A Sign It's Good Day

I had a Jerry Maguire moment today. No, not the "SHOW ME THE MONEY" moment you all are thinking of, but a different one. The clip below should explain it pretty good.



Don't you just hate when that happens? When you're so excited you want to shout it to the world but the next best thing is singing at the top of your lungs. So instead, you have to hunt down an awesome song to sing to and it's then and there that every radio station seems to be collectively running their "sh*tty song of the hour" promotion. One of my favorite songs to sing to? 500 miles, by The Proclaimers. I love the "Da Da Da Da (Da Da Da Da) Da Da Da Da (Da Da Da Da)  Da Undela Undela Undela la la la" part. And I'm sure that looks wierd but if you know the song you'll get it. And because I also love HIMYM I'll help you out:

And why was I so happy? I have no idea. I was on my way home from the gym, had gotten in a pretty impressive workout, and it smelled like fall outside. Also, I've been working a lot on my new travel/food blog and it's finally starting to come around. Plus I've also heard back from a few writing offers too, so I guess I take that back. I do know what I was having a Jerry Maguire moment:

Because I was having an effin' good day, that's why.

             

New Page: Weight Loss Community

In this post, I explained that I am currently trying to lose 20 lbs within 62 days. Recently, I've gotten so many comments and emails about people who want to join in along with me, that I've decided to do just that; make a way for people to join in!

So I'm making a new page for all of us! I'll update it daily as I update my own progress. Just email me or comment with your name (or code name), height/weight, goals, and progress, and I'll add you to the display!

Oh and if I don't hear from you after a while? I'll email you to check in, and see how everything is going. Hopefully it'll help to keep everyone on track. Actually, let me know if you want to have your email displayed I'll even leave a spot available for it. Think of it as your own little healthy community. We'll be each other's fan base and support system!

I'll make the page as soon as I get a few more emails to get everything set up. Let's see how this goes!

 

Great News!

Well everyone, I have great news: I got a job!

I've officially been hired as a School Based Drug Counselor for 2 high schools in my area. I'm ecstatic, of course; I get to work directly with kids who may be at a crossroads in their life, so hopefully I will be able to make a difference. Even if that light at the end of the tunnel is still light years away, I may now be able to at least feel some of it's warmth on my face.

This does, however, present a bit of a problem for my blog. I hold myself out to be a college student living far below the poverty line (which I still am) but this job brings me a little closer to the actual poverty line. Not wanting to mislead my followers, I've been contemplating the theme of my blog. I presented the question to my boyfriend the other night:

Me: What do you think I should write about? I am still budgeting, and I am still in college, but...

Boyfriend: Well write about whatever you want to write about.

Me: I have to have a theme, don't I?

Boyfriend: Seinfeld didn't have a theme.

Me: Touche.

My boyfriend makes a excellent point (he usually does), and coupled with the fact that I live in this lovely little town known as "Reality" (perhaps you've visited?), one very important lesson of life comes to mind: Time is an illusion. Do what you love now, because later may never be. With that in mind, I like knowing what I'm getting when I visit my favorite blogs. I like knowing I can count on some for a laugh and a pick me up, and on others for fashion advice. My own passion, however, lies with nutrition and travel.

A favorite hobby of mine is remaking comfort foods in nutritious ways. I usually figure if my beer drinking/mac 'n' cheese loving baseball coach of a boyfriend approves, I'm probably good to go. In our house, I am a legend. Garlic mashed potatoes? Chili? Lasagna? Bring it on. I like to think I'm a regular ol' Iron Chef of nutrition.

Also, in my mind, I've traveled the world countless times. Plus I own a car, so...according to that bulletproof logic, I consider myself fully qualified to write about travel.

So shall I combine the two?

I think I just might. But, regardless of what I end up writing about, I hope my love of sarcasm and awkwardness will still show through. Quick question though, when you visit my blog, what are you hoping to find?

   

Fruits and Veggies on a Budget

Today is one of those days.

With my ice cream truck in the shop, and the hospital being temporarily overstaffed, both of my jobs have come to a standstill. Problem is, of course, my expenses have not. 

