Sweaty Saturday and GIVEAWAY WINNER

We have a winner of my inaugural giveaway!!

Meagan L., check your email, toots!

Well, gosh. That was fun.

Someone sent me a semi-scathing message on Facebook recently questioning my obsession with my health recently. F'real. Like wanting to better myself is a reason to be ashamed?! But here you go, my explanation in bullet form:

• Emma. When I was a runt, I wasn't really encouraged to be proactive in my health. The end result was a roller coaster of binge and purge, self-loathing and overall laziness through high school. I was teased for my weight and felt horrible about myself. How did I take control of the situation? I ate my feelings, or I starved myself. My junior year of high school I didn't eat a meal aside from dinner for two months straight. And that's sad. I want my daughter to respect and love her body. I don't want to pass my image issues on to her. I want her to discover how great it feels to move and find something she can enjoy physically. I want her to love fresh air and pedaling her bike and jumping rope and even running and feeling the wind in her hair. And I won't force her into any of that, but I want to set a healthy example from the start.
• Hormones. I'm a whirlwind of emotions all the freaking time. I'm working on leveling them, I'm working on stability and a healthy mindset and honestly? Getting sweaty helps tremendously. We've all heard about endorphins from activity and I WANT THOSE ENDORPHINS. 
• Myself. Its a small chunk of time I can give myself every day. As much as I don't look forward to getting sweaty, I'm always happy I worked out after. And I turned 30 on Thursday, so that happened. I want to make this year my healthiest yet.
• Others. I genuinely enjoy encouraging and motivating my friends and family. If someone hits the treadmill or starts a new workout or tags along to a class with me just once because I set a good example for them, I'm a legit happy girl. I may have missed my calling in life. 

So there you go, person who will remain nameless but who suggested I should be evaluated. This working out business? I have good intentions, I pinky swear. I'm not sure you have the same good intentions, but that's cool.

I ended up T25'ing every day but Thursday and plan on hitting it again today, with a jog thrown in. You?

Its All About the Money Money Money Part 1

I hate spending money. No, that's not accurate. I love spending free, painless money. Those who know me (and even most who don't know me) know I love to rack in the free gift cards. In fact, I've gotten decent enough at the whole 'free money' gig that I rarely have to use my own money for purchases from Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc. I don't even know how many people have asked me to explain how I earn, so I'm going to give a crash course on some of my favorite sites. (Some of these are referral links, FYI - if you are new to sign up to any of these please consider clicking through so that I get credit for giving you deets).

Swagbucks: Yeah. We all know that I pink puffy heart Swagbucks. In a month that I phone it in, I earn about $25 in Amazon gift cards and maybe another $5 or $10 in Target or Walmart or Starbucks or whatever other stores that I want a little extra cash for. A month that I'm actually trying? I get closer to $75 in gift cards. Disclaimer: these aren't all the ways to earn Swagbucks - not by a long shot! Play around on the site and if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask!

THE TRICKS: 

1. Surveys! This is the fastest way to earn big Swagbucks (aka the point system). There are a few places the surveys are hidden. My favorite are the Peanut Labs Surveys. Once unlocked, these surveys are typically pretty fast and painless.

2. Mobile videos! If you have a compatible smart phone, download the SBTV app. Once it's booted, videos run on your phone. For every 5 videos that play, you get 2 Swagbucks. That doesn't sound like much but it adds up quickly! Remember, 450 Swagbucks is a $5 Amazon gift card. My favorite series of videos are the movie trailers and music videos. When I'm running some of the others, I just plug in my phone to its charger and turn off the volume, but with these I'll often crank up the noise and enjoy.

3. Swagcodes! Periodically (usually once or twice a day) Swagbucks releases a Swagcode to be entered for bonus points. If you have Google Chrome as your browser, I HIGHLY recommend adding the Swagbucks toolbar so you get notification when a new code is released. When I see there is a new word to be entered, I sneak off to my favorite sneaky sneakster site, SBCodez and see what the word is to be entered.

Surveyspot: My FAVORITE survey site, because the points add up quickly! You need to have 1000 points to cash out for $10 Paypal, or 500 for $5 Amazon. There are other redemption options, but these are the only two I personally utilize. The surveys are anywhere from 20 points to 500 at a time, and before you enter a survey it'll tell you (or warn you, whatever) how long the survey is and how many points its worth. This way, you don't enter a 45 minute survey for next to no points, ya know? Typically the surveys are several minutes shorter than stated in the forewarning.

