Recent Life Lessons

Hello, friends.

It has been entirely too long since I have updated. That seems to be a trend for me recently, doesn't it? I'll try to close the gap between posts. I miss it (and hopefully you miss me!).

Let's see, what's new with me...well, I've been successfully keeping up with reading for my English senior seminar, which is an accomplishment in itself. Usually by now I've Sparknoted nearly everything we are reading, because I simply don't have the time to do the reading. However, I've been really good about it this semester. That might have something to do with the fact that the novels are all post-apocalyptic fiction, which I love reading. For some reason, books set in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian, or utopian world are my favorite. I find them absolutely fascinating. I'm currently reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which I love. I highly recommend this book, as well was Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, if you need something to read. They are fabulous books.

My internship with Cincinnati Magazine has also been going extremely well. I can't believe I've been there for a month already, and that my boss is leaving within the next couple weeks. That will be rough when we lose Jonah. Such a great guy, and such a great boss.

I've also learned a couple things recently.

Number one: there is power in prayer. I don't know what it is, but I've been praying a lot more, and I feel a lot happier and relaxed. I woke up today feeling amazing and everything just seemed beautiful and peaceful. Life was great. Is great, I mean. Life is great.

Number two: God will bring the right guy into my life in His timing. I'm really impatient, and it doesn't help that I also really like someone right now. But I know better than to rush and make the first move. I just have to wait and enjoy the single life until the right now. Because, to quote a friend's Twitter, "The greatest relationships are the ones you never expected to be in. The ones that swept you off your feet." Couldn't agree more. 

Number three: I love the fall. Summer used to be my favorite season, so this change is kind of funny to me. But I absolutely love fall and everything that goes with it - sweaters, jackets, boots, scarves, blankets, hay ride, pumpkin patches, hot apple cider, pie.... it's all wonderful. I can't wait until Halloween, either - my friend is having a Halloween party, and it's the talk of my friend group. We are all pretty stoked about it. 

Number four: People come into your life for a reason, and when they are out of your life, it is not something to be sad about. You have to be happy and realize that you learned something while they were in your life, appreciate what you learned, and move on. It's not easy, but it's manageable. Too often I think about how I wish multiple people were still in my life, but it's just not possible. The friends who have stuck with me over the years are the friends that matter. 

Anyways, that's all I have for you today. I missed posting the Daring Bakers challenge for this month (it was empanadas - I made them, I didn't like them, I forgot to post about them. Oops). I also missed posting about my Foodie Pen Pal box, but the box was amazing and I absolutely loved it.

Keep me posted on your lives. Let me know what you want to see next from me <3

Much love,

UPDATES & KLUTCHClub Review!

Hey guys! 

It's been a week since my last post. A while, right? I've been swamped recently with stuff for school - I go back in two weeks, but the Newswire (our student paper) publishes its first issue next week for the freshmen who move in early. Crazy, right? So I have been really busy trying to get everything organized for that issue, like making sure we have a publisher, advertisements, stories, etc. Nuts! 

That being said, I haven't had much time to blog. Even now, I'm feeling a little pressed! I'm nervous about my Cincy Magazine internship, starting in September - and I feel like I will be turning down the opportunity because of the lack of time I will have in the school year. I really don't want to turn down this opportunity, but I feel like Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will be the only time I have to do homework (all of my classes are on Tues/Thurs, which means a lot of homework on those days). With the internship, I wouldn't be able to actually do much on those days until around 4:30pm, and on Wednesdays, I have a night class. Which means less time. What should I do?

I've also been down and out with something called Parotitis - basically, swollen spit glands. It sucked because I couldn't chew anything and it was really painful. How did this happen? From this stuff:

Don't use it!!!! Seriously. If you read the reviews on Amazon, other people have become sick from using this mouthwash. It's terrible. I don't understand why they don't take it off the market - it's from one of the ingredients in it, called CPC. Gross. Avoid at all costs. I had to take Amoxicillin for 10 days because of it. Thankfully, as soon as I stopped using it, I felt better. 

