Have Faith

Have faith. This world is so dark and confusing.  But I have been watching some conference talks and it is so fun to be filled with the spirit.  I love the Gospel so much. It is such a light and comfort.  Recently I have felt really depressed and feel like the world is using me as its punching bag.  I am just exhausted.  So I turned to the one thing that I know that can bring light in my life, the gospel. There are struggles in my family that have to do with Mental Disorders and so I listened to "Like a Broken Vessel" by Elder Holland.  It touched me very deeply.  I loved how it changed my perspective on how I can serve them more.  Check it out!
I was in quite a dark place when I turned to the scriptures and the biggest thing that hit me was "Have faith my child."  This has been the biggest comfort through this difficult time.  I know that we are a part of a bigger plan.  I can't wait to one day meet my savior and wrap my arms around him and tell him thank you. Thank you for never leaving my side.  Here are a couple of pictures that helped me that might help others!

Speak Now

As of lately I have been on a big Taylor Swift kick.  Her words are just so magical to me.  The biggest stress reliever for me (besides running) is baking while T-Swift is on.  There is nothing like jumping up and down and singing into a spatula.  They bring back a lot of memories and she just almost says what i can't put into words.
Speak Now came on and it just hit me.  We go through this life having all of these thoughts and ideas and we are always told to don't speak. keep your mouth closed. We think that we have all this time.  Oh I will tell them next time how I feel.  Oh its okay I don't need to say anything.
I am someone who believes in actions are a lot louder than words.  But our words give us the direction we need to go in.
Tomorrow I start again another year of school! YAY! not. haha i feel so old and i have felt like i have walked around with out any direction.  I live to impress people that i don't even worry about what i want in my life.  I need to speak now about what i want. Give myself direction and go for it.
Tell the people you love that you love them today.  Speak Now.  We might not have tomorrow.  I have started this great book by Gordon B. Hinckley - Standing for Something.  It talks about how the foundations of a marriage is simply, love.  Amazing book.

Anyway I think it is so important in life to have goals- a direction that we are heading in. So my goals for this semester are:

-Make time for Brian and I
-Do something physical everyday
-Make Healthy dinners and don't snack after dinner
-Go to every single class and be on time
-Keep planned and organized
-Watch only one episode of grays anatomy
-Go to the temple every month
-Try to read books that aren't text books
-Get all my homework done and study every single day
-Read my scriptures every night :)


Have a good week! :)

Weeeekends (:

It has been one year since I married Brian sooo we celebrated! 

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

These girls seriously have my heart (:

I have making the BEST smoothies... love my blendtec

This little man turned 11 months (:

He gets me (:

For our annivarsary dinner we went to the melting pot downtown salt lake! it was sooo fun!

And I fell off of a horse.. ouch! But don't worry my nieces took care of me

And happy anniversary to this guy! 

Have a good week everyone! (:

Workin It.

Life after the marathon is sad.  Your work outs are all planned out and then they are goooone! I wanted to give my body a break from all the running but I am just too addicted.  I also have a bike race next week of 70 miles. Its an all girls race called "Spinderella" put on by my uncles sport shop.  But I have been running 4-5 miles Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But I have really been focusing on lifting and toning my body.  I do Arms on M, W, F, and do legs on Tuesday and Thursday! Funnnn Stuff! 

But what you eat after your workout is almost as important as your workout.  

Since I am still obsessed with my new Blendtec- I love making green smoothies! Here is a recipe to try out.

-1/4 cup water (depending on how thick you want it)

-1 banana

- 1 mango

-1/8 pineapple

- Large handful of spinach

- 1/2 Lime

- 1 scoop of protein powder 

- little agave

- 8 ice cubes - more to make it thicker

SOOOO Good! 

On another note I have a hair appointment on Wednesday and I really want to dye my hair! 

I can't decide to go lighter or darker. Hmmm i am leaning more to the dark. We will see what happens on wednesday!

Happy weekend everyone!!! (:

Weekend Wrap Up

I know it ins't the end of the weekend yet but I felt like it is basically over! I am in summer school so weekends are short! 

1)I ran my second marathon! Yay for running! :) Though I got terribly sick and started throwing up blood! I ran the Ogden! I was super excited for it but to be honest I was disappointed in it!  Everyone told me to train for downhill. WRONG! haha I don't know if they changed the course up but the first 17 miles were super hard.  Also I swear I have only ran one race where it was nice weather.  It started to rain at the beginning, but got worse.  It was one of those rains where it is just cold and wet and soaks you to the bone. buuuurrr.  I was trying to qualify for boston but lets just say throwing up in every porta jon you pass doesn't make for your best time. BOO! But sadly I am addicted to running (not a sad thing.) and so I am looking at doing the "Big Cottonwood Canyon" full marathon! Its hard because I would really like to give my body a break and start riding my bike but i love running too much.  

