Whats On The Outside

Hey there everyone! Happy April Fools day! I bet I won't be playing any fun tricks on anyone though Instead I'll be marching and learning and growing into a cool soldier girl... Today for my While I'm away series, I have Chelsee from  Southern Beauty Guide 

Hi! My name is Chelsee and I am the creator of the blog entitled Southern Beauty Guide. I am so thankful to Katie for asking me to guest post today. First, I would like to tell you a little about myself. I am a twenty something southern belle blogging as I journey from a college graduate through the process of apply to law school and making my dreams come true. I am a firm believer that dreams do come true, and I am in the process of making my dreams happen.  At Southern Beauty Guide, one can find information about all things dealing with Beauty, and much more. My goal is to help everyone see the Beauty in themselves, while having a little fun playing with Beauty products. I provide my readers with at least one product review every week. I am a firm believer in giving an honest opinion about products. I personally hate spending money on products that are not worth the packaging that is covering them, so I try to save my readers the frustration that comes along with product letdowns. I am not affiliated with any company, so you can rest assure you will find real honest product reviews. Sticking with the topic of reviews, I would like to share with you today, my favorite product find of the month. 

I know most of you have heard of the brand called “Elf,” it is a cosmetics line commonly known as “Eyes Lips and Face” thus the term ELF. ELF products are super inexpensive and generally great products to purchase. They are low cost, most ranging from $1-$3 in cost. The only difficult part of this brand is finding them in stores. These products are not sold in most stores; however, you can purchase them through the ELF Website and in your local Target store. I tend to buy them directly through the ELF website, due to the wider variety of products offered online. The product I specifically would like to mention in this post is one that I randomly pickup during a haul. It is called “Eye Refresher,” I must admit in the beginning I was quite skeptical about that product. It retails at only $3, yet comes with a long line of promises. The online review rating was 3/5 starts, which was enough to make me a little iffy about this product. After readings some reviews I decided to pick it up anyways, I mean if the product ended up being a “miss,” then I would not be out much money. Well without further ado, here is my recent review on this product. 

E.l.f. Studio Eye Refresh: 

The cooling sensation of the Eye Refresh roller ball brightens and refreshes the eye area to help alleviate under eye puffiness and dark circles. Infused with key ingredients Pomegranate, Rosemary, Green Tea, Cucumber and Grape to hydrate and nourish the delicate skin around your eyes. Perfect for portable on-the-spot treatment to awaken the skin throughout the day for a little pick-me-up. Eye Refresh is great for men too!

How to apply: 

It is quick and easy to apply just roll the tip from the inner to the outer corner of the under eye area several times. You can apply this in the morning or at night. Elf even says that you can apply it over your makeup. 

The verdict: 

This product is Amazing! This quick and easy step can truly make a difference. Through a month of use, I have seen my dark circles lighten and my overall under eye area brighten. The best use of this product in my opinion has been mornings when I have puffy eyes. It seriously soothes my skin and has quickly been added to my must have list. For only $3 in my opinion, it is a huge deal. Please note these results will vary. I highly suggest you picking up this product next time you're shopping ELF. 

I hope you enjoyed this review, and thanks again to Katie for this guest post opportunity!

Want to see more from Chelsee?

   

Fit Gal Chal

Hey there Friends! I'm seriously so close to getting out of here it's not even funny! I'm so excited to be done...Let me tell you, it's been an adventure, but it's an adventure that I will be happy to see come to a close.

As you know by now, each Monday I have been gone, you have heard from a lovely guest posters as part of this series. Well, t

oday I have another IRL (that's in real life) friend Chalyn. She was one of my coaches back in the day when I was on the team. She helped me conquer cool things like this.

She is a huge inspiration to me and I hope that you get a lot out of the advice that she has for you today!

Hey there!! My name is Chalyn.. say whhaaaa!!!?? You say it like “Shall. In.” Make sense?? Okie dokie then! On with the post! I am a complete health and fitness fanatic and quite honestly I am a little NUTS!! =) but I am okay with that so you should be to  I am a Body Building Bikini Competitor and I am on way to reach my goal of becoming an IFBB Pro… aka a “Professional Bikini Girl”… I know.. sounds weird.. but it is something I am completely striving for!!  You can follow my journey on Facebook (just go“like” me) and also check out my blog

Fit Gal Chal

As you find yourself inching closer and closer to your body fat loss goal, you might find that

your cravings are growing at an even faster rate. Earlier you had no problem fending off passing desserts, drive-through stops, or late-night eating, but now you feel like it's a whole other ball game.

