Category Archives: Inspiration

Braving a World of Junk Food: Packing a Lunch

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As I last posted, I’ve been working the Morton Pumpkin Fest for the last several days. If any of you know of the festival, you know it’s full of some seriously delicious junk food; including but not limited to: pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin funnel cake. Everything delicious, in pumpkin flavor!! It’s my own personal temptation hell.

However, it’s so important to learn how to brave these situations and so that you can join the rest of your community celebrating awesome things like Fall!

Some Tips:

1. Choose one thing to treat yourself to and wait until the end of your trip to do it. The buildup will make sure you don’t violate your own rule.

2. Make sure, before you leave the house, that you eat a big, healthy meal. Being full means you’ll be less tempted by anything other than your planned treat.

3. Bring some snacks! This is where dinner leftovers make things quick and easy.

 

Here was mine for an 8 hour shift at the fridge:

– Sandwich – gluten-free bread, sunflower butter, and blackberry jam we found at the farmers market.

– Smoothie – coconut water, 1 banana, handful of frozen fruit, handful spinach, scoop of protein.

– Salad – whatever is in your fridge. Mine was tomatoes, spinach, pinto beans from the chili last week, and humus.

Tools that make it easy:

– Resealable container like a Tupperware.

– Blender bottle for the smoothie. It’s not only easy to drink out of but it has a little spring ball that you keep in the liquid and when you’re ready to eat you just shake it all up.

– Lunch box/ bag keeps things cold or hot and easy to carry.

^ My handy dandy lunch box.

I was full and happy with my lunch and this morning, as a treat for resisting for 5 days, I had a giant pancake breakfast!

Enjoy your Sundays. Don’t forget to smile!

Riddle Me This

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As I’ve mentioned before, I work for a health center; our health center is based on chiropractic and we build from there. We help strengthen your nerve system (the spine/center of all that goes on in your body) and then help our patients with nutrition, exercise, and a healthy mind. We have helped so many people in just the few months that I’ve been there and it just gets me more and more excited about my job. A huge part of my day-to-day is getting out in the community and finding people that want help getting healthy but don’t know step one. Easy right? WRONG.

^ (Sweet T-shirt huh? Thank you Martha Stewart Pintrest.)

Riddle me this: why do people who know they need help resist it in every way possible? Granted, there are people who come along, tell us they have one or two annoying symptoms and then conclude that they don’t have the time or money to get them fixed, fair enough. But there are others, so many others, who come into our little booth with daily headaches, crippling back pain, and joint pain so bad that they can’t work. We talk to them, prove that there’s something going wrong by giving them an inflammation scan, and then offer them care at a very low cost, very. They look at me with pain in their face and say, “can I take a business card, maybe I’ll call you later,” then they never do. WTF mate?? I just don’t get it.

Why do some people not get help when an obvious solution is shown right to their face? I understand, some people are looking for “the catch.” But what would it hurt to just come and see what we can do? If you don’t give anything a chance then you’ll never get fixed! This applies not only to our little booth but to every person out there who reads this blog or another blog multiple times and thinks, “hmmm, nope that’s still too hard.” Or the people that make the step to get gym memberships but then never hire a trainer or establish a routine for themselves. Or the people that know fast food is terribly terribly terrible for you and they continue to stop at McDonald’s instead of swinging by the grocery store. It’s intimidating and maybe a little expensive at first but so are heart attacks and kidney transplants. Stop living in pain and discomfort and do something about it!! Your body is designed to heal itself as long as you take care.

Ok, that is my Friday rant. To all those that read this and nod their head and then put on their gym clothes and get in that workout that they SO don’t want to do this morning, NICE WORK. Go get ’em! Keep that body and mind fit so that you can do all those other wonderful things in your life.

So today, I will head to Morton Pumpkinfest and smile my warmest smile. I will try to help people that are scared and clueless to start the first step. I will smile my warmest smile.

Thankful Tuesday: The Ability to Recognize Trouble

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For some reason, over the last few days, I’ve been on the brink of breaking down. I realize that the title of my blog is “Happy Lass” but part of my ability to be a generally happy person is allowing myself to have bad days and then sitting down and figure out what’s causing them. Sunday and Monday were bad days.

I have had no routine lately. Meaning that everything I do must be self-motivated. Everything including work, working out, eating healthy, and even waking up in the morning. That is SO hard! I’m really motivated but who wants to wake up at 6:30 am when they can wake up at 9am?? No one. So I solved that problem by going into work yesterday and figuring out a work routine. It’s going to take a few days but I’m excited about starting the process.

Next, I have no friends in Peoria. This may seem melodramatic, and I guess I have some work friends and some friends through Mike, but I don’t have anyone I can just call to get a coffee. I have a few amazing girlfriends but they’re spread all over the world (Colorado, California, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and China) and I need someone here! Someone to talk to about girl stuff. I find it hard to make female friends because of their tendency to be over dramatic, catty, and much too into their appearance. But it’s time to start the search. My hope is that now that I’m out of high school, it won’t be so hard to find someone calm, sensible, and fun!

So today I’m thankful for my ability to recognize when I have a mental issue and to set about fixing it. I didn’t overcome anxiety and depression just to lapse back into it. I’m happy for the long run baby! And I’ll do whatever it takes to stay that way. Even if it takes some bad days to snap me back into place.

