Christmas Woes

I thought I should check in. I'm still here, have no fear! Just spending time with my sister while she's still here (she's on Christmas break from school in Seattle and will be going back in a few weeks). On Boxing Day (the 26th), we're going to HAWAII! So excited to see the sun again and the ocean.

Are you all ready for Christmas? Presents bought? We're all done at our household. Usually I'm the one buying presents on Christmas Eve, but not this year! I don't even know what to do with myself.

With Christmas looming I can't stop thinking (worrying) about the food that comes along with it. I've already been to two Christmas parties, and I have to admit, they were both major cheat meals. Do you guys worry about the same things? I know in the long run meals like these won't make much difference, but I'm going to Hawaii in less than a week! BIKINIS!

Any ways, I really hope you all have an amazing Christmas!

Recording Workouts

Hey gang,

I thought I'd take a moment to ask you about how you record your workouts, or if you even do!

Mine looks something like this:

I like to keep a record of exercises I've done, how many sets, and many reps. This is an easy way for me to keep track of my progress.

This was a different workout for me. I usually don't do chest, shoulders, and biceps on the same day. I missed my bicep workout last week, so I added it this one.

As you can see I use a chart. I find this is the easiest format to read.

• Column 1: exercises
• Column 2: set 1
• Column 3: set 2
• Column 4: set 3
• Column 5: set 4

The numbers in the columns are the weight and the reps (ex. 30 lb/15 reps). When you see the ", that means that I did the same amount of weight or reps as the last box. 

Do you guys use something similar?

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On another note, I'm picking my sister up from the airport today! I'm so excited, I hardly slept at all last night. She's been in Seattle since the end of August. I miss her so much. We're planning to finish up our Christmas shopping together, and then meet the rest of the family for dinner at my parents house.

Best Cardio Workout!

I know I said I was cutting cardio out, but I don't know if I can give up this one workout. I'll probably change my mind again, but I just felt like I needed to do cardio tonight. I really wanted to get my blood pumping! It was an intense 40 minutes.

A few years ago, when my husband and I were dating, we used to do Crossfit for date nights. He was in the military back then, so we'd truck on over to the base and get an intense, supercharged workout in. This workout brought me back to those days!

It's called The Card Game. There all types of card games used for exercise. This one is super simple.


What you'll need:

• A deck of cards (jokers in)
• Good pair of running shoes
• A mat
• And a bottle of water (trust me, you'll need it!)

There are 9 exercises (feel free to pick any plyometric exercises):

• Mountain Climbers (double the reps)
• Bicycle (double the reps)
• Push Ups
• Swill Ball crunches
• Burpies
• Reverse Crunches
• Dips
• Spidermans (double the reps)
• Jumping Jacks (double the reps)

The rules:

1. For each exercise flip over three cards. 
2. Add the numbers up on the cards (Some cards don't have numbers. Kings, Queens, and Jacks are all 10 reps. Aces and Jokers are 11 reps.) The total is the number of reps you will do for each exercise. 
3. Keep going until there are no more cards to be flipped. 

I did three rounds, a deck and a half of cards. I think I might make plyometrics part of my weekly workout plan.

 

If you try it out, let me know. If you have tried a game like this before, what exercises do you like to throw in?

A Day of My Eats

I thought I'd do a little bit more of a regular post. I took pictures of everything I ate today - just to give you all an idea of what my new eating plan looks like.

As an overview, I like my macros to be around 45 protein, 30 carbs, 25 fat.

My breakfast was my favorite bowl of oatbran right now and a coffee with almond milk.

• 30 grams oatbran
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 35 grams pumpkin
• 1 tsp splenda
• lots of cinnamon 
• 1 tablespoon almond butter 

I worked out after breakfast. My post work out snack was:

I love these protein shakes. They taste like a really good chocolate milk, with 30 grams of protein no less! 

Lunch was less than stellar, but I eat it for the nutritional stats:

• 1 can of tuna
• 1 tablespoon miracle whip
• 3 pickles, chopped
• lots of pepper
• 2 cups spinach

After lunch I got to work on some homework, finishing up the semester and all. A few hours into work, my stomach started grumbling - time for my next snack.

This is 1/4 of Jamie Eason's recipe for Carrot Cake Protein Bars. I love to eat them warm. They'd be great with a dollop of greek yogurt on top too.

