Thursday, January 31, 2013

Stage 5 Clinger

So a little bit of new news for everyone!

I have a new Twitter.. @MissKayStoll

You should all stalk me and follow me! Shameless advertising!

I also have a new Instagram.. @kaystoll129

Here's the deal-eo.. I do have a separate personal Twitter and Instagram. But my pretend life blog life and my real life probably need to be kept separate for now. Not because I'm a different person on my blog. Not at all, actually. But I tag my friends and family on my personal Twitter and Instagram and just because I'm all about having my personal life out there for the world to see, doesn't mean they are. So, this all lead me to creating a new Twitter and a new Instagram. 

A lot of things will end up getting posted on both twitters and both instagrams. So for those that follow my personal accounts, #sorrynotsorry. And for those that will follow my new accounts, you won't be missing anything good. Trust me.

I also have a Pinterest! I know it looks like I haven't pinned a lot, but that's because my old Pinterest got deleted somehow. I know, I was outraged. So this is actually a new one that I had to create out of necessity. For all of those Pinterest lovers out there, imagine for a second that all of your pins disappeared and your login-in account vanished into thin air. My heart was broken. There was definitely a tear or two.

So follow me, stalk me, tweet me, like my instagrams, etc. etc. etc. Ps. I love, love, love my 15 followers! I stalk you guys (stage 5 clinger alert), so keep posting!

nsv {week 2}

This is one of my favorite Link-Ups. I'm in love with the concept of celebrating things outside of the number on the scale. In. Love.

So today I'm linking up with Katie and Lex again for Non-Scale Victories.

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So I have 2 NSVs this week.
     1. It was my birthday and I chose to split my birthday cupcake instead of eating the whole thing. Yes, I still had a regular meal. No, it wasn't a salad or steamed veggies. But I did split the cupcake.
     2. I went to a gym. It's more of a laid back gym. It's actually similar to Jazzercise or Zumba. But it was fun. I was sweating. I'm sore today. And I love it. Definitely a step in the right direction. Definitely something I'm excited about.

Also ya'll know I'm the biggest Hoosier fan around these blogs, so I must point out that IU spanked Purdon't Purdue last night. If Will Sheehey (see beautiful man below) doesn't put a smile on your face, then we need to have a serious discussion.


Happy Thursday!


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Birthday Ramblings and DietBet

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE birthdays? Because I really do. Honestly, not just my own birthday, I love everyone's birthdays! It's your one special day of the year. I want to always love them and enjoy them. Even when I hit the dreaded 30 and then the dreaded 40 and 50 and etc. I want to always remember that it's a privilege to grow older. So I plan on enjoying every single birthday that I make it to.

And hopefully I'll get to enjoy them all with a nice glass of wine (or two).. Because I'm a sucker for a good bottle of wine. Sue me.



And last night after dinner I did this.. 

RELAXED! With my new socks that I'm sure were meant for a kindergartener, but I love them to keep my feet warm!

And I received this.. 

 
An autographed copy of Young House Love's book! I squealed. Seriously, I did. I even made the duck face for an Instagram photo with the book. You know it's love when you do that. If you don't know who John and Sherry are, then you need to hop on over to their blog and check them out. *Warning, you'll be on their site for hours!

So back on track now. I didn't plug ONE THING into my My Fitness Pal yesterday, oops. It was my birthday, give a girl a break.

And I split my birthday cupcake with Aquamarine, so I did try. It was red velvet, so it was really difficult and everything. I had such an internal battle going on about it.
 
I also weighed myself yesterday morning, however. I'm down 4lbs since I've started this little fitness journey and it's only gonna get better from there for 2 reasons..

NUMBER ONE:
Tonight, I'm going to my first exercise class to the gym I joined yesterday. I'm excited and just a freaking shitload wee bit nervous. But I'm mostly excited. I'll of course let my 12 followers know how that goes. And my precious friends and family that read this, hi kids. 

NUMBER TWO:
This awesomely motivational blogger Courtney has decided to host a DietBet. Basically you bet money (for this dietbet its a $35 buy in) and then follow their rules on how to get your starting weight. You then have 28 days to lose 4% of that weight. Then you follow their rules again and give them your ending weight. Whoever met their 4% goal gets to split the pot! 
Apparently she's done this in the past and there was over $7,000 in the pot and everyone who made their goal got $52. Money is a motivator. Especially for me. And I'm competitive as hell, I can admit it. So I think this is such a good idea! I signed up today! It starts Monday, February 4th.

Check out her blog and seriously, sign up for this! The absolute worst that can happen is that you lose $35. Or if everyone makes the 4% goal, then everyone will get their $35 back. So I don't want to tell you what to do, but.. do it, do it, do it.


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

It's My BIRTHDAY

This is my totally shameless post about my birthday! Which is TODAY!

