Yet Another Circuit Workout

Wow....I'm really not that great at post titles, huh?

So what has everyone been up to this week??? For me, it's been mostly school so far. Oh, I did want to talk about that zinc experiment from a couple of weeks ago. I started watching my zinc intake a while back to see if it would help my massive salt cravings. A few weeks later and I would definitely say that my salt problem is a lot better! Of course, I still do have days where I crave salt, but that's pretty normal, and it is definitely not as bad as it used to be. For anyone who didn't see my original zinc post, zinc deficiency and salt cravings are related because the zinc deficiency can lead to a loss of appetite, which can cause electrolyte imbalances, creating massive salt cravings.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I made up a new circuit workout (my favorite kind :D) for the gym! There's cardio and strength in there, though this particular circuit has a little bit more cardio than usual. The whole thing took me about an hour to complete.

A couple of moves that killed me were the boxer, triangle arm raises and the plie jump squats!!!! Also, this workout can definitely be modified by cutting out one of the cardio sections, doing each strength set twice, etc. If anyone tries this out, let me know what you think!

Please forgive the absolute randomness of today's post....I'm not very good at transitioning between the n topics. :D
When I was really in the middle of my eating disorder, I would spend hours online looking at recipes that I ended up never making. Well, I've decided that over this year, I'm going to try to make as many of them as possible, as well as try to come up with my very own dishes or treats! So, here's just a quick list of some of the things that I would love to make in 2012!!! If any of ya'll have a recipe that you love, please share it!!!! :D I'd looove to try out some of ya'll's favorite recipes, too!

• Doughnuts
• Crullers
• Homemade Gnocchi 
• Tater tots
• Red Velvet Cake
• Chicken and Dumplings (my grandmother's recipe!)
• My aunt's famous rolls 
• Croissants
• Bloomin' Onion (made this week!)
• Biscotti
• Cream horns (w/ homemade puff pastry) 

These are just some of the things that I would love to attempt this year! There are definitely more, but for now, these are on top of my list! :D

Well, that's about it for today...see ya'll later!

Weekend Recap and Running Fun

Morning everyone!!! I was a little MIA for most of last week, but I'm pretty sure that I'll be back to my normal blogging schedule this week!

This weekend was pretty fun! Saturday was a little bit more relaxed, and yesterday was kind of crazy! How , was your weekend?

My mom and I have a deal that once I've hit my goal weight, she'll run a lap with me at the park close to our apartment. So, on Saturday my mom wanted to see how far she could run to practice for our lap together. I went with her and took it as an opportunity to time my mile, which is something that I've been meaning to do for a while now. Even though there is currently no way that I could keep that pace up for very long, I'm pretty proud of my time.  6 minutes, 45 seconds!!!! Average compared to a lot of you speedy people, but I'm proud, especially since I only really started to get into running this year. :D

In other news, Wednesday is another RPM release, and I've talked my dad in to going with me! He said, and I quote: "If you don't think it'll kill me, I'm in.". So I told him that no, RPM would probably not kill him or anything, and that he'd enjoy it. I'm pretty sure that spin is the only sort of fitness class that he would ever take, so I'm pretty excited that he'll come with me! :D

So yesterday, we were out of the house for most of the afternoon. There was a special service in the community church that we went to. It was awesome!!! My dad and everyone else in the ministry has been working on this for a while now, so it was great to see all of their hard work pay off!!!! Afterwards, my dad had to haul all the sound equipment back to the office, and then we headed to Burger King with some friends. I definitely freaked, not because of the food, but because it was like 10:30 and apparently I'm 60 years old on the inside and greatly dislike staying up late. Buuut, it was fun, and when we all got home, we were tired! My dad especially, since he had worked harder than any of us yesterday! Speaking of our ministry, here's a link to the family youtube channel if any of ya'll want to see what we do:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDelilles4brazil?blend=12&ob=5.

I should have a great recipe up tomorrow....stay tuned! :D And try this workout out!!!!! It is my favorite type of workout since it combines cardio with strength!!!!! Aaaand it definitely kicked my butt!!! Has anyone tried out any new tough workouts recently?????? If so, share please! 


See ya'll later!

Why I Strength Train

Morning everyone!!!!! Not much happened this weekend, so I'm gonna talk a little bit about why I do strength training. First of all though, how was your weekend? There was an activity for the women of the community on Saturday, then a youth service, and yesterday, I did absolutely nothing.

