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So I was doing daily posts for about 5 seconds and that’s clearly not going to work, so why not wait until 19 days later to give you an update. . .

Here’s why.

I’ve made some changes, but I’m at a point where I know that it’s doing some good, but I don’t feel/see it.

So I weighed in on my parent’s scale yesterday? Maybe the day before. Regardless I’ve gained 1 pound. Big woop. It’s not even the original scale I weighed myself on, but I think I will continue to use this one because of ease of access. . . So there is a variable for a little bit. That being said, clearly a huge difference in the past month-ish has been achieved. My clothes fit better, my skin is healthier, I have a big more energy, my depression is backing the hell off. We gotta be getting somewhere, right?

I’ve been doing yoga but not cardio because I’m lazy. Straight up this is why. Time to address that I suppose.

(^^^here’s a little yoga treat to just get into it. It’s short, sweet, and soothing.)

I still have yet to charge my fitbit. My goodness it’s like I don’t want to succeed!

My diet – so that is a struggle right now. I had posted that I was going to do the two eggs and a banana thing and I did for a while and it was fine, but, I have a crummy pancreas and that little bitch acts up whenever things are going good.

So – as I had stated previously, I was vegetarian for a while; and since I’m the type to do a lot of research, I had spent the past few weeks looking into diets. (Topics for later -why Keto is junk. Also – change your lifestyle DO NOT DIET). I finally settled on a vegan outlook, which isn’t really as miserable as it sounds. (I’ll link a couple of videos that cover both the health benefits and the ethical standpoint, also an alternative view.) This has really helped my pancreas.

(^^^Ethical Vegan Standpoint – the cow makes me cry every time.)

(^^^This guy can get a bit preachy, but his videos are really thorough and informative. Take it with a grain of salt and form your own opinion like a grown-up.)

(^^^Alternative view point. Also, subscribe to Joe Rogan right the hell now so that your life is better.)

Now here’s the dilemma – I totally understand the ethics of going vegan, and I’m probably a little more sensitive to the issues at hand than most, but I do believe we are omnivores, not carnivores, not herbivores. Ethically speaking – I feel a lot more comfortable getting my meat, eggs, and dairy from an ethically sourced provider. Yes, there is the logic of killing an animal against it’s will is still unethical, eggs are just chicken periods, not-your-mother-not-your-milk, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera; however that is not how I am going to be able to identify.

I do believe that a lot of this comes from me being an adult and now able to make my own choices on what I am comfortable with, ethically speaking, and also the fact that the way I grew up we grew our own vegetables, my dad hunted, we raised pigs, chickens, and even rabbits at one point, goats for milk when I was a wee little baby, and we got beef from 4-h, et cetera.

So – vegan for the majority of my meals, but, my dude hunts wild game (not my dude, but you need some Steven Rinella in your life) – I will eat that. I worked for this amazing bison producer, Prairie Monarch Bison Ranch, I will eat their products. Farm fresh eggs from local farmers? Absolutely. Dairy fresh milk from small time local folks who just have a couple of milk cows? Yep. Farmer’s Market? Well. . . there isn’t one here in the winter time, but again, yep.

So here’s my personal challenge to myself. Get my shit together and gather data for next Monday’s post. I’ll really make a conscious effort to gather some amazing content for you guys!

How are you all getting on with your diet? Let me know in the comments below and keep up the good work!

xoxo

-S

P.S. – for some inspiration, check out this guy I went to high school with! He’s really, really something amazing. I had absolutely no idea about what he was doing until my mom filled me in yesterday. (ahhh the benefits vs. struggles of boycotting Facebook. Ack.)

So, my fizzies, I believe that we have established that I’m not very consistent. Boooo.

I have so much that I want to talk about that I overwhelm myself and end up with tons of drafts I’m worried I will never finish. So – I’ve come up with a little weekly line-up of content categories that I’d like to implement. I think this will give me the opportunity to talk about allllll of the things and also push me to remain consistent!

Sunday –  Music

Monday – Weight Loss/Fitness/Diet

Tuesday – Beauty

Wednesday – Non-Farm

Thursday – Mental Health

Friday – Pop-Culture

Saturday – Wild Card!

Let me know what you think! I’ll take suggestions/requests, too! And yes – I still owe you that video. . .

xoxo

-S

I hope you’re keeping up on your diet and exercise! I am! Though I don’t see much difference yet, it’s only been 9 days. . .

