You, Me, Sushi.

Hello!

I finally have a full day of eats awaiting for your food-porn viewing pleasure.

Yesterday I was able to do my 2nd lift! I woke up and had some pre-lift fuel:

1/2 apple and cinnamon & a WW Bagel (+coffee)

I think I’ve found my perfect pre-workout fuel. This is keeps me full through my workout and I love it!  Before I lifted, it was a beautiful morning, so I took a walk for like 40 minutes while listening to Bruce Springsteen– I’m broadening my musical horizons from T-pain and Lil Wayne 🙂

THEN onto my lift! This included:

DB Snatch 3x5ea
BB Bench Press 5×10
BB Split Squat 3x10ea
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown 3×10
Single Leg Hammy Buck 3xea
DB Bicep Curls (alt) 3x10ea
Calf Raises 3×10

Then I came back home and did some massive, much needed stretching for about 10 minutes- I was still sore from Monday’s much more intense lift- My legs were dead!  Luckily, I was able to RE-FUEL with some delicious PUMPKIN-OATMEAL PROTEIN PANCAKES. Yup, I’m still eating pancakes for breakfast. Every day. No big deal.

Up Close and personal

Topped with Maranatha & 0%Fage>>>>

Pancakes ready for Food-Porn photography action

Rest of this morning's apple and some almonds

After this, I put my bathing suit on and attempted to even out the awful SUNBURN I had gotten the day before.  Basically, the front of me looked like a Lobster and the back of me looked like Tilapia (sorry, it was the first WHITE thing related to the sea that I could think of…terrible analogy.) Excuse it.  However, I could only sit out for about a 1/2 hour because it was so freakin’ hot outside!

I came inside, showered and did some work of my ONLINE CLASS.  It’s called the “Comedy of Mannerisms”.  It’s an English elective that discusses the humor of etiquette and poor manners in our society- Basically, I got to watch an episode of Seinfeld online, then attempted to read Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Unfortunately, however, I got hungry so I decided to satisfy my tummy.  Sorry Jane, food comes first ;).

I re-created one of my favorite lunches that I’ve had at a Greek restaurant at school- It’s called “Horiatiki”. Have you heard of it? It’s basically Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Red Onion, Kalamata Olives, and Feta with Olive Oil and Vinegar.  I made this sans olives…not an olive fan.

With Arnold's WW Sandwich thins

Still Hungry (Story of my life)…I got a bottle of the POM Wonderful I got in the mail last week, and combined it with ice and blended it all together.  It created an amazinggg texture, and lightened up the sweetness of the juice, so it was the perfect amount of sugary-ness.  The slush-factor was also a great addition to the super-hot day:

SLUSH.

I really enjoyed this.  But still wanting more (again, story of my life), I enjoyed my never-fail, always satisfying, favorite snack of all time:

Perfection in a jar.

A nice, big scoop of Almond Butter straight from the jar… can you really ask for anything more?

After this, I was done-zo with snack time and needed to straighten my hair and get myself to look semi-decent for dinner with friends.  Unfortunately, I was put in a bit of a time crunch when it took me 1/2 hour to find my straightener.  It was in my drawer next to my bed… where I always straighten my hair. DUH.  Don’t you hate when you look for something for so long, but the whole time it’s right under your nose?!

Anywho- In the midst of getting ready I snacked on the following:

Brocc: Crammin' in the Nutrients

0%Fage and Frozen berries

Take 2: Mixxxxed up

Then I met my friends Erin and Catie for some sushi.  This place was pretty cool because we sat right next to the guy making the sushi so we could watch! Clearly, I had to take a CREEPER PICTURE (no flash, of course):

The Menu of the different rolls was pretty long so I had an extremely difficult time figuring out what I wanted:

The Selection

I was in between the “OUT OF CONTROL” and “SAY NO”… I chose the former.  Partially because I liked the name, and partially because I liked what was in it ;).  It had Tuna, Salmon, and Avocado with Tobiko>>>

Catie got the “Philadelphia Roll” which is salmon with cream cheese, and Erin got the standard California.  While waiting for the bill, we snapped some pix…clearly:

Erin and Me... I like to make the most embarrassing faces possible.

& I did what I do best and played with my food:

Happy Wasabi 🙂

After dinner Pic: Erin, Catie, Me

Oh, and then we went to eat ice cream- Yeahh, I like food.

Chocolate and Raspberry FroYo Topped with Chocolate Sprinkles!

They also had a red-velvet frozen yogurt which I was tempted to get, but didn’t.  The Raspberry and Chocolate still made me a happy camper, though!