2)We bought a Blendtec!! I am so excited! I have really been bad at getting my greens because I am poor and I can't make creative salads. I don't like just raw spinach so we are trying this out! I have already found a great website with recipes! Smoothie


3) So till I find out what this crazy problem with my stomach is I am really trying not to eat dairy.  I came across this recipe on pintrest. It is Sweet Potato Chickpea Burgers.  I can't wait to try and grill those up!  Burger Recipe Found Here

4) Everyone have a good rest of the weekend :) 

This too Shall Pass

"This too Shall Pass" is a phrase that a bishop told me when I was younger and going through some hard times.  He said every storm has an end.  This has stuck with me through my whole life.  Recently I have had an experience which has really opened my eyes.  It has made me step back and really think.  Think about who I am, what I stand for, and what I want to become. Though I have gained confidence in myself, and realizing that I have a choice and I have a right to my choice.  I know this storm will pass through just like everything else does, but things still hurt.  I often ask why do we have so much pain in this world? Why must we make these choices? See horrible things? 

 

I was driving with my niece and singing taylor swift and I just broke out in tears!! She stopped and looked at me like a crazy and said "what the heck is the problem?"  I told her that I didn't want her to grow up.  Her reply was very simple, "well kylie we all have to grow up, it is how we get big and strong."  That answer was so right.  We all have to grow up and go through these hard times so we can be molded into something so beautiful in the end.  Though I still am trying to think of a way that I can keep all my little nieces and nephews in a bubble so this mean world won't ever hurt them.  Still workin on it.

 

I get emails from this website everyday and it is something that just brightens my day.  My sister recommended it to me and I love it! I got this one today and it just put a smile on my face.  I have learned that I take on way to much and give to others so much that I don't focus on myself.  I have really been working on taking time out for me and doing things that I love.  As much as I love change, I hate it too.  It is scary, breaking out of the norm.  But doing it for yourself is something that is so important. Just remember to be you :)

 

 

Just remember if you are going through a hard time, you are never alone.  I can not believe how much support and love I have felt from friends and family.  Thanks for the love and always having my back.

 

-Kylie :)

V E G A N

V-Voraciously

E-Eating

G-Greens

A-Always

N-NOT!!!

 

Vegan. Such a scary word to some people.  I used to be a vegan.  I met Brian and he thought I was so weird.  I told my family and they thought I was living on a different planet.  I am a secret about being lactose intolerant.  I hate to make a scene so if I can't decline the food, then I will just enjoy it and deal with the tummy rumbles later.  So I thought why not just cut out meat?  It was easier than I thought!

 

As of late I have been consuming so much dairy and it is hurting my belly soooo bad.  I am training for a marathon and it isn't fun having to stop in the middle of run and frantically search for a bathroom.  I have gotten pretty relaxed on my diet but I only have about a month left till my big race. I am trying to go vegan again! Not go all crazy and cut it out totally but for the most part good bye dairy and toots. :)

 

I think it is gross how much nasty processed stuff is in our food that we eat.  My rule is, is that if it has more than 5 ingredients in it, it isn't good. The closer to the ground (where the food came from) the better for you it is. 

 

When we think about vegans we usually think of women with their hippie head bands on with their arm pit hair blowing in the wind.  That isn't how it is supposed to be.  Most of the vegan cookbooks really call for some crazy ingredients that I feel like I have to hike to south America to go get.  Then I stumbled upon the best cookbook in the world! Peas and Thank You! It is such a fun cookbook that calls for normal ingredients! LOVE IT!

 

Some things that I use as dairy replacements:

-milk with almond milk (so good:))

-sugar with agave (I know this is vegan but it is a healthier choice)

-butter with earth balance (you can also use coconut oil, applesauce etc.)

-cheese I just stay as far away from this because this is the killer for my belly.

-flour I almost always use whole wheat flour

 

Get creative with things that you like don't be afraid to try new things!:)

 

A friend gave me Alicia Silverstone's book "The Kind Diet" on being vegan and I have been devouring it!! It's really informative and simple. From what I've read so far I would definitely recommend it, I am constantly bombarding people with all the facts i'm learning. 
A meal that I have been dying to make is spinach, quinoa, and pumpkin seeds with a vinaigrette of olive oil, honey, and lemon juice. Topped with diced yams grilled with onions, and then sliced avocado. nom nom. 

 

I'm not trying to convince anyone to go vegan/vegetarian etc.  (And I won't post links about the animal cruelty videos to make people stop eating meat, but Google some if you want. Seriously you will cry for days.)  But I think that we all could go back to the basics of food.  Try to incorporate some greens in your diet. (Hide them in smoothies, eh?)  People are so scared of that color. But it looks good on everyone and will do good for you.  So many benefits come from eating vegetables.  It's not about the quantity of years you live, its about the quality of years you live. 

 

I will post some recipes soon :)

 

Until next time,

Kylie