Noom…What to eat when eating out

December 26, 2019 Heather Neal 3 Comments

I am now at the end of my weight loss journey and it has been amazing. The thing about Noom is that I am never really done “Nooming” though. Although my goal isn’t to lose a lot of weight anymore, my new goal is to maintain both my new weight and my health. This is why Noom is so great and different from “weight loss” plans. Everything about what I eat, what I crave and how I eat has pretty much changed which is why I know I can continue to be healthy and successful. You never really stop Nooming. I will write another post about my entire journey and results including before and after pictures (if I am brave enough) another time, but I wanted to first work on this second Noom post that I thought would be helpful to my fellow Noomers. Noom is about learning to eat in real life and real life includes eating out from time to time. Between not knowing exactly what is going into your dishes, not always having calorie and nutritional information available, and huge portions, it can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are the best tips I have learned about eating out guilt free:

Plan ahead. Whether we are celebrating a birthday at a favorite sit down restaurant or in a rush and going to have to grab something fast, I plan ahead. This means figuring out what restaurant we are going to ahead of time, instead of winging it and picking something as we drive by. I keep in mind who has the most and best choices whenever possible. Look up a restaurant’s menu online whenever you can and decide what you want before arriving. This helps you to not feel stressed at the restaurant or be on your phone frantically trying to figure calories or see if you can fit something into your day. If you are able to do this far in advance, you can also plan ahead and save up some calories to splurge a little or maybe even have a dessert or favorite appetizer!

If you are in a situation where you were on the go or maybe traveling and have to choose a place to eat most large chains will have calorie information listed to help you choose. If not Google is your friend and you can usually find the information on popular dishes there or in the Noom App itself (although we all know it isn’t the most accurate sometimes).

The thing that I think makes Noom so different from other weight loss plans is that you can have everything in moderation and you don’t have to feel deprived of anything! So what if you have a favorite meal from a restaurant that is high calorie? With most plans you can either plan on never having it again or have it and call it a “cheat day” which will then in turn make you feel like you failed. With Noom, you learn to treat yourself to those favorites from time to time…just not all the time. Ask for a to go box at the begining of your meal and put half of your meal in it from the start. The biggest thing Noom taught me about myself was that my portion sizes were way too big. Even when I was eating healthy, I was eating way too much and restaurant portions are ALWAYS too much. Another way to splurge on something that is a little higher in calories is to add an extra healthy side. Replace the fries you would have normally ordered with some steamed veggies or a fruit cup. I have had the pleasant surprise at a few of my favorite restaurants that what I thought would be boring veggies were actually wonderfully seasoned and delicious!

Cheat Sheet: Here are some of my favorites from popular restaurants to make your life a little easier. 🙂

Applebee’s has many “lighter fare” menu items and I good variety of different dishes to choose from.

Chicken Tortilla Soup and Ceasar Salad~ 400+ Calories
Cedar Grilled Lemon Chicken~ 580 Calories
Thai Shrimp Salad~ 410 Calories
Peppercrusted Sirloin and whole grains side~ 350 Calories
Cedar Salmon with maple mustard glaze~ 350 Calories
Shrimp wonton stir fry~ 580 Calories (but 2550g sodium!)

So I realize that 54th Street is only located in a few areas (Kansas City, San Antonio and I believe Dallas) and I feel extremely lucky to live in one of them. I decided to include them anyways for my local friends and anyone else who is lucky enough to live in one of their areas. Most smaller restaurant chains do not have nutritional information on their menu, but 54th street has calories listed on every item. They also have one of the largest and most diverse menus of any restaurant I have ever been to. There is seriously something for everyone. They have a great “pick two” section with lots of low cal choices:
Hand Breaded Shrimp~ 209 Calories
Grilled Shrimp Kabob~ 153 Calories
Grilled Aparagus~ 84 Calories
Southern Green Beans~ 69 Calories
Fried Pickles~ 346 Calories (just have them for a meal, because yum!)
1/2 Turkey Sandwich~ 340 Calories
Blackened Salmon with steamed veggies~ 470 Calories
1/2 Havana Sandwich~ 380 Calories
Chicken Fajitas~ 460 Calories

