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Friday, January 29, 2010

Celebrations

Today is a day of birthdays! We have two family members who turn 1 year older today, 1 co-worker, and a friend's daughter, we better not forget Oprah either.

We're off to enjoy a birthday party and a nice relaxing weekend
so happy birthday to everyone!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Check me out!

One of my New Year's goals was featured on my friend's blog: The Diabetic Diet

Check it out! She offers so many tips and recipes I just know you'll learn something.

She also has a hilarious personal blog: Life of Elders

You'll laugh. I promise. Funny, funny gal.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Jack up your body

I've been reading a lot lately. Not lengthy sci-fi or romance novels, but health books. I love learning and reading about health and fitness. There I said it. Growing up my mom has been the biggest example for good fitness. Ever since I can remember she has been a jogger. She'd go out every morning with our dog (in our old house) and neighbor. When we moved she got a new running companion and would run 6 miles everyday. During the summer I'd often go with her. Not jogging, of course, I could never keep up, but I'd ride my bike alongside them. I've danced since i was little and I've also done gymnastics and cheer. In High School I would get up before school, work out, then dance after school for a few hours. My mom has collected many videos and tapes and I've tried all of them. I've done Tae-Bo, aerobics, step aerobics, Jane Fonda, running, P90X...etc, etc. I love trying new things and trying all different types of excercise. It fascinates me! Currently I'm on a Jillian Michaels kick. I love "The Biggest Loser" and I've tried her DVD's. I recently read her book "Master Your Metabolism." She says that you can lose weight and keep it off by eating organic whole foods and by eating every 4 hours. (Lot's of information removed)

During Summer break once I read in a magazine to eat every 3-4 hours. Doing so would keep your metabolism up therefore; keeping the weight off. I've done that for years and it's worked pretty well, allowing me to eat almost anything without repercussion. In the last year or two I've been eating every two hours mostly due to my work schedule. I've found that it's had the same effect as eating every 3. So, Jillian says eat every 4. I've been doing that for a few weeks and to be honest, it's been kind of hard because I'm not used to being hungry. Waiting 4 hours seems like a long time to me.

I've read about 7 other diet books in the last month, each written by celebrity trainers and each book says something different. Why does this have to be so confusing?! Doesn't anyone know what we're supposed to eat or how often? No meat, no dairy, no canned, high protein, low carb, no fruit, no carb...does it ever end? How am I supposed to know what's best for me when everyone seems to have a different idea! I'm even more lost and confused then before. It's true that diet and excercise are the key to staying in shape. I'm a pretty self-motivated person and can follow a plan to a "T" if I choose to, I just want to know what is best for me and my body. Is that so much to ask?

I read something interested today that started this ranting. The Top 10 Diets That Work  The Daily Beast have searched through clinical studies and attempted to rank the diets according to amount of weight lost over 6-12 months, and retention rate.

Here are the top 10:

1.Volumetrics
2.American Heart Association Low-Fat Diet
3.Atkins
4.Mediterranean Diet
5.Weight Watchers
6.Slim-Fast
7.Jenny Craig
8.Ornish Diet
9.LEARN Diet
10.Zone Diet
 
Check out the full details and background info at the Daily Beast.
 
Interesting stuff I tell ya. Who'd have thought? Please tell me your thoughts on all of this. What diets have you tried? What's worked for you? What do you read or who do you follow for your health and fitness advice? Do Tell.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Thats Gross! (Pun intended)

While trying to find something to write about today I found some inspiration. Meet Jake Sully.


Welp, James Cameron finally managed to beat that boat movie he made. It's official: Avatar, which is sort of a sci-fi thing that's currently playing in theaters, has surpassed Titanic's worldwide box office, with a $1.859 billion total so far. Of course, Tooth Fairy is just gaining momentum, so...


It should also be noted that Cameron's film only holds the highest grossing title if you don't adjust for inflation; otherwise, Gone with the Wind still takes the top spot.

Tell me what you think. Did you watch it? Did you like it?

