(Originally posted on Chat with Sandy 12/30/10. I am bringing it back because I like these products. I am no longer a GT VIP blogger and I’m not getting compensated in any way for this post. But I do believe in these products and use them myself and wanted to let you know)

Has it Hit Your House Yet?

Cold & Flu  has hit mine… several times.  We have had colds, bronchitis, walking pneumonia, strep throat, sinus infection in the last 3 months between the 10 of us.

Not fun is it?  Yuck!!

What have I had?  I will tell you that I thought 2 different times that I was getting sick. But it was like 1 day of a little sore throat and then it was gone.  Last night was the first night that I wondered about a cold. My nose was stuffy, but so far today it seems fine.
You know.. I hate even writing this! Because as soon as I start bragging that I haven’t gotten sick… I’m going to get whammied!!

I was going to put this video at the end of this post….but I want you to see this.  Dr. Lindsay Duncan was on the View and did a great job explaining some of these… After the video… check out the rest of our adventure with these juices. Consider this a commercial break! lol

What have I been doing that the rest of my family hasn’t been?  I’ve been drinking Omega Orange Juice from Genesis Today.  Do I know that is why I haven’t been sick and they have been?  Nope, I don’t.  Could it be?  Sure…

My boys got home from the first 3 weeks of basic, both with congestion and the beginnings of colds and coughs.  I started them drinking the Omega Orange and also the Resveratrol, Acai juices along with taking the new Vitamin C and Acai chews that I received from them.

Neither of them have gotten worse like you would expect with a cold. They are both doing great. The first several days that took Nyquil at night and Dayquil during the day. But then that was it. About 3 days and they are better.  Again… can I say it is from the Genesis Today products that they are better?  No… I can’t.

We had several different juices from Genesis Today to try.  The favorite of my older boys (we were out of Omega Orange) was the Pomegrante & Berries with Resveratrol. We also tried the Cranberry Goji and the new Veggie Blast.

The Vitamin C chew has 200% of vitamin C in it, along with some other great stuff.  It tastes good, reminds me of a starburst piece of candy.

The Acai chew is the same size. The consistency is slightly different.  It is just a little firmer. The taste is very much the same as the Acai juice. It is a little tart, and I like to have my coffee to drink after I eat it.  It doesn’t taste bad, but my mouth is actually watering as I type this. lol

My thoughts on the new Cranberry Goji juice – taste wise, I don’t care for it. But… remember!!! The Genesis Today products are about the health benefits for you and what they can do… Let me tell you… the pure form of these things do not taste good. You can get the concentrated form and take 1 oz a day.. and it is terrible! But they have made these juices in a diluted 8 oz serving form that I get at Walmart. So those of us who want the health benefits but want a better taste.

The Veggie blast tastes like cold tomato soup.  I personally have never liked V-8 because of the peppery taste. The Veggie Blast did not have the peppery taste when I was drinking it. Now – what I did notice was an “after burn” in my throat – not really my tongue. Kind of strange really – but a good way to get your veggies in!

I have to start eating healthy and this year is going to be kicked off right. Genesis Today is going to be part of my healthy lifestyle for 2011 and beyond!

Disclosure: I am on the Genesis Today VIP Superfood blogger team. I did receive samples of the Veggie juice, Goji juice and chews to try. I was allowed to use the video if I wanted to (which I did). The pictures are my own and opinions are my own.

(Update 2012 – I’m no longer a GT blogger and did not get compensated with any product to repost this blog)

I’m Stuck!

Can I say that I’ve been doing the whole program perfectly though?  Nope..  I’ll be honest, I can’t.

I haven’t been exercising for one. That is a big thing that would help me.

