Yummy PB cookies

Katie made these cookies for our friends Christmas and I decided it's NYE so I can live it up for one more night. 

These are so easy. Throw everything in a bowl and bake at 350 for 9 minutes! 

Here's the finished product! 

Happy New Years! 

C

Holiday Loves

I haven't had a chance to blog in he last few days so I'd like to share some of my holiday loves. 

Starbucks Christmas Blend-light roast

Thank you Katie Freeman for the tip on this one. :) 

My honorary family

I don't know what I would do without them. When I dropped them off at the airport this morning for their two week vacation I almost lost it. I miss them so much already. When you work and hang out with the same family for three years your basically family right? 

My MN 

Riley made this for me for Christmas! It's so cool. He made it out of recycled barn wood and my favorite color is the top layer and I mean it's MN what's not to love? 

My new Keurig. 

(No pic because he hasn't made it out of the box yet) 

Hello happy wallet! 

My new phone case! 

It was a rough day at work today with Mark and Dani being out of town and I swear for the first 5 hours of my day NOTHING and I mean NOTHING went correctly. So I ordered my first item from Flag Nor Fail! I am currently obsessed with all things Dana Linn Bailey and Skulls so this phone case was a necessary Christmas gift to myself. 

What are your holiday loves? 

C

Kodiak Cakes

What do you do with a day filled with Doctor’s appointments and last minute Christmas errands?

Duh. Buy Kodiak Cakes!

I have been waiting for the day these bad boys go on sale because we all have bought health food that is incredibly expensive, brought it home, hated it, and tossed it.  I am so glad that today was the day they were on sale. (Thanks Target!) 

As soon as I got home, I made a single batch with the option 3 recipe (21g of protein per cake).

 The batch made three super huge cakes (1/2 c batter) and one baby one for me to try out. 

I added some sliced banana and dark chocolate chips for some added flavor!

My review-AWESOME. They taste exactly like a pancake you’d get at Perkins or Ihop. 

How can you go wrong when it has lots of protein and is incredibly yummy?

Give them a try!

C

Be proud of YOU!

If you are anything like me you are incredibly hard on yourself...all the time.

"I don't like my ......."

"My tummy looks too round in this shirt"

"These pants give me a muffin top"

"I feel like I need to lose 20 more pounds to be "happy"."

All of these things are so normal in my life and I hate it, but I am not sure how to fix it.

We live in a society where we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, but when is it ever going to be enough?

When are we going to consider ourselves good enough?

How do we learn to love ourselves?

I am presently obsessed with Dana Linn Bailey.  

She was the first Ms. Olympia Physique last year and was runner up this year.  

If she doesn't inspire you, you're obviously not ready to make a real fitness change.  She is a boss.

Her relationship with her husband Rob is truly amazing.  They train together, work together, (obviously) live together, and are all around good people.  They publish videos everyday of their lives and their workouts; obviously the best form of inspiration.  Seeing real people doing real workouts every day and showing everyone their good days and the bad reminds me that I am not alone in my bad days makes me feel like it's all worth it.

This was one of the first videos I watched of hers and I thought it was the perfect complement to this post.

Here’s a little about me that I am incredibly proud of:

-50 pounds gone in a year and a half

-My arm definition

-My traps

-I ran a marathon

-I am dorky

-I am a hard worker

-I am a boss

-My face lines.  Only the dedicated have proof of their weight loss.  Mine just happens to be shown during one of my favorite activities. SMILING J

-I take shameless gym selfies

Remember, we don't always need to be who everyone else wants us to be. We need to be ourselves.  Whoever we are.  Embrace it.  Enjoy it. LOVE IT and LOVE YOU!

I challenge you to tell me why you’re proud of yourself!

Until tomorrow,

C

IIFYM

If you follow anyone in the fitness/health industry on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter you know it's the newest health trend. But what is it?  What does it mean?  Is it healthy?  Yep, all those questions flew through my mind too.  Since the scale hasn't moved much since I quit being a vegetarian…I decided to do it!

I started doing my research a couple of weeks ago and found these websites to be incredibly helpful.

http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

http://healthyeater.com/how-to-calculate-your-macros

http://www.trimmedandtoned.com/beginners-guide-to-iifym/

Basically IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) means that you figure out how your body uses calories then you come up with a formula to find a good balance between carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. And you eat! ANYTHING.

Like for real: sugared cereal, poptarts, chips, ice cream, you name it you can have it IF IT FITS YOUR MACROS.

Today was my first day on the program and so far I love it!  It is a lot of food to eat…not going to lie, but so far so good.  My only worry is not being prepped enough with having to weigh out EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth.  I am glad that I decided to do it now that I am going to be home for the next month.  If I can get in the routine of weighing everything and planning in my macros to match my workouts (the more you work out the more you have to figure in to your eating) I think I can be really successful.

