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Something on Everything

Gender reveal – boy or girl?

by Filed Under: Baby

Hi everyone!

This is the gender reveal post!

People close to me already know but the blogosphere doesn’t. I actually found out over a month ago and we’ve been looking at names since then.

On my second sonogram, at 12 weeks, we didn’t see the gender. But there was this feeling, a feeling that lingered until the next doctor’s appointment, at around 19 weeks. At every appointment, we do a routine sonogram, just for the OB to check on baby’s heartbeat, placenta, amniotic fluid, etc. We asked the doctor to check on baby’s gender and, just so you know, the sonogram machines at the OB’s office are not the best. The image is not HD as the one from our regular sonograms. And it took a bit of effort and a bit of jiggling my bump so that baby would move and show the tiny bits and pieces.

After around three or four minutes of “exploring” and “nudging” the bump, the OB said, confidently…

It’s a girl!

 

And there you have it. It’s a girl. Coming this February (or March), we’ll start the journey of raising a strong, confident and loving woman. The world needs a lot more of us, am I right girls? 🙂

Now, choosing the name. That’s a whole different story. 😉

 

See you on my next post!

First trimester recap

by Filed Under: Baby

 

My first trimester recap. If you don’t know by now, I’m pregnant!

I found out I was pregnant at around 5 weeks with a home pregnancy test. There’s noting like seeing the word “pregnant” (“gravida” in portuguese) in that little Clearblue stick. It was a rush of emotions.

A couple weeks later I went to the doctor and had my first scan, the dating pregnancy scan. This is something that should be done to not only confirm the pregnancy and viability of the pregnancy but the due date. It’s not mandatory, but as a developmental specialist with a lot of info on what can go wrong…I had to. And everything was fine. Due date established: March 1st, 2019.

I started taking my prenatal vitamins and I chose Pregnacare Plus, by Vitabiotics. They’re top rated and not horribly expensive. You can find them at Amazon or directly on the Vitabiotics website, as they’re usually running some sort of promotion.

A bit after that, my symptoms started. I was really sleepy and tired, nauseated and even vomited during the day. Morning sickness should really have its name changed.

At this time, I was working and obviously, no one knew at work. And I had to come up with a lot of diversions to keep the secret, a secret. We use July to have loads of meetings and prepare the next school year (I work at a private school, specifically as the coordinator of the primary school) and being at any meeting for more than 30minutes straight was rough. The only thing I could ingest that didn’t make me want to throw up was really cold water and ginger drops, so I had to keep the mini fridge at work stocked with a couple of 1.5L bottles of water and had at least 10 ginger drops with me at all times. Even thinking of sipping room temperature water was rough.

I still can’t believe that my team did not think it was weird that I was leaving the meetings so frequently to go and “take a call”, “go to the bathroom”, “get some copies” and more… It’s not like me to do that.

One cool thing is that I now know exactly the perfect bathrooms to use when trying to hide a first trimester pregnancy. #weird

At around week 11, one of my friends got married and, again, no one knew. I had to say that I was the designated driver and avoid a lot of really tasty looking things… But I managed it.

And then week 12 came around. And everything stayed the same, actually. My nausea, vomiting and food aversions stayed real close to me up until week 14 or 15. One thing I started to do on week 12 was using BioOil. I really want to try my best and help my body avoid stretch marks and actually stretch properly. BioOil is one of the best oils to use during pregnancy (and after) and I’m keeping my hopes up.

 

So, quick stats of my first trimester:

  • weight: dropped 11lbs. Only ingesting water and ginger drops will do that do a person. Vomiting every other meal will also help.
  • food aversions: could not bare the smell of any meats especially. But could only ingest cold water and ginger drops (these were not the ones I had but could be, they seem great).
  • main symptoms: tiredness, sleepiness, nausea and vomiting.

 

At the time I’m writing this, I’m 23 weeks pregnant so, almost at the 6 month mark and the first trimester is now a memory thankfully. I will try to post more regularly, not only because it helps me with my mental clarity but because I want to keep track of everything. Can you imagine my baby reading all this some years in the future?

