Happy Thanksgiving & Totals!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope that you are reading this and enjoying your Thanksgiving day with friends and family. So I am done with the cooking prep, cleaned the house, and I am just waiting on the festivities to begin. I decided to add my receipt bag...yes I had a large grocery bag filled with my receipts. I am not where I thought I would be. I thought for sure I would be at least at 5000 saved but that is fine I haven't been as shopping "crazy" and saving as I would have liked but I am still using my coupons and saving money. But I have every bit of faith that this December and January I will save big time money in these 2 months. So for the months of September, October, November Total Retail $4932.47 Paid OOP $3053.77 Saved $2013.48 For a GRAND TOTAL savings so far since April when I started this $3794.94 saved just $6205.20 left until my goal of $10,000.00 saved!!!! That is basically saving $542.13 a month on average. I will take that! But I want to save more HAHA I am about to go open the Black Friday Ads. I have been holding them off until I finished this project of adding my receipts. My husband just gasped before when he saw a Best Buy ad with a 42 inch tv for 199.00 I have a feeling I know what he wants for Christmas but where would he put it he has a tv in every room! Happy Thanksgiving and be safe tonight if you are going out for some Black Friday shopping. Remember to tell the staff Thank you for all the hard work they put into this coming weekend. Many of them won't get to spend time with loved ones so we can get great deals. Michelle

Totals so far....

So I started a new job and it took a few weeks to get into my groove and to also keep up the momentum with the savings. I have kept shopping with coupons but I haven't been as diligent putting my receipts away. So I know that I am missing lots.

June
Paid 682.52
Retail 1121.90
SAVED 439.38 39% savings
But again this is missing quite a few receipts I am sure.

July
Paid 312.63 I know I spent way more so lots of receipts are missing
Retail 540.80
Saved 228.17 42% savings

August is a fun month already we have Super Doubles. So far for the first 10 days
Paid 267.13
Retail 512.68
Saved 245.55 47% Savings

I am back on track in the savings department and loving every minute of it still. I need to work on my stockpile. I am low on the following:
Pasta
Pasta Sauce
Veggies
Peanut Butter

We are pretty good on everything else so I am happy about that.

Gastric Bypass????

So when I started out years ago on my weight loss journey I thought of gastric bypass all the time. I went to a seminar and the Dr. was talking to me about lap band as I didn't have as much to lose and I was very scared of dying with Gastric Bypass. But when he heard I throw up easily he said no because the band might move when I throw up. So I got that idea out of my head. I have seen 3 friends have the surgery and each one is doing great. I used to think I need one more to do it and be fine and I will really consider it. Well I sent away for the paperwork from my insurance company. I would have to pay 150.00 copay to the Dr office and 150.00 co pay to the surgeon.....hello 300.00 total....I pay 480.00 well I would pay that to Weight Watchers if I stuck to it. But I just can't keep paying for a meeting that I get nothing out of. I don't like the leader at either meetings near us. We had a great leader when I lost the weight before. She moved away.....but I was with some moms and we were talking. It is crazy when you see someone physically fit and they say I will walk with you when you need to walk, I will push you when you can keep going I don't care about my time I care about you getting this weight off and keeping it off....it's crazy how much they care about me and don't want me to do the gastric bypass. So her husband wanted me to go to WW with him this am to weigh in. He just goes to weigh in I guess but I decided to ask a trainer at the gym to weigh me in weekly. It is cheaper and hell I value her feedback more vs. this lady who lost 20 lbs and is a WW Leader. Speak to me when you lost 100+ pounds and have walked in my shoes WW Leader! So they told me I need a support system and they offered to be that for me. I need it I never have been the type to say I need help. I always have been the type to say no I can do it even if it means I am up all night doing something that could easily have been done by 2 or 3 more people. So I accepted. It was nice to have that support because my husband really has no clue what I need in terms of support. So it is great having people cheer me on, scream at me to keep going, and knowing people believe in me that I can do this when lately I haven't been so sure myself.

I have the gastric bypass precertification papers in the mail to me. I am going to look them over and start the process and make a decision at a later date but at least I have them in case.

So WW Points Plus is what I am doing for nutrition. I am going to speak to a nutritionist as well. I want them to see what I am eating on WW and make sure that I am doing this the right way. Plus my exercise.....I have been beating myself up trying to do so much in the gym and if I go off course I feel bad and skip the gym. Well I realized today don't set any goals for a specific class or set time in the gym....JUST GO FOR 1 HOUR A DAY. If I have time for more great but if not 1 hour a day is going to do wonders for me mentally and physically I am sure.

I have been in a funk lately but I feel like things are coming together. I looked at myself in these past few weeks like what is wrong with me? Why did I put this weight back on? Why am I not at goal? Where did I stear off course and stop looking for the light at the end of the tunnel? I know that a setback isn't going to derail my desire to be healthy and skinny it is just a part of the journey. Maybe my journey will be years long who knows. All I know is that I need to be able to look back and say I did my best and show my kids that I tried my hardest.

So as I work towards that 100 lbs gone this year I am well on my way to the 10,000.00 in a year. I had a great month last month and I will post that update later tomorrow. I need to add up all my receipts!

Happy Tuesday Y'all!

