There are two ways that the title of this post applies to my life right now. The first and never-ending thing is that I have GOT to do something about my weight. I can't even stand to look at myself. There are various avenues of attack - all of which I have tried before and failed. The crux of the issue is that it is a spiritual problem - and yet I struggle with praying and drawing closer to God with the manipulative goal of losing weight. I know that others do not feel this way - but for me - this is how it feels. I wish I could get my head on straight about it - because it is what continues to pave the road of failure.
Secondly, I am making some changes to tighten my belt in the area of grocery expenses. (I know this will thrill Leslie to no end!) I continually go to the grocery store and overspend what I have budgeted. Part of the reason is the consistently rising food prices. One way I am attempting to tackle this is to go to the store without my debit card, and only take the amount of cash that I intend to spend. This doesn't allow for me to make concessions, or impulse buy. I am also going to attempt to use less meat in our meals. This is always difficult for my husband - who is a total carnivore, but it is one way to stretch things out so that we can get the most for our money. It is so hard to eat healthy and plenty of fresh food - and so much easier to buy cheap processed, junk food that passes as meals but leaves us malnourished. I am determined to find ways to stretch our money to feed our family without compromising on a healthy diet.
How are you tightening your belt?
It's a never ending battle isn't it? We are trying to eat healthier but the healthier foods are more expensive. Except maybe skim milk. It's the cheapest, only $4.14 per gallon. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteLast summer Richard took the kids to a family reunion for the weekend but I stayed home to work an event at the park. I was able to happily exist on a large bag of M&Ms and a frozen pizza which means my total grocery bill for those 2 1/2 days was like $6. So I guess to tighten the belt around here I have got to get rid of everone else. But that would be kind of sad and lonely.
ReplyDeleteSeriously I would like to do some tightening. I have already cut out eating lunches out (well, most of the time, try to be careful about not driving back and forth to town (try to do all errands at once) to save gas, and now I need to get a handle on the grocery store and also the DSL/phone /cell etc. There has GOT to be a cheaper way!
Wow, this is so weird. It's so crazy how some of my online friends seem to be on the same wave length as me. I'm *tightening my belt*, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be using the program on www.radiantrecovery.com to heal my sugar sensitivities. Kathleen Desmasions (the lady that runs RR) has some great books, too. I'm reading "Your Last Diet" right now and I've requested through ILL (Inter-Library Loan) 2 of her other books... "Potatoes Not Prozac" and "The sugar addict's total recovery program".
I've also been reading books about Voluntary Simplicity and books on getting my act together financially... like investing and such. Here's a great website to help with keeping the grocery bill low... http://hillbillyhousewife.com/ I'm sure with a bit of tweeking that it could be healthier than it is.
I have several strongholds in my life and I believe that weight issues are one of them. I'm sure being on steroids, as per my Oncologist, doesn't help much either. I am ashamed that I manipulate and bargain with God, or at least I try to since God can't be 'handled". I started reading Beth Moore's, "Get Out Of That Pit" so maybe that will be the tool that God uses to get me untangled from all of that junk.
ReplyDeleteMoney-saving ideas: I never buy pre-cooked chicken. I buy whole fryers and cook them in the crock pot, deboning them myself. I used to even cut up whole fryers since it was cheaper as well as, shred my own cheese. Nowadays however, I'm kind of lazy when it comes to that. It's a shame that Little Debbie snackcakes are cheaper than buying fresh fruit for my family! I work hard to keep my groceries under $140 a week with a family of 4, one of them a 17 year old boy who has a LOT of friends that enjoy hanging at our house!
Connie
We try to go to Costco, I keep an eye on what my kids are snarfing down for snacks- they would drink all milk and eat 5 bowls of cereal each a day if I let them, we try to car pool to our kids sports practices and then go as a family to watch the games, we try to turn lights off of rooms we are not in, shope at consignment stores when possible (sometimes hard to find stuff in a small town though). We use our library instead of buying many new books, I usually cook and bake from scratch, and this month my friends and I are doing freezer cooking together. (We are each making 4 different meals (times 3) and trading them. We are going to see how cost effective that is. I was finally inspired to do this by Cindy from Still HIs Girl. Blah, blah. with the weight issue. I find I have t be hard core at first, or I will cheat and go back to my old habits. I have adopted Nike's old motto of "Just Do It!".
ReplyDeleteIt seems like they're mutually exclusive. If you buy fresh fruit, fish, organic cereal, etc, you'll spend a fortune. Better (for your wallet) to buy Duplex cookies, that sugary cereal in huge bags, and mac and cheese from a box!
ReplyDeleteDoing workout videos and walking a few miles a week as the weather allows are what keep me looking decent.