My weight loss journey…

Well no one told me it would be easy!  New Year New Me, you hear it everywhere at the beginning of the New Year!  My problem with weight loss is I start, I don’t see the results quickly enough…than I give up!  Well hopefully I am strong enough to stick with it this time!

So I joined the gym, Planet Fitness at the low rate of ten bucks a month with no contract, and I am going often. http://www.planetfitness.com/
Seriously I have been going to the gym 5-6 times a week!  The gym and I have a love hate relationship to say the least, considering while I’m on the elliptical or exercise bike or other cardio equipment I am mentally telling myself to keep going…while my body is screaming go home and lay on the couch(insert laughing emoji here).  Also I have been eating better!  Am I on a diet HECK no, why because a diet is temporary and I want to keep the weight off so I am making a life style change!  I am concentrating on making better choices with my eating and drinking, instead of running through the drive thru or skipping breakfast I have a meal replacement shake. 

My morning routine

This is an easy way for me to get breakfast while I am making lunches and getting my kids breakfast ready.  I also bought myself a thirty-one lunch box it’s so pretty, no more grocery sacks for this girl!

Its so pretty also notice the water bottle I drink water all day!

I have been taking healthy lunches usually heart healthy soup or some leftovers from dinner.  I am also taking fruit and nuts to snack on trying not to go more than 2 ½ to 3 hours with out eating.  Eating like this helps so I don’t feel like I’m starving or feel low on energy.  So basically I have been making small changes that add up to a better life style.

I also have been attending a TOURTUROUS but awesome class at Speed Attic on Sundays.  http://www.thespeedattic.org/ It’s an hour class and my friends and I have been going to that once a week…well because it basically takes that long for our muscles to stop hurting, well at least the first time that’s how long it took -haha!! 

we go with our daughters to this class on sunday

Attending this class actually gave me the confidence to leave the cardio equipment at the gym!   I’m not going to lie the weight equipment intimidated me, not only the weight equipment but the people that are so fit and awesome using that equipment!  Now I have learned how to use the equipment and have the confidence that I won't make a full of myself!  The class honestly made me realize that all  those super fit people probably didn’t start out super fit…okay maybe some did but not all.  I am actually starting to feel stronger (insert muscle woman emoji here), my body is not as jiggly.

                                   

OK with all this being said a wise woman once told me (my super fit sister in law Sara) it has to be 80/20.  That’s right make better choices 80% of the time.  Should I say no to every treat offered to me? NOPE! It’s perfectly ok to have a treat once in a while, the fittest people in the world have treats, and there is no need to feel guilty for doing so!!  Honestly If I had to make perfect choices 100% of the time I would throw in the towel, because that’s not my style! I mean seriously I ate at McDonalds today with my son and the world did not end!

I’m less than a month in to my weight loss journey and I am down about 7 pounds.  That might not sound like a lot, but I have done the research and a slow weight loss, about 2 pounds per week is more likely to stay off than a fast drop in weight.  Also it takes about 30 days to form habits and that is what I am really going for!  I have noticed if I do not get to the gym, I get GROUCHY!  My gym time gives my body and mind time to unwind, to release the stress of day to day life through sweating to good music.  I also have learned to lean on people that will push me towards my goals…like the other day when I told my oldest daughter I was going to skip the gym and take a nap, that child nagged me until I was out the door on the way to the gym, seriously she did! 

If your wanting to lose weight get started making small changes…they all will add up!

Here is what my routine usually looks like:

6:30 a.m. I have an Advocare meal replacement shake while getting everything ready for kids.

7:00a.m. I drink my Advocare Spark

7:40a.m On the way to work

9:30a.m. Fruit and nuts snack

12:00p.m. lunch

2:00p.m. quick healthy snack

4:00p.m. gym time I take catalyst before I go to the gym

5-6ishp.m. we eat dinner

The advocare products I take I have taken for quite some time at least a couple years so don’t think you have to use them.  They are an important tool in my life they make me feel better and give me energy a mom on the go needs!!  If you are interested I have attached a link to my site.https://www.advocare.com/130726956/

Another thing to remember is if you have an off day, a day where you feel like you stuffed your face all day and were just lazy it doesn't  mean quit…NOPE it means you had a bad day brush yourself off and move forward!  Do not let all your hard work be for nothing.  WE ALL HAVE BAD DAYS WE ARE ONLY HUMAN!!

Our Families D.I.Y. Laundry Soap

I have meant to blog about this ever since I started this blog, just have not gotten to it until today.  I have been using this soap for a little over 2 years now, and we love it!  I did many internet searches, Pinterest searches and this is what we ended up putting into our homemade laundry soap. 

