16 Ways to Eat Healthy While Keeping it Cheap

Monday, 30th July 2007 (by J.D.) This article is about Food, Frugality, Health & Fitness
This is a guest post by Mehdi, author of StrongLifts.com. If you enjoy this post, check out his site.

Eating healthy is important. Eating healthy:

• Lowers disease risks
• Increases productivity
• Gives you more energy
• Makes you stronger
  

You probably think eating healthy is expensive. I’ll be honest — it is. But there are tricks to keep it low cost. Here are sixteen ways to eat more healthy while keeping it cheap.

What is Healthy Food? Before we start, let’s define healthy food. It consists of:
Protein. The building blocks of muscles, needed for strength.
Fat. A balanced intake of omega 3, 6 & 9.
Veggies. All kinds, especially green fibrous veggies.
Fruit. Full of vitamins.
Water. 1 liter per 1000 calories you expend.
Whole grain food. Oats, rice, pasta, breads, …

On with the tips.

1. Switch to Water. I drank huge amounts of soda daily for more than 15 years. Then I started Strength Training and switched to water:
   It’s healthier
   It’s cheaper
   Quit the soda & drink water. Take a bottle wherever you go.
2. Consume Tap Water. Check the price of water on your tap water bill. Now check the price of bottled water. Quit a difference, isn’t it? So why are you buying bottled water?
   Cleaner? Not necessarily.
   Better taste? No, simply a matter of Adaptation.
   Bottled water companies get their supply from the same source you do: municipal water systems. It’s like selling ice to Eskimos. If you don’t trust the quality of tap water, filter it yourself. I use a Brita Pitcher. One $7 filter cleans 40 gallons water.
3. Eat Eggs. I always have eggs at breakfast:
   Full of vitamins
   High in proteins
   Low in price
   Don’t believe the Eggs & Cholesterol myth. Dietary cholesterol is not bound to blood cholesterol. Want to make it cheaper? Buy a chicken.
4. Eat Fatty Meats. Fatty meats are cheaper & more tasty than lean meats. You think it’s not healthy? Check the Fat Myths:
   Fat doesn’t make you fat, excess calories do
   You need a balanced intake of fats: omega 3, 6 & 9
   I’m on the Anabolic Diet, I buy beef chuck instead of sirloin.
5. Get Whey. The cheapest source of protein. 70$ for a 10lbs bag lasting 4 months. Nothing beats that. Use whey in your Post Workout Shake to help recovery.
6. Tuna Cans. Canned tuna is cheap & contains as much protein as meat. Alternate tuna with eggs, meat & whey. You’ll easily get to your daily amount of protein.
7. Buy Frozen Veggies. I mostly buy frozen veggies:
   Take less time to prepare
   You don’t waste money if not eaten in time
   Can be bought in bulk for discounts & stored in your freezer
   If you can afford fresh veggies, then do it. I go frozen.
8. Use a Multivitamin. Pesticides lower the vitamin levels of your fruits & veggies. Two solutions:
   Buy organic food. Expensive.
   Use a multivitamin. $10 a month.
   Choose what fits your wallet best. I take the multivitamin.
9. Fish Oil. Omega-3 is found in fish oil. Benefits of omega-3 consumption include:
   Lowered cholesterol levels
   Decreased body fat
   Reduced inflammation
   You need to eat fatty fish 3 times a week to get these benefits. Time consuming & expensive, I know. Try Carlson’s Liquid Fish Oil with Lemon flavor. One teaspoon daily. You’ll be ok.
10. Buy Generic Food. The box might be less attractive, it’s certainly more attractive to your wallet. Brand-name food will always be more expensive. You’re paying for the name. Get real. Food is food. Go generic.
11. Buy in Bulk. Think long-term. Buying in bulk is more expensive at the cashier, but cheaper in the long run:
    Gets you discounts
    Saves time
    Saves car fuel
    Invest in a big freezer. Buy meats & veggies in bulk and freeze them.
12. Go to One Grocery Store. This grocery store is cheaper for meat, that grocery store is cheaper for veggies, the other grocery store is cheaper for fish… How many grocery stores are you going to, trying to find the cheapest food? Think!
    Time is money. Stop losing a day shopping.
    Cars don’t run on water. Lower your fuel expenses.
    I get all my food in a big grocery store near my place. It hasn’t the cheapest price for all foods, but it saves me time & fuel.
13. Make a Plan. A classic, but worth repeating. Everything starts with a plan.
    Make a list of what you need
    Eat a solid meal, don’t go hungry
    Go the grocery, get what’s on your list & get out
    No need to take your partner or kids with you. This is not a recreational activity. Just get your food & get back home.
14. Take Food To Work. Ever counted how much money you throw away buying food at work daily? Start preparing your food for the day on waking up:
    Get up earlier
    Eat a solid breakfast (like Scrambled Eggs)
    Prepare your food for work in the meanwhile
    Total time 30 minutes. No stress during the day about what you’ll be eating & you get healthy food while sparing money.
15. Eat Less. This one is obvious. The less you eat, the lower your grocery bill. If you’re overweight, get on a diet. Your health & bank account will thank you.
16. Don’t Buy Junk Food. The last one. Stop buying anything that comes out of a box, it’s:
    Unhealthy
    Expensive
    If you actually find junk food that is cheaper than whole food, think long-term. Health implications.
    

