Money is tight

Money has been a little tight lately.  I have been bearing the brunt of buying groceries for both of us since July 1, which is fine, but increasingly difficult.

Each week before going shopping I am looking at the bank statement to see what juggling I can do to make sure I have enough money to purchase groceries for the week.

I have cut out most of my discretionary spending, which helps.  My increasing levels of fitness help too, because I am walking to work and home from work (instead of taking streetcars or a cab), and saving $20 - $30 a week.

I am packing my lunches and dinners to take to the office, rather than eating out or having food delivered to my office.  That saves me $100 a week, at least.

I cut out the morning Timmy's run and my morning XL coffee when I saw how much it cost me in calories and carbs (2 creams and 4 sugars tops out at 440 calories and 66 g of carbs - - the amount of carbs in an entire meal).  Another side benefit - $10 a week saved.

And let's not even talk about how my alcohol consumption has declined in recent months.  No more long island ice teas for me, thank you.  No more Baileys in my Sunday coffee.  It's tea for me, thanks.  The carbs and calories were too high for this pre-diabetic girl.  I have switched to rye and Diet Pepsi, which I don't have as often, or wine, which is just not the same.  I have probably cut out about $50 - $100 a week out of my booze budget as a result. 

Which is all good, because I am spending about triple what I used to on groceries each week.  Fresh vegetables cost money, and lots of it.  Lean meats and fish are more expensive than cheaper, fattier proteins.  My favourite 0% fat greek yogurt is more expensive than the full fat version.  And we're eating more of this healthy food than ever, at every meal.

I used to be able to live off a $2.50 packet of Uncle Ben's risotto every night.  It was not a balanced meal, or in any way healthy in the long term, but 5 of those would cost me $12.50, a mere fraction of my current budget.

Despite the cost, though, I can't go back to the way things were.  Prepackaged foods are super high in sodium even if they aren't jammed with calories and carbs (as many are).  Eating this food made it much harder for me to lose weight, and I was tired all the time.

Now, I am eating better and feeling better.  I have been so successful in my workout routine and weight loss program in part because I am eating so well now.  And my healthy diet is having effect on my body.  When I donated blood last week my iron levels were on the high end of the scale, which is a sign that I am getting enough protein.  I have more energy than I used to, and although I can't swear that I have a glossier coat and shiny eyes, I feel overall healthier. 

So what am I eating? Yesterday, for example, I had 7 servings of vegetables, 3 servings of grains, 2 servings of dairy, and 2 servings of meat and meat alternatives.  Right on track for what the Canada Food Guide says we should eat each day.  Was it easy?  Nope.  It required a ton of preparation, from planning meals to going shopping to ensure the right food was in the house, to cooking balanced meals and making lunches and dinners to bring to the office.

Was it cheap?  Hell no.  The Nerd makes me amazing meals out of his Jamie Oliver cookbook, but some of those dishes require expensive ingredients.  Tonight, for example, we're trying duck breast for the first time - - at $17 for the two of us (for only the duck alone).  Add all those servings of fruit and vegetables, and the grocery bill creeps up to $200+ in a typical week.  In the dark times, before I started eating well, I would spend a mere $40-$60 each week on groceries (although this would be supplemented by the cost of eating lunch and dinner out, so it may actually have been a wash).

I need to keep up this pattern of healthy eating, because it is so good for me.  I just need to keep focused on getting the biggest bang for my shopping dollar, so that I can manage the expense of healthy living.  Feeding two of us most days is costing more than ever, and I need to be cunning in how I make ends meet. 

Oh, how quickly routines become a scramble...!

Photo courtesy of J. Ludwick, licensed CC-BY-NC

It's days like this that really test my ability to follow a plan.

People who have been reading my blog might have noticed that I am something of a creature of habit (I am aware of the understatement in that sentence, thank you very much).  I get up between 5 am and 6 am and test my blood pressure and blood sugar, then I work out on the elliptical machine, weigh myself, and get ready for work.  I will eat breakfast either at home or at the office, but I will usually have fruit and yogurt, and then I will eat lunch and dinner at the office.   Lunch and dinner are usually comprised of delicious leftovers courtesy of the Nerd, who pre-packages individual meal sized servings of everything on the weekend, ready for the taking during the following week.  I will get home sometime between 9pm and midnight, and I will fall immediately in to bed, where I will read for a bit on my iPad.  If I am very lucky, I will not fall asleep whilst holding the iPad over my head, as that's a quick route to a shiner (don't ask me how I know this). 

I may be an unpredictable glamourpuss in my mind, but the reality is that I am actually pretty predictable.  And that predictability is comforting as I continue on this journey, because it means that I have a routine I can trust to keep me a) exercising 6x/week; b) eating 3 meals per day; and c) eating a manageable number of calories in the range of 1800-2000 per day. 

Predictability goes out the window when I pull an all-nighter.

