Shift of Tow

I know I should exercise more, that it’s good for me and blah, blah, blah… how do I motivate myself to actually do it? I mean, any exercise at all.

I’ve struggled with this, too, for as long as I can remember. I go through periods when I’m exercising every day, or at least pretty often, and then I’ll go the same amount of time without exercising much at all. During this years-long battle, here are some ideas I’ve put to good use:

1. Do it first thing, even if that means getting up earlier. The times I’ve exercised most consistently for the longest are the times when I’ve made it a part of my morning routine (something else I recommend). Right now, I get up, have breakfast and coffee, make myself half presentable, and then I go walking. I thrive when I have a solid morning routine, though; if your mornings can go any old way and you don’t care but you’ve got all kinds of evening rituals, it might be easier to add exercise there. Other reasons morning exercise is nice are: You don’t get a chance to talk yourself out of it, nobody’s going to invite you to drinks at 7 AM to interrupt your workout time, you weren’t going to run errands in the morning anyway, and you hopefully won’t wake up too tired to exercise.
2. Find something you like, or at least can tolerate. I’m always up for a walk, so long walks are always something I can get myself to do without too much angst. I’m also a big fan of video games that bring the exercise, like DDR or Wii Fit. It’s foolishness to try to get yourself to go do things that you really hate doing, so don’t decide to do aerobics/join the gym/take up weight training when you know you’ll hate it, just because you feel like you ought. It won’t work. What you’re trying to do, here, is find something that’s sustainable over a long time, and that’s far more important than getting the best workout. Other fun exercise ideas: Go throw a Frisbee, a football, or a softball around in a park. Explore all the parks in your city. Hike. Kayak or canoe. Turn your music on really loud and dance for a while each day. Go to museums and walk around a lot. Take a dance class. Take a martial art. You can often find cheap classes through community centers or community colleges.
3. Make it easy. The more obstacles you put between yourself and the exercise you’re going to do, the harder it’s going to be to get yourself to do it. So, store your bike where it’s easy to get out, don’t join a gym that’s far away (or at all, I say, if you can help it), and have a good pile of clothes you can wear to work out. You can buy some weights and work out at home, you can go for a run in your neighborhood or drive somewhere close by where there’s a lot of parking (like a mall, which are great untapped walking locations unless you’re over sixty). You don’t have to get fancy about working out, and I think that sometimes we put up these obstacles as excuses to avoid it.
4. Unless, of course, you want to get fancy about working out. This doesn’t work that well for me, but I read a tip a long time ago that money you spend now on exercise equipment that you’ll use is money you won’t spend on hospital bills later. There’s some truth there, so I say if you like shopping, can afford it, and like to have neat gear, go get yourself a nice pair of walking shoes, a cool new bike, or some clothes specifically made for exercise. Having the use of new things to look forward to can help with motivation.
5. Commute by walking or biking. When I lived close to where I worked, I was guaranteed to get at least a half hour of walking in most days. More, if I didn’t catch the campus bus.
6. Set goals. Decide you want to be able to run a mile—or a 5k, if you already can. Decide you want to be able to do 100 push-ups. Figure out how to get to there from here. This has given me mixed results, but sometimes it works.
7. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day, just make sure you do it the next day.
8. Always exercise on Monday. That suggestion comes straight from The Happiness Project, but what she says makes sense. If you start out well, it’s easier to continue well.

There you go. These ideas have all helped me get off my ass to one degree or another.

Y’all should feel free to comment and let us know how you convince yourself to work out.

Poor Melissa and I have been in a bit of a rut when it comes to food, which is bad enough when you find yourself eating stir fry for the third night in a row, but really a problem when you realize you’ve had Cook Out more times in the past week than you’ve had food you cooked yourself, often with milkshakes. In the past we’ve solved this problem by implementing Project Recipe-A-Week*, which means cracking open some cookbooks, looking for an unfamiliar recipe that sounds good, and then making it. The last time we did this, we ended up adding black bean soup to our repertoire. Given the fact that I’m at home these days and Project Recipe-A-Week sounded like a great blog topic, we’re giving it another shot. This means you, dear reader, are going to get pictures and a recipe each week until we tire of it.

