Juggling The Jungle

How to make a display shelf for board games

Published on August 3, 2020 by Juggling The JungleLeave a comment

When my husband and I moved into our apartment we found there was not enough built in space for our board games, so we had to get creative. We also know board games are an important part of our lives and wanted to display them in a way that when guests come over they could easily see our board games to play with. So, we bought a 2 X 4 box shelf and placed our board games on it. We also bought 2 boxes so that we could place our HUGE selection of card games in them.

For our heavier card games we bought a sturdy box made out of wood instead of fabric. This helped us to pull the cards out easier. I find that mismatching boxes that have a similar color palate looks more appealing than having the boxes all the same color. Also I look for neutral colored boxes. The board games will already have a lot of varying colors so staying in a neutral color palate will help offset all the wild colors your board games have.

It’s good to leave empty spaces on your shelves that don’t contain board games. You can place decorations here, but again the colors should be in neutral tones. Leaving an empty space on your shelf makes it look look less cluttered and more intentional.

Store the board games horizontal if you can. Storing them vertically may save space but if you are looking for an ascetically pleasing display having the board games lay horizontally looks better in my opinion.

We use the two empty bottom shelves for storing some of our shoes at the end of the day end of the day.

Create a board game rotation.

Chances are this might not be all the board games you own. What you can do is keep some in a different area, and rotate them out once a week or month. This encourages playing older games and eliminates the amount of board games you have to pick through when deciding what to play. This technique also works great for kids toys!

Creating habits for sustainable weight loss – Part one

Published on July 29, 2020 by Juggling The JungleLeave a comment

We are currently living in a world full of a lot of information. This information can make it super difficult to know what is true and what is not. I wanted to find a healthy solution to eating so I learned from many of these random sources and tried eliminating things from my diet. There became a point on my journey trying to find truth from fiction that the only conclusion I came to was that everything is bad for you except vegetables! Surely all food couldn’t be as terrible as everyone say’s it is, right? I then sought out a dietitian because I realized I was creating an unhealthy relationship with food.

The things I learned from my registered dietitian were really valuable, and helped me have a positive viewpoint on food again. Here are some of the things I learned and how I personally went about applying them. Hopefully the things written here can help you too! However, I highly recommend finding a registered dietitian who can give you more advice as I am not a medical professional and don’t know all of your particular dietary needs. You can also go to nutrition blog network which is a place to find reliable nutrition blogs written by registered dietitians.

Weight management:

The first thing you need to know is that the concept for weight management is pretty simple. (Doesn’t mean it’s easy though!) If a person takes in more energy than their body uses the result will be weight gain. Whereas, if they don’t put in as much energy in as they take out it will result in weight loss.

Energy in > Energy out = Weight Gain

Energy in < Energy out = Weight Loss

How to lose weight:

To lose weight you need to put in less calories (energy) than the total energy you spend in a day. This TDEE calculator can help you determine how many calories your body needs to maintain the weight it is currently at. (TDEE: Total daily energy expenditure.) To lose weight and create a calorie deficit subtract 500 from your TDEE. This will give you the calories you need to consume in a day to lose weight.

Next, you’ll want to find your resting metabolic rate. The calculator I linked above should also calculate that for you. Your resting metabolic rate is the amount of calories your body needs to function properly. If you consume below this amount of calories it will put your body into starvation mode. This is something you don’t want for sustainable weightless as it’s unhealthy for your body and usual results in consuming more food in the future. Your sustainable weight loss goal should be to lose 1 lb a week.

Eat Regularly

Eat within 30 minutes of waking up. Your body has gone without food all night and will need to eat when you wake. Eating right when you wake up helps prevent overeating for the rest of the day. Your body needs to eat every 4-6 hours so set an eating schedule from the time you wake up, to the time you go to bed. Some people don’t need to eat as frequently as others. Pay attention to your body and eat when your hungry. Snacks are definitely encouraged! Generally for me I eat a meal, snack, meal, snack, meal, snack throughout the day, but some people may need more or less than this.

To plan an eating schedule start from the time you wake up then pay attention to the time when you start to feel hungry. Make note of this time and go eat. Do this over the course of a week and you’ll learn the right time for your body to eat. It helps if you have a consistent time you wake up.

Sustainable Habits

Sustainable weight loss is about creating sustainable habits. When starting out with any new habit it takes time. Adding a lot of new habits at the beginning can be overwhelming, Which is why I’ve broken this article into parts. It is important to only focus on one thing at a time. Pick one thing and work on it till it becomes a habit and then move to the next. Sustainable weight loss takes A LOT of time and patience. You wont see dramatic results immediately but that’s okay, that is healthy, that is sustainable. Just keep going and trust in the process because it does work.

