My biggest problem when I try to drop pounds is portion control. I like big portions I cannot deny. It is a Leigh issue and one I must tackle and face. I can't eat just one slice of pizza. I want four. I don't want one sandwich at home. I want two. I don't want just half a sandwich when I'm out. I want the whole thing. I've been like this my whole life. When I was a child, I would eat a whole can of biscuits. Back then, it did not matter. I was so skinny that I needed to eat two cans. In my 20s, I would eat half a pizza plus a beer and it would not impact me one bit.I also lifted 50 pounds of TV equipment in and out of a car about five times daily.
In my late-40s, a bigger portion is my enemy. I cannot keep those habits. Maintaining a healthy weight has become an issue for me. Realistically, I would like to lose ten pounds.
Now that fresh produce is in abundance, I've come up with a lunch that is big and satisfying. You can tailor this to what you like, but I use a very large pasta bowl as the bowl for this salad.
It takes less than 4-minutes to chop and put this salad together. I love it. I also stay full most of the day.
1 large cucumber (quartered so it makes a lot of slices or chunks and fills the bowl)
1 large slicing tomato
Half a red onion, sweet onion or green onions (whatever you have)
Half of an avocado
Sprinkle with Salt, Pepper, 1 tsp of olive oil and 4 to 5 drops of Lime Vitality Culinary Essential Oil (You can also use the juice of one or two fresh limes).
Toss your salad.
Sprinkle with Feta Cheese.
Enjoy. I love this.
As children age, life gets busier. That is hard to explain, but I feel a lot busier now than I did when my kids were younger, and with me all day. Now when they get out of school, the evenings are short plus we have dance class, karate, ACRO, and scouts thrown into the mix. What gives with this type of hectic schedule?
Time in the kitchen. We need quick and simple meals most nights these days. My children like fish.
Here's a quick and easy recipe that is healthy for a weeknight. One of my new favorite Young Living Vitality oils is lime. These are great oils for the kitchen. It's also my favorite vitality oil for my water, too.
Baked White Fish with Lime
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
One onion
White Fish fillets such as haddock, cod, flounder, tilapia, mahi-mahi
Several sprigs of fresh cilantro
Salt, pepper
3 to 4 drops of Lime Vitality Oil(You can also use fresh lime, but the oil is more concentrated so you need to use more limes).
Layer onion in pan. Place fish on top.Sprinkle fish salt, pepper, lime essential oil and cilantro. Bake for 20 minutes. This fish can be served with vegetables and brown rice or used for fish tacos. For fish tacos, chop tomato, avocado, onion, garlic and a few drops of lime vitality oil to serve with the tacos.
Editor's Note: Do not buy any Lime Essential Oil over the counter and use in this recipe unless is sold and labeled for culinary use. Other essential oils could be mixed with synthetic ingredients and are not safe for ingestion. I am a satisfied Young Living Member/Customer (2481355). I do not receive any special incentives for writing about Young Living, however, members are rewarded with compensation when sales or membership referrals are made. Any revenue made helps pay for the editorial on my blog and this blog is entirely curated by me, and I share what I like. If you purchase Lime Vitality, buy from my Beautycounterwebsite or book a hotel room, I thank you for helping me support the HinesSightBlog business. I do not want to clutter my site with ads or write about things that no one cares about just to bring in dollars.
About a year ago, my friend Katja Presnal with Skimbaco Lifestyletold me she wanted to develop a jewelry line to go with her new Enjoy Life business. Katja is quite stylish. I've been in her company in Toronto, Italy, and in my own home in Raleigh. She is Finnish-born and has a very elegant, and Scandinavian style. We are quite different, but yet we have many similarities, too.
When she told me she wanted to develop a jewelry line inspired by world travels and that could also be used as an essential oil diffuser, I scratched my head. I knew she would succeed because she is determined and she does everything well. However, one of the things that I think she loves about me is that I speak my mind, and I said, "I don't understand. Who wears essential oil on jewelry? What the $%^& is that? " She then sent me website after website links to jewelry for that market purpose that neither one of us liked.
There were tons of web links for aromatherapy jewelry that kind of all looked the same. I soon realized there was a market for this type of jewelry, but none of the styles available were luxe, stylish, curated with fashion in mind, or even a design that would appeal to someone who may not use an essential oil on a necklace. There was nothing like that at all in the marketplace. Nothing like that until now.
Fast forward a year and now Katja's new essential oil diffuser line debuted this month. I was behind the scenes on the mock-ups and the packaging. She did it. Her new jewelry line is gorgeous. It's stylish with the latest fashion trends, and it's just simply luxurious.
The jewelry was designed by Deanna Cochran, who is an artisan jeweler out of Texas, and I've gotten to know her recently because she is in our Enjoy Life Oils Facebook group. Deanna is so talented, and took Katja's vision and ran with it.
