I Completed a Marathon!

You read that right! I completed 26.2 miles ON MY OWN! No I didn't do it all at once, but I set a goal to finish in 12 days and I finished in 10! I started on March 2nd and finished on the 12th!

You know those ads that pop up on your Facebook and annoying the living you know what out of you? Well, one popped up called The Race to Oz and I clicked on it! Interesting! I never click on those things but this one had a shiny picture, and everyone knows I LOVE shiny things!

Make Yes Happen! is an online race platform that can connect to your step monitoring device. I have a fitbit so I linked it up!

I chose the Race to Oz as my first race, because I lived in Kansas! I thought 26.2 miles would take forever because I have a desk job. I literally sit at a desk all day with very little chance to get up and get moving. Could I finish in 12 days? I didn't know but I sure was going to try!

It costs $25 to register for your race. Ok sure! It's worth it if it gets me moving more! So I signed up! I started exercising every day. Curves, walking and even "biking". I have an under the desk bike peddler that I use while I am working. You might think that's cheating but it's hard work! I break a sweat doing it and my legs are getting so strong! They are starting to get muscle mass and lose fat! WOOHOO!!

Every night, Make Yes Happen sends you an email with your progress. Along the way you get photos of where you are in the route. For me it was pictures of flat fields from Kansas but it was still cool!

One morning I woke up and had 3.9 miles to go so I busted butt that day and got in that 3.9 miles plus more that day!

The coolest part, you get an actual medal when you finish! I was leery about this but really hoping it was true! Low and behold, this beauty showed up a week after I finished!

Isn't she pretty! My first medal!!  To me, it's a proud moment! I pushed myself more than I ever have before. It might seem like something small to others but to me it's HUGE!

Makeyeshappen has a lot of races you can choose from. My next one will be the Road to Hana. It's the 60 mile road in Maui that runs along the coast! My mom and step dad have actually been on the road and driven it and I am excited that mom is going to do this one with me! I plan to start on April 1st and want to be done before the 20th! That's 3 miles a day! If you want, you should sign up too! Join us and get a pretty medal and celebrate your success!

From Golf Ball to Garden Decoration

Those of you that know me, know that I LOVE to craft! I crochet, I sew, I paint, I make things, I break things. 

I went to Michaels to get 4 bottles of craft paint for this project. Wrong move. They were having a HUGE sale and I ended up with 12 bottles of paint, paint brushes, plastic storage bins and more! (don't you like my pimpin joy bag!)

I used to enjoy golfing but I don't really get out much anymore so I decided to put my golf balls to good use! I found my inspiration on Pinterest, of course! I knew when I saw them that I just had to make these cuties!

This whole process took a loooong time. I literally watched paint dry on Saturday folks!

Now, my golf balls were light purple in color so first off I had to pain them white! It took three coats of 

An egg carton makes the perfect holder while you are waiting for your balls to dry. If you start with white balls you can obviously skip this step.

One my white balls were dry I started with the color. Red and Yellow. This also took 3 coats of paint 

on each half of the ball. Again, I watched paint dry. I also watched Chopped which is on in the background! Love that show!

 

Once the color were dry I added my stripes and faces on the bees and my dots and faces on the lady bugs. I waited, again, for the faces to dry and drew the eyes on and look how cute these little dudes are! They will make the perfect addition to gardens or flower pots!

Aren't they just the cutest?! I'd be happy to make a set for you if you'd like! I'm going to make a few sets and sell them in my mom's little flea shop store! They'll be $15 per set of 6 plus $5 shipping if you'd like them for your garden! Email me at tbh7982@gmail.com to let me know you'd like a set!

I think next set I make I'm going to try ping pong balls. I'll cut a small hole in the bottom and fill with sand to add weight. Then plug the hole with hot glue and paint away! That way I don't have to paint the white to cover up logos and they'll still be heavy enough to not blow away! I'm also going to use googly eyes instead of painting the eyes on!

What do you like to craft?

It's Meal Planning Sunday!

Well hello there friends and family! I hope you are all enjoying the weather you are having. Some of you have snow and some of you, like me, have been experiencing temps in the 80's! Ahhhhh the joys of spring!

