XOXO

1. Made great friends
2. Stopped counting calories
3. Eliminated any and all forms of bingeing that was trying to stick around
4. Thrown out my scale
5. Stopped judging myself so harshly
6. And learned the pure JOY of creating meals!!

Needless to say that in 6 short months I have grown tremendously and become a really strong person both mentally and physically.  I hope that through this blog I may have enlighted some of you to new things! This all being said, I will still be reading blogs actively and commenting because I still OBVIOUSLY love health/food blogs!! It has been a pleasure and an honor to blog for all of you Also, if anyone wants to put a guest Way Back When Wednesday on their blog i’d be MORE than happy to guest post, just ask!! (I will still have my quarterlifewellness@gmail.com email; also jilljub310@gmail.com)

Welp, as my Poppa would say, 10/4

So long, farewell

Let's not let this be too serious

Jill & Noodle love you all!!

Way Back When Toy:

Teddy Ruxpin! This little guy had tapes that you put in his back with a corresponding book you followed along as he read to you. Grubby (his little worm friend) also read and I think you could actually hook them up together so the whole freaking forrest could read you to sleep, ha. I had both, but at some point in college I had my mom bring me teddy and some tapes (weird, I know) and he’s not as friendly as I remember. In fact, his reading voice is quite creepy, and his mouth movements are laughable. I spit on 80/90s technology. haha

Hilarious photo I found when I googled Teddy Ruxpin

Way Back When Music:

F*ck It (I don’t want you back) by Eamon. I searched and there are no pictures in the history of google of this guy. But this song was HUGE my freshman year of college. Here is a link to the youtube video if you don’t remember!

Way Back When Clothing/Accessories:

Starter Jackets!! I mean you were not cool in grade school unless you rocked one of these babies. I remember my friend Catherine and I used to like squat all the way to the ground (but still on our feet, kind of egg shaped, if this makes sense) and pull the jackets over our legs to keep us warm on cold playground days. Weird i know.

Way Back When Crush: Vincent Kartheiser, omg! I LOVED this kid in the movie Alaska with Thora Birch. He was also in Little Big League (classic) and another unknown movie called Strike! with Kirsten Dunst. The funniest thing is he is in Mad Men (which as you know I LOVE) so our relationship has come full circle I was trying to convince Joey he was a big hearthrob back in the day and here’s some more proof!

He was even in a Calvin Klein ad!

Way Back When TV Show:

I Want A Famous Face. So, this show was slightly disturbing, but it was also just interesting to see people who actually thought they could change there lives by “becoming” Brad Pitt or Britney Spears. Cwazy peeps. Also I love surgery shows.

Way Back When Movie:How huge was this movie back in the day?! I remember we had a VHS copy of this movie in one of those big plastic containers, they almost looked like a book! haha.

Way Back When Food:

Cinn-a-burst gum! I think this is the gum that you could also eat the wrapper. There was also mint-a-burst. I remember that this gum had a lot of flavor for about 2 seconds and then it got bad fast.

Well that’s it for Way Back Wednesday!! Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I always do

Something Fun:

I LOVE crappy reality tv shows (a quality Joey LOVES about me). In fact, a few years back I even dressed up as Jes the season 1 winner of Rock of Love for Halloween.

Devil cop?!, Jes from Rock of Love, and Ugly Betty!

My shirt says “Mrs. Bret Michaels” and yes, I had it made. haha.

What’s your favorite crappy reality show?

Dinner last night: I'm officially obsessed with this brand of frozen rav. It has 2 servings so it's perfect for a quick meal! This was Joey & I's FAVORITE filling so far!

Excellent vino for the night. Crios also makes my favorite malbec of all time, and it's about $15.

Completed dinner: Rav's with parm on top, roasted asparagus from the farmers market, and fresh greens from the market with a glass of wine

Daddy daughter time

Me making lunch, I'm weird I know

Attempt to roast celery (my "brilliant" idea) and artichokes for lunch. The celery was nasty even with melted parm on top

Lunch: sliced egg, artichoke, pesto and iceberg lettuce sammy with pesto. Excellent.

Outfit for dinner out tonight with Joey! It's his last day of his second job. My man works hard for the money. Don't you love this dress?! $19 from Marshalls.

Something Fun:

I am such a mama’s girl, especially when I am sick. I am happy to say that Noodle is the same way! We had some really excellent cuddle time last night when she was not feeling well. I’m a daddy’s girl when it comes to humor though. My dad and I are both very weird and dry in the humor department Obviously I love both my parents though!! Are you a mama’s boy/girl or a daddy’s boy/girl?

Well that’s it from me, off to dinner at The GastroPub again!! We SERIOUSLY loved this place!! I will actually take a pic of my food tonight I promise Have a great night!

