We’re all on alert at the moment for the “impending tsunami”….. Its been a busy weekend! Monday will seem so boring without any natural disasters to entertain us.
On a separate but related topic….so, the Mayans predicted the world was going to end in 2012. Maybe its just the universe clashing a little bit but first Haiti, then here, then Chile, now tsunamis….maybe this is just the beginning? Today when they we’re ordering the evacuations my friend Cat was telling me the Japanese were lining up on the seawall to watch The Great Wave come in. On the one hand- how dumb. On the other hand- if you’re gonna go, you might as well have a front row ticket for the end.
In all seriousness, as much as Im making light of the situation, I am counting my blessings. The earthquake that hit Haiti was 7.0 and it created such devastation. The earthquake here was the same magnitude and aside from some burst water pipes and a few things being knocked over in the house, no one has so much as a scrape on them. Things of course, could have ended so much differently.
We’ve been in snotville central for about a month now. I don’t know what the deal is but whenever Nathan gets any kind of snot nose virus it just drags on and on and on. Mackenzie got it too and moved on a couple days later. Nathan is still coughing and snuffling and complaining off and on about his ear hurting. I took him to the dr. who keeps telling me its allergies. I don’t know….we need to get off this island ‘o allergies I think. Anyway.
So, I thought this would be a good time to tell you about my mom tool belt. Ok, its not really a tool belt, but I thought the image of that would be pretty BA.
Nathan is a chronic complainer of his ear hurting for no apparent reason. He’s had a few ear infections but he’s not like one of those chronic cases. I vacillate on what to do when he wakes up at 3am complaining of his ear hurting…..ER? Vitamin M? Thats what led me to the purchase of one of these. A quick peek and I can diagnose….well, I think I could, so far I haven’t diagnosed an ear infection because he hasn’t had one.
Ok, Im not *technically* a medical professional, though I pass for one in this house. You gotta be careful and practice with this before you go poking it into your kids’ ears. Also, I don’t recommend this for the 2 and under crowd, they are much too wiggly.
And then for Christmas I got this thermometer.
This is the most accurate thermometer I’ve ever owned. Seriously. No sticking things in butts, no pleading with a little person about keeping it in their armpit. No 91.6degree temperature readings from the worthless ear thermometer. This thing is awesome.
If I did actually have a tool belt I’d make sure it had two notches for these two indispensable tools and also some sort of apparatus for dispensing out glugs of “FOR GOVERNMENT USE ONLY” Motrin (wait- is that not the kind you get?) in 1 and 2 tsp doses.
What would you put in your tool belt?
**sidenote– I just noticed the “germ busting” tagline on the thermometer picture. I had no idea! Am I radiating and eradicating germ at the same time Im taking their temperature? That is AMAZING. Its like a magic wand isn’t it? I wish.
The playhouse is on the back burner for right now. Remember that playtable I ordered for Nathan? Yeah, well it never showed up. I had to wait 3 months for them to determine it was ‘lost’ and then they refunded my shipping and sent a replacement. Except they didn’t. When I got my credit card bill and there was no refund from them I sent my new friend Melissa in customer service an email. Not only was my shipping not refunded, the table was never reordered- this whole time I thought the table was on its way. Swell. No, better than swell, freaking amazing. Wait- it gets better. They have just recently changed their policy so that they will no longer ship playtables to FPO addresses. [weep]. I really liked the Land of Nod one because the legs are adjustable and I thought the shape/design was just a smidge cuter than anything Pottery Barn Kids has. On the upside- they can ship the chairs to me. “Here kids- have a seat, lets use our imaginations and pretend there is a play table with adjustable legs here.”
I called PBK this morning and surprise surprise they won’t ship it either [sob]. Oh you guys, I love Japan. I really really do and yes, this is materialistic and petty but Im SO OVER not being able to get what it is I want.
