Archives for August 2011

Fit Fab Friday: Back to School Edition!

Hi friends!!  It’s been a while since my last Fit Fab Friday- it’s been a little crazy around here with all the trips I’ve been taking lately!

But I had a fabulous time and I’m back to a normal schedule (well, I will be next week when school starts!). 

Last week was very interesting workout-wise.  I only had one scheduled workout.  The roomies and I went to the gym at the hotel and I hopped on the treadmill and did 3 miles.  Other than that we did an incredible amount of walking!  We walked miles and miles every day- especially in New York. (I actually lost 3 lbs on this trip- that’s how much we walked!)

But now that I’m back to a normal-ish schedule I need to get back to my normal workouts!  So I planned my workouts ahead of time this week.  Doing this is sometimes hit or miss for me since I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal, but since I just got a new planner I’m kind of excited about planning stuff out ahead of time.

Something new I’m doing this week is adding strength training!  I know, I know…  I say I’m going to do this all the time, but I got a new book and I’m excited to try some of the workouts and I really really do need to start doing some strength training since I’m not working a job anymore that requires heavy lifting!

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Anyone used this book?  I figure if I have a plan of attack for strength training when I go into the gym I will actually get something done instead of wandering around to random machines.

So here’s what this week looks like…

Today (Friday): 2 mile run

Saturday: Kickboxing (my favorite thing ever!)

Sunday: Walk at the park with the hubby and the pups

Monday: Kickboxing

Tuesday: Strength training at the gym (I don’t have my actual workout planned out yet- that’s my project for this afternoon!)

Wednesday: 3 mile run

Thursday: Strength training at the gym

 

What do we think about my plan of attack?  What kind of workouts are you doing this week(I’m always looking for ideas!)?

 

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Pity Party, table for 1

I don’t usually get too serious here- for the most part I like my blog to stay light, fun, and full of food.  But sometimes I like to broach a more serious matter because it’s something I’m struggling with and I’m sure others out there are struggling with the same and maybe it would help them if I shared.

So today we’re going to talk about feeling sorry for yourself.

We all do it sometimes, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.  But I find I do it a lot.  Like sometimes it’s an everyday occurrence.  And when you feel sorry for yourself on a regular basis it becomes obsessive and that’s when it becomes a problem.  It can become addictive!

Sometimes the smallest thing can trigger me feeling sorry for myself and I end up wallowing in it all day and I find that I completely wasted my day feeling sorry for myself.  Some of the things that have set me off this past year include:

  • My car has been in the shop most of the summer.  I was so excited about being able to get my car paid off and as soon as I did it broke down. It’s now on it’s third trip to the shop and we’ve already spent around $2,000 on it this summer.  This past trip into the shop I felt sorry for myself for a whole week!  I just wallowed and wallowed, it was ridiculous!
  • Grades.  My school grades are good.  A 3.71 GPA is nothing to sniff at.  It’s soooo much better than the last time I went through college (I barely scraped a 3.0) and yet I feel bad about it?  When I see all the people bragging about their 4.0’s (don’t get me wrong I think that’s amazing- I’d be bragging if I had a 4.0 too!) it makes me feel like a complete dunce.  I love school.  I love learning.  I’m just not naturally smart or good at it so I have to work my butt off for a B in my science classes.  But I can never feel a sense of accomplishment for that because there’s always someone that’s done better.  So I wallow and feel sorry for myself about how stupid I am.  This one is a vicious circle and happens every semester when final grades come out.  Sigh.
  • Weight loss.  Every time I think I am doing good or had a fantastic week I’ll step on the scale for my weigh in and will have gained 2-3 lbs.  And of course that triggers me feeling sorry for myself for days or even weeks sometimes.
  • Getting behind in my degree.  Last year financial aid decided I made too much money (which I still don’t understand because I didn’t even have a job) so I had to get a job to pay for most of my tuition, my books, and my gas.  I also had to drop a couple of classes and was only able to take 2 classes a semester.  Of course that put me behind which was frustrating enough.  But the first semester I worked 40 hrs a week (at a labor intense job) and I was so stressed out trying to balance it with my crazy commute and my classes, not to mention physically exhausted from the hard labor and being on my feet 8-10 hrs a day.  Let’s just say there was not much energy left for studying- I was barely able to drag myself to bed when I got home from work much less study!  Last year I fell into the deepest depression I’ve ever been in my whole life.  When I look back on it I’m not sure how I survived it much less how I pulled myself out of it.

These are just a few of many things this past year.  For me these pity parties are almost always a tale tale sign of depression.  Wallowing in my own self pity.  Buried in it.  Not sure how to pull myself out. 

Plan of action.  If I don’t start the pity party, it won’t lead to depression.  So here is my plan of action for combatting it.  These are things that I’m starting to work on every day, but I think that it’s helping!

