It's Friday (duh), and I'm blogging (duh - or you wouldn't be reading this) (I'm really good at stating the obvious today), and because of these two things... I am linking up with my girl Whitney for a little #backthatazzup action.
You may or may not remember a few weeks ago that Amanda and I came up with a challenge for 2014 to:
Now, with this challenge, we don't mean getting uncomfortable by wearing underwear that's too small... Ahem. We mean that you should get out of your comfort zone and things that you would typically say 'No' to, or things that you'd typically avoid - you give it a shot. I promised to do a recap every time I step out of my comfort zone, or at least at the end of every month.. and I'm happy to say that January was definitely an uncomfortable month for me.
I found myself stepping out of my 'comfort zone' a few times throughout the month. With little every day things, giving myself new challenges with workouts, and committing to taking a HUGE step towards fitness goals. Some of the highlights from this month that stick out to me are:
Going Dancing with friends.
This sounds crazy, I know. But I DO NOT dance in public. I just don't. I can count on two hands, the amount of times that I've actually danced at clubs with my friends. I always stay at a table, or completely avoid going out all together if dancing is predetermined. Oh, how I wish I was kidding. I just don't dance. But this month, I did... and it wasn't awful. I may even do it again.
Enrolling in a 12-week transformation challenge.
I had to publicly post basically naked photos of myself to show my 'before' at the beginning of January. I can't even tell you HOW UNCOMFORTABLE I felt doing this. I freaked out numerous times while singing up, but Juliette pushed me to do it. I'm proud of my self for doing that much, and now I've got something that I'm working hard towards achieving.
Burning 1,000 calories a day.
Last week I challenged myself to this completely insane goal. Burning 1,000 calories a day is NO joke. This was great 'motivation' for me last week, but it left me with more cons than pros, unfortunately. I stopped looking forward to my workouts because I was viewing them as a number and only a number. I injured my body because I double up on workouts to reach my goal and my body had zero recovery time. At the end of the week I needed a 'break' from working out because I was in a phase of hating it. I didn't like the outcome. So, while it was great - calorie burn wise - I don't think I'd challenge myself to be that extreme again.
I signed up for a 10k.
This BLOWS MY MIND. I once blogged about 'why I don't run' and now I have signed up to run 10 FREAKING KILOMETERS. For you Americans, I think that's like 6 miles. I know that's really not far for a lot of people, but let me just tell you that I am ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED of doing this. I never, ever, LIKE EVER, in a million years imagined that I would do anything like this. If this isn't getting out of my comfort zone, I don't know what is.
I hope every single one of you is doing something to get uncomfortable.
Break that barrier, work on changing and creating a better you! ♥
It's hump day.
Which basically means that I can break any blogging rules I want. Also, there are no blogging rules, so there's that.
Anyway, I'm going to share my favourite (favorite with a 'U'... because Canada) pins that I've come across lately. All of these pictures, whether they're inappropriate or not, have made me legitimately laugh out loud, and not just fake 'lol'.
So kick your feet up, relax, and giggle along with me. We still have a few more work-days until the weekend so lets drown ourselves in happy tears instead of sad ones. Okay....
Last week, I made the most delicious baked sweet potatoes OF LIFE. Seriously. OF LIFE. That's not an exaggeration.
I saw a recipe on Pinterest and got inspired to make my own kind of thing - and it is the best darn recipe, ever. Don't believe me? Just ask Amanda.. she asked me to make them again this week because they were just THAT amazing.
Now because I'm a terrible blogger, I forgot to take pictures of the first couple steps - because, really... I wasn't planning on doing a recipe until part-way through. My bad.
Here are the ingredients you'll need:
4 medium sweet potatoes
3 small boneless skinless chicken breast
3 teaspoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon sriracha spice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon roasted garlic & peppers spice
2 teaspoons italiano spice
1 cup of spinach
green onion (however much you prefer)
goat cheese
You can use different spices, these are just some of my 'go to' spices in my cupboard.
Sidenote: I'm lactose intolerant, which is why these are made with goat cheese, but I'd suggest making these with white cheddar or mozarella. And you could dip them in greek yogurt and salsa.
So the process for making these delicious little bites of heaven is kind of lengthy. But I promise you that at the end of this rainbow there MOST DEFINITELY is a pot of gold, and your tastes buds will thank me. You're welcome in advance.
Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You will need a real oven for this, folks. Don't use an easy-bake oven.
Wash those sweet sweet sweet potatoes and prick all kinds of little holes all over them with a fork.
Place the potatoes in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes (or whatever feels right).
Place your chicken in a baking dish and rub with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, sriarcha spice, roasted garlic & pepper spice, salt, and pepper. Now put that tender chicken in the oven with the potatoes and bake for 25 minutes.
While your chicken and sweet potatoes are cooking - chop up your green peppers and your garlic.
Let that chicken cool down a bit - cause it's hot, duh...
One it's okay to touch, you shred that bad boy with a fork (but I prefer using my hands).
When the sweet potatoes are done, cut them in half and, again, let them cool down. Nobody needs to get burnt fingers during this process.
Combine the rest of the olive oil, garlic, italian spice, dash of salt and pepper. Set aside.
Toss the spinach in a frying pan and wilt it down. It should look like this.
In a medium size bowl big enough to fit the mixture... toss in the chicken, then add the spinach, green onion, pour three quarters of the olive oil mixture on the chicken (just whatever looks good), and then toss in some goat cheese (or real cheese) - whatever amount feels right.
That line of red stuff is kind of my secret ingredient... which I didn't list above. This is what I put in there:
Now mix, mix, mix.
Turn the oven up to 400 degrees. Lets heat this baby up.
Scrape the sweet potato out of the peel, leaving a medium size layer of delicious potato inside with the peel so that it can stand up on its own... put those babies on a baking sheet. Brush the them with a bit of the olive oil mixture and bake for 5-10 minutes.
Take the potatoes out of the oven and stuff them with the chicken mixture, top with goat cheese (or shredded cheese) and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the skins are hot and crisp.
Annnnnd now I have delicious lunches for the week. Yum.
Let them cool down a bit (so you don't burn the roof of your mouth), and enjoy.
Holy dramatic title, Batman whomever is reading this.
Okay, so that is definitely the most dramatic title I'll ever use on this little blog o' mine. But sometimes I like to be dramatic. It's fun.
Also, the title doesn't even really make sense - because I can't cry. Not even kidding. You can even ask Juliette or Allie-Boo... they both have tried to make me cry numerous times.
Picture Cameron Diaz in The Holiday, and that's basically how I am - no joke.
Annnnyway, I really just got completely off track. Blogging has been a massive struggle this week, and I have one reason why: I gave myself a stupid challenge. I thought it would be a great idea to ramp up my workouts this week to try and shock my system or kick this fat burning machine into overdrive - so I challenged myself to burn 1,000 calories per day from
Sunday - Saturday this week. It's rough. I'm not going to lie.
I'm used to burning 1,000+ calories every Saturday and every Sunday - because I have time to workout for 2 hours. During the work week I definitely don't have 2 hours every night to workout, so I've been doubling up on workouts and getting up between 4:00-4:30am everyday to workout before work and then workout every night as well. This, friends, is exactly why I have not been blogging. I have literally zero time to do a single thing this week. So, on that note... See you all next week (if I can survive the next 3.5 days of this insanity).
Y'all know I'm clumsy, as demonstrated in posts A through Zed...
It has been a hot minute since I've shared one of my clumsy (and 'should be' embarrassing) stories, so that's what I'm bringing to the table today. A lesson on why you should ALWAYS, I mean always check your pants before you put them on.
So this story took place a few years ago, when I was living in Halifax and working at a medical (sleep apnea to be exact) clinic. I was the receptionist in a small office, and at the time there were only three of us working in said office. For the record, neither of the two women that I was working with at the time knew that this issue took place. Because I completely kept it under wraps, until of course I decided to publicly share it with the world right at this very moment..
(like the classy broad that I am).
For the record, when I share this kind of crap on my blog, this is EXACTLY how I expect you all to be reacting when you read my horrific tales. Don't disappoint me or ruin this vision for me.
Anyway -- so this one particular morning, I slept in and I was rushed to get out the door. Remembering that I had washed all of my appropriate work pants the night before, I ran downstairs to the dryer, pulled out the first pair of pants that I found and ran out the door. When I got to the office, I went about my normal 'everyday tasks' and puttered around. My left leg kept feeling really odd, and I kept scratching it with my right foot but it didn't seem to really fix the problem. But, instead of checking my leg, like a NORMAL PERSON WOULD, I just continued to scratch it every time the itch came back and carried on with my duties - the itch finally subsided and I didn't think anything of it.
