Wednesday, March 30, 2011
help!
Can someone tell me why spaces don't show up when I publish posts? I had everything separated by a few lines and now everything is just smashed together in that last post. What is happening?
Friday, March 11, 2011
Food (Warning...this is LONG)
Lately, I've been trying to eat better. I kind of gave up on exercise and a healthy diet for way too long, and as a result, I gained weight, felt lethargic all the time, and my stomach would always have problems. It's so easy to be tempted to go on a diet, which for many people means depriving oneself of certain foods, or severely limiting calorie intake. There are so many fad diets that people buy into because they promise quick results. The first problem is, they usually aren't good for your body. A popular diet that I can think of off the top of my head is the Atkins diet. I'm not super familiar with it, but from what I gathered when one of my co-workers was doing it, it involves little to no carbs and mostly protein. Your body needs carbs! I think most people think of bread, pasta, potatoes, etc, when they think of carbs. Yet, according to the food pyramid, a large portion of our diet is supposed to be comprised of carbs, good carbs, like fresh fruits and veggies, and whole grains. Another problem is that people don't realize that if you eat too much protein and your body can't use it all for fuel, your body will store it as fat!
A second problem with fad diets is that they don't force you to change your lifestyle and maintain it for more than a set period of time. Sometimes people think that they can lose weight by not allowing themselves ANY treats whatsoever. But after a while, you will probably start carving sweets or junk food, and once you break down, you are more likely to overindulge. Complete deprivation is not a healthy way to diet.
In order to get myself back on track with my eating habits, I started making green smoothies. They are a super easy, healthy way to get lots of vitamins and minerals. I get my daily serving of fruits and veggies in a smoothie that takes me about 5 minutes to drink. How easy is that? The great thing about green smoothies is that they are made up entirely of fruits, veggies, and water. Lots of times, people will make a smoothie in an attempt to eat better, yet they will add things like yogurt, milk, juice, and honey or sugar because that's what we think of when we thing "smoothie." Those things aren't bad, but they add unnecessary sugar, fat, and calories. It's better to use water instead of juice, because juice is full of sugar. Yes, it's "good" sugar, meaning not refined white sugar that you buy from the store. But it's better to get that sugar from whole fruits so that you are getting the fiber from the fruit as well. I love to add ground flax seed meal to my smoothies to add some healthy fats. Flax seeds are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids, which can help lower cholesterol, among other things. Most Americans eat way too much Omega 6 fatty acids, which are found in red meats, and not enough Omega 3 fatty acids. I could go on and on about the benefits of green smoothies, but I won't bore you :)
All I can say is that green smoothies are amazing. No, I won't claim that they've cured my every health problem and helped me to lose weight instantly. But I do have a ton more energy. My skin is more clear. My digestive system has never run more smoothly...if you catch my drift. And the best part is, I crave fruits and veggies ALL the time now! When I'm hungry for a snack at work, I will cut up a bell pepper and eat it, or an apple, or carrot sticks. I can't say I NEVER crave junk food or sweets, but when I do, it's pretty rare and after a few bites, I feel a bit sickened by so much refined sugar. Trust me, I do have my cheat days, and that's ok.
(picture from Google)
Want to make your own green smoothie? It's easy! I just fill my blender with some water. I usually start with about a cup. I add a banana to thicken the smoothie. I usually add an apple, frozen pineapple chunks, or frozen mixed berries (I use frozen fruit because our ice cubes always evaporate in our freezer before I get a chance to use them...but ice is great in smoothies if you have it!). Then, I add a huge handful of spinach. When starting out, I suggest you use 60-70% fruit and 30-40% veggies/spinach. I usually make mine with so many veggies that they don't taste sweet, but not everyone likes that. Then I blend everything together, add more water if I need to, and ta-da!
Here's a list of great things to put in a smoothie:
Bananas, apples, pears
Frozen or fresh berries (These are generally low in sugar and won't cause your blood sugar to spike!)
Kiwi, pineapple, mangos
Spinach
Kale
Collard Greens
Parsley
Mint leaves
Celery
Cucumber
Bell peppers
Flax seed powder...or any others, like hemp, chia, or unflavored protein powder.
