Last month, I wrote a spotlight on all the WIPs, FOs, and KALs I was knitting on. I enjoyed that little idea so much that I've been brewing a new update for you all.

I knit a lot. I have many brainstorms going through my head at any given time. This fall, my primary goal is to make myself some new things to wear. With my weight loss, I have no less than 15 hand-knit garments that are too big for me. That's a huge deal! (not to mention how much of my non-knit wardrobe had to be given away - almost all!). So while this may sound selfish that I'm knitting so much for ME, I'm trying to use the tools at my fingertips to re-clothe myself! :)

FO: Enchanting Temptress. This is the Tempted Cardigan from Knitty in Knit Picks Imagination, striping two colors of Enchanted Lake and Wicked Witch. it was modified to knit in one piece up to the armholes and then used Elizabeth Zimmerman's Set In sleeve method. There was a bit of engineering because I was doing it in one piece and EZ's instructions aren't straight forward either, but it all worked out in the end. This was actually a fun knit. I made a size down from my original plan, and I'm glad. I also choose to finish it off with a band but not buttons - I've worn it open or just with a barrette attaching it closed, and this looks really nice and gives it more versatility for me. I submitted this for 3 KALs: KnerdGirl Knits sweater KAL (FOs, ended 8/31), Yarniac's Colors of Fall KAL (FOs, Chatter, ended 9/22), and Down Cellar Studio's Fall Swearer KAL (FOs, Chatter, through 10/15).

FO: lucky13wren. This project has a great story. Aforementioned story and pictures to follow, after I'm happy with it :) It is finished and it may get overdyed. (Ok, this picture is me knitting on it during my anniversary trip!). I meant to finish this for the tvknittingpodcast KAL, and it was done in time, but I hadn't blocked or decided what I was going to do with it.

FO: Lichen Tide Cowl. finished using the rest of the yarn from my Lichen Tide cardigan for a cowl with the same lace pattern as the cardi. I actually wore this set together on our trip to the Maryhill Museum of Art and the Stonehenge replica in the gorge, both long and short by looping it around once or twice. When it was windy out there, my neck needed the coverage!

WIP: Happy Home. This is the Contented Cardi pattern by Hannah Fettig in Fibre Company's Canopy Worsted in the Paw Paw colorway. The story behind this cardigan is that Happy Knits in Portland had the knitbot trunk show (Hannah Fettig's line), and my friend Leslie and I got to see. That was late January, and I was still loosing weight, but I took a chance and tried on one of the sweaters. It fit perfectly, so pretty, and the yarn was just lovely. (the sample sweater was knit by cocoknits). I found the yarn on sale at Little Knits, and it seemed like kismet that it was the exact yarn in the sample knit with a colorway of name of Paw Paw. I grew up in Paw Paw, MI. So Happy (contented + happy knits) Home (for my hometown) seemed appropriate. Knitting wise, this yarn is a JOY to knit with. It's luxurious and has a lovely drape and even the edge is coming out flat and perfect. I'm knitting a size down from what I tried on, since my gauge swatch grew just a touch! and I'm a bit smaller than I was in January. But I am following the mod of the sample sweater and put the cables at the center of my lower back instead of upper back like the original. I did have to rip back 4-6" because of a color change issue that wasn't immediately noticeable. I'm happier for it, even though alternating skeins makes it a little less auto-pilot knitting. I may add this to my entry for the aforementioned Down Celler Studio KAL. I am almost to the final increase and then it will just increase on the beginning and end of the RS row until reaching the correct length.

WIP: new design project. Yarn by Yarn vs. Zombies. This is almost ready for test knitters!

This last week was a little less creative, as I battled an upset tummy, but I was craving fruits and veggies for comfort, so that was a bonus.

What did YOU eat that you really loved last week?

as last week, my main meal is listed, with other noteworthy meals or snacks in italics below. :)

Monday, 9/16: OUT at Subway - I got my normal double chicken salad with cucumbers, spinach, peppers, onions, peppechini, light cheese, light oil, vinegar, pepper, and oregano. Paired it with a bag of fresh apples. protein shake: tried my first green smoothie (on instagram). lunch: turkey celery salad with apple and instead of mayo, used yogurt and cherry almond balsamic vinegar. documented the regular Trader Joe's haul (on instagram)

Tuesday, 9/17: cauliflower pizza - a crust made out of riced cauliflower, cottage cheese, light mozzerella, and then topped with a lower carb spaghetti sauce, turkey pepperoni, red pepper, onions, and served with a salad. E had a more traditional pizza using a ball of pizza dough from Safeway and his favorite toppings. protein shake: another green smoothie. treat: becoming a coffee lover with a weak espresso, soy, and sugar feed caramel syrup. breakfast: overnight oats (or rather, just over-several-hour oats!) with pumpkin. lunch: corn on the cob and chicken with my tomatilla sauce over it.

