Monday, October 29, 2012

{things}


1. I found out that Jim Gaffigan will always make me laugh no matter how many times I watch his shows. Just kidding, I already knew this before. 



2. Prison Break will be the only show Ben and I watch for at least a month...gotta get through those eighty episodes of pure love. 


3. Frozen English muffins will never go out of style. 


4. The quickest I've ever gone through a peanut butter jar was four days. Guilty? No. 


5. "Lets Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson is the best thing that ever appeared in my life. Read it now people. 


6. Not hiking for a couple of months means you are out of shape and this calls for weird faces. Durr.  



7. New songs on repeat on my cracked-to-shit ipod. 




8. Yes, I will be making the three hour trip to Portland, ME this weekend for the opening of Red Mango frozen yogurt. No big deal. 

(p.s. while searching for this photo, I found a new blog!)


9. This sticker = Want Need


10. There are some things I will never learn, like leaving all my homework undone until the night it's due. At least I'll earn an A in procrastination. Go me. 

                                                      This is basically the definition of me. 




And I just had to throw this one in here because, come on people, there is something wrong with the world when Taylor Swift has all the top song spots on itunes. Give someone else a chance jeez. 


Friday, October 26, 2012

{what's it to me, what's it to you?}


What's it to me?


Courage.


courage  is knowing when you need help and asking for it...

courage is finally feeling like you can love yourself for who you are...

courage is realizing when you are taking a turn for the worse and catching yourself...

courage is being able to eat without guilt...

courage is knowing you have a purpose even on your worst days...

courage is doing something that scares you...

courage is following your heart...

courage is never giving up...

courage is taking rest days without feeling lazy...

courage is believing in yourself...

courage is being honest with yourself...

courage is opening up to others...

courage is letting go...

courage is knowing what's best for yourself...

courage is freedom...

Courage.

What's it to you?

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

{wiaw: chicken meatballs}

Wednesdays are great aren't they? I love them for a couple reasons. I don't have work so I'm not dreading that and I have my cake class so that makes my night fun. Tonight we are learning how to make flowers. So excited!

This week was all about getting back into my routine of good eating and workouts. After this weekend, I couldn't wait to get home. A lot of crappy eating (it felt like it anyway) and rest days make me wanna push even harder when I'm home. I tried not to let it bother me too much because I know this stuff is needed to stay balanced. 

So...

On Monday I made chicken meatballs and felt so proud of myself because they came out absolutely amazing. So amazing that I'm gonna share them with you!

Chicken & Spinach Meatballs



Ingredients: 

1lb ground chicken
1 egg white
1tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 small onion
dash of garlic powder
dash of salt and pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees!


Mix everything together until combined then use an ice cream scoop to get perfect-looking meatballs. Place on a sprayed baking sheet. 

Place in oven and let cook for 20 minutes!


Wah-la! Wonderful meatballs for dinner with corn salsa and a hard boiled egg!

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Now on to my favorite meals from this week. Thanks Jenn!


My order from GNC arrived on Tuesday and I was so happy...although I guess I thought the pre-workout drink mixes were going to be a bit bigger...oh well. I got a free shaker cup so it's a win!


I finally got grapes and they are actually lasting me more than one day. I guess I have learned how to savor them haha. 


My best lunch yet! Fish with lemon, two meatballs, and steamed broccoli! So good.


Got these in the mail from Only Protein...grass fed and gluten free! YUM. 


Lots and lots of protein shakes! These are by far my favorite meal of the day. I could drink these every single day. 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup almond-coconut milk, water, protein powder, stevia, and topped with chia seeds and then placed in the freezer! 

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Things I ate that I don't have photos of: lots of zevias, multiple cans of pumpkin used in mug cakes, tons of eggs (I make the best eggs!), and quest peanut butter cups!


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And some things I have been loving this week:

Jason Aldean's new album: Night Train


My new workout program.



Hope you have an awesome week!!

/

Monday, October 22, 2012

{new program details}

Happy Tuesday!

Leaving the gym today, I got kind of depressed because I loved my workout so much! 

Have you ever felt sad after leaving the gym? You just loved your workout so much, you didn't want to leave?

Okay, maybe not. Maybe I'm just weird.

Let's back up a bit. Last week, I was getting to the point where, even though I still loved working out, I kind of dreaded every day except legs and shoulders. Why? I'm getting tired of isolation exercises, like bicep curls and tricep extensions. I don't know about you, but I don't feel any power when doing these. But I LOVE love love military presses, squats, dead lifts, rows, etc. The compound exercises. They make me feel the most confident and strong.

