The Sensible Mom

Week 4 Weight Loss Update

February 7, 2011 by Sandra 2 Comments

I’m sorry I never updated you guys with my week 3 weight loss status, but I’m going to combine week 3 and week 4 in this post. The last time we spoke on the matter of weight loss, I weighed 222.5 lbs. Last Sunday, week 3 for me and my weigh-in day, I was 221 lbs. so I lost 1.5 lbs. for week 3. Progress!

Now onto this week’s results. For this week’s weigh-in, I was 220.5 lbs. Still progress, but I only lost half a pound. And I only have myself and the excessive frappes that I had last week to blame.

Seriously.

Ruben gave me a homemade frappe maker awhile back, and I normally use it maybe twice a month. But last week I kept craving them, and I gave into that craving too many times. I found a recipe for vanilla frappes since the caramel that I used to use for my beloved caramel frappes has artificial flavor in it. The frappes turned out wonderfully, and they were so good! The ingredients consisted of water, coffee grounds, ice, organic milk, vanilla, and raw sugar.

This week, though, in order to lose at least ONE pound, I’m not going to drink all those frappes, but instead get back to the healthy berry smoothies that I had been drinking. Our diet changes are still going well. I’ve tried several new recipes out of a raw foods cookbook that I checked out at the library, and they all turned out well. In fact, I will probably repeat them all again with exception of the cucumber avocado (cold) soup. It was okaaaayyy, but I know I won’t be making it again. We also made a delicious chocolate syrup that the kids loved! So good, and when you put it in the fridge for a few hours, it comes out with the consistency of fudge and even tastes like fudge. Add some nuts, and you’ve got a delicious and healthy fudge! I will definitely be experimenting with this recipe again.

Oh, and I almost forgot….the picture I had promised. Here I am on week three:

I’m going to post one picture of my progress per month so that you can see the changes. I’m also going to try to share more of our diet changes and even some recipes that have worked for us….as time allows.

In summary, though, I’ve lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks! Off to a great start!

So much for my New Year’s Goal

February 5, 2011 by Sandra 1 Comment

Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve taken a short blogging break over the last week two weeks, and that really threw off my New Year’s Goal of posting at least one post a day during 2011.

I’m here to jump back ON the wagon.

I’m back!

I actually didn’t intend on taking a break at all. It just sort of happened because of school and the web design program that I’m doing and life with all of its responsibilities. I normally blog in the morning, and I allowed my mornings to be taken up with other things. This morning I’m going to be heading off to workout at the fitness center at school, but I wanted to squeeze in a post before I left to let you know where I’ve been.

Classes at the community college are going well. I’m taking a course in Adobe Dreamweaver which I’m pretty familiar with (I took a class in this last semester through the graphic design department at school, and I learned a bunch of new uses for it with the web design program, too.), but it should be fun because towards the middle of the semester, we are actually going to create a web site for a real non-profit company.

I’m also taking a class that teaches on Web 2.0 technologies, things like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc… Can you believe I get to take a CLASS on this stuff?! And it’s a credited class that is REQUIRED for my major! Yay! So far, this class has been fun, and I’m looking forward to what I’ll be learning about podcasting and video, too. The best part is that we have to create a blog for this class, and the teacher has approved for me to use this blog. I can continue to post whatever content that I want, but I will have to write some posts for class on certain articles that we are required to read. I’ll do my best to link to the article (the first article that we have to read has something to do with facebook), and make things interesting.

Other than those two classes, I’m also taking an online PHP class which is interesting, but it requires a HEAP of reading. I’m using the time I spend exercising to read for that class. And I’ve filled up a few credit hours with exercise classes. This has allowed me to be able to work at getting to a healthy weight while reading my Bible or a book from my Bookin’ It list for part of the time, and then the PHP textbook for the remainder of the time. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it you’re not sure what PHP is, it is a programming language. WordPress runs on PHP, and so do many other websites. This is the reason I want to learn it.

I also know that I haven’t updated you on my weight loss, but I’m going to. I will try to get that post up later today.