Mehdi is author of StrongLifts.com, a blog about Strength Training, nutrition, lifestyle & attitude. His articles include the Anabolic Diet & the Beginner Strength Training Program. Join him at StrongLifts.com for the fascinating journey toward more strength, bigger muscles, low body fat & a better health.

quote

"A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down."
-- Beverly Sills

10 Ways to Stay Organized with SMS/MMS

10 Ways to Stay Organized with SMS/MMS from LifeHack.com

• Send tasks to your todo list. Many online task managers accept tasks via SMS, usually indirectly (using an intermediate service to “translate”, although Gubb allows tasks to be added directly). For example, I use Twitter to send tasks to my Toodledo list, using a special format: d toodledo [Task] #[Due date] *[Folder]. (E.g. “d toodledo Write a post for Lifehack #5/27 *Lifehack”)
• Add events to your calendar. Google Calendar allows you to add events via tet message using it’s “natural language” entry method. So you send a text to “GVENT” (48368) saying “Meet Andy at Joe’s Cafe tomorrow at 2:30pm” and Google parses it out and puts it into your calendar. 30 Boxes is also supposed to do this, but I don’t use it enough to be familiar with how. (If you know, tell us how in the comments!)
• Check your calendar. Using the same “GVENT” number, you can get a summary of your next appointment, your schedule for the day, or tomorrow’s schedule from your Google Calendar, no matter where you are. To get your next event, text “next” to “GVENT”; to get your schedule for the day, text “day”; for tomorrow’s schedule, text “nday”. A text message will be returned with the information you requested.
• Track your expenses. Everyone knows the key to good budgeting is keeping track of what you spend. This is easier said than done, though, and it’s not helped by the fact that expense tracking is pretty boring. Enter Xpenser, a web-based expense tracker that allows you to submit expenses on the fly via text message. Send the amount, a short description, a keyword for the type of expense, and you’re done. (Note: Users outside of the US and Canada can’t do this directly, but can use Twitter as an intermediary.)
• Track how you use your time. If you bill by the hour, or if you just recognize that as with money budgeting, time budgeting needs good record-keeping, you can keep track of your time away from the office with text messaging, too. Harvest is an online time tracking service that allows time records to be sent via SMS, using Twitter. You just send a (private) direct message using the following format: d harvest t duration notes. Check out Harvest’s instructions for more details. Incidentally, if Xpensr doesn’t turn you on, Harvest also does expense tracking.
• Keep a food diary. Whether you’re trying to lose a few pounds or just want to eat a healthier diet, a food diary can be a useful tool. Tweet What You Eat uses Twitter to track your food intake: eat, tweet, move on with your life.
• Track gas usage and mileage. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but gasoline prices are up a bit this year. Tracking your mileage is a good way to identify problems that are making your car run less efficiently. Two new services allow you to record mileage at the pump: My Milemarker and FuelFrog both let you use Twitter to send reports from the pump. For FuelFrog, send an “@” message to @fuelfrog with the miles driven, price, and gallons (in either Imperial or metric); for My Milemarker, you send a direct message like this: “D mymm [miles] [gallons] [price]“.
• Scan documents and whiteboards. Two services — ScanR and Qipit — will take photos sent via MMS from your phone, clean them up, and send you nicely formatted PDF documents. If your phone’s camera is high enough resolution (over 2 megapixels), ScanR will even run OCR (optical character recognition) to pull out the text!
  Get directions. Feeling lost? Send the address of your start point and destination to “GOOGLE” (466453) and Google will send you directions! Note: You may receive more than one text message in return, depending on the length of your trip.
• Send email. That you can send text messages to email addresses is often forgotten. Just replace the phone number with an email address. There are a lot of services that don’t take text messages but will accept emails. How about sending article ideas to your Google Docs account? Sending notes and even pictures to Evernote? Sending an address to yourself to cut-and-paste into your contact manager? Or telling your cell-phone-phobic mom that you love her (awwww…)?

