All posts in category Awesomeness

He’s All Mine (Muwahahaha)

Imagine me rubbing my hands evilly while reading that title.

Let it be known that nagging works.

People may hate it when the nagging begins, but it proves they will do almost anything to get it to stop.

Take my own life’s experience.  Nag your husband long enough to get on the healthy bandwagon and it is inevitable that he will eventually get sick of your nagging and cave.  Especially when you tell him that it would help you out on your own weight loss journey (not that I haven’t used this argument before, but apparently something I said stuck.  Now only if I could remember what it was?).

This week Dustin is mine.  He’s actually legally mine by marriage, but this time I have complete control over everything that goes into his body.  Food wise anyway.

We’ve decided to try a little experiment to see how my diet affects his diet.  He will be eating (mostly) the same kind of things I eat, and he will be going to the gym a minimum of 5 times this week.

He weighed in this morning at 226.  We had a weekend of semi-indulgence (we weren’t as bad as we normally are on the weekends) so I’m sure some of his weight loss is water weight.  But the whole point is that I’m hoping he will be able to feel a difference, and in turn it will help him and also help me.  We have already fully admitted that we are enablers and this week we will be playing different roles in each others food lives.  I’m pretty excited!  And I’m not letting the fact that he’s giving me a pouty face while eating raw carrots at lunch, dampen my spirit.

When I ask him what he’s going to have for breakfast he says “I don’t know?  What do YOU want me to eat for breakfast?”.   I then made him a chocolate, banana, peanut butter protein shake (under 400 calories).  I was trying to ease him in with something delicious, and to please his pallet I made it sans kale.

But there will be kale this week.  Oh so much kale.

Watch out Dustin.  You may like a healthy lifestyle yet.

5 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on July 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Awesomeness, Challenges, Diet, Dustin

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on July 16, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/07/16/hes-all-mine-muwahahaha/

WIAW: Recipe Round-up

I have been trying some fun recipes this past week, so instead of showing you essentially the same foods that I eat almost everyday here are some of the recipes I have tried and what I thought of them.

Thanks to Jenn over at Peas & Crayons for hosting this fun event every week!

I know it isn’t April anymore, but I just loved the Button for that month!

Mushroom Risotto with Carmelized Onions from Oh She Glows

On Monday I decided to try out a recipe that I have had on my meal plan for the last 6 weeks… Mushroom Risotto with Carmelized Onions!

Pic from Oh She Glows, click on pic to be taken to recipe

I used Oh She Glows photo because my photo did not do this recipe justice.  The verdict: Delicious!  I don’t think I have mentioned before that my hub’s has a serious love affair with mushrooms and he used to cook them in teriyaki sauce and eat them plain.  I am not actually a huge fan of mushrooms, they definitely need to be cooked into something and these were perfect!  I have also never tired barley before.  A little chewy for my liking.

After plugging in the recipe to Livestrong.com I found that this recipe had WAY more calories than I thought it would have.  It was around 850 per serving!  The next time I make this recipe there will be a few changes:

  • Use water instead of oil to cook the onions in the first step.
  • Change the grain to brown rice.  Barley has somewhere around 700 calories per cup (lesson learned, barley in small doses).
  • I switched the vegetable stock to chicken stock.  I know this makes it not vegan, but switching over to vegetable stock could be a long process for me since I think it tastes like a**.
  • No Earth Balance.  I have a feeling I wouldn’t even miss it.
  • Take the carmelized onions out all together.  I know this is a part of the recipe title, but you have to use 3 tablespoons of oil and a lot of salt to make these and although they were yummy, they were not necessary, to me at least.
  • Two cartons of mushrooms.  I thought one would be enough, but I was wrong.

This recipe would also make an amazing side dish for meat eaters.  Has anyone ever heard of Consomme Rice?  It is a healthier alternative to that recipe.

Smashed Chickpeas and Avocado Sandwich from Two Peas and Their Pod

Pic courtesy of Two Peas and Their Pod. Click pic to be taken to recipe

We had this for dinner last night.  I know this is more of a lunch food (which I will be having the leftovers today for that very meal), but yesterday was pretty hot and the house was so warm that it was nice not to have to turn the oven or stove on.  I am a big fan of tuna/chicken salad, and this hit the spot for that craving.  I did add a large diced celery stalk to give it a little snap, and next time I would even go as far as to add a diced purple onion.  This sandwich will definitely be making it into my lunch rotation.