Next post will be the gender reveal. Get excited! 😀

Follow me on Instagram, as I’ll be using my InstaStories more often in the next few weeks! 😉

 

 

(Note: some links on this post are affiliate links. This means that when you click on the link and purchase the item, you are supporting me and my blog, and I get a tiny amount in return. If you prefer not to use the link I provide, I completely understand.)

I’m pregnant!

by Filed Under: Baby

I’m pregnant!

Wow, this is still a bit surreal to say out loud. Let alone write on my blog. But it is true: I am pregnant with my first baby and I’m almost at the 20 week mark!

And this is the post that comes and changes everything: both my life and my blog.

I will be changing this blog and shift it towards everything baby related. Not only because in a few months I’m having my own baby but because I am and will be experiencing something that I’ve studied and is my first area of interest for at least the last decade.

I have so much to share, so much to write and so much to look forward to!

This is such a wonderful world to enter and I’m inviting all of you out there to go on this ride with me!

 

Follow my Instagram and Facebook page for more “instant” updates and notifications on new blog posts.

 

24 Awesome Gifts On Amazon That Will Be Perfect For Her – Gift Guide

by Filed Under: Beautiful Randomness

Here are my 24 Awesome Gifts On Amazon That Will Be Perfect For Her, a.k.a. my Christmas 2017 Gift Guide for Her.

I chose to make it look different this year, more visual and browsable, and I hope you like it! All the gifts are shown in crescent order of price range and most of them have affiliate links to Amazon (some of them aren’t).

Without further ado, here are my choices for 2017:

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In case you missed it, read my updated Online Shopping Guide – How to Save the Most and Get the Best, and you’ll be all set up to buy all the things you need this Holiday Season!

I will be doing a couple more gift guides, so check back soon!

Happy Holidays!

Online Shopping Guide – How to Save the Most and Get the Best (Christmas 2017)

by Filed Under: Beautiful Randomness

Online shopping guide. Wow. Could it be any broader? The truth is, I’m a save-aholic. Ever since the internet was a thing in Portugal – 20 years ago – online shopping took the first steps in my life. Yes, it was not safe, at all, for years. But I’ve been buying things online for at least 15 years and I’ve learned a lot.

A few years ago I wrote a post series on How to buy online (link here) and a couple years later, another one called The Ultimate Guide for Saving Money while shopping for Christmas (link here). They could still hold true today but a lot of the tools I mentioned then, I don’t use anymore.

The true key to online savings is, research and focus.

Yes. If you don’t have focus, you’ll get lost in the sea of discounts, offers and gift guides, and will end up spending a whole lot more than you wanted.

 

This is what I recommend.

1. Make a list of everyone you want to buy for and budget a specific amount to spend.

2. If you don’t have an idea of what you want to buy for someone, search on Google (even specific phrases like “what to buy for a teenage cousin” tend to get responses) and browse a couple gift guides. If you already know what you want to buy, skip this step. You’ll get confused and be wanting to buy more and more. Usually, our first idea is the best.

3. Redo your list with the items you want to search online and the maximum amount you want to spend on them.

4. Search for each and every item on the websites I’ll list next.

 

My go-to online shopping routine

If I don’t have a clue of where I can find the item I’m looking for, I start by browsing Google. Google and specifically Google Shopping are the best tools to localize the best shops to buy anything. Now, Google Shopping is not the best for some countries, and I also use a Portuguese specific website, called KuantoKusta. Not only these websites give you the online stores that sell the item you’re looking for, but they also show the price tags for each (and sometimes compare them).

When I already know the store that I need to buy the items from, I always use some sort of discount and cashback combo.

It’s 2017 and virtually everyone that buys things online have heard of discount and cashback websites. We have loads of them right now, some of them, regional.

I DO NOT buy a single thing without checking if the online shops I’m using offer some sort of cashback or discount. My absolute favorite sites to do that are Ebates, RetailMeNot, Quidco (for UK/European users) and BeRuby (for Portuguese users). They are really easy to search and I’ve earned a lot from them over the years.