I also have not been eating only the Nutrisystem food.  I’ve been on a medication that has been nauseating me .. a lot.  You would think that in itself would be great for losing weight .. wouldn’t you?  I would say that probably 5 out of the 7 mornings I’ve not been able to eat any breakfast.  Then lunch time nothing looks good to me.  I’ve been eating crackers to help keep the nausea down.  Then on the days that I don’t take the medication I tend to eat more than I should.
Some of the days it makes no sense at all with as little as I’ve eaten that I haven’t dropped way down.

This week has been very steady. From 190-191 all week.

I wanted to show you one of the dinners that was really good.  Notice this is a full size plate and it looks really full.   It was the glazed turkey.  The gravy was good, veggies were soft and cooked well, spices seemed natural (not too many spices to cover up plainness).

Ok.. ready for the scale shot?  Please notice that I finally got the little bit of nail polish off toenails. I had a friend who said when she first saw one of those pics that she thought it was a new way to wear your polish when she glanced. lol

Last week: 190.5 … This week – No change.
Total lost 10 pounds

I’m not excited about the next couple weeks when it comes to losing weight. I LOVE all the Christmas goodies… I mean love it. My boys are already asking me when I’m going to make the 7-layer cookies, fudge, toffee and buckeyes.  I have 8 kids that are excited for these Christmas treats that are a tradition in our family. I’m not going to just say to them that we aren’t to have what you are looking forward to because I’m trying to lose weight. That is just selfish.  But it will be resisting.

Tonight is my first Christmas party, next week I’m traveling for business and going to two Christmas parties while there.

Wish me luck to be strong!

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation. 

(This post was originally posted on Chat with Sandy on 12/26/10)

Feeding Large Families Can Be Expensive

With both of my older boys home we have been having meals with all ten of us.  I have been lucky in the sense that we have 8 children, but 3 of them don’t live with us anymore.  Mix that in with the fact that my 4 step children are only with us 1/2 the time, we don’t have that many meals with everyone home.

But for 2 weeks with them home from boot camp we have had and will be having many meals with everyone.  Finding meals that will feed all of us for not a boat load of money (and that are easy too) are pretty important.

I didn’t have any problem at all with doing a shop for Collective Bias for DiGiorno Pizza.

Off to Walmart I went on December 23rd to do some shopping.
I checked Consumer Queen’s Data base to see if I could find a coupon. No luck on that one…poo.

A sign of the holidays… isn’t it?  The store was really crowded.  I didn’t have any problems finding the frozen pizzas.  I was a little bummed that they didn’t have a vegetable pizza – that is my favorite. But I ended up getting a meat pizza, cheese and also a mushroom garlic. They cost $4.98 each.  Pretty good for a nice thick pizza like that don’t you think?

Dave had purchased a Red Baron pizza at Kroger the week before. It didn’t have nearly so many pepperoni’s and was much thinner. It wasn’t so good.  He told me that he was trying to decide between the DiGiorno and the Red Baron. I had to laugh because he had no idea I was going to be doing this shop for the DiGiorno the next week.  He picked the Red Baron because it was less expensive. He told me later he was sorry he did.

The pizza went over well.  I had several thoughts from my family.   Here they are:
1) “It was Great!”
2) “It was too doughy”
3) “The mushroom garlic was too garlicy”
4) “Make sure you get this again”
5) “I wish they had veggie”

I started out with 2 pizzas and 6 people.  My boys and Dave. Then Dave’s 4 kids came over and we popped in a 3rd one to cover us all.

Three self rising DiGiono pizza’s, 2 liters of pop and a bag of chips later, we had a lunch meal that fed us all.  The pizza’s cost $4.98 each, the 2 liters of pop cost $1.76 and the chips were $2.88.  Total cost of the meal:  $19.58 to feed 10 of us… for a total of $1.96 per person.  Pretty good!

Here is the whole gang… being goofy!  Thanks DiGiorno for the pizza!  lol

Disclosure:  Collective Bias compensated me for the pizza and shop. The pictures and the opinions are those of mine and my families.