A few more hours of work, and it was time for dinner. 

(This is obviously where I lost all the light! Sorry, the pics go down hill from here)

These are turkey muffins, very similar to meatloaf. Tonight I ate them with a little mustard. I also like to have them with steamed spinach and spaghetti sauce. 

For dessert I tried making a protein cake recipe. It did not turn out. I ate about half and finally stopped. So to get my calories up, I ate two of my Pumpkin Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies. I'd say it's a good way to eat calories ;)

This is what the stats looked like today:

Calories 1668, fat 55.3, carbs, 119.5, protein 189.4 

I ate more fat that I would have liked, but there are worse things in the world. Hope this paints a clearer view of what I mean when I talk about my macros. 

Have a great night everyone!

Sloppy Joes Recipe

Hello everyone,
Hope the last few days have been good for you. I've been busy wrapping up the end of my semester and getting ready for Christmas. Needless to say, it's been a busy few weeks. 


I have a new recipe to share!


Sloppy Joes with or without the Bun
Nutritional stats: 257, 14.8 fat, 14.4 carbs, 15.9 protein 

(adapted from this recipe) 

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1 onion (chopped)

2 carrots (chopped)

2 celery stalks (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (chopped)

1/4 cup ketchup

2 cups tomato sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tablespoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder 

1 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown the ground beef in a large pan and set aside.
2. Add the spices. Cook them with the beef for about a minute. 
3. Add the onion, carrot and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
5. Add the ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard, and hot sauce and simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with sweet potatoes, any bread you prefer, or just straight up! 

Number of Servings: 6

I made this tonight for dinner. I was craving ground beef, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. Even though this meal is much higher in fat and in carbs than I would like for dinner,  it covered all of those bases! It has a great balance between sour and spicy flavors. I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I did. 

Speaking of carbs... now I know why I don't eat them for dinner any more! I felt completely exhausted right after we were finished eating. Good thing I hardly ever have carbs past 3 p.m. any more. 

Have a great night everyone. 

Leg Circuit

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share a little about this "new workout plan" I've mentioned.

After lots of research, and talking with people like April, I've decided to switch my workouts from a lower weight, higher rep and cardio based to lifting heavy and doing minimal cardio.

About a month ago I finished P90X. I did really enjoy P90X. Tony Horton's videos are entertaining, and even more challenging. Although P90X is incredible to work your butt into shape and build endurance, I'm ready to start working towards my specific goals.

So after doing much research I've come to the conclusion that lifting heavy is the best course of action to build lean muscle mass to create the "toned" look so many of us are after.

This is the leg circuit workout I've been doing for about 3 weeks now:

• Reverse lunge with back foot on a bench - 25 reps on each leg, one leg at a time
• Calf raises - 15 slow reps, 10 fast reps
• Sumo squats with a swiss ball behind my back, against a wall (I couldn't find a video to show the use of a swiss ball. The swiss ball keeps my back straight.) - 25 reps 
• Walking lunges - 25 reps
• Wall sit - 45 seconds

Repeat 3 times. 

Try not to rest in-between exercises until you have completed a whole round. Then allow yourself 2 minutes of rest and go again. 

My leg workout is going to have to change now. Time to start lowering those reps and upping the weight! 

Thanks for reading. 

Pumpkin Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

Something to cut the cravings!

Last night I made these cookies. They were by far the best "healthy cookie" I've made. 


Pumpkin Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies
Nutritional stats per cookie: 128 calories, 7.7 fat, 11 carbs, 7.3 protein

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup oat flour (simply blend rolled oats in a food processor until they are a flour-like consistency) 

1 cup canned pumpkin 

1 scoop protein powder 

2/3 cup natural peanut butter 

1 cup liquid egg whites 

1/4 cup splenda 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 cup dark chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all ingredients (the batter will seem too runny, but it's not). 
3. Spray two cookie sheets with Pam and scoop about a tablespoon and half unto the sheets until you've made 15 cookies. 
4. Bake for 10 minutes.

Makes 15 cookies

Not bad eh? Give them a try. They were awesome!  

Back AGAIN

Hey gang,

It's been a long time! I missed having an outlet to share new ideas, and a way to record past ones.

Let me update you on what you can expect to get from the blog this time around.

