RECIPE TIME: Salad Dressing from the Gods

I used to hate salad. 

I thought it was boring. 

Little did I know... there are fun and exciting salads out there just waiting to be concocted!! 

I like salads because you can put things together that kind of don't belong together, but somehow taste good anyway. It's like- each bite is a surprise!!!

It's the little things I guess...haha.

Behold!  Maybe the healthiest thing I've ever eaten!

I figured it would be fun to add recipes to this blog! 

Btw- it's so weird to take pictures of your food. Like, I think about where I'm going to place it for an aesthetically pleasing photo. As you can see, my plate is artistically placed on my rug!

Wish I could say the dressing was my own little idea, but it was the lovely Angela Liddon's--

Here's the link!

But here's the recipe anyway, cuz who likes clicking links:

Vegan Green Goddess Dressing

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves
1 cup packed avocado flesh (2 small)
9 tbsp water
3-5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice, to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more)
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup packed fresh parsley
1/2 cup packed green onion (dark green part only, not white)
1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
Sweetener, to taste (I used 1 tsp of sugar)

Directions:

So basically you throw the garlic in the food processor (or blender in my case) and make sure it's all pulverized and then add everything except the lemon juice/vinegar. They make it very tangy, so you want to add those in bit by bit, to your liking. I also added salt last. 

My fork

I literally lick this dressing off of the plate when my salad is gone. I love avocado. I love garlic. I love lemon!! It's so so good!!

The rest of my salad (obviously you're on the edge of your seat to know) is as follows: half spinach/half iceberg lettuce, lightly browned red onion/mushrooms in garlic, sauteed chickpeas(<3!) in paprika, these cute little honey-sesame stick thingies(they look like worms in the first pic), and a dusting of paprika. 

Now you can emulate my kitchen prowess and make a salad like a BOSS. 

Also! Some more recent BBB successes:

1. Bench-pressed today. It was pathetic, but also felt awesome. 

2. I am sore from weights yesterday too! Win.

3. I even biked to my classes in the pouring rain.

4. Totally making all these awesome oatmeals for breakfast. 

5. Made cookies again and only had one! And I never do that! lol!

Well that's all for now. Thanks for humoring bits of my personal life. ;)

<3Katelyn

Bringing Everyone in on the Discussion

That last post was about the fine line between a healthy body image and an unhealthy one. I'd like to know what you guys think. When does self respect turn into pride, and when does recognizing a healthy need for change morph into self-deprecation? How can we escape the self-centeredness of it all? Feel free to post your reponses here or e-mail them to StephieStalvey@gmail.com

Love, Steph

Thoughts from Memphis

Hey guys, Stephanie here. First of all, I feel grateful to know that there are actually people reading and following this blog. I've been able to talk to some of you about it, and seriously, the encouragement means so much. Bbb leaves room for all of us.

Here's a thought I've been ruminating over lately. It's a good and holy thing to have a positive body image. To me, that means appreciating the way God made your body, rejoicing in its abilities and respecting it by taking care of it. It means not nitpicking and critizinging the qualities of our physical appearance that we cannot or do not need to change. See your body as a beautiful, worthy gift from God.

But the danger is so close behind. The minute we begin to attribute our worth as people to our physical bodies, we have missed the point of who we are, and begun to devalue our souls. This works in the positive and negative. If you attach your identity to how beautiful to appear on the outside, you're missing the opportunity to develop real beauty, which seeks out others in kindness, without being prideful and showy. If you are constantly down on how you look, complaining about this or that, and dissatisfied with your body, you too are guilty of placing your value on external appearance. We're all guilty of these attitudes one time or another. These attitudes are ugly.

I think this is especially hard as women. We live in a culture that tells us we are literally not worth listening to if we don't meet a standard of beauty. Less attractive women are less valued by society. It is so tragic but true. This is why we are all so terrified of growing old, and certainly feeds this paranoid, comparative obsession we have about our looks.

What can we do? Do we even have a chance of combating this madness? I think so. I think that we have the power to try and see people the way God sees them, and maybe even try to see ourselves the way God sees us. Can you imagine if we tried that? If we, like God himself, aimed to look not at the physical state, but at the heart? I think it would result in some truly beautiful things.