This week we settled on corn chowder, and looked through the Foster’s Market cookbook (one of my favorites) and another book I have called 1001 Lowfat Vegetarian Recipes. The Foster’s corn chowder recipe has roasted red pepper, which I do not love, so we used the one we found in 1001 LVR—a book that I’ve used a few times with middling (pasta salad with mozzarella) to excellent (portabella bruschetta!) results. We chose corn chowder because there’s a lot of sweet corn and potatoes right now at the farmer’s market, but much to my shame I ended up using store bought vegetables (and one homegrown herb) to make the entire thing. I couldn’t even use my farm share onion, because it had a rotten spot right in the middle. The ingredients are:

2 cups fresh (or frozen, thawed) whole kernel corn (I used fresh)
1 medium onion, diced
Vegetable oil
2 c. stock (I used vegetable stock)
2 c. cubed potatoes
½ c. sliced celery (what an odd measurement! I used two stalks)
½ tsp dried thyme (I used about a teaspoon of fresh)
2 c. milk (or half and half) (we used skim milk and it was great)
Salt and pepper, and parsley or chives to garnish (I didn’t use garnish)

Here’s a picture of the meez, as a friend calls it:

You can see the fresh thyme from the garden on top of the celery and potatoes.

Here’s how you make it:

1. Sauté corn and onion in a bit of vegetable oil in a large saucepan until the onion is tender.



2. Process half of the corn and onion in a food processor along with all of the stock, and then return it to the saucepan.



3. Add potatoes, celery, and thyme and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender (about 15-20 minutes). Add some salt and pepper, if you want it.



4. Add the milk and cook until it’s hot.

I served it with some smoked mozzarella and tomato salad (mix smoked mozzarella, some tomatoes, salt, pepper, a tiny bit of olive oil, a little wine vinegar, and maybe some basil). We both loved it.

*Poor Melissa absolutely does not think of it this way. I, on the other hand, cannot think of a solution to any problem without sticking a “Project” in front of it and capitalizing the rest of the words. Hyphens give it that extra project punch.

I can’t fathom why my brother is engaged to his fiancee. It’s an extreme example of opposites attract. She’s not a bad person, just unfathomable. She is much younger than him (7 years) and in her early twenties. I predict heart break. Is there a good way of counseling my brother out of this? Or maybe it’s none of my business? There is no date for the wedding set yet, thank god.

Here’s one true thing I know about other people’s relationships: We don’t know what’s going on inside them.

We think we do, and this is especially true if we’re in a relationship with which we’re happy. We think that since we have a great relationship, we have the secret to how anybody can have a great relationship. It’s kind of crazy how we all seem to hold this idea that we’re unique and that we also know what everyone else ought to be doing in our heads at the same time.

This is not to say I think it’s none of your business, but that maybe it’s not the problem you see it as being. Maybe you’re right, maybe it’ll end in heartbreak, but maybe it won’t. If it does, maybe heartbreak is what he needs, and maybe when it comes, it will be time for it. Your brother might need something from relationships that you don’t see or understand. He might need her to be pretty, because maybe he cares what other people think about who he’s with. He might need her to be a little bit dim, so he’ll feel smart. He might need her to be an artist, even if she’s a bad one, because that’s what he longs for in a mate. He might need her to be tall, or short. He might just need her to love him without any judgment, because maybe we all go through phases like that, where we need to be loved more than we need to be fulfilled. You might see these needs as wrong, as immature, something which he’ll outgrow. But that’s who he is right now. The point is that whatever has him with this girl isn’t just that he doesn’t see her, er, lack of fathomability, but that he needs something she’s giving him–that’s about what he is, and not just about the relationship.

The thing about advice—and I recognize the irony in my saying this here—is that the person to whom you want to give advice has to be ready for it if it’s got a deadline, or it has to be advice that they can save up for later. Most people are not ready for timely advice when they’re in the middle of doing something that isn’t quite right. All you’ll get if you tell him not to marry this girl is the ability to say “I told you so” if and when it falls apart. It’s not going to prevent the marriage; it’s not going to change his relationship.

