by Rhonda Franz, Miss June 2015

This summer, we took a journey south, way south to the beach for our first real family vacation. My husband, me the boys—the longest car trip the kiddos have been on (and our first that wasn’t a stay at the grandparents’ house).

We ended up going through states that are part of The Women Bloggers community, stopping a few places along the way.

We traveled south to Conway, Arkansas, home of some of our south-in-the-state Arkansas Women Bloggers, and a nice stopping point for lunch. (We are the family who takes breaks on road trips.) Who doesn’t love Marketplace Grill?

On to Memphis, where we ate at Huey’s. Burgers, tamales, fries, salads. I forgot to take a picture of my tamales. They sure were good.

Our next stop: Mississippi. Home of the Mississippi Women Bloggers. Birthplace of Elvis.

And then on to Gulf in south Alabama, where the Alabama Women Bloggers live.

We ate great big food at The Hangout on Gulf Shores, a family-friendly outdoor restaurant a few feet from the shore. No shower required.

We made a hotel in Fairhope, Alabama our home for the week, taking a couple of visits to the town pier and beach. Beautiful views, wonderful weather, quaint downtown shops and restaurants: Fairhope is a terrific place to stay, nestled conveniently within an hourish or less drive to Gulf Shores, Mobile, and Pensacola, Florida.

Great service and friendly conversations at every place we stopped helped keep our family vacation enjoyable: an example, I am certain, of genuine Southern hospitality. I suspect it won’t be too long before I’ll want to go back.

Where did (or where will) you journey on vacation this year?

 

by Rhonda Franz, Miss June 2015

One of my issues with articles on fitness and weight loss is that people don’t get specific (or maybe honest) about what helped them lose weight and improve their fitness. After a frustrating plateau of two years, I’m down 15 pounds from January 2015 and more fit than I’ve been in a while. I have about five pounds to go because a buffer is a nice thing. Once in a while a girl wants some fries.

It’s intimidating for me to write about my weight loss, but I’ve been asked about it, so I’m using this opportunity to share some of what has helped me on this journey in case it helps someone else.

1. Starting with a baseline of several numbers. The scale presents only one number. So does body mass index (BMI), which doesn’t distinguish between fat weight and muscle weight. I’ve also used: body fat percentage, heart rate, and an endurance test.

2. Knowing I couldn’t go back. Weight loss and fitness is a lifestyle change. I do take heart in the fact that to maintain a weight allows me to eat a little more than I was able to in order to lose it.

3. Realizing that diet, rather than exercise, plays the most crucial role in weight loss. Read about how celebrities lose weight for movie roles. That kind of extreme dieting comes with significant health risks, but you see my point.

4. Not relying on calories in/calories out. This doesn’t work for me. It depends on the type and quality of calorie.

5. Considerably reducing carbohydrates. The majority of what I eat is protein with vegetables added in.

6. Making breakfast my biggest meal. I eat about 400 calories at breakfast: two eggs with a little butter, five to six grape tomatoes, a spoonful of pickled jalapeños, and a little cheddar cheese. I have a 10 to 12-oz mug of coffee with half and half and raw sugar. This helps me keep lunches and suppers small (tucked under 400 calories) most days.

7. Not relying on any gadget or app to rule my food/calorie recommendations. If I’d continued to eat what a popular fitness app told me I could, I would have steadily gained weight.

8. Using a structure that works for me. I did use the app to count calories for about two weeks, now only occasionally. And I record my weight whenever it drops: I’m a sucker for a nice, downward-sloped line on a graph.

9. Not eating a lot of sugar. The only regular sugar I have in a day is what I put in my (one to two cups) coffee.

10. Knowing my food weaknesses. I tend to gorge on chips and salsa, which means being bloated the next day and packing on pounds it took three weeks to get off.

11. Turning those food weaknesses into strengths. Since I love the chips-and-salsa flavors, a better choice for me is a black bean taco packed with lettuce, salsa, and avocado. And since protein and spicy foods suit me, keeping things like hard-boiled eggs, sausage balls, rotisserie chicken, and flavorful soup handy is key to having something healthy to stuff in my mouth eat.

