Bonus Post: Setting Goals

When it comes to getting back in shape, having a goal usually helps keep the motivation going.  When I was losing weight with Weight Watchers, my goal was to lose weight each week no matter how much it was.  Yes, of course I was disappointed when it was only a .2 or .3 loss but hey, at the end of the day it's still a loss and that's always better than a gain.  Whenever a gain happened, I would get upset then move on and tell myself I'd do better next week.  Having a gain one week usually pushed me to try harder the next week.  I usually try to have a fitness goal and a weight loss goal since those things don't necessarily go hand in hand.  When I was still doing Weight Watchers, my weight loss goal always took center stage and I fit in the fitness when I could.  Now that I'm somewhat in a healthy weight range, fitness takes center stage.

My current goals:

• Run at least 3 times a week (to complete C25k)
• After completing C25k, run a 5k
• Consistently lose weight every week (no matter how little the loss)
• Get more lean.
• I realize this goal is ambiguous but I've been taking pictures of myself every week so I can see the difference.  Another way to track this is taking measurements every week.
• Do at least 1 activity on the weekend.  Doesn't matter if it's a walk, hike, playing catch, whatever.. Anything where I am not sitting on a couch and moving will count here.

On the other hand, having unrealistic goals or goals that seem too far away can be counter-productive.  Example: Say you need to lose 50lbs, looking at the total amount of weight you want to lose may seem overwhelming and you may quit before getting very far because only losing 1 or less pounds a week will make you realize how far you have to go.  Instead, work on celebrating every 5lbs which feels a lot more reasonable.

Another popular unrealistic goal (I've done this many times), is to try to keep a crazy workout schedule. If you have the time then maybe working out 6 days a week for 2+ hours at a time will work for you.  For the rest of us without that kind of time, setting a small goal that fits reasonably within your lifestyle is a lot better.  Whenever I started out doing too much I always just stopped because it seemed like too much to handle, and I'd get burnt out.  This past weekend, I was supposed to complete Week1 of C25k on Saturday morning.  As soon as I woke up on Saturday I realized that wasn't happening.  I enjoy my lazy mornings with my husband so to think I would get up early and run on the weekends seems silly.

Last one then I'll leave you alone: Starting a new "diet" that is super restrictive and thinking you'll stick with it.  Maybe some people can but I certainly can't.  That's what I loved about Weight Watchers; it taught you how to lose weight while still going out and enjoying yourself.  Any diet that completely cuts out something is usually something I wouldn't be able to stick with.  I love food and I still want to be able to enjoy what I'm eating.

alright that's it.  I'll leave you alone now.  see ya!

Week 1 of Doing it Right

EDIT:  Was supposed to post this last Tuesday but completely forgot.

This morning marked the start of it all.  I took before pictures last night which I'm hesitant to post on here so I think I'll wait until there is a noticeable difference.  I weighed in this morning at 157.6 which I think is due to all the junk I ate yesterday, like a huge Gyros which was uber delicious but definitely very caloric.  This morning I also went for my first run in months.  I did Week 1 Day 1 of C25k and it was tough.  I haven't done any sort of activity since Mencuha because of my surgery and it felt good to get out there.  Running in the morning is great because I love watching the sunrise and everything is so still. Once we get back into shape I think I want to start rock climbing again using the passes they gave us when we cancelled our membership.  It was a great way to build muscle and I felt really strong when I was climbing.

