Life – Page 9

Currently November 2019 in a Chatty Fashion

November 18, 2019 by Alicia 1 Comment

Oh Hi there!! It’s been a month. Truthfully, I haven’t had much to share since I’ve been spending an average of 12 hours a weekend doing homework…the joys of online schooling and working full time. I also think I mentioned a while ago about how I needed to change up my workouts. Well I was forced to cut back when I was lifting one morning and felt some sort of pinch or pull in the back of my right shoulder. I have shoulder bursitis there and it was sort of the same area but never have I experienced that before and I rested, used a heat pad, took a bath, got some cupping and massage done. However, it still felt off, so I went to a doctor and they just did an x-ray, which doesn’t show muscles of course so the doctor tells me, I’m young and healthy and my bones look great in my shoulder! Well that’s great, but my shoulder feels off. Really, I felt I was misaligned.

The doctor sent me to get PT and I start officially this week, but I got my consultation done on Friday and finally got some answers. Basically, as I suspected, I am misaligned. My left pelvis is pulling back and my right pulling forward and between all this my right shoulder rolls more forward and that is all causing some discomfort and pulling along my levator scapulae muscle on the right side. A very common issue I was told. I was happy to at least have an answer and with my light anatomy knowledge from yoga training, I could understand what the PT told me. So here is to hoping PT helps, but I have decided to back off from lifting in the mean time and instead I have been walk/running (though I don’t know if this is the best with a misaligned pelvis so I hope that is fixed up in PT) and doing some band exercises for my shoulder, doing body weight squats and doing LOTS of stretching and yoga. OMG my muscles everywhere are so tight. I try to take this as a learning experience and what is my body telling me. Well I am pretty sure my body was telling me to slow down. Honestly with school work this summer and fall, I have been so focused on that and my mind is not into the powerlifting as it was last year. For powerlifting, I need to be there mentally and I am just not. But I can not give up the gym because that also keeps my sanity so it’s all about finding balance. I need the yoga and will focus on what I can do. Hopefully after PT for a bit, I can resume to some dumbbell lifting and maybe come up with some 30 minute circuit type workouts as I think 30 minutes is the time I can give right now.

Well that was a long intro, but that sums up what is happening at the moment. I’m counting down the last 28 days of school for the semester. With that, I did want to share a few things I am loving.

I treated myself to another Stitch Fix box. I have to say I love how Stitch Fix counts your boxes. I basically average 1 a year so I think it has been 5 years since my first and this was my 6^th one (I got 2 this year). Since I don’t live by a mall anymore (it’s a good hour plus drive to the big one) and I don’t have that time on the weekend with school work, I wanted a few new items. I have been good about saving so I needed something and I was happy they nailed it once again.

So I got 2 new blouses for work, a grey sweater, a pair of workout leggings and a tan sweater. I do have to say I didn’t like the fit and style of the tan sweater but it was cheaper to keep it since you get a discount when you keep everything so I am hoping to give it to someone.

I also recently upgraded my Garmin to the Vivoactive 3. I had just the simple HR one which I loved, but unfortunately, a year and a half into owning it, the strap completely tore and there is no replacing it. I have been tired of spending $100 or so a year on the cheaper Fitbits and Garmins for step counts so I decided to upgrade to the watch style Garmin Vivoactive. This watch band is at least replaceable. I like how it has the features to track swimming laps (for whenever I have a pool available again) and other activities. I have actually been using it to track my treadmill running and yoga, and using the timer for 15 minute stretch sessions so I go the full 15 minutes.

Another recent purchase I made was buying 2 big aluminum trays off Amazon. We only had one baking sheet that could fit the silicone mats I have for roasting and it was rusting really badly so I threw it out and got two beautiful trays that fit the mats perfectly and work great. With the cooler months, we are definitely using the oven more for roasting and cooking so these trays are already getting tons of use. I just roasted sweet potatoes this morning.

November is flying by and next week is Thanksgiving. I am looking out for Black Friday sales for some gifts I want to buy and can’t wait to get our Christmas tree and put that up. I have already started watching Christmas movies because with school work, who knows what time I’ll have in December. I just started to read Andrea Barber’s book Full Circle in the evening as a nice change of pace from homework and studying. I’m already about halfway through so I am sure I will be done in no time. It’s nice to read memoirs from celebrities and remind you that celebrities are just regular people too.

So yeah, I think that about catches us up. I hope to come back in December with some Christmas type post. Until then, back to studying and finding a balance of workouts, school and work.

