Week 4

Along with getting older, being less physically active, genetics and all the other reasons that explain why we tend to gain weight as adults, I’m going to share with you a theory of mine. Remember when you were a kid and what you ate was under the complete and total control of your parents? I can remember looking through the refrigerator and cabinets full of food and yet proclaiming to my mom, “there’s nothing to eat!” Her response was typically to tell me to eat a sandwich or make some soup. Before the age of 17 when a job and a car came along (see: Freedom), all of my meals were determined by what we had at the house, or what my mom chose to do for meals that day. Once given the choice and opportunity, however, you bet I was cruising through the local drive thru giving into any pallet-craving foods that struck. And while I wouldn’t consider myself overweight or unhealthy, my choices can certainly fall into the category of the latter more often that I’d like.

I’ve now completed week 4 of 52 of this challenge, and for the most part I’ve stayed on-track. One area in which I’ve been able to keep to my goal has been decreasing the amount of times I’m eating out or picking up take-out tea (I’m not a coffee drinker). My goal was to eat out no more than 5 times in a month. This includes getting dinner with friends, convenience meals on the way home from work, or succumbing to cravings. Not only has this decreased the amount of money I’ve spent on eating out, but also the additional calories as well. Out of the five times that I did eat out, three were convenience meals (things I picked up after or before work when I didn’t feel like cooking or eating what was at home), one was lunch during an all-day conference, and the fifth was when I accepted an invitation for a dinner out with a friend.

Although I wasn’t keeping track of how much I was eating out before, or how much I was spending on said meals, I spent a total of $60.18 this month on food not purchased at the grocery. Two meals were at what I call “sit-down,” restaurants, where you are waited on by a server. Two were take-out meals that I ordered ahead of time and picked up on the way home from work (these meals tend to cost slightly more than fast-food, but are definitely better tasting and better quality). I’m not proud to say that the last meal I chose to eat out this month was from McDonald’s. This was after a night of horrible sleep (4 hours) and when I had five patients back-to-back the following day. I knew my butt would be dragging if I didn’t get some sort of sustenance in me, but I also needed something I could nosh on between clients since I wouldn’t have time for a lunch. This meant my order of an Egg McMuffin (to eat right away), a large Coke (to sip on throughout the day and give me that caffeine kick) and a sausage biscuit (that would hold up long-term and be easy to nibble on between sessions) cost me almost my entire daily allowance of calories for the day – Yikes!!

Speaking of food, I’m not crazy about grocery shopping. I don’t know what it is – whether I’m impatient with slower shoppers or I just like having what I need there at the house, I don’t know. Regardless, I have began shopping weekly rather than once every 3-4 weeks as I’m also attempting to keep from wasting food or cluttering up my cabinets with things that never get eaten. My grocery allowance is $50 per week ($200/month) and I spent $168.87 for the month of February. Additionally, although I didn’t give myself a monetary allowance, my take-out tea spending was to be limited to twice monthly and the cost came out of my weekly allowance of spending money; I spent $12.21 this month on that expense.

The only goal that I missed regarding food and food costs for the month was my giving in and ordering a cheese danish at Starbucks one afternoon. This was one of what I called my “hard goals,” for this year, as I wasn’t allowing myself any pastries or donuts for 2018. In my defense, I did do a 60-minute OTF workout followed by a 80-minute yoga session beforehand so….. ya know…. any excuse, right? Wrong.
If I start making excuses during this first month as to why I can go back on my goals, I’ll continue to do so in ALL areas. Don’t feel like working out this week? Skip it. See an awesome area rug I just HAVE to have for the condo? Sure, buy it! This is how I accumulated so much stuff, debt, weight, etc in the first place. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right. And so far I’m off to a pretty good start!