Great Low Calorie Detox Soup (at least thats what I call it)

Alright people time to get fit and healthy. My mission is to eat this soup for at least one meal a day until I go to Mexico in April. Want the amazing recipe... Here you go! Here's a sneak peek of what it will look like first.

Low Cal Soup:


1 Large Onion
3 - 4 Carrots (or like a half bag of minis)
3 - 4 ribs of celery
1/2 head of a cabbage
1 - 46oz can of tomato juice
1 - rutabaga
1 - bay leaf
Salt and Pepper to taste

Dissolve 3 bouillon cubes into 3 cups of water and add to all cut up veggies in a pot. Don't forget the tomato juice. :)

Combine all ingredients and simmer for about an hour or until the veggies are tender enough for your liking.

I actually forgot the bay leaf and salt and pepper,  but mine is still super yummy! I think you can tweak this recipe anyway you want to honestly. Maybe add some fresh green beans too!

Happy Cooking!

My Skinny Lemon Chicken Recipe

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone first of all! I hope you have a great time with your families and get everything you want for the holidays!

I went out to eat with one of my girlfriends and I had skinny chicken for dinner, so I attempted to make this at home. So here's a little healthy, clean eating recipe if you want to try something new!

 First of all, you need a good knife if you want to be a happy chef! My momma bought me this one from RADA cutlery. She knows how much I like to cook and it works amazingly!

PS: Don't try and rob my house! :)

Ingredients: 
Chicken (20 oz package)
Fresh Green Beans (2 cups)
2 Lemons
1 Avocado
2 Tomatoes
1 Small Onion
Feta Cheese
Salt and Pepper

I always cut chicken before cooking, it just looks prettier that way. So I threw it in a frying pan with a 1/2 tsp. of butter, some salt and pepper, and some lemon and let it cook away. In the mean time clean the tips off your beans and let then cook in some water for about 5-7 mins (I didn't do this and mine were a little too crunchy for my taste.)

Remove the chicken and set aside in a bowl. Then add the semi-cooked green beans to the pan and add chopped onion. Cover and let the steam cook the vegetables until onions get flimsy. Cut into good size chunks so they don't mush and add them to the pan. Cut avocado and add to pan. Squeeze other fresh lemon over the vegetables (using a strainer to catch seeds) and let cook for another minute.

Top with fresh feta cheese and wallah!

Happy and healthy eating!

Thinking Positively

So I honestly forgot about the blog I had started back in May until I came across it on my favorite pages, so I'm deciding to write on my days off (Tuesdays) to keep my thoughts moving. I'm going to start each blog with a positive quote because I believe positive thoughts can stimulate the brain to do great things. This quote is from one of my friends Facebook status' and it really hit home for me. Strangely enough, the same quote popped up again on a work email I recently received. 

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain." 
- Unknown


I believe that you can't wait for life to clear up and cater to you, you really need to do something about it if you want  a change in your life.


Over the summer I was so busy. On top of my already busy work week, I was the maid-of-honor for my best friends wedding, accepted another position within my company, and still tried to have a normal life hanging out with friends. Being this busy blocked a lot of negative thoughts from my head because I didn't have time to think. But once it all calmed down, negativity took over. 


Working in a health club there are standards people are held to, at least I felt this way. You need to be this skinny and this much body fat percentage in order to be the part. Every time I would walk into work, I would have an anxiety attack. Negative thoughts of not being good enough physically were crossing my mind and would soon enough take over to where I would start to panic and feel like I was going to faint. Also on top of not being good enough physically, I thought I wasn't good enough mentally either. I graduated in December of last year and needed more stimulation than just my daily activities at work (I think a lot of people feel this way after graduating and still being under-employed). So basically I was thinking of the most terrible things which brought on more terrible thoughts, until I decided to change that.


I read this book written by a guy who also had many anxiety attacks titled "A Life Less Anxious." I was searching on amazon.com one day and came across it. I read the reviews and they all seemed legit, so I bought it. 


People respond to things differently when getting into a negative state of mind. Some choose prescription drugs, some choose alcohol, and some choose isolation. I fell into the prescriptive drug category and must have tried over 7 different medications but they all made me feel like sh**. So I tried something else, reading about the problem. It's funny how much common sense came from this book, but like I said all people respond differently.


The best ideas I took from this book were to...


SLOW DOWN - America is such a fast paced country, it's no surprise that over 40 million people suffer from anxiety. I've learned to give myself enough time to get ready for work so I don't have to rush and drive the speed limit. Surprisingly I have been 15-20 minutes earlier to work everyday. 


SPEND TIME BEING QUIET & LISTENING TO YOURSELF - Steve Pavilanis, the author of this book suggested meditation, but I still haven't gotten myself to go to another class since I had an anxiety attack in one. I will go back though, because another good thing to do is to overcome your fears. Even though I'm scared to do some things, I've slowly began integrating them into my routine to get used to them, to overcome the fear. But anyways back to the being quiet part. One thing I have gotten back to is listening to more calming music versus "pumped up" music all the time. I find listening to more relaxing music helps me think about what I want more of in life. Reading really interested me lately too. Not magazines about Kim K, but books about life and other peoples life experiences. My next book is Steve Jobs. 


THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT IN LIFE - This is where the thinking negatively comes into play. Focusing your thoughts on what you want versus what you don't want is the key to healing this problem. Whenever I was starting to think negatively, my anxiety would come. Now whenever I start to think negatively, I change that around to something good. It takes some practicing, but soon it will be a natural thing and negative thoughts will be minimal to none. 


HAVE GRATITUDE FOR WHAT YOU HAVE - This goes along with thinking positively and making goals for life. If you don't have something you want in life, make it a goal to achieve it. I want to get out of my moms house, therefore I made a commitment to pay off all my credit cards by next summer and then GET OUT OF DODGE! 


REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS - I have forgotten my dreams in life due to so many things. So I decided to start a dream board. Sounds kind of dumb, but I stare at this thing getting ready everyday and I makes me motivated to be the best so I can achieve my dreams. Every time I see something I want in a magazine or in a past picture I put it on my board. Anything is achievable! 


That's all I have for today. Keep it real, keep it positive. Life is good.  


   

Can a blog be a stress reliever?

So what if I decided to start a blog? I plan to write about all of my crazy adventures and people I come across. I like to have a good time with my friends hanging out in bars and restaurants, so reminiscing about the night before will be a good post. Anything I find really cool or unusual I plan on sharing too. For those of you that enjoy cooking I'll add my recipes to the blog too. I hope you find this as enjoyable as I do and thanks for following!