Here’s a suggestion: Try to figure out why he wants to marry her. Don’t ask him directly, because it’s going to be hard to do that without letting on that you think it’s a bad idea. Just listen and watch. It’ll help you know your brother a little better, and settle your mind at the same time.

I hope that helps.

We used to have a very ugly television stand. The wood veneer was like plastic, and it was very beat up from several moves.

I decided that rather than buy a new stand, I’d make the old one pretty. Sadly, I didn’t take pictures of the process, so you just get an after:

There’s going to be an after after, too. Look closely at the paper on the left side of the doors:

It’s bad enough that the paper got all crinkled, but one side is upside down! There are seams on the back or I could’ve just turned them around. I’m going to take the doors off and either re-do them or leave it be.

Isn’t the color awesome? I tried to match the blue birds on the paper. I got the Snow & Graham paper from Paper Mojo–it’s the fourth one down the page.

It goes pretty well with the new chairs we got.

We have three huge crape myrtles in our front yard.

As you can see, they aren’t blooming yet. Crape myrtles all over town are blooming right now, but ours haven’t, and I worry. The web tells me that the biggest reasons that crape myrtles don’t bloom are too much shade, too much pruning, or not enough water. These get plenty of light and I certainly haven’t pruned them, so I wonder if they’re still recovering from last year’s drought. But that wouldn’t explain why even the crape myrtles across the street are blooming and these are not.

The trunks are pretty, at least.

Like most of the plants in our front yard, the crape myrtle is originally from East Asia. It was first cultivated in the US in the late 1700s, down in South Carolina.

If the zombie apocalypse comes, I could use the bark as a fever reducer, a stimulant, and to staunch bleeding. The flowers have been used to treat colds, though I imagine that we’d not be too worried about the sniffles if the zombies were coming–good, since there are no flowers yet. The root is an astringent, detoxicant, and diuretic. I read in one place that you can brew and drink the leaves to help reduce blood sugar for diabetics, too, which might help once the insulin runs out.

I will let you know if they start to bloom. It’s especially heart-breaking since crape myrtles bloom for a really long time. Cross your fingers for me.

I had a few friends over one night last week and made black bean soup for them.

My black bean soup, which I got from the Foster’s Market cookbook, is one of the most reliably tasty things I make. Foster’s is a restaurant/market here in Durham with a spectacular atmosphere and really good food, and everything I’ve made from this cookbook has been good except the butternut squash soup, with which I think I got a little too creative and substitutey*. This is a great soup for a summer evening—I mean, yeah, you have to stand over a stove for a bit, but the soup has a Caribbean flavor to it that seems very summery to me. A few people have asked me for the recipe in the past, so here you go.

Ingredients

2 c. dried black beans
1/4 c. olive oil
4 stalks celery
1 red onion
2 carrots
2 jalapeños
1 red bell pepper
4 cloves garlic
dried basil
8 c. chicken or veggie broth
bay leaves
salt
pepper
Optional for topping: Yogurt (or sour cream), lime, cilantro, hot sauce, cheese

First, quick cook two cups of dried black beans by boiling them with a lot of extra water for about an hour. You can skip this and use canned beans, but if you do, drain them and rinse them. I think the dried beans give it a better flavor, though.

While the beans are cooking, dice a red bell pepper, two jalapeños, four stalks of celery, and two carrots. These things all go in at the same time, so you can put them in the same bowl.

You also need to dice, and keep separate, four cloves of garlic, a peeled tart apple (I always use Granny Smith), and a red onion. If you don’t want your apple to get brown, put it in lime juice when you dice it.

Once the beans are done, drain and rinse them. In a big soup pot, sweat the onions in the olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. If you brown the onions, your soup will be a little funky in the bad way, so take it slow–it’ll be about ten minutes.

Add the pepper, jalapeño, carrot, and celery and cook for another ten minutes or so. Towards the end, add the garlic.

Once everything is nice and softened, add the beans, broth, apple, four bay leaves, a tablespoon of dried basil, and some salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil, then turn it down and simmer it for an hour or two. When it’s close to ready, start some rice and cut up some cilantro and a lime.

