Get Up, Get Up, It's the First of the Month- Thank You Bone Thugs :-)

Good afternoon to all! Hope everyone is having a beautiful day. Things are busy here, again!

Started off this morning with another Green Monster, red delicious apple, and coffee. YUM!

Today’s recipe:

1 tbsp almond butter

1/4 scoop chocolate soy protein

1 heaping tbsp flax seed meal

1 heaping tbsp chia seed meal

2 cups spinach

1 cup almond milk

1 banana

3 ice cubes

It was super delicious, thick, and filling!

After breakfast I did some reading for class, fun!, and then hit up the gym for a 45 minute hill walk

Minutes	Incline	Speed
1-5	2.0	4.0
5-40	3.0	4.0
40-45	2.0	4.0

and yoga class which was desperately needed. I have to remember to put myself/my health first sometimes when it comes to school and getting stressed out. In my masters program at school last semester was pretty miserable (2nd semester of 1st year is known to be really tough). The last month of school I started getting horrible stomach pains and it got so bad I was in and out of the ER on multiple occasions,

and basically living off barely any food because when I ate it induced too much pain :-( A few years ago I was diagnosed with IBS, but my symptoms went away and hadn’t been heard from since. I went to a bunch of specialized doctors and all they could tell me was IBS, which basically saying “we can’t really pinpoint what’s wrong, so here’s our broad diagnosis.” After school ended my tummy problems eventually, but slowly faded away. Because of this I have made a real effort to not let school stress me out too much. Sometimes you just have to breathe and realize what is truly important in life and what is worth getting upset about.

After the gym it was lunchtime and I was bound and determined to do something with this Chickpea Dust (ha). So I whipped up some whole-wheat pasta, tossed it in about 2 tbsp of Annie’s Goddess Dressing

and poured the chickpea dust on top.

Then I popped it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, and it turned out great!

I had it with a couple organic carrots and dates (of course!).

Snack today was a GenSoy chocolate bar.

My mama was nice enough to buy a bunch of bars for me when I came home for thanksgiving; she’s so good to me!

I know what you’re thinking, “but it’s taco Tuesday jill!” ha. Well don’t you worry, I am trying a new Mexican recipe for dinner tonight! I will update you on it later for sure.

Tonight is lots and lots of homework again, boo. But I always make time for The Biggest Loser on Tuesdays. I seriously love that show. How amazing is it that one reality show can single handedly produce millions of weight loss programs at organizations across the world (basically every organization has a BL weight loss challenge; especially around the holidays, GO MAMA!!). I have started to dislike aspects of the show a little though:

1) Product placement; TOO FREAKING MUCH!!

2) Jillian Michaels is awesome, but now she is hawking weight loss pills (ok, pills to supplement in your weight loss, whatever) and that pisses me off. I think it goes against everything they are teaching and is just her trying to make a quick buck.

3) Concerns me that it may be setting too high of expectations for people at home watching the show. When people live on the ranch they have no lives except weight loss, so of course they loose tons of weight. But normal people at home should be so proud of themselves losing a pound or two a week!

4) Last one! I heard them talking up some biggest loser retreat ranch last week, gag me with a spoon! Stop trying to make money off people.

Ok, I’m done ranting I promise. I honestly do really like the show though! Ha.

Well it’s about that time to start making dinner. Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.

For a picture to make you smile today here is my boyfriend’s sister’s dog Chewie, being the most adorable yorkie on the planet :-)