Weigh in Wednesday!

Hi everybody!

I feel like such a bad blogger, not keeping up with you! I've just been SO CRAZY! Between working all the time and rehearsals every night from either 6-9 or 7-10 (in a town about 30 minutes away from me), I have been WIPED. Today I am so exhausted I'm not even going to Target today...and ya'll know how much I love Target! I have healthy food left and I'll go to the store this weekend and pick up more fresh veggies, but for now I am set.

I weighed in today, after a little break...I'm down another 2.3 pounds!! And last night I splurged and had Chinese food for dinner. So I'm wondering if I'm not holding on to some fluid because I already feel a huge difference in my clothes. I was a good girl though, I didn't eat my whole meal. Instead I ate about 1/2 and put the rest in the fridge for lunch today! Yipee! I put it all into my calorie counter and I feel good!

I've also been doing a TON of exercise. Dance rehearsals will get my blood flowing and I've been practicing my dancing. I am not tthe most graceful but I try hard! And its really good exercise. I've also been walking more and doing more activity.I feel a difference...and I also feel more tired! I guess it's par for the course!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Way Busy Wednesday!

I'll admit, ya'll, I am cheating myself a bit because I weighed in yesterday! DOWN 3.2 YIPEE! I weighed in yesterday because I am at my parents' house today for some time with my mom and some much needed R&R! I didn't want to weigh in on a different scale.

Work has been crazy...honestly, I don't know how much more I can take. I just keep on going and praying. And then add rehearsal from 7-10 every M-Th and woof. I am going to make it but damn I am tired. I'm starting not to feel so good today too, my body is aching and I am really hoping I'm not coming down with something. I was at a patient on Sunday who kept COUGHING ON ME despite me repeatedly offering them tissues and reminding them to cover their cough. Disgusting. Honestly, I could not wait to get out of there. I had a nasty horrible headache yesterday that lingered....finally I slept it off. It could just be stress but I definitely don't feel 100%. Blehhh...especially with all the crap going around, I really cannot afford to be sick right now!

Eating has been really good this week. I have been doing Special K shakes or peanut butter toast for breakfast. I bought Peanut Butter and CO white chocolate peanut butter. It is ALL NATURAL, no preservatives and SUPER YUMMY! I love it for breakfast, it makes me feel like I'm cheating even when I'm not! Lunches have been great too! It's been SO busy so I've often been doing hummus, peppers, string cheese and turkey pepperoni or a Lean Cuisine in a real pinch! Having turkey bacon around and having TUrkey BLTs has been yummy too! I am back on track and doing well!

I didn't go grocery shopping today because I'm not at home! But don't worry, I have plenty of healthy food at home :) I'll go shopping Saturday this week!!

Hope everyone is having a good day!!!

Weekend Update!

Well, it was another working weekend but honestly, I can't say that it was too bad. I got up and showered, had a nice breakfast and was on my way. I did hit a slight snag when I got to my office and the DOOR WAS BROKEN! The key did not work! So I was unable to get in and get admission packets, thank God I had 2 in the car for my 2 admissions. If I have any tomorrow that means I have to drive into Hartford and get some because the door is broken, UGH. I realllllly hope that does not happen because I will be incredibly unhappy to have to do that. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

It'll be nice to have some extra money, that's for sure! I won't complain about that. Since I have been consistently eating healthier, I feel really a lot better. I feel like my stress is more manageable and I'm feeling like I have more energy. I've been sleeping better too, yipee!

It is that TOM so I have been a little crampy but nothing serious! Although my appetite has been next to nothing. Yesterday I was so turned off by food! But I ate small little things and made my calorie level so I wouldn't put my body into starvation mode. And I woke up pretty hungry this morning, so I had a Special K shake. On days when I have to work, these are a godsend! It's got protein and vitamins and it keeps me full until lunch time. Today I got home, finished my charting and then made buffalo chicken salad.  I LOVE spicy food and this is SO amiazing! I should've taken a picture but I devoured it before I started writing this post, hehe.

