I haven't blogged in awhile, but I've been busy with my many endeavors - namely becoming Chap's very part-time assistant and working on my Teachers Pay Teachers site. In the meantime, we've had Birthday Month, which usually means we spend a lot more money than normal and our diet becomes almost sweets based. I'm happy to report, though, that we spent way less money this year and we only had a small string of unhealthy eating. Not that it's a bad thing, but Chap and I were quite relieved to go back to a very clean diet the other day.
My other new endeavor is personal and quite goal-oriented. I've decided to complete the 30 day Jillian Michaels' Making the Cut. I did it once before with Chap back in 2009. In fact, I still had the meal plans and grocery lists saved on my Google Docs! I'd forgotten how difficult it is to plan out your meals and groceries with the format of the book, but I simply refuse to pay extra money to have JM's website do it for me. So...back to Google Docs and Livestrong's My Plate calorie tracking tool. I will start on Friday, and I'm quite excited about becoming super fit and plan to look "smokin' hot" at my sister's wedding in June!
I'd ALSO forgotten how meat and protein-focused this meal plan is, and just how much money we spent on groceries back in 2009. We were on two salaries then with no Monkey in the picture. So the sticker shock of our groceries for 7 days was intense today! I shopped at three places: The Dekalb Farmers Market, Kroger, and Trader Joes. Oh. Wow. I almost passed out when my total reached $200 at the Farmers Market alone. It was largely due to meat and seafood! In total, for Days 1 - 7, meat made up exactly 40% of our spending. That's just over a hundred bucks. I've become accustomed to $70 or $80 being a really high week in terms of budgeting for groceries, and I have to remember to breathe when I think about the money I spent today on one week of food.
It makes me realize what a big difference buying meat makes to your budget. These days we eat out of our freezer for meat, which has a few steaks left (Christmas gift) and venison from a friend. The only meat we buy is occasional chicken or some fish. To imagine the typical American family meal where meat is still the central focus, I can see exactly why people think eating healthy is expensive and difficult. I'm so glad we've changed our focus in our little family to whole plant-based meals that may or may not include meat or seafood. The savings alone is simply amazing! Imagine if I'd bought beans in place of this meat - I could have bought 5 containers of different types of beans and only spent $10! It's definitely something families can look at when trying to trim their budget.
One item we will NOT buy again - lamb chops. It cost $37 for 6 lamb chops, and the original recipe actually called for 12. I have such a difficult time justifying this expense when we could eat on $37 for at least 5 days normally! So lamb chops are a one-time thing, even though they are loved by a particular member of this family. Sorry, Chap!
I'm going to let my heart rate subside again (and put those receipts out of my mind) and finish up this post. I'm so excited to do this workout and meal plan again, and I know the results will be worthwhile. Check back in to see updates on how it's going for the next thirty days! I will be sure to take some before and after photos and will probably post a few meal photos and recipes! Here's to being fit and fab!
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