Can I do better with my food consumption?

I am a garden growing, water drinking, vegetable loving, home made food maker. I don't use many processed foods and make most of my meals from scratch. I want to be healthy and take care of my body, but in many ways I think that I can do better.

Here is what I am doing:

1. No Sweets Challenge

I am taking a no sweets challenge. I have decided not to have sweets for one year. Everyone that I have talked to, excluding my husband, has informed me that I am definitely starting this at the wrong time of year. We just celebrated Halloween and other great, treat, holidays are on there way. In fact every day for the past 2 weeks (this is when I started this challenge), I have had the opportunity to have some sort of sweet. The empty calories and fat that I have avoided absolutely blows my mind. Doughnuts, cookies, pounds of candy, and soda are among the things that were available to me. I have not had one. I was not aware of how many treats that I really do eat. I most likely would have eaten at least one per day for those 2 weeks.

Here are some websites with more information about sugar:

Calorie Count Sugar Facts

Sugar - Get the Facts

2. Enough is Enough

For most of my life, at least a couple times a week, I have eaten meals until I am stuffed or really full. I am starting to realize, sometimes enough is enough. My goal is to pay more attention to the portions that I eat and to be satisfied after eating, not satiated.

Watch the next video just for fun:

Conclusion:

My goal is not necessarily to loose weight, but I want to be healthy and take care of my body. Obesity is a huge problem in our world today. According to the CDC, Utah's rate of obesity has jumped from less than 10 % to over 20 % since 1985. Obesity is having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30.

There are great websites availible for more information regarding obesity. Here are a few:

Obesity in America
CDC Obesity Data

CDC obesity data map Check out the map at the bottom of this page

I am all about making better food choices and staying healthy and becoming healthier.

Is that Real?

My 4 year old, Mr. A, has been asking me lately "is this real?." This is in reference to anything from Yankees to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. We have to be careful when we talk to him about fables, myths and fairy tales. It is important to know what is real and what is made up for the sake of a story.

Here is what I think:

It is important to know what is real, not to just believe everything that we hear. Today information is easier find, than ever before. We have books, media, internet, social media, blogs, facebook, texting, twitter and the list goes on and one. News or not news can spread like wildfire. But we have to be careful with what we do with the information that we receive. There are people out there who are trying to make a fast buck, as well as people who willingly and thoughtfully deceive.


Sometimes it is obvious that something is false, other times we have to dig to find out the truth.

We have to learn to filter all the information that is thrown at us, and come to know what is real, what is important, what is really important and what is none of the above. Made up stories have their place. I love fairy tales. My kids love to hear stories about Trik-a-tina and her life in the forest. But now a days most photo's are airbrushed, sad and hard things are brushed under the carpet and almost anything can be set up and made to look real on film.

As far as I know the video's in the post are real, the photo is still debatable. I think it is a hoax. What do you think?

Conclusion:

Information, people, places can all be real or unreal, and important or unimportant. My job is to figure out what is real and important and spend most of my time on those things.

Have I done any good in this world today?

Have I done any good in this world today?

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and helped someone feel glad?

If not I have failed in deed!

Our world is full of stuff, more conveniences than have ever existed. It seems like we have it all, but that is just at a surface glance. We are a people in need. The world needs more kindness, unselfishness, listening, uplifting, giving, charity, awareness, helpfulness and love.

I was thinking what are some small things that I can do to help someone in need?

Here is what I found:

Listen more.

See a need, fill it.

One day after a trip to the grocery store, I was trying to load my groceries and my children into the car. Someone offered to take my cart, this was a huge service. This has inspired me to look for the simple things that make a huge difference.

Don't litter and throw away trash.

Give others the benefit of the doubt, just like we give ourselves.

Don't judge.

Start a food drive.

Make and donate a blanket.

Take food to a neighbor in need, or not in need.

Rake someones leaves.

Hold your temper.

Shovel snow for a neighbor.

Offer to watch some one's kids.

Read to a child.

Practice patience.

Help someone move furniture (this was very helpful as one of our neighbors saw us moving couches the other day and came over to help)

Volunteer: at the food bank, for a community service project, at the library, as a poll worker, anywhere.