What I've been doing is taking a Tyson Grilled and Ready chicken breast fillet (AWESOME for an easy meal!!) you cook it in the microwave for 2.5 minutes then I cut it into bite sized pieces and toss it with some hotsauce in a bowl. Then I do about 2-2.5 cups of Romaine. I have a large bag and I do about 1/2 of it per serving and there are 3 servings in there. I added 1oz of crumbled blue cheese and 0.5oz crushed tortilla chips for just a little bt of a crunch, an a bit of thinly sliced onion. Then I add 2 tablespoons of blue cheese dressing and I use some extra hotsauce to thin it out. NOM! I am just gaga for this delicious, healthy meal. SO good! And VERY filling, I'll tell you. Between the chicken and the blue cheese, it keeps me full and satisfied until dinner time! LOVE it!

Also this week I have been eating Turkey BLTs. On WEdnesday I cooked a package of turkey bacon in the oven so it stayed straight and didn't drown in grease. And I've been eating it on Sara Lee Natural and Delicious 45 calorie bread. No preservatives and only a handful of ingredients, it's not filled with chemicals like many other bread! I eat 2 slices with butter lettuce, some fresh sliced organic tomato, 1 tablespoon of light mayo and about 2-3 slices of turkey bacon, depending on my calorie count  that day. Served with a portion of Alexia chiptole sweet potato fries cooked fresh and hot from the oven...YUM! And it's SO easy to put together too! Love it!

I still have lean cuisines in the freezer but I'm trying to do as much cooking as I have time for. On Monday I start rehearsals for Godspell in which I'm playing Joanne. And I know that my schedule is going to become more hectic, so I love having the option to just throw a lean cuisine in my bag and I can eat it before rehearsal or on a break! Works for me!

I hope that everyone is having a lovely Saturday...I stayed FAR far away from any grocery stores today but I'm sure it's busy as heck before the Superbowl here in the states. If you're going, Godspeed...if you already went, I'm glad you made it out alive! Have a good weekened everybody! <3

Weigh in Wednesday & Extreme Couponing!

Hi all!

It's been quiet on the blog because I went away for the weekend with my sister tocelebrate my 25th birthday! WOO! A quarter of a century old, yipee! But it was a reminder that I'm still a work in progress...I want so much more out of my life! Eating last week was good, up until I left on my trip...then it was a lot of eating out, alcohol and fun. However my sister and I did get some exercise! We walked all through the mall and went shopping and we also went swimming in the indoor pool for hours!

Look at me swimming and the snow outside! Hilarious!!

I weighed in today after getting right back on track Monday, my weight is exactly the same. So I guess I didn't do THAT badly. I at least maintained where I was at and didn't go nuts. NSV for me!! I've been doing well with eating since I got back from the trip. For breakfasts I've been doing the Special K protein shakes in the morning, a fruit leather/fruit snack for a midmorning snack, hummus with bell peppers, turkey pepperoni and string cheese for lunch and either a lean cuisine or something quick for supper. Then for a dessert I have a variety of healthy options that I like to choose from!

This week at Target I got some AMAZING deals!

They have a buy 6 Lean Cuisine get 1 free Skinny Cow Ice Cream deal going on right now. The Lean cuisines are also on sale for between 1.99 and 2.69 a piece at my local store. I also had a Buy 12 Lean Cuisine get $3 off. So I bought 12 Lean Cuisine (approx half and half the different prices) so 6 x 1.99 and 6 x 2.69 which is $28.08 then I got a free SKinny Cow Mint Ice Crea Sandwiches for 3.99 and a Caramel Cone for 4.74 FREE!!! WOW! That'll last me a few weeks too!

