Monday, September 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
One thing I forgot to mention in my last post is that I lost a filling in my tooth over the weekend and my appointment to get it fixed isn't until tomorrow morning. This has made eating and drinking things rather difficult yet it hasn't stopped me. I did eat a lot less than normal though so I know I stayed within my calories yesterday.
The reason I bring this up is that the scale read 213.6 this morning. Given what I've just said, I know for a fact i did not gain 1.8 pounds in one day. I post this to remind myself that the scale is not always the most accurate and best interpretation of my success. I know what I ate and how I feel and that's the most important thing.
Something else that has become a result of this ordeal is that I care much more about my teeth. It has been too painful to brush my teeth or use mouthwash for the past few days. I'm not very good at maintaining oral health to begin with but I hope this will serve as a wake up call because my mouth and teeth have never felt so gross. I actually want to brush my teeth! Lol.
The reason I bring this up is that the scale read 213.6 this morning. Given what I've just said, I know for a fact i did not gain 1.8 pounds in one day. I post this to remind myself that the scale is not always the most accurate and best interpretation of my success. I know what I ate and how I feel and that's the most important thing.
Something else that has become a result of this ordeal is that I care much more about my teeth. It has been too painful to brush my teeth or use mouthwash for the past few days. I'm not very good at maintaining oral health to begin with but I hope this will serve as a wake up call because my mouth and teeth have never felt so gross. I actually want to brush my teeth! Lol.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Setbacks
Setbacks are a natural occurrence of life. Two weeks ago, I lost my aunt to a heart attack. Though there is a family history, this came as a shock. That whole week became a blur of family visits, organizing pictures, and finally attending the wake and funeral.
Knowing my family has a history of heart problems as well as obesity should be one of the motivating factors for my weight loss. I don't want to have a heart attack and die at 48 years old if I can prevent it by eating healthy, exercising, and losing this extra weight I've been carrying around for far too long now.
Today I weigh 211.8lbs. My goal weight is 135-140, and I would like to be there no later than this time next year.
Knowing my family has a history of heart problems as well as obesity should be one of the motivating factors for my weight loss. I don't want to have a heart attack and die at 48 years old if I can prevent it by eating healthy, exercising, and losing this extra weight I've been carrying around for far too long now.
Today I weigh 211.8lbs. My goal weight is 135-140, and I would like to be there no later than this time next year.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
A for effort!
This week has actually been fairly decent for me. This surprises me because I started a new job recently and I have been overwhelmed by the amount of trainings I have gone to in the past few weeks. This new job also happens to be 3rd shift which means my sleeping pattern is all sorts of messed up.
Part of me also fears that with working nights(thankfully only part time) and sleeping during the day, I will actually become even less active than I am now. It's not really a far fetched fear because the job doesn't require much movement.
All of this said, I go back to my comment that this week has been fairly decent. I went to the gym twice! 33 minute program on the elliptical both times. Also I did a few minutes of weights at home as well as my silly little jog in the house for a few minutes. The best thing about all of this was I actually wanted to do it. None of it was forced, I had the desire to be more active this week so that's a pretty big baby step for me!
This weekend is a family vacation for me so now we have to hope that I don't destroy my little victories for the week.
Part of me also fears that with working nights(thankfully only part time) and sleeping during the day, I will actually become even less active than I am now. It's not really a far fetched fear because the job doesn't require much movement.
All of this said, I go back to my comment that this week has been fairly decent. I went to the gym twice! 33 minute program on the elliptical both times. Also I did a few minutes of weights at home as well as my silly little jog in the house for a few minutes. The best thing about all of this was I actually wanted to do it. None of it was forced, I had the desire to be more active this week so that's a pretty big baby step for me!
This weekend is a family vacation for me so now we have to hope that I don't destroy my little victories for the week.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Barely
So far my attempts at exercise have been mediocre at best. Yesterday I ran from my kitchen to my front door several times for about 5 minutes. Since I'm no runner, I'll take it. Lol.
Today I finally put my Just Dance 2 DVD in and did 3 songs. Also not that great, but it's something.
I hate how hot my house is too. For someone who hates heat, it is very hard to motivate to exercise when it's 86 degrees in my house and the slightest movement causes sweat.
Today I finally put my Just Dance 2 DVD in and did 3 songs. Also not that great, but it's something.
