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Shaun T is trying to kill me

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My August ipsy GlamBag came in yesterday and I was going to write about it today, but Shaun T is trying to kill me so I didn’t get around to taking photos of it. Instead I had to tend to my legs.

If you’ve heard of the fitness program “Insanity,” you have heard Shaun T. He is a 6’0″ New Jerseian who is fit and wants you to be fit. He is a dancer, motivational speaker, and fitness coach.

My mom recently sent me a set of DVDs called “Cize” and wanted me to do them in an effort to work out and get into shape. I’ve always been a chubby kid and while that was mostly to do with the fact that I love food, it was also because working out was always so boring to me. Running is not fun. Riding a stationary bike is not fun. Riding a real bike can be fun but I’m also incredibly uncoordinated and have a tendency to hurt myself on them. The way that I do like, and have always liked, being active however, is dancing.

My mom put my in dance classes when I was little and I only stuck with them for a a few years but they were still the most fun I had moving my little butt around. Even now, I find myself dancing when there is no music playing anywhere around me. “Cize,” she said, was made up of dances and would legitimately teach you to dance too, unlike the Just Dance games that teach you some of the craziest movements and call it dancing.

I’d had the DVDs for a while but only recently just started them this past Monday night. This was spurred on by a conversation with my former roommate in Tampa, Yakira.

She and I were discussing the upcoming wedding of another friend, Alexis, and how ill-fitting our bridesmaid dresses were. I disclosed to her that I hadn’t even tried the dress on again since getting it in because I knew I’d gained weight and I was afraid of what it would look like. She encouraged me to do it anyways and my fears were confirmed- the dress zipped but it felt like if I made one wrong move, the seams would bust. This is not something you want for the dress you are going to wear to a wedding where you’ll be dancing.

Yakira had already decided that she was going to start a workout and diet plan and wanted me to join in her journey. I agreed and the following Monday I roped Luke into starting “Cize” with me. I had no idea Shaun T was the instructor and when I first saw him on my TV screen, I knew it was going to be a hard workout.

Though we were both super worn out by the end of it, Luke and I made it through the half hour dance video and felt better afterwards. The next day, I woke up to my left calf as tight as I had ever felt it. I tried stretching it out but it was still difficult to walk on. I expressed this to Luke and he suggested I focus on my right leg more for the upcoming workout. I did, and then did again the next day because my left calf was still so tight. Once I was done last night however, both of my calves were tight. Today, I’m walking very slowly and probably look funny.

I’m partially concerned that I did something wrong but am currently chalking it up to the fact that I am super out of shape and may have just pushed myself a bit more than my body would have liked.

Tonight, because I am sure I will tear something if I try to do the full workout again, I am going to try the “Eight Count Abs” video instead. If it turns out that that requires too much of my legs, I guess I’ll settle for sit-ups or something. Rest day is Sunday and only Sunday, even if it means some days are a little less intense than others.

I’ll be updating every now and then with how this fitness journey is going. Hopefully it goes well and I will have good things to say every post… it can only go up from death, right?

#PositiveOutcomesOnly

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From 2010 to 2011, a show called Hellcats aired on The CW. It was a show about cheerleaders starring Ashley Tisdale and Aly Michalka. As a Disney fan (they played in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Phil of the Future respectively) and a former cheerleader*, I was interested in the show before it premiered and then fell in love with it.

At this point in time, I don’t remember much more about it except that Aly Michalka’s character didn’t want to be on the squad but ended up joining anyway and Ashley Tisdale’s character didn’t like her at first but they grew to beome friends, typical.

The thing that I took away from the show however, is the phrase “positive outcomes only.” It was Tisdale’s character’s personal mantra and she said it anytime something started to go wrong. She also wrote it on Michalka’s arm at one point with a sharpie. Since she first uttered the phrase on my TV, “positive outcomes only” has stuck with me.

Many people use the phrase “good vibes only” as a positive life motto but it never seemed enough to me. Sending people good vibes may be enough to keep them in a state of calm, but I have never been able to work well when calm. I’ve needed the stress and the pressure to get me through the day to ensure that I end up with a desirable result or, positive outcome. I need to work towards a goal.

This is why, since the first time I heard it, “positive outcomes only” has been my motto. I don’t just want to stay positive all the time- I know I’m not going to be positive all the time because that’s not who I am or how I work. I have bad days. I’ve broken down. I’ve wondered what I’m working towards and why I’m killing myself working towards it. To ask myself to be positive all the time would be setting myself up for failure. What I can ask of myself though, is to take all of that negativity- the tears, the screaming, the frustration, and nights that I’ve wanted to give up on it all- and channel it into something great so that it wasn’t all in vain. Since then, I’ve always kept a goal in mind and tried to work towards it repeating “positive outcomes only” to myself at every step of the way.

Most recently, this has gotten me through graduation from The University of Tampa and I’m not ready for it to stop me there.

 

 

 

*Yes, I was a cheerleader when I was younger. I did it for a year when I was 8 and was not a big fan. I still can’t do a cartwheel.

Homemade Sweet & Sour Chicken

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Everyone loves Chinese take-out. I am no exception to this, but I don’t have the money for Chinese take-out right now. Thankfully, most recipes are rather easy, especially fried rice. All you have to do is throw some leftover rice in a pan with some oil, add whatever frozen veggies you like, soy sauce, and an egg and you’re done! If you wanna get even fancier, you can also add meat. In the past, we’ve added meats like char-siu pork and different Chinese sausages. Tonight we were going to add chicken since Luke had started defrosting chicken thighs, but I wanted to mix it up a little so I looked up a recipe for sweet and sour chicken. We also had a pineapple, so that aided in the idea.

