30 Day Challenge

[BiknBen]

...has anyone ever needed or used a meat cleaver in their kitchen?

Yeah...when the kids won't get out of the kitchen.

My wife and I are the opposite of pack-rats. If we don't need it..It's gone!!! Church Rummage Sale!!!

Find a friend with children slightly old and younger. Exchange clothes. My wife exchanges clothes with another mother. We take their boy's clothes and give them our girl's clothes. The kids are just the right ages.

Now, if I could just exchange clothes with that other woman. That would be sweet. :rofl:

 

[Ian F]

I recommend we all consider this challenge:
Eat-in for 30 days.
Get to the grocery store and by some ingredients. Stay away from the freezer section. Become one with the produce Dept. You do not need to be a master chef. 50% of my food intake is salads and steamed veggies. Other than that, I eat all kinds of stuff that I prepare relatively quickly using fresh foods and ingredients; sandwiches, tortilla pizzas, cereals with fruit and yogurt, on and on....

I find it satisfying to prepare my own meal, sit down, and enjoy it. I know what I'm eating and I feel better afterwards. Do this for 30 days and you find that you actually save money and eat better.

Since separating with my g/f (of 6" years) at the end of the 2008, I've been doing this pretty much daily. I'll still eat out with friends now and again (like tonight, for example), but if I'm just going home after work, I've been cooking dinner for myself. Often, I'll cook a lot more than I can eat and then have leftovers for a few days.

 

[Jersey_Girl_Rides]

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[pixychick]

Best of luck JGR! Keep it realistic and you can do it.

I have not tried it, but throwing some ginger root in the juicer with other fruits or vegies may help with going caffeine-free. It is supposed to give you a mental boost.

A lot of good ideas in this thread. I can not add much about loosing weight because I have never had success with that in my life, but eating to be healthy is not that difficult if you eat home and buy whole and fresh. Last week I got sick of adding chicken stock with msg to my brown rice. I bought a whole chicken, roasted it and had it for dinner and then threw the carcass in a pot and made my own stock. It was easier than I thought it would be and less wasteful.

 

[jimjo]

. It's contraindicated for breastfeeding, even more so than alcohol since it stays in your bloodstream longer, and even though my child does not seem too irritated by it, I want to stop drinking coffee for her sake as much as mine.

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if my wife even had half a cup of coffee while breastfeeding either of my kids they wouldnt sleep at all needless to say we learned that lesson veryquickly

 

[Kmoodymz3]

I should point out that these 30 day challenges are separate and I mean to tackle them individually. Some might overlap, but I don't intend to try to become a caffeine-free, early-rising, vegetarian, dine-in, freecycler all in one month!

Good to know! I was starting to feel really lazy

Love the idea.

Do the 30 day early riser in June. Sun's up early and it will make it easier to get started. I get up at 5 during the week and since I'm so used to doing it I rarely sleep past 6 on the weekends. This time of year it is so dark out at 5it is definitely harder to do.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

 

[dhsean]

Quitting Caffiene

I think 30 days is far too aggressive = headache city. It took me like 2 years to gradually quit. I used to drink a 6 pack of coke a day in the office. I managed to kick the habit except for the occasional road trip caffeine to get home from a race without driving off the road.

By the way I fell off the wagon once I was sponsored by a team that has Rock Star as a sponsor. Damned energy drinks. I'm slowly starting to ween myself back of the caffeine.

Good luck.

 

[mwlikesbikes]

The large portions hit home for me. I'm a member of the clean plate club. I get it from my Mom, when we were kids we couldn't leave the dinner table till our plates were empty because their were starving kids in China.
When I go out to eat the eating OCD takes over and I eat everything. I don't like wasting good food. Yes, I should get it wrapped before I finish and do that 80% thing. I like that idea. :hmmm:
You've inspired us all JGR! Good luck on your 30 day challenges.

 

[Steve Vai]

I'm a member of the clean plate club. I get it from my Mom, when we were kids we couldn't leave the dinner table till our plates were empty because their were starving kids in China.

I grew up the same way!! Anytime there is a plate of food in front of me, I hand the plate back clean. I now barely eat during the day to make up for dinner time. I can't seem to get my wife on board with the "less is more" approach

-Jim.

 

[Steve Vai]

but sometimes after a ride, I want to eat like a machine.

