noBOLOGNA

Florida Birthday Re-cap 1

Good Morning!  I was looking through some pictures yesterday and realized that I never shared about our trip to Disney and my birthday.  I’m warning you now, this will be a major picture overhaul, but I feel like I actually did a good job at enjoying myself tremendously while also capturing what all happened.  It was a jam packed trip, but we had such a wonderful time, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday!  I’ll break this into a two part blog post.

On Monday, we headed out of town around 11pm.  We had plans to grab breakfast with our friends, Joel & Charlotte, in Atlanta.  It was a slight detour, but we decided it’s probably worth the trouble in the future because we were able to try a new restaurant and spend some time catching up with them.  Although it was extremely short, it was very sweet!

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They decided to take us to Thumbs Up Diner, which was absolutely delicious!  I think we were all impressed with our choices for breakfast that morning.  I went with a veggie omelet, a slice of french toast, and a hot cup of coffee.

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After breakfast, Joel & Charlotte had to head off to work and we started our journey down to Gainesville to see Nick’s brother & sister-in-law.  We were just dropping by because we knew we’d be seeing them very shortly at Disney World since they were coming down the day after us.  While we waited on Trey to get back in town, we had a delicious lunch and visited a unique grocery store down the street from their house.  I can’t for the life of me remember what this place was called, but we found a few things that we were excited to try!

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We got some dark chocolate cherries that were really delicious, but we didn’t get a chance to finish the bag because we accidentally left them in the car and they completely melted (FAIL.)  You all know how much I love Kevita, so I wanted to try this new-to-me flavor, Blueberry Cherry, along with a Kombucha brew that Nick picked out.  Our main reason for going was because Kathryn saw a vegan fruit chew that she thought I might like, so I definitely had to get some, but I ended up not liking it very much.  Nick loved them though and had no problem polishing off the bag.  Lastly, my cousin got me hooked on these homeopathic remedies when we were in Jamaica.  She has one that she uses for tension/stress and one that she uses for a hangover when needed.  I  never got too crazy in Jamaica, but there was one morning that I woke up less than par, so I tried one of her homeopathic remedies and it seemed to do a good job.  I wanted to find a sleep aid homeopathic remedy to help us fall asleep quickly at night so we would get as much rest as possible, so I picked that up while we were there also.  It seemed to work great throughout the trip too so I highly recommend it!

Of course, lots of fun with this little nugget during the entire visit – although it never seems like enough!

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Tuesday night, Nick and I made the rest of our trip down to Orlando so I could be ready for my conference on Wednesday morning.  The conference ended up being super informative and I had some good vegetarian options.

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This was a delicious Greek meal where I made a falafel pita pocket and had cous cous and a greek salad on the side.  Not much else to share regarding my work conference because I’m pretty sure I’d bore you all to sleep at the computer, so I’ll move on to Wednesday night after the conference.  I could have decided to join the conference attendees at a sponsored dinner, but it was at a steak house and I really wanted to spend some extra time with Kathryn and the baby, so I decided to meet them at their hotel for dinner instead.  We had an early birthday celebration and spent the evening snuggling on sweet baby Cade and chit chatting!

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Kathryn and I both ordered a drink with our meal… I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was pomegranate something I believe.  The point is that it was delicious!

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Later than night, Nick and I went out to explore Downtown Disney for a bit.  So much has changed and so much continues to change in this area of Disney World!  We were a little overwhelmed with how crowded it was, but that helped prepare us for Thursday night activities, so I think it was worth the trip.

Thursday morning, I woke up to attend the remainder of my conference, again, I learned so many awesome things and I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to attend this special event in Orlando. After the event, I periodically checked my work e-mail to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but other than that, I shut off my work brain so I could focus on spending time with these wonderful people on my birthday at Disney World!  I’ll be back to share what activities we did for my birthday along with everything else that wrapped up a phenomenal trip to Florida!

Switching gears….

How are you?!  April was a busy month for me and I didn’t make a lot of time for blogging.  I certainly missed it.  I have a lot of random stuff going on right now, but things will slow down a little bit since Girls on the Run ends this week.  I’m going to miss these beautiful little girls!  I also jumped on the Arbonne ban-wagon and I’m so excited about it!  I’m not a “sales” person, but I love their products and I will happily promote them if I find value from them and believe in them.  Arbonne is 100% vegan, so I really cherish that about the company.  You’ll see a lot more posts and updates to the blog about Arbonne, so be on the look out.  If you ever have questions or are interested in sampling some products, feel free to reach out!  I’m working on my personal schedule right now so I can fit in everything I want to do – one of those things… reading blogs!  Holy cow, I have not sought out new blogs to read in ages and the blogs I do follow, do not get a lot of attention from me right now, but I crave that blogging interaction, so while I’m trying to find time for everything I have committed to or volunteered for, I also want to make time for YOU!

