Sunday Recap Week 11

I had set a mini goal for tomorrow, November 1st, that I will not reach due to complete lack of snack control. This will be my first failure in that regard.

Diet: As you can imagine from above it was not a good food week. I gave in to lots of cravings for snacks. my meals were fine, but I ate a lot of extra stuff not on my meal plan and the results are obvious. I hate the fact that I cannot even veer off slightly without disaster, living like this for the rest of my life may be impossible. I did get to the gym every day, which prevented complete reversal of progress.

Budget: I am not looking forward to balancing out this month. I am definitely over budget in at least 3 categories... One of those is groceries and is clearly related to the above deviation from my meal planning, the 2 are intrinsically linked.

Mood: It was a decent week at work, over all a pleasant week, but the snacking kept tickling at my mood, made me happy at first, then guilty.

Hunger: Wasn't that hungry, since I ate too much.

I need to regroup today and set myself up for a successful 2 weeks so I can hit my mid November goal before Thanksgiving...

Book Note: The Art of Eating In

You will see I am calling this a book note and not a book review as, being completely honest, I did not finish this book. I did think it was a book some of you might be interested in though, so I felt it worthy of mention.

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway would seem to be the perfect book for me and while the concept grabbed my attention the writing slogged on in a way I could not get through. I do have friends who have read and enjoyed this book, so please don't take my word as deciding factor.

This book started as a blog (and I can certainly get behind that) and I think I would enjoy it more as such, smaller snippets of ideas and recipes.

Erway was living in New York City and lamenting how much money she spent on food prepared outside of her home, sometimes not even very good food and vowed to not eat out for 2 years. She had exceptions for work events, vacations and family celebrations, but other than that she prepared everything at home.

The opening scene of Erway and 2 friends at a crappy Beer Garden in Brooklyn was easily accessible. How often do we sit in a restaurant and pay upwards of $20 for not-very-good beer and a sandwich we could have made better and more to our liking at home?

I am not willing to take on Erway's challenge, I have enough challenges in my life right now, but I definitely think much more before I eat out or get take out about whether this is cost effective and in my own interest nutrition-wise.

Trick or Low-Fat Treat

I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, even as a kid. Sure I loved the free candy and the chance to wear more make-up than my mom would ever let me wear the other 364 days of the year, but it was just not right.

Perhaps it was the penchant for decorating with spiders and the contradiction to "not take candy from strangers" except when you go up to their homes where they can snatch you. I have not celebrated Halloween in any big way since college.

For my adult years I have spent Halloween watching scary movies and eating a bag of candy corn or fun-sized Milky Ways or Almond Joys or frosted pumpkin cookies or well, you get the picture. Not dressing up has not stopped me from eating my fair share of Halloween candy.

With the nation's focus on childhood obesity (seriously we are condemning Cookie Monster for being a bad role model, he's a monster people, a monster...) I am curious what kids get for Halloween these days. I'm sure there is still plenty of candy, but I heard (from a good 8 year old source) that some people give out stickers (I would have LOVED that when I was 8) or small toys.

I'm sure there are still the folks giving out raisins and apples, and while I am a fan of both, neither really screams "special holiday treat" to me. Hungry Girl has a few suggestions on her website this week (fyi, if you don't know about Hungry Girl, she is awesome!). I kind of like the pretzels in the festive Halloween bags, a little salty to go with the sweet.

I don't get trick-or-treaters where I live, but I know people that do and another problem is planning how many treats to have and how many you will end up eating yourself. Some people opt to buy treats they don't really care for to eliminate the temptation (there are so few pieces of candy I don't like that would be hard for me). Some folks buy a very limited amount and when it is gone it is gone. I think I would be the person handing out stickers. It would be much too easy for me to turn off the lights and hide in the bathroom eating all the candy.

I had a couple snack- related catastrophes, "snacktastrophes" if you will, this week. I didn't eat an entire bag of fun-sized Twix bars (although I wanted to every single day) but I did over eat a couple of healthy snack items to the point of blowing my calories 2 days this week at least. Proving I cannot keep snacks of any kind in my house. That is a post for another day, in the meantime have a safe and happy Halloween however you plan to celebrate!

Weekend Reorg Project: Gym Clothes

So this weekend I have to tackle my wardrobe. I have been saying I need to switch my summer clothes for fall clothes for a couple of weeks now and procrastination has reared its ugly head.

One of my projects has to be sorting through my gym clothes. If you are like me, you have every free tee shirt you were ever handed at a charity or marketing event. In my case, most of them are stained and also now too big. Recently on the treadmill I was being choked by my tee shirt which, heavy with sweat and excess material, was tugging against my throat. This can't be good for the workouts.

I know I have some slimmer workout clothes, bought in anticipation of looking good in them, somewhere in my dresser or the big box of clothes that didn't fit me a few months ago in my closet.

So there will be a purging and a reorg of my workout wear, complete with before and after pics for you to see next week!

The Perfect Bowl 1: Oatmeal

I enjoy my meals in bowls. I am not one of those people who hates it when their foods touch, often I mix things together any way. There is something comforting and soothing about a round warm bowl in your hands.

Despite today's 70 degree temps, I am going to kick off a series of posts for the fall and winter called "The Perfect Bowl". Some of these recipes (like today's) will be old standbys and some will be new attempts. If you have a recipe for something you put in a bowl, send it my way, I would love to try it out.

