This will be a fun and extremely positive post, so bear with me!
As I told you guys, the last few days my cravings seemed to get worse and worse and I finally caved in on Day 9. Yesterday, I went to H-E-B for my weekly grocery trip and bought all sorts of things that I thought could help alleviate those cravings: hummus, non-dairy cheese, turkey bacon, etc. And it has definitely helped! But, I kind of freaked out because my basket was overflowing with food and things because since we cut out about 80% of the processed foods (crackers, chips, candy, pre-packaged meals, snacks, etc.) we eat EVERYTHING in our kitchen pantry; as opposed to what we used to do, going to the grocery store to restore staple foods and a couple meals even though we still had tons of things to eat that we had let go bad or pushed to the back of the cabinets. Hope that made sense LOL
Long story, short:
My grocery basket = overflow of expensive and organic fresh fruit, produce, bottled water, fish, lean meat, nuts, and other items I always considered "gourmet" because it was health food
I just knew, when the lady was ringing up my items, that I would bust the weekly grocery budget and have to give Jay the bad news. NOTE: Before we did this challenge, our budget was $250/week and approx. $150/week for us to eat out or grab gas station snacks and stuff. No joke. When all my items yesterday had been scanned I had been busy helping bag my groceries and didn't see the register computer screen, so my jaw dropped when the woman handed me my receipt and said, "Your total is $184.67, m'am. Thank you for shopping with us!"
Oh. My. Gosh.
We started the challenge less than two weeks ago and this was my third trip to the grocery store. And, because we have planned our meals so meticulously, we never had to make those extra little "we forgot such and such ingredient" trips. You know, the ones where you go into the store to buy bread and cheese and walk out with $50 of stuff you really didn't need anyways?
Why am I telling you this? Because our weekly grocery trips have totaled $208, $225, and now $185. A combined grocery budget savings of $132. We spent less than $30 in the last two weeks on eating out. An additional savings of $270. And we made no surprise grocery trips during the last two weeks, which saved us approx $100. Giving us a total savings of $502.
Guess how much the 24-day challenge + additional supplements cost? Approximately $475.
It has paid for itself and we are only on Day 13......Woah.
That in and of itself is amazing, but here's the other good news: I've lost 16 pounds, 2.5 inches in my waist, 2 inches in my hips, and another on my neck. And Jay's lost 13 pounds, 2 inches in his waist, 2 in his hips, 1.5 in his shoulders, 1.25 in his chest, and 1.5 in his neck.
And that's with the cheating!
PLUS, I feel more energized during the day without even having my morning coffee or afternoon soda.
Day 12
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Days 9 thru 11
I know I haven't posted in a couple days, but I am still trucking along and keeping a diary....just been crazy busy getting things done in my last week off :( ugh, so not ready to go back!
Okay, I did cheat. BIG TIME on Day 9. Five slices of cheese pizza OMG....and even though I felt ridiculously guilty while I ate it, it was the best gosh darn pizza I have ever had in my entire LIFE! No joke. I needed that cheese dang it!
And, from this experience, I have noticed that I don't crave or miss food at all UNTIL 4:30pm. From 4:30-7pm my cravings for salty and sweet and delicious food is so bad I seriously want to wire my jaw shut to keep from salivating while I make my kids' dinner or see billboards and commercials of yummy looking, extremely bad for me foods. I've tried snacking on almonds and carrots and drinking water during that time but it does not put a DENT in the cravings or hunger pangs I feel during those three hours every day. I want sugar. I want cheese. And I can't have fruit or dairy during this challenge. It has definitely been the worst part of this entire experience. An eye opener for sure.
I started the 14-day Burn phase of the challenge yesterday and the vitamins you take with it make you feel SO good! And have so much ENERGY! I love it!
Here's what I've eaten in the last 3 days:
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Okay, I did cheat. BIG TIME on Day 9. Five slices of cheese pizza OMG....and even though I felt ridiculously guilty while I ate it, it was the best gosh darn pizza I have ever had in my entire LIFE! No joke. I needed that cheese dang it!
And, from this experience, I have noticed that I don't crave or miss food at all UNTIL 4:30pm. From 4:30-7pm my cravings for salty and sweet and delicious food is so bad I seriously want to wire my jaw shut to keep from salivating while I make my kids' dinner or see billboards and commercials of yummy looking, extremely bad for me foods. I've tried snacking on almonds and carrots and drinking water during that time but it does not put a DENT in the cravings or hunger pangs I feel during those three hours every day. I want sugar. I want cheese. And I can't have fruit or dairy during this challenge. It has definitely been the worst part of this entire experience. An eye opener for sure.
I started the 14-day Burn phase of the challenge yesterday and the vitamins you take with it make you feel SO good! And have so much ENERGY! I love it!
Here's what I've eaten in the last 3 days:
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Day 7 & 8
I did pretty good both of these days, but the temptations have been too much and I finally gave in and cheated ever so slightly on dairy and then cheated HUGE on Day 9 which I will post about later. But I'm still 14.8lbs down and feeling better about myself and I'm not quitting!
DAY 7
DAY 8
DAY 7
DAY 8
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