Gluten Free Carrot and Sweet Potato Spice muffins/cake

This is what you need:

2 cups GF all purpose baking flour (I used Bob's Redmill)

1/4 tspn xanthan gum

1/2 tspn baking powder

1 cup sugar

1 cup carrots ran through food processor

1 cup of cooked and riced/mashed sweet potatoes

1 tblspn cinnamon

1/8 tspn ground cloves

1/4 tspn all spice

1/4 tspn nutmeg

1/2 tspn salt

1/2 tspn vanilla extract 

3/4 cup canola oil

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray non stick spray in chosen pan. Mix all ingredients. Pour into chosen pan type. For muffins, cook for 20-25 min or until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Add 10-15 min if using loaf pan or cake pan.

Super moist and delicious. Feel free to add some cream cheese frosting. Nom!

Life and fitness

I'll start with my beginning, I wasn't a very active child. I never liked participating in sports, I did do an aerobic gymnastics and a couple years of softball, but I never really pushed myself to be an active person. That changed when my father had a stroke a few years ago. He has always had heart issues, he has atrial fibrillation, it's a condition where a part of his heart doesn't beat, instead it quivers. This lead to him having a couple heart attacks at just 34 years old, and landed him with a pacemaker. I wish he would have continued to have his pacemaker checked, but with the economy the way it was and our lack of insurance he just wasn't able to afford to have regular checkups. This eventually led to his pacemaker stopping and him getting a new one a couple times. Eventually it stopped working again but this time blood pooled in his heart clotted and went to his brain. I still remember getting to the hospital and the doctors asking me what his final arrangements were. It was quite overwhelming for a college student who up to this point didn't have a care in the world. Well, everything changed, we have had a complete roll reversal, I am now responsible for our well being.

Because of everything that happened I decided to make a complete lifestyle change. I slowly began buying healthy food, making dinner instead of ordering a pizza. Even my snacking changed, from chips and soda to apples and water. After a year or so of eating a little bit better I decided it was time to get some assistance with it. I downloaded my fitness pal on my phone, ordered Jillian Michaels yoga and it was all downhill from there. I feel about a hundred times better, I'm happier I have more energy, I can walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, the list goes on. Before I began yoga I was around 148 pounds, I am now 130. Im not planning to try to lose more, but I want to be more toned.

So I decided to try something new and in Jillian's words "get out of that comfort zone". I started the 30 day shred today. I decided to start with 5 pound weights and I'm kicking myself for not getting the three, the workout kicked my butt. I always follow my workouts with some sort of protein, I was eating the pure protein bars for awhile there, but they were getting expensive so I got some whey protein and a magic bullet. Today was the first day I experimented with a shake, strawberries and banana. It was pretty good, I'm definitely going to experiment with different concoctions until I find something I will crave. It's easy for me to keep up with a workout if I have something to look forward to afterward.

Tomorrow will be day 2 of the 30 day shred and I'm quite excited to do this. Is there anyone else working on the shred? If so, how far into it are you?

Thanks for hanging around through this long post.

Chelsea

The heat... omg

It's HOT!

Valparaiso, Florida (32580) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground

Highs 90-95! It's 94.2 right now and the heat index is 97... *sigh*

I've been here all my life and every year it's harder to get used to the heat!

Sandals...

My entire life, I have never owned a pair of sandals. I have had flip flops, (I mean I do live in Florida and I enjoy going to the beach) but I never wore them anywhere other than the beach. I remember vividly when I was younger and I would start to go outside with only my socks on or flip flops and before I would make it to the door my father would stop me and say "Go put some shoes on!". It never occurred to me why I was in such desperate need for solid shoes (closed toe closed heel shoes) until one day I was at the beach with my friends and we decided to go under the boardwalk, it was a nice relief from the sun, but immediately upon going under there I started feeling horrible sharp pains all over my legs, feet and butt and I realized we were all sitting on a huge pile of sand spurs. I remember being in quite a bit of pain that day, and crying quite a bit (I was 4 or 5 at the time). My house borders a military test reservation and so we have a forest behind the house, and we also get snakes, creepy crawlies, sand spurs and we also have thorny vines and such. So, when I was younger it was for my own good that I wore only solid shoes. (To this day, when I wear flip flops my dad asks me where my shoes are, I think he's just messing with me now though.)

That whole 'only solid shoes' has spilled over to my adulthood, up to this point I have never owned a pair of casual-everyday-around-the-house sandals and I have suffered through sweltering summers, I'm talking 90-100% humidity, temperatures ranging from 90-104 degree Fahrenheit (had to look that one up, it's such and oddly spelled word) all with completely closed shoes. Today our high was 76 degrees Fahrenheit, and I barely made it through the day with my closed toe shoes, how did I ever manage this before? Maybe it was the fact that I worked retail and food service jobs previously which requires solid shoes. I really don't know, all I know is I left the house wearing solid shoes and came home wearing a pair of sandals with another pair under my arm.

So, BOOYAH SUMMER HEAT, WON'T BRING THIS ONE DOWN!

Pics:

That is all.

Witch Hazel Toner

3/4/11
http://www.ehow.com/list_7621035_home-witch-hazel-beauty-aid.html 
A Facial toner, an under eye bag remedy, a varicose vein remedy, who knew?

I was looking everywhere high and low for anything that would be an excellent toner to add to my skin care routine. I was afraid of purchasing anything cause I don't like wasting money. I'm a huge fan of watching makeup/skincare/nail art etc on youtube and I'm a subscriber to xsparkage who had made a video about a natural remedy for a toner. 

The recipe is: 

1 part Witch Hazel 

1 part Apple Cider Vinegar 

3 parts Water or Green Tea

First off, this is the cheapest skin care product I own it cost me a whopping $2. I just made this using Witch Hazel, and White Vinegar and tried it after cleansing. I haven't noticed any significant changes yet. One thing I do need to mention is the weird Witch Hazel smell. It smells something like new plastic but much more overwhelming. It fills the air when the cap is off and it's quite fetor (I gag at the smell). The vinegar mixed with it weakens the Witch Hazel smell quite a bit, but it smells strongly of Vinegar (which I don't personally mind). The smell does not linger very long, I smell it a little bit after it dries, but I apply a moisturizer before bed and that drowns out the stench completely. This mixture left my skin feeling tighter, much less oily than normal. I haven't had any irritation yet, we will see when I wake up tomorrow if there are any changes in the aforementioned. Random updates to come in the next few days/weeks


Update!
3/16/11

So far this toner has worked well. I wash my face with a scrub every night and then I apply this toner to a cotton pad and smooth it over my face. It has caught that tiny little bit that my cleanser wasn't able to get. Usually the area around my nose and under my chin is the hardest for me to cleanse well, and this toner is exactly what I needed to get that last bit of foundation off my skin.

After the first day I did develop a small breakout on my cheek, but I continued to use it every day and my skin did not get worse, in fact it started to clear up faster than a normal breakout. I really do not believe that it was the toner that caused the minor breakout, if anything my pillow/pillowcase is the culprit. I normally switch out my pillow case(s) weekly, and wash my bedclothes monthly. (Unfortunately, I get caught up with school and end up forgetting/running out of time and end up a week or two late)

My pores do not look any cleaner, however they do seem less noticeable since I started using this toner.

BTW: This toner still stinks just as bad as the first time I used it. (thought I would be used to it by now)

That is all.