$2 a day: day eightteen

Here we go again at THINKmcfly! Interesting things to report today. Everything is going really well still, I’m getting out of the mindset of some of the monotony of the experiment and have a much more optimistic outlook. Don’t get me wrong though, I can wait to get a plate of veggies in me when all this is over!

What I’d like to speak of today is how many comments I’m getting about my weight. I keep running into people and they keep making comments about how I look slimmer and how they’ve noticed a change. It’s only adding to my own feelings which are good as well. I still feel slimmer. In our basketball league I feel like I’m in better shape (which is obviously also due to being as active) but I feel like I have a little more spring and I can jump a bit higher as well.

I made up the brown rice and all went to plan. It made an enourmous bowl, the bowl I had to use is bigger than the bowl I contained the spaghetti in. I think I’m going to stick with that one can of Cream of Mushroom Soup, which is a little thin but it’s working out. The overall taste is semi-bland but a great mix up from the daily routines.

I don’t get it but I am continuously ruining pancakes. I’m not sure if its that its a stainless steel pan and I’m using not enough butter or something, sometimes I even use quite a bit of butter and it’s still turning out the same. The underside isn’t really cooking like I’d like it. It says flip the pancake after the bubbles break which I’m doing and it’s just not working out. I’ll have to try another pan. I have a iron-cast skillet that I need to cure before I use it, and I hear it’s unbelievably better for pancakes.

I feel good and am still going strong. My appetite is still low. The amount of water I’ve consumed is lower but I’m doing alright, trying to make a conscious effort these last few weeks to increase that back to more of what it was at the beginning of the experiment.

I’m still looking into what I want to do next month or after a short break from this. I almost think merely allowing $3 a day would allow much more room for a bit more variety and more fruits/vegetables and I think I’m going to toy with that idea a bit yet. Let me know if anyone has something they’d like me to try!

JUICEmcfly: experiment ending for me, sort of

I regret to inform you that I have pulled my name from this experiment.  Thinking about it over the last four or five days has made me realize what my true goals are, unfortunately this meal plan did not make the cut.  My last few days of the experiment were the toughest, and it was then I knew I could no longer continue.  Last Saturday I worked 11 hours with a one hour break between shifts.  I had time to eat one meal that day, something I won’t continue to do.  I have proven to myself that it is entirely possible to eat on two dollars a day, and Steve is still amazing me with his efforts.  This experiment has made me realize how important it is to eat healthy, and that is what I intend on doing.   I hope no one considers this to be a failed attempt, but rather an opportunity for greater things.

I have toyed around with some “diet” plans, thinking of the best and most efficient ways to lose weight.   What I have in mind, I think, will be extremely effective for me.  I have my food ideas all planned out, as well as a 3-step weight loss process I know will work.  This “diet” will be more flexible than my previous meal plan, and will adapt well with my everyday life.  I won’t go into detail just yet, but I will keep you updated in future blogs.  I will write every few days or so; that way neither you or I get burned out with my blog.

I hope our readers are understanding of my situation, and continue to support Steve and I.  Steve has done an excellent job, and the 1500+ people that have visited our blog have a lot to do with his success.  Thanks to all who have taken time out of their daily lives to support two men on a mission; a mission towards a better life.

JUICEmcfly

$2 a day: week two recap

Week two is now complete and this is day fifteen of the experiment. I still feel really good, and have quite a few things to talk about. This morning I woke up to a phone call from my cousin Mark who lives around 80 miles away, he asked me if I’d meet him for lunch since he was going to be in town so I met him around 11:45 am at Taco Johns. He picked up a super potato ole for me and I took it, but as I stated in the experiment I will go ahead and include this as if I bought it myself. I thought it was very reasonable and I don’t feel bad about it whatsoever but it does mean a few things.

