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What are your tips for reducing spending?
Two Mondays ago, I mentioned that we cut back on spending in 2009, and Chez Julie asked me to share some of my tips. What a great idea!
I have a lot of tips and I bet commenters will too – so don’t feel bad if you can’t read them all – PLEASE SHARE your ideas!
I broke my tips into three categories: Shopping, Entertainment and General. Click “more” to read (skim, really) on.
We all want to know – how much exercise do we really need each week? How little can we get away with?
There was an interesting (although VERY confusing) article on the Well blog covering this topic yesterday. The article stemmed from a study done in Scotland that concluded you only need 20 minutes of exercise a week to increase your contentment. Okay, but how much do you need to be healthy?
That’s more difficult to define. The article went into a discussion about “MET” minutes, which are “Metabolic Equivalent of Task” minutes. Huh? Apparently you need 500 of those as week, and they vary based on what you are doing for exercise and how intense it is. For example, running at 6 mph is a 10-MET activity. So if you run for 60 minutes, that is 600 MET minutes. So, you’re done for the week then? Confusing…
Has anyone heard of this MET mumbo-jumbo before? How do you decide how much to exercise a week? Do you have any exercise goals for 2010?
I aim for at least 30 minutes a day, but usually go by how I feel. If I am in the groove, I will keep going! If I feel like crap, I won’t work out at all.
A few other interesting points from the article (repetitive, but interesting):
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines report, “It has been estimated that people who are physically active for approximately seven hours a week have a 40 percent lower risk of dying early than those who are active for less than 30 minutes a week.”
Interestingly, they did not find that exercise beyond a certain point conferred significant additional health benefits. Instead, the “dose response” for exercise, the committee found, is “curvilinear.” In other words, people who are the least active to start with get the most health benefit from starting to exercise. People who already are fit don’t necessarily get a big additional health benefit from adding more workout time to their regimens.
You do not necessarily have to divide your exercise time into daily allotments, either. Existing “scientific evidence does not allow researchers to say, for example, whether the health benefits of 30 minutes on five days a week are any different from the health benefits of 50 minutes on three days a week,” according to the activity guidelines. Do what suits your schedule.
Meme time! Leah, Gelareh and Holly have all tagged me for the “7 Random Things About Me” meme. Thanks, ladies! Click “more” to read on…
And of course, Happy New Years Eve! Enjoy your evening and be safe!
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Health + Fitness, Memes
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Data has decided to honor me by sleeping with me the last 4 or 5 nights.
What this really means is that I wake up a few times in the middle of the night because I want to roll over, but I don’t, because he is sleeping so peacefully between my legs/next to me/on my feet. And I would never dream of interrupting his slumber (in the middle of the night)! I mean, he wouldn’t do that to me!
Oh, wait. He does. Every time I try to sleep in past 5:30 a.m.
Data sleeping between my legs. It’s kind of hard to tell, but I am under the covers! Like my cat blanket? HA!
The things we do for our pets. Does anyone else have this half-conscious, “I shouldn’t interrupt the sleeping pet” mentality in the middle of the night?
Ha. On a somewhat related note, Steven and I watched The Cat from Outer Space Monday night on DVD. If you like cats and cheesy old movies (released in 1978*), you have to watch this. I was laughing out loud for much of it, just because it was so ridiculous. It’s definitely going on my holiday wishlist.
*For some reason, I expect movies that were released after Star Wars (1977) to have similar quality graphics (The Cat from Outer Space, The Last Starfighter, Robocop)… they don’t. And why would they? I guess that just shows how ahead of his time (crazy) Lucas was.
Look! Another meme! I’ve seen this one going around the internet A LOT lately, and I finally got tagged for it… by Bethany!
I have to be honest. I usually skim memes. Or just mark them as read. So if you do the same for me, I understand.
Although, this one was interesting to fill out, because I really had to think hard about what to put on these lists! And I am sure as the day goes on, I will think of even more things to add.
8 Things I am looking forward to:
8 Things I did yesterday:
8 Things I wish I could will do*:
8 Shows I watch:
Play along if you want!
*Modified that one a bit!
**It’s an architecture thing.
Memes
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If you could “fast forward” through something in life, would you? What would it be?
Have you seen that Adam Sandler movie, Click*? Adam Sandler buys this universal remote and finds out he can use it to fast forward through all of the un-pleasantries in his life. He uses it joyfully, to skip the hard work required for his promotion, but discovers an awful side effect – he misses out on what is going on with his family during that time. He becomes distant and removed and ends up losing them.
