Vacation Recap!

Thank you all again SO much for your responses to this post. I never would have guessed six months ago when I first started this blog that anyone would ever read it, let alone comment. You are all amazing, never forget that :)

Today, instead of my usual Fave Five Friday, I'll be sharing a photo recap of my vacation to Estes Park, Colorado! My family and I have been going there every summer for as long as I can remember and it's one of our favorite in-state destinations. Estes Park is a cute little touristy town, but it isn't lame and boring. It's only a few miles from Rocky Mountain National Park (home to the famous Longs Peak) and the town itself has tons of shops, restaurants and outdoor activities.

This was our first time going to EP for the 4th of July and man, was it crowded! It's usually pretty busy on the weekends but this year it was crazy. It was almost impossible to find parking, so we got a lot of walking in ;) But it was cool being there for the 4th, because we actually got to see fireworks. If we'd stayed at home, there wouldn't have been any fireworks nearby because of a fire ban. So it was totally worth all the crowds and stupid out-of-state drivers!




Hummus pizza (vegan)



The pool!

 

Model status (just kidding!)

 

 

Santa likes to drink apparently...



Strawberry froyo in a handmade marshmallow-flavored waffle cone



Lake Estes



My dad--King of the Rock!

Sunshine veggie burger with jalapenos



Chilling by the pool



Fourth of July fireworks

 


Awkward wolf sculpture in a store front



A restaurant that serves cereal?! My kinda place :)



Rainy mountains



Pool time with my sistah



Hugh Jass salad: lettuce, Craisins, strawbs, sliced almonds, raspberry vinaigrette

 


Peace out, USA!



Lawn Lake alluvial fan



Legit license plate purse

What is your favorite thing about vacations?




Fave Five Friday #2

It's that time of the week again...Friday! I love Fridays, but during the summer they don't really have any special significance to me. But last week, I started Fave Five Friday, where I highlight five of my favorite parts of the previous week. It makes Fridays special again. So here we go for number 2!

1. Pinkberry


The first Pinkberry in my city opened up last week! I tried the watermelon froyo with fresh mango and pineapple chunks

 2. Getting some sun


I didn't read but I did jam out to some Lady Gaga!

3. Instagram


It creates the coolest, most artistic photos!

4. Window shopping


It can be even more fun than actual shopping!

5. Jazz music


Jazz is one of my favorite types of music

What was one favorite thing about your week?




Fave Five Friday #1

Thank you all SO MUCH for your support on my last post! I really appreciate all the advice you gave me--if I'm having a 'bad body' day I'll definitely be looking back at those encouraging comments.

I felt like doing a fun post today and I've been seeing a lot of different appreciation-for-life-type posts around the blog world so I came up with my own: Fave Five Friday. Every Friday (hopefully!) I'll be sharing a list of five things I loved about the past week. So here we go for the first one!

1. Embracing my natural hair texture


Wavy is where it's at for me!

2. Brawnies (raw brownies) with Banana Almond Fudge Frosting (recipe below)

1/2 cup almonds (I used mint chocolate roasted)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup pitted chopped dates
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 banana
1 tbsp almond butter

Mix almonds, walnuts, dates and 1/4 cup cocoa powder in food processor until mostly combined. Spread raw brownie batter in small glass baking dish. Blend banana, remaining cocoa powder and almond butter until liquidy but thick. Spread 'frosting' over brownies and freeze until ready to eat. (Makes 8 small triangles or 6 larger ones)

3. Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale



GO ROCKIES!

4. Fashion photoshoot with my sister


So fierce!

5. Laughing out loud at "Bridesmaids"


Soooooo hilarious!

What was one favorite thing about your week?



Just a Quickie ;)

Hi, ladies! Thanks for the good wishes for my exams. I’ve got one down—the advertising midterm—and one to go tomorrow. I’m so ready for spring break!

I just wanted to give y’all a quick update on what’s happening in my life (besides studying, duh!) Today, I wore a skirt with no tights for the first time in probably 5 months! Yes, it was warm enough for my legs to go naked (lol) and I really enjoyed it. I’m usually more self-conscious in shorts than miniskirts for some reason, but I’m planning on wearing my favorite pair tomorrow—we’ll see how that goes!

I’ve been dealing with a sore foot for the past week. I’m pretty sure it was because I was running in shoes that didn’t fit well, and I was overexerting myself when I first noticed the foot pain. It’s in the top of my left foot, but today it’s started to feel a little better. I decided to not run or do any cardio (besides walking to class) for a while. I felt a little guilty about that decision at first, but I don’t want to risk permanently injuring myself because I over-exercised. And it wasn’t worth the pain I was experiencing every time I walked—and I walk a lot!

I haven’t had too many exciting eats lately, besides the last of my Pure bars which I’m loving more and more! Definitely gonna have to get more of those when I get home for spring break. Oh, and I had one of my favorite things at dinner tonight—this vegan black bean lime soup. It’s not really soup, it’s super-thick and basically just beans, but it’s really yummy and it’s got 10 grams of protein and 14 grams of fiber in 1/2 a serving! Even though I am definitely no vegan (still love my seafood and Greek yogurt), I do enjoy sometimes eating vegan meals or snacks. They can be really delicious!

