Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Reboot

Have you seen the movie ‘Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead’?

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It follows a man named Joe Cross, who is “100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease.” Continued from the movie website, “Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn’t end well— with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe’s personal mission to regain his health.

“With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long- term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

“While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 lbs; a cheeseburger away from a heart-attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well.

“What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection.
Part road trip, part self-help manifesto, FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD defies the traditional documentary format to present an unconventional and uplifting story of two men from different worlds who each realize that the only person who can save them is themselves.”

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My boyfriend and I watched this movie about a year ago now and, long after I went back to grad school in Denver, he decided to give the whole “juicing thing” a shot. Guess what happened to him? He lost 20 lbs. over a summer and, after adding exercise to the mix, has lost an additional ten pounds.

Think about it like this: Our puppy, Molly weighs 35 lbs. That’s approximately as much weight as Blake has lost over about a year (not really trying that hard after he was done strictly juicing.) So basically, before the juice reboot, he was carrying around a medium sized dog ALL THE TIME.

Chunky monkey.

Why I am telling you all this? Well, because he and I are doing this program right now! This is my first time doing it, so I thought I’d share with you my journey as a newbie to the whole “juicing thing.”

First things first– we are getting enough nutrients from this program. We are following the FS&ND ‘Classic Reboot‘ program, which combines juicing and eating whole vegetables together. It’s a 15 day plan, although we may stretch it out longer. It’s 5 days of juicing and eating whole foods, followed by 5 days of just juicing, concluding with 5 days of juicing and eating whole foods again.

After you’re done with the program, the website has guidelines (which, if you’re a vegan or vegetarian, you probably follow pretty well anyway) to keep yourself on track. Anyway, just to be sure, I’m monitoring my energy levels and continuing to take a B-vitamin supplement, as I have always done because, as a vegetarian, it is recommended.

So, what has our program looked like so far? Well, here’s what juicing looks like:

Fruit! Frozen fruit added to smoothies? Tastes like a pina colada…

Our juicer.

We juice mostly hard veggies in here– think: carrots, cucumbers (is that a fruit?), celery, green apples (definitely a fruit)… pretty much anything that’s really hard or crunchy goes in that. And yes, that’s my sweet dragon cup (made for children– don’t judge!)

A medley!

This is an all-fruit juice smoothie we made, but I will frequently include kale and spinach in my smoothies. Not pictured? The ground flaxseed I add to every smoothie for additional healthy benefits!

The finished product.

Our fruit smoothies will very in color– any where from this randomly brown-ish color, to bright green, to dark purple. Pretty cool!

And now, the thing you care about the most: Blake and I have been doing this for about a week so far, although sometimes we ‘fall off the wagon’ (see: Memorial Day at my parents). For the past 7 days, Blake has lost 5 lbs and I have lost 3 lbs.

I’ll be keeping track for you guys over the next month– we’ll be doing the 15 day strict reboot first, and then playing around with juicing for one or 2 meals a day throughout the rest of June. I’ll let you know how it goes!

‘Semi-Homemade’ Soup & Hula Hoop Cardio!

I don’t know if you have watched or heard about Sandra Lee’s Food Network Show, Semi-Homemade Cooking, but I thought it was an apt title for today’s meal. While Sandra typically combines fresh food with store-bought stuff, I unfortunately didn’t do exactly what she did, but close enough

In an effort to clean out the pantry and the refrigerator, I decided to mix my two favorite things together for a healthy and very filling meal: Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo and Amy’s Black Bean soup.

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PLUS

Amy’s Black Bean Soup

EQUALS

Yum!

Now I have to be honest… cooking soy chorizo is kinda gross. You have to cut off the casing and, especially if you’re a klutz like me, the actual soy chorizo stuff falls apart in your hands, leaving your hands/the counter/the floor/the cats covered in red coloring. Definitely unappetizing…

Cooking soy chorizo

I eventually got it into a pan along with a tablespoon of coconut oil, fried it up, and added half of this batch to half a can of Amy’s Black Bean Soup. You can use more soup or more soy chorizo if you like, but I find soy chorizo to be really spicy… plus I wanted leftovers for the next day

On further thought, you really could make this legitimately ‘Sandra Lee’ approved and add some fresh spinach or herbs to this dish. Make it your own! I promise, it is super delicious, very filling, and incredibly easy to make. The only ‘mess’ was the pan and the cutting board I used to cut off the soy chorizo casing. Super facil! (Super easy!)

