With money so tight these days I didn’t want to just buy a DVD and end up not liking it.  I read reviews of various fitness DVD’s out there and the Walk Away the Pounds series of DVD’s got me interested.

The Leslie Sansone – Walk Away the Pounds – 30 Minute Walk DVD was $13.49, and I was hesitant to even shell out that much without knowing if I would really stick with it or not.

I decided to “rent” Leslie Sansone: Walk Away The Pounds: 30 Minute Walk for seven days through Amazon.com’s Digital Downloads.  For $2,99 I could try before I buy.  It was money well-spent.

The warm-up, exercises and cool-down in this video are great for someone like me who has a hard time getting steps down.  I didn’t get overwhelmed by the steps and was able to keep up with them.  What a refreshing change!  I even sweated quite a lot at the end of the 30-minute walk, which they said was about two miles.

This would have been something I’d buy if not for Leslie Sansone’s annoying prattle and giggling in the video.  It was distracting to me and I just couldn’t get myself to go through it one more time.  What may be annoying for me might not be annoying for you, however.  If you are curious, do what I did:  rent it to try before you buy.

Got any fitness videos to recommend?  Let me know via the Comments section!

Finding fast, cheap, easy and healthy lunches on the go is challenging. Usually the fast, cheap and easy lunches you will find out there are not so healthy. 

I have never been a Subway fan until they started giving customers the option of toasting their subs.  To me, a warm meal feels for filling than a cold one!  My favorite one to order was their Chicken & Bacon Ranch sub.  However, Subway came up with a selection of $5 footlong subs.  The Chicken & Bacon Ranch sub footlong was approximately $2 more, so I decided to go for the cheaper subs.

Meet my new favorite: the Oven-Roasted Chicken Breast from Subway’s Fresh Fit menu and part of their $5 Footlong Subs.  I order it with Italian Herbs & Cheese bread, admittedly not the healthiest bread there is, but I love it and would rather not give that up.  I top it with American cheese, spinach, tomatoes and cucumber, then some ranch dressing.  I do not care for their shredded lettuce, hence the spinach for alternative greens.  The tomatoes provide a nice sweet counterbalance to the saltiness of the cheese and ranch dressing, while the cucumber gives the sandwich a crunchiness reminiscent of my favorite bacon, without the fat and cholesterol.

The best part?  I only eat half the footlong sandwich for lunch and eat the other half either for dinner or for lunch the next day.  That’s a $2.50 lunch plus tax.  What a great deal!

It doesn’t last until dinner however, and by mid-afternoon my stomach starts asking for snacks.  I don’t mind that too much.  I usually keep a stash of fruit cups or crackers in my desk.  Eating snacks also keeps me from being desperately hungry in the evening and which allows me to cook dinner at home instead of going through the drive-through.

Here’s to a healthier, no-longer broke New Year !!!

What is your favorite Subway sub?

A mixture of dread and hope.  That is what I felt all the while I was reading Ms. Betty Londergan’s book “The Agony and The Agony”.  As a parent of a 14-year old daughter and a 13-year old son, I am certainly in the throes of the agony of parenting teenagers.  They drive me up the wall.  They drive me nuts.  Sometimes they drive me to drive to the nearest bookstore cafe, where I can soothe my feelings with latte and chocolate cake while getting lost in a suspense novel.

In the introductory part of the book, Ms. Londergan mentioned that raising teens isn’t funny, so much so that she thought it was time for a funny book on the subject.  She certainly has  a great sense of humor.  However, I felt that the earlier chapters of the book were too focused on being funny that I equated it to watching a parenting seminar on Saturday Night Live.  I also didn’t care much for the flippant references to coping with the parenting issues by drinking alcohol.

Halfway through, Ms. Londergan toned the humor down a bit and her insight on the issues facing the parents of today’s teens really shine through.  From filthy mouths to smelly mouths, outright hostility to manipulative sweetness, hilarity to depression, underachievement to overachievement and from partying to sleeping all day, the book covers a wide spectrum of teen behaviors that cause parental angst.  Post-Teen views shared in the book put issues into perspective, and the book gives parents hope that this phase will pass.

Fast-paced, funny, insightful and frighteningly true, this is a must-read for parents and guardians of tweens and teens.

For a struggling woman who is trying to rebuild a career, lack of money for clothes shopping is a big frustration.  It is a blessing that I do not feel the need to have designer clothers and accessories.  However, I am old enough and wise enough to realize that cheap clothes look cheap after only two washes.  By cheap clothes I mean those clothes that have cheap original prices.

I prefer to head for the clearance racks in decent department stores and specialty stores at the mall.  This way I get to have good quality items at a price that fits my budget better.  I choose clothes that are classic and span seasons because I can’t afford to have a separate wardrobe for spring, summer, fall and winter.  Because I wear them a lot, I take steps to ensure that my clothes last.

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement (this is NOT a paid post, by the way), I confess that for over a decade now I have washed my clothes only with Woolite.  I have noticed that it does not fade the colors of my clothes, making them look new-ish.   I once made the mistake of sorting my pajama pants in the regular detergent pile while the pajama top went in the Woolite pile.  The next time I wore them, The pajama pants were two shades lighter than the top!

I always use cold water in the washing machine, and set it on Gentle Cycle.  The dryer is set to the lowest temperature setting.  It takes much longer to dry clothes that way, but they don’t come out of the dryer looking like they have been baked. 

Taking care of my clothes this way have helped make my clothes last quite a long time, which in turn helps me save money while looking great in the office.  I think the extra dollar spent on Woolite and on the longer drying cycle are well worth it.