21 day FOOD CHALLENGE

I heard, somewhere, that in order to break a habit, you have to change the pattern of the habit 21 times consecutively. Has anyone else heard this? The other day, I was thinking about saving money and bad habits that we have and about living within your means and cutting the things that we don't need in life. Thus, one of the main things that our family has cut down on is eating out. BUT, we still eat out on the weekends. We have been really good about not eating out during the week but once the weekend rolls around, we run right out to Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili's, Noodles, etc.

Eating out is not something that we NEED to do, it's something that we WANT to do. It's also something that costs us more money than if we ate at home. We always tend to over-indulge and eat more calories than if we ate at home. It's also a REALLY BAD HABIT. Therefore, on Monday, our family started a 21 day food challenge to break this bad habit. We are challenging ourselves to not eat out AT ALL for 21 straight days. This includes our bad habit weekends. The rules are, we can not eat anything that comes from any restaurant or restaurant like store.

Now, one of the reasons we eat out on the weekends is because we use it as a social tool. The 2 main reasons we eat out on the weekends are; to hang out with friends or because we're bored (I'll admit reason #2 and then reiterate that this is the worst reason to eat out but it's true). Because we use it as a social tool, we've decided we can GO to restaurants with friends but we just can't eat there. (I know, you're thinking "good luck with that!")

But, that's exactly my point. It wouldn't be a "Challenge" if it wasn't somewhat difficult.

Today is day 3 of our 21 day challenge and I would like to extend the challenge to everyone reading this post. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain; less calories consumed, weight lost, money saved, a habit broken ... Could you do it? I dare you. ;)

Dr. Seuss Art

My best girl friend from graduate school is going to have a baby in 10 weeks and for her baby shower I wanted to do something special for her so, I found out what her and her husbands favorite books were when they were kids and one of them was "Green Eggs & Ham" ... Sam I am ...

This picture was a little more challenging than the last one I did. Painting is not only relaxing for me but it's therapeutic. If anyone ever wants me to paint them something, you'd be doing me a favor. :) Just let me know, I'd be happy to do it.

10 years of Lady Du-Lax

Last weekend, I went up to Duluth for a Lacrosse Alumni banquet and I thought I'd share the highlights.

Before we left, I was SO excited because these banquets are Bi-Annual (every other year) and the last time I went, Abby was about 4 months old so last time I played in the game, pulled a muscle and went straight to bed after the banquet and missed all the fun. But, mind you, that was the only time I was actually getting any sleep at that point so I was greatful to get a full night sleep then. NOW, Abby is 2 and I was SO PUMPED to see all the girls that I spent so many games, bus trips, sweat, blood and tears with.

We left for Duluth Friday evening and we stayed in Park point. For those of you not familiar with Duluth, Park Point is literally on the other side of the lift bridge. So we could hear the lift bridge horn and see the huge boats pulling into the harbor. (Amazing, I forget how much I really miss the lake until I see it again coming down from the top of the hill on interstate 35). When we got settled in, we met with some other people and were up/awake until 3 a.m. (I can't remember the last time I was awake for that long.)

The next morning, we had our Alumni Game and I'm going to toot my own horn, we won our game 5-4 and I scored 2 goals. (yep, I still got it. :)) I'm not as fast as I used to be but I can still keep up with those young-in's.

We then had the Banquet that evening and it was a great time to reminisce with all the girls I haven't seen in the last few years. The ABSOLUTE BEST part was seeing the core group of girls that I really bonded with. (Again, we were up till 3 a.m. oye).

Jen, my best Girlfriend from WI! I miss her so much when she's not here.

Crazy Girls in a clown car. (Left to right: Meghan, Julie, Ashlee)

At the Banquet, aren't we pur-dy, we polish up nicely. (Ashlee, Tessa, Julie, Meghan, Jen, Lisa)

The Whole Crew, Old balls and New Balls. (And a random girl taking the picture.)

This is a Tribute ... to the best team in the world.

Goodbye Duluth and Lake Superior, until next time.