Thanksgiving in a basket!

Hello! 

It is less than a week until Thanksgiving! 

I decided that I wanted to do a small thanksgiving dinner.... At the last minute. 

We could find no one to join us for thanksgiving, so I changed it to a thanksgiving Sunday dinner, the Sunday after the holiday! 

While I have done several cookouts and had people over, I have never done a holiday dinner. This is my first one!

Now I tend to obsess how things will go.... I like a plan. A time line. And I like for things to stay according to plan. 

I'm not sure why I feel that this dinner will go differently than any of the other dinners that I've done. Really, the only difference is the holiday! 

I searched the internet for tips on the first holiday dinner, talked to a few friends and did a little thinking outside of the box. 

Here's what I did: 

1) I made a list of everything I wanted to make, and listed all of the ingredients. This was 2 pages, front and back!!

(Ignore the scratch outs, they came from step 2) 

2) Then I made a master list of everything I would need. 

(Again, ignore the scratch outs, they came from step 3!) 

3) I went through my pantry to see what I already had. There's no point in buying things I don't need! 

4) After I went grocery shopping, I put it All in a basket! 

Let me explain that last step.... 

I went back to my original recipe ingredient list and matched everything up. 

Now, some stuff must be refrigerated, and those are not included in this. But everything else is! 

Spices are already combined into baggies. Additional ingredients are written on the baggies. Those baggies are placed in groceries bags with canned ingredients. 

Take a look at these photos for a better idea: 

If some of the ingredients are divided, they go in separate bags. 

And then they all go in their big gallon bags! 

Here's the finished product: 

And my favorite part... It goes in the unused corner of my kitchen. It takes up no additional space in my pantry. 

When I am ready to start the pie, I pull out the bag. 

When I want to do the turkey, I pull out the bag. 

It seems so simple! I already feel relieved! I will definitely do this on future cookouts, holiday or not! ;-)  

Hope this can help you with your holiday experience! 

Xo Danielle oX 

Post cleanse

I finished the cleanse yesterday! 

Actually.... I didn't eat good at dinner. 

Matt and I went to a friends house to pick some stuff up from her. By the time we left her place, we were both like "screw it". Lol. We went to El Chico. Yummy. 

Anywho, today is the first day that I will be taking the Advocare MNS Max 3. It's a whole lot of pills. 

The first group of pills you take 30 minutes before eating breakfast. The 2nd is 30 minutes before lunch. The last 2 can be taken with breakfast or lunch. I plan on taking them with breakfast. 

It's kind of exciting. 

I know that I should be good today. But I'm not. I was pretty good on the cleanse-yes, I made mistakes, but I did better than I expected. So what a burger for breakfast and nachos for lunch. ;-) 

Anywho. 

My goals of drinking water (at least 90 oz a day) and eating breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks a day have not changed. 

By the way, I lost 4 pounds on the cleanse. 

Hell yeahs!

Xo Danielle oX 

The Cleanse

Hello All! 

I am on day 6 of the cleanse! Woohoo!  I'm half way there! 

It hasn't been horrible. Most days I'm not hungry. The last couple of days I didn't eat my snacks or lunch, I was to busy at work. But overall, it's going quite well. ;-) 

My body feels lighter. It's kind of odd. I am weighing tomorrow, I'm excited to see how much I have lost. I think it's around 5 pounds. 

So, in talking to Juliana, I told her all of the foods I really want after the cleanse- and her response was "you should still eat healthy after the cleanse". 

The cleanse is pretty strict as far as what you can have, it's pretty much a no fat diet. Lots of fruits and vegis. Easy on the carbs (you can only have the 'good' carbs, such as oatmeal). 

But the diet afterwards isn't. It's really eat whatever. There are no required guidelines. 

So I started thinking. Every time I start a diet, I fail. And I fail miserable. Why? Because I make a plan that is so strict, it's impossible to follow. 

So I thought I'd do baby steps. 

Things that are new to me on the cleanse: 

*Eating breakfast. Every day. 

*Eating snacks, before and after lunch. 

*Drinking a lot of water. I should be drinking around 95 ounces of water a day. 

So why not keep those 3 things up? Eat a balanced breakfast, a balanced lunch, 2 snacks, and a lot of water. 

For dinner, I can eat what I want to eat, but all in proper portions. 

I will try to incorporate more vegetables and fruits into our dinners. 

But if one day I want a bowl of mac and cheese, that's okay. All in the right portions. 

By the way, earlier when I said "things I want", is not the same as "things I'm craving". I am not having cravings. It's very odd for me, but I now understand that there is a difference between want and crave. 

Well, I will keep you guys updated! 

Xo Danielle oX 

Weight loss is Needed

I'm starting advocare tomorrow! It's very exciting for me. I've never done anything like this before! 

I am starting the 10 day herbal cleanse and then will be doing the MNMAX3 program. 

Now, to give you some insight on where I'm starting and what tools I have... 

I made a weight loss book! (Pictured below). The second weekend of each month I will be taking 4 photos (front, back, side & side) and putting them in my book. I will also be taking weekly weigh ins. 

I plan on taking my book with me everywhere. Not necessarily to read it, but for it to serve as a reminder  

I have a lot of motivation in there as well. I got a lot of magazines & cut out things for inspiration and motivation. 

Those are just a couple of the pages. 

At each monthly photo weigh in, there are also measurement. I'm not posting the picture of what I look like currently, well, because I look fat. But I will post my measurements- only to be a good sport. Lol. 

Anywho. That's that! 

I'll keep my progress updated. Maybe. 

And I'll post again soon!

Xo Danielle oX  

Having a Championship Mindset

Hello Everyone!

