I'm getting old. I'll be 26 in less than two weeks. I am in my second job in my career, and I haven't started saving for retirement or investing my money. This scares me. I don't have a money tree on my apartment balcony. I want to make sure I'm prepared for big things in life. Money doesn't make happiness, but it sure gives you one less thing to stress about. Today, I set up a Roth IRA and an individual investment account. I don't have a lot of money to contribute right now, but I'm thinking a little bit is better than none. I just figured my money is making pennies of interest in my bank savings account so why not make my money work a little harder for me? Get to work money!
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I feel like we've all heard about the book Tuesdays with Morrie. I had a friend tell me about it back in college, but I had totally forgotten about it until another friend mentioned it just a few months ago. Well, I forgot again. Then, at the library I was looking at books on CD to prepare for an upcoming trip back to Chicago and I came across Tuesdays with Morrie. Turns out, I didn't end up going back to Chicago. I started listening to it anyway in the car. I spend about 40 minutes driving to and from work every day so I figure I can finish it in a few days.
I honestly don't know what the book is about either. I'm excited to see what I can learn from Morrie. This is also my first book on CD. We'll see if I like it. I've been swimming laps now for a good four months and have yet to attempt flip turns. I decided to give them a go today. Oh my! Not a fan. Water up my nose, and I got light-headed. I'll need to keep working on them if I want to be a competitive swimmer. Although, you don't need flip turns when swimming in a lake... Yes, I am hinting at the fact that I think I'm crazy enough to try the Iowa Games Sprint Triathlon.
It took me two weeks longer than my goal, but I ran my first sub-8 minute mile today: 7:56. It's not by much, but it feels good to reach a goal. When I joined the gym back in December, I was running a 10+ minute mile. Man, that's sad. My new goal is to run 2 miles in 16 minutes for the Devour Des Moines race in August. If you are looking for a fun, eating/physical team challenge, DevourDSM is your race. Check it out. The race also benefits a good cause: Buy Fresh Buy Local, which is a great program.
Just doing a little window shopping on Mother's Day and wondered into the Nike Outlet at Jordan Creek. There was a lot of stuff in there at pretty reasonable prices for being Nike. I'm such an off-brand kind of girl though. Much of the time, I just don't think the name brands are worth the extra money. For example, a sports bra for $30? Come on now! How much "technology" is in a bra?
The first thing I ate today: a bowl of cereal. I splurged for dinner: Cold Stone ice cream.
Here's what I took away from my two-week challenge of eating only locally grown and organic/chemical-free food: 1) It's expensive. I spent twice as much on groceries as I usually do. 2) However, it feels really good to support Iowa's hardworking small businesses. I learned about a lot of companies I had never even heard of before. 3) It's hard. Luckily there was some produce available since it's springtime, but to do this year-round and especially in the winter - ouch! 4) You can't eat at restaurants 5) I realized how much food plays a role in our daily lives. Food is such a social thing. We have many choices every day to eat or not to eat. I successfully turned it down every time. 6) I'll continue to support local businesses and eat more organic/chemical-free food. 7) I'll be more concious of what I'm eating. When I made a sandwich today with mayo and mustard, I thought the condiments looked awkward and gross. I didn't really want to eat them but did anyway. They tasted as good as always, but I'm thinking I'm much better off without them. I also made a running record today: 7.5 miles. My legs are killing me. T-7 days to Tough Mudder. On the LAST day of the challenge, I cheated. I swear it was for a good reason though, I had to wake up at 2:30am to be at work by 3:30am and on-air from 5-7am. If I could do that without coffee, I wouldn't be human. So I had a couple cups of coffee; Man, did it smell amazing. Sure, for a split second I thought about just throwing the rest of the day down the tube and ending the challenge a day early. But a split second isn't very long, and sure enough I finished the day off right.
I ate a couple BTC (bacon, tomato, cheese) sandwiches. No mayo, no mustard. Oh! When I opened that pack of frozen local bacon, the beautiful aroma hit me in the face. I don't ever recall opening name brand bacon and smelling so good. I also think the bacon was less fatty. I ended the night out with friends for drinks. They kept trying to get me to cheat and have a drink, but I firmly stood my ground saying I couldn't have a Bud Light or grape bomb shot. I walked into work and saw this! Come on now. How dare you tempt a girl with only 2 days left to go. Surprisingly, I was able to look at them and say no. I'm going to finish this day out strong. So instead of a yummy donut, I had an apple and some bread for breakfast. Still very tasty and way less calories. For lunch, bacon, French toast, and yogurt. Tonight at the Valley Junction Farmers Market, I hope to find some tomatoes to make a BLT with cheese. Mmmm...
I can't believe I just realized I had all the ingredients for French toast. My eggs from Carlisle, milk from Guthrie Center, bread from Algona, and butter from Woodward. I even put a little honey from St. Charles on them since I didn't have any syrup. It was a refreshing new dish to mix up my somewhat boring meal over the past 12 days.
I'm surprised at how well I'm doing caffeine-free. I average a cup of coffee every day/every other day. I don't know if it's because my body knows I can't have it or because I'm eating less processed foods so my body is actually feeling better. I think I've been using caffeine as a crutch. After the 14 days, I'll remember that. What I do miss is chocolate. I eat it every day and get cravings for it if I don't. I just have a little square or two to finish off a meal. This is the longest I've ever gone sans chocolate. It's amazing what one can do... Being completely out of food sucks. I always do this though. I put off grocery shopping until there is literally nothing left to eat in my kitchen. I headed out to Campbell's Nutrition again, but this time to the location on 100th in Urbandale. It's a smaller store with no fresh produce. I canvassed the shelves looking for anything from Iowa. I found only two things: popcorn and soynuts. I already have popcorn; the soynuts are not organic. Strike 1. I went back to Tallgrass Coop in Valley Junction and had a bit more luck. I picked up some bread, meat, yogurt and eggs. I couldn't force myself to get more asparagus or cucumber after eating so much the past week. I don't like radishes and won't eat an onion whole. Unfortunately this time of year, there just isn't a lot of ripe fruits and veggies.
I did the math. Between two stops at Tallgrass, once to Campbell's, and two farmers market, I spent $160ish on food for two weeks. That's a lot! It's about twice as much as I usually spend. Now for people who go out for lunch every day, $160 probably isn't far off. I'm not one of those people, though. |