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July 15, 2014

Thinking Ahead

Good Morning!

I hope everyone survived Monday!  Monday’s usually have the potential to “get in your head” and drag by!

I wanted to get into work early this morning for a client coming in, so BREAKFAST was quick & easy!  I went with 2 scrambled eggs and 2 pieces of blackberry jam toast.  Of course, with a side of coffee.

egg-toast-breakfast

I’m on day 16 of my 21 day workout challenge and I’m feeling really great!  Last night I opted for a one hour walk so I wouldn’t be too sore for my HIIT class today.  This class is becoming obsessive, I love it so much!  I’ll have to share more about what we do in each class.  It’s always different!  I’ll try to make some mental notes this evening.

I need to work on creating an editorial calendar because it was a struggle coming up with a topic this morning… but hey, pinterest always helps!

THINKING AHEAD

We live in a society that is constantly thinking ahead.  I’m terrible about doing this – I’m looking ahead to my trip to Texas this weekend, I’m looking ahead to buying my own house one day, I’m looking ahead to Fall & Winter with Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’m looking ahead to weddings & trips we have planned the remainder of the year.

I know it’s somewhat in our nature to think ahead in this way, but I was wondering what created this almost “need” to look to the future.  I came up with a few reasons why we are constantly thinking ahead and what it is that encourages this.

(1) Social Media

I was looking through my pinterest feed the other day and realized that there was an excessive amount of halloween pins.  It’s mid-July, but we’re already prepping for what Halloween costumes we want to wear and what type of party we want to have.

(2) Retail Stores

It never fails that I hear some kind of complaint about Hobby Lobby putting out their Christmas items before Summer is over.  Because we plan early, we must buy early.

(3) Competition

We’re constantly competing with the Martha Stewart’s of this world.  It may take them a simple week to prepare a grand fiesta, whereas, ordinary people may need months to perfect every detail.  We’re constantly trying to overachieve from the previous year – whether it be with ourselves or our neighbor.

I don’t think this is a bad thing, honestly, I just try to remind myself that every now and then, it’s important to live IN the moment and not constantly look TOWARD the moment.  I’m all for the excitement that builds for fall & winter, Christmas & Thanksgiving, and the opposite for when we’re looking forward to summer.  I love a good party theme and planning ahead, but sometimes we get so caught up in the planning, that we forget to just enjoy.

I’m guilty of this too, so I’m definitely not pointing fingers here.  The views from society as a whole are not going to change, so we have to remind ourselves of this simple fact in order to get the most out of this life!

  • What activity do you complete to stay active, but not be too sore for a killer workout you expect the next day?
  • Are you constantly looking FORWARD to something, instead of enjoying the moment?
  • What tips do you have for living IN  a moment?

Filed Under: Blogging, Food, Serious Talk Tagged With: blogging, coffee, eggs, hiit, pinterest, toast, vegetarian 1 Comment

July 14, 2014

Unplug

Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  Mine was absolutely wonderful & relaxing.  I don’t get a lot of empty weekends so this was exactly what I needed.  Nick was out of town for bachelor trip and I stayed home the entire weekend doing a lot of nothing.  I did workout, of course!  I’m looking forward to a 30 minute evening walk later today to loosen my muscles and take a little break from my more hard-core workouts.  I may make it an hour walk if the weather is nice and I’m enjoying myself.  Tomorrow I’ll go to HIIT, so I want my body & muscles and to be well rested for that so I can give it my all.

webcam-041

Excited to see this little monkey on Friday!

When I left for the gym yesterday, my phone was close to being dead so I decided to leave it at home.  Honestly, I’m so attached to my phone sometimes that I truly enjoy the peaceful moments when I choose to forget about it.  I don’t unplug nearly enough!  As I enjoyed this true alone time, it made me think how important it is to unplug.  Do you find yourself checking your phone regularly throughout the day, even if you know it hasn’t vibrated or made a noise alerting a phone call or text message?  I do this ALL.THE.TIME!  My phone, the social networking, all of it can be such a huge distraction for me.  I don’t leave my phone alone enough, but when I do, I appreciate the lack of stress it brings and the freedom I feel when I’m not attached to it.

