The Sensible Mom

Losing the Baby Fat Weight Loss Update

March 29, 2013 by Sandra 10 Comments

It’s been almost 4 weeks since my last weight loss update, and since then I’ve lost 3.5 pounds. 🙂

I weighed myself this morning, and the scale showed that I’m currently 185 lbs. I was hoping that it would be at least 184.5 lbs., but I’ll take the 185 lbs.

Weight Loss Program

I mentioned in my last update post that I started using the Shaklee 180 program to help further my weight loss along this year, and so far it’s going very well. The Shaklee program is a weight loss program that uses natural ingredients and no GMOs, which I love. (GMO = genetically modified organisms)

It consists of meal bars, shakes (which are extremely versatile and delicious when you blend in fresh fruit), snack bars, and tea. I also get to enjoy meals with my family, which is important to me. I know a lot of my fellow Shaklee ladies are counting their calories on the Shaklee program, but I have chosen not to do that. I’ve decided that as long as I use the Shaklee program, eat sensibly, and continue to see results, I’m going to forgo calorie counting for now.

Accountability is Key

Along with using the Shaklee 180 program, I also now have two accountability partners who are encouraging me and helping me to stay on track with exercise. Intentional exercise is one of those things that, unfortunately, just doesn’t come naturally to me. 😉

I need accountability and someone to ASK me how I did with my exercise goal for the week. Because of my accountability girls, the treadmill and I have become reacquainted. We (my girls and I) email each other once a week to see how we did with the previous week’s goals. Overall, I’m trying to build accountability in my life in areas where I know I need it. Exercise is definitely one of those areas.

Results

And now here’s what my weight loss progress looks like for March:

Beginning weight: 192.5 lbs.

Current Weight: 185 lbs.

Goal Weight for 2013: 152.5 lbs.

# of total pounds I want to lose in 2013: 40 lbs.

# of pounds to go until I reach my goal: 32.5 lbs.

Total # of pounds lost to date: 7.5 lbs.

Overall, I’m happy with how my weight loss is coming along. Of course, I’d want it all to come off a lot faster, but that’s not how I put it on. I gained weight consistently over time, and now I need to lose it consistently over time. I’m averaging about one pound a week in weight loss, and I’m good with that.

How is your weight loss progress coming along?

P.S. I’ll be posting a video blog about my weight loss in a few days, so be watching out for that. It’s the first time I’ll have ever talked about losing weight on camera. It’s a little scary, but I’m hoping to share a little more of my story and encourage you, too.

This is a sponsored post as part of the Shaklee Corporation blogger program. I have received free products, online support, and incentives for participating. My opinions are my own. People following the weight-loss portion of the Shaklee 180™ Program can expect to lose 1-2 pounds per week.

A Mealtime Alternative When You Don’t Have Time to Cook

March 27, 2013 by Sandra Leave a Comment

We all have busy days.

Life is full, and sometimes my life is so full that I don’t have time to cook. I’m working on pruning my regular to-do list so that I can regularly do the things with my family and work that are the most fulfilling. I want to stop doing things and taking on projects that make me feel frustrated and busy all the time. I want to be able to say, “yes” to my kids more often and simply have more time to really connect with them individually.

I’m not ‘there’ yet, but I’m working on it. In the meantime, I need quick and easy meal options for busy days. Sometimes, leftovers are what’s for dinner at our house, but another good mealtime option is already prepared frozen meals. Frozen meals like Healthy Choice are far different from what I remember as a kid.

Did you know? For Healthy Choice meals, vegetables are picked at the peak of freshness and most go from farm to freezer within 24 hours.

Eating Foods I Like

Another reason I like frozen meals is that they give me the opportunity to eat something that if I made it at home, I’d be the ONLY person eating it. I live among picky eaters, whom I am ~~forcing~~ working hard to change, but it’s a work in progress.

I like that I can eat pineapple chicken while the rest of my family has something they like, and everyone is happy. 🙂

Weight Management

Of course, you probably already know that Healthy Choice meals can help with weight management, because they have the calorie content right on the front of the box, and there’s built-in portion control. I also like that there aren’t any preservatives, and there’s a variety of vegetables in Healthy Choice meals.

Overall, I love that frozen meals offer busy families a quick and easy alternative on busy days.

For mealtime, what works for you on busy days?

