Winter is here everyone!!

Winter may not be everyone’s favorite time of the year (definitely not mine) but we can always make the best out of it! With it being so obnoxiously cold outside it forces some people to go into hibernation and not want to leave their house (which I get completely). This winter edition will somewhat be St. Louis based because that’s where I live, but most will be universal!

Everyone’s heard of a summer bucket list, so why not a winter one. This helps get you through the winter by being able to look forward to things to do.

Of course since it’s cold out and it’s hockey season let’s go to a Blues game!! This can be a fun date night or good time with friends. Blues hockey games are always action packed and fun filled. Can’t go wrong with this one.

Don’t want to leave the house? Let’s have a baking day! A day filled with making Christmas cookies and decorating them. And yes, this is for all ages and can be enjoyed at any age.

What’s more “wintery” than going ice skating? You never know you may find a new hobby through this, or if your like me realize you’re terrible at it and fall a lot. Either way it’s a good time and gets you in the winter spirit.

Christmas movie day and hot coco! Always a festive way to enjoy the holidays and winter weather. Some of my favorite Christmas movies are Elf, A Christmas Story, and The Grinch (btw the new one is super cute).

If it snows where you’re at, you have to take advantage. Go outside and build a snowman, go sledding, so many things to do in the snow.

Christmas lights are always so pretty! There’s so many places that have “drive through Christmas lights” where you can drive through a park or something and look at all the pretty lights and listen to Christmas music. Are you excited for Christmas yet?

So many fun things to do during the winter. If you have any other ideas feel free to comment!

My review on some popular name brands

My first review is lululemon. I personally do wear lulu and love it but there was a time where I didn’t. I used to not because I thought it was over priced and not worth it at all. I do have to say, once you buy a pair of lulu leggings you can never go back. Yes they are expensive, but they have amazing quality and are flattering on basically everyone. I also love the shorts they offer. They have many different styles, lengths, and colors. They’re perfect to just wear out or work out in. Overall I’m a huge fan or their leggings and shorts. I have purchased a few shirts from lululemon, but this is where my opinion changes. I do like the shirts I purchased but they are extremely overpriced. I could easily find a similar shirt for half the price. Spending $70+ on a shirt to me is kind of ridiculous. At that point it’s just buying the shirt because it’s a name brand. I have also purchased a few sports bras from lululemon. I do love the sports bras I have, they’re great for working out in. The price is a little high but not much different from Nike or adidas so it’s worth it. Overall lululemon is an amazing brand and I thinks it’s a brand worth trying.

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More reviews to come!

Something I like to challenge myself to do is to stay off my phone. Live life as it’s happening, not through my phone and social media. Being the people watcher person I am, I notice most of my generation isn’t really living. I don’t want my happiness to come from a like on instagram or my self confidence to be built on the amount of followers I have. Unfortunately this is a reality for most people my age and younger. Our devices and social media have taken over our lives. I go out to eat just to see families not even talking to each other, just glued to their phones. Relationships starting in unique ways now have turned into a “dm” on instagram. I wonder to myself what has happened to this world.

It makes me sad to see 5 year olds with smart phones or tablets. All I know is when I was a kid I had the time of my life playing outside and adventuring with my neighbor friends. I understand the times are changing but that’s no excuse to be addicted to a lit up screen.

It’s truly something to spend a day with friends just talking and catching up on life, no phones involved. This can create closer friendships because it feels like your friends actually care about what you have to say and enjoy your company. Opposed to going out with friends to say maybe a few sentences because each of you are to involved in what’s going on on your phone.

I feel I get the most out of life without being attached to my phone. My favorite thing is to go on walks and take in the beauty of everything around me. It’s things like that you can’t feel through a phone. Real life experiences are what make you feel alive.

Social media has ruined a lot of people’s self confidence and more. I just want to remind everyone, you are more than the likes you get, you are loved by you friends and family no matter how many followers you have. Your beauty lies within your heart, not what people say through a screen. Start living life to the fullest, become connected with the world around you, not through Facebook. Challenge yourself to experience life without distractions. Be present, you never get these days back, don’t waste them wishing you were someone else on social media.

Going to the gym in general just sounds scary. At some point in everyone’s life whether we do it or not, we think about working out at a gym to improve our health. The biggest reason why people don’t follow through is because it just seems flat out intimidating. I know I’ve felt this way before too.

My experience

My whole life I’ve been involved in sports that require intense strength and conditioning workouts. I always kept in good shape by just going to practice and working out there, but when sports ended I didn’t continue working out. I knew I needed to go to the gym but I was just scared. I thought “Omg everyone in there is like a pro and knows what they’re doing” or “Everyone’s going to know I don’t know what I’m doing”, “People are going to stare, this will just be uncomfortable”. These thoughts kept me from going. As time passed I knew I needed to just build up some courage and go. I finally ended up going and signing up for a membership. The first time I went by my self I sat in my car for about 25 minutes before making myself go inside. Once I got in my nerves went away. I did kinda wander around doing random things at first because I didn’t have a set work out I wanted to do yet. As I was working out I realized nobody in here cares, nobody was staring at me, and nobody was judging me. It was all in my head. The reality of it is everyone in there is there to work and focus on themselves so there’s no need to let fear hold you back from doing what you want to do.