The Perfect Bowl: Oatmeal

I have never liked instant oatmeal. It always felt too mushy, too watery and sweet in a bad way. I was fooled into thinking that since they made instant oatmeal, regular oatmeal must be a grueling (ha, no pun intended) process. Wrong! Regular oatmeal can be made in 5 minutes and tastes so much better. I doctor mine up like this:

1 C. Water in small sauce pan until boiling, add
1/2 c. Old Fashioned Oats
1 T flax seed or chopped nuts
2 T dried cranberries
Several shakes of cinnamon
Drizzle honey

Stir and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. Serve with a drizzle of skim milk in a warm round bowl. Enjoy!

By adding the good fat in the flax seed or nuts you create a very satisfying breakfast with a good balance of carbs and fat and oatmeal is good for your heart (and I care about your heart).

Money is No Object

I feel like I blog a lot more about the diet than the budget. The reasons for that are multi-faceted I suppose. Budgets are more private, you can't see my bank balance, you can see my weight, that kind of thing.

Also, the budget is much more easily under control, everything has its little category and I am doing my darnedest to stick to it.

I do find myself in a bit of a quandary though... Currently I have a little extra money. Between successful budgeting for over 2 months, savings and a weird calendar that has resulted in a seemingly "extra" paycheck this quarter, I am not destitute like I was in August and September.

What I have found is that it is much easier to stick to a budget when you have no money. That may seem elementary, if you don't have the money you can't spend it. With the money present in my account it is harder to say no to dinner out or a manicure. These are not huge indulgences. I didn't get in to debt from huge indulgences though, it was 20 years of dinners out and manicures.

I am grateful for the breathing room, especially with the holidays right around the corner, but I know eventually that money is marked for something, it wasn't lottery winnings I stumbled upon, it is part of my annual income and I cannot fritter it away.

It is a huge temptation though, like the cookies I failed to stand up to this past weekend, I need to look at this challenge as a test of my fortitude in my long journey. If you see me with highlights, knock some sense into me.

Waste Not Want Not

One of the noticeable improvements in my household since I started on this adventure in August is a decrease in the amount of wasted food. I have mentioned how hard it is to shop and cook for one person and wasted food was an unfortunate byproduct of that struggle.

Now, since I am making a meal plan and a shopping list and sticking to that list like glue at the store I find there is very little waste in my weekly groceries.

Wasted food cannot be avoided altogether though and Americans waste a lot of food overall. If you think you are wasting food you might be able to salvage, read this Yahoo article for a few good tips on saving food before it goes bad.

In addition to these I also rotate my condiments, dairy and fruits and veggies so the oldest stuff gets used up first. I used to just toss new stuff in the fruit bowl on top of the old stuff, resulting in rotten apples and fruit flies.

Having less excess food in the house keeps the fridge and cabinets more organized too, so I can see what I have and eat it instead of opening the door to a jumbled mess I can't decipher and ordering a pizza.

At the end of the week my cupboards are a little bare, but all the easier to wipe them down and restock for the next week!

Sunday Recap Week 10

Busy busy week at work...

Diet: Great work out week, new sneakers made me faster I think :) Food was good until Friday. The last 2 days my diet has consisted of mostly pizza and chocolate chip cookies. Must get out of this habit ASAP.

Budget: I have spent waaaaay too much money the past 2 weeks and not just on Christmas gifts, my food and entertainment budget is way over for the month already, with 2 weeks to go, must reign that in with the cookies and pizza.

Mood: Good overall.

Hunger: Was definitely hungry as result of good workouts, still need to find healthier between meal options.

I am concerned about my November 1st goal, really need to commit to my efforts this week!

How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count....

Today's post is about my love affair with Trader Joe's. Hopefully you have one of these sweet little specialty food markets near you. Once known to me simply as the place with the delicious mini quiches, it is now a source of many affordable diet staples.

Here are my Top 10 Trader Joe's Favorites:

1. Greek Yogurt: Before it was everywhere it was at TJ's and affordable

2. Pepper Strips: Frozen tri colored pepper strips a great value and super tasty to toss in anything

3. Cereal: Great prices on high quality healthy cereals

4. Soup in a Box: Classier than wine in a box, cheaper and healthier than soup in a can

5. Hummus: Better prices than grocier store, great variety

6. Honey Wheat Pretzel Sticks: Tasty, healthy and affordable snack option

7. Nuts: Best prices on a great variety of nuts

8. Dried Fruit: Ditto

9. Spices: Jazz up your healthy cooking for less

10. Olive Tapanade: Need a party favroite with heart healthy fat for cheap?

Now be cautious, Trader Joe's does have lots of tasty, unhealthy options too, so shop with care. They also don't carry many staples so it can't be your sole shopping each week, but I go about once a month and stock up on my favorites!

Girls Night In

I am blessed with a fabulous group of girlfriends, all of us with hectic lives. Every couple months we try to get together for Girls Night. Often at a restaurant where food and drink are consumed we catch up and share and laugh. Depending on the restaurant and how much alcohol we consume, these nights can run $50 or more.

Since I am not the only one watching my wallet these days, we have decided tonight to do Girls Night In. We will gather at my place for food and drink (much cheaper than eating out) and we can linger and chat as long as we like without drawing the ire of whatever post-modern waiter we happen to have.

Girls Night In is a great idea for the budget conscious. You can rotate houses and themes. Try one of these:

Cocktail Night: Have everyone bring an ingredient or two to try some new concoctions.

Manicure Night: Everyone brings their favorite nail polish colors to share. (I recommend doing the nails before the cocktails).

Game Night: Bring snacks and break out the board games, you know you have the Game of Life tucked away somewhere.

Chick Flick Night: Invite Bridget Jones or one of these others to join your group for the evening.

The options are endless. Tonight I can't wait to have many of my friends in one room!

Choose Love

I don't intend for this blog to be a political soap box, but yesterday I was struck with a profound moment of realization that affects one of my blogs topics, so here goes...