One last thing. If you love potatoes, like I do, try substituting a sweet potato (or yam, because although technically they are two totally different things, most of the time when you see a "yam" at the grocery store, it's a sweet potato) for a regular potato. Sweet potatoes are a great source of fiber, vitamin C and vitamin A and beta carotene. It's a great food for someone who's diabetic, because they help to stabalize blood sugar, not cause it to go up. One of my favorite foods ever is oven-roasted sweet potatoes. I love to add carrots and onions, too. Just cut everything into bite-sized pieces, drizzle with olive oil, (or cooking spray, which is all we have at work in terms of oils) and season with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and garlic powder. I bake mine at 400 degrees for roughly 40 minutes, or until everything is tender. It's so delicious! And very simple.
A second problem with fad diets is that they don't force you to change your lifestyle and maintain it for more than a set period of time. Sometimes people think that they can lose weight by not allowing themselves ANY treats whatsoever. But after a while, you will probably start carving sweets or junk food, and once you break down, you are more likely to overindulge. Complete deprivation is not a healthy way to diet.
In order to get myself back on track with my eating habits, I started making green smoothies. They are a super easy, healthy way to get lots of vitamins and minerals. I get my daily serving of fruits and veggies in a smoothie that takes me about 5 minutes to drink. How easy is that? The great thing about green smoothies is that they are made up entirely of fruits, veggies, and water. Lots of times, people will make a smoothie in an attempt to eat better, yet they will add things like yogurt, milk, juice, and honey or sugar because that's what we think of when we thing "smoothie." Those things aren't bad, but they add unnecessary sugar, fat, and calories. It's better to use water instead of juice, because juice is full of sugar. Yes, it's "good" sugar, meaning not refined white sugar that you buy from the store. But it's better to get that sugar from whole fruits so that you are getting the fiber from the fruit as well. I love to add ground flax seed meal to my smoothies to add some healthy fats. Flax seeds are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids, which can help lower cholesterol, among other things. Most Americans eat way too much Omega 6 fatty acids, which are found in red meats, and not enough Omega 3 fatty acids. I could go on and on about the benefits of green smoothies, but I won't bore you :)
All I can say is that green smoothies are amazing. No, I won't claim that they've cured my every health problem and helped me to lose weight instantly. But I do have a ton more energy. My skin is more clear. My digestive system has never run more smoothly...if you catch my drift. And the best part is, I crave fruits and veggies ALL the time now! When I'm hungry for a snack at work, I will cut up a bell pepper and eat it, or an apple, or carrot sticks. I can't say I NEVER crave junk food or sweets, but when I do, it's pretty rare and after a few bites, I feel a bit sickened by so much refined sugar. Trust me, I do have my cheat days, and that's ok.
(picture from Google)
Want to make your own green smoothie? It's easy! I just fill my blender with some water. I usually start with about a cup. I add a banana to thicken the smoothie. I usually add an apple, frozen pineapple chunks, or frozen mixed berries (I use frozen fruit because our ice cubes always evaporate in our freezer before I get a chance to use them...but ice is great in smoothies if you have it!). Then, I add a huge handful of spinach. When starting out, I suggest you use 60-70% fruit and 30-40% veggies/spinach. I usually make mine with so many veggies that they don't taste sweet, but not everyone likes that. Then I blend everything together, add more water if I need to, and ta-da!
Here's a list of great things to put in a smoothie:
Bananas, apples, pears
Frozen or fresh berries (These are generally low in sugar and won't cause your blood sugar to spike!)
Kiwi, pineapple, mangos
Spinach
Kale
Collard Greens
Parsley
Mint leaves
Celery
Cucumber
Bell peppers
Flax seed powder...or any others, like hemp, chia, or unflavored protein powder.
One last thing. If you love potatoes, like I do, try substituting a sweet potato (or yam, because although technically they are two totally different things, most of the time when you see a "yam" at the grocery store, it's a sweet potato) for a regular potato. Sweet potatoes are a great source of fiber, vitamin C and vitamin A and beta carotene. It's a great food for someone who's diabetic, because they help to stabalize blood sugar, not cause it to go up. One of my favorite foods ever is oven-roasted sweet potatoes. I love to add carrots and onions, too. Just cut everything into bite-sized pieces, drizzle with olive oil, (or cooking spray, which is all we have at work in terms of oils) and season with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and garlic powder. I bake mine at 400 degrees for roughly 40 minutes, or until everything is tender. It's so delicious! And very simple.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Maci
We've had a new addition to our family since my last update. Well, lots has happened since my last post, but I'm going to take it slowly and do it in multiple posts.
