The 5 stages of Hunger

It was a typical Friday night for me and my man, sitting at home doing nothing. We decide to go in to town to see my mom and family, we get there and no one is home. So I call my little sister and they have all gone out for dinner. Well just great, we drove all the way here and now we just have to go home. It has been a few months that we have been on our real food journey, and I have been craving a burger. You know a big greasy burger with some salty fries and a pop. First off, I haven’t eaten Mc D’s in well over 4 months and I haven’t had any pop for much longer. So for me to have this craving, it wasn’t just a ‘well I could have one’ my stomach was like ‘WE ARE HAVING ONE.’ The kind of cravings that take over your whole body and you can’t think about anything else but what it is. So your thought process begins...

Stage 1: Bargaining

Well I haven’t had it in a long time, what will it hurt. I will just get one small burger, small fries and no pop. Yea no pop that will make it better. No I’ll just go home, I am not that hungry…But I really do want a burger…

Stage 2: Thinking facts

Then you remember about the article that told you that the pickles are made from 7 different ingredients. That the meat is pretty well made of nothing that is going to nourish your body, and that your know you’re going to be hungry in an hour. That last time you had one you had an upset stomach and you had to race to the bathroom as soon as you got home…

Stage 3: Tricking your mind

You try to convince yourself that you are starving and will die without it. You tell yourself, that no matter what you get it won’t satisfy you like that burger will. You think about the first bite and the salt on the fries, how can I not have it plus I don’t know how to make fries at home…

Stage 4: What else could we do

You think to yourself that you could just make a burger at home, yea that’s better. But wait, we don’t have hamburger, lettuce, mayo or anything else to go on a burger for that matter. Ok that’s fine we will buy it. So you rack your brain about the cost. Isn’t that what it all ways comes down to, money? So now your $1.49 cheese burger has now turned in to $20….

Stage 5: To do or not to do

So you convinced yourself that this is what you’re going to do. You’re pulling closer to it; you can see the big bright shining M like a beacon in the dark summoning you towards it. You look around at all the different restaurants and think, ‘I should not be down here’. You pull in to the drive threw…..

Now this is the deciding move, once you go into the drive threw there is no turning back. Skylar pulled up to the drive threw and pulled a little to the side. He looked at me and said “Now are you really sure you want to do this?” He looks at me, the gears in my head just going a mile a minute. Going through all these stages again in my head and a little out load, throwing a million different ideas at him. He calmly looks at me again and repeats “Are you really sure you want to do this?” I start to panic and the guilt sets in and I haven’t even done anything yet. I say… well it was more of a soft shout “NO! Get me out of here!” He pulls the car forward and we leave, with the golden arches in my rear view mirror, I feel better.

However my stomach is still growling, so to the super market we go. We travel down to the meat section, with our $10 budget in hand. Meat $7.00. Wait, that can’t be right I still need more things…

We spent the next hour wondering around looking at food, trying to figure out what we could possibly do to satisfy my craving. Pre-made burgers? Sandwich? Fish sticks? By this time, my stomach is so load I can barely think. We both just get to overwhelmed and we ended up, after over an hour or shopping around, leaving the store with sandwich meat.

We are going to have black forest ham sandwiches; we have all the ingredients at home. And I have been wanting to make mayo for a few days now, this is the perfect time to try. Well 11pm is not a very good time to try and use your food processor, especially when you live in a basement suit. Ok no mayo, and the bread if frozen….

Anyway, we ended up having these super awesome delicious sandwiches and we both felt very good about our decision to stay healthy.

We have both come a long way, I know it doesn’t sound like it but we have, but we have. When Skylar and I first started dating we used to eat at Mc D’s at least twice a week! We did that for years, and when we decided to make the change to real food, we cut it out cold turkey.

We cut out eating out at all! I decided that learning to cook and make food that not only nourished our bodies but made us feel good, was way more important. It has been hard; I am not going to say that it’s super easy when it’s not. But since we have switched we have both noticed huge differences in lots of aspects of our life. We feel more energized, we don’t really get headaches anymore and when we eat we just plain feel better. Skylar has been struggling for a while with his stomach, whenever he eats his stomach goes rock hard and it’s very painful. He had tried a few different things, like taking pills before he ate, taking gut and bloating meds but nothing worked. Ever since we went organic he has not had one issue. He likes eating again and he never has to deal with weighing eating over pain again. We are in transition now to go Paleo because of my dairy problems and it has done amazing things for my energy level that alone is worth it for me. I just have to remember that next time a get a craving.

