January challenge wrap-up

I'm wrapping up my January challenges tomorrow and am VERY thankful to have a sense of accomplishment!  I have thus far successfully eaten 100 calories every morning within 30 minutes of waking up--even while camping in the snow--and finished my quilt square for Charlie's quilt.  I do need my mom's help on the quilt square, but it's as complete as I can get it. 

My research for the SNAP challenge continued throughout the month and I was honestly appalled by how much money I regularly spend on food, both at the grocery store and at restaurants. 

Upsides to this month's challenges: 

• I was able to complete them all.
• I learned that I'm able to sit and concentrate on something I've always found boring (embroidery) for longer than 10 minutes.
• I now have a better understanding for where my disposable income is going and know I can do a better job of saving.

Downsides/Lessons Learned to this month's challenges: 

• I gained almost 10 pounds doing something that was supposedly supposed to get my metabolism started earlier in the day.  Hopefully that can be reversed quickly in February! 
• I was frustrated a lot during the making of the quilt square.  If I had thought things through more thoroughly when planning out my embroidery project, I would have been able to complete it much sooner and with much less frustration.
• I am ashamed by how much money I currently spend on food.

Up next month:  The SNAP Challenge, going alcohol-free and training for a 5K.

January Challenge Update

So far my January challenges are shaping up pretty well ... but I'm not.  I'm convinced this 100-calorie challenge is unhealthy for me.  Rather than kick-starting my metabolism, maybe this challenge kicked it to the curb.  That's to be determined.

This weekend could be my best effort to keep with this challenge since I'm going snow-camping Saturday and am convinced I'll wake up freezing multiple times during the night.  If you don't sleep, how do you know when to eat???

As for the other challenges, I started on my quilt square in December and had to start a new one in January after some of the thread I used tore up the fabric.  I think I've sorted my problems out and am getting ready to make some headway over the upcoming 3-day weekend.  I've been saving my receipts and am already dreading going through them to see what groceries I bought in December and January since a lot of what I've bought these last couple of months has been for various social activities and won't apply to February, when I don't have a social life because I can't afford one!

Stay tuned!

New Year, New Challenge(s)

Happy New Year! 

I've decided to make 2013 a year of monthly challenges and am kicking things off with more than one in January.  For now, I've come up with 3:

1. To eat 100 calories within 30 minutes of waking up every morning--to get my metabolism started.
2. To finish the quilt square I'm making for Andy and Janie's baby's quilt.
3. To save all my food receipts so I can get a good idea of what I actually spend on food every month.  This sets me up for my February challenge:  To live on a food stamp budget.  I'll have about $140 for groceries in the month of February, so I need to start making preparations now!  That includes budgeting and blogging more so I'm ready to document what I think will be my biggest challenge of the year.

Here goes ... stay tuned!