mac n cheese oh my oh me

Too tired to type... Let's just get on with it:

Activity:
I went to my first ever Bikram yoga class. Holy cow. Holy guacamole. I went in wearing a shirt and laughing to myself about the whole concept of 'hot yoga', thinking it wasn't going to be crowded at 4 o'clock on a Saturday, and it wasn't going to be that hot in there. I brought a hand towel, a bottle of water, my pretty purple yoga mat that gets minimal usage.

I get to the studio and I am surrounded by young, beautiful naked people. Okay, they weren't naked, but they were wearing very, very little. The next 90 minutes passed by v e r y s l o w l y and within the first 2 minutes, I could barely see, there was sweat all up in my vision. Right in front of the mirror, I could see the carefully applied swipes of mascara running down my face, and i couldn't hold my foot, it was a slippery little bugger. Who frikin' knew? They really mean it when they say sweat yoga.

I'll try it one more time before I give up. Ugh. Not very positive talk, but it's hard to be positive at 12:35 in the morning. It's officially Super Bowl Sunday. Little woo.

Food:

B @ 11:30 - 1/2 C. oats, blackberries, yogurt, etc.

S @ 2:30 - 2 pineapple spears

this is where it goes down hill.

I promised J I would cook, and I found a tasty 'low-fat' mac n cheese recipe with broccoli. So I made it. A HUGE pan of it. And it was delicious! Why? Because I doubled the amount of cheese, and added a touch more butter. It was really, really good, but not exactly health food. I did use low-fat shredded cheese ($$) and whole wheat twirl-y pasta (who needs fancy pasta terminology this late at night?) and you know...broccoli. Oh! And my cheese sauce was made with skim milk!

D @ 8:00 - 2 smallish bowls of home made baked twirly pasta and cheese with broccoli

Dessert @ 9: 00 - 3 chocolate bon bons at 40 cals. each (I was feeling naughty! they were deelicious)

My hands are extra dry from lots of dishes and I need to wash my face b/c I'm getting a zit. It's okay though, tomorrow is a holy day (GO CARDINALS!!!) and I already have some boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked for tomorrow's cheese, corn and shredded chicken enchiladas!

No pictures today, but expect a litany tomorrow!

On the Lazy Train Headed for Late Town

I didn't update yesterday! Frick! I really want to develop a good habit of UPDATING daily to record my activity levels and food and not get lost in forgetting what I do to my body! Last night was a late night: sushi dinner with J (more on that later) and seeing Slumdog Millionaire at 9:45! It's a long movie and since we walked to the theater, we didn't get home until after midnight and I was out cold. So tired.

Let's get right into food:

Fridays I don't have any class, but I do volunteer on campus so I need to get up and get going.

B @ 9:45 - what's becoming my typical 1/2 C. quick oats, with a couple spoons of vanilla FF yogurt, some almond slivers, and some blackberries, and a banana.

this is what my morning oatmeal usually looks like

L @ 2:00 - a hummus and LF cheese sandwich on that AMAZING flax bread (100 cal. for 2 slices, and only 6 net carbs), with cucumber, tomato, and some red onion. Then I ate a few raw almonds.

S @ 3:30 - a cutie tangerine

S @ 4:30 - another bottle of Synergy Kombucha. This stuff is so good (good for me! and you too!) but at $3 a bottle? I really can't afford to make it a habit... I tried the ginger blueberry flavor today and it was very tasty! Usually I can't stand the taste of ginger but I took a chance, a gamble, and it payed out.

D @ 7:30 - J & I went to the amazing Japanese restaurant that is notorious for giving out tons of free food along with huge portions. This all the food we got for $34:
+ 2 bowls of cucumber salad (sunomono)
+ 2 plates of calamari
+ 2 small samples of special rolls (2 pieces of a tuna, and 2 pieces of a California crunch roll)
+ 2 sakes
+ a California roll (which was free b/c they made a mistake and accidently gave me two)

All of the above was free free free!

