Never Too Old To Learn - My Journey With ETF (Eating The Food)

During the last year I have had a transformation. I've been pretty quiet about it not sharing much of my story because honestly I was kind of embarrassed by it. I thought if I tried to explain it, people would think things like, "Oh boy, she is weird!" or "Wow, she's not normal. Everyone already knows what she's just now learning!" In all reality, there are a lot of people who do understand where I was at the end of 2013 and where I have arrived at the end of 2014, and these people are the ones who helped me get to the place I am right now. Most of these people are men and women I have interacted with online via three private facebook groups I'm a part of and from some wonderfully intelligent people who have blogs I read on a somewhat regular basis. Most of the credit for my transformation goes to them and the ideas they shared with me via facebook posts/comments and blog posts. However, some of the credit for my transformation is the result of my work in embracing their ideas and implementing them into my lifestyle until they became second-nature and I didn't have to think about them.

So you are probably wondering, "What is this transformation she is talking about?" Very simply stated it is: I HAVE A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD! You are probably wondering what it means to have a healthy relationship with food. First, let me share a little about my past. I don't ever remember a time that I didn't consider myself overweight. From the time that I got married 27 years ago I have always been on a quest to lose weight, sometimes with more concerted effort than other times. Even when I looked my best one year ago I was still struggling to lose 10 more pounds because I had a specific number on the scale I thought I needed to achieve. Through the last 27 years, I've tried a lot of different diets. I've tried the grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet, Best Loser diet, carb cycling, Paleo and more. The thing about all of these diets is that they involve restricting certain foods. Regardless of which diet I was on, the one thing I always did was stress and obsess about food. I obsessed about what I could and couldn't eat, which caused stress. When a diet said to not eat xyz, I didn't eat xyz, for a period of time, then reality would hit and I would not only eat xyz, but I would binge on it. In my new healthy relationship with food, the one thing I NEVER do is restrict foods. When I say I have a healthy relationship with food this is what I mean:

1. Food is fuel for my body, there are no good or bad foods, just fuel.
2. Foods no longer have labels like "healthy foods" or "junk food." Some foods are more nutrient dense than other foods and that is all there is to it.
3. Unless I have a medical condition (which I don't) there is NO reason to restrict any one certain food or food group. At 51 years of age I no longer restrict any foods. I allow myself to eat what I want, when I want it.
4. Because I no longer restrict foods, I no longer binge on certain foods. I used to binge on sweet foods, as a matter of fact I avoided keeping certain foods in my house because I would binge on them. Now I keep cookies, ice cream, candy, chips, dip, etc. in the house. When I want to eat it, I do. Does that mean I eat it all the time or every day, no, not at all, just when I want it, which is not all the time or every day, just once in awhile.
5. Due to #3 and #4 I no longer stress/obsess about food. When I see cookies, I think, "It's a cookie," not "OMG, it's a cookie, I shouldn't eat it, but I really want it. What should I do?" After a few minutes of this I would eat not just one cookie but four or five cookies and then I'd berate myself for eating them. Sometimes I'd even spend extra time exercising because I ate those stupid cookies. Now if I want the cookie I eat it, but many times I find that I don't really want it so I don't eat it. This is a very novel feeling for someone who has a pattern of restricting/binging. During the weeks of the Christmas holiday I think I ate a total of four frosted sugar cookies. In the past I would have eaten a couple of dozen frosted sugar cookies. I would have had at least four a day. Am I restricting myself from eating them? No! I can eat a frosted sugar cookie whenever I want one and that is why I'm not "binging" on them. I know during Christmas and and even when Christmas is over I can have a frosted sugar cookie whenever I want one so I don't have to binge on them during the holiday. In the past, knowing I wouldn't allow myself to have them once Christmas is over is why I would binge on them during the holiday. Oh, the peace of mind this way of dealing with food gives me!!!
6. I like a lot of nutrient dense foods so I include them in my daily meals, which means most of the time I am now eating what people consider "healthy" food. I guess the one good thing about some of the crazy diets I've tried is that I have tried a lot of nutrient dense foods that I probably never would have tried before. Not only have I tried them, but I have found a lot of them that I like. Homemade sweet potato chips and baked kale are two of my favorites! I should eat them and eat them often since I really like them.
7. I have something called a BMR and a TDEE (and so do you). My BMR is my basal metabolic rate and it is the number of calories my body needs to survive if I do absolutely nothing all day long. My TDEE is my total daily energy expenditure and it is the number of calories that I need to function based on the activity level I maintain.There are many online calculators that can help you figure your TDEE. The one I use can be found here: TDEE Calculator 
8. Many diets suggest a woman eat around 1200 calories per day to lose weight. This is a ridiculously low number of calories. In order to lose weight I know I need to eat around 300-500 calories per day below my TDEE. If I want to lose weight and I'm not, it is because I'm not eating below my TDEE. 
9. I do not have to spend countless hours doing cardio to burn calories. I do need to do some kind of strength workout (bodyweight, dumbbells, barbells or any combination of them) two to three times a week (approximately 30 minutes) to build and keep muscle and I do need to do some sort of fun type of movement activity that I enjoy (approximately 30-45 minutes) three to four times a week.
10. The number on the scale doesn't matter. Last year at this time I liked the way I looked and felt, but still wanted to lose another 10 pounds to reach a certain magical weight. Through the process of getting to this healthy relationship with food, I gained some weight. My goal is to get back into the clothes I was wearing a year ago. It doesn't matter what the scale says when I fit into those clothes again, when I get there I'll be satisfied with "that place" and I will eat and exercise to keep me at "that place" regardless of the number on the scale.
11. Losing weight and achieving a healthy body are not things that can be done quickly nor is there ever an end point to it. There might be an end point in that I can achieve the look I want and get my body to a healthy state, but if I don't continue the process that got me to that point I won't stay at that point. That is why it is SO IMPORTANT to find something (eating and exercise) that is sustainable for a lifetime. The crazy diets are not sustainable, but ETF is. Crazy amounts of exercise are not sustainable, but 30 minutes of strength work two to three times per week with some fun cardio activity three to four times a week are sustainable.
12. Most of the "weight loss" schemes that we see and get sucked into have NO factual scientific research based evidence showing they actually produce the results they show us. All of the evidence they give us is anecdotal (not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research). I have learned to look for factual scientific research based evidence when considering implementing new ways of doing things in my life.
13. Do what works for you. I've often heard you should eat 5-6 small meals per day and you should eat every 3 hours to keep your insulin levels stable. That doesn't work for me. What does work is eating 3 meals per day at 7:00am, 11:30am and 6:00pm. I've done this for years and I've lost weight just eating three meals a day. It works for me so I should keep doing it. I have also heard you should eat something before you workout, or you should eat protein within 30 minutes after your workout. I absolutely cannot eat anything before working out and it's usually an hour after my workout when I get around to eating, and I don't necessarily eat protein. I've lost weight doing this, it works for me so I should keep doing it. No matter what you hear, if you are doing something and it is working you should keep doing it regardless of what you hear that you should be doing. DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!!!

