Monday, October 17, 2016

Healthy on a Budget

  I think I mentioned that I wanted to get back in health mode. I am always very conscious about it, but now I'm working for it more and it feels good. Just cutting down on stuff that I shouldn't eat on a regular basis and filling my body with more nutrients causes me to get down closer to my wedding weight. It's only a 10 pound difference that usually takes about two months and so far its only been two weeks. I have lost 2 1/2 pounds already, mostly in the first week from the initial switch by lowering my intake. Eating because I'm bored or listening to cravings is where the issue starts, but I know that's with everybody.
   I have been following a 2-mile path in our neighborhood and along the road behind our house. Sometimes the walk seems to take forever (its less fun by myself) and other times it goes by okay. I have been keeping track of distances. And have walked maybe 6 days out of the past two weeks. Luckily three of my walks were with my cousin Lindsey (4 miles), Alana (2 1/2 miles), then Mia (3 miles) and those were easily more enjoyable.
   I have also been doing very well on my budget. I still have $93 for the month (started with $160) and have been grabbing all the freebies that I can. When the hurricane was coming through, Salvation Army brought a lot of good sandwiches in for us and another lady didn't want the second half of her wrap, so she gave it to me. Another day our supervisor got an extra bagel from Dunkin Donuts (because the cashier messed up the order) and she didn't want it, so me and another lady shared it. Michael shared his chicken fingers from Zaxby's when we went there after running errands on Friday. I ate three of the ten he ordered.
 I posted this beautiful creation on Facebook two weeks ago with the caption "On tonight's episode of "Budget Cuisine"... (or "I hope I don't get sick from this because it expired already, but it still smells okay")  Egg salad mixed with plain low-fat yogurt, hummus, pepper, and a bit of free mayo- those were in our hurricane sandwich packs.  It made about 6 open sandwiches (I hard boiled all 12 eggs) and each one was very delicious and filling. I was really wanting some ice cream one night, but I had some of my chocolate almond milk instead and that satisfied the craving. It is 100 calories per cup, but I've been looking for the unsweetened kind because that only had 45 calories per cup. The lowest I could find was chocolate cashew milk with 90 calories.
 I feel like being on a budget makes it easier to be healthy. When I have less money, I have to think about how many days of the month are left, and make grocery lists, then go through the list again thinking what I can substitute for what I already have in the fridge or just make the meal with less ingredients. It also causes me to really think "Am I hungry right now?" because I don't want to waste food or eat more than I need to, because that would make me spend more money! In this picture above, I got each pile for six dollars. On the left is from Target (I used a $5 off $10 coupon to get all that for six bucks), so obviously Walmart is always a better deal for groceries, especially with the cash back Savings Catcher app. I have $35 saved that I have not used yet.
   When I went to Panera recently (the time before last), they told me that I had a free half salad. After confirming that I could order that without needing to order anything else, I got that when I went on Wednesday (a $6.79 meal for free!!) plus free bread and water with lemons. I went back and got more lemons before I left to use in my water bottle for work this past weekend. Did you notice my purple finger nails? Having them colorful feels like a young/fun Full Sail Mode thing.
   I was having a lot of fun yesterday doing "research" and found that it says eating a lot of high lean-protein helps boost metabolism and help consume an average of 440 calories less per day! And my friend Lindsey has been following a very high protein meal plan for the past two months (much more strict than I'll do though- I love me some carbs) and her results have been very successful so far. So I'll have to test that out. It might be mostly from eggs since those are only a dollar for twelve and it seems like meat can get pricey, unless I just buy hotdogs, then its like 20 for a nickel! :D

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