Trials of a Long Haired Girl

Happy Sunday friends! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!  I ran across something and decided to do a little more research.  Brooke Castillo shares some interesting tips in this  podcast  about The Urge Jar.   While I haven't decided if I'm going to try this 100% with jar and all, I think there's some good things suggested in the steps that she shares.  Writing down what you are going to eat 24 hours in advance and not straying from that is a pretty good advice.  I used to do that and I was less likely to stray from what I had planned.  While I was listening to this podcast, it was a great reminder for me of what I need to do for myself.   While I think I've decided not to focus on getting rid of all of the carbs in my house right now, I am going to try to focus on choosing zoodles or spaghetti squash rather than having spaghetti noodles or fettuccine or cauliflower rice instead of regular rice.  For the coming week, I will focus on getting more fruits and vegg

Happy Friday friends!  Anyone else really take a look at how they changed something in their life to help someone else and then realize that this may not be the best choice and you need to change things up for your own health?  Yep, that just happened.  My goal for the next week or so is to focus on finding myself some lower carb options for some of my favorite things.  Since my daughter decided to go meatless and our family has been trying to be supportive as a whole, I've been bringing in far more bread and pasta into our diets and it's really got to stop.  For the longest, it was really just an occasional, maybe once a week sort of thing, but now, it's getting way out of hand.  I bought some of the lower carb tortillas that I saw recommended, so I'm going to do some more research and figure out what I can do to make this work for me.  I will continue doing WW, but will definitely focus on the lower carb options.  It's going to be a little tricky, but I know I c

Happy Hump day friends!  Hope everyone is having a good week thus far.  You know that moment when you are struggling to figure out what to have for dinner or you know one thing and you need to plan a meal around it?  Well, that happened to me.  I don't eat a lot of bread daily, sometimes it's one slice with my eggs or garlic bread with dinner, or dinner rolls or biscuits but not something I have all the time.  I had rolls that I needed to use before they went bad so I was determined that we were going to have that...but I wasn't sure what else.  Then...inspiration struck...memories from sitting in The Black Eyed Pea hit.  I would fix a veggie plate.  Would my family like it?  They definitely did enjoy it!  That night had salad, fried okra (cooked in the air fryer) and shells and cheese.  It had some variety and a little something for everyone.  I have really figured out that this may be one of my new favorite meals.  Let's be honest, the possibilities are endless.  Yo

Happy Tuesday friends!  Today I thought we'd talk about something that seems to plague all of us from time to time no matter what our journey is...all or nothing thinking.  For myself, I know it has plagued me when I was practicing for my piano recitals when I was in grade school, when I was working on my routine for competition or even in my weight loss journey.  Why is it that even if it is something that we aren't "experts" at, we expect perfection?  I don't know about you, but I somehow expect myself to doing something like I would if I had numerous years of experience at it.  Let's be honest, there are things that I am not and will not be perfect out.  As the saying goes, should you throw the baby out with the bathwater?  Um, no.  One of the things that I do to remind myself not to expect perfection is to ask myself if I'd say that to a friend or how I would feel if a friend said that to me in the way that I was staying it to myself.  Most times,

Happy Monday friends!   I intended to get this done much earlier in the day, but somehow it didn't happen.  Ideas for dinners this week are as follows: 1. Quinoa veggie bowls; 2. "Veggie" plate with crescent rolls; 3. Make your own salad "bar";  4. Ravioli with marinara, garlic bread and salad; 5. Bean and cheese tostadas; 6. Breakfast for dinner. Some of these definitely look like repeats from recent weeks, but things haven't gone quite as planned the last few weeks.  Glad to have goals this week though and feeling a little more on plan this way. I had a 0.8 pound loss this past Saturday after the gain I had two weeks ago, I appreciated it, but the loss doesn't put me where I was not that long ago.  Just taking things one step at a time.  