Maybe unplugging means something entirely different to you!  I encourage you to unplug regularly, it’s good for the soul – as I learned yesterday during my quiet workout and drive.

I’ve mentioned time & time again about the challenges that Nick and I do.  They vary in time frame and activity.  Right now I’m in the middle of a 21 day workout challenge where I workout for a minimum of 30 minutes every single day for 21 days.  This will help me establish a habit of working out.  I’ve currently completed 14/21.  If I’m sore from my workouts, then my 30 minute workout becomes a walk (like today!)  I have one week left of this challenge and then it’ll be time for a new one.  I’m challenging myself to unplug for 1 hour every single day for a month.  For me, unplugging will be silencing my phone and leaving it somewhere.  I’d love to know if you’re interested in joining me on this month long challenge!  Unplugging can mean something entirely different for you – whatever it is, unplug for one whole hour every day for an entire month and my hope is that you’ll find peace & relaxation during that time.

Switching gears…

I have a delicious & simple dip to share with y’all today!  Now that I’m a vegetarian, it’s extremely important for me to bring something that I can enjoy to parties & office functions.  Of course, I want others to enjoy it as well and I want it to be healthy!  When we had a baby shower in our office, I signed up to bring a veggie tray, but I didn’t want to bring ranch dressing and veggies – 1. overdone and 2. not healthy!

I made this delicious ranch dip that was 2 ingredients & was a hit at the office!

BeFunky_veggie-ranch-dip.jpg

Ingredients:

  • Your selection of veggies (I chose baby carrots, celery, cucumbers [home grown], and grape tomatoes
  • Plain Greek Yogurt
  • 1 packet of Ranch dip

I know this is ridiculously easy… Slice up your veggies, arrange to your liking (I enjoy alternating my colors), Mix up 16 oz. of your greek yogurt + ranch dip.

It’s healthier than plain ranch dressing because you add in that protein rich yogurt.  You’ll also surprise your co-workers or party-goers – The taste is different from your regular ranch.  The greek yogurt adds an extra ounce of flavor!  Everyone who tried it, loved it!  By the end of the day, the entire bowl of dip was gone and there were a few veggies left over.  People will thank you for bringing the veggie tray because everyone else probably brought the fattening stuff!

veggie-ranch-dip-2

Questions for the day:

  • If you joined the month long unplug challenge, what would you unplug from?
  • Share your healthy office-party food, what would you bring?

Filed Under: Family, Food, Recipes, Summer Tagged With: challenge, dip, greek yogurt, ranch, unplug, vegetarian, veggie, work 1 Comment

July 12, 2014

Who am I?

Good Morning!

How was your Friday night?  Mine started out with a really great WORKOUT when I got off work.  I originally planned on doing a Kickbox class, but I got off later than expected.  I’ve really enjoyed circuit workouts lately to help get me back to the gym!  They’re challenging and always different!  Today I warmed up with a 25 minute treadmill walk.  I did the walk before realizing that it was created by The Skinny Student who I actually met at Blog Elevated this past year!  We didn’t get to know each other very well, but she was so sweet and I enjoyed following her blog when I got home!

skinny-student-treadmill-workout

{source}

When I finished that, I had worked up a nice little sweat.  I went on to do another Peanut Butter Fingers circuit workout {NO surprise!}  This one was TOUGH though.  I was a little nervous going into it because she said it was a workout to “kick her butt and leave her dripping in sweat.”  Well if you have read even half a post from Julie, then you know this girl is fit!  I’m working my way there, so I figured it’d be a tough one.  I was entirely correct.

cant-stop-wont-stop-circuit

 

{source}

 I only completed one set, even though it says to complete two.  I wasn’t exactly “dripping” in sweat, but I “dripped” sweat.  Which is a huge accomplishment for me because sometimes I don’t think I sweat enough – compared to others who workout anyways, then again… I shouldn’t be playing the comparison game!

dripped-sweat

There’s the proof.

