Hair Arsenal

Being that I workout most days...my hair drives me nuts most of those days...

Should I wash?
Can I just wear it up today?
Do I have to fix it AGAIN?
Is it going to be frizzy today?
Where am I going?

AHHHHH!

The never ending stay at home mom, fitness fanatic, homeschoolin hair!!

But I still want to look fabulous and not LOOK like I am just at home and that the only place I have been is Publix or the gym.

My hair is fine...very fine...looks greasy at the roots...but my hair itself is on the dry side. I use Moroccanoil Treatment Light,  on the ends only...to help with the dryness.
I am sweaty most days from running or lifting. And I suffer from thinning hair. You can read more about that...Here...

So what I have found is that if I don't wash it on a day after I work out...it is very greasy and rogaine ish looking.

rogaine itself doesn't make it greasy. 

But  rogaine 2x a day plus sweat and no washing and it looks greasy. 

Sooo I use Cake beauty powder! And it is a complete life changer!  I sprinkle the yummy goodness on my roots and not only does it smell amazing...it makes my hair look clean! 

I also use Cake Beauty spray...I started with the whole kit but now I just buy the larger size because I spray it all over. It's not overwhelming like perfume at all! Because I am not a fan of perfume. This is like a vanilla softish scent. I use it on my hair and a few spritzes on my body. Pipiri loves it too! Oh and it's an all natural product! 

I am dying to try this one too by Cake Beauty....Cake Beauty Dry Shampoo Spray...! 

I also love beach sprays...to make my hair more wavy. I usually use Not Your Mother's Beach Babe ...but I found this Charlotte Ronson one and have been using it a bit on days I wash my hair. It's not as good as the Not Your Mothers Beach Babe. I think it feels a bit heavy and weighs it down some.

75% food, 20% working out, 5% water...the way I see it.

It's alllll about the food...it's what I put into my body that matters most. Read Here  about what I typically eat in a day. It's the types of food that i am eating, the amount I am eating, and when I am eating that matters the most.

I stick with natural organic fruits blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries...and veggies....kale, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, arugula. Whole grains breads...ezekial is my fav. Once I tried it I never went back! Cheeses and yogurts with some fat. Eggs, tuna. Olive and Grapeseed oils. Organic raw walnuts, pecans, chia seeds, and cashews. Almond milk. Organic peanut butter. Kerrygold butter. 

I eat like a King for breakfast, a Queen for lunch, and a peasant at dinner. Meaning I taper off my calories thruout the day...breakfast is always always always my largest most caloric meal of the day! Always! Lunch is smaller than breakfast, and dinner is the smallest of all. Yes, it goes against what my parents taught me. Quite the opposite actually. I eat between 1200-1350 calories per day.

Working out...it's all about consistency. Just doing it. Stopping the excuses. 5/6x a week. Burning calories. Sweating. Lifting. Strength training. Going to the gym. Making the time. Knowing how important it is for my heart health. Overall health. Mental health. To make time for myself. To be the best mommy I can be. Making me a better wife. A happier person. Moving my  body. It always thanks me. 

Lastly the all important water. Drink up. Plain ole tap water. 100 ounces per day. More if I'm doing cardio. I don't drink soda, tea or any alcohol. Just H20. That's all I need. 

                             Age 23 vs .....17 years late.....Age 40! 

Meet Darren!

Meet Darren.

He found me thru his wife who is also my client. 

He was a runner and already had a ton of muscle! 

His goal was to:

Add more muscle

Be more lean

And be Über fit!

Before pics.

An 8-10 week plan is what he needed.

He needed to lose some fat, change his diet, up his cardio, add more water, and add some full body workouts. 

May 23, 2014

6 feet tall

Weight  216

Starting measurements

Neck 17 7/8

Shoulders 50 3/8

Right arm 15 3/8

Left arm 15 3/4

Chest 43 7/8

Waist 37 1/2

Hips 42 1/4

After one week and a HUGE kick in the pants....

He was down 10 pounds!!! 

May 30...Weight 206..!!!!!

There were definitely some dietary challenges with him...like alot of Americans he was eating way to much fatty meat, too much sodium, and packaged/processed foods.

And a few days he actually was not eating enough...

So with some tweaking..

Six weeks later he was down to 205...he looked like this..look at his awesome abs developing! And his shoulders! Whooa! Much leaner back too!

He decided to keep going....and going he did!

July 24 

Weight after 202.

Measurements after 9 weeks

Neck 16 5/8

Shoulders 51 1/8

R arm 15 1/4

Left arm 15 1/2

Chest 43 1/2

Waist 36 1/2

Hips 41 1/2

And check out these pics! Hello abs!!!

Darren...I am so proud of you! 

Keep it up my friend!

 Stay tuned because he's planning on adding more muscle and looking even more amazing! 

