Way Too Busy!

Wow… I really stink at blogging. I’m blaming that on having way too much fun this summer and then going back to work. So, since I am terrible, I’ll share my favorite blog about living healthy on a budget for now. I even made her laundry detergent, and it works great and is only 3 cents a load!

http://savingnaturally.com/

Geocaching

We love spending time outside. That’s why we were excited when our friends Chris and Crystal introduced us to Geocaching. I’d heard of it before, but I’d never considered actually doing it. Then, we did it with them one weekend while camping, and we were hooked. Geocaching is basically a game of treasure hunting or hide and seek. The great part is that it’s free if you already have a GPS, or $10 for the app if you have an iPhone. It’s a great way to spend time outside. In our area, almost all parks and campgrounds have a “cache,” and it’s a challenge to find them. Sometimes you trade out trinkets; other times, you just sign a log, but the great thing is that they’re all over the world. Zachary loves walking around in trees, and he really loves the trinkets we find on the way. We actually hid our first cache (Zac’s Box) on an island in Lake Lanier last weekend. We can’t wait to see the people who find it, especially because we left a camera in the box. If you’re interested in geocaching, check out geocaching.com.

Grass Fed Beef

As part of our mission to get healthier, we bought a ½ side of grass fed beef a few months back. Grass fed beef has tons of health benefits (google for more info), but we learned some things that will help us next time. I’m sharing them because they might help you if you’re interested:

• Shop around for price.
• Some places are twice as expensive as others, so it’s worth spending some time looking around.
• Many farms have one time of year (usually in the fall) when they do their big sale.
• A smaller cow means less money, but smaller steaks. Ok, that probably seems obvious, but we didn’t really consider that when we bought the smallest of what they had. We were just thinking that we wanted to start with a smaller amount.
• You’ll probably get some cuts that you’re not used to cooking. I’ve tried roast cuts that I had never bought before. I just search on the internet how to cook them, and they’ve turned out good. If you don’t want to do that, have them turned into ground beef.
• Grass fed beef is leaner and cooks faster.
  

Overall, it’s been a good experience, and we’ll be buying again this fall.

Trying out this blogging thing...

Well, I've decided to try blogging. Since we're trying to make better decisions about what we eat, I figured I would focus on that journey. I'm not striving to be perfect, but I figure if we do the right thing 80% of the time, the other times aren't so bad for us. I've tried almost every "diet" under the sun at some point, and if I go on another strict diet, I might just go crazy. Instead of restricting food, we're trying to cut out processed crap, buy organic whenever possible, and just consider where food comes from before we eat it. I know there will be some challenges along the way:
1) I'm addicted to Diet Coke, and I'm not ready to give it up. I know it's filled with crappy chemicals, and I love them.
2) I actually enjoy fast food. I rarely eat it because I know it's not good for me, but sadly, I like the way it tastes.