My favorite Smoothie

I always wanted to make smoothies at home, but never did. The past 6 months or so I've really gotten into it and have a smoothie everyday for breakfast.
However, my absolute favorite smoothie I've come up with is a snack smoothie I sometimes makes in between lunch and dinner when I'm feeling peckish.

Cinnamon Almond Butter Smoothie:

some crushed ice
2 bananas
2 scoops of almond butter (or peanut butter if you prefer) I use the chunky kind
a shake of turmeric
2 teaspoons of chia seeds
as much frozen mango as fills up the cup
a good healthy portion of ground cinnamon
almond milk

I just toss all of it into my blender cup up to the top and blend until smooth.

This smoothie is really filling and I like that it's not super sweet, but the mango gives you a little sweetness and you get the good spiciness of the cinnamon. I usually make this for myself every few days when I'm craving a snack. I finally gave up the ice cream, cookies, etc a few months ago and have tried to start eating healthier snacks and meals instead. I instantly started feeling better over all.

Let me know if you try this or let me know what your favorite smoothie to make is(I'm always looking for new suggestions!)

Happy Blending!

actual photo of me with my smoothie

Getting Out, Body Acceptance and that summer feeling

The sun is shining, we have heat advisories and you start to sweat just walking from the house to your car. Summer is definitely here. Even though it is hot and everything is crowded, Summer is a great time to do some reflection and with that in mind....Here are 10 things I'd like to accomplish this Summer.

1- Learn to accept/love my body more. Look, I'm fat. I know that. There's no getting around it, but I've spent too many years letting my insecurities and worries about what other people might say about me keep me covered up. I live in Texas. It is rare that we ever dip below 90 and common to be above 100 most days in the summer. I've forsaken comfort to keep myself hidden away in cardigans and long pants in this heat for too long. Which leads me to

2- Step outside my comfort zone. Wear sleeveless shirts more. Buy some shorts. Let myself be a bit more comfortable and learn to ignore all those insecurities to at least not keep so covered up I give myself heat stroke.

3- go to the pool more. Go to the waterpark. Get in that water and get out of that heat.

4- Keep going to the gym. Go more. Work up to longer time/higher incline on the treadmill. 

5- Stop eating out so much. Cut it down to once or twice a month instead of 2 or 3 times a week. 

6- Eat healthier in general. Instead of ice cream or cookies or cake, have fruit for snack. Or nuts. 

7- Look for a job. All of my previous work has ended and I really need to kick it into high gear, beat my anxiety that's been keeping me from working and get back into it. 

8- Explore. Texas is such a gorgeous state and I really want to get out there and see more of it. There are so many cool cities and towns and areas to visit so close by. I just need to get out there and see it. 

9- Have fun!!! Whatever I'm doing I want to have fun. I have such a tendency (well mostly due to my pessimistic attitude and anxiety) to over analyze things and not actually enjoy the moment. I need to work on just enjoying what I'm doing instead of worrying about everything else. 

10- Keep Cool. Like I mentioned, it gets hot here. It's already hot, so have fun. Keep hydrated and keep COOL!