?! 60 more to go and she’s already been keeping up with her healthy eating and exercising!  She’s going to update me this weekend some more about how she’s been handling it so far but her occasional updates sound like it’s been a good week!

She said she’s been working out twice a day! I haven’t even worked out once this week! I plan to go running tomorrow and hopefully figure out how we can start P90x now that I can have a little bit of a life again.

Alright so my eats? Well, I lost track of calories again so I’ll just update you on my meals. I don’t think I’ve gone over 1200 calories that much per day this week.

Sunday I was lazy and we had zucchini so I made zucchini pizza for dinner. It’s one of my faves! So easy, and so tasty! (Don’t worry, I ate more than just two slices. These were just the least ugly of the bunch.)

Monday, I took advantage of the girlfriend discount for lunch and had Daniel make me a bagel thin sandwich from Einstein’s. Turkey, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, and this awesome pesto/red pepper sauce. Yum!

For dinner, I decided we needed to finally eat up the Curry Pumpkin Soup my dad had made back in August.  We’ve had it in our freezer and last week I decided it was the season for us to finally eat it up. The problem was it was still a little too spicy, which overpowered the pumpkin flavor. After trying to add more pumpkin and half&half to the concoction last week, I decided to try coconut milk.  Third time’s a charm–it was finally a consistency close to what my dad’s friend Monica had made us in Germany. A little bit of that spice goes a LONG way!

Tuesday was salad bar and stir fry for dinner. The salad bar was to tide us over while we shopped. Grocery shopping on an empty stomach is a no-no! But to be honest, even when I’m not hungry I want to buy everything in the bakery.

Wednesday I capitalized on that girlfriend discount again and had another bagel thin sandwich.  They’re so good! And nothing tastes better than free. Sadly, he’s quitting soon due to school/work conflicts and stress so I need to take advantage of my discounts while I can! This one had turkey, spinach, cucumber, avocado, tomato, onion, bacon, light cream cheese, and bbq sauce.  I think it’s my new favorite combo. Obviously the best part is the bacon, cream cheese, and bbq sauce. Mmmm!

For dinner we didn’t even try and just had macaroni noodles with vodka sauce. I was too busy studying to care. No veggies. Nothing. Just sauce and pasta. But man, that vodka sauce makes everything taste good!

So that was my week so far. I had some good veggie moments. I’ve also made a few smoothies this week that I’ll have to update you all on. I have a new protein powder to add now!

What have you been eating this week?! Did you make something healthy? Or perhaps those Pumpkin Scones?! Still can’t get over how good those were. Someone invite me to a party so I can have an excuse to make them again!

Alright, time to get some shut eye. I can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already! Goodnight!

Reached A Goal!

Another week has flown by. Where is the time going? Well, another week and another weigh-in. Last week I was 129.0 and I said I wanted to finally reach 128 or 127.  Well, I did it! This morning I was 127.2 lb. Woohoo! I’m really not sure what I did different to finally get out of the 130 plateau I had been on for almost a month but I’m happy.  I didn’t really work out this week. Oops. However, my average calories per day have been the lowest ever, so that must have been the contributing factor.

First let’s take a look at Saturday’s calories:

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Corn Flakes	100
	Almond milk	30
Lunch	Brown rice	100
	Fiber One bar	90
2nd Lunch	Spinach and fruit salad	125
Dinner	Veggie burger with guac	100
	Chips and guac	200
Drinks	Straw-ber-ritas and beer	400
Drunk Snack	THE SANDWICH	400
Total		1545

At the grocery store yesterday, I picked up some similar items that Ashley had gotten because they were sounding good. Like some veggie burgers and guac! I usually buy MorningStar but I compared it with Boca, and Boca was less calories, less sodium, and more protein! I decided to give them a try. I chose the original Vegan Veggie Burger. I put some fresh guac on it. Doesn’t look pretty?

Well, unfortunately it didn’t taste pretty. In fact, there wasn’t much flavor other than the guac. I think I like the flavor of MorningStar a lot more.  But the gauc was sooo good! I did some damage on that with tortilla chips. Yum!

It was a low calorie day until I started drinking. And of course with drinking comes the necessary SANDWICH at the end of the night. Mac n’ Cheese Grilled Cheese with Bacon. What’s not to love?

Workout Recap

Daniel wasn’t feeling well yesterday morning. He went out with his cousin Friday night. So no CrossFit saturday =( Hopefully we can try it next week!

Weekly Wrap-Up

My average is the closest to 1200 that it has ever been! I wish I had gotten more exercising in but I’m proud to have stayed closer to my calorie goals. I hope to keep it up this week as well but incorporate more workouts into my routine. I have a two tests and an interview, so we’ll see how well I can time manage.

I’ll be back later today with Ashley’s Before Photos!!