What's been going on

Okay, for any loyal followers of this blog (few if any), I'm sorry that I have taken a hiatus from posting. Part of the problem is that I have experienced a short blogger's burnout spell, and both my money-saving blog and my family blog have suffered. It hasn't helped that April has been a crazy-busy month with my wedding anniversary, my son's birthday, my husband's college finals, a weekend visiting the in-laws, a visit from my father, and a weekend visit from Great-Grandma included in the mix.

As an update on my weight loss, I am ashamed to admit that I fell off the wagon for about a week and a half. It started with a weekend trip to my in-laws. I was nervous to start with, because I would not be in charge of what food options there would be. The first dinner of the weekend, the whole family went out to eat at a favorite Chinese restaurant in which the food is served family-style. By family-style, I mean that each person orders one large entree, then all the entrees are placed in the middle of the table for everybody to share, family-style. So, it was impossible for me to order just a salad to enjoy for myself. Not only that, but the food was all divinely delicious, not to mention saturated in high-sodium soy sauce. I was hit from all sides, and my self-control went out the window. After dinner, my conscience-stricken husband and myself went for a 2-mile jog (right after starting, it started pouring, then hailing), which helped a little, but not much. Our Sunday dinner before we drove home was another sinfully delicious dinner, with turkey, potatoes, and all the strappings that go with it. Strike 2. Add that to the fact that I was away from my gym for the whole weekend, and it was Strike 3, I'm out.

Immediately upon returning home, my husband and I celebrated our 6-year wedding anniversary by eating out at a favorite Japanese restaurant. This time, we made more wise menu decisions, but still....

To make everything worse, I was only able to make it to the gym once last week. I normally go early in the morning, but there were some scheduling conflicts that prevented that last week. When this happens, I would usually go later in the day, and take my kids to the gym's daycare. However, with confirmed cases of swine flu in 2 of my neighboring counties, I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

So, I tightened my menu plan up this week, and returned to the gym earlier this week. I was vastly relieved to discover that over the 1.5 week break that I took, I still lost 1.2 lbs (bringing me officially over my halfway point), but I'm determined to do better!

Changes... and new Mr. Linky!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am making some changes in my lifestyle, and these changes influence my shopping habits, my cooking habits, my eating habits, and my budget.
New Priorities:
In the past my priorities have revolved around acquiring food storage, and keeping my grocery budget small. I wanted to purchase as much as I possibly could for about $50 each week, matching coupons with sale items. My weekly menu consisted of whatever I already had in my food storage combined with whatever I purchased on sale that week.
While being frugal and having food storage is still very important to me, my main priority has changed. I want my family and me to all be healthy. Buying refridgerated crescent rolls, pizza rolls, and pop tarts for pennies on the dollar may give the frugal side of me a thrill, but it is not healthy for my family.
New Goals:

• Weight Loss ~ My husband and I are both trying to lose weight right now. While neither of us would be considered cantidates for The Biggest Loser, we have both put on some pounds since our marriage almost 6 years ago. Because this is my blog, I will not be posting my husband's specific weight loss goals, but I aim to lose 25 lbs.
• Decreased Medical Expenses ~ My husband was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes before his 27th birthday (it is highly genetic in his family), as well as high blood pressure. His conditions require 5 separate and on-going prescriptions (including needles and test strips). Since we have started our united exercise and diet plan, he has already decreased his daily insulin intake by 25%! If we keep up with this, our prescription bill will go down dramatically.
• Budget ~ My grocery budget has been $50/week for some time now. I haven't always stayed within the budget, but I do try. However, I understand that it is probably impractical to feed a family of 4 healthy and nutritious meals for $50/week. For right now, I am increasing my weekly grocery budget to $75/week. I'm hoping that as I adapt to this new lifestyle of mine, and as I acquire a good stockpile of staples (olive oil, reduced sodium soy sauce, etc), I can eventually reduce my budget to $60/week.

New Strategy:

• Weight Loss ~ While my husband needs a greater calorie intake than I do, I am aiming for a maximum of 1400 calories a day, while hoping to keep it closer to 1200 (there were some specific calculations we did to come up with these numbers, based on our current weights). We are not following any specific diet plan (Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, etc), but just keeping our calories low and our fiber and protein high. We are each exercising at least 3 times a week, combining cardio with weight training.
• Menu ~ We are eating 3 meals each day, with 2 snacks in-between. Our children are 1 & 4, and they do not need to lose any weight, so while we are striving to feed them healthy food, we are not exactly putting them on the same diet that we are on. I am aiming to eat at least 50 g of protein each day, and 30 g of fiber. In each week, I am striving for 2 poultry dinners (chicken, turkey, etc), 2 meat dinners (lean beef, lean pork, etc), 1 seafood dinner, and 2 vegetarian dinners.
• Shopping ~ Because fresh produce often does not keep for very long, I will most likely be shopping at least twice a week. I will still be using coupons for all that I can, as well as beer rebates ( I live in a state in which no beer purchase is required to redeem rebates). Mostly, I will be watching for sales on meats and produce, and planning my meals around them. I will be using my wheat grinder and kitchenaid/ bread maker to make most of my bread products, although I am still a beginner in that area. I also possess a yogurt maker that I have never used, but am ready to experiment with.

This is new territory for me, and it will be challenging for me. I have never been athletic, and I have never been a lover of fruit (strange, I know). I am spending more time in the kitchen, experimenting with new foods and new recipes. I will return to posting my weekly menu, but because many of the meals I will be cooking come from cookbooks that are copyrighted, I will only be posting the recipe if I have altered it in any way. If I do not post the recipe, I will post the name of the cookbook and the page number, and if I use a receipe that I found on the internet (allrecipes.com), I will provide the link.

I NEED HELP FROM YOU!!! ~ As I mentioned above, I am a beginner with wheat grinding and bread making. Many of the recipes that I plan on trying call for whole wheat or multi-grain breads. If any of you have a great recipe that you love, please post the recipe on your blog, then share the address for your post (not the blog address) in Mr. Linky below. I am looking for recipes for any bread product: bread, pita bread, muffins, English muffins, bagels, tortillas, etc. Thank you for sharing!
Please include spaces in the Name field (ie: Ruth Saves Money, not ruthsavesmoney).

Where were the coupons?

I received a call on Monday morning from a friend (who also happens to be a neighbor, my visiting teacher, and a fellow coupon enthusiast). She asked me if I had received any coupons in my newspaper, because she hadn't. She was wondering if she should call and complain. So, I had the unpleasant job of informing her of the sad truth that coupons usually don't come in the newspaper on holiday weekend (last weekend was President's Day). So sad, but so true. For any couponers in Utah, HERE is the 2009 delivery schedule for coupons. Now you can always know what you should expect each week.

New converts!

If you can't tell by the fact that I have created a blog primarily to track my coupon savings, I'm a coupon-shopping-lover!!! And what do you do when you love something so much? You convert others to your crazy ways, of course! Within the last week, I believe I have converted 2 sisters-in-law and one mother-in-law (I really do only have one....) to coupon shopping, and it excites me that they are excited. I can't wait to hear about their success...
This really is just as satisfying to me as when I convert a new mom to the Baby Wise way, and she successfully gets her newborn to sleep through the night by 2 months. It just gives me warm fuzzies!
So, good luck to all you new couponers, and to all you new moms. Anybody interested in couponing (I have just reduced my weekly budget to $50) or in the Baby Wise method, leave me a comment, send me an e-mail, or give me a call.... I'll give you the scoop!