Wednesday, 9/18: spaghetti squash with maple vege-sausage patties and an assortment of veggies. last meal: yogurt with pumpkin and homemade granola.

Thursday, 9/19: Curry Celery soup (on theredkitchen) served with a salad with hard boiled egg whites and plum pieces. lunch: buffalo chicken salad. treat: baked healthy banana cookies (recipe on Brooke Not on a Diet: Banana Bread Cookies, my mods on instagram).

Friday, 9/20: Roasted veggies with meatballs - roasted cauliflower and then added some zucchini and leftover corn off the cob and Trader Joe's Meatless meatballs, served with cottage cheese (on instagram). breakfast: I started out the morning with healthy snacks in line to get a new iPhone with my brother! lunch: spaghetti squash with chicken and paprika. afternoon snack: egg white omelet

Saturday, 9/21: impromptu outing, where we found a restaurant not far from the Portland max train line to visit called Tasting East (found on yelp). OMG, the flavors were divine. We got a bunch of small things and shared (on instagram), and used chopsticks. I had a Garlic Ginger chicken, and E tried a tofu coconut curry. We had Green beans cooked dry in a wok with garlic, and an amazing Salt and Pepper fried tofu. E had some fancy rice and soup and I tasted his Mango Asparagus salad rolls. And we finished it off with some mango and sesame ice cream.

Sunday, 9/22: OUT at Burger King with a salad (not pictured). treat: coffee blended banana smoothie and popcorn (on instagram). dinner: chicken patty with peppers, onion, and cauliflower, served with cottage cheese.

Coming up this next week, I have an outing on Wednesday and Saturday to look forward to, and a few simple meals in between. We bought some great produce over the weekend at both Costco and Safeway, and that is a sure plan to get me headed towards a healthy week!

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In September, I am participating in the Back to Basics challenge (#wwbtb). I started by making goals, and followed up after that with improving spaces. For this last week, the challenge was to do some tracking. Brooke introduced this tracking concept in this post.

So how am I tracking? it's no secret that I am a lover of documenting my life with blogs and media sites... and this has treated me well during my weight loss journey. I originally set up a database on my iPad (in Bento) for tracking, and then at the beginning of 2013, I started using MyFitnessPal (MFP). I've very active about tracking every bite because I'm trying to investigate what works best for my body. When I go out to eat, it's certainly more of a challenge, but I've been consistently documenting the best I can without a break - MFP announced this morning: "kadyellebee has logged in for 185 days in a row." :)

One of my initial goals for this challenge was to remember to finish out my day inside of MFP at the end of the day, because doing that last step gives me a moment pause to look over my day. I am proud to say I've been doing well on this goal, and it's also reminded me to take extra time to be more careful in planning out the following day. And this sets myself up for success!

Anothing thing I've been tracking is my meal plan. I've been writing blog posts with the review of the week, and that not only is good for me to look back at, but I've also heard from friends that it inspires them too.

A look at my lockscreen goals (I put this pic on the lockscreen of my phone to remind myself of what I wanted to work on this month, and it is inspiring me often!)... This last week had a few days of being really weak. This interfered with my exercise a bit. I did yoga stretching and ab work three times, weights once, walked fast once, and rode my exercise bike five times - most of the days, very slowly. It had me discouraged, because I'm at the point where I need to really kill it with exercise if I'm going to get back to an even keel with maintaining my weight. However, after 3 straight weigh-in weeks of gains, this week was down. I even made it through another scary doctor/dentist combo day! Healthy blogging and support were fine this week - I created several recipes that need to be typed up for the blog! For this coming week, I'm going to keep on with these goals, and attempt to reduce my calories by a little bit to see how that changes things.

The Back to Basics challenge for the current week relates to Good Healthy Guidelines and I'm looking forward to digging more carefully at how I can integrate those tips into my life.

...and that's the story!

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Another happy healthy week on the record books :) Did you eat anything you truly loved this week?