Okay, in #10 above, I revealed that getting to this place of having a healthy relationship with food caused me to gain weight. You might think I would be upset about that. I am not. It is such an awesome feeling to not be thinking about food all the time that the extra pounds I gained getting to this mental state were worth it. I would much rather be the size and shape I am now with my current mental state than the size and shape I was last year when I was obsessing about food all the time. That being said, I am not satisfied with the size and shape I am. I do want to get to what I see as my practical ideal size/weight. This was a size/weight where I liked the way I looked and I was able to participate in all of the fun activities I enjoy. I have continued to workout during the last year, but I don't put in the hours and hours of cardio that I used to. However, that is not why I gained the weight I gained over the last year. The weight gain is a result of something called ETF. ETF was an important process I had to go through to get to the place I am right now. ETF stands for "Eating The Food." Eating the food is just that, eating the food, any and all foods. Imagine this, you have been restricting foods for years because of various diets you've been on, then all of a sudden you say, "I'm done. I'm never restricting foods again. I'm going to eat what I want, when I want it!" That's what I said to myself and that's exactly what I did, I began "eating the food." When most people do this, they do exactly what I did, they go a little crazy and "eat a lot of the food." The reason we all do this is because we have given ourselves a freedom we have not experienced in a long long time. An example of what I did was this, I had not had Pop Tarts for years because they were a forbidden food. When I allowed myself the freedom to ETF I ate a package of Pop Tarts every morning for breakfast. I did that for a month, but eventually I quit eating the Pop Tarts because I no longer craved them. I finally quenched my Pop Tart fix. But here is the awesome thing, I will never binge on Pop Tarts again. I keep a box of Pop Tarts in the pantry at home and a box of them in my snack drawer at work. I haven't had a Pop Tart in over three months even though they are readily available. I haven't had Pop Tarts in over three months because I haven't wanted them. However, when the day arises that I want a package of Pop Tarts I will eat them and I will enjoy them with no guilt because Pop Tarts are just food that fuels my body. There is nothing evil about Pop Tarts!

Back to the reason I gained weight while I was implementing ETF into my life. Pop Tarts were not the only food I had been restricting for years so they were not the only food I was reintroducing in my life. Overall, I was consuming quantities of food that were above my TDEE on a daily basis. Weight loss/weight gain is about calories in/calories out, and during my first few months of ETF I was taking in more calories than I was burning and this led to weight gain. For the last three to four months I've maintained my weight. Just before the holidays I felt like I was really ready for the next step of my ETF journey and that was to eat 300-500 calories below my TDEE. However, with the holidays approaching I didn't want to worry about tracking calories. It is hard enough for me to track calories during regular times I sure didn't want to try to do that when I knew I would be eating holiday foods that I don't typically eat so I held off on that until after the holidays. Now that the holidays are over I will continue the process of ETF (eating any and all foods when I desire them) along with the process of eating 300-500 calories below my TDEE. In order to do this I will have to track my food for a few weeks. I do not especially like tracking my food, but in order to get a feel for how much food I can eat, initially I will have to track.

I think the reason that I tried all those crazy diets during the last several years was because they offered hope of quick weight loss. Who doesn't want to lose weight and get healthy quickly? We all would like that, but time has shown again and again, most people who try those crazy diets aren't successful for the long term. I now realize that I have to eat and exercise in ways that will get me to my goals, but will also be sustainable for me for the rest of my life. I have found that with ETF. As mentioned previously, my goal is to fit into my clothes I was wearing last year at this time. Using the TDEE calculator I posted in the link I shared above I found the following information:

1. My BMR is 1553 calories - this is what I have to eat daily to sustain my life (not starve myself)
2. My TDEE is 2511 calories - this is what I have to eat daily to maintain my current weight based on my current activity level

In order to lose weight I need to eat 300-500 calories below my TDEE so I will plan on eating 2000 calories per day. It may seem like 2000 calories is a lot to eat and expect to lose weight, but I am an active person. I need to fuel my body. If I followed the advice from a lot of diet plans and only consumed 1200 calories per day I'd be starving my body and I probably wouldn't have the energy to do all the things I do. Here's another thing I learned over the few months about ETF, TDEE and tracking calories. I don't have to be exact. I'm a perfectionist so my nature would be to eat 2000 calories every day and I'd get all freaked out if I ate 2300 calories one day. However, this doesn't have to be exact. If I can average 2000 calories per day for the week then I'll be okay. One day I might eat 2300 calories, but another day I might eat 1800 and another day I might eat 1950. As long as it averages out and I don't ever fall below my BMR of 1553 then I will be using a strategy that will help me achieve my goal of losing weight and achieving a healthier body. My long range goal is to lose enough weight to fit into my clothes from last year. I could pick a lot of strategies to help me achieve that goal including but not limited to tracking calories, drinking eight glasses of water a day, eating 150 grams of protein per day, eating protein at every meal, doing strength workouts three times a week, doing fun cardio workouts four to five times a week, eating more vegetables, getting eight hours of sleep every night, etc. One reason many people fail at trying to do something new is because they jump in with both feet and try to change so much of what they are doing that they crash and burn after a short period of time. In order to avoid that I am picking two strategies to focus on for the next four weeks. I will

1. Track my calories aiming for an average of 2000 per day
2.  Eat more vegetables every day, aiming for 3 servings of veggies per day

I will try to check in at the end of January with an update on my progress on these two strategies, but I make no promises :-).

I would like to share some links to the facebook pages and blogs that have been the source information that allowed me to achieve this transformation.

Facebook Group: Eating The Food
This is a private facebook group in which you have to request to join. If you do join, your ideas about food/eating may be challenged. I would say to give them a chance, read through the posts/comments for a few months before making up your mind about staying in/leaving the group. This group is not the only source of information, but it is the major source of information that led to my transformation of ideas about food.
Blog: Nerd Fitness
This is my favorite blog. It has posts that are so practical with regards to applying new strategies to your life, both health and fitness wise, but also in all aspects of your life that if you implement just one or two strategies every couple of months you will "level up" your life (make positive improvements). You do not have to be a nerd to get some good out of this site!
Facebook Page: James Fell - Body for Wife
Blog: Go Kaleo
Blog: Lift Like A Girl/Nia Shanks

Just Part Of My Journey

As part of my health and fitness journey a few things have changed over the last few months. Some day I might share about them, but right now I'm still kind of absorbing some of the changes and acclimating to a somewhat new lifestyle. Since some of this is new to me I hired a coach to help me out (it's kind of a long story and at some point I'll share how I found this coach).

My coach had this plan for me for this week:

Try to increase my protein intake. Here are the ways we decided I could do this

1. Have a protein drink with a meal
2. Eat cottage cheese
3. Eat my Greek yogurt/sugar-free vanilla pudding mixture (1 & 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1/2 to 3/4 cup milk, 1 pkg. sugar free pudding in the flavor of your choice) as a dessert

Do my strength workouts 2 times and do some body-weight work on Friday when I'm out of town.

Cardio (running or biking) for 30 minutes 5 times throughout the week - My coach doesn't think I'll need to keep this up indefinitely but we talked about how I am very sporadic with cardio work right now. For instance, last week I did a 20 mile (1 hour 45 minute) bike ride on Monday and didn't do anything else the rest of the week. For now we are focusing on getting some consistency going with cardio. My coach is working with me really well. I actually enjoy biking and running, but have gotten away from it. My coach isn't making me do anything I don't like.

