justhealthygirlthings-blog - Tumblr blog

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Keeping up with my nails is on of my goals of 2015. I don't know If I'll always be doing the acrylic thing because its costly an can be damaging. But I really like the look now and I'll try keeping up with it as long as I can/ want to. :) Oh! and I repainted my nails the gray... i left the salon with nude color which I was okay with but not crazy about. But I hardly had a vision for my nails so I couldn't be mad in regard to a polish job. I know pastels usually look good on me & gray is in for winter so i opted for gray as a base and 2 silver accent nails on each hand placed differently. I like when they don't have a formula just because everyone else's accent nail is alway on the ring finger. 

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Eri112’s money saving tips.

So, did you reblog this money saving challenge last January?

I did.

I remember thinking that it would never work. I remember thinking it would be too hard.  I remember thinking HOW CAN I HAVE CASH IN MY ROOM AND NOT SPEND IT??

I just counted and it turns out I saved more than this person calculated.

I saved $1500 in cash. In one year.  In a Mason jar.

If you had told me last year that I could do this, I never would have believed you.  I have never been a financially secure person.  This activity taught me so much about myself as a spender. 

Here’s how I did it.

For those who have never seen this, the basic concept is that you print out this (or google 52 week money challenge…You can find many variations on this)…So the first week, you put in $1, second week is $2, third week is $3, etc.  The final week of the year, you’ll put in $52.  There are 52 weeks in a year.  See how that works?

As I said, though.  I somehow ended up with more.  I’m not sure how that happened.  Let me tell you how I managed to save money period.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, I AM NOT A FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL.  FOLLOW THESE TIPS WITH CAUTION.  I CANNOT GUARANTEE THEY WILL WORK FOR EVERYONE.

1. Create your own payday. I have 2 jobs.  One is my full time job that pays every two weeks on Thursday.  The other is a part time job that pays every week on Wednesday.  So, usually by Thursday, I have all the money I’m going to make that week.  So, I made Thursday my pay day.  Every Thursday, I made sure to put in the amount I was supposed to for that week.

2. Use small bills.  This was CRITICAL to saving money for me.  If I didn’t have the cash I needed, I would swing through the ATM and then ask a family member to trade a $20 bill for $1 bills.  I put in the required money and then hid all of the other ones under the jar.  That way, in future weeks I would have the ones I needed to make a payment.

3.  Hide the jar in plain sight.  I kept the jar in my room, but it was hidden.  This way, I wasn’t tempted to spend it.  I have 3 jars in my room.  One is my “happy memories” jar where I right down all the good things that happen to me.  Then I have my savings jar.  I also have a jar for paying myself to work out.  (Any time I work out, I pay myself a dollar.  I use this money for fun stuff like going to the movies)  In order to remember my savings jar and hide it at the same time, I put it directly behind my happy memories jar.  That way, I could see the jars, but I couldn’t see the money inside.

4.  Pack the money tight! It took my father a good five minutes to help me figure out how to get all of those bills out of that jar.  This was quite fun to watch (“HEY DAD!  I’m giving you $1400 in a jar!  Help me get it out!”) and quite difficult to do.  This is because I packed every inch of that jar.  Having the money packed in tightly made it really difficult to take money out.  The harder it was to take money out, the less I wanted to.  I’m quite lazy.

5.  Don’t be afraid to borrow, but write it down and pay yourself back in two days.  I’ll admit, there were a few occasions where I needed to borrow some money from the jar.  I never took more than $20.  I also forced myself to pay it back in two days.  Now that I think about it, I remember there was one time I borrowed and charged myself interest because I didn’t follow this rule…

Now, as I mentioned, my father is the recipient of this large stack of cash.  He was incredibly proud of me, but this lead to a conversation of how I could put away money that could earn some money.  He also suggested ways to get out of debt.  So here is what he suggested.

1.  Open a mutual fund with a high/mildly aggressive interest rate.  A mutual fund is an account that you deposit a set amount every month.  I’ll be opening one later this week.  We found one that earns 13% interest.  We agreed that I will put away $50 a month for 5 years.  Please note that these accounts will charge a fee if you withdrawal from them.  We did the math.  If I put away $50 a month for 5 years, I will have deposited $3000.  With a 13% interest rate, I will have $4394 by the end of those 5 years.  That’s correct.  The bank will pay me $1394 just for using their mutual fund.

2.  Snowball your debt. I also have acquired a lot of debt over the years.  I won’t lie.  I love to shop.  I have credit cards for every store, including amazon and LLBean (in NH, that’s a big deal).  When I receive my bills this month, he and I are going to sit down and compare them all.  We’ll be looking at total amounts due as well as the interest rate.  Then, I will pay in full anything that I can.  That way, I won’t continue to be charged interest on small amounts.  Then figure out how much money I can send to the bigger bills.  Once you know who has the highest interest rate, you can figure out how to divide that money.  You pay the most money to the highest interest rate.  On the others, you pay the minimum balance.  This way, you can put more money towards the bill that you lose the most money on.

