Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Lessons. From. "The. Art. Of. Manliness."

I just ran across this article from the blog, "The Art of Manliness." Although this is directed towards men, I love this blog. The posts are really interesting and I learn so much too! This post today really struck a chord with me! Reminds me so much of my journey! For such a long time, I couldn't figure out why when I was doing what I "SHOULD" do, go to school, get a degree, find a job - just wasn't making me happy! I felt like I had tried the traditional route and it wasn't working for me. In the back of my mind, I had always wanted to pursue my biking business! I'm so grateful I stopped "shoulding" and started choosing! I've chose to follow my passion. I hope you all do too!

I hope you all check out this article...

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Better. Late. Than. Never

As you may have noticed, my regular Wednesday post didn't come through. I'm running a bit behind. I did, however, make myself a new outfit and a new goodie this week! Scroll down to see! :)

WEAR


This is a nice new skirt that I got from Everyday People, a thrift store in Uptown. I LOVE this skirt! It is originally from H&M and it's perfect for my body shape! A nice full skirt with polka dots! I love it! I also like that I could wear this one in the winter or the summer! Score!

Skirt: Everyday People by H&M
Shirt: Target
Jacket: SES (A clothing store in Australia)
Shoes: ALDO
Locket: Gift from mommy! :)

FARE

DAMY Health Protein Cookies!
If you follow me on my Facebook page, you may have noticed a little post about these. These cookies are probably one of the best creations I've ever had in my life!!! SO yummy and SO healthy! You can't go wrong! It's now turned into one of my favorites from DAMY Health. You should try this recipe and then if you're impressed, you should join DAMY Health, get some new healthy eating habits and enjoy many more recipes just like this! I made these chocolate chip style the first time, as indicated in her link. Find this recipe HERE! Click on the "BLOG" Section and then type in "Protein Cookies."


I did however, make a fun modification the second time. Clean eating oatmeal raisin cookies!
Here were my adjustments: Instead of 19oz of garbanzo beans, I used a can of 15 oz. I then added 1/4 of gluten free oats. I added a lot more cinnamon and a small sprinkling of nutmeg. Before making the batter into the cookie shapes, mix in the raisins. Not too much. I figured about 6 per cookie or so. If you just put them on top, they will burn or get crunchy. Also, in both the chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookes, I used only 1/4 of agave. I don't like to use Stevia personally. Enjoy! These things are GREAT!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Behind. The. Scenes.

I haven't been blogging much lately because I have been doing quite a bit of stuff,  however it's mainly been work pertaining to my business.  I have accomplished some things for this upcoming season that I am excited about. Firstly, I have found a storefront space with a biking business in Uptown! Yea! I think it will be great to have a meeting location and a place to store some things so that I don't have to carry everything with me! It will be a magnificent AND needed change!


My next order of business that I am hoping to start this week is to start doing volunteer work at the bike shop I work with Recovery Bike Shop. It's a great shop, with great people running it and I can't wait to get some more hands on work done and learn some more about wrenching! :) It will be great skills to learn and that will also be beneficial for my business.



I have also been doing a lot of work these past couple of weeks on accounting. I had a major accounting fail. When I began my business, I took some free Quickbooks classes to learn the ways of accounting and bookkeeping. Every time that I was in a class, I would think I understood but then would return home and end up just staring blankly at the screen. I am more of a hands-on learner, so I really needed to be DOING it while learning. That's where this great organization called Fiscal Foundations came into play. They also do the free Quickbooks seminars, but I paid for some consulting with them so that I could learn the ways of Quickbooks. It was a bit of an investment but one that was worthwhile as I will carry these skills with me throughout the duration of my business. I am finally getting all caught up on entering my business expenses and I hope that I will be able to meet with them once more to get my tax information in order and then I will be sending into my accountant! Yea! I am really not good at the accounting stuff but I am working hard so that I can learn it and keep up with it!

I did do one really great thing the other day, that I wanted to blog about. I met with the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition to do some surveying of the Uptown area so that bike racks could be added to parking meter. Some new funds were acquired and they needed people to help count the meters in the area. It was a cold and blustery day to do it, but I was really glad that I could and did help. I can't wait till more bike parking comes to Uptown!

So, I'm going to keep on working on these things, even though not SO interesting to blog about and I hope I see some great results for my business in the spring! Can't wait!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!






Wednesday, January 11, 2012

New. Wear. And. Fare. Wednesday.

It's time again for another Wear and Fare Wednesday! Yea! I am super excited about this one! This New Year's Eve, I took it upon myself to dress up! I have never ever ever dressed up for a New Year's Eve so this was something new and special to me! I wasn't even going any place fancy, just to my close friends' house, James and Kenna. It was a casual affair but I didn't care that no one else was going to be dressed up or not, I simply wanted to dress up, to dress up and feel good being me! And I did just that! I went out and found a cute new outfit to wear and I enjoyed being out and wearing it! Here it is!

