I am constantly on the go at school and now that recruitment is over (yay for new DG babies!) I was hoping that things would be a little less chaotic. Boy was I wrong. I have been even more on the go and frankly SO freaking exhausted. I cant even think about going out at the end of the day because all I want to do is climb into bed!

To go along with that feeling…I have really not felt like myself this past week or so. I am normally so involved with my friends and sorority and as much as I love them I have felt such a social disconnect. I don’t think it’s necessarily intentional, I just have wanted to kind of do my own thing-but at the same time I know I’m “leaving myself out” and probably missing out on a lot of fun. But what am I really missing out on?

Is that normal? Is it okay to feel antisocial? Does anyone else have periods where they feel like that? Helppp. I can’t wrap my finger around what’s wrong…

I think a lot of it is such a disconnect with God. I have felt totally lost within my relationship with Him. Any advice??

On to the eats!

Green bean chips and sweet potato chips from fresh market! yum!

RIP PB&CO

Annie's Chedder bunny mix!

SO freakinggood!

Make shift snack pizza. Low fat mozz,Turkey pep and coco pop rice cake!

School Lunch...Wrap with tomato,lettuce and turkey with side salad and unpictured soup!

“]

Hummus=

How do you mix natural pb??

Those are some of my food highlights. My roomate also bought me a box of these when I was feeling down the other day…

DANGEROUS. so bad, but SO good. I need to practice SERIOUS self control.

 I hope you are all having such an amazing week and aren’t being too hard on yourself. Sometimes we go through the day and beat ourselves up for the littlest things that truley don’t matter. Just remember YOU are unique and it is important to not only be kind to others, but be kind to yourselves

God's beautiful painting

QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever felt antisocial? How do you deal?

2. Whats your “no self-control” food??

Love you ALL!

I’m still here and have SO much to fill you all in on! I am busy with recruitment, work, school and student productions this week/weekend and have done nothing but eat, sleep (kind of) and breathe. I’ll be back later this week with plenty of food and life updates to come!

God bless America. Lets take time to remember those lives lost in the September 11th tragedy and pray for their families.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father … comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.–2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17

Hope you’ve all had an awesomeee week! If it’s anything like mine youve been BEYOND busy!! Can you believe FALL is setting in and school and work are about to/already have kicked up a notch? Its crazy how busy this time of year gets!

Anyhow-This week has been a rollercoaster of work, school, play, and shopping. My bank account (or lack there of) lately is hitting an all time low and I’m so happy that a job has come my way! Although between work and school-some day’s i’ll be going from 8am-8pm-I am so THANKFUL for this opportunity and the extra cash will be so helpful.

$$$ You feel me college homies?? $$$

I really don’t have that much to catch you all up on but as far as food and cooking goes-the late time snacking/mindless eating is still a struggle for me but I feel better for the most part. I don’t have any eats pics from this week because Ive been in such a rush Ive hardly had time to think about my food let alone get a scrumptious picture of it!(and sometimes its just awk to take pictures of your food in certain settings ie class, social events…)

I promise ill be back next week with actual foodie pics and fun =]

Moment of Honesty:

Hi, I’m Claire. And I haven’t exercised in a month.

I feel a cringe just saying that. But its TRUE-I have not worked this body out in a 4 weeks. Who am I? How can I be part of the Healthy Living Blog world and not put exercise at the top of my to-do list? I feel guilt but also satisfaction. I truley miss exercising for the endorphins, muscle/mind/body movenment but I do not feel like Ive missed out on being a slave to the elliptical or track.

Heres the kicker: After a month of not exercising-I’m STILL alive. My body still works. I still feel strong. My clothes still fit. I am still smiling.

My clothes may be snugger, I may not have the extra endorphins from working out but I am still ME. God still loves me. For those of you facing recovery or balancing life in general I just want to remind you that exercise is NOT everything. You are still YOU even if you don’t get on the treadmill and bust out 4miles a day. Walking counts! LAUGHING counts, being a strong,healthy individual COUNTS. I am not criticizing any of you that work out everyday of the week-I just want this to be a reminder that it’s okay to be honest with yourself and your body and exercise does not have to be your life.

“There’s lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven’t the time to enjoy it.”  ~Josh Billings

This was hard for me to admit, but I hope it helps others see that you can still live a happy life and not have focus solely on working out to “feel” good about yourself everyday.

