Fit Friday!

Sadly, Liz (at Savvy Seasons) stopped doing her 'Water Diet' Party each week because there wasn't many participants. She is however still giving us weekly updates on how her water diet is going. I thought I would continue to post my progress too, because it does help to keep me motivated, and also accountable. 

Look I even made myself a button :-)  I'm not making this a 'party', so to speak - firstly I don't even know how to add a Mr. Linky to my blog for you all to join in, and secondly if people didn't want to join in with Liz (who on average gets over 20 comments a day) I would hardly think that anyone would want to join in with me , I don't even know 20 people that comment regularly!! (but for those of you who do comment regularly, please know I REALLY appreciate it, and I love reading your comments). I just don't expect you all to join in with me simply because I want to post about this on a weekly basis.

Fit Friday is what I've decided to call Friday's posts. I can't say that I'm feeling all that fit, but it is Friday, so at least 50% of that statement is true ;-). So, how am I doing?  Well, not too bad, but not great either. I could put a lot more effort in to getting fit and exercising more but I don't. I'm not going to the gym as much as I was before the new year, but I'm trying to create a schedule that works for me.

This past week I've been trying out some new dvd's at home. I'm just not one of those people who LOVE to go up to the gym, but I don't want to quit totally. So I'm going to the gym about twice a week right now and doing some workouts at home.  Wanna know what I tried (if you're on Facebook you may have seen this). . .

I got this out of the library this week, and I have to tell you it's quite the workout (and no, I wasn't dressed like that when I did it!). It involves a lot of arm movement, primarily over your head or out to the side, and by the end of the workout I felt like I'd lifted 50lb weights for an hour!!!  It was fun though, and I plan on doing it a few more times before I have to return the dvd to the library. I also got out a Denise Austen dvd, and a Karen Voight

As you know I'm on Weight Watchers, and that is going well. I'm finding it easy to keep track of my points, but there are days I would really like to just eat anything I want (and by anything I mean all the 'junk' stuff, like chips and chocolate, or McDonalds!!!), I just don't cave in to those cravings though. Well, not all of them, I will allow myself some chocolate every now and then. The other day I had my first Cadbury's Creme Egg of the season - it was delicious :-)

I've also discovered this yogurt this week. . . 

I love Stoneyfield Greek yogurt plain, but recently started trying their flavored ones. I always get the 'Oikos' kind, but to be honest I don't even know what that means? And this yummy key lime yogurt, well I didn't even know it was Dannon and not Stoneyfield until I uploaded this picture. I have both in my fridge and I thought they were all Stoneyfield! Well anyway, they are all pretty good, and the key lime one is like having key lime pie without the fattening crust!! Delicious with fruit chopped up on top.

Well anyway, before this post gets too long, the main update this week is that I am down 4lb since Christmas :-) And hopefully on my way to looking 'fab' for the Summer!

I have nothing!!!

Nothing to blog about that is! I know it's been 5 days since my last post, I thought I better jump on here and just let you know I'm still here, I just can't for the life of me come up with something to blog about!  I can't even think of a picture to share with you all today (and you know how I dislike my posts without pictures!!)

SO, I need to put my thinking cap on, or I need to get off my butt and do something, so I have something to blog about, or I need to do BOTH!

Bear with me, I'll be back soon, hopefully with more interesting content!!

Happy Hump Day!

Score!!!!

Hi everyone, Hi Nenna :-)

It's Friday!!!! Oh goodness, this week yet again just flew by. I had good intentions of posting more but really didn't have anything to post about. Anyway, just wanted to pop in and leave a post before the weekend (just in case my sis is reading and is wondering when I'll post again!).  

I went to Kohl's this week as I had a 30% off coupon (which are rare, usually I only get the 15% off ones in the mail). The photos I took aren't very good at all, but I just wanted to share with you what I got. Most importantly, I wanted to rave about the boots I got for a steal! 

VERA WANG over the knee leather BOOTs!  Originally $119, on sale for $23.99!!!!!! Only one pair was on the shelf and THANK YOU, they were in my size. PLUS with the 30% off coupon I had, these were only $17!!!!

 

And, I know these won't be to everyone's taste..... but I LOVE them - Jennifer Lopez 'Yeti' (as I call them) Boots!  Same price - $17!!!!

 What a STEAL!

 I also bought two nice new tops, and a purse. Love this cream and green top. The neckline has a braided beaded attachment!

