Coffee Mondays

 

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I've been gone again and that's fine. We all tend to get busy here and there. I have always put my blogging and writing first over other things. However, taking time away felt good. I was able to focus a little more on myself and my family and figure out what I really wanted to accomplish with this blog.

• I still have not passed my test. I mean I have only taken it once, but I am planning to retake it in November. I am going to buckle down and study the next several weeks. I really want to pass it, but I feel like my studying keeps getting distracted.


• I am finally getting a little more use out of my camera again. I mean I have not been extremely involved with taking pictures, but when I remember that I do have my camera I'll snap a few shots. I went to the pumpkin patch with Ryu, Erika, and her daughter. We were only there for a good ten minutes. We were expecting for it to be much cooler out, but it was scorching hot and we were bundled up. We decided to take our pictures and bounce out of there

• My birthday just passed two weeks ago. I had a really good birthday! I came in to work and on my desk waiting for me were balloons and flowers. Thanks to Erika for getting them for me. I also got two different types of cakes from my mom and co-workers. I then went out to dinner and thanks to Sean for spending time with me! He took me out to a delicious pizza dinner for my birthday. I told him that I wanted to keep it a low key evening and just have some pizza. I was not even in the mood for alcohol or anything. Instead we went to this pretty good pizza place that served vegan dishes. After that we went to World Market. I had a great time just looking around and he even bought me two small cast iron pots that look like cauldrons, lol. I have been wanting it for my curry stew. He also got me a back scratcher which comes in handy if you're like me and you have hives everywhere. The following day I came home to more goodies! I came home to more balloons and a bouquet of flowers from Sean and Ryu. Then we went to watch Dustbowl Revival that evening and they were great! I got to spend time with the people I care about the most on my birthday and it was a real great week for me. I got treated to lunch for the whole week! Seriously it was just the best ever.

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• The week after was Erika's birthday and of course the celebration I had needed to be just as good for her! I went and stopped by the store and grabbed a card, flowers, and balloons for her. I also made her breakfast that morning. It's been a while since I've had a friend I could trust and just have a really good time with. We have a lot in common and even though we are really different we definitely can understand each other and we also are very supportive and understanding of each other. We're not scared to be honest with each other and tell the other person when we're being stupid. I'm glad to have her around and I'm also glad she had a great birthday! The fun part is her birthday is a week after mine!

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• I am going to start blogging again and just really getting into it. I don't want to promise anything, but I think I am just ready to just chill for a little bit and start writing again. I've been missing it and this is the perfect weather to sit down at your local Starbucks and write away.

Coffee Mondays

• My weekend was all over the place there were some good times and then some bad times. I don't really want to reflect on what happened this weekend just because it was not the best weekend. I also was not in my best behavior. Let's just say all weekend I was a total bizznatch.


• I am eating wheat toast and homemade almond butter this morning. I am actually digging the flavor. I didn't think that I would enjoy it. However, I have to be careful with how much I eat because I can already feel my lips tingling. I hate having to be allergic to a lot of stuff.


• I am barely starting my Monday morning and I already want it to be the weekend. I am planning to spend my Saturday studying for my license and possibly cleaning. I believe Sunday I will be starting my Christmas shopping. I know a lot of you are thinking, WHAT? It's so early, it's only September. I know, but really if I don't start now I will do everything last minute and everyone will get crappy Christmas gifts since I would have to really budget.


• I am seriously not really in the mood to blog lately. I am not sure if it is because I am still going through my transition with my diet. I guess that leads me to not having pretty meals or not being able to cook something delicious and fun. Since my diet I have been lazy and I have been eating baked chicken or wheat toast with peanut butter. My diet consists of tons of water. I need to buy myself a grill so I can grill some delicious veggies and make a sandwich out of it! Ugh, torture.. I am torturing myself.


• This whole morning I have already taken 2 advils and it's barely 11. I am tired and my head is pounding. I am just spending my time listening to acoustic covers on YouTube. It helps me get through the day. I just want the day to be over already, lol. I think I really have the case of the Mondays!


• Last, but not least my garden is coming along up until yesterday I knocked a planter over and all my pretty and precious dill and rosemary that was growing got messed up. I think they are still fine, but now the are not in a row and I have no idea which is what.


• I'm telling you I had such a messed up weekend. I felt like everything bad just continuously kept happening.

My First DIY Project - Simple Chalkboard

Last weekend I worked on my first DIY with my friend Erika. She made two of these chalkboards to put up on her dining room walls. Not going to lie they look nothing like the professional grade chalkboards that I've seen on Pinterest, but hey there's a first for everything. I put the tutorial up under my DIY page. You should check it out and if you have any tips or tricks or if you try this yourself and have any comments you should definitely let me know. I am planning to work on another chalkboard within the next few weeks for our kitchen.

 

Leave it to me to be completely unprepared for this project. I also was not dressed for this. We just went to Lowes to pick up some gardening products and came back with this full on idea that we were going to tackle this. We didn't even bother to google anything. We eyeballed the project and honestly it didn't turn out so bad for a first trial run. However, I will definitely not listen to anymore sales person on the floor when I do any of my projects! They give you the worst advice or have you end up buying more items you don't necessarily need.

