By The Numbers: April

It's May! As you may know, this is my favorite month! Bring on the spring time! I thought I would do a quick recap of the last "month" of travel, including some fun facts about ice cream consumption. I started my biking journey at the end of March, so this month will have a few non-April days in it, but here is what we have so far (through and including 05/01/24). 

Mileage Stats:

Total Days on Road: 40

Total Days Ridden: 29

Total Miles: 1,440

Average Miles Per Day Ridden: 49.6

Total Hours (moving only): 164

Average (moving) Hours Per Day: 5.7 (5:40) 

*my guess would be that average time on the road per day (moving + non-moving) would be around 8 hours. I take a lot of photos, potty breaks and food breaks! 

Sunshine Coast Highway

Accommodation stats: 

Established Camp: 4

Friend: 13

Motel: 13

Warm Showers: 2

Wild Camp: 8

Home for the night

Budget stats: 

*I will probably do this each month going forward, but this time, it will include all 40 days so far. 

Accommodation: $1,084

Dining Out: $275

Groceries: $310

Health: $234 (insurance premium)

Transportation: $79 (bus/ferry)

Phone: $81 (this is a family plan, but since I pay for it, I will account for the total)

Entertainment: $292 (bike repairs/satellite messenger)

Misc.: $17 (VPN, credit card fees, gifts)

Total spent for 40 days: $2,357

Monthly (30 day) cost: $1,767

This is good, as my thought was that I would shoot for about $2,000 per month, but I knew I may have to tweak it a little as I got more knowledge about what I was actually spending. I am happy with this, but know that some weeks I may be spending more on accommodation, which is my highest cost. 

Also, in the question form (it's not too late! You can still ask questions here), my friend Dr. G asked, "How has your spending changed? Do you spend 10% of what you did before?" Well, I do not spend 10% of what I spent before, maybe more like a third, but I think I will have a lot more clarity on this answer at the end of the year. It is hard right now, as I am still actually paying a lot for home things (repairs, inspections, upgrades) and so this cost above is really only my travel cost, and in all actuality, I probably spent more in the month of April than I have in a very long time (or ever). 

Peanut butter milkshake at Bend Burger!

Also, because I know you care, here are my specific ice cream stats: 

*I have put these in liters so that they will be consistent. FYI, a normal "half gallon" in the US is about 1.5 L (which is not actually half of a gallon anymore). 

Times I have been to the grocery store: 15

Times I have bought ice cream: 7

Total L of ice cream bought: 7.2 L (~5 half gallons)

Total cost: $22.56 (7.2% of grocery spend)

Average $ per L: $3.13 (~ $4.69 per half gallon)

Cheapest: Bremerton, WA / $2.10 per L (~ $3.15 per half gallon)

Most Expensive: Victoria BC / $5.83 per L (~ $8.75 per half gallon) (celebratory pint after good news! Totally worth every bite!)

Favorite Brand so Far: Trader Joes

Least Favorite Brand so Far: Crystal

Okay it's your turn!! How much did you spend on ice cream last month? How many times per month do you go to the grocery store? How much does a "half gallon" or 1.5 L cost in your neck of the woods? What is your favorite ice cream flavor? 

You Are What You Eat

I track my food. I don't do it because I am on some wild diet fad; I do it because I am a number cruncher. I love spreadsheets and lists and comparing how one day or week or year compares to another. I like knowing if I am eating too much sodium or not enough vegetables. I think it's fun! I have been tracking my food pretty religiously for about a year and a half (before that it was only on and off) using Lose It and it has shown me some interesting things.

First of all, I don't eat out very often, but when I do, it makes it harder to track food. You have no idea what is being put into the dishes that you are eating. There is a reason their polenta tastes different (dare I say better?) than mine. That reason is...BUTTER. The same goes for things like pre-sweetened yogurt and pre-made tomato sauce and canned beans. There is salt and sugar and goodness only knows what in there. So, what my point was going toward was that tracking has made me more aware of how much better it is to eat a REAL piece of fruit rather than a canned one, or to make my own tomato sauce rather than dumping a jar in a pan.

So, back to the statistics. On Lose It, you can make some graphs and pull up some numbers and this is where it begins to get fun. For instance, I pulled up my most logged items for the past six months. Here is what items were on the top of the list.

Hearty oats is a mix of oats, chia, flax, almond milk and raisins. I got tired of entering each one separately, so I made it into a recipe. The same goes for cabbage salad, which includes the dressing. There are a few problems. For instance, it says I ate 48 peaches. This is actually 48 peaches. However, for strawberries, it is cups not actual berries. And bananas is actually one banana, not a cup of bananas. I wish that it were more standardized.

Or yogurt, for instance...The number 67 indicates the number of times that I HAD yogurt. I may have had a cup; I may have had a 1/4 cup. You never know. However, I do like that the top items are all real foods! I have to be honest with you though, coffee was actually my number one item, since I have it almost every day!

The other thing I found interesting was the breakdown of where my calories are coming from. Although now that I compare it with the above list, I am not really surprised.

Apparently I snack a lot. I do put fruit in the "snack" category a lot of the time, so you can see why snacking wins over meals pretty easily! Besides fruit, I often snack on yogurt (with fruit), nuts and Craisins (so the list on top is consistent with the graph below!). My carbs are also high, which is mostly due to the fruit, and the sugar that comes from my new favorite snack, the dried young coconut.

FYI: The American Heart Association recommends: less than 1500 mg sodium per day / 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 times a week / 4-5 cups of fruit and veggies per day / 200-300 mg cholesterol per day (or less). 

So, if the title of my post is correct, I guess I am a big blob of oatmeal. With little chicken legs.

Are you running the CIM? For tips, check out my guest post over at Terzah's!! And don't forget to stop by Jills for more Fitness (and food) related posts!

Do you track your food? Do you know how much sodium you are getting each day? What do you think your most eaten foods would be if you had a top 10 list?

The Days Are Grey

Now that Top Chef is over and *darn it* cocky Hung has beaten the other two worthy contestants, I have Wednesday nights free to do all the other things I was supposed to be doing instead of TV. However, my friends and I have had a long time addiction to Grey's Anatomy, which is equally as time-sucking and just an annoying as Top Chef. So now I sit around and waste time on Thursday instead of Wednesday.

On that note, a few random facts are in order.

1) Time per day that TV is on in an average US home: 7 hours, 40 minutes
2) Amount of television that the average American watches per day: over 4 hours
3) Time spent daily with screen media for U.S. children age six and under: about 2 hours
4) Percentage of US families with children age 0-6 with at least one television: 99
5) Percentage of US households with 3 or more TVs (2003): 50
6) Percentage of parents who say that if they have something important to do, it is likely that they will use the TV to occupy their child: 45
7) Percentage of Americans who always or often watch television while eating dinner: 40
8) Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49
9) Time per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5 minutes
10) Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked, would rather watch TV than spend time with their fathers: 54