More of a brag post than a frugal post

One of my weight loss/fitness goals was to run a 5k. I ran my first one in February, and came in at 37:53, or a 12:11/mile pace. I had such a great time running that one, that I did another one in April, and yesterday I ran a 4 mile race. I came in at 43:09, or a 10:47/mile pace, so I'm definitely improving! It's become a really fun hobby for me. I really love having a race to look forward to, and trying to beat my best time. As someone who spent their whole life as an overweight/obese person, it's awesome to get out there with fit people and be able to keep up! And as far as recreational sports go, running is really cheap! I have totally flat feet, so I did go get fitted for some running shoes in January, after struggling through awful heel pain for months from my cheap cross-trainers. I spent about $75 on the previous year's model (cash, of course), and they solved all my pain problems. Now that I know what kind of shoe I need, I'll probably stick with the same brand, but shop around and buy them online next time. Other than the shoes, the only other cost is the registration for the races themselves. I used my spending money to pay for this race, which was $15 for YMCA members. I'll be doing the Turkey Trot next month, which is also $15 for Y members. One of the keys is to register early. People who register the day of the race always pay a lot more. For the race yesterday, it was $10 more to register the day of the race.

Update on Michael and financially planning for illness

He did end up having the flu. I got a touch of it--no fever, but a little bit of cold symtpoms, and so far the boys don't have it.

We still ended up spending money that was not budgeted in advance and I felt like our spending was a little out of control this week. This morning Michael and I talked about planning better for illness. For one thing, it makes sense to make sure we have enough in our Medical Envelope to cover co-pays for everyone in the house. Michael's is $25, and we didn't even have that in the envelope. Then there was the $25 co-pay for the tamiflu. I went and bought more cod liver oil, and occillococcinum when I started feeling bad, and I had to run out and buy more ibuprofin. I bought the occillo at the health food store, and found out later that it was on sale at Walgreens for much cheaper, so if I had planned in advance, we wouldn't have had to spend so much and I wouldn't have been so stressed out running around to get everything we needed. We also ended up buying some extra groceries (not much--$15 worth), because we had nothing in the house and I was feeling too yucky to really make meals.

Michael is better at actually organizing stuff, so today he is going to go through the medicine box and see what we actually have and try to organize it. He's making me a list of his preferred OTC meds, and I'll add mine and the kids. I'll shop around to make sure we have stuff specifically on-hand, and I'll make sure we have stuff on hand to treat the flu since this flu season won't be over for a long while. I'm going to make a list of meds to keep on hand, and we're going to keep cash in our medical envelope with money for :

Doctor co-pays for each of us
1-2 prescription co-pays
money for vitamins and OTC meds
$20 for emergency groceries

That way, the money is right there and on-hand for if we get sick. I was way too stressed with all of it this week, when I needed to be taking it easy.

I'm also trying to figure out a way to plan some easy and healthy meals for if I am sick and can't cook. It seems like we eat the worst when we're sick because no one has the energy to cook! I might just start working on a list of quick, inexpensive meals. It would be good just to have that on-hand anyway.

Dieting doesn't have to be expensive

I read all the time that "dieting is expensive" or "diet foods are so expensive". In my own weight loss experience, I just haven't found that to be the case at all. I think it's all about your approach. I do think certain diet "plans" can be expensive. They are often meant to be. Not that programs are necessarily "bad", but they want you to rely on their products so you will continue to buy them. If you feel like your success is dependent on certain-brand products, you will continue to purchase them.

I think people also use money as a reason that they can't lose weight--they think they can't afford to lose weight.

Portion control and calorie counting is free :) The method I've used to lose 50 lbs. has actually saved my family money. We haven't added anything to our budget for food since I started losing weight last summer. In fact, we've really saved money on things like cokes and processed junk food. I also had a pretty bad dairy addiction, and we buy much less of things like cheese, butter, and sour cream now, which has been replaced by more fruits and veggies.

I find that our main dinner dish stretches a lot further now. I still mostly make the same things that I used to, but I eat a much smaller portion and fill the rest of my plate up with veggies. This leaves us more for lunches the next day.

For help with calorie counting, I use www.livestrong.com , and there are numerous other sites that can help with tracking food.

I spent $140 on two weeks worth of groceries yesterday. My produce tray and fruit bowls are stuffed full of "diet food"....I have a whole watermelon, honeydew melon, several lbs. of apples, oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, avocados, etc. I stocked up on green leaf and romaine lettuce for 77 cents at Kroger, and tomatoes for 39 cents/lb. at Fiesta, for salads. I shop the sale ads to find the best prices on produce and stock up on everything that is on sale.

I feel dirty!

