The Necessity of “Me Time”

I love my boy.  I love my friends.  But I have a tendency to overbook myself sometimes and I’ve come to realize that I am the type of person who really needs “me time”.  I know there are people out there who love to be around people all the time but me?  I really love when I get to kick back, relax and just be by myself.

Tonight was one of those nights.  I took the opportunity to just hang out with ME.  It went a little bit like this:

• Checked out a new store my friend told me about called Love Culture (check it out – it’s like Forever 21!)
• Went tanning (after being called pale one too many times this past weekend!)
• Cleaned my room – I was oddly excited to have time to do this… kinda creepy.
• Doodled in the gratitude journal
• Read some bloggies
• Listened to some of my favorite music
• Relaxed, relaxed, relaxed

Sometimes, I just need time to recharge.  I do love being around people and having fun but sometimes I just need time to do the things I love to do.  Whether it’s shopping, blogging, reading or just laying in bed.

Do you need your “me time”?  What are your favorite things to do when you have time just for yourself?

La, La, La, Love

It’s Friday, bloggies and I’m in sweet, sweet love with the following:

Eat. Pray. Love.
I haven’t finished it yet but I can’t remember the last time I felt so inspired by a book.  Bloggies, you HAVE to read it.. no seriously… you HAVE to read it.  I promise you won’t be disappointed.  And for those of you who have already read it, didn’t it make you want to up and take off on an adventure of your own!?  It sure made me feel that way!

The fact that I have one week of work left, then nothing but relaxation for a MONTH.  Holy guacamole!!

 

 

Pooltime
My boyfriend’s pool is the PERFECT temperature & I love jumping in after a game of tennis or for some night swimming under the stars.

 

 

My Gratitude Journal

I finally, FINALLY started my gratitude journal (months later than I planned, oops) and I love it.  It’s very much like these Friday posts with things I love/things I’m thankful for plus I use crayons and channel my inner kid and have fun coloring.  An excuse to color while bringing positivity into my life – double win. :)

 

*This post brought to you by the It’s Friday, I’m in Love series by the awesome Summer at B is for Brown, Breathe & Believe*

Happy Friday, my little Bloginis… Have a great weekend! xo

Weigh-In Wednesday… on Thursday

I think I’m cutting the pictures out of Weigh-in Wednesdays.. only because that seems to be the thing that actually keeps me from getting a post up.  It’s too much work to take the picture (in the morning when I’m skinniest duh!), load the picture, save the picture….. well, you get the idea.  What can I say?  I’m lazy sometimes (oh and always running late for work heh).

Anyways, I decided that my real starting weight should be that awful high number I saw in April which started my whole dieting/working out phase.  So here we go:

Starting weight (April): 184
Last week’s weight: 179
This week’s weight: 176.5 (2.5 lbs lost this week!)
Total loss so far: 7.5lbs

Mini Goal: 165lbs

My Love & I are cruising to Bermuda in EXACTLY one month.  I would love to really kick up the dieting and working out and lose another 10lbs before we leave but we will see.  I’m going to try my best but I also don’t want to beat myself up if I can’t lose all 10lbs, as long as I’m working hard I should be proud of myself.

Speaking of Bermuda, omg – my heart is SO excited for PINK sand and CLEAR BLUE water and, and EEEE!!!!  Sorry, I just can’t control my pure excitement!

Well, that’s all I got for today – I’m feeling lovey this week so check back tommorow for a “Friday, I’m in love” post! xo

Life, at the moment…

Oh life, you are just flyingggg by these days.  It is quite insane but the most exciting part about life flying by at this current minute is that I’m down to only TWO! weeks left at work.  Seriously, I feel like just yesterday I was asking myself how I would ever get through three more months and now!? next Friday, I’m walking out and never going back.

Don’t get me wrong, the last three years at my job provided me with a steady and stable income and I met some really great friends there.  And that is pretty freakin awesome.  But I am SO excited to move on and begin this new chapter of my life.

A new career path – graduate school – internship – oh my!

I am just so excited though for it all.

