Saturday, January 25, 2014

Being "girly"


I'm making a .gif for someone, so I decided to mess around some animation. Fun!


Let's talk about being "girly", shall we?

I still don't even really understand what this word means to most people. It's always used to refer to things that are pink, sparkly, and quintessentially girl related. The question is, does this have a positive or negative lilt to it? I just don't know.

I've never really felt like I fit into what people consider to be "girly". As long as my hair is washed and combed, I don't usually style it. Ponytails and buns are my norm. I don't dress trendy. I just buy whatever is comfy and makes me happy. I also hate makeup. Seriously. HATE it. I'll wear it for nice occasions, but don't expect me to have shelves of it waiting on hand. If I have a blemish, I have a blemish. Oh well. That's life.

However I have felt lately that I need to work on looking more put together. That has much more to do with my age edging ever closer to 30, than the fact that I'm a girl. I just think it's time I up the ante. It's part a self-esteem thing, and part a "OMG I JUST NEED CHANGE" thing. I don't work with kids all day anymore. I don't run around like mad, ruining my pants and shoes in a matter of months. So why not?

This last weekend I went a got a haircut. It's the shortest my hair has ever been (right below my shoulders), and I have a lot more layers. I love it! Then, I realized I needed a hair dryer if I was going to maintain my new hair style. So...I went to ULTA. I browsed. I bought a hair dryer. Then I thought I'd need some hair products, so I bought those.

Now? I actually like doing my hair on the weekends. I enjoy washing and blow drying it before bed. I like the way my hair products smell, and I look forward to putting them in. I haven't gotten to the point where I care as much about doing my hair for work yet, but maybe. 4:40 in the morning is pretty damn early to want to care that much.

The point is, I'm trying. I don't care about being "girly", but I do care about feeling good. It's a step. 

Just don't ever expect me to love makeup. Okay? 

Thursday, January 9, 2014

So how's it going?


It's day 11 of healthy eating over here, so I'm checking in with you all. I'm sure you're eager to hear how things are going, right? Well too bad. I'm going to tell you anyway ;).

Starting last Monday, I've been doing a combination of healthy choices with calorie tracking. Why calorie tracking you ask? Isn't that hard? Doesn't it make you insane? Calm down. I'm doing it mainly because I realized I that, although I am okay in the portion sizes department, I needed to teach myself how to make good choices. Seeing how many calories a fast food cheeseburger has vs. a whole bowl of yummy spaghetti with a few turkey meatballs? Trust me when I say it makes it way easier for me to want to come home and cook instead.

I've been eating more yogurt, and more whole grains. I picked up some soy milk (chocolate, yum!) because I'm not big on regular milk and tend not to drink it. I eat salad and at least one piece of fruit almost daily now (someday soon I'll have to tell you the story about when I used to DESPISE salad) and drink anywhere between 50-60oz of water a day. All easy things to change. All actually really delicious changes too!

In fact, today I got lazy and went to get chicken nuggets from McDonalds at lunch. I figured, what could it hurt?

You know what? They tasted AWFUL. Really, they did. I didn't even enjoy eating them. Then I put them into my calorie tracker and almost had a heart attack when I saw how much sodium they have in them. HOLY. So let's get this straight. They didn't taste good, I could have had a whole 12 inch sandwich instead of 10 nuggets, and they have 1,000 mg of sodium. Yeah, no thanks. The extra time to make lunch is worth it.

Trust me when I say that I'm just winging this as I go. I'm not sticking to any diet, or any plan, or anything. Just trying to make better choices. Trying to pay closer attention on what I put into my body everyday. Trying to find something that works for me, and that I can sustain. That's the biggest part. Sustainability.

Happy side effect? I've also lost 3.5 lbs in these 11 days. Now that's awesome. Onward and upward.


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Healthy Habits


I bet you thought I forgot I promised to write in here 3 days a week, didn't you? Truth? Yeah, I totally did. That is until I sat down right now and saw this empty page. Building a habit is hard work. It makes me understand why they're so hard to break too!

Speaking of habits, we're attempting to build healthy ones over here in Castle Nottingham. Yup, we live in a castle. Deal with it.

Since the hubby is on a mission to get to a healthy weight, I've decided to join him in the attempt. Lord knows it's a million times easier to eat healthy and be active when someone isn't fighting you every step of the way. How are you supposed to enjoy your apple, when the person you live with is chomping on a Snickers bar? I've been there. It sucks.

Things we've done so far this week:
* Take a walk every day.
* Stock our fridge and pantry with healthy options and get rid of all the other stuff.
* Make sure we have water bottles or cups of water in front of us so we remember to drink.
* No eating out, except once a week. (This week we went to Souplantation. YUM!)

Never have I seen our fridge so full of goodness. Celery, kale, spinach, beets, oranges, apples, and the list goes on. So much color! I giggled today when we were walking around the farmer's market, because my hubby remarked how much appreciation he has for good fruit now. I love that. I love it so damn much.

It's only been a week, but so far so good! Building habits is tough, but also totally worth it.


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Getting on towards great.


I should be writing in my book blog right now, but I needed a moment to relax before taxing my brain to write a coherent review :). I love reading and reviewing books, but sometimes it's work.

I flipped to a random page in my prompt journal today and it said:

How are you?

Well thanks for asking prompt journal!

As a matter of fact, I'm actually happy right now! Still slightly stressed, but much better than I was even a few days ago. I've been feeling more like myself. In fact, I've been doing little things to pull me up. Looking for fun recipes on Pinterest, buying a cross stitch kit just because I haven't done it in a while (by the way I still totally love it!), and even going for a walk with my hubby just to get outside in the sun. Living by the beach has its perks! The ocean is sure to cheer you up.

So I guess I'd say, I'm good! Getting on towards great. I have a lot to be thankful for right now, and it can only get better.

Hey, look at that. Day 2 of writing in here. Booyah.


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Welcome 2014!


Let's kick this year off right, by starting up my journal for 2014! If you'll remember, I've vowed to write in here as much as I can over the coming year. I even went ahead and bought an inspirational book to help with prompts in case I hit a road block. Be prepared for musings, memories, angst, joy and all that jazz. It all goes here.

Also there year I've decided to play along with the Photo A Day Challenge!

Click the pic to go to the post!

I tried to do this once before and never followed through. This time I'm not holding fast. I'm going to try to do as many as I can each month :). It's funny, but going through the photos I did take for this challenge last year was so fun! So many memories, of small silly things and yet things that made me smile. I'm rocking Instagram on this challenge, and you can follow me here if you're joining up too!

I'll post more later this week, possibly even tomorrow, but I just wanted to actually sit down and write something in here to form a habit!

Happy 2014 all you awesome people out there! Let's kick some behind this year, shall we?