I did fall off the daily updates, and then I thought, I’ll just bank up the information and send you a bundle, and then I thought nah – I’ll just pick it back up.

NOW – I’m getting a little crazy with my nutrition research and what I’d like to do with my diet/eating habits. So – I’m not ready to fill you in just yet.

I have a non-farm post coming as well.

Also – a video will happen, but I have a pool tournament to go to first.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Xoxo

-S

That I want to start filming Youtube videos. And by that I mean I’ve been thinking about this for about 10 years, but I have just never taken any action until now. So why not? Ima do it.

Fill out the poll below and comment to let me know what you’d like to see!

Xoxo

-S

P.S. – I added two options to the poll, but obviously I did it wrong. . .  So the other two were a cooking tutorial and “something about plants”. Someone also asked that I make a video about Calendar organization/Schedule keeping.

Day 3: Clarification on Diet? Another app?

This one will probably be short.

First of all: allow me to clarify just a little – the eggs on my diet don’t have to be fried. . . that’s just how I prefer them at the moment. I like ’em poached, scrambled, boiled, fried. . . The same deal with the potato, except I pretty much don’t like potatoes (I am Irish, I swear) most other ways and I’m too lazy to mash them.

ALSO – I tried to explain this yesterday, but I do ramble – in reference to using your TDEE – in that regard you can literally eat anything you want, just know that your calories at the end of the day are what matters. Granted, if you only eat jellybeans you might not feel that great, but if you only eat 1,800 calories of jelly beans and you should be consuming 2,400 calories a day – you will lose weight. Diet is everything. Nutrition is important and so is exercise, but diet is where it’s at. Keep in mind that these things do not roll over. You can’t just eat less tomorrow and expect that to fix over eating today.

Don’t beat yourself up, though! Accept that it happened and move on, because you can’t change the past, right? Why waste your energy beating yourself up when you can just do better next time!

Tip: If you over-do it on sugar, fiber helps flush. What is recommended (and I can’t for the life of me find the source to back this up, I’m sorry. If I do, I will link it) is the next day after a sugar over load eat a high fiber breakfast such as steel cut oats or granola. Then with every meal that day eat 1/2 of grainy fiber. Also lots and lots of water!

This diet has been pretty satiating, though. . .  I haven’t met my proper intake yet.

I’m trying to track my water as well, but I don’t think it’s quite accurate because I drink a LOT of water.

My fitbit [flex] has been lost (but I literally just found it in my center console of my car, go figure) so I hadn’t been tracking my steps, or anything else really. I will get it charged tonight and we can talk about step count tomorrow.

Apps. . .  I really like the fitbit app because I can track basically everything I need in one place. You might even be able to use it without linking a tracker to it, I’m not sure. I AM sure there are other apps out there that are just as good or better, but I don’t know what they are yet. Also, like I said, I really enjoy the convenience of having all of the information in one place.

Another really great app is Samsung Health.

See? Short today. I’m a little mentally worn out. I’ll try to have some good stuff for you tomorrow!

Comment below and tell me your favorite fitness apps! Also comment any dietary questions you may have! (Again I’m not an expert, but I do know a lot – I like to think!)

Xoxo

-S

Day 2: Let’s talk diet.

First of all every individual person’s dietary needs are completely different, and I am not a doctor. I’ve just done a lot of research and landed on what I believe is the best possible combination for myself as far as what will be nutritionally balanced, filling, and satisfy my taste buds.

As the name suggests, this is what I have decided on for my meals: 2 Eggs and a Potato.

I chose this diet because of the potato diet (shoot, Kevin Smith did it. . .) and the nutritional balance of eggs. Not to mention how satisfying and delicious they are. Now – If I transition to vegan, this will have to be revisited.

HOLD UP!

I will NOT give up my coffee and cream, no-siree! Any other time I have lost weight, that has been the one thing I have been able to have as my little “coping mechanism”. Nothin’ doin’. I’m not giving it up. SUCK IT diet enthusiasts. Srsly.

Anyway – for the rest of my consumption I will be pretty meticulous. Except when I struggle, and I will, and I just want something else. If I hate my life I won’t stick to my diet. So – I’m allowed to mess up.

Otherwise the meal goes as follows: 2 over-easy eggs over top a baked golden potato seasoned with nutritional yeast and pepper. Did I stutter? I did not say butter. I did not say sour cream. I did not say cheeeeeese. I did not say I fried my eggs in butter, or in bacon grease.

