Healthy Lunch #2

Just like the last lunch idea, this one is super fast, easy, and HEALTHY! If you're trying to watch your weight, struggle with conditions like diabetes, or just want easy and healthy ideas for feeding your family, here ya go! This is one of our favorite hot-day lunches. Wraps!

Our favorite healthy wrap includes:

-Flatout brand WHEAT flat bread
-Organic Romaine lettuce
-Organic celery
-Organic carrots
-Bell Pepper
-2% American Cheese
-Sliced Turkey
-Ranch Dressing (not pictured)

In our house, we have two kinds of wraps made with these ingredients. Madison's favorite: The Veggie Wrap.

I simply peel a carrot's skin off and then continue to peel the rest of the carrot onto a plate. Then I thinly slice a celery stick, chop some Bell Pepper, and break off a couple of lettuce leaves.


Pile it into an open piece of flat bread and drizzle on a bit of ranch dressing. (I use fat free for mine, regular for the kids'... remember, kids NEED FAT for brain development! HEALTHY FATS!) Roll it up, slice it for easier eating, and serve with your choice of healthy sides!

Here is Madison's plate. Today our sides were sliced strawberries (it is the perfect time to buy strawberries! They are fully ripened and on sale in most stores.) and blueberry yogurt for dipping the strawberries. This is an amazing source of all kinds of vitamins, minerals, protein (from the whole grains in the flat bread and the yogurt), and calcium!

For my own wraps, I like to throw some turkey breast into a nonstick skillet. (nothing added) I simply brown it up for a minute or two, melt 1/2 a piece of sliced cheese onto it, and throw it into the flat bread. Then I pile on lettuce and bell peppers for flavor. (I also like to cook onion strings with my turkey if I have it.. yum-o!) My sides of choice were sliced strawberries and celery and carrots with a side of fat free ranch dressing.

This was A LOT of food. The kids can typically only eat one half of a wrap (so it's a cheap and very healthy meal!) and if I eat a whole one, I'm full for hours! This meal is basically free of all empty calories. Your body can use nearly every single thing you ingest with a lunch like this! You will feel full, not bloated and yucky, after eating something like this.

Hope you give it a try and let me know how your kids (and husbands!) react! Healthy eating does not have to be expensive or a ton of work. You can do it!

Pantry Revamp

In a quest to save money I have been trying to spend much less when shopping for groceries. This is no small task in today's economic climate. I reluctantly stopped paying double for organic apples, yet stuck to my guns on cheaper organics like carrots, celery, raisins, applesauce, and other veggies. Cutting back on items we typically keep in stock did help us save money. Sometimes, quite a bit of money.

The problem with all of this saving money showed up yesterday. While standing in the kitchen, going back and forth between the refrigerator and the pantry, I finally threw my hands into the air and asked aloud, "What's all of this crap?!!" My once healthy and colorfully festive fridge shelves and drawers were now much more bare and only held things like hot dogs and cheese. The pantry that was once full of dried fruits and whole wheat snacks was now housing off-brand potato chips and cheap, sugar-filled, bagged cereals. "What happened here?!"

So, deciding I would no longer settle for such poor quality foods for my family, I carefully wrote out a shopping list for this morning. Time to get back on track! I planned out the meals I would make, complete with healthy proteins, veggies, and whole grains. Then, off to Walmart I went, afraid of what the cost would be at the end.

I walked the aisles, looking for my once regular healthy words on labels. I opted for Whole Wheat Ritz crackers over the regular. (same price, just healthier!) I paid a bit extra for some organics, like those mentioned above, but not enough to break the bank. I swapped regular hotdogs for turkey franks (much fewer calories, no fat, and great taste!) and white bread hogdog buns for whole wheat buns. Cereals were carefully examined for sugar and fiber content and picked according to what tasted the best, for the best health value. Amazingly, the ones I selected were the same price, or cheaper, than the sugary alternatives.

Now comes the budget breaker. THE PRODUCE SECTION. It is astonishing how much certain fruits and veggies can cost. I scanned each row carefully and decided to save some money by picking Romain lettuce that was simply tied up and unbagged (the less packaging on any product, the cheaper it will be) that I can wash and chop myself. I spent a bit extra for the organic raisins and such, so I figure it all balances out.

