Praise God . . .

For a perfect Spring Saturday!

It all began with Hulu . . .

A few weeks ago, my husband was having a rare guys' night in the living room - we normally go out on the weekends.  In an effort to give the boys some privacy and because I was EXHAUSTED from a rough week at work I headed to our bedroom after eating some BWW's - classy and healthy, I know - to do a little web browsing.  I recently re-discovered Hulu after a long stretch in which I watched only television shows that began with "The Real Housewives of ______."  (pretty much every city except for Chicago).  I always love a little "Wife Swap," as well.  Anyway, I am a huge fan of documentaries about food - food production, healthy eating, big food-related developments, etc.  Enter "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead." The official website and a movie trailer can be found HERE, aptly named Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead Dot Com. 

The description was interesting enough and I love good drama ("600 lb. Mom"; "Toddlers and Tiaras"; "Tabitha Takes Over" etc.), so I gave it a try.  I'm not kidding when I say that it really made an impact on me. The premise of the movie is this: (from IMDB.com): 

100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn't end well- with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn't far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe's personal mission to regain his health. With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long-term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body's ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

The movie is inspiring and hopeful, without being corny and judgy.  I realize that I am probably a little late to the juicing party, but I am a big fan now that I'm here.  

Of course, after watching the movie and boring my husband (and our houseguests) with the uncut summary - including multiple verbatim quotes about micronutrients, absorption and anti-inflammatory vegetables, I woke up the next morning with but one thought in my head: I have to get a juicer.  I am not an impulsive person - my husband would disagree, but I am really not that impulsive - the qualifier makes it better.  After doing a little internet research, pretending to ask permission to go look at juicers and shopping a few on Craig's List, I decided that Bed Bath and Beyond was my best bet.  I, of course, told myself that I  was just going to look, since it is super close to our favorite grocery stores: Aldi and Trader Joe's.  Big mistake :). 

I practically ran from the parking garage to BB&B and made a beeline for the food processing/juicer section.  There it was:  

I even ran into a woman in the juice section who saw me mulling over my juicer purchase and asked if I was buying the Juice Fountain Plus.  I answered, "Actually yes, I saw this great movie last night --" Woman: "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead?"  Me: "Yes!"  It was like we were soulmates. Soulmates who juice and run - she noticed my running clothes and we started talking about Chicago races.  It was like meeting my long lost workout buddy.  Anyway, so after that practically religious juicer experience, I took the juicer with me - yes, I was too excited to take it to the parking garage before picking up my groceries - to the grocery store, where I bought about $30 worth of juice-able vegetables.  It was lovely.  

After that, I headed home to do some juicing.  I realize how nerdy it is to get excited about juicing, so, I invited my friend, Sarah, to join me. I figured that I could at least be nerdy with someone else.  She's not a huge vegetable/fruit lover so when she showed up with a single apple to contribute I was incredibly amused - and appreciative.  :) We then spent the next few hours coming up with some truly bizzare and delicious juice combinations.  My personal favorite: carrot, tomato, ginger, apple and cabbage.  Yes, cabbage.  That has to be the strangest part about this whole juicing thing.  I really like to add cabbage.  Here's why: I don't regularly eat cabbage, which happens to be an incredibly good source of 

Vitamins

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B12
• Folic Acid
• Niacin
• Riboflavin
• Thiamin
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K

and 

Minerals

• Calcium
• Copper
• Iron
• Manganese
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Potassium
• Selenium
• Zinc
• Sodium

I've been juicing regularly - as a supplement to what I consider an already pretty healthy diet - for about 2 weeks, now.  I still get a vegetable "buzz" right after I have my morning juice and I feel like my eyes instantly pop open.  I feel more alert and as if it is easier to process information - especially in the morning.  This morning, I had a pretty gnarly combination of celery, cabbage, carrots, tomato, lemon, ginger and spinach.  Not good.  I felt good, though, and didn't get hungry until about mid-afternoon.  Even in the absence of vegetable fiber - which is still important - I stayed full.  I won't stop eating veggies and fruits in their whole forms, but juicing creates an incentive to quickly and efficiently consume nutrients from fruits and vegetables that I wouldn't typically consume on an average morning.  While I'm not ready to completely abandon my Frosted Mini Wheats, I think that there is something to be said for cramming as many fruits and vegetables as possible into every meal.  I think I'm going to be a big fan of juicing.  So far, so good.  

p.s. my husband does not believe that my hair is growing like crazy as a result of all of these vitamins.  It's true!! 

I don't understand . . .

The trenta from Starbucks.  I love coffee, but even I have trouble fathoming that much coffee at once.  31 oz., folks.

Homebirthing posts on FB.  While I understand that FB friends are interested in different things and that my favorite Constitutional law analyses from law blogs lack wide appeal - I do not want to stumble upon a post about placenta vitamins while I'm scarfing my sandwich during my lunch hour.  (couldn't find any appropriate clip art)

Pinterest.  I use it.  I like it, I guess. I just don't understand how people can spend hours on it.  Perhaps I'm not doing it correctly. Plus, who is coming up with all of these interesting photos?  Half of the time, I feel like I am looking at the same 50 re-pinned photos every time I log on.

Preppy chevron stripes.  We all love them in all their various permutations and shades.  However, paisley is feeling neglected these days.   (disregard the hypocrisy inherent in the fact that my own blog has clearly fallen victim to the chevron stripe craze).



The weather.  Is it cold? Is it hot? It is odd that I wore gloves this morning, yet I've already had at least four pantyhose-free days this spring.  What is going on?

The next edition of "Things I don't Understand" will include Chicago things that I don't understand - and probably toe socks, as I have yet to grasp the enigma that is a sock designed to respect the individuality of each individual toe.

