Tag: Featured

Mindful Musings: Inspiration Found at a Cher Concert 🎶

By Miss Mindful Sparkles on May 10, 2017 • ( 2 Comments )

Inspiration Found at a Cher Concert

🎶 🎵 Inspiration can be found everywhere, even at a Cher Concert! 🎵🎶

🎰I was in Las Vegas over the weekend & we decided to see Cher in concert at the Park theatre in the Monte Carlo casino. She put on a great show, and all I kept thinking, throughout the whole show, was how inspiring she was! I want to be dancing around in body-hugging clothes when I am 70 and beyond! 😊😊😊

She isn’t rail thin, she just looked very healthy & obviously in shape. Her voice was in good form as well. No need for her to ‘Turn Back Time’ as she is a timeless performer.

🎶🎵She is an entertainer & didn’t seem to take herself too seriously. She spoke with confidence and humor to the audience. Her show took us though all the decades of Cher songs, acting, hair styles, and amazing costumes!

💃🕺Her dancers were spectacular to watch & the stage was colorful & 100% entertaining! We enjoyed a fun montage of her acting roles and seeing her accept her academy award for Moonstruck. She sang all her favorites from “I’ve got you Babe”, & “After All” to Ending the show with her big hit, ‘Believe’. 🎶🎵

⭐️⭐️The best lines were part of her opening monologue. She told the audience that she works hard to stay in shape and was excited to tell all of us that she did a 5 minute plank that morning! Then, she said, “What’s YOUR granny doing tonight?”🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

Too funny! Just had to share because I found myself inspired by her confidence & spunk.

Look for inspiration every day, as you never know where it will pop up next! Who inspires you? Feel free to share in the comments!

PS: I took the photos above at the concert and made this little collage.

Posing like a star outside the concert just before we saw Cher perform! Lots of fun!

Ode to a Blank Grid: A Fun & Mindful Way to Track Goals 📊📈📉

By Miss Mindful Sparkles on April 26, 2017 • ( 4 Comments )

📊📈📉 Blank Grids + Pic Collage (or any collage app) = Fun & Mindful Way to track goals & plans. Instructions for saving the pictures are at the bottom of this post.

Completely Blank Grid 5×7

Blank Grid Numbered 1-5

Blank Grid Numbered 6-10

Blank Summer Challenge Grid Numbered 1-5

Blank Summer Challenge Grid Numbered 6-10

Need a Blank Grid?

Summer Themed Blank grid. This take on the blank chart design was submitted by Weight Watchers Member @ingridalifetime – Thanks so much! It is so cute!

😉 The following is my playful attempt at Organizational Planning Poetry:

🎶 A Mindful Ode to the Blank Grid 🎶

I get lost in the beauty of a blank page!

Oh, the endless possibilities that this empty grid holds for me!

Will it become my next week of meal planning?

Will I track my way to increased fitness?

Will I plan out my monthly goals?

Will I use it to check off items on my to-do list?

Will I use it as a graph or a chart?

The future is unwritten on my blank grid.

Will I motivate myself to accomplish more when I fill it in?

Will I decorate it with pictures to symbolize my personal goals?

Will I ignore this grid once I set it up?

Or use it as the tool it was always meant to be?

Oh, how I bask in the beauty of my blank grid.

😁 I hope YOU will find these grids useful to help YOU achieve your goals. Data is power, so find a way to track your own data so you can leverage it for increased empowerment. Use this blank grid mindfully to help you plan your way to a successful achievement!

Download these grids by clicking on the pictures above and saving them to your computer. Then, use them digitally or print them out to help you track participation in a challenge, food goals, fitpoints, monthly meal planning…or fill them out with your own vision for where you want to be in a few months.

So, use mine or Search on Google for endless images of blank grids. Import the image of a grid into a collage app (I love Pic Collage) to customize it for your own use. You can find Pic Collage in most app stores for your cell phones and iPads and Tablets.

I love good chart, calendar, planner, or anything that will track my progress (like the Weight Watchers Members app).

✅How do YOU keep yourself on track? What is YOUR favorite method? Let me know in the comments.

Happy Planning!

To Download:

Click on the pictures in my blog post.
Then, click on the link that says, “View Full Size”. This will open the photo in its own page.
Save the photo as you would any other photo image from Google or Pinterest. If you are on your computer, a quick way to save, is by draging the photo from the page to your desktop…or see step 4.
Usually, if you are on your computer, it means clicking on FILE and then, SAVE AS. I prefer to save photos to my desktop first and them store them in my photos app.
If you are on your cell phone or tablet, follow instructions 1 & 2, but then click on whatever button you would normally use to save a photo. I have an iPhone, so I click on the box with an arrow in it and it brings up various choices, but I choose the ‘save photo’ option.
Still not sure? YouTube will have actual videos on this subject & I like Wikihow.com for things like this. As an example, here is a link to how to download from an iphone to your computer.

