So for October I am not weighing myself at all until October 31.. I weighed myself when I got up on October 1 and was 236.00. I am hoping to loose 10 pounds in the month.. so we shall see on October 31 as I don't plan to weigh myself until the end of the month..
For the month of October I am not going to weigh myself.. I have focused to much on the number on the scale of late and it keeps going up and down and I am finding myself weighing myself every day.. and getting upset when it doesn't go down.. and I have been up and down (by 1 or 2) every day..
So for October I am not weighing myself at all until October 31.. I weighed myself when I got up on October 1 and was 236.00. I am hoping to loose 10 pounds in the month.. so we shall see on October 31 as I don't plan to weigh myself until the end of the month..
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So I have been signed up as a member for the gym for about 4 weeks now.. close to a month. In the month of September I went a total of 10 times. That’s pretty good for me.. Worked my ass off each time to.. no half ass’ing.. We even did a couple of interval classes to. Also since going to the gym the BF and I have cut out a lot of junk food and eating much more healthy stuff and drinking a lot more water. We still indulge of course but not as often as before and only as a treat. I am cooking more things from scratch and have a great time doing it. The Food Network has lit a fire under my ass.. hahaha.
Since going to the gym for the past couple of weeks I have noticed small changes with myself. Small but I can notice them. For example I have noticed that my clothes feel looser.. not overly big but I can feel them hang more than before. My butt seems to have lifted slightly… Squats don’t hurt as much.. even going all the way to the ground.. and my chicken wing (arm flaps) are smaller.. this is very noticeable. Super excited about that.. I have also noticed that since drinking so much more water now my skin is amazing and I have had compliments from people that I look younger.. also I am sleeping much better at night. I have also noticed changes in the BF as well. He is toning up and sleeping better… so its working for both of us. I haven’t lost much in the way of the scale so I have a feeling my calorie intake is still a little high.. going to work on that one next.. but I don’t want to focus so much on the scale and more on how I feel and how my body feels. And So far its feeling good. The BF and I sat down with our calendars and penned in days we will be going to the gym.. which is a big step for us cause we were never like that.. I am still hopeful that this won’t fade and we will continue with this.. I know us and we tend to drop things when things get busy. But i t helps having a partner that has the same goals as me. Next steps is to go through all my recipes and cookbooks and start making a recipe binder. This will help us meal plan better, save money and ensure I will be getting enough food.. and also so I can cook things better and learn new things to cook.. That’s my goal for this weekend.. Well we did it.. the BF and I took the plunge and joined a local gym. We figured its time for us to get serious about this weight loss. Actually it was the BF’s idea to do this.. which surprised even me. I think he wanted to for two reasons.. first off at a company picnic the other week the BF won their door prize which was a three month membership to the Trevor Linden Fitness Centre.. and the other reason was a friend of his was hospitalized last weekend ending up almost in a diabetic coma because he doesn’t take care of himself at all. That’s a whole other story. I think it freaked out the BF a little bit. We sat down and talked about the possibility of working the gym membership into the budget. Its for our health. So we went down and joined up.. That was two weeks ago and already me and the BF have gone 7 times. Pretty good considering the both of us are confessed coach potatoes..
So far I have lost 1.5 pounds since going and I have noticed a slight decrease in my appearance. I don’t know how many inches lost cause I won’t measure myself. Actually the BF and i have been having fun at the gym.. its great to hang out and work out at the same time.. Having said that the BF and I have been on a really good health kick of late. We motivate each other and we are gym buddies.. which helps a lot. We have also been reading a lot about nutrition and health and watching documentaries about the same. Some really interesting stuff out there.. I have been hesitate to write anything about this plan for the last couple of weeks because I know me.. I get all excited about something and then write it on the blog and then nothing. I am not saying it’s the blog fault or whatnot I just don’t know why they happens.. I sometimes have a short attention span so to speak. Hopefully this time it will work.. I want to lose this weight and its nice to have a partner that is feeling the same. This week marks the time of year where people are returning to work, school starts (well in BC only some school has start) and people have realized that summer is pretty much over.. Something I noticed this week which I found funny is how full the fridge in the office is getting by people’s lunches. It reminds me of the first 2 weeks of the new year where people make a resolution to save money so they brown bag it.. I found this funny cause its almost the same now… people now realizing that with summer over its time to save money and/or eat healthy for the fall.. The fridge in the office if packed with peoples lunches. Even those people who seem to go out every day and purchase their lunch is bringing it in.
Funny thing is I have been doing that for months.. probably years.. I very rarely buy my lunch anymore cause I know how much it costs.. so although I find it funny and wonder how long it will last I do encourage people to do that.. after all saving money on the little things like lunches can save up big and im all for helping others save money This past weekend the BF and I went on a road trip to Walla Walla and Spokane Washington.. I think the BF and I have an addiction to travelling.. who knew LOL..