Mobility work - I expressed my concern that I feel sore and tight a lot of the time and I really want to do some yoga. I like my 1 hour yoga classes I've gone to, but am not good about getting to them after I'm home for the evening so we decided I should aim for 3 - 15 minute yoga sessions this week.

Nutrition - track calories to see what the increase in protein is going to do to my overall calorie intake.

Sleep - this may be the hardest one to achieve - shut down all electronics (except tv) at 8:30. In bed at 9:00!

This may seem like a lot of changes, but it's not.

•  I did a stint of trying to increase protein and it was working, but I didn't like the meals I was eating so we just tweaked what I was doing so this isn't really new
• I have a solid foundation of strength work, usually getting in 3 workouts a week. 
• I've done the cardio work before but just kind of got away from it when I was focusing on strength work so I need to find a way to do both because I legitimately like both and feel like I'm missing out by only doing strength workouts. But I have to find a balance because I don't want to workout for hours on end.
• Mobility work - I'd consider this new as I haven't been consistent with this for a LONG time
• Tracking calories - I did this for a month, but stopped last week because I was super busy
• Sleep - I've done this before, but not recently. I would consider this new and probably the most important. I feel like everything else above would probably fall in place if I could simply accomplish the sleep goal!

So there it is, my plan for the week that my coach, with my input, worked out for me. Now I'm off to do some yoga!

Flylady To The Rescue: 51st year day 2

One of my quests at the beginning of 2014 was to reimplement the Flylady routines into my life. It hasn't been a total bust, because since the beginning of the year I speculate I've had about 6-7 weeks where I've consistently done my Flylady routines. That is far and above better than the last several years when I have had completed 0 weeks of Flylady routines.

Even though I haven't been consistent with the Flylady routines, my house is in much better shape with what I have done than it was before the first of the year. Now if I can just quit having those weeks when I feel like I'm too busy to do my routines life will be much better. It may sound crazy, but I am much calmer when my house is organized and clean. My goal for the coming week is to:

1. Do all of my Flydlady routines (swish/swipe bathrooms daily, clean hotspots, do a load of laundry, shine my kitchen sink, and deal with the mail) everyday.
2.  Do the Flylady Weekly Home Blessing (vacuum floors, sweep/mop hardwood floors, dust with feather duster, and change sheets) on Monday. I will not spend more than 1 hour on this task.
3. Work on my zone of the week which is the Master Bedroom and bathroom. During the zone cleaning I will detail clean and make my bedroom shine. I may not get it all done this week because I will only spend 10-15 minutes a day working in my zone, but I won't worry about what doesn't get done because next month I'll pick up right where I left off! Of course I'll edit Flylady's zone cleaning list to fit what works for my bedroom. I will not spend more than 1-2 hours on this for the entire week.

So this is what my bedroom looks like now:

A pile of clothes on the cedar chest that needs to be folded and put away and another pile of t-shirts I'm saving for a t-shirt quilt that need to be put in a box and stored somewhere. Also, shelves with sentimental items the boys made when they were in school...these shelves have not had a real dusting in 3 or 4 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 and

Two laundry baskets of clothes that need to be folded and put away! Yikes the laundry has taken over! A pile of pants on my dresser that I'm currently wearing. I need to clean out my drawers of pants that don't fit, store them away and put these pants in the drawers. Then there is the misc. stuff laying on the dresser that needs to be put away. The mirror also needs to be cleaned. I think if I have time I'll go through my jewelry (necklaces and bracelets) and get rid of the ones I haven't wore in the last year!

Fabulous Fifty-One

Today I am officially an old lady, at least for the next six months. Well, according to my husband I am, lol! You see I'm six months older than Gary so he always calls me his "old lady" especially during the six months when age wise I am one digit older than him.

Age has never been something that has bothered me. Thinking back the only time I ever thought twice about a birthday it didn't even revolve around my birthday. It was my oldest son's birthday and it didn't bother me, but it did kind of take me by surprise. The year A.J. turned 23 I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, I have a 23 year old kid. I can't have a 23 year old child, I don't feel like I'm old enough to have a kid that old!"

To me age is just a number. Life happens and I just roll with it!

Not too long ago I was with a group of women and we were just talking about some random things. One of the ladies said during the last year she took a picture every day to have a record of what her life was like that year. That got me to thinking. I have been wanting to blog more, but somehow I just don't get around to blogging like I want to. So for my fabulous 51st year I am going to try to write my thoughts down every day. I'm making no promises, that I'll actually blog daily, but I'm hoping to at least make a short note on the calender about the events of the day or my thoughts and at some point during the week get it in print in my blog. We'll see what happens.

If you'd like to see a recap of my life in photos take a peek at my facebook photo album My First 51 Years. Anyone can view this album.

H.U.M.A.N.

I am human. We are all human. What exactly does it mean to be human? I was thinking about this one day as I was pondering all the changes I’ve been making in my life in the last few years and I came up with an acronym for the word human. It is: 

Hasty

Undesirable

Missteps

Are

Normal

When a person decides to make long-term changes it doesn’t always go smoothly. As a matter of fact, it rarely goes smoothly. When a person has habits that they’ve been living with for years, it isn’t easy to change them and it doesn’t happen overnight. I am living proof of this. I have realized that no matter how perfect I want to be and no matter how determined I am, I will experience times when I make hasty undesirable missteps. I also realized this is perfectly normal.

In October 2004 I made a commitment to change and live a different lifestyle from any way I’d EVER lived before. I decided I wanted to lose weight and in order to do that I knew I was going to have to do two things 1) eat differently and 2) exercise consistently. Exercise hadn’t been a part of my life for several years, but as I was growing up I loved playing sports. I was the only girl in my high school that took P.E. classes after the required class our freshman year. I’m proud to say I took P.E. all four years and I loved every minute of it! So even though I had not been exercising I knew I wouldn’t have a hard time working it into my life because I knew I’d enjoy it. Eating on the other hand was a different story. Prior to 2004, I don’t ever remember eating healthy. Sure, I ate healthy foods, but I ate a LOT of junk. Healthy eating was going to be the challenge for me. However, I was so determined to lose weight that I managed to change my eating habits. I ate using the divided plate method. I ate normal sized portions of protein, high fiber carbohydrates, plenty of vegetables and some fruit and dairy. For the most part I avoided junk food. I lost 40 pounds in 14 months. I was so happy, but I was human!

From 2006 to 2012 I continued on my journey with a lot of H.U.M.A.N. episodes. I never really gave up on the healthy lifestyle/losing weight, but I definitely had my periods of time when I didn’t exercise consistently or my eating habits weren’t so good and I gained some of my weight back. In June 2012 I had an “ah ha” moment. It was the moment I decided I REALLY wanted to seriously get back to this journey of living a healthy lifestyle. At that point I was experiencing a lot of fatigue, which was totally abnormal for me. I was tired of being tired. I had begun eating a paleo diet (NF: The Beginner's Guide to The Paleo Diet) to see if that would help and although I found this to be a way of eating that I really enjoyed it didn’t seem to be helping my fatigue issues. So on June 16, 2012 I redoubled my effort and I haven’t stopped since. Now that is not to say in the last year and a half I haven’t had some H.U.M.A.N. episodes because I have.

