I feel pretty and witty and bright

I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by! February is National Heart month and Valentines Day so it’s only right that we brand it “Love Month”. Since we only have 1 week left in February I wanted to touch on a topic I’ve been reading a lot about, “Self-Love”.

If someone asked me “Do you love yourself?” I would immediately respond “Of course!” But if I sat down and actually thought about that question I wouldn’t be so sure… I’ve noticed that if I have that cookie I’m craving after dinner I’ll say to myself “Good job on ruining your entire workout”  but if a friend told me that she had a cookie after dinner and was upset about it I would reply “Omg, don’t be so silly it’s just one cookie! Everyone needs to indulge sometimes.” It’s so easy to give advice but following it? Wellllll, not so much. Why couldn’t I be that easy on myself? Why am I beating myself up over 1 cookie? For the most part I am extremely healthy – I eat a well-balanced diet and exercise 5-6 times a week so I should be able to have a cookie without feeling guilt if that’s what my body wants! Everyone knows that love is a good thing. We love to give it and we love to receive it. But how often do we actually take the time to give it to ourselves?

I’m sure I am not the only person who beats themselves up over silly issues like this so we should all make a pact to follow Katelyn’s mission: I feel pretty! Today, I am making a promise to myself to be a little nicer, speak a little sweeter and cut myself some slack from time to time. I deserve it, and so do you 🙂

I feel as if I’m always on the go, go go to do things for others and I want to make sure I give myself the same attention. Each day this week I am going to post something I did for myself as a token of love: To me, Love me.

Here is what I gifted myself today – Relaxation Time –I know this doesn’t sound like much but I couldn’t tell you the last time I laid down with my phone, TV and computer off. It felt so good to sleep for 3 hours and I am feeling very refreshed now!

I think that everyone should join me and do something for themselves in the last week of the month of love – Feel free to share with me your plan and remember this: You are a truly loveable person — and you deserve only kind treatment, especially from yourself. 🙂

On a lighter note! I had a great weekend filled with 3 workouts – Zumba, Bodypump & Spin Class. I took full advantage of the $60 a month I pay to my gym! Nothing better than getting a good sweat in on the weekends. After my workout on Sunday I did my weekly grocery shopping where Whole Foods then took advantage of me. Why is it that I can never leave with just what’s on my list? I also left my brand spankin new iPhone in an aisle I shouldn’t have even been in while browsing labels – Thank goodness someone with a good heart found it and returned it to the lost and found! Whew..

Saturday night I had one of my girlfriends over for some girl time. We made dinner, went out for some Tasti D-lite (i know, again?) and watched hours worth of Bachelor re-runs on my DVR til 1 am. We get crazy and wild sometimes 😉

For dinner we made quesadillas…not just a plain boring quesadilla. But an exciting chicken, peach and pepperjack quesadilla. I’ve made this before and LOVED it but I think the peaches were a little bland this time around… It was still delicious and if you have some fresh peaches I suggest you try this combo out!

Chicken, Peach & Pepperjack Quesadilla

Ingredients

• Rotisserie chicken
• Pepperjack cheese (w/ jalapenos)
• Peaches
• Greek Yogurt
• Agave
• Cilantro
• Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

Directions

• Shred chicken

• Slice peaches

• Place tortilla on plate and add the chicken, cheese and peach slices to HALF.
• Sprinkle Cilantro on top
• Fold in half and place in an olive oil misted skillet
• Place a cast iron skillet on top so it flattens out the quesadilla and everything cooks evenly.
• Cook for 4 minutes on side – Flip and repeat.
• While quesadillas are cooking Mix together your greek yogurt, agave and lime juice.

• Slice the quesadillas and serve with the dipping sauce

The sweetness of the peaches and the dipping sauce go perfectly together! Sorry the pictures are blurry – I need to stop rushing them but sometimes I’m just so excited to eat 🙂

Our dessert from Tasti D-Lite

My friend had smores with choc chips and crushed graham cracker and I enjoyed bananas foster with the same toppings. I’ve yet to try a flavor that I haven’t loved yet! We may or may not have bought some Oreo & Peanut butter to go… Whoops.

Yesterday I also got my haircut (got some side bangs, wild!), had lunch with my grandma at Nordstrom Cafe and got some goodies in the mail!

Carba nada pasta, PB2, Donut Pan, Pizza Crisper, Gluten Free Pretzels, Banana Supreme Pancake mix and Alternative Bagels! I ordered these from a lo carb site – I’ve read about some of these items on various blogs but couldn’t find them ANYWHERE in stores so I resorted to some online shopping. I’m excited to try these out and hope they live up to the hype!

