30 Days Down, 30 Days To Go

Officially, our first 30-day challenge wrapped up last Wednesday. For those of you new to the concept, Elisa and I are trading in the tried and true New Year's Resolutions in favor of something more lasting. If we can accomplish something for 30 days, perhaps our habits will change and we can make it more of a long-term commitment.

So on this side of our first 30 days, the world of fast food lies before us. If I wanted to, I could go get a Double-Double, Animal Style, with a Neopolitan shake. Of course, while my tastebuds would squeal like a spring pig at the fair, the rest of my body would truly understand what it would feel like to digest said pig, while it was squealing. You're probably having the same epiphany I am - animal style, while a good idea while ordering, is really a hall pass to the Pepto World Series of Pink Nightmares. But I have to admit that I'm a bit proud of us. To go from having fast food 1-2-3-4 times a week to none at all was a success. One that surprised our moods, food choices, and pocket book.

I've been primarily asked 2 questions over the last 30 days. 1) Has it been difficult? 2) How much have you saved? So I thought it would be fun, at the end of our first 30 days, to answer those questions now that I can actually answer them.

Has it been difficult?

This is the question that kind of cracks me up the most. Because people don't ask the question in a conversational way. They ask it as if you sold your own child for a really nice steak. You know...part disbelieving that you are actually following through, because deep down we distrust everyone. Part secretly wondering what truly happens to your body without fast food - like they're expecting Grimace to pop right out of your foot and pull you back into the closest McDonalds. And part really sympathetic. Because they equate the sacrifice you are making to solving world hunger, sticking it to "the man", and pulling a Joan of Arc all in one.

In short, the answer is that it's only difficult at the first. Because you still crave it, and still look at the coming 30 days as your equivalent to wandering the desert for 40 days without water. In fact, I almost found us getting more and more energized as our 30 days turned into 20. The term "challenge" takes on a new meaning...like you're beating down a past demon.

To put it in perspective, though, is the first surprise of the first challenge. It's harder to go back to fast food than it is to stop. It's true. Lukas acted like he was a human timer. The minute our 30-day challenge was over, Luke wanted fast food. Luckily (or so we thought), Lukas picked something mild and healthy. He wanted Rumbi. So our first (and so far only) foray into the fast food world was Rumbi Island Grill. The first thing that caught my attention was that I didn't really want it. Nothing sounded good - actually, homemade food sounded great. But eating out wasn't really calling my name. I settled on some kalua pork (Elisa went with a salad). I battled my way through half of it. And I was done. I'm not sure what it was - too sweet. Too much. Too rich. Something. But it wasn't paradise. It was work. Since when did fast food become work? Oh yeah - since, my body realized what it was like to not have 2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, onion, pickle on a sesame seed bun in my iron clad stomach.

How much did you save?

This was the question I was most eager to answer myself. But I wanted a fair assessment. So first, I had to decide how I would compare spending. At first, it was going to just be comparing the amount of money we spent on fast food from one month to another. But I realized that wouldn't be accurate. In fact, if the 30-day challenge was effective, it was a mathematical certainty that we would spend more money at the grocery store. So the more fair comparison would be to add up all of the food expenses of the month (groceries, fast food, restaurants, etc.) and compare them to the 30-day challenge month.

Are you ready to find out? Did we save anything? Did we spend more money? Besides putting the seismic dent the size of a peanut in the Mcdonald's freight train, was it worth it? The answer surprised even me.

We saved.....$320.62.

I know - your first inclination is that either it isn't possible, or we were actually fast food addicts that ate out 5 times a week, but put on the fake face of "we don't have a problem!" when we started the challenge. I, in fact, was suspicious. Until I realized that eating fast food isn't the whole story. In fact, it's only part of it. In a previous blog, I mentioned that I would purposefully not plan a couple meals a week, knowing we would go get something. What I didn't realize is that even when I was planning meals, I was a poor planner. I'd guess at what we had at home already. Which meant that I would make emergency store trips 2-3 times a week just to get something to finish dinner. And when you go in at 5pm after a long day of work, you're not just going to purchase the Ragu. No, you find cookies, chocolate, soda, bread, milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, really cool swirly straws that the kids will love, a Netflix movie, a mocha latte, flowers for the wife, and ice cream. And then you realize that you forgot the Ragu and head on back.

