So here’s what’s up. I’ve been a little MIA. And no, I did not die. Thanks for your concern though. 😉 For three months, I blogged EVERY day. Now I’m lucky if I blog once every couple weeks. The reason? … Continue reading
YOU GUYS!! I’m doing it! I’m finally loosing weight! Recently I posted about all my struggles, and falling short of my goals. Well, I have overcome my challenges! The trick? Diet. And no, I do not mean “going on a … Continue reading
Oh man. My poor little girl has been so sick this week. It aches me to see her so miserable. On Wednesday, I was ready to go to work, all I had to do was wake Chae up and take … Continue reading
My husband and I have recently felt the need to have guns and Concealed Carry Permits. There are so many awful stories on the news. I can’t even watch it any more. I am absolutely terrified that I will be … Continue reading
Around Thanksgiving time, we did family pictures with my husband’s side of the family. I posted those a few weeks ago. My sister flew in from Germany for Christmas, we took the opportunity to take some family pictures. My friend … Continue reading
I don’t have new years resolutions. I have goals. I always have goals. It’s a constant thing I’m doing. Since I have so many goals, I could bore you for hours how I plan to address each one. So for now, I’m going to address how I plan to lose weight. 🙂 Like all other Americans, this is a goal that is focused on very intensely in January and sometimes into February. Unfortunately it wears off before we are even 1/4 of the way through the year.
While I am always trying to set goals, I will admit that I have more focus in the month of January. It’s in the air. So lets address it.
Goals are specific and measurable. The first step to losing weight is healthy eating. Set yourself a calorie budget for each day. According to the Biggest Loser book that I’m reading, “Simple Swaps”, your calorie budget should be your current weight times 7.
Example:
I currently weigh 175.
175 x 7 = 1225 total calories to eat in one day.
In this book, they also address when you should eat how many calories. I eat 3 small meals with 2 snacks in between. Biggest Loser suggests that you take your total calorie budget and divide it by 4. In my case, that is 306.25. 1/4 of my calorie budget goes to each of my meals and 1/8 of my calorie budget (153.13) goes to each of my snacks. I’m going to bag the decimals. Too hard to keep track with all of that. I’ll round it down.
To break it out, let me show you the plan:
Breakfast – 306 calories allowed
Snack – 153 calories allowed
Lunch – 306 calories allowed
Snack – 153 Calories allowed
Dinner – 306 Calories allowed
Total calories – 1224
Lately I’ve had some really yummy and healthy snacks and meals! 🙂 I rented the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook and the Biggest loser quick and easy cook book from the library! There are some great recipes in there and they are very low in calories! 🙂 The books also teach you what foods contain what nutrient sources. Very helpful! 🙂
Second step to weight loss is exercise.
My friend made my day when she told me her resolution was to get on a work out plan with ME. Out of all her friends she distinctly said ME. 🙂 That made me feel good. So we started. We will get together Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday to exercise. Monday, we did Pilates and some cardio (Just dance 4) 🙂 Last night, my husband and I worked out too. He had the genius idea to do 15 seconds of pushups. Rest. 15 seconds of sit ups. Rest. 15 seconds of Mountain climbers. Rest. Then move all exercises to 30 seconds. Then 45. Then one minute. Then we went backwards. One minute. 45 seconds. 30 Seconds. 15 seconds. Boy it wasn’t fun during, and my arms are killing me, but it was so worth it! I also jogged in place for 5 minutes on my lunch break today. I got some weird reactions by the boys in the break room, but I don’t care. I do what I want. 🙂
Julie said we should set realistic mini goals to achieve the overall big goal. My overall weight loss goal is 125 lbs by the time we get stationed with the Air Force (estimating beginning of August) – 50 lbs in 7-8 months! Our mini goal is 5% of our weight by Feb 3. I have to lose 8.75lbs to achieve the mini goal. I think that is more than doable in one month! I plan to smoke that goal! 🙂 If I lose 5% a month until we move, I will be at 122! Perfect healthy weight to start trying for another baby! 😉
It’s amazing what putting a written plan in place will do for your motivation! Get moving. Eat healthy. Set goals.
Do SOMETHING!!
I came up with this idea when I was browsing through hobby lobby one day. They did something similar to this but I personally like the ones that I have made much better. 🙂 These are fun because you can … Continue reading
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I feel like holidays just come up on us so fast. We just barely got done with Christmas and now we are throwing around Valentines stuff at the stores. I’ve never really understood it until I looked at it from … Continue reading
For the last 3 months, I have been waking up at 3 am every day to update my blog and run my business. Then go to my day job from 7 am to 4 pm. I even work on more of my business stuff on my lunch break too. After 3 months of it, I am starting to burn my self out. I’ve been so tired when I get home from work that I don’t want to do anything. At all. I would so much rather just sit and watch TV with some fast food. That’s lame and honestly pathetic.
I started this business and blog because I want to inspire people to GET OFF THE COUCH and DO SOMETHING with their lives. How can I provide motivation in the “physical” area of life if I’m sitting on my butt eating Pizza every night? Gross Amanda, you can’t. Same goes with all the other areas of life. I feel like the only area that I’m strong in right now is career. I need to focus more on my family and my health. I need to read more and spend more time with friends.
Overall, I need to feel more balance. My blog posts are only half way done. My house is a MESS. I keep forgetting to pay bills (even though we budgeted for them. DOH!). My cute family needs more attention and my social life sucks because we are in bed by 8pm (sometimes 7:30!) every night. So I’m gonna fix this mess!