  • Raise your awareness. Do you justify your self pity?  Do you play a victim in your own head?  Do depression and anxiety accompany?  It’s good to be aware of the things that trigger your self pity- be honest with yourself when you answer these questions.
  • Zero tolerance policy.  I cannot tell you how much this one helps me when I enforce it!!  Don’t allow yourself to wallow.  Don’t even go there.  Don’t let yourself indulge- not even a little!
  • Build your self-esteem and focus on the positive.  This is the thing I struggle the most with and need to do the most work on.  I don’t have much self-esteem for various reasons I won’t get into quite yet.  I work on this every day, but it’s very hard for me.  (anyone have any tips?)
  • The glass is half-full…  Focus on gratitude.  What are you thankful for?  Finish this sentence: Today I am grateful because…   I’ve started doing this and it helps tremendously!
  • Prayer.  Ask for help.  This helps me so so much.  Every day I ask God to help me have a positive attitude and to help me be kind to people even if they’re not kind to me.  (If you don’t pray then you could just skip this one or maybe you could try meditation?)
  • Physical exercise! Get those endorphins going my friend and you will feel an amazing sense of peace come over you!
  • Change your perspective.  find the silver lining in any bad situation.  Learn from it.  Move on!  You can’t change what happened, so don’t dwell on it!

 

These are some things that are helping me right now.  It’s something I struggle with every day, but the more I work on it the easier it gets!  And just to add my disclaimer- I’m in no way a Dr. or a Psychiatrist so if you have serious problems with depression please see your doctor.

 

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WIAW: New York Edition

 

It’s time for another What I Ate Wednesday friends!!  This week’s is a New York edition!
I think my favorite meal of the NYC trip was the Indian food that we had the first day we were here.  I’m totally going to be re-creating it when I get home!
This isn’t all of the food we ate over the last few days, but it’s quite a bit of it!  Here are a few of the highlights…

 

We stopped at Ess-A-Bagel twice for breakfast on our trip!  OMG so good!

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They had a tofu cream cheese that was fabulous- so much better than the tofu cream cheese that I usually get at home.  This first day I got an everything bagel with 1/2 vegetable cream cheese and 1/2 herbed cream cheese.  The second time we went I got a pumpernickel bagel with 1/2 vegetable cream cheese and 1/2 walnut raisin cream cheese (I forgot to take a picture of this one- I was starving!).  And I am now in love with pumpernickel!

 

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Lena.  It was kind of chipotle-esque.  I got a wrap with black beans, avocado, grilled corn, lettuce, and pico de gallo.  I just thought it was ehh.  The wrap wasn’t great so I ended up dumping it out on my plate and eating it like a salad.  The rest of the girls really seemed to enjoy their salads though, so maybe it was just my food?

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Sooooo much coffee was consumed on this trip!!!!

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You’ve heard of PB&Co, yes??  Did you know that they have a café in NYC?  Did you know that they make amazing PBJs??  Yes, we totally ate PBJs while in NYC!!

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Before we left we had to visit Babycakes!

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I really really wish I could say that it was amazing.  It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t as amazing as I expected it to be.  I got a carrot cupcake and a cookie sandwich.  I haven’t had the cookie sandwich yet so I will reserve my judgment until I’ve tried it.  The cake in the cupcake was super moist and delicious- I think I just wasn’t in love with the frosting.

 

And the last stop of the Sarah Snacks NYC food adventure is Chickpea.  This was my favorite stop!!!  Their falafels were baked, not fried.  And they stuff it in a whole wheat pita, you get your choice of hummus and toppings and a little tahini on top.  DELICIOUS!!!  We really need one of these in TX!

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Well, our trip to NYC has come to an end! Sad smile

Michelle and Rachel headed home for Philly and Boston, respectively and we miss them so much!  Laura and I are stuck at the airport still- our flight is delayed.

We’re about to start clicking our heels together and saying “there’s no place like home…”

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Living it up in NYC!

Hey y’all!  We’re in NYC and totally having a blast!!!

I’ll be talking about food in my What I Ate Wednesday post, so I thought I’d just post some fun walking around pics today!

The weather was seriously gorgeous (like in the lower 80’s) so we decided to go for a walk around central park.  It was so beautiful!!!

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Gorgeous, yes?

General wandering around pics…

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Carrie’s Stoop!!!!

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Grand Central Station!

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I’m having so much fun!  I’m so sad to be leaving tomorrow!

Catch ya later!!

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Wrapping up in Philly + headed to NYC!

We finished up HLS in Philly this morning with a 5K walk to the Rocky stairs and a lovely breakfast!

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Yesterday was full of sessions on writing a better recipe, a session on action mantras (by a really awesome RD- this was my favorite thing about the whole summit!), and eating healthy while traveling.

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Lunch sandwiches- p.s. the great harvest bread is the BEST bread I’ve ever had.  Seriously.

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Photo on 2011-08-20 at 08.54 Photo on 2011-08-20 at 08.55 #2

 

Don’t ask.  I don’t know what we were thinking.

Then we packed it up and hopped a train to NYC!!!!  Me, Laura, Rachel, and Michelle are hitting up the big apple.

Indian food has been had (Channa Masala and Naan) and naps have been taken.

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And now we’re trying to decide what to do tonight!

Hope everyone had an amazing weekend!

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