25th Birthday: a 30 before 30 update

My 25th birthday came and went a few weeks ago and it was a really great, low key birthday. 

You may not know this about me but I'm not really a fan of being the center of attention when I'm not in charge, so I'm glad that this birthday was low key because it was a big one. The quarter life crisis took its toll but I've come out of it a better person with a positive outlook on where I'm going rather than the negative outlook on what HASN'T happened in my plan life yet.

But I did get 2 birthday cakes and had cake at the lingerie shower Friday night. I was so blessed from my friends and family and had something like 6 meals gifted to me and a cute pair of earrings from Francesca's from my fabulous friend Jennie! (Shes the one who made the burlap ornaments for Nightgown party) 

 

Bruiser was creeping in the photo to the left. You see him?!?  He's the sweetest English Bulldog I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.... and that says alot since I did go to College at MSU where our mascot is a Bulldog. He's owned by Shane, my sister's boyfriend.. and she must like him a LOT because she lets this pup get on her bed. So not the old Ka-Ka!!

Bruiser, Valtentines 2013

I got to spend my birthday weekend in my favorite city (NOLA) eating some fantastic food with some fantastic Ladies! Here is a photo of us all (Sans 1 Matron of Honor who's behind the camera) at the Audubon Zoo. 

Photo Courtesy of Molly Reid of Reid Photography, Jackson, MS.

 I thought I'd give y'all an update on my 30 before 30 goals. I'll just go down the list and give any news if applicable:

1) Cook through a Cook Book:
      I started this in January and have really enjoyed it so far! The book I chose to cook through was Glamour's "100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know". I have cooked the following recipes from the book and will make another 1 or 2 this week!

Instant Seduction Porkchops

I'll Take Care of you Mashed Potatoes

Make New Friends Plum Cobbler

Single Digit Grocery Bill Stew

Impress His Family Chardonnay Cake

Forget the Mistake you Made at Work Margarita

Thanks for Helping me Move Michelada

Bikini Season Baked Salmon

Gingery Green Beans
Easy Peasy Risi e Bisi

Just Kiss me Garlic Bread

Italian Chicken

We Still Miss the Sopranos Spaghetti and Meatballs

Secretly Good for You Banana soft serve

Wake Up and Make Up Sausage Biscuits

Skip a few..

22) Compete in an Adventure Run:
    We haven't offically signed up but the Bestie and I are looking at the Diva Dash in Chicago in August. So excited! I even printed out a training guide and have started a running program to prepare!

Skip # 23...

24) Get a Tattoo!:
    I am excited about this one... a friend (not sure if she wants it publicized who she is) wanted to gift me something from my 30 before 30 list for my 25th Birthday and this is the one she picked! EEK!!! So excited and blessed and can't wait to get to do the planning needed when making such a permanent decision with her!! Thank you again friend!!

25) Give up Soda for an entire year:
    I'm on day 211 of 365!!! and it has not been easy. The every day getting water or half and half tea is easy. It's the stressful days when its killer. Coke was my #1 way to relieve stress and every now and then when its been a stressful day or there is just stress in the air I NEED a coke. but I haven't had one since October 15th. The only exception to this goal has been the ginger ale or sprite in punches and 1 cup of ginger ale after an Upper Endoscopy for my tummy troubles. But that is it as far as sodas go... and we have a beautiful soda fountain at the church, that I haven't had the pleasure of trying yet!!

Skip a few more...

29) Exercise for 50 consecutive days:
     I have started this one like 8 times and failed on day 2. every. time. ... haha... But today was day 3 of 50! and tomorrow is day 3 of my new running program. I will stick with it... I will... if not.. I have 4.9 years left to try again!! No worries until march of 2018, then we'll need to get worried!

and 30) Own a Pair of Louboutins:
     I don't have a pair yet.. but I did get myself a quart mason jar and am saving all my pennies and dimes to put toward this goal! That is a LOT of pennies and Dimes I'm gonna need!!

So there you go. Its not a "Quick" update but its nice to put  my progress on paper. 

Thanks for reading! (and if anyone knows Tim tell him to facebook me! ;) )

-Chelsea Lou!!

