Lacking in Appetite + Goal Talk–March.

Hello there! Hope Tuesday is treating you well.

You know what’s kind of terrible? Going to a Chinese buffet with no appetite. My stomach was feeling a little off yesterday (I think it’s the probiotics starting to kick in and my system adjusting) and in the morning/afternoon, my appetite was absolutely dead.

I didn’t feel like eating much, but I made sure I went for the good stuff.

• sushi (tilapia, futomaki, and mango salmon) and mussels with cocktail sauce
• wonton soup
• steamed pork bun, sticky rice, garlic roasted green beans (I skipped the other steamed bun when I realized it was plain)
• banana chunks with a strawberry sauce

Such a buffet fail – I’d much rather go with a big appetite and get my money’s worth. Next time King’s, next time.

I also have to mention – those beans. Amazing. I’m definitely roasting green beans the next time I buy them.

Goal Talk

So, we’re five days into the month, but I can still talk about my goals, right?

February Goals

1. Work on my hip mobility.

I actually did really well with this one. I started each workout with some of Paige’s hip mobility exercises, and worked hip mobility exercises into my stretches at the end of the workout. You want to know what’s awkward? Doing a frog pose in a crowded gym.

Do not look anyone in the eye…

 

I’m definitely seeing some improvements though. Slowly but surely, my front leg in pigeon pose is inching it’s way parallel. Something that I’m going to continue, for sure.

 

2. Try to keep an eye on my grocery budget.

Success! I managed to stick to my budget pretty well and avoid the “YES ON SALE!” thing that happens to me quite regularly. I stand by my weekly lists and meal plans – it makes budgeting a million times easier.

 

3. Figure out a solution to my digestive problems.

I’ve upped my carb intake and cut back on my protein, which has made a big difference. It’s still not quite there yet, so I’ve introduced  probiotics as the next step – hopefully, it’ll be enough to make my stomach behave the way it should.

 

4. Not letting myself stress out too much.

Kinda worked, kinda didn’t. February was particularly stressful for me school-wise, and I know it’s going to continue into March. While I felt overwhelmed at times, I did do my best to make sure that I was relaxing when I needed to and taking care of myself. Of course, it didn’t always happened, but it would have been worse if I didn’t make a point to think about de-stressing.

This month will involve retail therapy and time with friends and family – definite stressbusters in my mind.

Plan B.

 

 

March Goals

And what I want to focus on this month:

1. Foam rolling after workouts.

After experiencing a bit of knee pain last week, spending the weekend resting and foam rolling had it feeling 100% again by Monday. My legs tighten up easily, and I know foam rolling will help with that.

I bought my roller a few months ago with the intention of using it often, and I only break it out like once a month. Time to change that.

My ‘ow-this-hurts’ face.

 

2. Show up on time.

I am that person who is late or almost-late to everything. For 95% of my classes this semester, I’ve walked in exactly as class is starting. I know I get annoyed when people are late, so I should probably stop doing it so often myself. The goal is to get to class/anywhere else I need to be a few minutes early. 

 

3. Computer gets shut off at 10:15 on weekdays.

I’m usually in bed at 11:00 during the week, and all too often I end up sitting on my computer right up until then. Of course, my sleep is affected and I toss and turn all night. So, goal is to turn off the computer at 10, although I’m giving myself 15 minutes of leeway. When I spend the last 30-45 minutes of the day curled up in bed with a book, I sleep so much better.

I’d been hearing great things about this book, so I picked up a copy. So far, I’m absolutely loving it. It remains to be seen whether I like it more than Game of Thrones, but it’s definitely a good contender. Eric actually got the audiobook, so we’ll actually both be reading it.

4. Destroy my chest press plateau.

In the gym, I’ve been stuck at the same weight for chest presses for the longest time. Chest is easily my lagging muscle group in the gym, so I’m determined to beat it this month. It will be done!

And that’s what I got for you today. Talk to you soon!

<— What are your goals for March?

<— What are you reading right now?

Image Source 1, 2

Sunday Wine + Goal Talk-February.

Good morning! Who watched the Superbowl last night?

I…did not. The boyfriend and I don’t have cable and neither of us cared enough to venture somewhere to watch it. My parents have a get together every year, but considering that I’ll be making the trip to London Wednesday, it wasn’t worth it to me to make two back-and-forth trips in one week.

Thankfully though, there is Twitter. So I kept up on all the happenings (Alicia Keys was subpar! Beyonce was amazing! The lights went out! See? I know what went down).

