q&a set tree

heyyyy girrrrrl. (and guys? i don’t know if there are any guy readers..)

how are you guys?! i’ve been so busy lately and i really wanted to relax and blog last night but it was tres necessaire that i worked on my paper that’s due friday. so instead of writing about all the good things i’ve been stuffing my face with lately, i wrote about my internship and the “external and internal environment of the work space” thrilling right?

by the way can i just tell you for the record that it took me 2 hours to get to work yesterday morning. yep two hours. it’s a good thing i had elvis duran & the morning show and a hot cold bowl of cookie dough oats to keep me entertained..

by the way i don’t think the driver next to me appreciated me snapping shots of myself during these shinanigans.

…i should have a bumper sticker that says “food blogger on board. will take pictures of food and self while driving”

two foot potholes, cars driving into two foot pot holes, roadside flooding, and ra-tards on the road do not make for optimal 9am arrival at work.

anyways the rest of the workday went swimmingly i might say and the ride home wasn’t nearly half as bad as the ride there. so upon arrival to my casa my appetite was a-miss and i just went with what i was yearnin faw.

ya feel me.

veggieeeze and cottage cheeeeze. yes paleeeeze

i figured i’d take this opportunity or just procrastinate showering and dragging my butt to class in this “snowicane 2010” and answer the last remaining q&a’s that i know you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat for ;)

What do you tell yourself when you want to take that "extra piece of chocolate"? Sometimes it's so hard to fight cravings!

well first of to be honest i consider myself very lucky because unlike most of my species (the female on that is) i’m not really a chocolate person. whaaat. yep. i just don’t really crave it! now wait before i get rando comments that say “well why do you use cocoa powder and make chocolate smoothies sometimes, etc etc” i never said i don’t like it i just don’t really love it. which i know helps out the cause for sure. but other things that are my weakness? i think they’re soft and ooey gooey baked goods. banana bread? soft cookies? mmm it’s very hard for me to say no to them. but  to be very honest (which you know i always am) i’ve just learned over time to find “healthier” ways to “cure the craving” or just say no. i think it goes with the feeling of grossness that i’ll get after i indulge and i think to myself it’s just really not worth it in my head. plus that’s when you guys come in! because you’re always giving me insanely helpful recipes to healthify things that may not have been so healthy in the first place. sugar cravings i compensate for with tons of cinnamon & stevia in yogurts, and cottage cheeses and ice cream? well who needs ice cream when you’ve got a blender, protein powder and xanthum gum.

check this baby out.

i’d like to call this neapolitan smoothies (and yes i pronounce it nep-o-lay-tion. and yes i know it’s the wrong way to pronounce it)

left: 1c usvab, 1 scoop biochem vanilla whey, ice & gums (lotttttts) with 1 tbsp of trader joe’s unsweetened cocoa powder stirred, sloshed and spooned up. umm hello ice cream?

right: even better. 2 scoops biochem vanilla whey, 1/3c frozen strawberries, cinnamon&stiv, 1tsp almond extract, 1c water, ice & gums, on top of 1/3c cooked oatbran, all topped off with 1 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder.

and that my friends is ice cream for breakfast.

to be honest and i know this sounds “completely health freak cliché” i crave veggies, i crave laughing cow & hummus, and cottage cheese. and no i wasn’t always like this but i guess overtime your appetite and food cravings change along with you!

how did i get into weight training?

hmmmmmmmm this was a tough question. i thiiink i really got into weight training when i was vballin it up in college. we had training/weight lifting plans that we had to complete in the off season and that’s really when i learned about sets, and reps and dumbbells and barbells and machines and muscles, ya know the whole shibang.

but i think when i started to love it was after my weight struggle that you already know about. i felt weak for so long and i remember the first time i bicep curled a 15lb dumbbell i seriously felt like xena the warrior princess. it felt so good to feel strong again and that’s when i really started to google different exercises, creep on other weight lifters at the gym and play copy cat, and snag ideas from exercise tv, and other great websites like yours!

i honestly couldn’t imagine not weight lifting now. not just because it’s transformed my body and for the first time my pancake shaped bottom has got a little liftage and i won’t like i do check it out time to time..

…hey if you played a sport for half your life in spandex with a pancake @$$ you’d feel the same way at even a slight hint of liftage..

but for those of you interested in getting into some weight lifting i highly recommend it! it’s so fun and really makes you feel like a strong confident woman at the gym. and let’s be real here who doesn’t want to feel like that! not to mention knowing that you could beat the crap out of someone or lift your office poland spring jug instead of the men are both pretty cool feelings.

i say the best way to get into it is to start slow, take a class at your gym that incorporates weights and then when you’re feeling good enough take some of those moves outside of the class. and use google! it works wonders and will make you look like a pro when you’re doin it up in front of all those juicin meaties at the gym.

just be sure to refuel properly with lots of protein after! and don’t be afraid to flex in your mirror from time to time and appreciate your hard work ;)

alright well by this time i was hoping that my school had decided it would be beneficial to cancel classes. but of course not. so that means i’ve got to shower, rain boot it up and trek my butt into the city for 2 hours of economics. woo hoo.

hopefully in the midst of writing my 5 page paper tonight i’ll be able to check out what’s been going on in your lives as of lately! so please excuse my lack of commenting for the past week or so. it’s been a struggle!

i’ll be back tomorrow if work is cancelled if not i’ll be back saturday night or sunday because saturday i’ll be on a first time ever day ski trip with the bestie! just pray i make it out alive.

questions! have you ever been skiing? if so any tips for a first timer would be fabo :)

and if you have anymore questions for me pa-lease don’t hesitate to drop one like it’s hot!