I had some larger purchases to make as well, like a huge bag of dog food. (about $18 for Maximum Nutrition.. which is probably the best brand Walmart carries and very comparable to high dollar Feed Store brands.)

I walked to the checkout line, with my stomach feeling a bit knotted with fear I would have spent way more than usual. As I put my healthy purchases on the conveyor belt, and watched them all being scanned, I held my breath. Checkbook in hand, I almost wanted to close my eyes when I knew the total was about to flash. $140 later I had stayed close to our budget (dog food included!) and had a basket full of healthy food. This will feed our family for the week - breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks. Hooray!

I could have gotten more food for the same amount of money if I would've gone with the choices I was making over the past few weeks. However, this amount of food is plenty for our family... we'll just have to re-learn how to balance meals and snacks and not allow constant eating "just because."

Has anyone else realized they are settling for less quality for better prices when it comes to food shopping?

Super Easy Way to Be Greener Today

A lot of people seem overwhelmed by all of the "going green" talk. They don't know where to start or what to do so, instead, they stick their heads in the sand and let the few environmentally conscious folks in the world try to save it, almost single handed. To stop this from happening in my little area of the world, I'm going to try to come up with ridiculously easy ways that every family can green up, if only just a little.

Super Easy Way to Green Up #1 - STOP THROWING FOOD AWAY

Of course no one supports the waste of food in general, but we Americans still waste a ton of food. From what I've read, Americans throw away 1/3 of the food we purchase. Yikes... that's a lot! Whether it's produce that's gone bad or food that the kids wouldn't eat, our trash cans see a lot of food action. Throwing food in the trash probably seems like an innocent occurrence, right? WRONG. Did you know that when food sits in trash bags in landfills, it produces methane gas? Did you also know that methane gas is actually more harmful to our O-zone than the much talked about CO2 that our cars produce? Am I getting your attention yet?

The methane gas just continues to accumulate in each food polluted garbage bag until that bag either gets torn by the usual activities at your typical dump, or the bag breaks down enough on its own to allow openings, and then all of that O-Zone breaking gas floats right up into our atmosphere. MMMmmm... breathe it in America.

So, what's the solution? It could not be any easier folks. Simply stop pouring your leftovers and other food waste into the trash can. Dump it in a compost pile or a worm farm to create top of the line soil for your next garden. If you lack a green thumb and have enough land, simply take it to the corner of your yard and return it to the earth it came from.

This is just one of the insanely easy ways any family can be a little greener. If EVERYONE simply refused to toss food into garbage bags, think of what a tremendous difference it could make in our planet's health.

Green Our Vaccines

Going Green is a word we're all hearing quite a lot in present day, but one thing you may not think of greening-up is our infant and children vaccinations. Since my little guy is still receiving vaccinations, this is a hot-topic issue each time I visit the doctor's office.

I made the controversial decision to slightly delay both of my boy's vaccinations. I will only allow, at maximum, two shots at a time. They push for the standard four and I simply put my foot down. With my first child it never occurred to me that I had the final say over what happened at the doctor's office. If the doctor said, "She needs four shots today." I silently disagreed, but went along with his decision because I assumed he knew best. After doing exhausting research, reading views from both sides of the vaccination debate, I have decided that not vaxing is not an option, but neither is vaxing on the standard schedule.

I found a snippet from a website that explains fairly well why I am joining the movement to green-up our vaccinations. It is explaining the harmful chemicals found in MANY brands of vaccinations.

(http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/web5.html)
Some of these chemicals and elements include formaldehyde which is commonly used to embalm corpses and is a known carcinogen (capable of causing cancer), thiomersal, a derivative of mercury which is a toxic heavy metal, aluminium phosphate which is a toxin used in deodorants. Other toxic ingredients include phenol (carbolic acid), alum (a preservative), and acetone which is a volatile solvent used in fingernail polish remover.

In many children, the retention of vaccine poisons within the body may not cause any acute or noticeable symptoms, but it will cause a lowering of the child's vitality, which in turn, weakens and impairs it's intellectual, creative and imaginative powers, it's physical energy and strength, and all of its internal metabolic functions and immune activities. What this means is that the child will operate at a level well below its true potential.

Medical professionals and some scientists continue to convince us that there is no link between autism and vaccinations; considering they are hand in hand with the pharmaceutical companies makes me wary of believing them. How can pumping this amount of chemicals into our INFANTS at such young ages cause absolutely no harm or change to their little bodies? I'm not buying it.