Yesterday was National Wear Purple or National Spirit Day to support LGBT youth in America. Recently there have been several suicides in the young gay community as a result of bullying. Universally bullying has become a big issue in society, but in direct relation to young people struggling with their sexual identity it is resulting in frequent tragedy.

I have always been a strong ally of the gay community. I have many friends who are gay, but in my mind they are just people. People deserve the same amount of love and respect regardless of their race, religion, political views (this one is hard for me sometimes) and who they happen to love.

It seems, in this country these days, it is OK to discriminate against homosexuals though. It is fine to fire someone (or not hire someone) because they are gay. It is acceptable and encouraged to deprive gay couples of the right to marry and it is certainly acceptable to speak cruelly to them in school.

Overweight people can get married, but those other 2 things, job discrimination and blatant public cruelty, happen to us too. I have never had a problem getting a job, but I was taunted mercilessly in junior high and high school for being overweight. I was able to compensate in certain ways, I excelled at academics, I was willing to put myself out there for band and theatre knowing the mocking would come, but doing it anyway, thanks to some good friends and great educators.

Like homosexuality, being overweight is seen by many as a choice. You must be lazy or ignorant to be fat, when for many it is the last thing in the world they want to be. If I could have woken up one day and known how to be skinny, my life would have been so much easier. If I could have changed my brain and my metabolism and my genetics and been thin I would have picked that in a heartbeat.

These aren't choices, these are the people we are: gay, fat, bald, black... when is it OK to taunt and tease and when is it socially unacceptable? These aren't choices, but hate, hate is a choice. I can understand being uncomfortable and avoiding someone if you don't relate to their lifestyle, you are missing out, but I understand. I do not understand taking that inability to relate to someone and turning it into cruel words and violent actions.

We are all people, here for a very short time on this planet, isn't easier and more fulfilling to love one another.

Mmmm Tasty

If you have ever attended a Weight Watchers meeting or visited their website you may be familiar with their slogan: "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels."

I ran that mantra through my head last night over and over again to try to talk myself out of buying a huge bag of Halloween candy and eating it piece by glorious piece.

I am nowhere near thin yet, but I am so happy with the changes I see in the mirror and in my clothes. I do feel good, physically and emotionally, about what I have done in 3 months.

But I really wanted candy. I could taste it and it tasted pretty damn good. I spent a good hour imaging the caramel and the peanut butter of the various treats inside a mixed Halloween bag and then my mind drifted off to pizza for a few minutes, before returning to the crispy rice inside a Nestle Crunch.

After the hour or so had passed I was not so motivated to get dressed and go to CVS. I only ate my allotted 3 mini York Peppermint Patties, but I hate the idea that food can grab my attention and tempt me so much.

Pumpkin Fever

Despite hating the fall, I love pumpkins! I love pumpkin-flavored everything from coffee to beer to baked goods and more! There is something magical about that big orange squash. Here are some favorites:

Pumpkin Beverages

Coffee: I prefer my regular coffee unsweetened, so when it comes to commercial pumpkin coffee I really like Honey Dew Donuts Pumpkin Spice, it is not sweet, just a mix of spices to evoke that pumpkin pie deliciousness. Dunkin Donuts, on the other hand, only has sweetened pumpkin syrup.

Latte: I generally do the latte as a dessert item and as such do not mind it sweet. Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is very sweet, so I always ask (with all their syrups actually) for half the syrup to cut down on the sugar.

Beer: Like coffee it is more about the spices than the pumpkin with the pumpkin ales. I can be adventurous with beer if I am just having one (which is about all I ever have now in a bar). Shipyard makes a tasty pumpkin ale that you can get locally!

Pumpkin Baked Goods

Pie: Pumpkin pie is one of the healthier pies out there for a couple of reasons. One it is a bottom crust only pie. Crust is the worst part of most pies and if you can skip half the crust you are cutting out a lot of fat and calories. Secondly, the main ingredient: pumpkin puree is full of nutrition. Make sure you buy real pumpkin and not artificially flavored and sweetened or bake your own pumpkin and scrape it. And finally, you can doctor some of the recipe to cut fat and calories, low fat condensed milk works just as well and results in an equally creamy pie and egg beaters can replace real eggs if cholesterol is a concern. It is still pie though, so eat a slice and not the whole thing...

Pumpkin Bread: I like mine loaded with raisins and walnuts, which in combination with the pure pumpkin ratchets up the nutritional value. Again, egg beaters can replace real eggs with little change in consistency. Portion control is key, but don't avoid this tasty fall treat altogether.

Pumpkin Cheesecake: Love it, shouldn't eat it. Have never found a satisfactory low fat cheesecake recipe, it is, after all, cake made out of cheese. Try to limit to once a year.

Misc.

Pumpkin Soup: Most pumpkin based soups are creamy, try to cut the cream with some chicken or veggie stock.

Roasted Pumpkin: It is a squash, cut it up and roast with a little brown sugar or maple syrup.

Pumpkin Seeds: My favorite part of Halloween as a kid (aside from the candy of course). After carving the top of the pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern I would scoop all the slimy innards into a colander, the earthy smell of pumpkin everywhere. I would rinse the seeds and spread them on a cookie sheet, toss with kosher salt and roast until golden. Now nutritionists recommend pumpkin seeds as a healthy snack and source of many minerals.

Pumpkins are also the source of one of the greatest cartoons of all time, don't miss It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown this Thursday on ABC.

New Shoes -- A Girl's Best Friend

Yesterday I bought new sneakers. Like most girls, the idea of spending money on shoes is delightful, but in the budget arena there is not much room for clothing. I am considering factoring the sneakers into my medical budget as they are a crucial part of my healthy lifestyle.