Panera is awesome when it comes to low calorie menu items as well!
Cup of Turkey and sprouted grain roll~ 330 Calories
Garden Chicken Wonton Broth Bowl and fruit cup~ 350 Calories
Steel Cut Oatmeal with strawberries and pecans~ 340 Calories
Half medium veggie Sandwich and half seasonal green salad~ 320 Calories
Half steak and arugalu and petitie chocolate chipper cookie~ 350 Calories
Culver’s Mindful Choices
Culver’s is one of my favorites when we are short on time and need to stop somewhere in the middle of running around. There is one on our way home, annnnnd I sometimes crave a burger and know what I can order there to stay low calorie. Here is my “go-to” meal from Culvers:
Butterburger Single with no cheese
Side salad with raspberry vinaigrette dressing
Unsweet Tea/ Diet Cola (I LOVE Culver’s Root Beer)/ water~ Meal Total 490 Calories
Another options:
Garden Fresco Salad and tomatoe flourentine soup with 0 calorie drink~ 515 Calories

You can find more of their “mindful choices” here: culvers.com/men-andnutrition/mindful-choices

Outback- Here are just a few of Outback’s low calorie options:
Center Cut Sirloin 10 oz.~ 350 Calories
5 oz. Sirloin and Coconut Shrimp~ 540 Calories
Aussie Tacos Mahi~ 650 Calories
Bacon Bourbon Salmon~ 480 Calories
~ w/ fresh veggies 640 Calories
Grilled Alaskan mahi w/ veggies~ 390 Calories
or Tilapia (380 Calories)
Grilled Chicken (5 oz.) on barbie w/ mixed veggies~ 520 Calories
Alice Springs Chicken 8 oz~ 790 Calories (a little high, but soooo good. Worth saving up some calories for).

Sometimes life just takes you to a fast food place. Be ready for when it does with these options:

Egg McMuffin~ 300 Calories
Hamburger~ 250 Calories
Cheeseburger~ 300 Calories
Grilled Chicken Sandwich~ 360 Calories
Grilled Chicken BLT~ 380 Calories
small fries~ 230 Calories
6 piece McNugget~ 270 Calories
3 piece Chicken Select~ 400 Calories

Jr. Hamburger Deluxe~ 300 Calories
Jr. Cheeseburger~ 280 Calories
Apple Pecan Chicken Salad~ 570 Calories
Southwest Avacado Chicken Salad~ 590 Calories (Note: I think their avacado tastes funky)
Berry Burst Chicken Salad~ 470 Calories
Grilled Chicken Wrap~ 260 Calories
Baked Potato~ 270 Calories (w/ sour cream and chives 320 Calories)
Cesar Side~ 260 Calories
Large Chili~ 270 Calories
Apple Bites ~ 35 Calories
Jr Frosty~ 190 Calories

Food and Fitness

NOOM! What do I eat?

November 12, 2019 Heather Neal Leave a comment

This post is a little different than my normal posts here. First of all the photography was (obviously) not a priority and all photos were quickly snapped with my iphone. Also, this post specifically is being written for my own benefit and that of my fellow Noomers. Brief explanation for those of you who follow me or happen to wander upon this post and have no idea what I’m talking about. Noom is a weight loss (and weight maintenance) program that I have been doing since the beginning of September. I plan to write a post giving more specifics on my experience and opinion of the program once I hit my goals and will explain more of how it works then, but this post is just about things I commonly eat on an average day. It is the first of at least 3 posts I will write. My next one will focus on Motivation, Inspiration and Fitness and then another on How to Eat Out.

So if you are a fellow Noomer, Welcome! And a disclosure: I don’t claim to be an expert at Noom but have had fairly consistent success so far (just starting week 11) and have gained a lot of ideas and tools that work for me and might help you too.