Another great buy was the Market Pantry fruit snacks. 80 cals a piece, so easy t too keep in the car and they were on sale for a 10 count package it was 1.69. And I had a coupon that if you bought 2 packages, you get $1 off from Target.Com!! 2 Fruit Snack boxes at 1.69 a piece = $3.38...then I got a dollar off hich is 2.38. Each package of fruit snacks is 12 CENTS! WOWWWW!

There is another great sale going on for those of you who have families. If you buy 10 items of these foods, you get a free $5 giftcard. Stacking coupoins with this is AMAZING! The items included were select beans, pasta sauce, pasta, etc. I had $1 off 4 Old El Paso Items, so I got 4 cans of refried fat free beans to put on wraps and to use in recipes, I had $1 off Barilla Pasta Plus so I got 2 boxes of that (These were also on sale for 1 a box, it was like getting one FREE!), I bought 3 ragu sauces using a Target 60 cents off 2 ragu sauces AND a manufacturer's coupon for $1.25 off if you bought three WOW! Then I also bought a Ragu pasta sauce which was included in the deal that was on sale for $1.19. Woot! All told, these items came to 18.10 (BEFORE COUPONS) then I had the $2.85 in coupons...which was 15.25. AND I have a shiny new $5 giftcard for next week's use! If I subtracted that, ALL of these items would be 10.25...yes for 4 pasta sauces, 2 boxes of pasta and 4 cans of refried beans. All of which will last me a VERY long time. YAY!!!

I got all of the items mentioned above plus a 48 count package of swiffer dry cloth refills (had a $1 off coupon), 3 Snackwells 100 calorie pack boxes (had a $1 off 3 coupon), 2 packs of turkey pepperoni (had a $1 off coupon), a package of turkey bacon, 4 containers of Sabra roasted garlic hummus, a loaf of Sara Lee bread (had a 50 cents off Taget Coupon), 4 cans of Rotel Tomatoes (not included in the buy 10 get a 5 dollar giftcard free but on sale for 89 cents), weight watchers ice cream (had a $1 off coupon), a package of glad freezer containers (had a $1 off coupon) and 2 jars of Newman's Own Salsa (had $1 off 2 coupon) all for 92.10!!!

In total I saved $35.72 shopping today and an extra $4.55 for using my redcard! Yayyy

For my birthday, I bought myself a little present! I have been keeping my coupons in an envelope which is great BUT twice now my envelope shredded down the side and all my coupons went EVERYWHERE. So I invested i nthis ADORABLE coupon pouch. Yipee!

 

I absolutely LOVE it!! I had all my coupons organized and that made this shopping trip super fun! Hope all is well with you guys! REmember if you haven't left me your blog link in a comment please do! I want to get back to reading your guys' awesome blogs <3

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Update

Happy Saturday!

I am writing this post from my parents' house. I'm here looking after my brother who's just not doing well. He had to have another surgery to clear out the infection in his arm and maybe will need another 1-2 if the infection doesn't resolve. Ugh. Poor kid, I feel so bad for him. My parents are both working today so I came down to spend the day with him...but he likes to sleep until noon or later so, until he gets up I'm going to drink some coffee, relax and take some quiet time for me!!

This morning I had a delicious breakfast of turkey sausage and 2 pancakes. Yum! I have been pretty good staying on plan, not sure what today looks like since I'm not at home but my mom said she got hummus for me at the store so I believe I can have soe hummus, veggies and Triscuits for lunch. Woot, yay healthy meal planning!

Another thing I wanted to put out here on my blog is that given my recent work stress, I have stared thinking about my options. I'm a nurse, so I can segue into many different fields. I could go and be a professor, I could decide I want to work at a clinic or, in my case,I was thinking about legal nurse consulting. When I was in highschool and before I decided to become a nurse, I looked at many liberal arts colleges including several prelaw programs. I actually almost chose a school in New York with a 3 x 3 program which is an intensive 3 year prelaw/bachelors degree and then 3 years of law school, culminating in full licensure and certification and job placement by the age of 24! But I decided that I would prefer to work in medicine...

