Shaping Up

Part of building a nest is building the nester. While it may not seem relevant to the current stream of house-hunting updates and baby prep (or as our friends call it, "Project Baby"), our recent "health awareness" is a huge source of change in our lives. Not only does it dramatically impact our schedules, it promotes a strange self-awareness that we haven't necessarily had before (I say "we"...).

Here are the 101's in our first semester:

Calories 101: Wine has how Many @%#$# Calories??

www.thedailyplate.com is a website newly discovered by the recent health "students" (us). It's a great interface that allows you to track your caloric intake and burning on a daily basis, using their huge database of food (complete with nutritional info), as well as letting you create your own recipes that you use often for easier recording purposes. You have to use it to understand what in the hell I'm talking about, but the short of it is that it's a "sticky" website (to use a web-advocacy technical term) and we're stuck to it.

I began using it to track the difference in how I feel from day-to-day since the start of a drastic change in my diet. After a nutritional consultation, I have done some dramatic cutting of favorites in order to rid my body of inexplicable chronic pain that is more common in the elderly (more on that another time). Low and behold, I have sincerely seen a crazy difference in how I feel, and this website helps me to keep a diary about it so that I can track what makes me feel which way.

Erik, however, is using it like most people use their daily calendar - "write it down before you forget it" is his recent motto. Contrary to what may be popular belief, I have nothing to do with his rigid agility and obsession with this website. Truly, I showed him to see what he technically thought of the interface. The next thing I know, he's accruing more "badges" than I will probably ever get, even when trying my hardest. (badges are rewarded for due diligence and consistant record keeping among other things...is that even what they're called...?).

So he is not only more aware of what he is eating daily, but is now also aware of the caloric impact of his usual delights (calorie guess on a beef chili dog from the National Mall anyone??). And now, he is not only tracking is caloric intake, but is now also tracking what he's burning - yes, burning!


Exercise 101: Do You Know What #@!%% Time it is??

I have recently been heading to work much earlier so that I can return from my stupid commute to Virginia at a reasonable hour in time to workout (and still have an evening). Now, I haven't been able to get myself to the YMCA (for which we still pay a monthly family membership due) since my wedding (1 year ago this weekend). And given that it has been another cold long winter, I also haven't been hitting the pavement as I did when the weather was more inviting. I used to bond with nature at an un-godly hour - jumpstarting my metabolism, and starting my day off "right". That was before winter. I soon switched to "starting my day" with 1+ cups of strong black coffee instead.

But one little thing changed everything: the 1970's. After 7 years of seeing it sitting there outside of our apt, I one day decided to drag into our apt the ugliest, oldest and heaviest stationary bike that you can imagine. That ugly orphan is now my pride and joy (coming from a child welfare advocate) - it changed my life (don't tear-up yet - I'm not done).

Now, instead of having to worry about the weather, and about how I don't fit into my workout clothes and can't be seen in public in them, and about how it's miserable to walk outside during rush hour (exCUSE me, please....), I can now sweat in my tight clothes in the privacy of my own home (and I can do it in clogs, no less). But for some reason, I wasn't able to bring myself to do it in the morning still, so I would wake-up way earlier and just head to work so that I could come home earlier and have a date with my bike and my latest Netflix arrival. In the beginning, Erik did not see this as beneficial, however, because he was unknowingly waking up 1hr+ earlier but not realizing it until he got to work and only the security guard was there. I would be happily typing away at my desk when I'd get an IM saying, "Purdy...what time did we wake-up this morning...?" I honestly thought he knew, and that he was just going with it (turns out I was way wrong about that one).

But that was all pre-exercising Erik! Now he uses that extra time to go to the YMCA. OMG - I'll say it again: Erik is working out in the AM at the YMCA (the one we actually pay for). It's nothing short of a miracle. That's all I'll say about that.

And because I was so inspired by his motivation, my dates with my green 1970's orphan are now in the early morning (though we now watch more Headline News than movies). So what do I do with my evenings now...?


Cooking 101: How Much %#@%!$ Chicken Did You Buy??

Erik's recent job change has been more than just a change in jobs. His commute now consists of walking (vs a long metro ride to Capitol Hill), and his coworkers eat at their desks - they eat the food they brought from HOME at their desks. No longer is there a medium-sized group of cocky developers wondering Pennsylvania Ave in search of food-by-the-pound, or better yet, on their way to the nearest Five Guys (double-decker hamburgers). I suddenly have a virtual lunch partner (IM'ing about the leftovers we're eating is the most romantic thing ever).

Such extra meal preparation is requiring a doubling-up of food that I normally do not seek out nor take the time to cook. My lunches used to be whatever I could throw together in a wok - things that Erik would never touch (swiss chard, kale and maybe some tuna on the side...?). So now we're both cooking fairly elaborate (and large) dinners that double as leftovers for lunch: buffalo chili, buffalo stew, chicken curry stir-fry, chicken sausage cassoulet (you can tell it's been chicken and buffalo season at the farmers market).

It doesn't seem like it while I stand there at the market, meal-planning in my head and buying all of this extra produce and wonderful meat, but we ARE saving money by eating all meals in (except for weekend splurges), and it's been a great way to train for having more than just us around the house...