The Blonde Diaries

Most people clean their homes to create more space and to feel better. During that process, one might decide to sell a few things on Ebay or hold a garage sale at their home. I tend to donate to charity since I am terrible at mailing things on time and can’t host a garage sale at the apartment complex. So since I also don’t itemize my tax deductions, I tend not to really gain anything monetarily from cleaning my apartment.

That was until this past month. I didn’t realize how many beauty supplies (ie shampoo, lotions, acne products, etc) I had picked up from free samples online to freebies at hotels. I have an embarrassingly large supply going in my apartment and it was just going to continue to grow until I did something about it. So I did something. I refused to buy new beauty products from the store when I ran out of things and turned my attention to these little bottles and pots of products all over the place. I am saving money by using what I have and I’m cleaning out the clutter. For once, cleaning out does pay off for me!

Just curious.  It seems like the wind must have changed last week or something because my allergies are flared up and I can’t get back to normal.  I have been taking over the counter 24-hour Zyrtec for my allergies and that has kept them under control since last fall.  Not so much right now.  The pollen and dust in the air has out powered my Zyrtec and I’ve had to move to the over the counter Zyrtec-D 12-hour pills and then Benadryl at night.  The headaches are finally gone but the sneezing just keeps coming and coming.  I think I might have to try and find the prescription I got from the doctor in December for Flonase and fill it to see if that helps any.  If not I’m not sure what I’m going to do to get through allergy season.

Is anyone else suffering this bad?

I am excited. I finally have a few minutes to sit down and participate in Think Thin Thursday. The past few weeks have been a struggle with work because for some reason things heat up at the end of the week and I miss out on my end of the week memes.  So, I haven’t officially stepped on the scale for this week.  I did pop on this morning but since I am using my Wii Fit as the offical scale and weighing in at 10pm each week I will have to update later.  From what I could see this morning, I am still at 153.  That isn’t terrible considering it is busy season and I am only able to Wii Fit for 30 minutes a day Monday – Thursday and hit the actual gym on the weekends.  So I can’t complain too much.  I have been bringing lunch and dinner instead of ordering out and that has helped too.

So my goal for this week is to try 1 new recipe.  I haven’t been able to cook lately and I am getting bored with Lean Cuisine on a daily basis and some of my older recipes like crawfish etouffee.  I’m not sure what exactly I will make but I want to try 1 totally new recipe that is healthy and will keep me on my weight loss journey.

Now Bridgette wants us to visit Tyson.com and pick one item that we would use to incorporate into a healthy and quick meal for our family.  Luckily, I discovered Tyson refrigerated meals a few months ago so this one will be easy for me.  My family favorite is the Beef Steak Tips in Bourbon Sauce served over brown rice.  The whole thing with the rice is about 6 Weight Watcher points.  Not too shabby and it tastes really good.  The whole thing takes about 15 minutes to make – 8 minutes for the meat to reheat and then 7 minutes to cook your brown rice.  Talk about quick and easy!

Since we are on the topic of my trip last week to the bitterly cold north. Let me just state that my skin is an absolute wreck due to the cold, dry air. I think part of the problem is that I am very lackadaisical in my approach to taking care of my skin and also the fact that I was trying to avoid the $15 baggage fee so I had to limit what I took on the plane and the size of the liquids.

So now I am left with dry, flaking skin and acne. Not the best combination let me tell you. So I am in search of the right products to help rejuvenate my skin. I have tried a few over the counter (ie drugstore) brands that I have at home and I am not seeing much of a difference. I am thinking that I might need to try professional grade Skin Care Products. iDerma.com sells a wide variety of these products that are dermatologist recommended and they are sold without needing to go to the dermatologist which helps since I am very limited on what I can do between 8am and 10pm right now with busy season. With free shipping and double reward points for ordering right now, I don’t think I can go wrong picking up a good moisturizer and acne treatment. If your skin is wrecked or if you want to avoid having wrecked skin like me, visit iDerma and check out the products they are offering to help keep your skin in tip-top shape.

I lost track of what week I am in now.  I’ve been a little sporadic in my blogging for Think Thin Thursday meme but with a new year, I have a new outlook and a resolution to be more organized and on top of things.  So last time I checked in, I think it was right before Christmas, after my illness and I was weighing in around 152.  This morning when I stepped on the scale I wasn’t too surprised to see myself at 153.5/154.  I have been bloated lately and drank a little last night in celebration of the New Year and had alot of pizza.  So no surprise that I’ve gained a little in the water weight department.  I don’t want to keep the scale creeping up so I’ve decided to challenge myself to work out 6 days a week for 30 minutes a day in January.  This is part of the Sunshine Rewards forum’s January Exercise Challenge so I hope to do well and encourage others to keep their goals and get healthier in the new year.

Over on the Not-So-Blog-Blog who is bringing Think Thin Thursdays to us, Bridgette is asking everyone to journal their New Years Resolutions.

Well, my resolutions have not changed since a few days ago when I wrote about them.  I’ll rewrite them though because I hear when you write things down they stick a little better and I could use that LOL.

1. Be more budget conscious and save more money so I can buy a house!
2. Lose weight and be more healthy overall!
3. Be more organized and on top of things!

So there you have it.  A very short list of my resolutions.  All are very doable and are not major ordeals to accomplish so I think I am in good shape.