Eating out on the #Whole30

It’s day 21 of the #whole30 and since I am traveling today I thought I would post while in transit. I can’t believe I am in the home stretch of this cleanse. One more weekend to go, that’s 9 days left. Traveling while on the #whole30 I just had to be aware of packing healthy snacks (almonds and fruit) ahead of time and picking healthy food options. Fortunately, my connecting airport had a Jamba Juice so I was able to to get a smoothie that was made only of fruit and ice.

While at my parent’s house I had about a dozen relatives over and I told most all of them about the cleanse. No one was particularly interested or approving, except for my mom and even then I think she is just happy I am making an effort. For a long time, she thought I was purposely gaining weight to ward off potential life mates. . . so far from the truth- but that’s for another post on a blog that’s not this one. It was challenging not to try my mom’s homemade meals, but I was able to get my hands on some spaghetti squash and make a meal of my own. Luckily, we had plenty of fruit: cherries, cantaloupe and strawberries that I could snack on. I was able to do a lil baking of my own. Some lemon cake with whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top. My first cake was eaten up completely so I made a second one with the left over ingredients for Saturday night. Didn’t get to try that either, but that’s alright. Yesterday my family had lunch at an Italian seafood restaurant and I had to modify my meal, no cavenelli (pasta) or butter in the sauce. I felt like my family was judging me for being so picky, but I really wanted to stick with it. I am not 100% sure the waitress got my order right, because there was basil pesto sauce on my vegetables, but I had my mom try it first and she said it didn’t taste like it had butter in it. Looking around surprisingly I wasn’t envious of everyone else’s plates filled with an excess of pasta and buttery sauce. I also passed on the bread basket, which everyone complained was cold, but still ate anyways. Before the cleanse, I would have joined and mindlessly eaten the appetizer as well; but I am glad I didn’t because of the #whole30. Below is a photographic comparison of my meal vs. my sister’s.

I wish I was supported more by the fam over the weekend- but I shouldn’t expect everyone to understand the cleanse right off the bat.

I had a lot of down time while I was at home, so I got to finish some tasks that I normally would have put off: Like cleaning out my hair brush. It’s not too time consuming, maybe 20 minutes max, but one of those tasks that doesn’t seem very important to actually do but makes your morning much easier. I created a Facebook Like Box, so you can visit my Facebook page. I listened to a bunch of podcasts and watched long overdue YouTube videos. Something else I did was look over grocery receipts from June.

Honestly, this #whole30 thing has not been cheap. When Matlock and I did decide that we wanted to try something new for dinner, our options were much more limited than in May. So far we have been able to find #whole30 friendly dinners at: Loops (at least $18 for the two of us), a gyro based Chicago chain, ordering from the Panera Bread’s hidden menu, getting a ready made roasted whole chicken or turkey leg from the grocery store ($9.99), or going to a Indian/Pakistani restaurant ($10.99). A trip to Trader Joe’s for snacks ended up costing $34 during week 2. I am still wondering how our grocery bill is going to change when the cleanse if over. When I figure that out, I will let you know.

Posted on June 17, 2013 Thoughts By Sofia sofia in Food, Health, Travel Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day/TGIF wk. 19

Sorry this post is a few days late, but better late than never. It’s just about 6AM on Friday and I was supposed to be much closer to a Dunkin Donuts and a Southie accent than I currently am. My connecting flights have been switched three times already. My brother graduates from college this weekend, which is why I am traveling home and all I really care about. Air travel aside, things are going pretty well.

photo:

kevin dooley

1. I have made it to Day 18 of the #whole30, which is exciting. Making it to the two digit numbers feels like an accomplishment as it is. I feel alright, no sporadic highs or lows which is nice. I realize my trip to home cooking by my mom is going to be challenging but i am up for it. Matlock packed some snacks in my bag, which is good thinking ahead. Now that we are a little more than halfway done it seems more achievable.

2. Last weekend I was able to make a short drive to meet TeacherFinance while she was in town for work. It was great to catch up and talk to someone about personal finance and blogging. I can’t wait to see her again in October for FinCon13.