I’m a Yo-Yo

Up and down and up and down.  I feel like I go down, then have a day or two that I’m not as good, and back up the weight goes, then I spend the rest of the week trying to get it back off.

The thing is, when I have something that isn’t Nutrisystem, I usually try to still really try to limit it, much more than I would have previously at least.  So in a sense I still feel like I’m not being terrible.  So why does the weight go up and down SO much?

Last week I was 191 the day after Thanksgiving. I think that weekend with left overs was worse than actual Thanksgiving.  I went back up to 195.  I then worked the rest of the week to get back down to my weight today.

190.5

I feel a bit discouraged. Christmas is coming up and I know all the good stuff that is going to tempt me.  I need to get exercising, but have I done that in the last couple weeks.. nope. I know, I shouldn’t be complaining then should I. I just need to do it.

I’m considering doing a Zumba Gold class with a friend. I’ve wanted to try Zumba, but knew that I would feel like a fool. I don’t dance and never have been able to, but always wanted to.  But I’ve been too self conscious to try.  But this is a class for baby boomers, and the girl who is taking it says everyone feels uncomfortable, that is part of what makes it nice.

Hopefully next week I can get out of these 190′s!

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Weighing in the Day After Thanksgiving Should Be Outlawed!

It sure wasn’t fun to have to weigh in today for Nutrisystem.   I did get my weight yesterday and then again today to show you (if there was a big difference.)

I got yelled at by my family for taking a picture of my plate and I was told to fill it up more.  I had more than enough to eat and I didnt’ finish eating all my dressing. I should have taken white meat (I know) but I LOVE the dark meat. I had a taste of the yams, a very small helping of the green bean casserole and 1 crescent roll  (without butter)

Now for my weigh in.

I weighted 191.0 today.  Last week I was: 193.5   I lost 2.5 pounds this week.

Yesterday I weighted 190.5, so I only gained 1/2 pound yesterday on Thanksgiving.   I mentioned the meal, but I also ate some desserts.  I had a very tiny slice of peanut butter pie, and another tiny slice of pumpkin (with whipped cream).  We ate around 1:30 pm.  We went over to my Dad’s house around 6pm. Of course the food from their afternoon meal came out for “left over” dinner.  I only had a small piece of chocolate cake. (I know!… that isn’t what I should have eaten.)

When we got home around 9pm I was really hungry, to the point I felt nauseated.  I didn’t want a whole meal from Nutrisystem, instead I opened a can of light chicken noodle soup and had that to calm my stomach.

The week prior had been a good one.  I wasn’t good about taking pictures of the food this week from Nutrisystem, but I’ll give you a surprise “good” pick and one that wasn’t very good.

I had the pancake mix this week.  I had thought that tiny package was only going to make about 2 quarter size pancakes by the look of it.  But it actually made me two very nice size pancakes. I didn’t feel like I was being “cheated” at all. I’m sorry I didn’t order some more of that this month (but will next month).

The item that I didn’t like at all and couldn’t even eat was the package (pantry version) of chicken salad.  It was in a packet and I had to squeeze it out (which kind of grossed me out). But the consistency was pasty and I scrapped it off my plate and didn’t eat it at all.

So the week went much better than I expected with Thanksgiving.  One holiday down, now the whole month of Christmas celebration torture is about to begin.

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Getting Back in the Groove

I’ve been home from my travels for 5 days now. I’ve gotten myself back into the routine I needed to…. well, not completely. I haven’t started my walking/running yet.  Planning on that for next week… honest! (I know.. that’s what they all say right?)

Ok.. here is the dealio -

Starting weight 200.5
Week 1 – 197
Week 2 – 193
Trip 1 – 4 day weekend
Week 3 -194.5
Trip 2 – 4 day weekend
Trip 3 (back to back) 5 day trip
Week 4 -when I got home
this last Monday am – 201.5!
Wow!! Gained it all back plus some. I know I had a lot of water weight on me. When I was in CO because of the altitude problems I didn’t take my diuretic at all. In AR I took it twice of the 5 days. That weight was just  5 mornings ago.  I have been back on my Nutrisystem and drinking water & taking my diuretic.

