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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

How do I simplify life?

Oh the wonders.

Today i'm racking my brain on how to simplify my life. And my life isn't that complicated.

I have work, my hobbies, exercise, and my Hubby with his family.

Not much.
But sometimes I think my job is a big time consumer. After all my job isn't a typical 9-5. It's a shift changing job that doesn't come in regular weeks, shift changes, etc.

I think all this came about due to what i've been through this last month.

Life isn't fair and life hit me badly in the guts.

But it did make me stop and think about what is important to me.

But I have to admit my job never crossed my mind in those last three weeks I was on sick leave.
Now that I had my meeting with my boss yesterday I came to think about it more.

There are days I love my job, and there are days I loath it.

I'm guessing it happens to a lot of people.

Yes i'm happy that my contract got renewed. And i'm grateful that it's only for 3 months right now too.

It will give me the time I need to figure out if I really want to keep it.

No it's not my dream job.

I think my dream job would be to work as a nutritionist.

I have to pay for the schooling myself though.

I could always go back to Arizona and open my own bakery and cafe.

I love baking.



I don't think I have to simplify my life.

I think I have to figure out what it is I really want.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Well now that's a great bit of news! I have a clean bill of health again. I'm healing very well and I'm allowed to restart my exercise program. Just not as hard as when I stopped. I have to go slow still and I'm not allowed to go swimming until all is healed shut but I'm allowed to do everything else again from yoga to boxing to weights to jogging!
Best news I've had in a while.

Purse Muff or Muffpurse

Has anyone ever combined a muff and a purse for the cold winter months? If not why not? After all all we women really need to take with us are keys, wallet, chapstick, and some tissues. Well maybe a powder compact and a small notebook for those odd ideas that jump into our minds. But still it all fits in a small purse.
I came up with the idea of combining a muff and a purse yesterday thanks to my tinkerbell purse i'm using right now. For it has two pocks in the front for things like cell phones and they are set off and buckled down. It dawned on me when I put my hand threw those pocket "hoops" that's it's just like a muff for the winter.
And presto walla the idea for my muff purse was born.
Since I have to go to the docs today to give him some of my blood for testing again I thought I could look down at the fabric store to see what typs of fake fur she has too. I have padding, and i'm sure I have enough scraps of material for doing the purse. If I don't find anything I like i'll knite it. But I want to do this little project. After all the next winter is coming and I usually get really cold hands!

Here's to retro styles going modern!

Monday, September 5, 2011

My knitting projects.

I have almost finished knitting up the vintage sweater. And I think I made a little mistake but i'm not sure yet. It has to do with the shoulders and neck. But first I have to finish the collar to be sure. Then when I do the make up i'll know for sure.
If all goes wrong I have two options. Sew what's to long to the inside of the sweater or frog it to the place where I messed up. I usually decide on it when i'm there and what looks better.

The knitted dress I want to make for myself is giving me just the tinest bit of greif and I haven't even started it yet! The original pattern calls for #6mm Needles and my yarn is for a #4mm max. So now to make the pattern that I really like I have to recalculate the stitches I need. Cause obviously I need a few more stitches than the original pattern. But for that the yarn is beautiful!!

I'm on sick leave for another week on tuesday I have to go to my docs to see how i'm doing and give more blood again. I swear they are vampires. And hopefully he'll give me the thumbs up to go on with my life the way it was before!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Sometimes life sucks.

Yes it truely does. I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks ago. We were so happy. I told my hubby, and my boss, and two coworkers so that they would understand if I needed time off or rest. We told my mother in law, I told my sister. And from there everything went down the drain.

I went to y gyno because I had a very light pink discharge. And that's when the worst diagnosis hit me. My little one nested itself into my right tube instead of my uterus.

I had a emergency operation on Friday the 19th. My dad's birthday was on the 20th and I couldn't even call him or write him over the interwebs cause I was still in the hospital recovering. I was out of the hospital on Moday morning (22nd) and I think I cryed over my loss every night I was in there.
I am so thankful that my hubby put everything away before I came back home. I started a pregnancy diary, and I surely didn't want to see that when I got home.

