Gastronomy

I haven't posted in a few weeks, not because I've forgotten (which is usually the case) or been too busy (which also happens a lot), but because I haven't felt that I've had much to share.
I haven't found any amazingly inspirational ways to motivate myself.
I've made some good food, but only based on Pinterest recipes.
I've been eating well (mostly!) and working out, but haven't seen much progress.

I guess you could say that I'm in a lull. I've been focusing on getting a real "big-girl" job and traveling all over the state to go to interviews, but I haven't done much when it comes to creativity or things I felt the need to share.

But now I have a thought worth sharing:
For a couple of years now I've been toying with the idea of learning about gastronomy ("the practice or art of choosing, cooking, and eating good food"-Google definition). I'm particularly interested in the science of food. Like, "why am I putting in 1/4 tsp of salt into this batch of cookies- surely that amount won't do anything!" I'm not quite sure how to get started with this unless I want to shell out a bunch of cash in order to take classes about it. And I'm just graduating college- paying even more money to take even more classes already doesn't sound so appealing.
Hopefully I'll find some way of learning this stuff online. I'll probably start with the ever-helpful Pinterest and go from there.

Do you have any experience with gastronomy? Know any good sources I should check out? Let me know in the comments!

The buckeye pie I made for Pi Day (3/14)-- holy cow was it sweet!!

Back to the Grind

Last week did not go as planned health-wise.
I've started to make this week a better one, though!

I made this "motivation wall" on a magnet white board to keep on my fridge. (It smudged pretty
badly pretty quickly, unfortunately.)

Today I started a workout routine that has a workout for each day. It starts with the "Starter" level and moves through Levels 1, 2, and 3. I'm hoping that having small steps to improve each day will help me stay motivated to get moving.

I also started reading a book about yoga because I would like to start working on it. Someday I would like to start going to classes, but until I can, I'm going to learn what I can in order to do it on my own.

Hooray for learning new things!

Week 2 of my Journey

It turns out that I'm even more terrible at posting regularly than I thought!
But hey, I'm only 3 days late for the weekly post.

Last week I managed to work out for the 3 times I had aimed for. One of those was doing a "dancercise" video with my sister. It was supposed to be Latin Salsa, but I still have no idea how to do the salsa. It was fun, though! A lot of the moves were ones we had done in the Panther Marching Band (we danced a lot for a group of band geeks!), so it was fun to do some of it again.

This week isn't going so well. I started my second student teaching placement and have been spending my evenings getting materials together in order to apply for jobs. I'm hoping to do something tonight because I think I'll have a little more time. My plans for the weekend are a little up in the air at the moment, so it's difficult to plan ahead for getting in more movement.

One thing I've been doing well lately is that I've made some suppers that are meant to feed four and started embracing the concept of leftovers. If I keep it up, I'll be able to have a whole week worth of leftovers in my freezer for sometime when cooking just isn't going to happen. Currently, I have servings of two different types of pasta + protein casseroles waiting for me.

I'll try to keep you updated on my progress through my new journey!

Finally Starting a New Journey

For the past couple of years, I've been meaning to eat right and get active. I do a bunch of research to learn the best ways. I'm practically an expert.
Yet I've never been able to stick to a new "lifestyle." I truly enjoy working out, and healthy foods are appetizing.
For the longest time I told myself that I was too busy to get to the gym. I had assignments with deadlines. And after all, sleep is an important step to weight loss!
I'm now officially less busy than I've been since middle school. I can't use that excuse anymore, but I still find it hard to get going.
Today that will change. I'm not worrying too much about what food I eat- I'll eat what I want. I just won't let myself eat out as much as I use to.
I'm getting active. I'm planning on having some kind of workout at least three times a week, more when I feel up to it. The best part? My workouts can be just about anything active.
The weather is improving, so hopefully I'll be able to get out to walk, jog, ride my bike, or enjoy some other outdoor activity. Otherwise, cleaning my apartment and dancing around both count!

My first step along my journey is commit to this blog! I'll check in about once a week with an update of how it's going and what's motivating me at the moment.

Day 1 of my Journey:
I'm getting active TONIGHT. I've got some great music playing, and I can't wait to enjoy my empty apartment in order to dance like a lunatic!
My current motivation is imagining the faces of friends that I don't see very often when they see my new, fit body! (I guess that's one perk of being fairly secluded lately!)

If you want to join the journey with me, comment below. We can hold each other accountable!

Slacking

I kind of hate writing blog posts without having pictures to include. But, well.... I've been slacking at taking pictures lately. That's only partly because I haven't done anything very interesting.

I'm in my last week of student teaching at my first school. I've made breakthroughs with these kids, and that feels awesome. More than one student has told me that they wish I could stay. One even said, in a very distressed way, "You can't go! I like you!" It was very touching.

I'll be making around 9 dozen cookies tomorrow night so that I can share with all of my students and the rest of the high school staff. I'm going to miss these students, especially the ones that are in classes of 8. Those students are the ones I've gotten to know pretty well. Too bad it's not more practical to have that small of a class size everywhere!

Anyway, hopefully I'll be taking more pictures and having more interesting things to blog about soon! For now, here's a couple pictures I took while in England. Because I want to go back to England as soon as possible.

I'm still here!

Hello!
I am still around, I promise!
I've been doing a lot of goal-setting lately, and one of my goals is to start blogging more regularly.
I'm also starting to train for a 5k that I hope to participate in in April. This has become difficult due to obligations that have a closer deadline and more severe consequences if I do not follow through on.

Until I can get a blog with some more depth to it, enjoy this picture of me as a snowman for Halloween!

Last Week of Summer

The summer flew by! Usually by this time I'm ready to be back in classes and have people back on campus, but I've been enjoying having time to myself.

I guess that means that it's time to post the remainder of my Pinterest things!
First of all, I painted my nails back at the beginning of the summer. I really enjoyed the watermelon look. I did discover that I should practice using my left hand more!

I made some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins that I was planning to take with me when I went to St. Louis. Unfortunately, the recipe had a minor typo. It called for way too much baking powder. It ended up tasting chemical, and the texture was off. I should have been warmed when the batter was more like cookie dough.

 

Something that I was much more satisfied with was a Mac'n'Cheese dog. There was an actual pin with a recipe for it, but I just took a normal hot dog and put some mac'n'cheese on it. My sister thought I was crazy, but it was yummy!

The rest of my projects were not from any particular pin. First of all, I had some flower pots, so I painted them. The first 3 I made for my mom's birthday. The others are for me. I just have to decide what I'm going to put in them!

 

I was randomly inspired to draw a castle. I didn't want to figure out how to draw the towers, so it ended up being a fortress.

Finally, I've been working on a couple of blankets. The first is a fleece blanket. I got a kit for it years ago and decided to finally do it. I ended up realizing that it was meant to be a baby blanket, so I made it for my family's dog.
The second is crocheted. My intention was to use up old yarn that was leftover from projects that I've completed. The problem was that I had yarn of different weights. I've gotten to the point where I've started taking yarn out of my mom's craft closet that I know she won't use. By now it's about twice as long as in the picture.