Renn-Inspired Reflections

Tuesdays and Thursdays are nutso for me, in case you haven’t noticed. But today was especially crazy. I woke up and made myself a yummy, well-rounded breakfast.

Black coffee, oatmeal with cinnamon and brown shoog, and Chobani.

 I proceeded to cutesy myself up. 

Retro look.

 I felt so vintage and was loving it, until about 11:00 when my hair thought it would be cool to let go of the hairstyle I spent 30 minutes working on. I’ve got lazy locks. Around about the time my hair stopped cooperating, I munched on a trusty Bio Chem Sports 100 Calorie Protein bar (not pictured).

My lunch was spread out between class 3, meeting, and class 4. Also a part of this lunch was Ener-G's Wylde Pretzels.

Carrots, apple, and cottage cheese and chick peas.

 Luckily, I go to a small school where the professors are your friends and could care less if you eat during class. They do, however, reserve the right to make fun of your loud chewing. Sorry guys.

After lunch I sprinted off to Poop Town, a.k.a. Journey’s End, and spent the next hour and a half playing with dogs and doing some cleaning.

When I got home, dinner was ready, thanks to the parentals.

Sauerkraut, sauteed veggies, steamed broccoli, and a hamburger.

I followed it up with a fake cappuccino while catching up on my web surfing.

Much needed cap.

 Since I haven’t been taking cream or much sugar in my coffee, this cappuccino was shockingly sweet to my taste buds. Buuutt, I got used to it. ;) Delightful.

While browsing the WWW, I came across this article about Crystal Renn. For those of you who don’t know, Ms. Renn is a “plus-sized” (not really, she’s a size 10 to 12) and the new face of Jimmy Choo. I see her as such an inspiration for girls of all sizes, not just “plus-sized” girls. She takes into account those girls who are naturally a size 0 or 2, as well as those who are naturally a size 14 or 16. It’s all about being healthy and happy.

We all know that models in magazines are airbrushed and celebs spend thousands on surgeries to make them more “beautiful”. But sometimes, it doesn’t matter how many times people tell you those things. Sometimes it’s still tough to be ok with you. Lately, people have been telling my I’ve gotten thin, and prior to that, I’ve been told I’m chunky. I have felt like I’ve been on an opinion-coaster and go back and forth between, “I want to have curves again,” and, “I like having a flat tummy.” But you know what? I’ve resolved to just do what I need to do to feel healthy. The truth is, I don’t have the perfect body, but I’m sure not too skinny, and nowhere near fat. I feel healthy and that should be all I need to feel beautiful. But I still have to remind myself. I’m taking advice from Crystal Renn: for every negative thing I think about myself (or that someone else says), I’m going to make it a point to come up with 2 things I like about myself.  Will you?

Annual Resolution Failure

The New Year is almost upon us! Every year, after the holiday season comes to a close, people’s minds jump straight to losing the few pounds they put on. The most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. This sounds wonderfully fantastic on New Year’s Eve when you are sipping champagne with friends and family.

But how much weight are you trying to lose? By when? How do you plan on doing it? Those little details are what make us quit our diet and exercise plan by January 15^th. No one wants to have another resolution implementation failure.

What if we tried to not make different resolutions this year? What if we resolved to be healthier instead of thinner? That’s still a pretty broad resolution. My suggestion is to make a bunch of small resolutions for ourselves.

Here is a little list of ideas that I have come up with:

• Start taking a daily multi-vitamin
• Walk 3 times a week for 30 minutes
• Cut down your soft drinks (or cut them out all together!). 
• Get a nice, bright water bottle and make sure you are drinking ½ your body weight in ounces of water every day- having a bright and interesting bottle with make you more aware of the need to drink your H2O!
• Drink a glass of water before each meal- We all know this, but really. Do it.
• Buy an easy healthy cook book- Finding a book with both easy and healthy recipes, will make you more likely to want to cook  

• OOOR, go to FoodNetwork.com- they have tons of options for healthy and quick cooking
• Take 5 minutes a day to relax- Find a quiet place to close your eyes and clear your head.
• Cut down your sugar intake- If you take two sugars in your coffee, try to but it down to one. 

You only live once, and for me, life on a diet is no life at all. Why not eat sensible, and think about being healthy, not being skinny.

By being healthier, you will be happier, look great, and feel better about yourself. Take the next week to come up with a few of your own little resolutions! Leave a comment! Maybe you can inspire someone else.