So anyway, for the longest time, I avoided any sort of strength training because I was so scared of seeing the number on the scale go up, so I just did lots and lots of cardio. Well, when I joined the gym that I currently go to, my trainer sat down with me and planned out a strength routine consisting of several circuits that I could do together or separately, as long as I had at least 3 20 minute sessions of strength per week. And while yes, my weight might have gone up due to increase of lean muscle mass, I feel so much better than I ever did before strength training. I've noticed that not only am I stronger (duh...hahaha), but strength training has helped me do better in my cardio workouts as well!!!  Here's some more info that I found online about strength training:

The benefits of strength training for distance runners: An overview (source)

1. Injury Prevention:
   • Injury rates among runners are extremely high (at the high school level, cross-country runners experience more injuries than athletes in any other sport, including football and gymnastics).
   • One of the most effective means for minimizing tissue trauma associated with distance running is to develop stronger muscles, tendons, fascia, ligaments and bones. This is the primary reason that every runner should perform regular strength exercise.
   • Contributes to prevention of shin splits, stress fractures, lower back discomfort, knee problems and hip injuries common to distance runners.
2. Performance enhancement:
   • Allows athlete to adhere to marathon training schedule and thereby maximize performance.
   • Improved muscle strength/endurance.
   • Improved joint flexibility.
   • Increased force/power production.
   • Improved running economy - research indicates 4 percent less oxygen used at sub-maximum running speeds.
   • Increased basal metabolic rate contributing to improved body composition.

Also, check this article out for info on why strength training is important for women.

Now, I just want to vent really quickly about a celebrity trainer with whom I strongly disagree, Tracy Anderson. According to her, women cannot lift anything heavier than 3 lb or do any repetitive exercise, which includes running. She says that this will build up too much muscle mass and make you bulky. In the article that I linked to above, it says the following about that:
"Many women are afraid of strength training because they believe that it will create large muscles that are unattractive. "I’ll weight train once I get this fat off.  I don’t want to turn it into muscle". This is a prevalent misconception. The vast majority of women cannot build large muscles because they are genetically incapable of doing so. It is impossible to turn fat into muscle, or muscle into fat, as each cell is unique from the other"
Another thing that I read about Tracy is that someone tried her diet and nearly passed out because she was working out several hours a day, and only eating about 700 calories. She lost weight, of course, but ended up feeling terrible. Basically, this method is enforcing anorexia and over-exercising in order to get results. As someone who has gone through both of those things, I can't understand why someone who is looked upon to help people become healthier endorses something like that. Anyway, if you want to read that article, click here. 


Well, that's it for me! 


Do you strength train? Why or why not? 

200th Post!

Heeey!!!!! How has everyone's week gone so far? I personally, haven't been up to too much (again), but I've definitely been able to get things accomplished.

Soo, this is  my 200th post, and I thought I'd quote my first post here, just for the heck of it! It's pretty short, but just sort of fun to look back on.

November 18th, 2010

Well, first of all, welcome to the blog.

I'm first and foremost, a Christian. That doesn't mean that I'm perfect, far from it, actually. It also doesn't mean that I always "walk my talk" and live out the gospel. I try to, but there are definitely times when it gets pretty hard.

As you can probably tell, I have a bit of a chocolate problem. Actually, I don't. I have a problem without chocolate. I  also absolutely loooove to cook, so you can bet on seeing some recipes on here!!! I also enjoy living a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes I can take it to extremes, which is very, very bad. Really. I've even gone days without eating chocolate, or really much of anything. I'm working on that though, and while I still have some "not so good" (read:really, really bad) days, my family is always with me, praying with me, and just helping me in general.

I'm thinking about either becoming a dietitian or a journalist (which are actually nothing alike), but I don't have any major college plans yet.

Sorry about the random topics in this post, I'm just trying to put all the basic information out there!

Anyway, I'm super excited about starting this blog and I hope that I'll actually get followers! =D

Well that was fun!!!! Actually, I haven't changed too much during the past almost-year. At that point though, I didn't have a camera at all, so there were even less pictures on the blog than there are today! hahaha That's definitely something that I need to work on, blogwise......I always, always forget to take pictures of things to post them! Is there something that you didn't know about blogging when you first started it?

Well, that's it for today's super random post! See ya'll later! 

August Group and Vlog Question

Heey!! Hope you all had wonderful weekends!!!! I sure did, but mine was really busy! Our usual August group is here now, so we spent some time with them over the weekend! Saturday we had a big welcome to Brasil dinner, and yesterday we went to church in the evening! My school starts on Wednesday, and my sister's has already started, so we wanted to try to spend some time with the group while we could! What did you do this weekend? 