For a double batch of soap that usually last our family of 6 anywhere from four to six months depending on how much laundry we have.  We go through more in the warm months due to camping, riding ATVs in the mud, etc. The ingredients this time were about 50 dollars it would have been less if I went to Sams Club, but I did not have the time today.  Even at 50 dollars for 4-6 months probably more toward six months, it is still cheaper (and better working in my opinion) than the Tide I used to buy.

                                       

                      Here is a list of the ingredients for a double batch:

                                   6- Bars Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap  

                                   1- 7.22 lb.  Oxi Clean         

                                   2- 3 lb.  Boxes Laundry Booster Super Washing Soda

                                   2- 4 lb. Boxes 20 Mule Team Borax

                                   2- 4 lb. Boxes Pure Baking Soda

                                   1- 19.5 oz. Downy UnStoppables (I use Fresh Sent)

                                   1- 13.2 oz. UnStoppables (I use Fresh Sent)

The first and most time consuming part of making this laundry soap is grating the Fels-Naptha soap bars, I have been making this for over 2 years and still use the same hand held cheese graters I bought at the dollar tree specifically for this purpose.  

Fels-Naptha before you grate it

Fels-Naptha after you grate it, it will look like grated cheese...just do not eat it!

Once you have completed grating the soap bars, I open all my boxes and get my laundry soap container ready, which is a 20 quart container.

Then I start layering the ingredients, this helps make sure I have everything equally distributed.  For example I do a box of borax, than a layer of grated soap, a box of baking soda, a layer of soap, than a layer of Downy UnStoppables, and so on.  

You can sort of see how I layer my ingredients.

Once I have it all in my container I mix it, and the most efficient way I have found to work is to just use my hands making sure I get all the way to the bottom of container.  I just keep mixing it until I think everything is mixed evenly.  I than use a scoop from a smaller container of Oxi Clean, I do not use the large one that comes in the 7.22 lb. box.

I use the small scoop from a small container of Oxi-Clean, and use 1 scoop per load

This is how I make our families laundry detergent, I do not have a High efficient washing machine, so I cannot say if this will work in one.  What I can tell you is I have four kids, two boys, two girls, and a Husband that has a very dirty job and this stuff works great!  I have not gone back to store bought laundry detergent in two years if that tells you anything.  I hope this helps you, and enjoy, let your kids help make it.  My little boy helped today he only grated half a bar of soap to my 5 1/2 bars of soap, but he was excited to help mom!

My little helper, he really liked helping make our laundry soap, he also really likes to put 1 scoop in and help with starting the laundry too!

This Really Happened!

D.I.Y. oil change and tire rotation…

It was over do for my oil change and with four kids, work and everything else my husband had not gotten to it.  It was driving me crazy because I knew it needed done, but with my husband’s busy work and his never ending to do list he just didn’t have time to get to it yet.  I decided it couldn’t be that hard, right?  First I had to do some reading up on it, I did not even watch a YouTube video which is huge for me!  I found this very clear page with great instructions and off I went (after getting my husband to agree to it ha-ha).

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/2001-2005+Honda+Civic+Oil+Change/6407

First my husband and I went to the automotive store (with a couple kids) and got the oil and filter my car needed.  We got home and I went to change in some work clothes than I was ready to go (with my husband sitting back watching in case I screwed up to bad).  First things first I had to jack up the car and put it on jack stands, you really have to lay on the ground to figure out a good place to put the jack, so you have a good place to put the stands.  Alright once the jack stands are in place and you are confident the car is not going to smash you it’s time to get dirty (in my case very dirty).   First I found the socket and wrench I needed to loosen the oil drain plug…after getting the oil drain pan under the car I laid on the dirty garage floor and got to it. 

 Well let me tell you that plug was so tight after several times I finally let my son help loosen it, so there I was unscrewing it by hand now I get the pan situated under the stream and once I get the bolt out….the oil starts shooting out like two feet from where I had put the drain pan! I tried to move it as quickly as possible but by the time I got it under the stream there had to be at least a quart or two of oil on the floor (insert crying face here) so while it was draining I started the cleanup affords.  I was really focused on cleaning up the oil when I looked over and noticed the damn oil was now draining a foot in front of the drain pan (laughing at the situation is better than crying).  Ok once the oil was done draining mostly, I wiped of the drain plug with a clean rag and put a new washer thing on it, than in it went (thank gosh that part was over).  Well I took a few minutes to clean up the extreme oil mess, than I got a different oil drain pan since there was oil in and on the other one (a lot of oil) I mean next time I do this I am using a container that goes under a bed for storage!  Time to take the filter off that was pretty easy took it off and dumped it upside down in the drain pan and cleaned up around where it had been.  Now I had to scoot out from under the car again to get the clean filter and put clean oil on the gasket, back under the car I got that sucker on and cleaned up some more!  By this point I am a hot sweaty mess but the show must go on, right, right!  Ok than since the car is already jacked up I had to rotate the tires. 

