I've Been a Little Preoccupied This Week! :)

(My cookbook addiction collection)

We are still trying to get things in order with our new rental house....I guess it's still new (we moved in mid December)!  It seems like every weekend I have a long to-do list to conquer and then we just run out of steam.  We have so many good intentions, but then we just want to have some down time.  I keep up with my classes at the gym on the weekend because they are more like a hobby than anything else.  I love going to kickboxing on Saturday mornings and I am really learning to love spinning too.  I did get most of the kitchen taken care of a couple of weeks ago.  Most importantly, I got my cookbook collection out where I can use them.  Yay!  I have so many vegan cookbooks!  The one thing that's left to do in the kitchen is to put the kitchen island together that I ordered online so we will have some more storage and counter top space.  Then we can move on to smaller kitchen projects like the one I have in mind to organize the spices.  (Hopefully I will be able to take pictures and show you how I did it later.)  But another reason I have not been doing much on the house is because I have been a little preoccupied with this......

I can't put this book down!  I started it last week and I am a pretty slow reader but I have been trying to read every spare second I have.  It's a trilogy so I have a feeling I will be a little preoccupied with it until I am finished with all 3 books.  It's so good.  I definitely recommend it if you haven't read these books yet. 

I have been back on Pinterest finding some more inspiring quotes and images.  I thought I would include some of those.......

(I had to include this Jillian Michaels quote.  I miss her so much on the Biggest Loser.  Season 13 is HORRIBLE.  I am trying to decide right now whether or not I want to just give up on it.  Bob and Jillian work so well together.  It's a shame that this season is so terrible.)

(Photo source:  I found all of these images on Pinterest.)

Progress Picture & Other Stuff

(The first picture was during the summer of 2007 right after moving to NC and the second picture is the summer of 2011 right after moving to Asheville)

Finally!  A progress picture.  (I am not calling it a before and after because I am still a work in progress--I guess I always will be).  :)  Anyway, I have been trying to figure out how to do one of these side by side pictures for a long time and I finally figured it out using Google's Picnik program.  I put these pictures together to send off to Spark People.  They sent out an e-mail asking for vegan success stories so I decided to share my story with them.  Maybe I will be in some kind of an article!  Who knows?!  I do remember that the first picture was taken with a point and shoot camera that still used film.  I sent the film off to be developed through Snapfish and they scanned them and put them into my Snapfish account to view digitally.  Otherwise, this picture would have been immediately deleted.  So, I am kind of glad it still exists to be able to see more of a "before" picture of me.  10 pounds to go to reach 100 pounds lost!  Once I hit that milestone, I will decide from there what I want to do next.  Part of me really wants to get down to 150 but I also don't want it to feel like a struggle all of the time.  I work out hard, I am strong, I eat healthy most of the time, and overall, I feel very healthy.  I feel like this is the important thing.  However, I know that when I hit 165, I still need to lose 10 more pounds to be considered at the top range of my "healthy" weight.  I will just have to see with time,  I guess. 

Heading into the weekend, I just wanted to leave you with some more Pinterest images/ quotes, another great quote I received through e-mail and an interview with Adele talking about body image.  I LOVE her! 

“There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or out. There's no such thing as a life in-between. ”

Pat Riley (born 1945)
I love this quote!  It inspires me and makes me want to be fully committed. 

Here are some Pinterest images:

(This is a good quote for me this week!  I have been struggling this week but I have also been hanging in there.)

(This quote makes me think of the blogger, Bitchcakes.  She's amazing!  She talks about individual choices and that has become my mantra.  All of our individual choices add up.  Just because we "mess up" doesn't mean that we should give up.  This really helps me keep things in perspective.)

(I don't feel so self conscious about my massive amounts of sweat when I look at this quote!  I sweat so much and sometimes I get kind of embarrassed about it at the gym until I see a quote like this!  Remember this spinning picture of me:

(Haha!  It just means I have passion and determination!)

And last but not least, I found this article and interview with Adele.  I think her voice is amazing and I truly believe she's the real deal.  She's got something that many of the other "pop stars" just don't have.  I know she gets a lot of attention for not being a teeny tiny pint sized singer like many of the other music stars are right now but according to this interview, it doesn't really phase her.  Check out what she says in the interview.  She's great!

Have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

Valentine's Day Pancakes & New Recipes

(V-Day Pancakes)

Did you have a good Valentine's Day?  I made these pancakes as a surprise yesterday for R.  I lucked out and got to go to a meeting instead of normal work yesterday so I had some extra time to pull off a surprise.  I just took a picture of the pancakes like this but they actually looked more like this when we at them:

(I originally took this photo for the 4th of July this past year but I love eating my pancakes topped with yogurt and berries--otherwise, it's not a very filling breakfast.)

