Sharpen the Saw

According to Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a person is like a saw:

A worn-down saw can’t do its job well––or sometimes at all––but a sharp saw can quickly and efficiently make a cut. People are the same. If we take the time to renew ourselves, we will return to our activities and responsibilities refreshed and ready to do our best.

I think it is an important part of my journey to sit down and take stock of my progress once in a while, to ask myself, am I living my best life? What can I do right now to improve, to reach my goals?

Covey defines four areas of life that need to be in balance in order to be most effective: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.

Physical

  • I’m improving my health by making better food choices, including organic and non-processed foods.
  • I can improve by adding some consistent physical activity––like yoga––to my daily and weekly routines.

Social/Emotional

  • I’m getting a lot more social interaction at my new job, meeting new people, etc.
  • I can improve by making more of an effort to be friendly and engage these new people (something that’s difficult for me!).

Mental

  • I’m learning so much from reading The Omnivore’s Dillemma!
  • I can improve by using more of the time I spend watching TV for reading interesting books like this one.

Spiritual

  • I’m spending at least 15 minutes every morning writing in a journal and time blogging.
  • I can improve by trying meditation when I add yoga to my daily practice.

I truly believe that this kind of self-inventory is key to making any kind of lasting changes.  Ask yourself today, “Am I living my best life?  What can I do today to sharpen the saw?”

PB & Yum

The March 2007 issue of body+soul magazine has the winners of a taste-test of organic peanut butters in honor of National Peanut Butter Month. The top three winners were Santa Cruz Organic, MaraNatha Organic, and Smucker’s Organic.

The Husband and I bought MaraNatha creamy peanut butter on our last trip to Wild Oats, and I have to say it wins top honors from me, too! It has a wonderful, rich roasted peanut flavor. It’s so interesting getting used to natural peanut butter after eating Skippy and Jif for so long, but it’s a good transition. I also love that if you give it a good stir before putting it in the fridge the first time, it doesn’t separate!

It’s Nifty to be Thrifty!

Thrifty Planet is an online directory of thrift stores and other stores that sell recycled or previously owned merchandise. The site owners encourage us to “Make a stand now by using the Resource Guide and it will lessen the impact on future generations and the environment.”

I love thrift stores, consignment stores, and factory outlets. In fact, at a consignment store in California, I bought a red leather purse for five dollars. When I got it home, I googled the name of the Italian designer, and found out that, new, purses from this designer go for $300-$450!

Boo-ya.

Designer resale and consignment shops are amazing places to find stupendous deals on brand-name clothes and accessories. Just this weekend, I saw a cute, classic Kate Spade purse in perfect condition for only $40. Places like Goodwill and Salvation Army can also yield good finds; I have found clothes from stores like Target and even Banana Republic with the tags still attached at Goodwill stores.

The keys, I’ve found, to thrift store shopping are two fold: first, go at a time when you’re in the mood to dig. Browsing at a thrift store isn’t going to turn up the good stuff, you really have to want to look through every item on the rack to make sure you aren’t overlooking a diamond in the rough. Second, shop only at stores in which you feel comfortable. I’ve been in Goodwill stores that made back alleys look safe and comfortable; likewise, I’ve been in Goodwill stores that are as clean and well-maintained as any department store. In addition, be aware that thrift stores and consignment shops have seasonal sales just like any other store; paying attention to when your favorite store changes inventory or has sales will help you net the best finds.

Any good stories of amazing stuff you’ve found at a thrift store?

Don’t Count Your Eggs

Cage free, free-range, organic, vegetarian, white, brown, fertile –– and those are just the kinds of eggs you can get at Super Target!

When the Husband and I made the decision to try to buy organic, one of the most confusing choices was when it came to eggs. Which were better? What’s the difference between cage-free and free-range, anyway?

By chance we hit on Cyd’s Nest Fresh Eggs and later, discovered that they are not only free-range, vegetarian, organic, and humanely harvested eggs, they’re also local! Many in the new food revolution are coming to believe that local trumps organic, and as these are produced right in our hometown, we can’t get much more local without putting a chicken coop out on our balcony!

