The Six Super Foods Every Woman Needs

The Six Super Foods Every Woman Needs

To summarize:

1) Low-fat yogurt: 3-5 servings per week

2) Fatty fish - like salmon, sardines, and mackerel: 2-3 servings per week

3) Legumes - like beans, peas, lentils, peanuts: 3-4 servings per week

4) Tomatoes (or watermelon, red grapefruit, red navel oranges): 3-5 servings per week

5) Vitamin D fortified low fat milk or orange juice : at least 400 IUs daily

Modern Family tv episode "Feels like I ate the sun!"

zSHARE video - modern.family.0118.hdtv.xvid-notv.flv

Remember at family dinner the other night I was talking about this show and this particular episode? Here it is! Thanks tvshack.net! The funny part I was talking about starts at about the 10:12 minute mark, he's already eaten the hot food and now we see his reaction to it. Except, for some reason I had it in my mind that he grabbed the water jug then threw it against the wall when the water didn't help. Actually he just sets it down on a table. Boo! The throwing would've been so much funnier.

But this show is so great, definitely one of my new favorites.

Bitter burning

The new 'diet' pills I'm on (really, they're a herbal fat burner/metabolism booster/appetite suppressant) consist of bitter orange extract, yerba mate extract, green tea extract, cayenne pepper and ginger. All natural ingredients and they really work!

Oh, one caveat: "Take with food."

Which I do faithfully every morning, two pills after my bran flakes and skim milk. Except for this morning, when I didn't feel hungry enough for breakfast but wanted to take the pills anyway. I considered it kind of an experiment.

Which backfired about five minutes after I'd swallowed them.

Suddenly I started feeling nauseous. I must've looked a little green because Lena started to watch me very closely as I swallowed and breathed deeply. Stay calm, take deep breaths, maybe a glass of water will make you feel better, I thought to myself. As I walked toward the cupboard to get a glass, I felt it happening...!

Ran to the bathroom, made it just in the nick of time. Blaaaarghhh.

Ever wondered what bitter orange extract and cayenne pepper feel like on the way back up? Imagine the bitterest thing you've ever tasted, bitter to the nth degree, mixed with the burning death of pure cayenne. Then imagine that mixed with stomach acid, scraping its way back up your esophagus.

I felt like I was literally breathing fire.

The taste of bitterness made the gagging worse, but the fiery hot agony going on in my throat had me trying to suppress that instinct. It was a nightmare! Lena, the dear sweet wonderful angel, brought me a cold water bottle.

So yet one more lesson learned the hard way. "Take with food." Got it.

Sunday Drive

What started out as an intended fishing/hiking/picnic trip to Beaver Lake yesterday changed when we got out there and saw that there was a thick layer of snow on the ground! So plans changed and we went to the Trout Hatchery near Caroline instead. And what a great time we had! There was snow on the ground there as well, but it was mostly melted and we didn't have to trudge through slushy muck. The sun came out, the wind died down once we were in amongst the trees and, icing on the cake, huge trout were swimming in the pond!

The kids were thrilled to finally be out of the vehicle (it was a long drive) and they were more than ready to get moving.

The hatchery where the "baby fishes are made" was closed but the trout pond was open, so away we went!

The first bridge across the pond.

Can you see the fish?

How about now?

There they are!

A submerged spruce tree beside/under the bridge we were on, tons of fish swimming around in there but hidden by the tree.

This little munchkin caught heck for littering her chocolate bar wrapper. Busted!

Good thing for her she's so darn adorable!

There was a gigantic trout swimming in the sunny part but of course it swam to the shadows just as I snapped the pic.

Looking for biggies.

Here's where I became obsessed with taking a family pic using the self-timer. If you look at some of the above pics, there's quite a distance between bridges. But I figured that the 10-second timer would give me enough time to make the run. As you can see by Lena in this pic, watching me run, I didn't make it.

Tried again, still no dice.

Tried something else: made Gunnar set the timer on the camera, then run for it, seeing as how he was beaking off that he could run faster than me. And yet, do you see him in this pic? Mouthy punk! Lol

Finally made it! Ran on the left-side path instead of the right, as it seemed just a bit shorter. Yessss!

