Starting Simply

Day two of getting back on track with my eating went fairly well.

I started out the day with some Strawberry Oikos Greek yogurt. Oikos sent me some coupons for free yogurt, but I can’t seem to find the right sizes. I finally gave in and bought these little mini yogurts yesterday. I love how creamy the strawberry flavor was, without being too sweet.

I had an unpictured turkey sandwich for lunch. When I got back from classes, I had a banana with Sunbutter for a snack. I’d forgotten how yummy this combo was!

For dinner, I heated up some leftover Chicken Casserole, mixed in some broccoli, and topped with ground flax.

So very creamy and delicious!

I honestly can’t even believe tomorrow is Thursday. I’ve got some major room cleaning to do tomorrow. My mother would not be so proud of this disaster of a room right now! (Hi Mom!!) I hope everyone’s week is going smoothly.

Night!

Comfort for a Rainy Tuesday

Yes, it’s me again. Just in time for the holidays, things are getting back to “normal” for me. I hope to be writing regularly again; it’s kind of hard to get back into the swing of things after such a long break.

Today was a rainy and generally “blah” day, so I was in need of some comfort food. I decided to make Poppy Seed Chicken, minus the poppy seeds (sorry Morgan!).

I paired my portion with some rice and veggies. This was a perfectly comforting meal.

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This week, I’ll be slowing getting back into the groove of not only blogging, but eating better. I haven’t been on my best behavior eating-wise these past two weeks, so I really need to get back on track. Here are a couple meals from the past two weeks that were splurges.

Nachos from this place.

Morgan’s mom insisted upon taking us to experience the greatness that is Willy’s Mexicana Grill. She also insisted that sharing one burrito would not be enough for two people, so we should also order the nachos. Boy was she wrong! I don’t think we finished half of either before we were completely stuffed.

There’s a little Italian restaurant near my college that I just found out has whole wheat pizzas that are fabulous. I  ordered mine with pesto and Italian sausage. It’s a personal sized pizza, but very filling and I could only eat half. So so yummy!

While it’s okay to indulge sometimes, I could never eat like this consistently. I’m ready to get back to my healthy eating!

I hope you’re all having a great Tuesday night and staying dry!

While I’ve Been Gone…

I’ve been playing with animals.

Meet Ziggy the Piggy. This was the sweetest little pig I’ve ever met, and I totally want to own one some day.

My room mate was sweet enough to buy me a carriage ride for my birthday, and I went on it last Thursday. So much fun!

This is Les. He was our driver.

Also meet Delbert the Horse, and Ruby the Dog. They both had tons of personality!

Ruby followed us the whole way. Apparently she had been getting tired of her pups and would take any excuse to get away from them for a few minutes.

I loved the whole experience. I really need to visit places like this more often.

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Tonight, I made more delicious Chewy Oat Bars.

 

 

 

Love love love these!

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Sorry to be MIA lately. School’s getting crazy, plus I have a visitor in town, so I’ve just not been online much at all. Things will slow down soon. Thank you all for sticking with me!!! I hope you’re all doing well!

More Birthday

Morgan told me she was missing my blog, so I decided I’d post some pictures of her gifts to me. She knows me well, and got me all kitchen themed birthday gifts.

 

Only Morgan would know how much I would love a pretty pot holder and mini colander.

Just look at this book that Morgan made herself.

She knows I love birds.

It’s a recipe book.

Seriously, can you even believe how talented that girl is?!

Thanks so much, Morgan. You helped make my birthday so special!

P.S. In case you were wondering about the results of my birthday weight-loss challenge, I lost 3 pounds over the 3 weeks. Obviously that’s not 5, but I’m happy with it!

Early Birthday with Family

This past Saturday, we celebrated my 21st birthday early with my family at my Grandparents’ house.

My Grandma had decorations all over the house for me.

We started out with some veggies and yummy hummus.

There was also lots of fruit.

My Grandma made her famous lasagna. Thanks, Grandma!

Mom had also made a dish with rice noodles for Andrew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how my mom arranged the cupcakes so cute!

My sister of course had to give me a fun 21st birthday present.

 

 

 

Aren’t they so cute?! But wait, there’s more…

Andrew did this one.

Love it! Thanks so much, Emily and Andrew!!!!