In researching Cyd’s, I came across their FAQ page, which is a great resource for understanding the differences in the eggs on the market.

According to Cyd, “Cage free or Free-roaming birds are kept in large barns where they can move about freely and lay their eggs in dark, quiet nests. They are free to participate in their chicken behaviors and pecking orders. Free range chickens have all the benefits of cage free and free roaming chickens, but also have access to the outside.”

It also tells us that brown eggs and white eggs are nutritionally indistinguishable. White eggs come from white chickens, and brown eggs come from brown chickens.

Good to know!

Gentle Reminders for February

One of the things I like about Martha Stewart Living is the “Gentle Reminders” column at the front of each magazine which gives suggestions for periodic chores to take care of during the month –– everything from homekeeping to gardening.

Happily, the Martha Stewart Living website has begun publishing these tips monthly. So far this month, I’ve made Valentines (which were a big hit!), organized the linen closet, cleaned out my old medicines, made a list of books to read, and changed the linens on the bed. I still need to do my mending (jeez, I’ve needed to do that for ages — but if Martha says to do it, I’d better!), organize my bookshelves, and plan a vacation!

I love calendars like this that break tasks down by month. Real Simple has a great online month-by-month beauty calendar for the whole year. Which reminds me: it’s time to replace my mascara!

Costco

The Husband and I sneaked into Costco this morning.  We didn’t want to buy anything, but it’s been years since either of us has been into a Costco, and it seemed like a fun thing to do.

Once inside, it was easy to be tempted.  Brita water filters for less than $4 apiece!  Slabs of fresh salmon for less than $6 a pound!  Laughing Cow cheeses for less than $1 apiece!  And samples at the end of ever aisle coaxing us to try General Tso’s Chicken Meal, raspberry chipoltle dip, dried mango slices, teryaki chicken bowls.  All this could be ours, we thought, for a mere $50/year membership fee.  Why, we’d easily save $50 in a year of shopping at Costco!

Plus, we were pleasantly surprised by the number of organic options.  No Whole Foods-like selection, to be sure, but good deals on diced organic canned tomatoes, organic pastas, three-packs of organic milk, local eggs, organic cheese, etc.

The problem is that I doubt very seriously if we would be able to limit ourselves to those organic options.  Most of the foods sold were processed beyond recognition.  On the whole, we don’t have a great track record of self-control when it comes to buying things, which is why we’ve been shopping at Wild Oats instead of trying to pick and choose the organic options at Safeway or Super Target.  Costco makes it all to easy to  rationalize impulse buys — in fact, it’s their business model.

So, not having a membership card or the $50 to put down for one, we managed to escape Costco without buying a single thing — though we did end up sampling quite a bit.

Corn in your Car

NPR did an interesting piece on ethanol this afternoon on “All Things Considered.”  They mentioned the fact that increasing demand for ethanol is driving up prices for corn, and the farmer they interviewed was concerned that the rising price of corn would impact his animal feed (pig and chicken) customers.

Here’s what I’m thinking: if the price of corn continues to rise because of the demand for ethanol, maybe it will encourage the pig and chicken (and cow) producers to seek out more economical ways of feeding their stocks, namely GRASS; a return to a more natural food chain.

Unfortunately, ethanol probably uses just as much petroleum to produce it as the industrial feed lots use to feed the chickens and pork and beef.  It will probably have just as much negative impact on the atmosphere as burning petroleum products.  Or, the government, in its infinite wisdom, will step in and subsidize the corn so that the pig and chicken and cow farmers can continue producing industrial meat even cheaper than they already are.

Still, a girl can dream.

~*~

I inquired with a small organic farm in Boulder about the CSA program they’re starting this year.  I’d love to be able to support them, especially because they already have a good reputation at the local farmer’s market in Boulder.  I’m supposed to get more info in a week or two.