Half Empty or Half Full?

Rectangle 58

Hi, I'm Tina!

I’m the owner of Carrots ‘N’ Cake as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). I use macros and functional nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.

Fit + Fueled

An in-depth, 4-week reverse dieting course for women who feel like their metabolism has slowed down, think they might have hormonal imbalance and can’t lose weight no matter what they do.
Get all the tools to take your physique into your hands. Over six-months, you’ll transform your life, mindset, and body in this program that’s part-course, part-coaching, and part-community.
Categories
weight loss

Happy Friday, blog friends! :mrgreen: I am so glad that the work week is just about over. Mal and I have a really fun weekend planned! 😎

This morning’s breakfast was a new creation: Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie!

Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie

Makes 1

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1/4 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
  • 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
  • 1 tbsp hemp (or whey) protein
  • 1 tbsp agave nectar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup ice
  • Dash of nutmeg
Directions: Combine all ingredients in blender (or VitaMix) until smooth.

This smoothie tastes just like sweet potato pie (delicious!) and is packed with nutrients. It’s a sweet smoothie, but not so sweet (or thick) that you feel like you are sipping on a liquefied piece of sweet potato pie. It’s just right in my opinion!

This smoothie is also a very filling. I had planned to eat an Oatmeal Raisin Bar with breakfast, but I ended up packing it up for later. My stomach is totally content for now.

Defensive Pessimism

If you’re an avid reader of Carrots ‘N’ Cake, you’d probably assume that I am a rather positive person. So, I’m sure you’d be surprised to know that I am actually a major pessimist. In fact, Mal often bugs encourages me to be more positive.

The other day, I read an article in O Magazine (March 2009) called “Revenge of the Pessimists.” (FYI: It’s on Oprah’s site with a different title.) The article explained a form of pessimism called “defensive pessimism,” which I found very interesting and describes me well. Here are some of the article’s main points:

  • “Defensive pessimists prepare for a situation by setting low expectations for themselves, then follow up with a very detailed assessment of everything that may go wrong.”
  • “Defensive pessimism is a strategy used in specific situations to manage anxiety, fear, and worry.”
  • “What’s intriguing about defensive pessimists is that they tend to be very successful people, and so their low opinion of the outcome isn’t realistic; they use it to motivate themselves to perform better.”
  • “Research shows that if you pressure defensive pessimists into being optimistic, or try to manipulate their mood, their performance deteriorates.” 

In a sense, this article verbalized and validated my pessimistic outlook. Even from the time I was a little girl, I always expected the worst, and thus, prepared myself for the worst case senario. Today, I still think about the full range of possible bad outcomes, so I can figure out how to handle them, which, as you can probably guess, gives me a sense of control. Basically, defensive pessimism is a tool that prepares me for just about anything, including failure. So, if I do fail, I’m ready for it. Mentally considering all of the possibilities makes a bad outcome less catastrophic for me.

Does this sound familiar to you? Feel free to take a quiz to see if you are a defensive pessimist, too: Defensive Pessimism Questionaire

Question of the Day

Are you an optimist or pessimist? Or perhaps a defensive pessimist?


You Might Also Like

DON'T MISS A THING

Join the community!

Get recipes, workouts. and discounts straight to your inbox for FREE!

Join The community

Get recipes, workouts. and discounts straight to your inbox for FREE!

@carrotsncake

© 2022 Carrots ‘N’ Cake. All Rights Reserved | An Elite CafeMedia Food Publisher | Funnel Build & Design by: Maria Filipina Co.