WIAW: Backing Up

Last week I meant to post a WIAW with this delicious dinner that my best friend Michael made (I helped!), but I got bogged down in homework which is basically the story of my life. But this dinner was too amazing to let it go unrecognized so I am doing a WIAW from Tuesday and then bragging about dinner from last week.

Could I have talked more there? Probably, but I won't so on to the food!

Thanks to Jenn for this fun party!

Breakfast: Vanilla Greek yogurt with TJ's Praline Pecan granola

Lunch: Cinnamon raisin sprouted wheat bagel with a schmeer of cream cheese

Dinner: Turkey chili with some cheddar cheese mixed in

Dessert: Sliced pear sauteed with cinnamon and lemon juice topped with whipped cream

Now to last week's dinner that was aaaaaamazing

Butter poached lobster tails, grilled steaks, baked potatoes, and grilled asparagus.  

So much food...so amazing!

And of course there was dessert!

Brown bag apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

I've been so hectically busy with school and haven't been focusing on food as much so I haven't been eating as much as I should. It's definitely something I need to keep an eye on, I hear rumors of pumpkin pie being baked this weekend so expect some pumpkin pie showing up next week!

MIMM: A Fair Weekend

I've been so horrible at keeping up with my blog! Blame it on college, I'm always in class, doing homework, or sleeping. I do workout and occasionally have a social life, but I definitely need to allot myself some time for blogging! Bad blogger Brittany!

Anyway, on to my wonderful weekend full of fairs....which was 2 weekends ago...a little late on this, but at least I'm getting to it!

Saturday the 15th my parents and I went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire for their opening weekend. I absolutely love going to the Ren Faire and was bummed I couldn't go last year.  This year was crazy packed full of people and broiling hot.

 I loved walking around and seeing all the interesting shops and people, they definitely get a little crazy here and it makes for a wonderful day. And of course the eats are freaking amazing too!

 Hibiscus iced tea...this stuff is amazing!!

Scottish meat pie, spiced ground beef in a pastry shell, very delicious

I also got a slice of unpictured cheesecake.

My stepdad and I had a friendly match of archery and he won, but I'm proud of myself for using a heavier bow, so I'm saying I was off my game and he won by sure luck *wink wink*

It was definitely a great day, but it wasn't over yet.

After we got home from the Renaissance Faire I turned around and changed to make my way over to our county fair to meet up with my friend Michael. I didn't get a lot of pictures from this fair since we mostly just walked around, but it was a lot of fun as well. I got myself an overly salted pretzel which is necessary when going to the county fair.

By the time I got home I was exhausted from walking so much (5 hours alone at the Renaissance Faire!), but I had a marvelous day at the two fairs I went to.

WIAW: Good Habits

I figured I would finally jump back into What I Ate Wednesdays now that I've started eating a little more than I used to.

I'm loving this month's theme of falling into good habits, I'll get into my good habits in just a little bit.

On to the food party!

I did a really intense workout on Monday so my legs were pretty sore and Tuesday is normally my cardio days. I figured instead of weeping on the elliptical machine at the gym that I would take my dog out for a nice long walk outside.

I got towed around I walked his little legs off and really enjoyed the foggy morning. Once I got home I sat down with my laptop and some breakfast

Breakfast: Fresh strawberries & vanilla Greek yogurt with TJ Pecan Praline granola

While I read blogs and played around on Pinterest I got to view this next to me

Poor thing, I killed him with our walk!

Once I relaxed and got ready for the day I sat down with some homework

And I practically feel like my brain was leaking out my ears. To fuel up after burning calories reading (that's how it works right?) I made myself lunch

Lunch: Bean, cheese, sour cream, and olive burrito

I had class and then stopped by Starbucks for a little treat after all the studying I've been doing

Drink heaven: Soy pumpkin spice steamer

Delicious! They have pumpkin spice back! Whoot whoot!

And I had a little snack when I got home

Snack: Cheez-Its

I didn't have anything special for dinner, but I had been craving pasta. I've had some bowtie pasta just sitting in my cupboard begging me to make something so I started grabbing stuff from my kitchen and threw together something that turned out pretty fantastically

Dinner: Bowtie pasta with olive oil, mixed veggies, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper

Super simple and super delicious

I settled down with Pretty Little Liars because my head was aching and enjoyed some dessert

Dessert: A square of dark chocolate

My good habits:

I've got two good habits I've been getting back into

I wake up every morning at 8 and immediately get dressed to go work out. I know if I wait until later in the morning or in the evening I'll never make it. Sometimes I have to guilt myself and even insult myself to roll out of bed and get a move on, but I always feel so awake and fantastic once I get to the gym.