We even saw it in 3D (gasp!). We loved it. Also, Titanic was on tv the other day. It brought back memories of seeing it with my sister in the theater without my parents permission. Yea, I know. But it's ok cuz she covered my eyes during that one part. I was a 'lil rebellious back in the day. I blame my sister for the corruption. But that's a confession post for another day.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Haiku Glee

Glee won musical
Best Television Series
Please watch Glee on Fox

My first attempt is pretty bad, wouldn't ya say?

How bout this one?

A Conan haiku



Conan O'Brien
And his poofy Irish hair
Never fails to please

Too soon? el-oh-el

Show me your skills! Write a haiku about your favorite TV show.


Remember: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Golden Globes

We watched the Golden Globes. Here's my take on some of the peeps.

Loved Sandra in purple




Ginnifer Goodwin in electric blue



but the pale dresses (Emily B., Fergie, Drew) won out for me!







My pal Maria Menounos rocked the red carpet in red. Yowsa.



Kate W = pretty but safe.



Ok, that shot of Mickey Rourke and his fiancée....? Well um, I'm, uh, startled. I'll leave it at that. Reese looks pretty!





Yowsa Halle. Best boobs, like EVER.



Sophia Loren? love the dress, hate the make-up....




You go Aniston... Show some leg. Now THAT dress makes 40 the Bomb.



Um, doubt I could pull that dress off but both Jennifer Garner and Aniston look pretty and elegant!



kyra sedgwick Loving her emerald jewelry! Yowsa.



Wow, looking good Kevin Bacon...

Loving Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in simple, elegant black!





These are some of my "loves." Who did you love/hate this year?

Monday, January 18, 2010

9 Foods That Can Fool You

There are dozens of foods we fool ourselves into thinking are healthful when, in truth, they do nothing but pad our hips and arteries. Here are nine of the worst offenders on your grocery store shelves.



1.Yogurt. It starts out as good stuff. Fat aside, there's the calcium and protein you find in all milk products, along with probiotics, which make it easier to digest for those with lactose issues. The only problem is, straight yogurt can be pretty bitter, so manufacturers load the stuff with sugar to make it more palatable and masquerade those carbs as fruit. Have a look at most flavored yogurt, and you'll find the second ingredient to be sugar or high fructose corn syrup. One container of Yoplait® Original Strawberry is 170 calories with 5 grams of protein and 33 grams of carbohydrates, 27 of which are sugar. Oddly enough, these are the exact same nutrition facts for Yoplait's other, less healthy-sounding flavors, including Key Lime Pie and White Chocolate Raspberry.

Solution: Buy plain yogurt and flavor it yourself. You'd be amazed at how far a handful of raspberries or a tablespoon of honey will go to cut the bitter taste. And while you're at it, choose the low-fat or fat-free stuff. You'll still get all the nutritional benefits.



2.Wheat Bread. If you're reading this, you probably know enough about nutrition to understand that whole-grain wheat is better for you than refined wheat. By keeping the bran and germ, you maintain the naturally occurring nutrients and fiber.

But for some reason, manufacturers constantly come up with new chicanery to lead you back to the refined stuff. One of their latest tricks is to refer to refined flour as "wheat flour" because, obviously, it's made of wheat. But just because it's wheat-based doesn't mean it's not refined. The distracted shopper can mistake this label for "whole wheat flour" and throw it in his cart. Another loaf of cruddy, refined, fiberless bread has a new home.



Solution: Slow down when you read the label. That word "whole" is an important one.



3.Chicken. Just because you made the switch from red meat doesn't mean you're in the clear. If you opt for dark meat—the wings, thighs, and legs—you're losing protein and gaining fat. Three ounces of raw chicken breast, meat only, is 93 calories, 19.5 grams of protein, and 1.2 grams of fat. Three ounces of dark meat, meat only, is 105 calories, 18 grams of protein, and 3.6 grams of fat. It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up.

Solution: Go for the breast, and while you're at it, ditch the skin. It's nothing but fat.



4.Frozen or canned fruit. Any food swimming in juice or "light syrup" isn't going to work in your favor on the scale. Furthermore, most canned fruit is peeled, meaning you're being robbed of a valuable source of fiber.