Vera Wang (again) white cropped jeans. These looks great with the cream and green top.

 And (you can see in this picture) I also got a pair of black yoga pants. ALL OF THIS. (using my 30% off) .. the  TWO pair of boots, $68  purse (which was on sale too), two tops, Vera Wang Jeans, and Yoga pants =  $130!!!!   I love when I get a bargain . . . . or two :-)

Have a great weekend. It's forecast to be a wet and cold one here, but I don't mind at all. We'll be getting more warmer weather soon enough!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone is enjoying their day today, filled with love (and perhaps some chocolate goodies, and flowers!). It's a school day so we had our little Valentine celebrations on Sunday when I invited my inlaws over for lunch. In previous years I've made heart shaped meatballs with spaghetti, and baked our own heart shaped pizzas, so I wondered what I could make for this year?  I came up with the idea to make 'sliders'! Little mini (heart shaped of course) burgers. I thought this was a great idea because while I'm counting points on WW, it allows me to still have a burger but just a small one :-)

I also did some sweet pototo fries in the oven, and some 'normal' oven fries (because Jason and Kristen aren't keen on sweet potatoes, unless it's in a casserole with lots of butter, eggs and sugar and has pecans and sugar on top!)

 For dessert we had our traditional chocolate fondue. I used Monkeysee.com and searched for fondue for a recipe, it has videos of how The Melting Pot makes their fondues. I did the Chocolate S'More's one!

On Saturday Kristen and I made cake pops! I've been wanting to try these ever since I found Bakerella's

website well over a year ago.

Kristen wanted to make these at Christmas time, but I already had so many baked cookies and chocolate covered pretzels and chex mix made that I said it would be best to wait til Valentines Day. We dished a few out to the neighbors yesterday too. 

So this morning I wake up to find this in the kitchen  . . .  :-)

and where Kristen sits to eat breakfast at the bar we found this . . . . 

and the sweet guy who left them for us, woke up this morning sick with a fever of over 101 :-(  He thinks he probably caught something after traveling last week. He always seems to get a cold or something when he flies during the winter! Hopefully he will feel better soon, but rest assured I'm taking good care of him.

More knitting... but No More gray!

Remember a few weeks ago I showed you this photo,and said I would show you 'mine' once I finished knitting it?

Well, I finished knitting it :-) 

  

 

And not that you can tell, but I colored my hair yesterday, it felt great to get rid of all those little gray hairs that seem to be multiplying of late!

One of the ways to wear the cardigan is to wrap it at the front. . . . I was nearly not going to show this picture - I won't even comment on how fat I think my face looks!!!!!!

Overlapping Blogs!!

In order to avoid not having any posts until Friday this week (something that would sorely disappoint my sis back home) I am posting about the only thing that is going on with me at the minute . . .  knitting! Finished knitting to be exact. 

I recently showed you this hat I knit for Kristen. . . .

Well I finished the mittens that match it at the weekend 

It is such a cute set, I am seriously thinking I might make one for myself.  I took Kristen out in the back garden for a few minutes today to get some modeled shots!

 I still have one hat I need to knit to send home (as a belated Christmas gift, to mail with 3 others that are late too) but I have to get more black or gray yarn. 

No school til Thursday this week,(for teacher/staff development!) and Jason is away in Denver til late Thursday night. It will be a few cozy days at home for me and Kristen and I'll be doing the usual.... housework, gym, knitting!  What are you up to?

Water Party Diet - week 3

Hi guys, it's time for another update with Liz, on her Water Diet. Hop on over to Savvy Seasons and watch her video, she has lost a total of 17lbs now. Congratulations Liz, you're looking great :-) And thanks for keeping me motivated! 

I wish I could say I was losing weight too, but I'm not. I'm only 1lb down since I joined WW which was on January 16th! My downfall is the weekends when I just stop tracking! I lost over 2lb but last week gained it back again because I had wine at the weekend and ate an Indian meal (store bought) - at least I think that's why I gained it back?!! 

With WW you are allowed extra weekly points and if you exercise you can 'eat' your activity points too, which I never do, but I think by not tracking I obviously am eating those extra points, I just don't know it!!! SO, this week I'm making a bigger effort and I MUST track what I eat on Saturday and Sunday. 