I got started!!!

These past couple of weeks have been kind of CRAZY to say the least so the Goals I set for myself to complete in 2013 have gone to the back of my mind and I haven't been working hard to get them completed. 

But Last night... I Got started!

I got out my New Cookbook and decided I would just go ahead and just get after it. While flipping through the pages I noticed that some of the ingredients might get pricey, just like any fresh food, so I needed to coordinate my cooking with the grocery store specials to get the best bang for my buck. I remembered that Kroger had a pretty good deal on salmon this week so thats what I went with. 

  Along with the Bikini Season Baked Salmon I decided to make some Gingery Green Beans from the cook book as well as our favorite side dish roasted Sweet Potatoes. I won't share the recipes for everything because my friends over at Glamour might not appreciate it but I will share Ms. Melanie's roasted sweet potato recipe because I don't think she'll mind... she probably doesn't even remember she told me how to cook them over the phone at the prompting of her oldest son several years ago!

Look for a separate post this weekend on that!

This meal was GREAT!! It had some flavors that were a little fancier than our southern pallets are used to but it was really yummy, and it was a big ol' piece of fish! I was thinking last night on my way back to the dorm that I was amazed that I wasn't hungry or craving anything like I usually do on my ride back, which is FANTASTIC!! The only criticism was that the skin was really lemony on the salmon,  but I really think that that was just a personal "not a big fan of lemony flavor" thing of one of my tasters, because he sure did finish off that big ol' piece of fish.

So thats 2 of my 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know.

Here comes number 3!

We aren't big drinkers but in this cookbook here there are several drink recipes and for the sake of completing the WHOLE cookbook I have to make and taste each of them, even if I don't drink it all , The point is to make it and Try it instead of just disregarding it because It doesn't sound like my cup of tea... So we went ahead and made the least delicious sounding drink to go ahead and get it over. So we did. I whipped up the Thanks for Helping Me Move Michelada. 

When I was reading the ingredients out to Sierra and we were pulling them out of the refrigerator she just laughed and said with disgust "This Can't Be good!" and while it wasn't as awful as we thought it would be, it wasn't one we'll put on our list to try again. I'm sure that with the right food in the right setting it would have been a little tastier but judging from the looks on these faces..

Now, While I was finishing up the meal Sierra asked me how I was going to keep track of what I had cooked and what I hadn't so I came up with the plan listed in the photo below so I can keep up with it and so when I go back to cook something from this book again I can remember what the likes/dislikes were and how I varied the recipe (like adding a little butter to the green beans) to make it fit our tastes a little more.. A little butter always makes it better!!

Also You'll see a lot of Ben's opinion. He is my bestie's husband and will be completely honest with me because he's more like a brother than anyone ever has been, also... he's a really horrible liar. He was amazed last night when we told him we could tell when he didn't like something we cooked. We all had a good laugh about it.

Well there you go. A little peak into my progress on achieving my goals and working toward checking off some of those things on my 30 before 30 list.

Until Next Time!!

Chels

My new Cookbook!

I found it!

The cookbook I will cook through as part of my 30 before 30 mission. 

Take a look:

So it looks like I'm going to have to shoot for around 2 recipes per week to be done by the end of the year, but that won't be too difficult to accomplish. 

I am probably going to start with the things that call for no sugar  or flour and go from there since I'm getting started back on my low-carb / gluten free way of life.

I'll try to post a photo of each recipe as I cook it along with our opinions of the dish and any variations I made to the recipe. I will not be posting the recipe for you because I'm sure the ladies and gentleman over at Glamor wouldn't appreciate that!

Also if you're feeling brave and would like to be a taster for me, just let me know! I'm sure we could arrange a dinner party! 

I've got to go plan my first meal!

Until Next time!!

Chels

Goals for 2013

So... This is my first  post of the new year.

I have a feeling that this year is going to be another full of change for ole Chelsea Lou. But change is good and I'm looking forward to see what the changes are going to be this year.

Unlike every other year in my past I'm actually going to set some specific goals and work to reach them. In the years past I've made general resolutions like "This year I will be healthier" and the like. But I've come to realize I need to put some actual tangible goals to work towards that will lead to that overall resolution of "Healthier".

