Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Monday, August 8, 2011

Sunday, August 7, 2011

5 Foods to Avoid

Condiments:
Condiments can turn your healthy, lean meal into a calorie binge.  Use condiments sparingly.  Dress your grilled chicken sandwich with lighter dressings such as mustard.  Give your salads a splash of balsamic vinaigrette.  Try some of Mrs. Dash’s salt free seasoning and add some lemon to flavor up a meal. 


Soda/Energy Drinks:
Need a pick-me-up to get through your day?  Skip the sodas and energy drinks.  Downing 2-3 of these a day can cost you anywhere from 200 – 600 extra calories a day and loads of sugar.  Not to mention what the cost of these will do to your pocketbook.  Grab a black coffee – and skip the sugar and cream!


White Sugar: 
This grainy, white, sweet additive is the culprit and main cause behind obesity.  White sugar creates the fat that clogs arteries and stores as body fat.  This little demon is found in sweets, condiments, and even processed meats.  Read your labels carefully.  Focus your diet on vegetables, fresh fruit, whole grains, lean meats, fish, and low-fat dairy products to avoid access added sugar.


Cheese:
Cheese is found on many dishes in America.  It tends to be the unnecessary addition to favorite foods from potatoes to chicken and broccoli alike.  Grilled chicken on its own can be a healthy low cal option, however adding calories worth of cheese to it makes it no longer a low cal option.  Try to avoid this by using salt-free seasonings to dress up your grilled chicken and broccoli.

White Flour:
White flour is found in everything from bread, pizzas, cakes, pastas, and cookies.  It is nutrient deplete due to it being a refined food.  Refined foods are those foods that have been so heavily processed, causing it to lose its nutritional value.  These refined foods consumed over time cause weight gain.  Replace your favorite pasta dish with whole wheat pasta.  Seek out whole wheat alternatives.  You will find they are easy to find and affordable.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

7 Months!


Happy 7 Months to my baby girl!  Can't wait to see what you do next!

Free Food and a Social Butterfly

One great thing about being in the military is all the offers and support you receive being a military family.  Last night, Lincoln Military Housing handed out free meals to all the San Onofre neighborhood residents.  Included was a family-size lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and a 2 liter of soda.  It was a quick easy meal that was free and tasted great.  Can't beat that! 

On another note, as I parked to go pick up my food, a little girl about 3 years old approached my car.  She was holding two dolls.  As I started to unload my stroller she came right up and wanted to chat with me and even asked me to go to the park with her.  She wanted to see the baby as well.  All I kept thinking was "where are her parents".  I know I was in a neighborhood so she could just be right outside her house but I was still looking around for her parents.  After I got the baby all set in the stroller she took off running to the park where there were other children.  This scenario makes me nervous as my little one grows up.  I am all for having an outgoing child as this little girl was, but where is the line?  She practically wanted to take a ride in my car with me and asked me to go to the park with her!  How do you tell your kids not to talk to strangers but to still be their outgoing selves free to be inviting to people?   What do you think?  What do you tell your children?

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

New and Final Look...at least for now

I know, I know.  I've changed the look of this new blog several times now.  But hey, I am new at this and still trying to figure out this whole blogging deal.  I found this Blogger template and it caught my eye as it had Alpha Sigma written all over it!  My fellow Sorority sisters from my college days would understand. 

Alpha Sigma is a local sorority at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  I pledged (affiliated to be politically correct) the sorority in the fall of 2001.  The mascot of Alpha Sigma is the owl.  Although, when you graduate you hand down your trusty owl collection to younger members to carry on, somehow we don't loose our eye for anything owl.  In fact, just the other day I received a gift from one of my closest friends Kelly:



My daughter has had owl shirts and now owl bibs.  I think this one is especially cute and I love that it is big because she is one messy eater!  

The owl template is here to stay!  ....at least for now anyways:)

Blogging Time

Sometimes I feel like I am going crazy being a stay-at-home Mom.  Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful and thankful that I get to spend so much time with my precious little one.  I get to see and experience everything new that she learns.  But recently, this little girl just wants Mommy 24/7.  If I walk away to get a diaper she is throwing a fit.  Mommy has stuff to do!!

My wonderful friend Becca (and Baby Nurse as I refer to her - she was present for the birth of my daughter while my Husband was deployed to Afghanistan) decided to watch her for me this last Thursday.  She wanted practice watching two kids, to see what it would be like.  And I needed time to actually get some things done around the house.  Needless to say, they had a blast.  And Mommy did too with a pot of coffee, country music on the radio, and blogging.