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What You No Good

When one of your blogging besties starts a new link up….you link up!!!

One thing that you have to learn when you move to another area of the country, is the terminology and lingo. Here in the deep south, instead of people asking “What’s new with you” they ask “What you no good?”

Currently I am…

Reading: Taste: A Love Story – I am about 30% done with this book and I would really like to finish it for the link up next Tuesday.

Listening: Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty – It’s my last read from her. I am going to need her to write something else!!! Also, I started listening to Stiff but I am waiting until I finish Last Anniversary to really dive in. It is too interesting and I need to be able to have more focus!

Itching: For a new blog design! I started looking at new designs to redo Besties do Bham because the one we chose isn’t formatting too great. Well upon finding ones I like for it….I found ones I like for here too. It has been about a year….year and a half…I think it is time for a change.

Working On: Getting caught up on blogging. I have been quite busy this week, so if I haven’t stopped by and commented…I will soon!

A few of you asked what my favorite recipes were on Whole 30 and what I snacked on, so I am thinking about doing one post and just sharing a bunch of recipe links and snacks. Would you all like that?

Been doing research on various things. How to take some ideas I have and bring them to fruition. Different diets and how they help your body. Plants. Natural medicines. I have a curious mind, what can I say?

Snacking: Speaking of snacks, I cant stop with the Target Archer Farms Sea Salt Pistachios. Amazing!

Organizing: Our pantry is a disaster. I want some type of back of the door baskets for all those pesky food wrap/storage bag boxes that fall on me all the time!

Planning: Spring will be here before you know it!!! I really want to start a garden this year so it is time to start planning what we want and when it is going to need to get planted. Time to call in my sister!

Excited:For my lunch today with Laura!!! I haven’t seen her since two days before Christmas. Whole 30 had us eating lunch at the office a lot more and not wanting to try new places since all we could eat was lettuce and water.

What are you up to?

Linking up with Kristen and Gretchen.

February 4, 2016 by Nadine

about me, memories

Story Behind the Picture – That Time at Idlewild Park

So as you know, I am from Pennsylvania. My parents used to take me to Idlewild Park in Ligonier growing up. Well, there were these VW Buses that you could drive around a track. I watched with anticipation as these other kids drove the cars around and couldn’t wait for my turn!

my you’ve got to be shittin’ me face

Well this little shit decided that he wanted to drive and took my driving spot and made me ride passenger. I was pissed!!! I wanted to drive!!! I threw a tantrum and started crying and refusing to get out of the car. My dad and his adult body self had to climb in to the tiny car and pull me out. My mom stood on the sidelines both mortified and amused by the whole situation. She couldn’t stop laughing.

Fast forward to 2016. I am riding with the Enterprise guy to pick up my rental car last week after my car went to the shop for repairs from the accident. (Which is still a nightmare by the way.) Anyways, the guy is talking about my car acting like it is the best thing ever. “Oh man, we got the perfect car for you. It drives around like a sports car. You are going to love it!” I was like, “Oh?” As we pull up, they are pulling around a bright red VW Beetle. I look at the dude and say, “No really….” Here is a little tip funny black dude from Enterprise, not all white girls dream of driving around a Beetle.

I promptly text my mom, dad and sister pictures of the bug when I get back to my office. Their responses are the exact same…

If you know me even a little bit, you will find this next picture hilarious.

There is nothing wrong with the VW Beetle, it just isn’t me at all. Not even a little. I am not really a fan of the way they look and they are so small. I am an SUV type of girl, always have been. Now, I will be honest and say that I am surprised by how fun this little thing is to drive around town. It really does drive a little bit like a sports car. It picks up really fast, don’t underestimate it. But with that being said, I can’t wait to get my car back!!! If you are thinking about getting a Beetle, it rides nice and gets decent gas mileage. The trunk was large enough to hold our huge grocery haul this weekend. It has a horrible blind spot in the back though when you are trying to pull out of parking places.

A bonus picture from Idlewild that day! This was taken in Story Book Forrest. My favorite area of the park, naturally! I wonder if it is still a part of it?!

Then and now

Linking up with Elle for Story Behind the Picture.

January 19, 2016 by Nadine

about me, fitness, health, Whole 30

Whole 30 – Why I Am Doing It

Normally on Mondays you come to my blog preparing yourself for food porn. Well not this Monday my friends. You see, this weekend I continued on with my Whole 30 journey and I managed to not hate life. Imagine that!