We had patients coming in and out of the office all morning, and for the most part - I was stuck behind the reception desk keeping busy. I got up to head down the hall to get things from our storage closet and back-room (where we kept our inventory) a few times, but remained pretty stationary for most of the morning. Around 11:30am (2.5 hours after getting there) I headed down the hallway to one of my colleagues offices to drop some paperwork off and came back to my desk.
On my way back to my desk, I discovered something. I discovered why the itch had left me. Right there, smack dab in the middle (it was actually not the middle, but pushed to the side)(I say middle for the ADDED DRAMATIC EFFECT) of the floor, was a bring pink pair of underwear. MY bright pink underwear. I panicked.
I looked around, gasped, and picked them up quickly and ran to my desk to shove them in my purse. WHY IS MY UNDERWEAR ON THE FLOOR? I thought. Then quickly realized that my leg had been itching all morning because they must have been trapped in my pant leg. Crap, crap, crap. I panicked again. I realllllly hope nobody saw these. Then my mind started going through all the possible scenarios. I settled on the fact that at least it was a cute pair, and not an old ratty pair.
But seriously - THANK HEAVENS there wasn't a single person in the waiting room, and both of my colleagues had been in their offices all morning with back to back client work. To this day, I have no idea how long that pair of underwear sat on the floor, unnoticed. Actually, I don't know if it was unnoticed. There's a definite possibility that one of our patients actually SAW the underwear but didn't say anything.
That's my valuable life lesson for you fine people today. Check your pants.
You're welcome.
Also, I guarantee that my colleague Mihnea just read this story on his train-ride to work and I'm never going to hear the end of this today...
First things first. My favorite design princess in the whole wide world, Whitney worked her magic on my little blog on Friday and gave it a complete facelift. New Year means FRESH new look, and I'm kind of totally obsessed with it.
We all know that I don't believe in making New Years resolutions, but I'm a firm believer in making new goals and constantly challenging yourself.. So that's what Amanda and I are doing today.
This weekend, Amanda and I sat down and had a chat about our fitness goals: what we want to accomplish, where we see ourselves at the end of the year, and (of course) getting ourselves out of our comfort zones.
If you want something you've never had, then you've got to do something you've never done.
Amanda and I are challenging ourselves to try ONE new thing (that we've never done before) every month of 2014. That's twelve times that I will be making myself 'uncomfortable' and trying something new. Maybe I'll love it, maybe I'll hate it - but one thing is for sure: I will grow.
The thought of doing this is both exciting and terrifying because I know that I'll be getting out of my comfort zone a lot this year... 12 different times to be exact.
These 12 different moments can be anything: joining the gym, taking a class at a gym, working out with friends, or whatever else I can think of. These are all things that absolutely terrify me, but I think the only way that I'll ever grow is if I step out of my comfort zone. So here we go.. Bring it on, 2014. Bring. It. On.
If you want to join us, please let us know! It doesn't have to be strictly fitness related, it can be anything.
Quitting your job, asking someone out on a date, going skydiving, or getting something other than chicken fingers at your favorite restaurant. Step up to the plate, get uncomfortable, and allow yourself to grow this year.
We'll be sharing our victories and challenges on our blogs, twitter, and instagram (#getuncomfortable).
Happpppppy Friday, love muffins. <--- who am I right now?
It's Friday, Friday... and as Rebecca Black would say.. you gotta get down on Friday.
Shout out to the most awkward GIF, ever.
If this song is now stuck in your head, you're welcome. 'Cause Lord knows it'll definitely be stuck in my head allllll day. Damn you, Rebecca Black.
Anyway, in an attempt to wash that horrid song out of my brain, I'm going to link up with my girl Whitney for a little #backthatazzup action.
I was planning on posting something COMPLETELY different, but while I was sitting down to write this post - a friend shared something amazing on Facebook. This is a post that Scott Sonnon shared on his Facebook page about his daughter having her first crush, and his letter to her. This letter completely spoke to me. No, I'm not an 11 year old girl. No, Scott isn't my dad. No, this isn't my exact situation. But this letter just hit me hard when I read it, and I just knew these words needed to be shared on my blog.
