It also means that she rides around in this wheelchair the majority of the time. She doesn't mind this so much.
Two. We're on a financial diet so to speak right now. Since we've been dieting in the food sense we haven't been eating out AT ALL. I know for me that eating at a restaurant is just too much of a temptation. So I avoid it completely. I am of the opinion that if you cut eating out completely that you WILL lose weight without even trying. But more than that we are saving for vacation this year and that means that up until vacation time we are making sacrifices. Lululemon .. I miss you.
I am also of the belief that if you are trying to save money, or if you are trying to just cut back, the BIGGEST waste of money is eating out. You're basically paying for your own poo. Graphic? Yes. True? Yes. It irks me to no end when I hear people complain about not having enough money for whatever but yet they eat out on a regular basis. I want my kids to grow up viewing eating out as something special .. a privilege if you will. When I grew up it was, and I think that is a good gift to give your children. Not only will they appreciate it more when you get to eat out, but they will grow up with a better chance of being at a healthy weight. Win Win. I'm not saying it's easy, it's not sometimes. Sometimes my kids BEG for McDonalds .. but the answer right now is no. And they don't ask nearly as frequently as they used to.
With that said .. we do spend money on certain things. We dropped an obscene amount of money on our Blendtec Blender. Some people would call us "stupid" (well and some did) for spending that much money on a blender. But I do not regret this purchase at all. Now every money my smoothies contain spinach and/or baby kale among other things. Jeramie and I both use that blender just about every single morning. We also spend a ridiculous amount of money on our gym membership. I'm really torn about this one right now. We talk all the time about cancelling it. We would save a ton of money, and right now 2-3 nights a week I feel incredibly short on time because we're squeezing the gym in after work. This one .. the jury is still out on. We need to make more effort to take the kids there in order for it to continue to be worth the money. So we'll see.
Three. I'm reading the Game of Thrones series (and we're also watching some of it on HBO). I LOVE LOVE it. So very very good. I read on the treadmill when I run and then in bed right before I go to sleep. I can't recommend the books or TV series enough. However, on a similar topic we hardly ever have time to watch TV. I've seriously been trying to finish Biggest Loser from Monday all week, I think I'm about at the halfway point. Yesterday someone started talking about it and I said, Oh .. I'm not finished with this weeks yet. They proceeded to tell me who went home. DUH STUPID! Oh well. Also, Nashville? Have you watched it? It's wonderful. I've loved Connie Briton since Friday Night Lights, she's wonderful in this as well. This is probably my favorite show right now. With very little time during the week we catch up on a lot of stuff over the weekend. Which actually works out really well with our financial diet .. we don't get bored and go out and spend money for entertainment. WIN WIN.
Four. I despise homework time with Jackson. It's a fight every night. With the whopping two hours we get in the evening it's spent trying to hurry and cook dinner, homework for one kid while trying to entertain the other two kids, and minimize the distractions to the one kid trying to do homework. Then cleaning up dinner. Then doing our 20 minutes of reading while starting the bed process for others. Sitting down to actually eat dinner. It makes both myself and Jackson dread the 1 hour work of "homework" he has each night. I would much rather spend the time doing enjoyable things with my kids. Need to figure this one out for sure. It's the source of much chaos, yelling and frustration for ALL of us.
Five. Still running. Of course. Like that surprises any of you. I'm officially one month into full marathon training. My longest long run has been 11 miles to date, and they were 11 kind of laborious miles. This weekend will be 12. I hope these ones go better. I've spent more time inside on the treadmill. Which isn't great. But I'm glad to have the option though. I'm a bit intimidated by the increases in weekly LSD (Long Slow Distance) runs. But I still love running .. no question there.
However, I am TIRED of the 20 degree temperatures, the inversion, general coldness, the need to run in so many layers with feels like a total energy suck. I'm ready for spring. Next up will be Salt Lake Half Marathon in April. I'm excited for a real race and can't wait to start planning my outfit.
Six. Weight Loss / Weight Watchers. I'm down about ten pounds at this point. I've hit my initial goal. And then decided that I didn't feel like my body had changes all that much so then I lowered that goal some more. I'm not feeling deprived at all. Weight Watchers works. It just does. My current to die for snack, 12 dry roasted almonds and a 1 point string cheese. With a side of Apple. LOVE LOVE this snack for a total of 3 points plus values.
Well .. I find that I could go on and on with my list here and I'm out of time. So I guess that's a sign that I need to blog more often. Because I crammed way too much random stuff into this post and probably bored the heck out of anybody that took the time to read it.
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So what are your thoughts on eating out? Is it a "treat"? The "norm"?
I'm actually tracking what the change has been in my money spending. Specifically money saved on "Dining Out" versus my "Grocery" budget. A whole other post for another day.
