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Two Meatballs: Gratefulness leads to Happiness and Happiness leads to Love!!!

May 6, 2018health, fitness, beauty, motivation, plus size, make up, hair, hairstylist, oribe, bumble and bumble, MAC Cosmetics, comedy, Paleo, besties, best friends, meatballs, exercise, life change, lifestyles,Eloquii, Forever 21, hi kelly, ModCloth, split acre farmtwomeatballsgetfit View all 5 comments

Hello world!!! Sara here. Lately I have been feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Simultaneously, I’ve never felt so happy or more in love with everything and everyone!

All week long people have been telling me that I am radiating happiness and I am here for it!!! #thankskelsey #thanksmichelle

About a week ago, I ordered and started writing in my Five Minute Journal…

What is The Five Minute Journal you ask…oh my gosh thank you for asking!!! It is a practice in gratitude. It is a guided journal that you write in during the morning and evening. You name things that you are grateful for, things that would make the day great and your mantra in the morning. In the evening you reflect on what made the day amazing and what could have made it even better and you phrase everything in the positive…for example, if getting up earlier would have made my day better, I write, “I wake up before my alarm goes off.”

Now I am already a positive person, but putting things in such bright and powerful terms changes the way that you think and more importantly to me, the way I feel. And writing down the same mantra everyday really helps you “fake it until you become it” as Amy Cuddy says! Which by the way if you haven’t watched her TedTalk, it’s life changing!!!

The mantra that I write for myself every.single.day is:

I am healthy mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. I maintain healthy boundaries with myself and others.

There is something about this repetition and me writing it down that makes it feel so real. I feel so healthy in so many ways. I feel like I used to really struggle identifying, putting it to place and maintaining boundaries, but now saying that I do all of these things over and over again puts it in the forefront of my mind daily.

It has also changed the dialogue with my boyfriend, family, friends, co-workers and clients. Since I am constantly thinking about what is going right in my life and what I am grateful for, I am putting good, geniune energy in to the world which is contagious.

Before when my boyfriend asked me how my day was, I might be tempted to start with the thing that was the least pleasant…which is also contagious. Then we either: start a bitch fest which only leads to more toxicity in the air, or his positivity (he makes me look like a realist) would try and make it better by telling me “At least (fill in the blank) didn’t happen” which would only piss me off since it made me feel like he didn’t hear me or was devaluing my experience…which would lead to a fight or uncomfortable silence on my part, which would only make a bad day worse.

Now I tell him the best parts about my day and I feel like he rises to the challenge and tells me what made his day so great. We have had an amazing week. We are really spending quality time together and we both feel so grateful to have each other in our lives…guys, I’ve never been this in love before!!!

We’ve been going on all the dates, hanging out with my parents, going grocery shopping , cooking together and this week, making pinterest boards full of healthy desserts to try together.

This last one is for banana crunch cookies…to die for!!!

(It wouldn’t let me paste the link separately haha I don’t know why…just click on the sentence above for this recipe!)

In fact, things have been going so well that we took a huge step this week and I met some of his kids!!! I couldn’t have been more nervous, but Ben is always great at reminding me that it doesn’t have to be perfect and you know what; everything went great! I built the pressure of this moment up so much in my mind that it felt really overwhelming, but it couldn’t have been more normal and adorable! I am grateful and honored that he wanted me to meet them!!! #theyarethecutest #ilovehimsomuch#hopefullyIwillbelessshynexttime

I love continuing to go down this road and getting to know each other better and deeper and letting the love wash over us.

I’ve been super grateful at work!!!! I just love my work family so much!!! I got to be a part of all the funnest classes this week, I got to see and learn from my old pal Nikki, dig deeper with my team, help stylists find their stride, celebrate the victories, I got to do amazing hair and bond with my clients even more, see my meatball…who could ask for anything more?!

I’ve felt so excited about my career and my weight loss that I’ve even been fine-tuning my own brand!

I’m just going to go full on crazy cat lady in this pinafore and I’m obsessed!!!

Another thing I’ve been super grateful for lately is my farm share from Split Acre Farm!