Now today, I am off to do the following:

• Go to the Library and do some homework (& I thought it was summer…fail.)
• Dye and Cut my Hair! (I’m going BLONDER- just a lil, and getting the split ends chopped off)- Pics to follow!!
• Blog it upp & Check out what you guys are up to 🙂

Have you ever dyed your hair? If so, what sparked the original interest? I started in Middle School when I got blonde highlights, and my hair’s been hating me ever since! But now that I’ve started- I can’t stop!!

What’s your favorite roll to get when you eat sushi?? I Need some suggestions for next time!

&My favorite question: Are you a sprinkle Person? I certainly am- I love the crunch it gives my ice cream, but a lot of my friends are very against sprinkles because they think they are “pointless”… no way. But to each his own!

Have a great day, bloggies! 🙂
Michelle

Move over Dr. Seuss, Green Pancakes will ROCK Green Eggs and Ham’s World.

Hello Everyone!! 🙂

I was going to post earlier, but today is such a beautiful, gorgeous day and the weather is amazing, so i couldn’t resist being outside for it all!  Yesterday I GOT TO LIFT for the first time in a month! wahooo!!  (Pretty sore now!) I’ve been dying because I’m not a very sedentary person at all, so it was really hard… but my body and beaten up knees needed rest from hard training since August! I haven’t taken a break this long since high school so this was hard, but NEEDED.

After my lift- I fueled my PANCAKE ADDICTION (I’ve had oatmeal-protein pancakes every day for a week!)

This time I switched it up a little bit and added SPINACH 🙂

The Batterrr

This Mixture contained: 1/2 c. oats, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, a little vanilla extract, cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1 egg, a banana, and about 3 cups of spinach all blended together into a smooth texture and then make ’em like normal pancakes!

Then I topped ’em with Almond Butter and Fage>>>>

Green Pancakes Decorated!

This is my new Favorite breakfast!!! SO delicious- I recommend these to everyone!  They keep me satiated for a really long time- (which is surprising for me!) and they taste amazing! My mom said that they weren’t sweet enough for her, but everyone has different taste buds, so you can add sugar, stevia, etc to make ’em sweeter 🙂

Then my friend Catie and I went to the outlets to shop because we wanted to shop outside because the weather was nice- we got to shop and we got our tan onnn (killin 2 birds with one stone)

I brought pretzels, prunes, and a granola bar with me ( I always pack food with me everywhere because I’m always hungry, but I didn’t take pix…you know what they look like ;))  When you go somewhere that you know you will be for a while, do you pack food with you? I’m a packerrrr!

YUM:)

Then we stopped for some iced coffee while we were there! This was good, except i forgot that Sugar in the Raw doesn’t like to dissolve in cold coffee so i kept getting the crystals lol- I should have put in the regular crystals but I wasn’t thinkinn, O well, it was still yummy!

When we were there I purchased:

Sneaks and a wristlet

I got new converse because mine are from like 8th grade and are ripped to shreds and I wanted nice new clean ones, a Coach wristlet (that fits my phone and my camera-scoreeeee!), and my obsession: Nike Frees, I’m so pumped to wear these this summer with a tan!

Close- UP!

I like really bright colors– so these are perfect for me :)… By the way, these are for casual wear, I won’t train/run in these babies 🙂

Then Catie and I went to the mall to catch up with a friend from high school, we went to Chili’s where I got a grilled chicken sandwich with Honey Mustard, I haven’t had honey mustard in so long and I forgot how good it is!!

After dinner, we went to see Letters to Juliet– It was cute, but Catie said she saw the preview and that gave everything away :/… NOTE TO SELF: I am spending money like crazyyy- I should probably stop because I’m not making any money until later this summer when I start working as a camp counselor (but that starts in a month from now), hopefully I can cut down but I want to make the best of my summer and hang out with friends and I don’t want to restrict myself because of money!

I’ve also decided that ONCE A WEEK I’m going to cook my family dinner so I can experiment with my culinary skillz before I live in a house next year (when i need to cook for myself!) Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can cook? I think I might make a meal tonight!  I need easy, healthy meals that you’ve made and love!

I also suggest that you all take a look at This Girl’s page… she has an AWESOME giveaway going on right now and I think you all should take part 🙂

I hope the weather is amazing where you guys are!! GO out and enjoy it!

Michelle

Beautiful Weather and “Wonderful” surprise!

Happy Weekend!!!!!!