XOXO

Claire

UH! I feel SO disconnected to the beautiful blog world lately. I haven’t been able to keep up with everything and everyones pages this past week with move in and the start of classes.

Now that I have a good hour to myself, I figured I would finally POST on my site since its getting pretty dang lonely.

And YES, you did hear correctly-NEW camera!! I’m so pumped. Holla to my peeps at HH Gregg who hooked me up with this awesome deal! I got the Samsung TL220 and LOVE ittt. Its a touch screen and has lots of options but is still easy to use (I’m not the best with technology) AND it has the double view so when your taking cool/myspace pictures of yourself like above, you can see yourself from the front. Im sure most people have heard of that feature but I didn’t even know it exsited!

 Anyhow, my eats lately have been pretty on and off. I hate to say it but I think the mix of stress and nerves off school has kind of turned down my appetite. (probably because I haven’t excersied in what feels like forever too!!!) I’ve been doing a lot of snacking and eating meals only when I’m TRULY hungry, which has been so good for me.

Since I struggle with binging/overating at home, its kind of nice to have the school schedule and atmosphere again where my eats are what I want, when I want.  I’m sure once I adjust more to my schedule and such I’ll have more consistant meals again and get back into an exercise regimine.

Its my go to for dessert or a little snack with an apple or rice cake, or just outta the jar. Yummm in my tumm.

I LOVE having a fridge full of fresh fruit and veggies and having the option to make omletes and my own wraps with hummus and turkey pep etc besides just whats in the Caf (ick! after 2 years!) or the salad bar.

*TIP* For any readers who are troubled with mindless snacking, especially at nighttime latley I’ve been asking myself this question before I reach for an unhealthy snack or head towards the ice cream carton-

“Would I rather be hungry for a satisfying, savory breakfast in the morning or stuff myself now and go to sleep with a belly ache?”

Sometimes questions like that don’t work, but now I seem to respond better when I seriously question my actions and make sure my body is in tune with what I’m doing as well. As an emotional/mindless eater I have learned to remind myself that -You are going to eat for the rest of your life, you DO NOT have to stuff your face all in this one moment!

Moving on-

I went to get a mani this Sunday before classes started and asked the women to give me a french with a design. I was kind of hesitant but decided I wanted something fresh and fun for the start of school so I let her go at it and got this:

As the lady was finishing up she looked at me said “Its good to be different”

I thought to myself “Wow-thats the best thing Ive heard all day”- It IS good to be different and we all need to celebrate our uniqueness a little bit more! 

Me and the Mama

 What makes YOU unique?

SO good to be back!!

XOXO

Claire

My room may look like a cramped 2×4 -but its my little space and I love it. Plus my bright orange sheets make me extra smiley when I see them

"Orangeya glad I didn't say banana?"

This is definitly my happy color lately, usually its green but I’m feeling the brightness of orangey/pinks this month.

Anyway-onto more important things than color-SHOES!

Yayy! Since move in got delayed due to all the rain Monday I went shopping with my Mom and Aunt and we all got a pair of these sandals!! I LOVE how dressy/casual they are and anything with bows and lepord print-I’m THERE

I’ve already been so busy with school stuff and still feeling really uneasy about being back. I know it just takes a little time to get back into the swing of things but lately I’ve just been feeling “left out” of my usual comfort zone and friends. My whole life I have been more of an introverted person and I think that’s why home was so enjoyable for me this summer. I had all the “me” time I needed and didn’t have to feel like I was missing out on things.

At school, I definitly put myself out there more and like to keep busy with people (and yes, the party scene) but as of now I havent really seen too many people and have been back and forth staying with my family. Its weird that I’m a junior and facing these problems-when I was a freshman/soph I LOVED school because it was my “runaway” place from the hell of senior year/ED.  Being far from home and not having to deal with the baggage I left there was like paradise. But now that I’m older I realize that running has not solved any of my problems. I still let people get to me, I still resort to taking my stress out on my Mother (which IS so horrible and makes me so frustrated) and I still have a part of me that is SO lost. I know I need to let go and realize that summer is over and a new year is starting but I just cant seem to grasp that this isn’t a vacation or a sleep-away camp.

I am getting a new camera tomorrow so you will no longer have to look at these dreaded bberry pics but here are some of my eats lately!

Greek chicken shredder bowl with brown rice, lettuce, feta, chickpeas, olives and cucumbers!

