Negotiating skillz..I has them

Our lovely, horribly loud, 11 year old Honda was ready for a new home...well, we were ready for a new car. We decided we wanted another Honda, so I began to research. I looked at cars.com daily, I checked local dealers, I read up on KBB, Nada, and Edmunds. I found out what year/make/model I wanted and what they were selling for. I also researched the trade in value on it, so I had an idea of what the dealer paid. I also read a million "tips on buying a used car". I felt very prepared. We followed a lot of the tricks- go at the end of the month, don't show too much interest in any particular car- do NOT discuss financing until you reach a deal, etc. Well, the car we wanted was priced at 15,000. We drove it and a couple others, we walked around a lot, and we just made sure the dealer invested time in us- the tips said that would make them more willing to work with you. He offered us a price on the car we weren't very interested in- 3000.00 off the sticker. It was a great deal, but the car had kinda high miles (45k and it was a 2007). So, I asked him what he would give us the other car (the one we really wanted) for- he replied, "Oh, that one has low miles, I could do 13,900, maybe 13,500. So, we just kept delaying and talking amongst ourselves. He then asked me to make an offer, so I pulled out my research that I printed (I guess at this time he could tell we were serious), and figured if they were giving about 11,000 for trade ins on this car, it would be fair to offer 12, 500. He said he'd "check with the manager"..after a few minutes, he came back and said the best he could do was 12,900. I asked him to work that up and see what the total cost would be, with TT&L. Well, it was around 14,300. Still with me? Okay, so I told him we very well might buy the car if he could get it to 14k out the door, and he did! So, the cost of the car when from 15k to 12, 700. That's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. It was easy- I kind of wonder if we could've got it for less. I doubt it; I haven't seen any 2006 Accords with under 30,000 miles for less than 15k sticker, and most of them were more. So, if you followed all this, kudos to you. I hope these tricks and tips helps someone else in the future.

Over it!

I am eating worse than I ever was before I started "dieting". I don't think restricting myself works. I have eaten more junk the past couple weeks than I have the past month. The only thing I'm good at is limiting my soft drink intake. I'm still working out and losing weight, but it can't be an obsession. Sooo, no more posts about food...unless it's an awesome recipe that I need to share.

In other news, do you like my new layout? Is it hard to read? I chose it because the site where I got the code from had it titled with my name. (even if you don't comment much, I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this)

Because this is NOT a weight loss blog...

My baby is getting so big. She's reaching milestone after milestone. Today, she showed great problem solving skills- manuevering her body different ways to reach her bottle, then figuring out how to position herself to feed herself! She's also eating some finger foods, but not really liking them very much. I sure hope she doesn't try to take a bottle to college!

It's truly amazing to watch a person grow. We've loved her since she was just two pink lines. Fortunately, we got quite a few ultrasounds during the pregnancy, so we've really been able to watch her grow for her entire existence. With every day, I love her more and more. How couldn't I? Look at this face:

I fell off the wagon...

and I kept on falling. Maybe I could use a sponsor or something like people who belong to AA have. I started the day with a carnation instant breakfast; not the greatest choice, but not bad. Then, it went downhill- burger king for my second breakfast, cold stone creamery, kastleburgers for dinner, and now, a coke for my late night snack! The good news, I feel sick to my stomach from so much junk and so little healthy food today. That must mean my body is getting used to eating right.

Ah, well...I'll for sure be back on the wagon tomorrow- but, I may not weigh myself this week!! :)

A half pound

That's how much lighter I am this week. I don't know what I expected to see when I got on the scale, but I'm mildly pleased that it wasn't higher, and I'm motivated to lose even more than that next week. I'll recap my high and low points of the past week now. I worked out 4 times (5 if you count today) since last week. I go to the gym on my lunch hour and use the elliptical. Then, I do some crunches. I'm increasing the intensity of the workout, but I don't feel like I'm really "pushing myself"; I'll have to work on that. I'd like to commit some time at home to working out as well. Luis got me an awesome stand up punching bag for my birthday, and I've yet to use it. I've also been drinking tons of water. So much so that I convinced myself I must be pregnant because I'm peeing so much!! I'm not though. Now, my downfalls- I went to a friend's house and she had a coke sitting on her coffee table. I wanted water, but when she offered me a coke, I just couldn't resist. It was SO yummy. I think the Mormon's are onto something when they classify caffine as a drug. Anyway, I didn't feel too badly about it because it was my only slip up thus far. This next one though, yea, I feel guilty about...good, I won't do it again guilt; not, I made myself throwup over it guilt! I ate a cupcake. I know that doesn't sound too bad, but picture this- a regular sized brownie flavored cake topped with mounds of peanut butter frosting, with reeses pieces mixed in! Now, wipe the drool from your face and see how bad that was for me- a "dieter" to indulge in. I'm sure that cupcake had more calories than I consumed all week! I'm getting past it and inching toward my goal of 125lbs. At this rate, I'll get there in a year...time to step it up!

