noBOLOGNA

Happy 26th Birthday to Me!

Well y’all, it’s been another year of life.  Today is my 26th birthday and I’m celebrating the crap out of it!  I’m currently in Orlando for a work conference, but guess what?  That conference ends today at 3:00pm. Then it’s off to Disney for celebration galore with Nick, his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.  We have dinner plans, Festival of the Lion King plans, and Fast & the Furious 7 plans.  Plus, have you heard that there’s a new vegan bakery in Downtown Disney?  I’ll have one of everything, please!

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I can’t help but think about how blessed I am.  I have 26 years of life behind me – each year has had it’s share of good & bad, of course, but when I look at the big picture, I am just so incredibly thankful for this life.  Thankful for the people I get to celebrate life with – family, friends, nick, co-workers, and other’s that I volunteer with or encounter throughout my day.

I know it’s completely blogger cliche, but I figured another great way to celebrate (besides everything else I have planned) is to share 26 things I’m thankful for.

1. Being able to celebrate my birthday at the happiest place on earth – with some of the best people I know!

2. Forgiveness.

3. A good Starbucks coffee.

4. The relationship I have with my sisters.

5. Dogs that love you even when you accidentally step on their tail or don’t let them run out the front door to chase the squirrel they have their eye on.

6. Making blog friends that become real friends.  It’s such an odd thing when you think about it, but thank goodness it exists!

7. Vegetarian/Vegan options at a restaurant.

8. Being able to live with my parents to save money, pay off debt, and accomplish things I otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

9. Cute planners!

10. Legs that can run/walk/jump/bike.

11. Girls on the Run.  This program is teaching me so much and the girls I am blessed to spend 2.5 hours a week with have truly carved out a place in my heart!

12. Life Lessons.

13. My job & my boss.  Flexibility, trust, and ownership I’m given.

14. Prius & low gas prices.

15. Healthy eating education.  Not everyone knows what it means to eat a healthy balanced meal, and I’m so thankful that I do.

16. Sunny days, especially after a long stint of rain & clouds.

17. Technology that lets me stay in touch with long distance friends and family.

18. Prayer.

19. Fresh fruits and vegetables.  The beauty they bring to the world and the nourishment they provide my body.

20. A homemade delicious black bean burger – you can’t find that every where.

21. Community Service.  It proves that there are people trying to make a difference in the world and it’s an experience that can humble a person.

22. Education and the vast amount of resources at our disposal. Getting a college degree is not where it ends.  We can constantly learn new things thanks to the internet, libraries, and people who simply want to educate others about their passions/expertise.

23. Things that simply remind you God is there and is deeply in love with you.  We all need that from time to time and it can come in the form of friendships, nature, experiences, and much much more!

24. Words of affirmation.

25. Unexpected gifts or cards in the mail.

26. Of course, having a very best friend in Nick.  I’m so thankful that we love 12 hour car rides together and running around Disney, that we are willing to take spontaneous trips on occasion, and that sometimes a date night revolves around How I Met Your Mother and a Papa Johns Pizza.

Cheers to another year!

Favorite Things #6

Good morning!!  I hope you all are having a great week so far – it’s Wednesday, so we’re half way to the weekend.  Hang in there if things are a little tough this week, you’ll get through it!  I have some fun favorites to share with you today.  I plan on doing  a quarterly recap of my 2015 goals at the end of the month to help me stay on track and if I’m not reaching any of them, at least I know I’ve been on top of my Favorite Things posts!  Success.

I don’t usually post serious stuff on the blog because I want to keep things light and fun around here, at least that’s been my overall goal since converting to No Bologna, so if my post on Monday was uncomfortable (McAlister’s, we’re breaking up!), I’m not going to apologize for it because it was something I truly believe in, but I will promise not to get that serious for at least another few months!  Now let’s roll right into our Favorite Things, shall we….

I’m about to toot my own horn for a split second because it’s just so dang exciting for little ole’ bloggers like myself.

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I WAS FEATURED IN MISSISSIPPI MAGAZINE!!!!!!! Okay, I’m calm now. It was truly an honor and a blessing to be featured by one of the most prestigious magazines in Mississippi.  They wrote a beautiful article about the reasoning behind my blog and why I chose to become a vegetarian as well as tips I would provide someone who may be interested in a vegetarian lifestyle.  I definitely feel like it was a huge milestone for me and the blog.  I’m hoping to increase my local traffic – so this was surely a big step in the right direction.

One way to increase local traffic is to post directly on your personal face book page.  I’ve never been good about that because it makes me nervous.  I can’t really explain it, but I’ve always steered clear of my personal page and when I accidentally sent some blog posts to my personal page while I was vacationing in Jamaica, I may have definitely freaked out at first.  I realized though, that if I’m wanting to grow, then it’s logically the next step – so if you’re here from face book, WELCOME! 🙂

  • Raw Apple Crisp

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I’ve been eating a lot of this raw apple crisp lately.  It was one of my favorite go-to recipes when I did the Health Starts Here diet, but for some reason I didn’t even consider making it during the Engine 2 diet.  As I was meal prepping last week, I came across the recipe again and made a batch.  I love the crispness and freshness of this delightful treat!

  • Chili… lots and lots of chili!!!!

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I have been on a chili frenzy lately!  Not so unfortunately, the weather is finally starting to warm up, but that hasn’t stopped me from making chili.  I think the biggest reason for that is because it’s easy to make and makes excellent leftovers for lunch at work.  Nick and I made this batch of chili last Saturday night and it turned out delicious!  It was filled with vegetables and we made a vegan sour cream to go on top!