For the longest time I have always wanted to visit Walla Walla when I first heard the name as a reference to the Acme Factory from Bugs Bunny.. this was like a childhood bucket list thing here. Spokane was the second night as the BF had stayed there before and we needed a second place so we weren’t driving the entire weekend.. and the bonus was seeing parts of Washington State we have never seen before.. almost like middle America.. We had an absolute ball. I can understand why people road trip across the country.. it’s a lot of fun.. seeing new places we haven’t seen before.. stopping and/or driving through little towns in middle America. Even just me and the BF driving along talking and/or jamming to the CD playing in the stereo. On the way back from Spokane we stopped in this little town called Leavonworth for lunch.. the town had been created into like a little Germany.. such a neat little town and so friendly.. its things like that.. driving along and finding out about towns like that from locals.. While driving to Walla Walla and Spokane we found that we were on the Louis and Clarke trail and there were plenty of markers to stop off and get the history behind the trail.. even while driving back from Spokane (and not on the trial) there were many stops you could make and see the history of America. Very neat.. and I must say that rest stops in America are extremely well maintained. I have a new love for road trips.. In fact the BF and I are looking into our next one (I know I have an addiction). We managed to save heaps of money on this trip (which I will post in another post) and even came back with money.. Walla Walla didn’t have my Acme Factory but at least another notch is done on the budget list.. In my recent quest to save money, as well as help me and the environment I recently tried to make my own laundry soap which worked out well. That same night I also tried to make my own dishwasher tablets using pretty much the same ingredients. I am getting a little obsessed here.. LOL Anyway here is the recipe I used… http://www.budget101.com/myo-household-items/homemade-dishwasher-pellets-3916.html I decided to make a test batch and see how they go before making more. So essentially I used a cup of borax, cup of washing soda, ¼ cup of Epsom salts and lemon juice to make it stick… Here is are some pictures I took while doing this.. again I felt like I was creating magic and was singing tunes while doing this.. First I put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mixed. Then I added lemon juice.. one squirt from the bottle at a time, continuing to mix until the mixture became sticky and almost wet sand like… Then I put the mixture into old ice cube trys and left them on our patio during the day to dry out.. Next day when all dry I banged the try until they all came out. Some did crumble and others spilt but its totally workable. So there you have it.. these simple ingredents mixed together turned into this.. And how did they work you may be asking.. well i have to say.. AWESOME... i don't think our dishes came out so clean before.. and no film or food particules left behind.. this stuff works great..
I am not sure of the savings but i estimate that each bacth of 12 cost maybe.. $1.00.. i can live with that.. cause with all the ingredients left.. this will last forever.. Now onto the next project Since my desire to clean my entire house I have been also thinking of the amount of chemicals I used.. I mean its great to having a nice clean smelling house but I noticed that most of the smells are chemical related.. The BF mentioned that a friend of his has starting cleaning with Vinegar.. this I have heard about before just never thought to doing that. So I started doing some research on Green Cleaning.. so much information regarding so much useful hints, tips and tricks for cleaning the entire house with no harsh chemicals.. So I thought I would start off with one thing at a time. When the cleaning products I have start to get low I will convert into green.. so last night I started with making my own laundry detergent. I found a great “recipe” online that I thought I would try… http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html Basically one bar of soap, one cup of Borax and one cup of Washing soda. Mixed with Water.. I kinda of admit I felt like a mad scientist cooking this on my stove.. I even was making silly voices while doing this.. (never thought I would have so much fun making laundry detergent) So here are some photos I took.. First grate a bar of soap. I used the Dove and I find that doesn’t irritate the BF’s skin. Then put into put with a jug of water (I used a 2L coke bottle) Once the soap had dissolved into the water I added the dry ingredients (Borox and washing soda) and stirring until dissolved.. I think brought to a boil, took it off the heat and added a second bottle of water and stirred All these ingredients cooking.. Once cooled down, but still luke warm i transferred into the two bottles i had.. and PRESTO.. home made laundry detergent.. So bascially i turned these simple ingredents into this mixture of homemade laundry detergent..
I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet in the washing machine but if all goes well this will work just as well as store bought stuff.. except less harsher chemicals, better for the environment and me and saving me heaps of money.. this batch I worked out to be about $2.00 for the 4L. That works out to be about 50-80 a year in savings (for us two).. so the savings and health/enviro benefits are great.. Ill keep you updated on how it turns out.. next on the list. I also took a go at making homemade dishwashing tablets.. but ill post that in another post tomorrow.. UPDATE:.. the BF tried it out last night while I was out. He said it was one of the best clean he has seen in a while. The clothes turned out great. The test was his work shirts.. in his words “best I have seen then since I got them”.. so I think its save to say it works just as well (or in the eye of my BF much better) then store bought and much cheaper.. ill certainly keep using this.. I forgot how much fun coupoining can be.. between sales, coupons and having enough points on my Shopper's card to get free stuff, which some was added extra as it was spend your points event this weekend, the total retail price for all this above was $140.85 and i only paid $7.65.
