I mentioned in my last October post that this whole month of November I would be acknowledging all the amazing people I’ve been lucky enough to get to know during my Starbucks challenge year in a “THANKSgiving” post. So this first November post I would like to showcase a lady that started my year off with LOTS of great tips for not only losing weight on Starbucks but who is an inspiration to many, Christine Hall!
First off, a little housekeeping…
My total spent for October was $544.45 which is still keeping in my $500 – $600 range. I was asked by Dylan M Austin this week if I try to budget my month, the answer is yes and no. I always seem to have “life events” that continue to bring my averages up, first of all the amount of times I purchase items for my boys… but this month I wasn’t expecting my oldest to break his ankle, so I also wasn’t expecting to be buying extra frappuccino’s to help sooth this transition, but it happens and I’m more than happy to accommodate a simple gift here and there for his happiness. So budgets don’t always get followed obviously but even with that said, my month’s averages continue to keep working out to be around the same amounts?!
I did get a very welcome addition to my menu choices on Friday at my visit to SSC (corporate) with the knowledge of Sodo Kitchen, a restaurant open to the public and owned by Starbucks! Did you know that you can actually make a day tourist trip out of visiting SSC? I mean between the Sodo Kitchen for lunch (on the 3rd floor), and the retail store which usually always has great hard-to-find anywhere else Starbucks items (up on the 8th floor) you can literally hang out at SSC for the afternoon and have a lovely time!
It only took me 10 months to find this new eating option for my challenge but what a wonderful addition indeed! Especially when I can now get items like leg of lamb…
Or how about some SUSHI from Starbucks?!!!! OMGG did I miss this food option! I picked up a couple of packs to go and enjoyed the rest of my weekend….
Of course, lots of other great things are always happening in this challenge, like my latest “Holiday drink” tastings suggested by Starbucks partners on Twitter. So watch my other social media feeds to participate in those engagements… but let’s get into the THANKSgiving post!
Early this year, when my challenge broke Internationally, one of the first Starbucks “insiders” I met online was Christine Hall. Christine’s connection to Starbucks was through what most people heard in the media as “The Starbucks Diet“… which I quickly came to find out was only one little piece of what Christine did and WHO this amazing woman is in the world!
When I first spoke to Christine, I wanted to understand what she knew about loosing weight through eating Starbucks foods/drinks because I needed to shed a couple of mommy pounds and I wanted to focus an entire month to her process. But when I spoke with Christine she quickly told me about how the Starbucks diet was the tool she used for a much greater gift she was planning to give… The gift of LIFE! See Christine wanted to donate a kidney along with the world’s record of largest kidney donators, 32 people! And THAT was why Christine started eating Starbucks all the time, she had to loose weight to be able to donate and Starbucks offered her the convienence, diversity of eating options and most importantly the nutritional count she needed to make it work for her diet goals.
This act of eating Starbucks so that she could loose the weight she needed to save another persons life, that was how I started this year and met Christine… but her story doesn’t stop there! Christine also just celebrated her 37th year as a cancer survivor and she has been active in helping comfort Newtown community members.
For everything Christine has done to help others, for her great advice on how to loose weight eating/drinking Starbucks, I am grateful for her this year and I hope to keep in touch as my challenge years continue. Thanks Christine for all you do, there are many people out there in the world that are truly touched by your presence!