SOOOO…..WHAT DO I EAT?

First of all I should say that I think it’s important to look at what your Pre-Noom eating patterns were and what meal or snack times were most important to you and what you are willing to change. For me, as long as I had my black coffee in the morning I didn’t really care if I ate breakfast or not. I was usually starving by lunch though and that would cause me to eat a very large lunch. Now I do eat breakfast so that I’m not as hungry at lunch time however I keep it small (usually around 150 calories total) so that I can have more calories left for the meals that are more important to me.

BREAKFAST

My most frequent breakfasts consist of a combination of any of the following:
A slice of Dave’s Killer Bread with a teaspoon of country crock spread
Yogurt- vanilla greek with some blueberries and granola on top, Activia Strawberry or peach, or Light and Fit
Thomas Whole Wheat English Muffins with a teaspoon of veggie cream cheese
Fruit (blueberries, strawberries, canteloupe, or honeydew)
A bowl of Better Oats oatmeal (This also makes a good snack if you are craving something sweet!)
Eggs or the Spinach Egg White Frittatas from Costco (above)

LUNCH

Most days I eat lunch at my desk at work. I know Noom says not to do this but I work part time for just a few hours a day which happen to be through lunch so I don’t really have a choice. One thing I have found that really helps with the hassle of tracking and logging my lunch at work is measuring it as I pack it in the morning (or if I’m doing really good the night before) and either writing all of my calories and or weights on a piece of paper and including it in my lunch bag or sometimes, especially if I know I’m going to eat everything, I will go ahead and log it before I leave for work. I ALWAYS bring a big bottle of water to work and sip on it all day even if I bring another drink for lunch. Another thing I should point out is that there is a good example of both how to modify your Pre-Noom normal and also not be deprived in my lunch choices. Shortly before starting Noom, one of my favorite restaurants; Schlotzky’s opened in my town. I had been praying for this to happen for a while so when it did and I heard the first 200 people in line would get free sandwiches every week for a year, you can bet I was there. After standing in line for a few hours I got my free sandwich card and then a few weeks later I started Noom. It didn’t take long on Noom to learn that my biggest issue was portion control though and both my portion sizes and appetite decreased quickly. So I continued to get my free sandwich every week and eat half (it’s yellow and half is only 281 calories) and save the other half for either dinner or the next day’s lunch! So now it’s like I get TWO free sandwiches every week. The only downside is I’m getting a little tired of them.😢

My frequent lunches:

Wontons from Costco (pictured above)
Peppers or a few pita chips and hummus
Salad (I like a big ole bucket of mostly green stuff from the grocery store salad bar with fat free Italian Dressing)
Leftovers from a healthy dinner
Wrap Sandwich using Tumaro’s Garden Veggie Wraps,thin turkey or chicken deli slices, a thin slice of provolone or mozzarella and sliced black olives. I like to throw this in the microwave for a few seconds.
Half of a sandwich from Schlotzky’s (Original) or sometimes Jimmy John’s Turkey Tom
Black Olives
Dill Pickle Spear
Fruit (usually cuties or grapes)

DINNER

One of the reasons I always had trouble sticking with eating healthy in the past was because it’s hard enough to feed a family of 4 and please everyone, let alone try and make healthy and/or low calorie meals at the same time. I used to say I refused to make two separate meals so everyone would just have to eat what I was eating (and then came the complaints) OR I would just go back to making hearty comfort foods that made my family happy and give up but I have learned it doesn’t have to be so black and white. For instance on taco night I throw some chicken, salsa, black beans and seasoning in the crockpot in the morning and then for my “non-chicken-loving” husband in the evening I make regular beef taco meat. My kids like to eat a little of both. Yes, I end up with a lot of extra chicken but YAY…there’s lunch! For pizza night, I found a great recipe in the NOOM APP for a spinach pizza on whole wheat pitas that I make for myself and let them order whatever OR if we pick up some frozen pizza’s I found these:

Other favorite dinners the whole family enjoys:

Pulled Pork
Salmon
Lemon Chicken
Grilled Pork Chops
Soups
Zuchinni boats (look these up on pinterest…yummy!)
Butternut Squash Risotto side
Veggie Tots
PIZZA! Look up the “Pita Party Pizzas in the Noom recipes. Only 192 calories for two and they are 70% GREEN! I replace the black olives with Kalamata! I also enjoy the Pizza shown above from time to time or sometimes just a slice or two of good ‘ole fashioned carryout pizza.
Pretty much anything in moderation. I do save most of my calories for dinner…the one meal my family sits down together most of the time.

SNACKS:
I don’t snack often and when I do I try to stick with fruits and veggies and things that won’t use up my calories for the day however I believe one of the things that makes this program so successful is that nothing is off limits and you don’t have to deprive yourself. Having said that, it can be tricky to both fulfill hunger and cravings AND stay within your calorie limits. Here are some ways I do that:

SWEETS
I keep a bag of Ghiradelli dark chocolate and sea salt squares out of reach of the kids…just for me. If I’m not hungry, but am craving sweets just one 50 calorie square usually does the trick. Other favorite sweets are dark chocolate hummus with strawberries, or after dinner I occasionally enjoy a YASSO bar for dessert. I feel like almost every Noomer has heard of these at this point but if not, they are 100 calorie greek yogurt bars that come in a wide variety of yummy flavors. My daughter and I also stumbled upon “Oreo Thins” this week which are only 35 calories per cookie and could possibly become an occasional special treat. I do try to not only keep things low calorie, but also healthy most of the time but once again…everything in moderation and no deprivation are the keys to long term success here.

Other snacks I enjoy:

Tuna Infusion Cups
Grapes or cuties
Yogurt
Pepper slices with hummus
Fruit and Grain Bars
Applesauce snack pouch

DRINKS

I lucked out a little in the drink department because three of my favorites happen to be water, unsweetened iced tea and black coffee. BUT I do get on Dr. Pepper kicks every once in a while and when I do, I start craving them daily. This is one of those times that I know that it’s important for myself to not feel deprived or like I will never get to eat/drink normal which is exactly the kind of thinking that will lead to throwing in the towel. So I have learned to modify this treat. I buy the little 12 oz. bottles of Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper and keep them in the garage fridge. That way they are out of site and out of mind and I don’t grab one just because I saw them and got “triggered”. When I really am wanting a soft drink or am having a craving, I get one and know that I have not screwed up my calories for the day. Yes, I know that soda in general is not healthy and artificial sweeteners are the devil and ironically enough I refuse to use them in any other aspect of my family’s diet. (Have you tried Monk Fruit Sweetener? It has 0 calories, is diabetic friendly and 100-250 times sweeter than sugar!! Great for those of you who don’t love your coffee black). But for me, my diet has changed for the better SO drastically on NOOM that if a little diet coke every so often will keep me going…it’s actually a healthy choice. Another thing I have learned to love and sometimes use to curb a soda craving is Kombucha. My favorite is the locally made Watermelon Hibiscus flavor that our grocery store caries. It’s a little fizzy and sweet and full of probiotics and good for the microbiome!

Home

Our Nest…What makes our house “home”

May 25, 2019 Heather Neal Leave a comment

I will be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a homebody. I love being home because home is the most comfortable place I can imagine being. I also love decorating our home although I never seem to have enough time or money to do as much as I would like. Ironically though when I look around our home, the things that make me the happiest usually didn’t cost much, if anything at all. They are the things that tell our story and make our house our home. I love that when people come into our home and point something out, there is usually a story about it to share. Unfortunately my parents and grandparents have all passed. I am fortunate to have many pieces that belonged to them that I love incorporating into my decorating to remind me of them and feel surrounded by family and memories of THEIR homes. Lucky for me they had a love of antiques and timeless pieces but you can mix old and new pieces in all kinds of ways. So many times I see homes decorated strictly in one style and by using a more eclectic approach you are able to surround yourself with things you love, not just things that look good together. I am in love with so many styles of decorating; boho, antiques, mid century modern, and more contemporary pieces and you will find them all mixed and matched all over my home.So, here are a few of my favorite things.

