I ate popcorn (cooked on the stove, not in the mocrowave) and some Babybel cheese for breakfast. Washed it down with some sparkling cranberry juice that seems to have just as much sugar as soda....whoops. Anyway. It is my day off. In the middle of the week, I get my weekend. Usually I work 3.5 days a week- 28 hours. This doesn't count the babysitting I do for friends or the errand running I do for Mother Margie, or the household chores. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are my full shifts, and on Friday nights I work 4 hours. For my job, I am grateful.

Changes so far

We came up with a dinner menu for this week

Here's the story. We get home at 6 or 6:30. Most times (as in, when you don't plan what you're cooking) it is just easier to go down the road and order from someone else. However- with our handy dandy menu, we are saving money and spending more time chilling at en la casa. Muy bien. 

Trevor and I split the cost of $135 for food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually spend about $15/day at least on eating, and that is just when I buy my lunch and breakfast. Throw dinner in there, and that adds $20 to the mix. To be honest, I can see myself spending $30-$40 per day on food. That is between $210 and $280.....per week. For just myself. BUT! This week I have only spent $100 when you count the extra taco fixins I bought because our friend Aaron saw our menu and wanted to come over for taco night. Score! I love feeding my friends. I'm Italian. 

Anyhow, this meal planning is a new thing for me, and for Trevor. He's still buying breakfast and lunch every day, so I'm totally winning the money saving competition that I didn't tell him this was. 

Added benefits of meal planning- 

I had a ton of energy at work yesterday. I am attributing that to a healthy meal of chicken and squash in a lemon sauce the night before.

Portion control is much easier when we choose how much we cook. We are not faced with a huge meal that we feel bad wasting....and even if we don't finish it, I am much more inclined to eat our own leftovers rather than stuff from a restaurant. 

The quality is en pointe. We are both good cooks, if I do say so myself. Anything we have made has been more delicious than what we have ordered in a restaurant in the past. Shea might not agree with me on this, but that is because we don't make her pancakes for dinner or serve mac and cheese every night.

The biggest advantage to dinners at home is feeling like we actually get to spend time together in our own little place for a while. I think it kind of wears on me to get home from work and go straight out again to a restaurant. I often feel rushed when we're getting ready for bedtime. Not that I'm frantic, just a tinge of "I want us to be hanging out, not trying to get dishes done and homework finished before scurrying off to bed." Now we get to enjoy each other more. It is a huge bonus.  You should come over for dinner sometime!

Bulges and bargains

I have decided to lose 20 lbs. Like, for reals. As Trevor said this morning, "That's a quarter of your body weight!" And I mean, he's right OF COURSE, so it will be really hard. Getting down to 3/4 of my body weight has always been a goal of mine. But for reals, I am ridiculous with myself. I have body image dysmorphia in that I think I am smaller than I am. I bought all of these awesome skirts at The Salvation Army (50% off all clothes and shoes every Wednesday! And 50% the ENTIRE STORE every last Wednesday of the month), and I just eyeballed them thinking, "Yep- these will fit....they're SKIRTS." Nope. They did NOT fit. In return, they will be punished by being sold on ebay. 

This decision to lose weight is seriously an exercise in frugality. I don't WANT to buy new clothes, and the amount of money I spend on food is silly. Out of the $12,000.00 I make weekly, $19,456.00 has been going towards food. By banishing the restaurant route, I hope to whittle my waist down by 24 inches (leaving me with a 2 inch waist). 

The worst part is when I see pictures of me taken from behind and I think- Ew. I also could not run from anything to save my life. I would get caught and eaten. My muscles are piddly and weak. Sometimes I give up on opening jars. This has NEVER been an issue. I thought I could just coast by....I've never had a baby, so I'm ahead of the game! I don't have to do ANYTHING differently! Wrong, folks. Wrong.

Anyway, so that's what's up with that. 

Here is one of the skirts I bought for $2.20 yesterday:

And a pair of boots for $3.50. 

 

No Soda update

It is day 10 of my sodaless life. I have had a few people ask me if I'm losing weight. The answer is no, but my body looks better since it isn't AS full of sugar and sodium and bubbles. I think that for about 3 months straight, my guts were mainly a salt lick covered in fizzy sounds.

