Re-commitment

This end of the semester has started to wear down on me a little bit for the following reasons:

1. Huge amount of work that I have been putting off!  That includes a chart that I have to make for my human behavior class (like the ones you buy at book stores that explain an entire subject on an 8.5" x 11" card) and a 20-page psychosocial assessment that I have to write for a module of my practice class that ended two weeks ago... grr.
2. I love my puppy, but he's a handful!  It breaks my heart that I have to crate him in order to get work done.  He's already 11-weeks old!
3. The research that I am supposed to do for my scholarship.  The woman that I work for does not give me clear guidelines and it's really hard.
4. I have gotten way off path on eating healthy, whole foods and being physically active.
5. Money... ugh, I'm a grad student, need I say more?

Besides all of that, I feel like I just have been building up a lot of stress inside.  I really want to recommit to eating well and being more active.  I also NEED to get yoga back into my routine.  It's so easy to forget how much better it makes me feel.  I did it for 20-minutes earlier and I already feel a little better.  I also need to get some sort of date night situation worked out because me and G have been on constant puppy patrol!

As a part of all of this, I think it's important that I start blogging more, especially with my food intake.  I am not at a weight or lifestyle that make me happy right now.  I have been eating tons of JUNK for the past couple of weeks, too.  So this is my official recommitment and a hope that I can get myself wedged back into this blogging community :)

Anyway, for lunch today I finished off the chicken noodle soup that I had made earlier in the week:

This was really good!  I will definitely be making this again in the winter (or before!).  I also had some peanut butter and crackers.

And some frying cheese with a little bit of honey.

This cheese is awesome and so good with honey, syrup, or preserves.

I have gotten a good chunk of work done today, so hopefully that's a good sign for the rest of the weekend!  I am going to a Shabbot dinner at my friend's house, so I probably won't be taking any photos out of respect for her orthodox jewish beliefs. 

And thanks for reading my little vent session :)

Bore fest.

The weather has been getting more and more nice out! It's sunny and all of the trees are starting to bloom. I LOVE spring!! Can't wait for the Cherry Blossom Festival :)

I packed my lunch/snacks to take with me to class. The sad thing about my final semester at UMD is that I have really bad professors right now. All of them. Bad. Also, now that I got into grad school and my GPA is secure I don't really care as much about these classes. That's probably not the best attitude to have, but it's true. Soooo, I occupy myself with eating and thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner and crossword puzzles.

Speaking of eating; I packed some edamame (very interesting to eat in class), Kashi 7 grain crackers, an apple, and an Apple Pie Lara Bar (one of my favorites now!).

My yoga class was kind of canceled today so that we could work on our little midterm projects (lame) so I did 30 minutes of Hip Opening Flow #2 on my own. Post yoga eats was a Peach Chobani with a little bit of Ambrosia Blend trail mix on top for texture.

I think that tonight's dinner is going to incorporate portobello mushrooms and tofu... we'll see :)

Opening up.

Ahh the first Monday after my return has been conquered! I'm still easing back into the week and my school work, but I need to start working hard soon! And look how much the daffodils have opened up since this afternoon!!!

Dinner needed to be mindless because I am always too hungry to think too hard or prepare too much after I get back from class on Mondays. I decided on Annie's Whole Wheat Shells and White Cheddar and roasted brussels sprouts.

They didn't let me down. For some reason I have been hungry all day. Maybe not enough fiber? I always blame fiber. Tomorrow will have to be an improvement because I feel like I loaded up on stuff that I didn't need today (ie. Chai lattes and ice cream).

My back has also been hurting me, I think because of stress. I decided to do 20 minutes of Lunar Flow and I think it did the trick for the time being. I haven't done yoga for a couple days so I'm thinking that might be the reason for some muscle tension.

I also really wanted something sweet (of course) so I had a serving of Nature's Promise Vanilla Ice Cream. Full fat. Eeeek, I don't ever buy that. I stirred in about 1 T. of coconut flakes and a few butterscotch chips.

Yummm. In blog news:

The Hungry Yogini is giving away Barney Butter! Check it out!

I got an award from Dulcie of Daily Dulcie. Thanks, Dulcie!!

The rules are as follows:

List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know that they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sidebar letting the whole world know…you are Kreativ!

