Healthy Bagel blog series

Healthy Bagel Confession

by tiffanyHealthy BagelPosted on No Comments

I have a confession I must share with you. I’ve already had set backs on this journey.

In the past month I’ve wanted to quit . My mental focus has been on my setbacks. It’s hard to start a new lifestyle. It’s hard to continually put the effort towards being healthy. That is what this whole thing is about. I’m really on a quest to find and live the healthiest lifestyle for myself.

I want to be healthy and be the type of person who just naturally chooses the healthy options. It would be great if I just naturally ate less sugar and less carbs. I would be happy if it was easy to decide to go for a run every morning.

Of course if that was the case then I wouldn’t be writing this blog or on this journey. I’m sure I will learn more and more things as I decide to do the hard, but healthy things.

The end result and quest itself may look different for you, but I hope you jump on this band wagon with em. It’s hard and the wagon may break down sometime, but it is worth the journey.

Even with the stumbles and set backs I have noticed a few changes, that no one else has noticed, yet. The changes have been slight, but they’re there. I’ve starting to see that my muscles have the desire to show themselves. They’re still shy and hiding behind a couple layers of fat. I’m also noticing my clothes are growing.

I’m still in the orange zone (191-199lbs), but honestly feeling okay with my progress at this moment. I currently have a great amount of energy, which is why I am feeling good about my progress.

1st Thing I’ve learned

Being emotionally, physically, or mentally drained are the cause of my setbacks. Willpower does take energy, so it makes sense that when I don’t have a lot of energy my willpower depletes quickly.

2nd Thing I’ve learned

I have also learned that when I eat like crap I feel like crap. If I eat sugar or carb filled stuff at night I’ll wake up feeling low or emotionally heavy, which makes me want to grab for a quick fix. The quick fix of course is sugar and carbs, which will help for a bit, but just repeats the blah feeling.

It’s also easier for me to continue to eat things I know is not healthy, because I swear sugar and carbs mess with my sleep.

I was eating clean, or clean for me, for a week; checking the sugar and carbs in everything and restricted my carb intake. I felt great and woke up fully refreshed, which I didn’t even realize was an issue.

Why Being Nice To Yourself Is Important

I had one or two slip ups, but regained control after my clean eating week. I still had plenty of emotional and mental energy to pull myself together.

Things were going well for about a week after that and then outside forces emptied my tanks of their energy. I’m slowly refilling my energy tanks, but as they fill I’m focusing on being kind to myself.

I don’t want to forgive myself for eating a pint of ice cream in one sitting or having pancakes with extra honey, but I know I should.

After I convince myself I need something unhealthy or eat too many desserts I need to forgive myself and move on. Holding on to regret or guilt, only makes me want to eat junk food more. Junk food can be a quick fix and fast comfort, but it’s fix and comfort fades just as fast.

I’m not giving up on my health though. I am re-evaluating and adjusting what I’m doing.

Like any goal or achievement you aim for you need to stay focused on the achievement, but be flexible on how you get there.

Poetry visual image for poem

Relax Your Face (A Poem)

by tiffanyPoetryPosted on No Comments

Let the sun shine on your face
feel my warm embrace,
as I smile and say
‘You can breathe
life is not a race.’

Relax with who you are.
Do not set high the bar.
You have your dreams,
you hold tight to your standards
yet true happiness and joy is not that far.

So let the sun shine on your face
and relax with who you are.

I do regularly publish poems on my site and post poetry readings on YouTube.

DreamWard Bound series

Good-Bye To The Dreamward Bound Series

by tiffanyDreamward bound, Life, Non-fiction and Articles PortfolioPosted on No Comments

Dreamward Bound was one of the first series started on here and it is the longest series. I have 90 posts in this series that range from 2014 to last month. Over the years it has morphed and grown along side me. The series has been filled with life updates, struggles, and insights to my creative life.

Dreamward Bound will always have a place in my heart. It is part of my life’s journey, but it has reached its end.

I am on Instagram and Twitter more often now. You can follow me those social media platforms and stay informed about my life there. I am also starting a monthly newsletter, which will be most like the early days of Dreamward Bound. The newsletter will have life updates and creative work updates, also.

In the coming months you will also see a few different blog series on this site. Each of the new series will have their own specific topic. They will be shorter series with the average being about a year long. The blog series will also be aimed towards helping the audience I am attempting to grow.

With this more focused and structured approach to my writing and art life I should gain more traction in my journey towards my dreams.

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.

2018 Visual Art Pieces

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

In 2018 I started to experiment with digital art and lettering.

Some digital art was abstract and simply me experimenting with this new media.

Multi brush and multi color 2018 Visual Art Pieces
abstract flower for 2018 Visual Art Pieces

Other art pieces were fun cartoon characters that I created in order to sell prints on Redbubble.

I'll be guac for 2018 Visual Art Pieces

Most of the lettering art work I’ve done this pass year was also for Redbubble prints.

Thespian image 2018 Visual Art Pieces
word nerd for 2018 Visual Art Pieces

Early in 2018 I also started working on the visual art for my upcoming book To Love.

Although I did not finish a single acrylic painting in 2018 I did work on a few and in general, it was a good year in my visual art life. This coming year is looking good for my creative life, also.

Stay tuned for more art pieces. They are coming.

