I'm Me Again! :) 12/5/11

Hello Monday! It’s raining and miserable outside, but oh well, the sun will shine again, Scarlet! I think that’s what my mom says?

ANYway… this weekend was a crazy one! Friday night I was running around like a mad person shopping for Nora’s birthday party. I ended up just eating an Amy’s Organic frozen meal (bean enchiladas) for dinner b/c I didn’t have time to cook anything. It was delicious, I will say.

The party was fantastic! I am very happy to report that I offered a fully vegan menu and I got more compliments on the food than I think I ever have! I was so happy with the way everything turned out – even the cake was vegan!

Here’s what I served:

Baba Ghannoush w/ Pita Chips

Cowboy Caviar w/ Red Hot Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

5 Layer Mexi Dip w/ Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips

Roasted Tomato Bruschetta w/ Balsamic Drizzle

Veggie Chili

Vanilla Cake w/ Vanilla Buttercream

I even made my own punch w/ freshly juiced fruits! It felt so great to offer delicious and relatively healthy foods. J I’ll post recipes of all of these foods tomorrow (hopefully), I don’t have time to do it right now L..

I FINALLY made it back to the gym this morning! I was feeling so terrible last week and I can only imagine that my lack of exercise was playing a big part. I decided yesterday that I am re-focusing and re-prioritizing myself and I was going to get my workouts in no matter what! So I went to the gym this morning and started back on week 3 of the Crossfit training where I left off. I was happy with how the workout went! I finished about 6 minutes faster than last month! Today was Mountain Climber Monday… I freakin hate those things! Anyway, here’s what I did:

5 Rounds for time:
Mountain Climbers	2 minutes
Clean & Squat	10 @ 65#
DB Push Press	15 @ 15#
Bench Dips	8
TIME:		22:34

Tomorrow I’m determined to get in a good run! It has been raining the past 2 days but I think (hope) it’s supposed to clear up by the morning! I bought a new dri-fit jacket to wear J. I LOVE getting new workout clothes! Speaking of, I believe I shared these Leopard weight lifting gloves that I found in a previous post? Regardless, I need these in my life! My hands were hurting pretty bad after my workout this morning and they’re starting to get calluses! We can’t have man hands up in here! Hopefully Santa will remember to order those for Christmas. J

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately after workout (vegan unsweetened chocolate protein powder, light unsweetend soy milk – and yes it’s as delicious as it sounds L)

½ c granola w/ ¼ c soy milk

Fresh Juice

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover veggie chili (for the rest of my life, BTW.)

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

Curried root veggies – new recipe, it sounds good!!

I think I’m going to start a 30day weightloss challenge that a girl I know is hosting via Facebook… I’m really competitive and I’m thinking this will keep me focused during the holidays lol… plus there’s a $50 visa gift card for the winner so why not, right? I’ll share details later, I need to read over them..

Well I’m feeling MUCH better! I’m feeling more like myself again and that is fantastic! Work is still crazy but I don’t anticipate any change there for a few months… I’ve gotten a lot of my Christmas shopping done, Nora’s birthday has passed so my head is a bit more clear. Still busy as all hell, but at least I feel a little more human. J

Speaking of busy, I have to run. Thanks to everyone for sticking by me through my pity parties and moments of seemingly temporary insanity! All of my followers and the support means more than I could ever begin to express… I woke up to a fantastic note from a fella that went to high school with me this morning… never spoke to him before but he had the nicest things to say… it’s the things like that that really keep me going! So again, thank you x’s 1 million! Me love you long time!!

Until tomorrow… J

I don't like this. 12/1/11

Well, this sucks. I totally don’t feel like myself and I don’t like what I see in the mirror. I have no idea how much I weigh right now, I haven’t been able to weigh-in in over 2 weeks (mom’s scale broke and I haven’t had time to go buy one). I still haven’t been to the gym since LAST WEDNESDAY(!) and I skipped my run again this morning due to a non-sleeping child. (I can’t leave if she’s awake, she’ll lose her mind) Looking in the mirror, I feel like my face looks puffy and I really don’t like it! My eating habits haven’t changed much, I certainly am sticking to veganism, but I just don’t feel good about things right now. As much as I love this season, I can’t wait to get back into my normal routine. I really am going to make an effort to get to the gym as soon as I can. I also need to go buy some cold weather running pants so I can go outside and not freeze to death when I run… but then there’s the fact that Christmas is around the corner and I should be spending available funds on presents and what-not so yeah.. Bleh. Sorry, if you were looking for a motivational ray of light, I apologize that I’m not that beacon today!