So that was last Tuesday. It is now Monday and I have completely Week 1 of C25k.  I ran in the morning on Tuesday, Thursday and this morning.  Here's the recap on time/distance:

Week 1
Day 1: 14:31 pace and 2.06 miles
Day 2: 14:24 pace and 2.08 miles
Day 3: 14:10 pace and 2.11 miles

So I'm getting faster which is nice :)  Weight as of this morning: 157.2 so slow going on that front but that's ok.  As I start running more and building up muscle, it'll help me lose the weight.  Doesn't help I'm still snacking like crazy on the weekends so I need to cut that out.  Tomorrow I'm starting Week 2 and I think I'll just run every morning except Fridays.  My husband got a new job and has to get up at 5:30 or earlier now so I've decided to just get up with him and go for a run then.  It'll give me plenty of time to get ready which will be nice so I'm not rushing all over the place in the morning.  Although, I did forget to put on deodorant this morning so maybe the extra time doesn't matter :P  I'll also have all weekend to recover from running.  I did try to tell myself that I would run on the weekend but really, that's not happening and I knew that.

well really that's all until I finish Week 3.  stay tuned for the update :)

I'll do it this time, I promise!

So much for all my talk about getting back in shape.  I do so well during the week then on the weekend it all falls apart and I have to start all over each Monday.  I really need to stop doing that and I'm going to.  October 1 I'm starting C25k again.  If I remember, I'm going to take pictures of what my body looks like now and take weekly comparison pictures so I can keep track of the changes.

I really want to get back in shape and I know I keep saying that but this time, I'm going to do it.  I want to look like this again:

This is when I was working out 3-4 times a week which included running and lifting weights. Really, I just want to be happy with where I am physically and I want to finally get down to my goal of 146.  That would be 50lbs lost and it would be awesome.

I'm thinking of maybe getting some free weights (or using cans) and getting 30 day shred.  I'm sure that would kick my butt.  I just need the motivation to get started and I'm determined to start on October 1st.  I think taking a picture every week of progress will help in the motivation department. 

Anyway, that's all my jumbled thoughts at the moment. There are other exciting and not so exciting things going on in our lives right now but I can't share yet :P  As soon as I can share, I will.  have a lovely day!

Cute videooo

Quick update:  152.8!!  that's the lowest I've been since around January I think.  I'm excited this is working so well.  In a couple weeks I'm going to start jogging again and then I can get some muscles again, yay!

and as promised here is a cute video to make your day a little brighter. enjoy :)

The look they give each other before they start dancing gets me every time.  

Skinny Rules Update

it's been a couple weeks since my last update but I didn't really have anything to share last week.  Over Labor Day weekend I gained about 3lbs from a combination of being lazy and eating wayy too much.  Needless to say I was a little ashamed so I didn't want to share.  Now that I had a great weekend with no overeating I feel better about sharing it.

Weight update: 154.0.  That's right, I'm back down to where I should be (almost).  Once I can start working out again I'm hoping to get that down even further and get my muscles back in shape.  I can tell I hardly have any muscle anymore and I don't like it.  I miss the leanness I had when I was working out/running so that's my goal.  Not sure when that'll happen though do to finances and my recovery but we'll see.  At the very least my hubby and I will be hiking again as soon as San Diego gets the memo that it's almost Fall and shouldn't be 90+ degrees in September.

Thoughts on Skinny Rules:

Since we've been getting back into the rules, I've realized I'm going to use them as more of a guideline.  Some nights it's easier to just have carbs with dinner because it's what we have in the house and cooking a whole meal without carbs is a lot of work sometimes.  Plus I'm still having some sort of alcohol when I get home from work because it helps me relax after a day at the office.  I know if I strictly followed the rules I would lose faster, but I'm kind of approaching this the way I did Weight Watchers.  If I follow the rules my own way and do it in a way that makes it easy for me, it's more likely I'll keep doing it.  I know that doesn't give me a lot of accountability but I'm still following the rules as much as I can and as much as I'm comfortable with.  Maybe over time I'll follow them more but for now I'm going to slowly incorporate them into my habits.

I was going to leave you with a funny video or something but I'm pressed for time and want to get this posted so I'll find something good for next time.

cheers :)

Progress!

