Desparate need of Support/Penpal/Group??

Not trying to lose weight. More trying to gain muscle but I am willing to be your bud. Lol. Every one can use that little inspiration.

I will be glad to add you as a friend. I am not in the same situation as you are but I do need to lose more weight. A friend request is on the way. And good luck to you in finding another job and all aspects of your life. Hold your head high and know that all things are possible.

Good luck and welcome back!

I am in a different situation than you, but I am a busy mom of 2. Maybe I can help in some ways. A friend request will be coming.

A few things I do to save time/money.

I buy chicken breat when on sale. I perfer to buy it already de-boned, but will de-bone it myself if the sale price is good! I weight it out to 4 oz portions (about half a breast, usually). A digital food scale can be found at a department store. I have a friend who found an excellent one at a thrift store. Anyway back to my point. I buy as much as I can when on sale. Then I pound it out (so it looks like more than it is) and cook a large number of these pieces. Then I wrap in wax paper and pop in the freezer in freezer bags. You can keep them there for a couple weeks - no problem. Then when I need something quick, grab a chicken breast, pop in the microwave for 2min on defrost, and you have a piece of chicken for a salad, sandwich, wrap, english muffin, or whatever else.

I have also taken to plating up left overs into portioned sizes and freezing in luch size rubbermaid containers. That way, I have a quick lunch. I had been just throwing away the single portion sized left overs, since they were not enough to feed my family.

When you have a spoon of veggies left over or just a small piece of meat, throw it in a freezer bag. Save them up, when you have enough, throw them all together and make veggie soup with little or no cost. You can grab some 98 % fat free broth to add to this. OR if you bought the chicken on the bone, you can boil the bones and make your own broth, pull off the fat, freeze and have ready to use. I prefer making my own broth because I have high blood pressure and need to watch sodium!

Hope these few ideas help someone.

If you're not seeing results, maybe it's time to switch up your routine. Your body only takes 3 weeks to get used to doing a workout routine, because it gets efficient at doing what you're doing, so results slow down and you hit a plateau. This applies to running, walking, and weight lifting.

Also, intense workouts burn fat better than slow and steady (longer time) workouts. Check out Shin Ohtake's info on his website, and sign up for his free 5-day fat burning course. It has great ideas and explains this in more detail. Once I'm finished with the C25K, I'm going to try some of his suggestions to burn more fat away.

If you're not a member yet, join the Freecycle group for your area. Go to http://www.freecycle.org/ and enter your city and State, and pick the group that's closest to you. Freecycle is an email list full of stuff people are giving away, for FREE. I got my treadmill and weights (dumbbells) through Freecycle. This way, I can exercise at home, but best of all - my equipment was free! I didn't have money for a gym membership anyway.

I eat leftovers all the time. There's nothing wrong with packaging up your dinner and having it for lunch the next day. Why waste the money by throwing out uneaten food?

I also do a lot of my shopping at the Dollar Store. I can get bread, bagels, diet soda, no carb drink mixes, chicken breasts and chicken thighs, little beef steaks, water, condiments, napkins, etc there. I can feed my entire family (me, my wife, and three kids) a spaghetti dinner, complete with the pasta, sauce, smoked sausage, garlic bread, grated cheese, and seasonings, all from the dollar store, for a total of about $4.50, and we easily have seconds for the kids, and leftovers for a few lunches. So each plate works out to be about 45¢ of food. It might not be healthy per se, but it's filling. We should all be eating in moderation, smaller meals more often anyway, to keep the metabolism up. I'm sure you can find half-decent items at the Dollar Store to make. There's nothing wrong with saving some money.

Also, try a local church. They sometimes have a food pantry or a small donation program for giving food to people who want/need it.

and check into Angel Food Ministries (http://www.angelfoodministries.com) and find a local church close to you. They buy food in BULK and pass it onto anyone who wants to purchase it. and it's good stuff, same stuff you'd find in grocery stores. It's just a little more affordable because they buy in bulk.

Good luck. I hope things get better for you soon.