A friend did tell me yesterday that I motivated her to make some changes in her life and she had started going back to the gym… that makes me feel so wonderful to hear that but at the same time kind of hypocritical considering I haven’t been in over a week! I know this is just a small bump in the road (like I’ve had before), it’s just incredibly frustrating, especially when I was doing so well and progressing with my running and everything.

Beyond the lack of exercise, there are a lot of things stressing me out in my personal life right now that is really dragging me down. My old habits are creeping up and all I want to do is DRINK and drink a lot, but I’m keeping my mind straight and not doing anything stupid in that regard…

Oh well, tomorrow is another day, right?

Dinner last night was yummy! I made roasted veggies w/ brown Basmati rice… super simple and tasty. I roasted zucchini, daikon, red onion, red bell pepper, brussel sprouts and craisins that had been tossed in EVOO garlic and fine sea salt.  Yum!!

Food Today

Breakfast:

Fresh Juice (spinach, carrot, green apple, red apple, kiwi, orange, raspberries, blueberries)

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins & cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover rice & veggies from last night

Small apple

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

TBD – today is my sweet Nora’s 2^nd birthday! I believe we’re taking her out to a movie and possibly dinner tonight so we’ll see where we end up J

Well that’s about all I have for today… I’m just feeling really self conscious and needy right now lol… how annoying is that? Hear that husband? I need attention! Lol Hopefully this funk leaves me soon and I can feel like myself again. I know exercise will help tremendously so I just need to fix this sleeping problem so I can get back to waking up early in the AM..

Alright… until tomorrow! (hopefully?)

I know, I know... 11/29/11

First of all, a big thanks to a certain miss Heidi for always jumping my ass when I have a blog fail! J

Which, obviously, is precisely what we’re experiencing. I can’t even begin to explain how hectic life has been lately… not only was Thanksgiving a giant clusterf*ck but after that I had Christmas decorations to set up at 3 different locations (not including my own house) on top of regular life… ya know, child/husband/laundry/groceries, silly things like that. I’ve been absolutely exhausted and my eating and exercising habits have certainly been reflecting this exhaustion by way of some pretty terrible choices. Where to start… hm….

Well, Thanksgiving:

I started Tday at my In-law’s house, where the only thing in the house that I could eat was the vegan oatmeal cookies that I brought… so I had 2 cookies and then had to scurry off to my uncle’s house (a good hour away) where I was able to eat some roasted veggies and green beans. After my uncles, I dropped Nora w/ my parents and went back to my in-laws house for a night full of alcohol and really awkward family bonding, only to be immediately followed by Black Friday shopping! Note to self, drunken Black Friday shopping is not the greatest idea… by the time 5oclock that evening rolled around, I couldn’t remember what I had bought. Ha!

Friday was relatively lazy. Again, we spent most of the time at my in-law’s house which had no food that I could eat so I ended up going and getting a salad at Chipotle (which they left my black beans off of) and then didn’t eat again until like 930 that night after I went to Kroger and got an Amy’s Vegan veggie &  rice bowl. It was totally tasty..

Saturday was more productive, had oatmeal for breakfast then worked until about 3:30 on a client’s house decorating for Christmas. Not easy work by any means, about 1 million trips up/down the stairs, carrying boxes of stuff all around, up/down ladders etc… After that, I had some pineapple rice for lunch and ended the evening w/ chips and salsa for dinner. Party.

Sunday I woke up and went to the grocery store then Nora and I went to my grammy’s house and helped set up her Christmas décor… after that, we went to Branden’s work and I set up their 12 foot Christmas tree in their lobby… then after THAT we went home ( stopped at Papa Murphy’s and got a veggie pizza w/ no cheese) and set up my own damn tree! It’s a really good thing that I LOVE Christmas.

As I mentioned, my exercise habits have been really poor. Actually, the last time I worked out was Thursday morning when I ran 2 ½ miles. I’ve just been so tired and overwhelmed with everything else, I haven’t had the gumption to force myself out of bed/chair/couch/whatever. This morning included.

I haven’t weighed myself in 2 weeks but I’m fairly certain that if I were to do so I would see a gain. After skipping my run this morning, I woke up cussing myself and committing to getting myself back on my regular routine. My food choices were much better yesterday:

Breakfast: Fresh juice and an apple

Snack: Oatmeal

Lunch: 1 slice leftover veggie pizza no cheese and an apple

Snack: Protein Tofu

Dinner: Portobello burgers, sautéed broccoli/zucchini/onion and roasted sweet potatoes

Food Today:

Breakfast

Fresh Juice

Snack

Oatmeal

Lunch

Leftover veggie chili

Snack

Protein tofu

Dinner

Spaghetti

Okay I feel a lot better now that I have caught this up! But alas, I am overly busy and must cut this short. I hope everyone had a great holiday and I hope you’re as excited about the upcoming holiday as I am!!