Good morning everyone!  So happy it's Friday again :D  This was my first 5 day work week since the week of July 16th so it has been a long one.  Thankfully it's a 3 day weekend so next week will go by quickly too!

anyway, progress.  progress on my weight loss which I think is mostly related to my on-going lack of appetite. Example for you:  I pack my lunch every day and yesterday I packed a turkey sandwich on a bagel thin, non-fat greek yogurt, serving size of almonds, reduced fat cheezits, fig newtons, sugar free jello and an apple.  While at work I only had the sandwich, cheezits, jello and the fig newtons.  I had to have a quick dinner since I was going to get my haircut so I ate the yogurt, apple, almonds and an english muffin for dinner and I wasn't hungry at all after only having that.  I think I got hungry right before bed but I just had a low cal Popsicle instead and it was all I needed.  This morning I weighed in at 154.8 so something is working.

So speaking of haircut, here's a couple pictures I took this morning.

I absolutely love the cut.  I found the hairstylist on Groupon cause she had a deal where it was only $30 for a haircut and style.  I'm so glad I did it because she was great.  I finally found a hairstylist in SD that is good and affordable because as much as I would like to keep going to Amber, it's so expensive with having to drive up to LA each time.  My new hairstylist is Brittney and she said she would be able to work within my budget for what I need done which means I'm getting color done soon too! 

Aside from all that goodness, it's Friday and we're having another game night tonight.  We got 4 new games in the past month and we're excited to share them with everyone.  Other than game night we have no plans this weekend.  I'm playing with the idea of going on some sort of hike/walk, probably down at the beach since it's going to be hella hot this weekend.  I've been stuck indoors every weekend for the past month (by choice last weekend, driving for 2 and in the hospital for 2) and I just want to get out and enjoy the weather.

That's all for now, have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back with more Skinny Rules updates next week :)

Back to the norm

Well, now that I have time to breath and move on with my life, I can get back to normal updates.

So on last normal update before my body decided to implode on me, I was just starting out with the Skinny Rules.  For that one week we did pretty well.  No carbs after lunch and I actually felt more full than usual.  My snacking was at a minimum and if I really really needed to snack on something I would have a piece of fruit.  I felt like I was doing pretty well but never had a chance to weigh myself before being admitted to the hospital.  I did weigh myself when I got home the first time and I was up to 166.  I know I was still full of all the fluids they gave me plus my belly was still full of the gas they pumped in during surgery so I didn't pay much attention to the number.  I was more just curious.

I obviously didn't follow the rules when I was in the hospital but my appetite was so little I don't think it mattered much. And by little appetite I mean little. One of the the breakfasts I was given I just drank the milk and the juice, I don't think I actually ate anything.  That was pretty true for my whole stay there.  The first time I felt like I actually got something filling was when one of my visitors brought me a Jamba Juice.  Nothing else I had been given up to that point sounded good but Jamba Juice did the trick.  It was also my first experience with hospital food and yeah, it's pretty bad so maybe that's why I didn't have much of an appetite. anyway. moving on.

So a light appetite and a loose following of the rules brings me to now.  I weighed myself this morning and I'm actually down to 156.2 which is progress so I'm happy.  Since standing for long periods of time hurts my back, cooking has been a little harder to manage the past few days.  I've decided that ease of cooking is a higher priority than following the rules completely so we've occasionally been having carbs at dinner just to make it easier on me plus it's been ridiculously hot so anything I can cook without using the oven has been helpful.

As far as exercise goes, I can't see myself doing much more than walking for the next couple weeks.  Maybe towards the end of September I can get that gym membership and start working out again.

