Monthly Archives: January 2014

I Was Nervous!

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Today was my first weigh-in for the Ton of Fun Challenge and I was nervous to step on the scale.

Ton of Fun Challenge

I’m super competitive. Mostly with myself, especially as far as weight loss goes. I joined the challenge to have accountability to lose weight. Before I left the house, I asked David if he thought I had lost at least one pound.

I did not want to look like a loser when I weighed in at Fleet Feet.  Ha! You know, an unsuccessful person. I definitely wanted to look like a weight loser. If I could lose one pound, I would feel successful.

You see, I was not perfect. Oh, I met my exercise goals. I always do. But on Friday we made pizza with the glambaby and I ate the finished product. So I was nervous.

The rest of the week, I was paleo chic. We tried some fabulous new recipes out of Everyday Paleo and Cave Women Don’t Get Fat. I’d say I was paleo at least 80% of the time if not more.

Cave Women Don't Get Fat

The good news is, I ate very little sugar. Losing the sugar from my diet is goal number two on my list of 100 goals. While most of my goals are not in order of priority, numbers one through three are. They are the goals that come to my head when I think, “Hmmm what goals do I have in life?”

Number one, I’ll keep in my pocket. But number two is to stop eating sugar and number three is to eat paleo almost 100% of the time.

So, anyway. I wasn’t perfect. And I’m okay with that. I’ve tried that trying to be perfect thing and it truly didn’t end well. But knowing that I wasn’t perfect, got me nervous to step on the scale.

I took off my jacket, took off my shoes, wiped my sweaty palms on my pants, took a deep breath and stepped on the scale.

And I lost 7.2 pounds!

Oh my goodness! I was so excited! I didn’t expect that and it was just so awesome. (I know, I know but it truly was awesome. ;-))

I’ve set a goal of 24 pounds to lose over the course of the challenge and I’m well on my way. I know I won’t be losing 7 pounds every week but I’m excited to have gotten such a good start. 🙂

#napnapbaby

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I started taking a daily power nap in 2003, the best I can remember. Since I have been working for myself, nap time is always at 2:00 p.m. and it lasts 20 minutes. I set a timer.

Taking this 20 minutes to lay down and close my eyes, is just the pick-up I need to get through the second half of the day at top productivity.

I hear people who say, “I could never only nap for 20 minutes”. “That wouldn’t do me any good, I’d never get to sleep in such a short time.” I’m not sure I really sleep during my nap but I most definitely recharge. I know that if I were to lay down for hours every afternoon, it would ruin my ability to sleep that night and probably also make me feel sluggish for the rest of the day.

But at 2:00 p.m. every day it’s time for #napnapbaby. Even the dog knows what that means and heads for the bedroom. 🙂

A great how-to for power napping can be found here. A quick google search will turn up many articles about why napping each day is good for you.

Even when I worked outside of the home, I was able to fit my power nap into my hour long lunch break. It’s really worth it and I encourage you to give it a try! 🙂

Happy As You Want to Be

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For about six months or so, my friend, Chickee, and I have been talking about how important your words and thoughts are to how you feel each day.

Abraham Lincoln said,

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be”

And I believe that. Your mind is pretty powerful and I believe that if you focus on the positive, the outcome will be positive.

I love the following quote. I’ve seen it attributed to Ghandi, Lao Tse and even Margaret Thatcher’s dad. But I’ll go ahead and give it to Ghandi.

destiny

Think about that. Then put it into practice.

Every morning on social media, I see people starting their day with a status or tweet that begins with “Ugh”. Anything else could follow. It’s Monday, I’m getting sick. Why can’t I stay in my nice warm bed. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen it, too.

I firmly believe that if you begin your day like that, you are setting yourself up for a day that could have gone better if you’d have just started it with a few different words. Words that are positive.

I challenge you to give it a try. Don’t complain for, say, even a week. Everything time you think or say something negative about yourself or your world, be cognizant and rethink it. I guarantee that at the end of that time, you will be a happier person for your effort. 🙂

Making Pizza

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We now get to have the glambaby with us on Fridays since she’s been going to school on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the new year.

