Being Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you're all surrounded by family and delicious foods, just remember to eat your veggies first and pace yourself mmk? 

I wanted to take this time to talk about what I'm thankful for this year because as much as I like to try and take time everyday to reflect on what I'm thankful for, it doesn't happen often.

So...

I am thankful for my family

 My nephew hadn't been born when we took that picture, hence he gets his own

They're all amazing people and I love them to death, even if half the time I want to strangle some of them, lovingly of course.

I am thankful for my amazing best friend and boyfriend

 I seriously don't know what I'd do without him. He's my rock and makes me smile all the time

I am thankful for this fuzzy face every morning

 He's such a sweetheart and I am so glad I made him family last year. He exasperates me but always redeems himself when he licks my nose and cuddles into my neck.

I am thankful to live here

I am thankful for this guy

 He's kind of a brat a lot, but he's a cuddle bug and he always looks like he wants to love you and make you happy.

I am thankful for my best friend/sister-from-another-mister

  We've been best friends for ages and even though we've lived in different states other the years, we've always been there for each other. I am thankful she lives here with my adorable niece!

I am thankful I am almost done with college

I'm over school and I'm just glad I'm almost done finally and I can get my degree and start working.

Finally, I am thankful I am alive

I've had many rough times in my past and I've always pulled through. I'm thankful I can be here everyday to enjoy life with everyone I love.

I hope you're all enjoying your Thanksgiving!

Fit Friday #18

It's been over a month since I last posted a Fit Friday post....wow.

I've been dealing with some dental things like getting a wisdom tooth taken out and fillings and such and that just makes you feel like crap so you don't actually want to work out.

Look at this

I had my wisdom tooth pulled and I look like a freaking chipmunk, there was no way I was going to the gym.

But! This week I actually got some workouts in that I can finally share!

Sunday:

I had planned to go to Zumba at my gym, but they had cancelled class for an instructor training for R.I.P.P.E.D. so I grabbed my mom and we went for a mile walk along the ocean

 It was such a gorgeous day and I'm pretty sure I saw a whale at some point.

 

Monday:

 My arms were so tired after this. I really tried to push myself to improve and considering I couldn't move my arms much after this, I think I succeeded

Tuesday:

I had intended to go to the gym for some cardio, but my body thought differently. I apparently woke up and turned off my alarm and kept sleeping. Whoops! At least I have my fitness classes to get something in

Class #1:

4 rounds of:

7 medicine ball cleans 8#

7 pushups

7 lunge jumps

7 shoulder presses

7 Russian Twists

Class #2:

5 rounds of:

7 med ball cleans

7 pushups

7 lunge jumps

7 shoulder presses

7 Russian Twists

I did some yoga before bed and my little munchkin decided to join me

 In his brain, lying cat pose is the best one

 

Wednesday:

 I'm not going to lie, my legs are still sore from this workout. Ouch!

Thursday:

I didn't do any cardio because my legs were aching like crazy so I spent my morning before class stretching and foam rolling.

Of course right before class I got this insane migraine so I had to sit out in both classes and just watch

Hope you all have an active weekend!

How have you kept active in the colder weather?

WIAW: Not Holding Back

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope you're all having an amazing week!

My Monday was actually pretty spectacular, I finally got to sign up for my personal training course!

I'm finally on the last steps of me getting out of college and starting my career of changing people's lives and making them healthy! I practically jumped around my house for 5 minutes afterwards because I was so excited. By June I will be a certified personal trainer and be a college graduate with a kinesiology degree!

Wednesdays are also for a certain food party so let's get partying!

Breakfast:

2 eggs whites & 1 egg scrambled with a little salt and loads of black pepper and 2 slices of Ezekial bread with berry jam

 Green smoothie

Chai tea with unsweetened almond milk and stevia

Snack:

D'Anjou pear

Lunch (not-pictured)

I forgot to take a picture of the 2 bowls of chocolate peanut butter cereal I ate...I may have inhaled them too fast ha!

Afternoon snack:

2 Biscoff cookies my teacher brought into class

Unpictured slice of pumpkin bread

Dinner:

Slice of pepperoni pizza from Whole Foods

Dessert:

Gingerbread cookie

I'm one of those people that tries to hold off going Christmas crazy in November, but then it always captures me and I just don't care lol. I'm already listening to Christmas music, buying Christmas things here and there, and dressing up my poor cat

Eventually he gave up trying to pop the antlers off and just accepted his fate. Thankfully for him I don't make him wear them all the time, only for occasional pictures.