Cougar tracks, FRESH. *shudder*

Some kind of bird tracks.

And here we have the cougar and bird tracks intersecting; human tracks there, too (Tyler, haha).

Talk about beautiful scenery, just gorgeous. This was on the way going up the path.

The two boys were desperate to walk across those logs, I even caught Gunnar trying to sneak across when we weren't looking. In his no-grip skater shoes! Boys.

An informational post about the springs, very interesting.

At the very top of the springs, where they divert some of the stream for use in the hatchery and trout pond.

Walking back down, getting hungry for our picnic lunch!

Ryder had to make a quick stop to "feed the fishies" some pine needles.

Mmmm, lunch!

Then time to play. Gunnar made a makeshift golf club out of a tree branch, he's actually really good! Look at that form, a natural.

Where did those kids go?

Last pic from the trip, a spruce tree growing out of a poplar tree. Weird!

WLJ: And the results are in...

Weight: down 3 pounds (BOO!)

Chest: down 2 inches

Waist: down 1 inch

Hips: down 2 inches

Right/Left Mid-Thigh: down 1 inch

Right/Left Upper Arm: no change

So in one month I have lost a combined total of 6 inches, which is pretty awesome, even though that only equals out to 3 damn pounds lost! But wait, now that I think about it, Easter was during that month and I packed on five pounds from chocolate alone. So I guess that actually makes it a total of 8 pounds lost, right? Okay, that sounds more like it, I'm very relieved!

During that month, I completed 22 hour-long workouts consisting of 45 minutes for Cardio Party and 20 minutes for Ab Jam. My goal for this month was "to have lost at least 10 pounds, be down 2-3 inches around my waist/hips, and half an inch around my biceps" -- two out of three ain't bad! (8 pounds is close enough to 10, right? lol) My goal for next month is another 10 pounds and another 2 inches around the waist/hips. I'm not too concerned with arms/legs right now, that's not where most of my excess weight is concentrated and those will slim down in their own time.

So what have I learned? That losing weight is incredibly frustrating (!!) but also incredibly rewarding. Can't wait til next month's results!

P.S. We'll see if those new metabolism/fat burner pills I'm on have any impact on next month's results, considering I'd only started taking them about a week before my weigh-in.

Can't hardly wait!!

Wednesday the 21st is my weigh-in date and I can barely stand it, I'm so excited and anxious and nervous! I've deliberately hid the scale away and have not weighed myself in almost a week. Which for me is unheard of, like I said before I was getting a little obsessed about it. So I have no idea what is going on pound-wise, but I have an idea that inch-wise I'm going to be happy...

The cutlets are gone -- my bras are loose, not in the cup but around the back.

My waist feels smaller -- shirts are less form-fitting and I can feel muscles forming under the flab.

The upper-most part of my inner thigh, where the chub has accumulated over the years, is slimmed down -- when I walk, it hardly jiggles!

My arms are more defined -- who wants a ticket to the gun show?

My back and shoulders seem less fatty and more muscled -- pretty soon I'll have collarbones again!

Two more sleeps and it's weigh-in day, can't hardly wait....!!

I have a new love, and its name is...

You've seen the Gain commercials. They're totally true! I bought a box last week because it was on sale; all it took was one load and I was converted. I washed everything I possibly could in the house, even re-washed bedding that had just been done. I am so obsessed with the way my clothes smell now. I had to go out and buy the liquid fabric softener in the same scent (Original Fresh) so my clothes would smell even more great.

Isn't it funny how something so small can have such a huge impact? That wonderful smell permeates the entire house when the laundry's going, and we all walk around breathing deeply and sighing in bliss. I actually look forward to working out because the more I sweat, the more the Gain smell comes out of the clothes! Sad, I know. But life just seems more happy and positive when you're surrounded by the best smell in the world.

Click here for a $1 off coupon. (I totally joined the Gain Fan Club.)

I still got it, baby!

You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I have a talent for sprinting. Not running as in long distances, but sprinting. Readysetgo and I'm off like a shot.

