Upcycled Storage Tins

This project is as simple as it gets.  It took me about 3 minutes of actual work and 20 minutes of drying time.  So, in less than half an hour, I had a spiffy new storage container for my beads to go along with my button tin.

I was cleaning out my office and found this tin in my gift drawer.  I also happened to find a bag, a box and a sack full of beads.  Did I mention I am a craft hoarder?  A light bulb went off and I grabbed some cardboard, spray paint and the tin and headed outside.

It was a gorgeous day out so there was minimal time between the 2 coats I did.

The paint I had is actually Hi-Temp Engine paint that I got for my Button Craft Baby Gift.

As you can see, this simple, quick upcycle works awesome.  You could do decoration on top or the sides as well if you took the time.  Let me know if you try it.

March Goals Week 3

After posting my last blog, my cousin commented that the weight I lost is equivalent to her almost 4 year old son.  Putting it in those terms are crazy to me.  I lost a 4 year old.  Today I am wearing jeans that actually zip and button.  I can't tell you the last time I wore jeans that zipped.  I have been wearing stretchy pull on jeans for a while now.  I always try to look put together when I leave my house.  I am not one of those people who will wear their pajamas out in public.  My logic behind it is that I am already fat, why give someone more ammo to look down on me.

I have really been giving a peek into how my brain works.  I hope that it helps someone else reading this know that they aren't the only ones feeling or thinking this way.  Lately I have caught myself saying can't pretty frequently, like, "Oh, I can't eat that".  I feel like this is a really bad thing to say.  No one is telling me I can't have something.  I'm not even telling myself that.  I am choosing to change how I eat.  I have been consciously trying to replace can't in my vocabulary.  Nobody cares what you can't do, they want to know what you can or are going to do.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday and it turns out, the pain I was having is from Acid Reflux.  More specifically, Dyspepsia.  So, another new prescription and a list of foods to try to avoid.  The funny thing is, peppermint was on that list.  All week long I had been drinking peppermint herbal tea to calm my stomach.  I did get a high five from the doctor on my weight loss so that felt good.  She is pretty positive about my progress.  All my vitals and stuff were good, my blood pressure was excellent as well as my pulse and oxygen levels.

I did a seated YouTube exercise video Tuesday while editing photos and downloading content off my phone.  I made it through the entire 25 minutes with no problem.  I feel like I have been kicking ass at life lately.  My house is clean, I am organized, I am on my way to a healthier life, both mentally and physically.  I have crossed quite a few projects off my "Wanna-Do" list.  I even got photos hung back up in my house.

However, Thursday I didn't eat so well.  It wasn't a terrible day.  I only went over my calorie target by 100 but I ate the wrong stuff.  I had a Light Beef Bologna sandwich when I got home and then we had dinner with my Mom, Bruce, my sister Kari, Josh and my nephews Logan and Landon.  We went to a Mexican restaurant right next to my Mom's work .  I had saved about 1000 calories for the meal.  I had 750 but when I went home, a few hours later, I had a second bologna sandwich.  I can feel the difference in the type of food I ate.  When we got home last night, I had no energy to do anything and that led to sitting on the couch, watching tv and making that second sandwich.

I got up early on Friday morning and did a short 15 minute aerobic video before work.  I'm not really a morning person.  Sometimes it is hard enough to get to work by 7 am so I don't know if morning exercise will be my friend.  But, there isn't enough room anywhere but the living room to move around so unless I wanna interrupt my husband's night, morning it will have to be.  Saturday I did 20 minutes of a new resistant band routine.  It was fine but it didn't really challenge me so I won't do it again.

I can feel changes happening in my body.  I can tell right away when I have had too many carbs.  I get very lethargic.  My work is really paying off.  I weighed in on Sunday morning and am down a total on 43 lbs since December 9th.  My goal for 2015 was 50 lbs so I am sure I will get there.  My energy level has been down this week, especially Saturday.  I think PMS is creeping up on me.  My positive attitude has really improved my life as a whole though.  I didn't realize how unhappy and grumpy I was.  Finally making myself the focus is really helping.