Go for it

“Success is on the other side of fear”

I love this quote for so many reasons and I think it applies perfectly for working out. If you constantly let fear take over and control your life, you will never know the greatness that could have came out of trying something new. I was scared for almost a year for no reason at all. Now I find comfort in going to the gym. It helps me release all my stress and feel overall better.

After my experience I found out the gym myths are truly just myths and the gym can be for any and everyone. If you’re looking to improve yourself and life style don’t hold back. Always remember everyone starts somewhere and there’s no reason to feel embarrassed or ashamed. Progress is progress no matter what. The reward and the personal gain you get from working out is such a good feeling and experience.

Fitness has been a goal of mine for a long time now. I’ve always struggled with loving my body for how it is, like most girls my age do. We’ve all heard it before, “look good, feel good, do good” this goes for eating as well. When you are putting healthy nutritious foods into your body you simply feel better.

I’ve decided to make a positive change in my life and start meal prepping. I feel like I’m always on the go and never have time to make a healthy meal, so I always end up at McDonald’s or whatever other unhealthy fast food restaurant. Meal prepping has been a blessing for me. It makes eating healthy easy and convenient which is the opposite of what most people think when it comes to adjusting their diet.

For my meal prep this week (which is always made on sundays) I put together smoothies bags for breakfast, a Buddha bowl for lunch, and enchiladas for dinner.  What’s great about all these meals is that they’re all vegan. I know most people hear vegan and think “oh… vegan.. must be good..” well the fact of the matter is, it is!! Eating vegan doesn’t have to be this big ordeal or struggle to find good tasting food, it’s all around you! You just have to find what you like. I still love my buffalo wings, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything eating vegan, I can make vegan meals taste like my favorite meat dishes.

I know I already mentioned that I made smoothies bags as my breakfast meal prep. Hearing smoothie bags probably sounds strange, but trust me it’s not as weird as it sounds. I make two different smoothie flavors to add variety into my week. One is a green smoothie and the other is a classic strawberry banana smoothie.

Green smoothie: serves 2

Ingredients

1 frozen banana

1 cup of kale or spinach leaves (I prefer spinach over kale because it’s sweeter)

1 cup of almond milk

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp almond butter

pinch of ground cinnamon

2-3 ice cubes

Directions

For the purpose of meal prepping you will need gallon zip lock bags. I like to label my bags with the flavor and date it was made. Put all the ingredients inside the bag except the liquids, then place the bags in the freezer. When the time comes to make the smoothies, dump the bag into a blender then add missing ingredients and blend all together.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie: serves 1 

1/2 frozen banana

1 cup of frozen strawberries (easier to buy a bag of frozen strawberries)

1 cup of plain vegan yogurt

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 cup of almond milk

Directions to make this smoothie are the same as the green smoothie above.

Vegan sweet potato Buddha bowl with almond butter dressing (lunch) 

14 ingredients, serves 4 (I double everything to make 8 servings which is good for a full week)

Produce 

1 large head of broccoli

2 cloves of garlic

1 large mango

2 large sweet potatoes

Canned goods

1 cup or coconut milk

Condiments

1/4 cup almond butter, natural creamy

2 tsp pure maple syrup

baking and spices

salt and pepper

Oils & Vinegars

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp coconut oil, unrefined

1 1/3 tbsp sesame oil toasted

Liquids

3 tbsp orange juice

1 cup of water

Overall the ingredients for this dish weren’t terribly hard to find at all. This meal is good for lunch or dinner and taste amazing. Directions to make meal will be posted below.

https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2016/09/vegan-sweet-potato-buddha-bowl-almond-butter-dressing/

Black Bean Vegan Enchiladas (dinner) 

12 ingredients, serves 4-6

Produce

2 cups of cooked black beans

2 bundles of fresh cilantro

2 cloves of garlic

1 jalapeño pepper

1 yellow onion

Canned Goods

2 cups tomato purée

Baking & Spices

3 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp salt

2 tsp cumin powder

Bread

12 5.5 inch corn tortillas

Dairy

8 oz vegan cheese

This is another great meal I love! It’s full of flavor and makes you forget it’s vegan. Directions for dish will be below.

https://lightorangebean.com/black-bean-vegan-enchiladas/

I hope you all love these meals and give meal prepping a try! It’s easy to become unhappy with your diet/eating habits, but it’s never to late to make a change!

Welcome all!

“The sun will rise and we will try again”