by Tish MacWebber | Mar 27, 2017 | Coffee and Stories
Coffee is Here
I decided to get back in action yesterday in my Kitchen Cleaning Challenge. Well, it continued today! I have gotten to all the countertops and cleaned and organized my 3 sections. FINALLY! I had lost my gumption somewhere after Christmas, and I am getting it back!
I realized that the dishes not being finished before I got started, although it is a logical way to plan the cleaning of one’s kitchen, it was HOLDING ME BACK! So I dove in and started cleaning and organizing one section of the countertop. I decided that it was time for me to revamp the countertop organization, and get caught up with the rest of the world. I needed to redesign and organize a new coffee station!
I have a Keurig. I have an electric tea kettle. I have a tiny little space of countertop.
This is what I did!
Tish’s Coffee Station!
I have continued all the way around the countertops. The rest of the kitchen progress will be added into my next Weekend Warrior story, but I couldn’t wait to share this! I still have a lot of work to do, but I feel like I have made progress, and that will inspire me to keep going. Well, that and the coffee! 😉
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 25, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Well, look at that. I made it to another weekend. It is unplanned, as of yet, and that could be dangerous. In terms of making the most of my weekend off, that is.
Looking around, I can get overwhelmed at the amount of work I still need to do. But just looking at it won’t fix that.
So I have to make a list. It will be for both days, as I never seem to finish the list I make in one day, so I’ll be realistic. Then I will pick some small things to get me going. It is motivating to cross things off of the list.
Eggs and Avs (THM) A nice filling breakfast. I love poached eggs, but you can fry them if you prefer. I love this quick, healthy breakfast on weekends.
We do have to run errands today. So I’ve filled the Overthinkin and Coffee Drinkin mug to sip my coffee while I Brunch and write. Tomorrow I’ll need to prep cook, and my husband doesn’t know it yet, but there is a package of bacon for tomorrow’s breakfast. He wouldn’t eat this with me, but he loves bacon and eggs.
I am still struggling with the cleaning challenge. I feel like this weekend might be when I get back on track. I set the goals at the start of the year, and I intend to keep them. But where to begin? I am overwhelmed by a number of things to do on an exponentially growing to do list and underwhelmed with the energy to attack it. How do I fight my way to doing instead of dreading?
The lists and music are the answer. Even if I take an hour to make the list, it is a start. Do I write down everything, share it with my husband, and tackle it with him? Will we bicker if we tackle the same thing together? Sometimes that happens. If we are both working in the kitchen, there is not a lot of space when we are doing the dishes. My kitchen is deceptive. It looks spacious but has very little cupboard space. I have had to be creative in what I have and where I store things. I have a bookcase, an open pantry, and a large standing shelf with a door on it.
This is the final result of the only thing I really accomplished in the first year I joined the Cleaning Challenge. I need to tidy it up this year, but for the most part, it is still in good shape, and just needs a good dusting job. It is my Open Shelf Pantry.
We have often talked about how to get more efficient storage in the kitchen. We are planning to get some furniture “someday” at Ikea. It will be mostly to set up the living room, but the kitchen will get a boost too. It will happen, it is hard sometimes to make do and stay motivated, but it is what it is.
This afternoon we went to get our taxes finished up. Done for another year. We then made an afternoon trip of going to two local SPCA animal shelters. We are starting to think about getting our first dog, and saw a lot of cats too. We will get another cat too, someday, but we needed a break, after having been a cat only home for so long.
This evening we went to visit some friends. It was nice to get out and socialize as a couple with another couple that we are friends with, but haven’t been to visit in quite some time.
Another productive day outside of the house. I will have to work really hard tomorrow to catch up. It can be done. It will be done. It has to. I hope the energy is still with me tomorrow. The house needs a bouncing!
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 25, 2017 | Events
When I press the publish button, this becomes my 50th blog on this website. I give myself a gold star! I had no idea back in November when I decided that I wanted to get my lyrics out for exposure to a possible collaboration, that I would be writing this today. I didn’t even know I wanted to start a blog. But here I am.
What have I learned so far? I still love creative writing. Whether it is about serious topics, made up things called Tish-isms, Zumba classes, or me vs the weekend, I am really enjoying this blogging thing. I like sharing my thoughts here, and since I am Always Thinking…they will continue to accumulate. I hope I never need a shovel for them because the snow in New Brunswick has that covered.
While I am not a fan of numbers, I have started following the stats for this project. I am somewhat speechless at times when I am reviewing the results. It is growing, slow but steady, in the right direction. The likes and comments I have been getting are very encouraging, also. This has been a positive experience.
