Cut the Sugar!

If you are trying to cut sugar out of your diet you may be miffed by the few, and mostly artificial, products on the market. It's hard to cook, bake, and eat healthy when everything these days seems to be artificial.

Which is why I love NuNatural products and was thrilled to sample and review a few of their new items! 

Their Stevia is 100% natural and best of all is non-bitter (I was turned off by Stevia previously by a very bitter and nasty after taste...NuNatural Stevia does not have this!). There are so many options to choose from too...packets (perfect for coffee or tea or a sprinkle on foods), liquid, powder, and now their simple syrup.

The syrup has become a new favorite in our house, especially the cocoa and cocoa mint. This can be used in so many ways but in our house a quick glass of chocolate milk or an ice cream topping is our favorite use for it. The store bought counter parts are filled with high fructose corn syrup, sugar, artificial flavor, and a bunch of unpronounceable things. I'm going to experiment with this to come up with some awesome baked goodies as well.

The new NuStevia Liquid Extracts are amazing as well! These are actual extracts of lemon, orange, peppermint, cherry, and vanilla! Not only are they easy for flavoring your water (think Crystal Light without the chemicals and colors!), but also other beverages and for all your baking needs. Can you imagine cupcake frosting made with NuStevia Liquid Cherry Vanilla?! Or Christmas mints made from their peppermint liquid?! Poppy seed bread drizzled with an icing made with the orange liquid? 

I've been sampling these products since August and am only at the beginning of my ideas of what to make with these. You can basically transform your snacking, baking, and cooking needs with these sweeteners. Think holiday baking coming up! I hope to showcase some of my future creations on here (yes, I need to get back into posting more recipes!).

You can save 15% on NuNaturals orders by using code BLG1214

4 of you lucky readers can win a Prize Package from NuNaturals just by entering the Rafflecopter below! Each winner will receive: one bottle of the Vanilla Stevia Liquid,  a 50 pkt box of NuStevia White Stevia Powder Packets, PLUS a bottle of NuStevia no carbs blend, and a bottle of cocoa syrup. With a retail value of  $50.00 , plus a free bonus product! Open to readers worldwide; P.O. Boxes not allowed. Come back daily to win, contest ends on October 9th.
    
a Rafflecopter giveaway
  Disclaimer: Products given to me by NuNaturals in exchange for my honest review. Product giveaway supplied by NuNaturals.

This Week

*First and foremost, Jacob has been having pain in his side and has been short of breath the past week. Our Hospice nurse yesterday said that he has restricted airflow to the bottom part of his left lung. The doctors put him on antibiotics and we are praying that it is just an infection that will clear up with this medicine and not effects from the tumors. He just received the second dose of antibiotics tonight but his breathing seemed more labored today (with him getting quite out of breath just walking up the stairs). I pray to see an improvement tomorrow or the next day. Please keep him in your prayers. The majority of his updates are on his Facebook page.

*I am doing well on Lose It and am down a pound this week. I noticed my real problem is sweets - I crave them all the time, more so when I am stressed (which is a lot lately). Any suggestions on how to curb the sweet tooth?

*I'm trying out the facial oil that I received in a subscription box. It's only day 2 so I'm not sure what the effects will be but it seems so wrong to put oil on skin that already gets so oily. Rumor has it that by using oil on the face it makes your face less oily and less prone to breakouts? I don't know how that works but it will be interesting to see and with the major breakouts since Amy's birth I can use all the help I can get - my skin feels like a teenager's again (not in a good way!).

*The kids finished up their reading log at the library and are now on the bonus reading logs. I'm loving their love of reading this summer. 

*I donated two more full bags of items to the charity shop this past week and have another bag started. I know I've said it before but I really want to be ruthless with what goes and what stays. With four kids with different hobbies and interests it is hard to pair down our belongings. It's getting there though - just slowly!
 

Menu Help

I've done a poor job with grocery shopping and meal planning recently. It's gotten to the point that hubby and I were running to the store several times a week to pick up meal items here and there. That wasn't working for the budget and we never seemed to have any good food in the house.

In the December issue of All You magazine (found at Walmart), starting on page 48 is a week's worth of healthy meals...breakfast through supper. This is the first time that I've found a week's worth of meals in a magazine that doesn't include weird foods or recipes that my family wouldn't try. Every single meal looks easy and healthy.