Have you ever been tempted to go to the Golden Arches?

What was your outcome?

 

PS. Food for thought...

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Life is a Roller Coaster Ride

Have you every tied to do something new before? I bet you have, everyday people do and try new things. Have you ever done anything that was our of your comfort zone? Some people have different levels of fear and can and will do more crazy things than others. Some people have been sky diving, not this girl, although someday I wish to be able to try it. Some people go there whole life without doing something out of their comfort zone and their ok with that. Some people don’t live in a bubble and are happy that way too. Not me. I love trying new things but I like my bubble because it is safe. It keeps me in control and nothing ever goes wrong in the bubble right?

Wrong. It doesn’t matter if you like or bubble or not. Life is not always going to be a straight road. It’s going to twist and turn and have its fair share of hills and valleys, I know mine has.

Source

My life up until now has been a roller coaster ride, with little time on the straight stretch. I am constantly learning and doing new things that 2 or even 3 years ago I would have told you couldn’t be done. And just when you think you’re coming up on the end of the ride and your coming up to the landing, the car zooms forward and up another hill you go.

My roller coaster ride has been full of adventure. After Grad I moved two provinces away to be with my boyfriend, away from all my family and friends. It wasn’t so bad and I made new friends and talked on the phone with my family. We ended up staying there for a few years, had a few jobs, still not knowing what I wanted to do. I meet some amazing people that put me on the right track to a career in photography! Sounds fun right. I worked at Wolly world photo lab to learn the behind the scenes of the developing the film. Then I worked as a photographers assistant, learning all the editing a post processing. When I moved back to BC, I had a wonderful opportunity to become a manager at a studio in town. Dream come true, Manager at a Sears Portrait studio. I worked so hard and became the #1 studio in all of Canada out of 365 studios! The Vic President of the company even came to meet me in person; he loved my work and had tons of great advice for me. With him also came a job offer, Regional Trainer. Pretty much my job would be go to different studios all over the province and train people to be better photographers. Talk about a huge ego booster. Since I was little all I ever wanted to be was a teacher, best of both worlds with this new opportunity. It was all planned and set in action, I was going to start on Saturday…However that’s where I saw the landing and then plunged in to a very deep valley.

It was Thursday afternoon on April 10^th 2014, when I got in to my car accident.

You see life doesn’t always give you heads up when things are going to change, one minute it will be sunny and next you’re caught in a rainstorm. Life if not about crying about the weather it’s about how you can learn to love the rain. To see the small joys that you get when it rains, like rainbows, flowers and green grass. Because it’s not always going to rain but it’s not always going to be sunny either. It’s what you do with the day that matters.

You only have one life to live. And whether you decide to live it in your bubble, outside of it or both, your life is what you make it.

Things for me have been on the slow, slow, slow ride back out of the valley, just about to see day light again. And you can be sure that when I reach the sun again I will not complain about the sun in my eyes, but just enjoy the warmth on my face.

 

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I am back! - Blog under Construction

Hello Everyone!

I know it has been a very long time, but I am back! And with a fresh new blog plan! During the next few weeks you will see tons of changes on this little blog of mine. Some of you have messaged me wondering where I had gone, and I am here to tell you that I am back for good! I have had a crazy CRAZY year and I can’t wait to tell you everything that is going on and what has happened.

The blog name will change and the dress it's wearing but it will still be me, just in a new outfit!

So please stick around for more updates and regular posts soon to come!

 

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What I have been up to..

It seems as though time just flys these days and there is no time to even rap your head around the fact that time is wizzling by. That has been my life for the last little while and Iam just starting to come up for air. I have been working non-stop and have been trying to enjoy my life in the process, which all of you know is some times difficult. I down loaded this blogger app for my phone so I hope to stay more up to date with posting. I really do love blogging and I miss it a lot these days. Iam always thinking, oh that would be awesome for my blog but never get a spare minute to pull out my computer and jot it down.
So here are some pictures of what I have been up to and I hope that I will get back into the habit of writing on my lovely blog again.