Im racking my brain trying to think outside the proverbial box on how to get something table-like here. I saw a great Chinese antique table the other day but I cringe a little at the thought of letting my kids color and paste all over it. Plus- the antique Chinese don’t do the adjustable leg thing. And before you remind me of our weight issue, Im purging at the same time– the baby glider and ottoman are going, books are going, some dishes are going–I’d say we have 8+ boxes of stuff exiting. Either way, the kids need somewhere to play, let me present exhibit A- the play area mess. Except this isn’t a mess- this is actually as ‘picked up’ as it gets.
Yes, I know it looks terrible. No paint, nothing on the walls, the messy bookcase. The loose plan at the moment is to swap the bookcase out (put it in the family room or Nathan’s room) and use our two gov’t bookcases (not exactly pretty but functional) and it would look like something Pottery Barn(ish) with bookcases with neatly organized baskets and then a playtable behind the couch. Thats the hope. What we have right now? Its depressing.
*the end table you see in the 2nd picture- that gov’t bad boy is going back to the warehouse.
think brain think:
-PC is headed back to DC for a conference soon and PBK doesn’t stock the playtables in their stores so I thought of him shipping it home but he has to be able to get it first.
-find some military family moving here soon, send it to them and have them pack it with their stuff. I don’t know anyone moving and Im not sure I’d trust someone in that situation-plus- it would be MONTHS before it got there.
-see how much it costs to ship it FexEx international.
-try and figure out that FedEx smart-ship business.
-pray to the furniture gods
-PC’s friend is in the Philippines right now so Im sure he could take a picture to the people who made the kids’ kitchen to have them make us a table, but we’re still stuck on how to get it back here (PC doesn’t have as many pilot connections anymore to get them to load it on one of the planes).
-build a table out of all the cardboard boxes floating around our house. I guess our house will look like a junk hole college apartment forever. Oh Pessimism, I love you.
Come on internet- THINK…..what can I do? Does anyone [echo echo echo] have any connections at PBK or Land of Nod or FedEx or maybe just a boat they will be crossing the Pacific with in the next few weeks? Please help.
Well. We had a little bit of a hiccup there because we thought PC was headed to A-stan. Im unbelievably grateful that he’s not. In addition to that we moved last week and, well, despite the fact that I’ve gone to flea market after flea market and thought I was doing so good purging we had over 10,000lbs of stuff. We moved here with 3000. Granted- a good bit of that was all our food and alcohol, gallons of water and potted plants but still, I guess I can’t acquire too much more stuff while Im here. Moving is always so much more work than you think its going to be. Our saving grace has been late night trips to the club for peanut butter parfaits after the kids are asleep and we’re pooped. Mmmmm.
It was a little (and I stress little) bittersweet leaving the cement bungalow (what are we going to call this house?? This one will be the deluxe bungalow). Sadly/strangely? That house is the longest we’ve lived anywhere since….uh, since I was a kid living at home I guess. So much happened in that house. We moved there when Nathan was a 5 month old– FIVE month old! Now he’s almost a 5 YEAR old. Mackenzie came home to that house, we became a family of four in that house. But, at the end of the day its just 4 cement walls and seafoam tile.
Our new place is pretty much the exact same house except with a dining room in the front which oddly makes such a huge difference. We no longer have to split our family room into family room and dining room. Now the kids actually get a sizable area to play. And we have a backyard. A really nice big back yard. Its a lot of mud and clover but I sprinkled some grass seed and hopefully we’ll have more grass than mud soon. And speaking of back yard, we’ve talked about getting the kids a playhouse. Well. That proved to be not just difficult but flat out impossible. The BX has none. I tried to order them from the BX’s online store and ha- they won’t ship them over here. So, thats really awesome that they don’t even ship to the exact people they are supposed to be selling to. If it weren’t for our “weight problem” (we’ve got 10,000lbs, we’re only allowed 14,000 and we’ve got a decent amount in storage so we’ve got to be hovering around our max) I’d have PC build something amazing. He’s a pretty crafty craftsman and I’d feel….vindicated? Like the BX can take its plastic playhouse and shove it. Sadly, the end result is still the same: no playhouse.
