A long week

I'm sad that this blog has become about weight loss and not all the awesome crafts I'm doing. Oh wait, I barely have had time to breathe, let alone craft and then blog about it!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I have been working crazy busy hours and both jobs and interviewing for a new job and trying to lose weight and not generally being very healthy.

I haven't been getting enough sleep nor watching my nutrition very well. I have stuck to my calories (except for one slip which shall remain named Chicken Quesadilla Grande from Applebees and OFF LIMITS!) but I haven't done much in terms of working out or nutrition. I did dance tonight to Glee. It got my heart pumping, but not a real work out. I didn't lose any weight last week, but I didn't gain any either, which was good considering I wasn't the healthiest dieter around.

Oh, yeah, probably the big news of my week is that I got a new job. I know. It's the third full-time position I've had since I moved back to Jefferson City, but I wasn't really looking for this one. Yes, my hours at the station are long and sometimes frustrating, but I was pretty happy. This job came to me and was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I applied, got an interview and was offered the job last week.

Otherwise, not much happening on the home front. No crafting, but hoping once I get settled into the position, I'll have more time. I have about five projects half done. Would be nice to finish them.

A bad week, but still good news

This has been a bit of a routine lately -- coming in to Learfield on Sunday, weighing myself and then eating breakfast while I write about the goods and bads of the week.

I do promise to get back to crafting at some point, but lately I've been working a lot with the legislature in session as well as college basketball in high gear. Soon, soon I will finally finish the dresser I've been working on since ... October.

I lost another 4 pounds this week, which is good since it was a REALLY rough week. I didn't keep up with my partner in this trek to health, partly because I wasn't able to work out at all this week, but also because I ate out way too much.

In fact, on Tuesday, I more than doubled my alloted calories for the week. It just shows that pre-preparing lunches and snacks for the week on Sunday is more important than ever. It was a long day at work, and no time to even take a walk around the building.

I almost didn't input all the food I ate on Tuesday into My Fitness Pal because I was afraid to find out what I really ate, but I did, and it encouraged me to make sure I made better choices the rest of the week. In fact, even long days at work when I didn't have time to make something and ate out, I made better choices the rest of the week, and it obviously paid off.

Monday is a new day, and while I won't be able to start my day at the gym, I am going to be able to start it out right, with a good breakfast, a 10 a.m. meeting and then to work for the rest of the day. Tonight, I'll begin preparing lunches and snacks for the week. I already have one good snack made. It's a great trail mix that is rich enough, I'll never eat more than a half a cup at a time.

It's also probably the easiest trail mix you'll ever make.

Ingredients:
Fat free pretzels
peanuts (slow roasted or honey roasted)
raisins
m&ms

I literally put all of it in a gallon size ziploc bag and turned the bag around until well-mixed.

Crafting a new body update

I've lost 6 pounds in the last couple of weeks since I really started working to craft myself a new body.

No, I don't mean crafting a new body like in Silence of the Lambs where he's sewing an outfit out of skin. I mean that I'm creating a new me.

It's not just about my body. I am working on my mind and who I really am. I often talk about how much hate there is in this world and how much anger everyone has. I really think our world would be a better place if we worked together more instead of hating each other. I want to spend the next year doing that ... helping others.

In February I will be participating in the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics. From time to time, you'll see on my Facebook page a post about donating to the cause. This particular cause is special. Special Olympics works to show people everywhere that it doesn't matter if you have a learning or physical disability ... that you can do anything you want to do. I really believe that is true. Every day as I watch my two-year-old do and learn things that are seemingly two years away, I see that with motivation and encouragement, anyone can participate in everything they want to do in life. It's not always going to be easy, but it can be done.

Anyway, if you want to help me participate in this amazing event (that I'm completely terrified of) head to http://somo.org/teamKRCG. You can click on my name to donate specifically to me.

I've always done really well at sticking to a 1500 calorie diet and am hoping to even be able to knock that down to 1200 as my weight loss continues. 