As most of you know, we have a dog named Willy, and he's Jon's baby. We have a cat too, which I absolutely love, but I was really wanting my own dog. My dog that I had growing up had died a few years ago, but I still got really sad about it all the time and wanted a dog, not to replace Paige, but so that I could have a buddy again! I started looking online and was certain I wanted a Golden Retriever. I'd always wanted one, and I kept saying that if I didn't get one now, I might never get one. But as I researched, I decided there was no way I'd pay $800 for a dog when I could rescue one for much cheaper. So I found a puppy online from a rescue that I decided I would go look at. I had scheduled to have surgery on both wrists to have some cysts removed, but I figured I'd be fine a few days later, so I contacted the shelter and told them I'd be coming to their adoption event to get the puppy. It turns out that the surgery and recovery was wayyy more painful than I had anticipated and I could hardly do anything that involved using my hands because it hurt so badly. So I didn't end up getting that dog. I waited until my wrists healed a little more, and I kept looking for puppies online. I went back and forth between a few, one of them being a Jack Russell-Border Collie mix. I remember joking to my family that I would be crazy to get a dog that was a combination of two of the most hyper dogs ever. Somehow though, I decided to go look at her. Part of the reason I was so drawn to her was because she looked a lot like Paige. Jon and I went and played with her at the end of September. She was part of a litter of 8, and we were the only ones there to look at any of them. She was so very sweet but really shy. I instantly knew she was the dog I wanted. We had to wait 2 weeks for her to be "quarantined" since she had just been brought from a high-kill shelter in Kentucky and they wanted to make sure she didn't have any illnesses that needed to be treated. I anxiously waited those two weeks, and on October 5, after one of the longest days of work ever, I went to pick her up. I named her Maci. She was about 14 weeks old. I brought her home and realized that she had become way more nervous than the first time I played with her. She wouldn't go to the bathroom outside because she was afraid of every little noise. She slipped out of her collar because it was too big, and when I bent down too quickly to pick her up, she bit me because she was so terrified. She was scared of Willy and Tucker and she wouldn't come near me unless I sat on the floor for about 5 minutes. She was of course scared of Jon. I had mentally prepared myself for a couple weeks since I knew she would cry at night and I wouldn't get much sleep for awhile. I put her in her cage next to my bed the first night, and she didn't make a peep the entire night. She slept next to my bed for the next few months and never cried once. She's still outgrowing her fear of everything. She's gotten so much better though, and can now go for walks calmly and will sometimes even get excited to approach dogs and people, even though once she gets too close she changes her mind. She's exactly what I needed to help me stop feeling sad about Paige. She's my little buddy and I take her with me everywhere I can. Sometimes when Jon works late and ends up falling asleep on the couch, Maci will sleep with me. I love it because it makes it so much easier to wake up in the morning. She gets so happy to wake up and will squirm her way over to me so I can pet her. I know I'm obsessed with her, and I don't care. I am a huge animal person, and I consider her more of a family member than a pet. She's extremely hyper and high strung, but she's also very smart and has been pretty easy to train. I took her running for the first time the other day (we usually go on walks, but never runs because I'm too out of shape!) and she heeled perfectly. I'm excited to see if she will like swimming in the lake this summer.
I don't feel like putting these pictures in order. There's got to be an easier way to put pictures on blogspot!
I made Jon take this picture with his phone. This is the first time we went to meet her. I still couldn't bend my wrists, but I didn't let that stop me from cuddling her!
She loves laying on the window sill and looking out the window. She often falls asleep on top of the couch after she's done checking out things outside.
The first time it snowed, we took her for a walk in the woods. I think this might have been one of her happiest days. She literally ran around nonstop for an hour and was soaking wet by the time we were done.
She's got quite the personality. She can be a brat, but the other day Jon said it perfectly when he said that she's the most sweet, innocent puppy without a mean bone in her body.
She and Willy are best friends. They love each other. Even though she started off being so nervous, she ended up being the dominant one and has no problem taking all his toys and bones from him whenever she wants.
This is when she was about 4 1/2 months old.
I'd forgotten that she was ever this little. This was when she was about 3 1/2 months old. I didn't really notice how much she was growing because I'd see her every day, but I'd always have neighbors telling me how big she was getting.
They love to cuddle with each other. Maci and our cat get along and play also, I just don't have a good picture of them together because Tucker doesn't really prefer to cuddle with her.
She really likes Jon. Whenever he gets upset, even if it's not at her, she acts like he hurt her feelings and she will get very sad. She gets very excited whenever he comes in the door and I say "Daddy's home!"
We've only had Maci for 5 months, but it feels a lot longer. She's the best dog and we love her!
