we're still here.

So, where are we, week 3ish?We both disappeared for quite some time, ideally we want to update this more than once a week, but with me opening a show and Nate gone in North Carolina for a few days, we were busy.

So, what have we been up to?Not eating fried foods!Travel, shows, as mentioned above. Neither one of us can remember if we talked about our Appalachian Trail savings account that we started and put our first 10$ in sometime in the past week. We even have a jar at my house:



Perhaps we will get another one to add at Nates house?I've got a few more milk bottles lying around, or perhaps it will be more delicious to go down to the CO-OP and get some Caulder Dairy Chocolate deliciousness milk of awesome.

We'll see.

Coffee intake has gone up,according to Nate, not really for me yet,but I am pretty sure I am headed that way.

Going back to this Appalachian Trail idea, I am currently enrolled in a Backpacking Class, no I am not kidding,I am a Parks and Rec minor. Part of the class...
Nate interjects
"I walk to work!"
... is to plan a 4-7 day hike, for 4 people, and I have chosen to hike the Virginia Highlands section of the AT from Damascus to Harpers Ferry WV. A good chance to plan for the real thing.At least I hope.

We're still eating a lot of pizza, its sort of an accident though. Everyone else around us also eats a lot of pizza. Everyday at work Nates co-workers get pizza, while I was at tech and during the run of my show, every other day someone would order pizza and other tech staff would partake.

Next month is no-take out, and pizza is the king of takeout, and we will see a dramatic decline of pizza consumption. The good news is that I have practice 6 days a week, so it's not like I'm a super fatty. Although, that is what Jillian Michaels thinks, I keep getting spam from her.
Nate is nowhere near the idea of super fatty, lets face it, he will never be.

So, on to the week, see you doods later.

week 2

So we havent updated in a while because of going back to class and word, but rest assured, neither one of us has succumb to fried fast food.Even though at work one day, all the fellas got chinese food, and nate did not partake, but choosing to have a lunchtime classic, pb&j instead. Even though our beloved friend/roommate Robert has taunted and teased with the likes of falafel, french fries, and the like, we have stood our ground.We have found that our lives are cheaper sans fried fast food, and that $7.59ish that I sometimes spend at the student center Wendys can now go to my bank account, and instead of making my ass fat, I am making my bank account fat. Nate has noticed the way we consume meat in comparison to fruits and veggies is way off balance,and we are fixing that. Finding out that there are other sources of protein beyond meat product that taste delicious, as well as a variety of other foods that are great without being deep fried.Nate has found that fresher foods fill you up faster, and keep you from being hungry, as well as I. I think that we have always known this, but now we are becoming more conscious of our decisions.

Our vice has been pizza, its not the greatest thing in the world for you, but it is not the best either.We usually make our own pizza with whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joes, which, by the way is only .99 cents!Awesome!But we did, actually end up ordering in pizza one night, we were busy, hungry, and it was cheap, but we did have veggies as a topping.

We have also discussed adding NO PIZZA to one of our months!
OH NO!!!!

Other than adjusting our diets to become better ones,we have also talked about becoming more financially stable. Nate and I are working on individual savings accounts, as well as a joint account that we hope to use to fund future adventures. One of these big adventures being a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. It started out as a pinky promise in the beer garden at the Corner Brewery, and is now more in the planning stages of an amazing adventure.

Lots of cooking to be going on this week, curry tomorrow,plum spiced chicken, stuffed chicken later on this week.Who knows what else?!Its the week of the chicken I guess, BAWK,BAWK!!!

So now, we are on the couch after a delightful meal of roasted mushrooms with capers, parsley and lemon juice, mashed potatoes, and pork chops, we are going to eat ice cream.
Not a usual thing for either of us, mostly because I am aware of my massive sweet tooth and if I buy anything sweet I will eat the entire box/can/bag etc in a very short amount of time.....but tonite is different. I need a pint of Ben and Jerrys for a prop in my show, but we cant feed actors on stage, especially sugar-sooo I have to empty it somehow!Gosh, the things I am required to do for my job, its so tough sometimes, I guess I will have to deal with this pint of Milk&Cookies ice cream and pray this never happens to me again!
What a tough job......props...sheesh!!!

: D
hehehe

Nate starts night class tomorrow, Life Drawing II-the art of drawing naked people for 3 hours!I am on the first full week of classes tomorrow and am already procrastinating on homework.Whoops!
Hopefully more regular updates this week.