This was the first recipe that came up on Google when I searched “sweet and sour chicken”: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sweet-and-sour-chicken-recipe-1957986.

I can post it this time because this time, I basically followed it. The things we changed were that we had no bell peppers, we used chicken thighs instead of breasts, we used fresh pineapple, and because it was fresh pineapple, we had no pineapple juice so we subbed in limeade that we had in the fridge. We also floured the chicken before frying it because it added a bit more depth to the dish.

It came out spectacularly. The only thing that we probably could have improved upon was that I think I didn’t cook the cornstarch long enough because I left the heat up too high so it reduced too quickly. However, the pineapple was super warm and tender, the sauce was sweet and sour, and the chicken was crispy and delicious. It all went really well with the rice too, which had corn and green beans in it.

The best part of it all, we have leftovers. I love leftovers. Who has Chinese take-out and doesn’t have leftovers?

The Best Time of the Month

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For the past 17 months, around the middle of the month an email has come to my inbox and within about a week from that day this package has come to my mailbox. This is the packaging that ipsy sends their GlamBags in. It’s super pink, super shiny, and super squishy. They bring a smile to my face.

This month’s theme is Over Easy and features Gudetama who is an adorable little lazy egg character that I connect to so hard. The bag has an image of him on it and it is shimmery. In the bag, I got a COUGAR Beauty Cosmetics 24-Hour Liquid Lipstick in Mulberry, Ciate London Wonderwand Gel-Kohl Hybrid Liner in Black, OFRA Cosmetics Gold Rush Eyeshadow, Hempz Ultra Moisturizing Herbal Lip Balm, and two TONYMOLY I’m Real Sheet Masks in Green Tea and Lotus. Along with all of those fabulous products, I had also redeemed points for a Her Minerals Professional Blending Sponge.

I don’t know how much I’m going to use the eyeshadow or eyeliner, but I will return with updates and reviews as I try them. Even if I don’t continue using the products after I initially try them, I always try them at least once to review them. That’s how you get points!

On a completely unrelated note, Luke and I went to Target today on a mission. In the time that he was “living with me” in Tampa, every time we went to Target, we looked at a cookie jar. It was a grey cookie jar shaped as a little hippo. It was $20 and every single time I basically begged Luke to let me buy it but since we were in Tampa and knew we’d be moving to Austin, he always said no because it was another thing we’d have to move. Well, today, I would like to introduce you to Puds, the newest addition to our little family.

Yes, having a cookie jar means we will be baking cookies. Yes, I will post photos of him filled with cookies. For now, here he is in all of his cute glory. I love him.

I Burn Things

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Last night was yet another night that Luke and I sat around thinking “what can we eat for dinner?” The answer, as it turned out, was not a lot. We had a plantain sitting around because we decided, the last time we went grocery shopping, that we wanted to try to fry plantains, as well as frozen pork chops and raw carrots. Those all turned into our dinner.

When we cook together, I am usually on anything-but-meat duty because I am just not a fan of cooking meat. It feels weird to the touch, I don’t ever know when it’s done, and I was a vegetarian for a few years some time ago, so it still gets to me sometimes. This meant it was my job to fry the plantains. I mostly used a recipe for this as I had never fried plantains before and the recipe basically said to slice and deep fry it. Easy enough, but I did not want to use the oil to deep fry them because I felt it would be a waste and we’re still trying to diet (even though we had Culver’s for dinner tonight). Pan frying them mostly worked, but, as you can probably guess from the title of this blog post and the photo accompanying it, they got a little burnt. The pork chops and carrots came out alright though the pork was overcooked and we both agreed that next time, a little brown sugar on the carrots and plantains would probably do them some good.

Usually this is where my escapades stop. We eat, sit around for a bit, and then will eat dessert later- ice cream or some fruit depending on how we’re feeling. I started eating peanut butter on saltines (do I still sound like a broke college student?) when I suddenly wanted to make rice pudding. I’d never made rice pudding before but I knew it took milk and rice, two things we had. Luke told me to go for it so I looked up recipes and I found an easy one that didn’t take too much work, put the stuff in the pot and let it cook. Lazy foodie for the win! I also decided to make a bit of a peach compote to go with it since we had some peaches in the fridge that were getting a bit soft. The whole dessert turned out really well and we ate the leftovers for a snack this afternoon. The process of getting to the wonderfully delicious pudding you see on the left however, was more of a mess than I wanted. The milk boiled over and since we have a glass flat-top stove, it ended up burning onto it and the kitchen smelled like burnt marshmallows for about ten minutes. It still isn’t totally clean and I still hate myself.

Neither of us were happy but the pudding helped.

 

Post-Grad Life Update #1

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It is a Tuesday at noon and I am sitting in my new apartment in Austin, TX writing a post on my brand new blog!

Yes, Tuesday at noon at home.

No, this is not ideal.

I’ve been on the job hunt since April and have had no luck so far. Back then, it was a little less pertinent and scary because I hadn’t even graduated college yet and I knew I was going to need time to figure myself out and do all the traveling I had planned i.e. a move to Austin from Tampa. Now though, it’s a bit scary. I haven’t let the panic totally set in yet because I’m hopeful and optimistic. I’m still applying and putting myself out there and I know something is going to happen soon. In the meantime, I’ll be updating this blog with different little things going on in my life and I may start up YouTube videos again because apparently I still think I’m interesting enough for people to watch and/or listen to me. Luke will probably make an appearance here and there, so even if you don’t like me, maybe watch for him?

 

Just kidding, why wouldn’t you like me?

And just because I am a narcissist and I want to show off his photo skills, here’s a photo he took of me at an overlook on Capital of Texas Highway. He’s not as bad at he thinks he is. Also yes, it is the same as my default photo… it’s the most recent good photo of me, alright?