3. On Monday, I had a free meeting with a financial counselor at my local credit union. We talked for about an hour and a half about my finances. She sent me a monthly budget template that I filled out ahead of time and we went over. She was also nice enough to show me my Experian credit report which we went over in detail. I have some work to do there and it reminded me that any bad credit items will usually stay on your report for 24 months and then be erased after 7 years. She was really encouraging and easy to talk to without feeling judged. I created a letter template to send to my creditors and sent two out of the three earlier this week. I hope this will create open communication and more clarity between myself and them and hopefully I can make some real progress this summer on paying it down. See if your credit union offers any free workshops or 1-on-1 financial check ups with a professional (for free) just for being a member.

4. Later this week I did get an email from my friends at Planwise about an upgrade on the planwise tool. I checked it out and I really like the features that have enhanced. I am going to play around with it over the weekend and let you know what I think. Enjoy your weekend!!

Posted on June 14, 2013 Thoughts By Sofia sofia in Health, Money, Travel Leave a comment

Hump Day Happy wk. 18

This week started off pretty stressful because of finances and trying to figure out the rest of the month> I decided to get my car repair services done this weekend and it cost a lot. I bought and had installed four new tires, had my car realigned, replaced my battery and got an oil change. The grand total was $810 even with a 10% coupon for the services and the oil change coupon for $25. I did have a mail in rebate for the tires as well. After saying goodbye to that hefty amount of my paycheck, I had some fun things to look forward to that helped me keep my head up high.

I am happy/excited about getting my picture taken by the talented Allie Lehman this weekend.
I get to see my blogging buddy, Teacher Finance this weekend. We are meeting up for dinner while she is in town for work. Then we get to hang out at FinCon13 in October which I am oh so looking forward to.
I signed up for a few free courses on Ed2go which start on Jun 19th and I am excited about. The classes I registered for are: Personal finance, Secrets of Better Photography, GRE prep and Microsoft Intermediate Excel.
I am attending the #OGS13 tomorrow, should be interesting. I haven’t been before and although I am not an entrepreneur or own a business just yet I like to do my research ahead of time and this event seems like a good place to start

Posted on June 5, 2013 Thoughts By Sofia sofia in blogging, Cars, FinCon, spending 2 Comments

Whole What? My thoughts on the Whole30 Challenge so far

It’s Day 8 of the Whole 30 challenge that Matlock and I are in the middle of right now. I thought I would do a review of the program and how it’s going for me so far.

Sugar & grains are the cuplrit. Oh and people bringing unhealthy snacks to work so I can devour them all

The company that created the Whole30 nutrition program is called Whole9. Once you have looked over the website and have decided you are going to go ahead and begin this crazy commitment, the Whole30 challenge, you go to this page and sign up along with forking over $14.95. So what does this $15 get you?
Every morning at 4AM you will receive a daily email that will encourage and support you through the Whole 30. I will say that this has been a pretty challenging nutritional program, but the daily emails have really been a great help. They are animated and let me know exactly what to expect when it comes to how my body will physically react to being on the Whole30. Out of all the online subscriptions I have, it’s been the one I have been the most responsive to. The daily emails are written very well and are engaging. I actually enjoy reading them. I sort of wish there was a financial cleanse program offered, because I think it would be pretty successful. Not sure how that would work though.

I will say that I have been pretty cranky on this ‘nutritional program’. I am tired and have gone to the bathroom more times than I can count. Lots of fiber. I have also noticed how much I am surrounded by food-related rewards or snacks. In the office I work , there is a jar of Hershey chocolates for anyone to take. I would normally use these sweet treats as my mid afternoon pick me up. More often than not, when patients want to say Thank You, they bring in deliciously sweet baked good, like cupcakes or cookies. Today, an entire box of cookies were open for anyone to enjoy. It was hard to say no, but I knew I had to stick with it. I missed a work happy hour last week because it was naturally at a bar/restaurant and I knew I wouldn’t be able to have anything. I am eating more apples, oranges and bananas as dessert or snacks. We have gone out to eat only twice while on this program, mostly because it almost seems like work to figure out what we can and cannot eat, so might as well stay home and save ourselves the trouble. I have noticed that society is very set on rewarding ourselves with food. I got an A on a test, ice cream tonight!, I got a promotion, let’s go out to dinner. Finding other ways of rewarding yourself is actually harder than you think. I was thinking if I made it to the end of week 2; I would treat myself to a pedicure, but that doesn’t help my financial budget right now. To avoid seeing food commercials on tv, I took out a stack of movies and TV series from the library. Watching marathons of those is a lot easier than having to mute or change the channel every