Wooo! Even though it’s SUMMER so everyday is basically the weekend, Saturday always seems to feel extra- special!  The past few days have been sooo much fun with BEAUTIFUL WEATHER so I haven’t had a time to get on here- but now it’s time to play catch upp 🙂

THURSDAY I went to Six flags with a bunch of my friends from school! Even though I’ve been away from school for like a week- I miss them so much so it was nice to see everyone! We also all live pretty close to each other so the trip worked out well 🙂 The lines weren’t so bad because it was a weekday, so the longest we waited was like a 1/2 hour (I timed it because I time everything…lol) I went on Kingda Ka and El Toro 3 times, it was great 🙂 Do you guys like roller coasters? I lovee them!

YESTERDAY, was a BEAUTIFUL day, so I spent most of it outsidee 🙂  I started my day out with my own Protein Pancakes Concoction:

1/2 c. Oats, 1 egg, 1/2 scoop Vanilla protein powder, 1 banana, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, TOPPED WITH: Almond Butter and Greek Yogurt

Then I put all of that stuff together in the food processor & created a pancake-y texture which I put on to the skillet, Then BAM!!:

As you can see I decorated them oh so nicely- hehe… These were so good, I made them again this morning 🙂

I then ran some errands and then came back home to get my tan on!!

My backyard with my dad's tomato and basil plants on the deck

I got hungry so I decided to make myself a snack of an apple with cinnamon and Fage, but in the process of Apple cutting, a terrible, terrible thing happened:

CRIME SCENE PHOTOS

R.I.P. Apple Cutter

MY APPLE CUTTER BROKE!!!!!!!!!! 😦 HUGE FAIL.

I guess my apple was super tough and the METAL on the cutter couldn’t handle the strength of my Pink Lady :(… Regardless, I overcame and took the metal pieces out of the apple and enjoyed my snack:

Apples with a side o' sunshine

Then a WONDERFUL surprise came in the mail for me!!

Cute lil' bottles 🙂

The Amazing Folks over at POM Wonderful sent me a package of 100% Pomegranate Juice bottles!

DID YOU KNOW?:

• POM has antioxidants more potent than those in Red Wine, Grape juice, Blueberry Juice,  Green Tea, and numerous other beverages
• Pomegranates are some of the earliest cultivated fruits
• POM can improve cardiovascular health and increase blood flow to the heart

For more info on POM Wonderful, visit their website: http://www.pomwonderful.com/ for more info!!

I brought one of them with me to my friend’s house yesterday as an energy booster and my friends all loved the shape of the bottle! I enjoy the taste of pomegranate so I really liked it.  It’s pretty sweet, but there is no added sugar (Or added anything), but next time I have it, I’m thinking I’m going to blend it up with ice to dilute the sweetness a little! Now the question is- Does anyone know any good recipes with pomegranate juice? Smoothies? Anything? I’m interested in all suggestions so send ’em here!! I want to experiment with this stuff! 🙂

Thanks again, POM Wonderful!!

Then, last night, me and a few of my friends from high school that I haven’t seen in FOREVER went out to Olive Garden

yumyummmyum

I got the Venetian Apricot Chicken… It’s what i always get because It’s SO FREAKIN’ GOOD! Do you ever go to a restaurant and get the same thing every time you go there? That’s my thang at Olive Garden, I don’t even try anything else!

What’s your favorite “Fast Food” or Chain Restaurant? Mine may be Olive Garden (I’m a sucker for the salad and bread sticks!)… my mom would kill me for saying that, though, because it’s not “real Italian” food! haha

Alright well I am off to the dentist for a cleaning (woo!) and then I’m going to my friend Dylan’s house to go chill by the pool with a few friends (Summer = LOVE.)

Have an amazing weekend!!!!!!

Michelle

Rainy Day & Some groceries

Happy Hump Day!

I’m finally getting settled into my new living quarters :)… My parents are re-doing their bedroom so they are living in my room and I’m living in the BASEMENT.  Yuppp… wonderful, ain’t it!?! LOL, actually it’s not too bad- especially after I got everything settled in.  Heres a wonderful before and after picture of my temporary room while I was  unpacking my life away…

Before.

After.

Great improvements, Right!?!

AS A REWARD FOR CLEANING MY ROOM ( I kid you not- my mom took away my car keys and told me we would go food shopping as soon as the basement was clean...ladies and gentleman- am officially 7.), Momma and I went to Costco (aka bulk heaven on earth):

Messy table!

They now have tubs of Fage at Costco, Life =Complete.