So here’s where I stand from a money standpoint. I have three receipts, one for $42.60, the second for $5.10, and the third for $3.30. The super potato ole came to $4.50 after tax, putting my running total up to $55.50. This does mean I will go slightly over for the experiment from the perspective of allotting myself $60 for the entire month. I plan on buying a minimum of 2 more loaves of bread and 1 dozen eggs. I may buy up to 3 more loaves of bread, the 1 dozen eggs, and have contemplated adding a second can of cream of mushroom soup and/or buying some brown sugar for the oatmeal. Also, I must note that the bread went from $1.32 to $1.38, which is very disappointing. If I made my “minimum” purchase, after tax I’d be looking at $60.24, and if I made my maximum purchase, after tax I’d be looking at about $64.23 (I’m guessing brown sugar is around $1.30). Obviously I woulda been plenty fine without my Taco Johns today, but considering the circumstances I’m okay with the purchase.

Another note about the Taco Johns meal today is I cannot believe how full I was went I was done eating it. I was stuffed. My stomach has really shrunk something fierce, and I’m happy about it. It’ll be interesting how I modify my diet for next month, as I’m sure I’ll make updates about what I plan to do.

Now, more to note about how things are on my end. Overall I’m not always getting in the six meals a day, thats why I’m not sure if I’ll need the 6^th loaf of bread. I’d say for the month I’ll average a solid 5 meals a day. Also, at the end of the experiment I intend to look through everything and plug it in to the spread sheet as far as how much I guess I have left. I’ll note if I have 1/3 of the mayonnaise left, how many oats are left, etc, to get a real feel for about how many calories I consumed each day with my food. From this I will also get a good feel to calculate how much I spent on food and whatnot by way of the unit price.

I weighed in today at 265 flat, which is good. I lost 2.5 pounds in week two, if I keep going at a rate like this I will be very content. That would put me on pace for a lost of 20-21 pounds for the month, something I can be proud about. I think overall my target weight for myself would ideally be in the 230 pound range, and I am coming up with ideas of what I want to continue to do to eventually reach this goal.

I feel like everything is going well and I’m not as disappointed overall in how things are going as much so as I was earlier this week after some wastes of meals/etc. I am opening the second bag of bagels tomorrow which I am stoked for. The only thing to really complain about is how the price of the foods I am purchasing has fluctuated and how I’ve gotten in on most of the worst prices. I would of saved $0.60 on my tuna purchase merely a few days after I bought my groceries, and now the bread raised $0.06 a loaf, which will amount to $0.18 or $0.24, which doesn’t sound like a whole lot but when my target meal price is around the $0.20 range it’s definitely relatively a setback.

I’ll post in the next few days some of my ideas that I am toying with as far as what to do next. Half way done!

Juno

“THE CHEESE TO [THIS YEARS OSCAR'S] MACARONI.”

 

GO SEE IT.

 

I guess I could probably elaborate on that a bit – even though you’re wasting your time with reading this instead of getting tickets and popcorn right now. Juno is an indie film that kind of snuck up on me. I hadn’t heard any news of this film until a good friend of mine said that she wanted to see it. Being a movie buff I tend to fell insecure when someone speaks of a movie that I haven’t even heard of. So, I immediately started researching it and found out that it was supposed to be a possible Oscar (among various other awards) contender. All I have to say is that they couldn’t have been more right.

 

I’m going to go ahead and present a quick synopsis of the film for those of you who haven’t heard of it yet while I think of ways to justly speak about it. Juno is about a sixteen year old girl named, well, Juno MacGruff. One night, out of boredom or curiosity, she decides to try having sex with her friend Paulie Bleeker (played by Superbad/Arrested Development’s Michael Cera). By dumb luck she finds herself pregnant and faced with the decision to have the baby or have an abortion. Juno, being the quirky kid she is, decides to do things her way and give the baby to adopting parents of her choice. She looks through a newspaper and finds the “perfect” parents to give her baby to, Mark and Vanessa (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Everything seems legit until emotions start to fly and people start figuring out each other and themselves.

 

Juno is played by the marvelous Ellen Page – you may have seen her in the movie Hard Candy or as Shadowcat in X-Men 3: The Last Stand. She plays a quirky, misunderstood, supremely sarcastic, intelligent teenager so well that I’m not entirely convinced she was acting at all. Her witty, one-liners come out faster than crap through a goose (which for those of you who haven’t been around geese, they poop frequently) which deserves mad props for her delivery and mad props to the writer, Diablo Cody, for being awesome. Here are a few examples of her dialog: “I’m just gonna go ahead and nip this thing in the butt. ‘Cause you know they say pregnancy often leads to, you know…infants”, “Yeah, if I could just have the thing and give it to you now, I totally would. But I’m guessing it probably looks like a sea monkey right now and we should let it get a little cuter” and “You should’ve gone to China, you know, ’cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.” It’s really great stuff and if you don’t think so I would argue that you are a statue (and not a cool one either).