Valentine's Day was pretty low key this year.  Like I mentioned, I had a meeting instead of regular work and after the meeting got out I was able to get my car inspected, do my taxes and take a special V-Day cycling class.  When I got home, R and I decided to stay home instead of going to the chocolate lounge.  A friend said the chocolate lounge would be packed and we would have to wait in a really long line.  We decided to hold off and go another time. 

This past weekend I spent some time in the kitchen making new recipes from some different sites.  Now that I have my hoosier cabinet back, I was able to set up an ingredients and computer station to follow along with recipes. 

(I love having my things back from our other house!  I missed my hoosier cabinet.)



The first recipe I made was mini quiches from the Fat Free Vegan.  I made this recipe a few years ago but hadn't made it since.  I couldn't remember why I only made it once and then I realized why after I made it again this time.....the quiches didn't set up very well for me.  I didn't follow her recipe exactly so I am sure it's operator error.  The flavor is excellent though.  I really loved the taste even though they didn't set up.  I just need to remember this next time and try to tweak a couple of things to get them to set up right. 

(Mini Quiches from the Fat Free Vegan)

The next recipe I made was Chocolate Strawberry Muffins from Dr. Fuhrman's Disease Proof website.  The recipe called for dates and I didn't have dates, so I just had to use stevia.  I am sure this affected the consistency and set up of the muffins.  I guess I was having issues with my recipes setting up this weekend! 

(Chocolate Strawberry Muffins from Disease Proof)

If I wasn't so impatient, I don't think I would have had any issues with these muffins setting up.  But because I wanted to eat them right now, they were still pretty gooey.  Plus, I kind of made them as a pre-Valentine's Day weekend breakfast.  I love easy going weekend days.  Because I get up for kickboxing on Saturday mornings, Sunday is really the only day to piddle around and cook a slower breakfast meal.  

We also managed to try a new restaurant in Asheville this past weekend.  Before Christmas, I bought a Living Social coupon for Neo Burrito and we finally got around to using it.  They had great options for vegans.  They had both tempeh and tofu along with a few different types of vegan beans.  They had pintos, black beans and vegetarian chili.  I had them make my burrito like a salad and I brought one of my own tortillas to make it a healthier dinner.  I had a huge burrito bowl that had both tofu and tempeh, vegetarian chili beans, lettuce pico, pineapple salsa, corn and black bean salsa and some other stuff.  It was very good!  It's just so hard to go to non-veg restaurants in Asheville when we have so many great vegan and vegetarian options.  However, if there's another coupon like that, I will probably buy it.  It's always good to switch things up a bit! 

Along with having vegetarian chili beans at Neo Burrito, I actually made my own pot of chili this weekend.  I loosely follow the recipe from Vegan Comfort Food:

I haven't made a lot from this cookbook but her chili recipe has become a staple in our house.  We make it for taco salads, to eat over a baked potato and broccoli and to eat just plain.  It has so much flavor in it.  I have never been crazy about chili but I absolutely love this recipe for it.  

Hopefully you had a great Valentine's Day too!  It's already Wednesday and it will be the weekend again before we know it!  I love the weekends!

A Little Inspiration

I get a daily quote each day through my work e-mail.  I really liked today's quote:

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is. ”

--Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

I love this!  So often I think of what I want to change, how I still want to lose more weight, in other words, all of my imperfections.  Getting fixated on this can be so negative.  It's so important to think of each success along the way, whatever your journey might be.  I may not be at my goal weight, but I am strong and getting stronger each day.  I need to give myself more credit for small victories rather than only focusing on the end result.  Because the truth is, there's never really an end result.  I will always be working towards a goal of being a healthy person whether it's losing weight, maintaining weight, building more muscle, etc.  It's a lifelong process.  I felt like this quote kind of summed that up for me. 

When I opened this quote this morning, I also started thinking about some of the inspirational things I have been finding on Pinterest.  I know I mentioned in my post last week about feeling conflicted with the fitness section of Pinterest.  There are some really great things there but there are also some not so positive images too.  Sometimes you have to sift through some of the crap to really get something good.  I thought I would just leave you with some of my favorites of the day to start off your weekend on the right foot.

(Photo source:  lets-do-this.tumblr.com)

(Photo source: wholefamilystrong.com)

Note***Most of the images actually have the website already on them.  If it didn't I provided the photo source from where I got the image even if it was a Nike Ad.  

Have a great weekend!!

I LOVE challenges!