I ended up getting mixed greens, frozen fruit, naners, Maranatha<3, Fage, a HUGE bag of prunes, and a few other unpictured items (Roasted red peppers, salmon, etc.) That place is wonderful, I wanted to by 20 other things, but I refrained. They also had samples of CLIF bars (which we all know, I know what they taste like), but I clearly had to sample them, just in case I forget their great flavor ;).

In turn, I made my mommy and I some apple oats the next morning with Maranatha and Greek Yogurt :

This was my mom's serving, It was just prettier than mine so I decided to picture this one...

My mom loves all this stuff, and she even buys Greek Yogurt when I’m not home anymore because of it’s deliciousness!

In other news, yesterday was POURING RAIN outside. Like gross.  My friend Erin and I were supposed to go to the city, but because of the circumstances, we decided to stay in.  I decided to introduce her to the beautiful world of foodie foods.  Yup, I am converting the world.

(Oh, and Erin and I both LOVE taking pictures, so the following is a result of that)

First, we went to the local farmer’s market to get me some fruits &veggies 🙂

Way too happy about produce? Probably.

I made a cucumber and tomato salad with oil and vinegar (and salt& peppa)

FLASH.

Success!

Tea on a cold rainy day (these were the options)

...And this is how you pour tea...

And CLEARLY this wouldn’t be complete without cheetahs!! (She LOVED them!):

Erin with the sweet taters before they were cooked!

Can you believe she’s never had a sweet potato before?! The world is so sheltered ;).

It was a good day!! Being that it was a rainy day, it was fun to catch up, drink tea, and make some yummy food 🙂

Overall, I am happy to be home and be around my friends and family- but I do miss my friends at school (Shout out to Dana!)… Right now I’m awaiting our final grades to be posted because i got a 93.5 in one of my classes and I’m desperately hoping that it means that I got an A, rather than an A-, but I’m not completely sure… I think it may be an A- though :/… but it’s all good- I’ll be happy with either! (I’m sucha nerd! hehe)

What do you guys like to do on a rainy day for fun? I like to talk with friends, make food, or watch a movie and relax 🙂

And Have you guys introduced any of your friends to exciting and new foods?! How did they react?? My mom and Erin love this stuff!

Mucho love!
Michelle

Home for the Summer!

Happy Monday!!

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend!!! I am HOME for the summer now (this is crazyy!) and I’ve spent the past few days catching up with friends, its been so fun 🙂

FRIDAY I packed my life away on 3 hours of sleep (yesssssssss!) and said goodbye to all of my friends up at school ;(, and came home and a bunch of my friends from home came over and we just all talked and caught up and they WENT TO TOWN my DARK CHOCOLATE DREAMS PB… like  by the spoonfuls haha- theres not to much left…(can you say Oats in a  Jar!?!)

SATURDAY I went to the county track meet at my high school to watch my 2 friends that are still on the team compete, and then went to my first DRIVE IN MOVIE ever! We saw NIGHTMARE ON ELMS STREET! I hateeeeee scary movies, and because I’m a baby I thought it was scary :), but it wasn’t a bad movie if your into that!!  But it was just overall a great experience and I definitely plan on going back this summer!  Have you ever been to a Drive-in movie? (I felt like I was in the 1950’s! hehe) And then we went to the diner at midnight (no pics of my omlet with taters), and ended the night saying goodbye to my friend Kyle whos going back to the Air Force Academy for a month (he just came back for the weekend)

SUNDAY (I actually have pics- woo!) Was a GORGEOUS DAY so I started it off right with my FIRST BOWL OF STOVETOP OATS that I have had in a while!

Naner Oats for me and mommy 🙂

Donee

FUN FACT: I actually made this bowl a few months ago, and clearly I had to pay attribute to oatmeal and write oats at the bottom!

Then best friend Kristina and I went to climb a mountain! Well, kinda, it was a mini-mountain…

Success!

Cute lil inch worm we found on the way up that I had to take a picture of in macro

Completely necessary jumping pic when we got to the top of the mountain 🙂

I came back and had some lunch: Salad with grilled chicken that was accompanied by an un-pictured, already eaten Thomas’s WW Bagel 🙂

Then went to church with my friend Mary at 5, and came back and had some un-pictured dindin with the fam (pasta/pesto/broccoli)…

It’s officially been 2 weeks since I’ve ran/lifted/done abs etc. (The longest break I’ve had in 2 years!) And I’m super antsy, especially because I have 2 more weeks to go ahh!!! But it’s more important that my knee gets healthy and my body gets good rest so I don’t have to worry about running into another injury next year! I have 2 more years of track left and I can’t let this get in the way!

