1. Make the bed every.single.day. Check!
2. Stop shopping so I can save.my. money. Haven’t really been able to save just yet, but I haven’t shopped, so..Check!

On the health/fitness front, I have to admit that I haven’t been doing very good.. at all, however I feel more confident this month and have a better attitude about it. That or the fact that my wedding is 7 months away, nbd.

I have some fabulous and exciting news – for myself.  First, I will become roomies with my fiance in the magnificent city of Chicago in less than a month!  Our building has a fitness center and ::gasp:: an outdoor pool! I’m hoping with the fitness center being a few floors down I will have no excuse but to visit it occasionally throughout the week, and maybe I can even get my partner in crime to motivate me Secondly, we booked our honeymoon!!

Destination: Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora!

Hello, paradise!

Please, watch your step as you enter our sweet little over-the-water bungalow.

I mean…

Okay okay, I’m done making you all jealous! Just kidding  noimnot. :0  Back to business – I tried out a recipe (zucchini pancakes) from skinny taste with a few alterations because I didn’t have all the ingredients and I must say I really enjoyed it!

Here’s the recipe:

Zucchini Pancakes
Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 5 pancakes • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 134.9 • Fat: 4.7 g • Carb: 16.2 g • Fiber: 3.5 g • Protein: 8.7 g • Sugar: 2.1 g
Sodium: 0 mg (without salt)

Ingredients:

• 2 medium zucchini, grated
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh chives
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 6-8 tbsp whole wheat flour
• kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste
• olive oil spray

Directions:

Grate zucchini using the large holes of a cheese grater and place in a large bowl. Add flour, shallots, garlic, parsley, chives, eggs, cheese, salt and pepper. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and spray oil to cover pan. Drop tablespoons of the batter into the skillet. Cook about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown. Set aside and keep warm. Spray more oil in the skillet as needed, and continue with remaining batter. Makes about 20 small pancakes.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/06/zucchini-pancakes-225-pts.html

Here is how her’s turned out:

Her recipe calls for whole wheat flour which is what I omitted, so mine were less ‘pancake’ like and more crispy like I guess. I also only used one zucchini, so I cut everything in half.

Here’s how mine turned out: A hot mess, but nonetheless the taste was delish.

zucchini cakes

Next time, I would pat dry the zucchini because it was too watery. I don’t feel that it needs flour unless you want the cake like consistency in which case I would say follow her directions – she knows what she’s doing!

Last night I tried a cauliflower pizza crust and it was INCREDIBLE. I will post the recipe tomorrow!

Love words for the month of February:

Sometimes – or actually a lot of times- we tend to romanticize a different life than what we have. Or we compare ourselves to others and what others have.  Through experience I’ve learned that no matter which side of the grass you’re on, it won’t get green unless you water it yourself. If you want something bad enough you will do whatever you can to make it happen otherwise you’ll just make an excuse. This applies to every aspect of life, whether its fitness goals, career goals or life goals. When you want something you’ll do whatever it takes to get it and if you don’t, then you don’t want it badly enough.  Nothing in life comes for free or without work or effort.  Typically the things that mean the most are the hardest to achieve, but are also the most rewarding in the end. Forgive me for sounding like a preacher and trust me I need to practice what I preach because I, too, get caught up in the “grass is greener” effect, but when I look at what is important to me and my life and see how blessed I truly am, I get over it!

No one has it easy and even when it looks as if they do, they don’t. So, stop comparing yourselves to others and start holding yourselves accountable for your own life and strive to make it a great one!  That is my motivational speech for the day.  Remember to drink that H20 for thirsty Thursday!!!  ;)

More words of wisdom:

“When you stop trying to change others and work on changing yourself, your world changes for the better.” ~Unknown

Start a new tiny habit and eventually that will turn into a major habit, thus resulting in change! Like I said before, small goals take you to big ones and this applies to habits as well. I guess we should just trick ourselves into making something a habit until it truly becomes second nature.  Fake it ’till you make it!!! 

Change is uncomfortable

And a little something to think about….

“If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” ~Mary Engelbreit

Weekly workouts unveiled:

Thursday 01/10/13: HIIT sprint/walk for 30 minutes (had the case of the itchy pants)

Friday 01/11/13: Nothing

Saturday 01/12/13: An hour of Zumba

Sunday 01/13/13: HIIT sprint/run/walk combo for 30 minutes (no case of the itchy pants!!)

Three times a week (week 1) accomplished. Boom!

