Chicago Seasons

Everyone talks about the winters in Chicago and understandably! They never fail to bring below freezing temperatures and lots of snow. Even a "mild" winter here will have 2 feet of snow and single digits at some point. 

I moved to Chicago at the end of June. We were coming from Tennessee where June can start to hit 90 degrees and the humidity is like being underwater so we were very pleased to be able to have our windows open as we moved into our temporary apartment. As I met the people in my office and around the apartment complex, i often expressed my concern coming from a place that could go YEARS without snow and lucky to get maybe an inch (if there was any) to a place with stories of snow levels half way up the front door! All of their responses were almost exactly the same... "But the summers are amazing!".

I thought they were just trying to make me feel better, especially since we ended up experiencing a freaking record breaking POLAR VORTEX our first winter here!! However, then we started to notice that at the very peak of summer we may get about 2 weeks of uncomfortably hot weather with high humidity but then it goes right back to warm and breezy for the rest of summer.

The funny thing is that with these mild temperatures in the summer, you would think it would slowly climb up and slowing come down making a lovely bookend of Spring and Fall but nope. Instead, it is 30s-40s until late May and then BAM it is suddenly 70s-80s. It will stay this way until early November and then suddenly it is 30s until about January when it drops to 10s-20s. I guess if you want to count 30s and 40s as Spring and Fall then an argument could be made but I just don't see it. We were literally walking the dog with puff jackets and beanie last week and wearing shorts and t-shirts this week. Someone told me the joke that "Chicago has 2 seasons... Winter and July 4th" and while it isn't that bad, it is definitely true that they only have 2 seasons!

So, as we come up on our 3 year anniversary here, I have to agree - the summers are absolutely amazing here. Also, honestly, the winters aren't as bad as I expected. The City/Villages know how to handle them and once you get the appropriate clothes then it is barely an inconvenience. That was actually the advice that everyone also gave us... "As long as you dress appropriately then you'll be fine!" Once again, so true! We once went to an outdoor zoo event where we had to walk 2 miles, in the snow at night just to get there! You just can't let the weather get in the way of adventures or else you won't do anything for 6 months out of the year. (Which i guess doesn't sound that crazy after being stuck in our houses for over a year due to the pandemic... ugh) James and I still joke about that if one of us says we are cold in the winter. We can usually point out how we just aren't "dressed appropriately". The hardest part of winter is just the lack of sunshine so the only advice i'd add is to load up on the Vitamin D!

As I type this, I'm sitting on my back patio as the sun goes down. It says it is 81 degrees but without the humidity and with the very slight breeze, i would have guessed it was about 60. In fact, i'm even wearing a light pullover and i'm comfortable. I know I won't live in Chicago forever and I have a feeling that it will be really hard to find a place with better summer weather. <3 

| Stacy |

2 Weeks in St Augustine - March 2021

This is mostly going to be a picture dump but I wanted to add a little commentary. 2020 was the year that never happened. Life as we knew it came to a halt VERY suddenly and that included any goals, trips, hobbies, vacations, etc as we were all locked in our houses. As a person that was accustomed to traveling at least twice per month for either work or leisure, I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed being home more. However, having the same routine almost everyday does take its toll on you mentally. The brain gets lazy and it doesn't want to work as well. 

I noticed it because I started having trouble recalling words. It kept getting worse and out of fear of developing dementia or something like that I started to research the topic and found that it can be a side affect of being quarantined since your brain doesn't have as much stimulation. So, we decided to take a quick trip to Knoxville in October 2020 and thankfully we saw instant improvement in our brain function!

Fast forward a few months later and we are in the thick of a Midwest winter. If you've never lived here, there is no fall or spring, it is just winter and then summer. The summers are A-MA-ZING but the winters can also feel super long. We have learned that we have to plan a warm trip around the end of February or beginning of March just to keep our sanity. 

Knowing all this about warm vacations for sanity, routine changes helping brain functionality, not spending any money in 2020 (because it never happened), and the nice bonus of work being remote then we decided to go big for our first trip in 2021 and book a 2 week stay at a beachfront house!

On top of renting a place for 2 weeks, we decided to splurge for the beachfront location because even though we had decided to take a trip, we were still being super careful about interactions with people. We decided to drive down instead of flying (plus that allowed us to take our dog) and this sounds crazy but we didn't plan to actually do anything while we were there. Especially after hearing how Florida had reacted to social distancing and masks!

Anyways, it ended up being absolutely lovely. It was a little windy but the temperature was perfect. You'll see below we did venture out to an alligator farm since it was outside (they are apparently exceptionally good at doing The Splits, who knew??) but other than that, our days just consisted of listening to the waves crash while we worked and taking a walk on the beach every day. I was even able to find a nearby nature preserve to run at before work! 

In the end, I'm glad we did it and will definitely consider doing again in the future if we are still allowed to work remotely. It was a nice getaway to ease us back into traveling without the pressures of sightseeing because we had the perfect "sight" right in front of us! 

   

My view while "at work"

This was our "front porch"

This was just hanging in the window and was so cool!

As a recent vegetarian convert, I had to get a pic of this!

The kitchen/dining/living room was an
open floor plan with this being the view

"Look guys! I can finally do The Splits!"

 

I'm Like a Bad Penny

Helloooooooooo! I'm kind of like a bad penny, ya know? I just keep coming back... Every year when my domain name comes up for renewal I am reminded that I have a blog then I tell myself that I am going to start blogging again and I do it a few times and then stop. Well, why stop the cycle now??? 😉

The last time I picked up blogging it was after I had tried a 30-day no social media challenge and loved it. However, after a few months of no social media, I missed having an outlet to share pics of my dog and our travels with our family and friends. So once again I picked up blogging and was having a nice time with it until the site started being buggy with my ipad and eventually my ipad keyboard died. Yes, you can blog on a PC (i'm doing it now!) but it was harder to add the pictures so instead of making the effort to find a solution, I just stopped. 

Well, since my last post almost 2 years ago, I have fallen back into social media and still hate it. It is just so easy to launch it during those small moments with nothing else to do (cough, bathroom, cough). I've even tried deleting the app but then I just launch it on the web. I never enjoy my time on facebook and Instagram is just a little better. Luckily I've never let myself create a Tik-Tok account or i'd be trapped there too! Ugh! 

Anyways, so here I am trying to cut that social media negativity from my life but once again, i am faced with the question of how to still share my precious dog pictures with the world?! Also, when I looked at my last post, i really loved the idea of blogging about trips as a nice way to remember the trip! So if nothing else, this can now be my trip notes repository! 