• Less meal-to-meal updates - meaning I won't be posting every single meal I eat. It's just too time consuming. 
• Less posting - since I won't be posting every meal, I won't need to post 3 times a day. I'm going to aim for at least one post every 3 days.
• More recipes - lately I've been focusing on high protein, low carb options. 
• More workouts - I've just changed up my workout plan. Continue reading for more info!

My goals have a changed slightly since I last posted. I'm working towards lower body fat and eventually putting on muscle. I know realize this is the only way I'll achieve a "toned" look. 

New Goals:

1. Get down to 15% body fat. Right now I'm at about 19%.
2. Once I've reached goal 1, start putting on lean muscle.
3. Eat clean daily with 1-2 cheat meals monthly. 

These goals have proven to be challenging. Probably the most so is the last one. My craving have been off the charts lately! Usually it's for ice cream or cookies, but for the past few days I've been dying for salty chips. So strange. I'm assuming it's my body's response to my sudden shift to low carb meals. 

Anyways. I think that's enough for one post. 

I'll be posting again soon,

Shayna 

Two Last Things to Go

Hey gang,

Today has been another productive day!

As soon as I got out of bed, I got to work on my breaky.

Pumpkin Oatbran

In the pot:

• 40 grams oatbran
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup UVAB
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 egg whites
• cinnamon
• nutmeg 
• cloves 

Toppings:

• 70 grams strawberries
• 1 T natural PB
• stevia
• cinnamon

After I ate this, I loaded up my books and drove to school to work on a project that's due tomorrow. My project took me way less time to finish than I thought it would. So at around 1:00 p.m. I left the library to get some lunch. I wasn't even hungry when I ate my lunch, but knew it had been 5 and a half hours since breakfast. 

I decided on Pita Pit, since it's so close to our home. This is their chicken breast pita with lots of veggies and honey mustard dressing. 

I was going to go to the gym soon after I ate my pita, but I fell asleep on the couch! Craziness. When I woke up I had to push myself off the couch and into my workout gear. I had a pretty good workout too! I love it when those are unexpected. 

I did 30 minutes on the stepper, 15 on the treadmill, and then I did some abs and stretched. 

Here are the stats:

Time - 58:35 minutes

Calorie burned - 555

Max heart rate - 187

Average heart rate - 162  

I came home and snacked on this. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 100 grams of blueberry yogurt 

Dinner came quick. 

The same tomato shrimp dish I made a few weeks ago. 

I love the spinach in it. 

I know I'm gonna need something else tonight - I'm only at 1048 calories today... hmmm.....

Can't Wait

Hello - thanks for stopping by :)

I can't wait for this week to be over. Then I'm free for the summer! Whoot!

Before church this morning, I ate this beauty for breakfast.

• 30 grams oats
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 banana
• 1 T UVAB
• 1 T natural PB

It's been awhile since I've had a breakfast cookie with banana in it. It was SO sweet! I almost went back to the fridge to put some plain yogurt on it to mellow it out, but I wanted to keep my breakfast calorie-light because I knew we were going out for lunch after church. 

I didn't bring my camera with me to the restaurant, I was just going to use my iphone to take a few pictures, unfortunately my iphone was dead. So I'm sorry to say, I have no pictures of my lunch. I had a poached egg sandwich with tomato and herb mayo with hashbrowns. It was face rockin. 

When we came home I got to work on a final project and snacked on this. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 100 grams strawberry yogurt
• 4 small strawberries 

I kept working on my project, and then it was time to go to church for the evening service. 

I was starving by the time we got back to house, so I whipped up this salad. 

• 1 Italian chicken sausage 
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1/2 tomato
• 2 cups romaine 
• 1 cup mixed salad greens
• balsamic dressing 

It hit the spot. D's out riding his Harley around town with some of his friends. Time for me to get back to my books. 

Have a great night everyone! :) 

Pumpkin Crazy

Hey gang,

Today has been one of those quietly busy days. D and I got so much done, but it felt so relaxing at the same time!

My breakfast didn't stay with me very long. About 3 hours after I ate my breakfast cookie, I chowed down into a small bowl of cottage cheese, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I poured a little sugar free maple syrup over the top.

Then lunch came about an hour later.

Leftover potatoes (102 grams) with ketchup (1 T)

and the same lunch I ate yesterday.

