these are my confessions

Owning up time. 

I stepped on that scale yesterday, and low and behold, the number blinking up at me wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I'm at 71.8 kgs., which is more than last week, but I'm still down from 72, so I can still hope to reach the sixties by the end of this month. Just maybe. 

And yesterday night I killed it at the gym, where I did half an hour of a paced walk at the treadmill and then 45 minutes of crazy-intense elliptical machine, and then my regular 100 ab crunches, so this week is off to a good start!!!

This is me at 71.8 kgs. That muffin top is one stubborn bastard, and refuses to quit. Although it seems like my thighs are beginning to give up: do they seem a tad smaller to you? Or is it just my hallucinations?

 Eck, I hate looking at myself in those pictures. Especially when my cheeks are so puffy, and it seems like I have a dimple on one side of my face. But it's not an actual dimple, it's just my cheek doing what it can with all the extra layers of fat.

It has been rather chilly these past few days, hence all the  layers of clothes.

And on the left you have today's work outfit. I don't like how this top looks with a sweater on (correction: I don't like how I look in this top when I put on a sweater too) but it's been raining nonstop since last week, and my office feels like the inside of a walk-in freezer. If you don't carry around a sweater, an extra coat and a scarf, you could end up with hypothermia. I am not even kidding. Oh and just ignore the hair, I'm having a bad hair day month, as a result of postponing a much needed haircut. 

My babies

I simply couldn't resist posting a picture of my babies. They are the newest addition to my wardrobe, and it was love at first sight. They hate feet and at the end I feel like I'm walking on glass, but it's worth it!!! Having these beauties on makes me feel like I'm walking the runway of a fashion show, and they make my legs look so much longer and thinner. Don't you just love heels? I know they are terrible for your spine and posture and end up messing your feet, but honestly, screw the side effects, we're all eventually going to suffer from something or the other. Let's take advantage of our young bodies while we still can. 

Anyone have a favorite pair of heels that makes them feel like royalty?

falling off the bandwagon

Shameful puppy eyes 

This past week, and especially during the weekend, I have to admit I fell off the bandwagon. Not only did I stray off the path in terms of what I ate, but I also skipped my workout twice, and I only made up for one of the two missed sessions. 

So SHAME on me.

I guess this has happened to a lot of people, and I'm definitely not going to give up just because I had a bad week, but geez I feel like such a failure. I've only been at this whole blogging experience for a week and a half, and I've already done exactly what I was preaching you should avoid. Darn it. 

While there is no excuse for eating like crap and skipping out on my workout, I must say most of the fatty foods I had over the weekend can be traced to my emotional state. I crashed for the very first time on Saturday morning, and it was awful. I've only been driving for a couple of months, and had been feeling like Superwoman for the most part. Then this bastard had to ram his car into mine in the most stupid way possible, and completely throw me off guard. Thankfuly, it wasn't anything too serious, and neither my spine nor my darling car suffered any damage, but the entire thing made me run late for an extremely important meeting. 

I was so angry and upset over the whole thing, I ended up bursting into tears back home, and my roommate took me to a late brunch to try and cheer me up. Instead of ordering the ham and spinach omelette I should have, I ended up having Eggs Benedict. The orchestra of flavors swirling in my mouth could not make up for the guilt I felt as they took the empty plate away, and I ended up feeling even worse. That night I practically finished a bowl of popcorn all by myself, and Sunday was chicken-wing and greasy blue-cheese dip day. 

SO, all that nasty eating topped with my lack of exercise scared the hell out of me and I skipped my weekly weigh-in. BAD CRISTINA! Yesterday I panicked and avoided the scale like the plague, but after visiting a couple of my inspirational blogs (particularly Mama Laughlin's) and reading my older posts, I've garnered enough strength to face reality, and I'm going to weight myself before lunch. There's no better way to deal with the consequences of a bad week than to know exactly where I stand. I've also rescheduled Friday's workout, so today I'll do both Friday and Monday's sessions. 

I'll post an update later today. Hopefully, the scale won't be too bad and I can get back on track quickly. Sorry if I let you guys down :(

weight-in sunday

I know today is Monday, but I had the most hideous weekend and was unable to post until today, I'm so sorry!!! But I'll try to keep all my weight-in posts strictly Sundays, as planned. Anyhoo, on to the good news!!! I stepped on that scale yesterday not really expecting positive results, since last week I didn't strictly adhere to my diet plan. On Tuesday I dined out with my best friend and had a baguette (white bread!) with duck paté (fatty fat), and then on Wednesday I went to Starbucks and had an oats-and-honey muffin, which I thought would be alright, but turns out it had like 400+ calories!!! So yeah, not the best week diet-wise. 

So you can all imagine my surprise when I stepped on that scale and realized I had lost almost 1 kg! I went from 72.1 to 71.3, which is major for me. I am so close to reaching the 60's, I can practically feel it! To celebrate, I decided I would give two no-bake healthy cookies recipes a try. I am a cookie monster, so having to restrict myself in that area has always been a challenge, especially when my mother bakes the BEST chocolate chip cookies you will ever try. I had found these two no-bake cookie recipes on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and they looked rather yummy despite being flour and butter-less. 

I must warn you, they definitely do not look as tasty as the pictures on the original websites, but trust me, they turned out so darn good!!!

On the right- the frosty chocolate oatmeal cookie, on the left PB + chocolate chips cookie

The first recipe I tried can be found at the Oh She Glows blog (which has lots of awesome healthy recipes), and while mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty, they are just as tasty and perfect for a chocolate fix like she promises. I left out a couple of ingredients (like the chia seeds) and used semi-sweet Hershey's chocolate chips, but otherwise followed the recipe to a T.

Frosty No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies 

(adjusted to what I used)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

1 large banana

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Directions:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips for about 60 seconds. WARNING: Be extra careful not to burn.

2. Stir the mixture until all the chips are melted, then mash up the banana and incorporate it into the chocolate.

3. Stir in the oats, the vanilla extract and the cocoa and mix well. 

4. Line a plate with parchment and drop around seven cookies onto it. Freeze for about one hour or until firm. 

Yields: seven small cookies at 80 calories each.

The second recipe I tried used a lot of the same ingredients, but added peanut butter. I got it from the Fitsugar website, and while I pressed mine into a cookie shape, while their pictures show more bite-sized pieces, everything else was unchanged. Oh, I also substituted the cup of sugar for Baking Splenda, to avoid all that sugar.

Healthy No-Bake Cookies

Ingredients:

1 banana, mashed

1 cup Splenda

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup nonfat milk

1/4 cup peanut butter

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups instant oats

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients minus the vanilla and oats in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.

2. Let the mixture boil for one minute, remove from heat and let the mixture cool for one minute.

3. Add the vanilla and oats and stir well to combine.

4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper and cool to room temperature.

This recipe yields around 15 small cookies.

My mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks for today!

The result was so yummy, I was forced to leave several cookies behind at my aunt's house -they all loved them! And now I have a yummy snack for the office today, one I won't feel so guilty about.

Next weekend I'm visiting my mother, so I'm thinking about making a new recipe. This time I'll have an oven and expert hands (aka my mum) around, so perhaps I'll give these babies a try. Don't they look incredibly amazing? My mouth is watering just from looking at them! I'll have to skip out on the powdered sugar of course, but I'm thinking Splenda will make them just as good.