Healthified Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino

Hey hey everyone. How are you guys doing?

I'm doing great, thank you very much. I only have 2 more weeks of school left. Then, it's finals week! It's crazy because I have a debate for my sociology class on Thursday. Then, I also have a group psychology research project presentation coming up. There's also my psychology exam on Thursday.

Anyway, on the bright side, the weather has been great. It's been in the 90's all week. On the downside, it's going to get a bit colder now. But, as of right now, it's warm and it makes me want something cold to drink. So, I thought, why not a frappuccino? I thought about buying some from Starbucks, but they are so expensive. They are having the half of promotion right now but I don't want to waste all that money when I can make some right at home.

And, you know what? It's delicious! My brother even likes it. You can make it even healthier if you want to by substituting some ingredients. It'll still taste great. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk (any milk of choice)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (you can use dark chocolate chips or carob chips)
• 2 tablespoon chocolate syrup (I used the sugar free kind)
• 2 cups ice
• 2-3 tablespoon sugar
• whipped cream (optional, you can use the fat free kind if you want)

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients into the blender container. 
2. Blend until it's thick. 
3. Top with whipped cream if you want to and drizzle it with some more chocolate syrup, Enjoy! 

It's that simple! And, it tastes pretty good. My brother loves it! 

It's great to drink on a warm day. I love warm days. Shorts, tees, dresses and skirts. It's great! Once it gets warmer, I get to go swimming. I love swimming. The only thing is that I don't like getting tanner than I am right now. I'll have to deal with it though. It's not that bad. I was born tan. It's probably due to my dad's farming genes. He was born in a village in China and they were farmers. 

Anyway, my week has been alright. I've been lifting weights, doing cardio, studying, doing homework and hanging out with friends. 

My breakfast as of late has been oatmeal with pb2, chocolate chips, truvia and ground cinnamon. I drink coffee with this. Sometimes, I use real peanut butter instead or I add in apples. It depends on my mood. Here's an ugly picture: 

By the way, the Trader Joe's Spicy Black Bean Dip is alright. I feel that there's too bit much of a vinegar taste to it. It took forever to open the jar. It was on too tight so I had use a knife to go under the lid to get rid of some of the air. The Trader Joe's  dark chocolate with raisins and pecans was a disappointment. I didn't like the taste of it. My favorite Trader Joe's brand items so far are the Cookie Butter and their almond milk. Yummy!

Here are a lot of other items I've tried. 

 This is Annie's Light Honey Mustard Dressing. I love that it's all Natural. There's no artificial flavoring or preservatives that are bad for the body. It also tastes good! It doesn't taste healthy at all.

 The Unreal candy is so good! Sure, the color isn't that pretty but it tastes like regular M&M's. It's healthier though. No GMOs, no high fructose corn syrup and no artificial coloring. I also bought the Yes2 blueberry wipes stuff so that I can use it to clean my face after my workouts.

 I've been using the baby spinach in my salads with black bean burgers. The pretzel chips were alright.

The LUNA Bar Carrot Cake is new and I love it! It's like a chewy carrot cake without all the fat. There's not much of a frosting like the regular carrot cake but the actual cake part is spot on!

I ate this whole bag of sweet potato chips before my night class on Thursday. It was so good! Good thing it wasn't regular potato chips, right? Haha. Don't judge me. I'm trying to make myself feel better. 

What made me feel even worse is that I went to Ecogrounds during the 15 minute break and bought the Mocha Javalanche. At least I said no whipped cream and asked for soy milk instead of the regular milk they use. It was a bit too sweet. It was hot that night and I needed the energy to stay awake. 

I also tried Starbucks Java Chip Light  Frappuccino. It was so good! 

