It all comes out in the end

Not having a job sucks.

Sure, it would be nice to not have a job because I'd recently won the lottery or found out that a mysterious rich uncle left me everything in his will or in some other ridiculous and miraculous way I became independently wealthy. Because of course that would be awesome. But no, this whole none of the income (except the $240/wk from unemployment which is close to nothing, and yet greatly appreciated) all of the bills and twice the guilt thing really sucks.

I'd been putting off a big shopping trip for some time as I was hoping to hear back on a job I interviewed for and a "maybe" contract gig. I figured if I got one of those it would be back to healthy foods and I might even splurge on a few extra organic veggies. Instead I was given a no on the job and a "it's all a waiting game" response from the folks in charge of the hopeful contract gig. So it became cheap food. Now I know that theoretically one can be healthy and be reasonably cheap, but since most of my meals are cooking for two, and ONE of us must have meat with every meal, wont eat eggs, beans or too many veggies it becomes a bit more difficult.

While there were many losses (A great price + Coupon on both frozen pizzas and taquitos) there were a few unexpected wins. My favorite was the toilet paper.

The reason the Toilet paper became the biggest win is because we're on roll #4, and I haven't gotten a complaint yet. And it's recycled. Last time I bought a 4 pack of a particular brand (cough...Nature's brand...cough), I was promptly told to never bring that sorry excuse for toilet paper back into the house. She was a Charmin girl and wanted to stay that way. Let me be honest - this new stuff is NO Charmin. There is a difference by a fair amount. But it's really not too bad. It's like I bought the cheap stuff vs. a name brand. But when using it one doesn't immediately know "hey, this is a green product, right?" which is a good thing. It's also good for keeping my household happy as I didn't just buy a 4 pack, I bought a 24 pack at Costco - quite the gamble.

It's called Earth First Bath Tissue. 100% recycled, 80% Post consumer and whitened without chlorine according to the package. And another cool thing about the package, it says that the plastic wrap holding it all together is "environmentally responsible" because it says "This plastic wrap has a predetermined life span and will expire in 18 months after manufactured date." And the cherry on top of this green TP sundae - it was the same price as the Costco brand (Kirkland) tissue paper so it also made it a good price!

I'm still without job. I'm still trying to straddle healthy and convenient. But I have found my new, greener, toilet paper. A happier, healthier step.

Shoes you can use

I found the most amazing discovery at the drug store near my house. Didn't go looking for them - but there they were.

Shoes.

Now normally I will admit that I tend to favor two specific types of shoes - "How long can I really wear these" heels or nifty All-Stars. This was neither of those. It was a plain brown sandal.

What caught my eye were two of my favorite labels "Made in the USA" and my happy green "Recycle" symbol. Made in the USA and recyclable shoes at Walgreen's? But it gets even better.

- Both the shoes AND the hangers they come on are completely recyclable. Not only are the shoes recyclable in most local facilities, but you can also send them back to the company and they will recycle them into new shoes.

- The shoes are endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association.

- The shoes are antimicrobial and odor resistant (not that anyone has a problem w/ that...)

- To words: Vegan Friendly.

And you now what else - they were darn comfortable. Of course Walgreen's had 2 options, the heels and the flats. Heels = Women's and their label didn't mention the nod from the Chiropractors. Flats = Men's, so of course that's what I got. Then I learn about how they don't leave marks on the floor and how easily they can be put in either a washing machine OR a dishwasher to be cleaned!

On Easter I put these on in the morning and though I meant to change I ended up spending the entire day in them. Even in my awesome All-Stars, which I'd planned to wear that day, my feet start hurting after 4-5 hours of prep and hostessing. But not in these shoes. All night I was comfortable. That has never happened before!

I like to think of these as my first pair of Okabashi's as I will absolutely be getting these again. But next time online so I can get them in girly colors - or maybe ones that I might be able to pull off wearing to work.

Green for earth, healthy for me. Can't ask for more.

To shred or not to shred...

I have a great paper shredder. It rocks. It can shred paper or even credit cards. In a world of identity theft and constant pre-approved credit card offers, I considered it a mandatory thing.

But all that changed not long ago.

My recycling center no longer accepts shredded paper. Apparently shredded paper clogs the sorting machine. My first thought was - if ever individual who has a recycling can paid $1-3 more per month I'm sure we could afford a few workers to do a pre-sort of the recycle stuff to ensure that it wasn't an issue. But then I realized - it gets everywhere. I've gone to pull something that was accidentally tossed from the recycling can and it was a disaster. I can only imagine how awful it would be once everything was dumped in the truck. [Note, we have on trash can and one recycle can. All stuff goes in the same can and then is dumped into a "recycle truck" once a week] This isn't even the worst issue for our local recycling center. Can't tell you how many folks I've seen with bagged things (No bags allowed), tree trimmings (no nature!), soda boxes (can't be recycled due to plastic film), and more stuffed into the recycle container. I recently found out that my city pays over $250K a year to truck the "trash" from the recycle center over to the dump each year. Are you kidding me? That is insane! And with the price of gas going up - that number is only going to get higher.

Back to my original thought here. So, I called the credit associations to put myself on the list to not get pre-approved offers anymore. Some still trickle in, but I'm hoping that will end soon. But what do I do with it all?

Currently my plan is to go through each piece slowly looking for any identifiable piece of info or a special code reserved just for me - and I rip that off and shred just that chunk. If it's several times on the same piece of paper, the whole thing gets shredded. But MAN that takes SO much more time!

So here I am, spending 30-45 extra minutes of earth loving, identity protecting time reading, reviewing checking, making piles and shredding. Thinking to myself over and over - to shred or not to shred? Protect my identity, or protect the earth? But when I see the pile of shredded paper going into the trash, I can't help but think that there should be away for me to do both at the same time.

The carrot is mine!

Well, sort of.

Today is my first day of working at home. While I know that I'm expected to use today to "get some of the bugs out" I have to say I'm shocked how many bugs there are. Email auto forwarding. VOIP Phone disconnecting and reconnecting every 20 minutes. I have hope. We'll see how it all works. Hopefully the carrot won't be yanked away due to technical issues. Oh well, it's only been 11 months...

That said, the last week has been a bit of a paper whirlwind. I decided to take advantage of working from home to re-do my office. New desk. New organizer thingies. And a going through ALL the paperwork I have ever had in the office. Wow. I must have filled a standard kitchen sized trash container (which we use for recycle stuff) at least 3 times - most likely 4. Biggest offenders were junk mail (which I've officially opted out on) and envelopes. Before I kept the whole thing - now I'm keeping just the "meat" of the issue. Certainly helped to save space. But MAN was that recycle container full!

So, just because I'm keeping mental track...
Working from home - check.
Reducing my waste/recycling what I have - check.

Not a bad week all in all. The plan is to start hitting the gym next week. If we can do that I'll feel totally back on track!

When time flies, healthy flies

Time is flying recently! Positively flying!

Big parties and planning and folks coming in from out of town and food and cooking and baking and going out to eat/drink/socialize day after day after day. Not that I'm really complaining but OH my goodness time sure does go quickly when you're busy.

Unfortunately, this has brought with it convenience food - as we're always on the go, or the kind of special "bad" foods that are only made when folks are in town or for special parties. And of course there has been no time to go to the gym, yet that $50 leaves my check account month after month. And then many of the friends/family don't understand how we recycle so it's a matter of trying to casually pick out those cans and bottles out of the trash, dump and rinse them and put them into the recycle - without being called "The Recycle Nazi" too many times through the night.

So while absolutely wonderful, the last month hasn't exactly been "healthy". That said, my number on the scale has not changed. So apparently I haven't gone too overboard. That said, I've been saying how important it is that we make some clear changes shortly. The Girlfriend wants those changes in organizing the house. I'd have a messy house if it meant I was spending more time cooking healthy foods and going to the gym - but I know we need to find a happy medium between the two to keep a happy and "healthy" house.

Series of unhealthy events

The last few weeks have been anything but healthy. More like a series of misfortunate events.

- While our July 4th party was a blast, I was really saddened at all the plates/forks/napkins in the trash. Worse yet, my house has decided to not give them up. I pull out real plates and forks but they tell me to put them away because we're using plastic forks and paper plates. For almost every meal. I've lost control of my waste.

- We haven't been to the gym in at least 2 weeks. If I'm being honest, I think we might have gone once or twice in the last 8 weeks. We keep talking about how important it is. But then she's had a long day or I've had a long day or we have plans we can work around. I'd say we will get better but talk has done nothing before. I feel out of control.

- I've lost control of my food choices. Sure, I still buy the food, but as I'm more than ever the last person home I rarely have any input in their preparation. Last night was a great example. I had a great bag of frozen organic summer vegetables. Squash, Zucchini, green beans, red pepper, carrots. Well, by the time I got home and was told that dinner was ready, I found the package open but what was on my plate was anything but healthy. Soaked in butter and extra salt and over cooked to the point that by texture alone one could not tell if you were eating a piece of squash, a carrot, or a green bean - and all individual taste was lost. Unfortunately, this means the other two folks in my house were happy with how it all came out. How do you say to a respected elder family member "Thank you for making dinner, but please stop ruining the good food?"

- The negative out of control feelings have started to take over a bit. I know I need to trim my trees and spray down the weeds, but I just haven't been able to motivate myself. I start to feel so helpless about how things are going I decide that I might as well eat fast food. Yes, I've officially slid back.

I feel like I've lost control of my house. Worse yet the stress piles on and I start to feel less control at work. I still can't find someone to insure me, so I have no control over my health care. Feeling helpless and out of control are not the way to become more healthy. They are in fact just the opposite.

I need to find a way to re-charge the batteries. To somehow feel like I can start fresh. I'll be planning and plotting and I'll let you know what I come up with.

Healthy Patriotism

Yesterday was, of course, the gigantic 4th of July food-fest at my house. Mmmm-mmm-mmm the patriotism was a-flowing while the burgers were a-grilling. I'm happy to report that there were actually quite a few political discussions going on in the house. Topic discussed included racism, political candidates, gay marriage, gays in the military, the movie Sicko, and the legal requirements to move out of the country. We even had some more healthy dinner choices. Sure, we had ribs, burgers and hot dogs, but the hot dogs were Hebrew National and some of the burgers were turkey! And of course we had the baked macaroni salad and the yummy corn casserole - but we ALSO had roasted vegetables, low-fat slaw, broccoli-slaw salad (Called Olympia salad though I have no idea why) and some other inventive veggie salad options such as wilted cucumber salad. We had a vegetarian friend over who brought his own veggie dogs, and with respect for him everyone was aware to ensure that most of the sides were veggie friendly (watching out for those hidden ingredients).

Yes, we had a little bit of everything. And not just the food. Our crowd represented White, Black, Hispanic, Bi-racial, Male, Female, American, Canadian, Gay, Bisexual, Straight, Single, Partnered, Divorced, Senior, Adult, Teen, Pre-Schooler, Vegetarian, South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers Diet, "See Food" Diet and many more combinations if we looked a bit deeper. But our commonalities were even greater. Friendship - and great food.

*** *** ***

And at the end of the party, as I was feeling the environmental guilt after taking out a full 30 gallon bag of trash from plates, cups and napkins, and emptying the recycle container - I noticed that there were a few folks attempting to pack up their empty dishes. This would never do. It was time to institute a new tradition. BYOT - Bring your own Tupperware. Or Plasticware. Everyone at our parties are encouraged to "take a plate" as there are far too many left overs. Most folks put this on a paper plate and cover it with foil. Our next invitation will encourage them to bring one or more small containers to take their "leftovers" home with them. I'm also tempted to tell them to all bring their own plate and forks too - but I think that might be pushing it.

I have decided that I need to look into investing in some cheap but durable re-usable plates. We do these big meals at least 4 times a year - so this could be a great investment, and a great way to reduce our annual trash output. It just might be time to sell that stock in Chinet....

Waterbottles, sunscreen and name tags

Every day of camp those were the three things that said at least 20 times a morning to my campers before they were allowed to go out to breakfast. And shoes. Apparently my kids aren't used to leaving carpeting because no one wanted to wear shoes.

Meghan - You need to re-fill your water bottle. Emma - I see your name tag still on the bed! Alena - Where is your water bottle? Jaycee - Did you put the sunscreen on your face?

It was like a constant rotation. Every morning.

What does this have to do with being healthy? These kids were drinking water. Lots of water. They made it a habit. And they were learning to be healthy in applying sunscreen before even walking the trail out to breakfast. We talked about how important it was. We ended up in discussions about global warming.

The camp recycled their aluminum and plastic bottles. We talked about how it meant less trash in the world. And, since this was a church camp, we talked about how we were being better stewards of the earth by keeping it clean and making less waste. God wants the earth to be clean. And even though it totally wasn't pushed on them - the kids got it. They were all volunteering to recycle and I didn't see a single kid litter the whole time. Absolutely perfect. Isn't that what it's really all about?

Just like the rule you tell kids when playing with messy toys - this place needs to look as good when you leave as it did when you walked in, if not better. Same thing with the world. You may have enjoyed playing - but it's time to clean up.

Recycling away from home

I have a new good habit that K is not at all happy with. I bring home recyclable goods. Had a can of soup at work? Clean the can and bring it home for the recycle bin. Sure, that Starbucks tastes good, but should the plastic cup it came in just get tossed in a landfill? Nope. Bring it home and recycle it.

Of course, I wouldn't need to do that if businesses were able to use the same recycling process that residential folks get. But of course, it's not they don't. At least most don't.

So, I have a bag in one of my drawers were my recycled goods go. Paper with unclassified information. Plastics. Aluminum cans. Glass containers. It's all going home with me.

K tells me I'm bringing home trash. I tell her that I'm saving it from the trash. She rolls her eyes and mutters under her breath a bit. I can make out the word "trash" and some less family friendly verbiage.

Imagine if everyone did this. Just recycling the things they used each day outside the home. The container your sandwich came in to the lid to your drink. Now picture that one out of 5000 would pick up the random piece that someone else left behind. A can here and there. We would have so much less trash going down into the land fill. And maybe - just maybe we'd keep the recycle processing plants busy enough that they would actually expand the program to accept new materials.

I may not be able to compost and I don't have any land immediately available for urban gardening, but I'm going to do everything I can to reduce how much is going into the trash can at home - and at work.

Heck of a day 1

I had such great plans. Go home from work. Healthy dinner of grilled meat tacos with lots of veggies followed up by a quick trip to the YMCA for a good 45 minutes of cardio.

And then life happened. It happened ALL over my night. I didn't leave work until 7 when I normally get out at 5. I was SO hungry since I hadn't eaten since 11:30. K was curled up in a ball on our sofa with cramps which meant both that she had no interest in going to the gym and she wanted some comfort food. So my night became Drive through at KFC, Boneless chicken wings, fries and a root beer for dinner. And watching 3 hour long shows from our DVR.

What the heck happened? I found myself thinking about that as I was in line at KFC. I had such plans. Unhealthy dinner followed by almost 3 hours (we fast-forward commercials of course) of sitting on the sofa. I did sit on the floor and stretch for awhile. But nothing big.

Positive thoughts and Lessons for the day? Of 3 meals, only 1 was unhealthy. Actually ate 3 meals and 1 healthy snack. Not too bad. I didn't eat late at night. I brought home my tuna can, salad container, yogurt container and 2 paper bags from things I did/ate at work to go into my recycle can.

How can I be better? I need to find healthier options at our favorite food places because if I'm going to give in to temptation, at least it should be for the lesser of all evils on the menu. I need to find things I can do, by myself, at the house to work out. Try to find those old work out videos or decide if I feel comfortable walking around the neighborhood alone.