7 Things that I love:

1. My family; they have always been there for me and they always will be :)
2. The BF; he's the best boyfriend that I could ever have asked for. Ever.
3. My education; I will be the first in my family to graduate from college and get a graduate degree.
4. FOOD; duh, but I do love it: cooking, eating, sampling, learning, EVERYTHING.
5. Helping others; I believe in doing good for others.
6. Cute animals; I like to pretend that the gushiness makes me sick, but I secretly love it.
7. The beach; I've lived there all my life and I don't know what a summer without it would be like.

I tag the following bloggers (I did more than 7):

• Lauren
• Becca
• Kelsey
• Emily
• Julie
• Lara
• Abbie
• Michelle
• Olga

These are some awesome ladies. I've appreciated everyone's comments as I've been starting up this blog. It really IS a community :)

Emily also gave me an award a while ago and I totally forgot to post it:


Thanks girl :)

OK, time for beddy and such. Good night!!

Finding your pattern.

It's so much harder to stay in a flow when I'm not at school. I really hope that after I graduate I can keep up with my regular updates. It's all about finding a pattern, I guess.

I've gotten in some awesome food in the past couple of days! I love being home. Everything in College Park is a chain.

Yesterday for dinner we had Pepper's Tavern. They advertise as a "5 star dive" and that's a pretty spot-on description. It's really seedy inside and a lot of locals hang out there. The food is awesome. I almost always get the fish tacos with rice and beans, which is what I got last night (sorry about the fuzzy pic; I forgot my camera).

We were in a rush because we went to a play at my old high school, but it was still good. They have the hottest wings on earth. Seriously. I've had a lot of wings, and these are ridiculous.

Dessert was 2 Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chip Cookies with milk. Gotta have the milk.

Today, similar to every other day this week, started with oatmeal (oats, skim, water, banana, cinnamon, splenda, vanilla, granola, blueberries, almond butter) and 20 minutes of yoga.

Lunch was from another one of my favorites: Mione's. I got a slice of the white pizza, which has ricotta, broccoli, tomatoes, and basil.

So awesome. I also had a couple of bites of The BF's Margarita pizza, which was equally good. His slice of pepperoni was mediocre.

Then I had work at Dumser's, which meant that I didn't have a lot of healthy food options. Which meant that I decided to give into the fryers and got some chicken tenders and fries.

I ate about 3/4 of that. A few hours later I had a small scoop of coconut chocolate chip ice cream with hot fudge. Yumm. But I definitely felt the effects of the fatty foods later on in the shift. I felt tired and draggy and slow. Blech.

Need to go to bed because I have work tomorrow, too. Have a great weekend!!

Listen up.

It's almost 4pm. I have accomplished two things today: eating breakfast and doing an hour of yoga. I think my parents must think that I schlep around all the time since whenever I'm home I sleep in and do nothing, but I really do stuff when I'm not on break! Promise.

After waking up, it was time to take advantage of my mom's waffle iron.

Waffles with smart balance and syrup. Which have pretty much kept me full for the past 4 hours or so. I never know whether to eat lunch on days like this or just snack and eat dinner later. Probably the latter.

After waiting a while for the waffles to settle, Gustl and I did 60 minutes of Heart Opening Flow. Glad to do it, since more activity might not be in the cards today. The weather isn't looking so great.

I didn't do yoga yesterday, mostly because of work. But I'm also kind of glad to give my body a break half way through the challenge. I know that the challenge is to do yoga everyday, but yoga is also about honoring and listening to your body, so I need to stay true to that.

Who knows what the rest of the day has in store!

I'm up for the challenge.

I have been nice and lazy today and I LOVE IT. I can't think of a better way to start my break :)

I did 60 minutes of Heart Opening Flow #1. It was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be! I was majorly sweating by the end and I feel really good! I am so glad that I've started doing yoga regularly and have been able to stick with it for 2 weeks! Anyone else doing the 31 Day Yoga Challenge?

Midday, I had a sweet potato with smart balance and a little cinnamon, but totally forgot to snap a picture. I also had this panini:

Multigrain bread, turkey, tomato, avocado, mozzarella, and a little olive oil. Yummy. I love the Griddler!!

The rest of the day should be similar to the first part. I'm going to Modest Mouse tonight! YAY! Should be fun. I also want to note that my posts for spring break might be a little less consistent while I'm on break. I'll definitely update as often as possible and keep commenting on everyone's blogs. Happy Friday!

Funky.

This day needs to end now. I have been in a serious funk all day long and I need to just sleep it off.

My shift was good. I started talking about my blog a little bit and I could tell people either didn't get it or thought it was odd. How do you handle this situation? What's the best way to explain your blog to people who don't know about it?