COVID Vaccine Shot #1
Woooo!

(Side note: if you are wondering why i didn't blog in 2020, don't worry about it. There was this whole pandemic thing and we weren't allowed to leave our houses for like a year so we deleted 2020. It never happened)

For my 2021 New Year's resolution I picked the word "Focus" and my plan is to pick a focus for each month. So far I have done:

January - Dry January

February - Vacation Planning (see note about 2020...)

March - Cardio

April - Wake Up Early

May - Blogging! 

It has been a lot of fun! I like this approach better than then 30-day challenges because about half way through i ran out of challenges. This has worked a lot better because other than Dry January there are usually different approaches i can take. For example, for Cardio my goal was to do 2 cardio things per week but I could do running, spinning, or HIIT so I had options. Anyways, I'll cover those in a different post but I brought it up because as you can see my focus for May is blogging! So if nothing else, there will be at least 1 post per week for the month of May... and then I'll probably disappear for another year.

Just kidding!... I hope... 

Alrighty, that is it for today, I just wanted to say I'm back again and test out my new way of adding pics to the post. More to come soon, wish me luck! 💗

//Stacy//

Weekend Trip to New Orleans

If you have even lived in the Midwest during winter then you know that you will NEED to take a vacation in late February/Early March to get away from the cold, dreary, bleh days. Well, since this was our first winter in Chicago, we didn't know how bad it would be. I'm not talking about the temperatures or the snow. Honestly, the negative temperatures weren't that bad. Once it is below like 20 degrees, it is just cold (With the exception of the Polar Vortex this year... -53 definitely feels colder than the normal -20). Also, they handle snow so well here that it was never a problem. I'd rather it snow than rain during the winter so all that was fine. I'm talking about seasonal depression. It is a real thing, people! When you don't see the sun for months at a time, it does affect you. It was amazing seeing the transformation of our neighbor. He's a spirited guy that has lived here his whole life, he actually likes the winter and would usually even wear shorts! He started off chipper and bragging about how cold it gets but 3 months later, even he was cussing the clouds and his whole demeanor had changed to borderline angry.

I dealt with the seasonal depression by just taking some vitamin D and planning a trip to a warmer destination. Since we didn't know this was going to happen, we couldn't get away until mid-March and only for a long weekend but next year, we will definitely go somewhere beachy for a week at the end of February! Anyways, with the short notice and the limited getaway time, we decided to go to New Orleans for a long weekend. As a bonus, we were able to pay for the whole trip with points via our credit card!! If you like to travel, I highly recommend the Chase Reserve card. It is the first card that I've ever paid to have but the perks definitely out weight the cost. It is $450/year + $75/additional card but they give you a $300 travel credit each year, 3x points for travel and dining (my two favorite things!), FREE TSA pre-check, airport lounge access, and when it comes time to redeem your points, they are worth more for travel! Seriously, could there be a better card for people that love to travel??

Okay, sorry, back to NOLA! It is a beautiful town. Yes, it is filthy but just don't pay attention to what you are stepping in... just look at the buildings in the French Quarter. This picture is just a random one from our hotel lobby but just look at that design and character! The funny part is the massive corporate buildings in the background. The residents like to poke fun at the "boring american" side of town. "They don't know how to have fun... they are just work, work, work". Man, isn't that so true?

Random Buildings across from our hotel

Here are some random pics from just the decor around our hotel

Hotel Garden

Hotel Garden Lights

By far, the most interesting thing we learned in New Orleans was the burial methods. I wish I had gotten a picture of one of the double or triple tombs but the graveyard was super cramped, both with tombs and people on tours, so it wasn't easy to grab pics. New Orleans has been plagued with some terrible history with lots and lots of death. So much so that they had to get creative on how to bury their dead because they realized they would quickly run out of space. They decided to use family tombs that can be single (pic below) or stacked. After someone dies, they are placed in this tomb for 1 year + 1 day to let their body decompose (The + 1 day is because it is probably bad luck to dig someone up on the anniversary of their death). Then the tomb is reopened, the remaining bones are crushed into dust and the "body" is swept into a hole at the back of the space that falls below it. So, an old tomb could have lots of body ashes all combined at the bottom. I actually think that is kind of neat having everyone together. Much more.... cozy... then just being buried just next to your family but always quarantined into your own box.

Also on the cemetery tour, we learned all about how crazy Nicolas Cage is. I'm going to get the details wrong, but the gist of it is that he owned the serial killer LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans and believed himself to be cursed so the only way to remove it was to buy a tomb in the same graveyard as the original voodoo Queen, Marie Lavaeu. Weird but interesting...

Future tomb of Nic Cage

In true Hacker fashion, we must visit the local zoo wherever we travel. The New Orleans zoo did not disappoint!

Here are just a few more pics that I thought were neat. You should definitely ask James about the one of the sky with the lights... That was his view in a restaurant after he had a losing battle with a "stupid french chair". Come to think of it, all my favorite stories of Jams is of him getting defeated by furniture. Hmm, not sure if that says more about me or him. heeheehee

When we first arrived, New Orleans was a little bit overwhelming for us. We enjoying drinking but we are not traditional party people so all the drugs and excessive day drinking was too much for us. Bourbon Street was definitely a sight to see but we found more joy in all the beautiful surrounding architecture and art. Every corner had someone painting or playing music, there was even an area of street poets that were working away on old typewriters! There were a ton of art galleries, both painting and trinkets and we loved strolling through in the early evening. OH! I haven't even mentioned the food yet! Everything was amazing and I truly mean EVERYTHING. Breakfast, lunch, dinner... elaborate restaurant or hole in the wall. It didn't matter, everything was delicious! You can't go wrong just wondering into a place.

So, in hindsight, I'd go back. It is kind of like Vegas for me... In fact, i describe New Orleans as if Vegas and Portland had a baby. Like Vegas, it is a crazy, no rules type of place where you will see things unlike anywhere else but unlike Vegas, New Orleans has an artistic soul like those in Portland. It is cool in short visits but wears on me after a few days. I'd love to go back with a group of friends and just spend all day taking in the different kinds of music and food.

Have you been to New Orleans? What did you think and would you go back??

// Hack //

A Polar Vortex?!

HOLY CRAP, what a time to move to the Midwest. It gets cold here, everyone knows that. However, this year, it decided to have a Polar Vortex. Dumb name aside, what that means is, it reached records lows at below -50 and was colder than it is on Mount Everest where people have literally frozen to death!


Let me set the stage a little.... This first picture is a NORMAL Midwest winter day. The snow was about 11 inches deep and this all happened overnight. Notice the roads are clear though! It actually wasn't that bad if you really layer up.