Ladies - If you're having boy issues, you may really appreciate these words.
I met the boy my daughter has her first crush on at eleven years young. He seems healthy, athletic and happy, but I don't know anything about what it was like to be like that as a boy. I wasn't any of those things at his age. So, out of pure curiosity, while driving my daughter home from a dance, I asked her about him. She confided in me: "Dad, it's no big deal. He's not even interested in me anyway and I wouldn't know how to be interesting to him."
I replied, "You don't have to try to interest anyone, sweetheart. You're brilliant, courageous, graceful and gorgeous. I find you to be fascinating, and continually surprise me with the things you do and say and think, just be being yourself. Boys don't know what they want because their brain won't stop being cooked until they're 25, but after then, they have a chance to become adult men. Then, the right man will realize how awesome you already and always are."
The conversation felt like it went well, but last night, I thought longer about her comment. This morning, I sit down to write out what I'd like to say to her:
You never need to try to be interesting to anyone, boy or girl. That's not your job in life. Your only job is to know in your heart without any cloud of confusion or fog of hesitation that you are worthy of anyone's interest without trying. You are perfectly worthy just as you are; just like everyone else is, even if you or others (or your Mom and I) get confused about our individual worth, or about the worth of each other.
If you continue to believe in yourself, you'll radiate. Boys, and eventually when you're grown up - men, will be attracted to you because of who you really are in your heart of hearts. You won't need to try to be interesting because the second most important man in your life will be interested in everything you are (the most important man in your life - me - already is and always will be.)
I don't know much about what it is to be a healthy, happy boy. Your Dad hadn't been those things. But I can tell you what it's like to be a healthy, happy person: You don't need to keep the interest of healthy, happy people. They're interested in you purely because you are confident in your fascinatingly unique, wonderfully weird (in other words - AWESOME) self.
One day you'll meet a boy and he will be overwhelmed by you, and you by him. When you're young and someone likes you, it feels like the the entire world is in the moments you are near each other. But your worth isn't dependent upon him feeling this way toward you (or you toward him). A good boy will feel this way about you because you are perfectly worthy of it... Already and Always.
When he comes to our house to meet us, you'll be scared of what we think of him because of how you feel when he's so smitten by you.
Even if he places his elbows on our table, as long as he places his eyes on you when you tilt your head and lift your shoulders when you giggle at your own silly jokes - and then can't look away - then we will love him too.
Even if he doesn't want to wrestle with me, come training with me, or go hunting with the other men in your family during holiday get-togethers, if he can romp with the beautiful children you create together, and fawn in all of the wonderfully frustrating ways that your children are exactly like you, then we will love him too.
Even if he doesn't dedicate his life to his finances, if - like you - he follows his passion to help others, while standing right next to you as you do, then we will love him too.
He doesn't need to be strong like your Dad... As long as he exercises the most important muscle - his heart, by loving and honoring you as much as your Mom and I do you (and each other), then we will love him too.
We don't care about his politics or viewpoints, if he makes you the most important person in his life and considers how every action impacts you, as you do him.
We don't care about the culture he comes from, or the place he was born, as long as he calls standing next to you wherever you are - home.
It doesn't matter to us what religion he practices, if he understands that you and your relationship together are inherently sacred, and every day that he gets to spend with you - a blessed gift.
I don't care if he has nothing in common with your Dad, for if he's completely different in every detail, he and I will have the most important common interest worthy of our complete dedication: you.
In the end, the only thing you'll ever need to do to keep our interest is just be you, already and always as you are each and every moment.
Love you,
Dad
I thought to share this with you, my readers, because the world may be changing at a very rapid rate, but the confusion of being a Dad - and total absence of a fatherhood instruction manual - causes me to reach out to those of you who are facing similar conversations with their growing children. Perhaps, together, in our individual heartfelt love of our little ones, we can help create a generation to understand that they don't need to try to be a certain way to be worthy... to be happy. They only need to be perfectly themselves, as they already and always are.
I feel like there's nothing else that needs to be said. Scott nailed it. Abso-freakin-lutely nailed it. This is exactly what I needed to read this week.
I was sitting at my desk staring at this blank page, trying to decide what to write, and I was blasting Queen Bey's album - because it's amazing, duh. While I was having a little dance party in my seat, Flawless came on and I stopped and just listened to the lyrics for a minute. This song, guys... this song just resonates with me.