There are so many precious pieces in the photos above. The “Ice Box” belonged to my paternal grandmother. It was actually her “refrigerator” as a child. She gave it to my mother who loved antiques but didn’t have room for it so it actually stayed at my maternal grandparents large house. They stored toys in it that I would play with when I visited and I love that it is now in my home. The gorgeous antique box with drawers is one of the pieces my mom collected through the years. The plant was given to me by one of my mother-in-laws (I’m lucky to have two). I made the “macrame” feather. Even the decorative balls have a story. The dark one is an orange that has hundreds of cloves stuck into it. This was created with my mom many years ago. The cloves preserve the orange and keep it from rotting and it still smells wonderful. We spent hours and hours together on this project and laughed until we cried while our fingers were in agony from pushing cloves into oranges.

My mom went through many phases of collecting things. I have several iron figures throughout my kitchen that belonged to her. I love the piggies above.

The large wicker basket you see above was actually in my childhood room and held my stuffed animals. Every night my mom would pick a different one for me to sleep with. I love having it in my home and how it fits in with everything.

The iron candlesticks and antique mason jar in this photos were some of my mom’s treasures. I bought the fantastic wooden arch and have added some modern day “farmhouse pieces” to the fireplace in our hearth room. It’s one of my favorite places to curl up and relax.

This table was in my living room as a child. It could use a little freshening up but I love that it is in our living room now. (Don’t mind the hockey puck…kids live here too).

My office is full of a combination of antiques, pictures and pieces from today that I love. It’s my “me space”.

This is the entryway of our home. The ceilings are crazy high and it’s hard to fill the space and make it feel less empty. These angel wings from Decor Steals don’t look like it in this space but are actually huge. I love them so much! They are only available a couple times a year and sell out super fast. You can check out Decor Steals at the top of my blog home page and be sure to like my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/heathernealphotography/ because I will share them when they become available (I may have the inside scoop). 😉

Other good stuff

The Gift of Gift Giving…(on time and on budget)

May 20, 2019 Heather Neal Leave a comment

I love giving gifts to people. I love letting them know that they were in my thoughts and are important to me. I am not, however, known for getting cards and gifts to people on time. I have good intentions, but I also have two very busy (and expensive) kiddos and between the lack of time and/or money when a gift-giving occasion pops up…sometimes I’m just not prepared for it. I have been doing a lot spring cleaning and organizing this year though and decided this needed to change.
Kids come with a lot of gift-giving moments. You find yourself suddenly needing gifts for friends’ birthday parties, teachers, family members, teammates, coaches, etc. I needed to find a way to be ready when one of these moments popped up. One day I grabbed one of those free local parenting magazines on my way out of the grocery store to read while sitting in the school car line (ughhh…the car line!). I was excited to see there was an article about this very topic! I was already in the process of turning over a new leaf in the gift-giving department and was looking forward to finding some more tips. Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the recommendations in the article which included going to garage sales for gifts and just using your Christmas gift bags no matter what the occasion was. I will touch on these suggestions later but the point is that this article made me realize I already had better ideas and should share them. So here ya go:

1) Be Prepared.
Don’t wait for an occasion to come up and THEN hope you have the time and/or money to get a gift for it. See a great sale on little items or something perfect for someone (even if you won’t have a reason to give them a gift for a while)?? Go ahead and take advantage of it and tuck it away for later! Holiday times, seasonal sales, annual events are all great times to find great deals on things that might make the perfect gift for someone later on in a pinch! One of my favorite ways to do this is by taking advantage of Bath and Body works coupons that come in the mail regularly.
They always include one coupon for a free item (which is small bottle of lotion) so don’t let those go to waste! Stash those little suckers away and add them to a gift card or box of candy for a great gift! OR, if you see the PERFECT gift for someone but don’t have a reason to give them a gift for a while, get it anyway! I am so guilty of seeing things and thinking “Sally would LOVE that” but not buying it because I didn’t ned a gift for her at the time. Not anymore. I recently saw a shop going out of business and saw they had something a friend of mine would love on clearance so I grabbed it up and stashed it away for later.