Garden from a BROWN thumb

When I decided that Pipiri and I needed to grow our FIRST box garden back in the spring...I had very lowwww expectations! Read Here when about when we first started....I figured if I had one flower or veggie to grow I'd be super happy.

I truly thought that nothing would grow...

Welll after about 4 months...look how amazing!

We have beautiful sunflowers!

Even little tomatoes!

Annndddd even some tiny carrots and green beans! 

Still waiting for our lavender to grow...and the spinach well I waited too long to pick it and it died....but all in all...

It's been the best experience for she and I to share together! Happy Saturday to you all!

Active Rest

I have a tendency to over do it and to hardle ever take more than two days off in a row. And I work extremely hard every time I work out. I would say on a scale of 1-10... I weight train around a 7-9 every time. And when I do cardio I would say i work at the same level.

It is hard for me to take time off...very hard! 

Yesterday I knew it was time.

I could not finish my weight training session and I quit after two rounds of my workout and after I lifted some with my friend and trainer. So total about 40 minutes and I truly couldn't do anymore. 

I was exhausted! 

So being that tomorrow I turn 41.. I thought what a perfect time for some much needed active rest! 

I plan to take one full week off of working out and I started today.

I am not going to run, do any weight lifting, strength training, or rolling stairclimber for 7 full days.

However, I will not just be sitting around on the couch doing nothing.

I will be actively resting.

Daily or bi-daily yoga.

Nature walks.

Swimming at the pool with Pipiri.

Playing at the park.

Stretching my tired muscles. 

Meditating. 

Sleeping more.

Reading.

Taking care of myself.

I try to take one week off every 5 or so months and I plan to do it in an active way. 

Coffee part 2...cutting back even more....

So after reducing my caffiene intake a ton.    Only using 4 or so heaping tablespoons of coffee instead of filling the enitire filter to the top.. I thought i was well on my way to blissfulness!!! Read more Here about my coffee habit.

Not so much!

Jump to 2014... Sleeping better 6-7 hrs sometimes 7-8 but not very often. 

I started having weird heart palpitations. As if my heart were skipping a beat. It had happened in the past maybe 1-2x every six months. 

But now it was happening wayyy more frequently. Every other day..mostly in the evenings.. Sometimes up to 10 or more times a day.  Sometimes just doing daily activites but mainly in the late evenings.

It scared me to death!

Of course Dr Google was no help! Just made it more scary!!!!

And the insomnia was returning!!!

Soo after a few weeks of this.. I finally got the nerve to ask my dear cardiologist friend. 

And the very first question he asked was "do you drink coffee? Or any caffeine?"

Yes and i told him about how i had lowered it tremendously in the past year... But yes i still drank it in the am. 

He told me to lower it even more...cut it way back....cut it down to less than half of what I was having.

Well that's what I did...I cut it down to 3 heaping teaspoons full, not tablespoons...then in a week or so I cut it back again...to 2 1/2 teaspoons full..this time flat not heaping. Heaping or flat makes a huge difference! 

The first week I was definitely tired around 3:00 PM...but the jitteriness was completely gone. The irritableness gone! 

And most importantly the heart palpitations GONE!  After just two days...GONE! 

So...now I am drinking 2 flat teaspoons full and that's it...about 6-8 ounces of very weak coffee...I've been doing this for about 2 weeks now.

Does it taste as good...NO! It Tastes like watered down coffee...blah! 

Am I sleeping better...somewhat...6-7 hours straight.

Am I jittery ....NO.

Did I have headaches when I first started cutting back......yes...they got better after about 2 weeks. But I still have them a bit. I suppose being that I have been drinking it for so many years...and it is addictive...then it's just part of cutting back.

Am I am irritable....no...not according to my hubs.

Am I more patient....definitely! 

Do I have any heart palpitations....since I cut down after speaking to my cardiologist friend...I've have maybe 4. 

I love coffee! Love it! But it is not worth the trouble it was causing me. Not at all!

So I won't say goodbye completely to it...but I will if any weird things happen again! 

Coffee...my drug of choice! Part 1

I started drinking coffee when I first started teaching Elelmentary school in about 1997.

My fellow teacher brought one everyday to her classroom and she told me how awesome it was....it came from a gas station...some type of mocha stuff.

So I started stopping and getting the same thing. Little did I know I was consuming about 400 calories each cup.

When I moved to Florida a few years after I switched to just regular coffee...after realizing I was downing a ton of cals.

Black coffee, skim milk...a bit of Splenda.

I did this for years ....many many years...every morning...8-10 ounces...

In the past 5 years I have tried to limit chemicals in my diet so I switched to stevia instead of Splenda.

After having Pipiri...the sleepless nights really took a huge toll on me.

