I Just Fell in Love… with Veggie Burgers!

But first let me tell you about my day…

So at Weight Watchers… I was thinking that I’d be up a pound, but I’m down half, so that’s better than nothing, right!? Our WW meeting today focused on portion control. A lot of people came up with so many different ideas. So it was good to hear people’s tips and tricks to going easy on portion sizes. What I did to get my home workout pumpin again?

The HR Director at my company’s husband is a professional KettleBell trainer and she’s into it as well, so I asked what I should start with. Her response… The Swing! Check it out.

So I subscribed to this channel the KBellQueen, Lauren Brooks. I love the the quick to the point snippets. Just enough to show you what needs to be done.

Yoga at night and KettleBell workout in the morning… let’s see how this one goes… I’ll have to report back on that one!

On to food!

Last night was Butternut Squash and Veggie Lean Cuisine. I was beat by the time I got home from all the running around and such. I was running off of blueberry multi-grain waffles and scrambled eggs. I was so busy I forgot to eat. Not good, not good. But I think I got all the veggies, protein and whole grains that I needed plus the Apple Juice. Gahhh I love apple juice! :)

My friend usually grabs the gourmet one from the local grocer but she thinks the Lean Cuisine one is better and plus its healthier. The Spa Cuisines have me hooked. They are all natural with no preservatives. Especially for work. I can eat one and I’m full. That’s a lot. Usually I’m like “What, I can eat like three!” But with the veggies and protein in them, they keep my tummy satisfied. I try to eat before I leave the office so that I don’t eat as much at night. I had a sip of red wine and just wan’t impressed with having it last night. Instead of feeling bad for wasting it and feeling like a slob in the morning, I ditched it for some SleepyTime Tea caffeine-free :) The weather was horrible, but I put on Sounds of Nature on my Zune (for some reason the water flowing through the creek always puts me in a deep sleep, plus the people upstairs don’t know the meaning of sleep!), and I was out like a light! I woke up at 6:30am and did some stretches and crunches.

I bought a new supply of Pepperidge Farms Deli Flats. I’m obsessed. I wanted to try it with a sandwich, so I had turkey and cheese for lunch.

 

I washed it down with some Fuze (20 cals a bottle, 0 WW points- woohoo! and 10 cents goes to Susan G Komen per purchase) and before I left the office I wanted to finish my Bolthouse Farms. This one is by far my favorite. It’s not thick like the other ones. It has that carrot juice taste and you can taste the sweetness of the fruits as well. Super good!

Enter my new obsession:

Keeping portion control in mind, I grabbed a small plate :) I had two of the filling foods on my list as well (sweet corn- no salt added, and lettuce).

 

 

I was scared at first, so I added a slice of fat free american cheese, tomato, lettuce and a tiny bit of ketchup. Omigod, I’m hooked! So good. My dog was crying because I wouldn’t give her any haha. This was so good. If all burgers tasted like this I could definitely go vegan. But only one step at a time, I do love cheese but in small portions.

   

My only upset of the day… I saw that this is from concentrate and has Splenda. BOOOOO! It’s good but I can taste the sugar in it. Ugh! Does anyone have any suggestions for all natural apple juices that are not from concentrate and no sugar added? Due to a food allergy I can’t eat apples because my gums and mouth itches horribly, so when I can drink some fresh and natural AJ, I’m all over it!

I’m still working on my career development and studying for IT Project Management. It’s not easy, but I must. And it’s fun, I won’t lie ;)

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March Madness!!!

This week went by as slow as… I don’t know… just extremely slow. Fortunately I’m still working on my social media project. So, I’m still recruiting and working on project stuff as well. Super fun!

I didn’t get a chance to have anyone take pics of me in action playing foosball (sorry… I forgot!) But my partner and I lost to a great team. Now we could have beaten them, but the goalie was really good with passing and slap-shots (I’m telling you… he must have a foosball table at home!). I’m not sure what any of the foosball terms/lingo is :) Either way, we’re still in the running, but the “loser bracket”.

P.S.- we are still good. Our team name is “The Heat is On” ;-) Don’t hate! Lol.

March Madness has been great at the company. The COO wanted to thank everyone for working so hard and doing such a great job that they have been having catering everyday at lunch for this week and will do the same next week. Pretty cool huh? I’m picky about a lot of catered food. Now I wouldn’t rave about it, but it was a very nice gesture, so I’m appreciative :)

I’ve been doing better with actually having breakfast, so I started the morning with some oats and a scoop of PB&Co.’s White Chocolate Wonderful.