Anyway I need to end this here.. I got a lot of work to do and only so much time to do it in.  Time to stop distracting myself :)

Sidetracked by life

Sometimes, life happens. A favorite quote is "Man plans, God laughs" and it's so true.  As you can tell from my last post, it's been a while since I've updated anything even though I was going to be updating at least once a week (we'll just ignore the fact I uploaded that post today and pretend it was uploaded 3 weeks ago when it was supposed to be).  What a crazy 3 weeks it has been.  (I know many of you already know what happened but I'm going to share the whole story anyway)

So on Friday the 10th I was very excited to have a weekend at home with no plans since we had spent the last 2 weekends driving up to Oregon and back.  Friday night was great, just relaxing at home playing our new board games and enjoying what I call that "Friday night feeling" (knowing you have an entire 2 days ahead of you with no work, no plans, and no responsibilities).  Saturday morning I had some stomach pain but I just thought they were cramps or something like that because taking Advil got rid of the pain. It was pretty constant all day but it wasn't very concerning.  However, things quickly changed that night.  I kept waking up in the middle of the night from the pain and it was getting considerably worse.  When the morning finally came, I knew something was wrong.  The pain had escalated from a 2 the previous morning to at least a 7.  I could hardly walk upright because it hurt so much, and my husband could tell something was wrong. My husband knows me better than anyone else, sometimes more than even I do, so he could tell right away I wasn't kidding about the pain.  He could see it in my face that it was bad so we decided to head over to Urgent Care to get it checked out.  The doctor at Urgent Care told me to go to the ER because it sounded like appendicitis. 

Once we got to the ER, I was trying to fill out paperwork and I couldn't even get through it without almost throwing up from the pain (which I did twice at the urgent care).  They got me in right away and it was almost 10am by this point.  Few exams and a few tests later, they told me I had severe appendicitis and I was going to need to have surgery that night and stay in the hospital overnight.  Immediate thought was relief that the pain would eventually go away and worried because hospital stays/surgeries are not cheap.  I was in the ER from 10am to about 6 or 7pm until they officially admitted me into the hospital and moved me upstairs, then my surgery was around 9pm that night.  I was discharged Tuesday afternoon and that feeling of coming home was wonderful.  It was great being able to recover at home and not have to lay in a hospital bed all day.

The first couple days were hard getting around but I could tell I was getting better. I could tell I was walking around easier and it was easier getting up on my own. However, Friday night (the 17th) I was feeling warmer than usual so my husband took my temperature and saw that I had a fever.  We called the hospital and they told me to come back in so they could make sure nothing was wrong.  Once again, we headed to the ER, this time at night around 11pm.  I got another CT scan and they found a hematoma (localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels, usually in liquid form within the tissue) surrounding where my appendix used to be.  This immediately raised concerns about internal bleeding especially since blood tests were showing that my blood count was going down. Around 4:30am the doctors told me they wanted to keep me till around 7:30am so they could keep a watch on my blood count.  At this point I sent my husband home to sleep since he had been awake with me the whole time.  At 5:30am the doctors came in and told me I was going to be readmitted to the hospital because my blood count was going down.  While it sucked hearing that (and the fact I was told I couldn't eat/drink anything just in case I would need to get another surgery), I was relieved cause then I could get out of the ER and into a somewhat more comfortable bed.  I was told I should be moved upstairs around 6:30am so I waited.  That one hour turned into several and come 1pm I was still in the ER.  My husband had come back by that point and both of us were losing our patience.  We hadn't see a doctor since 6am or so.  I was tired from not getting any sleep, I was hungry, dehydrated (they hadn't hooked me up to an IV w/ fluids even though I couldn't drink anything), and I hadn't taken any of the antibiotics I was supposed to be taking. I was all over the place emotionally and I actually started crying at one point because I just wanted to go home since my husband did a much better job of taking care of me than the ER had at that point.  

