Tag Archives: happy

Thankful Tuesday: My Three Things

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So I’ve mentioned her before but there is one  blogger I follow regularly and she writes a couple of blogs. One of them is made up entirely of a daily post of three things she’s thankful for (check it out here). So, for us, this will be our Tuesdays! Gratitude journals are short, sweet, and helpful and everyone should have one in some capacity. So I’ll be yours. Yay!

1. Today I am thankful for the tiny town that made me appreciate tiny zoos. Thank you Peoria Zoo for getting me so close to giraffes, my favorite animal of all time.

 

 

 

2. I am thankful for old friends (Katie and Mike) and their willingness to accompany me to local farms to pick a pumpkin. Also, this farm has tons of wind turbines which makes it extra awesome.

3. I am thankful for the week of work I have ahead of me. Although getting out of bed can be hard, I love my job, my coworkers, and all the people I get to help everyday. Let me at it!

 

Alright. Let me have them. Seriously, what are your three things for today? It takes 2 minutes and makes you that much happier.

 

Have Some Confidence People!

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Wow. All I can say is thank you guys so much for all the feedback yesterday. I want to reply to every person that commented but you basically all said that my blog is awesome, I’m awesome, and that I’ve helped you in some way. You guys just gave me the biggest flippin’ boost of motivation. I didn’t even know some of you read it! So all I can say is I am sending a big, fat THANK YOU and a huge hug and kiss (oh yeah) to all of you everywhere.

This encouraged me to write, today, about confidence and having oodles of it. Today’s post is pretty much a way to balance out this post about setting realistic expectations. Anyway, I have a friend who happens to read this blog and also happens to suffer from an utter lack of confidence (you know who you are). She is one of the most inspiring athletes I know as well as being kind, caring, and really fun to party with. She just all around awesome and has NO IDEA.

I know that she isn’t an isolated case. I have other friends and actually read some blogs (like this one) who are similar to this particular friend and just have no idea how amazing they are. I don’t care what your IQ is, what you look like, how many friends you have, or what special skills you have, every person has a special something that makes you worth “it.” “It” being a stranger’s time, a second glance, or just respect from the people you know and love.

Anyway, I don’t want to ramble so, just never underestimate yourself. Find your specialness and capitalize on that s**t! You will always get further in your life by strengthening your strengths rather than working on your weaknesses.

 

^ This is me at my first every mountain bike race. I knew I could handle a bike so I traveled with the mountain team that weekend, rode a mountain bike for the first time for 3 hours in the morning and then raced it! I had such a good time and accomplished one of my life goals of playing in the mud 🙂

Also, and this is important so listen up, if you are one of the people who already has the confidence of a guido in Jersey then help some others out! Tell each of your loved ones and coworkers something special about themselves every day. Only stuff that is true. It’s ok to repeat stuff, it helps drill it into their heads. Compliment at least 3 people every day and you will find that they are drawn to your positivity and will start to think of themselves in a better light.

Ok, that is all. Thank you again for reading and writing all those lovely comments. You are all very special to me .

🙂

 

Monday Advice: Set Realistic Expectations

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Alright, I’m calling myself on my own bull crap. About a month ago I posted on sleeping soundly. Skim it over here. It basically maps out a bedtime routine to make sure that you sleep soundly. Each of the activities work together to help your brain and body settle down but never have I ever done all these things, in a row, in the same night.

While I believe that a bedtime routine is absolutely necessary, this post is bull crap! Setting aside an entire hour for a pre-bed routine? No way Jose. No one has that much time, including myself. So, I herby promise to never post any kind of advice that I don’t do regularly and with success. Scouts honor.

This leads me into my tidbit of advice for the day: set yourself realistic goals. If you have a big goal in mind, make sure it’s far enough in the future to break it down into little, reachable, daily goals. I find that setting the bar at a height that I can stretch to reach is a great way to motivate myself and to make sure I don’t have any excuses.

^ This is me! Thanks for sending me this pic Ma.

How could you not smile at those baby buns?

I’m in Chicago!

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Mike and I are away for the weekend in Chicago. It’s my first time here and, for an architecture graduate like me, it’s really exciting. Right now we’re at a Cubs v Cardinals game at Wrigley.

I’m breaking all the rules today and drinking beer AND ball park pretzels AND even a bite of hot dog! Sometimes you just need these “vacation” days to enjoy all that a city has to offer.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Longer blog later tomorrow!

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^ He is SO unphotogenic! Haha. I love him for it.

Don’t forget to smile!

Friday Advice: Do Not Be Intimidated, Get Informed

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I just got back from a spectacular bike ride with a new friend! Yes, I made a new friend. Her name is Sara and she rides bikes, moved here from Northern California, and is in nursing school. This is the third time I’ve met up with her and we never fail to have something to talk about. Aside from my excitement at meeting someone that I actually connect with, I’m pretty stoked on the routes she’s been showing me. Yay!!

Anyway, today was s short ride but we spent most of the time talking about the flu shot. Haha. I know it seems odd but we’re both at different ends of the medical/health spectrum. While both of us are healthy, we have differing opinions on how to prevent and treat different ailments. I won’t go into my opinion right now (save that for a later date) but we managed to have a fantastic debate over the effectiveness and worthiness of the flu shot.

This has started happening more and more in my adult life where I am being challenged by  other people’s opinions and, instead of backing out and say “I don’t want to argue about it, I don’t have enough information to defend my opinion,” I’ve started learning from what other people have to say. I started reading and listening to people I greatly respect and then finding the science to back myself up. Instead of being intimidated by other people, I’m coming to realize that it only takes a little bit of information to get on their same level. AND when you start talking to them, debating them, you learn more about how to defend your side of the argument. I am getting smarter just by talking to people that think I’m wrong! Sweet!