Monday, 9/9: Roasted Parsnip soup, take 2. A nice thick lightly garlicky soup with a touch of souvenir cheese and souvenir vinegar from our trip! This needs to be written up for theredkitchen soon. Served with a salad with pear and baked lemon chicken for me, tofu for E. lunch: stovetop apple bread pudding.

Tuesday, 9/10: Mexican inspired egg scramble. Included another try at homemade tomatilla salsa for a topping. used eggs from one of E's co-worker's chickens, zucchini, peppers, fennel, green onions, and turkey for me, morningstar links for E. breakfast: layered pancakes with cottage cheese, sausage links with peppers. snack: edamame.

Wednesday, 9/11: Spaghetti Squash Carbonara. Used the idea of Cheesecake Factory's dish and whipped up a healthier version with grilled chicken, peas, onions, garlic, bacos, and mozzarella. Turned out pretty good! shake: pumpkin pie shake. breakfast: 10 grain cereal with pear sauce (instagram). lunch: leftover soup with chicken burger over salad. snack: popcorn, yogurt with granola and peanut butter.

Thursday, 9/12: appointments OUT, Old Spaghetti Factory. Baked Chicken always sounds better than the nutritional stats show, even with things on the side and adding broccoli. It was a yummy meal, though, with a little bit of the things I wanted to really enjoy. breakfast: bananacake with sausage/peppers.

Friday, 9/13: Coconut chicken with salad. This was inspired by an instagram post from rachelskeie and i added crumbled bread to my mixture. My salad was all jazzed up with cashews and apricots and cucumbers, as well as Tahini Miso dressing (the dressing part of this recipe). E had soy glazed tofu with carrots. Also, I food-prepped and cooked like mad today! lunch: roasted yam, onion, and turkey. snack: yogurt and homemade pumpkin granola (instagram).

Saturday, 9/14: shopping lunch OUT, Chipotle. Salad with chicken, fajita veggies, corn salsa, green salsa, and a little cheese. Now that I know how to order here successfully, I'm a pro! and I love that their nutritional data is so easily available on their site. dinner: leftover spaghetti squash, meatballs, and salad.

Sunday, 9/15: breakfast OUT, Sweet Tomatoes. Big salads, bit of potatoes and eggs, fruit, and oatmeal. All I can eat goodness! dinner: TBD.

This coming week, I've got a little less inventing on the brain and giving E some of his favorite flavors from before I made over my life. And healthified versions of them for me. :) ...and that's the story!

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this is a story about wearing my heart on my sleeve...

original set

I love having a story for the things I'm wearing, especially my jewelry. So when I saw a jewelry designer, Bama+Ry, was going to be bringing her cute charms to the fitbloggin conference I attended this summer, I was excited. I scoped out her site beforehand, and then was sure to hit her table right away at the evening event.

TSFL.com

Today was celebrated as "Discover Your Optimal Health day" by the coaching units of Take Shape For Life (the coaching side of the health plan I used to change my life). It seemed like a great day to wear my heart on my sleeve with my new charms!

I've been having fun getting to know the Bama+Ry creator, Jasmine, online since then, and I got all jazzed when I realized she would do custom orders! I loved my original set of "fitbloggin", "blog", and "love", and these are a part of me. So to represent my new mindset on life, I added onto the set. Here are my charms:

• love - this word has been important to me all my life. family and friends are super important to me, and the word love represented that. So much so that as a child, I signed every birthday card I made with "love productions" for the card company name. And then my husband got me the domain name love-productions.com as a Christmas gift for me in 1999, and that turned into my web design company site for many years.
• blog - another life-changing word. I started blogging before it was cool, way back in 2000. Blogging lead me to much learning on web design and development, a volunteer and then paid position for a blogging company, and has been a major way of documenting my life personally. A big part of me, for sure. fun side note: My friend Christine just recently posted about the phenomenon in I Watched the Internet Grow Up
• create - what do I create? the easier question might be "what don't I create?" right now, a lot of yarn-y goodness (I'm kristine on ravelry, with my kadyellebee knitting patterns), but it also encompasses my health - I am creating health in my life, through a lot of hard work! I consider it my full time job right now, anything else is just bonus until I can get a handle on what I can do to allow me to live with fibromyalgia.
• inspire - going right along with the idea of creating, I want to inspire others. I want to inspire people to find a hobby that makes their heart sing. And my new discovery is that I want to inspire people to make healthy steps in their lives. I don't know what that looks like yet!
• fitbloggin - the conference that really gave me the confidence to dream and believe that there is more to healthy than the physical side - emotional health is just as important. I am blessed to be surrounded by friends online that I know from the conference, and I truely believe I will look back and see this summer as a turning point.

