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.

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.

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?

That's life... or that's what they say.

I'm a pretty damn positive person.

It's a truth that I can't shake. It doesn't matter if things are slowly imploding around me, if the world seems like it's going to crash on top of me, I always try to look for that small speck of light that's hiding in all the darkness. I've had my fair share of dark times. I've seen what it looks like when you feel like nothing is going right and there can't POSSIBLY be anything ahead of you. Still, I've fought. I've won. I think that's why I'm always trying to spread that positivity when someone else needs it. Being along in the dark? It sucks.

The problem is that sometimes that well only runs so deep. With everything that's been going on lately (and no, it's not bad... just stressful) I don't have the energy to be as giving with people as I normally am. I'm gone 13 hours a day. I had to give up things up to make this new schedule work that I miss fiercely. There's just not enough time in the day. Things are moving, but they're moving slowly and still aren't certain. Being uncertain of things is my least favorite feeling in the world. Unfortunately? That's the way it is a lot. That's life.

Anyway the worst part of this all is that I can't help feeling like a bad friend. I forget to return text messages. I have less time to spend with others. I'll go days and days without remembering to say hi to the people that mean so much to me. I'm lucky that most of the people I adore understand. I'm lucky. I know that.

The point is, things are a bit in turmoil right now. Again, it's not anything bad. We've just come to a point in our lives where life threw up a speed bump, but he also opened a whole lot of doors to opportunities too. It's easy enough for me to say "Well, let's just see where it goes." It's harder to put that into practice and keep my mind from running circles around possibilities. I know one thing for sure. I'm a lucky girl to be surrounded with so many people who listen. To have a husband who understands, and to have a relationship that is strong.

See, I'm still a positive person. Just pardon me for a bit if I'm not as talkative on here, not as bouncy, and not as emotionally giving as normal. I'm still here! I'm still me. I'll bounce back. That's what strong women do. We take life as it comes, and when it misbehaves? We kick it in the face ;).

Thanks for listening to my rambling.

It's December already?!?

I'm reeling over here. I can't believe that there is only one more month left until a new year begins! On the one hand I'm extremely excited about it. On the other? I'm pretty terrified. I turn the big THREE-OH this next year. As much as I'd like to proclaim that I don't care, that it's just a number, what it means is that I'm moving on into a whole new chapter in my life. No more 20's. On to the next adventure.

On the bright side, it seems that things are actually falling into place all of the sudden. Anyone who knows us knows that we've been wishing for something more. I can't complain, honestly. We have jobs, we have a nice apartment, and we have enough. Enough to eat, enough to go out, even enough to save sometimes. Still, as we edge into the next part of our lives, we want something more. I want to start a family, I want a home, and right now we just aren't able to do that. So, we're moving on. Sometimes being an adult means giving up one thing in favor of another. I've learned that. So 2014 is going to bring a lot of change!  You'll see what I mean as the year starts. I have lots and lots of updates coming!

Anyway this last month of the year I'm going to relax, and let things take their course. If there's one thing I've learned throughout the last year, it's that whatever will be, will be. So bring it on 2014. I'm going to be ready.

Gearing up for 2014! Goal #2

The one about cooking.

Let me take you back. Back a year and a half ago, before I got my current job. Back to a time when I worked 7 hours a day, but it was broken up into two shifts. Back when my commute was a 20 minute walk. 

I loved to cook. I'd come home and try new recipes all the time! Bake a whole chicken? Heck yeah! Spend three hours slaving over a pot of homemade chili? No problem! You give me the recipe, I'll cook it. There's nothing I love more than successfully making a meal that I utterly enjoy eating.

Then I got a new job. 

Now I am gone for over 12 hours a day. By the time I get home, all I want to do is crawl under a blanket and have someone feed me. Do I want to cook? Nope. Do I want to order pizza, or Thai food, or burgers? YUP! I've been busy all day. Let someone else do the cooking for me.

I've slowly been working on pulling myself out of this, but the hubby and I still eat out way too much. I cringe thinking of how much money we spend on fast food, when we could be spending it on food to fill our fridge. So, here comes goal #2!

Make a weekly meal plan, and stick to it!

I've gotten really good at actually making the meal plans....it's the following them that's not so easy ;). The hubby is helping me with this because we've decided to restrict our meals out to either Friday or Saturday only (because, you know, time out with friends!) and shop a week at a time. It's funny really. We went from shopping for a month at a time, down to two weeks, down to one. It's so much easier to keep fresh food when you buy it weekly! We'll also be prepping all the veggies we need on weekends, so that way weekdays are just pour and cook! Less prep = less reason for Jessica to be lazy.

I can DO this! I've already stuck to it for two days, which I know is a drop in the bucket, but I'm trying to form the habit so it follows me into the new year. This goes hand in hand with loosing weight because, as we all know, I love fast food but it doesn't love my love handles!

So there you go. Two goals down. *breathes deeply* Let's do this.

Gearing up for 2014! Goal #1

It's that time of year again! Time for friends, family and WAY too much good food. It's the time where I always look forward, and right now the one thing on my mind is:

Right now is usually about the time I start thinking about what my goals are for the new year. I hardly ever set actual resolutions. They're more like "Things I aspire to do". It gives me a little more wiggle room to change them up if things call for it. After all, a year is actually a pretty long time. You never know what could happen!

Anyway I've figured out my first goal for 2014. Get back into journal writing, and I mean seriously. It used to be that I'd write at least three times a week, if not every day. I can go back right now and read all the things that happened to me in 2002, my last year of high school. Or take a trip down memory lane back to 1998 when I first stepped foot as a Freshman onto campus. I miss that. I miss having a record. Lord knows I don't have the best memory ;).

So my first goal of 2014 is:

Create a yearly journal, and write in it at least 3 times a week.

I'm going to do it on here. I type so much faster than I write, and quite honestly get less frustrated :). There's nothing worse than writing a sentence and then having my grammatically obsessed mind realize I missed a letter. DOH. So yes. To help me achieve this goal, I bought a spiffy book!

Click the picture to go to the book on Amazon!

It has ideas, prompts, quotes, and a whole bunch of other awesome stuff to help you get started off on a writing tangent every day. Maybe I won't make it all 365 days, but I sure aim to try!

I thought it'd be fun to invite some of the rest of you out there to join me! Blogger blogs (like this one) are free, and the book only costs $2.99 on Kindle. I'm starting officially on January 1st, so if you're in let me know! We can link up, and see what question we each answer every day. Trust me, journal writing is tons more fun when you have other people to comment and share with :).

So goal #1 down! Let's see what other ones I come up with before January starts.