We weren't the only ones that had to bundle up, Major got a dapper sweater and little booties! He actually didn't mind it. He's so cute! 

...and then there is Argos. He ENJOYED sitting outside when it was -3. You know, no big deal.

 It got so cold that the river iced over in downtown! I never thought it would get that cold!

However, all of this was nothing compared to the Polar Vortex. People weren't allowed to be outside for more than 30 minutes due to the risk of frost bite through clothes! Luckily, I was able to work from home the first day. On the second day, I tried to go into work but could drive my car because the ice had formed so thick inside my wheel well (below) that I couldn't turn my tires! I tried breaking it off with a hammer but it was too hard and my hand started getting frost bite through my gloves!! I do have to give props to my Subaru Outback though, during these insanely low temps, it always started. Sometimes it took a few turns and the breaks were a little stiff until the break fluid thawed but it made it. Thanks trusty steed! 

Anyways, i guess if we survived the Polar Vortex then we are ready for anything! Especially summer.... ha! 

// Hack //

I Made a Thing!

I think I accidentally, subconsciously made cooking my hobby. I have really started to enjoy it over the last few years. I've never minded it but now I'm interested in it for more than just the purpose of surviving. My biggest complaint in the past was how long it would take to build a weekly menu, especially if I was trying to watch calories. It would take me hours! Then I stumbled upon a service called PlateJoy. It is not one of those services that sends you food, it just creates menus for you and then auto creates the shopping list too! You can even send the shopping list to Instacart if you use that service. So now, something that used to take me hours, literally takes me 5 mins! The recipes look a complicated at first but once you get into them, they really aren't and I have learned so much from using them over the years!

Which leads me to the real topic of this post... From all my experience, I'm starting to be able to intuit what things go well together instead of needing a recipe. I made my first attempt at completely creating something... and it went great!! Here it is:

It is a little puff pastry appetizer. Well, it is supposed to be but I couldn't find puff pastry in the grocery store so I had to use croissant dough. It was still good but I think the dough was too rich. Apparently puff pastry is in the freezer section and I was looking in the cooler section where you find the canned biscuits, etc. Oh well, that actually sums up cooking pretty well. You have to be able to adapt at any moment!

(Unlike baking... where if you breathe wrong during the process then it ALL FALLS APART. I hate baking. It is stupid. End of story.)

Ingredients:
Puff Pastry (subbed croissant dough)
1 raw jalapeno
Pre-cooked Bacon (real bacon would be better though!)
Brie cheese
Strawberry Jam

Preheat the oven as indicated on the dough package

Dice the jalapeno and the bacon and mix together. Roll out the croissant dough and cut into squares instead of the normal triangles. Place 1 brie triangle in the middle of the dough square and top with about a TBSP of the bacon/jalapeno mix. gather and pinch the dough around the yummy goodness.

Bake 10-12 minutes, until the dough is golden brown

in the meantime, heat the strawberry jam with a little added water to thin it out. After you pull the dough balls out of the oven, then drizzle the heated jam over it. I added a little too much water so mine was way too thin but it still got the flavor in there so look, it's fine!

The process wasn't perfect but these turned out really well so i'm pretty proud for my first attempt! Even though i called them an appetizer, we ended up eating 2 for breakfast the next day so they work well for that too. They are kind of similar to a kolaches if you have ever been to Texas.

So there, ya go! My first recipe! If i can do it, so can you so go create something and let me know how it goes!

// Hack //

Then and Now: Doggie Edition

Since this blog retained all my old posts from 2007-2013 I have been going back and reading them and I’m working on a Then and Now post because it is funny how the more things change the more things stay the same. That will take a while to get all that together so, in the meantime, I wanted to post some pics of the puppers!

We adopted Argos when we was just a little over 2 months old. At the time, i was a total cat person but James had moved in with me (scandalous!) and he really wanted a dog so he kept showing me adorable dog pictures and this handsome little fella finally caught my eye. We went to Young Williams Animal Shelter just to look at him. His whole litter of 5-6 was there. Some had the pretty blue Husky eyes but we couldn’t take our eyes off this guy. His given name was Thad and he was an absolute jerk! He was taking all the toys away from his siblings then dropping them only to go steal another one. He still had his calm demeanor but was still owning the show.

We brought him home and changed his name to Argos (The dog from the Odyssey) hoping he’d be as faithful. He is still a jerk, he only comes when he wants to and he knows he is big so if he doesn’t want to go somewhere then he just sits down but he is also still very loyal. He still lays right in front of the door until we return and has even protected us a few times when needed even though he is the friendliest dog you will ever meet (to both dogs and humans). Everyone that meets him instantly falls in love with the gentle giant.

We did the DNA test on him and he is a Husky/Malamute/Labrador mix. We recently moved to Chicago and he absolutely loved it. It would be -13 outside and he’d want to go sit on the porch for a while! Spring is finally here, it is sunny and 71 today. He still wants to be outside but the sun is rough on a husky mix. In fact, he just kicked me out of the only porch shade. (there’s that jerk side again...). He is pretty spoiled but how can I resist that handsome face??

I’m so glad James talked me into getting a puppy. He is such a unique dog and has enriched our lives 100x over. ❤️


Major came to us about 2 years later. We had just moved to a new farm property where Argos was free to roam and he kept breaking into the neighbors fence to play with their two Goldens. The guy kept threatening to call the pound on us and we were having trouble containing him. Huskies are freaking escape artist! Then my sister got pregnant and asked us to dog sit for the first 2 weeks when she brought the baby home. Even though there was the normal dominance issue at first, the dogs got along pretty well and Argos stopped bothering the neighbors. Major was a rescue that we think came from an abusive home. He was very timid but his bodyguard Argos seemed to calm him down. So, here we are 10 years later and they are inseparable.

Major is our little cuddle bug. His DNA came back as 50% Rat Terrier and 50% total mutt. I imagine it like one of those romantic comedies where some snooty pure bred royal decides to "slum" it one night and ends up finally letting loose and falling in love and thus Major was born! He doesn't care for other dogs but to humans he is the most lovable dog in the world. All he wants in this world is food and snuggles. For the longest time he wanted to sleep with us but we wouldn’t let him so finally he just started jumping into the bed in the middle of the night so we’d just wake up and he’d be there. He is a little too smart sometimes... so we finally gave in and now I can’t sleep without the little guy curled up right beside me. ❤️

Our dogs are definitely spoiled and truth be told, they actually run the house but that’s a fair trade for all the love and joy they give us. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

If you are looking for a lovable companion, please choose to save a life by adopting. Don’t support the immoral business of breeding. It’s never okay.

