Weight Loss Jars

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a great weight loss visual and motivator so I had to give it a try! For this Weight Loss Wednesday I wanted to share my super easy DIY weight loss jars!

 All you need is 2 jars, some letter stickers and some stones.

Using the letter stickers spell LBS. LOST on one jar and LBS. TO LOSE on the other. Now all you have to do is in the LBS. LOST jar place a stone for each pound you have lost and in the LBS. TO LOSE jar place a stone for each pound you still want to lose!

It has really helped me a lot physically seeing how much I have lost and how much I have to lose! Its great watching the LBS. LOST jar fill up and the LBS. TO LOSE jar empty out! To anyone trying to lose some weight I really suggest you try this!

Simple DIY Dinner Menu

I love my DIY menu! I sit down every Saturday night and write out our dinners for the week then Sunday I go grocery shopping and get all the items that I need to make each meal. It has been saving us so much money because instead of over buying things I think we might eat (of course we don't eat half of it which is a huge waste of food and money) I only buy the things we need. Another awesome thing is I do all my "what should I make for dinner?" thinking in one night...the rest of the week is a breeze! And when I hear "what's for dinner?" all I have to do is point to the wall!

Here is how I made my super easy, super convenient dinner menu:

 All you need is markers, a piece of notebook paper and an 8x10 frame.

 Take the glass out of the frame and trace around it so you know how much to cut off of the notebook paper. Place the glass and paper back into the frame so you can see where to start your writing, remember that some of the paper is going to be hidden behind the frame.

 Using the markers I titled the paper MENU then wrote Monday through Sunday and finished it off with one of my favorite saying "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" I'm sure my family is sick of hearing it!

The last thing to do is put the paper into the frame. Then with a dry erase marker write down all your dinner ideas on the glass of the frame. At the end of the week just wipe it all away and start over!

 Another great idea is just leaving the paper blank...

...then you can write on it whatever you would like! 

Banjo Billy's Denver Bus Tour (C.I.C)

*So this post was supposed to be going up yesterday (July 25th) but yesterday was just BAD. Between car troubles, injuries and a little drama I quit half way through the day! But today is a new day and it will be a better day then yesterday....its my hubbies birthday! So here is my very first Curious In Colorado post! Enjoy!*

My mom came out to visit us about 2 weeks ago and we had a blast the whole time she was here, we were true Colorado tourists! One of the touristy things we did was go on the Banjo Billy's Bus Tour!

 Banjo Billy's has 3 different tours: Boulder, Denver and Denver Brewery's...we went on the Denver tour. 

We caught the bus next to the Big Blue Bear at the Colorado Convention Center. 

We bought our tickets the day before over the phone but you can also buy them online. There were a few people wanting to go on the tour that had not bought tickets in advance so after all the ticketed passengers were on the bus a head count was done and since there were only 21 of us, there are 25 people allowed on the bus, the non ticketed people were invited on the bus and paid the tour guide after the tour was over.

As you can tell by this awesomely amazing bus this is not your ordinary boringish tour!

The inside of the bus is just as amazing as the outside! There are no windows and as you can see the chairs on the bus are fun and comfortable....

....well most of the chairs are anyways!

The tour is an hour and a half long but the time flies by! As the bus driver drives you ALL around Denver your tour guide tells you about all the fun, spooky and mysterious history Denver has to hold. 

 Like how Denver's City and County Building took 26 years and 39 architects to become a reality. 

Or how the official elevation of Denver is marked on three of the capitol stairs. The first "One Mile Above Sea Level" mark is on the 15th step. The second, which was made in 1969, is on the 18th step and the third mark is on the 13th step which was made in 2003.

 And how Henry C. Brown built the Brown Palace in 1892 after he was turned away from the Windsor Hotel for being under dressed. 

You will also hear about how Denver's Botanical Garden's was built on Prospect Hill Cemetery, and how no night guards working there last more then 2 years due to all the ghosts that walk the grounds.....nude! 

Built on that same cemetery is Cheesman Park where there is believed to be 5,000-10,000 bodies still buried under the ground. 

 And last but certainly not least you will hear the story of The Unsinkable Molly Brown before and after her time on the Titanic.

This was just a few of the places we saw, the stories we heard and the history we learned. I would highly recommend Banjo Billy's Bus Tours! We had such a great time and we are definitely planning on going on the Boulder and Denver Brewery bus tours! 

