Chill Out, Life! 3/26/13

Well kids, mama’s a little overwhelmed right now. The past sixish months have brought quite a lot to my life and it’s not slowing down any time soon. Brief re-cap: I’m in school full time (working to maintain my 4.0), working part to full time, taking care of Nora whenever I’m not doing those things, dealing with the ex and all of the nonsense that comes with him all while trying to maintain some sort of personal sanity. That last part has proven to be difficult. Unfortunately, with everything else that is going on, sticking to my fitness and nutrition plan has, well, not happened. Mostly due to the lack of time, I haven’t been going to the gym consistently, if at all, and my nutrition has had its ups and downs. I’m trying to get back into my gym routine and am consciously working on my nutrition (meal planning, prepping etc) but I am more or less maintaining at this point. I’ve continued to weigh myself and I seem to be maintaining between 230 and 240lbs. I’m not  necessarily happy with this (especially when it gets closer to 240) but I am glad that I’m not gaining it back – and I think I can give veganism a lot of credit for that.

I do have plans for myself: I plan to run a variety of 5ks throughout the summer and cap off the year with the Tough Mudder in October. I have quite a lot of training to do for all of these events but I am confident that I can prepare myself adequately, if I work hard to find the time to dedicate to the training.

Now, I certainly didn’t get back to my blogging just to complain the whole time… I am excited about some of the things going on right now! My culinary education is going really well and I am becoming all the more passionate about food and health. I’ll be sharing recipes again and look forward to creating some beautiful and healthy dishes to share! Today, a simple but delicious side dish:

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:

·         1 bunch Asparagus, ends trimmed

·         1-2 tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·         1 tsp Kosher Salt

·         ½ tsp Ground Pepper (black or white)

 

Prodedure:

·         Pre-heat oven to 400.

·         Lay asparagus in even layer on baking sheet; drizzle oil over and toss to coat

·         Sprinkle salt and pepper and roast in oven until tender-crisp (20-25 minutes)

·         Enjoy!  

Seen below, served aside a Black Bean Burger (to be shared at a later date :) )

So at this point, my goal for this blog is the same as it was when it began: document my weightloss and share recipes, workouts and tips for any and all interested readers.  The biggest changes lie in the fact that I don't have quite as much time to commit to it as I did when I started and my personal goal is now the progression of my body, and not simply weight loss. I am working to become stronger and more overall fit and healthy, not just lighter. I hope that you will continue to follow my progress and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have; food, exercise or otherwise! :)

Here is a current picture, comparison of 4 years ago:

BTW I'm also on Instagram now! @amcrowdus