I hate how hot my house is too. For someone who hates heat, it is very hard to motivate to exercise when it's 86 degrees in my house and the slightest movement causes sweat.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Just Dance
This blog has been many things for me since I started it, but today it's going to revert back to its original purpose. This will once again be my accountability and my documention of my struggle to lose weight through exercise and mindful eating.
I say mindful eating because I never was good with a diet. For me, I am going to focus most of my energy on exercising at first to negate my bad food choices. Once I establish an exercise routine that I actually stick to, I will really focus on what I'm eating. For me, I know I cannot do too many things at once. Every time I have tried to lose weight in the past, I have tried to change every aspect of my life instantly. I force myself to eat few calories and all healthy ones at that, tell myself I need to go to the gym 6 days a week, need to start meditating, need to change my sleeping schedule, etc. etc. etc. I always fail within a week because I simply can't handle that many changes at once(even though they do all need to be changed, eventually).
This leads me to the title of my blog post. I recently had a birthday and used some money to purchase Just Dance 2 for the Wii. Now, I have other exercise games/videos for the Wii but I never did them because they weren't fun. I rented Just Dance 2 as a trial and actually had fun, sweating out to about 5 songs. To me, this seems like a great transition because I can enjoy it. Sure, it's no elliptical or cardio boot camp, but it gets me moving and at this point in my life that's a pretty big step.
Here goes.. Just Dance!
I say mindful eating because I never was good with a diet. For me, I am going to focus most of my energy on exercising at first to negate my bad food choices. Once I establish an exercise routine that I actually stick to, I will really focus on what I'm eating. For me, I know I cannot do too many things at once. Every time I have tried to lose weight in the past, I have tried to change every aspect of my life instantly. I force myself to eat few calories and all healthy ones at that, tell myself I need to go to the gym 6 days a week, need to start meditating, need to change my sleeping schedule, etc. etc. etc. I always fail within a week because I simply can't handle that many changes at once(even though they do all need to be changed, eventually).
This leads me to the title of my blog post. I recently had a birthday and used some money to purchase Just Dance 2 for the Wii. Now, I have other exercise games/videos for the Wii but I never did them because they weren't fun. I rented Just Dance 2 as a trial and actually had fun, sweating out to about 5 songs. To me, this seems like a great transition because I can enjoy it. Sure, it's no elliptical or cardio boot camp, but it gets me moving and at this point in my life that's a pretty big step.
Here goes.. Just Dance!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Opinion Outpost
Out of all of the survey sites I signed up for a month ago, Opinion Outpost is the only one that I feel comfortable writing an actual review. It has only been three weeks since I signed up for this site, but already I have received a handful of survey requests in my e-mail and have qualified for enough of them to get my first $5 Amazon.com gift code.
In the past three weeks, I have gotten just about 10 survey requests from them so while they don't flood your inbox, they are consistent enough to be worthwhile. I certainly did not qualify for every one of those but I was impressed at the value placed on their surveys. Most of those 10 surveys were valued at 20 points or more. 20 points equals $2, so as I said reaching the required $5 to cash out was no problem.
I had no problems at all in requesting my first payout, and received the code within minutes of requesting it which is very nice for those of us familiar with the 10-14 day waiting period of Swag bucks. I also wanted to note a nice feature of their payout process. The minimum required to cash out is $5, but you can cash out whatever amount you want. For instance, I currently have $8.80 in my account. Instead of having to wait to reach the $10 mark, I could go ahead and cash out right now and transfer all $8.80 to my Amazon account.
I will let you know if anything changes, but for now, Opinion Outpost has got my stamp of approval.
In the past three weeks, I have gotten just about 10 survey requests from them so while they don't flood your inbox, they are consistent enough to be worthwhile. I certainly did not qualify for every one of those but I was impressed at the value placed on their surveys. Most of those 10 surveys were valued at 20 points or more. 20 points equals $2, so as I said reaching the required $5 to cash out was no problem.
I had no problems at all in requesting my first payout, and received the code within minutes of requesting it which is very nice for those of us familiar with the 10-14 day waiting period of Swag bucks. I also wanted to note a nice feature of their payout process. The minimum required to cash out is $5, but you can cash out whatever amount you want. For instance, I currently have $8.80 in my account. Instead of having to wait to reach the $10 mark, I could go ahead and cash out right now and transfer all $8.80 to my Amazon account.
I will let you know if anything changes, but for now, Opinion Outpost has got my stamp of approval.