It was pretty darn tasty. Right after this, D and I got going on our errands. We went to Sears to get a fan for our bedroom. Then we dropped D's car off to get new tires put on. And after that, we hit the gym. I did a biceps and back workout.

• 21's - 30 pounds, 3 sets
• bent over row - 40 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• hammer curls - 12 pound dumbbells, 3 sets of 20
• lat pull downs - 70 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• back extensions - 3 sets of 25
• seated close grip row - 50 pounds, 3 sets of 12

My stats looked something like this:

Time - 40 minutes

Calories burned - 169

Max heart rate - 142

Average heart rate - 110

Usually I would be disappointed with the lack of calories I burned, but I didn't want to push too hard with my hips in the state they're in.  

As soon as we came home, I devoured this bowl of food. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese 
• 2/3 cup plain yogurt 
• 2 T pumpkin puree 
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder 
• cinnamon 
• nutmeg 

Can you tell I love pumpkin?

Dinner was alright tonight - not amazing. 

Chicken Caesar Salad

• 4 cups romaine 
• 5.5 ounces chicken breast 
• 7 grams croutons 
• 1 1/2 T caesar salad dressing 
• lots of lemon juice

I usually don't even like caesar salad, but I've been craving summer foods lately (e.i. burgers last night). 

I'm still hungry... what shall I eat, what shall I eat? I'm not sure yet. 

Have a great night everyone :) 

Hip Issues (again)

Well, it seems I did a number to my hip yesterday during my workout. I even did hip opening yoga last night to prevent this from happening, sadly I've been limping around all morning. I hate my hip problems. I think it may be time to seek out some physio therapy.

__________
On a lighter note, I enjoyed another awesome breaky this morning.

Chocolate Pumpkin Breakfast Cookie

• 30 grams oats
• 2 T pumpkin puree
• 1 T almond milk
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder 
• 1 T almond butter

Mix it all up, spread on a plate, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. 

In the morning add any toppings you like. My favorite right now are strawberries (50 grams this morning) and yogurt (1/3 of a cup). 

__________

I was supposed to go on a 14 km run this morning with a few friends, but my hips aren't letting that happen. I'm thinking I'll do biceps and back instead. 

Have a great Saturday :) 

I Almost Forgot!

Hi friends,

How was your day? Mine was amazing. I worked out!!

So let's talk about that first, my workout.

I ran to the gym, which is barely under 2 miles. It took me about 17 minutes (it was pretty windy this morning, so I'm happy about my time).

When I got in the gym I did an arm workout:

• push ups - 3 sets of 12
• shoulder presses - 30 pounds, 3 sets of 12 
• bench dips - 3 sets of 12
• chest flies on a stability ball - 24 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• chest press - 30 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• front raise - 20 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• lateral raise - 20 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• crunches - 3 sets of 15

Then I hit the sidewalk, and ran the other 2 miles home. 

My workout was an 1 hour and 30 minutes. I burned 801 calories. My heart rate peaked at 188 bpm, my average heart rate was 158 bpm. 

I came home and wasn't really hungry, but I knew I hadn't eaten for about 5 hours, so I ate lunch. 

• Italian chicken sausage 
• 3 cups cabbage 
• 1/2 cup brussel sprouts 
• 1/2 T worcestershire sauce 
• hot sauce

THIS hot sauce.

 

My favorite hot sauce. 

After I gobbled up my lunch, I went and got cleaned up. My stomach started growling while I was in the shower. 

Hence lunch part 2. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 100 grams of strawberry yogurt 

I almost forgot to take a photo of my dinner for you guys. Luckily I stopped part way through!

I made D and I burgers (mine's buried under that white sauce, which was a spicy mayo), roasted potatoes, and a mixed green salad.

It was pretty amazing. I've been craving red meat, and I have no idea why! It was delicious.    

Right now I'm not sure what dessert will be, but I hope it's as good as all my other meals. 

Have a great night everyone :)

Blogger Fail :(

Hello bloggers!

It's a beautifully sunny morning where I am. This makes me so happy because I'm going on a run outside today!! Yes, that's right. I can workout again! Yesterday was the last day of my no-working-out for a week plan. I feel great. I did some stretches before bed last night to make sure I'm all loose and ready for a hard workout.

I have to say, I'm sorry for not posting yesterday. I was planning to do one big post last night, but I COMPLETELY forgot to take pictures of my dinner party last night :( I realized it after all our plates were cleaned off, and the food was gone. I'm sorry - blogger fail.