Then we had:
+ 2 salads
+ 2 miso soups
+ I had a sushi combo with a 6 ps. tuna roll, 6 ps. cucmber roll and 6 ps. California roll with cucumber instead of avocado (I have a thing against avocado, I understand that this makes me a freak or something)
+ J ordered chicken katsu and I swear, it must have been a whole chicken his portion was huge.
+ a glass of Chardonnay for me
+ a small Sapporo for J (his first ever!)

I should have taken my camera to take pictures but I forgot. Whoops. Dinner was way bigger than I thought it would be but I did work out that day!

I was at the gym from about 12:40 to 1:50 and this is what I did:

Treadmill for 30 mins at an average of 4.6 miles per hour at an average incline of 2.1%
30 mins of weights including 30 push-ups, 60 ball squats with a 10 lb weight, 50 glute presses at 50 lbs., some arm stuff on a bench (I know how to do these exercises, but I have no clue what they are called) and in the end, about 10 mins of abs.

Then I ate my lunch, did my volunteer work (selling 'low-cost safer sex supplies' in the student quarry) and went home! A pretty good day, even if dinner was a little bit indulgent!

Now I need to think of something to make for dinner tonight! It never ends!

Stuffed Marie

raw almond snack

Man, I feel like I ate a ton of food today!

Let's review...

Activity: I ran about a mile today and then did two hill runs. Those nearly killed me, I felt like I was running a hill towards a higher calling, and once I got to the top I would be saved! But I just ran back down, and did it again. The second run up the hill was very challenging! I then did about 45 minutes of weights, including lots of ball squats, lunges with weights, some exercises with tubes (with the aid of a stranger named Andy) and some chest presses/lat pull downs. Did some abs, felt pretty good! Let's thoroughly examine my caloric intake...

B @ 8:00 - 1/3 C. oats cooked with water, topped with cinnamon, some dried cherry/raisins, FF yogurt, blackberries and a sprinkle of almond slivers, + a banana

S @ 10:30 - cherry Larabar (190 cals), Synergy Kombucha (60 cals), a pink lady apple

S @ 1:30 - cutie tangerine

L @ 2:20 - bowl of roasted veggies (potato, sweet potato, onion, carrot, brussels, broccoli, garlic), palm full of almonds

D @ 8:00 - can of select harvest tomato soup (mmm), and a grilled cheese on some amazing 100 cal (for 2 slices!) flax bread (only 6 net carbs or something) plus tomato and onion and of course, real cheddar cheese (omg), five whole wheat water crackers with chive goat cheese (I could not resist...)

my soup and sandwich (that's not grease or anything floating on top, that's just some tapatio!

I think I need to start counting calories. I'd like to aim for eating 1250 or so a day (that's probably healthy) and right now? I have no clue how much I eat! I always get so scared of counting calories, it intimidates me. I'll do a little experimentation tomorrow...

Tomorrow I don't have any classes (thank you, sexy Jesus) but I do have an hour and half of volunteer work at school, and I'd like to get in a little work out, at least some good cardio.

My boyfriend, J, who lives about an hour away from me, is coming tomorrow. We usually visit on the weekends, hang out, eat good food, watch movies, etc. This weekend is the SUPER BOWL and I am planning an all red menu of food (SUPPORT THOSE CARDINALS!!)

Right now I want to have one 'give myself a big old break eat whatever the hell I want to' days and I am going to do that on Sunday. That means I have to be good tomorrow and Saturday, typical 'be very very bad' days for me. I'm planning on sushi tomorrow but Saturday? I need something that satisfies my kinda picky eater and keeps it healthy.

No Other Day...

my salmon salad. is the portion too large? i wonder...

My title sounds like a Broadway song... it probably is.

You should probably know I have an unnatural fear of musical theater. Something about bursting out into song and a bad habit of blushing out of embarrassment for others.

ANYWAYS.

This is my first 'real' blog of health!

However, it's not too healthy.

This is my senior year (thank you, sexy Jesus) and I'm currently in the process of writing my senior exit paper (a fascinating inquiry into the ritualistic play of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Feel free to engage in dialogue). Combined with the struggle of looking for a job and keeping up with my TV shows (LAME), I've had a hard time getting active. Yes, I need to cut out TV time, I know. I'm working on it. But it's so difficult to get to the gym when you've got school all night, you rely on buses and you live in a sketchy neighborhood. Yesterday, on my way home, I was behind a guy who was pushing a cat in a wheelchair. I'm all for animal love but you can believe I was walking e x t r a s l o w to avoid him seeing I was behind him and having him try to talk to me about the high price of cat food.