I did not realize how worn out my current sneakers were until one of my knees started to bother me a week or so ago and I realized I was turning my foot when I walked because the infrastructure of my sneakers was shot. I had practically worn through the soles and could feel every pebble when I walked outside.

Visiting my parents this weekend afforded me the opportunity to shop at a variety of stores, much greater than the options in downtown Boston. On advice from a friend I wound up at Kohl's, which has a very extensive sneaker department with many high quality brands (Nike, Reebok, Asics, New Balance) and all the latest styles and trends.

That brings me to my great debate: To Tone or Not to Tone.


You have inevitably seen the new "toning sneakers" Sketchers Shape-Ups and Reebok Easytone being the most advertised. Most major brands now have a version of this sneaker and the ads are very enticing. Just walk and your legs and glutes will be toning the whole time! Could I possibly not have to do squats and lunges anymore?

These new sneakers are pricey, whether a result of the technology or their popularity who knows, but they run around $100 a pair. Kohl's had several versions on sale around $50 or $60 so I tried on a few pairs.

It was odd at first, it felt like I was standing on a rolling pin, the middle of my foot the only part on the ground. As I walked around the shoe department I didn't feel anything different, but I felt slightly off balance.

I can be very Hamlet-like when shopping, especially now where every dollar counts, and I debated a long time whether to give these sneakers a try. Ultimately I went with a solid pair of regular Nikes with no fancy technology. My reasoning involved fear, what if these sneakers ultimately cause me pain, what if the toning messes up my knee further, what if I trip over the unstable toe of the shoe and hurt myself. I am on such a roll at the gym now the idea of injury or set back is terrifying.

I bought my $50 Nikes, got them home, threw away my old busted up sneaks and slid my feet into sheer heaven. I felt taller (probably was since the sole wasn't worn down enough to read a newspaper through it), I walked straighter. I can't wait to get them on the treadmill today.

I might ask for a pair of Easytones for Christmas, but for now I erred on the side of tradition.

Sunday Recap: Week 9

We have reached the point in my work year where the weeks fly by and with the days getting shorter it seems that I blink and it is Sunday again, ugghhh...

Diet: I hit my 20% goal this past week. I can now see differences in my body (particularly my face and neck) and my clothes are fitting differently or not at all. When I am on th treadmill I can see my reflection in the little TV monitor and sometimes I don't realize it is me. I had a couple eating out expereiences this week and I survived the party yesterday doing pretty well. On to goal #3!

Budget: I am struggling with Christmas. I did some shopping this past week and am going out to do some more today. I have to remember that while I have a monthly budget it does get factored over the whole year. So if I overspend on gifts these next few month I will just have to make up for it after the holidays. I am also going to invest in a new pair of sneakers today, money very well spent. I banked my savings from reaching goal 2.

Mood: I hate this time of year, it is obvious in my attitude lately.

Hunger: I was definitely hungrier this week. The question is, is it a result of ramping up my workouts for month 3 or due to my encroaching depression about the darkness and cold of the season?

Book Review: Fat Cat

Up to this point all the books I had read in conjunction with my diet and budgeting plan were non-fiction, so this week I ventured into a novel that addresses body image issues.

The YA novel Fat Cat by Robin Brande is the story of a high school girl, Catherine Locke, a good student with high ambitions and few friends. Overweight since childhood Cat has turned her focus to what she does well, school.

One day, a science project changes Cat's world. A picture of early man and woman, the photo pulled from a random stack to serve as the jumping off point for her year long project, spurs Cat to change the way she lives and eats.

She embarks on a diet of whole foods, prepared very basically and gives up almost all modern conveniences (she draws the line at running water). Her health improves and her body changes and all of a sudden Cat has more attention than she ever wanted from boys.

This novel reads like a Micahel Pollan book, a little heavy on the vegetarian agenda, but an interesting lesson in the pitfalls of modern conveniences.

I related to Cat's long struggle with her weight and the cruelty of children towards those that are different. A quick and entertaining read, its message will stick with me.

Game Day!

So tomorrow I am going to a Homecoming Party at the home of one of my father's colleagues. This will be the first party I have attended on the diet and to say I am wracked with fear would be putting it mildly.

I have succeeded these past 9 weeks by doing my best to control my surroundings. Out of sight is out of mind.

Last night I ventured into a restaurant where I used to eat many many fried things and I held firm (9 weeks without fried folks). I don't know if that resolve can hold up to a whole afternoon of food just out for the grabbing.

I've read all the tips about surviving a party, some of them help and some don't:

Drink in Moderation

Tomorrow I will be with my parents, so while I will likely have a drink I am certain not to get drunk, which eliminates a lot of calories and drinking too much lowers your inhibitions and reason with food.

Eat Before You Go

Having a good healthy meal beforehand is a good idea in theory, in reality I think I eat just as much and then have consumed even more calories between the meal and the party food.

Load Up Your Plate With Veggies

I will always put some veggies on my plate, but like the suggestion above I just eat them in addition to the junk food.

My one hope is that I will be too self conscious to eat too much. I won't know anyone there and there is nothing more stereotypically pathetic than the fat girl eating all the desserts. I will try to warp my food issues in my favor this time, I might be a little psychologically damaged, but maybe I won't overeat.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

OK, it isn't freezing yet, but two nights ago the heat kicked on in my apartment. I like to call the 6 months the heat runs in my place the season of "eternal hellfire". I live in an old Boston apartment building, beautiful and charming in its oldness, but with serious heating issues.

Most people have a thermostat that they can regulate to create a comfortable level of heating. Not me. It is all or nothing around here, often resulting in tropical conditions complete with condensation on the windows.