Being a new mom...crying baby...no sleep... then up early with a newborn...tons of coffee..repeat for about a year.

So basically for a whole year this was my routine....no sleep...coffee...baby...coffee...no sleep...

On and on...

Even after Pipiri was sleeping soundly I didn't sleep...for many months...close to a year.

I had full blown insomnia...

It was awful! I lived on coffee...and zero sleep.

I was beyond exhausted.
I looked like a zombie...I dropped to many pounds below my normal weight.

After a whole year of this routine ....I read Say Good Night to Insomnia: The Six-Week, Drug-Free Program Developed At Harvard Medical School.

I did everything the book said and yes while I was sleeping a bit more maybe 3-4 hours per night..

I still felt horrible...looked worse...was miserable. My head spun...my eyes looked like a skeleton.

So I reread the book. 

Did everything again. 

Kept a sleep log...stopped my caffiene consumption after 11 am...and yes I was sleeping better maybe 4-5 hours...so I was functioning but not great.

This went on for about 2 more years. 

Now jump ahead to the beginning of 2013. I decided to look into caffiene and how much is too much...hellllooo why didn't i do this wayyy back when this all started? 

So I was filling the coffee filter up to the very tip too every single time...with maybe 25 ounces of water. 

I was so far over my limit...so far! 

According to This article a normal person is suppose to have 400 mg a day of caffiene...

Well if I had to guess I would say I was extremely over this limit. 

So I stopped that habit that very day about 1.5 years ago. I actually started reading the back of the coffee bag where it says to only use 1 tablespoon per 4 ounces or so.

And wow what a difference it made...a huge difference! 

The jitteriness was so much better....the sleepless nights even better...I was actually sleeping 7 maybe even 8 hours! I felt better....yay! 

Then....

Stay tuned for part two of this story...

Charlotte'sWeb

 Charlotte's Web  by EB White is one of my all time favorite children's chapter books!

We decided to read it this summer! What a treat...she loved it! She pretended to be Fern the entire time we read it! 

We would share pages...one page she would read to me and vice versa.

We made this diorama out of a shoe box...some construction paper...tape...viola!

Wilbur's Farm!

I love Holztiger (we have both Holztiger and Ostheimer characters and love them all)..wooden animals...Bull, Sheep,  Rooster, Duck,  Goat,  Mouse and the Pig of course! 
And our people too...Farmer's Wife, Farmer, Small Boy/girl...

Each time we read a chapter she would use the diorama to act out that part of the story. 

Last weekend we visited a farm...with Micro Mini Pigs! They were adorable! 

Goats of course...Pip loved them!

It was a great day!  Many thanks to the our sweet friends for letting us visit! 

What a fantastic way to celebrate Charlotte's Web! 

Reading....

I have talked several times and written many posts about our love of reading and why I think it is soooo important to read to children. Read Here and Here about our homeschooling journey and how she learned to read VERY young!

I wanted Pipiri to be able to read...so I taught her to read...I wanted her to never struggle with reading...and she never will.....I wanted her to love reading...and she does!

She loves to read!
Books are her very favorite thing in the world!
She reads every single day. And I read to her almost every single day:) we very rarely skip a day of reading. Even when she was a tiny tiny infant I read to her. Book after book after book.

Now at 4.5 she is reading chapter books by herself. She and I finished Charlotte's Web last week.  And she is now reading Stuart Little by herself (mostly). 

I like to read older style books...vintage...all original versions nothing watered down.  I like the pureness and authentic way authors that lived long ago wrote. I love the sweetness of vintage literature.

I like to read many different levels of books to her from.....The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to Original Beatrix Potter...newspapers...cereal boxes...anything in print we read. 

Reading is a wonderful way for children's to leave their own world and visualize a new world.
It uses their imagination in so many different ways.
It increases their vocabulary.

It teaches them about new places, friends, grammar, sentences, nouns, characters, settings...

It helps them to put events in order...
It quiets their minds.
Opens their eyes to new ideas.
By reading to themselves ....it helps them to picture in their minds eye what is happening in the book... 

There is nothing better than snuggling up and reading to a child...no matter what their age.
Nothing better than hearing the sweet voice of a child reading.

Happy reading! 

Desk makeover

I have not liked this desk since the moment it was delivered four years ago from amazon.

Brown blahhhh....ugly...sad tired desk :(((

I wanted to buy a new super cute turquoise desk but the one I found was $700!!!! 

Yikes! 

Can't do that...

Soooo......

Today we chalk painted this one. This turquoise color is similar to the one I used... chalk paint.

It was an alllll day project...much bigger of a project that I had thought.

The old shiny silver knobs had to go also...very dated looking.

Off to Home Depot I went.

And here's our new improved office area now!

Read here about my chair find in KY.

I love it! Turquoise desk...yay! New chair yay! Decluttered yay!