Determined To Succeed

Day forty-seven.

Here it is, my friends. The end of another week. Boy, this one went fast! Didn’t it? At least it did for me. I have to say though, overall, it was a great week. My weight is down, I am eating better and working out consistently. All very cool things indeed. But I have to be honest. One of the best things about eating less and cooking more is how much freaking money you save.

Just this morning I made scrabled eggs and grits. Yes, grits. I loooove grits. They are awesome and I’ve loved them since I was a kid. I first had them at my mom, JoAnn’s, best friend’s house. When my mom dropped me off during summers so she could go to work, Rosalyn (a wonderful and sweet lady) made all us kids breakfast. She’d make eggs, bacon, maybe a pancake or two and grits. To this day I love grits, especially sticky ones. Hot sticky grits with butter and salt – now that’s good eatin.’ But I digress…Where was I? Oh, saving money and cooking breakfast. Right! Anywho, so I made breakfast this morning and had some diet V-8 Splash and thought about the money I saved eating in versus eating out. Let’s compare. Shall we?

Since this is New Jersey and not many restaurants at all (even in the diner mecca of the nation) even serve grits. So I have to do my comparative using a chain restaurant – Bob Evans. Not only do they have kick-ass breatfast (and awesome sausage) they serve grits. Now, if you were to go to Bob Evans and order what I ate today, which was two scrambled eggs and a bowl of grits, you’d pay in the neighborhood of $6.41. I know this because I called my closest Bob Evans and spoke to an incredibly rude service guy who seemed put out that I just wanted a price. Well, I compared that to spending about $3 per 24 oz. container of my grit-zy goodness and about $3 or $4 for a dozen organic, free range eggs (depending on your store). That means for the cost of about one-and-a-half meals at Bob Evans you could have 6 meals worth of eggs and grits. Not to mention you will have waaaaaay more grits than just six meals worth. I just counted six because a dozen eggs divided by two eggs per meal came out to six. Let me put it another way – to have six meals at Bob Evans, again consisting of only two scrambled eggs and a bowl of grits, you’d pay a whopping $38.46! Do you know how much more food that would buy you? Lots!

I am also starting to do this with my daily coffee and muffin habit from good old Dunkin’ Donuts.  One “Number 2″ at DD, which is a medium coffee and muffin, costs me $3.21. A box of muffin mix, which can make about a dozen or so large, Dunkin’ Donuts-sized muffins, will only run you about $3-ish. Now the muffins I have need only water and come with blueberries and raspberries (yum). A bag of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee from Target will run you only $7 or so bucks. So for about $10 you could have at least a dozen breakfasts from DD. THAT’S TWO WEEKS! Compare that to the $38.52 you’d spend for the exact same thing at DD. Damn. You can see how eating at home is a helluva lot better than eating out.

OK, was today’s blog a bit preachy on cost/benefit. Yep! But I promised I’d help you all out there with tips and this is a pretty good one especially going into the weekend when we ALL shop for groceries for at least part of the week. It may seem like you are spending tons at the store but when you apply that and figure out cost per meal you end up saving sooooo much money in the long run. Not to mention it feels great to have a heavier wallet, especially since I want it to be gaining weight, not me.

Have a great weekend. Talk to you Monday.

What do I want? What Do I want?

How many times have we asked that very question to ourselves standing at the counter of our usual coffee shop or restaurant? That is the very question that usually starts my day when I am in line or going through the drive-thru getting my morning coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts.

Some people like Starbucks. Some like Seattle’s Best. In these parts (Southern New Jersey) some people choose Wawa (hey, don’t make fun of the name – Wawa kicks every other convenient store’s butt) my usual is a Dunkin’ Donuts medium hot coffee with extra cream and extra sugar (it’s bad I know but I like a little coffee with my sugar). But today was slightly different. I was feeling a bit hungry today. I wanted some breakfast-type thing, and the more people in front of me the more time I have to anticipate, test my taste buds and make a decision about what my coffee would be washing down.