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It was so simple to make this sourcream – cashews, water, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar!  I’ll come up with a more solid recipe soon and share that with y’all.  This is a delicious sour cream alternative and it doesn’t have the unhealthy aspects to it.  Win in my book!

  • Weekends in Starkville, of course!

This past weekend was filled with lots of quality time with Nick and my sisters.  It was just what I needed!  Friday we hung out with my sisters and split a free pizza from Papa Johns – it was a pineapple, jalapeno, and mushroom pizza.  Odd combination, but it turned out delicious. Nick and I spent a good chunk of time at Starbucks planning an upcoming trip to Orlando.  My work has a conference for people in my position and this year it’s being held in Orlando, so I’m going down for the conference and while I’m at the conference, Nick can hang out with his brother and sister-in-law at Disney.  I’ll be done with my conference that Thursday, which also happens to be my birthday, so I’ll meet up with them afterwards and celebrate my 26th birthday at Disney!  We selected all of our fast passes and made 2 meal reservations, so we’re really excited!  The rest of the weekend didn’t have much going on, but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

  • This pleather skirt

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I would have never expected to like this skirt, but I loved it when I tried it on, so I bought it!  I haven’t had a chance to wear it yet, but I’m excited to see what all I can do with it.  I think it’ll be long enough for work, so I can pair it with some nice black heels and a button up shirt.  It’ll also be a fun “outing” skirt!  You’ll probably see this around the blog a lot this summer.  In this same shopping trip, I bought somewhere near 1,000 (ok, maybe just 4) solid color tee’s to wear this summer too.  Can you tell I’m ready for warmer weather and lighter clothes?!

  • What are you looking forward to most this summer?
  • What’s your favorite meal currently? 
  • How are you keeping up with your 2015 resolutions/goals?

My Dream Job

What I do: Currently I work for a Financial Advisor at an Insurance & Investment Company.  I absolutely love what I do and I could not be more blessed to work for the guy that I work for.  It’s a very detail oriented & tedious job, but it’s right up my alley.  I manage a lot of paperwork and client service requests along with any and every detail to running his business.  I have the best professional relationship I could ask for with my boss and I truly believe that the company I work for has the client’s best interest in mind.

Thankfully I have a great job and I love the people I work with/for, but I can’t help but imagine what my dream job would be. Don’t get me wrong, a stable 8-5 desk job isn’t terrible, but it’s a very sedentary lifestyle for someone who wants to be active and live a long life.   If I didn’t have this job or if something happened to it, what would I decide to do?

  • Blogger

Obviously being a full time blogger is most bloggers dream!  Who wouldn’t love a job where you can work when and where you want?  Who wouldn’t love a job where companies pay you to travel various places around the U.S.?  My favorite blogger is no secret, Julie @ Peanut Butter Fingers has the perfect blog job set-up in my opinion and I dream of having the same set-up one day.  She travels all around attending fitness expos and writing about health/wellness experiences!  She is a food ambassador for a few different companies and gets to tour their factories.  She also does stuff on the side like teach classes at her local gym.  If you’re a full time blogger, that gives you time for part-time jobs you’ll also enjoy as well plus time to volunteer!  One day, hopefully I’ll have my own Blog Travel page!

  • Travel Wellness Coach/Activist

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What I wouldn’t give to have the opportunity to travel places for 4-6 weeks at a time and assist people with their health habits!  I have a lot of family that currently deal with health issues and I would love the chance to live with them for 4-6 weeks, transform their diet to a more plant-based diet and record (blog) the results  of their health’s improvement.  I could cook their healthy plant-based meals and go on daily walks with them.  I could eventually be so successful from blogging the results that others would hire me to travel to their location and cook healthy plant-based meals for them over the course of 4-6 weeks.

  • Whole Foods

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Again, it’s no secret that I have a deep rooted love for Whole Foods!  I have 95% converted my grocery shopping to Whole Foods and I love just walking around and seeing what new products I can find.  They have the greatest vegan double chocolate cookies & they mark the products in the store that are Engine 2 Diet & Health Starts Here approved.  This is another company that I truly believe in what they stand for and want to be a part of the positive changes they’re making in the world.  I think I would enjoy a full-time job here, but would also find joy in a simple part-time job in addition to what I do on a daily basis just so I can be a part of this company.

  • Disney Marketing

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I didn’t have the greatest Disney College Program experience.  It wasn’t awful, but working my tail off and making minimum wage isn’t exactly my idea of a dream job.  I think if I had worked in a different role, I would have enjoyed it more.  Ideally, I would love to work in the marketing department at Disney.  Also, I wouldn’t want to work directly inside a park because I’d still like to enjoy myself on my days off by visiting the parks.

Do you ever think about what your dream job would be if you weren’t doing your current job?  Maybe your current job is your dream job!  Even if you love your job, like I do, you may have your heart set on something “different” and “unique” or maybe it’s the most normal job in the world, but you’d be happy doing it 24/7/365.

  • What is your current job?
  • If there were no limitations, what would be your dream job?

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The views and statements expressed on No Bologna are my own. You are reading No Bologna at your own risk and I am not providing any type of professional advice. Unless otherwise noted, all material on No Bologna may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent. I do occasionally have affiliated links on my blog - this does not raise the price of the product, I simply get a very small commission from the regular retail price if something is purchased using an affiliated link on my site. I appreciate any support by you in regards to affiliated links.