Fortunate Fridays {Family + baking + running + working, Edition}

Good morning! 

Happy Friday. 

Breakfast this morning: Organic oatmeal w/ sliced almonds, raisins, ground cinnamon, & almond butter toppings

Hope everyone had a great week but even if you didn't, guess what-- you made it to Friday! Today's post is going to be quick as I have a long day ahead of me but as always, feeling grateful for everything that happens. And here we go.

1. First park outing with the family- Family and I celebrated mother's day at the park this part weekend and had a great time.

2. The joys of baking- Was looking for something sweet to eat after dinner on Monday but there was nothing in my apartment as I usually keep junk food out of the house. Decided to go search one of my favorite blogs for a recipe and it did not disappoint (cookies lasted about 3.5 days). Baking is one of those activities that calms me and brings me 'zen'. Does anyone else feel that way?

Chocolate Chip PB banana Cookies

3. The inspiration to cook dinner- I meal prepped on Monday so this entire week I had a combination of brown rice and beans with either chicken or shrimp. And of course, my veggie on the side. Pretty satisfying.

4. First outside run of the year- All of my workouts since the beginning of this year have taken place inside a gym. I am so excited for the nice weather (finally) and was able to complete my first outside run in about 6+ months! Looking forward to more runs on nice days.

5. More billable hours at work- More hours, more clients, very excited and simply humbled and thankful for all the opportunities.

And that's all folks. Thank you so much for reading and wishing you a great weekend.

Tell me, What was the best thing that happened to you this week?

Love,
Mabelle

My BFF was in town and Lessons Learned

This weekend was seriously ridiculous in terms of my eating habits triggered by stress but lets begin with the fun part shall we!! My BFF who lives in Washington State came down for the thanksgiving holiday. We needed to see each other before she left the city so on Friday night we all caught up at a local bar by the NYU campus (which is where she went to graduate school) and had a few drinks:

College Bffs.

My friend that’s visiting is the one all the way to the left. I admire this gal so much! We went to high school together, college near each other and despite our ups and downs our friendship remains solid thought the years. She is truly like family.

When I got home on Friday I managed to prep a healthy and quick dinner before going to bed. Definitely delicious:

Tilapia and avocado on a bed of lettuce and whole wheat tortilla.

On Saturday night we planned a last minute get together and she came over to see my apartment, which she hasn’t seen yet. We ate homemade shrimp quesadillas (was too hungry to take a picture and they were eaten in about 2.5 seconds) and baked chocolate chip cookies:

I usually don’t bake any cookies because in all honesty that would mean danger if I was by myself but since I had company I figured it would be okay. I also made her take the cookies we didn’t eat. When she left she sent me this amazing text which made me feel so good about myself and which I am saving:

Love it.

The rest of my weekend was spent studying and freaking out about an upcoming exam.  This is how it went down:

All this school stress is making me rethink my concentration (it is currently finance). I went through a similar hell in undergrad which I am still not quite sure how I was able to survive (and graduated with honors). I constantly wonder why I have voluntarily put myself in this torture—the sequel. They say that when you are doubting yourself and are going through stressful times on the way to a goal you should remind yourself of the WHY—what was it that made you dive in to the pursuit of the goal in the first place? Well, when I first started this journey I dreamed of being in wealth management at a prestigious investment bank but these days I am not so sure. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know my two passions in life involve finance and health and fitness. Only God knows what shall be my destiny! I am sure I will be okay is just the anticipation that kills me sometimes. Ugh!

I also think I found the culprit for why I break out. More on that on a different post.

In other (random) news. I have wanted to do something drastic/different with my hair for a few years now and I am really, really loving Alicia Keys new haircut. What do you guys think?!

Finally, I am a little behind with my Elf4Health assignments because of everything going on. Thankfully, I have an amazing “elf” that reminds me of the challenges and helps keep me on track. I am so happy I was paired up with her we have so much in common. Today’s challenge is prepping a yummy salad. I am actually really looking forward to it—specially after the weekend I had! I think I ate my entire pantry. Here is an idea of how crazy I went yesterday evening:

Note to self: studying at home and alone with food around is not a good idea. Live and learn!

I leave you with this tid bit of fitness inspiration. I saw this the other day and loved it. Definitely not giving up!

Almost forgot! Saturdays Elf4health challenge involved gathering stuff for the Salvation Army.  I managed to get this pile together while looking through my closet the other day. I am sure I have more stuff somewhere but this is a start:

Question: What makes you eat more than usual? Are you an emotional or stress eater? How do you handle it?