(http://www.gulfwarvets.com/kids.htm)
Since the 1930s, when children often received just one vaccination, many immunizations have contained a 49.6 percent mercury preservative called thimerosal. Most children today receive 33 doses of 10 vaccines by age 5, generally receiving several vaccines per visit on their immunization schedules. Reports surfaced in 1999 that infants being vaccinated using multi-dose vials, such as hepatitis B and MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), with thimerosal can receive 62.5 micrograms of mercury per visit. This is 100 times the exposure federal Environmental Protection Guidelines consider safe for the average-sized infant, as mercury is known to cause neurotoxicity and brain damage that mirrors the symptoms of autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, is encouraging the development of thimerosal-free doses and has withdrawn its recommendation that infants receive the thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine at birth. However, the CDC maintains that mercury in vaccines never has caused an adverse reaction and is not pulling thimerosal-containing vaccines off the shelves.

If this isn't cause for concern, then what is?

With my fears overwhelming me, I took my little guy to our favorite place to get immunizations... our county health department. The nurses there are simply wonderful. They have more information to share on a variety of topics as compared to the nurses at our Dr's office that simply tend to shrug and say, "Umm..I really don't know."

I spoke with two nurses when I went to get one of Samuel's shots a few weeks ago. We talked about how he had four immunizations he needed and I explained to them my fears, especially taking into consideration one was the MMR. (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) We talked about what brand of vaccines they use there and what ingredients they contain. They admitted they had no idea... but they did assure me that the health department ONLY buys thimerosal free products. They offered to get the ingredient information for me the next time I came in.

Yesterday was the next time I was there, and true to their word they had pulled the ingredient lists for two of the vaccinations I was possibly getting for Samuel that day. We reviewed it together and I was delighted to see that this brand was completely preservative free. The nurse said that that wasn't surprising to her because, "these immunizations have a very short shelf life, and we have to be extremely careful with the temperatures they're kept in and how they're handled." THANK YOU HEALTH DEPARTMENT! Samuel received his two big mean shots and we will go back in a month or so for one more, and I will possibly delay his MMR until next year. More research on my part will help me decide.

So, you might be wondering, why don't all doctor's offices buy the same kind of vaccines as our health department?

The answer: money and convenience. Would you want to buy a cheaper, longer lasting product that requires less caution when handling, or a shorter lasting, more work on your part product?

Thankfully, many responsible doctor's offices are signing up to go as green as possible with vaccinations.. but you need to be sure your doctor is one of them. Simply ask for the ingredients list off of the vaccinations your infant/child needs. It is really that easy. This easy request could potentially make a difference in the overall health and life of your child.

If you are interested in a delayed vaxing schedule, Dr. Sears and Dr. Cave both offer them. (Dr. Sear's site is linked on my site.)

She's so my daughter

Reading Madison's journal from school this past year has given me so much insight into how very much the same she and I are. Especially with this entry:

RAINFORESTS

Rainforests are endangered.

Here are some of the animals names, toucan, boa, monkey, crocodile.

There are not manny golden lions, tamarin, and monkeys.

It would be nice if the men would quit cutting down trees.

Thar are manny animals. Peopol need to try harder to save the rainforest.

I wish I cold save the rainforest.

Do you want to save the rainforest?

I kept the spellings the same b/c I find it pretty cute that she can spell endangered and tamarin

yet mispelled people and could.

She has such a heart for animals and the environment already... I vividly remember having those same feelings at her age. My parents were so great, most of the time, at letting me adopt random dogs and cats that would wander up to our house. We're the same here. We feed pretty much every dog in the neighborhood that is in need.

Madison and I talked about recycling the other day, as I had her help me carry cans and cardboard to our recycling 'bin.' She said she is so happy that she gets to help save paper so that animals homes don't get destroyed. Ditto.

Mercury in CFL bulbs

Anyone that is the least bit environmentally conscious, or financially looking for savings, has invested in the new CFL bulbs. (compact florescent lighting) Here's what one brand says about CFL bulbs:

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Earning the Government's ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs:
-ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
-Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime.
-Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
-Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.