 

Michael Cera once again plays the kid that is so incredibly awkward that it is hilarious. He is very good at this but I hope he doesn’t get pigeon holed into playing that part in every movie he is in. A good, serious, tear-jerking drama would be cool to see him in next. However, Cera’s character is golden and is the perfect “cheese” to Juno’s “macaroni.”

 

The other supporting actors do tremendous things for the film. J.K. Simmons (you may have seen him in The Ladykillers or Spider-Man 1,2 and 3) and Allison Janney (she was in American Beauty and 10 Things I Hate About You) play Juno’s father and step-mother that both have quite curious relationships with her and themselves. They really add to the depth of the story and even bring out the theme a little more. Their acting is excellent and does absolute wonders for the all around viewing enjoyment.

 

The writing for this movie was absolutely top notch, as I mentioned above. Another thing that makes it awesome is that the writers name is Diablo Cody. How cool is that? She obviously put a lot of thought and a lot of heart into her script and without her talent this movie wouldn’t have flown. It will be hard to find a movie this season that has more intelligent, humorous wit than Juno does. The script is absolutely wonderful in every way and I would argue that it is one of the best in recent history. Not bad for a stripper from Minnesota, eh?

 

I only have a couple of complaints about this movie and they really aren’t even that big of deal. One thing I thought was that the direction of the film wasn’t anything special. It was all pretty standard stuff. But there were few really cool wide-long shots here and there and the very last shot was particularly brilliant. It’s an awesome sequence. Another thing was that I wanted more Paulie Bleeker. He’s in it a fair amount, but Michael Cera is hilarious and he could have added even more comic relief, more character development and maybe even some more drama. My last grievance with Juno is that I just simply wanted more. The movie clocked in at about 90 minutes. It could have easily been two full hours. I’m not entirely sure that it would have been necessary, the movie and story was complete and amazing the way it was, but I’m selfish and didn’t want the movie to end – yeah, I liked it that much.

 

Juno is offbeat, intelligent, hilarious, moving, lighthearted and simply amazing. It is without a doubt one of the best films of 2007 and I will be pulling for it come Oscar time – provided that they actually have the ceremony. It is most definitely a character study film, mostly on Juno herself, but also on everyone around her as well. Don’t let that turn you off though, this film has more laughs and heart than Barq’s has bite! Juno gets five out of five giant, blue slushies from me. Fo shiz.

 

Until next time – Stay young, you’ll live longer.

 

NEXT REVIEW: Mr. Brooks

 

$2 a day: day fourteen

As this experiment moved forward I assumed the amount of posts would slow down to some extent because of the eventual monotony of what we’re doing is going to kick in. Today is day 14 and I weigh in again tomorrow. I’m not real sure how it will turn out, I could see anything from gaining a few pounds to dropping a few pounds, but I don’t foresee much of a sway either way.

I’m still extremely active. Usually on Sundays I play basketball from 4-6:30 pm or so but today I will pass on that. I have quite a bit of reading to catch up on in my philosophy courses and it’s by far the nicest day we’ve had here in the last 15-20. Right now it’s a whopping 41 degrees, feels like 36 says weather.com, but it feels amazing. I have the windows open in my apartment to try and air out the place.

As far as weight and whatnot, I feel good. I keep getting comments from people about how I already look slimmer, I feel slimmer, and from that respect I still feel really good about the experiment. However the monotony of the experiment is beginning to settle in. I really like the egg sandwiches, and I’m not at any time starving. I just would like more variety. I also can say I never thought I’d miss vegetables as much as I do, this diet defintiely lacks the fruits and vegetables.

