Less Hustle More Coffee

I love fall! The changes are slowly evident of our season’s turning from late summer into autumn’s arrival. Our mornings are foggy – especially around bodies of water or low lying areas as the night’s are cooling. I’ve already had opportunity to switch in some longer sleeves, a few thin sweatshirts, and take away some of the thinner and lighter summer clothes from the closet.

I ordered pumpkin spice from that wellness company I use as I’ve waited on this for two years. It is the most divine taste – not too sweet – just right. A better version even than the last, and I liked the last one. With the upcoming “challenge” I’ll be doing a bit more shakes and working them into my mornings and trying to overcome my constant need for a hot breakfast in the fall/winter months. Even in the summer I had not been doing the shakes. I began to associate it with “dieting” instead of the goodness they provide. I had forgotten just how good they make me feel. I’ve been struggling lately with tiredness, muscle issues, musculoskeletal issues, and I remember how these seemed to repair my body. So with challenge ahead and needing some extra help and nutrition, I’m going to be drinking more of these. They will help me toward my goals.

The 55 day challenge is coming up and it will be something I want to commit to as I try and develop habits that stick. I am creating some rules around how to be able to live my life, be healthy, less fat, and still be able to enjoy food like we do. I think one of my rules is going to be one that I’ve heard someone else use. They never say no if there is something they want really bad. They just have “TWO BITES”.

We went to Paula Deen’s last Friday – a group of us girls – in celebration of one of our coworker’s birthday. Look at the goodness of these rolls sat on the table. Slathered in ooooey gooey butter and herbs and cheese. Oh my. They were as heavenly as they looked.

The two bite rule could have been used here and under the 55 day challenge in which I hope to lose 5 lbs, before we go into Thanksgiving, I would have to keep my goals in mind and not eat the whole thing. I think that is doable with me. I would have to get over being wasteful and not eating the rest of the roll, but remember what the butter and fat does to my body.

I’m going to sit my 1 lb of fat around in my room to remind me what losing just 1 lb will bring off my body. Five lbs seems like a small goal. But five of these coming off my body – just imagine!

Here was our Paula Deen “family meal” choices. Catfish, broccoli casserole, Sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, creamed corn, beef roast and rice, and chicken and dumplings. The rolls have been attacked at this point. It was a great meal. I had a couple of bites of everything! TWICE, LOL. But keep in mind that my Challenge has not started.

Saturday, since George was going to play golf in Kentucky, I decided to make a plan for my own outing. Because when the guys go play, so do the girls, and usually it’s eating and shopping. (Insert evil grin here. And also please forget that I had just gone out the day before, lol.)

So Mom and I went to eat breakfast at Just Love Cafe in Mount Juliet, a place on my bucket list. The breakfast was wonderful. I had a burrito and Mom had a “Wammollete” or something like that – it was a ommellete wrapped in a waffle. My burrito was a think waffle also as the tortilla. Oh.My.Word. This was so good. I had forgotten my phone and left it in the car so I’m sorry to say that I do not have any pics. I was mad at myself for that. But it wasn’t convenient to go back to the car and get it. I’ll be back and I will take pics next time. I want to go for their lunch. I noticed they had a drive through too. Likely not a lot that would be healthy for breakfast though – but they did have avocado toast – so probably would do that sometime. But they do have nice looking salads for lunch. Once again, glad we did this before the challenge. After the challenge, I have to define – how often would I eat such a breakfast as this? A weekend splurge? Not during the week? Hmmmm. It’s these things that gets one in trouble. I’m sad to say, but I need rules I guess with my eating so I can learn to say “no” or “not now” instead of “yes, yes, yes, and more yes, and I’ll be better tomorrow I promise”. It’s a mindset and it’s a hard one for a lot of us, especially if you have a foodie family and foodie friends. I like being foodie and I like my foodie peeps! 😉

We didn’t do a LOT of shopping. Mom wanted to look for a comforter and some items that she would need for her new house. She wanted to go to Belk but they were not open yet. So we went to Home Goods, a part of TJ Maxx. She found one she liked but didn’t get it yet. She decided she really needed to wait until she saw the place to get a mental pic of the colors and understand what will match. I pulled up what was picked out on my phone but you need a mental pic of the space as well and the total look. So we’ll wait.