Another thing that I did was attempt to make my first ever vlog. I used my computer's webcam, but for some reason, blogger would not upload my video! I just kept getting tons of error messages! Has this happened to anyone else? Any tips on what I should do to make my vlogs work in the future? 

Before I go, there's one serious thing that I want to talk about from my Chicago experience. Actually, it has nothing to do with Chicago, but it was something that I needed to really pay attention to while I was there. As I've mentioned before, I don't deal well with stress. Instead of being a stress eater, I just don't eat. Lose my appetite completely. In fact, last time I went through a major transition (moving back here from the US), I lost every bit of the weight that I had worked for about 5 months to gain. That was almost 10 lb, by the way. So, one of the biggest things that I worried about before my trip was how I was going to deal with transition. Especially since I'd pretty much be in transition the entire time, first going to Memphis, then road-tripping it to Chicago, and finally flying back home. I am very happy to report that, though I did lose some weight, it was only a fraction of what I lost last time. 2 pounds. My ultimate goal was to not lose any weight, but since I did lose some, I'm soooooo glad that there was such an improvement over last time! So encouraging! Maybe the next time that I go through a transitional phase I won't lose any weight at all!!!!

So finally, I wanted to thank all of you guys for being there and actually sticking with me! I've loooved blogging and have :met: a bunch of awesome people! I also want to thank anyone that I actually know who is reading this.....I've been sooo blessed to have you in my life! :D

Has blogging helped keep you accountable for anything? 
What was the reason that you began to blog? 
Does anyone that you know read your blog?

Well, that's about all I've got for today! See you again soon! :D

NSLC

Hey everyone! Thanks for sticking with me while I was away and not posting! You guys are the BEST! :D

I had an absolutely amazing time attending the NSLC and was sooo fortunate to be able to do so! I got to meet some awesome people and learn so much, not only about business, but also about leadership and myself in general. I really hope that I'll be able to stay in touch with the friends that I made over those 10 days! :D

View from Willis Tower

Willis Tower take 2

When I say that I learned a lot about myself, I mean that I now know that I can push myself to do my absolute best in any situation. I learned that God is always with me, even when no one else that I know is near. And guess what? I learned that it's not that hard to talk to people you don't know.....and even better, become friends with them! :D

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that not only did I learn all about running a business (I'm supposedly an excellent negotiator, by the way), I also grew as a person!
What was an experience that you had that made you expand your horizons and grow as a person?

Pre-Trip Thoughts

Hey everyone!

Hope you are all having a great week so far!!!! I've been trying to cram in every possible moment of family time that I can!! I'm super excited about my trip and about the conference, but I've also never traveled without my family, so I'm really going to miss them a lot!!!!

I'm pretty much done packing, which is probably a good thing. Have to remember not to take too much because I'll be coming back with all of next year's school books and things. To make sure that I have room, we've put what will be my carry on for my return inside of my check-on luggage. So we have to pack around it. That will really help me not only to keep from overpacking, but I also won't have to worry about carrying anything besides my backpack. The trip to the States has more layovers than the trip home, so it'll be helpful not to have to keep up with too much. 

Actually two of the things that I was initially the most nervous about was not working out regularly when I'm there and how I'll deal with the transition itself. I've had some really awesome workouts this week (tried a new class monday.....we jumped on those mini trampolines! :D and spinning today!), so I think that I'm prepared to take a couple of weeks off. Heck it'll probably help me gain weight (if my appetite doesn't change much, I know it will :D). I'll definitely miss being active on a daily basis, so my plan is to find something every day that will be an activity where I'm not just sitting on a couch watching TV.....even if that activity is shopping for 9 hours straight (hey, its happened before :P). Have you ever had exercise guilt? How did you deal with it?

As for the stress, I'm praying about it and for God to guide me through it. I tend to stress out a lot (bet ya didn't know that, huh?) even about things that may or may not happen. "So this weekend we might have to go visit so-and-so? Oh no.....wonder what is going to happen.....will I have to wear something nice, or can I just wear jeans......how long are we going to visit so-and-so....and the list just goes on and on. I could probably teach a class in how to stress out about virtually anything. But all joking aside, I'm only 16, and the amount of stress that I put myself through is definitely not a good thing.