This is quite common and expected whenever you're on a fat loss diet because of the shifting hormone levels in the body that are trying to get you to eat so you don't starve to death. The body senses that you're getting leaner and leaner - something that it doesn't especially like, and now it's going to do whatever it can to get you to start eating.

So... hold up..I am telling you that as you lose the weight/fat% that you want to lose... your body is going to fight against you and try to make you eat to back track on all of your progress... YEP!!! That is exactly what I am saying.. UNFORTUNATELY...

3 tips... from bodybuilding.com

1. Ask yourself if it is HUNGER or  a CRAVING...

Are you feeling quite weak or light-headed? Both of those are symptoms that it likely is hunger talking. If you're not, it could be a very strong craving that's causing you to feel something like hunger.

If it is hunger, then it's time to assess why you're hungry. When was the last time you had a meal? Some people find that they can go longer periods of time without eating while others do better eating every couple of hours. Try and figure out what type of person you are and then adjust your diet accordingly.

In other cases, the real reason you might be experiencing hunger is because you are eating too few calories on an ongoing basis. Often when very low calorie diets are followed for an extended period of time, hunger will begin to get to an extreme level.

Usually a good way to offset this is by performing periodic re-feeds, which are periods of much higher calorie eating supplemented with your regular low calorie diet plan.

Other times, it may just be that you should increase your overall calorie intake higher, which would then allow you to deal with this hunger. In some situations doing so won't even hinder fat-loss since when you are eating far too few calories, this can actually slow the metabolic rate right down.

So have a look over what your current situation is, both regarding how you've eaten that day and how you've been eaten for the last few weeks. You can then uncover some additional factors that could be coming into play with this hunger.

Obviously it isnormal to feel hunger at some point or another, but there are strategies you can use to minimize it, which will help keep cravings at bay.

2. Find a Healthy Substitute

If you realize after doing the hunger assessment that you aren't really all that hungry and you just want a specific food, then it's time to look at things from a different perspective.

Since you aren't hungry, you know the drive to eat is purely psychological so you need to combat it in a much different manner. Ideally you're going to want to try and find a food that you can eat instead of the one you're craving that will still satisfy the desire in question.

There are a numberof different options that you can substitute, many of which will taste quite similar. Here are some quick examples of foods you may be craving and what you could eat instead:

As you can see, with some creativity there are a wide number of options you can choose from to help conquer your cravings.
Each person typically has their own specific food that they tend to crave the most....(for me it is ANYTHING SWEET), so obviously this will bevariable and you'll have to think for yourself what will be mostimportant, but you should be able to come up with some reasonable substitutions that will keep your taste buds happy and serve you well nutritionally speaking.
3. Decide when to GIVE IN...
Finally, in some cases the craving is just going to be so strong that you simply aren't going to be able to replace it, regardless of how creative you happen to be.
In this case, then it may just be smart to give into the craving and eat what you desire. If you don't, chances are it will nag away at you until you do finally give in and when you do, you may not be able to practice as much self control as you otherwise would have.
You should train yourself to only have a dessert (or whatever food you crave) when you are absolutely sure that the calories are worth it. If you do this, you'll find that you aren't giving in all that often anyway and when you do, you truly enjoy it.

...when you give in... then GIVE IN!!

If you're only half enjoying it and the other half of you is riddled with guilt over eating this particular food, you really aren't doing yourself all that much justice anyway.

When you are going to give in, do it and savor every moment of it. If you do this, you'll kill that craving in its tracks. Keep in mind that diets don't have to be 100% rigid. A good diet should have room for flexibility.

Here are some things that I do to try and kick a craving..

• drink tea... myfavorites are Chocolate Tea and Coconut Chai!! Both are unsweetened and delish!!
• Go for a walk or to the gym
• look at before photos so I can see how much my healthy choices are paying off
• Call a friend
• Make healthy substitutes-- protein oatmeal (cook oatmeal, stir in a scoop of your fave protein powder...mmmm!), protein pudding (scoop of protein powder, 1TBS fave sugar free pudding mix, little bit of water, stir, put in fridge or freezer till reached desired consistency)

*** Also... Pay attention to WHAT you are craving.. your body may be trying to tell you something!!! :) 

yayyyyy!! Let's conquer cravings!!

