Optimistically Blogging

A little background about my weight loss journey.  I was skinny my whole life (crazy skinny - as a teen I used to pray to be heavier), then I moved out west, stopped running and packed on the pounds, prayer answered.  I gained 50 lbs in my first year of marriage.  A few years back I was fed up with being heavy and sick all the time so I started Weight Watchers and lost 50 lbs over a year, this brought me back to my goal weight.  I was able to keep at that weight until about 5-6 months ago when the holidays/life changes/home repairs hit and I was at home more often and my love of baking and cooking took hold.  I didn't gain the 50 lbs back but I do have some extra weight that I am now looking to lose.  I decided that I lost weight on Weight Watchers so I would do it again.  I rejoined about two months ago and I soon realized that their program was completely different.  I get more points than I was used to yet the amount of the points on certain foods changed.  I quit my membership

Happy Thursday!!  Thursdays are my favorite day of the week as they are Friday-eve, and who doesn't love Friday.  I haven't posted in a while as we have been super busy lately, we are doing lots of projects and activities right now and they are consuming all of our free time.  I have talked a lot about goals and resolutions in recent posts and I have come up with another goal, spend less time on social media.  I have been on Facebook for over 10 years, when I started on Facebook it was only for College students and you could type in what classes you were taking and it would tell you who was in your class.  It is a completely different system today, I find that as much as I love it I spend so much time reading articles that I don't care about and it is just distracting me from getting stuff accomplished (or sleeping).  So I am deleting the Facebook app from my phone.  I am not going cold turkey and deactivating my account (that would be crazy for my Facebook loving self),

Saving more money is my major goal.  I have talked about this a lot on my blog, but this week I was asked many questions detailing the tricks that work for me.  So I am going to share them on here.  They may not work for everyone, but they have worked for us. 1) Use Cash - The great thing about paying cash for everything is you know exactly where you are at, if you overspend it will hurt more than just a number in your checkbook or on your online banking screen.  When your cash is gone too soon you feel really bad and you spend it less.  People have told me in the past they don't like to use cash as it spends faster.  This is true but only for a little while.  Once you switch to a cash only lifestyle it gets easier, much faster. 2) $5 and Coin Savings - When you spend with only cash this becomes your most fun savings.  Whenever a $5 bill passes through your hands put it in a jar/bin/special place in your wallet, this soon adds up.  We started this around August of 2014 and by March

Every year I make the same resolutions; eat healthier, read my Bible daily and save more money.  Some years I have kept these going throughout the year and have done quite well but some years not so much.  This year I am not making resolutions but starting goals.  I know you may think that is the same thing but the difference is I am not going to hold myself to just this year, or if I fail in my goal I will just pick right up again and not wait until the end of a month or year.  Each day is a new day and if one day I fail, I will just pick up where I left off.   Here are some goals I am setting starting in this new year! 1) Eat/Live Healthier - This one is pretty self explanatory.  I need to stop all of my crazy eating habits.  I am not 18 and a distance runner anymore.  I cannot eat a pint of ice cream in one sitting.  (not that I have done that in many years, but you know what I mean.  I did eat 3 donuts in one sitting very recently.)  I am going to set the goal to work out as ma