Apparently some bloggers feel weird about posting about their birthdays or they don't want to "clutter" their blog with it.. buuuuutt.. not me. I LOVE birthdays! Mine and everyone else's! I totally think celebrating birthdays is probably one of the most important things in life. Period. Ever.

I'm 23 today and for my birthday this year, I'm giving myself a gym membership. Shut the front door! I know, it's crazy. This is how serious I am about my weight loss goal this year, guys. My 23rd year is going to be the year of changes. So buckle up and hold on..

Here's some photos of birthdays past.. Don't laugh too hard, puhlease..

My 3rd Birthday, feeding my Daddy some cake
My 5th Birthday, pouting while my sister sits on the table with my aunt, spread eagle with no pants on. Classy. And yes my birthday cake is a bunny. It's a long standing family joke now.

My other 5th Birthday party, with my Lion King dress.
My 19th Birthday
My 21st Birthday, so young and naive about the bar scene.
My 22nd Birthday, lots less naive.

22nd Birthday

22nd Birthday

Happy Birthday to me!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Twice as Nice Spice.. shelf

So I wanted to share with you guys really quickly my 5 minute organizing project this weekend. You read that right.. FIVE MINUTES.

Also, try to prepare yourselves for these unedited iPhone photos. This is real life people and in real life its tax season and I work at a CPA office and I don't have time to edit photos. It's okay to feel sorry for me.

Here's what I was living with before..


I know, hot mess. Oh, and try to ignore the 1970's shelf paper that I don't think I'm allowed to change. I've put a call in to my landlord, but I wouldn't hold out hope if I were you. I'm sure that it's here to stay.

So I was officially sick of sorting through that mess constantly. So I started by clearing everything out..


Yes, those are mushrooms on the shelf paper to match the jar of mushrooms on the side. Renting an apartment is tough sometimes.

I cleared it out and wiped down the shelf. Then I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and purchased this baby. It was originally $5.99, but I had a 20% off coupon making it $4.79. Hooray! (hey, i'm a poor college kid. every little cent adds up.)

So I tossed that little guy up there and then added my spices back and it looked like this..


So much better, right? For a 5 minutes organization project, I was pretty pumped about it. Now I just need to tackle the rest of my cabinets.. sigh..

Here's the official side by side.



Nosey Nora

I'm nosey. It's a big reason I read blogs. I want to know what other people are doing, what they're wearing, what color they are painting their bathroom, what they're eating for dinner, what exercise they did today, etc.

So in keeping with that theme.. I also like to always know what books people are reading, if they recommend it, it is a 7/10 star or a 2/10 star, etc.  And I like to read!! Any time I get a free hour or two, I usually try to read. Not because I'm forced to, but because I want to. I'm a nerd. You'll have to get over it.

 I'm nosey, guys. Really, really nosey. So I'm going to naturally assume that you guys are as nosey as I am. Because of that I've decided to put a little icon over on the side of my blog (see right side) with the book I'm currently reading. I promise to update it whenever I finish a book or change a book. I'm also going to be adding a tab to the top of my page. In this tab I'll keep a running list of books that I read throughout 2013. I'm doing this mostly for me, because I'm curious. But also for anyone else who likes to read and wants a recommendation.

I read all kinds of books. Cheesy romance novels, to motivational books, to crime stories, to sci-fi. I have trouble sticking to one genre.

This is just an informational post explaining what the new things on my blog are going to be. Feel completely free to ignore this post and all of the other new things on my blog related to reading and books. This week I'm slowly going to be adding things to the blog and updating it. So expect a couple more of these update posts along with regularly scheduled posts.


Thursday, January 24, 2013

NSVs

Good Morning, sunshines! You're probably thinking "NSVs? Is that some kind of drug?"

And you'd be right.. and sort of wrong. NSVs are "Non-Scale Victories" (and technically these could give you high. high on life of course). We all know that for someone trying to lose weight, sometimes stepping on that scale once a week is torture.


Especially when you see no weight loss, or worse, a weight gain. It is so easy to get discouraged! So I think it's important to reflect on things we did well that week, instead of what the scale is telling me. Those things are called "Non-Scale Victories".

So today I'm linking up with Katie and Lex for

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My Non-Scale Victory this week happened yesterday! My goal for this week was to try to drink 4 full bottles of water during the day. It sounds a lot easier than it actually is.

But I not only drank all 4 yesterday, I almost finished a 5th. Balloons and confetti fell down from the ceiling. There was band, with 76 trombones. Someone brought cake..

Okay, so none of that happened. And definitely no one put cake in front of me. That would have been a dangerous situation. I'm actually 100% positive that no one noticed, except for me. I'm the only person who knew that I had reached (and exceeded) my goal. Which was okay. For me, that's what the Non-Scale Victories are all about.. I was proud of myself. The scale may or may not reflect that come Monday morning. But I will know I did it. A big high five for me!