I feel so connected to nature, North Carolina, eating hyper local and supporting Joe and Lisbeth’s sustainable farm journey as they support my journey to health with their farm fresh produce. I love opening a box each week and getting creative. Using ingredients I’ve never tried before…this weeks box had green garlic in it and a recipe for green garlic dressing…tried it and loved it!!!!!!!!!!!! This is keeping me on my toes and keeping cooking interesting! Can’t wait to see what is coming this week! Here is the recipe from Joe and Lisbeth:

I also have never felt closer to or more in love with my family…which makes me burst with gratitude. I have been called a “Pollyanna” or “Brown Noser” my whole life because of statements like this, but I couldn’t be being any more authentic to who I am. This week we celebrated Chase the Great Turning Eight at Kanki…the Beard traditions continue!!!

The night was amazing…I ate as healthy as I could which basically means no rice My only regret…sitting so far away from my sister!!!! #hikelly

And we spent the night laughing and celebrating this sweet angel!

Chase is the sweetest, funnest, funniest, most loving snuggle bug of all times. He is a taurus and he does what he wants and gives zero fox about it.

Just look at the face!!!! Happy birthday twinnie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family time means so much to me…so when I woke up too early Saturday morning, I reached out to my mom to see what she was up to. We decided to have breakfast together on her porch with dad and I brought the coffee!!!

What a great way to start the day with the people I cherish. Later we had a cookout and I brought my Split Acre Farm salad with Green Garlic Dressing!!!

Dad manned the grill, mom made the best potatoes and guacamole of life and we had a feast!

It helps tremendously when everyone is on the same healthy page. We were stuffed. But we spent the rest of the night snuggling and talking about better communication and flowers! My mom’s garden is giving me allllllllllllll the inspiration for my newly found green thumb!

After a full day spent together, they sent me home with some beautiful peonies…

Which I put outside on my front porch or as I am now referring to it as my secret garden. I had breakfast out here this morning just to enjoy the view!

I’ve also had all the phone dates with Kelly, Katie and Jenny!!! My world feels so happy and content!!!

I am grateful for so many things and my amazing life. I couldn’t be happier and more at peace and I am more in love than I ever have been before. I love you all and I’m so grateful you are taking this journey with us. WE love you the most.

Xoxo

Two Meatballs: Split Acre Farm to Table!!!

April 29, 2018health, fitness, beauty, motivation, plus size, make up, hair, hairstylist, oribe, bumble and bumble, MAC Cosmetics, comedy, Paleo, besties, best friends, meatballs, exercise, life change, lifestyles,Farm to Table, hi kelly, split acre farm, support local farmers, support small farmstwomeatballsgetfit View all 8 comments

Hello world!!! Last week ended with a bang! I just love celebrating my mom! What you didn’t know was that I was in agony that day. I had a cyst that just wouldn’t quit and left me feeling like this…

All night long I thought, should I go to the hospital!?! But my practical side said, wait until the morning and go to your doctor!!! Which is exactly what I did. I love my doctor, she is one of my longest time clients and I feel like she is a rare person in the medical field because she actually looks at me and she finds a way to make the experience personal. Long story short, I had a cone shaped infected cyst and had to go in for a procedure. I was out of work and out of it in general until Thursday. When things like this happen, these are always the moments where you question your lifestyle change. Not because you don’t believe in it, just because it’s a lot of effort and you don’t feel your best. Ordering food is so easy and cooking (shopping, chopping, etc) really takes effort. But I feel so different now and honestly, I’ve never been so grateful for leftovers!

People always try to help me and I used to always push them off…I didn’t want to be a bother. But now I am so grateful for help when I need it.

My parents came through in the biggest way!!! They cooked me food so I could be ready to go back to work.

My mom helped me clean and kept me company. Both my parents happily drove me to appointments when I couldn’t drive. (Thank you will never be enough, but thank you so much! I love y’all so much and am so grateful for everything that y’all do for me to help me stay focused and moving forward #mycuprunethover!!!) Jenny brought me a coffee, lunch and company. My sweet sister checked in on me frequently and so did my friends. Ben brought me flowers and all the cuddles!!!

I reached out to all my people for things that I could do to heal quicker and everyone obliged!

So what does this mean!? It means that by midweek, instead of looking at the nothingness in my fridge like this…

and then housing pizza straight to my face like I used to when these situations would arise and ultimately feeling worse because then you start dreaming of awful food…

I actually ate healthy things that will heal my body and followed my new lifestyle change as an actual lifestyle. And thanks to some pre-planning and having waffles in the freezer, breakfast was a breeze.

