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!

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s OCTOBER! The best month ever. Fall is my favorite time of year.  Leaves change hues, pumpkins are everywhere, and mild weather make for a beautiful month. I still need to buy a pumpkin. And make/buy fall decorations. It’s happening.

So I’m not sure where the time went yesterday but 11PM came all too soon and I didn’t get a chance to blog.  It may have been due to the 4 episodes of Breaking Bad that Daniel and I watched yesterday.  We’re trying to catch up to the series finale! Don’t spoil it! We have 3 episodes left and will more than likely watch them tonight.

Ok so Sunday’s meals:

Meal	Food	Calories
Lunch	Pulled pork sandwich with awesome sauce and coleslaw	350
Snack	Caramel kettle corn	100
	2 Pumpkin Scones	500
Dinner	Raspberry Chipotle Salmon and stir fry	270
Snack	veggies with ranch	50
Total		1270

Monday’s meals:

Meal	Food	Calories
Breakfast	Corn flakes	90
	Almond Milk	20
Snack	Fiber One Bar	90
	Plum	25
Drink	Green tea with almond milk	10
Lunch	Pulled pork, sauce, bun, coleslaw	350
	Left over stir fry	40
Snack	Caramel corn	100
	Pumpkin scone	250
Dinner	Stir fry	250
Snack	Kudos bar	100
Total		1325

Not bad on calories considering I ate a few Pumpkin Scones…. that’s right, I made PUMPKIN SCONES! While watching the Chiefs game on Sunday I had a burning desire to bake something.  Maybe it was the sweet smell of my new butternut pumpkin candle (if it was edible, I would eat it). So I hopped on Pinterest to check out my options from sweets I had previously pinned.  I must say, it was a good choice, because they turned out amazing!

They’re not super big so I didn’t feel as guilty about eating them.  Here’ s the original recipe from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen.

Yeah, I took a lot of photos. They’re just so photogenic! I love scones.  After eating several the past couple days, I’ve noticed that they fill me up more than other sweets.  Yes, I was craving them.  But they did also offset my hunger compared to empty calories like chips or a cookie.

This batch made 12 and there’s one left!!!  They were popular on Sunday with our guests and of course Daniel and I have been snacking on them since.  I wish there was more…

Workout Recap

Sunday was my rest day. Ha. Aren’t most? But I did run yesterday! It was getting late so Daniel and I made a quick 3 mile trip around the park. Nothing too exciting though we did do a little speed work.  For some reason it was a lot harder last night for me to sprint than before. Maybe it was all of those scones weighing me down.

I really want to try CrossFit but it’s expensive so I think we’re going to possibly do P90x if we can find a way to get the DVDs.  However, K-State has a free CrossFit intro class that we plan to try out Saturday.  I at least want to see what it’s like but I’m pretty much ready for anything that builds strength.  I need something to hold me accountable like a class or schedule of some sort.  Trying to get motivated at home is hard.  If we do P90x we plan to set aside a certain time every day for it.

What do you do for strength training?

Now, go make pumpkin scones!

I’m going to attempt to motivate myself to do pushups.