Randomness...

Hi Everyone! I need to post because it's been quite a few days, I'm still mulling over the Breast Cancer 3-Day Dilemma. I think today is the day I have to sign up for it if I'm going to get that discount and I think I'm going to. Thanks for all who helped with your advice, I appreciate the input so much.

So, some random thoughts for this sunny Monday...

• I lost another 1.6 pounds. My total is now 89.2. I've been journaling all my foods and exercise in a good old-fashioned notebook. It seems to be the best thing for me. 10.8 pounds left to reach that goal of 100! I might go lower, I might not... we'll see when I get to 100.

• I love the Wendy Williams Show. There. I said it. Don't judge me. Wendy Williams is hilarious, gregarious and super-duper cute. I love her and I'm not ashamed to shout it from the bloggy rooftops. I LOVE YOU WENDY!

• The Broad Street Run is in a little less than two months. I am excited but feel as if I've hit a "wall" with my training, I am having trouble getting past the 5-mile run. I will keep working on it. So far, I've done 7 miles in 1 hour 26 minutes which is slow but I think it at least shows that I can do the 10 even if I have to walk some. I also think that two more months is a good amount of time to improve that time. I will do it! I will do it! I will do it!
  

• Speaking of goals... my friend Andrea from Run, Eat, Date Sleep, completed the Disney Princess Half Marathon on Sunday. I am so proud of her! I don't think she blogged about it yet but I guarantee she will. Check her out, she has a cute blog and is very inspirational with her goals and achievements.

• According to Hungry Girl, Laughing Cow cheese is coming out with three new flavors... in June. Ugh! I hate to wait for June, The flavors are 1. blue cheese (The Husband will LOVE this) 2. queso fresco and chipoltle (meh.) and 3. mozzarella and sun-dried tomato (YES!) Is it normal to say that I can't wait for June because of this? I simply love me some Laughing Cow.
  

• I have to get The Son ready for school and me ready for the gym now. I've been eating well over my calorie limit this weekend because I have been truly, truly hungry! I've been writing it all down so if I don't have a loss, there will be proof as to the reason why. I go a couple hundred calories over each day so I'm at like 2300+ but remember, I have a very high calorie range AND I work out a lot. Most people cannot lose weight at that many calories per day, I just happen to be lucky. Anyway, this is all in one random thought because it means I must have a really, GOOD and HARD work out this afternoon to burn off many of those extra calories. The scale might not be so kind to me this Thursday...
  

Have a great Monday everyone! Keep it healthy!

Breast Cancer 3-Day... I can't decide what to do...

I need a little advice people. I have been asked by a good friend of mine, to do the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk.

I really, really, really want to do it with her.

Sadly, she lost her sister to Breast Cancer and wants to do the walk in memory of her.

I really, really, really want to do it with her.

It's not until October, my fantastic boss has agreed to cover my Saturday classes for me to be able to participate and...

I really, really, really, want to do it but... I am hesitant... very hesitant... why?

Because in order to do it, participants MUST raise $2300! EACH! You cannot do the walk unless you raise the money or guarantee it with a credit card. Yeah. That credit card part, is NOT going to happen. It just seems like such a huge amount of money and I am not good at asking people to donate, particularly in these "difficult economic times."

I'd like to think of some ways to raise the money, I'm creative, I am not against some kind of fundraiser(s) but the problem is, I don't know where or what or how to go about doing it. So, I ask you, what would you do? Do you think I should just register and go for it and try to raise the money or is it just out of the realm of possibility for me to actually get $2300 for this very worthy cause? I don't have tons of time to devote to this so it has to be something fairly simple. There is a $25 discount on registering up until March 9 so I want to make this decision quickly, plus, the sooner I register, the sooner I will be able to start the fund raising. Any opinions? Suggestions? Input? I appreciate it!

As I type this, I just saw the commercial for the 3-Day Walk and I want to be a Pink Warrior! Has anyone out there done this and found ways to raise the money?

I really, really want to do this...

The Trans-Fat TRAP!

Ding, ding, ding, ding! Winner, winner, (healthy)chicken dinner! Two of my very smart friends who also happen to be two of my living healthiest friends realized that I was talking about trans fat in my last post. Trans fat SUCKS and I want to tell you why. Good work Nom and Jen! You girls are nutrition geniuses!

What exactly is trans fat? Trans fat is the fat that increases our LDL cholesterol which is the "lousy" cholesterol and it decreases our HDL which is the healthy cholesterol. It's created when hydrogens are added to liquid vegetable oils. Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke. It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The way my boss put it to me is that trans fat is the fat that your body cannot eliminate or digest. Trans fat that you eat today will stay in your body forever and is the fat that clogs your arteries. Companies use trans fat because it's cheap and it lasts a long time so if you buy foods and notice that the expiration date is a long, long way away, (think oblong little sponge cakes with white cream inside of them) chances are it contains trans fat. If the words "partially hydrogenated oil" of any kind are on the label well, then it's got trans fat in it.