So there we all were, all six, at the park by our house. Gunnar wanted to have a race around the wooden edging surrounding the play area. The kids were surprised when I lined up with them, and gave each other dubious looks. Heh heh heh, I thought, bring it on baby.

Tyler was our caller, "On your mark... get set... GO!!"

Imagine the kids' shock when I shot past them all and they actually had to exert themselves to catch up to me! Gunnar quickly caught up and I shot him an evil grin, Ardan right on our heels. As we rounded the second-last corner, the boys were too busy elbowing each other to notice that I took the inside of the curve. The look on their faces as they realized I was in the lead, again!

At that point, Ardan decided to be a brat and cut across the sand. "Cheater!" I yelled at him. Gunnar took advantage of my distraction and squeaked past me just before we crossed the finish line.

They just couldn't believe it! I had almost won! And of course I just had to gloat that their 30 year old MOM kicked their boyish asses. So yeah, I think their opinion of me just shot wayyy up.

Five Question Friday

1. What words do you use on your blog/online that you don't use in real life?

Hmmm. I write my blog as if I'm actually talking out loud to y'all; I just type what comes in my mind, there's no brain-to-mouth filter. Only after I'm all done the post do I go over it, spell-check, make sure it all makes sense and its somewhat grammatically-correct. So probably the only word I don't speak in real life is 'LOL'. I do say 'OMG', though.

2. Do you still write cheques?

Sure do, mostly for school- and sport-related things like hockey registration, swimming lessons, school pictures, gymnastics, soccer, etc.

3. Who was your favorite President and why?

Okay, now I know that the author of these questions is an American. First I had to change the word 'checks' to 'cheques' in question 2, now this. As I don't pay much attention to US politics, I don't really know about each President's pros and cons (besides the reported scandals, etc). So I'll pick the only one that ever made me break down and sob during a speech, and that is, obviously, President Barack Obama.

4. Are you a yeller?

Hah! Most of you would probably say "Oh no, she's definitely not, Beau is so patient and kind to her kids" but that is because you don't see me at home, behind closed doors, haha. Not saying I'm a psycho, but I have my moments. Ask the kids. I don't like to yell at my kids because I don't like it when someone yells at me, and I find that using yelling as a way to discipline or 'scare' your child into behaving only makes the problem worse. But sometimes you just gotta, you know? Like yesterday, when Ryder deliberately squeezed his FULL blue-raspberry Kool-Aid Jammer all over the carpet in the livingroom. I think they heard me down the block.

5. Have you ever dumpster dived?
Not out of an actual dumpster, but I've taken stuff that other people considered 'garbage'. Like a practically new kids bike from the Sylvan dump, some idiot must've thought it easier to toss than try to sell. So we took that home. (Had to hide it from the dump worker guy that we were taking it, you know what they're like, "It's dump policy that..." blahblahblah.) Also, someone dumped some stuff at the acreage (they must consider it a communal dump out there, makes me so mad!) and in the pile was a kids plastic play gym, the kind with a little slide and holes to crawl in and out of, and a huge plastic kiddie pool in the shape of a pirate ship. If you were to buy those from a store they'd be like a hundred bucks each! No joke! But someone just dumped them out there like yesterday's garbage! People are strange. So we took them home, I scrubbed the ever-lovin' crap outta them with soapy bleach-water and voila! Ryder and Lena's favorite outdoor toys. That old cliche is so true: One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Bye-bye birdie!**

A very wise lady gave me some advice the other day; she said to stop obsessing over pounds lost, to instead focus on inches lost and how clothes are fitting. So I listened to her and put away the scale. (At least until my monthly weigh-in on the 21st.)

Because it was getting bad, people. Weighing myself up to three times a day, hoping the numbers would be in my favor, which they never were. Even though I'm doing an hour workout every day and eating fairly healthy. So it was incredibly frustrating and frankly, I was getting depressed about it!

