I love saving $

I guess most of us do but I know a lot of people who don't feel it is worth the effort to coupon.  Which is fine with me b/c that leaves more on the shelves for me when there are great sales.
Tuesday is typically my run errands/couponing day.  Sometimes, I am organized.  I know exactly what I want, my coupons are in order and I am all set.  Other days are more like today, where I had a general idea of what I was going to get but my coupons were all over the place and it felt a little more like work.  Plus, there was the Safeway $10/50 coupon which I sort of hate but feel compelled to use anyway.  I know there are people out there that can get their stores to take the $10 off before manufacturers coupons but I have been to 2 stores and they won't do it.  They say the computer does it for them and won't take it off unless I have $50 total and that exludes liquid diary:-(  Knowing this, and knowing I needed dog food which adds up quickly, I went ahead and used the dumb coupon.  But even though I was being careful, adding in my head the after sale/coupon price of things, I didn't count on 2 ecoupons that I had.  They were really good coupons (can I just say 24 rolls of Charmin for $6.95!) but it put me under.  So I quickly grabbed gum (buy 2 get 1 free Trident which my kids love) and yay, that put me at $50.43 so I could use the coupon and drop it to $40.43.  Phew. I still wish I could get my total under $40 but oh well.  I either gotta deal with it or don't use the coupon.

But, Albertson's.  Oh Albertson's.  I love them.  Never used to shop there b/c their ad is over the top with too much information.  And I still don't really look at the ad, I look at couponing blogs.  And this is what happens: (don't you just loovvee my new Fiestaware canisters?  They are so pretty!)

 

That's 5 boxes of pasta, 2 soy candles, 2 bottles of kids shampoo, 2 salsas, 2 Swiss Miss, 1 Finish dishwashing tabs, 1 package Halls: $4. 77.  It could have been $1 less had I not splurged in the Swiss Miss Capuccino but oh well, it was too tempting to pass up.  Quite honestly, I am not even sure how I did it.  I did have coupons for everything and 6 doublers and did this in 2 transactions (the cashier was awesome!).  The thing I love about this is that except for the hot chocolate, it is all either healthy stuff or household stuff that is needed.  One thing I don't like about couponing is seeing people get 20 boxes of fruit snacks for like $2.  Okay, really, do you need that many fruit snacks?  (Honestly, I did something like that a few months ago and haven't even touched the boxes, I think I am using them in Valentines for school).  But this shows you can get stuff you need and save lots of money.  And if I had been organized to begin with, it would have taken hardly any time at all.  

And just in case you were wondering, at Safeway, I did buy my normal groceries...eggs, milk, produce, yogurt, stuff like that.  So now I am set for the week because my pantry is full and I don't even have to go to Winco this week.  Which is super exciting!  I might have to go to Rite Aid on my way home from work instead.  I really like Rite Aid! :-) 

Word of the Year

     KLove has been talking about picking your word of the year that you want to represent yourself with.  How you want to live this upcoming year.  I wasn't actively trying to pick a word but a word kept popping up in my mind. 
     Intentional.  Being intentional with the things I do, how I spend my time, things I eat, my relationship with God.  All of it should be with intention.  I often feel as though I am just bumbling through life and I feel like I am missing so much.  I really want to take control of that this year.  So you might be seeing this word a lot in my blog as I am trying to incorporate it in my plans.   Hopefully at the end of this year, I will be able to look back and see that I have truly been intentional and actually accomplished a few things.
    

ARRRRRGGGHHH!

I feel better now.  It was a really great day as I posted previously until I put lotion on my hands and discovered a red streak going up my arm from my excema that won't heal.  I go to Immediate Care only to discover that not only do I have an infection but also probably something called herpetic whitlow.  Never heard of it?  Yeah, me neither but the doctor almost seemed excited and told me I was "the interesting case of the evening".  Great.  Medically, that is not what you want to be.  Apparently it is common in healthcare workers.  So how come I have never heard of it?
Anyway, back on antibiotics and antivirals.  I realize that I am not that sick.  There are lots of people who are way worse off that me but man this makes me look forward to heaven where we won't be tied to these imperfect bodies.

Success!

I know you are probably absolutely tired of my talking about staying away from sugar but today is a good day and I just wanted to encourage people who are trying this that there are good days involved.  Yesterday was really hard.  I think my withdrawls were strong.  I was cranky and tired and out of sorts.  But today is totally different.  I feel great actually and I didn't even exercise which always gives me a boost.  Plus I have lost 3 of the 5 pounds I gained over Christmas which makes me feel even better. 
Thanks to Sarah for giving me encouragement and telling me that it gets better after 3 days.  That gave me hope and she was absolutely right.

