I have to share a little secret – I have been weighing myself every single day since October 17th.

And to make it worse? I have been tracking every weigh-in in excel. Oh yes, so I can make fun charts like this:

What does this all mean?

That I am about to get chewed out for weighing myself 7 times a week?

Actually, it means that I have been using the home scale since October 17th and have not stayed overnight anywhere since then.

Well, that is about to change! We’re going to Barbados!

Ha! Not! I wish. No, we are leaving for Iowa soon and will be there 5 nights and 4 whole days.

That is a lot of time away from the scale.

Dun dun dun… what is going to happen?

What usually happens when I visit family (or they visit) is that I lose all abandon and stuff my face silly. But these past few months we’ve had family over a few times, and I have been fine. In fact, in the past few months I have only had four incidences where I felt like I was binge-eating, and they were all at work.

So, I am feeling pretty optimistic that I can forget about that scale for (gasp!) 5 days and see what happens. I think I can have fun and eat reasonably. And I know I can fit exercise in.

But just in case, what are your tips for eating healthy when you are in a situation that normally triggers the opposite?

My tips are to focus on the company, not the food, and to drink lots of water.

Two Mondays ago, I mentioned that we cut back on spending in 2009, and Chez Julie asked me to share some of my tips. What a great idea!

I have a lot of tips and I bet commenters will too – so don’t feel bad if you can’t read them all – PLEASE SHARE your ideas!

I broke my tips into three categories: Shopping, Entertainment and General. Click “more” to read (skim, really) on.

Shopping Tips for Reducing Spending:

• First things first – cut out unnecessary luxuries - for us, this was bottled water. We used to use one new bottle of water a day, and we started using reusable water bottles instead. Better on the pocketbook AND environment! For other people, this may include something like cutting back on the daily Starbucks and making coffee at home, or buying soda in bulk instead of from a vending machine.
• Figure out where to buy the most economical necessities – we started shopping more at ALDI. We used to do all of our shopping at Super Target. I think we save at least $50 a week by shopping at ALDI. And if you have one of those stores where you have to have a “club card” to get the items at a discounted price, you are probably not getting the best deal overall. We have Dominick’s, Meier and Jewell Osco out here, but have compared prices and they are more expensive on everything.
• Try the “off brand,” it’s probably less costly – related to the last tip. We thought we would hate the ALDI “off brand” food, but it is fine! We mostly buy produce there anyway.
• Buy in bulk when it’s a great sale – when we see an item we purchase regularly on a heavy discount, we buy it in bulk, saving us money (and time) in the long run.
• Use coupons and watch for good deals – I like to use coupons.com to see if any of the things we buy are on sale at Target before we go there. We also look at the ads to watch for items to go on sale. And, I am not sure if other stores do this, but sometimes Target will have a deal that if you buy 2 or 3 of an item they will give you a $5 giftcard. In December, we saw that the paper towels we like were on sale for $10 each (normally $15). If you bought two you got the $5 giftcard. Score!

Entertainment Tips for Reducing Spending:

• Instead of meeting friends for dinner, host dinner in your home
• When meeting friends for lunch, bring your own – my friends know I do this ALL THE TIME. You save money, eat a healthier lunch, and still get to chat!
• Look for coupons for things you like to do – Steven and I never go bowling unless we have a coupon. If you sign up at Brunswick, you get coupons once or twice a month. Instead of paying $5 a game, we pay $1.29!
• Use Giftcards – ask for giftcards for birthdays and holidays if you can! At my office, we have a rewards program, and I use it to get movie giftcards.
• Make small sacrifices in quality to get something for less – we found a theater that sells $4 tickets! It is not as nice as a normal theater, but it saves us about $20 a trip!
• Use Netflix instead of Pay-Per-View or going to the movies – if you watch a lot of movies like we do, Netflix is VERY economical!
• Stop paying to run races - look for those you can run based on a donation, or just run for fun (this one was hard).
• Volunteer – it can be fun
• Look for free events – watch for speakers at your library or find a website like Explore Chicago (but local for your area) that showcases events (both free and not free).
• Visit local parks/forest preserves for fun – we have a massive forest preserve system out here, and there is so much to do!
• Take classes at a community center instead of at a gym
• Use the office gym, instead of paying for a separate membership – if you can, of course.
• Go to the library instead of buying new books (or borrow from a friend!)
• Choose a vacation location somewhere where you can stay with friends or family
• Travel in the off-season
• TRY NEW THINGS AT HOME! - we love cooking and trying new things at home… I think we like it better than eating out!