Flat out wrap, turkey pep, hummus, feta and green grapes

Almonds, cashews and cranberry mix x4 like errrrday

and the chocolate raspberry kind!

Those are all the pics I have now of yummy eats because my phone doesn’t save them so I can’t take tons until I have an actual camera again. But trust me when I say I have EATEN far more than this-some not so healthy and some more healthy. Either way, I feel like I have been eating my way through my emotions lately.

I have an event tonight and will probably head to my Grandmas early in the morning to spend one last day with my Mom before she returns home. I can’t wait to take more pictures and fill you in on things/eats once school gets started again.

What has been your hardest move/adjustment recently? College-parents-new school-boyfriend?

Love you all!

Hello my beautiful bloggie friends, ooooo how I’ve missed you all! I was having serious computer/internet/BLOGing withdrawls on our little road trip and we’ve been non-stop busy since the start of our roadtrip.

A quick little recap of our drive from Dirty Jerz to FL:

After starting out on a bad note (thanks to a little PMS and a nervous soon-to-be junior aka ME) my Mom and I were already at our wits end by the start of our first morning of driving. To make matters worse our Tom-Tom took us through downtown DC and an EXTREMLY round about way to I-95 and that only heightend the stress of the drive because my Mom and I do not do well in new areas like that. Add an extremly full bladder, an empty belly and a massive caffiene headache and by 12:30pm we were DUNZO.

tall non-fat chai tea latte extra pump of chai, no water-extra hot. (sooo demanding, i know )

 But after we had this-and hit up the bathroom we were much better and MUCH happier

North carolinaaa

After the Virgina traffic it was smooooth sailing. We also had these:

A super sugarry smoothie!!

SO yum. I already miss you Wawa !!

Peppers/cashews/multigrain chips & hummus

My aunt had these snacks waiting for us when we arrived Saturday.

Berries and Bubbles drink-TOO cool!!!!

Not the healthiest but delcious chicken mexi-wrap and FRIES (such a weakness-sooo worth the damage!)

Lois Papa's grilled veggie pita platter SO good!

Ive had sooo many delicious eats at new restuarants while visitng my family in FL. I’m moving into my room tomorrow and to be honest-i’m SO worried about it. Ive been having a lot of issues with my living situation right now and have definitly been letting some people get me down. I hate that I agonize over certain situations and things people say and do but it’s definitly making me get down about moving in. I’m letting one person ruin my excitement about being back. I need to learn to stand up for myself and be stronger-but its so much easier said then done.

Oh and for those of you who were asking- I go to the University of Tampa (yes where sexy ROBERTO from The Bachlorette played baseball ow owww)

Ques: How do you guys deal with negative people? Kill them with kindness-or say what you feel?

I’m such a nervous wreck when it comes to confronting people.

HOPE youre all having an AMAZING week!! Cannot wait to catch up on your beautiful lives

XOXO

Claire

(weird because I don’t really know what a biddy is…girlfriends? loves? boobs?)

*Anyway, I apologize if I used that word wrong and in someway just called you something inappropriate.*

How are you all on this FINE THURSDAY afternoon?? I’m running around like crazy getting packed up to go back to school (so this will be a shorter post). Spartan Pride here I come!! Even with all the apprehensions and insecurities I feel about going back this semester (all of your comments made me feel so much better, yall are the best!) I am PUMPED to be back in the swing of things,take classes I LOVE, see my friends and the boy and have some fun!

My Mom and I are driving back to FL tomorrow morning and plan to get in on Sunday. As long as the 20hr car ride is, I actually LOVE doing this. We stock up on good snacks (trail mix, grapes, chocolate covered pretzels etc.) and buy plenty of trashy magazines to keep ourselves entertained on the drive. I love jammin to music with my Mom and stopping at every other Starbs on our way a see a caramel frappuccino light in my future…

ooooo yeahhh baby

 I haven’t been very succesful in taking pictures of my eats in the past couple days because I’ve seriously been the energizer bunny lately and this is one of the first times I’ve sat at my computer in what feels like forever. So much to do, so little time!

I promise to be back soon with updates about college and moving in and lots of yummy food and that dang Wacky Cake recipe-trust me, you want it

Off to get more things packed up (holy hannah- I have TOO many clothes…) and dinner at my favorite restuarants tonight. I will DEFINITLY be taking pictures of the scrumptious Salmon salad I’ll be ordering along with a side of mouthwatering, warm, mushroom RISOTTO. I wish you could all join me!