Some advice from my rich sister:

Find a way to earn money when you shop or waste time online.

My sister and I use many different apps for saving money on groceries or shopping.  Message me if you’re interested and I can send you my sign up links.

I also use many different websites for earning money online.  Check them out:

Bing: Without using it for every search I do, I’ve managed to earn $10 in Starbucks gifts card through Bing.  I’m 54% away from my $5 gift card.  All you have to do is search for 30 things through Bing.  It can be random (I’ve searched my name a hundred times) and they suggest different stories for you to search.  You don’t have to click on any of the search results.  Just search.  There are other ways to earn with Bing, but searching is the easiest.  Check it out at Bing Rewards and start earning your gift cards now.

Treasure Trooper: I’ve also been on Treasure Trooper which I originally discovered through another Tumblr user (Thanks Diana!.)  I’ve been using it for a little under a year and have already earned $30.  You can answer surveys, listen to music, complete tasks…It’s pretty easy.  You should check it out.

Inbox Dollars might just be my favorite, though.  I’ve been signed up for a little over 5 months and have already earned $46.77.  They also have surveys and videos to watch.  They also send you e-mails and every time you click “view e-mail” you get 0.02.  That adds up.

Swagbucks is an awesome website where you can watch videos (in the background while you sit on Tumblr) and answer surveys, etc. to earn points.  Then you redeem those points for gift cards.  I have earned $45 Amazon gift cards.  It’s so easy.  I love it.

So, this is all I have to give for money advice.  I can certainly answer questions.  Don’t hesitate to message me.  Here’s to having a little more cash to play with!

Good luck everyone!

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Getting out of a place of Fat

Same Old Resolutions, New Me

Just last year around this time I was setting resolutions to change my life. Every year, I set the same resolutions...give or take and in lists of NYR's theres always something about organizational skills, motivation, becoming a grown up, blossoming my inner being. But always, my biggest...maybe almost too grand NYR is the "I want to lose weight" one. Only this year, I finally accomplished it enough so that it is noticeable. 

GW:160    CW:196

In 2014 I topped out at my highest weight of 264 lb....I hadn't known or realized that I was pretty much 300 pounds. But I could feel it in my body. The stomach problems, swollen feet and yet I continued to order pizzas eat them alone and guzzle down diet cherry coke. 

I was super sick, and I can admit this now because now I know that change is in fact possible. But back when I was at my highest weight, I lived the words my mother told me "if you can't change something embrace it." I embraced my fatness as much as I could. Decking it out body con skirts and dresses, necklaces, bracelets anything to convince people that I was proud of who I was. 

An Undiagnosed ED

But honestly I wasn't happy, honestly I'm still not happy. I'm saddened my how big of a role food will always play in my life beyond sustenance. I feel like I've gained a significant amount of control over my life by being treated by my doctor. 

Yes, my weight loss process included medication to which I will argue I needed. I needed something to deplete my appetite so that I could focus on what I was putting into my body and why. With a minimal to no appetite I must say last summer I was able to remove a lot of the emotional connection I had with food. Now, I do not make myself sick by forcing down more calories than I need because it tastes/ feels good. 

Drinking only water, also helped to ease this emotional connection.

I truly hope that one day over eating & emotional eating gets the same attention as anorexia and bulimia. given size, people are like "oh you are out of control & this mental disorder controls your decisions about food?" to a thin person... "Thats so sad, we must get you help." To a fat person..."Ew, control yourself" either way you spin it someone is suffering and probably can't go it alone.   

My Goals 

I still have a long ways to go as the quality of food I consume currently is not as good as the choices of food quality I made in the summer. So, I need to get myself back on track in this regard.

These are my own experiences, understand I do not believe speak for all fat people

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

How to make a study schedule!

Study schedules are really useful things to have because they keep you accountable and make sure you have time to get everything you need to done! 

These are the steps I use to make mine (I used Microsoft Excel but you can just as easily do this on paper, the only reason I don’t is because I make so many mistakes)

I’m studying for A-levels currently so this will be mainly aimed at that but I’m sure it can be adapted to any level and subject/course you’re studying. 

Here goes!

STEP ONE

Draw out a table with rows all the days of the week and columns for time slots. Obviously adjust the time slots to suit you, so if you wake up really early then you can add earlier time slots, if you go to bed really early don’t make late time slots etc. 