This is a hard one to get over. The problem here is, if you're that hungry after say a 3-hour ride, your ON bike nutrition is wrong, and no amount of food afterwards will sedate that hunger. This is where a lot of people undo all the good they just achieved from the ride. Take a recovery drink or eat a protein bar and resume your normal days intake. Learn to get the right nutrition ON the bike and you won't have that feeling in the first place. Son

-Jim.

 

[stb222]

This is a hard one to get over. The problem here is, if you're that hungry after say a 3-hour ride, your ON bike nutrition is wrong, and no amount of food afterwards will sedate that hunger. This is where a lot of people undo all the good they just achieved from the ride. Take a recovery drink or eat a protein bar and resume your normal days intake. Learn to get the right nutrition ON the bike and you won't have that feeling in the first place. Son

-Jim.

i fidn after longer rides, or more intense ones, that I don't even feel like eating afterwords (aside from some recovery food), especially if it is hot out.

 

[Jersey_Girl_Rides]

Progress So Far

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[chemgirl]

Invest in a good jogging stroller. I have a double which I still use even though my kids are 3, 5 and 6 yrs old.

I drank 2 cups of java everyday while I nursed (nursed each baby for a full year) not to mention the occasional (read: often) glass of wine. They never seemed to be bothered by it, and they seem to have grown quite normal It's the luck of the draw when it comes to nursing.

I didn't mention this before....I stayed off the bike until I was done nursing, which was when my youngest turned one. Don't nurse for an hour or two, then sit on a bike and lean forward.....you'll understand why I waited.

 

[Jersey_Girl_Rides]

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[Jersey_Girl_Rides]

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[Norm]

I agree with this:

This is a hard one to get over. The problem here is, if you're that hungry after say a 3-hour ride, your ON bike nutrition is wrong, and no amount of food afterwards will sedate that hunger. This is where a lot of people undo all the good they just achieved from the ride. Take a recovery drink or eat a protein bar and resume your normal days intake. Learn to get the right nutrition ON the bike and you won't have that feeling in the first place. Son

-Jim.

But then this flies in the face of that, to an extent:

I now barely eat during the day to make up for dinner time. I can't seem to get my wife on board with the "less is more" approach

-Jim.

You should aim to eat something every hour, IMO. The concept of meals should be lessened, snacks more frequent. Eat 8 fruits/veggies every day. And eat oats, almonds, walnuts, yogurt, protein powder (or lean meat if you're a cannibal like me), green tea, beans, and brown rice as part of your diet. Avocados, tomatoes, citrus, carrots, spinach, and rich colored berries (blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, blackberries) are all fruits/veggies I eat every day as they're the top of the nutrition density scale.

 

[stb222]

IYou should aim to eat something every hour, IMO. The concept of meals should be lessened, snacks more frequent. Eat 8 fruits/veggies every day. And eat oats, almonds, walnuts, yogurt, protein powder (or lean meat if you're a cannibal like me), green tea, beans, and brown rice as part of your diet. Avocados, tomatoes, citrus, carrots, spinach, and rich colored berries (blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, blackberries) are all fruits/veggies I eat every day as they're the top of the nutrition density scale.

Norm, your grocery bill must be through the roof!

 

[Norm]

Norm, your grocery bill must be through the roof!

Yes, it's colossal. But make a list of the things people spend money on and when it comes down to it, we're probably spending $100 more than most people on groceries and we make dinner at home every night. We eat out maybe 1-2 times a month. I bring my lunch to work every day. We spend more money on food and less on, say, "grabbing a bagel" or buying a $1.65 cup of coffee every day.

You go out to eat with a family of 3 these days and the bill comes to $50. Cut that down from 4 to 2 and you can buy as many $5 quarts of raspberries and blueberries as you want!

 

[stb222]

good points norm, does the flucuating price of of fruit and veggie influence what you buy? I know raspberries and blueberries were cheap a bunch of weeks and now are creeping back up, which starts to deter me.

 

[Norm]

good points norm, does the flucuating price of of fruit and veggie influence what you buy? I know raspberries and blueberries were cheap a bunch of weeks and now are creeping back up, which starts to deter me.

It does to a point. When the prices are crazy we'll only have, say, blueberries. 2 weeks ago we had blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries - all from Costco. Now we have mangoes instead of raspberries. We buy a ton of fruit, since all 3 of us eat plenty of it. Avocados are always stocked regardless. All the other fruits/veggies are roughly stable in price - so we'll always have apples, some form of citrus, pears, and bananas. Pineapple too if the price is ok.