Hey Blog

I've been bad about posting everyday only because we are in the process of moving into our new home, the Airstream! This is the week we become full-time Airstreamers! You probably won't hear much from me until we hit the road later this week, it doesn't feel real that it's all happening this week!

Farewell For Now Employment

Today is my last day at my current job. It's been a great (almost) 2 years and I had a fantastic send off yesterday complete with BBQ from Oklahoma Joe's, Gigi's Cupcakes, and a beautifully decorated desk with friendly messages from my friends-

Just a little not so passive aggressive message

I can't forget my lovely going away gift, an Airstream wind chime-

I'll miss all of my work friends and thanks again for making me feel loved as I head out on the road very soon!

P.S. I'd like to give a special shout out to Maddie Crawford for wearing her awesome baby blue button up yesterday and for being an avid blog reader!

Peanut Butter Pie

Friday night I needed something sweet and this peanut butter pie was it-

It's so simple and delicious I could make it once a week (and eat the whole thing by myself once a week/in one weekend).

To make:
1 8 oz block cream cheese
1 tub of cool whip
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon agave nectar
chocolate chips (optional)
1 chocolate pie crust
chocolate syrup

Mix together first 5 ingredients and fill mixture with the pie crust. Garnish with chocolate syrup! That's it and it's so good.

I also got crafty this weekend and made a bunch of headbands. We're having a huge garage sale this weekend and I thought I'd use up the rest of my craft supplies and maybe I can sell a few at the sale.

This is my last week at my job before Matt and I leave for our big Airstream trip! It doesn't feel real or like we are actually about to change up everything familiar in our lives!

Lastly check out how green our grass is right now!! I'm so impressed/loooove it!

Let's have a great Monday out there everyone! See you tomorrow!

Big Tex

Big Tex got it's first bath today! BTW I decided to call our truck Big Tex.

I'm thankful for this beautiful day today and I'm praying for all those out there right now that are not having a beautiful day because they love someone that was hurt or killed at the Boston Marathon or in West, TX or for those dealing with anything else right now that's making their life hard.

Stop With The Cold

Today it was in the 30's, grey and rainy which is crazy (because it's late April!). In Texas over last weekend the weather was divine. I think I should go back!

Despite the cold weather (it's been like this all week!) I went for a jog tonight which inspired me to do some pop Pilates videos so now I'm feeling all flexible and fit.

While in Texas I picked up two amazing belt buckles. One is completely beaded and one is a moose head!!

Before I close this post I'd like to say hi to those of you that read my blog everyday and thanks for doing so! Hi Mom and Dad, Hi Gimme, Hi Helen, Hi Barbara, Hi Katherine, Hi Sandra!

Until next time!

No Makeup for 2 weeks

Did you notice the difference in my blog header today? I'm transitioning my blog from a blog just about me to a blog about our life (Matt and I) in the Airstream! Our Airstream is a 1976 Land Yacht so, we call it our Luxe Land Yacht because we think it's pretty luxurious. So now if you go to luxelandyacht.com my blog will come up!

I went to the Dermatologist yesterday because my skin is all messed up and she told me to stop using every product I'm currently using and that includes make-up. So I'm on a strict regimen for my face for the next 2 weeks and I'm not suppose to wear makeup. Look out world! (When I say my face is all messed up I mean it's super irritated, red and dry...ew so, I need to get it back to healthy).

I'm also still doing the 5:2 diet (2 weeks in yeah!). I ate 500 calories yesterday (Tuesday) and will eat normally today. So far, the first day of eating 500 cals was the hardest! The second day I did it I ate later in the day and it wasn't as hard. Yesterday I ate in the middle of the day and was really busy all day so it was easy. I also ate a ton of food over the weekend I realized that I needed a break from food. Also I noticed that I wanted to eat out of habit a few times yesterday but when I really thought about it, I wasn't actually hungry.

I hope you have a great Wednesday! 

Back From Texas

I'm back from Texas! Matt and I went down last Thursday night and returned Monday. While we were home we got to see our families! We also ate crawfish, shrimp, Mexican food, and I ate my favorite cake in the world (black and white cake).

MMM Shrimp

Yay for warm weather!

We had a great time seeing our families of course and I hope they'll come visit us out on the road!