Where Am I? – DreamWard Bound

by tiffanyDreamward bound, LifePosted on No Comments

dreamward bound logo for where am I

I started this DreamWard Bound series almost 5 years ago. A lot has changed with the series and in my life, since then. My creative life has bounced from the foreground of my focus to the back burner and back up front.

What I focus on in my creative life has bounced around, also. Even my artistic purpose has morphed into something new.

My creative focus has changed, because the close I get to my ideal life the more I learn about myself and my true passions. I’m still not living my ideal life, but I am learning more about it.

In learning about my true passions I have added and changed my artistic theme and purpose. My theme now is ‘joyfully fun creations.’ I’m trying to keep most of my art joyful and/or fun. Sometimes I will still step away from my theme. This is mostly seen with poetry and other writings.

Having a theme to focus on has helped with my art and creating a solid body of work that has the same light, joyful feeling and style to it.

This theme/ style has carried into my memoir that I almost have completed. The book has been taking up a lot of my creative energy for the past few years, which is why this blog has been so sporadic. I have high hopes for it in both publishing success and keeping my new artist theme. I worked long and hard on it, so hopefully it is good. It’ll be very me at least.

I have also started to do more digital art work and post them for sale on Redbubble. I’m having fun creating lettering art and silly characters to share. I will be giving Redbubble at least 1 post of its own, if not more, in the near future.

I am also planning on writing more blogs and making sure this site is up to date on all my creative happenings, so stay tuned.

Others (A Poem)

by tiffanymy creative self, PoetryPosted on No Comments

poetry logo for others poem

It will be okay.
It will be alright,
just hold on tight.
Don’t be hurt,
there is no reason to cry.
Just let go
and know this darkness is just the night.

Morning is coming.
It must be near.
Daylight should be journeying here,
but even if it is not,
even if this friendship continues its sleep,
others are waking.
Others are walking,
some close by,
some far.

Others will help.
Others will hold.
Others think of you as dear.
Whether this is night before dawn
or an endless sleep of might-have-beens
others hold you tight
and others will bring your dawn.

 

Others is a poem that was originally written in October 2013 and only lighting edited when I found it in a journal.

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.

Winter Before Spring ( A Poem)

by tiffanymy creative self, PoetryPosted on No Comments

Winter Before Spring a poem

I await the spring
trapped in a winter cage.
The snow surrounds me,
in the darkness of my mind,
waiting for a spark of passion
to burn through winter’s gelidity.

I await a new life,
the awaken life,
the freed life,
that comes in the spring;
that sweet release.
Yes, I await spring.

This poem was writing on March 3rd, 2014 and I only lightly edited it. I hope you enjoyed it.

Want More?

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

Resetting My Brain To Be More DreamWard Bound

by tiffanyDreamward boundPosted on No Comments

success

The past two or three weeks have been pretty stressful for me. I couldn’t figure out how to balance my day job, commute, and creative life. I just could not do it. I realized this week with a little help from a friend that I needed to step back and breathe. I needed to reset to see my projects as projects not stressers.

Taking a step back meant that I focused this week on resetting my brain and relaxing. I needed some rest, because I work 40 hours a week at my day job and then 20 hours (on a ‘good’ week) at my creative life. Most Saturdays now are focused solely on creative stuff. Sundays I force myself to not be creative. I basically burnt myself out and tried to keep going, until this week.

This week I took a break from everything. That is why I only posted one thing this week. I only worked on my creative life on Monday. The rest of the week was focused on helping friends, hanging out with them and not worrying.

I also took yesterday off of work to do errands and adult stuff that I never have time to do, so that is a load off my shoulders. I was going to be creative for most of the day, but adult stuff takes time and a friend was able to do lunch while my car was getting its oil change. Hanging out with my friend seemed like a good plan, especially since this weekend will be heavily focused on creative stuff. Today a friend and I are getting together for Caffeinated Creative Capers, which is basically us sitting in a coffee shop working on our projects together for 5 hours. Than on tomorrow I will be painting with another friend. We will be painting faces and on canvas, so I am looking forward to that.

Hopefully this packed weekend of creativity will complete the resetting of my brain and push me towards my goals and dreams quicker or at least help me get there. I know stress, worry, and a clouded head is the worst thing to have when trying to be creative. I just need to remember to make sure I clear away the cobwebs of everyday living regularly, I guess.

Now, I am going to prepare for being creative and leave you with the one thing I did this week.

Weekly Writing Prompt (#33)

Note: Links removed to site updates.

I Am A Soggy Bagel

by tiffanyI Am A BagelPosted on One Comment

bagel (2)

Today I got dressed up. I felt like I needed to look good. I wanted to take extra time for myself, so in the morning I woke up early. I put on my new cream cheese spread and wore heels. I even did my make-up. I was looking amazing if I do say so myself.

I started my car and went to work. I was on the highway when it started to rain and then I got a flat tire. I pulled over to change the tire. As soon as my car was safely on the side of the highway the clouds fully opened up. Have you ever seen a bagel in high heels changing a tire when it was raining buckets? I am sure I was amusing the drivers with all four tires intact that drove by. I just know it was not fun changing that tire and I was almost instantly soggy. After a few nice people did stop to help I finally had my tire changed to the spare.

I stopped, soaking wet, at a tire store. They changed the spare out for a new regular tire and I was off to work, again. The only real different was that I was no longer fancy or looking amazing. I was simply a soggy bagel in heels.