You know what will make you feel as dirty as haggling with a slimy car salesman for a new car? Shopping around for a new gym! I recently quit my job at the Y, which means I need a new place to work out. I first went to a local chain. They weren't too bad as far as the sleaze-factor goes. Their joining fee was a bit high at $60, but their monthly rate is only $20. It's a pretty basic place--cardio, weights, some classes. Not a lot of frills, but that's fine with me after working out at the Y for 2 1/2 years. Believe it or not, I'm not used to a lot of frills in my life ;)

The next place I went (intentionally toting my price info sheet from the previous gym) was the monstrous new L.A. Fitness. Oh my. That was an experience. After driving by the massive church-like structure that was supposed to be a gym, I should have known better. I walked in the door and was assigned a young, hot guy to first escort me around, before we sat down to "talk". He gave me the grand tour of the 90 pieces of cardio equipment, the acres of weights meant to work everything from my abs to my pinky finger, the locker rooms with wood-panelled lockers, the indoor pool, spa, and the childcare room with a McDonald's like play place and theater seating in front of a large screen T.V. I made the mistake of asking if they have anyone to assess body fat, as this is something I've been keeping up with for the past six months. Well, of course they did! And we could do it right now! Then I got the pleasure to meet "Toni", who was going to assess my body fat. Toni (a chick, if you didn't get that from the "i" in her name) asked me a few questions about my height, my weight (oohhh, she said, with a very surprised look on her fact), and then she had me stand with this contraption that read my body fat in three seconds. As she was telling me about how building muscle is what they do here at L.A. Fitness, I found her voice trailing off...I was mesmerized by her collagen enhanced lips, and wondering to myself just how many plastic surgeries this woman had had in her life. She looked strikingly similar to a plastic surgery addict I remember seeing on an old episode of Dr. Phil...but, I digress.

After my encounter with Toni, I got to sit down with whats-his-name hot guy (I honestly don't remember his name), and discuss just what we might do to "help" me today. This started out cordially enough. He started with one set of numbers...an exhorbitant joining fee of $150, and $59/month, or some other equally ridiculous amount. And then he sits back and says, "So, which of these do you think might work for you?"

"Neither", I said. He probed as to why I felt that way. "The joining fees are ridiculous." So he runs through a second set of numbers which I also rejected, and then a third (you see where I'm going with this). Then he says, "I see you went to [competitor's gym], what if I could meet their price, which would you choose?" I told him that I would probably choose L.A. Fitness, since it's more convenient to my son's school. "But we offer so much more VALUE than they do, to get you the results you want!"(I don't remember mentioning to him what results I wanted, I guess he inferred it from the diagnosis of my fat percentage). So I took that moment to level with him. I said, "Look, your gym is pretty, and new, but I, ahhh, don't really care. I'm not really impressed by pretty. I need a gym that's convenient, affordable, and that has good, safe childcare for my kids." Then he starts to get a bit testy with me. "Well, let me ask you something. If you liked [other gym] so much, why didn't you sign up when you went in." I think I made some kind of snorting sound, and I told him, "Because I'm smart with my money. I'm not going to sign up with the first gym I check out, without looking around to find the best value for my dollar. By the way, can I get a trial pass?" He begrudgingly agreed to give me a three-day pass, but assured me that I would lose all these great deals he had presented me with by not signing up today. I replied that I never had any intention of signing up today, and all of a sudden he became very aware of the next customer behind me. I don't think he actually ever said goodbye or anything...I just remember being somehow aware that our conversation was over, and meandering towards the door.

I don't even think I'll use the guest pass. I'm too scared of seeing that plastic lady again.

Re-evaluating my health insurance to save money

Michael's work has crappy health insurance options. The coverage for him is freaking awesome, and they pay the whole premium for him. When you add family, the cost is ridiculous. They have one plan, and to add me to it would cost 1/3 of his income. I rarely go to the doctor. I'm very healthy, and I just prefer to treat things at home. However, I do want to have something in place in the event that I got some terrible disease or got into a car accident. A year and a half ago I purchased a crappy plan through BCBS that would cover that kind of thing. $5,000 deductible, 80/20 plan. At least we wouldn't be bankrupt if I got into a car accident or something. In 18 months I have not utilized that insurance at all. I paid $116/month for it. So I decided to re-evaluate. The whole reason that I want it is for hospital-type emergencies. I don't want to be saddled with a huge bill if I get into a car wreck, for instance. For doctor visits, I don't utilize the insurance that I already have--I have been going to the student health center at school for the few doctor visits I've needed in the last year and a half, and they wouldn't file with my insurance anyway. So I decided to go with a hospital-only plan, that is only $44/month. It only covers actual hospital costs, not physician costs. It's not ideal, but neither was the other one, and I figure if I'm going to have insurance that I'm not going to use, I want it to be as cheap as possible. I'm currently looking for a full-time job with health benefit, so I hope I'll be able to have "real" insurance again soon.

Personal Training

I had my first free personal training session this morning. There is a personal trainer-in-training (sheesh, that's redundant!) at my Y who is trying to get his certification, and he needs to get 100 hours for his externship. I'll be training with him a few times a week for free throughout August. Today he said that he doesn't plan to leave those of us who have signed up during his externship, but I wasn't sure what that means as far as having to pay him after August. Either way, I'm just going to take advantage of it while it lasts!