Ebates:  Okay friends. Don't make another purchase without checking out this site first. Do you love Zulily? Click through Ebates. Do you have an addiction to Gap? CLICK THROUGH EBATES! Don't make another online purchase until you check Ebates to see if there is a rebate you can earn. My favorite methods of payouts are Paypal or the actual physical check you can get in the mail. Seriously. A paper check. I didn't even know people did that anymore.

Mypoints: I don't do much on this site. Really, I don't. It's something that just sort of happens when I'm not thinking about it and about twice a year I'll cash out for a $10 Amazon or Old Navy gift card.

THE TRICKS: 
1. Sign up for emails! Click-thru's are 5 points each, which is literally all I do. I have the emails redirected to a special folder and just bop through them every couple of days. Its 5 minutes of my time. Click, delete. Click, delete.

2. Online shopping! If I'm going to make a purchase, I always check between Swagbucks, Ebates and Mypoints to see which gives the highest value rebate. Often times a store will be featured for shopping click-thrus on Mypoints and not the other two. Considering I do a lot of online shopping (hi, two kids. I don't leave the house much) its a great way to save a few bucks here and there. 

I have a bunch more sites that I use to earn money in my downtime, get free stuff, majorly discounted goods, etc. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here's a picture of myself and the new squish. You're welcome.

Sweaty Saturday and GIVEAWAY!

So as promised here on my Facebook page I'm starting a new weekly feature called 'Sweaty Saturday', where I hold myself (and you!) accountable for the previous week's expelling of energy. Since this is the first week, I thought we could kick it off with a giveaway! More on that later though.

Monday - I got the official okay to work out, but instead enjoyed corned beef and green beer at a local bar and grill.

Tuesday - Jogged for 18 minutes on the treadmill, averaging a 10 minute mile. And then the baby started crying. Sigh. Here I thought he'd be content just sitting there, vibrating and gazing at me all day!

Wednesday - Nuthin.

Thursday - Focus T25 Speed 1.0, walked/ jogged on the treadmill for 26 minutes and took am evening walk with the family for a half hour.

Friday - Focus T25 Alpha Cardio, walked outside for 15 minutes with the babe strapped to me.

Saturday - Focus T25 Lower Focus and Jillian Michael's Kickboxing Fastfix abs video - I was supposed to double up on T25 today and do the Ab Intervals workout, but I didn't think I could stomach it. (Get it? STOMACH IT?? Comedy gold right there, people.)

And now, my first ever GIVEAWAY! 

As we all know, I'm pretty obsessed with all things beauty and health. I'd love to pass a few of my favorite goodies on to you! Clockwise from top: Lorna Jane fitness bracelet, Covergirl Lashblast, Andrea Strip Lashes, Marc Jacobs nail decals. Total approximate value, $35. Open to the US and Canada!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Jiggly and the Plan

Now that the little guy is 6 weeks old I've been cleared for romance (Gross. Nope. Never happening again. Nuh uh.) as well as physical fitness. Yeah. About that - I'm currently sitting pretty around 20 pounds heavier than I was before I got pregnant. Oops! Plus things are all floppy and flubbery and jiggly and somehow wider than when I was at my heaviest weight. Looks like it's time to get moving, huh?

I'm undertaking the notoriously awful/inspiring Focus T25 system. I actually started a few weeks ago (shhh - don't tell my midwife! She'd kick my ass) and made a point to listen to my body, only work out every other day instead of the suggested 5 days a week, and followed ol' Smiles McTeeth aka Tanya the modifier.

Image taken from www.aseersuckerlife.com 

So far, things are... eh. We have a Florida vacation in under two weeks that I don't feel ready for. Then again, if I were 122 pounds I probably still wouldn't feel ready to walk around in a swimsuit. Regardless, I'm going to soak up the sun as much as humanly possible since Wisconsin isn't exactly being accommodating in the spring weather department. The Polar Vortex can kiss my very pale and depressed (and lumpy) ass.

Time to swallow my pride and get motivated. I'm currently *cue the urge to puke from posting any of this publicly* 184 pounds. My before's? Not cute. I mean, I had JUST finished working out so I was extra sweaty and sloppy and unposturelyish, but still. This baby boy wreaked havoc on my not-so-banging mom bod.

Here's the game plan: I'm going to keep up with T25, grunting and modifying my way through it. I've set a goal for myself to walk/run 50 treadmill or road miles between March 18th (yesterday) and April 18th - currently have 1.82 miles ran on the treadmill. I'm breastfeeding so I can't cut calories, but I am tracking my consumption on the app/website MyFitnessPal. Feel free to friend me so we can motivate each other! buffyanne02

Now if only Target would get the memo that I'm trying to tighten things up and in turn stop selling jelly beans. Sigh.