Starbucks Who?

I drove by a Starbucks today and nearly had a moment of weakness. At the last second my wits returned and I kept driving. But it got me thinking...why not make a Frap at home? I have all the stuff, it's just a matter of finding the lid to my blender...

Jen's Frappucino Recipe (sugar-free and low carb, of course)

1 tsp instant coffee
4 tsp Truvia (or erythritol & stevia...or Splenda if you must)
1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3oz water
3 T half and half
1/2 t vanilla
1 c crushed ice
Heavy Whipping Cream

Directions:
Blend everything but the whipping cream. Pour into your cup and liberally apply whipping cream. A fraction of the cost and carbs but LOADED with taste!!

This is stolen from here (but I tweaked it for my own preferences)

Now THIS is news!

Chocolate-eaters have lower body mass: study

Healthy people who exercise and also eat chocolate regularly tend to have a lower body mass index than those who eat the rich brown sweets less often, a US study suggested on Monday.

The survey of a population of more than 1,000 adults, published as a research letter in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reinforces the notion that chocolate packs heart healthy benefits, despite its high calorie and sugar content.

People in the study, whose ages ranged from 20 to 85, reported eating chocolate an average of twice a week and exercising an average of 3.6 times a week.

Those who said they ate chocolate more often than the norm tended to have a lower ratio of weight over height, a calculation made by taking a person's weight and dividing it by their height times two.

A normal BMI is typically 18.5 to 24.9, while people who figure lower are considered underweight and those above 25 are overweight.

"Adults who consumed chocolate more frequently had a lower BMI than those who consumed chocolate less often," said the study led by Beatrice Golomb and colleagues at the University of California San Diego.

"Our findings -- that more frequent chocolate intake is linked to lower BMI -- are intriguing," it added, calling for more detailed research and perhaps a randomized clinical trial of chocolate's metabolic benefits.

http://news.yahoo.com/chocolate-eaters-lower-body-mass-study-201855724.html

In other words...Carpe Chocolatum!!!!!!

Goodbye Fatty

Something amazing happened on Saturday. I started dieting on August 7th, 2011. I'm not prepared to write how much I weighed when I started, but let's just say I was busting the seams of my 12/14 sized pants. The funny thing was that I didn't feel that fat, at least not until I looked at pictures of myself. The person I saw in the mirror was the same person I've always seen so it was easy to lie to myself and be convinced that I wasn't that heavy. But of course I was. I don't remember what finally made me take the food by the horns and wrestle it down, but that day in August I knew I was going to stick with it this time. I remember having a similar feeling about a year after having my second baby; I simply knew that it was my time. Like every other failed diet was practice for the real deal.

I started slowly. I watched what I ate and walked on my treadmill, or took hikes in the woods. My good friend was on her own weight loss mission and it was fun to watch ourselves shrink. We made plans to go to Key West in February and I had that in my brain the entire time I struggled through a work out.

Then the dreaded plateau hit and I was stuck at the same weight for 3 months with 25 lbs left to go. I decided to go low carb and have been doing it for the last 4 months, while also doing T-Tapp and exercising my my elliptical (my treadmill took a dive and Chris STILL hasn't fixed it >:( ). Now I'm down 49lbs and I only have 11 lbs to go :)

But back to Saturday...I hadn't bought clothes since last year (when the 14s were snug and I wanted to cry). Having lost nearly 50lbs made me completely unprepared for what to bring into the dressing room. The weather has been unseasonably warm up on my mountain and I needed a pair of capri pants that didn't fall down.

So I grabbed a couple pairs of 8s from the shelves and told myself that if they were tight I would deal with it like a champion. I put them on and was completely floored when they weren't just big; they were HUGE. I was running late so I grabbed a pair of 6s from the rack and went through the checkout line. I sat in the back of my truck and put them on, praying that they wouldn't be too tight, but preemptively reassuring myself that I would be okay if they were. After all, I hadn't been in a pair of size 6 pants for at least 7 or 8 years now. Imagine my surprise when I buttoned them up and realized that they were actually too big for me!

