Food Trip: Grilled Lemon and Garlic Chicken

I’ve been inspired to do some cooking in order to spruce up my eating habits. Healthy eating can get you stuck in a rut if you don’t unleash your creative side and try new recipes.

This morning I made a new meal, under the guidelines of the 3333 plan. It was actually quite simple and quick to prepare!

For my fruits, I had half a large pear.

For my vegetables, I tossed some spinach leaves and tomatoes.

For my protein, I grilled a chicken breast marinated overnight in lemon juice, chopped garlic, salt & pepper and 2 tbsps olive oil.

The olive oil made the chicken moist while the lemon made the chicken tasty, versus just grilling it off the bat.

For my carbohydrates, I ate a whole wheat bagel.

It was quick and easy and the preparations were simple. Looking forward to more recipes!

Top 10 Tips to Be Happy

30 Things Every Woman Should Know By The Time She’s 30

Since I’m on the way to celebrating the big 3-0 next year, I found this list made by Pamela Redmond Satran published in Glamour Magazine back in 1997.

She made a list on every woman should know by the time she’s 30, so I better check if I am ready 🙂

By 30, you should have:

1. One old boyfriend you can imagine going back to and one who reminds you of how far you’ve come.
2. A decent piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in your family.
3. Something perfect to wear if the employer or man of your dreams wants to see you in an hour.
4. A purse, a suitcase and an umbrella you’re not ashamed to be seen carrying.
5. A youth you’re content to move beyond.
6. A past juicy enough that you’re looking forward to retelling it in your old age.
7. The realization that you are actually going to have an old age—and some money set aside to help fund it.
8. An e-mail address, a voice mailbox and a bank account—all of which nobody has access to but you.
9. A résumé that is not even the slightest bit padded.
10. One friend who always makes you laugh and one who lets you cry.
11. A set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill and a black lace bra.
12. Something ridiculously expensive that you bought for yourself, just because you deserve it.
13. The belief that you deserve it.
14. A skin-care regimen, an exercise routine and a plan for dealing with those few other facets of life that don’t get better after 30.
15. A solid start on a satisfying career, a satisfying relationship and all those other facets of life that do get better.

By 30, you should know:

1. How to fall in love without losing yourself.
2. How you feel about having kids.
3. How to quit a job, break up with a man and confront a friend without ruining the friendship.
4. When to try harder and when to walk away.
5. How to kiss in a way that communicates perfectly what you would and wouldn’t like to happen next.
6. The names of: the secretary of state, your great-grandmother and the best tailor in town.
7. How to live alone, even if you don’t like to.
8. How to take control of your own birthday.
9. That you can’t change the length of your calves, the width of your hips or the nature of your parents.
10. That your childhood may not have been perfect, but it’s over.
11. What you would and wouldn’t do for money or love.
12. That nobody gets away with smoking, drinking, doing drugs or not flossing for very long.
13. Who you can trust, who you can’t and why you shouldn’t take it personally.
14. Not to apologize for something that isn’t your fault.
15. Why they say life begins at 30.

Read More http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2007/02/things-women-should-have-and-know-by-30#ixzz1t6ZpwCQs

Addicted to Instagram

I just love using Instagram! As an avid photographer, its my favorite choice of medium to share my daily photos. I got more into it, especially when I started participating in the Photo A Day Challenge by FatMumSlim.

FatMumSlim shared in her blog tips for Instagram Users to create wonderful photos to share.

I honestly found it very useful and even as an avid user, there were still some things I haven’t yet discovered!

Happy shooting and sharing!

Follow me on Instagram, too! @roxtheworld

Loading on Vitamins

I woke up yesterday morning to a bad cough, which later on developed into colds through the day. I am a firm believer this is just a case of the common cold and cough since I don’t have any fever.

One of the best ways to fight this is through liquids and vitamin C. I found this bottle of Suncoast Vitamin Boost in our local 7-11 and immediately bought it to keep me hydrated and loading up during the day.