On to awesome topic number two… today I went to Hula Hoop Cardio! A local fitness studio offers $5 drop in classes. The classes they offer include Zumba, Hip Hop Cardio, ‘Butts and Guts’ (haven’t been to that yet!), Zumba Toning, and now, Hula Hoop Cardio!

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I had heard of hula hooping as a form of cardio, and several years back, I bought a couple of hula hoops. The roommates and I used them pretty frequently at first, but eventually the two other roommates got bored and stopped. I continued to hula hoop around the house intermittently, but when I moved away for grad school, the hula hoops got packed away. Needless to say, I didn’t think I’d really get back into hooping…

Enter: this class. When I saw in an email from the studio that they would be offering it this month, I got so excited. Let’s be honest, I also read this article in Shape magazine a while back about Marisa Tomei hula hooping, and I thought, ‘damn, I wish I were Marisa Tomei! She’s so cool! I should get a hula hoop.’ (No joke, this is in part why I bought a hula hoop all those years ago…) But back to fitness…

Why is hula hooping a good exercise?

• Other than being fun (thus upping the likelihood that you’ll stick to it, obviously a huge factor in exercise and weight loss), hula hooping doesn’t require any fancy coordination, nor does it require pricy equipment. If you can move your hips, you can hula hoop. (source)
• Hula hooping burns as many calories as step aerobics, boot camps, or brisk walking. (source)
• If you use a weighted hoop, not only will hula hooping be easier, but you will also burn more calories than using a store-bought hula hoop (that said, I used a regular plastic hula hoop and still got a killer work out). (source)

After today’s class, I am more determined to (one day) purchase a weighted hula hoop– they only had one, and a lady grabbed it before I did. She also was the best hooper in the whole class, and now that I know that weighted hoops are easier… well then…

I had a ton of fun and right now, my quads are sore– we did squats and lunges (yes, while hooping!) in addition to some dancing and walking around. I wasn’t the best hooper, but I was pretty darn good! The most important thing is that I am excited to go to class again next week (and I burned 400 calories.) Win win!

Have you ever tried hula hooping, either for fun or in a class setting? Would you be interested in hula hooping, or do you think it’s just a fad? (Definitely a possibility!)

Avocado Pesto Pasta

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day… if you didn’t celebrate with your Mom, maybe you celebrated with a Mom of some sort (pets count! I’m a Mom! ), or maybe you just got down with your bad self. I hope getting down with your bad self included either pancakes, waffles, or doughnuts/donuts… because there’s no better way to celebrate ‘Day’s’ then with SWEETS!

Speaking of sweets… I drove down to Tucson to spend the weekend with my parents, and on Mother’s Day, Dad and I took Mom out to breakfast and made her pay! Just kidding… not really… Dad paid for himself and Mom paid for me and her. We’re precious, aren’t we? (Don’t worry, Mom, I promise to make it up to you once I start getting a paycheck!) Anyway– I had waffles. That’s pretty much the best part of the story. Also, Mom got flowers, a card, and delicious See’s candy from Dad and me, which I’m sure she loved as well

Dad didn’t really do the best job of holding the phone still to take a photo, so this is the best we’ve got. Yay! And clearly, we dress fancy…

Anyway, on to the stuff you were promised!

No, not Molly!

Good try to distract me, but I’m not here to talk about the dog (even though she’s the best puppy everrrrrrr!)

Instead, Avocado Pesto Pasta , recipe from Chloe Coscarelli! We actually ended up halving the Coscarelli recipe and mixing it with Simply Organic’s Sweet Basil Pesto sauce mix. We also made one tiny change in the Coscarelli recipe, which you can see below…

Ingredients

• 1 lb. dried linguini (we used the pasta we had in the house– angel hair. Whatevs, it’s pasta (Italian-foodies, please don’t beat me!)
• 1 bunch basil leaves
• 1/2 cup pine nuts (okay, so check it: pine nuts are crazy expensive. I read online that you can actually substitute raw plain cashews for pine nuts, so that’s what we did! Same amount.)
• 2 ripe avocados, pitted and pealed
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 olive oil (we used coconut oil, because we’re out of olive oil and we heard it’s just as good of oil as olive)
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes (once again, we have a million tomatoes left over from the Market, so I chopped up 2 whole tomatoes and threw them in)

Directions (hint: it’s so easy!)

1. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta cooks, in a food processor, blend basil, cashews or pine nuts, avocados, lemon juice, garlic, and oil. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Drain pasta. In a large serving bowl, toss pesto with pasta and garnish with basil and tomatoes. (This is also the point where I quickly brought the Simply Organic mix to a boil, stirred it, and threw it in with the Avocado Pesto.)