It’s always so much fun to have her here. We’re both amazed at how long she’ll sit and color or do crafty type things. She really likes them.

art

Since we had such a good outing when we baked cookies the first time, I thought we’d have her help make lunch today and start learning the family pizza recipe.  I got the dough all ready so we just had to spread it out on the pizza stone. She wasn’t too keen on helping me spread the oil on the stone or sprinkle the cornmeal. But when I brought out the little pizza dough roller she was ready to play.

She did a great job helping to spread the tomato paste.

sauce

Then she gave the base a good dousing of Italian seasoning.

shake

I’m not sure she liked the feel of the cheese. She sprinkled a little bit on but each of the two times she touched it, she inspected her hand after the cheese was out of it. Then we opened pineapple which she promptly started to eat. She put no pineapple on the pizza. I did that. Then I added sausage.

It looked and tasted great. And it was so much fun.

pizza

We’ve been holding off on buying furniture for the house since we moved in because we have some renovations we want to do first. Well, today I decided that I don’t ever want to buy furniture. It’s way too much fun to run, chase, hide, bounce balls, and generally act like we’re on the playground. Which is what we do the rest of the time she’s here. 🙂

Cookbook Cook Through Week 2

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It’s the second week of my Cook Through of Everyday Paleo and I made two recipes that were DE-LISH! Yum! 🙂

I made the first recipe Brussels Sprouts ‘n’ Bacon straight away. I had scored some beautiful Brussles sprouts at the preview event at the new Sprouts Farmers Market that’s located in midtown Tulsa.

Brussels Sprouts N Bacon

This recipe was fairly easy and we both loved it. I’m not sure about the steaming for 4 minutes part of the recipe, though and I might just skip it next time. Maybe blanching them for 4 minutes? I don’t know but after only 4 minutes in my steamer they were still cold so it seemed like a wasted step to me.

Clearly, I’m hooked on stick to the ribs comfort food since it’s winter. I chose the Marvelous Meatballs for the second recipe. I kept putting off making it because it seemed involved. That’s why this post is a day later than I had planned to write it.

Marvelous Meatballs

In the end, the veggie chopping wasn’t that difficult and the meatballs were amazing! I served it with mashed cauliflower and roasted green beans with garlic.

I cut this recipe in half and it still made six large meatballs so we got dinner and leftovers.I can’t wait to taste the cold leftovers, something I adore.  🙂

Next week, I plan to try the Better Butter Chicken and the Nutty Cookies.

Brussels Sprouts ‘n’ Bacon – from Everyday Paleo

  • 6 bacon strips
  • 1 lb Brussels sprouts
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbs dried thyme
  • black pepper to taste
  1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  2. Dice bacon and cook in a skillet until crispy
  3. Steam the Brussels sprouts for 4 minutes, cut off stem and quarter
  4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, toss the Brussels sprouts with the bacon, bacon grease, garlic powder, thyme, and black pepper. Spread evenly in a glass baking dish and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Stir halfway through cooking time. 

No Comment

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Ultimate Blog Challenge

So we are now halfway through the Ultimate Blog Challenge. For the most part, it’s been a good experience. I’ve written a blog every day, even though some days I’ve had to dig really deep, and I feel like my blog is getting it’s Rott-I-Tude back. That was my biggest goal in joining the challenge and that makes me happy.

I was going to wait to write this post until the last day of the challenge but yesterday was another day where I received only one comment on my blog and it’s been bugging me.

I am a rule follower. I don’t speed, when there’s an octagonal red sign in front of me with white letters that spell S-T-O-P, I stop, and when the directions say:

“If you participate in this optional comment chain then add your daily url and immediately comment on the two blog posts above your post in this chain or else do not participate in this chain.”

guess what? I post the link to my blog and then go to the two links above mine, read the blogs and leave a comment.

There have been two days of the sixteen where I’ve only received one comment on my blog. I won’t call the people out who didn’t comment but I know who they are. And they know it, too.

There are a lot of very diverse individuals participating in this challenge and they write about all manner of things. I have met some very interesting people over the course of the last month and I’ve read blogs about things that I would never have normally gone to read. I have read really long posts, I have read technical posts. But I read them and I commented on them because I added my own blog to the chain, expecting that I would then receive two comments on what I wrote.

My blog posts are not long. My blog posts are not technical. They usually involve a couple big photos and are written at a sixth grade level. They are easy to read.