I brought some Kashi crackers and Goldfish pretzels and my Almond Butter.

Everyone seemed to like it, and I ate WAY TOO MUCH. I need to stop eating unreined. It just makes me feel yucky and imbalanced afterward.

At home I decided to so 30 min of Gentle Hatha Flow #2 . This was probably a good choice because of my overall soreness. I'm not sure if the gym will be in the cards tomorrow, as much as I want to. I also added a box in my sidebar for my workouts so I don't need to detail them as much in my posts.

Dinner was light because of a.) the funk and b.) the nut butter overindulgence. I had roasted brussels sprouts and Amy's Chunky Tomato Bisque. Also for the aforementioned reasons, I completely forgot about taking photos until I was doing the dishes. Oops. What's the deal?

I did all of my work, then went on the website to discover that not only have all of the due dates been pushed back until after break, but class is canceled tomorrow. Uggghhh. I need to collapse! And I probably will shortly with some Cherry Garcia. Good night!!!

Research shmesearch.

Oh goodness. I always get to a point when I'm studying for something that I don't enjoy (like Research Methods) in which I just stop being able to care about it. I just want to take the exam and hope for the best, because I can't spend another minute trying to remember the advantages of using different methods of data collection... Seriously, one of the reasons that I became interested in pursuing a MSW in the first place is that it involves NO RESEARCH!

For the day, I packed a lovely array of lunch/snacks:

Turkey sandwich with spinach, tomato and hummus, Honey Oikos with cereal, apple, and Cherry Pie Lara Bar. Mmmm Mmmm and MMMMM! The Oikos isn't as good as the Chobani, but I still like it. And the Lara Bars are not failing to impress. Must. Find. More.

After class was a 30 minute stationary bike ride, 15 min elliptical, and 20 minute walk. Not too strenuous since I've been working out pretty consistently.

Yoga was nice today. My entire body is sore and achy and I've been tired all day, so the practice was a little more challenging than it probably would have been otherwise. We also set up the room in a sort of arena set up, so that the instructor was in the middle and we were kind of staring at each other. A little awkward. Has anyone experienced this before?

I had been planning on making a tofu curry, but my tofu turned for the worse. It ended up being a very nice veggie curry, with potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, and zucchini.

And a side of naan with smart balance.

I wanted something sweet pretty much immediately after:

After some [not so] vigilant studying, I payed Ben and Jerry another visit.

Heavenly.

But now I have come to the end of what I can will myself to do for the night. Hopefully my rest is more restorative and my exam goes well tomorrow!!

Check, check, check!

Whew! Hair cut: check. Groceries: check. Yoga: check. Exam: check. Just need to study and do a write-up and tonight is smooth sailing.

Grocery shopping was wonderful, as usual. Here are the goods:

• Almonds
• Cocoa almonds
• Annie's Cheddar Shells*
• Amy's Vegetable Barley Soup*
• Amy's Tomato Bisque*
• Lite Soy Sauce*
• Maple Syrup
• Tuna*
• Bumblebee Salmon*
• Smart Balance
• Amy's Burrito*
• (4) Oikos Yogurt*
• Butter*
• Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia FroYo*
• Frozen broccoli*
• Van's Waffles
• VitaMuffins
• (2) Cherry Pie Lara Bars*
• Cinnamon raisin mini bagels
• Frozen shrimp
• (3) bananas
• Cucumber*
• Zucchini
• Potato
• Sweet potato
• (4) Gala apples*
• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Brussels sprouts
• Tomato*
• Sliced mushrooms*
• Baby carrots*
• Reduced fat feta cheese
• Smoked turkey breast

*on sale at Safeway!

Lunch was a good incorporation or old and new ingredients:

Panini on whole grain with turkey, mozzarella, avocado, tomato, and a little olive oil. With carrots.

Just got done 60 minutes of Power Vinyasa Flow #1. Ouch. Good ouch, though :) I feel the burn.

Onwards and upwards for the rest of the day!!

Run, run, run!

I don't know how I get myself into these predicaments, but I am going to be moving moving moving non-stop until I leave for home today. I've already gotten up, eaten breakfast, done yoga. Now I need to blog, pack, meet my friend for lunch, go to an appointment, go to the bank, return a video... yikes, probably more that I'm forgetting about.

Since I'm eating lunch a little earlier than usual, I decided to stick to a small breakfast.

Whole wheat english muffin, 1/2 AB, 1/2 lemon curd. Also had a glass of skim milk (I can't stand leaving a lot of milk in the fridge if I'm not going to be around for a few days).