I had a huge presentation today (it went well) but I skipped my yoga class this morning in order to do extra research so the only activity I have for today is 1 brisk 10 minute walk home in the cold, cold dark. This city doesn't believe in streetlights.

Let's talk about what I ate. I think I did pretty okay today:

Breakfast @ 8:00 - 1/2 C. of oats cooked with milk, topped with cinnamon, Craisins, FF vanilla yogurt, a sprinkle of chopped almonds and some blackberries, & a banana

Notes: My oatmeal wasn't too good b/c I didn't cook it long enough! Didn't even finish the bowl!

Lunch @ 12:00 - a small whole wheat sammie with garlic hummus, LF cheese, cucumber, tomato and a slice of red onion, a Pink Lady apple, and a 100 cal. pack of Oreo cakes

Notes: Need to stop eating empty calories like the 100 cal. packs. Today was my last little thing and I will not buy anymore from the store. No more empty calories!

Snack @ 6:30 - a mini Crunch bar from class presentations. W/e W/e it was good and chocolatey and I only had 1!

Dinner @ 7:30 - a salmon salad (see pic above) with dark green lettuce, tomatoes, golden raisins, goat cheese, and a home made vinaigrette, and a small bowl of leftover roasted veggies, including a bit of potato

Dessert @ 8:30 - little dish of FF yogurt with a sprinkle of LF granola and some black berries, Lemon Digest Yogi tea


Wow...that seems like a ton of food.

Tomorrow I have an actual Cardio Weight Training class, so I hope to get some activity that way... we'll see how my food intake is affected.

HAVE A GORGEOUS DAY TOMORROW.
STAY WARM, PLEASE.

Mission Statement

This is not a diet blog!

says the diet blog in disguise...

Alright, this may be a diet blog, I admit it. You caught me! I want to lose weight! But the thing is, I don't need to lose any weight. I'm at a pretty healthy weight. I'm short (seriously, short short) but my jeans are usually under a size 4 and my shirts are almost always size small.

However, I can't run a mile without nearly passing out, I have 27% body fat and according to the fancy body fat calculator that's borderline poor. Instead of focusing on losing weight, I'd like to concentrate on developing a healthier lifestyle that I will be able to continue throughout my life. I just turned 21, I'm almost done with my last year of University, and I am about to enter a world where a gym membership doesn't come with my student registration fees. And I don't even use the gym on campus like.......... ever?

That's all going to change though. Starting this January...wait, it's the 28th?


Starting this February, I am going to make life changes. I will explore my kitchen, like a modern day Tenzing Norgay, and I will brave the battleground of the campus gym. My mom aka BFFFFFFF (that's best friend forever to the nth degree) got me a few personal training sessions at the local Mega Gym (not trademarked) and I hope to get some insight on creating a user-friendly, fat-blasting, heart-pumping, awe-inspiring work out I can do on my own. I want to run 3 miles without stopping and feel good doing it!

So this isn't a total weight loss journal. I still want my little curves and I still want to enjoy good food. Let's just call this a mission in total mind and body healthfulness. Yes, that sounds nice. I just want to have that elusive Kanye good life. How will I acheive this? My oath, let me show you it:

In this blog, I will try to...
+ Create a healthy outlook on getting healthy
+ Try to record my daily food intake and log my activity
+ Stay positive about getting healthy
+ NOT obsess about my weight or the need to LOSE weight
+ Make some friends who love fun and being happy, healthy
+ Give thanks for the little things in life
+ Not whine when I have an off day (everybody makes mistakes, everyone has those days!)
+ Work on my self-esteem
+ Practice sharing my love with the world
+ Make a good effort to stop being morose and negative
+ Limit my complaints about life's everyday happenings (I'll try but really... I'm a very good complainer)

This is going to be a good thing, I can just feel it!
I want to do a bit of a cheer or something! I just woo'ed outloud!