So this is kind of a rambling post but the meat of it is: Don’t be intimidated by people with strong opinions, just make sure you know why you believe in something and start the debate! You may learn something.

There will be more on this later but I don’t want to bore you all right now. On a happier note, last weekend, I FINALLY learned to ride my bike with no hands! After trying repeatedly for 3 years, I realized that you just have to take both hands off at the same time and lean back. I was so excited that I asked Mike to take a picture.

 

Do any of you readers have an opinion that you’d like to be able to defend better? Maybe it’s time to dedicate an hour to researching it. 

Thankful Wednesday: Who Loves You?

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Well, today is my 24th birthday. Growing up, birthdays were such a huge deal. My parents and siblings would wake me up with a cake, singing the birthday song. For lunch, my mom would buy all four of us a Lunchable (the only 4 days a year that we each got to eat unhealthy lunches), and for dinner we would have whatever my favorite meal was. Then would come the presents and cards. Everything in that day was my choice and it was pure bliss.

The first month of college was kind of a shock. Everyone eats junk food all the time and no one celebrates birthdays?!?! What the heck is going on?? It was a kind of depressing birthday for me but my friends soon got the picture and have managed to make each once since then very very special (Thanks Tish). But this is my first post-college birthday and I’m not sure what to do with myself. Mike had to leave town for work so my closest friend isn’t here. And I’ve only just started making friends in Peoria; I don’t want to call them up and say “Hey it’s my birthday and I’m lonely, wanna get a Wednesday night drink?” Hah.

So I’ve decided to bury myself in work for most of the day and stop every couple hours to remember the people that love me. Thankfully social media has me covered on that one. It’s only 7:45am and I already have 13 “happy birthdays!”

People love me. Lots of them. I am not being boastful but reminding myself and everyone reading that people love you too! There are too many times in life that loneliness can overwhelm a person. To dig yourself out just think of how many people love you. I could try to list them all but that would take forever and no one wants to read that. So just trust me.

Today may be a little less celebratory than I hoped for but I’m going to drag the celebrations into this weekend. Friday I will finish work early to get a massage and then Mike and I head to Chicago for a few days to celebrate some more. So for now, I will keep my chin up and remember…

And now, a photo montage of my 23rd year. Finding these photos made me cry.

*Scroll left and check out my comments.

I love every single person in these photos and they love me back. I can only dream that my 24th year will be as good as my 23rd. Hope you all have an equally happy day!
🙂

Workout Tuesday: Dance Like No One’s Watching

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Yes, you should dance like no one’s watching. To encourage you, I’ve decided to make a complete fool of myself and dance while everyone’s watching.

For the last several years there has been a long and arduous debate about warming up before a workout. Some studies show it’s good, some show you’re fine without it. Whatever the case, I know that my body needs to warm up to a workout otherwise I will twist or strain something. But traditional warm ups suck! So I dance!

Dancing at 7am is not only incredibly energizing but it puts you in a great mood for the rest of the day. So just put on a great song (see below) and loosen up. Dancing alone means you can do whatever weirdo moves you want.

I find that this is great dancing AND workout music:

And this was the workout I did with Zuzka today:

And finally, the piece de resistance, my ridiculous dance moves, published and open for laughs. Now you have NO EXCUSE not to dance!

You also now have no excuse not to smile. Have a happy day!

You Are In Control

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I keep this written on a couple of post it notes next to my makeup so I see it whenever I get ready for a long day.

We tell ourselves that life will be great when we can buy a more luxurious car, get a better job, buy nicer clothes, or whatever.

The truth is that there’s no better time to be happy than right now.

Your life will always be full of challenges. It is better to admit as much and decide to be happy in spite of it all.

I talk to SO many people who make the excuse of, “life will be great when…” Including myself! Until I started writing this blog, I didn’t realize that every single one of my days holds something awesome just waiting to be recognized. So you better recognize!

Please, everyone that read this post, comment what your happiness is/will be today!

And have a happy Monday 🙂

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!

Produce: Where and How…

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Happy Saturday! Holy Bajolies this week has been crazy. I seriously can’t believe it’s Saturday already. Saturday morning is my grocery shopping time and I have a full day of work this afternoon so I woke up bright and early (and not too happily), did a quick spot of yoga to loosen up my stiff joints, and headed across the street to Peoria’s best farmer’s market.

 

A few awesome things about farmer’s markets:

1. You know exactly where everything comes from.

2. It’s all fresh.

3. It’s mostly organic too, although you have to check on this one.

4. You’re supporting the local farmers and keeping out the unhealthy, mass farms.

5. You get outside and interact with your community.

6. The food is SO much tastier than the grocery store produce.

7. You’re eating seasonal which varies your diet and provides inspiration in the kitchen.

Some things to be cautious of:

– Keep an eye on pricing, sometimes one or two items can be very expensive.

– Don’t over buy. It can be tempting with all the beautiful colors in front of you. But here’s a tip, go with a certain amount of cash (I take $25) and leave once you’ve spent it.

– Scan the whole spread of vendors before choosing the stands you will buy from, you may get to the end and realize one was much better than another.

Other than that, enjoy! I buy 50% of our fridge stock from our market and it’s made our diet so much better. I’ve come to look forward to it every week.

Check this site out for almost all the markets in the US: http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/

For those outside the US, just google “Farmer market [name of your town].”

^ pretty!

don’t forget —>  🙂