Toxic water bottles?

In addition to the sites published in my previous blog, I found this information. Basically, the article I took this from said that it's good to be wary of plastics, but that nothing has been proven in humans. Personally, I think precaution is a good thing... and there are greener alternatives to plastic bottles:

Safeguards for the plastic-wary

• Don't microwave; use glass or microwavable ceramic.
• Avoid fatty and acidic foods and hot foods/drink.
• Don't wash in dishwasher or in extremely hot water.
• Don't clean with bleaches or harsh detergents.
• Don't reuse single-use plastic products (i.e., No. 1 water bottles, plastic ware).
• Discard products with visible wear (i.e., scratches, cracks, opaque tint).
• Don't use plastic wrap in the microwave.
  

Why polycarbonate?
The main attribute of polycarbonate plastic is its toughness (i.e. sports, toddlers, etc.)

Dangers:
If the plastic bond begins to break down, the BPA in the cup can leach into the contents of the bottle, possibly leaching at a higher rate if the juice is highly acidic. Whether the chemicals in Junior's next swig can have a long-term effect on him is not certain, but some studies suggest a possible connection with behavior and neurological problems, including hyperactivity.

Precautions:
Although the polycarbonate bond is extremely strong, some studies suggest exposure to high-heat (dishwashers, hot drinks, microwaves) can dramatically increase leaching. Regulatory agencies still assure that the increased BPA levels seen in such studies are safe.

Memorial Day Weekend and Number 7 bottles

Had a great weekend. Worked at UAS Community Day on Saturday, split the shift with Deana. It was actually pretty fun. We gave away a lot of leftover T-shirts, but did not give away our leftover water bottles because the sustainability people in the booth next to us said we could not give away toxic number 7 bottles (and then she walked away and lit a cigarette). Some articles:

• Is your nalgene bottle toxic? http://www.goodcleantech.com/2008/04/is_your_nalgene_bottle_toxic.php
• BPA and Nalgene http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/technical/bpaInfo.html

Other than that it was a good day.

Then on Sunday we invited people over to have turkey, yes turkey. Here in Juneau we are in the midst of an electrical energy crisis, and we are doing everything we can to conserve electricity to help keep our bills down. We wanted to turn off our extra freezer but in order to do so had to empty it out somewhat. Among other things in our freezer was a 20# turkey. We deep fried it outside and had a potluck. It was delicious, but took longer than we had expected to get ready.

Today we slept in pretty late, then David worked in the yard and I did a little work inside the house. We went to stupidtown (walmart) and then to Superbear and bought a hanging basket to put on the hook that hangs from the awning over our hot tub (and right outside our kitchen window) and then McDonalds. Then we came home and Tyler had a guitar lesson, while I stayed home and sunbathed (with baby oil----- I know, bad) and now I'm just doodling around on my computer.

The Dinner Dash - combination of previous listings

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

week of 3/31 countdown to vacation!
Sunday we had the Neely's lasagna - I was missing an ingredient - tomato sauce! I thought I had it so I didn't purchase it at the store. Alas, I didn't have it, so I substituted ketchup (shh!). It still turned out really good. David REALLY likes it!Monday we had tomato/polenta soup and grilled chicken caesar salad. It wasn't as good as I had hoped this time. I used the Safeway tomato bisque soup, and it was actually kind of spicy. Also, I did not crumble the polenta, I cut it in cubes, and decided I like it better with crumbled polenta. Today is Tuesday and tonight we are going to have Chicken/Rice Bake. At lunch time I went home and got the casserole all ready, and left instructions for Cody to turn on the oven and put it in at 5 PM so that it is done about 6 PM. I even set up the rice cooker with plain white rice for Cody to turn on at that time as well.I have menus in place for the rest of the days between now and Saturday night. Cody and I leave for Spokane on Sunday, and David and Tyler leave on Monday. Really looking forward to some different food while in Spokane.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 2:29 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