My goal for this coming week will be to not cheat- at all. I'm allowing myself one 100 calorie snack per day- today it was smartfood popcorn. I can't give in to the shiny red cans, as tempting as they may be. Also, I'd like to work out at least two or three times at home, in addition to the gym.

Here's hoping to see more results next week!

150

Ugh...that's what the scale said yesterday. I'm not trying to be a size 2, but I'm sick of being a 10/12. Not just a 10/12, but an out of shape one! Yes, I know, I just had a baby; yes, I know some women would like to be a 10, but I'm not one of them!! I'm a small/medium framed person who was a size 0/2 until I was 21. I don't want to look like that again, but I want to feel better about myself. I don't want to cringe when trying on a bathing suit...even though my stretchmarks running half way down my legs will still make me wear one of those cover up wraps, I'd like to look better everywhere else. So, I'm putting this out there for the whole world (yea, because the whole world is reading this!) to help motivate me to lose weight and shape up. I want to do it because I'm a little vain, sure, but I also want to stay healthy and active for my daughter. I want to have energy to play with her when she's older. I don't want to be too tired/lazy to go outside with her. I also don't want to set a bad example for her. Do you know that I get all organic food for her and make it myself, but I don't think twice about scarfing down a big mac and chasing it with a hot fudge sundae. That isn't right. I should care more about what I put in my body. I mean, junk food is good- every once in a while. Thankfully, I've already started making diet changes. I have increased my veggie intake, cut out soft drinks, and today, I passed up the opportunity to have a scrumdiddlyuptious (is that spelled correctly) cupcake from The Kupcake Factory, and let me tell you- that was hard. :)

Anyway, my point is- I'm going to lose weight. My goal is 25 pounds by the end of August, but I will be more than satisfied with losing 20 pounds. Every Wednesday, I'm going to weigh myself at the gym at my work...I will post the weight on here, which will really make me want to lose. I will say this- I'm already 2 pounds lighter than what I was two weeks ago; I really think I can do this. If you have any diet/exercise tips to share, please do so. OR, if you want to write motivating comments or something, that would be appreciated as well. Have a great day!!

Wanna hear what happened to me yesterday?

Okay, I had to work late, which was fine. When I got in my car though, my arm started to hurt- just below my elbow, near the crease in my arm. It started to get red and swollen, and the pain felt like the worst part of a shot- you know, right when the medicine goes in, but it didn't stop..it just hurt and hurt and got more swollen..then I had what looked like little blisters inside of the big red swollen section; did I mention in HURT? I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. I was looking at my other arm waiting to see if anything was going to pop up over there. Driving was very difficult. I concluded that I would go to urgent care because the ER is too expensive and takes 583746 hours to get treated. When I was halfway to the urgent care near my house, the pain started to diminish- a little, so I decided to go home first and check with my doctor...Dr. Google. Turns out, I was stung by a catterpillar...not just any caterpillar, a ninja caterpillar. I didn't even see it. I'm sure it still would've hurt like crazy, but I wouldn't have gone into panic mode thinking I had the swine flu or something worse. After a trip to the pharmacy for benadryl and cortisone, I was set. I got all delirious and passed out by 8:30 from the benadryl (yes, I'm a lightweight). Today, it just feels like a really bad bruise. Have you ever been stung by a caterpillar? Did you know that some of them actually sting?
In honor of my ninja caterpillar, one of my buddies on thenest.com made this awesome drawing that had me laughing so hard in my benadryl stupor last night.