What can I say, I LOVE THE START OF A NEW YEAR! There’s always something special- something magical about a new year. A fresh start, new adventures and new goals. Of course, things still carry over from the previous year, but I always feel like a new year can mean new and different results. 2015 is going to be one of our most challenging years yet…I can feel it!
2013-Goodbye Pop
In previous years, Doug and I have made some sort of health/food resolution. In 2013 we gave up pop for those fellow Northeast Ohioans and for the rest of you, we gave up soda. So since 2013 neither one of us have drank any pop. No Diet Coke (my previous vice), no Cherry Coke, no Sprites, not even an Orange Sunkist. For Doug this was a very, very easy year. He didn’t drink pop much to begin with, just the occasional can here or there or he did really like frozen Cokes and root beer floats. But for me, I was drinking a Diet Coke from the vending machine every-single-DAY! If you think about that money wasted (50 work weeks x 5 days a week x $1.50 a bottle = $375), I could have bought some really nice “stuff” or invested that money in a decent growth stock mutual fund with a 10% return and had about $973 in 10 years! Talk about a lost opportunity! But anyway I digress.
So we gave it up cold turkey on the first of the year. You don’t really realize how addicted you are to something until you give it up. The first month was challenging for me. So many things triggered my “need” for a Coke. Lunch time at work as a pick me up. Going away parties at work. Doritos, pizza and a need for coke. Or the two really hard ones for me, free drinks available for the taking at work lunch meetings (FREE POP!!!) and when I would hear the “click/pop” of a can being opened or that telltale “hiss” of a bottle being opened. It set me to drooling like one of Pavlov’s dogs!
But every time I said, “NO, no pop today” I found that I had more strength the next time. A little over 2 years later and I’ve not touched a can of pop. We originally did this because it was a waste of money, a waste of calories and we didn’t feel like the chemicals were probably that great for us. Now recently I’ve seen people taking cans of Coke and using them to clean their toilets. Yowza! I can’t say I’ve seen any amazing health benefits, or mind clarity, but overall, I’m happy with the decision we made and don’t plan on guzzling a can any time soon.
2014-Quitting Fast Food
In 2014, we decided to give up fast food. This one was definitely a tough one for us. We were by no means fast food junkies, but like most American’s we visited some fast food joint at least once or twice a week for our burger and fries or that delicious chicken sandwich.
There were a bunch of people that got a bit huffy about our choice stating, “Not all fast food is bad” and “Every fast food restaurant has a healthy option.” And they’re right, I agree. You can go to McDonald’s, Chick Fil A and Wendy’s and get healthy options, but that’s not what most people do. And we weren’t different. When we’d go, we’d get something delicious and then regret it afterwards. I can’t tell you how many times I ate a grilled Chick Fil A sandwich…but it didn’t stop there. I also had the amazing waffle fries and loved every single bite until the “after” set in. The horrible heavy feeling in your stomach. The one that left you feeling like you needed to exercise immediately.
So on New Years 2013 we decided to buy some of the greasiest food we could. We went to Mc Donalds and bought Big Macs and Large Fries and then wrote how we felt while eating it. We took that Post It note and hung it on the side of the refrigerator as a reminder.
It’s been tough at times, especially when seeing Chick Fil A or Wendy’s, but if we remember back to how we felt after our Mc Donalds binge, it makes it quite a bit easier. The hardest part is defining what fast food really is. So we defined it as chain places like Mc Donalds, Wendy’s, Arby’s, etc where you could pull up and get a fast meal. And though we vowed we wouldn’t eat meals from these places, but we didn’t eliminate drinks. We travel quite a bit by car are recognize that sometimes the only place to stop to get a coffee or refill our water would be a fast food place. Doug also requested that we not eliminate the ice cream from fast food places (ridiculous, I know!). He loves an occasional ice cream cone from Mc Donalds because 1. they’re good, 2. they’re cheap!
Places that we do still eat at: Subway, Quiznos, Jimmy Johns, Qdoba and Chipotle. Yes, I think they are still probably dangerously close to “fast food”, but for most of them, you have to leave your car and the meal is made fresh in front of you. Calorie wise I know some of the choices might have a greater calorie intake versus something like a salad at Mc Donalds, but the other temptations aren’t there. To my knowledge you can’t get a fries or the like at any of these. And for those most part I feel these are more wholesome meal choices for us.
2015-What’s Next? Counting pennies…
For 2015, we took a little turn from the food/health resolutions and will instead be focusing on sticking to our budget. A couple of years prior to marrying Doug I paid off $50,000 in about 18 months by sticking religiously to a budget. And keep in mind, I wasn’t making too much more than $50,000 a year at that time! Doug’s student loans are well over my mere $50,000, but we’ll be planning our budget each month and sticking to it. We’re dedicated to paying off his student loans as quickly as possible so we can spend and give our money on/to things that really matter instead of making interest donations each month to the federal government. Student loan debt is our ONLY debt and it’s the constant “elephant in the room.” If you’ve never heard of Dave Ramsey before stay tuned because we’ll be using some of his principles to “clean up our debt mess!”