Well, that sounds mighty fine if you ask me! These are the reasons we have almost only CFL bulbs in our home. Can I tell you that the fact that it's been probably over a year since we had to change a light bulb is reason enough to use these? So, imagine my surprise when I stumbled across an article on mercury dangers from CFL bulbs. "what?!" I had to do some research and share what I found. Here's the gist of it from http://www.snopes.com/ :

-CFLs contain mercury, a dangerous substance: True.

-While mercury stays safely contained in intact CFLs, it escapes from broken CFLs into the immediate surroundings: True.

-The amount of mercury contained in one CFL bulb poses a grave danger to a home's inhabitants: False.

-But folks do need to handle the breakage of a CFL bulb with a great deal of care and follow certain procedures in removing the broken bulb and its contents from the home: True.

-An environmental clean-up crew needs be called in to deal with the mercury dispersed by one broken CFL bulb: False.

...they also contain mercury, a fact that causes no small amount of concern in light of how dangerous that substance is. Yet the amount housed in each bulb is very small, about 5 milligrams, which is about the size of the period at the end of a sentence. And, provided the bulbs aren't broken open, none of that leaches into the home. Like batteries, used CFLs need to be disposed at a toxic waste depot rather than tossed out with the ordinary household trash. Because mercury is cumulative, this poisonous element would add up if all the spent bulbs went into a landfill. Instead, the mercury in dead bulbs is reclaimed at such depots and recycled. As to the potential for harm posed by mercury escaping from broken bulbs, says the King County Hazardous Waste Program: "Crushing and breaking fluorescent lamps release mercury vapor and mercury-containing phosphor powder. These can be difficult to contain." Yet the recommended clean-up process does not involve calling in a HazMat team. Says the EPA...

Long story short, CFL bulbs are still the best choice environmentally speaking, as long as you continue to do the environment some good and recycle them or take them to be properly disposed of once they go dark. Whew! I can continue to be a lazy bum and not have to spend my days changing and re-changing light bulbs!

Why Recycle?

Here are some recycling facts I found on http://www.dosomething.org/ Hopefully it will encourage those of you that are not currently recycling, to start.

FACT 1
Paper products make up 40% of all trash. That can all be recycled!
FACT 2
The highest point in Ohio is a literally a garbage dump that is now called Mount Rumpke.
FACT 3
Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups that cannot decomposed or be recycled.
FACT 4
Only about 30% of paper, trash, and food waste is recycled.
FACT 5
17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water can be saved by recycling 1 ton of paper!
FACT 6
80% of papermakers in America use at least some form of recycled materials to create new paper.
FACT 7
Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour!
FACT 8
Recycled plastic is can be made into polyester carpets, plastic lumber, clothing, flower pots, insulation for sleeping bags & ski jackets, car bumpers and other products.
FACT 9
All soda cans are made from aluminum. Each American uses about 400 cans a year. If aluminum is recycled, 95% less energy is used than if it were made from scratch.
FACT 10
Cell phones, computers, and other technology release toxins into the environment when they are thrown away. The only way to stop the pollution is to recycle them.
FACT 11
Although 75% of our trash can be recycled, the EPA set a national goal of 25% for 1992.
FACT 12
The first real recycling program was introduced in New York City in the 1890s. The city's first recycling plant was built in 1898.By 1924, 83% of American cities were separating some trash items to be reused.
FACT 13
About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material!
FACT 14
Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted.
FACT 15
One-third of the water used in most homes is flushed down the toilet.
FACT 16
A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

Why Organic?

I've had a few conversations lately with some friends that are hopping on the organic buying bandwagon and we've all been asked so many times, "Why buy organic?" It costs more for the same thing! Sometimes quite a lot more! Here's why:

http://www.treehugger.com/ (found on Oprah's website)

Though known colloquially as food that is grown more healthily (and is more expensive), in order for organic food to be certified as such, it must be produced under specific, legally-regulated standards and be subject to testing in order to retain certification.
In agriculture, this means that crops were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without food additives (like chemical preservatives). When it comes to animals, they must be reared without the routine use of antibiotics and growth hormones and fed a diet of organic foods. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified.

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about organic food is the relationship between legal (usually government) oversight and production of food employing earth-friendly practices. In order to be "certified," organic food -- and the farm it was grown on -- must apply for certification, pass a rigorous series of tests, and pay a fee for the process. In the US, this process is regulated by the US Department of Agriculture; as a government agency, it's subject to politicization and changing rules as different administrations and individuals assert their influence. As such, all "certified" organic food is organic, but not all organic food is certified. This, in part, has led to the increasing popularity of local food over organic food.

