Foodie for a Day - Pizza on the Table

I have to make this quick.  Sleepiness (& a headache) are very quickly taking over my body.

Today was my “day off” but there was an admin team meeting requested and they were willing to have the meeting be when I got out of yoga at 1 and since it’s right down the Promenade, I agreed.  

So after a 4 mile run this morning, quick rinse off shower, breakfast and 90 minutes of sweaty yoga, I was off to a meeting.  (Plus a delicious fresh farmers market orange after yoga, of course!)  Meeting was painless, not too long and we took an extra couple of minutes to work out our June schedule, which is good to have out of the way.  Good changes are coming, I think!

Anyway, I owe you all a foodie post but I feel like I need to share that I’ve been a terrible foodie this week.  Despite my best efforts to plan dinners, I ultimately failed.  I found myself being too tired and lazy when I came home from work.  I’m sure the crazy schedule I worked last week has played a major role in my laziness factor.  I’m really having the hardest time bouncing back (and I think I increased my caffeine addiction / dependency too...awesome...).  I found myself eating a lot of cereal for dinner.  I would always do my best to “healthy” it up a bit with 1/2 sliced banana leftover from breakfast + a dollop of peanut butter.  Not to mention, my cereal options aren’t really unhealthy (Shredded Oats) and my milk choice is just a plain soy milk.  It was delicious and happened more times last week than I’d like to admit.

With that said, my goal for this week was to help stock up on some foods that will make my life easier and help support some sudden urges of laziness or tiredness.  I’ve stocked up on bread, pitas, hummus, tempeh, frozen veggies, soy based cheese, sauces and (yes, more!) cereal.

I also decided that despite how tired I’m feeling from today’s intense exercise, I was going to make dinner.  I have a few fun possible “foodie” posts for the coming weeks but today I was just not feeling up to the challenges.  But I do want to present to you a delicious dairy free, whole wheat pizza you can feel good about eating!

Thank you Trader Joe’s for supplying EVERY ingredient in tonight’s dinner.  

TJ's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough resting + frozen peppers thawing out

a snack while I wait...

Stretched and ready for toppings

TJ brand pizza sauce - cheap and yummy

mmmmm....

the BEST soy cheese I've ever had! hands down! You may have to grate it but it melts AND browns.  Delish!

For some added nutritional benefits

ready to come out of the oven!

ready to be served

I've always wanted to try making mini personal sized pizzas (by dividing the dough in 4), forcing me to not over-eat which ends up happening every.single.time. despite my efforts to not do so.  And by the tummy ache I have right now, I can assure you this time was no exception... :-/

You Gotta Go Broke to Make Money

At least that’s what I keep telling myself.  (For this whole going back to school thing at least).

$600 for 1 class - credit card charged

$150 for the book for said class - credit card charged (thank you Half.com for it being cheaper than the $250 price listed through the UCLA bookstore...)

$13 for a 3-subject notebook and package of Sharpie brand pens - credit card charged

My class doesn’t start for another month and I’m already so excited I purchased my “needed” school supplies.  That’s right, I’m a nerd and you should accept me for who I am. :)

I also logged into the online “Blackboard system” UCLA uses to begin to get myself acquainted with the system.  I want to be ready to rock and spend my precious time learning the class material, NOT learning how to use the program!  To my surprise and delight, I found they have an APP!  No joke!  With the app you are supposed to be able to access your courses, view grades, post and read the discussion boards and even submit files if your phone allows you to do that! How cool?!

My nerdy-ness is continuing to show itself isn’t it?

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I Need

- more dinner

- a trip

- a run

- a massage

- a hug

- to breathe through it

- to breathe through all of it

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SLEEP!

I survived the weekend but quite honestly, sometimes I'm not sure I did.  The over night at work was fun and if you haven’t been to an Apple store since Sunday, I would highly recommend because it looks really cool.  I survived the 12 hours I worked on Sunday, but didn’t actually pay attention to how everything looked, I just focused on accomplishing the task of implementing the changes.

After I left on Sunday, I skipped the offer for breakfast with the rest of the team and headed straight to yoga.  I knew if I didn’t go as soon as I left, then I wouldn’t make it and thus would lose my 30 day yoga challenge after completing 23 days.  I made it through day 24!  I definitely fell asleep in a few poses including pigeon (and I don’t normally enjoy this pose so this is definitely one I never would have expected falling asleep in).  I fell asleep the moment my butt hit the couch.  Woke up for a quick hour or so, ate an apple, brushed my teeth, texted a friend for a bit and crashed again.

While I was able to get up for a run at 4:30 this morning, I still feel mentally and physically exhausted.  More so mentally than anything else.  I find myself getting more frustrated than I have been lately, which of course makes me more frustrated but such is life.  I decided to bring my laptop with me to work so I could give you all a quick little update, head out to my 6:15 yoga class and hopefully just go to bed the moment I walk in the door.  Please notice I said hope.

I Should Be Sleeping

For the girl who is starting work at midnight, I should really be sleeping right now...Come about 4/4:30 ish I tried to sleep and went in and out for a couple hours.  That’s when I decided to wake up, have a green smoothie and allow myself to fall asleep watching a movie.  

That didn’t happen.

