Hello everyone--

I am so sorry that I've lagged in posting.   I've just been mentally exhausted from training at work.  It feels so good to be able to say 'at work'!  :)  Anyway, I started my new job on August 3rd and have been busy learning everything.  I am very lucky that the person training me is staying on at the company and knows her stuff. She has been very helpful to me and it's greatly appreciated.  My other co-workers are nice as well, which is a refreshing change change from the standoff-y Bs I used to work with. 

One of the nice things about my job is that it's close by.  Today I left at 5:35 and was home by 5:55, a rarity for most people.  Although I enjoyed taking the bus, I'm happier to drive (since it's close). That way if I want to stop at Ulta grocery store, I can do so easily.

Now that I'm working again, I feel like I'm getting back into my routine.  And to me that means getting more motivated to work out.  I was just reading the new Oxygen and there were some great articles and recipes this month to help with that.  I love it when they have workout at home articles because I don't belong to a gym and use DVDs primarily.

I'm also forcing myself to get back to tracking my Points Plus on WW.  I know tracking works but I will admit that I hate doing it, especially on the weekends.  It's my biggest blunder.  I do eat right but when I eat treats or don't feel like measuring I just don't track.  And guess what--it leads to a gain that week usually. I just have to admit that I need to track to be really successful!   To help with that I found an app called WWScanCalc.  This app is not WW affiliated but it really makes getting the Points Plus value simple. Right now you can use an app to put in all the macros to get the Points Plus value.  This app allows you scan the barcode of a food to get the value.  It doesn't work with everything as I found out when I scanned everything in my kitchen to test it out.  It worked on Kashi bars, but not my hummus from Costco.  So it's a great tool, but don't expect it to work for everything.   It's definitely handy to have when you're grocery shopping to help you decide what to buy. 

I'm going to keep this short as I need to eat some dinner, but I'll be back soon with an update on our Ohio trip to the Irish Festival.  It was great! :)

Question for you guys---what are some of your fave free apps?