Extreme Couponing......Healthy Shopping

So lately i've been OBSESSED with watching Extreme Couponing on TLC, now obviously I wouldn't purchase half the things that they do because it seems like a lot of what they purchase is very unhealthy...(Um   a wall of 2-liters????) 500 hundred boxes of  poptarts?? No thank you. Now one thing i'm horrible about is actually having a food budget set up, in the past I never had a grocery budget because I would spend all my money eating out and then just eat whatever was at my house that was quick and easy, But now that i'm older and trying to eat healthier I've determined I need to have a food budget, but how much is enough?? It seems like when I have tried having a food budget I always overspend or I end up buying food and then I eat out and the food goes to waste or I don't buy enough food and I run out of stuff really quickly, I've thought about going shopping weekly as opposed to bi-weekly or monthly. I wish that I could get into extreme couponing so that when I go i'll pay next to nothing for my groceries but lets face it most coupons are for pre-packaged, unhealthy items that I should not be eating, rarely do you see a big coupon for lean turkey or produce. I've thought about trying to find coupons for things like that but so far i've come up short. I personally try to shop mostly at Fred Meyer and Safeway just because of the fuel points, I probably shop at Safeway more though because their Just For U app is just amazing, I love getting special discounts on things that I buy constantly. For example a couple weeks ago I bought 2 packages of Jenny-O ground turkey, normally its $6.99 for a little over a pound of it but it was on sale for $5 Friday, and on top of that I got a digital coupon for another $1 off each package which means I got an amazing deal, I wish I would have bought more than 2 packages but when your on a tight budget you buy what you can. So that brings us back around to couponing and why it's important. Now I don't have the time or the patience to be an extreme couponer but; i'm attemping to try to atleast be somewhat of a couponer because lets face it, I am not a millionaire and I want my money to stretch. So back to the conundrum of me trying to decide if it's better to shop weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. How often do you shop for groceries? I think it's easier for me because well, there is just me i'm feeding. If I was in a larger family I probably would just shop monthly because trying to go to the grocery store weekly might be a hassle. Anyways, one thing I'm super excited for that is coming up next month would be the meal prep party i'm going to on March 8th, this will be the first one i've ever been to and i'm really looking forward to spending an afternoon with some awesome ladies AND making a month of dinners that all I will need to do is re-heat them up in the microwave. Can't beat that! Now one thing that is definitely a challenge while shopping is trying to avoid all of the unhealthy, processed, artery clogging food that is spread throughout the aisles, you really have to look at the labels of what your putting in your shopping cart, i've found soybean oil is in almost everything nowadays, which makes it really really tough to find healthy alternatives unless you head to Market of Choice, New Season's Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, all of which are not exactly down the street for me, If any of these places are close to you I highly suggest shopping at them, are they more expensive? Yes, but you can't put a price on your health. That fact is true. So what is your go-to healthy items that are aways on your grocery list? Personally mine is ground turkey, chicken and salad mix, I would love to just go into the store with an unlimited produce budget so that I could get all of the fruits and veggies that my heart desires...But...thats just me!

Crazy Week

It's amazing how quickly things can go downhill in a week, long story short this has been the worst week i've ever had in a very long time. Although I only got 1 run in I did make sure to do my challenges everyday that was required this week. But other than that I couldn't do much this week in regards to my fitness, I won't go into details but lets just say I have one of the best excuses in the world for being out of it this week and only wanting to sleep and cry. But anyways, I can't let things that have happened get me down so I am working on the next challenge for March/April and will be posting it soon in my group on Facebook, btw little shoutout to everyone in the group you guys are amazing!!!! I love seeing all the positivity and great attitudes in it! If your reading this and you want to be in the group just look up "From Fit to Fabulous Weightloss Support Group" and request to be added and I will be more than happy to add you! As for the challenges i'm doing now I am now halfway through and feeling fantastic, I haven't re-measured myself but I feel like some clothes are fitting a little bit looser now and I can feel it everywhere when i'm planking. Today it was 1.5 minutes and I was shaking and had to drop for a second and then get back up, it's hard to believe that when this is over i'll be able to plank 5 minutes! I feel like 1.5 minutes is an eternity so I can't imagine how 5 minutes will actually feel! I'm so ready to be fit and happy, I kinda feel special too because a whole new crop of fitness people have asked to follow me on instagram!!  LOVE IT!!! Well that's all I have to report for now....Check back next week!