12. Accountability. I run and work out/swim once a week with a couple of friends, one of whom happens to be a trainer and gave me advice on diet and exercise (thanks, SM and KT).

13. Upping the ante on exercise. This means changing up workouts every now and then, and getting my heart rate up at least four days a week. When I only have 10 or 20 minutes, I do low impact workouts like Pilates, yoga, Classical Stretch: effective exercises that don’t require putting on shoes before or taking a shower after.

14. Paying attention to my body and how it responds to certain foods and certain weights. Whether or not it was energized or fatigued, hungry or satiated. Losing weight and changing my diet made me more in tune to this until it became a habit, rather than something I had to think a lot about. My body and I are one. Namaste 

More weight loss wins:

• Water, drinking it all day.

• Walking away. For me, the battle with eating something I shouldn’t is won or lost in the first minute or two. I try to go do something else to get my mind off of it, or eat a couple of bites and leave the kitchen. A few chocolate chips might be all it takes to satisfy a sweet tooth.

• Jumping rope. It’s my go-to cardiovascular exercise when I’m especially short on time. Jumping rope is efficient, requires little space, and can be done while watching children.

• Ballet exercises. When I hit an exercise plateau, I searched for these on YouTube. I’ve learned this: I do not want to be on the wrong side of a ballet dancer in a dark alley late at night.

If you have questions about my weight loss and fitness I haven’t answered, leave a comment with your question below: I might use my last post to answer those questions. If you prefer to ask a question anonymously, email me at rhondafranz@gmail.com and I won’t post your name.

Disclaimer: I’m not a physician, personal trainer, nutrition expert, or weight loss guru. Consult with your doctor and stuff.

 

Ho, hey. My name is Rhonda and I’m excited to be the Blogger of the Month at Arkansas Women Bloggers.

I’m an educator, wife to a pilot, mom to three lively boys, and a home operations specialist (fancy term, accurate description).

In a previous life season, I was a special education teacher—teaching children at a school housed in the midtown district and Mexican community of Wichita, Kansas. I worked with a wonderful principal and a team of dedicated, passionate teachers. It was my dream job.

In 2002, I left the dream job to marry my Arkansas flyboy and move to The Natural State. For a few years I drove to homes in three counties working with infants, toddlers, and families as part of the federal Early Intervention program for children with special needs. Those journeys on back roads and busy streets were my ticket to learning the lay of the land in northwest Arkansas. The job took me to huge, high-dollar houses of prominent people in the community, and to humble homes way, way off the beaten path. I met and worked with lots of neat families and children.

A few months before my own child was born, I handed over the teaching responsibility and started my work as mom and manager of All Things Domestic. My husband and I moved outside of town to a neighborhood with an acre of land, woods to roam, and a few unwelcome snakes.

Back in high school and college, I was the weird student who liked essay tests and writing research papers. Writing at home in this season for no one in particular turned into writing for publication after attending a workshop by the Writers’ Guild of Arkansas. Freelance Writing Gigs published my first online piece, “Confessions of a Coffee House Writer” about seven years ago. After a hilarious attempt to complete a yoga workout with my then 10-month-old in the room, I wrote a first draft about the experience. Many revisions later, and with the help of the Guild (who became my critique group), “Yoga Night” published in the local Peekaboo family magazine and in Chicken Soup for the Soul for New Moms.

I was hooked, and freelance work followed (so did more children). I wrote for and worked as the managing editor of Parenting Squad and sold education and parenting articles to regional magazines around the country. My work has been published in Arkansas Gardener, American Saver newsletter, and on Proctor and Gamble’s P&G Everyday site.

Last year, I heeded the call from The Park Wife to come aboard with The Women Bloggers. Girl Friday: that’s me. I am loving the opportunity to learn from and work with bloggers and take on new responsibilities.