Yesterday, I stopped by Fluid, the coffee shop where I go nearly every week when I go to work. I bought their Zen Smoothie, which is a green tea smoothie. They used soy ice cream in it! I also bought their oatmeal cookie, which had coconut, white chocolate chips and some dried fruit in it. It was so good and chewy. the smoothie had too much soy ice cream in it. I couldn't taste much of the green tea. Here's how both of the items look:

Well, I guess that's it. I just finished typing up my history paper and now, I have to work on my debate. I'll see you guys next time. My next post will be about school lunches.

How was your week?

What's your favorite thing to eat or drink when the weather gets hot?

No Body is Perfect

Fat. Thin. Fit. Slender. Chubby. Overweight. Underweight. Anorexic. Normal. Average.

Do you guys understand what I'm talking about? Well, I sure hope you guys do.

There are so many labels and names people call each other when it comes to the body.

"Wow. That person looks fit." "That person looks fat." "No, that person is not fat. They are normal."

Can you see where I am going with this? Our perception of what a normal body, an overweight, or thin body is skewed! We all have different views of it. And, you know what? It screws with how we view our own body. This is especially common among woman.

image from http://www.k-state.edu 

I'm going to be honest here. I don't like my body, but I am trying to accept it. My thighs are not the size I want them to be. It's the same with my arms. I want them smaller. However, I know that they are made of muscle. It's the good kind of bulk.

My friend who's naturally skinny wants to gain weight and bulk in her body. She says her thighs are small and she wants them bigger. So, she started weight training and running. And, you know what? She lost weight and got smaller and thinner. She's mad that she lost weight and inches. However, you can see her muscle definition better.

I, on the other hand, gained muscle and bulk was added. That's what happened when I added weight training to my routine. My thighs did not get smaller. They got thicker with muscle (which you can see). She wants her body to look like mines while I want mines to look like hers. As you see, the type of body one desires is different. Some want to be stick skinny while others want to look fit, curvy, and a bit muscular.

What I am trying to say is, everyone has something about their body they don't like. We shouldn't compare our bodies to others. Everyone is built differently. As long as you eat right and exercise, you will be at a good healthy weight and have the body type that's right for you.

Social Media and the Web: The Good and the Bad

In the past 10 years or so, the internet has grown larger and larger in size, in relevance to how many users there are now. It's become a revelation and now, it seems that everyone is becoming more dependent on the web. 

First, came search engines. Then, came the creation of myspace and facebook. Soon after, twitter became popular. It seems like we depend on search engines for research and we depend on the social media sites to stay or become connected to others. 

In the past, people had to go to the library and check out books to do research. In the past, people depended on the phone or random chance to keep in touch. What the heck. People even sent snail mail back then. 

What affect does this have on society? A lot of things. Here are three things I've noticed.  

1. People are having a harder time communicating in person. Have you noticed that a few of your 'friends' on facebook constantly update their facebooks and have hundreds of friends? Most likely, those are the ones that are depressed and lonely. They don't know how to connect with other people but yet want human interaction. It's become harder for people to have a normal conversation in person now that there's the internet. There's this one case I heard of when two people met online through instant messaging. They agreed to meet in person one day. They tried talking but were unable to. They got on their computers and were able to talk that way. 
2. The use of search engines, twitter and other social networking sites have an affect on the writing skills of the younger generation.
1.  One writing skill that is greatly affected is something as simple as spelling and punctuation. There are things called spell check and grammar check that people can use to look for errors in their papers. People are starting to forget how to spell and punctuate! 
2. Another reason why there are spelling and punctuation errors is the use of internet language, especially in twitter and instant messaging. The younger generation is generally used to typing things such as "lol", "wat", "how r u?", and "y?". Those are just a few examples but you guys get the gist of it. It shows up in their papers and writing and it gets mixed up. 
3. Twitter's 140 character limit is limiting the user's cognitive function. Instead of expressing themselves with how many words they want, they are limited to 140 characters. How can one express their whole thoughts in such a small space. 
4. The use of search engines make it easier for students to plagiarize other people's works. There have been cases in which students are A students and graduate with honors while taking AP classes. But, their work was not their own. 
5. The use of the kindle and search engines make it harder for students to synthesize information. Before, students could have many books spread out on a topic they are researching and read what the authors have said. They could think and synthesize the information to make sense of it. If they want to go back to remember what the author has said, they can go back and forth between the books. With the kindle, it's harder. 
6. As evidence, my history professor says that he has seen the writing abilities of his students go down as the years have passed. That's saying something, when he's been a professor for at least 15 years. 
3. The social media and the web has an impact on our health. Many of us are now sitting in front of computers instead of going out and exercising. We're becoming more sedentary. It'll impact our heart health and our weight. However, there is evidence that suggests that reading health articles, calorie counter apps, support groups, pininterest (pinning healthy recipes and fun exercises) can motivate others to move more. It depends on the individual but most likely, people are sitting in front of the computer all day. 