It actually tastes pretty yummy, like drinking orange juice, not orange-flavored water. When I was done I couldn’t find it in other 24/7 stores or drug stores. I stocked up on this while going to the grocery.

Happy to say my cough is gone, but now has progressed to colds only. So drink up on your vitamins!

SNAPS – Social Networks and Apps

The arise of Social Networking has brought about a wide array of social mediums that are available to the masses… or to those who have access to the internet, at least. I, for one, am heavily reliant on these networking sites to 1) connect with my family and friends around the world; 2) to gather information; and 3) share what goes on in my daily life.

With these social networking sites and with the advent of mobile and compact devices such as the iPhone and iPad, there are so many of them to choose from and I actually found myself confused with all the available sites to be used.

So I decided to put order in the way I will share around these sites, so as for me to avoid confusion. Luckily they are all connected to each other through links.

PRIMARY MEDIA

My primary media are those sites which I will be using as my main platform of broadcasting. These are usually the sites with the widest audience and the most versatile components.

1. Facebook – will be my main social media platform as my own account is connected to over 1,000 friends. All important announcements, status updates, photo albums and shared links will be primarily be posted there. I will have the discretion to filter its content, but will still be the main source of information about myself for all my personal contacts.
2. Viva La Vida – my WordPress blog will be my main blogging platform. This is where all self-written articles, opinions, inspirations, stories, and Project 365 will be housed. This blog will generally not be shared on social media platforms unless approved and will only be found on my tumblr, WordPress and search engines.
3. My365 and Project365 iPhone Apps – will be my main applications for daily trackings of Project 365 – a daily photo project.
4. Nike+ GPS – will be my main application for counting recording my runs.

SECONDARY

These are the networks and applications that will be used sporadically and not be as updated as this reaches a a fewer audiences.

1. Twitter – is a good source of information for news around the world and my favorite celebrities. I will be posting and sharing random status messages, pictures, and links, and my twits can also be randomly cross-posted to Facebook so my main platform will not be as cluttered. To be used to message and chat with some of my friends with whom I follow.
2. Tumblr – will be house the annotated version of my blog Viva La Vida only.
3. Instagram – will be used mainly for photosharing and main app for editing pictures. Photos can be cross-posted to Facebook and Twitter and will be severely filtered.
4. DailyMile – will be the online version of my Nike+ GPS
5. Pinterest – mainly to be used to organize my hobbies and interests, such as condo decorating ideas, fashion ideas and the like. Primarily repins and no user generated content to be shared here.

TERTIARY

Social networking apps used sporadically.

1. Path – a facebook-like social media app. Randomly used mostly for counting my sleeping hours.

Hopefully this will be used as a guide for me when I ever come across some form of confusion.

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

I admit, I am a little frustrated at the number of views my blog has. I actually compared it to my former blog, which up to now has a steady stream of readers since I started blogging last January 2011. My current blog doesn’t even have daily readers even though I churn out more entries and a much wider variety than I did before.

I stumbled upon today on an article on how to increase blog traffic:

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

I won’t post the entire thing but encourage you to click on it (but after you read mine! Hehehe).

I found the article very useful with lots of insights and tips (some I don’t intend to use) but I found myself thinking back to what is this blog for. This blog’s purpose is mostly for personal purposes as a form of self-expression and I don’t intend to cater to a wide audience at the moment. So the result of my blog’s statistics are the results of my actions.

But the best advise was the bonus tip: Bonus #22 – Be Consistent and Don’t Give Up

Earning traffic isn’t rocket science, but it does take time, perseverance and consistency. Don’t give up. Stick to your schedule. Remember that everyone has a few posts that suck, and it’s only by writing and publishing those sucky posts that you get into the habit necessary to eventually transform your blog into something remarkable.

It made me happy to think that this blog is receiving more likes for my posts than it did for my old blog 🙂 Just a little patience is needed 🙂