Resolutions Update

I'm taking my resolutions more seriously than usual this year because I think several of them entail fairly major shifts in lifestyle (as opposed to the "make homemade cards!" types of resolutions I've made in the past).  In my opinion, being successful at anything takes a bit of planning and dedication.  Lifestyle changes in particular require consistency at first before it becomes simple force of habit.  Like brushing your teeth every morning. So how am I doing so far?

Tidy kitchen before bed every night, put away dishes in the morning: I'm really proud of myself for sticking to this one since December.  Last night was the first day that I really thought long and hard about not doing this - the kitchen counters were a mess from bread making and other cooking, it was close to midnight and I had spent most of the day working to get an abstract together for a deadline so I was mentally tired.  But I did it and felt great immediately.  Went to bed with a peaceful brow.

Minimize my needs to give away more:  I took a serious look at my expenditures (helped along by mint.com, love this service!) and realized that I was paying way too much for internet at home and that I don't watch my netflix movies enough to warrant the subscription.  So I've made the switch from Comcast to Centurylink ($30/month less = $360/yr) and canceled netflix ($12/month less = $144/yr).  It doesn't sound like much, but it's an extra $500 a year and requires no alteration in my current behavior.  I have also been trying to be maximally sensible about my grocery budget and being careful about food waste.  Bar Method of course, is quite spendy, but I am really good about going and I know that cutting this would eliminate all exercise from my life.  So to me, $175/month is more than worth it as a long-term investment in my health.

Eat less meat:  When I made this resolution a bit over a week ago I had put into place specific non-meat days and days that I could eat meat IF I wanted to.  This actually went well overall - I definitely ate less meat than usual and even on meat days I often didn't have any.  At least, until Thursday when I was derailed by an unexpected meeting that involved free pizza for lunch.  I dashed in late and grabbed the pizza closest to me, which of course contained pepperoni.  The rest of the week was back on track.  So I'm adjusting the details of this resolution to include more flexibility.  I'll simply keep track of days I eat meat and days I don't and make sure the meat eating days don't take over.  This resolution has not been at all onerous.  I only have to watch that I don't eat too much starch to compensate for lack of meats, but it's been very painless since I really like tofu.  Note that this resolution is helpful to my grocery budget as well.

Get to work earlier: This has also been generally successful in principle if not in detail, but also the hardest.  Here in Portland it stays dark out until maybe 7:15am when it just STARTS to brighten.  The earliest I've managed to wake up is 6:45 and it's only because I have to go to Bar Method.  However, since I've managed to get to work earlier (9 to 9:30) despite not waking up at 6am, this resolution is also being adjusted.  Especially since I'm not at all hungry upon first waking up so sitting around at 6am would be a total waste of time.  I think instead, I will wake up at 6:30 so I have time to have coffee, get my lunch together and work outfit laid out.  Then I will go to class and come home and go.  I've been eating a banana for breakfast at work on my class days and this works out great.  On days I don't have class, I have more time for breakfast at home.  On a related note, keeping track of my hours all week turned out to be quite laborious and ultimately, not terribly informative.  The most valuable part was keeping track of when I wake up and when I go to bed, so these are the notes I will continue to make, along with meat vs non-meat days.

Hoo!  I think that's it!  My internet usage is still an area that needs attention probably, but I still have not been able to formulate any specific resolution around it.  This may be a task for 2013.

'Where Does My Time Go?' Resolution

I was trying to figure out how to reduce my time online (or if I even should), when it occurred to me that I don't have a very good notion of how I spend my time in general.  I know I lose a lot of it by being online and even at work I probably am less efficient/productive than I could be.  So as part of the first step in reclaiming time, I will start keeping a log every day for the next two weeks and evaluate.  I'm hoping I'll remember to keep tabs and I'm a little curious if I'll be better at managing my time once I have to write it down.  The main impetus for this is work - I have a few major things I really need to get done and I've not been doing it.  I know I have enough hours, so I just have to find the discipline and schedule it.  If it's not obvious by now, I respond really well to schedules and deadlines...

In other resolution-related news, I have been working on the "wake up at 6am" thing.  Obviously I have to transition to that point gradually so I don't wind up a useless wreck at work.  On Thursday I got up at 7:45, Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 7:30 and today I relapsed at 7:45.  Tomorrow I'll try 7:15 (Bar Method at 8:15) and see how that goes.  Wednesday and Friday I will have to get up at 6:50 though for 7:15 BM class.  Slow and steady!  Once my body is trained it should be easy peasy.