Katja says this about the collection.
"When I think of my favorite products, they stand the test of time. I like to know what's trendy, but I still pretty much follow my own style. Jewelry designer @deannacochran shares this with me, and when we sat down to collaborate on the ENJOY LIFE jewelry collection, we wanted to offer pieces that are something you will want to wear for a very long time.
We have a few pieces that are perfect for just giving the aromatherapy jewelry a try. This necklace is called Just One Dropbecause it only takes just one right drop to fall in love with essential oils."
You can shop all of Katja's jewelry line in her shop on Skimbaco Lifestyle. The entire collection is not out yet. More is coming. You can order any piece directly off your site. A SPECIAL JEWELRY OFFER In celebration of Mother's Day and her collection, you can also get the One Drop Necklace with a Premium Young Living Oil Essential Oil starter kit. This offer ends on May 5, 2016.
In partnership with the launch of this beautiful new jewelry collection, you can also become a Young Living member under my referral number (link here) and save 24 percent on all your future purchases. I love my diffuser and many of the products that Young Living carries. I have too many favorite things to name, but lately, I've become like Gwyneth Paltrow and use Thieves Essential Oil in a bath with Epsom Salt. Thanks for the idea, Gwyneth!
The Essential Rewards program is where you really save in the long run. So, if you have been contemplating joining then now is the perfect time to do so because Katja will be sending the One Drop to our new Enjoy Life Oils members in our group. We have a great Facebook group, too.
The products in the Premium Starter Kit and our free Mother’s Day Gifts pushes the value of this gift to close to $400 for only $160!!
Our free gifts:
– ENJOY LIFE designer diffuser necklace – an amazingly helpful 400+ Page Essential Oil Reference Guide – access to The Oil Nation & Mom Spark Oils & Skimbaco Enjoy Life with Oils FB group with all sorts of great info about using the oils and how to create this a business!
Sign up now
If you are ready to buy a starter kit, then be sure to sign up as a wholesale member (with one of the premium starter kits) through the instructions below to take advantage of these freebies! Note: if you are signing up for mom as a gift, you will need her social security number.
2. Be sure the “Wholesale Member” option is checked so that you don’t end up paying retail prices.
3. Be sure the “sponsor ID” and “enroller id” say 2481355 (so that you can get your freebies).
4. If you do not feel comfortable putting in your social security number (this is only for tax purposes because Young Living rewards members who refer others to become numbers with compensation. This is available to all members, and if you exceed a certain amount in compensation then the IRS wants to know about that. You can also get an EIN from the IRS use that number instead (the IRS just needs to be able to connect some number with you for tax purposes). They need a Social Security Number or an EIN because if you make $600 or more per year selling Young Living products, you will receive a 1099 form in the mail (which is required by law). Young Living will never share this info with anyone.
5. Select which starter kit you want to get. My recommendation would be the Premium Starter Kit with Dewdrop Diffuser for $160.
6. You can also sign up for monthly Essential Rewards program that starts collecting you rewards points immediately. You get 10% back of each order the first 6 months, then 15% points and after a year in the program, you get 20% back in points towards free products. This is the best part of Young Living for product savings!
7. Go through the checkout process.
8. After you sign up, send an email to leighhines68@gmail.com letting me know that you signed up through this promotion.
IMPORTANT: This promotion is only available when you sign up with the sponsor ID and enroller ID as #2481355 Also if you recommend this promotion to a friend (or group of friends) and they sign up too through this promotion then please let me know so that you can get credit for referring them. :)
Small Victories Linkup:
The Small Victories Linkup we like to reflect on the small victories of the week that passed and look forward to the week ahead. We invite bloggers to our community to share their best posts to inspire our readers to read, eat, create, live and blog well. The linkup is open all week long so bloggers can celebrate the best of their blogs anytime!
Do you remember that old Trisha Yearwood song, "The Song Remembers When"? I feel that way about food and how it can trigger memories. I associate my vacations with what I ate while on my adventures. For example, I'll never forget this special trattoria in Italy that was just a few steps from our hotel where I had the best antipasti ever or the carrot soup I had in Ireland in a pub. My mind takes me back to the exact moment where I can relive those memories all over again. Those experiences were more than 15 years ago and I can see the restaurant and the cuisine like it was yesterday in my mind. I remember eating my first country ham biscuit. It was probably in my Dad's restaurant in 1976. I have been a fan of Southern ham and biscuits since that time.
For me, the "food remembers when", and apparently, I am not alone. In a survey released this week from the online company Miss Travel, revealed in a press release that "food is the gateway to a country’s people, history, and culture. Experiencing local, authentic cuisine while on vacation is a must"
Results revealed that 46 percent of travelers prefer to splurge on local cuisine rather than paying extra for airfare or accommodations. I may not fly first-class, but I still keep accommodations at a high standard because that is an important part of travel for me. If mama isn't happy in her hotel then no one is happy, unfortunately, but at least I am brave enough to admit it. Having an authentic meal or experiencing local activities could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and travelers are willing to pay the price. Food festivals like Oktoberfest in Germany or the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival have drawn millions of travelers seeking to engage in local culinary celebrations.