In other news, about two weeks ago, I had jury duty for the first time and I ended up on a trial for 3 days.  It was actually really interesting and I really enjoyed it!  Mostly because my fellow jurors were such nice people and I got to learn so much about each of them.  Jury duty is quite a unique situation in that it brings together people who under different circumstances probably wouldn’t get to know much about each other.

I have to admit that although I’m 25, when some of the other jurors would talk about their teenagers and “kids today” I couldn’t help but feel like they were talking about me.

I had to remind myself that I’m not close to 16 or 17 anymore but I still don’t feel like a “real adult” sometimes, ya know?  It’s almost like I’m still playing pretend in the “real world.”

It was a funny feeling.

Other than that, I’ve been a busy bee at work trying to train my replacement and get everything in order for my departure.  I’ve been spending time with my love.  Getting together with friends to watch The Bach & True Blood.  Compiling a list of goals for the summer (coming soon!)

Since this is a bit of a random post.  I’m going to throw in a mix-tape Monday pick.  This song has been growing on me, especially after seeing a couple use it for their first dance at their wedding.  It was SO cute and different for a first dance.  But it was completely sweet and made me fall in love with the song that much more.  This was actually one of Lacey’s first songs she featured on her Mix Tape and now I’m sharing it here.  Enjoy!

Hello, Summer

Hello, fireflies lighting up the backyard & crickets singing me to sleep.

Hello, date nights that include sitting on the deck with our feet in the pool and our fingers interlocked.

Hello, night strolls around the block.

Hello, very long goodbyes at the end of the night standing next to my car.

Hello, the smell of fresh cut grass.

Hello, French Vanilla iced coffees in the middle of the day to cool off.

Hello, sprinklers and the memories of running through them as a kid.

Hello, playing hooky to go to the beach.

Hello, days spent lounging by the pool with a Corona in my hand.

Hello, sundresses, very little makeup & wavey beach hair.

Hello, dining outside and enjoying every beautiful day and night to the fullest.

Hello, SUMMER.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Back to Square One

Hello my loves!  In case anyone was worried – all is well.  I’ve been in a very reflective mood as of late which is why I think I was compelled to post one of my favorite poems the other day.  I’ll update on life soon but right now, we have to deal with the matter at hand…. weigh-in Wed!

I apologize (to you guys and also to myself!) for skipping out on my weigh-ins the last couple weeks.  I gave myself a free pass after Memorial Day weekend but then the next weekend turned out to be equally bad, eating wise – with a wedding and grad party (and way too many martinis and yummy (bad!) food)

So, here we are weeks later.  I got on the scale this morning thinking I would see a very bad number.  The result was….

…exactly the same as when I started this adventure (I used the same pic since I was lazy lol).   Which  means I gained back the 2 lbs I lost after the first week.

The Good

I am actually really happy the damage was not worse than this considering I’ve really really fallen off the dieting wagon lately.  I’m also happy that I have still kept off those 5 lbs I lost while on South Beach in April!  I’ve also been staying active and playing tennis at least 3 times a week.  So there’s a couple positive things.

The Bad

Overall though, I am disappointed in my lack of discipline lately.  My eating has not been good at all and it all began Memorial Day weekend.  I could sit here and list a bunch of excuses – it was a holiday, I was at my friends house, wedding, graduation party – but it all come down to the fact that I need to learn how to eat healthy no matter what situation I’m in.  For instance, at the wedding and grad party I could have made smarter drink choices.  My usual diet drink is Vodka Club w/ a splash of lime.  But lately, I have been indulging in too many beers and sugary martinis.

And even if I can’t control the food at these events, I at least need to grab some control over portion size and stop myself from over eating. 

Sigh.  Lessons learned.  Lessons learned.

