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Better Broccoli by Octoblog!

Posted on October 18, 2013 by kissmybroccoli

Hey loves!

I want to thank you SO much for all the heartfelt comments on yesterday’s post! Knowing that I have your support and encouragement during these recent struggles means the absolute WORLD to me! While I feel a little better after some sleep yesterday, I plan on doing more catching up over the weekend and hopefully be good as new come Monday!

Since my eats have been off lately, I thought instead of food post, I’d do something a little different today! Perhaps you guys have noticed a few changes popping up here recently? Well, I’m no techno genius, but I HAVE managed to do some things to give the ol’ broccoli a bit of a sprucing up! 😀

A few of weeks ago, while catching up with Allison, I discovered the Octoblog Challenge! It’s totally free and while there are no “real” winners, it really helps motivate and inspire bloggers to update and enhance their websites, social media spaces and more!

I have a bad habit of creating a bloggy to-do list and then promptly forgetting about it. While I tend to be a bit OCD in real life (the man-friend oogles over my super-organized filing cabinet), the inside of my laptop tends to be a dark and scary place! So when I saw this challenge, after already getting pumped reading HLS recaps, I finally got the fire lit under me and set to work!

I still hope to update my “About Me” section before the end of the month…I haven’t touched it since I started blogging almost 3 years ago! 😯
But this is what I’ve done so far…

I created a new header!

Then I created ANOTHER ONE a week later after you guys failed to clue me in on the fact that I spelled broccoli with THREE FREAKIN’ C’s?! Seriously people?! You’re lucky I like ya! Otherwise I wouldn’t remind you to check out this tutorial for making your OWN header with Pic Monkey…but I do hope you screw it up a few times before you’re done! 😉

I started making good use out of some old plugins!

FYI, when I’ve posted screenshots of my site stats before, it was from Jetpack. There are SO many customizations you can do with this plugin and it’s incredibly easy to use! I love it!

Oh and speaking of site stats, let me just share a little happy dance moment with you all…those two big columns there would represent the traffic KMB received after I posted my Peanut Butter Pumpkin Pancakes! Woop Woop! 😀

Not only can you keep up with site stats, track the sources of your blog traffic, and view your top posts, but you can ALSO make this sweet little Twitter widget!

Neat-o Frito, right? 😉

And speaking of widgets, I’ve basically done an overhaul of my sidebar if you haven’t noticed. I cleaned up my welcome blurb, added a Bloglovin’ widget, and my two FAVORITE additions…

Social Media Widget for super cute follow icons and…

SnapWidget’s customizable SCROLLING Instagram feed! 🙂

I also added the Shareaholic and the JQuery Pin It plugins for more social media shares which I showed Meghan last week! Check out this post for her step-by-step tutorial!

Other than that, I’ve been working behind the scenes to make things easier to navigate her in Broccoli Land…transferring old recipes to Recipage (a never-ending task!), cleaning up categories and tags, and going back and LABELING my images! Seriously, I can’t believe I didn’t start adding titles to my pictures until last year…it’s been SO hard to find things! Which reminds me of one last little tip I want to share…

When you label your pictures, make them Pinterest friendly!

The “Pin It” plugin just adds the post title to the image description box (so think about titling your posts to go along with the images), but before I activated the plugin, I started labeling my pictures for people pinning on their own. I make sure to describe the recipe and also add a link to my blog which will help drive in more traffic!

Edited to add: Megan just informed me that if you go into “settings” under the “Pin It” plugin, you can change the default to your individual photo titles! 😀

Now, while this post may seem that I’m totally obsessed with blog traffic and statistics, that is SO not the case. Honestly, I rarely ever look at my stats and, besides a couple of compensated product reviews, I haven’t made any money doing this…until now! I actually just had my application to GLAM media accepted yesterday (yay)! I’m not looking to make a career out of blogging, but will be nice to get a little money for all the hard work I put into this! 🙂

Bloggers: What are some of your favorite plugins/widgets?

Everyone: What do you think of the changes I’ve made?
Any requests/recommendations for more user-friendly additions?

Posted in Tips & Tricks | Tagged blogging, Instagram, Jetpack, Pinterest, plugins, RECIpage, social media, widgets | 46 Comments

Thoughts on Repeat

Posted on October 17, 2013 by kissmybroccoli

Sometimes, we just need to hear something…

Keep Calm & Hit Repeat

Over and OVER again until it sticks.

I had planned on doing a lighthearted post today, dedicated to my love of near-empty nut butter jars, but unfortunately, the thought of nut butter right now makes me feel ill. While typing about wedgies and waffles did help me feel a bit better, I’ll be honest, yesterday wasn’t the only bad day I’ve had this week.

Remember how I’ve mentioned that I have a hard time readjusting after a vacation? My routine gets off and I almost always end up bingeing. Well, I used to think that was because there was some underlying guilt from the food choices I’d made. While I do feel a little guilt involving a POST-vacation trip to Buffalo Wild Wings on Saturday, I don’t feel ANY remorse for the choices I made while hanging with Meghan last week. So then I thought maybe it was because I didn’t have fresh, healthy food on hand…but then it happened…Monday morning…Tuesday afternoon…AND last night!

All while my kitchen was stocked FULL with this:

Then, while making jokes about my insomnia yesterday, it dawned on me…it’s not about vacation. It’s about getting out of my routine and then forcing myself to get back to my “normal” ~~zombie~~ night shift sleep schedule. I feel helpless and pissed off. I want to cry. I want to scream.

