Change Your Life Week 1

Well, I've completed my first week of Whole30/Paleo. It's been quite alright, actually. I am, however, starting to get concerned over financing this whole Paleo thing long term. You guys all know we are on the Dave Ramsey plan. Our weekly grocery bill is $60. We stay on a very strict budget. The 1st week of shopping, we were lucky enough to have a $50 Walmart card that Ethan got from work. This week, however, we came out with a $95 grocery bill. And I'm afraid we are seriously understocked for the week. We have enough meat, but not nearly enough vegetables or fruit. So we are feeling concerned about sustaining this sort of cost long-term. Especially because we are buying the cheapest meat we can find, which makes us very uncomfortable. Generally we eat all organic, and we don't really feel ok with buying meat from big companies that have well-known poor practices when it comes to the raising of their animals. If we were to be buying high quality meat and still buying the large quantities that we are currently eating, we would be spending OVER double what is in our budget. Suggestions are welcome! (We are in KY, shop at Kroger).

But our eating experience has been good! We've enjoyed what we've been eating. Here's a sampling:

As far as how I'm feeling... I feel really good. I am definitely losing some weight. On the Whole30 plan, you aren't supposed to weigh or measure yourself for the 30 days. But I cheated. And as of today, I've lost 5 lbs. 5 lbs a week is pretty good! I'm definitely at least finishing out the 30 days. As far as after that, I know for sure that I'll keep some Paleo principles. I haven't yet decided if I will go completely Paleo. I'd like to, but the cost issue is tough. I don't think Ethan is going to continue, so maybe that will enable me to continue since we'll be buying 1/2 the meat. I haven't had any sugar, and that has been ok. The only sugar I would be getting is that from fruit. I also cut out caffeine altogether. The first 3 days of no caffeine were a little rough. Nothing too terrible, but I did have a slight caffeine headache on the 3rd day. After that,  it was pretty much smooth sailing with the no caffeine. I will probably start drinking a coffee in the morning after the Whole30 is over, but I thought if I were going to do the Whole30 cleanse, I was going to go all the way! And I'm glad. I do feel like my skin is a little clearer. Not sure if that's b/c of my new Burt's Bee's skincare, or the diet. Probably a little of both. I am very proud of myself for not cheating, considering I had a really rough week. We had my grandpa's funeral, and we went out to dinner afterwards. And I had to give Simon to his forever owners on Friday, which was terrible. So I didn't let my feeling guilt me into cheating. Yay Me! 

So overall, I think week 1 went really well. I feel really confident that this will be a good start to changing my life. I even feel a little more confident! What have you been doing to change your life? Come link up! It can be anything from food, marriage, parenting, goals. Anything you want to do! 

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