Morning!

I hope everyone had a lovely Labor Day and a nice three day weekend if you had the day off! We had a relaxing time at home, which involved some delicious baked goods, movies, exercise, and quality family time. I’m one of the lucky ducks that doesn’t start school until next Monday, so I’m still a free bird this week. I am trying to get some college essay stuff under my belt, but the inspiration is still falling in place. Ya can’t force a story that expresses yourself, right? I’ve got some ideas though…

Some things have happened in the past year that have allowed me to find a new perspective on certain aspects of life.  For instance, my rocky journey with food and fitness has brought me to focus more on whole health–physical, mental, and spiritual. Not just physical.

Even my struggle with insomnia a couple weeks ago has made me a more grateful, positive person. I don’t exactly know how, but perhaps that was just God’s way of helping me out a bit 😉 I think not being able to sleep put me in such a Negative Nancy mood, and that just spiraled into more sleeplessness. The less I moped and felt sorry for myself, the better I was able to sleep. I am thankful for every good night’s rest I am given! The experience has also helped me just feel more and value others’ experiences, no matter how small they seem. I’m reading the content of blogs more thoroughly, and I connect with people more closely during conversation. Kelly Clarkson was right–what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

The real inspiration for all this personal talk is actually an email titled “It’s all about perspective” that my uncle sent us. It was a short, sweet, and hilarious dialogue between him and his 2.5-year-old daughter, who we call CC:

I was CRACKING UP. Life through a 2.5-year-old’s eyes.

Lunch

My mom cooked up some delicious food yesterday including potatoes, chicken, sautéed onions, and pesto rice. For lunch, I decided to assemble a brunch-y hash of sorts:

Sautéed red potatoes, caramelized onions, wilted spinach, and two sunny-side up eggs. Sriracha added post-photo-snap 🙂

Moves

Yesterday I went back to the usual 20 minutes on the elliptical, because my knees are feelin’ it from running more than usual. Does that mean I’m doing something wrong? Maybe. I gotta check with some of my trackie friends. Anyway, my arms and abs were sore from Sunday, and my legs were actually still sore too. So I went with this workout from Julie that would keep me moving from one exercise to the next. I was pooped by the end (actually even by the end of round 5)!

I tried another new-to-me Chobani flavor afterwards:

Passion fruit

I’ve never even had a real passion fruit before, but it was tasty! I added cereal on top for crunch of course. I also added more plain yogurt when I got to the bottom of the container because there was more fruit left. No wastin’ here!

Dinner

Last night’s meal hit the spot!

Chicken, pesto rice, and caramelized onions.

I also had a side salad of spinach and balsamic vinaigrette for some produce.

For dessert:

Reheated coconut banana muffin! Yum.

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that I did some burnin’ ab work on Sunday, so I decided to share what I did! I called it the ’13 Ab Workout because there are 13 exercises (if you count right and left side plank separately) and it’s 2013. Lame, I know, but I’m not known for having cool ideas anyway. This was also my first time making a workout on Pic Monkey too. It was fun!

Here are demonstrations of the exercises:

Sitting toe tap crunches

Weighted Russian twists

Spiderman plank

V-ups

Ankle touches

Clock abs

Mountain climbers

Butterfly situps

Plank cross knee tucks

Side plank hip lifts

Burpee pushups

Plank

Hope you love (or despise 😉 ) it!

I also made some desserts last night for la famiglia:

Fruit “snow” for mom. Just blended up frozen fruit in a food processor and voila!

That would be banana s’mores. Ben was my taste tester (ok, I had a bite too upon Ben’s urging) and they were delicious! Too sweet for me, but I’m sure that could be fixed. Maybe I’ll post the recipe later!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

So tell me: Is there anything you’ve experienced that has changed your perspective? What did you do this weekend?