I hope everyone has a great Saturday!

Sensible Blogging: Where to start?

January 25, 2011 by Sandra 3 Comments

At the beginning of the month, I was planning on offering a web design tip or tutorial every Tuesday. I hadn’t started yet because I wasn’t quite sure where I should start, but after thinking it over, I’m simply going to start with a series on blogging in general. Where to start? What’s the difference between Blogger and WordPress? Do I need a domain? How do I buy a domain? And answering other similar questions like these.

This week I’m going to answer the question “Where do I start?”

How do you start a blog? Well, first off, you need an idea or a main topic that you’ll be blogging about. In order to narrow this down some questions you might ask yourself would be:

What would I like to blog about? (For example, family and parenting, homemaking, frugal living, or scrapbooking.)

What are my passions and interests?

Do I have a hobby that I could share with the world?

Is there a gap in some area that I could fill in with my knowledge and expertise?

What would my niche be?

Once you know what you want to blog about you’ll need to ask yourself a few more very important questions:

Have I researched this area well?

What is my motivation for blogging?

Do I have time for a blog, and how will I fit posting into my daily life?

Have I discussed this idea with others for their input, and what do they think?

After you’ve researched your idea and you know what you want to blog about, it’s time to decide on a name for your blog. This can be tough because there are so many blogs already out there that there’s a good chance someone else has already thought of the name you’d like for your blog. I ran into this problem back when I started blogging two years ago. I was starting a frugal blog on coupons, deals, and saving money, and well….let’s just say there’s no lack of these types of fabulous blogs out there. Finding a great name that someone else hadn’t already chosen was a bit challenging, but I finally came up with “A Lot of Savings” and stuck with it.

I started my first blog on Blogger, so, before I had purchased my own domain (we’ll discuss how to do this in the coming weeks), I used blogger’s free domain of www.alotofsavings.blogspot.com. Please notice that my domain name (www.alotofsavings.blogspot.com) was the same as the title of my blog, A Lot of Savings.

May I please suggest that you always try to keep the title of your blog the same as the domain name of your blog? For example, don’t title your blog “Happy Mom” and have your domain name be www.threekidsandme.com. Sure you could do this, but why? It makes it harder for readers to remember your domain name if you do? If your blog is titled “Happy Mom,” then make your domain name, www.happymom.com or if you haven’t yet purchase your own domain, www.happymom.blogspot.com or www.happymom.wordpress.com. Having the title of your blog and your domain name the same from the beginning makes a lot of sense and helps readers to find your blog and refer it to others easily. And that’s what we want, right? 🙂

Next week, I’ll discuss the differences between blogger, wordpress.com, and wordpress.org, to help you decide which platform is the best fit for you.

Make It Happen Monday!

January 24, 2011 by Sandra Leave a Comment

I made up our February family calendar last night.

You can scrape me off the floor on February 23rd.

Seriously.

We or should I say mainly *I* will be extremely busy in February. I’ll be finishing up a web design program that I’ve been doing since the end of December, and going to school at night at the local community college (two nights a week). Doing the web design program has been easy so far because it’s been mainly review of things I learned last semester at the community college, but starting on February 1st, it’s going to get a lot harder because for the month of February, I’ll be learning JavaScript and Flash, two things I don’t have much experience using.

The web design program ends February 22, and I’ll feel a whole lot better after that. My head may be ready to explode, but I’ll be happy to have the program completed and be able to concentrate on other classes I’m taking at the community college. I’ll be glad to finally know how to use Flash and JavaScript, too.

This week our schedule is full but manageable.

Here’s my to-do list for the week:

:: make out grocery list for Whole Foods to shop on Tuesday (I saved $10 there last week using coupons!)

:: work on blog design project that I never got to last week (must finish!)

:: workout at the fitness center two days this week

:: go to library with kids and check out new books plus pick up book on hold

:: look for a recipe and make cookies with Isaac

:: cook with David

That’s it! Happy Monday!

For more Make It Happen Monday or to link-up your own to-do list, please visit Domestically Obsessed!

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