With the new session of summer school starting on Monday (and 2 new classes starting with it), I am forced to buy two new textbooks. Granted I'm getting both of them at fantastic deals; one is $75 instead of the advertised $250 in the bookstore (friend is selling it to me), and the other is $74 instead of $150 (online ebook that a classmate and I are sharing), but the fact remains that an additional $149 is still being tacked onto my other bills, when my income is not allowing for it. Therefore, it is time to stretch the budget even further.

So of course, I immediately went to what seems to be my biggest drain of money in our household: groceries. And more specifically, fresh produce. With the cost of a single red pepper at $2.49, and an abyssmal selection of coupons in the produce department, I was beginning to feel slightly depressed over how my diet may have to take a hit for the sake of textbooks. Has it finally come down to this?

Me, as the President, with my finger on the proverbial nuclear red button: "There's no other way. We've tried negotiating. It seems I have no choice but to trade my health for an education." 

Vice President: "Don't do it! There's got to be another way! Maybe we could start at garden?"

Marlee the President: "We've already discussed that, VP, or have you already forgotten? We have no yard and no time. No time! 

Secretary of Defense: "We could rob a fruit stand!"

President: Get a hold of yourself, Secretary of Defense! There will be no robbing of lowely fruit stands, not while I'm in office. I have to do what needs to be done.

House Designated Cleaning Lady: "If I could say something..." 

Thank god for the cleaning lady, as it seems that because of her, I have stumbled onto a nutritional/budget conscious goldmine.

If anyone has noticed, on the righthand side of my blog, under the heading "Links I Love" is a link titled, "Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op". It's available in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. If you live in one of these states, I highly recommend checking it out. It's incredible. 

Basically, you pay $15 for a laundry-basket-sized basketfull of fruits and vegetables. For anyone who frequents the local produce section of their supermarket, $15 for this much produce is a steal. Okay it's more than just a steal, it's ridiculous. You pay $15 on Monday, via the website, then go Saturday morning (at one of the sites) to pick up your goods. What did I get today? For $15 I paid on Monday?

A head of romaine lettuce, a head of spinach, 4 artichokes, 6 onions, 6 apples, 3 pears, 4 tomatoes, 6 peaches, 3 red bell peppers, 3 yellow bell peppers, 3 ears of corn, 1 watermelon, 1 cantelope, 6 bananas, a bag of about 20 small peppers, and 4 packages of strawberries.

You don't get to choose what's in your basket, instead they fill it with whatever is in season. Personally, I like not knowing; it's the Christmas morning of grocery shopping. You get what you get. If you're one of those people who only wants certain items in the basket, a wise thing to do is split a basket with someone, or even have them buy their own and then swap out what you don't use. Have a friend who loves peppers but hates onions? Offer a trade. This is the first time I did it, and I traded strawberries (since I already have them in frozen form) for additional artichokes (since I almost never get to have them).  My fridge and pantry is packed with fresh fruit and veggies. All for $15.

I'd say that's a pretty good stretch.

   

Grocery Shopping For Weight Loss

Girl 1: I ran 3 miles today.
Girl 2: Good for you! I walked 2!
Girl 1: That's awesome! What are you gonna have for dinner?
Girl 2: Frozen Lasagna. It's organic.
Girl 1: Mmmm. Me too! I can't wait for summer, we're gonna be so skinny!

Yeah, sorry to say girls, it doesn't exactly work that way.

If you ask me, I'd say healthy eating starts at the grocery store. If you don't have crap food in the house, you can't eat it. Problem is knowing what exaclty is crap food, and how to avoid it ever making it into your pantry in the first place. Now keep in mind, just like any other skill, smart grocery shopping habits are going to take practice. Hopefully though, this provides you with a little jumping off point.


8 Tips For Grocery Shopping For Weight Loss:

1.) Make a list. Yes, I know, you already knew this one. But it's incredibly important. A list gives you baseline so you're not wondering willy-nilly up and down isles of nutritional landmines, not to mention something to fiddle with when you pass devil's food cake mix and need to keep your hands busy in order to make sure it doesn't "magically" end up in your cart.

