Eating to Live

“Eat to Live” that’s what my Mom brought me up to do. If you are asking yourself what that is, it’s making making healthy food choices when you eat. Have I always done this? No!

During the course of my marriage my ex taught me how to “live to eat.” The results of that was that I, who had NEVER needed to diet (In fact, at 5’8”and 117 lbs., I needed to put on weight.), gained so many pounds that before my marriage ended I’d gotten up to 197. It didn’t help that I was going into menopause at the time we got married or that I had a job that kept me up all night and asleep all day. My ex was a sedentary couch potato who was a better, if not healthier, cook than I was. He eventually developed Type II Diabetes, although not while we were together. I consider myself lucky to have avoided that dreaded disease.

Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to diet. It doesn’t mean you have to avoid your favorite foods either. It does mean you should make the effort to eat them in moderation and as often as possible make healthier choices if your favorites aren’t good for you. If you don’t believe me on the healthy choices thing just ask Sandi. That post, her last post in December of 2008, is about how her making one bad choice almost landed her in the hospital. Making healthy choices doesn’t have to be hard. It does mean you need to know what healthy choices are, exhibit a little self control from time to time (This gets easier with practice!), and provide yourself with options at the dinner table so you don’t suffer feelings of deprivation.

I do my choosing by portion control, picking low sodium foods, and trying to avoid fat. I’m not perfect at this by any stretch of the imagination. Breads and crackers are my downfall. Get a package of cinnamon graham crackers around me and watch the pounds pile on. But I try my best not to keep the things I know will cause a weight gain in my pantry. And yes, that includes cinnamon grahams.

I wean myself off of bad choices if I learn I’m making them. I did this with milk in my marriage. He wanted whole milk. I discovered you could bake with 2% milk so I suggested this. We agreed it would be better and the change in fat wasn’t significant taste wise, so after 3 or 4 weeks of drinking that we were adapted to a lower fat milk. Then I suggested low fat or 1% because I needed the extra calcium in my diet and it was a better choice. For some reason when you reduce fat in milk the amount of calcium you get is increased. He agreed again so it was another step down. Then a few months later we went down to skim milk. This worked really well till his sister came for a visit. When she called our skim milk “chalk water” he immediately wanted to go back up to a higher fat content version. We did for a while and then went back down again. LOL You can probably guess from all of the above that eating healthy was a constant battle during our marriage. He was doing most of the cooking and would always be adding a little extra this or that into the food to “make it taste better.” As soon as our marriage ended the weight started dropping off and I went down to 145, a healthy weight for me.

I’m 155 pounds these days and I know I could easily drop the extra 10 pounds if I would exercise regularly. I still retain some of that couch potato habit I gained during my marriage, although it’s actually more of a desk chair habit as I spend most of my time at the computer these days. I’m working on the exercise thing. For some reason I find self control with exercise harder than with food. Oh well, resolutions are as easy to make as they are to break and all I have to do to get back on track is make a new one and I’ll work at it for a few days which is better than none at all. But enough about me.

The reason I started this now pretty long post (It wasn’t intended to be that, honest!), was to share a website that shows you how to make those healthy food choices by providing you with the info you need to make them. It’s Eat This, Not That! a page sponsored by Women’s Health magazine and also Men’s Health. They cover a full range of food choices and places where you might need to make them like eating out or the convenience store aisle. I’ve been following them through Yahoo, and then Google reader. I’ve found reason to share their articles with friends and family. You might find some of their info handy in the grocery store or at your favorite fast food restaurant. Their Best & Worst articles cover everything from gender health to sex. And there are lots of better choices for kids mentioned too. I hope you’ll make the time to check them out. Maybe it will help you make different choices the next time you hit the grocery store. Bon appétit!

A DIY Beauty Bath

Back in the 70s I acquired a book about natural beauty treatments. This was the era of communes and going natural. They call it green and Do It Yourself (DIY) today. I wish I still had that book. It was useful and interesting to read. I didn’t put a lot of the natural methods into frequent use but I tried several of them at the time. The one I remember the best was for a beauty bath. I used for years and recently revived part of it.

