New Tattoo & Strawberry Chia Seed Jelly

Here's the picture of my new tattoo that I promised. Sorry it's a little revealing! People keep telling me "I can't tell where it is on your body!" so does this explain it? It's on my right hip/thigh area.

I love it:-) But I'm excited to see it in a few weeks. Dee said it will look much better once the colors lighten up and what not. So we'll see!:-) It's definitely different than all my other tattoos. Something without blue or purple in it! lol:-P

"The amaryllis symbolizes pride, determination and radiant beauty--the kind that emanates from an inner source and flowers outward."


I think it's the perfect meaning for why I got it. Losing 80+ pounds took a lot of determination!! I'm very proud of it, and now I'm just so radiantly beautiful!! lol kidding:-P


So last week my friend Caitlin told me about this strawberry chia seed jelly recipe. She said she made it and it was easy, healthy and yummy! It looked soooo easy that I decided to try and make it myself!:-) Here is the recipe along with some pics:-)

Strawberry Chia Seed Jelly

Ingredients

1 cup of chopped strawberries

Truvia or Stevia (or any calorie free sweetener) I used two packets (4 teaspoons)

2 Tablespoons of Chia Seeds

1/2 Cup of water

I chopped my strawberries fairly small, but do whatever floats your boat!

2 packets (4 teaspoons) seemed to be a good amount! I'll find out when I taste it! lol

I put the strawberries in a bigger, microwavable bowl, sprinkled the Truvia on, and stirred to coat.

Once coated in the Truvia, cook in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Remove and continue to the next step.

Add 1/2 cup of water to the strawberries and 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, mix. Once I mixed mine together, I transferred it to a Tupperware container and put it in the fridge. The original recipe said to leave it in the fridge over night, but Caitlin said an hour or so is good.

I know this is disappointing, but I have NOT gotten to try it yet! I know, I know... how rude of me to write a blog with a recipe and not even have any feedback on it yet?! Sorry! lol:-)

I'm going to try it out when I get off work in the morning. I'm so excited! Hopefully it's good. I'm going to make it a lot if it is, since it was so simple! And barely any calories!:-)

Oh, so bad news! I'm not sure what happened, but at some point on Monday, I hurt my foot!:-( I worked out with Lieutenant Bussing Monday morning, but we didn't do anything extreme. A few sprints and mostly upper body. But Monday night at work, it started to hurt when I would walk. Then yesterday, before work, I decided to go for a run since it was SO nice outside! Well, bad idea. It really made my foot hurt A LOT more!:-( I was only able to do a 5k and as soon as I reached that distance, I walked the rest of the way home, which I never do!

I told Lieutenant Bussing and he thinks it could be a stress fracture! I hope not!! I wrapped it in an ace bandage tonight and I'm trying to stay off it as much as possible:-/ He said I shouldn't run for a week...!!!! Booooo! That really sucks because not running for a week really messes me up! *Sigh*  I know it's for the best though. I need it to be healed before the academy starts. I want to be 100%!

Well, I just wanted to do a quick update. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to talk about in my next blog:-/

Thank you for reading<3

*4 more shifts!!!!*

Counting Down The Days

I'm still alive! I've just been slacking lately... a lot! I've had a lot of stuff to do since my last post, and I just never got around to blogging! My apologies:-)

Pictured to the right is the screen of my treadmill. That is my latest personal record for a 5k, which I did on 2/7/12. Yay!! I was pretty excited about that!

Back tracking a little... on 2/4 I went out to Looney's (again) with Rob, and then we were joined later by Alicia. We had a blast!! Drank way too many shots though, and it eventually got to me! To make a long story short, I threw up all over myself, in Roch's bed (Sorry Roch!) and I was just a mess!! So embarrassing!:-/ The worst part of it was the fact that I somehow threw up on my phone, causing it to get water damage:-( So for a few days it wasn't really working. Now it's 95% recovered. The volume is always really low though:-/ So yes, two phones in the span of 8 days... *sigh*

On 2/9 I worked out with a Lieutenant who works for PG County Fire Dept. It was awesome!! He's a real good trainer. Tough, but very helpful. I learned a lot of new things! He was basically just getting a feel for how in shape I was and what I needed to work on, so it was cool!