I try to plan my meals on Sunday while I am at my dads house and then shop after work on Monday. This weeks meal plan is looking so fabulous! I was so excited to share it with you! So here it is!

I'm planning to make some spinach, egg, cheese and bacon bites to have for breakfasts this week! It's my own recipe so I'll share it with you next week if it turns out well!

Snacks will again be boiled eggs with home made cheese its(recipe below)and sugar free jello. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Monday-
Lunch is leftover Philly Cheese steak bowl!

This is a recipe from last week and let me tell you, it is AMAZING! It's definitely one of my new fav go to's! I was too impatient to cook it in the foil packets so I  cooked my onions and peppers in a skillet with some olive oil and butter and garlic(lots of garlic) Once they were cooked I removed them and put them on a parchment lined baking sheet and put my beef in the same skillet for a VERY quick sear. I then added the beef to the veggies on the tray and put under the broiler for 4-5 minutes until the veggies started to get a little brown color to some of them. YUM!!!! I filled a bowl and topped with provolone cheese and pepper and let it melt!

Dinner will be a steak marinated in olive oil, garlic and chili powder. I'll top it with sauteed onions and mushrooms. I plan to sear this in, you guessed it, butter in my cast iron skillet and then finish under the broiler.

Tuesday-
Lunch will be chicken salad made with chicken breast, apples, grapes and greek yogurt. A side salad to round it out.
Dinner will be Chicken taco burgers. I didn't get to make these last week but will this week for sure!

Wednesday-
Lunch will be left over Chicken taco burgers
Dinner will be spaghetti squash(so versatile) with mushrooms, parsley and Parmesan cheese

If you haven't cooked with spaghetti squash before, you NEED to! It really picks up any flavor you put with it and I've tried a LOT of things! I cook mine in the microwave. Cut in half, put face down on a microwave safe plate and cook for 13-15 minutes. WARNING! It will be VERY HOT when you take out of the microwave. Let cool for a couple of minutes then scoop out seeds. Once seeds are out you can scrape the "noodles" out with a fork!

Thursday-
Lunch is leftover spaghetti squash from dinner Wednesday.
Dinner I am eating out with a friend

Friday-
Lunch will be chicken salad again
Dinner will be a cauliflower chicken enchilada bake. This is a new one for me so I'll let you know how it is in a later blog! Here's the recipe: Cauliflower Enchilada Bake

Saturday-
Lunch will be left over enchilada bake
Dinner will be Asian pork chops with veggies and more veggies!
Another new recipe for me! Crockpot Asian Pork Chops


Oh ya, those home made cheese its! Let me tell you. They satisfy my need for cheese and chips! Super easy to make!

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cut your choice of cheese into little bite size pieces and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Do NOT forget the parchment paper! It's important! I like cheddar the best!

I sprinkled mine with garlic powder and chili powder. Pop them in the oven for about 5 minutes, but watch them closely! Take them out when the edges start to get brown. Let them cool completely on the tray! These stay good in an air tight bag or container for a couple of days so make a batch of them! They are very tasty! Experiment with them, add different spices and use different cheese!


Voila! There you have a complete week meal plan! Let me know if you and your family try any of the recipes! I'd love to hear your reviews!

How Do You Feel About Meal Plans?

Well, how DO you feel about meal plans?

Personally I LOVE to meal plan. Yes it takes some time and Yes it can be difficult but I love knowing a whole weeks worth of meals a head of time! I get almost all of my recipes/ideas from Pinterest! What a great place to research recipes! Of course I do have to do some googling on ingredients a lot because I need to know the sugar/carb count but that's ok. It's kind of fun learning about different ingredients!

I make my meal plan and shop only for what is on my list! It makes grocery shopping so much easier and actually saves money! By  not throwing in random things and only buying what is on my list I can budget easily and shop eve easier!

I also eat my leftovers for lunch the next day!

Here is my plan for this week. Sorry it's a little late!

Breakfast for me this week every day is 2 scrambled eggs and 2 pieces of turkey bacon.
Snacks this week-AM snack-sugar free jello cup. PM snack is cheddar cheese, salami and boiled egg.

NOW onto dinner!

