WEIGH IN 1-27-20

162/172/135

Quick post this morning

Another pound down!  Now if I can just drop 1 more before Bob and I weigh in on the 13th :-) I'd rather have 2 but you know.. I'll take the 1.

My sugar numbers are reflecting the weight loss. I know if the weight went down so would the glucose. 

But here's something odd. Carbs don't seem to be affecting my morning number. doesn't matter if I have cinnaon raisin toast or a bowl of coco wheats, my numbers will be lower in the morning. I am trying to make sure I eat late so that the carbs continue to burn through the night.

Today is all about my favorite Chinese buffet and I'm really craving a cheese burger.

Speaking of, I tried the no meat burgers from Burger King. They're pretty good but I'm going to research what they are acutally made of before I eat another one. I'll try to remember to post those results on Wednesday.

How are you doing on your path? comment below and let us 

Enjoy the Journey... together!

~Kelly

WEIGH IN 1-20-20

162/172/135

Happy New Year, everyone!

Time to start another year of resolutions.  I have to say I don't have any resolutions. I have GOALS.

1- Open my etsy shop (coming February 1)

2 - Be serious about my Sinking Funds.. I have 3 specific ones I'll be talking about later

3 - Keeping my glucose # in check. 

4 - Publish 3 books this year - ON TIME!

The reason I've not been around for the past three months is because I've been seriously working on #1. I've wanted to open an Etsy shop for over a year. I wavered back and forth between needing to make some of this craft stuff taking up real estate to start earning its keep and wondering whether or not I needed one more thing on my plate.  I decided the 1st avenue might be a good course to take. Get some stuff out of my crafting space and maybe make a little money. I'm not out to make a killing but if I can pick up a little extra cash towards #2 then that's a bonus.

The sinking funds is a big bullet point. I want Bob to retire in 4 years or less (Less is my goal) But there are some things we need before then. A new walk in tub - with jets is one. By then our bubble tub will be almost 20 years old. I want one that we can get in, sit in and be able to get out of in our dottering old age.  Another thing we need is a new sofa, with recliners. I have one spotted at FFO and the price isn't bad. I'm just hoping by the time we're ready to purchase, this whole micro fiber thing will be history and we can go back to real fabric. When we moved the original hide a bed into my office, we bought knew recliners for the living room. After almost 5 years, we are not happy with them. One thing that bothers us is that when you raise the foot rest.. at a certain point the back reclines as well. Bob wanted this recliner and he asks for very little. I let him have the win. I didn't want power recliners to begin with. Live and Learn.  Finally, there is the new truck I'm going to need. At the three-year mark I'll be looking for a 2019. I do know I do NOT want a car payment.. especially after he retires. The house will be paid off and my truck will be pushing past the 300,000 mile mark. Ugh! I've been blessed that it hasn't needed any serious work. Snowball is a good truck but at some point, she'll need a rest.

My glucose numbers went up over the winter. Mainly, I think, because I didn't focus on them all last summer and didn't focus on them the way I should have. Since I've gotten back on track, the number is slowly getting back to where is comfortable for me... my normal without drugs. I've had to give up a lot of things but I'd rather sacrifice some foods rather than my over-all health

Three books. Book 2 of my Ozarks series comes out in late May. Book 3 will release in late September. My other book will release mid-summer after I gain rights back. My contract for Somewhere Down the Line comes up in May. That has been a long 8-year lesson I won't repeat. 

One I didn't mention is my hope to work with an editor at Five Star for my Western Trilogy. The great western author, (late) Dusty Richards introduced me to Tiffany Schoefiled after he'd done a critique of the first chapter of book 1 in the series. I had the opportunity to sit with Tiffany last october and she's ready to see what I have. That book wouldn't release until 2021 but I have enough other things to keep me busy until then. 

Okay..

that's my 2020 forecast. What's yours? Let's have some conversation.

Enjoy the Journey!

FLY LADY - Laundry & Kitchen

I am so thrilled to get back into my system. Everything has been kind of let go since May. I've done the basics but really need to do a deep clean, back on track and be ready to decorate for the holidays.

Things are so bad that I'm picking a day this week for different areas. So lets look at what I'm doing this week and what constitutes that area:

MONDAY - Clear the sorting table & clean the cat area in the laundry room.
I've had an 8' table in my kitchen for a couple of months. I've been using that as a sorting surface for mixed media items from the studio. Today is the day that stuff gets put away. The table will stay up.

For the cat area, I take the litterbox outside and give that a good cleaning, shake out and wash the throw rugs underneath, sweep, steam, mop the laundry room floor. Put the cat box back with clean rugs and litter.

TUESDAY - Sort out the kitchen cupboards
Since I need to go grocery shopping, this is a good time to see what's up there. Some things can go back down to over-stock. Some probably just needs pitched or turned into bird/ squirrel food.

WEDNESDAY - Take down the Halloween decor and pack away. Set up the minimal fall decor
Put the sorting table away.
Sweep/ mop kitchen floor and wash down cabinets

THURSDAY - Clean out fridge for garbage day
Make Fall curtains and shelf liners so I'll have them for next fall.

FRIDAY -  Give everything a once-over and be ready for next week's new room.

That's it for this week.
Feel overwhelmed about where to start?

TIP - Pick one area to focus on. Put blinders on to the entire room then just pick ONE task.
One bite at a time.

Enjoy the Journey!

WEIGH IN 11-4-19

162-172-135

YAY!!!

Do you know what I think was the key?  Well, two things.

I stopped drinking my cup of fluffy during the week. I did have one on Thursday for Halloween.

The other thing was making sure I was adding dark vegetables.

If I went to Chinese, I focused on sea food and the Mongolian stir-fry with fresh vegeatbles such as broccoli, onion, green peppers.