And really, the Superbowl is kind of hilarious on Twitter. #justsayin

But back to yesterday.

Breakfast was one that I hadn’t had in a while…

Yogurt bowl! (I promise, yogurt was in there somewhere).

2% Greek yogurt with cinnamon, a sliced banana, blueberries, Nature’s Path Flax Plus Red Berry Crunch Cereal, and peanut butter. Delicious.

It was a fairly typical Sunday for me – a little bit of work, catching up on TV from the week, and hitting up the gym for a little while.

Dinner

Remember those steaks I bought?

Yea…those were amazing. With a simple side salad – delicious. And of course:

Dessert = wine (well, dessert part 1. The ice cream came out later). I’m not a huge drinker, but a glass of wine on a Sunday night is amazing.

Especially when you’re drinking said wine while watching Downton Abbey and receiving a foot rub. That is pure perfection right there.

But let’s see how I did for my January goals, shall we?

January Goals

1. Blog Redesign.

All I really wanted to do right now was to change the header – done and done! I seriously will still click over to my blog sometimes just so I can look at the header…it’s so pretty. Seriously, Jenny is amazing. The next stage is to switch to self-hosting and do a complete redesign, which I’m hoping to do in the summer.

so pretty!

2. Learn more about photography and my camera.

While I did (finally) pick up my camera manual and glance through it, I haven’t really put a lot of time and effort into really working on my camera skills. However, my pictures do turn out a lot better in natural light, so thankfully the days are starting to get a little bit longer. And my photography-loving dad just took a photography course a few weeks ago, so I’m going to bug him to tell me about what he’s picked up.

3. Follow my nutrition plan…in a way that works for me.

So, I haven’t mentioned this nutrition plan in a while. I purchased it when I bought my current workout program…and I haven’t talked about it since. Because I’m not really following it anymore. I’ve had a couple of realizations, one being that I realized I was feeling a little too influenced by some peoples eating styles/the photos popping up on my Instagram. To be addressed in a later post!

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4. Remember to take my vitamins.

I actually have gotten way better with this one…because I started taking them all at once instead of taking half of them in the morning, and half at night. It didn’t seem to make a difference in how I digested them, so it seems to be working better for me.

Not bad at all!

February Goals

1. Work on my hip mobility.

I have pretty much the worst hips ever. As in, I can’t do an overhead squat – even without added weight. My hips are just so ridiculously tight! So I want to spend some time several times a week doing some hip stretches…half pigeon and I will become very close.

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2. Try to keep an eye on my grocery budget.

Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve been going over-budget on my groceries more than I need too. I’ve gotten bad with “hey, that’s on sale – into the cart it goes!” Not cool. So I want to reign it in a bit, and try not to go over budget at all this month.

 

3. Figure out a solution to my digestive issues.

While I don’t talk about it too much on the blog (I’m all about sharing, but really, it’s a little TMI for the internet), my digestive system does not work the way that it should. It never really has, but it’s gotten worse over the past few months. So I’m going to make some (minor) diet tweaks to see if I can find a way to solve it. If not, I’m going to start looking into fibre supplements to see if I can get everything working properly.

 

4. Not letting myself stress out too much.

School-wise, I have a lot on my plate right now. The way my semester is set up, I have a lot of weekly assignments that are eating up a lot of my time (as I’m sure I’ve complained about…often), while at the same time, I’m beginning work on my MA Thesis. While I recognize that I am in grad school and am therefore supposed to be busy, it’s overwhelming at times. I’m going to do my best not to let it get me down…or make me forget that there is life outside of school and blogging!

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Hopefully this won’t happen too often..but I have nothing against the occasional stress-relieving bowl of ice cream.

 Here’s hoping for a good month. And I’m hoping that you have a wonderful Monday!

 

<— What are your goals for February?

<— Ever followed a meal plan? What did you think?

<— Do you think you spend too much on groceries? The plight of a foodie…

Six Months and Goal Talk–January.

So…I’m a believer in half birthdays. Mine is April 24th, and I fully acknowledge that every year. Because really, I’m always looking for an excuse to eat cake.

So in that spirit, I need to point out that today is my 6-month blogging anniversary (blogiversary?).

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I can’t believe I’ve already been at Better With Sprinkles for six months! The connections I’ve made and support I’ve received in the blog world makes me so happy, it’s ridiculous. Thank you SO MUCH for supporting me and finding value in my daily ramblings. Seriously, I love you guys! ❤

Special Delivery

I got a pretty fun delivery yesterday morning.