2013 Goals:

1. Stick to and Finish my year without soda. 

(October 15, 2013!!) I'm already almost 3 solid months into this 30 before 30 goal of mine. 

2. Cook through my new cookbook. 

(Will make a post about this later in the afternoon)

3. Save 2 months worth of pay by June.

 I'm not sure of my job situation after May, but I will get paid through July (perks of working for a school) and to have 2 extra months saved up before then will put me in good shape regardless of the outcome.

4. Pay off my credit cards and quit using them. 

I'm not crazy in debt with these things and I really only use them for gas and other things like that, but its added up quickly and I don't like that number I see on  my bills

5. Be in this beautiful dress that I bought at JCrew when I was skinny back in 2010.

 It almost fit then but was just a little snug, and I'm at least 25 lbs heavier now soooo... needless to say... it doesn't fit. I would like to wear it to my friend's rehearsal dinner on May 31. 

I think 5 goals is a good place to start.

Please encourage me while I'm working towards these goals. I need all the support I can get because I love eating and shopping, and those two things work against my reaching most of these goals.

Have a Happy 2013!

Chelsea Lou

Total Weight Loss: 4 lbs

Total Loss To-Go: 104 lbs

Days without soda: 74 of 365

I'm getting started!

So now that I've had my 30 before 30 list complete and have been letting it settle for a week I've decided its time to get started on it (with some urging from the baking bride). 

The first thing I started on was filling out my application for Mfuge this summer (#20). I've got all of it filled out except my references.

Another thing I started was my year with no soda (#25). I decided the sooner I start it the sooner I can finish. So I am on Day 3 now and I've only really wanted a coke once. One thing that never occurred to me when planning on doing this is the $$ that I will save. It hit me as I handed over a $5 bill at Popeye's yesterday and got plenty of change back, when if I were to have gotten the combo It would have been over $6. Score! I'm thinking about putting all the $$ I'll save into a Jar and just see how much it saves me over the course of this next year! (and maybe it will help fund one of my other goals!)

One thing I started this morning was my 1st day working on (#26) exercising every day for 50 days. I did some simple arm flab exercises while watching the view! 

Heres the Countdown:

Days without soda: 3 of 365

Days with Exercise: 1 of 50

Until Next Time!

Chelsea-Lou!

30 before 30: the list

Here it is! My Super exciting post!

This is a list of 30 things I would like to do by the time I turn 30, which is a good 5 1/2 years away. Some are kind of lofty and several might be quite costly but its now or never right?! I'll update you when one of these have been completed and also as I am completing a few.

 I may need your help to complete some of these because they won't be any fun doing it by myself!

 This is super exciting to me. I just want to get started! 

1. Cook through a cookbook
2. Visit every continent (sans anartica)
Europe Asia North America South America Africa Australia

3. Swim in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

4. Go on a cross country road trip

5. So to a Saints game at the Superdome

6. Own my own home

7. Buy a new car

8. Get married

9. Become a parent

10. Be at my goal weight - only 101.4 lbs to go!

11. Donate to locks of love

12. Share a meal with Tim Tebow

13. Adopt a Child

14. Recover a couch

15. Go parasailing

16. Ride in a hot air balloon

17. Stay in a hostel

18. Get a really good camera and learn to take really great photos with it

19. Do a tasting in napa valley

20. Work at a summer camp

21. Meet Esther, my compassion child

22. Compete in a adventure run like warrior or diva dash

23. Go backstage at a concert

24. Get a tattoo

25. Give up ALL soda for a whole year this is going to be the hardest one to complete 

26. Do 100 consecutive push ups (in my wedding dress would be really cool but lets not get ahead of ourselves)

27. Spend a day sailing

28. Go deep sea fishing

29. Exercise every day for 50 days in a row

30. Own a pair of Louboutins.- aren't they beautiful?!

**All images in the list were found using google images**

So there it is! My list. I could explain a story for each of these but that would make for an excruciatingly long post! Maybe I'll share my motives as I complete them!

I can't wait to get started!

-Chelsea- Lou