I realized something, no matter how long I’m doing this I will always have H.U.M.A.N. episodes because, well, because I’m human! Each and every time I have a H.U.M.A.N. episode I could see it as a failure or I can say, hasty undesirable missteps are human and it’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t mean that I can’t pick up where I left off before the H.U.M.A.N. episode and move on with my life. After all, what is one H.U.M.A.N. episode in the whole scheme of your life? I am a huge fan of the Nerd Fitness site and Steve has a post about this very thing. It’s titled “GetThe **** Over It.”

Being H.U.M.A.N. means that even with the best of intentions, sometimes you just do something that isn’t perfect. Let me ask you this question. Do you know anyone who is 100% perfect? No. Hmmm, that doesn’t surprise me. No one is perfect. So then, why is it that when we decide to make some changes to live a healthier life we expect ourselves to be perfect? Stop, stop right now! Stop expecting yourself to be perfect and then beating yourself up when you have a H.U.M.A.N. episode. After all, we are all human. All of us need to realize hasty undesirable missteps are normal.

I will leave you with this one thought. When you have done something that you consider to be a failure, I want you to think of one thing. What would you say to a person who came to you with the same issue? For example, since the beginning of December I have been eating very healthy. Then about two-three weeks ago I let the number on the scale depress me and I ate some junk one day. One day turned into two days, and now I’ve gone about 3 weeks with eating more junk than I’d had in two months. I could get really down on myself and say “You’re such a failure. You won’t ever get this right. You’re doomed and you will NEVER get to your goal weight.”  Or, I could think about what I’d say to someone else who had experienced the same thing. This is what I’d probably say to them, “Hey, I understand. It’s okay. Think about how many good days you had in that 2 ½ months vs. the number of bad days. The good days far outweigh the bad days. Also, you were doing some awesome workouts and you never let those go. You can do this. You hit a little speed bump and it knocked you off your bike. Get back on and get going again, you can do it!” So if I’m willing to cheer up someone else with positive and encouraging words, why must I kick myself, making myself feel worse than I already do? The point is, I shouldn’t! I should treat myself with as much respect and encouragement as I do my fellow man/woman because we, myself included, are all H.U.M.A.N.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms: New Recipe of the Week #8

Well it stands to reason if you are trying 52 new recipes in one year some of them are bound to turn out "not so good." The Crab Stuffed Mushrooms I made for tonight's Super Bowl gathering definitely fall into this category.

I got the recipe from Against All Grains. This is the first recipe from that site that I haven't really cared for. I made this recipe especially for my darling hubby because he likes mushrooms. I thought it would be a nice surprise for him. He was surprised all right, surprised by an overly fishy tasting mushroom that he didn't care for either. No one that tried these liked them. They were too "fishy." I don't know if all crab meat has a very strong flavor, but even as these were baking the fish smell was overpowering. I have had crab legs before and I like them so I thought I would at least find these tolerable. However, the fishy smell was so overpowering I didn't even try them.

  The crab stuffed mushrooms were easy to make and one I would be willing to make again, with some adjustments. The next time I try these I will be using chopped shrimp instead of crab meat. I think I'll change up the main part of the filling too. I'll be looking online for the filling used in crab rangoons. I'll add some shrimp to it, fill the mushrooms with it and see what happens.

Damn Fine Chicken: New Recipe 2014 #7

I eat a lot of chicken and I eat it prepared a lot of different ways. I have discovered chicken leg quarters are the cheapest cuts of chicken to buy and that works out great for me since my favorite piece of chicken is the thigh. The legs are probably my second favorite, but since my darling hubby likes the legs the best, getting the leg quarters are a good deal for us. With a package of chicken leg quarters I can make fried chicken, boil it to use the meat in chicken and noodles, marinate it and bake it like this recipe called for or grill it. I used to always buy the boneless skinless chicken breasts, but I think I'll be buying more chicken leg quarters in my future.

I'm not sure where I saw this recipe for Nom Nom Paleo's Damn Fine Chicken posted, but it looked really good and it only required that I buy one ingredient I didn't have so I was off to the store to buy some sherry vinegar. I didn't actually find sherry vinegar, but I did buy the sherry cooking wine and I used it. Apparently, I didn't substitute the right thing for the sherry vinegar, because after some searching I found this blog about The Best Substitute for Sherry Vinegar. Oh well, no harm done. I made the chicken using the sherry cooking wine and it turned out pretty good.

After going to the store my refrigerator was full of produce so when I was marinating the chicken I didn't have anywhere to put it in the refrigerator. It was a pretty cold day so I just put it out on our front porch. The aroma from the marinade permeated the house. It smelled like onion/garlic all over the house.

I didn't really eat supper the night I made this. I was busy working away on my school stuff and when that happens I just don't take a break to eat. This chicken turned out to be a nice snack at 8:00pm when I finally broke away from my lesson planning. I do believe I enjoyed it even better for breakfast this morning. My darling hubby looked at me kind of strange when he saw me eating chicken for breakfast, but honestly I can eat chicken at any meal and if it is good chicken I could eat it three meals a day.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa: New Recipe 2014 #6

I whipped up some of the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa from the Against All Grains cookbook. Click on the link to get a sneak peak of  what is in the cookbook.

I haven't tried the salsa yet as a salsa. I use it in another recipe I make from the cookbook. When I this batch I decided to try it with a couple of chips. Oh My! I think I added too many Serrano peppers because it was rather hot and spicy! I need to let my dad try it, he's the one who always orders the hot spicy dip at the Mexican restaurants.

The green color is a bit odd. I'm not used to eating dip that is green, but other than it being too hot for my tastes, it seemed to be good as a dip.

Granny Sarella's Spaghetti Sauce: New Recipe 2014 #5

As ordinary as my life is, sometimes it gets really busy. As such, I've gotten behind in my blogging. So get ready for a whirlwind of blogs to be posted today! I have several new recipes to share and a thought about being human and what that means.

My original goal with the New Recipe idea was to make one new recipe each week. I'm adapting that goal now to try a total of (at least) 52 new recipes during the year 2014. I will aim to try one new recipe each week, but sometimes I'll try out more than one, while other times I'll be too busy or not in a position to try anything new. I'll start labeling my recipes by number so I can keep track  and stay on somewhat of a schedule.

About a week and a half ago I tried a new recipe for spaghetti sauce. I don't think I have ever made homemade spaghetti sauce. In the 26 years I've been married our spaghetti sauce has always come out of a jar. I always keep about 3 jars of spaghetti sauce on hand. It is an easy meal when I'm tired. On those occasions we'll have a meatless meal. I'll boil some spaghetti, open the jar of sauce, dump it on the hot spaghetti, stir and tada, an easy hot meal. I am happy to report that I really liked this spaghetti sauce and I anticipate we will be using this sauce from now on. Well we will be using it after we use up the three jars that are in the pantry. In order to have enough of this on hand I'll have to prepare a large batch and freeze several jars of it. With several jars in the freezer, I'll still have that fall back, easy meal to prepare and this sauce has meat in it!!!