Testing my self control

This is day 2 of my limited sweet intake and while it has been easier in some ways, it has been a test of my self control.  I had a friend from church come over who wanted to learn how to make almond roca (really roca b/c we don't do nuts around here) and oh my is it hard to refrain from eating it.  There were several moments where I just wanted to pick up a crumb and pop it in my mouth.  But I refrained, for now at least.  Still trying to save my "cheats" because I know I will need at least one this weekend.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement, it really does make a difference.
I have sort of dropped the ball on asking for prayer requests the past couple of weeks but if anyone has something specific they want prayer for, please post a comment.  I love praying for you guys.
Now I am off to finish my smoothie in the hopes I can avoid that yummy looking roca.

Day 1

Can I just say how hard this first day of not eating sugar was.  It was ridiculously difficult.  I am honestly not sure how I am going to handle an entire month of this.  By 9 this morning I was craving sweets, first a mocha, then I would have taken any kind of candy or cookie or anything.  It didn't help that the ingredients I thought I had for dinner were nowhere to be found and I could think of nothing else so I had cold cereal.  In all honesty, I am trying to not count the cereal as one of my cheats but I think I have to, it was frosted miniwheats.  Which I love and think of as somewhat healthy cereal but they are "frosted".  Maybe I needed it to get me through my ice cream crave which happens right about now every night.  At least there is fiber and other good things for you in the shredded wheat aspect of frosted miniwheats.
I really wasn't planning on using my cheat today.  I thought for sure I could get away with one day without sweets.  Praying tomorrow is easier.  Plus I am planning on exercising which will hopefully help fight off cravings, I always feel better when I exercise.

January

Monthly goals.  That is my plan. We will see if I get through 12.  It is iffy but the idea for me with this is to not look too far ahead which is why I am doing this monthly.  So here goes January.
I love food.  I do.  I wish I didn't.  I wish I was like my dad who enjoys food but in the end can sort of take it or leave it.  Unfortunately, I didn't really quite get how much I loved food until recently.  As you know if you have read any of this blog lately, I have been sick a lot this fall.  Really the only benefit of getting sick, is that you just don't feel like eating.  Nothing sounds good.  The result is your stomach shrinks.  This happened to me.  I started losing weight. 
     Now, I have been exercising more regularly since my last child was born almost 4 years ago.  I even went through a period where I exercised 3-5 times a week.  That is a lot when you work, raise 3 kids, 2 pets and a husband.  I lost 2 sizes.  I did not go under my regular weight.  There was nothing I could do seemingly to lose a few extra pounds.  And just when I might have started to lose a pound, I stopped exercising.  Summer came, I got busy, it wasn't a priority.  That was almost 2 years ago.  Since then, I have fluctuated with my weight by a couple of pounds but never gone below that number.  Until this fall.  I lost a pound, then another and another and it became 5 pounds.  Amazing for me.  I wasn't exercising.  I hadn't exercised at all because of being sick but I was eating less.  And when I started feeling better, I made a conscious effort to continue to eat less.  And it felt good and I knew if I added exercise, it would be even better.
     Last week, we had pizza.  I ate 2 pieces and 1 cheesy bread.  And I felt full.  Full.  That is hardly any pizza.  I can usually eat way more than that.  But I was full.  And I felt kind of sad.  Because it was good and I wanted more.  I knew I should stop so I did.  But I had that moment of sadness and then a moment of realization at how much I really love food.  How silly to be sad because I couldn't eat more.  I should be happy.  After all, it helped me lose weight.  I don't need another piece of pizza.  That's when I realized how much I really loved food in an unhealthy way.  Something I needed to change.
     I have 1 more thing to add to the story. Stay with me....this does have something to do with my January resolution.   After Thanksgiving, when I still wasn't feeling well, I got kind of tired of goodies.  I think part of it was that I hadn't been eating them and part was that I got inundated with them with it being the holidays.  I started thinking maybe I should take a time out from sugar in January.  But I have to be honest, the thought kind of panics me.  I am not really an all or nothing kind of person.  The minute I start "depriving" myself, is the very minute I start wanting it more.  If it were health related I could do it.  I have done it.  I got rid of peanuts, peanut butter, all my favorite candies and cookies and recipes because of my sons allergy.  I can do it if I had to.  But the problem is, I don't really have to.  It isn't life or death.  But I still feel like I need to take a break from sugar.  So do I avoid it during the week and allow myself to eat it on the weekends, do I allow myself 1 day or 2?  These were things I have been thinking about and praying about because I know myself.  I needed a cheat.  And then it came to me, a cheat.  I need a cheat for myself to try this.  I know my body would be better in the long run to completely get rid of it, but my heart can't quite wrap itself around that.  Even just thinking about it this week, I think I have gained back the 5 pounds that I lost eating over Christmas and New Years. 
     So my January goals are: eat smaller portions and cut out sweets - with 4 cheats.  The cheat can be a mocha or a hershey's kiss or a cookie but each one will count and if I do it all on monday then I have to wait until the next monday rolls around.  I am starting this monday.  Feel free to pray for me:-)
     If you have any New Year's resolutions or weight loss issues that you want prayer for, please let me know.  I know what a struggle this can be and how helpful it is when people are supporting you through it.