As most of you know, we have a dog named Willy, and he's Jon's baby. We have a cat too, which I absolutely love, but I was really wanting my own dog. My dog that I had growing up had died a few years ago, but I still got really sad about it all the time and wanted a dog, not to replace Paige, but so that I could have a buddy again! I started looking online and was certain I wanted a Golden Retriever. I'd always wanted one, and I kept saying that if I didn't get one now, I might never get one. But as I researched, I decided there was no way I'd pay $800 for a dog when I could rescue one for much cheaper. So I found a puppy online from a rescue that I decided I would go look at. I had scheduled to have surgery on both wrists to have some cysts removed, but I figured I'd be fine a few days later, so I contacted the shelter and told them I'd be coming to their adoption event to get the puppy. It turns out that the surgery and recovery was wayyy more painful than I had anticipated and I could hardly do anything that involved using my hands because it hurt so badly. So I didn't end up getting that dog. I waited until my wrists healed a little more, and I kept looking for puppies online. I went back and forth between a few, one of them being a Jack Russell-Border Collie mix. I remember joking to my family that I would be crazy to get a dog that was a combination of two of the most hyper dogs ever. Somehow though, I decided to go look at her. Part of the reason I was so drawn to her was because she looked a lot like Paige. Jon and I went and played with her at the end of September. She was part of a litter of 8, and we were the only ones there to look at any of them. She was so very sweet but really shy. I instantly knew she was the dog I wanted. We had to wait 2 weeks for her to be "quarantined" since she had just been brought from a high-kill shelter in Kentucky and they wanted to make sure she didn't have any illnesses that needed to be treated. I anxiously waited those two weeks, and on October 5, after one of the longest days of work ever, I went to pick her up. I named her Maci. She was about 14 weeks old. I brought her home and realized that she had become way more nervous than the first time I played with her. She wouldn't go to the bathroom outside because she was afraid of every little noise. She slipped out of her collar because it was too big, and when I bent down too quickly to pick her up, she bit me because she was so terrified. She was scared of Willy and Tucker and she wouldn't come near me unless I sat on the floor for about 5 minutes. She was of course scared of Jon. I had mentally prepared myself for a couple weeks since I knew she would cry at night and I wouldn't get much sleep for awhile. I put her in her cage next to my bed the first night, and she didn't make a peep the entire night. She slept next to my bed for the next few months and never cried once. She's still outgrowing her fear of everything. She's gotten so much better though, and can now go for walks calmly and will sometimes even get excited to approach dogs and people, even though once she gets too close she changes her mind. She's exactly what I needed to help me stop feeling sad about Paige. She's my little buddy and I take her with me everywhere I can. Sometimes when Jon works late and ends up falling asleep on the couch, Maci will sleep with me. I love it because it makes it so much easier to wake up in the morning. She gets so happy to wake up and will squirm her way over to me so I can pet her. I know I'm obsessed with her, and I don't care. I am a huge animal person, and I consider her more of a family member than a pet. She's extremely hyper and high strung, but she's also very smart and has been pretty easy to train. I took her running for the first time the other day (we usually go on walks, but never runs because I'm too out of shape!) and she heeled perfectly. I'm excited to see if she will like swimming in the lake this summer.
I don't feel like putting these pictures in order. There's got to be an easier way to put pictures on blogspot!
I made Jon take this picture with his phone. This is the first time we went to meet her. I still couldn't bend my wrists, but I didn't let that stop me from cuddling her!
She loves laying on the window sill and looking out the window. She often falls asleep on top of the couch after she's done checking out things outside.
The first time it snowed, we took her for a walk in the woods. I think this might have been one of her happiest days. She literally ran around nonstop for an hour and was soaking wet by the time we were done.
She's got quite the personality. She can be a brat, but the other day Jon said it perfectly when he said that she's the most sweet, innocent puppy without a mean bone in her body.
She and Willy are best friends. They love each other. Even though she started off being so nervous, she ended up being the dominant one and has no problem taking all his toys and bones from him whenever she wants.
This is when she was about 4 1/2 months old.
I'd forgotten that she was ever this little. This was when she was about 3 1/2 months old. I didn't really notice how much she was growing because I'd see her every day, but I'd always have neighbors telling me how big she was getting.
They love to cuddle with each other. Maci and our cat get along and play also, I just don't have a good picture of them together because Tucker doesn't really prefer to cuddle with her.
She really likes Jon. Whenever he gets upset, even if it's not at her, she acts like he hurt her feelings and she will get very sad. She gets very excited whenever he comes in the door and I say "Daddy's home!"
We've only had Maci for 5 months, but it feels a lot longer. She's the best dog and we love her!
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