Elf4Health Week 1 Recap

Hey hey everyone. This week was the first week of the Elf4Health Challenges. I'm happy to report that I survived the first week.

This weeks challenges were:

1. Monday: Go Meatless
2. Tuesday: Unsubscribe
3. Wednesday: New Workout
4. Thursday: Make a phone call
5. Friday: Track water intake
6. Saturday: Treat Yourself
7. Sunday: 100 burpees

I'm doing this recap a little early so that I can keep up with my other posts. Sundays are Weekly Goals. Mondays are Tip of the Week, and Friday is Fitness Friday. 

Anyway, back to the Elf4Health. 

• Monday was pretty easy for me. I'm a pescetarian/vegetarian. 
• Tuesday, I realized how many websites I have subscribed too. Some, I forgot about. I decided to unsubscribe to some of them since it was clogging up my inbox. 
• Wednesday was pretty cool. I did a new pilates workout on youtube. It's been a while since I've done pilates. 
• Thursday, I called my cousin! haha. 
• Friday, I drank at least 80 oz of water. I get pretty thirsty. 
• Saturday, which is today, I am going to treat myself to Starbucks. I'm probably going to buy a Gingerbread Latte and a pumpkin loaf. I haven't tried any of the Starbucks foods yet and I really want to know how they taste. 
• Sunday, it's pretty easy for me to do 100 burpees. I'm just debating whether or not to do it all at the same time or to spread it out throughout the day. If I do it all at the same time, then I don't have to worry too much about it after. If I do it throughout the day, it'll help boost my metabolism and get my blood going! However, I may have a hard time fitting it in since I'll be studying. It'll be mys study break exercise if I do it throughout the day. 

Well, that's it for now. I did try a new Insanity workout today and it was pretty intense. I thought it would be a little easier because of my fitness level but I guess not! And, don't worry. I'll post my review for Catching Fire on Tuesday. Be on the lookout! 

How was your Thanksgiving?
What challenges did you take on this week?

Fitness Friday

Happy Friday everyone! How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty nice and relaxing, except for the Black Friday shopping yesterday (or should I say Black Thursday?). My Thanksgiving started off with my own workout routine and eating breakfast. Then, I went on a walk with my extended family around the downtown area. It was pretty nice and the weather was perfect!

After, I went to Walmart to get some Black Thursday deals. Yes, I am calling it Black Thursday because it was Thursday, not Friday, that we shopped! We got some really good deals there! Ha. Serves us right for getting there early. We were lucky that the lines weren't that long at the check-out for us .We rushed through the store and everything. We made it in time for our family potluck dinner, which was pretty nice. I usually bake some sweets but I didn't get to this year because of the shopping. My dad dragged me along so that he wouldn't have to wait too long to get all the special deals Walmart was offering. Oh well. No one missed the sweets (except for my twin cousins, who could eat 10 cookies at once). I am thinking people in my family are trying to eat healthier now, which is a great thing!

Anyway, today's post is suppose to be about my workouts and such. As you have noticed, I've been running less and adding different things into my routine. I want to see if doing less running but doing other things will help improve my physique. We will see though.

How as your Thanksgiving?
How were your workouts this week?

Whole Wheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar

Hola todos! Como están ustedes? Estoy muy bien. Gracias!

Yo horneé galletas el lunes pasado. Tenía una ganas para comerlas! Me gusta comer postres. Es muy mal para la salud pero los postres son muy delicioso.

Translation: Hi everyone. How are you guys. I'm very good. Thanks!

I baked cookies the past Monday. I felt like eating them. I love eating desserts. It is bad for the health but desserts are so delicious!
I wanted to bake something that was more on the healthier side so that I wouldn't feel bad eating them. I came across a recipe from eatgood4life.com and it looked very simple to make. I just had to make them. Well, I didn't have to but I wanted a healthier dessert. It ended up being really good. My mom likes it too.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dark chocolate chips (as much as you want) 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil or parchment paper. 
3. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla extract 
4. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Mix until a dough forms. 
5. Place the dough in the pan and push the dough into the pan, so that it covers most of the pan. 
6. You can add extra chocolate chips on top if you want. 
7. Bake for 25- 30 minutes.
8. Take the bars out and let them cool completely. 
9. Cut them into bars and enjoy! 

Warning: These bars do crumble a little. However, they are delicious! I just had to make these just so that I wouldn't feel too guilty about eating sweets. 

Do you like cookie bars?

What baked goods do you "healthify"? 

Elf 4 Health

I'm so excited to be part of Elle and Lindsay's Elf4Health Challenges! I participated in this last year and I'm so happy to be part of it again. Elle and Lindsay do a great job coordinating, planning and organizing everything.

Well, what exactly is this Elf4Health, you might be asking?