Want to see more from Chalyn?! Well...I'm not surprised. She's pretty awesome. 

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In Real Life Friends

As you know by now, I'm in basic training! I'm probably having fun! You probably also know that every Monday, posts are going live that are written by my blog friends as a part of my "While I'm away" series. Well, today, I have a blog friend and IRL friend to introduce to you! I'm so excited about this it isn't even funny!

Hillary and I have known each other since...Oh I don't know the 8th grade I think it was. We both had the hots for the same boy and we both had some incorrect notion that we didn't like each other!  Luckily, things have changed a lot since then. She went and grew up and got married! Over at her blog, she talks about what it's like to be a newly wed and her other wonderful adventures with her new husband!

I really look up to her and it is a pleasure to introduce her to you today!

Hello! I’ve never guest posted before. I wanted to be a famous writer when I was younger, but
that dream shriveled when I entered the world of due dates and outlines. Blogging is such a
reprieve. I’m really glad mass sharing of feelings that should probably kept private was invented.
There is nothing more exciting than knowing my craziness is being broadcast across the internet
for the world to see.

If you happen to check out my blog you’ll find a lot of nonsense
about my struggles as a newlywed. I don’t want to blab on and on about it, but I basically got the
hottest most amazing guy in the world to marry me somehow. Yep.

On to my actual post! I debated for a long time what to write about, but I've finally settled. If
I have the chance to reach out to a lot of people, like by guest posting on my old buddies blog
while she’s off kicking butt in boot camp, I would want to say this:

To thine own self be true.

For those of you who aren’t weirdoes and don’t have this memorized, that is from the play
Hamlet, by Shakespeare. I’m not a Shakespeare fan, and by no means am I a Polonius fan. But I
love the message. Here’s why.

I grew up wanting to be an Astronaut. I said screw you to common sense and I went for it. A full
ride military scholarship and a top tier university acceptance letter later. It was within reach. I
pack my bags and move across the country, I get a uniform, and I become the luckiest person in
the world. But after a while I realized that while I was doing everything I’d ever wanted to do,
a part of me was missing. So I gave it all up, and now I’m home with my husband. I feel more
fulfilled now than I ever have before. I’m glad I was brave enough to let go of what I thought I
should be, to become who I am.

Life sucks like a vacuum sometimes. But if you trust yourself, you will find yourself amidst the
garble. Each of us has a hard fight to win. I have no doubt that you can make it, though.

So that’s it, that’s all I wanted to say. Well, I think so anyway. Just know that you are who you
choose to be, and at your core, you are an amazing person. To thine own self be true :)

Like I said in the beginning, I write about my experiences as a newlywed on my blog. If you ever
need a laugh, some tips on how to plan a wedding for under 4 grand, or an idea on what to do for
this week’s adventure, feel free to stop by. And keep reading this blog! Katie is one of the most
fantastic people I know. She’s much tougher than I’ll ever be, and I look up to her.

Have a great day.

-Hill

Living In Paradise

How's it going blog world?! Welcome to another installment of "While I'm away". Currently, I'm running around, singing cadences, doing side shuttle hops, and learning how to be a soldier, so in my absence, I've got some lovely ladies taking over my blog each Monday!  

Today, Jane is here to tell you about her world! She is a military spouse that I have been following for a while now. She has been a huge influence on me as far as my blog goes and has been a great bloggy friend! I hope that you all enjoy her blog as much as I do!

##########

I'm Jane from Taingamala! Taingamala is a made up word my husband and I use with each other that means I love you. It's the place we strive to be in our marriage and I blog about our adventures to that place. Love, dating my husband, recipes, decor, crafts, living in Hawaii and more!

 

Living in Hawaii has been a dream for me. I fell in love with the state at 15 and it never took its hold off me. The laid back attitudes, the island breeze, the sunny days, sand under my toes, crystal blue water. I thought I would share a few of my favorite sites on Oahu.

This was totally my husband's idea to take a kissy beach sunset picture. 

Gorgeous, no? What's even cooler is this is the entrance to a secret hidden beach you can't see from the road.

I could never get tired of a view like that.

