flourisheffect-blog

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If watching others live free makes you feel trapped, something about your life needs to change.

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Mental Wandering

It's beautiful outside. I've made it through one long, tough winter. It's something about a warm breeze and evening sun that makes me alive again.

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Reflections (2.17.19)

I have no real subject for this post. I'm just writing to let out my thoughts.

It's been a rough week from a mental motivation POV. All week, I've chanted "You won't always be motivated so you must be disciplined." I spent the week dealing with the tail end of my cold. And dealing with this cold has made it hard for me to find my discipline.

Honestly, between work and this cold, the last few weeks knocked me off my feet. It's been hard to stay on track with water. I've given in to eating more chocolate (it's my kryptonite). I don't want to cook. And I haven't started that workout class. The tail end of my cold has left me just wanting to feel better. Wanting to eat the warm and mushy things (pasta, brownies), not the cold and crunchy things (salad, greens). Wanting to get sleep. The struggle is real, and I guess it's safe to say I've been eating my feelings😒

I weighed in this week at 289.2, so up 3 lbs from several weeks ago. I'm glad I haven't cracked the 90's again, so that has given me some motivation for this week. Also, 3lbs is totally doable from a "get-back-on-track" perspective.

My downfall this month will be not having the balance in place to help myself get it together. I'm over committed on several fronts right now. Here's this week's agenda:

Sunday morning- grocery/finance planning (3 hrs) + Church

Sunday afternoon- volunteer organization committee #2 workshop (3 hrs)

Sunday night- date night

M-F: my boss has asked me to start coming in at 7am vs 8am (so now I have to find a way to figure out a whole new morning routine).

Thursday night- committee #1 meeting (2 hours)

Friday night- committee #2 volunteer event (4 hrs)

Saturday morning- university alumni board workshop (4 hrs)

Saturday afternoon- volunteer organization committee #1 workshop (3 hrs)

Saturday night- girls night

The next week's schedule is essentially the same thing, minus the alumni board meeting. WHERE IS THE "ME" TIME? DO I EVEN HAVE A WINDOW TO CREATE IT?

So long story short, life is difficult to manage rn. I'll have to bootstrap myself to a better place. I would love to hear any positive words or quotes you have, so I can feed off that energy.

I'm going to go plan my meals now ✌

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I'm finally getting a chance to cook my Asian inspired meal. It turned out to be a very green plate today!

Let me tell you... I have no regrets about anything on this plate. Lettuce wraps. Lemon-garlic edamame. And stir fry veggies with the carrot-ginger sauce that @fiveloveten has blessed my life with🙏🏽 (the sauce is amazing!)

Super satisfied with this meal. My favorite was the edamame.

2.12.19

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Love this lol

How come I hear Rihanna’s voice louder that Donald Glover without a microphone? 😂😂

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Oh how I've missed you guys!

First of all, let me just say that I never want to relive the last 3 weeks of my life. EVER. For starters, that cold I mentioned I had a few weeks ago, hit me with a vengeance. Your girl was down for the count.

Secondly, my job decided to test one's human capabilities and slapped my team with an impossible deadline of completing a major project in less than two weeks. This would have been great timing for me to call in sick and miss some stressful days, but I was out of PTO until our new fiscal year started. So, I've been going into the office with, what I've coined as, the black lung.

So this impossible project has left me working round the clock for 3 weeks straight. On average, I've worked 90 hours A WEEK the last three weeks. I've been going to sleep around 11/12pm and waking up around 3am to keep working. I slept on my couch the last three weeks because I knew if I slept in my bed, I'd be too comfortable to get up at 3. My back is killing 👏🏾 me 👏🏾.

It has honestly been pretty awful. Sick. Sleep deprived. Stressed. Some days, I was even dehydrated because there wasn't even time to grab water. I won't lie, I ate fast food more than I would like to admit. But I did try to stay as balanced as possible.

Miraculously, I have maintained my weight! I was afraid the scale was going to give me shock waves today. So I'm proud of myself overall. I'm also super appreciative that my hubby has been so patient with me. I've been less than present.

What I've learned:

Be better prepared. On weeks where it will get rough, stock up on water, meal prep or buy meal prep foods. I think that I'll start bulking up how much I cook per meal and freezing some away so that I have easy meals to defrost when i need it.

Self care. I should have never let myself be worked into dehydration. Even if everyone is pissed that I stop for a moment, I've got to remember to carve out those moments of care.

I'm happy to say that I've somehow pulled off the project 100% complete and I'm feeling much better. I hope you guys have been good. Since you haven't seen my face in a while, here's a selfie from last week when the weather was warm😍 I've missed you guys!

