First off, I’m not advocating eating fast food all the time. It is best left as an occasional thing, but Taco Bell has tons of vegetarian and vegan options when you know what to order. It is also a really kid-friendly place and great for those days where you’ve just had it and don’t feel like making another meal at home for the kids. Here are my tips and info on what and how to order at Taco Bell.
Sherwood Forest Faire - Paolo Garbonzo Performing
For Austinites wanting to do the renaissance festival thing, our choices so far have been a long drive out to the Texas Renaissance Festival towards Houston in the Fall, or a long drive to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival up near Dallas in the late Spring. Well starting now (Spring of 2010), we have a new option in the Sherwood Forest Faire which is a mere 35 miles east of Austin, Texas on U.S. Highway 290. It opened for the first time this past weekend, and my family and I went yesterday on the festival’s second day of existance. This is my review – with an eye for the vegetarian aspect as well as the family fun. Continue reading
With the economy still bad and people continuing to watch their budgets I’ve seen and heard a lot lately about “stay”cations or taking a vacation, but not going anywhere. Yes, it is a good way to save some money, but make sure that you do it right. A staycation done wrong will just waste your vacation time. Here are my top 7 tips if you choose to vacation at home. Continue reading
While on vacation at the beach recently our kids repeatedly were saying “I’m so hungry I could eat my foot!” Not exactly sure where they picked it up, but it was funny. Then, after a morning in the sun and sand my littlest who is 4 exclaimed “I’m so thirsty I could drink my foot!” We all laughed and then he thought it was funny that we thought it was funny. Ah, precious moments with kids.
I’m going to start a regular segment called Eating Vegetarian Without Cooking. By “without cooking” I mean simple meals that can be made quickly either with no cooking at all or by using a microwave or toaster oven. I never have much time for cooking, and with three small kids I have learned a few things about feeding people (myself included) quickly, simply, and vegetarian.
Since today marks the half way point of 2009, I thought it would be a good opportunity to look back at my resolutions from my New Year’s 2009 – My Resolutions post and check in to see how I’m doing. While there is always room for improvement, overall I think I’m doing great.
Do more
I made this resolution because I have had problems being inert in the past and not really living life. I have done pretty good here and this blog is one example. I have had periods where it didn’t get updated as often as I wanted, but lately I’ve gotten back on track.
I want to keep the ball rolling with this blog and I also have ideas for two other sites. Also, last year I had started the site drivemoregreen.com which has languished without any attention. I’d like to revamp that and get it going again.
I resolve to continue doing more and keeping my momentum going for the rest of 2009.
Spend more time interacting with my kids
This one I have done pretty well. I’ve really tried to focus on enjoying being with the kids (which isn’t always easy!) and finding more time to spend with them. I have also spent more one-on-one time with my son. We started watching Deadliest Catch on Discovery. Yes, it is a little hypocritical for an ethical vegetarian to enjoy watching them pull so many crab out of the ocean, but it is exciting and has great talking points for conversations with my kids. I just had to shoo away my daughter so I could finish this post 🙁 but overall I’m still doing better.
I resolve to continue spending more time interacting with my kids.
Stay in shape and maintain my weight
This one I’ve done great at. My ideal weight is 175 and I don’t like going over 180. So far this year I’ve only been over 180 once and have stayed between those two numbers the rest of the time. I have been biking about two times a week, which is up from last year’s one time a week average.
I resolve to continue staying in shape and maintaining my weight.
Get stronger
I don’t have an official or proper program for this yet, but about a month ago I started doing pushups every day. I have seen an improvement in my arm muscles and I’m really happy about this. I plan on continuing with the push ups and will consider adding in more strenght training if I can figure something out.
I resolve to continue working on getting stronger.
Conclusion
This has been a good excercise to write down my resolutions and track them. I highly recommend it – and even though it isn’t New Year’s right now, you can make a resolution right now and start trying to live better. Do you have a follow up for your resolutions, or something you want to start doing better now? Be sure to post a comment and let me know.