the week so far
OK here we go:Sunday: Dinner at the Johnsons - pizza on the grill.... excellent recipe Lynne learned from Ramekins cooking school in California (and too much wine).Monday: Steak (that had been marinating since Saturday nite.... too tired then to make it, then forgot about going to the Johnson's on Sunday, but was REALLY good) grilled outside, baked potatoes and fresh asparagus steamed in the microTuesday: Salmon (caught fresh, vacuum-sealed & frozen right away last summer), my own special rice (with peppers and onions, cooked in chicken broth), and fresh broccoli steamed in the microWednesday: Tonight we are having pork chops (not sure how to prepare yet), corn on the cob, and something else (to be determined). Maybe some bread, too.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 5:21 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

dinner after car shop frustration
This is what dinner looks like when you're mad at the service dept:
deli roasted chicken from Safeway (warm and ready to go)
Country Crock macaroni & cheese (5 min in the microwave)
broccoli (steamed in the microwave)
Just me and Cody so far... David got called into work and Tyler is supposed to be home soon.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 7:56 PM 0 comments
Saturday, March 15, 2008

regroup
It's Saturday and I have spent the last 2 days being very naughty. I can't recall what the trigger was but I really blew it nutritionally and diet-wise the last 2 days. The things I couldn't stop eating:
Chips and Salsa - once you start you can't stop
McFlurry with M&M's - even the small one is too much
In fact, I was so bad, that was my meal yesterday for dinner. Pathetic. Oh well. I weighed myself this morning and really only gained back 2 pounds, so this is a manageable setback. I decided that perhaps I was being a little bit too stringent with my diet and the way I was thinking about food. I am following Weight Watchers Flex Plan and the basic idea is that I have 21 points each day, with 35 points to use as I see fit throughout the week. That is totally do-able. I think what I need to do, though, is really try to save my extra points for the weekend.
Anyhow... Dinner tonight is frozen pizza, but we always add things to our frozen pizzas:
Pepperoni Pizza with black olives added
Cheese pizza for Cody
Canadian bacon pizza with pineapple added
and I also bought a California Pizza Kitchen BBQ pizza, but I probably won't make that one tonight
Tomorrow I may try a really cool recipe I found on the Internet for Guinness Stout Beef Stew. I will be traveling all day on St. Patrick's Day, so this will be our early celebration.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 3:39 PM 1 comments
Monday, March 3, 2008

pasta night
Still on the plan, going good. Monday is always pasta night in our house. Here's the menu tonight:
Mama Neely's Lasagna - I usually make my homemade lasagna with jarred spaghetti sauce, sometimes enhanced with italian sausage. Today I tried a new recipe from one of my new favorite shows Down Home with the Neelys on Food Network. I linked the recipe title to the website.
Bag o' Salad with tomatoes and cucumber
garlic bread
Posted by Keni Lynn at 8:12 PM 1 comments

Sunday - back on the plan
pulled out my menus with WW points. Here's what we had tonight:
Marinated broiled pork chops - I went on the internet to look for a marinade and foudn this one that was excellent: http://www.mccormick.com/recipedetail.cfm?id=10840
Couscous - made with chicken broth, shredded zucchini, carrots and yellow squash
Sauteed veggies - Zucchini, carrots, yellow squash
It was really good.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 8:05 PM 0 comments
Sunday, March 2, 2008

Lost catch up night!
We made Red Baron frozen pizzas - pepperoni and black olives, cheese, and hawaiian.Easy peasy.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 12:46 PM 0 comments
Older Posts

Negative me

Negative Me
A place to write about things that I need to get out of my head, but don't necessarily want to share with (or bore) anyone else.

OK - I decided to include this in my combination of all of my blogs. I was worried there might be something in there that I would be judged poorly by, but I don't care, and I don't think anything here is all that negative anyway:

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

stupid teleconferences
I can't believe I have to meet with this group weekly. This is so stupid.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 2:28 PM 0 comments
Friday, March 14, 2008

Develop clean-house habits one at a time
Try these habits for at least two weeks each before going onto the next:

• hang your clothes up or put them in hamper immediately
• put all papers (including school papers, post-in notes, bills, etc) in one in basket, and process at the end of each day (use the steps in Clearing Your Desk)
• keep your sink clean and shiny (wash dishes immediately, clean sink after)
• pick up before you go to bed and before you leave the house
• empty your trash daily
• 15 minutes decluttering sessions each day (see How to Declutter)
• clean your shower, toilet and bathroom sink after each use (only takes a couple minutes!)
• have a place for everything, and put everything in its place immediately
• make your bed each morning
• keep flat surfaces (counters, tables, desks) clear of clutter
• put away your stuff as soon as you get home
  Posted by Keni Lynn at 9:37 PM 0 comments

MIT: Most Important Tasks
Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task (MIT)from zenhabits.netI’ve mentioned this briefly in my morning routine, but I thought I’d explain a little bit more about MITs - Most Important Tasks. It’s not an original concept, but one that I use on a daily basis and that has helped me out tremendously.

