Great infographic out there: the average american savings approach

Here you go: http://www.thetinylife.com/the-average-american/

Good study on savings approach among regular American households

I wonder if anyone have something like this about Europeans or Russian households? If no, it's a great thing to invest spare time in such a research.

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Here is the overview:

New icons / 9 retro icons by damn-love.com for free (you can use them in your commercial projects, but it'll be great if you drop me a line and leave a link back to damn-love.com)

in png:

Frugal training plan to look extremely great up to summer starting in February

Hi there fellow runner! Finally, here is a plan for the rest of us.

1. Nutrition

Here are my basic advices on food. You can stick to them if you want to, but can shift to your own nutrition plan, it's not mandatory, must of my thoughts are based on two points -- healthiness and frugality. And it's average plan. You can imagine more healthy and less frugal variants, while some other folks may think it otherwise.

a. Breakfast

Muesli is the key here. Buy some and add some kefir instead of milk. It might be nice to grab some additional stuff to put it in your bowl later -- vanilla sugar, cinnamon, various nuts, dried fruits of some sort, fresh fruits like banana or apple.

How to get it: according to a rule of fist (the rule where you consume no more then the size of your fist in one meal) grab a fistful of muesli and put them in a bowl, put some additions if you want, fill the bowl with kefir, mix everything well, wait for a couple of minutes, eat.

Tip from a pro: don't prepare your meal a long time before you'll eat it. For example in the evening the day before. It tastes better fresh.

Alternative variant: fruits and cheese. Simple, fast and tasty.

b. Early lunch

Drinkable yoghurt would be a perfect decision. It can be the only dish there or can be accompanied by whole grain snack like muesli bar or some fresh fruits like apples, grapes or pears. Nuts will do good too. It's an optional meal -- good for those fellows who commute from home to office for about an hour or more.

c. Lunch

If you prefer eating out then try some complex lunch here with a bit of everything -- fresh vegetable salad, soup, buckwheat porridge and some meat if you love meat or fish if you love fish or just porridge if you don't like eating dead animals and fish. I, myself, would rather prefer such complex approach to alternatives like subway or other sandwich-based meals. Ant here is my point explained: sandwich approach is good if you are short on time but you will soon be hungry again, so if you are free for about an hour or a half of it -- spend it whole tasting food you eat and feel good long after. No hastiness mean good meal for me.

Tip from a pro: from the other side you might as well prepare your lunch box at home and deliver it to your office. It has it's benefits: it's more frugal way, it can be healthier way, due to your area may suffer lack of good places to eat out healthy. But there are negative points here too: eating at office cuts your opportunity to walk out of the building for a certain amount of time, less socialization and also it takes time in the morning or evening to prepare descent food for your upcoming lunch. So choose your way.

d. Afternoon snack

Some fruits or nuts if you feel hungry still. And by the way it's not fixed to the office hours. So if your trip back home is long enough you may become too hungry to stay in control of yourself later in the evening, when you'll be enjoying your healthy dinner.

Tip from a pro: always have something healthy and tasty with you in your bag in case of sudden hunger struck.

e. Dinner

Here it is, last meal of the day. Typically you will reach dinner worn out and would like to refresh yourself towards some evening opportunities, or dinner may be eaten out though it will be an affair itself. My basic rules here are: when eating out you may intake more calories because you'll consume some of them during your trip back home. Though, when eating at home you may switch to vegan style or something like that. My personal choice is: bowl of creatively mixed vegetable, fruit or combined salad with some yoghurt and spice topping.

Tip from a pro: if choose salad, be creative, invent new mixes each day so you'll never get stuck with it's taste.

f. Some typical advices

First: hydration. Some say that coffee does not count as a fluid intake because of it's nature. Tell this to the about 50% of people who prefer drinking coffee all day long instead of water. Though you might want to switch to water. And you should if you could. By the way promote a habit of drinking a glass of water early in the morning.

2. Training

Here is the carcass of your training plan. It's not very complicated, especially in comparison to p90x )) But there are options even in this plan. So you can shift activities, mix in some from "additional training" section and exclude parts of running, weight lifting or abs, squats and push-ups. Therefore you should consider that fact: if there are more exercises during your route from February to June then there are greater results in your final shape proportionally.

a. Running

There are only two ways to run for you here: first is to tun like hell and second is to run as you can and want to. For me decision is made already, for you I can't give any advice because I'm not a pro at all.


Read more in next week's shiny little episode, so stay tuned )

Hi there, fellow runner, it's February out there

How the running is then? In February, I mean.