Living a Joyful Life

^I'm linking up with these blogs for Five on Friday!^ 1. Weight Loss Journey (so far) Last November, I really got motivated to start my weight loss journey. Since then, I've lost almost 25 lbs. I was sick a lot between November-February and I also had my tonsils out at the end of December. Along with that, I've been keeping track of what I eat in a food journal, cutting back on my portions, not going for second helpings (even if it is one of my favorite meals/foods), not snacking as much during the day, making better choices when I do have a snack, and rarely having anything to eat after dinner. I've been drinking more water. Aside from water and my morning coffee, I have apple juice at night, (which is when I sometimes find myself craving something sweet) but I drink the Mot's for Tot's which has 40% less sugar than regular apple juice and it's mixed with water. Before I started having the problem and pain with my left hip, I had been walking a l...

1. What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Grilled chicken, string beans, French fries Tuesday: Pasta with meatballs and I'm not sure about the rest of the week, yet. 2. What I'm Reminiscing About... As a child, every year, for a week in the Summer we went to the lake.. It was the highlight of Summer every year. To this day, that lake is still one of my very favorite places. I would spend all day in the lake, swimming, jumping off the dock, and just spending time in the beautiful lake. We stayed at the same place every Summer and I became good friends with the owner's of the place grand-daughter who would spend the Summers there. During the rest of the year, we were pen-pals and wrote letters to each other. ^I went back to the lake a few Summers ago for the first time in a while and it's still my happy place.^ 3. What I'm Loving... My planner friends & the planner community! This past Saturday, I attended a meet up that...

I've been planning in a paper planner ever since I started middle school and we were given an academic planner to keep track of anything school related: assignments, tests, projects, extra-curricular activities, etc.  ^One of my previous Life Planners^ Almost nine years ago, I purchased my first Erin Condren Life Planner. I have been using an Erin Condren planner ever since. The EC planner is seriously my favorite planner. I use it to keep track of everything: work schedules (including when I substitute), birthdays/anniversaries of family & friends, medical appointments, fun events such as marking when I have a planner meet up, when library books are due, when I receive happy mail, etc. Next week, I will be making a post reviewing the 2018 Erin Condren Life Planner but today's post is going to recap the amazing experience I had earlier this year when I attended the Go Wild Planner Conference in Nashville, TN with a ton of amazing planner girls! ^Another prev...

^I'm linking up with these blogs for Five on Friday & Friday Favorites.^ Five on Friday: 1. Hip Bursitis Within the past month and a half, I've been diagnosed with left hip bursitis. I have been having pain in my left hip for the majority of this year and after visiting my regular doctor, he sent me to an orthopedic doctor where I had X-rays and was given the diagnosis. I'm currently doing 3 days a week of physical therapy until the second to last week of July. I'm still in a lot of pain but therapy has been going well. I always have exercises that I do at home that my PT gave me to do. Unfortunately, my doctors didn't want me working this Summer because of this and because of the fact that I have to go to PT three times a week so I had to regretfully leave my Summer job which I was loving. 2. The Graduates Tomorrow my niece and God-daughter, O, graduates from elementary school. Her elementary school goes through 6th grade so tomorrow sh...

I am trying to get caught up with a lot of things, including blog posts, however, I've been working a lot and have just recently been diagnosed with hip bursitis so life has definitely been busy lately. Here are some upcoming posts that I will be making in the near future: -Erin Condren 2018 Life Planner Picture/Review Post -Recaps of the 3 1/2 days I spent in Nashville, TN in April for the Go Wild Planner Conference -Trip Recaps of my trips to Turks & Caicos (one in 2012 and one this year) I will also be making posts with different link-ups that I join in with! For now, I just wanted to write and say that I hope you all are having a great start to June. Also, how is it June already? Since graduating from college, I feel like the years just fly by so quickly! Do you have any fun plans for the upcoming Summer months? I would love to hear about them in the comments! Credit:  This Site