Easy Food Swaps to Improve Your Health! (All About YOU August #2!)

BREAKFAST
1. French Toast  -> Lightly buttered regular toast or waffles
2. Syrup -> Fruit added to your toast/waffles to make it more sugary
3. Honey Nut Cheerios -> Regular Cheerios
4. Frosted Flakes -> Special K! Protein/Special K! Original Cereals
5. Other sugary cereals -> Cascadian Farm Organic Cereals
6. If you're on the rush and grab donuts, grab a tangerine and a granola bar instead!

LUNCH/DINNER
7. Fast food hamburgers -> Homemade lean hamburgers
8. Fries as a side -> Green beans
9. Hot dogs -> Tofu dogs (There are great Tofurky dogs from Trader Joe's!)
10. Big bag of potato chips -> Individual single serving bags to prevent from overeating!
11. Fast food pizza -> Single serving CPK Pizzas (I recommend the "Four Cheese" kind!)
12. Any high quantity of non-lean meat can be replaced with baked fish!

SNACKS
1. Gallon of ice cream -> Ben & Jerry's minis (under 300 calories!)
2. Candy bar-> Skinny cow 100 calorie candies

Goal Setting & My Vision Board! (All About YOU August #1!)

I think most of us can agree that we are on a constant quest for self-improvement, whether this be through health and fitness, our skin, our career, a better social life, etc. However, sometimes we lose motivation and it's hard to get back on track with everything. This is why things like New Years resolutions are so prevalent; we need that set date to force us to be motivated. One of the main reasons why we lose motivation to keep going is that we don't understand where our "finish line" is. By setting goals, we have something concrete to reach for. If you're a runner, you tend to sprint once you can see the finish line. This is why I set my long-term goals in the form of a vision board.

I set long-term goals for myself usually in the beginning of the 1st half of the year (January) and in the beginning of the 2nd half of the year (around now, July or August). I adapt to what I am currently facing and try to be realistic. I understand that I am not going to wake up having completed these goals. It takes time and effort. I chose to set these goals in the form of a vision board because I watch whatthebuck on youtube, aka Michael Buckley, and he always mentions "The Secret" and the power of visualization. While I haven't read "The Secret", I do believe in affirmations and the sort of subliminal influence that positive visualizations can have. 

My goals:

1. Get to a healthy weight. Eventually I want to be at 115, but for now I'm cool with 125. 

2. Be more social and be more friendly.

3. Improve my running (endurance, speed. My fastest mile is 7:27 and the farthest I've gone is 6 miles)

4. Get good grades. Obviously A's are the ultimate goal, but I just want to do my personal best. I can't ask for more than that. 

5. Devote time to my family. I want a stronger relationship since I only have a couple more years left "in the nest". 

6. Earn more youtube subscribers! (youtube.com/cassidymichellex3   <-- Shameless self-promotion) 

All About YOU August!

This month I've decided to go with the theme "All About YOU August". I'm going to do some videos inspired by this on my Youtube channel, as well as some blog posts.

I wanted to kind of explain what this is all about before I start posting about it. I think that sometimes we get lost in the routine of life and forget to help ourselves. We get bogged down by stress and conflicts, whether it be homework or work problems, and we forget what we're really going through all this trouble for: to create a better life for ourselves. We forget to take a little time to treat ourselves and let the stress consume us.

This month, I want to give some tips on how to take better care of yourselves. This includes eating better, doing different activities, beautifying yourself, and just being more in tune with life on a day-to-day basis to really appreciate the life you've been given.

Some ideas I have are: my favorite healthier foods, my exercise routine, exercises for people who "hate" exercising, exercising without a gym membership, DIY Beauty, my ways to resist cravings, etc. I may think of more to add to the list, but I'm definitely looking forward to this mini series for the month.

Hope you enjoy! :)
-Cassidy | youtube.com/cassidymichellex3

Mani Monday: SPARKLE & SHINE!

