Happy Blog Birthday and a Winner!

 

Happy 1 year birthday to The Unlikely Success Story. We’ve come a long way baby! Here are some of my favorite posts through the past year.

My brain is a sitcom gone wrong.

Hello? The Old Me? We need to have a chat.

The Serenity Prayer, for us.

My First 5k, Happy Thanksgiving!

2009 Year in Review

I can’t believe how far I’ve come or how far the blog has come. Speaking of how far I have come. I’m going to show you guys a little something. My Mom found this OLD picture of me. I was probably about 20-21, somewhere in there. I was at my heaviest weight, someone around 250-260…100lbs heavier than I am right now. I lost down to about 180, then gained back to 209 and now I’m at 160. I wanted to show it because I want you to know…and I never want to go back to that.

2000-2001	2010

Thank you guys again for helping me stay accountable. Without you, my journey would not be nearly as successful.

Ok, now that the birthday stuff is done. Let me tell you who won the $60 CSNStores gift card! ****DRUM ROLL PLEASE*****

The winner is Tracy! I’m happy to announce Tracy as the winner. I’ve known her through the blogging community for years! She is an amazing writer and has recently begun her own weight loss journey and is enjoying rediscovering herself with a healthy lifestyle. I’m so proud of her! I am also thoroughly jealous because I want the gift card! ;) Congratulations Tracy!

I hope you are all having good weeks! I’m off to the gym. I’m going to try the exercise bike and see what happens. The knee has improved a little and I’m going crazy sitting still. I promise to stop if there’s pain! :)

A Giveaway and way to save!

 

The Unlikely Success Story turns 1 year old on Thursday. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year! In honor of this milestone, CSNStores.com contacted me and asked if I would like to give away a $60 gift certificate to one of my readers! I was very excited, especially when I learned that CSN sells everything from Cookware and Fitness Equipment to Track Lighting! I took a look around there websites, they really do have it all people!

 

All you have to do to win the $60 Gift Certificate from CSNStores.com is do one or more of the following leaving a comment for EACH ONE:

1 - Become a follower of my blog or if you already are…LEAVE A COMMENT

2 - Visit CSNStores.com and tell me what  you're interested in. LEAVE A COMMENT

3 - Post about this giveaway on your blog or Twitter account. LEAVE A COMMENT

4 – Share your best money saving tip when it comes to shopping, doesn’t have to be grocery related, but shopping in general. LEAVE A COMMENT

Enter now through Wednesday May 12th! Winners will be selected by a random number generator and announced on Thursday.

4 ways for each of you go enter! I am going to be totally jealous of whoever wins! $60 can buy you some sweet stuff! :)

Ok, onto normal Monday hub-bub, here’s my meal plan for the week:

• Meatless Monday – Baked Sweet Potato with Warm Black Bean Salad
• Tuesday – Lemon Apricot Chicken
• Wednesday – Roasted Veggie Pizza
• Thursday – Baked Coconut Shrimp on a spinach salad
• Friday – Ranch Chicken & Sunday Sweet Potato Salad

This menu was planned using my local grocer’s sales circular. You can get these online from your local grocer usually on Tuesdays. When I meal plan, I took at what proteins and produce are on sale for the week and then base my menu around it.

I find this a super easy way to save money since healthy eating can get expensive. The only format of grocery store circulars are usually very similar. I happen to shop at Food Lion and this week I’m getting sweet potatoes, shrimp, strawberries, roma tomatoes and asparagus on sale.

I use several websites to find recipes, some of which have an ingredient search, so if you know that chicken breast and asparagus are on sale, you can search for recipes calling for those ingredients! Some that I use:

AllRecipes.com

EatBetterAmerica.com

WeightWatchers.com

Sometimes I just Yahoo! or Google search for recipes too, it takes a little looking around, but it’s well worth the time investment to preplan. I just thought I would let you guys into my process a little bit. Hope you found some of the information helpful!

Let’s make this week count!