3 days to go

3 more days and then i'll start my vegetarian-no-alcohol-no-nothing-smokeable(just to include for example water pipe) month of March.

As promised, here's my list with 31 really good things that dont include meat or fish. So if I feel like it, I could make something I really like every single day :). 

1. Blueberry Milkshake

milk and blueberries

2. Pineapple-mango-lime smoothie

3. Fruit salad

(slice favourite fruits, put on top of eachother)

4. Tacos (soft or hard) filled with beans, salad, tomatoes, cucurber, corn etc etc

5. Tomato with mozzarella and pesto

6. Tomato with cottage cheese

7. Bananabread

8. Omelette with broccoli, carrots, tomato, cucumber

9. Hummus

10. Pancakes with jam 

11. Vegetable pate (smash vegetables – for example, carrots, seller and broccoli, mix separately with eggs, salt, pepper, natural yoghurt and potato-starch;  put into a baking form – first seller, then broccoli and then carrot – mix, bake with 175C about 1 hour ; let cool down and eat with ryebread)

12. Oven vegetables – put vegetables in the oven, bake and enjoy 

13. Mashed potatoes 

14. Carrot – pineapple salad

15. Potato pancakes /vegetable pancakes

16. Fresh berries

17. All kinds of soups made of smashed vegetables with cream cheese 

18. Baked slices of aubergine with carlic-nut-nathural youghurt sauce. Eat with crispbread

19. My favourite dessert:

pieces of dried ryebread

natural yoghurt

(plum) jam

sugar

put layers into a cup, keep in the fridge for a while

eat

20. Nuts, seeds and fruits in yoghurt

Put into a glass in the evening, keep in fridge overnight and eat for breakfast

21. The best salad ever

peas, tomato, onion, natural yoghurt (cucumber, shrimps or crab sticks)

22. Filled eggs

23. Champignons with blue cheese

take the caps(?) of champignons, fill with bluecheese, bake in the oven 

24. Carrot pineapple salad (L)

25. Mushroom risotto

26. Avocado-smoothie

avocado, honey, pear yoghurt, nuts/seeds

27. Ice-cream

28. Spinach wok

spinach, onion, garlic, beans, (sour cream). Put everything on the pan, heat, mix with sopur cream, eat 

29. Lens soup 

spinach, onion, garlic, different spices, smashed tomatoes, lenses. 

boil lenses in water, heat everything else on pan, mix with lenses 

30. Potatoes with tomato-cheese sauce

boil potatoes, on a pan fry onions, add unwhipped whipped cream :D (medlavningsflödde), spices and cream- or melted cheese. Eat with potatoes .

31. Chocolate dessert

mix melted chocolate, condensed milk, ricotta/yoghurt and cacao powder,  put into glasses. 

Add a cherry on top and enjoy :)

I’ll do it on the 31. March.


Can't wait for March to start :)

Easy like Sunday morning :)

It's such a nice day - no wind, no clouds, just sun and Sunday (it's probably not a coincidence they sound the same)
It's one a clock in the afternoon and there's absolutely NOTHING I have to do today :).
The baby shower yesterday was really really cool :). I was a  bit surprised as it wasnt just us girls and the mom and the baby in their home as I expected, it was a proper party instead :D. With oh so many sweets and snacks that afterwords I felt kind of sick and decided to go on a bike ride. I have been biking SO much this week. Then this morning woke up at 9:40 and went for a long run to and at and back from the beach. 'i was wearing a T-shirt and a random hoody and was so warm, amazing :). After that decided to well-spend my last money and went to a bakery, then had a shower and breakfast (buns with boiled eggs and jam :)), got dressed and now can just enjoy myself the entire day. I dont have anything I need to do and to be honest. I dont feel like doing anything either.
The week has been good. Sportswise and schoolwise and..just good :). And now I have three more days before starting my whole new month.
I got a new cool idea from Heidi-s blog (which is here for those who read Estonian: http://heidi.tarkpea.ee/) to write down my menu every week. I thought I'm gonna do it every Wednesday but as I always always have trouble with my Sunday menu, I'm gonna start posting it twice. On Wednesdays and Sundays :).

The coolest thing I've been doing lately is this little attempt to get a regular male student who's 22 and has a job and now time and beer-drinking-smoking friends, to eat as healthily as possible. So I've been calculating his energy needs, using all of my best creativity to find as many healthy-goodtastyng-easytomake-and transportable meals as possible. Plus as he is so physically active and needs to eat a lot, the challenge is also to make it all as cheap as possible. It's been taking some time and research and thinking, but now the plans are finally ready and we went grocery shoping together yesterday. So now all we can do is see how it goes, hope for the best and prepare for the worse :).

What I've been doing for myself is a list with 31 good vegetarian meals, so I could make something good for myself every single day of March if I want. I'll post it as soon as it's done :).