Also, and the mothership of all savings, I check every item on Amazon. Most things I end up buying there because the price is usually lower. And if they’re not, free shipping or Prime shipping will do the trick.

 

Now, these are tips directed at Holiday Shopping, but that can be used all year. Ideally, you should also be using deals provided during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as these cashback websites also up their game during that time. But if you end up passing those, this the most helpful path to go.

A different path (and one that takes certainly more time) is through discounted products websites. Showroomprive, HauteLook, Zulily, and ThredUp are just a few of them – my favorite ones – and you can find a lot of items at lower prices than you would in-store or online. But beware – always confirm if the price listed is actually the lowest online. It sometimes isn’t.

 

If you follow all these tips, you should be able to Save the Most and Get the Best items! 😀

 

The next posts will feature gift guides. So check back if you still need any ideas!

 

Hope you like what you read and if you did, share it with someone that needs to read it also! 😉

 

Happy Holidays!

 

PS – some of the links I showed are affiliate links and that means I get either a discount or a small credit if you buy through my link, but you’re free to not go through my links! 🙂 I do thank you a lot if you go through them, though.

How to Make the Best Carob Bread

by Filed Under: Breads, Food, Recipes

Ever wanted to try a carob bread? Or a carob anything?

Do you really know what a carob is, or its benefits?

I hope this post will help you answer all of the above with a big Yes!

I’m from the Algarve, in Portugal, and have always lived with carob trees. We had huge ones next to our home during my childhood and I tried lots and lots of different things made with carobs – or carob flour. It’s been always known as a substitute for chocolate – carob cookies really taste like chocolate cookies – but it has a lot more benefits than just the substitution of chocolate with fewer calories. Let’s learn a bit about carobs, shall we?

First of all, carob trees are huge. They grow dark brown pods, with pulp and seed, that is usually what is used for culinary or beauty purposes.

Source: click here

I’m not going to extensively explain the uses or benefits, but carbs are high in fiber, pectin and protein, rich in antioxidants, have low amounts of fat and sugar, don’t have caffeine or gluten. This makes carob flour a great substitute for a lot of special diets (i.e. gluten free, lactose intolerant, etc.). Also, while being low on sugars, carbs are sweet enough for most tastes – you can add stevia or another natural source of sweetener if you’re using it for baking. Carobs are also great sources of vitamins (A, B2, B3, B6) and minerals (copper, calcium, manganese, potassium, magnesium, zinc, selenium).

With all these nutrients, there are several health benefits of adding carbs to your diet. According to several studies (that I read in several different outlets but won’t list here as they were a lot!), it can even help prevent certain types of cancer.

Now that you know a bit more about carbs and carob flour, I have a great recipe to share with you!

I’m always up to try different combinations of ingredients to try and achieve the best recipe. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. And maybe even sometimes I have to throw in the trash the product of my concoctions. It’s fine. That’s how we best learn, right?

We’ve been eating homemade bread for years and I had never tried to make carob bread. Well, not just carob bread. In order to make it feel a little less a sweet baked good, and more of a bread, I don’t use 100% carob flour. It’s a mix of whole wheat and carob flour. I bought it already in a mix but you can as easily make it by buying whole wheat flour and carob flour and mix equal parts of them.

So, here are the ingredients you’ll need to make the best carob bread ever:

  • 300ml / 10fl.oz of warm water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons of dried yeast (we use this one)
  • 1 teaspoon of salt (we use pink Himalayan salt but you can use regular marine salt)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of sugar (to feed the yeast)
  • 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (we use this one)
  • 500g / 1.1lbs of the flour mix (half whole wheat + half carob)
  • 1/2 cup of favorite seeds mix (this is completely optional but I like to add seeds to add fiber and all the good stuff!)

First, you’ll start by activating the yeast. In a small bowl, add the yeast, salt, sugar and coconut oil to the warm water. Mix lightly and wait for a few minutes, until it starts to froth as pictured.

