Happy February! One month closer to Warmth… :mrgreen:
I started my morning off with a delicious new breakfast cake. This one was ‘baked’ in just 3 minutes!
3 Minute Breakfast Carrot Cake
Carrots are high in beta-carotene, Vitamin K, Potassium, and Vitamin C. Carrots also are a great source of antioxidants. Eat carrots with nuts to supply fats for cartenoid and Vitamin K absorption.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup almonds or walnuts
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 2 t pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 banana
- 2 t pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger)
- 1/8 t fine sea salt
- 1-2 T scoop Manitoba Harvest Hemp Vanilla Protein Powder (optional)
- 1 and 1/4 cups almond, soy, rice, or hemp milk
- 3 T raisins (optional)
Directions: Throw all ingredients into blender except raisins. Blend until desired consistency. Pour into three small microwave safe or oven safe dishes. Add raisins (or you can add them after cooking, up to you!) and pop into microwave for 3 minutes on high. Let sit until it cools down. Add desired toppings such as nut butter, yogurt, coconut oil, maple syrup, vegan margarine, walnuts, cacao nibs, etc. and enjoy!
I swirled on top of mine some soy yogurt, cashew butter, walnut crumbs, and maple syrup. To die for!!
Makes 3 servings. Per serving (without optional ingredients):
Note: The sodium should actually be in half. I put 1/4 t instead of 1/8th t by mistake.
Some of you mention that these breakfast cakes are high in fat. In this case, the fat is derived from the Omega 6 fats in almonds which are extremely healthy. We need good fats and it is ok to eat them. :mrgreen:
After fueling up with breakfast, I did yoga as the sun rose! As part of my Spring Training Plan that I will be revealing tomorrow, I have scheduled in some weekly yoga to balance out the strength training I will be doing.
I also did the last session of Whittle My Middle 2!! Can you believe today is the last day?! January flew by. I will be talking about my thoughts on WMM2 tomorrow, as well as talking about my Spring Training Plan.
Where You Live And The Pressure To Be Thin
Missed these?
When I was struggling the most with my body-image, my external environment had a huge impact on how much pressure I felt to be thin. I also noticed this theme to be very prominent in the comments of the previous two topics.
For example, while in university, I felt so much pressure to be thin. It seemed like being thin, or even underweight, was the norm around campus and this created a lot of pressure for me to ‘fit in’. The campus I went to was 70% female and it seemed like it was one huge competition of who could be the thinnest.
During my Master’s career, Eric and I moved to Toronto and the pressure I felt came not from the campus, but from the city itself. Like many huge metropolitan cities, Toronto is a very thin city. Research even shows that people tend to weigh less in big cities, in part because of how much more people walk, take public transportation, and have more access to health food and gyms. The women in our condo building (and area) were about half the size of me!
Last year, Eric and I moved out of Toronto into a rural area. I felt that pressure instantly disappear. There is no pressure to be stick-thin or to look like you just stepped off the cover of Vogue out here. While people are still thin and enjoy an active lifestyle, it’s not as ‘in your face’.
Now mind you, I don’t think that one’s environment is 100% responsible for pressure that one feels…no way, no how. I truly believe that we are responsible for our own thoughts, no matter what environment we may be in. I had to accept this when I sought treatment for my eating disorder. I realized that I was the only person who was ever going to take control and change my thought processes and I couldn’t blame my environment for my problems. With this being said, I still fully believe that some environments (campuses, big health conscious cities) create pressure to be thin more so than others.
Do you feel like your environment has an impact on how much pressure you feel to be thin? Have you noticed the pressure is greater or less in different areas/cities?
I hope you have a wonderful Monday! Make it great. :mrgreen:
I definitely agree with you about the environment affecting the pressure. I felt a lot of pressure when i was in college too, and I dont’ feel as much now that I live in suburbs and have a full time job. However, ironically I am much healthier now without the pressure :)
Agree that the environment affects the amount of pressure we put on ourself. However, I do think it is just that…pressure we put on ourselves — yes, there are people who constantly are looking to rag on people; however, it seems to me that everyone has the same insecurities no matter how subjectively thin, pretty, handsome, etc. I think a lot of the time it comes from people THINKING that people are judging them, when in reality — everyone is wrapped up in their own hectic world.
However, yes at the same time — especially for women, society throws “thin-ness” and “perfection” in our faces so it’s hard to avoid or not think about.
It’s a very complex thing.
Your breakfast cake looks like COOKIE DOUGH. Er, uh, carrot cake dough! Even better :P Yummm.
I’d have to say environment has a big effect (for me at least), even if you try to not let it get to you. I went to an all girls high school, where we had to wear a uniform… in this case you can’t help but compare yourself to the other girls.
And now living in Paris! I feel like everyone is thin, classy, super well dressed and beautiful. It can feel like living inside an edition of Vogue. Maybe I compare to much, but it’s so easy to feel like you don’t belong.
Love the looks of that breakfast carrot cake! Yay for healthy fats!
xo
K
omnomnom. breakfast cake is lookin’ mighty taaasty.
I think the environment that you live in can only affect you if your self-esteem is low. I know at my low points, I can pick out tons and tons of girls that are “prettier then me”, most of them thin, thus making me feel the pressure to try and get to that size.
When I’m feeling good about myself, I notice a lot more regular girls mixed into the bunch, and if I happen to go into a particularly thinner part of town, it doesn’t even matter. It doesn’t occur to me that I need to lose weight, if I got the self-esteem to give me some backbone I feel I’m hot.
