Healthy Bagel blog series

Starting A Healthy Lifestyle Voyage (Healthy Bagel)

by tiffanyHealthy Bagel, LifePosted on No Comments

I’m starting a healthy lifestyle voyage. Let’s start it together. I may have started my journey before this blog post, but I’m still just starting this trek.

Everyone has their ideal weight. Mine is 155-165 lbs.

We also have ranges and limits, or at least I do. These weights change how you feel or think of yourself. I’ll share you my ranges to show you what I mean.

My Ranges:

Note: These are just my ranges, your ranges will be different

  • Blue (my favorite color): 155-165 lbs. I am great, healthy, and people should look at me.
  • Green: 166-180 lbs. I’m still good, maybe I’ll make 1 or 2 switches. I’ll think about it.
  • Yellow: 181- 190 lbs. Yeah, I’ll make those 1-2 healthy switches.
  • Orange: 191-199 lbs. Maybe I need to watch what I eating and exercise more.
  • Red: 200-209 lbs. Major diet changes and exercise routines need to happen.
  • Critical Alert: 210 lbs and over. No! I didn’t even know I needed this range. Red zone should be the end! It’s time to really focus on my diet and being more active.

Where I am starting:

Currently, I’m in the orange zone at 194.8 lbs, but in August of 2017 I was in the Critical Alert zone. I wasn’t paying attention to my weight or life style; working at a desk then coming home to work on my writing or visual art. I was not active and went for quick food rather than healthy.

It had been a slow climb to 210. On my phone I have an app that I apparently have had an account with for about 9 years. The chart looks like a good finance report that is trending up. This of course is typically bad for your weight.

9 years ago I was 160 lbs and downloaded the app to lose those 5 lbs, maybe I wanted to lose 10 at that time.

I have bounced a bit since 2017 and haven’t really been too focused on my physical or mental health. That is until a few months ago, when I finally decided that I should start making my goals priorities.

First I just started with journaling and doing intermittent fasting. I saw more results from journaling than I did with limiting my eating window. I have since decided to go back to counting calories and working out.

End Goals:

  1. I will regularly increase my exercise until I am working out for 6 hours a week.
  2. I will weigh 165 lb.s by January 2020, unless I have proof of low- average body fat.

I also have mental health goals, but besides journaling they are harder to quantify and example.

Poetry visual image for poem

Chosen Not Given (A Poem)

by tiffanymy creative self, PoetryPosted on No Comments

I grew with beliefs of giving;
dreams will be given.
A future worth living will be given.
My faith and belief will be given.
Who I am was already given.

My eyes opened from slumber
and I realized I was sleeping,
so I chose, worked, and took;
I chose my dream,
worked towards my future,
took my beliefs
and chose my faith.
And I chose to work towards being me.
No one gave me the identity I now hold.
I chose it and stand firm
in my changing self.

Want More?

If you would like to read more of my poetry please take a look at my portfolio or watch a few of my poetry readings.

DreamWard Bound series

Different Jobs (Dreamward Bound)

by tiffanyDreamward bound, LifePosted on No Comments

Through out my life I have worked for 10 very different companies and had 11 different jobs. In college I also had a bunch of different career oriented experiences, primarily in the theater.

Notice that each of the companies had jobs, not careers. I could have turned any of those jobs into careers if I wanted to. However, besides working in my college scene shop and at a theater after college I knew they would be just jobs. I would not build a career around cleaning kennels or canvasing for a non-profit campaign.

Each of the very different jobs helped my journey. I learned lessons in each role I performed. The lessons ranged from learning what a toxic environment looks like to how I could truly motivate and support people.

Each job and role brought me down my life’s path and gave me experiences I can use in my art.

For years I thought I was starting my journey too late. I was behind in life and failing at being on my path. I was looking at my life and saying it wasn’t enough. In my mind I was stationary and stuck.

I now see I was always on my path; moving along in my life. I’m not behind in anything, because there are no markers for my life. I cannot compare my journey to anyone else’s or even my imaginary milestones, because that has nothing to do with my life or journey.

If I had different life experience my art would be different; my life would be different. I would be different.

If we all were on the same path expressing your heart and soul through art would be pointless. It would all be the same and devalue art itself. Even if only artist had the same path and learned the same things at the same time art would then loose something important.

It is because we are all on our own individual journeys that sharing our stories is important. We are telling people they are not alone in creative ways. Artists also show their audiences that it is okay to be different. You can still connect with people even if you’re odd.

All that to say, I now know the value of my struggle to claim my art and life. I now know the pleasure of readying myself to be a full time professional artist, because I’ve known all the other types of jobs I could fall into.

I’m ready for my creative career and that is a leap dreamward bound.

Simple Rose (Art Write-Up)

by tiffanyVisual artPosted on No Comments

Title: Simple Rose
Size: 5 x 7 inches
Medium: Acrylic paint of canvas
Finished Date: Finished 2014, gallery wrap 2017
Summary: As the title suggests this was a simple and quick rose. The main purpose of it was to experiment with painting a flower

Write Up:

This is one of my first canvas paintings. I was focused on technique, which is why it is so simple.

It is simple and singular, with only one red rose with a steam and two  small leaves. The beauty is in its simplicity.

As you can see the background is blue and teal. It was created by a crisscross wet blended method. I had only done this technique on larger surface areas and I was pleased with how well it transferred to this smaller area.

