What a Week!

This week has been tremendously busy. I was sick for part of it, which is never fun, but didn't slow me down too much. I missed both of my self-defense classes and hardly biked at all. I was, however, physically active helping an elderly friend sort through her belongings and pack for a possible move. I'm also way behind on responding to comments on the blog but hope to catch up this weekend.

Here's a bit of what's been going on this week.

Seed-saving workshop

I went to a great workshop at the Food Bank as part of their garden education series. I'll be posting about this workshop next week.


Dog Issues

Due to a few minor issues with the dogs, we decided to consult with an animal behaviorist and trainer privately in our home. She met with us, including the dogs, for over an hour and gave us some insight into what's going on with them as well as excellent suggestions for specific training methods. Polie has already learned that he will get a time-out if he doesn't settle down when told.

Because I was not feeling well yesterday morning, my sweetie had to walk both dogs. He decided to do this separately in order to get a little training in with each one. Before leaving each time, he gave the one stuck at home a kong toy with a little peanut butter and left it in the bedroom so I could make sure the dog wasn't too upset by being left behind.

Angel licked out her peanut butter fairly quickly and left the room. When my sweetie got home with Polie, he made a discovery: the empty plastic treat bag that had held Polie's treats was on the floor. He had left it on the back of the counter by the sink. This meant only one thing.

We had falsely accused Polie of knocking a bread cooling rack off the stove a couple of weeks ago. It had to be him, we thought, because there was no sign that Angel had used her previous route to get on the counter: hop on the chair in the other room, hop on the table, and then up on the counter, winding her way over to the stovetop. Absolutely no sign she'd done that, so evidently Polie had just put his front paws up and knocked it down.

Polie's a tall dog, standing 25" at his back by the shoulders with a 17" long legs ("in-seam" style measurement). Angel is only 20" high with 13" long legs. The counter is 37" high. It was obvious to us that she could not get up that high without a way to stair-step up.

Obviously, we were wrong. Polie was not in the house and the bag was on the floor.


We don't know how this short stocky dog can possibly make that jump. Perhaps she isn't jumping. Could she be climbing up the handles on the drawers?


Show me the Money!

I was browsing through meet-up groups in my area a few months ago and ran across one for weight-loss. They had an intriguing premise: support each other in weight-loss and use money as a motivation. Participants can follow any plan they choose to lose their weight (except bariatric surgery).

Each week, the group meets at a local YMCA that allows them to use their scale - the accurate kind you find in a doctor's office. They weigh in and the weight is recorded on a spreadsheet. Each participant contributes $10 to the kitty. At the weigh-in the next week, whoever loses the greatest percentage of weight wins the kitty collected the previous week. (Keep in mind that 5 pounds lost for someone at 200 pounds is a lower percentage (2.5%) than 5 pounds lost for someone at 175 (2.86%). Theoretically, heavier folks can shed weight easier, but it still means they have to actually lose more pounds to win.)

There are a few more incentives to encourage continued participation and weight loss. Because some people kept regaining the weight and then losing it again, they decided that the initial weight when someone joins the group is their base weight. If the person goes over this weight, they are not eligible to win the kitty until they drop below it again. If a person misses a weigh-in, they are not eligible to win the kitty the following week. (Obvious - they didn't pay into it!)

The group is fairly small, unfortunately, with only 4 to 7 or 8 people participating each week. With more people, there would be a bigger kitty each week, possibly providing stronger motivation. However, there's been at least one success story in the group. One guy lost 87 pounds in 6 months and won enough money to buy a nice bike!

I joined at the beginning of August and have found the prospect of winning money is motivating, even if it's only a small amount. When tempted to eat something fattening, I ask myself, is that really worth giving up the possibility of winning $50? Usually the answer is NO!

I have won the kitty three times in the past two months. When I look at my winnings compared to what I've paid in each week, I have up $40 (net) so far. When I look at my weight, I have lost 20 pounds (net) so far. I've always said that money would motivate me and it seems to be working!

There is a nice social component to the group as well. At least a few folks go out to Sweet Tomatoes Salad Bar after the weigh-in each week. It's an easy place for people on different diet plans to eat together and very easy for a strict vegetarian to get their fill. There are far more veggies available for a salad than I ever have at home, some fatfree dressings or just vinegar, and baked potatoes and sweet potatoes in the hot buffet bar. Sometimes, I can even persuade the person on the pasta bar to heat me up some plain pasta with no sauce or oil. I then toss that on a plate with vegetables from the salad bar and fatfree Italian dressing. It's great with spinach, red onion, mushrooms, and green peas.

As a bonus, these ladies have been going to the same Sweet Tomatoes at least once a week for over a year. The managers there will occasionally give them coupons for a free meal. These are given as awards to the second place winner in the weigh-in. I've won two free meals so far, in addition to being up the $40!


Lots of Cooking from Scratch

Even though I relaxed my rules for my 100 Days Challenge, I still prepared lots of homemade food this week. Thanks to the suggestions for dishes to eat this week, the menu has been tasty almost every day. I've recorded all my meals for this week so you can see what I chose to make. Click the links in the post on meal-planning for the daily food logs. Yesterday I finally had time to do some of the cooking in my solar ovens. I try to keep a log of foods cooked with the sun but I have to admit that I don't use my ovens as consistently as this Arizona gal!


Bulk cheesecloth

I did a bulk order of cheesecloth recently from Raglady to get a lifetime supply of the stuff. I try to avoid using much because although it is washable and re-usable, at some point it must be discarded. It's cotton and can be composted but I still try to minimize my use of disposable products. For a lot of my straining (liqueurs, jellies, vinegar), I use a gold coffee filter. Cheesecloth is useful, though, for wrapping wheat gluten meat analogs (such as this "corned beef") and for covering fermenting vinegar and vegetables (such as sauerkraut and kimchi). I tried using cloth to cover the vinegar but it didn't allow enough air flow.

The small packages of cheesecloth sold in stores contain 2 square yards of material and sell for about $4. Raglady's price was so much better at $70 for 36 inches by 100 yards that I couldn't pass it up! But, wait, there was an even better deal if you ordered a case of 10 boxes. You know me, I can't pass up a good deal. I contacted friends I knew were interested in cooking, canning, and/or brewing. I lined up five orders and wanted two boxes for myself. After deliberating for a while, I decided to trust the fates and make the order, figuring I could rustle up customers for the extra three boxes eventually.


We opted for a finer grade of cheesecloth so that we could get it unbleached, even though each box only had 70 yards. For a case order, the cost per box was only $45. At the CSA on Tuesday, I took one friend's box and got her money for it. While discussing it, another volunteer came over and asked about it. She jumped at the opportunity to get one of the spare boxes and wrote me a check on the spot. In the meantime, a member of the CSA overheard all this and prepaid for another one of the extra boxes. In less than 10 minutes, I'd found homes for two of the extra boxes. I'm taking the last one to the CSA pick-up today in the hopes of getting rid of it, too, although a friend is measuring windows today to see if there would be enough to make sheer curtains.

I did not charge my friends extra for their boxes as I wasn't doing this to make a profit. (Actually, I rounded up the cost of $44.80 per box to $45, meaning I did profit a $1.60 on the entire order.) I organized this bulk order because it got me cheesecloth at a price I liked and help others get it, too.


Plans for the Weekend

None!

Well, no plans other than making potato latkes for breakfast tomorrow, cleaning my office, planning meals for the week with the CSA produce, taking the dogs to the dog park and to obedience training, re-starting my core and self-defense workouts, getting caught up on laundry, and roasting some fresh pistachios. I used to have free time to blog and to sleep. What happened?!