I followed the advice of those that I trust and I took the help that was offered to me so lovingly. I rested. I let my body heal so that I could go back to work in one piece instead of sad, broken little pieces. I listened to my body and I listened to my doctor. And now, a week later, I am feeling so much better and not depleted. Thank you to everyone who reached out!

On another note, some really exciting things happened this week!!!! First, I got this email…

And a couple of days later, I received my first produce delivery box from Split Acre Farm!!!!!

My sister Kelly and I decided to split a box. In the past when I have gotten a produce box, it was too much for me to eat in one week before it all went bad. And I love sharing, especially with Kelly!!! I opened up the box to find…

Lettuce, green onions, bok choy, spinach and swiss chard…something I’ve never eaten before!!! I had very little energy until yesterday, but I made a Pinterest board called Split Acre Farm (@meatballsgetfit) to get myself excited about all these ingredients!

The first thing I felt able to tackle was that beautiful red leaf lettuce!!! I chopped it up with heirloom carrots, tossed with Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing and I used my new Air Fryer to make radish croutons!

I ate this with fried eggs, sausage and a giant pickle!!! What a freaking difference fresh ingredients make!!! This salad was delicious!!! Y’all, those radishes were everything! I have also made some ribbon fries and roasted nuts in the air fryer!

Then I used some of my own home grown basil (squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!) to make slow roasted cherry tomatoes preserved in olive oil!

I tweaked a recipe by Heartbeet Kitchen:

2 pints heirloom cherry tomatoes

3/4 cup high quality olive oil

6 basil leaves, torn

8 cloves of garlic, smashed with knife

1/2 tsp kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

Heat oven to 225 lay tomatoes on rimmed baking sheet, add olive oil, basil, garlic and s&p, toss to combine, making sure that everything is coated so that it won’t burn. Cook 2 hours 20 minutes, stirring about 3 times throughout.

This is flipping delicious! My mind is exploding thinking of all of the possibilities! Today, I ate it with brunch!

And I haven’t stopped cooking! I don’t want to wasted any of this beautiful food. So on my farm to table menu:

Sweet potato noodles with spinach

https://pin.it/2hdabyqmlsyrr4

I deviated from this recipe and added coconut aminos and fish sauce! But look at that beautiful, farm fresh spinach and green onions! So good!

Swiss Chard with raisins, pine nuts and Porkitos from Nom Nom Paleo

https://pin.it/ntrza4lxbh2gad

Now this was my first rodeo with swiss chard and I’ve got to say…big fan!!! This was so savory which you know is my favorite!!! Here is the recipe for the Porkitos!!!

https://pin.it/twkdjphbv6zmi3

So crispy and salty…my dream!

Then I made the yummiest bok choy EVER!!!

I winged this:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 lb bok choy

4 cloves of garlic

3 handfuls of spinach

4 chicken sausages

2 tbsp Thai Almond Sauce

3 green onions chopped

1/2 tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp kosher salt

pepper

Heat up the sesame oil over medium heat in a non stick pan, add garlic then bok choy, add salt now…when they start to wilt, add spinach. Then add your almond sauce and stir everything around. Chop up chicken sausage and toss in the mix. Reduce heat and cook with lid on until everything combines. Probably 7 minutes total (if your sausage is precooked, if not cook longer) Add green onions and sesame seeds and go to town!

I have officially used everything in my box and I have healthy delicious food for the next couple of days. I cannot WAIT for my next box and my flower delivery to start in May! Thank you Split Acre Farm Joe and Lisbeth, thank y’all for contributing to my healthy lifestyle!!! And thank you to everyone for all the positive vibes and actual help this week when I was down for the count.

What a beautiful day it is today. I had the pleasure of writing outside today.

I am grateful for so many things. Thank you for reading and sharing this journey with me. Can’t wait to see you next week. Xoxo

Two Meatballs: Reclaiming My Space!!!

March 4, 2018health, fitness, beauty, motivation, plus size, make up, hair, hairstylist, oribe, bumble and bumble, MAC Cosmetics, comedy, Paleo, besties, best friends, meatballs, exercise, life change, lifestyles,hi kelly, split acre farmtwomeatballsgetfit View all 6 comments

Hello everyone!!! Sara here! How was your weekend!?

