Simple Ways To Make Sure Your Holiday Party Is Vegetarian Friendly
When you’ve been hosting Christmas dinner for years it’s pretty much a no-brainer. You know the must have treats (chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa) and the non-negotiable side dishes (homemade mac and cheese and baked beans). Your brother-in-law makes a ham and everyone is happy.
Until your niece decides she’s vegetarian.
As you review the plan you realize just that from the chicken stock in the stuffing or the ham in the baked beans, you’ve got a lot of animal on your menu. The mac and cheese might do…unless she’s vegan! You feel like you have no idea how to create a vegetarian friendly holiday party!
What To Do With The Holiday Blues
The tree is up and sparkling. You’ve got the holiday music station playing as you make a cup of Gingerbread Chai. You pick up your latest library find, thankful you’ve already got a new book to swap at the book club party. You are in no mood to fight the holiday shoppers this weekend.
Yes, all the normal things seem to be in place. But something is missing.
You can’t seem to find your holiday spirit.
The Formula For A Flexible Holiday Fitness Plan
Traditions matter. They are the thread that tie our generations together. They bring the magic to the holiday season. I don’t want you feeling guilty about them, stressing about them or struggling with FOMO.
Don’t sign up for the boot camp style no sugar holiday fitness program! Where’s the fun in that? You can keep the things that really matter AND still honor your fitness journey. It’s how we live in the Middle Ground and THRIVE through the holidays.
Welcome to your flexible holiday fitness plan – the 12 Days of Fitmas!
Desk Stretch Tips For Tight Hips
How many hours a day do you spend sitting?
The seated posture isn’t our natural state. In the grand scheme of time, we aren’t that far away from a time when we spent our days moving out of necessity. I know the “Little House on the Prairie” life seems like another world but I remember my great-grandmother’s hand powered washing “machine”.
You need to move and stretch on a regular basis. If you can’t get up, try this 4-point desk stretch plan for tight hips.
Your Simple Holiday Wish List: 9 Creative and Indulgent Fitness Gifts
You are determined to end this year on a high note.
After a few bumps in the road this year, your mantra for this holiday season is:
Let It Be EASY
After being so focused on doing what needs to be done all year long, you want to indulge yourself…just a little bit. You want something special under the tree, not a replacement for your broken slow cooker. You don’t want things you need, you want what you WANT.
That means something with a little thought and NO gift cards. It doesn’t have to be expensive but it should be from the heart. It should be something that speaks to your desire to live an authentic fit life.
I’ve got you covered. I’ve curated a list of some the best creative and indulgent fitness gifts just for you! Let me help you make getting what you want this holiday season the easiest thing you’ll do. Here’s your delightfully simple fitness holiday wish list!
5 Cozy Black Teas Inspired By Fall
A steamy cup of black tea is warm and cozy, pairing well with a “can’t put it down” mystery novel or plowing through your latest Netflix obsession. It’s a gentler way to start the day when you must get going before the sun is even up. It’s a flavorful and soothing mid-morning treat that is kinder to your body than the break room cookies.
Fall is also a great season to work on self-care. With the go-go-go of summer long past and the holiday hustle still a few weeks off, you can make time to set your intention and recharge yourself. If you want to enjoy the perfect cup of black tea and indulge in a game of self-care bingo I have exactly what you need!
9 Essential Books For A Growth Mindset
Nothing in nature blooms all year round.
Why do you expect yourself to be so different?
Just like a workout, our real growth comes from the time you take to rest. You get stronger from the recovery not pushing yourself to the limit every day.
Yet most of us do just that. Falling victim to all or nothing thinking, it’s easy to think that anything less than 100% or perfection doesn’t count.
You pay a price mentally and physically when you spend all of your time chasing perfection. You need to slow down, even stop, and embrace yourself as a Work In Progress. You need to take a pause to let yourself recover and regroup. Autumn is the perfect time go within and shed what no longer serves you. It’s time to work on your mental game and nurture your growth mindset.
Here are 9 essential books to help you change your perspective on your ability change.
What You Can Learn From Failure
Most of the time, we talk about failure like it’s a bad thing. The reality is perfection teaches us nothing. When we fail we learn so much more. – Pamela
Hi! My name is Hilary and I blog over at bakesbyranchcookie.com. Today Pamela wanted me to talk to you about resilience. As a college athlete, I am thrilled to share my story of resilience with you on the soccer field.
My journey playing soccer started when I was just four years old. It went from just a hobby to a passion as the years went by. I started playing a couple times a week during the fall season, and that turned into playing year-round including the winters. It became my first love.
From four years old, I went from playing baby fields with baby goals, to playing a more competitive type of travel soccer. I was on my high school varsity team from Freshman year and became a starter my Sophomore year, receiving most valuable player.
Then I went onto to Capital University to play Division III soccer in the NCAA league.
The second I started college soccer it was anything but easy.
Unfortunately, I started my Freshman preseason coming off of a month-long illness, where exercise could become dangerous. It seemed that all the time I spent preparing for the moment I stepped on the field in college was destroyed by coming into a new season and new team out of shape.
What once were legs that surpassed my competitors, now slowed down to barely finish at all. What attitude to never stop came to a halt when my body just didn’t want to move anymore.
It wasn’t just preseason that summer affected, it was my entire Freshman year of college that was affected.
A once starter as a Freshman in high school, I only saw the field once that year, and on the last game of the season.
It was the year that I wanted to quit soccer more than anything.
5 Secrets To A Resilient Life
At my Refill Your Cup Retreat this month, we did a workshop on resilience. My goal for that workshop was to share ways we can build the resilience muscle and create a resilience action plan. We talked about the 3Ps of Resilience: Personalization, Pervasiveness and Permanence as well as what some call the 4th P – Perspective. For those who couldn’t join us, I think Ashee’s tips for living a resilient life are great “quick hits” on the skills we learned. – Pamela
Hey everyone! I am so excited to be here with you today and talk about one of my favorite subjects in life. You know those days when life gives us all the wrong cards and we don’t know what to do? Well, I am going to give you a few pointers on what to do in those situations. Let’s talk about one of my good friends and motivators: resilience.
Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Just to be clear, I am not telling you to put your issues behind you the moment they happen and keep trucking. I am telling you that life happens and we must be ready to take it on, handle it and move onto the next thing. Resilience is the often misunderstood as running away from a situation and “being strong”. This isn’t resilience, this is insanity. Resilience is the balance it takes to mourn when it is time to mourn (Ecclesiastes 3) and to put a smile on your face when the time comes. If we push ourselves beyond emotions, our worries don’t go away. Those worries end up under the rug and they will come back with a vengeance! Eventually, the mound grows and we will have to clean it out. All at once will be much more difficult than situation by situation. Trust me. I am a, “it’s okay, let’s go” person, even when it’s not.
I created my top 5 recommendations for a resilient life and I hope you find these tips useful and encouraging.
How To Build Your Resilience Skills
Have you read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz? I read it about a year ago and it easily became one of my favorite books. Along with my personal fitness mission statement, I try to let the wisdom of the Four Agreements guide me. The hardest one for me is “Don’t Take Anything Personally”. Yet that may be one of the most crucial resilience skills. Today Jocelyn from An Unprocessed Life talks about accepting what you can’t control and taking action with what you can.- Pamela
As someone who’s always been emotionally sensitive, I’ve always heard “grow tougher skin”, “don’t take things so personally”, among other things. You start feeling down because of x,y,z. Your friends tell you, “Don’t worry, you’ll bounce back”. But what does that even mean?
