EGO eats: Refreshing, Low-Carb Noodle Soup!

Hi Egos, how have you been doing? I'm sorry about this little hiatus of mine but change is in the air and that has kept my mind occupied. So let's quickly move on to today's topic! Summer is the time of the year when every movement has me sweating all over the place. So it's basically the perfect occasion for lazy cooking. A simple soup with premade broth, instant noodles and some shallots.

Fitness Update: Why Do I Keep Doing This? - The Gym Classes Edition

Hi Egos, summer is approaching which means that there are some bikinis and dresses to rock. Now I won't be able to show much of my skin during the week since I'll be at the office but there are still enough opportunities in my free time to show off my progress!

EGO eats: Ciabatta Deluxe Sandwich!

Hi Egos, I'm not sure if it's the same in your country but I just had 4 free days! Hence I've decided that April shall forever be my favourite month :D

Sorry about the picture quali :D I wanted to eat this so quickly that there was no time to shoot it properly :D

EGOutfit: Fitness & Weightloss Update!

Hi Egos, I realizes that I haven't blogged about my fitness and weightloss progress in way too long. So here's a little update on where I am now, what my plans are and how I'll achieve them.

EGOxperiment: Low Fat Ice Cream!

Hi Egos, I don't know where to start with this one... Should I start by pointing out how I've ended up reviewing yet another ice cream product? Or should I start by saying how all of my dreams have come true?

Zumba = Torture?!

Hi Egos, as you might remember I'm still working out. I always make sure to go 3 times a week to the gym. Going for 6 months makes the work out part of a routine which is good because it shows how much I've achieved a healthier lifestyle. However it also means that cardio and weights are sometimes not really tempting. Sometimes cardio seems to never end...

Source: http://zumbafun.me

EGOxperiment: Autumn Ice Cream - Toblerone

Hi Egos, with the end of my successful Magnum First Kiss EGOxperiments I've been craving for something new. While I still need to find my style fashionwise I've definitely found my taste dessertwise ;-) I did some research for new EGOxperiments but I always ended up in the ice cream department. Since this blog is about loving yourself I thought I'd just give in and finally go for new editions of ice cream.

This one at least comes in a cup :D The first one is the Toblerone flavoured ice cream cup.

EGOtorial: Healthy Berries'n'Orange Shake!

Hi Egos, I love food and drinks. I love it even more when they are good for me. So today I want to share this little shake I've recently tried that doesn't only taste good but helps protect you against illnessess and supports your digestion.

Let's take a closer look!

EGOxperiment: Korean, Plastic Bagged Water Ice!

Hi Egos! I know a lot of you are waiting for the grand finale of the Magnum First Kiss series - so am I. However I couldn't find the last one anywhere yet. I'll keep searching of course! I might even contact Magnum directly and demand them to let me try that last one :D

While gathering all my patience for that last Kiss I accidently found something to sooth my growing impatience! This deliciousness is something I actually only knew from Korean dramas. 

Please ignore my bed hair... Yes I do eat water ice as breakfast :D

EGOtalk: Am I Becoming an Athletic Person?!

Hi Egos, as I mentioned before (here) the gym has been one of the few places I go to regularly - the others would be home and work :D

I've been hitting the gym for almost half a year now and since I've been working out earnestly there were bound to be reults. This is not supposed to be a bragging-post where I tell you how hard my abs have become. It's more of an objective analysis of my progress.

Legs

I tend to see results first on my legs which only makes sense considering how much cardio I do. I never use the cycling machine but always a crosstrainer or treadmill. So my legs have gotten slimmer and more muscular. I can jump and take stairs more easily. xD I think I need to watch out now because they might look like a man's legs otherwise!

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGross! That's not girly.. :D

EGOutfit: What do I look like now with 20 pounds less weight?

Hi Egos, today will be a special EGOutfit as I won't focus so much on my clothes but more on my body. As you might have noticed I have been working out at the gym regularly.  It's gotten to a point where I'm happy to do my routines and where I can see real progress. 

I've also been eating a bit better - but don't get me wrong there is at least one rather unhealthy or high-calorie food every day that will slow down my progress. However that's okay because I know I might never really eat entirely healthy and this change of eating habits is meant for the long run.

So let's get to the  before-after-picture fun!

BEFORE

Oh yeah, this one's bad -.-"

AFTER (20 pounds weight loss)

I know those pictures aren't really the best choice but I want to do a proper before-after comparison when I've reached my goal. =) You can see a difference though, right? After joining my gym I didn't loose weight as quickly as I lost size since my muscles are heavier than the fat I'm eliminating! Pretty amazing, isn't it? 