Me with my beautiful sisters at our campus pool

 PS- BTBB update- I bought a smokin pair of Levi skinny jeans today- size 5 (normally I wouldve freaked but- NO SHAME, gotta get that boootty!)

Thank you all SO much for your kind words on yesterday’s post. I know that we all struggle with our own weight concerns and insecurity and its really refreshing to get such postive comments on how to deal with that. You are all too sweet! I am going back to school holding my head high because attitude is everything! (thanks for that reminder Jennifer!)

At the end of my last post I also spoke of Jean Drama. The tight or loose feeling you get when youre slipping on a pair jeans can cause a lot of anxiety for many women (and men). I struggle with JEANS a lot-I haven’t bought a new pair in about a year because I fear the size, feeling and stress that will come with trying/buying new pants. But to be honest, I am sick and tired of staring into my closet and drawers and seeing jeans that once fit my body (hello middle school, hello ED…) and feeling like I am not a good person for NOT fighting into those pants anymore. Jeans are known for being comfy, sexy and casual…no matter what the size!

Thats why I am on a mission to BTBB.

Bring The Booty Back.

WHY do we feel the need to change our bodies and rate our worth on a pair of pants that is manufactured in bulk? WHY don’t we change the pants to fit OUR bodies??

Lets bring SEXY back and a BOOTY that proudly goes along with it

As Kayne West once said:

“Welcome to the good life
Where we like the girls who ain’t on tv
Cause they got more ass than the models“

(disclaimer: i know Kanye says A LOT of bs, but this was a good lyric…)

But frankly, he’s right- WELCOME TO THE GOOD LIFE.

I am going to BTBB and stop freaking about jeans that dont fit and find ones that DO-Just for me and my booty

WHOSE (booty) is WITH ME?

“]

lookinnnn good girl

Comfy and casual!

Work ittt

So, I am offically saying BUH-BYE to the jeans that do not fit and working a pair that do. Feel free BTBB with me. NO SHAME-just working it. Attitudes what its alllll about. Looking good and feeling good. As the inspiring Katie said “strong is the new skinny”- BOOTY is back.

Ill leave you with a link to video and song that I’m loving right now http://vodpod.com/watch/4213173-katy-perry-teenage-dream-official-video

“Let you put your hands on me in my SKIN TIGHT JEANS be your teenage dream tonight”

Love you all!

Okay maybe I’m the only one who saw this movie and didn’t particularly like it…actually, I realllly didnt like it. The book was/is SO much better. Well I can’t really say that since I’m only halfway through the book but still, my hopes were so high for this movie especially with the beautiful Julia Roberts, but sadly it was such a disappointment! It dragged on and on for 2 and a half hours and frankly-not much happened! I wont go too much into detail because I don’t want to be really negative if you haven’t seen it or enjoyed the book and MOVIE but it was definitly not my cup of tea. I think I’ll stick to this Julia Roberts…

hellloo Pretty Woman

On to other news, my eats today were pretty boring. Cake for breakfast (oh my lanta…), grapes and a luna bar as a snack, an 2 omletes for lunch requested by my Mama, peanut butter from the jar and left over flank steak, potatoes and a fresh salad. Not too shabby. 

Wacky cake. I SWEAR its good. actually amazing-hopefully I'll remember to post the recipe this week!

Last night's Wacky cake with ice cream (may or may not be x2)

I leave for school at the end of the week and yes, I’m excited to get back but at the same time I wish summer could last just a little longer. It will be a breath of fresh air to start a new school year and be reunited with my tampa babes but at the same time I’m having such an internal conflict with myself about going back. I don’t even know exactly what that means but I think I’m feeling slighty (thats an under-exaggeration) insecure about my surroundings at school. Don’t get me wrong, Ive had the most amazing past 2 years at college but for some reason-this year seems different. I know I brought this up a few posts ago, thats how I know it must really be bothering me. I don’t know if its the fact that summers are usually the time when everyone “goes home, works, gets their bodies in shape, detoxes from alchy, and just relaxes” but I feel like my summer has been the opposite. I traveled to Italy for 3 weeks, I had a very inconsistent babysitting job (hellloo $5 bank account), gained 8lbs (that is not an exaggeration) and have kind of just disconneted from the college life I used to crave. 