Mom sat in the car and I ran in Rack Room Shoes for their Buy 1 and Get 1 half off deals. I found the first pair right off. The next pair took a bit longer but out of site I saw them and tried them and loved them. I considered another set of two but just didn’t really see two other pair that would be basics. I’m really a basics person when it comes to shoes and pants. I like to have one pair that goes with everything in a color set. For shoes that is: black, navy, tan, and either silver, gold, or bronze to blend in with most things. I love my sandals in the summer and have pretty much converted to solid color tennis shoes/walking shoes for work (no stripes or colors so they don’t look sporty). I no longer enjoy wearing loafer type shoes in the winter. I’d rather wear the tennis shoes and same color socks and try to make it look uniform. It may not look dressy but it usually looks “uniform” as I said, and comfortable. I hesitate to call these tennis shoes, but they are most like tennis shoes as they tie or lace up anyway. This seems to do what I need for winter with my work clothes.

I am happy to be able to add these to the collection. I had bought some other black sandals that I wore the past two summers out of desperation as I was looking for these above and couldn’t find them anywhere. Of course last year was a bust at finding shoes in stores and online you can’t try them on. At last, I have them.

The left are my new metallic pair to dress up an outfit, dress up jeans, and just bring an uplift to the look. I haven’t had any like this, the past year or two and I’ve missed the metallic sandals. I often will wear the metallic look instead of white or beige and to go with outfits that are not calling for black or blue or brown. So I’m a happy girl!

I will find some blue sandals in spring. They are the only missing ones. I have some brown and blue croc sandals both, but they have a “gold” metal design on it that I’m not fond of. I bought them til I could find some I really liked. They have been “ok” as I bought them in a hurry a few years ago to wear at our new office when they ruled out the thong type of shoes, that we usually call a flip flop. However, I’ve since realized since then that apparently thongs are ok if they are dressy like the above and I even see and hear others wearing flip flops, so……I decided to go for these on the left as “if they can, I can” and will. ;-). I don’t want to flip and flop but I’m at least going to not rule out thong wearing shoes in the work place if I see others wearing them. And honestly, many of the women’s dressier sandals DO have the thong toe now days. Or it’s a pricier more expensive shoe.

In addition to doing some laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, and fixing spaghetti for dinner, I had made plans with myself to do a Canon lesson. So I watched three videos and also made some changes to the camera that should help me with vlogging. At 58, learning and remembering new skills can be a challenge. But with repetition it slowly sinks in. I’m able to find my way around the various functions. I mean that is half the battle. There are SO MANY setting screens. For now I’m mainly using automated settings on the videos that will help me. But am branching out on the photo side to do more manual settings to get better pics. I did NOT get to do my “photo shoot” this summer to practice that was on the bucket list. I had hoped to work that in yesterday but it didn’t happen. I suppose I can “check off the box though” with some photo shots around the house and call it a day. It’s better than nothing and I need the practice.

When I’m living my life though, I always have my phone available so mostly what you see are iPhone shots. The camera quality seems to be sinking though – is it just me or is the quality getting worse over time? I’m hoping for a newer phone in January. I’d really like to do the new every time upgrade but I think you have to pay so much per month from now on. I’m not sure what is best to do. I have to decide before my birthday but I also will look at it as an improvement to blogging and the videos as well, part of a hobby, and not to mention a HUGE part of our every day life. I’m also willing to give up cable but not sure George is. We seem to watch Netflix and YouTube most of the time. I watch weather sometime during a bad outbreak but I also have my phone and have been my own meteorologist for some time. 😉 I know how to read the radar and no how to tell what’s coming – for the most part. We are paying way too much for cable. But hey, if George wants to pay hundreds to keep cable for himself, then am I in a good position to argue for the “new every time” iPhone via ATT? ha!

This blog has been long enough. There is much to do today. George and I are going to the store to get stuff for beef Bourguignon and I’m probably going to film it. So it’ll be a busy afternoon.

I also have to finish watching a few KYD55 videos and doing some finally planning and defining for this challenge. What is ok and what is not and what my rules are and define my goals and such. Ahhhhhh I always do this to myself. I push and push but it’s worth it when I see and look back and see any growth, any happiness, and any goals met. Can we just retire already? lol Life is much! But the fun is in the journey. Just have to remember that when it gets stressful instead. My heart loves to see progress!