2) Be Organized
One gift-giving tip EVERYONE I know takes advantage of is re-using gift bags. Although if all I have on hand is Christmas bags, I will go out and buy new ones contrary to the advice that was given in the article I read. I love saving money but don’t love LOOKING cheap. Our biggest problem with the gift bags (as well as tissue paper, wrapping paper, boxes, etc.) is that we stored it all in the basement and it wasn’t super convenient to go dig around, find what we needed, come upstairs for the tape and scissors, and THEN possibly have to haul everything to another room to hide and wrap (if the gift is for another member of the household). I remember reading a book by Tori Spelling years ago and her talking about her mom’s “gift wrapping” room. I thought it seemed a little extreme and silly at the time but guess what I have now?

This is a little “sitting room” off of our master bedroom that we have never really had a perfect use for. Instead of trying to make it one specific room it has become the room for everything that doesn’t already happen in another room of the house. The steamer is in there for the laundry that sits in the basket too long waiting to be folded (always), a desk for my husband to store his crap… ahem I mean stuff, our luggage is stored in there so it is close to the closets and NOW there is a corner designated for gift wrapping!!! If you don’t have an “everything room” in your own home, a small corner of a closet, craft room, storage room or office would be fine too. You can find a lot of organizing ideas for wrapping supplies on Pinterest too including ideas for inside cabinet or closet doors if you don’t even have a spare corner. For our wrapping area I picked up this free cabinet that I found on a Facebook Swap Page, painted it up and put shelf paper inside. I use it to store scissors, tape, boxes AND gifts that I have purchased for people in advance. For the tubes of wrapping paper I use an old wicker hamper but a plastic one from the dollar store would do the trick too! I did buy the metal shelving and some “S” hooks to hang the tissue paper and gift bags, but they weren’t too expensive. I LOVE having this space to go to when it’s gift time and especially love that if my kids have gifts to give they love going in and picking everything out and wrapping them on their own! Some things I might still add: A large calendar above the cabinet to keep track of birthdays and other gift-giving or card-sending occasions coming up (and check them off as I find gifts for them). Also a small box with divider tabs to store greeting cards for all occasions .

3) Be Frugal
Notice I said frugal instead of cheap. Technically they mean the same thing I suppose, but I think of frugal as meaning “not spending money you don’t have to spend” and cheap as “not being willing to spend what it might take to get something good”. For example when I read the article about using Christmas gift bags for every occasion and getting gifts for your kids’ friends at garage sales, I thought “cheap”. Don’t get me wrong…I love a good garage sale find and if you know a kid that collects Pokemon cards and come across a sale where someone is selling their collection…PERFECT! But the article seemed to suggest that you just head to the closest garage sale and grab something and that kids don’t mind if it’s used, as long as it’s useful which is sweet in theory, but maybe not always 100% true.
So what are my “frugal” tips? First of all DO NOT spend $5 on a greeting card that the recipient will quickly glance at and then throw away (and if they are kids, maybe not even glance at). Cards have gotten so expensive and I don’t know about you, but I would rather put that money towards a gift. I completely refused to buy greeting cards for my kids’ friends for a while and we would just make a little “to and from” to put on their gift bag or I would have my kids make them a homemade card instead. But sometimes you do NEED a card and thank goodness I found the best secret ever! The Dollar Tree! They have a great selection of cards and as you would guess they are almost all $1! And guess what? The ones that AREN’T $1 are 50 cents!! I didn’t even know the Dollar Tree had anything that wasn’t a dollar, let alone LESS! And they are nice cards too! Lots of Hallmark cards and they always have a display with cards for the upcoming holiday that are those fancy, scrapbooky, 3D type cards.
I stop in the Dollar Tree once or twice a month and stock up on certain things and always grab some cards. Check out this deal I got one trip.