My heat is included in my rent, so while I certainly pay for it I never see a monthly heating bill in the winter. I can gauge my air conditioner usage in the summer with my electric bill (and this year was a little high -- as were the temperatures), but I do not know how much energy I am using and wasting in the colder months.

And I do waste it, a lot of it, as it gets so hot in here I must open the windows or even turn on the AC to stand it. Discussions with my superintendent devolve into horror stories of replacing the entire heating and hot water system in a huge building and I shuffle off discouraged and sweaty.

Energy conservation is a big issue though, for your wallet and our planet. The Department of Energy has a website with simple tips to help you with your energy consumption and bills. Try to do a little extra for those of us in this urban slow cooker. And if you come visit during these months be sure to dress in layers, with your swimsuit handy, thanks!

Goal!

When you are a kid goals are more achievable: beat my brother at Pac-Man, babysit enough to buy that swank new Trapper Keeper, study hard and get in to good college.

As an adult we tend to push aside attainable goals for grander aspirations: house, kids, better job, bigger car. These things take lots of time, energy and sometimes a lot of power beyond your control.

So far the best part of my journey these 2 months has been the smaller goals I have set for myself. I still have that dreamy-type list of things that will take years and lots of hard work to attain, but in the meantime I have a smaller list of milestones that I can see, not in a crystal ball, but actually on the horizon.

This week I hit weight loss goal #2. I am now 20% of the way to my big dreamy goal (which doesn't look so daunting when broken down in little bits). It felt great, boosted my spirits, spurred me to move harder at the gym.

My budget is shaking itself out too. I actually looked ahead a couple weeks and I didn't get nauseated at the view. The changes I have made financially are starting to show.

We need goals in life that we can reach. There is nothing wrong in setting a reasonable goal, no one will think you are unambitious if you say: "I want to save $20 this month." or "I want to work out one more time this week than last week." You are not underachieving, you are giving voice to your need to say: "Yes, I said I was going to do something and I did."

When it comes to weight loss and budgeting it is way too easy to get lost in the weeds, to be in over your head and give up, I have lived that way for my entire adult life. These milestones along the way serve as trail markers out of the forest and into the clearing.

My next goal is coming up quick, by Nov. 1st I want to hit 25% of my goal. If I can go into November and December having lost 25% of my goal I will be determined not to let the holidays derail my progress. 25% is big, it is worth celebrating and not with egg nog. It will mean different sized clothes wrapped under the tree this year and holiday photos I might not be horrified to look back on some day.

Don't wait for the biggest goals to be reality, celebrate yourself for recognizing when you do something small for yourself, we don't acknowledge the small things enough.

New Workout or New Career?

So recently I noticed an addition to the studio at my gym. Stripper Poles. Yep, you can take pole dancing classes at my gym.

This trend started out in Hollywood several years ago. The combination of core and upper body strength and the fun empowering freedom of stripping made a pretty powerful workout.

You don't actually strip and I watched the instructors warming up for a class and it looks hard. It is intriguing though. Maybe in a few months when I am stronger and lighter. Who knows, I could be good at it and I am always looking for a new job...

Handmade Christmas

Christmas has never been easy for me, even when I had all the credit cards at my disposal. I often started my holiday shopping in the summer and tried to spread out the damage. I do enjoy picking things up here and there as I go throughout the year.

This year I am also working on several handmade gifts. Now anyone who crafts, knits, scrapbooks, etc. knows that handmade gifts do not mean less expensive. Usually a well-made hand-crafted item is as expensive or more so than its commercially produced counterpart (i.e. a handmade sweater is usually twice as expensive as the ones made in China and sold at Macy's).

The great thing about handmade gifts is they serve as both an activity for you and a gift for someone else. You pay for the supplies and you get hours of entertainment from making the item and at the end you have a lovely gift. You can work on items together with friends, creating social activities that are productive and less expensive than shopping outings.

And, the best part for me is the amount of time you spend thinking about your loved one as you create their gift. Often in the frenzy of the holiday season we rush to buy things to wrap and put under the tree. When I am knitting something for someone I think about them the whole time, I am creating something specifically for them, I can tailor the color and the texture and the design to best suit them. I think about them wearing it when it is done and by the time I finish I am closer to that person than I would have been if I had thrown something in my cart at Target.

I want this Christmas to be peaceful and reflective, it will be almost halfway through the first year of this journey and I do not want to go into it rushed and stressed, but happy and joyous... with some cool handmade gifts to share.

Sunday Recap -- Month 2

First of all, I cannot believe it is Sunday again, this week was a blur. Month 2 brought a bit of a sophomore slump to my plans. As noted, this past week had some pitfalls for the diet and while overall my budget was fine for the month I definitely loosened the reigns and have to come up with a plan for Christmas to keep from overspending.

Diet: Tuesday is the official Month 2 weigh in date. I am 1 pound from meeting my goal and I consumed a large amount of delicious pasta last night. I will focus today and tomorrow and get some good workouts in to try to counter the pasta and knock off that last pound, stay tuned Tuesday to see if I succeed. Favorite meal of the month -- turkey chili.

Budget: I was under budget overall, but over budget on transportation (took a cab when I should have planned better) by $20 and entertainment (told you that one would be tricky) by $7. I bought a coffee maker and have been making my coffee (inspired by Lisa's coffee embargo) and that has freed up some cash during the week.

Mood: The complete despair of fall has not arrived yet. Work, while stressful, is moving along OK and I have no real stress-related reasons to eat or spend which is good. In fact I feel a little bit content (a foreign feeling in some ways) and can't let that lead to laziness.

Hunger: I am eating enough calories, hunger only creeps in when my plan goes awry and I don't eat on time or when I have long chunks of unscheduled time. I plan to start ramping up my work outs for Month 3 and will see if I need more calories to balance them off.

