My Major House Cleanup

January 31, 2019
By sarah
in Around the House

Part of every homeowner’s life is the ever-present chore: cleaning. If you’re a neat freak who loves to clean and is highly efficient, then salute! (How do I get you for a housemate?) But if you are a lazy poodle like me, then you’ll understand when I say that house cleaning is a dreaded task.

I do clean my house and it’s moderately neat, if I do say so myself. But before I pick up that vacuum cleaner, you bet, I’d have used up every excuse in the book and exhausted all delaying tactics beforehand.

So how do I maintain a relatively clean house, you ask? Over the years, I’ve developed a process that gets me through the dreaded major house cleanup before hosting that Sunday dinner for the family. I’d like to share it with you, if it’s any help.

Set A Day or Two

I always set a whole weekend for a major deep-cleaning. I tell myself absolutely have to start on that very Saturday. If for whatever reason, I still wasn’t able to finish (which is almost always the case), I’ll still have Sunday to complete the chore.

Create a Checklist

I would create lists labeled bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and so on. It helps to break these tasks down into tinier, easier-to-swallow pieces. Instead of taking the whole living room head-on, I would tackle one area at a time. First is dusting and wiping, next is floor sweeping, then vacuum, and the list goes on. Then, I divide those tasks into even smaller areas and focus on getting done with each.

The one thing I don’t do myself is window cleaning – I just hire window cleaners in my area – it’s much more satisfying to see somebody else do it and they do a better job of it as well.

Reward System

After finishing with a huge area or a room, I make sure to reward myself with a break and a piece (or bar) of chocolate or a cookie. Yep, I’m nom-nom motivated and proud of it! It gets the job done, no? If you like books, why not reward yourself a chapter? Or if you’re into watching TV series, celebrate each milestone with an episode.

After completing my major house cleanup, I could finally bust out the chocolate ice cream cake! You should reward yourself with one too. Or whatever your own version of decadent delight is. You deserve it!

 

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For Active Brides: Lose Weight While Hiking! Part 2

January 26, 2019
By sarah
No Comments
in Weight loss

Nothing can make me feel more alive than a good hike. There’s something to be said about being high up in the mountains, with the wind blowing in your face and trees swaying in the breeze. It brings me peace and more energy to start the next day.

What’s more, we can efficiently lose weight while hiking. It’s actually one of the best forms of cardio out there. While enjoying the wonderful scenery, the heart picks up pace, sweat dribbles down your neck and you can hear yourself breathing heavily to the accompaniment of birds chirping merrily. All the while burning those extra calories from the chocolate chip muffins that was so irresistible. For which, one cannot be blamed.

Between hiking a trail and using a gym treadmill or running around the city, it’s a no brainer. I’m lucky to be living in a city that’s just a 30-minute drive from the mountains. Not everyone has access like I do, though. I still say, move your body wherever you can, whenever you can. But if you can go to the mountains, do that! A long drive over the weekend is definitely worth it. So I’ve listed some ways we girls (and boys) can employ to get the most fat burning out of a weekend hike.

Run uphill

I’ll plunge into my best advice right away. Increase your speed. Trail running is very popular nowadays. Not all of us is ready for that, admittedly. I don’t think I’m ready for it most days. Hahaha! But simply adding to your speed whenever you can while hiking uphill will go a long way. It’s one of the easiest ways to burn more calories. Start small and gradually build up endurance. You can do running and walking at intervals. Say, a minute running, then two minutes walking.

Take the downhill slowly

Not only will this be kinder to your knees but you will better engage less frequently use muscles for decelerating. I know it’s easy to just run with gravity when descending. Don’t take the easy way! You’ll be activating more muscles and getting a good workout out of it. So maintain a slower pace when hiking downhill.

Choose a steeper terrain and bring a heavier backpack

Hiking higher means more calories torched. Adding more weight to your pack does the same thing. The simple rule is that the more work you put in, the more fats you burn. Choose the more vertical climb and bring more water with you. This will also ensure that you’ll be well-hydrated during the hike.