Mine was pretty low key…I feel like I’ve got a baby cold or my allergies are starting to take over, so I am as snuggled up on my couch as a person could be, writing this post!!!!!!

Literally every blanket is on me!!! I’m taking baking soda, elderberry extract, vitamin C and all of my supplements so I know I will feel fresh as a daisy tomorrow! #positivethoughts

But otherwise, I’ve been all about de-hoarding my house lately and upping the organization factor at chez Beard with the help of my sweet parents and my boo. Somebody look at this …

Do you see that weird thing at the bottom…it’s the floor!!! I haven’t seen the actual carpet in my closet for months…bc this is usually the place where I throw everything in when I’m “quick cleaning up”! Hahahahah If only I had taken a before pic!!! The mountain of clothes that took over my bed was so overwhelming!!! But my mom and I tackled it one bite at a time and my room has never looked better. My closet hasn’t been this clean since Ryan from Newman Builders built it! I ordered some cute little cube boxes so I can make the built ins even more streamlined! My goal is to keep cleaning out everything so that I can ultimately get rid of the big bulky dresser in my room! I want to reclaim my space and make my room into a quiet, clean sanctuary of peace and comfiness! I have a little ways to go to get there, but purging feels so good!

I’ve kept up to projects and shopping in my kitchen too! Somebody look at my rack!

My cabinet next to my stove was OVERFLOWING, so I found this sweet little chicken wire spice rack on Amazon and fell in love. And now my cabinet is roomy as hell and this little piece is giving my kitchen so much character…speaking of adorable…

I got these little cuties on Etsy from a store called Do Take it Personally!!! I love a pun and I totally hate doing stupid dishes! I want to be in my kitchen all the time and thank goodness, because y’all, that is exactly what to takes to stay on track. But first, I had to reclaim some counter top space!!!

My kitchen is gorgeous (another Newman Builders project) but I am very limited on space and since I live in a small townhouse style condo, every fucking wall is load bearing! I have had to accepted the foot print of my house…but this only makes it more and more important to reclaim my space. My countertops were crammed with appliances, so I rearranged my beautiful shelves (Newman Builders) to accommodate my growing collection of kitchen tools and reclaimed alllllllll of my cooking spaces!

Now I have all the room for chopping and mixing annnnnd flowers!

I found these at Trader Joe’s! I am counting down the days until my first farm fresh flower delivery from Split Acre!!!

Now that I have this big roomy kitchen, it feels even better to cook in! Lately I have been wanting to eat garbage, so instead, I made butternut squash fries…

This satisfied my cravings so well! I ate them with Tessemae’s Whole 30 approved ketchup mixed with Paleo sriracha! I bought the squash pre- zig zagged at Trader Joe’s, tossed them in avocado oil, sea salt, garlic and tumeric and roasted the hell out of them for 15 minutes ( I did 400, I would do 375 next time so that they aren’t QUITE as charred).

I also made the living best roasted dijon mustard pork!!! I ate it on top of salads, chopped up for breakfast and in an asian carrot dish!!! This week I also ate cilantro lime chicken zoodles and all of the sweet potato waffles!!!

Today, I slept in and started the day by eating the best breakfast!!!

Hummus and black beans are the two non Whole 30 things that I partake in, so this morning I smeared Roots mango sriracha hummus all over my waffles, made a 3 egg concoction and some tomato slices with a little sea salt sprinkled on top! And of course my cold match latte! I then started 1100 loads of laundry and cooked my life away this morning! I roasted some cabbage in the oven in one pan and cooked some bacon in another! On the stove top, I sautéed some mushrooms, shallots, spinach and chicken sausage in fish sauce and coconut aminos, I tossed this on top of the roasted cabbage! And in another pan I made paleo burrito bowl loaded!!!

So colorful, so yummy!!!! I had enough peppers and onions leftover that I made another migas scramble, without the rotisserie chicken this time!

I tossed the freshly cooked bacon on top and now I have two breakfasts, two lunches and three dinners ready to go! I think the key for me to keep it interesting is to not plan for more than 2-3 days at a time.

