WEIGH IN 9-30-19

162/172/135

If you pop in and there's no weight, it's because I set the header up last week when I was mass-producing blog posts ahead of company.  I will be in to update my weight number as soon as they've gone.

Bob will be home on Wednesday. Somewhere in here they may be a vet visit. I'm also still hoping I've dropped a few pounds ahead of my trip to Ozark Creative Writers Conference next week. On the up-side, I usually lose at conference in spite of the amazing food because I do a lot of walking around Eureka Springs when I'm there. 

What ever is on tap for you this week, remember the most important thing...

Enjoy the Journey

AIR FRYER FRIDAY - BBQ Chicken Legs

Today's recipe came by mistake but sometimes those are the best kind of meals!

When I went shopping a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd purchased two bags of wind drummies to turn into BBQ wings. When I got home I realized I'd purchased two - #4 bags of full-sized chicken legs.

These legs weigh about #1/2 each. They are huge!

So I lined the drip tray with foil (this has become a habit for easier clean-up)
Then I lined the baking pan with foil as well... Again, that easy clean up factor.

I rolled each leg in BBQ sauce and placed on the baking sheet.
Position the rack on the BAKING level and turned the dial to BAKE.
I wanted these to cook slow so I set the temperature at 325* for 15 min. then hit start.

I've gotten in the habit of preheating BEFORE I put the pan in. I'm finding that putting the food in during the preheat tends to dry it out and not giving you a true cooking time reading.

When the little bell dinged that the oven was preheated, I slid the baking tray into place.
At the end of 15 minutes, I turned the legs over and went for about another 20  minutes.
You want an internal reading of 165*

While mine showed DONE both in temp and visuality near the bone, they still had a bit of tug. The two I have left over are in the small crock pot today with a bit of Peach Butter, 1/8 C of water and will simmer for awhile.

If you try any of my recipes, I'd love to hear from you! Let me know your results or if you do something different. We're all here to learn!

Enjoy the Journey!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

By the time you read this post, I will be scurrying around putting final touches to fall decor before Kitty and Steve arrive. 

I plan to make sure the porch is pretty then sit and enjoy a cup of fluffy coffee.
Since this is National Pancake Day, A couple of pancakes with homemade Peach Butter accompanied by a couple slices of bacon are on my breakfast menu.

I've put dinner in the air fryer.. I'll have the Rotisserie Pulled Pork in a future post.

I'm just going to Enjoy the Journey!

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Women's Health & Fitness Day!

When it comes to health, women need to lead the pack!
Face it... we are called upon to do EVERYTHING and we are often the last to take care of ourself.

Health and Fitness go hand in hand and TODAY is the day to make the decision to do something for YOU! Today is National Women's Health & Fitness Day

Perhaps your local community is holding a health fair of some type. Take some time today to check it out.

Not a 'joiner'? Yeah, me either. But we are on here together. Or you have friends on FB that need a little support.

Recently, our Stampin' Up! community on FB has started forming Accountability Buddies. Some only have one, then there's me that am blessed to have 4 (counting my team members). We check in with each other once a week via text/ email or my new favorite app Marco Polo.

Marco Polo is like Face Time and Texting had a baby. You can leave a visual message for anyone on your contact list that also has Marco Polo. They can watch in real time then respond or they can catch the message later and respond when it's convenient for them. The messages are there to refer back to later.

I'd love to have an accountability buddy for my workouts. Somehow the reminder on my calendar that rings at noon and says 'Did you exercise today?' just isn't cutting it LOL.

And if you want to talk food...

Today is National Lobster Day. Yep.. there is Lobster for dinner on my menu.

Every February, our local market gets in the 4 oz lobster tails for under $6  a piece. Mind you, this is the same 'add on' lobster tail you get at chain restaurants for $15!!  I stash 'egg money' back throughout the year then buy a case, which runs me about $200. Then we have lobster throughout the year. 

Today, there will be lobster and some large gulf shrimp in my future. Now if I'd just remembered to by mussels, I could have had a lobster boil!

In honor of Women's Health & Fitness, I think there will be some dance party in my future first!

Enjoy the Journey!

FLYLADY - Office/ Studio

I wanted to kick this series in weeks ago but I just couldn't get time to sit and put the posts together. This week is a great place to start as it's the area needing the most work - except the basement but we'll get to that later.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my sister and her SO are planning to be here on Thursday for a 4-day weekend. Aside from my birthday, the main reason for their visit is that Kitty really needs to look at my studio with fresh eyes.

She has seen my studio lots of times in the past but as she said "she didn't really know what she was looking at". Now that she is into Junk Journals, my stash takes on a whole new perspective for her.
Right now, the room is a disaster. I've not done anything as far as organizing since February. Between the grandgirls' visit and my own crafting, organization hasn't been a priority.