I'm also looking at the types of food I am eating. I am eating more wraps and less sandwiches. I'm eating more fruit and less processed snacks. We are frequently out of bananas long before the week is up and we ate an entire bag of oranges this week. I am still craving the occasional sweet item, so I am using sugar free hot apple cider and low-fat hot cocoa to cure those urges. They usually happen at night.

I am also looking at the ways I can take my leftovers and remake them into a new meal. So next week, (like seven days from now), I'm going to go through and make wraps out of each of my meals. I'm going to get a variety of tortillas to use for the wraps. Each day, I'll post about the meal the night before and how I re-worked it into a totally new meal.

My bedroom

I've wanted to do something new with my bedroom for a long time. I've been trying to figure out the best thing to do for awhile, but I think I've finally figured it out.

Inspired by a photo I saw this weekend (but clearly cannot find now for whatever reason), I am going to give me room an entirely new look. I told Rob awhile ago that my plan was to redecorate one room at a time in our home while keeping in mind that we rent and are on a very limited budget. I have ideas for each room already, and am hoping to be able to flesh out many of them with homemade projects.

Our bedroom has always bothered me. For a long time, we've had our mattress on the floor with no frame, and I have always said it's a little bit of Zen in the room, but really it's because I haven't found a bedframe I really like that I think will stand up to time. I found one this weekend at Nebraska Furniture Mart. The frame, head and footboards are all black.

I'm also going to add lighting to my room by putting some wall sconces onto the side of two bookshelves on either side of my bed. I haven't decided if I should use wired sconces and drill a hole down the inside of the shelves where I can hide the cord or if I will use wireless sconces that may not shine as bright. You can help me decide that!





I have some more wall art that I've been working on that I hope can add to the room some. My bedding is red, black and white and is full of circular images. I have decided to make something that looks like this:

Instead of dealing with welding and metal rings and all that, I found a tip to use needlepoint rings to replace the metal. Gorilla Glue will stick the rings together, though you can cut slits in the wood so they slide together and are at the same depth. I haven't decided if I will do all the rings inside the larger one, or make a wider piece of wall art to stretch between the two bookshelves. Eitherway, the rings will all be painted red, black and white. I have white walls, so I think the color will add something to the room.

I am moving a long dresser out of my room to be painted and turned into a dining room piece. I will likely move the other dresser out of my room as we rarely use our dressers, but live out of closets (or hampers in busy weeks. The dresser will be in our office, but will probably be re-purposed at some point as well. That furniture has been in my room since 2004 and has served me well, but it's time for it to be used in a different capacity.

What do you think of the plans for my room? Should I use wired sconces or wireless? Any other ideas you've seen that you want to share? Help!

Wall art

I've been trying to figure out what to do for the wall above my couch for awhile. I've been looking at wall art on Overstock for months, and while I have found several things I liked, nothing that justified spending $100 for a painting. And I have several photos from various trips that I have taken, but none of it really fit the modern look I'd like to have in my living room.

So this morning, while trolling around websites looking for some DIY ideas for the Hobby Lobby gift card my mom got me (thanks, Mom!), I found this:







I loved it pretty much immediately and since anyone who knows me will tell you I love to scribble, this was for me!

I don't have white walls, and I wanted something a little longer than this piece, so I went to Lowes and found three 2x2 pre-cut boards that would work.

I also decided that since our furniture in the living room is tan, I wanted to make sure I used tan spray paint on it instead of white.

This project was so much fun.

Here are the boards after I spray painted them tan. They probably could have used a second coat of tan spray paint, but I sort of liked the uneven look they had. It made them look ... weathered.

This project was nice because I could let the spray paint dry to damp and then go ahead and add my circles, which is exactly what I did.

Then I stood above it with black paint and let it swirl. It's not going to look exactly like the painting I found, but I still really like it. I could do this sort of project for almost all of my rooms and no two would look alike.

If I did it in Alex's room, I probably would use white paint as the backdrop for the circles, but in my living room, I needed a little color.

I don't have it hung on the wall yet because the circles are still drying, but when I do, I'll post again.

I have another project or eight that I want to get started in the next couple of days. I making a piece of circular wall art for my room that involves using needlepoint rings That one is going to take a few days as I have to use the handsaw and spray paint and screw drivers. It truly is a sculpture fro my wall, but again, is replacing something that would cost me a lot of money at a home decor store.

