Athena Awards — Success in Sisterhood

Tonight I attended the Athena Awards dinner in Cleveland, which honored local women helping women.  Those who know me know I’m all about female empowerment.  There’s just something amazing about getting the opportunity to surround myself with strong successful women in leadership roles, and tonight’s dinner was one of those events where I left feeling like I can tackle anything that comes my way!

This was the first business function I have whipped out my camera to take pictures of the grub…  I got a few funny looks, but I simply told people I was working on an article for the company newsletter 😉

None of these pictures are very good, as I was more concerned with snapping quick pics than getting clear images (due to all the staring).

Pretty vase on table:

Salad with goat cheese:

Pecan crusted chicken (tasty,  but too sweet so I scraped it all off) with potato wedges and green beans:

Also had a few bites of dessert, which tasted like a big fancy fudge round 🙂

Some thoughts from the dinner to leave you with tonight:

“It’s important to have an enthusiasm for life.”

 

“Simply be the best that you can be.  It’s usually enough to get you where you want to go.”

 

“I hope that when we ask the next generation of women what challenges they face in their workplaces, that they will look at us with quizzical eyes and say ‘Challenges?  What Challenges?’ “

 

My personal favorite:

“Wellness and balance are just as important as growing huge brains.”

 

Goodnight friends!  🙂

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PB2 Giveaway!!!

In an effort to get all you silent readers out there to post comments on my blog (so I don’t feel like I’m blogging to myself 😉 ) I decided to do a PB2 giveaway!

PB2 is a powdered peanut butter product.  Basically, all the bad-for-you-ness is sucked out of the peanuts.  All you have to do is mix with water, and you have a healthy PB on you hands!

So here’s the deal:  post a comment on this PB2 Giveaway blog post by midnight Sunday July 4th.  I’ll use a random number generator to select the lucky recipient!

So get to commenting!  I’m interested to hear what you all have to say 😀

Pssst… to comment on this post, click the blue “comment” link below.

Good luck!

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TGI Freakin F!

Today I feel like a chicken with no head.  Let me recap the last 24 hours in 13 key points:

1.) Went shopping for new pants after work yesterday, ended up buying three shirts.  (I still consider this a success)

2.) Ate a Luna Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar for energy before my interval training.

This was pretty tasty.  It had more of a candy-bar like feel to it than the normal Luna Bars, but I think the taste of the regular bars are better than these protein bars.  Worth a shot, definitely better than the Larabar Flop earlier in the week, but I’ll stick with the regular Luna Bars from now on!

3.) Got locked out.  Super.

4.) Dinner consisted of a cold leftover turkey burger (luckily I had brought this with me to work and subsequently took it with me shopping).  Yes, I took the burger into the mall… Haha 🙂

5.) Phone died (again).  Super!

6.) Completed Day 3 of interval training.  Whoop!

7.) Set alarm clock (since phone is broke). 

8.) Turns out alarm was never changed for daylight savings.  Woke up 1.5 hours late.  Super.

9.) While making coffee, realized I never unplugged the george foreman after making my breakfast wrap yesterday.  Wow, Mary.  Wow.

10.) Ate a Blueberry Bliss luna bar on my way into work.  And it really was blissful!  Things started to perk up after that.

11.) Got to work 1 hour late. Craaaapppppp…

12.) Strawberry Oikos Greek Yogurt with blueberries and Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola 🙂 Yummmm….

13.) Takeout lunch from Jimmy Johns.  It’s starting to feel like Friday now 😀

Giant beach club unwich, no mayo, add onion and giant pickle:

Me after finishing my grub:

 Blurry, but at least I’m smiling!

*deep breath*

In through the nose, out through the mouth….

😀

Plans for the weekend:

  • Get my frickin phone fixed
  • Yard Work (obviously)
  • New digital camera!!!! YAY!!! Super excited about this one.
  • Fun with friends Saturday night
  • Try new recipes?  I sure hope so.
  • R&R?  Mandatory.

 

QUESTION OF THE DAY:  How do you turn your day around when you start off on the wrong foot?

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Power of the Purse

Today I had the pleasure of attending the Power of the Purse Luncheon sponsored by the United Way of Summit County.  This luncheon celebrates the impact women have on giving in our area.  We had a terrific speaker named Jessica Clements.  Jessica was hit by a roadside bomb while serving for the US Army in Iraq.  She was given a 2% chance to live due to the massive brain trama she suffered.  Despite these terrible odds, Jessica was miraculously able to recover.   She spoke on the importance of persevering, challenging yourself, and giving back.  What an amazing and inspiring speaker! 

Breakfast #1

Last night, I cooked up two of my lil eggins with the 1/2 of a link of Jennie-O’s hot turkey sausage I had leftover from the Jambalaya! (I apparently can’t type that word without using an “!” after it 🙂 )

The eggins consisted of 3 egg whites, S&P, Franks Red Hot, Red Pepper Flakes.  I baked them up in a 350 degree oven for 27 minutes.  I also had the other half of the english muffin that was leftover from yesterday’s egg love.

Despite looking slightly creepy, the sausage/egg combo was so yummy!  🙂

Stats on eggins & 1/2 english muffin:  193 calories, 18g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 4g fiber

  

Breakfast #2

Chobani Blueberry greek yogurt with 1/2 a serving of Bear Naked Maple Granola

As much as I L-O-V-E greek yogurt, I am seriously looking forward to making up some overnight oats tonight.  There are just so deliciously cold and creamy!  And addicting!

Stats on yogurt + granola:  205 calories, 31g carbs, 2g fat, 16g protein, 2g fiber

  

Lunch

Good news / bad news on lunch. 

Bad news = I didn’t make anything fun for lunch because of the luncheon, nor did i get any pics of what I ate! Bummer!

Good news = I jotted down a few inspirational quotes from the speaker at the luncheon:

Don’t give up the first time you do something and it turns out terrible.

Every day strive to be the best “me” you can be

I especially liked:  Live for today.  Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come.

I’m trying a couple new recipes tonight!  Pumped! (as always 😉 )

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