My favorite beach on the whole island. Also, happens to be the first beach my husband took me to when I moved here.

World class snorkeling adventures with eels, octopus and dozens of fish.

Now you've seen a little into my world living on a tropical island paradise.

Want to see more from Jane? I'm not surprised! She's the greatest!

Taingamala

    

The Impact of the Warriors

I'm on the last leg of my journey in Basic Training! I'm so excited to be done with this and be able to call myself a soldier! This stuff is hard, but I'm really having a good time. I'm definitely ready to get home and relax...Sadly, that won't be for quite some time still!

In the mean time, I have my good blog-friend Mrs. K staring in my "While I'm away" series here on the bliggity. I've been reading her blog forever and I'm quite excited to have her on the blog today! I'm so lucky to have all these great people who were willing to take over my blog while I'm off getting ripped and becoming even more awesome than I already am!

I'm kidding...(but not really...) Now I'll stop yapping and let you all ready about Mrs. Ka dn how she found herself plopped into the center of the military world!

Hi, there! I'm Mrs. K and I'm so happy to be taking over this space for the day! As Katie embarks on her new journey with the Army, I thought I'd reflect on my own journey with the U.S. Military. Her story, of course, starts with a lot more bravery than my own. Mine started with a blind date...

I had recently graduated college and was leisurely enjoying my last summer of freedom before I joined the ranks of the working class when my sister told me she wanted me to meet someone. Immediately, I thought, "Why does everyone want to set me up with someone?" I was fine being single. I tentatively agreed and found myself staring into the eyes of a tall and intimidating Army Officer over dinner weeks later.

Years (and a shiny new ring and two beautiful children) later, I can see what an impact this community of warriors has had on me. I learned to be strong and self-sufficient. My husband was gone for weeks and months at a time. I had to feel comfortable making big decisions about our family. I had to take control when most married couples would make decisions together. I also learned that the old saying is true, "Distance makes the heart grow fonder." Out of all the lessons I learned during my husband's service, the most important has been that I'm better with him. To steal lyrics from Jack Johnson, "I'm better when we're together." Life is so much more enjoyable when I've got him by my side and this is one of the main reasons he decided to get out of the military. Now that we have children, he wants to be around even more.

So join us over at MrsKandCaptainJ.net and follow us on our next journey- transitioning back into civilian life. I hope to see you there!

Want to see more from Mrs. K?

 

Your Age Is Showing!

What's up, blogosphere? As you may know, I'm currently in basic training. I'm eating food I don't have time to taste, running my guts out, and marching around in some camouflage learning how to be a soldier. In my absence, I've asked some bliggity blog friends to step in and take over my blog for my "While I'm away" series! 

Today, I have "A Girl" for you. She is married to a Marine. That means that she is also married to the Marine Corps. I have been reading her blog ever since I first started blogging seriously.  She has been a huge influence on me and my blogging style, so it's pretty exciting to have her here today! Show her some love and visit her blog! 

Today, she's sharing with you the proof that she is not the young spring chicken she once was ;)

Proof that I’m old

In my head, I’m still very much so a young lady (not even a woman). I shudder to

think that I’m hitting an age where people can start calling me Ma’am and that it

would be acceptable (though physical harm may come to those who dare to say it).

It’s strange to me that I’m not only NOT a newlywed anymore, but that people feel

very comfortable calling me Mrs. But, fewer things will make you feel older than

realizing that you remember a time before the internet existed.

Now, I’m sure many of you remember that too. I’m sure many of you remember all

the same things I do, but do you ever really stop to think about it in the terms of the

young’uns coming up now?

I vividly remember my now pre-teen nephew being born, as well as my youngest

cousins, two of which now have a driver’s license. I also remember being told they

got their licenses and having a small panic attack that my little baby cousins were

driving! They are still 5 years old! I just painted their nails pink and let them dress

up in my clothes last week, didn’t I?

But I see them on Facebook and it makes me realize a few things that I will share

with you in list form:

1. When I was their age, my mom was mad that I got a beeper. I paid hardly

any money for it and was one of only 10 kids I knew at my high school that

had one. And our schools hadn’t even developed a policy on that kind of

technology being brought to school yet.

2. My senior year was the first time our curriculum mandated that we use

internet sources for our papers. And people were PISSED! Most of us didn’t

even have computers at home, let alone the internet! And Wikipedia didn’t

exist, which meant internet sources were hard to come by.