Look for the opportunity to serve, it is all around us.

Conclusion:

Have I done any good in the world today?

I hope so.

Let me know of some other things that you have done.

Are you happy?

I recently read a children's book with the title "What do you love?" I did not particularly enjoy the book. The book was seriously lacking great pictures, but it made me start to think. This was a simple list of things that made the character happy. I asked my kids "What do you love." The responses were mostly about cousins. I am glad that my children have wonderful cousins that they love. Lately I have found myself making lists of things I want. Here is a small list of things that make my happy.

Here is what I found:

I love when I have cooked good dinners for a couple nights and have wonderful leftovers to eat.

I love when my dishes are done when I wake up in the morning.

I love when I finally finish matching the socks.

I love when I can feel the crisp coolness of the air when summer changes to fall.

I love when I can check to do items off of my to-do list.

I love when I finish reading a chapter book to my children.

I love when I have organized and cleaned a room in my house.

I love when there is time to play games after dinner.

I love when the kids are in bed by 8:30.

I love a good storm.

I love good music.

Jon Schmidt Love Story Meets Viva La Vida

There are many things that I love or that make me happy. Just making this list and writing down things that make me happy, makes me happy. I am planning on continuing my list until I reach 100 things.

In the meantime enjoy this video.

How to be happy Video

Conclusion:

It is good to know what I want, but it is also good to know what I have. There are many things that bring happiness into my life and that I love. Focusing on what I have instead of what I don't is the difference between being happy or miserable. Let me know what you love and what makes you happy.

~If you want to be happy, be.~ Leo Tolstoy

Have you tried something new lately?

I am really good at coming up with ideas, not so good at the follow though and the actual doing of the items. So when I saw that the Utah State Fair had some baking competitions, I thought about entering and came up with some fun recipes. But I never thought anything would come of it. With some support and nudging from my family I entered the competition.


Here is what I did:


I entered two food contests at the Utah State Fair. The first on was a Make it with Malt-O-Meal contest. The food had to contain a Malt-O-Meal cereal.


I made Berry Colossal Crunch Bars:

4-6 cups Malt-O-Meal Berry Colossal Crunch cereal
½ cup butter
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups raspberry jam
1 ½ cups shredded coconut
1 12 oz. package white chocolate chips

Crumble Berry Colossal Crunch cereal in a food processor. Place butter in a 9x13 pan and melt in 350º oven. When butter is melted pour Berry Colossal Crunch crumbs into pan and smooth out. Layer each of these in this order: sweetened condensed milk, raspberry jam and coconut. Top with white chocolate chips. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350º, or until bars turn golden brown. Let cool for at least one hour before serving.

These bars are actually, surprisingly, pretty good.

The other contest I entered was Soup it up with Saco. This contest had to be a soup that contained Saco Cultured Buttermilk.

My entry was Butternut Squash Soup.

1 large onion
2-3 celery stalks
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
2 small jalapeño pepper
2-3 carrots
1 large butternut squash
2-3 sweet apples
4 cups chicken broth
½ cup water
2 Tablespoons Saco Cultured Buttermilk

Cut up all vegetables (onion, celery, peppers, carrots, squash) and apples into small chunks.

In a large stew pot or Dutch oven place ¼ cup butter, add onion, celery, peppers and carrots. Cook on medium heat until onions are clear then add the squash and apple.
Let simmer for 1-2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken broth. Mix water and Saco Cultured Buttermilk together and add to soup mixture. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until all the vegetables are tender. Blend soup in blender or food processor. Garnish with sour cream.

I ended up winning first prize for my soup.

Competition fast facts:

Malt-O-Meal competition had 12 entries

Saco Competition had 8

6 of the 8 people in the Saco competition were also in the Malt-O-Meal competition

The first place winner of the Malt -O-Meal competition took second in the Saco competition

The three winners of the Malt-O-Meal competition were not desserts, all the others were

The soup competition had no duplicate soups: tortilla, broccoli and cheese, chowder, butternut squash, chicken, pumpkin, zucchini and roasted red pepper

I am a pretty competitive person. But it is a little scary to be judged like that.