Have an amazing day and Don’t forget to check out these awesome Give-A-Ways!!:

CLICK HERE OR HERE!!!!

❤ Michelle

Back in Action!

Hello Everyone!!

After a very very VERY long break, I’m back to blogging!!!! 🙂 I missed everyone and everything soooo much.  But, this break was much needed!  I needed time for school, track, friends, etc. and although I loved being here, I really needed a break.  I originally gave up blogging/facebook for lent, but then realized how much more time I got to spend with the people around me and I couldn’t give that up!! I’m sorry for taking off without warning, but it was needed 🙂

BUT… now that I finished my last final YESTERDAY and I’m done with track for right now (I’m taking a good amount of time off to help the tendinitis/bursitis in my knee to heel) I have time to blog! (as long as you guys still accept me! haha)  I’ve seen that a few of my favorite bloggies (Katie, Shelley have also realized the importance of a BREAK… but I hope they come back soon!!!)

So heres a RECAP of the past month:

Between Dana Lauren and I, we went through many, many Clif/Luna Bars

Dana and I had wayyy too much fun on the way home from our conference meet (carrots are loveee)

We had our End-of-the-year Athlete Banquet (and showed off our guns)

Went through NUMEROUS jars of nut butters

<3OIAJ

Studied my life away this past week (with a side of Starbucks)

I can’t believe that I’m done with finals and I’m going home on FRIDAY! These past 2 years have been the fastest of my life… it’s ridiculous.  Anyone else in college feel like time is at warp-speed?!?

And now that I’m done with track for the time being and giving my body a rest, I really want to try some new foods, does anyone have any suggestions? I love the blog food world, you guys come up with such great ideas!! (Green Monsters and Oats in a Jar= yessss)

This was a basic post just to tell you all that I’m back in action & that I hope to start posting regularly this summer, Hopefully you guys will actually still read this lol!!

Have an amazing day:)

Michelle

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Lovelies!!! I hope everyones having a wonderful day! I’m gonna make this post quick- but I had to wish you all a great day!

This weekend was wonderful- My parents& brother came up for the track meet I had this past Friday so I got to hang out with them (go out to dinner, go grocery shopping-free food, ya knoww, and I showed them the house I’ll be living in next year!)
I also qualified for the ECAC meet (Eastern College Athletic Conference), It’s basically a big meet in Boston that you have to qualify for.. wooo!

a sign that my friends made me:)

Action shot hahah

Alrighty,enough of me tooting my own horn 🙂

Last night a few of my friends and I went to go see the movie Valentine’s Day…it was soo cute!! I’d definitely recommend it! It was crazy how many stars were in it and how well it actually flowed together! I also made valentines- Elementary School Styleeeee>>>

work station

They were SpongeBob haha!! I wanted Disney Princesses but I couldn’t find, ’em…wierd lol,but these were definitely funny:

hehe:)

My mommy also got me a cute V-day mug which I enjoyed this morning’s tea in,which is pictured alongside my Valentines Oats:

They didn’t look NEARLY as pretty as I wanted them to…fail 😦 >>>>

But they definitely tasted yummy!

They were “Yoatgurt-y” with defrosted strawberries, AB,and of course a dark chocolate heart ❤

How are you guys spending your Valentine’s day?

I’m off to go watch the Olympics! 🙂 Have a wonderful Sunday!
Michelle

My name is Michelle & I’m addicted to grocery shopping

Helllo lovelys 🙂 I hope you all are having wonderful days so far!
Thank you all for such AMAZING, thoughtful comments on my last post! It meant a lot that you all understand where I am coming from!

Okay so before I share with you all a bunch of the great purchases I have made within the last few days, I need to share my little mishap with y’all. Okay so the other day, I had a missed call from a random number from my home area code. They left a voice mail and I figured I would check it later. That night I had gone to Wegman’s to get some goodies, and on the way back, checked my voice mail and was left with a message saying I had overspent on one of my debit cards. Danggggg. (besides the fact I had just spent $40+ at the grocery store)… So I called my dad, told him, we figured it all out. I had been recording my purchases, but one of the textbooks that I had bought was mad expensive and it didn’t go through I guess when I had last checked the account. I need to start eating like a normal college student! haha
…Yeah right thats never gonna happen :), but I do need to keep a better on my spending!
Here’s some of the food I have purchased in the past two weeks>>>>>>

Wegman's

BABY FOOD! & bars

This stuff is from my school’s food Co-Op.. They have a lot of local grown and organic stuff, you can also buy in bulk and save $$… It’s amazing! Does anyone else’s schools have something like this?