For today's Mani Monday, I decided to use my newest polish (and one of my only glitter polishes- SO EXCITING!) I used two coats of Orly's "Shine", which is a metallic silver color that applies really smoothly. After that dried, I used three coats of Revlon's "Sparkling" (hence the name of this mani being sparkle and shine... get the pun? You get it :P). This glitter has me OBSESSED. I literally am debating going back to Target and picking up every single glitter that Revlon has. The only downside is the sheerness, but it is to be expected. It is very obvious in the bottle that it is a clear jelly base with pink microglitters and pink hexagonal glitters. Then, I used my Sally Hansen Super Shine Top Coat as per usual. 

All the polishes used

The finished manicure

A close-up of the mani

A close-up of the bottle

This shows how sheer the polish is, and that it has a clear jelly base

NOTD: China Glaze "Smoke and Ashes" (Hunger Games Collection)

Since I've been back into reading the Hunger Games Trilogy recently, I decided to be a little festive by using a nail polish from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. This polish is "Smoke and Ashes", which represents District 12 (The district of Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch).

Artifical Light

Natural light

This polish wore 3 days with lots of wear at the tips and some other chipping. It only took one coat to apply, and the formula was just the right thickness. The only downside to this polish for me was the major chipping and not so great wear time! I'm sure with a better top coat, you could get pretty good wear (I use Sally Hansen Shine Effects).

Review: Olay Fresh Effects Bead Me Up Cleanser

Recently, I picked up a new facial cleanser after running dangerously low on my Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Acne Cleanser. My Target had a very limited selection of cleansers I had already tried and weren't in love with... until I stumbled upon this at the end of the isle on a separate display. The pretty print on the packaging drew me in. Plus, it was contained exfoliating beads, which eliminated an extra step from my skincare routine. So, I bought it!

I've used it for a little over a week as I'm writing this post, and so far I really like it.

When squeezing it out, you can't see large exfoliating beads.

Pros: exfoliates (although the beads are EXTREMELY tiny, almost invisible), definitely feels like it's actually cleaning out your impurities, doesn't dry out your skin

Cons: lots of artificial fragrance (one of the ingredients listed is actually "fragrance/parfum") which concerns me and many others because the chemicals they use for the fragrance may irritate sensitive skin (although I haven't experienced this so far), also doesn't contain any acne-fighting ingredients (salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide)

Fragrance/Parfum in the ingredients list

So far, I would give this cleanser a pretty positive review. Lately, my skin has been getting a lot better. However, I cannot attribute this completely to the cleanser, as I have been doing an entire skincare routine lately.

Nutrition/Fitness: Week 1 Progress!

Ever since I was young, I've had bad eating habits. I ate out of pure boredom more than anything. During the summer of 2012, I decided to try to change my lifestyle. From July 2012-September 2012, I lost about twenty pounds. I went from 165 to around 145. Then, my birthday came... Long story short: cake, pizza, leftovers. I started to realize what I was "missing" and quickly went back to my own habits. I no longer counted calories, and felt myself gaining weight. I was so scared to look on the scale and see that all of my hard work for those 3 months went to waste. The first day of the year in 2013, I decided to finally weigh myself and recommit. I was 155, ten pounds short of my weight 6 months before. It could have been worse, I thought. From January to April, I shed about 18 more pounds. I was 137. All the counting calories and being obsessed with weight got to me, and I felt deprived. I began binge eating in May, almost just because I could. I was eating anything and everything. Last Saturday, I decided I no longer wanted to live in denial. After about two and a half months, I stepped on the scale. I had gained 8 pounds and gotten back to 145. Not too bad, if you factor in what I was eating. I thought I was going to step onto the scale and see 180 or 185 or something drastic.

Now that I've told you that long-winded story of my progress so far, I wanted to blog about my weekly weigh-in and what I've done this week.

Starting Weight: 145.7 lbs
Ending Weight: 141.3 lbs

What I did:

-MY DIET-
I ate when I was hungry and tried not to deprive myself, since that only leads to binge eating. I ate lots of Special K! Protein cereal, which I've found keeps me feeling full longer. I snacked on Chobani Greek Yogurt tubes, which I froze. I ate fistfuls of trail mix, as well. For dinners, I ate hamburgers with veggies and peanut butter sandwiches with lots of fruit.

-MY EXERCISE-
I ran cross country twice this week, and did some blogilates videos. I jogged on incline on the treadmill and walked my dogs.