During the 30-day challenge, I was a maniac. I planned every meal - main dish, side dish, vegetable, bread (if applicable). I ensured that we were having well rounded meals. I made sure that we bought enough at the store. We joined Sam's Club and started buying more meats and groceries in bulk. We became freezer bag fanatics, buying an all too big portion of chicken and turning it into 5 future meals. And we didn't eat out. We didn't spend $15-20 a pop for a meal out. And yes, the money kept adding up.

Want to know what's more impressive? In this month, we went to Costco twice, Sam's Club 3 times, bought a Sam's Club membership, were tearing through 2 gallons of milk a week, were eating good healthy (and fully planned) dinners 7 days a week, and we still saved $320. So yes, I'd say the challenge worked. I have $320 reasons (and a recurring stomach ache of kalua pork) to prove it.

The Next Great Challenge

Elisa and I went back and forth, then, on what our next challenge should be. I'm convinced we are on the right track to actually tackling the aims of those resolutions with better results. But I didn't want to lose the momentum. We considered exercise, spending time as a family, no TV, going to sleep at a normal time, family activities, etc. But nothing felt right. So I threw down the ultimate gauntlet for Elisa....no sweets.

And I'm so proud of her - she agreed. So our second 30-day challenge is underway. It officially started today. Sweets are now a thing of our recent past. No soda, donuts, chocolate, candy, cookies, cakes, etc. And after 1 day, I already feel like it's a greater challenge than the first one. Because if you think you have a fast food habit, it's nothing compared to popping an M&M, Oreo, or Coca Cola. They actually call out to you, like little Devils trying to pull you into the underworld. While we won't save $320 on sweets (that WOULD be a problem in which advice and counseling would be required), hopefully we will teach ourselves that you don't need a handful of candy, or a couple cookies to round out the day. And who knows...maybe we won't jump back into sweets either.

All I can say is that if you want to make a change, give yourself 30 days to try that change on for size. You may be surprised that what you thought was impossible to do or to stop is only as difficult as turning the page of a calendar.

Now, who wants a Double Double Animal Style? The pig is already squealing away...

20 Days into the 30 Day Challenge

We are now officially 20 days into our first 30 Day Challenge. Fast food franchises across Utah have felt the pinch of losing such valuable customers that they have resorted to sending hundreds of fliers to our mailbox to try to lure us back. Okay, maybe not. We're one little family that ate out occasionally, and we would get the fliers in our mailbox even if we owned a fast food chain for ourselves. But the fact is, we're 2/3 through with our first challenge and its a certifiable fact that we probably haven't gone this long without fast food since we were both living under our parent's roofs. Not that it's been easy every single day. But we'll take the mini victory and share our progress so far.

Visions of sugar plums...well, maybe not
I think the most difficult part of the first 20 days was just the fact that once you have had your addiction (I believe it is) taken from you, all you do is have a slow calvacade of pictures running through your head - all the things you no longer get to have. A few of the family's favorites (which is guaranteed to make those fast food lovers salivate and the chosen few who don't eat the stuff cringe):

