In case you're curious...

Last week, I wrote about my family's aspirations to eat healthier and shared some of my meal ideas. I'm happy to report that both my husband and I have lost several pounds already and are getting tantalizingly close to our goal weights. Aaron is resisting carbs, while I'm just trying to eat a balanced diet to fuel my newly active lifestyle. Aaron has shared that he feels healthier without sugar in his diet. This isn't to say that he hasn't craved carbs at all, because he definitely has, but the trick has been to stay busy so that he doesn't have time to think about food. And luckily, BBQ fits within his diet, so we were able to splurge on Rudy's last night. Mmmmm.

On the fitness front, I have a new Polar heart rate monitor and am trying a different training approach to prepare myself for an upcoming 5K. I'm doing target heart rate training for cardiovascular/aerobic fitness, using the monitor to keep my heart rate between 70 and 80 percent of its max. A couple days a week I will push to 80-90% for an interval workout. So far, I've found that I can't see progress as easily as I did when I just pushed myself as hard as I could, and I tend to get frustrated when my heart rate forces me to slow down. However, I think this approach will have a more significant benefit in the long run than pushing myself too hard and exercising at an anaerobic level that produces lactic acid, etc. I also appreciate being able to see how many calories I'm burning-- it's pretty motivating!

I'll try to remember to keep you posted on our progress.

Church-related humor

Today's post is simply a reminder that Christians can, and do, have a sense of humor. We are messed-up people (thank God for His incredible grace!), and it's good to be reminded sometimes that we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously.

During some downtime at the office this morning, I decided to browse some of my favorite blogs and found myself having to stifle a real "laugh out loud" at Jon's humorous observations about the communion process. (My church does communion in the "Come as God leads" style that Jon describes.) You just have to read it for yourself; it's too hilarious to miss!

Just admit it, 'Big Oil'

A key service that my company offers is the distribution of news releases to the media and financial disclosure points. As such, we process many earnings releases for public companies. I've noticed that all the releases I've edited for companies within the energy industry have reported solid profits, and I am not exaggerating. At the same time, popular media coverage seems to suggest that a limited supply of oil and rising oil prices-- not corporate greed-- are to blame for high U.S. gas prices.

I have to admit that, having observed how well companies in the energy industry are faring in the midst of tough economic conditions, I'm growing quite tired of hearing these excuses. The reality is that the oil industry is taking advantage of the demand created by our American dependence on gasoline. To the extent that we are willing to pay the higher prices, they will charge them. It's simple economics, and yet it makes my stomach turn. A company has a social responsibility to maximize its positive impact and minimize its negative impact on its stakeholders, which include its shareholders, customers, community, etc. Are the interests of these stakeholder groups of equivalent importance? If so, isn't price gouging socially irresponsible? On the other hand, if stakeholder groups are not created equal-- if, in fact, shareholders are an energy company's primary stakeholder, with priority over all others-- can we really blame the company for trying to maximize returns?

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Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent my company's positions, strategies or opinions.

Food & Eating: Time to Get Back to the Basics

I grew up on mostly chicken and veggies. Then, when I went away to college, salads and whole wheat pasta were what kept me going. Actually, I was not particularly fond of steak or BBQ until I met Aaron. Raised on a farm in southeastern Arizona, Aaron is definitely a meat-and-potatoes guy. After we got married, I realized pretty quickly that healthy cooking was not the quickest way to his heart, and I learned to adjust. Ground beef or Italian sausage were added to my spaghetti sauce, fries or tater tots had to accompany every hot sandwich or burger, and whole wheat flour and applesauce were no longer appropriate baking substitutions. After all, as a newlywed, making sure that my husband knew I could cook well was of the utmost importance -- and toned-down versions of tasty recipes were just not going to cut it. And so the pounds crept onto both of us...

After a year or so of marriage, I was finally comfortable enough with my husband's confidence in my cooking that I could start sneaking in some healthier options. I introduced grilled salmon into my repertoire, started substituting potatoes with whole grain brown & wild rice, replaced pork Italian sausage with turkey Italian sausage in my pasta sauces, and experimented with roasting, grilling, and sauteeing more varieties of veggies. His response was surprisingly positive, but we still couldn't seem to eliminate some culprits, like tortilla chips, from our diets (we REALLY love salsa).