WEAR

A new lace dress with navy blue underlay - Heartbreakers
Nave blue blazer: - Heartbreakers
Navy blue nylons: Ragstock
Shoes: ALDO


A pic of the dress on it's own. The back was longer than the front and rounded. It gave it that "gentleman's tux" feel. I liked it! Plus, you never have to worry about bending over! ;)


I also paired it with some lacy earrings from Nordstrom.  I got these a few years back.

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Clean eating biscuits! I had the biggest craving for a biscuit this weekend! I couldn't handle it anymore, so I broke down and had one...but a CLEAN one, so it didn't seem so naughty after all! I found the recipe HERE.

I made some simple modifications to this: I used melted coconut oil for the oil and unsweetened almond milk.

I made my own oat flour by blending it in the food processor. The recipe says it makes 6-10. I made 6 and I found them to be rather small. I think you could easily make 3 regular sized biscuits with this. I think that is what I'll do next time!  This was such a great treat! I popped the others in the freezer to have at a later date!


Saturday, January 07, 2012

Best. Body. Ever. Challenge. With. DAMY Health.

Remember that "Best Body Ever Challenge" with DAMY Health that I told you guys about not too long ago and I was working on a six pack? Well, it's finished! :) Unfortunately, I did not score my six pack...just yet! BUT I did learn a lot of lessons and I had some other amazing results that weren't a six pack! You'll have to see the video below to find out what! 

I did not WIN the challenge, but you know what? I know that I am a WINNER! I definitely feel like I've won for myself! Another part of my goal was to maintain where I was at with weight and I have done so and that makes me really happy! I had a few bad weeks during this program where there was a lot of stress and also I had a pretty bad cold for a couple of weeks and I sometimes lost sight of my goal. However, I kept it together for the most part and was dedicated to my workouts! I know I can continue doing better on my own and get that six pack someday soon!

I created a video for the competition. It is a bit long, but it documents my progress throughout the challenge as well as my lifelong struggle with weight loss. I also talk a lot about DAMY and their wonderful programs! I sure hope that you all check them out and perhaps you even purchase one?! No better time to reach for a new goal than TODAY! 

These are the pictures from very beginning, to after the Bikini Body Program to after the BBEC. 

Before DAMY Health programs

After the Bikini Body Program

After BBEC (now)

After BBEC (now)

And now for the video...




I hope that you all had wonderful success with your goals in 2011! 
If you are looking towards a goal of weight loss and health, I highly recommend DAMY Health






Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Goal. Board. 2012.

Ladies and Gents, the new 2012 goal board is here! As indicated on my last post, I created my new goal board on Sunday! No better way to start the new year than to assess and reassess my goals and make some new ones too! This year however, I decided to take a different approach to creating my goal board. I wanted to make one electronically this year versus cutting and pasting. I wasn't sure if I would like it as much as I like something tangible to have, keep and hang. I did find a great compromise though and I'm really happy with my results!


I first set out to find an app or free site where I could create a goal board that satisfied what I wanted. At first, I thought that I had found one. Later, I realized that the apps I found only worked for iPhones and iPads, neither of which I have. Nonetheless, HERE is a good page that I found where it reviews a lot of these types of apps, for those of you that have an iPhone or iPad.

I also found this funny clip about vision boards from the show, "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia." Not exactly how it works, but entertaining nonetheless. :)


What I ended up finding, AND really liked, was the goal board or "vision board" on Oprah's website. It is called the "O Dream Board". To check it out for yourself, click here. There were a lot of things that I really liked about this site. 

Firstly, it allowed you to choose what SIZE dream board you wanted to make, you could have a 16X9, 8X10 and 4X3. I think that is awesome that you can choose a size. I chose a standard 8X10 this year so I could print it right here but after I thought about it for a while I could have just as easily made a 16X9 and printed it at the Kinkos down the street. I'm quite happy with what I got though. :) 

Another positive about this site is you can upload your own pictures - great for a personal touch to your goal board and a personal reflection - and you can also use free Getty images, hundreds of which are there for you to browse through. You can also rotate your images and enlarge and shrink them. They don't have to be your standard straight on photos.

Additional ways to personalize include the ability to type your own text onto your board - so you could add quotes that you enjoy or simply type the actual goal. They also have a feature that allows you to add text into each picture. Like this!


Finally, there are some great things that you can do with this site when you are finished. You can export this to an image format. I did this and then set this as my wallpaper so my goals are continuously present to me as I'm in front of my computer a lot anyways.

On my laptop.

You can also print this document so that you CAN  have a tangible piece to hang as a goal board. I mounted mine onto some foam board like my last year's board.

Ooooh, tangible!

I also added a new addition this year. A sheet on back too where I actually write out the specific items! I thought it could be good for reassessing these next year when I can actually cross them off!

List!

Out with 2011 and in with 2012! 


I'm glad that I tried something new this year. I really liked the O Dream Board site on on Oprah's page and I highly recommend it to you all! Plus, Oprah is one rockin' woman! Who knows? I may just use it again next year!

I hope this helps you all get a start on your 2012 goal boards! 
Good luck!