New Fitness Journal

Ugh, I'm really dragging my feet this morning! I had a really nice dinner out last night (at C.I. Shenanigans on the river in downtown Spokane) with my mom and a family friend after spending two hours dress shopping. It was a long, tiring night, but it was also fun and I got a lot done!

So my mom is leaving to go hom this morning, and it's back to life as normal for me. Hooray! One of the things that I've been slacking on in the last few weeks as I've jet-setted back and forth from my various travels is food and exercise planning/tracking. I've gotten back into the Menu Plan Monday swing after a few weeks off, but I've yet to get back into my personal meal tracking. I wrote a few months ago about a notebook I'd been using to track things, but on a recent trip to Houston I found this gem in the airport bookstore:

It was on the clearance rack at the Houston Airport Borders, so it was less than $4!

There are two reasons that I bought this journal. First, I love how organized (yet detailed) it is. There's space for every meal and snack, with boxes for writing how many grams of fiber and calories there are. The exercise portions are divided into weights and cardio/other exercise, and it works well to get you motivated to fill up the space.

A sample exercise page from the weekly portion.

The second reason I love this journal is that it allows you to track yourself and make goals along various time frames. While most of the journal is taken up with pages for the weekly tracking, there are also pages and spaces for monthly tracking and making monthly goals. But it wants you take pictures of yourself... no thanks, exercise journal!

A monthly page from the journal.

So basically, I'm in love with this little book. It puts my own tracking notebook to shame! Unfortunately, it was so discounted at Borders because it was not going to be carried there anymore... I don't know what I'm going to do when I fill it up! I'll have to photocopy the pages or something and make my own.

Now I've got to catch up on The Bachelorette since I missed last night's episode! I'm curious to see what Jillian's going to be wearing... she's got a great sense of style!

Summer Reading

While on my brief hiatus, I developed a pretty large literature appetite. I quickly devoured four popular books, and thought I'd share with you all how I enjoyed each one. A lot of people are looking for "summer reads" right now, so here you all go!

Everyone's heard of Wicked (the musical), right? Well, this is the book that started it all. I've never seen the musical, so I can't attest to how true it is to the book, but the story in this book is pretty interesting. Think of it as Harry Potter, but set in Oz. If you're looking for a read on the beach, I'd recommend this one, but with the caveat that the ending kind of drags on. And on.

The Secret Life of Bees is a movie starring Alicia Keys and Dakota Fanning. It's also a quick read with a lot of summer imagery of the rural South. Just because it's a quick read, don't pick it up thinking it's going to be light-hearted though... there are definitely some heavy issues discussed in these pages, from child abuse to segregation and civil rights. Additionally, the author really did her research on bee-keeping, though, making this fictional book a pretty informative read!

While this book is the only non-fiction one of the bunch, I think it is definitely my favorite. The Glass Castle is a memoir of Jeannette Walls' childhood with her crazy parents, and how they helped her grow into the woman she has become. It's heart-breaking, but almost uplifting at the same time. Again, a quick read, but not a light-hearted read. Apparently I like depressing books. Ha!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has gotten so much critical acclaim that it'd be ridkculous NOT to put it on your summer reading list, right? So I read it. Oscar's character reminded me so much of bits and pieces of people that I know, right down to the Star Trek references, that I was captivated the entire time. Alternating between the Dominican Republic and the United States, the author discusses Oscar's inability to fit in with his peers and his isolation and lonliness that results, while throwing in a few history lessons on the Domincan Republic. This one definitely lived up to the hype for me.

Also, if you're looking for an economical way to acquire some summer reading and don't feel like going the library route, I highly recommend PaperBackSwap.com. You can read more about my experiences with the service here and here. You'll notice that I got most of these books from PaperBackSwap; I'll be posting them for trading again soon!

Book Review: Naturally Thin

I've written before about my love for the Real Housewives franchise, and that is by no means limited to the TV shows themselves. So when I heard about Bethenny Frankel's book Naturally Thin and saw how all over the blog world it was, I knew I had to pick up a copy and and read it for myself. I have to preface this by saying that I am not now, nor have I ever been, over-weight or actively trying to change my lifestyle to lose weight - which is not to say that I'm not constantly looking for ways to improve my health and eating habits, but just that I'm probably in a different place than the audience this book is intended for. Anyway, here's what I thought:

The Good

• Bethenny definitely has some awesome recipes and food ideas in the book. I enjoy my cereal and the occassional bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, but I had NEVER thought of using leftover brown rice as a morning food! The combination of ingredients she suggested for morning brown rice was also delicious - raisins, nuts, cinnamon, and a natural sweetener. Yum! I'm still on the fence about brown rice, but I've taken to using this combo in my morning oats.
• It is made very clear from the outset that the reader should NOT do what Bethenny does verbatim, but find what works for them. This point is so often overlooked in diet and healthy living books that I'm glad finally someone decided to emphasize it a ton! It's so true, too! Life is so much better if you enjoy what you're doing.
• Nothing is off limits! (except for super obvious things, like diet soda). I've never read a diet/healthy eating book before that didn't massively restrict things before, and it's refreshing to see someone in that field that acknowledges that people are still going to eat chips and cheesecake. Her bank account metaphor really makes sense and will help a lot of people learn how to make good choices while still eating what they want.
  