Under 10 buckaroos 🙂

I got this lovely Luna Bar at the food CoOp and it was DELICIOUS!! I’d ever seen it before and I definitely enjoyed it- It’s making it’s way into the Top 3 in Luna Bar Status 🙂

I’ve also been experimenting with bloggie concoctions and whatnot, so here’s a few random eats that I’ve been able to take pictures of from the past couple of days>>>

“Dessert Sushi” from Gracie at Girl Meets Health

AMAZING.

This was SOOOO good, especially dipped in Plain Oikos- I was in heaven, I’ll definitely be making this again- I just got a wrap, mushed a 1/2 banana, dark choco chips, and some AB

popped it in the microwave, and rolled it up and wow. 🙂 Thanks for the awesome idea, girl!

(Sorry for all the awful cellular pictures, But I borrowed Dana’s charger so my camera’s back in action!)

OHHH and I almost forgot- My school now has CHOBANI IN THE DINING HALLS!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOO! I don’t think you understand how excited this made me! (actually, I’m sure you do) Now I can put the Greek Yogurt tab on my meal plan card rather than me debit card! (saving more money-woo!)

Cue Heavenly Choir

Katie alwaysssssssss eats her Chobs frozen, so I HAD to try it… AMAZING.

Frozen Chobani with a side of Psych Stats

This tasted like frozen yogurt and I was in love 🙂

Tried these babies for the first time:

I love everything BBQ flavored so I was a little bias, but VERY good!

Today’s lunch (which I just finished) a home made egg salad sandwich-
I mixed 3 hardboiled eggs (1 whole egg, 2 whites with some ground chickpeas, cumin, lemon, and pepper)

Overflowing Eggie Sandwich

In the meantime, I need to conquer this lovely bit of laundry that has been sitting on my bed for the last 2 hours!

I have a home meet this weekend, which means my parents and broskii are coming up to visit meeeee 🙂 woo!
Anyone doing anything exciting this weekend?

Have a wonderful day everyone!!!
Michelle

ps this girl is hosting a giveaway, check it out!

Knowledge is a Curse

Hey guys! Happy Sunday!!!! This post took me a lot of time to write/think over and I would really appreciate feedback. I don’t mean to offend anyone by this, but it needs to be said…

Revert back to the days when your lunch was packed for you, you ate when your teachers told you to, and there were no complaints (except maybe to cut the crust off your Skippy Peanut Butter and Smucker’s Jelly sandwich on white bread) The good ol’ days when you didn’t THINK about it. It was easy back then.
>>Fast forward to NOW. You are reading food blogs, you don’t go near things like “HFCS” , and you know what’s IN pretty much everything you eat. It’s great that we all know how to be healthy, but there is a fine line between eating healthily and obsession. We know too much. We KNOW so much about food and have the ability manipulate our diets accordingly. I’m not saying we all do, but it’s possible. It’s possible to revert back to whatever your worst state of food obsession was any second because that knowledge is branded in your brain.
Dana and I had a great Heart to Heart last night about exactly this. About when food knowledge and desire to be healthy can lead to a point where it is no longer healthy. Both of us have gotten better from the days when we saw High Fructose Corn Syrup (God forbid) in the dining hall’s marinara sauce and swore it off for a month (true story! haha)
But we all have not so great days because we are only human. Yesterday was one of my not-so-good days (I don’t have an ED, & never did). I’m just a knowledgeable, normal girl who had a bad day…I think it was triggered by the Nutrition Analysis I had to do for nutrition class. I had a track meet yesterday, which included the typical: Oatmeal with almond butter in the morning, 2 nature valley bars, a Clif Bar, a Luna bar, a crapload of trail mix, pizza, ETC. Everything that had a lot of fat in it… totally normal for meet days because I don’t actually eat lunch because I was in the in field jumping from 12-5. (A girl needs her energy!!) After the meet, my teammates and I went out for ice cream at Friendly’s, another typical thanggg we do. HOWEVER, because I had known how much fat I had already eaten that day, I was so hesitant. I had ordered 1 scoop of Vienna Mocha chip and 1 scoop of Cookie Dough. I was presented with this:

Seeing that monstrosity of ice cream in front of me, I was like oh man, I did NOT order that much. BUT I was hungry. Really hungry. I had spent 5 hours of high intensity competing, consisting of 6 long jumps and 6 triple jumps, (Both of which I PRed in!), and had been running and doing drills all day long. I NEEDED FOOD. So I ate it all… clearly. And felt great afterward (I actually went back to my room and ate a little more ;)) But why was I so concerned before? It was because I KNEW How much I fat I had eaten throughout the day and seeing a bowl of ice cream 3x the size of what I had ordered (which I was already thinking about) made me think too much. Everyone else around me wasn’t thinking about it nearly as intricately as I was!

