cheers

So today I didn't post the usual Inspirational Friday, but there's a good reason I swear. Remember when I told you I may or may not have a strange something in my head? Well, I went to the doctor today and turns out, there's nothing wrong with my head!! Well you know except for the occasional batshit craziness I have going on, but that's totally normal. For me.

You have no idea how THRILLED I am that the MRI came out totally clean and that the only thing I need to worry about is an excess of adrenaline that apparently my stupid heart is producing. Turns out it's the excess of adrenaline that's to blame for my constant headaches, and not a tumor! So congratulations to me, I have a healthy head on my shoulders. Whoopie-hoo.

I just wanted to let you guys know the good news and get it out of the way. Tomorrow I'm going to do an update post on what I've been doing this week as far as exercise and fitness go.

CHEERS!!!!!!

a little humor

I thought I'd bring you guys a little humor so you don't kill yourself from boredom at work. Sponsored by the most awesome website ever, aka 9gag.

crank it up!

A couple of weeks ago I told myself I would start excercising everyday, and I've kept my promise so far!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!


I started off doing 25 minutes on the ellyptical machine, switching between easy-medium-intense pace, because I read somewhere that you burn more fat by constantly switching up the intensity of the workout, and also because when I attempted to do more than twenty minutes I almost fell off the machine. Yeah, my whiny, pathetic excuses of legs couldn't carry me any longer, so I stuck to 25 minutes for the first week. I also began doing 100 ab crunches, divided in sets of 20. That first week, it took me almost half an hour to do the 100 crunches, but damn it, I did them all.

Now, I can do 35 minutes of cardio on the ellyptical, and since the 100 crunches were feeling a bit too easy, I decided to find some short workout videos that I could do to work on my strength. Taralynn over at Undressed Skeleton posted this video about a week ago, and I gave it a try yesterday:

Her name is Laura London, and she's TOUGH! I mean, it looked easy enough, and 10 minutes didn't seem like a lot, but today I'm so sore I can barely walk. But that's GOOD!!! No pain, no gain right? I did the entire thing twice, and I felt so damn proud of it.

Tonight I'm going to try another one of her videos, and I'll tell you guys how it worked out tomorrow.

work outfit

I'm really digging my work outfit for today, so I thought I'd share! The yellow top is one of my newest acquisitions, and I'm really into it. I came to realize most of my clothes at some point where either black, grey or dark brown (mostly because I was ashamed of my body and wanted to hide it in dark colors) so I've tried to embrace more color in my life.

Yellow is a tough color, but this particular shade makes me feel so energized and happy! 

Please forgive the awful quality of my photos, but I don't own an actual camera so I have to use my phone. 

kiss the chef

This weekend my mom payed a visit. YAY! I miss her so much, but between work and advancing on my thesis I don't have many weekends to spare to go visit her, so occasionally she'll come visit me and knit while I type away hehehe. She's a master chef, and back when I used to live at home kept me constantly stuffed with amazing brownies, cake, cookies and an assortment of sweets (and you wonder why I'm fat...) 

My mother hates pictures. This is her protest face.

So, with her visit I got inspired to do a little cooking and try out some recipes I found over at Pinterest. Sure, I didn't whip up an entire buffet like she used to do, but it's something right? I found this amazing recipe that yields breakfast for days, full of yummy-ness but without the unhealthy carbs and fats that usually accompany yummy-ness (I think yummy-ness will be my new word).

It's an overnight, no cook, refrigerator oatmeal, or as I like to call it, Health and Flavor in a Jar. Which is pretty much what you get when you mix oatmeal, almond milk, low fat yogurt and fruit in a jar. The original recipe is over at Monica's The Yummy Life blog, and she has six different, kickass flavors so you should go check it out and try them all out! (PLUS, she has these pretty images that you can fawn over!)

I modified the recipe a bit because for the life of me, I cannot find greek yogurt in any Mexican supermarket (and I am not brave enough to try straining regular yogurt to make it greek yogurt), and also because almond milk is my newest find and I was anxious to try it out!! So I'm posting the modified version of Monica's recipe, in the three flavors I chose. Oh and because I am too lazy, I didn't really measure anything, so all the ingredients were pretty much eyeballed. So kill me. 

As for the jars, I happen to have a tree-hugger for a roommate, and he INSISTS on us reusing all the empty jars and containers I would normally discard, so I happen to have a kitchen cupboard full of clean jars of all sizes. So I took three medium-sized ones and they ended up being the perfect serving size!

Health and Flavor in a Jar

Chocolate-banana version

(modified from The Yummy Life's refrigerated oatmeal recipe)

1 medium-sized jar (I used an empty jar of Smuckers)

Oatmeal

1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed

Almond milk 

Yogurt

1 ripe banana

1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tablespoon of honey (optional, I like things extra sweet)

The first thing you should do is fill about 1/3 of the jar with oatmeal, and then add enough almond milk and yogurt to fill a little over 1/2 the jar. Then add the ground flaxseed and the cocoa, and shake to mix well. Then add the banana in slices and the honey, and again shake to mix it all up. 

Today's breakfast disappeared IN A FLASH. Yes, it was THAT good.