Until tomorrow… (hopefully!)

Wednesday 11/23/11

Happy Friday! Well, for me at least J Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and my boss was kind enough to give me Friday off as well! I’m so excited, I plan to spend Friday putting up Christmas decorations at my grammy’s house, my house and most likely my mom’s house! I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I cannot wait to have everything decked in holiday décor!

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, my job has been crazy busy and stressful lately and I haven’t had a moment to think. Luckily, today is starting off slower and I’m kind of hoping that it stays that way!

Yesterday was a BIG day for me, goal-wise!! My goal was 4 miles by Christmas and 5 miles by January… well I went running yesterday morning and I ran 5 MILES! Without stopping! In the freezing ass rain! I was SO happy and proud of myself! I love being surprised by my own abilities! Aside from a few sore spots and a slight burn in my chest, I felt fantastic after my run! It also made me really great when I talked to my brother after and I told him my time and he said that’s about the same pace that they (being his navy people) keep when they run so I’m not as slow as I thought I was! So now that I have the distance, I have plenty of time to work on speed! I already know that when I do the actual 8k my speed will be faster b/c it’s a flat course, as opposed to the inclines that I run now.

Food yesterday was pretty basic:

Breakfast: protein shake, granola w/ soy milk, juice

Snack: Oatmeal

Lunch: Leftover chili

Snack: Protein Tofu

Dinner: Veggie tacos w/ black beans

Well I’m officially 0 for 2 this week for my gym workouts. My child has not been sleeping well AT ALL which means I’m getting little to no sleep and I just don’t have the energy when my alarm goes off in the morning. Now that I’m down 2 of the 3 gym workout this week I think I may just skip the Friday workout as well and start over on Monday clean.

Food Today

Breakfast:

½ c Granola w/ soy milk

Fresh juice (see pictures below)

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover veggie chili

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

Asian Stir Fry (I bought some new fancy toasted sesame oil I’m excited to try!)

So I’ve been talking about juicing for the past few weeks and I thought this morning I would finally take pictures of it all!

The first picture is the produce that I prepped for our juice (2 servings) and the second is the finished result J



That's 1 Golden Apple, 1 Red Apple, 1 Green Apple, 1 Orange, 2 Strawberries, 1 Carrot, 1/2 container Blackberries and 1tbs Cranberries per serving



The Result! Yummy organic juice!

As you can see, a lot of produce goes into a serving of juice! It’s both a blessing and a curse – blessing as you get loads of produce in a compact serving and a curse as it can get a little expensive buying so much organic produce! Totally worth it, I’m not complaining and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon, I’m just sayin…. J

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge T-day fan. I’m so overly obsessed with Christmas that Thanksgiving has always just been a giant dinner between Halloween and Santa time lol… I’ve never been a fan of the ‘holiday food’ (turkey/gravy/pie, etc) so it was never a big day that I looked forward to…. And even less so this year lol. This year we are spending Thanksgiving w/ my inlaws and my mother in law’s family… I’ve only met them once and well, yeah. I’m also slightly concerned with the fact that I probably won’t be able to eat anything that they’re serving so I plan to make a big thing of roasted veggies to take so I can have that… oh well, just roll with the punches I guess!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a healthy and happy Thanksgiving! Don’t cram 11 pounds of turkey down your throat just because It’s a holiday lol… be mindful of your bites!

Until next time…

Oh, Hello Stress. 11/21/11

Well hello there! It’s just a shit storm over here. I am so work-stressed right now I can’t even function. Ugh.

Weekend recap:

Friday: Work (terrible) then went home and spent some QT w/ my sweet Nora, my mom and my sister. Much-needed!

I went and danced Thurs night (for like 2 hours straight!) and then I didn’t eat dinner so by the time Friday rolled around I was starving! I had granola & juice for breakfast, oatmeal for snack then I ate my chili really early AND ordered a small thin crust veggie no-cheese pizza from Larosa’s! Honestly, I don’t think it was all that bad.. it wasn’t greasy at all. I finally got home from work near 7 and I had my protein tofu then we ordered Chinese and had a late dinner, I had steamed rice w/ veggies in a garlic sauce. Not the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Saturday: Lazy day for the most part! Hung out at the house and with my sister then went and ran about 3 ¼ miles (I did a different loop b/c it was daytime and my 5mi loop is dangerous w/ traffic). More on this later, it was great! Food: Granola for breakfast, chips and salsa for lunch and black bean crostini for dinner. I’m sure I had a few nibbles here and there that I don’t remember but not much.