It’s very simple: your MIT is the task you most want or need to get done today. In my case, I’ve tweaked it a bit so that I have three MITs — the three things I must accomplish today. Do I get a lot more done than three things? Of course. But the idea is that no matter what else I do today, these are the things I want to be sure of doing. So, the MIT is the first thing I do each day, right after I have a glass of water to wake me up.And here’s the key to the MITs for me: at least one of the MITs should be related to one of my goals. While the other two can be work stuff (and usually are), one must be a goal next-action. This ensures that I am doing something to move my goals forward that day.

And that makes all the difference in the world. Each day, I’ve done something to make my dreams come true. It’s built into my morning routine: set a next-action to accomplish for one of my goals. And so it happens each day, automatically.

Another key: do your MITs first thing in the morning, either at home or when you first get to work. If you put them off to later, you will get busy and run out of time to do them. Get them out of the way, and the rest of the day is gravy!It’s such a small thing to implement, and yet I’m raving about it like it’s a huge revelation. But it is. Sometimes small things can make big differences. I highly recommend you give it a go.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 8:45 PM 0 comments

Monday, February 18, 2008

hmm... my horoscope today... sounds like my last several days
Libra
September 22 - October 22This may be a tough day for you emotionally. It may surprise you to find that some very old deep-seated emotions get churned up in the course of your investigating a subject of keen interest to you. It may be difficult to process these feelings. Don't try to over intellectualize them, dear Libra. At the same time be wary of situations that could trigger an emotional cyclone for you. Some words, once they get in the air, can be brutally hurtful. Try to avoid this at all costs.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 8:51 PM 0 comments
Saturday, February 2, 2008

Wish List
New Pots & Pans

Grill Pan

Gas Stove
Posted by Keni Lynn at 4:13 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 14, 2008

goals update
Mental Wellness Goals:
Stop reading and caring about celebrities - I'm not really doing too good with this one. I am just fascinated by Britney Spears and her life derailing. I'm also somewhat obsessed with celebrity's babies.
Become more aware of the world and REAL STUFF - I've been trying to pay a little more attention to politics, since we have an election coming up. I'm trying to identify with the republican candidates, but really I'm having a hard time identifying with anyone in politics regardless of their affiliation. I also have a hard time following the war. My gut reactions tell me we need to get out of there, but I really don't know why we are there in the first place anyway.
Read more - I actually read quite a bit. I'm not sure why this goal is here. Currently I'm wavering between the two books that Lynne bought me for Xmas. I think I'll like both, I just need to dive in.
Do hobbies more - My current cross-stitch project is the re-do of the Forebears. I'm making one for my mom and one for my sister. I had set a goal to do one bear per night, but haven't been doing it. Mostly because I've been typing for Beth. But, maybe I need to set a slightly smaller goal of one bear's color per night. I also want to start painting, as does David, but he hasn't started yet, and I don't want to open up his stuff without him getting a chance to do it first.

Household Goals:
Eat dinner at the table more often - we ate dinner at the table last night, and a couple times last week. Not doing it as much as I had planned yet, but again that has to do with covering for Beth.
have a better cleaning routine - I've been pretty good with this. I'm trying to do things as I see them needing to be done. I really need to incorporate a vacuuming routine.
have people over for dinner more often - haven't done this yet but really need to. I want to have Lynne & Lloyd over, but their travel schedules have been prohibitive
have kids cook dinner and help with meal planning - Tyler cooked last week and so did Cody. I don't really have them in the schedule this week, though, mostly because we are traveling this weekend.

Health and Personal Care Goals:
Follow beauty routine regularly - I haven't been very good about this. I've been washing my face, but haven't been good about using clarifier or moisturizer, unless I obviously need it.
floss every day - I have not been good with this.
keep up with highlights - I had my hair done yesterday and I have an appointment made for a touch-up on February 17.
eat better - include more healthy stuff, exclude more unhealthy stuff - I've been so-so with this. Right now I'm focusing on drinking a glass of milk with each meal to get my 3 servings.
avoid eating after dinner - start drinking herbal tea instead - I haven't done very well with this most days. I'm still having a homemade wine cooler after dinner instead of tea. I can do better.
walk and move more in general - stop being so lazy! - I've been trying to consciously not be so lazy, relying on kids to get stuff from downstairs, etc. I've been trying to run my own errands. I've been flirting with the idea of parking as far away from the office as I can, but haven't actually followed through yet.
get to the gym at least 3 times per week - have NOT been doing this, mostly because of typing for Beth. Plan to go the rest of this week, and then when I get back from Las Vegas (maybe even while I'm in Vegas - but not silly enough to expect that I will).