I'd promised Bob the living room would be back in order when he got home. I've been using the girls' beds as 'sorting central'.

My goal for the week: To be able to go right to anything Kitty might need or want to see.
1) Sort all of the Mixed Media items and put them away properly
2) File away past Paper Pumpkin kits
3) Bag stamps for the Etsy store
4) Have a clear area for each of us to work on our September journals.

Aside from the office, I need to put the rest of the house in order, clean the front deck and put up Fall/ Halloween decor. I'm about two weeks behind in getting that done. The laundry room is almost finished. Just need to hang a few things :-)

That's my housekeeping week. What's on yours? Do you decorate for the fall/ Halloween? If so, I'd love to see pics! you can follow me on Facebook

WEIGH IN 9-23-19 & Restless Leg Syndrome

162/171/135

I will be honest... I didn't try very hard this week. I also learned that I am more of a stress eater than I thought I was. 

Monday went well if you count finding out my dog needs surgery... and the only vet that can do it is having the same surgery but to his arm on Tuesday! He'll be out of surgery commission until January. He can assist one of the vets, but that vet has never done the surgery before. In the mean time, HoneyB (4 year old beagle/spaniel mix) is on pain meds two times a day until we can get him into surgery. Oh... he tore the tendons in his back left knee.

Skipping ahead, I tried another vet who used to be with this clinic  but has moved almost two hours away to be closer to family. Dr. Carmen is super. But she was out of the office until Thursday. She called to let me know that A) she isn't equipped to do that particular surgery and B) she is booked two months out!

So waiting for Dr. Mike to assist Dr. Johnny it is. 

Tuesday, I had multiple financial issues... none of which were mine.... including finding out I had a non-sufficient funds on an account I've not done anything with! come to find out, the money was never transferred when I set up the account. The check order bounced! Yep.. Tuesday was one of those days that I seldom have.

Wednesday was better. I ran a few errands and tried to catch up here at home.

Friday was errand day. Trash drop off, a bit of shopping and renewing my driver's license.

While dropping off the trash I pulled a muscle under my left rib. Breathing the rest of the day was difficult. Saturday I spent a lot of time at the crafting table so I wasn't tempted to try doing stuff around the house. 

As I type this.. it's Sunday. I'm cramming to get all of my blog posts for the week written so I can clean/ decorate my house ahead of my sister and her SO coming for a 4-day play weekend. 

Okay.. Now on to today's topic.

Today is Restless Leg Syndrome Awareness Day.

I suffered with leg cramps as a child. They called them growing pains. I had an iron deficiency and I suspect that's where they originated.

Restless Leg Syndrome can also be a sign of multiple other health issues, including diabetes. See this article HERE  Other factors can be as low-key as STRESS or PREGNANCY but also more chronic as Diabetes, Parkinsons or Kidney failure. 

If you struggle with Restless Leg Syndrome, consult your doctor to find out what may be the cause. 

Long day ahead of me but I am planning to Enjoy every step of the Journey!

AIR FRYER FRIDAY - Bacon!!!!

Good morning, everyone!

Today begins a new series - Air Fryer Friday!

Bob and I invested in the new Emeril 360 Air Fryer.

I spend a lot of time cooking just for me so turning on the big gas oven to do something small just doesn't make sense. I'm heating up the house, forcing the AC to run more, which increases my power bill.

We had a small toaster oven. We bought it at an estate auction about 15 years ago for $5... so I had something to cook in when we were coming down to do the house remodel. We hadn't added appliances yet. I had a microwave and a cooler. We didn't want appliances in until we had the new floor in place.

Bob uses and Air Fryer on the boat and talked about getting one for the house so when I saw the Emeril 360, I thought this would be the perfect match for both of us.


For years I've cooked bacon in the micro-wave using this little Bacon magic. There was a period where I went through two pounds of bacon a day! I wore out one of these cookers. They allowed approximately 98% of the fat to drip off and left a chewy goodness.

The Emeril 360 gives me the same result but it's on the counter more at my level LOL. Our microwave sits up on a shelf above the stove and is a bit challenging for me to reach at times. 

The rack will hold 4-5 pieces at a time. Place the rack on the Air Fryer position. I went with their recommendation of 400* I believe.

After 10 minutes, this is the result:

I placed a double-fold of paper towel on the door before I pulled the rack out so that remaining drips didn't wind up on the glass door. This made for easy clean up.

You can also just see that I lined the drip tray with a double fold of aluminum foil. There isn't a lot of room to slide beneath the heating bars once you've put the foil on so just take your time and guide it in.