Now i'm recovering body wise from the operation. Sould wise i'm starting too. I realized I was punishing my body with food. And my poor body couldn't even help it. I keep telling myself that it was the embryos fault. It didn't nest where it was supposed to. It helps me some.

Now I have another 2 or 3 weeks of not allowed to do anything. My right side hurts like a SOB when the weather changes. And it's doing that on a hourly basis sometimes. I have a load of time on my hands for i'm not allowed to go to work until it is well healed. And today I promised myself to stop punishing my body.

I will look at the good things in life. And in 6 months i'm allowed to try again. Maybe the third time is the charm.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Well I haven't blogged here in a while have I?

What have I been up to?
Well work for one
Bootcamp challenge
training for a half marathon
My hubby
and my cats

and that's it. It has been taking up all my time. I don't have anymore to knite, or to play games and not even to blog very often. But i've been taking notes on my smartbook. I've also found to great apps that I truly love. I have to look up the names again but I like them very very much. One is for calorie tracking no matter where I am and the other is a exercise app that gives me moves to do no matter what equipment I have or not. Very cool to have for on the go.


And this is the half marathon i'll be participating in on September 4th.

So now that i've given all that has changed i'm off to call my sis.

Later

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

You are what you eat


Yep that sure makes a lot of sence. And it shows me why I haven't lost much lately. Been eating too much from the right side and not enough from the left.  But that's changeable. 

Monday, May 23, 2011

I have a problem doing it 100%, so far it's 90%

So far I can keep up clean eating 90% of the time.
I need to work on the last 10%.

I can jog for 8 minutes. That is totally cool. On wednesday i'm going for 12. YAY!

Tomorrow I am going to do strength training.

I've made the decison to up my exercise. A daily routine would do me a ton of good!

I want to get ride of the flab. And the only way to do it is healthy eating and exercise. So off I go.

Oh another diet tip:


A good diet tip


Sunday, May 22, 2011

My thoughts on Diet Shakes in Cartoons. . . .

Motivation!










Health!

The longing of Running


Reading this motivatinal quote and loking out at this beautiful day I realise how true it is. I haven't had a run in a week and a half due to a sore throat. And now I really long for one. So here I am wondering if I should just take up where I left off or aim to try for where I should be now. 
Rereading the quote again I realise I want to try the day that I should be at by now if I didn't take the break due to being "sick". 

After all I am :

Or at least that's what I want to be.  ;o)
But blonde not dark. *chuckle*

And after all:


Oh yeah I sure am. 

I am a wonderful strong woman. No problem with tooting my horn there. And I will run. Maybe not today but I will tomorrow at the latest. First I am ging to nurse my headache. I will do some planks though. And I will check out a core strengthening work out. I want to bust the flab!

Women are all super Heroins!



Monday, May 2, 2011

running clothes

I'm getting serious about the jogging thing. I'm following my plan and i'm planing my first 5 or 8k in July.
So today I was looking at running clothes. I would love some running pants/tights for the spring. I already have shorts for the summer. I bought them last year.
So i'm saving up to get me one pair and one more running shirt. Those things are terrific! They keep the sweat off my skin and i'm still warm. A big plus considering that it is windy and cool outside at 6:30 a.m. here.

After my night shift today i'll be off running again. It's 2 to 2 and that 6 times. I have my clothes set up and my shoes ready. So no excuses.

Now time for dinner. Potatoe and baked beans.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

My work outs and weekly goals

It's a bit difficult to figure out when to do your work outs when you have different shifts. I have a early, late and night shifts and inbetween shifts too. And sometimes it is hard to figure out when you can/want to do what.

When I have the night shift it's easy. I do my work outs after work. I usually sleep until 4 or 5pm afterwards. When I have the the late shift I experiment if doing the work outs before or after work is better or not. Up until now before has been pretty good.
When I have the early shift I do my work outs after work. I get up at 4:45am then already so getting up earlyer is a no way for me. And I feel better most times working out after work. I can get ride of all the stress from work.

And now not only am I doing the running work outs no now I am also doing bootcamp. Daily. 10 to 20 minutes a day.