General Tips for Reducing Spending:

• See if you can cut back with your bills – we looked into our Verizon bill to see if it made sense to switch to a smaller plan. Ironically, we found out we were on a great plan that is grandfathered in and we would be screwing ourselves if we changed it. Ha ha. We tried!
• Stop using credit cards – only use them in an emergency.
• Pay off higher interest bills first
• Develop a monthly budget and stick to it – it will help to see where you are actually spending your money!
• Save money by working from home – this may not be an option for everyone, but since Steven works from home, we are saving money on gas, insurance and I-PASS. In 2011, I will be allowed to work from home one day a week and this should help a tiny bit (my work already pays for my transportation to work).
• Look into pre-tax pay deductions at work – some offices offer programs where you can take money out of your paycheck pre-taxes and use it for transportation or hospital bills.

And I believe you should  SPLURGE A LITTLE BIT and treat yourself everyone once in awhile! To stay sane!

Nothing, really.

When I arrive home and Steven has a warm dinner on the stove, ready for me to eat, I feel like a pampered princess.

Do you like it when someone else cooks for you? Whose cooking is your favorite? Or do you prefer to make your own food?

Last night, Steven made a modified (because we were missing a few ingredients) version of Anna’s (newlywednewlyveg) Black Bean Fiesta Soup.

Here are the original ingredients, crossed out with what we substituted. Check out her site for the full recipe! I hope you don’t mind that we changed it up a bit, Anna!

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 3 clove(s) garlic, chopped
  
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped 1 1/2 T. Dried Red Pepper, 1 1/2 T. Dried Green Pepper
  
• 1 4. oz. can green chilies, chopped 1 1/2 Tsp Dried Jalapeño
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder 1/4 tsp. Ancho Chili Powder and 1/4 tsp. Chipotle Chili Powder
  
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/8 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• juice of one lime 1 Tsp. Lime Juice
  
• 3 2 15. oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• ADDED: 1 15 oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 3 cups 2 cans vegetable broth
  
• 1 15 oz. can corn
• ADDED: 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
  

Also, our favorite cornbread made a guest appearance. It went deliciously with this soup! I recommend trying the soup (either the original or our version). It was so tasty – perfect for a cold evening, and not too spicy!

Crap. I better be careful. I don’t want to turn into a food blogger. Stop making such tasty eats Steven! (no really, please don’t stop)

Time for another meme! Ayla (dainty vegan), Leah (why deprive), Kim (Adventures in Wanting) and Trayn Harder all gave me the Happy 101 award. Thank you! I am supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. Making this list was fun (I could have kept going past 10). I think I could do this everyday! Give it a try! Click “more” to read on.

Well, obviously, friends and family make me happy above all else (that includes all of you, my blogger friends!). So I am not going to list them. Ha!

10 Things That Make Me Happy:

1. Arriving home to Steven making dinner
2. Getting the new issue of Runner’s World in the mail
3. Taking silly photos
4. Receiving an email from a friend
5. My blog-reading time on the train
6. Being healthy enough to exercise
7. Making ridiculous jokes with people
8. Having every other Friday off
9. Snorgling Data
10. Having regular poos

Required Ingredients:

Required sauce ingredients (please note, that green top is NOT the top that comes on the sauce bottle – it is a wine topper someone gave us for our wedding).

Our preferred brands for baby corn and water chestnuts.