I've also been trying to get back into my faith. I tend to get fired up about it, and then let that fire die down - now it's time to re-kindle my love for God. Stuart and I are both working on it together - even since he went on a Catholic family retreat and heard a speaker named Justin Fatica, he has been more enthusiastic about what he believes. He's Catholic, and I'm Protestant - so we have differing beliefs, but I'm trying to be more open to learning about his. We are both starting a read through the Bible in one year program, plus I bought some Bible studies for me. I'm hoping Stuart and I can find a study to do together as a couple.

This weekend was also a little crazy. I went with Stuart to Columbus for the weekend for his little sister's 4th birthday, which was a lot of fun! I took them some pretty little sugar cookies (I used this recipe). Aren't they pretty? Princess crowns, glass slippers, diamond rings and Tiffany tea pots! I had a lot of fun making them! Lydia (his sister) loved the cookies - she also got cute little bike for her birthday. Her brother (Simon - 2 years old) loved the cookies too! 

I will say this - I wasn't watching what I ate this weekend. Bad me. But now I'm back on track, counting calories and trying to eat healthier. Working out is escaping me, mostly because I don't have the time right now to dedicate to anything except my massive Newswire and back-to-school to do list. 

This lack of time means I'm quite a bit behind on product reviews. Whoops! That means I'll have quite a few coming your way this week. Let's start with another review of KLUTCHClub! You may have read my earlier review of this company. Well, they loved it so much that they sent me another box to review! How great is that?! Love this company!

What is KLUTCHclub? Well, its a monthly subscription service that provides subscribers with a box each month. That box contains over $50 worth of fitness, health, and wellness products like DVDs, workouts, snacks, makeup, and more. And you only pay $18 a month (or less)! You can subscribe for one month of one year, you choose. This is geared especially towards women. 

The above box is what I was sent this time - June's KLUTCHClub box. 

This box had quite a few things in it. One of my favorite discoveries was the Journey Bar (which I will also be reviewing shortly!). Journey Bars are basically savory nutrition bars, which are so cool since everything currently on the market is sweet. I absolutely love these. They use amaranth inside, which little round superfood seeds. Yum. The flavor sent in the box was coconut curry - and let me tell you - it was DIVINE. It tasted kinda like curry corn bread. I absolutely loved it. Try to find these sold in a store around you!

There was also a small bar of soap from Savy Boheme. It was an African Black Soap - fair trade and organic, like everything else this company sells. It was okay - I don't like bar soaps because they always make me feel really squeaky. However, if you like bar soap, you'll like this. 

There was also Japanese moisturizer from Yu-Be.  This is apparently the #1 selling medicated moisturizer in Japan. Who knew? I tried it on my hands, and I thought it was a little greasy. However, the packaging says it is also good to use on your lips and face for dry, cracked skin. It is a glycerin based lotion with added vitamins E, C, B2 and camphor. This kinda reminds me of Aquaphor or Vaseline. I think I'll try it on my heels, since they are so dry!

Next, Crum Creek Mills (I am also working with them on a review) sent one of their most popular items - Soy Nut Mix. If you like soy nuts, go for it. It's a decent snack mix - it has raisin, chocolate chips, soy nuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. However, it baffles me as to why it was featured on Dr. Oz and Oprah magazine. Hm. I think I just don't have a thing for soy nuts. I didn't really like this, but like I said, if you like soy nuts....give it a try! 

Finally, there were coupons - a free month subscription to My Barre3, $25 to Body Language Sportsware, and $30 off an OG Sack. I tried to My Barre3 workout, and I thought it was a challenging toning workout, but not for cardio. I'm more of a cardio person. My Barre 3 combines pilates and the ballet barre to get in a nice workout that will tone you and make you lean. Sadie, the creator, is a very fun person and I liked her personality a lot. If you are looking for a new workout, this is a good one to try! I haven't used the Body Language Sportsware gift certificate yet, because I really need to stop spending money, but all of their products look great. The coupon doesn't expire until September 15, so I'll definitely use it before then! And the OG Sack - well, I don't do enough yoga to utilize this, so I probably will not be using this coupon. The bags look cool though, and they have a special strap for carrying your yoga mat - check it out! 

Whew. There was your June KLUTCHClub! Are you inspired to buy your first box yet? If so, just click here to get started! 

Thanks again to the people at KLUTCHClub for being so patient with me. Look what I made from their box: 

Isn't it cute? I'm using it to hold books on my dresser in my room! And it's a great way to recycle instead of throwing the box away! Do you think I could win KLUTCHClub's Reduce, Reuse, ReKLUTCH contest? VOTE FOR ME PLEASE!!!