Now I understand that the ER has a lot going on, especially on a Friday night/Saturday morning. I know they have a lot of patients to see and take care of, and a lot more urgent cases than a post op surgery scare. My issue was that I wasn't getting the care I needed to help my body heal.  I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure sleep and fluids are necessary for recovery, both of which I wasn't getting in the ER.  My husband (wonderful man that he is) stood up for me and basically demanded to see a doctor to see why we were being kept so long without answers. As soon as we voiced our displeasure, we were taken care of.  The head nurse came in and explained why it was taking so long and the doctor came in and explained why I needed to stay.  They moved me upstairs to the trauma ward (which made me think my case was more serious than they were telling me).  Once I got upstairs the experience turned around dramatically. The nurses were super friendly and actually made me laugh quite a bit. They hooked me up to a fluid drip via IV so I could start getting something and gave me morphine for the ridiculous headache I had from being dehydrated.  Later on I found out the next step was to get an ultrasound over the hematoma to see how much blood was in there.  If it was just a little then they were going to basically stab a big 'ol needle through my belly and suck it out.  If it was a lot then they were going to put a drain in (gross).  Anyway, they did the ultrasound but didn't see any liquid at all (thank goodness) so they didn't stab a giant needle in my already hurting belly.  They still kept me overnight again to make sure it didn't get worse, but I was home by noon on Sunday and back to work on Tuesday.

For the most part that brings me to where I am now.  I am recovering nicely and while there is still some pain it isn't that bad.  I'm not allowed to lift anything heavier than 10lbs for the next 2-4 weeks which is a pain.  I also can't stand for very long before my back starts hurting from not being able to use my abs completely to hold myself up. Aside from all that though, I feel good.

Last but definitely not least, I want to thank my husband for how amazing he's been over the last few weeks. He was there with me in the hospital all day every day except for when he went home to sleep/nap and grab supplies for me. I would say he was more worried/stressed out than I was the whole time I was in the hospital. When I finally went home for recovery the first time he made sure I had everything I needed within grabbing distance to get through the day while he was at work. When I showered I needed help drying off because I couldn't bend over to get my legs so he would help with that, he was cooking dinner, making sure I was taking my meds, getting the groceries, and getting up for everything I couldn't get myself (which was quite a bit for the first few days). He even cleaned the entire apartment when I was in the hospital the 2nd time just because he couldn't fall asleep. He didn't even tell me he did that so it would be a pleasant surprise when I got home the next day.  I can't say enough about how grateful I am to him for everything he's done in the last few weeks.  My husband is the greatest, and I'm thankful for every day I get to spend with him.

I realize this post is ridiculously long but I felt like I needed to share what happened from my perspective.  I didn't write this as a pity party but more just information on my experience.  It was my first inpatient surgery so I wanted to have some way to write it all down and get it out of my head. Now that this post is out of the way I can get back to posting what I was originally going to use this blog for.

If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Week 1 of Skinny Rules

Sidenote:  I thought I posted this when I was supposed to which was August 7th(??) but apparently I did not so here you go, almost 3 weeks late.

Before we get to the main topic, let me just say that I love Menucha Bible School.  If you've never been you really should check it out.  The food is amazing (fresh baked bread with every meal) and the location is gorgeous.  Well worth the cost.

Anyway, yesterday I started following Bob Harper's Skinny Rules.  There are a few rules I won't be following completely (like I'm still having my 1 beer a day and I won't be doing a meatless day), but overall I'm excited to see what happens with it.  My wonderful husband is following it with me so that will help as well because having a partner in these things is always a good thing.  I made sausage stuffed zuchinni last night with roasted green beans/mushrooms and I didn't miss the carbs.  I went to bed hungry and made sure to drink a lot of water during the day.  My afternoon snack was delicious though: sliced apples dipped in non-fat greek yogurt with a serving size of raw almonds.  oh man was it tasty.  I think the biggest challenge for this will be coming up with dinners that don't include carbs.  I'm sure we'll be grilling a lot more and experimenting with fish recipes will be fun.

Like I said in a previous post, I will be posting my weight at the start of every week to help keep me accountable. Yesterday I weighed in at 161.5.  That is over 10lbs heavier than I was when I got married.  I know 10lbs doesn't seem like a lot and I'm still a size 8 so really nothing has changed there, but I can tell if I gain any more weight I won't fit into my clothes anymore.  While I can't really call myself a "Weight Watcher" anymore, I think I still learned a lot from them.  I worked hard when I was on WW and I don't want to lose all that hard work now.  I don't want to go back to the old 196lb me so now, when I can tell I'm gaining weight, I don't let it get past a certain point before I kick myself in the butt and get back to work.  I want to get back to the lean, almost-size-6 I used to be before all this.  I'm getting a gym membership next Friday so I'm looking forward to having that and getting back into a routine with working out.