For yoga, I tried the 45 minute Gentle Hatha Flow #2. I am seriously so glad that I am doing yoga every day, even though I'm only on day 6. Hopefully I can get the weekend in. That's what I've been a little worried about.

Alright, sorry for the short post. I need to get stuff together! But don't forget to check out the new Foods that Fit site! And an awesome giveaway! I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this weekend, but I'll def be back by Monday morning at the very latest! Happy weekend :)

A Winter's Tale.

This day was sooo long. This semester has been a roller coaster ride, and I am so glad that it's my last (well, of undergrad...).

Since last I posted, I went to class, armed with my packed lunch/snacks:

Comprised of Thomas' mini cinnamon raisin bagel w/ almond butter, apple, and an Almond, Walnut, Macadamia nut Kind bar (which was good! Loved the crunch, even though I thought I might take a front tooth out.).

In yoga class we didn't actually do yoga; we worked on out group flows that we're creating for our midterm. Fun, but I needed yoga, so I did the 20 minute Hip Opener flow from Yoga Download. Nice. I'm so glad that I found this site! And proud that I'm still going strong on the 5th day of the yoga challenge!

I had a small time frame to eat dinner since I needed to meet friends at the play at 7:00. I wasn't that hungry, but I knew that if I didn't eat I would be starving in the middle of the play, and you DO NOT want to be stuck during intermission with an empty belly, wishing that you could eat something.

I threw together a bunch of leftovers. Some naan with Smart Balance to start:

And then roasted brussels sprouts and Thai pilaf from earlier this week.

It was good and I am so glad that I ate before. The play was so good. One of my friends was the lead and he was great. I used to do theatre a lot and I always thought that I would go to school for it, but when I got here I just realized that it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. It still makes me a little wistful when I go to shows, though.

Dessert was a Dark Chocolate Kozy Shack with Tru Whip. I am becoming more and more impressed with this whip as I try it more.

I really need to get some shuteye tonight. I am traveling home tomorrow after some appointments and such, so beauty sleep is a must! And sorry about the hastiness of this post-- this day was a whirlwind! I promise better photos and such in the near future :)

Happy dance!

I am in such a good mood right now!

1. Yoga was AWESOME today.
2. I took care of some odds and ends that I'd been putting off
   
3. Exam is over (Woo Hoo!)
4. THE GRIDDLER ARRIVED!!!!

Let's start at the top. Today in my class, the instructor decided to take us on a "trip" to Africa. She played songs from Africa and we did a lot of themed poses (Gorilla, Lion's breath, Heron, etc.). It was a really FUN class. Plus, I did crow for the longest that I've ever held it! Yay!

When I got home, the Griddler was here waiting for me. Now since it's here I don't have anything to really cook on it, but I will DEFINITELY figure something out for dinner. And maybe a panini tomorrow for lunch?

I've been munching on my packed snacks all day:

1/2 almond butter sandwich on yoga bread (that's the end of my loaf!), Cherry Cashew Pure Bar, apple, carrot sticks. I also had a French vanilla Stonyfield with some TJ's Chocolate Decadence cereal, but completely didn't take a picture. Oops! The Pure Bar was good, but I think I liked my Lara Bar better.

Now that I'm home I feel like I have a lot of little things to take care of. I feel ready though, energized I guess. Probably have my cuppa cocoa and get started!

What a feelin!

Mmmm I feel really good right now. Made some headway on my health needs assessment project, which really makes me feel better about this group project.

I also had a REALLY good workout today. I did 30 min on the bike and 30 min on the eliptical. THEN, yoga was really, really nice today. We did yin yoga, which I had never heard of (and if you haven't either, it's explained nicely here). Basically boiled down it's holding stretches/poses for longer amounts of time (about 3 min). Some of the poses (dragon especially) were a really deep stretch, and I know that I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow! I liked it. Definitely trying it again :)

I ran by the grocery store after class for a few staples that I had run out of. I go to the store a lot, but I just find it so relaxing and it gets my creative juices flowing.

Dinner was a salmon recipe that I modified from this one. I used seasoned bread crumbs and olive oil instead of butter.

Here's some prep:

And the finished product (which was delicious!):

I had it with these veggies (yellow carrots, navy beans, spinach, in an herb sauce), which I wasn't too impressed with. Eh, you can't win em all.

After my evening cocoa, I decided to indulge in a Chocolate VitaTop. This was my virgin VitaTop experience, and I was pretty pleased. I also put some almond butter on top to add some gooiness. Yummm.

Not much going on tomorrow, so this is a laid back night :) For everyone else, get psyched for Friday!

I love my MOM's!

My body loves me right now. I just feel like I found an awesome workout niche today and I'm feeling so re-energized and good. I did the stationary bike today, which I haven't done in a while. It felt like a good pre-yoga workout. Followed that up with a walk on the treadmill and of course my yoga class :)

Yoga was awesome today because we really focused on breathing. We also got into triangle pose, which is one of my favorites and we hadn't gotten to it yet in this class. We also tried toe stands, which were fun, but definitely on my "To Practice" list, along with Crow.

I thought that I was packing my snacks today, but they pretty much became my lunch. My Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut bar, apple, and goldfish pretzels.

Seriously, it's the OATS!! They are major sustenance. I don't know how I haven't been eating them all my life.

I also checked out MOM's today. I had never been because I wasn't sure where it was. Turns out, it's literally a 3 min drive from my house. It was really nice! I can't wait to go when I actually need to shop, but I did pick up some bread, apples, and cocoa because I was out of those.

I need to make dinner and think about getting work done. I think I might have a lot of time to do it over the weekend, so I might forgo it tonight. We'll see :)

WO stats: 40 min stationary bike, 15 min treadmill, 60 min yoga

Oh Kashi, how I love thee.

The Diamondback has been running a lot of nice stories about body image. I'm guessing that the campus is doing a lot for ED awareness month. This one was really nice, too. Good to see some destigmatization.

Yoga came at the perfect time today. I was starting to drag! Unfortunately, we only got to do 20 minutes because we have to do a group project (it's a credit class). Kinda cool though: we each got a card with a pose and we have to develop a 7-8 minute flow using all of them. Much better than an exam :)

I messed up in the sustenance department today. After yoga I was super hungry. I ate a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut bar.

WOW. This is not a normal granola or cereal bar. The chocolate on this thing is soft and thick and chewy. It's like a candy bar, but better.

I also made a smoothie with frozen mango, raspberries, and blueberries with skim. Refreshing.

Dinner was salmon! I just seasoned it with s+p, garlic, and lime juice, then sliced the lime on top and baked in a foil packet. 450 degrees for 20 min. Yummy! Also had the other half of my yellow sweet potato with Smart Balance and cinnamon.

About to have my evening cocoa ;) I'm also planning on baking tonight, so I'm all ready for a busy night!

360 degrees.

I feel like I got so much done already today! I exchanged a dress and got some shopping done at Target, plus went to class, worked out, and did yoga. Complete opposite of yesterday.

In there I squeezed in lunch. That was in a hurry because I was sort of running late for class, so I just re-heated some of the left over Greek Couscous that I made before.

I also got some of those Vanilla Bean Almonds in before yoga. Seriously: so good. And nothing crazy or artificial (didn't have time to take a photo).

Currently eating some plain yogurt mixed with TJ's chunky spiced apples. Not the most beautiful food, but it's good!

In my head, I have so many things that I want to do for the rest of the day. I really want to ride this wave of energy while it lasts!

Stats: 20 min eliptical, 20 min treadmill, 60 min yoga

Hello yellow.

Pooped. I love my Tuesdays and Thursdays because I feel like I get so much done, but then I get home and know that I need to study. Blah.

Yoga was awesome today. The class is sort of designed as a beginner's course, since it's a for-credit class. It seemed like today people were way more into it. It felt soooo good.

I stopped by the dining hall on campus and picked up some cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes. I got them home and whipped up some Mediterannean Curry Couscous (Near East). I added the veggies and some reduced-fat feta. On the side I had 1/2 of an acorn squash with some Smart Balance and brown sugar. A very yellow dinner :) Now to keep my juices flowing for studying...


WO stats: 20 min eliptical, 20 min treadmill, 60 min yoga

Perfect Soup Day

I am exhausted and freezing! It was so cold today, I thought that my ears were going to break off. Luckily, all of my classes were in the same building, so it wasn't horrible. Had my regular workout (20 min on eliptical, 20 min on treadmill) and then went to yoga. Yoga killed me! I haven't been in so long, I thought that my arms were going to fall off! It feels sooo good though. And I think that I am actually going to be let into the class (I'm on the waitlist now).

Having a cup of Chicken Tortilla Soup with Kashi crackers for a snack. I was ready to eat as soon as I walked in the door! Heading home for the weekend, so probably no posts until after.