That's all for now, guys. Thanks for reading all of this, and enjoy your summers! 

Much love, 

A Day in the Life

So this was my life today:

Xavier had this event called Holi today. Apparently Holi is a Hindu spring festival of colors, so what does Xavier do?

....get students to throw water balloons and dry paint at each other, that's what!

As you can see, even the shirt underneath the white shirt got colored. And some may have even fallen down my shirt...oops. I even found some paint hiding in my ear. 

On a more depressing note, I'm 90% positive I have compartment syndrome. 

What is that, you may ask? 

Essentially, the casing around my calf muscles do not swell with the muscle when exercised, so my calves become extremely tight and painful when I exert too much pressure on them. Here is a more medical definition:

Compartment syndrome is a condition in which swelling and an increase in pressure within a limited space presses and compresses blood vessels, nerves, or tendons that run through the compartment. There are two types of compartment syndrome, acute compartment syndrome is treated with surgery (fasciotomy) and chronic compartment syndrome, which is treated with rest and modality to the affected limb. Symptoms of compartment syndrome include pain, change in sensation, change in color, paralysis, or numbness in the affected limb. (Source) 

Granted, this is a self diagnosis, but when I was going through therapy for my "shin splints in both legs" 3 years ago (thanks to playing ultimate frisbee freshman year in college), the doctor mentioned it could be compartment syndrome and then shrugged it off. Therapy didn't work on my shin splints, by the way. And I definitely experience the main symptom: pain when running for more than, oh, 3 minutes. 

My hunch was furthered when discussing running with my friend, a passionate runner. I was explaining how the tissue around my muscles do not swell with the muscle when exercised, and she immediately told me how she had that same problem, discovered she had compartment syndrome, and had to get surgery. Now that she has had the surgery, she feels like a totally new person. 

I'm at a loss on what to do. I don't want to stop running, since I really just started, and I have been accumulating running gear so I can become a better runner. No amount of stretching seems to help, so I've ordered a foam roller and am going to try some DIY deep muscle massage as well as icing my calves. Does anyone else have any suggestions on what to do? 

Much love, 

Back to School Stress & Raw Food 101

**Have to entered my giveaway yet? Only ONE DAY left to enter!!**

I've only been through one entire day of school so far, and I am already feeling extremely stressed.

I have a terrible, terrible case of the Mondays.

Let me explain. From 9:30am - 1:30pm I am in class. From 3-5pm I meet with my spiritual mentor, from 5:30 - 7pm I meet with the leaders of Navigators, from 8-9pm I lead a small group, and from 9:30 - 10:30pm I have my RA staff meeting.

Needless to say, Mondays are CRAZY. At least for the moment. I'm debating what I can do to lighten up my schedule!

So yesterday, being a Monday and the first day back to school, was crazy. I was feeling really physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted, and then finding out that my Jane Austen class will be reading approximately 15-22 chapters of a Jane Austen novel for each class sent me a little over the edge. Thankfully, today I am feeling a bit better.

Today was also Day 4 of my 30 Day Shred challenge! So far, it's going pretty well. I'm still on Level 1, and after briefly looking at what is in store for me on Level 2, I decided to stick with Level 1 for at least a full week. I'm always sweating buckets after each intense 20 minute workout and feeling pretty good about myself. I can definitely tell that I am building strong muscle! However, I am still incredibly terrible at push ups... I don't know if I'll ever get better at them! I can usually do the initial few, but then have to stop because I just can't push myself back up. Hopefully, after spending some more time doing the shred, I'll become a lot better at them!

I also received 3 other Jillian Michael's DVDs for Christmas: Yoga Meltdown, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism, and No More Trouble Zones. I will most likely move on to one of those after I finish my 30 Day Shred challenge. I am a bit concerned about Yoga Meltdown....because I am extremely inflexible and bad at bending. According to Jillian, she isn't flexible either, although she is still more flexible than I am.

However, exercise just isn't enough if I really want to lose those 20 pounds in 30 days. It also involves a change in diet; a switch to healthier eating. I am trying my hardest to eat more fruits and veggies, since I rely a  lot on processed foods and junk foods, because I know that will help me develop a lean body, burn the most calories I possibly can, and shred away all that fat!

