Time is scarce.
I’m sure that was a newsflash to everyone…
Lately I’ve been struggling with wanting to move forward in several areas of my life, but lacking the time it takes to make the necessary changes.
In the gym I’ve been rushing through workouts because I’m so busy at work. I’m still putting in the effort, but my rest time suffers. Last night I took the time to more thoughtfully move through my workout and take the rest I need between sets. Lo and behold, it paid off! I hit a new bicep curl PR for the first time in weeks.
I really wanted to tell all of the guys in the weight room, but I managed to bottle my 8-year-old-on-Christmas-morning excitement. I did tell my concierge and he noted that I look bigger. 🙂
The next thing I’d like to do more with is developing recipes. My Recipage still needs to be completed, and I have a few new recipes I need to share with you guys from 2-3 weeks ago. I’ve been too lazy to edit pics. Is that terrible or what?!
I want to get back to posting more food. I’m still cooking a lot, but lately I’ve been rushing around too much and not bothering to measure/take “good” pics of anything I’m eating.
Tonight is a great example. I was in a rush and made my cauliflower pizza crust again. This time I used different spices that worked really well… but I didn’t write it down. I also didn’t take a pic… which I really needed to do so I could join Heather’s Meatless Monday A-Z link up.
She might kick me out for this one, but I DID use this week’s ingredient – quinoa – to make a vegan version of my Cauliflower Pizza. The binders in the crust were a flax egg and quinoa flakes. Check out the original recipe here.
Recycled pic… but this crust is sturdy enough to eat by the slice!
Finally, I’ve been wanting to make forward progress on is this blog. My goal is to make it more interactive. I love all of your comments, tweets, and emails, and I wanted to find ways to be able to get to know you better and make sure I’m posting things you’re interested in. Step one was the Facebook page I created last week. (Pretty please “like” me!) Step two is what I want to share today.
For weeks I’ve been threatening to start a “Strange But Good” link up. Now that I have a snazzy new logo, I have no excuse not to get it together and brave the Linky thing. This Friday will mark the first ever Strange But Good Link Up!
Here’s the deal. A lot of things healthy living bloggers/readers eat wouldn’t be considered strange inside this community; however, your co-workers, friends, and families probably give the strange looks when you load up your sweet potato with almond butter, for instance. Those things count as Strange But Good!
You get bonus points if it’s a combo that this community would think is strange. This could be something like my Vegan PB & Zeggs, or this Chocolate Protein Red Cabbage Ice Cream many of you thought was bizarre:
Want to play?
All you need to do is come up with a concoction this week that is Strange But Good. Just add the Strange But Good logo to your post and link up to your recipe. (Copy the code below.) On the Strange But Good post each week, you’ll see a link to add your own recipe and picture at the bottom of the page.
Not a blogger? I still want to see your strangeness! Send me an email with a picture of you food and a brief description by noon on Thursday and I’ll include it in Friday’s post.
It would be fabulous if everyone would use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instragrams of your creations. 🙂
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I’m SO excited about this link up!!! I’ve been thinking of how strange a concoction I can come up with to share. Bwhahaha!
Do you struggle with finding time to make forward progress? How do you do it?
Is there anything specific you’d like to see more or less of on the blog?
I hear you sister on being too busy to do so many things. I refuse to call it laziness though and you shouldn’t either. There are only so many things you can do in a day.
I love the strange but good link up idea! I plan to join in!
That’s true… I guess lazy people wouldn’t even begin! Can’t wait to see what you share Friday. 🙂
ooooh, I am going to have some GOOD ones for strange but good. many things that don’t get published on spabettie are just that
and YAY for your new PR! I would have been telling EVERYONE around! 😉
I can only imagine! Can’t WAIT to see your strangeness. 🙂
I’ve been the worst at feeling motivated enough to take pictures of my food lately. But I kind of blame that on the fact that I’ve been eating pretty much the same kinds of things for a while now, and don’t want to put people to sleep. I might just have to mix things up so that I can join the #strangebutgood link up though 😀
I hope you do! I always think your food look fabulous. 🙂
Ooooh I like the idea of Strange but Good. I often make thing that look strange but are good, and usually don’t post them bc of their less than stellar appearance. This would work for me! 🙂
Haha – we welcome that “stellar” appearance here. 😉
Love the idea of a strangebutgood link up and the logo looks kick-ass :)! I was at dinner with friends last night and told them I love the combo of egg, jam & cheese….it might be the norm in the blog community but I definitely got a few shocked expressions haha! My friend might win for the strangest (but good combo): Naan dipped in mango juice!
