Tag: coupons

Back On Weight Watchers with @Noom

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Health, Noom, Weight6 Comments

smart-ones

I have been eating Weight Watchers Smart Ones and using the Noom Weight Loss Coach on my Android phone since January this year and have lost 70lbs, but then I stopped eating the Smart Ones because we couldn’t afford them anymore.  Naturally I hit a plateau and haven’t been able to get out of it.  Not only that, but I have gained 5lbs UGH!  I refuse to let that happen, so I printed out 2 coupons today and we went to Food Maxx and I bought some more Smart Ones frozen meals.

These meals scan as green in the Noom app and they have been proven to be effective, I mean hello, look at me, I’ve clearly lost a lot of weight.  Here are my official before and after pictures.

before and after morro bay

All I keep hearing is that I’ve done so good for such a long time and how it’s okay to eat junk every once in a while, but all of a sudden every once in a while is daily.  No, every once in a while is once or twice a month, I can’t eat a burrito at the Mexican restaurant, then a McChicken sandwich the next day at the McDonald’s and the next day a bag of chips or a few cookies.  That’s not how “every once in a while” works.  I refuse to go back to the way I was.  I have worked too freaking hard to go back now.

I could say no, but here’s the thing.  I’ve been saying no for more than 7 months.  I’ve been saying yes lately because I miss those foods.  You can’t eat something your entire life and then all of a sudden stop and not miss them.  You wouldn’t be human if you did.  It’s natural to want something that makes you feel good or happy, and junk food really does make me happy lol.  Don’t ask me how or why, it just does.  Everyone has their own happy trigger, this is mine.  Some people are happy with alcohol, some are happy with drugs while others are happy with cigarettes, I’m happy with junk food.  It’s my addiction and I am trying to get away from it.

I haven’t stopped logging my food, but I do skip logging the bad things because I know I’m not supposed to be eating them so I ignore those calories, but I can’t do that.  If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.  So I’m logging everything and eating only food that is good for me.  The Michelina’s were yellow in the Noom app, the Weight Watchers are green.  No more cookies or crackers, if I want a snack I’m going to eat a banana.  We just bought 2 bunches of bananas, so I’m going to slice 2 of them up and freeze them so I can make banana ice cream later tonight for my snack.

I also have my bike back so I can start exercising again.  I don’t have any excuse to not eat healthy or to not exercise.  I want to be healthy and it starts with me learning to say no.  NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!  There, I said it.

I know the weight loss won’t come as fast as it did when I was 264lbs, but I hope it isn’t as slow as it has been over the last few months.  I really do want to get back down to the weight I was, which was 192, but I really would love to get down to my new goal weight which is 170lbs.  I know I can do it, I just have to have a lot of will power.  No, a ton of it.  I only have this one body so I have to be good to it.

Michelina’s are more affordable than Weight Watchers

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Food, Health, Noom, Weight3 Comments

michelinas zap ems

I have lost a total of 70lbs over the last 6 months with Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners and Noom.  Money is tight and I can no longer afford the luxury of paying $2 for the WW meals, so instead I had to do some research and find some other cheaper alternative with the same calories, fat and sodium as the Weight Watchers.

My partner of 19 years told me that we should buy the Michelina’s because they were half the price, but I insisted on the Weight Watchers for several reasons.  The first reason is because the Weight Watchers has the name Weight Watchers.  It’s psychological.  If you see it is a product for losing weight, you put it in your mind that if you ate that or Lean Cuisine that you are doing good.  Another reason was because they weighed more than the Michelina’s, so naturally you want more food, even if it was only 1-2oz difference.  My final reason is that the Weight Watchers show up as green in the Noom app while the Michelina’s show up as yellow.  Although, the pizza snacks show up as red.

So since times are tough and we don’t have the luxury anymore, I decided to start buying the Michelina’s.  They are $1.49 at Albertson’s, but they are currently on sale for 10 for $10.  I could be paying .97 cents at Food Maxx, but what’s 3 cents?  I also have coupons for $1 off 5, so if I use 2 coupons then I am really getting 10 for $8.  Not bad.  Although, I printed the coupons and went to the store without them.  Ooops.

michelinas lean gourmet I wrote a post about how the Weight Watchers are better than the Michelina’s Lean Gourmet which I still stand by.  The reason I don’t like the Lean Gourmet is because the sodium is really high and the calories aren’t that much lower than the Zap ‘ems.  They have more flavors in the Lean Gourmet too like the meat and potatoes, which is what I miss from the Weight Watchers.  The Lean Gourmet meals are good, but I have a huge issue with the sodium content.  The Lean Gourmet also show up as yellow in the Noom app, so they aren’t any better than the Zap ‘ems in that regard.

Not all of the Zap ‘ems have vegetables in them so what I’ll do is I will buy some frozen vegetables and when I open the Zap ‘ems, I will pour 1 cup worth on the top and then microwave it for double the amount of time suggested to make sure the frozen vegetables will have time to cook.  My favorite is spinach.  I’ve added broccoli and brussel sprouts too.  I would like to also buy some carrots and put those in there.  It just makes it that much more healthier in my mind and it gives me more food.

I don’t have that much more weight to lose to get down to my goal weight of 170lbs.  Last night I weighed myself at 192.8lbs, but today it went back up to 195 for some odd reason.  Last week on my weigh in day I was 193.6 so I would love to be 191 or 192 tomorrow, but we will see how it goes.  I just hope the switch from Weight Watchers to Michelina’s hasn’t made much of a difference, but I will find out tomorrow.

