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Archive for the ‘Sustainable Living’ Category
I Make a Pretty Delicious Oatmeal and Berry Breakfast
April 29th, 2012 | Added to Sustainable Living | No Comments »
Alright, look – even though I’m a bigger guy, I eat some pretty good food. Would you believe that it’s been about a decade since I’ve eaten fast food like McDonald’s and Burger King and just about a decade since I’ve even had a sip of soda? Pretty remarkable, huh? One of the reasons why I don’t bother eating this type of gross, fake food any more is because I discovered organic food. Yes, organic foods costs just a little bit more, but when you drink a glass of organic milk and really taste the milk again you’ll know that it was worth the few extra dollars.
Aside from discovering organic food, I try to make my own breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I have a chance. On that note, I make a pretty delicious oatmeal and berry breakfast. The pictures below detail my making an oatmeal and berry breakfast a few weeks ago. Incidentally, the oatmeal used here is Bob’s Red Mill organic rolled oats mixed with two tablespoons each of Bob’s Red Mill organic ground flaxseed meal and Bob’s Red Mill organic wheat germ. I like Bob’s Red Mill products. The berries are also organic from the produce section of the local Wegmans grocery store.
 This isn’t a step-by-step guide to how to make my delicious oatmeal and berry breakfast, but I thought I would take some pictures and show everyone what I do every once in a while to make this delicious meal. The picture above shows the berries mixed together in a large bowl. I just leave them in the bowl until I’m ready to pour the cooked oatmeal on top. In addition to the blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries that you see above, sometimes throw in sliced strawberries, too.
 I actually went out and bought this small sauce pot because I didn’t want to make my oatmeal in the small T-Fal pots that I have in my kitchen. I hate when that T-Fal stuff starts to chip and get mixed in with the food. Gross. So I went to Wegmans and purchased that little stainless steel pot that you see in the picture above. Inside that pot is one cup of water (filtered through the PUR filter on my sink faucet), a half a cup of Bob’s Red Mill organic rolled oats, two tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill organic ground flaxseed meal, two tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill organic wheat germ, a teaspoon of organic cinnamon (I’ve been using Simply Organic cinnamon and it has a very good taste), and a few twists of freshly crushed sea salt from the container (nothing more than a teaspoon). Once the water boils, I pour the rest of the ingredients in at one time and then bring the temperature down to mid or low.
 After the oatmeal is done cooking, I dump it on top of the berries (picture down below), but I’m a huge stickler for keeping a clean kitchen! So once the oatmeal is poured and, on occasion, scraped out of the stainless steel pot, the pot goes right into the sink with hot water in it!
And you’re wasting your time if you don’t put some dish soap in with that hot water. As you eat your breakfast, the hot water and dish soap will eat into any bit of the oatmeal that is clinging to your stainless steel pot like its life depending on it (which, in some ways, I guess it does).
You’re supposed to clean everything! Can you tell how anal I am about keeping a clean kitchen (especially when you cook breakfast)? Here you see my measuring cup and the measuring spoons that I use to measure out my ingredients.
Ahhh… then you have the coup de grâce of the entire effort. This is what the delicious finished product looks like after the berries are mixed into the oatmeal. I’m telling you – if you like berries, oatmeal, and cinnamon, then this is what you want to eat in the morning. Trust me.
Oh, and I usually drink a nice glass of organic milk with my oatmeal and berries. I like Organic Valley’s fat free milk. Very tasty.
And there you have it! This is what I try to eat at least once per week or more often if I have the time to make it. It’s energizing, healthy, and most importantly – it’s delicious!
Guest Editorial: Is Your Sleep Debt Growing?
November 20th, 2011 | Added to Money, Jobs, & Finances, Sustainable Living | No Comments »
We talk a lot about financial debt here on JerseySmarts.com, but today I’m glad to bring you a guest post from Nancy Ulrich of Memory-Foam-Maniac.com. Nancy has prepared the article below (everything below this paragraph) which talks about the potential of a sleep debt growing in your life. It’s very interesting – I suggest giving this article a read. Enjoy!
Is Your Sleep Debt Growing?
Or is your debt growing because of your sleep?
Your sleep shouldn’t cause your debts to grow. But poor sleep habits and poor mattress choices can give you financial nightmares.
How Can Sleep Debt Be Expensive?
 Asleep at work? Most Americans get by on 7 hours of sleep a night. But studies have shown that the average optimum amount of sleep is closer to 8. You’re probably running a sleep deficit or ‘sleep debt’ right now. But it’s just an hour a night, what harm could it do?
The effects of sleep deprivation of just one hour can be seen the next day. Just look at what happens when we move the clocks forward by an hour in the springtime. In the days following the first Monday of the change to Daylight Saving Time there’s a spike in heart attacks, workplace injuries and fatalities.