I have the second load of laundry in the dryer now, one more in the wash and one more to go and it’s only 3:40 on Sunday!!! Jenny is coming over soon and I’m so excited to see my meatball! I hope that y’all have had a great weekend and that you’ll have a great week! See you again real soon! Xoxo,

Two Meatballs: Sweet and Bittersweet Anniversaries

February 25, 2018health, fitness, beauty, motivation, plus size, make up, hair, hairstylist, oribe, bumble and bumble, MAC Cosmetics, comedy, Paleo, besties, best friends, meatballs, exercise, life change, lifestyles,hi kelly, sobriety, split acre farmtwomeatballsgetfit View all 6 comments

Hello world! Sara here!!! February 9th marked a really important day for me…4 years without alcohol or cigarettes!!!

Somebunnie look how TEEEENY I was!!! If you don’t know me, or are new to the blog, I used to party my dick off. And it wasn’t pretty orrrrr healthy for me….or anyone around me. I literally never in my life thought I would be sober, but it is hands down the right thing for me and my proudest accomplishment of my sweet little life so far. I celebrated by treating myself to a facial. My client/friend Carrie told me all about her amazing esthetician, Kat from Rosehips Studio http://www.rosehipsbeauty.com and I could not wait to go! I was supposed to go a few weeks before but the snow derailed us and I got to go on my actual anniversary! As I explained a few posts ago…my face is the Sahara (my brain is telling me to say the Sara Desert hahahahaha) and I needed to shed some old ass, dry flaky skin…and I live for that post facial glow!!! Somebody look how dewey!

I fell in love with Kat as soon as she opened the door…her energy is scrumptious. She had such a lovely space and everything she used was fruit based and smelled delightful. I couldn’t have enjoyed this experience and our conversations more and I CANNOT wait to go back!

So that was my happy anniversary…can’t wait to celebrate year number 5! February also brought with it the 3 year anniversary of my sweet Grandma Apple’s passing. It is still hard for me to believe that she is gone. She is my soulmate and I miss her so much that it hurts. But my fond memories and the sound of her laugh in my mind make it easier.

Just look at her…can’t you just tell that you would have LOVED HER!? Trust me, she was the living best. Every night I hope that she shows up in my dreams and every morning I have breakfast with her.

In my Facebook feed today was a post I had written about grieving her…it was RIGHT after her passing and I had myself crying like a baby. But it feels so good to let it out and let the waves crash over you for a minute.

So how do I celebrate this anniversary? How do I honor my old roomie, my sugar, the love of my life…by giving her what she always wanted for me… continuing to go down the road on my journey to health and spend even more time with my family and the ones I love. Janet Apple loved the saying , “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey” and I love to think of her each day as I cook. And girl…I can’t STOP cooking! I have expanded my grocery budget so that I can keep things interesting and so I can cook for my loved ones!

I also bought myself some new mugs for me and Benny Boo Boo Bear!!!

My parents ( my mom especially) have really been helping me clean out and purge my home! If I am going to remodel, I need to create some space!!! So I asked if I could come over Saturday night and make dinner as a thank you! What was on the menu you ask!? First of all, thank you for asking…I love talking about food! We made Filipino Steaks and guyyyyyyyys…it was INCREDIBLE!!!

The weather was so beautiful!!! I marinaded the steak overnight, prepped the tomato sauce and all of the ingredients then showed up at my parents. My dad had the grill going and the music bumpin…you know in a Bill Withers, Hall and Oats kind of bumpin! We sat outside and enjoyed it all, the breeze, the music, the food, each other!

Kelly even stopped by for awhile…what a dream!!! Grandma would have loved it. She would also love this…

I’m fucking doing it!!! I am really feeling good and super motivated. I even signed up for a produce and flower delivery from my favorite local farm, Split Acre Farm!!!

I love how devoted to sustainable farming Joe and Lisbeth are and I’m so excited to enjoy this gift to myself…me and Kelly are splitting it and I just can’t wait to get my first delivery of fresh produce and flowers mid April!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #farmerjoe If you are interested in partaking please visit http://www.splitacrefarm.com

Things have really changed for me. I’ve traded in the beer bongs and jaeger bombs for pinterest meals and fresh produce…and I couldn’t be happier. Thanks for all the love and support. I love y’all right back! This one is for you Gigi. #noyouhangup