Hmm maybe people are right and I am kind of nuts. But that's ok. I want a good looking body and this is what I have to do for it. And I want to participate in the women's run in Frankfurt and that is also what I have to do for it. So all I am really doing is following my goals. And that week for week.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Company Field Trip and other things.

Today is the day of the company field trip. I have no idea where we are actually going but we all have a idea. We think we're going to a climbing garden. I wonder if that's ging to it r not. Guess i'll find out when we get there. We're all meeting at twelve in front of the company.

On a other note, i'm back on the eating right and exercise plan. I really don't have any motivation, but I do follow instructions. So that's really all i'm doing right now. I eat when hungry, drink my 8+ glasses of water, eat clean, only 20 grams of sweets per day, and work out 20 minutes daily. Following these instructins will help me to lose the weight I still need to lose.

So now I have t get ready. Sport clothes here I come!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I'm mostly strong..

I keep saying i'm Wonder Woman. And in a way I am. I work hard to earn the money I do. I'm strong and confident. I am healthy and I don't like being a weak woman. After all I can do it myself.

But lately I don't feel like my usual Wonder Woman self. I'm dizzy all the time. But that's it. I'm going to my Doc to make sure it's nothing bad. And i'm sure it's not after all except for the dizzyness I feel great. I just wish it would stop. After all it's getting in my way. And i'm not used to taking things this easy. I mean I do not stress myself out on anything. I go to work do a work out when I feel up to it and my hubby takes care of the house. I do a lot to get/stay relaxed.

So what the hell is wrong with me?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

My Hubbys Birthday

It was my hubbys birthday on the 7th. And I had a hard time getting his surprise ready. I had the night shift (again!) on the 6th to the 7th, and right after work I went to the only store that opened at 7am. Kaufland. There I bought him some of his favorite chocolate sweets and some easter grass, fixings for selfmade frosting and decorations for a birthday cake.
At home I started up the first batter for the birthday cake and popped it in the oven, in the meantime I arranged the easter grass in a glass bowl and put the chocolate and the birthday card in it. Then off to make the second layer of the birthday cake and the frosting. Let everything get cold and put the cake together. In the mean time hubby was awake and got up. I banned him from the kitchen until I was finished.
All in all it was a great surprise for him. He was able to smell the cake but he suspected cupcakes.  Here is the picture of the cake:


I think it looks great. And it turned out really good. Even though my baking powder wasn't good anymore. The cake didn't rise much. 

On Saturday we had a coffee "party" for my hubbys relatives. I made a strawberry and vanilla pudding cake and peanutbutter cupcakes with frosting. They were the hit. Just look at them: 




They were gobbled up in no time. 

I keep saying I should open up my own bakery. I think i'd make a ton of money. Offer these and the peanutbutter cheesecake and i'd make a million in no time flat. LOL
I was just really happy that everyone enjoyed my cakes. And my hubby had a great birthday. That's all I wanted. 

Thursday, March 31, 2011

My Vacation is over.

Oh darn. Today was my last vacation day. From the list I had with things I wanted to do I still have 4 that haven't been checked off. One I can still do today so I guess 3 will have to wait till my next weeks worth of vacation in 4 days. Yes I have more vacation coming up that soon. It's the week of my hubbys birthday, and I want to go somewhere with him.

On a other note.
My crockpot came yesterday! And I tried it out today on Gulash. And tomorrow i'm having leftovers but this time with dumplings. And then I have a whole bunch of recipies to try out. For now I have the ingredients for mexican chicken and pot roast. I hope both are really good since my hubby will be eating with me. He's a pickey eater.

I tried a new cheesecake recipie today too. Peanutbutter. It smells so yummy and unresistable. As soon as it's cold I have to cover it in melted chocolate. It's kind of like a giant reeses pieces cup. I really hope it will taste as good as it smells.




*sigh* i've been eating to many sweets again today. I think it has to do with the smell of the cheesecake. It makes my sweet tooth go mad. I have to stop. Otherwise i'll never lose the weight I have to lose. Starting tomorrow i'll be doing my work outs again. 3 or 4 times a week. Running and muscle and swimming. It'll be fun. I get to wear my new running shirt and shoes and everything.