Note: Personally I don’t suggest adding exercise to this weight loss plan at the beginning, unless you already exercise. Yes exercise is good to do but you can lose weight without exercising. This is where I feel like people get overwhelmed. They want to do everything and change everything all at once which is an unsustainable way of building habits. Pick one thing at a time and work from there.

Make a goal:

Look through this article and make a goal of what you will work on this week. Chose at least one goal but no more than 3. Studies have shown that trying to make more than 3 things at a time into a habit doesn’t work as well.

Suggestion for this weeks goal: Once you’ve done the calculations needed to find the number of calories you need to consume to achieve your weight loss goal the next thing I would recommend is getting a calorie counting app like my plate or MyFitnessPal. And for the next week focus on logging everything you eat and drink. This is the only thing you have to focus on. Don’t worry about exercise, don’t worry about how healthy the food your eating is. Just focus on counting calories. Remember that you are learning a lot of new things right now, and it’s okay to not be perfect.

Find an accountability Partner

Find someone who can help hold you accountable. This can be a spouse, friend, co-worker, dietitian, etc. Tell this person the goal that you have and ask them to check back in with you next week to see how you did.

Stay tuned next week for part 2

I’ve broken out this article into parts to encourage sustainable habits. Set a goal and apply it this week and next week we will learn about how to plan a list of go to healthy food combinations you can eat, and portion control.

DISCLAIMER: Before starting a new diet or exercise program consult with your doctor before beginning. I am not a doctor, nutritionists or a dietitian. The information provided is based on my personal experience and education learned from a registered dietitian. I do not claim that the advice offered will guarantee results. Any recommendations I make should be discussed between you and a medical professional. (To read more about this disclaimer click here – Disclaimer )

Family home evening for newly-weds

Published on July 27, 2020July 30, 2020 by Juggling The JungleLeave a comment

What is Family home evening?

Family home evening or FHE for short, is a day and time set by family members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints that encourages spending time together, and studying scriptures as a family.

Decide on a day to do Family home Evening.

Most pick Monday around 6 PM when everything is settling down, however, this may not work for your family. Pick a day that works best for your schedules.

Tip: Picking a time of day for example, right after dinner, is an easy way to make sure it happens every week. This is because when we build new routines off of old routines, the new routines tend to stick a little better. (This tip also works great for family scripture study everyday.)

How to structure FHE as a couple?

Assign one person to plan the activity and the other person to do the lesson. Then rotate between the who does what every week. The lesson doesn’t need to be long, just enough to feel the spirit in your meetings. Music is generally assigned by the one giving the lesson.

There are two ways my husband and I structure FHE

If the activity relates to the lesson:

Opening prayer
Sing a hymn
Lesson
Activity
Closing Prayer

If the activity doesn’t relate to the lesson:

Opening prayer
Sing a hymn
Lesson
Closing prayer
Activity

Example of how my husband and I do FHE together

This generally tends to be an introduction for our week on what we will be studying in “Come follow Me” So we read the introduction page and share our comments, insights, and things we want to learn more about during the week. After this we will have an activity. I get my ideas for activity ideas from a few different places listed below.

Resources for FHE activity ideas

LDS daily has information for teens/adults that can be applied to couples as well.
Food Storage Blog This blogger has some great resources for finding activities!
Dating Divas This is an amazing place to go if you need date ideas, which can be turned into FHE activities!
The Ensign This has a section in it called Family Study fun in it’s magazine, sometimes if i’m creative I can turn these family activities into things to do as a couple.
Living Scriptures/FHE Gives family ideas for FHE, followed with a living scripture video. These videos could be used in your lessons if you want!

My favorite FHE activities:

Go bird watching outside. Try to learn the names of all the birds you see in your neighborhood.
Do an art project together!
Make cookies together and give them to a friend or member in your church.
Have family home evening with another family or couple.
Paint rocks with positive words written on them like “You Rock!” and place them in random places around your neighborhood.
Make a budget together

Make a budget together, FHE:

This was the first Family home evening my husband and I ever did together. It was a really difficult activity trying to combine our views on money to get a harmonized budget. It actually took us a few Family Home Evenings to get through it all! After all the struggles we were able to create an amazing budgeting system that works for us, and we have never argued about money! I truly believe making and changing habits as quick as you can in the beginning of your marriage can really set your marriage up for success.

FHE activities challenge

Find a list of activities and go through and accomplish them in order. Even if you think you and your spouse may not like the activity, it could surprise you!

Final thoughts

Don’t forget the importance of adding variety! You can have Family home evening in different locations, such as at the park, or with other newly-weds. The main thing with Family home evening is to make it consistent, fun, and spiritual. This can be amazing opportunity to give your family the time an nourishment it deserves. Family home evening can be your little escape from the crazy things going on in life and set a positive tone for the rest of your week.

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