juice-a-thon? yay or nay?

I did a juice fast about a month ago and only lasted four days. I want to try it again, but only this time try to go longer. =)



What are your thoughts on juicing? Have you juiced before or have you gone on a juice fast?

Jamie's Food Revolution

Let me catch you up to speed on what's been going on in my life....


Photography class-simply put is kicking my ass. I can't seem to get an A on any of my projects. How can a picture not be an A if you followed all of the requirements? This is where creative classes and their gray matter grading scales get to be a little frustrating. Not to mention that one class period is 4 hours and 15 minutes long...times that by three and you have my weekly total. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights I spend in photography class and the rest of the week I'm trying to catch up on sleep, which hasn't been going well.

Exercise-I've taken hot yoga classes and have fallen in love. Everything is wonderful except for the class. =) What I mean when I say that is...the class is extremely difficult when the room exceeds 95 some degrees and some guy's sweat drips on your yoga block. YUCK. The class is also difficult b/c I personally like to listen to music while I workout, but in hot yoga I have the privelage to hear every one's heavy breathing in the class, the instructer saying which pose to go into, and some occasional pass of a neighbor's gas (kidding! lol).

What tv shows I've been loving right now-The doctors, Dr. Oz, Say Yes to the Dress, and now Jamie's Food Revolution. I just watched an episode tonight of Jamie's Food Revolution and I wish I could do exactly what he is doing. I can't wait to see what will happen. I applaud him for raising awareness to our diets. IT'S ABOUT TIME SOMEONE STEPS UP TO THE PLATE AND MAKES SOME CHANGES! (ehhh I guess pun intended =)).

Now I'm off to make some changes of my own...Crazy Sexy Diet here I come! =)

It's over

Yes...I'm talking about exams AND Easter. Holidays seem to be a bit of a problem for me. See what I mean????

This is me holding probably the biggest chocolate bunny I've ever laid eyes on...=)

I had a simple strategy going into Easter. I had told my mom that she couldn't buy me any sweets because I knew I would cave and eat them all in one sitting, but she went behind my back and purchased my favorites: reeses peanut butter eggs and braach's eggs. I should have taken a picture of the cute little easter basket she made me for Sunday morning, but I had better things to do...like eating. Even though I ate way too many sweets, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately, I very much enjoyed the company of my aunt and uncle. We normally go to their house for Easter, but we decided to have it at our house. For dessert I had promised my aunt that I would make a healthy brownie recipe. The healthy brownie recipe called for black beans, and yes I did use a 15oz can to make them. They aren't pictured here because they didn't meet my sweet standards. Fortunately for my aunt and uncle, my palette was dissappointed, and they were sent home with the whole batch!

The next day I decided my body needed some pampering after all the processed junk that went into it. Monday after my chemistry exam I decided to make salmon, topped off with a couple tablespoons of peach mango salsa (from costco), and some raw zucchini ribbons topped with a little bit of lawrys season salt.

ahhhh it does a body good to eat healthy. =)

How was your Easter??? What is your favorite Easter candy?

Let's get personal

Have you ever resorted to taking web cam pictures when you are all ready to go somewhere and you are waiting on other people to finish getting ready???

I have...this past weekend as matter of factly. My mom was touching up her makeup, which gave me some alone time with the computer...here is the outcome! =P

So....I have to come clean...

I haven't been blogging as often as I should be mainly because I've been letting life stress the hell out of me. Gaining weight is a lot harder than what I thought it was going to be. I'm moody, irritable, and constantly thinking up naughty concoctions that will make my weight balloon at an even faster rate! I'm also not familiar with this new round face that stares back at me in the mirror. It's almost like I'm having to reintroduce myself to myself. For those of you who can't relate it's extremely difficult for me to put it into any simpler terms than maybe this: I've said goodbye to the skinny, gaunt-face Danielle, but I haven't quite accepted, or gotten used to the "healthy version of Danielle" who comes with a round face, a semi-protruded stomach, and a BUTT. On a happier note: I'm really trying to let every negative thought go and accept myself and love myself.

What do you do to stay confident?