Financial Goals:
Keep up with financial spreadsheet daily - I have been doing AWESOME with this
stop buying magazines - not so good with this. I like magazines, darn it!
pay down credit cards and work towards paying them OFF - trying, at least have a decent way to track it now, but not really paying off yet. Beth says she would welcome someone helping her on weekends, etc. so maybe I can dedicate income from that towards paying off bills.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 12:51 PM 0 comments

it's early on a Monday morning
I didn't expect to be up this early, but thanks to the weather and Alaska Airlines, Beth didn't make it back, so here I am once again, up early early typing. It's all good, though, because this is all Las Vegas money.A few cool things I don't want to forget to check out... I clipped this out of Women's Health magazine.A food journal that might help with dieting caloriecount.about.com.this person's tips on weight loss:
Eat your treats. Small portions of your favorite foods every day.
Have a daily goal (i.e. Today I will run 3 miles, or 20 minutes or whatever).
Take a day off. You need the mental and physical break.Don't lose your digi-goods... recommended using a USB flash drive to back up entire contents of laptop/computer every so often. luminosity.comfor daiy games developed by researchers in neuroscience (yikes... just noticed it's $10 per month -- not su re it's worth that)animoto.comcan turn digital photo slide show into a "mini-flick" with music in the backgroundbighugelabs.com --- isn't this what Cody used to do his project magazine cover?flickr.com - can do a DIY E-cardCool!

Work Blog - previous postings

I'm in the process of combining my previous blogs all into one. These were previously in my blog "Work Blog":


Cringe-Busting your TODO list
by Merlin Mann May 23 2005

As I’ve said before, items can sometimes linger on your TODO list a lot longer than you’d like, and it can be tricky to understand exactly why that is in each case. I’m convinced cringing is often a factor.

Being that it’s Monday, and a lot of us are planning this week’s activities, why not join me in a modest exercise.

• Print out your TODO list (alphabetically, if possible)
• Read it over—beginning to end
• Go back and circle each item that makes you cringe, or that causes you some kind of existential angst
• Per cringe item, think honestly about why you’re freaked out about it. Seriously. What’s the hang-up? (Fear of failure? Dreading bad news? Angry you’re already way overdue?)
• Now, again, per cringe item, add a new TODO that will a) make the loathsome task less cringe-worthy, or b) just get the damned thing done
• Cross the original cringe items off your list
• Work immediately on the new, cringe-busting TODO
  

If you could do this for just one item on your TODO list today, wouldn’t you be a little better off? Is there a quick call you could make, a draft you could edit, an email you could return, or some other piddling 2-minute task that would plane some cringe off of your hated tasks?

Imagine if you did this today for five items on your list. Now imagine you began each Monday with a Cringe Bust. Might be a handy way to pick off old items and let some unnecessary anxiety out of your working week.

(For extra credit, find the item on your list that’s been making you cringe for the longest. Anybody else turning up items that have been inducing cringes for over a month? Ouch. I suck.)

The real tooth-grinders for me...
Submitted by Brad (not verified) on May 24, 2005 - 1:20am.
The real tooth-grinders for me are always phone calls. I’ll email and fax and send carrier pigeons all day, but for some reason I just don’t like the phone - talking to people that way, rather than face-to-face (which I find generally pleasant) or textually (which I find more efficient) is just a put-off for me.

Sadly, not everyone in my life does email.

I’m not sure how to restate the Next Action “call Fred” to be less cringe-inducing, but I do have success with having a dedicated phone call night, where I get through as many as I can in one sitting, just to have them out of the way.

I think that's actually a...
Submitted by Merlin Mann on May 24, 2005 - 1:50am.
I think that’s actually a pretty good example, Brad —and FWIW, I’m with you on phone calls.
You might try something like:

• List 3 things to go over with Fred
• Read over Fred’s last email
• Prepare pre-emptive fake interruption in order to get off call with Fred
• Google Fred for embarrassing life details whose mention might keep call short
  

But, seriously, I know what you mean. Some cringers you just have to hold your nose and jump. Sometimes it helps to focus on the next two or three non-horrible things you can work on when the cringer is cleared away.

