Disney Freak

I just read this on the DISboards under the heading, "I am addicted to the DIS which is why I..." and it cracked me up that I could understand all of it: "... give advice like, 'Take ME to get from MCO to POFQ. Go to AK for AM EMH and ride EE and see FotLK and ITTBAB, then hop to MK and enjoy IASW, BTMR, SM, PotC, and HM before your ADR at LTT (1 DDP TS) and MNSSHP.'"

Hahahahahahahaha!!

Ok, I know that the only one out there who might read my page who got that joke was Danielle, so here's the translation, for the non-Disney-freaks out there: "Take the Magical Express service to get from Orlando International Airport to the Port Orleans French Quarter resort. Go to Animal Kingdom for morning Extra Magic Hours and ride Expedition Everest and see Festival of the Lion King and It's Tough to be a Bug, then hop to the Magic Kingdom and enjoy It's a Small World, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, and Haunted Mansion before your Advance Dining Reservation at the Liberty Tree Tavern (which is 1 Table Service Credit on the Disney Dining Plan) and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party."

I just calculated up the "free Disney money" that I have for the trip. Since I've been using my Disney Visa card for my everyday purchases (and paying it off every month) I've accumulated $187 Disney Dollars from that. Then, I signed up for Sunshine Rewards in August and by completing online surveys and making my online purchases through their portal and clicking on paid links every day, I earned $45 Disney Dollars through that. So I'll have $232 in free Disney money for our trip - how much does that rock?!

Less than 2 weeks!!!!

Sparking my Motivation...

So I stumbled across this great free online diet site called SparkPeople.com a week ago and decided to sign up for it because (1) the "plan" looked a lot like Weight Watchers which has worked for me well in the past and (2) it was free.

I've been using the site over the last week and I really like it. The plan is very similar to Weight Watchers but instead of counting Points, you track actual calories, fat, carbs, and protein. You can even set up your nutrition tracker to show you how much you're consuming of other nutrients - for example, I've got mine tracking how much calcium I've consumed. When you set up your profile and they develop your plan, you can schedule cardio and strength training for your week so that you can track that as well. You earn "SparkPoints" for tracking your foods, tracking your exercises, posting on the message boards, reading articles on the site - pretty much using any of the tools on the site that promote a healthy lifestyle. You don't get anything with your SparkPoints, but it's kind of addicting to watch your "score" increase. I haven't weighed in yet (do that on Monday AM), but so far, I really like the site and I think it's going to work pretty well for me.

I think I'm going to finally cancel my Weight Watchers Online subscription - that was $12.95 a month! I really like that SparkPeople helps me look at the big picture - that I'm trying to eat healthy and consume foods that are nutrient rich instead of just focusing on the weight loss. Of course, WW is a little easier to handle away from the computer because I only have to count up to 26 with the Points and when I'm not near the computer I've got no clue where I'm at with my calorie range. I could keep a notepad as well... SparkPeople also has this really cool tool that lets you take a picture with your camera phone and email it to your account so that you can track all the food you ate more accurately later when you're back at the computer - pretty cool! I also really like that the excercise tracking is more incorporated into the Spark plan - you don't earn back the ability to eat more food with your exercise, but you have a weekly goal that you try and meet and that's pretty motivating to get the exercise in.

I'm all motivated right now. I went to Target today to get some heavier hand weights and an exercise ball to use on those days when I can't get to the gym because Alex is on a case with the car. I ended up getting a couple of very cheap "personal trainer" dvds that were on clearance. One that does dumbell exercies and one that works with teh exercise ball - and they were only $3 each - rock!

Of course, this weekend was IrishFest (more on that later after I've got my pics up - it was an awesome time) and so I went over my calories - I tracked everything I consumed and over 800 calories went to Guinness alone. Actually, one day over calories wouldn't probably be too bad, but I went over on Friday also because we went out to dinner at Cella Bistro for Alex's parents' anniversary and the food was awesome as always and we haven't been there in forever so I overindulged. D'oh. Ah well... I've decided to go for a very realistic goal - I'm looking to lose about a pound a week to get me back to my goal weight by June 10th. Slow and Steady Wins the Race, right?