So that's all for now, have a lovely day!

stir crazy

I wasn't really planning on updating until I got back from vacation but here I am! surprise!

This morning I've been feeling like a high school senior right before the last day of school.  I'm in a ridiculously good mood and I'm starting to act weird because of it. Me in good mood = large amounts of weird.  Usually only my husband and very few select friends get to witness my weirdness but today my office is getting a slight taste of it.  Somehow I'm managing to stay professional while still being odd, that deserves a medal.

Speaking of medals, my office is doing an office Summer Olympics and we had our first event yesterday.  Our task was to recreate the Olympic Rings with office supplies and here was my entry.  Not pretty but hey, I have quite a few post-its hanging out at my desk needing a job to do so I helped them out.  The black ring is made of the mini binder clips with the metal claspy things removed (yes claspy things is the technical term).

Now, here is the entry that got gold (yes gold).  Notice that the rings aren't even in the correct order of color (and brown isn't even one of the colors!). The person who judged chose this as first because it was "unique".  I can see it being unique compared with all the other entries (all made with ethernet cables since we're an IT company) but for it to win gold, really? I didn't expect mine to win first but compared with the others it could have at least placed. ugh. anyway.  that's my rant.

Now onto music!!  So since my husband got a Sirius subscription my musical taste has really opened up.  this song in particular has been one of my favorites and really the whole album is awesome.  so I'll just leave this here.. enjoy!

Here's another song I can't get out of my head.. it's country so be prepared.

Time for Change

So anyone reading this blog knows that I lost almost 50lbs with Weight Watchers and have been following it pretty well since then.  I've been at goal for about 2 1/2 years and obviously it's never something I regretted doing.  However, since I started working, I have been slacking on the nutrition/exercise front.  Exercise is just not something I want to do when I get home from work, and going to sleep early so I can get up and do it in the morning is not so fun as well.  While this could all come from not having a gym membership and having somewhere to go with a routine, I know it's because I lost most of my weight from just eating well so I always have that to fall back on.  All that would be perfectly fine if I still ate the way I did when I was losing weight.  Snacking, at work and at night, are killing me (literally) and something needs to change.  I'm already joining Chuze Fitness ($10/month, woot!) in August so that will help with the exercise, but I need something new for the food side of things.

Here's where one of my dear friends comes in.  She told me about "The Skinny Rules" by Bob Harper and how it's helping her to lose weight.  It's been 6 weeks and she's already lost 20lbs.  I purchased the book this morning and I'm already through a majority of it.  The book is basically a series of "rules" that Bob has for eating (he follows the rules as well) and the idea is that if you follow the rules you'll lose weight and be healthier.  A few of the rules will be hard for me like no sweeteners, no carbs after lunch, and cutting back on refined flours and grains.  All of those are staples in my diet right now, but really I'm more curious than anything else to see how it effects me to not have those anymore.  All in all I think it's something I can do and I'm looking at it as a challenge.  Much like learning the points system with WW, learning these "rules" will be a new experience and at the very least it'll help me to eat better which I never learned with WW.

To keep myself accountable with all this, I'm going to use this blog to keep track of it.  Once a week, I will post my weight and I will try to post what I eat.  Keeping a food journal always helped me before so I will be using this blog as a way to scratch that itch.  I am in a wedding in December so this will help keep me the size I need to be.