So I started thinking about my usual Dunkin’ Donuts Egg & Cheese Wake Up Wrap. How tasty that simple (and not very calorie-filled) egg and cheese would be. But then the smells hit me and I became distracted by the smells of bacon, sausage and the oh-so tempting bagels passing by me. That got me all discombobulated and I had visions of a big ol’ sausage, egg and cheese sandwich on a croissant. “Ooh, that would be good,” I thought as I took one step/person closer to the counter.

Then, matters got worse. I then got a good look at all the freshly-made doughnuts behind the cashiers. There were jelly-filled, chocolate-covered and muffin delights by the dozen calling out like puppies or kittens saying “take me home, take me home.” Grrrrr. I love a good Boston Crème doughnut, too.

I got one person closer. It’s almost decision time. What will I have? The simple Egg & Cheese Wake Up Wrap didn’t seem enough just then but I knew I shouldn’t have the bulk, fat and calories of a full-on breakfast sandwich. What will I have? What will I have?

Then it’s my turn. I step up to the counter and greet the cashier who is now looking at me with that “hurry up and order, there’s a hundred people behind you” look in her eyes. It was then that I made my final decision.

“One medium hot coffee with extra cream and extra sugar please,” I said.

Knowing her inevitable response I sturdied myself – “Will there be anything else?”

My answer was simple but definite. “No, thank you.”

It took all my will power (or in my case Bill power) this morning to resist the temptations of those foods. While I know I will eat any and everything in moderation on my weight loss journey, today somehow felt different like if I had had that sausage-filled breakfast sandwich or bagel with extra cream cheese it would have led me down a slippery slope all weekend. And that was something I was definitely didn’t want to do.

So I took my coffee and thanked the cashier, who acknowledged my thanks in the same nod she gave the next patron asking for their order, and felt better. No, I felt lighter. For while the person in front of me and the person behind ordered a breakfast sandwich and bagel with cream cheese, respectively, I knew in my gut I had made a smarter food choice today.

So what did I end up having for breakfast? Fruit…

…and a nice cup of hot coffee with extra cream and extra sugar.

It’s a bit wet today in the Philadelphia area today. However I wake up today feeling much better than when I started the weekend and why? Because I am back down to 237.6 as of this morning. Woohoo! Take that, calories and fat!

So yesterday I didn’t do much of anything except meet a friend for coffee at Starbucks which meant I had to definitely watch my calorie intake (it just felt like a good day to be a slug). So I started the day with a flavored coffee from Starbucks and a reduced fat piece of cinnamon cake from Starbucks. believe it or not I actually prefer the coffee and food of Dunkin’ Donuts but I was in a hurry so I grabbed what I could. Sheesh, that turned out to be quite filling as I didn’t eat again until, like, three o’clock, when I got myself together and headed to Wendy’s (the little red-haired girl I always mention) and got some chili with cheese and onions – mmmmmm – and a Jr. Frosty (I just had a taste). Both were excellent. It wasn’t until after eight o’clock or so I actually had dinner – a delicious spaghetti and meat sauce Lean Cuisine (they really are the best brand).

While I did snack a bit over the weekend with the decadent little 100-calorie snack packs of Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies I DID NOT have a single Coca-Cola yesterday. In fact, I seriously cut back on my amount of Coke this entire weekend which was great.

So I start this rainy, wet week trending downward again but feeling great. I promised I would let you guys know what I ate this weekend and I did. So thank you for letting me share. How did you all do? Sure it was a weird weekend for me in terms of what I ate and where, but I also knew I needed some better food choices, better portion control and more exercise. Knowledge a new way of life brings you when you maintain weight loss.

I also enjoyed the delicious calories when they came because I’m not going to be a miserable, grumpy bastard when it comes to food.

This week, I continue to eat light, exercise and continue this new downward trend. Just two pounds to get back to the “Battle of the Final Ten.” After that, the goal is again in sight…

…off in the distance and through the rain.