Hope you're all having an excellent week!

Do you start decorating before Thanksgiving?

Any other crazy cat people that dress up their cats?

Changing A City With a Wish

Happy Monday everyone!

I come bearing such a heartwarming story about a little kid named Miles Scott aka Batkid.

source

I heard about this story on the news and if you haven't heard about it, I wanted to share it with you.

Miles suffered from leukemia and beat it; he's currently in remission. The Make-A-Wish Foundation transformed San Francisco into Gotham City and arranged all these things for Batkid to do. And he got to do all of this with the help of Batman himself

source

And he got to do it all in a Lamborghini-turned-Batmobile.

He saved a damsel in distress, locked up the Riddler, and in the end received a key to the city made of chocolate.

It was an adorable story and just warmed my heart!

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

It's been getting pretty chilly around here and I've been in a soup mood.

I won't lie, I've never had tortilla soup before and Michael and I were having a Mexican quinoa casserole and I just wanted some soup to go with it. So behold my crazy googling to figure out what was in tortilla soup and then I made my own version.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large zucchini, chopped

1 large potato, diced

1 bag of frozen yellow corn

15 ounce cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes, drained

1 small can of diced green chiles

1 can low-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed

About 6 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth

1.5 teaspoon chile powder

1.5 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Unsalted corn tortilla chips

1. Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large stock pot,  add the onion, zucchini, and potato and saute until soft, about 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for a minute.

2. Add the corn, tomatoes, chiles, beans, vegetable broth, and spices. The broth should just cover the vegetable mix, if need be supplement with water.

3. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer for 35 minutes. Ladle into bowls and top with crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese.

It's warm with a little kick from the spices and chiles and packed with veggies and beans. Definitely a quick soup to put together and enjoy on the cold nights!

Enjoy!

An Example of Strength

I watch the Biggest Loser every week for multiple reasons.

One, and this may sound crude, it motivates me to move so I don't end up obese like the people on the show. Two, I want to be a personal trainer, not Jillian Michaels level, but it's fun to watch. Three, it's entertainment, I mean come on. Finally, because it's just downright inspirational.

This week they had one of the teams visit this fitness group together that just brought me to tears. 

It's called Beat Cancer Boot Camp

These people are cancer survivors, going through cancer, have been touched by cancer, you name it and they're there. Men and women. And they're working out! Even the people who are going through chemotherapy and lemme say, I know the toll it takes on someone to go through that, I watched my dad suffer through chemo recently and he was just dog tired constantly. 

source

These people absolutely astound me. I complain and give up on going to the gym because of a headache or a little mouth pain and here these people are fighting through cancer to be there to work out. It's just so inspirational to see this drive these people have to live.

So I'll ask this question

What's your excuse?

WIAW: 22 Going on 80

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Fall has decided to poke its head up every once in awhile around here. Some days it's warm (like low 70's) and some days it's pretty chilly where I have to wear leggings and thick fuzzy socks all day. I definitely prefer the latter as we're heading into mid-November and I already have Christmas music playing every now and then (more like every night but who counts?).

Thankfully Monday was a colder day and I even got to stay home with my awesome mama since she had the day off.

Thanks Jenn for the awesome party!

This theme makes me laugh now that I've gotten all my WIAW pictures because I have a few foods in here that are definitely not good habits. Maybe next week?

Breakfast:

Plain Malt-O-Meal with a little brown sugar and unsweetened almond milk

I don't know why, but I'm still in this kick of eating Malt-O-Meal every morning. I really gotta work on mixing it up around here.

  Morning "Snack"

Bad habit of the day #1. I didn't record the other candies that I ate throughout the day either. Don't follow my example, eat fruits and veggies

  Lunch:

Bean & cheese nachos with sour cream

I decided before I step foot in Whole Foods again I need to start cleaning out what food I have in my kitchen. My side of the fridge is filled with tubs of something that had a spoonful or two eaten and I'm working on finally just eating everything.

