Category Archives: Life

LA Girl In Minnesota… Guest Post from Jamie–> Minnesota Girl In LA

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I had also asked Jamie, over at Minnesota Girl in LA  to write-up a post for me since I am visiting her home state of Minnesota right now! Here is her wonderful post about fun things to do and see if you are ever in the state of 10,000 lakes… Minnesota!! 🙂

Erin asked me to write about my favorite Minnesota places since she’s out visiting there right now.  Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to sit down and think about some of my favorite places from the state I grew up in.

I grew up in the Twin Cities area, to be more specific, the southern suburbs.  Think Lakeville, Apple Valley, Eagan, Burnsville area, or south of St. Paul.  
Some of my all-time favorite places in Minnesota were:

  1. Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

Just being able to walk along these gardens during the winter or even the spring time to see what artists would create, or more so, try to pin point what they were thinking was enjoyable for me.  And of course, the iconic Cherry in the Spoon Picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry and the Spoon

  1. Lake Calhoun

I loved to rollerblade, and often, during the summer I would go to one of the popular Minnesota lakes to rollerblade around.  Lake Calhoun became my favorite the year before I decided to move away, but Lake Nokomis was another favorite of mine.

 

  1. Cosetta’s Italian Deli

I love Italian, and one of my favorite restaurants to visit in Downtown St. Paul was Cosetta’s.  It was a very well-known restaurant and deli, and no matter what time of the day it was there was line for their food.  They also had a shop where you could take home some of your favorites.  

 

  1. My favorite museums included the St. Paul History museum, The Science Museum, and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

 

 

  1. Mall of America

The biggest mall in the United States was the Mall of America.  This mall even had an indoor amusement park inside, what isn’t there to love about it?  I use to take the bus after school to just hang out at the mall.  Most likely I was a huge part of the reason why a curfew time of 7pm was given to children under 16 years old of age every Friday and Saturday evening.  

 

  1. St. Anthony Falls

It was just a truly beautiful area along Minneapolis to walk along, and of course see the hydraulic falls in action.

 

  1. Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling Area

These places were pretty close to one another although they were usually different visits.  The Minnehaha Falls area is a very beautiful area, and of course I loved driving around the houses in the area because they were a sign of the times, and the houses had a ton of character.  

 

 

 

 

 

Fort Snelling Area

  1. Grand Ave.

This place had some pretty great shops and boutiques to walk through with some great eateries.   You can’t go there without stopping in the Grand Ole Creamery.  Amazing ice cream served up for you.

 

  1. Uptown

Another fun little area with shops and boutiques to walk and browse through.  

   10. The North Shore

During the weekends, if I could, I would love taking the 3 hour drive up north to head to Duluth, MN.  I loved looking out at Lake Superior, and of course driving even further north along the north shore.  This was truly my zen place of Minnesota.  I didn’t get up there often, but anytime I did I was instantly relaxed, and my stress disappeared.  These were just some of my favorite things to do in Minnesota, the place I grew up in.

 

 

 

 

 

North Shore

I Will Rock This: Do’s & Don’ts

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So this is Melody, my dear friend and fellow equestrian (horse person) that has helped me tremendously throughout the #IWillROCKThis challenge. Jack (Jill??) of all trades, I don’t think there is anything this woman CANNOT do! I am pretty darn sure she created this pirate outfit that she is wearing in this picture (for the Pirate Festival that was in Long Beach last weekend!) as well! Here are some of the DO’s and DON’Ts of weight loss, and just being healthier in general that I’ve picked up from Melody these past couple of months. This will be the first of a couple posts on this topic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s start off with the DO’S so you won’t get scared off by all of the “DON’Ts!”

DO THIS

*Drink PLENTY of WATER!!

* Drink Milk/Eat Yogurt. Make sure to get 3 servings of dairy a day!

1 serving of dairy is equal to:

*1 cup of milk or yogurt

*1½ ounces of natural cheese (cheddar cheese) <—- Use in extreme moderation though!