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Cool Whip Diet

Don’t forget to smile!

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Scatter brains

I have been working on so many different things this week I feel that I am just not getting anything done. Do you ever have days like that?? I am so busy already doing….well what I am I doing…

I am trying to be more creative and work on my art, and I love it. But I lose track of time like no one’s business. So in turn I have been losing sleep.

Which isn’t good for the job part of my day… :(

But I hope to share some pictures with you soon. That’s the problem with working on so many things at once. Nothing is done.

I hope everyone is having a good week, and I will talk to you soon!

Don’t forget to smile!

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Who am I to be giving advice?

Do I have the right to tell someone to do something if I don’t know the back story?

I met with my friend today; we haven’t seen each other in awhile. In passing, saying hello, but nothing more than that.

She asked me the other day if I wanted to hang out and of course I said yes. I have been hearing through the ‘grape vine’ that she really hasn’t been in a good place lately. And I wanted to get her side of the story and have a heart to heart. I am a “ready to jump in guns blazing” kind of girl when it comes to my friends. I will always have their back and give them advice even though I might not be qualified to do so.

Which brings me to my point, have you ever gone in to a situation with your mind made up about what you’re going to talk about? I went in with a mindset that “this” was bothering her, but in fact it was “that”. Man did I ever feel silly. That’s what you get from listening to the ‘grape vine’

So after I finally stopped talking and listened to what was really bothering her then that back story came to the surface.  She has been very stressed out about debt. She is one of the hardest working people I know; she works two jobs and most of the time on the same day. That would stress me out too, working 20 hours a day. And she feels that she is losing herself, she wanted to ask me what her hobbies used to be. That just broke my heart, I have been in that place and it’s really hard to get out of.

I have been having huge problems with this lately and it has been bringing me closer to God. In letting me step back and realize that he has a plan for me and I don’t have to worry about it. But with her it has torn her farther away from God. She used to be very religious and I was always the standoffish one, and it has seemed that we have switched.

I wasn’t sure what to tell her, I didn’t want to preach to her or have her feel award. Where is the line? Now I think I am the one that needs advice, What should I do….

I told her to just think happy thoughts and good things will happen.  To not look at the negatives but to try and find the positives no matter how bleak the situation seems. Like with debt don’t think about how much you have, focus on the fact that you made a $50.00 payment on it. Simple things like that, have been slowly changing me, I just hope it works for her.

I just kept thinking to myself, I need to pray about this, I need God to help her. Even though she doesn’t realize it, she is worthy. Jesus died for all our sins big and small and he loves all of us.

I ask you to help me pray to the lord today:

DearLord: I ask that you please shine your light on her and show her that she is worthy of your love. That you will help her to find herself again, Oh Lord. Help her with her debt so she can slow down and enjoy the wonderful life that you have blessed her with. Thank you Lord –Amen

Please send a prayer out to her today, and pray that she will let him back in to her heart again. Thank you everyone♥

Don’t forget to smile!

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With health on the mind

Good Sunday everyone!

I hope everyone had a good week! This week has been full of choices for me. Some more complicated than others.

One thing that Skylar and I have been trying to work on is our health. It is very important and we need to start making it a priority in our lives. We always used to say to eat healthy is too expensive so we put up that wall and never aloud out selves to think otherwise. Now we have come to the conclusion, with help from our lack of money that we spend way too much. We eat out a lot and we never plan meals and always eat on the fly. We have money but we just through it right out the window as soon as we get it.

So we have talked about it and we are going to change our habits. With a little help from friends and the internet we are going to start taking care of our bodies. We only get one!

So with that said I would like your help and encouragement along the way, I need to be constantly encouraged or I never do anything “different”.

Here is a little tip I found on the internet today! Starting to plan meals is going to be the biggest problem for me, and this sounds so easy. Breakfast in a Jar♥ I found it here at  The Kitchn 

Oatmeal in Jars: Make a Week of Breakfast in 5 Minutes

I think I am going to try it next week. I will let you know how it goes and maybe you can try it too!

If you try this recipe let me know what you think.

Also what fruit do you like in your oatmeal?

Don’t forget to smile!