For some reason I CANNOT get the mouth to match the voice when I upload. My apologies, but you should still watch to see the shoes

On a quick side note with the bbq, I have a quick question. What would you do if a teacher of yours, who you aren’t close to, is having a bbq and you pretty much eat vegetarian? Although I do eat a little meat, it’s only when I REALLY want to, and I don’t want to eat meat just because I feel obligated too. I know in a lot of situations I would talk to the person and/or bring a dish, but this is a really weird scenario because we aren’t really close or anything. I think I’m just gonna stick to eating the side dishes and have a sammy beforehand. Also the bbq isn’t until 1 so maybe I just got hungry, right?! Your input is much appreciated!

Also, here’s a little food porn of pizza night last night:

Roasted mushroom with goat cheese and pesto

My 1st serving, duplicate for serving 2

OK, now on for the main event. If you are a frequent reader of my blog you might remember my OhSheGlows overnight oats FAIL.  The thing is, since I have been prepping iced coffee for my breakfasts I have decided more and more that I LOVE not having to make a meal when I get up in the morning, I just want it to be ready. So, I was determined to make an overnight oats recipe work. Well I’m happy to say I found great success as Borat would say

Ingredients:

1 full nanner (1 min in the microwave and mashed)

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk

slightly less than 1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp TJ’s creamy peanut butter

cinnamon to taste

drizzled a tiny amount of honey

Instructions:

1) Microwave the nanner

2) Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix

3) Cover and put in the fridge overnight

4) Wake up in the morning and enjoy!

These were soooo good, the banana added a great amount of sweetness and they had just enough chia seeds to add volume, but not over crunch (actually they were not “seedy” tasting at all, which was really nice)

Well that’s it from me this morning! Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Something Fun:

I am a HUGE baseball fan, in fact in the future I want an Airedale Terrier named Henry Albert (Henry because it’s a cute name and Albert for my man Albert Pujols of course!!) Needless to say, my Astros fan bf isn’t the biggest fan of that idea. HA!

Who is your favorite baseball team??

*On this note CONGRATS to Dallas Braden for the perfect game yesterday and for pissing a-rod off a few weeks back

I realize i look weird in this pic, but we really did nap like this on the couch

Did everyone have a good weekend? I did for sure! Joey and I went out to eat on Friday to celebrate! We went to a local place called Farmers GastroPub and it was AWESOME!! They use all local/natural ingredients and there food is OFF THE HOOK. I got muscles and fries and this is the soonest I could take a picture

Whoops! I clearly hated the meal

The GastroPub is also cool because there are two distinct sections of the restaurant, a pub and a bistro area. It also has 2 different menus.  We ate in the bistro area and they were having a theme night of a french bistro so there was live music and people painting pictures! It was awesome.  They were also serving both menus in each part, and my meal was EIGHT DOLLARS!! It was insanely cheap and some of the best food I’ve had in ages. Joey and I really enjoy checking out new restaurants (mostly non-chain if we can help it) in our area so I highly recommend everyone going outside their comfort zone and trying something new!

Saturday I had a girls night with the females in my I/O psych program. It was really nice to get together for one last time. I typically bring desserts to our get togethers so this time I made CanYouStayForDinner’s sugar cookies.

Her recipe said it made 30 cookies, but I ended up with 40!! This isn't all of them!

These cookies were sooo easy and delish! They have been a huge hit with everyone who has eaten them. I followed her recipe to a T, so I won’t re-write it, just click the link and follow!

Today I was craving egg salad (I have been for a few days now) and then I saw HomeCookedEm made chicken salad yesterday and it was game over, I HAD to make it for lunch.  I have never made egg salad myself, I honestly think I’ve only ever had it made by my grandma, ha, so I needed to find a good recipe! One of Joey’s favorite recipe websites is SimplyRecipes so I popped over to the site and found a great recipe.

Ingredients for 2 Sammy’s:

2 hard boiled eggs

*Let’s get to this first, the lady had the easiest way to hard boil an egg. Put eggs in a saucepan and fill with water 2 inches higher than the eggs. Add 1/2 tsp of vinegar (you can use any kind you have, for instance I only had apple cider vinegar) and salt to the water. Cover pot and bring to a boil. After the water begins to boil move the pan off the heat, keep covered and let sit for 12 minutes. Then put the eggs in a bath of ice water for a few minutes, and then peel that’s it! Simple!

2-3 tbsp mayo

2/3 of a stalk of chopped celery

2/3 of 1 chopped green onion

2 leaves of lettuce

curry powder to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Chop up the egg and mash a bit with a fork

2) Mix with all other ingredients in a small bowl

3) Toast the bread (I used Walmart’s Seeded Rye bread, it was sooo good! And only 80 cals a slice)

4) Construct your sammy

Enjoy!

Had some bbq soy crisps with mine

Since then I’ve done 4 loads of laundry

Noodle helped

, the dishes, painted my nails, dusted, blogged , and watched an episode of Mad Men (only 3 more episodes of season 3 left!!). Phew! Heading to Joey’s tonight for Pizza Sunday, YUMMERS!!