2/10 was my fire department orientation. It was good!! 9 hours long, but we covered a lot. I got to try on gear, uniforms, class A's, and jackets. It was fun:-) I had to introduce myself to all of my classmates which was pretty nerve wracking, but I think I did ok! Everyone in my class seems pretty cool, so far!:-)

Charlie worked on Valentine's Day, so we didn't do anything. But he did get me flowers, Boordy wine, and wine glasses, which was really nice. I love Boordy wine, and I didn't have wine glasses! lol So it was a good gift!:-)

The following day, I contemplated running 13.1 miles. I had been wanting to attempt it for awhile, but just couldn't commit myself! After some convincing from a friend, I finally just sucked it up and ran! It was sunny and pretty mild out when I started the run, but after 2 hours and 21 minutes, it was dark and cold!!:-(

I actually wanted to stop at mile 8! I'm not sure why I was feeling it so early on, but it sucked. I should have been more prepared:-/ I need to get some kind of water bottle belt, and some energy beans or gel. I only had a measly piece of Quench gum!

I'm not quite sure what kept me motivated to keep going. My legs were starting to get shaky, my knee was hurting, and I could feel blisters forming on my feet. The hardest part was when I got back into my neighborhood and I was only at 11 miles. Which meant I had to run past my house multiple times to be able to reach the full 13.1! So tough. I must have went back and forth in my head about 10 times, trying to decided if I wanted to stop now or keep going. I'm so glad I kept running. I don't think I could have forgiven myself for reaching 12 or so miles, and stopping! That would have been so disappointing to me!

I soldiered on and ran past my house and back, twice. I finally reached my door with a total distance of 13.18 miles (see picture above) and I wanted to die!!! I was in so much pain. I felt like I could throw up. I was also freezing!! I'm pretty sure I got hypothermia out there! I could not stop shivering, yet at the same time I was sweating. It was terrible! I'm pretty sure that's what dying feels like!:-(

After I finally recovered, I took a shower and we went out to Outback for our belated Valentine's Day dinner. It was delish and I definitely deserved it after that run!! I also deserved a big box of chocolates! Mmm:-) It was a good day and I'm super proud of myself! Never would have imagined I could run 13.1!:-)

Let's see... On Friday I worked out with the Lieutenant again. This time it was intense! 10 uphill sprints to start, then lots of legs and upper body, some core, then we ended with 10 more sprints!! Yikes!! I burned a TON of calories! It was great:-)

Saturday was Lourdes's birthday which she had at Barcode in DC. To the right is what I wore:-) I bought that dress at Tjmaxx a few months ago, and I finally got to wear it! Along with my cheetah print heels from Target:-) So cute, but so uncomfortable!! Ouch:-(

We had a good time. The food was yummy and the place was really cute! I've never really been out in DC, so it was a good experience. We took the metro there, too, so that was kind of a fun adventure lol... kind of.

Well, I don't want to bore you with my whole entire week(s) but I just wanted to get you a little caught up.Hopefully I can finish the rest of February out strong! Since I haven't been the BEST at eating or exercising since Valentine's Day!:-/ Major slacking going on here!!!

Oh! By the way, I have a weigh in! Although I've gained like 5 pounds over the weekend, I'll still count it as a loss!:-)

Previous Weight - 150.4

Current Weight - 149.2 (2/12)

Weight Lost - 1.2 Pounds

Total Weight Lost - 82.2 Pounds!

Yipeee! Super happy about that. Now I just need it to stay that way on the weekends!! Hahaha... right;-)



Oh... so one of the main reasons I wrote this blog is because tomorrow I'm getting my tattoo!! Of course  those of you who know me on facebook will get to see a picture of it ASAP! Then I'll post a picture of it on here later. I'm really hoping that my Amaryllis blooms tomorrow! It's soooo close! I'd love to be able to take a picture of it next to my new tattoo:-)

Ok, well I'm starting to get sleepy while writing this so I need to get off the computer! Thanks for reading. Look for a tattoo blog next!:-)

Toodles!!

*19 more days!*

Bye Bye January, It's Been Real!

Happy February peeps! Another month gone by, just like that!