I admit the majority came from using the points BUT still most for free.. yippeee.. and i bought almost all of what i need to start making my own cleaning products.. cheap and green.. Not sure what has got into me lately but I have been on a mission to spring clean my house. Apparently I got the spring clean bug 5 months to late.. haha..
But in all seriousness I am not sure what has motivated me so much over the last couple of days. I have been in such a frenzy to clean, organize and de-clutter my house. I guess it’s because I am sick of living like that. I mean my house isn’t dirty or anything its just lived in and full. We live in a small apartment and between both mine and the BF’s hobbies we just don’t have any room. I have been thinking about this for a while now (I even wrote a post about de-cluttering my closets and costumes a while back) but never seemed to get around it. Something always came up and got in the way. I think I just had enough and just went for it. But I have been on a roll of late.. Over the last eekend the BF went to stay with a friend over night for a boy’s weekend.... I wanted to start clearing up while he was out and for some reason once I got started I couldn’t stop.. I completely cleaned, scrubbed, organized and de-cluttered the bathroom and kitchen in two days.. chucked a bunch of stuff away I didn’t need.. Monday night I cleaned the bedroom. Tuesday night and last night I cleaned a section of the living area and tonight I will continue with that area… when I say clean the bedroom and living area I mean picking up all the stuff off the floor and putting away, sweeping, mopping if necessary and dusting. The living area is the kicker because there are many unfinished “box” projects there as I call them. (what a box project is, is basically is we would take a box that somehow accumulated stuff.. go through it to either chuck out, sell or repack and we would start a box while watching TV and then, for whatever reason not finish and then have a half empty box and stuff on the floor.. I am guilty of this to). Anyway. I have been so motivated to get the place cleaned and organized that I have put into my calendar times/days to continue with things to make sure it’s all done. Things like sort closet, go through craft corner, put at least two things up for day by today.. that kinda of thing. My BF thinks Im having some sort of crisis but it helping with the spring/summer clean up. I am determined to get this all done.. So let me update you on my money situation over the last month or so. Its seems that when it rains it poors.
We were doing so well paying of everything off and our debt was slowly making its way down… then I hit an issue. Well actually I gave in. The BF and I have been saving some money which would be going towards his eventual visa Application to Australia. At the beginning of April the BF came up with an idea that if we put that money on the credit card for our trip to New Orleans then if we had a real emergency we would have money to use it. For some reason I agreed with the idea that instead of using the debt payment plan to pay the card I would use that payment to put back into the ING fund. Everything was going fine until just before we left for this recent trip to Miami and I noticed that there was money on the card. I can’t even tell you how or where it all came from. Some of it was because I BF went through another one of his phases were “oh look have an empty card and I am out with friends.. let me by their dinner”.. believe me that didn’t go down to well.. but a lot of it was little thing that I can’t explain. And some of it was me… why… I don’t remember.. again all those little things added up. OH but the best part had yet to come.. so last Feb the BF borrowed his parents car for a trip and somehow the window got chipped. At the time they said don’t worry about it and they would get it fixed. Well that didn’t happen and their chip turned into a full on crack which they demanded the BF pay for.. I was Livid about this.. if they fixed it in Feb they wouldn’t have demanded $400.00 for it now.. (now I know where my BF gets it from).. anyway they had a huge fit which resulting in my BF and his dad not talking for the better part of June. So I just sucked it up and gave them $400 to pay for the window… SOO all in all if you look at the stats I may have added a extra line for the money still owed into the ING account (which I am determined to pay that back) but all in all its only about 600-700 more.. which now I think about it.. it’s a lot.. DAM On the plus side I saved enough in the debt repayment fund to pay off one card completely. I decided that since the interest is high and the fee to send money to Aussie land is pretty big, I would send that money to Aussie land to pay off one card in full. So its going up yet going down. My next goal is to continue to save and pay off the other Aussie card and then focus on paying back the ING account so we can get the BF’s visa organized. I guess this is what happens when you are having to much fun over the summer and interest and fees, but not putting money back on the card will do.. I can’t entirely blame the BF (well he did put a big chunk of it on the card) I did do some of it as well.. I knew that was a bad idea from the start but for some reason I said yes.. oh well.. just got to dust myself off and continue to pay it off.. One day I will be debt free… |
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