BIG TIP: If you do not have a dishwasher.. I know, I'm still a dinosaur - lol ... run a sink of Hot soapy water to put your drip tray and rack into as soon as you're finished. Clean up is so much easier.

While the bacon was cooking, I mixed up pancake batter and got out the cast iron skillet.

Not sure what I'll show next week. I did BBQ Chicken legs last night that turned out AMAZING! We did BBQ ribs and New York strip steaks... Like a dummy, I deleted them off my phone before I transferred them to the computer!

I hope you'll check out the air fryer and join me in testing out recipes!

What would you like me to test for a future post? Let me know in the comments below and I'll do  my best to accommodate!

Enjoy the Journey!

RECIPE WEDNESDAY - Recipe for Better Health

NOTE: Beginning this week, Recipe Wednesday will become Air Fryer Friday some weeks and other general recipes will still run on Wednesday's... just not every week.

On Monday I talked about the extra ice cream and coffee I've been allowing myself.
While these haven't really affected my sugar, they can if larger amounts... or over a period of time. So far my numbers are pretty much what is normal for me.

Prior to the girls' arrival this summer I also got away from my Vinegar/ Detox tea routines, which I will explain in a future video (I promise) I also got away from checking my sugar every morning when the little notebook I was using to track ran out of pages.

I've since set up a new booklet. I will show you in a minute.

I do know that I do NOT want to be this person:

Instead, I try keeping an eye on my sugar bu watching the amount of carbs I eat. Carbs are the big factor. Thankfully, I'm more of a protein kind of gal.

I found this cute bag at SEMOR SAVINGS in Seymour Missouri. While I received a convenient bag with my tester, I needed something large enough to also hold a travel pack of kleenex and my Happy Planner Micro Notes.

Tru-Matrix testing supplies from Walgreens

Happy Planner Micro Notes

The first Micro Notes I used, I was putting my # on one full page!  For this new one, I broke out the washi tape and am doing a 'week on two pages' planner spread. That way I'm getting more use of the page. I still have room to make additional notes on any given day.

So there's my pre-diabetic monitoring. I'm back to checking every morning (note, this picture was taken on Monday). 

Time to get back to routine.

WEIGH IN 9-16-19

162/171/135

Oops!

I also think I know why. Two things. 1) the soft serve ice cream cones at the local gas station and 2) a larger cup of fluffy 2x a day every day.

Things I need to change!

Beginning this morning, I'm back to my smaller cup of fluffy. I cant' start my day without coffee. That's just not going to happen, but I don't need the larger cup and not 2x a day. At least with the smaller one if I feel I want a second cup later in the day, I might be okay.

The soft serve was something I never enjoyed before dentures. My teeth were too sensitive. Now I can actually eat ice cream, enjoy the treat and eat the cone without issue.  But there's the key word.

TREAT

Mind you, I wasn't eating ice cream every day because I try not to leave the house but you can bet if I had to go into West Plains than the trip back through Mt. View usually included a stop at The Anchor for a chocolate soft serve.  Now, I'll try limiting that 'treat' to a couple times a month rather than once a week. 

As to the Phase Plan with Fast Metabolism. That was an epic fail. 

Our freezers are full of bits of this and that in the form of leftovers. They need cleared out. 

I'm not talking unhealthy items. Mostly proteins. But they do need eaten so we can move forward with new options. While I don't think that has had anything to do with the gained pounds, they just weren't conducive to the Fast Metabolism.

My final issue is that I'm just not moving enough. I boot up the computer between 5 and  6 a.m. and I'm on here til around 7 p.m. Between five blogs, three businesses and networking, I'm sIMIT itting A LOT!

TODAY BEGINS A NEW CHAPTER

1 - I have to MOVE more. 

      I've been seeing commercials for the Figure 8 workout. While I'm sure there is more to the program, all I see is dance moves. A combination of Zumba, Latin moves, and Richard Simmons. 

I LOVE TO DANCE! So why am I not putting on Richard Simmons, Zumba or just my favorite dance music and moving every day? Excellent Question!

2 - LIMIT the coffee and ice cream

      I CAN do this!  Lottery Tickets but no ice cream. LOL

I'm sitting here with my smaller cup of coffee. I'll go back to having my larger one only on Sunday. That's the day I either power work (when Bob is on the boat) or lounge at the table with him til mid-morning just enjoying our time together.

I have 6 weeks til OCW... the annual writer's conference. I really do not want to be back UP to my old weight but at the rate I've been going, that is a possibility.

Time for a CHANGE!

What's on your plan for the week.  Did you know that if you make your plan public you are more apt to follow through? Come on! Share your story. Let's do this TOGETHER.

Whatever your plan, Enjoy the Journey!