In the past I've lost even more weight way too fast and way too unhealthy. Just to gain it  all back... So this time I want to take it slow and make the results last. 

Some of you might wonder why I want to loose weight when my blog is called LoveYourEgo. Well that's simple. Love yourself, your ego and your body and then do what's best for those three. That's what I'm doing right now. While I feel that I'm already very beautiful I still feel that I'm not as healthy as I could be and my office job is not exactly the job that will keep you fit! ;-)

So that's it for today. You can now get an idea of what I'm working on right now. :-D

C U Egos!

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EGOtorial: How To Convince Yourself Junk Food Is Good For You!

Hi Egos! I'm back to share my wisdom with you guys. ;-) So get your pencils out and start taking notes from the lecture of your dignified teacher! :D

Step 1: Make sure you really want to eat junk food

Sounds easy right? But let's think about that for a second. Every meal should be dominated by careful consideration. That also applies to junk food. Should it be burgers or some greasy chinese food? What about kebap?

Step 2: Order in combination

Chose something that is somehow healthy from the menu and that will fill you until you reach the bad stuff. :D That could be some water or a salad, maybe even a soup.

Step 3: Eat in company

If you eat with someone you're - in a way - sharing the calories. The more the merrier! :D

Step 4: Fight the guilty conscience

This is the final stage! Not everyone might need this step. Some might not even care about eating junk food. So for those of you who feel like they're going to gain weight or who just feel bad because they know junk food isn't the healthiest food you can get out there. Now there are two ways you can fight the bad feeling. One is to just do a work out. Burn the calories. Then you have a mathematic reassurance that you won't gain extra weight. Or you can just think about it this way: You ate a few vegetables with a bit of meat. Don't stress over it too much. :-D

Please be aware that this tutorial shouldn't be executed on a daily basis. It's more than likely that you will grow highly overweight if you eat whatever :-D

C U Egos!

Goofing around in the GYM!

Hi Egos! I successfully made it back from Frankfurt. I had a lot of fun there and met amazing people. But now I'm back again and that means I'm back to my busy schedule!

Before Frankfurt I went to the gym a lot and was in the process of changing the way I eat (it kind of just happened that way. It was all VERY healthy.) So I was a bit worried to gain weight, lose my muscles and stuff. T_T BUT I didn't! I was very active which included a lot of sight-seeing and dancing :D

Since I'm back in Berlin again I went straight to the gym and I think I'm still as fit as before :D So today I want to talk about what I do in the gym. As mentioned before working out has become quite relaxing to me. But there are days when it's a bit harder to go.

My locker! Very neat right?

I go 3-4 times a week depending on how much time I have. Plus I usually keep the suggested time to rest between my workouts to regenerate my body. Once a week I do the whole workout including lifting weights and the rest of the time I do stamina training (I love that word. Sounds so badass!). Most of the time it's really fun to go there because I can make fun of other runners or the shows that run on TV or just myself. I discovered that I make this weight lifting face that only dudes normally do:

My weight-lifting-face looks a little like this! :D

This is just so hilarious! The first part goes by pretty quickly because I do 3 sets on each machine and then switch to the next. That last part are sit-ups that will eventually give me a murderous six-pack :D Just kidding. 

The weather was so amazing!

Lastly there's the never ending 60 minutes cardio part. Sometimes that time flies if there's a good show on TV to keep my mind occupied but other times there's just rubbish and time seems to stop. When it's over my legs feel like rubber but I'm satisfied.

Here is one last photo of me sitting like a boss on the abductor (a machine that trains your legs):

C U Egos!

EGOtalk: The Naked Experience!

Hi Egos, today I want to talk about a rather scandulous topic: Nudity. Now it won't be as bad as you might imagine right now. Let's start with the reason why I want to talk about it at all.

 

As I have mentioned before I've been going to the gym quite often in the past couple of weeks. It's the first time in ages that I feel motivated to work out regularly. I don't have to force myself to go there. I'm even looking forward to it since it's become a source of relaxation. Some of the other women (the gym is exclusively for women) even stared at me because I seem to enjoy myself too much.

 

Anyways I do cardio twice and muscle building once a week. Since the latter takes so long and since I'm so stingy with my free time I need a tiny push to end the training with a good mood. So the thing that keeps me motivated is the sauna. I just loooooooove lying in a hot room and sweating without excercising. Yesterday I was in that exact same situation and that got me thinking about the reason I like saunas. First of all you it cleanses your body, then it's good for your heart and lastly you get to be naked without being stared at.