I’m not down on the experiment, I plan on finishing it out. I imagine I’ll have more to write about in the last 10 days or so as I begin to see how things pan out as far as if I ever run low on foods and whatnot. Everything appears to be going solid though as far as portioning. The hamburger helper I just finished today, lasted me Wednesday through Sunday afternoon for something around 7-8 meals. I usually ate around a bowl and todays portion was a bit small so I made some buttered bread and I’m pretty full. I’ll be experimenting with the rice next.

Hopefully today I’ll get some more pictures up of my hamburger helper and my two latest receipts, and then I can post a running total of what I’ve spent tomorrow as I recap week two.

Days 8,9,10

I want to start by apologizing for my absence, but the last few days haven’t been very interesting.  I ran out of bread on day 7 and have yet to buy more.  This means I haven’t had any sandwiches over the last three days.  I have been eating mostly pancakes, oatmeal, ramen, applesauce, chimichangas, and bologna.  It hasn’t been too rough on me though.  When I weighed in on Monday I weighed 198 lbs – a loss of 5 lbs.  I am not as concerned about the number of lbs. lost, I am more concerned with how I feel; I have been feeling great.  Right now I am cooking up the last of my spaghetti and I can’t wait to eat it.  I will admit, I am starving right now.  I went to work at 11:00 this morning without eating breakfast, I wasn’t even thinking about it.  I had to work until 4:00, so you guessed it, I have yet to eat today!  I am not happy with my decision, but sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it.

Tomorrow I intend on picking up some more groceries although I have a mere $15 to spend.  Two loaves of bread and some bologna are at the top of my list.  Other than that, everything has been going well – better than I could have expected.  I do want to apologize one last time for not posting the last few days, I won’t let it happen again.  Thanks again to all of our readers out there!

JUICEmcfly

$2 a day: day ten

I’m more tired today than normal today. Our city basketball team had a game last night which was overly physical and I’m pretty sore today. The 8 am class is also tough to get up and rock, it’s the earliest class I’ve ever had. Hopefully in the next week or two I can get accustomed to getting up extra early on those class days.

Today has been somewhat lackadaisical and frustrating. I switched back to pancakes instead of bagels, and in my early morning stupor I ended up ruining the pancake. Also, the bag of apples I’ve bought is pretty crappy, almost all of them semi-mushy, and with plenty of bad spots. If only I could get the money back to get a different bag or use on something else. They are truely sub par.

Last night I had a big meal of hamburger helper. When I’m done with this experiment I may try making a batch of it without any extra pasta to see the taste difference, but I can still taste the seasonings, although I wish the flavor was stronger, it’s still noticeable in the mix and tastes good. The hamburger helper won’t last near as long as the spaghetti but I should get a handful of meals out of it, I’d estimate around 6 or so at this point, so we’ll see how it pans out.

I’m now a third of the way through the experiment and there are a few things I can’t believe. My friends would never of guessed I could go a month without a soda, which I think I’ll do but maybe I’ll drop a quarter on a can at Wal-Mart some night. I can’t believe how relatively easy it was to switch to this kind of eating style. I figured it’d be way tougher, but once I said I was going to do it and had a plan written out it fell in to place quite nicely. It makes me wonder how many calories my body really needs a day, because I was surely giving it more than that previously.

I appreciate the feedback I’ve gotten for the oatmeal and I hope to resolve that problem shortly and come up with a much more tastey way to eat the dish. We appreciate those of you who continue to read and those who leave us feedback.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

 

“GOD, THAT’S GOOD!”

If there is one movie from 2007 that should not be missed, I would venture to say that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is it. This marks the sixth film that director Tim Burton has made with actor Johnny Depp (others include Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and Corpse Bride) and they are both at the top of their game. The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen (you know, the guy that played Borat) who also light up the screen in this adaptation of the Broadway hit.

 

Sweeney Todd is an exceptionally dark, comedic, dramatic musical (musical…I know, right?) set in London back in the day. Depp plays Sweeney Todd, a disgruntled, bitter barber who has been wrongfully imprisoned by Judge Turpin (played by Alan Rickman). After Todd is released from prison, he returns to London to find that his wife has committed suicide and his daughter is being held in seclusion by the very man who imprisoned him. He vows revenge and teams up with Helena Bonham Carter’s character, Mrs. Lovett – the owner of a meat pie restaurant that is known for the “worst pies in London”, to create a sinister, diabolic plan to carry out his vengeance.

