Getting with the program...

Hey party people!
The last couple weeks,  our eating habits have slipped a little and the weigh ins have reflected that (especially Kal in bad way, he loses big and gains big). So we've been hitting up the library lately for random books on doggies and health, etc...and I remembered I used to own an exercise/fitness book called "8 minutes in the morning" and decided I wanted to try it again. Kal is on board with me too! I think we'll do a bit better if we have some simple guidelines to follow (nothing super intense). So we checked out all 3 books in the series and we read through them. Jorge Cruise's (author) writing is almost too simple and can be a little repetitive but everything he writes makes sense and is really easy to do so far....which is great because I AM ONLY 2 POUNDS AWAY FROM MY LOWEST WEIGHT EVER! Exciting!!!!!

There are too many confessions over the past 2 weeks, I don't even know where to begin...so CLEAN SLATE! We are both on track and we'll see you on Saturday's weigh in!

Amanda

Weigh Ins, confessions, zorbing and saving $$ cooking at home!

Happy Monday morning everyone!

WEIGH INS
Weigh ins were bust this week. I gained 0.1kg (0.2 lbs) almost nothing...but up is up. Kal gained 2.7kg in what I suspect is mostly water-weight. When I arrived at Kal's place on Friday, we were both dehydrated from the weather and lower liquid consumption all week, so we were drinking more water, especially Kal. I have a feeling it will all even out for him next week.


CONFESSIONS
This weekend isn't lengthily but it is calorie-rich.
1. We baked a cheesecake! and it turned out fantastic! Neither of us had baked one before so we were surprised when it turned out exactly like the pictures on the internet. I found this great website with all sorts of delicious cheesecake recipes. We made the White Chocolate Cheesecake.It serves 12 and so far this weekend we've both had at least 2 pieces each.

2. Slushies! Kal was so sweaty and dehydrated after zorbing at Springbank park that we had to walk to Macs and get something to cool us both down. We both had a medium $1.69, not good for us, but it could have been worse considering we used to get larges.

3. Haagen-Dazs - the pints were on 2/$7 (half price) and after a pseudo argument over Kal telling me the not so great generic brand ice cream was his and not for "general consumption"...I decided he needed to taste a REAL ice cream experience. We didn't eat much (a little goes a long way) but he knows now...and next time he reaches for his shitty brand, he'll notice a huge difference.

4. We split a pepperoni on the way home from zorbing. I needed something salty but couldn't eat it all by myself.


ZORBING!
I did not partake but the boyish grin spread across Kal's face when he emerged a bit dizzy from the giant inflatable ball showed it was a good time. His boss had bought one online and had it shipped from HongKong and decided to let everyone give it a whirl. No pictures as of yet because we forgot the camera but someone will have some up soon and I will post (with permission) or link.


SAVING $$ COOKING AT HOME


So going over this week's receipt for groceries, I decided to do a little math of my own to see how much we are saving or spending on making our meals here instead of ordering in.

These are the main dishes we were shopping for and the total prices of their ingredients purchased this week (all HST and everything calculated) compared to take-out (including taxes and delivery when applicable).

Homemade Pizza & Breadsticks vs. PIZZA PIZZA large 2 topping with Bread Stix

                             AT HOME          TAKE-OUT

TOTAL COST                   $9.41                    $24.33
PER PERSON                     $4.70                    $12.16
PER SERVING                    $2.35                    $6.08
Total Savings of:               $14.92

Homemade Chinese:  Gingerbeef, Stir Fry Veggies & Chicken Fried Rice vs. Good Fortune Chinese Restaurant

                                       AT HOME         TAKE OUT
TOTAL COST                    $19.69                   $33.44
PER PERSON                      $9.80                     $16.72
PER SERVING                     $4.90                     $8.36
Total Savings of:                $13.75

Homemade 9" Vanilla Cheesecake vs. The Cakerie Plain 9" cheesecake
The initial cake included the price of one-time purchases like the Springform Pan ($10.15 after tax) and a bottle of almond extract ($3.69). The "per person" option doesn't count this week because I put it on my half of the groceries and paid for the ingredients with my PC points.

                                         INITIAL CAKE   AT HOME HEREAFTER               TAKE OUT
TOTAL COST                      $40.67                           $26.83                        $40.68         
PER PERSON                         N/A                             $13.41                        $20.34
PER SERVING                       $3.38                            $2.23                           $3.39
Total future savings of:      $13.85


OK I thinks that's it for this week! Eat well, have fun, be happy!

Amanda

Weigh-in stats, Garbonzo Bean Brownies and this weeks best coupon victory!

This was an AWESOME weekend for food and movies and other stuff!

We found an awesome recipe online by Clean Eating Machines that makes brownies out of Chick Peas...SERIOUSLY! and it works!! It cuts almost all the worrisome stats in half (calories, fat, sodium, etc) compared to a regular coffee shop brownie. We take no credit for the recipe but are going to play around with it a bit. For sweetener we used 1/3 cup of Splenda instead of Agave Juice or Syrup (Splenda liquefies when heated so it works well). This texture is a little more like a moist cake than a fudge-y brownie but honestly....they were good enough that I can def eat it in a chocolate craving crunch and be more than satisfied! Super easy , cheap and quick to make and bake...give it a try!!

Weigh ins went AMAZING this week!
Between me almost giving up my Iced Coffees all together, along with dumping my relationship with chocolate chips and keeping up with most of my walking...I lost...drumroll......1.1 KG (2.5 pounds) this week! That puts me at 227.5 and Kal had another big loss...1.6 KGS (3.5 lbs)!!!! Honestly..we were both really surprised. We have been eating super clean during the week, indulging a little on weekends and planning our meals more. We decide what we want to eat during the week, make a list and grocery shop together on Sundays. Its been saving us some $$ too I'm sure.

CONFESSIONS from this weekend: Kal and I shared half a box of snack crackers, split a McDonalds ice cream cone, and shared a Kit Kat chunky. We had pizza night on Friday and had a 10" baked panzerotti each. There were no samples at the grocery store except for fruit...which just led to us buying more fruit lol so that worked out. We tried a London-licious participating restaurant called Marienbad that serves Eastern European food and it was really good. We really wanted to try some new dishes. We tried Goulash soup which was DELICIOUS! Best soup/stew I have had in a really long time...Not really a confession but the cheesecake for dessert (me) and Chocolate Truffle cake (Kal) sure does count!!! lol

Best coupon victory this week was on ..........MAKE-UP!!
Mascara, lipstick and a few other cover girl products were on for 2/$9 ($4.50 compared to $6.99-9.99 each). Then I broke out the coupon I got online ($3 off when purchasing any 2 covergirl products) and BAM I got 2 name brand make-ups for $3 each!!! ROCK ON! I signed up for the P&G brandsaver program and it was like a week later I got 4 whole pages of coupons for things that regular people actually use lol. Its been pretty great.

Ok novel is over lol. Talk soon.
Amanda

Kal Quote of the Day: "Empty it? Why? The dishwasher is just another cupboard "
Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious.