Ta-Da! How I Failed The SNAP Diet Challenge

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That didn’t take me long. I was at it for a WHOLE 5 DAYS!

My husband was right, again. I hate it when he’s right.

To celebrate my failure, I’m treating my wounded ego to some leftover Halloween candy (mini gummi bears and fun-sized Snickers to be precise!)

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What I Did Accomplish:

• STAYED UNDER $30 – My total was $28.98 (groceries are tax-free, woo!) and I have enough food to last me for the remainder of the week. Sitting in my fridge currently is some chicken thighs, half a can of tomato paste, half an onion, half a bowl of green beans + carrots, lots of lentils and 7 imaginary eggs.
• STICKING TO ONE STORE – Overpriced but I made my bed, I had to sleep in it. *Grumbles about paying $2 for black pepper when Dollar Tree had it for $1…*
• LOST WEIGHT – My weight started at a high of 107.8. As of the 5th day, I’m currently 101.6 lbs. Yikes, more on that later.
• DID IT WHILE SICK – Yes, I still have that cold I mentioned last week. This is the longest I’ve ever held a cold.

Grocer’s List:

(First trip alone~)

Grapefruit – free leftover from Airbnb guest – (I ate 1/3 and tossed it. Grapefruits are gross.)

Hunt’s Tomato Paste – $0.99

Morton’s Salt – $0.59

Club House Pepper – $1.98 (robbery!)

12 AA Eggs – $1.39

Signature Kitchen Frozen Lasagna – $5.99

7 lbs of Chicken Thighs – $4.68 (actually a great deal!)

Yams/Sweet Potatoes – $2.99 for 1.33 lbs

1 Carrot – $0.79

Bananas – $0.87 for 1.47 lbs

1 lb Green Beans – $2.49/lb

Yellow Onion – $0.74 for 1.07 lbs (robbery!)

(I went to buy lentils and oil over the weekend. Second trip~)

Red Lentils (1 lb) – $3.49 (robbery…my Ethiopian grocer sells $3.29 for 3 lbs.)

Veg Oil (depressing…couldn’t afford olive oil and out of stock anyways…) – $1.99

Combined Total = $28.98

If groceries had taxes, I would definitely be over. Phew. I stuck it to one store (Albertson’s) and it was pricey in everything except the meat section. I couldn’t force myself to buy soy sauce at Albertson’s. The soy sauce at the Asian grocers are cheaper than the American grocer and I couldn’t swallow the price difference. Cheep cheep! 🙂

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What I Ate:

November 1st

Breakfast: grapefruit + half a yam

Lunch/Dinner: half a yam and frozen lasagna at 4 PM.

November 2nd

Breakfast: banana

Lunch: half a yam + chicken thigh

Dinner: half a yam + 2 chicken thighs + egg

November 3rd

Breakfast: 2 bananas

Lunch: leftover dinner + half a yam

Dinner: frozen lasagna + green beans with carrots

November 4th

Breakfast: last banana

Lunch: lasagna + green beans

Dinner: last lasagna + chicken thigh

November 5th

Breakfast: half a yam + lasagna

Skipped lunch (out of sinus and tooth misery)

Dinner: chicken thigh + red lentils + last yam

November 6th

Breakfast: banana + leftover lentil

Skipped (tension in the kitchen between the old man)

3 egg omelette + candy

What I Have Left:

5 pieces of chicken thighs

Half a can of tomato paste

Lots of lentils

Half a onion

Half a bowl of green beans and carrots

7 Eggs

7 imaginary eggs – I was supposed to have 7 eggs left but my dad used them and there were only 4 eggs (including his eggs purchased before) in the fridge. He also used up some of the green beans and carrot I bought for his stir-fry. GRRRRRRRR.

I told him to not touch my things anymore but it’s hard for him to…listen? The story of my life. I mentioned in last week’s post, he just simply doesn’t understand it. Annnnd as usual, if he doesn’t understand something, I’m automatically “stupid” and he does whatever he wants. It’s this type of personable style I’ve come to terms with.