While you are there, grab some tape, gift bags and tissue paper to keep your gift-wrapping room well stocked and take a few minutes to browse in case there are any good small gift ideas! It’s a great place to get gifts for teachers…dry erase markers and erasers, flash cards, highlighters, glue sticks and other supplies they are always in need of. Grab a pack of Ferrero Rocher chocolates while you are there and then a free Bath and Body lotion from your gift station at home and you can create a great gift basket for a few dollars!
No matter how prepared or organized you are though there is always going to be that invitation that your kids forget to show you until the day before the party and you are low on cash. I have solutions for these moments too. The first one I like to call “keep the change”. I don’t pay for things with cash often, but when I do I don’t ever give exact change…always all bills. When my billfold gets full I dump the change into a little bowl at home. If something comes up (like a sudden gift that is needed), I take the change to the nearby coinstar at the grocery store and get bills for it to use as spending money. It’s surprising how much a small bowl of change usually adds up to and it’s a way to save money in small amounts over time without even realizing you are doing it. The coinstar machines usually charge between 9-10% although I know some of them offer gift cards instead of cash and if you go that route I don’t think there is a fee. Of course you could always go to your bank as well.
Another way to save up for emergencies is to use apps such as ibotta, shopkicks, etc. Earn money and then save it up to use when needed!

And Lastly…
4) Shop SMALL! This is one you will hear from me time and time again because it’s important to me. Anytime you can shop from a small business do it. When you shop small, not only are you helping an individual or family but you are almost ALWAYS going to be purchasing a product that was made with love, is more personal and unique than what you can find in the chain stores, and is sometimes a better deal and often better quality.

Furniture Makeovers, Getting Crafty

Furniture Makeover…Getting my happy back!

June 16, 2018 Heather Neal Leave a comment

Life is crazy when you have two busy kiddos. The older they get, the busier they get and in turn my life has become very similar to that of a full time Uber driver. Oh, except also throw in my part time job, running my photography business, keeping up with all of the household chores and what do you get?…A tired, cranky, burnt out momma! I am a creative. I am one of those people that just has a need to create things. It started at a young age when I would pull out a blank piece of paper and just stare at it, wanting to create something, but not sure what. Eventually I found photography and several other outlets for my desire to “create” through the years including scrapbooking, crafting, decorating, cooking, and blogging . Not having the time lately to do the creative things I enjoy has left a hole though and I vowed that this summer I was going to change that. Time to try new things that I have always wanted to do or learn, but instead just thought about because I didn’t have the time. Being a good mom and wife isn’t just about getting everything done and getting everyone where they need to go. It’s also about (and more importantly about) being happy and fulfilled, being present, showing your children all of the things you can do if you just try so they will be inspired to try too!
Sooo that brings me to my latest adventure, refinishing furniture! I’ve always been interested in trying this and taking a piece that was outdated or has seen better days and turning it into something new. We just recently finished our basement and were needing some end tables. We splurged on a beautiful leather couch and chair but wanted to see if we could find more thrifty options for the other furniture we needed. That need plus seeing some beautiful pieces a friend refinished inspired me to give it a try so I started scouting the swap and garage sale pages and eventually found these two “lovely” 1990’s golden oak, scratched, ring marked end tables for $15.

