My Favorite Blogs

As I sit here thinking about my dinner plans and the fact that today is my 1 day weekend, I got to thinking about some of my favorite blogs.

You can see my blog list on the right. That's not all the blogs that I read, but some of them. The blogs that I enjoy are a reflection of me. So here goes, in no particular order.

Joanne at Eats Well With Others - Joanne is intelligent and FUNNY (my goodness, she's a great writer...runner, cook, writer, and medical student? She's got it all.) She ALWAYS makes me smile, sometimes laugh right out loud. She's also fearless. She takes on quite the complicated recipes...if only I could have cooked like that in my 20's...

Kath at KERF - Kath has an all-around great blog with a love for nutrition and good healthy food. She's also got a thing for oatmeal. Her whipped banana oats are the best. Her upbeat attitude is an absolute joy. And she's training for a half marathon (I love reading about her progress).

Jenna at Eat Live Run - Jenna has a ZEST for life that cannot be matched. Her love for Paris and good food and good wine is a joy to read. She grabs life head on, from moving cross country to California, to partying with the boys from Top Chef, to writing a book, to planning a summer in France.

Kalli at Fit and Fortysomething - Kalli has an all-around GREAT site about health and fitness in your 40's (a topic soon to be very near and dear to my heart). I *love* reading about her exercise endeavors and seeing her meals. She can combine veggies like nobody's business and I mean - she puts hummus on almost everything. My kinda girl.

The ladies at Cheap Healthy Good (Kris and Leigh) - This blog introduced me to blogging. It was the first that I ever read, and inspired me to start my own blog. Their blog is chock-full of helpful information on how to cook meals at home, and on the cheap. I wait patiently each week for their Friday Links...best link list out there if you are interested in food.

Daniel at Casual Kitchen - This guy will get you INTO the kitchen. Great instruction, simple recipes. And he really makes you THINK about food, what it means to you, how you eat, what you eat, how much you eat. Good stuff.

Gena at Choosing Raw - I cannot even remember how I came to discover this blog. So many of my discoveries come from reading a comment that someone left on another blog. I really like her philosophy of eating. She's mostly raw, not all raw. She encourages people to eat more raw food, without being in your face about it. And her recipes look lovely.

Sheri at Green and Crunchy - A family full of high-raw vegan kiddos. A love of section plates and smoothies. Delicious vegan and raw foods. So colorful, so yummy looking, I adore this blog. Absolutely adore it.

Vegan Dad - delicious recipes. 'Nuff said.

Rebecca at Less is Enough - This wonderful woman did an experiment in 2009, to eat for 30 days on $30. She did an amazing job. She's still blogging (though she's increased her budget), and her posts are very informative. She shows her receipts, total amount spent eat week, and details some of her meals. She is self-defined as a NON-foodie. Her philosophy on eating for cheap is to buy only what you need this week. This is mostly the opposite of what I do for staples, but I do use this method to eat down the pantry...buy only fresh fruits and veggies each week. This brings me to ...

Tina and Phil at 30 bucks a week - These two are feeding themselves in Brooklyn, NY for $30 a week (yes, that's $15 per person). This does not include eating out on occasion (I mean, they do live in New York). I am constantly impressed at what they can get at the Park Slope Coop (oh, if our coop prices were only so low) and what they are able to make with what they buy. Always an inspiration. And their shopping philosophy is similar to Rebecca's, above.

Angela at Oh She Glows - Angela had a vision. A vision of leaving her job and owning her own vegan bakery. And she has realized her vision. She also has a really good handle on how to eat healthfully and exercise FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. Angela has struggled with disordered eating, and her posts are very sensitive to the millions out there who also have (been there, done that). Every once in awhile, I'll read a blog from someone who gained 20-30 lbs in college. And now they are blogging about health, because "look I lost 20-30 lbs after college". I would scoff. I mean, really, big deal, losing 20 lbs in your 20s. Try losing >50 lbs in your 30s.

But then, I have to smack myself. What a bad attitude. Sure, these young'uns might not understand where I've been, but by the same token - I don't know what it's like to lose (and keep off) 100 lbs when you are in your 40s. I have to remind myself to appreciate that it's difficult for ANYONE to lose weight and keep it off in the food minefield we live in today. Any inspiration and help we can get, we should take.

Truth be told, for those of us who've been obese...our bodies are simply DIFFERENT once we lose weight. For some people will never be able to hit a "goal weight" (defined by BMI) once they've been obese. The metabolism changes, sometimes forever. And then, there's the loose skin. Ah, the loose skin.

Lynn at Lynn's Weigh - Lynn is an absolute inspiration. Just check out her stats. She's lost the weight, kept it off, kept fit, and is a great place to go to talk about food and weight.

And last but not least:

The Dervaes Family at Path to Freedom: Homesteading. Living simply. Doing it yourself. Knitting, crocheting, canning, cooking, baking and - of course - growing your own food. Whenever I want to contemplate "unplugging" I look to them for inspiration. And they are a great place to buy seeds.