Approaching Healthy

This is my year for getting healthy. Admittedly, I think that every year, but I really mean it this time! I decided to quite buying anything unhealthy, so at this point, almost everything in the house is good for us. If I don’t buy it, I can’t eat it, right? Anyway, it’s a little more expensive to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and healthier meats, but in the long run, I figure it should be worth it. It’ll mean fewer trips to the doctor, and hopefully it’ll keep us from dying of heart disease and possibly even cancer. Eating better combined with exercising is helping me to keep my cold at bay (I’ve been able to keep working and moving in spite of my cold), helping me lose unwanted inches (3 in my waistline since the new year!), and helping me feel better about myself overall. At the very least, I can rest knowing that I’m doing my part to get God’s temple in good shape and keep it there. Anyway, to help me achieve “good shape” again, I researched “What to Eat When You’re Expecting.” I’m not expecting (let’s make that abundantly clear), but when we were trying to conceive Ian, back in 2003, I was following the diet guidelines in that book; it was the healthiest summer of my entire life. Basically, instead of counting calories, I made sure I ate foods from all of the right categories every day. By the time I had done that, I barely had room for anything too sweet or fattening. So this time, I researched what I should be eating since I’m not trying to conceive (there are guidelines in the book for non-pregnant women), and this is what I came up with (all of the files are Word documents):

Weekly Best Odds Food Chart

The file contains a week’s worth of check-boxes to make sure I am getting what I need each day. I’ve also included a place to keep track of calories on the opposite side of the page.  I just write the foods in the margin, and record the calories for each appropriate day. The calorie counter is for my husband, but I’m mostly just concerned about types of food for myself.

I also typed up a list of foods that I personally like to eat that fall within each category. Here it is:

Best Odds Food Categories

Of course, there are more foods in these categories, but either they didn’t show up in the book, or I figured I wouldn’t eat them in a million years.

To aid in shopping, I also typed up a healthy shopping list. I haven’t researched all the prices yet, but I’m sure they’re different in your area anyway, so I will go ahead and post it, just in case you want to get started:

Healthy Grocery Checklist

Here’s to our health!

No Internet Thursdays

The problem:

Our internet service has been getting slower and slower over the course of several months. Sometimes it is so slow that it won’t load up any pages at all! We called the cable company once before, and they said they would come out and take a look, but if the problem was on our end (aka, our router), then they would charge us a service fee for coming out when it wasn’t their problem. And we would still have to buy a new router.

The solution:

A few days ago, my husband had the grand idea to plug the laptop directly into the modem to see where the problem lay, and sure enough, it was the modem and not the router. When he called again, they said he could bring the old modem in and switch it for a new one. Our cable company is a half-hour from home, but it’s near where Jesse works, so we packed up the modem Sunday night and he took it to work with him on Monday.

The other problem:

To tell you the truth, I was actually excited about an internet-less day. You see, I have a problem constantly checking my email, my blog stats, and tag surfer. I am forever looking for more blogs to comment on, and any time I find myself with a spare minute, I check out Twitter or Facebook as well. Then those spare minutes turn into minutes that I could be using to get things done around the house. They aren’t spare anymore; they’re wasted. Now I know I need to be social and network and all that, but not every single day!

The experiment:

So with an internet-less Monday looming, I just knew I would get all sorts of odds and ends accomplished, and do you know what? I did! I won’t go into detail (I always skim those posts where women brag on every single detail of their day), but I finished up several projects that had been on the back burner for awhile and got a good chunk of another one out of the way. And writing! Boy, did I write!

The resolution:

So, thanks to such a wonderful, blessed Monday, I hereby proclaim Thursdays my NO INTERNET day. (I picked Thursdays because I don’t have to be anywhere on those days, and I will have absolutely no excuse for not having a productive day.) So, in preparation, I am typing this post up ahead of time (Wednesday afternoon), and I will schedule to have it posted for me on Thursday. I am so looking forward to this mini-vacation every week!

The challenge:

Take a break, and tell us how it went! Or let us know your method of coping with all of this insanity!