Thursday, November 29, 2012

St. Paul-y Girl

I have some big news! I have finally found a place! Yea! I'm very excited to welcome a new change into my life! I will be moving to St. Paul, Minnesota where I will be only 6 miles from my day job (biking distance!) and a bit further from my business. However, this move makes more sense with regards to my current day to day life. After months of scouring Craigslist to find the perfect place to fit me and my budget, I finally did it! Can you tell I'm pumped?

This is how people from Minneapolis, view St. Paul. The 'Dark Side'. Personally, I think each place has something unique to offer. :)


Some people absolutely DREAD moving. They look at it like this:



I am not one of those people. One reason being that I don't have much "stuff"...at least not yet. I try and keep life as simple as possible. With my new place, I will have to acquire a bit more "stuff" as I now will actually have a bedroom AND a living space (imagine that, no more eating on my bed!).  I am happy that I will likely be acquiring my grandmother's old bedroom set. It will really help lessen the financial burden and I am glad we can keep grandma's items in the family.

The aspect that I love the MOST about moving though is that it's like turning over a new leaf. You get a fresh start, a new space, new organization, purging of old items, intake of new objects...it's all very exciting. Since I have been at this place for 2 years, living quarters have been tight. I miss having space to invite friends over, a table to eat on, space to do my office-type activities, and I mostly miss having my bedroom be a private space rather than a public one.


Don't get me wrong, I don't regret having lived in my 211 square foot place. Yes, I actually measured it today. Like I've said before, I knew when starting a business, sacrifices would need to be made. However, it provided me a great opportunity to save money, be close to my business and form some great new friendships. This woman has outgrown this space though now. I've come to a better place with my business and a better place financially. 

Finally, I'm looking forward to new design in my new space. I was looking around my apartment the other day and it hit me that I have grown a lot as a person,  but the items around me haven't changed. My designs/sights are all the same. I'm ready for new growth that way too. I have creative juices flowing through my brain (mental note: creative juices sounds kind of gross) and I have another concept in mind. Just for that concept, I've gotten some posters framed at a sale I caught at Michael's on Black Friday. I can't wait to get into my place near the end of the December and get to work! Don't worry, you all know that I'll be keeping you up to date on the new design and place! It'll be a fun treat for the holidays!









Source: piccsy.com via Laura on Pinterest


That is my big news for the week! I have one more post to fulfill my goals from last week. I've upped my business posts as well recently! Keeping on track with those goals!

Hope you are all doing great this week!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Holiday SLIM DOWN!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have done some SERIOUS slacking on my clean eating. I feel like I have truly disappointed not only myself, but everyone who reads my posts. This is probably a reason I have been slacking on posting a bit because when I don't fulfill my goals I not only disappoint myself, but I feel as though I've disappointed readers as well.

I said before that I was re-committing to clean eating and then I failed. Yep, I truly failed. That's okay though because when you fail, you recognize it, make a conscious decision to change, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps and try, try, again! Here I am trying again!

I have had 2 days of clean eating now and I'm trying my hardest to stay fully focused and committed this time around! Sometimes, I need to make mini-goals for myself to accomplish my own BIG goal. Sometimes, I also need to involve OTHERS so that I can accomplish my own goals. Other people can also help to keep you accountable and motivated. In thinking about starting my clean eating again, I was reminded of the week that I kept track of my daily progress with clean eating and just how much my body changed with only one week of clean eating.

This is the picture from when I was tracking daily progress:


Look at how much difference there was in just ONE week! This picture really gets me motivated! I decided that I would once again track my progress for one week. Maybe even TWO! I was hoping that this would motivate some other people to join me in this adventure!

Now I'm well aware that Thanksgiving (for you people in the US) is coming up. I'm also well aware that often times people don't eat too well on Thanksgiving. I am a person who believes that you have to be in the right mindset and ready to change to accomplish goals. I am in the right mindset for myself RIGHT NOW. I think that being ready for a major change in diet just before Thanksgiving may not be for everyone. HOWEVER, what about the day AFTER Thanksgiving? That's right! No bringing home leftovers this year! This is why I'm asking anyone interested in joining me to complete their OWN week of clean eating with the DAMY Health program and to track their progress via pictures for one week.

