Inspiration with Some Peanut Butter on the Side

Hola amigos! (I'm helping Joseph work on his Spanish right now...it's one of the last credits he needs to graduate and he HATES it, but I love Spanish!)

This morning I was eating my Quaker Oats Quick Oats with raisins and cinnamon (mmm...sooo creamy and yum-o) while reading up on the news on CNN online and came across some really cool articles that helped renew my motivation to be awesome (well, more awesome, I guess) this year. I thought if I shared some of them, it may help you accomplish something awesome, too! One of them is "10 ways to get motivated for change in 2010." Check it out:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/29/motivation.new.years.resolutions/index.html

I love reading stuff like this. A lot of the steps are things that I already know to do, but being reminded to do them is helpful because it's easy for me to lose steam if it's a long-term goal (like how I gave up butter for one of my New Years Resolutions this year...it's still not any easier...).  One of the tips in this article that really resonates with me is to know thyself, and I especially like this part:

"Real change happens because you yourself want it, not because others want it for you."


This is definitely true for me. They say that "knowing thyself" is accomplished by stepping back and figuring out how you truly want your life to be, and I made a point at the beginning of this year to make it the best year EVER for me. Here's the preliminary list of goals I have for this year:

• Do a half-marathon

  Me, on just a typical training day.

• Eat healthier and more balanced
• Take classes/do activities that really interest me or that I enjoy
• Give up butter

I love you, butter. Why are you so bad for me?!

• Stop biting my nails
  

I'm really proud of my progress with these goals so far - I'm training for my half-marathon; have been doing really great eating healthily (and having a lot of fun being innovative with recipes); am taking a Hip Hop and Street Jazz dance class and courses to become a certified personal trainer; and have nixed butter from my diet. I relapsed on biting my nails after two weeks, though...it's tough! I wish they had rehab for this or something. I still haven't figured out a way to make myself really stop.  Does anyone have any tips for me?? After 22 years of gnawin' 'em to nubs (...ew, did I really just say that? That's gross...) it's pretty hard to break the habit.


What are some of your goals? I'm really excited expand on this list and continue to better myself and my life.  Any cool suggestions for me? 


Well all this talk about doin' stuff made me feel like I HAD actually done stuff, so I got really hungry and decided to whip up some peanut butter banana soft serve. What is peanut butter banana soft serve, you say? Only the BEST SNACK/DESSERT EVER, that's what!  Seriously, it is pretty flippin' incredible. Here are the ingredients:

• Peanut butter
• Banana

...that's it. Seriously! Stick a banana or two in the blender, toss in a generous scoop of peanut butter (well, maybe don't actually toss it in...that could get messy) and mush up that sucker 'til it looks like baby food. Only in this instance, there will be hungry babies, because no baby is taking my peanut butter banana soft serve.  

Peanut buttah jelly banana time, peanut buttah jelly banana time!

Baby poop food

Then put it in a bowl and throw it in the freezer for an hour or so (again, if you really want to attempt the throw, at least start at a short distance) and there you have it! Soooo delicious.

Finally, I accomplished my first 5 mile run today for training for my half-marathon! I got a pretty hardcore blister on one of my feet and was sweatin' like a seal (do seals sweat? Ok, maybe they don't sweat, but they're wet a lot, right?) by the end of it.  But I did it! And it felt really good.  Tomorrow's my stretch and strengthen day, so I'll give you a run down (pun intended, duh) of what I do then.

Have a great Monday morning! -Anna