We also got a new truck while we were home. It's a Texas Edition Tundra so we can represent Texas on our travels across America!

I left my Honda Civic at home this past weekend since we won't need it on our travels. So, Matt and I are a one car family! He drove me to work and took me to 2 Dr. appointments today! I felt like a little old couple traveling around town together all day especially when he took me to the doc visits.

I'm about to make some changes to the blog to be a little more travel blog friendly so get excited for that!

I hope your Monday was a good one!

Random Wednesday

It's a lovely rainy day here. I like rainy days because they seem more laid back and like you have a pass to dress a little more comfortable.

Last night I was on the internet looking up possible reasons why my face has been so red lately. Self diagnosis is never a good idea y'all! I ended up just making a Dermatologist appointment this morning so they can tell me what's actually wrong with my face.

Speaking of making Dr. appointments, I feel so grown up today because I had to call the insurance company and the Dr. office. I'm usually super apprehensive to deal with insurance and Dr.s but today's experience was not bad!

Since we are about to leave our house to travel, I've begun purging and packing up everything. That means I have only the basics in my kitchen so I've started buying a lot more frozen meals from Trader Joe's. It's so easy to just turn on the oven, cook a frozen lasagna or whatever then eat! I enjoy cooking but I love how easy it is to buy frozen food.

Remember me talking about the 5:2 diet on Monday? Well, today is a fast day for me! I'm trying it different today. Monday I had breakfast and dinner. Honestly I was super hungry all day after eating my 300 calorie breakfast. So, today I'm waiting to eat until this afternoon. I haven't really felt hungry yet (It's about 11:30 am) so I'll wait until I do to eat.

Matt and I have started playing tennis at a park up the street from our house. It's so fun! We haven't been very good players in the past but we're trying to improve our game.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

Airstream Travel Route

In case you missed it, Matt and I are planning to start a big adventure in the next few weeks! We are planning to live and travel in our Airstream! Here's a tentative route for the first month of travel-

This past weekend Matt and I traveled to South Dakota to get new drivers licenses! Full time RVers (that will be us soon!) tend to become South Dakota residents for lots of reasons which I'll blog about later but one big one is mail service! Here's me all proud with my new ID in front of Alternative Resources. They are the company that will receive all our mail while we are on the road. They scan it and email it to us then if we need them to actually mail us something they can do that too!

We went to the driver's license office around 7am so my ID photo is a lovely sleepy picture with my eyes half shut. I can't wait to hit the road soon!!!

If you have any travel tips you want to share please do! Is there something we NEED to see? Hidden gems? We want to know! (We are starting out in Utah, driving from there to Vegas, then on to California).

The 5:2 Diet

Last night Matt and I watched a show on PBS called Eat, Fast & Live Longer. The man behind this show is named Micheal Mosley and he has lots of shows that air on PBS that teach you about science. Last night Matt and I were drawn in as he talked about our eating habits as humans. Pretty much most of us eat all day everyday- some healthy some not.

The thing about always eating (which is what we are told to do to keep our metabolism going!) is, that our cells are always focusing on digesting our food. I haven't gone without consistently eating 3-4 meals a day for pretty much my whole life so, that's a a lot of digesting.

The point Mosley is trying to make is that there could be potentially great health benefits if we would fast ever so often to help our bodies work on healing instead of constant digestion. For a better explanation of this you should watch the show here and check out his website here.Mosley's research claims that if our body gets a break from digesting our food and being in GO mode everyday it could focus on repairing things that are wrong.

By the end of the episode Matt and I agreed we wanted to try the 5:2 diet because the argument Mosley makes absolutely worked on us. Food related diseases are such a silly way to make yourself sick or die because all it takes to prevent these preventable diseases is to eat less.

Mosley's research claims that this way of eating will cut your risk of cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's just to name a few.

So what is the 5:2 diet?? It simply means you eat normally 5 days a week and 2 non-consecutive days you eat 400-500 calories (for women) 500-600 (for men).

This way of eating gives your digestion a break twice a week. Does it sound crazy?? Maybe but, the more I read on Mosley's website the more I'm convinced to at least try it.