Well, that's about ti for today! Tomorrow I'll be in the air, so I have an awesome guest post for ya'll!!!! Don't miss it!!!!! :D

I'm a Doofus

Got straight to the point with the title, huh?

Well, here's what happened. I was in the midst of taking pictures of my homemade pop tarts  because last time I made them, I didn't get around to doing so. I ended up taking a couple of blurry, crappy pictures so I thought I'd delete them. Bad idea. I deleted all of the pictures on my SD card. Luckily, the pop tart pics were the only ones not on the computer, however, by the time I got around to trying to take some more pics, there were no more pop tarts!!! Have you ever deleted all the pictures from your SD card by accident? 

This is actually not the first time that  I've done that.......it was worse a couple of years ago because I deleted the pictures right after a trip to the states, and lost all of these awesome pictures with my friends and family! :(

Here's what is now the only picture on my camera:

Sleeepy........

 

Well, nothing much has been going on at all.......sooo I'm going to jump to random tangent number two of the day! Hope ya don't mind. :D
My sister and I looooove sushi, but neither Mom or Dad do....so we don't eat it very often. A few weeks back, my sister, who is majorly in to nail art, did "sushi-inspired" nails, and because of that, my mom bought us some sushi as a treat!!! The coolest thing was that we got to the store as the man was making sushi, so we could customize our plate!!!! Got some salmon sashimi, a california roll (with MANGO!), and a philadelphia roll!!!!!!!! And check it out...you can sorta see her nails in this pic:

Ok so that ya'll for bearing with me through my dumbness and randomness.....I promise to have a decent, more normal post up very soon!!!!!

Attacked

Heey!!!!!! How has your week been so far??? Mine has been pretty good....I have a few recipes to share at some point!!! Two that have already been approved by my family and one that is in the oven right now. Oh and did I mention that one of them is single serving and done in the microwave? I like that one. It involves chocolate. And I don't have to share it. :D

So, yesterday I went to my faaavorite spin class!!!! I really, really love it! Of course, I am a klutz and had to go and injure myself while trying to get off of the stationary bike. Here's the damage:

The pictures aren't the best, but I think you can tell that I have a scrape that's about a foot long up my calf. And yes, my legs look like they've never seen the sun before, but see the lines on my foot? Those are from my flip flops, so this is tan for me.

Anyway, some of you might have noticed the foodbuzz stuff on the side of the blog now! I just wrapped everything up with Foodbuzz yesterday and am super excited to be a featured publisher! :D

Now, if you're still here after being subjected to pictures of my injuries, I would like to share that single serving recipe that I was talking about earlier with you!!!!! Here ya' go:

Microwave Single Serving Brownie

Ingredients:

1 T flour

1 T cocoa powder

1/2 to 1 T sugar (I like my brownie rich, so I use about 1/2 T, but most everyone else liked 1 T)

Pinch baking powder

Pinch salt

1 T milk

Directions

Combine all dry ingredients in a small microwave safe dish. Add milk. Microwave on high for about 1 minute, or until done. Top with fudge sauce (this is an order!) and enjoy!!! :D

These are so, so yummy!!!!! :D

Hope you all have an awesome Thursday!

I'm Really Boring.

Hey!!!!! How is everyone? What have you been up to this week? Can you believe that it is Wednesday? The week is halfway over! And I still have TONS of exams......yuck.

Yesterday, I took my first challenge exam. I opted for the Webpage design test, thinking that it would be easy. Well, I was sure wrong! Most of my grade will actually come from building my own website, which took about 3 hours to do. I had initially planned on taking two exams yesterday, but that one took up my entire afternoon! Fun stuff.

It has recently struck me how incredibly boring I am. I take tests, mope around the house, bake occasionally, and go to the gym. That's pretty much it. And then I share it all with you guys, and throw in some random musings and stories for good measure.....:P

Speaking of stories, I happen to have a cute one. I'm a klutz and fall down....a lot. Every day, I go to the bread store to buy bread, cheese, lunchmeat, etc. There is this sweet, poor man in a wheelchair who sits outside the bread store every afternoon and chats with customers. He knows pretty much everyone, and everyone likes him. So anyway, he has noticed that I tend to trip a lot. Now, whenever I'm leaving the store, he says: "See you tomorrow! Be careful and don't fall down on your way home!". He also tells me if there is a lot of traffic on a particular day, so that I know to pay even more attention to my surroundings. Always watchin' out for me! hahahaha

Here's someone (or something) else who is always watchin out:



The only difference is that he's watching out for himself, not me. :D

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!!!