So you might be asking yourself, why Whole 30? The obvious answer is because it is healthy. Because it detoxes and resets your body. I might shed a few pounds. There is a chance I have a food allergy and this might shine light on that. All of those answers are part of the reason. But I like to be real with you guys. The real reason why I am doing Whole 30 is to prove to myself that I can. To prove that food doesn’t control me.

I have a 40×40 list. You can see it up there below my title. It is still a project in the works as I have been adding on to it for the last year. Well, this weekend….I added Whole 30 to the list. You see, I wanted it on there last year when I started my list. It was the very first thing that came to mind (after Disney). The truth is, I didn’t have faith in myself that I could ever do it.

My mind has really started to change over the last year or so. Sure, I have been regularly waking up at 4:35 am five days a week for my workouts the past two and a half years. But working out was never really a problem for me. It has always been food. It probably will always be food. But something has changed in my mind.

I can be good Monday through Friday morning but then Friday at lunch I will go with friends. Friday night I will come home and snack on pizza or nachos. Saturday we hit up World of Beer where I have two or three beers then we are off to for a burger and fries. Sunday I am making cheesy pasta or chicken fingers and fries. It’s pretty much been that way since I came home from the beach this summer.

Everything is ok in moderation, right? The thing with moderation for me though, is that it is hard to walk the line. There is always that gray area. Say Tuesday I am really not wanting what I brought for lunch. I had a bad morning and I want to get out of the office so I go down to Jimmy Johns and have a sandwhich and chips. No big deal, it was just one meal. But then I get home that evening and while I am trying to cook our healthy dinner, I am starving and snack on chips and salsa. Wednesday morning while making Chris’s lunches, I play the one slice of cheese for his sandwich one slice of cheese for me to eat game. Thursday morning I am tired and swing by Starbucks for a grande nonfat caramel macchiato (my drink of choice.) Annnnnd I have already shared what Friday-Sunday typically look like.

All those little things add up. And for what? Did it make my week better? Did it bring me joy? No. Not really. That is why I need an all or nothing reset. Whole 30 doesn’t allow for those foods to even exist. You flat out can’t have them.

So my thoughts on Whole 30 after the first full week? I am alive and still positive about my experience. I haven’t intentionally tried to cheat. There was one day last week where I was unaware that I was consuming something that had an ingredient I wasn’t supposed to have.

On Wednesday I was a little more tired than usual. Some asshole left donuts and brownies in our break room and I wanted to go punch them in the face. So perhaps I was a bit cranky that day. On Thursday evening Chris ate chips and guac in front of me. I was wanting that chip so bad. I even jokingly asked him if it was cheating by just licking the chip. I didn’t do it…but that was how bad I wanted it.

Every day that passes by, I feel more and more confident in myself that I can do this. I can go 30 days without sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, and yes friends….I can even go without cheese.

I would like to give a shout out to Laura who is doing this with me. G-Chatting with her daily about wanting to lick tortilla chips and punch people in the face every time they open a diet coke has been quite helpful.

Amy and Laura are also great hosts on having the #breakupchallenge2016 and answering any questions I have. I wanted to link up with them tomorrow, but it’s book day so I am posting this a day early!

Oh, I lied. I did have a burger picture to share with you!!! My turkey burger, roasted potatoes and “ketchup” that I made with compliant ingredients. Boom bitches!!!

I probably wont link up every week to check in, but I will do a recap post on my thoughts and results at the end of the 30 days. You can follow along with me on Instagram to see some the #whole30 meals I eat! I hope you all have a great week!!!

January 11, 2016 by Nadine

about me, goals

2016

I have one thing to say about 2016.

I am not really one to make New Years resolutions. In fact, I kind of hate them. They tend to be so general like lose weight, eat healthier or spend less time on social media. You know what the problem with these resolutions are? They aren’t really obtainable. Sure, you can lose 10 pounds this month or stay off Twitter for a week but the thing is, there is no end goal. How do you know if you are done?

When you do things in moderation, it is hard to draw the line. Sure, I can eat healthier this week but then next week I might have a cheat meal Tuesday because it is a friend’s birthday. Then Thursday night I might come home hangry and have chips and salsa. It is a slippery slope.

This is why I like to set specific goals for myself. Ones that I can cross off a list. Over the last two years, I had set quarterly seasonal goals for myself and while it worked pretty well most quarters, I want to do things differently this year.

I have so many ideas and dreams. Don’t we all? But I just feel like I am constantly floating around, not really doing anything to actually make these dreams a reality for myself.