 

I first heard of the musical Sweeney Todd in the vastly underrated Kevin Smith film Jersey Girl. Ben Affleck’s character’s daughter performs a scene from the play at her elementary talent show. The scene she happens to pick is one where Sweeney Todd starts slitting throats with his razor and the customers in the restaurant downstairs are singing a song with the line “God, that’s good.” I’m not entirely sure why many people didn’t enjoy that film.

 

This last summer I heard that Sweeney Todd was in production and being helmed by Tim Burton and starring Johhny Depp. I immediately got excited and couldn’t wait for December to roll around. I am a big fan of both of those guys and an even bigger fan of them working together. The wait was definitely worth it. Sweeney Todd is truly a movie like I’ve never seen before.

 

Tim Burton did superb work with every aspect of this film. From the lighting to the set to the camera angles, everything is extraordinary. While watching this film, it felt like I was watching the theatrical musical with a few extra shots that are like treats that you wouldn’t get out of the stage performance. Whoever the lighting director was – perhaps it was Burton himself, his movies have similar looks to them – deserves some form of award for the work done in Sweeney Todd. Everything was dark and gloomy but still bright and visible at the same time. The shadows that are cast on Depp’s face are menacing and evil and makes Depp’s character even more incredible. The set to the film is very theatrical as well, but at the same time has a sense of realness to it. It jumps out and really adds to the experience as a whole. Even the properties manager and special effects crew did amazing work.. Everything is sharp and macabre and the gore level isn’t over the top, but it’s definitely there. It’s not for the squeamish. However, the amount of blood that flies through the air is genuinely comical. What I’m getting at here is that Burton and his team did tremendous amount of pre-production work and took immaculate care of a superb script. Ergo, creating a force powerful, entertaining film that should be a force to be reckoned with when the Oscar’s come around.

 

There is one thing I did not like about the film but it doesn’t have to do with any of the production or acting or the film as a whole. It’s simply that in this version of Sweeney Todd, the “God, that’s good” song from Jersey Girl was edited from the final cut of this film. That is my only disappointment. Everything else about the film is absolutely phenomenal and the final shot is grotesquely, morbidly romantic.

 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street totally gets my thumbs up, my five stars, my five buckets of popcorn or what have yous. If it is still in a theater near you, go see it. It’s a definite masterpiece and one of the best films of 2007.

 

Until next time – Stay young, you’ll live longer.

NEXT REVIEW: Juno

$2 a day: day nine

Tonight I’m going to cook up my batch of hamburger helper. I’m pretty stoked about it because I really like hamburger helper, and I’m excited to see how the taste is. I prepare the dish a bit differently though. For one, being a college student and now that I’m doing this experiment I’m not going to use milk, which the recipe calls for. This is nothing new for me though, I’ve never used milk in my hamburger helper since I’ve lived on my own, and I’ve never noticed a huge difference. I also intend to add an entire extra box of pasta shells to the mix. My one gripe with the boxed hamburger helper is how crappy the ratio of meat to pasta is usually. I used to just add a little bit of extra pasta but almost everytime I’ve made it over the last 4-5 times I’ve added more and more, so tonight I’ll add an entire box (1 lb).

The one thing I usually do the hamburger helper though is I add extra seasonings since the batch is bigger and I’m adding more noodles (and more water to boil these noodles). Tonight I won’t be doing that so it should be interesting to see how the taste is. Also, I think people know but I’m using turkey, not hamburger.

The more I looked into the facts of turkey versus hamburger I’m not sure why we all eat hamburger? Turkey is cheaper, has less fat, and more protein. I’ve never noticed a taste difference in dishes I cook with turkey versus cooking the same dishes with hamburger, but somehow I would think a turkey burger wouldn’t be as good as a hamburger. For the things I make though turkey is perfect because of its cost and how I’m using it.

Tomorrow I’ll have some pictures of the dish, and I’ll be excited to see how much it makes, it’s been a while since I’ve made it and I’m eating smaller portions as my stomach continues to shrink so I’m curious how many meals it’ll last.