Mom and I spent the rest of the day watching Harry Potter movies while I acted like an 80 year old

  2 pots of apple cider in my beautiful little tea cup/pot 

And knitting...I'm only 22 I swear! I'm making Michael a scarf that he'll desperately need while he's out of the state for work so I'm trying to get it finished ASAP

Dinner:

Annie's mac & cheese, smashed potatoes w/ a little sour cream & pepper, and loads of veggies

After I knitted some more I curled into bed to video chat with Michael and then read a book until 9 when I passed out. Am I old or what?

Have a good week everyone!

Anyone else feeling decades older than normal? 

Thank You

Happy Monday everyone!

Today is a pretty awesome day. For one, I get the day off school which means an extra day to catch up on homework. And secondly, it's Veteran's Day and it's definitely a day that's pretty big around here.

My family is incredibly military-centric. My grandpa was in the Navy, my dad was in the Navy, uncles and cousins have been in the Navy, and my big brother is a Marine, serving our country for 14 years. And I have so so many friends that are in the military. Hell, I myself was considering joining the Marines after high school.

It's a big deal around here for my family and for me. I am so incredibly thankful to all who have served and are currently serving. You do so much to protect this country and I'll forever be grateful we have some amazing people on our front lines. 

So go out and thank a veteran today and Happy Veteran's Day!

The one on the right is the Marine, if you can't tell by that haircut ;)

 

Halloween 2013

So I realized after posting my What I Ate Wednesday post yesterday that I forgot I had planned to make it a recap of my Halloween. Instead you get a separate post telling how I spent my Halloween.

Michael and I decided to skip the gym in the morning in lieu of a relaxing one with some pumpkin waffles made by moi

And some matcha & a green smoothie (hey, it's creepy to some people!)

I ended up spending a good portion of my day in my two fitness classes and we had a "Trick or Treat" workout. Lemme say, there was no treat involved in the whole process. We did one of those work outs where it's all by chance from a deck of cards. In the end we did like 72 burpees, 80 something weighted squats, 50 something kettlebell swings, and 40 something crunches. The class after that was thankfully easier than the first, but god I was exhausted.

After class I swung by Target and Whole Foods to pick up a pumpkin and Darth Vader press in stuff. He was beyond excited

We headed over to Starbucks so I could enjoy pumpkin spice one last time

Then we headed home to relax before grabbing dinner. My costume was insanely basic. If I'm just hanging out at home I don't feel that I need to dress up in anything special

Cat ears, the most basic costume ever

For dinner we both decided we wanted pizza so we went to the Papa Murphy's around the corner from my house

A little jack-o-lantern pizza! How cute.

For the rest of the night Michael and I relaxed and watched some of my all-time favorite Halloween movies

Did anyone else watch the Halloweentown movies when you were younger? I loved these movies and have to watch them every year.

And of course we had to have some dessert

Mini pumpkin pies and a mini pecan pie split between Michael and I.

I had intended to make a pumpkin bread pudding, but it just wouldn't cook right so I had to give up on the idea and we ran out to save my night with Whole Foods desserts.

We stayed in because my poor little cat can't handle people constantly ringing the doorbell and I felt it was best to hermit ourselves in my room and try to have a quiet night. I ended up being annoyed by the doorbell more than my cat haha!

How was your Halloween?

WIAW: Eating Challenges

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope you're all having a good week so far.

Unfortunately mine hasn't been so wonderful. I had some dental work done on Saturday and still can't eat solid foods all that easily (or at all) and it's been a definite challenge trying to find stuff I can eat that keeps me full. Slowly but surely I'm figuring out what I can eat since then will be my diet for a few weeks so let's join Jenn with the food party!

Breakfast:

Malt of Meal with brown sugar and a little milk

Chai tea with unsweetened almond milk & stevia

Lunch:

Vegan stuffing from Whole Foods

Snacks:

Jar of baby food (I know, it's the only way I can get fruit in right now)

Fun size Three Musketeers bar (my mom has the Halloween candy still)

Hummus chips w/ garlic hummus

Unpictured chocolate coconut Larabar

Dinner:
Garlic mashed potatoes

Starbucks run:
Pumpkin cream cheese loaf
Gingerbread steamed milk

By the end of the day my poor mouth was aching and I was still pretty hungry from the non-so-filling food I ate all day. Thankfully now I'm figuring out some good things I can eat that keep me fuller.

Hope you all have a great week!