Overall a successful month, not as exciting as Month 1, but this journey is all about endurance. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Thanks for all the great comments and suggestions, you are kind lovely people.

Book Review: Such a Pretty Fat

"Weight Watchers can kiss the fattest part of my ass." A Jen Lancaster Axiom

Thus begins Jen Lancaster's memoir Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Determine if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer. I have now read 3 of Ms. Lancaster's memoirs and must say I could relate to this one all too well.

This story of a woman discovering she needs to lose weight despite being happy and relatively healthy is honest and helpful in ways that diet books just aren't. Sometimes you do not need to be told what to eat and how to exercise, you need to be told that other people struggle and cry over going to the gym and eat a lot of cheese too.

Jen is likable and sympathetic, even when she is mean, and you want her to succeed, because if she succeeds there is hope for me.

The most interesting part of the book for me was Jen's foray into the worlds of Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. What she discovers, more so with JC than WW, is that these people do not want you to succeed. They want you to stay fat and buy their products. With Jenny Craig the idea of eating primarily packaged meals is counter intuitive to a healthy lifestyle and wholly unsustainable long term. If you have to lose 15 pounds before a high school reunion, go for it, but if weight has been your yoke for life, don't get sucked in to the success stories.

Weight Watchers is a different animal, I have done Weight Watchers with some success in the past. Their current online tools are great (and Jen agrees). The problem comes with the in-person meetings, which are important as they give you a public way to be accountable for your weight loss, but can turn into very angry therapy sessions. A good meeting hinges on a good leader and I had a great leader when I went. She made the meetings positive and forward thinking, not regretful and bitter.

By the end of the book Jen had seen some results, 40 pounds on the scale, but more importantly she felt powerful and strong and able to control her health. For most women dealing with this issue that is where it is at. I don't care about looking good in a bathing suit, I care about being able to take care of my body long term.

You can check out Jen Lancaster online and definitely pick up one of her books, she will make you laugh at her and yourself.

The Best Laid Plans

I have not been very good the last 2 days. I have not made it to the gym and I have veered off of my eating plan, not badly, but off course and that makes me very nervous. Due to work and unexpected plans the past 2 days my carefully orchestrated schedule was all out of whack and the results may show up on the scale.

I run in to trouble, where most people do, when I let myself get too hungry and thus I eat something fast and possibly not as healthy. When I am rushed or stressed I think I deserve a treat and for me that has always been food. I suppose I could have had a high end purse problem, which would have hurt the debt but left me a little slimmer... but I digress.

Now the weekend is upon us and while I have plans for Saturday, my Sunday is wide open. A wide open Sunday generally leaves me with the urge to snack and bake, to fill the time with food.

I could make plans, but I really need a down day to myself. I have been busy and a day of watching bad TV and knitting sound great, I just have to find a way to not make a dozen cupcakes and eat them. And I need to sneak in a work out to make up for the 2 I missed this week!

Look How Pretty!

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to swap my dinner plates for smaller (prettier) ones that I had stored in a hard to reach cabinet. This turned into a huge overhaul of the biggest cabinet in my kitchen. Here is what it looked like before:

I did a massive purge, took everything out and debated whether to keep it or not. Things that were not kept and in decent condition went down to the laundry room where tenants of my building swap things and I am happy to report that everything I left down there has gone to a happy home here in the Fenway.

The remaining items and the smaller dishes were returned to the cabinet in an orderly fashion:

No more reaching over things to get to what I need, risking breakage and major annoyance. Everything is where it should be.

I cannot tell if using the smaller plates is making any difference in the amount of food that I am eating, but the more organized cabinet is definitely more relaxing to deal with.

There is much left to organize around here, stay tuned!

Packing Away Summer

So apparently we have moved right on to winter in New England and I am faced with my typical problem of not having seasonally appropriate clothing at the ready. This year creates an interesting question: do I pack away my current summer clothes or get rid of them in anticipation of not fitting into them next year?

There is a part of me that wants to purge all of my clothes from the past summer, but there is the annoying voice of inevitable failure in the back of my mind telling me not to take that chance because buying a new summer wardrobe in the same size next year will be torture and a waste of money.

What I will do is compromise. I am going to toss anything even remotely worn out or past its prime. Things I would keep as last resorts or cleaning the house clothes will go away now. Anything in good condition will get packed in a box ready to be donated at the first hint of success.

Like many women I have a few different sizes in my closet at the same time. I will need these transition clothes as I go. I hope they are seasonally appropriate at the right times...

The Great Coffee Embargo

I figure you are all sick of me by now, so today I have a guest blogger! My friend Lisa started chronicling her Coffee Embargo on Facebook and I thought it would be an issue my handful of readers could appreciate, so please enjoy Lisa's post.

The Great Coffee Embargo

by Lisa Brown

In August I went on two mini- vacations which pinched my budget more than I would’ve liked. I started to take inventory of my expenses. One of those expenses was my weekly coffee budget. I got really annoyed with myself once I did the math. Now, I’d done the math before but usually in line at Dunkin Donuts and by that time you are doomed and your giant iced coffee erases any logical thoughts you might have had about cutting back on your coffee expenses.

So I bit the bullet and promised myself to try and live one work week, Monday-Friday, making coffee at home. This experiment was not without its problems. First, the coffee I had available in my house was leftover from a trip I took to Thailand in 2005, which though vacuum sealed and still fresh was actually super strong. So it took a few days to get the mix right. I also LOVED iced coffee, and drinking hot coffee just wasn’t doing it for me- so I tried to make my own iced coffee and REALLY didn’t get the recipe right.