I haven't decided about next week's training plans yet, cause it's gonna be a really busy week, but I can post the crazy numbers from my watch for this ending week:
Total duration: 20:31:52
calories: 6883kcal
but I've gotta admit - I cheated a bit as well as I counted almost all my longer bikerides f ex to uni and downtown and so on that I usually never do.
Biking average of the week: 29km/day
I only have one word for that: DENMARK :D.

Okay. I guess that's it. Im gonna go and ask my neighbors if they wanna come and play some football outside. And I dont think the answer could ever be no as they're boys. :D.

Have a nice Sunday and enjoy yourselves :)

just to be clear

I am not gonna give up coffee. Never :). Or not at least soon.

My clean March

Wouldn't it be nice to start the spring just as fresh as it is itself? I have decided to become clean. Actually, that was decision number two. Decision number one was that I'm going to become a vegetarian for a month. There are several reasons behind that decision. First, spring just always makes me wanna do something new and cool :). Second I could use some more knowledge about protein and amino acids, that I now have to get from different sources. And I do wanna know more about vegetarians and their challenges. Plus I'd get so much less saturated fat from my diet and I oh so much just wanna know how would it feel not to eat meat. But I'm sure in advance that I could never become a vegan, therefore I'm not gonna try that. I am gonna keep on eating shrimps and fish as well, just because excluding fish would probably make it too much of a challenge for me to keep my protein intake fine and (the real reason :D) I just couldn't give them up. I am going to start on the first of March and finish on the 31st. 

That decision, however lead me to the next one. I decided not to consume any alcohol what so ever, not stay in smoky rooms and definitely not smoke any cigarettes for a month as well.
I wonder how'll it feel? And how's that going to affect my social life? Will I have more energy and actually feel fresher, cleaner and better or are all them limitations gonna make me depressed and all cranky?
I do not know. A week to go and then I'll start. Im so looking forward and gonna keep you posted :). 

Change in exercise plan: no running or outside workout on Friday, gonna go to gym with my classmate before uni instead :). Looking forward to that as well (they do have free breakfast :P)

Ses :)

13.02-19.02

I had an amazing week :).
Followed the exercise plan almost from Monday to Friday...or even Saturday, because Saturday was a resting day anyway :D and the only change I made was adding some workouts. So Monday was uphill/downhill and stairs running, Tuesday running and gym, Wednesday 1,5h gym and running, Thursday gym and a lot of biking, Friday 5km, time 26:02 + uphill runnings + jogging and trying out some machines I found on an outdoors work-out field and Saturday rest.
On top of that I found myself a really cool work placement. Gonna work with a trainer training elite athletes in Aarhus, working out with them and making dietary plans :P. The internship is going to start in May, but before that he's going to train me, so that I'd be strong, smart and ready by the time we start in May. Is life so cool or whaat? :)
But back to my last week exercise plan and the Saturday...after spending a day home studying until my brain couldn't function any more, I got awfully..restless in the evening :D. And could not resist going out with friends and later joining a fastelavns costume fest..and so it went..ended up spending the night in town at a friend's place, skiping breakfast, arriving home awfully hungry, eating a superbowl of everything: broccoli, carrots, beans, germs(?), pepper, tomatoes, ice salad, nuts and onion :D and then instead of a workout (planned 3km and intervalls) ended up staying home, cleaning and doing my homework. Crazy student life ;). But I guess after that kind of a week, I deserved two days to rest and I had already proven that 3km under 15min is obviously not a goal at all, as it is so easy. And I did really enjoy the night out and had loads and loads of fun :).

So this week's plan:
Monday: jogging 1km to a workout place, strength and balance exercises (squats, hands, stomach, back, 4 different balance exercises), 1km fast run back to  home.
+biking 45 km (throughout the day),
done :)
Tuesday: gym
Wednesday: gym+jogging
Thursday: 7 km interval running, up- and downhills, 5km jogging back home + stomach and arms
Friday: workout outside, 1km jogging, 1km fast (happy birthday Estonia :))
Saturday: morning jog (+ babyshower with cake in the afternoon:))
Sunday: running to the seaside (ca 14km), light workout

Other than that I have to study so so so hard, read a lot and remember to do my Danish. Mmm..and as well I guess it's necessary to eat at least one bun with whipped cream, after all it is a week with fasteavns, vastlapäev and Estonia's birthday, yum :)).

And to finish up..I've been thinking lately and I guess it is always like that that great guys are friends with great guys. And therefore it is absolutely necessary to meet the friends before things get serious. Anything else just might end up craaazy.
(i'm not sure if I should say 'remember that' or just classify it as a note to self)

Anyway. Have a great week everyone and enjoy yourselves. Life is cool :).