Like I said, I want others to be motivated to join. As I am a DAMY Ambassador, I want to encourage anyone reading this to go to my Facebook page and when you like my page and utilize the promo code found there, you can receive 20% OFF of DAMY Health programs. This offer is valid for one week starting TODAY! That means you have till 11/26/12 to redeem this offer!

I am asking everyone who wants to join me, to take pictures for ONE week to show their everyday progress. Make a photo grid of your daily progress and send to me. You don't have to show your face and we won't name you if you don't want. But we can share with everyone else the difference that clean eating makes! It is SO motivating to look back on! I will be thinking of a special little something to give to anyone who participates in this with me! Let's show everyone how ONE week on the DAMY Health program can make a HUGE difference!

Once you get started, you can also join DAMY's Holiday and Little Black Dress challenge! Once you get on your way, you'll see that the more you commit to clean eating, the easier it becomes! When I eat things I shouldn't, that's when it gets harder. Committing to staying clean is the way to go!

Let's get fit and healthy together!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Slack City

Yes, I have been up and missing. I'm here and working on things, but to be honest, I wanted to write a post because I feel like I have been in a rut. Yes, a rut. I have many new events/changes in life that are pending and I'm just waiting on something to happen.

I mentioned a while back that I was going to be moving. Well, I haven't yet. I was planning on moving in with my friend and was looking forward to it. However, she has a lot of other changes occurring in her life right now so she decided it was best for her to not move at the present moment. Because of this, I had to wait a bit longer to give my notice. I just handed in the notice for my place today and I've been spending every day online hunting down a new place. I'm debating whether or not I'd like to live alone again. I know that I am a major extrovert and, as such, I really like/need to be around people. However,   I am not really sure how I will do with having a roommate again. I am searching for both types of places at this point. If I am sharing, I will likely look on a month to month basis in the case that things don't go well in terms of living with other people.

My business season is coming to an end as well. I am going to be doing a Thanksgiving ride for charity and then after that, I will be closing. I will start to up my Internet activities and also be doing special offers to sell gift certificates. I have been working on a special craft that I can sell as an incentive during Christmas! Very excited to share that and I'll be sharing it all with you guys!

Finally, clean eating. I have been slacking. Very much. But I am getting back on track. To be honest, part of the reason that I haven't been posting is that on this front, I have been a bit disappointed with myself. When I am disappointed and not on point with goals, it hits me hard because not only do I feel like I am disappointing myself, but I am disappointing everyone who reads my blog. I will always come clean though and tell you all what is going on. The first step anyone can take in accomplishing goals is to be honest with themselves about where they are at with those goals. I have been slacking on clean eating, blogging and quite a bit of things lately. I think my living situation has been affecting this but I also think that I just simply am a bit burnt out. I have a vacation planned for this January to visit my sister and I can't WAIT! I think that it will be a nice break and good to be around my sister and her family. I will also go snowboarding with a friend during one of the weekends there! I am SUPER excited and vacation cannot come soon enough!

However, as I stated, yes, I have been slacking. With that said, I'm nailing down a few BASIC goals for myself as I get through this transition time of moving, etc.

1. Blogging at least ONCE a week. I will shoot for 2 posts, but ONE is necessary.
2. Posting on my Facebook business page at least TWICE a week.
3. Getting back on track with clean eating. More about this in a post that I have lined up for tomorrow.

This is where I have been, what I've been doing and what I've been slacking on. Now you all are aware and I'm hoping to get back on track with everything when I've moved and I'm more settled.

I'll leave you all at that and I'm going to get started on TOMORROW'S post because I have a great little offer for all of you!!! I can't wait to share it with you all and I hope that you join me!

Have a great SHORT week everyone in the US! Thanksgiving is upon us!