//SH//

I Live Here Now

Hello old friend!

To be honest, I didn’t even realize Blogger was still a thing. I started this blog back in 2007 and continued to write off and on until 2013 but then walked away and completely forgot about it. That was about the time that social media really took off so blogs didn’t seem as relevant. Over the years, lots of studies came out that social media is bad for your health. Regardless if those studies are true or not, I definitely found myself wasting too much time endlessly scrolling facebook and instagram and noticed my brain feeling numb or disengaged.

So, I decided to do a 30 day No Social Media challenge.... and never went back. It was so liberating to finally break the addiction. I found myself being more productive when i had free time. Before you roll your eyes, “productive” doesn’t have to be “work”. It includes fun things like reading an article about something I enjoy or researching new activities to do around town. I’d search for new recipes and fashion advice. My free time actually became beneficial instead of brain numbing! I was so happy!

But then we went on a trip and i had no where to share my pictures. I had a backlog of adorable puppy pictures that i just had to share with the world and no where to do it! So recently I thought about starting a blog but wasn’t sure where to start now. It seems the world is obsessed with Squarespace and Wordpress, etc. I consider myself decently tech savvy but those sites are too complicated for me. I don’t want to design my blog, i don’t want to customize my format. That’s too much work.

I just want to write. (And easily share the occasional dog picture...)

That’s when it happened... I typed in “blogger.com” and since Google bought them, it automatically logged me in and POOF! I was transported to a magical land of nostalgia with all my old posts! Not to mention, Blogger is extremely user friendly, they even take care of the domain for you! I am so, so happy to be here again!

So, after 6 years, Running for Fries is born again. Still perfectly relevant to my life without changing a thing (more on that in a later post). Grab some popcorn and settle in, I have a lot to say. Add me to RSS or bookmark my site and check back often. This is the new (old) home for all my adventures and thoughts! I hope you’re as excited as I am. ☺️

//SH//

Square Cake is Boring

Today is my 7 year old niece's birthday. She is a fantastic kid. She IS a little bit of a Diva but I think she is really smart and loving.

When it came time to eat her rectangular birthday sheet cake, she wanted to cut it herself so we let her. She cut the first piece in a triangle. Everyone's first response was to tell her that she was doing it wrong and the pieces should be square.

But I thought about it and why should the pieces be square? So I told her to continue cutting them however she wanted. So she did. The rest of the pieces mostly resembled triangles as well.

I thought it was great. I don't know who decided cake pieces should be square but who cares?! Everyone got a piece, they got the size they wanted, and they didn't taste any different than boring square pieces.

Okay, I admit watching kids do things "their way" before they learn the "normal way" is pretty awesome. Good thing all our friends just had kids. :P

//Stacy//

Food for Thought

This is probably a little known fact about me but I love reading quotes. I think they are inspirational and usually make you think a little differently about life, in a better way.

A year ago my mom brought me a printed off copy of a chain email. (That might be even worse then getting a chain email in the first place??) It was basically this article by Regina Brett. Unfortunately for her, she was labelled as a 90 year old lady that was reflecting on life, while she is really only in her 50s. At least they credited her name correctly so I was able to google the real article. At the time, I just put the paper in a stack in my often horribly messy office and forgot about it. As i was cleaning my office today, i found the printed email and decided to finally read it. I ended up really liking it and I want to share some of the quotes that i really liked. (a.k.a procrastinate from cleaning, hee hee):

- When in doubt, just take the next small step. - 

I know a lot of times if i am unsure about what to do next in a situation or how to handle the situation to begin with then i find myself just ignoring it or forgetting it all together. However, if I am feeling overwhelmed, i think I could still convince myself to take at least a small step. That small step could open a lot of new doors or make the correct path be more apparent and would take very little effort.

- Your job wont take care of you when you are sick. 

Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch. - 

I have been working A LOT lately. I'm talking close to 70 hour weeks. Granted it is mostly due to an extra project that was given to me at the end of June and that will end in December so at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but still. After 2 months of spending most of my waking hours at work, i started to get really depressed. It was greatly affecting my life. Finally, after coming home at 10:30pm one night crying and honestly thinking i could not make myself go back to work the next day, I had to make a change. 

I consider myself a hard worker and I think i have a very good work ethic but the other side of that is that money has never been *that* important to me. I'd much rather be outside, be active, be with family and friends. I like to just enjoy life. So it doesn't matter how much a job pays, if i can't enjoy life as well, then it just isn't worth it. Don't get me wrong, i didn't quit my job and i am still working on that project but I just set boundaries (mostly how many hours i would work a day) and i'm going to stick to them because, trust me, an employeer will make you work as long and as hard as you will let them. They don't care what it costs you because if you get burnt out, there is someone else waiting to take your place. And if you think the company can't survive without you then you, my friend, are delusional. 

- Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck. - 

Luckily i have always been pretty tight with money and good at saving it. I didn't start saving with my first paycheck but pretty darn close. I often hear about people using all their retirement for various things, or even just drawing some out of it. I just can't understand why someone would do that. The idea of working from 16 to 65 is really daunting and I don't want to make it any longer just so i can go on a trip to the beach or something. Saving for retirement is something i would really like to understand better and learn more about. Maybe i will try to figure out a small step to take to get that started...

- If you don't ask, you don't get. -

I feel this one should be pretty common knowledge but i still wanted to put it on here because i know a lot of people that spend a lot of time being unhappy just because they don't talk about the issue with the right person. Or they get mad they weren't considered for an opportunity when no one even knew they were interested. Whenever i have a problem or i'm interesting in something, i figure out who the contact person is and express my interest. Sure there are times it leads nowhere but more times than not, i have been given opportunities just because i expressed interest. Give it a try!

- Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful. - 

I think this one applies to a wide range of things. From objects to friends to jobs, etc. Well, i dont mean get rid of your ugly friends...haha. You know what i mean. Don't hang around people that negatively influence your life. Don't keep useless junk around (i need to work on this), and don't stay at a job that you makes you miserable. This quote could apply to more than just these three things, i just gave them as examples.

- Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. 

Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special. -

I cannot tell you how many things I have "saved for a special occasion" only to never use them. They will inevitable get packed away and end up broken or just old and unusable. A few years ago I finally realized how dumb this is. I should enjoy these things when i get them because if not, what's the point in even buying them??? That's just silly.