Also, drivers whose nightly sleep averages 6 to 7 hours a night are almost twice as likely to be involved in car crashes as those who snooze for an extra hour. And you’ve surely heard about how lack of sleep is associated with many diseases from obesity to high blood pressure.
Even if you avoid sleep related bodily injury and the obvious financial penalties associated with them, you haven’t avoided financial mayhem.
Sleep debt is also associated with lower productivity, increased impatience and difficulty concentrating. None of these traits will help you pay off those student loans faster. And definitely save those important investment decisions for days when you’re well rested.
How can you tell if you’re running a sleep debt? It’s easy. If you’re sleepy in the day, particularly around 2:00 to 3:30pm, you need more or better sleep.
But Don’t Good Mattresses Cost A Lot?
So now it’s obvious to you that you need a great night’s sleep to boost your productivity and keep healthy. But one of the reasons that you don’t sleep very well is that you hate your bed. And every ad that you’ve seen lately screams that you need to ‘replace at eight’ and spend as much on a mattress as you would for a small used car.
The ads are wrong. Good sleep can be cheap. You don’t necessarily have to replace any mattress more than 8 years old. And you don’t have to take out another loan to be comfortable at night.
The proof is in the same October 2009 Consumer Reports mattress survey of 17,000 subscribers that catapulted the expensive Tempurpedic brand to a national obsession. They found that “any new mattress beats an old one.” And for those who said that they often had sleep problems, 78% said that any new bed improved their night’s rest.
The study also found that among problem sleepers, Tempurpedic (memory foam beds) and Select Comfort (adjustable air mattresses) provided the most relief. On the other hand, Spring Air and Sterns & Foster buyers (both are lower cost inner spring mattress brands) were in the 10% of the survey takers that said that their new mattresses made their situation worse.
But buying a Tempurpedic or Select Comfort bed is one way to increase your debt. They’re expensive! So…
How to Get Good Sleep Cheap?
Determine if you need a new bed or if a much less expensive mattress topper will work for you. There are two instances where you can get away with buying a topper. The first is if your bed’s not sagging more than a half an inch. The second is if your mattress is too firm.
In either case, go online and buy a topper that’s 2 to 3 inches thick. You should be able to find a queen size for under $200. Here’s some memory foam mattress topper reviews and quick advice on what to look for in a pad.
If you do need a new bed because your old one is worn, you will have to spend a bit more. Buying a used mattress is not recommended, particularly since bedbugs have made a big comeback in recent years.
So what are the best mattresses for your budget? We’ve already seen that the lower cost inner spring beds actually made some people’s sleep worse. And unfortunately with airbeds, you do get what you pay for. Inexpensive air mattresses leak and you could end up sleeping on the hard floor. That leaves memory foam mattresses as the best alternative for people looking for good cheap sleep.
The good news is that the ‘any new bed is better than the old one’ rule also applies here. Buyers of inexpensive memory foam beds are almost as happy as those who buy the pricey Tempurpedic brand. Better news is that good quality budget memory foam beds are very easy to find online. Just google “best mattresses under 500″ for reviews and recommendations.
Sleeping Smart Cuts Debt
Reduce both your sleep debt and financial debt by sleeping more and making better bed choices. And the side benefits are that you’ll also be more productive and have a better social life.
So what are you going to do today to shrink your sleep debt?
Bio: Nancy Ulrich writes for Memory-Foam-Maniac.com and is a local business consultant for web, mobile and social media marketing.
How Much Excess Notebook Paper is Hanging Around YOUR Old School Work?
October 8th, 2011 | Added to Sustainable Living | No Comments »
For those of you out there on the interwebs who still have your high school or college paperwork laying around – when was the last time you looked at it? I have a double-wide milk crate that sits on a shelf in my closet and is filled with my college and graduate school notebooks and homework. While I typically don’t notice the milk crate sitting there on the shelf, every now and again I think to myself, “I have to dig through that thing one of these days.”
And last night was the night that I decided to dig through that milk crate.
 All of the notebook paper that I did NOT use while I was in college... amazing. Now some of you might wonder why I keep this old school work decided to dig through this milk crate. It’s simple. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you know that almost two years ago to the day I wrote an entry that talked about how I planned to use every disposable/short-term item in my possession before buying a new item of the same type. In other words, I don’t plan on buying any more blue or black ink pens until all of the pens at my disposal are used and gone. I don’t plan on buying any new highlighters or pencils until all of the ones that I currently have in my possession either run dry or run down to the eraser.
Why buy more of something that I have an abundance of already?
The picture above shows all of the excess notebook and loose leaf paper that I pulled out of my old college notebooks and random paperwork last night. I did this once before, but I only pulled out a few slices of paper (maybe 50 at most). However, once I had all of that old milk crate poured out on my bedroom floor last night, I figured that this was my chance to pull out all of the unused paper from the crate. And why pull out all of that unused, dusty paper?
