Bank Accounts And Babies - Better When They're Fat.

I have started reading a blog by a guy who calls himself Mr. Money Mustache.

It's pretty serious.

He- and others like him- call themselves Financial Independialists- of FIentists. Their "thing" is saving massive portions of their income- like, 50% or more. By minimizing all spending and investing like crazy, their goal is to reach financial independence as soon as possible- and well before the average retirement age.

Mr. Money Mustache followed that strategy starting when he was 20 and "retired" at 30! "Retired" because he still has some sources of income (besides investments)- he does contracting work and "fixer-upper"-ing, but he does it because he likes it, and not because he needs the money.

It seems totally impossible, and there are some things that he does that I'm not willing to do. For example, he lives in the suburbs, outside of Denver, where living expenses are a lot lower than they are in DC. I'm not doing that- both because I love big cities, and because both Ron's and my job can only be done here (or NYC, which doesn't help in the broke-ass ninja department).

Salt is my favorite flavor

I love salt. If they had salt licks for humans, I would buy two.

Mmm...deeeliciooooous....

My friend Christian likes to ask impossible questions as a drinking game- usually a version of "Would You Rather". Like, would you rather be covered in pinstripes, or explode confetti out of your orifices when you sneeze? Or, would you rather have ears you could remove and leave lying around for spying, or have wheels instead of feet?

And then, "Would you rather....give up sweet snacks and coffee, or salty snacks and beer?"

Easy peasy. I'd give up sweet snacks and coffee. I'd miss them, for sure. And I don't need the beer (that's why God gave us gin and tonics). But give up salty snacks? NEVER.

So I was relieved and gratified to read in the NYTimes of a recent study showing that, not only is there no correlation between low-sodium diets and lower rates of heart disease, it's actually possible that super-low sodium diets are bad for  you.

YESSSSSS.

Sad News!

I tried the NYTimes seven minute workout aaaaaannnnnd....I'm sore.

That is nothing but sad.

That is all.

Vegemite, Anchovies, and Olives, Oh My!

This is classic- slow mo video of kids trying new foods for the first time.

I love the little girl trying the olive. C'mon, kiddo, you know you love it!

Were you an adventuresome eater as a kid? I always have been- my parents talk about watching me eat oysters on the half shell as a toddler, so it seems it's part of my nature.

Good News!

Guys! Great news! It turns out, there's no need to work out for, like, eons. Or even 30 minutes. 

There've been a number of studies recently that indicate that short bursts of intense activity are at least as effective at reducing weight and increasing fitness as well as longer, less intense workouts. 

For those of us who have slogged through marathon training, this seems like information that would have been helpful several hundred miles ago.

The concept, sometimes called High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), is the basis for the trendy CrossTraining workouts.

The NYTimes has an article this week recapping a study that showed that a high-intensity workout, done for only SEVEN MINUTES, "produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding."

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, Y'ALL!*

DILDOs

All this talk about yuppies and their shopping habits this week made me want to share the best new acronym I've heard in ages.

DILDOs, aka, Double Income Large Dog Owners. It's me and Ron, to a tee.

Just a couple of DILDOs, heading into the weekend. Have a good one!

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

My entry about grocery shopping at Whole Foods got me thinking again about how much we spend on food, and how spoiled we are, frankly, that we have the option to eat the way we do.

As I mentioned, we grocery shop at Whole Foods almost exclusively, for a number of reasons, prime among them being laziness.

If we eat most meals at home during the week, we'll probably spend about $150-200 on groceries, depending on whether we have to restock on expensive stuff like wine olive oil.

When I say we're eating "most" meals at home, that means that we go out for no more than two meals- maybe one dinner and one breakfast/brunch- in the course of the week. That is us at our most disciplined- it requires that we cook at home pretty much all week and then save eating out for the weekend, with friends.

Most weeks, we can manage that. Maybe once during the week we'll be stuck working late, or just be too tired to cook, and we'll end up ordering pizza (we can get a good carry-out one for $10) or Thai.

Given how expensive Whole Foods is, I sometimes wonder if we're really saving money by cooking, but for the two of us to go anywhere we like to go for dinner is easily $50. It's not hard to see that grocery shopping (even for expensive groceries) and cooking at home is cheaper. Of course if you grocery shop and then decide you're too tired and order out anyway, your meals start getting really pricey.

I heard the CEO of Whole Foods interviewed one time, and the interviewer asked him about the prices at Whole Foods, and how he expected people to justify the high costs versus a cheaper store. His answer was dead-on- basically, we all have to make choices about how to spend our money, and you spend your money on the things that are of highest priority to you. If having cable at $100/month, or having a cell phone at $100/month, is more important to you than buying top-quality produce, then that's fine, those're your priorities.

The graphic below demonstrates all of this very tidily, and comes from a very interesting website, if you're interested- link is below the graphic.

From http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/2011/09/28/is-fast-food-cheaper-than-cooking-at-home-bittman-mashup/

Thug Kitchen

Thug Kitchen is my new favorite food blog and everyone should read it.

He's a vegetarian gangsta. Despite the graphic I chose, he offers a lot of recipes, and they all look great. Plus he makes me laugh out loud and at inappropriate times.

In the immortal words of one Mr. Lavar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it. Saveur just named Thug Kitchen the Best Food Blog of 2013.

Word.

I Made This

And it was good. 

You should make some.

And eat it all up.

Because it's spring.

And life is short.

And it was delicious.

The Clean 15 and the Dirty Dozen

Ron and I grocery shop almost exclusively at Whole Foods, that well-lit haven for yuppies in search of multi-hyphenate food products to buy in order to rid themselves of their gobs of superfluous income. Free-trade gluten-free locally-sourced-buckwheat soba noodles, anyone?

Basically, yeah.

We shop there for a couple of reasons. Primarily, laziness- it's the the only grocery store within walking distance of our house.

But even when we lived directly across the street from a Harris Teeter, we'd still make trips to Whole Foods to supplement our produce and meat. Those items in particular are much fresher and of much higher quality at Whole Foods.

When we bought produce from the Teet, it started out looking somewhat depressed at its own underachievement, and would go downhill from there. It would be moldy and soft within a day or two; the fish and meat seemed to visibly decompose even as you stood considering it.