The best part is that it took the guess work out for my meal planning this week. I made a shopping list for every single food item and went shopping. Our menu will start tomorrow and last us a week (we will skip a day on Thursday for Thanksgiving). This was an awesome help and I'm just passing it along to all of you in case you are in a cooking rut and need a little jump start to get back on track.

For example of how easy this meal plan is, tomorrow our menu is:

Breakfast:
1 hard-boiled egg, 2 slices whole-wheat toast with 1 T. peanut butter, 1/2 grapefruit, 1 cup coffee (for me; milk for the kids)

Lunch:
2 slices whole-wheat bread with tuna salad, baby carrots, yogurt

Snack:
banana

Dinner:
Whole wheat penne with meat sauce, lettuce salad with tomato and cucumber, milk

Snack:
Pudding

While this meal plan is for low fat and counts calories, I adjusted it for us by not buying the low-fat or fat-free items suggested. There are some new recipes included in this menu and it will take the guess work out of this next week for me!

Chug It

I started over again today. While my goal to lose weight was made 18 days ago, I didn't lose a single pound. There were days that I tried and then days that I didn't. Getting sick didn't help the matter.

Today I told myself that it was time to really stick to my guns and start getting myself slimmer. I went to the grocery store and picked up healthy meals and snacks (lots of fruit and vegetables!). For breakfast I had two bananas (I got up late and wasn't real hungry), for lunch I had a bowl of chili leftover from last night, for a snack I had an ice cream cone (I couldn't resist! And I don't feel you should deprive yourself of a yummy treat once in awhile). For supper we had homemade pizza and broccoli salad. I'm stuffed and feel as though I did pretty well.

Another thing I started today was drinking.

Water, that is. I'm not a huge water drinker, especially in the winter, so it's hard to force myself to drink throughout the day. I can easily (and joyfully) drink a mug or two of hot tea throughout the day but besides that I was lucky to get in a glass of milk and a few sips of water.

I dug this water bottle out of the cupboard. It holds 24 oz. so my goal is to drink two bottles a day (that, along with my cup of tea and glass of milk should meet my goal). I allowed myself to put one Crystal Light Pure lemon powder in my first bottle and that was easy to get down. The second bottle is pure water and since I'm keeping it handy I notice that it's easy to not forget to drink.

Whether it works for weight loss or not is something yet to be seen for me. But, I know getting enough water will improve my health, and that is the most important thing, right?

Sort It Out

I've fallen off the wagon. Since Thursday evening I've shut down my menu plan and my weight loss plans. Today I'm back on track.

Wednesday evening I started coming down with a cold. I stayed on course on Thursday with the menu plan and rearranging our bedroom for the new mattress that we purchased which was set to arrive that day (yes, we finally upgraded to a new queen size mattress after 10 years on the same full size bed!). By the end of the day I was completely exhausted and my cold only continued to get worse.

Since Friday I've taken it easy and did the bare minimum. I did awake today feeling better and have gotten back on track with the laundry and general pick up of the house.

So how have my goals progressed this past week? I weighed in this morning and have not lost one single pound. I expected that though, as exercise as been out of the picture and the eating the past two days has been less then stellar. I will start over again this week and hope to see a bit of a difference.

The menu stalled out after a couple days. I did find that on Thursday when still at the beginning of the cold I was able to cook three meals that day on auto-pilot because of the menu plan, which was great. By Friday I had zero energy though so relied on frozen foods and quick meals. Today marks day 3 of the menu. So far we've enjoyed it and the only thing we weren't big fans of was the cornmeal much (Becca and Joe ate it...I ate my bowl but wouldn't have wanted seconds, and Jacob just turned his nose up completely). A reader suggested forming it in a loaf pan until cool, cutting it into slices, and frying in some butter. I'm going to try that next time.

We all enjoy the homemade bread and I love the ease of this...prepare the night before and bake the next day. Right now I have the garlic breadsticks in the oven for a snack for this afternoon - they smell delicious! One thing I would change about the menu is the dried milk...I won't be buying that again. After purchasing it I figured that I only saved about $1 and the kids don't like the taste unless it is mixed with their Ovaltine. I will be purchasing regular milk by the gallon now and will use up the rest of the powder with the bread recipe.