Im mulling over the (I think) last portion of this series before returning to exciting things like: Nathan telling me “when you say ‘I swear’ do you know what that means? That means you are going to kick someone in the head….with your foot. Thats what it means.” Yes- for $400 a month you TOO can send your kid to preschool to acquire useful, albeit incorrect, information. I swear. Also Nathan has been testing his limits lately with sassy little smart mouth comments and PC gets all drill instructor on his ass and listening to that banter cracks me UP. Then he inevitably lands himself in timeout and while in timeout he gets the silent treatment. “DAAAAD DAAAAAAAAD” he will yell. And after 8 or 10, increasingly louder and longer DAAAAD’s you hear this little exasperated “Oh…neverMIND.” And I have to bite my lip because damn its hilarious.
But, before we get back to those types of tales, lets talk about food. There will be another giveaway so don’t totally tune out yet. And before I tell you what I eat, I want to know what you eat.
FYI- I have no way of tracking your answers. Mom, I know probably a quarter of the hits a day are from you, but for the rest of you 70 readers, you have no reason not to participate in my Very Scientific Survey. I have no way of knowing who you are. Though, my curiosity is growing as to who is “trackingfriends”?
*I realize the problem with this one is family size (and number of non-potty trained members in the house). So, lets just assume you are shopping for a family of 4-5 (ie :if you are a couple double your amt)
We got some movies from Netflix today. Food Inc was in there. We watched it. I was practically drooling I watched it with such intensity. And at the end the question that kept rolling around in my head was: where along the way did we sell our SOULS?
Honestly. (And this isn’t my usual ‘Oh HONESTLY’ sarcasm. This is genuine). Im not sure what I think of a country….of a a society that has become……THAT. I wonder: what do we stand for as a society/culture/nation? The truth of the matter is when I watch things like that, I totally get why people hate us. We have no conscience or moral compass anymore.
I can’t get the image of the poor, defenseless [still living] cow being SHOVELED by a forklift out of my head. Or the pigs being slaughtered so inhumanly. What monsters we’ve become. And for what? So we can feed ourselves another burger made with 80% “meat filler”. The word glutton comes to mind.
Harsh words I know, but Im just so disgusted by it all. Everyone needs to see this movie.
The official drawing from a Lightning McQueen bucket
$10 iTunes winner is #2- Jessica
***
While I wholeheartedly think that exercise plays a vital role in health, if we really want to point the finger the gold medal goes to: Our diet. We (meaning Americans) eat garbage. We have a diet that is killing us slowly and its becoming a bigger and bigger burden on our already tragic healthcare system.
If you read In Defense of Food you will learn that even diets that are high in saturated fats (fats we’ve always been told are a big No-No) don’t have nearly the rates of health issues as we do. Asians eat starchy white rice day in and day out and they don’t have a fraction of the “western illnesses” either. Our downfall is the refined sugars, flours, food additives, salt etc. So much of what you find in the grocery store is not food. I find that when I go to the store these days I can usually walk past 2 aisles avoiding them completely: chip/soda aisle, crackers/cookie aisle. There is very little I ever buy in those aisles (I’ll admit there are always Oreos in the freezer- but those last us at least 1-2months). There is nothing of value in those aisles. In fact when I went to the store today I decided that I think the Pop Tart probably ties with the Bagel for the most worthless food on earth.
Because Im sure not everyone finds food science as fascinating as I do, lets have a little science lesson.
Carbohydrates are pretty much the mainstay of the American diet these days. This really was fueled with the 1980′/90’s notion that eating a low-fat diet was the way to go. What was fat replaced with? Carbs. Then the 2000’s had us all saying no to carbs and eating our weights in steak and bacon. Now….I don’t know where we are now, worse off than ever? Part of the problem is that we’ve got loads of carbs (sugar) in places we don’t expect them (spaghetti sauce, salad dressing, ketchup, peanut butter, etc). In fact its becoming increasingly difficult to find food that doesn’t have sugar in it.
Carbs can be split into two major categories: simple (this is your table sugar, soda, syrup, juice, and our very very favorite: High Fructose Corn Syrup -aka HFCS) and complex (whole grains (oatmeal, brown and wild rice, quinoa), starchy vegetables (potatoes, squash, yams) and legumes (peas, beans, lentils)). Carbs are broken down by digestion into glucose which is able to enter our bloodstreams (this is what people are talking about when they say “blood sugar”). Once there it triggers the release of, your friend and mine; insulin. Insulin helps glucose get into our cells where its used for energy (glucose being the body’s primary source of energy).
