Trying something new

I recently read a post from Lucy about gardening and it got me inspired!  I would love to start a garden but have no experience in that area.  Any suggestions for starting and growing a garden?  We already have an area that use to be a garden that I could use, I would just have to till it up. 

I would love to grow the following: 
-Strawberry's
-Lettuce
-Potato's
-Onions
-Tomatoes
-Peppers
-any other suggestions?

Should I not tackle any of the above list as a first time gardener?   Should I be looking into growing any other fruits or veggies?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  You guys are always a wealth of knowledge and I have learned so much from you all already!  Thanks in advance!

Klean Kanteen

If anyone knows anything about me, they know how much I love me some water.  You’ll never catch me without a bottle or glass of water.  I found a 55+oz water bottle that I’ve been using for the past few months.  I fill it up once a day and drink it all (or at least most of it), then I head home after work and usually drink more water to workout or just because I'm thirsty.  (My mom always said that when you feel hungry, just drink some water, you may just be dehydrated.... Well God knows, I'm definitely not dehydrated...)

 Anyway, back to my humongo water bottle... It says BPA Free on it, but it has a #7 on the bottom which scares me.  Apparently #’s 3, 6 & 7 are the bad numbers and you want to watch out for those because they are full of nasty chemicals which can cause cancer and other awful health problems.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I try to an extent to make safe choices.  Whether it is what water bottle I drink from or where I buy my meat or what kind of meat it is (Don’t get me started on that 80-20 crap…., that’s a post for a different day)

With my new running kick, I want to try to “kick” other habits to the curb such as this water bottle that
“probably” won’t kill me, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

On that note, I’ve been researching water bottles.  Some are fairly inexpensive while others reach upwards of $30-40 for one.  At first, I thought this is crazy, who would pay $30 for a water bottle, until I considered becoming one of those people.  

 AND when I found Klean Kanteen, I think I fell in love.  Now, I’ve never tried this water bottle, but I’m willing to try it.  Heck if it’s safe, then why not?  I think it would last a long time too.  They are stainless steel and do not have any harmful chemicals in them.

 Credit:

Does anyone have a Kleen Kanteen?  What do you think about it?  Would you recommend it?  I think I’m going to treat myself to one for my birthday, maybe…. Or maybe Hubby has already purchased said water bottle (cough 40oz Kanteen Class cough) thankyouverymuch!

So, help a girl out…. What are your thoughts on the Kleen Kanteen?  Would you shell out $30 for one?  Maybe if/when I receive one, I’ll do a little review for you!

Wordfilled Wednesday

Remember when I posed here about wanting to eat healthier and exercise more.... Well I just failed miserably! I had McDonald's breakfast today! Yuck! I haven't had fast food in over 6 months and I just caved! Everyone in the office was ordering and I thought it sounded delicious..... That was, until, I finished and then felt completely guilty for caving under pressure! That delicious sausage burrito was calling my name and I let it!

Good thing I worked out last night and am running 7 miles on Saturday! No more failing, I will not stand by and watch it happen!

Dinner tonight will consist of a salad, nothing more, nothing less :-)

On a side note: last night was by far my worst night in a long time. (I'm starting to sound very negative and I do not like it!) But wait until you hear this!

We just bought a new John Deere lawnmower, loved it! Well silly me was in a hurry while cutting grass and wasn't paying attention and ran over this stupid 2inch tall old steel flag pole..... Needless to say, we will be spending extra on that lawnmower to get it fixed. Hubby took it apart and found where the problem is, I bent some sort of barring...? Anyway, he would need $$ expensive parts to fix it and it would take him quite sometime to fix it. So, we'll be taking it back to my hometown this weekend to get worked on. Hopefully the guy can fix it, otherwise I'm SOL and very upset!

After that fiasco, we needed to tear off the kitchen countertops because new ones are being installed today (yeahh!). Since most countertops are easy to remove with a little over a dozen screws, we decided to wait until 9:30 pm to tackle this project. (Most of you know I am NOT a late night person) Anyway, the poeple before us decided it would be a good idea to use over 100+ nails to NAIL the would countertop to the actual cabinets!!! It took hubby and I 2.5 hours to remove this countertop in pieces. It takes about 1/2 hour to take most countertops off... Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!

On a happier note, we are getting new countertops installed today! I cannot wait. I will take pictures and post them later after everything gets hooked up!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Random

So, this is going to be somewhat of a random post....