After we spray painted our boards we left them outside to dry for a good hour. During that hour I had planted Erika a bunch of seeds to start her own mini garden in her balcony. I told her to get me a picture of her plants so I can share it with you guys and show you that it is easy to grow plants even in a small area.

Ryu had a blast helping out (not spray painting, of course). I had him take a flat sponge brush and sort of just even everything out. It somewhat helped, but you can still see the splotches of the area where more paint was added.

Ryu has been wanting to help with a lot of the projects I want to do. I think I'll let him help a bit with some of the projects. I just had a good time being able to spend time doing something else besides just browsing online, lol.

Btw, I hope it starts to cool off soon. This ridiculous California weather that's on limbo isn't doing me any justice. It's been stupid hot and I am just over it. I'm ready for Fall to really kick in!

 Don't forget to check out my DIY chalkboard under the DIY section of my page.! HERE

Eating Healthy

To start off into this whole world of working out, clean eating, and just getting healthy I started with changing my eating habits. If you have followed me over the years you would know that 1. I absolutely love food. 2. My weight tends to limbo a lot over the past several years, and 3. I have a very addictive personality. With that said I finally met my unhappy mark and point and decided that everything needs to change.

The picture above was taken exactly 3 weeks ago on my date night with Sean. Part of my face is cut off in this picture, but I could clearly see how round my face is. Yes, my face is naturally rounder, but I could see that from my cheeks to my chin its just initially rounder. You're probably thinking that I am just being way too critical of myself. Well after this picture I decided that I could no longer stay this way. I had to give away almost half my wardrobe because those were the clothes I could no longer fit into because I was so skinny back then. The clothes I have left are all either stretch or loose material. It was not a good feeling knowing that I did this to myself and there was no one else to blame. Every week Sean and I would go to this restaurant/bar and have dinner and a few drinks there. We spend more on drinks than anything else. Problem is all I was drinking was beer. That was an additional amount of carbs my body did not need.

I started a food journal. Initially I would list everything that I ate good or bad I wrote it down. I made the effort of changing my eating habits a week and a half ago. Sure, I just started but at least I made the effort to. By owning a food journal I can clearly see where I need help on and how much of something I'm eating. I also made a habit to eat breakfast every morning when I am at work. I never ate breakfast before which would lead me to having a huge lunch I did not need.

The picture above was taken last night at home. I was commenting to Sean how round my face was and he told me to shut up. Looking back from the picture 3 weeks ago to last night I realized that I actually lost some weight. It was clearly showing up on my face. I apologize if the picture is dark. Our lighting at home sucks for pictures. When I used to take pictures I could see that I had an additional chin waiting to pop out in the pictures, but last night was the first night that I felt or saw some progress in what I was doing.

It motivates me to continue eating healthy. At home I make an effort to make sure that what I eat even snacks are snacks that I can have. I bought fruits and veggies to juice after my workout. I am looking forward to be able to continue eating healthy and from there I am trying to start working out at least 3-4 days out of the week. It is a start and so far I have gotten into the routine of eating healthy. I even cut down on beer! Can you believe that? I had one cocktail this weekend and that was it. I have just been drinking water and nothing else. No soda, no juice except for my juice that I make. I used to eat all sorts of junk and now I barely crave it. When I do Sean tells me to eat something else, something healthier.

I am aiming to get back on that healthy lifestyle bandwagon. I'm sure I can do it but of course it takes time. I started with my eating, and I'm hoping to push it to the working out stage of it all.

Fitspirational Tuesday

I keep coming in and out of building a habit. For a while I gave up once again and just got fed up with how much I seem to keep falling back. This time I made the decision to take it extremely seriously.

It's been a week and I have been eating properly. Sure there were a few things here and there I did not have to add to my diet, but by keeping a food journal I am able to look back at what I ate. I now can see what I need to do to adjust my eating habit. I also took the initiative to work out yesterday. It might not be much but it is a start. I am giving myself a month to get into a healthy habit. If not I think I am going to see if I can get a trainer to help me out.

I know that I can do this myself. I am determined and to be honest it's been week one and I have not had a glass of beer either. I think I will be fine if I keep my mind on the prize. It is about being fit and being healthy, but I am not going to lie about wanting to fit in my old clothes. I gave my friend most of my clothes from when I was skinny because I can barely fit into it. It's embarrassing when I have to give clothes away because it is just too small for me now.

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I am starting to work out to my old Jillian Michaels DVD's. I have tons of confidence that it will go well I just need to keep my head in the game. Hopefully I don't give up, but I'm sure once I start seeing results I won't be turning back. I have confidence that I will do fine. Sean was telling me that I have an obsessed or addictive personality. When I try something and I like it I push myself to do it. A good example is my gardening. He was saying once something sparks my interest I constantly work at it. He's right and I just need to get my mojo going with working out and putting out a specific image out there that I want for myself.

I think I should be fine! I have faith.