Gone Raw

Today marks the end of my first 30 day challenge, that of making 50% of what I ate raw, and not spending any extra money as subjective as that may sound.

I'm pleased with how the first 30 day challenge went. For the most part, I enjoyed eating this way. It does seem to suit me.

Some of the benefits I experienced from eating this way were that I lost the couple pounds I put on over Christmas and have been maintaining what is a comfortable weight for me without having to count calories. I just eat and my weight is holding. I'm happy about that. I have begun new habits that I believe will stick such as eating a piece of fruit or a smoothie in the morning when I'd usually grab a handful of chocolate chips.

Unlike the South Beach diet which I did several years ago and initially benefited from, I was able to still eat chocolate. This is pretty important to me. That said, I couldn't really go overboard with the chocolate (though my accountability partner might disagree with me on this point) because I always had to balance it out with eating something raw.

Eating 50% raw forced me to be thoughtful about my food choices which is good and for me, necessary, because otherwise, I really would eat chocolate chips, coffee and diet soda all day.

I enjoyed having a piece of fresh fruit with my breakfast, learning new smoothie recipes and watching my children eat more fruit and veggies as a result of mommy grabbing for that rather than chocolate chips. :)

The two aspects I found/find a challenge are the cost and the time. It really doesn't take THAT much more time to fix raw food, but I still found it to be more timely. And, we definitely are spending more money on fresh fruits and veggies. Worth it? I think so. I'm planning to keep this new way of eating long term.

The other 30 day challenge of not spending extra money was a great exercise in self denial, especially with eating out or grabbing "snacks" while we were out at places like BJ's or Target. Target is especially a challenge for me; those darn orange clearance stickers get me every time. :) But, not this time.

We were able to stay within our food/grocery and entertainment budgets this month which has always been a challenge for us. So, again, I'm hoping I can adopt this as a mindset ongoing.