how healthy eating has taught me discipline

We've all heard about how eating healthy has lots of benefits like improving your mood and energy levels, being less stressed, lowering your chance of many health problems, and so on. But it also teaches us something else that I don't think many of us think about which is discipline.

Let's be honest for a minute here - I don't think choosing to have a healthy lifestyle is an easy thing to do because it's not. It doesn't mean it's impossible, because it's not; it just means it takes a lot of work.

It also takes up a good chunk of your time at first; rest assured it does get easier along the way, but it's still hard work (which in my opinion is a good thing.) You have to learn about what to eat, how to eat, when to eat, etc. There's so much information out there and sometimes you might even get overwhelmed by it all before you even take your first step.

Side note: I do think there are many things that people can do that improve their lifestyle like drinking more water, taking a walk after their meal, chewing more slowly, etc. But overall, maintaining a healthy lifestyle isn't easy which brings me to what I want to talk about today which is discipline.

So how has eating healthier taught me discipline?

I clean up after myself now, which is something I've never been good at. I clean the dishes after I'm done cooking. I go grocery shopping once or twice a week even when I don't feel like it. I take the time to make myself healthy even when I feel like putting instant noodles in the microwave. It also taught me to eat mindfully and enjoy my food, as well as indulging in other foods (like cake and greasy burritos) once in a while because it's good for the soul (and your sanity.)

And by learning to do all these things - it's helped me in other areas of my life too.

I'm better with time management, have better study habits, and procrastinate less. Eating healthy isn't easy and it's something I'm still learning to do and I still struggle with it, but I do think it's worth it.  There are so many benefits to eating healthy, and this is one of them.

This is also why I choose to study holistic nutrition, because every part of your life connects as a whole; it's kind of like a domino effect with each part influencing the rest. And if people choose to improve one aspect of their life, the other parts will follow along.

molly eats | mission beach cafe

This place is amazing. Great service, great food, great atmosphere. We came here to celebrate my friend's mom's birthday weekend. When we first drove up to the cafe, we saw the amount of people waiting outside and dreaded the wait. The worst part about eating out is probably the wait, especially at popular eateries. But most of the people were waiting had to wait for a table for two to clear up, so we got a table quickly.

I don't drink a lot of coffee and I'm not caffeine dependent, so it's pretty embarrassing when I try to order coffee because I don't understand most of the terms. Latte, mocha, macchiato.. wait what? I order a macchiato and apparently it wasn't what I was expecting, but our server was super nice about it and bought me a latte - turns out that a latte was what I wanted and it was really good.

We ordered dungeness crab benedict, mbc hevos, citrus cured salmon, and braised prather ranch short rib for our main dishes. Everything was so delicious and I was full in a short amount of time. Don't you hate it when you have a bunch of delicious food in front of  you, yet you're too full to eat it all? It happens to me quite a lot. But yeah - everything was super good and had a lot of flavor so I definitely recommend trying this place out if you're ever in the bay. They also have some pastries and pies for dessert, but I didn't have that much of a sweet tooth at the same plus I was super stuffed.

        

Hopefully I'll be back here soon!

What are some of your favorite brunch menu items?

embracing who you are

Last year, I had a really hard time dealing with life because I was an introvert surrounded by extroverts, and I felt like I didn't fit in anywhere. It left me feeling confused and really upset at times, and sometimes it bothered me to the point where I couldn't even enjoy the things I was doing. I never really dealt with wanting to be like everyone else in the past, so it was a really confusing thing for me to struggle with.

2014 is a whole different story, a better story.

I'm starting to accept that I am an introvert, but more importantly, I actually like being an introvert. I like being by myself, and acknowledging that doesn't make me a loser or loner. It just means that I enjoy the time I spend by myself because I get to pick the activity, music, food, and environment. I don't have to worry about pleasing everyone else around me, because I really hate doing that actually.

It doesn't mean I never go out either; I've actually been going out quite a lot these past few weeks, but I'm glad I don't have any social plans for March. I need time to myself to refresh and wind down from everything that's been happening. I do enjoy being around people, but too much social interaction can easily overwhelm me.