MyPoints
In an earlier post, I mentioned signing up for a bunch of online survey websites. While some of those sites have yet to bear any fruit, I wanted to mention a site that I personally have been a member of since 2008. MyPoints is a website that has many ways for you to accumulate points which are redeemable for gift cards to tons of different places. I myself tend to opt for the Target gift cards, but have also gotten restaurant gift cards as a treat.
As I said, MyPoints has several different ways to accumulate points but the one method I use the most is reading their e-mails. I receive about 3-5 e-mails from them a day to check out companies and other special offers. Each e-mail has a link to click to visit the website, earning you 5 points. Every once in a while, a survey will show up in my e-mail as well and those are usually worth 50 points, with 10 points just for trying and not qualifying.
On top of the e-mails though, they have special offers you can complete and they partner with several companies to participate in shop & earn programs where if you go through the MyPoints website to make your purchase, you will get a certain amount of points per dollar.
I admit to not doing much on the website other than reading the e-mails, but by just doing that, I have recieved over $200 in gift cards in the past three years so I find that they are worth mentioning.
Click here to be directed to the MyPoints website.
As I said, MyPoints has several different ways to accumulate points but the one method I use the most is reading their e-mails. I receive about 3-5 e-mails from them a day to check out companies and other special offers. Each e-mail has a link to click to visit the website, earning you 5 points. Every once in a while, a survey will show up in my e-mail as well and those are usually worth 50 points, with 10 points just for trying and not qualifying.
On top of the e-mails though, they have special offers you can complete and they partner with several companies to participate in shop & earn programs where if you go through the MyPoints website to make your purchase, you will get a certain amount of points per dollar.
I admit to not doing much on the website other than reading the e-mails, but by just doing that, I have recieved over $200 in gift cards in the past three years so I find that they are worth mentioning.
Click here to be directed to the MyPoints website.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Snowball Debt Plan
I just have to share my little victory: I paid off one of my credit cards!
I fully believe in and support Dave Ramsey's Snowball Debt Plan. This article is from his website and goes into more depth about what the Snowball Debt Plan is and how you go about using it. Real quickly, it means listing your debts from smallest amount to largest amount not paying attention to interest rates. You simply then pay the minimum payments each month on every debt, throwing any extra penny you can at the smallest debt. Once that is paid off, you use that extra money to throw at the next smallest debt.
I am definitely the type of person that needs a little victory to keep me on the right track of paying off my debt. I cannot tell you how awesome it feels to pay off a credit card and know that I'm actually making progress!
I fully believe in and support Dave Ramsey's Snowball Debt Plan. This article is from his website and goes into more depth about what the Snowball Debt Plan is and how you go about using it. Real quickly, it means listing your debts from smallest amount to largest amount not paying attention to interest rates. You simply then pay the minimum payments each month on every debt, throwing any extra penny you can at the smallest debt. Once that is paid off, you use that extra money to throw at the next smallest debt.
I am definitely the type of person that needs a little victory to keep me on the right track of paying off my debt. I cannot tell you how awesome it feels to pay off a credit card and know that I'm actually making progress!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Time Management
I speak from my own experience when I tell you that you can go crazy with all of the online survey sites, product testing sites, freebie sites, etc. In fact, I will confess to you now that there have been days that I literally sat at the computer for eight hours straight, poring over these sites as well as my e-mail account.
This would not be a problem if I was making even minimum wage doing all of the above. The problem was that depending on what particular activity I was doing, I calculated that I was making about $0.67 an hour. Yikes! Also realize that by me spending eight hours online, the laundry didn't get done, the dishes didn't get done. Actually, there were very few dishes because I never made lunch or dinner. I snacked at my desk and my husband was on his own when he got home.
I will keep this short: Doing surveys online will not make you rich! Therefore your life outside of these websites needs to take top priority. Let me give you a few tips that work for me when it comes to managing this online hobby of mine:
That's all for now. Happy Friday!
This would not be a problem if I was making even minimum wage doing all of the above. The problem was that depending on what particular activity I was doing, I calculated that I was making about $0.67 an hour. Yikes! Also realize that by me spending eight hours online, the laundry didn't get done, the dishes didn't get done. Actually, there were very few dishes because I never made lunch or dinner. I snacked at my desk and my husband was on his own when he got home.
I will keep this short: Doing surveys online will not make you rich! Therefore your life outside of these websites needs to take top priority. Let me give you a few tips that work for me when it comes to managing this online hobby of mine:
- Set a Goal. My focus has been Swag Bucks lately so I set my goal at four $5 Amazon gift cards a month which equates to needing 1,800 swag bucks. Divide that number by 30 days, and I need 60 swag bucks per day to reach my goal. This means that if I complete a survey for 75 swag bucks today, I am done! Log off of swag bucks and move on!
