Cottage Cheese Frosting? Say Whaaat?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin! I love reading blogs when people share food ideas. It gives me new and creative ideas for what I could be eating. For example, I would have never found out about Quest Nutrition Bars if I did not follow healthy bloggers on instagram. And Quest bars are my new addiction. These are definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I love them. They are really good when you heat it up for about 15 seconds, like a warm cookie or something. Plus it has 20 grams of protein, 4 grams of non-fiber carbs, and no sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners!

I also came across Petite Athleat, and naturally I started stalking all of her blog posts. She has a lot of interesting but genius food ideas. For example, she makes frosting out of cottage cheese. At first I thought that sounded a little crazy, but after I tried it I realized that it is complete brilliance.

All I did was put a serving of cottage cheese into my magic bullet with some sugar free syrup, a dash of vanilla, and a sprinkle of truvia. Then I pulsed the mixture for about a minute, and bam, just like that I had protein frosting!

Again, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, you definitely have to like cottage cheese. It's a little sour, but I think it tastes like cream cheese frosting.

This morning I was craving something sweet for breakfast, the minute I opened the pantry I knew that I wanted a quest bar. So for breakfast I threw a coconut cashew quest bar into the microwave, and then topped it with some cottage cheese frosting, and a few raspberries! It was so tasty, and a low calorie, protein packed breakfast.

Doesn't that frosting look delicious? 

Losing Instructors

I have two instructors at my gym that I just adore. They have taught me almost everything I know about fitness, hard work, and endurance. Because they pushed me out of my comfort levels I was able to start losing weight.

Both of them are leaving my gym. I am just heartbroken.

One of them teaches Cardio Kick, and she is incredible. Her intensity is always high, she doesn't allow slacking, and she pushes you to do more than you ever thought your body would be capable of. She even once said "After this set I want you to be so exhausted that you feel like you are going to puke!" I love her.

However, about 2 months ago she tore a muscle in her foot, and she is now gone indefinitely. Her replacement is a girl who used to attend our class and just recently became a group fitness instructor. Sometimes she is awesome, and keeps the intensity up. Other times she is weak and I barely feel like I had a work out. I am sure she is just trying to figure out her groove. The only problem is that I am giving her feedback to kick up the intensity but new people to the class are telling her that the pace is hard. Hopefully she will listen to me, those newbies will be thankful later!

The next instructor teaches High Intensity Interval Training, Circuit, an aerobic Step class, and Chisel, which is a weight lifting class. She has been a fitness instructor for like 35 years, she is a fitness guru. She has taught me the proper form in every single exercise, and she has shown me that hard work yields results.

She is the reason that I have been able to push my body to lift heavier objects. I used to let my mind get in the way, a lot. The minute I would start to feel a burn I would stop lifting. She told me to push myself past the burn and I would begin to see results. She was right. I started the class with 6 pound dumbbells, now I hover between 12-15 pound dumbbells.

She also advocates doing push-ups on your toes. I used to think she was nuts. When I started going to her classes I could barely complete 3 push-ups on my toes. Last night I was able to complete 50 out of 75 push-ups on my toes. Not 50 in a row, about 15 at a time, taking small breaks on my knees. Regardless, before I could never have completed 75 push-ups, even on my knees.

She makes me feel powerful, and I always leave her classes high on endorphins.

She is taking a year off to live abroad, and she leaves at the end of August. Luckily her replacement is also a girl from our class, and I am confident that she will be able to keep the intensity up. Every single class that she attends she goes complete beast mode. I am always in awe when I watch her.

For awhile I was panicking about their departures. However, I have now realized that they have given me the tools I need for a successful workout. I was lucky enough to get to work with them for a year, but now it's time to start learning from new people. And because I now know what an intense work out should look like I will be able to kick up my intensity level in any class!

22nd Birthday

My birthday is September 4th. My aha moment was October 31st. The picture that sparked my aha moment was from my 22nd birthday.