I've always kept my faith in love...
As far as I can remember, I've always been dreaming about my wedding day, my future husband, known that it is so much better to be a happy poor man's wife than unhappy with a rich man and divorces always made me feel so indescribably powerless and disappointed. I mean, how can anyone promise to love and to cherish in everything and forever and then just..not. Marriage was like a goal for me, or a must-have..or just a logical ending. I knew all the stories with princes and princesses and how first you get married and then you live happily ever after. Those things just would not happen without each other.
But then, not so long ago I started to actually think about it. I had blindly and automatically believed in something for so long, that it just seemed the only right thing, but I had never ever in my life thought about why I believe in it. And there I was, realizing what serious relationships actually mean to me. Being in a relationship is like being a half of a whole, not making decisions but negotiating and discussing things, making compromises, being all like 'what are we gonna eat for dinner tonight?' 'what should we do in the weekend?' and so on and so forth.. As well the thing about how husbands usually talk about their wives... you know, whit the nagging tone and being all unappreciative. And I wasnt sure if it is something I could handle.
Of course I could also not become one of those wives who's been talked about like that and who is not appreciated, but that too would take some effort and being very conscious about how you act and what you say and do and how much and when and..WHY??  Wouldnt it be so much better just enjoy life, have fun while it lasts and never ever get bored and into a routine? Live for yourself and take care and love yourself? And so I concluded that I dont do love..nor real relationships..and marriage is not for me. It might work for some people and that I found great but not just for me. Obviously, as a proper scientist/philosopher I took into account the fact that I'm just 20 and that I might reconsider so I didnt put all that  much thought into all of it anymore for a while
BUT
I've never been more happier and satisfied and full of joy than I am when I'm in love; I find sleeping together with someone I love, even if it is awfully uncomfortable and too cold and too warm and too little blanket and too much snorting, being so much better than sleeping alone. I just love staying in on friday evenings to watch a movie or listen to music or to do nothing together with some one. I love how even on rainy days, with love, you still feel as if it'd be spring and always know everything is gonna  be just fine. And I dont think life without friends is a life at all. We couldn't define ourselves as individuals without other individuals. We couldnt be without others.
This year's valentine's day I'm going to spend without a boyfriend. But I do have great friends to be with and great friends who are not physically close to me, but who I know are there for me to love and to cherish and nothing will do us part. And I have my family.
I'll always keep my faith in love.

After all, if not scientifically proven, then in practice more than enough, there's no better way of being healthy than being in love. First you just cannot eat, because your stomach is too full of butterflies. Then you dont wanna eat, because you wanna look nice for your boyfriend and be able to pull your belly oh so in. And then you just have so many alternative activities to eating, that you dont even think about it. You get your amount of physical activity and your body is full of endorphin :).

As mentioned, I do not have a boyfriend and therefore I have an actual plan and defined goals. Goes like that: Monday - uphill/downhill +stairs running; Tuesday - gym(with special focus to all the exercises I feel like - it is a Valentine's Day:)); Wednesday - jogging (with 2x1km running on time); Thursday - gym (with special focus on arms and stomach); Friday - chillbill downhill jogging for fun; Saturday - rest, but be sure that I do 10 000 steps at least; Sunday - 3km run to find out if a goal to do it under 15 min is suitable or too easy/difficult + jogging. And every run is followed by some exercises for arms - after all I am planning to one day do at least 2 push ups :D.

And as I have once again proved the fact that if you wanna buy all the books school wants you to buy, pay all your bills on time, look decent (even if you do not give in to the crazzzzy temptation and wont buy any new clothes), eat just enough to stay alive and be socially acceptable - going out for a coffe (and you do limit the times only to twice a month) and be qualified as a normal student -attend at least one party a month  ( i know its awfully few), it is impossible to ever have any free money. Therefore the rest of the month's menu should be just fine as well, as I just dont have the money to buy anything I wont need.
So to all of them, who'd like to know how to eat cheap and healthy - I have a feeling this blog might be a good source of inspiration in February ;D.

And to end this post, a song that a guy once showed me. It's a song sang by a guy who promised to marry a girl. Just before their marriage day the girl had an accident and got a serious brain damage. The guy is still with her :).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQY4dIxY1H4

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone :)

20/80

The week has been good. I'd say I've been at least 80% healthy, 20% not so much..and if we could exclude the weekend then the healthy-percentage might even be 90.. And higher than that I'd rather not even try to get, because that might affect my mental health :D. 

I've discovered three really good things to make

1. vegetable beefs 

I made mine with selleri, carrots and apples. First chop/grate all of them into small pieces, mix with eggs and seasoning and then  either fry them on pan with a little oil or just bake in the oven. 

