Tuesday, December 18, 2012

With Love, Natasha

I just ordered a gorgeous barrette (it can be ordered as a headband too if that is what you prefer) from With Love, Natasha, a nice small business run out of her home so that she can be a stay-at-home-mommy. Natasha Combs owns it and makes the prettiest hair clips and headbands. She has other things as well. You must check out her facebook page. I do believe she also has an Instagram account as well. You can see a lot of her things on the facebook page. Just send her a message as to what you would like and she will give you pricing and stuff. She accepts PayPal too!! I personally love that!! These would make perfect last minute Christmas gifts from anyone from age 0-100!Check out her page today!! https//www.facebook.com/WithLoveNatasha Sorry about not putting a cute little link here but I am still trying to get used to my laptop and this windows 8 thing. Haha. :) This photo is of one her items, in fact, the one I ordered for my daughter for Christmas. When you do stop by her page, let me know here what it was you loved. I would love to know!!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Christmas in Florida

I am not sure I will ever get used to this warm weather for Christmas. Tonight we went to Sarasota to watch a Christmas light show and it was 75 degrees in the dark! We wore sweatshirts just in case it got chilly but ended up sweating. We moved here 6.5years ago and I am still homesick for the snow. I was thinking the other day about all of this. I sometimes get sad that we live in FL at Christmas time. I was trying to see the positives of it, and there are some, but, I think the biggest thing is that I realized that I can't share my nostalgia with my kids. they will not be able to have the same kinds of memories growing up that I did. No snowball fights, snowmen, snow forts. They won't be able to experience the fun and competition with the neighborhood kids of running from house to house shoveling driveways for $5 a drive. (we made a lot of money during those snowstorms). They won't be able to sit in anticipation in the wee hours of the morning with the radio on waiting for the announcement that there will be no school because of snow. Sledding, tubing, ice skating, snow covered pine trees... Awe... I have some precious memories. I guess I will have to make new traditions and memories that my children will cherish and reminisce on when they are older. I wanted to take a moment to remember all the families and people that were affected by the tragedy in Connecticut yesterday. I cried as I watched the news. It was an unthinkable thing.

Friday, December 14, 2012

I got a laptop for my birthday!

I think it will be much easier now to update my blog more often! I now have my own laptop and I love it!! It is basic but it has all that I need. I love my hubby and he knows me so well!!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

I did it!

I can't believe it but in 4 weeks i was able to get back down to the weight I was before I started to gain!! I lost about 12.5 pounds in the last 4 weeks and 4.8 of those were this week alone!! Now, I can start losing again and feel like every pound counts because I don't feel like I am starting all over again. It's a good feeling to be back on track. Unfortunately it is a crazy time of year to be dieting. Halloween candy, Thanksgiving, making Christmas goodies and going to Christmas parties... oh my. this is gonna be hard, but I started Weight Watcher's last year in October right before Halloween. I did well too. I lost consistently for about 3.5 months straight without one gain. So, if I could do it then, I can do it now. I will be strong. I fit better in my clothes again and that feels great! I have 12 pounds until I get to my Weight Watcher's lifetime goal! Yay, then it's FREE! I will continue on to lose another 10-20 after that but I will be happy with even 10 more after my lifetime goal. I was that weight when I got married and I was thin. I am 5' 11" and I think a size 6 is good for my height. I do want to get lower but if my body won't go that low I will be ok with it. I can't wait until I can start walking again. My stroller got a flat tire and we are having a terrible time finding an inner tube to fit. I would love to start running again but my neck and back still ache when I try. .(car accident again...grrr.) I will have to walk on my treadmill or do some Fios exercise programs or my Wii. I have some dvd's but I still have to be careful of my injuries from the accident. anyway, I am so excited to share about my weight loss and I hope to have inspired someone out there to not quit! I wanted to. I saw my weight creeping back up and I just couldn't track my food every week. I kept giving in to the candy and the cookies. (my weaknesses!) I made excuses, but when I saw the scale one day and a number popped up that I had not seen in just under a year, I panicked and knew I needed to get back on track NOW, not next week, NOW. before it was too late and I was back where I first started. That would have been discouraging to me and I know my husband who pays for my meetings every week, would have been mad. Well, it is late and I need to get to sleep. Sleep is important in weight loss too. So goodnight everyone. :)

Friday, September 14, 2012

Saving money and losing weight again!