Thanks for reading ya’ll. Have happy days and don’t forget to smile! They’re contagious.

Happy Monday!

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This morning I made a mistake at work. I don’t work Mondays so it involved me forgetting to tell them something about our Monday morning patients. I hate thinking that I made a mistake that let people down and made their day just a little bit harder. But then I have to think like this:

“Flops are part of life’s menu. Everyone makes mistakes. High achievers learn by their mistakes. An error becomes the raw material out of which future successes are forged. Failure is not a crime. Failure to learn from failure is.“

Yep, agreed. I have now forgiven myself and am moving on to workout with a clear head. And if that quote didn’t help, check this out.

Happy Monday! Smiling on Mondays is especially important, they’re contagious.

Friday Design: Remember the Love.

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I have piles of Birthday, Christmas, and Graduation cards from loved ones. You know the cards that they’ve really put some effort into writing? The ones that you can’t bear to throw away. I thought of a solution!

This is in our hallway, across from the bathroom door. It’s great at taking up wall space without seeming too imposing. Our hallway is tiny and this fits just right.

^ This is the literal version of Pintrest! Pinned to it are lots of special cards, postcards to remind of places we’ve been, and happy photos of us. I smile every time I look at it.

^ Just some hemp cord, wooden clothes pins, and thumbtacks. All bought at Kmart!

I hope you’re all having a happy Friday. Even if you don’t have room for this, take a look through your old cards, its sure to put a smile on your face.

Thankful Tuesday

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I decided that in order to have some direction to this little blog of mine, I will have a different theme to write about every day of the week. Since Tuesday are the beginning of my week (I work Tuesday-Saturday), I’ll be posting things I’m grateful for. I was inspired by a fellow blogger I have some serious respect for. You can see one of her blog posts here.

So today, what am I thankful for? Hmm…

I am thankful for Mike, my boyfriend. It may sound corny but I don’t care. He left the house this morning and I now find myself longing for him. Yesterday he helped with chores while I did work for job #2. Then he was amazingly tolerant when he took me to pick up my car from the mechanic 40 minutes away. And we had a great night of yummy food and trashy TV. Just being around him makes me automatically happier. So yeah, I’m thankful for Mike 🙂

^ That’s us at Green Lake, ME

What are you all thankful for?

Inspiration for a Challenging Day

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Today I’m doing my first health screening for my new job at the wellness center. I’m really excited but also really nervous. I know there are so many people out there that are needlessly in pain but it’s so difficult to encourage them to take the first steps to change their lives. So here’s the quote I’ll remember for the day:

“The work of your heart, the work of taking time to listen, to help, is also your gift to the whole of the world.”

True that! Even if I help one person today, my mission is accomplished.

Remember?

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I had planned to post the recipe of dinner last night but then I watched this video my grandma sent me.

My generation has been so lucky to not have faced a war on our home turf, we can only imagine what it must be like in the Middle East. But when we did get attacked, boy did we band together. Remember how we all promised always to remember?

This video is a little long but just clear your next 10 minutes and watch it, trust me.
 

As a first generation American (my parents are both British), I have always struggled to find my American pride. I know this sounds awful but I only really ever noticed the bad things about the US. About five years ago, when I really started to travel, I realized how wonderful a place this is. We all know the freedoms and all that stuff but what about all the different cultures you can find here in this one giant country? And the people, wow the people here can be so awesome. America has been in a bit of a rut over the last few years but it’s the people here, the millions of different cultures and points of views, that will eventually float our heads back above water.

Don’t forget to smile today, they’re contagious 🙂

Postcard Sized Mood Buoy

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It’s a little bit gray out here in Peoria, IL. Lots of rain and cloud cover. Needless to say, I love it!! I love the rain. Growing up in Southern California means that I still regard it as special and fun. My favorite thing to do is put on some rain boots and go jump in puddles. I’m not joking. Sometimes the most childlike activities can be amazing therapy.

Anyway, if you’re not like me (ie. sane) then the weather (or the various thrills on life’s rollercoaster) probably get you down sometimes. So here’s a tip:

When you have a birthday or graduation or promotion or whatever, you inevitably get cards from your loved ones. Sometimes they are the generic, but still lovely, “Congratulations, we love you!” cards; but sometimes, they’re the kind that the writer really thought about. They tailored it just for you and when you read them, you get all fuzzy inside. I find that a lot of times, I’m so busy celebrating that I don’t get to sit down and digest these kinds of cards. So I cut out the part of the card with the happy words and I post it up in my apartment. Stick it to the fridge, put it in the front of your notebook, take a picture of it and set it as your phone’s background! Just be sure to put it somewhere that you will notice it when you really need to.

Let these cards be a reminder of how loved you are, even if people don’t show it all the time.

^ This is a graduation card from a family friend. “You have a great combo of beauty, brains, determination, and kindness”?? Heck yes I do and thanks for reminding me!

^My mom put this sticky note in a big hunk of bill and loan mail that she forwarded me from my house in San Diego. That was about 2 years ago. I stuck it to my bedside table so I see it every night before bed 🙂

Also, seeing these daily reminds me to tell people how much I love them, often and with enthusiasm. Hope you’re all having wonderful Sundays!