50 pounds and 5000 bucks to go for Platinum July 2012!

[wakica]

just checking in to see how things are coming along for you

 

[hpfan100]

just checking in to see how things are coming along for you

thanks for checking in


Things are going better. I think my eating is starting to get better. I have all my breakfasts, lunches and dinners planned out for the week and lined up in the fridge ready to go. I'm done only 3 pounds still but it's a start. This week will be better since I only have one meeting at work and I have all my meals ready to go.

On the money front, I made another half.com sale so that adds a few bucks to the budget. I found 20 cents on the ground the other day too!

 

[wakica]

It's DEFINITELY helpful to have the meals planned and ready when needed. That getting hungry business and needing food now is SSOOO detrimental to losing weight. i wish i could stay on top of meal planning better but it's just not my favorite thing. I'm pretty sure I was MEANT to be born to be more well off and have someone do my cooking and cleaning for me lol. oh well, unfortunately for me i was not and have to fend for myself but it can mean last minute pizza meals and whatnot. luckily for me i LOVE salads - all different kinds of them so we have salad ALOT which is good for keeping our weight low.

Glad your finding more money too. lol even if it's 20 cents at a time.
Have you pulled out some spring jackets from last year to look through the pockets yet??? Do you have a stash of coins you could roll??
Good Luck - you can do it

 

[hpfan100]

It's DEFINITELY helpful to have the meals planned and ready when needed. That getting hungry business and needing food now is SSOOO detrimental to losing weight. i wish i could stay on top of meal planning better but it's just not my favorite thing. I'm pretty sure I was MEANT to be born to be more well off and have someone do my cooking and cleaning for me lol. oh well, unfortunately for me i was not and have to fend for myself but it can mean last minute pizza meals and whatnot. luckily for me i LOVE salads - all different kinds of them so we have salad ALOT which is good for keeping our weight low.

Glad your finding more money too. lol even if it's 20 cents at a time.
Have you pulled out some spring jackets from last year to look through the pockets yet??? Do you have a stash of coins you could roll??
Good Luck - you can do it

I hear ya sister that hunger monster is such a pain...always sneaking up on you. The meal planning works well for me but I get sidetracked easily and need to get back on track too often which is the problem.

I don't have jackets to check but that's a good idea though...maybe old purses and jeans. I have a teddy bear bank with some pennies in it...I could count that up....I can't believe I never thought of that before.

 

[wakica]

good luck with the old purses, jeans and teddy bear bank
Whatever it takes hey??

 

[hpfan100]

good luck with the old purses, jeans and teddy bear bank
Whatever it takes hey??

Glad I'm making you laugh I seriously do have a teddy bear bank on my desk. I've had it for years!

 

[hpfan100]

SO for the bad news first...weight loss is not going well at all. I've only lost about 4 pounds so far. I'm trying to not discouraged but at this rate, I'll never drop 50 pounds by July. Of course the hardest part in all of this is that I haven't done the exercise needed or been super strict with my eating. UGGG! But good news I think I have broke the fast food/eating out habit. I have set a limit of 3 times a month for that and I'm sticking to it. I am hoping this will help my waistline as well. Time will tell....

GOOD NEWS on the finances though...I have 1530 in my vacation fund now!!!!!!!!!! so only 3470 left to go. Plus it looks like I can probably manage platinum for only 4000 dollars so I may be lucking out in the budget department. The big boost to budget was tax refunds of 343-fed and 244-state. The state refund was really unexpected usually I don't get a refund at all.

 

[hpfan100]

More money magic headed my way....I got a 50 dollar walmart gift card at work as a thank you from PTSO. I HATE Walmart but I'm hoping I can use it to purchase another gift card or at least groceries or something and then take the cash out of my bank account. So another 50 in the vacation account...I think that brings me up to about 1700 dollars already in the pot

More budget news...I may have enough points to cover half of my flight so that would save me 220 bucks and I may have enough points to cover my nights off site at Universal so that saves me another 300 bucks....WOOP WOOP and.....drumroll please......the package price went down about 100 dollars at AKL..

On the weight loss front...down one more pound and have set some small manageable goals..
1. eat out only 2 times a month-no fast food
2. at least 20 minutes of exercise each day- can be cardio or strength
3. write down everything I eat

I'm really delving into the planning of this trip and I think that is a good motivator for me. I'm sooooooooooooo excited to try all the extras in the platinum package (spa time, parasailing, La Nouba, dolphin time, photopass).

Off to enjoy some more March Madness!!!

 

[wakica]

Sounds like things are going really well I'm glad to hear it!! So, have you given in and broken that piggy bank yet?

Here's some pixie dust for you to help with some more money turning up and more weight loss and especially will power to avoid the bad foods

 

[hpfan100]

Well it's been about a month since I posted and things are going well.

My taxes have been filed and I am just waiting for the money to appear. I enjoyed a lovely Easter with my parents and am preparing for the summer heat.

On the weight loss front I'm down about 10 pounds which is less than I was hoping for at this point but it's better than nothing. On the money front no major updates. 20 dollars from Easter basket and it looks like I'll have some points to pay for half of my airline ticket which saves me about 225 dollars

looking forward to getting back on the dieting track tomorrow and hoping to find some more pennies flying my way

 

[hpfan100]

about 2 months away from my trip and the weight loss is stalling again.. I decided that if i stuck to my eating plan for the next two weeks with no big mess ups then I will book my platinum package.


I've started planning out my trip and boy is it going to be tricky to fit everything in. A week seems like a long time but sure isn't once you put in all the traveling and stuff you want to do.