I will start off by saying that I Bought $7.86 worth of nail polish and lip balm and got it all (tax included ) for $2.64 BUT, I got $2 back in Walgreens RR. Yay! I paid $.64 for all of it!!Not bad at all. I was struggling on Weight Watcher's for a few months now. I had a major stressor come about and I just about lost it completely. I wasn't able to eat right at all. I got so out of control on eating (or not eating) that I found it super hard to get back on track with Weight Watcher's. Well... for the last 2.5 weeks i have been counting and measuring and losing!! Lost 4.5 of the 15 I had gained. I am so happy. It feels good to be in control again. I am hoping to loose again this week. that will be 3 weeks in a row, this Tuesday. I have not exercised at all because my neck and back injury form the car accident a year and a half ago are really bothering me. But, I know that once I can start moving again it will be even greater!! Here is a photo of what I got tonight at Walgreen's for $.64!! Have a great night. xxoo.
From Drop Box

Friday, August 03, 2012

Still doing well in my weight loss!

I stayed on track with my food and tracked every point i ate last week. I even went to Red Lobster with my hubby and 2 of our kids and It was fabulous! I had a lobster tail and a couple stuffed mushrooms. I ate some salad with a vinaigrette and had about 5 Cheddar Bay biscuits!I was stuffed! But I tracked it all and exercised to gain more activity points and by Monday I still had a few points left over that I just couldn't eat (weekly points) because I had had enough food for the day. I went to my weigh-in on Tuesday night and lost 3.6 pounds! Woohoo! I was thrilled! See, tracking works. If I had not tracked my meals (including the Red Lobster gorge) I would not have worked a bit harder in exercise. I am determined to make this wok and lose the 12 I gained and then lose more til I get to goal. I felt empowered that i did it last week. It made things easier this week. This week I have stayed on track again. Today i had a nice large ice coffee with extra cream. (Usually I get the small with skim). I wanted to have that splurge because I know that I CAN. As long as I track it and work it off, I can have it. there is nothing I can't have! it's great! I used a few of my weekly points but that is OK because with all the activity points I have gained so far this week, I had not used any WP's (weekly points) at all. We are not planning on going out to eat this weekend so I am golden. I feel more fit and I feel more in control. I feel great! I will let oyu all know how it goes for Tuesdays Weigh-in. I also wanted to note that I have been taking the Relora still. I do really feel that it helps calm me. With less stress, it means less cortisol and less belly fat storage. I do not know if the Relora is helping me lose weight because I am losing just as I was before when I made sure I exercised and tracked my points, but, I do think it helps to calm me and that keeps me more focused, for sure. Thanks for reading!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Back on track!

I decided to stop taking the raspberry keytones. I took them for a few weeks now and...nothing. I think I used them as a crutch of sorts. I ate junk and thought that as long as I was taking these I would be OK. I stopped being conscious of what I was putting into my mouth and how much. I have, however, started taking another Dr. Oz recommended supplement called Relora. I do have to say I love this! It is NOT a magic diet pill. It has been said to help to reduce belly fat. It does this by reducing stress with natural herbs (green tea and stuff)and in turn with less stress you will have less of the cortisol. (stress hormone that causes us to gain belly fat and hold onto it) I have been taking 1 pill 3 times a day for a few days now and I do feel calmer. That is huge for me. I am a typical type A personality and I am always on edge but this really does make me able to sit and think and be calm. It is nice to feel calm. lol I have also started (last Friday) to workout regularly again. I have been doing a few miles a day for walking. I go about a 4.0 or 4.2 mph outside with a jogging stroller and my sweet little man in tow for about an hour. Some days I get in only 30 minutes but I have also been doing my EA Active fitness program for the Wii. That takes about 23-30 minutes and I get in a good cardio and weights workout in that to add to my 30 minutes of walking. My jeans that recently got really tight on me (depressing!) are starting to fit better again after only a week. I know I only gained back about 10 pounds of the weight I lost but you would be amazed at how much 10 pounds really is. And, when you stop working out your muscles get lazy and that makes a huge difference. In only a week I have seen a great improvement. That is motivating to me. I really feel like I can do this again. I was starting to feel defeated but, I think I am back! I still have to get those pics of that Pinterest project up for all to see. I have them on my phone and not in the computer and that is why it is taking so long. lol I have another project I am going to start soon. I can't wait for you all to see what I did. It was so fun and I felt so accomplished after doing it because it looked so good! Off to take the kids to the park. I got in my Wii stuff already and maybe we will do some Wii sports later. Time to chill at the park. :)

Thursday, July 19, 2012

My Pinterest obsession...

I am obsessed with pinterest crafts and organizing tips!! I love to sit and pin stuff all night while the kids are in bed and then I pick a couple crafts or organizing tips and plan on doing them over the weekend. I have actually done 2 projects so far. I want to blog about them and post the pictures. I forgot to take "before's" of the jars but I did take "during" pics so you can get the idea. I love how they came out!! More on that when I get the pictures up. That should happen very soon, by the way. ;) I did not get any pics of the before or during of the first project but it was almost the same as the jars. I can't wait to blog it!! I spent very little money. It cost me less than $10 for the items and about $8 for the spray paints. I do plan on doing another project this weekend or next and I will try so hard to remember to take before pictures as it should be dramatic! Stay tuned!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

It's a new day, it's a new week.