 Banjo Billy's Bus Tours

Go check them out now....like right now!

http://www.banjobilly.com/ 

I hope you enjoyed this

Fitness Challenge

Starting Sunday I will be following the Daily Workout Plan by Back On Pointe and I want you to be my fitness buddies and do it with me! So your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is every morning after you wake up and before you eat breakfast, do everything that is written for that day! Let me know how you do at the end of the week! Good luck!

A Royal Celebration

I have been a Royal watcher since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge started dating, I mean who doesn't love a real life fairy tale?! 

 Of course I got up super early to watch the Royal Wedding over 2 years ago, and now that they just welcomed their Royal baby boy this afternoon I thought it would be fun to have a mini celebration...English style! 

I give my nails a Union Jack make over.....

...and I made a Sticky Toffee Cake which is supposedly Princess Catherine's favorite British dessert! I had a nice warm cup of tea to go with my slice of cake!
 (The Sticky Toffee Cake recipe) 


Congratulations Will and Kate and welcome to the world little Prince!

Tweet Tweet!

To try and reach more people I started a Twitter account, I thought it was time to become a tweeter! So if you have a Twitter account feel free to follow me for updates on my blog, my adventures and my life! 

https://twitter.com/MommyMiaa

I'm also on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/MommyMiaa

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

I was playing music from YouTube the other day and this advertisement started to play before one of the videos. Normally I skip the ads but this one caught my attention and I ended up watching the whole thing. It was very emotional, moving and eye opening.....I really felt the need to share it. 

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”  

- Confucius

#alittlefishyproject

Sadly on July 16th Talia Joy Castellano lost her battle against cancer. Talia was such an inspiration to so many including myself. 

She will truly be missed.

 In honor of Talia, today July 19th, people everywhere will post a picture of a fish drawn on their wrist with the #alittlefishyproject. 

Please feel free to take part, it will truly be amazing!

#alittlefishyproject

  If you have not had the pleasure of experiencing any of Talia's YouTube videos please click this link...taliajoy18...to watch them now. She was such a happy, bubbly, fun young woman who's videos always made me smile.

Curious In Colorado

My family and I absolutely love going out and experiencing new things around the beautiful state we call home....Colorado. We love seeing everything everywhere has to offer and have so much fun doing everything we can do! So I thought it would be great to start a series on my blog called Curious In Colorado (C.I.C) where I talk about where we went, what we did, what we saw, where and what we ate and how much fun we had. Of course I will be sharing pictures of our adventures and giving my opinion on weather it was worth the time and money. So if any of you are going to be visiting Colorado and want an idea of where to go and what to do, or if you live here in Colorado and are looking for some excitement and adventure close to home check out my Curious In Colorado serious which I will be posting every other Thursday starting next Thursday July 25th! 

I am super excited to share our adventures with you all!

Skinny Snacks

For this Weight Loss Wednesday I wanted to share some of the healthy snacks I reach for between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner.

Recipes

Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips - http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/cinnamon-sugar-baked-apple-chips/

Cinnamon & Honey Baked Chickpeas - http://www.fitsugar.com/Roasted-Honey-Cinnamon-Chickpeas-27908653 

Chipotle Baked Chickpeas -  http://greatist.com/health/recipe-spicy-roasted-chickpeas/

And my favorite snack....vanilla yogurt with a bit of granola!

Magic Mesh Review

As soon as the sun comes up my son wants to be outside playing which is fine with me, its better them him sitting inside watching cartoons all day, but he goes out then comes in then goes back out then comes back in again. I got pretty tired of having to open and close the screen door all day, our screen is pretty warped thanks to a massive hail storm so its really hard to open and close which is why my son cant do it on his own, so I just started to leave the screen door open until our house was swarming with flies! Then I saw a commercial for the Magic Mesh Hands-Free Screen Door and I knew I had to give it a try! The next day I found it in the As Seen On TV section of our local grocery store.

The Good

It was super easy to hang up since you only use Velcro and thumb tacks which are included.

 The fact that our son and our dogs could walk in and out of the house all they wanted too with out having to open and close the door was great.

It was awesome that we could leave our sliding glass door open and our house wasn't filling up with flies.

The Bad

It was a little more pricy then I thought it would be ($14.99) considering it is only 2 pieces of mesh with some magnets attached to them.

Our dogs tore it up fast! One of our dogs loves to scratch at the door to let us know that they want in and her nails ripped huge holes in the mesh.