In a medium bowl, add the seeds and yeast mix to the flour. I use a silicone scraper to mix everything (similar to this) – not a lot of force needed, just patience – and only use my hands to turn the dough into a ball in the end. It takes about 5 minutes to combine everything.

 

Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise to, at least, double the size.

Shape the ball into whichever shape you want – we prefer sandwich loaves, and use a perforated loaf pan similar to this one – and place in the pan. Cover and let rise again until double the size. If your kitchen is warm enough it will only take about 45 minutes for each rise.

Bake in the oven for about 35minutes, at 200ºC / 392F, until it’s golden and the crust is crispy.

Let cool for a bit and enjoy however you prefer!

Seriously, this is a really great bread. The best carob bread recipe, ever. It’s really tasty, good for you and it’s not that hard to make!

You need to try it!

 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe and if you try it out, send me a photo on Twitter! I would love to see it!

 

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I do get a small commission if you buy any of the items I linked to Amazon, but they are the ones I do use or chose for their quality. True recommendations. 😉

 

If you liked this recipe, check out some of my other recipes:

How to revamp your home right now + first UncommonGoods unboxing!

by Filed Under: DIY, Product Reviews

Welcome to my first UncommonGoods unboxing! 😉

Well, this is not just an unboxing*. It’s so much more.

I work at a school, so I get August off. Yes, lucky, I know. 😉 We all need a break, right? My work and daily schedule is quite crazy so I tend to not do many home improvements around the house, during the school year. That usually leads me to having dozens of things on my August to-do list.

We live in an old and small apartment, that probably needed a full-on work done. Seriously, if we were able to do it, we’d want to redo every single room. But it’s way too expensive and we chose to only do smaller, more manageable projects.

This is what I usually do on my first week off. Disclaimer: we don’t go away on holidays often, my boyfriend does not have the same time off as I do, so we more than often stay at home, which is fine for me. I’m a homebody.

→ Go around the house and check what needs to be done. Grab a notepad and write everything out, room by room.

→ Prioritize rooms, if necessary. This year we’re prioritizing our bedroom.

→ Make a list of – at most – 10 small projects for the entire month. I’m on holidays, don’t need to be working from sunrise to sunset on the house!

→ Try to pair projects that will use either the same tools or that will take you similar blocks of time.

→ Make a list of everything needed for the projects. Buy whatever is necessary.

→ Plan time slots for every project or bundle of projects.

→ Go around the house a second time, this time check for decoration/organization issues. We don’t buy a lot of things for the house right now, but we do invest in some needs items, especially if they come in handy to organize stuff! We live in a small apartment, that’s a must!

→ Browse online for decorative or organization items. If needed, browse Pinterest. I only go to Pinterest when I already have a somewhat clear idea of what I want to do. If I don’t, the millions of projects will make me want to do more than I can/should, and that’s a no-no during my Summer break. Buy whatever is needed and fits the budget.

 

This seems more work than it really is. I’m not crazy, I prefer doing this when I have time, and I’m certainly not doing this the entire month off! But I do feel it’s important to make time to revamp your home often. Not only you get a more organized and prettier home, but you also get somewhat of a “reset” of your living space. And changing things up a bit is proven to help with a lot of things (e.g. creativity, relaxation, focus, etc).

Enter UncommonGoods.

Why did I pair a revamping the house post with an unboxing from this company? Well, it should be obvious by now.

I live in Portugal and, as much as we do have great decor companies here, I tend to prefer browsing American websites. One of the companies that I usually browse for inspiration is UncommonGoods.

I found out about them a couple of years ago, while searching for a great gift to give my sister for her birthday. Found them through a post or Instagram photo or something like that, and I immediately loved the quirkiness of some of their items. I had never heard about them before and tried to learn a bit more about them.

Online purchasing tip: always try to find the most you can about a company that you’re thinking about purchasing something from. Typically, sketchy companies won’t have much (if any) information about them.

I was pleased to find out that not only they had different items – I mean, I already imagined that from their name 😛 – but were actually trying to make a positive impact in the world, by choosing sustainability as their core focus, and carrying handmade items, from artists to small manufacturers. I mean, I try to shop local at home, and support local farmers/producers, so this is something that resonated with me.

