"Please Stop..."

Did you every have a day where you actually, literally said....

“Please stop yelling at me, just stop yelling at me; I’m trying to help you.”

I said that statement at least three times today to two different patients. That sums up my day today; not the best one in the world of healthcare. But on a lighter note, one of my co-workers is throwing Joel and I a BBQ to celebrate our engagement and he sent out a very funny invite today; which made me laugh.

The Challenge...

As Joel has stated in his blog; he loves challenges and adventures. Ever so often he likes to bring me along for the ride and needless to say my life has been a little more exciting since being with him. (I supposed marriage is one of the bigger adventures that we go on in our lives!) With that being said, what I will write next probably won’t come as too much of surprise. So the other night (okay, so it was like a month ago) Joel proposed a challenge for the both of us to consider. What does it entail you ask? Well let me tell ya!

The challenge: For the entirety of the summer and fall (possibly winter, but I haven’t agreed fully to that yet) we are not allowed to drive solely to the grocery store. So no “Just a quick run to the grocery store” if I need one item to complete my amazing eight course meal. I either have to use what I have or I have to bike to the grocery store. Also a caveat of the challenge is that the time spent at the grocery store cannot be the main chunk of time in my day (i.e. I can’t go to the grocery store and do all my grocery shopping and then stop quickly at the pharmacy to pick up shampoo). Lastly, we should try and bike AS MUCH AS WE CAN to the store and use the car only for those big stock up shopping trips.
So I bet you’re asking “so what’s allowed?” Well here are some examples, I can stop and do all my grocery shopping on my way home from work because the majority of my day is spent at work and I will just be driving home, no extra car trips necessary! Or we can stop at the store on our way home from church. Of course riding your bike or walking is allowed and also very encouraged!

Now the question becomes, “what’s the purpose or the point?” Well, that’s pretty simple. We should be more intentional in our lives, we need to think more critically about how we spend our time. Preparation is is key, we have to think intentionally and critically about what we need for groceries. For me, that means planning ahead by looking at my fridge/cupboards and writing a grocery list; which reduces those "impulse buys". (Though I've never really had a problem with "impulse buys" due to my mom's steadfast rule of one "fun" item per shopping trip.) Also, it helps save resources as we aren’t using more gas than we need to go to the store. Also it makes us use WHAT we have and not let it sit in our cupboards or fridges, going bad because we got something else. Also, we both live within a mile of multiple grocery stores that will easily fill our bellies. Lastly, the more you bike to the grocery store the less feasible it is to buy ice cream and beer (though I’ll never give those two things up!)

So we’ve been trying this out (being fully committed) for about 3 weeks and I really like it! Last night as we were biking back to my house it was so simple to stop by Trader Joe’s and pick up our ingredients for dinner, and I enjoyed it! If any of you are challenge junkies or even if you’re not (like me!) I would suggest picking up this idea. You’ll be surprised at how easy and fun it can be!