Going Strong

Hey friends! Time to update you on all my BBB adventures. I've actually been pretty proud of myself so far. I've been going to the gym pretty regularly. The first time, I worked on the elliptical for the ENTIRE duration of Britney's first cd, and met two body builders named Pablo and Ronnie, which totally made me feel like I was on Jersey Shore. The next day, I was lucky enough to run into Scott, an old high school friend. He showed me how to use a lot of the equipment (which is super cool because otherwise I would have been wandering around aimlessly tugging at stuff.) I was happy to have a workout buddy, and Scott showed me some good workouts I can do from home. One of the things I want to work out is my arms and chest, (and you know that place where your arm meets your torso?) because my arms will be on display at the wedding. So naturally I was up in that gym lifting weights till I physically couldn't anymore. (And before you start picturing me as Rocky or something, let me explain that these were 5 pound weights. And I was barely making it.)

I thought you guys would appreciate seeing my awesome, pink gym pass. So heres a bad phone picture I took of it.

and heres the fitness center itself

Tomorrow I head back to Memphis on a big ugly airplane. I won't have this gorgeous sunshiny gym anymore, but I will have the love of my life around, which is nice. (Jake, by the way, has been up to his own BBB action. He's been working out at the seminary gym, and eating healthy. He even switched to whole wheat spaghetti, which rules. I like to send him encouraging messages, like, "we're gonna be abulous on our honeymoon!" Its cool.) I'll have to keep my head in the game for real, so to inspire me, I got some Victoria's Secret yoga pants and a Women's Health magazine. Oh yeah, and hanging out with my ripped little bro.

And to keep things real, let me tell you what I love most about this thing that we're doing. I love that we're celebrating our bodies as they are. For me, this isn't about reaching a number on a scale. You can loose all the weight in the world, tone whatever you want, but if you have a warped or unfavorable view of yourself, nothings going to change. Your mind is the thing thats broken, and a physical change won't satisfy you. For me, this new era means welcoming the idea that I am beautiful as I am. It's about appreciating my body for all it can do. By being confident in my own image, I find that its easier to see the beauty in all the women around me. I am in favor of dispelling this idea that only one type of woman is beautiful. Thats simply not true... it doesn't have to be. Lets band together in this. God made us glorious. BBB.

Steph

RA Life... How do I be Healthy??

Hi! Katelyn here.

John, welcome to the BBB blog! :) I felt weird putting "Dad" in a blog post, but putting "John" is weirder so... oh well. But it's good to have you here!

Just came from Christmas break in Orlando back to good ol' Gainesville, FL. It's always weird to see how somewhere just two hours away is so different! I live in the burbs so it's all palm trees and ponds-with-fountains-in-them. Gainesville is kind of... the dividing line for where a little country-style gets mixed in. With an enormous university in it.  It's fun here!

This is what it's like here. 

I miss my family and my friends already! Missing Miss bride-to-be Stephie. :) She reminded me to keep posting so HERE I GO--


I go to UF (go gata!!) in case you wanna know, and  am a Resident Assistant here in the dorms on campus.





And that matters. Why? Ehh-- it isn't really included in my job description per se, but I believe it pretty much should be: baking for your residents. Or at least, I should because all my residents live right by the kitchen. And because they always remember!! It goes like this--

Random person: Hey, do you know  name of RA?

Past resident: OMG YES she was my RA and was the BEST because she made us cookies!!!

Random person: Yeah she is pretty darn cool.

Past resident: Yeah


This has legit happened to me.
Last year, I baked almost weekly for them. I am amazed at the mysterious powers of butter and sugar to win over peoples' affections.

NOT HEALTHY

So that right thar is what I baked today. I haven't gone to the grocery store so a box of brownie is what's up. I'm not perfect so everything can't always be homemade. Whatever.

But guess what!?
...
Brownies are not healthy!



In fact, they pretty much epitomize the picture of unhealthiness.

(Not to mention they are a personal weakness of mine. I've gotten better (I hope) but once I ate essentially the ENTIRE box.)


What's a girl to do?? I do not have an answer to this question. Is self-control just it? I was lucky enough to have it this time. This was my BBB victory of today! NOT ONLY did I not have a single brownie, but I didn't even lick the batter. True story.

But I'm kind of thinking that if I bake weekly, I'm not always going to be so strong!