I was pretty cranky about the coffee embargo for the first few days. However, by the end of the week, it was getting easier to deal and I went back to drinking hot coffee. I also got a great referral to a blog about how to cold brew iced coffee- I haven’t tried it yet- I’m going to invest in a French press and an air tight container to put my coffee in before I attempt the iced coffee again.

The bottom line is I saved $26.00 by not having coffee and a bagel at Dunkin Donuts each morning on my way to work. I also started having much healthier and earlier breakfasts at home with my coffee, and that is a habit I’m really happy about. I have been saying for about a year and a half (since I started my most recent job) that I couldn’t join a gym because they were all too expensive- I’m happy to announce that today I traded my $100 a month coffee habit for an $85 a month gym membership. I still came out on top money wise and going to the gym is a much better investment. I’m into my second week in the great embargo and proud to say I’ve only had one weekend Dunkin Donuts- a girl’s gotta live a little right?

Note: Spurred by Lisa's embargo I bought a coffee pot (finally!) and I too am saving a lot of cash on coffee, thanks so much Lisa for sharing your efforts!

Chili Time

So whether I like it or not, it is fall. Baseball season is over. It is time for chili. Chili can be a healthy, filling, nutrient-dense one pot meal I can make on the weekend and eat from for several days without getting too bored.

Here's my chili recipe.

Annmarie's Tasty Turkey Chili

Brown 1 lb lean ground turkey in a big pan (can use lean beef, soy nuggets or just veggies)
Season with chili powder, cumin, garlic, red pepper flake & salt
Chop and add 1 yellow onion and 1 green bell pepper
Add 1 can black beans
Add 1 can kidney beans
Add 1 can diced tomatoes
Add 1 can pureed tomatoes
Season again and let simmer until thick and delicious.

I do not use any oil in my chili prep so this is a very lean dish of warm goodness. This makes 6 servings at approx 350 calories and 6 g fat.

The trouble with chili comes in garnishing it. I sprinkle 1 T low fat shredded cheddar on mine, which adds a few calories and a couple grams of fat. I skip the sour cream (although I have heard fat free Greek yogurt does the trick too) and if I want some crunchy on the side I make my own pita chips instead of tortillas that have been fried.

This is an affordable, quick yummy recipe that I love to make in this kind of weather!

Sunday Recap Week 7

This was a week of ups and downs in both the diet and the budget. I fear I am getting too comfortable with both and this is when I tend to let things slide, need to be more focused again.

Diet: Workouts were great, definitely getting stronger and have much better endurance. I notice how much faster I am moving in my every day tasks as well. Food was good all week until yesterday. I had a fairly loose schedule and due to some poor planning I wound up eating on the run a lot and did not make the best choices. I fear I undid some of the good from the workouts this week.

Budget: Last minute changes in plans led to more $$ going out than anticipated, this on the heels of last weekend's over-spending means 2 weeks in a row I was way over budget in a couple of areas.

Mood: Not surprisingly this was up & down too. I really hate the arrival of fall and I let it get me down a lot. Combined with hormones and work stress, I was not the happiest person in Boston this week.

Hunger: I was hungry yesterday because I did not eat according to my normal schedule and I let myself indulge way too much as a result.

It was not a disaster of a week by any stretch and I hope I don't see it on the scale and the budget spreadsheet too badly.

Got Something Someone Else Might Want...

... and you are done with? Sell it. It is a gorgeous October day in Massachusetts, perfect for a Yard Sale. If you have a lot of stuff you don't know what to do with, sell it and make a little cash. Someone else might need it and you are certain to be offering a great deal and we have so much stuff in this country, reusing things is not a bad idea.

I don't have a yard, so yard sales are kind of out of the question and I have not ventured into the world of Ebay yet, so even virtual yard sales are out of my league. I do resell some things though, primarily Books, CDs and DVDs and this is how I do it:

CDs and DVDs: Part of my pile of debt is an old fascination with CDs and DVDs. Now that I get almost all of my music digitally and watch all of my TV shows On Demand or through the library I find myself able to part with a lot of the cases that clutter up my place. I looked online for places that bought used media and found Second Spin.

Second Spin buys good quality used CDs and DVDs for decent money (the amount of money depends on the supply and demand of each piece). You log your sale, get the price, box up the stuff and send it media mail to their California warehouse and within a week or so you get a check for the amount of your stuff and the postage you spent to ship it.

The merchandise has to be in really good condition and the liner notes must be in the CD case. This is key as I have also bought stuff from Second Spin and it is a great deal for great stuff. Their quality control is top rate.

I have sold stuff to them multiple times, always gotten paid in a timely fashion and never had a problem.

Books: I own a lot of books in a small apartment and there are rules for what gets kept on the shelves. If I know I will never re-read or reference a book it does not stick around gathering dust. Most of those disposable titles are now library check outs, but I still end up with a stack of books every few months, gift books I have read or hot titles I was unwilling to wait months for from the library and it is time to purge.

My apartment building has a book swap downstairs near our laundry, which is awesome and I often bring books down there and grab a few new titles. You can certainly donate books to a wide variety of charities, but today I am going to sell a stack.

I sell my books at Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner. They too are very picky about their merchandise, but they give a decent return. You can get 15% of the value back in cash or 20% in store credit. Today I am going to opt for the store credit and do a little guilt-free under-the-budget-radar Christmas shopping!

Divesting yourself of excess clutter will make your home a more pleasant place to live and if you make a little cash in the process, all the better!

Alone in a Kitchen in Moscow

My first apartment on my own was in Moscow. I had just turned 21, graduated from college and with the love and support of my parents I packed my whole life into 2 big suitcases and 2 carry-ons and I moved over 5,000 miles away.