But the other day I noticed something that gave me hope and just flat-out astounded me. I no longer have my "chicken cutlets"! Do you know what that is? Most women with large breasts have them -- the fatty little roll ("cutlet") under the armpit. The bigger the breasts, the bigger the cutlet. When I had my breast reduction back in 2000, the doctor informed me I would need a second surgery to remove those fat deposits. I never did get that done and so for the last 10 years I've had my these two lovely chicken cutlets.

But now they're gone! How incredible is that? I am so thrilled.

So yeah, I may not have lost any actual pounds yet, but obviously something is going on in my body thanks to all that exercising. Woohoo!

**Because a chicken's a bird, get it?

Ryderman, Ryderman, friendly neighborhood Ryderman...

Can he drive and steer a little quad?
Yes, he can, he's Ryderman!
Look out, here comes our Ryderman!

(You may want to turn down the volume, the wind is loud! And my voice is annoying.)

Five Question Friday (April 2nd's edition, which I missed!)

1. Do you sing out loud in the car when you're driving?

Hah! The question should be 'Who doesn't sing in the car while driving?'. I am a TOTAL nerd when it comes to car-singing. I just can't resist. I even do the head-bob-or-bang (depending on the song), arm movements, air-drumming, booty shakin'... my boys fight about who gets the back seat, not the front, LOL!

2. What would you never be caught doing?

Wearing Crocs.

3. Will you go #2 in a public restroom?

If its an absolute emergency, but even then I choose the farthest stall and try to make sure no one is in the room. If they are, I will wait until they leave. But you know, sometimes having a kid in diapers is a blessing because you can always act like you are changing a poopy diaper and just blame the kid! haha

4. Have you ever broken a bone?

Nope. I did have a dissolving vertebrae-disk when I was 6 but with the help of complete bedrest for 2 months and a back brace, it went away on its own. It was a medical mystery why it happened, and why it went away. Weird, eh?

5. Do you prefer cooking or baking?
Baking. When you're cooking something, its like a chore. I mean, I still do my best to make it "gourmet" (my family's food catch-phrase) but no one usually appreciates it, its just a meal. But when you bake something, everyone is like 'ooooh' and they get all excited, and the house smells so wonderful for hours afterward. It feels much more rewarding. If that makes sense.

Five Question Friday

1. Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?

Cameron Diaz or Reese Witherspoon. They're both cute, spunky, perky and cool (Diaz more so than Witherspoon, IMO). And have great smiles. And Diaz has wicked legs. All qualities and features I aspire to have, haha.

2. Did you ever go to summer camp?

I sure did, went to Camp Alexo the summer before I started grade three, and it was a blast! I got to go for two weeks (2 week-long sessions) and my best friend Tracy Fitch came with because her dad was a counsellor. I do recall two memorable events that happened there that traumatized me: I stepped on a wasp hive during a treasure hunt and got stung about 20 times, but because the girl who was with me, who also got stung, was like a foot shorter and just a tiny thing, everyone fussed over her while I stood there screaming and still getting attacked and stung; secondly, during the second week out there Tracy became fast friends with another girl and I felt very left out, one day at lunch the girl was sitting on her team's bench and she pulled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them but lost her balance and fell face first on the concrete floor, there was blood everywhere, but because I have an overactive laugh reflex when it comes to things like that I burst out laughing (maybe a bit of spite in there as well) which caused the entire camp to think I was a horrible person, Tracy especially. I had to really suck up after that.

3. What sends you running and screaming in the other direction?

Bears, horses, aliens, heights, SPIDERS, tight enclosed spaces.

4. What is something you do that drives your spouse nuts?

I have a tendency to be very 'air-brained', meaning my thoughts will drift off and I lose focus and concentration. This happens most often when someone is talking about something I find boring or uninteresting, like dirt-biking, fishing, hunting, quadding, etc. (Let me clarify: I don't find it boring to DO those things, just talking about it.) Also, I have a 'go-with-the-flow-it'll-all-work-out' attitude towards life that drives hubs BONKERS. He'll be all worked up over something and I'm like 'meh' because really, what good does it do to get all het up over it, red-faced, blood pressure rising, when that won't solve the problem or make any difference.

5. What is currently your favorite song?

'Telephone' by Lady Gaga and Beyonce. LUVIT