Front Porch Re Do

Several weeks ago I decided I needed to bring some color into our life.  I was getting envious reading blogs and watching friends decorating their outdoor spaces, and got the itch to experience that myself.  So I decided who cares if we are renting, I want our outside to be pretty and I want a "garden".  Well that's just what I did.  We spent our date night planting some flowers and picking up some fun colorful items to introduce summer to our front porch.  I found a rug I loved at target, got to work making a colorful wreath and ended up with a porch I am much happier with.  It brings a smile to my face every time I turn the corner and can see it.  I would say that means mission accomplished.

 Ignore the dirty ground, but here it is!!  I  had it all nice and clean and swept and then a huge rain storm came raging through.

 

Well there you have it!  I'm pretty happy with the end result and its fun to have a little color at our complex and now be know as the girl with the flowers haha.

Wonderful Wednesday - New Hair

Several weeks ago I finally got my hair redone!  It only took me 6 months!  Man I am so bad about keeping up with it!  Well I decided to go back to one color to give my hair some time to get  healthy again.  At first I thought she went a little too dark, but I actually really like it, and it has lightened up quite a bit!  My plan was to go basic so I could get extensions in, and I really wanted to get them before Utah, but like most things it didn't happen haha.  I'm hoping maybe someday soon I can do it, or maybe I'll just skip that step and go short.  I'm so bad at doing my hair these days, becasue sleep wins every morning. So maybe if it's short I will do it more and then I wont get so annoyed at how much hair I'm losing everyday and how thin my hair is getting.  So who knows maybe in just a week my hair will be changed again!!

Terrific Tuesday - Fridge and Pantry Redo

A few weeks ago I posted about a ladies organizing blog.  Well she got me inspired to start organizing my house even more than I already have.  It's hard to start, because at the beginning there are so many projects that need attention that it gets overwhelming to know where to begin.  So I just broke it down by room, and then within the room wrote lists of all the areas that needed to be deep cleaned and organized and am going to do one at a time!  Right now since I am focusing so much on getting healthy and and cooking good food, I wanted to start in the kitchen.  More specifically I started with the fridge and pantry.  My hope was that the organization might make the eating and cooking healthy items easier.

We are working with a tiny fridge and zero cabinet space, so it was a difficult project to begin with.  No matter how hard I tried to organize the fridge, I could never get everything to fit and within a day or do everything would have shifted and been thrown everywhere.  Pantry space was non existent in these apartments. When we moved in we bought these free standing cabinets to put on one wall and those have been our only storage for our food.

Here is the before picture of the fridge...Okay not really before, because I forgot to take one, but here is while I was emptying it and cleaning it out.

And here is the after

I created a few boxes to keep things organized and easy to grab. 

There is a box for Eric so that I can put his snacks and lunch items in it.  It makes it easier at nights when I am packing his lunches to be able to reach in one place and grab what I need.  Then he can also grab snacks when he gets home and not worry about eating something I'm using for dinner or anything. 

Then I have a lunch box to keep all my healthy stuff.  This way if I have to quickly pack a lunch in the morning I can, or when I come home for lunches I have more time to relax, because I'm not taking as much time prepping my lunch.

  Then I made a healthy snacks box.  From now on when we go grocery shopping, I'll be doing prep time right after.  What this means is I will prepare fruits and veggies and whatever else and separate them into little baggies for the week.  This way all week we already have pre packaged healthy snacks to grab for lunches or if we are craving something when we are at home. 

The first week I did baggies of watermelon and strawberries and then baggies of baby carrots, sugar snap peas and cut up cucumber slices.  

 Then after the first week I went and got some little containers to do the snack prep in.

 Then there is a box for all the cheese and lunch meat to keep them in a contained area. These are nice to have out in their own place since we use them often.  Before they would always end up at the bottom of the drawer and I would have to go digging.  Now when making lunches or cooking dinner I can pull out the box and see all our types of cheese right there.

 Lastly I did a dinner box.  This way if something needs to marinate or thaw I can put it in there the night before and it will be ready.  Or this way I can rotate the food out and make room for the new groceries and don't have to dig to the bottom of the drawer for something I need tonight. 

The bottom drawer is now strictly for our fruits and veggies and everything fits so much nicer and is much easier to get to!

Now our pantry I have continually tried to organize and re-organize. It isn't as bad as it could be, but you can see my pathetic attempts to separate and organize have failed. 

Here is the before

And here is the after

 I drilled in some Dollar Tree organizers into the doors to free up space from the spices.  I got a few lifts from Bed Bath and Beyond to help maximize the space.  Then I upgraded everything to a tupperware container so that everything was uniform and similar sizes, instead of have 10 different size boxes in there that never fit.  I still plan on labeling everything, I just haven't gotten that far.  I bout tupperware for things we use a lot like quinoa, brown rice, cereal, oats and so on. 

 Eric and I both h ave our own snack boxes in the pantry now as well.

Well there you have it!  I think it's pretty great with the little amount of space we have to work with!