I am trying to buy a bicycle so I can exercise to help me lose weight, but the only way I can is if people help me out by buying a keychain, my hemp choker or bracelet or some earrings on my Etsy store.  You can use the coupon code NODOMA for 25% off.  It would really help me.  The keychains are cheap at $2 and the earrings are also cheap (inexpensive, not cheap) at $5.  It’s only a couple bucks, and they literally take hours to make each and I’m not asking for much for them.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

iPad Only Newspaper “The Daily” Starts Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

I am fortunate that I was able to wake up early this morning and that Darrin watches Fox News all the time so that I was able to watch this news story in the living room about “The Daily” for the iPad while eating my Honey Nut Cheerios.

Rupert Murdoch has announced this new app for the iPad that will give you your news every day for only .99 cents a week or $39 per year. That works out to just .14 cents per day. Remember when the newspaper was just .25 cents a day? You just load the app in your iPad and you get everything that you would normally get in your newspaper and then some.

Although, I wonder if it has any of your local news and features like local obituaries, classifieds, comics and things that are happening in your city, not just around the country and the world. If this replaces the newspaper, what will happen to all of those other cool features that came with the newspaper?  What about the coupons?  Will those just end up coming in the mail instead?

Well, besides losing local news, I envy anyone who has an iPad because it’s really cool and well worth the $39 per year price. They have news articles just like you would see in your newspaper but the exception is you also get color pictures on every article and sometimes even video instead of an image.

Here is a quote from VentureBeat.com where you can read the full story at:

“The Daily is not an island,” they said. You’ll be able to share stories on Facebook, Twitter and via email. You’ll also be able to record audio comments. The app features a built-in web browser, and certain pages also include Twitter feeds. There’s also an apps and games section to The Daily, which will link you directly to the iTunes Store.

The Daily will update throughout the day with breaking news as it happens so if you are at work and something is going on, you will know about it if you just so happen to be looking at it at the time.

I am not fortunate enough to own an iPad so this will be something that I will dream about for a very long time, at least long enough for the iPad to go down in price anyway. It looks like something that Darrin would find very useful where he can save tons of money and waste less paper since he loves to read the newspaper every day. Maybe he can charge an iPad for himself so he can get the Daily. It would be way easier than a new computer which he needs desperately anyway. Also he pays the same price per month that the iPad Daily charges per year so that’s something to think about.

If you have an iPad, let me know how the Daily looks. You get 2 weeks free thanks to Verizon so you have plenty of time to test it out.

Michael’s

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I know the economy is bad and most businesses are suffering greatly because of it.  I’ve gotten a coupon just about every day for the last 2 weeks from Michael’s.  This is a company who I hardly ever get coupons from but maybe 4 times a year.  They are so hard up for business they are practically giving away their merchandise just to keep their stores in business.

I really do have some things that I want to buy but I just can’t afford it.  I want to buy the wood burning kit along with some plain wood boxes and trays and round pieces of wood and rectangle and I would like the grease pencils that you use to color the wood when wood burning.

Wanting however and needing are 2 different things.  I can’t afford so I don’t need.  I want sure but do I need?  No.  I want them so I can learn how to do it so hopefully I can sell some stuff and make some extra money for the household but can I afford to find out if it’s my thing, if it’s not going to turn out to be another craft fad that I won’t be able to figure out and it will sit in the corner?  No.  I can’t afford to take that risk right now.

I think 6 months ago we were there so Darrin could buy some painting stuff and while we were there I bought some drawing stuff that was on clearance but I knew I wouldn’t get that into it so I didn’t buy much.  Needless to say I didn’t get much into it.  But I can see me using that as a tool to sketch out ideas for wood burning.  So who knows, I might not have wasted money on that stuff.  But for now, I did waste money on it because it sits in a drawer.

Sorry Michael’s, your name is my name but that just isn’t enough for me to be able to spend money to keep you afloat.  I really do wish this economy wasn’t in the toilet though because if it wasn’t believe me, I’d be there in a hot second buying stuff.

Oh, with this economy people aren’t going to buy art so buying wood burning stuff to make money isn’t going to work.  People are burning through their savings account to keep from becoming homeless, I highly doubt they are going to buy a wood slab with a picture of a horse or a dog on it.  And the people who still have their jobs are probably having to save all that they can just in case they lose their job.  Or their spouse is out of work so they are scraping by to make up for the loss of their wife or husband.

Hometown Buffet

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

On Sunday when Darrin got out of church we went to HomeTown Buffet and had “dinner” (they don’t have lunch on Sundays, only breakfast and dinner) and when we were standing in line I noticed they have a club.  If you go to http://www.buffet.com/eclub you can sign up and get coupons.  You get a coupon for a free meal (with the purchase of a meal) just for signing up.

Since it’s almost Chips birthday he got 2 coupons.  1 for signing up and 1 for his birthday so we got 3 coupons in total because I signed up too.  I love HomeTown Buffet because their food is so good.  All 3 of our coupons expire on 10/1/08 so we have 2 weeks.  His birthday coupon obviously we’re gonna use on his birthday.

Hometown Buffet

On By Michel McDonaldIn FoodLeave a comment

We love going to HomeTown Buffet and since it’s almost Chips birthday (September 23rd) I want to take him there for dinner.  I just signed up for their e-club so we both can get coupons for free meals lol.

When it’s your birthday they send you a coupon for a free meal so we’re going to take advantage of that.  Since I can’t afford to buy him a gift I’m giving him the gift of free food lol.  I’m not cheap, I just don’t have the money.  Besides I gave him an early birthday present already.  I wanted to save it for his birthday but I was too excited to give it to him lol.