100 Workout Challenge....Experimental Food

Okay so I absolutely love Saturdays because I get the whole day to myself where I have no homework and my day is very relaxed. I woke up fully rested and decided that I didn't feel like leaving the apartment very much so the entire day I spent in exercise clothes and I did what I called the 100 Workout Challenge. It consists of:

100 Jumping Jacks

90 Crunches

80 Squats

70 Leg Lifts

60 Jumping Jacks

50 Crunches

40 Squats

30 Leg Lifts

20 Jumping Jacks

and a 10 minute run.

I Am so sore now because of it but I know I am building muscle and creating a healthier and stronger body!

Then for dinner I wanted to try a new Vegetarian Recipe now that I have completed 5 days to being vegetarian :) It is called Polenta with Mediterranean Vegetables!

Here we have the sliced Yellow and Green Squash...

And the sliced Eggplant and Sweet Red Bell Pepper...

Making the polenta with the broiled veggies in the back ground...

Layering the polenta, spinach, and roma tomatoes in a pan...

the finished product, straight out of the oven:) ...

A yummy helping!

After eating the dish I concluded that it was better than I expected but the recipe needs some modifications and alterations. But in all it was pretty good! Then, I was still feeling adventurous so I whipped up a "dessert" of some sort (still off sugar) which was made of:

Dates

Almond Milk

Yogurt

Ice

Frozen Banana Chunks

AND

Nutmeg

The finished product:)

Now this was a SUPER delicious, healthy, and sugar free "treat" that even my skeptical room mates LOVED!! It smells and tastes like Autumn... yummy in my healthy tummy!!!!!!

A Fresh New Start

My whole life I thought that I wasn't any good at sports. That I couldn't achieve success in any sport. No one would pass the ball to me, and I thought that it was because my team mates thought I was terrible which only made me feel that I couldn't do anything-- that I was no good. So as I grew up I just accepted the fact that I was no good. You may be thinking to yourself right about now that this is a sob story, but don't worry, it has a good ending.

Well, fast forward to five days ago, I am in a Personal Achievement class here at BYU- Idaho and the subject is one that I have never thought much about: "Self-Talk." Which is where we are in a constant conversation with ourselves 23 out of 24 hours a day. Think of all the messages that are being sent!! Any way, one thing hit me, and it was that our sub-conscious will believe lies the longer you tell your self them. So for this story, it was the fact that I kept saying that, "I am bad at sports," which led to me not being a lazy non- exercising, no sport playing girl. And now I am see effects of that. So from that moment on, I decided that I really wasn't like that, and that I was going to reverse what all my self-talk had done to me. Now, I am on my way to a fresh and wonderful new clean start! I have dedicated myself to being the best I can be to my body, because as a matter of fact, it is the only one I get and I want to treat myself well. So I have completely changed mentally and I have prepared and studied out what it is that I need to be my very best self.

I have become vegetarian (with the help of TONS of research), I have gone completely off sugar and soda, and I am going to start running. I promised Shaelie I would run a Half Marathon with her next Halloween and I really want to do it and be able to say that I finished something that I never thought that i would be able to accomplish. I want to do it for myself, NO MATTER if people say I can't do it, because inside I know that I can do it. I can do hard things. I just want to feel alive, and clear and free from all the bad that I was doing to my body. I want to know what the healthy Alyssa feels like.

** The picture that I put with this blog post is a quote that kind of gave me my main source of inspiration besides my college class, Personal Achievement.**

A List of All my New Favorite Songs:

(In no specific order)

I Found a Reason-- Cat Power

*Raindrops-- Regina Spektor

That's Beautiful to Me-- Jaron and the Long Road to Love

Almost Paradise-- Victoria Justice & Hunter Hayes

*Holding Out for a Hero-- Ella Mae Bowen

*Never Alone-- Lady Antebellum

Angel by Your Side-- Francesca Battistelli

Carousel-- Iron & Wine

Swans and the Swimming-- Iron & Wine

The Day I Fall-- One More Girl

Hold On to Me-- One More Girl

Hey Princess-- Allstar Weekend

*Domino-- Jessie J

With Your Love-- Cher Lloyd

Perfect-- Hedley

*The Prayer-- Celtic Woman

Spanish Lady-- Celtic Woman

Someone like You-- Adele

Stealing Cinderella-- Chuck Wicks

Cinderella-- Steven Curtis Chapman

*God Gave Me You-- Dave Barnes

See No More-- Joe Jonas

*Superman-- Joe Brooks

Listen To your Heart (Slow Version)-- DHT

Just a Kiss-- Lady Antebellum

I Want You-- Fefe Dobson

Ghost-- Fefe Dobson

Broken Arrow-- Pixie Lott

Need-- Hana Pestle

Skyscraper-- Demi Lovato

*My ALL TIME favorites, as of right now :)

Hope you like the list. They are all great songs for different reasons to me.

Once Upon a Delicious Weekend...

My Room Mate Amy and I Cooking Dinner

Italian Stromboli

Mexican Tamale Pie

Oh the Joys of Thunder Storms on Sundays...

Today has been a marvelous day!! I made chicken salad for lunch, helped taste test my roommate Kaitlin's greek cookies (because i am off sugar--again-- so I could only "taste"), I made sugar free white chocolate pudding (to distract me from all the sugary treats laying around our kitchen. We had a 5 minute thunder and lighting storm and I got to wear my cat hat :) So it has been basically great!!

..............................................................................................................

Also this weekend I didn't have much homework so I decided to bake and cook A LOT so I will post pictures of all the yummy goodness that I made :) But now I am off to the Smith Building on BYU-I campus so that I can play around on the pianos in the practice rooms because i have missed playing so much. I just wish I had my Jim Brickman and Sheet music binder with me so i could play a lot more songs sight reading! But oh well!! Tchao!!

Rainy Day...

Today I woke to the sound of silver droplets. The sky was like smoke and the air felt as heavy as lead. My head pounded, my nose ran and my throat felt like it had an eternal burning itch. I now officially have a cold. To think that I had told myself that I wasn't going to catch a cold is an understatement-- I planned to avoid it like the worst plague that anyone could ever imagine. Did that plan work in my favor? Far from!! I have no idea how it came to be, I have been doing everything possible to stay far away from sickness. I guess I just can't run and hide, sickness seems to always find me-- no matter how blended i may appear. I declared to my room mates that today was to be called a doom and gloom kind of day. It seemed that the weather had sucked all the happiness and sunshine from the world, never to return again. But let us pray that the sun has just enough strength and courage to show it's beautiful shining face tomorrow. I feel if the sun came tomorrow, that it would appear as a saving angel.

Also, my friend Eric went in to the MTC today. It's weird, he said that he wanted to talk to me, he had a party last Friday that he asked if i would come before so we could talk, and yet i found myself hugging him goodbye at the end of the night and he, whispering in my ear, "We never talked..." BOOM!! There were the awful words that I wish i could delete. Tragedy has struck, I will now, never know what he wanted to tell me. We left fate and destiny to the unknown. I have people telling me to forget and move on-- that it's silly to think that there was something there. While others are telling me that he will write me and all is well-- that what happened this summer is true and real. I am lost, I try to push all that deals with him out but I am always reminded. So I am going to see if he writes me or if he forgets me.

I know what happens is all for the best and that I will be okay. One day Love will come knocking at my door, with a warm embrace and a simple bouquet of flowers and all the care in the world.

So may everyone be fine and dandy-- Be well my oh so dearly loved friends!

xoxoxoxo