Once our immediate energy needs have been met, extra glucose still remaining in the bloodstream can be stored in our muscles and liver for later use. If our muscle and liver stores of glucose are full (and most Americans glucose stores are FULL-ULL) but we still have extra glucose floating around in our blood, then insulin says ‘waste not, want not’ and helps our body turn this into fat. To be used at a later time. Except for most of us- there is no LATER TIME because we just keep adding to the fat stores like we’re bears amping up for hibernation. And we keep getting fatter and fatter and fatter. And once those fat cells are created they’re there for life. They can shrink but they don’t go away.
When we eat anything that is just straight sugar (ie the pop tart or bagel, soda, juice) it sends our pancreas into overdrive with insulin! insulin! insulin! Your blood sugar rises rapidly (in the case of juice/soda it rises so rapidly most diabetics aren’t allowed to have it. Like ever. Which is also why if a diabetic is going into shock you give them juice to quickly! bring their blood sugar back up). When it rises rapidly like that you feel all good and energized and your body is still working away with insulin! insulin! insulin! and then….you start to feel crashy and *hungry*. So….you reach for something sugary again. And the cycle starts all over again. You continue to feel hungry and get fatter. Its this roller coaster of sugar highs and lows that takes its toll on your body and, here the science gets more complicated than I can understand (A high flux of fructose to the liver, the main organ capable of metabolizing this simple carbohydrate, disturbs normal hepatic carbohydrate metabolism leading to two major consequences: perturbations in glucose metabolism and glucose uptake pathways, and a significantly enhanced rate of de novolipogenesis and TG synthesis, driven by the high flux of glycerol and acyl portions of TG molecules coming from fructose catabolism. These metabolic disturbances appear to underlie the induction of insulin resistance commonly observed with high fructose feeding (source: www.nutritionandmetabolism.com)). Basically, this roller coaster of sugar highs can lead to insulin resistance. Our bodies just weren’t made to handle such an onslaught of sugar in our diet.
Most everyone has at least some vague idea of what a ‘balanced’ meal/snack is. As I mentioned above, when you eat a meal or snack that is composed of carbs/sugar it raises your blood sugar quickly and then it comes crashing right back down. You can avoid these peaks and valleys by consuming protein (and or fat) at the same time (think apple and cheese (squirty cheese does NOT count), banana and peanut butter, cottage cheese and crackers, etc). Diabetics have to eat this way, and really, it makes a lot of sense.
When you include proteins you will stay full longer, glucose levels stay more consistent, your metabolism will work more efficiently, and you will feel like you have more energy for longer periods of time. When you eat carbohydrates and proteins together, the carbohydrates are digested in about two hours, but the proteins take longer to digest. Proteins slow down the digestion of the carbohydrates, and energy from the carbohydrates is released slower (thus avoiding the sugar highs and lows).
When I was looking up info on this (no, not ALL of this info is stored in my brain ready to spew out at any minute) I saw this good analogy: Think of the carb/protein thing like a car on a highway. If you are the only one on the highway you’ll zip on down the road. If you have to compete with traffic you’ll move much slower. The same goes for glucose working its way through your blood stream. Eating protein along with carbs fills the blood stream with traffic that slows down the glucose. And the slower glucose moves through the bloodstream, the better. If it moves through too quickly, your blood sugar levels will dip and you’ll be tormented by sugar cravings and find yourself in a slump.
To sum it up: The reason we are big and getting bigger is because we are consuming far more than our bodies can metabolize. When you eat foods that are heavy in carbs they raise your blood sugar quickly, wreak their havoc, and then send you crashing back down, reaching for more food. If we ate more well thought out meals our blood sugar would stay constant, we’d feel better, we’d eat less, and, at least in theory, we’d weigh less.