• 1 box lasagna pasta noodles (We use Barilla wavy lasagne. If you are adventurous, you can try the actual Thai noodles – good luck. That didn’t work too well for us – we don’t have a wok.)
• 1 large carrot
• 3  cups fresh broccoli florets (or a 16 oz bag of frozen florets) (The broccoli soaks up the sauce and tastes wonderful. Just be careful you don’t use too much or it will absorb all the sauce and make the dish bland.)
• 8 oz. sliced water chestnuts
  
• 15 oz. baby corn
• 1 cup spinach (just grab a handful – it’s good for you and can’t ruin the dish)
  
• 4 tbsp. vegetable oil (for stir frying)
  
• Tofu, OR 6 eggs, OR your preferred protein (We like Morningstar Steak Strips (which are now discontinued!), and Heartline Meatless Meats.)
• Vegetable oil for frying tofu (1/4″ – 1/2″ in a frying pan)

Sauce (double this if you are making marinated tofu):

• 2/3 cup sweet soy sauce (We have to go to a special part of Chicago to buy the kind we use. It’s thick and syrupy. This is really what makes the dish. If you can’t find this, you can use regular sauce and add lots of sugar, but it won’t be the same.)
• 1/3 cup Kimlan soy sauce (Any brand will work for this but Kimlan is our favorite – more flavor less salt.  Kikoman is also pretty good.)
  
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (add to taste)
• 1 tbsp. white sugar

This was Steven’s first time cooking with tofu! Can you believe it? A vegetarian and vegan who have never cooked tofu?!

Well, because of this, we don’t know much about tofu and followed the instructions here. Like I mentioned in the ingredients list above though, you can use a lot of other things instead of tofu.

Extra firm tofu.

We bought the extra firm tofu (winky wink). You drain the liquid out of the tofu, put it on paper towels, and put a heavy pan filled with water on top of it to squish the water out of it. This process takes about 30 minutes, and you have to change the paper towels often, and watch the tofu to make sure it settles straight (to keep the pan from falling over).

Squishing the water out of the tofu.

After you have squished all of the water out of the tofu, you cut it into the size of chunks you want (we cut ours into roughly 1-inch x 1-inch cubes). Tofu doesn’t really taste like anything, so you can fry it like it is, or marinate it. The longer you marinate it, the more flavor it absorbs. For this recipe, you marinate it for about an hour in a bowl filled with the sauce recipe x2.

When you get the water boiling for the noodles, we usually put some soy sauce and crushed red pepper into the noodle water to add a bit of flavor to it (mostly just a nice aroma). It’s important that the noodles are cooked al dente, because they cook a bit longer later in the recipe.

While the pasta is boiling, you cut up all of the broccoli, chop the carrots, and open the cans of baby corn and water chestnuts. You should remove the tofu from the marinade at this point so you can use the remaining sauce (hopefully 1 cup or more!) for the main dish.

Once the pasta is ready (al dente!), you drain it, and rinse it briefly with cool water so you can handle it. You stack all of the noodles on top of one another (resist eating too many!), and cut them into three strips lengthwise, and down the middle (see below).

I always want to eat the noodles at this point.

Put 4 tablespoons of oil into the empty pasta pot, and stir fry the broccoli and carrots on high heat. The trick is to keep the veggies moving around.  After a few brief minutes (you just want to sear the outside of the veggies), add the spinach and stir it around until it has shriveled up.  Finally add the baby corn, water chestnuts, the sauce, and the noodles.

Stir it around to get the sauce on everything, then cover the pot with a lid.  Turn the heat down to low and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, to soak up all the tasty sauce. This is a good time to make Trader Joe’s egg rolls or pot stickers (which are vegan!), and scramble some eggs or fry your tofu.

To fry the tofu, put about 1/4″ to 1/2″ of of oil in a pan on medium high. If the oil gets too hot, it will burn the tofu. The tofu cooks quickly, about 1 minute on each side. You need to drain the oil off of the tofu when it’s done, but paper towel seems to stick (perhaps a metal colander or frying mesh skimmer would work better).  If you are going the egg route, scramble the eggs  in a stick free skillet with a little vegetable oil (probably about 1 tablespoon), then add the scrambled eggs to the pot with the rest of the ingredients.

Marinated and fried tofu. Nom de nom.

We put the dish into bowls and added the tofu on top.

The finished product!