Granny Sarella's Spaghetti Sauce over spaghetti squash and sauteed' spinach

The recipe for Granny Sarella's Spaghetti Sauce came from Danielle Walker's cookbook Against All Grains. This is my new favorite cookbook and I just got it around Christmas time. The spaghetti sauce is made with ordinary ingredients most people already have in their kitchen. It does have an interesting twist. Along with the pound of ground beef that is in it, it also calls for 1 pound of bone in pork. After searing the pork in a skillet you add it to the sauce and let it cook in the simmering sauce. This was awesome because I cooked the spaghetti sauce on a Saturday. Most of it was gone by Monday, but I had the pork to take in my lunch. I just cooked up some green beans and I had three lunches for the upcoming week.

Back to the cookbook Against All Grains, it is a grain free cookbook. Danielle Walker has an autoimmune disease and at one time was very ill. She is now managing her disease through a grain free, dairy free diet. A couple of things I like about the cookbook are that she has three sections dealing with "navigating a new lifestyle," "my ingredients," and "my equipment." She has an amazing website which is also called Against All Grains. Although the spaghetti sauce recipe I made for my "new recipe" is in her cookbook and I can't share the recipe in this blog, you can check out the recipe she has on her blog for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. There are also tons of other good recipes on the blog. Against All Grains also has a facebook page. If you'd like to venture into the world of grain free cooking check out Danielle's blog and facebook page.

One day soon, in another post, I'll share how I ventured into the primal/paleo diet that I follow and the results I'm experiencing.

Mexican Chicken Chowder: New Recipe Of The Week

Today's new recipe was Mexican Chicken Chowder from the cookbook Against All Grains. The soup consisted of chicken, some homemade Roasted Tomatilla Salsa from the same cookbook, chicken broth, cubed sweet potatoes, sliced carrots, lime juice, garlic, and fresh spinach. I wasn't sure I was going to like the recipe because of the sweet potatoes, but it turned out to be quite tasty. It is probably one of my favorite soups.

Against All Grain's Mexican Chicken Chowder

 In this recipe the soup was thickened without using any flour or cornstarch. This thickening trick is one I just recently learned. After all of the ingredients are cooked, ladle out some of the vegetables and put them in a blender with a little bit of the soup liquid. Blend it up until it is smooth. Then add it back in to the soup and ta da...your soup is thickened.

Against All Grains is one of my favorite sites to get recipes from. I have not tried one of her recipes that I haven't liked. This is the site where I found the recipe for grain free tortillas. I'm glad there are those people who create these delicious recipes for us to prepare!

Fitness Should/Needs To/Has To Be FUN!

A few years ago I decided I needed to lose weight because over the years I'd gained quite a few pounds. You know how it goes...I was an average high school athlete and I loved sports. I played volleyball, basketball, ran track and cross country, played softball in the summer and I was the only girl who took physical education classes all four years I was in high school. I wasn't afraid to play with the boys, as a matter of fact, I relished it. Anyway, back to my story. After high school I went to college. I took a couple of P.E. classes just for fun and after college I occasionally played racquetball with some friends, but by the time I got married and had kids I let my busy life take over and I rarely did any form of physical activity.

Fast forward to October 2004 when I made the decision to lose weight. I purchased a few dumbbells and found a weight training program I could do that used only dumbbells. I also picked up an exercise bike for $50. Almost every day I used my dumbbells and rode my exercise bike and I eventually shed 40 pounds. The thing is I was enjoying the physical activity which is one reason I kept doing it. Now it is 9 years later and I still enjoy the physical exercise and it is a very real part of my life. Over the last few years besides doing weight lifting with the dumbbells and riding the exercise bike I've ventured into the life of running, both outdoors and on a treadmill, I've ridden hundreds of miles on my two outdoor bikes, I've taken kickboxing classes, I've done a bit of rollerblading, I've learned how to swim laps, I've trained for a sprint triathlon, I've done yoga workouts and I've recently gotten into doing bodyweight workouts. The thing about ALL of these activities is that they have been fun for me. I guess I must explain the word fun as it relates to some of this stuff. At times, in the middle of a workout it might not be exactly fun. I mean I might be sucking air, feeling like I'm going to throw up and my muscles will be trembling so I wouldn't say at that particular moment it is FUN. Quite the contrary, at that point I might be asking myself, "Why the heck am I doing this?" But the thing is, after workout I feel such a sense of accomplishment and before the next workout, I actually WANT to do another workout.

I have said often, if you don't like the workouts you are doing then you need to find a workout that you DO like doing. No one wants to do something on a consistent basis that they don't enjoy, which is why if you are doing workouts you don't enjoy you will eventually stop doing them. I'm no one special, I'm not a personal trainer and I have no educational background in health or fitness, but I have been learning and doing for the last nine years so I have figured out some significant things, one of them being to pick exercise that you enjoy doing. If you don't know what you enjoy then try some different things. You may be surprised at what you will like doing. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd enjoy yoga, but I do.

I've never really loved running until recently. Actually, the only reason I ran long distance in high school is because I can't sprint very fast, I can't jump and I didn't want to do the shot put or discus so that left running long distance. I never really liked it, but I tolerated it. As an adult, I began running because it was challenging and it is something you can do with no equipment except for a pair of running shoes. I still didn't really like it much, but I did feel good about myself when I got done so I guess that's why I kept running. Then I heard about the run/walk method promoted by Jeff Galloway. I started doing that, running 3 or 4 minutes and walking 1 minute and I actually started to like running. After doing the run/walk method for several months I tried something else based on some information I got from a running friend of mine. I started running within a certain heart rate zone (my fat burning zone) and that is when I fell in love with running. I went from running 11-12 minute miles to running 13-15 minute miles, but something amazing happened. I could run three times as far, four times as long and I could run every day instead of 3 times a week. I did all this and my body didn't hurt like it did when I was running the 11-12 minute miles. My longest run to date has been nine miles and that, my dear friends, astounds me. It was only possible because I found a method of running that works for me and allows me to enjoy it.

The title of my post is Fitness Should/Needs To/Has To Be Fun because that is what I whole-heartedly believe. For the last year running has been a lot of fun for me and I've done things I never thought possible. However, right now, running is no longer fun. Oh sure, if I go out for a run I enjoy it, but the thought of working running into my fitness routine right now just makes me go, "Eh, not really in to it right now." And you know what, I'm okay with that. For right now I'm really working on building strength with some weightlifting/bodyweight workouts and that seems to be where I want to focus my fitness goals. Biking has started to appeal to me again too. I wasn't biking as much when I started running more, but now that I'm backing off on the running, biking is something I want to start doing again. Since the weather is cold right now I'll settle for logging a bunch of miles on my exercise bike. I love spinning on my exercycle because I read while spinning so I get to do two things I enjoy. To sum things up, sometimes I run, sometimes I bike, sometimes I focus on weightlifting. Whatever makes me happy is what I focus on doing because when I roll out of bed at 4:30am I want to have a smile on my face and look forward to what I'm doing.