I want to especially thank all of my Facebook friends and family for being so supportive.  With so many people in my corner, this change has been easy for me.  Even though the guys at work torture me with their junk food habits, I had been strong.  I know I have said it before, but this isn't a diet.  It is a lifestyle change.  I have made changes that are easily incorporated into everyday life.  I am still cooking regular dinners and eating out when it is necessary.  I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are struggling, know you are not alone and that you don't have to change your entire life just to lose some weight.

So, for my final week of March Goals, I am going to stay positive and get out of the house.  I am going to say 5 positive things that happened during the day before I go to bed and let the negative float away without wasting any of my time.  I am also going to do something after work 2 days this week.  Usually I race home and once I am home from work, I don't leave again.  This week I am going to either go for a walk, go shopping or hang out with friends after work.

Lace Painted Dining Table

I started this repainting project almost 2 years ago.  The top of this table was pretty trashed so I bought Zissner Cover Stain Oil Primer.  I did the first coat on March 30th, 2013.  Then, life happened.  I just never got around to finishing it.  Well, last weekend, we finally did.

This is after sanding the first two coats that had been on for 2 years.  We decided to do one more coat of primer and another round of sanding.

My adorable hubby Roger was better on the sander than I was.

After picking out my color and buying a sample size, we got to work.  We laid 2 coats of color.

Juanita, our Chrysler Imperial, was a little mad that we took her parking spot to paint the table.

Next, Roger papered and taped the area we wanted to paint and we laid down a piece of lace I got on clearance.

Then, we spray painted the table with white.

Then it was time to remove the lace, tape and paper to reveal out results.

Finally we did 2 coats of a protective clear coat over the entire table and moved it back inside.

March Goals - Week 2: Exercise

This week my focus will be on exercise.  Specifically my goal is to do 3 different work outs at least 3 days this week.  Last week I bought some resistance bands and a Biggest Loser Yoga DVD from Amazon so those will be two of the three.  The third I am thinking of simply taking a walk.  We have a gorgeous lake in the middle of town that has fantastic walking trails.  I have always been anxious about walking around the lake because it's out there in the open for all to see.

As confident as I am, I don't want someone to see me and laugh.  After I had my Gastric Bypass and lost 150 lbs, I felt so great about myself.  The problem was that out in public, people who didn't know me or my story, would make fun of me.  Cracking jokes, making comments, calling me names about my weight.  They didn't know I had just lost 1/3rd of myself.  It made me feel like wearing a t-shirt or carrying a sign around that said "I just lost 150 lbs, shut the fuck up".

That was 12 years ago.  I am much more secure in the person I am now but the pain and anxiety is still there.  It's the reason I stay home a lot more than I go out.  I only go places I am comfortable.  I missed out on going out with one of my best friends for his birthday because I couldn't stomach the thought of being in a packed club.  It is very rare for me to go to a new place without meticulously checking it out first.  If a new restaurant comes to town, I want to know what kind of tables and chairs they have.  These aren't things that thin people need to worry about.  These are reasons I am changing my life.

Did my first workout Tuesday night.  I chose to do the Full Body Resistance Band Workout - 20 Moves to Slim You Down & Tone You Up.  It is a 30 minute workout but I was only able to do 15 minutes.  It comes as no surprise that I am really out of shape.  The moves were simple enough though that I think I can slowly work my way up to the whole 30 minutes.  I like the resistance bands because as I move along and the workout gets easier for me, I can change out the band for the next strongest one and start the cycle again.

Wednesday my stomach was upset after lunch and then Thursday I had real trouble eating.  Nothing tasted good.  I brought Overnight Oats, a salad and leftover roasted veggies from last night's dinner but I couldn't get more than a few bites down.  My stomach hurt and I felt nauseous.  I left work about 1 and went straight home to bed.  I slept until around 7:30 and then went back to bed around 10.  I thought it was maybe something bad I had eaten but when it persisted through Friday I got a little more concerned.  Here it is Sunday and I am still in pain when I eat or move around too much.

That being said, I did not complete my goal for this week.  I just felt so crappy after doing just my regular house work that I couldn't work out.  I was not lazy though.  What I did was work on cleaning for as long as I could stomach, then sit until my stomach calmed down.  Then back I was cleaning or doing one of the many projects I have completed in the last week.  I will be sharing some of them with you but the biggest one, that I won't be sharing, is my nephew Landon's Quiet Book.  If you don't know what that is, check out the one I made for Logan here.