Pesto in the processor.

So my photo skillz (and phone) aren’t the best, so this looks gross, but I promise you, it tastes amazing! Also, since I have a tiny food processor, I had halved the ingredients… if you have a regular-sized food processor, you can blend up more pesto at once!

Yummm!

The finished product! I have to say, speaking as unbiased as possible, I liked Chloe Coscarelli’s Pesto recipe much more than just the packaged Simply Organic pesto, but that’s probably because a) the CC recipe was creamier and b) the CC recipe was fresh. I think if you substitute cashews for pine nuts, you could make this pesto really affordable… so do it!

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Eggplant Sauce

In my ongoing effort to use up all the veggies from our visit to Market on the Move (which, by the way, we’re going to again this Saturday!), I decided I wanted to use up the one lone eggplant I picked up.

Just one small problem… Blake hates eggplants, for pretty much no reason. He says they “look gross.” Awesome… so obviously eggplant parmesan was off the list, as was pretty much anything with the words ‘eggplant’ in the title.

Enter… eggplant mixed IN pre-made sauce! Woohoo! And so my Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Eggplant Sauce was born. The Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells part comes from this recipe, and the Eggplant Sauce (however gross it may seem to you), comes from me.

Without further ado…

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Eggplant Sauce

Ingredients

Eggplant Sauce

• 1 eggplant (skinned, ‘salted’ (salt the eggplant, let it sit for an hour to get all the bitter juices out, wash it, pat dry), and roughly chopped)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon onion or garlic powder (or both)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 3 cups pasta sauce of your choosing (I used regular Marinara)

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

• 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (the recipe calls for fresh, but I used the canned stuff and it seemed fine)
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Approximately half a bag of fresh baby spinach (I used what we had left)
• Jumbo pasta shells

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring salt and water to a boil. Add pasta shells and cook until done, set aside.
2. In a medium sized non-stick pot, add olive oil, eggplant, onion/garlic powder, and salt and black pepper. Cook until eggplant has started to brown. When finished, set aside.
3. While pasta and eggplant are cooking, start making the ricotta mixture. Basically, put all ingredients (except for the pasta shells) in a large bowl, mix well with your hands. It should look something like the picture below, but maybe with more spinach in your case.
4. After the eggplant is done, transfer eggplant mixture into a high powered blender (I use a Blendtec, but you could also use a food processor), add pasta sauce, and blend until well mixed.
5. On a 9×13 baking dish, lightly greased, layer half of the eggplant sauce on the bottom.
6. After pasta shells are cooled, stuff them one at a time with the Spinach and Ricotta mixture. Place each shell onto the baking dish.
7. When finished stuffing each shell, cover with the remaining eggplant sauce.
8. Cover with foil, cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

And you’re done! Yay! When I surprised Blake with this for dinner, I didn’t mention the eggplant sauce, until he asked what kind of sauce I used… and surprisingly, he said he liked it! He said he couldn’t even tell there was eggplant in it at all. Success! And maybe a good idea for you, if you have some veggies that need to be eaten and a family member that refuses to eat them

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Well, I made my first attempt at making an entirely ‘on-my-own’ recipe… not following a cookbook or anything! I have to say, it came out pretty darn well. I was going for Black Bean Chili, but as you’ll see from the pictures, it came out more like soup. I think I know what I need to omit now…

Why did I attempt to make up my own recipe? One, I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who “experiments” in the kitchen. I’m envious of those who can see what’s on hand in the kitchen and make a delicious meal from it (my boyfriend is one of those people, which is great for using up old food, but he always shows me up! ) Two, since our Market on the Move trip, we’ve had a ton of tomatoes to use and I wanted to see if I could use the majority of them instead of freezing them.

What makes this southwest? The addition of some spicy ingredients… And, of course, because it was made here in the hot, wonderful, dry Southwest!

So without further ado, here is my monster creation!