Are you doing any fun wall projects these days? Share them!

Crafting a new body

See how well I use the word crafting in my blog entries?!?

This morning I woke up with motivation. I'm hoping it sticks with me, but I'm motivated to do my best to lose 100 pounds by the time I turn 30.

Next month, I will turn 29 and as I already feel old, the prospect of being in my last year in my 20s and not doing something about the way I look and feel was just unacceptable. So I am going to do something about it.

I know it's not going to be an easy task, and I know I'm going to need support, so that's where I want your help. I want my friends and family to keep me accountable. I am not looking for people to judge me, but if you haven't heard from me in awhile, remind me and I'll write an update. If I post photos of myself eating candy or fast food, remind me. I know sometimes I will break and need a candy bar, but if it's a pattern of badness, I need to know. But you should know that in this department, I don't take criticism well and in the past, when my sister has been particularly critical of me and my habits, it's made me break down and not even try. So don't do that! :)

So here's to new beginnings and motivation that when I turn 30, I'll be at my lowest weight since ... I was 13.

Before:

Yup. That's the bathroom of the station. And it's only my face, but I have no before picture and honestly I am a little ashamed of the way I look. So there won't be a public before picture. Those of you know me have a mental image of before.

By the way, here's the math on my 100-150 pounds in the next 13 months.

If I lose 150 pounds in the next 396 days, it's one pound every 2.6 days. With the proper diet and working out, I think that's pretty possible. If I lose 100 pounds in the next 396 days, it will be a pound every 3.96 days, which is VERY doable in my mind.

Crafting the perfect meal

Anyone who knows me, knows I love life and almost everything about life. Probably my biggest love in life (other than my toddler bundle of joy and my husband), though, is cooking.

I truly believe cooking is a lot like crafting. You have to have the perfect ingredients and utensils to make the perfect meal. You really have to craft it together and it often takes a lot of pre-planning -- unless you live with a toddler like I do. Then, I do my best to pre-plan and throw together a meal.

Last night, I wanted one of those perfectly crafted meals. I wanted something decadent, but comforting. I decided to use some chicken I had already thawed for a different meal to make a deconstructed chicken cordon bleu.

I wish I could pretend this chicken cordon bleu was healthier than the version you can get at the store all boxed nice and neatly and cooks in about 30 minutes. This was probably as unhealthy if not more unhealthy than that comfort food!

I cooked a 12oz package of bacon in my skillet while salt, pepper, garlic and paprika had time to soak into my chicken (only one side, because you can season the 2nd side while the first is cooking!)

This gave me the perfect amount of fat to cook my chicken breasts. I should note that I don't like chicken breasts that are really thick, so I usually cut them in half like I'm butterflying the chicken breast and then cut it all the way through, and voila! A perfect way to make chicken more economical for a big family, or a way to make a 2nd chance dish without having to cook much on the 2nd night!

Yes, I cooked my chicken in bacon grease. A friend told me while I was cooking that I was mean because while they had take out for dinner, I was making a chicken dish that was going to be delicious just because it was cooked in bacon grease.

I made a cheese sauce with leftover pizza cheese from a time when we made pizza. The cheese was going to expire by the end of November, so I took my chance to use it up before it did. It might be the first time I've ever used up the cheese before the expiration because I usually forget I have some and buy a new package. I frequently have two or three of the same types of cheese in my fridge at any given time!

I made a simple roux with four tablespoons of butter, two tablespoons of flour and four cups of milk. Then I took the cheese and mixed it in until it was the right consistency. Sometimes I use less milk and add later just because it's dangerous to put too much milk when you have a limited amount of cheese.

I piled the chicken with a slice of bacon, some cheese sauce and paired it with boxed stuffing. Yup, some may call me a kitchen goddess, but I cook out of a box like everyone else. The meal was delicious, though, and I am excited to put another dish into my rotation when I have leftovers that need used up! The entire dish, because I was using items already in my fridge, cost me nothing. It was fantastic.