I just stumbled upon something...
Submitted by oldtimey (not verified) on May 25, 2005 - 9:18pm.
I just stumbled upon something similar … recently I was staring at my ever-growing task-list. “Which of these tasks do I hate the most?” I wondered, and then decided to label one: WORST. (I had to call a company back about an incorrect bill — I’d already paid it, but I was just hating the idea of trying to explain this to them.)

Then I stared at the WORST task, and all the other ones there. Within five minutes I had picked up the phone and made the call. For some reason, once I’d deemed one (but only one) action to be the absolutely most-dreaded thing possible, it took the mystique out of it! It just didn’t hold any power over me anymore.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The jist of Getting Things Done
What’s it about?This is the best capsule description of the book that I’ve come across, far better than anything I could have come up with. David Allen, the author of the book, describes Getting Things Done as follows:Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up — not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing (and not doing) at any time.Basically, Getting Things Done has one overall guiding principle: write down the stuff you need to do as you think of it, then process that list when you have open time. If you have ongoing projects, keep a list or a folder for that project and check on it regularly to keep it going. That’s the nutshell of it - the book goes on to show examples of how it works and add some detail for specific situations, but that’s really all there is to Getting Things Done.
Posted by Keni Lynn at 11:01 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

how to recruit a small army
Kind of in a productivity / GTD / organization / zen kick right now. Decided to start a blog for things that will be useful for work. First one is from The Art of NonConformity about How to Recruit a Small Army -- when I first read it I thought of my children and housework, but the more I read I thought about the Student Alumni Association. But I guess it could be used for any cause, and in addition UAS Alumni & Friends.

Food & Fitness - previous postings

I'm in the process of combining my previous blogs all into one. These were previously in my blog "Food & Fitness":


How To Kill Your Addictions to Junk Food and Soda Pop
Written on 5/20/2008 by Garrett Whelan who writes about cooking for men or anyone trying to kick the fast food habit at FatBastardEats.com.

How can you kick junk food to the curb? Many of us have tried and failed, and tried and failed, and tried and ended up binging on Big Macs blended with ice cream, etc...What we usually do is say, "After this bucket of KFC Chicken, I'm not eating this crap anymore!" Then we purge our house of all things sugary, we eat salads and whole wheat for about 3 days and then cave in the first time we drive past a Taco Bell. Where is the will power, the drive, the ambition you had a couple days ago?That's because we try to stop eating junk food without thinking about it - without planning our escape. What we should do is worry about changing our habits. As Leo Babauta mentioned over at Zen Habits, forging new habits takes time and energy. If we want to kick our junk food habits we'll have to give both. That's why we're going to:

• only change one habit at a time
• give each change at least 2 weeks to become ingrained. After all, we've spent years building up these habits, we can't expect to take them down overnight. We'll do it smart, slow and consistent and we'll kick junk food to the curb.
• I'm going to separate the tasks into kicking crap snacks, kicking fast food and kicking pop (soda to you philistines).
• Pick whichever will be easiest for you and do that first. A taste of success is incredibly motivating.
• Then do the one that will be hardest second while you're on an upswing.

Kick the Pop Habit

This one's probably the simplest. Not the easiest, but the simplest. You just keep downgrading every 2-4 weeks. Essentially switching terrible habits for bad and then switching bad for good.

• Regular -to- Diet: First switch from regular to diet pop and leave it at that for at least 2 weeks. I know that some people say diet is just as bad as regular but we don't want to be fighting our caffeine addiction at the same time we're fighting our sugar addiction. Remember we want to change habits in stages to have the highest chance of success.
• Diet -to- Caffeine Free Diet: If you do have a caffeine addiction this is where you'll find out. You're going to have about 3 days of feeling like a hangover mouth tastes while your body breaks the physical addiction. But stay on it for the full 2 weeks, we don't want to change too much too fast.
• Caffeine Free Diet -to- Flavored Water/Water: Now we're moving into healthy territory. If you can't stand drinking water I'm not going to lecture you. Just drink the flavored water with 0 calories they have now, it's just as good(if you don't mind paying for it). If you want you can use that as a jumping off point to regular water but either way you should be loosing weight and feeling better than when you were drinking pop.