Sometimes I envy my friends that don’t know about food like I do. They don’t know what’s in everything, and their knowledge of eating healthily is knowing that chips are “bad” and fruit is “good”. But what I have come to realize is No Food is GOOD or BAD, or HEALTHY/NOT HEALTHY. If you love ice cream, it’s healthy for you to eat it! If you eat the same exact things day in and day out, no matter how ‘healthy’ they are, are they really all that HEALTHY after all?
Sometimes I wish I could revert back to the days where I didn’t know as much, because now that I have it in my head, I’m afraid that knowledge will never go away. This is why I think that sometimes, too much knowledge can be a curse.
Being apart of blog world, I get attached and truly worried about some girls exercising too much or eating too little, or both. I worry about the people that comment on foods like “UNHEALTHY” cakes and sweets and say how AMAZING THEY LOOK, but wouldn’t actually eat them. Your body is your temple, give it what it wants. You all know SO MUCH about food and it SCARES ME that people could revert back to an ED or have their healthy eating cross that fine line and turn into and ED. But I LOVE seeing girls recover correctly and love seeing them get healthier and HAPPIER. Reading This Girl’s Post yesterday made me sooo happy to know that some of you are truly on your way to an amazing recovery. It just scares me that too much knowledge can hinder that recovery. I love you all and pray that nobody is struggling with their own self-image/recovery on a daily basis.

I’m lucky because points when I feel like this do not come often at all… I am SO HAPPY with my body. I am athletic and very fit, allowing me to do what I love- track. I thank God for it each day. I know I’ve been blessed. It’s just dumb things like Diet Analysis, etc. that can sometimes get in the way and cause me to over-think. I hope I got down everything I needed/wanted to in this post, and I hope you can all relate and know where I am coming from. So girlies (&guys!)- what is your FAVORITE thing about your body and why? and How do you feel about knowledge being a curse- do you agree or disagree? (in regards to what I have written)

Thanks so much for reading this extra long post 🙂
Love,
Michelle

Self-Analysis

Helllllllloooo everyone! 🙂
How’s your Thursday going? Mine’s pretty good… VERY TIRING but good. I finally have time to relax now (relax =blog, woo!)… Anywhooo I’d like to give you a full play-by-play of my Tuesday.. yeah, I’m aware that was 2 days ago, but now I finally have time to go over it… get it?

For Nutrition class, Our assignment is to write down everything we eat for 3 days, and then enter it into this computer program:

And through this, we have to analyze our diets and see what we need to change! Personally, I’m not a huge fan of writing everything I eat down and then analyzing it. Mostly because I’m the type of person who will mindlessly go on Snacking Adventures, which quite frankly, I don’t feel like writing down. But for the purpose of this class- I’ll deal with it. (and measure everything, ugh.) I also didn’t like entering everything into the program, seeing how many Cals, etc. I ate- I rather just eat it, enjoy it, and be done with it. I felt like it got me thinking too much about what I was eating, I guess. Does anyone else feel this way? Or do you like knowing how much your eating/ portioning things out and knowing your calorie intake? Either way is fine: To each his own; it’s just important not to get too obsessed with the intakes, etc. I know I’ll learn a lot by doing this, and that even though I don’t THINK I need to change anything, I’m sure I could IMPROVE in some areas.
So without further adieu, here’s the my schedule, food(taken by my phone; sorry, folks!) & some of my unnecessary comments 🙂 >>>>>>>

7:30 Wake Up… woo! school!

I’m a pretty slow getting ready-er, so I made myself some Oat bran to enjoy during class:

Oat bran- To- Go

1/2 Cup Oat Bran
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Water
1 Banana
1 Tbsp. Each Wheatgerm & Flaxseed
Cinnamon
2 TBSP Peanut Butter

