11 days!

YIKES!  This week marks the last week before "PEAK" week (week before the show) AKA scramble to get every last little thing done all without a brain ;)

I find it so interesting how your body and mind and tastebuds and everything adjusts to a situation. Example being this diet plan.
Just when you think you can't do it, you realize you can :) and you WILL :)
BUT THE
The second that you stray its like you have unleashed the BEAST!!
My cheats are 82% dark chocolate and most recently...

Trust me up until about 2 wks ago I still had almond butter and a jar of peanut butter hidden in my cabinets...NOT A GOOD IDEA.

As the process evolves you start to get more and more creative with spices and cooking methods (that is when you have the time)

I struggled a lot in the beginning mistaking GUM for FOOD and COFFEE for WATER ;)  How foolish of me!
GUM is gone but coffee is here to stay.

Have you seen me lately?

Well here I am :)))))

It was recommended to me to start shaving my arms/ ENTIRE BODY this week.  This was definitely one of the toughest things for me to do! Even as a swimmer I NEVER shaved the blonde hair on my arms or the peach fuzz that seems to be ever where else.
Bonnie LeFrak has been absolutely amazing throughout this process, so I will legit do whatever she tells me...even if it was to jump off a bridge ;)

GIVE ME THAT FILET OF FISH...GIVE ME THAT FISH

Oh whitefish how I love you.  

Nowadays whitefish is my best friend, breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between ;)

Here is an AMAZING recipe from my AMAZING MOM so you can all share in the love of whitefish.  Honestly this is soooooo yummyyy :)

 Baked fish a la dee

Ingredients:

1 3/4 lbs fish

4 tbs olive oil

2 carrots, shredded

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, diced

1 tablespoon basil, dry

3-4 parsley sprigs, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 lemons, squeezed for juice

1/2 cup dry white wine (you may add 1/2 cup water with wine for more sauce)

salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Wash fish, pat dry with paper towel and cut into 4 equal portions. Using a pastry brush, coat shallow roasting pan or oven wear dish with olive oil. Place fish in pan and coat lightly with olive oil, using pastry brush. Pour juice of two lemons over fish. Then, sprinkle fish with the chopped garlic. Add salt and pepper and set preparation aside.

2. In a teflon pan, add remaining oil, garlic and basil and saute for 3-4 minutes with celery, carrots and onions. Add wine, cook for 1 1/2 min. ( to burn off alcohol). Remove from heat.

3. Spoon vegetables and liquid on top of fish and place slice of lemon on each portion. Place preparation in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until fish is tender.

It's go time folks

Pedal to the metal ;)

I have more respect than you know for the ladies who do shows on the regular. It's an experience all right. It's no joke, that is all I will say.

I have less than one month til the show! Linked is the website to the show

I have decided that with all this work we have done, I WANT YOU TO COME SUPPORT JENN AND I!!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

 This weekend was my last Yoga Teacher Training before the final exam!  We chanted with Irene Solea Antonellis and taught our last community class.  It's crazy that this amazing journey began a year ago.  Teaching my first Yoga Class at South Boston Yoga was amazing, it felt so natural and comfortable!  I love the safe space that David and Todd have created :))))) 

Wish them luck with their expansion!!!!!!!!!!

A Great Longing 

There is an extraordinary peace
that comes
when we at some early or late
moment in our lives,
realize that we don't have to be
anyone else
than ourselves.

We suddenly discover that it is
sufficient, enough, more
than enough to simply be who we
are with our face,
our voice, our body, our thoughts,
our feelings, our loves,
our choices, our walk. There is no
need for pretense
or apology, no need to follow
another's road to find our value.
Our limitations as much define
our way of being in the world
as our virtues do. There is no need
to keep going back
and forth over the sum of our
lives, searching for what
was simply never there. What is
there, what has happened,
what will happen, are the lessons
that have brought us
to this day.

There is a great thirst, a great
longing within us
that reveals our true nature.
This longing is not the desire to be
like someone else,
which leads only to the madness
of competing
for attention, for honor, for
pleasure, for control.

This longing reveals the openness
of our heart and mind
toward everything that is good, not
only for ourselves
but good for everyone. Such
longing reveals the fragile
nobility of our human nature,
limited and unlimited, suffering,
struggling, concerned, respectful,
full of the release of laughter.

This longing is the base of the
energy of our awareness,
which is like a door opening and
closing,
a door opening to the
understanding and compassion
around us,
both coming into us and traveling
out from within us.

When this door of our awareness
opens for ignorance
and envy to travel in and out, we
try not to hold and nourish
this madness, but instead let the
Ignorance and selfishness
that wants to make a home in us
be transformed
Into something new.

In this way gradually only
understanding and kindness
travel in and out on the wings of
our awareness,
and like some of our great-
grandmothers we begin
to wish only blessing for the
breadth of the world.
  -Pat Twohy, S.J.