Happiness Project: Giving Up Pop / Soda / Whatever

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Carla — No Comments ↓

As I have been working my way through applying The Happiness Project to my own life, there have been some small steps and some really big steps. Eating better is one main goal of mine. The first step for this goal was a small one: giving up margarine. We had already switched from stick margarine to stick butter, but we were still using Brummel & Brown margarine spread. We had tried Land O’Lakes Spreadable Butter, but it wasn’t really that spreadable. During a Christmas housewares buying spree at Jungle Jim’s, we decided to solve the problem old school style. We bought a butter bell. It’s solved the problem and we’ve been really happy having soft butter for our toast and such. The flavor is so much better!

In March and April, we made an even bigger change. We decided to give up pop (or soda or whatever you call it in your region). We used to drink a lot of pop. Our fridge used to always have four 12-packs of pop in it (Diet Mountain Dew, Coke Zero, Caffeine Free Diet Coke and a wild card that rotated between Diet Squirt, root beer or ginger ale). A large space in the pantry housed more 12-packs. There was the hassle of buying it and hauling it home. And then there was the hassle of taking the cans to the recycling bin. Enough already!

We knew we couldn’t go cold turkey on this one so we eased into it. First, we finished up the pop we had in the house. Then, we quit drinking it at home, but did order it out (or for me, drink it at school). Tom already drank iced tea when eating out and I started ordering iced tea every once in a while. At home, we relied on our water cooler and our Soda Stream. We now always have orange juice, cranberry juice and ruby red grapefruit juice in the fridge.

We took bottles of seltzer water and juice on vacation with us too. By the last day of vacation, I started noticing that pop tasted almost “thick” compared to the iced tea or sparkling water we’d been drinking. I decided it was time to give it up completely. It hasn’t been easy and school is especially hard, but the one and only bottle of Diet Mountain Dew that I’ve had in the last three weeks didn’t taste very good compared to sparkling water and juice I’d been drinking.

I’m amazed at how prevalent soda or pop was in my daily life, but I’m very happy with the change. This step, by the way, has led to another better eating step that I’ll talk about next week.

– Carla

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Walking: Week 2, Day 2

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Carla — No Comments ↓

Better. Today went better. I completed the whole workout (just over two miles) and the white New Balance 505 shoes are definitely my walking shoes from now on. I did have a bit of a numbness issue with the ball of my right foot, but I think I can correct it by wiggling my toes more during the walking segments and loosening the lower part of my shoe laces.

I forgot to wear a hat this time and found out how much I need it. Won’t be going without one again. Still tweaking my music playlist, but it’s getting there.

I’ve noticed that most of the sidewalks around here are at a slight angle which puts my ankles at a bad angle for walking. I’ve been walking in the street whenever I see that the sidewalk is slanted and that is helping.

Also, I have to admit that I can only use the loop in front of our place for warm up or cool down. It’s too damn tempting to just quit if I’m that near home.

My pace is picking up each time and that makes me happy. I know I can build the endurance because I have before, but I’ve always been worried about my pace. I’m really liking the Ease Into 5K app and will be reviewing next week.

I have to get Saturday’s walk in early but then I get to go eat pancakes for a good cause. If you’re near Union, KY Saturday morning, you should check it out!

– Carla

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Tech Review: Lift App

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Carla — 3 Comments ↓

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been working this year to achieve some goals inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. In the book and companion web site, Rubin has spreadsheets or checklists for keeping track how she did each day. I started out with those too, but geeked them up a bit by creating them in Google Docs. But then I found something even better.

Lift App 1

The Lift app makes goal tracking so much easier. It lets you enter several goals and then check in when you complete that goal for the day. You get to push a big green button (see below). Many goals are all ready in the Lift database, but you can enter your own custom ones too.

You can also set a reminder for each goal. Just pick which days of the week and what time. Lift will even send you “occasional, supportive reminders” if you like. In addition, you can connect to your Twitter account, link with friends and otherwise customize notifications and such.

Lift App 2

This free app is iPhone only for now, but a web version is suppose to be on its way. Lift doesn’t do lots of things. But what it does, it does well. I highly recommend it.

– Carla

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Posted in Books, Fitness, Observations, Technology, The Happiness Project

Walking: Week 2, Day 1

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Carla — 1 Comment ↓

Blech! That’s about the only way I can describe today’s walk. My left knee was twinging. Both feet were not happy about me walking in my tan New Balance shoes (got a small blister on my left Achille’s tendon to prove it). My playlist got out of order. And I ended up finishing early so I only walked 1.03 miles today.

Today’s Lessons Learned

1. Switch to the white New Balance 505 shoes. After loosening the laces, I wore them this weekend and they have more support than either my tan or grey 646 ones. I probably need new socks too.

2. Make sure playlist is where I want it before starting. I added a bunch of songs and I think that threw things off a bit.

3. Time to break out my belt with the water bottles. Got thirsty during the walk today even as short as it was.

4. Be more patient. I keep comparing my walks this time to when I trained for the Half Pig back in 2009. When I could knock out 4.5 miles and have it feel “normal”. When I weighed 30 to 40 pounds lighter. As the old book title goes, that was then. This is now.

– Carla

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Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken for use in Mexican Dishes

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Carla — No Comments ↓

One of the things I love on a busy day is coming home to dinner almost done. Today’s recipe (or really instructions) fits in that category. With summer and warmer weather almost upon us, this recipe also doesn’t heat up your kitchen.

Slow Cooker Chicken (for use in Mexican Dishes)

1. Empty a 2.5 lb bag of frozen chicken breasts into a 4-quart or larger slow cooker.

2. Add either 1 cup of lime juice and your favorite Mexican seasonings to taste (chili powder, cumin, etc.) OR one box of Doña Maria Ready-to-use Molé Sauce. (You can use the small jar of molé to make your own sauce by adding chicken broth, but it can take a long time to make plus I always have a hard time getting the stupid jar open!)

3. Set on low for at least six hours. (This is one recipe that doesn’t really work well on the high setting.)

4. When the chicken is done, shred into small pieces using two forks. Mix well.

Now, you have chicken that you can use in tacos, burritos, casseroles and more. When you get the last portions of the chicken, there will be some excess moisture. At this point, we add cooked rice (brown rice works particularly well) and finish off the chicken that way. The chicken and rice version is great for packed lunchs.

This is one of our favorite meals and try to have it at least once a month. The cooked chicken is so versatile and alternately between the lime juice and the molé sauce gives up even more options.

– Carla

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Walking: Week 1, Day 3

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Carla — No Comments ↓

I must admit that it was rather hard to make myself walk this morning. But, I did it and I think I’ve got my route set for the next few weeks. My Week One stats are below (remember that Day 1 was when I accidentally shut the app off in the middle of my walk – discovered how to lock it today so it won’t happen again).

Happy weekend!

– Carla

Ease Into 5K - Week 1

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Lessons from The Happiness Project

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Carla — 2 Comments ↓

Back at the end of 2012, my school book group chose to read the book The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. It sounded interesting and when I mentioned it to a close group of friends, we all decided to read it. I got the Audible version which is read by the author and I ended up also buying the Kindle version because there were parts of the book that I wanted to actually see.

This post is the first in a series of post on things I’ve learned and applies in my own life due to reading The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. Some came directly from the book while others were inspired by reading it.

In The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, the author dedicates each month to a different set of goals or aspirations. For most people, the idea of taking as many as Rubin did each month seems daunting and impossible to do with other life constraints. But you have to keep in mind that Rubin is an author who probably already had a book deal for this before she even started. So, for her, The Happiness Project was her job for a year. Most of us are doing great if we take on one or two goals each month which is what I’ve been trying to do.

In this first post, I’m going talk about a goal from January that came from the book. In Chapter One – January of The Happiness Project, one of Rubin’s goals is to “go to sleep earlier” but she was having trouble accomplishing that. Her sister Elizabeth suggested that she “make sure [her] room is very dark when the lights are out.”

For me, light of any kind when I’m trying to sleep is a big problem. It totally messes up my sleep pattern. I didn’t realize how much it affected me until I got married. I usually go to sleep before Tom. When we both had bedside lamps, his light being on affected my sleep. I would do things I never usually did, like talking in my sleep and even occasionally sleep walking. When he switched to a book light and then a Kindle or tablet for sleeping, I didn’t have this problem.

There was one thing that was still emitting a bit too much light for me: my Michael Graves alarm clock from Target. I love how it is designed, but even the low setting was too bright for me. I thought about getting a new alarm clock, but was reluctant to get rid of one I really liked other than that one thing. After reading Gretchen Rubin went around her bedroom turning any thing that emitted light so it did show, I decided to try that. And it worked.

And it had a side benefit. I had developed this habit of checking the time on my alarm clock any time I roused a bit in the night. Turning the clock away from the bed meant I couldn’t do that so I went back to sleep quicker. All in all, my sleep pattern has gotten much better.

And so began my personal happiness project. Some goals are small like this one and others are truly life changing (like the one I’m going to talk about next week).

– Carla

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Walking – Day Two

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Carla — No Comments ↓

For starters, I got through the entire work out today. YAY! I had to wear my grey shoes because my white New Balance 505 shoes felt too tight. I’m going to try loosening the shoe laces and wearing around the house for a while before I try doing my walking workout in them. I did end up having to double knot the laces on the grey New Balance 646 shoes because each of them came untied at some point on the walk.

The Ease into 5K app worked perfectly today. I did tweak the settings a bit for Saturday’s walk. I think I’ll really get a better idea of how it’s working then. It was so nice to have the music playlist work this time. I’ll be posting about my walking playlist some time in the future.

Another change for Saturday is my route. When I was training for the Half Pig in 2009, I created a walking route near where I live. There’s a decent incline included in the last part of the loop that would line up right before I would start my cool down. Worked great for that route. But, the Ease Into 5K is timed so I was hitting the uphill incline during a running (walk fast for me) segment. Not good. So I’m going to try sticking to the three little loops that are before the big incline.

There is something special about the second time you actually work out. It is so easy to quit after the first one. So I was very glad to get this one under my belt.

– Carla

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Review: Smashburger paired with Moerlein Beers

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Carla — No Comments ↓

Last Thursday night, Tom and I were invited to a media event at the Highland Heights Smashburger to try out their new food pairings with Christian Moerlein beers. Neither of us had been to a Smashburger so we didn’t really know what to expect. We decided to split the blogging responsibilities on this one. Tom will cover the beer and beer pairings over on Hoperatives (review on Hoperatives) and I’m going to cover the food offerings here.

We started with a sampling of the many sides available at Smashburger.

Fries

These included Smash fries (tossed with rosemary, olive oil and garlic – so nice) and sweet potato fries. (Regular fries are also available.)

Pickles and Peppers

Then, there was fried pickle chips and the very unusual fried banana pepper rings. Personally, I was so happy to see fried pickle chips instead of spears. Chips are so much better. These things were damn addictive.

Onion Rings and Veggies

Finally, there were Haystack onions (really thin onion rings) and what they call Veggie Frites (green beans and carrots that are flash fried). Really good! And these last four sides all came with their own dipping sauce.

After we were all settled down and had enjoyed the sides, Smashburger owner (and former Cincinnati resident) Tom Ryan and Moerlein VP & Lager House Brewmaster Richard Dube walked us through the pairings. Each burger or chicken sandwich is pictured below with the Moerlein beer it was paired with (except the Classic Smash Burger photo where I forget to position the beer in the right place. It was paired with Helles by the way).

Classic Burger

The Classic Smash Burger is your basic burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, red onion and mayo. I liked the fact that it was on a multi-grain bun to make it a bit different. Basic, but very well done.

Mushroom and Swiss

This was my favorite. The Mushroom Swiss burger has sautéed baby portabella mushrooms, mayo and aged Swiss on an egg bun with no produce on it. That was a good decision for this particular burger. Lettuce, tomato or even onion would have been too much. And the cremini mushrooms were such a good choice for this.

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger

The BBQ, Bacon and Cheddar Burger (with BBQ sauce, applewood-smoked bacon, cheddar and haystack onions) was my second favorite. So decadent that this will probably be my “special occasions only” choice at Smash Burger.

Buckeye Burger

This burger is one that is only available in our area. Take those fried pepper rings I talked about earlier add American cheese, haystack onions, lettuce, tomato and mayo. Put it all on an egg bun and you have a very unique burger for the Buckeye state.

Black Bean Burger

The Spicy Veggie Black Bean Burger (with fresh jalapenos, guacamole, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, onion and chipotle mayo on a spicy chipotle bun) lived up to its name. The texture of the burger though reminded me more of falafel than black bean burgers I’ve tried in the past. This veggie option is also available in a non-spicy version. (Believe me, the spicy version is definitely spicy.)

Chicken

The chicken sandwiches at Smashburger are different than your usual “throw a chicken breast on a bun” sandwiches. Take that chicken breast and pound it like you’re making chicken schnitzel or chicken parmesan. Then marinate it in all sorts of wonderful flavors. The result is a chicken sandwich that cooks in the same amount of time as a burger, but stays moist and flavorful. I’ll be ordering more of these.

Chicken Club

For this chicken sandwich, take the chicken we just talked about and then add fresh avocado, applewood-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, ranch dressing and mayo. Place it all on a multi-grain bun. I only wish that the avocado had been sliced a bit thinner. I would probably forego the ranch and mayo next time too. The avocado is enough.

We finished the night with samples of their Häagen-Dazs milk shakes. I’m not a fan of fake fruit flavors ever since I had a bad experience with Froot Loops as a child. This strawberry shake was not fake at all and the strawberry flavor was not overpowering. As Goldilocks would have said, it was just right.

By the way, while researching this post, I discovered that the Smashburger web site has both their nutritional information for their entire menu and also the allergen information too.

All in all, I’m really looking forward to our next visit to Smashburger so we can enjoy their burgers and Christian Moerlein beers together. Now, if they would just open one in Burlington or Hebron…

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Off to a Walking Start (Sort of)

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Carla — 1 Comment ↓

If you remember, back in 2009 (when I was thinner and in better shape), I started training to walk the Flying Pig Half Marathon. A chest cold ended up ending my journey that year, but I did like the experience. I just couldn’t get my butt off the couch to do it.

Flash forward to about ten days ago. While sitting on the balcony of our studio room at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas, I got an email that I had been waiting for. I was accepted to attend the EarMarked Agent Education Program at Disneyland. I had done the program back in 2005, but a lot had changed at Disneyland since then and I needed to brush up on Disneyland and Southern California in order to help clients wanting to visit there. And I was excited to be rooming with one of my colleagues from The Magic For Less Travel.

Then, I saw the reminder in the email: “Special note: We will be walking a lot; please wear comfortable shoes!” Oh, yeah… There was a lot of walking last time. But I weigh more than I did then and haven’t been going to the pool much lately. Time to do something about that!

For years now, I’ve been collecting walking apps on first my iPod and then my iPhone. I had them neatly organized in a folder, but I had never used them. Today, I finally did and here’s what I discovered:

1) I decided to go with the Ease into 5K app from BlueFin Software. To be truthful, it had been on my iPod/iPhone the longest and felt like I should take them in order.

2) iCloud on iOS devices is evil. Even though I had indicated which playlist I wanted to use with Ease Into 5K, the walking app couldn’t find it because it was “in the cloud.” I ended up fixing this problem by turning off both iCloud and iTunes Match on my iPhone.

3) Somehow, about half way through my Week 1, Day 1 workout, I did something that turned off the Ease into 5K app. I didn’t figure it out for a whole since I was just getting the prompts every 60 or 90 seconds. I’m moving my iPhone to a case with a cover that my iPod was in and hopefully that (and having music) will help with that. Rats! It doesn’t fit. I’ll see how the regular case works tomorrow.

I’m glad to say that my current workout clothes worked fine with the exception of my shoes. I wore my most broken in pair of New Balance shoes (my tan ones), but the shoe laces have a tendency to come untied. They did so twice on my short walk today. My white New Balance shoes are the least broken in, but at least the shoe laces stay tied. I’ll be switching to them tomorrow.

So, there it is… a start. Hopefully, with this being the summer semester at school and my lighter workload semester, I can continue. It felt good to start and, hopefully, it will continue that way. Less than five weeks until Disneyland!

– Carla

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