Frozen fruit is a little trickier. While freezing preserves the fruit itself, adding sugar during the freezing process preserves color and taste; so many store-bought frozen fruits add it in.



Solution: Read that ingredients list! You want it to say fruit, water—and that's it.



5.Canned veggies. "What?" you declare. "There's light syrup in canned string beans, too?" No, actually, they add salt to preserve this produce. A half-cup serving of canned string beans has approximately 300 to 400 milligrams of sodium.

Solution: Many companies offer "no salt added" options. If you can't find one to your liking, go frozen instead—no salt (or light syrup).



6.Peanut butter. Squish up peanuts, maybe add a little salt. How hard is it to make that taste good?

Apparently, it's so incredibly difficult that many companies feel compelled to add sugar or high fructose corn syrup into the mix. Why? I do not know. Some manufacturers, such as Skippy®, are up front enough to admit this and call their product "Peanut Butter Spread," but many others still refer to their sugary concoction as good old "peanut butter."



Solution: Read the label. (There's a theme emerging here.) Considering real peanut butter has one ingredient, two ingredients max, it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out.



7.Juice. The range in the nutritional value of store-bought juices is massive. On one end, you have "fruit drinks" with just a modicum of actual juice in them. On the other end, you have fresh-squeezed, 100% preservative-free juice such as Odwalla® and Naked Juice®. But no matter which one you choose, it's important to remember that it's never going to be as healthy as whole fruit. And if you're trying to lose weight, it's a flat-out bad idea. First off, it's been stripped of fiber, so you absorb it faster, which makes it more likely to induce blood-sugar spikes. Secondly, you consume it faster and it's less filling, so you're more likely to drink more.

Solution: If you must buy it, go fresh squeezed, but you're usually better off just skipping it entirely.



8.Canned soup. As is also the case with canned veggies, you're entering a sodium minefield. Half a cup of Campbell's® Chicken Noodle Soup has 890 milligrams of sodium. That's 37 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA)*—and who eats half a cup?

Solution: Read those labels carefully. Most companies make low-sodium versions.



9.Fat-free salad dressing: Dressing, by definition, is supposed to be fatty, thus highly caloric. You use a little bit of it and in doing so, you get a healthy hit of the fats you need for a nutritionally balanced diet. Unfortunately, people prefer to buy fat-free versions so that they can drown their greens yet avoid excess fat.

Nothing's for free. All this stuff does is replace the fat with carbs and salt, so you've basically gone from pouring a little healthy, unsaturated fat on your salad to dumping on a pile of sugar. For example, Wish-Bone® Fat Free Chunky Blue Cheese is 7 grams of pure carbs and 270 milligrams of sodium for 2 tablespoons, which you'll never stop at anyway. Also, given that there's no fat or protein in this particular dressing, one can only imagine what makes it "chunky."



Solution: Make your own salad dressing. One part vinegar and one part olive oil with a blob of Dijon mustard makes an awesome vinaigrette. And here's another trick: Make your salad in a sealable container, add a tiny bit of dressing, and shake it up. It'll coat so much more than tossing will.



And finally, make that salad with romaine or spinach or some other nutrient-rich leafy green. As far as we're concerned, nutrient-poor iceberg lettuce should have gone the way of the earth.

By Denis Faye

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Staying Warm

If you know me well, you know I hate being cold, and the cold in general. Whenever I get the chance I'm in my sweats at home with my crocheted socks.  I even have a heater on my nightstand that blows on my face when I sleep at night. My cat loves laying in front of it it too This may sound crazy, but I keep our home at 68 degrees during the day and turn it down to 60 while we sleep, because I'm also very cheap, but keeping our house cool allows me to dress warm and cozy. I  love snuggling on the couch with Ryan, wrapped in a blanket, watching tv and sipping hot chocolate. (Sigh)

What's your preferred method of staying warm during the winter?

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Support Haiti Disaster Relief

We watched CNN a lot last night to get more information about the disastrous earthquake in Haiti. Blogger is so wonderful to create this Disaster Relief Widget. This will make it easy for my viewers to contribute money to the Red Cross's International disaster relief effort.

The Red Cross has assured that 100% of the money raised is going to disaster relief efforts in Haiti — we and they thank you for your support!