Some numbers:
-We eat roughly 150lbs of sugar a year (this also includes about 30lbs of natural sugar found in fruit). A can of soda has 10 tsp of sugar. A container of fruit flavored yogurt has 6tsp. A tablespoon of ketchup has a TEASPOON of sugar in it. We should only be eating the equivalent of 8tsp a day.
-Obesity related health issues cost us nearly $150 BILLION every year
-190 million Americans (roughly 2/3 of the population TWO THIRDS) are overweight or obese
-From 1935 to 1996, the prevalence of diagnosed type 2 diabetes climbed nearly 765%
-childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the last 30 years.
Next….how ( and what) we eat. (This is the last one, I promise).
*Since I lack any sort of credentials in this area, if anything I’ve written isn’t correct- I welcome corrections.
Im not what you would consider a particularly athletic person. I never did sports growing up….unless you count tennis lessons in the summer as kids which I think was more for my mom’s sanity than anything else. I have always hated running. In gym in high school my friends and I would watch for the gym teacher to have her back turned to walk instead of run. I do like classes- step aerobics, body scultping etc. I think its easier to stay motivated when you’re with a group of people. I hate the treadmill and I think you have to spend a loooooong time on the elliptical machine for it to be worthwhile. I’ve had to find something I could do with kid(s) in tow.
As I mentioned before my friend Stephanie got me started on running (really- jogging; walking breaks allowed). I would run consistently when Nathan was little and since having Mackenzie it sort of gets rotated in every once in awhile. And just so we’re clear- running isn’t fun per se. Its not like its enjoyable to feel like your internal organs rearranged themselves while your heart lodged itself in your armpit and you feel like you are going to barf last nights dinner and the whole time you keep thinking “damn Oreos dragging my ass down.” I’ve found it does get easier but its always going to be…should be- work. The route I’ve been doing lately sends me up a decent hill right out the door, I wind around over by the track, do a loop and go back down the same hill but different route. By the time I get to the track the worst is over. The part where I want to die is past and I can settle into a nice clip. And once you get to that its sort of euphoric. Im not out of breath, my legs aren’t burning, I can just run. But the best part is when its all over and the ‘high’ sets in. Whether its running or shreding or cartwheeling (ok, I don’t really do that), the high you get when its all over is the best part of working out…that is what makes it worthwhile.
I heard about the 30 Day Shred from Sundry, who, for last the year in particular, has been such an inspiration on the fitness front. I love her writing and it’s so motivating to read about her struggles and successes. For a long time I would run 3 days a week. That is all the time I was willing to devote to exercise and I felt like if I was going to stick with it I needed to be reasonable about how often I would do it. Sundry wrote a post about finding the time for exercise and how you just had to make the time. Thats it. No excuses. We’re all moms (or dads). We all have 100 things to juggle. We all want to dork around on the internet. We have the choice everyday to make time or not. As soon as I get up in the morning the workout gear goes on. I (cringe) drive Nathan to school like that, wearing flip flops, hair all kinds of crazy, and I come home and put my time in. I know Im not alone in feeling this way, but its not fun. Sometimes I have to really talk myself into doing it. Its not like I can’t! wait! to have my arss kicked and have sweat dripping down my face. Exercise isn’t supposed to be “fun”. Its hard work, its uncomfortable at times. But thats the point. “If you want results- they aren’t coming for free”, right? There are no secrets, no pills, and there are no shortcuts. Here, [brisk clap] lets have another motivational quote from Dean:
“…[People are] afraid or unwilling to demand enough of themselves and take the easy road, the path of least resistance. But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you’re not constantly demanding more from yourself–expanding and learning as you go–you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip.
As a running buddy once said to me: Life is a not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “WOW!! What a ride!”
Yesss….that.