- Over prepare, then go with the flow. - 

I like to think this has unknowingly been my motto most of my life. Many of my friends poke fun at me (lovingly) for over preparing for events but then i like to think that when the event arrives, i don't get stressed. I just go with the flow. Maybe that is why I didn't mind planning my wedding and I definitely wasn't stressed on the day of. So now, this will be my motto, knowingly. 

- Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple. - 

I have never really cared what people thought of my appearance. I mean, have you seen my hair? But i could definitely use a lesson in being eccentric. I love seeing those kids that really wanted to wear their cowboy boots and their superman shirt and their parents let them. I admire those kids and parents and hope those kids don't lose that eccentric personality just to become drones of society. 

- No one is in charge of your happiness but you. - 

This goes back to those people that constantly complain and spend their lives being so unhappy. I just don't understand it. I'm not saying it is easy to change your life but it is possible. You got yourself there in the first place and you can get yourself out. Refer back to the first quote - just start by taking small steps. I know a lady that had worked her way up to a fairly high management position at a big company but she hated her job and the people she worked with. One day she just decided life was too short and she wasn't going to waste hers anymore so she quit. I'm not advocating running out and quitting your job but in her case it was totally the right thing to do. She ended up getting a job at a fabric store because quilting was her favorite hobby. Sure, the pay wasn't near the same so she had to make adjustments in her way of life but she had a job she looked forward to every week and it was working with something she was very passionate about.

A lot of my examples have to do with jobs but it doesn't mean the quote can't relate to other things. Moving out to the country might make you happy. Or losing 15 pounds. Or getting a dog. I don't know what happiness is for you, it is different for everyone. The point is, decide what makes you happy and persure it. Don't let anyone or anything stop you.

- What other people think of you is none of your business. - 

I have actually heard this one before and love it. So many people spend so much time and energy worrying about what a co-worker or peer thinks of them. Why? It is always best that you don't know. Do you expect knowing will change anything? Because if it does, there is another problem in itself. 

- However good or bad a situation is, it will change - 

I like that this one points out that even good situations change. A lot of people will tell you that bad situations will get better but no one points out that you should take the time to really enjoy a good situation because it too will change. Not to be negative, just the facts. Life is a series of inevitable ups and downs. Take time to enjoy the ups and keep pushing through the downs.

- Envy is a waste of time. - 

Not only do i agree with this statement but it also reminds me of a different quote that i once read: "To cure jealously is to see it for what it is: a dissatisfaction with self" by Joan Didion. I think most people could benefit from taking a moment to figure out why they are feeling jealous or envious. Being happy for the other person and using the situation to make self improvement will make you happier with yourself and get you far more than jealously or envy ever could.

- No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up. - 

I really need to work on this one. I know it is good advice but i still have moments of weakness. There have been mornings where i have felt like crap but still managed to make myself get up at 5am to go to Yoga. After the class i am always so happy that i went and my day just goes so much better. However, there still manages to be mornings where the alarm goes off at 5am and i roll over and change it to 6:30am. Then i still feel crappy and on top of that i am disappointed in myself.

There have also been times when i cancelled plans only to regret it 10 minutes after i was suppose to be there. I am good at talking myself out of things and then seeing the truth after it is too late. I hate thinking that i missed out on potential good memories and experiences just because i wanted 10 more minutes of sleep, or didn't feel like getting out of my pajamas. I'm going to try to make this one a focus.

- A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write. - 

I confess, I completely put this one on here just for my friend Devon. I think she really wants to write and i think it really makes her happy but writing is easier said than done. I'm no aspiring writer but I can barely set time aside to make a grocery list each week, and you see how often i find time to blog, so I can see how trying to consistently set time aside to write (undistracted) would be difficult for anyone. It seems like a lot of established writers did something crazy to get their start like completely quit their jobs and lock themselves up in a room for a month. Who has time to realistically do that? That takes a huge leap of faith and probably causes some pretty hard, stressful times. If i could add an hour to the day (Where's David Bowie when you need him?) and teleport Devon to a room with just a table, some paper, and a pen i totally would. I hope Devon, and other aspiring writers out there, can find time to do what makes them happy. 

- Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present. - 

- Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. - 

- Forgive everyone everything. - 

These three i thought were good words of advice but I just really didn't have anything thing to add. So that's that. 

I know this was a ridiculously long entry. I appreciate you sticking it out and i hope out of all of these that at least one made you think differently about some aspect of life. For the better of course. Maybe even change your priorities a little to put your own happiness more towards the top. =)

I have one more for the road, i thought it would be good to end on. So, last but not least...

- The best is yet to come... - 

//Stacy//

There's Definitely A Problem...

Back on 5.7.12 i started a diet with a pre-determined meal plan in addition to the lifestyle change goals i had in place. The first week went great! Our grocery bill went down, i enjoyed knowing exactly what do fix and what to snack on and the food was good but not overly complicated which was the complaint i had with the Eating Well meal plan. Those recipes all had like 20 ingredients, required every dish in the kitchen be used, and i found myself googling some cooking terms more than once. Anyways, back to point at hand... new plan, nice and simple, going great. The first week i lost 4 pounds! (up to 5 pounds weight lost on the first week of a diet is normal because you lose a lot of water weight). Needless to say i was very excited to weigh in today at the end of week 2. I felt like i had done pretty well with my diet all week and just knew i had lost close to the full 2 pounds.

When i stepped on the scale, i just stared at the flashing number. I was devastated. I hadn't lost even an ounce! My weight was exactly the same as last week, even the .2. I was angry and discouraged. I immediately thought " I've been starving (little dramatic) myself all week and I've been so good and NOTHING! There must be something wrong! I need a Doctor!!" Turns out there is something wrong alright, ME.

Since the beginning of this diet i have been keeping a food journal. Everyday I list:

• Meal plan for that day
• What I actually ate and time
• Exercise and/or activity
• Notes and/or reflection

I'm writing it in a smaller size Moleskine notebook so i can easily carry it around with me. Whenever i eat something i immediately log it so i don't find myself trying to remember what i ate the day before or worse, earlier in the week.

After i had some time to "cool off" after my weigh in this morning but luckily before i called every weight specialist in Knoxville, i started looking back over my logs for the past week. I highlighted any time that i ate something that wasn't on the meal plan for that day and noted when i didn't do any exercise. Turns out i cheated every single flippin' day and only exercised twice! Honestly, I'm just lucky i didn't gain any weight!

It doesn't take a genius to know what my answer is here, i need to stick to the meal plan and exercise 5 days per week. No excuses!

One legitimate issue i have with this meal plan is that some days i am really hungry between meals, even with the 3 snacks. If i continue to be "starving" (again, dramatic) between snacks and meals then I plan to incorporate an extra 100 calorie snack but there will be restrictions. The extra snack is only allowed on days i exercise, it can be no more than 100 calories, and no adding on to portions, it has to be a totally separate snack.

