Category: Health

New Year, New Decade, New Me! #newme

Fitness, Health, Life Decisions

It’s a new year and a new decade. During the last decade, one of my proudest moments (besides marrying my wonderful AngelForever or having my two fantastic kids) was losing weight. I went from 255 pounds to 175 pounds (80 pounds lost) in about 2 years’ time. I was actually called skinny by people. The first time I’ve been called that in my entire life! Since then, my weight has gone up and down quite a few times. Recently, I’ve slacked off again and my weight crept back on. Not the full amount, mind you, but enough to push me above 200 pounds again.

I was planning on recommitting to dropping those excess pounds and chronicalling my efforts on my blog. Then BuckDaddy posted about his Project New Me. I decided to join in. I plan to weigh myself every Sunday morning and post about it Monday morning. I’ll include how much weight I’ve lost (or gained), how events from the previous week contributed to my weight change and any plans for the upcoming week. Look for my first NewMe post tomorrow.

Feel free to join BuckDaddy and I in making a New You in the New Year. Simply use the #NewMe hashtag when you tweet. I wish you luck with all of your plans in 2010, whether they be for weight loss or something else.

Not So Wordless Wednesday: Clowning Around And Giving Thanks

B, Family, Health, JSL, Life, Marriage, NHL, Photos, Wordless Wednesday

Yes, I know that Wordless Wednesday posts are supposed to be, well, wordless, but I felt that this one needed some words.  After all, this is not only my "Wordless Wednesday" post, but also my "What I’m Thankful For" post.  Therefore, in no particular order:

My Wife

I’m thankful every day that B has been in my life.  She’s such a wonderful and caring person and I love everything about her.  She’ll deny it left and right, but she’s also incredibly sexy.  (Yes, you are B!)  I’m even more attracted to her today than I was the first moment I laid eyes on her.  (And trust me, I thought she was very attractive then also!)  I don’t know what I’d do without her in my life.  So thank you, B for being such a great wife and friend to me and such a great mother to our boys.  Speaking of our boys….

My Boys

I couldn’t have asked for two better kids.  Ok, there are times when they’re getting into trouble when I might think I could have , but still they are good kids.  NHL rarely gets into trouble at school and loves learning.  He enjoys spending time with me, B or just playing with JSL.  JSL loves helping people out.  He’ll actually get upset and shout "I help Dada!" if I don’t need his help.  He adores his older brother and loves spending time with him.  The little copycat looks to his brother constantly for cues on how to act and what to say.  (This does lead to us telling NHL to stop doing something and then immediately having to tell JSL to stop also…. cute though it may be!)  I’m so glad that they love each other and us so much.  Every day when I go to work, I wish that I could spend more time with them and every day when I’m packing up to leave, I look forward to seeing them soon.

My Mother

First off, I’m also thankful for my father, sister and other friends and relatives, but this year I’m particularly thankful for my mother.  Last week, she had a little accident.  And by little, I mean she almost died.  She was in her attic cleaning things up and fell.

Now, their attic isn’t exactly safe.  You get to it via a fold down ladder in the garage.  That staircase is about as old as I am (i.e. over 30 years old).  Once you get into the attic, you can’t just walk around.  The floor of the attic is thin enough that it can’t stand the weight of a person.  You need to balance on support beams which run all along the attic.  Years back, my father actually fell through the attic floor and got wedged in the hole he made.  His legs were dangling down in the garage, a sight which was scary then but funny in hindsight.

Anyway, my mother was up there cleaning near the ladder.  The details are a bit sketchy, but best I can make out, her foot somehow went through the thin flooring and she lost her balance.  She fell headfirst towards the ladder.  She hit her head on the ladder and skidded across the concrete garage floor.  Luckily, she wasn’t home alone.  A family friend was with her and called 911.

It could have been a lot worse.  She fell a total distance of about 9 feet (maybe more) onto a concrete floor.  She could easily have been dead.  Plus, she hit the ladder with her head so she could have snapped her neck and been paralyzed for the rest of her life.  In the end, she had a concussion (blacked out as she was headed for the ladder and came to on the ground), a couple of broken fingers, a torn up ear and scratches all over her face.  She’s very, *VERY* lucky!

She’s recovering slowly, but surely.  She’s still dizzy at times and needs to take it easy for awhile.  However, the doctors’ don’t think that any permanent damage was done.  I’m very thankful that my mother is alive and (relatively) well.

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Cooking With TechyDad: Sneaky Macaroni and Cheese Muffins

Cooking, Food, Health, Photos, Recipe, Sneaky

JSL loves macaroni and cheese. If we let him, he’d eat “Mac Cheeze” for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course, if we let him live off of boxed macaroni and cheese, he wouldn’t be getting vital nutrients. He’s going to keep wanting macaroni and cheese, so we’ve got to somehow find a way to make it healthier. Mixing in chunks of broccoli doesn’t work. He finds those and freaks out. So what do we do? Luckily, Missy Lapine, also known as The Sneaky Chef, has an answer.