Why do I get peeved about labels? Because companies are allowed to say that a product contains 0 grams of trans fat as long as it contains less than .5 grams of trans fat per serving. The reason this is dangerous is because we should not have more than 1.5 grams of trans fat per day and serving sizes are small... SMALL! Companies have adjusted their serving sizes to be able to say 0 grams of trans fat but if you have more than the serving size, chances are you're having very close to, or above the amount you should be having and if you're doing this every day well, you're clogging your arteries even when you don't realize it. It's a trap! A trans fat TRAP and I think it's basically a legal way to lie to the American people.

Let's take what I consider to be one of the biggest culprits of this... coffee creamer liquids! I have lots of members in my groups who choose coffee creamers in their coffee because they think it's a good way to add creaminess and flavor to their coffee for a low amount of calories yet the third ingredient listed is "partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil." You probably realize that on labels, ingredients are listed in order of proportional quantity, meaning the biggest amounts are first and the smaller amounts are at the end. The "serving size" of coffee creamer is 1 Tablespoon which seems rather small to me, but even if you're having that amount, if you're having coffee creamer every day, chances are you're consuming quite a bit of trans fat.

On the coffee creamer website, one of the FAQs is regarding trans fat and the company's answer is so irritating to me, in a nutshell, they say, that their liquid flavors contain less than .5 g of trans fat per serving although the ingredient statement lists partially hydrogenated oil, the amount is trivial. Therefore it can be listed as 0 (per FDA guidelines) on the nutritional statement. Frankly, I think they're just hiding behind the stupid FDA guidelines just like every other company that uses partially hydrogenated oils in their products.

I was going to go on and list the foods that contain the most hidden trans fats but as I was doing my research, I found this article which I think sums it up better than I can. I encourage you to do your own research on trans fats and read labels in the store (and in your pantry.) If you weren't already aware of this trap, you might be very surprised about what you're consuming and/or feeding to your family.

In my opinion, it's all about being educated and not liking it that the government is legally allowed to hide the truth because big companies claim they cannot survive without using trans fats in their products because remember trans fat is cheap and keeps the products on the shelf longer. A really easy way to avoid trans fats is to eat real, whole foods and to stay away from things that are processed. I know it's not possible to stay away from all processed foods so when you do eat processed foods, just read, read, read those labels and don't buy things that contain "partially hydrogenated oils" if enough people did this and knew about the dangers of trans fat, then perhaps the companies that manufacturer our foods would stop using them.

Thanks for reading, I hope I helped educate you or at least helped to reinforce information you already knew about being healthy.

One last pet peeve of mine that has absolutely NOTHING to do with nutrition is spelling errors and grammar errors on blogs. I know I've probably complained about it before but I sometimes hope that the people who blog with these errors frequently will read my blog and learn proper grammar from it. (I recently even saw one use the word "grammer" to refer to proper grammar... Oh! the irony) I do not claim to be perfect but I will say that I proofread and try my hardest to make sure that I am usually correct in my grammar and spelling. I even have my own personal proofreader who sends me e-mails when I have errors (Hi Daddy!) and I correct them ASAP, feel free to also act as a proofreader if you see any errors on my blog, I appreciate the feedback. Anyway, A brief, very brief reminder...

Your = the possessive form of you. Example: "You need to use proper grammar on your blog."
You're = You are. Example: " You're consuming trans fat and don't even realize it."

Enjoy the rest of your weekend Friends, Happy Sunday!

I'm Peeved...

Do you have any pet peeves? I sure do! I probably have WAY too many that I shouldn't have. A lot of them might border on OCD behaviors, like only using blue ballpoint pen or at least using all the same color ink. My boss was recently helping me with a group and she used black pen on my weight charts, It took every ounce of my being to not say something, but seriously, how are you going to tell your boss to use a different pen? I do realize it's silly.

A lot of my pet peeves come from food labeling. The different words that companies use are so ambiguous that most people don't know what to make of them, words are just randomly thrown around, people are deceived and think they're eating well when they're not. Here's a few that might be confusing you...

"Light"
Light means the food has half the fat, 1/3 the calories OR half the salt of it's regular version, that means that a food can still be really unhealthy for you depending on what the original food's nutritional content is.

"Made with Whole Grain"
You can do your own research on this one to find out the full details but to sum it up, "made with whole grain" really means that there is very little whole grain in the product. Let's face it, any wheat flour even enriched bleached white flour has to come from a whole grain. I would go as far as to say that ALL wheat flour is at some point, "made from whole grain." What we actually want to look for on our labels is 100% whole grain or 100% whole wheat. The Whole Grains Council has a nifty little stamp that it allows to be put on products that meet it's standards. You can take a look at it and read a bit more about whole grains at their website which I linked to above.