So for week 3 of March, I am going to continue with the pursuit of fitness.  I will hopefully be able to get into the doctor on Monday to see what is going on with my stomach.  On a bright note, I lost another 4.5 lbs so I am down a total of 34.5 lbs.

March Goals - Week 1

It's the first of March and I am heading into another chapter on my journey.  I set myself a goal to plan and make nearly all of our meals for the week.  My plan was to spend some time Sunday morning making a menu.  Then, from that, I could make my shopping list and head to the store.  Well, I was woken up Sunday and had less than 30 minutes to shower and get dressed for breakfast so my plan went out the window.  No problem though.  I had a general idea of what I needed to buy so we went shopping anyway.  I discovered a lot of stuff in the WinCo bulk section so we may start shopping there again.  (We had a bad experience with some rotten chicken there and it really turned us off.)

Here is my menu for the week:

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Overnight Oats	Salad with Chicken	Chicken Quesadillas	Clementines
Breakfast Wraps	Salad with Tuna	Chicken Broccoli Casserole	Cheerios
Carrot Bran Muffins	Mozzarella Salad	Lime Cilantro Chicken	Greek Yogurt
Leftovers		Steak and Roasted Broccoli	Popcorn
		Shrimp Stir Fry
		Jambalaya

As you can see, I haven't assigned days for anything.  It helps me to have a general plan but some days I come home and really just don't feel like cooking.  This week, my easy, minimal cooking meals are Chicken Quesadillas and Steak with Roasted Veggies.  I have all the  ingredients on hand for all of these dishes so it makes my week easy.

Monday
Last night I made us each a jar of Blueberry Overnight Oats for breakfast.  They really were delicious.  I will include the recipe for them below.  For lunch I had my normal salad with chicken, carrots and cherry tomatoes.  When I got home, I gave Roger the option of what he wanted for dinner and he chose Chicken Quesdaillas.  He loves them.  To save myself from all the carbs I did open face ones for me.  Cherry tomatoes, chicken and a little cheese on a crispy tortilla was almost like pizza!

Tuesday
Another new breakfast item for us today.  I whipped up some Healthy Breakfast Muffins last night.  They are packed with goodness including banana, carrot, oat bran and oatmeal.  (Recipe below)  I brought 2 for breakfast and then had a salad for lunch.  Today I didn't add any meat so that I could use the leftover chicken I had for dinner.  I mentioned to my sister, that I was going meatless today, and her question was, "How are you getting protein?"  I never even thought about that.  Luckily, I had a Special K Protein Bar in my desk.  Tonight I am making Creamy Chicken Quinoa and Broccoli Casserole.(Recipe below)  It's one of my favorites.

Wednesday
Last week, after my plateau, I reset my parameters on MyFitnessPal.com.  I brought my calories down from 2500 to 2000.  Monday of this week, I had 1536 and yesterday I ended with 1153.  A good thing about making dinner at home is that I control the ingredients, but my favorite thing is the leftovers.  I am not a huge breakfast fan.  I don't like waffles, pancakes, cereal or french toast so leftovers for breakfast are perfect for me.  My salad today is sans meat but I included some bocconcini (fresh mozzarella balls) for protein.  Dinner tonight is another new recipe, Lime Cilantro Chicken Thighs.  I will probably serve it with roasted vegetables.  I am really getting into cooking again this week, which makes me happy.

Thursday
Another day of Overnight Oats and Mozzarella Salad.  The Cilantro Lime Chicken turned out ok last night but I wish there was a bit more flavor.  The lime came through but I wanted more salt or spice.  Going to have to rework that recipe before I share it.  Roger is begging for something that isn't chicken so tonight I planned on Steak and Roasted Broccoli.  However, I forgot to take steaks out of the freezer so I suggested Shrimp Stir-Fry.  Well, Roger said he was tired of vegetables so he said he would make his own dinner.  I had Stir-Fry with Quinoa and it was delicious.

