Using a Balanced Diet to Your Budgeting Advantage
As a second time college student and now a soon to be bride (that’s right! I’m engaged) I have to stick to a budget as well as a balanced diet more than ever. With a basic understanding of what a balanced diet really is I was able to actually lose about 50 pounds while I was in college for my undergraduate degree and now I want to share that knowledge with you.
Maintaining a balanced diet on a budget may seem difficult, but it is completely within reach. Limiting your diet to foods that are high in nutritional value and avoiding empty calories is one of the best way to eat on a budget. A balanced diet packed with the essential nutrients your body needs to function will make your body feel satisfied more quickly. You will need to consume less and, in turn, buy less.
People who rush through the super market, blindly tossing food into their cart without thinking about how that food contributes to a balanced diet are usually spending way more than they need. They don’t weigh the benefits of each food, so in the end they buy more foods that have less nutritional value than if they were buying foods for the purpose of fueling their bodies.
Understanding the purpose of the foods you consume is the first step to maintaining a healthy diet on limited funding. (more…)
I know that I’m not a chef, or really even a cook yet. I don’t think that I’m capable of being thrown in on the line in a high capacity restaurant without any training or instruction and be able to function. I know that I need training and time to learn and increase my skills. Unfortunately I don’t have a money tree and I can’t volunteer 14 hours a day, six days a week of my time for eight months to build these skills. I need a job in which I’m able to learn and improve these skills and get paid. I’m not even asking to be paid much.
What I want to know is why a chef felt it necessary to show me that I’m not ready to work on the line in his restaurant. You may or may not know that a chef at a certain seafood and oyster bar on South Congress in Austin told me that he would “give me a chance” and bring me in on a shift to see how I do. After two weeks of me calling and asking when I can come in and getting brushed aside he finally says “I want you to come in Saturday at 5:00PM.” Obviously I was terrified, but I wasn’t going to say no. (more…)
This week is the beginning of my second 3-weeks at Culinary School! I’m so excited I could explode. We’re finally finished with our lecture classes, Sanitation 101 and Basic Cookery 100. Well, we’re almost finished; we have finals tonight in both, but that felt like the longest and most jam-packed three weeks of my life.
During the first day of class three weeks ago, Brian’s mom became very sick and had to be rushed to the emergency room! It was very scary, and Brian drove down to Houston to be with his family while I was in class. I never want to imply that I think he should stay with me instead of seeing his sick mother, but that first week of school was a roller coaster of emotion and exhaustion. I didn’t realize how much emotional support I would need to do this until it wasn’t there. I felt sad and alone and anxious because I didn’t know anyone at school and fretful about Brian’s mom. I just needed someone there to give me a hug. Thankfully his mother is doing much better, she’s still in the hospital but will be transferred to a rehab facility this week, but the situation was very scary at the beginning of it all. (more…)
I start school tomorrow. I’m beyond excited and nervous and any other emotion you can think of. In preparation this weekend I’ve been doing homework. I got my books last Wednesday, so I’ve read and taken notes on chapter 1 of Professional Cooking, and I’m going to read chapter 1 of Serve Safe. I want to have two chapters from each book finished by the end of today. Does that make me a huge nerd? Ya know, I don’t really care if I’m a huge nerd or a know it all. This is what I love to do, so I’m going to get ahead and do my best, and my best is really good.
I just hope that all this work pays off. I’m not doing the Culinary Arts Associates degree program because I already have a bachelors degree in print journalism. Instead I’m doing a Culinary Arts Certificate program, which they’ve only had for about a year at Texas Culinary Academy. I asked if they had any statistics about the marketability of the students who did the associates degree versus the students who did the certificate. Unfortunately, because it’s so new they didn’t really have any statistics about that yet. So in an effort to make up for the name of the thing I’m working for (certificate not degree) I have set incredibly lofty goals for myself. (more…)