I'm ready to catch up. So I'm tagging @fiveloveten @curvykawaii @spitlogic @relentl3ss for a SDS. What's up y'all!💕

2.10.19

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🤒🤧

Last Thursday, the hubby came rolling in with the sniffles and started hacking and coughing all over the place by Friday. I tried to avoid this man like it was my job in order to not get sick, but here I am down for the count as well 🤦🏽‍♀️

Considering that yesterday was my first real day of symptoms, I think I'm already going in the right direction... but I still didn't feel good enough to get out in the cold air to my morning workout.

I'm taking astragalus and vitamin D, drinking ginger and honey tea, drinking OJ, eating chicken soup/pot pie, rubbing menthol, and taking a medicine to relieve the headache. I hope this goes by quick!🤧

1.29.19

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Eats This Week (1.27.19)

This week is going to have some easy dishes, some savory dishes, and a couple of sprinkled in Asian-inspired dishes as well (thanks to @fiveloveten!).

I honestly am so excited to cook this week! I like to stick to my principle of being balanced with a meat, a veggie, and a carb... and I'm happy to say I'll have some delicious dishes that still fall in line with that thought process.

I'll share pictures and recipes of my meals as I make them this week for anyone who's interested.

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“People act according to the way they experience the world. If you can understand their experience, you can understand their behavior.”

— R.D. Laing, The Politics of Experience (via grayskymorning)

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@fiveloveten look what I gottt! I'll be trying to make that dish this week😊

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The Savings Tip that Changed My Life

I've been listening to Cardi B's "Money" song way too much lately, so I guess I'm in the mood to talk finances today 💁🏽‍♀️

A few years ago I read one of Suze Orman's books and one of her chapters really changed my entire outlook. Not sure why this is on my mind this morning, but I thought I'd share 🤗

I can't remember the exact term, but we'll call it "expense averaging". Expense averaging is the strategy of planning for large, irregular (one or twice a year) expenses by spreading out your savings for the expense at regular intervals and in roughly equal amounts. For these types of expenses, I'm thinking of:

Annual membership dues

Car insurance premiums

Medical expenses (yearly exams, unexpected doctors visit, glasses/contacts, etc.)

Christmas gifts

Travel

Car Maintenance (oil change, new parts or tires)

So instead of using half the December paycheck for Christmas gifts (let's say $1000), you simply save that same amount over a year or period of time by regularly adding money to your savings account each month.

To hit $1000 by December, just put back roughly $80 a month ($40 every two weeks).

When done right, this “smooths” your expenses out so that you’re not dumping all your money on an expense at the last minute and taking 2 months to recover. In fact, you'll go about taking care of your everyday expenses and when it's time to make the big payment, there's not a lick of pain... just pull it from savings.

Last tip...

Some people recommend that you need to have a separate savings account for all the different categories of things you are trying to save for (one for emergency fund, one for saving for a car, etc). You DON'T! You just need something that can categorize the money you have saved. I used to have the issue of "I have $1000 saved but I can't remember how much was for my car and how much I have for the emergency fund".

Check out the "You Need a Budget" app. Just link your savings account to the app and you can sort your money into buckets. When you add $50 to your savings account, you can just go into the YNAB app and categorize that $50 to go towards the car maintenance bucket. Then, whenever you're ready to pull from savings, you know exactly how much money you have to spend on that category.

Happy Saturday! Go forth and be fiscally fit 🤗

1.26.19

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I just want to be near a warm sea breeze 😭

It's currently 28°. It'll be 4° tonight. There was no snow in the forecast. Yet here I am watching it come down. Somebody make it stahhp 😑 How many days until summer?!

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Morning Yums

I make a smoothie every morning along with some type of breakfast sandwich. This mix is my jam:

Strawberries, Mangos, Peaches (flavor burst)

Spinach (fiber and other good for you's)

Blueberries (it hides the green color from the spinach, but also, it's a good antioxidant)

Astragalus (I love this herb)

And some OJ

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Annoyed to the nth degree 🙄

Today was supposed to be workout day #1.

I researched the place before I got there (even though the website was botched).

I got up at 4:45am, got dressed, and ate breakfast (I may or may not have slept through my first alarm, but I got up regardless).

I drove across town like a mad lady to make it on time (and of course my GPS leads me to a shady backside of a warehouse. I found it myself).

And of course, when I walk in to sign up for the class, I'm turned away because I need to sign a waiver and be toured through the gym by a fitness pro before signing up for any classes... and he's only here from 9-4. Bruh?! Really. So I would have to take off work to join the gym?

It's been quite the morning. I'm FULLY irritated.

1.22.19

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Tagged by @fiveloveten (who I will now say has taught me everything I know😂 -inside joke) for an SDS.

Just getting off work! Spent half the day volunteering in the name of MLK Day at a food pantry, and the other half wishing I had a job that was closed today lol. Now it's time for me to go whip up dinner.

I'm going to tag @grandenoirceur and @sleepygirlhealth next 💗

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@fiveloveten

Nowhere near as yummy looking as @fiveloveten cooking today, but tonight's dinner is complete!

Cilantro lime chicken, carmelized carrots, green beans, and mashed potatoes.