Last night I was working on discovery answers and a licensing agreement until 2:30 am, and I didn't get into bed until 3 am.  When my alarm went off at 5:30 am I actually got up and tested my blood sugar, but I did not test my blood pressure, or weigh myself, or get on the elliptical - - I was too tired, and I needed to be in the office for 8:00 am for a practice group meeting this morning.  I made an executive decision to try and get at least 4 hours sleep, and left my house with 35 minutes to spare before the meeting.  I did not work out this morning, because working and getting 4 hours of sleep do not go together when you are recovering from an all-nighter.

Trying to squeeze in extra sleep meant that my morning routine was incredibly rushed and I had no time to waste.  When I am cutting things fine like that, I depend on the provisions set up for the routine, because - - trust me - - I don't have time to prepare from scratch.  It was a relatively quick and easy matter to get my yogurt and berries for breakfast (I ate them in the meeting, which was fine because it was a breakfast meeting).  But the only way I had anything close to a decent lunch and dinner is because the Nerd had prepacked so much stuff on Monday night.  If I did not have a fridge full of leftovers, already organized into perfect servings, I would not have had any time to prepare lunch and dinner, and my eating plan for the day would have been put into jeopardy. 

As it was I am a little low in calories and I am having to fill some of the gap with a skinny cow brand ice cream sandwich tonight.  (It's a tough life, I know...!)

I will need the calories when I get home because I still have to do my elliptical workout this evening (!).  I have not missed a workout in 15 weeks, and I will be damned if I am going to let one little all-nighter cause me to miss one now, no matter how tired I am.  Plus, if I skip today, I will just have to work out Saturday morning to make up the time, and I would prefer to sleep in on the weekend.  

So my schedule went from boring and predictable to wild and chaotic all in the space of one day, simply because of the all-nighter. 

If this had occurred three or four months ago, I would have simply skipped breakfast and ignored the food in my house because I would not have had time to prepare anything.  There certainly would not have been a fridge full of fruit and yogurt and vegetables and other healthy choices, let alone pre-packed meals.  I would have ordered some dinner to be delivered in the evening, but that would have likely put me well below 1200 calories for the day, and probably all the wrong kinds of calories, to boot.

It is easier to succeed once you get on a program of regular exercise and healthy eating.  Just having the good stuff in the house takes a lion's share of the problems out of the equation.  The routine gives structure and predictability, making it easier to plan and execute the plan.  On a day like today, when I had to make snap decisions about food and I had to reschedule exercise, it was my familiarity with the plan that made it possible.  I didn't have to spend 10 minutes staring into the abyss of the fridge, because I knew ahead of time what I was going to eat.

I am not good enough at this whole lifestyle thing, or disciplined enough (yet) to go free range and stop tracking my food.  But this minor all-nighter induced blip in the program has convinced me more than ever that I am on the right track.  If a little sleep deprived.   

The new program appears to be working ...

Photo courtesy marsmet544, licensed CC-BY-SA-NC

I have been working the new elliptical program of 40 minutes per day for 3 days now, and am definitely feeling wobblier when I get off the machine.  I am thrilled that I am able to last 40 minutes, which would have been impossible even a couple of months ago when I first got the elliptical machine.  I am definitely working much harder than I was last week, and I am feeling the workouts more, even though I am only doing a mere 5 minutes of incremental time each day.   

My eating plan appears to be working as well.  I am eating between 1800 and 2000 calories each day in an attempt to cover both my BMR and most of my exercise calories.  Since I have taken the food levels up, I have found it generally easier to lose weight.  I am not feeling hungry at night, and my food cravings have largely disappeared when I am eating three meals a day.  My cravings are not entirely gone - - I noticed them last weekend when we only had brunch and dinner and I wanted to eat all afternoon - - but they are manageable.  I am taking each day as its own goal and trying to hit the target for that single day, rather than trying to look ahead too far, and this has helped a lot. Especially since the overall goal is still so far away.

This week in particular, with the step up in exercise and the higher calories, I have noticed that weight is coming off - a lot of weight has been coming off.  It almost feels like it's coming off too readily, because I am already down quite a bit and it's only Tuesday.  I can't quite believe the numbers on the scale, but my philosophy is to accept a good number with grace, and get the heck off the scale.  It's not good to tempt the weight loss gods by spurning a good result!

I am not getting too emotionally attached to the numbers I am seeing on the scale (they're in the 270s for the first time in years) because I expect to see a little rebound up in weight as the end of the week appears.  This is pretty typical for me.  My usual week has the lowest weight on Thursday, with Friday mornings - - the day I actually log my weights - - being a bit higher.  

My concern about rapid weight loss is two-fold.  

