Cooooooooffee I’m Hooooome! & a Starbucks Giveaway

All things EJP

It is officially October first. The first day of the best month of the year! My birthday month. And the day I can drink coffee again. Me, dramatic? Psh no. If you’ve been following along with my 7 adventures, you know that today is the start of the clothes month. And yes, I am just wearing 7 dresses for the month, but that’s another blog post coming soon. What this really means is I CAN DRINK COFFEE AGAIN!!!! Yes, I am extremely excited. I plan on walking up to Starbucks shortly to order and consequently savor my grande nonfat latte. Here’s a rundown of how September went with my food goals.

1. Cutting coffee. Folks, I did it. I didn’t cheat once, even though I really want to almost every day. It was a TERRIBLE idea to start this in the middle of a double header wedding weekend, but somehow I chugged enough black tea and survived.

2. Eliminating alcohol (except the occasional glass of red wine). I didn’t ever go to the bar and order a gin and tonic. Buuuut I serve drinks with my meetings and viewings and if there’s champagne open….I’m such a sucker! I definitely wasn’t perfect here, but it was a good challenge and I still feel good about it.

3. Cutting coke/soda/pop. So my goal for this month is to drink 99% water and tea. Bam. Success. Honestly I thought this one would be easier….but since I had cut out coffee (including ICED coffee) I really wanted a diet coke in the afternoon for caffeine. Anyway, I didn’t cheat here either, and I think I’m permanently done with coke.

4. Eliminating anything with high fructose corn syrup. Yep! Done.

5. Not buying anything at the grocer with more than 7 ingredients. :-( well….this one was hard. A lot harder than I thought it was going to be (should have researched more). It definitely made me read every single label before buying things (which I try to do anyway, but I guess some of my regular purchases had missed out on prior scrutinization). When I needed to buy something and only had options with 8 or more ingredients I would either make it fresh or pick the option with the least ingredients. Progress in the right direction. Also, I wish Whole Foods was closer to my house…this would be a whole lot easier there.

I really wanted to add a couple healthy habits too!

So 6. is making my own bread. Yes yes yes! And it was so delicious! I’ve been making at least one loaf a week and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Here’s a yummy recipe for Apple Chunk Bread if you’re interested.

7. is to not let food in our house go bad for this month. I am not good at this. But I did WAY better than normal and actually ate all leftovers and tried to use everything before it went bad. Consequently I bought less at the grocery…which probably isn’t a bad thing. This is definitely something I plan to keep trying at :-)

Whew! Quick reflections, I wish I would have made one of my goals to drink more water. I’m happy I didn’t cheat with coffee or coke, but I really wish I had done better with the drinks and not letting stuff go bad. The good news is that this adventure isn’t about being perfect, it’s about eliminating excess and living with less.

To celebrate my drinking coffee again today!!!! I’m giving away a $25 Starbucks card to one lucky commenter. Tell me your drink of choice below, and I’ll announce the winner at the end of the week!