Corn Syrup Solids

Hello, My name is Emily and I am addicted to Corn Syrup Solids.

I don't know when I switched from half and half to Creamer.
17 years ago when Josh and I got married he was putting skim milk in his coffee....
Bleeek!
We have tried condensed milk and powdered creamer and when we started doing low carb eating I used half and half.
But somehow a long the way I started buying Vanilla Creamer.
And from Thanksgiving until January we buy Egg Nog.
The first week in January I read the label on the Egg Nog.
Labels are a dangerous thing.
Reading them is hazardous to your health.
I don't recommend reading labels to the faint of heart.
Elise makes reading labels a quiz show game.
"Guess how much carbohydrates is in this bag of potato chips?"
The person who comes closest without going over is the winner.
Josh usually wins.
Last time we played this game I helped him cheat...I was sitting next to Elise and mouthed the answer, she caught us.
She's smart but a good sport and thought it was great fun.
Corn Syrup Solids are not fun and neither is my coffee without them.
I wondered if I would have to give up coffee altogether and get my caffeine from powdered water drinks.
Walmart is now selling 7  powdered water packets with 80mg of caffine for $2.
Zipp fizz without the fizz or the high price tag.
Can you tell I had some this morning?   ...blah, blah,  blah,
I should have put a disclaimer at the beginning of this post....caution, this post is about nothing and person is under the influence of caffeine.
Happy ending to the problem of my corn syrup solid is that I have switched to Walmart Brand Vanilla Soy milk.....
Which wasn't vanilla enough so I am now adding Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup.
My dilemma of Corn Syrup Solids is solved but I have reintroduced Sucralose, aka, Splenda which I had almost eliminated because I read it was bad for the good bacteria in my stomach.
Ah, The Horror of trying to eat/drink right.

Monday ?

Finished the The Sisters Grimm: Everafter War by Micheal Buckley on Sunday. It was 7th in the series and I must say that it dragged until the last two chapters. I almost quit reading it several times. Did you see Pirates of the Caribbean 2? Do you remember how it had plenty of action but no substance until the last scene and then it declared "To be continued!" UGGGG That is exactly what happened. I have loved all the books before and this one was a little frustrating. Oh, well...as Josh would say...That's about right.
What else did I want to tell you....
Oh, I know....it is a diet/fitness website I heard about from one of the people featured on a Good Morning America weight loss segment. Spark People is free and will give you a menu and fitness plan. You can enter in what you ate for the day and how you exercised and it will tell you how you can do better tomorrow. That is...of course...if you spend the time logging in your food and activity. :( This is a good thing though, and I am on the second phase of it and am hoping that it will help me live more consistently. I have already committed to exercising 5 days a week (last week it was 6 days). Did I mention it was free? I have always wanted to do Weight Watchers but knew we could never afford it and the gym. I need the gym, plus the kids get to use it. So anyway, I keep meaning to tell you and today I finally remembered.
I don't think so...except I need some serious intervention right now because Stewart and John-Thomas made brownies and I smell their doneness. Should I not remind them the timer went off and let them burn...rendering them uneatable?

Fit?

This morning I was checking Robin's recommended blogs and remembered I had something to share. Hungry Girl lists pumpkin puree as replacement for oil in recipes. Last week at the health fair the City of Jacksonville had for it's employees and their dependants (moi), I heard that cake mix and pumpkin puree is lovely. I haven't tried it yet but the very skinny fit girl said it is a nice semi-healthy muffin replacement. I still want to make some bran muffins with fruit though.

Susan went to the health fair last year and said it was worth the time and agreed to go with me this year. My mom watched the kids while I had my cholesterol checked and blood pressure, eyes, bone density and fat ratio. I'm healthy but that didn't stop me from running my finger under the sewing machine this week. Ouch. So much for not ever going to the doctor....the needle was broken and we didn't know if the tip was in my finger. Turns out it doesn't matter because even if it was (but it isn't) it could stay.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with Gloria and Tavia. They are meeting over here and we are driving together so I really should be tidying up the house instead of rambling. But Elise is requesting some pbskids.org time so doesn't look like I'll be getting up from the computer as soon as I thought.

