Health

I believe that being healthy is the most important thing you can be, other than happy and optimistic and adventurous and hilarious. But those are just my requirements, and an entirely different post ;)

Over the past year I have gotten extremely out of shape and unhealthy. I used to feel so confident about my body, but now I only wear baggy t shirts, yoga pants, and second hand jeans because they fit looser. I was a size zero and in shape enough to see muscle tone everywhere, but now I'm a small size 6 and I have belly and thigh pudge. 

Needless to say, I am going to be making some drastic lifestyle changes. My diet needs to improve and so does my exercise regime. 

Here is how I ate and exercised 2 years ago: Two high school and club sports in addition to being a lifeguard and only healthy, mostly gluten-free clean eating.

Here is how I eat and exercise now: Virtually no exercise other than my retail job and I eat unhealthy, fatty, high calorie foods with lots of preservatives and bad ingredients. 

Well, no more!!! My revelation came when I went hiking over the weekend. I was not even half a mile into my semi-steep hike and my calves were on fire and I felt completely out of breath. I had to stop like 8 times on the way to the top. I was really disappointed in myself, I never wanted to be that person. I didn't ever want to "let myself go" or gain tons of comfort weight. 

I'm even more disappointed because I've always been really healthy and in shape and I've had other people tell me they looked up to me for my body and lifestyle and I feel like I have recently been living a lie. A big, chubby lie.

I'm going to create a 52 week healthy eating calendar, with a shopping list along the bottom and a meal plan along the top in designated days of the week.

I'm thinking that I will probably have "themed" days of the week, like vegetarian sunday, crock pot Tuesday, and fish Friday. I am also going to only do grocery shopping a week in advance, or even a few days. I want my food to be as fresh as possible and definitely preservative free. I am planning on only snacking on fruits and veggies and probably pretzels, because I really love pretzels.

To get myself steadily working out again, I am giving myself a goal to work out towards. Its called the color run. Its a 5k and while you are running, you basically get covered in powdered color so that you are totally covered when you get to the end. When I work out, it has to be fun or for something fun or I will not continue to do it. 

I'll periodically be updating my progress, potentially with some before and after photos. I have to be brave to do that though, but I'm pretty sure I will.

Wish me luck!

Uh Oh....

This is going to be a random, unstructured blog post. You have been forewarned, let the madness begin!


Remember my Pinterest challenge? The one where I vowed to do 30 things before I would pin another pin.


Well, I failed miserably decided I had done as much as I could with the money I have. haha


I realized I was semi-cheating on my challenge anyway. I was opening a window and leaving tabs open until I had completed 30 things and told myself I would just pin them when I was finished. Needless to say, I apparently have very little self-control.


In other news, I am finally going to be getting back in school!! Yay!! Two major surgeries and an organ removal later.. I finally have all of the needed paperwork filled out and they, the lovely Felicia's-stress-managing financial aid counselors, said I should be back by Fall term!! In case anyone is curious, I am going to school to get a double major in Biochemistry and Human Physiology. I have a serious desire to become a Pediatric Anesthesiologist. I absolutely adore children and the medical field is my calling. There is nothing more pleasing to me than to be able to help others, especially children. Anesthesiology is just the particular specialty that calls my name, it is so fascinating and precise and meticulous and there are so many times you have to make a split second decision. I love it. 


Also, I have decided how I am going to decorate my apartment. Jason and I plan on living here until we make our big move when we buy a home after we get married, but we don't plan on buying a home until after I finish my undergraduate degree, so why not make it the worlds coolest apartment? 


A little about our decorative styles, Jason is a minimalist and I am a hoarder of all things lovely not. The only thing we can absolutely agree on is the color grey, we love it in all rooms. Except maybe the kitchen, but that's mine anyway. ;) The rooms we are planning on decorating are the two bedrooms, entry-way, dining room, living room, back patio and bathroom. Not much can be done with the kitchen, but that's fine because I have a kitchenaid and all is well in the world. 


I don't have any idea what we will be doing in the spare bedroom because its basically where I keep all of my crafting things and my sewing table and where Jason keeps his spare beer bottles, that are neatly stacked. Let me just say we are not alcoholics, we like to think of ourselves as beer snobs and Jason makes his own home brews.


Our bedroom is going to be a steely grey and cream with some fantastic red accents. My next big project is refinishing the large dresser that I got for $35 off of craigslist when I lived alone. It needs some TLC, but it has soooo much potential to be absolutely gorgeous!! After that I am planning to make a nice tufted headboard and a chandelier to slightly diffuse the light. I want to get some matching smaller mirrors and awesome table lamps. I also plan to make pretty, flowy curtains for our window to make the walls look a tad larger. I might be slightly naughty and actually paint the rooms, I can always paint them back to white when we move out. And Mr. Jason can't sleep without a fan blowing on him, so I might find a way to mount a fan on the wall.....


The next room is the entry way, I know its not really a room, but it needs something. It needs a bench. I wish I could find a narrow table on craigslist to turn into an ottoman, then I could fit our shoe storage underneath the table. Yes, we do take our shoes off before we come into the rest of the house because what apartment complex seriously uses nearly white carpet, come on. I want the entry way to have more of a French feel. I have this flippin awesome piece of wrought iron decoration that Jason and I got as a gift, its my favorite thing in my house :) and it has this lovely vintage french feel. 


Outside is the awesome balcony/patio. It was a major selling point in this apartment. I am going to add some flowy, outdoor curtains for privacy, a planter box for some veggies and flowers and hopefully we will get a little bbq gas grill. It is a little too small for seating, but luckily the sliding glass door in the dining room opens onto the patio. My apartment is flippin sweet, and its pretty cheap for like 900 square feet. 