Watch an interesting video that follows two women as they…”Discover the Future of Frozen Foods”

More About Frozen Meals

ConAgra Foods frozen meals give families access to real ingredients like crunchy, freshly cut vegetables, homemade pasta and ripe fruit year-round. Just like most people blanch veggies before freezing them – ConAgra Foods does too – to help preserve color, texture and keep them fresh!

Give it a try sometime! Marie Callender’s hearty pot pies are filled with tender meat, freshly cut vegetables and Marie’s authentic golden, flaky crust. And Healthy Choice recipes use chef-inspired ingredients like, apples instead of sugar for tart sweetness and a splash of red wine for a punch of flavor instead of added salt.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of ConAgra Foods.

10 Goals for the Week

March 26, 2013 by Sandra 6 Comments

I missed updating and posting my goals last week. I did pretty well with getting my previous goals accomplished (thanks to adding them to my calendar), but I’m going to start fresh this week. 🙂

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Cook with Isaac and David

2. Continue taking Nathan and Breanna with me to the library — We’re trying out a new routine. My two oldest kids and I head to the library 3-4 days a week for 2-3 hours at a time. They do schoolwork, and I work. So far, I’m loving this new system. I think this will definitely work for our family long term.

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice 2 days this week

4. Read 10 pages of the book Desperate

5. Walk on the treadmill 4 days for at least 30 minutes each time

Home Management Goals:

6. Unpack one box

7. Clip coupons that continue to pile up

Business Goals:

8. Work on projects

9. Return emails

10. Write 4 blog posts

What are your goals for this week?

Walgreens Mobile App: How I used it to order prints to update my OLD and NEW picture frames

March 25, 2013 by Sandra 6 Comments

As a mom of five children, I have exactly 1,234,456 pictures of my kids.

Some of those pictures happen to be in pictures frames. And of the pictures that happen to be in picture frames, well, they may or may not be over 12 years old.

*cough*

You could say that I definitely need to refresh my frames. I don’t even look like that anymore. 😉 Neither does my husband, who reluctantly allowed me to post this picture of us. (Thanks, honey!)

And my son in these pictures is about to be a teenager in a couple of months. I think once our second child came around, I kept taking pictures, but I pretty much stopped refreshing my old frames with new pictures. Yes, it has been wonderful to look at these old pictures over and over again, but it’s time for an update.

How I updated my old picture frames

Thankfully, updating my old picture frames and even adding pictures to frames that I’d purchased and never put pictures into *cough* was easy with the Walgreens mobile app.

Did you know that you can actually order prints right from the mobile app? You can even preserve photos you’ve uploaded to Facebook and Instagram by ordering prints of those pictures using the mobile app. This is what is known as ‘Walgreens Innovation.’ They’re ahead of the game.

The Walgreens mobile app on the iPad

I used my iPad to order prints. I like to use the Walgreens app on my phone to check my Balance Rewards points, but I prefer to take pictures and order prints using my iPad. The kids had fun playing outside while I snapped pictures, and we ended up getting a lot of great shots of the kids to use in updating our picture frames.

After I had taken pictures with my iPad, I opened up the Walgreens mobile app and started uploading the pictures from my iPad using the mobile app. I ended up ordering forty-five 4×6 prints and two 5×7 prints.

I was even able to save money, because I used a coupon code that was right on the Walgreens website. I applied that coupon code right in the mobile app when placing my order for prints.

My trip to Walgreens to pick up the prints and new frames

I knew all of my prints would be ready quickly, so after I placed my order using the mobile app, one of the kids and I headed to the store to pick them up. While we were at the store, I noticed that Walgreens had picture frames on sale, too. They were ‘buy one get one FREE,’ so I grabbed four new frames. The more the merrier, right? David, my 4yr. old son who was with me, enjoyed helping me pick out new picture frames.

You can see my entire shopping trip in a Google+ story here.

After we had our frames, prints, and a few other items that were too good to pass up (like buy one get one free diapers), we checked out. I made sure to let the cashier know I that was in the Balance Rewards program and after I entered the phone number linked to my Balance Rewards account, I saw my total drop. 🙂 That made me happy.

Refreshing our old and new frames

After we got home, it wasn’t long before I got to work on switching out pictures.

The end result was a whole set of frames that have new and updated pictures in them. I think they turned out pretty great.

Actually, I love the way that they turned out. You can never have too many pictures of your children, and I’m thankful that I now have frames representing all five of mine.

Have you refreshed your picture frames recently?

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Walgreens #cbias #SocialFabric #HappyHealthy — All opinions are my own.

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