Sigh.  The Whole30 Food Challenge is finally over.  And by over, I mean thank God.  Bring on the bleached flour, the cookies, insane amounts of chocolate and cheese.  Bring it on all at once.  Right.  Now.  It’s been forever since I’ve checked out a food blog.  It’s going to be glorious.  I may literally go into a food coma just from catching up on some of the food photos that have been posted.  Dear God help me now.

In addition to this food challenge, my husband and I had also decided to attend Dave Ramsey’s, Financial Peace University.  Gluttons for punishment, we are.  Gluttons. For. Punishment.  Why not try to climb Mount Everest while we’re at it?  What were we thinking?   Maybe we were sleep deprived that week or oxygen deprived from working out.

Confession***I did not want to take the class. I thought it was going to be BOOOORING.  Money talks.  Talks about money.  Sounds like a snooze fest.  I was victim of my quick opinion.  Good thing opinions can change.  Dave Ramsey is hilarious.  Hilarious.  Who knew talking about money could be so funny?  And did I mention I actually learned a little something along the way.  Be careful Fidelity employees, I now what I’m doing when I come in to roll over my old 401K.

There was this one thing that annoyed me from the start.  Despite the hilarity, I couldn’t get over his tag line, “If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”  Really, Dave?  That’s all you got?  I mean, couldn’t he come up with a catchier phrase, something not quite so simplistic?

And again, my well laid opinion was soon torn down.  I hate it when that happens.  It’s like admitting I’m wrong.  We started practicing what he preached.  Suddenly the saying made sense.  Simple, but true.  If we live like no one else – within our means, not buy everything we (and by we, I mean I) think we need, actually pay attention to where our money goes, save money, later on we can live like no one else – live on a beach somewhere in latin america.  Can’t wait.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not fun some of the time and it’s rarely easy.  Hello – My name is Rosa and I’m a shopaholic.  Sticking to a budget is not easy.  Not even close.

But hey, if we live responsibly now, we can actually enjoy our hard work later instead of being stressed out.  Stressed out now.  Stressed out later.  Just stressed.

So what’s the point?  What in the world does this have to do with Whole30?  I hate it when life lessons cross over.  If I live like no one else (eat healthy most of the time and exercise), then I can live like no one else (not get winded going up stairs, feel good about my body, feel good about my health, have more energy).  Notice I said, eat healthy most of the time – tonight, I plan on eating my weight in cheese.  That’s right.  GLORIOUS CHEESE.  And I’m going to enjoy every second of it.  Every second until I get heartburn and swear to never do that again.

Seriously though, this whole life lesson business is making me work harder than I ever have before, but surprisingly the harder I work, the more results I see.  Crazy, I know.