Tonight I am going to test out my pizza crisper and throw myself a pizza party… I might also get a little crazy and have some more of that Oreo & Peanut butter Ice Cream. I really need to settle down.

Day 23: Favorite Movie

I believe they already asked my favorite movies so I’m going to go ahead and skip this challenge and if you are that interested you can check out Day 7’s post here

Day 24: Something you’ve learned

I think it’s only fair that I say to love myself! Starting with treating myself the same I would to others or as Katelyn would put it a 5-year-old version of myself!

Also, Kate is having another giveaway! Check it out 🙂

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend and if you have the day off tomorrow (lucky) you enjoy it!!

QUESTIONS: What do you do to show yourself love? Have you ever tried any of the lo-carb items I purchased? What was the craziest thing you did this weekend (get bangs, stay up til 1 am watching the bachelor, eat ice cream?? 😉 )

 

Back to America

Today is my Friday!!! WOOHOOOO! Can you tell I’m excited 🙂

Yesterday the girls and I ended up making the Oreo Balls. I zoomed in closely because I let them cover most of them in the white chocolate and they didn’t look extremely appetizing. But they were foodgasmic. I saw this recipe the other day and decided since it was 3 ingredients it would be prefect to try out with a 2 and 4 year old! Well the 4 year old doesn’t like chocolate (insanity, right?) – So i changed it to her likings…and for the sake of me eating less.

It didn’t work… I still at the same amount I normally would have. Below is the recipe. You’ve got to try it.

White Chocolate Covered Golden (Oreo) Balls

For the Balls
1 Package of Golden Oreo Cookies
1 8 oz Block or Tub of Cream Cheese

For the Dip
1 bag of Ghiradelli white chocolate baking chips

Additional:

Sprinkles 🙂 *I am the sprinkle queen.

Directions
Crush the Oreos and stir in the cream cheese.
Set in the freezer (at least 10 minutes) while making the white chocolate dipping sauce.
Remove from the freezer, dip the balls, and place on parchment paper and freeze again until serving.   Store in the freezer or fridge.
Yields 40 balls.

I headed to the gym straight from work and put in another 40 minutes on the elliptical. Yawn. I got back to my car and received this lovely note.

Merry Christmas to you too! I wasn’t even over the line… Sometimes I feel like people are so miserable around Christmas time. Anyways…I had a couple of missed calls from family members – My cousin was home from his semester in Spain and they were meeting at Outback. I NEVER turn down Outback and I of course wanted to see my little T-T. When I finally arrived they had already housed 2 orders of cheese fries…SOOO I ordered another half order because you don’t go to Outback and not eat these. Seems that everyone else was full off the 2 previous orders because I was the only one to touch these. 

and finish them I might add…. You cant go wrong with potatoes, cheese and BACON. Good thing I went to the gym, right? Riiiight. I ordered the half appetizer of seared ahi tuna for dinner… But was a little too full to even take a bite. So I boxed it up and am thinking of making some sushi out of it for lunch today!

I also went to the library yesterday and checked out a Fitness DVD – Billy Banks Bootcamp! I did that this morning and my body already hates me. But the good kind of hate.

Breakfast was Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal! Thank goodness I bought a lot of pumpkin because I’m pretty sure I’ll be making this again tomorrow morning…and the next…and the next.

Here is what you’ll need:

• 1/3 cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax + 3 tbsp warm water, mixed and set aside for 2-3 minutes)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• cinnamon + nutmeg to taste
• cooking spray of choice

The first thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

The next thing you’ll want to do is mix everything together in a greased oven safe bowl and pour the batter into it. A single serve Pyrex bowl would work, or in my case a mini cake pan 🙂

Into the Oven!

You will want to bake this for approximately 20 minutes at 375 degrees, or just until your flax egg sets.

Top this baked pumpkin oatmeal with your toppings of choice and enjoy! I topped mine with some fresh raspberries (even though I really wanted a banana), some raisins, and a dollop of peanut butter. The only thing I would do differently is wait to put my toppings on because my peanut butter melted instantly… I guess I was a little excited to eat this – and rightfully so 🙂

Off to work…and late again. I wonder what we’ll get into today!

PS: I also took this on my way to outback… I’m obsessed with sunrises and sunsets and thought this was a cool picture. Backwards out of my window while driving – So talented.