Annie & Harry | Oxford, Mississippi Engagement

Winter Wonderland | Oxford, Mississippi Lifestyle

That time we were snowed in and loved every minute.

LESS WORK, MORE LIFE

My dear friend Megan, writer of Chasing Pradas and PR, inspired me to write this post. 

Finding a neutral balance between work life and personal life can be very challenging for career-driven women. It's easy to pour your heart and soul into work that feels like play, especially when it consumes you day in and day out. Though we may love what we do, our bodies and minds can only handle so much work, so much stress, and so much pressure. Avoiding the burnout by being proactive about balance and more efficient at work, will most definitely allow your "free time" to be stress free and actually enjoyable.

If you're like me, you think big and act fast. I'm not happy unless I'm doing five different things at once (my mother calls it thriving on chaos) and I'm an aggressively enterprising individual. The pro to my lifestyle: I'm extremely hard working and it shows. The con to my lifestyle: what is sleep? I am my toughest critic and because of this I am currently working on being a stronger cheerleader. After all, positive is everything.

Doing less is not about being lazy. Doing less is about focusing on quality rather than quantity. It's about getting off that hamster wheel of productivity, so that you can create something amazing rather than being overly busy and stressed. Please note: doing less takes courage. Most of us spend too much time multi-tasking and spreading ourselves too thin, then feel frustration at our lack of progress. You have to shed the idea of working harder and working more means being more productive. Instead, you have to think about the impact your work has on the world and more importantly, your life. You have to change the way you do things. Change is never easy, but I promise you that it's worth it. 

Keep it simple, but be intentional about it. Be a lover of life and choose to celebrate it every single day with the people you care about. Only take on what you have time for and give it all you got. Find the time to focus on what makes you happy and the rest takes care of itself, guaranteed.

Pressed Juicing

For those of you on the new year resolution "health kick", pressed juicing is my absolute favorite cleanse. Sure, juice diets have been around for years, but fresh pressed juicing is far from a diet. We normally associate greens with bitterness, so a mouthful of liquified vegetables may not sound too appealing. However, many green juices are blended with fruits (apple, pear, mango, etc.) and mix-ins (lime, coconut, ginger root, etc.) creating a rather exhilarating sensation for our taste buds.

Things to look out for: sugar and calories. If the word smoothie is anywhere on your bottle, put it down. We want fresh juice not a smoothie with unhealthy additives. Why? While your body may appreciate all the extra antioxidants and vitamins, it's very important to keep in mind that a surplus of carbs can wind up feeding your fat cells and defeating the purpose of enjoying fresh juice. Juicing is a great way to squeeze more produce into your nutrition intake for those of you hustlers always on the go like myself. Juicing is not meal replacement - it's healthy snacking. I am personally obsessed with the flavors and how fresh juice makes me feel. Can't get enough of these refreshing blends of bliss!