- Use a Separate E-mail Account. You should be doing this for all of your survey and freebie sites anyway, but I am including it because if all of your survey offers are together in one account, it is much easier to just log off.
- Be Flexible. I mentioned my goal of 60 swag bucks a day. What I failed to mention is that aiming for four $5 gift cards a month is aiming high for me. If I spend a half hour "working" swag bucks and only end up with 20 swag bucks, it's okay to be done for the day! Some days will be better than others across all of the sites you participate in. The key is knowing when to call it quits so you still get everything done for the day.
That's all for now. Happy Friday!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Swagbucks
In my last post I told you I had been trying out some paid survey sites, and I am still learning the ropes on all of them so I will give you my review soon. The reason for this post however is a site that had been on my radar since last year but I had lost track of it.
I have found my fair share of scam websites promising you all of these great prizes for completing surveys or downloading their software, etc. and I hope you know my sincerity when I say that I would not promote a website I did fully stand behind and support.
So what is this amazing website and how do we score awesome swag? Simply by searching the web using Swagbucks! I personally have racked up enough "swag bucks" to redeem for a couple $5 Amazon.com gift codes, and can attest to fun and ease of accumulating the points to do so. With Swagbucks you earn points for things like voting in their daily poll, viewing (but not even buying) special offers, taking trusted surveys, and yes even searching the web!
Every time you search using their search bar, you have the chance to score swag bucks. Just yesterday morning, I searched for something and was rewarded with 50 swag bucks! And unlike some websites I've looked into, it doesn't take months to earn prizes. Those $5 Amazon.com gift codes I mentioned are priced at 450 swag bucks, and I was personally able to score one in a week and a half!
Don't just take my word for it, check it out! If you click here you will be directed to the website through my referral link. Yes, I do get swag bucks out of you signing up under my referral but that's part of the fun! You get swag bucks for your referrals search credits. So, if your sister signs up under you, searches and wins 20 swag bucks, you win too (up to 1,000 swag bucks)!
As a side note, along with the link in this post, you may visit the website using the banner on the side of this page or the widget at the bottom of the page. For full disclosure, all three links will take you to the site through my referral link.
Happy Searching!
I have found my fair share of scam websites promising you all of these great prizes for completing surveys or downloading their software, etc. and I hope you know my sincerity when I say that I would not promote a website I did fully stand behind and support.
So what is this amazing website and how do we score awesome swag? Simply by searching the web using Swagbucks! I personally have racked up enough "swag bucks" to redeem for a couple $5 Amazon.com gift codes, and can attest to fun and ease of accumulating the points to do so. With Swagbucks you earn points for things like voting in their daily poll, viewing (but not even buying) special offers, taking trusted surveys, and yes even searching the web!
Every time you search using their search bar, you have the chance to score swag bucks. Just yesterday morning, I searched for something and was rewarded with 50 swag bucks! And unlike some websites I've looked into, it doesn't take months to earn prizes. Those $5 Amazon.com gift codes I mentioned are priced at 450 swag bucks, and I was personally able to score one in a week and a half!
Don't just take my word for it, check it out! If you click here you will be directed to the website through my referral link. Yes, I do get swag bucks out of you signing up under my referral but that's part of the fun! You get swag bucks for your referrals search credits. So, if your sister signs up under you, searches and wins 20 swag bucks, you win too (up to 1,000 swag bucks)!
As a side note, along with the link in this post, you may visit the website using the banner on the side of this page or the widget at the bottom of the page. For full disclosure, all three links will take you to the site through my referral link.
Happy Searching!
Monday, February 21, 2011
No Excuses
I have been extremely neglectful in this blog! A few big changes since I last wrote on here:
- I have a part time job. Only 15 hours a week, but it gets me out of the house!
- I have given up drinking pop which is huge for me considering I used to drink 3-4 cans of Diet Coke a day. I think I might gradually reintroduce it but for now, cold turkey was my best option.
- I have started signing up for lots of paid survey sites in the hopes of getting a little extra cash to pay down/off my credit cards. I only just started but I'll probably start posting the good sites I find once I get into a routine with them.
- I am barely fluttering in the flylady way, but think she is a great tool for those of us perfectionists that let it get in the way of a clean house. Definitely check out FlyLady if you're living in CHAOS(Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and need some help getting out.
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