The Bottom Line

I’m considering this a fresh start.  Yes, I’ve veered off course and thought I would be doing better by now.  I’ve reflected on where I’ve gone wrong and I know what to change.  So here are some new goals:

• Continue getting in 3 good workouts a week
• When I choose to drink, make a smarter choice like Vodka Club
• Watch my portion size
• Try to cut back on the bad carbs (mostly white rice, white bread, potatoes)

I feel like setting guidelines for myself will be really helpful so let’s see how this next week goes.  I have a little over a month until I go on a cruise to Bermuda so I’d really love to lose at least 10lbs by then.  Which is totally achievable and would be a healthy weight loss of about 2 lbs a week.

NEWBIE ALERT:  Amanda just hopped on the Weigh-In Wednesday train and wrote her first post about it.  Head on over there to give her some encouragement, would ya dolls?! 

Oh yeah, and happy hump day!

A Favorite of Mine..

The words just aren’t coming to me this past week.  So today I’m sharing a favorite poem of mine.  I’ve always tried to learn something after going through an experience (especially a negative one) – whether it was a broken heart, a fight with a friend, or a failed attempt at something, I always tried to walk away with a little nugget of wisdom.  So, I guess that’s why this poem speaks to me like it does.  Enjoy!

After a While
by Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t always mean security.

And you begin to learn
That kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman
Not the grief of a child

And you learn
To build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is
Too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way
Of falling down in mid flight

After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers

And you learn
That you really can endure
That you are really strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and you learn
With every good bye you learn.

Relationship Checkup

Today I got to thinking about relationships and what it takes to make one work.
(how very carrie bradshaw-esque of me, I know)
I thought about how we take our cars for tune ups,
our teeth for cleanings,
our bodies for checkups all to prevent and catch problems early -
and maybe our relationships deserve the same kind of attention and care.

All this thinking started when the Boy and I got into a little spat on Tuesday.
The fight itself was pretty minor and insignificant
but at the same time revealed something bigger
that had been bothering him for awhile now.
You guys might not know this but I don’t read minds
and I had no idea he was feeling the way he was.
If you’re curious -
the jist of it was that he felt like we always do what I want to do.
But I always thought we were doing what WE wanted to do.

The issue was easily resolved but the thing that was really bothering me was
why it took so long for him to say something about it? (9 months in!)
I spent the majority of yesterday very upset over it.
I couldn’t help wondering what else was bothering him,
What else he was keeping inside and not saying to me.
I learned first hand a couple months back what keeping things in will do -
The tension builds,
You get annoyed over little things,
When a simple conversation can make things all better.

So when I saw him yesterday I had one request for him:

“Please, please don’t keep things bottled up.  Because those little things fester and build inside of you and then this happens where something that should be a little, stupid one minute fight becomes so much bigger.  So, just put it out there.  Tell me if there is anything bothering you.”

And he did.
And then I did. 
Nothing Earth stopping, just little things. 
And when it was all said and done,
Any tension I had been starting to feel between us was gone. 
And there was a calmness and comfort that came with the honesty.
And a new feelings of closeness from being allowed to say the things we really felt.

And it really got me thinking that every so often,
maybe its necessary to give our relationship a checkup.
To fine tune it,
So that it runs smoother than before.
To catch that cavity before you need a root canal.
To fix a problem before it’s irrepairable.

And really – relationship checkups are totally better
than those car tuneups,
teeth cleanings,
and doctor visits I mentioned anyways,
because these checkups end with awesome,
hot – iloveyousomuch, makeup sex.

And if there’s one thing I can get down with about fighting,
It’s the making up.

That Kinda Day

I’m not a big fan of today… me & today – we are not friends.  I was late to work.  I was fighting (through text messages no less!) with the boy as I was getting ready. Although, it was not over anything particularly significant or serious, it still really upset me and started my day off on the wrong note.  And of course, it’s never fun to come back to work after a nice long, relaxing weekend.

I don’t like to give into my bad moods though, so I did what any internet lovin gal would do and searched high and low for images and quotes to brighten up my day.

So, for all my bloggies out there who are need of a little pick-me-up (just like me), here’s a little slice of my searchin.

It started off with looking at some pretty things…

and moved onto inspirational things…

followed by some true things…

and most importantly…

happy,

happy,

happy things.