<~~~ WTF? Terrible, I know. That's probably my worst looking calendar EVER! Shame on me. Granted, I usually do drink on the weekends, but most of the time I at least try to work out on Friday or Saturday, before I go out. But these past few weekends, I just ran out of time. Honestly! Not trying to make excuses...

Ok, let me give you the news first. Although most people already know because I put it on Facebook, but I'll say it again...

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!


Woohoo! I got my official letter on Friday!! I was soooo excited to open it up!:-) In April it will be a whole YEAR that I've been in the hiring process. So much work from beginning to end! But it was all so worth it. I can't believe that I really got it! I always used to say "I'll never get hired by a paid fire department cuz I'm too fat to pass a CPAT, let alone be in an academy!" and look at me now! I am ready to take this thing head on! I'm so ready to become even stronger than I already am. I'm excited for the changes I'm HOPEFULLY going to see in my body! It's going to be like boot camp Monday through Friday, so hopefully I get jacked!!;-P

So the celebrations started on Friday night with dinner at Los Chorros with my family! Mmm, it was delicious. I hadn't been there in forever... forgot how good it was! I got a sangria and a pina colada, too!:-)

Saturday night we went to Looney's! My favorite place<3 But first we pregamed at my parents house.  I double fisted some wine and cranberry and vodka lol. Pretty sure I was already tipsy by the time we got to the bar! It was definitely a fun night! I somehow managed to dance on the stage! Hah... oh, and then I lost my phone...!!! *Sigh* Not cool!:-(

Sunday night we celebrated with Charlie's family at Stanford Grill! It's a really nice steakhouse. Mmm! Of course I got filet mignon. Told you I can be good with my eating most of the time, but I will splurge when the opportunity presents itself!;-)

Charlie's mom got me two Coach rings! Love them! And they fit perfect, too:-) I have awesome in-laws!!

Look who's back! Yes, that is the infamous Amaryllis! My dedicated readers know what I'm talking about, as I mentioned this flower in a previous blog and compared it to my weight loss journey:-)

I thought it wasn't going to come back this year! It was seriously so dry and looked dead. I watered it a whole bunch and put it in the window. It didn't do anything for weeks! Then miraculously it just started growing! Yay:-) Can't wait for it to bloom!

By the way, not sure if I mentioned this, but I got an appointment for a tattoo:-) February 21! Finally getting my 80 pounds lost gift to myself!:-) Which happens to be an Amaryllis tattoo:-) I'm excited to see what Dee draws up for me!

So as I was in the middle of writing this blog tonight, I realized that my blogs barely talk about anything weight loss/fitness related anymore lol. Is that bad? Maybe I should concentrate more on that instead of talking about my random life events... Hmmm.

I really need to sign up for the Iron Girl Half Marathon!! It's coming up in April! Yikes.. gotta start training. I'm just waiting for my next paycheck since it's $85!! :-( I'm nervous. I really need to start upping my miles. I was looking at some running forum the other night and it went into a lot of detail about how you should train. I just didn't feel like following those rules though lol. I kind of feel like just increasing my distance by a mile or so each time I run. The farthest I've ran is 10 miles, so I'm pretty sure I could do another 3.1!:-)

Lately I've been pretty good with rotating between running and strength training. So in between my running days, I usually do a Jillian Michael's video. Mostly it's been "No More Trouble Zones" "Killer Buns & Thighs" and "Ripped in 30." I really need to work on my push ups!! I want to be prepared, at least somewhat, for when I start the academy! Push ups are so hard for me... I just want to be great at them!

I've actually been doing really well with cutting out meat, dairy and processed foods! Besides the filet mignon, chicken quesadilla, pupusas, and crab pretzel I had last weekend... lol oh yeah, can't forget the McDonald's! BUT, besides that, I don't ever have that stuff during the week! It's not too bad, really. I just want to start seeing benefits from it! Like some weight loss or something??? Anything??:-( I guess some of the benefits of this diet are more internal than anything. I do need to get a physical soon, so I guess we'll see how my numbers are looking at my next visit!:-) I wonder if I could ever get off my Thyroid medication?

All I have to say is... Hi hater!! :-) I love knowing that people want to copy me! Hahahaha:-)

Thanks for reading, my dedicated fans!!!<3<3<3

Anna