Today was a rough day.  I had my Oatmeal at 7 but I was so hungry that I ended up eating my salad at 10.  That left me with only a protein bar to last me until 5 when I would have dinner.  I ate it around 1 and was fine until I got home for dinner.  I don't know why I felt so hungry.  Yesterday I was pretty hungry when I got home but my daily calorie intake was 1598.  Tonight after dinner I am up to 1386.  I will probably have popcorn later tonight.  I find it to be really filling for very few calories.

Friday
I think I figured out my hunger problem the last few days.  Besides the Chicken on Wednesday, I haven't been getting enough protein.  Tuesday I had less than half of my daily intake, I was about 25% low Wednesday and 40% low yesterday.  To combat this, I got up this morning and made myself a quick breakfast wrap with a low carb tortilla, an egg and some crumbled bacon.  It got me 24 grams of protein and only 11 carbs.  I ate that at 6:15 and then my oatmeal at 8:15.  I had a garbanzo bean, mozzarella and tomato salad for lunch and then for snack tonight.  I made Steak and Roasted Broccoli for dinner before Roger left for his Poker game.  I spent the remainder of the night cleaning out my office/craft room.

Saturday
I was in full Spring Cleaning mode today.  I woke up at 7:30 and cleaned until 4 when Roger got home from the auction.  I literally went through every scrap of paper and piece of clothing.  I got through the office/craft room, the bedroom and 3/4 of the way through the cat/storage room.  I didn't eat all day so I rewarded myself with Pizza, finally.  I limited myself to the wings and 2 slices of pizza for a total of 1228 calories.  While this isn't the best idea, I am ok with the decision. I got a lot done and I got to indulge a little.

I honestly don't know where all the energy came from.  Let's be honest, you don't get to be my size by being active.  I live a very sedentary lifestyle but I just couldn't stop today.  Every time I sat for a few minutes I had to get back up and keep moving.  My body wouldn't let me rest.  I am sure I will pay for it tomorrow.  I hope this is a positive side effect of my new lifestyle.

I think I did pretty well on my week one goal.  I basically stuck to making dinner every night and I had lunch and breakfast everyday.  I hadn't really thought at all about my week two goal until I sat down to write this tonight (7:45 on Saturday night).  I think this week I want to focus on fitness.  My goal is to do 3 different types of exercises at least 3 days this week.

Check out the recipes below for two awesome breakfast ideas and one quick weeknight meal.  Also, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram (@KristyRunyon81) if you want to follow me on a day to day basis.  Check back in next Sunday to hear how my week went.

Blueberry Overnight Oats
1/2 cup Oats
1/2 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
1 container of Blueberry flavored Greek Yogurt
1 tbsp Vanilla Pudding Mix (dry)
Calories: 301   Fat: 4g    Carbs:  50g   Protein: 17g
Put the oats and pudding mix in first, then the yogurt and finally the milk.  Put the lid on and shake until combined.  Leave in the fridge overnight.  You can heat it up in the morning but I prefer it cold.
*You can add fresh fruit if you desire.  The flavors can be changed out depending on the yogurt or pudding mix you choose.

Healthy Breakfast Muffins

1-1/4 cups Oat Bran

1 cup Rolled Oats
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 Banana, mashed
1 Egg
1/3 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
3 tbsp Light Olive Oil
1-1/2 cups Shredded Carrot
Yields 12
Calories: 128   Fat: 5g    Carbs:  22g   Protein: 3g
Mix mashed banana, almond milk, oilive oil and egg in a bowl.  Add in the brown sugar and mix until well combined.  Add in the oat bran, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Fold together until fully incorporated.  Then add the carrots and distribute them throughout the batter.  Spoon the batter into a 12 cavity muffin pan and bake at 400 for 22-25 minutes.
*You could add in nuts or dried fruits if you so desire.
**If you substitute the Olive Oil with Unsweetened Applesauce and also add Walnuts, the nutritional information changes to Calories: 132   Fat: 5g    Carbs:  23g   Protein: 4g

Chicken Broccoli Quinoa Casserole
2 cups Water
1 lb Chicken, cubed (Rotisserie is what I used)
3 cups Broccoli Florets
2 cups Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Flour
1 cup Dry Quinoa
1/2 cup Shredded Cheese
Makes 4 servings
Calories: 338   Fat: 8g    Carbs:  48g   Protein: 22g
Mix all ingredients, except the cheese, in a large bowl.  Pour into a prepared 9x13 cake pan and bake at 400 for a total of about 45 minutes.  Check on casserole every 10 to 15 minutes and give it a stir so that the quinoa cooks evenly.  In the last 5 minutes, add the cheese to the top and cook until just bubbly.
*These are pretty generous portions so if you are serving with something else, this could yield 6-8 servings.