Despite feeling sick the past few days I was able to do some organizing. I managed to get my hubby to go through his dresser and closet with me and get rid of what he no longer wears. He still had a lot of what he wore before we were married - 10 years ago! A lot went into the rag bag and what was still nice went into a bag for Goodwill - we were able to fill one whole garbage bag of his clothes alone! A whole other bag of toys and plastic cups and bowls filled another bag and those were dropped off yesterday by hubby. It feels good to have two whole garbage bags worth of items out of the house this week and I'm already 1/4 through another bag! I'm attempting to work on the playroom today and tomorrow.

Resolution Odds & Ends

Day 1 of my slim down went well, except for the handful of almond bark pretzels that I had at the end of the day. Everyone deserves a snack though and with that I still did good - instead of grabbing the two or three handfuls that I typically would have I stuck with the one. That's an improvement! Lunch was a salad with chicken pieces, sliced orange pepper, sunflower seeds, and a vinegar dressing. It was so good I'm craving another, but alas I am out of lettuce until Tuesday when the grocery store is open.

I didn't exercise though. I had intended to walk the dog, but with the 40 mph winds we've had all day and the grey, dreary skies I just wasn't motivated enough to go out in that weather. Tomorrow sounds better so I'll get back to exercising!

In part of saving more money this year I want to implement "no spend days". I'd like at least 10 days each month where we spend zip, zero, zilch. While most times there is only one big grocery shopping day of the week...there are often several times throughout the week that we will pick something up here or something up there. While they are items that we need by going out again and again we are bound to pick up several items each shopping trip that we don't need as well. So, by limiting our shopping days we will be saving money.

In order for this to work I have stuck a list of paper on the fridge and write down each thing that we need when we notice it. I'll take it to the store with me and that way I won't have to run back the next day for toilet paper, or the day after that for a pencil sharpener (seriously, in a house full of pencils we could not find one sharpened one last week after Joe broke our pencil sharpener! Kids and pens just don't work well together!), or the day after that for cheddar cheese which I desperately needed for a recipe. I've noticed the past several months that we have been running to the stores way too often and I want to nip that in the bud.

10 days each month are dedicated to no spending. Hopefully it will end up being more but I'm going to make a conscious effort not to go anywhere that money changes hands at least 10 days out of the month. Wish me luck!

I Did It

I weighed myself this morning. There was no gasp of surprise - the number was actually what I thought it would be. No, I'm not brave enough to announce it to the world - yet.

My goal weight is about 15-20 lbs. less than I am now. I am setting a goal for a 1 lb. weight loss each month. If it's more, great, but if not 1 lb. is a very attainable goal. While it may not sound like a lot, those last 10 lbs. are always the hardest to lose...I think everyone can attest to that. If I'm 12 lbs. lighter by the end of the year I will be happy with that.

I will weigh in each Sunday and let you know the results. My scale only goes by pounds (not halves or fourths) so it may take some time to see results. Once I start to see a difference I'll share what works/doesn't work for me.

I'm not obsessed with losing weight. My main goal is to start portion control (I'm really bad with this!) and good food choices. It will be a more of a lifestyle change then a diet.

Otherwise, my goals is for my house to also lose some weight (organization starts NOW!) and my savings account to gain some weight. I'll let you follow along with the process as well! :)

Today is a new beginning...won't you join me?!

Edited to add: If you are on Facebook you may want to "like" my page as I will highlight some simple things on there about my eating, organizing, and budgeting.

Resolutions

What are the top two New Year's Resolutions?

Loosing Weight

Saving Money

I feel comfortable where I am at with my budget. I do feel the need to tweak it just a bit in order to put more into savings.

I do hope to lose 10-15 pounds this year (I think 1 lb. a month is a very attainable goal!).

What does this have to do with my blog? The fact that I want to loose weight means that I need to make myself accountable. What is more accountable than posting it on a blog for the world to see? I'll post what works (or doesn't work) for me...starting after the new year.

Since I'm comfortable with our budget I want to help those of you who are not comfortable with yours get comfortable, if that is one of your new years resolutions. While I am not a money expert (though I've always considered college for majoring in financial planning) I may have some hints and tips that may help you. Looking to become a stay at home mom? Needing to save up for an expensive purchase? Want a retirement fund? Hoping to pay off debt this year? I think I can help you with ideas for that!

I will pepper my blog with posts on these topics throughout the coming weeks. If you have a specific question on either weight loss or money management, leave them in the comments and I will answer them in upcoming posts. Otherwise, I'll just fly by the seat of my pants!

If you have different new year's resolutions then the two above, what are you hoping to change this coming year?