We have been planning our trip back to Martha's Vineyard and all of this talk about the warm weather & summer sun has me so excited to start figuring out my wardrobe for the island + summer in general! I have been really into color lately, after being a neutral gal for a while now I love the idea of popping in some color here and there.
I am someone who will forever preach the idea of trusting the timing of your life. Every single thing happens for a reason. All of these lessons and events that happen in your life are meant to shape you or help you grow in some way. And the sooner you realize that and you go with the flow of life instead of trying to control every little aspect of it, the freer you become. And the more your soul starts to align with your life & things start to fall in place - in perfect harmony.
other links
sectional: https://bit.ly/3o8UUE0
wood trays: https://rstyle.me/+WpjmoxaFU5vvfzdy0FNg9g
I was always someone who needed to have everything in order, to know my exact life's trajectory. But the older I get & the more I see that life is so short, I realize that the most important thing is to be fully present in the moment and to not take life for granted. When you let go and you just live, life starts to unfold and the path to discovering your true calling becomes a lot less bumpy. This is the second time in my life where I followed my intuition and allowed myself to simply ride the stream of life and it led me to discover even more about myself & what I want out of life.
The first time was when I accepted a merchandising job that I got offered out of no where - I worked in a corporate setting, met new people, learned more about my work habits and what I enjoyed & realized that the position was not for me and that it was totally okay to have tried it as it led me to this self discovery that merchandising wasn't my passion anymore. (note: while trialing this job my mental health did suffer and the number one thing I needed was to cut that lifestyle off from my life so that I could find inner peace & harmony again). As soon as I was okay with the idea that I tried & it just was not for me - another opportunity opened up, leading me one step closer to my true calling.
Interior design, home renovations & real estate has always been a HUGE interest of mine. My "home decor" board on Pinterest is my largest board with almost 3,000 pins. All I used to watch in high school was HGTV and was obsessed with Fixer Upper, Flip or Flop, House Hunters etc (and now it's Selling Sunset although its more of a reality drama show now LOL!) The first major I was interested in was Interior Design, but my limiting beliefs at that age told me I wasn't smart enough for it and I didn't have enough money to study at a prestigious school in NYC or something. All I purchase when I go to Marshalls or TMaxx is home decor items. It's hardly clothing. My favorite class in high school was 1000% when I took an Interior Design course. It's in the facts of my life, but I just never know how to approach this passion of mine as a career since I didn't have exact experience in it besides making my own collages in Photoshop and obsessively watching TV shows.
When I created the collage above, I was working as a marketing coordinator for a jewelry company. I was bored during the work day and wanted to design details for our living room when we move into our new house. And there is a quote that I saw somewhere once that goes along the lines of "What do you while you are procrastinating is your true calling." Yay, I found it! Read below:
This quote couldn't be anymore accurate. Obviously it has to be applied in context, if you're procrastinating with Tik Tok or binging tv shows/movies then its a different story (although maybe you are destined to be a social media influencer or movie critic?)
It comes down to this limiting self belief. That we sometimes settle for what we think we deserve, even if it's less than what you know you deserve. It's subconscious - you don't know that you're settling, (unless you're like me and you self analyze 24/7 and don't let a single thought that goes through your mind go unnoticed lol). I believe the art of practicing self care can help you realize that you deserve to be living your happiest life doing what you love no matter what.
This new path of mine is leading me to explore the opportunity of working with one of my biggest and maybe even my most unexplored passions. Luxury Real Estate Marketing. I really cannot wait to start & see where this takes me!
Ever since moving to Florida in 2019, I became much more aware of my appearance and became more self conscious than I ever had before. I was constantly on social media, comparing myself and my life to my others, always wanting what other influencers had. I came to a breaking point during the summer of 2020 - covid summer. I took a break from social media to just see if I could. I was sick of not experiencing life the way I used to when I was a child. Paying attention to the small details of life, the way the soft breeze flows, the smell of freshly cut grass, hearing birds chirping in the distance. When I was on social media, I would be consumed with it entirely. Any free second that I got, I was immersed.
The mind is like a sea shore and thoughts are like the everlasting waves, constantly flowing in and out. A cycle that just does not stop. To me, I felt that an overwhelm of thoughts was causing me to lose my sense of self. I thought I wanted my life to be one certain way, but then I would go on social media, see the way another influencer was living their lives and want that life.
So what was my true, authentic self? What was my life's mission? My core values? Who was I?? Under all of the Lightroom filters, IG lenses, stories & highlight reels - who really was I as a person? What was not serving me that I continuously kept letting back into my life? What was the life that I dreamed of?
There was this stillness in meditation that brought me such pure bliss. That I realized, if I could live my life like this, with no external influences, just living life the way I intended - then my mind would be at peace and there would be no inner conflict. Just stillness and peace - similar to the way the autumn leaves stand in the fall crisp air at sundown under golden, lazy rays of sunshine. Bringing me back to the purity of childhood, when the best part of life was playing around outside & letting your imagination run free.
As a result, I started to just let go. I began letting go of everything that stressed me out, all of my worries, fears and uncertainties. Instead of dwelling on the what ifs and how's, I just started to live my life. And be present in the moment. And live each moment to the fullest. I began believing that, yes, everything really does happen for a reason and every step that you take in life is leading you to where you are supposed to be. There are no wrong turns. Everything that is meant to be, will be.