Monday, March 28, 2011

I think I did a lot today.

Looking back on my day today I think I did a lot.
I walked to the bakerey and back that took me around 45 minutes. I cleaned up the fitness room/office and brought all the boxes of unneeded stuff up to the attic. I finished my bedroom and the new closet system. Went to see my mom in law, and went grocery shopping with her. I made two different dinners and then went swimming for a hour and 20 minutes. Then I came home and did the dishes. Oh and in between I did a load of laundry.
Now i'm sitting here in my livingroom relaxing. I just had my desert coffee and the TV is running but there isn't much on that's interesting.
Looking over my self made nutrition & fitness notebook I realise I had a whole day of clean eating too. Except for the caramel coffee mate in my coffee just now. Wow I knew I could do it but without really realising it just surprises me.

Now what will I do tomorrow? Maybe first things first and plan my work out. The apple shape work out month one to three. That will give me sore muscles. If swimming today doesn't give me sore muscles tomorrow.  And some wandering. Yeah that sounds really good. If it's a beautiful day a 10 kilometer wander route. And since I always have my cell with me as a saftey precaution I always have a camara with me too, so maybe i'll be able to make a few great pictures for my blog.

So now off to realax with my newest book. The adventures of diet girl.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

This is me

So i've finally uploaded the pictures of me from my hubbys phone. I think I look really good. I exspecially love the booty. It is getting better looking.


I think i'm getting the longed for heart shape. 

And just to show myself a little this is the before picture of me when I started the apple shape work out. 


Yes I look frumpy and unkept but give me a break I was about to go work out when we took this picture. Usually I look kind of like this: 


I think I look alot better in everyday clothes. 

But looking at these pics I can see a load of great changes, but I also see where I need to keep working on myself. Today was a good day today so far. I had a sexy breakfast consisting of a toaster Brötchen, one egg a little shredded cheese and a giant tomatoe. Lunch was a whole cucumber and a three corn Brötchen with a slice of light cheese and some vinagrette. It was yummy! And for dinner I planned risotto with zucchini and mushrooms and a chickenbreast and as dessert a fruit lassi. Made with green tea, natural almost fat free yogurt and some fruit spread. It sounds yummy. I've never made one before. 

At 3p.m. today my hubby is going to his buddies and i'm off to get my hair done and grocery shopping. I hope the hair cut I chose will look good on me. Will post picture if I remember to make one. 


Right now i'm reading the book adventure of diet girl. The book well written and funny and heart wretching. And it shows me how good i've had it. So far all my fat is self inflicted. Yes I do bitch that it will be a lot of work to get ride of it and I know I don't do everything right all the time but if I do all I can I will lose it again. And until then I might as well enjoy the journey. So I will. 

Now off to get my hair done. 


Friday, March 25, 2011

The weight I want to lose

I have a big screen TV in my livingroom now and I have to admit it is a living nightmare for me in the morning. I don't usually turn it on so there is this black screen in front of me that acts like a mirror.
Oh the horrors.
I can see every buldge that is still to much on my frame. Yes I have lost 35 Kilos so far but I still have about 20-25 kilos more to go. What a chunk of work in front of me.

Luckly I am a beautiful woman with elbow long blond hair, and a husband that adores me. But still if I want to stay healthy and sexy my entire life I have to do all the work I need to do to lose this fat.

25
FREAKING
KILOS

And it is not as easy as it used to be anymore. The first 35 were truly a breez. But now with the muscle gain that is truly going on it is harder. I have no idea if a weight gain is due to muscle or just my eating. I mean I can actually see where I gained muscle mass. And can you believe it, it is on my BUTT! Yes my booty is getting bigger.  My hubby says it is getting a sexyer shape and all but come on bigger?! And since my waist got smaller on the sides it seems my tummy grew out. To me my proportions do not fit anymore.
And yet other men are noticing me? WTF? Am I just weird?
I need to upload that before pic from my hubbys phone. Maybe if I see pics of myself I can understand what other people are seeing. And mybe I should get myself a full sized mirror. It seems I don't see something right just looking at my black TV screen.