Now, with all the above being said i have a disclaimer - I am going to a cabin this weekend with a group of friends. I do promise to try to pick healthy options to the best of my ability and maintain reasonable portion sizes but I can't really stick to the meal plan until Monday. At least we should have lots of hiking and walking to counter the extra calories. i hope... I really don't want to hulk smash my weight scale.

//Stacy//

Lifestyle Changes - One Month At A Time

We are often told that diets will never work long term and that a lifestyle change is the only true answer. I completely agree with this theory but that doesn't make lifestyle changes any easier. Diets aren't easy either but you can at least tell yourself "I just have to eat this rabbit food until I lose 10 pounds". Lifestyle changes are FOREVER. Nooooooooooo!

But seriously, forever lifestyles changes aren't bad. It doesn't mean you can't ever have chocolate cake again (unlike diets), it just means most of the time you eat fruit or a healthier choice for dessert and only indulge in that chocolate cake occasionally, not every night. The hardest part, at least for me, is breaking habits i've had for 20 something years. It's so easy to grab that muffin for breakfast instead of waking up early enough to fix oatmeal. It's quicker to grab fastfood after a run instead of cooking a healthy dinner at 8 o'clock at night. It is easy to forgot how crappy I feel after a cookies (or 3...) when that first bite is so delicious.

Back in February a friend challenged me to avoid eating fastfood for 1 month. I was successful and I felt good. I did go get a McDonald's hamburger as soon as my month was over but that satisfied my craving and i have't really cared for fastfood since. Here are the new goals for this month:

- Only 1 fastfood per week

- Eat 4 salads per week

- Only 4 "sweets" per week 

Lifestyle changes aren't always about cutting things out, it is also about fitting in things that are better for you, like salads. Last week i found myself ordering a salad for lunch to meet my goal instead of a 1,000 calorie sandwich. Win!

What do i expect out of this? Well, i haven't weighed myself in a while so i dont expect any weight loss, i just expect to be more mindful about what i am eating. Learn to focus on fitting the good stuff in and eating the bad stuff in moderation. Learn to actually look at the salad section at a restaurant instead of going straight for the burgers. Maybe even learn a little discipline (something a need a lot of but that's a story for another day), if i had a dessert on Monday, then i don't need one on Tuesday.

We plan to continue these monthly goals so if anyone has any ideas or want to join in then you are more than welcome. I'd love to hear about what lifestyle changes have worked for you (or haven't) and what made the most impact! 

//Stacy//

No Fastfood and Killer Workouts

Hello!

So, i'd like to say that i haven't been posting because i've just been so busy kicking butt that i haven't had time but quite the opposite is the case. I haven't been focusing on eating healthy at all so there hasn't been anything to post. :(

I guess it was about the end of January that i fell off the "eating healthy wagon" and i didn't just fall off and get a few bruises. I completely forgot to tuck and roll and ended up with some broken bones. I was seriously depressed for a good 2 weeks. Depression of any sort is very unusual for me but i just couldn't shake the feeling. I had just let myself down and i was just completely and utterly disappointed in myself. I have failed at my fair share of diets but this was different. I would be sitting there and consciously telling myself "i shouldn't be eating this" or "i'm full, i should stop here" but i would just keep cramming stuff in my mouth until i was well beyond miserable. I just wanted to cry. I have never been that out of control in my life. It was a weird feeling and honestly kind of scary. I don't know what caused me to constantly binge eat but thankfully it has passed.

I was talking with my very healthy-eating conscious friend, Mat, about how upset i was with myself for continuing to fail and he pointed out that i was trying to go from nothing to SUPER HEALTHY EATER overnight. He suggested i make baby steps and slowly adjust to a healthier eating lifestyle. So, he made me promise to not eat fastfood for a month. A WHOLE month! I reluctantly agreed. Here i am 5 days later and i feel good!! I find that even when i over eat, i don't feel sluggish and just all around crappy like i did after eating fastfood.

The downfalls are that it is more expensive and more time consuming to not eat fastfood. That is true if you eat at home or eat out. I've also had to think outside the box sometimes. On my running days i definitely don't have time to cook and it is often too late to go to a restaurant but Mat pointed out that there is an CO-OP organic Market on my way home that has a hot bar so i can quickly grab something there for dinner instead of going through a drive thru somewhere. One hurdle i see in the distance is taking food over to friend's houses for TV shows. Previously we would grab KFC or Chick-fil-a but now what do we do?? For this first week we are going to take the take-n-bake pizza, Papa Murphy's, but i have no idea what to do for week two? I'll have to talk to my "food coach". haha

To go along with this new fastfoodless lifestyle, my work has started a lunch time workout group to go along with out Biggest Loser contest. So not only am i running 2 days a week but now i will be working out at least 4. I'm pretty excited to have some people to workout with. To keep me motivated and accountable. Today was just day 2 but i am already so sore i can barely walk up stairs. The lead guy really kick our butts. I like it! Bring on the burn! (Am i insane?!)

I'm excited to see how i feel after giving up fastfood for a month and increasing my workouts. Will i even be able to tell a difference? Will i ever go back to fastfood?? Will i survive the stairs?? I'll report back mid-March!

//Stacy//

P.S. Have no fear! I didn't mean i won't post again until mid-March... just meant i will review this subject again at that time. :)

Dieting - Keep Calm and Carry On

Last night i started writing in a journal again. Like manually writing. Foreign concept these days, right? My hand sure thought so. It was cramping before the end of the first page. As I was writing my first entry I thought it might be good to share some of it on here. Sorry, you won't get the full thing. We all know that somethings just aren't meant for the internet. Besides, if i put it all on there then what would be the point of having a journal??

There is just something about writing by hand that is so nice. Something about the perfect lines of text that are just too formal. I like to skip lines randomly, doodle, and sometimes even do a little sketch. I can't do that here in this ever constricting maze of black and white. I did learn that apparently i like to  quote myself and blow them up and accent them like they do in magazines. I'll try to find a way to accent them on here but i can tell you, it wont be as pretty. :)

You know what's nice about writing by hand? 

There's no auto correct to derail your thoughts.

...There's just other thoughts to derail your thoughts. 

Write faster, hand!!

Of course my first journal entry would be about my biggest challenge right now, my weight. I have always struggled with my weight. I don't have it as bad as some. I'm not at any health risk, i'm just [forever] chunky. I don't know what it will take for me to get something done.

