Being Healthier

Surprise Yourself!

Finals are officially upon me. I can feel them like a dark cloud looming over the ocean, eager to wreak havoc on the waters below.

Body:
Monday: Cycling in the am before my Counseling Interview!
Tuesday: Work Work Work, all day long
Wednesday: Lake Run… 6.2 miles

aka a 10k.

Thursday: REST!

Nevermind don’t guess, it was ME!!

I scored an 89 .

The average score was around 40…. the next closest to me was a 63 ( I hear). Yes, my blog is the one place I usually choose to be humble, modest, what have you. Not today! This is me grinning because it is proof to me that I am in the right field, that I know what I am talking about when it comes to Nutrition and that I should most definitely be a Registered Dietitian.

… In one of my presentations last week I mentioned how I loved blueberries. .. She offered me the entire basket but I shared all of the muffins with the rest of my class. There is my humbleness returning. The coffee below was a “gift” from my friend KC Mo, she and I finally caught up this week and got our nails done. Oh la la.

Library, here I come.

Soul:

I read this magazine article at the gym this week about women taking time to write a letter to themselves. It truly inspired me because we often forget to use vocabulary such as “I’m trying to”  compared to more common pressure-language such as ” I should” (says who?) or ” I must” ( why must you?).

I was inspired again at work on Tuesday, while entering in data from a Faithful Families program. Nearly all of the participants write something such as: “We should care for our physical health because our body is a temple for housing the Holy Spirit. We should do our best to keep the temple healthy and strong.” I am not a very spiritual person, but I do have beliefs, faith, values. Anyhow, these all inspired me this week to do this:

Dear Laural’s Body and Mind,

I would like to apologize about the way I have treated you in the past. Sometimes I exercised you way too often or too much or just skipped it all together. Sometimes I overwhelm you Mind, with so many thoughts at one time and so many different ideas with school and work that push you to your potential. I have learned to like you both whether I lose weight or not, whether I scored a 100 on an Exam or a 65. I push you both all the time to be healthy, sometimes requiring early morning workouts, late evening runs that go on forever, or 6 hour study sessions. I try whenever I can to give you time to rest as well, and I know I haven’t always. Your strong legs take me anywhere, you continually reach above and beyond your potential. Today, I thank you for all that you have done and I hope that I can stay as healthy, intelligent and positive as I am today.

Thank you,
Laura’s Soul

It felt really empowering. If you try writing a letter to yourself, let me know!

Fueling your body, mind and soul is so important so here are my food recaps…Breakfast

Here is what is inside of that:

Trader Joes Chicken Breast, Steamed Veggies ( with a little Pesto on them, delicious!)

I snagged this for a drink

They described all of the super powers of this fruit, Acai, on the back of the bottle. Check out my post on Acai HERE , it will explain more about antioxidants. This bottle is 12 oz, about 100 kcal and provides an excellent source of antioxidants, and serving of fruit.

I just tend to keep throwing things together for dinner… a bunch of stir fry veggies steamed, quinoa, garbanzo beans and lowfat Feta cheese. It was surprisingly a great combo!

and my competition was brown rice with pecans, kidney beans, veggies, and some sort of other stuff all in one…

I think both of them needed a bit of improvement, but neither were awful. That is what you get when you decide to throw things together from your pantry randomly, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t!