Healthy Breakfast Ideas {Even if You Don't Like Breakfast}

I love brunch, but I hate breakfast. It grosses me out to have barely been awake for 30 minutes and have to scarf down a meal before leaving for school. I despise oatmeal and cereal in the morning, along with frozen waffles etc. So, over the years I have had to get pretty crafty with my breakfasts, I've even had peanut butter and jelly for breakfast before. Through my many breakfast experiments, I have found the perfect breakfast for me, I'm sure you'll like it too!

1: Power toast

This is my go-to breakfast before running, but it is just as yummy for a regular day.

• Spread almond butter on multigrain toast
• Drizzle with honey
• Sprinkle about 2 tsp of chia seeds or hemp hearts on top
• Add sliced bananas

2: Broiled Grapefruit

I know broiled things sound kind of gross, but trust me on this one!

• Cut half a grapefruit and section it
• Sprinkle brown sugar to your liking on top
• Place it under the broiler for about 5 minutes, or until the sugar melts/starts bubbling

I finished off my breakfast with pressed espresso, as I have been obsessed with my new coffee press lately! 

This meal actually gets me excited to get out of bed in the morning, which I think is a huge step to becoming a morning person. You can read more about becoming a morning person in this post- rise and shine!

Stay sunny,

Meg

Weekly Challenge No. 3

We are taught that if we stop moving for one minute, we will fall two steps behind. While I'm all about productivity and ambition, I'm definitely not about stress and wearing yourself out. Sometimes I feel like I'm living so fast and doing so much that I don't pay enough attention to my life-- like I'm just going through the motions. Through meditation, I've learned to have more gratitude, awareness and balance. It gives me a little bit of time each day to take notice; of  my mind,  surroundings, body, blessings, and thoughts. I use it for sleep, breaking a bad mood, stress relief, and just because.

This week's challenge is to take time to meditate each day, whether for two minutes or twenty. The best way to start is with a guided app, I use this one from Gaiam and I highly recommend it!

Along with meditation comes a multitude of benefits. If you're worried about starting this challenge because you have "too much to do," meditation can increase your focus and actually help you do more by increasing productivity by 120%. If that doesn't convince you, check out more facts below!

via

Stay sunny,

Meg

Rise and Shine

I'm back with the second weekly challenge, and it's a tough one! But don't worry, I've been doing this challenge for the past two weeks and if I can do it, you definitely can do it.

I have always been the girl who sets an alarm for 6 and snoozes until the very last minute possible. That is, until I found out this was actually making me MORE tired. Snoozing (waking up and falling back asleep again and again) has been clinically proven to use more energy than just waking up and staying up. Waking up and taking those extra nine minutes on the snooze button is just enough for your body to slip back into sleep only to be jolted back up again, and then make actually getting out of bed seem impossible. I decided I wanted to be a morning person, because scarfing down half a granola bar at the last minute and scrambling to leave for school in 15 minutes is too stressful and unhealthy a way to start the day.

So, this week's challenge is sort of a mind game to trick you into being a morning person. When your alarm goes off, go ahead and press snooze. But instead of falling asleep, get out of bed. Tell yourself that you only have to stay out of bed until the alarm goes off. Then, get some water, start packing up your things for school and maybe even get dressed. By the time the alarm goes off again, you will already be ready to go and not want to get back in bed!

Other ways to help you get going are to plan a yummy breakfast for the morning to motivate yourself or put on some music. Not gonna lie, it was a struggle for the first few days, but I love mornings now. I actually get to sit down, have a cup of coffee, eat my breakfast, and talk to my mom.

I decided to have this be a 10-day challenge, just because I think the weekends should be "cheat" days. Nothing should come between a girl and her kingdom of blankets on Saturday morning :-)

Stay Sunny,
Meg

Girl Up {+ Kendra Gives Back Party!}

graphic by Girl Up

I am a girl, and it is not easy. But, I have the power to help other girls where it's the hardest to be a girl. And so do you. 

A few months ago, I became a Girl Up club leader.  Girl Up is an organization that is run through the United Nations and is dedicated to girls helping other girls from 3rd world countries become educated, independent, and healthy. Basically, it's a bunch of passionate and empowered young women kicking discrimination of girls to the curb and raising the amount of girls who get to go to school. We believe girls should be allowed to be girls, freely & unapologetically.

That's why I'm partnering with Kendra Scott and Kendra Scott Cincinnati to host a fundraising party in the spirit of empowering girls. It'll be a blast, I promise! Come have some treats with me and see the new spring line, with 20% of the proceeds going to Girl Up. Mark your calendars for February 20th, from 1-3!

Girls are strong, trust me, but together they are stronger. Girl up, gear up, rise up- let's do this.

{Join my club here! The club name to select is A Sunny State of Mind x Girl Up. No commitment required,  & if you want more info, shoot me an email.}

{RSVP for the party here! RSVPs are not mandatory, we just want to know about how many treats to get.}

{Pass it on. To spread the word about Girl Up, send a link to this post to your friends and family!}

Stay sunny,
Meg