Most of what I do—in addition to raising boys and cooking double batches of everything—I do from home. This allows me to live and work on a flexible routine, a priority for me with my husband’s inconsistent, unpredictable, last-minute job schedule. I started writing about the dynamics of working around (and working with) an on-call, traveling parent and the idea of Captain Mom was born. I switched my blog over to the new name earlier this year, drafted a sketchy flight plan, and took off on the journey.

I really like:

• long walks & hiking

• simple pleasures & adventures

• swimming laps

• music

• bookstores

• popcorn

• eggs

• Jesus

• my boys’ big smiles and belly laughs

• the Oxford comma

• punctuality

I really don’t like:

• seafood

• spiders

• rudeness

• green beans (don’t tell my kids)

• horror films

 

You can find me:

• on Facebook as myself

• on Facebook as Captain Mom

• at my Captain Mom blog

• chirping on Twitter

• playing around on Pinterest

By Sarah Shotts, Miss May 2015

I’ve always loved traveling… from my first solo flight to a Girl Scout Wider Op in Michigan to my later years studying abroad in Mexico and then earning my Masters in London. And thoughout all my travels there’s one thing that really stood out to me.

Taking where you live for granted is universal.

Right out of college when I was an intern in Washington D.C. I spent most of my days off wandering the Smithsonian or Botanical Gardens. I was befuddled to find that D.C. locals generally went once for a school trip and then never again.

I thought it was a fluke.

Then during my year living abroad in London (trying to cram in as much as I could) I was constantly told by Brits that I was going and doing things they’d never done themselves. I helped them see the city with new eyes.

It’s an easy trap to fall into. No matter how amazing, we have the natural tendency to grow accustomed to where we live and what it has to offer (whether that’s Crystal Bridges, a Presidential Library, or the Tower of London). It’s normal to us. We tend to only explore what our local community has to offer when guests come to town.

We all do this. We all overlook the magic of what makes where we live unique. Just take a moment to think about the fact that our day-to-day is someone else’s exotic.

When we’re on a trip or living somewhere short term we know we have to make the most of it. But when it’s as simple as dropping by that local museum… it’s easy to never make the time.

This week’s challenge is to explore your own neighborhood. Where are those places you’ve never been? (Or haven’t been since you went for a school field trip?) Where do you always mean to visit and put off? What’s a local haunt you love that you haven’t visited for years? Choose one and visit this week! 

I can’t wait to see where your adventures take you! 

Remember to use #WeeklyVenture so we can all connect and share our ventures on social media. 🙂 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. With all these new adventure ideas it can be hard to keep track. I’d love to invite you to download the free sample page of my new printable Venture Planner. It’s made to help you schedule your new micro-ventures into your daily life.

by Sarah Shotts, Miss May 2015

Ready for another adventure?

This week it’s simple… go on a picnic.

We bloggers can become all too familiar with the glow of our computer screens and neglect the chance to get outside enjoy the sunshine.

It’s the perfect time of year to pack up our food and enjoy it in the great outdoors! For this week’s challenge you choose whether to go on a romantic picnic, a family picnic, or even a lunch-break picnic. What’s important is that you break up your day-to-day routine and get some fresh air.

I love packing finger foods for picnics because it means I don’t have to cook anything. 😉 Some of my favorites are: berries, cheese, crackers, salami, pickles & sometimes (if I want to be romantic) sparkling grape juice. Of course good ‘ole sandwiches are always classic too. Especially if there’s avocado and Petit Jean bacon involved.

Then pull out your cooler, picnic basket, or backpack and tuck everything inside. Don’t forget to throw in some paper towels and an extra shopping bag or two for easy clean up. There may not be a trash can handy at your picnic spot. I’ve been there.

Choose a spot that’s handy or use this opportunity to explore somewhere new. One of my favorite places to picnic is Devil’s Den State Park where Nathan & I got hitched. 😉 These photos are from our anniversary picnic last year (which is why they’re so fancy.) I’ve also been known to rock the tupperware/ziploc bag style picnic. Don’t overthink it. Have whatever kind of picnic floats your boat.