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A couple of good eats here from our little employee appreciation two week event.

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The wraps were probably the best. Not so much the pasta. But the salad was just right. You can never go wrong with a fresh salad!

All-in-all, I’m enjoying being able to have some free time on the weekends to catch up on everyone’s blog and get some reading in. I think winter is generally pretty depressing and we do what we can to stay positive during those dark months. Take a look at my cube and how bright my HappyLite is! I LOVE IT! It seriously makes a huge difference in my performance and keeping me alert and not watching the clock all day haha.

  My mom found this in the basement. An old friend gave it to me when she visited the San Diego Zoo. If you can’t tell it says QUSIHA :)

And yes… that is a T.P.S. Report on my laptop wallpaper. Lol. A little something to keep me laughing.

A little lesson on Winter Blues from Verilux:

Winter blues is a condition caused by the seasonal change in the amount of available sunlight. People who suffer from this mood disorder experience normal health throughout most of the year, but experience fatigue and low energy symptoms in the darker winter months.

Some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change or when they find themselves deprived of natural daylight. Loss of natural light can be the result of long winters, rainy weather, night shift work, airplane travel and subsequent jet lag, or just a lifestyle that dictates too much time indoors. Symptoms of winter blues, or winter depression, are sluggishness, sleep problems, memory loss, the inability to concentrate and loss of mental acuity.

Scientific study has shown the effects of light on the body are more than psychological. Sunlight prompts our systems to produce the hormones directly responsible for improving mood and creating a sense of well-being. The HappyLite line of sunshine supplement systems provides supplemental Natural Spectrum® light when sunlight is unavailable to prompt the body’s natural energy enhancers to help you relax, focus and feel revitalized.

Courtesy: http://www.verilux.com/learn-more/winter-blues

You can complain about feeling down and such, but if you don’t do anything to change it then you’re just being a Scruge! I’m a firm believer in positive thinking. It makes a huge difference!

Now I’m off to finish my Barefoot Cabernet and watch the C’s finish whooping the Pacers :) Oh the sweet, sweet smell of victory (hence the cupcake-esque candle).

Nighty-night!!

Quisha

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Personal Development- Part 2: Surround Yourself with Good People & Communicate with Them!

Morning blogettes! While I’m still on the Personal Development track here, I just had to talk about something that’s been bothering me lately… negative energy. So, we’re skipping a step here.

How do we avoid negative energy when we’re constantly around this at work, school, or at home? I know… it’s got to be sad when you can’t avoid it, but you’ve got to deal with it. Whether it be a situation, or a person.  While I’ve been faced with a few situations over the past month, I’ll share some ideas with you (and how I dealt with it).

@ Work:

COMMUNICATION IS KEY. I updated my Facebook status with this last week and I got a bunch of responses to it. This doesn’t just go for work, but also just general in life. We can’t have expectations for people when they don’t know what we think or want. My mom and dad always told me that that’s why they never argue or fight. Did they disagree sometimes… for sure! This is one of the things that stick in my brain constantly. If I don’t tell my boss that I want to expand my “career balloon” then how will he know? If someone I sit next to is a distraction and is rather loud sometimes when I’m on the phone then how will she know?

Having projects or weekly meetings with your boss or team gives you the chance to work together more and opens up other random conversation. I have meetings with my old officemate a couple times a week about a project we’re working on together. She’s more experienced and older and lends me great advice. I wouldn’t be able to survive without her. Well maybe I would, but I think it’d just be harder lol.

My weekly meetings with my boss come in handy because we talk about what I’m working on and where I’m running into road-blocks and how I can improve in certain areas. Also he is giving me the opportunity to work on a project of a lifetime. Something I enjoy is being incorporated into something that I feel that I’m good at :-) We end the meetings with anything we didn’t touch on or anything he or I may have an issue with. We said we’d be 100% honest if either of us are slacking on our job. I don’t think I’ll ever have any concerns about that but I like for my boss to be straight with me so that other people don’t see when I’m slacking off. Ya dig? That’s communication my friend!!!

@ School:

I’m not attending school onsite, my classes are online at this time, so maybe others can attribute to this. One thing that I did grasp (from dating a rather hot Junior when I was a freshman and having his “first love” and her friends hate me) was that I did not let people bully or pick on me. I surrounded myself with good people who I could study and play sports with (and party with lol).