$2 a day: week one recap

Well, week one is over now and let’s recap where I’m at. Last weekend I spent $42.60 on my first trip to Wal-Mart, and $5.10 on a return trip, totaling $47.70 so far on food. I weighed 280 pounds, about the most I’ve weighed ever, and my diet consisted of eating out (fast food or restaurants) anywhere from 3-5 times a week. I would have quite a fair amount of soda (anywhere from 2-7 cans a day), and I was semi-active, lifting a few times a week usually (3-4) and playing basketball usually twice a week.

What’s changed? The semester started and I’m back in classes and our city basketball league began in which I’m a player and a referee. I went from being semi-active to very active. I play basketball at least 3 times a week, referee basketball 1 night a week (usually 3 games of running up and down the sidelines), and lift weights 3-4 times a week. I’ve dropped caffeine completely from my diet, and taken my average sugar intake from many cans of soda a day to none, and where the food I’m eating is giving me an average of a little more than 1 can of Mountain Dew’s worth of sugar a day. I’ve gone from drinking little to no water on a regular basis to taking in almost a gallon a day (and this probably isn’t enough).

Since structuring our meal plan like we have and becoming more active, I’ve dropped 12.5 pounds in week one, weighing in this morning at 267.5 pounds. Now, this sounds like a lot of weight to drop in one week, but we can presume a lot of this is water weight. Other factors that led to weight loss that I had already predicted are the fact that I’m keeping my metabolism rolling. By eating smaller portions every 2-3 hours my body is constantly at work. Another factor, eating the foods that I’m eating is dropping weight. I’d estimate I’ve dropped my calorie intake from 2800-3400 calories a day (and think about every time you go out to eat you can almost guarantee 1000 calories) to 1600-2200 a day. I’ve cut out sugar in any kind of mass quantity. I’ve heard people say that merely one soda a day can lead to 5-10 extra pounds at the end of the year, something I was surpassing by quite a bit.

Now, remember, the goal of this experiment was and still is merely to feed myself on $2 a day without the help of other people. This is a goal I’m succeeding at. Am I getting sick of the food yet? Yes and no, nothing is anywhere near the point to where I can’t stand it. I still love the egg sandwiches, and like I’ve blogged about previously I am not a big fan of oatmeal. I need to think of another way to prepare it for it to be enjoyable for me personally. The most efficient meal and a meal that I think I’ll never get sick of is having the cinnamon raisin swirl bagel for breakfast. It feels like the perfect serving size, tastes amazing, and does a superior job at filling me up.

What are the highlights of the experiment so far? The way I feel. I already feel better. Eating less, working out, and staying active has led to weight loss and Friday night when I went home to the basketball game I already had a comment on how I already look slimmer (from someone who doesn’t even know what I’m doing as far as this experiment). Everything about this from a mental standpoint feels good so far and I’m liking it.

What am I not a big fan of in the experiment so far? I’m not a fan that the price of tuna went down merely a day or two after we purchased it. Earlier this week at Wal-Mart tuna went from the price we paid, $0.56 a can, down to $0.50 a can. This would’ve saved me $0.60 and Jesse $0.90, which is quite the amount for the money we’re spending. I’m not a fan of the oatmeal like I’ve stated, and how fast the bananas go bad for the way I wanted to use them (1/2 banana a day per bowl of oatmeal). There also has been a desire to go snag a meal from Taco Johns because I love it so much, but obviously I’ve resisted so far, and don’t plan on caving. It’s things like tomorrow though, my friend’s 21st birthday, that I wish I could take someone out to eat and actually eat as well, I do enjoy that freedom. It’s not going to kill me but I would like to be able to eat out from time to time for a good reason.

Finally, I must reiterate that this is not a crash diet or any type of massive calorie cut. We are still intaking a solid amount of calories (1600-2200 per day is my guesstimate right now), carbs, fat, and protein on a daily basis. I’m not a doctor, but I’m fairly certain that even if this was performed long term we would be no where near malnourished. Also, I am showing no signs of malnourishment either (I’ve made sure to look up symptoms). The worst thing about our diet from a health standpoint appears to be the minimal amount of fruits and vegetables, which I’d gander to say a majority of people don’t get enough of either.

Please, if you have any comments or suggestions let us know, we like to keep this thing as much an open-source project as we can.