The last 2 days

Ok I did pretty good on the 800 calories but I think I got more to 1000. LOL I am ok with that as I think 800 is a bit low. The 1000 I would say came from these 2 pretzels Erik made. I ate 2 of them and they were 120 calories. But I ate them at 9 at night and I was mad I ate after 6pm. So I am going to work on not eating after 6. This am I got up at 445 for the gym. I wanted to do Body Pump but I fell back asleep for a few minutes work up at 506 and realized I won't make the 515 class. But I was up and wanted to work out. I drove to the gym the sun was coming up and I said forget the gym I am going to walk the track. I walked 2 miles and came home. I wasn't sure what time it was at that point and it was very bright out. I knew I had to be home to get the kids at 730.
I stayed in work out mode and went back to the gym at 930 for Step class. This class is challenging to me because of all the choreography but I am sure it will get easier. So in class the room was so hot I was sweating like a beast I thought I was going to pass out. The instructor actually came back and asked me if it was all sweat LOL. I made it thru class and was so proud. Facebook is a great motivator because I posted about it staying in the gym for 5 days straight and 2 of my friends commented on it and how glad they were to see me. Day 1 down!
Tomorrow I will walk again since I know the sun comes up so early I like that vs. being inside the gym. I might even start the training for the marathon tomorrow I was going to wait until June 1st. But who knows maybe it will help. But I doubt it LMBO didn't help when I started training for the half. Tomorrow is Body Combat and Body Pump can't wait to get back to these classes again! YAY
I got on the scale this am no big change so I am not going to worry about that. I have to admit I am hungry on just 800 calories so I am drinking tons of water. Also going to the bathroom tons. Good thing I am frugal and get toilet paper dirt cheap HAHA
Heading in the direction of 100 lbs down for sure by the end of the year.

Diet Diet Diet

So I saw on FB a lady said she went from 311 to 150 lbs in a year. I had to email her of course LOL. She said she ate 800 calories a day under strict supervision of her Dr. Monday I am going to call my Dr. and get a appt. I want to do it. I am going to try to do it like this.

190 Slimfast Shake
100 calorie Slimfast Snack Bar
190 Slimfast Shake and I am going to add in a salad here
100 calorie apple
200 calorie Weight Watchers Meal

This with the salad will put me a little over 800 calories but I think that is ok. The lady I was talking with SHE DIDN'T WORK OUT! She said she waited until she got to the end of her journey and started to work out to tone up. Well I need to work out so maybe it will go faster.

So I will try this slimfast/800 calorie diet for the month and report back how it goes!

Coming out of my funk.....LOL

After I wrote that post this am I thought WOW I am really being a Debbie Downer I have so many things to be thankful for and happy. So I am going to post something HAPPY! Well happy for me at least.

It is 2:25 and I have not strayed from my Slim Fast Meal Plan. So I am not sure if I talked about this before. I watched GMA well I watch it daily it is my way of keeping up with what is going on in the world. So they reviewed the top 3 diet plans. Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and Slim Fast. Well surprisingly Weight Watchers came in last. It didn't do so well in the long term where Jenny Craig did. But Slim Fast beat WW and since I had some WW shakes ok we have 2 cases sitting in the outside fridge LMBO I decided to put them to good use. So I have had today.
1 Slim fast shake for bfast
1 Slim fast snack bar around 10 for a snack.
1 Slim fast shake for lunch and a apple with PB LOVE THAT!
I am going to carpool in a little bit so I am going to bring another snack bar and for dinner I am having a 500 calorie dinner. For snack I am eating a 100 calorie bar tonight a WW Ice Cream bar. I am going for 1500-1800 cal a day. My hubby thinks that is to low but I am going to see what it does. Oh and water OMG I am going to float away. I have been drinking water non stop. So I am excited things are going good today on the weight loss front HAHA

Frustration.....

So much in my life is not going where I want it to go.
My handbag company is causing me stress and anxiety. Daily I work on handbooks, brochures, order forms, consultant training docs but I am so scared to get a damn bag made. I am scared because I did this once before with a friend and we had each other to rely on for support and to vent. I really don't have anyone to throw ideas off of. It is very lonely and scary. Scary in the sense that when a consultant signs up I know having been in Direct Sales many years before starting my own company 5 years ago that you put all your dreams into your business. You set out and book parties, recruit consultants and many times they quit for one reason or another. I don't want the consultants to quit I want them to see that this is a company that I care about them and I hope with my help I can help them achieve a goal no matter how big or how small it is.
This who weight loss thing is causing me stress to the next level. I wanted to be at goal by this summer yet the scale keeps going up. I thought of gastric bypass for so long went to seminars in VA on it. I just was scared of death! A friend had it in January and lost 89 lbs already. Another friend had it previously she did great but put on some weight again. Another had it and looks fabulous and no complications for any of them. Well the one has a iron issue but hell she is skinny! I used to love going to the gym and working out what happened to me????? So I talked to my mom and my husband and a friend about it. I looked up the horror stories on the internet and well damn it that scared me out of it again. But what is it going to take?
The couponing is going great that is one highlight in my life. I am saving money and that is a good thing. We found our dream house in a town close to here. I went to bed and was thinking anything is possible. I CAN get all this weight off. I CAN have that house even if it isn't tomorrow I will one day be able to afford a house like this. I CAN start this company and help men and women achieve his or her own goals. But damn it what is wrong with me??? Why can't I believe it not just think it?
I used to be happy go lucky Michelle where is she when is she coming back?