2. carrot cake/bread (=keeks noh :D)
Really easy to make - needs eggs, flour, sugar, a little oil, chopped nuts/seeds/almonds/whatever, carrot and baking powder. Mix it all together, put to a bread form, bake with 175 degrees about 50 minutes and ready it is :). To make it better, let it cool down, cut to halves horizontally, melt some white chocolate and put in the middle and on top, yum :)

3. any kind of mashed vegetables in the oven

take your favorite vegetables, steam them, mash them, i added some nuts and pieces of fresh broccoli and carrots to make it crunchy, put into a baking form, add some cheese on top and bake until it looks nice. Amazing to eat with toast :)

I also have a goal for working out now - as I discovered (weird to admit) I cannot do even one push up when being on my toes and not knees, my new goal is to be able to do at least 10 by the end of March and then maybe 20 in May. Hello, gym

But as it is a Sunday and Im sitting in my favorite caffe and my friend just arrived, then the post is going to end here and I am going to turn to my friend and hot chocolate with loads of whipped cream on top :). 

Hygge

New Year’s promise in danger

I’ve been doing so well with my promise to be healthy – I’ve been going to gym/running at least 5 times a week and biked to school which is 13km and do my Danish classes and everything, but now my bike is broken and its so cold outside and it’s Oh no, oh no.

I feel so tempted to skip the gym and stay home with some ice cream, reading in my bed.  So hear I start negotiating with my promise. I mean I do have to study and sleep at some point and if I’ll go to gym, i’ll end up going to sleep 2am the earliest and school is from 8 til 15:00 tomorrow and then I have my Danish classes and homework as well so I’d never manage to go to gym tomorrow then.  BUT i haven’t been doing anything physical today – slep until 9, took the bus to school, sat at school for 4 hours having a snack, lunch and another snack, took the bus back, went grocery shoping, made food for tomorrow, had dinner, sat on my chair and started reading.
And now there’s this triple chocolate ice-cream in my freezer...:D
And I’m being like..yeah but well I promised to have a healthy lifestyle and be healthy and I do believe that then your mentality has to be in order as well and ice-cream always makes me feel happy and then I am happy and I can just as well work out a bit more tomorrow and eat an egg rather than an apple and a salad instead of a bun.
And THEN the other part of me comes and is like ’yeah thats the way you start and then you’ll end up sitting here all day every day with your ice-cream and no social interactions and you’re gonna feel perectly fine about it’
And THEN the first is like yeah but when you’re so worried about it happening yourself then you’ll probably not gonna let it happen anyway, right?

Gee, it’s crazy the way modern world (or me :D) is. But whatever.

Anyway one’s gotta be normal, so let the best me win. Im staying in AND having the ice-cream. AND gonna feel just fine about it J.  I might even give some to my new cool(-looking J)roomie who seems to eat anything and still look and act fine. I like him J. ..and it is all about socializing, right? :D. Oh dear..oh me :D.

This is me leaving to cheat on my promise for the first time :P.

Ups. I did actually had a whole pizza and some regular coca-cola on one Sunday, watching Beverly Hills.

And today it is probably more about wanting the ice-cream and lazyness, because with the time I’ve been writing this post I could have just as well run at least 3km OR made 1/5 of my homework :D.
(Crazy to be your own client)

See you J

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4108089/The-girl-with-a-20in-waist.html

Sunday best

I started thinking that it is a very egoistic decision to move. To leave all your friends and everything you love and go abroad to study for example. On the other hand it is one's own life and then what else should you be than...kind of selfish. On the other hand what's life without the people you love.
As well the thing that..when you plan leaving then you're kind of the cool person going somewhere to do something and everything is exciting and amazing. Then you'll arrive and you'll be a stranger without anything and anyone. But you'll look happy..because it is the thing you wanted to do and now you did it. Right? And you're alone. You might even enjoy it. Or believe it. And then you'll find in a situation where you just love your life and every part of it. You know new people, new things and new places and everything turns out just fine.
But it is a good thing that whenever we deal with leaving at least one participant has to turn the back and therefore cant look at each other.

In the world nowadays it is all about socializing and conforming or not with ideals and stereotypes. People get more fat because they wanna conform with the discourse of being skinny and feel guilty about eating unhealthy or calorie-dense foods. They get their calories from the food and then start stressing about it, stress making body even more fat and desiring high fat and sugar foods. Funny. Or not.

And if it is all about networking and you are a student, either abroad or not for that matter, wanting to get somewhere professionally, where in the modern world should you get the socializing skills from if only popular and well-practiced experience comes from going to parties and drinking alcohol? I do find it horrible how much young people drink and even more elsewhere than in Estonia :/. ? . It is not as if you'd invite your future boss out for some tequila shots :D. People should do more things, move more, meet more people and...move as much as possible :).
and once again I cannot wait to go to school. I think world is all weird :), but in its own little nice way.

I hope one day fitness industry would be the health-care system not hospitals and psychological institutions. I really do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ru2glqXAg&feature=related
Have a nice new week, I'll keep you posted