I have written a poem, as one entry. The lyrics page has 20 songs on it, two of which I have written this month. They do not count as separate blog posts, they are not in the 50 count on the blog itself, but they are here also. Since a few of the 50 are shared from another blog source, they balance that out a bit. I can’t write this without remembering I wrote my first guest blog that was shared on another person’s website. I never even dreamed that I would write from my heart, and that other people would read it, like what I wrote, and tell me they want to read more. How great is that?
In the blogging world, I am finding my way. If you are reading this, thank you for doing so. If you are following my blog, I am following yours too. If you have seen the tweets and facebook page, you are getting a little more of me through those different locations. I have one story on Medium, and that is just for fun. I hope to write more like that, and I will likely share between this blog and my medium account as I expand it.
I hope to keep growing the blog as I prepare to write my books. I am definitely having a lot of fun, and this is good. As long as it continues to be fun, I will keep writing. I am certain that I will have slow times of dealing with life in the real world or the dreaded writer’s block. It is a challenge I will have to face when that time comes. Until then, I will keep up the positive stories, and expanding my horizons.
Thanks for reading.
Tish MacWebber
Always Thinking…
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 23, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share the story of another friend. It is written in her own words, and she submitted it earlier this week with her permission to share it as a part of the series.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Bonnie’s Story
My story begins all the way back to when I was five years old. I was always small for my age until then, when my parents got divorced. All of the changes and upheaval that happens with that sort of thing, is what seems to have contributed to me eating more and gaining weight. Still, I was only chubby as a child. I wasn’t truly overweight until my preteens. I believe I was about ten years old when I realized that I was bigger than most of the kids my age but other than some minor teasing from other kids that usually went over my head anyway, I did not feel bad about it. At age twelve, I weighed 180 pounds and that’s the age that I really started noticing how heavy I was and feeling body conscious.
I never did anything about it at that age though, except maybe some walking for exercise. Other than that, I did a lot of wishing and dreaming that I would just wake up skinny one day and everyone would like me because I wasn’t a big girl anymore. I remember feeling bad about being overweight, not being able to wear the types of clothes my friends were wearing, and receiving some teasing or comments here and there.
When I was sixteen, my mom and I joined a women’s gym together. There I learned about exercise and how beneficial, as well as fun, it could be. The first workout left me so sore I could barely move and I didn’t want to go back, it hurt so much. However, I did go back a few days later and started to realize a love for exercise I never knew I could have! The trainers there, one I’m still in touch with to this day, were so kind and really involved. They provided me with so much quality guidance that I really needed. Due to a move across town, making the trip to the gym too far for me to go, I stopped going once our one year was up there and turned to walking more for exercise. Slowly the weight I had lost from exercising at that gym for a year crept back on.
Another few years went by where I tried various things but never stuck with anything consistently, until 2009, when I was twenty. I started a weight loss journey by cutting back my calories significantly, exercising five or six days a week, and drinking Slim-Fast and changing my eating habits to include more vegetables and fruits. Soon I joined the SparkPeople website where I received support, information, and resources I needed to keep losing weight. I lost over 75 pounds during the seven months I was on there and actively working to lose weight. Right around my twenty-first birthday though, I ended up suffering from gallstones and pancreatitis, spending a whole week in the hospital and having my gallbladder removed. After that and some dramatic changes in my life that happened directly afterwards, I pretty much gave up on losing weight. I mean I tried, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore and I wasn’t consistently working on it any longer.
The next few years after that I continued to try to lose weight at different points, but it never lasted and I never stuck with it long enough to make a significant difference. Finally in May 2014, I started my final and last weight loss journey. This was it! I was going to lose the weight and keep it off! I had gained all of the weight I had lost in 2009 and then some, as it often goes. I was a whopping 309 pounds at this point, when I had sworn I would never get over three hundred pounds! I was shocked and appalled, and I knew I had no choice but to make changes so I could lose that weight. By August of 2015, I was in what is often referred to as “onederland,” finally breaking into the 190’s. It took quite a while after that to get into the 180’s, but my lowest weight was 181 in April 2016.
Enter this past summer that brought issues with my grandparents and their health, a big cross country move, having to leave behind my siblings and their kids when my parents and I moved, and so much more, I just let things go. I had just completed my first ever half marathon in May of last year, which was one of the most rewarding and invigorating experiences of my life. It was so much fun that I’m doing the same half marathon again this May. After the half marathon, the summer was full of all of these huge, and very stressful, events that kept the next few months super stressful and overwhelming. I started gaining weight back because I just felt too overwhelmed to devote the attention and dedication to my nutrition that I had before.