A package of Nature’s Path goodies I won over at Life After Bagels a few weeks ago! I didn’t expect to get it this early, so that was a lovely surprise. The package includes:

• Que Pasa Chips and Salsa (I was happy to see that it was medium – I like a bit of spice!)
• Two kinds of granola: Coconut Chia and Love Crunch Red Berry
• Breakfast cereal: Cranberry Qi’a
• Three kinds of granola bars: Berry Strawberry Chewy bars, Maple Pecan Chewy bars and Apple Pie Crunch bars
• Red Berry Crunch Cereal

Such an awesome bundle! Thank you Morgan and Nature’s Path!

Breakfast

Of course, I had to open a package for breakfast.

I made a quick peanut butter, chocolate and banana smoothie (cottage cheese, almond milk, a frozen banana, chocolate PB2 and cocoa powder) and added some of the Coconut Chia Granola on top.

I loved the granola! I’m a huge coconut fun, so I loved that it came with a good amount of big coconut flakes. It was sweet without being overpowering – and only 9 grams of sugar for 3/4 cup serving, which is pretty impressive!

Lunch

And…broke into the stash again for lunch.

I used the chips and salsa to make homemade nachos. I added turkey (chicken nachos are amazing…turkey is a little iffy, but it worked), black beans, yellow bell pepper, cheddar, and a bit of sour cream on top. Both the salsa and the chips got my approval! The chips taste a little plain (they’re low salt) so you definitely need something to dip them in, but once I had the salsa, I was happy.

December Goals

I know it’s January, and everybody makes New Years Resolution. But…not me. I find I do much better when I think about goals as they come, as opposed to the whole “tomorrow is the new year, so I can be a brand new person” approach. And in all honesty, I’ve usually forgotten what my resolutions are by March, or they become less of a priority. So I’m going to stick with my monthly goals approach.

Let’s review how I did in my goals this past month, shall we?

1. Blog Redesign

Clearly…this did not happen. Same header as always up there. But I did update and reorganize my recipe page, so I get half points?

2. Read a book.

Accomplished!

I read both Gone Girl and Gaining at the end of December. And I finished reading Room yesterday…after starting it the day before. I was actually up until 2 am reading Room the other night. Such a great book! Actually…they were all pretty awesome. This is just showing me that I need to make time to read for pleasure more often!

3. Enjoy family time over the holidays.

Done and done! I had an amazing holiday, both with my family and Eric’s.

4. Enjoy a much deserved deload week.

This has been the Christmas vacation of laziness, and I’ve been loving it. The deload week has pretty much turned into two weeks – I’ve got one yoga session and a foam rolling session under my belt for the week, and that’s it so far. I am planning a walk today though – I was going to go yesterday to pick up my books for this semester but the store was still closed from the holidays. I’m completely fine with the time off; it means I’ll be bursting to get back in the gym next Monday!

And the new goals:

1. Blog redesign.

Yup, this is a rollover goal. I’m hoping to see what I can do with it over the next couple of days!

 

2. Learn more about photography and my camera.

I’ve been using the same camera since the spring, and I’ve never picked up the manual or made any sort of attempt at learning how to become better with it. Considering that this is (somewhat) of a food blog, I should probably learn about that aspect of it, shouldn’t I?

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3. Follow my nutrition plan…in a way that works for me.

When I purchased my new fitness plan, I took the plunge and bought the nutrition plan to go with it. I‘m still working on gaining muscle, and obviously, nutrition is a big part of that. That being said, I’m not going to follow it 100% to a tee. I know what my body likes and doesn’t like, so I’m making a couple of minor adjustments to make sure that I’m meeting my personal needs, preferences and daily routine. While I want to reach my goals, I want to do so in a way that’s comfortable and enjoyable to me – I don’t want a lot of restriction or a “no-sugar-allowed” sort of diet. And if there’s a day (or a weekend) where the plan goes completely out the window, that’s cool.

Yea…I could probably use more of those.

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4. Remember to take my vitamins.

Currently, I take a multivitamin and fish oil twice a day. Buuut…most of the time it’s only once a day, because I keep forgetting to take them with dinner. So I want to make sure I’m remembering to take them!

The multi’s I’m taking currently.

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Overall, I’m happy with how I did in my December goals and I’m excited for what I have planned in January! 

<— Would you rather make yearly goals, or take it month by month?

<— Do you take multivitamins? Do you tend to forget to take them?