Psalm 119:73-75

Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.
May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word.
I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

What's in your email?

Somehow I got signed up for a Denise Austin email everyday, sometimes it is good and today I thought it was worth sharing! Are you signed up for anything fun to arrive in your email that you want to share?

Pep Talk Yourself!
What's the voice inside your head saying about your efforts to lose weight and get fit? Are the messages positive and encouraging, or just the opposite?
Make a conscious effort today to take note of your inner chatter so you can see if it's helping you. If not, you can learn to look on the sunny side — it just takes some practice, say experts from the Mayo Clinic. The secret? Take note of the negative messages and replace them with a positive spin! Here are some examples:
Instead of "I can't stick to a diet," think "I know I can do this!"
Instead of "This won't work," think "I can make this work!"
Instead of "It's a waste of time," think "It will be worth the extra effort!"
Instead of "It's not going to make a difference," think "I'll never know unless I try!"
Instead of "It hasn't worked before," think "I'll try again!"
Instead of "I've already tried," think "I can learn from my mistakes!"
Instead of "I don't like that (food, exercise, etc.)," think "I'm excited to try some new things!"

Frustration, Faith, Fruit,

The first time I tried jump roping in November I could only do 40 skips...not even a real jump and it took all of 1 minute....not quite the 10 minutes I had hoped, after all I can walk/jog for an hour. So yesterday after finding out that even thought I had graduated to 300 skips, it was still 4 minutes shy of the 10 minute goal. No big deal I thought....just add another 100....so I did tonight and it only added another minute and a half. I used to post how many I had "jumped" in a row, but I was never able to jump more than 60 without tripping or getting the rope hung up on something. Coordination is not my middle name. That 6 minutes feels like a day long event with all the starting and abrupt stopping. I would still rather only spend a few minutes with the trusty jump rope than walk around the block for an hour...I don't have that much time in my day to put toward exercise...there are salads to chop up, dishes to be done and a blogs to write! Hope your exercising is progressing better than mine!

Food Pyramid

While these foods may make a complete meal for 10 yr old boys a better place to find out how well you're eating is : http://www.mypyramid.gov/ Once you login you can type in what you have eaten for the day and it will calculate for you how well you have done. Recently I read that the most consistent way to lose weight and keep it off is to write down everything you eat. Evidently putting down on paper that Reese's cup or two that jumped into your mouth while you were fixing the kids lunch is no fun to write down and so it becomes a deterrent. I noticed that last month I only exercised 10 times...that is not even half the month...and I thought I was doing so good.

My son is not roasting vegetables...Veggie Tales meets the Campfire!

Must do Monday

Had a checkup today...hadn't had one since Elise was born. Their scale was of course not as friendly as the cute one at Publix so I bought some celery tonight. Sunday we went to the library and I checked out a stack full of books, most of them weren't worth their weight but the Secrets of Good-Carb Low Carb Living one was very encouraging and I highly recommend it. The balanced approach it gives to eating right and the reasonable recipes almost makes me want to buy it myself. Alas though I did not eat the salad I fixed to go with the Barilla Plus Rotini because I had to dart out the door as soon as Josh came home from his Mentoring to make it to the UPS center before it closed. I sold my advanced copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban on Ebay for over $150. The advance copy of a book that nobody wanted to read much less take it home when I worked at Barnes and Noble 10 years ago just made momma a few dollars. I may yet try to sell my Vera Bradley purse and see if I have as much luck as Robin. Did I mention that Josh made the appointment for me and took the day off to help with the kids school work...who indeed can find a more wonderful husband?

Tips Tuesday?