Before I head out 2 product reviews:

TJ's version of Ezekiel, 1/2 the price and super delish!

I am currently LOVING GardenBurgers. They are low cost and both the kinds that I have tried are 100 cals. Joey tried the Mushroom burgers and seriously loved them.

Well that’s it from me here. I think I’m gonna add a little section to my blog called Something Fun. I am basically gonna tell you a little something funny about me and ask a question! Hope you enjoy

Something Fun:

Under my coffee table I have nothing but THREE varieties of Scrabble. One old school, one classy Lands End Edition on a lazy susan, and 1 card game of Scrabble Slam. Needless to say, I LOVE scrabble.

What’s your favorite board game/fun game in general?

Way Back When Toy:Magic Nursery Babies! These little suckers came with a gown (or something like that) that you put in water, it dissolved and you found of the sex of your baby! ha.

There were many variations of this doll, which I had all of them. In fact, here is a Magic Nursery Newborn I had!

This one you could open/close her eyes with water

Lastly, was Magic Nursery Pets, I know I also had one of these (man I was Magic Nursery spoiled!!)

Way Back When Music:

Not REALLY a song, per say, but the youtube phenomenon AISHA!! Hahaha. My freshman year of college this was THE video that we just laughed our ass off to.

Way Back When Clothing/Accessories:

Sambas! Ok, I know these suckers are still around, but you were the ish at my grade school if you wore sambas or shell toes

Way Back When Crush:

Brad Renfro! It seems to be a running trend that a bunch of crushes I had committed suicide, no bueno. He was in The Client & Apt Pupil, also Huck & Finn with another crush, JTT.

Way Back When TV Show:

Did you ever wonder, what would happen under, under the umbrella tree! I LOVED this Disney Channel show.

Way Back When Movie:Blank Check!! This was one of the funnest kids movies EVER! I dreamed of someone hitting my bike and giving me a blank check

Way Back When Food: OK, not really a food, but the BK Kids Club Gang! Now that I see the Wheelchair kids’ name is “wheels” seems a little odd. ha.

Well, that’s it for WBWW today!! I think today was a really good one Hope everyone enjoyed!

I wanted to share with your guys that the other day I took the plunge and threw out my scale!!! First I wrote a little message on it I DESERVED to throw it out because my health is about feeling good and creating an active/able body, NOT about a number. It was a little weird when Joey asked “where did your scale go?” a few days back, but I explained to him that I could be having a good day, and then weigh myself and just feel crappy. Honestly I felt a little weird, but he’s always so supportive so it didn’t phase him. I think unless you are able to not be “owned” by the scale everyone should throw these things out and SCREAM BIATCH! YOU DON’T OWN ME!! ha!

I also found this incredible song by B.O.B. (I recommend this album if you haven’t heard it) called Ghost in A Machine and it was scary how much some of these lyrics used to describe me:

Tell me where am I supposed to go?
And who am I supposed to believe.
If only you knew what I knew.
Then you could see just what I see.

[Chorus:]
So I grab my bags and go, as far away as I can go.
Cause everything ain’t what I used to know.
And I try to hide, but I just can’t hide no more.
There’s nothing worse than feeling like a ghost.

I think of the running away as what I used to use food for, when I was confused/sad/stressed etc I would “run away” to that comfort, where I was alone, and that in turn turned me into someone with a numbness and I felt like I didn’t matter, like I was a ghost who was screaming at times, and no one heard. I am so blessed to have overcame that feeling. Life IS worth living to it’s fullest EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

OK now since I have been pretty serious this post, I thought I would share something really funny from my past. You guys might not know this, but I used to be REALLY in love with Zac Efron, I mean ya a lot of girls had posters and such, but no one I know had this…..

A ZAC EFRON CARDBOARD CUTOUT!!!

I found this gem online for like $40 and I HAD to have it. He immediately became a part of the family he even

Came to pool parties & even DJ'ed (sorry you cant see the boombox)

Drank champagne to celebrate Emmy's 23

Was peer pressed into smoking candles with us (yes, that's a candle, I'm weird)

And helped host Christmas parties!

Hahaha. Sadly, when we moved Zac decided it was time to part ways, and left me for a classroom at my mom’s grade school. Ha!

Well I hope you guys enjoyed a little taste of my goofiness!

Lastly, wanted to share my yummy lunch. I decided from now on I’m just gonna share my random/fun meals. I get tired of trying to post every meal. Hope that’s ok! Lunch was 2 eggs, 1 roma tomato, and some TJ’s chorizo. OMG SOOOO GOOD! I am seriously obsessing over this soy chorizo.

Eggy mix wrapped in an ezekiel tortilla. Had blueberry Stoneyfield yogi on the side, I LOVE this flavor

So for a final wrap up, why do you guys deserve to throw out your scale?? And have you ever felt like a ghost?