Author: julesfarm@yahoo.com

Food One of the biggest lessons that I wanted to take away from doing the Whole30, was gaining more control of what I was eating in between meals. Before Whole30, I was snacking a lot on fruit, then not tracking it since it was zero Weight Watcher points. During the Whole30, I did a great job of either not snacking at all in between meals, or “mindful” snacking. I would make a snack, sit down and eat it. Mindful snacking left me with no guilt about whatever it was that I was eating. Standing at the fridge or pantry and grabbing a few bites of something and mindlessly eating eat, left me knowing that I was eating for all of the wrong reasons. Yesterday, I thought about snacking all darned day! I had a few dates and nuts, but struggled with not having more. I would have been better off having none at all. […]

Christmas Decorating I always decorate for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Tradition. It always comes down the Saturday after New Year’s. Tradition. That’s what my mom did. That’s what I do. We did put up the tree a few day’s earlier than usual since my daughter was in town.   The rest of the decorating happened yesterday. I actually have a few things to finish putting up today. Nothing fancy, and actually this year as I was decorating I realized some of my stuff is really really old. I still like my mantel though.   On Saturday, we had ZERO groceries in the house. You guys…people actually live here. Grocery shopping was at the top of my priority list. By the time I did all of my running around, it was late afternoon, and I still had some cooking that I wanted to do. After my cooking…. it was three-ish. Going up and […]

Yesterday was quiet and productive at home. Lots of laundry and a few snuggles with my pups. Mostly with this one…… All day I kept thinking how I had to get to the grocery store because we really had no food. Lunch time came, and I was able to put together a pretty tasty lunch. Dinner came, and as I was telling Mike that he could just eat my leftovers from my lunch, and I would eat eggs, I remembered that I had set out some lamb chops that I had been a bit hesitant to make. The only thing in the vegetable crisper was a bag of carrots and a bag of mixed greens. You guys….dinner was amazing. But today. I HAVE to grocery shop! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I’ve got to get out of the house today! Here are yesterday’s eats…… Breakfast – 7 […]

It’s been a full couple of days, and today has been a nice quiet day at home with a fire, shopping online, (I don’t do Black Friday shopping. Does NOT sound like fun to me at all, plus its super dreary here and really cold outside) doing laundry and listening to Cary Grant movies play in the background while I try to get some order back into the house. Wednesday night we went to a friends house for a party that has become a really fun tradition. It’s a Thanksgiving Eve Kegger. No joke. Kegs in the garage, snacks in the house. People come and go. Each year I think more and more people are able to come. Everyone always seems super relaxed and it’s the first party of the year that starts of the Holiday Season. We came home much later than I was expecting to, and yes, I had […]

If I’ve made soup from leftover Thanksgiving Turkey before, it wasn’t yummy enough that I remember it. That all changed yesterday. I was searching for a simple soup recipe. Really, I should know enough about cooking to make a simple soup. Carrots, Onions, Celery and broth. Right? As much time as I like to spend in the kitchen, sometimes I’m just more comfortable following a recipe. Yesterday, I found exactly what I was looking for. Carrots, Onions, Celery……and Sweet Potatoes! I probably wouldn’t have thought of that. I’m so glad that I went searching! I’ve mentioned the Organic Sweet Potatoes that I’ve been buying recently. They have a Purple/Red skin, and they are white on the inside. So creamy and sweet. They were perfect for this soup recipe! Now I’m going to have to make an 18 pound turkey for a bunch of people again, so I can make this […]

Yesterday’s goal was to get in some sort of exercise, drink my water and eat healthy food. I spent the morning making sure all leftover food from Saturday was out of the house, the fridge was organized and we had plenty of healthy options for the week. My friend Becky suggested a walk, and I was so glad she did. We got in five miles before lunch, which left me feeling energetic for the rest of the day. Since I spent the rest of the day at home marking items off of my “to do” list, I drank a lot of water, although not as much as I had hoped. I’m out the door to help my mom with a few things at her house, then hopefully…..to Jazzercise. Here are yesterday’s eats…. Breakfast – 3 PPV Scrambled Egg Whites, Avocado, Banana, Black Coffee   Lunch – 9 PPV Tuna with Mustard, […]

I took a break from my blog, my phone and social media for the last few days. Okay, that’s not true. I posted a few things and took a few pictures, but much less than I usually do, and traded that time for some time spent with family. It was a great long weekend! My daughter can’t be here this year for Thanksgiving Day, so we had my parents and a few of my relatives over for dinner on Saturday, then a whole bunch of relatives from both sides of our families over later in the evening. We will be having Thanksgiving again on Thursday at Mike’s parents, so lots of food and family going on here for a while, and I’m loving it. My daughter and her boyfriend came in late Wednesday, and when we weren’t running errands on Thursday for our Saturday Thanksgiving Dinner, we were playing games, listening […]

Short blog post today. Lot’s to do this morning. I’ll be picking up my daughter and her boyfriend late tonight at the airport and they will be here until late Sunday evening. We pretty much have something planned for each day, so I’m taking a break from the blog until Monday morning so I can spend lots of quality time with my kiddo. Thanksgiving and extra people in the house can be a real food challenge, but I’ll do my best to drink lots of water and not graze! Other than just a few small bites, we still haven’t reintroduced grains, dairy or sugar, and we are going to try and stay clear of those through the Holidays.  Mike was faced with a plate of cookies at his office yesterday for the entire day, and he called on his way home from work to tell me he didn’t have one! […]

In yesterday’s post, I said that Jazzercise was on the day’s “to do” list, and it was. It was on the list along with two items that I wanted to return, and one hundred and two items that I needed to buy in preparation for our Thanksgiving Dinner number one at our house on Saturday. My daughter and her boyfriend will be coming in late Wednesday night from Dallas for a nice long weekend. They can’t be here for our big Thanksgiving Dinner on Thanksgiving Day, so were squeezing in a dinner on Saturday, then filing up the house with even more family for a fun filled game night! After reading through my blog about last year’s  Perfect Thanksgiving for decorating ideas, I’m not sure I can top that, but I started shopping yesterday. I did go back and read a few blog post about past Thanksgivings, and this Thanksgiving Blog Post and this Thanksgiving Day Blog […]

Now that my daily routine is back to counting weight watcher points, and eating clean is becoming much easier, I’ve GOT to get myself back to some regular exercising! Each time I get my bank statement, and see the fee that I am paying for Jazzercise, I think….I GOTTA get there!! I’ll be really frustrated with myself if I don’t make it to at least one class this week. It’s on the “to do” list for today. I went to my Yoga class on Saturday morning, and I loved it! Unfortunately, I did no exercise on Friday or Sunday. In my recap post, I didn’t really talk about the specific food challenges I’ve had over the last few days, or all of the great food that I did eat! While spending time with my girlfriends, I passed on two flavors of homemade bread. I’m not really even certain what flavors […]