Don’t forget to snap a photo at your picnic and share it on Instagram & Twitter using #WeeklyVenture so we can find each other’s photos. Now get out there and enjoy some fresh air!

Cheers,

By Sarah Shotts, Miss May 2015

Ready for your first adventure?

Last week* I challenged you to go on one mini-adventure each week this month. Here’s your first adventure prompt. You can also write about these adventures on your blog if you’re looking for new blog ideas. Adventures are a great way to get un-stuck if you’re feeling in a rut.

Adventure #1 – Photo Walk

This is a very simple adventure you can even do in your own neighborhood. Here’s how it works…

Choose a location that you’re very familiar with. It can even be the inside of your own home. I chose the park where I go walking every morning.

Take 10-15 minutes and explore that space with your camera in hand. 

This isn’t about taking good photos.  This is about SEEING a familiar area with fresh eyes. Use a camera that you’re comfortable with (like the one in your mobile phone) and try to notice things that you don’t usually pay attention to. Each time something catches your eye take a photo.

Slow down and really pay attention. Look closely at details. Go off the beaten path.

(But if you’re likely to go off road like me be sure to dress appropriately. My yoga pants got soaked and covered in cut grass this foggy morning.) Hahaha… 😉

Look all around…not just at eye level. Look up. Look down. Peek over and around. Keep a special lookout for anything that’s changed. Has something new bloomed? Grown? Appeared? Take a photo.

Hopefully this mini-adventure will give you some inspiration. I formed the idea for this blog post on my regular morning walk. I found myself enamored with the fog and realized I was more focused on taking photos than walking laps.

My exercise routine had turned into a photo walk and that sounded like a fun adventure prompt to share with you. Even if your space isn’t covered in fog or dew I’m sure you can discover some new things about it by taking a closer look. Maybe you’ll get inspired with an idea of your own. 🙂 

Walks also free up our subconscious to work on problem solving in the background. This isn’t the main point of our adventure, but is a nice side benefit. 😉 While you’re taking photos your brain will continue puzzling out whatever you’re currently working on. 

After your adventure look through your photos and decide how you want to share them. Did you notice something specific you’d like to write a blog post about? Is there one photo you’re dying to post to Instagram? Do you want to upload the whole she-bang to a photo gallery? Do it! 

When you share your adventures on Instagram & Twitter be sure to use #WeeklyVenture so we can find each other’s photo walks. I can’t wait to see what you discover!

Cheers,

 

Hi there!

I’m Sarah and I blog at Love Letter to Adventure. 

I believe in living life with an adventurous spirit whether you’re exploring the local farmers market or traveling the world. My blog is a guide for women in busy lives who have lost their sense of adventure (or just want more!) I blog about ways to infuse your daily lives with adventure and open your mind to those big dreams you’ve always told yourself are beyond your grasp.

This month I’m excited to share some adventure prompts here on ARWB to help you reconnect to your inner adventurer. 

You may be thinking, “I don’t have the time.” “I don’t have the money.” or “It’s not my season.”

But before you run off thinking adventures is not for you let’s take a moment to reframe adventure in a way that works for us.

Because adventure doesn’t have to mean sky diving and globe trotting. (Even if Alison Chino makes that wandering pilgrim thing look pretty fun.) We can all find adventure right in our own backyard.

My definition of adventure is whatever is daring and exciting for you.

That means we each have a different view of what feels adventurous. And that’s wonderful. Which of these mini-adventures sound most exciting to you?

• Knitting a Scarf
• Visiting a Museum
• Going for a Hike
• Trying a New Recipe
• Treasure Hunting at a Thrift Shop
• Planting a Garden

I’d like to start this month by challenging you to go on one mini-adventure each week in May. It can be something as simple as a walk in the park or pulling out a half finished craft project. Use #WeeklyVenture when posting your adventures on social media so we can all find each other. 🙂

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Need an adventure idea? Try out my free Adventure Generator printable.