But now, I'm proud to report, we've decided to try healthier eating

-- at least for a few weeks. As Aaron's uncle James, the founder of Weightless Fitness, has pointed out, the most efficient way to lose extra weight (in addition to being active, of course!) is to train one's body to burn stored fat instead of sugar -- which means cutting carbs. So, I've built some menus that rely on lean proteins, like chicken and fish, and veggies, while still looking appetizing and delivering some degree of flavor. And in case anyone reading this might want to trim down, too, I thought I'd share some of what I've come up with, based on my family's tastes.

Breakfast:

Egg white omelette with diced ham, onions, and bell peppers

Light yogurt

Lunch/snacks:

Sliced smoked chicken or turkey breast
Baby carrots

Sliced bell pepper

Raw sugar snap peas

String cheese

Almonds

Dinner:

Marinated grilled salmon with grilled sweet corn

Jalapeño-lemon tilapia (cooked in foil packet) with roasted veggies

Grilled chicken kabobs

Cuban burgers (sans buns) with black beans and side salad

Grilled chicken salad

Green chile turkey burgers (sans buns) with grilled veggies

Hopefully we can stick with it, at least for a while!

Southwestern Colorado Vacation

My husband and I just returned from a short trip to southwestern Colorado that was filled with exploration, beautiful scenery, and plenty of relaxation. While I was most taken with the scenery in Telluride and Ouray, Durango stood out as a friendly community that I could actually imagine as being "home" someday. I fell in love with several tree-lined neighborhoods of cottage- and bungalow-style homes and was impressed by the active lifestyles of Durango's residents. As we checked out the Animas River trail during our first afternoon in Durango, we saw people floating lazily down the river in tubes and fly-fishing. People cheered from their inflatables as others were baptized beside the river bank, and the sprinkles of rain falling did not seem to deter anyone from enjoying his/her Sunday afternoon. Throughout our trip, we watched in awe as bikers powered their ways up mountains and as runners clipped along well-groomed trails at healthy paces. All of this at an elevation of 6,500 feet! Wow. Some highlights of our trip were driving the San Juan Skyway (a loop that includes Durango, Telluride, Ouray, Silverton, and quaint rural communities in between) and taking a "ducky"-- an inflatable kayak-- down the Animas River. We actually opted for the two-person ducky, which we later found out has been dubbed the "Divorce Double." Oops! Well, we did survive, and now we have some pretty awesome pictures of us going backwards over Class III rapids to show for it. I've included some of our photos from the trip below, for your viewing pleasure. I just can't wait to go back!

NOTE: All images copyright © Aaron and Christina White, 2008.

Images may not be used without permission.

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Coming soon:

Stay tuned for Colorado travel reviews including: Blue Lake Ranch in Hesperus; Old Tymer's Cafe in Durango; Farquahrt's in Durango; and Durango Rafting Company.

Best places to live

My husband and I are experiencing an exciting time in our lives. If all goes smoothly, both of us will be finished with grad school in less than a year. In anticipation, we have started exploring where we might want to live. Having grown up in sunny and warm southern California and Arizona, I have been surprised to find that I prefer cooler weather. When the temperature reaches 94 here in New Mexico, I feel overwhelmed by the heat. Granted, the air is more humid here, but still-- having lived where it tends to be 120 degrees for most of the summer, who would have thought... ? I have even enjoyed the bits of snow we've experienced the last couple of winters.

Consequently, Colorado seems to rank pretty high on my list of the top places I'd like to live someday. And interestingly enough, when I took one of those silly Internet self-quizzes to identify my best places to live, several Colorado communities popped up in my top 25: Boulder/Longmont, Fort Collins/Loveland, Colorado Springs, and Greeley. California (e.g. Santa Barbara, Ventura), Washington, and Oregon also made a good showing.

Soon, we'll be checking out Durango, CO, and hopefully the San Juan Skyway.

If you have any other suggestions for fabulous places to live, please let me know!

Dreaming about where we might end up is fun and exciting, but of course it's all in God's hands! We have to remember to move forward prayerfully, as God's plans are far superior to anything we could dream up. (Maybe sometime I'll share the story about how we ended up here in Albuquerque. It is pretty incredible, really-- and not at all of our own doing!)

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"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." (Proverbs 19:21).

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'" (James 4:13-15)