Homemade Stuff

Hey! Today's post is gonna be sort of short because I've got a lot to cram in to the morning before I head over to the gym for my meeting with the nutritionist!

A quick recap of yesterday:

I took another final (4 to go!), and did pretty well on it!!!!!! Then, I went to the gym, had a strength training workout, came home, and did some more studying. Oh and I had a yogurt bowl that I absolutely loved for a snack! It had about 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, cinnamon, about half a caramalized banana and honey!!!!! Refreshing and tasty after a sweaty workout! :D

I also made some homemade body scrub and did a hair rinse last night!!!!! They are both pretty basic and not very fancy, but they do the trick and I have soft hair and skin now! :P Plus, its all natural for those who are looking for more natural beauty products!

Here's what I did:

Body scrub:

I mixed 5 T rock salt with 1 T oil. After I had coated all of the salt in oil, I squeezed about half a lemon into the mix. You need to add the oil first otherwise the lemon will dissolve the salt. I then used this like a typical body scrub and it worked wonders! :D

Hair rinse:

Not really a recipe here; I just heated up about 1 1/2 cups of water in the microwave until it was pretty hot but not boiling, and then added about 1 - 1 1/2 T of vinegar to the water. Then, after I shampooed, I poured the warm vinegar/water solution into my hair and let it sit for about 5 minutes, while I used the scrub. Then, I rinsed it out, and because I don't usually enjoy smelling like vinegar, I used a little bit of conditioner in my hair! This really works well!!! :D

Hope ya'll don't mind the random sharing of my body scrub/hair rinse. hahahaha

I'll tell ya'll how the meeting with the nutritionist went tomorrow!!!!!

See ya then!r

Nutella is Good.

Heeey!!!  What's up??

I have one final down and 5 to go! I basically took the easiest one yesterday because I figured that I should get it out of the way so that I wouldn't worry about it while studying for my other, more difficult tests. It was nice to be able to check something off of the list so early in the week, though!!!! Now, all I have to do is take the other 5 finals, and then order 6 challenge exams and take them! Then, I'll officially be done with my sophomore year of high school!!!!!!!

Now, you all know by now that I love me a good circuit style workout, so when I found this one a couple of weeks ago on Jessica's site, I couldn't wait to try it out. Wow!!!! It was pretty stinkin' tough!!!!!! Which means I get to bake some of her recipes and its ok if I eat an entire batch!!! :D Seriously though, if you're looking for a good strength/cardio combo workout, check this one out!!!

So, by now you're probably wondering about the title of this post, especially since I haven't even mentioned Nutella yet. While we were in the States, a couple of our friends lived in our apartment, and apparently  one of them bought some Nutella. I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to try it out, given my love of both chocolate and nut butters, but last night I finally did and LOVED it!!! Now I know there are probably a TON of chemicals and sugar in this stuff, but it was AMAZING!!!! Don't worry Dark Chocolate Dreams  or even just plain ol' peanut butter, I haven't forgotten you and your place in my heart has not been taken. I'm sure there is room enough for everyone!!! hahaha

new love. :D

What is your favorite "flavored" nut butter????? Don't make me choose between nutella or dark chocolate dreams, because I can't!!!! I'd also love to try Mighty Maple someday soon!!!!! :D

Well, I had better get to studyin'......

See ya'll later!

More ADD Workouts

Hey! So glad ya'll liked the monkey cake recipe!!!!!!! We did too apparently, because yesterday there were 12 slices and today there are 2! hahaha You just can't go wrong with brown sugar+cinnamon!!!! :D

So, if you remember, last week I shared my all-over-the-place cardio workout. Well, it seems that I like to mix it up with my strength workouts as well! Ya'll know that I love a good circuit workout, and I've recently found a new one that's AWESOME! Its a good total body workout that keeps my ADD brain happy!

Total Body Circuit

Set 1

• 25 squats


• 15 pushups


• 50 jumping jacks

Repeat 3 times

Set 2

• 12 burpees


• 12 alt. lunges each side


• 20 lying led lifts

Repeat 3 times

Set 3

• 2 minute run


• 1 minute plank

Repeat 3 times

And there ya have it! This takes me anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Usually I warm up for about 5 minutes on the elliptical or treadmill, so in the end, I have a 30 minute strength workout that keeps me from getting bored!!! Do you have any go-to workouts? 