Oh the things you can buy at Whole Foods!

Spring break is just around the corner! I’m loving the warm weather and I’m hoping it lasts so I can play tennis with my dad, go bike riding, tan on my deck and enjoy family dinners outside.

Q’s: What’s your favorite warm weather outfit? Do you like to eat vegan things even if you aren’t vegan?

Busy Bee

Hey girls, thanks for all the words of advice in the last post. I am working on implementing them and hopefully something will change sooner or later. If not, I only have about 8 weeks left of school. I can’t believe in a week, I’ll be home for spring break! My first year of college has gone by so fast, it’s crazy!

I’m gonna be pretty busy this week, but hopefully I’ll get a post in sometime in the next few days, if not, then definitely Friday. I have two exams this week: an advertising midterm on Wednesday (first midterm ever!) and a regular exam in human origins, which is an anthropology class. It’s a pretty tough class so I’m studying my tail off for that one, and of course the midterm because it covers everything since mid-January. I usually don’t tend to get too stressed out about tests, but I do get a little distracted when studying! So I’m going to set a time-limit for myself on Monday when I go to the library so I don’t waste time on my iPod Touch. I tell you, it can be pretty addicting, all the apps ;) I also have a paper due Friday and a big homework assignment due the same day for my climate change class. And all the usual homework and stuff. I hate how the professors try to cram everything in the week before a break, but at least I’ll have a stress-free spring break! I’m so excited for it because I haven’t been home for longer than a weekend since mid-January. I really miss my family and being able to cook food in the oven, stove or grill! I definitely have some recipes lined up, so I’ll be sure to let you know how those turn out (pictures to come!) I’m also planning on doing some trail riding on my bike and long walks on my street.

Here are a few random pictures from this weekend so far. Not exciting, since I’m pretty much just studying and doing homework and laundry. But I have done some yoga and a little cardio, along with some late-night “Say Yes to the Dress” watching. And I’m not gonna miss the new SNL episode tonight!



My afternoon snack plate: half a mushy-ish banana, Kashi TLC crackers and spicy chipotle hummus





I've been putting these in my planner since I started second semester and they really are encouraging!



Q’s: When is your spring break (if you have one)? Any plans? Do you watch Saturday Night Live?

A Pain in the Neck

Literally. I woke up this morning, and the left side of my neck hurt when I turned it in that direction. Ouch!!! So my range of neck motion has been pretty limited today and I’ve been popping the ibuprofen like crazy…jk, I’ve only taken 5 and they don’t seem to be helping a lot. I think hope I slept on it wrong, so it will hopefully feel better tomorrow.

On a happy note, it is finally in the upper 50s/lower 60s here on the Front Range. Woohoo!!! It seriously feels like spring, so I’ve been bustin’ out some of my spring clothes—including flip-flops!!! I’ve missed mine so much so it’s great to reintroduce them to my other shoes (lol). Even if it’s supposed to snow on Friday, it’s finally March and almost spring break. So I’m in a good mood.



My feet are always red, no worries!


I’m thinking of making strawberry banana overnight oats for tomorrow with that Mix1 so I’ll let you know how that turns out. I also had a yummy yogurt mess for lunch yesterday with Oikos vanilla, Bear Naked vanilla almond granola and blueberries—yum!!! Up for tomorrow is a chocolate version which will be even better. And I’m planning on going out for dinner with a friend so I’ll tell you how that goes. Enjoy the rest of your evening, ladies!!!


I'm becoming obsessed with yogurt messes

Q’s: Don’t you just hate it when you wake up with a sore neck? Is it getting warmer where you live?

Bad Raw-mance

Heya bloggies! Hope you all had a fab weekend—you can read about mine in this post.

Today is going to be all about my new food finds. I got a lot of things at Whole Foods (favorite grocery store ever!) that are brand new to me and I wanted to share in case you’d like to try them (if you haven’t already).

First up is related to the title—did you catch my Lady Gaga reference?—I had my first ever raw bar. It’s called Pure Bar and boy is it yummy! There are 6 flavors but I was only able to find 4 and I’ve only tried 2: Wild Blueberry and Chocolate Brownie.



Who knew raw food could be so yummy?



If you’ve never had raw food, don’t be intimidated because these are really good bars. They’re similar to Larabars in texture, but much better in my opinion. They’re basically just eight or nine ingredients (nuts, fruit and dates pretty much) and have a good amount of protein and healthy fats. And they’re organic, gluten-free and vegan. Oh, did I mention they are super-yummy?! The brownie one tasted just like a fudgy walnut brownie, but much healthier. The blueberry one was like a healthy pastry. Definitely check these out!



A brownie with omega 3s? Yes, please :)

I also tried blood oranges for the first time. Can I just say…why didn’t I try these earlier? Seriously, better than a plain old orange and so pretty on the inside.