1. I want to ensure that any loss is sustainable, so while a big loss one week is great, it doesn't really count until I can sustain that loss and build on it over successive weeks.  We all know the impact of water weight, either cyclically or due to high sodium intakes.   A huge loss of water that isn't sustainable isn't really a huge loss in the end. 
2. I want to have a manageable weight loss to avoid the dreaded loose skin issues that accompany dramatic weight loss.  I am in my mid-40s now, which means that my skin no longer has its previous elasticity.  This means that taking off the weight a pound or two each week is good, but 5-10 pounds a week is too fast.  

I am probably worrying for nothing, since it is unlikely that these ridiculously low weights will stay until Friday.  I am sure that I will come back closer to last week's 283.8 weight, although I certainly hope I don't exceed it...!

As for the concerns about loose skin, I have read a lot of articles that recommend weight training as one way to reduce the incidence of loose skin.  Right now my workout routine is exclusively cardio, but my old routine had weights integrated into the routine 3x per week, and I know that I will need to work my way back to incorporating weights eventually. 

All in good time.  For now I am working on adjusting to the new workout plan.  Let me get through that on a daily basis without my legs falling off, and I will consider adding weights. 

It's All About Premeditation...

Photo courtesy improbcat, licensed CC-BY-NC

This morning the Nerd and I enjoyed a breakfast of Brand Buds, yogurt, and fruit, along with some cereal mix after my workout.  Yesterday we had a similar breakfast.

This got me thinking about the benefits of planning ahead.  We could only have enjoyed that breakfast because I got up at 5:30 am to work out (!), and because I was thinking about breakfasts this week when I went grocery shopping, so there was food in the house.

I planned ahead for lunch, too, and packed a delicious dish of beans with peanut sauce on rice.  That takes time to make, and I had that time because I made a point of getting out of bed to start my day early.

Sure, incremental snuggles are a truly wonderful thing.  I have flannel sheets on the bed this week, and with the pillowtop mattress, they make my bed an almost irresistible lure.  It's like sleeping in a fluffy warm hug.  And who doesn't like that?

The thing is, if I sleep in until 8 am, then I can't get to work until 9.30 or 10 am at the earliest - - too much time is required for my morning work out routine to stay in bed any time past 7 am, it seems.

And when I sleep in, forget about eating a healthy breakfast, or packing my lunch - - I start the day off on the wrong food and I am left to my own devices and whatever I choose to buy from one of the local food stands.

This goes for eating out or having friends over as well.  I have found that if I plan out what we will eat for the entire day, then I know how much slack I have in the diet plan for dinner.  I know beforehand that I can have a glass of wine, or a slice of cake, but not both.  This is indispensable in social situations, because I don't want to be seen as a shut in who can't go out and do anything because she is on a diet.  I am not on a diet, per se, I am just aware of what I am eating, and I am trying to keep what I am eating within reason.

And that is a heck of a lot easier when I plan ahead.  

It's all about the preparation - musings on healthy eating

Photo courtesy Johnida Dockens, Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

As the Nerd and I were thinking about what to eat this weekend it occurred to me (not for the first time) that eating well is something that takes forethought and preparation.

It's not just knowing vaguely that you want to "cook something healthy" - - you need to know what recipe you will be cooking and what ingredients are required so that you can make sure the right food is on hand.  It's tough to cook nutritious meals when all you have in the cupboard is SPAM and Nutella.

And for me, given my completely dysfunctional relationship with food, it's not just about having the good food in the house so I can cook - - it's also necessary to keep the bad food out of the house so that I don't binge on it.  I have the discipline of a dog when it comes to late night food cravings.  Confronted with a bag of microwave popcorn, or a bag of tortilla chips and cheese, I will gorge until I can't move and then I will feel bad about having binged.  And then the cycle repeats itself.  The only way to stop it is to make sure the trigger foods are not in the house. 

It is so much easier to eat badly than it is to eat well.  I could stock my pantry with 7 boxes of KD* and have a week's worth of meals for $14 - - and 4 weeks worth of calories, and 6 weeks worth of sodium.  KD has lots of empty calories that fill you up, and it's available in every corner store.

Today the Nerd and I spent 30 minutes planning our meals for the rest of the weekend and writing a grocery list.  I think we were buying one of everything in the produce aisle, or at least it looked like it - - broccoli; zucchini; red onion; white onion; bananas; kiwi; tomatoes; spinach; melon trio - water, honeydew and that other kind that I can never remember; strawberries; cucumber; pineapple; carrots; and red pepper.  Add to that healthy low fat yogurts, high fibre cereal, low fat cheese, and turkey breast, and you've got the makings for three days of low fat, low carb meals.  All for a mere $170.  (!)

KD is a lot cheaper, a lot lighter to carry home, and takes less thinking.  I can understand now why my single-parent mom fed me a lot of KD as a child (along with vegetables, to be sure).  As an overweight adult who needs to break bad habits, KD is a cheap food I can no longer afford.


*Kraft Dinner, for non-Canadians