The social media and the web is like a double edged sword. It's a curse and a blessing. It makes our lives easier but it can also have an impact on your relationships and health. 

Now, here's two questions for you. 

How often do you go online?

What do you mainly use the web for?

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Hey hey everyone. How are you guys today?
I'm sorry about my previous post if it had any negative feelings or anything. I just felt like I had to say that. The number on the scale is not important. As long as you are healthy and living a healthy lifestyle, you should be happy with yourself.
Anyway, this week has been really busy. I'll talk about it later in the post. For right now, I'm going to give you guys my chicken salad sandwich recipe. It is actually a Southern inspired recipe. I hope you guys enjoy it!


Ingredients:

• 12.5 oz can chicken breast, drained
• 1/3 cup chow chow (a Southern picked relish dish)
• 2 tablespoon mayo
• slices of bread 

Directions:

1. Mix the chicken, chow chow, and mayo together. 
2. Spread the mixture onto one slice of bread. 
3. Place another slice of bread on top of the mixture. Enjoy! 

I know, this may seem like such a simple recipe. However, it's delicious! You can use store bought chow chow or homemade ones. 

Now, let's talk about my week. 

Monday was relatively a slow day. Nothing really happened that day. Tuesday was the same thing. All I did those two days were attend class and do homework. However, at the gym, FOX40 was there. They wanted to talk about the calories to kilowatts thing at the gym. I'm in the background of that recording! Score. haha. I got to be on TV.

Wednesday, I showed my cousins around campus. It was pretty fun. I didn't really do much that day though.

Thursday was pretty fun and busy. Talking to professors, doing homework, going to class, working out, you get what I mean. It was my night class day and my group finally got something together for our debate. I also finally got some Panda Express. They added a brown rice option and I just had to try it. I got the brown rice, honey walnut shrimp and the mushroom chicken. It was yummy! I love honey walnut shrimp.

Also on Thursday, there was a Farmer's Market in front of my school's bookstore. I bought two freshly made granola bars from a local bakery. They were so good! Chocolate Chip Granola Bars and Harvest Granola Bars. The chocolate chip one also had coconut in it. The harvest one had some raisins. It didn't have chocolate chips though. It was more like a cake than a granola bar. Still yummy! I so wanted to buy the strawberries but I didn't want to carry them around school all day and night (because of my night class).

Yesterday was a pretty chill day. I ran 6 miles! I rarely have the time to run 6 miles. It feels so good running! I walked a mile after. I also talked on the phone to a friend who's been so busy. It was nice.

Today was dentist day. Meaning, teeth cleaning. I guess everyone has to see their dentist at least once or twice a year, right? I would say so.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now!

Do you like going to the dentist?
Have you ever been on TV?

Body Image

Mirror mirror on the wall, why do you always lie to me?

Looking in the mirror, I am dissatisfied with my body. I admit it. I've always been. But, I know that I need to change that. 

It all started when I was overweight in middle school. I was always jealous of the "skinny" girls that got all the guys. I finally lost 30 lbs by my freshman year of high school and you know what? I still saw myself as fat. My family, on the other hand, was worried about me. My bones were sticking out and they said I was too thin. 

