February 2014 Goal Recap

Another month in the books, and based on how busy I've been the last few weeks, I'm not sorry to see it go. Work has picked up, and grad school has REALLY picked up. I'm in an accelerated part-time MBA program at GMU, with two night classes a week after work. Each class meets for 3.5 hours per week (6:30 to 10:05!), and I've probably got to put in at least twice that amount of time to get the work done outside of class. I'm so exhausted by Thursday. To top off the work and school one-two punch, I'm also still trying to keep up with the blog and meet all my New Year's resolutions. Anyway, enough complaining, here's how I did:

FINANCES: Put $2000/month away in savings (target of $24,000 for the year and max out a Roth IRA ($5500/year).

We put another $4,380 in savings this month, bringing our yearly total to $8,398. That amount is kind of misleading because we got our tax return this month. We really should have been up in the $5,200-$5,400 range this month. I ended up spending $450 total for two tickets to Montreal over labor day weekend (which was actually an insanely good deal, and I'll get paid back for one of those tickets), another $150 for a race entry fee, $300 for a photography class for my wife, $120 to get a passport renewed, and a bunch of small but unexpected expenses. February was an expensive damn month.

I'm revising the goal from January. With a crazy wedding season looming, no more saving for a $4,500 trip. We have three weddings to go to this summer, two of which have bachelor parties in Canada (one in Montreal and one in Vancouver), and one of them is in Maine which promises to be about a $1,500 trip for the wife and I. All in all, I estimate we will spend between $3,500-$4,500 on wedding-related expenses this year. UGH.

I just opened a Roth IRA, and the yearly contribution limit is $5,500 which I fully intend to meet. More on this to come in a future post. 

FITNESS: Do 15 pull-ups in a row before Christmas and complete a Tough Mudder by August.

I went to the gym yesterday to see where I'm at with the pull-ups. I did 10 in a row, probably could have squeezed out one or two more as well, but it would have been ugly. I feel pretty good about where I am right now. I still hate pull-ups, but I'm seeing some improvement. 

I made some progress on the second half of the goal by signing up for a Tough Mudder (hence the $150 entry fee I mentioned). I'm doing it with my Dad who, at 63, physically puts most people my age to shame. Speaking of shame, NONE OF MY FRIENDS WOULD AGREE TO SIGN UP FOR IT. #sad #supersad #theywillbedeadby40. Anyway, June 14th. Get pummmmmped.

CREATIVITY: Average 4 blog posts a month by end of the year and complete at least 3 "projects" before next year.

I did more reading of blogs than I did writing of blogs this month. I've been consuming all the information I can find on building wealth responsibly, personal finance, and investing in general, and there's a lot of information out there. Despite that time dump, I still managed to pump out 5 blog posts. I'm changing the goal from 2 posts per month to 4 posts per month, which is pretty much a layup. I NEED AN EASY WIN OK!?

I also posted one project! Check out these shelves I made for the wife, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. 

CAREER: Become a GS-13 by September.

Not much movement on this front. I did speak with my boss to see how to get this process started but I haven't had the chance to follow-up on his advice. This is definitely a huge priority for me, The position comes with a nice pay raise and added responsibility that I wouldn't mind at all.


SPIRITUAL: Find a Church by April and volunteer for Habitat for Humanity by the end of the year.

I FAILED! Still no church for me. I totally missed on this goal, and I'll be honest, I didn't even know I set the 1st of March as the deadline!! I'm going to push it back one month and get off my ass Sunday mornings.

At a school meeting a couple weeks ago, we were discussing different volunteering opportunities that students could take part in. One of them was Habitat for Humanity. I'm kind of holding out hope that I can volunteer with my classmates. 

Whole 30: Complete the Whole 30 Challenge (again!).

We already completed the Whole 30 challenge in January and it was awesome, but since I haven't been as strict with my diet, I'm starting to fall back into some of my old bad habits. No, I haven't been eating fast food, but I'd estimate that only 50% of what I eat is Paleo and I can definitely feel a difference. Ideally, I'd like to do Whole 30 around the same time I do the Tough Mudder in June, but I'll set a loose goal and say that I'd like to do it once more this year. 

Whole 30: In Review

Source: http://digboston.com/boston-food-drinks/2012/02/the-paleo-diet-caveman-grubbin/

Without a doubt, Whole 30 has been a success. It's been absolutely life changing and this is coming from one of the most skeptical people on the planet (according to my wife). I was a skeptic going in, and I stayed a skeptic until about the last week of the program.