Happy Tuesday friends!  Hope everyone had a great Father's day and is doing well.  We decided on a Make Your Own Nacho bar and pineapple cake for my sweet husband.  It was a good day overall.  While my meals are not 100% planned, I do have a general plan in my mind.  I was trying to think of a meal to go with rolls.  After the damage done by the storms a week ago this past Sunday and many people in our neighborhood were without power, a neighbor turned a negative into a positive by sharing her baked goods with the neighborhood.  I was able to try some of her baked goods and will definitely be making my way to a retailer to purchase some of her baked good.  They were delicious.  Last night's meal may not have been 100% on plan but it was delicious.  I fixed a salad mix, shells and cheese and we put some frozen "fried" okra in the air fryer.  It made for a tasty dinner.   This has been a difficult few weeks with my back issues but I finally feel like I'm making

Happy Hump Day friends!  I know it's been a minute since I've posted but things have been a bit crazy.  With the crazy storms on Sunday, we've still got some in our without electricity.  My plans for meal preparation on Sunday got pushed by the wayside given the lack of the electricity. I all my meals yesterday and I'm pretty proud of that!  My breakfast was a smoothie and a cup of coffee.  My lunch was a salad with spinach, romaine, broccoli slaw, grape tomatoes and 1 oz of diced ham and my Skinny Kitchen Ranch variation, with 2 cups of watermelon for dessert.  Our dinner was fettuccine with Alfredo sauce and broccoli with garlic cheese bread.  Overall, pretty good day.  I stayed within my Freestyle SmartPoints allowance. 

Happy Monday friends!  I hope you had a great weekend and are setting yourself up for success this week!  May wasn't my best month.  But it's a new day and new month and I am a work in progress.  My planned meals for this week are as follows: Homemade Crunchwraps Hamburger Stroganoff Quinoa Veggie bowls Nacho Bar Smothered Enchiladas Fettuccine Alfredo, salad and garlic bread. Not really fancy, but hopefully tasty and satisfying.  We tried the vegetarian version of the crunchwraps and they were really good.  I'll try to share my recipe for that soon!  What are you having this week?  Do you plan all your meals? Only one meal?  I focus on one meal, dinner and have a general plan for breakfasts and lunches during the week.  It stresses me out to plan each and every meal in detail everyday.  I can usually decide the night before what I will have on the following day.  One day I will be one of those people, but I'm not there yet. 

Happy Sunday friends!  I hope everyone is having a blessed day.  Just wanted to ask one question today, what are you doing to set yourself up for success this week? For myself, I will be cutting my vegetables and cleaning my fruit to make sure I have a good week.  Those little steps help to set us up for success throughout the week.  Even little things like browning meat ahead of time, makes it easier to put together meals.  I'll be taking some time to roast some veggies as well.  Those quinoa bowls I was talking about a week or so ago are definitely on my list this week.  It may be a lunch or it may be a dinner or both. I think I forgot to post my June starting weight yesterday.  My starting weight for June is 178.2.  Is it the smallest I have been?  No, it's not, but it's where I am and it's where I hope not to stay long.   Wishing each of you a successful week! 

Happy June 1st friends!  Hope everyone is doing well with their goals.  Honestly, May was not so great for me, but I'm moving past it.  Positive things that happened last month: - I saw pictures that made me realize how noticeable my weight loss was - I tried Kodiak pancake/waffle mix and even tried a few recipes with it - I tried Built Bars - Found and tried some new meatless meals Having grown up in a "meat and potato" household, it's hard for me to think about giving up meat forever.  Maybe some day I won't feel that way, but I am still struggling a bit at the moment.   know it's a process for sure.  My goals for this month besides taking care of myself.  I know that should be a priority but it isn't always.  I have a rib that seems to keep popping out and it's quite annoying.  Thankfully the chiropractor has been able to pop it back in, it just doesn't always stay in place. I want to try some more meatless recipes.  One of my big goals