Before I cut my hair and dyed it back to my original blonde. How I miss my long hair :( 

In light of healthy eating, I'm going to talk about a newly released DVD from raw food expert Tanya Alekseeva of Better Raw. This lovely lady really knows her stuff when it comes to raw food! A Russian wellness coach living in London, I heard about her raw food expertise through her e-book, Seduced, which contains tons of great raw chocolate recipes! 

Basically, I REALLY need to purchase that e-book. I would love to make raw chocolates!

Her new DVD Raw Foods 101 is a 2 and 1/2 hour guide to everything you need to know about raw foods, including health info, food prep, recipes, how to use a dehydrator, making nut milks, and much more. The program is divided into short sections, so you can choose to watch different parts or all of it at once. I found this DVD to be extremely insightful. For example, I learned: 

-Maca is good for your hormones

-We crave chocolate on our period because of body is lacking magnesium

-Chia seeds are much easier to digest than flax seeds

-There are two different types of juicers, masticating and centrifugal

-The molecules in greens resemble the molecules in human blood, so drinking green juice is like having a healthy blood transfusion

-1 glass of soymilk = the same amount of estrogen found in 8 birth control pills. Yikes!

And so much more! Her recipes we very easy and sounded delicious, not to mention looked beautiful. 

Complaints? My only complaint is that, at the endings of sections, the final word sometimes gets cut off. Still, this isn't a big deal, and it only happens on a few of the sections. Because of the amount of information provided and everything you will learn from this program, the DVD is worth the money you will spend purchasing it. 

For more information on purchasing Raw Food 101, click here.

The Daisy Rating

4.5/5 Daisies

Thanks for allowing me to review your DVD, Tanya! Best wishes to you on your raw food journey! It has definitely inspired me to try to incorporate more raw food into my diet. 

Have a great day, everyone! 

Much love, 

Back to Dairy Free

Hello friends!

Well, let's be honest. Finals are killing me. Mostly because I hate studying, rarely study, and get very distracted and bored out of my mind when I study. So you know what I do to help?

I procrastinate!

Today was my last day of finals, thank goodness. I had Forensics, Media Literacy, Oral Communications (speech class), Early English Literature, and Principles of Strategic Communications (this is basically an intro to public relations and advertising class) finals. Now I'm free! Hallelujah!

This is totally me.

The downside is that I can't leave school until Saturday morning, because I have to stay and help close down the dorms for Christmas. Oh well. There is still a lot I need to do, anyways: pack, clean, organize, defrost my fridge, and other things.

I usually work at Victoria's Secret for school breaks - however, since my Christmas break is cut a bit short for RA stuff I gotta come back and do, I'm going to be babysitting at a nearby church as much as I possibly can to make money. They pay me $10 an hour to babysit, and I've been picking up a lot of hours, which is great! Hopefully I make a decent amount of money off of this! I'll also be visiting a lot of family for those grand, yearly family gatherings everyone has. I'm not gonna lie - I'm really excited for presents :) My favorite!

I mentioned a while ago that I was switching from a vegan to a vegetarian diet - well, I think I'm switching back again. This time, however, I'm planning on sticking with just dairy free. It's the dairy that I know is truly bad for our health, and it's the dairy that makes me feel heavy, gross, and weighed down. So I'll be avoiding dairy and eating things with gelatin (like fruit snacks, gummies, and marshmallows). I'll also probably eat some honey.

Why? Well, I kind of went on a crazy cheese  rampage for a while - I ate a lot of Skyline (a Cincinnati chili place - i got their veg chili) with their amazing cheese, pastas with cheese, pizza...whatever. I love cheese! Which makes me really sad. Daiya is good, but not as good as the real deal. However, every time I eat cheese or heavy dairy I feel the consequences later that day or the next - heavy, sick, gross...I even through up once from eating a friend's cupcake. Thus, I have decided to once again ban dairy from my diet, since I believe that is the cause of my ailments. And it's bad for you, anyways.