Yes, i got this from Weight Watcher's and all the commercials out there with Jennifer Huddson. It is so true though. I have to remind myself of this on a daily basis right now. I messed up in my diet for the past few weeks and gained back 10 pounds. I weighed in yesterday. I was disappointed in myself but, it's a new week. I can do this again and see a loss on Tuesday next week. YES I CAN! The Keytones were not really doing any good. i am still taking them as I paid for them and they can't hurt. But, I have not seen a difference. It could be that I went off my plan and ate lots of junk for the last few weeks, or it could be that they do not work. I really don't know. I ran a mile straight the other day! That is HUGE for me. I used to run races until a giant van rear-ended our car last year in April. Since them I had not been able to do much. but I ran a mile straight at a 4.5-5.o mph without stopping. I felt like I couldn't breath but I did it. I then walked the other 2 miles. I did try to run a 6.0 but the magnet (I am using a regular magnet for the treadmill key because my lovely children thought it was fun to play with the treadmill key and lost it) flew off the treadmill and stopped it short. I got back on and started again but walked a 4.0 til my cool down. I felt good for about 15 minutes and then the back and neck pain set in. I had ice and heat on it for the last 2 days. :S All in all, this week is better than the last 2 months have been. I did learn something though. I like to coupon and I like to see how much I can save every week, but... I take all the money I saved from my "allowance" (Hubby gives me a certain amount for gas and grocery every week) and I spend it all til it is gone and then I write checks from our account and get cash out because I don't have gas money left over. My husband didn't yell at me or anything but he is disappointed and I think he might not trust me with our accounts like I would like him to. I don't blame him but I need to be way more careful with my spending and being frivolous. i put a couple nice items up on craigslist today hoping to make up for some of the money I spent. I hope they sell. I am also hoping I can sell more of my Avon products from my website (totally taking advantage of my opportunity here!!) www.youravon.com/kbrobst so I can support my decorating habit and my pinterest crafting habit. lol. Well, I have to get back to my kiddos and get dinner prepared so we can eat BEFORE church tonight instead of super late. haha. So far my meals for the day are: Weight Watchers shake w/ fat free milk(4 PP) Publix Deluxe Seafood Salad 3/4 pound (9 PP) banana (0 PP) water and a coke zero. McD's small caramel latte (4 PP) I have 13 more points for my daily's and I still have not touched any of my 49 for the week. Doing well so far.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Raspberry Ketones--as seen on Dr. Oz.

I had seen the Doctor Oz show a couple months ago about raspberry ketones. He had a clip about Raspberry Ketones on there. He and this other doctor stated that the raspberry ketones shrink your fat cells (all over fat not just a concentrated area of the body) and break up the fat in your cells making it easier for your body to expel the fat. They said that you can eat regular raspberries and get the same effect as the concentrated ketones in the pill form, but, you would have to eat 90 pounds of raspberries a day. That is not only not realistic but it would add calories and sugar to your body making your body work that much harder to get rid of fat. They said that the pill form is a much more effective way and it is all natural as well. I have researched it and seen that there are people who have lost weight with little change in diet and exercise. I do note that they did try to eat differently and did Incorporate a little exercise, but, nothing extreme. Dr. Oz did state at the end of the show that we all need to be aware of what we are eating and taking these ketones are not a sure way to lose weight if you are not going to stop eating a ton of bad stuff. Everything in moderation. Exercise is also good for us and should never be ignored. I also saw that all the scientific research done was done on lab rats and mice not humans. Now, humans are not physiologically anything like mice or rats. But, like I said, I have seen testimonies of people who have said it works. the doctor on the Dr. Oz show said she had 2 patients on these and they lost a lot of weight and she had before and after pics to show. This doctor also said that people have seen results in as little as five days. I Bought some of the raspberry ketones today. I did it. I broke down and got them at GNC. They were $21 with my GNC Gold card. Not bad. We will see if there are results. I am still doing Weight Watchers of course. I have lost 30 pounds so far. (it was 39 but I stalled and then went off the plan for a couple months too so I gained after eating all the brownies and cookies I wanted!) I want to kick start things again so I am still tracking with Weight Watcher's and I will also take the raspberry Ketones. Dr. Oz says to take 100 mg a day. The capsules I have are 125 mg capsules and it says I can take 1-2 a day with meals but not to exceed 4 capsules a day. So today I took 2 at lunch (250mg) and then 2 at dinner. I may or may not go down to 1 at lunch and 1 at dinner. We shall see how it goes and I will definitely update here! Ciao XOXO

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Chia Coconut Mango Pudding. Chia, my new obsession!