This morning I was 193.5!! I’m excited!  Sad that it is still up from 3 weeks ago, but glad that I was able to get it back down into reasonable range so fast after my trip.

I’m going to share some of the things I like to eat in the morning… muffins!

This is the chocolate muffin – love it! Doesn’t that look great? Only problem? It’s too small!  Not really, but I was used to being able to get those huge big muffins at the store. You know which ones I mean.  This one is much smaller than that.

You can see the size of it. Once you have cut down your intake, it really is enough.  This is what I had for breakfast the other morning. A banana, light fat free yogurt and the muffin. I also had 8 oz of skim milk and my coffee.  I was completely satisfied.  I could tell you that I actually felt too full (which was true) but you probably wouldn’t believe me.

This morning I had a banana nut muffin.  Because I felt too full yesterday with the banana and yogurt, I just had the muffin this morning, with my coffee.  It was enough too.

This muffin isn’t quite as moist as the chocolate muffin, but I still enjoyed it and it was still good.  It is the same size as the choc. one though.

For dinner the other night I had the mushroom risotto. I love risotto so was really excited about it.  The flavor was pretty good and the texture was thick and rich – but for me it was a little too spicy.  I ate the fat free cottage cheese with it to cut the spice. (remember.. for most people who aren’t spicy wimps it is probably fine). But combining the two of these together I got too full and couldn’t eat all of it.

Tonight for dinner I had the thick crust cheese pizza.  I forgot to get a picture of it before it was gone (sorry).  The crust is separate and you put the sauce and cheese on yourself. This way they can have it as a pantry food, and not frozen food.  I wasn’t super thrilled. The reason – the dough was a little damp on the bottom and very chewy.  I have another one to try and I think I will put it in the oven. I bet then it will be good. The flavor was good, everything else about it was good, but the chewy crust and the moisture – which I’m sure is the microwave part of it.

I’m frustrated this week that the first two weeks that I did so well when down the toilet when I went out of town for the three trips. But I can’t let it defeat me. I got back into this week and go things going again.

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Vacations and traveling = Ugh

So obviously I’m still in the mist of my almost two weeks of traveling. Do you think I’m doing well? Nope…. I’m not. It is going to be one of those … get home and be SO mad at myself – kind of things.

Dave and I traveled to Divide, CO and stayed at this awesome cabin with an altitude of 9,000 ft.  That started some of the issues with my eating. I had issues with altitude illness.  Headaches, and some nausea.  You would think the nausea was the kind that you don’t want to eat. Nope, mine was that I needed to eat something to feel better.  But I wanted more crackers, breads and things. Salad just sounded terrible to me.

The other factor for me was that I didn’t take my diuretic (water pill) when I was there.  I have been taking that for a couple months because I retain fluid (especially when I travel).  But because of the altitude I was advised to not take it if I could help it.

I didn’t go hog wild and eat everything, we had grapes to eat, fat free yogurt and cottage cheese in the cabin, but Dave and I split a dessert one night and I ate crackers several times.

I got on the scale on Wednesday morning and was back to 198 pounds.  ugh!!   If I was then staying home I wouldn’t have been as upset… but I left that same Wednesday morning for Arkansas.

I did pack some of my Nutrisystem food, but I haven’t been eating it.  (insert sad face here)   I look at the lunch time bars and I’d like to eat them as a snack in addition to my lunch, while others are snacking on cookies etc.  But I haven’t done that.

I still have turned down lots of good stuff, but certainly not everything. I’m eating a lot I shouldn’t be too.

For breakfast this morning there was a buffet breakfast at the hotel. I had them make me an omelet with veggies only, no cheese.  I ate that and a fat free yogurt for breakfast.  I know… egg white omelet would have been much better.