The funniest thing happened to me the other day as I was coming home from the gym. See, our apartment building has two sets of gates that can only be opened by key or if someone in the building buzzes you in. I got the outside gate to open with the key, but for some reason, the inside gate would not open. And the doorman was out for lunch, so he couldn't let me in. Which means that I couldn't actually get to the apartment. I was looking at this:

See that little thing that looks like two light switches? The top ones open this gate, and the bottom opens the outside gate. Just beyond that, are the stairs and the elevator. Wanna know how I got in? I used a broom and hit the top switch with the handle. Oh yeah. I broke in to my own building. I actually tried to get an action pic of me opening the door, but I didn't set the camera in the right position, so all I got was a pic of the wall. Niiiice. Anyway, by the time I actually got in the apartment, I was laughing that this sort of thing only ever happens to me! :D

Well, I had better get started on my actual school work.........hope you have an awesome day!

Didn't See that Coming

Heey everyone! Sorry for not posting yesterday.....I was out of the house all morning and didn't get home until lunch....after that, I did some school!!!

Anyway, I have been HUGELY blessed! Remember how I was sending out corporate sponsorship requests last week? Well, we've heard back from one of the people and he has donated enough to pay for my ENTIRE tuition, plus part of my airfare! Wow!!! I was seriously speechless!!! It was a wonderful blessing, and it made my trip to Chicago feel even more real!!!! :D

In other news, I have to try out a new sport or exercise type for my PE class...so we've been looking at some near-by gyms! Turns out that stuff that I see all you other bloggers out there doing, like Body Pump, Body Attack, RPM, etc, are all offered here!! So excited!! Hopefully I'll be able to join a gym that has these classes!! hahaha

So in yet more completely random news, we just got a Burger King here! hahaha! I mean, one of the malls had one, but an actual BK restaurant opened up about 5 minutes from home on Sunday! The most exciting thing about that is that it is the only place here where you get free refills!!!! They give you a time limit though.......30 minutes after your order and you can't get any more refills!! So you know that I sucked down major amounts of soft drink just to say that I got a refill in Brazil! hahahaha I'm so weird!! Its funny though, because a couple of years ago, when the first BK opened in the mall, the Brazilians thought that free refills were the weirdest thing EVER and didn't really know how to react to them! Some people would bring days-old cups back and others would just stand by the soda fountain drinking and refilling their cups with Coke!!!! :P Hence the time limit.

Oh, I STILL haven't fixed my camera.......I'm just the teeniest bit scared to. I mean, the thing shut off and switched languages, and now I don't really want to make matters worse......but hopefully it'll be back up and running soon and I'll be able to share pictures with ya'll again!!!

Better be off....I've got a couple of tests to take!

What do you have planned for this weekend?

Go Grizzlies!!!!

Hey everyone!!!! Whats up???

I made my first attempt at homemade BBQ sauce last night.....and it was AWESOME!!!!!!  The only thing is that our condiments have more vinegar in them than they do in the states, so we had to cook the sauce a little bit longer so that some of the tanginess would cook out.....but after cooking it for a while, and pouring it over our meat, it was delicious!! Will definitely make again! :D

Anyway, we had a very Memphis-themed night! After dinner, Dad hooked up the projector and watched the Grizzlies playoff game on the wall! Our friends, who went to the game, called us when they got there, so that was pretty cool! The only bad thing is that the game started at 9 PM here, and I'm apparently a grandma because I got tired and went to bed. I only found out who won this morning.... :P

Well, in other news, yesterday I weighed myself. After 2 weeks of not gaining anything, I finally gained a half pound....which isn't much, and just showed my how much I can eat. I'm so active anyway, it takes a lot for me to put on some weight. Like eating half of a 16 oz container of pb in the course of a week a lot. :P So, while the past couple of weeks haven't given me a huge weight increase, I think that they've still been learning experiences. I got to see the amount of food that I can really eat without even worrying about gaining any weight, which I believe will help me not stress out as much. So while at first, I felt a little dissapointed at not having gained much weight, I now think that it was God's way of telling me to let go and live a little. :D

Before I head out for the day, I want to say that I'm actually working on my camera, and hopefully will be able to post real pictures on here again soon!! :D

Do you like basketball? If so, what team do you root for?

See ya tomorrow (hopefully with pictures!)!!

Edited to add: I thought that I had posted this in the morning......whoops!

What Motivates Me?