And I thought I hated blood ;)

Cascadian Farm came out with a new cereal called Chocolate O’s. It looks like Chocolate Cheerios but I’m sure it’s way yummier. It’s organic and pretty low in sugar and has some fiber. It doesn’t have a strong chocolate taste, but I like it a lot. It’s great if you want a kids cereal without all the weird ingredients.


Organic and chocolate? Yummy!

For dinner, I had an Amy’s veggie burger, the Texas variety. I wanted to try this one because it has 12 grams of protein and the barbecue flavor sounded intriguing. It didn’t disappoint! Next time, I would put it on some kind of bun with mustard and veggies.

This seriously looks like a cow pie but trust me, it isn't!

And for dessert, I’m planning on having an apple cinnamon breakfast pita with almond butter. I really liked the cranberry-orange flavor, so hopefully I’ll like this one too.

Q’s: Have you ever eaten any raw food? Do you love cereal (like I do)?

Flavor of the Day

Do you ever have those days where one thing just really appeals to you for some reason? Yesterday was one of those days for me—I have a very mint-chocolate kind of day!

It started out with my second (good) batch of chocolate mint overnight oats. They were seriously creamy and simple—I just took one packet of Kashi GoLean vanilla oatmeal and mixed it with 1/4 cup of chocolate peppermint soymilk, put it in the fridge in my nifty blender bottle overnight and enjoyed it for breakfast. I also had a Morningstar Farms hot & spicy veggie sausage pattie that I somehow managed to burn a little in the microwave. I thought I was gonna set the smoke alarm off but luckily I didn’t and it was still (mostly) edible.



Apparently, this is available year-round!



My dessert at lunch was half of a Cool Mint Chocolate Clif bar…can I just say yum?! It is probably my favorite Clif bar flavor and surprisingly it is the lowest in sugar out of the original kinds—but it sure tastes like a mint brownie!



Prob the best Clif bar ever, just sayin'

Along with my Pad Thai noodles, protein “hot chocolate” and fruit salad at dinner, I also had a handful of Blue Diamond mint chocolate almonds. These are so good and I love that they’re roasted in cocoa powder instead of dipped in chocolate because it gives them a darker roasty flavor. Plain almonds are great, but these are perfect for mixing things up!

Mint, chocolate and almonds...best combo ever!

A few other random foodie thoughts: I am slowly but surely trying to increase my fat intake by focusing on healthy fats. Today I had, for the first time ever, an entire TABLESPOON of almond butter. Yes, in the past I would have a teaspoon here or there, but over the course of today, I’ve consumed an entire tablespoon. Baby steps, but I’m working on it.

I’m about to have dinner, and part of tonight’s meal is these spicy falafel balls that you just pop in the micro for a few secs.
I love anything Middle Eastern! But what I thought was funny was that I was looking at the package last night and the sell by date said 02/31…as in, February 31^st! Which of course doesn’t exist! Someone must have been a little confused about their months ;)

Didn't they learn the "30 days hath September" song in kindergarten?

And finally, I found a new flavor of Mix1, which is a type of fruit-based protein drink made in a town not too far from where I’m living. I really like them, and my favorite flavors were previously lime and mix berry, but now I’ve found strawberry-banana! Hopefully I will love this one even more…and I’ve heard there’s a new peach flavor as well!

Part of a future overnight oats experiment!

Q’s: What is your favorite flavor combination (such as chocolate and mint)? Have you ever tried Mix1?

Name Change

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today’s post is gonna be short. All I really have to say is that I changed the name of my blog to be Actually Ash, because I think it defines my recovery journey better. I’m me; I shouldn’t be defined by my anorexia. I’m not exactly sure who I am yet, or who I might become, but I’m ready to find out what kind of girl I can be without my ED holding me back.

So don’t worry, the posts and everything are all there, and the blog URL is still the same, I just changed the name to make it fit a little better. Hope y’all like it!



This is me. Having a little bit too much fun with my phone's camera :)



On a Different Note...

I decided I wanted to do a non-eating disorder related post. I’ve been thinking about it too much lately and focusing on my “flaws” and I realized I needed to take a step back and reflect on the things I do well.

I like photography. I’m not considering it as a career at the moment, but it’s just something fun I like to do in my free time. I take a lot of pictures of myself (for Facebook, of course) but I also like taking pictures of the great outdoors. Being outside makes me calm and happy—I just love the energy fresh air gives me. I would love to live in a big city someday, but I also would love to have a house in the mountains or the beach so I could get away from it all. Nature really is inspiring and beautiful. But I also take artistic photos of other objects in my life and I really like seeing how they turn out.

One of my favorite places--Rocky Mountain National Park
 in Colorado (my almost home state)



Just your average TV remote from a different angle



Just thought this looked cool



Bright sunny day and a firetruck ladder...oh yeah :)



We made mini s'mores over a candle on New Years--
best new tradition EVER!