At home, I did a lot of my own stir fry.  I love them! They're quick, easy to prepare and very filling.

My numbers are a bit elevated this morning but I'm working on them.

One thing I'm focusing on this week is to pay attention to what foods may trigger spikes. 

I have gotten away from keeping my food journal. I kept one the first 6 months and things went really well. I got away from that when the girls were here so I need to get back on that train.

Since I need to grocery shop tomorrow, I'm going to look at what I have on hand then fill in gaps. 

What are you plans for the week? Do you have a spot that gives you issues? Something you just can't seem to get on the motivational train? If I can help, give me a shout. I'll do the leg work and pass on the information.

Enjoy the Journey!

AIR FRYER FRIDAY - Hot dogs for breakfast?

If it's one thing Bob and I do well, it's turn leftovers into great tasting breakfasts. With that in mind, when I needed something for a breakfast sandwich a couple of weeks ago and didn't have any of your typical breakfast meats thawed out, I reached for the container of left-over grilled hot dogs.

I started by frying each of us an egg:

I left them a bit on the runny side so they would finish cooking in the oven. Just let them cook to this stage, stab the yolks and swirl them around in the whites, wait a minute then flip. Let them cook on that side lone enough to grab your plate.

Next, I cut the hot dogs lengthwise and warmed them in the pan just to give a bit of sear:

While I did this, Bob buttered four slices of Kings Sweet Hawaiian bread. 

Note: I discovered later that they should have been buttered LIGHTLY ;-) as the bread was a bit soft.

Bob layed 2 slices of the bread on the baking rack, then I transfered an egg on to each one then 4 of the hot dog strips. Bob added a slice of Velveeta then the remaining slices of bread.

We used the TOAST setting on the second highest darksection to get a good toast. As you can see from the picture below, one corner got a bit darker than the rest. Setting the amount of time selects your 'color' at the same time. So if you like your toast lightly toasted then you would watch your dark setting and go from there. 

I think part of the darkening came from the thickness of the sandwich, making it closer to the top element. We may not have had the issue if we'd just been doing 'toast'. 

This was the result:

After we removed them from the oven, we added slices of tomato.. the last from our garden harvest.

We would definitely make these again.

Keep in mind that any recipe you do the first time is going to bring you to a trial an error point. Keep a small notebook handy to write down what you did so next time you know where to make adjustments. 

Enjoy the Journey!

CHANGES!

Good  morning, everyone!

I guess I failed to tell everyone yesterday I'd been absent most of October for a couple of reasons.
First off, my oldest sister passed away on Oct. 7th. I received the news on the 8th as I was trying to prep/ schedule blog posts before leaving for a writer's conference on the 10th.  After that phone call, all I wanted to do was make sure I didn't leave anything at home for my trip.
Thank you for your patience.

Change is coming.
Now, before I go any further, let me say that I am not fond of change. However, sometimes even I recognize things have to change for the greater good.

For me, that change is dropping an activity from my life.

Three years ago I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.
I signed up for what was to be a hobby demonstrator. That means I didn't care about 'selling', I just wanted to make my quota every quarter to get my discount. I love their product and the discount certainly helps.

Over the past few months I started working more from a selling standpoint and discovered, that is not where I want to be. I either have to give the business everything or go back to being a hobby dem. I've chosen the latter.
1 - I can't put 100% into a business my heart just is not in.
If I'm going to spend my time promoting anything, it's going to be my books and my etsy shop.
With a blogging schedule in place I can market both of those.

2 - I have to be able to schedule my time around Bob's on again/ off again schedule. To build an on-line business like Stampin' Up! I'd have to be 'on' every day, nearly all day to see any kind of a return.

With those points in mind, I've made the decision to close KellysCreativeStamping in all forms on social media. I'll be changing to KellysCreativeDreams, which will include my blog that I've had since 2008, my YouTube channel and my FB page.

As far as this blog goes, nothing is really changing. The only thing is I will be going down to 3 posts a week between now and the first of the year. I'm trimming back everywhere so that I may enjoy the holidays.

Here, you'll see me Monday (weigh in) Tuesday (cleaning/ decorating) Friday (Air Fryer)

I'll see you here on Friday with another recipe for Air Fryer Friday!

WEIGH IN 10-28-19

162/175/135

Yeah, there is that. Between Bob being home, the writer's conference and lots of eating out.. I'm back to where I was.  up 13 pounds!

Then there was this picture taken at conference with me and Western Historical author, Linda Broday.

In case you don't know.. I'm the chubby one on the right. Ugh!  So not happy with that picture. 

But change is coming!

Bob is back on the boat and our weight challenge is on. This time the pot is worth $200! Whoo Hoo

Before Bob left I had him help relocate the Gazelle so I could get to the machine. Access was difficult before as we didn't take time to negotiate the positioning when we first moved the Gazelle to the office. 

I've also purchased a tablet holder I hope I can put in place to hold my iPad to watch videos while I walk.  Speaking of videos, I need to look up how to attach the holder to the bar on the Gazelle. Says will fit up to a 3" bar. I'm hoping I don't need gorilla strength to set it up or that part of the walking will be on hold til Bob gets home on the 13th.

The other thing I love to do is dance!  

I used to go dancing eery weekend. Even after we were married and Bob wasn't a dancer. He didn't mind me going out dancing. He knew I was coming home to him the same way I went out. LOL... well, except a bit exhausted from dancing non-stop for 4 hours.

So I'm taking up dancing again. 

Granted, in my own living room but I love to dance. 

I don't care if it's to Richard Simmons or just cranking tunes on the stereo/ satellite. 

I have an important update tomorrow so come on back.

In the mean time... Enjoy the Journey!

~Kelly