Changing Things UP!

Good morning everyone! It really feels like Monday today, even though it is Tuesday, and for that, I am grateful! This long weekend was just what I needed, to not only rest but also get a ton of stuff ready for my bridal shower coming up. I am getting married in 62 days and can't believe all the things that still need to get done. But I know that everything will happen in time, and in a little over two months, I will be in Hawaii with my hubby and we will be beginning a new phase of our lives together. I can't wait! So many things have changed about my food and fitness routine in the past couple weeks. I am really trying to discover what works best for me, my body, and my mind. I've dialed back the intensity of my workouts and have been doing a lot more light walking. I also ordered PiYo, which came in the mail yesterday! It was perfect because it arrived on a Monday, and the program calendar starts on a Monday with their Align fundamentals workout, so I did that yesterday.

I am looking forward to this program because I feel that it is exactly what my body needs at the moment; some hard core toning work without jumping up and down and killing my knees. I've had so much knee soreness and pain lately, even thought I haven't been running nearly as much. My cardio has been walking, elliptical, very SLOW and SHORT runs (like 5.0 mph for 10 minutes or so), walking, and more walking. Did I mention...walking? I've been walking outside, on the treadmill, and on my breaks from work. It's really helped keep me active and motivated with my steps (I bought a Fit Bit a few weeks back and love it!) and it's been easy on my knees. This is me taking a nice sunny walk last week on my 10 minute break at work!

Like I said, I bought a FitBit and it has been really fun to use! I love seeing how many steps I've taken and how active I've been. This morning's workout set me up pretty good, all before 7am! I did a 40 minute elliptical workout and did a slow 12 minute run. I plan on doing the PiYo lower body workout tonight when I get home from work!

Food wise, I've been letting myself have a little too many treats and sweets lately, which is ok in moderation, but not ok every day! I'm trying to move forward and have been keeping things pretty healthy the past few days. My fiancé and I did get Pinkberry this past weekend on Valentine's Day, but hey...we were celebrating!

As many of you know, I've been on a journey of no more calorie counting. I can't help but think that maybe I need that structure back in my life, especially with my wedding coming up and all the stress eating/not eating that tends to happen around this time! I've been playing around with the idea of keeping track of myself again, but I'm not too sure about it yet. But that's another post for another time...

Lastly, I bought this new journaling Bible that I am IN LOVE with. I am a huge margin writer, underliner, and highlighter when it comes to reading my Bible. I love that this Bible leaves room for me to write!

Life has been great lately. Things have been good, and I am looking forward to my wedding in just a couple short months! But things have also been stressful. Which is normal when you are going through any exciting time in your life. I've just learned that I can't rely on my own strength to get through. I definitely need Jesus and the people around me. Don't think you have to do things all on your own...we have a God who loves us and wants to strengthen us, as well as a God who puts people around us to help us through our stressful and exciting times!

Well, I am off to work and to conquer this busy day ahead of me. I plan on writing up some meal plans and recipes this week, so I will hopefully make the time for that soon! Happy Tuesday everyone!

New Year, New Goals: 2015

Happy New Year everyone!!! It's January 1st, which is a dream come true for someone like me. I am the girl that loves Mondays, the beginning of a month or week, and the 1st day of anything! I woke up to one of my favorite verses this morning, which made me even more excited about the newness of this day and time of year: "For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭19‬

I mean OBVIOUSLY God can do anything new at anytime He so chooses. He's GOD after all. But there is just something about the freshness and newness of a new year that gets me excited and motivated to grow and reflect on what my life has been over the past year, what aspects to keep, and what to transform into something better.

I am someone who loves making goals and resolutions. Whether I stick to them or not is a different story, and most of the time I do. But sometimes life gets in the way, and things get left behind. I still believe that making goals is essential to growth, even if you may not meet all of them.

I've realized lately that many times, the reason why I don't reach a goal is because my list looks a little something like this:

Too many things, too many scattered thoughts, and no direction!!! This year, I decided to do something different with my goals. I made a list of short term and long term goals. The short term is within the next 3 months, and the long term is throughout the year. This way, there is a time frame for my goals and they are a little more organized! So here they are...my 2015 goals!

Short term: less than 3 months

*Run my 10K in February in under 60 mins *Play piano at least 4 times/week *Plug into a ministry more consistently *Try keeping a paper planner/calendar *Finally start my secret project

Long term: all throughout the year

*Keep a consistent prayer journal and staying in God's Word *Read more books *Re-learn how to ride a bike (yes I forgot) *Feed my body healthy and whole foods and find freedom from my destructive habits *Be more available to people, pour into others * Go on a missions trip of some kind *Stop stressing and worrying so much! *Get married (can't forget that one!)

It's going to be such a big and exciting year, I just know it! God is always up to something, and I want to be used by Him and for Him for His purposes. I give all of these goals to Him and pray that His will be done!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful week and a blessed Christmas with family and friends. I know my Christmas was one that I will always remember. I had such a wonderful time with my new family, as well as my family of 26 years. My fiancé and I are so blessed by both of the families we are a part of and are going to be a part of. My heart was overflowing all week.

The festivities started last week, when we went out to look at the lights with my family and cousins. It was such a cold and fun night!

For Christmas Eve, we spent time with my fiancé Vasken's family. We had a great evening! My future sissy and I built an awesome gingerbread house to kick off the day.