But most of all, I want to SLEEP!

If only one spoonful of peanut butter could have the power to put me to knock me out in a matter of minutes. Because I’m so sleep-deprived, my body gets completely out of whack. I get these intense cravings out of nowhere. The other day, I woke up to pee and felt like I could chew my arm off…but now that I see what I grabbed from the kitchen, I don’t think I was really hungry at all. It starts out innocently…an apple and a small piece of chocolate, or maybe some Greek yogurt for some protein, but then, peanut butter sounds good. I get out some carrots (because that’s healthy!), but it’s too late, by the second or third dip, I lose it. I eat a quarter of the jar. Then I need something sweet to cancel out the salty so I have a spoonful of jam…next thing I know I’m crying into a bag of yogurt-coated pretzels.

Part of me wants to say I jinxed myself by just recently announcing my month of being binge-free, but I know I shouldn’t think that way. Which is why I’ve gone back to the basics…I’m going over my highlighted sections in the Intuitive Eating book (I swear I haven’t forgotten about that review I promised), I’m rereading some of my old posts, and I’m trying really hard to bring back the “I love you” homework Jamie gave me a few months back.

So why am I sharing all of this with you guys?

Not because I want your pity. Not because I want you to tell me to quit my job and get a normal sleep schedule…believe me, the stress of the day shift was MORE than enough to push me over the edge. No, I’m bearing all today because I want to reach out to those of you out there who may have slipped into the comparison trap.

[Original Source]

You see, when I hear others say they’ve healed their relationship with food, I automatically assume they never have problems anymore…like everything is picture freaking perfect and I’m the only loser out there who can’t seem to get a grip. Well, that’s not the case. I’m not a loser and neither are you. We are human. We have our faults, our vulnerabilities, and when we get scared, worried, or upset, it’s normal to revert back to old habits.

I KNOW I will overcome this…just like last month when I came back with a fruity vengeance. I only wish I could remember what I did to get to that point because right now kinda sucks. So for the time being, I’m just gonna keep hitting repeat until I’ve annoyed the hell out of myself. And today?…today, I plan on getting a massage, coming home, having some wine and conking out by 8pm!

Do you struggle to get back to healthy eating after vacation?

Can you believe I got all that produce for $20?!
Now let’s hope it doesn’t all go bad before I snap out of this!

Posted in Intuitive Eating, Personal, Thoughts | Tagged bingeing, food guilt, intuitive eating, peanut butter, pretzels, self love, vacation | 52 Comments

Wedgies, Waffles, and WINNERS!

Posted on October 16, 2013 by kissmybroccoli

What up, Wednesday?!

I’m gonna make this one short and sweet today. Why you ask? Well, to be Frank (because sometimes that’s more exciting than just being Heather), I’m having a bad day…yesterday, by some act of GOD, I managed to get through my night shift on only THREE hours of sleep. After I got off, I went home, took a Benedryl, and promptly faceplanted without a single thought to eating, teeth brushing or even changing into PJ’s. Unfortunately though, the TEN hours I got ended up being a mix of wild dreams where I was hunting down persimmons in the middle of a desert while trying to figure out why Laura, dressed like Miley Cyrus, was swimming in a pool of blue jello (seriously, I can’t make this shit up)!

Long story short, I’m STILL tired, I have a Benedryl “hangover” from hell, I got a little carried away with the coffee drinking and now feel like my heart’s going to pop out of my chest, AND to top it all off, I totally picked the WRONG underwear today. You know the ones…if they’re not sliding down, they’re going…well, you know. I swear, if I didn’t have such an aversion to going commando, I would…wait, where was I??

Oh yeah…LOOK guys, I made you WAFFLES! 😀

I’ll give you not one, but TWO guesses as to what’s in ’em!

Ok, so I tend to get a bit obsessed with certain flavor combos, but I just couldn’t help myself! I still can’t get the peanut butter pumpkin one out of my head and obviously, neither can Laura! When she’s not confusing the heck of me in my dreams, she’s freakin’ one-upping me with pie for breakfast!

Almond Joy Waffle for One

By: Heather @ Kiss My Broccoli

Prep Time: 2-3 minutes

Cook Time: 5-8 minutes

Keywords: waffle iron breakfast pancake/waffle mix cocoa powder coconut milk

Ingredients (Serves 1)

1/3 cup Kodiak Cakes Flapjack & Waffle Mix
1 1/2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 scoop chocolate protein powder (optional)
1/3 cup (carton) coconut milk (plus 1-2 Tablespoons if using protein powder)
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
Toppings: Coconut-flavored Greek yogurt, almonds, toasted coconut chips

Instructions

1. Plug in waffle iron and allow to come to temperature, coat with non-stick spray.
2. Combine all ingredients in a small bow and stir well.
3. Pour mix into waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer’s directions.
4. Transfer to a plate, add toppings, and relish in the fact that you’re eating candy for breakfast!

BAM! Candy for breakfast! In yo face, Laura! 😛

Umm, yeah, so this was supposed to be short and sweet, wasn’t it? I guess Meghan must’ve rubbed off on me a little more than I thought last week!

And speaking of last week…I have some winners to announce today, don’t I? With nearly one hundred and FIFTY entries, the random four lucky winners of the Kodiak Cakes giveaway arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre…