Review Wednesdays - Life's Little Pleasures

Chocolate. Mmmmmmmmm. 98% of women love their chocolate, especially in times of great hormonal shift. The other 2% are weirdoes or allergic ;) I made those numbers up in case you felt like quoting me. You should believe only 33% of what you read online.

I love a nice dark chocolate. Not too dark, about 70% is perfect for me. It is creamy without being milky, and just bitter enough without being chalky like some of the darker chocolate. I have been a fan of Lindt for years. It is easy to find, moderately priced, and yummy. Plus, they make cute bunnies out of the stuff at easter. Everyone loves a good bunny ear on occasion.

When grocery shopping last week, I stumbled upon a new chocolate in the grocery store's organic aisle named Green and Blacks. I decided to take 2 of them home to sample, in the name of research of course. The first a 70% dark, the second, Maya Gold, a dark chocolate with a hint of orange and spice. OMG!! It is the perfect blend of all things good. Maya Gold is my new addiction. It's a good thing I am also addicted to squats.

Patience

I am sitting here watching the teenage girl across the street back her mom's car out of the garage. She is obviously new to being behind the wheel, and is quick on the gas and brake. Her mother, pretending to tend to her gardening, looks on in amusement. Although I can't see her face, I am sure there is a wince there as the young girl grinds the gears. The girl steps out of the car and both mother and daughter start giggling about the situation. As I sit here watching them with a smile on my face, in awe at how cool and calm the mother is, I can't help but wonder how I will react when Sophie gets older and starts trying out new things. Will I be as patient and easy-going? Or will I be frustrated and short? I am hopeful that I can look back on my own first experiences, remember how challenging the world can be when you are learning, take a deep breath and not sweat the small stuff. Because ultimately, even though the car across the street may need a new clutch and brake pads in the near future, that's a small price to pay for fond memories of the giggles shared over the new adventure.

-jl

Review Wednesdays

It is odd for me to post about household cleaning products, because I hate to clean. Well, "hate" is a strong term. I have much better things to do with my time, like watching Ellen, surfing and blogging.

I like the house to be clean, but I don't obsess over it. It gets done...eventually. What I do like, are products that make cleaning easier. Enter the Swiffer Vac. (Does this sound like an infomercial yet?) Mom told me to buy it. Moms are always right....right?
With 2 cats and hardwood in every room, the little fuzzballs and dustbunnies are a plenty. The Swiffer vac has a light suction vac on the front of the sweeper and a regular swiffer base for the clothes that fir right behind the vacuum suction thingy. I used to go through about 4 swiffer clothes to get all the cat hair. Now the cat hair gets sucked up into the canister, and the clothes picks up what's left over. Takes 5 minutes to do the main floor, and 1 cloth. Now, if only I could teach the cats to use it, life would be good.

-jl

Firsts

There are a lot of firsts, that as adults, we can't remember.
Having a child means you get to experience these firsts all over again.
Yesterday, Sophie had 2 new firsts. Her first ride in a playground swing, and her first taste of yogurt.
We went for a walk in the beautiful sunshine, and found ourselves at the local playground. Sophie was a little on the cranky side because lately she doesn't like to be strapped down in her stroller. She would prefer the floor so that she can slither around on her tummy. I thought I would take her out of the stroller at the playground to let her wiggle a little and have a bit of fun before turning around to go back home. She started eyeing the swings so I thought, "why not!?" I squeezed her chunky monkey legs through the legholes of the swing seat and just let her sit for a minute to gauge her reaction. Not so sure. She just started at me like "What the hell is this?" I lightly pushes the swing and her eyes lit up and she gave me a big cautious grin. She loved when that the swing would take her away from me and then push her really close to me. It was a total game to her. Near and far, near and far. I felt like Grover on Sesame Street. In true Sophie form, the fun ended after about 2.5 minutes and she wanted out, as indicated by her upreaching arms and an insistent "AH".

Later, following her afternoon nap, I decided to introduce her to yogurt. I thought she might reject it given she tends to prefer veggies over fruits. Man, was I wrong! After eating some mushy peas and carrots, I opened the container of nice whole milk organic yogurt. She eyed it suspiciously. What was this new item? Intrigued, she opened her mouth and I gave her a small taste to test the waters. She usually shivers and gags on a new food before deciding if she likes it. Not the case with the yogurt. She looked at me, mouth wide open, yelling "AH" which in Sophie talk means "MORE! NOW!". She finished entire container and spent the next 2 hours being the happiest she had been all day. The way to this child's heart is definitely through her stomach. She must be her father's daughter.

-jl

The big number

Why is it that a number can reduce a women's confidence from healthy levels to somewhere in the bottom of her boots?

My name is Jennie, and I am a scale-aholic. It is ridiculous, because I know that the big number doesn't matter as much as the body composition. I am strong and have a lot of muscle. I also know that weighing yourself 3 times a day is a very useless exercise. Why is it that I can't deny the pull of the scale when it is sitting in the bathroom? Why is it that I can be having a good day, feel comfortable in my own skin and clothes, and have that all go down the drain if I step on the scale and see a number I don't like? It is a bit of an obsession I guess. I knew I needed to get a handle on the problem, and asked for intervention. I can't go cold turkey. I asked that the scale be moved to a hiding spot in the basement, only to be brought out once a week for me to a little check-in. Eventually, I hope to be rid of the monkey on my back, until then, I can be found rummaging around the basement searching desperately for the demon in moments of weakness, wearing our my measuring tape, and trying on my pre-preggo jeans 7 times a week.

Note: My alter ego, the healthier, happier version, preaches the importance of not being a slave to the scale, living a healthy life through exercise and clean eating, and enjoying the process of taking care of yourself. Lately, she is present a lot more often than the crazy, obsessed freak.

-jl

Review Wednesdays

I am going to designate Wednesdays as the day I write product reviews about anything and everything. I have a lot of (mostly useless) opinions about products and I feel the world needs to read them ;)

Today, my reviews are health & fitness related.

My latest addiction isn't a product, but a blog. I am infatuated with fitness and nutrition research/info/books/magazines/blogs/studies....I really should be teeny tiny, but I digress. I stumbled across this blog by an ottawa physician, Yoni Freedhoff, who owns the Bariatric Medical Institute here in Ottawa. BMI specializes in obesity management and healthy living through nutrition and exercise. While I can't comment on the effectiveness of the BMI program (I don't know of anyone who has gone there), I can definitely recommend you check out his blog, http://bmimedical.blogspot.com/. He is a great advocate for healthy living, and pulls no punches when it comes to going up against "Big Food", the canadian government, and organizations like the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

There are 2 books that I have been enjoying recently.

The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno - This isn't so much a diet book, as it is a book about healthy, sensible nutrition. I am a big fan of Tosca. She's pushing 50 and has a body that women of any age would envy. Pretty cool considering she was over 200 lbs at the age of 40. She frequents Oxygen magazine and is big into weight lifting.

The New Rules for Lifting for Women by Lou Schular - This book provides great weight lifting information and debunks a lot of common myths about women and weights. It's a good read, and the exercises are challenging and well explained.

Of course, none of these products will do a thing for you if you don't live them.

A day with 3 cakes

I asked for no birthday cake. 0 cakes. I guess I wasn't explicit enough. Apparently, I needed to say more than "So, we aren't having any cake tomorrow....right?". That wasn't a hint to ensure I ended up with a birthday cake. Or 3 cakes. Yep, I ended up with 3 cakes. 3 chocolate cakes at that. Next year I will be sure to state "Please do not buy or make me a cake. Do not get me any cake....and definitely do not get me 3 cakes".

And so, in the last 24 hrs, I have consumed a large amount of cake in 3 sittings. Considering my sugar intake over the last couple of months has been quite low due to a super-clean diet, I am wired for sound right now. I can barely concentrate on my computer screen. I will wake up tomorrow morning wanting chocolate for breakfast. This means I have to start over again tomorrow with "detoxifying" my body from sugar. I hate that game. I will open the fridge door tomorrow at least 50 times, walking away empty-handed because nothing will appeal to me but sugar. By mid-afternoon, I will be ready to kill someone just for a small fix. Tonite, I am mad at the world, and myself for the cake consumption. I wish I were one of those people who could indulge and get away with it. Unfortunately, I will step on the scale tomorrow to find that my 1 day of indulgence has left me 2 lbs heavier. That's how I roll! ;-)

And so tomorrow I turn back into the super strict nutrition nut. Not because I am striving for perfection, but because my body just doesn't deal well with deviations from good fuel. I hope that once I get some green veggies and lean protein back in my system, my inner bitch will quiet down a tad. If not, I just might have to stab her with my chocolate cake covered fork.

-jl

Baby baggage

Babies need a lot of stuff. OK, so perhaps they don't "need" a lot, but we tend to buy them a lot.
Sophie has accumulated stuff at an alarming rate in 7 short months. It astounds me how quickly we turn things over.
We are really lucky to be surrounded by generous friends, who passed a lot of baby gear onto Sophie, so we have been happily "paying it forward" by forwarding her goodies to other friends who are pregnant. My maternity clothes have found a couple of new home. This makes me very happy since I spent a small fortune on not looking like a hobo while preggers. Sophie's wee little clothes are now covering other little diva's butts. Her vast collection of seats, swings, vibrating rockers, jumping devices will help amuse other babies for 10 minute periods. That should help clear up some space and clutter around here right? Pffffft. As if!? Just today as I was leafing through her overstuffed drawers, I heard myself exclaim "She's got nothing to wear! I can't wait to buy her some spring clothes". It really is a good thing that I return to work in 4.5 months, because between Sophie's wardrobe needs, and my stuffed-to-the-brim-with-pre-preggo-clothes-that-either-don't -fit-or-are-out-of-style-closet, we will need one salary for clothing alone! Somedays I think it would be cheaper (and easier) to have liposuction to get rid of that last 5 lbs than buy new jeans.

Post-preggo body changes....that's a whole other blog entry.

-jl

My final day as a 32 year old

Tomorrow, I turn 33.
Today, I am 32.
I am going to be soooo grown up tomorrow. Magically, overnight, I will blossom into a 33 year old. Long gone will be my carefree days of a 32 year old. I guess I should spend today relishing my final day as a young chiquita. I should do something wild, like dye my hair purple and pierce some unmentionable body parts. Maybe I will go bungee jumping, or skydiving. Or maybe Sophie and I will be really reckless and go for a walk without our mittens. Yeah, that's wild. I won't be able to do that tomorrow. I will be 33.

-jl

Here I go again

I have started and abandoned 3 different blogs over the last couple of years. That is sad. I love to sit here and dump my brain, to create space for new thoughts. Some profound, some useless, and many fluffy and frivolous.

Past attempts to keep a blog going failed because I got bored of the subject matter. I would try to limit my writings to themes. I am too all-over-the-place to stick to one subject for any length of time. My attention span is a tad....

Now, what was I saying?

This new blog will be a little bit of everything. Because I am a little bit of everything. I have varying interests, changing from day-to-day, minute-to-minute. I am sure my 7 month old will provide a lot of inspiration for for posts, since I am at home with her everyday right now, until I return to work in September. Returning to work....that will definitely provide some good fodder for my blog. See? All over the place.

-jl