Last week's weigh in was traumatic. Thursday and Friday I cut out as many carbs as I could and limited them for a couple of days so I was curious yesterday when I was in Publix if it had made a difference. Yes it had. I had to get on the scale again when I left Publix to see if I saw right. It jump started my metabolism after the days of birthday special treats. Whether or not it will look like that on Wednesday I have no idea. I wondered if anyone had read anything about metabolism? Saw a snippit on GMA last week about glycemic index and that has been in the back of my mind. Don't have a bunch of time to spend on web searching (I am supposed to be homeschooling) but I did find this website with some sample menus:
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/dietandfitness/ediets/articles/0,,163560_659867,00.html
I lost a good amount of weight with the book put out by Curves before I was pregnant with Elise...still have the book it has a wonderful recipe for zucchini boats and stuffed mushrooms.
Everyone swears by portion sizes and the balanced meals of Weight Watchers but what if you could do a hybrid diet? Thursday and Friday last week I got in a good walk but haven't been able to walk again...had one scheduled for last night but I forgot about Josh's mentoring meeting. He is going to meet once a week with an inner city youth that went to a KidsAcrossAmerica camp with Second Mile Ministry. You could keep that in your prayers as he steps way out of his comfort zone to be salt and light.

What can I do? Wednesday

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

-verse of the day


Can I not be grumpy? That's all I really wanted to post, Elise peed in her pants after I ironed them...there was even a puddle on the floor. When was the last time she even had an accident? Emmett jumped on Stewart and Meanie! was heard throughout the house.
I did find a person to come take away some of my clutter today... saying goodbye to the adorable little desk we pulled from the side of the road during our hurricane displacement stay in Jensen.
Today is Stewart's birthday. He requested homemade cinnamon rolls and "real" bacon. (I usually use the precooked stuff from Sam's..no smokey stink and flying grease). He opened his present at breakfast...a huge Lego set I got on sale online.
I haven't walked all week...still doing my stretches and appendage circles but with much regret this week hasn't been productive toward losing weight. Tonight after I eat Publix birthday cake I will post whether or not the evening scale was my friend. What can I do?
The love affair with evening scales is over!
At 9pm my favorite scale said I had gained 1 & 1/2 lbs. Not really a big surprise, cinnamon rolls, cake, no exercise...even I can do that math. And the cinnamon rolls didn't turn out as good as they usually do which is no biggee except I had Josh take the extras into work not knowing they weren't that good so guess what I making again for tomorrow so the guys can really enjoy some cinnamon rolls. What can I do?

Miracle Monday

Realised at 8 tonight that we were out of creamer and tomorrow's coffee was not going to be fun with skim so I made the long trek to Publix (are you laughing?) On the way out I steped on the scales to see how hard I was going to have to work before Weigh-in-Wednesday and there was a miracle or serious malfunction with the scale because I was down 1 & 1/2! Maybe it was the celery and p-nut butter I had for lunch. They say celery burns more calories than it produces. Josh just came in and said I was a bloggin fool for posting 3 x in one day. If the shoe fits I guess. Season Finale of Fat March is tonight, better go. I did walk again today...wanted to say that too.

My own march

I wanted to start off my week at the Y and get back into my routine but I forgot Josh had taken the day off to work on my mother's house. One car = one destination. There is a park behind my mom's with a 2 mile loop so I walked it first thing. Portions were good yesterday but alas, there was a left over box of Good N Plenty from going to see Bourne Supremacy the day before with Josh and Susan. My heart beat so fast during that whole movie Susan thought I already had my cardio for the day. Walked over to pay the rent last night and was going to go on a little walk after but ended up talking with a neighbor and then ran into the John the maintenance guy who let me drive their riding lawn mower home. Susan laughed at the thought of me driving down the sidewalk of Atlantic Blvd on the Murry. (think N. Monroe) Anyway I trying to figure out when I can get in some exercise...Josh invited 4 people from Second Mile Ministries over for dinner tonight...going to try out the Barilla pasta that Melissa and Robin keep talking about, I picked some up at Sam's. March on Sisters!