It's almost been 30 days since I said goodbye to my last career. More importantly, it has been over a month since we'd been to Costco. I mentioned in my last blog that we had to streamline our lives, quite a bit. I'd say we've been fairly successful, despite a few rough patches. We set a goal for our total budget for our groceries with only one trip to Costco a month. This being the first month, we estimated how much meat we would need to last us the month and that was the majority of our purchase on that trip.
I then made a 30 day meal plan. At first, this challenge gave me a rash for a few days. How the heck do you plan 30 days of meals. Thank God, I finally realized that I was completely over thinking this and I found a simpler way to think about it. I divided up the days of the week with general meals, according to our schedule. So our weeks went something like this: Sunday-chicken dinner (cause its easy to throw a whole chicken in the crock pot and then there's some broth to use for other recipes later in the week), Monday-Steak w/ a fresh vegetable, Tuesday-Comfort Food, Wednesday-Seafood, Thursday-Experimental Ethnic Food, Friday-Stew, chili or soup (that way we'd have left over to eat on Saturday when we'd be playing), Saturday-Grill night. So I take these general themes and then just plan a more specific menu on a weekly basis.
The surprising part to me was the vegetables. I planned on going to farmer's markets and then planning my recipes for the week. But it was difficult to make it to the farmer's markets a couple of times because of my schedule. So I had to go to Big Save. Sadly, vegetables and fruits are kind of pricey and that took a huge chunk out of the budget. We're looking into signing up with a farmer's co-op, where you pay a flat rate and you get a box of fresh stuff, whatever they have in season. It would end up being much cheaper.
The awesome thing was that we grossly overestimated our meat supply. The freezer is loaded up about half way, still.
But then about a week ago, I started watching the movie, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", while I rode the stationary bike. I'm not advocating a juice diet and I think there's more to get out of this movie than that. It really made me think hard about our consumption of meat and proteins. We really eat a lot of food and we're not hunter's and gatherers, anymore. We don't need that much meat in our diets, it doesn't have to be in every meal. And guess what, this saves us money.
So again, we went to Costco, our one big monthly trip to Costco. We bought no meat. We bought vegetables and nuts. I bought stuff that I could stretch into bigger things, like Javy's snacks-organic sugar and coconut oil and organic chocolate chips. Carrots and Sweet Potatoes, I can make stews that I can freeze and make them last a long time. Because we didn't have to buy meat, we splurged on organic, cage-free eggs. We'll see how this month goes, I love having a stocked kitchen.
I do recommend the movie, though, it was really inspirational and the main guy, Joe Cross is really handsome. A lot of people still want to know how I lost all my weight and I still get compliments. I kind of clam up, because I really don't like all the attention. But from this movie, I see how he inspired one person and then that one person ended up inspiring many more people. I see how I need to be more vocal. And my message is, just start moving, even if its only 2 minutes. Just keep pushing yourself more. The confidence you gain will make you want to do more, even change your eating habits because you'll want to keep feeling good.
And on another happy note-we've noticed great progress in Javy, lately. He's been moving himself across the floor, twisting and moving his body, like its nothing, and trying to verbalize more. I'm going to work on getting some video of him for a future post. I want everyone to see what he can do. I have nothing to back this up, but I can't help but think that it may be because he doesn't eat processed foods, anymore. It's been a few months since I've bought him anything that was loaded with preservatives and food coloring. And that was exactly the reason that I did start making his snacks and limiting processed foods-to see if it would help his brain function better. Hmmmm, could be.
I then made a 30 day meal plan. At first, this challenge gave me a rash for a few days. How the heck do you plan 30 days of meals. Thank God, I finally realized that I was completely over thinking this and I found a simpler way to think about it. I divided up the days of the week with general meals, according to our schedule. So our weeks went something like this: Sunday-chicken dinner (cause its easy to throw a whole chicken in the crock pot and then there's some broth to use for other recipes later in the week), Monday-Steak w/ a fresh vegetable, Tuesday-Comfort Food, Wednesday-Seafood, Thursday-Experimental Ethnic Food, Friday-Stew, chili or soup (that way we'd have left over to eat on Saturday when we'd be playing), Saturday-Grill night. So I take these general themes and then just plan a more specific menu on a weekly basis.
The surprising part to me was the vegetables. I planned on going to farmer's markets and then planning my recipes for the week. But it was difficult to make it to the farmer's markets a couple of times because of my schedule. So I had to go to Big Save. Sadly, vegetables and fruits are kind of pricey and that took a huge chunk out of the budget. We're looking into signing up with a farmer's co-op, where you pay a flat rate and you get a box of fresh stuff, whatever they have in season. It would end up being much cheaper.
The awesome thing was that we grossly overestimated our meat supply. The freezer is loaded up about half way, still.
But then about a week ago, I started watching the movie, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", while I rode the stationary bike. I'm not advocating a juice diet and I think there's more to get out of this movie than that. It really made me think hard about our consumption of meat and proteins. We really eat a lot of food and we're not hunter's and gatherers, anymore. We don't need that much meat in our diets, it doesn't have to be in every meal. And guess what, this saves us money.
So again, we went to Costco, our one big monthly trip to Costco. We bought no meat. We bought vegetables and nuts. I bought stuff that I could stretch into bigger things, like Javy's snacks-organic sugar and coconut oil and organic chocolate chips. Carrots and Sweet Potatoes, I can make stews that I can freeze and make them last a long time. Because we didn't have to buy meat, we splurged on organic, cage-free eggs. We'll see how this month goes, I love having a stocked kitchen.
I do recommend the movie, though, it was really inspirational and the main guy, Joe Cross is really handsome. A lot of people still want to know how I lost all my weight and I still get compliments. I kind of clam up, because I really don't like all the attention. But from this movie, I see how he inspired one person and then that one person ended up inspiring many more people. I see how I need to be more vocal. And my message is, just start moving, even if its only 2 minutes. Just keep pushing yourself more. The confidence you gain will make you want to do more, even change your eating habits because you'll want to keep feeling good.
And on another happy note-we've noticed great progress in Javy, lately. He's been moving himself across the floor, twisting and moving his body, like its nothing, and trying to verbalize more. I'm going to work on getting some video of him for a future post. I want everyone to see what he can do. I have nothing to back this up, but I can't help but think that it may be because he doesn't eat processed foods, anymore. It's been a few months since I've bought him anything that was loaded with preservatives and food coloring. And that was exactly the reason that I did start making his snacks and limiting processed foods-to see if it would help his brain function better. Hmmmm, could be.
1 comment:
Doris, You are awesome and I am rooting for Javy, hoping he is reaching for another milestone. Go baby go!
You are learning to stock your pantry the way past generations have, seasonally for the year, rather than falling for the commercialization of our food supply. Now when there is a threat of hurricane you will already be set!
As for the weight loss, NEVER shrink from the attention you get, there are so many people that need just a little encouragement to get on the path to a healthier, more flexible and super enjoyable weight. I still think of what it was like to haul myself up out of a chair a hundred pounds ago!
Keep on doi' what you are doin', it gets easier, the meals will plan themselves before long ...
Hey, I'm not A Nony Mouse ... I'm Chris the computer illiterate!
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