This is the kind of dish you want to make a lot of because it makes wonderful leftovers! As it sits in the fridge it just gets better and better. Perfect for taking a few bites of cold when you get home for work, or taking for lunch, then eating again for dinner (guilty of doing all three today!).

This dish takes about 1 hour to make from start to finish (not counting the tofu draining and marinating steps).

Let me know if you try it. Or if my instructions don’t make sense.

My exhaustion finally caught up with me.

On Thursday I developed a small cough in the afternoon. On Friday, it was deeper, but I felt well enough to go to work. But by lunch time I started to feel weak. I had aches in my legs and couldn’t walk very fast. I left early and the aches spread to my hips and lower back. We had tickets to a comedy club with friends that night and were supposed to meet them for dinner first. Instead, I laid in bed all night, as the aches moved to my chest. Wonderful wife I am. $50 down the drain.

On Saturday, surprisingly, I felt somewhat better. Still weak, but not coughing as much, and not achy. We took Sir Data Lor to the vet, and cleaned the house a bit for friends to come over. I was terrified I would have to cancel our get together* with Kevin, Katie, Diane, E and Tori, but I felt great all day. Until about 9:00 pm, when they probably noticed me continually getting up from playing Wii Trivial Pursuit** to blow my nose, cough, and wash my hands in the bathroom.

On Sunday I felt miserable. I kept getting hot and cold, hot and cold. I would be shivering under the sheets, then they would be wet from me sweating too much. I had to go to Target to pick up a prescription. You know what the pharmacist*** said to me? “You look tired.” You know what it means when people say that to  you? “You look like crap.” I DID look like crap. I laid in bed all day.

I thought I may go to work on Monday, but decided not to. It’s a good thing I didn’t. I could barely stand up when I was trying to make myself oatmeal in the morning – I felt too weak and dizzy. I had aches during the day again. Felt too weak to get out of bed most of the time. But the coughing had gone down. Hurrah.

On Tuesday, I think I’ll go into the office. What the hell. Should be fun.

You know what? I have been PISSED OFF this whole time I’ve been sick. I’m angry. This stupid sickness is putting a serious hamper in my exercise plans. Taking four days off is making me crazy. And I don’t feel like I should be sick. I eat well and I exercise. I’m healthy!

I know what you’re thinking, “Um, Kim, maybe it’s because you don’t get enough sleep?” Yeah, that has got to be it. From now on, I am going to recommit to getting 7 hours of sleep a night. I will set a timer for 10:00 or whatever, and when it goes off, I’ll stop what I’m doing, and go to bed, as often as possible. If that doesn’t happen, I am going to start sleeping on the train again.

I’ll do whatever it takes to get healthy.

And yeah, that includes finally going to the doctor. I’m working on that one.

*We had such a wonderful time having everyone over on Saturday night. We rarely get to spend time with friends, so it was a real treat. And I love that blogging has given me so many “real life” friends. I never thought that would happen when I started this blog! And I must say – I have a very real blogger crush on Tori. She’s even more awesome in person.
**I sucked at Wii Trivial Pursuit just as much as the tangible board game. What a surprise! Not!
***My pharmacist is pretty funny. The last time I was there, she was so excited to enter my new government insurance info in the computer because of the “awesome low prices!”
BONUS FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR: Anyone sick of me using asterisks all the time? Muah ha ha! Blame it on diane! I copied her’s! I love it when she adds little tidbits!

I was thinking about this the other day. About midway through my freshman year, around the time I started theater, I began eating dinner on my own or with friends. Then I started working at McDonald’s the following summer, and I think I ate dinner there EVERY night I worked. I became a manager after working for a year, and then I got FREE McDonald’s food every day I worked. Ha!

I remember I used to go to soccer practice or theater or WHATEVER after school and then go to work to do the closing shift. I would eat french fries, ice cream, tortillas with cheese, cookie dough, shakes… basically whatever I wanted, all night long. Wow. I can’t believe I didn’t turn into a blimp!

I don’t remember ever eating diner with my family on a school night during high school. But it was just because I was busy and doing my own thing. Is this typical?