Life...

My life has become full with many other things, and this journal is no longer high on my list of priorities. I am not going to abandon it though. Accurate and honest health information, body acceptance, eliminating prejudice against heavier people, and living a life full of passion, positivity, and play are all things that are near and dear to my heart. Expect sporadic updates when the need it there.

Product Review - Breyers Inspirations Mint Chocolate Chip Yogurt

As I have mentioned before, my partner is diabetic and works actively to reduce the carbs in her diet. She really loves ice cream, but it is not a particularly healthy food for her, and portion control is definitely a problem with a big carton in the freezer. Recently she has found a healthier way to satisfy her ice cream craving. She buys single serve containers of yogurt and freezes them. When she wants a treat, she empties a carton, drizzles on a little magic shell topping, and enjoys with less guilt than the real thing.

We have been experimenting with different flavors and brands of yogurt, and that has led to my kids getting into yogurt (both frozen and just refrigerated) too. I am not a big yogurt fan, but when I saw these new Breyers Inspirations, I had to give them a try. I love Breyers ice cream, and mint chocolate chip is one of my all time favorites! I have sensitive teeth and frozen yogurt can get very hard, so I decided to try my new treat straight from the refrigerator.

The first bite was disappointing. There was a very strong sour flavor. Now, I do know that yogurt has a sour flavor, but this flavor really didn't blend well with the peppermint flavor at all! The chocolate chips were really, really good. They clumped together and were had the delicious flavor of high quality chocolate. The texture was perfect. The chips melted on my tongue with none of the chalkiness that is often found in similar products. Also, there were a lot of chips! I finished the container, but the combination of sour-yogurty-ness and mint were so displeasing that I will not be buying this product again.

Not Your Ideal Weight Loss Food...

But I thought you all might want to know!

In the last few days, I have tried both deep fried pickle chips and deep fried macaroni and cheese for the first time. Neither sounded particularly appealing to me, but both turned out to be pretty good.

The pickle chips taste rather like deep fried zucchini, only tangier. Diana ate them with a sweet peanut sauce and really liked them. I do not like peanut sauces very much but found the pickle chips fairly tasty plain or dipped in sour cream. They were reminiscent of dill pickle potato chips which I do like, but they are not a particular favorite. My conclusion about the deep fried pickle chips was that although I do like them, I would probably not choose to eat them again unless perhaps I was sharing them with someone who had not ever tried them before. There are just too many other tasty foods that I would rather be eating.

The deep fried macaroni and cheese was similar to deep fried cheese sticks in flavor, but the presence of macaroni (which seems to me like something that just shouldn't be battered and deep fried) was a distraction. Again, although it was OK, I can't imagine eating it again.

Menu Plan Monday

The abbreviated version!

We have taken a temporary break from planning our evening meals or even making a big deal about preparing them. Life got really busy a couple of weeks ago, as you can tell from my last post, and even with menu plans, I was feeling really stressed out about dinner. I felt like it was a requirement that I follow this plan, and the truth was the food wasn't even getting eaten because we were all so busy and stressed.

I started just making what we wanted. I would make things that we healthy and quick for Diana and me, and I would ask the kids what they wanted and either make it for them or sometimes they preferred to make it themselves. Things have been going smoothly with the new plan although I doubt it will be a permanent thing. When my stress falls back down, maybe I'll be ready to return to formal dinners. We shall see!

Lack of Posts

Life has been pretty hectic around here with plenty of ups and downs, and I have not posted for the last few weeks because of it.

My daughter had her first child, my first grandchild, a boy - Benjamin Ian on August 11. I attended the birth in a doula capacity, and it was a wonderful experience that went better than I could have imagined. On August 12, my partner's stepfather died. He had been unconscious following brain trauma for several days, and we had been in Syracuse keeping watch with the rest of the family. It was a rather surreal experience, but one that reinforces my desire to live life to the fullest!

I will be back to regular updates soon.

Calorie Counting Websites

Whether for weight loss, a health issue, or just because you want more control over the food that you put into your body, many people use calorie counting websites to keep track of what they eat, exercise, and nutrition and fitness goals. The two big free sites seem to be FitDay and SparkPeople. I have used both extensively in the past.

I decided to take a few days and do a comparison of these two sites. I will be running through their "start-up" programs and recording the food that I eat at both sites. I am also going to look at a few other sites for comparison, especially those that are diabetic friendly since my girlfriend is a diabetic.

I will let you know my thoughts and impressions in the next few days!

Random Thoughts on Life Purpose

Steve Pavlina is a popular personal development blogger, and on occasion, I read his blog. I don't agree with everything he says, but he is interesting and every once in awhile has an idea that makes me think or gets me moving. One of his best ideas, in my opinion, is a simple method of discovering your life purpose. I will not give the details because in order to get the full benefit of this method I think you need to read his original post and really understand how it works for different people.

A few weeks back, I took the time to really put this method to work. I thought and thought and wrote and wrote. It did not take twenty minutes. It did not take 40 minutes. It took three days with about an hour devoted to the process each day before I was happy with the results. I shared them with Diana when she got home from work, and I think I was disappointed that she didn't share the joy and peace that I had found.

I set aside the results thinking that maybe they weren't as important as I thought that they were.

Fast forward to about a week ago when I wanted to look at this life purpose statement again. I opened the document where I had stored it, and it was GONE! Somehow the document no longer included my life purpose. I think I must have saved it wrong. Now, I do know that I copied and pasted this life purpose into Diana's IM window, and I could go look it up in my archives, but there isn't a really easy way to search Y!M archives so it would take a lot of time and effort.

Instead, I am letting go. If I needed that life purpose, it would be there.

I do still think that this process is valuable, and I would still like a life purpose statement whether fluid and static to keep me on an even keel when times get tough and to help me remember both who I am and where I am going, but I think this is not the right time to create it. I am still healing, and my mind swirls everywhere against my will. I need to do other things before that is going to happen and stick.

I am not blind to my life purpose though, and I would like to share bits and pieces that I know here. First and foremost, I need to live in the moment with trust. Next, I need to know and love myself. Piled on top of those two foundations, I need relationships with others, to gift freedom, and to preach important truths. Swirling around everything are walls of knowledge seeking and wisdom.