10.3 is the way to be

This was a good week and it makes me excited for the weeks to come, as of today I've lost 10lbs, I did 10.3 miles this week, got my hair done, hottubed it up and had a girls weekend!! Ha ha I can't say that chuck e cheese is really considered a hot spot nowadays since they don't have a ball pit anymore (yes I know what is chuck e cheese without a ball pit?!?!?!) but we definitely had some fun and I can say it's probably the best form of birth control between the crying kids, the ones cracked out on cake and the ones who don't pay attention to where they are going and just run into you. Anyways before that my buddy Angela and I went for a run around wilsonville, 4.25 to be exact which means that I am 0.2 miles ahead in the challenge at this point, I told her we are champions because it would literally be pouring then stopping then sprinkling it couldn't make up it's mind, by the end of the run we were soaked and decided to run through a deep puddle to finish us off, but let's face it it's true if your waiting for perfect conditions you will never run. So this week I did 10.3 and next week I'm shooting for 18.0 miles, 6.0 miles x3 days  that is what im shooting for but as long as I do over 10 miles I will be happy, I want to push myself but not overdo it since I am only a couple weeks post op, I was excited because I got my ear warmers and my new nike to-shirt, that says bestest ever, just do it, I had to have it when I saw it lol it's definitely motivation! So onto my challenges I'm doing good I am definitely sore and I'm sticking with it, tomorrow is day 5 and my rest day which I am looking forward to. So anyways in more exciting news today I tried on a pair of nike workout pants that Brian bought me a little over a year ago and when he bought them they didn't fit as good as I liked and today I put them on and they fit amazing!!!!! Can't wait to wear them tomorrow on my run :) well that's it for today! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

                          New hair

                    Cheese ballin

                       Girls night 

                  Just a little rain

                         Awesome

30 Day Challenge Take 2

So it's been a little short of two weeks since my knee surgery and i've been chopping at the bit and today I started back at it after a short stint away, My gym membership is frozen until next month so what a more perfect time then to start 3 new 30 day challenges! I'll be doing a plank, squat and ab challenge, I found one that I really like because instead of progessively increasing it is completely random, one day I could be doing 50 squats and 90 abs and the next it could be 25 squats and 180 abs, I plan on mixing up the exercises as well, for example if it says do 50 squats I might do 25 regular squats and 25 plie squats just to mix it up, keep my body guessing. I've even created a calendar to help remind me to do my exercises each day and also keep my running schedule, yesterday my goal was to do 3.5 miles and I surpassed that goal!! I did 6.03 miles in less than 2 hours which is better than my last 6 mile run/walk time. I definitely pushed myself which I need to do more often, there is only 9 days left in my monthly challenge to do 30 miles in 30 days and as of right now i'm only 4.02 miles behind Brian, I may not reach 30 miles in 9 days but i'm sure going to do my best to atleast beat him ha ha. I love running, I just wish I could run longer (it's not just the knee, I seem to get winded easily so I have to stop and just walk to catch my breath) I know it's a work in process and in a year i'll be running long distances without stopping but for right now it sucks, I think my method that I use to run longer and longer is helping my endurance though, and i'm pretty proud because right now in Brian's neighborhood I can run from his house all the way to the first stop sign which is about 3 blocks. Essentially what I do is I pick a mark, a sign, a house, a bush whatever that up ahead in the distance and I tell myself run to there and stop, sometimes I keep running and I keep making my mark farther and farther away until I can't run anymore and then I stop and walk for a bit then start running again, i'm not sure if it has to do with the weather or my breathing (which is not as easy to control when your running btw all you new runners know what i'm talking about) I think weather does play a part and we Oregonians don't have a steady climate, one day its sunny the next its raining and then the day after that we get a snow storm. Running in cold weather is not easy and afterwards I feel like I just dry cleaned my lungs (not a pleasant feeling for sure) Either way it felt good to be out and running again, the only downside was the fact that the water fountains that are in downtown Oregon City were not working so I definitely was dying of thirst. At the end of it all I was sweaty, tired and I felt like I wanted to collapse but i'm glad I did it. I was planning on running today but its literally pouring outside as I type this and while I don't mind running in cold weather running in pouring down rain just isn't smart to me. I've only done my challenges for 2 days and i'm already feeling it, sore is definitely the new sexy and I cannot wait to re-measure myself! As of yesterday when I started my measurements were 46" hips 44" waist and 13.5" arms, part of me wants to re-configure my challenge schedule and add and arm challenge in there as well so that way i'll be covering all the major muscle groups. My arms are definitely one of my major trouble spots and while planking does help work your entire body I don't know if it will give me the desired results that i'm looking for if i'm only doing that whereas incorporating weighted arm exercises like tricep dips etc will help me get rid of the excessive amount of underarm fat I have.....lol. I'm ending this post on that note, can't wait to update you all in 28 days!!! :)

Here's the calendar I told you about!