Basic Nutrition Facts Per Meal

So this meal x 3 plus my coffee (and water, duh, don’t be a dolt. . .) Puts me at 1,097 calories per day. Whoops! That’s no good.

Let’s now discuss TDEE. Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is what your body uses in calories a day based on your activity level, height, weight, age and gender.  If you take in less than your TDEE you are in what is called a calorie deficit. This is necessary when trying to lose weight. Again, don’t be a dolt. You need to eat enough to have energy. You shouldn’t cut more than ~500 calories per day from your TDEE in order to function healthily.

My TDEE is 2,664 currently. So if I only consume 1,097 that puts me at a deficit of 1,567 calories per day. I like round numbers so my goal is likely to be 2,000 calories a day. Yes that breaks my rule but only slightly. Enh do as I say not as I do? So at my deficit based on the amount of calories planned for the day that leaves me 903 calories. GREAT! Because ya’ll know there’s no way I’m only drinking 5 cups of coffee. Plus I love to snack. . . Especially at night.

That is part of me and I’m not going to fight it. Right? I want to enjoy my diet so I stick to it. Plus I need to add lots of green veggies to my diet which I don’t have listed.

As long as I track my caloric intake I will be fine. So I have to make sure I eat enough and not too much.

What is the icing on the cake, you ask? Well let me tell you it’s that you get to eat your dang cake AND lose weight. Just fit it into your TDEE goal. Eat the stupid cake, brah!

*Disclaimer! Always, always, ALWAYS wash and thoroughly cook your potatoes. This is where botulism comes from (not only, but one of the biggest risks). Botulism is not your standard food poisoning. It will kill you dead. Right now. Well kinda slowly. So few cases have survived contraction that there is very very little medical science to protect you in this aspect. – Don’t be a dolt!

Blaaaaahhhh blahblahblahblah

I would have tracked my food intake to post here (which I will start tomorrow) but freaking Safeway was out of my POTATOES and I got all discombobulated.

So! Tell me what you think? Am I being ridiculous? What is your diet like? What would you like to try? Post your TDEE down below! I use this app.

Xoxo

-S

The other day I shared this beauty with you:

Well on the drive in to town this morning I realized that for some crazy reason it reminds me of this song. You listen.

Xoxo

-S

Shakey Graves. Just get into him anyway!

This song gets super super good at about 4:10, but is TOTALLY worth a listen to the entire thing.

His voice, though! Seriously. Also, there is something that just moves my soul about a kick-drum.

I don’t normally comment or even form an opinion on the attractiveness of another person, because, I don’t really know, I’m either not wired that way or I am EXTREMELY particular. Aside from my dude, I find two men attractive and that, I believe is more because of a perception of artistic whatevers-blah-blah-blah than physical appearance.

Shakey Graves is one of them. Pretty sure because of his beautiful, sultry voice and his intense music.

The other is Tom Hardy, and really just to look at him I wouldn’t think that, but when The Dark Knight Rises came out I was absolutely fascinated by the voice of Bane, and really their all around portrayal of the character, so I had to find out what made that happen. It’s really a great process; and the King of the Gypsies? Oh my! Then of course his character in Lawless is the man I always thought I’d marry. What a bad ass!

Go down that rat-hole and click those links. There’s cool information there!

Hope you love it all as much as I do!

Xoxo

-S

Yep. That’s what I’m going to call it.

I’m not a farm – I’m raising nothing for the purpose of profit

I’m not a homestead – I’m not running my home in such a way as to be self sufficient. I’m not even part way there! I’m just implementing practices I grew up with and delving into a few hobbies. And fixing stuff for myself like a danged adult.

Which is exactly what I did this weekend.

Okay now let us back up a little bit. Long story short: Many long eons ago we had a perfectly good, hand-me-down, original, basic Keurig. It was great. I used to hell out of it. Then one day out of the blue, my dude, who didn’t drink coffee at the time, up and decided to purchase a Keurig Vue from some rando off  of a Facebook trading post. Ugh. Why? Doesn’t he know I don’t like change?

Any normal Keurig uses a K-cup, which I quickly bought a $4 refillable cup and started using my own grind (because people love to love me and my beautiful sister would always bring me Starbucks beans!!!) because it’s far cheaper. Why am I explaining this to you? You live on planet Earth. You know what this is all about.

