ricotta | Balance, Joy and Delicias

Last week I lost creativity in term of food choices. So these combos I have repeated times!

#1 2 fried eggs + grilled sandwich made with LC, steamed spinach and ketchup

I’ve been trying to increase my protein intake. 2 eggs in the morning is a safe way to guarantee I get some form of protein that day.

#2 Oatbran cooked with cocoa powder and 1/3 cup of ricotta cheese, topped with Almond butter

the rest of the family had waffles and fruit salad

I finished AB and I made coconut butter (simply blend shredded coconut for 5 min)

oat bran with ricotta cheese is a very filling combo. It keeps me full for several hours!

I forgot how tasty is coconut butter! So glad I made it! 🙂

At work, I had several times of salad, bed of greens, sauteed cauliflower with mushrooms, and 2-3 eggs.

and a thick slice of my favorite bread they offer: bread with walnut and raisin.

For dinner, I had several times of homemade wontons! I like them so much that I asked my mom to make 20 packages to be store in the freezer so I can have them when she is not here (she left this morning!).

Next week I’ll be enjoying Argentinean food!!!!! Can’t wait!!!! 🙂

Q: How do you make sure to have enough protein? What’s your favorite way to have it?

I’ve never had problem before saying NO to people/request and I didn’t understand people who has problem with that. Well… until recently, until I saw myself struggling, stressed out simply because I was afraid to say NO and to put a limit to abusive people around me. Why it’s hard to say no? Because we’re afraid of what others might think about us, we’re afraid of the consequences if we say no to them, because we want to feel useful. But you know what? NONE of these is more important than our SPIRIT, our MORALE. If they can’t accept it, it’s their problem, not ours. We need to put ourselves in FIRST priority.

I’ve been having this problem lately and it has been hard. Yesterday I finally made the decision and declined the request. It was liberating!!! 😆

Variations of How to Say no (source)

Plain No: All you do is say no and move on. This is the least effective of the various techniques.

Mirroring No: This variation involves sympathy where you communicate an understanding of the person’s situation and follow it up with your declining statement. Your child’s sports coach asks you to be the team manager. You could respond with a mirroring no by saying, “I understand your after a team manager. It must be tough trying to organize the team… but I won’t be the team manager this season.”

Reason-why No: Many studies have proven that if a person provides a reason for carrying out an action then the action is more likely to be accepted. If a charity worker asks for a donation you can say, “No I won’t donate because I’ve donated to another organization last week” or “No I won’t donate because I don’t want to.” The second example’s reason for not donating seems stupid but even though no new information was provided the reason adds persuasive power.

Delayed No: Just say “You’ll get back to them at a later time.” In the mean time, the person may find someone else to do the job or the problem may have been solved.

Conditional No: You state the conditions that you would accept the person’s request and if these conditions aren’t met you will decline their request. Only use this technique if you are willing to accept the request. The person may end up adjusting the initial request for you under your listed conditions which will put the burden on you to follow the adjusted request. Your child’s sports coach again asks you to be the team manager and you respond with, “I will be the team manager if you can guarantee that it requires no more than 2 hours of work a week. If not, I’ll have to say ‘no’.”

Painful No: This variation of saying no involves stating the future pain the person would receive if you declined their request at a later time. Your boss asks you to take on an extra assignment and you reply with, “For both our sake I’m going to say no. The quality of my work declines when I’m not focused on one assignment and I don’t want to give you bad work, hurt my position here at the company, and as a result make you get someone else to redo the assignment at a later date.”

Respectful No: Firstly, use one of the above variations. If the person persists with their request then use the respectful no variation. What you say communicates your wishes for the person to respect your decision. An example is “Please don’t make the same request again. I’ve said ‘no’ so can you please accept that?” Do this with “soft” body language so you don’t come across as aggressive.

These are useful tips, I wish I’ve read them earlier 😉

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First oatmeal this summer (or end of it): blueberries + AB + flax meal + blueberries, topped with cottage cheese

mmmmm……it was good but I still prefer some bread now

Throw together salad continued: lettuce, tomato, steamed broccoli, mozzarella, 3 tbsp olive + 1 tbsp balsamic.

and steamed corn. Enjoyed watching TV at home! 😀 Working at home is good! . 🙂

I know some lady likes sweet dessert… but I don’t have sweet tooth, so I had edamame instead 😉

Took a powerful 30 min nap and back to work! 😀 Working at home is good x 2 😆

I didn’t feel like snacking anything solid, so I made a black rice and lotus seed drink

look how many drinks I had in my desk

I went to the gym for 40 min ET while watched the night news (fancy gyms are good! ;)) and a power yoga class. It’s indeed a gym yoga class, a lot of flow and core work at the end, and lady gaga music as background. Yeah~ picture it… doing yoga with lady Gaga’s song.

Dinner time!!! FIRST HOMEMADE PIZZA!!! 😆

okay.I’ve made unconventional pizza but I didn’t make the crust. So, crust was on the project.