In retrospect this was more of a test of my fortitude than I imagined. I would be 5,000 miles from everyone I knew, not one familiar face in a city of 14 million. I had visited Moscow on 2 previous trips, a high school 2 week tour and a weekend during my semester abroad in St. Petersburg. It was certainly the biggest city I will ever live in and it presented no end of wonder to me.

I had never lived alone (well I technically had a single Senior year, but in a dorm no one lives alone) and I had certainly never kept a household, cooked and cleaned for myself with any regularity. Cooking was a communal effort growing up and for the most part we cooked and ate as a family despite my parents often crazy work schedules.

I knew my way around a kitchen, but I had never relied solely on my own money and efforts to feed myself.

My apartment n Moscow was a joy. It was in the older part of the city, sturdy construction with sunny windows. In reality it was a one bedroom apartment, but the bedroom was being used for storage and locked away, so it was a glorified studio (training for my Boston future). There was a lovely entry way with a big bright room to the right with an old TV, a dining table, a book case, an orange couch and matching fringed lamp and a tiny bed, calling it a twin bed would be generous. I was so glad to be short.

If you turned away from the living room you came to a hall with 3 rooms off of it: the traditional European 2 room bathroom with the sink and giant tub in one room and the toilet in a separate closet and a small but functional kitchen. The best part of the kitchen was a huge wooden hutch with glass front cabinets and heavy drawers, I loved that piece of furniture. There was a small table, sink, fridge and a stove.

The stove became an instant cause for concern. It was a gas stove and I had grown up with electric, the whole idea of gas caused terror, images of singed eye brows or worse instantly came to mind. It was an old stove, no automatic ignition burners, a big box of matches at the ready.

Adding to the anxiety was an old wives tale I had heard about old urban apartment buildings. I heard that if you lit the oven the heat would rouse all of the cock roaches in the building and they would flood out of the woodwork into your kitchen. I had already encountered a few 6 legged creatures and the idea of them coming in any volume was enough to keep that oven door closed for 11 months.

In fact for the first month or so I don’t think I lit the stove top either. I subsisted on a steady diet of bread and cheese, both prolific and delicious in Russia, and the all too frequent Snickers bar. I was a recent college graduate who had learned to live on cereal while writing my thesis, bread and cheese were luxuries.

One night in late September I was really craving pasta (another college staple) and I had found a kiosk near my apartment that sold jarred Uncle Ben’s pasta sauce (I had no idea Uncle Ben had ventured outside of the rice world, but there it was). So I bought some macaroni, sauce, bread and cheese and I was going to make my first hot meal in my new home.

Shopping in Moscow in 1995 was a challenge in its own right. The flow of goods from the West was starting to pick up, but there was no rhyme or reason to what was available and no guarantee that what you saw on Monday would be there Tuesday. If you saw anything you thought you might possibly want to eat ever you bought it that day. You could not get your hopes up for something as there was no assurance that you would be able to get it, with the exception of bread and cheese.

So back to my Italian feast. I put the pasta in a pot with some water and found a sauce pan to heat up the jarred sauce. I nibbled on the bread and cheese, uncertain if I had the fortitude to strike the match and bring it to the flow of natural gas that would ignite and cook this food, how bad would cold jarred sauce be on really good bread?

I poured a glass of wine, because what is better for a potentially flammable situation than alcohol? I talked to myself a lot that year, alone as I was, and I talked myself into it, the comforting yield of the pasta, the acidic familiarity of tomato sauce, the sweetness of basil and the hint of garlic slipping over my tongue. I must do this, I must strike the match.

I did of course and I am still here, nothing bad happened, no singed eyebrows or additional cock roaches. I piled my plate high with pasta and sauce, brought the whole loaf of bread and block of cheese into the living room and savored every bite until I was so full I couldn’t imagine eating any more. In addition to the joy I felt from the food there was this moral victory, this coming-of-age moment of accomplishment, a single morsel of success that at the time seemed greater than stepping on the plane a month earlier, of starting my first real job and my adult life in this huge and wondrous city.

Once I conquered the fear of the gas stove top (and I admit I never got over the fear of the gas oven) I became a makeshift chef in my tiny apartment. I experimented with the perfect macaroni and cheese, with just the right amount of garlic powder, the ideal grilled cheese sandwich the merging of the 2 staples I loved so much. I ventured outside my neighborhood for ingredients, hitting a market way outside the city with produce I hadn’t seen downtown, I bought an eggplant.

This eggplant was like gold. I remembered my grandmother’s eggplant Parmesan and I longed for the comfort of family. I carried the eggplant home on the hour long train ride like a small child. I had a jar of sauce at home and some pasta. I could get bread and cheese from Sasha on the corner. I was going to make eggplant Parmesan and then it hit me, my grandmother’s eggplant was baked, in the oven, until the cheese browned and bubbled, the edges crispier than the middle. There was no way I could do that with my stove top set up, or was there?

Annmarie’s Stove Top Eggplant Parmesan

Peel eggplant and slice into rounds about ¼” thick

Dredge in flour, egg, breadcrumbs in that order

Fry in olive oil until golden on both sides drain on paper towels

Layer into large frying pan, eggplant cheese and sauce, 3 times.

Cover and cook on low until cheese melts and sauce heats through

Serve with pasta.

I had discovered a convection process on my stove top. With a large frying pan and cover I could “bake” anything. My local kiosk had frozen pizza one day, frozen pizza! It was a small pizza, fit in the frying pan perfectly, voila!

My time in Moscow was full of revelations. It was the training ground for independent living. I have now lived almost as many years alone as I did with my family. While I hope to have a husband someday I have never once worried about feeding myself. After that year in Moscow I knew I could not only shop and cook for myself, I could turn it into an adventure.