A Heavy Decision ...

I have a big decision to make ..
and I've called it a heavy decision as its about Weight Watchers ... 

Every month last year I was paying $54.90 for some random lady to weigh me and was rarely staying for the meeting part .. and then lost near to nothing ... 

This year the price has gone up to $58.50 per month .. and with me having decreased my work hours this year, I am re looking at my budget and wondering whether to continue with Weight Watchers.

I know that last time I quit Weight Watchers to do it on my own instead of paying some random to weigh me, I didn't end up losing and ended up putting on the weight again as I wasn't held accountable to weighing in each week ... where I am a little worried that will happen again this time .. but then it's all about ME and the will power to do it! and I will be accountable to myself and to my blog .. I will continue to put up a Weight Loss post every Saturday with a weigh in!

I have bought a Weight Watchers ProPoint Calulator so I can continue to work out points (from the nurtional values) without the use of my WW iPhone app, which I currently use to work out points. Without the iPhone app, or the online tools, all which I will lose access to if I leave Weight Watchers I will be unable to look up the point value of items that do not have the nutritional values stated on them, such as meat. Therefore if I leave, I will need to write down all the point values for items like that between now and then. 

Tonight I have been writing up my lunch items list, as my work lunches are usually a random combination of things of the list, such as yoghurt, sandwich/cruskits, fruit, Weight Watchers bars and other snacks.

I also plan to write up the ProPoint values for our favourite complete meals, such as Homemade Pizza and Stir-fry, which I plan to do whether I leave or not to make working out dinner points easier :)

 
I am currently paid up until the 25th of March, so I have until then to decide and will continue to attend meetings until then too ... 

Feel free to comment with your advice on what I should do ... 

and watch this space for a decision!!!

Keeping Atlas Cool

We have had some very hot weather here in Palmerston North over the last few days! Both yesterday and today it got up to 32 degrees! 

And while I know it's hot for us humans, I feel sorry for the animals .. We can cool off inside in front of a fan, take layers of clothes off, but animals can't do that .. so don't just think of your animals when it's winter and freezing outside, but think of them in this boiling hot weather too :)

We have done as much as possible to help Atlas
(who is now 5 months old & 25kgs) keep cool in this hot weather.

We swapped his water bowl for a large bucket, so now he always has enough water to drink, as before he would take just one drink and half the water would be gone! 

We also filled up a kids plastic seashell paddling pool with water, which lives under a tree, so he can cool off .. but as Atlas is not keen on getting in the water, he just uses it as an extra large water bowl!

When we are home, so we don't flood our back lawn, we put the sprinkler on, so Atlas has very fresh water to drink, and to help him (very) slowly get used to water and getting wet, he mainly uses the sprinkler to drink and is now putting his head in the water a little too. 

 

While on Pinterest a while back I found this awesome idea where you freeze a container of water with chicken stock, treats & toys inside to keep your dog entertained and cool in hot weather .. 

Now Mr Atlas just LOVES ice, so I thought I'd give this a go! 

Oh, now when I say he loves ice I really mean it .. Whenever he is inside and your in the kitchen he goes and sits by the freezer and waits, and even more so if you ever open the freezer. Because Atlas loves his ice we give him it as a treat, it's free, good for his teeth and it doesn't matter how much he has :) 

In Atlas's block of ice I put in a little chicken stock, a few treats and his rope toy. It took approx 24 hours to completely freeze, which meant I got to give it to him once I got home from work today and oh my goodness he LOVED it!!

The entire thing only lasted him 30 minutes because as soon as he gave it a first sniff & lick, he just chewed and chewed and chewed til it was all gone!

 

Another photo I just had to share ..
the angle of the photo makes him look HUGE!

Grant's 30th Halloween Birthday Party!

This was going to be my very next post, but I have been waiting on photo's from Grant's Dad who is more of a photographer than I am, still haven't got his photos but thought I would post this now anyways :)

The Birthday Boy - Grant 

  Grant only decided on his costume the week before his party. He originally wanted to go a Gomez Addams, but we didn't know if the costume he found online would fit, so he decides to go as "Michael Corleone" from the movie "The Godfather" he bought the Hat & Spenders on Trade Me and the Suit, Shirt & Tie from Hallensteins all the week before his party.

 

The Cake - Simply Scrumptious

The Cake - I had been a liker on Simply Scrumptious' Facebook page for a while when I saw her post a Wedding cake that had white skulls & red roses on it, so I contacted her about making Grant's cake, but instead of been a white 3 tier cake, being a black 1 tier cake. Isn't it amazing!!