Eggs and jam and cheese is the perfect combo! That sweet and salty gets me every time. 🙂 I could see naan and mango… hmmmm…
Im in on the TWIIIITTTER!!
Just liked you FB page! I really don’t think my food is all that strange. It never fails when I bring leftovers or some combo in to work that I get “WHAT IS THAT?” I may be joining in!
Thank you! I know what you mean about co-workers. 🙂
Great idea! If I have time to do it, I’m in!
I LOVE THIS IDEA.
Oh twin, what a genius you are 😉 good job. Good job my dear. Now I need to do a strange, but good post for you 🙂
I cannot WAIT to see what you come up with Friday! I know I’ll want to copy it immediately. 🙂
Laura, your blog is already so interactive!! I love it! I will gladly post a strange but good concoction tomorrow.. woohoo! 🙂
I’d love to see a breakdown of all the nutrition info you’ve been given through your training… because it is obviously working. 🙂
Thank you!!! I do need to do one big nutrition post… it’s scatter among about a million right now.
Love all of it 🙂
Awesome idea!! You know I love me some strange but good combos–I’m in!! 😀
You know I like more food. Strange food.
So…you’ve got it covered. 🙂
Also, I love how you are so busy and adding yet ANOTHER thing to your blog life. You are unstoppable, woman!
I’m a glutton for punishment. And for strange things. 😉
girl, i feel the same. behind in so many things but that’s okay. We’re human. Now for this link up, i am in!!! Can’t wait to make my strange but good creations.
But I want to be SUPER human! 😉
Love the idea of this linkup…While most of my combos would be considered normal in bloggerland, my friends and my family give me WTF? looks all the time when they see what I eat.
I hear you. This can be our support group. LOL!
Congrats on the PR! I’m so proud of you that I showed Tony your pic from instagram! He now wants you to model for him for comic projects (he’s always looking for people with muscle definition and using me all the time is pretty obvious – besides, I’m not quite as cut as you ;).
I haven’t been blogging on my own site much lately because I am spread incredibly thin. I’m going to launch a new site too that has more to do with my work now with fitness, recipe development and nutrition. My blog platform is still in blogger and that is way too limiting. I’m hoping to get things rolled out by the first of the year…hoping.
That would be SO much fun! I always wanted to e a super hero. 🙂
A new blog?! I can’t wait to see it!!! I’d love to hear more from you in the fitness/nutrition front.
I hear you girl! This time of year is always crazy and as usual I feel like I have a million things going on! I’m sure we will both sort them out in no time! Congrats on the PR too, that is awesome!
Yes, yes, I hear you! It’s so hard to do everything I want to do. Not enough hours in the day.
I love your #strangebutgood link up idea. And I’m heading over to like your facebook page!
Ha! I knew there would be a strange-but-good linkup at some point. 🙂
Congrats on the PR!
Congratz on the new PR! I swear your biceps keep getting bigger and bigger in pictures 😛
Haha Strange but good- I love the idea and I’m excited about it 🙂 Yeah my family thinks I’m crazy concerning some of the things I eat- like the PB& Jeegs and don’t get me started on green monster smoothies. They also used to think I was crazy for cooking oatmeal with all the add ins- until they tried it.
I still can’t understand how people think green smoothies are so weird… you can’t taste the greens. Oh well…
LOVE THIS IDEA! I love strange but good combos – most of my powerbowls are SO strange but SO good! ;] congrats on the PR!!
Thanks!! I love your powerbowls!!! Hope you come back Friday to link one up. 🙂
I can totally relate to both things….feeling overwhelmed with “life” and eating strange foods.
1. I have a ton of things I want to do on my blog, but all of the sudden I have a ton of stuff going on. Apparently, when it rains, it pours. The last couple weeks have been jam packed and I’ve had to make cuts in areas of my life. Luckily, busy usually has some great pay-offs, so keep that in mind.
2. Strange food! I made my husband a socca crust pizza with shredded chicken mixed with a new spicy stevia sweetened BBQ sauce and he declared, “why do we eat food that nobody else eats?” My response? “Because other people don’t give a s^%& about their health”. He loved the “pizza”….case closed. I will definitely be participating.
Ok, that pizza sounds amazing!!! I’m coming over for dinner.
“Lately I’ve been struggling with wanting to move forward in several areas of my life, but lacking the time it takes to make the necessary changes.” <– Amen, sister! I'm right there with you. Though for me, motivation is also lacking a bit. :-/
I love that you are refocusing and recharging. I am in need of that too and I think what my christmas break needs to be full of. i love this link up, can’t wait to see what people do
Love the strange but good idea! I think most of my food falls in the category! 😉
Awesome! I hope you’ll come link up some strangeness this Friday! 🙂
Your blog is awesome and has grown so much since I’ve been reading! 🙂 It’s nothing short of awesome!
And I really love this idea. I am always creating weird concoctions in the kitchen, and my poor husband is always my guinea pig! Now I have a place to share the successful ones! Thanks!
Thank you so much! I feel the same about your blog. 🙂
YES! I’ve been waiting for this!! Time to get my weird thinking cap on. Wait, no, that one’s on all the time ;D And I feel ya on the gym–I’ve felt really rushed as of late, too, and my pull-ups are suffering! If only my gym opened earlier in the morning…
I’ve kind of been feeling unmotivated lately as well. Not sure what’s going on with me. Need to start pushing through those barriers! I kind of love this idea, now I need to work on a post:)
I completely understand where you are coming from as far as advancing things through. I’m stuck only because I’m limited by the number of hours in a day (sounds like you too), so I use a timer to help me advance things. I set the timer on my iPhone for an hour and then I do one hour of work, work, one hour of blog writing, one hour of blog reading, one hour (usually turns into three) of cooking, and one hour of relaxing. Basically, just enough to keep my head afloat, but not enough that I feel great about any of my impending to do lists.
I love your new logo and I liked your FB page just because you’re special….in a strange but good way. 😉
Very exciting news about the linkup party.
I love the time idea!!! Maybe I’ll try that out today… thank you!
Am I blind or is the linky up yet, Laura?
Not blind! This was just the announcement. The link up is Friday!
Awesome! Well, today’s post certainly fits the bill: Chocolate Mint Mesquite Protein Cakes. 🙂
Time really is scarce. I’ve been feeling the same way lately… rushed. And then every aspect of everything suffers. Usually it’s just me making myself rush, too! Anyways… I would love to see the cauliflower pizza crust… sounds cool!
That pic is the actual crust… and I linked back to the base recipe above. It’s totally addicting and really easy to customize!
Aaaah I wish I could be part of this cool concept!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
You can!!! Come back on Friday and link up some odd eats. 🙂
Ahhh I’m going to be bad at this game! Maybe I can come up with something! I did have something sort of strange but good the other night but it more looked strange and doesn’t sound strange… Now you’ve got me plotting. I’m excited!!
Okay – time to figure out what I eat that’s strange, because it’s almost always good. I’m joining in this fun for sure!!
I love strange but good combos! I hate that you are short on time right now. I feel the same way. My workouts have been suffering bad!
Hell yeah, frickin’, oh my god, AWESOME!!! Yes yes YES! It’s about time we moved forward and conquered the world and forced everyone to bow down to our strange but good creations…um, I mean shared with the community our occasional tendency to consume odd combinations of food! 😉 Dude, now I have to think of something I can link up!! Of course…with the way I am, perhaps I shouldn’t think too much…it might get a little TOO weird! Lol
Congrats on the PR, Beast!
Good idea! I always love seeing your “strange but good” ideas for recipes because they look delicious but are definitely nothing I would ever throw together. Congrats on the bicep curl PR, and its always awesome when someone recognizes you’re looking different because sometimes its hard to tell yourself.