I had to find the right socket and wrench thing and got to work and let me tell you this was my husband’s favorite part, at least he sure was laughing A LOT!  Getting those lug nuts off with just a regular old socket thing and not the air tools took some effort!   On the last tire I got all the lugs off and no matter how much I pulled on it I could not get it off…so I swallowed my pride and asked my husband to help… all he did was tap it with his foot and the damn thing fell off, I really wanted to hit him with the wrench at this point! At this point my husband is laughing pretty hard, well I got all the tires rotated tightened the lug nuts, time to lower the car.  May I suggest when lowering it do it slowly so it does not scare the crap out of you. The last part after having the car lowered was to poor the new oil in and check the level with the dip stick, and there it is I did it!!  I changed my own oil and now if my husband is busy I have the skills to do it myself! Hopefully next time it will not be as messy since I know that the oil shoots out differently depending on the amount of oil still needing drained.  also I really plan on using a huge storage container one of the long ones that go under beds that should cover the whole area of drainage!  

And if you happen to do this to your husbands garage floor (insert laughing face here) just get a bag of unmixed cement, poor a few cups of the dry mix on it and sweep it around.  It will soak up the oil so there is not a big stain in the garage and so your husband will let you in his garage again.

My Awesome D.I.Y.

It is a desk, a Homework station, and a laundry basket station Oh my!!

So today I was cleaning and as I got to my dining room and looked at our piled high computer desk, I thought damn I need to fix this!    As I stood there trying to figure out what I could do to prevent this from always happening I decided to make a custom desk!

First I decided I wanted this to not only be a desk, I wanted it to be a HOMEWORK station!  I have four kids and they usually do homework at the table…which aids in us never eating at our table. As I was measuring the space I decided this could double as laundry basket storage (I had made one in the past but do to moving things around in the laundry room we could no longer use it where it was).

my old laundry basket holder

After measuring my space I drew out what I wanted to do, than off to Lowes I went.

First I went and looked at the items I needed, figured out exactly how many of each board I needed and loaded them on a cart.  Then I found the Lowes employee to cut my boards, this way they are all the right length!

my drawing for my project

thanks for the perfect cuts!

You don’t have a truck don’t worry! This all fit into my little Honda!

who needs a truck when you have a Honda civic haha

Once I was home I wanted to spray paint the legs but didn’t want to spend much time doing it.  I found an old 2x4 and screwed each leg to it and started spray painting (I used a grey color with primer in it).

fastest way to spray paint 16 desk legs

After that I carried the rest of the wood and items inside which allowed the legs time to dry.  I unscrewed the legs from the 2x4 and got to work, I first screwed four legs to the biggest piece of wood and positioned that where it would sit.  Then I picked the next top piece and laid it on top of the other board and traced the angle I needed to cut, I did this same process for the other angle as well.  I cut these with a Dewalt cordless circular saw.  After installing the legs and putting liquid nail between the angles and attaching all the pieces together I got to work on the basket slots.  I bought smaller boards to slide the baskets over, we can fit a total of 6 baskets(one basket per bedroom and one for my crochet projects).I just attached these to the legs and it was ready for baskets.  The top I just covered in contact laminate paper.

no safety glasses or shoes for this d.i.y. er, whoops! don't try this at home without safety gear!

AMAZING

I bought a three drawer container which I put lined and graph paper in one drawer, printer paper in another, and the last drawer is for miscellaneous desk stuff. The top of the drawer thing is divided to hold other supplies.  I also bought 2 bins to hold pins, pencils, scissors, and a ruler.

So for about $42 dollars at Lowes and about $30 at Walmart in some supplies and mostly accessories,  I have a awesome desk/homework station/laundry basket station!  

The kiddos love it!!

Trying to get back in shape!

Alright I am at my highest weight I have ever been in my life (insert crying face here).  I have gone through several emotions as my weight has fluctuated… mostly frustration with having to work so hard to get what seems so easy for some!  I long to look in the mirror and see a better me.

So here goes nothing! 