Blog reading is rather distracting.  Facebook is rather distracting.  As was the Orientation for the online system for my class this summer (more about that later).  And then deciding to actually blog is rather distracting.

But now it’s after 8, I’m feeling sleepy and knowing the alarms I set for 10 and 11 PM are going to come way too soon.  The only reason for the 11PM alarm is a “just in case” I over sleep and it’s my warning I have to be at work in an hour and I need to be ready and showered for the long day that awaits me.

And for those of you a little worried, have no fear.  There is this wonderful technology that allows you to set a delay brew time on your coffee pot.  Mine will begin brewing at 10PM.  One cup is planned for while I get ready, the other is planned to come with me.  (My pot only makes 2 mug-fulls, so there are only 2 cups to be had....at least until Starbucks opens in the morning). 

I'm going to try that whole sleep thing again.  I’m going to be tired.  Boy I hope we’re doing something cool! ;)

My photo. My addition of text. :)

"Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life"

To my surprise, I’ve been enjoying the new addition of Twitter into my life.  I’ve realized it’s not the “I just ate dinner,” “I need to pee,” “I’m typing as I type this” kind of thing that I thought it was before joining.  There is actually a point to it.  There is an ability to spread a word, a point.  There is an ability to almost network and share common interests.  I’ve been having fun!

I bring this up because one of the “people” I started to follow is called “Greatest Quotes” and throughout the day they post many amazing, inspiring, beautiful quotes (maybe even some funny ones too).  But one that came up this morning was a quote by Ernest Holmes “Change your thinking, change your life.”  I re-tweeted it.  I wanted to make sure that any one who didn’t see it, got a chance to see (or at least all 14 of my followers).  But it’s so true.

If I look back to 2010, it was a bumpy ride for me.  As with life, I had some great days and I had some awful days, but it felt like the awful days were occurring more often than I wanted them to.  And when they came around they were worse than I had known them to be.  Or the ability to bounce back from them was harder, so they’d last longer than a day.  I knew if I wanted to change things around, I would have to make a conscious effort to actually do so.  I slowly but surely tried and some days I failed.  As I believe I’ve mentioned here before, I decided to start 2011 on a fresh note.  I decided to stay in; I decided to spend it alone; I decided to go to bed around 10pm; I decided I wasn’t going to care what anyone said about the way I chose to spend my evening.  And that’s what I did.  I woke up the next morning bright and early so I could get to work and open and unlike everyone else, I was awake; I was happy; I didn’t stink of last night’s drinks sweating out my pores; I wasn’t tired and dragging; I felt amazing!  And at that point, I was given the reassurance that 2011 would be different and while it would take a lot of work for me, choosing to take steps to reduce the toxicity in my life and make a conscious effort to change my thinking, could really work.  I knew it wouldn’t be easy and I knew I’d have some awful days and I’d have some amazing days, but I also knew I needed to stick with it if I was going to see the change I wanted in my life.

You have all stuck with me and witnessed this journey, or at least everything I’ve chosen to publish, so you all know it hasn’t been easy.  But through all of this I have gained wisdom and peace and happiness.  I bring this up because a co-worker of mine is going through some hard times and I’m witnessing the impact it is having on him.  So when he posted his frustration this morning on Facebook about 5 minutes after I saw this Ernest Holmes quote, I really realized just how much this statement is true and that I needed to tell him that.  So I did.  My response was simply “change your thinking, change your life.”  I look forward to witnessing his journey. :)

My Announcement!

I have been trying to hold this secret in for as long as I possibly could but the excitement is just building up inside of me too much and I can’t wait to share!

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for awhile but haven’t really been able to push the thought away.  My initial instinct was this thought was my way of freaking out and over-reacting to the situation at hand (losing the band), but after weeks (months) of this re-occurring thought, I decided to view it in a different light: this is my sign that it’s my chance to create my career in a fresh new way, combining ALL of my passions into one life that I truly enjoy.

If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life - that is my goal!

And I’m sure now you’re wondering HOW I’m going to do that? 

Well that’s exactly what I’m going to be figuring out, but here’s where I’m going to start:

I’m joining the UCLA Extension Program to receive my Certificate in Fitness Instruction!

This is going to take some time to complete; they say the average is about 2 years.  I’m not looking to rush this process, but rather start slow to ensure this is what I want to be doing.

I’m going to be starting this summer with 1 online course in Human Anatomy & Physiology.  It’s not the course I’d necessarily want to start with but it’s recommended to start, so I figured I probably should.

Upon completion of my certificate, I’ll have the possibility of getting my Masters in Kinesiology, though I’m not sure if I want to do that just yet.

As I mentioned above, I want to create my career in a fresh new way, combining ALL of my passions into one life that I truly enjoy.  And by ALL, I do mean ALL.  I want to combine fitness, nutrition and music, into one career (or multiple careers if I want) and one life that makes me happy.

I want to be able to write about the steps that I take to live a healthy lifestyle with a complete understanding and education as to why.  I want to confidently be able to inform others how they can improve their lifestyles in a way that won’t really feel like work or that they’re missing out on something more.  I’m going to find a way to do this and still have the music industry be an integral part of my career.  I have a couple ideas but starting classes is the beginning of the journey to figure out what will really work for me. 

Thank you all for your support and I welcome you to continue this journey with me. 

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