It seems that back in the days of Cleopatra she liked to take beauty baths. Being rich she would indulge in a milk bath. She had the milk of asses poured into her sunken tub. I imagine it was the size of a small swimming pool or so the movies showed us. That may be the fancy of some film genius but most of us don’t have tubs that large. The book told me you could recreate this effect by pouring 1 or 2 cups (maybe 3) of powdered milk into your bath. I guess the more water you put in the more powdered milk you use. The milk is soothing and softens the skin. It doesn’t leave you smelling strange and I rather liked the results.

The other part of my remembered beauty bath included the use of salt. Sea Salt was recommended but you could use regular table salt if that was too pricey. So that’s what I would do. You pour a small pile of salt into the palm of your hand. Then you drip a few drops of water on to the dry pile to make it into a paste like consistency. You have to be careful here because too many drops of water and you’ve got salt water which won’t help with the next step. After you’ve dampened the salt, take a little of it and scrub your skin with it. This exfoliates the skin and does not hurt your ph balance. Warning though, if you have any open sores it will sting a bit. After scrubbing to your hearts content rinse and you’ve got inexpensive exfoliated skin that is much smoother.

I did these two things in the same bath. The results were skin that felt like velvet afterwards. I mentioned it to a guy once and upon stroking the skin along my arm he was impressed. The part I’ve revived for the time being is the salt portion. This is so inexpensive that almost anyone can do it. I even used it on my face and am pleased to say that this morning my facial skin feels smoother than it usually does after a nights sleep. So if you want to try this feel free. It doesn’t cost much for salt although powdered milk may seem a little dear. Considering the price of commercial bath exfoliating scrubs and softening soaks I think it’s worthy substitute. Hope you’ll let me know if you try it.

Response to Sandi's "Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette"

That was one great post Sandi did. I loved that she is supporting good health and decrying a seriously addictive and unhealthy habit. Even more, I loved the trek down memory lane that her use of the song lyrics took me on. When I was attending San Marcos Academy and in my senior year, all the seniors would go over to the headmaster's house and have social gatherings. One of us was really good at the piano and would play popular songs for us to sing. I'm sure Headmaster Doncaster and his wife liked it as much as we did. One of our more popular numbers was the song, Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette" which was made popular by Tex Williams. Since Sandi brought the lyrics up I thought it might be nice to let you all hear the whole song. So I culled it from YouTube. Enjoy! And if you smoke, please stop!

Fighting the Flu Pandemic

My friend, Susan, tagged me to write about the flu pandemic. She finds it a serious subject. Me too! I can catch the flu and have done so lots of times. You can catch it too. It is never a fun thing to have.

Work places are good places to catch the flu. I'm not claiming any prizes for the education system here but schools are some of the best. Every year sick children are sent to school by their parents because the parent can't get a sitter and doesn't want the kid home. Kids don't know from hygiene. They cough and don't cover their mouths. They don't wash their hands frequently. They swap all kinds of things which can carry the flu virus on it. There is a persistent rumor in public schools that new teachers get sick the most frequently. That might be true. My first year in public education I caught cold after cold and at least twice there were flu symptoms.

There are things you can do to prevent the flu. You can get a shot. These used to require a visit to the doctor. Not anymore. I can get mine at the pharmacy at my local grocery store. Yep, run to HEB, pick up milk, bread, and a flu shot. There are free flu clinics if you are a veteran. Just go to your local VA clinic and ask about getting a shot. Lots of intelligent companies now get shots brought in to their employees. Many don't charge for this either as it saves them tons of money in absenteeism.

If you aren't sure where to go get a flu shot the National Lung Association has a web site that will help you find one. Just go here. To help you learn how to prevent the flu the Center for Disease Control has also put together a web site here. If you catch the flu there are some things you can do to help get over it more quickly and lessen the symptoms. Once again the American Lung Association comes to our aid with this web site.