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium sized yellow onion
• 2 medium sized yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped (you could probably use whatever bell peppers you have on hand– yellow is what we had!)
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 28 ounces (ish) crushed tomatoes (I pureed about 28 ounces of all the tomatoes we had in a blender, but I know you can buy canned crushed tomatoes, and I believe they come in that size)
• 2 cans black beans (I used Eden Organic Black Beans)
• 1 cup water (you don’t need this if you use more tomatoes, like I did)
• 2 jalapenos (more if you want it hotter!) – seeded or not, it’s your call. I seeded one and kept the seeds in the other- spicy!
• salt
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers, garlic, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the chili powder and cook about 30 seconds to a minute longer.
2. Transfer onion mixture into a 4-6 qt. slow cooker (ours is a 4 qt., I believe). Make sure that you don’t fill it past 3/4s full, otherwise it could bubble over.
3. Add the tomatoes, beans, water, and jalapenos. Only add the water if you want it to be more soup-like, otherwise leave it out for a thicker, chili-like recipe.
4. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

Want to make it chunkier? You can add some store-bought or homemade soy chorizo, like I did the next day for lunch, or you can cook up some plain couscous or quinoa and throw that in there to soak up some of the more ‘soup-like’ aspects of the chili.

Again, the great thing about slow cooker recipes is that you do all the work in the morning (or the night before, if you’re pressed for time in the mornings), throw it in the slow cooker for the hours you’ll be at work (most slow cooker recipes are 8 hours or so), and then you have dinner waiting for you when you get home!

I really want to investigate using the slow cooker for breakfast foods, and I also heard a rumor that slow cookers can make bread… say what? Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted!

10 Minute Pilates? Yes, please!

You probably already know two things about me from following this blog:

1. I like to work out
2. I’m pretty lazy when it comes to working out…

Maybe this is you, too, but I know that if someone gives me an excuse, any excuse no matter how ridiculous it is (it’s dark outside, it’s late, the dog is snoring, there’s ice cream in the fridge), I will jump on it and say “Okay, tomorrow I’ll go to the gym!”… which may or may not happen.

That said, since I have a ton of free time until my job starts, and since I spend the majority of my time in the family room (to keep an eye on the puppy while she sleeps/chews on her toys), I decided I didn’t want to spend all my time just sitting on the couch reading/Facebook-stalking/Tweeting.

However, I also didn’t want to do anything crazy….

Enter: 10 Minute Pilates!

I grew to hate this lady about 25 minutes in...

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The concept behind 10 Minute Pilates is simple: you can do anything for ten minutes, so for ten minutes you will work on (1) butt/legs (2) arms (abs)… and maybe stretching, but I didn’t get that far (look at the commitment!)

Anyway, I did do the hard parts (the first three) and I would say I got a pretty decent workout. For the arms part, you will need either 1 lb., 2 lb., or 3 lb. weights. The video focused mostly on triceps, but also did a lot with shoulders and chest, which I liked (chest press, lifting your weights above your head to work on your shoulders, etc.)

My favorite part about the legs/butt exercise was working on my butt… of course. Not only for butt-toning reasons, but also because it was the easiest to understand of all the moves. I thought the video moved way too fast in between poses, and the camera didn’t focus enough on form so much as it did of the instructor herself… note to camera-people: I don’t care about seeing the instructor’s face, I want to see her form!

I probably could have paused, stop, and rewound the scenes I needed to see again, but it wasn’t worth it because the videos didn’t show or explain enough about the form for me to understand it anyway. Sooo… that was a bummer.

That said, I did enjoy the ’10 minute’ aspect of this video series (I think there’s also 10 Minute Yoga too). When the moves got hard or I got tired, I told myself anyone can do this for 10 minutes… you lazy bum!… which helped me finish out the set. I only did half an hour because I had somewhere to be (plus the dog was demanding to be played with, and you don’t say no to Molly…), but I think I’ll try out a yoga video next time (probably later today!)

I also saw some kickboxing/dance/’Biggest Loser’ workout videos, which intrigued me, so we’ll see. On days when I know I’m not going to the gym, I think I’ll be trying these videos out!

Quinoa Pasta with TJ’s “Meat”balls!

Okay, lest you think the worst (that I’ve left the bf for someone named ‘TJ’ and he makes amazing meatballs), TJ stands for Trader Joe’s… and the ‘meat’balls are actually TJ’s “meatless meatballs” of deliciousness!!!!

Seriously, one of the best reasons to move back to Phoenix (there are few) is the fact that there is a Trader Joe’s less than 10 miles from where I live. Heck, even if the nearest TJ’s was 25 miles away, it’d still be better than Denver! Colorado doesn’t have any Trader Joe’s in the whole freaking state. Yes, I know, seriously… what the heck?? Whatever, Colorado…

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So anyway, that said, yesterday I made some freaking delicious quinoa pasta – Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta to be exact! Ever since Blake came back with the recommendation from his doctor that he cut back on refined carbs (including wheat bread, wheat pasta, brown rice… things we thought were healthy), I’ve been trying to find things that both satiate us the way carbs do, yet are still healthy for us.