The Bad

• Bethenny's message, while a good one, often comes off as your skinny (bitchy) friend telling you "If you just quit eating so much you'll be fine". And let's be honest, that's just really annoying after awhile.
  
• While the book explicitly states several times that Bethenny's personal diet should not be followed and is only being printed for reference, the implication is still there, and she frankly does not eat enough for anyone who even lightly exercises daily. Many other bloggers have written about this point in their reviews as well, and now that I've read it myself, I can tell you again that it's true.

Overall, this book was a quick, interesting read with a lot of good, sensical ideas in it. And some delicious-sounding recipes, too! I don't think it's going to solve the problems of anyone with a ton of weight to lose, but it's some good food for thought (haha, puns) and a decent reference material to have on hand.

Book Review: House Thinking

House Thinking: A Room-By-Room Look at How We Live
Winifred Gallagher

I've been reading this book for the last week or so, after picking it up from the local library while looking for home decor books. I have three chapters left, but think I've made it through enough of the book to be able to write about it and tell you what I think about it.

The premise of this book is really interesting - Gallagher delves into a variety of fields to discuss how and why America's homes are they way they are. While the most emphasis is given to environmental psychology, bits of history, home economics, engineering, other psychology fields, and even Eastern religions and traditions (like feng shui) are thrown in. The book is arranged room-by-room (just as the title suggests), beginning with the entry way of the house and working all the way down to the basement. It was interesting to read about how each of these fields has contributed to the shape, size, and uses of each room - how home economics changed the look and feel of the modern kitchen, and how engineering has changed the look and feel of the modern bathroom.

My only have a couple of complaints about this book. The first is the organizational structure of the chapters - they aren't very conducive to the sometimes completely-unrelated facts that the author discusses. For example, you might get a tidbit about behavioral psychology and the conditioned responses to a dining room that we all grow up with, and then have it followed by a completely unrelated tidbit about how home economics made women more responsible for the prevention of germs. Both pieces are interesting, but I don't know why they were put in next to each other! I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why the author connected certain points with each other.

My second complaint is that the author provided a ton of great descriptions about historical homes of prominent people - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott - BUT there are no pictures! After a beautiful description of Edith Wharton's bedroom, I wanted nothing more than to actually see it and understand visually why it worked so well! But alas, there is not a picture in the book. I'm usually not one to demand pictures, but when you're discussing colors, furniture, and specific visual elements of a room, a picture really helps.

Despite the short-comings, I highly recommend House Thinking. It's different than your usual how-to home decor book, and it gives you some additional things to think about when you're redo-ing a room or two.

Book Review: The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life

Aside from reading other women's blogs and checking out my favorite (now defunct) magazine, I haven't really done much investigation into the methods used by others to organize their homes, lives, and checkbooks. Well, it turns out that the local library has quite the selection of books on this subject! While browsing, I thought this book might help me out, so I took it home:

The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life
by: Mary Jo Rulnick

What I loved about this book: The book is separated into three sections: the first is for year-round issues, the second is for issues by month, and the third is a bunch of extra stuff that may or may not be helpful (i.e. a few recipes, lists of things to take on a car trip, etc.). For the most part, I went through the monthly sections in part two to see what advice I could glean. Each month provides a lot of information about commonly celebrated holidays, issues that generally pop up during that month, and helpful tips on preparation for upcoming months. And, best of all (for my list-making-obsessed self), every month has a checklist at the end of it that contains all of the tips in the chapter.

End of chapter checklist for May.

What I disliked about this book: The author really tries to account for women in all stages of adult life. However, I found that there wasn't a whole lot of special information geared towards women living with boyfriends/husbands that do not have children. It's almost as if the author assumed that all readers were either married with kids, or single. A great example was the February chapter, which featured lots of suggestions around Valentines Day - most of them for celebrations and craft projects with children, or ideas for single women without a significant other to spend the day with. Additionally, much of the advice is for home-owners (which I am not) and didn't really account for women in other situations (like apartments, renters, etc.). It was a little off-putting, but not enough to outweigh the rest of the great advice in the book. Plus, this might (over time) make the book more useful - you could use the advice as it pertains to your life now, and then revisit it with a different perspective when you do have children.

Overall Recommendation: This is a good one! I was sad to have to return it to the library, and am considering looking for a second-hand copy somewhere that I can keep. I need it just for the spring cleaning checklist (it's nearly 4 pages long and contains a lot of things that I would never even dream about cleaning!)! However, I'd suggest checking it out from the library first and seeing how much you like it - if you're not a big list person, then you might not be as much of a fan as I am. :)