Smithfield, North Carolina's annual Ham and Yam Festivalin May may not draw millions of people, but it's putting Johnston County's agriculture heritage and its local food in the spotlight. It's a chance for organizers to showcase the best of its Southern cuisine. Locals will be gathering in the picture book, Southern small town where they will eat, play, and socialize.
Johnston county, with quick access off I-95 in North Carolina, is the number one sweet potato producer in the U.S.
Johnston County Hams, based in Smithfield, is one of the most famous ham producers in the world. It's known for its unique talent of curing ham using the same techniques as early colonists. The secret behind Johnston County Hamshas been in the Brown family for generations. Curemaster, Rufus Brown, studied under his Dad, Jesse Brown, who made the ham famous across the world in 1967. Brown is growing the family company as it is making a name for itself in high-end culinary circles, especially as farm-to-table dining becomes a priority for today's millennials.
Brown is co-creator of Lady Edison Hams along with Chapel Hill BBQ restauranteur, Sam Suchoff. Their partnership with sustainably raised hogs from the North Carolina Natural Hog Growers Associations results in the production of a gourmet country ham. This pork masterpiece is aged about 18 months and is most like its counterpart in Spain with a taste more savory than salty.
Chefs on the East Coast are beginning to source Lady Edison Ham on its menu. Mateo in Durham features both Brown's Johnston County's ham and Lady Edison. Momofuko in New York City features this North Carolina product, and the restaurant list grows daily with more than twenty other ones serving the ham on its farm-to-table change with the growing season menu.
No doubt, ham is good with olives, fine cheese and it's even better in a biscuit. Add some sweet potato pie, yam smoothies, and you have a great meal and event. That's the hope of organizers for the annual Ham and Yam Festival held the first Saturday of each May. This will be the 32nd year that Smithfield pays tribute to its agriculture heritage. You guessed it. There will be plenty of ham, BBQ, sweet potato pie, and much more as the town celebrates the importance of today's modern farming community. Learn more about Johnston County attractions: Visit Johnston County Smithfield Ham and Yam Festival
When families start planning vacations, many look beyond hotels and turn to VRBO properties or timeshare rentals because hotels just don't work as well for their needs. Vacations can be expensive for families, especially when you are eating out for every meal and scheduling activities to keep everyone entertained all day. You know I love a hotel more than anyone, but I have never stayed longer than five nights in a hotel with my family. And by night five with all us in one space, we're ready to come home.
Vacation ownership resorts, or timeshares as some refer to them as, have come a long way through the years. Brands like Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Disney all offer vacation packages for families to buy into for several weeks a year. I would check into any Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, or Disney timeshare in a heartbeat. I've also now discovered that I've checked into a resort in North Carolina and didn't realize it was a timeshare property until I began researching this piece. I found a website called SellMyTimeshareNow.com which has an inventory of over 45,000 timeshare rentals and timeshare resales in its database, and so I decided to begin my research there.
The inventory on this site is amazing. Some are really high-end like the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, whereas some resorts are just average and budget-friendly. My #OutaboutNC community on Instagram is for all travel budgets, and below are some that are available for rent in North Carolina to help plan your stay. I personally really like the Chetola Resort.
Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Sapphire ValleyThis resort in the mountains near Cashiers, North Carolina is great for mountain living. I adore the nearby town of Highlands and the Old Edwards Inn and Spa if you want a spa excursion while staying here. In the winter, this is a great ski hotel and in the summer, it has a resort pool.
. Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Harbour New Bern, North Carolina is a charming waterfront town. It has quaint shops and fresh local cuisine. New Bern is North Carolina's first state capital, and there are some beautiful homes along the Neuse River. This resort offers tennis, swimming and boating.
Barrier Island's Ocean Pines BeachDuck, North Carolina in the Outer Banks has a lot to offer the vacationer. You can read our OuterBanks guide to learn even more about this area. This particular resort has an indoor pool, a private beach, and other recreational amenities.
Peppertree Atlantic BeachThis part of North Carolina is considered the Southern Outer Banks. I passed this resort just last weekend, but I was staying in a hotel instead. It is oceanfront and has a resort pool. The area around it is quite nice. The Crystal Coast has so much offer. Check out our guide in our North Carolina section. And be sure to go to Beaufort, North Carolina and book a tour with Port City Tour Company. They will offer Pirate walks during the day and have ghost tours at night. They also offer trips to Shackleford. I think it would be great fun for the family.
Here are some other vacation planning links to help you plan your North Carolina vacation.
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