When the wind blew the magnets would tap on the glass door and the sound drove us all crazy, including the dogs who would bark at the noise!

The Verdict

I still like the Magic Mesh and we still use it....just not the way we are supposed to. I used the one panel of the Magic Mesh that wasn't as torn up and tacked the top of it to the top of our door frame inside the house, I then attached the side with the Velcro to the door frame. Now we only open the sliding door half way so the magnets attach to the metal part of the door when anyone walks in or out. 

It still works!

My Military Diet Experience

I have been seeing the Military Diet all over Pinterest so I thought, heck, why not give it a try. So for this Weight Loss Wednesday I am sharing my experience with you. 

This is the Military Diet

The Food:

Day 1 Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 2 Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 3 Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day one was pretty easy, breakfast was good and lunch was a meal that I eat a lot. Dinner was a little hard though since it was so much more then I normally eat at one time, plus I am not a fan of green beans AT ALL! Day two started out well, again breakfast was good but lunch just wasn't enough....I was starving! Dinner was good but again it was a little much all at once. Day three was probably the hardest because I really didn't get to eat anything, it took a lot of will power to get through the last day. 

The Results:

I weighed myself on the first day right after I ate breakfast and I weighed 165 pounds. I weighed myself right after breakfast on day four (the day after I finished the diet) and I weighed 161 pounds. So I lost 4 pounds on this diet, not 10 like it said I would which wasn't really a surprise to me! I am happy with the results though and I hope that the weight I lost stays off now that I am back to eating my every day diet.

All in all I think that you will see results with the Military Diet but not as much as they say you will. This diet definitely isn't for someone that doesn't have super strong self control because it is super hard to stick to since you don't get any snacks between the meals. It was torture not being able to eat between lunch and dinner since that is the longest I had to go with out eating and that is normally when I would be eating one of my small snacks. I really do not think that this diet is the healthiest for you either since you are supposed to eat at least 5 small meals a day. But if you want to lose about 5 pounds fast and really have the drive to do it then this diet will do that for you but as for me I will stick to my 4 Day Diet where I can eat almost all day!

Duck Dynasty Dinner

One of my very best friends has been pretty stressed lately so to try and make her feel a bit better I surprised her with a themed dinner for one of her favorite shows...... 

Duck Dynasty!

I went with an outdoor fall theme because when I think of hunting I think of fall and of course Duck Dynasty makes me think of duck hunting. I bought the plates, the glasses and the candle center piece from Goodwill. The pink duck, green table cloth, green napkins and fall leaves are from The Dollar Tree.

Of course I served sweet tea! And for dinner I served a Louisiana style meal...biscuits and Red Beans And Rice, I used Zatarains Dirty Rice but did not add any ground beef like the directions said to.

(You can click here for a couple of Ms. Kay's recipes and here for some of Willie's favorite recipes.)

 For dessert we had donuts which was inspired by the episode "Of Mattresses And Men" where they have a donut eating competition.

We washed down our dessert with more sweet tea, this time out of a Si cup!

We finished off the night by watching the latest episode (a rerun) in our camouflage shirts and drinking our sweet tea out of our Si Cups....it was a blast!

"I'm so dope I'm illegal in 55 states!" 

- Si Robertson

Happy Independence Day!

I love the 4th of July! The sun, the BBQ's, the family time, the parades, everyone rockin their red white and blue, the fun festive food and drinks and of course the fire works! Me being me I like to go all out! Here are the festive things I have already done this year to celebrate our Independence Day!

I started today out by making some delicious red, white and blue French Toast!

As a treat I made some fun red, white and blue Firecracker cookies!
They are sugar cookies covered in vanilla frosting, blue sprinkles and red Pop Rocks.

My son is rockin his red, white and blue by wearing this awesome shirt that we made!

 
And of course I'm rockin my red white and blue! 

I also gave my nails a very patriotic make over!

Fun, Fruity 4th Of July!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July so for today's Weight Loss Wednesday post I wanted to share some fun, fruity, healthy 4th of July treats!

 A strawberry covered with a dab of lite whipped cream and topped with a blueberry makes a small sweet treat.

These watermelon star, blueberry kabobs are so cute and so refreshing!

Blueberry, strawberry parfaits with some fat free vanilla yogurt and a bit of lite whipped cream is always a big hit.


Some blueberry, pineapple star, strawberry infused water is a sweet hydrating treat.