It is Friiiiiday! What are you all up to this weekend? Man, do I need to get a serious dent in my shopping list done.

I realized last week that somehow with the hectic-ness of Thanksgiving, I had forgotten to do my biweekly Favorite Friday Finds- sorry, guys. Things have been super fast-paced with the holidays swirling around, and I could not be more excited. Holidays turn me into a total cheeseball, if I wasn't enough of one already (hence the tree in today's header photo). I actually love gift shopping and card writing. It's one of those chances you get to show your appreciation and thankfulness to the people in your life, and to celebrate with them- who doesn't like that?

Also, starting to get into the nitty gritty of planning my Montreal trip- would really appreciate any recommendations and/or tips for it if you have any for me!

Now onto it-

Here are the eight things that I was inspired by, learned from, and laughed and smiled at this week. Would love to hear any fun things you've read, as well! 

Inspired

1. This...This was inspiring. 

Bravo to John, from Obese to Beast, for candidly sharing his story and literally stripping down to show his biggest insecurity on camera. 

So many times we judge others for their appearances and hold each other to society's impossible beauty standards. This can make people feel so ashamed of any struggles with insecurity that we all deal with but rarely speak about. I love that John has turned his life around, overcome the obesity hurdle that many struggle with, and is getting comfortable with the skin he is in, rather than hurrying off to skin removal surgery.

*My message for today: be proud of yourself for how far you've come- with anything you may have been struggling with. Appreciate and love yourself in the NOW rather than an idealized future version of yourself.

Learned

2. Whole Foods has just launched their new Responsibly Grown initiative, that gives consumers a more in-depth look at where their produce is coming from.

Their efficient new rating system gives you an immediate breakdown of the quality of the foods you are purchasing and eating. As someone who has really made an effort to support local and sustainable practices for both the environment and my own nutrition's sake, this thing is another golden step in the right direction.

3. Real Simple posted this great article (shared on my Facebook last week) about 19 small everyday changes that can make significant improvements to your health. I really liked most of these and they are completely manageable, realistic changes everyone can make. 
As I like to say: the progression of smaller, achievable steps is what gets you to a bigger result.

4. Is your eating still out of whack from that explosion of a Thanksgiving dinner you maybe dove headfirst into? Precision Nutrition has a great article on their 3 ways to fix a broken diet. The article may be long, but hey, if you're serious about that healthy living, there are no shortcuts.

5. Also another article I posted to my Facebook page, but I wanted to share it again: Men's Fitness called out 15 exercises to remove from your routine, and I support the grand majority of this list. And like I said on Facebook, I know this is Men's Fitness, but it applies to you ladies too since I see so many women do a lot of these. Get off the machines! And I beg you, especially the seated abductor/adductor machine, particularly if you're doing it while texting...

Laughed and Smiled

6. Jimmy Fallon is one of my all-time favorite late-night show hosts and this bit with major girl-crush Rashida Jones just made me laugh and laugh. I am so excited for the holidays, aren't you?

7. This dude's account of his first Pure Barre class with his fiancée is pure hilarity. All my fitness people, girls and guys alike, will appreciate this.

8. Okay, so I'm mildly obsessed with Top Chef Masters: Junior Edition. For someone who loves food and cooking, I actually don't watch any cooking shows and (gasp!) don't have cable to be able to watch the Food Network into the wee hours of the night. But. This show is ridiculous. 

8-13 year olds who could sear circles around me in the kitchen + Gordon Ramsey being relatively nice = awesomeness and adorableness. Buzzfeed did this long, but cool look behind the scenes of the show. Worth a read if you're into reality TV!