Sunday: Grocery shopping, cooking then to my Aunt’s for Thanksgiving! My dad’s side of the family always does T-day the Sunday before. I took a salad and a sweet treat (vegan, of course) and my mom took a vegan option and my aunt had a vegan option so I was happy! I had salad (recipe below), green beans w/ mushrooms & water chestnuts, roasted sweet potatoes and brussel sprout/pomegranate salad. It was mighty tasty J

To top everything off, I didn’t go to the gym this morning. I haven’t been sleeping well AT ALL and I woke up absolutely exhausted. I don’t have time in my life to be sick so I thought that the extra hour of sleep was more important for me this morning. Not that it was even a solid hour… I hate that I missed, this is the first workout I’ve missed since I started doing the Crossfit stuff and it does not feel good. Oh well, hopefully that just gives me more energy to get in a good run tomorrow morning!

Speaking of running, my run Saturday was great! It was challenging for sure but I felt so fantastic and proud of myself when I was finished! I did a loop that I used to take Nora walking and I remember when I used to walk up one hill in particular and I would think ‘How in the hell do people run this?!’… and then I did! I did all of the hills and I didn’t stop once! I was really excited! I’ve also decided to make a more conscious effort to stop doubting myself! As I was coming up on the biggest hill in the run I was saying to myself “I’ll probably need to stop at the top.. that’s okay, I’ll just stop and walk for a little bit…” then once I got to the top I was like F THIS I’m not stopping! I’m no longer going to assume that I can’t do something! How silly is that? Sometimes, my own brain is my main competitor.

Food Today:

Breakfast:

½ c granola w/ soy milk

Fresh Juice

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins & cinnamon

Lunch:

Veggie chili w/ brown rice

Snack:

Salad of mixed greens, red onion, green apple and dried cranberries w/ homemade cranberry vinaigrette

Dinner:

Pineapple rice w/ curried tofu (new recipe!)

Cranberry Salad:

Dressing:

1c Fresh or frozen cranberries

¼ c + 2tbs Apply cider Vinegar

¼ c + 1tbs Pure Maple syrup

1.5 tsp Dijon Mustard (*I forgot this in my dressing and it was still yummy J)

½ c + 1tbs fresh orange juice (1 lg orange)

2 tbs EVOO

½ tsp Salt

Pinch black pepper

Salad:

Mixed Greens

1 lg apple, chopped

1 lg pear, chopped

½ c dried cranberries

½ c walnuts

For Dressing:

-          In a medium pot, heat the cranberries, maple syrup and vinegar over medium heat until the cranberries burst, about 7-10 min

-          Slightly cool the mixture and place in a blender/food processor along with all other dressing ingredients (excluding salt and pepper) and blend until smooth. Taste and add salt, blend again and taste again. Adjust as necessary.

-          Allow dressing to chill to room temp then put in the fridge to continue to chill and serve over the salad ingredients!

The dressing has a really bright tart flavor, I love it!

Well, I believe that’s all I have for today! I’m going to try to go dance tonight to help make up for my lack of workout this morning… oh and my mom’s scale broke! I’ve been using her scale throughout this entire journey so I trust it to tell the truth of my loss but it’s gone to scale heaven L… hopefully I can get another one soon!

Until tomorrow, friends…

Running more! 11-17

Hello friends! Sorry for the late post another busy day! This will be a quick one...
I went running thus morning and it went really well! I actually covered about 3.5 mikes without stopping! Again, it was a pretty slow pace but it was also cold and windy and I'm really proud of myself! My brother and I had set my goal as 2.5 by Christmas... So I changed it as of today to 4 by Christmas!The hardest part is that right at the 3.5 mark, it's an up-hill, which is where I stopped today, after I got up the hill... So it may take me a bit to build up my endurance and work through the hill! I'm totally confident that I can do it, though. :-) Other than run I did 50 crunches before and 50 after plus stretched. Overall, a good workout!

Food Today
Bfast
Granola w soy milk
Fresh juice

Snack
Oatmeal

Lunch
Black bean spread on roasted garlic ital bread

Snack
Protein tofu

Dinner
Veggie chili

Well I'm headed to tribal night to dance! Until tomorrow!

You People are FANTASTIC! 11/16/11

Greetings from a crazy-busy day! Work is insane right now but I finally had a small break to put together a quick post!