To use it, of course!
Granted, I don’t have many uses for that paper in my at-home life. In fact, I’ve been working on depleting a stack of “scratch paper” that has been sitting on my bookshelf for the last two years. So I certainly don’t need to add to that pile. However, I’m going to bring that stack of unused college paper to my office and slap it on a clipboard to use when I go out for site visits to my clients or to take notes during in-office meetings.
Will it help prevent a tree from being chopped down somewhere on the planet? Maybe – I don’t know. But what I do know is that it makes a lot more sense to use the paper that I already have in my possession than to go out to Staples and buy a new pack of paper. Not only does that generate a greater need than is really needed, but it’s a waste of money.
So, what resources or items do you have laying around your house, closet, or storage unit that you don’t need to buy any more of any time soon? Take a look around. You might be surprised at what you find!
Crazy Fat People Thoughts – Seeing The Bigger Picture in The Smaller Picture
August 22nd, 2011 | Added to Gym Stories, Sustainable Living | No Comments »
Some of you folks might remember a few weeks ago when I wrote the first “Crazy Fat People Thoughts” entry on JerseySmarts.com. The point of that entry was twofold. First, I was commenting about how I have a variety of never-been-worn-before jeans that I can now wear since I’ve been losing weight. Second, I was making a statement that most fat people do weird things or have habits/issues that range from minor quirks to extreme issues. While I’m lucky because I don’t think I have any major issues, I definitely have weird little quirks – like buying jeans that don’t fit me. This entry is about another one of the weird quirks that I’ve become more aware of lately and why I’m becoming aware of it. I think you’ll find it interesting.
 What happens when this scene does occur, but you still can't see it? Whereas the last entry of this type focused on all of these unworn jeans in my closet, this entry is going to focus on what I see when I look at myself in the mirror. First, some history…
I’ve mentioned many, many times on this blog that I once lost 125 pounds before gaining some 105 pounds back. While I’m not going to rehash that story, I do want to comment on my perception of reality during that time. Specifically, even though I lost 125 pounds and I was getting compliments from everyone I knew and everywhere I went, I didn’t see much of a change in the mirror. Now, before you go and think that I have some type of body dysmorphic disorder (look it up), I certainly knew that I looked different and I definitely knew that my body was a different shape at 260 pounds versus at 385 pounds.
However, for better or for worse, whenever I looked in the mirror I just saw… me.
Was my stomach smaller? I guess so. Were my arms and chest more defined because of the intense lifting that I was engaged in? More or less, I guess. Did I see the same changed person that everyone else saw when they looked at me? Nope.
Maybe it was because I’m a pretty strong-minded person and I knew that even though my body changed, I was still “me.” You see, society seems to think that if you lose a lot of weight and your appearance changes dramatically, then you must be a “new” person. This weird cause and effect is played out in the media and in popular television shows (it’s actually the core root of NBC’s The Biggest Loser). Yet, becoming a “new” person was never my motivation to lose weight when I dropped 125 pounds and it’s not my motivation as I lose weight this time around.
That’s probably enough background, but feel free to ask for more if you’re interested. Now some more present day comments on this topic…
I decided to write this entry because yesterday I hit a pretty big milestone in my current weight loss efforts. Yesterday, I weighed in at 314.6 pounds, which is 50.4 pounds less than when I started losing weight at the beginning of the summer. That’s pretty damn good!
Just like when I lost all of that weight last time around, I’m doing the same things this time around – eating less and working out more. That’s the big “secret” to weight loss. It really is the secret!
And, just like last time around, I’m not “seeing” much of a difference in the mirror. However, because I was aware enough at the beginning of the summer to know that my eye-to-mind connection would lie to me again about what I was “seeing,” I took a measure to prevent myself from believing (disbelieving?) what my eyes saw in the mirror.
I took pictures of myself.
No, you’re not going to see those pictures on this website so don’t ask. However, I glance through the pictures every once in a while to get a view of the pre-weight loss version of my body versus the current version of my body. And truth be told, there is a striking, noticeable difference between the picture of me at 354.6 pounds (after already losing 10.4 pounds is when I started taking the pictures) and the picture of me at 335.0 pounds… but that’s about it as far as my eyes can “see.” I’ve also taken pictures of myself at 330.4 pounds and 326.8 pounds; I have yet to take some pictures of myself at my current 314.6 pounds.
However, here’s the thing – I don’t see a difference in the pictures between 335.0 pounds and 326.8 pounds.
Is there a difference? Well, there would have to be, right? I mean you don’t weigh 8.2 pounds less than you did a week or two prior and not look different. Yet, I don’t see it in the pictures. Sure, maybe I’ll see the difference in the 314.6 pound pictures, but I don’t see the change now.