There you have it, my biggest dreams and things that have molded me into the person I am today, all encompassed on my neck today. (plus bonus little hearts on my ears!). and that's the story!

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Last week, I wrote a post about the Back to Basics challenge (#wwbtb) and listed out some of my current goals.

First up, the challenge for this week was Improving Spaces, making areas of my home better able to help me reach my goals. This has been a constant source of the rearrange-a-rama in my house through my journey!

• In the kitchen, I carved out spaces for my medifast meal replacements early on, and then did a major purge of the extras in the cabinets around them. I've been tweaking these cupboards a little more as I have been adjusting to maintenance. Today, I condensed the selection of meal replacements and protein bars into one area, and moved the dried fruits and nuts and smoothie makings to another area. This gave me a little more of a consistent place to grab for the things that match. Yes, that's a big theme for me, "like" things MUST go together, even if the order seems nonsensical to those around me ;) My scale and magic bullet and George Foreman grill are easily accessible on one counter. My measuring cups and spoons are in one drawer and tea is in another. I'm pleased with this setup.
• Another area I made over this spring was my craftbrary/exercise area. It was bookshelves in a guest room, then my craft room, and now my exercise bike and weights are in there. This week, I've been working on straightening for not only ease of exercising but to revitalize my business goals.
• Because one of my new goals is to improve my sleep atmosphere, I've also been trying to keep things clean around my bed. Less clutter gives me less to stress about, theoretically. And less clutter lets me find my sports bras & yoga pants, and actually do the exercises in there!

meal replacements, baking supplies, and less frequent stuff on top shelf

dried fruits, nuts, and smoothie ingredients, with counter-fruits and veggies

The challenge for the present week is all about tracking, and I'll look more at that soon. I'm so deep in the tracking on MyFitnessPal that every bite is documented. I don't trust my body yet to tell me when I'm hungry all the time, though I hope to get more intuitive about this!

So how did I do on my lockscreen goals? I blogged several times. I drank more unflavored water every day. Exercisewise, I rocked it: 4 days on the bike, weights twice, yogastretch and abs three times. and I walked both days of the weekend! My sleep environment is still a work in process - one night, I fought the sleep and got up and played in html for several hours instead, oops. As far as weight goes, I'm up just a tiny bit, but my pants are fitting better, and I am feeling tighter and stronger. Maybe a little too worn out, but I did push myself awfully hard after being less active for a few months. So I'm pretty sure that this will all show that my muscles are forming and needed repair time before I see a balancing effect. Giving and getting support was good. I'm hoping to just continue on with all these things this week, no big change in goals.

I'm feeling proud :) Rededicating my efforts really seemed to help!

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Getting back in the habit of writing my review of the previous week's meals :) I tried some new delicious flavors this week, made over an old favorite recipe, and ate healthy when we went out. I'm proud of myself!

• Monday, 9/2: Labor Day, stayed in with a cold and cooked: created a Hatch Chile salad, inspired by finding roasted hatch chiles at Whole Foods. Combined grilled chicken, quinoa, chiles, peaches, sweet potatoes and a bunch of other veggies to make something cohesive and delicious. dinner: spaghetti squash with meatballs.
• Tuesday, 9/3: special Maciflowercheese with sausage and salad. This was an attempt at a vegetable-filled, but still flavorful, version of one of the meals I miss cooking the most on this new healthy meal plan. Featured Vlaskaas, a creamy sweet Gouda-like cheese that we got on our Leavenworth trip, roasted cauliflower, and a light white sauce with celery. breakfast: omelet with hatch chiles. lunch: leftover barbecue tempeh.
• Wednesday, 9/4: early dinner for one - turkey Goulash with spaghetti squash. I attempted to find something similar to the flavor of what my mom made for us as kids (ground beef, macaroni, and tomato paste) in a healthier format with added peppers and onions. I need some good paprika, and I tried cinnamon and some nutmeg, but there's still some flavor missing that I'm not remembering! breakfast: bananacake with sausage and veggies. lunch: spinach salad with peaches, homemade tomatilla sauce, and chicken.
• Thursday, 9/5: Chicken Ginger noodle soup with salad. This is an invention I started doing while loosing weight to use shiritaki noodles and celery, both filling items for low carbs and calories! I jazzed the salad up with hard boiled egg whites, dried apricots, and cashews. breakfast: omelet with tomatilla sauce. lunch: leftover goulash.
• Friday, 9/6: early dinner for one - Turkey slowcooker meatloaf, based loosely on this Paleo recipe with Braised red cabbage, based loosely on this allrecipes recipe with mods from the comments. breakfast: banana bread oatmeal (instagram). lunch: egg scramble with tomatilla sauce.
• Saturday, 9/7: girls day OUT - egg-white Greek frittata with chicken sausage from Mother's in Portland with fabulous French press coffee. Had a few of the rosemary potatoes the kitchen incorrectly sent. Perfect flavors of spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta combine so well here! dinner: chicken burger sautéed with cauliflower and fennel, served with cottage cheese and leftover red cabbage. snack: apple crisp with peanut butter granola topping.
• Sunday, 9/8: groceries day OUT - Grilled chicken apple salad from Red Robin. We got some exercise by walking there and through the mall! dinner: corn on the cob, tofurky sausage, cucumber salad, egg. snack: frozen yogurt from the mall, sweetened with stevia.