So getting back to my point. I started looking around for routines that focused mainly on these big lifts as opposed to the isolation lifts and I found the 5 x 5 program from Strong Lifts. At first (and even now) it sounds a little too-good-to-be-true but I'm gonna go with it because there's a lot of evidence that it works.

My main goal for working out right now, I guess, is building muscle. I say "I guess" because this still scares me a bit. The whole "getting bigger" idea puts Ed on edge. But I know what I want to look like (strong) and that means I need more "mass". So, based on my goals this program seems to line up perfectly. I want to be stronger and gain muscle.


The basics of the program:

The 5 x 5 program uses the main compound lifts which include the squat, dead lift, bench press, rows, and shoulder press. It's set up so that you complete three exercises per workout three times a week. Today I did squats, rows, and bench press. Wednesday, I'll do squats, dead lifts, and military press. Friday, I'll do what I did today again. So you are alternating between these two main workouts each each. Next week I'll have two dead lift days instead of the two bench press days this week. 

The main point of the program is that you add weight each time you workout. In order to do this you start with low weight to make sure your form is right and then slowly add on five pounds to each exercise each day you work it. So, today I started with ninety-five pounds for squats, which is pretty easy for me, but when I go to do squats on Wednesday, I'll add five pounds making it a hundred pounds. The difference too, with these squats is that I'm going a lot lower than usual. My hip joint wants to be below my knee joint on each rep in order to get the full benefits from the exercise. This is the same with all of the other lifts. You want to make sure your form is spot on so that when you add weight, you can handle it. 

The 5 x 5 part comes in as the number of sets and reps you preform. You complete five sets of five reps for each exercise, except the dead lift, where you will only do one set of five reps. I personally love this because I'm not a huge fan of busting out a million reps. I'd rather go big or go home, if you know what I mean. 

Anyways, by the end of the twelve weeks my weights for each exercise should be pretty high. I should make good gains if I follow the program exactly. The hardest part for me will be that I won't be working out every day, but only three days a week. I will most likely do some sort of light cardio or light training work on Tuesday and Thursdays so I don't go insane. 

So yeah, I'm pretty excited and can't wait to start seeing more progress! If you want more information about the program, check out the website, it's awesome. Strong Lifts. 

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Enjoy you're week...I'll see you on Wednesday for another awesome recipe!

badass =)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

{my new favorite exercises & a lemon carrot mug cake}

Hey!

My training with Tara ended last week so I decided to write up my own plan based on some research from those books I started reading. It's basically the same plan as usual but with some different exercises, some of which have a new spot at the top of my exercise LOVE list!

Kettlebell Clean & Press



Standing Military Press



Underhand Lat Pull Downs



Arnold Press



I am still loving my squats and dead lifts as always though! These will remain on the tippity-top of this list for all of time haha. I am slowly working on stabilizing my PR from two weeks ago...trying to get up to at least eight reps before I up the weight! It's exciting when you add weight, I love it. 

Moving on...

Today, after my workout I enjoyed a frozen banana-pineapple smoothie and a little while later I made this wonderful mug cake. Enjoy! 

Lemon-Carrot Mug Cake with Lemon Protein Frosting


Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
3 Tablespoons Egg Whites 
3oz Hooray Carrot Puree (or pumpkin, banana, etc)
1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Flavor
1 Dropper Lemon Stevia


Mix all ingredients together in your mug of choice. 


Pack it down and make it look nice. Pop it in the microwave for a good four minutes or so. 


While that is cooking, place a bit of protein powder in a bowl. 

Add some almond milk and lemon stevia and stir. 



Take the mug cake out of the microwave, add your protein frosting, sprinkle with bee pollen and eat up!

What are some of your favorite mug cake concoctions? Do you love them as much as I do?!

Hope you're all having a wonderful week! Keep working hard<3

Friday, October 12, 2012

{quest bars, zipfizz, books and laughter?}

Friday already? Where did the week go? I feel like this week didn't even exist in my book because it was so out of wack than usual.
I traveled home to NH to see my Mom and take a trip to Boston. Monday was spent hiking with Marlin (oh how I missed him!). 


Awwww he's so cute!

Tuesday was Boston and I didn't take one photo. How dare I? It wasn't too interesting besides Zinga! It's good there's not one of these places (froyo) anywhere near me because that's where I'd be every.single.day. Weee. 

I came home Wednesday morning and got a call about an hour into my three hour drive from my Mom telling me how much she already missed me. Wah. I wanna go back home now. It was nice to have some time with her...it always makes me happy. And of course Tucker and Marlin can always make me smile :) They're the best!

I basically came home, made my frosting for cake class and went straight to the high school where I decorated this baby!