This is a very simple recipe. It only has four ingredients: Eggs, Orange Puree, Shredded Cheddar Cheese, and Macaroni.

P1210951.JPG

First cook the macaroni. After all, you don’t want Crunchy Macaroni and Cheese. While that’s going on, crack 4 eggs and mix them into 1 cup of puree.

P1210953.JPG P1210954.JPG P1210955.JPG

Now, mix in 1 cup of the macaroni and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. (NOTE: Just before this point, we decided to make a double batch. Thus the sudden increase in the egg/puree level and the massive amount of muffins later on.)

P1210957.JPG P1210959.JPG P1210960.JPG

Take this mixture and portion it out into muffin cups. Top with some more cheddar cheese if you like. (We did ours without and they came out just fine.)

P1210961.JPG P1210962.JPG

Bake for 20-22 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

P1210963.JPG

When they come out, eat.

P1210965.JPG P1210966.JPG

NHL liked these. JSL was tired at the time and so cranky in general. I think the muffin shape threw him. He’s used to macaroni and cheese being slopped out onto a plate. Having it in a hand held shape was just too confusing. B and I loved these and ate…. well, we probably ate more than we should have. This recipe will *definitely* be made again and again.

As a bonus, the macaroni and cheese muffins can be frozen for long term storage. Honestly, though, I don’t think they’ll really last too long. They’re too delicious. In addition, I can personally attest to the fact that they taste good cold. *cough*late night snack*cough* The full recipe to this is available on Missy’s website.

Review: The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue

Books, Cooking, Food, Health, Recipe, Review

NHL used to be such a good eater. He would eat just about anything we gave him. Then, around when he turned two and a half, his culinary adventureness shut down. Suddenly, he developed a list of “approved” foods and vegetables were definitely *NOT* on the list.

When I first heard about Missy Chase Lapine, The Sneaky Chef, I’ll admit I was skeptical. The idea of sneaking the veggies into him just didn’t sound right. I wanted him growing up knowing that carrots, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and cauliflower were tasty as well as good for you.

Missy explained in her book, however, that sneaking the veggies wasn’t a substitute for giving kids stand alone vegetables. However, you won’t need to turn broccoli into a battle. You will know that the rest of the meal has some hidden goodness so your child will be getting good nutrients whether or not they eat their veggies. Without a ton of pressure, kids might actually be more likely to eat some of their overt veggies.

I purchased her first book and tried out a few of the recipes. I found that, sure enough, my kids couldn’t tell what was in them. So when I heard that Missy had a new book out, I just had to try it. Missy’s new book is called The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue: 101 All-New Recipes and “Sneaky” Tricks for Creating Healthy Meals Kids Will Love.

“To The Rescue” contains some improvements from the original Sneaky Chef. For example, recipes include nutritional information now. We took it out from the library and I tried a few of the recipes. As with the first book, my children didn’t realize what was hidden in their food. Whether it was wheat germ, yams and carrots in the chocolate chip bon bons or cauliflower and zucchini in the eggs, they were none the wiser. And lest you think that you need to make everything from scratch, Missy showed how to take box mixes for everything from pancakes to cake and add additional hidden goodness.

There were so many good recipes, in fact, that I decided to buy the book. It turns out that being sneaky can be good for your kids, and quite delicious to boot. I look forward to making many more sneaky meals for my children. In fact, I would recommend it for families with picky eaters of any age.

Disclaimer: This review consists of entirely my own opinion. I didn’t receive anything in compensation for this review, but decided to review the book (and recipes) because I honestly enjoyed it.

Scary H1N1 Spread

Health, Medical, NHL

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that H1N1 seems to be spreading all too quickly and that the vaccine is in short supply.  Our doctor told us today that we are on a four page list of people waiting for the vaccine.  We also found out that 66 of the 270 children in NHL’s school were out today.  That’s nearly 25% of the kids out!

After picking up NHL, B told me that he was complaining of having a headache.  That sparked a memory of him complaining of having a headache this morning.  That, combined with B not being sure if he had a fever and the obvious rampant infection rate in his school, leads us to worry about NHL having H1N1.  B, JSL and NHL are off as I type this to get NHL some Tamiflu to have onhand in case he really has influenza.  Meanwhile, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that he’s just feeling tired and run down and not H1N1-sick.

In related news, I checked out the CDC’s FluView website.  The map intrigued me and I wanted to see how H1N1 has been progressing.  I managed to locate all of the archival maps (except for week 16) and strung them into a Flash animation:

[flv]/2009/10/usmap.flv|566|395[/flv]

Note how the brown "widespread" states multiply starting the first week of September, aka When School Starts.  I have a bad feeling that NHL’s school in particular and schools in general are going to see worse infection rates before things improve.

Here’s hoping that everyone out there stays healthy!

1 … 7 8 9 10