I ate this salad with toasted wheat bread, and a side of baby carrots.  The meal in total was 409 calories, and left me feeling very satisfied.  Although the baby did eat one bite and turned her nose up at it.  Can’t win ‘em all I guess.

Crazy Woman Chocolate Blender Pudding from Oh She Glows

I saved the best recipe for last.  Let’s just say that I will ALWAYS have a frozen banana and avocado in the freezer from no on in case I get a craving.

Click pic to be taken to recipe

 

I have yet to make a vegan dessert, but I finally  rectified that last night.  I never know what to expect when I make some recipes.  Pudding?  Does it really taste like pudding?  Because I really want something creamy and cold that doesn’t have any grit to it.

This recipe totally delivered.

It was amazing.

I embarrassingly admit that I licked my bowl clean.

Go. Run.  Make. this. recipe. now.

I’d bet that you could even add some Pea Protein Powder for a kick of protein.  And did I mention that it is good for you?  One serving is 191 calories and I could easily pick it over ice cream, or use it for an ice cream craving.  One serving is about 1 1/2 cups. ONE AND A HALF CUPS!  If you ate 1 1/2 cups of Hagen Daaz it would put you somewhere in the range of 600-700 calories, and around 45 grams of fat.  This recipe has 5 grams of fat, and they are from the delicious frozen avocado that makes this pudding oh. so.creamy.

So do yourself a favor.  Make this recipe.  As soon as humanly possible.

I hope you give these recipes a try!  Happy Wednesday!

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on May 9, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Addiction, Awesomeness, Good Food, Indulgence, Link Love, Recipes, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 9, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/05/09/wiaw-recipe-round-up/

Turn That Frown Upside Down

It is no secret that I have been experiencing a funk the last couple of months.  With moving and basically getting my world turned upside down there has been a lot to get use to.

The last week my attitude has changed and it wasn’t from a mental perspective.  It was from a materialistic perspective.  There are some things that inner beauty just can’t take care of and sometimes it’s the vanity that helps pull me out of a funk.  I am not a vain person by any means, but I do appreciate some of the little things in life, and here are three of them:

I finally got my hair done. 

It has been a year and a half since I last got my hair did, and man was it time.  In fact, I had no idea how bad it looked until after a cut and a highlight:

Please disregard the weird expression on my face.  This is why I don’t take a lot of self-portraits, I feel like a goober.

When I was young my hair was so blonde it was white, and now I just don’t feel myself unless my hair is highlighted.  I’ve been every color in the book and this is the one that is me.  It is also the only color that softens the personality of my face.  If you catch me in concentration mode I have a very mean expression on my face, and I have been told several times that people were scared of me until they got to know me.  I really have to work on keeping a happy expression on my face, since people’s first impressions of me can be muddled.  I also had about 5 inches of dead hair cut off, and it feels so good.

I gave myself a pedicure.

I don’t know about you, but I only get ONE pedicure a year, and it is in the middle of the spring when I am absolutely certain that it won’t snow again.  This year I decided to save some money for the long run and by my own tools to give me a makeshift pedicure at home.  I painted my nails a bright pinky/purple to get pumped for warm weather (even though it’s been overcast all week):

I said it on twitter and I’ll say it again, my toes are like fingers, and they are the thorn in my side when it comes to shoe shopping.   But my mom says that if anybody needs someone to play the piano with their toes, they know who to call!

My hub’s thriftiness paid off. 

While perusing the clearance section at Target on Saturday (which we have to do EVERY time we go to the mall), we came across this gem:

A Garmin Forerunner 405.  Originally $219, and we paid….wait for it….$109.98!!!

I know that I don’t run yet, and have no need for this right this second, but my future goal is to start running (when I hit 220 pounds, I will start a C25K program) and eventually run a marathon.  How often do you find such a steal of a deal?!  Plus, it is helping to motivate me for my future goals and my hub’s won’t let me open it up until mother’s day.  Happy Mother’s Day to me!

