Fortunate Fridays + Tomorrow's Post

Hey guys! yes I am alive. I apologize for my hiatus this past week. School has started again believe it or not so I have spent the last week of my life trying to sort out my schedule and would spent literally the ENTIRE day away from home! But I am happy to say my schedule has been set and I am excited about the semester. I am actually taking 2 courses I am super excited about. Will share more on that as the semester develops.

By the way--- I promise the blog is more than just fortunate Friday posts! I will be posting more often as soon as I am finally settled in to my new routine. I feel that my friday posts have become a tradition already so, if I can help it I wont let them slide by :)

Soooo here goes...This week I felt fortunate for (these are super RANDOM so, get ready :)

1. Being at the right place at the right place at the right time-- Went to church this past Sunday and went to say hello to a friend of my moms who is from Ecuador. Well, as we walked out of the church she asked whether I eat chocolate (ummm hello?! I belong in C.A- Chocolate Anonymous) . Well, she handed me a small bag of traditional Ecuadorian chocolates and candy. I would say this is not necessarily an 'amazing' thing for my healthy lifestyle. But, everything in moderation, right?! :) I was able to stretch out the candy for longer than 5 minutes so I'll call that an accomplishment. lol

2. Meeting new people-- Met someone this week. We have a ton of things in common but I still dont know what to think. I'll share more as I feel more comfortable. This shall be interesting. :)

3. The blessing of being able to attend graduate school and finally take courses I am passionate about! :)

4. The ability to get back on track and identifying what my food triggers are which helps me find ways to control myself.--- I have to be honest. This week with all the stress and anxiety of getting my schedule together I ate A LOT. And I dont mean a lot of healthy food. I mean a lot of junk for at least 2-3 nights out of this past week (I would come home super late and just eat). The important thing is that I am FULLY aware of it and of what my triggers are (stress, exhaustion, anxiety). I think that when you understand yourself and the reasons why you do certain things you can find ways to fix it or work around it next time you're faced with a similar situation.

5. Most Importantly: Being alive and well-- This morning I received some terrible news about someone I know who passed away (She was in her mid twenties) I was on my way to work and felt incredibly helpless and devastated. it was also a wake up call to realize that being alive is  BLESSING that we need to embrace and feel incredible thankful for. No tomorrow is promised and as cliche as that may sound, is the truth. We may be going through tough times in life but as long as we are breathing and still here, thats all you need. Everything else can be fixed. 

Dayana-- I dedicate this post to you. May you rest in peace and thank you for being such an amazing person. Although I just met you briefly you introduced me to a whole new world and so many amazing things to see in your beautiful country, Peru. Thank you for teaching me so much about life and being the best tour guide i've ever encountered. I know God you has you in his highest glory.


Tomorrow I plan to write up my January recap, how my goals went and introduce new goals for February!!!! :)

T.G.I.F

What do you feel fortunate for this week?!

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?