For the month of January, my main focus is to plan and prep to set 2016 up for my most successful year yet!

I want to get a planner so I can actually set dates for things I want to have accomplished. I also plan to schedule the house chores in there to keep myself from literally doing everything on Saturdays. I hate wasting three hours every weekend cleaning when I could be doing little things daily for 15 minutes. Oh, and maybe do a little blog scheduling too. Crazy, I know.

As you know, I am participating in the Breakup Challenge this month by doing Whole 30. I haven’t decided exactly what foods I will re-introduce after the 30 days but allowing my body to detox and reset is huge for me.

I have my mind set this weekend to take down all of our Christmas decorations and start cleaning out one of our spare bedrooms. They tend to become a toss all over the holidays and I can’t stand messes for very long.

When the get my life together, organize and purge all the things hair grows up your ass, you run with it! What are you going to do this year to work towards your dreams?

January 7, 2016 by Nadine

about me, Christmas, memories

Story Behind the Picture – Christmas Past

I love Elle’s Story Behind the Picture link up!!! Today I wanted to walk down memory lane and share some pictures from Christmas past!

Christmas 1983 – My first Christmas!!! This is my dad and I by our Christmas tree 🙂

Christmas 1984 – This is why I love the cold and snow. Look what I grew up in! I have so many memories of sledding and building snowman around Christmas when I was little. The second picture is my mom and I and this last one was taken in the back yard of our first house. It was located just outside downtown Greensburg, PA. I love to see how the houses covered in snow in this picture.

Christmas 1985 – This is my dad and I. My parents were young when they had me and got married. They didn’t have a lot of money so my dad had three jobs at one time, one of which was being a paramedic. I used to think it was so cool seeing him drive the ambulance!!! I was obsessed with the rescue helicopters that sat outside the building he worked in and he would always take me to see them. The helicopters were named Angel. So there was Angel 1 and Angel 2 and my dad would always let me know which one I was looking at. I remember one time he came and took me out for lunch at McDonalds and a emergency call came in and I got to go on the call with him. I used to think he was a super hero saving lives.

Christmas 1987 – This was my last Christmas as an only child! We had that white Christmas tree until I was in high school. I remember a few years my mom put purple lights on it because purple is my favorite color.

Christmas 1988 – This was Tracy’s first Christmas. I was so happy to have a little sister! I was constantly climbing in to her play pen and nap with her in the living room. I remember the Barbie that I am holding in this picture, it was Perfume Barbie and she came with a little bottle of perfume! And that dress she is wearing used to scrunch up so it could become a party dress!

Apparently, Christmas of 1989 was my rebellious years. Check out my midriff pajamas! This was also the year that my sister cracked her head open just a week before Christmas. My grandma and I were upstairs reading in bed and I asked my sister to bring me some apple slices. She ran back up stairs to bring them to me and tripped over her shoe lace and fell head first in to a piece of antique furniture with claw handles. One of those claws got her forehead. My mom and her best friend were downstairs in the kitchen when it happened and my moms best friend had to drive them to the ER because my mom was too scared. She couldn’t find where all the blood was coming from, it was awful!

My grandma stayed behind with me and I remember crying the entire time thinking that my little sister was going to die. She kept trying to calm me down but nothing worked until they brought my sister back home. She had to wear this nice little head patch for a few weeks.

Later I would joke that she lost some of her brains in that accident….sisters.

Ah yes, Christmas of 1992. The year I became a gamer girl! My grandma bought me a Super Nintendo for Christmas and I was so excited!!! My cousins and best friend had regular Nintendos

One of the famous surprised faces when we came out to see what Santa brought us! I used to love to ham it up for the camera….

Freshmen year of high school. Remember Starter? That was a Starter sweatshirt and I thought I was so damn cool.Michigan? BLEH!!! I only liked them because the guy I was crushing on did. So lame.

Sophomore year of high school, never too old to sit on Santa’s lap!

Junior year of high school. Old Navy performance fleece anyone? So my dad used to call me Dino sometimes. He thought it was so clever to get me a Dino in my stocking for Christmas. During Senior Week, you parents could come in and decorate your locker and my dad is really good at drawing, he drew this huge Dino in a graduation gown. It was actually pretty cool.

Senior year. I always helped out at my dad’s office Christmas party. That year, my mom and I were in charge of the duck game station. Also, you guys remember how big Billabong used to be? Gosh, I loved that shirt!!!

Well that was a fun trip down memory lane, thanks Elle!

What is your favorite Christmas memory?

December 22, 2015 by Nadine

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