I completed two challenges this week!  Both of the challenges I completed were with the gym that I have been going to for about 3 1/2 months now.  The first challenge has been going on for 21 days.  The challenge:  to stay within my points on Weight Watchers for 21 days straight.  I had been having some days where I would start out strong and then binge.  This was resembling old habits way too much for my liking.  I knew I needed to get control before I spiraled out of control.  So, when the gym started the 21 day challenge, I decided that this would be the best goal for me.  Mission completed!  Yay!  However, you would think I would have some weight loss to show for those 21 days of being on plan....well, not so much.  The problem was that I discovered that I was doing what I did on Weight Watchers last year.  Eating too much fruit!  Once they switched over to Points Plus, and I stopped counting fruit, I started eating way too much of it.  Calories in fruit really add up.  Plus, I stopped measuring out portions of fruit and vegetables.  The amount of broccoli that I typically eat for dinner is over 100 calories.  I know that doesn't sound like much but when you add up several of those foods like that throughout the day that you are not holding yourself accountable for, it adds up quickly.  Anyway, more of that discussion later.  The point is that I did follow the plan and towards the end I did switch over to Spark People again.  I figured that this wouldn't mess up my challenge as long as I was following points or calories. 

(Box Jumps-Photo Source:  Farinofitness.com)

As I mentioned earlier, both challenges were with the gym I go to.  The second challenge was to complete 30 box jumps in 1 minutes without stopping.  We had to draw the challenges from a jar on Monday and we had all week to practice and complete the challenge when we decided we were ready.  I knew I could do box jumps but I normally step down after I jump up.  I knew that I would have to jump up and jump down in order to complete this challenge in enough time.  So I decided to start practicing after kickboxing on Tuesday night.  I did a few and I was feeling pretty nervous about being able to do it.  Then my favorite fitness instructor at the gym came up to me and told me that I was ready to do it.  At first I told her that I needed to practice more and wait a few more days.  When she walked away, I decided to see if I could do 30.  I didn't time myself but I just wanted to see if I could even do 30 without stopping.  To my surprise, I was able to do it without too many problems.  I didn't realize that the fitness instructor was watching me.  She said she wasn't exactly sure what my time was but she was pretty sure I did it in less than one minute.  She told me to do it again!  After taking a few minutes to catch my breath, she came back over and timed me.  I was trying to go so fast that I almost lost my balance and fell on the floor.  But I managed to get it together and finish the 30 box jumps.  Not only did I do it in under one minute, she said I completed it in 30 seconds.  I got an awesome sweatshirt for completing my challenge!  :) 

Challenges keep me focused and keep me working towards something.  I try to think of my New Year's resolutions like challenges.  I made two resolutions this year.  My first resolution is a financial one--to get our other car paid off so hopefully we can have a period of time with no car payment.  The second goal is to finally hit my 100 pounds lost milestone.  As I mentioned before on my blog, I had to update my weight loss ticker to 89 pounds lost.  I was only 4 pounds away from this milestone but now I am eleven.  Oh well, I know I can do it and I am going to work hard to achieve this goal!  I am also planning on running another 5K in April.  It's the same run I did last year and I plan to run it this year with a few friends.  That should be fun and also keep me working towards another goal. 

In other news with me this week, as I mentioned before, I have decided to go back to using Spark People.  Weight Watchers is an EXCELLENT program but I think with my eating habits and also with being vegan, the new Points Plus program is just a little too hard for me to follow the way I should.  When I don't have to count fruit and most vegetables, I am just setting myself up to get out of control.  I was eating 3-4 bananas a day.  Yikes!  Now I am measuring them out again and eating about a half a banana in the morning and another half in the evening.  Much better!  Also, by measuring out all fruits and vegetables, there's no mystery involved with how many calories I am eating everyday.  I am accountable for each and every one of those calories.  Nothing is "free."  No excuses...I just have to do it. 

Do goals and challenges help you?  What else helps to keep you on track? 



My Weekend Top 10

Last weekend was so hectic with renting the U-Haul, hiring movers and having all of our big home items brought from our old house to our rental house.  It didn't feel like a weekend at all.  This weekend was much better.  It was still busy, but it was filled with things that I love to do on the weekends.  Here's my weekend top 10:

1.  Staying home-like I said before, it was just so nice not to have any set in stone plans. 

2.  Kickboxing-I take a kickboxing class on Friday nights that's mixed with plyometrics and then I take a total kickboxing class on Saturday mornings.  I LOVE kickboxing! 

3.  Spinning-I burn so many calories in one hour of spinning class!  This is what I look like when it's over!

(Kind of gross but kind of awesome too!)