My run on Sunday was pretty rough because I was so sore from Zumba, but I pushed through and, thankfully, I didn’t start itching like a madwoman, but the jiggles were still present…unfortunately.

This weeks workout plan:

Monday: Yoga class or HIIT (I’m leaning toward HIIT since its 30 minutes – I’m always looking for shortcuts)

Tuesday: Hip Hop Class

Wednesday: Latin Fusion (similar to Zumba)

Thursday: Hatha Yoga if i’m up for it and needing a good stretch

Fri,Sat,Sun, Mon: Off on vacation to Toronto to visit my bestie!!!!

PS: I booked my ticket to Florida for my cousin’s Bachelorette party in April. In three months I will need to be in a swimsuit. Shit just got serious.

PSS: I would talk about last night’s fashion at the Golden globes, but I was incredibly disappointed.  There were only two people that stood out to me…

1. Jessica Alba in Oscar De La Renta – looking better than I have ever seen her before.

Jessica Alba Golden Globes 2013

Perfection!! I absolutely loooooove this dress (silhouette and color). Her ombre hair color compliments her skin tone and her orange lip color was a perfect contrast to her dress! Jewels and accessories were also just perfect! Perfect, perfect, perfect. Way to make Oscar proud.  :)

2. Sofia Vergara – This woman knows how to dress for her body.

She ooooozes elegance and sex appeal all at once – a very hard combo to master. Simply stunning!

Other then them, I didn’t really care for anyone else. Sure, some people looked good, but no one else was noteworthy – in my opinion. We’ll see what the E! Fashion Police have to say!

That’s all for now… try and stay awake at work today

The best way to describe my first running experience of 2013:

The only difference is that I did not stop after two minutes. I forced my ass to finish 30 minutes of HIIT and it.was.miserable. I’m not sure if this has happened to any of you, but once I started my ‘run/sprint’ portion of HIIT my entire body – mostly my legs- started itching uncontrollably and I couldn’t help but scratch myself.  The itching was UNBEARABLE and I probably looked like a lunatic or like a person hallucinating that bugs were all over them because I couldn’t stop scratching! This has happened to me before and it’s gotten so bad that I had to just stop all together, but this time I told myself ‘too bad’ and forced myself to endure being uncomfortable. The itching would come when I started my ‘run/sprint’ part of the intervals and go away when I started to walk. Eventually, after about 10 minutes the itching stopped completely and I was able to finish my workout in peace. Hell to the yes. Take that itchy pants!

Since this has happened to me multiple times, I decided to look it up and find out what this was all about.  Here is a small excerpt from an article on livestrong:

Circulation Problems

In some cases, itchy legs might be a symptom of circulation issues — if you haven’t exercised in a while, your body might not be used to it and have trouble pumping blood to your extremities because the capillaries have collapsed slightly. The process of expanding these capillaries can give the sensation of tingling or itching in your legs. Just a few sessions of regular exercise should put a stop to the itching.

Read more:  http://www.livestrong.com/article/341646-itchy-legs-while-running/#ixzz2HgP7fUbQ

In short: my fat ass is out of shape and needs to start running again.

That is all I have for you today, friends. Enjoy your weekend!

Meanwhile…

My plan today: a quick 30 minute HIIT run on the shred-mill.

And of course some funnies:

Let’s go!!!

How do I propose to do this you ask? Well, I don’t really have a well thought out plan – yet- because me and strict plans don’t really seem to work well together. You see, I’m not the type that can just follow a diet/workout plan straight out of a book, so instead I like to create my own ‘plans’ through trial and error to devise something that will work for me. 

I like to keep things simple, so here it goes for the month of January:

• Steer clear of processed snack foods aka junk with one exception: popcorn when I have the munchies and/or healthy cereal for my craving days (because let’s just be realistic here, ladies).
• Any form of exercise three times a week (this number will increase as the months go by.. hopefully) Cardio and or Strength. Whatever, just move!
• Load up on fruits/veggies during the day and stay Lean and Clean at night. Ex: meat, veggies and beans or a whole grain. 
• If sweet tooth hits, dark chocolate or Greek yogurt with berries and honey will have to suffice.  

My goal this month is to rid my body of all the processed junk I fed it and get back into a natural state. I will try to stay as processed-free as possible as that is my weakness, unfortunately, and I feel that adding some exercise is essential to maintain positive energy as well as tone up!