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i'm letting go

Do you ever have those days where nothing and I mean nothing goes the way that you have planned? You just want to cry and stomp your feet like you did when you were a child. Well I have had many of those day but I have never until the other day thought to myself why…?

Why I am I acting like a child and having these thoughts… Life is not as bad as you are acting right now. Well I had one of these moments the other day, while I was crying over something that seemed so wrong.

On Thursday I went to take my driver test to get my license and was unable to. I was told some wrong information and found it out to late. She proceeded to tell me that I needed another class before I can take my test. Well that doesn’t seem so bad but I practiced all the night before for the test, so I was just very frustrated. My eyes began to swell up with water and I could hardly talk for fear of crying. My driving instructor was there and stud up for me, however to no avail and I still have to take the class.

                Then a glimmer of hope….She told me that there was one this Saturday and that there was still room if I wanted to join. What good news, however when we reached the car my eyes could no longer hold back the tears as I thought about work. I had to work this Saturday and there was no way I could get it off because my boss already had it booked off and the next class wasn’t until the end of October.

Mad about the situation I was in, I kind of shut off. I was grumpy and not a very good person to be around. I tried to hide it for work but I was told to day by my friend that I wasn’t hiding it that good. I have been working to get my license for a while now and everything keeps going wrong.

So I prayed…prayed for help. Prayed to God to enter into my life and send me the holy spirit to guide me. Help me not be this terrible person. Help me to see past this road block and see the good. I talked to my best friend that night and she calmed me down out of tears. She reminded me that God had a plan and I was not meant to take the test that day because if I was then I would have been able to take it. That maybe there is something in that class that I need to know before.

Then I received an email from my loving daddy…

A strong person knows how to keep their life in order. Even with tears in their eyes, they still manage to say "I'm ok" with a smile. Send this to a strong person. I just did. God is good. Change is coming. God saw your sadness and said hard times are over.

I sent it to a few people that I think would a appreciate it. I got a astonishing response back, from a wonderful lady that I am lucky to have in my life. She said: Thank you Tamara, this is so thoughtful of you. I don't feel strong, but I am blessed to have lots of people holding me up. Thank you for being one of the people that holds me up. I got a teary eyed reading those words and thanked God for giving me this amazing woman in my life.

Then everything started falling in to place. I got a text mesg from my driving instructor telling me that she will do special classes with me at night so I can get my license sooner! Tears again.

How could I ever think bad things about my life when I have all these wonderful people surrounding me? I was not sure about this journey that I had started to travel on until he showed me the power of love and acceptance this past week. He has a plan for me and I am ready to follow it with all my heart!

The first time I prayed it was weird and I didn’t know what to say. In youth group I would always sing to the songs so loud and that’s how I communicated with Him. So I went to the best blog ever and I checked out her playlist and fell in love with Francesca Battistelli and her amazing voice.

There is this one song that jumped right into my heart and sang to my soul. It’s called I’m letting go and it is what I am going though right now. It feels like I was lead to this song because she wrote it for me.

There is another song on her album that I have listened to about 5 times today, but ill keep you waiting and ill show it to you tomorrow! See you then.

Don’t forget to smile!

57. Finding new music

58. The friends I have in my life and the ones to come

59. unexpected thoughts of kindness

60. Multi grain creamy ranch Pringles

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Busy Week...

Sorry I have been a bad blogger lately but life is got me all in a spin. There seems to be way too much to do and not enough time to do it. Lots of things have happened and I am so excited to share..

I decided to get my hair cut, I needed a change. Do you ever feel like you have done all the hair styles you can with that cut and are now board of them? Well I do, as soon as my hair was long enough I started putting it in a pony tail and getting lazy. So I chopped it off again and changed the colour. My honey loves it when I have red hair, and our anniversary (more to come later) was coming up so I decided to treat both of us ;) It looks pretty darn good if I do say so my elf. I died it myself while honey was at work heheh When he got home he was very excited and so was I.

There has been a lot going on this week that has got me sort of stressed out so I started taking a little time for myself and having a cup of tea. It’s nice to have those few moments of alone time to just relax. I love the name of the tea it totally suits me this week!