The stem’s technique is a gradual shading using a pale green for where the light source hit and a more brown shade of green for the shadowed areas.

For the rose itself I used a crimson base with white for the light and purple for the shade.

For years I would look at this painting and wonder why it did not seem complete. I was at a loss about what was missing and how to improve the art piece. I wanted to keep it simple, but it needed something more. In 2017, I added the gallery wrap. Instead of blue or teal, which would have been in line with what a gallery wrap’s purpose is, I chose red. This small detail makes the painting look and feel complete. It is just enough contrast to give the simple painting another element.

Healthy Bagel blog series

Introduction to Healthy Bagel

by tiffanyHealthy BagelPosted on No Comments

My story is not uncommon when it comes to weight loss and healthy living. Like most I’ve tried a few different methods to weighing less.

I know the basic knowledge of all healthy diets and weight loss programs.

  1. The less processed a food is the better
  2. Eat less calories than you burn, but you need nutrients and a certain amount of calories to not go into starvation made.
  3. Exercise is important, so you should be active.

I know these things, but it takes something else to actually make that knowledge count for something. It takes self-disciple, will power, and commitment.

Healthy living is a life-style change that I am making. Unlike other times I’m doing something different. I’m committing to working on all of me,  not just my physical self.

My idea is that as I work towards my physical health I will also look at my emotional and mental health. This will help me create a true life-style change and not just a temporary diet/ exercise adjustment.

I will start by posting a “Healthy Bagel” post once a month and then increase as I have time and need. Most of the posts will focus on my physical health journey, but I will also add in thoughts about my mental health, since your body and mind are intricately intertwined.

Before I leave you I should note that I have already made progress on my journey. It started a couple years ago, but I am just now truly moving down this path to my healthiest self and joining in both inner and outer health together. It was like I stepped on the path to health 2 years ago and studied it, but only took a couple steps. Now I am steadying walking down it.

Poetry visual image for poem

My Optimism (A Poem)

by tiffanymy creative self, PoetryPosted on No Comments

The glass is half full
because I’ve filled it.
There is room for you.
Fill it
or drink the freshwater.
I know how to pour
into my own glass heart.

I’ll dust the melancholy off my heart,
pull back the curtains of gloom
to see the sun of joy is shining;
open the windows of discontent
welcoming the breeze of gratitude
and fill my glass half full
or more.

Want More?

If you would like to read more of my poetry please take a look at my portfolio or watch a few of my poetry readings.

Blog on Vlogs

by tiffanyLife, my creative self, other updatesPosted on No Comments

In November 2018 I started to do weekly vlogs. They are short unedited videos of how my week went, lessons I’m learning, or random ramblings. They are not planned out and are not high quality, but they are fun to do and hopefully helpful.

I started them, because I wanted to have a presence on youtube. I also wanted to get into the habit of publishing weekly videos.

One aspect of my dream/ ideal life is to be comfortable in front of the camera and to do promotional videos for my projects.

I had 2 options to make this aspect of my ideal life a reality.

The first was to wait until I had time to plan and edit videos. Time that may never come.

The second option was to make time and start where I was. I can start with what I can do now and grow on that.

One thing I’ve learned by going down the second path is that I have to fight with myself. Some weeks the video isn’t perfect. I’ve looked at the thumbnails and I’ve noticed the lighting isn’t great. Most weeks I also don’t like an aspect of my appearance or how I sound.

If I was doing this for the views or an outside factor I would have stopped after the first few videos.

The wonderful thing is that I’m not doing this for the views. This is something I’m doing for myself. It is practice and habit forming.

I have noticed that I’m frequently giving advice and sharing the life lessons I’m learning. It is turning into a verbal version of DreamWard Bound. I am okay with that and enjoying sharing what I’m learning. (I have found a passion for advice giving).

Here are a couple more videos for you to get an idea of what I’m talking about. I hope you enjoy.

My Journey With RedBubble So Far

by tiffanyLife, my creative self, other updates, Visual artPosted on No Comments

In November 2017 I joined RedBubble. I started slow by only adding acrylic paintings that I already had good quality pictures of.

blue swirl logo for My Journey With RedBubble So Far
Blue Swirl Logo

In 2018, when I had my Surface Pro tablet I started to play around with digital art and posted fun pieces. The digital art really opened up my creativity, since I didn’t need to worry about clean up or materials that much.

The first 2 digital art characters I posted was the first version of my Hot-tea art piece and my happy mug character.

Happy Mug for My Journey With RedBubble So Far
Hot Tea image for My Journey With RedBubble So Far

I also started to do art pieces focused on lettering, which combined my love for words with my love for visual art. My two favorites are my Bible Nerd piece and my Thespian piece.

Thespian aka theater nerd for My Journey With RedBubble So Far
Bible nerd

You will be hearing more and more about my journey with RedBubble as I do plan to be promoting my portfolio and the products you can get my art printed on. I love the idea that you can wear my art or have it on a mug. There are also other products, like clocks and framed art prints.

Also, once To Love is published I will be adding a select number of illustrations from the book to be on RedBubble.

I Will Know (A Poem)

by tiffanymy creative self, PoetryPosted on No Comments

When I see you
I will know.
You’re face will light up
and I will glow.
Our broken pieces
will match together;
not the same,
but will act as a tether.
We will not be perfect
but our love will fit.
When we find each other
the flame of love will be lit

Photo by Anton Darius | @theSollers on Unsplash