No need to be a complete bitch… BUT, you’ve got to let people know not to talk about you! Some people let things slide off off their back. NO. It’s not that easy for a lot of people… like myself. I’ll hold something inside until I explode. When you hold things inside, that creates more stress and anger for you. So just say what you need to in a nice way so that people “get it”. Because not everyone is socially smart ;-) Make sure you’re nice about it because afterall, when you live on campus, you have to see people everyday… *sigh* You don’t need to be friends with everyone, and those who are you true friends will appreciate the fact that you’re straight with them.

@ Home:

Before I moved in with my roommate I lived with M and his parents. The language barrier was a huge problem. How’d I deal with that one? Well I told them I wasn’t going out to eat with them anymore if they didn’t speak English around me. Lol. How do you want me to live here with you all but I’m not involved in simple conversation?!! NO! Not gonna happen! Now if you know me you know that I’m a no-nonsense type of person! :-P Again, let people know how you feel and everything will fall into place. This keeps you from being taken advantage of in a situation.

So, how do you communicate with someone that doesn’t understand you in your home? Well I think it’s important to have talks. Whether it be completely random about anything or if something’s bothering you, just bring it up and see what their reaction is. Think about it… if you never told anyone what was bothering you and they didn’t tell you, it’d be a fake relationship! You’re walking around like everything’s great and deep down it’s not. Ask them if you could grab dinner and a drink one night (that usually loosens ya right up- but some people should avoid this if they say stupid things… after one drink! lol) and ask some questions and throw in your two cents. Works like a charm ;-)

 

In general I think we all want to be around good people, but you can’t sit down and make a list of good and bad people. Everyone has characteristics. Who are we to decide if that’s good or bad. I’ve learned to appreciate people’s differences as good things. Things just happen a certain way sometimes and we can only control who we share our life and time with… oh, and how we let people treat us! Someone that doesn’t know me very well told me a couple weeks ago that I can’t control my relationship with M. I don’t want to control it. But do I WANT to control the direction it goes in? For sure! If you sit back and let everything coast right along… you don’t get anywhere.

Surround yourself with good people and don’t be afraid to plan your life. Things won’t always go as you want them to but in my experience it’s worked out pretty well and for the first time in my life I can honestly say that I’m happy with where I am at work, with my family and friends, and in my relationship. No one or nothing is ever perfect, but you can try!

 

Quisha

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Personal Development- Part 1: Budgeting

I’ve been doing a lot of research on Personal and Career Development. One of the things that I’ve noticed in my own personal life that I need some work on (HUGE) is the money department. I’ve taken the first step and downloaded a free spreadsheet from Microsoft.com’s templates. Household Monthly Budget. I used Quicken before, and Microsoft Money.. but this is very black and white… which is what I need. No grey areas, no formulas. This one is great because there’s a pie chart that lets you see the whole picture. I didn’t want to get too much into detail about my earnings and expenses so I plugged in a fictional monthly income. This thing really breaks it down!!

For 2010 I really wanted to focus on the following:

• Seeing the whole picture, not just the bills that come in the mail
• Actually use my checkbook balance sheet because overdraft is NOT my friend lately
• Practice what I preach: everyone that knows me know I’m a huge talker. Time to quit talking and start making moves!!
• Start a ROTH IRA. Suze Orman gave major props to my new fave blog Life After College. She gave a few helpful tips in a video to Jenna. Check it out! Suze Orman Knows WE EXIST!

Okay… baby steps. I don’t want to bring too much on at once. I definitely feel comforted knowing that a few fellow bloggers of mine are trying to stay on track with work, school, family, and friends as well. One of the things that I realized at Weight Watchers is that I tend to hang out with people who always want to go out to eat. Lol. When she asked what some bad habits were I said, “I eat like I’m still in college.” Everyone laughed. They looked at me and realized that this was not something that I thought was funny. That doesn’t only effect my waistline, it effects my pockets too!!

Some things I did to save on eating out for the past couple of weeks:

• Stocked up on Lean Cuisine
• Grabbed a bunch of grapefruit and mandarin
• Gave Goya coconut water a chance and LOVE IT!
• Bought a lifetime supply of romaine lettuce. Spinach doesn’t always sit well with my tummy so I decided to blend it in slowly
• Went wild for chicken breast
• Replaced starchy juices with seltzer water

Like I said… baby steps…

Stay tuned for Part 2- Getting Organized!

 

Quisha

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