I had severely restricted my eating to 1200 calories a day while switching unhealthy foods to healthy foods and exercising about an hour a day. That was a big change from not exercising and eating fast food a lot. My parents say that I didn't grow taller because I wasn't eating enough during that time. Now that I look back at it, they were right. 

Finally, during my sophomore year of high school. I gained some muscle and fat. I was at a healthy yet skinny weight. I even started yoga. My grandparents from Canada, who visit once a year, told me that I looked so much better and healthier. I was happiest with my body then. Sure, I didn't like that my face was fuller but I was eating enough for my body and I was still exercising. However, all of my workouts were cardio based (running). 

Sure, I did videos like the 30 day shred, jump-roping, yoga, pilates, hula-hoop, swimming and circuit training. But, I wasn't lifting weights. Real weights. I didn't have much muscle. And, I still saw myself as fat. I still wanted to lose weight, so, I increased my exercise time to about an hour and a half. 

I gained about 10 lbs near the end of my junior year of high school. I guess it made sense since I stopped counting calories during that time and I was really stressed out with AP tests and everything. I was also running an hour a day, which was bulking up my thighs (which I did not like). I used to only run 20 to 30 minutes. I did not like the number on the scale and it made me depressed and angry at myself. How did I gain the weight? I was running every single day for an hour! I was getting so frustrated. 

Finally, I started counting calories again and I lost those 10 lbs by the beginning of senior year. But, I also had increased my exercise too. I was exercising everyday and I wasn't taking any rest days. And, as you know, rest days are important as exercise days. My weight fluctuated a few pounds the rest of senior year.

Then, came my trip to China and instead of a rest day, I took a rest month. And, you know what? It felt bad to not exercise like I was at home. I didn't exercise at China, except for all the walking we had to do. However, I realized that my body needed the rest. After coming back, I started exercising again and eating more healthy. I lost a few pounds and I became more satisfied with my body. That is, until I learned about weight training. I felt and looked weak since I wasn't that strong.

I finally started weight lifting earlier this year. Sure, I have gained weight. But, I also grew stronger because of it. The body needs weight/resistance training as well as cardio. I think that now, I have found a balance with my exercise. I may not be happy with the numbers on the scale but I am now finally more satisfied with how my body looks. It's healthier now. I shouldn't compare myself to others. We're all different. I also learned that the numbers on the scale doesn't translate to how you actually look. 

Quinoa Pancakes

Hey hey everyone. How are you guys doing today? I'm doing fine, thank you very much. I'm just here to pop in and give you guys my quinoa pancake recipe.
I've been wanting to make pancakes for a while and finally, I decided to make them.
I assure you that you won't regret making it. This recipe is yummy and healthy. Enjoy!
It can be made vegan if you use an egg substitute such as a banana or some flax seeds mixed with water.



Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 packets stevia
• 2 tablespoon agave
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients.
2. Heat up a non-stick skillet or a non-stick pan to cook your pancakes in. 
3. Spray with non-stick spray. 
4. Pour 1/4 cup mixture for one pancake. Wait until it bubbles and then flip. Cook for another minute on the other side. 
5. Continue doing this with the rest of the batter. 
6. Enjoy with whatever toppings you want. I love eating pancake with either sugar free chocolate syrup, peanut butter, bananas, or recently, Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. 

I hope you guys enjoy these. =) 

I know I will be enjoying these with Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. I'm totally addicted to it. 

So, do you guys like pancakes?

Have you guys tried Cookie Butter before?

What do you like to eat your pancakes with?