New Years Resolutions Part II

So I wasn't going to make any more resolutions except I found myself secretly making a few more anyway.  So why not formalize it all?  My early resolution (cleaning the kitchen every evening and putting away clean dishes in the morning) has been going fantastically well since implementation.  Almost immediately I found myself not wanting to do this, but since it was a resolution, I've stuck to it no matter how tired I've been and the more I do it, the more I want to keep doing it.  Every morning I wake up to a clean kitchen and it's such a lovely feeling.  Other resolutions I'm contemplating:

1. Eat less meat.  The reasoning behind this is a little complicated.  Part of it is health - if I eat less meat, hopefully I end up eating more vegetables.  Part of it is cost - I'm trying to be more frugal and minimize my needs a little so I can give more to those who need it (see my main resolution).  And part of it is creativity - cooking meat is very easy but it's harder to cook delicious vegetables as a main dish, at least for me.  By forcing myself to do this, I expand my culinary horizons.  A reasonable start will be implementing 3 no meat days per week.  I'll make those my non-exercise days so I can keep track easily.  On exercise days, I can eat meat, but I don't have to!

2. Get to work earlier.  My hours at work have shifted later and later, partly because of my Bar Method classes in the mornings.  Fortunately they now offer 7:15am classes on my BM days so I will start taking those classes instead of the 8:15am ones.  Ideally, I'd wake up at 6am, have coffee and a little breakfast and get mostly ready, go to Bar Method, come home and change and go to work.  If I can stick to it, I can definitely get to work by 9:30 (or earlier) on exercise days and hopefully much earlier than that on non-exercise days.  Then I can leave work by 6pm, have a few hours to putter around at home and go to bed at 10pm.

3. Spend less time online.  This one I have mixed feelings about and I alsodon't know how I would implement.  I use gchat to keep in touch with my best friends and I would hate to lose that connection with them.  Must mull over more!

New Years Resolution

from the nytimes.com

I only have a single resolution to make this year.  I had been wondering what to do and I got my wakeup call in this article from the nytimes.  What I want in 2012 is to remember the really important things in life and help make the world a little better.  To make sure that others have the right to live as I do, in peace and security and with freedom, to be fully human.  I've been making efforts toward a minimalist life, but it was effort without true purpose.  I think I have a purpose now - the goal of this minimalism will be to live more simply so that I can give my excess to others in need.  I can only give my dollars, but hopefully they will allow others to directly help people in my stead.  As women's rights is something I feel extremely strongly about, I will likely focus my giving to these groups.  My charitable giving in the past has been mostly sporadic, sparked by some catastrophic event (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc), so I need to institute a system and schedule.  I'm thinking to start reasonably within my budget at first ($100/month) and then see if I can add to that.  My clothing budget is probably the most frivolous, and I think I have enough to wear certainly, for a year.  So whatever I can manage not to spend in this category will be funneled toward charity.  I want to be less selfish, and when I look back at the end of 2012, to see that I've done a little good, the best I can.

Homemade Chinese Noodles

I am a noodle girl through and through.  In the wide world of noodles, I have a particular weakness for noodle soup.  The other day in lab, while waiting for some samples to incubate, I started an idle search for Japanese ramen recipes (I looooooove ramen).  The first hit was this instructable on how to make the noodle.  Now I have to say that the end result doesn't taste the way a true ramen noodle ought to taste, but it's a very nice noodle nonetheless and I am finding it a good Chinese noodle substitute.  The texture remains nice and chewy all the way to the end (soggy mushy noodles is my pet peeve).  Since I have a pasta maker, this recipe is a cinch to make, and I've been making up little batches of noodle soup in less than an hour.  Delicious.

Homemade Noodle (adapted from Neryam)

3/4 cup (3.8 oz) flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 egg mixed with 1 tbs water

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl, make a little well in the center and add the egg mixture.  Mix everything together and form into a ball with your hands.  Sprinkle some flour on the counter and knead until it feels fairly stiff but still a little sticky.  I always have to add a bit more flour to get it right.  If you press your palm to the ball and lift it up, it should stick to your hand for a second and then fall off.  Cover the ball with a slightly damp towel and let it rest at least 30 minutes.  

Split the ball into two and flatten with your hands.  It doesn't have to be so thin because we will roll it out with the pasta maker.  Sprinkle each side of the sheets with flour and then starting from setting 1, roll each half of the dough through.  Repeat, increasing your setting each time by 1 finishing at setting 5 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Make sure to flour very well each side of the sheet and then cut your sheets.  Otherwise your dough will stick and not cut well (ask me how I know this).  I have an attachment that cuts fettucine width or spaghetti width so I just went with the smaller and cranked each sheet through.  

Bring a little pot of water to boil.  Toss in your noodles and stir around a bit.  I give them a bite after about a minute or two and that usually seems ok to me.  Combine noodles with broth (userealbutter has a nice broth recipe here) and enjoy!