A New Twist On General Tso's Chicken: New Recipe Of The Week

One of my favorite Chinese dishes is General Tso's Chicken. That little bit of spicy taste without making steam come out of my ears is awesome. I found a paleo recipe called General Tso's Meatballs so it was a no-brainer that I would try it for my New Recipe Of The Week. The recipe was easy to prep, easy to cook and probably took about 30 minutes from start to finish. It was delicious and it is a five star recipe in my eyes mouth. I made a few minor changes in the recipe. In the meatballs I used ground deer meat instead of ground chicken/turkey and I omitted the almond flour and egg. I doubled the recipe for the sauce and used the ingredients suggested for making it a paleo dish. I also used red pepper flakes instead of the dried chilis. I can't wait until tomorrow to eat the leftovers for lunch. The next time I make this I'm going to double the recipe and see if if freezes well. If the sauce doesn't freeze well, I can make the meatballs up ahead of time and then just whip up the sauce when needed. I definitely see this as being a "go to" recipe if I have some of the meatballs frozen.

General Tso's Meatballs and Crunchy Roasted Broccoli

Tonight I got really energetic and tried a second new recipe. To be honest, someone posted a recipe for Crunchy Roasted Broccoli on facebook and it looked so delicious I decided I had to try it. On my way home from work I stopped at the store to buy some fresh broccoli. This vegetable dish was super easy and super delicious, another five star recipe in my mouth!

I don't know what I'm going to do when summer gets here and I can't coat veggies with olive oil and put them in my oven. I'm guessing I'll be using the grill a lot!


Crunchy Roasted Broccoli
Preheat oven to 375°
Chop a head of broccoli (do not rinse, immediately prior to preparing!)
Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic (I used garlic powder)
Put broccoli, garlic, 2 tbsp. olive oil, and a few shakes of salt and pepper in a ziploc bag.
Shake it up!! (I laid out the broccoli on a cookie sheet and drizzled olive oil over it)
Spread out on baking sheet, place on top rack, and bake for about 30 minutes.
Broccoli will be crunchy and delicious!
Yes it was!!! 

I haven't found too many issues with eating healthy except finding enough storage space for all the fresh produce I buy. I like to keep it in one of the drawers in my refrigerator, but invariably I have to use a second drawer and the bottom shelf for all the colorful fresh foods I bring home on shopping day. Just out of curiosity I googled "refrigerator vegetable crisper" and found an article on The Proper Way To Use Your Refrigerator Humidity Drawers. Hmmm, who knew! Did you know? I sure didn't, but now I do. I need to go do some investigating of my refrigerator drawers and begin making proper use of them. My husband has his own mini fridge that he uses to keep his Diet Dr. Pepper cold. He goes through a ton of Diet Dr. Pepper (that's another story for another time) so we load up the mini fridge each week and he always has cold pop. In a perfect world we'd be keeping fresh produce in the mini-fridge instead of pop.

I Love My Spiral Slicer & New Recipe Of The Week

 I love zucchini, but I can't spell it. I always have to have spell check correct it, I suppose I should spend five minutes and learn how to spell it! My favorite way to prepare it used to be slicing it, spraying my griddle, cooking it a few minutes on each side, sprinkling it with a little salt and then eating it! Simple and so delicious. It's one of those veggies I don't really like to share, but since I'm a nice person I do. However, I eat a lot of it as I'm cooking it so I get way more than my share.

Brieftons Spiral Slicer

Since I've quit eating pasta for the most part I've wanted to get a gadget that makes noodles out of vegetables like zucchini. (Yes! I spelled it correctly and it didn't even take me 5 minutes to learn)! I've done a bit of searching online for these different types of veggie noodle makers and I asked for one for Christmas. I went with a less expensive version, one that is fairly small, so it takes up very little room, requires no set up and it is very easy to clean. It is the Brieftons Spiral Slicer and so far it has served my purposes quite splendidly. For example, now I don't have to get my griddle out to cook my beloved zucchini. I twist it through the spiral slicer, add a bit of olive oil to a skillet and cook it for a few minutes. Much less trouble than getting out the big ole griddle and since I've gotten the spiral slicer I've had zucchini 4 times. In the past I have rarely had zucchini except in the summer.

Spiral Sliced Zucchini

Utilizing my spiral slicer I made my new recipe for the week. Chicken Bacon Alfredo from PaleOMG. I haven't tried many recipes from this site yet, but hands down they have one of my favorite recipes: Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Okay, back to the Chicken Bacon Alfredo. It was super easy to make because I already had some pre-cooked chicken breasts in the freezer. This is something I always have on hand. I also had some pre-cooked bacon in the freezer as well. Keep reading for my tip on having these kinds of things on hand to make your life so much easier. Basically, all I had to do was thaw out the bacon and chicken and heat it up. Then I mixed up the sauce. I didn't follow the recipe exactly. First, I used my zucchini noodles instead of the squash used in the recipe. Then, I mixed the sauce, bacon and chicken all together and poured it over the zucchini noodles. Finally, I topped it off with some grated Parmesan cheese.

I made this up for my lunch for tomorrow and Tuesday, so I have no idea how it tastes. I will edit my blog with that information sometime tomorrow.

It's lunchtime on Monday and I am now trying my Chicken Bacon Alfredo. I like it. I'm pretty sure my husband will like it too. This is a fantastic lunch recipe as well. This one is a keeper!

Now for some of my time saving tips for busy cooks. Cooking in bulk and flash freezing. When I'm cooking chicken I almost always cook way more than I will be using for the meal I'm preparing. I do this when boiling, baking, stir frying, etc. Then, whatever I don't use I flash freeze. To flash freeze you will need cookie sheets that fit in your freezer, parchment paper, ziplock bags and note paper. After cooking the chicken, let it cool completely. Then put parchment paper on your cookie sheet. Lay the cooked chicken in a single layer on the parchment paper. The edges can touch but just barely. Then put it in the freezer overnight. Write a note that says something like "Chicken flash freezing" and put it on your counter where you will see it in the morning. If you are like me you will completely forget about it if  you don't leave that note on your kitchen counter! When you see the note and remember what you did the night before, grab a ziplock bag and put the chicken in it. Zip it up and throw it in the freezer. Now you can take out one piece at a time if that is all you need. Beware, when you take it out of the freezer it will look drier than a piece of leather and you will think you have ruined some perfectly good chicken. Never fear, when you warm it up, gently, in the microwave it will be just like it was when you put it in the freezer. When I cook bacon, I usually do it in the oven and I do two pounds at a time. I flash freeze it the same way. The things I flash freeze: raw sweet potato chips or fries which I use to make oven baked chips or fries, all kinds of fruit which I use for fruit smoothies. Fish, chicken, pork, beef, onions, peppers, pressed garlic, ground up ginger root. I'm always experimenting with freezing stuff so it is ready to use. It makes my meal prep in the evening so much faster!

What About Those Quests For 2014? Week #1

About a week or so ago I sat down and wrote out some major quests I wanted to accomplish in 2014. Then I wrote out specific goals to help me accomplish those quests. Today is my first post to track my progress. I will break these down a bit differently for tracking purposes.