I used to want to fast forward through all the time and hard work it takes to lose weight and just get to the “after” picture. I felt like I was stuck in “before” land.
But then I realized two things – that once I got down to my “goal size”** I would have to work hard to maintain it anyway. and that arriving at that “goal size” didn’t guarantee my happiness.
So I got over that. But I still fantasize about “fast forwarding” through things. That’s me, always looking to the future, struggling to live in the moment.
I have scheduled pay increases that would be great to fast forward to – not because I am struggling, but because I am greedy. It would be great to fast forward to the summer and some frickin’ warm weather. It would be great to even fast forward to our half marathon day, because I am so excited about it!
But I think I would rather live through the struggles… even though I continue to fantasize about skipping forward.
*One of the few Adam Sandler movies I can actually stand to watch.
**Not even sure what that is anymore, or how it could possibly exist.
I’m not an economist, but I’ve been making my own internal speculations about products and services that may be affected by the current economy. I figured activities like library visits, grocery store shopping and working out from home would be up, and eating out, going to the movies and getting haircuts would be down.
The Sun-Times featured an interesting article yesterday on the same topic (click here for a visual version of the article). Their lists of “ups” and “downs” reinforced some of my assumptions, but shattered one of them (okay, and some of the things on their list are just silly).
UPS:
DOWNS:
What do you think of the list? Have you been making any speculations of your own?
(I hope this post doesn’t offend anyone or make anyone think I am not taking this very seriously. I just found the article interesting and wanted to share it.)
What would you do for fun if you had to give up tv, movies, electronic games and the internet?
I think giving up those things would take some getting used to. But maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad goal for 2009?
I know I would like to:
Whenever I write a seemingly personal post, like yesterday’s, I feel like I should follow up with something more generic. Something true, but something that doesn’t make me feel so exposed.
And I think I am trying to do that with today’s topic, but I really think it makes me sounds like a… jerk. Oh well. Maybe you can relate to the topic.
So, here’s a truth about me: I don’t trust other people’s judgment in movies AT ALL (except Steven – because he knows what I like and don’t like). If someone tells me a movie is good, I really won’t believe them. I’ll ask them questions about WHAT they liked about it, but I won’t believe it is good until I see it for myself.
We all have different tastes. And when someone recommends a movie to you, they are just trying to be nice. I understand that, because I DO IT TOO. I am such a hypocrite. I often find myself telling people, “I watched whatever movie this weekend and I really think you would like it.” I am even guilty of sending people DVDs in the mail because I think they will like them (so dad, what did you think of Idiocracy?).
And I really hate feeling disappointed when I see a movie, and don’t like it. Especially when it is something A LOT of people have told me they liked (and even critics liked), and I was actually starting to look forward to seeing it – like Wanted. I felt bored in the theater, and that a lot of it was predictable. I didn’t find the action that exciting, or the story even that interesting. I did love seeing the scenes in Chicago… but I wouldn’t see it again. Or recommend it to anyone else.
But who cares, right? I’m sure some people would never want to see the movies I am looking forward to this summer. Again, it’s all personal taste. But it’s also something we feel compelled to share with each other for some reason.
Which new movies are you looking forward to seeing in 2008?
We rarely go to the movie theater. Nothing seems to spark our interest. We saw two movies last summer – Knocked Up and Transformers, and then we didn’t see another until last weekend. And what did we choose to see then? Some Oscar nominated picture? No, Cloverfield.
Anyway, that got me thinking about how I am really excited about some movies coming out this year! I think I may actually be spending some time in the theater! I would like to see (in order of release date):
I feel like I am missing some! Don’t be surprised if this list expands throughout the day… especially as you tell me yours!
What is your favorite holiday movie?
I know, I know – not a very original question! But since I love holiday movies (with the exception of two which will remain nameless) I had to ask… because maybe there is a really good one I don’t know about!
My favorite is White Christmas. I don’t remember the first time I saw it, but I remember seeing it on television many times with my mother. I loved the part when the girls sang “Sisters, sisters”… and I always loved all the dancing scenes! Then of course, I got older and finally understood the cute little plot. Now I make sure to watch it a few times each holiday season. I usually don’t get to watch it with my mother anymore, but we still sing the songs from the movie and annoy the people around us!
P.S. Are you participating in Blog Crush Day next Friday? I sure am!
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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