So last night, I showed Nora a side-by-side picture of my 1^st picture and my November picture and she pointed to November and said “That’s mommy!” then pointed to the first picture and said “Who’s that mommy?”. It was so adorable and I was actually surprised that she didn’t know who I was in the ‘before’ picture! I shared this on Facebook and cannot believe the response that I’ve gotten from all of my supporters! It’s so crazy, I never know who is actually reading this blog or following along in my path but I will say, it brought tears to my eyes when I woke up this morning and saw SO many comments, ‘likes’ and wall posts with amazing, supportive words of praise and encouragement. Today was one of those days when I woke up and said “Ehhh.. maybe I’ll just go back to sleep today.” Then, I started reading everything I had received over the night and immediately jumped up and got my ass to the gym! I cannot even begin to explain how much all of the support means to me! My goal one day is to take my experiences and knowledge that I’ve gained along this journey and utilize it all to help other people gain control of their lives and help them live the healthiest, happiest lives possible! So, with ALL of that being said, I just want to give a giant heart-felt THANK YOU! to each and every one of you that continue to read/follow/support, even through my pity-parties and bitching… this is one of the most important things I have ever attempted in my life and it has been such a tremendous help knowing that I have an amazing support system right behind me. J

So the workout this morning went well, I finished about 1 ½ minutes ahead of last month. It was focused on hamstrings and glutes today and I’ll just say… my butt hurts a bit.

Here’s what I did: J

3 Rounds for time:	w/bar
GoodMornings	25
DeadLift	25
Asymmetrical Squats	15 ea/leg
Bike	1 mile
TIME:		19:55

Good Morning: place bar on the back of upper shoulders and feet hip-width apart, bend at waist until parallel w/ ground and then raise back up, keeping feet planted

Dead Lift: with the bar resting on the ground, keep feet planted hip-width apart and a slight bend in the knee, bend down and pick up the bar and stand up until back is straight. Bend to put bar back on ground (or nearly on ground) and repeat

Asmmetrical Squats: Place bar on the back of upper shoulders and stagger feet, about 2 ft apart (one in front of the other) squat down then straighten back up, repeat on both legs

It went well! It was a bit challenging, especially towards the end but I got through it with minimal rest. I was sweating my ass off this morning too! I guess I was working harder than I thought lol.. Oh well, I don’t mind sweating, it’s cleansing!

For dinner last night I made vegan manicotti.. it turned out pretty well! I’ll share the recipe below

Food Today

Breakfast:

Small portion protein tofu immediately after workout (I’m out of protein powder L)

½ c granola w/ soy milk

Banana

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins, goji berries and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover manicotti w/ ½ whole grain ciabatta

Snack:

Protein tofu

Dinner:

Black bean burgers w/ sweet potato fries and some sort of veggie.. maybe sauted kale?

Vegan Manicotti

1 8oz pkg manicotti shells

1lb Firm tofu, drained

2 pkgs frozen spinach, thawed and drained/squeezed well

4 tbs EVOO

3tbs minced garlic

1tsp dried oregano

¼ c nutritional yeast flakes (I got it in the ‘nature’s market’ at Kroger)

1tsp salt

Ground black pepper to taste

¼ tsp Red Pepper Flake

1 jar tomato/spaghetti sauce of choice (I used emeril’s Roasted Gaaaahlic)

Vegan shredded mozzarella cheese (I like Daiya)

-          Pre-heat oven to 375

-          In a food processor, (I used my Ninja) put tofu, spinach, 2tbs EVOO, garlic, oregano, red pepper flake, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and pulse until thoroughly combined.

-          In a large bowl, pour jar of tomato sauce, refill jar w/ ½ c water, replace lid and shake to get all of the sauce and add to the tomato sauce along w/ 2tbs EVOO, mix thoroughly

-          In a 13x9 pan, ladle ½ of the sauce into the bottom of the pan

-          Put tofu mix into a large Ziploc bag and snip off end, pipe into uncooked manicotti shells

-          Put shells on top of sauce in baking pan in 1 layer

-          Ladle remaining sauce over shells, cover w/ foil and bake for 35 minutes

-          Remove foil, spread shredded cheese over top and return to oven, baking an additional 10-15 minutes. Should be bubbly and delicious!

-          I served w/ whole grain ciabatta rolls and would work wonderfully with a salad!

I liked the recipe as a basic start but I am going to play around with the ingredients next time and add some more flavors! I’m thinking sundried tomatoes, banana peppers, onions..

Anyway, that was dinner last night! Totally yummy and the leftovers were great, too! That was the first time I had used the vegan Daiya cheese (I try to stay away from processed vegan substitutes) but it was really delicious! It melted beautifully and tasted fantastic!

Alrighty… well I suppose that’s all I have for today! I’m hoping it’s not raining so hard tomorrow b/c I’m running outside no matter what!! J

Until tomorrow, dear followers…. J