Gradient with Half Moon Sparkles

Hello Lovelies!  Since, I have been whipping my nails back into shape, I have been itching to do something nail artish with them.  It's been a long time since I've even painted them, so I thought I'd ease back into nail art with my favorite, a gradient!

I also wanted to do something cheery and a bit spring like.  I used Chaotic Glitz's "Here's Looking at Blue," "Purple On," and "What Do You Pink?"  I love these bright pastels, so they are just what I needed to cheer me up.

I used them to create a horizontal sponge gradient on all my nails.  I did use a white base polish, to start off with.

When I was done with the gradient, I decided I need a little sparkle in my life.  I used Digital Nails' "Supernova", one of my untried polishes and french tip vinyls from What's Up Nails to create holo glitter half moons.  I don't know what took me so long to "Supernova", it is stunning!!!

It is so refreshing to have something on my nails!  The bright colors are perfect for spring, and who doesn't love some holo glitter?!  I hope you enjoyed this simple, yet pretty nail art.  Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon.

Just Me,

Week 2 Recap and Self Evaluation

Hello all!  I can't believe that I'm already two weeks in to my serious fitness journey, healthy lifestyle changes!  This week was a pretty normal week in general, no holidays, birthdays, or major events to contend with.  I discovered having an uneventful week can have just as many pros and cons as an eventful one.  For week one, I had a lot of unhealthy food options tempting me, but I was so busy I was constantly on the move.  For week two, I didn't have so many unhealthy food temptations, but I wasn't as active as I was during week one.

Per my FitBit's weekly report, I had a decrease in many things including total steps for the week, overall miles, avg. daily calorie burn, and total active time.  However, I'm making progress and seeing results, so right now I'm not overly concerned at this time.  Per the weekly report I did have more restful sleep, saw a decrease in my resting hear rate, and I experienced some weight loss (which I'll elaborate on later).

Goal #1 - Hydration

Staying hydrated has been a real struggle for me, for as long as I can remember.  I did do better this week but still didn't reach my goal of 75 fl. oz. of water a day.  However, I did manage to meet and exceed on a few days and came pretty close on most days.  As you can see from the report below, I was significantly under my target intake on Sunday.  This was semi-intentional.  As many of you know I am a recreational pilot, and on Sunday I did some flying.  When I fly, I typically don't drink several hours before being airborne, quite simply because my little plane doesn't have a restroom on board.  I should have planned better and hydrated more earlier, and remember to hydrate extra after the flight.  I also noticed that the days that I had a cup of coffee in the morning were the days that I under-hydrated.  Apparently proper hydration is something I still need to work on.

Goal #2 - Avoid Carbs and Processed Sugars

I may not have elaborated on this well enough on my last post, but for this past week it was my goal to back off on unnecessary carbs, and to avoid sugary sweets.  I'm a big lover of carbs and sweets, so this is a bit tough for me.  I did well in the carb department, I cut out my morning slice of toast and substituted flour tortillas to make wraps instead of sandwiches with bread.  Though I ate less sweets than normal, I still did have the occasional piece of chocolate.  I did count every piece I ate in my calorie budget and I did well not to go over my allotted caloric intake.

Goal #3 - Fruits and Veggies

I love veggies, I could eat them all day long but I hate preparing them.  I was able to make salads on a regular basis, so that made eating more veggies pretty easy.  Fruits on the other hand are just difficult for me.  Even though I like sweets, fruits just don't "do it" for me.  I did force myself to eat a few apples throughout the week, and I used banana to make protein pancakes, and I even had a couple of oranges.  I know I'm still on the low end of the daily recommended values, but I'm happy that I ate some fruit (probably more than I've eaten in months).

I am really enjoying Country Heat, its really fun and I work up a good sweat.  I was initially having some minor trouble with the friction of my sneakers on the rug, but I have since been using a laptop (the great part about Beachbody on Demand, you can stream it to any device, even your phone as long as you have internet access) in an area where I have wooden floors, so I no longer have that problem.

Even though I was not as active this week as I was last week, I managed my caloric intake much better.  This resulted in me seeing more progress in weight loss this week than I did last week.  I started this week off at 148 lbs and yesterday I weighed in at 143.8 lbs.  This morning I weighed in even less but we'll save that for next weeks report.  That's a four pound weight loss this week and a six pound weight loss since I've started.  Already some of my clothes are starting to feel too loose!  I still have a long way to go but I am so pleased with the changes that I've made and the progress so far.