Sunday

After ignoring my 830AM alarm, I awoke at 1030, and Nate shortly after me.After a breakfast of cereal,toast and mandarin oranges, we wandered down to the Ugly Mug for coffee.Leftovers for lunch since we made a preposterous amount of potato and leek soup last night.
Now you might ask us, why no fried food in January?Maybe youre thinking to yourself that we are a couple of major fatties who eat fried food nearly every day,and if you know us, you are almost positive of that answer because Betty is from the south, and in the south they fry everything and serve it with a side of the King James Bible.

False.

We do not eat fried food every day, but you do not need evidence to prove that in this country eating fried food is cheap and easy to get, and we do not want to fall into that routine of highly processed food product cooked in liquid fat. Not that we are super health freaks and now think that we are holier-than-thou Whole Foods regulars, because we are guilty of Burger King and other fried stuff occasionally.

So, the idea being, that if we cut out fried food for 30 days...it will become habit and force us to think about the future of our bodies.
What we put in, is what is put out.

So, we spent the afternoon running errands, snacking on mandarin oranges, which are on sale right now at Kroger (hint, hint, nudge, nudge)
After an unsuccessful scavenge at REI for low priced awesome gear, we stopped into Whole Foods to pick up some stuff for dinner. We had plans to again, eat soup for dinner, but wanted something on the side.We decided that sandwiches would be great,and wandered into explore the store, and eat the samples,duh. After sipping on some kambucha,in a rather absent minded manner, reached for a sample of...DUN DUN DUUUUUNNN
potato chips.Nate swooped in to save me from my mistake, but that accidentally turned into a public boob grab.
Ooops.
Well, I didnt eat the chip, Nate was red faced,and we moved on in our quest for cheap and not fried food.Picked up a loaf of Italian country bread,half a pound of turkey breast and robusto cheese, new zealand cheddar, and gruyere cheese. Not all of the cheese was used tonight, but instead will be used tomorrow for mac and cheese.

So we got home put some bread on a baking sheet, topped it with sliced cheese, turkey,red onion, dijon mustard and after it baked for about 7 minutes at 350, we took it out of the oven, topped it with fresh greens and had a bowl of soup.

There is still soup to be had.

Now we're full, and successfully completed the second day of not eating fried food.



......but I really want ice cream right meow.
hehe

12 resolutions.

On our way to Battle Creek, Michigan for Christmas Eve with the family, we somehow decided that instead of having just one resolution that will fizzle out in a flame of glory after one week, we would instead have 12. One per month, each resolution not necessarily following into the next month. We brainstormed a list on the back of a bank envelope for about 50 miles before we had a concrete concept for our next year. Our goal is to build good habits health wise, financially and environmentally and not see it as depriving ourselves of what we like as Americans, please note there was just a conversation about whether or not we should write 'Mericans or Americans. I won this battle and not Nate.
: )
Moving on.

So, here is our list as follows for 2011
P.S Kinks have not been worked out yet.

January-No Fried Food
February-No Take Out
March-No Caffeine
April-No Beef
May-No Desserts
June-No Booze
July-No Car
August-Limited Consumption* Explanation later, we are tired and want to go to bed-in the mean time, use those colorful imaginations of yours.
September-5 Minuter Shower
October-Make Dinner Every Night
November-Bike Trainer Every Day
December-All Cash, No Plastic


Each month is pretty self-explanatory, sometimes those cold winter days can lead you straight to Taco Bell for a chalupa grande but, not today!For breakfast, which we had at about 2:00 in the after noon after a slow cup of coffee at the Ugly Mug, and because we woke up at.....neither one of us has the appropriate documentation of the time we woke up..either way, it was the afternoon.At that point, as we mused over our coffee, we contemplated going to Beezys for delicious breakfast plates, but then, sadly we realized that those breakfast plates contain: FRIED FOOD.

Dammit.

So then, I made breakfast as Nate pouted about no-bacon January, but he got over it when I served him a plate of eggs, with toast, wheat toast of course.

Then, we went straight to the produce section for leeks and potatoes and fresh greens which in the long run was cheaper than two meals at the Taco Bell, or fish and chips, which Betty really wanted on New Years Eve,but did not eat, and now that it is January 1st, there will be no fish and chips for Betty, and no Taco Bell for Nate....aw sad.

So we threw together potato and leek soup,Nates BRILLIANT IDEA in a flash and had a small side salad.
Delicious.
Our bodies are grateful today, no fried food!