 

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For Active Brides: Lose Weight While Hiking! Part 1

August 28, 2018
By sarah
No Comments
in Weight loss

When hiking in the mountains everyone loses weight, always! So this one is for brides who aren’t afraid to step into the wild. I haven’t seen a single person on any hike who wouldn’t have lost weight. It is not surprising, because the conditions are such that the body still loses weight, even when it isn’t necessary.

The minimum hike time per day is about 6 hours, the max I’ve had was 17, though I was dead after that and slept all day… Plus you’re carrying a heavy backpack. The food on the hike is mainly limited by the ability of the person to carry the weight, so the average between quantity and quality is calculated. Basically we take those products where you can pour boiling water and that’s it, but do take into account the practicality, otherwise bad food in the mountains makes you feel worse. I remember how bad it was after quick noodles. In general, we try not to take such tasty muck.

Here is an example of a diet for a day:

Breakfast: 200-250 ml. (premade) Sweet oatmeal with a spoon of dry milk, sugar or honey, a pair of cookies, tea.
Lunch: also 200-250 ml. (premade) buckwheat or mashed potatoes, you can add soy meat, with a spoon of oil, spices, salt, croutons or crackers, tea.
Dinner is the same as lunch.

If the hike was very long, the dinner is combined with lunch and just given a larger portion.
Between meals, and especially if a long transition, you need to eat something sweet-caramels, biscuits, glucose, dried fruits, chocolate. It helps to remove weakness, sugar quickly enters the blood and there is strength to go further.

As you can see, the diet is quite caloric products, but their number and physical loads are such that weightloss is inevitable. In winter hikes because of the cold weight is lost even more rapidly, so the guys take with them more melted oil to avoid becoming walking skeletons. I haven’t gone on any winter mega hikes, but I think it is still ahead.

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Quick Free Fat Loss Report

August 13, 2012
By sarah
No Comments
in Weight loss

You can’t lose weight? Or would you like to lose weight faster? Then this is for you: the best tips on how to get rid of extra pounds right and fast.

For some people, losing weight becomes a real problem. But there are many common mistakes that can be avoided.

The article collected together decades of experience in treating obese patients, the results of numerous studies and the opinions of the world’s biggest experts in this field.

1. Choose a low carbohydrate diet

If you want to lose weight, you should first exclude sugar and starch (e.g. bread) from your diet. This is a long-used method: For more than 150 years was invented a huge number of diets for weight loss, based on reduced carbohydrate consumption. What’s new: At least 17 modern scientific studies have proven that reducing the amount of carbohydrates in the diet is the most effective way to lose weight.

2. Eat when hungry

The most common mistake at the beginning of a low carb diet is to reduce carbohydrate intake and maintain fear of fats. The problem is that carbohydrates and fats are the two main sources of energy in the body. We need at least one of them.

Too few carbohydrates + too few fats = starvation

3. Eat Real Food

Another common mistake is to sit on a low carb diet: Get caught up in the network of agile marketing moves of special “carbohydrate products”. Remember: An effective low diet for slimming should be based on real food like this:

Real food is the one that people ate for thousands or (even better) millions of years. For example: meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, butter, olive oil, nuts, etc.

4. Be patient

It usually takes years or decades to gain a lot of kilos. Trying to lose weight as fast as possible, using fasting rarely ends well: it is a recipe for rapid weight recovery after eating failure. To succeed, you need something that works long enough.

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My Wedding Dress Disaster

April 23, 2012
By sarah
No Comments
in Wedding

It’s no secret that a beautiful wedding dress is not a cheap thing. Because of that many brides and wedding guests decide to find a more affordable alternative on the Internet. All the more so that today almost all purchases are already transferred to the online realm.

But it is not a secret that often what we order does not coincide with what we receive. And the more fatal is such a mistake when you order yourself a dress for the most important day of your life.

There are special sites on the web where women share their horrors when receiving ordered dresses. And the matter is not only that on slender models they really look better, but in that often do not correspond to the declared fabric of a dress, elements of ornaments-sequins, lace appear doubtful quality.

So be really careful about ordering a wedding dress online. It’s one of those cases where paying a bit more can save the most important day of your life.

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