On a lighter note. I'm on my vacation for the next week. That means I can do all the fun stuff I've listed for myself. But today is the one and only work day. I have spring cleaning to do and my Mom in Law wants a visit from us. We haven't been there for a week now. And I want to do some grocery shopping. My hubby wants chicken cheese toast burgers tonight. (Ugh if I want one of those i'll have to work out for almost 10 hours. Outch huh?)

Well ok i'm off to get more coffee then do some cleaning. First things first is dust off my altar and get it set up for spring.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

My Work out plans

Oh geez I forgot to write about the H&F Work out Plan that I am following.

I'm a apple/hourglass shaped woman. That means I have a lot of jelly belly, but also all the curves in all the right places. And I want to look fabulous. So I found this H&F work out in the magazine for apples and hourglasses and i'm following those. It's a 3 month work out with the possibility of lengthening it out to almost a year. After all if you follow this for three months you get fitter, so you go from the beginner work out to the next stage and so on. I took before pictures but they are on my hubbys cell and I have no idea where it is right now so I can't post the pics. But I will keep updates on how i'm doing and every month i'll take a new picture so that maybe I can see the results myslef. I have a horrid time telling if I lost inches or not.

my vacation week is coming up

My Vacation starts tomorrow. And I am so happy that I have it too! I think slowly I really need one.
On my vacation I plan to do the following:
-sew
-do my work outs
- do my running training
-go to "der Welle" here in Lauterbach
- hiking
-swimming
-maybe buy and ride a bike

and much much more.

On a other note. My favorite discounter grocery store Lidl had runners gear on sale today. Man was I glad that I was in that store so early today. People tend to be greedy when it comes to good deals. I mean where else can you get excellent running shoes for 12,99€? Or a running shirt for 5.99€? I bought both today and I would have bought myself running tights/pants but I already have those and why buy more than what I need.
But I think I should get myself some running socks. It's true you can get blisters from the wrong socks.

Here is a pic from my new running shoes:


And here is the runners shirt. I wanted one in pink but it's still one size to small so it will have to wait a little longer. But this blue is pretty to when you see it:


It's a mens shirt, since i'm still a XL I usually have to get mens gear in the discounter store. The ladys things only go to a L and the shoes are always to small. I have a size 42 after all! But then again from the discription the mens shoes seem to be a lot better so I won't bicker. 

So one more Late Shift then it's vacation time! Have to remember to take pictures.


Monday, March 21, 2011

Losing weight

Loseing weight is hard work. No doubt about that. And here I am and want to ,ose another 20 to the 35 i've already lost. Sometimes I think i'm out of my mind, and yet I need to lose those kilos to be in a healthy weight range.
And yet I still love some parts of the weight loss journey. The complemts, the oh my god you look good squeals, and the work outs. Yes I have to admit I love exercise.
Let's take today as an example. I'm up at 7:45 am. Drinking my coffee, blogging a little. Soon I will get dressed in my work out gear and jump on my treadmill for a while, then off to do a little weights and then shower, wake up my hubby start some laundry make my lunch for work then i'm probably off to work.
I have to be there by 1:45. Tomorrow is the early shift where I have to get up at 4:45. Yuck. Normally I would work out after work today, but since I have little time due to needing sleep I planned it in for this morning.
On the bright side i'll have plenty of time tomorrow for grocery shopping and maybe another little work out. And if it is nice outside that's where i'll work out too. See how my favorite jogging route is.

So but for now i'm off to work out a little. 20 minutes treadmill is a minimum.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

50's dress and blous

Oh I love sewing. I even went into apprenticeship to learn it properly here in Germany. Unfortunately sewing is a dead job, so instead of working in a field I love I'm working in a spielothek. The equivalence of a casino. But I still sew for my pleasure if I find the time.
Right now I'm finding the time. I have a 50's blouse and dress I want to make myself. The blouse pattern I have to enlarge a bit. But I think it will work out nicely. My bust is 124 cm and the pattern is only 88cm. Here is a picture of it in the original 50's magazine.