These things have seem to put a spring in my step and a smile on my face!

What is something that brightens your mood?  And it most definitely DOES NOT have to be something of monetary worth, it just happens that this last week was an exception!

21 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on May 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Awesomeness, Hair Styles, Indulgence, Shopping, Smile

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 1, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/05/01/turn-that-frown-upside-down/

What I Ate Wednesday…..Er…On Thursday

Sweat It Out:
Elliptical 60 Minutes

So I totally slacked on taking pictures of my Tuesday food so I’m a little late on the What I Ate Wednesday.  But yesterday I captured all of my eats and here they are for your enjoyment.  Once again thanks to Jenn over at Peas & Crayons for hosting this every week!

Breakfast:

Protein Shake. In the mix was:

  • Almond Milk
  • Pea Protein
  • Frozen Strawberries
  • Half a Frozen Banana
  • HUGE handful of spinach

Snack:

Oddly enough, I wasn’t really hungry ALL morning. Weird?  But I knew I needed to eat something and so I had some baby carrots and Red Pepper Hummus.  I love Banzo’s Hummus.  It’s not quite as thick as Sabra, I like mine a little runny.

Lunch, if you can call it that:

Peanut Butter on a Thomas’s English Muffin.  I was hungry by about 1:30, but I was also feeling lazy so this tided me over until late afternoon when I had another protein shake for an afternoon snack.  Those Protein shakes were filling because I wasn’t hungry all the way until 7 when we had dinner.

Dinner:

I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t try eating cheese substitutes while doing my Vegan Challenge, but this recipe for Butternut Mac & Cheeze (notice the “Z” in Cheeze) looked to good, I had to try it.  I found the recipe at Oh She Glows.  It was good!  I topped it off with some Franks Red Hot Sauce, and roasted some green beans on the side.  The Butternut Squash made the cheeze sauce a little sweet, which I wasn’t super jazzed about, but once I added the hot sauce it really kicked it up.  I would probably try using a different kind of pasta too, because the penne was a little thick for my liking.  I would tweak this recipe a little bit the next time I make it by adding 1 less garlic clove (calls for 3) and less salt.  I was pretty amazed that you could make an awesome sauce with raw cashews, almond milk and a few seasonings.  Next week I will be trying out her original Mac & Cheeze recipe, which uses potato’s and carrots instead of Butternut Squash.  One Last thing: This recipe makes a TON.  I made an entire box of pasta and still had more cheeze sauce left over.

Now I am off to do a little shopping for some birthday’s and showers that are coming up next week!  Hope you are all having a fabulous day!

Have you eaten anything memorable lately?

3 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on January 12, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Awesomeness, Vegan, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 12, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/01/12/what-i-ate-wednesday-er-on-thursday/

Are You Terrified?

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 hour

24 Days of Thankfulness:  Today I am thankful for the lulling purr of my furnace.  I am NOT thankful that it makes me not want to leave the house!

First off, I am SORE from Wednesday’s NROLFW workout.  Every time I go to sit I am reminded of just how hard I worked my legs.  I’m thinking I need to learn how to foam roll so I can help with the healing process?  Any Suggestions?

Second, I went out to sneak a candy from my deep freeze and saw that my hub’s threw out all the candy.  Thank you for saving me from myself!  It is pretty obvious that I have a sweet tooth and can’t say no with little pieces of heaven within walking distance.

Third, I’m hoping that this is the last time that you have to hear this, but my Body Bugg should be coming today!!!!  I am so excited for my full day of being able to use it on Saturday.  Maybe I’ll drag myself to a spin class to test out the calorie burn.  I think that would be a sufficient christening, no?

I had a great question in the comments section on My Back Home, Back on Track post:

To be honest, I never even gave a second thought to this question in the beginning.  I was excited to get my life back and that is really what fueled my decision to start my blog.  I knew that if I went into this thinking I would fail then I would have never taken the plunge.

Fast forward to around week 5 where I started questioning my decision.  I was doing a dance, gaining, and losing the same few pounds.  I worried about giving up, and losing readership due to no progress.  I stressed about making changes in my lifestyle and coping with the fact that this was not temporary.  IT WAS FOREVER.  