So seriously… the main questions I want you to answer in today’s comments – How are you doing?  What’s new with you?  Do you have an exciting trip planned?  Are you trying out a new venture?  Do you need prayer for something specific?  Just give me an update on your life because I know April flew by and I missed out on a lot of blogging interaction.

14 Day Reset

Good Morning!  How are y’all doing today?  I got back in town from Orlando late late Sunday night and haven’t had a chance to talk to y’all yet.  My trip was fantastic and I’ll do a brief recap later in the week.  I had a wonderful birthday, one of the best I could ask for!  I learned a lot at my conference and I’m excited about implementing some new stuff at work.  Overall, it was just a phenomenal trip and I’m so glad I was able to go for work and for pleasure.

Now I’m back to reality and although that can be slightly disheartening, I have a lot of stuff that I’m excited about over the next few weeks!  For one, I start the process of getting braces.  I’m shaking in my boots over here, but I know it’ll be worth while.  I get my teeth pulled over Memorial Day Weekend, so I know what big and exciting plans I have – recovery!  Like I mentioned above, I learned a lot at my conference, so that will keep me busy over the next few weeks as I sort through the information and decide what I want to do with our office.   The other thing that I’m super excited about is the 14 Day detox Reset that Mary Lindsey and I are doing!

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Mary Lindsey is my friend who works at our local Whole Foods as the healthy eating specialist.  I try to attend every class that she teaches at Whole Foods and we do a group run on Wednesday mornings together.  I have really enjoyed getting to know Mary Lindsey on a more personal level and I definitely think it pays off to have a dietitian as a friend, she is always willing to answer my questions and explain things in greater detail for me!

We were having lunch one day and she was telling me about doing a “detox” diet, except she’s not a huge fan of using the word detox because it gives off a negative connotation.  It is not that the actual definition of the word detox is bad, but it’s what society has made it out to be.   So Mary Lindsey came up with a more creative term for her 14 day diet – 14 Day Reset.  After she finished telling me about it, I knew I wanted in on the action!  (You know I don’t shy away from a good challenge!)  So we decided on a date that worked for both of us to do the 14 Day Reset together and I’m excited to say that it started yesterday!  This reset came just at the right time, I can assure you that my body needs a total reset after my staple Disney foods of Mickey pretzels and Vegan donuts (all day err day.)

I went over to Mary Lindsey’s house last night for dinner so we could discuss the parameters of our diet and plan a few exciting things for the blog!  For those of you who enjoy vlogs and have missed seeing those on here, let me send some joy your way – we’re vlogging! (I’m looking at you Meg!)  We have two videos that we plan to put up over the next few weeks and I think they’ll be fun & informative.  They’re centered around quick & healthy meal ideas so you’ll have no excuse to skip healthy at work or on the go!  Another thing coming to the blog is a guest post by Mary Lindsey.  We’re throwing around a few ideas right now, but I can already tell that it’s going to be a good one!

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Dinner: Deliciously creamy tomato basil soup, roasted potatoes, and roasted asparagus with a vinaigrette drizzle.

For those of you who are curious and possibly want to tag along on our 14 Day Reset, here is what we came up with:

Putting in –

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Whole Grains / Starchy Vegetables
  • Beans / Lentils
  • Nuts / Seeds
  • Healthy Seafood
  • Healthy Fats

Cutting out –

  • Dairy
  • Coffee
  • Refined Grains
  • Gluten (wheat) – no beer
  • Fried Foods
  • Sugars
  • Meat

Personal Health Goals, Heather –

  • Yoga 1x/week
  • Pilates Reformer 1x/week
  • 30 minute run 3x/week
  • Drink plenty of water

Personal Health Goals, Mary Lindsey –

  • Yoga 3x/week
  • 30 minute run 3x/week
  • Sleep 8 hours/night
  • Drink plenty of water
  • Do not eat with distractions

This diet is very similar to the Health Starts Here diet, although we’re taking it a little more extreme by cutting out gluten.  We certainly don’t see anything wrong with gluten if you don’t have an actual gluten allergy.  We are testing the theory for ourselves that gluten goes to our mid section and we both agree that we struggle with a flat stomach and love handles, so we’d like to see if cutting out gluten will help with that.  If it does help, we do not plan to eliminate gluten completely after the Reset, but it will let us know that when we are feeling bloated or gaining weight in that area, then we may need to reduce the amount of gluten we’re currently consuming.  Similar to the Health Starts Here, we’re also cutting out all added sweeteners that do not come from fruit.  We debated whether or not we’d like to cut out honey & maple syrup.  They’re natural sweeteners, but they’re definitely not better than sweetening with fruit, so we decided for this specific diet, we’d cut out honey and maple syrup to challenge ourselves to sweeten with fruits.  Dates are an excellent way to sweeten a meal or dessert.

