Balance

One of the things that I think is most important in life is balance. My life is made up of work, school, family, my boyfriend, excercise, the occasional day off at the beach, and eating. I try to keep them all as balanced as possible, but often work and school take over, and (to be honest) I pretty much choose to spend time with my boyfriend over anything else if I can.

The hardest place for me to find balance is with eating and working out. Once I start going to the gym or running, I want to go every day all day. Then I want to come home and eat salads and veggies and anything healthy I can get my hands on. I'm addicted to berries, yogurt, and granola. But I also have a weakness for chocolate. And candy. And ice cream. Basically anything with sugar.

Being in college, finding balance is an everyday struggle. Most of the people around me drink more than they eat, and my kitchen is constantly so dirty that I'm tempted to go out and buy ready-made meals instead of taking the time to prepare what I really want, even though I rarely do and normally settle for making food at home using as few utensils as possible in order to avoid cleaning someone else's old pasta dish. ew.

These are two of my favorite, easy meals to make. The first is a reduced guilt veggie pizza from Trader Joe's and a salad of tomato, cucumber, feta cheese, and chicken (also from Trader Joe's). Ok so it's not 100% home-made, but not bad for a college kid.

Then I have my salad with spinach, baby heirloom tomatoes (my new favorite Trader Joe's find), feta cheese, cucumbers, bell pepper, olives, and chicken.

As you can see, I have a few favorite ingredients that I live on. Not exactly gourmet, but whatever. And if you were wondering, yes, that is the view from my house. The ocean. Not bad, I must admit :) As often as possible I like to eat my meals on my beautiful deck, and I have many more amazing ocean pictures to share eventually.

Back to balance. I can't say I've found the perfect way to balance my life, but I try. I'm disciplined most of the time, but find it incredibly hard to pass up a cold Corona with lime (or 3), and have absolutely no self-control if a bag of M&Ms lands anywhere in my view.

How do you find balance in your life?

Love,

Toni