There is nothing wrong with a little competition. I recently became a huge fan of the Britain's Got Talent competition, I was sad when I found out that Susan Boyle lost, and had to find out who would have taken first, ahead of her. Check out these videos to see the dance group that won.

Diversity Audition

Diversity Semi-Final

Diversity Final


Conclusion:

~The first and best victory is to conquer self~ -Plato

Trying something new may be hard, scary or risky. Sometimes it takes some encouragement and courage, but when it comes down to it, the experience is usually well worth it. With a win or a loss, I still had a good time. I met some fun people and won $150.00 in the process. "Something new" is something that I will try again.

What happens when...?

I often hear suggestions on what we can do for our experiment from my children. Yesterday was one of those days. This is what I heard: "What will happen if we put ice in hot water? We should do that for our experiment." So today that is exactly what we did.

Here is how it worked:

We decided that instead of just having one bowl of hot water, we would try three bowls of water with different temperatures.

We heated up some water.

cooled some water down, And left some water at room temperature.

Before we put the ice in each bowl, we guessed what would happen. My daughter said, "the ice will melt." My son hypothesized that the water in the hot bowl would "turn to medium."

Then we put 1 ice cube in each bowl of water.



We watched and noticed that the ice did, in fact, melt. We felt the temperature of the water and noted that the temperature of all of the bowls of water felt colder.

We also noticed that the ice in the hot water melted faster and that it took more than one ice cube to make the water temperature "medium".



Conclusion:

Ice melts if it is put in water. Melting ice changes water temperature. Experiments don't have to be fancy to be fun.

How much water is enough?

I have heard my whole life that 8 cups of water is a sufficient amount of water to drink per day, but as I have been pregnant, nursing, and working in the hot sun for the past couple months I wanted to know how much water is really enough.

Here is what I have found out:

I requested "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" by F. Batmanghelidj from the library about 6 months ago. I waited longer for this book than I did for Harry Potter book 7. The author believes that many of our current health issues are caused or made worse by our lack of adequate water intake.

Each person should be drinking half their body weight in ounces in water each day.

Example: person weighs 150 pounds, they should be drinking 75 ounces of water

This formula works under regular conditions. Under unusual circumstances: it is hot, you are; sick, pregnant, nursing, exercising, ecetera, more water is necessary.

Juice, soda, coffee, tea, or energy drinks are not a substitute for water. "Natural stimulants in coffee and tea are larger quantities of caffeine and lesser amounts of theophylline. These are central nervous system stimulants; at the same time, they are dehydrating agents because of their strong diuretic action on the kidneys." There is a huge difference between "fluids and water".



There are over 1,000,000,000 people in this world who don't have access to clean drinking water and for many who do, they don't get enough or choose to drink other fluids.

I am inspired by the story of Ryan Hreljac who as a 6 year old heard about how many people did not have access to clean drinking water and worked for 4 months to earn $70 to put a well in a village in Uganda. Since then and 10 years later he has "contributed a total of 502 water and sanitation projects in 16 countries bringing clean water and sanitation services to over 621,712 people." Click here to read more about Ryan and his foundation, Ryan's Well.



I also found this other cool site that talks about water projects going on through the world, check it out.
Charity: Water

A while ago I heard of a company that installs merry-go-rounds in villages that when the children play on them, it supplies the energy needed to pump clean water to the village. I found the website for this innovative way to bring water to communities.

I heard on the news the other day that the best water to drink, at least in Salt Lake is direct from the tap. The reason for this is that tap water is regulated by the EPA where bottled water is regulated by the FDA. The EPA apparently has stricter guidelines.

I even found a blog blog totally dedicated to the benefits of drinking water.

Conclusion:

I have a hard time comprehending that there are one billion people in this world, today that are without clean water. I can't even count that high. Many individuals and communities have been helped by a simple well or sanitary facilities. There is still more work to be done. We can all help, in some way. I watched a video that pointed out, that maybe everyone is not in a position to give money, but everyone can tell someone about the problem.

Until every person in the world has access to clean water -there can never be enough water. It is essential, it is life.