Then I had to have a come to Jesus talk with myself and covered some very important points:

  • I need to be healthy, FOREVER.  You can’t lose the weight and go back to bad habits.  It won’t work, it never does.
  • My life is completely different from past dieting.  I have different priorities and different obligations.  The time to lose weight is now, while I actually have the time to form new, good habits.  i.e. Stay at Home Mom, Time to Plan, Time to exercise without having to get up at the butt-crack of dawn.  My focus is to take care of my toddler, husband, and most of all myself.  You can’t take proper care of anyone without taking proper care of yourself.
  • Readership is a wonderful thing, but it is not the only thing.  I LOVE the people and friends that I have met in the blogging world, and I love the opportunities that have opened up to me by starting my blog, but I started it to hold myself accountable.  I would be lying to you if I told you I never check my stat’s (and so would most bloggers), but one of the reason’s is that I don’t want to fail in front of hundreds of people.  A little pressure never hurt anybody, and heaven forbid people actually being able to relate to your situation.
  • I get scared when I think of negativity in my posts.  I am severely overweight.  I obviously have some mental issues that tie them together, but it does no good to say “I will be able to lose weight when I figure out how I gained it”.  I gained weight because I let my emotions get the best of me.  I let negativity bury its way into my head and I get scared when that happens.  You won’t lose weight without positivity.  At least I know I won’t lose weight without positivity.  Do I have a bad day every now and again?  Absolutely (Hello! I’ve been eating Halloween candy for the last 3 days!)!  But I know that there is always tomorrow.  I’m not looking for instant gratification.  I’m just looking to move forward and make progress, and I have come far in the last 4 1/2 months.  I know this is something that I will never quit striving towards, and for that I have no fear!
I invite you to not be scared!  Your loyal readers will still come back if you fall, and remember that tomorrow brings a new day full of opportunity and hope!  So to answer your question:
No, I was not terrified because I am full of hope and the opportunity to be my best self for me, for my family, and for you readers, for we should all find hope in each other!
  • Bloggers:  Were you terrified to share your journey? Why or Why not?
PS.  To the reader that left me this comment:  Thank you for the inspiration for this topic!  I loved the reflection that it gave me, and I hope you liked the answer!
7 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on November 4, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in About Me, Awesomeness, Blogging, Body Bugg, Motivation, Positive Self-Talk, Terrified

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 4, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/04/are-you-terrified/

I <3 Weightlifting

I just realized after all of the craziness that last week brought, I forgot to do a “The New Rules of Lifting for Women” Phase 3 re-cap!  I also regret to inform, but have to admit, I totally had my fair share of Halloween candy yesterday.  I could count on both hands how many trick-or-treaters we got, and I am afraid I am going to have to freeze all of our leftover candy, and put it in the deepest depths of my deep freezer in the garage.  Hopefully I forget about it.

If you want to read a great article that will make you feel bad for eating Halloween Candy click here.  It was eye opening what sugar does to your body!

NROLFW Phase 3!

I loved this phase and think that it is the best thus far.  It focused a lot more on the upper body, which was a great switch up from Phase 2 which was mostly legs.  the problem I am finding with all of the phases is that when I have a full body move, like the squat and snatch, I can either work my legs really well or my arms, but never both.

The workouts were a lot quicker than phase 2 and found myself finishing up at around the 30 minute mark. Unfortunately, I found out that I missed a whole section of the workout!!!  At the end of Workout A there is a whole Body Matrix section with Squats/Jump Squats and Lunges/Split Jump Lunges.  I can’t believe I missed that part!

I have already decided that I am going to do the entire program over again once I have finished.  I would love to see how far I’ve come, and maybe by then I will be able to do a plank without having to modify it!

Onto Phase 4!  

Phase 4, Day 1, Workout A:

This is what Monday’s workout looked like (normally I would post pictures, but I have decided that I need to respect the authors of this book, and instead recommend going to Amazon and purchasing it for cheap!)