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Weight Loss

Does “lose 6% of body weight in 5 days” sound like an overzealous weight loss commercial? Yeahhh, I don’t think that’s healthy either.

That is a crash diet, I’m not losing just fat, I’m losing the good stuff. I was thinking I would lose 1 pound a week or maybe even 2 pounds but over 6 lbs? No, I didn’t feel hunger or dizziness, really. I did not go hungry. I did hate salt and pepper chicken with steamed yams for days though. This girl ate until she felt full and stopped.

Crash dieting is a miserable experience. It’s also pointless. You’re suffering a lot, getting nowhere, and probably setting yourself up for failure (and even more serious problems). Skip the crash diets.

By the night of the 5th day, I quit. I quit in a fury by eating 3 fun-sized Snickers, 1 pack of M&Ms and plotted this post in my head on my way to the fridge for some cream cheese artichoke dip!!! I have no point to prove here.

Findings:

1) It’s misery. Yes…you can live on $30 a week and not die – but it will stink and you WILL lose weight. Especially in the beginning when you are limited in the basics.

2) Dropping weight this quickly is not good – I’ll keep to eating healthy and dropping to 100 lbs but the real and healthy way!

3) Busy families reach for quicker food even though they tends to be more expensive.

I think those were obvious from the start so what was I even doing this SNAP diet for?

It was not fun living on $30 a week. It is enough food for you to feed yourself but it’s not going to be considered a good meal in terms of taste if you’re setting up. The first thing I reached for after a tired long day was frozen lasagna. I ate bananas and yams first because they were easy to prep and grab. On the 2nd day, I remember thanking my brain for being smart enough to purchase some frozen lasagna in case I came home late because of a bad day. And guess what? The second day was a BAD day and I was so happy for easy to warm up lasagna.

Simulating busy, tired, overworked people like my parents…things like white rice and the repetitive staples is probably how my mom (she did the cooking after work) made it work for the family. On my tired day, I just threw something in the oven (or realistically, picked up a bucket of KFC chicken) – my mom didn’t have the budget for that option. Man…

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Why I Failed:

The glaring issue of why I failed can easily pinpoint the following…

• BAD SELF CONTROL – I ate 4 pieces of leftover Halloween candy yesterday and quit. (P.S. I told myself I will just deduct $1 from the $30 budget so technically, I should be at least at $29.98.)
• RAPID WEIGHT LOSS – I lost 6% of my body weight in 5 days and went into crash diet mode…which was not my intent at all.
• INTERFERENCE – Dad took carrots and yams out of my cart in the store, put them back thinking I wouldn’t notice. The old man doesn’t know what I’m trying to do (ie. buy bananas even though we have bananas at home.) I explained to him it’s “for work” but he doesn’t understand me/accept that. He used my groceries I told him not to touch. I will likely lose my mind if this continued.
• APATHY – If you needed a prescription for apathy, it’s going to be trying to live on $30 a week with a yucky cold, snowing, without a car, dealing with two bad Airbnb guests back to back and then coming home to over-salted, over-cooked chicken.
• MULTIPLE TRIPS – I imposed just 1 grocery trip per week to cover what I needed but couldn’t live without oil so I went to the store again.

Remember the house warming party I mentioned in my 9 frugal wins & 3 frugal fails last week? There were some cough-y kids at that table with me, dad and hubby. They must have carried something, all 3 of us have the same pesky cold now with the same time of onset and same exact symptoms. Darn kids! My sinus infection is currently shooting pain down to my tooth. Ugh, misery. I’ll cut this post short and go to bed.

We’ll do this again someday, I think right around the corner of the week after never ever ever!!! Even without being sick, the old man and better planning – I wouldn’t do it unless you promised me princess cake at the end of EACH day.

For an awesome SNAP Challenge (done like a pro!) check out Doubling Dollars! Seriously, it’s harder than it looks! 🙂 Mr. DD lost weight too so it’s norms in this challenge, but I don’t recommend this “diet.”