My family knows me well :) 

My actual birthday isn’t until Sunday, but this was such a fun day!

Have a great night, everyone. Thanks for sticking with me through my break!

The Break is Over!

The 3-day break turned into a one-week break. I must admit, I missed blogging a lot. It makes me feel more connected to the world around me outside my little college. Thank you to those who checked up on me during my hiatus, it meant a lot to me.

So… I’m back! I had an emotion week, but I’m alive and well and ready to write about it again. Here are some of the foods I ate while I was “away.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Feed sent me a generous sampling of their granola that I received last week.

My mom and I tried out the cranberry coconut flavor right away. I loved the flavor. This has little pieces of coconut in it, which I’m not a fan of, but my mom loves coconut and she loved this flavor. I’m looking forward to trying the apple cinnamon flavor.

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I also celebrated my birthday with my family over the weekend. I’ll go write that post right now…

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry, no post tonight because I’m busy busy busy with Spanish dialogues and Project-Based Assessment research papers.

A little stressed over here, but it will all be done after Wednesday.

I’ve been taking pictures, so I’ll have a recap when I get time. I’d post them now, but my camera seems to be hiding and I don’t have the patience to look for it.

I hope your week is going well. Have a great night!

Darker

Happy Saturday, everyone! It’s been a fun and relaxing weekend so far. Here are a couple meals from the weekend so far.

For dinner last night, we ate at Longhorns. I got the parmesan crusted sirloin with veggies. I ate half of the steak.

This was my lunch today. Mom was kind enough to make me a delicious egg, cheese, and ham sandwich for me. I also had cantaloupe on the side.

Then I went to get my hair done. I wanted to go a little darker, to ease back into my natural color.

 Have a great night!

Lazy Leftover Day

Hi everyone, how’s it going? I’ve been in such a lazy mood this week today. I need to get out of this funk!

Anyway, this morning I ate a leftover pancake and a banana for breakfast.

Lunch was this whole wheat ravioli with chicken my mom sent me to school with. Believe me, it tasted a lot better than it looks!

Workout

Even though I was feeling lazy today, I still made it to the gym. I did 25 minutes on the elliptical, then 25 minutes on the treadmill at a 5.5 incline for 25 minutes. I left sweaty and was glad I went even though I didn’t want to [but when do I ever really want to? ;)].

For dinner, I had more leftovers. This time it was leftover whole wheat spaghetti. I also had a salad while I was waiting for this to heat up.

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Birthday Challenge

Yesterday, I announced that I was doing a birthday challenge for myself to lose 5 pounds before my birthday. I really want to thank you all for your encouragement about it! I also want to clarify a little. I know it’s not the easiest thing in the world to lose 5 pounds in 3 weeks, especially when you’ve been losing weight for a while. I mostly set up this challenge to help with motivating myself to work out harder and count calories. Even if I lose 2 pounds in 3 weeks, that will be GREAT in comparison to 1 pound every 4 weeks, and I’ll be happy. The most important thing to me is that I’m healthier, not that I lose a certain amount!

Nite!

Birthday Challenge

I had another rainy walk to class this morning, but this time I was prepared with tennis shoes :)

For breakfast, I had pineapple Chobani with a sample of Nature Valley Nut Clusters my mom got in the mail last week. I loved the nut clusters, and I’m excited because I got the same sample in the mail today.

After morning classes, I came back and had the leftover stir fry from last night.

I took this Strawberry fruit dried fruit bar from TJ’s to Spanish to fuel for my workout.

At the gym, I did the same workout as Monday—25 minutes on the elliptical, and then 25 minutes on the treadmill.

For dinner, I ate the last of my TJ’s soy nuggets.

Dipped in LC cheese and ketchup.

And a salad on the side with light ranch.

All together now!

Warm and satisfying!

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I’ve decided to challenge myself to lose 5 pounds before my birthday, which is November 1st. I’ve lost about 1 pounds a month for the past few months, which is very slow. I know I’ve been losing so slowly because I haven’t been counting calories, so I’ve been doing that again since Monday. I also feel like my treadmill workouts are much more intense than my stat. bike ones, which will hopefully help me achieve my goal. Do/did you ever make mini weight loss goals to motivate you to get back on track?

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I updated my Pictures page.

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Spanish time! ¡Adios!