4.  Making quinoa nachos with the vegan queso dip from the Post Punk Kitchen.  I did try to scale back this time on the cashews to just 1/2 cup instead of a full cup and they didn't taste the same as last time.  I also think that maybe I didn't puree the cashews long enough to make them smooth and creamy.  The consistency of the queso turned out a little bit gritty this time.  It still tastes good though. 

5.  Free avocados at Earth Fare-sometimes Earth Fare has some great coupons!  Most of the time, if you spend $5, you get something for free.  This weekend's deal was for free avocados with a $5 purchase.  You got 2 free avocados with a $5 purchase so I went back twice and ended up with 4 free organic hass avocados.  Score!

6.  Using my donut pans for the first time and making these donuts from Chocolate Covered Katie.  The donuts turned out really good but we ended up eating them more like pancakes with yogurt and sliced strawberries.  Here's a picture of the donuts before topped with yogurt and strawberries:

7.  Walking in the sunshine with R and Corny on Sunday afternoon-we had a mostly rainy weekend but there was a brief period of time on Sunday morning into the afternoon where we had some beautiful sunshine.  We took Corny to the dog park and on a walk along the river for a little while before my spinning class.  It was nice to soak up a bit of sunshine. 

8.  Going to see the movie, "J. Edgar" at the dollar movie instead of watching the Super Bowl-when I say dollar movie, I truly do mean that.  On Sundays, we can go see slightly older movies for $1.  Awesome!  So we spent $2 total to see the movie because we brought our own drinks, popcorn and snacks. 

(Even though this movie was pretty sad to me, I still really enjoyed it.)

9.  Aldi produce bargains-I just recently discovered Aldi but I am so glad I did.  Right now, we have to really watch our spending because of having our mortgage payment and the rental house payment each month.  Money is pretty tight.  I try to buy as much organic produce as possible, but right now, much of it is just not affordable for us.  Each week, Aldi has weekly produce specials and, so far, they have been pretty awesome!  This week, I stocked up on broccoli for 89 cents a package, mushrooms for 69 cents a package, grape tomatoes for 69 cents, and baby carrots for 49 cents a pound.  I bought a ton of produce! 

10.  Getting a new food scale in the mail-I left my other food scale at the other house last weekend and I knew that it might be awhile before we made it back to the other house.  I just decided to order another one online because the food scale is so important for me to have.  If I measure things out in cups, I tend to give myself way too much food.  I can't do that with the food scale.  I have had a lot of luck with the Escali model so I just decided to order one just like my other one from Amazon.  (Except this time I ordered a pretty retro green colored scale!)

(Photo source:  scalesetc.com)

Overall, it was a great weekend....just too fast.  (As always.)  It's always nice to just have some downtime.  Have a great week!

Fitness & Feminism

Sometimes I kind of feel at odds with myself because of paying such close attention to calories, points, exercise, my weight, etc.  In some ways, this feels so anti-feminist to me.  I have always been a feminist and very proud of it.  When I went away to college, this provided the outlet I needed to “find myself” and discover what I was passionate about.  That’s when I discovered sociology and women’s studies.  My major was in sociology and I got a certificate (sort of like a minor) in women’s studies.  I took so many great classes in college and I learned so much about history, life, feminism, people, and myself.  It was an amazing experience.  I wish everyone had the opportunity to go off to college.  I was only an hour from my parents but that was just enough distance to really come into my own. 

(Have you ever read this book?  I just found it in my internet search for fitness and feminism.  I would like to check it out!)

When I really started learning about feminist theory and the history of women’s rights, I immediately felt drawn to this.  I identified with so many aspects of feminism including the ideal that we should love our bodies and accept ourselves as we are rather than trying to live up to some unrealistic societal expectation of what our bodies should look like.  This was very easy for me to identify with because I have always been overweight.  I would much rather hear that I should love myself for who I am instead of hearing that I should change.  That was convenient and easy for me at the time.  I always felt like I was destined to be overweight, I didn’t know that I was capable of losing a lot of weight and getting fit.  I remember weighing 224 pounds in the 7^th grade when my mom and I went to the ladies gym in the town that we lived in.  7^th grade…..224 pounds.  I felt hopeless about losing weight.  More on my weight loss journey here and here..... 

