January Foodie Penpals Reveal Day

Its reveal day again. I took a break in November and December as I was busy with other things and on vacation, so was excited to resume this month.

The box I sent this month went to Kerensa in Oklahoma, she had no special requirements food wise and I loved what she told me 'I'll eat anything unless it eats me first'!! That made me laugh when I read that. All of the items I sent her with things she had never tried, and her and her family having enjoyed sampling new foods.

My other match was Ashley in Vermont (which I have since learned is not in Canada as I thought!!). She sent me an awesome box of local goodies. She is a lifetime Weight Watchers member and looks awesome, I told her I was following Weight Watchers and she was kind enough to work out the points value for everything for me.

 Doesn't she have lovely handwriting :)  This biscuit was lemon shortbread and it was amazing, it had broken into 4 pieces, so I thought I would try one piece, but it was so good I ended up eating all 4 pieces in one go, I'm just glad she didn't include more than one, as it was 8 points.

 


















I am a huge fan of pancakes and love maple syrup, so am excited to try both of these items. I have a friend coming to visit and am saving these till she gets here so I can share them with her.

 


















Ashley must have known I was a huge tea fan, this tea looks so pretty and it has a beautiful poem on the side. I haven't tried it yet, mainly because it looks too pretty to open. The final item was a reusable tote bag (which is handy as in my city they now charge you for bags in the store), it was purchased at a local school to help raise money for a local project.

Don't you agree she did an amazing job - I loved everything. If you are reading this Ashley - thank you again for everything.

I plan on taking part in February also, so look out for another blog post at the end of February.

And now it's time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of
goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about
the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items
or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also
include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining
what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your
items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget
about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is
open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you
get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to
post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired
together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penpals is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please
note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've
determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to
send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice
versa. 
If you’re interested in participating for February, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by February 4th as pairings will be emailed on February 5th!

Weekly weigh in

Another week over and I can't believe we will be in February in a few days.

The past week started well, but then went downhill, I was suddenly eating everything and anything!! This lasted for two days, and one of those days (Friday) I gave up on tracking all together. A big thank you to everyone who contacted me on twitter to send me words of encouragement, it definitely helped. I woke up Saturday morning and was right back on track.

The previous week I earned 15 AP's and hit my goal 98% of the time. Here are the figures from this week :)

 

As you can see I earned an extra 6 points this week, and my average goal achievement was 108% so I definitely became more active this week.

5 weeks into the challenge and I am on track, and slightly above the estimations. Let's hope this continues.

Tracking wise as you can see it shows I had points left over, but realistically I probably ate those on the day I never tracked. Also I forgot about my healthy checks once again!

 

Down to the actual numbers:

This week's stats Previous Weight: 275.6

Today's weigh in: 272.2
 +/- :  -3.4lbs   

Total loss 32.8lbs 

I was actually expecting to see a gain so was pleasantly surprised. I thought back to when I did Weight Watchers previously and some of my eating habits, and I recalled that the weeks I ate most or all of my weekly points, were the weeks I had a good loss, so I think that lately I have maybe not been eating enough especially as I have been working out too. So that is my new plan of action for the week ahead to try and eat more! I know it doesn't seem to make sense when I say it out loud either.

This week I have a friend visiting from England and we will be out and about a lot and eating out but I plan to track everything as best I can and get lots of walking in. Today I was very impressed with myself, we went for lunch and I declined the complimentary bread (I think this maybe a first for me) and then I went with a half salad (normally I go with a full one) and it filled me up nicely. I must admit it did help dining in a restaurant that was in the points tracker on my phone. I even was able to have dessert which I shared with my friend. Tomorrow we are dining at the Cheesecake Factory, hopefully I can say no to the bread there as well (which will be hard as I love their bread). I plan to go online before we go and plan out what I am going to have and the points values too.

I unfortunately didn't meet my DietBet goal - I lost 7.2lbs in the 4 weeks, so was 4lbs short of 4%, but it was a fun challenge and well done to those of you who hit 4% and get a share of the pot.

Just a reminder for those of you in US and Canada who have dogs - check out my giveaway on my other blog  www.uktocalifornia.com for a free Barkbox.

Have a great week everyone

Sarah xxx

 

Weekly Weigh In

Welcome back

How did I get on this week? Here is my tracking overview. Although I didn't exceed my points (well not the weekly ones), I felt I didn't make great choices food wise this week.  Yes, Sunday did consist of mainly cheese and salami!! However I did earn 15 activity points on my ActiveLink and hit my new (higher goal) 98% overall this week, which is 4 more AP's than last week.

I was a little better at logging my healthy checks this week!

This week's stats
Previous Weight: 276.4 Today's weigh in: 275.6
 +/- :  -0.8lbs  Total loss 29.4lbs 

I want to try and work on increasing my exercise this week, and really making a dent in the number on the scales. My diet bet ends next week, and to hit 4% I need to lose 6.6lbs, so don't think that will be happening. This morning I walked 2.4 miles after class, and I went to a friends house and did a mini workout on her TRX system, and I did squats without my knees hurting :) I was so impressed with it, I have just been online and ordered one - so am looking forward to making that a regular thing in my workout routines..

Nearly forgot, I went to my Weight Watchers meeting this morning and I won a prize

It was a cookbook of my choice and I chose this one, I'm excited to try some new recipes this upcoming week.

Plus I have another giveaway planned (probably for next week), which I think will be very popular among you sweet toothed people!! 

Also I signed up for a 5k for February - Ill be doing the Bay Breeze run. Need to find one for March now.

For those of you who also missed me post on Facebook and twitter - we booked a vacation last week. We are going to Maui in June, I am so excited as I have always wanted to go to Hawaii. Plus I get back on the Sunday and the following week it is Fitbloggin, so lots to look forward to.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.
Sarah x

Simply Snackin Winner

We have a winner....

Congratulations to Sarah G. I will be sending you an email shortly.

Thanks again to Simply Snackin for providing the prize and for making awesome gourmet dried meat snacks.

Weekly Weigh In

It's that time of the week to step on the scales again, although I am actually weighing in three times each week, naked Monday mornings for my official weigh in, Tuesday morning at my Weight Watchers meeting and Wednesday morning for the Shrinking Jeans challenge.

So how did I do this week...
I tracked 100% (and forgot to check healthy checks again!). I even used up more of my weekly points this week too. Last week I had 25 weekly points left over and this week I only had 19 left over. Although that was mainly due to the kettle corn and pizza!

Activity wise, I earned 11 points with my Active Link this week, one more than last week, also I am doing so well on my 12 week challenge, that 3 weeks in it has asked to change my goal. The original goal was to earn 0-2 points a day after 12 weeks, the new goal is to now earn 4 points a day. I like a challenge!

The numbers on the scale for this week...
Previous Weight: 277.8
Today's weigh in: 276.4
 +/- :  -1.4lbs 
Total loss 28.6lbs 

Ill be honest, I am a little disappointed (again!) with the small loss this week, I have tracked 100% and worked out and was hoping for a bigger loss. I cut out the processed food - well most of it. I am struggling to get back on track with eating clean - not sure why? Hopefully this week I can conquer it and have a bigger number on the scales next week. I also want to start getting my workouts back to a regular thing, I used my exercise bike twice last week and did the weight watchers workout DVD once, although I wasn't overly impressed with it. Which reminds me I need to still go find a 5k race for February.
Time to go and get the cookbooks out and plan, plan, plan now.

Just a reminder if you haven't already entered you have three days to enter my Simply Snackin giveaway - their gourmet dried meat snacks are only 1 points plus value each.

Have a great week
Sarah x

Simply Snackin review and giveaway

I recently saw a tweet from fellow blogger Lindsey, about a company that was looking for some people to try their gourmet dried meat snacks. I love free stuff and I love meat, so I was there.

I then completely forgot about this until I came home one day to a package from Simply Snackin, which contained the following.

The following is taken from their website.

Redefine How You Snack

High protein, low calorie Simply Snackin® gourmet dried meat snacks are the preferred choice of on-the-go people leading or adopting active, healthy lifestyles.
Although often referred to as “jerky,” Simply Snackin products deliver an experience unlike any conventional jerky — bite after bite of moist, lean, savory chicken breast or beef sirloin is paired with flavorful mangos, apples, blueberries and other artisan ingredients.
Simply put, Simply Snackin is redefining how you snack.

At first when I opened the package and read the flavors I was a bit disheartened as I wasn't sure I would like them, but at the same time I didn't want my husband to eat them all!! I tried the Chicken breast with Italian seasoning and Romano. Wow! It was love at first bite. So of course I had to try another, I received a package containing 12 snacks, and they didn't last long especially once my husband discovered them. He is on a low carb diet and they are all 5g carbs or less. Some of them are even gluten free. They are all 60 calories and contain 0.5g of fat or less, and between 8 and 11g of protein.