But now this LNC program would allow me to keep my nursing and go into law too. I am still doing a lot of research on this, it seems like the program would be about $2000 dollars which, if you ask me, is doable. Especially since when I got a LNC job, it would come with a big pay raise. It's definitely not about the money though (although when you're going to spend that much out of pocket, you definitely need to consider the financial aspect!!) but it's also about my stress. I think the day to day patient care aspect is extremely demanding both physically and mentally. Whereas working with legal cases would still be challenging (Which I like) but not as personally overwhelming, I also would not have to worry about going out in megabad snowstorms and such as the schedule seems more flexible and I could work from home too, possibly. Like I said, I'm still sort of putting all the pieces together! But those are my most secret inner thoughts!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend planned. For those of you who are working I hope it's quiet and calm! Have a good one!

Par for the Course

Hi all,

Work is still driving me closer to the brink of insanity. And now my brother is not well either. He had surgery to fix his shoulder (this is the THIRD surgery he's had) and then it seems there is a massive infection. They rushed him into surgery this afternoon, the poor baby. So now on top of work I feel the stress and pressure of being the only nurse in the family settling in. I just am so stressed...

BUT I did not stress eat. I almost caught myself today after another 10+ hour day. I ate some healthy snacks in my car and then I didn't get to eat lunch until 4:30pm...after I ate my lunch I still felt hungry and so I had a weight watchers ice cream. It almost turned into a binge but I didn't let it! YAY! I drank a huge glass of water instead and then realized I wasn't even hungry at all anyore, I ate a good healthy portioned lunch and had an appropriate dessert and I'll be fine until dinner which I'm planning on having around 6:30/7pm. Tonight I'm doing a salad with chicken and light caesar dressing. I bought a Dole Light Caesar kit with everything in it and then I have some shredded parmesean. It's a healthy, yummy, filling meal! Yay!

This weekend I am going to hunker down, CLEAN MY HOUSE since it has reached pigsty level (at least in my opinion). It's not actually that bad just very cluttered with things that need to be thrown out. I am going to purge and cleanse, relax, catch up on some junk TV and just VEG. I need this so bad. I really do.

Hope everyone is having a good day. TGIF!

Weigh In Wednesday & Coupon Extravaganza

Hi all!

Well what a huge wet snowy mess CT is today, woof! It was quite the winter wonderland out there!! I got up early and my mom and I were chatting and enjoying each other's company. I weighed in this morning...REALLY unhappy with myself for letting my weight get back up. The scale said 297.8 today. UGH. I was really upset. And am still really upset. I did splurge a little bit last night. I was running low on healthy food, basically I had no veggies left, etc and the chicken I took out for dinner for me and my mom TWO DAYS AGO...was still freaking frozen SOLID! Ugh. So we ended up ordering chinese. I only ate half my meal and then put it away for lunch today, that was a really good choice on my part! I'm focusing on healthy meals and such this week!!! I'm going to try not and let me beat myself up over gaining weight back...I slipped and now I'm picking myself up, dusting myself off and continuing on my way.

So...WELCOME TO THE FIRST COUPONING EXTRAVAGANZA SEGMENT.

Today, as usual, I went to Target and Stop & Shop for my weekly grocery shopping and couponing extravaganza. I had a lot of great coupons today! I want to start off by giving you some resources that YOU can use for couponing. I know there are a lot of beginners out there who don't know where to start OR they're afraid they're going to get on some phony website and end up with a computer virus. Believe me, I don't want that! So I want to start today's couponing lesson with how to organize yourself to get some deals. I am going to use Target as my example (That's where I always go) but you should use whatever store that YOU like to shop at most often. Walmart, Kroger, Costcos...whatever floats your boat!

Why Target, you might ask? For one thing, they have major deals over grocery stores. Plus, I can get 90% of my food and personal care items...my target is NOT a fresh grocery store but they do have a huge food section with MANY items. But they do not carry fresh produce ( I get all of that at Stop & Shop). I also have a Target Redcard and I get 5% off every time I shop! That's a huge savings on top of what I already save using coupons.