"Natural" vs. "Organic"
Seeing the words "All Natural" on a label makes us think that what we're eating is good for us but it's important to know that there are really no regulations when it comes to using those words. "Organic" however comes with strict regulations and organic foods are produced without antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, irradiation or bioengineering. Organic farmers must follow certain soil and water conservation methods and rules about the humane treatment of animals. It is also important to keep in mind that "organic" does NOT mean it's healthy for you. Cupcakes and french fries can be "organic" and I don't think anyone would ever call them healthy foods. (though I sure wish we could.) If you'd like to learn more about organic labeling or would like to see the USDA's label that they put on organic products, you can click here to go to the website.

"0 Calories"
When a label says "0 Calories" the thing we must remember is that this is PER SERVING. Splenda, the popular sugar substitute actually has 3 calories per packet but because it is less than 5, the government allows the company to say 0. This goes for "Pam" the popular spray oil as well. Pam is 0 calories for a 1/3 second spray but if you spray for a full second, you're getting 7 calories. Yes, these items are going to give you far less calories then the foods they're being used to replace but it's still good to know that they're not truly 0. I just don't like the idea of being deceived by the manufacturer which is why this is a big peeve of mine. Personally, I feel the government should make manufacturers say what the calories truly are even if they are less than 5.

I'm going to end here for today, I have one more labeling "trick" that I believe is the worst and the one that can do us the most harm. It is my biggest pet peeve of all! I also believe it's the one that people don't understand and know the least about. I was recently talking to the Fitness Director at the Y who is extremely fit and healthy (We call him "Hot Bill" and by '"we" I mean I do.) and even he was misinformed about this popular ingredient and no, it's not high fructose corn syrup although I could go off on that crap too! I'll devote an entire blog post to this evil, evil thing tomorrow.

Until then... stay healthy, read labels and educate yourselves about the things that the food manufacturers don't want us to know. Don't bury your head in the proverbial "food labeling sand" like so many people do, and pretend it doesn't matter, you're too smart to be taken advantage of! Enjoy your Friday, we're snowed in AGAIN.... ahhhhhh!

Sounds Gross but it's Cute: Making a Diaper Cake

Happy Thursday everyone! I am participating in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop today. I was so thrilled when I saw that she had a craft post as an option because I've been working on this one for quite some time.

I have a co-worker who is pregnant with her third child. She has two little boys who are around the same age as The Son and she is having a much-wanted girl this time. Another co-worker of mine thought it would be a great idea to have a little baby shower for her. I agreed and we had planned on having it at my home.

The Blizzard of 2010 decided to come on the same night as the scheduled party and... Surprise! We had to cancel. I was bummed, my co-workers were bummed but the guest(s) of honor had no idea because it was supposed to be a surprise party anyway. We rescheduled the party for the following Monday night after the mom-to-beX3 was finished teaching swim lessons. I didn't take pictures of the actual party because no one wants to be photographed at almost 9 months pregnant, let alone almost 9 months pregnant AND just completing a couple hours teaching swimming lessons in the pool. Trust me on this one.

I didn't know what to give as a gift and had always thought that diaper cakes were a little bit odd but now that I've been a new mother, I know that diapers are a wonderful gift because they are one of the items that you need right from the beginning and keep on needing. Presenting a case of diapers as a gift, isn't very creative or pretty so the diaper cake makes a cute way to present something that's a rather well, let's face it... unpleasant part of parenting. I had a friend at my shower give me a pack of diapers along with the books, "The Gas We Pass" and "Everyone Poops" which I thought was hilarious but I'm not sure this particular guest of honor has quite the same sense of humor as I do so I decided the diaper cake was a better option.

Making a diaper cake is actually pretty simple. I looked up a couple different varieties on line since I had never made one before, and decided on the kind that doesn't roll up each individual diaper. It came out beautifully and I'm sure was much quicker than the other kind, not to mention better on the diapers.

First, you need a round object to put in the center, this will NOT be staying there as it does in other diaper cake varieties so it really doesn't matter what it is, it's just there to hold your diapers up as you form them into a circle. I started with four diapers layered on top of each other kind of like steps and rested them against my center object.

Continue to lay your diapers all around the object, kind of with a pinwheel effect.

You will need the following amount of diapers per layer, the first number is the diapers that will to around the outside and the second number will be the numbers you put into the middle:

Bottom = 40 and 8
Middle = 28 and 4
Top = 14 and 2

After you put all your diapers around the round object, tie them tightly with a piece of string or other thin ribbon. I used curling ribbon. I put the ribbon around, tied them part way, removed my round object and then tied them the rest of the way, there should be a smallish area still open in the center. After you tie them you can arrange them to make them more even.