That's just who I am, and I like that. I struggled a lot in the past with accepting myself, but with each passing year, I'm learning to love and accept more and more which is something that I notice a lot of people still deal with, and it often leaves them feeling unhappy and unsatisfied with themselves. Learning to love and accept myself is not something I want to struggle with when I'm 40.

It's not that I hate extroverts. In fact, I love people who they are extroverts. I love the energy that they give off, how outgoing and engaging (and quite frankly just lovely people) they are with everyone they talk to, and I admire them a lot. I mean, not all extroverts are like that, but there are some that they are and their personality just really stands out wonderfully.

The point I'm trying to make is to embrace who you are because we're all unique and in our own way and that's pretty amazing.

So love who you are, because some out there thinks it's wonderful, and that someone should be you.

“Isn’t it refreshing to know that what comes perfectly natural for you is your greatest strength? Your power is in your nature. You may not think it’s a big deal that you can spend hours immersed in something that interests you—alone—but the extrovert next door has no idea how you do it.” - Laurie Helgoe

breaks soothe the soul

My blog is two months old today! :') 

Two months may not seem like long to some, but it's amazing that I've managed to keep something going for this long. I normally lose interest by now, but I love filtering my photos to death (thanks Vsco) and sharing it on the Internet. I also love reading what other people put out in the blogosphere from thought provoking posts to inspirational improving the quality of your life posts. So thank you blogsphere for existing and bloggers being here.

      

 #selfiegamestrong | My friend and I went to San Francisco yesterday and it was a good night! (despite not getting to the event on time oops and missing the artists we wanted to see) We waited in line for probably over an hour, but we became acquaintances with the people behind us which made the experience much more enjoyable and the time passed by faster - yay!

I got a small cup of soy mocha this morning, and it didn't help me in waking up at all since I took a three hour nap this afternoon - which was good because I (and my body) needed the sleep! Now I'm feeling a little more refreshed and ready to work. I have a few projects and assignments to get done, and I need to get started on my next module. But I'm actually really excited! Am I getting a productivity high? Maybe..

  

Before going on my nap, I made us a late lunch! It was really yummy and refreshing to have a lot of kale. I miss my veggies. My body tends to yearn for wholesome yummy foods after a night or weekend out. Oh I also made kale chips after my nap! It was all gone in a matter of minutes.

    

Do you have any exciting plans for this weekend? :)

berry chocolate goodness

I made chocolate covered strawberries yesterday morning for my friend's 22nd birthday. It was such a nice surprise since they turned out beautifully for my first try (after I made a big chocolate mess in the kitchen.) We passed the Godiva store on Monday and my friend wanted some choco covered strawberries so I'd thought I'd give it a try. What's better than homemade chocolate strawberries? Plus the pictures turned out great!

A few things I learned along the way just in case you're ever in the chocolate creation mood.

• This video helped me get started on the whole process.
• Quality chocolate is important because a. taste and b. it melts easier.
• Chocolate clumps up apparently so don't put them in plastic bags for decorating until you're ready.  It helps if you melt it (in a bowl) every so often so it's easier to work with.
• If you're microwaving the chocolate, do it in small amounts like 10-15 seconds.
  I melted mine in intervals of 25 seconds because I'm lazy.
• There are lots of ways to decorate strawberries! Use both dark and milk chocolate so you get two colors; you can also mix the two together to get a light brown color (which doesn't look as pretty in my opinion.)
• You can also use nuts, coconut flakes, etc. for decoration. I totally forgot about this until after they were chilled.
• Oh yeah, and it creates a mess but it's really fun to work with if you like working with food!

    

So you can see the mess I've created above, which really isn't that bad. My dad woke up just in time to help me get the toothpicks (yay!) I also learned that my friend really likes chocolate covered strawberries so I'll be making things again soon since I have extra chocolate chips left over and making the designs were really fun.

It's a great gift idea, especially if it's around the holiday time and you want to give a small yet personal gift to those around you. Or you can bring it to a party and have people be impressed!

• Have you made chocolate covered strawberries before? How did they turn out?
• Any tips for next time?