My self-esteem is very flip-floppy as a teenager, so I can’t give a definite answer. ;) Environment means nothing to me, though. It’s like when you’re sad, you can find so many other things to be sad about too, even if it’s the prettiest summer day and you’re with your bestest friends eating the most glorious food and playing the funnest games ever. You’ll still find something bad to make you even more sad unless you snap out of it.
I think I mentioned in my comment on your original post that the town I live in is very fit, so there is an environmental component to feeling some pressure, yes. It is probably less intense than a work setting though.
I googled all over the place lookign for that DVD yesterday! I can’t wait until it comes out for the public! Your reviews make it sound so great. That photo of you “glistening” was inspiration enough to go out and buy it.
This is so true! I come from a big family and all of my siblings are very tall and very thin. I’m much shorter and have a stockier build. I am in no way fat and I’ve always maintained a healthy and active lifestyle but whenever I’m around my family for an extended period of time (aka my childhood) a bunch of insecurities pop up.
Away from there I feel absolutely no pressure, no insecurities and I feel beautiful. Visiting family doesn’t bring this pressure but when I stay there for longer periods of time I find myself slipping back into that old insecure state.
I have to say that I live out in the country, but I still feel so much pressure to be thin just from going to school. There is constantly so much talk of being “fat” and such it’s hard to live with. Everyone seems to want to be stick thin and I find that I often do too just from hearing what others think of it. This is definitely not healthy, but it is hard not to be sucked into the skinny trap state of mind.
I just moved back to Canada from two years in India. I immediately gained 20 pounds and felt a constant pressure to be thinner. I naturally slimmed in India (walking, veggies, fewer preservatives, and, unfortunately, unclean water sources). The big difference is the constant bombardment of “BE THIN” messages in the developed world. They are everywhere – magazine covers, ads, neighbours, etc. I think a lot of it has to do with our comparative wealth. I do not think that anyone struggling to get by with their day to day existence struggles if their love handles are too big. Also people are just more covered in India. You would never wear short shorts or a sleeveless shirt, so the worry about cellulite and chubby arms never came up. I miss that.
As always, thanks for asking Angela. Great questions.
Hello fellow Canadian! I just moved to California a year ago for my husband’s job. There is a lot more sun and chance to wear less clothing here. I think although there is the obesity epidemic, people are generally fit in my area. I am 8 mths pregnant, I do not work here, but you could say the bun in the oven is a job creation! :)
I went from living all my life in the South–Tennessee–before moving to San Francisco at age 30. Never before in my life have my surroundings been so skinny!
SF is a fit, healthy place full of fresh produce and exercise opportunities. As great as that is, I also feel immense pressure to be toned and taut and tiny. Add in the fact that many SF women are very young and you have a recipe for insecurity.
in los angeles, obviously, as someone else mentioned.
that breakfast carrot cake looks like pure heaven. im not a big nut eater (other than almond butter), though, so i may try it out with oatmeal instead. i think that’s a really interesting point about how our environment affects us. i never really saw a correlation but now that i look at it, the people around me are pretty similar appearance wise and i think that contributes to what is viewed as the norm.
have a lovely day!
I definitely think that environment is a huge factor in body image & self esteem. I go to a university where there is an ongoing joke that girls have to send in head shots with their applications to get accepted because so many of the women on this campus are gorgeous. Last semester when I was dealing with some disordered eating and low self esteem, it was really hard to walk outside of my dorm past an open volleyball court and see itsy bitsy girls in teeny tiny bikinis and not get down on myself. However, now my mind & body are much healthier and I don’t worry about my surroundings as much. I think that the degree to which your environment affects you is directly related to where your head is at.
Oh yes, I definitely think location and environment play a huge role. I grew up in a wealthy area, where plastic surgery and “haughty taughty show-off your wealth” looks were quite popular. Here at school, I feel a definite pressure. Many people are physically fit, and there are tons of the skinny, blond, “sorority” types. And with going out every weekend, I feel the pressure to look good to “attract” the right men. It’s awful. However, when I went to visit my sister in a more “hippie” school up in Washington, I noticed a huge difference. No longer did I feel “average” or even “ugly”. In fact, I felt way overdressed and preppy myself. No one was perfect and blonde, no one was dressed to the extreme, and no one looked crazy fit. In fact, as bad as it sounds, I actually felt really and truly pretty for the first time in a while.
It’s sad how location and environment really do influence and play a role in such things.
Environment is a big factor… I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and our state is perceived as having a high rate of obesity and non-fit people. I would say that this perception is correct, for the most part. We have a high amount of bars / taverns, a low amount of gyms / health clubs and it can be tough.
In Regina everyone is larger, so I definitely don’t feel the pressure from my environment :-)
That breakfast cake looks RIDICULOUSLY good!! What is the consistency like? Is it cake-like?
Living in Cleveland, we embrace very rich, ethinic foods all year round – we just tend to eat a ridiculous amount of comfort food in the winter because of all that cold and snow! Between stuffed cabbage, pierogies, let alone all the baked goods, it makes healthy eating a challenge. That’s always why I’ve stuck to the “everything in moderation” concept.
In saying that, since losing over 100 pounds, what I have noticed that I get more comments about “how thin” I am (I am a size 4/6) – even from complete strangers. And unfortunately, I’ve noticed that I do get A LOT more accomplished in the business world since losing the weight. It’s unfortunate, but a fit 20-something seems to get more respect.
What a great invention! I will have to try this…sounds so delicious and fast for the morning. Or a sweet craving at night!