If you can push past the heart-in-armpit discomfort, the hard work does payoff. And the payoff of all of this is big. I’ve been doing the shred (in addition to other things) for almost a year, and while the scale has remained steady, my size/shape/strength has changed considerably. I never used to be able to do a real push up and now I can with ease. I can hold myself in a plank position…the Captain and I may or may not even have contests for who can hold themselves in a plank the longest. That whole notion of a strong core? I get it now. I have muscles I never knew existed. Jillian promised me a nice groove in the top of my shoulders and I’ve got that too. Im not trying to belabor the point (”yay for you, I get it, 30 day shred, shut UP already”) but the workout you get in 25 minutes far surpasses 40 minutes of phoning it in on the elliptical machine (for me). Because I do get bored with the shred I’ve gotten a few of her other DVDs and they are all based on the same premise (and many of the same moves) of combining strength and cardio to burn the most calories. I highly recommend it. In addition to the physical payoffs the mental payoffs are equally important. I feel strong, I feel healthy and fit and confident and beautiful and challenged and accomplished and muscle-y (?) and less stressed and just good. (shall I continue with more adjectives?) And on the days I don’t exercise- I feel like a sloth.
The bottom line is simple math (barring medical issues, which I know exist). In order to lose weight you need some combination of eating less and moving more. Brownies can’t be the mainstay of your diet (I’ve tried it, doesn’t work). You have to want it. You can’t be fit and healthy without being willing to put in the (hard) work. Its so much easier to talk ourselves into “acceptance” than to move ourselves into “action.” I’ve so been there.
Once you’ve found whatever it is you “enjoy” be it running or shredding or cartwheeling or bike riding or hiking or swimming or skiing or… (shall I keep going?) Im a big believer in ‘material encouragement’ (I made that term up just for you). Buy yourself some crap. You are going to be more motivated to run in a new, shiny, sparkling white pair of new kicks than an old pair of keds. Better to have some sleek running shorts than some elastic-was-shot-6-months-ago number to put on. Do your socks have holes in them? Time for some new ones. Getting hit in the face? Time for a new sports bra. Going to be a ’shredhead’ [oh gag] buy some weights. I say all this with the caveat– if its not financially possible, then make due with whatcha got. Your old shoes will work fine (my mom used to throw mine in the washing machine anyway). But I think its important to reward yourself from time to time if you can, it helps me anyway.
And, because Im helpful like that, I’ll share with you some of my favorites:
Nike Tempo Shorts: best running shorts I’ve found. Most important feature? They don’t ride up.
Nike Heartrate monitor: this tells me that, despite the fact that I may feel like Im dying, Im actually not. Also, how many Oreo’s worth of calories I’ve burned.
Nike Plus iPod: I mention it below but its a good motivator too
Saucony shoes: this brand is my favorite. However, running shoes are highly personal so you may hate them.
my wishlist:
-Lululemon pants. I’ve read so many good things about them. Very spendy though.
-a good iPhone workout app. I haven’t spent much time searching though (suggestions?)
In addition to swanky gear; music. Music music music. I have an iPod nano with the nike fit thing, I haven’t used it in awhile but I really like to see all my progress, runs and total miles- thats pretty neat. As far as the music goes, I have a mix of songs I like as well as some songs I wouldn’t normally listen to but are great for a run. Here’s what I’ve got:
Evacuate the Dancefloor- Cascada
Sugar- Flo Rida
Single Ladies- Beyonce (plus- if you’ve seen how she looks in the video– it makes you want to kick your butt a little harder)
Just Dance/Pokerface/Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Viva La Vida- Coldplay
Alive With The Glory of Love- Say Anything (its a catchy little song– its from the season finale of Scrubs)
And the very best most motivating song I have, I just added it after hearing it on the radio….the one you simply must go put on your iPod after reading this? Black Box- Strike it Up. Do it- YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. Its pretty much the best running song ever. Plus- it brings back fond memories of junior high.
And because not only am I nice- Im SUPER nice; and want to know what you like to do for exercise, what your favorite workout garb is AND if you have some good music– and when I say good Im talking like BLACK BOX good. Leave a comment and my faithful assistant (Nathan) will draw a name out of a hat?….a bowl? something (we’ll say Friday afternoon Japan time We’ll extend this a bit because I know of at least two people who haven’t chimed in because of sick kids. Also there are not as many comments as there are readers- what gives?). And the winner will get $10 to the iTunes store. Your first purchase better be Strike It Up.