I do have photos from all my other meals though.

For breakfast I had another breakfast cookie (courtesy of the Fitnessista).

(chocolate pumpkin breakfast cookie with plain yogurt and strawberries - stay tuned for the recipe)

Lunch was cottage cheese mixed with yogurt and a few blueberries, veggies, light laughing cow cheese (I'm addicted to these), and an oatmeal to go bar.

I packed it all up to take to class with me.

When I got home, I snacked on this tasty treat. Half and banana with half a tablespoon of peanut butter.

I haven't been eating bananas much lately. I'm watching how much sugar I'm eating, so I usually only eat fruit once a day, if I eat it at all.

Dinner was just what I told you guys it would be. Lemon chicken, yam fries, and a green salad with goat feta, cranberries, and pine nuts. It was so good! I just wish the lemon would have absorbed more into the chicken (I used this recipe, but I changed up the chicken things for chicken breast, and only cooked it for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees).

This morning I made the same thing as yesterday.

Pumpkin Chocolate Breast Cookie 

• 40 grams of oats
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 2 T pumpkin puree (any more and the cookie is still soft the next morning)
• 1 T UVAB
• 1 T natural peanut butter

Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Once it's all combined, spread it evenly on a plate, and place it in the fridge over night.

The next morning I like to put plain yogurt and strawberries on top.

Please don't be scared of the combination of chocolate and pumpkin. It works, trust me!

Ok... enough blogging. I'm itching to get active and workout! See you all soon :)

Thankful

Hey gang,

You cannot even believe how happy it makes me to be blogging again. I really missed taking pictures of my food and documenting my day. Is that weird? Probably...

I ate lunch at 10:00 a.m! I know... ridiculously early. I was starving, and couldn't wait the extra hour (11:00 a.m. is usually when I eat my lunch).

Tuna wrap! 

• 1 can of water packed tuna
• capers 
• light mayo
• dill
• pepper 
• 1 whole wheat tortilla 
• 2 cups spinach

It really hit the spot! It wasn't till after I was finished stuffing my face that I realized I forgot the pickles! I love pickles in my tuna salad. 

Well, I think my final went pretty good this afternoon. Right before I started writing it, I ate an oatmeal to go bar. I didn't take a picture, but I'm sure you all know what those look like any ways.

I came home and chowed down this snack.

• 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
• 148 grams of strawberries 

Simple and scrumptious.

I spent my afternoon searching out recipes for tomorrow night. D and I are having my parents over for dinner. I'm thinking lemon chicken and yam fries with dill sauce. Mmmmmmm.... 

Dinner time came quickly. 

Tons of veggies and 5.7 ounces of tilapia.

Lemon Tilapia

• 1 tilapia fillet 
• 2 lemon slices
• dill 
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp coconut oil

Pile all of the ingredients on the fillet of fish and wrap it in foil. Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve along side your favorite green veggies (mine are broccoli, asparagus, and brussels). 

It was a good dinner, but I'm still hungry. Hmmm.... what shall I eat? Yogurt maybe... 

I'll talk to you all tomorrow! Yay! Have a great night everyone. 

I'm Back! :)

I got my camera working!! I'm so excited. Turns out, all it needed was an update. Silly me ;)

This makes Shayna happy.

So what can I update you guys on...

Workouts

I'm taking a few days off. I felt like I was on the verge of overtraining, so I stopped before it was too late. I'm on my third day of "taking it easy," and I have two more to go. I'm itching to get sweat all over me! The first few days I was loving not always wearing my hair in a ponytail or having to shower sometimes twice a day, and I was getting worried I wouldn't be motivated to start training again. I'm not worried about this anymore!

Food

Although I don't have pictures of all the meals I've missed documenting, I do have this morning overnight oats.

Sorry, this picture is terrible! Where I live there's no sunlight at 6:30 a.m. Sucks - that's all there is to say about it.

Overnight Oats

In the bowl last night

• 30 grams oats
• 1.5 T chia seed
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1/4 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• cinnamon
• nutmeg 

Toppings

• Peanut butter
• 4 grams unsweetened shredded coconut 

Today's Plan

• Study
• Write my editing final

Those are the only two things on this girls mind. 