I might be a total convert now.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Whole 30, it's a strict version of the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet consists mainly of meats, vegetables, fruits, fungi, and nuts. It excludes grains, legumes, dairy, refined sugars, and vegetables oils. It's already strict enough, right? Whole 30 is even more exclusive. It's impossible to explain everything about the program in a short post but I hope by the end of it, I can convince a few of you to look into it on your own

A week into the program, I wrote a post with some pros and cons. Can I go back now and delete the cons? Am I allowed to delete something I wrote if I don't agree with it now? I'll grant you that some of the cons still apply, but they're so far outweighed by the pros, it's not even funny.

Allow me to resubmit what I feel is a more accurate...

Pros

I feel accomplished. Like really accomplished. It's not often that we inflict self-discipline on ourselves, and this took a helluva lot of it. Now that it's finished and we were successful, I'm in a better place mentally to start the year.

Perfect Digestion. I've had my share of digestion issues. I tried the Activia yogurt route, I tried probiotics, but nothing's worked as well as this diet. It's nice to know that if I ever have a flare up of digestion problems, I can jump back into the Whole 30 program to take care of them. To be honest, I'm ticked the gastroenterologist didn't suggest a diet change when I went to see him.

Flat Stomach. I'm a skinny guy to start with, but that didn't mean I didn't have a gut (I'm convinced there's nothing less attractive than a skinny guy with a gut).I ran, I thought I was eating pretty well, I lifted, I tried supplements. I couldn't get my stomach flat. It took ONE WEEK to see abs on this diet. You cut down on the bloat, you'll be surprised what you find underneath.

Better Body Image. I swear my skin looks better. The dark circles under my eyes have lessened. My stomach is flat. I've lost weight. I'm not tired after I eat. I sleep better, I'm more alert during the day. Even if this is all in my head, which I seriously doubt, it would mean the diet's one badass placebo.

The Food. Our meals taste delicious because the food we're buying is so much tastier to begin with. You're eating more natural food and it's not loaded with chemicals and other crap. I've also become a better cook and my nutrition knowledge has practically doubled. The best part about the diet? You can eat as much as you want. This is not intended to be just a weight loss diet (although you will lose weight depending on your current diet) so you don't have to feel guilty about how much or how often you eat.

Better Marriage. I would never have tried to do this diet on my own, and I would certainly never have succeeded without the help of my wife. What could have been a miserable failure was instead an exciting challenge that I got to share with a remarkable woman. I feel blessed that we spent so much time together over the last month.

Cons:

Time Hog. With the exception on one meal, we prepared all of our own food. We're busy people too. Between work and grad school, we seemed to dedicate all of our spare time to the kitchen. Fortunately, there was certainly a learning curve as we didn't seem to be so strapped for time towards the end of the month, but there wasn't much time for anything else. Socially, we missed a lot of gatherings with our friends. Next time we do Whole 30, I'll be convincing some of those friends to try it out too.

Food takes Center Stage: I feel like I was either daydreaming about food I couldn't have, mentally preparing a list for the store, cooking, eating, or talking about the diet. Funny thing is, before and during the program, I would think "I can't give up cheese, or beer, or bread, or Oreos forever!". Then, when I could finally eat those things again, I didn't. I expected that I'd want to run to the store and buy some things that I "deserved". But now I feel so much better and I don't miss that type of food. If I deserve anything, it's to feel good about what I eat.

Expensive. Just read this.

If you haven't gotten the hint yet, I highly encourage people to try this diet!

Whole 30: Days Fifteen through Twenty Three

It's been a while since I've posted so you're getting a whole bunch of these at once.

Day 15
Whole 30 Beef Jerky
Leftover Spaghetti Squash with Lucini and Steak
LIke... 5 grapefruits

Days 16-17
Imagine Chicken Broth
Kombucha!
Bananas
Apple Sauce

Day 18
Whole 30 Approved Sausage
These Baller Wings

Days 19

Blue Ribbon Country Captain Chicken from Well Fed

Days 20-21

I had a final in Managerial Accounting and I pretty much stopped recording what I was eating. MY BAD! I think I made some ground beef, mixed some taco seasoning in, and ate it on lettuce with some avocados at one point. I know, it sounds awesome.

Day 22

Mashed Sweet Potato

Apple Pork Sausage

Taj Mahal Chicken from Well Fed 2

Day 23

Leftover Chicken

Shrimp with Old Bay Seasoning

Sweet Potato Fries

Ok, so I dropped the ball on this. I hadn't been writing down what I'd been eating (it was all Whole 30 though!) and I just wanted to put it out there before I got too far behind. 7 more days! It's practically in the bag.