A Keurig Vue uses a fancy pod that isn’t like a K-cup. It was SO irritating! Also it took me a LONG time to find an adapter – therefore I hated that confounded thing! *Sigh* It is pretty cool. It’s all digital and has many options and I use it constantly.

Friday I made a cup of coffee. I’m now on to Dazbog KGB Blend, by the way, took a fancy picture for Instagram, pressed the power button, and promptly smashed that sucker down into the machine.

What the hhhhheeelllllll? As if I have the money to fix something like this. GROWL. Saho does not approve.

So, taking a queue from my childhood curiosity, I took the damned thing apart to figure out what makes it tick. Tutorial as follows:

1.) Break your Keurig

2.) Panic.

3.) Access the Keurig website.

4.) E-mail them asking about any advice; wait a grueling 15-20 seconds for a reply and resume panicking when no response is received within that very reasonable amount of time.

5.) Head to the garage and dig out the screwdrivers.

6.) Spend 45 minutes gingerly (haha, see what I did there?) taking the mother effer apart.

7.) Finally get the power device-a-ma-jigger and find out that it’s bracket is busted.

8.) Remember that you saw some electrical tape the other day, where was that? The counter by the microwave! Go get that.

9.) Pull the power device-a-ma-jigger through to the outside of the Keurig and craft a very high end fastener out of the electrical tape for the power. . . device-a-ma-jigger.

10.) Put it back together and then ask your mom for her old coffee pot. (it did work, by the way. Both things.) Who needs a Ninja Coffee Bar? Hah! I do want one. . .

Let me know if you’d like to see any tutorials in the future! I sure loved making this one for you!

Xoxo

-S

Push play on this guy while you’re reading this post. 🙂 One of my favorite memories I will always have is of my brother hanging on me, half drunk on PBR, while we scream this song back at the band!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m blessed in my life with brothers. I have sisters in my life, too, and don’t get me wrong – they are special to me as well, but that’s another post.

I want to take some time and honor these men.

First of all I have the fortune of having three brothers by blood. Two older than me and one younger. All of these men have had a profound affect on my life in different ways and at different times.

I have idolized my oldest brother (11 years older) since as far back as I can remember. I grew up wanting to be just like him, be interested in what he was, act like he did, et cetera.

As a young adult and really even a teenager, I was knowingly concerned with what his perception of me was; and honestly I don’t see a dang thing wrong with that! He’s a wonderful man who has been through a lot in his life and he loves me and I love him. There are five of us kids and he and I are very similar. Because of that we share a special bond that isn’t like the others. He took me to my very first movie, for crying out loud!

((I’m the exact middle child, so I think I have a bond with each of my siblings that is different than the others. Maybe that’s just me. I really think it’s a middle kid thing. . . (I’m also and oldest child HAHA but that is for another post as well!))

My next older brother left a profound imprint on my mind as a child (he’s 9 years older). My mom has a picture of me and my little brother when we were little running around with our shirts off because we wanted to be just like him! He was so suave! Such a cool dude who drove a cooool car and had cooooool friends.

I don’t know if it’s because of our closeness in age or proximity, but I am closest with my younger brother. We are so gof damm much like the same person, it’s ridiculous. We lived together as young adults, we participated in similar activities in school, we shared a large majority of our friends. We are the hipsteryest of hipsters when it comes right down to it. Our interests are similar and complimentary and collaborative. I don’t think I would be the person I am today without having him in my life. Together we have been through probably the best and

worst moments of our lives. Supporting each other, fighting with each other, finding each other again. He’s the one person that can truly persuade my thoughts, emotions, and ways of perceiving the world around me. I truly respect him for that.

The man my sister is about to marry I have known for probably over ten years at this point (yep, I knew him first) and we have always been close. He’s so perfect for her. It’s like he somehow was supposed to be part of our family even though we are not blood.

My dude’s brother is the final mention on this list. His wife is such a close friend to me, and their family has a strong bond as well. He’s been such a huge supporter of me and been there for me through so many things.

I guess I’m not in the right place for the words here and that frustrates me slightly.

I love these men with all of my heart. They mean so much to me.

I hope you have brothers. There’s nothing quite as special (don’t worry sisters, I’m not forgetting you) as how brothers can build you up. Brothers are an important part of the structure of your life whether you realize it or not, even if you don’t have a brother by blood, there has to be a man out there that is close to you and has had a profound influence on your life. Tell me about it in the comments below!

Xoxo

-S

(boys, don’t be mad that I only posted a picture of one of you!)