I am moving to LA…..

I have moved to a new home! Come

join the party at

www.supersana.com !!!!!

BOXING!!!!!!

At Fitbloggin I had the pleasure of meeting LA Boxing!

We kept contact after Fitbloggin ended and I am now their newest member!

So last night I headed out for a 7:45pm class! I have taken kickboxing before but nothing that required actual gloves and a bag…. These are some HEAVY babies! We punched and kicked the evening away!

I felt so legit in my gloves!

LA Boxing will be sponsoring my experience for the next 3 months! I will blog weekly about my progress!

What I LOVED about the class:

• The class was my OWN workout- I never felt pressured to keep up and I could take breaks whenever I wanted to.
• Great music! It really got me in the mood to jump and get my kick on
• Personalized attention from the instructor, he moved around the entire time and made sure we were doing the moves correctly.

My instructor did not mind that I was not punching the bag that hard- well I was scared! It was pretty heavy, thankfully my gloves will keep me safe.

So my title did not lie I AM MOVING! Please come join me on my new self-hosted blog SuperSana. I won’t lie I don’t think I have eaten a single blueberrymuffin since I have started this blog.

So head on over to SuperSana for an EXCITING GIVEAWAY!!!!

Westside Shelter

For the past two semester I have been volunteering at an off campus homeless shelter. Every Saturday myself and 3-4 other volunteers spend the morning working with the clients. Typically we are there to work on resumes, job searches and bring in positive energy.

Today we decided to plant a garden! This is just the beginning of a project to bring in a catering company to use the vegetables we are going to grow as well as have a healthy diet for the shelter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

( I was clearly working hard)

I was a great way to spend a Saturday morning!

 

I enjoyed some lovely eats:

Fresh fruits and a Tomato and Mozzarella Panini

Vegetable Biryani

I ended the day with a 5 mile bike ride and 2.5 hours of roller skating!

QUESTION: What projects do you work on in your local community?

My first Guest Post :)!

I am soooo excited to have my first guest blogger, James is a really good friend of mine at UMBC and I have ask him share a snapshot of his journey with you all.

Take it away James!

_________________________________________________________________________

It’s hard to believe that a year and 9 months ago, I was 40 pounds heavier than I am today.

For the majority of my life, I’ve struggled with my weight.  When I was a kid, I hated being fat, and I was convinced that all I had to do was eat fewer calories.  Fad diets and some pretty bad advice led me down the popular path though.  Carbs this and protein that.

Little did I know, my younger self had it right all along.  Calories are all that matters when it comes to weight loss.  In my freshman year of college, I weighed an entire 245lbs.  Depressed and frustrated, I somehow ended up on John Walker’s book, The Hacker’s Diet.  I read the whole thing, and something clicked.  I guess it was the throwback to the mentality that it really is simpler than diet books and fads make it out to be.  I got myself a nice scale (capable of measuring my % body fat by BIA)…

I started keeping a count of how many calories I was eating each day, and trying to hit a goal of a daily deficit (about 1000 calories at first, down to around 500 daily).  I weighed myself every day and charted the data so I could see my progress…

The cool thing about John’s book is that it stresses how to look at your weight.  He admits that calories are all that matters, but that there’s other things in your body.  When you weigh yourself, you’re also weighing all that…uh, other stuff.  If you average it out, though, that noise goes away and you see the much smoother curve (in red) that more closely represents your ‘weight’ over time.

It hasn’t been easy, particularly when I leave school.  Going home hurts around the waist, but I’ve managed to avoid gaining much weight while I’m there.  Those flat sections on the graph are just those times.  It takes some dedication and some real belief in an end result.  I’m still 20lbs away from my goal, but being able to look back at my progress so far gives me the confidence to go forward.  It’s really pretty amazing to go from buying larger and larger jeans to being frustrated that you need a new belt again, or that your favorite shirt now looks like a tent on you.  It’s really nice to have problems like that.

( Sana: Hubba hubba!)

Want to do something amazing?  Then do it.  I’ll keep trying to, and you can even follow me on The Hacker’s Diet by my pseudonym, Beta Viardot.

The daily ten!

Ten important random things about ME!

1. I laugh at my own jokes
2. I lose everything I come into contact with
3. I got lost at Six Flags when I was six
4. I don’t know how to swim
5. I don’t have a middle name
6. I sing jingle bells regardless of the season
7. I don’t actually own any of my clothes
8. I got my ears pierced when I was 16 years old.
9. I have lived in the same house for the past 20 years
10. I was obsessed with the trash truck as I child and would follow it around the block.

#11 I don’t own a pet but I want a fish sooooooo BAD!

Good night!

QUESTION: What is one important thing about YOU?

Twitter!

Add me or follow me! simplysana 

I have no idea how it works!

There is a first time for everything!

I cooked my first meal today!

Living at home does have its perks- I don’t have to cook, my mother is just amazing in the kitchen and does not like extra help.

But since I plan on leaving in the next 2-3 years 😉 I figured I should start with something simple- pesto pasta!

2 cases of Basil leaves from Trader Joe’s

Organic Whole Wheat pasta from Tj’s

Raw Pine Nuts

I first threw the nuts in the oven to toast for a bit at 450 degrees- I kinda forget that they were in there in between blending and using the food processor.