Raspberry version

(modified from The Yummy Life's refrigerated oatmeal recipe)

1 medium-sized jar (I used an empty jar of Hellman's mayo)

Oatmeal

1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed

Almond milk 

Yogurt

Around 1/2 cup fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon of unsweetened raspberry jam (I used Smuckers; me and Smuckers jam have an ongoing thing you know)

1/2 tablespoon of honey (optional, I like things extra sweet)

The first thing you should do is fill about 1/3 of the jar with oatmeal, and then add enough almond milk and yogurt to fill a little over 1/2 the jar. Then add the ground flaxseed and the jam, and shake to mix well. Then add the raspberries (I sliced them in half) and the honey, and again shake to mix it all up. 

Apple &Cinnamon version
(modified from The Yummy Life's refrigerated oatmeal recipe)

1 medium-sized jar (I used an empty jar of Smuckers)
Oatmeal
1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed
Almond milk
Yogurt
1/2 apple
2/3 tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon of honey (optional, I like things extra sweet)

The first thing you should do is fill about 1/3 of the jar with oatmeal, and then add enough almond milk and yogurt to fill a little over 1/2 the jar. Then add the ground flaxseed and the cinnamon, and shake to mix well. Then add the apple (I sliced it into cubes) and the honey, and again shake to mix it all up.



AAAAAAND ENJOY!!! Trust me, they are every bit as delish as they sound, perhaps even more so! Today I had the chocolate-banana one (I ate it first because banana doesn't really hold very well for many days) and honestly, it was such an amazing breakfast I felt like I was cheating, but I wasn't!! Each of these babies has around 200-240 calories, and are full of nutrients. So YOU'RE WELCOME!! Now go and "cheat" :)

inspirational friday

Kay so I know Inspirational Fridays have been all about celebrities and models so far, but today I'm going to dedicate it to Taralynn McNitt, a girl I have never met and yet feel like I've known my entire life. I came across her blog on Pinterest, Undressed Skeleton, and after reading her bio I think we're like kindred spirits or something. Reading through her life story was like reading mine, and I could instantly relate to her pain. You can check out her bio here: My Story. 

The part that really got to me:

"I was over being the girl with the “pretty face” or  the” best friend” of the skinny girl."

This is me during senior year at high school

Dang. That's EXACTLY how I feel. From the moment I started high school, up until now, you have no idea how many times people have said 'Oh yeah she's gorgeous, too bad she's fat.' Friends, crushes, strangers, my family, they've all either stated it outright or whispered it behind my back. For years I've struggled with self-esteem issues related to my weight, and those sort of comments only made it worse. Like they were trying to justify it by saying 'sure you're fat, but at least you've got a pretty face right?' Or trying to explain why I wasn't attractive 'Sure, she has a nice face, but she's fat so...' 

It's hard being fat, but it's even harder when people make those comments, that make you feel like that by being fat you're being a poorer version of yourself, that your face has so much potential but your body screws it up. It especially hurt when those comments came from guys I had a crush on or guys my friends wanted to set me up with. 

So thank you Taralynn, for sharing your experience and making all us fatties out there feel that there is hope, and that you can achieve a healthy lifestyle on sheer willpower. Plus, she shares TONS of healthy recipes that are easy to make and look rather yummy. So you should go check her out too, you won't regret it!

PS. After reading this over once more, I know it may sound like a paid advert, but I SWEAR she's just as awesome as she sounds, and Inspirational Fridays are all about finding inspiration, no matter where it comes from. So screw anyone who thinks I got paid. 

bleh thursday

Kay so I must confess I ate a small pack of Pringles this morning. BAD CRISTINA! Ugh, I feel so mad at myself, it's like my brain has just given up on me. Last time I checked, I was still at 73 kgs., and it's like I'm actually working to get that number up instead of down. 

Why is this so hard? I see all these amazing girls that have dropped twice or more, and I can't seem to drop more than 1 or 2 kgs? This is getting ridiculous. 

But this is it. No more cheating, no more sneaking a taste of anything I'm not supposed to eat. Nada.  From now on, I am going to be incredibly strict with myself, and I am going to avoid ALL those fatty foods for three months. I'm setting the deadline to November 13th, in the hopes that having an actual deadline and not just an abstract goal will help me stay healthy. 

So mark your calendars people! NOVEMBER 13TH. Until that day, I am not allowed anywhere near cookies, chips, cake, soda, white bread, etc., so help me God. You are all witnesses here, ok? So you are allowed to shoot me if we happen to run into one another and I have a slice of pizza in my hand.

Seriously.

But anyway, I wanted to share with you all a picture of my work outfit today, completely inspired by Pinterest. Here's the original:

Ins't it cute?

I have been all over Pinterest from the moment I laid eyes on it. No but really, we're going steady y'all. It's the greatest website ever, and I've found the most awesome shit on, sometimes I stare at my screen for hours on end, wishing for this or that. Unfortunately, I am not loaded (not even close) so as far as clothes go, I have to work with what I have. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I usually hit the 'Hair & Beauty' category and attempt something new on my boring locks, and that can cheer me up. Some girls were born with magical, hair do-ing fingers, for realz. Buuuut this time, I found the above picture, and I knew I could recreate it with stuff I already own. 

Ta-da!

 Forgive the wrinkly skirt, but by the time I could snap a picture I had been sitting down for a looong time. Whatcha think? I think it is cute, but then again I could be completely blind to the fact that I look like a shriveled burrito. So be honest! Does it work? What would you have done differently?