Daily Goals:

1.  Shine the sink every night before going to bed.
2. Swish and swipe my bathroom daily (hair off the floor too).
3. Swish and swipe Gary's bathroom on even days.
4. Do one load of laundry daily, including drying, folding and putting it away.
5. Clean off the hot spots.
6. Deal with the mail every day.
7. Read 30 minutes daily from a non-fiction book. 
8. Drink water and plenty of it

Weekly Goals:

1. Contact A.J. and Daniel at least once a week.
2. Blog once a week, even if it is just a partial blog that needs more work before it is posted.
3. Once a week, update the orange notebook with money spent during the previous week.
4. Get your online Reading Comprehension class DONE! Do at least two lessons a week.
5. Get the Reading Buddy lessons done. One lesson complete per week starting Jan. 6th.
6. Eat to be healthy, eat Primal 80% of the time, but make some conscious choices to enjoy the foods you don't typically eat.
7. Prepare one new recipe weekly and post it on your blog.
8. Do a 15 minute (minimum) Yoga workout at least 3 times weekly.
9. Running: Keep running in your fat-burning zone (HR 126-135). One run per week can be at a comfortable pace.

 Monthly Goals

1. Have a "date" two times a month with Gary. One time I plan/one time he plans.
2. Send two cards to friends or family monthly.
3. Call two people monthly just to say hi.
4. Scrapbook once a month.
5. Rubberstamp once a month.
6. Work on a "you've been putting it off" project once a month.

Special Goals

1. Set up a "Rewards" account ($20 monthly). Rewards can only be purchased if earned and if there is money for them. 
2. Apply Quality Matters to your online Reading Comprehension class. Due date August 1, 2014.
3.  Develop a Reading Buddies class.
4. Develop a combined Reading Comp/General Studies course class.
5. Complete your first Nerd Fitness Challenge starting Jan. 6th. Continue to level up my fitness by doing the challenges throughout the year (complete at least 4 NF Challenges in 2014).
6. Complete at least the first level of the Dumbbell Workouts (Beta version) in Nerd Fitness Academy.

REVIEW OF MY GOALS: WEEK #1

Daily Goals

• I pretty much nailed these except reading from a non-fiction book 30 minutes daily. However, I spent a great deal of time reading through educational information as I was prepping my Intro. to Education materials.
• I am VERY PROUD of the fact that I shined my kitchen sink every night except Friday when I went to bed super early (6:00PM) because I wasn't  feeling well. Shining my kitchen sink means washing ALL the dishes  and cleaning off ALL the kitchen counters. Preparing meals is much easier when you are starting with a clean area. 
• As I was focusing on completing all these daily goals I kept thinking about what is going to happen when I get super busy, because it is going to happen, and I don't get some of them done. I came up with a plan, NEVER SKIP A DAILY GOAL TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

Weekly Goals

• I didn't do as well with the weekly goals as I did the daily. 
• I did not get any online Reading Comp. lessons done, but the class got cancelled so it wasn't a priority. 
• I didn't get a Reading Buddies lesson planned.
•  I need to write my work goals down at work somewhere so they are visible. I have all my goals written out at home on a board that I look at several times a day. I need to do the same thing at work, it will keep me more on track.
• I only did 2 yoga workouts (one of them 30 minutes long) instead of 3.
• I didn't run at all, as a matter of fact after Monday of last week I didn't do any of my regular workouts because I was staying up too late working on teacher stuff. Last week was an exception, exercise is a part of who I am, ignoring it completely doesn't happen often.

Premier Procrastination

For those of you that don't know me, I am going to let you in on a couple tidbits of info about me. If I were to list the my top characteristics they would be that I'm:

• Highly organized
• Very detail oriented
• A take charge person
• Methodical & systematic
• An over-achiever
• Creative

With all of these superb qualities I have never turned in a late assignment or been late with a project for work or any organization I'm a part of. With that being said, I am a premier procrastinator. I don't think I was like this when I was a kid. I remember my mom saying that I used to drive her crazy with school projects because no matter how much time I had to work on them, I wanted to do them RIGHT NOW! My how things have changed!!!

Right now I  have a list a mile long of tasks I should be doing:

• Instructor sheets for Intro. to Education and Reading Comprehension
• Update my Reading Plus introduction information
• Get my schedule set for Reading Comprehension for the semester
• Get Weeks 2-15 lessons done for Intro. to Education
• Create the new lessons (already planned out in my head) for Reading Comprehension online
• Make the SI bookmarks 
• Make the SI posters 

Yet here I sit blogging away about procrastination. Well, I do have a goal this year to blog once a week so at least I'm accomplishing one of my goals!

When my oldest son, A.J. was in high school we were talking about procrastination. He shared with me that he remembered when he learned what the word procrastination meant. He was just a little guy, probably 6 or 7. He said he was in Sunday School class and his teacher, Ethel, used the word procrastination. Ever the inquisitive child he asked her what it meant. She said something like, "It means waiting until the last possible minute to do something because you don't have to do it right now." He said he thought to himself, "I am good at that. I like to procrastinate." I got a good laugh out of that. Imagine a child that young recognizing the fact that they tend to procrastinate. I will add that A.J. is the ultimate procrastinator. He didn't get in any hurry to enter this world. I remember when I was in labor and the doctor told me it was time to push. I pushed for an hour and 45 minutes. A.J. must have realized there was no reason to be pushed out right then so he took his merry time, much to my chagrin. As a mother, he used to drive me crazy because he never did his homework until the absolute last minute no matter how much I hounded him. It's a good thing he's not the type to stress out about anything because it was nothing for him to be working on an assignment 10 minutes before it was due. The difference between him and myself is that when I've procrastinated and am that close to a deadline, I get really stressed about it. Not A.J. He just rolls with it like it is no big deal. I hate to think that I am the one that passed on the procrastination characteristic to him, but I guess I'll have to take the credit for it. 

So along with all of the superb qualities I possess, I must add I'm a premier procrastinator to the list. Alas, I must end this blog promptly because deadlines are looming and I have procrastinated long enough!

A Snapshot Into The New Year - Quests for 2014

As the new year was approaching I was thinking a lot about 2014. I am now 50 years old and as I'm aging I'm realizing NOW is the time. If I want to do something I need to do it now. I don't have any huge plans, my life is pretty simple. We (Gary and I) are limited in what we can do because of our financial situation. No, we are not having financial problems, but we still have some debt we are working on getting rid of and we've made a commitment to pay off our debt and save money for any extra-curricular activities/vacations we might do. That means we stay home most of the time. Our big splurge is to go to Family Video every couple of months and rent $12 worth of movies! In the summer we have bike dates. We ride our bikes to the donut shop to have breakfast or to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone. Our simple life is fine with me, I learned a long time ago, money is not what makes you happy.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Looking back on the last year, I see some things I'd like to change in my life, and I can think of some new things I'd like to do, but haven't done because it is just easier to come home, sit, get on the computer and spend my time interacting online. Most of my goals for the coming year are small, but I believe if I am consistent in achieving these small goals by the end of the year I will feel like I've accomplished a lot and have become a better person.

In the spirit of Nerd Fitness (I love this site) I am going to create quests in different categories of my life. Then I'll have specific goals that will help me achieve each quest. Some of them will be for the year and some of them will be more short term.

Flylady Quest: Keep the house organized & out of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)

Flylady is an awesome site that can help you learn the tricks to help you keep your 

     house clean & organized by spending a few minutes a day doing "missions."      

1.  Shine the sink every night before going to bed.
2. Swish and swipe my bathroom daily (hair off the floor too).
3. Swish and swipe Gary's bathroom on even days.
4. Do one load of laundry daily, including drying, folding and putting it away.
5. Clean off the hot spots.
6. Deal with the mail every day.