This way of thinking eventually forced me to sit down and sort out my life’s values - something I had never done before. I think this comes with age, as you get older you start to just naturally filter out the things that don’t mean much to you anymore; but getting ahold of it while still young at 25 feels pretty amazing. I sat down and asked myself, what are things that make you feel absolutely amazing? Once I listed all of the things that were important in my life - everything just started to make a lot of sense. Pieces of my life were fitting together like a puzzle, and the universe was working it all out for me.
So, once I really let go and let myself live, life unfolded and presented me with an opportunity that I could not pass up. I just started a new career as a Merchandise Coordinator, which is exactly what I went to college for and was my dream job in college. I am so ecstatic and couldn’t be more sure that this is the exact path I am needed to follow at the moment. I have taken a pause to focus on nurturing myself, my well being, and my creative side. I hope you enjoy following along the journey with me & I hope you find some inspiration through it all.
-Amanda, xx
Hi loves! I can't believe how long it's been since I've actually sat down and written a post. I have a bunch of drafts saved with maybe one or two lines of text that I just gave up on over the months. Ever since moving to Florida, I have been so so sooo busy. Thanks to the self quarantine, I've been able to pick up a lot of the stuff that I had unfortunately neglected over the past few months that I used to love doing. I'm planning on doing a huge update post- talking about why I moved to FL, what I've been up to, and what my plans are soon so stay tuned for that :)
The Reason I Said See Ya to Gluten
In January of 2020, Paul and I decided to cut out gluten from our diet. The reason why is because Paul has hyperthyroidism, which means his thyroid produces too much testosterone (which means hello muscles w/o even trying!) He was prescribed meds from his doctors over two years ago, but we decided to look into a more holistic approach of healing his thyroid. After some initial research, we found out that gluten can be one of the biggest triggers for hyperthyroidism. After that, we decided to really start eating clean and cut out gluten from our diet. And here's the thing - I cut out gluten for moral support of my Pauly, because it would be nearly impossible for him to live gluten free while I'm sitting right next to him eating a fat a$$ slice of pizza. I figured I'd try it out and if I hated it I'd switch, but it turns out... I truly never want to add it back into my diet ever again.How Its Made Me Feel
The things that I noticed after cutting out gluten:
- I feel so much less bloated
- I hardly get any headaches/migraines (right before, I was experiencing headaches all of the time but now I can confidently say experience them 80% less of the time)
- I'm less tired/fatigued
- I've been sleeping SO much better than ever before
We really noticed a different in Paul too - he lost a lot of weight and slimmed down like crazy (and he doesn't even work out super often so imagine if he did!) We also don't eat *most* dairy products and that's something I've been doing for a few years (like I drank almond milk/almond creamers but I would still eat ice cream, cheese, etc), but now we are trying to be a little more strict with our dairy intake by substituting ice cream for dairy free, almond cheese substitutes, etc. (Cutting out dairy is SO hard for me because I love it so much, so it's definitely still a work in progress!)
Was It Hard?
Cutting out gluten has got to be one of the easiest things you can do for your body. There are literally COUNTLESS gluten free substitutes and alternatives & I swear you can hardly notice a difference in the taste. From pasta to bread, pizza, even bagels! Gluten can cause intestinal symptoms, even in people without celiac disease that include altered gut function, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gut microbiome changes. Cutting it out will help reduce the chances of getting these symptoms and will help heal your gut.
Of course, when you first start cutting something from your diet it can be very difficult and cheat days are expected. It wasn't until maybe around one full month that we were 100% clean from gluten that I cheated by eating a slice of pizza and I realized how well my body was doing without gluten & how reactive it became when I added it back into my diet. My stomach was seriously doing FLIPS and I could hear it having a hard time trying to digest the gluten. After that, I decided I was never going to go back.
Our Favorite Gluten Free Items
When it comes to cooking, I now home cook almost every single meal. Our meals consist of mostly whole foods like vegetables & fruits. There are hardly any processed foods in our dinners. We're mostly plant based but we sometimes eat meat here and there (like chicken and ground turkey). Here's what we couldn't live without in our pantry:
Fruits & Vegetables: (these are what I am constantly buying at the grocery store - we aim to get mostly organic from Wholefoods or Publix)
- Onion (yellow + red)
- Garlic
- Sweet potatoes
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Whole ginger
- Parsnips
- Asparagus
- Sliced mushrooms
- Tomatoes (cherry + plum)
- Cucumbers
- Spring salad mix
- Kalamata olives
- Celery (Paul has celery juice every morning)
- Eggplant
- Avocados
Pantry & Frozen Items:
- Trader Joes Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Jovail Organic Gluten Free Brown Rice Penne Rigate
- Costco Gluten Free Cheese Pizza
- Udi's Gluten Free Multigrain Bread
- Cinnamon Chex Cereal (our alternative to Cinnamon Toast Crunch!)
- Kind Breakfast Bars
- Vans Gluten Free Waffles
- Garden Lites Superfood Veggie Cakes
- As I'm writing this list I'm realizing that there are literally SO many pantry items that are gluten free that we're obsessed with and it would take me hours to write everything LOL - just go to your grocery store & you'll be able to find so many!
Resources + Articles
- Thyroid Healing by Medical Medium - really good info on healing the thyroid through holistic measures
- AIP (The Autoimmune Protocol Diet) - this diet can help people with thyroid problems help discover exactly what kinds of foods trigger their autoimmune symptoms by eating non-trigger related foods and then slowly introducing different kinds of foods one by one to see which causes a reaction in them
- Understanding Gluten / Celiacs Disease
- Celery Juice by Medical Medium - Celery juice can literally change your life. The Medical Medium explains it all here
- Omega Juicer
I hope this post helped in some way! Have a happy Wednesday
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