Over the years, I bought several things from them to give my sister and brother in law. They do have the best ideas for birthday and anniversary gifts, really. I got them some bar glasses, candles, pieces of jewelry and they loved it! Seriously, if you’re looking for gifts for a birthday that is coming up, check their choices. I actually think that I bought the bar glasses as an anniversary gift for them, years ago. They don’t have the ones I got anymore but you can check out some different ones on their website.

So, they contacted me and I chose three things. One for organization purposes, one for decoration (useful decoration, but still) and one for my day to day needs. I was so happy the day the package arrived that I filmed a quick unboxing. Check it out below.

 

(psst! while you’re at it, like and subscribe to my channel for more videos! 😉 )

 

1. Kitchen Utensil and Tablet Holder

I had been eyeing something like this for a while and it was so needed in our kitchen. It’s so well done, quite heavy and seems to be easy to clean. It came with a cool note about the makers – Heather and Myles Geyman – and you can even learn a bit more (and see more items from them) on the website. By the way, click the image to go to the product page for more info. 😉

 

2. Twist Decanter

Yes!! This is so beautiful! I love wine, love having a glass or two and we usually have a few bottles of our favorite wines at home. I always wanted to have a cool piece like this and when I saw it, I fell in love! See? Useful but decorative also! 😉

 

3. Magnetic Mounting Iphone Case + car and wall mounts

I’m a full-on iPhone addict. I admit it, I have my phone with me at all times and, again, this was something that I was trying to find for a while. Tried several different cases and mounts and I have to say that this is the best so far. It may seem a bit fragile at first, especially if you’re used to a bulkier protective case, but it’s quite good. I have to say that my phone has fallen a few times with this case on – not on purpose, I promise! – and it worked fine. Protected where it needed to protect.

Not to say that it’s bulletproof, don’t start dropping the phone from buildings with this case, it will not work for sure! 😛 I placed the wall mount on my kitchen cabinet, and I love how easy it makes to see youtube videos or hear podcasts or audiobooks while I’m cooking. And I cook a lot. Great product overall, I’ll try to find a second wall mount for a second location at my house.

 

Seriously, what’s not to love? These items are so cool and look great at my house. I even have a couple more things on my wishlist that I’ll casually send to Santa. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. The only negative I can find about this shop is that, even though they ship internationally, not every item is available to ship outside the US. And obviously, a lot of my wishlist content is not available to ship to Portugal. But it’s fine. I’m sure the selection will broaden with time. We’re patient, right?

 

Well, hope you enjoyed reading this really long post. It felt really good to write it and share these new items and my revamp process with you.

Have a great week!!

 

*Disclosure: UncommonGoods sent me the items to review and write a post, but – as usual – I had full editorial liberty to write as I pleased and obviously all the written opinions are my own. If you read the post, you’ll understand that this is a company that I had purchased from before several times, and that I love.

 

 

Want to see more of my DIY/Home decor posts? Check these out:

6 ways to stay motivated to workout

by Filed Under: Fitness

This is the first of several posts on fitness and health, and it’s 6 ways to stay motivated to workout. I’m not an exercise or health coach. I’m not even where I want to be with my body. But I’m getting there, one day at a time, and on this post, I want to tell you what keeps my motivation levels high.

 

1. It has to be your choice.

For the longest time, I tried a lot of different things – and kept failing – in order to maintain or lose weight. I was really active in high school and then I went to college and it was worse and worse every year, leading up to probably my unhealthiest ever – the internship year. After that came a couple of different jobs and the start of my “adult” life and I was not the healthiest eater. Never went beyond the obesity line, but was certainly close.