The rest of the day wasn’t so good.

This is classic travel/vacation #FoodFail for me.

Hoping next week will be more positive. I will get home on Sunday and will hopefully get my butt in gear on the treadmill again!

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Traveling and Maintaining

I think we all know how hard it is to eat well when your away from home.  I am in the middle of several trips.  The first five days were in Virginia visiting my sister and brother in law.  I drove my Dad and brother to visit.

Last week was a good week for me… this week – not as well. I gained 1.5 pounds from last week.  (plus I need a pedicure real bad.. lol) What scares me is the next two weeks is full of travel too…

I took a few lunches, breakfasts and a dinner with me for the trip. It was nice to have meals that I could travel with. I didn’t have to worry about a cooler.

The frustrating thing is that I was SO good! To realize what I would have normally have eaten!  First night we went to a Greek restaurant. My favorite thing ever at a Greek restaurant is spanakopita. Although it has spinach in it, it isn’t low cal!  I got a greek salad with chicken. (no cheese or croutons). I did have one bite of my Dad’s spanakopita though.

Dinner the next night was at a French restaurant.  I got lemon chicken breast. There was a side of fresh veggies with a fried potato cake on top. I took a little bite of the potato cake and gave the rest away (it was good!). I only ate half of my chicken breast, measure the amount by the palm of my hand. My sister and her friend got awesome looking desserts. I didn’t order one, but did have a bite of my sisters and a little bite of her friends.

Our last night was a homemade meal that my sister made. She is a vegetarian and eats healthier than I ever do! She made a whole slew of things! There were two kinds of mushrooms,

onions, peppers,

butternut squash – no butter, no cream or anything. It tasted a LOT like sweet potato casserole.

salmon,

steak, and small potatoes.

She didn’t use any butter or anything fattening to cook. She said she calls it “clean” food. A very healthy meal.  It was awesome.

My cousin’s wife brought some Russian desserts… now those are not “clean” or unfatting! lol But  I took a very small 1×2″ piece of each piece. The chocolate I had one bite and didn’t eat the 2nd bite. The other (not sure what it was) I did the same thing. One bite only.  Now the Napoleon… that was a different story. omg was it awesome! I had my little 2 bites, and then I did get a small 2×2 square, but it was only the bottom 1/3 of the piece. It is multi layered dessert.  That was the worse thing I ate the whole time I was there!

Yet when I got home on I weighed myself the next morning. I had gained 2 pounds!! Yuck!  I felt SO disciplined and was so proud of how good I was. So I have worked the rest of the week trying to get back off the 2 pounds.

The big problem is that I leave on Saturday for Denver for 5 days, get home for less than 24 hours and leave again on another trip (business) for another 5 days. I’m hoping I won’t end up back at day one after all this!

Exercise? Ok… I haven’t exercised this week either, and don’t know if I will again before I get back on the 13th.

It is hard to continue to “behave” when your away. There are so many temptations and you feel like, “this is vacation” so you want to give in. I just have to be strong!

Here are a few things that I had from Nutrisystem this week.  This is one of the lunches.

 Take off the lid. See the little very light little intended marks? That is the water line. It would be nice if this were marked a little better. It is kind of hard to see and I had a hard time believing this was the line I was looking for when I opened the first one.  Just add water, stir it up and microwave for 45 seconds.

  You stir it up good and let it sit for a couple minutes.  It is hot and I really like how they taste. A nice warm lunch. It is actually pretty filling too.

I had this for lunch today.  It was cheese and broccoli potatoes. You didn’t microwave it. You add boiling water and stir.  It was ok. I wasn’t super impressed. Kind of mushy (I know potatoes are mushy) but the favor wasn’t bad.  But I don’t think I’ll be picking it again.

This is one item I WILL be picking again. It is the peppermint cookie. Dessert time at night! Yum!

I will be packing some of my cookies for my trips.

