Summer Break

Summer break is close at hand. I have 2 finals left to take next week and my daughter has 14 days of school. I have been scouring websites of fairly local places to try and map out some fun places to take my kiddos this summer. Here are a few of the places I am hoping to take them to:

• Woolaroc
• Barnum & Bailey Circus
• Oklahoma City Zoo  *especially Wednesdays in July & August 1.00 admission!

Ok, the list is not finished. I also want to take them to one of the many Native American Pow-Wows our state hosts. And some other festivals here in Oklahoma.

I'm extremely bothered by the price of gas! I know it doesn't help to gripe, but it sure does put a damper on how far your road trips are. We are closing in on 4.00 a gallon already and its not even May yet.

Easter Goodness

I cooked. A LOT.

I ate. A LOT MORE.

I failed to keep track of calories. I had large portions. I ate sugary goodies.  I haven't been drinking my water.

I expect a gain this week.

And now, back to the program.. Pumping down water now and tracking my calories...

Hope you all are well :)

The Weight Loss Journey

As you may have noticed, I have broadened my page to reflect my life more so than simply my weight loss journey. I don't want my life to be consumed with what I eat. Having said that, my weight loss journey is going good. I am really excited that I am not gaining my weight back. I mean I have my weeks where I am up a pound or so, but I lose it and more eventually. This is key to weight loss, for me anyway.

I cancelled my membership to WW. Not because they are bad, but because I don't want to continue to pay for it. Instead, I am doing the American Heart Association caloric intake. Its *alot* like WW but without the points and without the $. Its basically eating the calories you need to which will allow you to lose 1-2 pounds a week. For me, I can have 1800-2300 calories a day. I am happy with that. And if truth be told, at 40 years old and having tried nearly every diet out there, I do not care if I lose 2 or 3 or 7 pounds a week. So long as I am losing something, I know that my body is doing what I need it to do.

I allow myself a certain amount of  calories for each meal and then snacks are 100 calories or less. Mostly fruit or veggies. I have to tell you, it is working for me. I am happy! Calories are easy to count because you can find them on almost everything you buy.

So, weigh in is tomorrow. I have had a couple days where I had some chocolate, not more than my daily calories allowed, but I have consumed an awful lot of diet coke over water. I am sitting here sucking down the water now! I am finding the best way to limit my pop intake is by only putting in a couple of cans in the fridge each day and leaving the rest out. I will NOT drink hot pop, blech!

Lately I have been quite the shopping girl! Hitting sales with coupons and paying so little that one day the lady behind me in line asked me if I was the "coupon queen". She saw my total start at $70 and after coupons show $6~! That was a good day. And I have to say, a diversion to sitting in the house stuffing my face. :)

Hope you are all doing well on plan!

Wal-Mart Coupon Deal for 4/11/2011

Items

• 12 Similac quarts @$3.84
• 5 Suave Childrens Shampoo @$1.98
• 5 Oil of Olay 2 pack bar soap @$2.72
• 1 fizzy bath tub color tablets (not shown) for .98

TOTAL: $70.56

Coupons

• Similac $5/1  x12
• Suave ..50/1  x5
• Oil of Olay $2/1  x5

TOTAL AFTER COUPONS: $.06

(This does not include sales tax)

I will donate the Similac, I do not have young children that use this. My reason for purchasing it was clearly overage. The difference between the 3.84 item price and 5.00 off manufacture coupon helped offset balances from other items.


***UPDATE: All similac donated!! Yay!

Stockpile!

So I have learned that items go on sale and through a cycle. When you find an item on a rock bottom price, you will not see that happen again for 12 weeks. So, you stock up on it if it is an item you use.

Well....our local grocer had Diet Coke 20 packs for 3.73! AWESOME price, right? WELL, on the boxes were peelies that said $2.00 off of 2 20 packs..So, I got mine for 2.73 each! (I had the cubes that I had purchased before I knew this other sale was going to hit. Needless to say, I am good on Diet Coke for a LONG time!

A Strange Week..

That is the only way I can sum it up.I've been swamped with homework, I've been trying to stay on top of housework, I'm trying to get some genealogy research done, keeping an eye on my baby seedlings and for some reason I feel like overwhelmed..gee, wonder why? LOL!

I will be so glad when school is out in about 7 weeks. This has been an especially busy semester. Probably because my daughter started Kindergarten this year. I feel like I am going 90 million directions. Just ready to breathe, no deadlines, no exams, no extensive reading over and over to "get it".  I am ready for summer vacation.

My eating has been, for the most part, good! I am more so sticking with calories. I find, FOR ME, that calories are easier to control than points. I mean I can go in the store, look at the box and know instantly if its something that I want to buy based on calories. I allow myself 500 calories max per meal 3x a day with fruit or veggies in between. Its been going really good. I really want to get more exercise in. Wish I had someone to watch my son so I could go work out, but its just not happening. I hope he will be accepted into the daycare/headstart for fall, I will be a treadmill walking fool if he does. :)

Its beautiful weather out today, loving life and all things. 1 pound away from a 20 pound weight loss, that is amazing. It has taken me longer than others, but my big excitement is that I have kept my weight off, yay!

So now I am off to get a shower and go see what good sales are on for my stockpile.

Back to Coupons

I really get a high from coupons, I must admit it. I was hard and heavy into coupons for a minute, but school and kids somewhat took over. More so school. Well, now that summer break is near, I am sorting and clipping coupons again, ready for the fun shopping trips.

As someone who loves to shop (who doesn't) I take pleasure in shopping with coupons. Why? Its the thrill of free or near free items. Its saving my money but using coupons to purchase multiple items so that I save even more money the next month. I don't spend much out of pocket and come home with a trunk full of goodies.

Currently, I have a stockpile of shampoo and creme rinse to last for a year. No joke. I probably paid 25 center a bottle. Sundry items are running only about 3 - 4 months out. So yeah, this is the time to get focused and build my stockpile. Summer time stocking up leaves me with less shopping to do in the winter and enjoy being in my warm and cozy home!

Do you use coupons? Do you stockpile?

Diet Coke....

Oh my old friend, Diet Coke, made her way back into my fridge. I love my DC, but it gives me issues. So this week I show a gain of 1 pound. Not because I had a diet coke, but because I consumed diet coke primarily in place of the water I had been drinking. So, I was 1 pound from 20 and now I am back down to 2 pounds to go.

No big deal! I went and restocked my bottle water yesterday, so I am good for this week, or at least until I get back to the store. I was consuming about a case (24 bottles) every 5 days...WELL.. to show you how much diet coke I have drank this week, I have only consumed 5 bottles...16.9 ouncers...so yeah, there is my 1 pound gain and I can see it now.

Well, I am not going to let it get me down. Its a beautiful day. We are re-organizing bedrooms, plantings seeds and going outdoors to play. Life is too good to let a pound get in the way, next week, I hope to be at a 20 pound loss. :)

***On a seperate note, I am not counting ounces on the scale. I am only going by pounds since my scale decided to show my weight in kilograms. Hopefully I can figure out how to get it back to pounds!!***

UPDATE: On the bottom of the scale is a little button with the words KG/LB next to it...one push an voila! Back to pounds! I dont dare get on now though! :)