Sign of Fatness

So it’s been months and months since my last post. A lot has changed. 

• I finished my term of Americorps
• I decided to stay in Philadelphia
• I started a new job in the banking sector
• I moved to a new apartment in a safer, noisier neighborhood

That’s just to name a few. Unfortunately these past few months have not been too great for my healthy lifestyle journey. For awhile I was living on my friend’s couch so cooking was done but maybe not the healthiest. Also I currently work an hour away from where I live so my working out has been a little inconsistent. 

I have new goals for the upcoming year:

• Find a new job 
• Consistently work out 4-5 times a week
• Eat healthy meals+snacks
• Run a half marathon by next fall
• Blog more regularly

So far this week so good. 

So this past month I have been horrendous with blogging, and to be honest that will continue probably through the end of the summer.

So this is the announcement of my Blog Vacation… I just currently have way too much going on in my life with finding a job for next year, finding somewhere to live, and subleasing/travelling from couch to couch all month. So blogging will unfortunately, have to take a back seat until my life is more stable.

Hopefully next time I write, I will be sharing good news :).

So when I began this  journey, my goal was at first to get healthy, then lose weight. Well since summer of last year I’ve lost almost 10 pounds which is great! I’m still not at my goal weight (I need to lose another 5-10, although 10 may have me looking a tad skeletal). I was even pleased at the doctor’s when she asked if I was athletic because my pulse is low/indicates I exercise frequently.

There’s only one problem with all of this.. this year I’m making way below the poverty line.. and can’t exactly afford to run around spending money on clothes. One pair of my work pants is ripped thanks to this treacherous edge on my desk, and the other… is SO baggy.. I look ridiculous. Today is casual Friday so i threw on my skinny jeans which I just washed, and just aren’t skinny anymore. All of my clothes just seem to be baggyish. I will probs need to go clothes shopping… eventually.

Anyway, yesterday I forgot to mention that I made a 60 calorie chai tea latte! It tastes just like one you’d get at starbucks, minus the zillions of calories/money. It also is the least complicated thing to make ever. So if you’re into chais, opt for this.

Really Skinny Chai Tea Latte

Ingredients

1 tea bag of french vanilla chai black tea (I used Twinings)

2/3 cup of almond milk or more

1/3 cup of water

1 packet of stevia

Directions

Heat water/milk. Combine. Place tea bag in the combination as well as the stevia. Let it sit for around 5 minutes. Drink up!

Haven’t updated this thing in so long. Work has been incredibly busy which is wonderful for me, not wonderful for this blog! I also am in the midst of job applying so my evenings are packed with that, along with my everday chores and of course, cooking!

This past weekend was full of homemade goodness. I spent the weekend in Delaware, and did not go out… instead I job apped, watched movies, and cooked copious amounts of foods (too much foods). Friday, I had a vacation day to go get my car registered so I took my mom out to lunch at Pizzeria Paradisio. I got the Pizza de Mare which was a pizza with tomatoes and mussels on it, and was pretty tasty… I was sad to give the leftovers to my mom but it was her Mother’s Day lunch after all. Afterwards I swooped by Dean & Deluca to grab some treats for the road: Coconut Water and a red velvet mini cupcake. The mini cupcake was delicious, so soft and had a nice cheeselike frosting. My mom complained that hers (the German chocolate mini cupcake) was a little dry, oh well… Dean & Deluca can be hit or miss with a lot of things (especially coffee).

Friday’s dinner was pretty simple, just some pasta and TJ’s tomato sauce. We threw in some smoked herring which added a nice zing to the pasta, as well as some mushrooms. Saturday was my big cooking day. After the bf made us some breakfast burritos, I was craving a snack so I whipped up Oh She Glow‘s Almond Butter Dip. I subbed regular milk (bf does not have almond milk. boo) and added a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extrct. It turned out  yummy and creamy, perfect with green apple slices. For dinner, we made a tofu-yam hash (recipe to come soon) which was pretty good, the leftovers were so good the next day. Sunday we made naan pizzas, and then cooked up some ahi tuna fillets with a quinoa lime salad.

All in all, good weekend, good food.

Because I have only $7 left in food stamps, I will only be eating what I’ve got leftover in my fridge. My only problem is I don’t have really any veggies, except for frozen peas and some celery stalk that is pretty terrible tasting/on its way to being bad. Last night I had some frozen gorgonzola gnocchi from TJ’s with edamame, a rice cake with almond butter, and some dates. Pretty good, pretty filling/relatively low calorie. I’ve been pretty terrible once again with portion control, which I am now really taking steps to monitor… especially before I do a detox later on this month.

Exercise update?

Well yesterday I ran 2.5 miles and did some of the exercises from Fitness Magazine’s Tone Your Trouble Zones workout. My IT Band/hip pain was pretty bad so I was pretty limited with the exercises. I’m going to try and run again today and do some weight lifting; I’m really hoping this IT band pain will stop. I’m considering getting a Swedish massage (there’s a Groupon) for this and my chronic shoulder pain. It’s $40.. can’t decide if it’s worth it.

So this past week I’ve been pretty busy at work and then busy doing chores at home, so to be honest blogging hasn’t been a top priority. Ok so half of it is lazyness; but it’s tiring working then working out then running errands! Even my eats have been a little lazy; some ravioli cooking, some dumpling cooking… nothing special (with the exception of my tofu pineapple curry stir fry the other day).

Working out has also been lazier than usual, sort of. The week following my 5k, I started experiencing a lot of pain around my knee and consulted my friend who is a physical therapy grad student. Apparently my IT band was giving me the ouchies, making running a painful endeavor/any athletic activity a little painful. So my workouts were reduced to only three times last week, with smaller distances in running. This week my IT band isn’t acting up as much, so I’ve been back at it. Yesterday I was able to run 5 whole miles followed by some weights. Love it.

This weekend I’ll still be a lazy blogger.. going back to DC again to explore! Hopefully I’ll try some new foods, but tonight it’s Chipotle’s Veggie Tacos and HOPEFULLY some sweet green froyo.

31.1! Actually it’s not at all… still got a few years to go. But, I just took the Real Age test which evaluates your real age based on health, diet, exercise, feelings, etc. It was pretty long but pretty informative/a reminder that I really need to go in for a check-up. It’s been years, but sadly the insurance that my current position provides me doesn’t cover the majority of docta visits. Thankfully, the test said that overall my health, diet, and exercise were younger/on point… what aged me was stress/financial stress, etc (not a surprise). All of these are things that will change I believe within a year, but still improvements can always be made now. Anywho if you want to check it out it’s here.

Anyway yesterday was the girls dinner night with my friends Becky and Lindsay. It was nice to see friends and catch up on all the jeopardy episodes this past week (I never get to see jeopardy now because of my workout schedule). I made an avocado anchovy dip along with pita chips, and I made peanut butter oatmeal cookies instead of almond butter. The dip was delicious as usual… and I’m pretty sure I ate the majority of it (cardio makes me hungraaay). My friend Lindsay made us an African couscous that was full of yummy veggies and had a serious kick to it, which I loved. The cookies were actually better than the almond butter ones; I used rolled oats instead of steel cut so the consistency was a lot more light and fluffy. Over all, it was a night of eating, chatting, and some goofin’ around like this:

So I try and make home-cooked meals as much as possible, but sometimes I don’t have the time… or I’d just like to sleep in a little bit. Today was definitely one of those days; had instant oatmeal with sliced banana and 1/2 tsp of peanut butter, followed by soup and a veggie burger for lunch.  For those days when I just can’t seem to get it together in the kitchen, I have some fav quickies but goodies:

Trader Joe’s Eggplant Cutlets

So good, and just plop some tomato sauce on top and pop into the oven and you have yourself dinner in 10 minutes.

Trader Joe’s Masala Veggie Burgers

These aren’t your average veggie burgers. These taste like samosas put into a patty. If you eat it with a pita and some greek yogurt, you have yourself a flavorful little wrap.

Trader Joe’s Roasted Red Pepper Soup

This soup is rich, filling, and only 100 calories per serving. Yum.

Instant Oatmeal

When I first started my job I was living off of this stuff. I preferred Oat Fit/any oatmeal brand that didn’t have tons of added sugar, had all natural fruit pieces, and flax was always a bonus.

Trader Joe’s Shrimp or Veggie Potstickers

These are tasty little dumplings that take ten minutes to make. The veggies aren’t mushy, and with some soy or siracha (probably spelling that wrong), they’re nice and tasty.

So I haven’t blogged in like a day because I’m currently in the midst of a food rut. Working out has me coming home later and later so I haven’t felt energetic enough to make anything creative. What’d I have last night? Just a big ‘ol bowl of pasta. So lame… and yet so warm and comforting, just what I needed during that thunder storm the other night.

I did however make the mini polenta pizzas that I found from Poor Girl Eats Well, and they were pretty good. Not too filling so I would definitely make a side, or you can be silly like me and munch on celery, olives, a cheese stick… etc.