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Couch to 1 Mile Revisited

We all know that we are supposed to exercise.  You have those people that do it everyday and love it. They feel good, they usually look good and they are healthy.  Then there are the rest of us. Those of us who WANT to want to exercise, but simply stated we don’t like to do it.  We come up with a million zillion excuses why we can’t.  Let’s see, for me…. something always ends up getting inflamed or injured and I have to stop, I don’t have the time and how about I don’t want to wake up the kids exercising before they get up. (actually I don’t use that one, but thought it was a good one to throw in for a 3rd option.)

I was told by the Doctor not to run until my heart rate could stay under 160 while walking a mile.  That threw me for a loop. I was actually enjoying my beginning phases of being able to run a mile.  I took off all last week.  To just walk a mile, that is boring, and takes longer in the morning. But I have revised my plan and have made it doable for me.

Here it is:

5 Min Warm up Walk at about 3.2 on the threadmill
60 second very slow jog 4.0 (this is a 15 min mile)
90 second walk 3.4

Alternating until 1 mile.

This isn’t much quicker than walking the mile, but when I go to the 4.0 on my treadmill it is too fast for me to walk. I have to go into jog position. It’s funny because I am actually feeling it more in my legs after I finish doing my workout this way than when I was doing a faster jog.

I’ve done this three times this week.  The next 3 weeks are going to be a lot of traveling for me, so I’m not sure how it will work into things, but I’ll try.

Food!!

I’m down to 193 pounds. I’ve lost 7.5 pounds in 12 days!!   I’m really excited about that!   This morning I am driving my Dad to VA to see my sister. I woke up at 4:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep. My hubby was leaving for work by 5:10. I laid there trying to decide if I was going to try to get another hour sleep because I was worried about driving 8 hours with only 5.5 hours of sleep, but I thought my body would probably feel better if I got up and exercised instead.  I feel great!

I’m going to go over some of the food I had this week. The good, the bad and the ugly. (just kidding) But I will tell you what I honestly thought of each item. Heck, everyone likes different things, so there is no way that someone is going to love every item they have.

One of the mornings I had the Breakfast Burrito.

 You just have to cut the end off it and mircrowave it.  It looked good and smelled good.  But I took the first bite and couldn’t eat anymore. Why? Because I am a spicy whimp!  I just can’t do spicy at all.  This was spicy, much too much for me. Now, for those of you who like it, I’m sure you’d love this.

Here are a few other things I tried this week.

The Chicken quesadilla was for lunch and I was scared it was going to be another adventure into spicy-ville.

It had just a touch of spicy, but not bad at all. I enjoyed it.  I had some fat free cottage cheese with it, and that really worked. The cottage cheese reminded me of the sour cream that I like to mix with mexican food, so I kind of ate it together.

One of the evenings we had one of Elise’s volleyball games and didn’t have much time for dinner. Dave picked up pizza on the way home. Ugh…. I knew that would be a killer. Pizza is so good.  BUT…. I jumped into my handy dandy freezer and popped out one of my lunch meals. I had it for dinner with the family.

While they were eating this….

I got to enjoy having pizza with them. Although mine varied just a bit in appearance, it really satisfied the craving for pizza and I didn’t have the desire to knock everyone out of the way and grab their pizza box and dive in!

I did learn that I liked the pizza better baked in the oven rather than microwaved. Although it still came out pretty good in the microwave, I liked the oven version better. I also prefer the turkey sausage pizza to this veggie one.

Experimenting with all the different foods is good the first month on the program. There are things I might not have tried normally, but find I really like them over what I thought I might like.

Eating Out

Dave and I tend to eat out a lot the week we don’t have his kids.  We don’t do a lot of fancy dining, but we might run to Subway or Roosters (chicken wings)

Since I’ve started the program we’ve actually gone out for several meals. Let me break down some of what I’ve done to manage these meals.