I felt proud of myself because it wasn't the worst one in the room. Haha. 

Thursday I check the mail and found these goodies!


Amazing right! I emailed Quest a while back and they sent these to me for review! I had been hearing so many good things about their bars and needed to try some. The ones I got are their new products, the Quest Cravings line! 


I tried the crunch bars and OH MY LORD they are wonderful. I swear they taste just like those Hershey chocolate crunch bar thingys, but even better because there's 20 grams of protein and only 8 carbs! Hello, is this a dream?! 


I have yet to try the peanut butter cups but I can't imagine they're not just as good or even better! I'll let you know for sure :)


The other thing I got was this!


Zipfiz!! Have you heard of this stuff yet? Because if you haven't, you're seriously missing out! It's an all natural energy fizz mix that you add to water and let me tell you, it WORKS! 


I've added it to my water during my workouts and I think I need to use only half the container thingy because I have so much energy it's not even funny. Check out their website for more info! 

In other news I went to the library yesterday and got these books!



I am changing my major to health and wellness after realizing I need to follow my passions so I got these out and started reading! I don't actually start taking classes for this major until December but I thought I would start early haha. Everything is so interesting and I love all of the muscles and seeing how everything works together! I think it's all around better for me since I am totally at home in the gym now. It's pretty much the best part of my day now. 

Anyhoo, tonight Ben and I are going to see Bob Marley (the comedian) at UMaine so that should be fun! Finally something fun to do together. We listened to some of his stuff this morning and couldn't stop laughing so I'm pretty excited! Here's a video for your entertainment :) Have a good weekend peeps!


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

WIAW {routines}

It's so funny how I can get so stuck in a routine that the only time I actually realize how stuck I was, is when I leave and go somewhere else for a while. 


I typically eat the same thing every day with some things switched up here and there but when I went to stay with my Mom for a couple of days, all of my original food choices went out the window. 


I did plan ahead and brought some things with me but sometimes I find that it's better to switch it up and eat different things. It helps that my Mom is a health nut like me so I don't have to worry too much about the food she has. 



But that still doesn't mean that I'm always comfortable with everything she eats. I found myself restricting a bit this weekend just based on the fact that I wasn't in my normal routine. 

I don't feel like I messed up or anything because that wouldn't do me any good. I just feel like this is another one of those learning experiences where I can look closer at the things I need to work on. 



Eating away from my comfort zone and within someone else's schedule is one of those things. 



I'm proud of myself for doing what I could and when I go back home, I'll continue to eat my favorite foods and start working on adapting better. 
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Thanks to Jenn for putting this together every week! Sorry that I never really follow the themes. 
Oh well. 

I hope you are all having a great week!
Lots of LOVE. 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

{GoGo Quinoa Burgers}

A recipe? From me? I know what you're thinking...I never post recipes. Well now I do, so there! And it's a good one too. 

Two weeks ago I received a generous package from GoGo Quinoa, a wonderful company that sells quinoa products (go figure!) but not your usual products. They do sell regular quinoa but who wants that when you could have quinoa cookies, quinoa pasta, quinoa crunchies, or even chocolate quinoa cereal?

Oh, and they also have gluten-free and vegan products along with tons of recipes too! 

Anyhoo, the company was nice enough to let me pick out some products to try so I picked: Quinoa Burgers, Amaranth and Kanwa Cream, Pink Salt, and Amaranth Puffs! 

Here, I'm going to show you how to make the quinoa burgers because that's what I tried first. 


The ingredients in this are awesome! Take a look...
Ingredients: 
Certified organic ingredients (97.85%): pre-cooked organic quinoa royal grain, organic quinoa royal flakes, organic amaranth flakes, pre-cooked organic quinoa royal flour. Non certified organic Ingredients (2.15%): dehydrated parsley, dehydrated green pepper, dehydrated tomato, dehydrated onion, dehydrated garlic, salt, powdered cumin, powdered black pepper, powdered turmeric.
Step #1: Place quinoa mix in a big bowl and add 250mL of water and let sit for 5 minutes. 
Step #2: Form patties from the mix. It should make about 5. I was able to make 6.
Step #3: Heat a skillet on medium heat. I used this coconut oil for mine!
Step #4: Place patties in pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. 
Step #5: All done! Easy right? I ate one for lunch and then froze the rest for later. 
My frozen stash!

I've never tried anything like this before but I must say, they were pretty awesome! 
If you want to poke around the GoGo Quinoa website you can here. They have a lot of different things that would be sweet to try!

Have you ever made quinoa burgers? If so, did you love them like me?