The best part about quinoa?

• It’s a ‘complete protein’: “Quinoa contains all 9 essential amino acids that are required by the body as building blocks for muscles.” (source)
• It’s a good source of magnesium: “Since low dietary levels of magnesium are associated with increased rates of hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias, this ancient grain can offer yet another way to provide cardiovascular health for those concerned about atherosclerosis.” (source)
• It’s also high in iron and calcium, so all of that combined makes it an “excellent food for vegetarians and vegans.” (source)

So basically, it goes without saying that quinoa is what’s up. However, how does it cut it as a substitute for whole wheat pasta? Well, pretty darn well!

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PLUS

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PLUS

(pasta sauce of your choosing)

EQUALS

Awww yeah! (Hey, a little math at night won’t kill you ) And these pictures are actually from today’s leftovers because I was too hungry to get pics when they first come out… yeah, they hold up pretty well

The meatless meatballs were sooo good too! Blake loved them and said they were the best ‘fake’ meatballs he’s tried, which is high praise… I guess… I also steamed some frozen veggies and threw them in the mix, to get some extra fiber and texture in there too.

All in all, I’m basically in love with Ancient Harvest’s quinoa pasta. They have all different kinds too: elbow pasta, spaghetti, bowtie… and maybe more, but that’s just what I saw at Sprouts. Definitely worth it!

Couch to 5k and Mile a Day!

Short post today because I’m meeting my City of Phoenix “mentor” (he’s not really a mentor but he’s not a friend… yet… so I don’t know what to call him!) in an hour… hey, I said I’d be posting every day, but I didn’t commit to a length!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all that I have re-started my commitment to running… my ‘commitment’ has been very hit or miss, depending on my mood. When I was in boot camp, I was super committed, mostly because we had to run a mile every day to warm up. However, I did notice a big change not only in my cardiovascular range, but also in my shape. I know they say the best way to lose weight and tone up is to lift weights, but honestly, I saw just as big a change when I was running as I did when I was lifting weights.

Then again, it had to be running. After bootcamp, I went back to doing the elliptical and all my hard work (especially my cardio!) went away. When I moved back to Phoenix, when I first went hiking with my boyfriend, I noticed immediately that I was much more out of shape and out of breath than ever before.

I’m now doing weight lifting (light, not anything crazy… just for toning, and because I’m too lazy to do anything harder) and Zumba classes (those are so much fun! And cardio! Woo!), but I’ve also decided to add in running again.

Enter: Couch to 5k. If you’re interested in reading more about the program, and reading it from the perspective of someone who is really dedicated and much further along on it than I, check out This is My Everest‘s blog posts!

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I was so psyched and pumped reading This is My Everest’s blog updates about C25K, and I was like, ‘hey, I have that app! I’m going to get back to doing it!’

Okay, so turns out I don’t exactly have the Couch to 5k app… I actually have the ‘Run 5k’ app:

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Oh well, it’s kind of the same thing, I guess. Don’t worry, I bought it from the App store a long while ago when it was cheaper (I think .99?) so I didn’t actually spend 4 bucks on it. I like it too because it has a little ‘music’ button on the bottom that lets you listen and access ANY music source on your iPhone– be it iTunes, the radio, or Pandora. I can skip around on my music and not interrupt it!

Also, it’s really easy to use and it tracks the dates you use it, so you never get confused as to where you are. In fact, it told me the last time I used it was in February, 2011. I am soooooooo motivated… not!

So in conjunction with my Run 5k app, I’m also taking part of the Twitter challenge from Carlyn from Just Keep Sweating to complete a mile a day, #mileaday on Twitter. So far I’m two days in, and I think I’m doing pretty well.. then again, it’s only been two days… :-/

Between these two motivators (well, and this blog!), I hope to get in at least a mile every single day, be that from walking around, hiking, or running on the treadmill. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!

Still alive!

Hey everyone– I thought I’d get a quick post in to assure you I’m still alive… barely! We’re in Week Six of school (out of 10 weeks) and, as this is my last quarter of graduate school, EVERYTHING is ramping up, and I am, as usual, overwhelmed!

So I thought I’d catch you up on a couple of cool things that happened over the break… 1) I finished the VegNews challenge! Some highlights of that were incorporating more broccoli into my diet (yum!) and finally learning how to use cabbage… which I didn’t learn very well, haha. So far I have put red cabbage into my ‘green drank’ (thus turning it into purple drank, which is not to be confused with the illegal substance! as well as using it in stir frys.