Whole 30: How to Get Over Food Poisoning on Whole30

So I've been sick since Saturday night. It's flu season, I had a killer headache and the poooooops, and since I skipped the flu shot, I figured I was getting my comeuppance. But after missing 4 straight days of work, losing 10 pounds, and not being able to mentally stop myself from bathroom trips, enough was enough. 

I called the doctor's office, told 'em "I can't stop pooping", and that I thought it was probably the flu. When I got there, the doctor asked me what my symptoms were and I said I started feeling sick Saturday night with a headache and diarrhea and I haven't gotten any better since then. She asked me a few more questions which basically ruled out the flu (no aches, no fever, no coughing), and then asked me what I had for dinner the night before I got sick. I told her: raw oysters.

She just smiled and thaaaaaat's when I started to feel really dumb. Of course I knew what it was then: food poisoning. Typically, it takes 24 hours for the effects of food poisoning to start ravaging you and others who had the same food don't need to also be sick to rule it out.

For treatment she recommended not taking any more Imodium (because you need to get everything "flushed" from your body) and going on the B.R.A.T. diet until I felt better. B.R.A.T. stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and  Toast. I told her I couldn't have grains because of this special diet I'm on to which she scoffed! She even implied that my diet may have lowered my immunity and got me sick. Anyway, she said just eat a lot of applesauce and bananas if I wasn't willing to change my diet. So to stay true to Whole 30, here's what I started eating exclusively:

Imagine Organic Free Range Chicken Broth: Just heat it up on the stove, pour it in a mug, and go to town. 

Enlightened Synergy Gingerberry Kombucha: This is the first time I've had this stuff, and it is weird tasting. It's also chock full of probiotics and minerals. Might be that it's a miracle drink. 

Santa Cruz Organic Apple Sauce: Apple sauce always goes down smooth. 

Bananas & Apples

What I didn't eat was anything with fiber in it (veggies) and meat (because it's hard to break down). 

And it worked!

... and thank God it did. I was literally going to jump off of Whole 30 today (on Day 17 nonetheless) if I didn't see immediate improvement. I hope that if anyone is suffering from a week long bout of food poisoning, they have the same success by eating the foods I mentioned. You can definitely fight off food poisoning and remain on Whole 30!

Whole 30: Days Ten Through Fourteen

I definitely caught the flu over the weekend (Day 11) which, as I'm sure everyone knows, sucks. It also put a hiccup into trying some new foods (or makes meal planning a lot easier because you can't eat anything?) With the said, my wife made some Whole 30 dishes that were so DAMN good that I couldn't resist, even in my partially vegetative state.

Day Ten

Breakfast: Fried Egg and Avocado Slices

Lunch: Fruits and veggies on the go.
Dinner: Raw Oysters with Horseradish at Hank's Oyster Bar

Day Eleven

Breakfast: Baby Carrots and Hard boiled Eggs

Lunch: Nothing :(

Dinner: Chile Lime Chicken Wings with Brussels  (FRIGGEN GOOD)

Day Twelve

Breakfast: Fried Plantains (fry in a skillet with coconut oil, cumin, salt, pepper)

Lunch: Mushroom Broth with Prosciutto, Green Onions, Lime (like a faux Pho)

Dinner: Frozen Pineapple Pieces :( :( :(

Day Thirteen

Breakfast: Grapefruit

Lunch: Mixed Green Salad with Flank Steak and Tessemae Lemon Dressing

Dinner: Ground Beef Hamburgers topped with Sunflower Butter and Strawberries, garnished with Green Onions (sounds weird, tastes delicious)

Day Fourteen

Breakfast: Pineapple & Grapefruit

Lunch: Applegate Farms Lunch Meat & Leftover Hamburger

Dinner: Spaghetti Squash with Lucini Pasta Sauce and Steak bits (our "go-to")

One Week In: The Pros and Cons of Whole 30 & Paleo So Far

I just wrapped up my first week of the Whole 30 challenge, and it is not easy. You read all the blogs out there and they're lobbing praise at the diet like it's amazing, but I want to be honest with people out there: I come from a long line of human beings who like to eat food for sustenance and we don't care who knows it. Suddenly having to be discriminating in my tastes is something I do not like. But there are good things I've noticed so far for sure. I'll give you my Pros and Cons.

PRO #1: Flat stomach! This is probably the first thing I noticed about the diet. I think I've read that dairy causes bloating in the stomach region? Sounds right, especially since there's no dairy in this diet. My stomach looks the same at the end of the day as it looks when I wake up in the morning. This is the most obvious pro so far.