There are lots of other things you can do to help prevent the spread of flu. Get your shot. Wash your hands frequently. This is always a good idea but especially if anyone you come into contact with is sick. Take a good multivitamin so that you don't get sick. My second year in education I took vitamins daily and hardly had a sick day that entire year even though lots of the kids were sick. If you get sick, STAY HOME! Don't go to the office where you can spread it around. Your body needs the rest and your co-workers will appreciate you more for not getting them sick than they will for you coming to work because you think your company can't survive without you.

Now a warning about getting the flu vaccine. Follow the precautions that the experts have announced and advertised. These are vital to your safety. An acquaintance of mine died from her flu shot. She was elderly, had just gotten her shot, and went to take her dance lesson which she loved doing. While on the dance floor with her instructor she collapsed and wasn't able to breath. The really sad thing was that no one at the dance center knew CPR so we were helpless to do much for her till the ambulance arrived. By then it was too late.

All that being said, please take good care of yourself, do what you can to keep from catching the flu and if you find the time and heart to be generous, help someone else get a flu vaccine too. They, God and the rest of the world will thank you for that act of kindness.

Now, in the interest of spreading this information and also in the interest of the health of our children, I tag my good friend JSD because she is a mother and her wife is also a mother and a teacher.

Home sick - day 2

Yesterday was a day of rest with lots of coughing. I managed to get down plenty of fluids but ran a fever of 100 in the late afternoon. That prompted me to call in sick for another day. I want to be well on the road to recovery when I go back to work.

I'm not getting anything done today except sleep and see the PC. Sadly, that means that I will miss the new Tuesday night extension of Sunday school. Oh well, I can start it up next week. I do love the teachers and the course promises to be interesting. It's on Revelations.

On a cheerful note, my friend Susan's mother came through her surgery well and we are all relieved. Praise God!

Home sick - Moderately productive

Sometime during the past week I caught a cold. It manifested itself this weekend in the form of a fairly vicious headache and a very painful sore throat. This is a one sided sore throat and hurt so much that at 3:30 AM Sunday morning I was online researching symptoms of strep throat. I decided that I don't have it based on 2 things. I don't have a high fever. I do have sinus drainage. So I'm probably dealing with a regular viral cold and just feel awful. I called in sick for today and will probably be home in bed tomorrow too. I feel that bad. That's rare for me this year. Mostly my health has been good thanks to vitamins and frequent hand washing. Since I work at a public school those two measures seem to be vital to maintain good health. One of the desires of every public school teacher is that parents would not use the school as a baby sitting service when their children are sick. If you child is sick they need to be home in bed, not at school feeling crummy and making their teachers' lives miserable. That doesn't cover the fact that children who go to school sick spread their germs around and then everyone gets sick.

So, here I am at home, reading email, trying to get rest, and feeling I need to use the time productively. To accomplish the productivity I went searching for my student teaching packet, a task which got a lot of trash papers thrown away, and proceeded to take care of two necessary pieces of business. I emailed the student teaching department and confirmed my intent to student teach. I then went online and registered for that course for this fall. Yes folks, it's official! I will student teach in fall of 2007.

That's one of the things that has been worrying me of late. I am quite the perfectionist, so of course I want to do well. I also want to do my student teaching in a place that will put me in a good position to get a job when I'm done. I think I have that managed. I'm on my districts list as a student teacher and have written the student teaching coordinator (at her request) with my preferences for campus choices. Hopefully I'll get one of them.

This also puts pressure on me to update my resume, get letters of recommendation from teachers I've worked with, and make sure my financial ducks are in order for the fall. Thankfully I've done my taxes so I can reapply for student loans. They should meet the needs I have for that semester. I'm going to have to quit my job at the middle school. That makes me nervous. You do better looking for a job if you have one already. But you can't student teach and hold down a 40 hour a week job.

At some point I should probably go over my wardrobe and weed out the stuff I no longer wear, get some new shoes for work, and make sure I have enough professional outfits that I can wear to teach in. Fortunately, my beloved sister bought me a nice professional looking suit for Christmas. I already have enough short sleeved sweaters to wear with it and think I only need some nice discrete jewelry to add to the quality of the look.

With that being said, I'm now pretty much exhausted and am planning on heading back to bed for some more rest. Please keep me in your prayers for returning health and also for the upcoming semesters.

Peace!