Kick Fast Food

How do we beat crack for the single male? Yes, that's how hooked people are on this. How about this:

• Start by saving all your fast food receipts for one week
• Now, place a jar by your bedEach night, empty your pants, wallet, or purse of all the fast food receipts.
• At the end of one week, you can add them all up and get a pretty good idea of how much you're spending on this crap. Round that up to the nearest $10 and cut it in half. That's how much you'll spend a week from now on.
• Take that money and put it in a ziplock bag that you keep in your car. All your fast food will be paid for out of this fund, and when it dries up, that's it until next week. This will force you to ration and make choices.Let it sink in for 2 weeks and don't forget to plan this out.
• Something has to replace all that fast food you're suddenly not eating. I suggest: Keep something in your car to eat on the way home from work, like an apple or some nuts - something filling and always ready. Have some frozen meals ready at home so you never wonder what you're going to eat tonight. If you can't make them yourself on the weekend, try those frozen skillets - something balanced and quick.
• Then, when this new habit is a part of you, cut that dollar amount again, and again, and again until you're happy with how much (how little) fast food you're eating. I think under $10 a week is OK for most people.

Kick Crap Snacks

• The first step to kicking crappy snack foods is doing a food inventory. What do you have in your kitchen? Cookies, chips, candy? And what are you eating them for? Which are your comfort food? Stress foods?
• Then we're going to make a chart of all these snacks and for each one list a replacement snack. For example instead of potato chips you could eat tortilla chips with salsa. Now you can switch a crappy snack for it's healthier replacement. But no more than one every two weeks (pacing). Make yourself eat the new food daily so it becomes a part of your lifestyle and remember to snack before you get hungry.

It's a pretty straight forward process but here's a few tips to make it go smoother:

• If you have a craving for a crap snack that you absolutely have to give in to, buy an individual portion or eat just enough to satisfy your craving and throw out the rest. Keeping it around is crap-snack sabotage.
• If you have a sweet tooth, proportion something into bites and eat them after a healthy snack. For example cut a snickers bar into 8ths and keep each individually wrapped in the freezer, then eat one after you've filled up on popcorn. That gives you that sweet taste without having to fill up that sweet crap.
• The three keys to kicking junk food are planning, pacing and sticking to it.Remember to take as long as you need to get these new habits ingrained, 2 weeks is a minimum. Better junk food free in 1 year than relapsing in 6 months.
  Posted by Keni Lynn at 11:00 PM 0 comments
  Tuesday, March 18, 2008
  
  excuses excuses
  There will always be roadblocks if I allow them to be.
  Posted by Keni Lynn at 11:03 PM 0 comments
  Saturday, February 16, 2008
  
  hard time and two goals for tomorrow
  I need to get back on track. I am sure that once I do, and get into a routine, my mood will improve. I have been really down lately. I have been sluggish and crabby and sleepy. My goal for tomorrow is to get to the gym. It doesn't matter what I do, but I need to get there.I met with Stephanie with the WIN program at the university. I have goals for the next 2 weeks to get to the gym today. Didn't do that, obviously, but I WILL go tomorrow. Another goal is to get back with my WW plan, using the menus that I had already created previously. And the third goal was to take the kids to the gym on the weekends only, and teach Cody how to do some fitness routines at home.So my second goal will be to get those menus out and get groceries to start the plan. Right now I am going to go to the WW site and change from core plan to flex plan. I think that will work better for me. I don't like having things off limits.
  Posted by Keni Lynn at 9:52 PM 0 comments
  Tuesday, January 15, 2008
  
  Tuesday, January 15, David's Birthday
  vanilla yogurt with pumpkin flaxseed granola cereal2 chocolatesbowl of vegetable beef soupfishy crackers1 cup milk1 can mountain dew1 bowl tortilla soup1 brownie1 scoop dulce du leche ice cream1 cup milk
  Posted by Keni Lynn at 11:19 PM 0 comments
  Monday, January 14, 2008
  
  Monday, January 14
  Class of ice water with orange squeezed into itHalf a cup of coffee with creamerVanilla yogurt and pumpkin flaxseed granola cerealnordstrom truffle1 and 1/4 slices thai chicken pizza from Pizzeria Roma1 cup of milknordstrom trufflehalf a diet pepsi2 slices hawaiian pizza1 cup milkhalf a big bowl of popcorn with parmesan cheese2 glasses of wine with sprite

My turtle candy recipe

Turtles

 

72 pecan halves

24 caramel candies

1 tsp shortening

1 package (6 ounces) chocolate chips (white or milk)

 

Heat oven to 300

Cover cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper

For each candy form a Y shape

Place one caramel in the center of each Y shape

Bake for 6 minutes (or until caramel is melted over the pecans)

Use microwave to melt chocolate and shortening (1 minute, then stir, then 1 more minute then stir)

Place one spoonful of chocolate over each candy

Allow to harden in a cool place (not refrigerator)