April 2012 - Tiny n Fit

Week of Awesome

April 17, 2012 · By tinynfit · 8 Comments

Hello and Happy Tuesday lovers!! How was everyone’s weekend?? I hope you had amazing weather like we did in DC last weekend!!

I dont want to apologize for being a bit absent because life has been filled with some amazing things recently!! Amazing things that have clogged my social calendar and left me craving me time But I love it!

My awesome week was pretty normal. I worked, I came home, worked out, enjoyed the nice weather, and had froyo like always at my fav spot in DC. Seriously, I have had my fair share of froyo the past couple years and this place just tops them all!

I also played in my first soccer game since high school! I was SOO worried I wouldn’t do well since I literally hadn’t played in almost 10 years (hello I am getting old!). But my soccer buddy K assuaged my fears and we actually ended up winning the game! And I got a killer workout playing halfback- a very run-heavy position- as I was the only girl for most of the game! As its a coed team rules state we have to have three girls on the field the whole time- fortunately our 2 other girls came at halftime, but no subs! Needless to say I was spent after an hour game! Afterwards K and I got celebratory froyo

Silly

Yum!

I had so much fun even though my skills definitely need some polishing. But thankfully K was sweet and didn’t say how poorly I really did It was an awesome first game!!

So on to the weekend wheremore awesomeness happened.

Friday night I had a long-overdue movie night with one of my best friends S. She is one of the most kind, selfless, patient and understanding friends I have and I seriously don’t know where I would be without her. I am so grateful to have her in my life! And I am lucky to work in the same building with her, so if I have a crisis (if=when) I can always run to her desk and she saves the day We had a hard time deciding what movie to watch so we settled on an old Disney movie- Oliver and Company!

So cute!

Who remembers this adorable movie? I swear Disney movies are even better now that I am older!!

Saturday began with an early 8am wake up call and glorious breakfast.

Heaven in a bowl!

This was an awesome bowl of egg white oats topped with a big blob of crunchy almond butter and granola. So SO good! I never want my oatmeal bowls to end!!

After breakfast I headed into DC for a day of volunteer service I signed up for and found out through a Twitter Friend R (cant thank you enough for the invite!!). A slew of volunteers, military and civilians from local universities and around town got together for the inaugural Veteran’s Service Initiative hosted by George Washington University. From the VSI Blog:

“The VSI connects students of the military community with opportunities to serve in their communities, regardless of their university affiliation. The VSI provides resources that can connect individuals with the service they want to provide to their community and with organizations that satisfy their personal or professional goals and interests. The program also provides consulting for large scale projects and initiatives for individuals and large veteran groups, as well as promotes social entrepreneurship through service grants that are available for student veterans.”

As many of you know I am a HUGE supporter of our military and vets, so I was more than thrilled to join in the volunteering! I along with several other vets and civilians spent the beautiful Saturday cleaning up a neighborhood creek. After the event I chatted with several fellow volunteers at the reception (which had some awesome pita chips and hummus action!) and instantly made connections with these amazing people! Vets that have served our country and continue to serve by volunteering their time to help others in need is so inspiring. It was such an amazing experience meeting these people and an honor to have spent the day helping out the DC community with them! I officially sent in my application to Team Rubicon and cannot wait to help out even more!!

Our awesome volunteers! (I'm on the far left)

Check out Team Rubicon’s mission and pass the word on to any vets you may know that are looking to get involved!!

The weekend of awesome was topped off by a linner (lunch/dinner for those that don’t know that term), with a bunch of my college friends visiting from all over- and one, R, with her new baby I finally got to meet!! It’s crazy to see my friends getting hitched and having the offspring…

Yes, offspring.

But I love it and I loved spending time doing these awesome things this weekend! This week is another crazy one- soccer games, happy hours, and a weekend with S’s parents in the country so I can commune with nature! I cant wait!!

Have a fabulous week!! Rock on Lovers

Question: What awesome thing(s) have you done recently?

Filed Under: DC, food, healthy ·

Opposite of Content

April 10, 2012 · By tinynfit · Leave a Comment

So this is a bleak post and the reason I haven’t blogged in a couple of days. Last week was rough. No, worse than rough. It was a roller coaster of emotions and stress I don’t care to experience again anytime soon. A multitude of things occurred last week, not all of which I will share, that have really tested my sanity. First was the three year anniversary of my fathers suicide. I really didn’t think much of it, knowing that it was more of the anxiety leading up to ‘the day’ that was stressful. What was actually stressful was my mom. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother and would not be here without her unwavering support during our shared trauma, but she and I have such different grieving and coping paths that makes communication between us difficult. She is still very much in a moping and dwelling stage, saying things like ‘at my age I never thought I’d be alone, a widow, I guess I didn’t love him enough’. I’m sorry if this makes me a terrible daughter and person, but its just pathetic. As I mentioned in my last post, I have definitely ‘moved on’ a bit, while my mother refuses. She thinks she will be ‘letting him go entirely’ which isn’t the case. Its just another step in moving on in her life to a better, happier place. But being the stubborn woman she is, she literally refuses to be happy- and there are moments she is happy, the will then force herself to feel guilty and revert to moping. As part of my ‘growth’ in the 3rd year of grief I make an effort to try and accept her way of grieving, but sometimes I just need to step away and let her do her thing, just as I’m sure she does the same with me.