At first I was going to blend the basil, olive oil and garlic all together, but it was not blending well.

Ready, set, BLEND!!!

FAIL!

After I figured out how to lock the food processor together and ADD the blade ( it’s a tricky process) I was good to go!

SUCCESS!

Final result with some toasted squash, grape tomatoes and fat free cheese :)!

It was SUPER yum! I ate it in two meals- well my mom and sister had some too.

The only thing I would add is some roasted red pepper to the pesto, it needed a bit of a kick! But I will be making this again for sure :)!

The rest of my Tj goodies, I swear the most HELPFUL and KIND people work in this store! They are sweet and offer good meal ideas :)!

 

I have been obsessing over dried fruit- they are just less messy for on the go eating!

__________________________________________________________

This week is going to be my SUPER study week I have a cell bio and bio chem exam on the 20th aka death day!

It might be the stress of school but I have been finding myself eating all my meals alone at school. I miss having people to eat with 😦 I do have plenty of people that I know at school. Recently I have been feeling like people only talk to me when they need to complain about something or someone. I love being a person that my friends can trust and can come to. However, sometimes its nice to sit and talk about other things. Or have people to hangout with that enjoy my company ( hehehe!)

I guess that is what college is all about finding like minded individuals and I have yet to do so.

Winter is OFFICIALLY here! I love wearing scarves and today was a total scarf day :)!

This is by far my favorite season, all you want to do is curl up with a warm cup of green tea and read the night away 🙂

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to their week :)!

Fasting!

Today, begins the holy month of Ramadan and I will be fasting. I won’t be blogging my eats during this time- most likey won’t be the healthy kind. I will still be mindful 🙂 I hope to “see” you all soon!

Sad day :(

I have decided to stop working out until my injury gets better 😦

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFEEEEEFEFEE????!?!?!?!!?

Learn to eat better thats for sure. I depend on exercise too much to lose weight- because I just don’t diet.

But 😦 *Big girl pouting* I am not good at not being able to run around and let my stress out. But I have to get better and I am not helping myself- after my workout yesterday I was stiff  with nerve pain down my leg. So until I get better I will be in rest mode and stay AWARE of my eating habits.

My cheer up lunch today was an INDIAN PIAZZA!!!!! I ❤ Trader Joe’s!!!!!!!

 Still no picture 😦 But it SOOOO tasty, you will just have to take my word for it! Our camera is STILL not back from being fixed .

So MAJOR pet peeve of mine: Getting bits of GOD KNOW WHAT in  my laptop keyboard. The keys get stuck and you have to push it twice to get the letter. BLACH I just spent ten minutes poking at my F key with a tooth pick. and SUCCESS!

So this blog is not just to talk about my food and fitness life. Its also about my personal and school life. I am currently trying to figureout what I want to do after college. Before college I wanted to go to med school right away; however after taking all my premed classes I just don’t have the GPA to do so. Its not a HORRIBLE GPA but I want to be a strong applicant. Especially going into a competitive field such as this. 

So I am looking into getting my masters in Epidemiology, where basically I would get to study Swine flu and other diseases. In order to do this I need to take the GRE, looking at my overall academic performance I am what you would say is the “average” student. Whenever I look at the average score in my classes, my score is right around there. Now this is nothing to be ashamed of, but we can all wish to be a genius, right? To take this exam in about a year, ideally for myself I need to start studying now, and in between trying to finish up with a summer class and not burn out before the semester, I need to plan this accordingly.

Even at the age of 20 my future feels a LLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOONNNNGG way off but it will be here before I know it 🙂

Anyways I could ramble on forever but I have to go hunt down an ice pack and study!

Planning

I have come to realize that my biggest problem with eating is that I never plan my day out. When I am at school or out shopping I have to eat whatever I can find and USAULLY. Its not a good option. Lets take today for instance. I woke up at 8:12 for my 9:00 am class this only gave me time for a shower and time to grab applesauce while running out the door. Here is the thing about me I have NEVER been a breakfast eater. For most of my like between the ages of 5-20 food before 12 made me want to throw up. I don’t know why, its just the way I am. So once at school, I realized that the ac was on too high and I was FREEZING. So I went down to the coffee shop Au Bon Pain and picked myself up a Caramel Macchiato. I USUALLY go for the organic green tea but I wanted something extra and an M&M cookie 😦 It was only 99 cents. After class I rushed home and out to prayer, and my sister dragged me to the mall. It was 2 pm all I had not had any REAL FOOD. So I went to Chipotle. I only eat Halal meat so a veggie bowl was the best option.  They give you SOOOO much food it is best to share with another person. I only ate about 1/2. And I am sure I burned most of it off power walking the ENTIRE mall. With my back injury I am unable to shop till I drop so three hours in I had to call it a day. For the rest of the day, I plan on eating an Indian pizza and going to the gym 🙂

I don’t have a working camera so I will add pics when I get one.

 

First day of COLLEGE August 2007! It feels like a LIFETIME ago!

I am backkkkkk!

So, this is my new start at blogging and I have NOOO idea how it works eeeeks! But I shall learn. So first things first why am I blogging? I would like to have this blog as a place to document the ups and downs of a 20-something trying to get a healthy life. Note key word is trying. Between school, injuries and other stress lets just say it is easy to let myself go.