A few dieting tips

• It's perfectly acceptable to order only coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. If you already had breakfast you don't need a second.
• Just because you're getting fast food doesn't mean you have to order the unhealthiest thing on the menu. Grilled chicken sandwiches and skipping/splitting the fries goes a long way. If you must get a burger get the works minus mayo and stick to a single patty. If you can get it on a whole wheat bun, do it.
• If you love chocolate (and who doesn't?) buy some of the really good stuff, I prefer Ghiradelli squares or Wonka chocolate, but any small, pre-wrapped chocolate will do. Spend a little more and buy a bag of the stuff. Keep it in the freezer. Pull out two peices when you have a chocolate craving or throw them in with your lunch. It will take about 15 min or so for them to thaw. This works for two reasons: the premeasured portions make it easy to control (and wouldn't you rather have two peices than one bar?) and the higher quality chocolate satisfies your craving better than cheaper chocolate. In the long run this will also save money because you're not spending $1 every day getting a chocolate bar at the vending machine. A bag of Wonka peices is generally $1 more than a bar of eight to ten peices, and contains 20 to 30 peices.

Enjoy!

The Gym

So, going to the gym is supposed to be an uplifting experience that will make you feel better about yourself. But when I go to the gym after work, it almost makes me feel worse about myself. First of all, the gym by work is filled with all these rich, skinny Lincoln Park type girls who are all maintenance and no substance. Highlight, manicures, pedicures and they spend what seems like HOURS on the elliptical at full speed, at a pace I get winded just looking at.

And I look at myself in the mirror and I see my cellulite and my lumps and bumps and gut and I look around at the other girls and they have nothing, or so it seems. And I get on a machine and I tell myself I'm doing this to better myself, to look like one of these girls, at least health-wise, not the whole hight maintenance thing... but I can't help but worry about what they think of me.

I feel like I don't belong, but do they think that? Are the girls who spend YEARS running on treadmills looking at my ass and thinking, "What is that lumpy thing doing here, she doesn't belong?" Every time I look over and see the size two girls with the perfect ass going full speed on the elliptical I get a little sick, and I reassure myself that I'm at the gym to better myself, not to dwell on flaws.

But still, it almost makes me feel bad enough to eat my weight in chocolate when I get home after my 100-calorie-burning bike ride. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the gym, doesn't it?

Single and healthcare

There are few things scarier than living with out healthcare coverage. Anything that could happen to you physically is fixed with good healthcare. Most people with health insurance don't freak out at the idea of falling down, but if you take a tumble with out healthcare coverage and kind of hurt yourself, that not so horrible injury can turn into something bad.

There's this common misconception about people without health insurance being bad, lazy, lay-abouts, or young people being fearless and thinking they're invincible, but that's simply not the case.

As a person struggling to find employment in my desired field, I am willing to take a job with out benefits. Any job to get my foot in the door for the time being, something to build off of for later. And I'm far from being the only one. Many people, recent grads like myself or long-time pros, are willing to take a less than ideal position because it's a job, it's money, and we'll have to deal without health care, or at least without perfect healthcare.

President Obama's speech this evening outlined some of the blockades facing the uninsured, pre-existing conditions being one of the biggest roadblocks. A person with a disease needs to be treated before anyone else. Aren't there enough perfectly healthy people paying to cover the people who actually need treatment? And isn't preventative care the best way to catch these things before they get out of hand and treatment gets expensive?

I think a healthcare crisis may just be the big push we need to start taking care of ourselves. It's horrible, but if people knew they couldn't just run to the doctor and get a triple bi-pass when you eat too much pizza and red meat, they might try some fruit and veggies. I know I'm taking better care of myself than I did a couple of years ago. I used to drink Mountain Dew like it was water, now I barely drink pop, or anything other than water and beer for that matter. And what's really sick, the beers I like have less calories per 12 oz serving than a 12 oz can of Mountain Dew.

So, for the time being, I'm going to be walking a lot, and heading to they gym when it starts to get cooler, and I'm trying to cook more at home, adding veggies, fruit and yogurt to my daily diet. Hopefully nothing bad happens in the time being.

Jello!

Here's a great money and calorie saving tip:

You love Jello, right? And I bet you love those individually sized portions of Jello that make a great desert for your lunch, right? But, those pre-packaged cups aren't exactly cheep compared to a box of Jello. So here's what I do.

I buy individually portioned yogurt in cups with lids. Personally, I prefer Yoplait, but I'll suck it up for a week and eat the stuff with lids. Save the cups and wash them out with your dishes. You'll want 5 cups, so a week's worth of yogurt is all you'll have to suffer through. If you really don't like yogurt and don't live with someone who does, you can buy little reusable plastic containers about this size of 6oz yogurt cups.

One box of Jello will fill 2.5 6oz yogurt cups, so use two boxes of (sugar free) Jello. If you want them to be all one flavor, double the water quantities and follow the directions on the package. I use a 2-cup liquid measuring cup to mix Jello, I boil the first cup of water in the microwave, mix in the Jello and then run the tap until the water is cool enough for the second cup of water. Use a bigger measuring cup or a bowl with a pour lip to pour the Jello into the yogurt cups if you're doing one flavor.

To do two flavors, mix one packet of Jello as directed, fill each yogurt cup half-way, and set as directed. Once the cups are set, mix up your second flavor, pour on to the top-half of the cup. The flavors will blend gently, but not mix. The hot Jello will just melt the top layer of the original flavor.

For a fraction of the cost of the store-bought stuff, especially if you catch the Jello and yogurt on a super sale, you have great, custom made Jello for your lunch all summer. I tend to use my yogurt cups for a summer, and throw them out at the end of my Jello season, starting over again next summer.

Beat the summer heat

It's pushing 90˚F in the Windy City today. That's pretty dang hot, and I don't want to be cooped up in my (slightly) air-conditioned apartment all day.

There's nothing like a frozen treat on a hot day, but ice cream is not friendly to the calorie minded. (My personal favorites are Cold Stone [yummy but has enough calories for a few days worth of food] and Bobtail Ice Cream [local favorite, and another big calorie count])

So what's a girl to do on these sweltering summer days? Popsicles! Sugar free Popsicles have 15 calories per pop. 15!!!! You (probably) burn that walking to the freezer to get yourself a Popsicle! And if you're not into the artificial sweetener thing, regular Popsicles have 45 calories per pop, which still isn't breaking the calorie bank. I bought the red white and blue Firecracker variety, and they only have 35 calories per pop.

And it doesn't stop there. If you want a creamy, chocolately treat, no-sugar-added Fudgsicles only have 40 calories. They also have a low-fat version with 60 calories per pop, and a super-sized 100 calorie bar if the smaller version just doesn't fill your cold chocolate craving.

So fear not my sweaty and calorie-counting single girls, Popsicles are the perfect treat for any summer day. Plus, there's just something hot to a guy about a girl eating a Popsicle ;)