CON #1: Dishes. All the time. Dishes. You have to cook all your meals if you want to eat and my God, the dishes. The piles of dishes. And am I imagining things or did my wife just use 4 pots to make hard boiled eggs? YOU USE TO MANY THINGS TO COOK, WOMAN! Just rinse the bowl out then reuse it, daaaammmmmn.

We don't have a microwave either, I couldn't really tell you why, but that certainly doesn't help this situation.

PRO #2: No smelly farts, had to put that here somewhere. I'm not particularly known for my smelly farts, but they were there. They were real. Now, there's still some farting, but they be like a lil' bubble or something. Kinda cute. I'm gonna think of a name for them.

CON #2: I am so FIXATED on food. I have thought about foods I wanted to eat that I haven't eaten in years. Literally, everything I can't eat looks good to me. On top of that, everyone around me knows this as I can't stop talking about it. Friends, I am sorry. I am sorry but you're gonna have to stop eating food in front of me because you'll make me go to a dark place.

This burger haunts my dreams:

Source: http://manmadediy.com/users/martin/posts/1602-how-to-make-a-peanut-butter-cheeseburger

PRO #3: My wife and I are spending a lot of quality time together. I love her, she's pretty. "Accidentally" bumping into her while I measure a cup of coconut flour... well, let's just say things get pretty PG-13 up in here.

CON #3: Like I said before, we spend a lot of time making food. These recipes don't really taste that great ifI'mbeinghonestwitchu. Even the ones out of the expensive books. We've definitely found recipes we like (i.e. pretty much anything with spaghetti squash, cauliflower, or almond butter) but they can be very hit or miss. When you're buying the best food from the store, misses are costly.

PRO #4: I'm getting to know my way around the kitchen a little better. I found a great way to make steaks in the oven which for some reason I'm really proud of. I guess I've always seen it as a rite of passage for a man. I also know where we kept the lemon zester which is both important AND manly. Bonus tip for everyone out there: invest in a garlic press if you don't already own one.

CON #4: There's a social cost in all this. No more brunches or dinners with friends. Go to a party, you're the weird sober guy. My friends are great, so they still want me to hang out but going to a restaurant and just ordering water... not an option.

So there they are, the Pros and Cons from my first week of Whole 30 in all their glory. I will be writing more about the cost of the diet (I've got a lot of past data on our spending habits) so I can address this from a financial perspective as soon as I can.

See ya!

Whole 30: Days Two through Four

I made it through a couple more days, so far so good. Although, if you were wondering, here's what I've been craving that's off the menu... and here's what I've been eating instead:

Day Two
Breakfast
Mashed Sweet Potatoes (made with coconut milk, ghee, and cinnamon) with Raisins and Roasted Pecans.*
*This dish was leftover from our NYE dinner.

Lunch
Mixed Green Salad with Roasted Pecans, Apple, and Lemon Pepper Chicken, topped with a hard boiled egg and Tessemae's Lemon Garlic dressing.

Dinner
Sauteed Shrimp with Garlic and Lemon
Steamed Broccoli

Day Three
Breakfast
Sauteed Shrimp with Garlic and Lemon (Leftover from Day 2 dinner... I will eat anything in the morning!)
Apple
Hard boiled Egg

Lunch
Two Hard boiled Eggs
Broccoli
Pistachios
Remainder of the Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Baby Carrots

Dinner
Roasted Spaghetti Squash (cut in half, emptied out, baked face down for 45 minutes at 375) with Ground Beef (garlic, cumin) and Lucini Sicilian Olive & Wild Caper Sauce.

Day Four
Breakfast
Roasted Spaghetti Squash, Ground Beef, Pasta Sauce from Day Three

Lunch
Collard Greens with Baby Carrots and Whole 30 compatible sausage (made in slow cooker)
Banana
Raisins

Dinner
Raw vegetables (tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower) off a party tray
Cocktail shrimp (without the cocktail sauce)
Hawaiian Meatballs (Whole 30 compatible recipe)
Fruit Salad

I Won't Be Able To Live Without... 

• Lucini Pasta Sauce: Pricey at approx. $9 a jar, but it's Whole 30 compatible, and convenience is important. 
• Spaghetti Squash: So easy to make and I am not lying when I say it tastes better than pasta.
• Tessemae's Lemon Garlic Dressing: Whole 30 compatible, subtle flavor, and it really went well with the fruit in my salad.