The biggest criticism of organic food, though, is the price premium. According to the Journal of Food Science, organic products typically cost 10 to 40% more than similar, conventionally-produced products. Prices tend to be higher because organic produce is produced on a smaller scale, and may need to be milled or processed separately; some of the price premium is likely to decrease as organic produce continues to scale up. Organic foods also tend to include more of the environmental costs that conventional agriculture tends to externalize. So, you're paying more for what's not in your food (pesticides, hormones, etc.) and you're paying more of the actual cost of food production, because things like pesticides aren't being passed along to the environment where friendly fuzzy bunnies and clear-running spring water pay for them.

This is just a bit of the article I read that I liked. We don't eat all organic foods, but that's mainly b/c there's just a lack of organics in our area. If you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, buy organic only for foods that you eat the entire thing. Like apples for example. Apples, by the way, are considered to have one of the highest amounts of pesticide usage when growing... so it really pays to spend the extra cash for USDA certified organic apples. WalMart carries them now! In a bag for your convenience. :) Just wanted to throw some info out there for any that were interested. I've really been on a healthy home/ healthy environment kick... I guess it just seems to make sense to be! Sorry if you guys couldn't care less about the going green/organic stuff... I'll probably be blogging about it a bit more in the future!

I'm going to do it!

So, the holidays are over, spring is just 3 months away, and in a few more months the "I just had a baby" excuse is going to sound quite silly. Yep, I'm doing it. I'm back in action! Sickness, no sleep, and holiday goodies had me down and defeated for a while, but I'm back up and rearing to go! I'm GOING to lose these last 10 pounds. I've pulled out ALL of my exercise videos. From kickboxing to Pilates, from step aerobics to yoga. I've been doing one a night for the past 3 nights and will do the same here on out, just like I did pre trying to get pregnant and pre having the miracle baby. Time to get back to me again. I feel SO good already. Just taking 30 minutes to an hour a day to exercise.. all for ME! Every mom should do it. It's amazing what an attitude change it gives me and how energized I am. I literally drag myself to the dvd player to pop something in... dreading each workout. "I'm sooo.... tired." "I only got 3 hours of sleep, total, last night." "It's just going to make me more hungry...." But, low and behold, as soon as I finish I feel FAB-U-LOUS! It's hard finding the time, I won't lie to ya. Clayton's back on working as much overtime as possible (paying off credit cards is our top priority right now... we're really doing great too!) so I'm here alone with the kids A LOT. But, once I get Sam down for a nap I banish the kids from my workout area and threaten them with their lives if they wake the baby or fight with each other or otherwise interrupt me during MY 30 minutes. Ahh... bliss. I've thrown away almost all of the junk food in the house. I just have a few plain M&M's on hand for emergencies. (which come up at least once a day... but a handful does the trick!) Adding more protein to my diet, and back to organic and natural foods. White stuff is being phased out again. (much to my husband's dismay) Tonight I made tacos and was thrilled to discover that Wally World now carries a whole wheat tortilla wrap and it's delicious!! I could eat them plain to be honest. I'll slowly replace most beef with turkey. Apple slices with peanut butter will replace crackers with cheese. So, if you see me in the produce section, look out! I'm on a mission. I get serious around grapes, cucumbers, apples, and celery! And, if you notice that I'm slowly shrinking down to my old self, don't hesitate to give me a pat on the back. Seriously... it's HARD to get into a healthy lifestyle again and anyone that succeeds at it deserves a hug or something. I'll make sure to give you one if you follow my lead and do the same! Come on... I'll do it with you! I'm full of good healthy living advice, even if I don't always follow it myself. lol

Thank you!

Thank you Hyland's Teething Tablets for making my baby boy smile again! Wow, these things are like a miracle sent directly to Earth from God's hand. I could hear the angels singing as my all day screaming baby drifted peacefully to sleep last night with no tears. My baby that as been biting me every single time I've nursed him for days on end, nursed with zero bites after the two itty bitty tablets. The baby boy that's only slept for about 45 minutes at a time, day and night, only woke twice between the hours of 9pm and 6am to eat and then go right back to sleep. Yes... a miracle indeed!! I will forever sing the praises of Hyland's Teething Tablets! Expect it in any baby shower gift bag I put together from now on.