Monthly Archives: December 2014

First night with Plated!

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My husband and I decided to try Plated.  It’s a meal delivery service where they send you the ingredients needed to make a delicious meal that’s under 800 calories.  Hubby and I both need to lose a substantial amount of weight, and one of our biggest problems is portion control.  The second problem is a combination of laziness and lack of time.  We both work full time and tend to order pizza or Toledo’s version of Seamless.  Both of us are good cooks, while he tends to cook special occasion meals, I tend to do the daily regular meals.  I compared Plated and Blue Apron, and after reading some blogs and reviews decided to try out Plated.  I like being able to choose what meals I get.  I found a coupon code for 4 meals free, so I paid $30 for my first box of 6 meals total, 3 dishes serving 2 people each.  Each meal is $12-18 per person.

So here are pictures of my first box!!

20141230_182832 Each box comes with a recipe card for the meals you will make.

 

20141230_182908 Everything is individually packaged in the exact portions you need.

 

For my for first dish, I decided to make Sesame Ginger Wild Salmon and Tatsoi in Miso Broth.  It was 470 calories per serving, and listed as taking 20-30 minutes.  It was either easy or medium difficulty, I can’t remember.

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I had to slice the scallions, mince the ginger, and cut the potatoes in half, which was the most labor intensive part.  Everything else was just a “rinse and pat dry” or open and pour for the most part.  Hubby helped with some chopping for a couple minutes, in total it took me 34 minutes to make dinner.

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Here is one of the finished plates!  I was really impressed with myself and the ingredients, because I thought mine looked almost as good as the picture.  It tasted delicious, too.  Hubby and I are fans and really excited to make and eat our next meal.

 

If you are interested in Plated, here’s my referral code.  https://www.plated.com/invites/0363c7

We both get 2 free plates if you use it.  🙂

Decluttering is a good thing

Posted in 2015 Purge by

Since my last blog I have discarded or donated at least 5 items each day I was home.  I was gone two days, but I had donated a bag of clothes to make up for it before I left.  It’s still fairly easy, I haven’t had to make too many tough decisions yet.  I’ve donated items I never wear, some were my sister’s that she gave me when we were both losing weight a couple years back. I’ve thrown away expired medicine, makeup, and more.  Things in the past I would have kept “just in case”.  But NO more.  I have already been better about buying things I don’t need – really pondering – do I REALLY need this?  How much would I wear it?  Where will I keep it? etc.

I’m really proud of myself.  I know it will get harder, but the thought of being able to always put clean clothes back in drawers is my light at the end of the tunnel.

I found this Decluttering guide on Facebook and I plan to follow it.

http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/declutter-calendar-january.html

Here’s the first week:

Who knew you could donate old Christmas cards?

My mission for this weekend is to clean out my office/dressing room.  I am taking everything out but heavy furniture and putting it in my husband’s office next door.  Then I’ll vacuum and be judicious about what goes back in.  It’s pretty gross, but the carpet hasn’t been vacuumed in probably over a year. because it’s been covered with stuff.  Next I will empty all of my dressers and purge those of clothes I can’t remember wearing.  I’m planning on getting a smaller desk so that I can have more storage space and will be less likely to use my desk as a shelf.  I do sometimes work from home, so it will be nice to have a set place.

I won’t tackle my closet just yet – once my room is back in order I’ll have a closer space to sort and purge.  That will be a project for another weekend!

So obviously I sucked at my challenge

Posted in 2015 Purge by

It was a lot harder than I expected and required a lot more money than I wanted to spend.  So I gave up.  Sadness.

 

But now I am going to use my blog for something better.  To chronicle my new adventure of GETTING RID OF STUFF!!

My official 2015 New Year’s Resolution.  I have too much stuff. I have clothes over a decade old that don’t fit and/or shouldn’t be worn in public. I have makeup from high school that is unsanitary and needs to be tossed. I am a hoarder in the making who attaches emotions to objects. I have a whole extra bedroom as my personal closet and it’s not enough.

So my NY Resolution – EVERY day find FIVE items to either throw away or give to Goodwill. Items will immediately go into the garbage or a bag to take to Goodwill when filled up. When I can put clean clothes in drawers, stop using the floor as a shelf, have a closet I can get in and out of and use to store current clothing, and have a desk I can actually work on, I can stop.

I posted it on Facebook and my friends posted so many awesome things that I got super excited and started early.

Yesterday I found out some friends of a friend had a house fire and were in desperate need of clothes.  These ladies happened to be about my size, so yesterday I took 10 minutes and filled up a whole garbage bag of clothes I haven’t worn in a year and/or don’t plan on wearing in the next year.  There was more than one item with the tags still on it.  😦

I plan on filling up at least 2 more bags for these ladies over the weekend.  🙂

Today I went through my makeup in the bathroom and threw out 5 things.  One was eyeshadow from 1998.  GROSS!!!!!

I am so excited to get rid of stuff, it’s very weird for me.  But I can’t wait to have full use of my closet/room again.  🙂