Even with the weight gain, I am still 60+ pounds down from my highest weight, but it has been a huge struggle to get back on track and the weight has kept creeping on due to my struggles. I know I can do it, as I proved it to be the case before, but it seems harder. I lost that momentum, I stopped being consistent, and I guess I gave up. However, I still had a huge passion to help others, and had restarted a blog for the purpose of helping other women find a way to not only lose weight, but believe in themselves, find their inner strength, and practice self-love. Still, at some points in the past few months, I have felt like a fraud because I had been struggling so much. It is all a part of my journey, so even though it felt horrible and disappointing all the same, it has been a learning experience and has made me stronger!
A positive thing that has come out of my struggles is that a little over a month ago, I made the decision to join Beachbody as a coach. Using the container system, Shakeology, and workouts they have in their programs is truly making a huge difference for me both physically and mentally. That doesn’t mean that it is easy or that the changes are instantaneous, and I am still slowly getting my nutrition back in check in addition to working out more consistently again. I am also drinking Shakeology everyday and noticing how much it makes a difference in my energy levels. I never realized how beneficial it could be! Besides that, I also have a huge support system with the coaches that are part of the team of the coach I signed up with. As a friend, she is someone I trust, feel comfortable talking to, and know she will help me the best way she can which is a huge deal to me and made the decision that much easier!
I have complete faith that I will lose the weight I’ve regained. I felt so skinny at 180-190 pounds, even though I still wanted to lose 30 more pounds. Now I glance at pictures from that low weight and wish I could be that small again. However, I can’t live in the past and I can’t beat myself up anymore. I am ready to continue moving forward, working on improving my healthy lifestyle, and helping other people do the same thing in their lives. The greatest reward for me is to help others realize how they can really live the life they dream of living, whether it be to lose weight, go after their dream career, or whatever else represents happiness and success in their lives. On SparkPeople, helping others and providing feedback was more than just helping them. It helped me to stay on track too!
Bonnie McConaughy is the owner and founder of Inspire the Best You (www.inspirethebestyou.com), where she writes about healthy living and personal growth, and provides health and wellness coaching. She is also a freelance and ghostwriter (www.bonwriterfreelance.biz).
Thank you to Bonnie for sharing your story. You have inspired me to try harder, because like you, I know I can do this, I just have to stick with it. Although we are travelling on different paths, there are some similarities in our journeys. Keep working on your goals, and you will achieve them, I know it! Something that resonates with me after reading is that you are not alone, you have a support system, and you are building your own skills to help others. This is really a great thing, to take what you have learned to help you guide others in their journies. I wish you all the best, and have faith that you are going to be a success.
by Tish MacWebber | Mar 21, 2017 | Cooking Adventures
Where’s the Beef?
I just put this massive Beef Stew in the oven. The beef is on the bottom. Then I cut up cabbage, turnip, carrots, onion, mushrooms, and radishes. You read that right. There are radishes in my beef stew. It is a new thing for us, and as I am on the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) plan, I have tried this once before, and I liked it. The husband did not like the radishes as much as I did. Last time he said, “Fewer radishes and more potatoes.” There are no potatoes this time. That’ll teach him. Just kidding. He bought a bag of potatoes, and he will have mashed potatoes on the side. I can bake a sweet potato if I want a potato.
I added a carton of beef broth. I was thinking about adding some red wine for flavour but decided to save it for Thursday. TGIT and I have plans that involve wine and popcorn. It’s our thing. So I added a carton of mushroom stock instead of wine. Then I hit the spices. Some bay leaves, garlic, onion powder, dill, parsley, and a little Montreal Steak Spice for that little something unexpected.
I have made homemade baked beans in this roasting pan. They cook all day. I have made turkey in it, of course. I have made a ham in it; and boiled dinner which is a ham with vegetables, like the stew above. I usually don’t add mushrooms to that one. Or spices, the salt from the ham is amazing with those veggies.
If you have lasagna lovers in your life, you can make a many layered lasagna in one of those roasters. It is absolutely amazing, especially if you have the right flavour combination. I have been hit or miss with regular lasagna lately. Or as I call it now, his lasagna. With noodles. I make the THM Lazy Lasagna for myself when I want a lasagna.
THM Lazy Lasagna Recipe
I have also made Bangin Ranch Drums in this roasting pan. I eat them with sweet potatoes and green bean fries. I add nutritional yeast flakes instead of onion or garlic powder, when I make the green bean fries. I finally like frozen green beans, but only if they are cooked this way! 😉
THM Green Bean Fries Recipe
Bangin Ranch Drums THM
The cooked stew
I hope it tastes good, or I’m going to have to go off plan and top it with ketchup!
Update: The stew was really tasty. My husband told me it was better than the last time, even though he was dubious about how it smelled. He said the radishes weren’t even so bad this time. I ate the stew by itself for my lunch today and paired it with baked sweet potato for supper. He made his own regular boiled potatoes to go with his supper. Ketchup was not necessary, but a pinch of sea salt and a light sprinkle of pepper would be the only change I would make next time.