Small goals take you to larger goals. I took my weight and measurements on the first of the month and will report back at the end of the month.  Each month I will try to set a new goal for myself with diet or with exercise and I will be checking in on what has been working and/or not working for me. And let’s not forget that one day may be better than the next. You can’t beat yourself up if you ‘cheat’ or make a mistake. Just move on and do better the next day. That’s all you can do!

It looks like this month is going to call for a little:

Wish me luck!

Taking full advantage of my day off on Wednesday, I decided to rid my house of anything and everything that would trigger my binge-mode instincts and then took a trip to my friendly Whole Foods Market to re-stock my inventory.  Note: Make it easier on yourself and get rid of any food that you cannot control yourself around! There’s just no point.  I’ve tried the whole ‘oh, I’ll just test myself and see how much will power I have’ theory. Bad idea. Always.

Moving on to the most popular topic as of late; New Year’s Resolutions. This year I decided to keep that list nice and simple:

• 1. Make my bed every.single.day. 
• 2. Stop shopping so I can save.my.money.

When I said nice and simple, I meant nice and simple.  It’s really easy to get caught up in the “New Year’s Resolution” charade and have a 20 item list (because we all suddenly want to change so many things in our life) but more likely than not you won’t stick to all of them, so why set yourself up for failure? Things like ‘eat healthy’ or ‘workout’ are just so cliche I can’t even handle it. We should be focused on eating better every day of our lives. We don’t need a new year’s resolution to make us do it!  I guess you could say well, you don’t need a new year’s resolution to make your bed every day either!  And to that I say, touche!  However, if you know me you’d understand I get it though, sometimes we feel like we just need that ‘fresh start’ and what better time then right after stuffing our faces for two weeks straight

For those of us who need to reboot here’s a little motivation that I feel can be applied to anything:

Happy Friday!!

Since Monday, I’ve completed two workout videos targeting arms, abs and those dreadful thighs and a Cardio dance dvd. I.am.in.pain. but I love it! Yesterday I put myself on a detox to make up for the overwhelming amount of food I ingested the day before.  Using my dads new magic bullet, I made a detox smoothie to start my day off right!

Detox Smoothie:

• 1 banana (sometimes I use half, but that makes it more watery)
• 1/3 cup of frozen blueberries
• handful of spinach
• 1 tbs of flax meal
• 1C of unsweetened vanilla almond milk ( you can sub for skim milk if you wish)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend away!

Note: If you ever have problems going to the bathroom I highly suggest trying one of these bad boys

Dinner was an omelet with feta and pico de gallo and some skinny pop to keep me sane. After my workout I had a second wind and decided to whip up a random clean meal for lunch today.

Black Bean Tuna Salad: Makes 3-4 servings

• 1 family size packet of tuna
• 1 can of black beans rinsed
• 1 tbs of nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp of dijon mustard
• 4 tbs of pico de gallo fresh salsa

Mix the tuna with the Greek yogurt and mustard first. Then add beans and salsa and you’re done! That’s a 5-ingredient list right there. Easy peasy delicious and filling lunch made in minutes!

mmmm…

Moral of today’s story: Don’t wait until January 1st to start your ‘healthy eating/workout plan… again.’ Start now

The invite:

Me and my bridal elves all put this together (using tape runner). Four layer card ( brown pearlescent cardstock, gold textured paisley paper – hobby lobby, gold vellum paper and text paper) I got the other paper online.

The room:

Chocolate brown textured linens, copper colored napkins, gold chivari chairs

Centerpieces are natural color branches with metallic colored leaves in gold, silver and copper. 

I love to see my face everywhere so  I made sure everyone got their own little plate…. jk jk 

The food was incredible I must say so myself! 

Sweet Table:

Oh, look there’s my face… again. 

Just in case we forgot our names…

Black and White fun:

Front table with hanging place cards and more pictures of myself… 

Here it is in color for those of you who want to get a better look at my face… 

Greek Dancing.

Twirl me, please!

Drinking my fourth and perfectly made pomegranate martini. 

My big fat Greek family

\

Venue: Rosewood Restaurants
Dress: Alice and Olivia Azala also spotted on Carrie Underwood ( my inspiration for this dress and a whole other blog post) and recently Maria Menounos!
Shoes: Jimmy Choo Cosmic glitter pump
Hair: Kuklas Salon http://www.thesocialbeauty.com/
Amazing Makeup by: Morgan Marie Beauty  http://www.morganmariebeauty.com/
Florist : Phillips Flowers http://www.phillips-flowers.com/
Photographer: George Malamis
Event Planner: Tommy Manikas http://www.manikasdesigns.com