Then I remember going to a party with some friends in college and there was a guy who pretended to act interested in me.  I could tell it was a joke…..I was overweight, not stupid.  I don’t really know what he wanted to do.  I am not sure if he wanted to embarrass me or if he lost some kind of a bet with his friend, but I knew it was not for real.  If he wanted to embarrass me, he succeeded.  I was already so socially uncomfortable at parties in college, I didn’t need the help of some frat boy trying to play a joke on me.  Lucky for me, the party was in the same apartment complex I lived in so I was just able to leave and go home.  It was just a few days after that when I started my first “real” diet.  I say “real” because there were times I would try to not eat for a few days or take some kind of weight loss “vitamins” or something like that, but not really changing any of my eating habits.  So after this party, I started Sugar Busters—a diet that is designed for diabetics.  Because I was completely changing the way I was eating, I lost quite a bit of weight.  I dropped about 50 pounds on Sugar Busters and then hit a plateau.  Sugar Busters was a good diet for me at the time because it really urged me in the direction of healthier eating and I didn’t have to obsess over calories or points.  I just got to eat when I wanted to eat as long as I followed the Sugar Busters plan.  I never felt conflicted about my feminism either because I was still just eating what I wanted to eat and walking a lot for exercise.  Also, during the time of Sugar Busters, I never knew my BMI or what I should weigh.  I just ate healthier and lost weight initially. 

Then when I hit a plateau with Sugar Busters, I started Weight Watchers with a couple of friends I worked with at the time.  I started to obsess a little more over weight loss now because all of a sudden, I knew what I should weigh for my height and I also knew how many points I should be eating in a day.  I had to start measuring everything out and I had to stand in front of a Weight Watchers receptionist each week and “find out how I did.”  Even though this sort of ignited that OCD part of my brain, it still wasn’t terrible.  I didn’t really feel like I was less than because I gained weight that week or I didn’t feel guilty because I decided to go out to eat instead of preparing something healthier at home.  I don’t remember getting too hung up about my weight on Weight Watchers the first time around. 

I feel like my focus (what sometimes feels like an obsession) over my calories, points, and exercise has developed since losing weight this time around.  When I say “this time around,” I mean since July of 2009.  Losing weight this time has involved so much social media.  I read blogs, I use message boards, I watch old and new episodes of the Biggest Loser on the computer and on Netflix, I am “friends” with Biggest Loser contestants on Facebook and, recently, I have started looking at fitness inspiration on Pinterest.  I have to wonder if social media, what usually inspires me to work harder and stay on track, also hinders me.  It feels like I am constantly looking at food on blogs and looking at images of half starved women on Pinterest with quotes like, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”  I hate these images on Pinterest but I love some of the other ones.  That’s the dilemma:  do I expose myself to these anorexic looking women who want to lose weight so their ass will look good for their boyfriend just so I can see the inspirational images of women working hard to achieve healthy goals for themselves?  Media affects people.  I know this.  I like to believe that I have a good filter in my brain that can edit these images out in order to be inspired by the good ones, but simply being exposed to this garbage affects me whether or not I want to admit to it or not.  This pushes my feminist buttons.  It bothers me that some parts of my weight loss/health journey make me feel like less of a feminist.  Why can’t I just be happy with my body instead of constantly trying to lose more weight?  Why can’t I just eat like a “normal” person and be a “normal” size?   I can’t imagine having a conversation with Gloria Steinem or Betty Friedan about how many points are in Fiber One cereal or how I like to make a pot of decaf coffee at night because it keeps me from mindlessly snacking or how I need to tone my stomach and arms at the gym because they are flabby.  Nope….I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have these conversations with these strong feminist ladies.  But these are the thoughts taking up a lot of valuable real estate in my head.  Sometimes I wonder if R even finds me interesting anymore.  I wonder if she thinks I am just this superficial person who lacks substance.  I don’t want to be that person.  I want to be me but healthy.  That’s the dilemma.  I want to be healthy more than anything else.  I watch my mom and I am seeing her health rapidly deteriorate from the effects of obesity and I don’t want that for myself.  I don’t want to be in my 50s and not be able to walk because my knees hurt so bad.  I don’t want to take high blood pressure medication.  I don’t want to have uterine cancer and have a doctor tell me it probably could have been prevented if I wasn’t “so heavy.”  (Yes, the doctor really did say this to my mom in those words.)  I want health and that’s why I do what I do. 

So I guess that brings me to balance.  Everything in life always seems to go back to balance.  How do I continue to become the healthy person that I want to be without compromising my core feminist values?  How do I focus on health without obsessing over everything I eat?  One thing I know for sure about this journey is that I am always learning new things about myself.  I guess that will always be the case.  Even though it feels like I have been on this weight loss/health journey for a long time, it has been less than 3 years.  That’s really not a lot of time when you consider that I had about 28 years of unhealthy eating habits that I am working on overcoming. 

What are you thoughts on this?  Have you ever felt like your weight loss/health journey has compromised any of your values?  What do you do to find balance?  I would love to hear what you have to say!