The dress I don't have to enlarge much, but still a little just to make sure. Here is a picture of the sketch


As soon as both projects are done I'll be posting picture. I'll be working on one of the two more tomorrow. First thins I'll be doing is making practice pieces out of the cheaper material.

The first dress I cut out of practice material is still sitting there the way it was when I first blogged about it. It is mocking me. I still haven't figured out how to close the arms. I wonder who I could ask about it? Well as soon as i've found someone i'll tell about it. Or maybe i'll have a spark of inspiration and figure it out myself. 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My pie, new Plates, and the curse of the dress

Well the apple pie I made today looks beautiful! Here is a picture:

  

Isn't it pretty? It will be absolutely lovely for coffee tomorrow at mom in laws. 

I also wanted to show off some vintage fondue plates. I think they are really cute and I love the color.


I'm going to use them as dinner plates. The larger area is for veggies, the middle one for meat and poultry and the left and right upper areas is where the starchy things will come. You know rice, bread, potatoes etc.


As for the dress I'm sewing from 1953, it is a bit*h cursed I think. I just can't figure out how in the world it is supposed to be sew together in one place. Unfortunately the instructions for the thing got lost a long time ago. As in before I bought the magazine that it was in. So I will just have to figure it out. Glad I cut out the dress in practice material first. As soon as I've figured it out I will post a picture of the finished dress. So keep your fingers crossed for me that it will work out.

My poor Hubby is sick

Ah yes the troubles of life. My Hubby is sick. He has the same thing I had last week. I was written up sick from my Job and stayed home for a little over a week. Now my poor sugar has the bad cough and sleeping problems from it. I feel so good now that I'm reconsidering taking my vacation at the end of this month. Just push it off until my other co-worker is back. She's pregnant and sick too so she has to be 100% cured before she's allowed back.
So now back to the 50's diet that I'm experimenting in.
It will be a little trickier tomorrow. Since i'm going back to work and there is all kinds of sweets and snacks around. But I'll get a hang of it.
This morning I did not have a typical 50's breakfast. I had a papaya that would have gone bad if it wasn't eaten today, and since there is no snacking inbetween meals I wouldn't know when to eat it otherwise. So for breakfast I had a whole papaya and a Bauer Muesli yogurt. And of course my beloved coffee.
Tomorrow I'll be having oatmeal. But i'll be taking it to work with me. It's kind of hard to eat something at 4:50a.m.
My project for today is the original 1950's dress pattern. I have a few original dress patterns from german magazines from that time. They are all winter dresses though. So for spring/summer I'll have to get a few more.  I have a few spring sommer blouses from that time though. So if I can't get anything dress wise from that time I guess I could just combine a blouse and skirt.
Other than the sewing project I want to bake a apple pie. But first I have to check out a few stores and see if I can find something equivalent to a pie plate here in germany. Pies are just not know here. That's why I want to make one. I want to take it to my mom in laws for coffee time. I keep telling her how delish apple pies are and now I want to prove it to her.
So for now i'll be off to do some shopping.

Monday, March 7, 2011

What i'm up to

So lately I've been looking into the nutrition and meals of the 50's. There are a lot of good blogs out there that have the same topic. Some info that I have is from these blogs but not all.
And now I'm doing a experiment called: Diet like it's 1950.
Want to read about the beginning? Then go here for I will not re post all that info.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal.asp?id=mistmade&abepu=true


So far I've researched portion sizes, and how many meals they ate. Guess now would be the time to research the nutrition facts and food pyramid of that time.
Today is the beginning of portioning out the food like it was 1950 according to the info I've found in one of my German cookbooks from that time frame. I'll also try out a few recipes. But I'll probably use a lot less fat and lard that they used. And boy did they use a lot. And of course I'll use a lot more spices that what they had. Seems like the only things they had were broth, salt and pepper.

Later on today I want to start one of three or four projects. Either I will sew a dress, crochet potholders, or a towel topper or slippers from patterns from the 50's.

But first I have meal planning to do and grocery shopping.