I told you that I’m reevaluating the way I run things. Here is my new schedule for 2014.
– Blog posts will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This will ensure that my posts are higher quality. This will also allow me time to prepare my subject matter appropriately (instead of just winging it when I start a post). I will still try to cover the 7 areas of life in each post, but it won’t be a strict schedule like it was in the past.
– Instead of taking all my energy trying to come up with a blog post every day, I will be making a new design everyday. So every post, you will see two new products. If you follow me on Facebook and on my Etsy page, you can see my new products before they are posted on my blog.
– Every month, I am going to offer 2 free product downloads. You can expect these on the last Friday of every month. I will make a tab on my menu bar so you can access them any time you like.
– Every three months, I am going to participate in a give-a-way with another blog or business. I might even try to host one. 🙂
– I will add tutorials once a month so you can see how I do different crafts and designs.
I have a feeling that I will love what I’m doing so much more with this new approach. I hope to regain my energy, determination and spit fire personality.
Thanks for reading! See you Friday!
-Amanda
Sorry for my lack of blogging the past few days. It’s the first time that I’ve missed a day since I started in October. With this new year, I’m going to take a new approach on my business and my blog. I’m working on re-evaluating everything, but I will let you know on Jan 1st what I plan on doing. I have a feeling that I will enjoy this new approach much better.
Thanks for your patience as I re-evaluate. I’ll be back on Jan 1st.
-Amanda
My daughter was sick yesterday. I got to experience my first real vomit clean up as a Mom. That wasn’t fun. But staying home with my babes made it easy to not care about the barf mess.
I ache to be at home with her everyday. I think that’s my biggest sacrifice to becoming debt free. We’ve paid off so much debt that we could probably squeak by financially if I came home. But losing half our income would bring our debt pay off to a screeching halt.
My husband and I had a long talk the other night. In just 3 months he will be at basic training for the USAF. I will be a full time employee, fill both roles of mom and dad, keep the house clean, prepare to move and run a business – all by myself – for about 5 months. I’m so nervous for that. I’m nervous that one of these areas might lack attention. But family comes first. Always. If Chae starts to feel like she’s getting the short straw, some adjustments will need to be made. I’m also nervous because my work is going though some changes. I hope they maintain the same flexibility they’ve shown me over the past 3 years of employment with them. I hope they understand where I’m coming from if I need to leave to take care of my girl.
In just about 8 short months we will be moving to our duty station. It is coming up on us very quickly. My husband and I decided that I will be home with our babes once we move. I would only come home sooner if being without my husband proves too rough and we can make it financially while he’s gone. But for now, the plan is for me to stay at work full time until we move.
All of this is coming quick and I just need to have some patience.
Patience is a virtue that I was not blessed with.
Staying at work is the best and quickest way to have financial peace for the long run. Its just 8 months. I’ll live, my daughter will live. We might just be a little stressed out is all. 🙂
I’m super Mom. I got this.
Thanks for reading.
– Amanda.
I loved LOVED Christmas morning! 🙂 Last year, Chae was so small; Christmas was SO simple. Last year we seriously just took things from around the house and called them presents. haha. She’s so cute hidden in that swing. Here’s … Continue reading
My friend posted this and I love it! It is a great post! However, I have different opinions. I commented the following on her post.
“We are doing Santa Claus. I loved the magic of Santa as a kid. There are ways that we will keep Christ in Christmas with out taking the imagination and magic away from our kids. Brett’s cousin says “Santa only brings 3 presents because that’s how many gifts Jesus got”. I heard about that after we bought Chae’s presents, but we intend to do that next year. You can also teach them the power of giving with out taking Santa away. One year, my sisters and I got really greedy. My mom said “NO MORE” after that, she made it a point to teach us what Christmas is all about. She’d talk with us about choosing a charity. She’d take us out and let us pick stuff out for the people we were helping. We were actively involved EVERY step of the way! Those are the Christmases that I remember most. The problem with greedy kids is not Santa. It’s all about what parents do with the rest of the holiday season. If kids aren’t shown the magic and power of the REAL Christmas season, they will be greedy. Santa is just a reflection of the parents, it can be done right without taking the magic out of Christmas morning that Santa brings to your home. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with as your family grows. Different traditions are what make each family so special. :)”
What is your view on Santa? Do you maybe go a little overboard? Could your Christmas be toned down a little next year? Curious to hear what others think. 🙂
Thanks for visiting.
-Amanda
Alright I can hear some of you saying… “Well how are you going to do that?” or ” That’s going to be hard!”
I’ll tell you why. These are my reasons.
1. Christmas isn’t about Santa or getting presents because you’re good. There are TOO MANY kids these days in the mind set “I want this! I want that!” They forget what’s important. In addition the parents also get lost. I’m sorry, but for those who don’t believe in Jesus, He’s the reason we celebrate. Sorry to break it to you…. 😉
2. I don’t want my kids to be so disappointed like I was when I found out Santa wasn’t real! I’m afraid that they will lose trust in me because I lied to them to get them to be good.
How are you going to go about those who do believe in Santa, you ask? I’ll tell you.
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I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I have enjoyed the nice break from anything work related. I just got to relax and enjoy my time with our family today.
Tomorrow the “fun” begins again. I’ve got some stuff to share with you!! 🙂
See you then! Happy Christmas!
-Amanda.
Motivated Decor 