So go link up with Katie and Lex and spread the word about your NSV this week. Then give yourself a pat on the back. Then get back to work. :)


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Weight Watchers vs. My Fitness Pal



So all of My Fitness Pal friends.. err, I mean my ONE MFP friend has probably might have noticed that I've been missing in action for a few days. Well I have a good reason. (no really, i do this time)

I tried Weight Watchers.
Now I know that WW works for a LOT of people.. I know. I've seen a ton several bloggers who swear by Weight Watchers. That's the reason I decided to try it. I'm really getting serious about this weight loss "thing" and I'm jumping on whatever bandwagon I can catch up to! I've seen the success people have had with WW. Maybe that was my problem, maybe I was expecting too much out of WW.

Because I didn't like it.

Now hear me out.. WW and MFP are VERY similar. Look at these 2 Screen Captures of WW mobile and MFP mobile..



Weight Watchers is on the top and My Fitness Pal is on the bottom. They are so similar! You can see it right there in black and white blue and orange! The biggest difference I noticed was that WW is all about their point system and MFP is about the actual calories of the foods you're eating.

That is one of the reasons I have decided to stick with MFP and drop WW. The whole point system is really kind of annoying to me. And because I find it annoying, I know it's a system I wouldn't stick with. I also despised knowing that my free trial was about to end and I was going to have to start paying to use it. I'm sorry, but there are so many other free options out there, and I'm a poor 23 year old, so I'm always choosing free. Period.


MFP is free. I can use it on my phone or on my laptop. I can scan the barcode on things I'm eating and the calories automatically get added in. No calculating points. I can adjust the serving size or type in my own calorie count if I need to. I also like that I can select the exercise I did and it will calculate approximately how many calories I've burned. I say approximately because everyone is different so you may be burning more or less than they say you should be, doing that specific activity for the specific amount of time. Either way, I like that.

Weight Watchers works for some people, I know this I get this. But it didn't work for me. My Fitness Pal and I seem to have quite the monogamous relationship now. So for my one MFP friend.. I'll be back today!

If you'd like to add me as a My Fitness Pal friend: kaystoll129

 I'd love to hear your thoughts on this battle royale. Who uses Weight Watchers? Who uses My Fitness Pal? Who's tried both (like me)? Does anyone use something completely different that works?




Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Fleas and Trees

So now that's it's Monday Tuesday (how did monday come and go so quickly?) let's do a little weekend recap! #longpostwarning

So I don't know if everyone has heard of these things called Flea Markets, but I'm in love infatuated obsessed attached fond of them. The thing I love about them is also the thing I hate about them.. You have to be willing to look at and dig through a ton of junk that people took from the farthest corner of their basement just to find one thing worthwhile.



Flea Markets are not for everyone. Most of the time you have to be willing to look at something and see it more for what it could be and not what it currently is. So I spent my Friday night at a Flea Market. I know, I know, things are getting wild and crazy up in here. I ended up coming home with about $30 worth of stuff. Which is good, since I came home with several bags of junk treasures! #bargainshopper I'm not going to actually show you what I bought, because when I re-do them, spruce them up, paint them, etc. I want that to be a surprise. But here are some gems that I did find and did not come home with..

I turned the corner to find these staring at me.. you'd be surprised (or not) to know how dang many of these there were..


The Hoosier in me fell in love with this lamp, just not the price tag..

a ton of those "in memory" stone benches and plaques.. sort of creepy.
 
For those who read Young House Love's blog, remember the ceramic head they had above their bed? These mini heads reminded me of that. Spray paint them white and they're be exactly the same!

This guy really almost came home with me. A good coat of white spray paint and he would have been identical to the owl jars that are out on the market right now! But for $30, I couldn't pull the trigger.

Try to tell me this doll isn't creepy..



Let's get a little closer..


I think I might have had nightmares about her.

On Saturday, after working all morning on some painting projects at my grandparents house, my grandpa insisted that we needed to attempt to get a broken limb out of one of his trees. In his defense, it's a large limb that has broken off and gotten stuck on another limb. One strong wind is gonna knock it out and potentially onto his house. So I just want to go on record saying that I totally understand where he is coming from. However, I don't know how he thought we were going to get that limb down. Here's some pics to show you how hilarious this whole thing was..

The arrow is pointing towards the broken limb.. big sucker

the first contraption we worked up to get it down.

my grandpa supervising my dad trying to throw a rope onto the tree limb

got it!

the arrow is showing the broken limb and the circle is showing the pieces of limb that have already fallen
Well kids, let's just say that the limb is still up in the tree. Total epic fail on our part. And my dad hurt his hand trying to protect his face from a flying wrench.

Then my grandma made us this for lunch.


Carbs on carbs on carbs! Ugh. So that pretty much started the downfall of my weekend as far as weight loss goes. Back in the saddle today though!

I hope everyone else had a good weekend! Good luck this week everyone on whatever it is you need luck for! Who else likes Flea Markets? How about carbs? Who likes carbs? #firstonetoraisemyhand


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