Not on Blogger? Be sure to visit the Red Cross's Haiti banners page with banners that you can add manually, or visit Google's page containing information about relief organizations, news and contact info relating to the earthquake.

*Email this

All information is from Blogger Buzz

Thursday, January 7, 2010

The Carport

2010 story #2

Wanting to put the Christmas decorations away, I went down to the storage unit to grab the boxes. I opened the door and first noticed a smell, second saw the rust colored water.

A little background: Our condo was built in the 70's and has a sprinkler system installed throughout all the buildings. A short while after we moved in and remodeled the sprinkler in our pantry leaked and left a stain of rust colored water on the ceiling, walls, etc. After trying to remove the stain countless times, we painted over it and installed new shelves.

The sprinkler supression system for our building is in our carport and it was leaking. I cleared everything out and noticed that Ryan's baseball glove had very conveniently soaked up lots of the water, and was ruined. We mopped the floor but of course could not get the stain out. We placed a bucket under the leak and called the HOA. They came and fixed it.

The Christmas decor is now put away and I get to redecorate. Is anyone else as indecisive as me? I still never know where to hang things and our house still isn't quite the way I want it. But there are bigger fish to fry, right?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Hole

Flashback 1 1/2 years ago. We were remodeling our bathroom. We layed tile so we had to raise our toilet.
Our neighbor tells us that the ceiling in the carport (right under our toilet) is wet. He cuts a hole in the ceiling and confirms the insulation is wet. We check and it is dry. HOA fines us because we do not fix the hole, which we didn't make.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  Said hole is still a hole. Ryan takes a shower and the tub doesn't drain. Our neighbor tells us his tub filled up with water and he thinks the drain pipes are frozen. He installs heat tape and the tub drains. We go back and forth with the HOA on getting the hole fixed. They say it will cost us $80 to fix. Meanwhile I shower, the tub doesn't drain. 1 1/2 days go by with heat tape. Tub does not drain. We call a plumber. $218 later tub is drained, pipes are still frozen. Calling this an emergency situation we tell HOA we are fixing it. We call my dad and he helps us fix the hole for $30.

Initial Problem: the seal on our toilet broke and our toilet was leaking water.
Problem led to: a hole which caused the cold air to freeze our exposed pipes.
Which caused: zero drainage and lot's of frustration as well as $248 bill.
Lesson learned: fix the problem as soon as it happens instead of waiting a year and a half.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Year's Eve

We didn't do anything exciting this New Year's Eve, not that we ever have done anything exciting, but still, we felt like party poopers. It seemed like most of our friends just stayed home and watched the countdown as well.

Did anyone watch Travis Pastrana beat the world record? Here's the clip:



Thanks to Ryan's brother we love Nitro Circus and therefore Travis Pastrana. I read that he'd be jumping  his car New Year's Eve so we watched. It may have been the highlight of our night.

Then we watched Ryan Seacrest and all the happenings on Dick Clark's countdown. By the way, Dick Clark isn't sounding so well, is he?

Monday, January 4, 2010

Resolutions

I added some of my New Year's resolutions here---->
but only some. I have many this year and my hope is if I put them on the blog I will see them more often.

1-Pay off debt
2-Save more money
3-Excercise 5 days a week
4-Morning & Night prayers
5-Read 1 book a month
6-Read book of Mormon by June 6th

Our bishop challenged the ward to read the Book of Mormon by June 6th, which is our Stake Conference. When I was growing up my Bishop did a Book of Mormon read-a-thon with the ward where we met together one weekend and read the entire Book of Mormon. They had speakers and musical numbers and plenty of snacks to keep us awake (although laying down on blankets while following along wasn't the best idea). In August 2005 President Hinckley challenged us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, which equalled a bit more than 1 1/2 chapters a day.

This was his promise, "Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."

I finished this challenge and because of it I believe that at this time in my life I was closer to the Spirit than ever before and my testimony grew tremendously. I had so many great experiences in college. My faith was tested and I was blessed more than ever before by the Spirit.

I am so excited for the new challenge and the spiritual growth I know it will bring.

Here's to a great start to 2010!

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