When I decided to sign up for all those subscription boxes at the same time, I was probably most excited for my Cate and Chloe box since I love jewelry. After my first box was a bit of a miss, I reached out to customer service to further customize my box. I'm happy to say that they absolutely understand what I was looking for, and I loved this month's items!

I'm not sure how Zoey just knows when the box I'm holding is a BarkBox. I've gotten numerous packages in the mail this month and she doesn't even look at them. But when I brought the BarkBox in, she was jumping up all around me. Apparently the treats in the box smelled amazing this month.

I feel like this week just flew by. Even though I've been looking forward to my trip to NYC for the NYU Stern Preview, I can't believe that it's already next week! But, before we get to it, here were a few things for this past week.

So I've gotten five (!) subscription boxes this month, and it's been awesome. Each one is super unique in its own way, and I absolutely loved just how bright and shiny pink the packaging for Ipsy was. It just made me that more excited to dig into it, rather than the old boring brown UPS envelopes.

I was so excited to start getting all my subscription boxes this month that I didn't realize how much work it is to try out all the products and then report back on them! So, despite having received my lovely Birchbox on 3/11, I'm just getting to review it today. Like the February version, I absolutely loved this month's box.

Every week I read numerous articles, snippets, tweets, Instagram posts, and many other things that I want to save somewhere, because I find them interesting, inspiring, funny, cute, etc. Lately, I've been super into Pinterest because of that, since I can quickly save the top image of whatever I'm reading and always have it link back to the original article. But, what better way to do a roundup of some of the best ones, than to post it on here?! So, going forward, I will try my hardest to publish a roundup of my five favorite things from the week. Although I definitely can't promise I'll keep it to just five :)

Like I'd mentioned, three of my five subscription boxes this month arrived within one day of one another. The first was Birchbox on 3/7 and the second was Cate and Chloe, on 3/8. I got my new phone case of the month on 3/9. What a great week!

There's nothing like biting into a sweet and soft cupcake after a stressful day. Even though I'm working hard to lose weight (and currently failing), I still can't give up chocolate or cake. Part of me says it's a habit, but the other part of me just says that it's so good it'd be a crime to give it up! These strawberry white chocolate cupcakes fell into the latter category.

Now that I've received my first subscription box of March (Birchbox), the others have flooded in. On Thursday, I received my Cate and Chloe box, probably the one I was most excited for since I love jewelry. I was unsure whether to start with this box due to the steep price ($40), but figured I could cancel it if I didn't like it.

I got my first subscription box yesterday!! It's an awesome feeling opening your mail box and seeing a present in there. Of course, I couldn't wait to dig into it. First thing I noticed before I even opened the box was how it was addressed to me. "The Lovable Natalia". I thought that was a small touch that really made me smile. One of those little things that a company does, that makes you appreciate them even more.

I love chicken pot pie. There's just something comforting about a warm mini pie, with a crust that crumbles in your mouth, and a soft filling that can be made as healthy as you like. Couple it with some chips, or my Brazilian version of white rice and black beans, and you've got a perfect cold winter night dinner.

Working at Amazon, I've been spoiled with good customer service. Being on the inside, you can really witness how every decision starts with the customer, so there are few things I appreciate more from a business than good customer service. While I'd never had issues with BarkBox, last month's box was less than stellar in my opinion. I posted that on Twitter and within 12 hours, someone from BarkBox had reached out and I had a $15 coupon code for anything in their store. That's great customer service! In addition, I absolutely love this month's box!

And now for my mom's dessert on her birthday. Like I'd mentioned, for my mom's birthday a few weeks ago, I made spinach and cheese stuffed shells for lunch, and a red velvet white chocolate cheesecake for dessert. I barely finished both before the Seahawks started against the Packers (it was a great birthday). Not only did the pasta turn out great, but this dessert was absolutely delicious. Even though there's a lot of steps and it looks like it may be a bit complicated, it really wasn't. Granted, I somehow managed to forget about the white chocolate chips in the microwave and ended up burning the first batch, but overall it was pretty great! This original recipe is also from Culinary Couture Blog, although I may have edited a few of the quantities to my liking and simplicity of ingredients.

So this week was a bit of a fiasco in regards to recording my activity. I did both my workouts, on Monday and Wednesday. I failed at waking up early on Monday, but made up for it and did my workout after walking Zoey at night. On Wednesday I was staying at my parents', so I did it during my lunch break while working from home. Since I worked from home for 3 days this week, I completely forgot to wear my Fitbit for 2 days straight! So, I did my workouts, just failed at seeing how active they made me.

It was my mom's birthday a few weeks back, and as a celebration I decided to cook lunch for everyone. This is kind of a big deal in my family, since I'm probably the one with the least cooking skills in the house. Add to that the fact that I chose two recipes I'd never tried to make before and the fact that the Seahawks were playing at noon, and it turned into a race against time. I showed up at my parents' with all the ingredients I'd need at 9 AM. For lunch I made spinach and cheese stuffed shells with marinara sauce. For dessert, a red velvet and white chocolate cheesecake (which I'll post a recipe for separately). Not only was it delicious, but fairly simple to put together, and looked really nice!

Now that the holidays are done and I can clearly see the side effects of stuffing my face with delicious food with an absolute abandon for those weeks, I decided it was time to get serious about getting into shape. I used to be one of those lucky girls who, growing up, didn't really have to work out or diet to stay thin. I ate what I wanted and was pretty comfortable with my body. Then I turned 25. In the past two years, my body has gone through so many transformations that I don't even recognize it. Granted, I spent all of last year with my nose in some GMAT book, while eating cookies and crackers to stay awake while I studied. But since turning 25 almost 2 years ago, I just can't seem to go back to my old body. Not only have I gained weight in the most random places, but it will just not go away! So, it was time to take up a workout routine.