This morning I watched a video by Trent Shelton. He is part of a group called RehabTime. This video was so inspirational for me. It is a much watch....

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to make it appear on the blog... So you'll need to click here to watch it

If for some reason, you can't watch the video, I typed it below... This is not everything in the video, but it is majority of it....

Championship Mindset: Trent Shelton

Keep moving forward and let nothing, and I mean nothing, hold you back.

Today's special. You know today, is the day that you become the new you. Today is the day that you become that champion. It's time that you stop feeling sorry for yourself and doing nothing about it. Its time to stop doing the same old thing that have gotten you nowhere. It's time for you to stop using excuses to keep you at a place where you no you shouldn't be. Each and everyone of you watching this is great. Each and everyone of you is a champion, but you got to make that decision. There are 5 truths to being a champion. Whether it be Michael Jordan , Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, people who are champions in their field, profession. Its are 5 truths that each and every one of them have. And today, we are going to talk about them. You're going to develop that championship mindset. It's time to be brave.

1: Commitment: 

The first truth, to every champion. Every champion has something called commitment. Staying loyal to what you're going to do, long after you've said it. 

2: Discipline:

Every champion has a little something called discipline. Tattooing. That's permanent. Tattoo your purpose on your heart, so your actions are trainable before you. Every Champion gets good at saying no to the things that don't get them their yes. 

3: Consistency:

Every champion is consistent. We anchor our actions in greatness, so daily we produce nothing less than our very best. When you are consistent, you become reliable. And when you're reliable, you become trustworthy. And there is nothing better in this world than a trustworthy person, because when you are trustworthy, you are dependable. 

4: Faith:

Every champion has faith. Believe that the odds are beautiful, even when the odds say its impossible. You know, there is a guy named David. He fought that impossible Goliath. With us, we have a lot of Goliaths in our life. Whether it be people doubting us, whether it be statistics, whether it be our generational curses, whether it be genetics, whether it be where we are from or the environment. We have to David all of those things. Because God tells us that Faith will make us well, Faith is what makes dreams come true. Believing. You have to throw that blanket over that scoreboard of life. You have to keep playing, til your final seconds of life. 

5: Heart:

Every champion has heart. Finding the strength to keep going. Even when your mind, people, whatever, says you have nothing left. Do you keep pushing through those tears, you keep pushing through the pain, you keep pushing through that struggle, you keep pushing through that hurt, because your heart wont let you quit. Your heart wont let you find excuses, your heart makes you go until you reach that finish line in life. That's what you have to have pumping in your heart. Its not about talent, its not about money. It's about the person who wants it the most. You've got to want it so bad. You've got to want it so bad that it's hard for you to sleep at night, you've got to want it so bad that it wakes you up in the morning. You've got to want it so bad that conditions outside won't stop you. That people around you won't stop you. Even if it's just you by yourself. Thats how bad you have to want it. It has to be planted in your heart. When you talk about it, it should be hard for you to talk about your vision, goals and dreams, because you want it that bad. Every champion, has heart.



Wow... I don't know about you, but I needed to hear all of that. I am definitely going to print this off and keep it in my purse for the times when I am struggling.

This can be applied to any area of your life. Not just fitness, or eating healthy. It can be applied to school, work, marriage / relationships, life in general.

I hope that you have enjoyed this as much as I have.

Xo Danielle oX

Dieting & Weight Loss

I am.....180 pounds. I hate saying that. 

When I graduated high school, I was 130 pounds. 

I've never been active or athletic. I really just don't have the rhythm, drive, balance or really anything for sports. 

I know I started to gain weight when I was a cell phone tech. Something about sitting for 90% of my day (verses standing at my previous jobs) will do that to you. 

But where I gained majority of my weight... 

I had a sinus surgery. And I horrible doctor. I will spare you the details, but in a short story, my thyroid got jacked up. 

The sugery was in September of 2008. Finally, in early 2013, my thyroid regulated itself enough for me to come off of medicine! 

Now, I was still 180 pounds. But I had tried so many things to lose weight. I'm not at all saying that my thyroid was 100% to blame, because it wasn't. I would start a "diet" & then a month or so in, give up because I wasn't seeing results. 

As for exercising, I am majorly out of shape. When I say majorly, I mean it. My heart rate will go sky high at a slow 3.0 MPH walk on the treadmill. 

Anyways, with all of these diets and exercising that I would start, I would get frustrated and give up. Even with my reward to myself, if I completed my goal (which I never did), I would fail. My reward was always something like "looking pretty", or "being sexy" or even "being that highschool weight again" my goal was always 130 pounds. 

So now I have a new plan: 

Learn to love myself, while trying to lose weight. Not focusing on the number of pounds I weigh, but rather the number of inches that I lose.  Learn that I am beautiful and sexy and loved, regardless of what I look like. 

Here is my new goal: 

Try to get down to 145 pounds. 

Once at 145 pounds, evaluate where I am at. 

Be a healthy 5-7 jean size, regardless of what my weight is. 

My reward is going to be something that I want, and have wanted for a really long time. Just as much as I have wanted to lose this weight. 

My reward will be LASIK eye surgery. 

I must be a 5-7 jean size by November 8, 2014 (my 26th birthday!) in order to cash in on my reward! 

Now, I'm also doing something else different with this too! 

To keep my reward  at the forefront of my mind, I am going to make a piggy bank! I will put my allowances (my husband and I each get a set amount each paycheck to so whatever we want with) in it, as well as any donations that people pitch in! 

I plan on writing my goal on the piggy bank. 

Im not giving out details now, but I'll show you the before picture of what it looks like currently. 

Well, that's all you're getting for now! 

Xo Danielle oX