faith – lifeofacitygal

A Breath of Fresh Air

There comes a time when we all just need a breath of fresh air. I am still trying to master the art of meditation and simply have a clear mind of all thoughts but in the meantime, I will continue to do what I know best. That equating to taking short mental breaks. Often times we put pressure on ourselves unknowingly and really fail to take time to appreciate and be grateful for what we do have and how far we’ve come.

I recently traveled to DC with family to celebrate a high school grad. During the moments over that weekend, there were things that I learned to appreciate and value that much more. One being spending time with family and the other being to live in the moment and create as many great memories that you can. I am still working on my greatness and trying to do as much as I can for and with family. Consequently, I started this blog with family in mind. Just another way to connect us whether near or far and provide moments or experiences they can share with me. We all have our own path and have created the ways in which to follow that path but still be mindful a strong foundation is needed to go through your journey; foundation being family and friends. You always have them to go through the journey together.

While in DC, I still managed to bring some blog-worthy fits and wanted to share one of them with you. If you haven’t noticed, I love floral print. I’ve loved floral print for years and it doesn’t seem to go out of style or lose its trend-worthy looks. I found this lovely jumper at Target. Target never fails me. The new collections they have are very stylish and affordable. I paired this jumper with my go to natural mules. I haven’t found a replacement for these shoes yet that can match their comfort so until then, you’ll be seeing these 😊. The loose fit of this jumper was another win for me. I’m all about comfort these days so this look was perfect just for that reason alone. As mentioned before, Lifeofacitygal is a true passion project of mine dedicated to sharing travel experiences, fashion and food adventures; all things that I love. Hopefully reading this post gave you a breath of fresh air or encouraged you to get just that. More content coming your way. Thanks for your continued support!

A Better Me

With the new year comes all sorts of dieting, fitness goals and abrupt changes to accomplish being “a better YOU”. I’ve never really been into resolutions for the new year or implementing new life goals for the new year. However, this year my aunt spoke with me about the Daniel Fast and asked me to participate along with her. Since she told me this 2 days beforehand, I agreed to fast but with modifications. I had to mentally prepare for this thing you know since it started on New Years day. I decided to eliminate all meats, bread and sweets for the duration of 21 days and I started this commitment on January 2nd.

Just to give you guys a little background about me, I absolutely love food! It’s kind of my thing being a foodie and all. I jot down restaurants that I see on my drive home, follow other foodies and see their suggestions and pretty much indulge in anything food related. So, to commit to this fast was a big deal for me. The first couple of days were a bit tough because I didn’t realize how much stuff I consumed that had bread as the base and neither did I realize I ate so many sweets. After the harsh first few days, my body became acclimated somewhat quickly. The mornings were simple. My favorites were fruit and smoothies. For lunch and dinner, I normally sautéed veggies and I ate a ton of sweet potatoes and avocados. While on this fast, I learned about various vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the LA area too. I hadn’t paid attention before but there are a lot of options if you’re a part of the vegan community.

On the last day, I called my aunt and told her I made it through the fast. I will be truthful and say I had 2 French fries and 2 alcoholic beverages during the 21 days. I didn’t commit to giving up fried foods or alcohol but those kind of fall in that “don’t eat category” when I thought about this fast so I just gave those up as well. Water became my best friend and now I just go for water more now as my first beverage choice as I should anyways. I haven’t even indulged in coffee since the fast ended on 1/23 and I feel pretty good about that since I normally start my day with a fresh cup of coffee. The fast helped me to see and appreciate a lot of principles that I normally don’t pay attention to. Discipline, faith and commitment are the biggest ones I would like to mention. We often doubt ourselves and say we can’t do or commit to something before we even try. I was so proud of myself throughout this journey because to be frank it was quite tough to go out and order the “healthy food” or all veggies or NOT stop by neither of the 100 donut shops in LA you pass everyday. I can say I feel better energy wise and overall I just feel more connected and in tune with myself. Now I will not say I’m not eating meat again but I will be mindful of the intake of it along with other things that I was so use to consuming before. I’m a continuous work in progress so here’s to a better me!

California Dreaming: A Leap of Faith

As of June 9, 2017, new beginnings were just ahead for me. That was my official last day at my current 9-5 and my final night living in NYC. My husband and I decided we’ve conquered the jungle and wanted to change the pace just a bit. Be somewhere more aligned with our lifestyle and actually be more at comfort while at it. We decided to take our talents west. All the way west to the City of Angels better known as Los Angeles. The next morning we finished packing, loaded a Caravan and started a journey towards our true dreams. When I shared this story, a lot of people could not wrap their finger around the decision to quit a full time job without having another one and the idea of abruptly leaving NYC to road trip it to California. We also didn’t have a place of our own just yet. This just added to the craziness and idea of packing up and taking it across country with pretty much ourselves, clothes and shoes.

It took 3 days to make it to California with 2 pit stops in Texas; one in Dallas and the other in El Paso. After trying to capture all of the state welcome signs, I finally saw the one I had been waiting to desperately see after over 30 hours of travel. Welcome to California!! Within 2 weeks, I landed a job and a little before 3 weeks secured an apartment. I say all this to say, never give up on your dreams and do not live a life with fear. With the faith of a mustard seed, things were able to come into fruition and just fell into place so perfectly. I’ve made a number of trips to LA and decided awhile back this would be my next home. So many things I have yet to do but I now can scratch off move to Los Angeles 🙂

Thank you for staying with me on the journey with Lifeofacitygal. This is a passion project of mine and I will continue to bring great content, food recommendations and a bit of fashion sense. That being said, this cute little number came from one of my favs, H&M, and is absolutely perfect for LA nights. I paired it with my classic neutral mule to give me a little height due to the length of the dress. Stay tuned for more greatness and again thank you for your continued support. Don’t forget to share this with a friend!