Good morning, everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend, and a good Monday as well!!! :D I wanted to let ya'll know that I did in fact try out the scones and they were TASTY! My sister loved them as well, and informed me that the only reason she didn't have another one today (it would be the 3rd day in a row) is that she doesn't want to eat too many and get sick of them! hahahaha I've already got my eye on several (sweet and savory) scone recipes, so you'll probably be seeing some more scones in the near future!!

About the vlog, I'm working on it, but there are a couple of things that I need to work out before I can film it. I'm hoping to have one posted soon, though!

Also, before I move to a more serious topic, I would just like to say that I found myself a new 20 minute kickboxing workout yesterday, that I loved!!!! Here's the link for ya:

TKO: http://www.exercisetv.tv/workout-videos/cardio/total-knockout-body-tko-4028

The other day, I came across an article (which I have yet to find again) that contained several questions to ask ourselves. One of the questions that stood out to me was: "What motivates me?". I've got a lot going on in my head right now, what with school, the NSLC, and trying to gain weight (I did gain a half-pound this week! YAY! :D) so I asked myself what motivates me to work at those three so much. I'm not an extremely social person, yet for some reason I want to go to Chicago to spend a week and a half with a bunch of other teenagers that I've never met. For the longest time, I didn't even admit that I had an eating disorder, but now I'm trying to get better. What motivates me?

I think two great sources of motivation for me are my family and friends and, first and foremost, my Savior. By studying my Bible, I am shown just how much God cares for me and that He's always with me, even when I feel alone. Just the knowledge that He's there makes me feel strengthened. My familyand friends are there for me even when I feel overwhelmed or get nervous about my scholarship application. They're amazing and I'm so blessed to have them!

The rest of my motivation comes from my desire to seize every opportunity that I can to be a better person, to be the best person that I can be. My extreme stubbornness also helps, though. :P Seriously though, when I realize that something is good for me, and decide to do it, I can be pretty self motivated!

So, what motivates you?

Hope you all have an awesome Wednesday!!!!

New Favorite Sandwich

Hi ya'll! =D

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me! For starters, I got an awesome kickboxing workout in! I'm pretty sure that it was my pre-workout fuel of PB Capn' Crunch (a gift from the second group) that did it. After all, when isn't a good time to eat sugary breakfast cereal? Actually, I'm not much of a cereal person, and I usually don't like the over sweetened ones (aka Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Frosted Mini Wheats, etc). Growing up, my favorite cereal was always Cheerios. Besides that, the only other cereal I ever really liked was Honey Nut Chex. Which is why I'm suprised at how much I love the pb Capn' Crunch! :D I usually eat cereal as a snack anyway, because its not filling enough for me to make a meal of it. What are your favorite breakfast cereals?

Anyway, I also tried a brand-new sandwich for lunch. First, I thinly sliced up half a large banana, then I drizzled some honey on it, and topped it all off with cinnamon. That alone would have been yummy, but then I got the idea to heat up my sammie on the skillet so that the banana would melt and the honey would go all gooey! Best. Decision. Ever. :D And super easy too! I already love pb+banana sandwiches, and I wanted to try something different, and it definitely payed off!

[caption id="attachment_447" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="YUM!"][/caption]

Oh and by the way, my bread is whole wheat with grated carrots! You don't really taste the carrot flavor, but they give the bread an awesome texture and nutritional profile! Its my all time favorite sandwich bread! :D

A couple of days ago, when I talked with my doctor, she suggested that I start journaling whenever I feel super stressed out. I have been doing that, and I really do think that it helps. Sometimes I feel that I can write out stuff that I can't talk about as well. I haven't even had a meltdown in the past couple of days, which means that I'm still on track! I've definitely been feeling less stressed, both as a result of journaling and of our life getting back to its normal craziness as opposed to the group craziness. Not that I minded the groups being here....we had lots of fun! :D

Well, that's about it for today...hope you  all have a wonderful Wednesday!

I Hate Waiting

Hey everyone!

Thanks for all of your super sweet comments and ideas on yesterday's post! I did call my doctor, and she said that as long as I don't lose any more weight, and stay on the right track, she has no problem with me going to the NSLC! Sooo, I applied yesterday, and sent in my scholarship application....now all I have to do is wait until April 11th to see if I did get the scholarship. If not, then I guess that the NSLC wasn't in God's plan for me this year....we've done everything that we could do. I honestly have NO idea how I'm going to be able to wait 2 weeks until the scholarship results come in...hahahaha. It'll be a good practice in patience I suppose....