Next on my blah unhappy list- my weight. Some days I am completely content with the way I look. Ok, that’s not true. Not in the slightest. I am happy with how far I’ve come, but I cannot seem to lose these last 10 pounds. I got pretty close to my goal weight, but only after severe calorie restriction and crazy cardio sessions. I was happy with my weight, yes, but not happy in life. I was cranky and moody all the time. Right now I am frustrated that after a month of doing insanity not only have I not lost any weight, I have gained weight (barely a pound, but even the smallest amounts are a lot to a 5’1 person). Also my clothes feel tighter, not any more loose. What gives? I’ve read message boards about calorie amounts may be to blame (I was eating below the recommended amount for insanity), as well as muscle swelling/DOMS affect. I don’t think muscle swelling should still be an issue while in recovery week, and I really really hate how my body feels. Squishy, blobby, and just not comfortable. I do not like what I see in the mirror and I want to give up on insanity entirely. But I will stick it out, as many of the message boards say many people like me didn’t see results and to just keep it up. I know diet it’s the majority of the plan to see the results I want, but I just don’t know what my body truly needs. Well, last Thursday I had an appointment to get my metabolism tested by a RD/nutritionist. Well, I wasn’t too thrilled with the results. It really wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. It was interesting to see how much I burned (a little higher than normal, which damnit should be the case since I work out frequently), and to east x amount to lose weight. She did mention to keep track of my calorie intake on the weekends (which I don’t normally), and after just a few days of really focusing and sticking to intuitive eating, I have lost a couple pounds! Now I just need to focus and keep my determination to finish off the second month of insanity that I started yesterday.

Easter weekend recap- slept, vegged (healthily), and spent time with mom. I guilty spent no time with my niece and nephew. I just didn’t have the patience last weekend and just wanted to spend time with my mom. But enough chat! I promised a recipe…but to make up for my lack of posting I will give you TWO!! Yes I know, you are just tickled with excitement about this

First is a recipe I found from Breakfast to Bed. I LOVE Twix, but they are SOOO bad for you. All kinds of sugar, saturated fats, etc. So when I found this healthy recipe for peanut butter twix (because everything is better with peanut butter!) I just HAD to make it!!

Super Yummy and Healthy PB Twix Bars adapted from Breakfast to Bed

Ingredients

3 cups oats
1/2 cup egg whites
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
3 tbsp chia
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tbsp vanilla
powder stevia to taste
1 very ripe banana (my fav way to eat them all spotty!)
1ish cup of PB2 made to a paste
1 cup dark chocolate chunks

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine almond milk and chia and set aside for 10mins or so until you get the chia gel affect

Mash the heck out of that already uber ripe banana and it with combine chia milk mix, oats, whites, crunchy pb, stevia, vanilla.

Mix until well combined

Mix and mash it up!

Spread into a pammed (greased) cake pan and bake for around 25 minutes until edges are slightly browned. Once cooled, spread the creamy PB2 on top, freeze, then melt the chocolate chips and add that glorious layer on top of the PB.

Chill and cut those suckers and devour. I made an even healthier version with just a couple chocolate chips on top instead of the layer of chocolate, because sometimes I like more PB than chocolate. Yes, I’s weird.

Enjoy!

Next recipe will be posted tomorrow…because I am a tease and quite frankly you wont want to miss the story of my adopting a stray…goldfish

Also I will have my first rec soccer game tomorrow- wish me luck!!

Rock on lovers

Filed Under: body image, confidence, fitness, food, healthy, recipe ·

March Foodie Pen Pals Reveal!!

April 1, 2012 · By tinynfit · 5 Comments

Hello and Happy First Day of April! No April Fool’s Day jokes here, just a foodie penpal reveal! Wait, NOT just a foodie penpal reveal. It’s my FIRST EVER (and a little tardy, thanks to some computer battery issues) foodie penpal box!! What are foodie penpals you ask?? Why, let me, or rather the lovely Lindsay and host of Foodie Penpals at The Lean Green Bean explain!

My first box I received from Nicole who blogs at The Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie. Here are the goods!!

The box!

Her note was sweet and described what was included in the box.

The goods!

She also included her adorable card! Since we emailed prior she definitely took note of what I liked! She included a local spicy jam (I love anything spicy!), a set/bunch/package of Mexican dark chocolate…and without reading how to use it I took a bite. I think it’s meant for hot chocolate as it states on the label, not necessarily for munching (it was a little sweet on its own), but I will definitely be trying this is some hot chocolate soon! She also included a yummy jar of her homemade lemon curd! It’s pretty much gone at this point- nothing yummy stays in this house long

Thank you again, Nicole, for a great first Foodie Penpal Box!

A little more about the Foodie Penpal program (from Lindsay’s site):

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

It was so much fun checking out all the blogs on reveal day and cant wait to participate again for April!

Rock on Lovers