September 4th and October 31st are almost two months away. So you may be wondering why it took 2 months for me to get my ass in gear. Well, this picture did not actually get posted until Halloween. My roommate posted a fall photo album onto facebook and my birthday party was included. And just in case you need a reminder of what my scary/fat photo looked like, here it is:

The whole album was an eye opening experience, because this was not the only bad one. Here are a few more: 

Look at the size of those boobs. In the picture below I am trying to hide the cleavage....

Damn, these photos are hard to look at. But it's nice to know that I do not look this way any longer. My boobs have dropped like 4 cup sizes! FOUR! 

Anyway, I was thinking back to my 22nd birthday, and I was remembering how insecure I was about myself. For my birthday we went to a dueling piano bar. And at this bar it's common for birthday people to get called to stage, jump on the piano and be serenaded.

I did not want this. I did not want this at all. I thought that everyone in my party was very aware of how much I did not want for this to happen. I was wrong. One of my friends put in a request for me to be called up to stage. 

I was livid. I was more than livid. I was terrified, embarrassed, nervous, disgusted, mortified, etc. I was so distressed at the thought of having to go up on stage and having to hoist myself onto a piano that I started to feel light headed.

I immediately ran to the bathroom to hide. All I kept thinking was that everyone at the bar would have to see me try and hoist my obese body up onto the piano. And I knew that I would fail. That I would not be able to get myself onto this somewhat tall piano. And I was sure that everyone in the bar would be thinking "damn, that girl needs to lose some weight, she can't even lift herself onto a piano." 

In reality maybe no one would have been thinking that, but at the time I was so convinced that everyone would be starring at me in disgust. In the bathroom I was starring at myself in disgust. After sitting in the bathroom long enough that my name was called, I emerged, grabbed my roommate, and stormed out of the bar. 

I cried myself to sleep that night. I remember feeling so gross about myself. I felt irrational. What kind of person doesn't enjoy some birthday attention? Instead of loving my birthday, I spent the end of the evening feeling overwhelmed, and unhappy with myself. 

After my birthday I knew that I needed to change something, but I didn't have the motivation yet.  It wasn't until two months later when I saw those photos and remembered that night that I was finally ready. I finally had the motivation that I needed to start. 

At one time I loathed the photos that are above. I could barely look at them. I was mad at my roommate for posting them. Why would she post such awful pictures of me? But now I realize that they saved my life. They gave me what I needed. And for that I am grateful. 

My journey to a hot bod has not been perfect, far from it. It's been frustrating, intimidating, and a complete emotional roller coaster. Sometimes I feel like giving up, or just staying at my current weight. But seeing those photos and remembering that night gives me another jolt of motivation. I am ready to beat this plateau!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this year for my 23rd birthday we went back to the dueling piano bar. And I got up on the piano, willingly. I still had some trouble hoisting myself up there, but  the difference was that I was no longer embarrassed of the body that I worked so hard to get. Maybe when I turn 24 I will be able to leap up on the piano with agility, I'll keep my fingers crossed! 

I'm Still Alive.

For the last week I have been thinking that I should really write a blog post because it's been awhile. So today when I went to start typing I noticed that my last blog post was April 22nd.....it's been a whole month since I have rambled on and on about being fat. 

The reason that I have not written a post in a month is because I have not felt tied to my weight loss journey. I have not dropped a pound since Christmas time. My weight has been dancing between 5-6 pounds for almost five whole months. Frustrating. 

So instead of driving myself completely crazy I decided to stop obsessing and just enjoy my body at it's current weight. I have accomplished a lot, and instead of loathing my body, I have spent some time trying to love it. I no longer consider myself to be obese, but I also don't consider myself to be skinny. I still have about 30-40 pounds that I would like to lose. 

For the last month I have ate and drank pretty freely. Not crazy, but just not keeping track of points or calories. It has felt great. I think it was the break that I needed. God, if I ate what I wanted to I have no doubt that I would gain ten pounds in one month. 

But as I have realized I cannot eat that way, so after a month of doing what I wanted I am back in the diet game. I have quit Weight Watchers in an attempt to save money and shake up my diet. I am now on My Fitness Pal and I have decided to try counting calories again. Normally I hate calorie counting but I am willing to give it another try. At least until I can see the scale moving again. Who knows, maybe this time I won't feel so deprived by counting calories.