 

[Alysa]

It sounds like you are doing great - don't get discouraged. Just think how good this new regime is for you and how great you are going to feel walking around Disney with all this exercise! Go Amy!

 

[hpfan100]

It sounds like you are doing great - don't get discouraged. Just think how good this new regime is for you and how great you are going to feel walking around Disney with all this exercise! Go Amy!

thanks so much...trying to stay focused...down two more pounds already this week

 

[hpfan100]

updates updates...I have updates!!!!!!!

weight loss...sticking to eating plan except for when I am with my bf and mom. Too much eating out with the two of them. but it was yummy... I'm down a total of 10 pounds so far which makes my clothes feel looser which is nice. I am looking forward to being down with teaching this year so I can focus wholly on this weight loss journey.


budget...great news the flight prices came down by almost 120 dollars I also had enough points to buy one way of my trip So I spent about 171 round trip on my flight before gift cards. Also, my mom and bf will be driving and picking me up from the airport thus saving me about 88 dollars in parking fees.

Now my total trip budget is only 3800 dollars instead of 5000. I'm getting pretty excited and am deep into planning this trip. It's in my waking and sleeping hours.

 

[hpfan100]

I'm working on my getting all my arrangements booked. SOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!

Somehow I've managed to get my trip budget down to a measly 3349 from the original 5000. Mostly from the huge discount in airfare, not renting a car the whole time and loosing one hotel night in the stay.

I excitedly working on my itinerary and this is what I have so far...

Wednesday July 11th, fly to MCO, mears shuttle to hotel, evening at IOA/WWoHP, cab back if late
Thursday July 12th, day at IOA/USF
Friday July 13th and Saturday July 14th, day and evening at Ascendio conference, SAturday night is the ball

Sunday July 15th, check into AKL around 6, get mugs and head to Epcot
7:45 Segway tour, morning in FW/WS, lunch at Chefs de France or San Angel Inn
break/rest at AKL as needed might do my spa treatment this day or some pool time
Jiko dinner at around 6:00
evening at MK, EMH 10-1 (might hop to Epcot for Illuminations if I want too)

Monday July 16th, EMH morning at AK,Tusker House BF around 10:30, cupcake from bakery (elephant one )
rest at AKL as needed, maybe some pool time
lunch at SCi Fi around 3, evening at DHS, dinner at Brown Derby, F! at 9, EMH 9-12

Tuesday July 17th, no parks today!
Boma breakfast, Sammy D's parasailing, maybe boat rental, lunch at the Wave maybe??, spa appointment if I didn't get it yet, pool/relax at AKL, maybe some mini golf if time, dinner at WFC or Portobello, La Nouba at 6, Wishes Cruise around 9:30

Wednesday July 18th, no parks today!
Dolphins in Depth 9:45
lunch somewhere fabulous and some shopping at DTD etc, relax at AKL/pool time, Magical Express to airport around 2:45....crash on airplane


LOOKS CRAZY BUSY but sooooooooooo fun!

 

[wakica]

Kee up the good work You can do it!!! and I hate to say but you will never have enough days. LOL. We started with a 5 day trip and said it was too short, next trip was longer - probably 7 days, after that it has just gone up and up. This past trip we had 19 days and we still could have used more!!! Mostly for some down time b/c we were absolutely EXHAUSTED when we got home. LOL> Of course it doesn't help that we did almost every theme park plus a wedding and a 5K race as well as other things but my point is that we just have the make the best of how many days we budget for and set aside time for b/c we will always want more. LOL.

As for my weight loss I had lost 5 and decided to lose another 5 b/c i usually gain 5. I ended up losing 7 and was SOOO happy to have come home and found out I didn't gain any on the trip so it all worked out in the end It'll all work out for you too!! Keep it up

 

[hpfan100]

Kee up the good work You can do it!!! and I hate to say but you will never have enough days. LOL. We started with a 5 day trip and said it was too short, next trip was longer - probably 7 days, after that it has just gone up and up. This past trip we had 19 days and we still could have used more!!! Mostly for some down time b/c we were absolutely EXHAUSTED when we got home. LOL> Of course it doesn't help that we did almost every theme park plus a wedding and a 5K race as well as other things but my point is that we just have the make the best of how many days we budget for and set aside time for b/c we will always want more. LOL.

As for my weight loss I had lost 5 and decided to lose another 5 b/c i usually gain 5. I ended up losing 7 and was SOOO happy to have come home and found out I didn't gain any on the trip so it all worked out in the end It'll all work out for you too!! Keep it up

totally agree about not having enough time...It's taking quite a bit of planning just to fit in the things that are must dos. Great job on your weight loss.

 

[hpfan100]

more sales on half.com add another 15 dollars to my budget, Also got a 10 dollar rebate for my oil change and I found 2 dollars in my car

add 27 to the pot

Alos I will be canceling my home phone, gym membership and putting my netflix on hold so that will save me about 40 dollars a month and I will add that to the pot.


add 40 to the pot

Getting closer and I am so excited!

 

[maganda]

I enjoyed reading your thread. Sounds like you're going to have a terrific time in July! And congratulations on the weight loss. I reached my weight loss goal three years ago so I remember really well the challenges and triumphs. It really is day-to-day, and I applaud you for sticking to your commitment. You absolutely are capable of reaching your goal!

 

[hpfan100]

I enjoyed reading your thread. Sounds like you're going to have a terrific time in July! And congratulations on the weight loss. I reached my weight loss goal three years ago so I remember really well the challenges and triumphs. It really is day-to-day, and I applaud you for sticking to your commitment. You absolutely are capable of reaching your goal!

thanks for the kind words It's great to hear about others that went through this same battle. You are right about the day to day challenges though.