I Started Brewing My Own Sweet Tea

This post is ironic, since in the last post I hinted at the fact that I'm addicted to sweet tea, but I'll post this anyway. To keep my addiction as healthy and as cost effective as possible, I brew my own tea at home. This way, I know when it was made, and I can control the amount of sugar in the tea.

I bought an iced tea maker at Target for $20.00. I bought 70 tea bags and a 32 oz. bag of Turbinado Sugar at for $3.99 each. I brew about 3 pitchers of tea a week, and I only put 1/2 cup of sugar in each pitcher. I eventually want to get to 1/4 cup of sugar in each pitcher, then unsweet tea, then water, but it's gonna be a while.

Again, I'll keep you updated.

I Stopped Drinking Soda

I've always been thin, but when I was drinking soda, I looked like a little pregnant lady. I used to drink 3-4 sodas a day, with all of that corn syrup and carbs going straight to my stomach. I was HEAVILY addicted to the sugar and caffeine, so going cold turkey wasn't gonna happen...so...

Week 1: Soda six days a week. 

Week 2: Soda four days a week. 

Week 3: Soda two days a week.

Week 4: Soda one day a week. 

I LOVED soda, so I kept my soda one day a week for a while. I called my "cheat day". My cheat day was on Tuesdays, and I remember looking forward to Tuesdays like it was Christmas. My friend and I would go to lunch, I'd order my Dr. Pepper, and wait with joy like the arrival of a new baby. I'd drink that soda like it was liquid gold...

Then one Tuesday we got to the restaurant, and I didn't want a soda. I got lemonade instead. I had finally kicked the habit, and I lost about seven pounds...just because I stopped drinking soda. 

Every now and then I'll have a Virgil's Real Rootbeer. No corn syrup, and all natural ingredients, but I can't tell you the last time I've had a Dr. Pepper. 

I have a new addiction, and it's sweet tea. I seriously think I need to use the method above to break my sweet tea addiction. 

I'll keep you updated...

I Began to Cook at Home

Once I began making good food choices with fast food, I began to have more energy, so I began cooking at home. In the beginning, I would cook about once a week. The first healthy meal I learned to cook was salmon, spinach, and baked sweet potato. Let me tell you, that stuff was good! I hadn't fully evolved yet, so my salmon had maple syrup and soy sauce all over it, the spinach and sweet potato were drowning in butter, but I was making progress.

The more I cooked, the more I enjoyed cooking. The more I enjoyed cooking, the more I realized that all of the ready made, quick prep processed food wasn't much faster than just cooking with real food. I used to eat Hamburger Helper (on those rare occasions when I would cook), and I realized that I still had to cook the meat and I still had to boil the noodles. Instead of adding the processed package, I realized that I could add some tomato sauce with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and oregano, and have a meal that was better for me, that tasted better!

Early on, the prep is what was took me forever! If I wanted a salad, I would peel the cucumber, slice it, then slice the tomato. 10 minutes, at least. I was really slow. Today, I can peel, and slice up a cucumber in about two minutes.

This past Monday I roasted a whole chicken! I didn't have twine so I used dental floss to tie it up, and miraculously, my chicken didn't taste minty! :). I ate some of the chicken for dinner, pulled the rest of it, mixed it with organic mayo and celery, put it in the food processor, and I had the best chicken salad I've ever had! ...and I made it myself! Also, because I used almost an entire chicken, it lasted me the entire week! #savingmoney