I have been working by myself at the studio all week. There is a huge Power lifting event on all week from Tuesday to Sunday, and our studio was asked to take pictures! Isn’t that awesome, people from 29 different countries came to our little town and put on this amazing show. I didn’t get to go; someone had to run the studio while everyone was gone. What an amazing feeling of responsibility, that someone has faith in you to run the studio by yourself for a whole week, it was amazing. I got tones of work done and even more cleaning. I normally never have time to clean and I feel bad but this week I made time and I think the studio looks awesome. However, I have been lacking in my house cleaning this week. How wants to clean all day at work then come home and clean again...not this girl. Laundry has been piling up and so have the dishes, so today is the day! I need to get cracking on my house now because God knows that it needs some TLC.

Don’t forget to smile!

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Life is what happens...

This has been the busiest week of my whole life. Ok maybe a little bit of a stretch, but who can blame me. I told you about my friend Tara coming for a visit and I have been so excited to just have girl talk and catch up on gossip and such. But nothing really works out the way you plan.

Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans

So the weekend before she is coming out she asks me if her and her boyfriend can stay at our house, and of course I said yes. But wait a minute; my house is so not ready for this. So the Monday morning I am on the bus and I get a phone call from my driving instructor. She is calling to arrange an in car and I am more than thrilled so I make an appointment for Friday. It wasn’t till I got to work that I realized that it was this Friday and Tara would be here. Not only did I schedule an in car on practically the only day we could hang out, but I also couldn’t get time off work. My boss’s sister is coming down for the weekend and she booked it off, which is good for her, she was/is so exited! But I am not complaining one bit because at least I get to see her and that’s what counts. So here is to staying up late even though you have to work!! Yey : )

11.Seeing old friends again

12.Laughing until you can’t breath

13.The good night kiss

14.Realizing you were scared over nothing

15.Complements from complete strangers

Don’t forget to smile!

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Dessert for Dinner

Today was one of those days where everything works upside down. I didn’t have to work today, but had a lot to do. I only things I had on the agenda today was Zumba in the morning and house cleaning. You see I found out this weekend that my friend from BC is coming to SK. I am so exited, but my house is not ready to be seen yet :S We have been living here for 3 months now and I still haven’t unpacked all the boxes yet. I am so terrible when it come to packing and unpacking; I am a 100% slacker.

Any way so when I got home I checked my Face Book and started at it… I was so busy all afternoon cleaning that the day flu by. But I had gotten a new recipe and I really wanted to try it and not having a clock that works in your kitchen makes it hard to keep track. So I am cutting up the apples for my Apple Crumble and my honey walks in the door, it was 6pm already. Needless to say it was done by the time he got out of the shower and it was getting too late. So we had Apple Crumble for dinner, it was very good :)

Here is the Recipe if you want to try it.

·        Toss ½ cup of unsweetened apple sauce with 6 thinly sliced unpeeled apples.
(To do the thin slices I used a egg slicer)

·        Spread evenly in a lightly oiled 8x12 baking pan.

·        Mix ¾ cup of rolled oats

·        3 tablespoons of toasted wheat germ (I bought mine at the Bulk Barn)

·        3 tablespoons of brown sugar

·        1 teaspoon of cinnamon

·        1 tablespoon of canola oil

·        I tablespoon of unsalted butter

·        Spread over apples

·        Bake for 30-35 minutes

·         At 350

If you try it let me know how it goes!!

Don’t forget to smile!

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So the list begins!

Faith
is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Dr. Martine Luther king JR

So the list begins! A list of Gifts, little things that you might miss on a day to day basis but would miss if they were gone. Gifts that God has given us, I need to remember the small things and rejoice in the many pleasures of this world. I am hoping that it will help me look past all the troubles of this world and see the good. I cannot how ever take all the credit for this wonderful idea it was Becky’s idea. Without her blog I would undoubtedly lose my way. She is doing a list as well, join us and remind yourself to see the little things in life.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew

Gifts

1.       The smell of rain

2.       The feel of sand between your toes as water rushes towards you

3.       Finding lost treasures when going through old boxes

4.       The feeling of laundry fresh out of the dryer

5.       An ice cold glass of water with a lemon wedge on a hot day

6.       The love in a hug from an old friend

7.       The tears on your mothers face when you surprise her

8.       First snow fall

9.       A good Quote

10.   The smell of paint as it squeezes out of the tube

 

Don’t forget to smile!

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