2 Challenges – Week 1 Recap and Ice Golf!!

Tags

advocare, advocare 24 day challenge, budget, finances, fitness, herbal cleanse, Ice Golf, lifetime 90 day challenge, lifetime fitness, money

Heeeey how you doin?  I am currently sitting in my jammies in front of my fire place on a freezing Minnesota day, but I have nothing to do today, so I can totally get away with it!

This week I started two “challenges” for myself ‘this month that have been actually sort of difficult!  One was centered around my finances, and one was centered around my eating/exercise habits.  So let’s recap!
Financial
My last post about money explained that I need to put myself (and stick to) a budget, now that my roommate it no longer living here and therefore not paying me rent.  I did the adult thing and figured out what I have left over after paying bills and putting 10% of my pay in to savings.  (Is it weird that I got that savings thing from friends? In the one with the prom video, Mr. Gellar tells the Monica and Ross to put 10% of their pay into the bank, yea, Mr. Gellar was smart)

What I figured out is that I have just about $75 per week to spend on…well…life – gas, groceries, eating out, you know, all that stuff.  Well let me tell you what kidlets, $75 doesn’t get you too far.  At all.  Let me show you how my week went this week:
Sunday post church brunch with Angie and Brady at The Lowbrow(WILL go back) :$11.97
Groceries: $43.45
Gas: $61.08
Doing a little quick math you can see, I exceeded by $75/ week budget by $41.45.  Dang it!  So that takes me to this week only having $33.55 to spend on my groceries this week.  I *hope* I can get through this week with out getting gas.  I just have to get to Friday, and I’m in the clear, because Saturday I leave for Mexico!!

So that’s how I did this week with my finances.  I spent too much, but I only bought the necessities, aside from the brunch.  But a girl’s gotta have some girl time right?  Also, two wins that I had (while I wrap this up): Friday night after volleyball we go out to a restaurant/bar most weeks and I *try* to not order anything to save my pennies.  This Friday I succeeded!  I love hanging out, but I hate paying the bill.  Win.   My second win happened last night.  My friend had a birthday celebration and we all (her family and friends) went to play ice golf.  I clearly didn’t have the $20 to pay to play, but I did have some gift cards, that I wouldn’t use, so i traded my sister them for $25, and I magically had money to play ice golf!  After ice golfing all day we went out to eat.  I kind of had to go because I was riding along, but I didn’t eat, and instead snuck out after to run home and eat my own food and then headed back to the party.  There you have it, over budget for the week, but I spent much less, than I could have spent!
Do you have any penny pinching tips for me?  I need to work on my coupon clipping! Do you use coupons?

To break up the word-y-ness of the uber long post…Here are a few pictures from my first ice golf adventures!

 

Eating/Exercise:
Last Saturday I started the 10 day Advocare Cleanse.  Which before you groan, and eye roll, it’s not one of those cleanses where you drink only water or something disgusting.  This is one where you eat whole, non processed, good for you foods.  No alcohol, no dairy, no bread-ish stuff, and you are supposed to drink about 100oz of water a day (which you should do anyway, or 1/2 of your body weight in ounces of water per day).  You have a fiber drink and pro-biotic pills, and herbal cleanse pills you take through out the 10 days.  It’s part of the 24 day challenge, but I only did the 10 day cleanse part, well, because it was about a third of the price!  It wasn’t too hard this week to stick to my plan, until yesterday. The ice golf (read: not eating from about 9am until about 4pm) threw me off.  When we finished and I got a hamburger at the food stand, I was so hungry and excited to eat, I nearly choked on the damn thing!  by the time i got back to the party after going home and eating my own food, the rice crispy treats they made were calling my name….and I may have had a few and some ranch crackers.  Damn.  Today i feel like a puffer fish in my face after being good all day.  Man sodium really does a number on me.

Thanks to my 9th grade English teacher who told me on Monday after Easter Sunday, that I looked like I got punched in the eyes (because I was puffy from the Easter ham, ect. the prior day) I am hyper-sensitive about being puffy.

On to the exercise side of things:  I made it to the gym or was playing volleyball 4 days out of the last 7.  That’s pretty decent.  I have told my running buddies Jeff and Stacey my plan and they have been awesome in motivating me and being my gym buddies!  We are trying out new classes and we are all doing the 90 day challenge at the gym too! Which brings me to…dun dun duuuuun….the weigh in! Yesterday before the Ice golf I headed over to the gym to get weighed in for the 90 Day Challenge.  I got my weight and body fat measurements taken for the start and then I think once a month I’ll go back to get checked again, until the final weigh in!  Win of the day:  the machine said that my body fat was down 10-12%% from the time that I got tested about 5 months ago when I was taking the team fitness classes!