How many of us have binge watched ‘Tidying Up’ on Netflix? If you don’t know what I am talking about, it is a new show on Netflix where Marie Kondo helps people tidy up their homes. Her method is to focus on 5 categories (clothes, books, etc.) and to ask yourself if each item brings you joy. If the answer is no, you “thank it” and put it aside to be donated. This show seems to be having an impact on many people. Everyone is tidying up their house using Marie’s steps and donating significantly more things. I’ve seen many pictures of drawers that are full of clothes that are…
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Optionality is the reward for living a healthy financial life
Here is another post from Ryan and all about his favorite topic: finance. Saving money is all about delaying gratification today for a (hopefully larger) benefit in the future. But this is very difficult to do, particularly in our consumption driven culture (almost 70% of the United States GDP growth is driven by consumer spending). Goals like saving for retirement can seem too abstract because they are so far off and seem so unreachable early in your career. So let me propose another reason to save and get your financial life in order that is hopefully less abstract and more near term beneficial: optionality. What do I mean by optionality? …
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Mom’s need sick days and our Winter CSA
I fell ill on Sunday and thankfully Ryan was cool with me retiring to bed at 6:30; little did he know I wouldn’t get up until the next morning 🙂 It was well needed rest but I still couldn’t sleep because I was developing the world’s worst cold ever (ok I am being dramatic here). I basically had two days straight of feeling like someone was literally plugging my nose; it was horrible. It’s felt like a long week. I think it is because I was sick for a good chunk of it with a bad cold so I slept horribly most of the week. Not sleeping makes for long…
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Healthy living is more than food and exercise for us
As a family, we like to ensure that we are eating healthy and exercising consistently but we also have been shifting to safer products for things like cleaners, soaps, lotions, etc. After having babies, I switched to safer laundry detergent, dishwasher soap, and cleaning supplies because I read that babies have sensitive skin so it was best to have natural products that were scent free. I always thought that babies needed scent free because they were sensitive to smells but I came to realize it was more likely because “fragrance” was an ingredient that is unregulated by the beauty industry and companies don’t have to disclose what chemicals are in…
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How I make room for treats when eating healthy
So I want to be real with everyone here…..I don’t ALWAYS eat healthy. When I am tired (like on Friday nights) or when I am tempted with yummy food (like on Saturday when I was at a party), I have a hard time eating healthy. And you know what?…..I am OK with that. I have found a balance of eating healthy MOST of the time is what works best for losing and maintaining weight (a 90/10 rule). The key there is that I don’t indulge in EVERYTHING anymore. I try to pick and choose what I should spend calories on. For example, I work at an agency where there is…
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A key component to our weight loss and maintenance
A key component to our weight loss success and on-going maintenance is meal planning and prepping. Planning out meals is a way to set ourselves up for success for healthy eating because we have a plan on what we are going to eat for the majority of our meals (we do usually plan to eat out once a week). When we don’t plan ahead, we find ourselves going out to eat or ordering pizza because once we get home from work and school, we are starving and tired and we barely have motivation to cook, let alone figure out WHAT to cook! To ensure that doesn’t happen, here are a…
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How to balance exercise with a busy family life
Full disclosure everyone: this post is written by Ryan. I figure I would let him write in the blog and share his thoughts and ideas as well 🙂 Everyone is extremely busy and we are no exception. Between work, family events, and household chores, it can be difficult to find time to get in that daily workout. However, exercise is incredibly important not just for your health but also your own sanity. It’s been shown through many studies that exercising is a great way to reduce stress. That being said, here are 5 tips we use to find that little extra time to exercise: Prioritize exercise: In order to keep…
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A weekend in my healthy family life
Each weekend we have a few things we prioritize: spending time with our kids, exercising, grocery shopping and meal prepping for the next week. This weekend was no different except that we had a little family getaway planned as well. Friday nights we usually just relax. This Friday we ate leftovers for dinner and hung out with the girls. After they went to bed we had a bottle of wine and watched a few episodes of Food Network Star (exciting I know). Saturday had a little more going on. Ryan went on a 15 mile run while the girls and I played at home. I also attempted to pack since…
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New Year’s Resolutions
The start of a new year is an opportunity to have a clean slate and start fresh. It is also an opportunity to set resolutions of what you want to accomplish or change in your life for the new year. Things like losing weight, exercise more and save money tend to top people’s list, including mine in years past. In January of 2009, my new year’s resolution was to lose weight for my wedding. At that point I had topped the scale higher than I had ever been and I was considered obese by BMI (body mass index) standards. Now we’ve all heard the stats on new year’s resolutions: “only…
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New Year, New Blog
Hi, my name is Lindsay. I am a wife and mom of two girls (4 yrs and 1.5 yrs). I have a full time job as a marketing analytics consultant and a side gig as a safer skincare consultant. I am a practicing yogi who is currently training to be a yoga teacher. I love to go for morning walks with my dog, meal plan and learn about all things wellness. My husband Ryan is financial planning guru, marathon runner, and works in finance. Together, we are working on building our version of a healthy family life. Now I realize the web is already flooded with blogs from people so…