Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Food Prep and This Week's Menu

I try to prepare most of my food for the week at the beginning of the week. Here's what my meals look like this week. For the most part, it's the same every day with minor variations for schedule changes.

First Thing: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup blueberries, 10oz water

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 whites scrambled with onion, pepper, spinach, mushroom and low fat mozzerella cheese, 4 veggie sausage links

Snack: Boca burger with 1/4 avocado, 1 slice tomato, mustard, lettuce, 2 slices of turkey bacon

Lunch: 3 cups lettuce, 1 cup cucumber, 1 cup strawberries, 3oz. chicken, 2 slices turkey bacon, 1 hard boiled egg, fresh squeezed lemon

Snack: 4 oz. ground turkey breast, 2 cups stir fry vegetables

Snack: Chocolate Shakeology, 10 oz. water

Post Workout: 1 scoop Results & Recovery Formula, 10 oz. water

Dinner: salmon, 1 cup broccoli, 1/8 cup low fat feta

Water all day long

To prep for this, I go food shopping on the weekend and
- cook all the meats: chicken, turkey, bacon - enough for the week
- cut up the produce and store in separate tupperware - cucumber, berries, mushroom, onion, asparagus

The night before
- prepare all meals in tupperware so I can just grab and go

The only thing I cook daily is the scrambled eggs and then dinner since I'm actually home by that time. Tupperware is my BFF.

Comment with questions :)

xoxo,
Sweet Charity

www.sweetcme.com

Monday, May 10, 2010

If it doesn't make me money, make me happy or make me skinny - I'm not doing it.

So I'm not over this weekend yet. Not by a long shot. I am constantly just completely baffled at how the people in my life can treat me with such disregard. It really makes me stop and think - maybe I'm just not as good a friend as I thought. I mean if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck.... If everyone treats me like shit, I must deserve it, right? I mean I would not be getting collectively ignored and disregarded if I were a good person. The fault must lie with me, right? Because if not,

I don't get it.

I keep re-evaluating my behavior. I live by the golden rule: you treat others the way you wanna be treated. That rule is my guiding light. I'm there for people when they ask for my help, I'm thoughtful and considerate and I'm always honest.

I'm always honest...

That last one has gotten me into trouble quite a bit. People don't seem to like to hear the truth all the time. Like when you let them know they're doing something wrong AND they know you're right. That's what really seems to upset people. I don't like lying - I don't see the point. Cowards lie. The only reason to tell a lie is because you want to hide something you're ashamed of. Cowards hide. When people ask for my opinion, I give them the disclaimer: Don't ask me unless you want me to tell you because you KNOW I will tell you the truth. And that's why they're asking me - because they know out of everyone, I will not only give an honest answer, but it will be the correct answer. But once they hear it, they suddenly wanna shoot the messenger.

This is not me being conceited. It's not as if I'm all knowing. I've just lived - and messed up a whole lot. So it makes it easier for me to see when other people are repeating my mistakes and if you're my friend, I don't want you to go through the bad stuff I've been through. So if giving you tough love will stop you from repeating my mistakes - that's what I'm doing. I only speak to situations I know - I won't give advice on something I have no idea about. Every single friend that I've told a truth they didn't want to hear - has come back AFTER they ignored my advice and said "you were right." Every.single.time.

I think that most people are, by nature - selfish. The first instinct is to think "how will this benefit me?" Every once in a while, like at Christmas or Mother's Day - they can think of someone else. But even then, most people still think of themselves first. If you have the choice between spending $100 on someone else to get a super awesome gift OR spending $50 on a less awesome gift and $50 on yourself, which would you choose? I mean, they'll never know of the more awesome gift you could've gotten anyway. I think...no I KNOW that 99.9% of the people I know would go with the 50/50 option because it benefits them.

That's where we differ. I'll pick the first option every time. Because it makes me happier to know that I got this person this super awesome gift that makes them happy. That's my nature. I don't say this because I think I'm better than anyone, I'm just explaining who I am. If I tell you I'll do something, I do it. Period. Because my word means something, to me at least. If I'm not sure I can do it - I won't tell you I will. I can't tell you how many parties and events I've gone to - not because I wanted to, but because my friend wanted me there. And some people will say "well if you don't wanna do it, don't do it." Sounds easy enough. But by the golden rule - if I would want that person to be there for me, then I'm gonna be there for them. Simple as that. What I want is secondary.

I understand that not everyone can be this way, which is fine. But when I - the person who has been there for you for every thing you've asked of her, asks you for ONE DAY out of the entire year to put her first - for just a couple hours...I don't know, I kind of expect that to be something you could handle. The bottom line is this:I asked for one thing for one day and only ONE person was able to follow through on it. Everyone else made the selfish choice and decided that even though this is the only thing I ask of them all year, they were still more important than me even on that one night.

So I guess I need to learn to be selfish. It's really the only solution I can think of. If it doesn't make me money, make me happy or make me skinny - I'm not doing it. Is that how it works? Is that what looking out for number one is like? To me, that sounds miserable. That sounds like a horrible way to live your life. But it seems to work pretty well for everyone else, so I guess I'll give it a shot.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Just Another Day...

I have a facebook page. While a lot of the changes that Facebook has made serve to annoy me to no end, I do think they got some things right. Reminding you of upcoming events - is like making your social calendar for you. I think it's great that they let you know when people's birthdays are. Some people just suck at remembering important events like that.

I'm not one of those people. If we're good friends, I know when your birthday is. I don't need Facebook to tell me. I expect the same. I'm only talking about the people who you're close with, who you would supposedly do anything for. Really - how about remembering their birthday?

When it comes to other people, I stress what a big deal a birthday is. So many people die young of several causes, that it is a celebration when any of us makes it another year on this planet. It's one day out of the whole year where people should go out of their way to be nice to you at the very least. Every once in a while, I'll put a "happy birthday" post on someone's wall. For the most part, I just text them. However, my birthday won't be showing up in your news feed. Why? Because I despise fakeness. It makes my skin crawl. Granted - not every person that would say something to me would be being fake. Some people just genuinely want to help make your day, and I can appreciate that. But I hate having a wall full of comments from people who never speak to me, never comment anything I post, and who I honestly forgot existed. It's annoying and I don't need it. I'll take the few, genuine, heartfelt comments from people who know me enough to know when my bday is.

I used to treat my birthday like a big deal too. That is, until I realized I was the ONLY one who thought it was a big deal. I'm an excellent party planner - and I planned great, elaborate parties designed to accomodate every single person invited. Yet every year - I was disappointed by people who didn't show and seemingly didn't care. So I decided that if it wasn't a big deal to anyone else, I should stop trying to force it to be one. I figured that by narrowing the pool of people I choose to celebrate with, it would also narrow the possibility of being disappointed by people. I did this - knowing full well that I should've known better. But I took a chance, as I often do.

I can't say that I'm going to give up on celebrating my birthday. There are definitely a few people who are faithfully always there for me, no matter what. I recognize that and I appreciate it - and I don't forget it when they need something from me. But I think the way to go is celebrating in small ways just for myself. Because it's a serious blow to your self esteem when you think you're a great friend, you're always at every one else's party and yet when it's your turn - nobody cares. I did spend a shit ton of money this week on make-up and clothes for my mini celebration ~ perhaps that is the tradition I will keep going.