[stop this madness]

Y'all.

I seem to have fallen off that wagon that everyone's always talking about. I keep seeming to do that.

I just feel too...settled. I feel complacent. The newness of the plan has worn off and I'm losing interest. Sure I'm running a lot (after all the 10K is in 10 days). But eating?? Meh.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still eating. But I've gotten lazy and lukewarm about weight loss. So I've started cheating more. I've started rationalizing my way into chips and other "treats." As a result the numbers on the scale are starting to climb steadily upwards. And that is a disturbing trend. But apparently it's not disturbing enough to stop sneaking little snacks. After all I essentially lost my job last week. And school is ramping up for the final push. And I'm just plain bored. I know there are a variety of recipes on my plan but they are all ultimately the same.

That's why I'm going off plan.

No I'm not quitting. Not in the least.

But to bust the boredom that I'm feeling lately I'm trying something different. I may just sample different weight loss menus that I find instead of sticking so tightly to just one plan or another.

This week's menu? I'm using Eating Well's plan, found here.

Image from here

Essentially you use the calculation they provide to figure out how many calories you should be eating per day. Once you chose your calorie target you pick a menu designed to hit that target. They also offer some 28 day meal plans that you could pull from.

Any diet plan that includes Cheerios is totally okay with me. I've loved plain Cheerios since I first learned to eat solid foods. My love for them remains just as strong as it was when I was two years old. I have no idea why I still love them so darn much but I do.

But I digress.

I am concerned about one thing: cost. This will not be a cheap trip to the grocery store. And given that I'm trying to save money I'm not so keen on expensive grocery bills. So what's a girl to do??

I'm considering two options:
1. Buy the ingredients for all 7 days. Prep everything and freeze what I don't eat.
2. Picking 3 or so of my favorite days and doing those this week. I'll repeat one or two of the days and then pick up the rest next week.

Personally I'm leaning toward option number 1. If I'm trying to combat boredom why repeat meals at all??  I have a tendency to not eat frozen leftovers which is my main concern. But since I may be facing a lack of income soon that position will likely change.

Right now I'm considering pulling meal plans from a variety of healthy sources and combining them to make my own meal plan. I'm just not one to chose from a set menu every day for weeks on end. I feel constrained by sticking to the book and only choosing recipes and meals that are found there. It's this whole idea of deprivation in options that's killing me. Honestly, Sass does a good job of giving you options: there are over 100 recipes in the book.

I'm just one of those people that finds forbidden fruit irresistible. Even healthy recipes are technically forbidden fruit right now and it's killing me.

To quote my grandmother: Oy vey.