They currently have six flavors - not sure if they plan to do more in the future.
Beef Sirloin with Apples and Cherries
Beef Sirloin with Cranberries and Blueberries
Teriyaki Beef Sirloin with Pineapples
Chicken Breast with Black Bean Salsa
Chicken Breast with Italian Seasoning and Romano
Teriyaki Chicken Breast with Mango and Papaya

I think out of all the flavors the Beef Sirloin with Apples and Cherries and the Chicken Breast with Italian Seasoning and Romano were my favorite, but I actually loved them all and have already placed an order for another batch.

Oh, nearly forgot the best part, for those of you following Weight Watchers they are only 1PP, so a great snack to grab on the go, they come individually packaged, so no worry about dividing them into portions.

For the month of January 2013, they are offering you all 10% off your order - just use code SSJAN2013 at the checkout.

Come back and let me know what you think and what your favorite flavors are.

Sarah x

Now on to the part you have all been waiting for Simply Snackin would like to offer one lucky reader a package containing 24 meat snacks in a variety of flavors (shipping included), sadly this is only open to US residents. To enter please do so using rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer:  The Simply Snackin meat snacks were provided to me at no cost in exchange for a review.  The opinions expressed are mine and I was not required to provide a positive review

Weekly Weigh In

I'm actually a day late posting this week, as weigh in was yesterday, but I have delayed posting, as I was disappointed with my results.
As you can see I tracked 100% I was even under on points some days and I had 25 weekly points left plus I earned 10 activity points too. 

Previous Weight: 277.4 Today's weigh in: 277.8 +/- :  +0.4lbs Total loss 27.2lbs 

I was expecting a nice loss this week, so was shocked to see an increase on the scales, even though it was only 0.4lbs. On speaking to a few people it could be that I didn't eat enough, it could be I had too much salt this week, as I did have a lot of canned soup and ready meals. Who knows?!

Anyway, on to a new week and hopefully next week the scales will be going the other way. As I mentioned before, today I went back to Weight Watchers, I have been using just the online for the last year and decided I wanted the extra accountability. I will be using my Monday morning naked weigh in for my blog, so my total loss is consistent, but will be weighing at the meetings on a Tuesday morning too. I was pleased that all but one day I reached goal on my active link last week, and I hope to hit goal everyday this week too.

At my meeting I purchased the Weight Watchers 360 kit, which comes with lots of fun things, including a workout DVD and a cookbook, so I am looking forward to sitting down this evening after dinner and browsing through everything and making some dinner plans for the week.

Also I discovered some very yummy 1 point snacks this week, which I will be talking about in an upcoming blog post.

Also nearly forgot - as you can see by my side bar >>> I have signed up for another 5k. I will be doing the Divas 5k in May. Still need to find a run for Feb, March and April first though.

Have a great week everyone
Sarah x

New Year and New Records

I was up bright and early on New Years day to run my first 5k of 2013.

I did the Brazen New Years Day 5k, which was the same route as last week's 5k - around Lake Chabot.

It was a lot colder this morning last week so I ended up running in my hoodie. Did you notice I used the word 'running' there? Well I jogged even more of it than last week :) Which of course means only one thing - a new PR - in fact I set 3 new PR's today!

A new 5K time of 52:24 - which is 3.16 faster than my previous record from July 2012.
A new 1K time of 9:22 - which is 1.00 faster than my previous record from Dec 2012
A new 1mile time of 15:19 - which is 2.13 faster than my previous record from July 2012.

So many new PR's I guess I will need to work hard in 2013 to beat them :)

Official chip times:
Last week I completed it in 1:00:29 and was 38/39 in my age group (female 35-39)
Today I completed it in 57:20:17 and was 44/47 in my group, so faster by 2:40:12

My husband completed last weeks in 1:00:52 and was 14/15 in his age group (male 30-34)
Today he completed it in 55:01:16 and was 13/16 in his group, so faster by 2:19:01

So an extra special well done to my husband Dave for an awesome finish time, and also well done to Marisol for completing the 5k just ahead of me.

 

Another bib and another medal for my collection. Today's medal joins together with last weeks medal, and we got a 3rd medal to create the Mega Medal.







My next 5k isn't until June and then it's a progressive marathon. So I am now on the look out for some local 5k's as I want to complete one a month in 2012.

Happy New Year
Sarah xxx