--- Dedicated --- Determined ---

I am constantly on and off diets. I'll count calories and make excellent progress only to crash and burn. It's a problem. I am aware but that doesn't stop me. I think "I should only have 1 cookie" or "I am full so i should stop here" but i still cram a second or even third cookie in my mouth and then feel horrible afterwards. Or i will eat everything on my plate because "it taste so good" like i'm never going to get it again... everything is mass produced.

It will be there tomorrow

It is like i don't have any willpower but it is there. I know it is. I've seen it! Hellooooo....?? I think it is almost like a form of depression? The more upset I get about eating, the more i eat. What sense does that make?? None I tell ya!!

For example just last week I was doing a great job on my diet and then i fell off a little on Wednesday because i was craving Far East Black Bean from Wok Hay. I was full halfway through but i just kept eating until it was all gone. I felt horrible that i ate the whole thing and i tried to get back on track but i was really down on myself. Then Friday i ate at a pizza buffet and then went to a party (aka beer) so i failed H.A.R.D! I don't even think Lose it can count that high. After that I lost hope and motivation. I didn't make a grocery list so i didn't go to the store.

I just wallowed in self pity instead of doing something about it

I know these things and i'm a believer that if something is making you unhappy that you should CHANGE it so why do i let myself wallow??? It MUST stop ---- there will be fail days and I need to just take them in and carry on.

Keep Calm and Carry On

That saying just took on new meaning...

Eating healthy is just so hard. It takes so much time to prepare and then clean up. Yes the food is delicious --- i feel 100x better --- and i'm never miserably stuffed. BUT time.... it is so precious and i'm trying to workout too.

They aren't kidding when they say healthy eating is a LIFESTYLE...

It takes up SO. MUCH. TIME.

"weh" right? Grow-up.

Maybe i could try one of those meal plan website that i got from Laura. I wonder if they generate grocery list? That's the annoying part.

Alright enough whining about my laziness and lack of willpower. It is my bedtime and sleep is very important to me. The important thing is that I don't give up.

Keep trying and keep changing! 

//Stacy//

A Big Week of FAIL 1/16 - 1/22

Hey there! Ready for an embarrassing recap? Great! Because i have one for you.

In a nutshell a fell off my diet after Tuesday and I only exercised twice the whole week. Yea.... Here's what it looked like:

Monday: Attended my mamaw's 92nd birthday dinner at Shoney's. I showed restraint and avoided the buffet. I picked a plain hamburger with sweet potato fries. No exercise this day.

Tuesday: A lady at work and I decided to try some weights. I badly need to incorporate weights into my workout routine because the more muscle you have the more calories you burn! I have a theory that the reason it is so much harder for older people to lose weight is because of all the muscle mass they have lost over the years. I know I am no where near as strong as i was in high school when i was constantly playing sports and it has only been 10 years. So you can imagine someone in their 40s would have considerably more muscle loss.

Wednesday: This was our planned "catch up on TV" night and I was really craving some Far East Black Bean from Wok Hay so i declared Wednesday a slight "cheat day" (dinner only) and totally veg'd out. Thus starting my downward spiral.

Thursday: I thought i was okay, I was back on track! I ran 4 miles because I'm training for a 10k in February. As a result I had plenty of extra calories by the end of the day. I was feeling good!

Friday: But then Friday happened... I didn't even make an effort to fit in exercise and a friend that i haven't seen in a very long time was throwing a house warming party. Before the party i went to dinner with 2 other friends and we went to a pizza buffet, need i say more? Then at the party i had my fair share of beers which were 100 calories a pop. I resolved just not to talk about Friday. Kapesh?

Saturday: I started the day by sleeping in and then went to a friend's baby shower. I had planned to do a Kinect workout and make a grocery list after i got home but it was so dang gloomy and i had a horrible headache (not hangover related, i swear!) So i ended up laying in bed all day and reading Mockingjay. I was even too lazy to finish logging my calories this day.

Sunday: Didn't even try to log calories this day. We went to breakfast at James' mom's house and she always cooks a metric ton of food and i think i ate a pound of bacon. When we got home all i could think about was finishing Mockingjay so i put the rest of my life on hold and just read for hours. It was really nice actually.
__

So, needless to say i really lost focus with my eating and exercise this week. I think it started on Monday. We didn't have anything to watch while we ate dinner so we decided to rewatch Battlestar Galactica. It was even better than i remembered! We watched both pilot episodes which are 1.5 hours each. I usually go to bed around 10 but we didn't finish watching those until after midnight. Then, i couldn't resist reading at least a chapter or two of Catching Fire so i stayed up until about 1:30am and had to get up at 6am. I have not been that tired in a very long time. I could barely put my thoughts together the next day at work. As a result of my loss of sleep, i dragged all week. This sucked my motivation right out of me. I've always made sleep a priority but the lesson here is sleep is VERY vital to living a healthy, active lifestyle.

I'm not going to recap the other resolutions because nothing changed. The whole week was a fail and I feel horrible about it. Emotionally and physically. Last week my run was really easy because i had kept up with exercise and eating the right stuff but when i ran this week i thought i was going to die before i reached a mile. I was breathing hard and my muscles were burning. Not to mention, my stomach problems are back this week with a vengeance. Besides all these physical setbacks, i am just really disappointed in myself and that's a horrible feeling.

I did realize that these recaps really help. I actually thought i was on target with exercise last week until i recapped it and saw that i only did something twice the whole week! i was shocked. Same with my eating, i thought i was fine some days because i was under budget but when i looked at what i really ate, it was not a pretty picture. One night for dinner i had 3 fried cheese wedges and 2 beers. What kind of dinner is that, people? I mean seriously! No wonder i only lost .4 of a pound even though i was under budget! It makes perfect sense now. I think it will help me keep focus and understand things if i do my recaps on time.

My game plan for this week:
It's already too late to go to the grocery store this week because Thursday is my birthday and i have more important things to do then cook and do dishes all day! :) Then we are hosting a friends game night on Friday and there will be lots of snacks and adult beverages involved. So i'm going to just try to make the smartest choices i can tomorrow (Wednesday) and try not to over do it on Thursday and Friday. Saturday I will make a grocery list and go to the store Saturday or Sunday and my diet will start back Monday!

As for exercise i plan to lift weights tomorrow with the lady from work and then run or do the kinect on Saturday if i'm not too hungover. (at least i admit it, right?) That's still an embarrassing amount of exercise but at least it is better than nothing.