I blew it last night- but that is because I had Arby's for dinner, and I could not see anything without carbonation except for pink lemonade, which does not tickle my fancy. Much to Trevor's chagrin (he really likes rooting for me), I got half sierra mist, half soda water. But! Moving forward! I am about to go run. I figure that makes up for it.

Stats: 
Weight loss- 0lbs
Happiness level- more happier
Headaches- Only one this whole 10 days
I hate using the word bloated for myself....so I'll say fluffiness.
Fluffiness- Way down
 
I know you're all like, "No DUH, Vanessa. Everyone knows that soda is bad for you!" And to that I reply- Just let me document whatever I want!

I wrote the following yesterday:

Headaches. They started out painful and got worse, and have been consistent for a few weeks. Every day I get one. So yesterday, as I was crying on my way home from work about how much my head hurt, I decided to make some danged changes. 

1) NO. MORE. SODA. For reals. Sheesh. Headaches are almost instantaneous when I start to drink the stuff, and yet- I still drank it. Well, forget it, bod. You're done with soda. YOU ARE ON RESTRICTION!

2)Packing my lunch, eating breakfast at home. Much easier to keep track of what I eat this way and find out if my headaches are affected by my diet. 

Yeah. Simple, I know. I'll keep you updated. So far, I have not had a soda today. I ate some scrambled eggs, potatoes and sourdough bread for breakfast. I also had an iced tea so the caffeine shut down wouldn't create more of an issue with my headbones. I went to the grocery store and bought some lunch stuff. As a generally happy person, it is very frustrating to be brought down by headaches daily. I miss out on fun! Even if I'm participating, I'm not all the way into it. It's kind of amazing how I've learned to just live with it. Like it's normal to take ibuprofen every day between 4 and 6?  No way. Not anymore. 

-----------------------------------------------
I am glad to say that I did not get a headache on my zero soda day #1. Gonna stick with it. I do not drink Coke anymore. So happy to have energy and feel well.


I didn't post that post yesterday because it seems like a weird thing to post. It still kind of does, but I'll share it with you anyhow.

Zzzzzzzz

I had a dream last night that I was talking with Stefan Lessard, the bassist for The Dave Matthews Band, and we were having a friendly little conversation. Then, my phone rang and it was Dave Matthews himself. There was no polite way to walk away from the conversation with Stefan, so Dave said he'd call me back in a few. And he totally did. We talked for one while. Dream score!

(BFFs)

Call me....

Halloweenies

Oh, the festivities!

Pumpkin patching in San Martin.

I went with these two sweetie pies:

In addition to picking (huge) pumpkins, this patch touted a variety of activities such as:

A pumpkin blaster. This is a gun that shoots tiny pumpkins at targets.

Trevor was alllll 'bout it-'bout it. Shea got into it, too. 

They had a carousel which the owner had purchased for his 16 year old daughter named Sydney. I asked Trevor if he had gotten HIS daughter Sydney a carousel yet, and he said he has two more years 'til she's 16. I think, though, that if he REALLY wants to buy her a carousel for her 16th birthday, I will tactfully steer him towards purchasing her a car or an awesome computer or something sparkly. What kind of 16 year old wants a carousel? But I digress!

Those two. Boy, they really warm my heart.

Here are the Pumpkin Queens. I swear Shea likes me. 

We picked out three mammoth gourds and took them home for carving.

Shea did the spider, I carved the goblin and Trevor carved Mickey. Our jack-o-lanterns were very well received. The trick or treaters LOVED them. 

We were invited to a Halloween Party on Saturday night, and we spent all day making our costumes. Trevor's mom came along to help pick out fabric and design the costumes. She and Shea sewed Shea's skirt together while Trevor and I ran around looking for cowprint. One of my favorite days ever. All of my days are becoming my favorite days ever. I'm a lucky girl.

Here we are all gussied up- Woody, Jessie and Bo Peep.

Party time:

By the way, Shea's Bo Peep bonnet is a Dollar Tree cowboy hat cut in half.

Avery is so cute that I can't even stand it.

Jess, Adam and Hayden:

We spent our Halloween evening passing out candy to the kiddos. Hung some spooky lights and lit some spooky candles and waited in the front yard for the spooky goblins to come calling. It was a good night. Happy Halloween!