Have a great day everyone. It's great to be back :)

Problems

Hey gang,

Sorry for the long absence. I was away from Internet access for Easter. D and I went with my parents to my mom's family's ranch. They all live on farms, which are located an hour away from any city. This makes it really hard for them to get consistent Internet access. It was so much fun being there with them - lots of good food and company. The only problem was that while we were there, my camera broke. I don't know how it happened. All my photos from the weekend were deleted, and it won't let me take any new ones. Needless to say, this is a problem when your blog revolves around pictures... so please be patient with me while I have to go get it fixed up!

Thanks everyone. Hoping to talk to you all sooner rather than later...

A Great Day

Morning!

I hope everyone's yesterdays were fantastic. Mine sure was! J and I went to our big mall in town and shopped till our hearts content. We both walked away with some fantastic purchases. Before the mall, we went to the gym. It was an awesome workout. I wish J lived here! She pushes me so hard. We did 30 minutes of cardio, and just under an hour of an arm and ab workout. Faaaantastic.

When we got back from the workout we ate this AMAZING lunch.

This was my plate.

I made the smoothie that's in that bowl.

• 1 cup berries
• 1 cup water
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 T cocoa powder

(serves 2)

It was so good! I've been making all my smoothies in the food processor lately; it makes them so frothy! I might never go back to a blender. 

J made the salad. 

• lots of spinach
• red bell pepper
• mushroom
• tomato
• cucumber 
• leftover turkey sausages from last night
• balsamic dressing

It was just as good as the smoothie! Such a great lunch. 

We hit up the mall till around 6 pm. We were starving by the time we left! We went and picked up take out for dinner. 

J and I got the same thing - chicken teriyaki with sauce on the side, no rice, and extra veg. We picked D up a beef and chicken dish (similar looking to this one), and california rolls. 

Now, to this morning. 

(sorry the pick is so dark)

Pumpkin Oat Bran with "Baked" Apples

Pumpkin Oat Bran

• 30 grams oat bran (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup pumpkin
• 2 egg whites
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves

Baked Apples 

• 92 grams (half an) apple
• cinnamon

Place the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for about 40 seconds. 

It was so yummy. It fixed my grumbling tummy problems. 

I have two classes today. One is Intro to Lit, the other is Intro to Rhetoric. I love rhetoric! 

I'll chat with you all soon :)

A New Recipe for Pizza Crust

Morning gang,

We've been bussssy over here.

Let me quickly recap the eats from yesterday.

This was J and mine's lunch.

Check out how big it is! I named them veggie mountains instead of pizzas!

I made their crusts using this recipe. J cut up all those veggies, and we topped the pizzas with nutritional yeast and goat cheese.

I ate all the veg and cheese, but could only get through half of the crust. It was filling! 


The crust was more like a pancake. I don't know if I'll be repeating it, even though it is low carb.

Dinner was just as filling last night.

• 1/4 head of cabbage steamed with water, and sprinkled furiously with pepper
• red bell pepper
• onions
• tons of garlic
• chicken sausages 
• pickled veggie salad (I picked this up at the deli department in my grocery store)

This dinner had tons of spice. I'm so happy to have company over who loves spicy food as much (if not more) than I do. 

Last night I taught J how to make breakfast cookies. She's not out of bed yet, but I can't wait to see if she likes it! 

How could you not like this? I mean really... I'll let you know how it goes. 

Have a great morning folks! I'll try to get my updates coming in sooner.  

Pumpkin Delight

Hi folks,

Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been entertaining our company. D's cousin is back! She's staying with us for a week now. Exciting stuff! Plus my camera died. So I couldn't take photos for a good portion of the day yesterday, so I decided to take the day off from my camera!

J (that's what we'll call D's cousin) and I had an awesome workout yesterday. I brought my study notes, since I have a test today. We both spent about 45-50 minutes on the elliptical. My incline got to 20(!) and my resistance got to 15(!). Then I ran for just under a mile on the treadmill, but by then, my legs were already so tired. Awesome, awesome, awesome workout. 

Here's my breaky this morning.

Pumpkin Oat Bran 

• 50 grams oat bran (1/3 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 egg whites
• packet of stevia
• cinnamon
• cloves
• nutmeg  
• 1 T natural PB

and... COFFEE - much needed on a Monday. 

I gotta start studying. Talk to you all sooner than later I'm hoping!