Goal #1 - Hydration

I am still not happy with what my intake has been, so I'm going to continue to focus on this.  I have a plan on how I might fix this problem.  If I'm successful with it, I will let you know in next week's report.

Goal #2 - Stay Active Throughout the Day

This last week I found myself being inactive for long stretches throughout the day.  I'm hoping to change that this week.  In addition to workout, I'm hoping to incorporate outdoor walks and dance sessions with the kiddos to help keep me moving throughout the day.

Goal #3 - Stretch More

This may seem like an odd or unnecessary goal, but for me it is a very necessary goal.  Throughout both of my pregnancies and since, I have had problems with my hips.  Bad enough that I had to do several months of physical therapy.  From the pregnancies and from being over weight I have put unnecessary stress on my hip flexors.  Now that I am working out more, I'm beginning to feel just a twing of discomfort toward the end of the week (the rest day really seems to help).  I'm sure that if I incorporate a daily stretch regiment to the mix, this will alleviate my discomfort.

  

I am really looking forward to moving on, I've already done my first routine for week three.  That means I'm already past the halfway point of this program.  I'm having so much fun, and I'm feeling so much better already.  I hope you find my journey inspiring, and if you are this journey with me I hope you find your success.  See you soon.

Just Me,

Nail Confession

Hello Lovelies!  I know it has been an incredibly long time since, I've done a nail post here or even mention my nails.  I have been incredibly busy with life in general, and in late fall I went through a bit of funk that kept me from enjoying anything nail related.  It is with great shame that I make a few nail confession.

Early last fall, I overwhelmed myself with nail art projects that had committed deadlines.  I was so excited to be asked to join so many collaborations that I didn't want to say no.  By late fall, I was so burned out that I didn't even want to look at my nails let alone paint them.  So, I decided to take a bit of a nail art vacation.  However, this quickly turned to nail neglect.  Life gets busy, as I'm sure many of you know.  For me, when I fall out of a routine I really crash and burn.  My nail routine got put on a back burner and I ignored it completely.

By the time the Christmas season came around my nails were a mess.  Being the impatient person that I am, I decided to try an at home acrylic kit.  I have never done my own acrylics before, but new from salon experiences I had decades ago, that they are bad.  My thoughts were, since I'm doing them myself, that I would have control and I know better than to buzz down the surface of my nails.  I was pleased with the initial application.  I did not expect that doing a fill would be extremely difficult, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I wasn't happy with them after I had done the first fill.  I let them grow out until I couldn't tolerate them anymore which wasn't very long.

I spent an entire afternoon soaking them off, only to reveal that I had filed down the surface of my nails more than I had intended to.  Sadly, it gets worse, because my nails were so thin, brittle, and abused they kept chipping and ripping.  It was so constant that I could not grow my nails even a millimeter.  The endless ripping and tearing lead me to fall into an old horrendous habit,  nail/finger bitting!  I haven't done this in years, and I am really ashamed.

I've decided that it is time to stop making excuses, and feel sorry for my nails.  I miss doing nail art and am ready to do something about it.  For Valentine's Day, I bought myself a lovely set of nail care goodies from Lilly Anne's Garden.  I have made purchases from Misty for some of my nail friends in the past, but had not yet tried her products for myself.  I decided that this was the perfect time for me to test out her goodies.

The set included a sugar scrub, body whip, cuticle oil, waxes melts, and chap stick (which I can never get enough of).  Each product came in a different scent too, giving me an opportunity to enjoy a handful of lovely fragrances.

I started with a sugar scrub to help remove dead skin. This scrub smells divine and did a good job off minimizing skin freys.

I then did some much needed moisturizing. I started with the body whip, slathering my hands completely. I followed that with the application of cuticle oil. I rubbed both on my hands and nails but did not rub it in completely, allowing my skin to absorb it at its own pace.

For the past three days I have scrubbed my hands once a day, moisturized with the body whip 2-3 times a days, and applied the cuticle oil every hour or every other hour as needed. This is a similar routine to what I've used in the past but never with Lilly Anne's Garden products.  I love the scents of these products and they are doing a good job of getting my hands and nails back to normal.

Though my nails still have a long way to being fully recovered. They look and feel far better than they have in weeks. Not to mention they smell good, even my husband has commented on how wonderful they smell.

I will be participating in the upcoming Mani Swap Circle on Instagram and have a few nail art designs in mind that I would like to create soon. Thanks for being patient with me, and thank you for sticking with me here and on my other social networks. If you haven't, feel free to check me out on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Thanks for stopping by!

Just Me,