I'm feeling crappy today, well lately. I'm trying to workout and eat healthier, but it's so hard! I feel like I've gained 100 lbs since college, though I know this is not true. I'm probably 10 lbs heaver than I would like to be (and by taking off 10 lbs, that would put me back to my senior year of high school weight). I've gotten my husband excited about running and working out again, but I can't seem to find the motivation in myself. When he's there and we workout together, I do pretty well, but when I'm alone and I have to get myself up off the couch, it's much harder. I'm only 5'0" tall, so gaining weight is much more noticeable on me than it would be to someone much taller. I'm not heavy by any means, so don't get me wrong, I know I could look much worse. I just want to be healthier, it's not even about the lbs, it's about the satisfaction of knowing that I can do anything and that I am doing my best to stay healthy.

I just bought groceries and spent $100..... I feel like I got nothing because I tried buying more healthy choices. Does anyone have any suggestions for healthy, good tasting, cheap meals to make at home (or do they not exist?)? I know there's tons of recipes out there, I just have a hard time finding ones that I like and that my husband likes. He's very picky, so its difficult to find things to make that are healthy.

Anyway, that's my rant, sorry... I'm just wondering how the rest of you do it! Some of you have kids and are still able to find time to workout and eat healthy! I want to start now, so that when we do have kids, I am in some sort of pattern.

With that said, I'm drinking my Crystal Light and thinking about having a salad for lunch :-)

On another note, any suggestions for running shoes, shorts and tanks? We're running the Bix this weekend and I'm thinking of treating myself to a new pair of shorts and a tank to run in... I know switching shoes 4 days before a race probably isn't the smartest idea! By the way, the Bix is 7 miles people!! I said 7 miles! My goal is to finish running, run the whole time and get a better time than 1:10:00. That is my goal, it's not actually a difficult goal to achieve, because I know I have it in me to do it. So, I'll update you next week as to how I did.

April Goals

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Thanks to Meredith over at La Buena Vida... She has inspired me to make a few April goals to keep myself on track with her latest post of April Goals

April Goals:

1) Exercise at least 3 times a week (this is defiantly doable, and I'm already almost on track for this week!)

2) Eat at least 3 fruits/day

3) Take a multivitamin daily

4) Paint the basement

5) Clean out the shelves in the basement

6) Get yardwork done for the spring

7) Attempt to buy new windows for the basement

All in all, I believe that all of these are defiantly attainable, I just need to work at it!

What are your April goals?? Do you have any?

A-Maz-Ing Snack

Can you say amazingly delicious?? I have a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerio's every day for breakfast and so when I saw this, I knew I had to try it! I love it! It's got the same great flavor of Honey Nut Cheerio's with pretzels, cinnamon swirls and other great tasting treats in it! AND to top it off, it's not too bad for you. It's a better snack choice than a lot of those other ones out there. Try it! I found it at Target!

New (and hopefully attainable ) goals!

So, with Spring around the corner.... I've decided I've had enough time eating desserts and not exercising. I want to lose that fat and tone before I even try to fit into my capri's and swim suits. I'd like my husband to be completely taken a back! :-) As we all would. So, I've decided no more brownies, cakes, pop, or any sweets I can use my willpower to stay away from. So far so good! I've also been trying to work out at least 4-5 times a week. 2 for 2 this week, so I'm on a roll! I've started this new regimen as of March 1st, 2009. It's my goal to have lost 10 lbs by my birthday {April 6th}. I think I can do it! It shouldn't be that hard, but I have to stick to it. I want to eat healthier and my husband has also shown an interest in this. We went grocery shopping on Sunday night picking up all kinds of fruits and veggies to start off March on the right foot! He said as long as he doesn't have to steam the veggies himself or cut up the strawberry's he'll eat it! I'm ok with that, as I usually do most of the cooking anyway and I'd rather have the food eaten than go to waste. So, I will check back in the next week or so to let you know how I've done. Hopefully I can continue this good streak I have going!

So tonight's agenda is as follows:

Dinner:
An Orange
Salad
Steak
Steamed Asparagus
Corn
1 Glass of milk

1 hour of exercise

Working on my masters paper for a few hours

Watching American Idol!

To bed early! :-)

Have a great Tuesday!!

Lent

So, growing up it wasn't a huge deal in our family to give up something for lent. We aren't Catholic and therefore; we can still eat meat on Fridays, etc... I've decided this year that it would be beneficial and even healthy for me to give something up. I've decided to give up chocolate and cakes. Now, if you don't know me, you wouldn't know my obsession with Chocolate! I love Chocolate Kisses, Hershey Bars, Cookies, any kind of cake, etc... So, it is the start of a long 40 days for me. We'll see if I can do it. I'm sure my husband is doubtful, because there's always something chocolatey or dessert like in our home..... We also have a dinner party tonight where I am in charge of bringing the dessert!! Yikes! It will take some great willpower to pass up something I've made myself.... We'll see how everyone else likes my chocolate cheesecake brownies, as I will hopefully not know how delicious they are! :-)

What have you given up for Lent? Anything? Wish me luck!