On a more positive note, even though I'm not losing much, my eating and exercising are on the right track. I am having a ton of fruits and veggies AND managing to drink more than 64 oz water every day. Have you heard of Sassy Water? I first heard of this from the 'Flat Belly Diet' book. It's basically just water, with slices of lemon, cucumber and fresh ginger in it. I LOVE IT!

Here's what I've started to do, that's helping me drink my 64oz (and more). This water jug is exactly 64 oz when I fill it to the top line. At night I fill it and pop in some slices of cucumber and ginger and put it in the fridge.  I didn't have lemons this week so I just add a splash of lemon juice to my glass when I drink it. I will get some fresh lemons this week and add a few slices of them at night too. The flavors really blend together over night. The hint of cucumber you get is so refreshing. I have to be honest and say I don't really taste the ginger, you probably would need to grate the ginger in it or squash it to release the oils? I just slice it and throw it in there!I drank this entire jug yesterday then filled it with 32oz of water and by the end of the night had drank that as well :-) SO, drinking lots every day is my goal for this next week.

This was my breakfast this morning . . .

Fiber One (80cal) cereal. Their usual cereal I think has more calories in it. I found this at Costco this week, only 80 cals for 3/4 cup. I have 1 cup of fat free milk with it. Most of the milk goes on the cereal and I drink the rest. I also had a slice of 'light bread' toast, and a banana. As you can see some of the banana goes on the cereal, and the other half I like on top of my warm toast :-)

Also this week, I am putting some menu plans together for myself. I did this before with WW, but some of their points have changed (again) so I'm updating my menus and adding some new ones too. Next week I'll try to remember to share a 'typical' day or two with you. I'm also going to plan my gym sessions. The gym plan I was doing with Cheryl is coming to the end of it's 6 weeks. I want to only go to the gym 3 times a week (not 4 or 5, because it just made me feel like I had no time to do anything else), so I will plan on doubling up my weight workouts like biceps and triceps in one day, back and chest etc. I'm going to go through my fitness magazines and try to do some of the workouts they suggest.  On the alternate days I've decided to do Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred again!

I did day one yesterday, and OH MY GOSH! That girl can really kick some butt - mine to be precise!! It's a killer workout and only takes 20 minutes, although with warm up and warm down it's nearly 30 minutes really! I did see an improvement to when I last tried it, in that I could actually do all the jumping jacks this time :-)

So, that's my update . . .  how are you doing? Got any healthy goals planned for this month? Share with me if you do.

Knitting - Gym - Housework . . .

 . . . that's all that's going on around here, and it's basically in that order too!! Hi everyone, not much going on around here at the minute so I'm slowly running out of bloggy material! At this rate I'll be lucky if I post twice a week. 

So, what have I been up to? I'm still enjoying my knitting, been putting off going to the gym some days because, well, I just haven't been in the mood for it :-/  and just doing housework as and when I feel like it too! To be honest I think I've come down with a case of the winter blahs, which I don't know how because it feels nothing like Winter here in TX. Yesterday was a high of 77!!!! Yes, I'm complaining! It's only February for crying out loud!  I know most people if asked would love 70 degree weather in January and February, but when you get triple digit days for months in the summer, I for one would like to see a couple of months of just 50 or 60 degree weather. I think next week will be back in the 60's so I'll stop complaining now ;-)

I was trying to be productive last week and changed this . . . 

 to this . . . . .

 

Remember I wanted to clear my storage room out months ago to make a craft room for myself? Well I cleared the room somewhat but never actually did anything after that. This time I've moved a desk in there and moved my yarn boxes that were in my bedroom closet to this room. It's not perfect (I'm not even thinking of painting in here yet) but it will do for now. It means I can sew whenever I want, and although I don't sit in here to knit, all my yarn is at least in one place, or it will be once I finish organizing it!

Kristen is off school again today, she's been suffering with a sore throat for a couple of days and getting headaches. I'm hoping it's just allergies but yesterday she was miserable at school so I thought I'd give her a day off to see if she feels better. Even if it is just allergies, they're no fun either, as I can attest to! She was hoping to have a couple of friends over on Friday to have a sleepover, but if she doesn't feel better we'll have to reschedule for next week instead.

I've been doing well with my eating, and getting back to the gym too after a few days off, so I'll post again tomorrow with an update and join in with Liz's Water Party :-) I managed to drink over 64oz water yesterday - Sassy Water that is!! I'll share more about that tomorrow ;-)