It is disrespectful to the other participants for someone to post their link in the chain and not to read and comment on the two blogs above and I think it’s the respect aspect of this whole situation that bothers me the most because I believe, in a lot of areas in life, bad things boil down to lack of respect.

So think about that my friends. In business and in life, are you showing proper respect for the people you interact with daily?

 

Lebroning

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I’m sure you’re familiar with NBA star LeBron James. Much as I really wish he wasn’t such a good basketball player, he is. But I think he’s rather dramatic, flopping around the court to try and have fouls called against the other team.

Yesterday, I was checking twitter and came across this tweet:

Oh my goodness! This is the funniest thing ever! I immediately retweeted it and then posted it over on facebook and now I want to be sure that you see it. Here’s the vine video if you don’t want to click through the tweet above.

I think the funniest thing to me is the thought of just being somewhere in public, say the mall, and someone just Lebrons next to you like the kids in the above video in the school hallway. I think I would simply laugh. Hard. I love funny things and this is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while.

So, what makes you laugh? 🙂

Ton of Fun Challenge

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I do really well at challenges because I’m super competitive. That’s why I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge this month. And now, I’ve joined the Ton of Fun Challenge at Fleet Feet Sports.

Tons of Fun Challenge

The 12 week program offers nutrition advice, fitness workouts and accountability. Fitness isn’t tough. We work out every day and I feel terrible if we miss. And I could write a book on diet and nutrition but the actual doing of it? For the food part?  I need accountability!

I went yesterday a.m. for my first weigh-in. I stepped on the scale and learned that I have had WAY too much food fun the past couple of months. The good news is, it makes me feel like crap so I’m ready to get in line.

If you read my blog, you have read about my 100 Goals list. I’ve added completing this challenge successfully to the list. Like other goals on the list, if I attain this one, it will allow me to also achieve (or be closer to achieving) Goals 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 31, 43, 47, 53, 54, and 79. Interesting, eh?

A couple of those goals are fitness and running related. A couple are wardrobe related. 🙂

The program offers support in a facebook group and prizes for reaching various goals. I’m excited. This is one challenge I’m going to win! 🙂

Do you use challenges as a way to help you achieve a goal?

Blasphemy!

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Friday night, I looked at my twitter stream and saw:

I LOVE Point Break! I am not a movie person. I would rather read a book any day but Point Break is one of my favorite movies of all time. I even own it.

Point Break has three things in it that I love: Keanu Reeves, Ronald Reagan and my favorite song by RATT.

I hustled into “January in Soldier Field” (what I call our front room where the TV is) and turned VH1 on and watched the rest of the movie that I love.

Later on, Diane told me that a remake of Point Break was in the works. My response to her? “Blasphemy!”

She sent me the link to the article about the remake and said, “I only wish I were kidding.”

So how do you make a movie like Point Break better? Answer: you can’t. It’s awesome as it is. They should leave it alone.

“I know, bra” Diane said.

So how about you? Is there a movie remake you feel this way about?

 

Remodel & Landscape Show

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I was listening to the radio the other day when I heard about the Tulsa Remodel & Landscape Show. I was excited to go and we made plans to do that.

Remodel & Landscape Show

I found coupons in the newspaper to save $2 off the $4 admission price. It cost $5 to park. I went inside first because David had to answer an email. As I waited for him, I was tweeting about how terrible it is that you can’t even enter the Tulsa Convention Center without feeling like you’ve smoked a carton of cigarettes. Even in the covered area, two people were smoking when I walked in.

The other event that was taking place at the same time was a cheerleading competition. So imagine all those kids and their siblings having to walk through all that smoke. Terrible. And not what this post is about. But anyway…

David was standing in line to get his ticket when a man basically asked him to be his date. His girlfriend had broken up with him and he didn’t want to waste the ticket so he gave David his other ticket.

photo1

We wandered around and collected a couple of cards for services we might use while remodeling the house but overall the show was pretty disappointing. There were more health and other booths that had nothing to do with home remodeling than there were people who did anything for homes.

photo2

We did talk to a company who is going to come give us a quote for pavers around the pool and I’ll look forward to that. Until then, I’ll look forward to the Green Country Home and Garden Show that happens in a couple of weeks. It’s at Expo Square with free parking, free entry and tons more exhibitors. 🙂