Six weeks in I added a column to my budget sheet called protein-per-dollar, mostly to prove the pricey stuff wasn't worth it. I was wrong in a boring way. Store-brand cottage cheese and a bag of frozen thighs beat everything else, and my weekly grocery total slid from about $190 to $132 without me really trying.
The bigger change is Saturday. I used to burn 90 minutes building five identical containers of sad chicken and rice. Now it's 25 minutes: two sheet pans, one pot of lentils, and I portion by weight instead of by vibe. My log shows 140g+ protein on 6 of 7 days this month, versus 3 of 7 back in January.
Contrarian take: the prepping isn't the win. The win was admitting I don't want to eat Wednesday's dinner on Wednesday. Anyone else tracking something that quietly outperformed the scale?