It was only about 5-6 years ago, right after I started blogging and started discovering healthy recipes website and all, that I began trying new healthy recipes, and my own healthier takes on my favorite ones. And in the beginning of 2016, I fully dedicated myself to a nutritional change. I’m not vegan, not vegetarian, I eat meat, fish, eggs. But I also don’t eat anything fried (unless there’s no other good option at my job – I have lunch there every day), don’t use butter or olive oil to cook – I use coconut oil instead and only when it’s absolutely irreplaceable, I reduce butter and sugar to the max on every baked good, and so many more changes, that I will be talking about in a future blog post.

In terms of exercise, I’ve always gone on and off with several different programs. Did not stick with one. It was only in October 2015, when a gym opened close to home (my boyfriend owns two gyms but they’re women’s only and we wouldn’t be able to workout together there) and I joined with my boyfriend, that it clicked for me.

With all this, what I want you to know is that you are the one in charge. If you don’t really decide to do it, you won’t. No one can force you to do it, no one can shame to do it. You have to choose.

There’s nothing more powerful that a decided will.

 

2. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Benjamin Franklin was completely right. You need to make time on your schedule to work on yourself. Plan your workout time slot, plan your meals – especially the snacks you eat during the day – and plan rest time. A lot of us don’t know how to rest properly, and a good night of sleep, or a couple of hours reading a book, strolling around in the park or grabbing a cup of coffee with friends in the sun, are just as important as work or a workout.

One thing that really helps me is to prepare my gym bag the night before. I usually workout right after work or later in the night (9pm) and I wake up extra early to go to work. I guarantee that I’m not in the mood to prepare my gym bag at 6.30am. Do this – and even bring it to your car the night before – and you’re halfway there.

 

3. If you’re going to the gym, just go!

If preparing the gym bag is half the work, actually going to the gym – if you’re working out at a facility – is 45% of the rest.

Getting yourself to the gym does something to your mind. If you’re already there, even if you’re not in the mood, will make you at least do something, even if it’s a quick and easy workout. Today was a quick and easy one, tomorrow may be a tougher one. Even after a quick and easy workout, you’ll feel happy for doing it, and it will boost your motivation to work harder the next day.

 

4. Start slow.

You don’t want to go from being a couch potato to running a marathon, or even going to the gym every day for tough classes or workouts. Like I said on #3, shorter and easier workouts will snowball and boost your morale, but you need to get your body accustomed. One of the things that kept happening to me in the past was that I would start a program, do it on high intensity, and then would have crazy soreness the next day. And I would stop because, who likes pain, right?

Start slow. Maybe 3 times a week. Then up the intensity. And only after that, start going more often.

 

5. Educate yourself or hire a Personal Trainer

I’m so lucky (in so many ways!) to have my boyfriend, but one of them is that he is my own Personal Trainer. I’ve learned so much with him about health and fitness and he’s the one that explained everything at the gym and told me what I should do. Knowing a bit of something you’re interested in, often leads to wanting to know more and more, so I started reading and searching for a lot of things related to this.

When you’re starting to work out, you’re probably not going to be excellent at it. And there’s a good chance that you’ll do more than you should and end up hurting yourself. In the beginning, I advise you to ask someone for help (i.e. Personal Trainer or a friend that knows more about it than yourself), or at least, search online for good references on exercise. Nowadays there are a lot of great fitness coaches that have Instagram accounts with great workout videos, and they’re often quite accessible if you have questions. It’s only a matter to search in order to take an educated step towards a good workout plan. I will be writing a post on my favorite ones, look out for that in the next couple of weeks.

 

6. Enjoy yourself and don’t give importance to what you think others are thinking of you

This has to be the most important of the 6.

Yes, it’s a lot of work. Yes, you’ll have a lot of pain in the process. Yes, some days you will feel like you were run over by a truck. But you absolutely need to enjoy the process. Or you won’t keep at it. I can promise you that.

There are probably thousands of different classes, machines, programs, ways to workout. If you don’t like running or if you can’t do high impact exercises, then don’t! You don’t have to do it because the person right next to you at the gym is running a marathon in the treadmill! I don’t even know how many times I was the only one walking while everyone else at the gym was running at a high pace.