Stepping up . . .

on my soapbox about couponing.  Ask any of my friends, I love a good sale.  What is more, I do not believe in paying full retail price for anything.  I think that most of the time, retailers make their profits on those who refuse to wait until something goes on sale and/or those who plan their lives/purchases poorly, so that they are forced to buy in a rush.  Harsh?  Well, it's your money, so spend as you wish.

I guess I'm going to have to lay it all out from the beginning so as to avoid offending those who assume that I am judging those who coupon.  I don't.  My parents used coupons from the time that I was a very young child.  I remember the 'coupon box.'  It was a big, grey, plastic tackle-looking box containing coupons sorted by aisle and food type for Kroger.

This was THE coupon box. :)


My parents even went so far as to carefully unpack their groceries, all the while comparing their purchases to the receipt and to their lists.  They knew how to save money and still do.  They also bought healthy items with coupons and saw no need to pick up sugary juices and fruit snacks just because a retailer gave them coupons.  The point: I do not judge you if you coupon.  I judge you if you use your coupons to buy foods that have zero nutritional value, which I find is often the case for items purchased with coupons.  I also judge you if you compulsively use coupons to purchase things that you don't need.

If that isn't enough (and if you're still reading) here are my other problems with obsessive couponing:

• It encourages overspending. 
• It encourages hoarding-type behavior. 
• It encourages people to stockpile preservative-laden, chemically modified "food" that is not really food at all.  
• On a related note: it encourages obesity. 
• It encourages health problems related to the consumption of food of little to no nutritional value - thus causing hidden costs to individuals who think that they are saving money by buying cheaper "food" - or, worse, causing increased costs to tax payers who not only purchase the food (if individuals receive government assistance) but who also pay for some portion of those individuals' health care costs. 

I think that smarter shopping is the absolute answer to lowering families' food costs.  I guess that the reason I am so passionate about this is that many coupon advocates say that healthy food is more expensive and rely on coupons to get whatever they can cheaply.  However, the system cannot continue to work that way.  I understand that politicians and advocates have addressed this problem from various sides, framing the issue in terms of "food deserts" in large urban areas without grocery stores, the high cost of vegetables and fruits because of the expense of moving food from point A to point B and even, a few, encouraging individuals to take personal responsibility for their food choices.

Here is the solution: you have to be creative.  In our case, it kills me to walk into our local chain grocery store and walk out with over a hundred dollars worth of food in a single grocery bag because of the high markup on food in the city.  However, we've gotten creative.  We are lucky to have an Aldi very close to us.  If you are not familiar with Aldi, it is a discount supermarket chain based in Albrecht, Germany. Aldi stands for Albrecht Discount.  Its business model is simple: no frills.  The stores are clean, spacious and well-stocked.  However, a lot of the expensive displays and fixtures that you see at other large grocery stores are not present.  I never went to Aldi as a child because my parents preferred other grocery stores - and the Aldi in our hometown was less convenient than Wal-Mart/Kroger, etc.  However, my husband introduced me to Aldi shortly after we moved to Chicago and one was built relatively close to our apartment.

I say ALL of this to say that Aldi doesn't take coupons, but I would be willing to bet that I save more in a year than someone who stockpiles two liters, cat food and hand soap.  Photos like this:
  (which I have to say is not the worst I've seen) and blogs like: THIS kind of gross me out.  The reason? If you look closely, many of these individuals purchase items that have zero nutritional value.  Items like salad dressing, Gatorade, M&Ms, fruit juices, fruit snacks and processed meats (from what I can gather from the photo above) do nothing for you nutritionally.  If nothing else, couponers are sabotaging themselves and their families by buying junk.  Salad dressing has loads of fat, sugar, hydrogenated oils and chemical preservatives.  Meats like sausage contain nitrates, sodium - which contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease - and animal byproducts.  The list goes on.  I'm not saying that it is easy to completely avoid processed foods - nor am I saying that we do that - but it always helps to cut out processed foods that you can live without - like sugary fruit snacks and fruit juices.  Why not eat fruit?  This leads me to my next point:

Many individuals complain that fruits and vegetables are expensive.  In many cases, they're right.  Part of this is because most junk food is made of corn in some way shape or form, which is supported by government subsidies that make corn and its products (corn is in everything) cheap.  However, this is where farmers' markets, gardens and discount grocery stores come into play.  Thus, Aldi is part of the reason that I don't buy any excuse for eating junk.  Aldi sells junk in addition to good food. Cheap junk.  It also sells incredibly cheap, high-quality produce.  Even when we start getting our weekly bushels of veggies from the farmers' market, we use Aldi for fruits and other vegetables that are less common to this area of the country.

As of late, I have noticed photos of stockpiled soap, Mountain Dew 2-liters and Froot Loops invading my Facebook newsfeed.  Just as I almost convinced myself that getting something ANYTHING for nothing, has to be great, right??  Wrong.  I don't think so.  To see whether I am really 'missing out', the last time I went to the grocery store, I kept track of our receipt and when we returned home, I laid out everything on the counter - for a moment,  I almost felt like a couponer.

The total cost? $38.97 for about two weeks worth of groceries.  This is a pretty typical shopping trip for us.  While we do have some processed items - cereal, lunch meat, cheese - the bulk of our haul is fruit and vegetables.  The point? We save a lot of money by avoiding more costly items - even if we could get them for next to nothing.  Do I need Capri Sun (or even want it)? No.  Do I need name brand cereal? No.  Do I need 50 bottles of dishwashing soap? No.  I live with one other person, not the Brady Bunch.  

I suppose that the moral of the story, among other things, is that sometimes getting something for nothing is not worth it.  Cheap/free sugary and nutritionally-deficient foods are not something to strive for - they should be avoided at all costs.  It just isn't worth it.  

Vacation

Weekend

Pretty morning