August 2019 and Reception Party

August 21, 2019 by Alicia

Oh hey…currently we are in the third week of August and I’m writing my first post for the month. It has been a crazy busy month. The month started with finals week and month end at work all wrapped up in one which was such a joy (NOT). In trying to keep my sanity over finals week, I didn’t go to the gym, but instead followed a yoga video at home each morning. The slower mornings really helped. By the end of the week, I was ready to just take the tests and get them over with. I was a ball of nerves though and lost my appetite a lot in the week. I felt more ready for my finance test because I had finished all the homework about a week ahead so I had time to focus on studying. Supply Chain I was nervous with my lower performance on the midterm and also being in the middle of completing assignments in the last week, but I was happy to learn a week after taking the tests that I got an A in both classes.

Meanwhile, as soon as my classes finished up, it was busy busy at work and I was going in early to try to tackle all the bills for August. There isn’t enough time in the day and I only have so much brain power. On top of that, we were trying to figure out food for our reception party. I pretty much got the few items I wanted and let Brian handle the rest. All in all, I think the reception party last weekend was quite a success. We rented a tent, got tables and chairs from work, Brian’s family helped with food and I got my vegan mac and cheese and cookie cake which were my only requests really. My parents came in Friday evening and we showed them around our house.

For the party, I was happy that one of my friends came into town from Ohio and she helped me put on my wedding dress so I could wear it all afternoon. I mean if you have a second chance to wear your wedding dress, why not?! It was humid and warm outside, but my dress is honestly very light with the tool fabric so I don’t think it would have made much of a difference if I wore shorts versus my dress in keeping cool. My family is very spread out across the country so many of them couldn’t make it to our party, but I was happy to catch up with those who did and meet one of my mom’s cousin’s. I probably met him at some point when I was very little, but I didn’t remember so it was nice of him to make the trip. I was standing, talking, trying to greet everyone as they came and ended up getting over 10,000 steps in the day. I also hardly ate. We had a ton of food I didn’t even try. I ate a few meatballs, mac and cheese, salad and then got out my cookie cake later for everyone. The cookie cake was a huge hit and we didn’t have too much leftover, which was good. I didn’t even eat dinner, just ate a light lunch around 1pm and was chatting away for hours. It was a good time.

The party went until 5 and it was perfect timing because a storm decided to roll in. We took some family photos and by 6 it was pouring, but everyone quickly cleaned up. I washed dishes for a bit and decided what to do with food. There was a lot of food and some was dumped after sitting outside uncovered for a while, but we did keep a lot and give away a lot, so in the end, the leftovers were manageable. With a covered porch area in the back, we sat outside as the rain was letting up. My parents, aunt and friends stayed for a while. It was cooler outside than the house so it felt much better.

dad family — My dad’s side with aunt, uncle and a couple of my cousins

mom's side — with my mom’s side, aunt and mom’s cousin

Brian had a bit to drink and passed out on the couch while I chatted away with my friends who stayed the night with us. I miss having friends near by to just stay up and chat with. It’s not often I make it past 10pm lol.

Sunday morning, my friends headed out around 8am and Brian and I had breakfast plans with my parents and aunt. We had a great time sharing stories over breakfast before my aunt wanted to get on the road. My parents took their time leaving so we went over to the Ross Park Zoo which I hadn’t been to before. It’s a quick loop and quite shady so it was the perfect temperature outside.

After a couple hours there, we all ate some leftovers for lunch and I helped Brian take down the tent to return. My parents got on the road and by mid afternoon, it was time to relax. I took a nice long bath which was quite relaxing and we spent the night just watching TV. I finished Big Little Lies as well.

I was so happy that I also took Monday off from work. I am working through changing my last name. I covered social security on Friday and then headed to the DMV first thing Monday morning. I was second in line, but quickly denied because the person didn’t like my “copy” of my marriage license, though I should have argued further because that one does have the seal stamp and is a certified copy versus the one we signed, but I headed home to get the original, keeping the other one in my purse as well. By the time I returned there were over 30 people ahead of me…so an hour wait and I finally was called up. They used both marriage certificates to verify and the process was simple, until I asked about the “REAL ID” and I was lacking one more piece of mail to prove my address. Seeing as I had already waited so long, I was NOT making another trip back so I will have a regular ID and then I can at least update my passport and NEXT YEAR I can get the “REAL ID” when I have to renew my license anyway because it’s the same expiration. Oh and I just renewed my passport last year but it was longer than 12 months from when I renewed to when I got married so I do have to pay for that. It’s quite a process to change your name and really the only way I see to do it is taking days off from work to stop in these places which is also time consuming and annoying. Eventually I get to change all my banks and credit cards and all that fun. It’s like the things they don’t tell you before you get married right?!

So that’s a bit on what I have been up to. I just got my textbooks in the mail for Fall semester. I think it is going to be a challenging semester with economics and my first business analytics class, but on the bright side I have 16 weeks instead of 12. I definitely felt the pressure of summer condensed classes and I will have one more summer of classes next year. It has been a nice 3 weeks off even though it has been busy. Happy our party went well and also happy to have party planning and wedding planning behind us.

Misfits Market and Eating More Veggies

July 22, 2019 by Alicia Leave a Comment

For the last month I have been receiving a box of fruits and veggies each week from Misfits Market. A Facebook ad totally got me and I tried one week and was pleasantly surprised to see how much I got for $23 so I decided to subscribe. When you subscribe to receive a box each week it’s only $19 + shipping. By the way, this post is not sponsored at all, I am simply sharing because I love the service and want to talk about how it has helped me eat more greens.

In the past I have tried a meal delivery service Hello Fresh and while it was nice to have my meals planned out, I was not a fan of the portion sizes and how much rice or grains were in the meal and felt I could make something better myself. This is my personal opinion just because I love to cook and I feel the meal delivery services are catered to people who don’t know how to cook very well (as they provide step by step instructions) and maybe go out to eat a lot, which I don’t so Hello Fresh was more expensive for me.

Misfit Markets interested me because it is just fruits and veggies delivered to your door. I know there are also CSA boxes that are similar, but I have found those to be pricey. Misfits Market is cheaper because it is fruit and veggies that are either not wanted by the grocery store or in excess. They say you get about a 20% discount on everything. I don’t know my fruit and veggie prices totally off hand, but I would definitely agree that it is a good value.

The other part I was worried about was packaging. When I tried Hello Fresh, I felt there was so much packaging wasted. I only took a picture of the box from my first delivery and yes the box is a bit beat up, but everything inside was fine. When you open the box, you usually will see some greens on top and you will notice there is like a box insulator so that the food stays fresh. The cool thing about the insulator material is that it’s a starch material. Other than the fact that it’s wrapped in plastic, the actual starch material dissolves in water!! It’s cool to see it just disappear as I had to give it a try with some. Under the greens there are ice packs and the ice packs are drain safe, so you can either save a couple for your own freezer or cut them open and drain the liquid and toss the bag. Some of the veggies as you will see in the photo are always bagged, but the material seems to be biodegradable and thin, so better than the usual produce bags at the grocery store. I also save the cardboard boxes (when in good condition) for when I may need a box for selling stuff on eBay or something.

misfits market1 — first delivery, most things except the greens

So back to the food part of the box. We have been pretty good about eating most of the food we receive. The only downside I would say to Misfits Market is that you can’t choose what you get in your box. Luckily I like most of the veggies in season right now. Our first box came with mushrooms which Brian ate because I don’t like mushrooms. We also got some pears that I ended up giving away (not a big pear fan) and nectarines which I ate some of, but typically I would not buy. I also quickly learned that if you get any fresh greens like lettuce or baby spinach, it is best to use those ASAP. This is pretty easy for us as we will just make a salad with our meal on Saturday or something. This is one way in which the boxes have made me eat more veggies. I have veggies daily, but I usually eat salads throughout the week at work and on the weekend don’t always feel up to making a salad so instead will just cook broccoli as a side or something simple.

Speaking of broccoli, we have actually received lots of broccoli from our boxes and that is one of my favorite veggies so I have loved that.

Everything is also organic. Last week we received some lemons in our box and we kept them in the fridge for a week and Brian cut one and said it smelled so fresh still.

We have also received some mangos. The first time we received 2 tiny mangos and they were ready to eat right away. That is one thing about the box is sometimes I feel the fruit and veggies HAVE to be eaten right away or they will go bad quickly. This may be a reason that they can’t make it to the grocery stores. You just have to be willing to be flexible.

We have gotten some baby potatoes and I slice them up to make some little potato chips to have with a burger. We also have received many baby zucchinis which are a little small to spiralize, so instead I slice and cook them like the potatoes as well.

