Fun way to lose baby weight at home

After Cheeky Panda was born, I started doing exercise to tone the arms and legs by using Wii. Yes. the video game system. I don't like to go to gym stared by strangers or ended up staring at strangers. The EA Sports Active game actually work very good and it came with a elastic band for strength exercise. I used it for a month or so, I saw my upper arms are toned and were so happy of the result.

Honestly, I didn't really expect much in the beginning. I only want to move a little to boost the mood and feel like I am myself again while the baby sleep. The visible result was unexpected and the confident boost was just amazing. I wanted to continue but a one day break of the routine just killed it. I got too lazy to get up the couch again the next day and just forget about it.

This time, after a whole year of nursing Chunky Panda, I started to try exercise again. After all, two pregnancies have their huge effects on me. I gained 40 lbs then lost 30 lbs for the 1st one. Gain another 40 lbs and lost 30 lbs again for the 2nd one. Lucky for breastfed my babies, the 30lbs actually lost by itself from nursing, I didn't do anything extra to loose them. But also because of nursing, breastfed moms' bodies will keep the 10 lbs just to make sure there will be enough fat to product milk. I was pregnant again before I done nursing Cheeky Panda, so.... before I could try to loose the last 10 lbs, I started gaining weight again.

I was on the scale another day, 20 lbs more than I have these two wonderful kids. I think it is time to do something again. This time I am going to use XBOX 360 KINECT. Sound weird but they actually are fun and help you burn calories. The main reason I switch to Kinect is no controller, you (the player) is the controller. I enjoy the Wii but really hate to exercise with two remotes on hand, who work out like that? The Kinect make much more sense, at least for exercise purpose.

My favorite games are Dance Central and Your Shape. They are both fun and sure keep your body moving. Dance Central is more fun to me because I like dancing to begin with. It has hit songs and cool moves in the game, started from a step by step tutorial, then you can perform it and even try a dance battle. Every song have different levels, you can build up your dance skills to your favorite tunes. I have to say they do have quite different moves in different levels which keep it fun.

Your Shape is more an exercise core game, I bet you can tell by the name. It has different programs for you to choose from. The one I tried was for loosing baby weight (yes, they have a program for that). Starting the game, those exercises don't really look hard at all. But you will know how hard it is when you actually doing it, at least for someone like me who do not exercise on a regular basis. The screen will have a computerized personal trainer showing you what to do, and you will see yourself right behind the trainer. This helps you  realize how exact or how far off you are comparing to the model positions from the trainer. Since the cameras track how you move, they compare your moves to the right positions, so it is less likely you will hurt yourself by doing them wrong. It also have a calorie burning scale right there as you working out, quite motivating.

Drop my grocery bill form $90 to $70, not too bad

Couponing for a while now, had my 1st TWO Salad Dressing today. Ken's 8-9oz salad dressing was on sale today for $1. I got 2 coupons which were $1 off per product ($1/1). YEAH. I normally will not buy the flavor I bought today, but this is the only two flavor left on shelf, the rest of them were gone. So, it's free, what the heck, I will give them a try. Maybe I will like them. Or not, I don't have to loose anything. 

But there is a weird thing. HEB supposed to accept 1 Code B (Big Saving coupon) and 1 Manufacturer coupon.  I saw they have $4 off IF you buy 4 ($4/4) for Cereals, so I bought 4. I was looking at the coupon and all of a sudden I noticed it was a B coupon (they usually are marked as M which can't be combined with Manufacturer coupons). Cool, I can use my own coupons on top of that, a few extra dollars to save. But when I checked out, the cashier keep trying to scan my own coupons, they all showed as invalid. Only one of the $0.5 off Cheerio coupon scanned okay. She started to look at the coupons and said that was for a lot of cereals. I said 'Yes, I got 8 of them.' So she counted how many boxes of cereals was the coupons for, and didn't checked the computer or my cart again, she overrode it. I was glad I didn't need to say anything extra or she had to call the manager for that. I was just prepared to take those didn't scan back and forget about it. Since my girls are so tired and hungry, I just wanted to go home. 

So be careful if you are going to HEB hoping to use B coupon with your own Manufacturer coupons. It may not go as smooth as you think. I remembered the B coupon fine print mentioned "do not combined with other offer." Maybe that's why. However one of the Cheerio coupon did go through without a problem, so it is really confusing. Whatever, the transaction is done. I got my 23% off my bills. I think it is a good start. And I received a few print out coupon at the cashier. It included a $5 off next shopping for HEB (printed complimentary from General Mills, I guessed because I bought 8), $2 off 5 boxes of Big G (General Mills) cereals and $1 off any 2 Ball Park Deli Beef Franks.

My 1st Free item from couponing at Target - Cutter Mosquito Repellent

Went to Target to buy some sunscreen yesterday. It was on sale and I had 2 Banana Boat sun care coupons ($1 off 1 product). Target has a buy two specific products get $5 gift card, I got 2 for $6.92 after coupons and gift card for next purchase, it makes that cheaper than getting one.

Then I got Cutter mosquito repellent for FREE. It cost $3.99 and I have a Target $2 off coupon, and a $1.5 manufacturer coupon, so ended up I earned $0.01 to contribute for the total.  

And they have Pantene  shampoo and conditioner on sale at $3.89 each. If you buy two you can get a styling product ($3.99)  for FREE. I got a $3 off two products Manufacturer Coupon, and a $1.5 Target Coupon for the same condition. So I ended up paying less than one product and get all 3 products for $3.08. 

The pool is up, the girls love it

Little Panda Daddy came home a little early today, so we can go outside and set the swimming pool up. Cheeky Panda has been asking all day long to get the pool set up, I guess she remembered the fun from last year. As a two year old, this girl sure surprised me with her wonderful memory.

The time to set the pool up is like 10 - 15 minutes, but it take 3 hours to fill that 1000 gallons up in the 10' X 30" pool...we were playing in the pool while it was filling, so it wasn't too bad. The girls were crawling, walking, splashing, kicking and laughing so hard that I really have to ask them to quite down a bit. This is the first time Chunky Panda "swim" in a pool, she loves it so much that she laughed like screaming the whole time. Then she got so tired she looked for me to hold her so she could rest and chill. I bet she would have fall asleep if I let her. Cheeky Panda on the other hand do not want to come out for dinner. I told her I when I counted to ten, she had to get up. She said yes but when I counted to 9, she suddenly said "no 10, no 10." HAHA. I thought that was really funny she knew 10 is after 9, and asked me to stop counting. Now I know for sure she can count.

We can't find the cover in the store, so my husband ordered it online from Amazon tonight. It should arrive on Thursday (we have the Prime which give us Free-2-day Delivery from joined Amazon Mom). Hope the pool won't get too dirty in two days since there is a house building behind us. God bless.

Got my new swimming pool

Last year the little swimming pool was out in the yard for too long, all kind of dirt and bugs are collected in it (so gross). I tossed it a couple weeks ago and finally bought a new one today. The girls will be a little bigger this summer and a bigger pool will fit them better. Hopefully this time Little Panda Daddy and I can both fit in it. Before Chunky Panda was born, only Cheeky Panda and I can fit in the tiny pool, Little Panda Daddy was all left out. A good thing about that was he could hang the towels for us to dry off.

Checked a few places I usually shop, the lowest price for Intex 10' X 30" pool is $49.99 from Academy (I found that on a TV commercial and the newspaper ad., I don't really shop there typically). Now my next project is to clean up my back yard full of dogs' poop.......and wait for Little Panda Daddy to mow the yard. Hope everything go right and the pool is good. Then I can play with the girls in the new pool and have a lot of fun together.