And that’s the root of this entry because I’m finding it pretty hard to get as excited as I should be about losing the 50 pounds so far. Most folks would be jumping up and down for joy after losing that much weight and while I’m glad about it, I’m not ecstatic about the 50 pound drop. Part of me believes that I’m not excited because, frankly, I’ve been here before. In fact, I’ve gone another 54.6 pounds down this road and will likely retrace those very same steps in the next 6 months. But I’m just not overly elated at what I’m seeing in the mirror.
The analyst in me thinks that I need to heed the title of this entry and see the bigger picture in the physically smaller pictures of my body. In other words, I think that part of my problem is that I need to realize and begin to achieve the bigger picture items that come along with losing weight before my mind will allow me to see the physical benefit of losing the weight. What does that mean? Here’s an example: I go to the doctor again next Friday (second day of September). At that appointment, I will have hopefully lost a total of 55 pounds since I last saw the doctor. That’s an astounding amount of weight to lose. I think, however, in order for me to realize and achieve the bigger picture items that come from losing this weight, I’m going to need my doctor to lower the amount of my medications (currently at 10 pills and 1 shot each day).
I’m pretty confident that a development like that would begin to wrench open my mind’s eye so that it can see the smaller figure standing in the mirror.
__________
The paragraph above is the end of this entry. Though, since this is a weight loss-themed entry, I thought I would add a few comments on my next goal and the longer-term goals that I have for losing weight. If you’re interested, read on…
The next goal is to drop below 300 pounds. As any big guy can tell you, when you’re losing weight that 300 pound figure looms above your efforts like a storm cloud waiting to burst. Once I break through that level and begin weighing something in the 290s, I’ll be content that this weight loss effort may actually have some longer-term legs. And on those longer-term legs, I’d like to carry myself to 275 pounds by the middle of October – in time for my older brother’s wedding. Again, as any big guy losing weight can tell you – once you breakthrough beneath the 300 pound level, 275 pounds doesn’t seem that far away (and it’s not in the grand scheme of things).
That’s about it in terms of my weight loss goals. Sure, one day I’d like to weigh around 230 pounds (I don’t know about going much lower than that weight, actually), but I’m in no great rush to get there. I could be very happy sitting at 275 pounds for a while just like I’m content taking small steps to get to that weight. If you’re interested in following this weight loss effort, stick around on JerseySmarts.com because I plan to chronicle as much of my thoughts and experiences as I can during this journey. It should be interesting. 
Reviewing Michael Pollan’s 7 Rules For Eating… Again
August 9th, 2011 | Added to Sustainable Living | No Comments »
While I was reviewing some of the bookmarks in my “blogging topics” folder, I noticed this link to a page on WebMD regarding Michael Pollan’s 7 Rules for Eating. You might remember that I read and reviewed Pollan’s books The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. Both of those books are absolutely phenomenal if you’re a person who likes to understand exactly what it is that you’re putting inside of your body.
 Those rules seem pretty simple, right? With yesterday’s entry where I wrote about how I’ve been losing weight (see the weight loss monitor on the bottom right side of the sidebar) I felt compelled to complete this particular entry – which I began writing back in February. But, before I offer just a few comments, I thought that I should provide those seven food rules that Pollan promotes:
- Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. “When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, “What are those things doing there?” Pollan says.
- Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce.
- Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
- Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. “There are exceptions — honey — but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren’t food,” Pollan says.
- It is not just what you eat but how you eat. “Always leave the table a little hungry,” Pollan says. “Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, ‘Tie off the sack before it’s full.’”
- Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It’s a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. “Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?” Pollan asks.
- Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.
While Pollan’s rules seem very simple, some folks might think that they are exceptionally hard to follow. Well, they’re not. In fact, they’re very easy to follow. All you have to do is use your head and think twice before you pick up certain items in the grocery store. For example, don’t pick up something that is made with a ridiculous list of ingredients. Instead, opt for some fresh fruit or vegetables (which have a single, rather obvious ingredient). And stay the hell away from fast food joints. Talk about a combination of chemicals and stuff that isn’t really food!
From my perspective, I like the second rule the best because it leads to so many other great rules/laws for eating healthy. If you shop around the perimeter of most grocery stores, you’ll be confronted with fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, milks and eggs, etc. That’s the kind of stuff that you should be eating! Of course, you should always opt for the organic version of each of these foods – and don’t worry about the additional dollar or so that you’ll spend on the organic foods. You’ll make that money back by buying less food overall and saving on costly medical care for overweight-related conditions (what’s up Type 2 Diabetes?!).
Anyway, I don’t really have many comments on the rules above, but I did want to share them with you. And if you haven’t checked out either The Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food, you should do yourself a favor and get a copy of those books right away!
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