When I think about the food I'm always surrounded with I know there is way more offered to me than I need. I'm active but not an athlete so eating 500 calories 2 days a week will be a little hard but not impossible for me. On fasting days (which really you're not totally fasting b/c you get to eat 500 cals!) you are suppose to drink tons of water. You can also have black coffee and tea with no added calories (sweetener, milk, creamer).

A major benefit of this way of eating is that people loose fat around their waist. You should loose weight on this diet and the weight you're loosing is fat, not much muscle.

How does this look? Mosley fasts on Monday and Thursday. On fast days he eats 300 calories for breakfast then 300 calories for dinner with lots of water and tea throughout the day. He says not to obsess over calories on the other 5 non fast days but to not get crazy and eat everything in sight. You can have normal meals and 1 dessert. Healthier foods (lots of veggies) are always better.

Should you still exercise?? Yes. You should be as active as possible without making yourself feel exhausted. You can walk, do some pushups, or yoga however, you probably shouldn't do a super hard HIIT workout, a heavy weight workout or try to run 5 miles on your fast days.

So, I started trying this out today! I had a scrambled egg and two slices of bacon for breakfast. I'll eat again tonight around 6 or 7 pm and I'll have about 200 calories worth of food, not sure what yet.

It's about 1pm and I've had lots of water and one cup of tea besides my breakfast. I feel hungry right now but it's not too bad. I know that tomorrow will be a normal eating day and that's not too far away so I'll survive.

I think the weight loss potential is great but I'm more interested in the other health benefits of this. I know I'm still young and could keep eating normally for decades before the signs of age related diseases show up but I'd like to start now and see how I feel.

When I think about how easy food is to get I can see why fat so quickly creeps onto the body. Taking a break from constantly eating sounds kind of smart to me and very doable.I think most of us eat way more food than we actually need. Also when you think about food and exercise, it takes a lot of hard exercise to burn a significant amount of calories. Most of us are just not willing to workout that hard. Plus you know what they say, no amount of exercise can make up for a poor diet. oh yeah, and abs are made in the kitchen. Health and fitness are so much about food, eating, calories. Exercise is important but what you put in your mouth makes or breaks you.

Eat, Fast & Live Longer covers daily calorie restriction (limiting yourself to only nutrient 1900 calories of dense food everyday of your life). He says this is good but it's hard for most people to stick to and while you would be very healthy eating this way, the body doesn't go through the short time of fasting which makes your body focus on cell repair and using stored fat. It also covers monthly 3-4 day fasts where you only east 50 calories a day for 4 days and drink all the water and tea you want. Results from doing that are good but it's too hard for people to stick with.

Again, you should watch Eat, Fast & Live Longer for yourself and see if you come out convinced like me.

I'll update you all in maybe a month to let you know how it's going!

*What I've written is all information I've gleaned from Mosley's website and Eat, Fast & Live Longer. Make sure you do your own research to find what works for you!

We're Going to Live in our Airstream!

Big things are brewing around here. Around May 1st Matt and I are leaving our lives in Kansas City and traveling west in our Airstream! Our plan is to travel the beautiful USA in our trailer, camping along the way, seeing lots of National Parks, big cities, and the beauty of the USA. Some questions you may have:

Q: How long are you planning on traveling?
A: Not Sure! It could be 8 months- 1year or maybe more??

Q: Where are you going?
A: We don't have plans set in stone but first we will head west from Kansas City and go to Utah. We hope to spend about 3 weeks exploring the many parks in Utah such as Arches, Canyon Lands, etc. From there we will go to Vegas! Then off to California.

I'm sure you have lots of other questions about this new move of ours but I'm sure in time I'll get around to blogging about all aspects of this life changing/awesome adventure!!!

This seems like the perfect time in our lives to go on a big adventure. I'm so excited to hit the road! This blog will follow all of our adventures so I hope you'll stick around as my blog becomes more about our travels and everything we encounter on the road!

Good Monday

It's a Good Monday in my life because I have today off! I work at a church and since Easter is a big deal around the church they gave us today off!

I'm enjoying it by sleeping in, hanging out around the house and eating this for brunch!

Scrambled Eggs with avocado, salsa and bacon!

 I hope you don't get any April Fool's jokes played on you today and I hope your Monday is good whatever you're up to today.