What do you all plan on doing this Christmas? 
Much love,

Holistic Nutrition

Earlier this year, I was accepted into a program here at school called TRIO Student Support Services. I applied because they help students in the program pay for college; that was my primary reason for applying was to receive free money. However, there are also a lot of requirements I must fulfill each semester to stay a member of TRIO, including monthly meetings with a counselor/staff member and going to various workshops. My counselor recently told me that I needed to decide what I planned to do with my major after college, and I've been thinking about that question a lot recently.

An English major? Psychology and Theology minors? What do I do with those, exactly?
Well, honestly, I will probably never do anything with psychology. I just minored in it because I enjoyed the classes. As for theology, I could potentially use that if i decided to apply for Navigators Core Team after I graduate. Other than that, I don't see much of a use for that minor either.

English. My thought for this has always been to become a journalist; I would LOVE to be on staff at VegNews, Vegetarian Times, Food Network Magazine, or some food related journalism opportunity. Right now, that is where my decision has stayed. I want my future job to involve writing and food. I would also love to write a cookbook or some sort of vegan friendly book. Anything, really. Or write a novel. Hmmm.

Recently though, I've been regretting my decision to become an English major. I'm not going to lie; Xavier's English program is rather crappy if your future job is not going to involve teaching or criticizing books. I really have not learned anything from my English classes and I have learned more about journalism from being on staff at The Newswire and writing and revising tons of articles. Too bad Xavier doesn't offer a journalism major. They should really get on that.

Hahaha- I love this!

I thought about applying to culinary school for college; I should have done that! I mean, come on, I cook all the time and am constantly reading about nutrition (although that's a more recent development, thanks to recently becoming a vegan). It's so enjoyable. I constantly think about food and eating and health related issues.

So, my recent decision is that I should have gone to college at a school where a culinary arts program or holistic nutrition major existed. The University of Cincinnati has a Culinary Arts program as well as Dietetics and Food & Nutrition programs. And they also have Journalism and English majors. I totes could have double majored!

I've found myself studying holistic nutrition. What is it, exactly? According to www.holisticnutrition.com, it is:

Proper Nutrition is the basis for optimum health and well being. Holistic nutrition is the modern natural approach to developing a healthy balanced diet while taking into account the person as whole. Holistic nutrition is considered to be part of holistic health.

Holistic health is an approach to treating a person’s well being by taking into consideration all aspects of life. A long term course of action includes emotional and spiritual health along with the physical body. Modern medicine focuses on treating a symptom rather than the root cause. If a person is experiencing a symptom or chronic condition, the problem has most likely been developing for some time. The goal of holistic nutrition is to facilitate a health recovery plan as well as build a strong foundation for long term optimum health.

• Educating yourself on basic nutritional terms
• Incorporating natural and organic foods
• Overcoming obstacles in practicing holistic nutrition
• Creating simple holistic menus
• Developing a customized holistic diet
• Addressing the role of natural holistic supplements
• Reviewing the latest nutritional studies
• Addressing chronic health conditions with holistic nutrition

Food not only provides the energy needed to function in our daily lives but constantly supplies the nutrients which are required to build and regenerate body tissue, bone, muscle, fat and blood. The nutrients in food are also necessary to produce substances for the chemical processes that take place in our bodies millions of times a day.

Sounds pretty sweet to me. And I totally believe that the way you feel depends on what you eat and how you treat your body. Becoming a vegan has taught me that more than anything.

This is a random picture I found from MaryVancenc.com -
it basically just shows the main foods we should
focus on eating!!

Instead of studying for my final exams this week, I have been trying to find somewhere I could take a class in holistic nutrition over the summer. So far, no luck. I might have to buy some books and read up on it instead. But taking classes would look SO much better if I ever wanted to apply for, say, a summer internship at VegNews (English major + food experience + being vegan + educated in holistic nutrition? WINNER!)

Finally, let me say this: I'm not trying to bash my English major. I appreciate it, I love my teachers, and I'm sure my writing has probably improved (even though I've written so many pointless papers on stupid books I can't even tell you). The English major will totally help me land a job in journalism, and my love for food will help me gain the food aspect of food journalism. 

But what should I do after I graduate? (An early graduation, a semester early, is in store for me, I hope!) Go to culinary school at the Natural Gourmet Institute and complete their 5 1/2 month training program? Apply for a VegNews Internship in California? Stay in Cincinnati and pursue a smaller journalism option? Go to college part-time for holistic nutrition? What should I do?! 

Any advice/thoughts?