*Drink green tea

*Get at least 7-8 hours of SLEEP every night!! This is SO important!!

* Eat your fruits and veggies and don’t forget to exercise!!!

*Walk every chance you get.

* Eat SNACKS throughout the day that have lots of fiber in them (to keep your metabolism up)

* Put up motivational pictures next to pics of you looking your heaviest. (Where you can see them on a daily basis. Like the fridge)

* Daily weigh ins (same time daily and naked to register even the smallest gain to keep you on track or to motivate you to work harder)

*Eat lean lean meat (turkey, fish, rabbit, chicken)

*Drink apple cider vinegar one glass a day (it’s cleansing)

*Always know what your next meal is so you don’t find yourself scrounging for something unhealthy and not planned.

*Make and Prepare all of your meals yourself.

*Exercise in the morning when it’s cold because your body will burn the negative fat better at that time vs when it’s warmer.

*Eliminate all canned soups (So so BAD for you, the amount of sodium these soups have in them!)

 *Start your day with 2 eggs… any way, only egg whites is even better. When you do this you will eat less throughout the entire day. FACT! I also like to put Paprika and cut up a small tomato in with my eggs. YUM!

*Eat oatmeal, PLAIN oatmeal and then add in some cinnamon, honey, or fresh fruit to sweeten it up.

* Eat bananas, watermelon and apples!!! Especially if you are craving something sweet.

*Freeze some grapes and strawberries. This is a GREAT snack and alternative to those fattening, high calorie, high sugar content snacks and desserts! 3 strawberries usually does it for me! 🙂

*USE Spices- cinnamon to sweeten anything instead of sugar. I put cinnamon in my oatmeal, greek yogurt, and fruit (and my occasional cup of coffee)! Anything spicy curry;  red pepper, black pepper, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, whatever you can tolerate!

DON’T

*Don’t eat cheese.

*Don’t buy crap because then you’ll eat crap.

*Don’t forget about portion control!!!

*Don’t eat these things if you can help it, and if y0u do, in moderation and NOT everyday!!! Chocolate, biscuits, cookies, cake, donuts, muffins, pastries, white bread,  chips,  nutella, and ice cream.

*Don’t go crazy with the peanut butter or any butter. DON’T use any FAKE butter though. Real butter is better than that fake stuff if you must have it.

*Don’t buy processed or pre-prepared foods.

*Don’t have any carbonated drinks, alcohol, refined sugars or artificial sweeteners & colors.

* Don’t order fast food.

* DO NOT ADD SALT to anything!! Whenever you do that, it will blow you up with water retention and is truly the worst thing for weight loss.

So there you have it! Many of the Do’s and Don’ts that I have been trying my best to follow-up with. Of course I still have my one “cheat” day a week so I don’t go totally crazy and fall off the wagon and gain everything back that I’ve been working so hard to lose! Hope this helps. 🙂 Stay tuned for more tips and ideas.

Day 29-Love–A Day Late, a Dollar Short, Better Late than Never! ;-)

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I know I’ve been a bit MIA these past few days, so I missed the last 2 posts for June! It’s been a very busy weekend, and will be pretty busy until I leave next week for “vacation” to see family,  go to a few weddings, the Minnesota version of my grandparents 65th Wedding Anniversary and 90th Birthday celebration. I am DETERMINED though to catch up with all my posts before I leave (this would include posts for days 29 & 30 for the photo challenge, 2 movie reviews, 1 restraunt review, 1 food item review, and the conclusion and results of the #IWillRockThis Challenge that just concluded this past weekend!) Whew! I WILL GET THIS DONE!!!  There are others I’d like to get completed, but those are the ones I feel I HAVE to get finished as they are somewhat time sensitive. So here is Day 29– LOVE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made with Love, in Italy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends <3 Roadtrips to the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cowboys at the river 😉