Serve the soup over rice, and top with cheese, cilantro, a little lime juice, yogurt or sour cream, and hot sauce. I think the tartness of yogurt works better on this soup, but sour cream will do. I usually serve it with chips or spicy cornbread**.

If I make it for just me and Poor M., the leftovers last for days, and I never get sick of it.

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*This was the only thing I’ve ever made which Poor M. could not finish. It was dire.

**I use Jiffy cornbread mix and add diced jalapeño and maybe some cheese.

This week we got cucumbers, tomatoes, li’l tomatoes (not all pictured), potatoes, squash, cabbage, and chard. I’m excited about the tiny tomatoes! They look like sungolds.

This is our mantle. For a few weeks I had the bottles in place at one end and a candle (not in the picture) at the other, but couldn’t figure out what went in between. Then I started lining up postcards, and now I’m in love.

This is another favorite spot in my house. Inside the box are some neat old handkerchiefs and my little elephant, and on top is a fancy box and a rubber duck. I think I need to add a little picture or postcard inside the box.

I keep all of my cookbooks on the hoosier, along with my cast iron frying pan.

I can’t come up with a way of cutting grocery bills any further. I make lists based on meal plans, eat very little processed foods and snacks, and often eat vegetarian. Planting a garden is sadly not an option. Any thoughts?

I’m a little obsessed with saving money on groceries, so I’m glad you asked. Here are a few ideas that might be useful:

• Cook from scratch as much as possible. It’s cheaper to make granola and biscuits and tortillas than it is to buy them already made. With some things the difference in cost is so small that it’s almost negligible, especially if you don’t like to cook, but it’s up to you to figure out where it’s worthwhile. Remember that your time and happiness are just as important as your money, though.
• Eat a lot of beans. Beans are cheap, tasty, and filling. Dry beans are cheaper than canned beans; they’re a great example of how spending a little more time cooking can save you a little money.
• If you eat the same thing several times a week, you can save. Do this either because you make a big pot of soup and are eating leftovers for two days, or because it’s cheaper to make pizza dough and have pizza three times in a row than it is to have ingredients on hand for three different meals.
• Buy in bulk! The initial expense is higher, but I read somewhere that buying in bulk is one of the best investments you can make. If you know you’re going to use it all and have the money, buy the biggest size of whatever you need.
• Related to that, stock up on the things you buy regularly when there’s a sale.
• You mention that you often eat vegetarian; try doing it all the time! We don’t eat meat at home and that’s cut down on our grocery bill a lot.
• It might help to figure out what you’re spending the most money on, and ask yourself whether you can substitute something else, go generic, make it at home, or cut it out. That’s how I ended up making granola at home, for instance—we eat a lot of the stuff and a box from Trader Joe’s that will last a week costs $3. If I make it, I buy the ingredients for around $10 and they last several weeks and also get used for other things. Hang on to your grocery receipts for a few weeks and see where the most money is going.
• I haven’t managed to do this myself, but going vegan could save even more money. Dairy products are the highest part of our grocery bill.
• And speaking of vegetables, you can often find bargains at your local farmer’s market. If you buy in season, you spend less. That goes for buying fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, too.
• You could also try coupon clipping. I don’t do that myself, but there’s a ton of advice on the web about how to do it best.

I hope that helped a little. If all else fails and you’re really broke, the all beans and rice diet all the time is not that bad.

I have started using the compost for the appropriate household waste. I am awash in virtue. My next target in my ongoing attempt to waste less money and send less stuff to the landfill is to not let food go to waste in our house. We have let a shameful amount of farm share greens end up in the trash this year, and I am on a mission to keep that from happening again*. To that end, I looked up “storing cabbage,” since cabbage was what we had the most of in the fridge.

It’s embarrassingly easy to store greens these days, it turns out. You cut them up, you blanch them:

Then you freeze them. So that’s what I did.

I also froze some pesto this week, since I made a huge batch from the basil we got last week.

I won’t show you the banana bread I made to use up the bananas that were going bad, though. You would think that after making quick bread as many times as I have I wouldn’t do something like overfill the pan and have it spill all over the bottom of the oven. And that would be awfully generous of you. I will say no more.

*It’s a whole lot easier now that we’re getting less greens, though, let me be honest.