Did you cook anything you absolutely loved this week?

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It's September, friends, what does that mean? Time to look at the new fall tv premeires and pick what shows I want to pay attention to! I admittedly have watched less lately (my TiVo feels neglected) and need to fix the channels still after our last cable downgrade (the digital channel numbers changed!) but I'm getting excited for my favorite shows to return and to pick up a few new ones.

I need also to investigate my options for watching more of these shows on my iPad, that worked really successfully for me with abc.com shows last year when I was watching them on my own (without E!). I'm marking the ones I will do a "spree" as such, because some shows just make more sense to me when I can watch them one after another, so I save them up and do a sprint, or binge through them!

I hope you enjoy this listing as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Please do comment with the shows you plan to watch and/or links to your posts about the new tv season!

I've enjoyed making these plans for many years now. (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001).

I feel blessed to have online friends who are healthful in many areas of my life. I was inspired by Brooke and Emily of who started a September challenge to get Back to Basics, with topics and challenges to revive our health in September after some have had a not so stellar summer!

Yes, I count myself as one of the people who has been challenged this summer. I transitioned off of my carb controlled meal-replacement diet slowly, and moved into maintenance to give my body a change to find it's place, or equilibrium after such a major change. I proceeded to adjust some of my meds at the same time, and all of that was a little much for my body. I have gained back a few pounds, much to my dismay. So I'm still struggling to find the right combination of nutrients my body needs and so now is the perfect time to revitalize my plan.

Here are my goals, I'm imitating Brooke's idea for goals in a poster format, and what better than a pic of me this summer looking happy and sleek to help me get back to that! I'm setting it as my iPhone lock screen to remind me often.

• healthy blogging - I want to post at least once a week, something about my healthy journey. It may be a weekly food recap, or a new recipe. It might be something reflective and personal like this. Documenting my life is important to me! I'm also always adding pics of my food/exercise on instagram and bookmarking with pinterest, and those all feed into my main blog page.
• pure water - increase the water that I drink that is not flavored. I'm drinking more crystal light/mio/water enhances than I'd like. Not trying to cut it out completely right now, but make baby steps.
• exercise - I plan to up the duration on my exercise bike/walks vs. just upping the intensity. Also reintegrating yoga-stretching and ab work that I lost when my pain level increased. And finally, add hand-weights in a very small way to start.
• sleep environment - continue working on creating the best sleep I can. turning off electronics, setting a peaceful mood, and reading for enjoyment to make me sleepy.
• submit MFP at end of day - I get all my food entered into myfitnesspal and then don't finish out the day by checking my last meal and any extra exercising. this will remind me to finish out my healthy day and put me in a better mindset for how the day shaped up, to let it go and start fresh the next day.
• maintain - I need to remind myself that ups and downs are okay in maintenance, and give myself grace. it would be a plesent surprise to loose, but that's not my goal right NOW, so I need to stop beating myself up!
• give & get support - I do best when I am part of a community. I'm lucky enough to have many friends who care enough about me to be supportive, and I try to turn around and give some for that support back. keep this up!

I hope to participate in more of the BTB challenges as the weeks go on. I feel good getting this out there to start with.

...and that's the story!

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