I started walking on my treadmill this week (after taking all the laundry piles off of it-haha).  Now the problem with this is I get the worst shin splint in my left leg!  I have tried so many things stretching, different shoes, shoe inserts, compression sleeves, anti-embolism socks, medication, muscle rubs, and today I tried compression socks.  I did not want to spend a lot of money on the socks in case they did not work, like so many other things I have tried!  I found these socks at Walmart for under 15 dollars.  They are ACE brand compression running socks and were in the sporting good section, since they only had men’s sizes I got size small.  I started walking Tuesday without any thing on my leg, made it to 20 minutes and my leg was killing me!!!  Wednesday I tried the anti-embolism socks, made it 28 minutes and my leg was killing me!!!!  Today I wore the Ace compression socks…at about 13 minutes my leg was feeling a little crampy so I stopped and stretched (I also did this the other days).  After stretching I got back on the treadmill and my leg was still a bit bothersome but not like the other days, after 28 minutes of walking something amazing happened the cramp relaxed and it was like a magical moment in my life (haha), and ya know what I walked on the treadmill for 1 whole hour and probably could have kept going!!!  So these socks were well worth the money, and I will be looking for a ladies version of them online!
Update:just found and ordered the socks on walmart website!

http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=ace%20running%20socks

So if you have any trouble with shin splints keep trying different things, what works for one person may not work for another…it truly is trial and error until you find the right solution.

look what got here and the worked great!

Working On My Blog!!

(Check out this font, I downloaded it off the internet for free!!!!)

I am very new (brand new) to the whole blog thing.. So I am learning as I go.  

The First thing I did was ask a friend for help, which  lead me to this blog site.  Than it was time to pick a blog name (not as easy as it sounds!) There are ready made templates on this site, none that really fit my personallity though... So to make my blog reflect me I bought my template off Etsy, the designer was awesome answering and helping with all my questions.  So than I started to blog, at first I was  having trouble deciding on what to write about, but I decided just to blog about the things I do in my everyday life.   Since I noticed most of blogs I read also have corresponding Facebook pages I set one up, I was able to buy the facebook cover page from the same designer off Etsy.   

 I keep learning more everyday so bare with me.  All though I have a lot of more to learn as I dive into the world of blogging,  I feel positive that along the way I will figure it out!

I keep seeing all this cool font,  so I went to google and found a website, http://www.fontsquirrel.com/, and downloaded a few different fonts . 

Tie-Dying is EASY!!

Well I went camping over the fourth of July and we decided to tie-dye...

Tie-Dying is pretty easy and its always fun to see how your items turn out!!

You can get white t-shirts in packs or 3,5,6, or 8 fairly cheap, and I have done boys underwear, socks, sheets, etc. just use your imagination!  Once you have your items you need to fold them depending on how you want them to look.  You can get ideas on Youtube, and pinterest, here is one link I used, it shows how to dye a ying yang sign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2qcR2GVMag. So Step one fold your shirts:.
 So Step one fold your shirts:

There are so many different ways to get different designs!

For the most Part we use kits like this that we purchase at Walmart, but can be purchased at craft stores.

The Tulip Kit includes bottles to mix the dye in, the dye, rubber-bands, and gloves (but I use different gloves)  The last time I purchased a few of these kits and saved the bottles, so this time I was able to purchase just the tulip dye at Walmart.

I needed some additional colors that were not available in the Tulip brand so I had to purchase a few Rit dyes, located in the laundry aisle at Walmart.

Don't forget to wear gloves and if you don't want stained hands, get thick gloves and toss the ones from the kit!

Once you are done with each item you can wrap it in saran wrap (which is a pain to take off) or you can put it in garbage bags and tie (I zip tie) between each item,I can fit about three shirts per bag.

After your items sit in bags for 8 or more hours (the longer you let them soak the more the color holds) than throw them all in the washer without soap, and than dry.  Do not FREAK OUT when the washer looks like this, it will be fine!

Alright all the hard work is done, time to check out some of your masterpieces(insert excited face here)!

My daughter will not take a nice picture for me sorry guys!

Check out these rainbow friendship shirts! I will start the rainbow at the bottom of the shits next time that way the highest point lands before the sleeves, but I still love them!

There will be items that don't turn out...

It is okay, you can redo them!

Just fold those items back up and start over!

This shirt was one that I folded up on a cut up swim noodle, I believe its call shabori?, but I love the vertical lines it made, but the rest of the shirt ended up with no other color!  So note to self when doing that fold on the noodle make sure the die absorbs in all of the fabric.  What I did to fix it was just tie it up to add horizontal lines and now I like the final look!

So just get some shirts, they can be white or colored and get your tie dye on!  There are many different designs to try, I have done hearts and Ying Yangs, so don't be afraid! You won't regret it and you will have some pretty neat, one of a kind items.