Maybe you’ll get where you want to be by doing spinning classes. Maybe by lifting weights. Maybe you won’t even have to add burpees to your routine (I don’t, and I hate them! There’s a lot of alternative exercises!). And that’s okay. Everyone is different and everyone is doing their own thing.

A couple of months ago, I wrote something on my Instagram after having a close encounter at the gym:

To the person at the gym that just mocked my big a$$ water bottle: people like you are the reason why it took me years to enter a gym. My insecurities came from not being happy with my body and the thought that someone could mock me, froze me to the bone. Today, more than a year of being fully commited to being healthier and going to the gym at least 5 times a week, I see you and you’re mocking the bottle I chose to bring. I don’t care and I don’t care about you. But if before I would probably be depleted of energy to even continue my workout, today I stared at you until you felt ashamed enough to leave (he wasn’t close enough to respectfully talk to him without being loud enough to embarass him and the hell I would be stopping the treadmill). People like you don’t belong in the gym. People like should stay at home. Or seek therapy. #strogertoday #dontbeajerk #dontbeanass #proudofmybottle #dontcare #gym #gympower

A post shared by Sofia @Something On Everything (@slinha) on

One of the things that kept me away from the gym for years was what I thought others were thinking of me. It’s not easy to overcome those thoughts. But seriously, we all have issues, we all have problems, we all have insecurities, and no one is better than the other. Keep that in mind whenever you think that someone is looking at your body, or at the way you’re doing an exercise, or at your big a$$ bottle.

I was not easy. But right now, I really don’t care of what others are thinking. Most of the times, I don’t even notice people around me. I use my time at the gym as my escape from the world; it’s ME time. And I have fun. I’ve found myself multiple times singing out loud (thankfully not obnoxiously loud) the music that I’m listening to when I’m running on the treadmill. Because I’m having fun. And why not?

 

 

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed it and it was useful. Look out for more posts on fitness in the next few days and follow me on Instagram or Facebook if you want to take a peek on my daily updates! 😉

Thank you for staying all the way to the end! You rock! 🙂

2017 goals: how I came up with mine and an easy way to keep up

by Filed Under: Everything Else

My “comeback” to the blog had to be with a post of my 2017 goals, right?

I’m a firm believer that accountability helps you achieve your goals and that’s the main reason I like to write about goals and goal setting.

I kind of took the last year off. Did not blog consistently, turned entirely to my main social media outlets – Instagram and Facebook – and uploaded once of twice to YouTube. I’m not sorry, I needed it.

2016 was a big year. Not really awesome with big amazing achievements, not really awful with pretty bad situations, but somewhere in between. Full of events, good and bad, and one big decision on my part: make myself better every day.

In the end of 2015 I joined a gym with my boyfriend. Yes, he owns one (actually, spoiler alert! He now owns 2! #proud #soproud :D) but it’s a women only gym so he doesn’t use it. Joining this gym was also a way for us to workout together and spend more quality time together.

We were already pretty health conscious at home, and over the years we changed a lot of our eating habits. We have a balanced diet and live a somewhat balanced life, but I needed that push towards a more active life. So, we did it. And I’ve been consistently working out 5-6 times a week ever since.

I will be doing more fitness and health related posts here – that’s a big part of my life right now and I want to share all I’m learning about it with all of you.

Fast forward a bit and it’s 2017. This year I will turn 33, we will have our 10 year anniversary and a lot more milestones will be crossed. I had to think of my 2017 goals.

 

Goal Setting

I love reading and I love hearing podcasts. In order to get on the right mindset, I chose a few that talked about goal setting. Three that really helped me lately were from Pat Flynn’s SPI Podcast:

You should hear at least these three, if you’re looking to find inspiration for goal setting.

With all this in mind, this was what I was looking for in order to come up with my 2017 goals:

  1. Is there something that has been on my “life to do list” for a while that still makes sense to achieve?
  2. Where do I want to be in the end of 2017 in terms of personal life and professional career?
  3. What have I been doing that is not working?

After a lot of thinking and pondering, I came up with a few goals. Some I will share, others will be shared only to a certain extent and a few won’t.

 

Start using contacts.