I love this song for a few reasons...
It's got a great beat, and I love running and dancing to this song. Beyonce is simply on fire in this song, and the song definitely gets me pumped up. But, the reason I really love this song is because of the amazing message that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers in the middle of this song:
We teach girls to shrink themselves
To make themselves smaller
We say to girls:
"You can have ambition,
But not too much.
You should aim to be successful
But not too successful,
Otherwise you will threaten the man."
Because I am female,
I am expected to aspire to marriage.
I am expected to make my life choices
Always keeping in mind that
Marriage is the most important.
Now marriage can be a source of
Joy and love and mutual support,
But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage
And we don't teach boys the same?
We raise girls to see each other as competitors.
Not for jobs or for accomplishments,
Which I think can be a good thing,
But for the attention of men.
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings
In the way that boys are.
Feminist: the person who believes in the Social,
Political, and Economic equality of the sexes.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in 'Flawless' by Beyonce
As women, we often believe that we are not enough. We are not thin enough, pretty enough, smart enough, or rich enough. We compete with each other for the attention of men (or other women, if that's your thing), and the competition gets a little out of hand - and we get nasty. We belittle each other... which, in turn, causes us to belittle ourselves. I strongly believe that we are better than this.
This could, very quickly, turn into a rant... so I'm just going to leave it with a few plain and simple words:
Know that you worth it - whatever it may be.
Love yourself.
Be kind.
This is why I probably shouldn't blog after a glass or two of wine.
It's 2014... twenty-fourteen... two thousand and fourteen... two zero one four... that ish cray. Seriously.
I'm actually BLOGGING for once (I've kind of been MIA for too long, but I'm working on it), so I'm definitely going to link-up with my homegirl Whitney for a little #backthatazzup action. I've been listening to Queen Bey's album non-stop since it was released and this is one of my favorite songs off the surprise album.
Every January 1st is the beginning of a new/fresh year, and every new year brings tons of "resolutions".
I'm going to put it out there - I'm not a fan of resolutions.
The idea of making positive changes in your life to better yourself, or better the lives of your loved ones, is fantastic. Really. I just don't like that it's something that can only be 'done' or 'started' on the first day of a new year. I'm not a fan of the idea of people waiting until a specific date to make changes. If you want to change something, just do it. Don't wait for January st, or Monday, or some other significant day/date/occasion.
Change is an important part of life. If you're not changing, then you're not progressing - it's as simple as that. Don't wait for that specific 'date' to make positive changes in your life. Make those changes today - no excuses.
I've been seeing a lot of resolutions on facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. and these are the top five resolutions that I've seen people post about:
Lose Weight.
Quit Smoking.
Spend More Time With Loved Ones.
Become More Organized.
Work Less & Enjoy Life More.
Honestly, these are all GREAT and POSITIVE changes and I support them 100000%. I just don't support that it takes the beginning of a New Year to make this change. If you're making a change because it's a New Year, then you're not changing for the right reasons - and you more than likely won't be successful with your change.
Realistically, you will revert to your old ways within a month, two months, or maybe even six months.
I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer over here, because like I said - CHANGE IS GREAT...
But you have to want to change for YOU, otherwise it won't stick.
I made resolutions every year of my life until about 2 years ago. I noticed that I never stuck with the things I said I was going to do/change/work on. I never made it past March/April January before I quit whatever I was changing. It wasn't until I realized that nothing in my life was going to progress or be different unless I actually wanted to change... for ME. Not for my family, friends, future husband, work, whatever, and definitely not because I felt like it was necessary because it was a New Year. When I realized that I needed to change for ME, I found success.
If you're someone who has made resolutions this year, I wish you the best of luck and I truly hope you can implement these positive changes in your life and keep them around all year long.
However, despite everything I just said - I witnessed something interesting yesterday. I witnessed a hipster take 60 seconds to find a way to actually lower his body into the seat beside me on the bus. It took this long because his jeans were so tight that the knees wouldn't bend and the waist probably felt like it was going to rip open. But he did it, he was successful, and I felt absolutely awful when I pulled the bell three stops later to get off the bus and he had to stand up to let me off. Yeah, he should probably just go ahead and give up being a hipster (or at least give up wearing tight pants) for his New Year's Resolution. That;s a resolution that I could definitely get behind.