Surprisingly, cabbage lasts a really long time in the fridge… I didn’t even wrap it up in anything special, but so far it’s lasted for a week. I hope this is normal?

2) I found my favorite go-to meal when I’m in a crazy hurry/have a long day ahead of me… the night before, I’ll stir fry broccoli and cabbage (and maybe spinach and asparagus), make some couscous, and heat up either Gardein ‘meat’ or Boca ‘chicken’ pieces (for protein)… throw that in a tupperware and get a move on! It’s especially good for Wednesdays (like today!) when I’m busy rushing from work to class!

Yum!

Yes, I know this has some processed food in it and might not be nutritionally complete, but damn if it doesn’t fill me up for a solid 4-5 hours… which is exactly how long I need it too!

3) Blake and I also celebrated our second anniversary (Feb. 2!) Woohoo!

2nd anniversary celebration at our favorite place

No, our favorite place isn’t the hotel… haha. Our favorite place is Gallo Blanco, a restaurant inside the hotel. Delish!

Blake surprised me with a trip to the Glendale Chocolate Festival while I was in Phoenix visiting him… oh boy did we gorge on chocolate!! He’s the best, because he knows I DIE for chocolate! I’m definitely a sweet tooth type of person This is how we celebrated Valentine’s Day, since we won’t be together on the actual day (boo long distance!)

4) I’m sorta transitioning back to being vegetarian vs. vegan. Blake did not help my willpower when he made one of my favorite things… bean and cheese burrito!

So delicious but full of cheese!

I think after my VegNews challenge, I will go back to being vegetarian mostly, and vegan when I cook for myself. As much as I enjoyed the challenge, I’m just not ready to 100% commit to being vegan all the time. That’s something I’ll have to ease my and Blake’s relationship into…

5) Finally… I got to see and play with my favorite little monkey while I was back in Phoenix… Maddy!

Trying to hit the camera phone

She looks possessed in this photo… I have a couple better ones of her, but since she is a possessed kitty, I thought I’d share this one with you all. As usual, while I was back in AZ, I took more photos of our kitties than I did of either Blake or me… haha, I’m an animal lover for sure!

So there you have it! I’m still alive, although unfortunately I won’t be updating daily as I did in January. February is going to be very busy… I’m not saying that to get pity, just to give you a heads up.

I promise when I am done with grad school, you will see many exciting new posts! Or stressed posts, depending on whether or not I find a job… ay Dios mio!

Boot camp – 2nd to last day

Yesterday was my second to last day of boot camp… for this session! Oh yes, my friends, I signed myself up for another boot camp, which starts in 3 weeks. I can’t wait!

I'm never this excited to go to the gym, but it IS this dark outside!

Obviously this is not what I wear to work out, but that jacket is (because it’s freezing outside), and it is definitely that dark outside!

We did a ton of awesome stuff. We started with:

• 4 laps around the basketball gym
• 3 sets of 8 ‘Around the World’ lunges

Video of the lunges:

Yeah, they were killer! We then

• Sprinted from one end of the gym to the other
• Once at the end, we did jump hops (which is just jumping up and landing in a squat position, then doing it again). We did those for 3 sets, 12 reps
• Then we jogged back to the other end and did bench dips… 3 sets of 12 reps:

• Then we did my favorite exercise machine ever: the lat pull up and the narrow pull up! 3 sets of 10 reps each. I kept mine at about half my weight (which means I was on 69.5 pounds, which equals out to be a little more than half my weight, but the next weight down was 50 lbs. and that would have been too easy)

• We finished our time in the gym with hinge curls (worked my forearms!) of 3 sets, 10 reps each. I used a 20 lb. barbell.
• We then ended our boot camp doing ankle cross crunches (3 sets of 20) and planks (3 sets of 30 seconds each)

All in all, a super good work out! I’m definitely hurting today (at least my arms are) so I’m babying myself with a green drank… approx. 1 1/2 hours after I ate breakfast, but whatever. It’s a snack I’ll share my recipe for this week’s green drank in my next post!

I was going to get coffee today (ohhh Starbucks!) but it’s snowing! So I’m sticking inside right now until the snow dies down, finishing job apps and whatnot.

Questions for you all: Have you ever used the lat pull up/narrow pull up weight machine? How much weight do you usually do?

Happy Friday!