3. When I was a kid, we had a rotary telephone. And that was normal. We were

even cutting edge and had the one with actual buttons. My neighbors still

have one with the wheel.

4. My grandparents had a super cool computer that used floppy discs that were,

wait for it, ACTUALLY floppy. No joke. And that was still very cutting edge

and I loved to visit them and play games in DOS.

5. We had a TV, but MTV was something you paid for and no kid in their right

mind would watch TV instead of playing hide and seek in the neighborhood.

6. We went trick or treating at actual houses. None of this going to the mall

crap. Where we live currently hosts something in the center of town and in

three years, we’ve only had one trick or treater come to our door.

I read an article somewhere that did a survey of high school (and some college)

aged kids. All of them new what icon to click to save a document in Word, but the

majority of them didn’t know what the icon was a picture of. I just about died. A

picture of a floppy disc has been the icon I’ve clicked my entire computer using life

and it never occurred to me that my little baby cousins would have no idea what the

picture was of.

Dear Lord, I am OLD!

Want to see more from A Girl? 

I know! Me too! So...

Check her out! I'm sure that she would love to hear from you!

    

Until next time, bloggers!

What's Cooking?

Hey Everyone! Right now, I'm getting yelled at by a Drill Sergeant and probably wanting my mommy a little bit...In my absence, I've ask a few friends to take over my blog for the "While I'm away" segment I've set up for each Monday morning!  I will be around from time to time, posting from afar somehow so keep your eye out for updates on how I'm doing in basic! 

Today, she is sharing a recipe! Little didshe know, these happen to be one of my favorite desserts! And I am not a dessert person!

Without further ado, I give you, Stephanie!

Hi there, Camo-Colored companions! I'm Steph from over at Stephanews and I'm here to fill in for the fabulous Miss Katie while she's away at Basic Training (seriously, how awesome is she?!).

You ought to know that I am a shameless addict of the Food network. But even though I spend most Saturday mornings on the couch soaking up knowledge from my girl Paula Deen, I am not the next Top Chef (see: chicken flop).  I do enjoy a cooking adventure and as much as I get frustrated, I love pretending I know what I'm doing. So I'm going to share a recipe with you. It's delicious, easy, and close to my heart! 

One snowy afternoon in Minnesota, my then crush (now husband) called me up and asked if I wanted to make "Snowman Turds". He trudged all the way over to my dorm with the ingredients and we made these gooey, chocolatey, messy balls of deliciousness. I've since learned that a more glamorous name for this treat is Oreo Truffles, and have added a few twists. 

This is obviously not my own photo. I would never leave a half-eaten oreo.

 Begin with a package of Oreos (this is one time I will recommend not using double stuff). Eat a couple, and you'll have the perfect amount...but seriously, use about 30. Now you have to crush them. Using a food processor is easy and fast but putting them in a bag and crushing them with a rolling pin or hammer, or your hands is therapeutic and fun. When they're nice and crumbly you need to mix in a block of softened cream cheese. It will look like this. 

If you're feeling zingy (I'm all about zing), this is where you would add about 1 tsp of mint extract.

 Ready to get messy? Good. Forget the spoon and use your hands. Roll this mess into little balls and slap them onto your wax paper-covered baking sheet. Now it's time to dip. You'll need a bag--maybe two, depending on how big your balls are...yep. went there--of white chocolate chips melted nicely. My preferred method is to put them in a heat-safe bowl and put the bowl over a pot of boiling water. 

Now, while being careful not to burn your little fingers, dip and roll your balls in the chocolate (a fork or slotted spoon will work nicely) and set them back on the baking sheet! Now would be the time to decorated them if you're planning on doing that. Since I added the mint extract I used candy canes to top them. You could use any kind of sprinkle, nut, or whatever you'd like! 

Candy cane bits = more crushing. 

Sprinkle your topping on before the chocolate gets hard, then pop them in the refrigerator (or freezer, depending how much time you have) until the chocolate is set. Voila! Delicious candy coating on the outside, rich and gooey oreo goodness on the inside. 

Thanks for reading! Walk-ins are always welcome at my blog, so feel free to stop on by!

xo Steph

Want to see more from Steph? I'm pretty sure that you do...

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