Lessons Learned From Making a Baby Quilt

It's time for us to take a break from all the Diabetes and Diets because we here at the Pink Elephant Sisters are more than just that.  We are crafty chicks.  If you have ever wanted to make a quilt, or wanted to prove that we are not perfect, this is the post for you.  While making a baby quilt doesn't seem all that difficult, and this wasn't even our first time doing it, we managed to run into a few problems and learned some lessons along the way.  

The first place to start is choosing your fabrics.  To me, this is the funnest part of the whole process!  I could walk the aisles of the fabric store for hours!  However, I have 2 small boys that don't care for that certain store, so they force me to make quicker decisions.  I came home with 7 different fabrics that I strategically selected.  And here is where we learned our first lesson: always have back-up fabric.  Once I got them home and shared them with my sister, we decided that they just didn't all work.  But luckily I have a rather large stash of fabric and found the awesome owl fabric that I forgot I had.  Easy solution to our first problem.

Now comes, in my opinion, the worst part of the process: cutting out all of the squares.  It is SO time consuming!  This is where we learned our second lesson: whenever possible, purchase pre-cut squares.  When we made a Dr. Suess themed quilt for my son, we purchased pre-cut squares on etsy.com (because the local craft store didn't have Dr. Suess fabric at that time)....we had no idea how great they were until we began cutting all of the squares this time.

Next we laid all of the square out on the floor to decide on a pattern.  We definitely compromised on this part.  I love a random pattern, but Kristy's OCD demanded that there be a very strict pattern.  As you can see, she won.  The lesson we learned on this step: don't let your 4 year old anywhere near this.  While he seems to be just innocently walking by...nope.  He purposely kept moving the blocks around with his feet and messing up the pattern.  So he was then banned from the room!  :)

This next step, sewing all of the squares together to make rows, is where we learned out biggest lesson: don't trust your sister's measurements!  While we agreed on a 1/2" seam allowance, I assumed that Kristy would actually measure...nope.  Kristy started at the top, I started at the bottom and we met in the middle.  Sounded like a grand plan at the time.  We would do half of the sewing so it would be done faster, right?...nope.  After both halves were completely finished, Kristy said "why are my seams smaller than yours?"  Well, that is because she was actually sewing with a 1/4" seam allowance instead of 1/2".  This was a hard blow after working on this for several hours that day.  We ended up just re-sewing her part to make the seam allowance the 1/2" it should have been.  It all worked out but this was a lesson learned the hard way for sure!

The next step was to sew the diagonal lines to hold together the quilt front we just made, the batting, and the backing of the quilt.  When we made the Dr. Suess quilt we did the diagonal lines as well and I don't remember having any trouble.  However, this time it was a struggle (I know, seems to be an ongoing theme for this quilt, huh?).  About the 5th line into it, I kept getting puckers on the back.  It didn't seem to matter how well I pinned it, the fabric just kept bunching up.  

After several days of struggling, I learned our next lesson: ask your mother-in-law for help!  I wish I would have asked her sooner because she had one of these amazing little tools, the quilt basting gun.  This thing was a life saver!  It punched these purple little plastic things through the quilt and held it together perfectly.  I finished sewing the quilt in no time at all...and no more puckers!

Next I just needed to cut off the excess batting and add a border of some kind.  Luckily, we didn't seem to have any trouble of this step (surprising, I know).  We used double fold bias tape and it worked great and was easy to sew. 

Of course, in true Kari-style, I finished it the day of the baby shower!  

Either way, all lessons learned, our cousin loved the quilt we made for her new baby girl.  Now hopefully we will remember these lessons for when we make a quilt for my new baby boy!

