The Nifty Foodie's Life

• If you stepped outside in Louisiana today, you’d have no idea it was May. February? Sure. March? A stretch…..but May? It’s chilly outside…my poor flowers are crying for consistency, Mother Nature. Hot and humid consistency!

• I love Diet Coke. I know it’s full of chemicals that eat away at metal or something, but I love it. I need one every morning. Preferably fountain. Judge away, but this is just how I feel!

• You know you like to bake when butter goes on sale, and you feel the need to buy 5 or more boxes at a time when that happens. I also like to confuse the cashier with said butter purchases. 6 boxes of butter, a bunch of cilantro, four limes and a box of eggs were in my cart. I don’t know about you, but when I used to be a cashier in high school, I had fun figuring out what people were cooking up based on their grocery cart. Beer, potatoes, lemons, onions, and frozen corn on the cob = seafood boil. 10 packs of hot dogs, 10 lbs.of ground beef, buns, chips and soda = cook out. I’m sure butter, cilantro, limes and eggs were a real head-scratcher, if my cashier that day was anything like me.

• I’m gonna brag on my sister today. She’s a music performance major, and every time I go to her performances, I’m blown away by her improvement. On the way to see said performance on Thursday, I had Phantom of the Opera blasting in my car (in stand-still traffic), and I was seriously jamming (rather off-key) to it. Yeah, I jam to musicals..so what? Didn’t realize guy in the car in the next lane was listening in on my off-key antics and giving me major side-eye. Oh well…enjoy? I so don’t have the vocal talent in my family (my two sisters both sing beautifully). Embedding the video below…you have to fast forward to 23:45 on it, if you’re interested.

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• Have any of y’all been keeping up with the 52 Week Savings Plan? I’ve been doing it religiously every week, being sure to pay myself in a little savings account using my personal $ (what my husband and I call fun money). I know a lot of people say it’s a terrible idea, but it’s not my husband and I’s way of saving $$, I promise..it’s more a personal savings account for me to splurge when I hit my weight loss goal. I’m sure I’ll have a bunch leftover after that, but knowing that I could potentially have $1300 saved up for a new closet is pretty fantastic, don’t you think?

• Need some weight loss motivation? I love reading Runs for Cookies blog, especially since she started her Motivational Monday posts. This is where readers post about their weight loss victories and she shares them. I look forward to it every week! I just love reading about people who are going through the same things I am on their weight loss journeys. It’s so relatable, and helps me step away from the junk food cravings.

Have a great weekend y’all!

TGIF! I can’t believe it’s Friday…this week sort of flew by!

• Since the DietBet ended, I’ve been splurging just a tad too much lately. Oops. I just had one of those weeks where I just had craving after craving after craving. Don’t you just hate that? I notice if I go back to eating junk food, all I crave is, well…more junk food. It’s taken a lot to get back on track, but here I am. I guess I just needed a little break. :-\

• When we moved into this house a couple of years ago, the garden was really nothing but a bunch of irises, amaryllises and a huge crape myrtle right dab in front of the window of our house. I ended up digging up all the bulbs, and moving them to different parts of the garden in clusters to make room for shrubs and annuals. H ended up cutting down and digging up the crape myrtle too. This was about a year or so ago, and as of this week, they finally bloomed. OMG…they’re gorgeous! I have an amaryllis about to bloom as well. Love all of the color in the garden right now, and just how nice it looks in general since we gave it an overhaul last Fall.

• Last week was Sherwin Williams’ big 40% off sale. We’ve been wanting to paint a few rooms in the house, and so we bought a couple of gallons to do that. The chips that are pulled are for our kitchen and guest bathroom (whatever we use in our guest will eventually be painted in the master as well…we’re just doing this a little at a time). I know the kitchen color may look a TAD drastic…I promise it really brightens the room. I can’t wait to take some pictures to show y’all how it looks now!

• I’ve had my eye on this particular shirt for quite some time, telling myself that I’d only buy it if I fit in the female cut of this shirt. This shirt just screams New Orleans to me…Winter = Mardi Gras ladder, Spring = crawfish season, Summer = snoball season and Fall = FOOTBALL! They had a flash sale on this particular shirt earlier this week (50% off OMG), and I had to scoop it up! However, when trying it on last night, I didn’t realize how small American Apparel shirts run. I think the shirt will look a lot better on me in about 10-20 lbs. It’s a bit snug. Oh well…motivation, right?

• I can’t believe we’re almost in May now. February seemed to drag, and March/April have just flown by! I am super excited about May though, because Food Blog Forum is in 3 short weeks! I can’t wait to meet a bunch of food bloggers that I’ve been following for years, and get my hands on a Dole Whip! (What? Priorities, people!) May also is our anniversary month…can’t believe we’re approaching our 4th year anniversary. Crazy how time flies!