(I took this with my cell and used Instagram. ) I recently made this Chia Mango Coconut pudding. I bought a big container of Chia after having seen it on the Dr. Oz show and realizing all the benefits of Chia. I love mango and I love Coconut so i thought I would try this. It was super easy to make and all I had to do was mix the ingredients and then let it sit over night so the Chia seeds could soak up as much of the liquid as possible. The outcome.... it was fabulous!!! Yum!!! I will definitely be making more chia puddings and smoothies soon. Super yummy and I know it is so good for my health that it is a win, win!! Here is the website for the mango Coconut chia pudding. It uses Almond milk and Coconut milk. Super good. I got the Stevia/vanilla in my local health food store where I got my chia seeds. here is the link. I found the recipe on Skinnytaste.com and I pinned it onto Pinterest. Chia Mango Coconut Pudding Enjoy!! Also if you want the recipe for the Dr. Oz Smoothie...here it is. You can find this and other recipes on doctoroz.com Chia Berry Smoothie 1/2 C unsweetened Almond milk 1 TBS chia seeds 1/4 C. frozen blueberries 1/4 banana 1/2 C. ice. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend til completely combined. This will be very thick. Enjoy!!

Thursday, February 02, 2012

I am down 33.2 pounds!

I am soooo happy to say that I am finally losing weight steadily! I started Weight Watcher's in October last year. Just before Halloween and all that yummy chocolate smell. I have been working hard, eating right and getting as much exercise as I can. With my migrains it makes it hard to do a whole lot sometimes. Plus the back and neck injury from the car accident.

I have been losing 2-3 pounds average a week. Some weeks I have only lost 1 or sometimes I lose 4! (4 this week!!) I took a 3 week break from all dieting and ate what I wanted at Christmas and 2 of those weeks I lost .5 pound each week. the third I lost nothing (but, I didn't gain either) I was shocked completely!! I could not believe whith what I had eaten that I could lose anything. I fully expected to gain. Just goes to show that when you lose at a healthy and slow pace you will be able to enjoy yourself and not have to worry about gaining a few pounds when you have a fun day and splurge.
My husband and I went to Red Lobster for dinner last week. I expected to go to Olive Garden. I looked up the local menu online. I figured out the points plus values of the food on the menu and chose a good sensible dinner that also looked really tastey and wrote it all down. I even planned on not eating the full entree, only half and taking half home to eat for lunch the next day. I was prepared and planned and did everything right. We get to Olive Garden and it is packed. We could not even find a parking space. We saw that Red Lobster was full too but had less waiting time, it was 7:30pm and we were starving. I was a little panicked because I had not prepared for Red Lobster. But I thought, Oh well, I want to enjoy myself. It is our 16 year Anniversary afterall.
We went in and waited for a table. It was 8pm by the time we were seated. We were ravinish. I had my trusty phone with me and I started looking up Red Lobster menu items on the Weight Watchers site. I found some smart choices and that is what I ate. I DID enjoy myself and ate things I love too. I had stuffed mushrooms with lots of cheese and lobster claw and crab in them.(Hubby ate half of the mushrooms) I had 2 (yes two) of the cheddar bay biscuits and a succulant Lobster tail with real butter to dip it in. I ate a salad with ranch dressing. It was soo good. I had to bring the baked potato home to eat the next day as I was stuffed after the Lobster tail. I knew I was ok with all that food because I made a smart choice with the Lobster Tail and I also made sure to exercise a lot more this week to give myself lots of activity points to use. I saved up my weekly's to use. I did well, stayed on my points and lost 4 pounds that week. I was happy. :D Weight Watcher's is not just a diet. It is a lifestyle change. It is a way of teaching you how to eat all the foods you love without saying "you can't eat this or that" and still lose weight and then maintain after. I feel like I eat a lot of food. When I am able to start to maintain I will have to eat more that I am now. I KNOW that I can maintain this for life.

Anyway, I am down 33.2 pounds and have another 27.8 to go!! I can do this!!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I love Holidays!!

I love the Holidays. I love to decorate my house and bake and have friends and family get togethers. It makes things hard when I am not living so close to family anymore but I make the best of it. We have some terrific friends where we are now and that makes it nice.

Christmas may be over for now but My anniversary is coming up on Friday so I decorated my facebook page with hearts and pink!! hehe. I am also searching Pinterest for fun Valentines ideas for the kids. I can't wait to make some fun goodies for the kids to bring to school. We will probably make some home-made Valentine cards this year. I found some great ideas that are cute and economical. :) I will take some pictures after we have made them.

Well, off to watch Seseme Street with my toddler and then get my treadmill on!! ;)