Monday-I had a Mexican zuccini beef skillet.  This is one of my MOST favorite go to meals! It's done in about 20 minutes! I top mine with a little cheese, taco sauce and sour cream. You can also serve it over brown rice.
Here's the recipe: Low carb zuccini beef skillet

Tuesday- I had Cream cheese chicken with bacon and green beans. This is a favorite but takes some time. It's better if you use big chicken breasts and pound them a little bit thinner so that you can really wrap the cream cheese up in there. And who doesn't like bacon?!
Here's the recipe: Cream cheese chicken wrapped in bacon

Wednesday- I had Broiled garlic chicken thighs with fresh green beans. This was REALLY good. The recipe calls for soy sauce but I didn't have any so I used teriyaki sauce and it was still good. Be aware, using your broiler causes smoke because the sauce splatters when cooking. I also bought bone in chicken thighs and removed the bones myself because they were $0.49/lb at Aldi. Next time I'll pay more for boneless LOL
Here's the recipe:Garlic broiled chicken thighs

Thursday- I am having steak with onions and mushrooms. I'd love to grill my steak but my grill is out of commission right now. Instead I'll sear it in my cast iron skillet(which I LOVE) and then broil it until done. I sautee the mushrooms and onions with some minced garlic and olive oil and voila!

Friday- I am having a Philly cheese steak foil packets! I'll let you know how this is when I write my next meal plan post! I am eliminating the potato to keep this pretty low carb.
Here is the recipe: Philly cheese steak packets

Saturday-I'm having chicken taco burgers! Chicken TACO BURGERS! I'll let you know how this is when I post my next meal plan but who doesn't love chicken and tacos!
Here's the recipe: Chicken Taco Burgers

So there ya have it. A nice healthy meal plan to keep me on track to get my diabetes under control and lose more weight!

So far I've stuck to it! Except for today.... We had a pot luck so I ate a lot of veggies, a tiny spoon of noodles, a few wheat thin crackers, a rice crispy treat and some apple snickers salad! I did pretty good if I do say so myself!

Would you like me to share my meal plans every week?  Maybe you and your family can be inspired and eat some of the same things I do!

Dead before I'm 40

It's been some time since I last posted. I'm struggling.

I have given up on the C25K program. I'm just too overweight to run. My fat bounces around and it hurts so bad. Starting Monday I'm going to start with just a walk every day and gradually increase my speed. Maybe speed walking one day will be my friend. Cookie likes to go for walks but he's getting old and won't be here forever so I really need to learn to do it on my own.

My weight is slowly creeping back up. I'm depressed about it. My blood sugars remain out of control. I'm even more depressed about them. I am slowly killing myself and I know what I need to do to change it.

I'm going to venture into the land of low carb high fat diets. I have read so many beautiful success stories and have an online friend who is having great success with it. I can't not try it. The problem is, how do I stick with it when everyone around me is eating all of this good looking bread, chips, pasta, sweets etc. I just feel so isolated and alone in this journey I'm on. I know my friends and family support me but here's how it goes... Keep up the good work Tif, you look great Tif, WOW you've lost weight Tif. Then... chomp on chips, lets have lasagne and garlic bread for Easter, lets have pizza for supper, lets have Jimmy Johns for lunch. *sigh* I guess they just don't get it. No I don't look great, No I haven't lost more weight, No I am not doing good work. I AM DYING! Literally and you can't see it but you need to understand what I am saying!

Our break room at work sucks. We have a toaster oven and microwave. I struggle with lunches because I really can't eat salad every day. I just can't. I've tried and tried and it doesn't work. My kitchen at home is bad too. I hate cooking there. I know I have to but it sucks.

I'm on 5 medicines aday and only a few weeks away from insulin. I do NOT want to go on insulin unless I can come off of these other meds and I know my Dr won't let me. I have diabetes which in turn has caused high blood pressure and high cholesterol so I take meds for all of that! It's so annoying. Oh hey, I can't stay out late because I have to get home to take my meds. Ya that's awesome. NO, no it's not.

All I'm asking for is some prayers that I can heal my body and live a long life. It's not easy and I fail badly sometimes. If I don't turn this around now I'll be dead before I'm 40. Think about that.

If you have any recipe ideas you come across please email them to me at tbh7982@gmail.com or send them to me on facebook! I need all the help I can get people!