Entry #6. Blueberry Protein Waffles

As I mentioned earlier, I am following a meal plan that my trainer gave me. Every morning for breakfast, I eat 4 egg whites and 1/2 cup of oatmeal. I HATE egg whites so much, they're so hard to convince myself to eat.. especially every single morning. I needed to compromise and find a different breakfast that I could eat about 3 days out of the week. After searching and messing around in the kitchen for a bit, I found a breakfast that I could eat that  would give me about the same amount of protein / carbs in the morning. My later meals had to be adjusted a bit so that my macros met the amount they were suppose to but it wasn't much of a change. 

After trying the protein waffles, I was in love! They're delicious and way easier to eat than plain egg whites! *Gagging 

Recipe:
1/2 cup egg whites
1/4 cup oats
Roughly 14 blueberries
2 tbsp bode vanilla protein
1 tbsp almond milk
1/3 tsp baking powder

Preheat waffle maker. Blend together (everything except blueberries) and place mixture in waffle maker, add blueberries on top. I eat prefer to eat them plain; however, there is a sugar free syrup that Fry's sells! My mom isn't as watchful of the foods she eats and she loves these, especially with the syrup! I have tried the sugar free syrup and it tastes the exact same as the syrup with an excessive amount of sugar in it! 

Entry #5. ASU Offering Shorter Classes

I recently read an article in the NY Times discussing the new 7-week courses that Arizona State University will be providing in January! I LOVE the idea of this! The first half of my first semester at Glendale Community College, I took an eight week English class! It was the best decision I ever made. Now, I am in the middle of my English 102 class! When I first started my English 101 class, I was really skeptical about it. I was really worried about the pace / amount of work and not being able to handle it; however, it was a lot easier than I expected. Don't get me wrong it was still a lot of work and there were times where I struggled, but it was worth a few late nights and hard work. Before I even knew it, the course was over! In just a few short weeks I will have completed two classes, in the same amount of time as one! 

Since I was planning on transferring over to ASU after I complete all my pre reqs at GCC, this is perfect! I will be there just in time to take a few 7-week courses! 

I wouldn't recommend taking a full load of 7-week courses.. but I would recommend taking a few every semester. According to Ryman, "The change is expected to afford students more scheduling flexibility and financial savings as well as add to the bottom line of the university." …. Nothing about saving money and finishing school faster sounds bad to me! I can't wait till I am able to start my career and with the start of more 7- week classes, I am able to begin faster than normal. 

Although the shorter courses aren't for everyone, this students still have the option of completing the traditional 15 week course! Giving variety to the students will bring a lot more people to ASU who are trying to finish quicker! 

Entry #4. Protein Cookies

So lately, I have been DYING for something sweet! I always crave pizzokies.. those things are my biggest weakness! The hot, squishy, chocolate chip cookie and the vanilla ice cream, melting slowly as you eat it with the hot fudge drizzled all over the top. OH MY GOSH.. if you're not drooling right now then you must be allergic or something.

I'm not to sure about the looks of it BUT I heard that at BJ's Brewhouse they have a Cookies and Cream Pizookie! It sounds pretty amazing to me and the lady who recommended it to me described it as "heaven in my mouth" so I'm assuming it's pretty good!

Anyway.. although they sound amazing, one pizookie from BJ's has 1088 calories, 47.3 grams of fat, 104.5 carbs, 64.1 grams of sugar, and 11.3 grams of fat. Broken down, that's 48% fat, 47% carbs, and 5% protein. This is the only reason why I refuse to eat them. Otherwise I would probably give in within a minute of smelling or looking at more picture of them.

After sitting there, dreaming for a few minutes I thought.. "why not make protein cookies, that are a lot healthier than regular cookies, and make ice cream out of protein powder." Greatest idea of all time, right?! 

So as I'm searching for recipes I came across two recipes on http://www.bodybuilding.com/. Both are really simple and not time consuming at all. 

Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies: 

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup of chocolate Myofusion protein powder
• 1/4 cup of coconut flour 
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/4 cup of flaked coconut
• 1/4 cup of milk* 
• 10 ground Brazil nuts
• 1/8 cup sugar-free dark chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 340 F 
2. Mix together egg, protein powder, coconut flour, baking soda, coconut, milk, and ground nuts. 
3. Once dough is formed, stir in chocolate chips.
4. Using a spoon, divide mixture into 12 cookies and place on a sprayed cookie sheet.
5. Put in oven for 15-20 minutes.
6. Remove them from the oven as soon as they cook through. It's good if they're a bit soft in the center. Make sure you don't overcook them because they'll dry up and lose their charm if you do.

NUTRITION FACTS


Per cookie
Amount per serving
Calories: 75.5
Total Fat: 4.8g
Total Carbs: 3.2g
Protein: 3.8g

Above is the original recipe; however, I substituted a few things to make it a bit healthier. I used almond milk instead of regular milk, oats instead of flaked coconuts, and almonds instead of Brazil nuts.

Vanilla Protein Ice Cream:

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized banana, frozen and sliced
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Designer Whey)
• 1-2T almond milk (I use Silk Vanilla Unsweetened)

NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size Per serving, recipe serves 2

Amount per serving

Calories 258

Total Fat4.8g

Total Carbs17g

Protein38g

While the cookie is in the oven, I will then begin to make the ice cream so it doesn't melt before I apply it to the cookie. Once they are both done, I put a little spoonful of the protein ice cream on top of a cookie. Instead of making a huge cookie, I do the little ones because I'm usually satisfied after one and I like to share with my family. They're all obsessed with them too so having a bunch works out perfectly! 

Entry #3. Slanted Report

A slanted report is a passage, article, news report etc. where the author or person telling the news is basically biased, but is aware of the negative effects…( they inform the reader on both the pros and cons of whatever situation is being discussed). Earlier today, I came across a slanted report on the legalization of Medical Marijuana in Arizona. 

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3TnkKNotM/ )

The news reporter, seems to be unbiased about the situation. He never states whether or not he is for or against the legalization of marijuana; however the people he interview are for it. The lady he is interviewing says that before she was diagnosed with brain cancer, she never did pot; in fact, she wrote a paper against it in school. Heather states that before a family member mentioned it to her, she never considered it. She was really ill and was not eating. The family member asked her to consider it, so she did. "I completely see where some people in the public who haven't been diagnosed, or who haven't suffered in any way for medical marijuana to help them, where they're coming from… I get it, but until I was personally affected by a disease, that only medical marijuana could help.. I didn't realize I was ignorant, and now that it came to life or death, there's no question." - Heather

By stating this, she is showing both sides of her, that she personally witnessed. One side being completely against it, and then the next, she's for it. This allows people who are against it to consider the thought of legalizing it because of her personal experience from it. If she wasn't able to take it.. she would have passed away. 

Personally, I was one of those who was unbiased about the situation. Many people that I know, abuse the use of it, and that's what makes me against it.. but then again, it so easy to access now-a-days, that legalizing it will only help people. After watching this video, I am for the legalization of medical marijuana. I never knew the difference, and positive affect that it could have in people's lives. If it could save someone's life.. I'm all for it. 

If any of you are interested in watching the rest of the news report, there is a part 2 and 3 of the video on Youtube.com 

Entry #2. Competition

When I was 12, I played volleyball for the first time, and stopped playing my senior year of high school. It was the hardest decision of my life, but I decided not to play in college and focus on school and work. Since it took up so much of my time, I hardly ever had free time but when I did, all I wanted to do was sleep. After taking a month off, I knew I had to do something active. I was working all the time so I was always on my feet but it wasn't enough!