• Neopolitan shake (In-N-Out) - pure evil in a cup. Strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate ice cream split in a cup. And in pure In-N-Out style, it's not on the menu. It calls to you like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
• McDonald's Fries (McDonald's) - don't deny it. You wish that the world was like Willy Wonka's factory - except that everything was made from McDonald's french fries. That rare combination of having more grease than your arteries can handle, but being so smooth that you try to rationalize that potatoes are, in the end, a natural food from the good Earth.
• Fazoli's breadsticks (Fazoli's) - The classic food that takes you through three stages. First, the initial breadstick tastes like the Gods of Olympus were bored and said "if we were to make a breadstick, what would it taste like?". Second stage - "this breadstick is quite rich. Is there really bread in this, or is it a stick of butter with a splash of garlic? I better have one more." And the third stage - "I sure am glad I got an extra dozen with my meal. How does one person survive with the 2 measly breadsticks they give you with your meal?!?! That's not even enough to make it home!"
• Fry Sauce (Arctic Circle) - The beauty of this stuff is that it goes on anything. Sure, its good on fries. Burgers? Dip away. Chicken fingers would work. The basics, right? You know the stuff is bad for you when you start wondering what a turkey sandwich would taste like with the stuff dripping from the bread. Or a chicken drumstick. Or enchiladas. Coffee cake. Blueberry pies. Okay, maybe not to that extreme but open a packet of the fry sauce and watch where your mind takes you.
• Pizza (Dominos, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, etc.) - this is the dangerous stuff. The food that makes even the tiniest eater find ways to expand their stomachs. We've all experienced it - you sit down for a slice, and when you look up to realize you haven't used a napkin for the last 45 minutes, all you see is a cardboard box with a perfect grease stain that represents the original size of the pie, with beautiful grease lines indicating where they cut it into 8 delicious pieces.

See what I mean? Try telling yourself that you can't have a whiff of things like that. I know, I know. Your first thought is that it's only 20 days. It's not that hard. But when you step back and realize how often we all east fast food, that 20 days starts to feel like a really long time. It's nearly three weeks of NOT ordering a pizza because you don't want to cook. Of NOT stopping at McDonald's for a quick lunch. Of NOT dipping your burger, fries, and macaroni salad into fry sauce. Of NOT having a meal that we are made to think is "happy".

The Point of the challenge
But this post isn't about how hard it is. It's about how changing it is. A few fast and fun facts about what we've learned in the first 20 days.

1. When you eat at home, you go through A LOT of food. As you know, our family consists of myself, Elisa (4'11", remember?), Lukas (4 years old), and Miles (the only fast food for him is if Mom and Dad are in a hurry changing his diaper at his first feeding of the day). In the past 20 days, we have averaged drinking 2 gallons of milk a week, 1 1/2-2 loaves of bread, 2 packs of lunch meat, enough chicken to make a local KFC proud, a package of Oreos (hey, no fast food and you find new ways to punish your body), 1/2 of our curiously large backstock of spaghetti (it appears if we were hit with an earthquake, we could have lived off of spaghetti for 2 and a half years), and more.
2. Related to #1, we still haven't cleared $100 in a week at the grocery store. Take that, fast food chains!
3. Your food cooking creativity certainly is heightened. First week, I fully admit that my food choices were lazy at best. I think the realization hit me when I had forgotten to defrost something for the second day in a row, and Elisa's reaction to another round of "eggs?" was more along the lines of "if you feed me eggs one more night, I will actually attempt to reverse the egg laying process, using you as the chicken in my scientific test."
4. You experience tantrums. If you think you're addicted to the fast food experience, it's nothing compared to your kids. Lukas found everything you could want in a fast food joint - greasy food, toys with your meal, wild children showing initial signs of a "Lord of the Flies" stage adaptation, playlands that simply scream "your child is going to take more than a happy meal with him".
5. Most of all, though, you feel better. You feel healthier. You feel happier. It's weird. You don't expect to. You think it will be depressing. But, in fact, its a happier place. A fresher experience. And even the worst foods at home just don't feel as heavy or bad for you as what you ate "out there".

So 20 days in, we're making great progress. And I feel us already gearing up for our second 30-day challenge. We haven't decided what exactly it will be, and its probably good that we have 10 more days to figure it out. I did suggest to Elisa that we give up sweets, and I think I saw a flash of evil behind those beautiful brown eyes. Literally, she was smiling but her eyes said "I can hurt you in ways that you haven't even thought of." Any ideas from the crowd?