ALSO I must say that RA life involves a good bit of catering, and healthy food is super-duper expensive when you have to feed a buttload of people. Or really, any more than like, two people. We already had Panda Express and tomorrow we get pizza.

...What to do....

I guess I could like, refuse to eat that smut and go order some organic salad somewhere. But chances are, I won't do that cuz I want to bond with everyone and not be a jerk. I'm thankful for the BBB community (lol) because it helps give me strength to treat my body with respect! But I know it's essentially impossible to put yourself around a bunch of delicious, ooey-gooey, sugary, ambrosia-like treats (hahaha.. because that's what my baking is! ;) ) 24/7 and not eat them. You are more likely to eat what you put yourself around. Simple truth.
So, this is my plight! I'm still kind of figuring out what to do. (If you have ideas, lemme know!) So, I'll probably post all my ideas or something later. Maybe also my 2012 goals or something.


Bye for tonight!

Bringing a Little Testosterone to the Party

All right, my beautiful Katelyn just got me connected, finally.  I apologize for my technical difficulties.  Of course, everyone knows I have a beautiful body, (I kinda get tired of my wife saying it over and over and over again...sheesh!) but nonetheless I have joined.

I believe I am the only male member, and therefore, request a T-shirt with a picture of you girls on the front, as well as our BBB logo. On the back, it can just say "Mr. T."

Got up at 5:30 to go work out this morning and....got a knee injection so perhaps I can start pushing my arthritic knee a little harder.

Glad to be on board with you women-type creatures.

Mr.  T

The Gang goes to the gym/ Steph gets vulnerable

Well, it’s day five of our fabulous initiative, and I’m sitting here with a cup of green tea realizing that everything has changed. With the holidays wrapping up, everyone is having to migrate back to their prospective school towns. Katelyn left for UF this morning, and it won’t be long until I’m back to dreary, de-motivating Memphis. Being long distance with your weight-loss-partners-in-crime blows.  Proximity totally helps stir you on towards actually working out and stuff. We’re gonna really have to make this blog awesome if we want our energy to have some staying power.

It’s for that reason (and because of Emily’s awesomely soul-baring, inspiring previous post) that I’ve decided to get vulnerable today. And, as you all know, “vulnerable” in a weight loss setting absolutely means posting a before picture, and my weight in pounds.

So here you go world. Check it out.

Here I am. 5’ 9”, 165 pounds.

Last night BBB joined forces for our first real work-out sesh at the Gym. John, Katleyn, Emily, Kimberly, and yours truly were all present.  It was great to have everybody there working towards a similar goal. Also it was fun to awkwardly be taking pictures the whole time. Whenever someone looked at us like, “what the heck,” we just said, “we’re bloggers.” So true.

So here ya go blogisphere, enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Go girls go!

Team Awkward indeed.

                                                     Gotta work them glamour muscles ;)

                                                                The gangs all here!!

Aren't we precious?

I thought it would be fun for us to all post our favorite workout music/playlists, too. I think we all have pretty different taste and that’s fun. Personally, I’m all about working out to some show tunes.  Lately it’s The Book of Mormon. You have to have a certain kind of humor that tolerates obscenity and offensiveness to appreciate the genius of Trey Parker’s work. I have such a sense of humor. So I like doing the elliptical whilst listening to cheery, dancing Mormons. The songs have pep and they make me chuckle.  It’s a winning situation.

After we got home all sweaty and encouraged, I called my Jake. He was super proud, and suggested we end the night with a nice scripture reading and prayer together. “You’ve taken care of your bodies, now you can take care of your spirit.” Do I even need to say how crazy cool this man is?

So we did. We read John 15 and remembered that abiding in the love of God brings joy to the heart of Jesus and to us, and helps us to produce good fruit in this world. It was really a good time.

And now I’m off to do it again. This time I’ll be alone, but I know my girls have got my back long distance. I’m proud of us! BBB!

Working out

So I'm actually posting this from my I touch which makes me feel unspeakably cool and with the times. I am so super encouraged by us doing this thing. Me and katelyn were paroozing Walgreens today and noticed that basically, most of the stuff sold is for people to either lose weight fast or gain weight fast. It's like, have a snickers and chips or hydroxycut and a 5 your energy. It's so hilariously pathetic. Why cant we just Choose to eat normally? I'm askIng this of myself, too. Being aware of what we eat is a big deal. Mostly I've been thinkIng about food so far which is good but we also need to get active. That's the kicker. So here we go, katelyn and steph, off to the stoneybrook gym. Wish us luck. Bbb!