Chickpea "noodle" soup

Chickpea noodle soup--I found this from Monica's blog while browsing for some squash recipes the other day. I had a spaghetti squash sitting in my refrigerator just begging to be eaten up, so I decided on this recipe for dinner last night. I almost used the squash to sub for my zucchini in my usual zucchini, pizza sauce, and chicken meatball combination (which I have been living on for far too long now), but I resisted! =) I need to learn how to shake things up with my recipes because otherwise I'll end up like my lastest post...with my face buried in the fridge or freezer or pantry. =O. I tweaked the recipe a little bit. I cooked the squash in the micro and scooped out the insides with a fork to make the "noodles". I placed 1c. of the squash noodles in a bowl, poured in 1c. of chicken stock, 1/4c. of chickpeas, about an 1/8th of a tsp of garlic, and salt and pepper. I didn't have any carrots, celery, or onion on hand (which I'm sure would have MADE the soup), so I ended up pairing the soup with a tossed salad. I drizzled some dijon mustard over some spinach, cucumbers, and mushrooms and called it a meal. =) Overall it was good, but I think next time I'll have to add something to the soup to liven it up a bit.

Are there any recipes that you make on a weekly or make that daily basis (if you're like me)?

naughty

So someone has been a little naughty recently...yes I'm talking about myself here. I've never been any good at finding a balance. I've always struggled with the "all or nothing" mentality, and on Saturday it was clear that I would be in "all" mode. It started when I went on a college visit with my twin sister, a friend, and her dad. I plan on trasnferring next year, and my friend is determined to persuade me to attend the same college she will be attending next year, hence the college visit. The campus tour went a little longer than scheduled and lunch was delayed by a half hour. Now a half hour may not seem like a lot to you, but to someone who plans meals and snacks every 3 hours and is extremely anal about what she eats(me)...it's a long time! Delaying lunch time left me hungrier than ever (problem 1), and lunch was served buffet style (problem 2). Encouraged by the goodies surrounding me, I panicked and stuffed my belly with more food than my friend's dad. Can we say embarassing? YES! I may or may not have eaten 1.5 ham and cheese sandwiches with the fluffiest bread I have ever laid eyes on, 2 slices of doughy cheesy pizza, a waffle the size of my face with sugar free syrup and powdered sugar, three cookies (two of which were chocolate and one of which was a shamrock sugar cookie), an icecream sandwich, a bowl of self serve frozen yogurt that was a tad on the watery side topped with 5 or so marachino cherries and a handful of mini chocolate chips, and washed my lunch down with a tall glass of chocolate milk. When I was leaving the cafeteria I had two cookies (of the three I had listed above) in hand for the trip home. You think that's bad? It gets worse. When I got back to my friend's house I had a bowl of thin mint icecream. Later, when I had finally reached my house, I polished off some graham crackers and whipped cream, along with some unmentionables more food. When I finally got ready for bed, I prayed to God that my "food baby" would quickly subside, and that my once skinny body would come back. I knew that Sunday would be a new day and that I would get back on track. The one thing I forgot about after eating unhealthy (the way I did) is that when you do eat unhealthy you crave it more than you did before you indulged.

***Warning: the image disclosed in this blog may or may not persuade you to drive to Coldstone's...Now you can't say that I didn't warn you! =) ***

Anway back to my story...Monday night my twin and I were raving about how good the pizza had been on the college visit and decided to order a large size cheesy bread from jets and then coldstone creamery ice cream sandwiches. Tuesday I couldn't get my mind off these babies and had them again....(the cake batter ones with the sprinkles)





Now can you see why I want to lock myself in my mom's room and hold myself hostage? Can you also see why I have no interest in stepping on the scale? Aye ye ye....

Ok readers....here's your chance to spill...
Have you ever surprised yourself at how much you could actually eat? And what goodies have you always reaching for more?

After my weekly trip to Costco, I had my mom stop at Meijer so we could stock up on a few of my favorites that Costco doesn't carry (i.e. cauliflower, quick oats, pizza sauce, etc). I said a little prayer before I walked over towards the produce section and to my surprise I found....
wait for it....
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ZUCCHINI! =) Meijer hasn't had it for close to four weeks now, and I've been missing it terribly! Because they were in stock I decided to celebrate once I got home. What do you think I had for dinner tonight??? I'll give ya a little hint...it starts with "spa" and ends with "ghetti". YUP--that's right I made beautiful noodles out of zucchini, with my vegetable peeler ofcourse, and topped it off with pizza sauce and some chicken meatballs. Unlike pictured below, I didn't mix any broccoli in like I typically do to add more greens into my diet, but it sure was YUM!

I also tried some coffee today while at Costco...the 100% colombia blend, Kirkland brand to be exact. Paired with my orange trident gum, it tasted strangely good. Sounds like an odd combo, but I thoroughly enjoyed the sample and went back for seconds. =) I don't drink coffee, but after today's sampling I think I may just start. It was delicious and I always need something to get me moving in the morning (my coke zero). What is your favorite brand of coffee?