What should our next 30-day challenge be?

The Year of "30 Day" Challenges

It's rather pathetic that it's been nearly five months since our last blog post. I had started my "management" of the blog with such promise and then just fell out of the habit as quickly as I had fallen into it. Oh well, maybe I should make a "New Year's Resolution" to blog more.

Not.

That seems to be a nice intro to the point of this blog post, actually...resolutions. I've always struggled with the idea of the resolution. We live our lives each day, with choices all around us. We typically make the most unhealthy, unhelpful, and unwise decisions (which also tend to fall around the holidays - perhaps its the mix of festivities, family, friends, alcohol, and unmet expectations) and then don party hats, sing some songs, bang some pans, and decide that the next year will be different. Sadly, as quickly as we made the decision to wear the tacky 2011 glasses on New Year's, our resolutions fall to the wayside and we spend another 11 months re-establishing the habits that we wanted to avoid in the first place on that fateful New Year's Eve.

That's not to say that the purpose of a resolution isn't a good thing. Elisa and I just decided to take a different approach. And I thought it would be fun to make it an entire year's experience. Then we'll have at least made a valiant effort of "change" prior to giving in and building resolutions for 2012.

That's where the "30-Day Challenge" comes in. I figure that we, as human beings, can do anything for 30 days. It's the basis of made (and failed) resolutions, after all. But rather than trying something for 30 days and then giving up, why not do it for 30 days, re-evaluate, try something slightly different, etc., etc., etc.? Perhaps, by the end of 12 months, you really have made a change. With that idea in the books, it turned to a more difficult decision - what to do for 30 days?

Well, it was difficult until we rented a movie from Netflix. There was a documentary that I had wanted to watch, staring me in the face as I linked our Apple TV to a new Netflix account. 'Super Size Me.' For those of you unaware, the documentary follows one man's decision to eat nothing but McDonald's for 30 days (see the connection of our own challenge?). The effects were startling - liver problems (blood tests showed it was the same reaction to binge drinking alcoholic), depression when not eating the food, vomitting when trying to eat it all (at least early on), and about 30 lbs. of weight. Granted, documentaries are created with a certain point of view. I understand that. But once the closing credits were rolling, I didn't want to see another "Golden Arches" for awhile. So Elisa and I talked about trying to not eat fast food for 30 days. Start easy. See where it takes us.

Of course, giving up fast food isn't easy. It's designed to be addictive. And boy, is it addictive. And amazingly, it had just become part of our lives. I remember planning out meals for the week and always leaving one or two days empty - we'd figure something out on those days, which almost always turned into fast food choices. Lukas is probably the poster child for fast food companies targetting kids. His meals are made all the better if made by Ronald, Wendy, or Arctic - okay the last one didn't fit. But the playlands, the happy meals, the toys...they make Lukas beg to "eat out for dinner". So it seemed like a pretty good idea to have our first 30-day challenge be to stop fast food altogether. And look at 3 things:

1. How do we feel?
2. How much money did we save?
3. Are we establishing a more real "change" in habit?

As it stands right now, we are 13 days into our test. And I thought it would be fun to live through our year of "30-Day Challenges" on our blog. After all, it's one thing to have a private challenge. It's another to share it with the world, so that they hold you accountable to it as well.

So enjoy the first of many challenges. Officially, we are not eating fast food for 30 days. No McDonald's. No Wendy's. No Subway. Nothing. Well, except coffee. Elisa might hurt someone if she's deprived of her weekly Starbucks. And 7+ years of marriage has taught me to not do something crazy like that. With that, I better run to the store now, since I find us emptying our cupboards at a rapid pace. I guess that's what happens when you actually eat at home every meal. Who knew?

Next time - a trip down Fast Food Memory Lane.