The bathroom is going to be AMAZING!! Its going to be pirate themed, but adult pirate not little kid pirate. Jason is totally on board with this. Get it.. ;) We were at a flea market in Cali and stumbled upon the coolest clock I have ever seen in my life. Its a wheel to a pirate's ship, with a clock in the center that has all these awesome ship symbols. And the fact that I talked the guy down $60 from his price doesn't hurt either.. The shower curtain will hopefully be a Kraken dragging a ship down into the depths, and I am going to be putting two shelves above the toilet and connecting them with some large rope. It looks significantly cooler than it sounds. I am also going to be putting up some "temporary" wall paper that is full of maps and awesome sea serpents. I'm pretty stoked to do the bathroom.


The dining room will be really simple, I just want an actual table and chairs instead of the folding card table and folding chairs we are using now, but at least that's something. I also want to add a shelf and some typography, a clock and two bar stools. And maybe this really awesome, but incredibly expensive piece of custom framed art. Its the life-size photo of Michael Jordan's wing span and it fits perfectly in the cut-out above the kitchen/dining room. 


Finally, the last room, even though you're probably asleep from boredom by now haha. The living room is going to be grey, cream, and tealy turquoise. Yes, I do make up my own words by adding "y" on the end. I am going to make amazing flowy (<-- see) tealquoise curtains, I'm spray painting our black floor lamp with Krylon looking glass spray. I am going to make a fabric cover for the back of our tv stand to hide all of the unsightly cords. I want to make a bar cart/ drink cart in the living room and place it directly underneath the large Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston photo I bought for Jason as a gift. There will be a lovely custom bookcase made by yours truly, and some matching, custom side tables featuring teal lamps. I am going to create a grey slipcover for our super comfortable but not very attractive couch. More than anything, I am going to be making an 8-10 foot floating shelf to be used as a mantle, because I desire one of those sooo badly! I love decorating for holidays, and a mantle is the perfect thing to decorate for all holidays! 


That is about it for all of the home decorating I would like to accomplish in the next year, now I just have to decide what to start on first! Wish me luck!


Hoping you have many adventures and tons of fun home decorating!

Challenge - 3

I am a huge fan of food, my too-small jeans can attest to this as of late. But, I love all aspects of food. Choosing my food, eating, preparing, eating, cooking, and of course eating. I am also a HUGE fan of the tv show Chopped. 


My mom isn't really the cooking type, but from as far back as I can remember, my family gatherings were centered around delicious food. I fondly remember potato salad, "angel" eggs, warm rolls, stuffing and gravy, delicious baked good, and much more. I also remember helping cook with my grandpa, the thought just occurred to me that he is the reason I'm so passionate about food. My favorite thing when I was 3 was making cinnamon bread with grobbies, its what my grandpa used to call raisins and I will uphold that tradition with my future children. I also love cooking for others, food just makes everyone happy and I love being the cause of happiness, it makes me feel complete! 


Well, now that you know a little about my foodie history, I am going to release to you a fantastic recipe, my salsa. I am excruciatingly picky about my salsa, my fiance would say about everything but that is a blog post for another time... ;)


So about the salsa, I like my salsa very spicy with an almost pureed consistency. I say almost because I like my onions to be a little chunky. Pico de Gallo has chunks, salsa should be smooth. Strange, right? I remember sharing salsa with my mom when I was a kid, we always had to use the same little, black bowl with the burnt bubble in the bottom from when I accidentally put it in the microwave and she had to eat all of the chunks and leave all of the salsa liquid for me. I'm pretty sure she was wondering how she ended up having the strangest child ever...


My salsa must also have outrageous flavor, which is why I roast my vegetables before I mix them all together. When you are cooking with produce, each ingredient must taste great on its own or it shouldn't be used at all. I carefully select all of my ingredients so that they are all exceptional. 


First, I slice all of my veggies in half, except my Serrano peppers, I just cut the tops off of those. Oh, and sometimes I quarter my onions.

The next step is really important, it's what gives the salsa its delicious flavor. Put your sliced veggies in a preheated oven and roast away. 

How delicious do those veggies look! The peppers should have a slight char and the onions should be nice and translucent. The easiest way to finish this would just be to put it in a food processor or blender, but I sadly have neither, so I chop all the veggies and toss them in my Kitchenaid. 


Here is the delicious finished product, that I have already spilled on myself. I literally turned my bowl upside down on my blanket right after I filled it. The bad news, I had to wash my blanket and I got Habanero pepper on it. The good news, I did the bachelor thing and didn't waste this delicious salsa. I grabbed some chips and ate it right off the blanket. Don't judge.  I was home alone and no one saw me.

This recipe easily fills a half gallon mason jar, which is pictured.

Ingredients:

2 Yellow Onions

16 Roma Tomatoes 

10-12 Cloves of Garlic

12 Serrano peppers

2 Jalapeno peppers

1 small Habanero pepper

1 bunch of cilantro

*secret ingredient warning* Juice of 1 fresh lemon

Salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Cut up all ingredients to your preference, mine is pictured above, and place on a baking sheet or two. I like to line mine with foil, but thats not necessary. 

3. Roast for 30-40 minutes, depending on how your oven heats, I just look at my veggies every few minutes after the 30 minute mark.

4. Chop cilantro and juice the lemon, then combine all ingredients in a blender/kitchenaid/food processor. 

Always taste along the way to see if you need to add anything. I ended up adding quite a bit more salt than I thought I was going to, I think it was around 2 tablespoons. 

Well, there ya go! Now its time for you to make your own delicious salsa. Feel free to take out some peppers because this many makes it super hot. One more word of advice, don't start making this at 9:30 pm if you are tired, it gets a little less fun when you just want to sit down ;)