I've also been eating more which is definitely a plus. I won't go into more detail because I already wrote about it here.

I hope every has a great Wednesday!

Learning New Things

I just barely remembered to write about the start of the semester and how things are going...whoops.

I started my...3rd year? of community college and finally have a plan as to what I'm doing. I changed my major after going through 2 years already so now I've got a completely new set of classes I need to take, many of them being biology and chemistry classes. But I'm excited to get back to it instead of working in an office doing something I absolutely resent.

This semester I'm taking basic GE classes like psychology, English 1A, and political science.

My classes are really interesting so far, but then again it's only the 3rd week of school so who knows.

I'm constantly swamped with homework, but what else is new?

Of course I have this little bugger constantly impairing me from doing homework

Seriously, about 90% of the time he lies down on my books while I'm doing homework

And I don't think my parents could get any more amazing; they're so incredibly supportive of me being at school and helping me out as best as they can. 

With all that I'm going through psychologically it's been a big relief going to school only and focusing on me. I don't have a job right now, but eventually I'll look at getting one so I spend most of my time at the gym, doing homework, or being at school. It's a new change of pace and it's been wonderful.

MIMM: Getting Some Me Time

I've been so busy with school that I keep putting off posting an update, but not anymore!

I've been doing so so much better. My medication has really started to help level me out, which has its ups and downs. I don't cry constantly and don't feel like the world is falling down around me, at least not every day like I did. But on the other hand I'm so incredibly mellow that it's not easy to feel happy exactly. It's a hard thing to explain but it's like I'm on this middle ground and when I do feel happy or sad it's in the extreme usually. I'm only on the 3rd week or so and it takes 4-6 weeks for my body to regulate to the new meds so I've still got some time to work the kinks out.

I've been eating a lot more food lately, but what I do eat doesn't vary beyond a few things. Most food still grosses me out and I'm still way under what I should be for calories, but I'm eating more than a few bites of bread a day. My staples have been Greek yogurt with granola to get protein in me and bean and cheese burritos made at home. I mean I literally eat this stuff like everyday and surprisingly am not tired of it yet. I've been pushing myself to eat stuff other than that and it's been absolutely terrifying. I don't want to be as skinny as I was because that was incredibly dangerous, but I'm scared to eat more food for fear that I'll blow up like a huge balloon. I've been pretty quiet with this fear and have been really working to improve how I see myself. I still haven't gained any weight back, but I can see some improvement with my body and energy levels.

I started exercising again now that I've got the energy to workout. I can't do anything that will raise my heart rate too high because then I start to get light-headed and pass out. My personal trainer has me on light weights and I was incredibly disappointed by how little I could lift. I was doing a chest press machine and could only do a max of 25 pounds, that's not even how much a bar weighs. But instead of letting myself be depressed by how weak I am, I motivate myself to just keep working with the little weights to gain my strength back. Soon I'll be back to lifting that bar and not feeling like I'm lifting an elephant. Cardio has been really hard because I can't go to our Zumba class for awhile; it just raises my heart rate way too much and the last time I went I started to black out. So to keep myself safe and not push myself past my limit I just go on the elliptical and play with the different levels, never raising my heart rate too much.

I'm so incredibly proud of myself for taking action and taking care of myself so I can be healthy again. Because isn't it just marvelous to be healthy?

I'll update some more on college life as well!

MIMM: Being Thankful

I haven't posted anything marvelous in my life lately, hell I've barely posted at all. But now after everything I've gone through, and am still going through, I want to remind myself that there is good in my life and to not dwell on the bad stuff.

The one thing I'm extremely thankful for is just the fact that I'm alive. I know it's incredibly cheesy, but it's just amazing that I'm still alive. There were times I didn't want to be and had started to go down the wrong path, but I didn't and am still here.

I'm just thankful that I found strength to ask for help and am recovering.

Have a wonderful Labor Day everyone!

My Prince Charming

Since my depression started taking over I had one little guy in my life to help make me smile.

There are times when I just sit and cry and he calmly walks over to me, stretches up his paws and places them on my cheeks and just licks my nose. He calms me when I'm upset and makes me smile by just being a silly cat. At night he sleeps next to my pillow with his face right next to mine and his purr helps lull me to sleep.

Sure he pisses me off when he tries to scratch my furniture, but I still love him and appreciate the quiet support he gives me. 

It's a little strange for non-pet owners to understand this connection between your pet and you and I'm so thankful I don't have to go through this without him.

He forces me to get up every morning (mostly because he doesn't stop licking my nose) and his meowing always makes me smile. He's been a wonderful balm for the pain I'm going through and I'm so incredibly thankful I adopted him 3 months ago.