This is a funny story, actually. This has been on my mind for a while now, at least a couple of years. But I’m really weird in everything related to my eyes and I have a really hard time whenever anyone else but me needs to do something to it. I hate going to the doctor or optician and having drops put in. I hate the feeling of having something approach my eye and not being able to close it. But I don’t have a problem with myself touching my eyeball. Weird, huh?

I’ve been using glasses for way over 15 years and I started noticing my nose getting those common awful marks and I don’t like it. Also, working with kids tends to make my glasses fly across the room a couple of times a week, so, not great for glasses longevity.

I have a friend that is an optician and we’ve talked about it – I need to go in for a consultation with someone I know, I probably will be screaming when it’s time to try the contact lenses – but I stalled. A lot. For a long time. I finally decided I would do it this year and, last week, I dropped my glasses and they broke.

Booked an appointment and I will go for my second one to try the test lenses next Monday. Goal: 50% complete.

 

Make the most out of the time I spend with my loved ones.

This is a cliché but it is also true. I need to work on this. Life has been getting in the way and I can’t have it like this anymore. So, in 2017, I will make a very conscious effort to be present every time I get to spend time with my loved ones. Family and friends. No more meals with phone and internet, no more mind drift to that full to do list, no more hurrying.

 

Focus on my health and help my family focus on theirs.

And also my friends, to the extent possible. This year I want to make really conscious choices of what we eat, drink and do. Make more healthy meals, change some of our staples to better ones (not necessarily organic), drink more water, keep up with our vitamin intake, keep up with a good activity routine (5-6 days a week, preferably as a couple). Also, we have to go in for a full health check up. That’s a big one on our list for the year.

I also need to do something to improve the neck pain I still have from my car accident back in 2014. Maybe a chiropractor, maybe yoga. Still need to work on this one.

 

Relaunch my website.

This post is the beginning of the relaunch. Finally have it looking the way I want it to and I know what I want to do with it. I will be writing a lot more about health related topics and the main ones will definitely be Fitness and Food. I love writing and I miss it. Really miss it. This needs to happen and will also help with my sanity. 😀

 

Start working on a software.

I won’t say too much but I have this idea for a software related to my profession and I’ve been stalling on getting to it. Part fear of failure, part not knowing what to do first, but this needs to happen in 2017. At least the first stages of it.

 

 

Keeping track of your goals

None of this goal setting nonsense will help you if you don’t keep track of your goals.

This is what I do and find most effective to help me not go off path:

  • share your goals with at least one person. Making them “public” will help you with accountability.
  • divide them in smaller goals. Making something like a step-by-step list of smaller goals will help you navigate your way towards the bigger one.
  • write the goals and place them somewhere you can see them everyday. I have them on my phone but you can write them anywhere (planner, inspiration board, fridge, mirror,…).
  • revisit your goals at least once a month. If you lost track of something, one month probably won’t hurt the path. If you don’t revisit the goals, you may find ways to trick your brain and “forget” how important they were.
  • PLAN. I cannot stress this enough. You should be able to look at the calendar and set a timeline for your goals. Set dates for every goal that you can set finish dates for. If you don’t, you’ll push all your goals towards the end of the year and you’ll get overwhelmed.

Benjamin Franklin supposedly once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” And he was right.

So, here they are. My main 2017 goals. Or at least the ones I want to share. 😉  Hope you enjoyed this post and if you found it useful, maybe share with your friends?

 

Have a great day and keep trying to be the best version of yourself.

For you and for everyone in your life.

 

Bake your cake from scratch, not your blog.

by Filed Under: Breakfast, Lunch, Supper

Some people get into food blogging just to share, while others are hoping to turn their passion into a profession. But while you know your way around the kitchen, when it comes to starting your own website, you might not have any idea where to begin or what questions to ask first. Don’t worry – regardless of why you’re starting your blog, we all have to start somewhere. Whether you’re going to DIY everything, or find someone who can walk you through the process, here’s a list of steps you can take to get your very own food blog up and running with as little bewilderment and confusion as possible. [Read more…]