Mary Lindsey also shared two new blogs with me that I’m excited to start reading for recipe inspiration: The First Mess and Cookie + Kate.  The tomato soup that Mary Lindsey made came from The First Mess and I was a huge fan of it!

I hope each of you are having a great week so far and if you have any questions about the 14 Day Reset or want to get involved with our challenge, then shoot me an e-mail!!  I’d love to keep you accountable and share tips I’ve learned over the past year.

My Morning Routine

Good morning peeps and happy Wednesday!  I’m at the first day of my work conference and I’m excited to see what I learn over the next 2 days.  Nick and I enjoyed some free time at Disney yesterday evening and I’ll be doing a full recap of our trip in a few weeks!  For now, let’s get moving on today’s regularly scheduled blog post.

Are you a morning person?  Do you have a morning routine?

I’m kind of fascinated by people’s morning routine – Do you wake up early enough to work out?  Do you give yourself enough time to shower every single morning and put actual make up on?  (My honest answer: No, absolutely not.)  Do you roll out of bed just in time to throw on clothes, brush your hair and teeth, and grab breakfast to go?

For me to have a good morning (and good day), I’ve decided there are a few things that need to happen.  Here is what my ideal “morning routine” is.  The best part is that if you screw it up one day and you’re rushing around and frantic, you eventually go back to sleep and have the chance to try again!

  • Make My Bed

I feel like my day starts off on the right foot when I make my bed as soon as my feet hit the floor.  I know you probably feel that there is no time for that, but I’ve learned that it takes literally 10 seconds and it’s completely worth it.  Having a nice made bed also helps me get to sleep at night.  When my bed is not made during the day, I tend to leave the rest of my room is disarray as well, so making my bed gives me a greater chance of tidying up later in the day.

  • Love on Cappie

Right after I make my bed, I love on sweet Cappie.  He’s always in the kindest mood first thing in the morning.  He puts the biggest smile on my face seeing him and hugging home.  He sleeps right by my bed, so I can lean down and love on him as soon as my bed is made.  I think a pet perks your mood up, so I definitely suggest having one!

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  • Make some hot tea or coffee

I love making a hot pot of coffee or water (for hot tea) in the morning when I have time to sip and enjoy.  It’s not something that I like  to rush.  I will occasionally take mine to-go, but if I have my preference, I wake up early enough to enjoy my cup of coffee while watching an episode of The Office or working on my morning blog post.

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  • Run

Running or working out first thing in the morning will ensure that I have a good day.  Regardless of what comes my way, I find my attitude is better and my energy last longer.  When it’s Spring or Fall in Mississippi, the weather is beautiful and I wouldn’t want my workout anywhere but outside.  There are so many studies that show working out first thing in the morning improves your day.

  • Eat a solid breakfast

I used to never eat breakfast.  Seriously, never!  How in the world did I live to see this day?  Breakfast is absolutely non-negotiable for me these days.  I know how important it is to fuel my body early in the morning – it satisfies my hunger through the first part of the day which allows me to focus on work and get stuff done.  I do not function without good food.  Breakfast also jump starts your metabolism for the day, so it’s better for you to eat a healthy wholesome breakfast than to skip breakfast if you’re trying to lose weight.

  • Make Lunch

Don’t forget to make lunch – unless you know for sure what your lunch plans are.  This falls in line with breakfast – if I’m hungry, I will not function properly.  If I at least pack a light lunch and some snacks to fuel my day, then I have a better day all around.  You also save money by taking your lunch every day.

If I can accomplish 90% of this every morning, then I can pretty much conclude that I will have an exceptional day!  It’s not perfect any particular morning, but this is what I strive for.

  • What does your morning ritual look like?
  • What is one (or two) thing(s) that you absolutely MUST do in the morning?
  • Do you make your lunch or eat out every day?
  • What is your favorite wholesome breakfast?

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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.