Bloggers of the Day!! (chosen randomly from your comments)

• Food In Real Life – Jamie has been a friend of mine through the internet for a few years. She’s a genuine person with a lot of passion for healthy living.
• A Fit and Spicy Life – I’ve known Mellissa just as long as Jamie. She is such a great person. She loves traveling, wine, and giving out amazing recipes!
• Mangiare Buono, Vivere Bello – That means “Eat Well, Live Beautifully” and describes Steph perfectly. She posts killer workouts too. 

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I hope you all have had wonderful weekends. Sad to think they are coming to an end. As you may have read, I had a fabulous start to the weekend yesterday morning. After a delicious breakfast (pumpkin stuffed french toast), some chill time, and an hour long walk with the family, we headed out to the fair!

 

I love county fairs!! This was the first time we went together as a family. I had more fun than I expected. Likely from seeing my little M enjoy herself so much.

The fair had so much to see and do. We started off with the mini-zoo to let M peek at some of the animals.

 

I think she would have stared at that zebra all day. But, we had other plans for her.

She didn’t feel too certain on her first two rides, but by the end of the day, she kept asking to ride things again, again. Sorry, baby. Fairs are dang expensive!

Amidst all the teacup, sky bucket, motorcycle, and horse riding, we also meandered through the little country sections of the fair grounds.

 

Too bad, it was too hot to try some fresh cider! We had to have some fair food and what better to choose than the classic choice of funnel cake?

 

I already can’t wait until next year! It’s one of those Southern things about me. Just like my cravings for BBQ, which is what we had for dinner last night.

The BBQ dinner came with an unexpected side, however. Not the cole slaw or sweet potato fries. Those are pretty standard. Something else. 

At first, I couldn’t tell what bothered me. I knew I didn’t feel guilt. After all, I had a healthy breakfast and lunch, then my dinner was kept to reasonable portions. I only ate the meat with a some of the slaw and not even half of the sweet potato fries. I enjoyed it all. Through talking it out with Peter, I figured it out. I feel as though I am in eating limbo. I have things I want to improve with my dietary choices, such as being more mindful of ingredients and choosing whole foods more often.  The issue? I have no motivation to do so right now.

It’s so odd to mentally want to do these things and get back to eating in a more 90/10 ratio of quality food over things that don’t offer much nutritional value. Yet physically, sweets and really hearty meals sound incredibly appealing and I go with it. By no means do I not eat enough quality food. I know I do. On some level, however, I still don’t quite feel like myself and it gets to me that during pregnancy I somehow lack the drive to just do what suits my personal preferences outside of pregnancy.

When I add all that in to writing a healthy living blog, sometimes I feel hypocritical. I guess because I know my normal, I feel a bit like an imposter sharing my current lifestyle as healthy when I know its not really MY healthiest. No matter what, I always believe in balance. Pregnant or not, I still indulge in treats without guilt. In a few months, I won’t drastically change into this all or nothing person who never eats anything processed or refuses to eat some funnel cake or BBQ. Believe me!

I guess I am trying to say…I’m ready. I get excited thinking about having the motivation and desire for my regular lifestyle. I await the days where my mental and physical cravings coincide. I enjoy learning more about fueling my body properly for my passion of working out and having fun along the way. In truth, I know I am not a hypocrite. I’m simply a person with one small piece of the whole puzzle missing. It will return soon and I cannot wait to share it with all of you.

• Have you ever felt in limbo over something?
• Do you like going to fairs? What’s your favorite fair food if you have one?

Work week = over! I’m sure quite a few of you have donned your dancing shoes to dance for joy at the arrival of the weekend. I know I love a good weekend. Especially when the past couple of days have been slightly hectic.

Last night, I had visions of sugarplums pumpkin stuffed french toast for breakfast. Then, M woke up early yet again and acted cranky once more. She has had a somewhat upset stomach all of a sudden today…and required my attention to say the least. So, my lovely breakfast visions got ditched for a bowl of oats. Since you don’t need to see another bowl of oats, I’ll share an image of my lunch instead.

I love when dinner leftovers taste better than the night before! A tofu veggie stir fry with baby corn, water chestnuts, zucchini, onion, mushrooms, brown rice, and tofu. I think I love the ease of leftovers even more. I needed easy today.

Despite dealing with another stressful day, I felt a lot more laid back today. Maybe talking about my hopes and dreams helped me keep my sights on the larger picture of life. Maybe my post on gratitude for the Self-Discover Series stayed on my mind today. Or maybe yoga just makes me happy.

I guess all three. Something else that makes me happy? The picture above. Fitness Magazine asked me to get a few shots of myself working out to send in over the weekend. They have something coming up on how a love for fitness “clicked” for individuals and are apparently planning to use my “when it clicked” story. I’m not saying its a definite (I don’t want to jinx it), so only time will tell!

I would love if it did, though. Even though I experienced my fair share of issues with food in the past, working out has always been a good place for me. I rarely abused my love of fitness or treated it as a punishment. I won’t say it never happened, but on the whole working out always made me feel energized and helped me appreciate my body a bit more. It all began the summer after my sophomore year of college. After my required fitness class for graduation ended, I realized I actually missed working out. I began doing workout DVDs at home with my sister and had so much fun.

I continued trying new things and now have many activities I adore – kickboxing, spinning, all weight lifting, yoga, hiking, high intensity cardio drills, step DVDs, and more. Once I realized fitness could be fun and found activities I liked, I couldn’t get enough. There’s more to my story than that, but I’ll save it for Fitness. Now, I’m off to the gym to take photos of myself in the group fitness room. Wonder how many crazy looks I get? 😉

• When did exercise become an enjoyable and regular part of your life?
• What meals make great leftovers to you?