Pieces of Pietz

  Back to school means back to busy schedules and juggling all the exciting things the new school year will bring. Often, it also means eating on the go - between practices, recitals, and school events. After last year, our system of meal prepping went out the window! With everyone being home all the time, I found myself doing less planning and more “I don’t care what you eat, as long as you eat.” Sounds terrible, right? I’m blaming it on pure exhaustion. After cooking more than I have ever cooked in my life, I was running out of ideas and energy. Four kids, a picky-eater husband, and one tired momma hanging on by a thread thanks to coffee and energy drinks – it was a mess. Thankfully, we are starting to see a light (at least, we think) and I’m choosing to focus on that! For me, I have learned that the more prep work I can do to make meals ahead of time, the more likely I am to actually cook, haha! My crockpot is my saving grace. I have learned to make some delicious meals in i...

  It’s that time of year again when parents prepare to send their babies back to school. Yes, I said babies, because it doesn’t matter if they are 5 years old or 20 and going to college, us parents will always look at them as our babies. Let’s face it, the last couple of years have not aided in easing our worries as parents, especially when it comes to schooling and the uncertainty of what the new school year will bring. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, I’ve decided to focus on the positives and what we can control, the little things that can make all of the difference in our kiddos mindset and outlook on a fresh new year. *FYI, this post also addresses concerns of returning to in school learning during the latest variant of covid, and hopefully, those areas of this post will be a thing of the past very soon! Returning to in person classes after a solid year of virtual schooling has weighed heavily on my mind. In all honesty, virtual schooling was a disaster for us. Our ...

  Day two and I failed. At the end of day one, I had learned my aunt was in the intensive care unit after having a major heart attack. She had coded once, but they were able to revive her. The past year had been rough on her, both medically and emotionally. She had lost her husband, my Uncle Jesse, unexpectedly. Her thirty-three year old son suffered a debilitating  stroke that requires him to now be under a nurses care 24/7. His condition, while stable, hasn't improved. All of these things have weighed heavily on my aunt and our whole family. There was some talk that night that she might not pull through, all we could do was pray and leave it in God's hands. Day two started off strong. I woke up early, got in sixteen ounces of water, checked my messages and my aunt was the same, so I threw on my yoga pants and a tee shirt. My oldest daughter has become my daily walking buddy. We aim for a mile every morning and are planning to get up to two miles a day, fingers crossed. I did...

First, as always, I am not a medical professional, this and any post I share pertaining to anything medically related is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Always contact your doctor for any health concerns or medical advice, especially before starting a weight loss journey!  Have you heard about the 75 Hard Challenge going around on social sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube? It's a challenge that helps you rewire the way you think. For some crazy reason, I've decided to commit and start the challenge today!  The challenge is based on Andy Frisella's book, "75 Hard: A Tactical Guide to Winning the War with Yourself" and podcast. To sum it up; 75 days that you devote to abide by five simple rules and if you break any of those rules, you start over from day one. What are the five rules? 1. Stick to a diet. No cheat days and NO ALCOHOL! For me, this would be counting calories. I would need to stay at 1800 calories a day or under but never over. ...

Once upon a time, I was an athletic, competitive, healthy young woman. Today - I'm carrying around the weight of another person on my small five foot five frame. It's exhausting. There's no one particular reason that I allowed myself to get into this current condition. Several things happened over the years and before I knew it, my doctor was telling me to loose as much weight as I could to avoid needing blood pressure medication.  Five weeks ago, I embarked on a journey to recommit to improving my health. Last year, I had lost fifty pounds in six months. Then, with the additional closures caused by the pandemic and needing to stay home to help our kids with virtual schooling, the pounds packed back on quicker than a drive-thru cheeseburger is ready at the pick-up window! It was a blow to my self-esteem, again. Thinking over it as the weight steadily remained at two-hundred-eighty-eight pounds, I decided to do my own research. THERE ARE SO MANY DIETS OUT THERE!! It is insan...

  Hey y'all, welcome to Pieces of Pietz! I want to give a brief introduction of what you can expect here and also share a little bit about myself. To start, I'm what you'd refer to as an elder millennial. Born in that magical window of the early eighties, just shy of generation X. I also fall into some of the lesser than pleasant statistics ; broken home, teen pregnancy, high school drop out, divorcee. When I reached my thirties, I had an epiphany; I was going to stop trying to make up for my past and start living in the present. It was after I made that decision that I met the man of my dreams (or as he would say, he found me), we got hitched, blended our two families into one to become a family of seven and embarked onward to new, happier adventures. Then life happened, as it always does, throwing a monkey wrench in our plans to live in a blissful state of euphoria. My husband, a wounded combat veteran, started to rapidly see a decline in his overall health. Mentally, he ...