I promise next week I’ll add my grocery list that left me with only $22 in food stamps left until April 12th.

Anyway, hopefully my food rut will be over this weekend. Visiting the bf and bringing lots of goodies to cook with should put me out of my funk. In the mean-time, I’ve compiled a foodie wish-list. Hopefully one day my dream will come true!

It consists of:

1. Keurig Coffee Maker

– These things are amazing and my work’s Mr. Coffee isn’t cutting it or my latte cravings.

2. Sunwarrior Protein Powder

– I see this protein powder in all of the blogs I read. It looks great and has half the calories of Amazing Grass.

3. Chia Seeds

– Again, frequently on the blogs I read. I’m dying to make Chia pudding or stick some of these suckers in my overnight oats.

So today at the gym I did it: I ran a 5k!! I was able to turn my bad mood into motivation to run faster and faster until i hit the 3.1 mile mark; it was a great feeling. I followed the 5k with 35 minutes on the elliptical, and then came home and did a biggest loser sculpting workout at level 2.

I decided to treat myself after my workout to muffins. As I was making them, a MOUSE ran on my foot. I screamed and dropped a bunch of stuff on the floor. I then decided to just finish the muffins and have some dumplings for dinner and call it a night. After I already made my muffins, my roommates came in and informed me that they had cleaned the oven out with chemicals yesterday and had yet to clean out the oven… good thing I ALREADY ate three muffins. Crossing my fingers I’m not poisoned… To be continued?

Some more exciting news: I went to Emergen C’s website awhile ago and filled out a form for free samples, and they came in! So after tomorrow’s grocery store trip I’ll be giving those bad boys a try.

Berry Oat Muffins  (Update: They aren’t poisonous)

Ingredients

1 cup of whole wheat flour

1 cup of rolled oats

1/4 cup of apple sauce

2 tsps of vanilla

1 cup of TJ’s frozen mixed berries

1 egg

2 tsps baking powder

1 tbsp of agave

1 cup of water or almond milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375. In a bowl mix the oats and water, and let them sit for 5 minutes. In another bowl combine the flour and baking powder. In yet another bowl, whisk the egg and combine with the agave, vanilla extract, and apple sauce. Combine all the ingredients together and put into 12 muffin tins. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Take them out and pray that your roommates didn’t just clean the oven.

Nutrition Facts

I’m considering downloading the WordPress app on my phone (but it’s 2 dollars, ugggh) so I can update on a regular basis. But until I do that here’s a quick run down of this weekend, which was really great and relaxing. Again, maybe not a successful weekend for lent…I splurged. Friday the bf’s roommate broke out the grill since it was 75!!! degrees out. He offered me a hamburger, and I simply couldn’t turn it down because a) it was free b) nothing beats a grilled burger. Afterward we all headed to a local bar, and I indulged in a couple of drinks; it was Friday after all! Saturday the bf and I journeyed to Trader Joe’s where I bought the world… well not quite, but certainly splurged. That night we made this recipe I found for Greek baked shrimp from YumSugar, and it was totally worth the extra dollars we spent to make it happen. We paired it with some red wine, and spent the night watching some basketball and hanging out with his roommates and the cute puppy they’re babysitting.

Awww sleepy puppy..

Since Sunday is not considered a day of Lent, Sunday has become my cheat day. Because of this, I made an avocado/anchovy dip I found from YumSugar and paired it with chips!  I’m trying not to go too overboard on Sundays,  but with that dip and my favorite Tostitos chips… I may have, just a weeee bit. And because Arizona ended up winning against Texas, the bf and I had some victory froyo from Yogurt City in Newark. I had a red velvet/cheesecake/cookies and cream combination with cookie dough bites, walnuts, pineapple, and kiwi. So okay, yeah, I overdid it.

New Goals

I’m keeping up with Lent, and I really am going to try and be better during the weekend. To my credit, I did go on a hike on Saturday and did not go out to eat at all. So go me!

I’d also like to make some more concrete fitness goals. Namely, I am definitely doing the April 15th  5k. I’m nervous because I’ve only been doing treadmill running, but I think I’ll be able to do it. Also, I have one big goal: next year, I want to be able to complete the New York Half Marathon. I know it’s a year from now and who knows where I’ll be living; but right now completing a half marathon seems crazy. Every blog I see and every time I log onto Facebook people are completing them; and if I keep up with running I think maybe I can do it too. So wish me luck!