I’m hoping I’ll be comfortable enough to create my own workouts soon so I won’t be using everyone else’s! haha Right now, it’s nice to have these resources though!

Yeah, I know it’s not much, but it’s a start.  While I was at the gym, my mom asked me if I wanted to get pizza with her and my dad.  Originally I said yes, but then I thought about it and realized that I didn’t make great decisions about my food throughout the week and I really wanted something healthy, so I changed my mind and made a smoothie.  WHO AM I??  Really, pizza is my favorite.

The smoothie turned out great though!  One of these days, I’m actually going to make a pin-able recipe for y’all w/ legit measurements.  After all, that’s what a good blogger does… *sigh*  Let’s cross our fingers for that very soon!

  • a cup or so of orange juice
  • 3 handfuls of frozen blueberries
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach
  • couple dashes of flax seed
  • 3 big scoops of honey vanilla greek yogurt
  • 1 big scoop of almond butter
  • 1 little scoop of cocoa powder
  • 1 little dash of milk for extra liquid

smoothie-drink smoothie-pour

When I made the decision to skip out on pizza, my first thought really was… WHO AM I?  It got me to actually answer the question for myself… which could have been really scary and unpredictable!

There’s the person I am and then the person I want to become.  The person I am is constantly changing in order to find the person I want to become.  I want to become a person who cares more about my health and long-term living, than that large bag of Reese’s.  I want to become a person who chooses integrity and class over outbursts of anger.  I want to become a person who lives to be 100.  I want to become a better friend, family member, blogger, girlfriend, fitness guru, and healthy/vegetarian eating expert.

Surprisingly, I’m becoming the type of person who turns down pizza for a smoothie.  The smoothie is a lot better for me in the long run.  That doesn’t meant to not indulge from time to time, believe me, I did this past week.  That’s why I felt a smoothie was in my best interest.  I’m noticing small decisions I make that are helping me become the person I want to be.  I think the ideal person I want to be will continuously be evolving as well.  You don’t want to get to a stopping point, realize you’re where you wanted to be, but then make no further goals.  I want to constantly be learning, growing, and improving!

It was important for me to join a gym because I knew I wouldn’t take my fitness to the next level if I didn’t.  I need that motivation on a daily basis.  It was important for me to become a vegetarian in January because I knew the leap I wanted to make, but continuously provided excuses.  It was time to stop making excuses and just do it.  It was important for me to change my blog because I lost interest in my old one.  If I wanted to be a better blogger and potentially use blogging as supplemental income, I needed to stop waiting and finally make the change.

So the question: WHO AM I?

I’m usually the person failing at one thing or the other, but I’m also the person striving to succeed, striving to learn, striving to grow, and striving to become a better version of me than I was yesterday.

I hope to do that through this blog, through fitness, through healthy eating choices, through service, through love, through compassion and understanding.

I am not always the person I want to be.  I look back at a particular instance and I’m ashamed of the choices I made or the anger I let control me, but every day is a new day and I’m so thankful for the opportunity of forgiveness and a fresh start!

The questions are always optional, but especially today.  This is more for you to think through for yourself.  If you want to answer and share, I’d love to hear it!  If you’re not comfortable doing so, that’s alright too!

  • WHO ARE YOU?
  • ARE YOU WHO YOU WANT TO BE?
  • WHAT CHOICES ARE YOU MAKING TO BECOME A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF?

This morning I woke up to an excellent yoga class at my local gym (wish I could find an outdoor yoga class!) and then headed home to sip on coffee while I finish up this post.  Today I’ll be studying for my Series 6 test (bleh, investments!) and doing some yard work.  My sis is coming to town, so that’s always exciting!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Filed Under: Blogging, Family, Fitness, Food, Serious Talk, Summer Tagged With: blogging, coffee, pbfingers workout, reeses, smoothie, sweat, walking workout, yoga Leave a Comment

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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.

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