I am so glad that I have the SkinnyMeg team and of course Bailey (who is an IIFYM boss and has been a saint in responding to my 100+ texts today).

Today my parents and I went out to dinner for my dad’s 50^th birthday.  I had a super wacky eating day today due to a late workout, so I had tons of carbs, protein, and fat left.  Basically the menu was my oyster.  I had a sample of both my parent’s dinners, two delicious onion rings, and almost a whole serving of shrimp and vegetable pasta.  I am absolutely stuffed.  And I still have so much that I am supposed to eat. In true Catherine fashion, I texted Bailey freaking out and she suggested that tomorrow I try eating more in the morning.  I can totally do that because tomorrow I am back to a semi-normal schedule. 

I will keep you posted as to how it goes the rest of the week! Hopefully by this weekend I will have it semi figured out and will for sure have my menu plan posted by Sunday.

Make it great ladies,

C

Weekend recap!

It's officially Sunday according to the clock, so it's time for a weekend rundown. 

Friday:

Bails got here and of course we worked out. Leg day! 

Then we went to the Johnnie hockey game. 

And finally we ended up at SJU watching our friend Chris' annual video premier. Chris is a communication major who always has a go pro or his camera attached to him. He films all of our friends doing anything and everything (usually on the weekends) and complies the footage to make one epic film. I can't wait to look back at these, before I send my future children off to college, to prove that yes at one time I was cool. 

Saturday: 

Bails and I did a total body workout and I practiced spinning for next weekends bike-a-thon. 

Applebee's dinner with Bails, Kyle, and the gang. 

Then it was time to have one last game night before Alex makes the big trip to Guatemala. 

The big plan for Sunday is to finish up some final projects and papers and get ready for the big return home on Tuesday! 

Another fun pic from today was this timehop photo from 3 years ago. 

Lately I've been struggling with the scale and yes I see tons and tons of physical changes but the scale goes up and my emotions go down. So seeing this made me feel SO much better. 

Until todmorrow, 

C 

Weekend recap!

It's officially Sunday according to the clock, so it's time for a weekend rundown. 

Friday:

Bails got here and of course we worked out. Leg day! 

Then we went to the Johnnie hockey game. 

And finally we ended up at SJU watching our friend Chris' annual video premier. Chris is a communication major who always has a go pro or his camera attached to him. He films all of our friends doing anything and everything (usually on the weekends) and complies the footage to make one epic film. I can't wait to look back at these, before I send my future children off to college, to prove that yes at one time I was cool. 

Saturday: 

Bails and I did a total body workout and I practiced spinning for next weekends bike-a-thon. 

Applebee's dinner with Bails, Kyle, and the gang. 

Then it was time to have one last game night before Alex makes the big trip to Guatemala. 

The big plan for Sunday is to finish up some final projects and papers and get ready for the big return home on Tuesday! 

Another fun pic from today was this timehop photo from 3 years ago. 

Lately I've been struggling with the scale and yes I see tons and tons of physical changes but the scale goes up and my emotions go down. So seeing this made me feel SO much better. 

Until todmorrow, 

C 

Rewards

Anyone who has struggled with weight knows that the easiest way to reward ourselves is with food. Not cool. So like I said in my December goals post I want to make my rewards worth it (and now just go buy them anyways). 

I work a lot. If you know me or are a regular reader you know that. It is the only way to go to school, so naturally my semester break is working 40+ hour weeks for the next 4 weeks. Welcome to adulthood. 

My bosses are going out of town for three of those four weeks which means I'm the big man. Gulp. 

So in order to keep my sanity and still have a "fun" break this is what I've come up with. A fitness related reward for every complete week where I successfully met my goals. 

I got this ladies! 

And of course I had to make a pretty calendar to go with it :) 

How do you make goals and corresponding rewards? 

Until tomorrow,

C

Prepare yourself for a weekend recap of Adventures with Bailey! 

December Goals

I seem to always make the same goals (drink more water, drink protein shakes daily, no candy, etc) and then never keep them. That's over.

Bailey sent me an inspiration text yesterday that was just perfect!

So this month I'm doing goals differently. I'm going to make them real and attainable and at the end of the month I'm going to come back and see how I really did! 

Here we go: 

-Wear normal clothes at least 3 days a week.

- Listen to my body and actually rest when I need to rest. (I am horrible at this and that's why I almost fainted today....)

- Selfie a day 

- Keep a positive attitude 

- Remember to not sweat the small stuff and that being happy/safe/stress free is the most important 

- Reward myself for monthly work, workout, and eating accomplishments. (Keep eyes open for details later in the week)

Until tomorrow, 

C