Another DietBet = done! I’m so thrilled to reach my 4% goal once again…I know everyone is motivated in different ways, but the competitive side of me loves DietBet! I can’t believe I’m showing these (since I took them first thing in the morning and I look a mess), but I wanted to share the before DietBet #1/after DietBet #2 pictures.

There’s nothing like fresh local strawberries. Oh man…I easily put away 3 pints already since getting them yesterday. Better than a candy bar, right?

My husband and I went bowling for the first time in a while. Just a little background…my husband actually learned how to bowl from being on leagues. I, on the other hand, learned the fine art of throw it as hard and as fast as you can/hope it doesn’t end up in the gutter. My husband usually had triple or quadruple my score every game. Ah well…it was fun.

You know it’s your birthday week when your inbox looks like this…

I purchased this candle as a gift for someone. It smells SO clean and just awesome…I don’t know how to put it in words, but it smelled so good! I think I’m going back to Williams Sonoma to get us one…

A while back, I begged for you guys to vote/like a picture of my running journey on Instagram. It was for a contest with Claim Your Journey. You guys are SO awesome…I actually won one of the weeks (THANK YOU!!), which meant that a rep from Mizuno would send me a pair of free running shoes! Check ’em out! I’ve been fighting a cold for the past two weeks on/off, but once that’s gone, I can’t wait to run in these!

• HAPPY DAY! My DietBet officially ended yesterday, and while the goal was to lose 10 lbs., I’m so happy to say that I lost 13 lbs.! The only thing I changed since the new year was joining a gym (finally) and adding strength training to my workout routine. Crazy how the pounds are just melting away. I’m addicted! I will be doing another DietBet that starts next Monday…at this rate, I could hit “Onederland” by this summer. How AMAZING would that be?!

• I received a package from Influenster a couple of weeks ago that contained dish soap. Specifically, Palmolive Fresh Infusions. You know you’re officially old when you get excited about fancy smelling dish soap, y’all….but seriously, the Lime Basil scent (on the left) smells SO fresh and light. I’m in love…I even wash my hands with it instead of my Bath and Body Works stuff. It also works really well, so now I think I’m spoiled as far as dish soap is concerned.

• I’ve been staring at size charts for a while now, and realized I’m 6 inches (in my waist, that is) away from fitting in my favorite regular sized clothing store (I can’t say favorite by the fit, but I can say favorite by the looks of the clothes and the fact there’s an outlet for them not very far from my house).

•  The last time I was in the New Orleans area, I had to stop here. My favorite king cake place ever, and if you find yourself in New Orleans during king cake season, find one of these cakes. Wait in the line, no matter how long it is (it moves fast). You won’t regret it. I sliced it up in small pieces and froze them immediately so they can be a small splurge for me every now and then. So worth it!

• I can’t believe it’s time for this, again. I started jalapenos, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and a ton of basil for the next growing season. Cannot.wait.

• And a random picture. I refuse to buy new sweaters this season, so I’ve been wearing mine from last winter. It’s a bit ridiculous that these were tight on me last year. They look entirely too loose on me, but it’s a bit of a self esteem booster to see progress every time I look in the mirror.

• If you wear make-up, you need to try this foundation. I got a sample the last time I went to Sephora, and oh man, this stuff is good. You don’t feel it on your skin at all throughout the day, and it blends so easily. Yup. I’m pretty sure that’s gonna be part of the 20% reward, which is about 3 lbs. away!

• On a weight loss note, I’m so surprised by how much leaner I look. I’m not skinny, but I look at pictures of me, and I’m in disbelief at how much smaller I am. Left picture was from February; right from two days ago.

• I’m challenging myself the entire month of November to wear make-up to work. I prefer my sleep in the morning, but I find when I wear make-up on the weekends, I have a little more pep in my step. So far, I’ve only missed one day (just completely slipped my mind), but I do like how polished I look with a little bit of foundation/powder/mascara/lipgloss.

• I’m working on making Christmas stockings for H, the dog and I. I’ve been posting progress pictures on my Instagram profile, if you’re interested. Stocking #2 is almost done…hoping to finish that one today, actually!

• Blue Bell has a holiday flavor out called Gingerbread House. I can’t buy a container of it…I just can’t, but oh man….I REALLY wanna!

• I love me some Williams Sonoma, but y’all….this.is.FUNNY!

• I realized this is one of the few weekends I have left that won’t be too busy before the holidays, so I’m hoping/planning to make all of the cookie dough needed for coworker/neighbor gifts this year. After doing the math, I’m going to need to make 11 batches of cookies. Guess I should stock up on butter at Sam’s, eh?

Side note: Thanksgiving is exactly a week away. Wasn’t it just July or something?