I scheduled our deliveries for Friday so that I can see what we have and then go to the store Saturday morning to get other items on my list. I always pick up a thing of spinach at the grocery store even if I get greens in my box because I use spinach in smoothies throughout the week and my salads when I run out of the greens in the box. Often though, I will get cucumber, bell peppers and one box even came with the sweetest cherry tomatoes I have ever had. These are the typical weekly items on my grocery list for my salads for the week so I do feel I have saved some money on buying groceries as I usually just need to pick up condiments, meat and frozen items, very few produce items now that I receive this box.

The fruits and veggies they provide are the in season ones so I don’t know if I will continue this much past the summer. I know that Fall means a lot of squash, which I am not a big fan of. Already we have been getting a small butternut squash each week. We actually grilled it and it turned out quite good, but I don’t love it so I would rather get something else if I were in control.

grilled butternut squash, sliced it and wrapped in foil to grill

Also I did have an issue with a delivery over July 4^th and it’s partly my fault because I didn’t change my delivery day in time, but my package apparently was damaged and never made it to me. Misfits Market customer service was great though and refunded me for that week. I have a feeling the holiday and extra days in the truck when it was 90+ degrees didn’t help. I think next time there is a holiday I may just skip the week as that will be easier than switching my delivery day.

Overall I love getting the surprise of fruits and veggies. It has gotten me out of a rut with food. The packaging is great. The value for your money is great. I went to our local farmer’s market the other day and honestly you would spend more money for what we get. So far so good, but I’ll probably be a seasonal subscriber since summer just has better in season veggies and fruits for my liking.

Have you ever tried a food delivery service or fresh veggie delivery?

Currently July 2019

July 19, 2019 by Alicia 2 Comments

I sometimes forget I live in this little bubble of mine where I read healthy living blogs and listen to podcasts and other people don’t know about these blogs or podcasts. I love sharing what I am into with others, because I also find out about books, podcasts, latest products from others (influencers perhaps?). I am definitely highly influenced by others, but I am also at a point in my life where I know what usually works for me. I still like to explore when I want, but sometimes I just like to read other’s opinions on products and just take in different perspectives. We all come from different backgrounds and perspectives and I think that should be respected. Moving around has helped me see this a lot and appreciate, not only my own background, but hearing other perspectives. I don’t know if this totally ties into this post, but here is what I am currently up to this July. Maybe you will find something that interests you, maybe you will find this totally boring. Either way, I appreciate you reading along and following with my crazy life.

Current Book: Finished Michelle Obama’s book over the 4^th of July weekend and now I want to read the book I bought for my honeymoon trip that I never got to, The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand. Likely this will wait until August when I finish my classes though.

Current Podcast: Never Thought I’d Say This hosted by Jodie Sweetin (Full House!!) and Celia Behar. You guys…I am not a parent yet, but OMG this podcast is hilarious and makes me want to laugh out loud. If you are a mom, I think you will love it even more.

Current Purchase: Third Love bras. I’ve known about Third Love for a couple years I feel like and it was time for a couple new bras, specifically I wanted a strapless one (not sure what happened to my old strapless). I took their quiz and got a size and then ordered, but the cups were too small so I exchanged them. Exchanging the bras was an easy process, just be prepared for waiting a week for the first delivery and waiting another week for the exchange. So basically I feel like it has been since July started I was waiting for these bras, but I am happy with the exchange and excited to have a strapless bra to wear with certain shirts and dresses.

Current drink: On my La Croix passionfruit obsession right now. I like having one after dinner some nights.

Current TV show: Just finished watching Good Witch season 4 on Netflix and I see the season 5 is currently on TV and it was already renewed for season 6 so I’m excited. Besides that, the usual Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Gilmore Girls when I watch TV, but usually I only watch TV while I eat for about 15 minutes or so and then I get bored and move onto something else.

Current Food: I made a cauliflower fried rice the other night with veggies from our Misfits Market box. I need to write a post on that because the deliveries have been awesome.

Current countdown: 19 days until I am done with my summer classes and finals. I’m nervous for the finals, but I have been successfully staying about a week ahead on the homework since July started so that will help so I have time to study and review before the finals. Hopefully they go well. Then it’s onto reception party planning and some housework for a couple weeks before Fall classes start up. I can’t believe I started grad school a year ago in August. Having homework definitely makes the days fly by even though it can be stressful at times with working full time and managing everything, but I am still grateful for this MBA program.

On a fun note, I also did the Color Run last week with some friends.

The next couple weeks will be filled with lots of study time, but then I will get a little break and looking forward to another State Fair day.

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