  • Front Squat Push Press: 3 sets of 10, 40 Pounds
  • Step Up: 3 Sets of 10, 35 Pounds
  • Dumbbell One-point Row: 3 Sets of 10, 30 Pounds
  • Static Lunge, Rear Foot Elevated: 3 Sets of 10, 22 Pound bar.  My legs finally feel like they are getting stronger, and my form is MUCH better than when I started the program!  I love seeing progress!
  • Push-ups: 3 Sets of 10, Bodyweight modified to knees.  The last phase didn’t have any push up reps, so I was excited to see them come back into the mix.
  • Plank:  3 sets of 60 second holds, modified to knees
  • Cable Horizontal Wood Chop:  3 Sets of 10, 50 Pounds
After taking the week off from weight lifting last week I was ready to get back to my home gym so that I could rip into Phase 4.  These last couple of months while doing this program I have found a love for weights!  I use to be a cardio girl all the way, but I am now finding that when you lift with a routine and combine certain moves you can get a sweaty workout while pumping some iron!
PS. I’m hoping to get in a spin class today so wish me luck with motivation!
PPS. Body Bugg got shipped yesterday and I should have it by Friday!!!
  • Which do you prefer: Cardio or Weightlifting?
  • What’s your favorite weightlifting move or cardio exercise?
10 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on November 1, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Awesomeness, Body Bugg, Challenges, Indulgence, Power, The New Rules of Lifting for Women, Workout

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on November 1, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/11/01/i-3-weightlifting/

Fire Up For Fall: Week 6

Holy cow!  Is it already week 6!?

Inspirational Photo:

Source

Yup.  Because we should always think awesome thoughts about ourselves.  Plus, Shatner is just the coolest, and I should find more reason’s to post pictures of him.

Weekly Questions:  

1.  What have you done this week to help achieve your goals? 

  • I’ve met my first goal, and now fit into the pair of jeans that I bought for motivation post-pregnancy.  Woot woot!
  • Just finished phase 3 of NROLFW, so that goal has also been checked off.  New goal:  Finish Phase 4
  • I am 4 pounds away from hitting my 10% with Weight Watchers, and I have been going to the gym 6 days a week and tracking all of my food.
  • Made it to the gym 6 days a week.  CHECK.
  • #5. Make friends and find inspiration in others.  DOUBLE CHECK!!!  I am loving the people I am meeting by doing this challenge!  You all have been inspiring and it has been so motivating to me!  I love checking in with all of you on Mondays!
2. What have you done this week to make yourself feel fabulous? 
I wore my new gym clothes to workout in, and I didn’t feel self-conscience!  This is huge, and it makes me even more excited to go to the gym everyday!  And it made me feel fabulous.  With the tight fitting clothes I can really tell where I’m seeing progress, and it feel so good!
3. Do you listen to music when you work out?  What gets you fired up?
Music is huge for me when working out, and I have to change out my playlist every couple of weeks so that I don’t get bored with what I’m listening to.  Lately, my go to album has been David Ghetta’s (SP?) new album “Nothing But The Beat”.  It is a collaboration album, so all of the songs sound like a mish mash of different albums by different people.  My go to gym music has to have a good beat to keep tempo to and keep me entertained.
4.  What is your guilty pleasure music?  How does it make you feel?
I’m not really embarrassed by any music I listen to, because I love all genre’s besides country,  I LOATHE COUNTRY.  I would say my guilty pleasure would have to be music like Billy Joel, or Lionel Richie.  I don’t listen to them very often, but when I do it takes me back to my childhood when we use to play music in our house.  ”Dancing on the Ceiling”, and “Uptown Girl” immediately take me to a different time.
5.  If today were a song what song would it be?
Ha!  I just totally looked through my itunes to find some inspiration, and I found a good one!  ”Seize the Day” from the movie Newsies, with Christian Bale.  That would definitely have to be guilty pleasure movie/music for sure.  And yes, I totally have the soundtrack for it.  I am really giving you guys a skewed vision of what kind of music I like.  I promise my taste is much more different than what this is displaying.
I hope everyone is having a great start to their Monday!  Stay Tuned for Friend Making Monday!
3 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on October 24, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in About Me, Awesomeness, Challenges, Fire It Up for Fall, Inspiration, Motivation, Positive Self-Talk

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 24, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/24/fire-up-for-fall-week-6/

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