Initially, Matlock and I thought we could have Chipotle if we were in a bind- their chicken and veggie burrito bowl (without any rice or beans), but upon further investigation we found out that their meat is cooked in soybean oil, so that was a no. Essentially, the only food I can get there is: a salad with carnitas, tomato salsa (no corn salsa), guacamole, and lettuce. (the fajita peppers/onions are unfortunately also cooked in soybean oil). I don’t eat pork as it is, so that wasn’t an option at all. I did just discover that Panera has a hidden menu, which might help if we are in a jam and need a quick meal. Unfortunately, I am still stuck in the mindset of creating a list of all the foods I want to eat after the challenge is over. I think of it as delayed gratification, but I am pretty sure that’s not the point of this program , but I can’t help it. I hope I will be able to stick with this program this time next week. I will keep you posted, feel free to email me with questions and I would love any support to keep me going until the end, which is on Wednesday June 26th in case you are wondering.

Posted on June 4, 2013 Thoughts By Sofia sofia in Food, Health 1 Comment

When is the right time to have kids?

Apparently it’s Blogging for LGBT Families Day today according to the Family Equality Council so I thought I would write a lil something to support the cause. To clear things up right off the bat, my immediate family is not Lgbt friendly and are not alright with my relationship with Matlock (who is a woman in case you were confused). Matlock’s family is really accepting of our relationship so that is a positive and that’s what we focus on. Last week, Matlock and I attended a LGBT panel on assisted reproduction that was sponsored by my employer. It was informative and gave me a lot to think about. On the panel were: gay and lesbian parents, a surrogate mother, a women’s health nurse practitioner (who also happens to be a lesbian), and an attorney with a specialty certification in family law.

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/audiinsperation/

I have always wanted to have a family of my own but didn’t really place a priority on having a relationship that would lead to kids. For some reason, I thought if I really wanted to be a parent that badley I can always adopt. As I got older, having my own kids that are biologically linked to me has grown more important to me, but not a deal breaker. Living in the Midwest for the past few years, I have noticed that here people get married and/or have kids at a much younger age in comparison to what I am used to on the east coast. When I walk around at farmers markets or am at the mall, I see plenty of people in their mid twenties that already have kinder gardeners or toddlers. Lately, talking to older, wiser gay people I have been getting the impression that ‘the clock is ticking’ if Matlock and I want to have kids (biologically). We are both in our late twenties and don’t feel ready for kids, both financially or emotionally, but what is the ‘prime age’ to have children for women. According to this article by the HuffingtonPost, published last in 2012, it’s 34?

But is it much different for straight parents than gay parents? If a gay male couple want a gestational carrier to carry their child, they should expect a price tag upwards of $100,000. If you want the breakdown here’s a great site. That means you really need to have a financial footing and know you want children before you start preparing- it really sounds like you need to know several years in advance. For lesbians, the cost is much lower since women have the option of carrying the child themselves, so it’s more like ~~under $1000~~ $15K per child (a friend who has actually gone through the process corrected me, which means the panel gave me much different information) for the insemination process. According to It’s Conceivable Now ”Sperm storage can cost around $200 for 6 months to up to $2,500 for 10 years.” The legal fees of drafting up documents regarding second parent adoption can also add up to a few thousand dollars.

Do you want kids? Do you already have kids? Are you expecting? Did you put any thought of when you wanted or want kids in the future? When is the right time? Matlock and I just adopted Cassy, our dog, less than two years ago- is jumping from a dog to a kid really the next step? We don’t own a home yet, we probably don’t have enough in savings to have kids and aren’t legally committed in any way. So I want to hear from you- what’s the rush?

Posted on June 3, 2013 Thoughts By Sofia sofia in Personal 5 Comments

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