My fiancé also had a wonderful idea of putting some of his smaller gifts, such as gift cards, in a mason jar! He stuffed it with tissue paper and chocolates (and obviously the gifts) and placed a bow on top. It was SUCH a creative idea!!! I'll definitely be stealing it!

We had such a good time with his family that night. We played a fun white elephant game and I got some beautiful reindeer Christmas plates!

The next day was Christmas morning and basically my favorite day all year!!! My parents and I opened presents early in the morning with our pajamas, which is always fun! I also baked some yummy pumpkin gingerbread we enjoyed with some tea in the morning.

My dad and I went on our traditional Christmas morning jog around noon. I wore my new workout jacket from Vasken's family...loved it!!

In the afternoon, Vasken came over and we did our own gift exchange. I bought him a coat and tickets for tubing in the snow since he LOVES doing anything in the snow and I...well...have no experience. I thought this would be a fun way to enjoy it together and a baby step for me before I get into full fledged skiing or anything! ;)

Vasken definitely outdid himself this year with my presents. He got me a flannel shirt and a sweater, a few plaques with some motivational sayings on them, like so...

But my favorite gifts were two things he hand made for me. A mason jar wall attachment to organize my make up brushes, lotions, or anything, and a wood journal! MADE BY HAND.

I am still in awe of how good this man is to me. I mean, we have our fair share of arguments. But Jesus always binds our hearts even closer to each other every single time. I couldn't believe what he made me...I started crying!! My heart couldn't handle it. These presents were definitely the highlight of my Christmas this year.

At night, we went to my aunt and uncle's house for our Christmas celebration with my side of the family. We had such a fun time! We ate good food, did a Secret Santa exchange, played games, and made breakfast at 11:30pm. It was the perfect Christmas.

I love reflecting on the past couple of days and remembering all the good God has done. He has blessed me with so many lovely people in my life, from my parents to Vasken to my family and now to his family. Too many blessings to count. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well, and let us not forget all that God has blessed us with, in this season and in every season of our lives!

Work Hard, Stay Humble: Daily Manna 12/8/14

I miss these daily posts I used to do. For me, writing is like therapy. It's such a natural outlet for me. I've always been a big reader and writer. I miss writing about my days and reflecting on what went on and what I experienced. I want to start doing these posts again whenever I can. I want to write more. I want to reflect more. I want to remember all of God's blessings each and every day. Like this morning, it was a blessing to be able to wake up. It was a blessing to read my Bible while sipping on some warm lemon water in the stillness of my home. It was a blessing to greet my dad as I ate some delicious gluten free gingerbread to gear up for my workout. It was a blessing to be able to run with the legs God has blessed me with. Legs that can move, run, bend, and withstand some pain in order to become stronger.

I am so blessed to be able to move and I never want to forget that. This morning was my first day training for my 10 K that is coming up in 10 weeks. I followed my training plan, and followed it up with a killer back and biceps workout with my trainer. I worked hard, but must remain humble because I know it is all by God's strength and grace that I am even able to move.

Here is my day 1 training update:

This morning's run went great! I was able to do a few intervals but didn't push too hard or too fast since this was a moderate (M) run. I was so happy with my time! I also did some ab work which consisted of a plank, some ankle grabbers, and flutter kicks. And, most importantly, I stretched!!! It felt great and I definitely need to do it more often.

For breakfast, I made a quick sausage and sweet potato casserole while I was getting ready. I love making this dish because it lasts a few days and tastes amazing!

I thought I would be late to work, but I was early. I was so stressed for nothing! I realized that I tend to get worked up over things, and 90% of the time, those things never happen. I really need to destress and not take little things as the end of the world!

Work was pretty busy which helps it go by super fast! I had some carrots and hummus on my break, then had my usual turkey burger and salad for lunch.

This has been my easy go-to lunch on Mondays if I am short on time for meal prep on Sunday night. I can fry up this burger in no time; and paired with a salad...it's delicious! Weekends have been jam packed for me recently, so it is nice to have an emergency healthy meal always on hand! I keep the Trader Joe's turkey burgers in my freezer at all times.

I got hungry around 4pm so I had a yummy quest bar!

These bars are such treats, and yes they do have a few "iffy" ingredients, but they have a good amount of protein for when I don't have time to eat a chicken breast. Ideally, I would love to just eat a chicken breast. I would love to have a completely clean week one of these weeks and not have any convenience foods, just to challenge myself. Because I'm sure it's possible. But life is life and you make the most of the options you have. And today, my best option (as Christmas cookies were staring at me in the break room) was a quest bar!

I got home from work around 5:45 and wasn't too hungry for dinner. I had defrosted some chicken so I decided to make some Parmesan garlic sautéed chicken for lunch tomorrow and the next day. I ended up having some yummy gluten free crackers and hummus for dinner while cooking...totally acceptable in my opinion!

Andddd a gluten free banana chocolate chip protein cookie too (recipe coming soon!) I will also post the recipe for the chicken (so many things to do!) It was very easy to prepare and it tasted delicious (I had to have a few bites!) I can't wait to gobble it up tomorrow!

And now...for some rest and relaxation time with my parents. Something I have been looking forward to all day! It was a day full of hard work, patience, and relying on God through it all!