Weight Loss on a Budget

So, I've been actively trying (with some success) to lose baby weight over the past several weeks.  I've lost a little, but still have a long way to go.  (By the way, anyone who ever told me I'd lose 20 pounds right away in the hospital, and then the rest would just 'fall off' when breastfeeding...you lied.  Just saying :) )  I decided that the best way to motivate myself would be to pay to lose weight...as in, the longer it takes, the longer I keep paying.  So I joined Weight Watchers Online.  I will say, it is a fabulous program, very easy to follow, and pretty affordable at about $20 per month.  Plus I've lost about 10 pounds so far. 

HOWEVER.  I am very frustrated with the technical side of the website.  For some reason, every few days, without reason and without me changing my cookies or whatever, I can't log in.  I type in my username and password, and every time it takes me right back to the home page.  And I'm paying for this (non-) accessibility.  Very frustrating.  So I canceled my subscription.

Enter Spark People.  A completely FREE way to track calories and weight loss online!  I learned about this from one of my best friends a couple of years ago, but was honestly never really diligent enough to enter in every single thing that I ate.  Now that I'm used to doing that with Weight Watchers, I think this will be a smooth transition.  It really is simple to use, and from what I can tell (it's still day 1) it has similar features. 

So if you're looking to lose weight but really don't have it in your budget to pay for a diet plan, check it out!  I'm also planning on featuring several weight-loss-on-a-budget ideas and tips.  And if you think this topic is about as exciting as staring at a wall, forgive me.  Hopefully it helps someone out there!  :)

This weekend....

If this weekend goes as planned, I'll have part of our garden planted by Sunday night.  Gardening is something I've really grown to love in the past couple of years (even last summer when I was huge and pregnant and couldn't bend over to pick out weeds!) and this year I've decided to expand and grow some things I haven't tried before.  We have to be a little creative, though, as we rent our home and the only place we can use as a garden is an old flower bed we ripped out when we moved in...and we can't dig up any more of the yard.  So, I'm resorting to lots and lots of pots and planters, as well as some other possible ideas....pictures to come!  Here's what I'm planning on so far:

-Tomatoes (a couple of varieties)
-Zucchini
-Peppers
-Carrots
-Green onions
-Spinach
-Lettuce
-Wax and green beans
-peas
-herbs: mint, basil, rosemary, parsley

...and I'm still not ruling out others!  My goal for this weekend was to get some of the early stuff (lettuce, spinach, carrots, etc) planted in pots.  We'll see if that happens...the weather is not so great today.  But I'm hopeful!  And very excited to have a break from frozen vegetables.  I also received canning supplies for Christmas this year, so I'm excited to dive head-over-heels into that. 

I've been wanting to share a great post I found this week on one of my favorite blogs--we've been trying to reduce/eliminate lots of disposable products in our home (more on what we use/don't use to come), and though I already use a couple from this list, it still gives some great ideas on things you wouldn't expect:

SQC: 7 Unexpected Ways to Replace Disposable Products