8:30- 9:55– Enjoy my Oat bran while I don’t enjoy Psych Stats class 🙂

10:00-2:00 (Yes, 4 Hours, no exaggeration) TRACK PRACTICE! (see, this is why I can’t post all the time! hehe)
This consists of:
-25 Minutes of Jogging+Warm-up Drills (did them super fast)
-1 1/2 hours of bounding, bungee work (so fun! and felt good!), “hump jumps”, and other jumping drills
-120m sprints, 2×80 meter sprints (3 minute rest between each)
-45 minutes of weight room
-15 minutes abs
-15 minutes stretching
+Ice Bath (woooo!)
(all the time is estimated, ish, it all adds up to 4 hours somehow, but *** I am not WORKING OUT for 4 full hours, a lot of it is taking breaks in between jumps, changing, resting, icebathing, etc.***)
In between Practice and Weight Room I had an apple, and during practice/lifting/after I had a Clif Bar:

Banana Nut Bread Clif Bar: You never let me down 🙂

2:30 Then I trekked back up to my room and enjoyed a whole wheat sub with some grilled chicken, eggplant, and spinach:

&some brocc

Pre- Microwave Nukage

3:00 I hopped in the shower, and got hungry…again (love the afterburnnnn)

3:10– Enjoyed this snackypoo:

I love that my Kashi Heart to Heart is in a heart shaped measuring cup 🙂

Clearly I got hungry and was eating out of the measuring cup and then realized that I needed to take a picture^^

3:30-4- I blow dryed my hair, talked to my friend who broke his leg at one of the last track meets pole vaulting :(… He showed me the bruising and the swelling, I feel so bad :/…It’s crazy what you can do to your body falling from 16 feet above the ground!

4-4:30- Straightened my hair, put on my makeup, got dressed, and ate a grapefruit:

Excuse the awful Cellular Pic, this looks terrible, but it was actually quite delicious 🙂

At 5:30 I ran, literally to catch the bus to get to my next class downtown. Legit, the bus was leaving and I ran in front of it to stop it… awesome, right?! Ha!

I had class downtown from 5:50- 8:50– Introduction to Human Development, we talked about Breastfeeding for 3 hours… kill me now. Luckily, I brought food to keep me occupied:

Some delish Decaf Green Tea:

Along with an unpictured Oats N’ Honey Nature Valley Bar

9:13 – Caught the bus back to campus, and walked up to my room in the snow and arrived at 9:30

9:45 Clearly hungry, I enjoyed some Plain Oikos with protein cookie dough 🙂

Why are you so freakin' delicious?!

&Throughout the Day, I drank 142 oz. of water.

Okay, now here comes the Self-Analysis thanks to the lovely computer program:
(IF YOU CARE, The first # is what I consumed, the second # is the amount I’m “supposed to consume” **Doesn’t take into account activity level, So Mine is skewed**, and the third is the percentage of what I took in compared to how much I was “supposed to” consume:

Basic Components
Calories 3,096.95 2,546.68 122 %
Calories from Fat 639.34 713.07 90 %
Calories from SatFat 112.26 229.20 49 %
Protein (g) 161.35 50.80 318 %
Carbohydrates (g) 527.33 350.17 151 %
Sugar (g) 183.42
Dietary Fiber (g) 80.82 35.65 227 %
Soluble Fiber (g) 19.70
InSoluble Fiber (g) 26.54
Fat (g) 71.04 79.23 90 %
Saturated Fat (g) 12.47 25.47 49 %
Trans Fat (g) 0.00
Mono Fat (g) 8.31 28.30 29 %
Poly Fat (g) 12.07 25.47 47 %
Cholesterol (mg) 123.90 300.00 41 %

HERE ARE MY COMMENTS:
1. It’s annoying because since my activity level isn’t taken into account, everything isn’t as accurate as I would like it to be (being that I am putting effort into this)- I added the activity level somewhere else and it said I was eating the right amount of calories, so that made me happier haha
2. I didn’t eat NEARLY as much this day as I do normal days- 3,000 Cals. is a decent amount of food, I probably take in 3,500/day… danggggggg (see, but I’m thinking about it… I don’t WANT to think about it! haha)
3. I didn’t include the vitamins&minerals on here, but they were all well over 100%, so woo! go me! (right?)
4. I’d rather snack and not measure, it takes the fun out of digging my hands into a a box of cereal
5. To be rebellious, I snacked on prunes somewhere in here, but didn’t write it down (but then I eventually added it to the program, so they’re on here, anyway! haha)
6. This was really not so bad, I’m just being dramatic, sorry for the complaining!

So the goal is to improve, but I’m not sure exactly on WHAT I need to improve on, yuzzherd?! So if anyone has any suggestions to help me out and let me know what I can do to improve, I’m ALL EARS! Really!

Have a wonderful rest of your day, everyone! I’m off to take my laundry out of the dryer (then fold it), THEN read blogs!!!! yay! I’m exciting to see what everyone’s eats look like!
Michelle