I’m very nervous about going back to school and facing my weight gain. Yes I definitly think the weight gain was good for me (and trust me, thats realllly hard to say) because for the past 2 years I have still be borderline “normal” weight for my height but now that I’ve gained it all back, school is stressing me out. “Girls lose weight over the summer” and always come back “looking and feeling” their best and now I’m the opposite-I ate my way through summer. Yes, I know comparing yourself to other people is a terrible thing to do but how can you not when youre constantly surrounded by girls who are always “dieting” and striving to be thinner and better etc. ITS FREAKIN HARD! 

 Ugh, i’m UBER stressed about this situation. Being home is definitly a comfort zone for me and I think that’s why Im fearing leaving so much since my weight gain. My family is always right there with me at home, a no judgement zone and now my Dad even makes comments to me saying “You look great Claire, your getting curves again”. And yes thats good, but in college curves are not a compliement. I’m sorry to be ranting about this, I’m just struggling. 

QUESTIONS 

1. Did you like Eat, Pray, Love? 

2. How do you deal with the body image pressure at school, college, work etc? 

I have to say, I did thoroughly enjoy the Italy section of the Eat, Pray, Love movie. It WAS a confidence boost that when Liz spoke of embracing her muffin top and stopping the guilty/negative feelings about what she eats, and more importantly if our jeans don’t fit…why do we keep trying to fit IN them? BUY NEW ONES!!! (I’m going to keep reminding myself of this…) 

Thanks for listening, oy vey! 

XOXO 

Claire

This weekend was by far one of my favorite weekends this summer. It was full of delicious eats, good friends, family time, God and LOTs of laughing!   

“I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh.  It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” Audrey Hepburn  

 Amen girl, amen. Laughing is the best, it is the sensation that truly makes a person glow from the inside and out.    

For starters, both my parents and my brother took off work on Friday so we could spend time as a family. Since it is so hard for us to all find time to hang out/vacation when our schedules are constantly all over the place-a “day-cation” was necessary.   

We went to a place called “The Grounds for Sculputre” in Hamilton, NJ and it was so sO SO much fun!!   

We stopped at Wawa in the morning to get gas and my brother and I immediatly went in the snack shop and stocked up on candy for the trip(it was only an hour drive lol). My Mom reassured me that it was okay to have an apple and sweedish fish as breakfast…because it WAS vacation    

There was so much ground to cover when we got there and so many (inappropriate) jokes to make about the AWESOME (nakie) sculptures we saw. -yes our minds were all in the gutter that day. So be it.   

Here are some of the pictures from the day: 

 

The happy married couple!

 

Waiting for the bathroom...

  

Shaving with my homegirl.

 

We're biffs.

There are sooooo many more pictures but I won’t bore you with any more! We had SUCH a great day and ate a DELISH french restaurant while we were there. Lots of bread and garlic butter, pomme frits (best fries ever), salmon baked into a puffed pastry, and CREME BRULEE :  

Yes, that butterfly was edible-and scrumptious!

And on to more eats!   

Egg white om w/baby bell peps, onions, mushrooms, laughing cow swiss, spinach and canadian bacon. perfection

Mom's "once a summer" BLUEBERRY PIE

Baked tortilla chips with Wholey Guacamole!

A true homecooked meal-Flank steak, au-gratin potates, and green beans. (I had 2 more servings of potatoes-i couldn't resist!)

DUNKINNNN !

(unpictured DD blueberry muffin…the top layer of muffins are to die for!) Ive been in such a blueberry mood lately. My toes are even painted blue right now! So summery    

Those are just a few of my most delicious eats from the weekend. I also took the train into the City to see one of my best friends :   

photobooth is our fav

new apartments and went for a few long walks with my Mom (window shopping walks that is…)   

I havent exercised all week…which is both good and bad. Good because my body truly hasnt felt up to it (believe me I tried) and I want to give it the rest its asking for and bad because I know I need those extra endorphins and the natural energy to keep me going for the start of school. Exercising also makes me feel better about my body and I definitly have been harder on myself this week because of that-but I’m learning to let that go. We do what we can in life and sometimes we just need the time away from working out to really tune back into our bodies!   

QUESTIONS:   

1. What were your best eats this weekend?
2. Do you ever take week-long breaks from the gym?

Tip for the week:   

Spend a little extra time with your family this week. They’ll really appreciate it. I forgot how good it was to hang out with JUST my family for the day and it was a blast    

Thanks again for reading!!   

XOXO   

Claire