STEP ONE:

First of all, I always start off with my Sunday paper. I know that coupons are regional, some of you don't recieve any OR you don't get a Sunday paper. What I can say is that I only get a paper on Sundays and the amount I save in coupons FAR outweighs what I pay for a paper yearly. 1 year Sunday subscription to the Hartford Courant is approxminate $150 dollars. But you have to understand that last week I saved almost $75 and this week I saved $55...right there is practically the entire subscription cost in just TWO months. If you do this right, you'll more than make back the cost of the paper.

I get a variety of coupons in the paper. I start by grabbing my good old Target circular!! **At this point if you do not have a paper, go online and check out your favorite store's weekly ciruclar. Believe me, I would say 99.9% of stores have these available online now!** This is essential for finding savings! I read the ciruclar to see what is on sale, keeping in mind the things that I need an ALWAYS buy, for example: hummus, 100 Calorie Packs, fruit leather, egg beaters, etc. Then I go through my coupon pages and clip coupons for things I need to buy now AND later. This isn't a difficult exercise. You know what you will need to buy! And if you're not sure, clip it anyway! This really doesn't take my time!

STEP TWO:

After I clip coupons from the paper, THEN I go on Target Coupons.  These are AWESOME because with every item you purchase, Target allows you to use 1 Manufactuer's Coupon AND 1 Target Coupon!! For example, this week I had a Target coupon for $2 Off When you Buy any TWO Skinny Cow Bars. I used this coupon AND I had 2 $1 off One Skinny Cow Bars that I got from taking this silly survey: http://lol.skinnycow.com/. In total, that meant I got $3 off on 2 boxes of bars. The bars started at $3.49/box with 6 snacks in each box. Then you take $3 off, so it's almost like getting a box for FREE.  Total price PER candy is $0.33. WOW! BIG SAVINGS! WOO!

STEP THREE:

Once I have my coupons clipped from the paper and from Target Coupons. Then I go to www.coupons.com. This is a safe site with MANY deals! This is the one I use religiously and it's been great. Go through and pick the coupons you want to print, then send them right to the printer. Easy as pie!

STEP FOUR:

I have two websites that I check on a daily basis: http://hip2save.com/ AND http://www.totallytarget.com/. These people FOR THEIR JOB actually go to stores and find major deals. That takes a lot of time and effort off me. They alert you to deals and specials. I've had a LOT of success with this!

That's it, folks! I organize all of my coupons in a plain envelope. I don't have a binder or anything. I find it easier if everything is in the envelope then I just flick through and get my coupons out. My total today before I had coupons was $215.63. I saved $54.17 with coupons then got an additional $6.44 from using my Redcard. All told, I got weekly groceries PLUS stocked up on 100 Calorie Snack packs, fruit snacks, I got a Real Simple MAgazine (I have a 50 cent off coupon for it), a Paula Dean 12quart Stockpot for myself which was on sale for $25 (and I've been needing one for a long time), 12 Lean Cuisines, tortellini, egg beaters, iced coffee (International Delight), sausage, Tyson Grillers Chicken breast...and many more. I also used the $25 of free gift cards I got from stocking up on items last week...

My total?

Drumroll please...

$126.10

(Now if I could only get my weight there, haha).

 Hope everyone has a great day! If you have ANY QUESTIONS! Leave a message here and I'll be happy to answer them. Also, as I requested before, blogger ate all my blogs I used to follow so if you write a blog, please leave a link so I can add you to my reading list! Thanks!

P.P.S

Look at this sweet stockpot I scored for $25 bucks! I have needed one for a LONG time. And this one matches my pans!! LOVE Paula Dean! THis is still included in my 126.10 too! It's like I got it free with the giftcards I had from last week's trip!!!!!

LOVE!