My sister hired a trainer to keep her in shape and saw amazing results after her first month! In order to keep me motivated, I decided to have the same trainer, Stephen, keep me accountable of going to the gym every day. After completing my first month of training, I went down 2% body fat and lost a total of 6 inches around my body. I was working out for an hour every day and eating really healthy. My trainer gave me a meal plan to follow and pushed me really hard in all of my workouts. Stephen was so impressed by our results and kept suggesting that we train to do a competition. I thought there was absolutely no way I would EVER do that, but after discussing it over with my sister, we thought "why not, let's just do it so that we can say we did it and see how it goes."

We were originally suppose to do the show in November, but my trainer thought it would be beneficial for us to do the show in October to get practice for the show in November, which is known to be a really big show. 

The show took place at the convention center, where a bunch of other activities were going on as well. There was arm wrestling, wrestling, judo, a mini America's Got Talent, and a bunch of booths set up, sampling their protein products or clothing lines. After walking around for a while, and collecting a bunch of free protein samples, I went on stage! I was so nervous but I had a blast! All the ladies that I competed against flew in from other states to compete and had done a minimum of five shows. I didn't place top five but I was proud of how I did, considering I have really bad stage fright and it was my first show! 

 2x Ms Olympia, Ashley Kaltwasser.

 My boyfriend, Corey and I. 

Me and Seth Thurston, the man who owns the gym I train at! 

 My personal trainer, Stephen.

 My sister and I!

Overall, my weekend was amazing! I met so many new, amazing people and a lot of opportunities opened up for me! I met the ambassador of Gym Shark Clothing and he asked me to meet up with in LA on December 19th for a photo shoot for the clothing company! He said the pictures would be used for advertisement and he also asked me to model their clothing at the LA Fit Expo in February! I'm so excited to see what other opportunities open up for me and I'm looking forward to my next show on November 14 & 15th! 

Entry #1. Blogs!

When I think of writing something, I automatically think of your typical english essay or research paper that you are forced to write in class. Nothing about that sounds fun to me; in fact, it's something that I'm sure we've all dreaded or put off to the last minute sometime in our education. Before blogging, I found writing tedious, but now, it's entertaining.

Previous to this year, I was unfamiliar with blogs. I had never even read one, but I'm vastly becoming more interested with them. I am still in awe about all the information and variety of subjects that I have stumbled upon while casually searching through blogs. I wouldn't say writing a blog is for every one but reading them are. I can't even count the amount of different types of blogs that are published daily. There are academic, sports, nutrition, fitness, recipes, personal, craft blogs, you name it.

    I am really into fitness and nutrition so a few of my favorite blogs include information or recipes that I can use sometime within the future. For instance, http://www.skinnytaste.com, which is a blogging site made by Gina Homolka that provides several delicious, healthy, and low fat recipes that are family-friendly. In Gina's blogs, she is very informative, providing step by step recipes with a lot of detail. Before listing the recipes and cooking directions she includes a few pictures of the meal that she is introducing with an explanation of why it is one of her favorites. Out of all of the recipes she has presented, the Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets look delicious, and really easy to make, I can't wait to try them!

   Another blog that caught my interest was the Curvy Girl Guide (http://brittanyherself.com/cgg/). It is a site made by a lady named Brittany where she shares all of her blogs. On her blogging site, it is limited to women only, includes topics like fashion, womanhood, weight, and allows the readers to chat to each other and discuss issues or problems that they're are encountering. The tone that Brittany creates while writing her blog is what kept me interested! It was casual but very professional at the same time! They all consist of humorous statements that displays her personality throughout her blogs. My favorite blog of her is called "Fat girls in bikinis, we're just like you!" (http://brittanyherself.com/2014/03/07/fat-girls-in-bikinis-were-just-like-you/) 

   Aside from a few of the blogs that I enjoyed, one I disliked was "XKCD" (http://xkcd.com/#). In these blogs, Steven, the writer,  portrays his ideas through a webcomic. I am a visual learner so I normally find interest in pictures to get a better understanding of what is being taught or said; however, I do not like how he tries to provide information through the the conversations of stick figures, etc. In my opinion, it does not provide enough detail and it is confusing.