All this won't be starting for another couple weeks though.  We're going to Menucha (yay!) this year and we leave to drive up to Oregon on Thursday after work.  I could start it now but then I'd be at Menucha where I have no way of knowing how the food was prepared. It'll be easier to wait until we get home and I can cook for myself.  I will be starting a few of the rules right away like drinking a glass of water before every meal and drinking a glass of water within 15 minutes of waking up (oh and the no sweetener policy too).

so there's that.. which is nice.. so I guess I'll see you all when we're back from vacation and I start my healthy new lifestyle.

Naked Face Finale

I know what you're thinking: "Two posts in one day?  say whaaaa?"

It's true, and once again it's because my my old blog is being silly/stupid/special (take your pick).

So for those who are new here, I started doing the Naked Face Project 2 months ago yesterday.  In a nutshell, 2 women decided to go without feminine beauty products for 60 days to see if it would change their perspective on themselves and beauty products in general.  They discovered that some things they were using because they wanted to and some things they were using because they were expected to.

Long story short, I decided to try it out.  I went makeup free for 60 days and stopped doing my hair as much.  I was supposed to stop doing my hair altogether but I still needed to look professional for work so I just used my blow dryer when I washed my hair before work.  Most of the time I would wash my hair at night and either let it air dry or french braid it before I went to bed.  Through that process I found out that I don't need to blow dry my hair, straighten it and curl it to look good.  French braiding my hair gave me the waves I like and tried to get through using my curling wand, and letting it air dry gave it a beachy-natural kind of look that I really like.

As far as makeup goes, I found out I am perfectly happy without it.  It took some getting used to at first because I wasn't used to seeing my face without anything on, but after a couple weeks it felt completely natural.  I realized I do find doing my makeup fun so I will still being using makeup for special occasions but it will definitely not be an every day thing.  I decided my "every day" make up routine will be my tinted moisturizer, eyeliner, mascara and pressed powder during the day for when I get shiny.  Today was my first day wearing my every day stuff and it definitely feels weird.  I catch my face in the mirror and I do a little double take cause I'm not used to having anything on.

I'll end with a funny picture I saw before I started this whole thing and I thought it was hilarious cause for the most part, it's pretty true.  I can't say all girls are like this since not all girls wear makeup, but most girls will understand this.  Before I started Naked Face I absolutely believed this and now I don't.  It's not the end of the world if I go out without makeup on and it's not a big deal.  This is the face God gave me and I'll embrace it :)

(with a little mascara now and then ;) )

Moving time!

Hello friends!  so my previous blog is being silly and won't let me update it anymore so I've decided to start a new one.  If you want to read that blog I've included a link to it under Pages on the right.

Now it's time to start this thing!

So the post I was going to make on my other blog was mostly about future plans and things I'm looking forward to.  Not very exciting, I know, but hey that's how it goes here.

One of my favorite things to talk about is food because I loooove eating, cooking and really just looking at tasty dishes.  As you are all well aware, this Wednesday is Independence Day so we have the day off of work (yay!!) and we are having a few people over for a BBQ.  Here is the menu for what I will be making:

Honey Lime Chicken Skewers I can't get over how good it looks and then if you look at the marinade it just gets better.  Marinaded in honey, lime, cilantro, soy sauce and Siracha. (courtesy of Kitchen Meets Girl)

Alongside this deliciousness will be baked fries which are very simple to make. It's basically just roasted potatoes but they're cut into fry shapes, soaked in water for 30 minutes and covered in delicious seasonings.  

And for dessert, I will be using this lovely little recipe to make Apple Strudel (courtesy of Beyond Kimchee)

Honestly, I am a little nervous about this one but I think it will be fun.  The recipe looks super easy (the crust is just puff pastry) and I am an apple pie expert (self-proclaimed ;) ) so it will be fun to see how it comes out.  

My husband will also be making his famous guacamole which I am very excited about because it is definitely the best guac I've ever had. ever. and I'm not just saying that cause he's my husband.  It is seriously good.  

Hopefully I can remember to take pictures of everything before we eat it so you can see how it compares to the originals.  

Well that's all for now.. have a lovely day and a safe holiday!