Healthy Choice Challenge

I know how hard it is to make yourself get up and go to the gym, I hate going to the gym. But once I get there and start my workout I always feel much better about myself. Right now I have just finished my second year of college, they say that your freshmen year you will gain the freshman 15. Well I never did, I never gained any weight after high school. I know I know, you are all thinking why would she tell us this and make us feel bad for gaining weight.

Well in high school I was an athlete, I was very involved and busy often. Like most high schoolers I ate whatever I wanted and it never made me fat. Well when I came to college I never gained any weight but I lost something, all of my muscle. I lost it and I gained a bunch of fat. I went from running everyday to walking around a small campus and sitting in front of the computer or TV most of my time.

So I never gained the freshmen 15 but I defintely had to by bigger jeans after my first year of college. I wouldn't say I'm fat, I am a healthy girl. But in Janurary I was unhappy with my body, I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath. I am 20 years old and I could barely make it across campus without passing out from exhaustion. So I decided to do something about it.

I did the hardest thing I've done since college, I gave up sweet tea. I know, its crazy right. I stopped having sweet tea with every meal and I started drinking water like it was going out of style. I got an App on my phone, its called Livestrong. (www.livestrong.com) I started tracking my food on a daily basis and I started working out again. I took small steps, riding the bike every day for 20 minutes, to doing the elliptical every day for 30 minutes. Now I do strength training again, lifting weights, I ride the bike, do the stair climber, walk on the track. And the best part is my jeans are too big now. I've lost 15 lbs in about 5 months. I feel great now and I am continuing this healthy lifestyle by working out a few times a week, taking my lunch to work everyday and not going out to eat, making dinner every night that is healthier, and I have a partner to push me in this challenge.

Having someone who makes you accountable for your food choices, drink choices, and lifestyle choices makes all the difference. My boyfriend is my encourager, coach, bully, and taste tester. We make each other push ourselves and it makes all the difference. It doesn't have to be a significant other to be your partner in this, but if you have someone who you can be 100% honest with it helps. You need to be able to talk about what you want to change and how you want to improve your life.

So today I am challenging you to make one healthy choice. Just one choice, drink one less pop a day and have water instead. America is so obese and the children of America are suffering because of it. I am starting a weekly healthy choice challenge. Just one change a week and lets see where we are at the end of the summer. So make a healthy choice today and start changing your life.

http://pinterest.com/pin/266627240408886760/

Good luck!

I am linking up to these parties

http://organizeyourstuffnow.com/wordpress/
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/
http://www.southernlovely.com/2012/05/show-share-41.html

Annoying Little Table

I got this little table from my grandma, she moved and had a lot of excess furniture and let me take what I wanted. So I took quite a few little things and this table is one of them. It started off as a great way for me to get my feet wet with painting furniture. I have now decided I hate this little table and I'm never painting it again. The feet and little columns on it are a pain.

Then to top it off, on top of the table there was what I think was once gum stuck on it. Luckily I had something that took that right off with a little scrubbing. Goo Gone, I love this stuff. It is amazing

So I get all the sticky stuff off and I just kinda sand it down a little with some sand paper I had laying around. Nothing heavy duty, just put a few scratches on it so it would hold onto the paint.

I used Benjamin Moore paint first as a primer, two coats of it and the brown was all covered. I used a roller to paint the top and bottom shelf then a paint brush to paint the columns and top handles.

Next, I decided I wanted to try gray on this project. I am in the process of moving into a new house/apartment when I transfer at the end of the summer and right now all of my things are being stored at my boyfriends house. So he gets the joy of all my things taking over his house. So I'm trying to go with something neutral here because I'm not sure what everything will look like/how it will all be put together at the new place.

I decided to be a little adventureous though and try something new again on this project. I'm using a stencil on the top of table. It's just a simple stencil I bought at hobby lobby with a coupon so I think it was $7. I had a foam poka dot brush also from Hobby lobby that I used to put the stencil on and it worked really well. 

Here it is with the stencil on top, I painted the top and bottom with the gray paint and the columns but I decided to leave the legs a cream color, it is the same paint I used to prime this piece with.  I painted the stencil the same color as the legs, a cream color. After I was finished with the stencil I let everything dry. It took about 3 hours to do everything because it was really warm today and everything dried really fast. 

After everything was dry I decided to sand things down some. Just to rough it up and age it a little. I gave it some roughing up and then I put on some stain. I used a Minwax wood finish stain. It took a while to get the coloring that I wanted especially on the columns. I did those a couple of times to get stain in all the little details it had. I wanted to make sure that they stood out. 

Here is my finished product! I think it looks great and love all the details that I got with the stain!

The paint I used as a Primer was Benjamin Moore Sparkling Wine in low lustre finish. The gray paint I used was Royal interiors Ace paint, Devonshire in eggshell. Finally I used Minwax Wood Finish stain in Early American.

 

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I'm definitely going to be doing this again soon. I was a little worried about the stencil but I think it turned out great, especially for my first time ever painting furniture. What do you think?

What's for dinner?

When I get home everyday I usually have an idea of what I want to make for dinner. Some days I'm lazy and we go and eat somewhere, but this summer I'm really trying to cook dinner every night. It saves a lot of money and I enjoy cooking. Deciding what to cook for dinner always seems to be the hardest part. Luckily, my boyfriend comes from a farm family, that means we always have beef on hand. Unfortunately, I have a very picky eater on hand. So I modify a lot of recipes so he will eat them.

Tonight for dinner I'm trying a new recipe I found today on Pintrest. This recipe is from Betty Crocker and it's called Nacho Skillet Casserole, I made a few modifications though so here is my version.

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 can (15 oz) of tomato sauce
3 heaping tablespoons of salsa
2 heaping tablespoons of sour cream
2 cups of tortilla chips
2-4 cups of cheese

Tortilla chips and sour cream to serve.

Directions:
1. In 12-inch skillet, cook ground beef and onion over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in sugar, chili powder, tomato sauce, salsa, and sour cream. Simmer 10 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is desired consistency.

2. Sprinkle tortilla chips evenly over meat mixture; top with cheese. Cover; simmer 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve immediately with sour cream and extra chips.


Before I could take a picture someone had already dug in! It was delicious though and will definitely be added into our rotation. It was plenty for the two of us, but the boyfriend eats a lot and we still have enough for my lunch tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the recipe! What did you have for dinner?

The Beginning

Hello my lovely followers,

I am a first time blogger, unless you count Xanga from middle school, so it could take me a while to catch on to all of this. I am a small town country girl from Oklahoma who is going to college and trying to make a name for myself. I am studying Public Relations and in the process of transferring schools right now. I love cooking and baking with a passion and feeding my boyfriend dinner everynight. I enjoy crafting in my spare time and making things come to life. I love to paint things, furniture, walls, canvas, anything that will sit still.

I am twenty years old, with three crazy sisters who I love very much. My mother is a remarkable woman who taught me how to do most the things I am able to do. She raised my sisters and myself by herself and did a great job. I have a ridiculously large family, we are all close and act like brothers and sisters when we get together. I love going to family gatherings and seeing all of my cousins aunts and uncles. We are like the loud crazy Greek family you see in the movies, except we aren't Greek. Haha

I can't wait to get to know all of you in this journey I am starting, I hope you will follow along and enjoy the ride!