Reiman Gardens in Ames, IA

I'm home for the summer before I head off to graduate school at the Universtiy of Illinois.  For breakfast I had the delicious combo of Blueberry Chobani yogurt (that I won from a giveaway hosted by Gina at The Candid RD), oatmeal, chia seeds (that I won from a giveaway hosted by Jocelyn at Peace.Love.Nutrition), and slivered almonds with an unpictured pear on the side:

Lunch included a green smoothie with some frozen spinach, frozen strawberries, applesauce, milk and cinnamon.  I also added some oatmeal after I finished some of the smoothie and made some more room in the bowl that was literally overflowing at the start!

Now that I'm finally making meals at home I need to remember to take pictures of things!  I keep forgetting, but I'm sure I'll get better.  I'm not going to photograph everything, just what I deem "photogenic" and potentially interesting... though we'll see where I decide to go with this all :-).

Also, here are some random photographs from Reiman Gardens in Ames, IA that I took before leaving.  I'm going to miss Ames and ISU so much!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

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Oats in a Jar - 2nd time

Hello all! I hope you're all staying warm during this crazy winter! I wanted to share my second OIAJ experience since the first one didn't go so well. I will say that this time it was better - mainly because of the jar's structure. The base of my Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter jar was much smoother, with fewer crevices for oats and PB to get stuck as I cleaned out the very bottom (this was the main problem last time). Otherwise, I had the same ingredients: .5c oats, 1 banana, 2 tbsp. flax seed, and of course PB! The only thing I still need is a longer spoon, then this will work even better! So, there will be more OIAJ in my future - but only if I deem the container conducive to scooping PB & oats out of it :-). Here's the pic:



And here are some more winter pics taken this past week at Iowa State!

And now back to my homework! This is by far my busiest semester (which I suppose makes sense since it's my last semester of undergrad). Ah well, I'm learning lots of useful stuff so I'll just keep trucking along :-). And I'll keep doing mini yoga sessions to help keep me sane!

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I think I'll start posting questions occassionally after my blog posts too, so here goes: What are your reactions to Jillian Michaels being sued over the weight loss supplement pills she promotes? Here's one article I found on it: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/02/11/2010-02-11_biggest_loser_trainer_jillian_michaels_sued_over_weight_loss_supplement_pills.html

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My answer is that while I don't know much about the legality of it all or whether there are really grounds upon which to sue, I do believe that a legitimate complaint has been made. I don't think Jillian should have been advertising pills as they are a quick fix at best. Permanent weight loss should be achieved with healthy food choices and exercise if at all possible since that is most likely to lead to a healthy lifestyle change that can be maintained.

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AND check out a cool fitness giveaway hosted by April: http://foodsofapril.com/?p=4887

Oats in a Jar

Hello! I have finally tried Oats in a Jar... and the verdict is.... good. Sorry, not great, not stupendous, just good. Let me explain. I used about 1/2c. oats, 1 banana, 1 tbsp. ground flax, and the remains of a Skippy Natural PB jar. Really, not too different than oats in a bowl. The thing is, it was a lot more messy than I thought it would be. Instead of having to simply scrape PB out of a jar as I normally would, I had to scrape PB AND sticky oats out of a jar - it was quite the task! I think it'd be easier to scrape the PB out and then add it to my bowl of oats :-). I guess this is just one of those crazes I'm not that into, but hey, I'm definitely not bashing those of you who love this concoction! It's just not for me. Anyway, here are the pics:

And, just for kicks, here's a clipping from my university's student-run newspaper. Three Thursdays in a row! Let's just say I'd much rather have three Fridays or Saturdays in a row ;-).