Not much to look at, but they did have a lot of qualities that made me see potential in them. First of all they are solid wood and heavy duty! There weren’t a whole lot of grooves or intricate details to work around or that would make it hard to bring them into this century. I also loved the “herringbone” type pattern on the top and thought it would be fun to bring that out more with stain. When I arrived to meet with the seller I was a little surprised how big these things were but for $15 I figured they would at the very least be a good experimental project and if they didn’t work in our space I could re-sell them, so I loaded them up and got to work. First I cleaned them thoroughly with some wood/cabinet cleaner.
I chose this particular one by process of “eenie meenie” (because lets face it, I don’t really know what I’m doing at this point). Wow! I got lucky though. Not only did this stuff clean the pieces I bought great, but I was so happy with it I then went and used it on my dining table and it really took care of the grit, grime and grease from my darling little angels. Not only that but it smells delicious…kind of like Ameretto! But enough about that. Next I started sanding. I considered using some type of electric sander (palm, belt, rotary?) but the cheap and inexperienced side of me wasn’t sure if we already had one at home when I was at Home Depot gathering supplies, ….or which would work best, ….or if I would totally screw up the furniture with one of these so the side of me that likes to pretend I know what I’m doing decided hand sanding would be best to be able to go with the grain of the herringbone pattern more easily so I went this route:
So I should probably now mention that it was in the upper 90’s on the day I chose to take on this project and around 185% humidity and I’m in the garage with no breeze so the next product I turned to was this one:
Ahhh, that’s better. Ok, next was the stain. I used Varathane woodstain in Dark Walnut. Remember, I don’t really know what I’m doing so my decision to use this was because I planned on buying Minwax brand because that seems to be all the rage in the “furniture makeover” scene, but they were out of Dark Walnut which I specifially wanted because we are getting barn doors in the same space that will be that color. So I moved on to the first brand I found in that color and the can promised all kinds of amazing things like “satisfaction guaranteed”, Dries 3X faster, Acheive color in ONE coat! They seemed pretty excited about their product so worked for me. I used a sponge brush and applied the stain and waited about 3 or 4 minutes before wiping it off with one of my son’s old t shirts.
Next was the paint. I wanted a contrast between the wood top (which was now a lovely dark walnut…in ONE coat) and the bottom to seperate and give the piece a more updated look. I literally just grabbed a sample I liked and handed it over to the friendly Home Depot Paint Mixer Person along with a quart of Behr Premium Plus with Primer in Interior Eggshell. I initially also had Primer in my cart but when I came across this 2 in 1 option, I figured why not eliminate the extra step. So I wandered around while I waited for my paint to get mixed and then glanced at the sample again and realized the color I chose was called “Berry Brown”. Interesting because I thought I chose grey. Now I was a little worried but decided that since our couch was grey but there were lots of browns incorporated in the woods and carpet in our basement, maybe it would be ok. So I was kind of holding my breath as I started painting the bottoms of the tables, but was pretty pleased with the greyish/brownish color that it turned out to be.
Next I needed something to protect them from the drinks and who knows what else the rugrats and hubby would set on them so I after some googling I chose this spray on polycrylic.
Since I knew by the time I got to this step my project would be cosmetically complete and I didn’t want to take a chance of screwing it up on the last step, spraying seemed like the simplest and easiest route. Not really. After the stain and paint dried, I followed the directions which said to shake it vigorously for 2-3 minutes and then again after every minute of use (that’s a lot of shaking folks) but instead of a constant mist I was getting a lot of bubbly splatters. I kept having to lightly dab them off of the furniture so they didn’t leave uneven circles all over the tables. I used 4 coats (waiting for each coat to dry for 30 minutes in between). The directions also said to sand with a fine sandpaper in between coats, but the thought of sanding my now finished product that looked exactly how I wanted it to, gave me anxiety so I said “no thank you” and broke that rule. Maybe that was to get rid of the stupid bubbles that were splattering out of the can? Anyway, the finish didn’t really look or feel drastically different after 4 coats, but it seems to have worked as my family has tested it out already as only they can. Here is the end result with my $3 garage sale lamp and $1 set of garage sale coasters sitting atop one of my $7.50 (each) tables. 🙂
Now I’m itching to tackle another project!