They only thing that I can imagine is that they had to have lowered the sizes to give us all a self esteem boost. And you know what? I'm okay with that. Imagine how good I'll feel about myself in another 11lbs!

And now I feel like working out...

Fat Dutch Braid

I've been on a hair kick lately with my girls. I happened to come across a really cool website (www.princesshairstyles.com)that has completely inspired me to do something cute with their hair every day, even if I only have a few minutes.

This Fat Dutch braid only took me a few minutes to do. I am always able to do Dutch Braids (upside-down French Braids) in my own hair but I've never been able to do them in anybody else's. Finally I used my brain and stood in front of N and braided it from that angle. It worked! For those of you who don't know how to Dutch Braid, it's essentially the same as French Braiding only you pull the strands under instead of over. If that didn't make sense I suggest you head over here because she explains it way better than I ever could.

Once you have finished the braid, gently pull the edges of each of the sections of the braid, starting near the elastic. This gives it the 'fat' appearance and makes the hair look thicker than it really is.

This hairstyle took me about two minutes to do!

Flourless & Almost Sugarfree Peanut Butter Bars

The peanut butter bars were a big hit! They were especially good after a night in the refrigerator and even better considering that I haven't had dessert since January.

Here's how I think I did them:

Bars:
2 cups peanut butter
1 cup Truvia sweetener
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda

Chocolate Topping:
2 large bars 85% cacao chocolate
1/2 stick butter
2 T Truvia sweetener

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix bar ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until edges pull away from sides of the pan. Keep an eye on them, though, because I live at 9200 feet above sea level so cooking times will likely vary.

Combine the chocolate topping ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave in 30 second increments until it is completely soft. Spread over the bars once they are out of the oven and let cool completely.

Super yum without the guilt!

Why a Blog?

You know, that's a good question. I find it funny that I started a blog today, especially since we happened to be discussing this topic during my daughter's gymnastics class. My daughters, I'll call them N and C for the purposes of this blog (so that my hyper-secure and overprotective husband's head doesn't explode) both go to gymnastics, the older one for 3 hours at a time. Naturally we gym moms get to know one another pretty well and have long discussions about...oh who knows. But today we happened to get on the topic of moms who blog and we all agreed that it was stupid. Well, it sounded like that's what we agreed on but the truth is that I've wanted to start a blog forever. I just couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what on earth to call it.

Tonight I had a massive craving for peanut butter and chocolate. I've been on a low-carb kick for several months now and by the time I got home from gymnastics I needed something sweet so badly that I concocted an interesting no-flour peanut butter and chocolate something that I'm still waiting to cool off before I can test its edibility. I'll let you know. Anyway, with chocolate on my brain I finally came up with my blog name: Carpe Chocolatum. If you can't figure out what that means then...Google it.

So a little about myself. My name is Jen (and I can tell you that because we make up at least half of the human population and about a third of the pet population so I don't need to worry about my husband popping an artery). My husband's name is Chris (aha! Take that scaredy cat! Okay, another generic name) and we have four children, though two of them are more adult than child. I live on top of a mountain in Colorado but I'll keep that pretty vague as well. After all, it's not like you actually care, right?

Anyway, so I plan to use this blog for whatever fits my fancy at the moment. I am a woman of many hobbies...specifically I like to sew, write, read, and occasionally cook (meaning that I always cook but occasionally I enjoy it). I have a Facebook page for my sewing: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Petite-Poire-Boutique/284916846513 I'm kind of ADHD with my hobbies so I'm pretty sure this blog will show just how wishy washy I am with them. I might use this blog to rant about people...or my cats.

Okay, so my first awkward post is out of the way. PHEW!!


This really is the view from my dining room window first thing in the morning. It's the only reason worth waking up for if you ask me.


This is N...yes, she's very flexible. You'll see more of her.

Here's her sister, C...

Isn't she cute? Don't let her fool you, she's really kinda naughty. You'll see.