food & wine, personal

Changing my diet

Comments 06 March 2010

So since no one really seemed to have any input on what I blog about, or where, I’m just going to write about what I have been wanting to write about for a while. For a long time I tried to keep this blog mainly about social media and online tools, and while that is still a huge part of my interests, lately I’ve been wanting to talk about something that is very different. That is, food.

A few weeks ago I posted on my tumblr that I was tired of feeling overweight, and that I was ready to do something about it. I put myself on a healthy diet that consisted of lots of fresh produce (fruits and veggies), whole grains, and to try and keep all of my indulgences vegan (that has helped me to not fall of the wagon by eating a huge bagel and cream cheese every time I have a bad day). And I started to exercise more (mainly yoga and walking).

I’ve been posting updates on my tumblr about how much weight I’ve lost, and it has really helped me to feel the support of a community who wants you to achieve your goals. So far I have lost 7 lbs! So I wanted to share this with you all so that you won’t be as confused when I start writing about healthy eating, supporting local farms, vegan recipes, etc.

blogging

Where to blog

Comments 05 March 2010

Sometimes we think way too much about what we want to blog about, and where to post it. My blog got stuck in that. Usually on randomsarah.com, I would write about “social media”, “online tools” etc. So I hesitated when I wanted to blog about diet, food, weight loss, more personal things on randomsarah.com. But I do consider it my “personal blog” so why the hesitation?

What is your opinion of people who have “personal blogs” (that are clearly about a single topic or have a main focus) deviating from the normal scheduled programing to talk about something else that is important/interesting to them. Should they find somewhere else to write about it? Should they just post it on their blog and let the readers decide if they like it or not?

I’m posting this both on my tumblr, and on randomsarah.com

If you read either blog, I really want to hear your opinion. Also, I’ve been thinking about changing the link in my twitter profile to direct to tumblr instead of randomsarah.com, but I’m not sure which would give new follows the best idea of who I am, what I talk about, etc.

Thoughts?

social media

Things Twitter helped me discover: Smarty Pig

Comments 14 January 2010

I’m starting a new post series called “Things Twitter helped me discover” to highlight all of the great sites and other things that I find out about on twitter.

The first is Smarty Pig. Smarty Pig is a savings account with social aspects. This all started when I asked twitter if there was a way for me to save for specific goals and let other people also donate money towards those goals. Sure there were things like ChipIn, but that was only to show progress in collecting money, I wanted to also show my own savings progress. So someone suggested I check out Smarty Pig.

When you create a Smarty Pig account, you are actually opening a real FDIC insured savings account that has a 2.01% APY. Then within that account, you set up specific savings goals. That can be a family vacation, college savings for your children, or maybe just something you want to splurge on.

You set up these savings goals and choose how often you want to contribute to that goal, and how much. This was perfect for me because it allowed me to take out an amount from my check each week to save for rent, and then at the end of the month, I had my rent money without even thinking about it.

Next you can choose if you want to make the goal public or private. Certain goals like my rent, I kept private. But for other things, like my trip to SXSW, I can keep it public so that my friends and family can help me save too.

Once you reach your savings goal you have a few options. You can have the money deposited back into your checking account, Smarty Pig can send you a debt card with your savings, or you can choose to receive up to a 12% cash boost on your savings by placing it on a retail card like Amazon.com, Best Buy, Travelocity or Macy’s. You can even spilt your savings among the three, to find the best option for you.

You can add widgets for your facebook or blog so that all of your friends can help you save. I put one in my blog footer.