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Hi, I'm Tina!

Iā€™m the owner of Carrots ā€˜Nā€™ 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.

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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! šŸ˜Ž

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 anĀ 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.”Ā 

In a sense, this articleĀ verbalizedĀ 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, IĀ stillĀ 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 lessĀ catastrophic for me.

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

Question of the Day

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


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