On that note, make sure your list needs is done right. This means list things you need, not things you want. Out of Ho-Ho's? Fine. Do you need more? No. You may want more, but that doesn't mean they go on the list. The longer you can go without junk food in your house the better. So leave the Ho-Ho's off.


2.) Pay with cash, and bring only the amount you need. This is rather old school, but it works. Most people go to the grocery store with the best intentions of spending a certain amount and buying nutritious food, so they become frustrated when, once again, they go over budget and end up with a cabinet full of mac-n-cheese and Oreos. Paying with cash (and only bringing cash) gives you an absolute budget, which means there's no room for bargaining with that inner child. Think the itemse on your grocery list are going to cost roughly $26? Bring $28. That way, as soon as you have the items on your list, you won't be able to go back for the Ho-Ho's because you simply can't afford it.

This, combined with making a list, will give you a game plan before you ever get into the store. It gives you a leg up on all that temptation you're sure to encounter.

3.) Hit the produce section first. You're more likely to load up on extra stuff when you know you still have $28 left in your budget than when you aren't sure if you have $4 or $3. Go through the produce section first and then hit up your other essentials.

4.) Beware of the health food trap. Low-fat, organic, low-carb, "great source of protein"; these are all phrases that can be absurdly misleading. Just because something is low-fat doesn't mean it's health food. Look at the candy bar known as a Salted Nut Roll. Right on the package it says, "A great source of protein." Well sure it is, it's covered in peanuts, and the 13 grams of protein found in a King Size Bar aren't all that bad, but the 40 grams of sugar? Not so good.

Same thing with the term "organic". Organic basically means the food was grown without the use of pesticides, but the general nutitional information of the product is going to be the same. Let me be clear on this: "organic" does not necessarily mean "healthy" (as the girls quoted in the above conversation obviously didn't know). I'd recommend choosing organic with foods with edible skins (apples, pears, tangerines, etc). With foods that have removable skins (oranges, bananas, avacados), or are more processed (soup) I wouldn't worry about it too much. Your money is better spent elsewhere.

5.) Don't go on an empty stomach. I'm sure you've heard this before, and of course the reason is because you'll buy everything you can get your hands on. On the other hand though, try and see other trends in your shopping. For example, I can never go right after I go to the gym. It's not because I'm hungry, and buy junk food, it's because i'm thirsty, and will buy anything that looks like it has a high water content. In theory it's not all that bad, but when I'm picking up something for dinner on my way home, and end up spending our entire dinner budget on watermelon and cantelope, my boyfriend is, needless to say, a little dissappointed.

6.) Watch the extras. Canned peaches and pears are great, but when they're packed in heavy syrup, you might as well be eating a donut while working the stairmaster. When buying canned tuna get the kind packed in water, not oil. When buying frozen veggies get the kind without the sauce. All of these little extras add up to a huge calorie intake, so avoid them whenever possible.


7.) Stay focused. This is my personal downfall. "I think I want to make tacos for dinner, but ooooh bbq sauce! Maybe I should make shredded bbq chicken sandwhiches instead. I haven't made sandwhiches in awhile. Or paninis! I need roasted red peppers for paninis. I could make roasted red pepper hummus! Or pesto! Mmm pesto manicotti would be good..." and before you know it I've completely blown my list. Get what's on the list, and get out of the store. Think about it, the entire place is specifically designed to make you buy as much food as possible. Why would you want to hang out in an environment like that?

8.) Try something different. Pick up at least one random thing in the produce section. Try a grapple (grape crossed with an apple) starfruit, dates, fennel, spaghetti squash, or artichokes. How do you know you haven't found your favorite food yet? I tried "ugly fruit" a couple weeks ago, and it's delicious! Like a cross between an orange and a grapefruit (but super sweet, seedless, and oh-so juicy), I had no idea what I was missing out on!

In conclusion, remember this; grocery shopping (like reading, writing, and willpower) is a skill, and skills take practice to get good at. So don't be discouraged if on your first trip you end up trading an apple for a candy bar at the checkout counter. Go to the grocery store with a mission. Get in, stay focused, and get out.

This is the first step in changing your diet, and you can do it!