ME ... Jewellery - Jane's Jewels NZ
 Hair, Make Up & Photography - Toxic Tina Creations

Now Me ... I decided and arranged my entire costume about three weeks before the party. I found these amazing wings online, which arrived two weeks before the party, I planned on wearing these with my black lace City Chic Dress and then made my necklace, and bought some new black studded high heel shoes to complete my outfit. 

I found Toxic Tina Creations on Facebook ages ago via a friend and just loved her make up and photography, so messaged her and arranged to have my hair and make up done, I thought that if I'm getting all done up I may as well get photos taken too, and I'm so glad I did, I just Love them!!!

& here are just a few more photos that were snapped from the party :)

My Bestie Nikole & I

Our Friends - David & Rachael

A Few Of The Decorations

Atlas Sound Asleep The Next Day, Completely Shattered From The Party
& Still Wearing His Bow Tie!

A Sprained Foot

Sprained my foot leaving my parents house at about 8.30pm on Wednesday night :( I was walking out their door, which is aluminum, so has door frame to step over & then steps to walk down, I adjusted my footing for stepping over the frame like I do every time I leave, but what I didn't adjust for is our big boy Atlas to be waiting on the step, which caused me to roll my foot! OUCH!

As soon as I got home I put my foot up and put ice on it. A long bump came up across my foot, I contacted my boss letting her know that I wouldn't be able to work the next day and iced my foot until the ice pack went warm.

 

The next morning, my whole foot was swollen and it hurt so much to walk so I called the doctor and got an appointment for that morning. Doctor said I had sprained my foot, he bandaged my foot up, and gave me a medical certificate to keep me off work till Monday. I was sent for an x-ray to check if I had fractured any bones in my foot. The x-ray came back normal but the radiologist wasn't surprised that with so much swelling that the doctor wanted to check it. 

I dropped off the medical certificate to my boss on my way home and got the usual not so happy response from her. Once home I settled in and got comfy with Mr Atlas, who took great care of me, and watched Gilmore Girls for the rest of the day. Friday was pretty much the same and got rather boring!

I have spent the weekend off my foot as much as I could, (hence why I did not attend my Weight Watchers meeting this week) the swelling has gone down a little, but the bruising is still shining bright! Working tomorrow should be interesting!

Too Many Takeaways ...

Am running a bit late with this weeks Weight Loss blog post, due to have my partner's 30th birthday party last night & having family stay!
(See next blog post for party photos!) 

Well weigh in was not exactly very good ... I put on 200grams :(

Now I could say that this was because I had two denist appointments which left half my face numb which meant I felt like crap and didn't eat .. but honestly it was properly more our dinner choices this week .. Too many takeaways!!

Palmerston North is completely shocking for takeaways, just on my drive to work, which is about 4.5kms there is a Burger King, Wendy's, Subway, McDonald's, Indian and KFC on the drive there!!! 

I heard a while back on the radio that Palmerston North has one of the highest Takeaway Restaurant to People ratio in New Zealand, now I can't guarantee that this is correct or what the actual numbers are but I would believe it!

Now I know that is no excuse at all and it's all about been too lazy to cook dinner, so it's going to change! I have made up a month's calender for our dinner menu, whether our dinner is pre-planned or decided at the time, it will be recorded on the calender, and will be displayed on the whiteboard in the kitchen where everyone can see it. I will also post it on here once the month is done!
Hopefully this will encourage us to cook dinner more often!!

Let's see how we go!! 

February Menu 2014 Template

One Month .. No Energy Drinks!

Weight Watchers Weigh In Today ... 100.5kgs
Meaning I lost 1.2kgs this week!!! Yay :)

My news years resolution for 2014 is to give up Energy Drinks! 

This news years resolution was made with my boss, and if she sees me with any type of energy drink I owe her $50! So this will be one new years resolution I will be keeping! As my boss she should be paying me, not me paying her!

My best friend Nikole, is also going to give up energy drinks this year, and we have a deal going that the first one to break it and have an energy drink, takes the other one out for dinner .. hmmm I must ask her how she is going!!

I used to have at least one a day, and when I say one a day, I mean the 500ml cans not the little 250ml ones!! My favourite and most common choice of Energy Drink would be V, the good ole original Green V!! Last year I did give up energy drinks at one point, but only latest three months without one, and then started drinking them again, not one every day but one every couple of days ..

This year though I have so far made it the entire month of January without any type of energy drink, but it hasn't been easy, I have definitely wanted one .. but resisted temptation and choose something else instead :) The trouble with that is that Coke, or another soft drink is just taking the energy drinks place .. so next on the plan is to reduce the soft drinks too!

But come on surely I can do this!!  

My Last V - 31/12/13