I recently borrowed a book on getting out of debt from the library, and I'm trying to incorporate some of the philosophies into my own life. I have to admit, my debt burden has been weighing on me heavily lately. Things have happened in my life in the last year that would have been much easier to handle if I wasn't so debt-ridden, and it's time for me to take control of the situation and try to start living my life instead of just attempting to survive from one week to the next. However, that does present a few dilemmas for me.
For one thing, the program about which I'm reading suggests donating 10% of your monthly income to charity. I can understand and appreciate this, and I intend to donate some money, but 10% of my monthly income is a lot for me, when over 50% of my income is already going for rent and student loan payments, not to mention my EXTRA student loan payments, food, and utilities, which also take a large chunk of my income. So for the moment, I'm going to donate 2.5% of my income as small monthly payments to four of my favorite groups: Partners in Health, The Central Asia Institute, NPR, and Heifer International. If it does one thing for me, at least it will remind me that no matter how bad things may seem, a lot of people in the world have it a lot worse.
The next issue is where to cut costs. The book suggests all kinds of things that don't really help me - don't go for coffee every day, try keeping a one-car household, cancel your cable TV, etc. For the most part, I don't have a lot of these expenses that are often considered necessities of modern life. One of my splurges has been food - I believe strongly in buying organic, local, and sustainable, and that's not cheap. I'm working on figuring out how to balance saving money and not compromising my belief system, all while eating healthfully. Suggestions would be welcome.
As far as my garden goes, things haven't been great. The heirloom tomatoes look terrible, the pattypan squash is almost dead, and I'm not sure what is up with the cucumbers. At least the corn, green beans, and peppers are doing well.
And that's all for now. I'm off to work a bit in the garden before it gets insanely hot, then coming home for more chores... Hopefully it will be a productive day!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
On dieting
Lately I have been trying very hard to lose weight, and instead, I'm losing the battle of the bulge. I've gained a few pounds instead of losing them, and my clothes are getting tighter. I've been exercising a decent amount, mostly training for a bicycle race that's coming up, but I'm also eating with abandon. I'm not sure how to go about breaking the cycle, but I have a few ideas...
For one thing, I eat too much dairy. Dairy makes my stomach upset, and has a lot of calories for how filling it is. I've been eating toasted whole wheat bread with butter for breakfast, and the butter has a whopping 1oo calories per tablespoon. I think that from now on, I will have some hummus on my bread instead, which clocks in at a mere 26 calories per tablespoon, and is more filling to boot. I'm going to make some fresh hummus tonight and give it a whirl tomorrow. Another thing that I've been doing is using balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar as flavoring. They're both quite low calorie, only 10 calories per tablespoon, and add a lot of flavor.
I also need to try to eat more veggies and more fiber. For this week, I'll be having some leftover pasta salad (unfortunately with cheese), some asparagus and mushrooms in oyster sauce with brown rice (and I know the asparagus is out of season, and I feel completely guilty about it), some grilled veggies one night (with a tomato and cucumber salad), and perhaps towards the end of the week, some black bean soup, risotto, or pasta primavera, depending on what my garden provides me with.
Speaking of my garden, things are progressing well. The corn is huge and is producing ears. The pole beans are going crazy, and also producing. The tomatoes aren't doing quite as well, for some reason, although the peppers are doing great, and the tomatillo is growing like a weed. The plants that i'm having the most trouble with, though, are the squash. For some reason, squash doesn't like to grow in my garden, and i have no idea why. I'm going to have to do some research and figure it out.
Until then, happy eating!
For one thing, I eat too much dairy. Dairy makes my stomach upset, and has a lot of calories for how filling it is. I've been eating toasted whole wheat bread with butter for breakfast, and the butter has a whopping 1oo calories per tablespoon. I think that from now on, I will have some hummus on my bread instead, which clocks in at a mere 26 calories per tablespoon, and is more filling to boot. I'm going to make some fresh hummus tonight and give it a whirl tomorrow. Another thing that I've been doing is using balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar as flavoring. They're both quite low calorie, only 10 calories per tablespoon, and add a lot of flavor.
I also need to try to eat more veggies and more fiber. For this week, I'll be having some leftover pasta salad (unfortunately with cheese), some asparagus and mushrooms in oyster sauce with brown rice (and I know the asparagus is out of season, and I feel completely guilty about it), some grilled veggies one night (with a tomato and cucumber salad), and perhaps towards the end of the week, some black bean soup, risotto, or pasta primavera, depending on what my garden provides me with.
Speaking of my garden, things are progressing well. The corn is huge and is producing ears. The pole beans are going crazy, and also producing. The tomatoes aren't doing quite as well, for some reason, although the peppers are doing great, and the tomatillo is growing like a weed. The plants that i'm having the most trouble with, though, are the squash. For some reason, squash doesn't like to grow in my garden, and i have no idea why. I'm going to have to do some research and figure it out.
Until then, happy eating!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)