Believing in MY beautiful body

Hey There! This is Emily speaking. Sorry that I don't have any pictures to post yet, but I promise I'll put one up soon!

Okay BBB.

As my wonderful sister Katelyn has already said, BBB started in the Hever family as "Best Bootilicious Body", a resolution to eat healthy, drink water and work out starting on the 1st, and even though I said I was joining, in my head I was thinking "well this won't last long".

I guess when Stephanie changed BBB into "Believe in your Beautiful Body", it made me think differently. When my sister Katelyn kept pressuring me to post something, I started thinking "What am I going to post? I don't want to post anything. I don't even have a goal". Well, I realized that the reason I didn't want to post was because right now, I don't believe in my beautiful body. I don't look in my mirror and feel confident. I just don't like my body.

That's pretty hard for me to say, especially since I have no idea who will be reading this blog. But it's something that I think I have to say if I want to change the way I think. I do want to believe that my body is beautiful. I do want to learn to eat healthy. I do want to work out(kind of).

So, for me, BBB will be more than trying to lose weight and tone muscles. I'm also going to be working on being able to believe that my body is beautiful.

I'm excited, and nervous, and scared, but I think with this support system and God to help me, I can do this.

BBB for Stephanie

Hey fans! Stephanie here. This a picture of me.

And these are some pictures I found today from when I was 17.

Do you guys SEE me in those pictures?? The second ones? I was so skinny! And workin’ the camera! I still had my signature curves, but only where I wanted them. Sure I had absolutely no idea how to dress, but I was 17, and into 80s rock and roll, so I’ll give myself grace there. I was a slender little thing!-- and as far as I remember, never gave a second thought to numbers on a scale. It was motivating for me to see those pictures because I know that’s what my body is capable of looking like when it’s healthy and taken care of. College stress and an ongoing struggle with my thyroid have tacked on some pounds, and it’s hard not to let that mess with a girl’s confidence sometimes. Nowadays, I find myself patting my food baby in the mirror n with a semi-regretful sigh after dinner, or positioning myself in so that my arms will look okay when I’m having my picture taken. That’s no fun. I remember a time when that was a non-issue. I (clearly) wore whatever I wanted, had more energy, and looked a lot better.



I’m not saying that I’m fat or something, or that my weight is some primary thing I focus on. I still think of myself as a beautiful, fun, sexy woman. I have an incredible fiancé who loves me more than I deserve, and who tells me every day that I am the most beautiful woman in the world. I don’t ever feel unlovely when he looks at me. Every girl should have that. He sees my body, but he also sees who I actually am as a person. I get so sad when I see girls measuring their worth via external beauty. Ironically, that’s a pretty ugly, self-sabotaging way to live. Girls get caught up in this thing were they constantly compare their beauty to all other girls, and make value judgments based on that. Living that way can either lead to pride or jealousy: pride because you think you’re prettier, or jealousy because you think she is. Isn’t that disgusting? How you just missed out on experiencing your own beauty and the beauty of that other person? Geez.



Ladies, this one’s for free: I think we should all really put more mental and emotional emphasis into the loveliness of our souls than we do. If we cared half as much about being kind and compassionate as we did being sexy, this world would rock. Also, be interesting. Value your own intellect, ability to have conversation, make people laugh, sing, read, whatever. It’s like Mindy Kailing says: “I’d much rather have someone call me chubby than say I was unfunny or stupid.” A smile is the most beautiful thing a woman can wear. I honestly believe that. 



Now that I have all of that clarified, I feel better about discussing my weight loss/fitness goals. I am hopeful to be disciplined. It’s hard to exert self-control and not eat everything I want. That’s kind of pitiful when I actually write it out, but it’s true. There’s no reason that I need or deserve to eat as poorly or as much as I do. I hope that as I develop a new healthier mindset I also develop appreciation for what I am eating, and don’t have to gorge myself beyond the point of full to enjoy my food. A small portion is enough, and it’s worth savoring. It’s time to kick my gratitude into shape.



