30 Day Challenge

I'm with norm on this. Cutting back on the eating out thing has been a big focus of mine. A family of four is like $70 bucks which is insane (at least my family of four which enjoys a beer with dinner and the kids get a bowl of ice cream). Sometimes going out is unavoidable but I have a real hard time with dropping good money at the grocery store and then spending 25% - 40% of that total on ONE meal going out. It all comes back to economics.

All that to say I eat a lot less than I used to and eat more frequently. Of course I'm not doinf as much as I'd like to right now but when it pulls itself together (life, that is) I'll be goog to go.
 
Jersey_Girl_Rides said:
But advertising is pervasive and kids can easily feel left out when they don't have the same things as their peers.
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I believe most parents know this but I found out how much of a difference it can make. As my kids were growing up we limited their TV time. Then we let them watch the Noggin Network which does not have commercials.

Eventually, they outgrew the programming and moved on to regular TV. Holy crap. The difference was noticeable. They start nagging for all kinds of garbage that they saw in the commercials. :drooling:
 
Jersey_Girl_Rides said:
But advertising is pervasive and kids can easily feel left out when they don't have the same things as their peers. But that is a topic for another post and another day (I could go on forever with what I observe between kids TV, school, and my neices's daycare experiences).
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I used to worry about such things until I accepted that I was in charge and I could make the rules in my house. There were and are many times when my children don't have, see, eat what other people do and the answer has always been, "That may be okay for their family, but it's not okay for ours." It has worked remarkably well and has even removed some peer pressure off the kids. I'm not saying things are always easy around here and I'm not saying they don't complain at times. Far from it. But they accept their friends' differences in religion, foods, activities, behaviors etc. and there is much less pressure in keeping up with the fad clothing, toys, gadgets and so on.

Our key was setting rules and sticking to them. Temper tantrums? My kids knew from day 1 that they were guaranteed NOT to get anything they threw a tantrum over. Period. ('Cause I'm stronger, tougher and much more stubborn.)

Now my kids even read labels. They know what they can't have and they know what they can have occasionally. Weighing their options and making choices is something they'll have to do all of their lives... Honestly, the 15 yr old is less adherent when he's out, but he's certainly better than he would have been without those guidelines.

My 'almost 11' year old wanted Froot Loops last week at Shop Rite. She was reading labels and comparing ingredients, food colorings, carbs, sugars and fats. It wasn't the easiest thing for her to do, but she decided to put the Froot Loops back😀.

You have a gorgeous baby and a clean slate. Just because it's part of the world does not mean it needs to be a part of your family.🙂
 
Jersey_Girl_Rides said:
I find that by not buying crackers, pop tarts, raisin bran, jarred spaghetti sauce or canned soups
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I don't buy any of that other stuff, but crackers, what the f would I do without my wheat thins! baked not fried!


commence telling how bad wheat thins are.....
 
stb222 said:
I don't buy any of that other stuff, but crackers, what the f would I do without my wheat thins! baked not fried!


commence telling how bad wheat thins are.....
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Nothing. Just don't eat 50 of them.

Spaghetti sauce is now recommended as a health food by many due to lycopene (sp?)

As healthy as people think they eat, they don't eat as healthy as they think. Whole wheat bread? Processed. Cheese? Processed. Clif bars, or any bike food - processed to the ends of the Earth. Nuts are all roasted, which isn't raw. Everyone cooks vegetables - not a raw food anymore.

Fruit is about it, more or less the only food people generally eat that is whole and raw. Everything else is just a different degree of processing and preservatives.
 
First and foremost, you'll have to pry the wheat thins and triscuits from my cold, dead hands. That's about the only boxed snack I have and I'll be damned if I'm giving those up. I do manage how many I eat...for the most part.
But norm is right- the idea is to eat "less bad". Take the salad over fries, hold the guac and sour cream on the burrito and just accept the fact that unless you farm your own food, it's been processed or refined in some way shape or form. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the middle isles in the grocery store. That alone will improve your eating tremendously. Coffee, however, found in isle three is just fine. 😀
 
Did anyone have any success with their 30 days with/without something? Anyone take my enviro challenge and use only reusable bags? Best easy-to-implement change you can make for the planet IMO.
 
Norm said:
Everyone cooks vegetables - not a raw food anymore.
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Salad baby...I gotta have my big bowl of salad each day. As norm is trying to point out, The cooking process destroys many of the nutrients that make that food healthy.

I eat big salads regularly, about 1 per day. When I say big, I mean big. I use mixing bowls. If left to cook for myself at home. I'll have the salad with a side of steamed veggies. I'll steam the veggies that tend to be bitter or not taste good raw such as Broc, Cauliflower, Kale, Sweat potato, squash/zuchinni, etc.

Sorry...rambling

:topic:
 
When I get home from work, before dinner, I will eat something like 6-7 clementines and/or about 20 those little mini-carrots (those rock). That curbs the hunger in a healthy nutritious way. So then I don't overeat other tasty dinner stuff that my wife makes.
 
Love your goals. Very ambitious. I'm going to forward this thread to my wife b/c those goals are right up her ally once she delivers our next child in June.

As far as the freecycling, if you're not familiar with it, here's a great site for exchanging goods with other people - http://http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycleMorrisNJ/messages. I've picked up some nice things from there. Not stuff I'd say I really needed, but stuff we kind of wanted and its nice to get it for free rather then having it go into the dump and buying it from the store.
 
Good work with getting back on the bike. Not sure how it works for you, but when I get on a regular exercise program, sleep, eating and other parts of my life seem to be easier to manage.
 
I am a HORRIBLE morning person. Have been my entire life. When our children were babies it worked out great because I would happily be up past midnight (and sleep late into the morning) and my husband would happily get up at 5am.

A few weeks ago I proposed to my husband that he start exercising with me. He said he would as long as we do it at 5am in the morning🙁 I figured we rarely see each other, and spending one hour a day would be nice, so I gave it a try. Anyway, it has been 3 and half weeks, and I have managed to get up everyday at 5 and exercise with him. The first week sucked! But each week it has gotten a little easier. I still hate it, but I'm doing it.

Getting up that early has completely cured my insomnia! I crash early and sleep hard until the darn alarm goes off.
 
Keep it up

Sounds like you are discovering who you want to be. Congrads on returning to work. I know not working gives me insomia too. As for your goals, keep making them and adjust them,.....that's life. Hope to see you on the trails.
 
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