Morning! Well, is anyone else pissed at that damn groundhog? UGH!!!! I am not thrilled about 6 more weeks of winter, but it is what it is. After being bummed out by the groundhog, Adam informed me that he is only right 49% of the time. I love that Adam knows seemingly pointless crap that somehow always manages to make me feel better. Can you say soul-mate ?

This morning I tried a new yogurt!!! Yes, very exciting!!!! The amazing people at Siggi’s sent me some coupons to try their products for free! I was interested to try out this Icelandic style yogurt! I got a few flavors, but the one I had this morning was my all time favorite yogurt flavor. Vanilla!

Here are it’s stats, look at all the protein!

I mixed it with 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch and some blueberries.

When I starting mixing everything together, I noticed that the yogurt was thicker than Oikos or Chobani and it had little vanilla bean specks in it! The thickness is either good or bad depending on how you like your yogurt. I love a thick yogurt, so in my opinion it was great! The actual taste was less sweet/more tart than the vanilla Greek yogurts I have tried and in my opinion, it is a good thing. I really, really liked this yogurt a lot.  I have some flavored ones in the fridge I will be trying out at some point and I got a large container of plain to use in recipes to see how it measures up. If your interested in trying a new yogurt, I highly recommend it!

Breakfast all together:

By the way, the coffee with the coco powder that I wrote about yesterday is by a company called Distant Lands and the flavor is called Angel’s Kiss. It is fantastic! I had it again this morning

Today’s outfit:

Black pants (Express), Red V-Neck (GAP), Pearls (My Nana )

I am wearing these leopard print flats today, I got them at The Wild Pair ages ago.

In Other News:

1. Self Love Tip of the Day: Nature Your Dreams: Why deny yourself dreams? When you nurture your dreams, you will  love the life you are leading. We all have dreams, what holds us back from going for them? Fear? Anxiety? Being nervous of what others is say or think?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

What is one dream you have that you can start working towards today?

2. Attention Boston Area Readers!!!!!!!! For those of you who are not signed up for Groupon, today’s deal is $24 for 24 classes at Healthworks!!!!!! For those of you dying to see why I am so obsessed with this gym, check it out for just $24!!! Healthworks has a sooooo many great classes, including my personal favorite Body Pump! To learn more about this deal click here.

3. It is time to answer some of your Ask Me Anything questions:

Q: What do you do for a living?

A: Well, as you guys know, I work a few jobs. My full-time job is at The Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University. My official title is Assistant to the Associate Dean/ Dean of Accreditation and Administration. I mostly coordinate the School’s Assurance of Learning Efforts. Assurance of Learning basically means are our programs teaching the students what it is supposed to teach them, do they graduate will the skills necessary to have a successful career in what they get their degree in. I also, help with other Accreditation tasks and recently took on helping out the Assistant Dean and Academic Director, Undergraduate Business Programs with various things such as event planning ect.

My part-time job is at the Bunker Hill Knights of Columbus where I am the function coordinator and am in charge of booking the two halls in the building, managing payment and making sure everything is set up correctly for each event.

I am also a part-time Grad Student at Suffolk University, which is not actually a “job” per se. I am pursuing and M.Ed in School Counseling and will graduate in May 2012.

Q: What does your engagement ring look like??

A: My engagement ring is a princess cut solitaire in a platinum trellis setting. Here is a picture!

Q: What was the final straw to make you go into your healthy lifestyle? Did you have a “light bulb” moment?

A: Well, I guess I had two separate light bulb moments, one that made me decide to quit smoking and some that made me completely change my lifestyle.

The first one occurred on 2/22/08. I woke up really early for some reason that morning. I looked over at Adam sleeping and thought about how much I loved him and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him and have a family with him (we were together almost 9 years at this point and had been living together for a year). I thought about how if I ever wanted to have a family, I needed to make the commitment to them to be healthy and the first step was to quit smoking. I got up, threw out the Malboro Lights and never looked back. It was not easy by any means, I quit cold turkey and the first few months were so hard. I just kept reminding myself about wanting to be healthy for my future family and it kept me on the right track. Clearly, children are very far off still, but I know that when we do decide to have them (many years from now) I will be healthy!

The second “light bulb” moment was a little over a year ago. At this time I was very well aware of being unhappy with my body and lifestyle. I was so uncomfortable in my own skin, it was sad. I can’t remember who is was now, but sometime after I got engaged someone said to me, “Ali, you are going to be a beautiful bride.” And I thought, “Ha! yeah right!” Immediately after I thought that I decided to make a change. I should NOT feel that way about myself. I decided to change and make myself healthy physically and mentally.   I worked for the next year (and still continue to work at it) to become physically healthy and strong and to love myself, take care of myself and remain positive no matter what.  In my opinion, good self-esteem, self-love and happiness is a choice we make, and is something we have to work everyday for.

Q: What kind of Pumas do you have? They look so cute.

A: The Pumas you always see me wearing are the Puma Easy Rider III in gray, white and lemon. I love how they look with just about anything, they were a Christmas gift from Adam.

Q: What was your fitness regimen when you first started to loose weight?

A: At first it was 5 days a week. I would do 45 minutes of cardio followed by about 30 minutes of strength training. I would usually split the cardio three ways doing 15 minutes of running, elliptical and bike. After a few months I realized I enjoyed the running most and started to focus on running for distance rather than doing the three different types of cardio. Once I started running as my main source of cardio, I saw the pounds MELT off! I still did the strength training, I love the look of feminine toned muscles.

Well, I will be back later! I hope you are enjoying the Ask Me Anything portion of the blog. You can  submit an anonymous question by clicking here.