Special thanks for an adorable Summer take on the summer theme on the blank chart design by Weight Watchers Member @ingridalifetime. She made the one with the cute ‘Summer’ image in the title.

6/15/17 – Just adding two more for a virtual summer challenge. Click on them (like the others) and download the full photo file.

Summer Pix Challenge

Summer Pix Challenge with Days of the week

6/17/17 – Tricia @tliberty63, from Weight Watchers Connect sent me another #summerpixchallenge grid to share! It is wonderful! Tracking progress is a great way to stay on track!

Edit: 8/18/17

And here is a lovely grid from WW member @ingridalifetime for her Labor Day Bingo Challenge. These challenges help us keep a great mindset & achieve short-term goals. Below is a link to a PDF file. You can click on it and print it out…or click ‘file’ and then ‘export as pdf’ to download the file for yourself.

LaborDayChallenge3 2

OR here is a picture file if you want to add it to your ‘photos’ folder.

Air Fryer Nirvana: JUICY filet mignon & JUICY Cornish Hens

By Miss Mindful Sparkles on March 8, 2017 • ( Leave a comment )

Hello, Air Fryer Nirvana! 🔴LIfe-Changing JUICY filet mignon & Life-Changing JUICY Cornish Hens 🔴 made separately in my little 3.2 quart Farberware Air Fryer?

Hello, Air Fryer Nirvana! Why? Because the air fryer made these meats better than I ever have!!!

(4 Recipes at bottom of post)

Cooked to Perfection! Filet & Cornish Game Hen

Progress photos during the cooking process

Before and After for the Cornish Hen. The Skin was Crispy!!!

How to make sure it is cooked!

Love this salt-free seasoning!

Hash Browns are a great side dish for dinner or breakfast!

Basic Carrot Chips were a nice garnish, but this recipe needs ‘something’.

👍My previous air frying recipes this week didn’t prepare my family, or me, for the beyond-juicy & tasty-deliciousness we encountered with tonight’s meal! I am not sure words can do these home-cooked meals justice, but here it goes:

🍽I made filet mignon in my air fryer and it is probably the best steak I have made all year. Almost no gristle and each bite was tender & overflowing with juices. I served it with my air fryer hash browns and air fryer carrot chips.

🍗Then, I made 2 Cornish Hens (in separate batches) and they were both the juiciest and most delicious chickens I have ever had in my own home. The skin was completely crispy on the outside and again, overflowing with juices in the inside. It was BETTER than the 2 rotisserie chickens I buy every week.

🔴I said, “this air fryer thing is game-changing!”🔴

But it was one of my daughters who said,

“NO, MOM, these dinners are LIFE-CHANGING!! They are just so amazing!”

She’s right because the road to better meals at home

just made a sharp turn into Tasteville, USA and we are never going back.

😉I am not a chef. I only want to cook easy, quick things that taste delicious. I love a good gourmet meal like anyone else, but I have 3 kids and an unofficial degree in short-order cooking. I joined Weight Watchers last year and I’ve lost -47 pounds and my journey to healthier, smarter eating is on a straight path to goal & maintainence. The ability to cook something insanely delicious like this has me so very excited for all the future possiblities.

I am also including the recipes for the 🥔Hash Brown/Potato Pancakes as they were a delicious side dish and could be used for breakfast or dinner. The 🥕carrot chips still need work, but I am including my recipe, but am open to any ideas you may have on how to make them better (just list in the comments below). Making the carrot ships was a nice way for me to eat a bunch of carrots.

👩‍🍳Here are my oh-so-simple recipes:

Continue reading “Air Fryer Nirvana: JUICY filet mignon & JUICY Cornish Hens”

Disney World Visual Snack Guide

By Miss Mindful Sparkles on March 4, 2017 • ( 3 Comments )

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Or a thousand calories.

Or a thousand SmartPoints!

I am a visual person, so having pictures saved in the photos app on my phone helps me quickly see and access a snack I might come across. Also, things change all the time in the wild world of packaged foods, so always double check the current point value and portions of whatever snack you pick up while in ‘the World’.

This post focuses exclusively on Weight Watchers SmartPoints Values for snacks and foods found in Disney World gift shops that contain nutrition information on the packaging. When I am in Disney, I am always on a never-ending treasure hunt for the latest and greatest Disney treats. Knowing your options is key to managing your weight & data is power, so the more I know, the better I can plan around my preferred indulgence. Disney does not publish too much about the exact caloric content of their restaurants, so I usually guesstimate those like I would at any restaurant. I will cover other food on Disney properties in other posts.

I will do additional snack guide posts as I analyze other snacks found on my annual trip.

Click on an image below to see it in a larger format, and if that isn’t big enough, just click on the text in the lower right hand corner that says, “View Full Size”. You can usually save any photo by right clicking on your mouse or using ‘buttons’ on your mobile device (you can always goggle how to save a picture for your specific device).