Anyway, yesterday I had my new favorite sweet 'tater combo once again! This time, I made it more dessert-like by using dark chocolate dreams. Also, I figured that I like honey on my pb sandwiches, so I drizzled some on the sweet potato as well. It was awesome!!! :D This was at lunch, so I had a side salad with some sauteed kale, assorted veggies and some turkey. All in all, it was a fun, different lunch! I definitely needed a change! I'm really bad about finding something I like to eat, and then proceeding to eat it every day until I never want to see it again....then I switch, do the same thing, and so on and so forth. I usually have to make myself eat different foods, but I'm always glad that I did! I sometimes tell myself that if I like something enough to eat it every day, I don't want to ever get sick of it, so I should switch up my meals!

What are some of your favorite lunches? Do you ever get stuck in a food rut? How do you get out of them?

Anyway, because no random HC post is complete without a picture of my cat, here ya go:

[caption id="attachment_443" align="alignnone" width="502" caption="Cardboard boxes are FUN! "][/caption]

Hope you have a great day! :D

 

Group Number Two :D

Well, good morning to everyone!!!!!!

The second group arrived on Saturday and we've already had a great time! Yesterday there was an activity time for the children of the community, and about 100 kids showed up! It was awesome!!!!! In this group, there are 5 graduating seniors and 5 adults. Its been really nice to be able to hang out with some people who are closer to my age!!!!

Personally, I've been on a major emotional roller coaster the past week, mostly because of stress, I think. My hope is that I'll stabilize a little bit more this week because I won't be going out early in the morning to work with the group as much....we'll mostly see each other at dinner. The on;y downside to this is that I actually have to do my schoolwork! :P Its been really nice to be able to take a week off! hahahaha

Sorry for the absence of pictures...I haven't been taking any because I keep on leaving my SD card in my laptop, and forgetting to put it back in my camera....oh well! I promise there will be pics (and a recipe) tomorrow!

For now, though, I want to touch on a subject that is very important to me. Last week, Janae wrote an amazing guest post about the difference between running (or exercising) to lose weight and running because its what you enjoy doing. I want to talk briefly about how too much of a good thing (exercise) can actually have negative effects. Personally, I LOOOVE to do challenging workouts, such as running or even kickboxing. About a year and a half ago, I began participating in these types of workouts. I loved them, felt stronger and even noticed that I stressed out less. Then, it became something that I had to do every day, and if I missed a workout, it felt like the end of the world. I wouldn't just get sad about missing the workout, I'd get depressed. Instead of working out when I felt like it, for the positive effects, I was working out to prove to everyone else that I could and lost the ability to be flexible in my schedule. There's no telling what I missed out on while I was busy being upset at not getting to work out on a given day. Exercise shouldn't control your attitude so completely, and that's another area that I've been trying to work on!

Sorry for the super long rambling.....its just a topic that I wanted to mention at least once....:P

What do you think about exercise? Can it be excessive or am I overreacting? I really want to know what you think! :D

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Finished.

We finished all of Lost!!!!! Finally! What an ending! =D

We think that maybe everything that happened on the island actually happened, and the "alternate reality" thing where they didn't know each other at first was after what had happened on the island, when they were actually dead. I've heard people say that they died in the plane crash though and the island never happened. What do you  think?

We've got a ton of stuff going on right now.....a group from our home church in the States arrives tomorrow, and another, from a different church, arrives on the 19th, which just so happens to be the day that the first group leaves. Basically, we won't sleep for two weeks. But it'll be fun!!!

Since one of the groups will be here on my sister's birthday (the 23rd), we're doing a little something before and after. Her party will be after her birthday, but today I'm gonna bake up a little somethin' somethin' for her. For her party, I have another, bigger somethin' somethin' planned. Her favorite cake is red velvet, and I'm going to attempt one for her!! =D What's your favorite cake?

As for my weight gain plan, it's still going pretty slow....haven't weighed myself yet, but if I gained anything, it wasn't much. I'm starting to get really upset, which makes it even harder to stay on track. Any motivational quotes or mantras?

I've noticed that a lot of ya'll are giving something up for Lent. I've decided that since the point of the Lent season is to grow closer to God and to better understand Jesus' sacrifice, then I'm going to set aside some time each and every day to thoroughly study the Bible and pray. I mean, I read the Bible and pray, but I want to do more!

I've got an awesome workout planned for today! Kickboxing and random cardio vid , here I come! I had better be off....hope ya'll have a great day!