Diabetic Journal Week 7

Wednesday February 25, 2015
I made this awesome mix last night and had it for breakfast this morning.  I am not sure exactly what to call it.  It's like a cold salad but if you heat it up, it's like a casserole.  Seems like all the best foods don't photograph very nicely.  I know it looks like a pile of stuff but I promise, it is so yummy.

Chicken, Quinoa and Avocado Salad
1 cup dry Quinoa
2 Avocados, cubed
Juice of 1 Lime
2 cups Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, halved
1 1/2 cups low-fat Ricotta Cheese
1-1/2 cups boiled Chicken Breast, diced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cook the Quinoa according to the package instructions and then spread on a plate and put in the refrigerator to cool.  After it is cooled completely, just mix all your ingredients together.  I let is sit over night and then heated up a serving for breakfast.  It was delicious and full of power foods.  It makes 4 heaping servings.  You could add it to some greens for even more nutritional value.
Each serving has 420 calories, 16 grams of fat, 42 carbs and 33 grams of protein.

While this journey is a very personal one and I am doing this strictly for myself and my health, all the support I have received from friends and family near and far has really kept me accountable.  Not only do I not want to disappoint myself, but I would hate to disappoint anyone else.  At times I may overshare but that is part of my charming personality.

Thursday February 26th, 2015:
I am a tad bit discouraged today.  I have hit a small plateau.  My weight hasn't changed at all in almost 2 weeks.  What this tells me is that it's time to put in some work.  The first 30 pounds came off fairly easily by just cutting out processed sugar and lowering my carb intake.  Now is the time to work on portion control and incorporating more exercise.  I had set a goal for myself to lose 50 lbs in 2015.  While that is a great goal, I think I need to set myself some smaller short-term goals that I can easily achieve.

So, for March, I am going to set one goal for myself each week.  Since the 1st is on Sunday, that will start my first week and my first goal.  I got the idea from the YouTube channel Mind Over Munch.  She has some great healthy recipes, workouts and home hacks.  She does an amazing trick with a Quest bar, making it into cereal.  I was sure it wouldn't work but it turned out so crunchy.  I bet you didn't realize that YouTube was more than cat videos.  There is actually a bevy of information on the site.  From recipes to workouts to tips and information on almost anything.

Friday February 27th, 2015:
My name is Kristy and I am an addict.  I am absolutely obsessed with food.  It is constantly on my mind.  I am always thinking about what my next meal will be or a new recipe to try or a way I can cut calories somewhere.  My biggest struggles are dinner.  Sometimes I get home and have no idea what I am going to make.  This leads to wanting to order in.  Pizza is one of my absolute favorite foods.  I haven't had it since January 1st.  Three days this week I came home without a plan for dinner.  All three days, I threw something together instead of ordering pizza.

This leads me to my first goal for the first week of March.  My goal for the week is to plan and make at least 5 of each meal.  Meaning 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches and 5 dinners.  Weekends are the hardest part but we have no plans for that weekend so it should be fairly easy.  Last night I made our first batch of Overnight Oats.  These will be great for breakfasts.  While the chocolate one was really nasty, the blueberry flavor was awesome.  I will share the recipe in my next blog so I can post a picture with it.

Sunday March 1st, 2015
After the small disappointment earlier in the week, the weekend was spent with friends at parties.  Friday night my sister and I went to a Passion party at a friend's house.  I brought a veggie tray because I wasn't sure what food would be there.  Our hostess, Hollie, had chocolate dipped fruit, fruit kabobs, large and small wienies and cheese dip. I ate mostly fruit and vegetables but had some of the wienies too.  I also didn't drink, which was weird for me but not really that difficult.

Saturday night I went to a birthday party for another friend where I also didn't drink.  I packed an apple and a tangerine with me and got a 10 piece McNugget on the drive up, around 3:30 pm. I wasn't hungry the rest of the night so I felt good about the decision.  They all had pizza in the lounge area and I didn't go with them because as I talked about earlier, it is my trigger food.  So much so that I am going to be trying cauliflower pizza crust this week.  I am crossing my fingers.

I look forward to sharing my week with you.