It's four weeks of health challenges that Elle and Lindsay posts! Every two weeks, you are assigned an "elf", who you will talk to and help each other out with the challenges.

Isn't it a cute button? I think it is! It really speaks to the theme of the challenge. Elf, holidays, get it?

Today's challenge is to Go Meatless. No meat eating for today. It's fairly easy for me because I don't eat meat! 

Oh, I forgot to introduce you guys to my elf. Her name is Danica  and she blogs at It's Progression. From talking to her, she sounds like an awesome person! She's studying to become a Certified Holistic Health Coach, which is great! I actually found her blog when she guest posted at Lindsay's blog. I've been hooked to her blog since (although I don't comment). She talks about life, exercise, eating and health. It's a great blog. Go hop over and see! 

How was your weekend?

What challenges are you going to try this week? 

Do you go meatless at least once a week? 

P.S. That is today's tip of the week. Go meatless! =) Also, my professor postponed the chemistry exam! 

Weekly Goals + my weekend

Happy Sunday everyone. How are you guys doing today? 

Well, I'm doing fine, thank you very much. I'm just here to pop in and talk about my weekly goals! 

Last week, I set three goals:

1. Don't drink coffee 
2. Ace my exams
3. Make hummus
4. Unplug from technology

I feel like even though I call these weekly goals, some of these goals I still want to work on in the long term. I don't want to depend on coffee and caffeine for energy all the time. I did drink less coffee the past week but I still ended up drinking coffee. I prepared well for my exams, and I've yet to get the results. 

I did make hummus this week in class and it was decent. We had a faulty blender when we made hummus. There was a hole in it and when we poured all the ingredients in, some of the olive oil came out! We had to  switch blenders, which meant we added a little too much olive oil since we didn't know how much escaped. 

As for unplugging from technology, it is really hard now-a-days to unplug from technology. People are always checking their phones for emails, texts, facebook, instagram or whatnot. It's better to just enjoy life and take things as you go. Emails, texts and those stuff can wait. 

Now, here are this weeks goals. 

Now for happy news, I watched The Hunger Games: Catching Fire yesterday. I watched it with mis amigas. It was such a great movie. 

Image from http://geeknewsnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hunger-games-catching-fire.jpg

I will review the movie later. Jennifer Lawrence is an amazing actress. However, Josh Hutcherson is mine. ;) 

Adios! I'm off to study for chemistry now. 

How was your weekend? 

What are your goals for the week? 

Fitness Friday

Running hasn't always been a passion of mine. From reading my weight loss post, you guys know I hated just getting up in the morning. I wasn't a physically active person. However, that slowly changed and I ran my first half marathon last month! Oh, the joys of running the Urban Cow Half Marathon. The metal was a cowbell! Along with that, you guys read in my earlier posts that I normally wake up at 5 am!

I've been having a hard time cutting down on my running after the half. I've finally cut it down from 30-35 miles a week to around 20 miles a week. There are still days when I want to run longer but I know that my body needs rest. It's been hard trying to revert back to my old workout routine before the half. It's getting close, however.

As for my fitness goals, I'm happy to report that I increased the weights from 15 pound dumbbells to 17.5 pound dumbbells. That's a great improvement! I feel stronger and more empowered now that I have increased the weights.

This is off topic but I cannot believe that Catching Fire is out in theaters today! I've been waiting for it to come out for such a long time. The Hunger Games was an amazing movie and I loved reading the books. I hope this movie doesn't disappoint. I plan on watching it tomorrow with mis amigas. Hopefully, it won't be raining and windy, like it has been here all week. Maybe a cup of hot coffee will change the atmosphere just a little bit.

How were your workouts today?
Are you going to watch Catching Fire? - Jennifer Lawrence is an amazing actress.

Tip of the Week

This week's Tip of the Week is something I need to work on as well. It is a very important tip.

Hit the sack. Get enough sleep!

Here are some reasons why you should get more (or enough) sleep. 

• It will reduce the amount of time you are awake, so you won't be tempted to go for those late night snacks. 
• If you don't get enough sleep, you won't be wide awake to do some necessary tasks. Sometimes accidents happen when you don't get enough sleep. 
• Our body needs to rest. Sleep is when our body gets to rest and repair itself (especially after a hard workout that day!).
• It can help boost memory. During sleep, our brain consolidates and organizes everything that has happened that day. It shapes memory and makes connections. It is suggested that babies sleep a lot more because they are learning so much during the first couple years of life. They are constantly learning new things, being exposed to many things and are growing! 
• It may help with weight lost. Sleep deprivation is shown to have affects on the levels of leptin and ghrelin. Leptin suppresses appetite while ghrelin initiates it. 

As you see, sleep is important. Try to sneak it an extra hour of sleep. Yes, that may mean having to go to bed earlier. 

Do you notice how sleep affects your body? 

If so, how?