Tag Archives: friends

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.

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?

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!

The Wonderful World of Bikes

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I ride bikes. Scratch that, I LOVE riding bikes. My family is very health conscious so I was a regular at the gym play room when I was a kid and then, for my 11th birthday, I got a gym membership of my own. That gift began a lifetime commitment to fitness. Soon enough though, I realized that gyms are boring! So I tried every sport in the book (basketball, soccer, track, swimming, water polo, softball, you get the idea) and sucked at pretty much all of them. I came to realize that I’m terrible at anything that needs hand-eye or foot-eye coordination. It was pretty frustrating because I always knew I could be good at something if not for the passion and discipline I would bring the sport.

Finally, in 2008, I accomplished one of my goals of doing a triathlon. I was in San Diego (the mecca for triathletes) for a 6 month internship and joined the Tri Club of San Diego. They have an incredible calendar of multiple training sessions per day and it was so easy to jump in on a few of those before and after work. They also held FREE monthly sprint distance triathlons and before I left to head back to Boston, I had done six. SIX! I also managed to squeeze in the Pumpkinman Olympic Distance at Lake Mead in Nevada.

When I got back to school I realized how crazy expensive triathlons are so I looked for a new outlet. I always loved to swim so I did some of that but it’s so fricken lonely. Then I found Green Line Velo. It’s a Boston-based bike race team started by a couple of kids that graduated from my school. I joined one of their community rides and, in my first day, met several people who would become my best friends. Triathlons drifted to the back of my mind for a while and I got fast on a bike.

Image^ that’s me! we had a pretty sweet team photo shoot (photo credit to Sam Rosenholtz)

Image^ me and some teammates on a training trip in New Hampshire.

I joined my school’s bike team my junior year and felt really sad that I hadn’t joined sooner. Collegiate road racing happens for all of March and April and became my favorite time of year. My last year at school I volunteered to captain the team (along with Mike, my now boyfriend) and we had one of the best adventures I’ve ever been a part of. While it was an incredibly intense nine weeks, it was well worth it. We would leave midday Friday, drive several hours to our host housing (usually a teammates’ parents), sleep for a few hours, then race both Saturday and Sunday. Monday through Thursday was spent cramming in ALL classes and homework (this was pretty hard during thesis time).

In the last few years I have discovered an amazing world of cyclists. People that are so dedicated and excited to be a part of the sport that they’ll do anything to see you get into it as well. Seriously. Next time you meet someone on a bike, mention that you were thinking about going out on a ride sometime; they will inevitably invite you on various group rides and make it impossible for you to resist. And honestly, don’t even try. The people I met on Green Line Velo and my collegiate team have become some of my closest, most encouraging friends. They’re amazing people and they’re totally worth the 7am wake ups and ridiculous training rides.

Image

^ that’s me in the white helmet with a great friend of mine, Carolyn, in the pinstripes (photo credit to another friend, Chatura Atapattu)

ps. I fully intend on reentering the tri world but may have to wait until my real life job starts panning out and I can afford it.

Questions: Have you ever thought about riding bikes? Why haven’t you started already? Please comment, I’d love to hear what everyone else has to say.