Fun Picnic Day

Yes. This cow was at the U.C. Davis Picnic Day. Don't worry. It was either painted or a suit. I don't remember which. But, that sure did catch you attention, right?

tomato plant

And, yes. I went to Picnic Day yesterday. I think it was their 99th Annual Picnic Day. And, to tell you the truth, it was my first time going. I mean, my cousin and friends attend (or have already graduated  from there, but I never attended their picnic day until yesterday. I'm happy to say that I'm glad that I went. It was so much fun. Everyone that attends Davis (and their friends and family) come. I even saw a car with a license plate from Texas.
Anyway, back to Picnic Day. I went with a few friends and we got a lot of stuff from there. The first thing we did was get a sample of the nitrogen ice cream they made. Nitrogen is much cooler than ice so, it freezes the ice cream mixture a lot faster. Then, the gas evaporates. It was so good. We also watched cockroaches race. It was pretty interesting (I hate cockroaches!).
We then watched part of the parade. There was so much to do. There were exhibits about entomology (the studying of plant diseases) and things about animals too. I wanted to learn more about the entomology part since where I work, it's part of what they do. It was pretty interesting. We got a free tomato plant and a free strawberry plant. I can't wait until they grow. I want my strawberries! Here's how they look planted in my backyard. You can't even see the strawberry plant since it's so small!

strawberry plant

We also did some honey tasting and it was pretty tasty. I thought that I would like the pomegranate honey but it was the least of my favorite.
My friend,  Amanda, was brave enough to do some maggot art. I was creeped out. They put maggots in paint and we'd use tweezers and place the maggots on paper. They would move around. leaving the paint there.
We also got to hold baby chicks, which was fun. The chick didn't like me though and jumped out of my hand a couple times. They're so cute!
There were other animals too. My friends pet a horse and they held a rat. I didn't though. I'm not really an animal person. I do think animals are cute but I wouldn't want to touch them. There was also a cow there that kept mooing really loud. That's another reason why I want to be a vegetarian again...
Anyway, there was also an exhibit of how to separate DNA. I did this experiment in my AP Biology class in high school and it was fun. We separated strawberry DNA.
We wanted to play Laser Maze but they sold out of tickets once we got there.
There were also a lot of samples that we got. I got pens, pencils, a calender, post it notes and that stuff. There were some venders there that were giving out free samples. Here's a picture of the samples:

The coffee sample is suppose to be easy on the stomach. The LundBerg Sante Fe Barbeque Rice Chips and the Short Grain Brown Rice are gluten free, organic, and GMO free. They're healthy and environmentally friendly, which was the main point of the picnic day. It had a lot of things about the environment.

Anyway, that was basically what we did at picnic day. Oh yea. My friends kept taking pictures of dogs since the dogs looked so cute.

After walking around for 4 hours, we finally decided to sit down and eat lunch. We decided to go off campus to eat. But, while driving there, we saw my cousin crossing the street. He saw us and he called me, asking where we were going. Of course, we were going to In-N-Out to eat. He actually joined us later on. But, he had to leave early since had another event to go to. I ordered the protein style hamburger at In-N-Out and it was pretty good. It was a bit messy though....

After eating and that stuff, me and my friends went to Trader Joe's. Apparently, their bananas are really cheap. I haven't been to Trader Joe's in so long! Here's what I got, but I wish I bought some bananas too.

I got all Trader Joe Brand items. I got the Smooth Unsweetened almond milk, the Spicy Black Bean dip, the Dark Chocolate with Raisins and Pecan, and of course, the Trader Joe's Cookie Butter! I've heard reviews about the cookie butter and the spicy black bean dip. I actually ate the cookie butter this morning by making a sandwich with it. It was so good. It tastes like a cookie! I drank coffee along with it.I'm also excited to try the dark chocolate bar. The combination sounds pretty interesting.

After Trader Joe's, we drove back home. Then, my family went shopping. I bought a cool new creamed colored lace t-shirt. Then, we went to a grocery store and we bought honey-glazed turkey breast to make sandwiches with, and some all natural skippy chunky peanut butter. We bought a lot of other things too for the week.

And, that's about it. My next post will be quinoa pancakes. Be on the lookout for it! Then, the post after that will be about body image.

How was your weekend?
Have you tried Trader Joe's Cookie Butter?