 

I think that I wouldn't enjoy myself as much if there where men around but in an women-only environment where there are a lot of elder women that grew up with a lot of nudism I don't feel uncomfortable at all.

Source:heattherapyprod.com

Usually I like wearing short skirts and all but being completely naked is something entirely different. I'm not even sure if I would go to those nudist beaches. :-D Probably not... Just think of what kind of people are there. Perverts and whatnot.

 

 

Well that wasn't too revealing, was it? :D

 

C U Egos

EGOtorial: Lazy & Healthy Cooking?!

Hi Egos, it's been a while since I talked about making food right? That doesn't mean that I'm not cooking anymore though :D Just yesterday I made another smoothie.

Today I made chicken with rice and spinach. Since I really didn't have much time for cooking (I had to tidy up my apartment, do some laundry and take a shower) I decided to go with a lazy version of it. Here is what I did.

Step 1: Go grocery shopping!

I did that yesterday already since today is Sunday and the shops are closed. This is probably the most logical step though. If you don't have any ingredients you can't cook. So this is what you're going to need:

• rice
• marinated chicken
• spinach (frozen one)

Step 2: Cook your rice using a rice cooker!

Frankly I think that everybody should have a rice cooker. Rice is good for your body and this little thingy gets the job done without any trouble. No burned rice corn whatsoever. ;-) Plus you can use it to cook vegetables without losing their vitamins. Sounds great right?

Step 3: Roast your chicken in the oven!

On youtube there is this asian muscle guy who does videos on how to gain muscles (No, I don't know why I watch his videos :D). In one video he says that he precooks his meals for the week and that he roasts his chicken using the oven. That ensures that the chicken gets done faster since the warmth doesn't only come from the pan but also from all around the chicken. It's an oven after all. So after fighting with the packaging:

I had to cut all around the meat to get the chicken out of there!

I put the meat in the pan and then in the preheated oven. Is it just me or does chicken look especially gross when it's raw?

I told you to buy marinated chicken in step 1. The reason for that is that the chicken will have a better taste and you won't have to season it any further.

Step 4: Put your spinach in the microwave!

Make sure you put a lid on it because the spinach might spatter and then you'll have to clean up the mess afterwards.

Step 4: Serve and eat!

I know spinach isn't sexy food but I like the taste :D I think that the whole process took me around 5 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes until it was all done. I checked in the middle and turned the chicken so that both sides would get nice and brown.

This is a quick, lazy but very healthy at the same time recipe. You got the rice that will fill your stomach, chicken which gives you energy (if you're spending a lot of time at the gym the way I have recently you really need that) and the spinach that gives you a few vitamins though I don't really know what kind of vitamins spinach has. Taste good at least :D

One last photo of the chicken because I'm so overwhelmed by the result. The marinade was so delicious and the chicken didn't dry out or anything!

C U Egos!

EGOtorial: How to make a smoothie!

Hi there my fellow Egos,

Today I want to show you how my sister and I make our smoothies. After watching one of Jamie Oliver's cooking shows we decided that it was time for us to get a blender! It goes without saying that we have not made any of his recipes so far. We did however experiment with all kinds of fruits.

Here is what we put in today:

This is frozen mango and a wildberry mix paired with ice cubes (to give the smoothie a thicker consistency and to keep it cool), stracciatella yoghurt and some milk (to make it drinkable without loosing the taste).

Step 1: Put all of your ingredients in the blender. I don't know if it is the same for every blender but with ours we have to be quite clever. The bigger pieces should be at the bottom and the liqiuds should be poured over them. I thought the order of things wouldn't matter because the force of the blender would mix everything up eventually. Despite my little theory the blender got stuck after 10 seconds. Today I started with the ice cubes.

Step 2: Add the fruits! Consider your own taste when adding them. You need to know which taste will overpower the other ingredients. I once added a ton of different fruits and ice cream but in the end it all tasted like the fresh bananas I put in. xD

Step 3: Add the milk and yoghurt. Of course you can leave out the yoghurt. I just like the taste. ;-) Make sure not to put too much milk into it because the whole thing could get too liquid. I like it somewhere between drinkable and ice cream. 

Step 4: Blend, blend, blend! Once everything is torn into tiny pieces you're ready to go! This is a pretty good idea if you feel like snacking a bit or want to drink something more exotic without spending too much money or eating too many calories. 

Step 5: Do yourself something good and prepare it in a glass of your liking. I feel quite happy today so this is the final outcome:

[drumroll]

The End. I shall be off lounging on the couch and watching something utterly not educational :D

Until tomorrow,

C U Egos