Also, I don’t know if you know this, but I am a sick person. Not like I’m a serial killer or a weirdo, like, I am a medicated, puke-prone, ailment-having person. I get sick easily and for long periods of time. That thing I mentioned before with the thyroid can be a real nightmare, and so can stomach issues. I owe to this body to not be sedentary, lazy, or careless. It deserves at least that. 


Oh yeah, and theres this other bit of modivation... the wedding. Of course I wanna look as amazing as possible on my wedding day, every girl does. I'll be a bride for the rest of my life, but this is my one and only day to do the whole celebretory schabang, so I am gonna do it right.

Lastly and probably most importantly. I think I have a spiritual responsibility to be conscious of my health. I really do believe that my body is not just my own—it’s a dwelling place for the spirit of God, given to me on loan until death lets me escape it. It’s also the co-property of Jake the day we say “I do.” I believe marriage is an unbreakable covenant of mind soul and body—and that God will spiritually make us one flesh. Practically, that means that taking care of my body’s appearance and health is a duty and gift of love to my husband. I have a feeling he wants me around for a while.
So, here I go, amateurly attempting to diet, exercise, and get fit. Hopefully this blog will help inspire and keep me on track. I’m jumpin in the deep end, guns a blazin. (mixing metaphors, I know. It’s okay)



Love,
Steph

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
Proverbs 31:30

What BBB Means to Me-- Katelyn

Hello! This is about how I connect with Believe in Your Beautiful Body, this lovely blog's philosophy.

To me, BBB was born somewhat out of mediocrity. Or maybe boredom.
Inspiring!

But maybe you can relate, so here's what happened-

Much of my Christmas Break was spent in the lovely, nearly-uninhabited town of Benton, Kentucky. Let me assure you that this is a boring place. I had time think, or probably just sit around and eat biscuits.
While there, I started to mull over potential New Year's resolutions.

Benton has a coffee place! 

Tried to come up with MIND BLOWING things to accomplish. I made a list and everything, but it was all pretty blah, so I scrapped it!

But my sisters and I started to feel guilty about eating.. maybe zero items of produce for the last week, and came up with a somewhat-bogus health-kick plan!

We called it BBB!- Best Bootilicious Body. (lol!)




Naturally, we tried to gather a following.

And everyone seemed to buy into this idea of being healthy and like, owning your beauty and stuff!
I sometimes laugh at that kind of thing, (kind of like I was now) but another part of me got pretty excited! Feel confident in my sexy body and not be trapped in unhealthy patterns of eating? Maybe it's not stupid to want that. Sign me up!

Not strong yet!

So now it's day 2 and I'm pumped! Easy to be that way on day 2. But we have an evolving support system and get sweet texts like this:

Kara: Didn't eat a cookie today! BBB!


John: Bbb- at gators. Had a salad. 


Emily: White girls workin' in the gym...BBB! Workin' real hard to get trim.. BBB! 


We're awesome!

I'm kind of proud of some of the accomplishments of the past 48 hours too.
Example:  There was a single, solitary M&M on the counter. Jesus tells us to FLEE from temptation so I told that M&M to flee to the trash can. BBB!

Stephanie inspired the transformation from "Best Bootilicious Body" to "Believe in Your Beautiful Body." And really, that is what it means to me. I laugh about it and everything, but when it comes down to it, I wanna be beautiful and confident. Wowie! It's like admitting a secret!

So I guess, moral of the story is to not pretend like you don't care about things that you actually do care about.  Yay morals!  :) So make use of your boredom and come up with dumb plans. Maybe you'll get to learn something cool out of them!

Beauty Quotes from Beautiful Ladies

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
Audrey Hepburn

“I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.” 
-Marilyn Monroe

It just seemed so odd as people had never commented on my body before. Every woman obsesses over her figure, but I was happy, I felt sexy - I never thought about it. I know this sounds naive, but I honestly never expected this kind of attention.

-Christina Hendricks

Launching BBB 2012

So lets be real. We have every reason to lose weight, eat healthy and feel great this year. With the coming apocalypse, we really only have this one chance to feel amazing in our own skin. Also, I (Steph) am getting married soon, and we need to look staggeringly amazing in those photos. Lets get healthy not by beating ourselves up, but by celebrating how beautiful our bodies really are and all they are capable of! This blog is a safe place to share successes and failures, cool recipes, food diaries, work out routines, and inspiring ideas. Together, we can get healthy and fit. Go BBB!

Love, Stephanie and Katelyn