STEP TWO

In your table, write in wherever you have classes - I have college from Monday to Friday and study four subjects (plus the Welsh Baccalaureate, ew) with two two-hour classes in each per week. I colour coded these in a red/orange colour. 

STEP THREE

Now add in any other regular commitments you have e.g. extra-curricular activities, family commitments etc. I colour coded these in blue. I added “lunch” as a commitment on weekdays because I often forget to eat in college, which is a bad thing. Always make sure you eat and drink enough!

STEP 4

This is where you slot in your study sessions. I added in my study sessions and colour coded them by subject.

This step will be different for everyone depending on what you’re studying, how close you are to exams etc. I aim for at least 4 hours study a week per subject, and then as exams get closer I’ll probably up this to 5/6ish. Allocate time as you need to - I’ve used less time for maths than my other subjects as I’m more confident in it, and more for music where I feel I need more work.

Make sure you don’t add in too many on any one day and be sure to give yourself breaks. I would also say that you should work with a maximum of two hours per session, but if you prefer to study in long sessions then go for it!

Basically, you know what works for you. :-)

STEP FIVE

(Optional)

Once I’ve added in my study sessions, I like to add up the total hours I’ve done for each subject. This acts as a target and if for some reason I can’t do one of my study sessions I’ll aim to make it up somewhere else in the week so I can still reach this target. 

I also make a key for the colour coding as well. 

(In this step I scheduled in instrument practice around my studying as well, treating practice sessions like study sessions - useful if you happen to be a musician idk)

That’s about it! If you have any questions about this or anything else, I’ll do my best to answer, the ask box is always open :-) Hope this was useful to someone! ✿✿✿

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Wise words from JunglePussy

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Ballerina cleanse **Update**

So, I have yet to get around to make my bitters, which is honestly by the grace of God. I'm cutting the cleanse down to a day, simply because the amount of tea bags I used while making the tea made my concoction so potent that from the 2 glasses of tea I drank, within the span of two days have affected me greatly. And to avoid dehydrating myself (because that's never good) I'm just going to ride this out and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. So far, beside a little discomfort I'm my stomach comparable to eating spicy foods or a mild food poisoning... I'm doing okay; I don't feel sluggish or dehydrated. I've been eating regular meals & drinking water. Honestly, I wouldn't really suggest this to anyone...this isn't really healthy & it's rather extreme. I think a healthier option would be like a juice cleanse or an all natural gradual diuretic. 

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Also Yum! I cant wait to try this on those bitterly cold days in Wisconsin 

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

2015 Bitters & Ballerina's

*Disclaimer I am not a health care professional, this is is my own personal unauthorized method. Please consult your doctor before making any extreme changes to your diet or workout regimen*

For 2 to 3 days depending on how I feel I'll be fasting. I'll be doing 4 shots of apple cider vinegar bitters all followed by a full glass of water. Then throughout the day I'll have an Iced ballerina tea and end the day with a balanced meal a serving of a carb, serving of protein, and a few servings of veggies. 

After I'm done with this i would like to begin the routine of a fruit smoothie with organic, gluten free protein (terrawhey)

I'll be making the bitters (update to come)

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

every mouth you’ve ever kissed was just practice all the bodies you’ve ever undressed and ploughed in to were preparing you for me. i don’t mind tasting them in the  memory of your mouth they were a long hall way a door half open a single suit case still on the conveyor belt was it a long journey? did it take you long to find me? you’re here now, welcome home.” 

-Warsan Shire 

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

If someone wants you they will make time for you.

                If someone wants you they will make time for you.

This is something that took a long time accepting. When I want someone; I want them bad! And often I will sacrifice aspects of my life to accommodate a relationship that will inevitably fail because the guy never like me as much as I liked him. 

In these moments I encourage myself to learn the signs I fought so hard to ignore. So that when it happens again I can use that valuable time to work on bettering myself. Rather than lashing out and playing victim.

And I do not mean we aren't allowed to feel our feelings...or go through the stages of grief. But an important skill we all must learn is when we must listen to what someone says versus when it is wisest to watch what they do. 

Peoples actions will always tell you more about them then what they say...but watch & listen to both closely. 

Don't waste time on people who do not make time for you.

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

Solange + colors

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

[justhealthygirlthings-blog]

I'm dreaming of a Marsala Christmas! There's a lot of debate about Pantone's Color of the year. However, there is no debate for me baby! I love it! I'm obsessed! I would really love to dye my hair around this color. Remember when Ariana Grande rocked the Marsala hair (early victorious)? Even Snooki has been rocking the Marsala hair since she's been channeling a more toned down "guidette" vibe. Anyway this color is so bold and so beautiful and if I don't dye my hair around this color I'll be incorporating it one way or another into my 2015 wardrobe.