Relationship Quest: Spend time making others in my life know they are important to me

1. Have a "date" two times a month with Gary. One time I plan/one time he plans.
2. Send two cards to friends or family monthly.
3. Call two people monthly just to say hi.
4. Contact A.J. and Daniel at least once a week.

Personal Quest: Do things I enjoy, things that will make me feel a sense of accomplishment and things that will make me grow as an individual.

1. Scrapbook once a month.
2. Rubberstamp once a month.
3. Blog once a week, even if it is just a partial blog that needs more work before it is posted.
4. Read 30 minutes daily from a non-fiction book.
5. Work on a "you've been putting it off" project once a month.

Financial Quest: Pay more attention to our money - having knowledge keeps you in check and you know it :-)

1. Once a week, update the orange notebook with money spent during the previous week.
2. Set up a "Rewards" account ($20 monthly). Rewards can only be purchased if earned and if there is money for them. 

Professional Quest: Get all those projects done that you've been saying you were going to do!!!

1. Get your online Reading Comprehension class DONE! Do at least two lessons a week.
2. Apply Quality Matters to your online Reading Comprehension class. Due date August 1, 2014.
3. Get the Reading Buddy lessons done. One lesson complete per week starting Jan. 6th.
4. Develop a Reading Buddies class.
5. Develop a combined Reading Comp/General Studies course class.

Food Quest: Eat for health

1. Eat to be healthy, eat Primal 80% of the time, but make some conscious choices to enjoy the foods you don't typically eat.
2. Prepare one new recipe weekly and post it on your blog.
3. Drink water and plenty of it (this is a new habit I've been doing for several weeks, and I don't want to stop).

Exercise Quest: Get stronger and more fit

1. Complete your first Nerd Fitness Challenge starting Jan. 6th. Continue to level up my fitness by doing the challenges throughout the year (complete at least 4 NF Challenges in 2014).
2. Do a 15 minute (minimum) Yoga workout at least 3 times weekly.
3. Complete at least the first level of the Dumbbell Workouts (Beta version) in Nerd Fitness Academy.
4. Running: Keep running in your fat-burning zone (HR 126-135). One run per week can be at a comfortable pace.

Wow, that seems like a lot, but with focus and determination I can do it. Now let's get on with the new year and see what the next 360 days will bring. 

Never A Girly-Girl, But I Had Dolls

Just before Christmas I had to go to Dillons to pick up my husband's prescriptions. As I was making my way out of the store I saw a display of dolls on sale. Something about the doll caught my attention. She could walk. Wow, that brought back some memories. I used to have a doll that could ride a horse and a tricycle and if you laid her on her back she would kick and wiggle her legs. I remember she had pink pants and a yellow and pink shirt and blond hair. I headed home and got on the internet to see if I could find pictures of the doll from my childhood memories. Jackpot, you can find anything on the internet!

   

Tippee-Toes Doll 

After doing some Googling I came across some pictures. She was called Tippee-Toes. I don't think I was much of a doll kind of girl since I wasn't really a girly-girl, but I do remember Tippee-Toes. She was so cool and I'm sure as a 5 year old I was quite impressed with the fact that she could ride a tricycle and a horse.


Thinking about my Tippee-Toes Doll got me to thinking about the other dolls I had when I was a little girl. There weren't many of them, like I said I wasn't a girly-girl, but I remember three dolls that I had as a little girl. Besides Tippee-Toes, I had Buffy and Crissy.

My Buffy doll had her very own miniature Mrs. Beasley doll. That was so cool! A doll with a doll! The Buffy doll was based on the little girl character from the TV show "Family Affair." Mrs. Beasley was very important to Buffy in the show so it would stand to reason that the Buffy doll would have a Mrs. Beasley doll. Of course the toy manufacturers produced a "real size" Mrs. Beasley doll just like the one on the TV show and a lot of little girls had that Mrs. Beasley doll, but I didn't get that one, just the miniature one that went with my Buffy doll. My Buffy doll had different clothes too. She had a short dress that was white with red polka dots and a red ruffled skirt. She also had a sleeveless orange jumpsuit with a short-sleeved white shirt that went under it. I think she had some pajamas too, but I don't remember what they looked like. Oh, I mustn't forget, my Buffy doll could talk. You just pulled the little string at the back of her neck and she would say something. I'm sure back during those days (late '60's/early '70's) a talking doll was impressive, at least to a 5 or 6 year old it was impressive.

Besides Tippee-Toes and Buffy, I only remember one other doll that I had. Her name was Crissy and she had red hair. Crissy was amazing because her hair could be either short or long, and if it was short you could make it grow by yanking on it. Well actually you were probably supposed to pull gently, but I thought it was pretty neat to just yank it, remember I wasn't a girly-girl. Then to make her have short hair again you just had to turn this dial on her back...and magic she had short hair...to my 6 year old mind it was magic! Crissy was really tall, had long legs, and a blue satin outfit, and she had that magic hair,that made her a spectacular doll.



Although I remember these three dolls, I don't really remember playing with them much. I'm sure I did, but by the time we moved to the farm (when I was 7) I was more of the jeans, cowboy boots, let me go outside tom-boy girl, with the exception of my Barbie Dolls. I loved my Barbie dolls and probably played with them until I was 10 or 11.

I remember being so excited the year I got my Barbie Camper. Now Barbie, Ken, and Skipper could go camping. I played with them at the top of the stairs and the stairwell was the lake. The could swim for ever in that deep lake. After their long day of swimming they'd go back to the campsite, cook dinner on the camper cookstove, then curl up in their sleeping bags and go to sleep for the night, only to repeat the adventure the next morning.

My barbies had quite the collection of clothes too. Barbie even had a pretty lacy dress that worked as her wedding dress. I must have been obsessive-compulsive even as a child, because my Barbie suitcase was always neat and organized and I knew where every outfit was. I spent hours and hours changing their clothes taking them on adventure after adventure. Even as I grew older my barbies had a soft spot in my heart. I never got rid of them. I really thought I'd end up keeping them for my own kids. I'm sure A.J. and Daniel would have loved getting my barbie collection, lol!

Since my mom and dad were still living at the farm and had plenty of room to store stuff I just left my barbies and the camper out there. Since I had boys and I knew they wouldn't want them I guess I was thinking maybe I'd save them for my grandkids. Who knows! When something brings us so much pleasure as a child I think we think that surely these toys/things will bring the same pleasure to someone else so we hang on to them hoping to bring that same pleasure to our kids or grandkids.

So what happened to all these dolls that were part of my life as a child? I don't really know what happened to Tippee-Toes, Buffy and Crissy. That is a question I'll have to ask my mom. We never had garage sales, so maybe she donated them to Goodwill or gave them to someone. Since I'd hung on to my Barbie collection I was able to pass that on to a special little girl. There were two kids who came to our church with their aunt when I was a young mother. At that time I was teaching Children's Church so I got to know Melvin and Amber. I had a soft spot in my heart for them. I don't think they had a lot, not like most kids did during those days. One day their house burned down and they lost everything. I don't know if the family had insurance, but it didn't matter to me, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my Barbie collection. The next time I made it to my parent's house I packed all my Barbie stuff up and the next time I saw Amber I gave it all to her. I don't know if Amber had as much fun with the barbies as I did, but in my imagination she did.