My goals for week of 1/30 - 2/5
- Recap on time
- Get to sleep on time (around 10-10:30)
- Exercise 5 times

This is really early for such a huge backslide. I hope i got it out of my system. :(

//Stacy//

Resolutions Recap Week of 1/9 - 1/15

Another post that is long over due is a review of my resolutions progress! I can't be held accountable if i don't track my progress! This recap if for the week of 1/9 - 1/15.

Work Towards Living a Healthy Lifestyle
I feel this resolution has been pretty successful until this weekend. For the week of 1/9 - 1/15 i went the whole week without going over my calorie budget once! I was very excited about this as it was a first for me.

My exercise schedule was as follows:
Monday - Kinect workout
Tuesday - Rest (run was cancelled)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Ran
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Kinect workout
Sunday - Kinect workout

Let me tell you, those Kinect workouts are no joke. Especially the Boot Camp and Sports Training. I thought i was going to collapse by the end. But in a good "pushing myself" way. I would like to only have 2 rest days every week but during the above week you will see I had three. You can see that my activity was cancelled but really that is no excuse, i should have still followed through with an exercise of some kind. This is something to work on.

I also failed at portion controlled. James and I got a milkshake at Mooyah to share and i was only suppose to eat 1/3 of it but i looked down and i had ate 1/2 of it without realizing! Luckily i had the calories to cover it but still, it is the point that i had decided to only eat 1/3 and over ate.

On the positive side, during this week we ate at Panera, Olive Garden, and even ate at Mooyah but i held strong and pre-planned my choices. If i really wanted something a little higher in calories i countered it with more exercise.

On this same note, i feel i succeeded at marking smarter choices. I had a veggie burger at Mooyah, I had soup and salad at Olive Garden, avoided the breadsticks, and I really wanted a bagel at panera so I found the lowest calorie choice (French Toast at 130 calories) and downsized my salad to a half to compensate.

Focus on House Projects
Cleaning was a total fail. I cleaned the kitchen out of necessity as i needed the dishes to cook the next meal but i didn't do anything else. The good news is the house isn't that messy because I have been so busy. However, one rainy day we let the dogs in without wiping off their paws and now there is mud everywhere downstairs. It is sickening. Luckily, a friend at work owns a carpet cleaner and she is going to let me borrow it. I just hope it is strong enough. haha... /cry.

We did manage to work on the workout room a little. We bought an Xbox Kinect so we moved the smaller TV downstairs and shifted the treadmill to allow lots of Kinect space. As a result the pile of junk that had collected in the corner had to be moved as well. Woo!

I also found a really pretty linen cabinet at Ikea since we don't have a linen closet. How weird is that? Now we just need to plan a day trip to Atlanta to buy it since it would cost more to have it delivered.

Be more Organized
I really haven't done much with this except use Evernote more to organize my meal plans. I still don't feel like i am using it to its maximum potential though. However, i still love it! it makes it so easy to compile notes on multiple projects when the notion hits. I already think it is an amazing tool and I'm just starting to learn to use it.

Visit Grandparents
January has slipped by without me planning a breakfast with them so i need to look ahead and plan one for February.

Be More Positive
It is hard to give examples of this one but i feel I have made some progress. I have had some conversations where negative things came to mind and i remembered to shut my mouth before i said anything. This led to a few awkward pauses as my brain races to think of something else to say but that's okay. I'll get better.

Also, a co-worker was having a bad week and was being very negative so instead of letting it bring me down i offered some ways i could help and it not only kept me from getting down but turned his outlook around as well!

Blog
Well, you know how this one went. It didn't. But as i explained in my previous post, i was distracted so it wasn't just my blog that was neglected. My whole life was put on hold so i could finish reading The Hunger Games series. In the future, I'd like to try to get more than one post out a week though.

Keep a Journal
I still need to start this. I'm thinking of doing it for a few minutes while i eat breakfast in the morning. The problem is i often push snooze too many times and then i don't have much time after i get ready so this may not be the best time. It would be the quietest but not the most reliable. My hesitation with starting my journal is that i don't know where to begin. I know i shouldn't have any expectations and i should just let the words flow but i can't. I have a disease that i have to have a plan for everything and it has become more apparent lately. Even this post, I outlined it on a piece a paper before i even sat down at my computer. The same... i guess you could call it fear, struck me the other day when our book club was painting. We weren't suppose to paint anything in particular, we were just suppose to let the brush hit the paper where ever it landed and let our imagination run wild. But i don't think i have an imagination. Everything i think up is the result of research and planning. So, every stroke i made on the canvas was symmetrical to the previous rather i liked it or not. This probably sounds weird to anyone that knows me because i am usually very relaxed and go with the flow. I wouldn't consider myself OCD and i'm definitely not one of those super uptight planners that know every detail and have things scheduled to the minute and freak out if anything changes. I can go with the flow but i have to have a plan from the start and it can change from there. I just can't start. I can't make the pen move.

Okay... let's end that psychological rant. That went a little further then i planned. (see plan exceeded and i'm okay with that but i had a plan at the start!)

Learn to Knit
This one is obviously less important than the other resolutions so it has been put on the back burner until some of this chaos passes.

Pay off Scion
I still need to calculate the monthly payment to make this happen. Luckily, since this is a monthly occasion i can still fit this in before the end of the month.


Over All - My Challenges
- With such a busy schedule, it is hard to stay on top of making a grocery list and going to the grocery store. These meal plans require a lot of ingredients and some odd ball stuff that is harder to find so it takes longer than my usual grocery store trips. Not to mention, i typically went to the grocery store only about once every three weeks since we ate out so often so going twice a week is hard to get used to.
- Most of the recipes in my meal plan are for 4 servings. This is great for leftovers for lunch the next day but then we ended up not eating the planned lunches which wasted some food.
- I need to get to bed on time so i can wake up on time to fix breakfast and potentially write in my journal. I was doing great at first but lately i have hit snooze way too many times. I even had to come home and take a shower on my lunch break one day because i almost over slept by turning off my alarm in a sleepy daze.

Over All - My Success
- The Kinect has been an excellent purchase. It is fun, easy to use, and i feel like it really works me hard, believe it or not.
- Loseit! added the ability to log food items by scanning barcodes and it has made tracking things so much easier.
- I am really enjoying the Eating Well meal plan that i found. The food has all been delicious and easy enough for me to fix. They have been a little time consuming but it is worth it.
- With all this eating healthy I have felt amazing. I don't feel sluggish and running has actually been easier. Also, I have had very little stomach/Acid Reflux issues where before i was popping Tums like candy daily.

Well that's it for my recap. Now, i just need to work on the recap for the week of 1/16-1/22 and i will be caught up!

For now, i need sleep!
//Stacy//