After you like the way they are arranged, take the smaller amount of diapers and roll them up all together to stick them in the middle.

Do this for all three layers. One of the tutorials I saw suggested using a pizza pan to put the bottom layer on but honestly, I used a piece of cardboard from an old calendar that was much smaller than my bottom layer but worked just fine, I found that once everything was tied up, I didn't even need it.

The decorating was the fun part. I found this thick white ribbon and made that the base for all my decorations. The important thing to remember with this project is that you don't want to glue anything to the diapers OR to the objects with which you're decorating. I wrapped the ribbon around and used my hot glue gun to glue it to the other side of the ribbon. Remember, NO glue on the diapers. I am saying this twice because as obvious as it is, if you are a big glue gun user, you might get carried away and want to start gluing all over the place. I had to keep reminding myself not to do this. I used small pieces of ribbon and glued them to the white ribbon and then used them to tie various things on.

This little cutie was the thing that inspired the whole theme of my cake, I knew that my friend wouldn't have any little toys like her because, like I said, she has two boys. I loved the pink and brown colors and she's really soft. I got her at Wal-Mart, she's made for their store's Carter's brand. I tied her to the top layer and rested her so it looked like she was seated on the middle layer. So cute!

Here's another angle, I used some onesies, a few toys, some bibs and a little brush and comb set as my decorations along with some various pink and brown ribbon. I made a big bow for the top and secured it through the center and then just tied everything around to make it look cute. (Such technical directions, huh? ;) )

I did not attach the three layers to each other so the cake was easy to transport and just assemble when we got to the party. It was a big hit and made a really cute decoration on the table. I was very happy with it.

One final note, I read a lot of tutorials in order to come up with the way I was going to make this and noticed that a lot of sites comment that diapers are very absorbent to smells as well as liquid so if you're a smoker or cook a lot of "fragrant" types of food, it's a good idea to make your diaper cake away from these various odors. This wasn't an issue for us, but I can only imagine how a beautiful diaper cake could ruin a baby shower for lots of people if it reeked of cigarettes. Ewwwwww...

Well Friends, I hope you all have a lovely day. If you stopped by from Mama Kat, thanks! Leave me a comment and I'll be sure to stop by your blog too. If you want to see what we're doing today, click here for yesterday's post. Yes, it happened, or I should say, it's happening. Again. Stay warm people! Live healthy!

You Have Got to be Kidding Me!

Remember a week or so back when I told you about the giant snow storms that we got here in Pennsylvania? Well, they say it's going to happen again tonight and by "they" I mean those jerks we call our local weather forecasters. UGH!

That's right, this...


is going to happen again.

Some of us,

are very happy about it.

Others...

Not so much.

I hate to be a big cry baby but you know what? I'm going to be. I felt like I finally got myself back into a routine, the snow was melting, spring was just around the corner, I had a new Lilly Pulitzer dress to wear to work on Thursday, (did you know she made clothes that aren't pink and green and actually look cute in the winter?) I had a night out planned with my neighbor across the street, and now it looks as if it's all going to be buried under 6-10 more inches of snow.

Here we go again...

Stay warm and happy everyone... this can't last forever, Spring will be here someday. I'm sure of it!

Refocusing works!

Hello Friends!

In my last post I talked about excuses and refocusing my goals and all the little things I do to undermine my weight loss. I gave it a lot of thought and realized that as much as I know, if I want to lose than I MUST, must, must journal my foods. It's the most tedious part of losing weight for me and for just about everyone but I cannot stress enough how well it works for me.

I realized that I tell my group members this all the time but when I really looked at myself, I knew I wasn't doing it faithfully. I would track and journal my breakfast and my lunch and sometimes my snack but by the time dinner came and I knew I had 1000 calories left to eat, I became a slacker.

I also added a few extra croutons here, a bigger smear of butter there and conveniently "forgot" those few extra glasses of wine each week. The good news is, I know how to live healthy and I know I will be able to maintain my weight, that's a biggie but now it's time to get this last 20 pounds off!

I've been journaling faithfully, I've been trying new recipes, lots of them and BOY, did we try some GOOOOOOOD ones!

I've been working out, not that that had ever changed. Did you look at my running total for this month at all? HELLO 62 miles and there's still a week left in the month! I am so proud of myself. I'm still working on the triathlon challenge but have lots left on the bike, it's apparent that the bike is not my favorite form of exercise, isn't it? ;) I'll keep plugging away since the bike is the only thing left that I have to do.

So, I'm off to the Y as soon as I put The Son on the bus, I need to get my work out clothes on and get myself moving and grooving! Hope you're all having a great Monday. Stay Healthy!