Japanese Steakhouse -

Ate all of the broth they brought out. I ate most of the salad. It was lettuce and they had already put on the dressing. I tried to work around the blob of dressing and get the “unaffected” lettuce, but didn’t eat it all.  In hindsight I should have told her to leave the dressing on the side for me, but I had no idea when they were bringing it out.

I ordered the chicken dinner. Of course he grilled everything in big blobs of butter. ugh.  I didn’t eat the shrimp, I gave that to my husband. When he served my chicken (huge amount) I gave my son about half of it right away.  I ate about half of what remained with a little bit of white rice (brown rice wasn’t an option and I knew I didn’t want to order the fried rice). I did try to eat more veggies. Even though they were cooked in some butter, they were better for me than the rest of the food in butter and I need more veggies. I then brought the rest home and my hubby had it for lunch the next day.

It was Dave’s birthday celebration, so they brought out one of those pineapples with the sparklers in it. I did eat several bites of the pineapple.

Subway

I got a 6″ sub on wheat bread with turkey breast, spinach lettuce, regular lettuce, tomatoes and mustard. I had a yogurt and water.

Roosters

Side salad without cheese, or crotons. I did get blue cheese dressing on the side. But I didn’t put it on my salad. I dipped my fork into the dressing and then took a bite. I ate all of the salad.

I ordered 5 all drum BBQ wings. I asked for a to-go box when we first sat down and put 2 of the wings into the box. So I only ate 3 wings.

I know each of these meals I ate more calories, fat etc, then I would have if I stayed home and had my Nutrisytem meal, but I also know that I have to be able to live a normal life and learn how to eat less.  Dave and I enjoy going out to eat and I know that will continue to be a part of our life after Nutrisystem. Being able to still enjoy these events are important.

I have not felt deprived this week.  I still need to work on more veggies (yuckie poo) though.

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Back Up – Back Up – Back Up!

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, it is really important to back up your information.  This is something that should be on your to do list routinely. It goes along with organizing your important information.

I’ve had a couple different external hard drives that I have tried over the years.  Guess what one I bought myself? I bought a Seagate. It was a 1T desk top model. I feel more secure with Seagate.  It wasn’t a sponsored thing, it was a…. research online, go to the store, check prices and storage options and pick out the 1T Seagate.

But I recently did get a Seagate Go Flex to try out!  Look at this thing… it is awesome! It is small and a fun color (would love a pink or lime green….. just sayin’ Seagate) and holds so much.

I have put it right next to my iphone so you can see the size.

This is a 500 GB hard drive!!!  I have backed up with this several times already. I currently have well over 20,000 pictures on my laptop and lots of videos! I just backed it up again today and I still have 243 GB of storage left.

What I love about this is how portable it is.  I can SO easily take this on my trips with me.  That is great for a couple of reasons.  The main one is because I like to back up my computer before I travel.  I often download pictures that I am taking on trips while I am on the trip and with this along I will be able to back up the new pictures and info before I travel home.

The other reason it is great is because if something would happen to my computer while I was away and I lost information on it, I would have all my info with me. Or even worse if my computer completely broke and there was something important I needed to do I would still have my info with me if I needed to borrow someone else’s computer.

This is thin and light weight too.

There is a lot of technical info I could look up and give you about it, but techie I am not. That is one of the reasons I like this.  I just plug it into my computer with the cord (by the way, that little bottom part by my hand detaches. There are different options that you can get for it… you can see those on the web site that I link to) and go to my time machine (I have a mac) and turn it on and it backs up. Simple .. simple

Here is a screen shot of the time machine when I started backing up today.

I will continue to back up with my desk top Seagate before I go on trips so I have a back up of this back up. But this is so nice to have with me. Just a piece of security.

I did receive this Go Flex from Seagate and MARS advertising. I was not asked to do a review or blog post and was not compensated financially.  I chose to do this post. I wanted to show it off and also encourage everyone to back up their computers.