 

 

Motivational Monday - Fighting Failure

So once upon a time I sucked at being a human....well not even once upon a time, more like everyday!  I absolutely did not meet my challenge for July and that sucks, but oh well you move on right?  Sorry I have been MIA lately, life got kinda crazy and I got way behind!  So in the next several posts I will be filling you in on all the happenings as of late. 

As far as the diet goes, here are some of the recipes and meals I have been trying lately.

Balsalmic Glazed Veggie Steak Rolls over brown rice! YUM!!! This was delicious!  Here is where I got the recipe - http://picturetherecipe.com/index.php/recipes/balsamic-glazed-steak-rolls/
 I adapted it a little to make it healthier, but it was a big winner, especially with Eric!

Mango Salsa Grilled Salmon with fresh pineapple and sauteed asparagus and cherry tomatoes.

With all the summer squash and veggies this time of year I have loved doing a few vegetarian meals!  I know Eric hates it since he a meat guy, but it's an easy way to cut calories while still eating big meals!   Here I just sauteed some yellow squash, tomatoes and zucchini in a sugar free pasta sauce! So easy quick and yummy!

I always thought I hated cherries until I went to my sisters a few weeks ago and had some fresh ones.  Well now I'm hooked and they are a new fruit addition to my diet!  Here I tried this low carp taco soup.  I found the recipe here - http://csrafamilynews.com/2012/11/low-carb-taco-soup/
again I adapted it a little to make it a bit more healthy!  I wasn't as big of a fan, but Eric LOVED it, so maybe it will make an appearance again.

Lemon and salmon skewers over brown rice with watermelon and oven roasted asparagus.
The recipe for the salmon is found here - http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/06/these-lovely-grilled-salmon-and-lemon.html

For lunches I have been big into just veggie and fruit plates.  I just cut up a few different types of veggies and some fruits and BAM a great healthy lunch!  And it's one I will snack on for awhile at my desk to keep me full!  Here a vendor had brought in Chick Fil A so I caved and had 2 pieces of chicken, but I counted the calories don't worry ;)!

I'm still working out but have had a hard time staying in a routine!  When I stick with it I'm awesome.  Because I get a daily reminder of why I love the gym and why I need to keep going.  That helps to motivate me the next day.  But if I miss a day or two I get completely off schedule and I start to make excuses and convince myself not to go.  One day at a time though and I'm going to keep pushing forward.  I need to learn to balance right now.  My feelings as of late are either horrible pressure to eat right and go to the gym because I'm afraid of failure, and that leads me to stress out about it and shut down under the pressure and not function as a normal human.  Or I have the opposite where I miss a day or eat a bad meal and I get so down on myself I want to quit, or I get so depressed about it I put even more pressure on myself.  I really need to learn to take one day at a time and live my life for me!  

 I'm really disappointed in myself because I didn't lose much weight in time for me to go home to Utah next week.  I think I had this fantasy to just shock and amaze people....and though I will probably shock them, it wont be because I lost weight, it will be because of how big I still am.  This has made me freak out the last two weeks.  Everyday I fight these up and downs to feel so much pressure that I need to be in the gym 3 hours a day and only eat celery sticks and then I have the other part that's telling me "who cares just give up you didn't reach your goal anyways."  I'm trying to figure out how to fight these thoughts and get back to a balance not just physically but emotionally so that I can keep starting over each day and be healthy.  I'm not doing this for anyone else so I need to put those pressures away, and I'm not doing this to be skinny, so those thoughts are not helping either.  I'm doing this to change a lifestyle and be healthy and a lifestyle is something you wake up and do everyday, not something that you do really quick for a few months.  I need to get to a point where if I miss a day at the gym I don't spend the rest of my night beating myself up about it.  But I also need to get to a point that if I miss the gym I don't let it be a pattern, and I get right back on the horse.  

I think I'm mainly down about it because of a comment someone made to me today.  I know she probably didn't mean it, but being the health nut she is, she is more aware of others not at her fitness level.  She basically said "Wow this has been one heck of a long weight loss process to not have lost much weight at all!"  Wow lady what a way to make a gal feel good about herself! 

 I know I need to brush it off my shoulders, but it really hit be hard, and is making me have even more anxiety about visiting Utah and seeing so many people I haven't seen in a while!  Wow why do people make comments like this?  I don't get it!  How did it benefit her, and I know it didn't benefit me!  I don't have one of those personalities where I get more determined to prove you wrong or where it motivates me to work harder.  I have a personality that makes me want to quit and give up and give in to what you are telling me I am.  Why can't we be positive and uplifting as girls and help each other.  Why do we spend our days bringing others down or comparing, when we could spend it lifting other up and being happy with ourselves. 

Well here is to fighting off all the haters and continuing to push forward!  I may be losing weight SLOW but the fact is I'm losing weight and I'm trying!  I will reach my goal no matter what, even if it's not in a timeline that someone else thinks is right for me!  I'm going to live my life for me, and work to be happy and healthy.  That includes emotional and mental health which is just as important as physical!  I'm not working this hard everyday to see a certain number on the scale!  I'm working hard everyday to be a better, happier and healthier version of myself!  That scale may not have dropped as much as I would like, but I can tell a difference in my mood and energy level and I can see results that no one else can see looking at the physical only.