Sunday, May 23, 2010

Our Quest to Live Well


We have long considered ourselves "healthy" people -- we never eat fast food, fried foods, drink full-calorie soda, etc. However, we've made several additional improvements to our diets, including focusing on organic produce, grass fed meats, etc., since watching Food, Inc. earlier this year. Additionally, John has become a devotee of the Primal Blueprint lifestyle (which I lovingly refer to as the "Primal Fear" diet), and he has convinced me to jump on the bandwagon as well. Living well comes at a cost, as we are learning, because all of these changes, while for the better, have resulted in higher grocery bills. Sadly, the mainstream grocery stores, like Dominicks and Jewel, don't have a good selection of organic produce and quality meats. We've been paying an arm and a leg at Whole Foods for a fraction of the groceries we used to buy. So this afternoon, as I was whining about our Sunday trip to the grocery store, we decided that we would head to Costco and see what they had. We were blown away by the organic fruit and vegetable selection, and it was all very well priced, despite the fact that it's all in bulk. We have re-kindled are love of Costco! Hopefully we will see a difference in our bank account as a result.

I'm also trying to fit in more exercise now that the weather is improving. I've been on a doctor-imposed exercise sabbatical, so I'm having to ease into things, but John and I took a great power walk yesterday, and we are both planning on hitting the gym this week. We will keep you posted on how all these continuing attempts at living well are going!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Summer at Last

Tonight we kicked off the Chicago street festival season (my favorite time of year) at Lakeview Mayfest. One word describes the evening: AMAZING. Liana was in town from Florida, so we met she and Brian at the fest and danced a little to some 90s hip hop before the boys decided to hang at a nearby bar while Liana and I rocked out to Hairbangers Ball, a local hair metal cover band. I'm pretty sure I danced off every calorie from all the sangria I drank at the festival. Nothing like a little Metallica and Bon Jovi to kick off the summer. I've marked the other fun fests in my calendar, and we are planning to attend one nearly every weekend. Yay for summer in Chicago!

Liana and me, before the fun started

John being a good sport and indulging in my obsession of cover bands.

Liana and Brian - miss these two!

Even Jim joined us for the fun.

L and me -- tired and sweaty from rocking out to 80s hair metal.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Art and Cupcakes

While John headed out to play some golf with his buddy, Jared, I met the girls at the Art Institute for the Matisse exhibit. I've been meaning to go for a month or so, and today was the perfect morning since we got there before it got insanely crowded. We also took a peek at the new Modern Wing, which John and I will have to go and visit more thoroughly another time. After a lunch in the museum cafe, we headed for some cupcakes at Sugar Bliss in the loop. After some cuppies and frosting shots (talk about sugar shock), I headed in to the office to catch up from being out and under the weather in the past week. While this was the prettiest weekend we've had in awhile, I'm hoping for a warm-up for next weekend. A friend will be in town and we are hoping to head out to Lakeview Mayfest for some sangria and 90s cover bands.

Post-frosting shots